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<posthistory>
  <row Id="1" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1" RevisionGUID="4a963fc3-6a18-4c92-a968-123434b948f3" CreationDate="2013-05-21T20:56:00.420" UserId="1" Text="I am a freelance web developer.  I have built many different websites for all sorts of people.  Once my client signs off on a project as complete I am still willing to offer little updates and things.  I always have that one client though who abuses this offer.  At what point do I say enough is enough and begin to charge for these changes?  Enough of these little changes could add up to a whole new site." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1" RevisionGUID="4a963fc3-6a18-4c92-a968-123434b948f3" CreationDate="2013-05-21T20:56:00.420" UserId="1" Text="At what point is it no longer a &quot;Free Change&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1" RevisionGUID="4a963fc3-6a18-4c92-a968-123434b948f3" CreationDate="2013-05-21T20:56:00.420" UserId="1" Text="|contracts|changes|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2" RevisionGUID="36709bdd-4221-4b7b-b6a4-6129d89473b4" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:13:57.513" UserId="5" Text="I recently started freelancing and found myself in a situation where I wish I would have turned the job down initially.  In my situation the client wanted to change the functionality multiple times, which should have thrown a red flag for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When dealing with a prospective client, what are the red flags that would cause you to turn down their business?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2" RevisionGUID="36709bdd-4221-4b7b-b6a4-6129d89473b4" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:13:57.513" UserId="5" Text="Determining when to turn down business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2" RevisionGUID="36709bdd-4221-4b7b-b6a4-6129d89473b4" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:13:57.513" UserId="5" Text="|client|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3" RevisionGUID="83b862a2-3ce8-4e2a-a91d-da6ea745aa3a" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:14:18.857" UserId="1" Text="When working through the day, I may have many different projects going at one.  Web development is one of the freelancing jobs that im sure many people bounce around project to project, or maybe that is just me.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I charge many of my clients per hour in quarter hour segments.  What are the standards for tracking your time for clients when you have multiple projects going in one day? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lets say you are working the core of your day for Client 1 and you get an email from Client 2 that requires no work but just a simple response.  Do you charge Client 2 for that quarter hour of reading your email or just kind of let it go?  Then how do you manage if they start sending you a bunch of quick emails?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3" RevisionGUID="83b862a2-3ce8-4e2a-a91d-da6ea745aa3a" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:14:18.857" UserId="1" Text="Tracking hours you are working for clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3" RevisionGUID="83b862a2-3ce8-4e2a-a91d-da6ea745aa3a" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:14:18.857" UserId="1" Text="|client|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4" RevisionGUID="fef78a4d-c63b-46b3-9a39-ccb7be7b8024" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:15:08.513" UserId="7" Text="Here's my insight.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working as a freelancer makes you control your time more thoroughly and prioritize the projects and tasks you are currently involved in. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, for me, &quot;marking&quot; the project as complete means that me and my customer should sit and discuss our future plans: are we going to make updates (software updates, bug fixes, other improvements), what if the customer needs my technical support etc. And, of course, it's your time and should be billed.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5" RevisionGUID="2b8142f3-3d2e-428d-a7f4-6b7c9241a0a5" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:15:26.113" UserId="9" Text="Something like this would have to be defined in your contract with the client, including with what constitutes a minor change (as opposed to a major change). You may also want to base it off of the original deliverable; after X minor changes or after at least Y% of the code base changes, there would have to be a charge for further changes. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6" RevisionGUID="9e96078e-1958-42d9-8e7c-2900cd1eb798" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:16:16.720" UserId="11" Text="I have a project where the client initially requested a bunch of work. Not too much work and a decent pay. Now here's where it's not fun anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client has requested to basically rewrite all of the work I have done because of a change in their opinion. They didn't like the strategy their business was going to take. I gave them a fixed price for the project, sadly. Any suggestions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6" RevisionGUID="9e96078e-1958-42d9-8e7c-2900cd1eb798" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:16:16.720" UserId="11" Text="How to deal with projects that have gone on too long?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6" RevisionGUID="9e96078e-1958-42d9-8e7c-2900cd1eb798" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:16:16.720" UserId="11" Text="|client|problems|request|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7" RevisionGUID="e6df65a5-0680-47bd-967e-6ed23ec8ba6a" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:20:25.880" UserId="14" Text="I think you need to define out what a &quot;free change&quot; really means. Less than 15 minutes within 30-60 days of project end date? Sure, especially if its a quick and easy change. I don't see an issue with that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;More than that, 1 hour minimum at an hourly rate. This will encourage them to either stop abusing the &quot;free change&quot; or start gathering up a minimum amount of changes... which will more than likely exceed an hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You also have to actually explain this to them. They may not realize they are abusing it!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8" RevisionGUID="d5aadaa5-1dda-4337-93a8-a140aa45135f" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:27:18.643" UserId="23" Text="I started a project given by client and it went fine for couple of days. Middle of the way, I got stucked with a technical limitation. I'm unable to proceed and it'll take more time and R&amp;D to complete the task.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, I can't reach the deadline given. How can I communicate this situation to the client without provoking him or make him upset about the delivery delay." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8" RevisionGUID="d5aadaa5-1dda-4337-93a8-a140aa45135f" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:27:18.643" UserId="23" Text="I failed to reach the deadline" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8" RevisionGUID="d5aadaa5-1dda-4337-93a8-a140aa45135f" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:27:18.643" UserId="23" Text="|client|project|time-management|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9" RevisionGUID="6120ee88-5c68-4ec8-b801-68a5af011c26" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:29:21.043" UserId="14" Text="Believe it or not, I often find if a client is overly prepared they might be difficult to deal with. I have to remind those clients that I do this for a living, and they are in a completely different industry which has nothing to do with building websites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is pretty subjective but some other red flags I see often are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - &quot;I think this should take about X hours&quot;&#xD;&#xA; - &quot;I needed this yesterday&quot; - unless you can actually devote the time to a rush project avoid this one like the plague.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But past all that the real problem here lies with you, the freelancer. If they are changing scope and functionality, then you either need to bill them appropriately or assess if you built the scope out correctly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It happens to all of us from time to time.. we think we have a solid grip on what they want built and end up being off target. No shame in it, just gotta deal with accordingly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10" RevisionGUID="a9bf73b5-1789-4eaa-8e03-d8ca907ad48f" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:32:17.937" UserId="16" Text="You should clearly clarify these points initially :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - The full description of the work you have to submit, and a complete list of the different elements making it.&#xD;&#xA; - The number of &quot;versions&quot; you agree to make before charging an option (of a previously agreed cost) and how much maximum time you will work for a version change&#xD;&#xA; - A list of previously defined milestones at numerous points of the project (depending on its size) with payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With this, if the client decides to change everything, he will have :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Already paid you for what you have done&#xD;&#xA; - A clearly defined number of authorized changes, and a price for too much changes or big changes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you haven't done this, the only thing you can do is directly ask the client to pay you more for these important changes, or drop the project - Or if you're lucky agree with them on a partial pay." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="11" RevisionGUID="a7172bf7-d554-41ec-a937-44cecfd47420" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:33:11.627" UserId="17" Text="Never have done any consulting or freelancing work I'm curious what the advantages and disadvantages are.  Obviously a consulting company takes a cut on your pay check and may provide some business connections that give your more consulting opportunities.  What other differences are there that need to be considered when deciding between these options?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="11" RevisionGUID="a7172bf7-d554-41ec-a937-44cecfd47420" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:33:11.627" UserId="17" Text="What are the pro and cons of working directly with a client versus through a consulting agency?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="23" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="11" RevisionGUID="a7172bf7-d554-41ec-a937-44cecfd47420" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:33:11.627" UserId="17" Text="|contracts|newcomer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="24" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="12" RevisionGUID="c6d15c18-932a-47a1-8ded-fab56962bded" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:36:40.097" UserId="16" Text="Precise time tracking is just not possible in the way most of us work. The better you can do is :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Track the time when you're focused on a project, and note down somewhere when you do little tasks on other projects&#xD;&#xA; - When you have done lots of little task, make an estimate of the time you actually used on these side tasks.&#xD;&#xA; - If you think it deserves a pay, then consider you have work for this time + the core time&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Alternatively you can use the day charging. Just make sure your clients are aware that you may or may not work on other projects and that what you are charging is not exactly your full day, and so you make an approximation from the time you use on different projects." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="25" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="13" RevisionGUID="d34db2c4-80ff-43f2-85a6-204b7e57e521" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:37:16.997" UserId="14" Text="Your client is a person, too. They have been late or missed deadlines at some point in their life as well. Unless you have a really aggressive client, they should understand that things happen. And if they are extremely upset about it.. they might not be the type of client you wan to keep around.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I take a very relaxed approach to communicating with clients. Not to say I take my time, but rather I just talk to them like I would any other person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Hi *XYZ*, I'm having some issues with *ABC* and I won't be able to make the deadline. I'm researching the issue now, but what's the absolutely end date we can push the deadline to?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I apologize for the delay but this was an unexpected issue that popped up. Hopefully I can figure this out sooner than later.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course you should communicate in your own voice.. but I don't see a problem with just being straight forward with them. I know I appreciate honestly a whole lot more than I do someone who keeps me in the dark.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="26" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="14" RevisionGUID="1182c108-02b8-48fe-9a24-a9ad820dd195" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:40:56.180" UserId="17" Text="If you make a contract for a fixed price you should also fix the amount of work that will be done.  With that, such a significant change would require a contract and price modification." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="27" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="15" RevisionGUID="e4a79998-baa7-44cb-ad16-57afc4743bbd" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:45:22.280" UserId="14" Text="Alternatively you could completely [fire your hourly rate][1]. It's a pain and I pretty much refuse to do it anymore unless the client is on retainer or specifically asks for it. Plus there's a good chance you're scaring business away if you bill a steep hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.baltimoredrew.com/fire-your-hourly-rate/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="28" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="16" RevisionGUID="3f82fdbc-ae37-4d87-8331-2b7123d02dfc" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:49:09.117" UserId="15" Text="You can start using time managing techniques like [&quot;Pomodoro&quot;][0] that will help you organize your time better, and enhance focus and concentration, plus making you have a list of all the tasks that you do and the time that takes you to make each one of them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[0]: http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="29" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="17" RevisionGUID="264bffce-3892-4a9e-b2a8-dbca0ffadad7" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:51:19.573" UserId="14" Text="@Malharhak is right. You should have clearly defined the scope of the project AND had a contract with the scope outlined in it SIGNED by the client. Sounds like you probably did neither.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope you at least got a deposit?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest going to the client and saying based on the amount of changes they want, you will need to charge extra or bill an hourly rate for the changes." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="33" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="19" RevisionGUID="bdec086b-7a33-4d2b-aed1-4a929c4d51eb" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:52:19.533" UserId="34" Text="I've done freelance work as an independent contractor for years, which works well-enough for sporadic freelance work. But as I get more gigs and an established portfolio, are there benefits to forming an LLC to serve as the agent being hired, rather than myself individually, even though there's only one of me? What other benefits/disadvantages of forming an LLC should I be considering as well?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="34" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="19" RevisionGUID="bdec086b-7a33-4d2b-aed1-4a929c4d51eb" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:52:19.533" UserId="34" Text="When is it a good idea to start considering an LLC or incorporation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="35" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="19" RevisionGUID="bdec086b-7a33-4d2b-aed1-4a929c4d51eb" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:52:19.533" UserId="34" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="36" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="20" RevisionGUID="821a182d-6e91-4aa0-83dd-cb46e6f3e160" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:53:57.807" UserId="39" Text="I, too, have a 15 minute minimum charge, and I stick to it 85% of the time because [nothing ever takes &quot;just a minute&quot;, and interruptions come with attendant friction][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I built a timekeeping/workflow system for my consulting work. Each client has one or many projects; each project one or many tasks. I record time at the task level; the form has a javascript-powered timer that fires off every 15 minutes to increment the &quot;time ellapsed&quot;. So when I start a task, I pull it up and let that window track the time in the background, then I enter my note, hit save, and everything is tracked--and later billed--correctly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/getting_in_toomuch_touch_interruption_is_not_collaboration.php" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="37" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="21" RevisionGUID="844d21ee-0a90-4ef1-b35a-871ff98c94c5" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:59:38.007" UserId="37" Text="I'm a web developer. When I buy a Mac I put it down as an allowable expense and receive a tax break on it. When I buy business cards, they go down as an advertising cost. My broadband is an 'office comms' cost. Etcetera etcetera. &#xD;&#xA;However when I spend time working on my own website to promote myself, I don't think I'm allowed to charge myself my hourly rate as an expense. &#xD;&#xA;Is there a way around this (legally, UK law) and if not, would it actually pay me to get someone else to maintain and develop my site just for the tax-break?  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="38" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="21" RevisionGUID="844d21ee-0a90-4ef1-b35a-871ff98c94c5" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:59:38.007" UserId="37" Text="Offsetting own labour as 'allowable expenses' when accounting" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="39" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="21" RevisionGUID="844d21ee-0a90-4ef1-b35a-871ff98c94c5" CreationDate="2013-05-21T21:59:38.007" UserId="37" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="40" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="20" RevisionGUID="7e9188d7-497d-4f27-bb1e-0e479e009210" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:00:34.080" UserId="39" Comment="added 39 characters in body" Text="I, too, have a 15 minute minimum charge, and I stick to it 85% of the time because [nothing ever takes &quot;just a minute&quot;, and interruptions come with attendant friction][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I built a timekeeping/workflow system for my consulting work. Each client has one or many projects; each project one or many tasks. I record time at the task level; the form has a javascript-powered timer that fires off every 15 minutes to increment the &quot;time ellapsed&quot;. So when I start a task, I pull it up and let the browser track the time in the background, do my work, then I return to that browser and enter my note, hit save, and everything is tracked--and later billed--correctly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/getting_in_toomuch_touch_interruption_is_not_collaboration.php" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="41" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="22" RevisionGUID="839d7705-9e36-43af-abb5-3f22e2f7ce3f" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:00:57.890" UserId="34" Text="I have done freelance work for several years now, taking the occasional gig while still working a full-time &quot;day job&quot;. I don't get many gigs, and I think it's due to not actively marketing myself other than word-of-mouth through existing clients and the web traffic through my portfolio site. What are the best ways you've found to market yourself as a freelancer, that doesn't take constant maintenance to keep up?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="42" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="22" RevisionGUID="839d7705-9e36-43af-abb5-3f22e2f7ce3f" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:00:57.890" UserId="34" Text="Marketing yourself with limited time" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="43" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="22" RevisionGUID="839d7705-9e36-43af-abb5-3f22e2f7ce3f" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:00:57.890" UserId="34" Text="|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="44" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="19" RevisionGUID="59d7fd2b-f07c-4c6c-808b-237d42594e31" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:02:00.943" UserId="34" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="45" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="23" RevisionGUID="d44f6403-898d-4ceb-a182-480fe2aa04e6" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:09:27.150" UserId="43" Text="Having an active LinkedIn profile can be a massive help. You can tag your connections to put them into groups and then send a message to the entire group. There is a limit of 50 recipients, above which LinkedIn won't send the message, so if, like me, you've got bags of recruiters connected to you, or a network of potential clients, you can easily reach them all with just a handful of messages." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="48" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="25" RevisionGUID="1d36cb1b-fbb9-41e7-ab04-aa03d1324fb2" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:18:21.680" UserId="46" Text="LLCs were created for just this scenario: you're an individual or small business who wants to enjoy the protections being a company or corporate entity entails without becoming a full-blown corporation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An LLC allows you to operate as an individual without putting your personal assets at risk. You pay taxes as an individual (in the US anyways) but enjoy protections against lawsuits and other risks operating a business brings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given that the costs of establishing an LLC can be trivial depending on the state you incorporate in, it's better to set up an LLC and protect yourself than to take on personal risk." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="49" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="26" RevisionGUID="6dc0e22c-7a78-4663-889d-6bc58133d68a" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:26:03.220" UserId="9" Text="One thing to keep in mind is what would happen should the consulting company go under or no longer send work to you. How would that affect you? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may, psychologically, keep you in a better, constant state to work directly with clients as opposed to working through a consulting agency and having to scramble to do the administrative tasks that the consulting company normally took care of." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="50" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="27" RevisionGUID="57a4b3b2-75ce-4f0f-a842-05f307f5bfb0" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:28:05.200" UserId="47" Text="I'm considering starting a business in the state of Rhode Island in the USA. I've begun to do the research on options available to me, and it's clear already that there is a dizzying array of options for which legal business entity to choose for my business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. C corporation&#xD;&#xA; 2. sub-S corporation&#xD;&#xA; 3. Limited Liability Company (two&#xD;&#xA;    options here, one where the company income is treated the same as my&#xD;&#xA;    own personal income with regard to federal and state income taxes,&#xD;&#xA;    and the other where the company income is treated separately from my&#xD;&#xA;    own personal income)&#xD;&#xA; 4. Co-op&#xD;&#xA; 5. others?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For anyone that's already been down this road, please offer some specific factors to consider in choosing the right legal business entity in RI for a consulting firm with two options: (1) no anticipated retail sales at all, (2) a small amount of retail sales with most income anticipated to be only from professional services rendered." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="51" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="27" RevisionGUID="57a4b3b2-75ce-4f0f-a842-05f307f5bfb0" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:28:05.200" UserId="47" Text="Which legal business entity for consulting in RI, USA" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="52" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="27" RevisionGUID="57a4b3b2-75ce-4f0f-a842-05f307f5bfb0" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:28:05.200" UserId="47" Text="|legal|entity|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="56" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="29" RevisionGUID="98db170b-6cda-4186-ba60-58d70f9e4a59" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:42:14.037" UserId="47" Text="I've learned through discussions with various people I've met in Rhode Island that there are many co-ops operating throughout the state that have never filed any kind of paperwork with the state government. For example, I think that the Secretary of State requires one to file articles of incorporation for many (perhaps all?) business entities formed in RI, but I've encountered more than ten different people who claim to be operating a co-op and who have also never filed any forms with the Sec. State.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This seems like an attractive option to me, but I'm skeptical that it is actually permitted by state law. Can anyone speak from experience on the legality (and if it is allowed, also the wisdom) of this choice? In particular, where (if anywhere) does the law elaborate on this type of business entity? I'd like to know specifics such as whether or not there are annual income limits and number of co-op member limits before the state will consider the co-op illegal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="57" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="29" RevisionGUID="98db170b-6cda-4186-ba60-58d70f9e4a59" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:42:14.037" UserId="47" Text="Starting a co-op in RI, USA without filing government forms" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="58" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="29" RevisionGUID="98db170b-6cda-4186-ba60-58d70f9e4a59" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:42:14.037" UserId="47" Text="|legal|entity|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="59" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="30" RevisionGUID="a9a4c385-4739-45e8-aaad-bc90d73f65a2" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:50:56.853" UserId="14" Text="Unfortunately there are few marketing techniques that are going to consistently provide a return and don't need upkeep or consistency.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I spend about 1/4 of my time marketing myself. This includes an array of things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Applying to speak at conferences (this requires travel costs as they don't always pay your way!)&#xD;&#xA;- Writing guest articles for industry related sites. (backlinks + you build authority on topics)&#xD;&#xA;- Writing on my own blog. (authority on topics)&#xD;&#xA;- Keyword research for landing pages and writing unique copy for each. (seo)&#xD;&#xA;- Networking with other professionals. (more traditional)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I honestly cant imagine doing all this as a &quot;weekend warrior&quot; or freelancing part time. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="60" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="31" RevisionGUID="0ec15335-94f2-4797-a720-5017f0d6d791" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:53:25.533" UserId="43" Text="A big plus for working through consultancies/agencies is that they tend to have more regular payment terms in force, and because you have a contract with the agency rather than the end client, you can leave it to the agency to worry about whether the client is going to pay or not." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="61" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="32" RevisionGUID="e2c61321-eb6e-4f12-ad75-1f4dcb85c221" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:58:59.760" UserId="47" Text="I've formed the impression from reading business news articles for several years that Delaware is often the state of choice for any small business to incorporate within. I guess there's something about the state law in Delaware that makes it a particularly attractive state for incorporating. I don't have specifics because this is just a general impression that I've developed from many different sources, but I've been unable to confirm it's accuracy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I don't actually intend to move to (or to do a significant fraction of my overall business endeavors in) DE, so in doing some research on this option while planning to remain in RI, I've encountered some RI state laws that seem to make RI-based businesses that incorporate in other states (as described above) subject to additional RI state taxes, thus making the option of foreign incorporation moot in RI.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So although I realize that this question could be interpreted as subjective (and thus, not well-suited to an SE Q/A community), my question is simply: Is there an ideal state in which to incorporate in the USA, and if so, why is it ideal? If someone can address the issues I raised in the second paragraph, I'd also appreciate that. This is perhaps a second question, but I think it's closely enough related that posting it as a separate question might be the wrong thing to do. In particular, if some states are known to make it more difficult (or impossible) to take advantage of foreign incorporation in states that are ideal for incorporating like DE, then I'd appreciate insights on that issue to. My impression as a Rhode Islander is that RI is indeed one such state, but perhaps there are other states that don't create obstacles to foreign incorporation, and if anyone here can list such states in your answer, then that would be a big help too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know, I know, this could perhaps be broken up into 2-3 questions, but again, I think they are all pretty closely related, so I'm posting as just one for now. Naturally I welcome suggestions for improving the question." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="62" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="32" RevisionGUID="e2c61321-eb6e-4f12-ad75-1f4dcb85c221" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:58:59.760" UserId="47" Text="Is there an ideal state in which to incorporate in the USA?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="63" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="32" RevisionGUID="e2c61321-eb6e-4f12-ad75-1f4dcb85c221" CreationDate="2013-05-21T22:58:59.760" UserId="47" Text="|usa|foreign-incorporation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="65" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="34" RevisionGUID="3a8b0fd4-899c-49b5-9bef-77b4c4364623" CreationDate="2013-05-21T23:24:20.477" UserId="43" Text="I already understand the nature of the 24 month rule in regards to a single contract that lasts for more than 2 years. To recap:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - From the point at which you know that your contract will be longer than 2 years you cannot claim travel expenses. &#xD;&#xA; - If your contract is longer than 2 years from the outset you cannot claim travel expenses at all&#xD;&#xA; - It's fine to claim them up until the point that you know you'll be over the 2 years&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I'm unsure about and have had conflicting stories about, is in cases when you have many contracts during a 2 year period, with different clients, but in a similar geographical area. The majority of my contracts are in London but I don't know how far apart they would need to be to not fall foul of the rule. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there is no significant change in duration or cost, HMRC considers the workplace to be the same for the purposes of travel expenses. If that's the case, that would cover most locations in Central London, which can't be right. Can it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="66" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="34" RevisionGUID="3a8b0fd4-899c-49b5-9bef-77b4c4364623" CreationDate="2013-05-21T23:24:20.477" UserId="43" Text="How close do end client work locations need to be to fall foul of the 24 month travel and subsistence rule?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="67" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="34" RevisionGUID="3a8b0fd4-899c-49b5-9bef-77b4c4364623" CreationDate="2013-05-21T23:24:20.477" UserId="43" Text="|hmrc|expenses|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="68" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="35" RevisionGUID="fcddc956-78de-4aa6-b8a8-3f7e741116a0" CreationDate="2013-05-21T23:26:38.870" UserId="1" Text="It has always been a simple answer for me...   start an LLC as soon as you make your first $125.  I chose this because that is the minimum to start the LLC for paperwork in Ohio and to open a bank account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is my standard and I do it just to protect my personal assets.  That is the core reason for an LLC." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="70" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="21" RevisionGUID="5ba477d9-c030-4186-8732-e9f92388306c" CreationDate="2013-05-22T00:23:45.180" UserId="37" Comment="added tags" Text="|legal|expenses|self-employed|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="71" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="27" RevisionGUID="c6093441-02b0-43c9-9741-29129f9b0f14" CreationDate="2013-05-22T00:30:38.987" UserId="47" Comment="Add state tag." Text="|legal|entity|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="72" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="21" RevisionGUID="f9593d80-ab16-4df4-8b9c-d41896779e3b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T00:33:58.030" UserId="37" Comment="added UK tag" Text="|legal|expenses|self-employed|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="73" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="36" RevisionGUID="4cadcc2a-2e7e-41bc-b0b2-645e5ea90f6e" CreationDate="2013-05-22T00:42:43.123" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="74" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="37" RevisionGUID="ee962138-c0b0-40c5-bec4-0d8f31e7342d" CreationDate="2013-05-22T00:42:43.123" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="75" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="38" RevisionGUID="8a55aac2-14b6-4b14-a436-6b2631b39b69" CreationDate="2013-05-22T00:45:27.657" UserId="59" Text="I started working at my current position nearly 6 months ago, and am paid per-hour, per-project at a flat rate. It was originally going to be a 3-month *contract-to-hire*, but the company lost a major client and was not at the financial place to make me an offer after the three months had ended.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It has since become a *contract-to-hire* with an undefined length of time. I have learned a lot of new skills during the last 6 months, and feel my pay rate could potentially increase. At what point in time, or in learned skills, is it considered ok to ask for a pay increase. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="76" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="38" RevisionGUID="8a55aac2-14b6-4b14-a436-6b2631b39b69" CreationDate="2013-05-22T00:45:27.657" UserId="59" Text="On a long contract, when is it ok to ask for a raise?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="77" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="38" RevisionGUID="8a55aac2-14b6-4b14-a436-6b2631b39b69" CreationDate="2013-05-22T00:45:27.657" UserId="59" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|contract-to-hire|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="78" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="39" RevisionGUID="74bcb3c9-9fb6-4295-822e-f76c53e63099" CreationDate="2013-05-22T00:46:30.290" UserId="52" Text="Besides liability limitation, which Paperjam covered well in his answer, LLCs also provides tax flexibility. You can elect to have your LLC taxed as a disregarded entity or as a corporation. As a disregarded entity, it's as if you there was no LLC. As a corporation, there is more paperwork; however, besides paying yourself ordinary wages, depending on your income sources, you may be able pay yourself dividends, which are not subject to self-employment tax." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="79" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="40" RevisionGUID="615db795-baf7-4e83-9863-27d9ee839ee5" CreationDate="2013-05-22T00:53:06.820" UserId="52" Text="Unless UK tax law has some strange twist, your own labor always zeros itself out. Imagine that you actually paid yourself, and you could claim that expense as the cost of doing business. However, you would also now have new income (from your new client - yourself). The income amount is equal to the expense amount; the net is zero." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="80" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="41" RevisionGUID="59d3b7d5-f892-4f79-bd29-c3da8bfc071b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T00:59:49.683" UserId="60" Text="First I would never ask for a raise if the project has a definite scope.  If the project has a definite scope, you give the client notice that after the scope is complete, further work will be at a higher rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly &quot;when&quot; is a question that cannot be answered by someone outside.  That's a business decision and it has to do with your relationship with your client, to what extent demanding a higher rate risks your contract, etc.  These are business decisions you have to make based on your local knowledge of exactly how things are.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third, a major variable here is how the dynamics are set up.  If this is a contract for hire chances are they originally set the rate.  If you originally set the rate you are in a better position than if they did.  This is also a proxy measurement for whether you are approaching yourself as a service vendor or just a pseudo-employee.  At least in theory you are a service vendor and free agent though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My recommendation would be to try to set up a meeting.  In the meeting you want to explain that the project hasn't gone the way either of you planned, that you would be interested in full-time employment still if that is on the table, but otherwise, you would like a pay increase, perhaps effective in a month or two. If it were me because I am comfortable working on my own, I would offer to transition my role into that of a consultant so that they could keep me (on my terms!) for as long as they'd like without tax headaches.  Whether you are comfortable with that given your interactions with this employer is another matter so that has to be your call." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="81" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="42" RevisionGUID="bce82b1b-d217-4c13-aa5a-571cea87645d" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:00:37.390" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="82" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="43" RevisionGUID="9ec1a643-a6e3-48d6-84b8-046170fd8634" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:00:37.390" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="83" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="44" RevisionGUID="755f8af3-58c8-45dd-87d2-7b1108a178f6" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:02:34.313" UserId="1" Text="I am pretty good at estimating my time on a project.  For this question lets say it is for a simple WordPress website with a custom theme development.  I have quoted and set my contract with my client to be $2500 for the project as it will take a total of 45 hours of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Move on to the 45 hours and I am still not done.  What is the process to go to the client and ask for more money because the build is taking longer than expected.  Is it even appropriate to ask the client for some more money to finish the project or am I just stuck finishing the development and &quot;working for free&quot; at that point.  Should I begin putting a clause in my contract with a client to cover myself in this case?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="84" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="44" RevisionGUID="755f8af3-58c8-45dd-87d2-7b1108a178f6" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:02:34.313" UserId="1" Text="When is it ok to ask a client for more money?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="85" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="44" RevisionGUID="755f8af3-58c8-45dd-87d2-7b1108a178f6" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:02:34.313" UserId="1" Text="|contracts|client|overtime|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="86" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="45" RevisionGUID="a066e9da-cbe9-4629-bf5e-f4d3ef90169e" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:04:50.520" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="87" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="46" RevisionGUID="ceaf1e14-af49-4c53-95dd-09558c4d29e1" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:04:50.520" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="88" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="47" RevisionGUID="b3757fbb-cd8c-4cc2-a10f-fbeabf8fb10b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:05:20.770" UserId="60" Text="I think the first thing you have to do is to stop thinking of marketing as something you go out and do.  Marketing needs to be woven into everything else you do because, as you put it, you only have limited time.  This means you need to think about various activities you do as potentials for networking and marketing, and thus dual-purpose as many activities as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some quick and easy things are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  An email signature which markets your services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Recreational tech stuff (slashdot, etc) with signatures that link back to your site.  Same with other forums.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  If you can take up blogging as a way of both helping customers and marketing yourself, even better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The next part is to weave marketing into the rest of your customer interactions.  For example, the open source development work I do is all effectively marketing, but it is also R&amp;D." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="89" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="48" RevisionGUID="7fddfc3e-65b6-4a7a-9613-6b77357412eb" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:12:12.250" UserId="60" Text="First, to some extent there will be vagueness no matter what you do.  I give the customer the benefit of the doubt on vagueness issues.  Also there are times when surprises come up on their side and I will often (though not always) give the benefit of the doubt there if the work is reasonable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I had a customer pay me to write a fixed asset system on a fixed bid. We agreed that the basis would be actual days, straightlined per year.  But when we got it done, it gave them numbers they didn't expect because contrary to their understanding, their current system was depreciating on a 30/360 basis (equal months).  I did rewrite the calculations to match their existing system free of charge though I would have been justified charging them extra for it.  The customer had always been very prompt in payment and otherwise a delight to work with so I cut them slack on this one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, when a customer changes specs partway through, the approach you need to take is to write back a nice friendly letter noting that this is a significant change in the agreement and you will get back to them within a day or so with an adjusted price.  Then send them back a bid for the additional work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="90" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="49" RevisionGUID="7a586d09-b848-464d-afb7-c9c0941b1b0b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:17:20.867" UserId="60" Text="In general, the biggest flags I look for are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Is this a business that can't succeed?  and&#xD;&#xA;2.  Drama with customers during the bidding process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a customer doesn't respect you or your opinion when you are sending in a bid, they are not going to respect you when you are doing the work or coming in for payment.  If the business is of dubious viability, you may not get paid when you are done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I used to work in tech support, I had a saying, &quot;If the customer was always right we would be out of a job.&quot;  Customers can be expected to be the regular expert with regard to their needs, but when they expect to be an expert with regard to your work, it is entirely appropriate to suggest that they do it themselves instead." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="91" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="50" RevisionGUID="18a8e42d-4201-4593-a388-e079b321fc46" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:22:11.810" UserId="59" Text="I have been working on a contract for around 6 months now. I telecommute from my home office, and am very settled with a wife and kids. I constantly am looking for new work, and often hear of opportunities for contracts all over the country. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since nearly none of these offer a telecommute option, and most of them are between 3 and 12 month offers, how should I handle such offers? Do you accept, decline, or make some compromise?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, (to those of you in similar situations) how do I juggle overtime, travel, and quality family time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="92" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="50" RevisionGUID="18a8e42d-4201-4593-a388-e079b321fc46" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:22:11.810" UserId="59" Text="The Freelance Lifestyle: How to manage travel, overtime, and family" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="93" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="50" RevisionGUID="18a8e42d-4201-4593-a388-e079b321fc46" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:22:11.810" UserId="59" Text="|contracts|overtime|travel|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="94" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="51" RevisionGUID="a79f79da-cd0e-44b6-9dcc-f384db305df1" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:27:41.410" UserId="60" Text="I approach things somewhat differently.  I answer customers via email, guaranteed responses free of charge that take less than 15 min free of charge.  My reasoning here is that this gives me a chance to give them some ideas, whether I can do more for a charge, and then if I need to, I can throw more sales work at it (unbilled) to flesh out what is involved and make a bid.  Often little requests for help/tech support can be cases where a trained eye can see larger problems lurking and it is good for both sides to be on the same page here.  I do try to batch these up however so that there are few interruptions and the fact is that customers usually don't like to call me for these things anyway so it works out well for everyone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This being said, and this is a total conflict of interest because I am the most active developer on the project but I use [LedgerSMB](http://www.ledgersmb.org) for my business management and accounting, and I use the timecard functionality there (to track time allocated per project, each project attached to a customer).  I can then use the program to generate sales orders and invoices from the timecards.  This also allows me to run an income statement of a project to see what my profit margin is etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Time tracking is almost never exact, but I usually don't have more than three projects I work on any given day, so I do timecards once a day.  If I were working on many more I would probably do timecards both at end of day and just before lunch." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="95" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="52" RevisionGUID="b320bb69-9f57-4d21-9e87-453d2a2be649" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:28:38.310" UserId="59" Text="I am currently working for a company on a *contract-to-hire (eventually)* plan. Apart from tax forms, I never signed an official contract. Do I maintain all rights to my work? I am by no means planning on walking away and calling it mine - just interested in reusing portions of it on other projects. Would that be acceptable?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="96" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="52" RevisionGUID="b320bb69-9f57-4d21-9e87-453d2a2be649" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:28:38.310" UserId="59" Text="Who owns the result of my contracted work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="97" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="52" RevisionGUID="b320bb69-9f57-4d21-9e87-453d2a2be649" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:28:38.310" UserId="59" Text="|contracts|ownership|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="98" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="47" RevisionGUID="83e416a6-309a-4866-bde2-8d9532bd12a8" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:28:41.947" UserId="60" Comment="added 41 characters in body" Text="I think the first thing you have to do is to stop thinking of marketing as something you go out and do.  Marketing needs to be woven into everything else you do because, as you put it, you only have limited time.  This means you need to think about various activities you do as potentials for networking and marketing, and thus dual-purpose as many activities as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some quick and easy things are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  An email signature which markets your services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Recreational tech stuff (slashdot, etc) with signatures that link back to your site.  Same with other forums.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  If you can take up blogging as a way of both helping customers and marketing yourself, even better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The next part is to weave marketing into the rest of your customer interactions.  For example, the open source development work I do on [LedgerSMB](http://www.ledgersmb.org) is all effectively marketing, but it is also R&amp;D.  (See how easy that was?)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="99" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="53" RevisionGUID="9e7b0a16-3c6e-46fa-91e6-ae1258321288" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:33:11.840" UserId="60" Text="I prefer not to ask for more money on fixed bids with fixed scope.  What I will do is put the additional hours on the invoice and mark them as discounted 100%.  I have occasionally had customers offer to pay for those though it is the exception rather than the rule.  I would rather charge a higher rate that allows me to eat some extra cost and lose some competitiveness there, than lose it when I go back for more money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have had $10k projects that went on for 4 months when I expected to finish them in a month before.  That's unfortunate but it happens occasionally.  What you hope is that you are charging enough elsewhere to cover when it does." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="101" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="55" RevisionGUID="8dbb4bee-27dc-4f6d-bcca-9e3d17c82863" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:36:29.433" UserId="64" Text="It may very well be possible to negotiate the terms of the contract, depending on the type of work and your specific experience with that work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For instance, if the contract requires very specialized skills, skills that you happen to possess that are in high demand, you may have more room to negotiate. You could approach these organizations with an introductory letter, which outlines your skills and how you can help the organization.  Close the letter with a desire to meet via Google Groups or other video chat and discuss further.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a lot to offer, you could first see if your skills would be a good fit, and then -- unless they bring up the terms first -- mention that you're available to meet once a week/month, etc and can meet daily via a hangout.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This process is sort of like a sales process. You may hear a lot of no's, but you may also gain some networking contacts or perhaps obtain referrals to other organizations that hire remote contractors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the terms require that you be on-site, and you're willing to take one of these positions, make it clear in your contract that you'll bill for travel-related expenses in order to get you to and from work on the weekends so you'll have time for family. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally, since we live in a world where we're all connected, you can also use technology to keep in touch with your family, perhaps even keeping a persistent video chat running while you're making dinner, relaxing, or just lounging around your quarters.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, all contract work I've ever done has been remote. There are contracts out there that don't require you to work on-site, so if the on-site requirements take up too much of your time away from your family, then the answer may be to keep looking for something that fits your needs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="102" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="56" RevisionGUID="c65ab9c1-afc8-47c4-9fb5-fc9a8376ea29" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:36:47.623" UserId="3" Text="I am currently working full time, but interested in doing freelance work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to drop everything and jump right into it not knowing if this is what I want to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I go about finding my first client while keeping my day job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="103" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="56" RevisionGUID="c65ab9c1-afc8-47c4-9fb5-fc9a8376ea29" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:36:47.623" UserId="3" Text="Finding the first client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="104" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="56" RevisionGUID="c65ab9c1-afc8-47c4-9fb5-fc9a8376ea29" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:36:47.623" UserId="3" Text="|client|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="105" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="57" RevisionGUID="dc81007a-cdad-4579-8863-334172fc1297" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:40:28.997" UserId="3" Text="In my specific case, I've been working full time in the field (software) for about 5-6 years." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="106" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="57" RevisionGUID="dc81007a-cdad-4579-8863-334172fc1297" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:40:28.997" UserId="3" Text="How do I calculate pay rate if I've never freelanced before?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="107" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="57" RevisionGUID="dc81007a-cdad-4579-8863-334172fc1297" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:40:28.997" UserId="3" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="108" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="27" RevisionGUID="ea209b9d-29a0-4cbe-ace9-6a5a043f3fe0" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:41:12.123" UserId="47" Comment="Attempting to make the question more concrete and answerable and less open-ended." Text="I'm considering starting a business in the state of Rhode Island in the USA. I've begun to do the research on options available to me, and it's clear already that there is a dizzying array of options for which legal business entity to choose for my business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. C corporation&#xD;&#xA; 2. sub-S corporation&#xD;&#xA; 3. Limited Liability Company (two&#xD;&#xA;    options here, one where the company income is treated the same as my&#xD;&#xA;    own personal income with regard to federal and state income taxes,&#xD;&#xA;    and the other where the company income is treated separately from my&#xD;&#xA;    own personal income)&#xD;&#xA; 4. Co-op&#xD;&#xA; 5. others?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For anyone that's already been down this road, please offer some specific factors to consider in choosing the right legal business entity in RI for a consulting firm with two options: (1) no anticipated retail sales at all, (2) a small amount of retail sales with most income anticipated to be only from professional services rendered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, my accountant tells me that if I expect to have more than 10 employees then a sub-S corporation is a better solution because I won't be paying as much in taxes. If I recall correctly, with a C corporation, corporate profits are essentially taxed twice, one time for the corporate profit and another time for my personal income. He said this causes most C corporations to try to show a close to zero profit at the end of the year as possible, and that many of them end up re-organizing as sub-S corporations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe there are other factors to consider as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="109" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="58" RevisionGUID="6d0e7596-750d-475b-9ab5-1e77d751ace7" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:48:43.880" UserId="67" Text="I've got two offers on at present, and I certainly don't have time for both.  How can I turn down the second one without ruining my chance to work with them in the future, should the opportunity arise?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="110" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="58" RevisionGUID="6d0e7596-750d-475b-9ab5-1e77d751ace7" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:48:43.880" UserId="67" Text="How to not burn bridges when turning down a contract" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="111" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="58" RevisionGUID="6d0e7596-750d-475b-9ab5-1e77d751ace7" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:48:43.880" UserId="67" Text="|contracts|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="112" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="59" RevisionGUID="b1f1fb7a-8029-44c8-9c43-3f12e26c0a4e" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:55:03.083" UserId="65" Text="In my case, I got my first clients by my friends' references. Depending on what you want to do as a freelancer it's good idea to gain some experience and reputation. It's also very helpfull to enhance your portfolio - one of the most important things, when you want to get your clients from the internet, because it is your portfolio that represents you on-line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And don't forget to post some ads on websites, that are freelancer-oriented and you may get a commission from and also on websites related on what you want to do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="113" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="60" RevisionGUID="2d8f5d53-cda2-4ca7-9d9e-d8a97db58f4e" CreationDate="2013-05-22T01:56:10.653" UserId="47" Text="That's a great question, Phil, and this has bitten many people involved in work-for-hire situations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel like this is kind-of a cop-out on an answer, but honestly, it depends a very great deal on what kind of work you're doing, and I think Harvard Law School's Professor Terry Fisher has already answered your question with incredibly elaborate detail in Lecture 6 (entitled, *The Mechanics of Copyright*; in 3 parts) of his universally available [CopyrightX MOOC][1], so I'm just going to refer you there for now. There are several other examples of situations like the one you describe throughout the other lectures too, but I know he talks about work-for-hire situations in that lecture.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a recent graduate of his course, I have it on my to-do list to eventually wrap up all of his lectures with written transcripts to make it easy to find the great wealth of knowledge that he imparted to me during that course, but it will be strictly a labor of love, and time is precious for me at the moment so alas, that's all I can do for now to answer your question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/tfisher/Copyright_Lectures_2013.htm" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="114" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="61" RevisionGUID="35d686a0-6b99-473e-b279-fb6c91138c2b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:06:06.597" UserId="65" Text="It depends on what stage you are on with this contracts. If it's still a negotiation and there is no contract yet, there is nothing wrong by dismissing one of your offers. And being honest is always in price - when I came up with similar situation, I just told that due to my lack of time I'm unable to pick up this one, but I'd be glad to take the next offer in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if you have your contract signed for both offers, and a type of your work allows it, you may pay somebody else who will help you to get it done. Sharing your profit is someone else is way better, than breaking the contract, which will almost certainly &quot;burn the bridge&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="115" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="62" RevisionGUID="b7ed234b-b1ff-4b90-bf64-7d0f6fb88027" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:08:56.817" UserId="64" Text="If you've been a freelancer for awhile, and even if you're just getting started, you most likely have a network of contacts, who you know professionally or privately, who may very well be looking for freelancing work themselves and who may also have the skills the potential client is looking for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that these organizations are looking for solutions to problems, and many times it doesn't really matter who solves the problem, so long as it gets solved. So if you already have a good relationship with the organization, then it's likely you can help them out by making it easier for them to find someone who can solve their problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you play your cards right, you could become the go-to person whenever this person needs help from a freelancer, and by building your network in this manner, you'll also build your reputation and may be able to gain referrals from other freelancers and these clients.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="116" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="63" RevisionGUID="1b7e7f09-6dc4-4c40-8a0c-4e73bdcacbef" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:12:58.240" UserId="66" Text="This is always hard to find work at starting  no matter how intelligent you are ... but you can get slightly easier if you have created any project to show , and contribute in some open source which would be good and you  can tell about this either to client or to company(in case you want to do job )&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and its easy to get clients by friends/family  references " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="117" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="42" RevisionGUID="6b8fc6f8-6526-4ce2-afac-4332a1daea2b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:13:29.177" UserId="59" Comment="added 672 characters in body" Text="Refers to the rate at which a freelancer or contractor is paid. Pay rates are often defined on a:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Per-Project basis__: A project will be inspected thoroughly by both parties, and a number will be proposed based on the total effort, the number of possible revisions, or other key factors.&#xD;&#xA;* __Per-Hour Per-Project__: An individual will get paid on a per-hour basis for the project that he or she is working on. The rate of the project may be flat, or may vary from project to project. Such pay rates are generally used when contracted with a company that contracts with other companies.&#xD;&#xA;* __Other__: There are many other scenarios, such as per-hour, per-task, etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="118" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="42" RevisionGUID="6b8fc6f8-6526-4ce2-afac-4332a1daea2b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:13:29.177" Comment="Proposed by 59 approved by 69 edit id of 4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="119" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="43" RevisionGUID="c73b9771-8392-4c2d-af9a-ef5f3e3f228b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:13:57.227" UserId="59" Comment="added 63 characters in body" Text="Refers to the rate at which a freelancer or contractor is paid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="120" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="43" RevisionGUID="c73b9771-8392-4c2d-af9a-ef5f3e3f228b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:13:57.227" Comment="Proposed by 59 approved by 69 edit id of 5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="121" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="57" RevisionGUID="0710e672-7d5d-4118-a7c8-c2e7a9f0c235" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:14:31.103" UserId="64" Comment="try not to use the title as a topic sentence - the best questions use the title to grab attention and then use the body to introduce the problem, followed by the question." Text="I've been working full time in the field (software) for about 5-6 years. However, I've never done any freelancing work before and am new to this entire process. At my job, pay is easy, since it's usually hourly or salaried, but freelancing is different.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I calculate pay rate in a freelancing gig if I've never freelanced before?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="122" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="57" RevisionGUID="0710e672-7d5d-4118-a7c8-c2e7a9f0c235" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:14:31.103" Comment="Proposed by 64 approved by 69 edit id of 9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="123" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="37" RevisionGUID="e4e95256-1f6a-4640-aacb-bc67750bd2a7" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:14:38.510" UserId="58" Comment="added 88 characters in body" Text="A tag for legal issues surrounding freelance work, such as tax or company incorporation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="124" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="37" RevisionGUID="e4e95256-1f6a-4640-aacb-bc67750bd2a7" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:14:38.510" Comment="Proposed by 58 approved by 69 edit id of 3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="125" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3" RevisionGUID="20b9eeef-ba8a-43e1-99ae-ac72a55a3102" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:14:45.217" UserId="39" Comment="Making question more clear; improving grammar" Text="When working through the day, I may work on many different projects.  Web development is one of the freelancing jobs that I'm sure many people bounce around project to project, or maybe that is just me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I charge many of my clients per hour, in quarter-hour segments.  What are the standards for tracking your time for clients when you have multiple projects going in one day? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's say you are working the core of your day for Client 1 and you get an email from Client 2 that requires no work but just a simple response.  Do you charge Client 2 for that quarter hour of reading your email or just kind of let it go?  Then how do you manage if they start sending you a bunch of quick emails?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="126" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3" RevisionGUID="20b9eeef-ba8a-43e1-99ae-ac72a55a3102" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:14:45.217" UserId="39" Comment="Making question more clear; improving grammar" Text="|client|time-management|timekeeping|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="127" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3" RevisionGUID="20b9eeef-ba8a-43e1-99ae-ac72a55a3102" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:14:45.217" Comment="Proposed by 39 approved by 69 edit id of 1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="128" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="64" RevisionGUID="2f5b1f4f-371f-4f2f-ae17-62f33a04f0e3" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:16:23.817" UserId="61" Text="There are several categories of post-changes. They should be treated in different manner, *unless your agreement with the project owner states otherwise*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, you have completed a project and, trying to satisfy your client, you offered...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Little Updates and Things&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  * **Bugs**. As your software product is running and users are using it, they will inevitably find bugs. They should be eliminated at your cost, since you have already been paid for it.&#xD;&#xA;  * Changes due to **external factors** changed. Say, local laws may require a different format of a certain report. Or the users' community has asked the product owner for a change. Or a dependency software has changed its API. Since that was not in original scope, such improvement is clearly billable;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The rest of changes are most difficult to deal with. What I do often when being asked for such change, I analyze the thing and make **two offers**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Free way**: I do *some minor change* that does not take more than, say, several hours.  &#xD;&#xA;I make sure the project owner was aware that I will do it on my personal time so it did not interact with my billed activities, e.g. on weekend.  &#xD;&#xA;I also inform the project owner that any *side activity* should be done by their teams. I'm a Web developer, so I can't do free QA, Art, HTML/CSS mockups, team collaboration, and other things. This is a powerful argument by itself! :-)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Billable way**: A full-power work that ensures best possible scope and quality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Post-mortem&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;Also, as others have mentioned in their answers, a good practice is conduction a post-mortem meeting. At this meeting, you will define how your project will be improved over time.  &#xD;&#xA;As an important note specific to a freelancer, on this meeting you will **almost guarantee yourself some future income**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  * You guarantee to continue your business relations with the project owner;&#xD;&#xA;  * You define status of forthcoming changes, possible scope, and rates;&#xD;&#xA;  * You ensure that the product you have developed will be at top quality. Think again, you will refer that product *as your past work*. Say, you show it to another prospective customer. Do you need excuses why the product looks buggy or outdated? No.&#xD;&#xA;  * You secure for yourself the **future projects** with the same partner;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's an article by Jeff Atwood, [The project Postmortem](http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/11/the-project-postmortem.html) addressing more issues." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="129" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="45" RevisionGUID="35228b2c-8918-449b-8763-9646984e2e2c" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:17:07.337" UserId="59" Comment="added 146 characters in body" Text="An agreement by which a company *agrees to consider* extending a salaried job offer to an individual after a period of contracted work has passed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="130" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="45" RevisionGUID="35228b2c-8918-449b-8763-9646984e2e2c" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:17:07.337" Comment="Proposed by 59 approved by 69 edit id of 6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="131" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="46" RevisionGUID="bacd4f84-4d17-4c4d-bd40-8e0e64ade1c5" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:17:16.603" UserId="59" Comment="added 146 characters in body" Text="An agreement by which a company *agrees to consider* extending a salaried job offer to an individual after a period of contracted work has passed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="132" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="46" RevisionGUID="bacd4f84-4d17-4c4d-bd40-8e0e64ade1c5" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:17:16.603" Comment="Proposed by 59 approved by 69 edit id of 7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="133" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="65" RevisionGUID="fc1250fe-33b8-4ae6-95a0-42621c32091b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:17:16.907" UserId="64" Text="When you work a non-freelancing job, there's more to your compensation than simply take hope pay. If you work in a professional position, you most likely receive health and dental benefits, vacation time, retirement contributions, and your employer pays taxes for employing you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, all of these benefits are items of compensation that you must supply.  What's more, there's administrative tasks you're responsible for that will involve your time and expense, such as tracking hours, billing, filing taxes, marketing costs, advertising costs, and more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I first started freelancing, I spoke with some colleagues who also did freelancing on the side. They suggested I ask for 3 to 4 times more than I would normally receive.  This has worked out quite well, and these clients have approached me with more problems they've needed help solving.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every job is different though, so be sure to include any costs in the rate so that you cover your expenses and bring in enough income to survive the slow periods when there isn't a lot of work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="134" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="22" RevisionGUID="d556a701-6c65-4270-b75c-f00b14df6242" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:17:25.743" UserId="64" Comment="edited to make it sound less like a poll and also focus on solving the problem" Text="I have done freelance work for several years now, taking the occasional gig while still working a full-time &quot;day job&quot;. I don't get many gigs, and I think it's due to not actively marketing myself other than word-of-mouth through existing clients and the web traffic through my portfolio site. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As someone who works full time, how can I market myself as a freelancer in a way that gets results and that doesn't take constant maintenance to keep up?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="135" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="22" RevisionGUID="d556a701-6c65-4270-b75c-f00b14df6242" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:17:25.743" Comment="Proposed by 64 approved by 69 edit id of 8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="136" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="66" RevisionGUID="84fe454c-dd5d-48bc-9134-8d0595bdcc12" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:20:25.963" UserId="66" Text="&gt;what if i am getting more work then i can do &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;it mean you are going right and in the way of setting up a company/organizations&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;but if you are got 2 project at the same time either work on both of them  every day but yes off course time will be divided half and both of project take twice time so it strictly depends of time limit &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and those organization are only want work if you deliver work they are ok if you wont they will just switch to another developer , imo if you got tow project at a same time pay  somebody else to developer for you &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and relation with organization are based on quality , assurance , punctuality and no matter who worked ... so if you deliver good work (either done by you or person you paying) its perfectly fine " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="137" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="67" RevisionGUID="79659ea2-c22b-4728-9f04-d63568e7d91f" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:23:56.307" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="138" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="68" RevisionGUID="6fe52d63-3f10-4d69-9644-e47a39fd6c62" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:23:56.307" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="139" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="69" RevisionGUID="b13f6175-796a-4c24-96d8-a17e21119035" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:25:48.123" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="140" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="70" RevisionGUID="bd38f739-d189-4ef7-99d4-818558b7e136" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:25:48.123" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="141" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="71" RevisionGUID="28467ce2-3a27-4128-b7a8-b940e7c6ee58" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:26:46.753" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="142" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="72" RevisionGUID="eb47787d-692b-4a29-a7d2-c33bedd253c3" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:26:46.753" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="143" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="60" RevisionGUID="54404b78-ef13-43ae-ae87-7971e5e83a5f" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:26:58.403" UserId="64" Comment="removed information that wasn't pertinent to the answer to help keep it concise and to the point" Text="This has bitten many people involved in work-for-hire situations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel like this is kind-of a cop-out on an answer, but honestly, it depends a very great deal on what kind of work you're doing, and I think Harvard Law School's Professor Terry Fisher has already answered your question with incredibly elaborate detail in Lecture 6 (entitled, *The Mechanics of Copyright*; in 3 parts) of his universally available [CopyrightX MOOC][1], so I'm just going to refer you there for now. There are several other examples of situations like the one you describe throughout the other lectures too, but I know he talks about work-for-hire situations in that lecture.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/tfisher/Copyright_Lectures_2013.htm" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="144" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="60" RevisionGUID="54404b78-ef13-43ae-ae87-7971e5e83a5f" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:26:58.403" Comment="Proposed by 64 approved by 69 edit id of 10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="145" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="68" RevisionGUID="f7a99854-8183-4851-b7dc-2cce480f14d9" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:27:07.277" UserId="58" Comment="added 55 characters in body" Text="Questions about dealing with clients in freelance work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="146" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="68" RevisionGUID="f7a99854-8183-4851-b7dc-2cce480f14d9" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:27:07.277" Comment="Proposed by 58 approved by 69 edit id of 12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="147" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="72" RevisionGUID="adcfa7a2-2b88-4141-904a-a649e1b6e378" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:27:15.903" UserId="58" Comment="added 87 characters in body" Text="Questions about managing schedules, timeframes and project deadlines in freelance work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="148" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="72" RevisionGUID="adcfa7a2-2b88-4141-904a-a649e1b6e378" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:27:15.903" Comment="Proposed by 58 approved by 69 edit id of 14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="149" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="70" RevisionGUID="f2d523d1-55d8-4f4a-9032-3940b8df32b5" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:27:22.577" UserId="58" Comment="added 73 characters in body" Text="Questions concerning contracts between a freelance agent and an employer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="150" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="70" RevisionGUID="f2d523d1-55d8-4f4a-9032-3940b8df32b5" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:27:22.577" Comment="Proposed by 58 approved by 69 edit id of 13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="151" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="61" RevisionGUID="0980fec6-986f-4d6b-a47a-269f38e830d7" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:27:33.390" UserId="67" Comment="improved grammar, hopefully maintained the sentence" Text="It depends on what stage you are on with this contracts. If it's still a negotiation and there is no contract yet, there is nothing wrong by dismissing one of your offers. And being honest is always valuable - when I came up with similar situation, I just told that due to my lack of time I'm unable to pick up this one, but I'd be glad to take the next offer in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if you have your contract signed for both offers, and a type of your work allows it, you may pay somebody else who will help you to get it done. Sharing your profit is someone else is way better, than breaking the contract, which will almost certainly &quot;burn the bridge&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="152" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="61" RevisionGUID="0980fec6-986f-4d6b-a47a-269f38e830d7" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:27:33.390" Comment="Proposed by 67 approved by 69 edit id of 11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="153" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="73" RevisionGUID="57547fed-6d4c-4f4c-933e-dc5a4d9fe042" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:30:21.767" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="154" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="74" RevisionGUID="911463c3-0f90-4d4b-8022-d3cf366052e2" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:30:21.767" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="155" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="75" RevisionGUID="60df646f-6f94-411e-8b1c-cbb858190b90" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:39:34.513" UserId="66" Text="Contract between client and freelancer is very important and it covers things like boundaries, your pay rate,kill fee, and limits. should the requirement of client  also included in contract ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;if client wants to change his requirement how much flexibility should be there ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="156" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="75" RevisionGUID="60df646f-6f94-411e-8b1c-cbb858190b90" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:39:34.513" UserId="66" Text="what thing shoud be in contract of work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="157" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="75" RevisionGUID="60df646f-6f94-411e-8b1c-cbb858190b90" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:39:34.513" UserId="66" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="158" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="76" RevisionGUID="0d4f2baa-130f-413e-8e84-1218139c1159" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:41:06.990" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="159" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="77" RevisionGUID="2eb57528-dfdf-4145-a047-957ed6a4ae08" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:41:06.990" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="160" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="78" RevisionGUID="3b36c6d0-ba5a-43a5-87d3-27cc151ed1bc" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:45:18.480" UserId="66" Text="how much my client has to pay if he/she discontinues the project after I’ve begun work on it ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="161" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="78" RevisionGUID="3b36c6d0-ba5a-43a5-87d3-27cc151ed1bc" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:45:18.480" UserId="66" Text="how to determine/calculate “kill fee” in the contract" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="162" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="78" RevisionGUID="3b36c6d0-ba5a-43a5-87d3-27cc151ed1bc" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:45:18.480" UserId="66" Text="|contracts|kill-fee|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="164" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="79" RevisionGUID="0c77c66f-b8e5-4d86-aaeb-d312d1fd11b0" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:46:42.477" UserId="64" Text="Most people have trouble estimating projects, especially when they are new. When estimating, we tend to think of the project on a very high level and fail to take into account the details involved in figuring a good target estimate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The most logical solution is to prevent this problem by focusing on improving your estimation techniques:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#**Break down the work into small subtasks:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To create a good estimate, first break down the project into high level sections that you know will be part of the project. If you're working on a website with a front-end and a back-end, for instance, then you know you have a client-side front-end portion and a server-side backend.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For instance, I would break down the front-end by pages, then break each page down by component, then break the components down into work that needs to be done on the front-end and work that would need to be done to populate that front-end with any data.  I'd then gather an estimate of how much time it would take to complete those components.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once completed, I'd look at my spreadsheet. Any tasks that take longer than a day, I revisit and break them down even further.  Ideally, I try to break down each task into subtasks where each subtask takes about an hour or two. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By breaking down tasks into subtasks that are measured in just a few hours, I most likely uncover additional details and scope that I would otherwise overlook had I just used my initial gut feeling.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, add an additional 30% for bugs and other problems that may occur, just in case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#**What if I still have a problem with underestimating:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As soon as you think you might go over your budget, tell your client immediately. If it's still early, you may be able to clarify the scope and negotiate a higher rate on the contract. Explain to the client what part of the project scope you overlooked, and offer to bill for the additional time at a lower rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they refuse, then you can decide whether or not the time you've already invested is worth writing off, and if it's worth losing the client. In cases where there would be a huge hardship, you may just want to terminate the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you know there's going to be more work, or if you know you won't go over your budget by too much, it may be wise to just simply eat the losses, knowing that you'll have more work later and an opportunity to learn from the mistake.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No matter what, it's still important to explain that you may have underestimated so that the client isn't surprised by higher estimates later on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="165" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="78" RevisionGUID="ed226b69-cdcd-4358-8bb8-4871c11bd07f" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:54:56.670" UserId="58" Comment="edited title, edited tags, edited grammar." Text="If my client decides to discontinue a project that I am working on part-way through, or wishes to cancel work, how much should I say my client has to pay?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="166" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="78" RevisionGUID="ed226b69-cdcd-4358-8bb8-4871c11bd07f" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:54:56.670" UserId="58" Comment="edited title, edited tags, edited grammar." Text="How should I handle contract cancellation fees?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="167" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="78" RevisionGUID="ed226b69-cdcd-4358-8bb8-4871c11bd07f" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:54:56.670" UserId="58" Comment="edited title, edited tags, edited grammar." Text="|contracts|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="168" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="78" RevisionGUID="ed226b69-cdcd-4358-8bb8-4871c11bd07f" CreationDate="2013-05-22T02:54:56.670" Comment="Proposed by 58 approved by 66 edit id of 17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="169" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="80" RevisionGUID="a2996092-c83b-48d3-b4df-da939655142d" CreationDate="2013-05-22T03:01:55.933" UserId="58" Text="You should really decide this explicitly in your contract, and have a cancellation clause.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are offering an hourly rate for your work (rather than a fixed amount), you should ideally make this cancellation fee a large percentage of this hourly rate (if not 100%, though you could probably negotiate, or even get more, depending on how willing your client is to do this)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are offering (or being offered) a fixed amount, however, you should try to stick to an amount you are comfortable with; if the project was cancelled part-way through, and was a big, important project with a deadline, having it cancelled could have a huge impact on your finances. This is the case where you should really have a cancellation fee that is determined by the size and budget of the project, and it's very hard to put a concrete number on this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the project is smaller, you should still always seek a cancellation fee, but an idea is to keep a set amount for cancellation that your client can see in your contract, so that you know you will always get at least that amount for a project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="170" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="81" RevisionGUID="348bee70-dad3-4b2a-9af0-a4afbcd202ca" CreationDate="2013-05-22T03:37:12.397" UserId="61" Text="  &gt; *Two businessmen at a meeting. One says, &quot;Let's imagine you have named your price, I have named mine, and we both laughed enough. Let's get to the business now and discuss the **real** price.&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As @jmort253 has said,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask as Much as You Can&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;...and be prepared to be offered as low as *they* can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are selling either your **time** (Time-and-Materials projects) or a final **product** (Fixed Price projects).  &#xD;&#xA;Whatever it is, it may be a good thing, or maybe not, but anyways, everything has its price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The initial level can be found on freelance sites. For I.T., it's [oDesk](http://www.odesk.com), [Guru](http://www.guru.com/), and many others. Just go to **Completed Projects** section and see for yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Spread your requested prices for your first projects.&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;See for yourself at what price you are having enough workload.  &#xD;&#xA;Occasionally, request prices **much higher** than at your level. Be prepared to the fact that higher price may require higher quality comparing to what you normally deliver. It may pull quality of your products to a higher level, but requires more work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Plus, the price considers your **willingness to sell**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  * Are you willing to build reputation? Are you planning to get *second* project from the same client? Are you just entering the market and have no reputation? Make your price lower to raise your chances to sell.&#xD;&#xA;  * Are you busy with something else? Is the technology outdated, and you are not willing to waste your time studying it? Make your price higher! *(Oh, if you knew the hourly rate of my friend, a COBOL developer!)*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="171" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="82" RevisionGUID="a8c46207-12b0-4ca2-87e4-508b8fee816f" CreationDate="2013-05-22T03:38:03.920" UserId="70" Text="I have seen multiple types of contracts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Independent Contractor Agreement&#xD;&#xA; - Master Services Agreement&#xD;&#xA; - Statement Of Work&#xD;&#xA; - Verbal Agreement&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are any/all of these types of contracts applicable for freelance work, and are there clear lines for choosing which specific contract type (or combination) should be used?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="172" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="82" RevisionGUID="a8c46207-12b0-4ca2-87e4-508b8fee816f" CreationDate="2013-05-22T03:38:03.920" UserId="70" Text="How do I determine the which type of contract to use?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="173" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="82" RevisionGUID="a8c46207-12b0-4ca2-87e4-508b8fee816f" CreationDate="2013-05-22T03:38:03.920" UserId="70" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="174" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="83" RevisionGUID="f222ed41-7fb2-412f-81be-7fa77d926e59" CreationDate="2013-05-22T03:39:16.483" UserId="60" Text="As always it depends.  This is not legal advice.  I am not a lawyer.  However I also think that if you have to go to court, you have already lost more than you will get back.  The most important purpose of a contract, IMO, is that it provides a joint reference for expectations.  Keep in mind that typically a work agreement (contract or set of contracts) is going to consist of essentially two parts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Agreement of terms of doing business&#xD;&#xA;2. Agreement of scope of work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I personally like to keep these separate.   This means a basic work contract does not include client needs, but the whole bid/approval process does.  This has a few benefits:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  It keeps lawyers on both sides focused purely on terms of doing business, not on reviewing scope of work, and&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  This helps ensure that additional changes to scope are easier to approve.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now typically a contract is considered to have a number of essential elements and may be explicit or implied.  These may vary by jurisdiction but typically involve an offer for an exchange, an acceptance of that offer, and a general agreement on what was offered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my preferred approach is to include in the contract a section which just notes that scope of work will be provided by the customer, and bids will be dependent on that scope, and that changes to scope may involve additional fees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then the bidding process can be incorporated by reference.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember also that it is not uncommon for a given piece of work to be governed by a series of contracts, including non-disclosure agreements, work contracts, and the bidding/order process.  There isn't anything necessarily wrong with keeping these separate, particularly if the people who need to review changes to different pieces are different people.  For example the lawyers don't want to be called in because the customer wants a little more done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So as a summary** you want to think about how a given document fits into the rest of the process.  There may be many more contracts that cover a given piece of work and these may be explicit (an NDA) or implied (offer/acceptance of a bid).  Hope this helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="175" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="75" RevisionGUID="e8c6fafb-c439-4b25-8f90-93a9abe30bf0" CreationDate="2013-05-22T03:42:11.377" UserId="58" Comment="edited title, grammar and tags" Text="A contract between a client and a freelancer is very important, and it covers things such as boundaries, your pay (hourly or set amount), cancellation terms and limits (hours, deadlines, etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should the requirements of a client also be included in a contract?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if a client wants to change their requirements, how much flexibility should there be with this? (contract amendment, and so on)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="176" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="75" RevisionGUID="e8c6fafb-c439-4b25-8f90-93a9abe30bf0" CreationDate="2013-05-22T03:42:11.377" UserId="58" Comment="edited title, grammar and tags" Text="Should client requirements be included in a contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="177" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="75" RevisionGUID="e8c6fafb-c439-4b25-8f90-93a9abe30bf0" CreationDate="2013-05-22T03:42:11.377" UserId="58" Comment="edited title, grammar and tags" Text="|contracts|client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="178" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="75" RevisionGUID="e8c6fafb-c439-4b25-8f90-93a9abe30bf0" CreationDate="2013-05-22T03:42:11.377" Comment="Proposed by 58 approved by 66 edit id of 18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="179" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="84" RevisionGUID="9c669f17-04c7-4e6c-8d0a-5c3c327c446f" CreationDate="2013-05-22T03:44:51.617" UserId="60" Text="That is usually settled in a contract.  For example, I do mostly open source development on [LedgerSMB](http://www.ledgersmb.org).  My contracts state that my work is my own, but that I am willing to license them to the customer under any of the GPL v2, BSD, or MIT licenses, with the GPL v2 being the default.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have also done work for Microsoft where the contract stipulated that they owned my work but licensed it back to me under the Microsoft Permissive License (very little difference except that the copyright statements say Microsoft).  The first thing you need to do is figure out what is acceptable to you, as a business decision, and then decide what to do.  However, I would recommend trying to retain copyright (and give then a non-exclusive license under terms they can live with) because it gives you better protection if you do something similar for another client and they then allege copyright infringement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, etc.  It is probably something worth discussing with a qualified intellectual property lawyer with however to help you come to a decision what contract elements you are comfortable with in your specific business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="180" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="85" RevisionGUID="57690de2-b10c-40e0-a4d3-658aa3b57954" CreationDate="2013-05-22T03:49:38.717" UserId="60" Text="I got my first client by literally going door to door in local businesses introducing myself.  It turned out that one of the business owners was an old family friend, and so I got a client.  If I had it to do over again, I would probably start by making a list of friends who have businesses, and approaching them asking for feedback rather than work, and then see what I could do from there.  You never know.  One of them may want you to do something for them or they may know someone, but if not, at least you will likely get some constructive and local feedback.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is part of the pattern of doing things for multiple reasons and being open to different kinds of benefits that may come from an activity rather than starting off and expecting that a single effort will make everything work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="181" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="86" RevisionGUID="3eba39af-40fe-480c-94e8-34e5057445f8" CreationDate="2013-05-22T04:00:27.483" UserId="47" Text="I concur with @Hiroto's answer, but would also add that you should consider working like a lawyer does: with a retainer. That is, your contract should reflect full payment (and if the amount is at all uncertain, then err on the higher side to protect yourself) for the project in advance, before you even *begin* to work on the project. Then if you finish under budget, you can refund your client the difference, which will automatically tend to make your client feel happier with your work than she would otherwise feel without a refund.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This may be a bitter pill to swallow for some or even many clients, of course, and so if you are inflexible regarding this clause of your contract, then you may not see much work. But if you have more offers for work than you really need, then I think there's no better way to handle your question than with a retainer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think it goes without saying that if there were a better way to handle such situations, attorneys would be using it for their own work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="182" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="87" RevisionGUID="86851ae7-1842-4f02-8a01-9057b6a99127" CreationDate="2013-05-22T04:02:11.423" UserId="60" Text="It depends on what you are doing.  The key thing is to make sure you understand the contract and that it fits the work.  In general verbal agreements are fine for very small amounts of work IMO.  You want something written (even if it is only a quotation with detailed scope) for anything larger.  Something like &quot;Can you fix this computer?&quot;  &quot;Sure.  And I charge $60/hr.&quot; is fine.  &quot;Can you customize my accounting software?&quot; probably needs something more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Typically, unless a customer wants something more, I am happy to resort to a simple bid/acceptance process which specifies scope of work and basic terms of work.  If a customer wants more, I will go with a contractor agreement, NDA, etc.  However usually this is sufficient.  If it is going to be a longer-term contract, then maybe I may request that we actually have a contractor agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IANAL, TINLA and all other disclaimers imaginable apply...." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="183" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="88" RevisionGUID="7099cfb1-2381-4fad-887e-f98b7698fbc2" CreationDate="2013-05-22T04:03:13.077" UserId="75" Text="I used to be an IT contractor for many companies, so I will speak from the service area:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I always start each with a verbal agreement, just so we can get an idea of what needs to be done. In this time, I write down what I interpret their requirements/requests to be, any questions I want to ask about certain aspects of the project, and how much time I believe I would need. Once this is done, and all questions have been answered (again, writing down all the information, or recording with a voice recorder), I can put it into a written form.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my statements of work, I always leave some leeway on time for &quot;unforeseen interuptions&quot;, including emergencies (personal, family, work, etc). I don't add it as a separate item, but I include it in the labour charge, as that is usually what it would come out as. If I believe I need parts, I can add an *approximate* cost based on past projects, or leave it blank stating that I would get prices later and get the client to confirm. Remember, your Statement of Work should have **EVERYTHING** that you, the contractor, and the customer want to have completed, with a list of *possible* costs. It's easier to ask for more money *just in case* up front, then to go half-way through a project and then explain why you need more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending on where you live, you may need to also charge extra taxes or fees for programs such as Worker's Compensation while on site, and you should also have liability insurance against any mishaps that happen, whether your fault or not. I include this all in the statement of work, and make sure that the client and myself sign it. We both then take a copy, and we can start on the work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="184" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="52" RevisionGUID="01929605-7e38-40de-b14d-46721baee78b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T04:03:56.957" UserId="34" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|legal|ownership|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="185" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="84" RevisionGUID="c1baa63d-a437-47b1-bd94-7986b7af68ea" CreationDate="2013-05-22T04:15:14.260" UserId="47" Comment="Fix spelling and typo." Text="That is usually settled in a contract.  For example, I do mostly open source development on [LedgerSMB](http://www.ledgersmb.org).  My contracts state that my work is my own, but that I am willing to license them to the customer under any of the GPL v2, BSD, or MIT licenses, with the GPL v2 being the default.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have also done work for Microsoft where the contract stipulated that they owned my work but licensed it back to me under the Microsoft Permissive License (very little difference except that the copyright statements say Microsoft).  The first thing you need to do is figure out what is acceptable to you, as a business decision, and then decide what to do.  However, I would recommend trying to retain copyright (and give them a non-exclusive license under terms they can live with) because it gives you better protection if you do something similar for another client and they then allege copyright infringement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, etc.  It is probably something worth discussing with a qualified intellectual property lawyer, however, to help you come to a decision about what contract elements you are comfortable with in your specific business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="186" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="84" RevisionGUID="c1baa63d-a437-47b1-bd94-7986b7af68ea" CreationDate="2013-05-22T04:15:14.260" Comment="Proposed by 47 approved by 60 edit id of 19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="187" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="89" RevisionGUID="901985ac-5502-4a7c-b30e-4575aa724fa3" CreationDate="2013-05-22T04:18:56.553" UserId="75" Text="In your Scope of Work contract, you should always have a clause about unforeseen circumstances that could introduce delays. I come from the IT Services industry, and that is one thing we always mention: The absolute *minimum* completion time/date, and the *potential* end time/date, for anything that may come up. I get to deal with almost a thousand clients personally, and I can never offer a definitive time for it to be done because I know interruptions happen. It's difficult to not be able to say a specific time, but things will come up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For technical limitations or mishaps, as Drew explained, you need to tell the client as soon as you know there will be a delay. If it's out of business hours, send an email as soon as you expect a delay, and follow up with a phone call an hour or so after they have re-opened. You may think that you're being a bother, but the best clients will appreciate you being *pro*-active, as opposed to being *re*-active" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="188" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="90" RevisionGUID="7d226f07-1191-4a9b-83d1-f1b127a53e3b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T04:29:16.413" UserId="60" Text="In general prompt communication is a good thing.  You should let your client know as soon as possible what the problems are so that if chances need to be made to the work plan/scope of work, they can de done in a way you both can live with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe they will decide it is too much trouble and pay you for work done.  Maybe they will decide they want to expand the project.  Maybe someone on their side knows something that makes things better.  However any client worth your time will appreciate it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="189" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="91" RevisionGUID="62365cd8-1f9a-4148-8ea6-309305b09791" CreationDate="2013-05-22T04:31:39.643" UserId="75" Text="Having worked both for myself only, and through an agency, I have decided that I enjoy both equally, but for different reasons&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PROS of an AGENCY&#xD;&#xA;=&#xD;&#xA; - Constant work&#xD;&#xA; - Less overhead on your end&#xD;&#xA; - No worry about taxes&#xD;&#xA; - Usually the contract with the client is dealt with professionally via the agency (including loopholes, extensions, pay, etc)&#xD;&#xA; - Sometimes, you get Worker's Compensation or other benefits paid for&#xD;&#xA; - Someone else can complete your work at the agency if you fall ill or cannot do the project yourself. This can sometimes also include support from other contractors without costing yourself extra money, just time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;CONS of an AGENCY&#xD;&#xA;=&#xD;&#xA; - You are not your own boss&#xD;&#xA; - You may not be able to negotiate requirements for projects&#xD;&#xA; - Less money then dealing directly with the client&#xD;&#xA; - You may have an agreement where you are not allowed to pursue clients after leaving the agency&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, for working for myself:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PROS of my own work&#xD;&#xA;=&#xD;&#xA; - Negotiate directly with the customer  &#xD;&#xA; (this is especially good when I know the techinical limitations of myself, or the project they are asking for. Many agencies I worked for in the IT industry simply say *YES* to every request without concern of how long or difficult it may be, or will forget a major component)&#xD;&#xA; - More money  &#xD;&#xA; (this comes with more responsibility, as you need to know every last detail, including promise of delivery times, potential blocks in a project, and any extra costs that *may* come up with little notice)&#xD;&#xA; - Referrals  &#xD;&#xA; (many of my good clients refer me to their friends' businesses or spouses' businesses, and there is nothing to stop me from getting more clients. Word of mouth is the best form)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="190" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="34" RevisionGUID="5f28112d-d870-4a2c-8450-b5e28ffc65ad" CreationDate="2013-05-22T04:41:04.047" UserId="47" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|expenses|uk|hmrc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="191" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="92" RevisionGUID="fd6e5fc3-6d2e-434b-ad03-996220836808" CreationDate="2013-05-22T04:46:53.890" UserId="78" Text="Normally, if you work in single EU country as contractor, you are treated like its tax resident and you are required to register company there. (This at least apply to Germany in Poland, where you are tax resident, if you spend over a half of year each year on their territory).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But say, I'd work as contractor 4 months in Germany, 4 months in Poland and 4 months in Czech Republic. In none of that countries I'd spend more than the half of that year, so in neither of them I'm tax resident. Does it mean, that I'm then free to choose in which EU country I'd register my company? For example, can I register in country, where the tax regulations are the most attractive for me, say, in Luxemburg?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="192" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="92" RevisionGUID="fd6e5fc3-6d2e-434b-ad03-996220836808" CreationDate="2013-05-22T04:46:53.890" UserId="78" Text="Company registration when working in many EU countries?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="193" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="92" RevisionGUID="fd6e5fc3-6d2e-434b-ad03-996220836808" CreationDate="2013-05-22T04:46:53.890" UserId="78" Text="|contracts|taxes|eu|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="194" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="93" RevisionGUID="e3487f77-6d3a-4554-81d1-2a12791e517e" CreationDate="2013-05-22T04:56:07.757" UserId="78" Text="If I'm an EU-citizen and want to work in Switzerland as contractor, what should I do, if I have company registered in EU?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Can I work in Switzerland as contractor and invoice my client company as EU-registered company? Or I'm required to register company in Switzerland?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) If registering a company in Switzerland is required, do I need special permission from Swiss government to do that?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="195" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="93" RevisionGUID="e3487f77-6d3a-4554-81d1-2a12791e517e" CreationDate="2013-05-22T04:56:07.757" UserId="78" Text="EU-citizen working as contractor in Switzerland?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="196" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="93" RevisionGUID="e3487f77-6d3a-4554-81d1-2a12791e517e" CreationDate="2013-05-22T04:56:07.757" UserId="78" Text="|contracts|registration|switzerland|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="197" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="94" RevisionGUID="1cb87e46-1601-4f94-852a-1ba322f5b8d7" CreationDate="2013-05-22T05:01:44.827" UserId="78" Text="What languages are required (typically) for IT-Contractor who wants to work in Denmark?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually in bigger European countries (such as Germany, France) you are required to know its native language, but in case of smaller English is required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How it looks like in case of Denmark?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="198" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="94" RevisionGUID="1cb87e46-1601-4f94-852a-1ba322f5b8d7" CreationDate="2013-05-22T05:01:44.827" UserId="78" Text="Language requirements for IT-contractor working in Denmark?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="199" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="94" RevisionGUID="1cb87e46-1601-4f94-852a-1ba322f5b8d7" CreationDate="2013-05-22T05:01:44.827" UserId="78" Text="|recrutation|information-technology|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="200" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="95" RevisionGUID="bfe84bb6-9714-425e-bff8-0c0a7b5a8a1e" CreationDate="2013-05-22T05:07:22.320" UserId="47" Text="As others have noted, personal and professional networks are the most common sources for a first client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And although you haven't asked for this answer, I'll add that if you are employed full-time already, make sure you carefully review the terms of your employment contract before committing to any freelance work. Many employment contracts contain terms that make all intellectual property created by you (regardless of whether it is done on company-time or your own time) belong to your employer. In such circumstances, you could be putting yourself and your clients in a very difficult position by selling or licensing intellectual property created by you but owned by your full-time employer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="201" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="96" RevisionGUID="fdab282a-3acf-48a4-ac44-512b3f00907b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T05:20:50.197" UserId="82" Text="I have been freelancing for more than a year now. Its been great in terms that I get paid decent amount for hours I have put in. My issue is I'd like to diversify risk and find new clients beyond these online sites. I'd appreciate if you can share you experience on how you went about growing your customer base." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="202" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="96" RevisionGUID="fdab282a-3acf-48a4-ac44-512b3f00907b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T05:20:50.197" UserId="82" Text="How to find clients beyond sites like oDesk/Guru/Freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="203" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="96" RevisionGUID="fdab282a-3acf-48a4-ac44-512b3f00907b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T05:20:50.197" UserId="82" Text="|client|marketing|growth|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="204" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="64" RevisionGUID="66129790-a11a-4558-a022-26df7a8049f1" CreationDate="2013-05-22T05:21:38.437" UserId="61" Comment="added a story" Text="There are several categories of post-changes. They should be treated in different manner, *unless your agreement with the project owner states otherwise*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, you have completed a project and, trying to satisfy your client, you offered...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Little Updates and Things&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  * **Bugs**. As your software product is running and users are using it, they will inevitably find bugs. They should be eliminated at your cost, since you have already been paid for it.&#xD;&#xA;  * Changes due to **external factors** changed. Say, local laws may require a different format of a certain report. Or the users' community has asked the product owner for a change. Or a dependency software has changed its API. Since that was not in original scope, such improvement is clearly billable;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The rest of changes are most difficult to deal with. What I do often when being asked for such change, I analyze the thing and make **two offers**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Free way**: I do *some minor change* that does not take more than, say, several hours.  &#xD;&#xA;I make sure the project owner was aware that I will do it on my personal time so it did not interact with my billed activities, e.g. on weekend.  &#xD;&#xA;I also inform the project owner that any *side activity* should be done by their teams. I'm a Web developer, so I can't do free QA, Art, HTML/CSS mockups, team collaboration, and other things. This is a powerful argument by itself! :-)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Billable way**: A full-power work that ensures best possible scope and quality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Post-mortem&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;Also, as others have mentioned in their answers, a good practice is conduction a post-mortem meeting. At this meeting, you will define how your project will be improved over time.  &#xD;&#xA;As an important note specific to a freelancer, on this meeting you will **almost guarantee yourself some future income**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  * You guarantee to continue your business relations with the project owner;&#xD;&#xA;  * You define status of forthcoming changes, possible scope, and rates;&#xD;&#xA;  * You ensure that the product you have developed will be at top quality. Think again, you will refer that product *as your past work*. Say, you show it to another prospective customer. Do you need excuses why the product looks buggy or outdated? No.&#xD;&#xA;  * You secure for yourself the **future projects** with the same partner;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's an article by Jeff Atwood, [The project Postmortem](http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/11/the-project-postmortem.html) addressing more issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Finally, a story that illustrates the ideas above:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A freelancer and a client are talking after project completion.  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; _Client_: &quot;But aren't you just do and forget? If we need some updates, would you do it for free?&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; _Freelancer_: &quot;Sure, but it depends on how much work to do.&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; _Client_: &quot;Don't worry! Of course we wouldn't say, redo everything from scratch.&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; _Freelancer_: &quot;Agreed. I also have a request. Aren't you just pay me and forget? If I run out of money, can I come up and ask to pay me some extra?  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; _Client_: &quot;???&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; _Freelancer_: &quot;Don't worry! Of course I wouldn't say, pay me the whole amount again!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="205" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="97" RevisionGUID="693ce20f-0286-4202-8dd9-f13d07cc5d0e" CreationDate="2013-05-22T05:22:56.443" UserId="47" Text="If you work on a retainer like a lawyer does, then depending on the specifics, your client may/will expect you to ask for more money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most attorneys will accept a client with a standard retainer, often $10k to $100k, and explain to the client that this amount will be held in escrow (many states require that amount to earn interest at some rate too) and paid out to themselves on an hourly basis at an agreed-upon hourly rate as the attorney spends time on your case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is typical that an attorney will also explain that this *initial* retainer is anticipated to cover the entire cost of their handling the case that you've asked for their help with, but that unforeseeable circumstances may arise in which circumstance you should expect them to ask for an additional supplementary retainer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a matter of course, attorneys almost always operate with a positive balance in your account. That is to say, they will ask for a supplementary retainer when your balance with them has fallen to maybe 10-25% of it's initial value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This has become so nearly universal a practice in the US that pretty much all clients expect it. And while it may be atypical outside the practice of law, it's difficult to find fault with this approach from the freelance worker's point of view." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="206" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="98" RevisionGUID="69cd8207-d291-412d-87b8-847f2df11333" CreationDate="2013-05-22T05:27:59.720" UserId="79" Text="While reading the title I thought you meant programming language and was about to edit the title.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think even in Denmark, English is a must. That's also the case for &quot;bigger European countries&quot;. As a matter of fact, in the IT-World it is the *de facto* language. Without you won't go far.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a plus to English the native language (or at least enough of it to have a chit-chat with your coworker) is surely highly appreciated. So, even if you don't speak Danish now, learn some usefull phrases and after a couple of months you'll be fluent enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="207" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="99" RevisionGUID="41fd9d16-b49e-4a53-a3cd-fc570c0b62da" CreationDate="2013-05-22T05:43:51.113" UserId="47" Text="My suggestion: learn from the experience and consider [working on retainer][1] next time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think your client is trying to take advantage of your good will, and you'll likely have a very difficult time extracting yourself from that situation without serious negative reactions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order to try and preserve a good relationship, you may need to consider sucking it up and doing as requested, but certainly start by getting a contract in place before going any further with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/44/when-is-it-ok-to-ask-a-client-for-more-money/97#97" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="208" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="100" RevisionGUID="dc41bf3e-5971-4cbe-87ec-763bab03f2ad" CreationDate="2013-05-22T05:49:08.460" UserId="60" Text="So much depends upon individual circumstances that a general answer is not really possible.  The first thing you need to do is make sure that you and your wife are on the same page regarding travel.  This is a family matter and since your work and family life are by no means separate, this sort of decision needs to start there.  Major restrictions can include things like kids in school or your wife's job.   There are times when you may need to go to customer sites and having basic groundrules in place first are important.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly you need to be willing to play things by ear.  Before my kids were in school (my wife also works from home), the following things we did come to mind:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I accepted a 10 month contract a 6 hr drive away.  We'd drive the whole family back and forth.  First big contract of my business.  My oldest was about 2 years old at the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  A week after my second kid was born, my largest customer called me up and noted their technical contact on the project was quitting and they needed some on-site time to help everyone get up to speed.  So after talking  with my wife, we drove, the next week, the entire family 2000 miles over the weekend to my customer's site, and yes the entire family included a 2-week-old.  It wasn't that bad. we'd just stop, feed the baby, change drivers every 3 hours of driving.  A little planning and the trip worked wonderfully.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, both of these were positive experiences that probably can't be done as well now that the kids are in school.  Many parents think that's crazy.  But it worked.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I try to target 1-2 weeks of travel time a year.  Most years it is lower than that.  A few years it is higher.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So first you want to start by looking at it from the household/family level.  You also want to look at it on the business level.  The big thing is that there are many times when personal face time is important with customers, but it may not require being there all the time.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Typically if there is a big project the most valuable times are at the beginning and at the end, so instead of spending a year on site, you can probably get by with a week or two at the beginning and a week or two at the end.  This can become important when it comes to getting to know how your client does business (and so what they want and need out of the project) and being able to wrap things up, solve any last minute issues, get final feedback, and so forth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where this does not work so well is in contract to hire gigs.  There the company ultimately wants an employee and the contract is sort of like dating before getting married.  They would want you on site.  If you can't travel, or you don't want to give up freelancing, don't pursue these.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So despite the fact that no definite answer is possible because so much depends on circumstance, this should give you at least a starting point to think about what is possible, what you can do, and how you can make things work for your customer, yourself, and your family." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="209" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="65" RevisionGUID="c18fb89e-a5c2-423d-8641-dbb0c82b6e14" CreationDate="2013-05-22T05:51:29.793" UserId="47" Comment="Fix typo, fill in poor, neglected, missing self-employed group." Text="When you are self-employed or working a freelancing job, there's more to your compensation than simply take-home pay. If you work in a non-freelancing position, you most likely receive health and dental benefits, vacation time, retirement contributions, and your employer pays taxes for employing you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, all of these benefits are items of compensation that you must supply.  What's more, there's administrative tasks you're responsible for that will involve your time and expense, such as tracking hours, billing, filing taxes, marketing costs, advertising costs, and more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I first started freelancing, I spoke with some colleagues who also did freelancing on the side. They suggested I ask for 3 to 4 times more than I would normally receive.  This has worked out quite well, and these clients have approached me with more problems they've needed help solving.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every job is different though, so be sure to include any costs in the rate so that you cover your expenses and bring in enough income to survive the slow periods when there isn't a lot of work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="210" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="65" RevisionGUID="c18fb89e-a5c2-423d-8641-dbb0c82b6e14" CreationDate="2013-05-22T05:51:29.793" Comment="Proposed by 47 approved by 64 edit id of 20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="211" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="101" RevisionGUID="13bc8efa-e880-4fb5-b955-36ba3260090c" CreationDate="2013-05-22T05:53:14.717" UserId="80" Text="I am in the software development industry.I am an experienced software engineer.I am new to freelancing websites.The problem is I have zero rating and I can't get any projects even if I bid the lowest amount.This in turn prevents me from getting any rating which prevents me from getting any new projects(even if I bid the lowest amount). I am stuck in this cycle.How do I get my first job at a freelancing site?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="212" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="101" RevisionGUID="13bc8efa-e880-4fb5-b955-36ba3260090c" CreationDate="2013-05-22T05:53:14.717" UserId="80" Text="How do I get my first job at a freelancing site?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="213" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="101" RevisionGUID="13bc8efa-e880-4fb5-b955-36ba3260090c" CreationDate="2013-05-22T05:53:14.717" UserId="80" Text="|client|newcomer|growth|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="214" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="102" RevisionGUID="118c1100-b898-41bc-9658-4f07451d62d9" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:04:59.027" UserId="85" Text="Agencies have much to offer, especially for someone seeking interim/casual work. However, as a Freelancer I value my independence...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One of the biggest CONS of working through an agency is the ambiguity about your status... especially your tax status - which will see you struggling to maintain &quot;self-employed&quot; status with the tax authorities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here in the UK there have been several attempts to bring agency workers into the remit of Pay-As-You-Earn (tax deducted at source). I could go on at length about these...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Likewise, at EU level, the Agency Workers Directive seeks to enshrine the same employment rights on agency workers as permanent staff. Which will lower the rate you are paid (someone has to pay for these &quot;benefits&quot;!)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="215" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="103" RevisionGUID="27d95eab-9cc0-4a70-b9b4-95d0e5b3e3b3" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:15:48.820" UserId="87" Text="I was working on android project. The client asked to change the app design every few days. But it was very difficult to change the design in the middle of a huge project. How do i deal with the client in such situations. Making a contract and adding a clause at the start would be one way?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="216" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="103" RevisionGUID="27d95eab-9cc0-4a70-b9b4-95d0e5b3e3b3" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:15:48.820" UserId="87" Text="How do i deal with clients who ask me to change the design every few days?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="217" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="103" RevisionGUID="27d95eab-9cc0-4a70-b9b4-95d0e5b3e3b3" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:15:48.820" UserId="87" Text="|client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="218" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="94" RevisionGUID="15347dae-7782-43e8-94f4-9edf99396e62" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:18:37.557" UserId="78" Comment="added 5 characters in body" Text="What languages are required (typically) for IT-Contractor who wants to work in Denmark?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually in bigger European countries (such as Germany, France) you are required to know its native language, but in case of smaller only English is required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How it looks like in case of Denmark?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="219" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="47" RevisionGUID="8d66f374-eb9f-4fc9-b522-5f533fb64d1f" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:21:39.643" UserId="60" Comment="added 400 characters in body" Text="I think the first thing you have to do is to stop thinking of marketing as something you go out and do.  Marketing needs to be woven into everything else you do because, as you put it, you only have limited time.  This means you need to think about various activities you do as potentials for networking and marketing, and thus dual-purpose as many activities as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some quick and easy things are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  An email signature which markets your services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Recreational tech stuff (slashdot, etc) with signatures that link back to your site.  Same with other forums.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  If you can take up blogging as a way of both helping customers and marketing yourself, even better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The next part is to weave marketing into the rest of your customer interactions.  For example, the open source development work I do on [LedgerSMB](http://www.ledgersmb.org) is all effectively marketing, but it is also R&amp;D.  (See how easy that was?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Edit:  In case you missed it, making sure I put the link to LedgerSMB in the post here is an example of this dual purpose.  I am making a point, being specific about what I am doing, and now if you hadn't heard of LedgerSMB before, now you have.  Maybe some of you use the open source software, and maybe even at some point refer business to me.  But hey, if not, at least I get upvotes, right?)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="220" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="104" RevisionGUID="ebd65f1d-9e53-45be-8dcc-7d1a2c10dded" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:30:15.330" UserId="47" Text="I've been considering starting my own company or doing some freelance work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've heard through mainstream media that copyright law affects lots and lots of different types of work, especially the kind of creative work that I'm considering doing as a freelancer, but I really don't understand it all very well. It seems hopelessly complex to me. In the USA, I guess I have to register my work with the Library of Congress or the US Register of Copyrights or something in order to be able to own the copyright in my work, but I'm really not sure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any definitive source that I can go to for trying to get a better understanding of copyright law? If so, please answer with specifics." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="221" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="104" RevisionGUID="ebd65f1d-9e53-45be-8dcc-7d1a2c10dded" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:30:15.330" UserId="47" Text="How to learn copyright laws affecting freelancers and self-employed people" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="222" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="104" RevisionGUID="ebd65f1d-9e53-45be-8dcc-7d1a2c10dded" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:30:15.330" UserId="47" Text="|legal|usa|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="223" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="105" RevisionGUID="ff84d3af-44f6-408f-92a0-2159759756ac" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:30:15.330" UserId="47" Text="In fact, unless contracts specify otherwise, you own the copyright in almost (fashion is one exception in the USA; all clothing exists completely outside the bounds of all US copyright legislation) anything you create immediately upon &quot;putting pen to paper,&quot; so-to-speak. This is true even if you never publish your creation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to pursue litigation in federal court (this is where copyright suits are argued in the USA, at the typical price of $60,000 per day for a typical 2.5 week trial), then you will need to first register your work with the US Register of Copyrights before filing suit, but you still technically &quot;own&quot; the copyright in your creations regardless of whether or not you register them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And the matter of the *date* of registration of your creations also affects the damages you are allowed to claim in court if you allege infringement. In particular, if the alleged infringement occurred before you registered your work with the copyright office, then your allowable damages are smaller than if the alleged infringement occurred after you registered your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Aside from [Title 17 of the US Code][1] (of which the US Register of Copyrights testified two months ago before Congress that it, &quot;...[needs an army of lawyers to understand][2]...&quot;), [Nimmer][3] (which can be had for the low, low price of $2,623.00) is widely regarded as the definitive legal interpretation regarding copyright law. If that's too rich for your blood, then the best alternative for understanding copyright law is to spend many hours watching and listening to Harvard Law School Professor Terry Fisher scratch the surface of the subject in his 12-week CopyrightX MOOC, recently completed on edX.org and also available universally [here][4]. There's also a great deal of what he thinks are the best judicial opinions to read for trying to understand this phenomenally complex subject and 6 special events featuring speakers such as [Harvard's Professor Larry Lessig who spoke very convincingly and publicly in February 2013 about &quot;Dumb Copyright&quot;][5] in the aftermath of Aaron Swartz' January suicide. Professor Lessig begins speaking here at minute mark 09:05.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Compared with Nimmer, the CopyrightX MOOC is at just the right price: zero, zilch, nada, nothing. Pretty good value for anyone who wants to learn about copyright law as it relates to freelance creative work. Professor Fisher also talks (though less extensively) about copyright law in other nations than just the USA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.copyright.gov/title17/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.copyright.gov/regstat/2013/regstat03202013.html&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.lexisnexis.com/store/catalog/booktemplate/productdetail.jsp?pageName=relatedProducts&amp;prodId=10441&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/tfisher/CopyrightX_Homepage.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2013/02/lessig-chair-lecture-aarons-laws.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="224" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="53" RevisionGUID="7c6b9662-5641-4448-96e0-67ee1e15bd24" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:31:00.683" UserId="60" Comment="added 335 characters in body" Text="I prefer not to ask for more money on fixed bids with fixed scope.  What I will do is put the additional hours on the invoice and mark them as discounted 100%.  I have occasionally had customers offer to pay for those though it is the exception rather than the rule.  I would rather charge a higher rate that allows me to eat some extra cost and lose some competitiveness there, than lose it when I go back for more money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have had $10k projects that went on for 4 months when I expected to finish them in a month before.  That's unfortunate but it happens occasionally.  What you hope is that you are charging enough elsewhere to cover when it does.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a further note, I typically bid on fixed bids somewhere between 1.5 and 2x what I would expect to make hourly.  This is to cover risk.  Most of the time I could have done things cheaper hourly, but when a project hits big walls, it means I can afford to keep to my initial quote, knowing I will make back up the money elsewhere.  Think of it as like insurance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="225" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="106" RevisionGUID="8a51951f-37cc-47dd-a50e-9dd691b386cf" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:33:12.960" UserId="85" Text="HMRC consider the City to be a single location.  In fact, the rule is considered to apply where the journey to work is broadly the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; This rule is modified where the employee works at a succession of&#xD;&#xA;&gt; workplaces but the change of workplace has no substantial effect on&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the employee's journey to work. All such workplaces are treated as the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; same workplace for the purpose of the legislation&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See [HMRC's Status Manual][1] for more info&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case, assuming your journey is via rail then underground into zone 1, then the existing interpretation suggests a single continuing period, irrespective as to your exact destination.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, the 24 month rule only applies if you spend more than 40% of your working time on that site (or collection of neighbouring sites).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/eim32080.htm" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="226" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="107" RevisionGUID="cf0b7d08-225a-482e-9346-450147d5c69a" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:36:34.613" UserId="61" Text="&quot;Raise&quot; is a term for full-time employees, whose salary depends on other factors (e.g., years served, position, etc), not actually on amount and quality of work done (don't kill me, there are many exceptions here).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being a freelancer, you are most likely bound with terms of a certain agreement. Any amendments to that document are subject of a mutual agreement. You haven't specified **why** are you willing for &quot;raise&quot;. As I said, years served is not an argument for freelance job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finding the Right Arguments&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;So, let me theorize and look in what situations you may require for &lt;s&gt;raise&lt;/s&gt; review of the contract terms. In any case, you should bring those arguments to a meeting and **mutually agree** on any contract changes. See below what if your changes are rejected.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  * The most common thing that happens very often for Fixed Price projects is **changed scope**. Your initial agreement should have a section for this matter and any additional work (outside the original scope) should be a subject of an addendum to your main contract. It's hard to do for the first time, but when you manage to do it once you will see how many problems you have solved.&#xD;&#xA;  * Also, on Fixed Price projects, the amount of work may change dramatically due to other reasons. It may be lower quality of dependency product (say, a third-party program library is working worse than expected, and you are having hard time fighting with the library's bugs). Gather any evidences, make your new estimate, and bring it to a meeting.&#xD;&#xA;  * On a Time-and-Materials project, you are actually selling your time. Its cost may vary. When? For instance, if you realize that you are doing more qualified work than expected before. You may split your invoice into *two positions*: normal work you have agreed initially to do (at normal rate) and another work based on a different rate. If it's rejected, you may reject to do a qualified part, but remember that **doing a more qualified work is your ticket to the future**. So try not just to throw it away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During a Meeting&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;So you have your arguments and you have scheduled a meeting for changes. What's now?  &#xD;&#xA;Don't panic. You, as well as your client, are willing to get the job done with best possible quality and at lowest possible cost. If you are not just asking something for yourself, but instead demonstrate that you two are &quot;on the same boat&quot;, struggling with the same problems, your client will be much more compliant to your requests and suggestions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Possible Outcomes&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, you are an independent business entity. You take full responsibility on any consequences happened due to your decisions. **As well as your client!** If you suggested a contract change and they rejected it, you actually have two ways:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Complete what you have signed for, at your cost (and get some reputation);&#xD;&#xA;2. Cancel the contract (and lose cancellation fees).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**In any case, remember that reputation is the hardest to earn and easiest to lose.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="227" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="11" RevisionGUID="9aa80ce5-e43f-4773-9cd7-aecf309bc122" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:37:44.430" UserId="-1" Comment="3" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Luke&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Hiroto&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:19,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Camil Staps&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:66,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;NullPoiиteя&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:61,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;bytebuster&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="228" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="108" RevisionGUID="d6f0550b-9a82-4b1a-be99-09e5328c3640" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:42:22.547" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="229" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="109" RevisionGUID="cee3657b-e05d-4060-977a-de60a247513c" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:42:22.547" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="230" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="103" RevisionGUID="9bcdc0c9-e5aa-473f-bf5f-569bba176cfe" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:42:53.113" UserId="61" Comment="edited tags" Text="|client|changes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="231" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="110" RevisionGUID="b8884e86-048f-4375-8500-a5ceabaebc06" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:44:04.667" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="232" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="111" RevisionGUID="d14b5f1b-d08b-4e55-8a2a-1ed65ef730a8" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:44:04.667" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="233" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="32" RevisionGUID="7ed5e936-2a56-4dd5-9e46-e4492d2db67b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:46:07.107" UserId="-1" Comment="2" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Hiroto&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:61,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;bytebuster&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:66,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;NullPoiиteя&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="234" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="96" RevisionGUID="b9af6879-04cf-4096-83cb-1f3b110ef6f7" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:46:46.623" UserId="-1" Comment="3" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Luke&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:19,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Camil Staps&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:61,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;bytebuster&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="235" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="112" RevisionGUID="b84c055e-7985-4135-a776-f345a33bc857" CreationDate="2013-05-22T06:53:00.323" UserId="60" Text="How to learn copyright law....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a long-term open source software developer, I have to say one never really stops learning copyright law.  There are however some very basic things to be aware of.  There are even questions which have not been definitively answered, such as whether or when `#include &lt;headerfile.h&gt;` can ever lead to the copyright holder of headerfile.h having a say in the code that merely includes the headerfile for functional reasons.  Sometimes we do get lucky and get answers from the court (see the recent `Kirtseang v. Wiley` where the Supreme Court held that foreign first sales are first sales under US copyright law, an opinion that did not sway the whole court however).  More often we don't (if I link to GNU Readline at runtime only, does the GPL govern my work?).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first is that everywhere copyright seeks to strike a balance between works being publicly available and encouraging their creation.  The lines are not always exact.  In the US for example, a bunch of data collected in a database is not generally protected, but the selection, arrangement, and layout of recipes in a cookbook is (even though the individual recipes are not protected).  In the UK the data in a database may be subject to copyright but if I assemble the same data in a new data I am in the clear as long as I collected it myself.  This is an example of differing lines and how both seek to balance the same two interests but end up doing so differently.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second thing is that one or two sources are never going to get you far enough to really understand it.  For the US, you can start with the [Copyright Office](http://www.copyright.gov), but that doesn't give you more than a very brief overview.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So beyond that, another thing you can do is read important caselaw.  These are important because they give you a sense of what judges are thinking the laws mean.  Important cases in the US include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Universal Studios v. Reimerdes (2nd circuit, holding that although software was free speech, the DMCA could prohibit links to DeCSS)&#xD;&#xA; - MGM v. Grokster (Supreme Court, holding that a company may be held liable for infringement by customers where they market infringing uses of their products)&#xD;&#xA; - Sony v. Universal Studios, Supreme Court, holding that a business is not liable for infringement by customers due to mere infringing capability of their products if they have substantial non-infringing uses&#xD;&#xA; - Sony v. Connectix, 9th Circuit, holding that reverse engineering is fair use, and that copying in order to reverse engineer is fair use.&#xD;&#xA; - Lexmark v. Static Control, 6th Circuit, holding that copyright does not extend to components needed to make interoperable printer cartridges.&#xD;&#xA; - Kirtsaeng v. Wiley, holding that a foreign first sale can and in most cases will, count as a first sale for copyright purposes in the US.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Beyond that start following legal blogs covering copyright issues, preferably those with multiple viewpoints so you aren't just buying an agenda.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, whenever you are concerned, hire a lawyer.  Treat the lawyer as a consultant.  Don't be shy when asking questions.  After all part of what you are paying him for is to help you understand." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="236" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="113" RevisionGUID="0f801e1e-64a6-4b6c-8135-5d48e3b75628" CreationDate="2013-05-22T07:01:54.867" UserId="88" Text="I am creating an online education portal for a client who pays on time and likes the work which I'm doing but after a day he says _&quot;Hey, I liked the work you did to the ABC section but after discussing with my partner/adviser I realized that without XYZ, ABC would not look nice and much functional.&quot;_&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; Let me explain one situation- The website has a forum. The full layout of the forum was discussed and approved with the client before the starting of the project. Now when it has been created, he says to add a star-rating system in every comment. Now I have to create another module for this which will consume extra time and effort without money.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;So, how do I deal with this type of clients such that they are satisfied as well as I get paid well?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="237" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="113" RevisionGUID="0f801e1e-64a6-4b6c-8135-5d48e3b75628" CreationDate="2013-05-22T07:01:54.867" UserId="88" Text="How to deal with 'Scope Creep'?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="238" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="113" RevisionGUID="0f801e1e-64a6-4b6c-8135-5d48e3b75628" CreationDate="2013-05-22T07:01:54.867" UserId="88" Text="|client|scope-creep|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="239" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="114" RevisionGUID="c50803e9-8c61-4a21-b19a-ab3d29ee5e6e" CreationDate="2013-05-22T07:06:22.740" UserId="60" Text="I send them a bid for additional work.  &quot;Sure we can do that.  It will cost $x more.  Would you like me to get started?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The basic point is that you are the expert in your work, and in your business.  The customer is the expert in what the customer needs.  What you are doing by treating the change request as an RFQ (Request for Quotation) is to push back and protect your own investment while leaving yourself open to do what the customer needs done if they need it that badly.   Now I have been known to just do it when the amount of work isn;t very large.  But when it is more than a small change, or if it is happening frequently, then I start using it as a negotiating point for more money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is also important because it puts your business in a more positive/professional light, while still respecting your customer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="240" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="115" RevisionGUID="e392d216-19dc-4115-8b8f-1b0c7f389bfa" CreationDate="2013-05-22T07:11:28.510" UserId="60" Text="This is always a business decision.  As a general rule I fix bugs and the like free of charge.  I offer a one year warranty on bugs and so forth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will also throw in small changes free of charge (without promising customers this upfront) when it seems like a good idea given the general relationship with the customer.  Maybe the customer badly misunderstood some requirements but the change isn't invasive, and I like working with this customer.  I may throw it in free of charge just as a nice gesture.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The thing though is that in general you should make your free change promises as *limited* as you can.  When you decide to go beyond that, you should be the one to look generous, going beyond what you promised.  It's always easier to say &quot;you know what?  I will even do that free of charge!&quot; than it is to say, &quot;well, this is getting annoying, so more help will be paid.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="241" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="98" RevisionGUID="e744f92e-04d4-48bc-bbe4-90ce15f9b78f" CreationDate="2013-05-22T07:22:24.093" UserDisplayName="user19" Comment="Removed useless text" Text="While reading the title I thought you meant programming language and was about to edit the title.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think even in Denmark, English is a must. That's also the case for &quot;bigger European countries&quot;. As a matter of fact, in the IT-World it is the *de facto* language. Without you won't go far.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a plus to English the native language (or at least enough of it to have a chit-chat with your coworker) is surely highly appreciated. So, even if you don't speak Danish now, learn some useful phrases and after a couple of months you'll be fluent enough." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="242" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="98" RevisionGUID="e744f92e-04d4-48bc-bbe4-90ce15f9b78f" CreationDate="2013-05-22T07:22:24.093" Comment="Proposed by 19 approved by 79 edit id of 22" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="243" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="116" RevisionGUID="8cd37547-93a0-43d3-9087-85a76056d113" CreationDate="2013-05-22T07:31:12.967" UserId="43" Text="There are a couple of approaches you can take here. One is to make sure that you've built some contingency into the price that you agree with the client, on the assumption that they will inevitably want to make changes and enhancements once the site has started to take shape. That's an inevitable part of building a website unfortunately. Even if you go down the route of planning everything up front down to the minutest detail, there will still be features that hadn't been thought of or enhancements that need to be made.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other approach is to be very up front and honest about the scope that will be delivered at the agreed cost. Anything above and beyond that would trigger a change request, which has its own associated cost. It's important to agree this situation and the cost associated with the change requests before you start the project so that the client understands the implication of changing their mind ad-hoc and they don't feel like you've got them over a barrel when they ask for legitimate changes. In your case you could try negotiating a fee for this change but it would need to be handled delicately so as not to incur bad feeling." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="244" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="113" RevisionGUID="4af92bd7-dbf1-417d-9e9f-400601435da8" CreationDate="2013-05-22T07:31:44.750" UserId="88" Comment="Added more detail" Text="I am creating an online education portal for a client who pays on time and likes the work which I'm doing but after a day he says _&quot;Hey, I liked the work you did to the ABC section but after discussing with my partner/adviser I realized that without XYZ, ABC would not look nice and much functional.&quot;_&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; Let me explain one situation- The website has a forum. The full layout of the forum was discussed and approved with the client before the starting of the project. Now when it has been created, he says to add a star-rating system in every comment. Now I have to create another module for this which will consume extra time and effort without money as this is a fixed-cost project.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;So, how do I deal with this type of clients such that they are satisfied as well as I get paid well?&lt;br&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="245" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="117" RevisionGUID="84027d8f-2a59-450e-9f10-55ce2d52e70f" CreationDate="2013-05-22T07:32:04.483" UserId="94" Text="I would get a scope of some form in writing that both parties can agree to, even just a bulleted list of what a feature or job will contain.  Give a limited flexibility on changing features within that list but anything new that isn't in the list is a new job and would require a new quote.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would always be wary of even great clients that do this too much as it sets a precedent and it can be difficult to break. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Set the ground rules up front and it will save you pain down the road" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="249" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="119" RevisionGUID="bc29becd-042b-4585-9dd9-e4cd475d353e" CreationDate="2013-05-22T08:02:44.017" UserId="88" Text="Advertising has a lot of effect in attracting big clients to a business. Is there a way (conventional or unconventional) to advertise myself as a freelancer so that I can attract good clients and bigger projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note:** No answers should be related to any freelancing sites." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="250" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="119" RevisionGUID="bc29becd-042b-4585-9dd9-e4cd475d353e" CreationDate="2013-05-22T08:02:44.017" UserId="88" Text="How can I advertise myself?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="251" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="119" RevisionGUID="bc29becd-042b-4585-9dd9-e4cd475d353e" CreationDate="2013-05-22T08:02:44.017" UserId="88" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="252" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="120" RevisionGUID="e9731538-abd8-470a-9054-5750f7fb6379" CreationDate="2013-05-22T08:09:44.863" UserId="43" Text="The best tool that you can have to market yourself to potential clients is a professional website that showcases your talents, with a blog so that you can write about your chosen area of expertise and/or a portfolio that highlights current and previous projects of note.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It also helps to make good use of social media sites - ensure that your LinkedIn profile is up-to-date and network as much as possible, cultivate a following on Twitter, create a Facebook page for your company, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any one of these approaches will be a big help, but ideally you should be using all of them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="253" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="121" RevisionGUID="9a080871-b231-4cc6-85ea-cabf99c9413b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T08:23:59.480" UserId="85" Text="While a glossy brochure or professional website will all help to an extent, the best tool is reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Word of mouth counts for more, and is more likely to be successful, than a high ranking on Google.  Likewise good networking helps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A strong social media following is an indicator, and many clients will check the obvious ones; but word of mouth and previous customer feedback makes for the best advertising." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="256" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="120" RevisionGUID="14ba7be6-8fa4-4270-96ba-ca903fc1a5f1" CreationDate="2013-05-22T08:45:02.417" UserId="43" Comment="deleted 14 characters in body" Text="An important tool to market yourself to potential clients is a professional website that showcases your talents, with a blog so that you can write about your chosen area of expertise and/or a portfolio that highlights current and previous projects of note.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It also helps to make good use of social media sites - ensure that your LinkedIn profile is up-to-date and network as much as possible, cultivate a following on Twitter, create a Facebook page for your company, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any one of these approaches will be a big help, but ideally you should be using all of them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="257" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="121" RevisionGUID="973bdeb5-a9d8-41e2-a4e6-b9821e8d0117" CreationDate="2013-05-22T08:58:27.890" UserId="85" Comment="added 444 characters in body" Text="While a glossy brochure or professional website will all help to an extent, the best tool is reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Word of mouth counts for more, and is more likely to be successful, than a high ranking on Google.  Likewise good networking helps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A strong social media following is an indicator, and many clients will check the obvious ones; but word of mouth and previous customer feedback makes for the best advertising.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;And picking up on @levelnis comment... I agree:  A long time a go, in another place, I wrote an article titled *The Little Things In Business* which ended with the observation that *you never know which straw finally breaks the camel's back, but throwing on another bale will not hurt* (or something to that effect).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No positive advertising is a waste. So make sure you do the little things well, as well as the big things." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="258" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="34" RevisionGUID="16b7006a-cc70-48db-bcf1-ecba709f93f7" CreationDate="2013-05-22T09:07:04.830" UserId="85" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|expenses|uk|travel|hmrc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="259" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="122" RevisionGUID="eea748ed-813c-48e0-9c1c-fcaf6ba74da3" CreationDate="2013-05-22T09:08:59.390" UserId="102" Text="I would advise following approach:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) **Define the scope of the work** (which means &quot;what will be delivered&quot;). With ongoing project like this you wont be able (most likely) to do it retrospectively (because you definitely do not want to damage your good relationship with the client), but you can do it with new request - describe your solution (i.e. module, that will have following functions and settings: &lt;here goes your list&gt;, admin will interact with it this way: &lt;description of admin gui&gt; and users will interact with it this way &lt;user gui&gt; )&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) **Define, what is not in scope** - this is actually very important, because many future enhancements you can expect (based on your expertise) and you can decide with the client if they are in the scope or not. The change in that decision later is clearly cahnge request and you will have less difficult negotiations to cope with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) When you hit grey area like you just described, ask the client to pay, but first tell him what the change means for you. Imagine talking like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You: &quot;You are asking me to add feature XYZ. That is reasonable, but since it was not described in the original request, it will cost me XY hours of work. Would you be willing to pay the work please?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;Client: &quot;But we agreed fixed price for the solution, you should calculate in unexpected changes like this&quot;&#xD;&#xA;You: &quot; Not everything can be calculated in advance. You have formal right do demand this feature as part of solution, but understand that if you force me to do it for free, it will have impact on the speed and quality - I will be forced to do it as quickly as possible so I wont loose much money on that. In the end, it will harm us both, please reconsider...&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And so on. In the end, if the client is honest and not just trying to take advantage of you, you will arrive to compromise and you will get at least some money for extra work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he will rip you off, you know that you have to be strictly formal next time not giving him any chances (and maybe not giving him your best, because that is reserved for clients who appreciate your work and are honest with you)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="260" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="56" RevisionGUID="80f83b66-4c9f-49df-80d3-3fc71b805b30" CreationDate="2013-05-22T09:17:33.573" UserId="-1" Comment="3" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Hiroto&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:61,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;bytebuster&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:96,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;kolin&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:94,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;fullybaked&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="261" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="123" RevisionGUID="26ea3080-49fb-457a-92cf-bcf5f5718e2a" CreationDate="2013-05-22T09:20:47.057" UserId="102" Text="I would definitely advise you to start building reputation. You can usually link to your blog or web from freelancing sites. And that should contain free know-how, that will show that you know your stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can describe tricky challenges you solved with attention to quality of the app or reusability. You can demonstrate that you do take into account user experience when designing a piece of software. You can put your certficates on display.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you have this, you can start actively looking for work. There are sites where you can find inquiries for services (companies describing the request and asking suppliers to contact them with their offer). You can approach companies directly with suggestions how you can help them (backed up by evidence - you should have that as &quot;senior&quot;) When you strike a deal and complete the work properly, ask the client to rate you and give you testimonials - preferably on sites where you are looking for work, but personal or email testimonials which you can display on your site are very valuable too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you will focus on doing this all the way, things will start to move in the right direction at one point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT: Just expect that it will take some time. Building reputation is a process. And it never ends, if you want to stay in the business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="262" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="124" RevisionGUID="a4ee5ea6-fd66-48bb-92a3-95ae1dc2eab3" CreationDate="2013-05-22T09:25:19.180" UserId="85" Text="If you believe the *Single European Market* propaganda, you would be right to believe that a company incorporated in any EU state can undertake work in any other EU state - in which case LUX (or EI, NL) may be the answer to your question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, the SEM is rarely straightforward in practice, and I know from first hand experience that using your own contractor company in Germany (even if incorporated in DE) is quite tricky as you have to comply with the various labour laws. This can make it non-viable, and most contractors end up working via management companies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In terms of tax, there is a major difference between tax residence and tax domicile - so even if you register your company (domicile) in (eg) LUX it may be resident in multiple countries simultaneously.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to take proper legal advice..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="263" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="124" RevisionGUID="13e7de1f-3559-4e56-ba28-3d07ed968377" CreationDate="2013-05-22T09:32:46.477" UserId="85" Comment="added 16 characters in body" Text="If you believe the *Single European Market* propaganda, you would be right to believe that a company incorporated in any EU state can undertake work in any other EU state - in which case LUX (or EI, NL) may be the answer to your question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, the SEM is rarely straightforward in practice, and I know from first hand experience that using your own contractor company in Germany (even if incorporated in DE, never mind LUX) is quite tricky as you have to comply with the various labour laws. This can make it non-viable, and most contractors end up working via management companies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In terms of tax, there is a major difference between tax residence and tax domicile - so even if you register your company (domicile) in (eg) LUX it may be resident in multiple countries simultaneously.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to take proper legal advice..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="264" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="125" RevisionGUID="79ce47fe-75b7-449e-b75f-62074d7a17d3" CreationDate="2013-05-22T09:34:33.930" UserId="102" Text="You should always aggree on the scope of work (what is in the scope and even more importantly - explicitly describe what is not in the scope). This benefits both you and the client, so first red flag is when client is trying to avoid commitment to agreed scope, trying to change it or trying to have it only as verbal agreement (not part of the contract). If you cant get him sign anything, assume your final stance and dont back off. The client will either come to his senses or loose interest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When something like that happens in the middle of project, ask yourself: &quot;Is this worth the money I am getting?&quot;. You are freelancing for a reason - you want freedom and hapiness. If the project prevents this, force the contract into closure. If there are no penalties for termination, just do it and find yourself better client. If there are fines, just work only as hard as the pay justifies. If you get silly demands, just reject them politely. If you get stressed by communication, say it to the client and ask him/her to call you when he/she made up his mind. Client wont like it much, but in my experience people like that will always find a reason why they shouldnt be satisfied. Only thing you CAN influence is your own sense of standing up to your own standards - being proffesional, polite and deliver work you are paid for in high quality." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="265" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="126" RevisionGUID="79d97423-2cb5-457e-8bb2-41541d3c976c" CreationDate="2013-05-22T09:37:38.853" UserId="100" Text="As a self-employed person working for a client (e.g. creating a website), you have a [bus factor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor) of 1:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The bus factor is the total number of key developers who would need to be incapacitated (as by getting hit by a bus/truck) to send the project into such disarray that it would not be able to proceed; the project would retain information (such as source code) with which no remaining team member is familiar.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If *something* happens to you, the client might have a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* The work might not be finished. What if the client already (part) paid for it? What if the client hasn’t yet received login passwords etc.?&#xD;&#xA;* The work might be finished. What if the project is so complex that the client can’t simply hand it over to someone else? What if the website runs on your server? What if you registered the domain?&#xD;&#xA;* You may have signed a NDA. What if your heirs stumble upon sensitive data of your client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can we prepare for it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="266" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="126" RevisionGUID="79d97423-2cb5-457e-8bb2-41541d3c976c" CreationDate="2013-05-22T09:37:38.853" UserId="100" Text="How can we prepare for &quot;getting hit by a bus&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="267" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="126" RevisionGUID="79d97423-2cb5-457e-8bb2-41541d3c976c" CreationDate="2013-05-22T09:37:38.853" UserId="100" Text="|client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="268" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="127" RevisionGUID="3a0caed0-41fc-4281-b29a-306d0b8d0272" CreationDate="2013-05-22T09:45:34.377" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="269" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="128" RevisionGUID="6b54c799-4be1-47bb-a357-10255884786c" CreationDate="2013-05-22T09:45:34.377" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="271" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="129" RevisionGUID="a9fa0048-a880-4497-a4e7-292670827430" CreationDate="2013-05-22T09:56:26.027" UserId="95" Text="I need to improve my ability to avoid clients that can be considered bad for my activity. I'm a freelance developer, started over 20 years ago. So I'm asking you (developer or not) what are your top 3 considerations that you keep in mind whan a new client knocks on the door.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(I'm wondering why my previous question about the same topic has been downvoted with comments regarding the Q&amp;A violations &quot;it an open question&quot;. I see a lot of &quot;How to?&quot; questions around here and all of them can be considered as open question. Please, explain)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="272" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="129" RevisionGUID="a9fa0048-a880-4497-a4e7-292670827430" CreationDate="2013-05-22T09:56:26.027" UserId="95" Text="Top 3 things to avoid when accepting a new client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="273" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="129" RevisionGUID="a9fa0048-a880-4497-a4e7-292670827430" CreationDate="2013-05-22T09:56:26.027" UserId="95" Text="|client|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="274" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="130" RevisionGUID="6ef648da-7ac1-4928-a3cc-803a13131345" CreationDate="2013-05-22T09:57:47.913" UserId="60" Text="A few words of advice from someone who has been self-employed for a long time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First advertising is effective to the extent people knew about you before, unless you have very well-targeted advertising.  When I started out, I spent a fair bit on advertising but the only thing that got me a return on investment was, believe, radio advertisement aimed at individuals and small businesses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand my initial PR efforts made me a lot of initial customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**First: Work on your presence**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So before you start advertising yourself, you want to improve your presence generally.  You get out of this (and the resulting advertisement) what you put into it.  If radio stations offer a package for an interview and advertising (if you are trying to reach end users) this may be helpful.  Talk to them.  If you are involved in open source projects with reasonable profiles, work on making sure you are known there.  For example I do a lot of PostgreSQL-related [blogging](http://ledgersmbdev.blogspot.com/) because that drives traffic to [LedgerSMB.org](http://www.ledgersmb.org), and then when people start using that software, I am usually the first person they come to looking for support.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Next, how does your advertising fit into this?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Advertising, done well, is a way of supporting this presence-building effort.  It is not the entire effort, or even the central aspect of it.  It is instead how you build that last piece in.  When I go to conventions I look carefully at the target audience, and I divide my advertising into three sections:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  What will get people to stop and talk to me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  What can I give them when they do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  What can I given them beyond that which may drive business later?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example when I went to the Malaysia Government Open Source Convention a couple years ago, I put a *lot* of effort into my marketing and it paid off.  First I offered to make my booth available for marketing PostgreSQL as a database (and thus I got support from the PostgreSQL community including marketing material).  Then I selected marketing material there specific to governmental use.  Then I put together the LedgerSMB stuff that I figured I could give out separately if the chance arose.   Unfortunately I made a critical error[1] and so I missed the major target market *but* I did get significant interest and traction and I got two smaller gigs from peripheral markets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So this material I would give away were the advertising materials.  Some of which I prepared (glossy fliers) and some were prepared by others (success stories about the French government's use of PostgreSQL).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;None of this would have worked if I was not reasonably well known in the PostgreSQL community.  I thus basically took my presence and I build advertising around it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Putting it all together**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Classic, traditional advertising materials are relatively helpful once people know who you are, or once they get to meet you.  Advertising thus works better for larger companies who already have brand recognition than it does smaller businesses. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, as a freelancer or consultant, one of the best things you can do is create original content which showcases your knowledge.  You can then reference this in advertising materials and incorporate what you can do into them.  Remember, you are not selling yourself so much as what you can do, and nothing shows what you can do like what you have done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your existing presence and reputation is the foundation on which you build your advertising.  The advertising then further boosts the presence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]  The Malaysian Government wants to deal with Malaysian-owned businesses.  I should have come in partnering with an existing local business already but instead I came in by myself." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="275" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="131" RevisionGUID="bbc7d3aa-adac-4ef1-aa3f-3d4f6da69736" CreationDate="2013-05-22T09:59:30.437" UserId="85" Text="In the case of a fixed price contract, then the clue is in the name - the price is fixed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you don't say is why the project has not completed in the allotted time, although the inference is that you estimated incorrectly? If this is the case, then (regretfully) it's down to you, and therefore your loss.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If, however, the cause was scope-creep, or requirements have changed, then you are justified in asking for an increment to cover the additional work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, it may be a combination of the two, in which case, negotiate." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="276" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="126" RevisionGUID="a371e617-41c4-43c8-a437-5f2a6a1681aa" CreationDate="2013-05-22T10:02:49.903" UserId="100" Comment="added 32 characters in body" Text="As a self-employed person working for a client (e.g. creating a website), you have a [bus factor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor) of 1:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The bus factor is the total number of key developers who would need to be incapacitated (as by getting hit by a bus/truck) to send the project into such disarray that it would not be able to proceed; the project would retain information (such as source code) with which no remaining team member is familiar.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If *something* happens to you, the client might have a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* The work might not be finished. What if the client already (part) paid for it? What if the client hasn’t yet received login passwords etc.?&#xD;&#xA;* The work might be finished. What if the project is so complex that the client can’t simply hand it over to someone else? What if the website runs on your server? What if you registered the domain?&#xD;&#xA;* You may have signed a NDA. What if your heirs stumble upon sensitive data of your client?&#xD;&#xA;* *(… What else to consider?)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can we prepare for it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="277" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="132" RevisionGUID="26d1a2d9-f5bc-4d93-8ffd-b24f87ffe0ed" CreationDate="2013-05-22T10:03:43.077" UserId="60" Text="1.  If the client doesn't respect me during the bidding process, the client is not worth the trouble.  So drama during the bidding process is a huge red flag.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  If the client doesn't know what they want, their business model is implausible, or if they seem to have unrealistic expectations that is a huge red flag for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  If the client is overly disorganized, and business processes are a mess, chances are other problems will occur as time goes on." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="278" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="133" RevisionGUID="75550e97-e58b-478b-8b89-bacf22d30559" CreationDate="2013-05-22T10:04:36.970" UserId="43" Text="Without wanting to sound too cut throat about it, I would say that this is firmly the client's problem and not yours. It is in their interest to ensure that they have source code in a location that they can get hold of it and that they have full access to everything that they require to access the system. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're concerned about this and want to show due diligence towards your client in regards to it, you could make use of one of the cloud platforms, such as Amazon Web Services or Windows Azure, to host the website, and ensure that someone within the client's organisation has login details. Likewise you can use a cloud source control provider such as Bitbucket to ensure that they can access the source code at any time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is unfortunately a risk in any organisation that relies on a single individual to build a website/software system." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="279" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="134" RevisionGUID="aeaf4290-10dc-4f97-acea-aedf5a57ee70" CreationDate="2013-05-22T10:07:16.857" UserId="85" Text="&gt; I don't think I'm allowed to charge myself my hourly rate as an expense&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No!  Well, not necessarily... if you run your business as a company, then you could bill the company for your time, but you would have to account for that personally; if you are (as tagged) self-employed then it is more clear - the payment would count as Drawings (ie post tax)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; would it actually pay me to get someone else to maintain and develop my site just for the tax-break?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless I'm missing a nuance, you gain a tax deduction on allowable expenditure - and such expenditure has to be incurred.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So it seems a little strange to spend £x unnecessarily so that you can deduct 20% of £x from your tax bill.  You're still 80% of £x down on the deal!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, if you can use the time you would spend on the website in revenue generating work (and the revenue generated exceeds the cost of sub-contracting the website) then that would make sense." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="280" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="132" RevisionGUID="6b6cec97-dfd0-4c53-add3-b9f09c2b11cf" CreationDate="2013-05-22T10:11:15.703" UserId="60" Comment="added 702 characters in body" Text="**If the client doesn't respect me during the bidding process, the client is not worth the trouble.**  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Drama during the bidding process is a huge red flag.  In general drama in the bidding process is a sign to walk away and not even bid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Chances are, if the project starts off this way, it will be stressful all the way through and everyone will end up unhappy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If the client doesn't know what they want, their business model is implausible, or if they seem to have unrealistic expectations that is a huge red flag for me.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In each of these cases, the customer is likely to have expectations which cannot be met, and the project will end up in the swamps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If the client is overly disorganized, and business processes are a mess, chances are other problems will occur as time goes on.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now this one may be more specific for me since I am [automating business processes](http://www.ledgersmb.org), but the principle can generalize out a bit.  Software supports business processes, not the other way around.  You don't want to automate bad business processes, design a spiffy website around an unclear message, or  the like.  In these cases everyone will leave unhappy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="281" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="135" RevisionGUID="3e384fe9-ce59-4493-93d6-73ba4b0c3fe6" CreationDate="2013-05-22T10:18:14.233" UserId="60" Text="The best thing is to have a network of other professionals who the client knows they can hire if they don't like you or something happens to you.  In my business, I am the most active developer on [LedgerSMB](http://www.ledgersmb.org), but we are a multi-vendor solution and if clients want to fire me there are more options on the web site, clients can look through the email archives for ideas on who to approach or the like.  I am generally pretty confident that if I get hit by a bus, we are to the point where the client can find others who can ramp up to speed relatively quickly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="282" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="129" RevisionGUID="27669706-8b46-4dfb-a075-6b4e8ac100ee" CreationDate="2013-05-22T10:21:51.217" UserId="60" Comment="edited to make less open-ended" Text="I need to improve my ability to avoid clients that can be considered bad for my activity. I'm a freelance developer, started over 20 years ago. So I'm asking you (developer or not) what are the top 3 considerations that you keep in mind when a new client knocks on the door.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short how do I know when a customer is not worth my while?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="283" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="129" RevisionGUID="27669706-8b46-4dfb-a075-6b4e8ac100ee" CreationDate="2013-05-22T10:21:51.217" Comment="Proposed by 60 approved by 95 edit id of 28" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="284" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="136" RevisionGUID="b7fbec08-5f46-4138-ad21-c8b900bd28e1" CreationDate="2013-05-22T10:23:53.477" UserId="105" Text="I'm in web development myself, my answers:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If money seems to be the only important thing, or you're being compared to India**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've frequently had discussions with potential customers that in the end boiled down to that they didn't like our rates, either because *&quot;competitor X is 10% cheaper&quot;* or *&quot;I could outsource this to India for half your price&quot;*. On both cases I move into arrogant mode, and ask whether they like to invest in top quality for a high rate, or low quality at half the rate, taking twice as long to not deliver what you want. Never, ever, get into a bidding war with these customers if you don't absolutely need **them**, believe in your product and let them decide whether to choose end product quality over a bit of discount or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Same goes for if the client is requesting offers from more than 2 competitors - that's an absolute red flag for me. I've heard customers tell me they requested 9 offers, but no one can evaluate that many offers on quality. Customers like that only care about the price, so they'll be whining about every invoice you'll ever send.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you don't believe in the client's business**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't think they have a chance to succeed, you should be honest about that. If they can't convince you otherwise then, steer clear. Don't ruin your own reputation by becoming the guy that *'ruined a company by sending them invoice after invoice for a failed product'*. They *will* try to blame you for *their* failure, it's human nature.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If the client has no technical knowledge whatsoever**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, this means fighting about every invoice if they don't understand the complexities of the product. Customers like this only see that Facebook works, not the thousands of man hours involved, and will expect you to replicate that in a few days *'because you know this kind of stuff'*. They hire you to be the expert, but they should know at least enough to appreciate your work, or it's going to be drama at one point or another." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="285" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="137" RevisionGUID="f8178948-2387-4bef-99ba-751579fb25d8" CreationDate="2013-05-22T10:24:20.930" UserId="82" Text="Following are things I would keep in mind and avoid doing&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Accept a project where client sets a deadline (Unless they are from technical background)**: &#xD;&#xA;   100% of Projects that I have worked where a non-technical client had set a deadline ended up being bad (Learn to **negotiate** deadlines and schedule my fellow developers) . The ones that had technical background had better sense of what they want, because they have been there and done that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Accept a project where client offers only equity**: I have worked on projects where clients offered me (dis)proportional equity only. Yes monetary factor to it, but when a client doesn't offer you money for you effort it implies lack of commitment from their end for the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Accept a project where you/client doesn't negotiate on price:** Chances are you're quoting too low. Learned this lot later that I should have. Start charging decent amount, have good justifications on doing so. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="286" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="138" RevisionGUID="a1f8c6cb-d5e2-47a9-80d3-baaca0262a78" CreationDate="2013-05-22T10:40:20.300" UserId="102" Text="I think there is only one general advice taht would apply everywhere. You should have ICE (In Case of Emergency) list, at least one close person should know where it is (someone you trust to actually follow it) and on that list one point would be &quot;Call all my current clients and tell them I wont be able to finish the contract on time / never because of what happened. List of my current clients with appropriate contacts is here: (location)&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is really your clients responsibility to make sure they dont depend solely on you - that is the price for raising quality of work and cutting down the costs at the same time by using freelancers. Your responsibility is only to make sure that they need to carry out their contingency plan." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="287" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="139" RevisionGUID="b28795ef-2c7a-42d0-95ee-0210abbf5701" CreationDate="2013-05-22T10:47:17.893" UserId="95" Text="How can I screen potential clients to remove those most likely to give me more trouble than they are worth?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="288" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="139" RevisionGUID="b28795ef-2c7a-42d0-95ee-0210abbf5701" CreationDate="2013-05-22T10:47:17.893" UserId="95" Text="How to screen potential new clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="289" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="139" RevisionGUID="b28795ef-2c7a-42d0-95ee-0210abbf5701" CreationDate="2013-05-22T10:47:17.893" UserId="95" Text="|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="290" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="140" RevisionGUID="f752d36f-2829-4ebf-b4fb-b14ff6262c4a" CreationDate="2013-05-22T10:55:36.847" UserId="66" Text="It's hard to determine who is a harmful client but some basic points would be helpful &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1 those who are not Short and Sweet&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Good client knows that you are busy ( even busier than them) and they respect your time and dont send dozen of mail if you dont answer there first mail in 2-3 minutes  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2 those who said I Need It Done NOW&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;they’ll expect you to drop everything you’re doing right at that moment and take on their project for less  the cost&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3 those wants to meet in persona &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;those client who wants to meet in person more then once/over and hour always been a waste of time avoid these clients &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="291" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="139" RevisionGUID="684bce69-c93b-4910-91d8-60e48acbb780" CreationDate="2013-05-22T10:55:51.403" UserId="95" Comment="added 54 characters in body" Text="How can I screen potential clients to remove those most likely to give me more trouble than they are worth?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(This is a generic question, anyway my area of expertise is software development)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="292" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="140" RevisionGUID="52b31320-e55e-4b9d-8986-f5b665a63006" CreationDate="2013-05-22T11:01:03.117" UserId="66" Comment="added 48 characters in body" Text="It's hard to determine who is a harmful client but some basic points would be helpful &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1 those who are not Short and Sweet&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Good client knows that you are busy ( even busier than them) and they respect your time and dont send dozen of mail if you dont answer there first mail in 2-3 minutes  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2 those who said I Need It Done NOW&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;they’ll expect you to drop everything you’re doing right at that moment and take on their project for less  the cost&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3 those wants to meet in persona &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;those client who wants to meet in person more then once/over and hour always been a waste of time avoid these clients &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4  same thing(point 3) goes with phone call &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="293" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="141" RevisionGUID="dcf024e2-4d6e-4fce-aed8-03aa6dd1670c" CreationDate="2013-05-22T11:23:59.893" UserId="9" Text="I'm currently taking on one or two odd jobs, but without formal contracts. While these two in particular won't likely require contracts, I still would like to present one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a particular guideline to how formal/informal a contract should be? While my plan is to make it informal enough for the client to not _need_ a lawyer to decipher it, I'd still want it to be enforceable. Also, would it be worth it to have two templates depending on the client: one formal, one less formal?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Currently, I have the following sections:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Definition of Parties&#xD;&#xA;* Brief Description&#xD;&#xA;* Time Spent (max hours before re-evaluation)&#xD;&#xA;* Cost&#xD;&#xA;* Post-Project Support&#xD;&#xA;* Penalties on Breach by Either Party&#xD;&#xA;* Signatures" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="294" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="141" RevisionGUID="dcf024e2-4d6e-4fce-aed8-03aa6dd1670c" CreationDate="2013-05-22T11:23:59.893" UserId="9" Text="Formality of contracts" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="295" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="141" RevisionGUID="dcf024e2-4d6e-4fce-aed8-03aa6dd1670c" CreationDate="2013-05-22T11:23:59.893" UserId="9" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="296" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="142" RevisionGUID="fa69dde7-0a4a-49f6-b55b-6d503c53bd32" CreationDate="2013-05-22T11:43:26.817" UserId="45" Text="&gt; Also, would it be worth it to have two templates depending on the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; client: one formal, one less formal?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I certainly believe it's good to have at least two versions of a contract template. I've been burned before (as I'm sure many of us have) thinking a job was small enough that did not require a contract and the client didn't hold up their end of the bargain. Also been burned by friends asking for services that I didn't feel comfortable enough running after for the payment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my answer is &quot;Yes&quot;, create different contracts that tailor to the different levels of comfort with the client. Perhaps you change the tone in one version for the client that's a friend. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, just be sure to protect yourself no matter what the job or the client!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="297" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="129" RevisionGUID="b7501c79-15c4-4404-a517-8b4063dc2501" CreationDate="2013-05-22T11:44:23.600" UserId="105" Comment="made less open" Text="I need to improve my ability to avoid clients that can be considered bad for my activity. I'm a freelance developer, started over 20 years ago. So I'm asking you (developer or not) what are the most important considerations that you keep in mind when a new client knocks on the door, to decide whether you'll accept them or not?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short how do I know when a customer is not worth my while?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="298" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="129" RevisionGUID="b7501c79-15c4-4404-a517-8b4063dc2501" CreationDate="2013-05-22T11:44:23.600" Comment="Proposed by 105 approved by 95 edit id of 29" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="299" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="143" RevisionGUID="455083c3-f156-4d65-9289-3bea83de1383" CreationDate="2013-05-22T11:45:16.210" UserId="102" Text="I am missing &quot;Scope description&quot; - you should definitely have there **what is in scope and what isnt** (big emphasis on the second part) - because thats where most of potential conflicts originate. Otherwise I would consider this as sufficient for informal contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS: You might want to consider adding short part, that will say laws of which state apply in case of events not foreseen and covered by the contract or which concrete law act will be used For example in Czech Republic we can use two different law acts (one is in general more appropriate for deals between business and final consumer and one is more suitable for business2business contracts, but you can choose which one and go against common practice) and that has impact of how potential lawsuits will be handled by the court, so this diclaimer is used quite often.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT: What you described is good as generaly containers for contract contents. The answer above mine made me realize that I have to point out that actual wording should be always tailored to the contract, do not use one universal template and &quot;fill-in-the-blanks&quot; approach - that would bite you in the lowerback one day..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="300" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="136" RevisionGUID="f2605f01-f2bb-4244-9348-b366c133bdc9" CreationDate="2013-05-22T11:52:45.297" UserId="105" Comment="added 139 characters in body" Text="I'm in web development myself, my answers:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If money seems to be the only important thing, or you're being compared to India**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've frequently had discussions with potential customers that in the end boiled down to that they didn't like our rates, either because *&quot;competitor X is 10% cheaper&quot;* or *&quot;I could outsource this to India for half your price&quot;*. On both cases I move into arrogant mode, and ask whether they like to invest in top quality for a high rate, or low quality at half the rate, taking twice as long to not deliver what you want. Never, ever, get into a bidding war with these customers if you don't absolutely need **them**, believe in your product and let them decide whether to choose end product quality over a bit of discount or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Same goes for if the client is requesting offers from more than 2 competitors - that's an absolute red flag for me. I've heard customers tell me they requested 9 offers, but no one can evaluate that many offers on quality. Customers like that only care about the price, so they'll be whining about every invoice you'll ever send.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you don't believe in the client's business**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't think they have a chance to succeed, you should be honest about that. If they can't convince you otherwise then, steer clear. Don't ruin your own reputation by becoming the guy that *'ruined a company by sending them invoice after invoice for a failed product'*. They *will* try to blame you for *their* failure, it's human nature.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If the client has no technical knowledge whatsoever**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, this means fighting about every invoice if they don't understand the complexities of the product. Customers like this only see that Facebook works, not the thousands of man hours involved, and will expect you to replicate that in a few days *'because you know this kind of stuff'*. They hire you to be the expert, but they should know at least enough to appreciate your work, or it's going to be drama at one point or another. They don't need to know everything about your job, just enough to appreciate why they're paying someone else good money to do it for them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="301" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="142" RevisionGUID="679a2c46-dfc6-4ea9-aec1-4004b8d23cd5" CreationDate="2013-05-22T11:53:30.173" UserId="45" Comment="added 368 characters in body" Text="&gt;Is there a particular guideline to how formal/informal a contract should be?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think you've gotten it down correctly. The template I use has 6 different sections:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Description of Parties&#xD;&#xA; 2. Description of the Services&#xD;&#xA; 3. Compensation&#xD;&#xA; 4. Liability&#xD;&#xA; 5. Arbitration - (what should happen in case either party should file a claim)&#xD;&#xA; 6. Signatures&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Also, would it be worth it to have two templates depending on the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; client: one formal, one less formal?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I certainly believe it's good to have at least two versions of a contract template. I've been burned before (as I'm sure many of us have) thinking a job was small enough that did not require a contract and the client didn't hold up their end of the bargain. Also been burned by friends asking for services that I didn't feel comfortable enough running after for the payment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my answer is &quot;Yes&quot;, create different contracts that tailor to the different levels of comfort with the client. Perhaps you change the tone in one version for the client that's a friend. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, just be sure to protect yourself no matter what the job or the client!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="303" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="144" RevisionGUID="7cb17c9c-e5e5-436d-b06d-edd1cc1353f5" CreationDate="2013-05-22T11:54:36.213" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="304" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="145" RevisionGUID="ccd00e06-bf49-41c0-80fc-e5aafdab7280" CreationDate="2013-05-22T11:54:36.213" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="305" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="146" RevisionGUID="a77daa23-1f62-4c8a-afef-f576fce239bb" CreationDate="2013-05-22T12:04:36.407" UserId="116" Text="Most of the answer's I've seen thus far address the time tracking question, so I'll address the 'email question'. I don't charge clients for email responses, I chalk that up to 'investment time'. As in, I'm investing this time in answering a customer/potential customer's email because it may lead to doing business with them in the future. Of course there is a line that's drawn, I wouldn't teach them html via email, for example. If we wind up doing business, then it was time well invested, and if not, they may refer me to someone which could lead to business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, if you're referring to an *existing* client for which you are currently doing work for that sends you an email while your working for Client 1, this actually happens to me. I will handle it one of two ways:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1)Answer the email while I'm on lunch. I don't like being distracted from what I'm doing which is typically what email does. It's definitely ***not*** an emergency, and if it's asking for something that requires more research then I'll&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2)Research whatever it is their asking after my time with Client 1 is finished for the day, and then get back to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key trend is that emails are distracting, typically non-urgent, and can wait. There's no need to rob either client of their time, give client 1 what you're charging them for, and give client 2 quality time to put together an appropriate response." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="306" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="147" RevisionGUID="be39e5f5-ebfb-4afb-8c50-fc95b44fe809" CreationDate="2013-05-22T12:17:06.313" UserId="116" Text="I cannot give legal advice, but what I can say is that legalizing your business entity has several benefits, the main one that I find attractive is &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Protection against lawsuits***&#xD;&#xA;--&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone decides to sue your business, but ***legally no business actually exists***, then they can come at you both as individuals and sue for your individually owned assets including houses, cars, and whatever else, and there you really have nothing preventing them from doing so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there was an actual business however, even just an LLC, then they could only come after the company's assets, not to mention you'd also be operating within the full scope of the law.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, you'd be playing with fire. Many people also *drive* without a license, but I wouldn't do that either. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="307" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="129" RevisionGUID="080808cc-eb6d-4294-9681-2bdb30cbf749" CreationDate="2013-05-22T12:39:10.450" UserId="-1" Comment="3" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:66,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;NullPoiиteя&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:61,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;bytebuster&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:97,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Juhana&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:37,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Mere Development&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="308" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="148" RevisionGUID="cec84ac0-834c-4d02-853b-bcd1085ce1ea" CreationDate="2013-05-22T12:39:40.783" UserId="61" Text="Short answer:  &#xD;&#xA;A contract must be as formal as possible.  &#xD;&#xA;You should be ready to sacrifice everything not covered by a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; While my plan is to make it informal enough for the client to not _need_ a lawyer to decipher it, I'd still want it to be enforceable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sorry to discourage, but I really think you are willing two opposite things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A contract is a tool used when &quot;everything is bad.&quot;** It's like an airbag in a car. It can't be *both* reliable and not hitting on face in case of an accident.  &#xD;&#xA;When &quot;everything is good&quot;, there is no need to even look into the contract. You only need it when there is an evident conflict of interests.  &#xD;&#xA;The major problem in any relations is *ambiguity*, when two parties *assume* different things. A contract solves those ambiguities. So, the more things a contract covers, the better it serves its purpose.  &#xD;&#xA;In worst case, you are taking the contract to a lawyer. **With a badly written contract, even a good lawyer may not help, no matter if you are completely right.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; would it be worth it to have two templates depending on the client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, but it's not about &quot;depending on the client&quot;. It's about how much *you* are ready to lose in worst case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As per myself, when I'm doing something for my old partner, I don't need a contract at all. **Even if** they claimed my work is bad, I'm willing to sacrifice my entire effort to save the long-term relations.  &#xD;&#xA;OTOH, if I'm doing something for someone I'm not yet familiar with, I would try to make it as much formal as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Is there a particular guideline to how formal/informal a contract should be?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[This site](http://contracts.onecle.com/type/64.shtml) has a plenty of real Consulting Agreement contracts. Don't panic, they are not that difficult to read.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, you are pretty much close with 7 major sections. @ckpepper02's answer has better names for everything. I would only add:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  * Termination - terms on which the contract shall be broken by either party;&#xD;&#xA;  * Governing Law - defines specific local laws to stay &quot;over&quot; your contract;&#xD;&#xA;  * Intellectual Property and NDA (may be a reference to a separate document);" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="310" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="101" RevisionGUID="d552234d-2f7f-40b8-9546-befedf77eca3" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:02:57.870" UserId="94" Comment="Improved question formatting" Text="I am in the software development industry and I'm an experienced software engineer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am new to freelancing websites. The problem is I have zero rating and I can't get any projects even if I bid the lowest amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This in turn prevents me from getting any rating which prevents me from getting any new projects(even if I bid the lowest amount). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am stuck in this cycle.  How do I get my first job at a freelancing site? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="311" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="101" RevisionGUID="d552234d-2f7f-40b8-9546-befedf77eca3" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:02:57.870" Comment="Proposed by 94 approved by 80 edit id of 26" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="312" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="109" RevisionGUID="b4c08df1-542f-4542-a9a4-1979694cb552" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:12:29.043" UserId="61" Comment="added 107 characters in body" Text="This tag is for questions about handling change requests, during the project or after project's completion." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="313" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="109" RevisionGUID="b4c08df1-542f-4542-a9a4-1979694cb552" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:12:29.043" Comment="Proposed by 61 approved by 119 edit id of 24" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="314" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="128" RevisionGUID="a3e5a247-c44f-4487-b158-ee8d4ee985d2" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:12:58.013" UserId="88" Comment="added 105 characters in body" Text="A tag for scope-creep, a client who requests you to add more features affecting the scope of the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="315" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="128" RevisionGUID="a3e5a247-c44f-4487-b158-ee8d4ee985d2" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:12:58.013" Comment="Proposed by 88 approved by 119 edit id of 27" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="316" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="145" RevisionGUID="72226132-1586-4d12-87fa-b8c4ad97bf66" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:14:07.693" UserId="95" Comment="added 88 characters in body" Text="Questions about evaluating new clients and their reliability when working as freelancer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="317" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="145" RevisionGUID="72226132-1586-4d12-87fa-b8c4ad97bf66" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:14:07.693" Comment="Proposed by 95 approved by 119 edit id of 30" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="318" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="82" RevisionGUID="513bf69e-cbf8-4307-8f76-a6f15f1a9716" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:14:10.943" UserId="79" Comment="typo in title fixxed" Text="How do I determine which type of contract to use?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="319" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="82" RevisionGUID="513bf69e-cbf8-4307-8f76-a6f15f1a9716" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:14:10.943" Comment="Proposed by 79 approved by 119 edit id of 21" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="320" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="74" RevisionGUID="51595a29-2afa-4675-8ef9-a5ccf6013217" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:14:18.507" UserId="58" Comment="added 84 characters in body" Text="For questions regarding Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, the tax entity in the UK." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="321" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="74" RevisionGUID="51595a29-2afa-4675-8ef9-a5ccf6013217" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:14:18.507" Comment="Proposed by 58 approved by 119 edit id of 15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="322" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="96" RevisionGUID="83c8c4af-876e-4542-8c7f-57acbfc67387" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:14:47.023" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus on the question and not on polling for discussion" Text="I have been freelancing for more than a year now. It's been great in terms that I get paid decent amount for hours I have put in. My issue is I'd like to diversify risk and find new clients beyond these online sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My freelancing work has all come from oDesk, Guru, or Freelancer. How can I find clients outside the freelancing sites?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="323" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="96" RevisionGUID="83c8c4af-876e-4542-8c7f-57acbfc67387" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:14:47.023" Comment="Proposed by 64 approved by 119 edit id of 23" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="324" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="77" RevisionGUID="f67a3371-e5c6-4c84-861e-c8604b0c8f31" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:15:44.357" UserId="58" Comment="added 95 characters in body" Text="For questions about expenses freelancing can accumulate, how to manage them or claim them back." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="325" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="77" RevisionGUID="f67a3371-e5c6-4c84-861e-c8604b0c8f31" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:15:44.357" Comment="Proposed by 58 approved by -1 edit id of 16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="326" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="77" RevisionGUID="365ba533-2c5c-4f96-ab80-dd181dc880a2" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:15:44.357" UserId="119" Comment="deleted 15 characters in body" Text="For questions about freelancing expenses, how to manage them or claim them back." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="327" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="149" RevisionGUID="a20cab23-5736-420c-9527-5bad94f983fe" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:30:23.550" UserId="60" Text="I am going to differ a bit from others.  In general, formality needs to be proportional to the size and length of the job.  &quot;How much do you charge to fix this computer?&quot;  &quot;$60/hr&quot;  &quot;Ok&quot; is probably good enough for consumer tech support.  It is probably good for &quot;How much do you charge to migrate an accounting database from LedgerSMB 1.2 to LedgerSMB 1.3.&quot;  But it isn't sufficient for any job of any complexity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, &quot;we would like you to migrate us from Sage 500 to LedgerSMB and make the customizations necessary for us to run our business&quot; really needs a formal contract.  A simple hourly rate is not enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general the way I work is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Per incident or per hour tech support is on a verbal contract only usually.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Customizations to LedgerSMB go through a scope/bid/acceptance process.  This is all in writing, but there is usually no need for lawyers to review.  The bid document includes some basic terms such as cancellation fees, but basically just enough to cover the common problems.  This is how most of my business is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  Larger/longer/more open-ended contracts also have an official contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4.  NDA available at customer's request.  I do have a standard privacy policy that covers the same territory and includes specific terms for medical clinics and the like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general the goal is to ensure that if someone needs a small job done (tech support for example) they aren't asked to review and sign a 5 page contract.  Well-scoped tasks expected to be completed within a short time also need less in the way of formality than do contracts that will on-going work for months.  Similarly, a project that can be expected to take a week can have a standard cancellation fee (say 10% of total plus work done), while an open-ended project may need terms, notice, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been self-employed for 8 years.  I have had projects go sour a few times, but this process has always proved adequate for me.  The real key though is making sure the scope is properly agreed to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember, the primary goal is to have a document or set of documents you both can point to that specifies exactly what has been agreed to.  The complexity and formality need to fit the work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="328" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="150" RevisionGUID="793dcee5-e38b-4165-b619-3fcc45ac2498" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:42:28.177" UserId="60" Text="In general if it smells fishy, look elsewhere.  In general these fall into a few groups but they have a few things in common.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, you want customers who down to earth and professional.  Customers with their heads in the clouds, or which are unprofessional in their dealings with you, should be fired at the earliest opportunity (preferably before you make a bid!).  A few distinct trouble signs I have seen are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Drama during the bidding process.  Big red flag.  If things start badly you can bet they will always go sour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Also in general if I get a sense that there is bad blood between them and a past consultant this can be a warning sign, but isn't always.  In general, if I know the other consultant and my opinion is the same as theirs I will take the project.  If my opinion is different I will not.  Otherwise I will note, and proceed with caution.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  Customers with unrealistic expectations.  This never ends well.  Now there are customers out there with no technical knowledge who are a delight to work with, and there are some who know just enough to be dangerous, and who think they know more than you do.  Stay away from the latter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4.  Customers who don't know what they are doing.  If someone sends you a &quot;Contracting Agreement&quot; and it mentions building codes and you wonder what this has to do with software, go elsewhere (yes this happened to me).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Otherwise, a good rule to keep in mind is that projects tend to follow patterns established in the bidding phase or during initial contact, but during the bidding phase everyone is on their best behavior.  If the best behavior shows some cracks, you might want to wonder what is underneath." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="329" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="151" RevisionGUID="0d4ffedb-c4d3-43e2-883f-2bca58c61d36" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:46:42.957" UserId="121" Text="Ultimately, it all depends on the project at hand. I, myself, would first ask as much questions (verbally) at first and try to understand what is requested of me. In the process, I write down every little details and also take notes of potential issues that might arise during the working process (health issues, potential changes to specifications, how will they be arranged/paid, etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Afterwards, I will (still verbally) review what we agreed upon, including any additions I have made or I am requesting. Afterwards, we will generally sign a contract (two copies for each of the sides) that describes all the details surrounding the project and the work may begin.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, for simple projects, where the hassle or expenses of preparing a legal document are significantly larger than the potential gain from the completion of the project - we may simply agree verbally, which doesn't remove the necessity of clearing all possible details and specifications, as with any other (larger) project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, in order to insure myself, I usually propose the following terms: a percentage of the payment is to be done in advance (before I start doing any work, let's say 50% of the sum) and the remainder (50%) is paid either in full or in milestone completion during the working process. This way, the client and I are sharing equal risk when it comes to non-completion of obligations from the other side in the agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A side note: for larger projects, always use an &quot;escrow&quot; service to make sure that the client indeed has the money and so that you can be sure that you will be paid in time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="330" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="152" RevisionGUID="a87f857c-ba08-4fca-8f6e-4ce2c73c6bc0" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:46:56.817" UserId="105" Text="Verbal agreements are most certainly legal and binding in most modern countries, there is however the practical problem of the legal principle that *&quot;he who claims proves&quot;*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you get into a conflict, and the customer claims there was no contract, it's up to **you** to prove there was. Which is kind of hard with just a verbal agreement without impartial witnesses. Verbal contracts should only be used for 'small stuff', or for relatively small extra work on top of an existing assignment with an agreed upon contract in writing - in that case the judge will be on your side because the bounds of the cooperation are already defined and a legally binding agreement on rates etc. in place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for the others, it doesn't really matter that much from a legal perspective, it depends more on what level of professionalism you want and require, and the stakes, and simply common sense. For a $50k job, don't just make a single page statement of work, and for a $500 job, don't go writing contracts longer than the actual job will take.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another legal consideration that at least holds valid in European countries is that your responsibility will rise with the total cost of the project - if you cause $50k damage on a $500 job, the base assumption will be that the client should've done more due diligence, and perhaps forked out a bit more if he could've known such amount of damage could occur. If you cause $50k damage on a $50k job, it is far more frequently considered your problem - for that kind of money **you** should've taken more care in risk analysis and taken proper precautions. Your contract should reflect the risks and how to handle them, and be more detailed about the deliverables and timeframes, if there's serious money going your way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a general rule of thumb - the amount of pages your contract should contain is the linear sum of the money involved, the risks to be covered, and the personal history with the client (the longer you deal, the less you have to define what wasn't previously already decided on).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="331" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="153" RevisionGUID="ad99e00f-0bef-4a29-b63b-ce9d38da8560" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:51:29.113" UserId="121" Text="Most of these sites have a repitation based system, meaning that your chances of being hired are drastically increasing as you complete more jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally, from the client's point of view he has two choices:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. To hire an **expensive freelancer** with **large reputation**&#xD;&#xA; 2. To hire a **cheap freelancer** with little or **no reputation**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a new freelancer on the site, you need to try to fall as much as possible in the second target of the client, meaning that offer as low rates as possible. You can gradually increase your rates as you gain reputation and returning clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="332" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="137" RevisionGUID="0c37110c-bb9a-40e1-b41d-a98217470543" CreationDate="2013-05-22T13:59:37.347" UserId="82" Comment="fixed semantics" Text="Following are things I would keep in mind and avoid doing&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Accept a project where client sets a deadline (Unless they are from technical background)**: &#xD;&#xA;   100% of Projects that I have worked where a non-technical client had set a deadline ended up being bad (Learn to **negotiate** deadlines and schedule my fellow developers) . The ones that had technical background had better sense of what they want, because they have been there and done that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Accept a project where client offers only equity**: I have worked on projects where clients offered me (dis)proportional equity only. Yes monetary factor to it, but when a client doesn't offer you money for you effort it implies lack of commitment from their end for the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Accept a project where client doesn't negotiate on price:** Chances are you're quoting too low. Learned this lot later that I should have. Start charging decent amount, have good justifications on doing so. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="334" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="129" RevisionGUID="4ceeb38f-474c-48b1-a7c1-ce1bfb377de2" CreationDate="2013-05-22T14:10:37.393" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:60,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Chris Travers&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:95,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Seraphim&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:105,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Niels Keurentjes&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:121,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ColorWP.com&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:96,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;kolin&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="335" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="154" RevisionGUID="5b6d79e1-5b76-4b97-80ae-399443a9931d" CreationDate="2013-05-22T14:11:43.760" UserId="121" Text="&gt; The work might not be finished. What if the client already (part) paid&#xD;&#xA;&gt; for it? What if the client hasn’t yet received login passwords etc.?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try looking into **version control systems** (SVN, Git) and upload your changes as soon as you make them. This way, your client will always have access to these changes. If you are afraid that they will just take the latest changes and run away without paying you the last part (or the full) payment, you may store the login for the version control system and give it to someone you trust.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You may have signed a NDA. What if your heirs stumble upon sensitive&#xD;&#xA;&gt; data of your client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although it's not 100% security, you should always password protect your laptop/server/project folders. If you are that much concerned, you may even encrypt it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="336" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="98" RevisionGUID="c10d097e-88ae-4e85-8dee-e57456272dba" CreationDate="2013-05-22T14:20:57.450" UserId="79" Comment="little addendum" Text="While reading the title I thought you meant programming language and was about to edit the title.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think even in Denmark, English is a must. That's also the case for &quot;bigger European countries&quot;. As a matter of fact, in the IT-World it is the *de facto* language. Without you won't go far.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a plus to English the native language (or at least enough of it to have a chit-chat with your coworker) is surely highly appreciated. So, even if you don't speak Danish now, learn some useful phrases and after a couple of months you'll be fluent enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit: I don't think that there is any general rule. Maybe ask them?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="337" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="129" RevisionGUID="3db1f634-2e7a-44bd-a568-e764929ac707" CreationDate="2013-05-22T14:30:32.670" UserId="95" Comment="ask for a consideration, not for a list of considerations" Text="I need to improve my ability to avoid clients that can be considered bad for my activity. I'm a freelance developer, started over 20 years ago. So I'm asking you (developer or not) what is the most important consideration that you keep in mind when a new client knocks on the door, to decide whether you'll accept them or not?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short how do I know when a customer is not worth my while?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="338" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="129" RevisionGUID="3db1f634-2e7a-44bd-a568-e764929ac707" CreationDate="2013-05-22T14:30:32.670" UserId="95" Comment="ask for a consideration, not for a list of considerations" Text="What's the most important consideration when accepting a new client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
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  <row Id="341" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="139" RevisionGUID="45e9f9f6-6890-44e3-ac8c-c0dcb67d245e" CreationDate="2013-05-22T14:39:26.253" UserId="-1" Comment="1" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[129],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:105,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Niels Keurentjes&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:96,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;kolin&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Hiroto&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;bretterer&quot;}]}" />
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  <row Id="344" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="155" RevisionGUID="d28b490d-bdf8-4ae8-91dc-1e140b4548c1" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:02:43.990" UserId="39" Comment="added 263 characters in body" Text="Timekeeping is the process of recording the passage of time spent per project or task. The data is often collected to support accurate client billing, and to provide management data for making operational decisions to increase productivity and reduce labor costs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
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  <row Id="350" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="161" RevisionGUID="b7d3d808-cc9d-4349-93a9-240bff325482" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:20:03.100" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="351" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="162" RevisionGUID="7866d74b-2eea-4db1-b0b6-fbbe4c807090" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:20:03.100" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="352" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="163" RevisionGUID="83c0c9ee-ec84-414b-9217-66d801edab38" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:22:22.103" UserId="77" Text="**The first thing I look at is are they willing to pay what it really costs.**  Don't be afraid to give a price higher than a competitor if it is what it costs to do it right and don't be afraid to walk away from a deal if they continue to push for a lower price because of the low baller.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The most extreme example I have was one with a company that wanted to start a real estate listing service.  They had a variety of advanced features they wanted to implement and I approximated the platform they wanted would take about a year to implement at a cost of $150,000 or $50,000 and a 10% stake in the site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They had someone come in and say that they could build the system they wanted for $5000 and no stake in 2 months.  After trying to explain to them why that wouldn't work they still wouldn't listen, so we cut them loose.  8 months later when their site finally went live, it was nothing more than a glorified Drupal site with some basic, slow and broken plugins applied to it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We were absolutely right about the problems they would face and absolutely right about what it would cost to do it right, but they were not interested in hearing it and had we decided to try to meet them even part way, we would have been faced with a client that was constantly complaining about how long it was taking and how much it was costing and thinking they should have gone with the 5k option.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they have a reasonable idea of the cost and effort required.  **The next thing is to make sure they have a solid plan for how to make use of what they want built and have documented (or are willing to have an initial project where you help them document) exactly what is needed.**  Missed expectations, while potentially fully reasonable from your perspective, are one of the biggest things that can cause problems for your reputation and for the health of a project.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if they have millions to throw around, if you don't believe what they are doing is going to be of benefit to them, walk away.  It isn't worth the hit to your reputation for them to have a product that they aren't happy with because it didn't meet their unrealistic expectations of what it could do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Similarly, if they don't have a clear cut understanding of what they need and what it will take to get there, then missed expectations along the way (particularly for larger projects) can result in a loss of faith and a painful breakup of the project with bad feelings and lost money all around." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="353" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="164" RevisionGUID="ef02792f-ea8e-488d-bcbd-e261309aed3a" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:27:06.090" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="354" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="165" RevisionGUID="9a488ac1-fd6c-4765-bad6-90c342e3beb0" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:27:06.090" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="355" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="162" RevisionGUID="3a76c61f-88d7-4895-90c7-ee86626e2081" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:27:56.783" UserId="61" Comment="added 60 characters in body" Text="Questions about freelance business in Information Technology" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="356" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="162" RevisionGUID="3a76c61f-88d7-4895-90c7-ee86626e2081" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:27:56.783" Comment="Proposed by 61 approved by 69 edit id of 36" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="357" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="160" RevisionGUID="853c9868-ee30-479e-acc6-416cadcce77d" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:28:03.720" UserId="61" Comment="added 69 characters in body" Text="Location-specific questions about freelance business in United States" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="358" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="160" RevisionGUID="853c9868-ee30-479e-acc6-416cadcce77d" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:28:03.720" Comment="Proposed by 61 approved by 69 edit id of 35" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="359" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="165" RevisionGUID="d2953645-b97b-4139-96a2-659b7e2e8eb4" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:28:06.923" UserId="61" Comment="added 70 characters in body" Text="Location-specific questions about freelance business in European Union" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="360" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="165" RevisionGUID="d2953645-b97b-4139-96a2-659b7e2e8eb4" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:28:06.923" Comment="Proposed by 61 approved by 69 edit id of 37" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="361" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="158" RevisionGUID="2d780dfb-e254-4878-b092-48139bf3350a" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:28:13.143" UserId="61" Comment="added 70 characters in body" Text="Location-specific questions about freelance business in United Kingdom" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="362" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="158" RevisionGUID="2d780dfb-e254-4878-b092-48139bf3350a" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:28:13.143" Comment="Proposed by 61 approved by 69 edit id of 34" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="363" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="29" RevisionGUID="c79f76cd-aba8-4ce1-9a87-558446fbb767" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:28:16.923" UserId="116" Comment="Changed the title to make it a broader question, so it can apply to a broader audience." Text="Starting a business without filing government forms" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="364" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="29" RevisionGUID="c79f76cd-aba8-4ce1-9a87-558446fbb767" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:28:16.923" UserId="116" Comment="Changed the title to make it a broader question, so it can apply to a broader audience." Text="|legal|entity|united-states|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="365" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="29" RevisionGUID="c79f76cd-aba8-4ce1-9a87-558446fbb767" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:28:16.923" Comment="Proposed by 116 approved by 69 edit id of 31" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="367" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="166" RevisionGUID="f40501f6-afaa-46fb-a673-b0b64951346c" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:31:26.397" UserId="77" Text="As a contractor, you'll save yourself a lot of time and headaches if you sit with a client and work through mockups prior to the beginning of a project.  This does two things that are worth their weight in gold.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, it makes sure that the client is comfortable with what they are getting.  Presenting them with something they can see and clearly understand helps eliminate miscommunications.  Second, it makes sure you have a clear understanding of the clients needs and makes sure you start development in the right direction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a prospective client doesn't have a clear vision and plan for the project before you start.  Tell them that that is the first thing you will need to help them address if they bring you on for the project.  It's ok to bill them for the time spent helping them build out the project plan, but make sure one is in place before starting or things will drift and both you and they will end up frustrated and burnt out." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="368" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="167" RevisionGUID="808af495-27b6-4af7-a6e4-7d466f26a496" CreationDate="2013-05-22T15:35:54.920" UserId="77" Text="This is highly dependent on local jurisdiction unless there is a contract governing the rights.  The best practice is to have a lawyer draft up a boilerplate contract for you that specifies the rights in a way you are comfortable with and make sure they explain it to you so you understand the implications.  Then if a client has questions about it or wants to make alterations, you understand what you are giving up if you remove a particular part of the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, be aware that if you want to maintain rights to code, it is also often necessary to have a solid NDA (non-disclosure agreement) that can help protect your clients' proprietary information and business processes that may be incorporated in to code you right.  In those cases, you may have the rights to the code, but may not be able to reuse it without striping out the portions that fall under NDA restrictions." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="369" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="168" RevisionGUID="9af2814f-68fb-483d-a8a2-2b7296eab63d" CreationDate="2013-05-22T16:14:59.320" UserId="52" Text="Use verbal discussions to build the relationship with your client and gain mutual understanding. However, don't use verbal discussions as the source for a binding contract. Instead, through verbal and written discussion, work out a mutually satisfactory, written Master Services Agreement (MSA). If neither of you have a starting point for a MSA, find a good online sample ([recommendation][1]).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now for each project, or for each set of new scope, create a Statement Of Work. The Statement of Work is contract that refers back to the MSA and focuses on defining the scope of work and any project specifics not covered in the MSA. Again, find a template online if you don't have a starting point ([recommendation][2]).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The SOW should feel like a formalization of what will meet the client's need based on your problem-solving discussions with them. It shouldn't feel very legally-oriented (even though it is a legal document), since the MSA focused on the business legalities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/information-technology-master-service-ag-84601/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/statement-of-work-red-design-TC103923594.aspx" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="370" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="169" RevisionGUID="c9a8f078-98d9-4342-aa56-8fb112c65788" CreationDate="2013-05-22T16:47:01.607" UserId="52" Text="When a new freelancer works with a small client, neither party may have experience with contracts. This community wiki provides starting points they can use to think through the issues that should be covered in a good contract and begin with much of the text already written.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These starting points are intended to be especially helpful where the size of project or other concerns do not raise to the level of requiring professional legal assistance. In any event, both parties will want to carefully review the contracts and customize according to their needs; still, having a good starting template sets an initial direction and saves a lot of work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="371" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="169" RevisionGUID="c9a8f078-98d9-4342-aa56-8fb112c65788" CreationDate="2013-05-22T16:47:01.607" UserId="52" Text="Where can I find good contract templates?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="372" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="169" RevisionGUID="c9a8f078-98d9-4342-aa56-8fb112c65788" CreationDate="2013-05-22T16:47:01.607" UserId="52" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="373" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="170" RevisionGUID="d4abac7d-7664-4d9b-a75c-9e9f071a482e" CreationDate="2013-05-22T16:47:01.607" UserId="52" Text="For Information Technology / Software Development&#xD;&#xA;-&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Master Service Agreement templates:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* [Information Technology Master Service Agreement][1] from Global Data Consultants, LLC&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Statement of Work templates:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* [Statement of Work (Red design)][2] from Microsoft Office templates&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/information-technology-master-service-ag-84601/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/statement-of-work-red-design-TC103923594.aspx" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="374" PostHistoryTypeId="16" PostId="170" RevisionGUID="5f537c85-df17-4a6a-a2f4-e77906dd68eb" CreationDate="2013-05-22T16:47:01.607" UserId="52" />
  <row Id="375" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="168" RevisionGUID="de8f84f8-4cb6-481c-b2b4-e8b326429b6b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T16:48:55.163" UserId="52" Comment="moved contract template links to http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/169/52" Text="Use verbal discussions to build the relationship with your client and gain mutual understanding. However, don't use verbal discussions as the source for a binding contract. Instead, through verbal and written discussion, work out a mutually satisfactory, written Master Services Agreement (MSA).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now for each project, or for each set of new scope, create a Statement Of Work. The Statement of Work is contract that refers back to the MSA and focuses on defining the scope of work and any project specifics not covered in the MSA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The SOW should feel like a formalization of what will meet the client's need based on your problem-solving discussions with them. It shouldn't feel very legally-oriented (even though it is a legal document), since the MSA focused on the business legalities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/information-technology-master-service-ag-84601/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/statement-of-work-red-design-TC103923594.aspx" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="376" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="171" RevisionGUID="5ac31d25-a20e-4b75-a3ff-84596e3515ce" CreationDate="2013-05-22T16:49:13.470" UserId="124" Text="**Use your best judgement.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no one right answer, in principle it would be additional work but there is more to it than that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a client which I recently completed a site for, and there was a great deal of creep in the project, however I decided to go with it as I knew there was a good additional job which may come up for him - I wanted to keep on his good side.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sure enough he cleared the next project which is twice the price of the previous, and I think he may have found someone else because he knows several other designers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would always allow a small amount of creep (I even price a few extra hours in too some projects), always try to keep the client happy even if it means a little more work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the project starts slipping a long way, then you need to say something - and I would strongly advise you to make sure the project is clearly outlined from the start for this reason and many others." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="377" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="172" RevisionGUID="99cf0983-0cc7-4908-9515-e7d9baf204ab" CreationDate="2013-05-22T16:53:58.810" UserId="59" Text="As a developer who is always seeking work, I am constantly  working on improving my *online presence* by beefing up my [LinkedIn][1] profile (which they tell me is an *all-star* profile now), working on open source projects, and improving my [StackOverflow][2] profile.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally, I created a [personal profile site][3] to show off my work, and have posted links to it on all my social network sites. I designed the [HTML5 profile site][4] as a web-template that *GitHub* users can make with a simple fork and a few modifications (others can use it too, but it's free to host it on *GitHub*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To affirm that I am advertising myself well, every day, I get multiple emails about job opportunities, from sites like *LinkedIn*, *Careers 2.0*, *Dice*, etc, and nearly 200 *LinkedIn* profile views a month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancers and contractors in other fields should still be able to extrapolate my key points to work toward their advertising goals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.linkedin.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.stackoverflow.com&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://bit.ly/pdbrown&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://bit.ly/168DN8S&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="378" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="173" RevisionGUID="c3fed8e3-dbf6-49b2-8ef3-94edcf4590e9" CreationDate="2013-05-22T16:57:39.777" UserId="124" Text="Freelancing has it's advantages don't get me wrong; however many people want to be reassured that they are dealing with a big company. I can't possibly provide this, how can I mitigate these problems:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I know my finances are sound, but how can I reassure the client that I am not going to disappear tomorrow&#xD;&#xA;- How can I word contracts so it doesn't look like a single person but isn't being deceptive&#xD;&#xA;- Is it ok for me to &quot;hide&quot; that I am, ultimately small time even though I pour my heart and soul into this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="379" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="173" RevisionGUID="c3fed8e3-dbf6-49b2-8ef3-94edcf4590e9" CreationDate="2013-05-22T16:57:39.777" UserId="124" Text="How can mitigate with not being part of a big team?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="380" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="173" RevisionGUID="c3fed8e3-dbf6-49b2-8ef3-94edcf4590e9" CreationDate="2013-05-22T16:57:39.777" UserId="124" Text="|contracts|client|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="381" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="174" RevisionGUID="a99ffe11-beff-44ae-9c71-00d803007ba9" CreationDate="2013-05-22T17:05:56.913" UserId="91" Text="Do I need to file taxes quarterly if I am self-employed (no matter what), or are there circumstances in which I can file at the end of the year?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if I were employed at another job for which I had taxes withheld, especially if the withheld amount is greater than the owed amount. Is it still required? If so, could I file for both quarterly (and not pay anything) to keep as much in assets as I can?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="382" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="174" RevisionGUID="a99ffe11-beff-44ae-9c71-00d803007ba9" CreationDate="2013-05-22T17:05:56.913" UserId="91" Text="Filing taxes quarterly" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="383" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="174" RevisionGUID="a99ffe11-beff-44ae-9c71-00d803007ba9" CreationDate="2013-05-22T17:05:56.913" UserId="91" Text="|self-employed|taxes|united-states|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="384" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="175" RevisionGUID="577e35da-b243-4a0c-b6ae-ccffba826f75" CreationDate="2013-05-22T17:07:02.640" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="385" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="176" RevisionGUID="5217664d-ef61-4e2e-846f-2b678c6e9306" CreationDate="2013-05-22T17:07:02.640" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="386" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="177" RevisionGUID="7dcfde29-1217-458e-8481-2760927089e7" CreationDate="2013-05-22T17:11:22.083" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="387" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="178" RevisionGUID="939a057f-39a1-4932-9a9f-a97fc0ae2984" CreationDate="2013-05-22T17:11:22.083" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="389" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="179" RevisionGUID="0135d6e6-64a5-46b2-92ea-eb0af6aa56b7" CreationDate="2013-05-22T17:47:44.537" UserId="48" Text="I was recently invited to bid on a mobile development contract for a company in South Africa.  After doing my research of firms that are local to South Africa, I'm noticing that my hourly rate is about 30% higher than the locals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is, should I reduce my hourly rate to be more competitive with the local firms or should I justify my hourly rate?  I was invited to bid on this contract so I assume the company knows of my work and is considering me as a candidate due to the quality of said work.  Also, I don't know if any local firms are even bidding against me on this contract so I might be screwing myself if I lower my rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In support of a simple yes or no answer, I'm looking for case studies on rate adjustment in foreign markets to justify that answer.  I am based in the US and this is my first contract bid for a company outside the US." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="390" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="179" RevisionGUID="0135d6e6-64a5-46b2-92ea-eb0af6aa56b7" CreationDate="2013-05-22T17:47:44.537" UserId="48" Text="Should I lower my per hour rate to be competitive with overseas firms?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="391" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="179" RevisionGUID="0135d6e6-64a5-46b2-92ea-eb0af6aa56b7" CreationDate="2013-05-22T17:47:44.537" UserId="48" Text="|pay-rate|foreign-markets|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="392" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="180" RevisionGUID="666cbd5c-2bf3-4650-adfa-09a55e213e6b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T17:59:58.650" UserId="97" Text="&gt;I know my finances are sound, but how can I reassure the client that I am not going to disappear tomorrow&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't, because there is no guarantee. You could get [hit by a bus](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/126/how-can-we-prepare-for-getting-hit-by-a-bus) tomorrow and you and the client need to be prepared for the possibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; How can I word contracts so it doesn't look like a single person but isn't being deceptive&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You shouldn't. The client should know that it's a one-man show and if they know they shouldn't care if that is shown on the contract&amp;mdash;on the contrary, the contract should reflect your situation, otherwise you might get yourself into real trouble.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an example: big companies are usually not dependent on one employee and they can carry out the contract even if one of the key employees can't continue with the project, but you should negotiate a force majeure clause that lets you void the contract with no or minimal penalties if you get hit by a bus and break both your arms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Is it ok for me to &quot;hide&quot; that I am, ultimately small time even though I pour my heart and soul into this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally I think that trying to give the impression that you are more than one person is not ok, especially if you are selling your personal skills and commitment. Companies are accustomed to hiring individual talent. It's better not to give false impression if you can't live up to it if need be (&quot;You broke both your arms? Can you just pass the project to your coworkers? No? But you said you were 100% sure your company could meet the deadline!&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's somewhat different if you sell something like an online service through a web site where you might not want to emphasize the size of the content provider." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="393" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="181" RevisionGUID="fd2c10d9-d651-45ff-a59c-12eae312cb86" CreationDate="2013-05-22T18:02:36.173" UserId="48" Text="[According to the IRS][1], all self-employed persons are **generally required** to file quarterly self-employment and income tax payments that are based off your estimated yearly earnings.  There are exemptions to this rule, as outlined on the IRS page for self-employed individuals, for those that don't make a net profit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for working another job where you do pay taxes, if you're still self-employed in another job of your own making then you still need to pay the quarterly self-employment and income taxes.  This is known as having a [part-time business][2] by the IRS which still falls under the umbrella of being self-employed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&amp;-Self-Employed/Self-Employed-Individuals-Tax-Center&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&amp;-Self-Employed/Business-Activities" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="394" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="174" RevisionGUID="574487c1-9d71-4f00-a222-97683e9e3c9d" CreationDate="2013-05-22T18:04:26.777" UserId="97" Comment="edited tags" Text="|usa|self-employed|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="395" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="182" RevisionGUID="67f965d1-8eac-41a6-ac63-0689db574517" CreationDate="2013-05-22T18:04:37.327" UserId="52" Text="Directly acknowledge that you a single individual and provide a continuity plan for your client in case you become available. This means asking the right questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **How can I reassure the client that I am not going to disappear tomorrow?** You can't. You can't even reassure yourself, if you're honest. Instead, provide your client a continuity plan to reassure them that someone else can pick up where you left off if you become unavailable. Use source control and ensure your client has full, up-to-date access to all your work for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **How do I not look like a single person?** Don't try. Acknowledge who you are. Remind your client that even for a full-time employee, they need a contingency for if he gets &quot;hit by a bus&quot;. Then circle back to that continuity plan.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **How do I make them trust that I'll be there for them?** You can't. However, you can *earn* that trust over time. When practical, start small. A customer will be less hesitant to try a lone wolf on a limited-scope project. Use the project to be awesome and show your reliability. This will make you appealing for larger projects, even without a big team behind you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="396" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="29" RevisionGUID="23753fa8-b637-488f-9127-5a53f6e4c652" CreationDate="2013-05-22T18:10:31.677" UserId="97" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|usa|entity|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="397" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="93" RevisionGUID="43051d62-c0dd-4857-a3ba-9d237de52f8d" CreationDate="2013-05-22T18:16:08.067" UserId="69" Comment="7" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:121,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ColorWP.com&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:43,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;levelnis&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:96,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;kolin&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;bretterer&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:69,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Robert Cartaino&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="398" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="93" RevisionGUID="d8ea8ba3-5d72-43cd-ae75-f87270370dbd" CreationDate="2013-05-22T18:16:11.550" UserId="69" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:69,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Robert Cartaino&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="399" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="111" RevisionGUID="17737533-8ba6-429d-b456-720c0276dd90" CreationDate="2013-05-22T18:19:19.067" UserId="59" Comment="added tag exerpt and summary" Text="Refers to time spent working &quot;after hours.&quot; For freelance and contract topics, this may also refer to working too many hours on a project (which may then become &quot;overbudget&quot;)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="400" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="111" RevisionGUID="17737533-8ba6-429d-b456-720c0276dd90" CreationDate="2013-05-22T18:19:19.067" Comment="Proposed by 59 approved by 69 edit id of 39" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="401" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="178" RevisionGUID="5ed53c83-053a-4cd8-b0b6-478bd2c47c1d" CreationDate="2013-05-22T18:19:26.270" UserId="59" Comment="added 69 characters in body" Text="Refers to an *Object of Discussion* in a Contract or Legal Agreement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="402" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="178" RevisionGUID="5ed53c83-053a-4cd8-b0b6-478bd2c47c1d" CreationDate="2013-05-22T18:19:26.270" Comment="Proposed by 59 approved by 69 edit id of 43" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="403" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="177" RevisionGUID="a1380571-f3b8-4f78-999a-b308099df82b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T18:19:36.397" UserId="59" Comment="added 234 characters in body" Text="Refers to an __Object of Discussion__ in [tag:Contracts] or [tag:Legal] agreements. Such an Object can be a `Party`, `Deliverable`, or anything else. `Entities` are usually defined at the beginning of a `Contract` or `Legal` document." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="404" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="177" RevisionGUID="a1380571-f3b8-4f78-999a-b308099df82b" CreationDate="2013-05-22T18:19:36.397" Comment="Proposed by 59 approved by 69 edit id of 42" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="405" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="110" RevisionGUID="1e7b7c42-eb8d-420a-8d17-03b09fc48a4d" CreationDate="2013-05-22T18:19:41.490" UserId="59" Comment="added tag exerpt and summary" Text="Refers to time spent working &quot;after hours.&quot; For freelance and contract topics, this may also refer to working too many hours on a project (which may then become [tag:overbudget])." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="406" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="110" RevisionGUID="1e7b7c42-eb8d-420a-8d17-03b09fc48a4d" CreationDate="2013-05-22T18:19:41.490" Comment="Proposed by 59 approved by 69 edit id of 38" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="407" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="183" RevisionGUID="926b6867-9d61-43de-9031-fac8b977f4ab" CreationDate="2013-05-22T18:27:13.867" UserId="97" Text="I am not a lawyer or an expert on the issue, but it would be very strange if a company in a reputable Western country X (i.e. not under embargo or similar) could not provide services to and bill a company in a reputable Western country Y. If a Swiss company wants to import goods from abroad, does the company they're buying from need to register a company in Switzerland? Sounds unlikely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the deal requires you to work on-site, you might need to get a work permit, depending on how long you'll stay in the country." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="408" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="184" RevisionGUID="4b669816-68e4-46a5-93fb-ed05996cc8d2" CreationDate="2013-05-22T18:47:49.513" UserId="97" Text="* Are you in desperate need of a new contract?&#xD;&#xA;* Is this a project you personally really want to do? (super interesting, possibility to learn new tech, includes traveling to exotic places, ...)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the answer to either one is yes, go ahead and offer with a discounted rate. I'd make sure the client knows the actual rate (&quot;My usual rate is 130, but due to my personal interest/as an introductory price/whatever other reason, I'm offering for 100&quot;) so that you don't get stuck with the lower price for possible future projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could also offer your list price but with the incentive that your expertise lets you finish the project faster than the competitors (if it's reasonable that you can make that promise), thus saving the client money even if they pay a higher hourly rate." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="409" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="185" RevisionGUID="def94011-b22f-4c00-827b-6eb81f83416c" CreationDate="2013-05-22T18:49:11.067" UserId="77" Text="Ultimately it is your call, but it has been my experience that you largely get what you pay for and if your rates are reasonable for the work you do, then stick to them if you can afford to.  That said, be sure you can justify why you ask for what you ask and be ready to explain what they get with you that they don't get with those groups that are under-bidding you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a particular reason you want or need the project, then it might be worth dropping price some, but ultimately, it's up to you to decide what your time is worth and whether the risk of not getting the project is worth sticking to your guns.  It's really up to your risk assessment and what your time is worth to you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="410" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="182" RevisionGUID="0d7c6de1-72f3-47cc-9537-092de4adb078" CreationDate="2013-05-22T19:32:25.953" UserId="52" Comment="added suggestion to document your work as you go" Text="Directly acknowledge that you a single individual and provide a continuity plan for your client in case you become available. This means asking the right questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **How can I reassure the client that I am not going to disappear tomorrow?** You can't. You can't even reassure yourself, if you're honest. Instead, provide your client a continuity plan to reassure them that someone else can pick up where you left off if you become unavailable. Document your work as you go (not just at the project's end). Use source control and ensure your client has full, up-to-date access to all your work for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **How do I not look like a single person?** Don't try. Acknowledge who you are. Remind your client that even for a full-time employee, they need a contingency for if he gets &quot;hit by a bus&quot;. Then circle back to that continuity plan.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **How do I make them trust that I'll be there for them?** You can't. However, you can *earn* that trust over time. When practical, start small. A customer will be less hesitant to try a lone wolf on a limited-scope project. Use the project to be awesome and show your reliability. This will make you appealing for larger projects, even without a big team behind you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="411" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="186" RevisionGUID="1a5afee6-bdac-43d1-9100-a6ee0721edad" CreationDate="2013-05-23T00:37:17.623" UserId="60" Text="The way I do things is to make sure that although I am one individual, I am working in a community of consultants doing related work.  This means a number of things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  If the job gets bigger I can recommend other consultants to bring on board in addition&#xD;&#xA;2.  If I go out of business, my clients have a ready pool for other consultants&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have had cases where clients did lose key individuals (even employees) due to unexpected deaths, etc.  In general, the key is how quickly they can bring someone else on and bring them up to speed.  This means making sure that the client knows that they can pay for you to spend extra time on documentation to help with this contingency planning, and the like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end though, most of the time it isn't really too bad.  If you have a commodity skill set, you are replaceable.  If you have a specialized skill set, there is usually somewhere folks can find replacements (like, where they found you!), and so this isn't the end of the world.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The few exceptions are where there are long-term implications regarding support for business-critical infrastructure.  Early in my business I bid on a few PBX (Phone system) implementation contracts which I didn't get for that reason.  The customers wanted someone more local than my replacements could be, with a larger guarantee, and so they went with larger companies.  It's a totally legit call in that case." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="412" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="187" RevisionGUID="d084f0b8-6c97-4b66-9942-247f1347c6fd" CreationDate="2013-05-23T02:27:38.020" UserId="60" Text="In general, my answer is no.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, there may be cases where you want to offer a discount in order to expand into new markets.  For example, if you do freelance work on an open source project, you may decide to offer a discount on initial development work in a new country, to help you become more familiar with the local needs, etc.  The idea here is to keep one customer from absorbing the entire cost of getting you up to speed, build contacts in a new market etc.  For example, I would not expect a customer in, say, Colombia to fully bear the costs of getting me up to speed on Colombian local requirements if I wanted to expand and get more clients in Colombia.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is ultimately a business decision which has to be made based on what you want out of this contract.  If it is just a contract with no additional long-term goals, then stick to your rates.  If you want to gain additional benefits from this contract, it may be worth offering a special deal, but you need a clear idea of what you want going in.  And again you want to make sure they know &quot;this is my rate.  Here is the discount I am offering you.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="414" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="170" RevisionGUID="ccfe5d57-3643-48ce-90fa-f914ea09731f" CreationDate="2013-05-23T04:09:25.880" UserId="61" Comment="added a reference to another collection" Text="For Information Technology / Software Development&#xD;&#xA;-&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Master Service Agreement templates:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* [Information Technology Master Service Agreement][1] from Global Data Consultants, LLC&#xD;&#xA;* [Consulting Agreement contracts][3] (see also other categories on the same site)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Statement of Work templates:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* [Statement of Work (Red design)][2] from Microsoft Office templates&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/information-technology-master-service-ag-84601/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/statement-of-work-red-design-TC103923594.aspx&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://contracts.onecle.com/type/64.shtml" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="415" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="188" RevisionGUID="4934838e-12ad-4db8-84f4-98ca7b7ea493" CreationDate="2013-05-23T04:28:00.587" UserId="14" Text="Not a direct answer, but hopefully a helpful one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've found most of those sites to be impossible to book work from. I tried it for a few months and just gave up after awhile. Most of the freelancers on those sites are working at dirt cheap hourly rates, sometimes as low as 5.00/hr.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not sure where you are or type of quality of life you expect, but I know I could not even afford to live.. assuming I was able to book a &quot;typical work week&quot; at 40hrs of that rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suggest talking with local businesses. To build my initial portfolio I spoke with business owners of places I frequent, explained to them I was about to jump into freelancing and offered discounts or barters to build them websites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And don't forget the power of side projects. For instance, if you build websites.. build a website for a passion or hobby of yours. Pour your heart and soul into the functionality and design. Make it showcase quality, then showcase it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="416" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="189" RevisionGUID="3a9824c5-bd28-4e2c-a7b9-30a5e7044467" CreationDate="2013-05-23T04:31:17.430" UserId="14" Text="If you were invited to bid on it that may have been for a reason. This may sound bad, but I find 'foreign' market developers to be very straight forward in how they work. And not in a good way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you ask for XYZ, you only get XYZ. The problem is XYZ may not be what the client ***needs***. As a qualified and higher paid developer I may suggest a different path to solve your problem, where as a lot of overseas developers will literally build what you ask them to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So to directly answer your question; No. I have never lowered my hourly based on a clients location and have worked with clients on every contient except South America. I have several clients in Cape Town that happily pay my hourly because they understand its for a reason. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't be afraid to explain why you charge what you do!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="418" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="190" RevisionGUID="87193db6-44f0-4e69-914f-080ed7e8f720" CreationDate="2013-05-23T07:00:43.357" UserId="43" Text="If you're UK based and are a member of the Professional Contractors Group, they have [contract templates][1] that you can download from their website, both for working through an intermediary agency and direct with the client. The contract templates have the added incentive of being verified as outside of IR35.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.pcg.org.uk/contract-templates" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="419" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="191" RevisionGUID="bafea6ba-8dd9-4c16-8079-469878ee07ec" CreationDate="2013-05-23T07:23:14.840" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="I am a starting freelancer in the webdevelopment sector. I focus on both personal or one-man business full websites and websites for advanced users for which I write plugins or add features (but don't build the whole site). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to know if there is any rule of thumb for determining whether you should use a fixed-price or a price per hour for these clients. For now, I'm using fixed prices because it adds clarity for both parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the second type, fixed prices are fine. There is a clear functional design and I can estimate the time I'd need for it. For the client, a fixed price is good: they get what they want and they know how much it costs, unlike employees of which you don't know what you get for how much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first type doesn't have any knowledge of programming, most of the time, and doesn't know how much time the development of the product will take. A price per hour may seem useless to them. So _if_ I'd use a price per hour, I'd have to give my clients at least a rough estimate of the time I'd need. This isn't a major problem, I can do that.  &#xD;&#xA;What I'm more worried about is that, since those clients don't have knowledge of the subject, they cannot provide me with a good functional design. Most of the time it's more like &quot;can you make that somewhat lighter&quot; and such. I'm fine with all these minor tweaks, but it takes a lot time, especially contact-with-customer time. Therefore, I would be much happier to use a price per hour. However, that might destroy the good relationship with the client, as he would have in his mind that every minute costs money.  &#xD;&#xA;A solution would be to make a functional design or layout before starting developing, and use a fixed price. However, I don't think I want that. For these clients, it's very hard to make up a nice layout without actually seeing it on the website. This would result in bad products.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, how can I avoid this problem? Should I use a fixed price or price per hour for these clients and what should I do to deliver a good product and keep a good relationship with the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="420" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="191" RevisionGUID="bafea6ba-8dd9-4c16-8079-469878ee07ec" CreationDate="2013-05-23T07:23:14.840" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="Fixed price or per hour for a webdeveloper?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="421" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="191" RevisionGUID="bafea6ba-8dd9-4c16-8079-469878ee07ec" CreationDate="2013-05-23T07:23:14.840" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="|client|price-per-hour|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="422" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="192" RevisionGUID="2cd75f38-964c-4b97-ad36-1d2275e921d5" CreationDate="2013-05-23T07:35:57.367" UserId="43" Text="Your best course of action with these kind of clients is to try and get the main scope agreed up front. You can then give the client a fixed price quote, based on how long you think it will take you. I would also be inclined to add on a contingency of maybe 20% to account for the inevitable small changes that they will want to make. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will also need to make it clear that anything that falls outside of the agreed scope is chargeable on a per time basis. This is why it becomes very important to get as much scope agreed as possible before you start the work. If there are grey areas that you can see, ask for clarification and get that agreed in writing. It will save a lot of pain down the road.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="423" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="193" RevisionGUID="fa117d59-1b83-43cd-b4f1-6f2eac4b39fc" CreationDate="2013-05-23T07:49:49.513" UserId="85" Text="Notwithstanding the other answers, be careful/cautious about using someone else's &quot;standard&quot; template contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is important that the contract reflects the reality of the situation!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also bear in mind that, in most cases, other than defining the financials (probably in a schedule) the contract is only there to define what happens when things go wrong.  So get it right!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="424" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="194" RevisionGUID="e741c6cf-04f6-4ce1-bc69-21777a053a9d" CreationDate="2013-05-23T08:05:05.637" UserId="96" Text="&gt;How can I word contracts so it doesn't look like a single person but isn't being deceptive&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Is it ok for me to &quot;hide&quot; that I am, ultimately small time even though I pour my heart and soul into this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would certainly add to and answer the comments that have been added by people where you don't want to look like a single person business. The idea is that you ARE a single person business, and should be proud of this fact&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will want to display/promote your competency with project management, and demonstrate this to potential clients, maybe even providing references to previous projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A freelance programmer designer is neither 'big-time' or 'small-time', they are just 'freelance'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes a client maybe happier with the fact that you are a one-person business, it can make things a bit more personal for them. Ultimately any business will know that you will want to do a good job on the project as, at the end of the day, it is only your neck/reputation on the line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="425" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="195" RevisionGUID="391c99ab-d8ce-44db-9b06-b2aa66156f6d" CreationDate="2013-05-23T08:40:52.247" UserId="100" Text="I’m a [night owl](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_owl_%28person%29). I’m most productive/creative at night. I go to bed in the morning and sleep until late afternoon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being self-employed, this gives only a small timeframe for contact with clients, as they all follow the &quot;tradtional&quot; working time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess you’d have similar problems working in different time zones. However, this is typically known by the client when they hire you. But they usually don’t know anything about your sleep-wake rhythm. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Should I communicate that I’m a night owl?** I fear that this might deter clients to hire me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or should I try to find solutions without mentioning my sleep-wake rhythm? Maybe to ask for using e-mail or voice-mail (asynchronous conversation) instead of telephone (synchronous)? Would this work? Appointments for meetings/telephone calls could be made per e-mail resp. voice-mail then. I fear that most clients might not like this way as they are used to grab the telephone as soon as they have something in their mind." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="426" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="195" RevisionGUID="391c99ab-d8ce-44db-9b06-b2aa66156f6d" CreationDate="2013-05-23T08:40:52.247" UserId="100" Text="Staying in contact with clients as a night owl?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="427" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="195" RevisionGUID="391c99ab-d8ce-44db-9b06-b2aa66156f6d" CreationDate="2013-05-23T08:40:52.247" UserId="100" Text="|client|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="428" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="195" RevisionGUID="52f67d99-75b3-4759-8986-a5885315eabc" CreationDate="2013-05-23T08:46:03.863" UserId="100" Comment="added 65 characters in body" Text="I’m a [night owl](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_owl_%28person%29). I’m most productive/creative at night. I go to bed in the morning and sleep until late afternoon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being self-employed, this gives only a small timeframe for contact with clients, as they all follow the &quot;tradtional&quot; working time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess you’d have similar problems working in different time zones. However, this is typically known by the client when they hire you. But they usually don’t know anything about your sleep-wake rhythm. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Should I communicate that I’m a night owl?** I fear that this might deter clients to hire me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or should I try to find solutions without mentioning my sleep-wake rhythm? Maybe to ask for using e-mail or voice-mail (asynchronous conversation) instead of telephone (synchronous)? Would this work? Appointments for meetings/telephone calls could be made per e-mail resp. voice-mail then. I fear that most clients might not like this way as they are used to grab the telephone as soon as they have something in their mind, and they expect you to answer the call immediately or shortly.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="429" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="196" RevisionGUID="b23f8369-fdaf-491f-9cf0-a06ef31e4745" CreationDate="2013-05-23T10:22:56.110" UserId="121" Text="Your client should know that you are in a different time zone and he should be well aware that you have your working hours and they have theirs. If you have a short time-frame where both of you are &quot;awake&quot;, you may agree to use this for synchronous communication (e.g. by phone or real-time chat).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Rest of the time, you may communicate via email and the client should not expect a response from you within the next few hours. That's how business in different time zones works. Yes, indeed this will cause some clients to turn away and choose a different contractor, but I am sure you will have plenty of clients in a time zones matching yours. There is no point in forcing yourself to work during unrealistic times during the day, (usually) resulting in poor performance and results (e.g. due to sleepiness or incomfort).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, there may be exceptions to this on exteremely large or important projects where things go down and need to be fixed **URGENTLY** (e.g. a live server experiences downtime and things need to be redirected). This shouldn't be a common thing in your business relationship though, and such scenarios (and the monetary compensation for them) should be arranged in advance in the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**In your scenarion**, where you work on the same time zone with your clients, but prefer to work at night, I suggest you arrange a clear work schedule with your clients (something that you both agree on) or try working for international clients (from a different time zone) that are available during your work hours." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="430" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="197" RevisionGUID="8eb0fa29-e4b0-4526-9678-7acb83b5ccc2" CreationDate="2013-05-23T10:43:10.227" UserId="61" Text="You're absolutely right assuming that your problem has very close relation to the problem  of different time zones. So the answer would be much like the answer to the other question. Here are some ideas I found useful for myself, but YMMV, as usual:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Combine&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;There's no silver bullet. Phone, email, and instant messengers co-exist specifically because they solve communication problems in different ways, so sooner or later you need all of them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let Them Know Before They Call You&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;I find sudden phone calls the biggest plague for effective communication. It should be eliminated at all costs. How? Let's think **why** your client is suddenly calling you. Don't they have other things to do? The answer is &amp;mdash; because **they worry you are no longer there**, or you are behind your schedule.  &#xD;&#xA;Or, maybe, your client is a big company, and they have a dedicated person (call them Alice) responsible for communication with freelancers. But wait, Alice has their own boss (say, Bob). Bob may have entered Alice's room and asked, &quot;hey Alice, what's up with our freelancer?&quot; If Alice does not know, it's a big red flag for me.  &#xD;&#xA;Plus, she will certainly try to call you, and you wouldn't be ready for a report!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**It's your obligation to prevent it, by making sure Alice knew what you are doing at any given moment**. Don't let Alice to call you. If that happens exactly when you are sleeping, *you* are screwed, not Alice or Bob.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Schedule Your Communication&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;* Arrange weekly meetings. Make them short.&#xD;&#xA;* Keep your task-tracking system updated, *always*.&#xD;&#xA;* The same about source repository;&#xD;&#xA;* Be proactive. Don't wait your client called you, do it first *and use your preferred communication tool*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's just a personal opinion, but I always let people know when I'm awake *and* when I'm working. I make it clear that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* At working time, all communication tools are open;&#xD;&#xA;* At the other time (but while I'm awake) they can reach me by phone, but it can happen I'm not answering or I'm not at reach of computer. Email is preferred;&#xD;&#xA;* And yes, sometimes they catch me exactly when I'm sleeping. I call it the price for freedom. :)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="431" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="170" RevisionGUID="0059038b-5c41-4558-8e89-34c141093de9" CreationDate="2013-05-23T11:18:54.617" UserId="52" Comment="added pricing" Text="For Information Technology / Software Development&#xD;&#xA;-&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Master Service Agreement templates:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* [Information Technology Master Service Agreement][1] from Global Data Consultants, LLC (free)&#xD;&#xA;* [Consulting Agreement contracts][3] (see also other categories on the same site; $35/month, credit card not changed if canceled within one week)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Statement of Work templates:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* [Statement of Work (Red design)][2] from Microsoft Office templates (free)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/information-technology-master-service-ag-84601/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/statement-of-work-red-design-TC103923594.aspx&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://contracts.onecle.com/type/64.shtml" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="433" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="198" RevisionGUID="3989c2f4-1bce-4bdc-9513-4a034f078c33" CreationDate="2013-05-23T11:57:52.367" UserId="60" Text="I work with customers in the US and am asleep during most of their work hours.  In general customers should know when they can and can't get ahold of you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't need to mention you are a night owl, but you should set expectations regarding your availability.  For example, &quot;My office hours are from 11am to 9pm&quot; is fine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wouldn't mention your waking cycle.  There could be all kinds of reasons for keeping non-traditional working hours." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="434" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="199" RevisionGUID="b368a23e-83fe-4b3c-a574-b22456771e9b" CreationDate="2013-05-23T11:58:07.747" UserId="135" Text="I do not practice contract law, but my advice is to be very careful about working off someone else's contracts. Different jurisdictions have different rules about what may and may not be enforceable in contracts. If you anticipate having a standard contract with some variation on a per client basis, I'd advise finding a good business lawyer in your area and working with him or her to draft a good contract. It may cost more now, but will save money down the road. The exception is if you have a professional association or similar group in your area that provides sample contracts. Those were most likely drafted by an attorney and an be trusted." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="435" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="198" RevisionGUID="c4640656-214b-4810-afd4-541226ae0550" CreationDate="2013-05-23T12:13:19.027" UserId="60" Comment="added 327 characters in body" Text="I work with customers in the US and am asleep during most of their work hours.  In general customers should know when they can and can't get ahold of you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't need to mention you are a night owl, but you should set expectations regarding your availability.  For example, &quot;My office hours are from 11am to 9pm&quot; is fine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wouldn't mention your waking cycle.  There could be all kinds of reasons for keeping non-traditional working hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One of the huge considerations though is ensuring there is some overlap with their work cycle.  You want to ensure you are available to talk and there may be cases when you may want to get up early.  But as long as you are clear about how to get in contact with you and you can be reliably contacted, I don't see a problem." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="436" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="200" RevisionGUID="f7b9b518-6440-45b7-841f-fa71f8740bbd" CreationDate="2013-05-23T14:09:41.370" UserId="72" Text="If I have a client who is interested in bartering their goods or service for my service, how would I propose negotiations that would protect myself, my client, and my work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="437" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="200" RevisionGUID="f7b9b518-6440-45b7-841f-fa71f8740bbd" CreationDate="2013-05-23T14:09:41.370" UserId="72" Text="How can I negotiate barter for a contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="438" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="200" RevisionGUID="f7b9b518-6440-45b7-841f-fa71f8740bbd" CreationDate="2013-05-23T14:09:41.370" UserId="72" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="439" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="138" RevisionGUID="30ec93a1-ebb9-4e75-b55a-3d414319a67a" CreationDate="2013-05-23T14:17:57.803" UserId="102" Comment="added 10 characters in body" Text="I think there is only one general advice that would apply everywhere. You should have ICE (In Case of Emergency) list, at least one close person should know where it is (someone you trust to actually follow it) and on that list one point would be &quot;Call all my current clients and tell them I wont be able to finish the contract on time / never because of what happened. List of my current clients with appropriate contacts is here: (location)&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is really your clients responsibility to make sure they dont depend solely on you - that is the price for raising quality of work and cutting down the costs at the same time by using freelancers. Your responsibility is only to make sure that they know they need to carry out their contingency plan." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="440" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="122" RevisionGUID="aa58ca76-b151-4dcd-988f-722dfc18ff9a" CreationDate="2013-05-23T14:19:05.637" UserId="133" Comment="Corrected spelling" Text="I would advise following approach:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) **Define the scope of the work** (which means &quot;what will be delivered&quot;). With ongoing project like this you wont be able (most likely) to do it retrospectively (because you definitely do not want to damage your good relationship with the client), but you can do it with new request - describe your solution (i.e. module, that will have following functions and settings: &lt;here goes your list&gt;, admin will interact with it this way: &lt;description of admin gui&gt; and users will interact with it this way &lt;user gui&gt; )&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) **Define, what is not in scope** - This is actually very important, because many future enhancements you can expect (based on your expertise) and you can decide with the client if they are in the scope or not. The change in that decision later is clearly change request and you will have less difficult negotiations to cope with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) When you hit grey area like you just described, ask the client to pay, but first tell him what the change means for you. Imagine talking like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You: &quot;You are asking me to add feature XYZ. That is reasonable, but since it was not described in the original request, it will cost me XY hours of work. Would you be willing to pay the work please?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;Client: &quot;But we agreed fixed price for the solution, you should calculate in unexpected changes like this&quot;&#xD;&#xA;You: &quot; Not everything can be calculated in advance. You have formal right to demand this feature as part of solution, but understand that if you force me to do it for free, it will have impact on the speed and quality - I will be forced to do it as quickly as possible so I wont loose much money on that. In the end, it will harm us both, please reconsider...&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And so on. In the end, if the client is honest and not just trying to take advantage of you, you will arrive to compromise and you will get at least some money for extra work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he will rip you off, you know that you have to be strictly formal next time not giving him any chances (and maybe not giving him your best, because that is reserved for clients who appreciate your work and are honest with you)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="441" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="122" RevisionGUID="aa58ca76-b151-4dcd-988f-722dfc18ff9a" CreationDate="2013-05-23T14:19:05.637" Comment="Proposed by 133 approved by 102 edit id of 44" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="442" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="201" RevisionGUID="5c6dd85e-b9ea-4185-b2b9-b9b73f270069" CreationDate="2013-05-23T14:26:59.210" UserId="102" Text="Your client should definitely know that you have different working hours - I would just give him timeframe when I will be responding to calls, skype, etc. And then observe the reaction and explain my working hours if needed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that point if they dont like that you are available for example from 15:00 to 2:00, you can  do something that will gain you trust - **finding out why it matters, why 2 or 3 hours overlap of mutual working hours is not enough** Because you will show you care about your client and you might find out that the reason is so important that you either need to accomodate them or reject the contract (finding ad-hoc solutions would be mean you will be unhappy and sleepy and they will be unhappy and sleepy).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short - offer them contact hours, if they dont like them explain the reason, if they still dont like them find out underlying cause and decide how to proceed further." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="443" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="200" RevisionGUID="2846706b-4724-47b5-8411-7d5981e73042" CreationDate="2013-05-23T14:35:33.183" UserId="72" Comment="added 414 characters in body" Text="If I have a client who is interested in bartering their goods or service for my service, how would I propose negotiations that would protect myself, my client, and my work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is offering bartering the construction of a hand made guitar in exchange for a web site that I will be building alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since there is no plan for cash to change hands, the value of services seems hard to quantify. How should I write out a contract that ensures proper delivery of goods and services on both ends? Also, should I take into account any taxes, even though no money is changing hands?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="444" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="202" RevisionGUID="a950eb6d-579a-4d71-bd6e-6e3b7d89f504" CreationDate="2013-05-23T14:45:43.370" UserId="102" Text="I cant advise regarding taxes, I am no expert in that field (and it will vary depending on the country). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But for the other part - I think the client can specify (at least roughly) the price of the guitar (and I presume you play the guitar so you can tell if his price estimate would be what you will be willing to pay for such guitar if you went to the shop to buy it).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can specify **what you will supply for such price** (and I cant stress out this part enough - **what is not in the scope** of contract).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So it will be in general normal contract - you specify what you deliver and what you wont deliver and the price will be the guitar instead of money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is one drawback though - you cannot ask for &quot;cash advance&quot; - if he crosses you, you wont have any compensation for your work. But you might agree on some kind of compromise (i.e. he will pay the deposit, you build the site and when he provides the guitar you will return the deposit). That depends on if client can be trusted and if you believe that the client wont get into financial difficulties before completing his end of the bargain (in that case you can bet it will be much harder to get what is yours and it will take longer). Since he proposed the barter I would pay close attention to this detail." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="445" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="203" RevisionGUID="fae8f1fc-8042-4a34-9c0c-e9097a189b1f" CreationDate="2013-05-23T15:07:26.997" UserId="47" Text="I think the definitive answer to this question is very strongly dependent upon the region in which you're considering doing business, so I think you could improve your question by including a region-specific tag or at least mentioning the country (perhaps even state) where the business transaction would take place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In particular, in the US, barter exchanges are considered taxable revenue and must be reported to the IRS. The [Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (TEFRA) of 1982][1] did that for us. However, other countries have different laws related to bartering, which is why your question could be improved with region information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d097:H.R.4961:" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="446" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="200" RevisionGUID="1c0f3367-2e11-44cc-8ee3-a953d7e4b448" CreationDate="2013-05-23T15:18:30.970" UserId="72" Comment="added 79 characters in body; edited tags" Text="If I have a client who is interested in bartering their goods or service for my service, how would I propose negotiations that would protect myself, my client, and my work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is offering bartering the construction of a hand made guitar in exchange for a web site that I will be building alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since there is no plan for cash to change hands, the value of services seems hard to quantify. How should I write out a contract that ensures proper delivery of goods and services on both ends? Also, should I take into account any taxes, even though no money is changing hands?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[The entire transaction will take place in the state of New York in the US]" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="447" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="200" RevisionGUID="1c0f3367-2e11-44cc-8ee3-a953d7e4b448" CreationDate="2013-05-23T15:18:30.970" UserId="72" Comment="added 79 characters in body; edited tags" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="448" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="204" RevisionGUID="6f61e2c3-8c2c-4e82-86ce-a56a82a5fcde" CreationDate="2013-05-23T15:41:16.977" UserId="43" Text="Can I claim the use of home as office allowance if the work that I perform there is (currently) unpaid? I am currently working on a web project that I'm developing in my office at home. I'm spending a significant portion of my week working on the project, but it's out of hours (usually 4-6 hours per evening and some time on the weekend). So it's a high sum total of weekly hours, but it isn't my day job (I'm working in a contract for a client during the day) so I'm wondering whether I would be able to claim the allowance or whether it's simply a red flag that it isn't worth waving?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="449" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="204" RevisionGUID="6f61e2c3-8c2c-4e82-86ce-a56a82a5fcde" CreationDate="2013-05-23T15:41:16.977" UserId="43" Text="Claiming use of home as office allowance if the work is unpaid" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="450" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="204" RevisionGUID="6f61e2c3-8c2c-4e82-86ce-a56a82a5fcde" CreationDate="2013-05-23T15:41:16.977" UserId="43" Text="|legal|expenses|uk|hmrc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="451" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="195" RevisionGUID="6cbde07b-f0c3-43e2-a1fc-b0c56e515f27" CreationDate="2013-05-23T15:56:27.243" UserId="121" Comment="Clarified title for international audience, who don't know the meaning of the phrase &quot;night owl&quot;" Text="Staying in Contact with Clients In Different Time Zones" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="452" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="195" RevisionGUID="6cbde07b-f0c3-43e2-a1fc-b0c56e515f27" CreationDate="2013-05-23T15:56:27.243" Comment="Proposed by 121 approved by 69 edit id of 45" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="453" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="173" RevisionGUID="fe771f4e-3a61-4b03-b81e-a53ef52b0515" CreationDate="2013-05-23T15:56:32.993" UserId="52" Comment="fixed grammar" Text="Freelancing has its advantages - don't get me wrong; however, many people want to be reassured that they are dealing with a big company. Since I can't possibly provide this, how can I mitigate these problems?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I know my finances are sound, but how can I reassure the client that I am not going to disappear tomorrow?&#xD;&#xA;- How can I word contracts so they don't appear to come from single person, yet aren't deceptive?&#xD;&#xA;- Is it ok for me to &quot;hide&quot; that I am, ultimately, small time, even though I pour my heart and soul into this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="454" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="173" RevisionGUID="fe771f4e-3a61-4b03-b81e-a53ef52b0515" CreationDate="2013-05-23T15:56:32.993" UserId="52" Comment="fixed grammar" Text="How can I mitigate not being part of a big team?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="455" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="173" RevisionGUID="fe771f4e-3a61-4b03-b81e-a53ef52b0515" CreationDate="2013-05-23T15:56:32.993" Comment="Proposed by 52 approved by 69 edit id of 46" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="456" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="205" RevisionGUID="371d8efc-6ea2-4226-bcd3-c2397cc3a394" CreationDate="2013-05-23T16:33:03.347" UserId="91" Text="You don't have to receive wages to claim home office as a business expense, however, you do need to use the office exclusively for that business and not for personal purposes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For the US,** see [this summary from TurboTax](http://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Small-Business-Taxes/The-Home-Office-Deduction/INF12067.html) for more detailed information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For the UK,** as long as the office space has no other use **for the time you are working** you can deduct the expenses for that specific time frame. See [this explanation from HMRC](http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/BIM47810.htm)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="457" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="195" RevisionGUID="caad79b9-5d5f-43b9-b56e-2bf1c642d6a5" CreationDate="2013-05-23T16:42:35.230" UserId="100" Comment="changed title to reflect both reasons for having different work hours" Text="Staying in contact with clients when I have a different sleep-wake rhythm (being a night owl or living in a different time zone)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="458" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="206" RevisionGUID="aab9ff47-6c24-4389-81b5-3863fbe44259" CreationDate="2013-05-23T17:09:25.853" UserId="77" Text="I typically leave it up to the client to decide.  I'll offer them an hourly rate, but also offer to work with them at an hourly rate to work on the project definition and then quote them a project rate based on the fully flushed out project description.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The real key with any kind of fixed rate work is to be sure you know what is needed, to be sure that the client knows what they are asking for and to be sure that they understand that varying from that is going to cost more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The big risk is that if any of these key points aren't true, either the client ends up being unhappy with the finished product you provide (which is bad for business) or they end up constantly wanting changes (which is bad for your time and profitability, as well as for their view of how the project is going.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they want a fixed quote up front before the project plan is to a point where you are confident that it won't result in them arguing things should be different to fulfill it, then I would recommend walking away unless you really need the job.  I've been there before and it generally just brings pain for everyone if you don't." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="459" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="207" RevisionGUID="b15ef9df-7dde-4c79-ad2d-99f24cb5218f" CreationDate="2013-05-23T17:18:22.717" UserId="70" Text="There are many options available for accepting payments (Paypal, Authorize.Net, personal/business check, escrow, etc.).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a good way to decide which option (or combination of options) should be used to reflect professionalism as well as protect the freelancer and client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="460" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="207" RevisionGUID="b15ef9df-7dde-4c79-ad2d-99f24cb5218f" CreationDate="2013-05-23T17:18:22.717" UserId="70" Text="Does the type of payment method reflect the implied professionalism of a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="461" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="207" RevisionGUID="b15ef9df-7dde-4c79-ad2d-99f24cb5218f" CreationDate="2013-05-23T17:18:22.717" UserId="70" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="462" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="208" RevisionGUID="6bc03792-7ab0-4c9a-8b48-6a9172bdf078" CreationDate="2013-05-23T17:38:51.600" UserId="127" Text="Payment options are really less about the freelancer's professional, and more about the kind of customers the freelancer works with and what they are comfortable with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the customers that I work with (small, local businesses), I am paid via business check. I'd prefer to use an electronic payment, but my customers are comfortable with the current approach and in 10 years of freelancing I've never had an issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other customer types may need different options. But I don't think it reflects on the freelancer's professionalism, unless they will only accept payment options that repeatedly aren't appropriate for the type of customers they are working with." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="466" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="210" RevisionGUID="040c89e0-3796-436f-b9f3-01b1e8a17e04" CreationDate="2013-05-23T20:25:31.930" UserId="78" Text="What is the effect of being employed full-time for longer period of time on finding job as contractor afterwards?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;AFAIK when companies are looking for contractors, many short- and medium-time projects are an advantage, especially when someone was a contractor then. But if someone has a few years experience as contractor, and then works as employee for, say, 5 years, would it be evaluated negatively? In Poland I've met with negative attitude for people working as employees in contractor industry (they were considered claiming, too security-oriented and inflexible). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I expect the situation, than when another candidate with similar experience will be taken into account, but he will have only contractor positions in his CV, he would be preferred?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm especially interested in Western-European realities." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="467" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="210" RevisionGUID="040c89e0-3796-436f-b9f3-01b1e8a17e04" CreationDate="2013-05-23T20:25:31.930" UserId="78" Text="Effect on employee-periods in CV on finding contractor jobs?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="468" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="210" RevisionGUID="040c89e0-3796-436f-b9f3-01b1e8a17e04" CreationDate="2013-05-23T20:25:31.930" UserId="78" Text="|contracts|eu|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="469" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="211" RevisionGUID="e262194a-794e-4e36-9c7b-90a9b2941cea" CreationDate="2013-05-23T21:37:31.543" UserId="14" Text="This is very much personal preference than reflecting professionalism. Not sure if I can plug a specific service, but I switched to Harvest about a year ago and haven't looked back. I can now accept all major CC's (via Stripe) + paypal and a few other options if I wished to activate them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously clients can also mail a check. 9/10 clients pay via CC. Occasionally I have a client that wishes to do bank transfer or something odd, but it's pretty rare. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="470" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="212" RevisionGUID="6a653d52-7cd1-4149-810e-5713f706a166" CreationDate="2013-05-24T00:59:27.337" UserId="60" Text="I think you should step back a bit from the question.  In my experience the good clients usually are hiring based on your presence.  The CV is a guide to that presence.  Employee positions are not really necessarily either relevant or irrelevant to that presence.  So it depends.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are just starting out, chances are your CV will have mostly employee positions.  That isn't itself a problem, but how you frame them might be.  Ideally you want to look at the experience as if it was consulting.  What did you do there that is relevant to your freelancing or consulting direction?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the fundamental question you have to ask yourself is &quot;how do I want to position myself?&quot;  Then add relevant employment and contract positions there.    Pay attention to how you present it though." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="472" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="213" RevisionGUID="a9d87897-c038-41f2-b33d-61e444172e01" CreationDate="2013-05-24T01:58:57.150" UserId="60" Text="Regarding taxes, in theory (at least in the US) you are supposed to report fair value of goods received but that is difficult to quantify.  After all nothing has a singular, objective fair market value but rather a range of plausible values.  The way I do it is simply to invoice the customer for the fair value of my services, and then buy their goods and services out of their accounts receivable balance.  In this view it isn't really a &quot;barter.&quot;  Rather it is a straight-forward invoice and collection of debts albeit in a non-traditional manner.  There may be agreements which specify the manner of the goods, but the point is that the fair value to me is what I would have invoiced someone else for the same work.  The fair value to my client is the work that I did (that would have been paid for in cash) and so as long as the value is plausibly around that range, I don't see anyone questioning that approach.  If the value is not plausibly in that range, you wonder who is being taken advantage of.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few things I would prefer to see in the contract if it were me:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Customer has option of paying in monetary or non-monetary forms.  You invoice for a monetary amount.  They deliver a non-monetary item in payment.  You can include in the contract then that X will be deemed payment for Y.  The reason here is that this helps both of you.  They get to record the sale at your invoice price.  You get to record the purchase at your price.  You have documentation of an agreed upon value of the goods to be delivered.  Worst case, you just get what you would have billed someone else.  In the event that services are not delivered by the customer this also gives you a way to more easily collect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Put the goods and services delivery terms along with payment terms together.  Delivery of services or goods by them is payment for your invoices." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="473" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="213" RevisionGUID="b8b43202-8cf2-4016-be98-0566b24e9fa9" CreationDate="2013-05-24T02:04:46.830" UserId="60" Comment="added 68 characters in body" Text="Regarding taxes, in theory (at least in the US) you are supposed to report fair value of goods received but that is difficult to quantify.  After all nothing has a singular, objective fair market value but rather a range of plausible values.  The way I do it is simply to invoice the customer for the fair value of my services, and then buy their goods and services out of their accounts receivable balance.  In this view it isn't really a &quot;barter.&quot;  Rather it is a straight-forward invoice and collection of debts albeit in a non-traditional manner.  There may be agreements which specify the manner of the goods, but the point is that the fair value to me is what I would have invoiced someone else for the same work.  The fair value to my client is the work that I did (that would have been paid for in cash) and so as long as the value is plausibly around that range, I don't see anyone questioning that approach.  If the value is not plausibly in that range, you wonder who is being taken advantage of.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would also assume that any applicable sales taxes would apply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few things I would prefer to see in the contract if it were me:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Customer has option of paying in monetary or non-monetary forms.  You invoice for a monetary amount.  They deliver a non-monetary item in payment.  You can include in the contract then that X will be deemed payment for Y.  The reason here is that this helps both of you.  They get to record the sale at your invoice price.  You get to record the purchase at your price.  You have documentation of an agreed upon value of the goods to be delivered.  Worst case, you just get what you would have billed someone else.  In the event that services are not delivered by the customer this also gives you a way to more easily collect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Put the goods and services delivery terms along with payment terms together.  Delivery of services or goods by them is payment for your invoices." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="474" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="214" RevisionGUID="a25f612c-1006-4d51-8ff4-d12979136ca2" CreationDate="2013-05-24T05:06:25.863" UserId="75" Text="For a freelancer starting out, any method is usually fine. When I was freelancing, I accepted Cash and Cheque, simply because I was not big enough in my first year to take a Credit Card while still making a profit. Company cheques are usually safe, but there will probably be a couple in your lifetime that bounce. The main thing is, you want a paper trail.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This can be accomplished even with cash, by issuing a receipt of course, but Credit Card processing, Cheques, PayPal, etc. will all have receipts and paper trails to go back on as well. In Canada, banks charge the least amount for depositing company cheques to small business/freelance workers; the rates for Visa can be between 6-9%, plus any extra bank or machine fees! This can easily turn out to be a lot of your profit, and should be taken into account. One trick to avoid some of these fees is to offer a discount if paying by cheque or cash, but do not increase the price for Visa or Mastercard; that is illegal in Canada.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In theory, it will depend though, again on the project size, and your fees for accepting payment. I do not have experience receiving money with Paypal though, so I would be unable to comment on that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="475" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="215" RevisionGUID="fcc97c0b-54ee-4727-bac4-24a0bc43678c" CreationDate="2013-05-24T05:08:37.810" UserId="78" Text="You live in USA and your costs are in american dollars. While 30% is not a very big difference, the hourly rates in many countries are many times lower then yours. It's a fact that is good known to each existing company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the company was expecting the local rates, they would not contact the freelancer from the country that is considered expensive. They would probably look up in India, Turkey or Eastern Europe. If they contact you, that means that they expect the services on international level, and they are usually also charged with international rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, the Prime Teknoloji, authors of PrimeFaces, are company placed in Turkey, but they charge 200 USD for hour (according to official site) which is the rate that would you expect from Western European small or middle-size IT company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if you feel confident about your services quality, charge with international rates. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="477" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="216" RevisionGUID="654b1eeb-046e-44f8-b0c5-91013c4d2a2e" CreationDate="2013-05-24T05:18:12.840" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="478" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="217" RevisionGUID="850ec258-db85-4a0b-9f62-6c1e7d7d2a91" CreationDate="2013-05-24T05:18:12.840" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="479" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6" RevisionGUID="54af4126-b352-44e6-b0c3-d20fb929e832" CreationDate="2013-05-24T05:25:47.413" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|client|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="480" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="218" RevisionGUID="c66714f6-275d-44ce-bc43-152981d012b9" CreationDate="2013-05-24T05:27:28.357" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="481" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="219" RevisionGUID="8f17b832-11d8-4c63-b81d-1507754471f7" CreationDate="2013-05-24T05:27:28.357" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="482" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="101" RevisionGUID="6df864f3-75ed-4fab-87bf-f5255baa5d18" CreationDate="2013-05-24T05:38:02.080" UserId="80" Comment="added 385 characters in body" Text="I am in the software development industry and I'm an experienced software engineer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am new to freelancing websites. The problem is I have zero rating and I can't get any projects even if I bid the lowest amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This in turn prevents me from getting any rating which prevents me from getting any new projects(even if I bid the lowest amount). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am stuck in this cycle.  How do I get my first job at a freelancing site? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT:** Like most of you are mentioning,I tried the approach where I bid the lowest possible amount.The problem is there are many people with 5 star ratings(max ratings) that are offering to do the job with the lowest possible rate.So there's me with no ratings and lowest rates and there's others with max ratings and lowest possible rates.So at the end I don't get the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="483" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="220" RevisionGUID="d82c0879-e010-4251-8b14-6e72021c68f6" CreationDate="2013-05-24T05:41:59.830" UserId="75" Text="As weird as it may seem (and nonconstructive): the biggest tip off is your gut feeling. Trust it, and you are usually good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But what about only email correspondence? It's harder to get a gut feeling about this. What I would do for projects is to try to do a dry run in my head and on paper. I used to make diagrams, even for network layouts and programs, that would help me gauge the time and potential for change. The above tips are excellent as well, but it may be too late for some of them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, do not be afraid to ask other professionals in your area what it's like to work for the company. Ask questions such as *&quot;Was it easy communicating with Mr X?&quot;*, *&quot;Was there ever a problem getting through a project with Ms Y?&quot;*. Word travels fast between contractors if you build yourself a little network of people you trust. There is nothing wrong with working with other people in your industry too, as long as you aren't stepping on each other's toes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, what about new companies asking for work to be done? This is the most dangerous, but you could also be setting up a reputation for them, as well as for yourself. Take it with a grain of salt, but also protect yourself. The scope of work will be your friend, especially once it's signed. Check other questions on this site for how to write one or where to download sample contracts that you can tweak to your needs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="484" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="221" RevisionGUID="64e7bb17-8b2c-484e-8bfe-a416c2c22766" CreationDate="2013-05-24T06:11:21.490" UserId="80" Text="I am also working as a Software Engineer but I want to add to my pay by freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;What is the best way to find clients in my own city? I am open to doing small projects like for schools or small businesses.But I was wondering how do I ask them if they want any projects when they are not advertising anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I approach people in this situation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="485" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="221" RevisionGUID="64e7bb17-8b2c-484e-8bfe-a416c2c22766" CreationDate="2013-05-24T06:11:21.490" UserId="80" Text="Best approach to finding clients in your own city?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="486" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="221" RevisionGUID="64e7bb17-8b2c-484e-8bfe-a416c2c22766" CreationDate="2013-05-24T06:11:21.490" UserId="80" Text="|client|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="487" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="210" RevisionGUID="52f38a2a-194e-41f1-9ce7-b0652256ad17" CreationDate="2013-05-24T06:15:40.867" UserId="75" Comment="Expanded 'AFAIK'" Text="What is the effect of being employed full-time for longer period of time on finding job as contractor afterwards?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as I know, when companies are looking for contractors, many short- and medium-time projects are an advantage, especially when someone was a contractor then. But if someone has a few years experience as contractor, and then works as employee for, say, 5 years, would it be evaluated negatively? In Poland I've met with negative attitude for people working as employees in contractor industry (they were considered claiming, too security-oriented and inflexible). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I expect the situation, than when another candidate with similar experience will be taken into account, but he will have only contractor positions in his CV, he would be preferred?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm especially interested in Western-European realities." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="488" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="210" RevisionGUID="52f38a2a-194e-41f1-9ce7-b0652256ad17" CreationDate="2013-05-24T06:15:40.867" Comment="Proposed by 75 approved by 78 edit id of 47" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="489" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="222" RevisionGUID="2136aa20-a460-47d1-b513-44f9ba4fb56c" CreationDate="2013-05-24T06:16:33.993" UserId="66" Text="you can get by&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. add on news paper &#xD;&#xA;2. contact directly  to college and company you think they might need or useful for them " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="490" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="223" RevisionGUID="c1021054-2f60-420d-813b-bee95cda69a7" CreationDate="2013-05-24T06:18:06.987" UserId="75" Text="You need to learn to market yourself, and evaluate their needs. When I did sales for an international copier company, we were taught about SPIN selling: **S** ituation, **P** roblem Analysis, **I** mplication, **N** eeds Payoff. See below:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;![enter image description here][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What does all this mean?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Situation is knowing that something needs to be done; but what? We need to find out what the Problem being faced is. We then need to show the client the Implication of having this problem, even if they don't realize it's a problem right now. Then, the Needs Payoff describes what you can do to fix this problem for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is just a brief summary, but I would recommend reading a book about it called [Spin Selling by Neil Rackham](http://www.amazon.ca/SPIN-Selling-Neil-Rackham/dp/0070511136), as it goes into GREAT detail about selling, even if you don't know what you have to sell.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/Eq9Ge.jpg" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="491" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="222" RevisionGUID="b56a3096-2f2f-4296-99aa-a15ceaf39e67" CreationDate="2013-05-24T06:28:31.867" UserId="66" Comment="added 10 characters in body" Text="You can get by&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Advertisement on news paper &#xD;&#xA;2. Contact directly  to college and company you think they might need or useful for them " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="492" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="224" RevisionGUID="5fa6c47f-9b08-4df1-a555-d297f50daa8c" CreationDate="2013-05-24T07:34:36.977" UserId="60" Text="The most important thing is to find contacts, get to know them, and make sure they know you are around.  Getting involved in the chamber of commerce and other organizations are good ways to help ensure that everyone knows you are around.  Don't expect anything immediately.  Just focus on building your professional network.  Consider approaching these individuals for marketing research and otherwise keeping both of you thinking about how you can help eachother.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The simple fact is that when you are self-employed, everything you do is marketing.  For example, this post is in part marketing myself and my abilities to the self-employed community.  That may seem somewhat afield from what you are looking at, but it shouldn't be.  Here I am being helpful and increasing my visibility among a possible set of contacts who might even bring me business one day.  You can do the same in social circles if you are selective about them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second thing you can do is make a list of your current friends and such and approach them about your new venture, and see if any of them have ideas.  They may not be interested in hiring you but they may have feedback, or may even know someone who does need it.  The more people know what you are doing, the more work will come your way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="493" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="125" RevisionGUID="b609ced3-e286-49bf-b872-992d3dd0befb" CreationDate="2013-05-24T12:08:22.573" UserId="75" Comment="Spelling; readability; grammar" Text="You should always aggree on the scope of work (what is in the scope and even more importantly - explicitly describe what is not in the scope). This benefits both you and the client. The **first red flag** is when client is trying to avoid commitment to agreed scope, trying to change it or trying to have it only as verbal agreement (not part of the contract). If you can't get him sign anything, assume your final stance and don't back off. The client will either come to his senses or lose interest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When something like that happens in the middle of project, ask yourself: &quot;Is this worth the money I am getting?&quot;. You are freelancing for a reason - you want freedom and happiness. If the project prevents this, force the contract into closure. If there are no penalties for termination, just do it and find yourself better client. If there are fines, just work only as hard as the pay justifies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you get silly demands, just reject them politely. If you get stressed by communication, say it to the client and ask him/her to call you when he/she made up his mind. The client won't like it much, but in my experience, people like that will always find a reason why they shouldn't be satisfied. Only thing you *can* influence is your own sense of standing up to your own standards - being profesional, polite and deliver work you are paid for in high quality." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="494" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="125" RevisionGUID="b609ced3-e286-49bf-b872-992d3dd0befb" CreationDate="2013-05-24T12:08:22.573" Comment="Proposed by 75 approved by 102 edit id of 52" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="496" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="21" RevisionGUID="0b791ea7-077a-4cbd-b27f-c572c8a3f640" CreationDate="2013-05-24T16:01:06.367" UserId="69" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|expenses|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="497" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="174" RevisionGUID="9d32850f-03be-4f8c-b554-e281ea735818" CreationDate="2013-05-24T16:01:19.430" UserId="69" Comment="edited tags" Text="|usa|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="498" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="225" RevisionGUID="289130a0-7fc7-4d51-a1f4-be034c254c5c" CreationDate="2013-05-24T16:05:12.550" UserId="78" Text="The professionalism means you should offer the payment options that would be the most comfortable and available to [al]most [all] your customers. It's very annoying when someone offers only those payment options who are not available to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should for sure accept bank payments, since it will be the options available for the most of the customers (in most European countries the bank account is mandatory for every company, so you can expect that every company-customer would be able to send you money via bank payments). Checks and cash when applicable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paypal and other similar services are great for international payments, but it is (in my opinion at least) very unprofessional to accept only such payment methods (since the customers that have no credit cart/paypal/similar would be opted out).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a lot of customers in EU, it would be very recommended to open a bank account in EU, the same applies to other regions. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="499" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="217" RevisionGUID="4601bcc3-d81f-4abc-8c00-b28f904a803e" CreationDate="2013-05-24T16:05:25.750" UserId="75" Comment="added 92 characters in body" Text="Questions with this tag should refer to how to market yourself/company to the general public" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="500" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="217" RevisionGUID="4601bcc3-d81f-4abc-8c00-b28f904a803e" CreationDate="2013-05-24T16:05:25.750" Comment="Proposed by 75 approved by 69 edit id of 49" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="501" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="218" RevisionGUID="6ba84a12-4bc1-41cd-b442-6d19ff9f1a48" CreationDate="2013-05-24T16:06:21.630" UserId="75" Comment="added 225 characters in body" Text="Attracting new clients is usually one of the hardest jobs a new freelancer has to take care of. With this tag, ask some questions about methods for obtaining new clients, marketing of getting new clients, or even advertising." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="502" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="218" RevisionGUID="6ba84a12-4bc1-41cd-b442-6d19ff9f1a48" CreationDate="2013-05-24T16:06:21.630" Comment="Proposed by 75 approved by 69 edit id of 50" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="503" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="226" RevisionGUID="5e0ffc9e-b6f8-418e-be5b-45d5ab4b57d0" CreationDate="2013-05-24T16:15:06.457" UserId="78" Text="It depends on the type of services you provide and it should be taken into account before starting to offer such services in particular region.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you offer written translation or writing company blog articles, for example, you can write in offer how long it would maximal take to finish the task (for example - translations up to 20 pages withing 3 work days). In such business model it's completely unimportant if you work at night or on day. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if the company usually needs some translations urgently, they will ask you about that anyway. They will usually expect that your working hours will be similar to theirs and that you will be checking mails/answering phones/etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are implementing a part of corporation's IT system, and this requires the arrangements, skype conferences etc., your working hours should at least overlap, but it also depends on client. Some companies will expect that if you're working for them, you should be reachable under phone from 9am. to 5pm., for example. But if your tasks are completely independent, they could accept, that you will become specification via mail and provide the product within N days, in that case it doesn't matter again in which hours you work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So summming up, if you have untypical day/night rhythm, it limits your possibilities, but they are still immense. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="504" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="227" RevisionGUID="d3d1e388-c4fc-4421-9279-12faf0e55bac" CreationDate="2013-05-24T16:25:24.117" UserId="78" Text="It depends. At first, from what you define as requirements. If the requirements are where you have to work (remote, or by client) it's the crucial element and it must be written down. Otherwise they could say you should go to the most remote location within the country/region/continent. The working hours are also crucial. The dress code is usually something that isn't written down and you are expected to comply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if you mean **technical requirement**, well, it depends. It depends if you are payed for **result**, or as **time and material**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In first mode you're payed if you accomplish something, for example a web site. You will become fixed amount of money now matter how much it will take. So the requirements must be written down, and as precisely as possible. If that is not met, you could in worst case end in never-ending project and never have your money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In **time and material** mode, however, you are hired as specialist and you are payed for hours. It's very typical that the requirements are flexible and change very often, but it shouldn't concern you because the more the requirements change, the more will the work take and the more money you will become. This is actually the most typical IT-contractor scenario that I have experienced. In that case you are quasi-employee and you're a part of long-term process, where often the requirements aren't well defined in the beginning. So writing them down is neither possible nor necessary." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="505" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="228" RevisionGUID="b0649c6f-b717-4ce8-aa6c-255ec2618f87" CreationDate="2013-05-24T16:35:50.450" UserId="78" Text="It depends how your contract is constructed. I was working how a long time on single contract, but I've never signed any contract for undefined period. There was always a **fixed-time** agreement (3 to 6 months) which was prolonged on the end of the period. So every such prolongation is de facto **occasion for renegotiating** the deal. If you have undefined-period contract, it could require to break that contract in order to change it. If such breaking requires mutual agreement with client, you're in the weeker position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But independently of formal things with contract, each **renegotiation** must be **accepted mutually**. And it's much much easier to ask for higher rate when signing new contract with new customer, than to renegotiate the existing. The customer knows you and is used to that, how much your hourly rate is (which usually results in **impression**, how much your **work is worth** for them). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would look for some **objective** factors for increasing the rate. If you learn new things, it's not enough per se, because it doesn't affect directly the customer, as long as you do the same things as before. But if your **responsibilities** in the project **change**, that's the good point. For example, if you were only programming middle tier, and now you're responsible also for writing SQL queries and tuning database, it's a great point to say that your new tasks are requiring higher qualifications and therefore should be also better payed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="506" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="229" RevisionGUID="e709dc7b-c608-4a29-9fed-491a976a5b01" CreationDate="2013-05-24T16:45:52.300" UserId="78" Text="In short **you can't** and you shouldn't try. This it how it looks, that big companies are working with big companies, and small companies are working with small companies. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's of course depending on what you do, if the big company needs translator for some market marginal for them, they will probably consider hiring freelancer than calling big translation company. But if they need to translate thousands of invoices daily, they will either cooperate with big company or start their own translation department.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course big companies and big contracts means big money. But it's not only big earnings, but also **enormous penalties** for exceeding deadlines, SLAs etc. Many big companies have gone insolvent because of such penalties! I know of many middle-size companies claiming they would **never** sign a contract with big companies because **the risk is too big!** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please note that every company can check her partner before signing contract, and the big companies will **certainly** do that. So they will know the type of company you are, the staring capital, the number of people employed etc. Even if your finances are very sound, you'll still qualify as **less-than-1-million-$-company**." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="507" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="230" RevisionGUID="e70cc402-9ead-48f6-91be-3f9c284fd844" CreationDate="2013-05-24T22:43:13.900" UserId="14" Text="Short answer: Yes and I HIGHLY suggest contacting an accountant! It's generally not as expensive as you might think and can save you some headache." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="508" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="231" RevisionGUID="5380940f-b1db-4241-ae27-6a454c4d9a59" CreationDate="2013-05-25T03:03:19.183" UserId="50" Text="The first year of self-employment, you do not have to file quarterly. After that yes you do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="509" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="232" RevisionGUID="e3ae0be8-8323-4c76-8911-1be628e88fd6" CreationDate="2013-05-25T03:08:56.397" UserId="151" Text="I am an indy dev, and am wondering how much time I should spend developing open source components that might have a large user base, in order to increase my visibility." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="510" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="232" RevisionGUID="e3ae0be8-8323-4c76-8911-1be628e88fd6" CreationDate="2013-05-25T03:08:56.397" UserId="151" Text="How much time should I spend on open source work to advertise myself?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="511" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="232" RevisionGUID="e3ae0be8-8323-4c76-8911-1be628e88fd6" CreationDate="2013-05-25T03:08:56.397" UserId="151" Text="|programmer|advertising|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="512" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="233" RevisionGUID="7949dd6b-700f-460d-958c-77309495b128" CreationDate="2013-05-25T03:30:51.657" UserId="50" Text="Get involved in the tech community. Find a local user group for the languages/platforms you are proficient in and propose to do a talk. Someone in the crowd has a need and you'll be the perfect fit." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="513" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="234" RevisionGUID="206ba8fc-f0ed-46dc-a2d9-e7586cae6fff" CreationDate="2013-05-25T03:52:37.843" UserId="47" Text="I'm just getting started as a freelance author and it seems like I'm not getting enough attention from editors to make this financially viable as an exclusive arrangement, so I'd like to build up my reputation in the best ways possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to me that I should be trying to write as much as I possibly can on as many different topics as possible, but as I think about it more carefully tonight, I wonder if that's really the best plan after all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The essence of my question is: &quot;To draw more well-paying jobs, should I try to be a generalist and write about everything and anything, or should I be more of a specialist, maybe writing a weekly column on one subject area?&quot; Please justify your answer with first-hand experiences, cogent arguments, and examples on why you think one plan is better than the other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I realize that this is a subjective question, but I nonetheless think it is still definitively answerable provided that the answer follows the guidelines for good subjective Q&amp;A [here][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/09/good-subjective-bad-subjective/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="514" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="234" RevisionGUID="206ba8fc-f0ed-46dc-a2d9-e7586cae6fff" CreationDate="2013-05-25T03:52:37.843" UserId="47" Text="Freelance authors: building a reputation; generalize or specialize?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="515" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="234" RevisionGUID="206ba8fc-f0ed-46dc-a2d9-e7586cae6fff" CreationDate="2013-05-25T03:52:37.843" UserId="47" Text="|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="516" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="235" RevisionGUID="c9484bff-c27c-4caa-a5e7-4cf256a596eb" CreationDate="2013-05-25T04:04:11.397" UserId="60" Text="I don't think there is a single right answer here, so I am going to focus on how to make the decision.  Keep in mind that open source development is a potentially very visible thing, so the more you do, the greater presence you have.  I try to allocate a bare minimum of 4 hours a week of purely community projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first thing to realize is that open source communities operate like graphs.  Everyone has customers and most people have upstream vendors.  If you want to succeed in doing open source development for a living you want to maximize your downstream presence.  Development is a part of that equation, as is free community tech support, offering services to other consultants, etc.  You want to do development but you also want to be visible.  This means participating on email lists and such.  You probably want to pick one or two programs and work on those (may I suggest [LedgerSMB](http://www.ledgersmb.org)? -- evil grin --).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course that isn't the only business approach but given your question it is the one which probably best makes sense.  Other approaches involve cultivating a local customer base, focusing on the needs of a specific market segment, blogging, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So of course it depends on your business plan and direction, but given your question, it sounds like you are considering treating an open source project as a significant source of business.  If this is the case, you want to do development, work on getting commit rights, etc. and you want to be active and visible to potential customers (meaning doing free tech support on the lists etc)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="517" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="236" RevisionGUID="c4549310-ce4a-4f8f-a35e-bdd3b980c965" CreationDate="2013-05-25T04:14:29.760" UserId="60" Text="I think the normal progression is to start out general and then begin to specialize.  The advantage of this is that you can start to get some gigs, and then build on what those gigs give you to focus more on depth.  In general depth is more valuable than breadth in terms of knowledge, but both are needed to some extent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Starting off as a generalist has the advantage that you are able to find a niche you may not have thought of when you started, and it provides some open opportunities for other things as they come up.  For example, most of my paying work is in software development but I have had some significant freelance technical writing gigs doing things like integration documentation for companies like Microsoft.  Having a generalist background even after I specialized was immensely helpful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand this means that I have been able to develop depth in a number of areas and thus serve customers better both in writing gigs and other work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So yes, starting off generalizing is not a bad approach, but try to build some depth at the same time, and be open to specialize as opportunities arise." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="518" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="232" RevisionGUID="fbe211bd-1e1f-4d05-b68c-88d7d4489be5" CreationDate="2013-05-25T04:14:57.403" UserId="151" Comment="added 629 characters in body" Text="I am an indy dev, and am wondering how much time I should spend developing open source components that might have a large user base, in order to increase my visibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been developing iOS apps for over half a year, have a gig at an undisclosed startup, and have 4 apps currently in the app store. Being only 18, however, I have had a lot of trouble finding work that pays above minimum wage, and none of my apps have been a runaway success.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently have spent two nights working on [FDWKit](http://github.io/segiddins/FDWKit), but I don't know if I want to spend the time to perfect it if there is little or no potential payoff. I know many indy devs have gained a lot of notoriety from successful open sources components, but I don't know if I am in a position to be one of them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="519" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="237" RevisionGUID="2fb11347-98b5-43fc-9296-8070cdf42d7c" CreationDate="2013-05-25T04:20:35.313" UserId="155" Text="**About Me**: I used to work as a Operations Manager with a BPO 4 years ago but I realized that if I worked from home, I would earn triple the salary that I was getting as an OM. So one day, I finally decided to take the plunge and start my own freelancing venture. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Now when I look back, I am happy that I took that plunge...*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lot of books will tell you what needs to be done but honestly none of those helped me 4 years ago when I decided to start my own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are really serious in becoming a freelancer, here are some unconventional tips which comes from experience. My advice is based on KISS which is &quot;KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Please, please, please do not waste your time reading books/success stories etc on how to make money.&#xD;&#xA;2. Decide what kind of freelancing stuff you want to get into. The market is huge and you will get tempted in the beginning to get into everything. Don't jump into any job that you get.&#xD;&#xA;3. Get a website and official email address of your own.&#xD;&#xA;4. Understand whether you want to tap the local, national or the international market. Your advertising would drastically depend on this later. I decided to get into the International Market and the reason was very simple. I didn't have to drive down to a clients office to start any project. My strategy was to invest as little as possible in the beginning.&#xD;&#xA;5. The best business is the business where you do not have to invest anything or have minimum investment and reap maximum profits. Initially register yourself on sites like Freelancer.com, odesk.com, elance.com etc and start bidding on projects. Create a small basic proposal which you can attach with every bid. This proposal tells the client as to why they should give the project to you and not to anyone else. For the first couple of projects do not think of earning. Build your testimonials and continuously update your proposals to include that.&#xD;&#xA;6. Lot of people take the testimonials very lightly. Never do that. They are sure shot indicators of your freelancing graph looks like at the end of the day. Here is an example. More than 112 projects ([ALL with 5 star ratings][1]). Imagine the impact it creates when I submit a proposal to a client. So build your testimonials.&#xD;&#xA;7. Once you have established yourself as a worthy competitor (might take 6 months to a year), now is the time to fully stretch your wings. You MAY now read books/Online tutorials on how to setup your own company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you still need any help, you can contact me and I would be more than glad to get you started... like I have done with others in the past.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.freelancer.com/users/feedback_1193882.html?period=entire_history&amp;category=0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="520" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="238" RevisionGUID="d3546a40-8f9e-4cf0-95dd-4e6a6cb1db9f" CreationDate="2013-05-25T05:49:20.993" UserId="155" Text="&gt;It seems to me that I should be trying to write as much as I possibly can on as many different topics as possible, but as I think about it more carefully tonight, I wonder if that's really the best plan after all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Umm, IMO, No. It is not really a best plan unless you are really desperate to launch yourself as a freelance author. Remember, we live in an era where whatever we do/write/comment etc remains accessible on the net for a very very long time. I am sure you wouldn't want to be known as an author who had a shabby start?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Writing for a weekly column sounds like a good idea. Or write a blog where you can display your flair for writing. There are people in this world who get success overnight in whatever they do. I don't know about you but I am definitely not one of them. :) So, take a step back... Go for a holiday. Identify what your **forte** is, plan on how you want to take it forward and then get into it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is an [interesting article][1] on freelance writing. My thoughts absolutely echo with what it has to say so I am not going to repeat the same information here. Give it a read and I am sure you will find it pretty interesting...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Disclaimer**:&#xD;&#xA;I am not a freelancer writer nor do I wish to become one. However, I do blog and one of the challenge that I face is how to keep my target audience interested.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.wikihow.com/Become-a-Freelance-Writer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="521" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="239" RevisionGUID="67dc928d-b54b-4aff-a1e7-10dcf913b491" CreationDate="2013-05-25T06:23:10.757" UserId="85" Text="From first-hand experience, who has juggled permanent and contract positions serially and in parallel, this is not generally a problem... clients are assessing you on whether you can do the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may be, of course, that this is an easy excuse to give, if you're approach was unsuccessful!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it was a problem, first-timers would struggle (more than they do) to get their first gigs!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, I've met several long-time contractors who, having decided to return to permanent employment, have found potential employers to take a fair bit of convincing that you are not only after a bit of short term stability, or training, before returning to contracting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But that was not the question you were asking..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="526" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="235" RevisionGUID="edfe3010-cd17-43f5-884a-6b8b76ce2934" CreationDate="2013-05-25T06:52:03.383" UserId="60" Comment="added 201 characters in body" Text="I don't think there is a single right answer here, so I am going to focus on how to make the decision.  Keep in mind that open source development is a potentially very visible thing, so the more you do, the greater presence you have.  I try to allocate a bare minimum of 4 hours a week of purely community projects.  Keep in mind I have paid the bills for the most part for about six years doing mostly development and tech support on open source projects (with an odd writing gig or two thrown in for fair measure).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first thing to realize is that open source communities operate like graphs.  Everyone has customers and most people have upstream vendors.  If you want to succeed in doing open source development for a living you want to maximize your downstream presence.  Development is a part of that equation, as is free community tech support, offering services to other consultants, etc.  You want to do development but you also want to be visible.  This means participating on email lists and such.  You probably want to pick one or two programs and work on those (may I suggest [LedgerSMB](http://www.ledgersmb.org)? -- evil grin --).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course that isn't the only business approach but given your question it is the one which probably best makes sense.  Other approaches involve cultivating a local customer base, focusing on the needs of a specific market segment, blogging, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So of course it depends on your business plan and direction, but given your question, it sounds like you are considering treating an open source project as a significant source of business.  If this is the case, you want to do development, work on getting commit rights, etc. and you want to be active and visible to potential customers (meaning doing free tech support on the lists etc)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="527" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="235" RevisionGUID="17996961-98bc-43b5-9d9e-15e4cec7f0d1" CreationDate="2013-05-25T06:57:23.043" UserId="60" Comment="added 201 characters in body" Text="I don't think there is a single right answer here, so I am going to focus on how to make the decision.  Keep in mind that open source development is a potentially very visible thing, so the more you do, the greater presence you have.  I try to allocate a bare minimum of 4 hours a week of purely community projects.  Keep in mind I have paid the bills for the most part for about six years doing mostly development and tech support on open source projects (with an odd writing gig or two thrown in for fair measure).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first thing to realize is that open source communities operate like graphs.  Everyone has customers and most people have upstream vendors.  If you want to succeed in doing open source development for a living you want to maximize your downstream presence.  Development is a part of that equation, as is free community tech support, offering services to other consultants, etc.  You want to do development but you also want to be visible.  This means participating on email lists and such.  You probably want to pick one or two programs and work on those (may I suggest [LedgerSMB](http://www.ledgersmb.org)? -- evil grin --).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course that isn't the only business approach but given your question it is the one which probably best makes sense.  Other approaches involve cultivating a local customer base, focusing on the needs of a specific market segment, blogging, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So of course it depends on your business plan and direction, but given your question, it sounds like you are considering treating an open source project as a significant source of business.  If this is the case, you want to do development, work on getting commit rights, etc. and you want to be active and visible to potential customers (meaning doing free tech support on the lists etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Update based on question edit**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first thing you really need to do is think through a business plan.  Does open source software development need to be a part of it?  That depends on your business plan.  If you want to run your business as an open source developer, then it does.  If you don't then it doesn't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly you need to look at how to capitalize on what you have already done.  Your iStore apps are a good place to start, probably better than open source *unless you want to move in that direction.*  Either way what you have already done needs to be put front and center." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="528" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="107" RevisionGUID="9a8dac78-c9cc-4023-883d-a82452545642" CreationDate="2013-05-25T08:44:01.287" UserId="61" Comment="added another case" Text="&quot;Raise&quot; is a term for full-time employees, whose salary depends on other factors (e.g., years served, position, etc), not actually on amount and quality of work done (don't kill me, there are many exceptions here).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being a freelancer, you are most likely bound with terms of a certain agreement. Any amendments to that document are subject of a mutual agreement. You haven't specified **why** are you willing for &quot;raise&quot;. As I said, years served is not an argument for freelance job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finding the Right Arguments&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;So, let me theorize and look in what situations you may require for &lt;s&gt;raise&lt;/s&gt; review of the contract terms. In any case, you should bring those arguments to a meeting and **mutually agree** on any contract changes. See below what if your changes are rejected.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  * The most common thing that happens very often for Fixed Price projects is **changed scope**. Your initial agreement should have a section for this matter and any additional work (outside the original scope) should be a subject of an addendum to your main contract. It's hard to do for the first time, but when you manage to do it once you will see how many problems you have solved.&#xD;&#xA;  * Also, on Fixed Price projects, the amount of work may change dramatically due to other reasons. It may be lower quality of dependency product (say, a third-party program library is working worse than expected, and you are having hard time fighting with the library's bugs). Gather any evidences, make your new estimate, and bring it to a meeting.&#xD;&#xA;  * On a Time-and-Materials project, you are actually selling your time. Its cost may vary. When? For instance, if you realize that you are doing more qualified work than expected before. You may split your invoice into *two positions*: normal work you have agreed initially to do (at normal rate) and another work based on a different rate. If it's rejected, you may reject to do a qualified part, but remember that **doing a more qualified work is your ticket to the future**. So try not just to throw it away.&#xD;&#xA;  * Yet another situation. You have agreed to do an average of, say, 20 hours a week with an hourly rate of $X. In addition, you are spending a certain amount of time for non-billable things, and they are free just because they are split into small chunks and are simply hard to measure. If you are continuously working for 5 hours a week, you may find yourself underloaded. Those &quot;small things&quot; are small in comparison with expected 20 hours a week, but it may grow if your billable time is 5 hours. Again, raise it to a meeting. It wouldn't look like you are asking for a raise; you just want more workload.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During a Meeting&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;So you have your arguments and you have scheduled a meeting for changes. What's now?  &#xD;&#xA;Don't panic. You, as well as your client, are willing to get the job done with best possible quality and at lowest possible cost. If you are not just asking something for yourself, but instead demonstrate that you two are &quot;on the same boat&quot;, struggling with the same problems, your client will be much more compliant to your requests and suggestions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Possible Outcomes&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, you are an independent business entity. You take full responsibility on any consequences happened due to your decisions. **As well as your client!** If you suggested a contract change and they rejected it, you actually have two ways:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Complete what you have signed for, at your cost (and get some reputation);&#xD;&#xA;2. Cancel the contract (and lose cancellation fees).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**In any case, remember that reputation is the hardest to earn and easiest to lose.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="529" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="244" RevisionGUID="e38e7015-aa3b-40c0-aca4-d71ed00ad59b" CreationDate="2013-05-25T10:54:08.827" UserId="106" Text="When I moved to a new city last year I joined a few groups relevant to my industry on [Meetup][1] and started going along and meeting people. This way I quickly built up a network of fellow freelancers and it wasn't long before we were referring jobs to each other and working together on client projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hesitate to use the work 'networking' because it sounds rather cold and impersonal but, in my experience as a freelancer, there's no better way to find work than to go out and meet people face to face.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.meetup.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="532" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="245" RevisionGUID="a729dd4e-7750-4de1-a40d-c059d7a8bf9e" CreationDate="2013-05-25T15:09:42.400" UserId="100" Text="In my [city](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/221/100) there are many shops that don’t have a website. I’d love to explain why they should have one and offer my service to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I’m unsure how to approach them. If I’m a regular customer, it’s no big deal. But I don’t visit most of these shops regularly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* I could [cold call](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_calling). Feels kind of shady to me (maybe because it’s forbidden to cold call private persons in my country). &#xD;&#xA;* I could write them a letter. But wouldn’t this be too formal? Where begins unwanted advertisment?&#xD;&#xA;* I could just enter the shop and talk to them. But I’d probably catch an employee. Even if it would be the shop owner, might he/she feel overwhelmed? Is it considered rude?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I approach them? Anything important to keep in mind when doing so?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="533" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="245" RevisionGUID="a729dd4e-7750-4de1-a40d-c059d7a8bf9e" CreationDate="2013-05-25T15:09:42.400" UserId="100" Text="How to approach local shops to offer them my service?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="534" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="245" RevisionGUID="a729dd4e-7750-4de1-a40d-c059d7a8bf9e" CreationDate="2013-05-25T15:09:42.400" UserId="100" Text="|client|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="535" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="246" RevisionGUID="a102b741-4e81-4e1c-87c1-745a1e954d18" CreationDate="2013-05-25T15:33:40.337" UserId="127" Text="Rather than any of the notions you list, I would start by getting to know them. Because you want to get to know the owners, you want to think about where the owners might hang out. For example: Is there a local chamber of commerce or other general-purpose business group in the area? Or there might be a general trade organization many participate in, like a restaurants association or retailers group. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you know that, you'll want to find a way to participate in meetings. With a chamber, you can simply join and attend meetings where your prospects are likely to be. Other organizations might have conferences or other events where vendors can meet prospective clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Attending meetings regularly, meeting members and telling people about what you do will open the door to this type of conversation much more easily than cold interactions with strangers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've seen this work for other folks who develop websites. But don't expect 10 new websites from a single meeting. This takes time and regular attendance to be successful. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="536" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="247" RevisionGUID="b976caf7-71a3-4273-bd56-842c0bdc9eda" CreationDate="2013-05-25T19:12:58.600" UserId="124" Text="I am a freelancer making a success with web design now, but I struggled originally. I released why after 6 months, and subsequently made it my new years resolution:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Stop thinking. Start doing.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I spent far too long think &quot;I need to reply to that&quot; or &quot;I will do that tomorrow&quot;. In the end I had a big backlog and became frustrated. This lost me clients and stopped me getting new ones.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are anything like me you won't have any/much money for advertising, so do these things to promote your self:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Get a decent website. They really don't cost the earth&#xD;&#xA; 2. Figure out what you're doing. Too many people are freelancers in a million different talents&#xD;&#xA; 3. Focus on what you're doing, get good at it&#xD;&#xA; 4. Do it for free. Hair dressing? Do your friends hair. Web designing? Do it for that charity round the corner&#xD;&#xA; 5. Shout to family and friends you are doing what you're doing&#xD;&#xA; 6. Now start advertising (for free): ring your local paper, get a news story out there. Ring the newspaper in the town over&#xD;&#xA; 7. List your site on Facebook, Directories such as Yell&#xD;&#xA; 8. Friends who have their own company? List on their website, pull favours&#xD;&#xA; 9. Go to networking events, they can be tedious but you can find some genuine people&#xD;&#xA; 10. Get some business cards printed (you can even get free ones) *always have them on you* you never know where you will meet someone&#xD;&#xA; 11. Its hard: put yourself in the limelight. I will go in and talk to shop owners who I think I could genuinely help, but think about it: don't go on a Saturday when they are busy, be friendly don't try too hard. Think outside the box: we had heavy snow a few months ago: there was no one out shopping and it was a perfect opportunity to speak to shop owners. &#xD;&#xA; 12. Keep thinking. Everywhere you go think &quot;can I promote here?&quot; &quot;can I help them?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As someone else has said: don't read &quot;My Success Story&quot; or &quot;Make money quick&quot; if you are good at what you do (and Stop Thinking. Start Doing.) you will soon find that the word spreads and you'll grow." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="537" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="248" RevisionGUID="8a4f946b-9ae5-44fe-b397-97f9bacf8788" CreationDate="2013-05-25T19:20:03.707" UserId="124" Text="It depends on your client and how well you know them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For new clients and big projects I will always do fixed price for two reasons:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Gives the client peace of mind about the size of the bill coming&#xD;&#xA; 2. For full projects I always take a 50% deposit for my own peace of mind - I've never had a client complain about this either. You can't do this with an hour based billing cycle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Include some flexibility such as 20% extra but if you plan it out you should be able to price it fairly accurately. Also include all expenses at the end.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only time I bill by the hour is for service and support work or for slightly different work such as Print Design." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="538" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="249" RevisionGUID="4c8f3538-475c-4599-8ee1-1321893d9ec7" CreationDate="2013-05-25T19:34:13.823" UserId="178" Text="Take for example a (software development) project that has been estimated by the freelancer as N hours on a pay-per-hour contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From the perspective of the commissioner, how much *buffer* should be allocated to the estimate and What happens when this buffer is exceeded?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Similarly, how should the freelancer handle a situation where he/she expects to be far over the estimate. Should the freelancer *take the hit* and complete the excess for free, or should this be re-budgeted with the commissioner?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So to summarize: When the freelancer has exceeded the estimated effort, who funds the rest of the project, freelancer, commissioner, or both?**&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="539" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="249" RevisionGUID="4c8f3538-475c-4599-8ee1-1321893d9ec7" CreationDate="2013-05-25T19:34:13.823" UserId="178" Text="Working per hour, where do you draw the line?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="540" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="249" RevisionGUID="4c8f3538-475c-4599-8ee1-1321893d9ec7" CreationDate="2013-05-25T19:34:13.823" UserId="178" Text="|time-management|overtime|negotiation|price-per-hour|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="541" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="250" RevisionGUID="3423d935-3251-4b26-9354-7741aa71c1ae" CreationDate="2013-05-25T20:19:46.037" UserId="64" Text="#**Specialists vs Generalists**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To draw more well paying jobs, consider that specialists generally enjoy higher income than generalists do. Anyone with good writing skills can be a generalist, but becoming a specialist requires much deeper knowledge of the subject matter, and interest in the subject, and the aptitude to learn new concepts and ideas quickly. This is why, for instance, some tech writers have computer science or engineering degrees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Our company hires freelance writers, as contractors, who specialize in marketing and who enjoy writing about new technologies.  If you're a writer who has the latest smartphone and who has written reviews on them, you'd be more likely to fit into the culture of the organization, a culture that thrives on early adoption and technology advancement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While this isn't always required to land writing gigs, being a specialist in a certain area makes you more attractive to clients who need a writer with your knowledge and aptitude, and it increases the chances that they will reach out to you specifically rather than you needing to apply with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#**How should I market myself?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One way to showcase these skills is to maintain your own blog on a specific topic that not only interests you but that also build an audience. Going back to the example of the tech-writers, their audience likely consists of people who might be interested in hiring them.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I once landed a contract position based on things I wrote about in my blog.  It wasn't a writing gig, but the person who hired me discovered my skills because she was an avid follower of the topic I was writing about, and she initiated contact with me. That blog is mostly abandoned these days, but if I went back to writing about specialized topics, I know it would attract people looking to hire someone with a track record of success in my specialty." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="542" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="251" RevisionGUID="3a54b796-9bd4-4f69-9792-a4b03440392a" CreationDate="2013-05-25T20:46:30.457" UserId="64" Text="Ever heard of Rovio Entertainment?  Well, most people hadn't until the company released their 52nd game. The first 51 weren't really all that great, but number 52, [Angry Birds](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angry_Birds), put them on the map and netted them 200 million dollars in 2012.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The point is that not every project you do will be a success, and that's okay because finding a winning idea takes time and many attempts.  Therefore, if you're working on iOS apps, and that app isn't bringing in success, try working on another one. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I first graduated college, I worked on a few different Firefox Extensions back when writing Firefox Extensions was still cool, and I wrote about my experiences writing  them on my blog.  Not many people really ended up using them, as they weren't real winners, but it did evoke some interest from a lady in New York who wanted to hire someone to write a Firefox Extension that did something very similar to what one of my extensions was doing.  The difference was that she had the creative ideas and energy needed to start a business, and she had the capital to pay me to invest more of my own time and energy into helping further her business goals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Therefore, I'd suggest you continue down the path of writing your apps, but instead of just publishing them, get the word out on your blogs and social networks that you have these skills.  There will be someone out there looking for someone with specialized experience, and that could very well be you. As for how much time to invest, that depends. Marketing yourself definitely takes time and dedication, and it's up to you to determine how much time you can afford to take away from other activities in order to invest that time in your projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an aside, I'd suggest not focusing on your age. Ageism works both ways, and you could inadvertently talk yourself out of a nice contract wage by showing your cards. If and when someone does contact you for work, be as professional as you can, focus on what you can do well for that person, and keep in mind that you likely have knowledge and experience with something that many others either don't have or haven't demonstrated. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="543" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="252" RevisionGUID="6ca1ec49-91eb-419b-9044-cb149cdb922f" CreationDate="2013-05-25T21:09:54.460" UserId="64" Text="In a way, you're thinking too much like a brick and mortar business. :)  Restaurants, mechanics, dry cleaners, local grocery stores, chimney sweepers, painters, and other jobs and businesses that require on-site presence don't scale very well beyond the borders of their town or city.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, as a website developer, your services scale beyond the city limits or the town borders. With technologies today like Google Hangouts, Skype, and other forms of online communications, you can meet with many of your clients remotely, without ever needing to physically step across their threshold.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Likewise, we live in a world where people seek the Internet when they look for a vendor. Therefore, you'll be much better served by having a website of your own and a blog with articles that reach out to the prospective clients you hope to seek. As an example, my first client was in New York while I am in Oregon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, attending networking events and conferences that your potential clients may go to may also prove helpful. Sometimes, you can find free events you can attend, which helps with your budget. Depending on the event, you may meet people with global connections, and this may have a much stronger impact than becoming a 1950's door to door salesman. :)  A person I spoke to at one of these events knew the company he worked for needed someone with my development knowledge, so I landed the contract thanks to his referral!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, consider that many businesses who don't have a website may not actually benefit from having a website. In a world where many local businesses are found on Yelp, Facebook, or other aggregate sites, the value of a website may not be all that great or desirable to them. Then you must consider whether or not these businesses have enough revenue to justify the expense of paying you a decent fee. In my experience, it's better to target businesses that have a more global reach, as they'll more likely have a need for a more global presence on the Internet and also have enough income to pay you what you're worth." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="544" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="253" RevisionGUID="6090ed49-958b-4726-9845-75f9ba4471d8" CreationDate="2013-05-26T03:22:59.543" UserId="60" Text="Honestly, the best approach is this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cold call.  Don't offer them services directly.  Offer to get to know them, sit down, find out what they need, and what you two can do to help eachother.  Local businesses are best when they are interdependent.  Rather than seeing them strictly as possible clients, you should see them as potential allies, clients, friends, and strategic partners.  If you are focusing on local businesses, you should approach this as a brick and mortar business would.  There is nothing wrong with this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second thing is don't expect a lot of business right away.  The first step really is just to increase your presence.  Make sure they know you are there, what you are doing, etc.  Make sure you know what they are doing too.  Maybe you end up referring some business to them when it comes up (for example, &quot;so and so make the best donuts in town!&quot; if that is really what you think).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind one thing I have learned over the years:  &quot;business follows presence.&quot;  Do what you can to get involved and stay involved.  This should involve everything from chamber of commerce get-togethers, face to face meetings, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is nothing wrong with pursuing a local strategy btw.  I did this for a few years (though my niche evolved away from what the local economy could support) and I know freelancers and self-employed individuals who have made a career out of it.  It is a reasonable strategy because very often people prefer that personal touch.  In the end if you are pursuing a local strategy as one aspect of your business, keep in mind you are selling that personal touch and make the most of it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="545" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="254" RevisionGUID="36514e67-ac3b-4286-915b-ecabdb37d1fd" CreationDate="2013-05-26T03:33:37.547" UserId="60" Text="Per hour, my rule is, I bill only for time spent, and for all of time spent.  Build in a buffer to your estimate, but if it is an estimate, be prepared to invoice above or below.  In general when I produce an hourly estimate I put in a buffer of 50-100% depending on unknowns because if I can bill under estimate customers are happy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some times, customers want an &quot;up to x hours&quot; bid, which is ok from my end if the work is well scoped, an understanding is that I will deliver what I can in those x hours, and that then we come together and decide what to do next.  For example, evaluating a problem for up to x hours is a good approach.  Delivering a web site in up to x hours would mean essentially no free fixes after x hours of work, and so forth.  At that point when x hours is exhausted I am expected to have delivered what I can, and preparing for any next stage negotiations with the customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fixed bids are entirely different, of course." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="546" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="255" RevisionGUID="ee8931c9-7a17-4658-ba4a-97b539507d43" CreationDate="2013-05-26T03:49:57.983" UserId="155" Text="I absolutely understand what you mean. Couple of years ago I faced the same dilemma. No matter how low I bid, I could never get a project. But as of today if I bid on a project, 90% of the chances are that I will get it. Thanks to more than [110 Five Star Ratings][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was almost on the verge of giving it up but then someone gave me this advice which I am going to pass on to you. This helped me get my first project! After then there was no looking back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how did I manage to do it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A. Create a proposal where you explain why you should be picked even though you are new.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It could be some thing like&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Dear XYZ&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I have been in this industry for XX years and such jobs are my daily practice. This is my first time on this site and hence you can see that I do not have any ratings/testimonials to show you. I can assure you that if you work with me once, you will always work with me for these kind of projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Now you mention stuff here on why the employer should choose you.... Attach a sample and tell the employer that it can be delivered the moment he chooses your bid...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**B. Submit samples of your previous work**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just don't submit any sample. The sample should be relevant to the current project you are bidding on&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**C. Submit working sample of the current work.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do not want to do that then attach a video of the working application. I use CAMTASIA to record a video to show how the completed project looks like. Trust me this almost will seal the project for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Start with these 3 and you will see results very soon ;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.freelancer.com/users/feedback_1193882.html?period=entire_history&amp;category=0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="547" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="256" RevisionGUID="99108bc2-c960-4eae-9617-e01545305620" CreationDate="2013-05-26T18:25:05.170" UserDisplayName="user171" Text="I had this case once:&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;The employer did get a test release of a program to show if it met his requirements.&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;And he paid a few rates.&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;In the following months I got a few calls to change parts of the program. &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Finishing the program and giving it to him, he began paying the remaining rates.&#xD;&#xA;But after some times the payment stopped at the last rate. &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;It's not much money, I talked to him about it and he immediately paid. &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;But what if a employer is not so honest?&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Is an implementation of some security features (e.g. implementing a time limit, which restricts features) a  way of making sure an employer pays? &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Or do I just have to trust the employer? &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="548" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="256" RevisionGUID="99108bc2-c960-4eae-9617-e01545305620" CreationDate="2013-05-26T18:25:05.170" UserDisplayName="user171" Text="Implement features in case the employer doesn't pay" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="549" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="256" RevisionGUID="99108bc2-c960-4eae-9617-e01545305620" CreationDate="2013-05-26T18:25:05.170" UserDisplayName="user171" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="550" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="257" RevisionGUID="e89f9570-7443-47af-ba47-9c1107691b23" CreationDate="2013-05-26T18:47:02.920" UserId="64" Text="Be careful with this. If you intentionally implement a back door in a work product you're developing for a client, and the client finds out about it, you may find that the trust between you and your client will be destroyed.  Also, there may be legal repercussions if disabling the product or application has a negative impact on the client's business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, consider that there must exist some degree of trust between you and the client. They're trusting you to deliver, and you're trusting them to compensate you for that work. If they discover you've intentionally written a security hole into their application, you may find yourself out of work, branded as a fraud, and unable to convince others to trust you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But lets say they do delay or withhold their payment. Remember, there's more at stake than just your money, there's also the livelihoods of the employees who work for the client, and the businesses and livelihoods of the clients who rely on *your* client to provide services.  If you do something to harm your client's business, you may unintentionally do more harm than you anticipated. I can't say for sure if there *would* be legal consequences or if third parties could file a case against you, as I'm not trained in law, but I would personally have trouble sleeping at night if I did something that put some innocent person out of a job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider that this is just a cost of doing business. Some clients will pay, and some clients will not pay for a wide variety of reasons. Some may pay months later after you've sent monthly, professional past-due notices as a reminder. The best way to protect yourself is to make sure that you bring in more revenue than your expenses so that you build up a cushion of cash so that one deal gone bad won't put you out of business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In fact, this happens to businesses all of the time: They become tight on cash due to cash flow problems and can't pay their debts. But once they dig themselves out of their predicament, they will likely work on paying vendors who they owe outstanding balances.  These established businesses don't get mad or launch attacks against these parties; instead, they remain professional and continue to approach these collections legally and professionally.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're going to work as a contractor, you'll be working in a professional environment. That means you must conduct yourself with the same level of professionalism that you expect from your clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="551" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="258" RevisionGUID="92e9147a-e712-4322-9a4e-5e991019a702" CreationDate="2013-05-26T18:49:34.623" UserId="52" Text="When payment from a client becomes a problem, the best leverage you have to not do any further work for the client until they pay. You don't have to be angry or in any way unprofessional to the client about the matter. Politely let them know that you're looking forward to the new work and will be happy to start on it after you receive the payment that you are due.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the delay means that your availability may become limited due to engagements you pick up from other clients, keep your non-paying client apprised of that risk in a matter-of-fact way. Your goal isn't to upset them, but it should be clear that you are doing what makes reasonable business sense for you as a provider of a valuable service." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="552" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="259" RevisionGUID="cebd6b9d-7060-484f-bc05-545ec525094f" CreationDate="2013-05-26T19:28:05.647" UserId="64" Text="Many freelancers charge their clients by the hour, and many others charge their clients a fixed price for the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've worked on a few contract projects on the side and have only charged a portion of one phase of a project using a fixed price. It was my first project, and I grossly underestimated, but the client was willing to pay by the hour after the first phase of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nowadays, I always charge by the hour, but now that I have more experience and can put together better estimates, I now have the following question:  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I look at to determine whether or not I should charge by the hour on a project or by fixed price?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="553" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="259" RevisionGUID="cebd6b9d-7060-484f-bc05-545ec525094f" CreationDate="2013-05-26T19:28:05.647" UserId="64" Text="What should I look at to determine whether or not I should charge by the hour or by fixed price?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="554" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="259" RevisionGUID="cebd6b9d-7060-484f-bc05-545ec525094f" CreationDate="2013-05-26T19:28:05.647" UserId="64" Text="|pay-rate|payment-terms|price-per-hour|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="555" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="249" RevisionGUID="d57066f4-5dac-4ef3-86dc-7c3fbcf4d30d" CreationDate="2013-05-26T19:41:34.417" UserId="178" Comment="added 519 characters in body" Text="Take for example a (software development) project that has been estimated by the freelancer as N hours on a pay-per-hour contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From the perspective of the commissioner, how much *buffer* should be allocated to the estimate and What happens when this buffer is exceeded?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Similarly, how should the freelancer handle a situation where he/she expects to be far over the estimate. Should the freelancer *take the hit* and complete the excess for free, or should this be re-budgeted with the commissioner?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So to summarize: When the freelancer has exceeded the estimated effort, who funds the rest of the project, freelancer, commissioner, or both?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Additional notes:**&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;@jmort253 posted a strong answer to [this very similar question][1]. I'm looking for responses covering the perspective of both the provider and the client. What should the freelancer do to reduce costs on underestimations? What should the commissioner do to reduce costs on underestimations? How can this end with both parties happy (and each getting best value out of the other)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/44/when-is-it-ok-to-ask-a-client-for-more-money" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="556" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="256" RevisionGUID="c3247c3a-cc17-40b8-ba16-db4cb1a14717" CreationDate="2013-05-26T20:48:07.813" UserId="64" Comment="no need to use html in your post; Stack Exchange uses Markdown for editing/formatting: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/editing-help; also fixed grammar and split into paragraphs for readability." Text="I had this case once where I delivered a test release to an employer to show if it met his requirements. He paid a few rates for this work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the following months, I got a few calls to change parts of the program. After finishing the program and giving it to him, he began paying the remaining rates. But after some times the payment stopped at the last rate. It's not much money, I talked to him about it and he immediately paid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But suppose an employer is not so honest. Is an implementation of some security features (e.g. implementing a time limit, which restricts features) a way of making sure an employer pays? Or do I just have to trust the employer? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="557" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="256" RevisionGUID="c3247c3a-cc17-40b8-ba16-db4cb1a14717" CreationDate="2013-05-26T20:48:07.813" Comment="Proposed by 64 approved by 171 edit id of 53" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="558" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="260" RevisionGUID="69d770cc-aa23-4d9a-bb46-02455b41d56d" CreationDate="2013-05-26T22:13:46.257" UserId="175" Text="You have already establish a proposal to your target clients/business and someone from them already acknowledge your proposal, Next is to determine how to get the ball keep on rolling by finding a way we can talk to the decision makers. Any proven tactful ways to do this? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="559" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="260" RevisionGUID="69d770cc-aa23-4d9a-bb46-02455b41d56d" CreationDate="2013-05-26T22:13:46.257" UserId="175" Text="What are the best ways to get to a decision maker at the Owner,CEO, or CFO Level?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="560" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="260" RevisionGUID="69d770cc-aa23-4d9a-bb46-02455b41d56d" CreationDate="2013-05-26T22:13:46.257" UserId="175" Text="|decision|maker|conversation|proposal|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="561" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="261" RevisionGUID="1d129b13-7463-4c2f-8ae8-51c1ac93f928" CreationDate="2013-05-26T23:03:12.980" UserId="42" Text="&gt; For anyone that's already been down this road, please offer some&#xD;&#xA;&gt; specific factors to consider in choosing the right legal business&#xD;&#xA;&gt; entity in RI for a consulting firm with two options: (1) no&#xD;&#xA;&gt; anticipated retail sales at all, (2) a small amount of retail sales&#xD;&#xA;&gt; with most income anticipated to be only from professional services&#xD;&#xA;&gt; rendered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(1) The nature of any business that is paying tax is to make a profit to be a sustainable business. This **you SHOULD build a business plan that allows you to anticipate profits after sales**. If you are not thinking this way then **you are NOT READY to have a business**!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(2) In this case consider the amount of taxation filing you will have to do for this so called &quot;small amount&quot; of income. This is clearly a weak business opportunity unless you are just helping out a 'friend(s)' in which case you might as well be paid in a way that does not affect too much of your tax status.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can tell that the problem is not the options available but the lack of information of how to avoid spending your hard earned income whether directly or indirectly through freelancing on taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have not already done so, contact the local RI (or wherever you are, if not local to RI but other US state or country) Business Incubation services and start telling them about your plans - they will also advice you appropriately on how to find the balance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="562" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="261" RevisionGUID="3710e76a-5edc-4ea2-ba02-a1e2155afab3" CreationDate="2013-05-26T23:25:08.250" UserId="42" Comment="added 873 characters in body" Text="&gt; For anyone that's already been down this road, please offer some&#xD;&#xA;&gt; specific factors to consider in choosing the right legal business&#xD;&#xA;&gt; entity in RI for a consulting firm with two options: (1) no&#xD;&#xA;&gt; anticipated retail sales at all, (2) a small amount of retail sales&#xD;&#xA;&gt; with most income anticipated to be only from professional services&#xD;&#xA;&gt; rendered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A quick research I did at the [U.S. Small Business Administration](http://www.sba.gov) revealed that over 70 percent of U.S. businesses are owned by sole proprietors, and operate successfully without incorporating.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A very useful [section with 20 questions](http://www.sba.gov/content/20-questions-before-starting-business) you need to ask yourself before starting is available, check it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will also find [10 steps to starting a business](http://www.sba.gov/content/follow-these-10-steps-starting-business) in which *Step 5* gives the sufficient input you need on the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Sole Proprietorship&#xD;&#xA; 2. Partnership&#xD;&#xA; 3. Corporation&#xD;&#xA; 4. S Corporation&#xD;&#xA; 5. Limited Liability Company (LLC)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are also some points you should note regarding the question you asked:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(1) The nature of *any* business that is paying tax is to make a profit to be a sustainable business. Thus **you SHOULD build a business plan that allows you to anticipate profits after sales**. If you are not thinking this way then **you are NOT READY to have a business**! See the SBA links above and notice the Business Plan section.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(2) In this case consider the amount of taxation filing you will have to do for this so called &quot;small amount&quot; of income. This is clearly a weak business opportunity unless you are just helping out a 'friend(s)' in which case you might as well be paid in a way that does not affect too much of your tax status.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can tell that the problem is not the options available but the lack of information of how to avoid spending your hard earned income whether directly or indirectly through freelancing on taxes. Spend a lot of time on the SBA site and all your answers will be attained.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally, if you have not already done so, contact the local RI (or wherever you are, if not local to RI but other US state or country) Business Incubation services and start telling them about your plans - they will also advice you appropriately on how to find the balance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="563" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="232" RevisionGUID="d1beadd3-bc41-481c-848a-f339f761deed" CreationDate="2013-05-27T01:42:52.767" UserId="151" Comment="Fixed FDWKit URL" Text="I am an indy dev, and am wondering how much time I should spend developing open source components that might have a large user base, in order to increase my visibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been developing iOS apps for over half a year, have a gig at an undisclosed startup, and have 4 apps currently in the app store. Being only 18, however, I have had a lot of trouble finding work that pays above minimum wage, and none of my apps have been a runaway success.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently have spent two nights working on [FDWKit](http://segiddins.github.io/FDWKit), but I don't know if I want to spend the time to perfect it if there is little or no potential payoff. I know many indy devs have gained a lot of notoriety from successful open sources components, but I don't know if I am in a position to be one of them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="564" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="27" RevisionGUID="534515c3-b2d1-4b8c-addd-ad07af34df91" CreationDate="2013-05-27T02:19:32.847" UserId="-1" Comment="3" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:67,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Mark Mayo&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:97,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Juhana&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:60,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Chris Travers&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Luke&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="565" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="262" RevisionGUID="6eb94816-ea93-43fc-8321-6accfedf112d" CreationDate="2013-05-27T03:04:00.500" UserId="64" Text="The key to keeping the ball rolling when it comes to landing a contract is communication. At this point, you've submitted a proposal, and it sounds like you've either contacted a member of that organization directly, or a member of that organization contacted you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, the decision maker may actually be the person you've contacted. Don't assume this is always an executive level decision, especially in today's business climate where workers on the front lines are empowered to make decisions based on their own knowledge and experience.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, you must determine what criteria they're using to determine what decision to make. If this wasn't made clear to you, contact the prospect, make it clear to them how you plan to add value to solving the problem, and ask them what they need from you in order to move forward. If you assume that person isn't the decision maker, you may inadvertently insult that person, which may or may not have an impact on their decision to select you.  If they think you'll try to run to the VP of Operations everytime they ask you to do something you don't like, that may be a huge turnoff. I know it would be for me if I were hiring a contractor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just like with hunting for a job, you must *ask* for the job in order to *land* the job. If the person you're speaking with hasn't yet made a decision, asking  what they need from you in order to move forward may give you an action item, something that gives you an excuse to continue to follow up and keep the conversation moving forward. Of course, they may tell you that it's up to the VP of Financial Planning, in which case, you could then ask that person to set you up with a meeting with that person." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="566" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="263" RevisionGUID="9f5bdf56-38dd-4336-8023-f8ed6d1752c4" CreationDate="2013-05-27T04:23:06.450" UserId="60" Text="First, I usually do hourly up to x hours or just hourly, but I do some fixed bids too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general fixed bids are preferable for a customer if the scope is very clear, and they are preferable for the consultant if the price is higher than the hourly would be.  I would say that most of my fixed bid work brings me more per hour than my hourly rate.  What I am doing essentially is saying that I will accept the risk of cost overruns for an up-front price, sort of like insurance.   Sometimes they go badly over, but enough of the time they don't that I am ok.  This is particularly helpful where cost overruns are rare but can be quite costly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I agree to drop to per hour, generally the estimated goes down, but the customer assumes the risk of cost overruns.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I charge the same to migrate databases from previous versions of LedgerSMB to current, per database, as I do for one hour of consulting time.  This normally takes me half an hour or so, but there are cases where a customer has done something that causes significant problems with data integrity checks and can take five or ten hours to fix.  Billed hourly then most customers would pay half what I charge for this, but a few would pay up to 10 times.  The fixed bid lets me spread that risk around and give the customer a guarantee that might otherwise not be available.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, longer, open-ended projects are typically billed hourly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="567" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="264" RevisionGUID="a673846b-e709-4476-9484-842d0e0cad48" CreationDate="2013-05-27T04:36:48.657" UserId="60" Text="In addition to jmort253's points above, I think the best approach is to assume that you are talking to **a** decision maker on every contact but that decisions are made cooperatively.  In many companies, these decisions are not made by one person in a vacuum but made cooperatively by groups of people. I have had cases where I got projects after being contacted independently separately by different decision makers at the director and C-level.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To tell a story of something that happened to my business once.  I got approached by the director of accounting by a specific business.  I was then contacted by the CEO who didn't know of the prior contact at the request of a software security specialist (so by an entirely different path).   I ended up getting the project not because I got the apparent decision makers on board, but because I had previously impressed someone in a very different role (the security guy) on criteria that were very important to the customer's culture but not in the project specification.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the moral of the story is that decisions get made from various levels, and it isn't necessarily always clear who holds the keys to the kingdom for every project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A second thing to keep in mind is that people don't like to waste time.  If you are in contact with someone from the company, you can assume that they have a role in the decision to be made and that if you impress them they will advocate for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the best thing you can do is to offer to be available to talk to whoever needs to talk to you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="568" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="265" RevisionGUID="0229839f-4b83-42cd-9593-130eff987d1e" CreationDate="2013-05-27T10:41:39.217" UserId="153" Text="If I wish to start freelancing with the sole purpose of providing support services (in this case, IT), to Charities and Nonprofits what are the possible options under which I can provide these services?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If we work under the assumption that Xyz itself doesn't intend to make any profits itself:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Is there a specialised form of business/employment for this purpose?&#xD;&#xA;* I currently operate as a sole-trader with books showing zero profit. Is this a problem? (It's not faked!)&#xD;&#xA;* What are the implications on National Insurance, as it is still payable out of my pocket, which means that I am taking a hit for it? Are there exemptions?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Myself and the consumers are based in the United Kingdom, so I'd prefer specific answers, but welcome all constructive points of view." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="569" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="265" RevisionGUID="0229839f-4b83-42cd-9593-130eff987d1e" CreationDate="2013-05-27T10:41:39.217" UserId="153" Text="Charity or Nonprofit Support Services - What are the possible options?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="570" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="265" RevisionGUID="0229839f-4b83-42cd-9593-130eff987d1e" CreationDate="2013-05-27T10:41:39.217" UserId="153" Text="|nonprofit|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="571" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="266" RevisionGUID="e52769a4-198a-49e0-b0cd-f6eb01d039c2" CreationDate="2013-05-27T13:46:28.067" UserId="58" Text="If you want to incorporate as a nonprofit in the UK, you need to incorporate as a Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG), and then file articles of association ([more here][1]).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nonprofits in the United Kingdom have to declare their NPO status in their articles of association (you will have to write them from scratch or have a lawyer draft these), and have a set of standards which the organisation will adhere to (how their profits will be spent), which are reviewed by Companies House. There is no specific (i.e. it has no specific document) way to register a non-profit in the UK that isn't a charity. (Another alternative is a Community Interest Company, but I don't know if it applies here)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for tax itself, you will still have to pay tax as a company, but your taxes are relieved on the following:&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; * Charitable income&#xD;&#xA; * Rental income&#xD;&#xA; * Interest&#xD;&#xA; * Capital/Revenue&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Provided these are on the list in your articles of incorporation ([source][2]).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion, unless you can make a charity, it's likely better than you simply incorporate as a Private Company Limited by Guarantee and list yourself as the sole guarantor, if you really must incorporate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/ is the site for registering a charity in the England or Wales.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also,&#xD;&#xA; &gt; I currently operate as a sole-trader with books showing zero profit. Is this a problem? (It's not faked!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you start earning higher profits (you will likely make profits. Giving yourself a raise equal to profits just means you'll have less money due to higher tax), you will have to pay Class 2 National Insurance on top of the Class 4 you already pay. If you incorporate, your sources of profit will all be taxed at a rate of about 20%, you'll be viable for VAT, and your income as an employee will be subject to income tax and Class 2 National Insurance (+ Class 4 after £5595).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will, however, be able to take out loans and wont be liable for any more than what you put into the business at incorporation. You might want to Check out [OnStartups][3] Stack Exchange if you fancy doing this, though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, but I did go to business school in the UK.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA; [1]: https://www.gov.uk/limited-company-formation/articles-of-association&#xD;&#xA; [2]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ct/clubs-charities-agents/charities.htm&#xD;&#xA; [3]: http://answers.onstartups.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="572" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="265" RevisionGUID="0a67ca2a-fda1-4ab1-adbe-3d4d50505b8d" CreationDate="2013-05-27T13:47:48.697" UserId="58" Comment="edited tags" Text="|uk|taxes|nonprofit|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="573" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="265" RevisionGUID="6654e2f2-c030-4ba8-a679-baf34276b362" CreationDate="2013-05-27T14:07:27.200" UserId="153" Comment="Reworded" Text="If I wish to start freelancing with the sole purpose of providing support services (in this case, IT), to Charities and Nonprofits what are the possible options under which I can provide these services?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If we work under the assumption that I myself don't intend to make any profits out of this venture:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Is there a specialised form of business/employment for this purpose?&#xD;&#xA;* I currently operate as a sole-trader with books showing zero profit. Is this a problem? (It's not faked!)&#xD;&#xA;* What are the implications on National Insurance, as it is still payable out of my pocket, which means that I am taking a hit for it? Are there exemptions?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Myself and the consumers are based in the United Kingdom, so I'd prefer specific answers, but welcome all constructive points of view." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="574" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="260" RevisionGUID="6cf6d554-8a61-43e8-9ba6-e9166e81dec9" CreationDate="2013-05-27T18:40:58.750" UserId="64" Comment="modified to make the question more definitive and less open ended as this fits the SE Q&amp;A model much better; removed unneeded tags" Text="You have already established a proposal to your target clients/business, and someone from them already acknowledged your proposal. Next, you must determine how to keep the ball rolling by finding a way to talk to the decision makers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can one move forward and get in touch with a decision maker, such as the owner, CEO, CFO, or other person capable of making a decision?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="575" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="260" RevisionGUID="6cf6d554-8a61-43e8-9ba6-e9166e81dec9" CreationDate="2013-05-27T18:40:58.750" UserId="64" Comment="modified to make the question more definitive and less open ended as this fits the SE Q&amp;A model much better; removed unneeded tags" Text="What are the best ways to get to a decision maker at the owner, CEO, or CFO Level?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="576" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="260" RevisionGUID="6cf6d554-8a61-43e8-9ba6-e9166e81dec9" CreationDate="2013-05-27T18:40:58.750" UserId="64" Comment="modified to make the question more definitive and less open ended as this fits the SE Q&amp;A model much better; removed unneeded tags" Text="|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="577" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="260" RevisionGUID="6cf6d554-8a61-43e8-9ba6-e9166e81dec9" CreationDate="2013-05-27T18:40:58.750" Comment="Proposed by 64 approved by 60, 69 edit id of 55" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="578" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="267" RevisionGUID="a4d75f24-f800-4f65-9f0f-d8acee3f2508" CreationDate="2013-05-27T18:43:34.800" UserId="120" Text="Re:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; It has since become a contract-to-hire with an undefined length of time. [...]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you are working as a contractor, *it is to your advantage to have a well-defined time limit to your contract*. Contract renewal is the perfect time to negotiate a rate increase.  (If you have agreed to an &quot;undefined&quot; length of time &amp;ndash; did your original contract actually *lapse* and you kept on working? or is it really of no specific length? &amp;ndash; then it isn't as clear-cut.)  Give your client some advance notice of your intent to negotiate a rate increase upon renewal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As to the frequency, I would restrict rate increases to at most **once per year.**  It is reasonable for you to expect an increase once per year as that's typically the frequency for budgeting and employee raises.  (But always keep in mind: You are *not* an employee.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you ask for increases more frequently than once per year, you will annoy your client.  Trust me on this.  (If you live in a country with hyperinflation, then you can cautiously disregard this point.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if you are up for renewal every three months (for instance), you won't be asking for an increase at each of those renewal points &amp;ndash; only the one that coincides with a year since your previous rate increase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**However**, once per year is a guideline for the minimum.  I've been in a situations where the client's business was being adversely affected by economic conditions (e.g. 2008-2009), and I postponed rate increases accordingly.  Seek to understand the health and profitability of your client's business.  For instance, coming out of a recession, did your client just have a good quarter and issue bonuses to employees?  That could be a good time to ask for your increase, if you had been delaying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, I've had one client tell me before that &quot;we don't give increases to contractors.&quot;  From what I could tell, this client had a revolving-door of contractors who rarely stayed on for more than nine months. At that point I had been there one year and they wanted to renew me for another six months.  When I said I'd prefer to conclude the arrangement to find something with a rate closer to my new value, they changed their mind.  The only concession the client asked for (and got) was for me to hold my rate constant for one year from the increase &amp;ndash; something I was planning on doing anyway!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And yes, it is reasonable for you to expect your rate to be increased.  The cost of living is going up all the time, as should be your skills &amp; value.  You should aim to increase your rate both by a percentage representing inflation (to *maintain* your purchasing power), as well as some amount to reflect added skills, experience, responsibilities, or other special added value you're bringing to your client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be prepared to reflect on your accomplishments when you talk about a rate increase.  Be awesome and consistently impress your client and they shouldn't have a problem agreeing to reasonable annual rate increases that keep your rate moving ahead of inflation.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="579" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="267" RevisionGUID="568c5483-bece-4aac-aefb-6624dcbc9d8b" CreationDate="2013-05-27T18:51:11.527" UserId="120" Comment="deleted 4 characters in body" Text="Re:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; It has since become a contract-to-hire with an undefined length of time. [...]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you are working as a contractor, *it is to your advantage to have a well-defined time limit to your contract*. Contract renewal is the perfect time to negotiate a rate increase.  (If you have agreed to an &quot;undefined&quot; length of time &amp;ndash; did your original contract actually *lapse* and you kept on working? or is it really of no specific length? &amp;ndash; then it isn't as clear-cut.)  Give your client some advance notice of your intent to negotiate a rate increase upon renewal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As to the frequency, I would restrict rate increases to at most **once per year.**  It is reasonable for you to expect an increase once per year as that's typically the frequency for budgeting and employee raises.  (But always keep in mind: You are *not* an employee.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you ask for increases more frequently than once per year, you will annoy your client.  Trust me on this.  (If you live in a country with hyperinflation, then you can cautiously disregard this point.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if you are up for renewal every three months (for instance), you won't be asking for an increase at each of those renewal points &amp;ndash; only the one that coincides with a year since your previous rate increase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**However**, once per year is a guideline for the minimum.  I've been in a situations where the client's business was being adversely affected by economic conditions (e.g. 2008-2009), and I postponed rate increases accordingly.  Seek to understand the health and profitability of your client's business.  For instance, coming out of a recession, did your client just have a good quarter and issue bonuses to employees?  That could be a good time to ask for your increase, if you had been delaying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BTW, I've had one client tell me before that &quot;we don't give increases to contractors.&quot;  From what I could tell, this client had a revolving-door of contractors who rarely stayed on for more than nine months. At that point I had been there one year and they wanted to renew me for another six months.  When I said I'd prefer to conclude the arrangement to find something with a rate closer to my new value, they changed their mind.  The only concession the client asked for (and got) was for me to hold my rate constant for one year from the increase &amp;ndash; something I was planning on doing anyway!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And yes, it is reasonable for you to expect your rate to be increased.  The cost of living is going up all the time, as should be your skills &amp; value.  You should aim to increase your rate both by a percentage representing inflation (to *maintain* your purchasing power), as well as some amount to reflect added skills, experience, responsibilities, or other special added value you're bringing to your client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be prepared to reflect on your accomplishments when you talk about a rate increase.  Be awesome and consistently impress your client and they shouldn't have a problem agreeing to reasonable annual rate increases that keep your rate moving ahead of inflation.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="580" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="268" RevisionGUID="1ee6cbed-0e8b-4cf5-be38-1b165b51825d" CreationDate="2013-05-27T20:46:34.103" UserId="78" Text="It isn't an unusual practice to provide the software with limited time licence, and provide the unlimited time licence after the whole sum was payed. I've met with such practices, and it was really good working for customers who weren't going to pay. It wasn't because they hadn't the money - when the **trial licence** period ended, they've **payed almost immediately**. They had simply other priorities - unfortunately, if you are freelancer, you are usually the **last** on payment list.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Howerer, you **must be honest** about it. You can't hide such feature, in other case the client would start to think, what else is hidden. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can, for example, say, that you give the product with the licence valid for 6 months, and as long as the last rate is payed, you give the unlimited time licence. If a client has financial problems, you can always negotiate and, for example, prolong that licence for another 3 months. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But remember, it's your client's duty to pay you for your product! If you don't pay taxes, you'll go to prison. If you take wares from shop without paying for it, you'll go to prison. If you don't pay employees on time, you'll go to prison. Why should you be the only one, who can not receive the money without consequences?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="581" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="146" RevisionGUID="17b9ee48-4568-4572-bf38-b2c3cb7f0e68" CreationDate="2013-05-27T21:39:31.740" UserId="120" Comment="formatting, typos corrected" Text="Most of the answers I've seen thus far address the time tracking question, so I'll address the email part of the question:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't charge clients for email responses. I chalk that up to 'investment time'. As in, I'm investing this time in answering a customer/potential customer's email because it may lead to doing business with them in the future. Of course, there is a line that's drawn: I wouldn't teach them HTML via email, for example. If we wind up doing business, then it was time well-invested, and if not, they may refer me to someone who could lead to future business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, if you're referring to an *existing* client for which you are currently doing work for that sends you an email while you're working for *another* client, this actually happens to me. I will handle it one of two ways:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Answer the email while I'm on lunch. I don't like being distracted from what I'm doing, which is typically what an email does. If it's definitely ***not*** an emergency, and if it's asking for something that requires more research, then:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. After my time with my current client is finished for the day, I'll research whatever it is they're asking in the email and then get back to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key trend is that emails are distracting, typically non-urgent, and can wait. There's no need to rob either client of their time.  Give your current client what you're charging them for, and give the client sending the email quality time to put together an appropriate response." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="582" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="146" RevisionGUID="17b9ee48-4568-4572-bf38-b2c3cb7f0e68" CreationDate="2013-05-27T21:39:31.740" Comment="Proposed by 120 approved by 69 edit id of 56" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="583" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="266" RevisionGUID="4052b11d-62b8-466e-a131-6229875a1cc5" CreationDate="2013-05-28T00:02:04.787" UserId="58" Comment="errors" Text="If you want to incorporate as a nonprofit in the UK, you need to incorporate as a Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG), and then file articles of association ([more here][1]).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nonprofits in the United Kingdom have to declare their NPO status in their articles of association (you will have to write them from scratch or have a lawyer draft these), and have a set of standards which the organisation will adhere to (how their profits will be spent), which are reviewed by Companies House. There is no specific (i.e. it has no specific document) way to register a non-profit in the UK that isn't a charity. (Another alternative is a Community Interest Company, but I don't know if it applies here)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for tax itself, you will still have to pay tax as a company, but your taxes are relieved on the following:&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; * Charitable income&#xD;&#xA; * Rental income&#xD;&#xA; * Interest&#xD;&#xA; * Capital/Revenue&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Provided these are on the list in your articles of association ([source][2]).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion, unless you can make a charity, it's likely better than you simply incorporate as a Private Company Limited by Guarantee and list yourself as the sole guarantor, if you really must incorporate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/ is the site for registering a charity in the England or Wales.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also,&#xD;&#xA; &gt; I currently operate as a sole-trader with books showing zero profit. Is this a problem? (It's not faked!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you start earning higher profits (you will likely make profits. Giving yourself a raise equal to profits just means you'll have less money due to higher tax), you will have to pay Class 2 National Insurance on top of the Class 4 you already pay. If you incorporate, your sources of profit will all be taxed at a rate of about 20%, you'll be viable for VAT, and your income as an employee will be subject to income tax and Class 4 National Insurance (+ Class 2 after £5595).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will, however, be able to take out loans and wont be liable for any more than what you put into the business at incorporation. You might want to Check out [OnStartups][3] Stack Exchange if you fancy doing this, though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, but I did go to business school in the UK.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA; [1]: https://www.gov.uk/limited-company-formation/articles-of-association&#xD;&#xA; [2]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ct/clubs-charities-agents/charities.htm&#xD;&#xA; [3]: http://answers.onstartups.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="584" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="266" RevisionGUID="f29c0a43-2742-4a92-a71a-60967b2d62da" CreationDate="2013-05-28T01:15:54.653" UserId="58" Comment="&quot;Argh! Ze England are coming!&quot;" Text="If you want to incorporate as a nonprofit in the UK, you need to incorporate as a Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG), and then file articles of association ([more here][1]).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nonprofits in the United Kingdom have to declare their NPO status in their articles of association (you will have to write them from scratch or have a lawyer draft these), and have a set of standards which the organisation will adhere to (how their profits will be spent), which are reviewed by Companies House. There is no specific (i.e. it has no specific document) way to register a non-profit in the UK that isn't a charity. (Another alternative is a Community Interest Company, but I don't know if it applies here)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for tax itself, you will still have to pay tax as a company, but your taxes are relieved on the following:&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; * Charitable income&#xD;&#xA; * Rental income&#xD;&#xA; * Interest&#xD;&#xA; * Capital/Revenue&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Provided these are on the list in your articles of association ([source][2]).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion, unless you can make a charity, it's likely better than you simply incorporate as a Private Company Limited by Guarantee and list yourself as the sole guarantor, if you really must incorporate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/ is the site for registering a charity in England or Wales.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also,&#xD;&#xA; &gt; I currently operate as a sole-trader with books showing zero profit. Is this a problem? (It's not faked!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you start earning higher profits (you will likely make profits. Giving yourself a raise equal to profits just means you'll have less money due to higher tax), you will have to pay Class 2 National Insurance on top of the Class 4 you already pay. If you incorporate, your sources of profit will all be taxed at a rate of about 20%, you'll be viable for VAT, and your income as an employee will be subject to income tax and Class 4 National Insurance (+ Class 2 after £5595).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will, however, be able to take out loans and wont be liable for any more than what you put into the business at incorporation. You might want to Check out [OnStartups][3] Stack Exchange if you fancy doing this, though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, but I did go to business school in the UK.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA; [1]: https://www.gov.uk/limited-company-formation/articles-of-association&#xD;&#xA; [2]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ct/clubs-charities-agents/charities.htm&#xD;&#xA; [3]: http://answers.onstartups.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="587" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="269" RevisionGUID="e129811a-2dc8-4390-94e2-cf5a5289d5ec" CreationDate="2013-05-28T15:52:58.403" UserId="100" Text="From time to time I’d like to work for free for local [charitable organizations](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charitable_organization).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wonder how I could/should do this? (If this depends on the country, I’m interested in Germany.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* bill my work as usual, let them pay me and donate the money back to them?&#xD;&#xA;* create a bill with 100% discount (sum = 0)?&#xD;&#xA;* don’t create a bill at all?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don’t think it will be needed, but just to make sure: I don’t want to be liable for anything that could result from my work. For example, when I install a security update for their websites’ CMS and it contains a bug so that they can no longer send mails or whatever. When I get paid for my work, I’ll make sure to fix it as soon as possible. But when I donated my work, I don’t want to *have* to fix it. How would this be possible? Could I add a clause in my offer? What should it contain? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="588" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="269" RevisionGUID="e129811a-2dc8-4390-94e2-cf5a5289d5ec" CreationDate="2013-05-28T15:52:58.403" UserId="100" Text="Donating my work to charitable organizations?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="589" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="269" RevisionGUID="e129811a-2dc8-4390-94e2-cf5a5289d5ec" CreationDate="2013-05-28T15:52:58.403" UserId="100" Text="|nonprofit|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="590" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="270" RevisionGUID="96ebd56b-073d-4495-9371-0f01d199ef57" CreationDate="2013-05-28T16:33:09.537" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="* **bill my work as usual, let them pay me and donate the money back to them**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Yes, would be possible, but it would be weird if you agreed on that in a contract. If you don't agree on that in the contract, the charity could hesitate before working with you because they can't be sure they get their money.  &#xD;&#xA;  Furthermore, when you agree on this, the charity needs some liquidity, which it doesn't always have.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **don't create a bill at all?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Possible, but then it's going to look at volunteering. With a bill, you agree on what work has to be done before you do it. Without, the charity can ask for more, you can suddenly disagree... a bill creates clarity for both parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **create a bill with 100% discount (sum=0)?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Yes, this is the way to go. You won't have to pay taxes over €0,- and there's clarity for both parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, when you are familiar with the organizations, there's no problem with informally agreeing on donating back or not creating a bill at all. But when you don't know them or they don't know you, a bill creates clarity. Also, with 100% discount the charity can be sure of not paying." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="591" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="93" RevisionGUID="d1aed526-9272-4300-90c0-b9f1559a2a14" CreationDate="2013-05-28T17:24:34.930" UserId="141" Comment="edited body" Text="If I'm an EU-citizen and want to work in Switzerland as contractor, what should I do, if I have company registered in EU?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Can I work in Switzerland as contractor and invoice my client company as EU-registered company? Or I'm required to register company in Switzerland?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. If registering a company in Switzerland is required, do I need special permission from Swiss government to do that?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="594" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="271" RevisionGUID="f097e951-eeaa-48f3-9152-5a68b7313898" CreationDate="2013-05-28T20:59:43.580" UserId="120" Text="How should an independent contractor's resume differ from that of a candidate seeking a permanent position?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there things that should be *emphasized* on a resume for an independent contractor?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there typical sections or kinds of information that should *not be included* on the resume for an independent contractor?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, assuming one isn't a published book (or software) author, a celebrity blogger, or another widely-recognized industry expert, how might an independent contractor &quot;get away with&quot; not needing to have a resume?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="595" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="271" RevisionGUID="f097e951-eeaa-48f3-9152-5a68b7313898" CreationDate="2013-05-28T20:59:43.580" UserId="120" Text="How should an independent contractor's resume differ from that of a candidate seeking a permanent position?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="596" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="271" RevisionGUID="f097e951-eeaa-48f3-9152-5a68b7313898" CreationDate="2013-05-28T20:59:43.580" UserId="120" Text="|marketing|resume|independent-contractor|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="597" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="272" RevisionGUID="872da027-71da-4135-a5b1-0b62e28d3264" CreationDate="2013-05-28T21:37:33.860" UserId="120" Text="I was approached some time back by a recruiter who had a 1-week contract opportunity.  I'm guessing the client anticipated a quick fix to a single problem.  Anyway, the rate quoted by the recruiter was low, even for a typical length contract for that kind of work.  I declined to proceed on the basis of being unavailable at the time and didn't mention the lowball rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Still, it got me thinking:  Shouldn't the hourly rate increased for a shorter-term contract?  What are the rationalizations for doing so (to explain it to the recruiter and/or client), and is there a rule of thumb for how much more to charge based on how short a contract is?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="598" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="272" RevisionGUID="872da027-71da-4135-a5b1-0b62e28d3264" CreationDate="2013-05-28T21:37:33.860" UserId="120" Text="Should a contractor charge a higher hourly rate for a shorter term contract? Rules of thumb?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="599" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="272" RevisionGUID="872da027-71da-4135-a5b1-0b62e28d3264" CreationDate="2013-05-28T21:37:33.860" UserId="120" Text="|pay-rate|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="600" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="273" RevisionGUID="051427fd-8fc0-4fdc-8b76-35f901a26775" CreationDate="2013-05-29T03:26:58.220" UserId="60" Text="I do charge a higher rate for shorter work.  This is especially true for contracts.  I figure I have more non-billables going into shorter work.  In my experience this is fairly typical of consulting businesses as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The way this is typically done however is not raising the rate for short-term contracts but offering a long-term discount.  Ideally your initial asking rate should be what you would charge for a one-day contract, and you can offer discounts for longer projects.   For longer projects I have been known to offer up to 50% discounts (meaning my initial hourly rate can be as much as double what I would charge for a long-term big project)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="601" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="274" RevisionGUID="03d79366-1430-4bd0-8e42-876be69fe503" CreationDate="2013-05-29T03:38:05.137" UserId="60" Text="First, let's put this in perspective.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A resume is simply a brochure you hand a specific target market.**  It has its own conventions, formatting standards, etc. but in the end it is just a piece of advertising material and ideally one piece among many.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Likely your resume will go to a different target market and be read differently if you are are seeking employment (and that includes contract-to-hire) vs if you are seeking freelance consulting work, so like all advertising material you need to focus on your message and your audience, and you need a pretty good idea of what that audience is and what message will be receptive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So with that in mind, I don't think there are hard and fast rules.  However a general consulting resume is likely to be longer (beyond the 1 page rule) unless it is targetted at a specific gig, and it is likely to be supplemented by a much larger presence than a job-seeker's resume is likely to be (this is also a reason for longer length btw).  Additionally some contractors (those seeking contract-to-hire work) are likely to benefit from writing standard employment resumes, while those seeking short-term expert-level jobs will benefit from writing longer, consulting resumes (and then possibly paring down the resume for a specific sales lead).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, the importance is to write a resume with a specific target audience and message in mind.  There is more variety among contractors than there is among job-seekers, and so while a general set of guidelines is impossible, the standard marketing rules apply." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="602" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="275" RevisionGUID="cf5f0f7a-fea6-486b-b044-aa2de187738c" CreationDate="2013-05-29T04:30:32.250" UserId="75" Text="When I wrote my &quot;technical resume&quot;, it focused *strictly* on my skills relating to my industry, which was Information Technology. I included (at the top) my 5 core subjects that I was essentially a master in, including the years I had participated in each technology. Below that, I listed some of the more major projects I had taken on, including the main points of keeping costs down, increasing productivity for the client, etc. It will change for every industry.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is the exact same as marketting yourself, but you need to make a few things more clear then someone going in for a permanent position:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- You are *the* expert at *[insert subject here]*&#xD;&#xA;- You have done projects like this many times in the past&#xD;&#xA;- Available short notice (possibly)&#xD;&#xA;- Certifications/awards relating to your field&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And some things that can be skipped:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Hobbies&#xD;&#xA;- Outside activities/interests&#xD;&#xA;- Community programs (unless it relates to the position)&#xD;&#xA;- Non-industry related awards&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are selling yourself as a professional, not as a person, so to speak. I am involved in a community organization, and have many awards for it, but none that would help me get a contracting job; a permanent job would love that I achieved a Perfect Attendance award 2 years in a row. Remember, if you are freelancing, you are likely only going to be a temporary worker" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="603" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="276" RevisionGUID="86cc2792-378f-4e56-8ab3-974804389898" CreationDate="2013-05-29T05:34:49.233" UserId="75" Text="I agree about the higher rates like @ChrisTravers mentions, but just to add:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are asking for more money because it's not a longer contract, meaning you may not necessarily have work afterwards. Yes, it's a &quot;personal issue&quot;, but still something to be considered. With longer contracts, you usually can accept charging less because you have some reliability there. If you have a contract for 6 months, you know you'll have 6 months of work and pay ahead for you. With a short term contract, you may not necessarily have that much work available, but you still need to be compensated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is not to say you should charge extreme amounts of money, although certain profesionals can; what I'm saying is that you need to be able to live off of the contracts you do have. Most recruiters that I have dealt with already put in a bid for a contract to another party, and are simply finding the lowest-cost way of completing the contract, while they still turn a profit. One company I worked for was notorious for this, and even tried offering me lower then minimum wage for my province on one contract; needless to say, I told them to take a hike after that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for explaining to the recruiter: I would mention that you have certain costs that need to be offset with the time. You are basically being paid for your time, and that needs to show it. If your normal rate is $50, and that covers all your expenses with just a couple jobs, then you are free to maybe negotiate a little lower, depending on your other projects. If they are low-balling you for doing your $50/hr work at $20/hr, that is a major slap in the face. Explain that when you do projects, you take the time to ensure the job is done right, and that you are being paid for your time/expertise. Recruiters are trained to get the lowest possible cost for a project, and as long as you aren't desperate, do not go lower then your absolute minimum acceptable rate, in order to keep money flowing INTO your pocket" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="604" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="277" RevisionGUID="5a214c5f-6f09-4aaf-a0c9-ad3089bc7e74" CreationDate="2013-05-29T05:42:41.997" UserId="75" Text="In Canada, the rules seem a little different for billing them... According to the [Canada Revenue Agency](http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/dnrs/rcpts/dntn2-eng.html)'s page about charitable donations:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Donations of cash, goods, land, or listed securities (like stocks) to a registered charity or other qualified donees are eligible for a charitable tax credit. For a donation to be eligible for the charitable tax credit, the transfer of ownership has to be voluntary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Examples of donations that do usually qualify for charitable tax credits include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    money;&#xD;&#xA;    securities;&#xD;&#xA;    ecologically sensitive land;&#xD;&#xA;    certified cultural property;&#xD;&#xA;    capital property;&#xD;&#xA;    personal-use property (such as prints, etchings, drawings, paintings, sculptures, jewellery, rare folios, rare manuscripts, rare books, stamps, and coins); and&#xD;&#xA;    inventory (such as art, antiques, rare books).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;The following do not usually qualify for charitable tax credits:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    contributions of services, such as time, skills, effort;&#xD;&#xA;    certain admission fees to events or to programs (e.g., fees for daycare or nursery school facilities);&#xD;&#xA;    the purchase price of a lottery ticket or other chance to win a prize, even though the lottery proceeds benefit one or more charities; and&#xD;&#xA;    the payment of tuition fees (exceptions exist). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The usual disclaimer: IANAL, so check with the regulations in your country. In Canada, I would do as @CamilStaps mentions, which is to **create a bill with 100% discount (sum=0)**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="605" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="273" RevisionGUID="7eae7eda-bb33-482d-bbca-20d2e74d9fde" CreationDate="2013-05-29T06:12:46.130" UserId="60" Comment="added 950 characters in body" Text="I do charge a higher rate for shorter work.  This is especially true for contracts.  I figure I have more non-billables going into shorter work.  In my experience this is fairly typical of consulting businesses as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The way this is typically done however is not raising the rate for short-term contracts but offering a long-term discount.  Ideally your initial asking rate should be what you would charge for a one-day contract, and you can offer discounts for longer projects.   For longer projects I have been known to offer up to 50% discounts (meaning my initial hourly rate can be as much as double what I would charge for a long-term big project).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Edit in reply to Luke's excellent points below**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is true that dependability of income is important but it isn't the only thing to consider.   There are also a lot of expenses you have to pay to get a contract rolling.  These may include reviewing a contract with a lawyer if you want to, but also things you have less discretion on such as showing up for interviews and other parts of the &quot;sales process.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't charge for any of that, and so if you have a lot of small gigs that is far less helpful than if you have a few big ones.   Optimal is probably a steady flow of low-grade long-term contracts where you can work a different contract each day, and when one ends, you still have some availability to do sales channel work without being out of income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another point is that you have a lot more negotiating power if you are not entirely relying on recruiters.  If you have other customers already, then you can more easily " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="606" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="273" RevisionGUID="c195a301-3fac-4fd7-b78c-fdc7b4ab53b0" CreationDate="2013-05-29T06:29:31.660" UserId="60" Comment="added 419 characters in body" Text="I do charge a higher rate for shorter work.  This is especially true for contracts.  I figure I have more non-billables going into shorter work.  In my experience this is fairly typical of consulting businesses as well.  Other firms I have co-worked projects with have offered similar steep discounts for longer-term projects of up to 50% as well.  While consulting is not quite the same as contracting, a consulting perspective here can be of help in understanding what some of the issues are.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The way this is typically done however is not raising the rate for short-term contracts but offering a long-term discount.  Ideally your initial asking rate should be what you would charge for a one-day contract, and you can offer discounts for longer projects.   For longer projects I have been known to offer up to 50% discounts (meaning my initial hourly rate can be as much as double what I would charge for a long-term big project).  This way long-term customers are happy because they got a discount, while short-term customers do not feel like you just jacked up your rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Edit in reply to Luke's excellent points below**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is true that dependability of income is important but it isn't the only thing to consider.   There are also a lot of expenses you have to pay to get a contract rolling.  These may include reviewing a contract with a lawyer if you want to, but also things you have less discretion on such as showing up for interviews and other parts of the &quot;sales process.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't charge for any of that, and so if you have a lot of small gigs that is far less helpful than if you have a few big ones.   Optimal is probably a steady flow of low-grade long-term contracts where you can work a different contract each day, and when one ends, you still have some availability to do sales channel work without being out of income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another point is that you have a lot more negotiating power if you are not entirely relying on recruiters.  If you have other customers already, then you can more easily " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="607" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="278" RevisionGUID="f0013aad-cf70-44a2-b606-daaf1772974b" CreationDate="2013-05-29T06:47:35.380" UserId="60" Text="I have recently been asked how much accounting knowledge someone should have when becoming self-employed.  I am somewhat biased since I write [accounting software](http://www.ledgersmb.org), and so I am afraid of overestimating what I would recommend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My initial thought was to recommend that one learns enough accounting to keep one's own books generally, and also enough to have intelligent conversations with accountants.  My thinking was that this provides enough that such an individual could keep his/her own books and thus not worry about a bookkeeper taking advantage of a clueless owner.  My initial instinct is to recommend buying a few accounting textbooks (second-hand is fine) as reference material.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this recommendation over the top though?  Is this just my bias speaking? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="608" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="278" RevisionGUID="f0013aad-cf70-44a2-b606-daaf1772974b" CreationDate="2013-05-29T06:47:35.380" UserId="60" Text="How much accounting knowledge is necessary when going freelance?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="609" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="278" RevisionGUID="f0013aad-cf70-44a2-b606-daaf1772974b" CreationDate="2013-05-29T06:47:35.380" UserId="60" Text="|accounting|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="610" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="279" RevisionGUID="b5266f39-9e24-4ade-ad08-eb8547e5468d" CreationDate="2013-05-29T08:02:27.783" UserId="65" Text="I usually charge for the effect, calculated by how complicated the task is, how much do I have to spend to obtain required tools and materials and how long will it take.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients know then exactly, how much will it cost them. General pros for charging by fixed price are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - you may finish something way before time, as some task was done quicker than expected&#xD;&#xA; - from my experience, clients will more likely take this option, as some of them may feel uncomfortable when they pay you per hour and they can't really see you're working when at home&#xD;&#xA; - it encourages you to think, how some task may be done better and more efficient&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The major con is if the task is taking more time than you expected, you have nothing else to do than just cry a little and do it. Fixed price is a considerable solution, but you have to estimate how many things may &quot;go wrong&quot; (as in the answer from Chris Tavers). If there are many - it's better to charge per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you tend to underestimate the time you need and how much you should charge after every re-calculation add like 30% to the calculated cost ;)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="611" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="280" RevisionGUID="c523db58-a935-4c8f-aa47-04a110f5c6d4" CreationDate="2013-05-29T08:41:00.220" UserId="184" Text="Though having some accounting know how when starting to freelance, this is not really needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the same way that you don't need to know about business law to start freelancing, but it helps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most freelancers manage by hiring professionals in these fields - an accountant and an lawyer, respectively. Yes, there is always a risk that they will take advantage of a clueless owner, but that is true when hiring any professional and means the owner has to go thorough some due diligence when selecting such a professional. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For most freelancers this is part of the cost of doing business and means they spend less time on these issues and more time on their core competencies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="612" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="265" RevisionGUID="8c37c37f-977b-47e4-bd29-a743e49593cf" CreationDate="2013-05-29T08:42:29.577" UserId="153" Comment="Additional Information" Text="If I wish to start freelancing with the sole purpose of providing support services (in this case, IT), to Charities and Nonprofits what are the possible options under which I can provide these services?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If we work under the assumption that I myself don't intend to make any profits out of this venture:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Is there a specialised form of business/employment for this purpose?&#xD;&#xA;* I currently operate as a sole-trader with books showing zero profit. Is this a problem? (It's not faked!)&#xD;&#xA;* What are the implications on National Insurance, as it is still payable out of my pocket, which means that I am taking a hit for it? Are there exemptions?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Myself and the consumers are based in the United Kingdom, so I'd prefer specific answers, but welcome all constructive points of view.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Another question which addresses similar issues: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/269/donating-my-work-to-charitable-organizations" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="613" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="277" RevisionGUID="c045a310-f6ee-41cf-9e1c-2348257e9c26" CreationDate="2013-05-29T11:01:05.193" UserId="153" Comment="Formatting" Text="In Canada, the rules seem a little different for billing them... According to the [Canada Revenue Agency](http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/dnrs/rcpts/dntn2-eng.html)'s page about charitable donations:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Donations of cash, goods, land, or listed securities (like stocks) to a registered charity or other qualified donees are eligible for a charitable tax credit. For a donation to be eligible for the charitable tax credit, the transfer of ownership has to be voluntary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Examples of donations that do usually qualify for charitable tax credits include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;* money;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;* securities;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;* ecologically sensitive land;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;* certified cultural property;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;* capital property;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;* personal-use property (such as prints, etchings, drawings, paintings, sculptures, jewellery, rare folios, rare manuscripts, rare books, stamps, and coins); and&#xD;&#xA;&gt;* inventory (such as art, antiques, rare books).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;The following do not usually qualify for charitable tax credits:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;* contributions of services, such as time, skills, effort;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;* certain admission fees to events or to programs (e.g., fees for daycare or nursery school facilities);&#xD;&#xA;&gt;* the purchase price of a lottery ticket or other chance to win a prize, even though the lottery proceeds benefit one or more charities; and&#xD;&#xA;&gt;* the payment of tuition fees (exceptions exist).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The usual disclaimer: IANAL, so check with the regulations in your country. In Canada, I would do as @CamilStaps mentions, which is to **create a bill with 100% discount (sum=0)**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="614" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="277" RevisionGUID="c045a310-f6ee-41cf-9e1c-2348257e9c26" CreationDate="2013-05-29T11:01:05.193" Comment="Proposed by 153 approved by 184 edit id of 57" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="615" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="281" RevisionGUID="6b377c9d-dc12-4c7e-974b-bdecdfeeec22" CreationDate="2013-05-29T12:48:11.603" UserId="43" Text="I completely rewrote my resume a couple of years back, having been a contractor for (then) a couple of years. The main thing that I removed from it, that I think makes a contractor CV completely different from a permanent CV, was the chronological career history. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key question that your CV needs to answer changes when you switch from permanent to contract, from this: &#xD;&#xA; &gt; **&quot;is this person a good fit for our organisation and the role we have on offer?&quot;** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;to this: &#xD;&#xA; &gt; **&quot;can this person provide the service that we need?&quot;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's that second question that makes a chronological history of work experience less than optimal because you need to show that you can provide the specific service that your client is looking for. It may well be that you provided a very similar service 3 contracts previously. Does that make it any less relevant? Absolutely not, and that role needs to be more prominent on your CV than halfway down the second page.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because I am a software developer, the first thing on my CV, after a short summary, is the key skills that I have, from programming languages through to systems and processes. So far so good and then same as my permanent CV. Next I go through a number of key projects, presented in whichever order I choose so that they are tailored for the role I am applying for. The detail of each project includes the client name and length of contract, but not the dates, so that I can move them around as necessary. The style I use to write each project description is in terms of the problem that I was hired to solve and the solution that I was involved with providing. After the key projects I include the career history in a single list that is just made up of organisation name and dates but no other details.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tend not to include anything that is not relevant to the skills and experience that I can offer to the client that I am potentially working with. Given that the CV is still the defacto mechanism that changes hands when you are targeting an assignment, I wouldn't say there was ever a situation in which you could &quot;get away&quot; without having one. You could change things around slightly and have an online CV/portfolio on your website or one of the career building websites (Stack Overflow Careers anyone?) but it's still a CV, albeit in electronic form." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="616" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="282" RevisionGUID="c082dd58-563c-44f1-84e6-20083916c243" CreationDate="2013-05-29T13:08:01.017" UserId="43" Text="I am currently contracting at an educational establishment and wondering about the legal implications of taking advantage of the educational discounts offered by some of the larger retailers such as [Apple][1]. As a UK based contractor I'm thinking about the view that would be taken by HMRC and whether it could be seen as an indication of employment, and therefore count against me for IR35. I'm erring on the side of steering clear so as not to raise any red flags further down the line, in the event of an investigation. Am I being overly cautious?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/education_routing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="617" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="282" RevisionGUID="c082dd58-563c-44f1-84e6-20083916c243" CreationDate="2013-05-29T13:08:01.017" UserId="43" Text="Taking advantage of educational discounts" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="618" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="282" RevisionGUID="c082dd58-563c-44f1-84e6-20083916c243" CreationDate="2013-05-29T13:08:01.017" UserId="43" Text="|legal|uk|hmrc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="619" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="282" RevisionGUID="db14d45f-49ce-4675-89b3-f0a906e6e0d9" CreationDate="2013-05-29T13:17:25.517" UserId="43" Comment="Improved title" Text="Taking advantage of retail discounts if contracting at an educational institution" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="620" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="282" RevisionGUID="db14d45f-49ce-4675-89b3-f0a906e6e0d9" CreationDate="2013-05-29T13:17:25.517" UserId="43" Comment="Improved title" Text="|legal|uk|hmrc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="621" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="283" RevisionGUID="504f0c2a-282c-4de9-89f1-0704501bca93" CreationDate="2013-05-29T16:16:56.707" UserId="127" Text="It seems to me that this depends largely on the type of freelance business you are in. In my case, I build custom software. I don't have any &quot;inventory&quot;, and I charge on a fixed fee basis (per deliverable). So in my case, accounting is very, very basic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, my son produces a weekly internet program (he reviews bad comic books in an entertaining way). He regularly travels to conferences where he speaks and sells items related to his show. He also sells items online, but his main revenue is advertising revenue from his show. He also occasionally pays subcontractors who do work for him (art, costumes, etc.) In his case, his accounting could potentially be more complicated. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="622" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="284" RevisionGUID="ef9b9d36-e7ff-4571-90c5-1dbd0bbe21f7" CreationDate="2013-05-29T17:07:25.270" UserId="78" Text="In both cases you need to point the **technologies** you know and your **skills**. You need to write what tools and technologies you have been using and for how long. However, I've noted a few differences:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When applying for permanent position I was asked to make CV concentrated on **companies** for which I've worked. It's good to accent that you have worked for one company for at least a few years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When applying for permanent position, I was usually asked to concentrate on **projects** I was involved in, even if there were a few projects in single company. It's good to accent that you have been involved in many projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another difference: applying for contractor position, I was never asked to put hobbies into CV. Generally, by contractors, it's not as important to learn the candidate as the person. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="623" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="285" RevisionGUID="4e2a5c4c-a83b-48b6-afb3-0f880adb326b" CreationDate="2013-05-29T17:32:38.557" UserId="78" Text="Usually you don't need more about accountancy when going to accountant then about medicine when going to the doctor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't be good at everything and you have to choose. I have done accountant things myself, but most of my colleagues had only very basic knowledge about accountancy (that is, they've known the telephone number of their accountant). If you have accountant, you usually don't need to know more than how to print an invoice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So accounting knowledge is neither necessary nor commonly possessed by the freelancers. If you earn a little, it's good to be able do everything yourself because you save money, but if you earn a lot, it's only your choice. It's like hand-washing instead of buying washing machine. You can do that, but most people won't decide for such option." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="624" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="278" RevisionGUID="7bdc014b-cbf6-4538-821b-fb6b5af960d6" CreationDate="2013-05-29T22:17:25.623" UserId="120" Comment="title &amp; tag" Text="How much bookkeeping or accounting knowledge is necessary when going freelance?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="625" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="278" RevisionGUID="7bdc014b-cbf6-4538-821b-fb6b5af960d6" CreationDate="2013-05-29T22:17:25.623" UserId="120" Comment="title &amp; tag" Text="|accounting|consulting|knowledge|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="626" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="278" RevisionGUID="7bdc014b-cbf6-4538-821b-fb6b5af960d6" CreationDate="2013-05-29T22:17:25.623" Comment="Proposed by 120 approved by 69 edit id of 58" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="627" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="286" RevisionGUID="1a620eec-5efb-41d2-95e0-c45049a2c8a0" CreationDate="2013-05-30T02:06:28.090" UserId="60" Text="After reading the other answers here and pondering them, I decided to throw my own answer in anyway and flesh it out a little.  I am posting this after having accepted another answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How much knowledge is (minimally) necessary?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't think my initial instincts are that far off from what others are saying, though perhaps the emphasis is from another angle (hence this is worth posting).  It still comes back to being able to do the day-to-day bookkeeping oneself.  The level of knowledge minimally required to do this with standard accounting packages on the market is pretty low (this is particularly true .  It amounts to &quot;generally understanding some terminology and being willing to learn how to use software aimed at beginners.&quot;  It's a very low bar today.  Whether or not you hire a bookkeeper you need to know enough to be able to supervise what the bookkeeper does, since the bookkeeper is probably handling your money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being able to do the bookkeeping means you can do some very basic things yourself.  You can print invoices, find out who owes you money, pay your expenses, write your own checks, and balance your checkbook.  It does not mean you have to understand the finer points of day count conventions, determine what needs to be adjusted end of year, or worry about exactly when income is realized.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second thing one needs to be able to do is formulate questions to ask an accountant.  So there you have it.  If you can run accounting software (or are willing to learn), ask questions, and understand the answers, that's sufficient.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**However, accounting is power for business owners**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are going to be self-employed with multiple streams of revenue for any period of time, more accounting knowledge is better.  What accounting knowledge gives you, fundamentally, is an ability to analyse your revenue stream when you are making business decisions.  Now if you are just independent contracting (one customer at a time, each for an extended period), you can probably figure such things out without any accounting knowledge at all, but if you are consulting for multiple customers concurrently, and offering different services, then such knowledge is quite empowering when it comes to actually making business decisions.  Being willing to learn a little at a time *as you need it* is thus a very good thing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="628" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="286" RevisionGUID="534efd2a-b85b-4785-aa31-dc7ccaa7a740" CreationDate="2013-05-30T02:13:28.003" UserId="60" Comment="deleted 28 characters in body" Text="After reading the other answers here and pondering them, I decided to throw my own answer in anyway and flesh it out a little.  I am posting this after having accepted another answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How much knowledge is (minimally) necessary?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't think my initial instincts are that far off from what others are saying, though perhaps the emphasis is from another angle (hence this is worth posting).  It still comes back to being able to do the day-to-day bookkeeping oneself.  The level of knowledge minimally required to do this with standard accounting packages on the market is pretty low.  It amounts to &quot;generally understanding some terminology and being willing to learn how to use software aimed at beginners.&quot;  It's a very low bar today.  Whether or not you hire a bookkeeper you need to know enough to be able to supervise what the bookkeeper does, since the bookkeeper is probably handling your money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being able to do the bookkeeping means you can do some very basic things yourself.  You can print invoices, find out who owes you money, pay your expenses, write your own checks, and balance your checkbook.  It does not mean you have to understand the finer points of day count conventions, determine what needs to be adjusted end of year, or worry about exactly when income is realized.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second thing one needs to be able to do is formulate questions to ask an accountant.  So there you have it.  If you can run accounting software (or are willing to learn), ask questions, and understand the answers, that's sufficient.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**However, accounting is power for business owners**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are going to be self-employed with multiple streams of revenue for any period of time, more accounting knowledge is better.  What accounting knowledge gives you, fundamentally, is an ability to analyse your revenue stream when you are making business decisions.  Now if you are just independent contracting (one customer at a time, each for an extended period), you can probably figure such things out without any accounting knowledge at all, but if you are consulting for multiple customers concurrently, and offering different services, then such knowledge is quite empowering when it comes to actually making business decisions.  Being willing to learn a little at a time *as you need it* is thus a very good thing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="629" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="287" RevisionGUID="523639c1-7f5b-4fc2-9a01-61e607dbbf30" CreationDate="2013-05-30T13:09:01.643" UserId="43" Text="A number of my recruiter contacts recently drew my attention to the fact that a CV was doing the rounds that was effectively my CV with a different name and part of someone else's CV tacked onto the bottom. We don't know who is actually behind it but whoever it is has been applying for roles using this CV. As for why, we have a hypothesis that it's a recruiter trying to get the inside track on active roles but this is only a hypothesis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a seasoned contractor, I am concerned about the effect this could have on my reputation if recruiters/clients get my CV landing on their desk as well. Are there any steps I can take to help mitigate against negative effects upon my business?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="630" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="287" RevisionGUID="523639c1-7f5b-4fc2-9a01-61e607dbbf30" CreationDate="2013-05-30T13:09:01.643" UserId="43" Text="What steps can I take to protect my reputation if my CV is plagiarised?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="631" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="287" RevisionGUID="523639c1-7f5b-4fc2-9a01-61e607dbbf30" CreationDate="2013-05-30T13:09:01.643" UserId="43" Text="|legal|copyright|resume|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="632" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="282" RevisionGUID="cb19b808-e155-4cbe-a778-a373cec4586c" CreationDate="2013-05-30T13:19:37.593" UserId="69" Comment="2" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:69,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Robert Cartaino&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="633" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="282" RevisionGUID="f5a3ae73-ca0a-4144-af58-d3d2d3a6b18b" CreationDate="2013-05-30T13:27:14.897" UserId="69" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:69,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Robert Cartaino&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="634" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="288" RevisionGUID="e92744b6-aa24-4b87-91f6-120673ddbd03" CreationDate="2013-05-30T13:44:15.573" UserId="43" Text="In the UK, HMRC have created some tests to determine whether you are in business of your own account, one of which is that you have a business plan that gets updated regularly. Initially in response to this I started writing one but haven't got very far with it. I been working for myself successfully for a few years now without having a business plan and am wondering whether I should even bother? Legalities aside, what advantages or extra opportunities might having a business plan in place bring to a freelance business?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="635" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="288" RevisionGUID="e92744b6-aa24-4b87-91f6-120673ddbd03" CreationDate="2013-05-30T13:44:15.573" UserId="43" Text="Do I need a formal business plan to run a successful freelance business?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="636" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="288" RevisionGUID="e92744b6-aa24-4b87-91f6-120673ddbd03" CreationDate="2013-05-30T13:44:15.573" UserId="43" Text="|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="637" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="289" RevisionGUID="971c567b-fcc3-4fb5-bff0-3d22c5ef1de8" CreationDate="2013-05-30T14:07:32.807" UserId="184" Text="If you already know what you want out of your business and how to go about it, you already have a business plan. Perhaps not formalized and written down, but one nonetheless.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are several things you can get from putting it down in writing:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - You have a comparison point - something that you can use to compare the vision to the reality and that will allow for course correction.&#xD;&#xA; - You can clarify your thinking by putting in on paper. Seeing the plan in writing can help visualize issues and faults with it and finding any holes in your thinking. It may show that the business is not actually viable the way you envision it.&#xD;&#xA; - Once on paper, you can show this to others and get feedback. These can be relatives, colleagues and prospective investors (not to mention HMRC...).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These are all tangible benefits for your business strategies - of course, you can easily have a successful business without the above and the simpler the business model, the less the need to formalize the business plan (for example many one man IT freelancers are just one man contracting - but is that a business?).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="638" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="290" RevisionGUID="ad4d830d-3bf0-4154-b523-f2a592c7a662" CreationDate="2013-05-30T20:45:53.580" UserId="17" Text="You are always liable to some extend but to minimize your liability it's best to make it clear that you are doing this work on a volunteer basis and that the recipient can not expect your usual support and guarantees.  You could even state that in the contract with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I have to question your objective.  If you aren't willing to help them fix the problems you caused then it's best not to offer your service.  Not only are you doing a good deed but you are showcasing your skills and services.  Think of it as advertising opportunity." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="642" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="292" RevisionGUID="8b6a06a7-7c4c-44d1-9fa3-a34dbd00c5f6" CreationDate="2013-05-30T22:27:16.587" UserId="159" Text="When arranging to do work remotely, how can you verify that the client is legitimate and that you can trust them with your personal tax ID (social security number in the US)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the US employers are required to get your tax ID and usually won't send any payments without it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it reasonable to ask the client for references? If so, what kind of references and how should they be verified?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some possible reference types I've thought of:  &#xD;&#xA;People who've worked for them.  &#xD;&#xA;Some of their clients/customers.  &#xD;&#xA;The bank where they maintain their business account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I realize that there's a certain amount of trust involved, but giving your tax ID to the wrong person can wreak havoc on your credit report.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="643" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="292" RevisionGUID="8b6a06a7-7c4c-44d1-9fa3-a34dbd00c5f6" CreationDate="2013-05-30T22:27:16.587" UserId="159" Text="When is it safe to give Tax ID to Remote Employer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="644" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="292" RevisionGUID="8b6a06a7-7c4c-44d1-9fa3-a34dbd00c5f6" CreationDate="2013-05-30T22:27:16.587" UserId="159" Text="|client|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="645" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="293" RevisionGUID="70f9b257-9d28-4c50-8047-253e11a28104" CreationDate="2013-05-31T00:21:26.377" UserId="60" Text="**Short answer** yes, but a business plan helps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Long Answer**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are two traps that come from business plans, IME:  Not having one, and following one closely.  This seems contradictory but it is not so much.  As Eisenhower said, &quot;Plans are nothing; Planning is everything.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The major point of preparing a formal business plan is to think through all of the major facets of your business, write them down, and look at the major issues that may come up.  If you are creating a business plan for yourself what you can get out of the process is clarity regarding your business, what the options for promoting it are, etc.  Now, here you are not writing it down for investors.  You are writing it down for yourself, and thinking through all of these (how would you describe the market?  What options do you have to reach the market?  Which options should you start with?) gives you an advantage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, having a plan is worse than not if you slavishly follow it.  Chances are, if you put it on the shelf and don't look at it for a year, having throught through all the issues, you will find that your business follows, generally, the trajectory of the business plan (because both are a product of how you think and the clarity that comes from doing the plan will benefit your business).  The issue however is that life does not unfold according to our plans.  Unexpected opportunities may come up.  Things that we thought would be keys for success fizzle and businesses need flexibility.  I can't tell you how many times those things have happened to my business in my 8 years of self-employment.  You work around them based on what you need at the moment, and when you come back to your plan in a year, you will find you have made more progress than you thought.  This is true regardless of such setbacks.  I have again often been amazed at how much of my business plans I made progress on during more difficult times of my business, and this has usually benefited me greatly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The process I recommend for the self-employed is as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Write a formal business plan.  Target 20-30 pages.&#xD;&#xA;2. Put the business plan on the shelf.  Don't look at it for a  year.&#xD;&#xA;3. Every year, read, review, and revise based on what happened the previous year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To recap:   What you get out of a formal business plan is a clear view of what options you have and what you can do to achieve your goals (and you should write a business plan with the goal of thinking through these).  Don't expect the universe to cooperate, but the process of writing one brings a great deal of clarity." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="646" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="294" RevisionGUID="3fd2b21a-41be-4181-9b6e-ebb6d32f48e7" CreationDate="2013-05-31T01:03:52.527" UserId="60" Text="There are two aspects to this:  leverage what you have now, and minimize damage in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Leveraging what you have now includes things like contacting the recruiters you work with, letting them know to be on the lookout for the problem, and that if they have any concerns to please verify details.  This way the recruiters you work with can vouch for you.  In theory recruiters should be doing some of this anyway, but all too often they don't.  Being proactive helps ensure that the fake resumes get filtered out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for making your resume less susceptible to this sort of thing...  The single best thing to do, IMO, is to revise your resume to include easily verifiable things you have done.  If you have written papers, provide links to them.  If someone wants to plagiarize your resume and they provide a link to a paper with your name on it, then they are just giving you more exposure.  If you haven't written any whitepapers, maybe you should (and put them up online, linked to from your resume, etc)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="648" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="295" RevisionGUID="2c26ff01-658c-467d-8c45-aa39cca8e1f0" CreationDate="2013-05-31T02:36:08.873" UserId="159" Text="Are any services or applications available that create a report for clients to see that I was working on their project for the number of hours that I bill them for?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One approach to this that I'm aware of is the one used by oDesk:  &#xD;&#xA;Recording of keystrokes per time increment.  &#xD;&#xA;Screenshots taken at set intervals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I don't know if anything like that is available as an installable application or as a service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="649" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="295" RevisionGUID="2c26ff01-658c-467d-8c45-aa39cca8e1f0" CreationDate="2013-05-31T02:36:08.873" UserId="159" Text="Install an app or use a service that let's clients track the hours I work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="650" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="295" RevisionGUID="2c26ff01-658c-467d-8c45-aa39cca8e1f0" CreationDate="2013-05-31T02:36:08.873" UserId="159" Text="|remote|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="651" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="296" RevisionGUID="a19dca89-cf43-4d62-9940-b5aba57ae1a3" CreationDate="2013-05-31T03:30:37.563" UserId="64" Text="In my experience, clients who I've done contract work for haven't asked for this until the end of the fiscal year, when their accountant starts pressing them to get their taxes in order.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My experience comes from dealing with small startups, where there's not a lot of process in place. The mutual trust came from the fact that they already paid me hundreds or thousands of dollars in exchange for the work I've done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When they asked for my tax id, I didn't give it a second thought.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, if you're doing work for a larger client, they may very well want your tax id in advance. In the United States, you can go to the [IRS Website and apply for an EIN Federal Tax ID](http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&amp;-Self-Employed/Apply-for-an-Employer-Identification-Number-(EIN)-Online), which means you don't have to give your personal social security number to clients who contract with you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If that's not an option, just do some basic research on the client. If they're well-established, they likely have a website, some reviews, public artifacts on the Internet that verify that they exist and are indeed legitimate. If something doesn't feel right, move on and find another client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="652" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="292" RevisionGUID="15665056-fec8-43e3-a0b5-5c6e7584e198" CreationDate="2013-05-31T03:54:15.570" UserId="159" Comment="Clarified portion of question" Text="When arranging to do work remotely, how can you verify that the client is legitimate and that you can trust them with your personal tax ID (social security number in the US)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the US employers are required to get your tax ID and in my limited experience won't send any payments without it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it reasonable to ask the client for references? If so, what kind of references and how should they be verified?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some possible reference types I've thought of:  &#xD;&#xA;People who've worked for them.  &#xD;&#xA;Some of their clients/customers.  &#xD;&#xA;The bank where they maintain their business account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I realize that there's a certain amount of trust involved, but giving your tax ID to the wrong person can wreak havoc on your credit report.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="653" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="292" RevisionGUID="9a25ea79-8bcf-468f-9644-342400b9219a" CreationDate="2013-05-31T05:08:25.327" UserId="159" Comment="Made question more specific" Text="When arranging to do work remotely, how can you verify that the client is legitimate and that you can trust them with your personal tax ID (social security number in the US)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the US employers are required to get your tax ID if they want to deduct the amount they pay you from their income, so it's reasonable for them to request it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All of the remote work I've done so far has been for clients that were vouched for by someone that I trusted. In some of those cases, the client wouldn't make any payments until I sent them my Tax ID.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This question is specifically about dealing with a situation where you don't know anything about the client:  &#xD;&#xA;You reply to a listing they posted on a job site.  &#xD;&#xA;They contact you on your site or through a site where you've posted your resume.  &#xD;&#xA;They are not a large company with an easy to verify existence and history.  &#xD;&#xA;They are a small company, which may have been founded 10 years or 10 months ago.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what do you do when a new client wants your tax ID before they will make any payments?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it reasonable to ask the client for references? If so, what kind of references and how should they be verified?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some possible reference types I've thought of:  &#xD;&#xA;People who've worked for them.  &#xD;&#xA;Some of their clients/customers.  &#xD;&#xA;The bank where they maintain their business account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I realize that there's a certain amount of trust required on the part of both parties when doing remote work, but how do you go about minimizing the risks of giving out your tax ID?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="655" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="269" RevisionGUID="1ce40426-0987-43df-b129-2df977dcf871" CreationDate="2013-05-31T06:57:44.087" UserId="17" Comment="Clarified question title.  The highest voted answer doesn't even answer the main cause why this question was asked." Text="Donating my work to charitable organizations without being liable?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="656" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="269" RevisionGUID="1ce40426-0987-43df-b129-2df977dcf871" CreationDate="2013-05-31T06:57:44.087" Comment="Proposed by 17 approved by 60, 100 edit id of 59" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="657" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="297" RevisionGUID="0e621a30-968f-496b-bcc9-bda7bb935993" CreationDate="2013-05-31T07:15:09.393" UserId="60" Text="Hmm.  I am in favor of having customers rather than micromanagers.  That seems like a huge footgun if you are trying to prove that you worked what you said you did.  If anyone asked me to use such a framework, I would give the lead some serious second thoughts.  If the customer has the time to micromanage me or look through such footage, they have focused on the wrong things (huge red flag project-wise).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This being said, very often it is very helpful to give customers a detailed breakdown of what you did for them, how long.  [LedgerSMB](http://ledgersmb.org) (disclaimer: I run a LedgerSMB hosting service with a business partner too, as well as do development and consulting on that platform) has a timecard interface where you can assign timecards with projects, add detailed notes, and include those notes, optionally on invoices you send your customer.  It is fairly simple: you enter a time in and time out, it calculates an interval at the rate associated with the service and customer.  You indicate how many of those hours were non-billable and give both description and notes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can generate sales orders from a set of timecards, and sales invoices from the orders.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would hope that many other applications have similar functionality." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="658" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="298" RevisionGUID="1523a00b-2248-4c4e-9134-7f12b7b52d4e" CreationDate="2013-05-31T07:34:14.050" UserId="159" Text="For web and software development, I would recommend [A Legal Guide to Web &amp; Software Development][1] from [NOLO][2].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It includes contract templates, but more importantly, it explains them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It gives thorough, plain english explanations of the terms included in each section of the contracts and does so from the perspective of both the contractor and the client.&#xD;&#xA;If offers multiple versions of various clauses and helps you decide which clauses to include.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's a great source for educating yourself about the most important aspects of the contract and putting together a contract that is tailored to fit your situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, the best approach would be to have a lawyer review the personalized contract once you've finished, but at least you're making educated decisions when creating it which is better than grabbing a contract template from somewhere and using it without understanding the implications of the clauses it contains.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.nolo.com/products/a-legal-guide-to-web-and-software-development-sft.html&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.nolo.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="660" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="300" RevisionGUID="52b5318c-b846-41a7-a599-7233f526fe13" CreationDate="2013-05-31T09:03:08.037" UserId="85" Text="**Short Answer**: It depends&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Longer Answer**: It depends on whether you, your business or your business's future direction require one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A business plan is just that: a plan. It identifies a way from here to there with the steps in between.  If you (and your business) are happy the way you are, having a Business Plan stating &quot;No changes&quot; is a waste of paper!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whatever you do, do not try and run your business based on HMRC's propoganda. Their IR35 track record is based on Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt - and pretty much their initial decision is &quot;Caught&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should you truly feel that a Business Plan will help determine that you are [tag:IBOYOA]  then make sure it is realistic... a &quot;War and Peace&quot; epic of how you'll change the world will only raise an eyebrow if you are still operating as an agency [tag:bum-on-seat]&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="661" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="295" RevisionGUID="2053eafe-0d3e-41c5-82f7-b50c185737cd" CreationDate="2013-05-31T09:36:11.607" UserId="159" Comment="Added background information" Text="I've been asked to produce a report for clients that shows that I was working on their project for the number of hours that I bill them for. How could that be achieved? The client is familiar with oDesk and asked that I create a similar report.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The system at oDesk has the following features:&#xD;&#xA;Recording of keystrokes per time increment.  &#xD;&#xA;Screenshots taken at set intervals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are any services or applications available that allow creation of a similar report, where the data isn't controlled by me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not asking if you would work under such conditions. I'm asking if there are any apps or services available that have the same or similar functionality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="662" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="300" RevisionGUID="0270c670-1286-49f0-9ecc-ce4934370e9c" CreationDate="2013-05-31T09:41:15.757" UserId="85" Comment="deleted 8 characters in body" Text="**Short Answer**: It depends&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Longer Answer**: It depends on whether you, your business or your business's future direction require one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A business plan is just that: a plan. It identifies a way from here to there with the steps in between.  If you (and your business) are happy the way you are, having a Business Plan stating &quot;No changes&quot; is a waste of paper!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whatever you do, do not try and run your business based on HMRC's propoganda. Their IR35 track record is based on Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt - and pretty much their initial decision is &quot;Caught&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should you truly feel that a Business Plan will help determine that you are *IBOYOA*  then make sure it is realistic... a &quot;War and Peace&quot; epic of how you'll change the world will only raise an eyebrow if you are still operating as an agency *bum-on-seat*&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="663" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="295" RevisionGUID="f6c6c39b-2efd-473e-bf81-958b0e0402f1" CreationDate="2013-05-31T09:44:22.107" UserId="159" Comment="Improved Formatting" Text="I've been asked to produce a report for clients that shows that I was working on their project for the number of hours that I bill them for. How could that be achieved? The client is familiar with oDesk and asked that I create a similar report.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The system at oDesk has the following features:  &#xD;&#xA;Recording of keystrokes per time increment.  &#xD;&#xA;Screenshots taken at set intervals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are any services or applications available that allow creation of a similar report, where the data isn't controlled by me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not asking if you would work under such conditions. I'm asking if there are any apps or services available that have the same or similar functionality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="664" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="300" RevisionGUID="9eb982bc-d87c-49d9-9388-d4e1d0699a8e" CreationDate="2013-05-31T10:06:49.127" UserId="85" Comment="Quote Helmuth von Moltke the Elder" Text="**Short Answer**: It depends&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Longer Answer**: It depends on whether you, your business or your business's future direction require one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A business plan is just that: a plan. It identifies a way from here to there with the steps in between.  If you (and your business) are happy the way you are, having a Business Plan stating &quot;No changes&quot; is a waste of paper!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whatever you do, do not try and run your business based on HMRC's propoganda. Their IR35 track record is based on Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt - and pretty much their initial decision is &quot;Caught&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should you truly feel that a Business Plan will help determine that you are *IBOYOA*  then make sure it is realistic... a &quot;War and Peace&quot; epic of how you'll change the world will only raise an eyebrow if you are still operating as an agency *bum-on-seat*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And (to go with the Eisenhower quote) the paraphrase of [Helmuth von Moltke the Elder][1]'s thesis: &quot;No plan survives contact with the enemy&quot; - so keep it up to date!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmuth_von_Moltke_the_Elder" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="665" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="295" RevisionGUID="93d7f789-65c6-4b6c-9ed9-541b35bb497b" CreationDate="2013-05-31T10:18:24.953" UserId="184" Comment="edited title" Text="Clients want to track the hours I work for them" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="666" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="301" RevisionGUID="ccc75cd6-3b17-4a1d-9dbe-75a880832b33" CreationDate="2013-05-31T10:26:20.880" UserId="43" Text="[Toggl][1] looks like it could do what you're after. It has the ability to start and stop a timer while your working on specific tasks but also has a manual mode if you forget to start the timer when working on a task. This does mean that you can add time retrospectively, which may not be what the client wants. Plus you have to manually start and stop the timer yourself. That said, if the client is looking for a system that definitively captures actual time spent on a project, it won't capture non-typing time (e.g. planning and analysis) anyway so it depends on how much trust you have with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.toggl.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="667" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="270" RevisionGUID="dd7f7cbd-c816-4208-a1f0-68c76056679b" CreationDate="2013-05-31T10:27:44.700" UserDisplayName="user19" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="* **bill my work as usual, let them pay me and donate the money back to them**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Yes, would be possible, but it would be weird if you agreed on that in a contract. If you don't agree on that in the contract, the charity could hesitate before working with you because they can't be sure they get their money.  &#xD;&#xA;  Furthermore, when you agree on this, the charity needs some liquidity, which it doesn't always have.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **don't create a bill at all?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Possible, but then it's going to look like volunteering. With a bill, you agree on what work has to be done before you do it. Without, the charity can ask for more, you can suddenly disagree... a bill creates clarity for both parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **create a bill with 100% discount (sum=0)?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Yes, this is the way to go. You won't have to pay taxes over €0,- and there's clarity for both parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, when you are familiar with the organizations, there's no problem with informally agreeing on donating back or not creating a bill at all. But when you don't know them or they don't know you, a bill creates clarity. Also, with 100% discount the charity can be sure of not paying." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="668" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="302" RevisionGUID="7e817ca5-eeed-4a83-8ad6-9be040ff2799" CreationDate="2013-05-31T10:55:28.410" UserId="184" Text="[Timesnapper][1] is a commercial windows application that does much of what you are looking for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It includes reporting with breakdown of applications being used and automatically takes screenshots on a time basis. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I believe the data is recorded locally, so in some form it is in your control.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether this is enough for your clients, I don't know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.timesnapper.com/professional.aspx" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="669" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="303" RevisionGUID="dde8b73b-4c6d-43f9-9d75-b3a4c9c4993d" CreationDate="2013-05-31T12:59:55.587" UserId="184" Text="There are [several benefits to writing a business plan][1], but as someone who never wrote one up, I would like to know, for a small, one man business:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- How should I approach writing one?&#xD;&#xA;- What should it include?&#xD;&#xA;- What shouldn't it include?&#xD;&#xA;- What scope/size should it be?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/288/do-i-need-a-formal-business-plan-to-run-a-successful-freelance-business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="670" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="303" RevisionGUID="dde8b73b-4c6d-43f9-9d75-b3a4c9c4993d" CreationDate="2013-05-31T12:59:55.587" UserId="184" Text="How do I write a good business plan?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="671" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="303" RevisionGUID="dde8b73b-4c6d-43f9-9d75-b3a4c9c4993d" CreationDate="2013-05-31T12:59:55.587" UserId="184" Text="|business-plan|strategy|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="672" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="304" RevisionGUID="dac8e6b4-6172-41de-afe7-6e0c781ab399" CreationDate="2013-05-31T13:23:50.297" UserId="175" Text="Making the first good impression is very important. As a stranger from your target client - what are the good points to include in your intro and what are the bad ones to avoid? Are there indirect and direct approach on building a connection that will prevent that you are on a hard sell?  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="673" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="304" RevisionGUID="dac8e6b4-6172-41de-afe7-6e0c781ab399" CreationDate="2013-05-31T13:23:50.297" UserId="175" Text="How to execute a proper (and effective) intro? Im not yet on the proposal" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="674" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="304" RevisionGUID="dac8e6b4-6172-41de-afe7-6e0c781ab399" CreationDate="2013-05-31T13:23:50.297" UserId="175" Text="|approach|connection|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="675" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="305" RevisionGUID="af8a5997-eb28-41e2-8c2c-40617deb4cd9" CreationDate="2013-05-31T15:03:57.150" UserId="102" Text="When you approach someone as prospective client, you have very short window to capture his attention. I would follow this generic guideline. If you manage to complete all four steps succesfully while keeping prospects attention, you have got yourself pretty good lead:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) **Prefer personal introduction to written one.** Expecially if your expertise is flooding every room you enter. If you have at least mediocre people skills, use them to your advantage. If you dont, hire someone to do selling for you who has those.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) **Capture attention with bold, yet believable claim (which has to be true).** It can even contain a catch - if that catch is actually the punchline that will gain you credibility. How about &quot;I can ensure that you will be at first page of google search for any keyword you choose next day&quot;. Thats pretty bold statement, that captures attention. Punchline being, that you can do it using PPC add and that you will help your client to set goals, that are actually helping his &quot;bizz&quot; because their impact on the &quot;bizz&quot; can be measured...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) **Tell him your offer.** After all doing business is about having an offer &quot;you give me this, I will give you that&quot;. That offer must clearly contain values for the client to see immediately they are worth the cost&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) Now comes the hardest part - **you must give the prospect reason to trust you.** If you present awesome offer, they will be looking for the catch. If there is one, explain it openly. If there isnt, explain how it is possible you can make such a good offer (you have awesome skills, you have licenses to awesome software that makes your work fast and top-quality, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And always remember - sometimes all the skills you have are not enough. SOmetimes prospect wont be interested despite the fact that your offer is best deal he could ever make. Dont worry about that, it comes with the job. If your offer is great and you really care about the benefits you are bringing to your customers, you will succeed with this approach." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="676" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="306" RevisionGUID="16c21736-707a-47e6-94a2-c33858e785fb" CreationDate="2013-05-31T16:37:22.377" UserId="78" Text="If you want to do something for non-profit organisation, at best you should sing with her volunteering agreement. You will be a quasi-employee of that organisation, so that she would be liable for your actions (as long as they are covered by the agreement). It's so in Poland, but according to Wikipedia informations, the construction of institution of volunteering is very similar in Germany.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Billing the charity, even if you will spend the money back, is dangerous if the charity becomes donations from state. All expenses of such charity must be published and any suspicious bills could result in accusations of money fraud, so the becoming the volunteer is the best option, since it gives you full security." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="677" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="307" RevisionGUID="bcb51fd4-f69f-4fab-9723-d3c7028a35d5" CreationDate="2013-05-31T17:00:03.413" UserId="78" Text="Of course you should charge more. Even if you are working on very short contracts, looking for new contract takes time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you work on 6-month contract, even if you have then 1 month pause, your money flow is active in 6/7 of your time. If you search for 1-week contract for another week, your money flow is active only a half of time. And your expenses are the same. You must pay rent, social insurance, health insurance, food etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From the client's point of view: if they want to hire a consultant for hours, the big companies are charging about $200 an hour. This is how much you need to pay for the possibility to take some extra people for a few days only." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="678" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="292" RevisionGUID="97bf937d-09e6-4a9c-b1b8-b2731bbbd514" CreationDate="2013-05-31T17:01:15.620" UserId="159" Comment="Updated tags" Text="|client|usa|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="679" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="308" RevisionGUID="c1833bee-ec89-457a-b863-06abb39da896" CreationDate="2013-05-31T18:06:37.117" UserId="174" Text="You need to discuss in details how the end result of the work should be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you see a sign of those, you should turn down the work, unless you plan to be allot lenient and easy going:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. When the employer tries to micro-manage, and make you do something in a way you are not comfortable with.&#xD;&#xA;2. When the employer tries to make you do bits of work without discussing in details what the end result he wants would be.&#xD;&#xA;Example to this is, if the employer keeps adding requirements, and you realize that some new requirements would contradict with some earlier work done on previous requirements." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="680" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="309" RevisionGUID="b1599737-dc95-49a5-9729-0b9710a642e0" CreationDate="2013-05-31T18:14:01.473" UserId="174" Text="If you plan to be involved in a project that is relatively big, and cost a large amount of money, and extend for over a month. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What kind of guarantees and plan ahead do you need to do to protect yourself, as an employer or as a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There will be allot of time spent, allot of money involved, possibly some small change in plans as the project progress.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to prepare for such project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="681" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="309" RevisionGUID="b1599737-dc95-49a5-9729-0b9710a642e0" CreationDate="2013-05-31T18:14:01.473" UserId="174" Text="What guarantees do employers/freelancers needs to take for big projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="682" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="309" RevisionGUID="b1599737-dc95-49a5-9729-0b9710a642e0" CreationDate="2013-05-31T18:14:01.473" UserId="174" Text="|contracts|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="683" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="304" RevisionGUID="ecd78553-00d4-4d1e-84f5-951ff3d14404" CreationDate="2013-05-31T20:28:07.957" UserId="120" Comment="title, body typos/language" Text="Making a good first impression is important. As a stranger from your target client, what are the good points to include in your introduction and what are the bad ones to avoid? Are there indirect and direct approaches on building a connection that will prevent you being seen as on a hard sell?  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="684" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="304" RevisionGUID="ecd78553-00d4-4d1e-84f5-951ff3d14404" CreationDate="2013-05-31T20:28:07.957" UserId="120" Comment="title, body typos/language" Text="How to execute a proper (and effective) introduction? I'm not yet on the proposal" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="685" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="304" RevisionGUID="ecd78553-00d4-4d1e-84f5-951ff3d14404" CreationDate="2013-05-31T20:28:07.957" Comment="Proposed by 120 approved by 184 edit id of 60" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="686" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="309" RevisionGUID="414f07cb-9891-4661-9b7d-8fbf56c45898" CreationDate="2013-05-31T23:35:55.300" UserId="9" Comment="Spelling and grammar" Text="If you plan to be involved in a project that is relatively big, costs a large amount of money, and extends for over a month, what kind of guarantees and planning ahead do you need to do to protect yourself, as an employer or as a freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There will be a lot of time spent, a lot of money involved, and possibly some small changes in plans as the project progress.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would I prepare for such project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="687" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="309" RevisionGUID="414f07cb-9891-4661-9b7d-8fbf56c45898" CreationDate="2013-05-31T23:35:55.300" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 174 edit id of 61" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="688" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="266" RevisionGUID="b9b0e3d0-717c-41bc-85a5-f1187b19d7b6" CreationDate="2013-06-01T01:53:54.323" UserId="58" Comment="deleted 113 characters in body" Text="The easiest way to actually *provide* your services to a charity is volunteering for the charity themselves; it's free, and off-the-books. You don't have to declare anything, and you don't have to pay national insurance, which is a plus.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you want to incorporate as a nonprofit in the UK, you need to incorporate as a Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG), and then file articles of association ([more here][1]).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nonprofits in the United Kingdom have to declare their NPO status in their articles of association (you will have to write them from scratch or have a lawyer draft these), and have a set of standards which the organisation will adhere to (how their profits will be spent), which are reviewed by Companies House. There is no specific (i.e. it has no specific document) way to register a non-profit in the UK that isn't a charity. (Another alternative is a Community Interest Company, but I don't know if it applies here)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for tax itself, you will still have to pay tax as a company, but your taxes are relieved on the following:&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; * Charitable income&#xD;&#xA; * Rental income&#xD;&#xA; * Interest&#xD;&#xA; * Capital/Revenue&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Provided these are on the list in your articles of association ([source][2]).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion, unless you can make a charity, it's likely better than you simply volunteer, or incorporate as a Private Company Limited by Guarantee and list yourself as the sole guarantor, if you really must incorporate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will, however, be able to take out loans and wont be liable for any more than what you put into the business at incorporation. You might want to Check out [OnStartups][3] Stack Exchange if you fancy making a company, though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/ is the site for registering a charity in England or Wales.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also,&#xD;&#xA; &gt; I currently operate as a sole-trader with books showing zero profit. Is this a problem? (It's not faked!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a sole trader, you keep all profits anyway, and you aren't audited, so this isn't a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, but I did go to business school in the UK.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA; [1]: https://www.gov.uk/limited-company-formation/articles-of-association&#xD;&#xA; [2]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ct/clubs-charities-agents/charities.htm&#xD;&#xA; [3]: http://answers.onstartups.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="689" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="297" RevisionGUID="833a9a31-d901-43f4-b974-a50253605831" CreationDate="2013-06-01T02:58:10.980" UserId="60" Comment="added 1192 characters in body" Text="**Warning**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hmm.  I am in favor of having customers rather than micromanagers.  That seems like a huge footgun if you are trying to prove that you worked what you said you did.  If anyone asked me to use such a framework, I would give the lead some serious second thoughts.  If the customer has the time to micromanage me or look through such footage, they have focused on the wrong things (huge red flag project-wise).  I have experience with this as an employee (see below) and it never ends well.  What is ostensibly intended to provide for good things inevitably leads to bad including possible disclosure of sensitive information (checking your bank account after forgetting to log out), or giving a belligerent customer things they can rip out of context to try to say they shouldn't pay.  Really, if you have **any other choice** do not do this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note additionally my experience was in the formal employment context.  Those risks go up quite a bit for consultants and contractors since typically you own your own computer and use it for other things too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Alternatives**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This being said, very often it is very helpful to give customers a detailed breakdown of what you did for them, how long.  [LedgerSMB](http://ledgersmb.org) (disclaimer: I run a LedgerSMB hosting service with a business partner too, as well as do development and consulting on that platform) has a timecard interface where you can assign timecards with projects, add detailed notes, and include those notes, optionally on invoices you send your customer.  It is fairly simple: you enter a time in and time out, it calculates an interval at the rate associated with the service and customer.  You indicate how many of those hours were non-billable and give both description and notes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can generate sales orders from a set of timecards, and sales invoices from the orders.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would hope that many other applications have similar functionality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you absolutely must**&#xD;&#xA;From my perspective the only reasonably safe way to address this is to create a screencast of your work, and at least check the ends (make sure you didn't leave it running when you were done and went to check, for example, your bank account).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Specific recommendations for software to accomplish this is probably outside the scope of Q&amp;A because such a list will likely go out of date relatively quickly but Wikipedia does maintain a [list of such software] which may be of help." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="690" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="310" RevisionGUID="3a8a733b-e055-4995-81f2-e54bdf4f563c" CreationDate="2013-06-01T03:36:00.830" UserId="60" Text="This topic is very broad and so nothing beyond a very broad overview is really possible to give a very basic overview, namely where to start or begin, in the hope that this gets the process going.  More specific questions may also have significant answers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Before you begin**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Who are you writing the business plan for?  What do you want out of it?  Different people have different styles, and so there is some room for disagreement in overall structure if you are not writing it for investors but you need to get this question answered in your mind first.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Possible answers for &quot;what do you want to get out of it&quot; include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Clarity of vision regarding the market and business options.&#xD;&#xA;2. Motivation to get started, and&#xD;&#xA;3. Focus for actions&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course those are not mutually exclusive but it may be worth ranking them.  I tend to stress clarity of vision.  I know others who stress focus for actions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**General Guidelines**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Length:  As long as you need it to be.  20-30 pages is a good target but if you fall short because you have covered everything you need to, don't sweat it.  Some of my early plans were nearly 100 pages....  If you are writing for investors, bankers, etc. 20-30 pages is a harder limit but that takes you outside feelancer territory.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Scope:  For a new business, I like to include *everything* but some people prefer to cover just the first couple years.  There is room for disagreement here.  The reason to focus on everything is that it gives greater clarity of vision.  The reason not to include long-term goals is that it can take away from initial focus on actions.  This is your choice.  Hopefully the rationales above help you make it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What to Include**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Business plans almost always include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. A description of the market&#xD;&#xA;2. A description of the competition in comparison to what you are doing&#xD;&#xA;3. A description of your own products and services&#xD;&#xA;4. A marketing plan&#xD;&#xA;5. Financial forecasts and targets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What to exclude**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't think this is the right question.  In general you should exclude material that you find not to be helpful in your business plan.  This decision should flow from what you want to get out of the business plan, the intended audience, and so forth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So this flows from what the focus of the plan is.  For example if clarity on the business is primary goal, immediate first steps in the business may not be so important, but if you are trying to focus actions, those may be more important and long-term opportunities less-so." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="691" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="311" RevisionGUID="e1b502dc-4fcb-4c2b-add2-ee6d758f0cf6" CreationDate="2013-06-01T04:03:44.163" UserId="60" Text="First, I think this is likely to depend on a lot of things.  If you are concerned it might be worth discussing the matter with a lawyer, and the question may be too broad to have a singular answer.  However there is at least one major factor you would probably want to look into with the retailers you are considering early on in this process.  In other words, here's home work for before your consultation with a lawyer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you represent yourself to get the discount?   Unless the UK has some strange twist to their law, there is nothing wrong with Apple giving you a discount because of your exposure to the world of educational institutions (or for any other reason), but if you are representing yourself as an employee to Apple, that might be quite different.  So I would think &quot;the educational institution is my customer so I would like a discount&quot; would be most likely safe (but a brief atty consultation is probably cheaper than being wrong!), but &quot;I work for the educational institution so I would like a discount&quot; would be questionable.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="692" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="311" RevisionGUID="f43ce25b-3521-4708-985f-e621d6df9697" CreationDate="2013-06-01T04:09:57.280" UserId="60" Comment="added 183 characters in body" Text="First, I think this is likely to depend on a lot of things.  If you are concerned it might be worth discussing the matter with a lawyer, and the question may be too broad to have a singular answer.  However there is at least one major factor you would probably want to look into with the retailers you are considering early on in this process.  In other words, here's home work for before your consultation with a lawyer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you represent yourself to get the discount?   Unless the UK has some strange twist to their law, there is nothing wrong with Apple giving you a discount because of your exposure to the world of educational institutions (or for any other reason), but if you are representing yourself as an employee to Apple, that might be quite different.  So I would think &quot;the educational institution is my customer so I would like a discount&quot; would be most likely safe (but a brief atty consultation is probably cheaper than being wrong!), but &quot;I work for the educational institution so I would like a discount&quot; would be questionable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an aside, representing yourself as an employee when you are not is questionable for many reasons.  Does it run into tax problems?  Is it fraud?  It's way better not to go there." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="693" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="312" RevisionGUID="2cbacba3-3e9b-4e2a-bb83-b4356b2ae916" CreationDate="2013-06-01T05:34:32.780" UserId="60" Text="There are a few ways I have seen freelancers address this issue.  These are all good but they approach the problem from different angles.  In general there are two problems for big projects for freelancers:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  You don't want to wait to the end of the project to get paid, and&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  You don't want to have trouble collecting on a large project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So with this in mind you have a couple options.  Which you choose depends on what you are comfortable with and there are probably others, but these are the most common.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Option 1:  Require a retainer**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do the project on retainer, the client pays for a certain amount up front, and then refills their account as the project progresses.  If a project is cancelled the client may get at least a significant portion back but you get paid for all the work you did.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The way that this works is that the customer pays you money, which you hold in trust for the customer (i.e, you owe it back, or the work).  Then as you work you bill the customer, and effectively pay that bill out of the money you are holding on the customer's behalf.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Option 2:  Fixed bid, with periodic adjustments, and payment by milestone**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this way you do work up front and bill in arrears.  However, your bills do not wait until the end of the project, and if you are not paid, you can leave the project half-done.  Since customers typically do want their projects finished this works out well.  Typically the way I have done this is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  If there is *no* change likely to scope, fixed bid per milestone, payment due on milestone completion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  If there is change likely to scope, fixed bid on first milestone (with adjustments possible by mutual consent) and estimates on further milestones.  After each milestone, we discuss, and agree on a bid for the next one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This approach basically breaks the project down into smaller subprojects which are independently billed.  The risk profiles are different so it is worth discussing both options with mentors and accountants if you are unsure, or just trying both out and seeing which one you work best with (I much prefer the milestone approach for my business, but I recognize the strength of the retainer approach too).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These options work out quite differently accounting-wise.  If you work on retainer, it is worth discussing how to keep your books with an accountant, particularly if you want to keep your books on an accrual basis.  Milestones are a lot simpler.  Retainers involve a lot more backend accounting work.  I do work on both bases depending on what customers require and based on my past experience with a customer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="694" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="313" RevisionGUID="ad28d4dc-6a20-4f01-ad6e-63f897ad0526" CreationDate="2013-06-01T05:34:44.050" UserId="78" Text="If the project is big and costs a lot of money, it will not be given to startup or single freelancer, but to big company. It's highly improbable that it will be otherwise, but in that case, the client would normally want guarantees, so you'll have to deal with very large penalties for delays etc. In that rare cases you should concentrate on making the deal so, that it will not ruin you in case of failure. But you must know, that even big companies with &gt;100k$ capital were ruined by such contracts. Contract penalties can extend to millions$.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The more typical case: you are involved as subcontractor company or as a freelance part in the big project lead by some big company. Normally you are either paid per hours and do what you are told to do, or you have some little part of it, for fix amount$, and you have to service it for N months. In that case you should also analyse the contract carefully, if any doubt consult with professional layer, because it is not untypical that there will be clauses that would try to make you liable for a large sum of money in case of failure. If you sign something like that, and the project will fail, it's quite probable the company would try to make you liable to the very amount they can, so better not to sign something like that under any circumstances. Don't be make responsible for something you have no influence on (no matter how good you'll do your part, the project may fail for thousand of reasons)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="695" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="297" RevisionGUID="cc60ef3d-287d-4055-ba3a-8bb48c0d354e" CreationDate="2013-06-01T05:37:58.993" UserId="60" Comment="added 525 characters in body" Text="**Warning**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hmm.  I am in favor of having customers rather than micromanagers.  That seems like a huge footgun if you are trying to prove that you worked what you said you did.  If anyone asked me to use such a framework, I would give the lead some serious second thoughts.  If the customer has the time to micromanage me or look through such footage, they have focused on the wrong things (huge red flag project-wise).  I have experience with this as an employee (see below) and it never ends well.  What is ostensibly intended to provide for good things inevitably leads to bad including possible disclosure of sensitive information (checking your bank account after forgetting to log out), or giving a belligerent customer things they can rip out of context to try to say they shouldn't pay.  Really, if you have **any other choice** do not do this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do this, you have to figure that **any activity on your computer at any time** could be accidently disclosed to your customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note additionally my experience was in the formal employment context.  Those risks go up quite a bit for consultants and contractors since typically you own your own computer and use it for other things too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Alternatives**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This being said, very often it is very helpful to give customers a detailed breakdown of what you did for them, how long.  [LedgerSMB](http://ledgersmb.org) (disclaimer: I run a LedgerSMB hosting service with a business partner too, as well as do development and consulting on that platform) has a timecard interface where you can assign timecards with projects, add detailed notes, and include those notes, optionally on invoices you send your customer.  It is fairly simple: you enter a time in and time out, it calculates an interval at the rate associated with the service and customer.  You indicate how many of those hours were non-billable and give both description and notes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can generate sales orders from a set of timecards, and sales invoices from the orders.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would hope that many other applications have similar functionality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you absolutely must**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my perspective the only reasonably safe way to address this is to create a screencast of your work, and at least check the ends (make sure you didn't leave it running when you were done and went to check, for example, your bank account).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Specific recommendations for software to accomplish this is probably outside the scope of Q&amp;A because such a list will likely go out of date relatively quickly but Wikipedia does maintain a [list of such software](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_screencasting_software) which may be of help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A final alternative might be to require that a customer with such a requirement provides you a computer for sole use for you to use in meeting their project configured to their specifications.  This way you have an air gap between anything your business might consider sensitive and anything the customer gets to see." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="696" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="297" RevisionGUID="a4e334de-ae65-4733-abed-c0957b9f7f59" CreationDate="2013-06-01T05:43:42.373" UserId="60" Comment="added 14 characters in body" Text="**Warning**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hmm.  I am in favor of having customers rather than micromanagers.  That seems like a huge footgun if you are trying to prove that you worked what you said you did.  If anyone asked me to use such a framework, I would give the lead some serious second thoughts.  If the customer has the time to micromanage me or look through such footage, they have focused on the wrong things (huge red flag project-wise).  I have experience with this as an employee (call center environment) and it never ends well.  What is ostensibly intended to provide for good things inevitably leads to bad including possible disclosure of sensitive information (checking your bank account after forgetting to log out), or giving a belligerent customer things they can rip out of context to try to say they shouldn't pay.  Really, if you have **any other choice** do not do this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do this, you have to figure that **any activity on your computer at any time** could be accidently disclosed to your customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note additionally my experience was in the formal employment context.  Those risks go up quite a bit for consultants and contractors since typically you own your own computer and use it for other things too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Alternatives**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This being said, very often it is very helpful to give customers a detailed breakdown of what you did for them, how long.  [LedgerSMB](http://ledgersmb.org) (disclaimer: I run a LedgerSMB hosting service with a business partner too, as well as do development and consulting on that platform) has a timecard interface where you can assign timecards with projects, add detailed notes, and include those notes, optionally on invoices you send your customer.  It is fairly simple: you enter a time in and time out, it calculates an interval at the rate associated with the service and customer.  You indicate how many of those hours were non-billable and give both description and notes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can generate sales orders from a set of timecards, and sales invoices from the orders.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would hope that many other applications have similar functionality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you absolutely must**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my perspective the only reasonably safe way to address this is to create a screencast of your work, and at least check the ends (make sure you didn't leave it running when you were done and went to check, for example, your bank account).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Specific recommendations for software to accomplish this is probably outside the scope of Q&amp;A because such a list will likely go out of date relatively quickly but Wikipedia does maintain a [list of such software](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_screencasting_software) which may be of help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A final alternative might be to require that a customer with such a requirement provides you a computer for sole use for you to use in meeting their project configured to their specifications.  This way you have an air gap between anything your business might consider sensitive and anything the customer gets to see." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="697" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="295" RevisionGUID="c1f1f0be-9287-4e39-b26b-466740f517fb" CreationDate="2013-06-01T05:52:49.953" UserId="-1" Comment="2" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:159,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;codewaggle&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:19,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Camil Staps&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:60,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Chris Travers&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="698" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="297" RevisionGUID="e688cf71-197f-4161-a0ce-862c995a822d" CreationDate="2013-06-01T05:57:06.733" UserId="60" Comment="deleted 146 characters in body" Text="**Warning**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If anyone asked me to use such a framework, I would give the lead some serious second thoughts.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  If the customer has the time to micromanage me or look through such footage, they have focused on the wrong things (huge red flag project-wise).  I have experience with this as an employee (call center environment) and it never ends well.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  What is ostensibly intended to provide for good things inevitably leads to bad including possible disclosure of sensitive information (checking your bank account after forgetting to log out), or giving a belligerent customer things they can rip out of context to try to say they shouldn't pay.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Really, if you have **any other choice** do not do this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do this, you have to figure that **any activity on your computer at any time** could be accidently disclosed to your customer.  This could include without limitation trade secrets of other customers, confidential information you have agreed to protect, your own financial information (including but not limited to credit card information sufficient to make purchases online), and much, much more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note additionally my experience was in the formal employment context.  Those risks go up quite a bit for consultants and contractors since typically you own your own computer and use it for other things too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Alternatives**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This being said, very often it is very helpful to give customers a detailed breakdown of what you did for them, how long.  [LedgerSMB](http://ledgersmb.org) (disclaimer: I run a LedgerSMB hosting service with a business partner too, as well as do development and consulting on that platform) has a timecard interface where you can assign timecards with projects, add detailed notes, and include those notes, optionally on invoices you send your customer.  It is fairly simple: you enter a time in and time out, it calculates an interval at the rate associated with the service and customer.  You indicate how many of those hours were non-billable and give both description and notes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can generate sales orders from a set of timecards, and sales invoices from the orders.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would hope that many other applications have similar functionality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you absolutely must**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my perspective the only reasonably safe way to address this is to create a screencast of your work, and at least check the ends (make sure you didn't leave it running when you were done and went to check, for example, your bank account).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Specific recommendations for software to accomplish this is probably outside the scope of Q&amp;A because such a list will likely go out of date relatively quickly but Wikipedia does maintain a [list of such software](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_screencasting_software) which may be of help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A final alternative might be to require that a customer with such a requirement provides you a computer for sole use for you to use in working on their project configured to their specifications.  This way you have an air gap between anything your business might consider sensitive and anything the customer gets to see.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However this is a business security nightmare.  If you have any confidential information on your computer at all, it is not safe, and if you inadvertently violate another client's NDA, you might be held liable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Finally, if you absolutely must, please discuss the relative impact of accidental disclosure of any NDAs currently in effect with a licensed attorney.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="699" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="297" RevisionGUID="69c5715b-4868-4c30-9d9a-0bc50f509ebf" CreationDate="2013-06-01T06:06:56.923" UserId="60" Comment="added 8 characters in body" Text="**Warning**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If anyone asked me to use such a framework, I would give the lead some serious second thoughts.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  If the customer has the time to micromanage me or look through such footage, they have focused on the wrong things (huge red flag project-wise).  I have experience with this as an employee (call center environment) and it never ends well.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  What is ostensibly intended to provide for good things inevitably leads to bad including possible disclosure of sensitive information (checking your bank account after forgetting to log out), or giving a belligerent customer things they can rip out of context to try to say they shouldn't pay.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Really, if you have **any other choice** do not do this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do this, you have to figure that **any activity on your computer at any time** could be accidently disclosed to your customer.  This could include without limitation trade secrets of other customers, confidential information you have agreed to protect, your own financial information (including but not limited to credit card information sufficient to make purchases online), and much, much more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note additionally my experience was in the formal employment context.  Those risks go up quite a bit for consultants and contractors since typically you own your own computer and use it for other things too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Alternatives**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This being said, very often it is very helpful to give customers a detailed breakdown of what you did for them, how long.  [LedgerSMB](http://ledgersmb.org) (disclaimer: I run a LedgerSMB hosting service with a business partner too, as well as do development and consulting on that platform) has a timecard interface where you can assign timecards with projects, add detailed notes, and include those notes, optionally on invoices you send your customer.  It is fairly simple: you enter a time in and time out, it calculates an interval at the rate associated with the service and customer.  You indicate how many of those hours were non-billable and give both description and notes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can generate sales orders from a set of timecards, and sales invoices from the orders.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would hope that many other applications have similar functionality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you absolutely must**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my perspective the only reasonably safe way to address this is to create a screencast of your work, and at least check the ends (make sure you didn't leave it running when you were done and went to check, for example, your bank account).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Specific recommendations for software to accomplish this is probably outside the scope of Q&amp;A because such a list will likely go out of date relatively quickly but Wikipedia does maintain a [list of such software](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_screencasting_software) which may be of help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A final alternative might be to require that a customer with such a requirement provides you a computer for sole use for you to use in working on their project configured to their specifications.  This way you have an air gap between anything your business might consider sensitive and anything the customer gets to see.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However this is a business security nightmare.  If you have any confidential information on your computer at all, it is not safe, and if you inadvertently violate another client's NDA, you might be held liable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Finally, if you absolutely must do this, please discuss the relative impact of accidental disclosure of any NDAs currently in effect with a licensed attorney.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="700" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="312" RevisionGUID="da7e161f-3504-4b56-bca3-3c4f4db7875d" CreationDate="2013-06-01T07:04:03.827" UserId="60" Comment="added 159 characters in body" Text="There are a few ways I have seen freelancers address this issue.  These are all good but they approach the problem from different angles.  In general there are two problems for big projects for freelancers:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  You don't want to wait to the end of the project to get paid, and&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  You don't want to have trouble collecting on a large project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So with this in mind you have a couple options.  Which you choose depends on what you are comfortable with and there are probably others, but these are the most common.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course &quot;large&quot; is relative.  Here I am assuming &quot;large means over a 1 man month of work.&quot;  I have had several projects which are large by that standard.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Option 1:  Require a retainer**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do the project on retainer, the client pays for a certain amount up front, and then refills their account as the project progresses.  If a project is cancelled the client may get at least a significant portion back but you get paid for all the work you did.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The way that this works is that the customer pays you money, which you hold in trust for the customer (i.e, you owe it back, or the work).  Then as you work you bill the customer, and effectively pay that bill out of the money you are holding on the customer's behalf.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Option 2:  Fixed bid, with periodic adjustments, and payment by milestone**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this way you do work up front and bill in arrears.  However, your bills do not wait until the end of the project, and if you are not paid, you can leave the project half-done.  Since customers typically do want their projects finished this works out well.  Typically the way I have done this is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  If there is *no* change likely to scope, fixed bid per milestone, payment due on milestone completion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  If there is change likely to scope, fixed bid on first milestone (with adjustments possible by mutual consent) and estimates on further milestones.  After each milestone, we discuss, and agree on a bid for the next one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This approach basically breaks the project down into smaller subprojects which are independently billed.  The risk profiles are different so it is worth discussing both options with mentors and accountants if you are unsure, or just trying both out and seeing which one you work best with (I much prefer the milestone approach for my business, but I recognize the strength of the retainer approach too).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These options work out quite differently accounting-wise.  If you work on retainer, it is worth discussing how to keep your books with an accountant, particularly if you want to keep your books on an accrual basis.  Milestones are a lot simpler.  Retainers involve a lot more backend accounting work.  I do work on both bases depending on what customers require and based on my past experience with a customer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="701" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="314" RevisionGUID="f041eb81-8771-4aff-995b-93ea68a29e5a" CreationDate="2013-06-01T09:27:36.547" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="I'm running a relatively small one-man business in the software sector. I just started and am trying to create a larger portfolio. For that, I offer some friends free services. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found a few reasons to send these clients €0,- invoices, mostly similar to the reasons to send 100% discount invoices to charity funds that I gave here: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/270/19  &#xD;&#xA;The reasons are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Clarity about what has to be done and when &#xD;&#xA;* No transfers (as I would have with a 0% discount bill and returning the money as a gift)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And also:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* With an invoice I have more distinguishable clients which makes that I have more chance on getting a better certificate from the state (doesn't matter how it exactly works, this is an advantage)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Suppose that these clients won't have a problem with the €0,- invoices, **could there be any reason for me to not send them?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I ask this, because I've never seen people sending invoices like this, and I can only see advantages." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="702" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="314" RevisionGUID="f041eb81-8771-4aff-995b-93ea68a29e5a" CreationDate="2013-06-01T09:27:36.547" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="Reasons not to send €0,- invoices to friends?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="703" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="314" RevisionGUID="f041eb81-8771-4aff-995b-93ea68a29e5a" CreationDate="2013-06-01T09:27:36.547" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="|client|invoices|friends-services|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="704" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="315" RevisionGUID="08bfb326-21ff-4d9c-8955-5c6442556d93" CreationDate="2013-06-01T09:52:59.900" UserId="78" Text="It depends on the tax system that applies to you, but there can be consequences, and they can be **very severe**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally economic activity is defined as oriented on profit, so giving anything for free could qualify as self-promotion or donation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Poland, for example, only some costs of the company spend on promotion can be considered as tax costs. So in worst case you could end with tax office refusing to acknowledge, for example, 50% of your expenses as tax costs. You would end up with fine and p**enalty percentage**s.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With donation, the danger is even greater. There was a case of baker who was giving the unsold bread to charity for free. He was told to pay the **VAT** from the bread that was given for free (from the price it was normally being sold - but the tax officer is free to estimate the basis price as he/she wants). With penalty percentages the sum was so big, that he has become insolvent. However, the obligation to pay VAT was only in case of wares, not services, and the law has changed recently, but in other countries the regulations may be even stricter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is also a potential consequence if you become something for free. It could be interpreted as **income** and you would have to pay income tax from the value estimated by tax officer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assuming, analyse your **local law**, consult a **tax specialist** and be sure you exactly want what you are doing before issuing €0,- invoices." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="705" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="316" RevisionGUID="9d38dfa8-0826-4112-b3f3-a9a0f62315f3" CreationDate="2013-06-01T10:21:53.750" UserId="78" Text="I'm considering looking for contractor jobs (in Western Europe). I have the experience of senior developer (Java) so I'm confident of the high quality of value added I can provide to the client. But I'm not sure what hourly rate should I demand? What should I take into account?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Are there publicly available information about hourly rates of programming experts? If the rates are standardized, it would change my problem into simply accepting the rate or not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Should they be estimated in relation to the employees' wages? For example, they should be 50% higher? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) How to calculate the living costs? If I know that the costs of living in given city are 1500€, and in the place I live now they are 1000€, should I add 500€ to the sum calculated in point 2?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) Initially I'd probably have to stay in hotel, which would increase the costs of about 500-1000€. On shorter time contracts (up to 3 months) probably I'd stay only in hotel, so should I charge about 1000€ monthly more?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The sums in the question are templates only, to replace by localized costs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="706" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="316" RevisionGUID="9d38dfa8-0826-4112-b3f3-a9a0f62315f3" CreationDate="2013-06-01T10:21:53.750" UserId="78" Text="How to estimate the hourly rate for senior developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="707" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="316" RevisionGUID="9d38dfa8-0826-4112-b3f3-a9a0f62315f3" CreationDate="2013-06-01T10:21:53.750" UserId="78" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="708" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="317" RevisionGUID="cda1e86d-42b4-40ae-a370-bf60700c2c1d" CreationDate="2013-06-01T10:28:08.657" UserId="60" Text="I am writing my first business plan.  I have gotten through the marketing and operations sections but now I am into the financial section and feel a bit lost.  I haven't really gotten my business going yet, and yet I have read everywhere that I should include financial projections.   The pro forma balance sheet I sort of get, but what about income forecasts?  I don't have any idea what to put there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I just put something there as a placeholder and figure I will get better at it?  Should I just make some guesses?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="709" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="317" RevisionGUID="cda1e86d-42b4-40ae-a370-bf60700c2c1d" CreationDate="2013-06-01T10:28:08.657" UserId="60" Text="Writing my first business plan. How do I know what to put in the pro forma balance sheets and financial targets?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="710" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="317" RevisionGUID="cda1e86d-42b4-40ae-a370-bf60700c2c1d" CreationDate="2013-06-01T10:28:08.657" UserId="60" Text="|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="711" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="318" RevisionGUID="adc1fb93-c0ae-4bb4-a76d-e731a845d047" CreationDate="2013-06-01T10:47:41.977" UserId="60" Text="So you are just starting your business.  You have no background in doing the forecasting and you are confronted with what to put here.  It's scary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Introduction**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The good news is that you don't have to take this too seriously in this case.  Chances are your estimates are either targets or just guesses anyway.  As we get better at it, we typically just get better at making guesses.  No matter what you do you will still be guessing.  You really want to make what you do count for something though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are two reasons for financial projections in the business plan.  The first is to make you think about the financial feasability of your business, and the second is to give you an idea of what you think is attainable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Start with your fixed expenses**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first thing to do is to start with budgeting expenses.  Here you may not know what you will have to do anyway and there are a lot less unknowns with expenses than there are revenues.  You can start there, come up with budgets, add some extra room, and project your expenses accordingly.  If you start here, then when you get done, you will have an idea of how much you have to make to break even.  Break this up by category (rent, advertising, telecommunications, etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Expenses are important here for two reasons.  They represent the floor of profitability, debt you may incur getting started, and so forth.  If you can't make back your expenses you will go out of business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, because expenses represent the floor, they give you an idea of how much business you have to do to overcome these fixed expenses.  This allows you to estimate a break even point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, don't forget to budget a reasonable amount every year for replacement equipment (computers etc).  Treat this as an expense that is incurred a bit at a time rather than all at once.  If you figure you need $4000 of equipment to get started up, and you will have to replace it entirely every 5 years, budget $800/year.  This allows you to save up for replacements rather than having it all happen at once.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Then look at production costs and sales revenues together**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Production costs unlike fixed costs, get tracked relative to sales.   You may say you don't have production costs but you in fact may.  If you are selling software licenses as part of your business, your expenses are your purchase price and your sales price is revenue.  We track these together always (at least in accrual basis).  If you are doing freelance writing, you may want to budget something for printing hardcopies for review.  If you have to subcontract for part of the forecast, include what you are paying out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then what you can do is figure out how long you think it will take you for your gross profits to equal your fixed expenses (since you have numbers now you can look at).  You can look at how much you have to do to make what you need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Conclusions**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above doesn't take the guesswork out of the forecasts.  Especially since the business is just stating, any forecast you come up with will be based mostly on guesses.  What it does do however is give you a clear picture of what you have to do to make your business successful and whether that success is reasonably attainable and when you are starting out that is the most important thing you can get out of the financial section of the business plan." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="712" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="319" RevisionGUID="de66b059-ab97-4a39-bb20-3a3b09dc4a16" CreationDate="2013-06-01T11:56:00.510" UserId="99" Text="This is a problem I'm running into as a beginner, I'm loosing clients because I don't have a portfolio yet (Web Design), the clients that don't ask are very few and I don't know what to say to those who ask for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this a wrong start ? what should I do in this case ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="713" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="319" RevisionGUID="de66b059-ab97-4a39-bb20-3a3b09dc4a16" CreationDate="2013-06-01T11:56:00.510" UserId="99" Text="How should I deal with my first clients who ask for my portfolio?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="714" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="319" RevisionGUID="de66b059-ab97-4a39-bb20-3a3b09dc4a16" CreationDate="2013-06-01T11:56:00.510" UserId="99" Text="|attracting-clients|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="715" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="320" RevisionGUID="11e0cdde-01a6-4900-ab5c-c78ef584935e" CreationDate="2013-06-01T12:16:26.477" UserId="78" Text="You are not loosing clients because they are not your target group yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The clients that are asking for portfolio are looking for experienced webmaster. Sad but true, but most of them are not interested in hiring someone that hasn't done at least a couple of projects. They want to be sure that you really can do the things and secondly, they also want to see what's your style, to check if that passes to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What to do? You're a beginner, so you should consider taking significantly less money than the professional with large portfolio. At the beginning everyone earns less. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But the most important thing is to **make your portfolio**. Just look for some local non-profit organizations such as school or sport clubs and make a site for them. Or just make a few hobby projects and put them into internet. The site about breeding grasshoppers, or about West-African legends, or anything.  You need to invest a little in hosting services, but you need to be able to show something that **is running in Internet.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="716" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="321" RevisionGUID="274d920c-aa4d-4a7a-818c-9cbbeda4c917" CreationDate="2013-06-01T15:15:43.240" UserId="60" Text="To be honest when I was starting off what I did was I called up a few folks and asked point blank what their rates were.  I offered to meet up and set up myself mutual referrals as applicable, and so forth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you play your cards right you may get the information you need and better chances of work at the same time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It might be different in Europe but in general my experience is that small businesses are usually pretty happy to help eachother out and this includes consultants and contractors." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="717" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="315" RevisionGUID="8686a6d2-f920-423d-920b-9a4499e6d4c8" CreationDate="2013-06-01T15:58:06.160" UserId="153" Comment="Formatting" Text="It depends on the tax system that applies to you, but there can be consequences, and they can be **very severe**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally economic activity is defined as oriented on profit, so giving anything for free could qualify as self-promotion or donation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Poland, for example, only some costs of the company spend on promotion can be considered as tax costs. So in worst case you could end with tax office refusing to acknowledge, for example, 50% of your expenses as tax costs. You would end up with fine and **penalty percentages.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With donation, the danger is even greater. There was a case of baker who was giving the unsold bread to charity for free. He was told to pay the **VAT** from the bread that was given for free (from the price it was normally being sold - but the tax officer is free to estimate the basis price as he/she wants). With penalty percentages the sum was so big, that he has become insolvent. However, the obligation to pay VAT was only in case of wares, not services, and the law has changed recently, but in other countries the regulations may be even stricter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is also a potential consequence if you become something for free. It could be interpreted as **income** and you would have to pay income tax from the value estimated by tax officer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assuming, analyse your **local law**, consult a **tax specialist** and be sure you exactly want what you are doing before issuing €0 invoices.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="718" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="315" RevisionGUID="8686a6d2-f920-423d-920b-9a4499e6d4c8" CreationDate="2013-06-01T15:58:06.160" Comment="Proposed by 153 approved by 78 edit id of 62" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="719" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="319" RevisionGUID="54f323e9-ca62-47df-98e0-5fd76950c4ca" CreationDate="2013-06-01T18:50:28.433" UserId="97" Comment="Typos, capitalization" Text="This is a problem I'm running into as a beginner. I'm losing clients because I don't have a portfolio yet (Web Design), the clients that don't ask are very few and I don't know what to say to those who ask for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this a wrong start? What should I do in this case?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="720" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="319" RevisionGUID="54f323e9-ca62-47df-98e0-5fd76950c4ca" CreationDate="2013-06-01T18:50:28.433" Comment="Proposed by 97 approved by 184 edit id of 63" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="721" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="322" RevisionGUID="7a1dd7c9-91bb-4519-b1d3-21940a6b4fef" CreationDate="2013-06-01T20:29:35.020" UserId="78" Text="This question is inspired by http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/319/how-should-i-deal-with-my-first-clients-who-ask-for-my-portfolio&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any established community for non-profit organizations and hobbyists looking for a freelancer that would do a site for free for them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fresh webmasters need portfolio to have something to show to potential client. They could do a dummy project that would be published on localhost, but it's much better to do a real-life example. On the other site there are various organisations such as school running clubs, grasshopper-breeders community or some hobbyist who collects material about Svan language. They have ideas to make some simple website, but have no programming skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Both sites wins. The freelancer gets experience, portfolio and the satisfaction to do something useful. The hobbyists have the website made for free, which helps them to popularize their activities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I'm a potential freelance webmaster. I'd love to involve in such activities. I've tried to find something like that, but without success. Where should I go? Does something like that exist?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="722" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="322" RevisionGUID="7a1dd7c9-91bb-4519-b1d3-21940a6b4fef" CreationDate="2013-06-01T20:29:35.020" UserId="78" Text="Community for freelance webmasters who want to make portfolio with non-profit projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="723" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="322" RevisionGUID="7a1dd7c9-91bb-4519-b1d3-21940a6b4fef" CreationDate="2013-06-01T20:29:35.020" UserId="78" Text="|portfolio|webmasters|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="724" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="323" RevisionGUID="d1edd14a-1805-45f2-a51f-186d6f8749fc" CreationDate="2013-06-01T20:35:40.830" UserId="78" Text="If I have a good knowledge of not widely known language, and I want to provide remote translation services, how should I reach the target company? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's say I can translate documents between English and Serbian. I know that many companies have problem with finding a translator, so I could offer my services. The problem is, that they don't know how to find me and I don't know how to find them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question is, when the company is looking for translator for not widely known language, how do they typically search? Where should I advertise in order to be found by them?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="725" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="323" RevisionGUID="d1edd14a-1805-45f2-a51f-186d6f8749fc" CreationDate="2013-06-01T20:35:40.830" UserId="78" Text="Remote translation services in not widely known language - how to reach target?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="726" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="323" RevisionGUID="d1edd14a-1805-45f2-a51f-186d6f8749fc" CreationDate="2013-06-01T20:35:40.830" UserId="78" Text="|advertising|translations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="727" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="303" RevisionGUID="43733157-42b8-4d4d-8ec8-b87a4c7b2eb9" CreationDate="2013-06-02T01:15:38.770" UserId="-1" Comment="3" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:19,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Camil Staps&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:153,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;bPratik&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Łukasz Lech&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:61,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;bytebuster&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="729" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="324" RevisionGUID="e0e5e8f7-b17c-4e45-a0e9-756739629850" CreationDate="2013-06-02T11:09:25.967" UserId="78" Text="If we speak about the **formal definition** of the business plan, I don't see a way it could apply to the freelance activity. You don't sell anything, you don't produce any material goods, you don't hire people (if you do so, it's no more freelance activity). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you take the business plan in more **common-language** meaning, the business plan for freelancer would be similar to the business plan for regular employee. I would rather call it **career planning**. Your costs and investitions are the things you learn and the time it will take you to reach certain point in which you can sell your services to the customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Such business-plan for freelancers could look like that (example for Poland):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Market analysis. The business contacts with China are more and more intensive and there are too less people that speak both Polish and Chinese fluent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) I need about 3 years full-time learning to learn Chinese fluent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * monthly cost of course materials/consultations - 300$&#xD;&#xA; * monthly living costs - 500$&#xD;&#xA; * 6 months practice in China - 12000$&#xD;&#xA; * overall - 36000$ &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) An average translator is doing monthly:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * 100 pages written translation, avg. 15$/page&#xD;&#xA; * 40 hours oral translation, avg. 25$/hour&#xD;&#xA; * so I will earn on avg. 2500$ monthly (2,5x more than average wage)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) That investition allows me to earn 1500$ more that now, so the invested 36000$ will return in 2 years&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the business planning for freelancer isn't much more different than the business planning of average person.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="730" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="325" RevisionGUID="07d19027-b1ce-49f6-9015-e7d10e74774c" CreationDate="2013-06-02T11:18:43.530" UserId="157" Text="Relying purely on freelancing to earn your bread can be somewhat risky and daunting. Say I want to do freelancing while also being employed (full or part time). What are the specific issues I need to keep in mind when doing this? What are the legal, time management, financial, etc ramifications?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="731" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="325" RevisionGUID="07d19027-b1ce-49f6-9015-e7d10e74774c" CreationDate="2013-06-02T11:18:43.530" UserId="157" Text="Freelancing while being employed" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="732" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="325" RevisionGUID="07d19027-b1ce-49f6-9015-e7d10e74774c" CreationDate="2013-06-02T11:18:43.530" UserId="157" Text="|legal|time-management|employment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="733" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="326" RevisionGUID="c684d078-0d95-4ad4-a139-4effec2a6054" CreationDate="2013-06-02T11:24:51.107" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="I'm a starting freelancer in the webdevelopment sector. I'm constantly searching for new projects on (Dutch equivalents of) websites like oDesk. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many clients add both an e-mail and a telephone number to their vacancies. Up to now, I always replied by e-mail or by sending a text via the system. Often, I don't get a response. I'm considering calling more often to actually get to speak someone. That way, I hope to attract more clients, _and_ I would get some implicit feedback on my selling skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would it be a good idea to call more often? Is it in some way expected that I call? Would it be considered annoying if I call instead of just leave a message?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="734" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="326" RevisionGUID="c684d078-0d95-4ad4-a139-4effec2a6054" CreationDate="2013-06-02T11:24:51.107" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="Phone or e-mail when attracting clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="735" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="326" RevisionGUID="c684d078-0d95-4ad4-a139-4effec2a6054" CreationDate="2013-06-02T11:24:51.107" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="|client|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="736" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="327" RevisionGUID="6d2dcd70-ebbb-46c1-9ab2-3886b42943c9" CreationDate="2013-06-02T14:01:21.097" UserId="60" Text="Time management is an issue and you have to figure out how to meet with customers if working a standard schedule full time.  The larger issues are legal. You want to read over your employment contract a few times looking at the specifics of:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Moonlighting clauses.  When I worked at Microsoft, the contract said I had to have their permission to do any work outside Microsoft and that this permission needed to be renewed annually.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Non-disclosure agreements.  Make absolutely sure that the domain you are freelancing is sufficiently removed from your formal employment that this is not an issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  Non-compete agreements.  Again, if you are freelancing in a different domain and not competing with your employer you are much safer than if you are working for your competition.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending on the specifics of your employment contract there may be other issues as well but these are the most common and serious." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="737" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="328" RevisionGUID="7c11e3f6-1be0-48df-889c-94c87ab35fd0" CreationDate="2013-06-02T15:06:32.287" UserId="194" Text="Is it a good idea in the IT, software development\ consultation domain to team up with other freelancers to improve the quality and turnaround times of the project and give the clients benefits of a global team , Is there an existing model for this or a freelancers group which coordinates this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="738" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="328" RevisionGUID="7c11e3f6-1be0-48df-889c-94c87ab35fd0" CreationDate="2013-06-02T15:06:32.287" UserId="194" Text="Is it a good idea to team up with other freelancers and are there existing groups of freelancers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="739" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="328" RevisionGUID="7c11e3f6-1be0-48df-889c-94c87ab35fd0" CreationDate="2013-06-02T15:06:32.287" UserId="194" Text="|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="740" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="329" RevisionGUID="fe06649f-12e2-4490-bd73-86ced3a1d7c1" CreationDate="2013-06-02T19:23:51.337" UserId="127" Text="Put yourself in their shoes. What kinds of companies need this service? (What kinds of companies do you want to do work for?) I don't know, but I'm guessing the answer might be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- exporters&#xD;&#xA;- imports&#xD;&#xA;- banks providing letters of credit&#xD;&#xA;- foreign adoption agencies&#xD;&#xA;- others???&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A large multi-national company may already have a presence in that country, and thus perhaps will have resources on staff. So I'm thinking your best fit are smaller than multi-nationals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then think about where those people might look for translation services. If it were me, I'd be using Google searches to find that type of resource, but perhaps there are other avenues, like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- trade organizations&#xD;&#xA;- translation organizations&#xD;&#xA;- local media (classified ads?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Translation isn't my area of expertise, but all marketing comes back to understanding your target market and figuring out where they might look for someone with your skills. THEN you need to make sure you are where they are looking.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="741" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="330" RevisionGUID="35b566e1-dfbd-4f29-8fa5-bd21c2d1fce0" CreationDate="2013-06-02T22:02:59.660" UserId="43" Text="I would start off as you have by emailing in the first instance. It allows you to set out your offering clearly in a passive manner to begin with. If you haven't heard back after 48 hours, I would then follow up with a phone call. The advantages that I have found with this approach are that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The client has hopefully read your initial email and if not, you have something to direct them to to start the conversation with.&#xD;&#xA; 2. You get to build up a rapport with the client due to having a direct conversation, which could swing things in your direction in terms of getting the assignment, provided that you negotiate well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The fact that clients add a phone number means that they should expect a call, otherwise why are they putting a phone number up in the first place. Because they are coming to the market with a requirement, the fact that you are going that extra step and following up your initial email with a phone call, should be well received and will allow both parties to discuss the finer details of the assignment which may not be immediately obvious from the original advert." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="742" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="331" RevisionGUID="73baabbe-8c3b-420d-9cb8-1089be4f199c" CreationDate="2013-06-03T01:21:38.587" UserId="60" Text="I think this can be generalized to &quot;How to reach underserved markets?&quot;  In general the primary difficulties is that there are not well established paths for getting customers, and so that it is difficult to see where to start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is also worth noting for non-linguistically inclined readers that Slavic languages in general are very close to eachother which means that someone who is capable of translating Russian and Polish into English can probably translate Serbian as well into English.  However translating out of a language and translating into the same language are very different so this is only a partial solution.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, these can be seen as actual advantages.  Customers in underserved markets tend to lack expectations regarding how to find vendors as well, so the lack of established paths means that you get to create your own path.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like all markets, however, typically the major issue for getting customers is presence.  This means you want to make a name for yourself, even if you have to do this before getting customers.  Additionally you should look into what areas of markets are underserved.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, it may be far easier to find Serbian to English translation services than English to Serbian, because Slavic languages are close enough that a Russian translator team may  be able to reasonably translate from Serbian to another well-known language but if they try to go the other way, it will most likely end up in Russian rather than Serbian (linguistics is a hobby of mine and I recently found that I could read Catalan based on my understanding of other Romance languages, but don't expect me to write it!).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can find partially substituting markets (such as Russian -&gt; English translation services) you can look into how people find jobs there (because this is where the customers are likely to have to go for some jobs), and leverage those resources to find jobs closer to your core need.  This can be an important resource for building a name for yourself and building up your own dedicated clientele." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="743" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="332" RevisionGUID="3f94fb66-d138-4287-b6eb-ac88b3338ba5" CreationDate="2013-06-03T01:32:18.967" UserId="60" Text="I have always worked this way (with the exception of technical writing gigs).  In general teaming up with other freelancers makes it possible to deliver greater guarantees than you can by yourself, and it makes it possible to tackle larger projects as well.  There are some difficulties in working with new people (making work styles gel, ensuring you send eachother work that is appropriate to your expertise, etc) but these can be managed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now there are many times when this is not appropriate.  I cannot imagine technical writing being a good case for this sort of team work because often clients want specific writers, but for more functional tools, it is generally a good thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are two other points I would make in terms of IT services and software:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  I have found that many customers have had bad experiences with loners, and that loners are harder to replace than team players.  This makes being a loner a possible red flag for a customer.  If you want to work alone you should be aware of this and at least have partnerships where you can hand off projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  One of the very good things about teaming up is that if one team member takes on something that turns out to be outside his or her expertise, it may be possible to salvage the situation by handing it off to someone else.  This is far harder to do working alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="744" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="333" RevisionGUID="240dc4db-3d40-447d-9a0f-d73f55303807" CreationDate="2013-06-03T04:35:35.297" UserId="60" Text="I have looked into forming an LLC a few times in the US (right now I am better off not doing so for tax reasons while I am abroad but that is another story).  However in my research, I may be misunderstanding something but I couldn't find much that the limited liability actually protected against.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  For bad business dealings the freelancer is negotiating personally, he may still be sued *in addition to the LLC* so it isn't clear to me that provides much protection, and&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Most banks would have required that I co-sign any loan for the business, thus ensuring I wouldn't be able to run away from business debt.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what I looked at it did look like some business debts would be harder to forcibly collect against anything other than business assets but those would only be likely to be smaller routine debts (buying things on business credit for example).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what I concluded was that at least in the US, limited liability looked like it protected investors from loss, and business partners from eachother, but didn't offer much protection for the sole principle business owner.  Am I far off on this?  Am I missing something major?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="745" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="333" RevisionGUID="240dc4db-3d40-447d-9a0f-d73f55303807" CreationDate="2013-06-03T04:35:35.297" UserId="60" Text="What does an LLC's limited liability really protect you against (if you are sole owner and employee)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="746" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="333" RevisionGUID="240dc4db-3d40-447d-9a0f-d73f55303807" CreationDate="2013-06-03T04:35:35.297" UserId="60" Text="|llc|incorporation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="747" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="314" RevisionGUID="ec6667e6-3964-4d97-bfcd-eea7361d3782" CreationDate="2013-06-03T04:56:44.867" UserDisplayName="user19" Comment="edited title" Text="Reasons not to send €0,- invoices to friends" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="748" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="334" RevisionGUID="eb3f34d9-3eaa-4d9b-be5c-6547610c8d05" CreationDate="2013-06-03T05:56:58.157" UserId="85" Text="It should be remembered that with any form of Limited Liability structure (LLC, Ltd, PLC) etc the liability is limited only to the **shareholders**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the event of a company failing, other than losing their investment, shareholders are only liable for any unpaid share purchase money (or nil, if all shares are fully paid up).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Beyond that, anyone may have further liability:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - The directors and office holders have a fiduciary duty to operate the company within the law, and can be held personally liable in the event of non-compliance.&#xD;&#xA; - Within many professions, there are rules to comply with - whether imposed under statute, or by the Professional Bodies.  Non-compliance may result in you being&quot;struck off&quot; or lose your approval to operate.&#xD;&#xA; - Any individual employee has an obligation to act professionally at all times, and can be personally liable in the case of negligence - hence the general recommendation to maintain Professional Indemnity insurance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, in the case of a freelancer, you wear all of these hats.  But a key skill to learn is to recognise which hat you are wearing, and when.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="749" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="335" RevisionGUID="0e1f24df-cff5-4cab-94d9-4e54f12e31b7" CreationDate="2013-06-03T06:12:50.560" UserId="60" Text="I think what you are looking for actually is a nexus *between* communities, namely a nexus between the web development community and the NPO community so I would actually say instead of looking for a shopping list, you should start off accepting that there are better places to go to get your opportunities than such piece of infrastructure (probably too much turnover to call it a &quot;community.&quot;  There can't really be a &quot;community&quot; of non-profits looking for new web sites because as soon as they fill that, they will be out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best option is actually to network with web developers (community 1) **and** non-profits (community 2).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This goes for meeting just about any specific target market.  Network with people in the market demographic and network with people doing the work you want to do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="750" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="336" RevisionGUID="116c0b07-91fa-496e-8693-0030499f5791" CreationDate="2013-06-03T08:51:36.007" UserId="102" Text="Levelnis provided decent answer, but I think that it is applicable only for established freelancers who do not need to approach all clients actively (at least they wont be out of business if they dont). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are a &quot;new guy&quot; and you are looking at big sites that are used by companies to find vendors and freelancers, then time is key. You should call as soon as you discover prospect who is looking for services you provide. Everyone makes decisions based on emotions and justifies them with logic. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If 20 people send emails and only one calls, he/she might be actually the first one to contact the client (those emails might sit in email box for a day or two before someone reads them). And whoever comes first has big advantage. If you dont waste it, you might close the deal and email offers from your competitors will end up rejected or unanswered (like yours are sometimes rejected or unanswered now).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To make sure you wont blow your chance:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1) **Try to dig up some info about the client** (it will give you a big bonus if the client sees you care about his company and his business)&#xD;&#xA; 2) **Summarize what is your offer in writing** (it will serve both as guideline for the call and as followup email after the call). Make sure you will use whatever you discovered at point one - you should tailor your offer to clients situation so client sees you care about his business and you are trying to bring benefit to it with your work. (i.e. compare this: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;For restaurant like yours, which focuses on dinners and lunches its&#xD;&#xA;&gt; website is a place where people come around noon when they are hungry&#xD;&#xA;&gt; and when they are choosing a place to dine. So I will create a site&#xD;&#xA;&gt; where you can present them your offers in most efficient way,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; acompanying it with pictures of your tasty meals - so your visitors&#xD;&#xA;&gt; will just run to your place and have a dinner instead of browsing to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; your competition to see their offer. And I will make sure happy&#xD;&#xA;&gt; customers will be able to express their happiness easily on your site,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; so your great offers will be backed by genuine testimonials from your&#xD;&#xA;&gt; customers.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;with this: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;I will create professional website for you that will attract&#xD;&#xA;&gt; customers and I will include integration with social networks.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First one is longer and could probably be shortened a bit, but which one will be more interesting for you if you are starting a resaurant and need to attract regular customers that will be coming for dinner to you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) **Think about what could be possible questions and how will you answer them** (even those you might not like must be answered in a polite way that will show your expertise)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) **Call the prospect and present your offer** (btw the communication with the client doesnt end with one call, but thats not in the scope of the question).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt, sometimes it will be utter waste of time. But active approach will always get you more clients (and happier clients) in the long run. Just do your homework, so you can show your expertise properly. And call first, then follow up with email. And dont let the contact go cold :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="751" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="336" RevisionGUID="539a0199-3d16-4ad9-98ba-25d6fe740206" CreationDate="2013-06-03T09:08:01.147" UserId="102" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="Levelnis provided decent answer, but I think that it is applicable only for established freelancers who do not need to approach all clients actively (at least they wont be out of business if they dont). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are a &quot;new guy&quot; and you are looking at big sites that are used by companies to find vendors and freelancers, then time is key. You should call as soon as you discover prospect who is looking for services you provide. Everyone makes decisions based on emotions and justifies them with logic. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If 20 people send emails and only one calls, he/she might be actually the first one to contact the client (those emails might sit in email box for a day or two before someone reads them). And whoever comes first has big advantage. If you dont waste it, you might close the deal and email offers from your competitors will end up rejected or unanswered (like yours are sometimes rejected or unanswered now).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To make sure you wont blow your chance:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1) **Try to dig up some info about the client** (it will give you a big bonus if the client sees you care about his company and his business)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2) **Summarize what is your offer in writing** (it will serve both as guideline for the call and as followup email after the call). Make sure you will use whatever you discovered at point one - you should tailor your offer to clients situation so client sees you care about his business and you are trying to bring benefit to it with your work. (i.e. compare this: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;For restaurant like yours, which focuses on dinners and lunches its&#xD;&#xA;&gt; website is a place where people come around noon when they are hungry&#xD;&#xA;&gt; and when they are choosing a place to dine. So I will create a site&#xD;&#xA;&gt; where you can present them your offers in most efficient way,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; acompanying it with pictures of your tasty meals - so your visitors&#xD;&#xA;&gt; will just run to your place and have a dinner instead of browsing to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; your competition to see their offer. And I will make sure happy&#xD;&#xA;&gt; customers will be able to express their happiness easily on your site,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; so your great offers will be backed by genuine testimonials from your&#xD;&#xA;&gt; customers.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;with this: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;I will create professional website for you that will attract&#xD;&#xA;&gt; customers and I will include integration with social networks.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First one is longer and could probably be shortened a bit, but which one will be more interesting for you if you are starting a resaurant and need to attract regular customers that will be coming for dinner to you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) **Think about what could be possible questions and how will you answer them** (even those you might not like must be answered in a polite way that will show your expertise)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) **Call the prospect and present your offer** (btw the communication with the client doesnt end with one call, but thats not in the scope of the question).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt, sometimes it will be utter waste of time. But active approach will always get you more clients (and happier clients) in the long run. Just do your homework, so you can show your expertise properly. And call first, then follow up with email. And dont let the contact go cold :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="752" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="337" RevisionGUID="6b1fc5df-43dd-4e4a-bc5f-19b63f21b229" CreationDate="2013-06-03T10:55:46.417" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="753" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="338" RevisionGUID="a2a785d6-88d0-41da-99b5-6f50188a0400" CreationDate="2013-06-03T10:55:46.417" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="754" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="339" RevisionGUID="3ba69eef-f0e8-472a-b708-60df6ad0268e" CreationDate="2013-06-03T11:03:52.143" UserId="157" Text="I occasionally get contact requests on LinkedIn from people that I do not know and have come to regard this basically as spam. But is it a good idea to use LinkedIn (or a similar networking site) to establish contacts to potential clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The benefits I can see are that it is more likely to reach its target than &quot;cold-emailing&quot; and gives more information on previous projects etc. Does anybody have any experiences with this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="755" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="339" RevisionGUID="3ba69eef-f0e8-472a-b708-60df6ad0268e" CreationDate="2013-06-03T11:03:52.143" UserId="157" Text="Is making a connection on a networking website such as LinkedIn a good first step?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="756" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="339" RevisionGUID="3ba69eef-f0e8-472a-b708-60df6ad0268e" CreationDate="2013-06-03T11:03:52.143" UserId="157" Text="|advertising|linkedin|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="757" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="340" RevisionGUID="5d210b01-00fd-4799-883e-32c1e3771735" CreationDate="2013-06-03T11:05:22.057" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="758" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="341" RevisionGUID="41f36f84-2f82-4715-931a-58d9f0666784" CreationDate="2013-06-03T11:05:22.057" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="759" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="342" RevisionGUID="8ec20ed9-06a3-4fc9-957f-e4ccdeab909c" CreationDate="2013-06-03T11:09:31.473" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="Most people on social media only look at posts of people they actually know. Get in contact first, then make a connection. Otherwise, you'll have much useless connections. I would never send a request to someone I don't know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, when he sends you a request, he won't like it when you don't accept it. So then accept it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="760" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="343" RevisionGUID="a50bc184-122c-4890-b927-ed41ed59da28" CreationDate="2013-06-03T12:25:11.493" UserId="43" Text="A better approach than simply sending a connection request directly to a potential client is to find a common connection that you both have, who you can ask to forward an introduction to your client-in-waiting. That way you can compose an introductory message that explains why it would be valuable to the client to create a connection with you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Provided that you are no more than 3 connections away from the client, LinkedIn will give you the option of making an Introduction Request through any of your connections that can pass the message through to the client. This approach has the added advantage that you are being referred to the client (if your request gets that far!) by one of their trusted connections. Of course, there is a real possibility that one of the connections in the chain might choose to simply ignore the request to forward. This approach would be better suited to being a single connection away from the client (i.e. they are a 2nd degree contact) so as to minimise that risk." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="761" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="341" RevisionGUID="b8458004-6c6e-4b3a-ac0a-2e6e6f178df7" CreationDate="2013-06-03T13:28:19.027" UserId="157" Comment="added 84 characters in body" Text="Questions related to [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com), the professional network." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="762" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="341" RevisionGUID="b8458004-6c6e-4b3a-ac0a-2e6e6f178df7" CreationDate="2013-06-03T13:28:19.027" Comment="Proposed by 157 approved by 69 edit id of 66" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="763" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="333" RevisionGUID="e8a59528-e78d-44c0-9882-c019e51ff998" CreationDate="2013-06-03T13:34:27.260" UserId="120" Comment="edited tags" Text="|usa|llc|incorporation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="764" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="333" RevisionGUID="5ba378e5-fa50-4256-b4bf-b5b08b84633d" CreationDate="2013-06-03T13:34:37.887" UserId="120" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|usa|llc|incorporation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="765" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="326" RevisionGUID="cd76ae35-43c3-41ee-aa77-3303fe1e2403" CreationDate="2013-06-03T13:35:00.497" UserId="120" Comment="edited tags" Text="|client|attracting-clients|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="766" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="344" RevisionGUID="78346c07-5688-43a9-865c-55a89787a8be" CreationDate="2013-06-03T13:48:21.873" UserId="104" Text="In the event of my untimely death -- before getting the chance to retire and wind-up the Company myself -- what should I have in place to ease someone else having to do this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm self-employed in the UK, through a Limited Company, currently with no other employees.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="767" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="344" RevisionGUID="78346c07-5688-43a9-865c-55a89787a8be" CreationDate="2013-06-03T13:48:21.873" UserId="104" Text="Things to do before you die" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="768" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="344" RevisionGUID="78346c07-5688-43a9-865c-55a89787a8be" CreationDate="2013-06-03T13:48:21.873" UserId="104" Text="|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="769" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="345" RevisionGUID="36e76ce5-0f79-4778-9e1a-66e962316a92" CreationDate="2013-06-03T13:53:40.900" UserId="104" Text="What options are there for pension provision for the self-employed? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Specifically applying to being employed through a Limited Company in the UK.]" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="770" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="345" RevisionGUID="36e76ce5-0f79-4778-9e1a-66e962316a92" CreationDate="2013-06-03T13:53:40.900" UserId="104" Text="Options for Pension Provision in the UK" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="771" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="345" RevisionGUID="36e76ce5-0f79-4778-9e1a-66e962316a92" CreationDate="2013-06-03T13:53:40.900" UserId="104" Text="|uk|pension|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="772" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="346" RevisionGUID="12438290-c68a-4f3b-a251-a45c1c1b7546" CreationDate="2013-06-03T14:02:35.053" UserId="60" Text="Yes and no.  What connections gives you is a possibility of greater exposure and presence.  It isn't much and you have to work it but it is something, if used as one tool among many.  I would not expect LinkedIn or Facebook connections to be directly turned into leads, but the more people you can reach, the better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. provide good places to promote higher value content like blogs etc. that can increase your presence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The overall goal is to increase the profile of your name.  These things are small steps but they can be helpful if used carefully." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="773" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="344" RevisionGUID="3ae63f4b-ebb0-45cc-9ca9-427504c489a9" CreationDate="2013-06-03T14:07:01.943" UserId="60" Comment="edited title" Text="How to prepare for death or incapacitation (for customers, business, etc)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="774" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="347" RevisionGUID="67e6f1ca-3ad0-4c63-b89a-1afb2d103f73" CreationDate="2013-06-03T14:18:29.780" UserId="60" Text="The most important thing you can do is create a list for someone else to do.  You could hand this to a loved one, a friendly competitor that you trust, and so forth.    Your customers need to know they need to find someone else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have unfortunate experience coming about this on the other side, with customers contacting me for additional help after another consultant passed away, and other cases where technical contacts at customer's businesses passed away unexpectedly.  Things which would have made it easier for me would have included:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Some documentation to maximize continuity.  It's somewhat disorienting to have to go through and reverse engineer what someone did who isn't around anymore.  Having a general guide to what was done is immensely helpful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  the consultant's perspective of where things are going.  I can always get the customer's perspective but getting some documents from the deceased helps a lot.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Otherwise, in general this is not as big of an issue for customers as you might expect." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="775" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="348" RevisionGUID="481078d6-1727-4d04-bcfb-051abd537083" CreationDate="2013-06-03T14:50:20.603" UserId="94" Text="I currently do exactly this, and while very dependant on your location, taxes can be a pain.  I would recommend at least discussing things with an accountant&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the UK there have been alsorts of little bits and pieces I've needed help with as my permanent job's salary needs to be accounted for in my freelancing tax return as well as the tax I've already paid via the PAYE system.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously these complications may be lesser (or worse) depending on where you are.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other than than I really echo Chris' answer which you've accepted.  Make sure your permanent contract doesn't hold any clauses that can catch you out." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="776" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="349" RevisionGUID="af2711ad-2275-44a4-9cc7-b93a852e96d0" CreationDate="2013-06-03T16:40:09.997" UserId="157" Text="When I send an invoice to a client, what should I put on it, apart from the obvious amount? If, for example, I do not have a registered company, should I just put my name on it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there any templates available for invoices?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="777" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="349" RevisionGUID="af2711ad-2275-44a4-9cc7-b93a852e96d0" CreationDate="2013-06-03T16:40:09.997" UserId="157" Text="What should be on an invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="778" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="349" RevisionGUID="af2711ad-2275-44a4-9cc7-b93a852e96d0" CreationDate="2013-06-03T16:40:09.997" UserId="157" Text="|payment-terms|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="779" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="350" RevisionGUID="b66c96e7-9bb4-4199-8bea-fec0e98c8834" CreationDate="2013-06-03T16:55:25.007" UserId="78" Text="In **Poland**, you must register company to issue an invoice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The required fields are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * Invoice designation - text &quot;Faktura&quot;/&quot;Faktura VAT&quot; + is it original or copy&#xD;&#xA; * Date &#xD;&#xA; * Designation of seller&#xD;&#xA; * Designation of buyer&#xD;&#xA; * Designation of ware/service&#xD;&#xA; * Amount and designation of amount unit&#xD;&#xA; * Amount netto&#xD;&#xA; * VAT rate&#xD;&#xA; * Amount of VAT&#xD;&#xA; * Amount brutto&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any invoice without those fields is invalid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="780" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="350" RevisionGUID="623bffca-4cc1-484e-940e-1039f2cb4923" CreationDate="2013-06-03T17:03:49.790" UserDisplayName="user19" Comment="Clarified that also the last comment is specific to Poland" Text="In **Poland**, you must register company to issue an invoice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The required fields are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * Invoice designation - text &quot;Faktura&quot;/&quot;Faktura VAT&quot; + is it original or copy&#xD;&#xA; * Date &#xD;&#xA; * Designation of seller&#xD;&#xA; * Designation of buyer&#xD;&#xA; * Designation of ware/service&#xD;&#xA; * Amount and designation of amount unit&#xD;&#xA; * Amount netto&#xD;&#xA; * VAT rate&#xD;&#xA; * Amount of VAT&#xD;&#xA; * Amount brutto&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any invoice without those fields is invalid, **in Poland**." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="781" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="350" RevisionGUID="623bffca-4cc1-484e-940e-1039f2cb4923" CreationDate="2013-06-03T17:03:49.790" Comment="Proposed by 19 approved by 78 edit id of 67" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="782" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="351" RevisionGUID="aa9cc23f-ed6d-4a24-842f-b8574aca500e" CreationDate="2013-06-03T17:07:02.523" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="Since the requirements for an invoice are very country-specific, I'll give a general answer on how to get these data. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to get to the site of your government. If your country has an organization for business &amp; self employed with a separate website, go there. For example, for UK residents, there would be [gov.uk](http://gov.uk), clicking further gives [gov.uk/browse/business](https://www.gov.uk/browse/business). Search for 'invoice'. On the UK website, this leads to [this page](https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers/invoices-what-they-must-include), which gives a clear overview of the requirements of an invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You must clearly display the word ‘invoice’ on the document. You must also include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * a unique identification number&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * your company name, address and contact information&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * the company name and address of the customer you are invoicing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * a clear description of what you are charging for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * the date the goods or service were provided (supply date)&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * the date of the invoice&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * the amount(s) being charged&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * VAT amount if applicable&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * the total amount owed&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If your company is a registered limited company, you must also include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * your company registration number&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * the address of your company’s registered office&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This list is very basic. It will be the same for most countries, with just a few minor changes. However, to be sure, find the website of your government and look it up. There might or might not be different rules when trading with companies abroad, and whether or not different rules apply depends on the other country in most cases. Try to find the information on the website of your government. If you cannot find it, contact them. It's important that you are sure about it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**It is not a good idea to keep this information on this website, because it might change and can have considerable impacts.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="783" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="352" RevisionGUID="eb284f2d-eff5-4da6-8465-341f008beeed" CreationDate="2013-06-04T01:20:07.790" UserId="60" Text="The minimal material you should put on the invoice regardless of local laws (check with established businesses in your area or lawyers, or specialists, or what have you for more) are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Clear description of the parties.  Your business name, address, and contact information should be clear.  The individual or business you are charging should similarly have all relevant contact information as well.  This establishes a record of who you sent it to and where to remit payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Clearly state that this is an invoice.  Rules vary from place to place on this but usually words like INVOICE clearly displayed or equivalents in local languages (In Indonesia 'Surat Faktur' which means literally 'Invoice document' or 'invoice letter').&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  Any information you need to include for tax or registration purposes.  In the EU this will include your VAT number if applicable.  UK limited companies must put their company number on the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4.  Items, quantities, and amounts (per line, of each tax of each payment, etc, along with subtotals and totals).  Any payments already applied.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5.  Terms of payment and return.  This is most frequently left off but it establishes a record of what you expect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6.  Local rules.  For example last time I helped someone in Greece with invoicing, they could only print invoices on serially numbered paper obtained from the tax office (similar to 1099's in the US).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;7.  In the US I have seen many invoices without unique identification numbers, but it is *really good practice* to have it even if not required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for templates, it depends on what format you want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- LaTeX:  http://www.latextemplates.com/template/invoice&#xD;&#xA;- Word: http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/templates/basic-invoice-TC101877521.aspx&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And there are many more.  Google is your friend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing we are working on in [LedgerSMB](http://www.ledgersmb.org) (may not be ready for some time as we have other priorities too) is to create a series of LaTeX document classes and packages for producing invoices to make it easier for people to write invoices in that environment.  LedgerSMB also comes with LedgerSMB templates for invoices (HTML/Template Toolkit and LaTeX/Template Toolkit) and many other documents currently but we would like to make it so that most of the logic is available outside of our platform as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="784" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="353" RevisionGUID="be56e037-4e7c-427b-8e66-47048ec1f613" CreationDate="2013-06-04T01:25:32.777" UserId="60" Text="When sending a formal quotation document to a customer (i.e. an offer to perform services or deliver goods at a specific price) what information should I include?  Do I need unique numbers for tracking?  Payment terms?  Notes describing the scope of the project?  Anything else?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I just assume that virtually everything that needs to be on an invoice also should be on the quotation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="785" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="353" RevisionGUID="be56e037-4e7c-427b-8e66-47048ec1f613" CreationDate="2013-06-04T01:25:32.777" UserId="60" Text="What should be on a quotation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="786" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="353" RevisionGUID="be56e037-4e7c-427b-8e66-47048ec1f613" CreationDate="2013-06-04T01:25:32.777" UserId="60" Text="|invoices|bidding|sales|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="787" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="354" RevisionGUID="356bbc9c-164a-4c44-b414-76a93f36e320" CreationDate="2013-06-04T01:35:14.733" UserId="60" Text="In general you should keep in mind that a quotation is a formal offer and may be deemed to form a contract if accepted.  Therefore you should make sure you are clear about what you are providing and the terms under which you are providing it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, anything applicable to the invoice is applicable to a quotation except for things like payments already applied (though it never hurts to put a note in as to how much credit can be applied to the work when invoiced).  At a bare minimum, however, you need to have:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  A clear description of what is offered, including as appropriate quantity, scope, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  A clear description of who is responsible for overruns.   This can be further clarified by labelling the document a QUOTATION for fixed bids and an ESTIMATE for estimates of hourly work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  A clear description of payment terms, late fees, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4.  Any other terms of service, either incorporated literally or by reference.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5.  An expiration date, informing the customer how long they have before the rates may need to be rechecked or renegotiated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="788" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="355" RevisionGUID="f7c8ba98-4746-4a00-9946-d7a74ef6d948" CreationDate="2013-06-04T01:51:59.587" UserId="60" Text="I have a vendor who has offered to sell me supplies on net 30 terms.  The vendor has requested a formal purchase order for any supplies delivered before delivery.  Why do I need to do this?  More importantly, what should be on the document?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="789" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="355" RevisionGUID="f7c8ba98-4746-4a00-9946-d7a74ef6d948" CreationDate="2013-06-04T01:51:59.587" UserId="60" Text="What information should be on a formal purchase order?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="790" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="355" RevisionGUID="f7c8ba98-4746-4a00-9946-d7a74ef6d948" CreationDate="2013-06-04T01:51:59.587" UserId="60" Text="|contracts|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="791" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="356" RevisionGUID="739f3061-c4c7-4279-bf25-5e3c230f11ce" CreationDate="2013-06-04T01:51:59.587" UserId="60" Text="A purchase order is a document which specifies what terms you accept when ordering goods and services.  It is a document which constitutes an offer to pay for goods and services under specific terms.  On acceptance, this constitutes a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general you should specify on the purchase order what you are willing to see on the invoice.  This includes quantities and amounts at purchase price, payment terms, and the like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since this is an offer for an invoice, typically everything applicable except for taxes, payments, and the like, should be on the purchase order.  If the counterparty needs a VAT registration number, it should be there.  If they need a company registration number, it should be there.  Things beyond the control of the supplier (tax rates, etc) need not be on it, but if you expect tax to be included, you should specify this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most problems that occur in negotiating purchase orders in my experience come from one of two areas.  Either incorrect prices are put in, or incorrect payment terms are displayed.  If you offer to pay the net balance within 60 days, and the supplier expects within 30, they will reject your offer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="792" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="356" RevisionGUID="497037de-5738-4658-862f-56d64fd262c9" CreationDate="2013-06-04T04:27:12.370" UserId="60" Comment="added 348 characters in body" Text="A purchase order is a document which specifies what terms you accept when ordering goods and services.  It is a document which constitutes an offer to pay for goods and services under specific terms.  On acceptance, this constitutes a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general you should specify on the purchase order what you are willing to see on the invoice.  This includes quantities and amounts at purchase price, payment terms, and the like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since this is an offer for an invoice, typically everything applicable except for taxes, payments, and the like, should be on the purchase order.  If the counterparty needs a VAT registration number, it should be there.  If they need a company registration number, it should be there.  Things beyond the control of the supplier (tax rates, etc) need not be on it, but if you expect tax to be included, you should specify this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most problems that occur in negotiating purchase orders in my experience come from one of two areas.  Either incorrect prices are put in, or incorrect payment terms are displayed.  If you offer to pay the net balance within 60 days, and the supplier expects within 30, they will reject your offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One way you can look at a purchase order is that it is essentially like a quotation but with the parties reversed.   It is an invitation to contract, and the one you use if you are the purchaser.  It is therefore very closely related to both invoice content (which represents a contractual obligation fulfilled and payment due), and quotations." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="793" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="318" RevisionGUID="5a0ecad5-5ca9-438e-a9e9-04677b9a154f" CreationDate="2013-06-04T04:33:30.720" UserId="60" Comment="added 750 characters in body" Text="So you are just starting your business.  You have no background in doing the forecasting and you are confronted with what to put here.  It's scary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Introduction**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The good news is that you don't have to take this too seriously in this case.  Chances are your estimates are either targets or just guesses anyway.  As we get better at it, we typically just get better at making guesses.  No matter what you do you will still be guessing.  You really want to make what you do count for something though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are two reasons for financial projections in the business plan.  The first is to make you think about the financial feasability of your business, and the second is to give you an idea of what you think is attainable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Start with your fixed expenses**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first thing to do is to start with budgeting expenses.  Here you may not know what you will have to do anyway and there are a lot less unknowns with expenses than there are revenues.  You can start there, come up with budgets, add some extra room, and project your expenses accordingly.  If you start here, then when you get done, you will have an idea of how much you have to make to break even.  Break this up by category (rent, advertising, telecommunications, etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Expenses are important here for two reasons.  They represent the floor of profitability, debt you may incur getting started, and so forth.  If you can't make back your expenses you will go out of business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, because expenses represent the floor, they give you an idea of how much business you have to do to overcome these fixed expenses.  This allows you to estimate a break even point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, don't forget to budget a reasonable amount every year for replacement equipment (computers etc).  Treat this as an expense that is incurred a bit at a time rather than all at once.  If you figure you need $4000 of equipment to get started up, and you will have to replace it entirely every 5 years, budget $800/year.  This allows you to save up for replacements rather than having it all happen at once.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Then look at production costs and sales revenues together**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Production costs unlike fixed costs, get tracked relative to sales.   You may say you don't have production costs but you in fact may.  If you are selling software licenses as part of your business, your expenses are your purchase price and your sales price is revenue.  We track these together always (at least in accrual basis).  If you are doing freelance writing, you may want to budget something for printing hardcopies for review.  If you have to subcontract for part of the forecast, include what you are paying out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then what you can do is figure out how long you think it will take you for your gross profits to equal your fixed expenses (since you have numbers now you can look at).  You can look at how much you have to do to make what you need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If things don't look attainable**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If profit doesn't look attainable, you need to rethink your plan.  This means starting with expenses, asking what you really need, what you can scale down, how this changes your assumptions and see if you can find a plan that looks reasonable where profit is attainable.  Keep in mind that many businesses simply run out of money and often what makes successful businesses successful is that they become creative when this happens and find ways to continue.  However you can't count on that here, and you have a much better shot of making it work if you spend time really looking at and trying to carefully understand both your revenue and expense projections as well as the scenarios where things may work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Conclusions**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above doesn't take the guesswork out of the forecasts.  Especially since the business is just stating, any forecast you come up with will be based mostly on guesses.  What it does do however is give you a clear picture of what you have to do to make your business successful and whether that success is reasonably attainable and when you are starting out that is the most important thing you can get out of the financial section of the business plan." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="794" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="357" RevisionGUID="4e73ebc0-e7f1-417f-915d-921e6ef0c356" CreationDate="2013-06-04T04:38:15.330" UserId="60" Text="In previous questions there seems to be a general consensus to seek incorporation early and always. Are there any reasons not to?  Are there additional burdens that hit LLC's, corporations, and the like that do not hit sole proprietorships?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When or why would one choose not to incorporate or form an LLC?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="795" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="357" RevisionGUID="4e73ebc0-e7f1-417f-915d-921e6ef0c356" CreationDate="2013-06-04T04:38:15.330" UserId="60" Text="Disadvantages to incorporation/forming an LLC?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="796" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="357" RevisionGUID="4e73ebc0-e7f1-417f-915d-921e6ef0c356" CreationDate="2013-06-04T04:38:15.330" UserId="60" Text="|llc|incorporation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="797" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="296" RevisionGUID="7208483a-2ec1-4868-87ce-a3ab603e39ed" CreationDate="2013-06-04T05:47:05.207" UserId="64" Comment="edited to add more information and references to help answer the question" Text="In my experience, clients who I've done contract work for haven't asked for this until the end of the fiscal year, when their accountant starts pressing them to get their taxes in order.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My experience comes from dealing with small startups, where there's not a lot of process in place. The mutual trust came from the fact that they already paid me hundreds or thousands of dollars in exchange for the work I've done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When they asked for my tax id, I didn't give it a second thought.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, if you're doing work for a larger client, they may very well want your tax id in advance. In the United States, you can go to the [IRS Website and apply for an EIN Federal Tax ID](http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&amp;-Self-Employed/Apply-for-an-Employer-Identification-Number-(EIN)-Online), which means you don't have to give your personal social security number to clients who contract with you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If that's not an option, just do some basic research on the client. If they're well-established, they likely have a website, some reviews, public artifacts on the Internet that verify that they exist and are indeed legitimate. If something doesn't feel right, move on and find another client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as what to do if a potential client asks for your tax id before you start work, here is a process you can follow to protect yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If a representative from the company asks for this information, tell the representative that the EIN (or tax ID) will be [included on your first invoice you send to them](http://smallbusiness.chron.com/need-put-ein-invoice-38822.html) and that this is your preferred method for transmitting this information. If this satisfies both parties, move on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If the representative prefers that you send this information before you start working, try to include the EIN or tax ID in your contract. In the [LegalZoom article titled, &quot;Hiring Independent Contractors&quot;](http://www.legalzoom.com/business-management/running-your-business/hiring-independent-contractors), LegalZoom suggests businesses note the contractor's business name and tax id in the actual contract:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&gt;&gt; **A written contract.** Outline the nature of the relationship since merely saying the person is an independent contractor doesn’t make it so. Indicate the project’s expected results, fee and date(s) of completion. The contract should state the worker should use his/her own equipment/tools, is free to hire others without your approval, and that he or she provides liability insurance for his/her workers. Note the contractor’s business and tax I.D. number. Make sure the contract is signed by both parties and create a new contract for each new project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Including it in the contract shows that you attempted to establish a business relationship with the other party, and will leave a paper trail for you to follow in cases of fraud.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Lastly, keep in mind that one of the purposes of a Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) is for *fraud protection*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;According to the Nolo Legal Encyclopedia, [Does a sole proprietor need an EIN?](http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/does-sole-proprietor-need-employment-identification-number.html), preventing identity theft is one reason for having an EIN:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ...many sole proprietors still elect to use an EIN because it reduces the chances of identity theft and banks often require one to open a business account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And according to [LoopHoleWy's Tax Basics for Startups](http://www.loopholelewy.com/loopholelewy/01-tax-basics-for-startups/tax-identification-numbers-02-fein.htm), using an EIN protects your personal identity if you pay independent contractors and must issue 1099-MISC forms.  However, this works both ways, as someone receiving 1099-MISC forms from employers, using an EIN offers you the very same identity theft protections by not exposing your personal tax ID or social security number.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While I'm not familiar with tax laws in other countries, whether or not this applies in *this* case or not, for anyone interested in such identity theft protections in your own locale, check your local and federal laws to see if there exists business tax ID's which you can use to protect your own personal identity." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="798" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="296" RevisionGUID="14679de3-478b-41c9-9666-bc90f5f5ba67" CreationDate="2013-06-04T05:57:13.820" UserId="64" Comment="edited to add more information and references to help answer the question" Text="In my experience, clients who I've done contract work for haven't asked for this until the end of the fiscal year, when their accountant starts pressing them to get their taxes in order.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My experience comes from dealing with small startups, where there's not a lot of process in place. The mutual trust came from the fact that they already paid me hundreds or thousands of dollars in exchange for the work I've done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When they asked for my tax id, I didn't give it a second thought.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, if you're doing work for a larger client, they may very well want your tax id in advance. In the United States, you can go to the [IRS Website and apply for an EIN Federal Tax ID](http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&amp;-Self-Employed/Apply-for-an-Employer-Identification-Number-(EIN)-Online), which means you don't have to give your personal social security number to clients who contract with you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If that's not an option, just do some basic research on the client. If they're well-established, they likely have a website, some reviews, public artifacts on the Internet that verify that they exist and are indeed legitimate. If something doesn't feel right, move on and find another client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Protecting Yourself:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**As far as what to do if a potential client asks for your tax id before you start work, here are a couple things you can do to protect yourself:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If a representative from the company asks for this information, tell the representative that the EIN (or tax ID) will be [included on your first invoice you send to them](http://smallbusiness.chron.com/need-put-ein-invoice-38822.html) and that this is your preferred method for transmitting this information. If this satisfies both parties, move on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If the representative prefers that you send this information before you start working, try to include the EIN or tax ID in your contract. In the [LegalZoom article titled, &quot;Hiring Independent Contractors&quot;](http://www.legalzoom.com/business-management/running-your-business/hiring-independent-contractors), LegalZoom suggests businesses note the contractor's business name and tax id in the actual contract:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&gt;&gt; **A written contract.** Outline the nature of the relationship since merely saying the person is an independent contractor doesn’t make it so. Indicate the project’s expected results, fee and date(s) of completion. The contract should state the worker should use his/her own equipment/tools, is free to hire others without your approval, and that he or she provides liability insurance for his/her workers. Note the contractor’s business and tax I.D. number. Make sure the contract is signed by both parties and create a new contract for each new project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Including it in the contract shows that you attempted to establish a business relationship with the other party, and will leave a paper trail for you to follow in cases of fraud.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Lastly, keep in mind that one of the purposes of a Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) is for *fraud protection*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;According to the Nolo Legal Encyclopedia, [Does a sole proprietor need an EIN?](http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/does-sole-proprietor-need-employment-identification-number.html), preventing identity theft is one reason for having an EIN:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ...many sole proprietors still elect to use an EIN because it reduces the chances of identity theft and banks often require one to open a business account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And according to [LoopHoleWy's Tax Basics for Startups](http://www.loopholelewy.com/loopholelewy/01-tax-basics-for-startups/tax-identification-numbers-02-fein.htm), using an EIN protects your personal identity if you pay independent contractors and must issue 1099-MISC forms.  However, this works both ways, as someone receiving 1099-MISC forms from employers, using an EIN offers you the very same identity theft protections by not exposing your personal tax ID or social security number.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While I'm not familiar with tax laws in other countries, whether or not this applies in *this* case or not, for anyone interested in such identity theft protections in your own locale, check your local and federal laws to see if there exists business tax ID's which you can use to protect your own personal identity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# **How to tell if a company is legitimate:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, as I mentioned earlier, if the deal doesn't feel right, move on and find another client.  Here are some things to look at to help determine whether or not a potential client is legitimate:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Do they have an up to date website that looks professional and modern?  If not, what industry are they in? If they're in IT and don't have an up to date website, this may be a red flag.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Are there online reviews of the company from past or current employees, including contractors?  If 90% of the reviews aren't positive, this may be a red flag. Specifically, look for negative reviews that indicate employees or contractors were treated poorly when it comes to financial compensation. A few bad reviews may be normal and may just be from people who were rightfully terminated or who simply like to complain, but a significant number of bad reviews is a red flag.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Does the business have a good reputation with other vendors and customers? If a business doesn't have a good rapport with its customers, this may also be a bad sign. If they don't treat their customers well, it's possible they don't treat vendors well, *including contractors*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In summary, if something doesn't feel right, move on. But if you do move on, be sure to protect your personal information by using information specific to your business, and make sure you maintain a paper trail from the initial contract including all invoices. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="799" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="358" RevisionGUID="0078d1ed-2204-4da9-ae17-c3faa631ceb1" CreationDate="2013-06-04T11:01:05.013" UserId="60" Text="One thing I have noticed is that many successful web designers and other consultants do a certain amount of charity work on an ongoing basis.  Given that many of these do not need further portfolio development of this sort, the benefits must go well beyond merely building portfolios.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What avenues do I have as a freelancer to take charity work and use it to drum up additional business?  Are there ways to leverage charities to make new business contacts or otherwise greatly improve business presence?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="800" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="358" RevisionGUID="0078d1ed-2204-4da9-ae17-c3faa631ceb1" CreationDate="2013-06-04T11:01:05.013" UserId="60" Text="How to utilize charity work for building a business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="801" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="358" RevisionGUID="0078d1ed-2204-4da9-ae17-c3faa631ceb1" CreationDate="2013-06-04T11:01:05.013" UserId="60" Text="|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="802" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="352" RevisionGUID="a71da8b9-5d03-4c55-8ddd-6b056ab94d2c" CreationDate="2013-06-04T12:00:01.043" UserId="60" Comment="added 1030 characters in body" Text="The minimal material you should put on the invoice regardless of local laws (check with established businesses in your area or lawyers, or specialists, or what have you for more) are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Clear description of the parties.  Your business name, address, and contact information should be clear.  The individual or business you are charging should similarly have all relevant contact information as well.  This establishes a record of who you sent it to and where to remit payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Clearly state that this is an invoice.  Rules vary from place to place on this but usually words like INVOICE clearly displayed or equivalents in local languages (In Indonesia 'Surat Faktur' which means literally 'Invoice document' or 'invoice letter').&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  Any information you need to include for tax or registration purposes.  In the EU this will include your VAT number if applicable.  UK limited companies must put their company number on the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4.  Items, quantities, and amounts (per line, of each tax of each payment, etc, along with subtotals and totals).  Any payments already applied.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5.  Terms of payment and return.  This is most frequently left off but it establishes a record of what you expect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6.  Local rules.  For example last time I helped someone in Greece with invoicing, they could only print invoices on serially numbered paper obtained from the tax office (similar to 1099's in the US).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;7.  In the US I have seen many invoices without unique identification numbers, but it is *really good practice* to have it even if not required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for templates, it depends on what format you want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- LaTeX:  http://www.latextemplates.com/template/invoice&#xD;&#xA;- Word: http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/templates/basic-invoice-TC101877521.aspx&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And there are many more.  Google is your friend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing we are working on in [LedgerSMB](http://www.ledgersmb.org) (may not be ready for some time as we have other priorities too) is to create a series of LaTeX document classes and packages for producing invoices to make it easier for people to write invoices in that environment.  LedgerSMB also comes with LedgerSMB templates for invoices (HTML/Template Toolkit and LaTeX/Template Toolkit) and many other documents currently but we would like to make it so that most of the logic is available outside of our platform as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been self-employed for 9 years, much of which has been in the area of ERP and accounting software for clients all over the world.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above gives you a very simple baseline.  Also note that within the EU, there are often different rules for trading within Eurozone countries.  For example, you may not need to give your VAT number to a customer in the US since they aren't charging VAT.  However, generally for the sake of avoiding problems, usually folks add all locally relevant information to all invoices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally keep in mind what an invoice is.  An invoice is a representation that &quot;I have filled my part of the contract and so now I am saying I have earned this much money from you.&quot;  If you have prepayments of course those are applied.  Otherwise it is a notice saying &quot;you owe me money.&quot;  All relevant information relating to collecting that money needs to be on the invoice.  Additionally local rules are usually tax-related so keep in mind that tax authorities like to be able to track invoices too." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="803" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="359" RevisionGUID="eceb600f-e58e-4d61-aa48-755992990000" CreationDate="2013-06-04T13:47:36.313" UserId="200" Text="An invoice for some work I did awhile back seems to be missing and I can't find it, yet I want to make sure I am declaring that amount in my tax statements.  If I get audited, what's the best way to show this work I've done?  (Client has not responded to my requests for their copy of it either)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="804" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="359" RevisionGUID="eceb600f-e58e-4d61-aa48-755992990000" CreationDate="2013-06-04T13:47:36.313" UserId="200" Text="How to backup declared income when the invoice is lost?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="805" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="359" RevisionGUID="eceb600f-e58e-4d61-aa48-755992990000" CreationDate="2013-06-04T13:47:36.313" UserId="200" Text="|invoices|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="806" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="360" RevisionGUID="600b98b8-b295-4277-86dd-a074e2a1cd98" CreationDate="2013-06-04T14:11:48.753" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="With a good administration, this shouldn't be a problem. There are a few ways to save your invoices, and they're best used in combination with each other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Use an administration system with the data - not the files, but the data. Just plaintext what you've done. This allows you to easily generate a new invoice any time you need it.&#xD;&#xA;* Save the generated invoices. For when you lose the data, and to send it to your client.&#xD;&#xA;* Back up both the database and the file, backing up is good.&#xD;&#xA;* Print the invoice and store it in a map somewhere.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Losing invoices is something that shouldn't happen with nowadays technology,** and since everyone knows that, you won't be taken seriously if you do lose one, **so don't lose them!**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being said, what if your house (and all the houses where you have your backups) burn down? The best thing to do is what you already did: contact the client you send the invoice to. Calling works better than mailing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There might also be a chance that you can find your invoice in your mail program, if you sent it digitally, or in the trash can of your computer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you really can't get the original invoice back, see if you still have the offer if you made one and show that to your tax services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Otherwise, you're doomed. Try telling the tax services you lost it, contacted the client but that he didn't reply yet, and offer them the contact information of your client if they want to check." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="807" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="361" RevisionGUID="9a2f31fd-c97e-4317-9cdd-eb1af95d1a67" CreationDate="2013-06-04T14:41:54.483" UserId="120" Text="If you're like most freelancers, and have a handful of clients or less, then you likely have a pretty keen sense of who has paid you vs. what is still outstanding.  Receivables are a source of much anxiety for the self-employed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, **assuming you got paid for the work**, then all of your recent bank deposits &amp;ndash; except for one! &amp;ndash; should match up with a recent invoice.  That unmatched bank deposit should correspond to the missing invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your bank statement (or a print screen) showing the specific deposit that went into your account is already proof that you received the revenue.  As long as you declare this revenue on your taxes, you should be in the clear.  On a paper copy of the statement, circle the deposit, add a note, and file it with your other invoice copies.  FWIW, any decent tax accountant should want to reconcile your invoices with your bank deposits, anyway, in order to discover potentially missed revenue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could also reverse-engineer a new invoice based on that amount, using the invoice template you originally used.  Mark the &quot;new&quot; copy of the invoice as a &quot;duplicate - original lost&quot;.  Write a brief note explaining the problem.  I would expect that as long as the amount and client billed are correct (and you said you already know who the client is), and the invoice date is within reason (i.e. within the same reporting period as originally invoiced, not necessarily the same period as when you received the revenue), then there's nothing sinister in doing this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The kinds of paperwork that the tax authorities really want you to have originals for are your **expenses**, because you will deduct expenses from your taxable income and **reduce** your tax liability.  Usually a tax authority won't challenge your paperwork when you declare additional **revenue**, because that *increases* your tax liability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Run this by your tax accountant if you're still concerned.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="808" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="360" RevisionGUID="cdd55025-1b74-4727-8b33-2329406f8e06" CreationDate="2013-06-04T14:47:42.307" UserDisplayName="user19" Comment="added 11 characters in body" Text="With a good administration, this shouldn't be a problem. There are a few ways to save your invoices, and they're best used in combination with each other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Use an administration system with the data - not the files, but the data. Just plaintext what you've done. This allows you to easily generate a new invoice any time you need it.&#xD;&#xA;* Save the generated invoices. For when you lose the data, and to send it to your client.&#xD;&#xA;* Back up both the database and the file, backing up is good.&#xD;&#xA;* Print the invoice and store it in a map somewhere.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Losing invoices is something that shouldn't happen with nowadays technology,** and since everyone knows that, you won't be taken seriously if you do lose one, **so don't lose them!**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being said, what if your house (and all the houses where you have your backups) burn down? The best thing to do is what you already did: contact the client you send the invoice to. Calling works better than mailing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There might also be a chance that you can find your invoice in your mail program, if you sent it digitally, or in the trash can of your computer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you really can't get the original invoice back, see if you still have the offer if you made one and show that to your tax services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Otherwise, you might have a problem. Try telling the tax services you lost it, contacted the client but that he didn't reply yet, and offer them the contact information of your client if they want to check." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="809" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="357" RevisionGUID="ed2d692e-cbbd-4ea6-bd00-f36c50087d8d" CreationDate="2013-06-04T14:51:13.347" UserId="60" Comment="added 21 characters in body" Text="In previous questions there seems to be a general consensus to seek incorporation early and always. Are there any reasons not to?  Are there additional burdens that hit LLC's, corporations, and the like that do not hit sole proprietorships?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When or why would one choose not to incorporate or form an LLC in the United States?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="810" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="362" RevisionGUID="d4d59622-3087-4605-954a-e7b6f8e003be" CreationDate="2013-06-04T15:33:52.307" UserId="9" Text="There are a few disadvantages to incorporating as an LLC as opposed to going forward as a sole proprietor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. **More paperwork.** Basically, since you'll be an actual company, you'd need to file paperwork with the state. This may differ state to state (since you mentioned the United States).&#xD;&#xA;2. **Taxes.** Depending on the state, you may need to pay self-employment taxes as an LLC. This would be the same as being a sole proprietor.&#xD;&#xA;3. **Separation Of Money.** As an LLC, you'd be an actual company, so you'd need to absolutely make sure that your personal money and your company's money don't mix.&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;There are a few resources that I used to pull my answer from; feel free to look at them as well!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Resources:  &#xD;&#xA;[RocketLawyer: Why start an LLC? Limited Liability Company Advantages and Disadvantages](http://www.rocketlawyer.com/article/why-start-an-llc-limited-liability-company-advantages-and-disadvantages.rl)  &#xD;&#xA;[LegalZoom: Comparing an LLC to a Sole Proprietorship and a Partnership](http://www.legalzoom.com/llc-guide/llc-sole-proprietor-partnership-comparison.html)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="811" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="357" RevisionGUID="27b97de6-af38-4e66-8819-09e8587e00bb" CreationDate="2013-06-04T15:49:24.797" UserId="120" Comment="added 'usa' tag" Text="|usa|llc|incorporation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="812" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="357" RevisionGUID="27b97de6-af38-4e66-8819-09e8587e00bb" CreationDate="2013-06-04T15:49:24.797" Comment="Proposed by 120 approved by 184 edit id of 69" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="813" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="344" RevisionGUID="06d5a171-aded-4a4c-9a2b-ff4b57feceae" CreationDate="2013-06-04T16:01:50.070" UserId="104" Comment="Focus on Company matters rather than impact on Customer (as already covered in another question)" Text="In the event of my untimely death -- before getting the chance to retire and wind-up the Company myself -- what should I have in place to ease someone else having to do this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm self-employed in the UK, through a Limited Company, currently with no other employees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm thinking along the lines of whether I need to appoint &quot;powers of attorney&quot; or nominate an accountant; whether should this be part of my personal will ... or is something company specific required?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="814" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="344" RevisionGUID="06d5a171-aded-4a4c-9a2b-ff4b57feceae" CreationDate="2013-06-04T16:01:50.070" UserId="104" Comment="Focus on Company matters rather than impact on Customer (as already covered in another question)" Text="How to prepare for death or incapacitation (for business)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="815" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="363" RevisionGUID="c459c48e-14c2-4ff4-b513-1a1476eec852" CreationDate="2013-06-04T17:47:20.167" UserId="78" Text="Disclaimer: the locale for the question was not defined, and my answer is mostly based on realities of Poland.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have issued an invoice, and sent it to the client, it should already have been in your bookkeeping account! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But bad things happen, and the most important now is not to panic, but act quick! You should restore your invoice as soon as possible, with exact the same data that you have sent to client. You should ask your client to fax you the copy of the invoice you have sent to him/her. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What could happen in case you got audited? Well, the worst scenario would be, if the tax authorities would control your client and would cross-check you to proof if the invoice was really issued. If they would find that you have not that invoice, and it is not in your bookkeeping records, they could prosecute you for attempted tax fraud. The punishments depend on tax system and local laws, but in worst case you could go to prison!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please not also, that you can be punished not only for tax fraud, but also for negligent bookkeeping, and if you don't record invoices after issuing it, it is considered negligent bookkeeping. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please note that my answer is based on realities of Poland, other tax systems may be more liberal in such cases, but they may also be stricter." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="816" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="361" RevisionGUID="5cb973bb-a4da-40a9-9359-acb071711a60" CreationDate="2013-06-04T18:10:14.607" UserId="120" Comment="added 102 characters in body" Text="If you're like most freelancers, and have a handful of clients or less, then you likely have a pretty keen sense of who has paid you vs. what is still outstanding.  Receivables are a source of much anxiety for the self-employed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, **assuming you got paid for the work**, then all of your recent bank deposits &amp;ndash; except for one! &amp;ndash; should match up with a recent invoice.  That unmatched bank deposit should correspond to the missing invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your bank statement (or a print screen) showing the specific deposit that went into your account is already proof that you received the revenue.  As long as you declare this revenue on your taxes, you should be in the clear.  On a paper copy of the statement, circle the deposit, add a note, and file it with your other invoice copies.  FWIW, any decent tax accountant should want to reconcile your invoices with your bank deposits, anyway, in order to discover potentially missed revenue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could also reverse-engineer a new invoice based on that amount, using the invoice template you originally used.  Mark the &quot;new&quot; copy of the invoice as a &quot;duplicate - original lost&quot;.  Write a brief note explaining the problem.  I would expect that as long as the amount and client billed are correct (and you said you already know who the client is), and the invoice date is within reason (i.e. within the same reporting period as originally invoiced, not necessarily the same period as when you received the revenue), then there's nothing sinister in doing this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The kinds of paperwork that the tax authorities really want you to have originals for are your **expenses**, because you will deduct expenses from your taxable income and **reduce** your tax liability.  Usually a tax authority won't challenge your paperwork when you declare additional **revenue**, because that *increases* your tax liability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Run this by your tax accountant if you're still concerned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(p.s. my answer is based on my own experience here in Canada &amp;ndash; and I notice you're here, too.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="817" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="364" RevisionGUID="54db8e84-3b66-41e0-9019-5ffef8ad0728" CreationDate="2013-06-04T18:12:31.547" UserId="78" Text="First of all, even if a web designer have big portfolio, charity works can still be very valuable position. If you have mostly made internet sites or commercial portals with only a little part visible to not-logged users, charity/non-profit organizations' portals are usually open to everyone, so they are also more available for potential clients. Doing something for well-known non-profit organization is also a big plus. Imagine you can say you've done even small part of Wikipedia website!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do some sites to non-profit organizations, you send a signal, that you are web designer not only for money, but you really enjoy what you are doing. People who are doing something only for money wouldn't do it for free, only passionate will. A passionate is much better webmaster than the others!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And there are not only financial motivations. Doing something non-profit gives you satisfaction that you have helped other people. It is also something new after working with clients who were changing demands 10 times a day, and everything analysing with criteria, how much money will they earn on it. Usually if you do something for non-profit organizations, you have much more freedom in designing the site as you would like to. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="822" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="366" RevisionGUID="19b9f680-5d5a-4b4b-af96-3d9c5d6547a7" CreationDate="2013-06-04T19:09:45.463" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="It's normal to charge friends, relatives, neighbours, etc. a lower price than people you don't know at all. However, wouldn't that be _price discrimination_, and isn't that a crime?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to get sued by a company for letting him pay a higher price than a friend of mine while it's for a similar product. Is there any chance on that when I charge friends with lower prices than others?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If so, how can I make sure I don't discriminate with my prices?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The easy solution would be to charge them the same, but that might look bad from a social perspective. Another solution would be not to work with people I know in a personal sphere, but then I would lose clients and portfolio opportunities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;Note: I'm a web developer. Most of the time, assignments are significantly different and the problem won't arise. However, when clients ask for basic websites which isn't more than a WordPress installation and a simple theme, there might be a problem.&lt;/sub&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="823" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="366" RevisionGUID="19b9f680-5d5a-4b4b-af96-3d9c5d6547a7" CreationDate="2013-06-04T19:09:45.463" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="Risks of giving friend-clients a discount: price discrimination?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="824" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="366" RevisionGUID="19b9f680-5d5a-4b4b-af96-3d9c5d6547a7" CreationDate="2013-06-04T19:09:45.463" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="|client|friends-services|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="825" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="367" RevisionGUID="3fc26916-0a74-4648-9025-a4f7e66f6771" CreationDate="2013-06-04T19:35:31.403" UserId="78" Text="Even if you sell commodities, you are allowed to give bargains to chosen groups of customers. It's fully up to your decision whom you give a discount. You can target your promotions to the arbitrarily chosen group of person. It's your marketing strategy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know any legal system, that would allow free entrepreneurship and in the same time restrict **small** companies to offer the same price to everyone. This may not be case for big companies (anti-monopoly laws). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer you are not only small, but you don't sell commodities, you offer services. Offering services in most cases involves direct contact with client, so it's much more place for price negotiations than with e-shop. You don't have to make your invoices public, so in fact, nobody will know for how much have you sold your services to anybody else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's more, in case such freelance activities as webmastering, every project is individual and the price is calculated individually. Even if the prices were public, and the bargain would be 50%, it's still would not be so obvious that you have given a bargain. You could always say, that because someone is your friend, he/she have given you more freedom in design, which resulted in lower price etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The biggest risk is of social nature. If you have 10 close friends, and one of them you will give a big bargain, the others may also expect the same bargain from you. So you should think twice before being too generous..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="826" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3" RevisionGUID="1914cd87-8a16-4c09-8da9-d49adaf1bc06" CreationDate="2013-06-05T00:03:35.310" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/342069149368995840" />
  <row Id="827" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="368" RevisionGUID="d4f9abd6-dd57-40b6-a1c7-e8cca90dd67a" CreationDate="2013-06-05T01:27:55.807" UserId="60" Text="First you need to understand some basics of discrimination law in your area.  I can only speak to the United States generally (and will note some exceptions below).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, in the United States, antidiscrimination law came about because of the experience of segregation, and it attempts to balance the legitimate needs of businesses with the general interest in society of not having specific vulnerable groups targetted for problematic treatment.  I think this same balance must exist everywhere that antidiscrimination law exists, but lines need not be drawn all in the same place (and indeed aren't even in the US).  In the US for example, race is generally held to far stricter criteria than just about anything else because of our bad experiences in this area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consequently in most of the US (California state law aside, see below), the question of whether discrimination is illegal has to do with the reason for the discrimination and its impact across society.  So for example if I give all African Americans a discount that would be illegal because this would be discriminating on the basis of race.  If I give blue-eyed people a discount, the same would probably apply because blue eyes very strongly correlate with socially constructed racial categories.  On the other hand if I give non-profit businesses a discount, there is no reason why this would be a problem.  Similarly if I give family members a discount, I would expect even if they were all the same race that this would be ok, because family members are such a narrow slice of society there is no general social damage done.  In general, with friends and family members, in the US, you aren't going to run into trouble.  I do not know about a few exceptional places like California though so if you live there, a quick attorney consultation might be a good idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I single out California because that state has its own approach to anti-discrimination law which is in fact older than US federal antidiscrimination law.  The Unruh Act is generally interpreted to ban discrimination in business dealings on any criteria outside the business deal context (I suspect that friend/family discounts would still be OK but I am not comfortable saying this for sure).  The Unruh Act is sufficiently vague that even the ACLU has fallen afoul with this act for kicking off-duty police officers out of meetings on police surveillance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I say generally interpreted because despite what the text of the law says, the California courts have generally looked to legislative history to see the law as advocating an end to any discrimination on non-relevant criteria.  Again, California is an exception but it shows how far this can vary even within a single country.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my advice would be to start by finding out what *categories* of discrimination are banned where you live.  Chances are you will find that this is not an issue.  However if you are still concerned, this is something an attorney should be able to clear up very quickly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="828" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="352" RevisionGUID="2200bf6d-dac1-484a-bde4-f340e2276509" CreationDate="2013-06-05T02:52:32.117" UserId="60" Comment="added 87 characters in body" Text="The minimal material you should put on the invoice regardless of local laws (check with established businesses in your area or lawyers, or specialists, or what have you for more) are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Clear description of the parties.  Your business name, address, and contact information should be clear.  The individual or business you are charging should similarly have all relevant contact information as well.  This establishes a record of who you sent it to and where to remit payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Clearly state that this is an invoice.  Rules vary from place to place on this but usually words like INVOICE clearly displayed or equivalents in local languages (In Indonesia 'Surat Faktur' which means literally 'Invoice document' or 'invoice letter').&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  Any information you need to include for tax or registration purposes.  In the EU this will include your VAT number if applicable.  UK limited companies must put their company number on the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4.  Items, quantities, and amounts (per line, of each tax of each payment, etc, along with subtotals and totals).  Any payments already applied.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5.  Terms of payment and return.  This is most frequently left off but it establishes a record of what you expect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6.  Local rules.  For example last time I helped someone in Greece with invoicing, they could only print invoices on serially numbered paper obtained from the tax office (similar to 1099's in the US).  Some countries also require that all invoices are numbered sequentially with no gaps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;7.  In the US I have seen many invoices without unique identification numbers, but it is *really good practice* to have it even if not required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for templates, it depends on what format you want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- LaTeX:  http://www.latextemplates.com/template/invoice&#xD;&#xA;- Word: http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/templates/basic-invoice-TC101877521.aspx&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And there are many more.  Google is your friend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing we are working on in [LedgerSMB](http://www.ledgersmb.org) (may not be ready for some time as we have other priorities too) is to create a series of LaTeX document classes and packages for producing invoices to make it easier for people to write invoices in that environment.  LedgerSMB also comes with LedgerSMB templates for invoices (HTML/Template Toolkit and LaTeX/Template Toolkit) and many other documents currently but we would like to make it so that most of the logic is available outside of our platform as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been self-employed for 9 years, much of which has been in the area of ERP and accounting software for clients all over the world.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above gives you a very simple baseline.  Also note that within the EU, there are often different rules for trading within Eurozone countries.  For example, you may not need to give your VAT number to a customer in the US since they aren't charging VAT.  However, generally for the sake of avoiding problems, usually folks add all locally relevant information to all invoices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally keep in mind what an invoice is.  An invoice is a representation that &quot;I have filled my part of the contract and so now I am saying I have earned this much money from you.&quot;  If you have prepayments of course those are applied.  Otherwise it is a notice saying &quot;you owe me money.&quot;  All relevant information relating to collecting that money needs to be on the invoice.  Additionally local rules are usually tax-related so keep in mind that tax authorities like to be able to track invoices too." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="829" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="352" RevisionGUID="cf439150-a96a-44be-8190-f97402df95ba" CreationDate="2013-06-05T03:01:05.290" UserId="60" Comment="added 80 characters in body" Text="The minimal material you should put on the invoice regardless of local laws (check with established businesses in your area or lawyers, or specialists, or what have you for more) are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Clear description of the parties.  Your business name, address, and contact information should be clear.  The individual or business you are charging should similarly have all relevant contact information as well.  This establishes a record of who you sent it to and where to remit payment, as well as who to contact if there are questions or errors (which does happen).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Clearly state that this is an invoice.  Rules vary from place to place on this but usually words like INVOICE clearly displayed or equivalents in local languages (In Indonesia 'Surat Faktur' which means literally 'Invoice document' or 'invoice letter').&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  Any information you need to include for tax or registration purposes.  In the EU this will include your VAT number if applicable.  UK limited companies must put their company number on the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4.  Items, quantities, and amounts (per line, of each tax of each payment, etc, along with subtotals and totals).  Any payments already applied.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5.  Terms of payment and return.  This is most frequently left off but it establishes a record of what you expect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6.  Local rules.  For example last time I helped someone in Greece with invoicing, they could only print invoices on serially numbered paper obtained from the tax office (similar to 1099's in the US).  Some countries also require that all invoices are numbered sequentially with no gaps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;7.  In the US I have seen many invoices without unique identification numbers, but it is *really good practice* to have it even if not required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for templates, it depends on what format you want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- LaTeX:  http://www.latextemplates.com/template/invoice&#xD;&#xA;- Word: http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/templates/basic-invoice-TC101877521.aspx&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And there are many more.  Google is your friend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing we are working on in [LedgerSMB](http://www.ledgersmb.org) (may not be ready for some time as we have other priorities too) is to create a series of LaTeX document classes and packages for producing invoices to make it easier for people to write invoices in that environment.  LedgerSMB also comes with LedgerSMB templates for invoices (HTML/Template Toolkit and LaTeX/Template Toolkit) and many other documents currently but we would like to make it so that most of the logic is available outside of our platform as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been self-employed for 9 years, much of which has been in the area of ERP and accounting software for clients all over the world.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above gives you a very simple baseline.  Also note that within the EU, there are often different rules for trading within Eurozone countries.  For example, you may not need to give your VAT number to a customer in the US since they aren't charging VAT.  However, generally for the sake of avoiding problems, usually folks add all locally relevant information to all invoices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally keep in mind what an invoice is.  An invoice is a representation that &quot;I have filled my part of the contract and so now I am saying I have earned this much money from you.&quot;  If you have prepayments of course those are applied.  Otherwise it is a notice saying &quot;you owe me money.&quot;  All relevant information relating to collecting that money needs to be on the invoice.  Additionally local rules are usually tax-related so keep in mind that tax authorities like to be able to track invoices too." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="830" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="369" RevisionGUID="439cdfed-62f6-4cf3-9654-aa5b4d0653b2" CreationDate="2013-06-05T03:16:22.030" UserId="60" Text="First, this can be a problem in certain cases, such as where there is a question about relevant sales taxes (VAT, etc) charged and held.  So you should take this seriously.  Secondly some countries are very strict about this.  Depending on where you are, you may need to justify to the tax authorities that this was lost.  In general you should come up with as much information as you can, record it somewhere, and figure that if you are being audited, you can call your customer then.  The more info you can come up with the better off you are.  Yes, talk to a tax accountant for more info on what to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general you aren't going to have to justify declared *income* (Auditors are usually looking for signs you haven't declared it all) but you might have to justify declared *sales* (Auditors may be looking for signs you have pocketed sales tax).  These amount to the same thing really, just in a slightly different context.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second thing is the amount charged and for what.  The more documentation you can put together on this, the better.  Any correspondence with the customer, etc. If you have this info plus the bank statement, you may be able to really back up that the missing invoice is for how much you say, and that your version of the sales tax/vat story is the correct one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again this is fairly locally dependent.  Last time I did work for a client in Greece, they had to track which pieces of paper were used to print which invoices, and sales tax law (pre-HST) in Ontario Canada was the stuff of which stand up comedy routines could be made.  In general if you are audited, you have to worry mostly abut sales tax reporting.  If that is not applicable you are safe.  If it is applicable you should prepare yourself as best you can and maybe talk briefly with a tax accountant." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="831" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="370" RevisionGUID="41dee750-aef7-4cd7-ab66-c83e81b55330" CreationDate="2013-06-05T08:15:42.123" UserId="208" Text="One solution is to put a copyright notice on your CV, as recommended by &#xD;&#xA;['Let the resume wars begin' - Ask the Headhunter (Nick Corcodilos)](http://corcodilos.com/blog/317/let-the-resume-wars-begin). Then you can use a simple DMCA takedown notice. (To my knowledge, job-boards will not accept CVs with copyright notices.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But obviously your priority is to track down which source/job-board/recruiter this happened with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you figure it out, let us know as a community service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We don't know who is actually behind it but whoever it is has been&#xD;&#xA;&gt; applying for roles using this CV. As for why, we have a hypothesis&#xD;&#xA;&gt; that it's a recruiter trying to get the inside track on active roles&#xD;&#xA;&gt; but this is only a hypothesis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yeah that sounds plausible. It wouldn't make any sense that they were trying to harm you personally, just using you as fodder to get their foot in the door at new clients, and your reputation might get harmed in the process. But it's clueless and unethical. You may be able to get them blacklisted.&#xD;&#xA;Presumably they hoax the email address to go to them, in which case you might be able to contact 'them' by email and then have proof they are doing this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="832" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="370" RevisionGUID="32c63ebe-da15-4f71-9c02-7ee377d2d709" CreationDate="2013-06-05T08:25:03.517" UserId="208" Comment="added 198 characters in body" Text="One solution is to put a copyright notice on your CV, as recommended by &#xD;&#xA;['Let the resume wars begin' - Ask the Headhunter (Nick Corcodilos)](http://corcodilos.com/blog/317/let-the-resume-wars-begin). Then you can use a simple DMCA takedown notice. (To my knowledge, job-boards will not accept CVs with copyright notices.)&#xD;&#xA;This sort of behavior is a known problem.&#xD;&#xA;See also [Privacy Rights Clearinghouse 'Resume Database Nightmare: Job Seeker Privacy at Risk'](https://www.privacyrights.org/ar/Dixon-JobPrivacyRpt.htm)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But obviously your priority is to track down which source/job-board/recruiter this happened with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you figure it out, let us know as a community service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We don't know who is actually behind it but whoever it is has been&#xD;&#xA;&gt; applying for roles using this CV. As for why, we have a hypothesis&#xD;&#xA;&gt; that it's a recruiter trying to get the inside track on active roles&#xD;&#xA;&gt; but this is only a hypothesis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yeah that sounds plausible. It wouldn't make any sense that they were trying to harm you personally, just using you as fodder to get their foot in the door at new clients, and your reputation might get harmed in the process. But it's clueless and unethical. You may be able to get them blacklisted.&#xD;&#xA;Presumably they hoax the email address to go to them, in which case you might be able to contact 'them' by email and then have proof they are doing this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="833" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="370" RevisionGUID="3ebc3919-7393-4a42-8f76-4bdf5608711f" CreationDate="2013-06-05T08:41:24.290" UserId="208" Comment="added 25 characters in body" Text="This sort of behavior is a known problem, see [Privacy Rights Clearinghouse 'Resume Database Nightmare: Job Seeker Privacy at Risk'](https://www.privacyrights.org/ar/Dixon-JobPrivacyRpt.htm)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One solution for the future may be to put a copyright notice on your CV, as recommended by &#xD;&#xA;['Let the resume wars begin' - Ask the Headhunter (Nick Corcodilos)](http://corcodilos.com/blog/317/let-the-resume-wars-begin). Then you can use a simple DMCA takedown notice. (To my knowledge, job-boards will not accept CVs with copyright notices.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But obviously your immediate priority is to track down which source/job-board/recruiter this happened with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you figure it out, let us know as a community service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We don't know who is actually behind it but whoever it is has been&#xD;&#xA;&gt; applying for roles using this CV. As for why, we have a hypothesis&#xD;&#xA;&gt; that it's a recruiter trying to get the inside track on active roles&#xD;&#xA;&gt; but this is only a hypothesis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yeah that sounds plausible. It wouldn't make any sense that they were trying to harm you personally, just using you as fodder to get their foot in the door at new clients, and your reputation might get harmed in the process. But it's clueless and unethical. You may be able to get them blacklisted.&#xD;&#xA;Presumably they hoax the email address to go to them, in which case you might be able to contact 'them' by email and then have proof they are doing this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="835" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="231" RevisionGUID="746133b3-18fb-42bd-b721-d5e5f18cc812" CreationDate="2013-06-05T11:44:40.450" UserId="50" Comment="added 124 characters in body" Text="The first year of self-employment, you do not have to file quarterly. After that yes you do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Edit* Sorry for not qualifying that. If you don't have any tax liability, there is no need to file the following year. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="836" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="358" RevisionGUID="bdfd9465-90f5-44dd-a4c8-f3ec252a6a17" CreationDate="2013-06-05T12:03:34.997" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/342250343008186368" />
  <row Id="837" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="371" RevisionGUID="414dbde6-685a-49e1-bf2c-d902067d76e5" CreationDate="2013-06-05T12:47:50.670" UserId="214" Text="*I signed up on here just to answer this single question, because a freelance project I've recently taken over suffered from the 'bus effect' (old programmer just left it half-done).*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**By default, share login access, use VCS and comment well...**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think about it from another perspective: If you were a developer who took over halfway through somebody else's project, what would you want available to you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're obviously going to need to make sure the client has SSH &amp; FTP access to the server, and preferably access to your `bzr` repository (or other version control system) to get the work that's done but not pushed live yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Commenting is important. As a developer picking up from someone else's 'bus effect', you're going to much better understand the code base if it has full documentation of its classes, methods etc. than if the comments are inconsistent (or worse, absent).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**There is more you can do, but it's time consuming...**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Past here, you'll want to be talking to the client about specific requirements which differ from project to project. If you're using a fairly common framework with a fairly linear set of requirements, you may not need any more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If, on the other hand, you're working on a 300KLOC C++ behemoth with custom libraries etc, you're probably going to want to document properly. Obviously, this is time consuming and a lot of clients will turn you down on it, but at that point you've done what you can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I always offer full UML planning for my projects and try to quote a reasonable fee, these are the easiest way for a client's new hire to recover from the bus effect." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="838" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="359" RevisionGUID="e54987b6-abcf-4ed2-a911-91c966421cb2" CreationDate="2013-06-05T15:30:03.713" UserId="120" Comment="added location tag and disclosure in the question, since this is a tax question" Text="An invoice for some work I did awhile back seems to be missing and I can't find it, yet I want to make sure I am declaring that amount in my tax statements.  If I get audited, what's the best way to show this work I've done?  (Client has not responded to my requests for their copy of it either)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm located in Canada." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="839" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="359" RevisionGUID="e54987b6-abcf-4ed2-a911-91c966421cb2" CreationDate="2013-06-05T15:30:03.713" UserId="120" Comment="added location tag and disclosure in the question, since this is a tax question" Text="|invoices|taxes|canada|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="840" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="359" RevisionGUID="e54987b6-abcf-4ed2-a911-91c966421cb2" CreationDate="2013-06-05T15:30:03.713" Comment="Proposed by 120 approved by 69 edit id of 75" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="841" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="306" RevisionGUID="cb2743a2-37eb-43f0-bd50-bb423c4eacd7" CreationDate="2013-06-05T15:30:08.823" UserId="208" Comment="translation corrections" Text="If you want to do something for a non-profit organisation, you really should sign its volunteering agreement. You will be a quasi-employee of that organisation, so that it would be liable for your actions (as long as they are covered by the agreement). This is how it works in Poland, but according to Wikipedia, the setup for volunteering is also very similar in Germany.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Billing the charity, even if you return the money, is dangerous if the charity receives donations from state. All expenses of the charity must be published and any suspicious bills could result in accusations of fraud, so being a volunteer is the best option, since it gives you full security." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="842" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="306" RevisionGUID="cb2743a2-37eb-43f0-bd50-bb423c4eacd7" CreationDate="2013-06-05T15:30:08.823" Comment="Proposed by 208 approved by 69 edit id of 71" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="843" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="315" RevisionGUID="d179435b-8ed3-4fd4-a6f1-bf7245fd5d7b" CreationDate="2013-06-05T15:30:55.297" UserId="208" Comment="'bekommen'!='become' German translation mistake" Text="It depends on the tax system that applies to you, but there can be consequences, and they can be **very severe**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally economic activity is defined as oriented on profit, so giving anything for free could qualify as self-promotion or donation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Poland, for example, only some costs of the company spend on promotion can be considered as tax costs. So in worst case you could end with tax office refusing to acknowledge, for example, 50% of your expenses as tax costs. You would end up with fine and **penalty percentages.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With donation, the danger is even greater. There was a case of baker who was giving the unsold bread to charity for free. He was told to pay the **VAT** from the bread that was given for free (from the price it was normally being sold - but the tax officer is free to estimate the basis price as he/she wants). With penalty percentages the sum was so big, that he has become insolvent. However, the obligation to pay VAT was only in case of wares, not services, and the law has changed recently, but in other countries the regulations may be even stricter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is also a potential consequence if you receive something for free. It could be interpreted as **income** and you would have to pay income tax from the value estimated by tax officer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assuming, analyse your **local law**, consult a **tax specialist** and be sure you exactly want what you are doing before issuing €0 invoices.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="844" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="315" RevisionGUID="d179435b-8ed3-4fd4-a6f1-bf7245fd5d7b" CreationDate="2013-06-05T15:30:55.297" Comment="Proposed by 208 approved by 69 edit id of 70" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="845" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="73" RevisionGUID="abe73bd5-2d39-4383-bb99-ca5cbdb56c1a" CreationDate="2013-06-05T16:36:16.627" UserId="153" Comment="Added Tag Wiki" Text="HM Revenue and Customs are the UK’s tax authority. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are responsible for making sure that the money is available to fund the UK’s public services and for helping families and individuals with targeted financial support.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We were established by Act of Parliament in 2005 as a new department replacing the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We are a non-ministerial Department established by the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act (CRCA) 2005, replacing the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise. CRCA vested responsibility for the administration of the tax system in Commissioners appointed by the Queen. The Commissioners are drawn from the Department’s top management.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;(Sourced from https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/about)&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="846" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="73" RevisionGUID="abe73bd5-2d39-4383-bb99-ca5cbdb56c1a" CreationDate="2013-06-05T16:36:16.627" Comment="Proposed by 153 approved by 184 edit id of 76" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="847" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="366" RevisionGUID="b56b5e4e-20da-41c6-9ec3-84927e13dce7" CreationDate="2013-06-05T18:03:35.933" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/342340943388762112" />
  <row Id="848" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="372" RevisionGUID="7ff17028-9568-4897-83c3-a8ad5b4bbc63" CreationDate="2013-06-05T18:53:18.443" UserId="223" Text="I am a recent college graduate with a BA in English. My writing and grammar skills are above average and I am always searching new ways to improve myself. However, in the past few weeks I have been asked to edit articles for a new upcoming online magazine. I am interested yet sort of new to freelance. Since the company is new there is not much income; yet I wonder how long do I wait till I ask for compensation? Should I give the founder my price rate before signing a contract or after? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="849" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="372" RevisionGUID="7ff17028-9568-4897-83c3-a8ad5b4bbc63" CreationDate="2013-06-05T18:53:18.443" UserId="223" Text="Tips for a new freelance editor" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="850" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="372" RevisionGUID="7ff17028-9568-4897-83c3-a8ad5b4bbc63" CreationDate="2013-06-05T18:53:18.443" UserId="223" Text="|newcomer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="851" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="101" RevisionGUID="27536b76-6102-45d3-88d9-a3b9fbb000f9" CreationDate="2013-06-05T19:58:25.033" UserId="43" Comment="edited tags" Text="|client|newcomer|growth|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="852" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="373" RevisionGUID="f45ca08e-1433-4414-83fc-90ffbcf636aa" CreationDate="2013-06-05T22:52:37.477" UserId="42" Text="My question is in two parts: &#xD;&#xA;(1) I am swimming in all kinds of receipts and after at least 5+ years of working as a freelancer and this is not good for my taxation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It has been easy to state at the beginning of a contract that I will mark business expenses however in practise I am losing this battle and it seems to be overwhelming.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I track receipts and expenses so that they do not take all my time, I am a full time parent as well and I cannot simply keep up. Do I have to hire extra help?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(2) I have been told time and time again what I can bill and what I cannot bill on my business expenses, however as a freelancer everything I do is because of my business. I know in the UK/Euro region, where I mostly do my contracting, this is an issue for most people too so what methods have the experts learnt that they can recommend so that this task does not become as daunting as it usually has been when I have to file my taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently (8 months ago) installed a [Google App Wave Accounting](https://www.waveapps.com) yet I have failed *miserably* to make practical steps to understand and be motivated to do it! I don't seem to be able to make the time. So now I am asking the community, from your experience, how can I beat the 'receipts and expenses' blues...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Higher reputation members can also improve the tags if you see fit adding 'receipts' and 'organising'.*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="853" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="373" RevisionGUID="f45ca08e-1433-4414-83fc-90ffbcf636aa" CreationDate="2013-06-05T22:52:37.477" UserId="42" Text="How Should I Track/Group Receipts and Expenses as a Freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="854" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="373" RevisionGUID="f45ca08e-1433-4414-83fc-90ffbcf636aa" CreationDate="2013-06-05T22:52:37.477" UserId="42" Text="|contracts|expenses|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="855" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="374" RevisionGUID="58b8f8a6-211f-4ad3-808f-0d80cd7f9a3e" CreationDate="2013-06-06T00:41:37.910" UserId="60" Text="Ok, so as I understand it, this is a new magazine, and you are looking at doing editing there.  There is not much revenue, and you are new to the industry.  This is tricky.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, you need to understand what a contract is.  Any lawyer will tell you that a contract is &quot;an exchange of promises.&quot;  You agree to do certain work and they agree to certain compensation.  If you don't have both of these, you don't have a contract (I believe the standard I have seen in many states in the US is that compensation, or 'consideration' as it is called must be 'weightier than a peppercorn' which I think is a way of saying it must have some minimal materiality-- I cannot promise that my everliving soul will forever be yours if you do this work for me and have that be valid for example, or rather I can but it's not enough).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you need to work out compensation arrangements during the contract negotiation process.  This should include how much you expect to earn, when and how much they must pay you, and so forth.  Since it is a new magazine you should try to be sensitive to their needs but make sure that you put yourself in an arrangement where if things go on slowly you aren't just doing a lot of free work with no expectation of future reward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now compensation need not all be financial.  If you are just getting started, you could ask for something like 10 copies of each of the first few issues free of charge, with your role as editor prominently displayed.  This would give you promotional materials to send out for other possible clients, so it would be a mistake to think that all compensation must be in the form of a check or a bank transfer.  However, compensation is an integral part of all contracts whether incorporated by reference or spelled out.  In your case you need to negotiate something that works for both of you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="856" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="375" RevisionGUID="f2a1d699-d249-4f3c-bc58-7e5a7dd5af3d" CreationDate="2013-06-06T01:22:44.430" UserId="60" Text="I am going to go over some basics of expense categorization with a UK flavor.  The same applies generally elsewhere.  Note that your second question, what can or cannot be claimed as deductions on taxes is something that is quite subject to change, and basically you can loosely follow accounting sites and talk with a tax accountant once a year to make sure. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also regarding time commitments of being a  parent, I totally understand (I have three kids).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Chart of Accounts Setup**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a critical task but it only needs to be done once.  You will want to hire an accountant to help you with it, but since it is your business you should understand at least the basics of what is going on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Questions like this are one reason I recommend that all freelancers have **basic** familiarity with accounting and bookkeeping practices.  You will probably want to hire an accountant for additional advice through this process of setting up your books, but you can do your books by yourself once things are set up.  If you get a decent double entry accounting program, you should be able to do most of what you need just through entering vendor and sales invoices, so I don't see a major reason to hire someone to do this on an ongoing basis (aside from tax preparation) since you probably would want to be in the loop anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general though in most places and times *expenses necessary to realize revenue may be deducted.*  Without such a rule, mapping financial accounting to tax accounting ends up being a real mess.  There are some exceptions in most places though so this is a place to get some advice (for example in the US, iirc and I am not a CPA, if you claim real costs for meals while travelling on business, you can only deduct half of the cost there on the theory that otherwise you would have had to eat non-deductable food anyway).  This is something to talk with an accountant about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most countries have some sort of recognized categorization of expenses in income tax reporting, and this is generally where to start.  Some countries, like Canada, formalize this under a system like GIFI (Generalized Index of Financial Information), but even where this is not formalized as such usually tax forms will have some categorization of expenses you are expected to report to, so you want to start by looking at tax forms.  If you have an accounting system that supports GIFI ([LedgerSMB](http://www.ledgersmb.org) does), you can set up your codes to match tax reporting categories and this simplifies things a bit even if your country does not use GIFI as such (neither the UK nor the US do).  Don't worry about this too much.  Just look at the tax forms and see if there are any requirements for breaking things down.  Actually setting up GIFI codes is an optional step but it simplifies tax reporting and lends some clarity to the process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you have a good idea of where these are, and any exceptions to the all business expenses general view, then you can set up your &quot;Chart of Accounts.&quot;  A chart of accounts has basically two parts and five major divisions.  The first part tracks operations (assets and liabilities) and the second part tracks owners' interests (income, expense, and equity).  We are focusing here on expense reporting.  Expenses represent a decrease in your ownership of the business through routine operations.  You want to track these based on two criteria:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  How do these map to tax reporting categories?  You want to avoid charts which cross tax reporting categories generally.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Is there anything that must be tracked relative to everything in an income account (this is a question to ask your accountant if you don't already know the answer)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general getting the chart of accounts setup right will save you a lot of work going forward.  One thing I will note is that the more financially knowledgeable my colleagues and clients are, the more likely they are to get accountants involved in this process at this stage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Best Bookkeeping Practices**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once your chart of accounts is set up, you have your basic categories set up, and a decent piece of accounting software installed, you can categorize your receipts quick and easily.  This is mostly basic data entry but some importance to detail is important.  A typical way to do this is to have two folders for the current year (and one for each prior year where you are saving receipts).  Receipts go into one folder, and get moved to the other once entered into the accounting software.  I like to try to do this once per day. It usually only takes a couple minutes.  Fire up the software, enter the receipts, close it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When entering receipts there are a couple of practices I like to recommend that will save you a lot of headache.  The first is you want to to enter and track the invoice number from each receipt (the UK I believe has a requirement for invoices to be uniquely numbered).  In the event you are travelling somewhere without such a requirement and you get an invoice without such a number, you want to have a convention that allows you to go from the computer record back to the original receipt in the event of an audit.  Something like M (for manually generated)-YYYY-MM-DD (representing the date) is not a bad idea.  However write this on the back of the receipt so you have record of what the number was.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like so much else, keeping the time minimal in this is mostly about set-up (get the help of an accountant here), and about routine.  If you get these taken care of, tracking receipts should not take significant time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="857" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="375" RevisionGUID="955eb7da-4382-445b-909b-f9b7a641c9b2" CreationDate="2013-06-06T01:29:33.983" UserId="60" Comment="added 27 characters in body" Text="I am going to go over some basics of expense categorization with a UK flavor.  The same applies generally elsewhere.  Note that your second question, what can or cannot be claimed as deductions on taxes is something that is quite subject to change, and basically you can loosely follow accounting sites and talk with a tax accountant once a year to make sure. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also regarding time commitments of being a  parent, I totally understand (I have three kids).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Chart of Accounts Setup**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The chart of accounts is basically a system for categorizing income, expense, cash, obligations, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a critical task but it only needs to be done once.  You will want to hire an accountant to help you with it, but since it is your business you should understand at least the basics of what is going on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Questions like this are one reason I recommend that all freelancers have **basic** familiarity with accounting and bookkeeping practices.  You will probably want to hire an accountant for additional advice through this process of setting up your books, but you can do your books by yourself once things are set up.  If you get a decent double entry accounting program, you should be able to do most of what you need just through entering vendor and sales invoices, so I don't see a major reason to hire someone to do this on an ongoing basis (aside from tax preparation) since you probably would want to be in the loop anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general though in most places and times *expenses necessary to realize revenue may be deducted.*  Without such a rule, mapping financial accounting to tax accounting ends up being a real mess.  There are some exceptions in most places though so this is a place to get some advice (for example in the US, iirc and I am not a CPA, if you claim real costs for meals while travelling on business, you can only deduct half of the cost there on the theory that otherwise you would have had to eat non-deductable food anyway).  This is something to talk with an accountant about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most countries have some sort of recognized categorization of expenses in income tax reporting, and this is generally where to start.  Some countries, like Canada, formalize this under a system like GIFI (Generalized Index of Financial Information), but even where this is not formalized as such usually tax forms will have some categorization of expenses you are expected to report to, so you want to start by looking at tax forms.  If you have an accounting system that supports GIFI ([LedgerSMB](http://www.ledgersmb.org) does), you can set up your codes to match tax reporting categories and this simplifies things a bit even if your country does not use GIFI as such (neither the UK nor the US do).  Don't worry about this too much.  Just look at the tax forms and see if there are any requirements for breaking things down.  Actually setting up GIFI codes is an optional step but it simplifies tax reporting and lends some clarity to the process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you have a good idea of where these are, and any exceptions to the all business expenses general view, then you can set up your &quot;Chart of Accounts.&quot;  A chart of accounts has basically two parts and five major divisions.  The first part tracks operational resources and commitments (assets and liabilities) and the second part tracks owners' interests (income, expense, and equity).  We are focusing here on expense reporting.  Expenses represent a decrease in your ownership of the business through routine operations.  You want to track these based on two criteria:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  How do these map to tax reporting categories?  You want to avoid accounts which cross tax reporting categories generally.  It is easier to fill out a tax form by adding the totals from two accounts than it is to go through one account to figure out what goes in which category.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Is there anything that must be tracked relative to everything in an income account (this is a question to ask your accountant if you don't already know the answer)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general getting the chart of accounts setup right will save you a lot of work going forward.  One thing I will note is that the more financially knowledgeable my colleagues and clients are, the more likely they are to get accountants involved in this process at this stage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Best Bookkeeping Practices**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once your chart of accounts is set up, you have your basic categories set up, and a decent piece of accounting software installed, you can categorize your receipts quick and easily.  This is mostly basic data entry but some importance to detail is important.  A typical way to do this is to have two folders for the current year (and one for each prior year where you are saving receipts).  Receipts go into one folder, and get moved to the other once entered into the accounting software.  I like to try to do this once per day. It usually only takes a couple minutes.  Fire up the software, enter the receipts, close it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When entering receipts there are a couple of practices I like to recommend that will save you a lot of headache.  The first is you want to to enter and track the invoice number from each receipt (the UK I believe has a requirement for invoices to be uniquely numbered).  In the event you are travelling somewhere without such a requirement and you get an invoice without such a number, you want to have a convention that allows you to go from the computer record back to the original receipt in the event of an audit.  Something like M (for manually generated)-YYYY-MM-DD (representing the date) is not a bad idea.  However write this on the back of the receipt so you have record of what the number was.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like so much else, keeping the time minimal in this is mostly about set-up (get the help of an accountant here), and about routine.  If you get these taken care of, tracking receipts should not take significant time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="858" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="361" RevisionGUID="99e2c1bb-70e3-45e4-8db8-84de6b2e7cdc" CreationDate="2013-06-06T01:49:49.227" UserId="60" Comment="folding comments which are integral to answer into answer." Text="If you're like most freelancers, and have a handful of clients or less, then you likely have a pretty keen sense of who has paid you vs. what is still outstanding.  Receivables are a source of much anxiety for the self-employed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, **assuming you got paid for the work**, then all of your recent bank deposits &amp;ndash; except for one! &amp;ndash; should match up with a recent invoice.  That unmatched bank deposit should correspond to the missing invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your bank statement (or a print screen) showing the specific deposit that went into your account is already proof that you received the revenue.  As long as you declare this revenue on your taxes, you should be in the clear.  On a paper copy of the statement, circle the deposit, add a note, and file it with your other invoice copies.  FWIW, any decent tax accountant should want to reconcile your invoices with your bank deposits, anyway, in order to discover potentially missed revenue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could also reverse-engineer a new invoice based on that amount, using the invoice template you originally used.  Mark the &quot;new&quot; copy of the invoice as a &quot;duplicate - original lost&quot;.  Write a brief note explaining the problem.  I would expect that as long as the amount and client billed are correct (and you said you already know who the client is), and the invoice date is within reason (i.e. within the same reporting period as originally invoiced, not necessarily the same period as when you received the revenue), then there's nothing sinister in doing this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The kinds of paperwork that the tax authorities really want you to have originals for are your **expenses**, because you will deduct expenses from your taxable income and **reduce** your tax liability.  Usually a tax authority won't challenge your paperwork when you declare additional **revenue**, because that *increases* your tax liability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Run this by your tax accountant if you're still concerned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(p.s. my answer is based on my own experience here in Canada &amp;ndash; and I notice you're here, too.)&#xD;&#xA;	&#xD;&#xA;I certainly understand income implies sales taxes. If the OP knows the amount received, and that amount included the GST/HST, then in reverse-engineering the invoice as I suggested, he'd calculate the amount of GST/HST included in the total and account for it when remitting his GST/HST filing. FWIW, Canada (I and the OP are located here) isn't as high on ceremony. (Yet, one tracked &amp; numbered form I've come across here that is issued by our government for use by business is the Record of Employment (ROE) -- the special treatment is because it can be used to claim unemployment benefits.) " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="859" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="358" RevisionGUID="50780ece-3e76-4803-b077-235913456afb" CreationDate="2013-06-06T02:17:01.197" UserId="60" Comment="added 98 characters in body" Text="One thing I have noticed is that many successful web designers and other consultants do a certain amount of charity work on an ongoing basis.  Given that many of these do not need further portfolio development of this sort, the benefits must go well beyond merely building portfolios.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What avenues do I have as a freelancer to take charity work and use it to drum up additional business?  Are there ways to leverage charities to make new business contacts or otherwise greatly improve business presence?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit:  By charity work I mean either doing the the work free of charge or at a steep discount." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="860" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="376" RevisionGUID="b1b56629-1176-441b-99da-892701c50498" CreationDate="2013-06-06T02:58:10.417" UserId="225" Text="I would argue for your easy solution - charge them the same. Your primary concern is that that might &quot;look bad from a social perspective.&quot; However, I believe that providing discounts to friends, relatives, etc. often actually *causes* social issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First of all, where's the cutoff? As soon as you provide a discount to one friend or relative, they may refer a friend of theirs and say, &quot;Camil will take care of you with a good rate.&quot; If this comes to be expected, you're eventually going to be placed in a position of either resenting that you're doing work at a discount for someone you aren't that close to or possibly upsetting a friend or relative by refusing to provide a discount. Your good friends may also turn out to be bad clients, constantly expanding the scope of the job and placing you in an uncomfortable position again of refusing or resenting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're a professional and if your friends and relatives respect you, they'll understand that and will respect the separation between your work and personal life. Having said that, obviously it feels good to do favors for people you care about. One approach that would avoid the perception of discrimination would be to charge your normal hourly rate, but to do some work on your own time. For example, you might offer to do the domain setup and graphics work as a favor on your personal time, then charge the full rate for the coding &quot;on the clock.&quot; That way you're charging exactly the same for your professional time as you would for any other client, you're just reducing the scope of the job. That also helps your friend/relative to understand the value of your work and to appreciate that you're spending your personal time on them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As freelancers, it's very easy to blur the line between personal and professional time, and I think this approach helps keep it clear both for ourselves and our acquaintances." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="861" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="359" RevisionGUID="afb4e540-3669-4f70-b19d-a86257ce3c89" CreationDate="2013-06-06T03:03:40.837" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/342476859306561536" />
  <row Id="862" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="377" RevisionGUID="12a7cde3-9588-4a23-b19f-3ddab331d02b" CreationDate="2013-06-06T03:26:39.327" UserId="208" Text="Part (1) sounds like a request for practical help on organizing and collating expense receipts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm assuming you have a competent small-business-friendly accountant/service - if not, go find recommendartions and get one quick. Obviously you want to figure out well in advance what expenses are and are not allowable and will need to be tracked - this is basic stuff so join some contractor webinars/mailing-list/organization. Surely there are some for Finland.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some how-to tips on expense tracking I got which my friend and I both found useful:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - use an **expense diary/tracker**. In particular there are some great **[mobile apps](https://play.google.com/store/search?q=expense+tracking&amp;c=apps)** out there for this, preferably one that plays nicely with your calendar app. Some even **scan receipts** (or else you can manually enter item,amount,category,client/project ID,notes, or extract those from your statements). In particular, [Cashbook](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softmimo.android.dailyexpensetracker&amp;feature=search_result) is only US$6 (freemium) and is truly outstanding. Look for ones with five-star reviews and the capabilities you need.&#xD;&#xA; - if [Google Wave Apps](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.waveaccounting.receipts&amp;hl=en)  or any other app doesn't suit your needs (Receipts beta is only 3 stars/5) or is hard to use, then don't use it, already. There are hundreds more out there. You can always use a different Receipts app with the rest of Wave. I have no idea whether Wave is good - Quicken is. What are your specific top-five issues with Wave? Figure out what **you** need out of your expenses app then compare reviews and try apps out till you find the right one. Multi-currency? Configurable exchange rates? Multi-project? Customizable categories and subcategories? Receipt scanning? Summaries, graphing for arbitrary time period? Invoice format and generation? etc etc.&#xD;&#xA; - 8 months is too long to trial an app. I give them 7 days max. Uninstall, already.&#xD;&#xA; - absolutely **open a separate business account, with a separate business credit card**, then use that for anything expenseable to the business. This keeps your statements separate and clean, also means you can easily see totals and track stuff down. Then you can access your accounts via **downloadable/online PDF/CSV/XLS/Quicken/etc statements**. Do this for travel, meals, capital expenditure etc. A lot of banks/personal finance apps these days automatically break those items out into categories - that's good as a first cut.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is mostly forward-looking advice (but do get started! end the pain immediately!). For the prior five years, you're just going to have to go through bank statements, maybe some electronic records (find out which ones you can request) or year-end rollups, sort receipts into the proverbial shoebox for each year and/or client), type up a spreadsheet. Maybe hire a smart kid to help alongside you because that stuff is tedious and annoying." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="863" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="378" RevisionGUID="d7a73319-e771-4217-9367-93ee036086bf" CreationDate="2013-06-06T03:33:18.227" UserId="35" Text="**You'll want to establish your compensation up front.** The contract you'll sign will have the details of what's expected from you, how you'll be paid, and at what rate. Many publications have a standard rate, either hourly, by the word, or by the piece, that you'll be expected to accept if you want the job. If you've got some negotiating room, or they ask what your rate is, all the better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The job you've described sounds like copy editing; at an online magazine, you might not get a credit for that at all, and any text you create as part of your editing will be considered &quot;work-for-hire.&quot; If you're going to take a lower rate as a means of promoting yourself as an editor and getting names on your resume, that's a valid choice, and you can add it to your portfolio." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="864" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="377" RevisionGUID="1225f474-1ef5-4675-aa93-4e79f5353d92" CreationDate="2013-06-06T03:34:49.713" UserId="208" Comment="added 468 characters in body" Text="Part (1) sounds like a request for practical help on organizing and collating expense receipts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm assuming you have a competent small-business-friendly accountant/service - if not, go find recommendations and get one quick (at least as a one-off till that gets you unstuck). That's probably a deductible expense btw. Obviously you want to figure out way in advance which expenses are/are not allowable and will need to be tracked - this is basic stuff so join some contractor webinars/mailing-list/organization. Surely there are some for Finland. Any quality accounting service mails out super-helpful year-end/tax-time tips/newsletters on this sort of stuff. Go ask them for last year's.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some how-to tips on expense tracking I got which my friend and I both found useful:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - use an **expense diary/tracker**. In particular there are some great **[mobile apps](https://play.google.com/store/search?q=expense+tracking&amp;c=apps)** out there for this, preferably one that plays nicely with your calendar app. Some even **scan receipts** (or else you can manually enter item,amount,category,client/project ID,notes, or extract those from your statements). In particular, [Cashbook](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softmimo.android.dailyexpensetracker&amp;feature=search_result) is only US$6 (freemium) and is truly outstanding. Look for ones with five-star reviews and the capabilities you need.&#xD;&#xA; - if [Google Wave Apps](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.waveaccounting.receipts&amp;hl=en)  or any other app doesn't suit your needs (Receipts beta is only 3 stars/5) or is hard to use, then don't use it, already. There are hundreds more out there. You can always use a different Receipts app with the rest of Wave. I have no idea whether Wave is good - Quicken is. What are your specific top-five issues with Wave? Figure out what **you** need out of your expenses app then compare reviews and try apps out till you find the right one. Multi-currency? Configurable exchange rates? Multi-project? Customizable categories and subcategories? Receipt scanning? Summaries, graphing for arbitrary time period? Invoice format and generation? etc etc.&#xD;&#xA; - 8 months is insanely too long to trial an app. I give them 7 days max. Uninstall, already. Just because the product is called Google (or Microsoft, or whatever) doesn't mean it's necessarily any good. Be discerning.&#xD;&#xA; - absolutely **open a separate business account, with a separate business credit card**, then use that for anything expenseable to the business. This keeps your statements separate and clean, also means you can easily see totals and track stuff down. Then you can access your accounts via **downloadable/online PDF/CSV/XLS/Quicken/etc statements**. Do this for travel, meals, capital expenditure etc. A lot of banks/personal finance apps these days automatically break those items out into categories - that's good as a first cut.&#xD;&#xA; - if nothing else, gather your receipts and do them at the airport/hotel/plane/train/the next business day after you return from each trip. Fix a time on your schedule for trip reporting or invoicing if necessary. Figure out what works for you and your schedule.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is mostly forward-looking advice (but do get started! end the pain immediately!). For the prior five years, you're just going to have to go through bank statements, maybe some electronic records (find out which ones you can request) or year-end rollups, sort receipts into the proverbial shoebox for each year and/or client), type up a spreadsheet. Maybe hire a smart kid to help alongside you because that stuff is tedious and annoying." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="865" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="379" RevisionGUID="e18d10ec-d9b0-4acf-aa78-64c8b99a3601" CreationDate="2013-06-06T05:14:42.970" UserId="78" Text="Generally, **everything** can be tax cost, or cannot be, depending on actual situation. So the list of things that can be cost would never exist. There could be only a particular cases for particular country. For example, washing machine would be a cost for agrotouristic company, would not be a cost for translator. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should you now if expense X can be cost? Most of people **hire an accountant** for that. The most important in accountant's job is not to simply type data into program in correct way, but to know the interpretations about the tax costs. Note, that your interpretation in completely irrelevant, important is only, how **financial office would interpret** your case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second possibility is to ask in internet. But you must always ask very precise question. You must write where you are registered, where you are contracting, what exactly have you purchased and where (inland/foreign expense) and **describe in details** your business activity. And you must take into account, that the answers that you find could be wrong or simply not adequate to your situation (because you've forgotten to write some tiny details), which could result in prosecution in case of audit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note also, that many legal system states explicitly, that in case of self-employment, an expense that is partially used for personal needs cannot be considered tax cost. So it might be so, that a car would be considered tax cost if you use it to commute to work, but if you also drive once a week to the supermarket, it would be personal use and the car could not be classified as expense. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Summarizing, if you have **a lot of expenses**, you should **hire an accountant**. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="866" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="380" RevisionGUID="7f13db6f-9eae-4d79-960e-b630de94604a" CreationDate="2013-06-06T07:02:46.077" UserId="43" Text="I have to admit that I'm in a very similar boat to you and am still fighting to gain control over the receipts. One service that I have signed up to that has been invaluable in this regard is [Receipt Bank][1]. They actually go as far as scanning and categorising all your receipts for you so that you don't have to go through all of that yourself. They simply send you an envelope, which you fill with receipts and send back to them. A couple of days later they ping you an email to let you know that your receipts have all been scanned and you can sign in and download (or whatever else you need to do with) the electronic versions. They also provide integration with other systems, including [Free Agent][2], which I use for my accounting. If you pay the annual fee up front, they'll even let you send all of your old receipts in one go.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.receipt-bank.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.freeagent.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="867" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1" RevisionGUID="1b5c0a64-6cd1-4da0-adca-f29065078c73" CreationDate="2013-06-06T12:03:40.747" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/342612754449956865" />
  <row Id="868" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="381" RevisionGUID="5cafc9c2-79be-4bbe-b486-07ce6d3f0b53" CreationDate="2013-06-06T12:43:31.173" UserId="188" Text="The stage&#xD;&#xA;=========&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nowadays a lot of software development enterprises use [agile methodologies](http://www.agilemanifesto.org) to *get the job done*. I have researched about this approaches for the software development process, with the motivation of conclude if this philosophy is applicable on a team as small as a client, and a freelance. If so, it's sure it could be applicable on other scenarios, with more people involved.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;### Example ###&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As example, lets take the following case:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Freelance is a full-stack web designer and developer.&#xD;&#xA;* Client is a small company which want a web page.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**NOTE:** From now onwards i will refer to this case as *the loner freelance case*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The fact&#xD;&#xA;========&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a novice to the agile methodologies. I learned reading about them that its main advantage is its adaptability to changes. This can be really useful in many cases, but especially in the loner freelance case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what i've learned i conclude the following fact:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Either if you work in team or alone, delivering a usable product to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the client often results in that client collaborates rather than&#xD;&#xA;&gt; observing the process, giving a valuable feedback.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I encourage you to read further about agile methodologies if you don't know what i'm talking about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Questions&#xD;&#xA;=========&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Is *the fact* correct?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. On the loner freelance case, could be considered a &quot;team&quot; the relation between the client and the freelance because both work together?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Assuming the agile methodologies are meant to team work, could it be useful on the loner freelance case, although it's not exactly a &quot;team&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;### Side note ###&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've seen [this question](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/328/is-it-a-good-idea-to-team-up-with-other-freelancers-and-are-there-existing-group). This one i'm writing is about the exactly opposed case, where there are only 2 entities involved on the development process: the freelance and the client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="869" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="381" RevisionGUID="5cafc9c2-79be-4bbe-b486-07ce6d3f0b53" CreationDate="2013-06-06T12:43:31.173" UserId="188" Text="Agile methodologies when developing software as a freelance?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="870" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="381" RevisionGUID="5cafc9c2-79be-4bbe-b486-07ce6d3f0b53" CreationDate="2013-06-06T12:43:31.173" UserId="188" Text="|time-management|project-management|productivity|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="871" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="381" RevisionGUID="60fcc209-e8c2-40b6-95dd-c8650bc08b40" CreationDate="2013-06-06T13:07:53.343" UserId="188" Comment="edited tags" Text="|client|time-management|project-management|productivity|changes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="872" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="382" RevisionGUID="c960ff89-e764-4815-92f8-65b21fcf1e5c" CreationDate="2013-06-06T13:11:39.853" UserId="43" Text="Irrespective of whether you are following Agile practices, if you do not involve the client from the outset, or someone else who can make decisions about project deliverables on behalf of the client (a Business Stakeholder in Agile parlance), then the odds are stacked very heavily against you actually delivering a product that the client wants and can use. This is even more important if there is only 2 people in the team - stakeholder and developer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My experience of both Agile (7 years as lead developer on numerous Agile projects) and Freelancing (4+ years as a contractor) have shown me that the projects upon which I was working alone with a client and adopted strict Agile processes were the projects that were most successful in terms of delivering a product that the client was happy with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key to making use of the ideas behind Agile for a lone freelancer is to define the overall features up front and a priority order for those deliverables, whilst leaving room for change within those feature definitions. The danger with this approach (that you must be mindful of from the outset) is not to leave too much room for change. Instead, try to define what comes under the remit of allowable change and what would trigger a change request (with corresponding cost). If you're not careful, it becomes fairly easy for a client to simply fixate on the &quot;change&quot; aspect and cause you massive rework at no extra cost to them, which can quickly make a project unworkable from your end.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The more closely you can collaborate with the client, particularly in the beginning, the better in terms of overall delivery success. The other key part of Agile that is important is the idea of iterative development. Request feedback regularly. Push changes up to a shared location and invite feedback at regular, predetermined intervals. That way, if the project is not delivering what the client has envisaged, there is time to change course without incurring massive cost and time penalties." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="873" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="383" RevisionGUID="d6040923-505f-48cc-be1a-1b24d6259faf" CreationDate="2013-06-06T13:30:05.570" UserId="188" Text="I'm new on the world of freelancing and i'm having troubles on the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Measuring the time I'll need to complete a project to give the client a estimation.&#xD;&#xA;Tracking the time I spent on the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm currently learning to use [&quot;the pomodoro technique&quot;](http://www.pomodorotechnique.com) to organize myself, in a try to enhance my productivity and concentration. Luckily, the pomodoro technique will help me on 1, this technique helps on estimating the time each task consumes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've read [here](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3/tracking-hours-you-are-working-for-clients), while I was researching about how to measure the time spent on each client, that some people bills by a 15 mins fragment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Using the pomodoro technique I split the work on fragments of 25 mins to do the tasks, called *pomodoros*. Could be used this fragments for the purpose of billing as the 15 mins fragments?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="874" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="383" RevisionGUID="d6040923-505f-48cc-be1a-1b24d6259faf" CreationDate="2013-06-06T13:30:05.570" UserId="188" Text="The pomodoro technique and freelancing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="875" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="383" RevisionGUID="d6040923-505f-48cc-be1a-1b24d6259faf" CreationDate="2013-06-06T13:30:05.570" UserId="188" Text="|client|time-management|productivity|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="876" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="384" RevisionGUID="8ae94c34-f365-456b-8b15-652dd7918b49" CreationDate="2013-06-06T14:07:09.060" UserId="230" Text="The main thing is you need to justify why you want more money. Has it taken longer than expected? are there additional materials required etc? If the answer is yes, then put that to the client and see if they're willing to pay the extra. If not then inform them the project may not be finished. This of course will only work if you mentioned at the beginning that based on the current info it will cost XYZ. This happened to me. I had a client who wanted 200 different products with images listed on their website so I priced a job based on the number of hours it would take me to list the products, but once I was given access to the server where the product info and images were stored I found twice as many. Which the client didn't know about either due to a previous dev not doing their job properly. I told the client and gave them two options, pay twice as much now and get it all done or pay the original amount and only get it half done. Client paid twice as much in this case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another is at the start you can always give an estimate of time, but charge the for the maximum amount of time it could possibly take. for example: say a you estimate the job will take between 10 and 20 hrs this is huge difference so charge for the 20 hrs but make sure it states in the contract the hours it will take. if they sign it, it wont matter even if it only took you 10hrs. You could refund the difference or keep it thats up to you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="877" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="381" RevisionGUID="29698455-07e8-4e23-8bef-6e654536cd02" CreationDate="2013-06-06T18:03:41.033" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/342703351949037568" />
  <row Id="878" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="385" RevisionGUID="8f2760bf-e951-4962-b70f-803955f40f86" CreationDate="2013-06-06T19:10:47.450" UserId="231" Text="Is is appropriate to warn a client that they will no longer have top priority because they have not renewed a retainer in a timely fashion?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="879" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="385" RevisionGUID="8f2760bf-e951-4962-b70f-803955f40f86" CreationDate="2013-06-06T19:10:47.450" UserId="231" Text="Retainer priority" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="880" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="385" RevisionGUID="8f2760bf-e951-4962-b70f-803955f40f86" CreationDate="2013-06-06T19:10:47.450" UserId="231" Text="|client|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="881" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="386" RevisionGUID="fcfaaceb-59bd-4e42-b32b-5967430cba66" CreationDate="2013-06-06T19:39:17.480" UserId="232" Text="For my client I work on them based off the deadlines that I set. If I have two sites due the same day I will work on the one that is gonna take the longest and needs more advanced programming incase I run into any problems. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't think a client needs to pay to be priority, unless that is something they are willing to do but that should be discussed up front. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="882" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="387" RevisionGUID="36661aae-4f65-4ca4-a217-a99a7cd43a56" CreationDate="2013-06-06T20:20:02.983" UserId="78" Text="What are the general guidelines for using SE profile/s for the promotion of the freelancer and as the method for proving his skills?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've heard that Java Black Belt account was a plus in some environment when applying for job. How it looks in the case of freelancer who wants to promote himself? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;High reputation on SE sites is some measure of skills. In case of **webmaster** it would be reputation in **SO**, particularly in tags like **JavaScript** or **CSS**. In case of **translator** a reputation in **ABC Language&amp;Usage**. In case of copywriter **Writers.SE** would be most adequate.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But how to point that I have high reputation on my web page/profile/visit card? Putting that information in central place is probably not the best idea, since many clients that don't know what SE is could be distracted. On the other side, placing the SE flair in the footer is a bit too little. It doesn't also point, in what tags I have gained the most reputations, that is, what are my key competences. And does SE belong in contractors CV or visit card?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="883" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="387" RevisionGUID="36661aae-4f65-4ca4-a217-a99a7cd43a56" CreationDate="2013-06-06T20:20:02.983" UserId="78" Text="Guidelines for using SE profile/s for freelancer promotion?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="884" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="387" RevisionGUID="36661aae-4f65-4ca4-a217-a99a7cd43a56" CreationDate="2013-06-06T20:20:02.983" UserId="78" Text="|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="885" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="388" RevisionGUID="49a62b74-1583-45c7-91b8-ac2eb078f98a" CreationDate="2013-06-06T20:25:50.147" UserId="78" Text="Recruiters often find potentially interesting profiles and are sending connection requests. They do that usually to send job offer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having a lot of recruiters in contacts is especially good idea for freelancers and contractors specializing in short-term contracts. You can easily send signal that you are free now or your project is about to change now and you are open to new opportunities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have contract/project request which you are not interested in, you can always send a mail that you could be interested in the future and the recruiter would put you in some category, say, senior JavaScript developers. If you post profile update, it would be much quicker to process than sending your CV/portfolio anywhere. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It isn't guaranteed to succeed, but many people have found contracts using LinkedIn, and filling profile costs you little effort, so it's worth doing. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="886" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="383" RevisionGUID="be3f27c8-1297-45a6-ab2b-3085a4abe1b9" CreationDate="2013-06-06T23:47:17.800" UserId="188" Comment="Edited the question following the suggestions to be more direct" Text="I'm new on the world of freelancing and i have doubts on how to correctly bill in time increments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've read [here](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3/tracking-hours-you-are-working-for-clients), while I was researching about how to measure the time spent on each client, that some people do the time dependent billing on 15 minutes increments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nowadays I split the work on increments of 25 minutes to do the tasks. Could be used this increments for the purpose of billing on a time dependent basis like the 15 minutes increments are used to?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**NOTE**: The reason i split the work on 25 minutes increments is that I use the [pomodoro technique](http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="887" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="383" RevisionGUID="be3f27c8-1297-45a6-ab2b-3085a4abe1b9" CreationDate="2013-06-06T23:47:17.800" UserId="188" Comment="Edited the question following the suggestions to be more direct" Text="Billing on 25 minutes increments?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="888" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="383" RevisionGUID="be3f27c8-1297-45a6-ab2b-3085a4abe1b9" CreationDate="2013-06-06T23:47:17.800" UserId="188" Comment="Edited the question following the suggestions to be more direct" Text="|client|time-management|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="889" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="389" RevisionGUID="1c8da136-d2f3-482b-bc17-4166d08a99e9" CreationDate="2013-06-07T02:46:55.230" UserId="60" Text="In general I think charging for priority for routine work is a mistake.  However, there are some exceptions and a few places where I do charge for priority.  These are the exceptions and not the rule.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general I charge extra for urgent support. The reason here is that if it is urgent and I have to jump off something for another customer, I need to let them know, etc. there is extra labor for me, it may cause some minor issues for normal work for the other customer, etc.  After hours I charge even more because you are taking my family or sleep time.  I waive these if *I* suggest scheduling in such time in advance, but if the customer demands it, they get to pay extra.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the customer doesn't renew the retainer, the obvious thing to do is **suspend** work on the project and let the customer know they need to pay before you do work again (at your normal rate).  Pay for priority should be reserved for addressing emergencies and not for run of the mill development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A second thing to note is that this is a lot easier to do if you can have two gigs where you promie a minimum of 20 hrs than it is if you have one full-time with a minimum of 40.  You can offer the other customer some extra hours to speed things up in the mean time (maybe a week at a time) or the like to fill in gaps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="890" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="173" RevisionGUID="4f9fd246-9bed-45b6-9273-2463756ee2bc" CreationDate="2013-06-07T03:03:41.240" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/342839248313004032" />
  <row Id="891" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="390" RevisionGUID="a65606b1-1ed7-46f3-8515-39861577586a" CreationDate="2013-06-07T03:16:39.267" UserId="60" Text="I think you want to think about the three M's of marketing:  Message, market audience, medium.  The three must go together.  If they don't go together your message will not effectively find you clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Trying to put everything in one place is the wrong way to think about it.  You may have better luck building presence by putting out messages in different places and media tailored to different market audiences.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So with that in mind the question is &quot;who can you reach effectively with an SE profile?  The first answer is SE users, so having a profile which attracts this is good.  I haven't really done that much in this area because right now I haven't needed to, however I am in the process of revisiting a lot of this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second point is that your presence online and your online marketing is based on the extent you have multiple interconnected sources of that presence.  SE is one source, and should be one among many, so you should look at interconnecting these.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So putting all this together, SE is a medium that reaches a certain market segment.  The message you put on there should appeal to SE users, either as potential customers or as potential referrers.  It should also direct users to other resources about your work (blogs, etc) so that people can find out more.  Other SE-friendly resources should link to it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="892" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="383" RevisionGUID="3e823ab5-0fae-4d7f-b032-4575b4a53390" CreationDate="2013-06-07T03:25:30.017" UserId="188" Comment="edited title" Text="Billing on 25-30 minutes increments?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="893" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="391" RevisionGUID="7c619cee-98c0-407a-a194-b05e25913fe5" CreationDate="2013-06-07T05:45:08.273" UserId="60" Text="A few things to note.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Billing at 25 min is difficult because it is not easily divisible by 60.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I bill in 30 min increments for remote work and 1 hour increments for on-site work.  I have a 15 min &quot;keep in touch&quot; period which is unbillable if used to alert me to problems and seek advice on whether tech support is needed or not.  In short if you are my customer you can call me up with a problem and I will spend up to 15 min figuring out if you need to buy services from me and if so what.  Then we can talk.  On-site I offer last 15 min free but the increment is hourly (and for longer trips there is a minimum billable).  The idea is that if I am there for up to 1:15 I bill for an hour.  If I am there for 2:05, I bill for 2 hours.  If I am there for 2:30 I bill for three hours.  This is in part due to travel time, and customers are aware of this up front.  I also offer to spend a little more time answering questions so there isn't a lot of time they pay for that they aren't using (it's a nice way to upsell too where appropriate).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;you want your billing to be easy for customers to understand.  If you are dividing your time into 25 min increments, you should still consider billing on the half hour and tracking those separately from how you bill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- 1 25 min time is 1/2 hr&#xD;&#xA;- 2 is 1 hour&#xD;&#xA;- 3 is billed at 1.5 hrs&#xD;&#xA;- 4 is billed at 1.5 hrs&#xD;&#xA;- 5 is 2 hrs&#xD;&#xA;- 6 is *exactly* 2.5 hrs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you can cycle groups of 6 this way.  Moreover it is symmetric.  After 1, you owe your customer 5 min, after 2, 10 min, after 3 15 min.  After 4, you pay back 15 min, and return on the other side back to 0.  So if you do a lot of short tasks you make a little extra, and if you do a lot of longer tasks, you pay it back.  This can be a nice incentive to use more of your services instead of a little bit here and a little bit there." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="894" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="392" RevisionGUID="0800c3d0-8603-4902-a4ff-ed88dd32c034" CreationDate="2013-06-07T06:49:49.753" UserId="234" Text="I work for a small (1 family) art company as a &quot;computer artist&quot;. I have worked there part time for about 7 years. I believe they charge clients over $100 per hour for designs. At one point I charged them $25/hr but awhile ago they said they could only afford $20 and I gave in. By my calculations then they are getting over 80% of the profit from my work. I don't know how accurate this is though. It is complicated because I do a subset of all the kinds of artwork that they produce and I think they just charge flat rates that are supposed to work out to $100-$200/hr. Anyway, even if my estimates are way off, I think I am really being underpaid. Yet strangely they say that $20/hr is all they can afford, and they keep limiting my hours even though there is plenty of work to do (at the moment). It really doesn't make sense to me and maybe they are being irrational, but I would think that if they are getting even just 50% markup from my work they should assign me to do everything I possibly can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I would just like to know what is a fair markup for contractors in this field. And what special things need to be considered that effect this price?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a little more background, they have a fairly high overhead with their studio and equipment and travel expenses etc. I essentially have none. But for the computer work I do it doesn't really cost them any more than maybe 15% of their time per the amount of time I put in to a job, if I do all the designing. I am not a very fast worker but I do high quality work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="895" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="392" RevisionGUID="0800c3d0-8603-4902-a4ff-ed88dd32c034" CreationDate="2013-06-07T06:49:49.753" UserId="234" Text="What percentage is fair for me as a graphic design subcontractor?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="896" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="392" RevisionGUID="0800c3d0-8603-4902-a4ff-ed88dd32c034" CreationDate="2013-06-07T06:49:49.753" UserId="234" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="897" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="393" RevisionGUID="aa01dee5-723c-475c-a0ac-31273a4f4887" CreationDate="2013-06-07T06:52:33.177" UserId="213" Text="I got a question about sending a bill, without actually delivering a product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have made a complete new website for a client and it is almost ready, but now the client is very busy with a fusion of 2 companies. So they dont have time for the website. Even when the website is already complete, it only needs a double check from the client and it can be placed on the web. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now my question is, because of the client the website has a delay of getting online.. and we have put in a lot of time in it to make the product(website). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it reasonable to send a bill/invoice? For the time we have spend to make the product as it is? Even if its not online yet? Because they want to resume with this product in august and i started in october last year. (So thats a lot of time) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I really hope somebody can give me some advise. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="898" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="393" RevisionGUID="aa01dee5-723c-475c-a0ac-31273a4f4887" CreationDate="2013-06-07T06:52:33.177" UserId="213" Text="Sending a bill without delivering a product" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="899" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="393" RevisionGUID="aa01dee5-723c-475c-a0ac-31273a4f4887" CreationDate="2013-06-07T06:52:33.177" UserId="213" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="900" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="394" RevisionGUID="5df985fc-b887-4f44-a1c4-ff5baaf3a40b" CreationDate="2013-06-07T09:42:29.123" UserId="97" Text="It depends on what reads in your contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you haven't made a written contract, or the contract doesn't mention the procedure in this kind of situation, you should discuss it with the client. Usually they are ok with sending the bill when the delay is caused by them. Especially in the case of a merger they might even want to handle all the invocies because they then don't need to move the contract to the new company or handle it specifically in their accounting after the merger.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could also see if the contract has something that could be leveraged as an implied billing date. For example, if you have agreed on a deadline you could argue that you have held the deadline and that the deadline is also the implied billing date.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any case you shouldn't send the invoice out of the blue without discussing with the client first.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Moral of the story:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * Always make a written contract&#xD;&#xA; * Always make sure the contract lets you bill the client for work done so far if they cancel or postpone the project&#xD;&#xA; * Always make sure your right to bill for the project isn't dependable on client's actions. In this case the contract could read that the invoice is sent after the product is delivered and the client has approved it, *and* the client must approve the product no later than X weeks after delivery.&#xD;&#xA; * Make deadlines binding for both the contractor and the client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="901" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="395" RevisionGUID="ee5c7421-556e-4fbb-89e3-55f469521b0e" CreationDate="2013-06-07T12:29:21.677" UserId="60" Text="Ok, this is going to echo Juhaha's &quot;depends on what is in the contract&quot; but there is an addition I want to talk about some complexity of what can go on here.  If the customer is able to make it go live themselves, there are no problems with invoicing accounting-wise.  Now if this is not something planned for in the contract, approach your customer about this and ask what they are willing to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question is what sort of obligations you still have.  If you have significant obligations, you need to track this as &quot;unearned income&quot; which is owed to the customer (then you move this to income when the obligations are fulfilled).  If it really is &quot;we are moving this to support&quot; then I don't see anything major wrong with invoicing as income though technically you should estimate further obligations (talk with your accountant if you are worried about this)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="902" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="396" RevisionGUID="b22e9ffc-1ccd-41b0-bf4b-45cc28ccbaa0" CreationDate="2013-06-07T12:34:58.297" UserId="52" Text="A good approach is to include a Fee Schedule in your contract. The Fee Schedule should state that you will invoice the client after Completion Criteria are met. (The Fee Schedule may also include other times to invoice, depending on the project.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Completion Criteria should include the client's acceptance of your deliverable materials without unreasonable objections, and indicate that no response from Client within some time frame (e.g. 10 business days) is deemed acceptance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will make it clear when to invoice. If you don't have a contract in place, you'll have to do the best you can informally to substitute. Work with the client as soon as possible to put a time frame in place. A client is most likely to agree when their review deadline still feels like it's a long way off." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="903" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="397" RevisionGUID="840805aa-4da2-4250-a971-8a04d7758ad7" CreationDate="2013-06-07T12:53:34.467" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="This depends on your agreement / contract. I will explain what you can do now, after I've said what you should do when making up the agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **Ask for partial prepayment.** Request half of the amount at start and half of it at the deadline. Split the amount in more parts if it's a large sum. This way, you always have something when the client can't pay (or doesn't want to, for whatever reason) at the deadline.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **Put fixed pay-dates in the contract.** If you agreed on it, you can make the client pay, even if he can't use the product yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **Keep in touch.** For clients it's hard to get to you if they see problems coming. You can make this easier for them if you have contact anyway. They can easily mention it when there's a conversation going on anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Okay, now what can you do in this specific case? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you agreed on sending a software packet (i.e. not put the website online), you can just send him it. Send an invoice as well, because you did send him the product. He has two weeks (in the Netherlands that's the period) to pay, that's enough, also when busy with a fusion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you agreed on some more services, for which you need the client, you have a problem. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your contract lists a specific date or period for the deadline, tell him and say you can't help him after that time because you have other jobs to do as well. Subtract something from the price, because you don't give him all the services you agreed on, but make this a symbolic amount. It's his fault, in the end.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your contract doesn't list a specific deadline, you'll just have to wait. The only thing you can do is ask for a payment of the part you could and did do already, and ask him if you can make an appointment soon." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="904" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="398" RevisionGUID="afb965b8-d073-420d-a561-525e9f974d12" CreationDate="2013-06-07T13:02:57.373" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="It doesn't matter with what times you work. If you want, you can use 7.4 minute increments, or pi^3. However, it isn't that useful always.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;25 Isn't a divisor of 60, which makes it slightly harder to work with a per-hour price. However, when your price-per-hour is dividable by 12 (=60/ggd(60,25)), that won't be an enormous problem. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, it is possible, but looks weird, so it's better to avoid it or don't put it that way on the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Things you could do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Take 10 minutes break per hour and bill per hour or half hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Use a 1:5 ratio for contact-with-client:working-on-project, so that you can bill 25 minutes as 30 minutes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* If that technique is flexible enough, just increase the time to 30 minutes - or decrease it to 15 or 20. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="905" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="395" RevisionGUID="fedae383-4882-4488-8687-742b20f2c314" CreationDate="2013-06-07T13:04:38.020" UserId="60" Comment="added 170 characters in body" Text="Ok, this is going to echo Juhaha's &quot;depends on what is in the contract&quot; but there is an addition I want to talk about some complexity of what can go on here.  If the customer is able to make it go live themselves, there are no problems with invoicing accounting-wise.  Now if this is not something planned for in the contract, approach your customer about this and ask what they are willing to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question is what sort of obligations you still have.  If you have significant obligations, you need to track this as &quot;unearned income&quot; which is owed to the customer (then you move this to income when the obligations are fulfilled).  If it really is &quot;we are moving this to support&quot; then I don't see anything major wrong with invoicing as income though technically you should estimate further obligations (talk with your accountant if you are worried about this).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is also important for taxes (usually!) because it is not income until it is realized and if you haven't finished the milestone or project it may not be realized." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="906" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="399" RevisionGUID="c4aae648-d02e-4802-97c5-e5d170e2042c" CreationDate="2013-06-07T13:05:43.247" UserId="52" Text="**LLC disadvantages vs. sole proprietorship:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. **Government fees** to establish and maintain the LLC (usually $100-$500 first year and up to $100 subsequent years, depending on your state).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. **Paperwork** to to establish and maintain the LLC. In some states, this is nearly zero - just a few minutes of filling out government web forms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's it. Taxes are the same if you choose then to be. Keeping separate bank accounts is a good idea to maximize liability protection, but is not required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Incorporation disadvantages vs. sole proprietorship:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Same as LLC (government fees and paperwork), except much more extensive. Additionally, accounting regulations and taxes could be worse, depending on the type of corporation you choose. These disadvantages were the motivation for the invention of LLCs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Resource: [Nolo LLC Basics][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/llc-basics-30163.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="907" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="400" RevisionGUID="e3317b4b-3087-4fe6-b903-e8c0d6912536" CreationDate="2013-06-07T13:15:22.547" UserId="194" Text="With cheap and quality work available over dozens of freelancing sites, Does the world of freelancing comes with risks like ban by the USA government on outsourcing of jobs and offshore freelancing ? Apart from these what are some other risks a freelancer should be aware of and be prepared?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="908" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="400" RevisionGUID="e3317b4b-3087-4fe6-b903-e8c0d6912536" CreationDate="2013-06-07T13:15:22.547" UserId="194" Text="What are the risks associated with solely relying on freelancing income and making it as a career?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="909" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="400" RevisionGUID="e3317b4b-3087-4fe6-b903-e8c0d6912536" CreationDate="2013-06-07T13:15:22.547" UserId="194" Text="|legal|attracting-clients|foreign-markets|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="910" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="401" RevisionGUID="73a4bf13-6443-4292-be80-4446476d9b23" CreationDate="2013-06-07T13:21:25.293" UserId="52" Text="An LLC protects you from personally from all creditors, whether they be customers, shareholders, or other parties. Liability for business activities is limited to the LLC's assets; yours are protected.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nolo's [LLC Basics][1] describes this well:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Like shareholders of a corporation, all LLC owners are protected from personal liability for business debts and claims. This means that if the business itself can't pay a creditor -- such as a supplier, a lender, or a landlord -- the creditor cannot legally come after an LLC member's house, car, or other personal possessions. Because only LLC assets are used to pay off business debts, LLC owners stand to lose only the money that they've invested in the LLC. This feature is often called &quot;limited liability.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you will see if you keep reading on their web page, there are exceptions to the limited liability, such as unfair, illegal, or fraudulent activity. These are, however, exceptions. The fact that a bank asks you to personally co-sign a loan is a demonstration of the strength of the LLC's protection: the bank knows that if your LLC defaulted, the bank would otherwise be limited to collecting only the LLC's (insufficient) assets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/llc-basics-30163.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="915" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="393" RevisionGUID="4b1cbe91-6e0b-4b48-a7af-8245f9d3a04c" CreationDate="2013-06-07T15:03:40.987" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/343020441666998272" />
  <row Id="922" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="404" RevisionGUID="0ef9b7f8-caad-4e15-9486-400c7f32a2b3" CreationDate="2013-06-07T17:03:28.807" UserId="78" Text="As for USA, I wouldn't so concerned about the possibility of such ban. USA government is concentrated more on the gain of its big business than the protection of own workers. Europe cares more about it, but still I can't imagine such radical move. Even if it would happen, it's almost improbable that the incorporation of Juche doctrine would follow and the buying of products abroad would be forbidden. The companies would build their filiae abroad, so the external freelancers would still have a job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would be more concerned about the possibility of your country forbidding freelancing or any other kind of business. In last country only 2 countries have chosen isolation : North Korea and Albania. Many more have chosen the communistic method of development. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No matter what will happen to your freelancing, the experience you gather counts. So you can always put freelancing experience in your CV and have a chance for career as employee." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="923" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="191" RevisionGUID="10c22bfd-17a3-4469-9949-69f78e679d37" CreationDate="2013-06-07T18:03:41.033" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/343065740766756864" />
  <row Id="924" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="405" RevisionGUID="974e29d3-cb4f-4274-a0f3-c8beff16031d" CreationDate="2013-06-07T18:06:37.373" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="925" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="406" RevisionGUID="11908cb5-e4fc-407f-8d65-acaf66a38e6d" CreationDate="2013-06-07T18:06:37.373" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="926" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="407" RevisionGUID="1df6c577-28bf-43a5-a129-28c209c036e5" CreationDate="2013-06-07T23:39:59.497" UserId="247" Text="The short answer is : backdoors will eventually be found and can damage your reputation and cashflow. Learning who you are dealing with and then growing a pair , and not being scared to formulate your terms and then enforcing them is by far the best solution. Most customers will be happier if you let them know where they stand. Take control.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's  how I came to that conclusion...flashback to 2007 ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I worked on a project where I stumbled across a backdoor put in by a previous developer.  The customer had taken 8 months to pay me for my work and only paid when I mentioned county court to their finance department.  I can only imagine how long the previous developer had to wait for his money to have put in a back door. The lesson here is that it took me 8 months to mention county court &quot;nicely&quot; to their finance department, I didn't threaten it , I just asked them very calmly  &quot;I've called you 15 times  and I've now waited 8 months for payment. I'm not sure what your accounts department payment policy is but have you been briefed by your director to not pay invoices until you are taken to county court?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Within 7 days the cheque arrived but I left that backdoor in , not for myself but just because I could see how they had earned it and thought they hadn't redeemed themselves sufficiently for me to do them any favours, but also it wasn't part of my brief to secure their website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've also managed an outsourced project where I again stumbled across a back door that would deleted the database and code. But this time I'm on the other side, I have the purse strings. I understood why they did it, their management threw inexperienced workers at the project so quality was abismal and I spent months rejecting their work because of quality. They probably  did end up making a loss but it was because of their own incompetence and cost cutting. I would say that under no circumstances would I ever consider passing work their way ever again. The nail in the coffin was the back door.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did however end up working  again for the company that took 8 months to pay. But this time I dictated the terms, 50% up front 50% on completion and I wouldn't start any new development for them until they paid any outstanding depts with me. Any longer projects would have  well defined staged payments. I never had to chase them for money again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider that some companies are like badly behaved children that you must be strict with or they will walk all over you. The decision to not pay on time is often an accounts department policy to improve the company's cashflow and as previously stated by others, freelancers can often be the last to be paid, reason being  they don't employ pitbulls to chase money owed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this adds something to the discussion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="927" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="408" RevisionGUID="e09419d3-4881-4d75-afa1-e2a46f987036" CreationDate="2013-06-08T10:18:53.817" UserId="60" Text="Working for yourself always is more risky than it is to have a stable job working for someone else.  The business owner always absorbs the risk of the company.  The worker simply gets his due.  The big risk is that of income instability, and this is something every self-employed individual faces all the time.  This is one reason we have to charge more than we would if we worked a steady job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second issue has to do with legal risk though and this is what I think you are asking about.  Will there ever be an outright ban on self-employment in the US, especially in the knowledge services sector?  I seriously doubt it.  There is unlikely to be a ban of the sort that came into effect regarding handmade children's toys.  However the general trend is towards more and more regulation which unduly burdens the self-employed in pursuit if a perfectly regulated society.  These are problems when they do not take into account the realities of self-employment and expect greater financial burdens (PPACA) or regulatory compliance burdens which the self-employed are in the worst position in the economy to meet.  Part of the problem is that one part of our political system appears to believe that the economy is best served by the triplicity of big business, big regulation, and big labor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know I sound like a right-winger when I say the above, but it is very much a concern for self-employed and now I will sound like a left-winger by pointing out that while Americans are finding it harder to be self-employed, the same is *not* true in Canada and Europe, where often times regulation is differently structured and the self-employed small business owners are more likely to be successful, so the fundamental problem is that the regulatory burdens tend to assume that they should apply in the same way to the self-employed as to the multi-national corporation (the result of which is not always pleasant for the self-employed).  So the problem is not only that we overregulate but how we regulate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Speaking of legal issues one serious issue that freelancers in the US need to be aware of regarding legal risk is the effort to ensure that sales taxes are collectable across state lines, with each tax jurisdiction (i.e. school district) able to decide what the tax rates are and for what.  Such efforts effectively bury the self-employed who work remotely who don't really have the time to verify whether that $120 tech support call from Akron Ohio is taxable and at what rate (big businesses on the other hand have dedicated staff to handle this sort of thing).  You may think that software services are not taxable, but there have been efforts to expand sales taxes to these areas.  A few years ago a bill was proposed in the Washington State legislature that would have done exactly this, but thankfully failed.  I don't see so-called streamlined sales taxes dying and there are renewed efforts to get Congress to make such taxes owed whenever business is done across state lines.  One major risk is that Congress will pass such a law and then we really will have to determine whether each service we offer is taxable in every jurisdiction we offer it.  Additionally even if the SSTI folks claim that common tax definitions across state lines remove a lot of the headache (and lead to Snickers being taxed as candy while Twix is merely a chocolate-covered cookie, so a tax on candy bars will hit snickers and chocolate bars, but not kit kats or twix), there is no guarantee that courts interpreting the definitions will not diverge one jurisdiction to another." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="928" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="409" RevisionGUID="5b5293bf-cc9c-47a2-9990-cf434af0edeb" CreationDate="2013-06-08T10:35:41.957" UserId="60" Text="This might do better on workplace if you are an employee.  If you are a freelancer with them you should come up with a rate and if they don't like it or there are no factors that make it worth it to you, move on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However I am going to flip this on its head and say &quot;suppose you mostly do freelancing but have an employee who does some things for customers.  How much to charge?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For background reading you should lool at http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/317/writing-my-first-business-plan-how-do-i-know-what-to-put-in-the-pro-forma-balan&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You start off looking at fixed costs.  You say they have high fixed costs.  That works against you in this case.  Once you know what your full fixed costs are, then you look at production costs and overhead and see what is needed to make it work.  This is how you plan production costs and fixed costs against revenues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I bring in subcontractors and agree to have them do work on a project with me paying them my minimum markup is 100%.  In other words I charge twice what I pay.  I do this because I offer additional guarantees and I may have to step in and fix things that have been done wrong, and I have low expenses.  I am also taking on all non-billable work relating to what was done by someone else so my risk and overhead are significant.  If I had higher expenses, my markup might be significantly higher.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do think that a 400% markup ($20 -&gt; $100) does seem excessive, but without knowing the specifics of their business I don't know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However your concern as a worker should be &quot;is it worth your time to work there?&quot;  If it is then it doesn't matter why, and how much of what you get out of it is money, or what they are selling what you do for.  If it is not, then you need a raise or to get work elsewhere." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="929" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="410" RevisionGUID="e2ea86f0-9dba-4701-8ef1-734dcc5b0dbc" CreationDate="2013-06-08T13:00:52.613" UserId="85" Text="Sorry, but &quot;fairness&quot; doesn't come into it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And I must correct you on your:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; they are getting over 80% of the profit from my work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, they are getting 80% of the **proceeds** of your work - but that is not **profit**.  Out of their share, they have to cover their costs (including bringing in the business in the first place). And supply the equipment on which you do the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, you have more control over your T&amp;Cs than does an employee - and if you do not like the rate on offer, you have the choice not to work for them any more.  Or you accept the regular income stream that you have, and charge more for other work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="930" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="411" RevisionGUID="2d3631b3-f451-4a83-b716-e2b90f34a978" CreationDate="2013-06-08T17:30:09.020" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="931" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="412" RevisionGUID="0152e656-d7ce-48e7-af30-be3247fc9712" CreationDate="2013-06-08T17:30:09.020" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="932" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="413" RevisionGUID="e253c341-5374-4b02-ae90-9e21e3377427" CreationDate="2013-06-08T17:32:14.920" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="933" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="414" RevisionGUID="4c9de8b0-97a0-41ca-8ea7-f15d79b618ce" CreationDate="2013-06-08T17:32:14.920" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="934" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="415" RevisionGUID="d843ddc5-65e6-4fa9-a989-b6bf80b9c48c" CreationDate="2013-06-08T17:35:20.093" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="935" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="416" RevisionGUID="2f0bd8e5-0552-4f7a-8b2e-3f3e4476f688" CreationDate="2013-06-08T17:35:20.093" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="936" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="416" RevisionGUID="75481a3b-28c6-4a8d-a7a2-516e3d6bf326" CreationDate="2013-06-08T17:40:38.103" UserId="9" Comment="added 56 characters in body" Text="Questions relating to Limited Liability Companies (LLC)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="937" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="416" RevisionGUID="75481a3b-28c6-4a8d-a7a2-516e3d6bf326" CreationDate="2013-06-08T17:40:38.103" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 184 edit id of 80" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="938" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="174" RevisionGUID="15d2b0b5-33e7-4f63-99b9-6ba87b070e20" CreationDate="2013-06-08T18:03:41.097" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/343428128456179713" />
  <row Id="939" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="417" RevisionGUID="f0798d63-2323-4e15-86aa-e395bf660b94" CreationDate="2013-06-08T20:40:39.190" UserId="254" Text="I am not a designer. I don't claim to be, and I don't want to be. I am a programmer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a handful of clients that are small &quot;web designers&quot;. Some are great, and I have recommended friends and family to them when they were looking for websites. Some are not so great.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One in particular makes okay looking websites that just have (in terms of usability) bad design. The client pays well. I charge them a little more than the others because working for them usually means getting my hands dirty and doing some &quot;hacking&quot; that I am not always proud of. My work for them includes anything from wiring forms to the occasional quick-and-dirty back end CMS.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is: when I see something &quot;wrong&quot; - is it my responsibility (morally, not contractually) to point it out and/or fix it. E.G. I often see form element inconstancies when wiring forms - they may use select menus for selecting the user's state in one area, but then 2 sections down, use a text input for entering the state where the user works." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="940" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="417" RevisionGUID="f0798d63-2323-4e15-86aa-e395bf660b94" CreationDate="2013-06-08T20:40:39.190" UserId="254" Text="Should I point out design flaws to my clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="941" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="417" RevisionGUID="f0798d63-2323-4e15-86aa-e395bf660b94" CreationDate="2013-06-08T20:40:39.190" UserId="254" Text="|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="942" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="372" RevisionGUID="fcc7698b-1366-4590-94a8-a05089a94189" CreationDate="2013-06-08T21:03:41.050" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/343473427040051200" />
  <row Id="944" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="419" RevisionGUID="47686df6-63a8-4da6-9a90-3756a2a355de" CreationDate="2013-06-08T22:12:44.007" UserId="43" Text="Purely from a due diligence point of view, you should always point out these issues. Presumably you are working together for an end client who has requested your combined services (either directly or indirectly) and wants a usable website which has been designed consistently. Nobody wants to use a website that provides an inconsistent experience and it reflects badly upon you professionally if you have allowed obvious inconsistencies to make it through to a production website. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every website that you build and deliver for a client acts as part of your marketing portfolio that showcases your abilities to future clients, so it is in your interest, both contractually and morally, to ensure that every project you put your name to has been built to the same high standards. Reputation takes a long time to build up, but once it has been, it holds a lot of sway and can keep you in business and get repeat work with existing clients, which is gold dust in this industry." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="945" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="417" RevisionGUID="c1cd68f8-6edd-475f-92e1-e0a0d8ea3ea0" CreationDate="2013-06-09T00:03:40.910" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/343518724239798272" />
  <row Id="946" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="420" RevisionGUID="1bdc29a3-fd99-4c49-a4f8-09ee7657bbb1" CreationDate="2013-06-09T01:29:51.750" UserId="256" Text="Is it possible for a freelance programmer to use Open Source products under GNU Public License and make money given that he cannot stop his customers from freely distributing his products?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="947" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="420" RevisionGUID="1bdc29a3-fd99-4c49-a4f8-09ee7657bbb1" CreationDate="2013-06-09T01:29:51.750" UserId="256" Text="Freelancing and GPL?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="948" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="420" RevisionGUID="1bdc29a3-fd99-4c49-a4f8-09ee7657bbb1" CreationDate="2013-06-09T01:29:51.750" UserId="256" Text="|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="949" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="421" RevisionGUID="93480f79-1a97-44ed-9084-64e55cdbab45" CreationDate="2013-06-09T01:50:23.573" UserId="60" Text="To be honest, my view is slightly different.  Instead of a rule of always disclosing, I think you have two issues.  First is a question of customer priorities and the second is one of professionalism.  I think if you follow my rules the answer will be usually to disclose but do so carefully.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The issue of customer priorities is the first one.  Reporting these problems takes some time which you are probably billing them for.  In general my rule is this:  if it is within the scope of your project, always report it.  If it is not, ask the customer if they would like reports of other unrelated issues you find.  Chances are they will say yes.  Then report via email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second issue is one of professionalism and being respectful to other contractors.  You want to come across as cutting everyone else down because this reflects badly on you and will eventually alienate others you would like or need to work with later.  When you report an issue you should do your best to give the other the benefit of the doubt.  Instead of saying &quot;this is what is wrong&quot; say &quot;here is an issue I found during my review which may have been missed by the designer.&quot;  It's best to frame this as another set of eyes and a benefit of peer review rather than &quot;this design is bad.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="950" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="422" RevisionGUID="de40cfe1-4561-4096-8a89-8d590dd7407c" CreationDate="2013-06-09T02:05:55.777" UserId="257" Text="Yes it's possible, especially in this case where the freelance programmer makes money by creating custom products. Since the product is heavily customized for a particular customer, the customer can distribute it, but it will be of less benefit to other businesses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the case of a more generic product, if it is open source then one a customer buys it they can share it with their friends, colleagues etc, so there will be less sales. the freelancer could still make money by selling support services around the product though. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="951" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="423" RevisionGUID="8e7641af-9a59-4436-9dc5-015512929996" CreationDate="2013-06-09T02:09:21.673" UserId="60" Text="I have done this for 7 years.  Most of my work is on [LedgerSMB](http://ledgersmb.org).  The simple answer is yes.  Here is more information as to how to do this and so forth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Open Source Development is Pay Up Front for Development**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With software licenses you are compensating a developer in arrears for development work.  Microsoft spends vast amounts of money developing their products which they hope to make back through software sales.  Occasionally this doesn't happen (remember Bob?) and so in this model the developer bears all risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With open source software, things are very different.  You charge up front for the development, and don't try to make the money back on the other side.   Contributing your changes back however, and hoping to ensure free redistribution cuts your maintenance costs, and this is a good thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Why Contribute Back**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are two important reasons to try to get your work incorporated in the main distributions of the software.  The first is that it cuts your maintenance cost.  Other people will find and fix bugs and this will benefit your customers for less cost than coming back to you.  Happy customers refer more customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second reason is that contributing back establishes your visibility in the projects you contribute to and this is a way of marketing your skills to others who already use the software.  When you get more sales calls you can point to features you have done, some of which the customer may already be using, and this gives you an in sales-wise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course not everything can be contributed back.  Maybe some things the community doesn't want.  Maybe some things are specific to a customer, and this gives you some extra support revenue down the road.  However, if you minimize this, you will have happier customers and more customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Limits of the GPL**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Under no interpretation of any version of the GPL is mere use of GPL software sufficient to impose the GPL on work you do.  The question is what your licensing options are when you include GPL software in your solutions and this is not always an easy or straight-forward question to answer (for the v2 license, is it mere aggregation or derivation?, for the v3 license does 7(b) allow you to irrevocably grant user rights to your code to downstream users in excess of what the GPL allows?  I think it must because otherwise the BSD license family is incompatible.  Also does mere linking to a library under the GPL require your code to be under the GPL too? (Intensely debated in legal circles)  Is this transitive? (aside from the FSF, the general consensus is no)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I prefer to release my code, where I can (a minority of my time), under the BSD license because it avoids these questions, but for the most part following community norms will never get you in trouble. These norms assume that BSD and GPL software can be combined together into a single work licensed, as a whole, under the GPL, that BSD code cannot have its license changed without first being modified (see http://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2007/gpl-non-gpl-collaboration.html) and so forth.  Involvement in a community and following what everyone else in that community does is likely to be generally safe." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="952" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="424" RevisionGUID="46810d98-7949-4611-bb43-fcd2a129b7b5" CreationDate="2013-06-09T04:12:35.483" UserId="163" Text="There's a lot of really good answers here, but I just wanted to pipe up and mention what I've come across in the past (either by trial and error, as well as what I would consider best business practises).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have quoted your client $2,500 to do a custom WordPress theme, they agree and you set out to do the 45 hours you budgeted for yourself to do it, that's fine. But if you've hit the 45 hours you estimated to yourself that it would take to do the theme at the fixed price you gave and it's due to your inaccuracy of the original quote, you aren't really entitled to ask the client for more money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if the reason you've passed your 45 allocated hours for the project because the client has come back and asked for further design iterations, extra features in the build, etc. Then yes, you are more than entitled to ask for more money. **Especially** if you have a signed contract in place stating that if this sort of thing happened, they would be charged at $XX per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my suggestion if it's the first reason; if you will be doing further work for this client you should take the income loss for the short term, and over-estimate the further work you will be doing for the client (not by a huge amount of course, but by little increments). This will slowly build up the missing income from the original theme build, as well as keep your client happy and keep the professional relationship between the client and yourself healthy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's always easier and cheaper to keep a client than make a new one :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="953" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="19" RevisionGUID="c1c2b1f7-4d01-4934-92b2-5b8f0c99cf74" CreationDate="2013-06-09T06:03:41.023" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/343609322439331841" />
  <row Id="954" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="44" RevisionGUID="af86ead0-9bf7-4779-9c54-897d706072ad" CreationDate="2013-06-09T12:03:41.687" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/343699921846820864" />
  <row Id="955" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="316" RevisionGUID="cf72dfd1-385f-4c7e-81db-9b73e940eb28" CreationDate="2013-06-09T15:02:15.397" UserDisplayName="user19" Comment="Fixed markdown" Text="I'm considering looking for contractor jobs (in Western Europe). I have the experience of senior developer (Java) so I'm confident of the high quality of value added I can provide to the client. But I'm not sure what hourly rate should I demand? What should I take into account?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Are there publicly available information about hourly rates of programming experts? If the rates are standardized, it would change my problem into simply accepting the rate or not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Should they be estimated in relation to the employees' wages? For example, they should be 50% higher? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. How to calculate the living costs? If I know that the costs of living in given city are 1500€, and in the place I live now they are 1000€, should I add 500€ to the sum calculated in point 2?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Initially I'd probably have to stay in hotel, which would increase the costs of about 500-1000€. On shorter time contracts (up to 3 months) probably I'd stay only in hotel, so should I charge about 1000€ monthly more?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The sums in the question are templates only, to replace by localized costs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="956" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="316" RevisionGUID="cf72dfd1-385f-4c7e-81db-9b73e940eb28" CreationDate="2013-06-09T15:02:15.397" Comment="Proposed by 19 approved by 78 edit id of 81" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="957" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="425" RevisionGUID="ceb30430-cbef-43ee-a68f-b90e6cc89f3e" CreationDate="2013-06-09T15:29:22.080" UserId="261" Text="I’m interested in selling some of my art on CafePress, but I don’t want to allow others to use my art for profit.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sure, CafePress takes a cut of sales. But I decide when my art goes up. And (as I understand things) I can choose to take it down—after which nobody else can access it.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anybody know the nitty-gritty about control over one’s own art for this sort of thing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anybody with experience in this sort of thing have any other advice, tips, or pointers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="958" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="425" RevisionGUID="ceb30430-cbef-43ee-a68f-b90e6cc89f3e" CreationDate="2013-06-09T15:29:22.080" UserId="261" Text="Retain intellectual property for art sold on CafePress?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="959" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="425" RevisionGUID="ceb30430-cbef-43ee-a68f-b90e6cc89f3e" CreationDate="2013-06-09T15:29:22.080" UserId="261" Text="|legal|copyright|ownership|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="960" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="426" RevisionGUID="2d2ca11b-f7ef-499e-abcf-f92228ce4b3f" CreationDate="2013-06-09T15:38:06.670" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="If your art is original and you're the author, you have automatically copyright and the right to license the art. I don't know about CafePress, but some websites (like Facebook) have in their Terms and Conditions something that you give them all rights over your photos. **Check the CafePress T&amp;C for this!**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you still have your rights, find a good license for your product, or make one your own. You could think of things like author attribution, share rights for (non)commercial goals, adaptation rights, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, make sure you can prove that you are the rightful owner and original author of your product. Someone else can always claim it was him who came up with the idea. Things you could do is take a high resolution photo of the product with a newspaper, but it's always safer to deposit your product at a registering service. Note that you'd have to pay for this. A registering service I know of is the [BOIP][1], but that one is only for the Benelux.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At last, make sure the people at CafePress can see how you licensed your product. Also make sure they can contact you for further information. The latter isn't needed, but good practice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After these steps, no-one may do anything you don't want him to do (because of the license). Also, everyone knows what he may and may not do, because of the license information at CafePress. At last, when someone does do something he's not allowed to and claims he's the rightful owner, you have evidence that he isn't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]:https://www.boip.int/wps/portal/site/home/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="961" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="38" RevisionGUID="fd370ac0-9781-43f0-95ce-bf8b63c9edbf" CreationDate="2013-06-09T21:03:41.620" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/343835817099288576" />
  <row Id="962" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="427" RevisionGUID="fc643ddc-d885-4a96-bba5-a7636869aef7" CreationDate="2013-06-09T21:11:57.770" UserId="9" Text="A potential way to take on pro-bono work would be to offer to redesign local businesses' sites, particularly shops that you visit frequently (bonus points if you know the owner). In some cases, the business may have a website with...inconsistent quality, and especially nowadays, having a good web presence can be a marketing difference-maker.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It might be wise to only do one or two businesses total, and only one at a time, depending on your workload. Start with businesses that already have their own website, just so the owner would not have to take on additional expenses for web hosting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a note, this may depend partially on where you live (rural vs urban). but in either case, if you can make a good impression, the business owner may refer other local businesses to you, which helps you. And even if you don't get referrals, you've still helped the community, which feels good." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="963" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="428" RevisionGUID="bff7aae7-a70e-4032-8e92-4ba880013cdc" CreationDate="2013-06-09T22:23:48.110" UserId="231" Text="I help out at a startup incubator. It offers an excellent opportunity to work with products and ventures in very early stages. I lend a hand with anything from graphic design to development. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You meet exciting people with a lot on the line. Great for your local economy. Landing an internship could be a fun way to contribute. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="964" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="420" RevisionGUID="9737c95c-8d55-4f6f-b3e3-7cb2e179aaa5" CreationDate="2013-06-10T00:03:48.417" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/343881144024051712" />
  <row Id="965" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="392" RevisionGUID="d07eb9d4-3fc4-46b9-ab9d-ac7f10c0521c" CreationDate="2013-06-10T09:03:48.353" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/344017039502999553" />
  <row Id="966" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="325" RevisionGUID="71c7e33f-d764-4f4e-97ac-33dfae16b09e" CreationDate="2013-06-10T12:03:48.197" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/344062337839415297" />
  <row Id="967" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="339" RevisionGUID="1979a2ba-90da-48fa-92d7-6a2701b3dcb3" CreationDate="2013-06-10T18:03:48.567" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/344152935732744193" />
  <row Id="968" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="57" RevisionGUID="fc56e452-a0ad-4aa1-9eb8-d6a2db42e2c3" CreationDate="2013-06-11T00:03:48.513" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/344243532162277376" />
  <row Id="970" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="316" RevisionGUID="5d8f53ab-2ec4-47fc-887a-56bbe1fba524" CreationDate="2013-06-11T06:03:48.247" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/344334128939945984" />
  <row Id="971" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="413" RevisionGUID="71b13e41-fd0f-48dd-a06f-674b80430239" CreationDate="2013-06-11T07:40:46.797" UserId="9" Comment="Entered tag wiki and its excerpt" Text="A **portfolio** is a collection of works that a person has compiled throughout his or her career, highlighting his or her accomplishments. Works within a portfolio may consist of graphics, text snippets, coding projects, or other works. Portfolios may take physical form (as a binder with graphics, text samples, etc.) or digital form (as a website).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Questions with this tag may refer to the creation, the maintenance, or the distribution of one's portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Resources on building portfolios&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Carol Tice - 5 Steps to Building Your Freelance Portfolio From Nothing](http://freelanceswitch.com/freelancing-essentials/build-your-portfolio/)  &#xD;&#xA;[Jake Rocheleau - How To Put Together a Solid Freelance Portfolio](http://webdesignledger.com/tips/how-to-put-together-a-solid-freelance-portfolio)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="972" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="413" RevisionGUID="71b13e41-fd0f-48dd-a06f-674b80430239" CreationDate="2013-06-11T07:40:46.797" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 69 edit id of 82" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="973" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="414" RevisionGUID="c73c2456-19e5-49f9-8a5f-12a391aa9bb2" CreationDate="2013-06-11T07:40:52.720" UserId="9" Comment="Entered tag wiki and its excerpt" Text="A collection of highlighted works that a person has completed throughout his or her career." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="974" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="414" RevisionGUID="c73c2456-19e5-49f9-8a5f-12a391aa9bb2" CreationDate="2013-06-11T07:40:52.720" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 69 edit id of 83" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="975" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="429" RevisionGUID="a3559fb7-140d-4fee-9af7-6094b81ba552" CreationDate="2013-06-11T07:54:18.467" UserId="273" Text="I'm about to start my freelance web development/design business, as a sole trader. My website is set up, and ranking well, and I've already received quite a few requests for estimates/quotes on a project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am at the stage where I have a good estimate, and have a decent quote that I think the client will find attractive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My problem is, I don't have any formal templates to submit my quote. I refuse to submit a bog standard email, I want to attach a PDF which I will create myself, but on this PDF will be a full breakdown of costs, preliminary timelines etc. I dont really know what to put on this, how to word it or structure it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have access to, or know where I can access, a basic library of templates for such things? I suppose this will include a template for a Quote, Terms and Conditions, Contract to exchange business, and Invoices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help much appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="976" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="429" RevisionGUID="a3559fb7-140d-4fee-9af7-6094b81ba552" CreationDate="2013-06-11T07:54:18.467" UserId="273" Text="Freelance Web Developer Stationary for Estimates, Proposals, Contracts" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="977" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="429" RevisionGUID="a3559fb7-140d-4fee-9af7-6094b81ba552" CreationDate="2013-06-11T07:54:18.467" UserId="273" Text="|contracts|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="978" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="314" RevisionGUID="1d2bde37-e519-4747-9fdb-841c262f02ee" CreationDate="2013-06-11T09:03:48.630" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/344379428031307776" />
  <row Id="979" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="377" RevisionGUID="d72af2ae-10c1-45df-898e-e849a7c90add" CreationDate="2013-06-11T09:21:59.853" UserId="208" Comment="added 16 characters in body" Text="Part (1) sounds like a request for practical help on organizing and collating expense receipts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm assuming you have a competent small-business-friendly accountant/service - if not, go find recommendations and get one quick (at least as a one-off till that gets you unstuck). That's probably a deductible expense btw. Obviously you want to figure out way in advance which expenses are/are not allowable and will need to be tracked - this is basic stuff so join some contractor webinars/mailing-list/organization. Surely there are some for Finland. Any quality accounting service mails out super-helpful year-end/tax-time tips/newsletters on this sort of stuff. Go ask them for last year's.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some how-to tips on expense tracking I got which my friend and I both found useful:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - use an **expense diary/tracker**. In particular there are some great **[mobile apps](https://play.google.com/store/search?q=expense+tracking&amp;c=apps)** out there for this, preferably one that plays nicely with your calendar app. Some even **scan receipts** (or else you can manually enter item,amount,category,client/project ID,notes, or extract those from your statements). In particular, [Cashbook](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softmimo.android.dailyexpensetracker&amp;feature=search_result) is only US$6 (freemium) and is truly outstanding. Look for ones with five-star reviews and the capabilities you need.&#xD;&#xA; - if [Google Wave Apps](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.waveaccounting.receipts&amp;hl=en)  or any other app doesn't suit your needs (Receipts beta is only 3 stars/5) or is hard to use, then don't use it, already. There are hundreds more out there. You can always use a different Receipts app with the rest of Wave. I have no idea whether Wave is good - Quicken is. What are your specific top-five issues with Wave? Figure out what **you** need out of your expenses app then compare reviews and try apps out till you find the right one. Multi-currency? Configurable exchange rates? Multi-project? Customizable categories and subcategories? Receipt scanning? Summaries, graphing for arbitrary time period? Invoice format and generation? etc etc.&#xD;&#xA; - 8 months is insanely too long to trial an app. I give them 7 days max. Uninstall, already. Just because the product is called Google (or Microsoft, or whatever) doesn't mean it's necessarily any good. Be discerning.&#xD;&#xA; - absolutely **open a separate business account, with a separate business credit card**, then use that for anything expenseable to the business. This keeps your statements separate and clean, also means you can easily see totals and track stuff down. Then you can access your accounts via **downloadable/online PDF/CSV/XLS/Quicken/etc statements**. Do this for travel, meals, capital expenditure etc. A lot of banks/personal finance apps these days automatically break those items out into categories - that's good as a first cut.&#xD;&#xA; - if nothing else, gather your receipts and do them at the airport/hotel/plane/train/the next business day after you return from each trip. Fix a time on your schedule for trip reporting or invoicing if necessary. Figure out what works for you and your schedule.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is mostly forward-looking advice (but do get started! end the pain immediately!). For the prior five years, you're just going to have to go through bank statements, maybe some electronic records (find out which ones you can request) or year-end rollups, sort receipts into the proverbial shoebox for each year and/or client), type up a spreadsheet. Maybe hire a smart kid to help alongside (as a once-off) you because that stuff is tedious and annoying." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="980" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2" RevisionGUID="2597fd3f-8148-4f06-a90c-0ea23dd1ee63" CreationDate="2013-06-11T12:03:48.567" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/344424726669705216" />
  <row Id="981" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="12" RevisionGUID="42361252-7a7f-4f99-b518-273598ae34e1" CreationDate="2013-06-11T13:09:51.380" UserId="16" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="Precise time tracking is just not possible in the way most of us work. The better you can do is :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Track the time when you're focused on a project, and note down somewhere when you do little tasks on other projects&#xD;&#xA; - When you have done lots of little task, make an estimate of the time you actually used on these side tasks.&#xD;&#xA; - If you think it deserves a pay, then consider you have worked for this time + the core time&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Alternatively you can use the day charging. Just make sure your clients are aware that you may or may not work on other projects and that what you are charging is not exactly your full day, and so you make an approximation from the time you use on different projects." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="982" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="430" RevisionGUID="824e63ec-5ab7-4a03-aea1-20d43f720666" CreationDate="2013-06-11T13:45:13.407" UserId="100" Text="I’m working mostly for small businesses and I’ve never used a written contract. No client has asked about it yet. The only paper involved is my offer and invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I started my freelancing, I read into this topic and came to the conclusion that I shouldn’t use [contract templates](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/169/100) without talking to a lawyer. Before I could make an appointment, the first clients showed up, I worked for them, everything was fine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, reading here at Freelancing SE, I feeld like I should get a contract template which I can use for future work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But is it really necessary? Would you recommend it? Or is it only worth it for bigger clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="983" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="430" RevisionGUID="824e63ec-5ab7-4a03-aea1-20d43f720666" CreationDate="2013-06-11T13:45:13.407" UserId="100" Text="Should I use a written contract when working for small businesses?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="984" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="430" RevisionGUID="824e63ec-5ab7-4a03-aea1-20d43f720666" CreationDate="2013-06-11T13:45:13.407" UserId="100" Text="|client|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="985" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="431" RevisionGUID="83c30256-079c-429a-9e59-3b0ef3d1ff4f" CreationDate="2013-06-11T14:11:45.250" UserId="121" Text="Generally, you may want to consult/hire a lawyer to prepare the **Terms and Conditions** and your **Contract**. Of course, you prepare what you need included there and the lawyer should wrap it around with the legal attributes and requirements of the country you are living in/doing business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Invoices** - There are many accounting softwares (both free and paid). I am personally a fan of FreshBooks.com (has a free plan with no time restrictions, that does the trick for me). If you want additional functionality such as over 3 clients and sending real/paper invoices to your clients you may want to look into other plans or other products. *DISCLAIMER: I am not affiliated with the above site, this is just a personal opinion.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Quote** - I've seen many many different and creative ways to request information from the client and provide quotes on the prices of your services. Personally, I would go with something minimalistic, but well designed. Remember, this is usually where the client decides whether or not he should go with you or the other freelances. Of course, this doesn't mean that you can't provide complex packages or product bundles - just don't bombard your client with information at first sight. (That's why most designer's websites have a &quot;request a quote&quot; option, instead of simply placing dozens and dozens of scenarios and prices on the website itself)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for templates, I would suggest you check out the following great examples. Even if they don't do the trick for you, they are still pretty good for motivation:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[http://speckyboy.com/2010/08/12/5-free-to-use-freelance-design-contract-templates/][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[http://www.leemunroe.com/freelance-document-templates/][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[http://develop-a-website.com/10-freelance-web-design-contract-templates-and-samples][3]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://develop-a-website.com/10-freelance-web-design-contract-templates-and-samples&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.leemunroe.com/freelance-document-templates/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://develop-a-website.com/10-freelance-web-design-contract-templates-and-samples" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="986" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="432" RevisionGUID="16c25baa-9832-485b-b1a8-9a6a44e9a808" CreationDate="2013-06-11T14:17:28.283" UserId="127" Text="The size of your clients does not matter. You should only perform work with a contract in place (unless you are selling a product not a service, and the product is relatively low price).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="987" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="433" RevisionGUID="e51bc805-e8e4-4506-90af-34b5669ea299" CreationDate="2013-06-11T14:28:51.280" UserId="121" Text="When working on multiple projects, distributing work and time is a personal choice (you can work on the most complex project first, on the highest paying first, on the oldest client first and so on).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally, I try to steer away from retainers, but if I do use such practice, I make sure I pause work immediately when the last payment expires and resume it immediately when the next payment is received.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An alternative and a better approach in my opinion is to request an upfront percentage for the whole project/week/milestone (e.g. 50%) and only work when this upfront payment is received. This way you will be (partially) guaranteed that you will receive some money for your efforts. If the client is late with the upfront payment - too bad for him - his project will be delayed and you can always work for other clients in the meantime. Just try to not get any long-term projects though, because you may be overwhelmed once the first client pays." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="988" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="434" RevisionGUID="bae86fb6-07ef-4573-b405-c7466cad3d23" CreationDate="2013-06-11T14:43:56.877" UserId="43" Text="The contract is basically your safety net. It protects both sides. Without a contract in place, it would be difficult to enforce payment if the client decided not to pay you. Equally it would be difficult for the client to enforce delivery if you decided not to deliver whatever was agreed (or worse still, decided to delete/take down whatever had been delivered, post payment). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It sounds like you've been fortunate so far in that all of your clients have been happy to pay you whatever was agreed between yourselves and there have been no disputes around payment. In the event that a dispute appears on the horizon, having a contract in place that is signed by both parties ensures that both sides are duty bound to honour their agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Presenting a client with a professional contract before commencing a project also demonstrates to the client that you are a professional outfit, which will enhance your reputation in the long run." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="991" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="430" RevisionGUID="ba0a7ab0-3d4d-4271-9e34-f8de63343b34" CreationDate="2013-06-11T15:03:48.927" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/344470025492643841" />
  <row Id="992" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="435" RevisionGUID="c5b73780-83f5-41e0-a468-dff8f254a777" CreationDate="2013-06-11T15:08:23.837" UserId="121" Text="Rates for design differ from region to region. Remember that not all the money that the company charges for work (e.g. $100/hour) goes into their pocket (minus the difference for your rate). There is electricity to be paid, tech to be bought, food, travel expenses, mobiles, suppliers (in case they buy some materials, e.g. textures, fonts), accounting costs and many many more. Substracting all those and your salary comes your boss' salary. Of course, it is natural that this salary must be larger than yours, even though you do all the heavy lifting - due to the fact that they carry all the risk and find all the clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now on the other thing - how come the company can charge $100/h to clients while you charge $20/h? Well, the client is not paying solely for work completed. He also pays for professionalism, trusts a brand, expects his deadlines to be met and knows that he has a trustable entity before him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You on the other hand (theoretically speaking, I am not referring directly to your) are a single person. You don't have the staff, manpower, nor the knowledge on how to run a successfull business. You don't have an established brand and track record. So the price you may ask for is limited. If it should be $20/h though - I can't say.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this case, we may put it this way:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Contractor: You; Client: The Family Company&#xD;&#xA;* Contractor: The Family Company; Client: Company X&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you were in the shoes of Company X - which of the two contractors would you pick for the next project? If you choose the smaller and less credible one (you), would you pay the same amount you would pay the Family Company?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="993" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="436" RevisionGUID="cd5e94b3-9f3f-4659-9e40-7ec9d2a33640" CreationDate="2013-06-11T15:18:45.933" UserId="77" Text="Contracts are a critical piece you hope never to need.  A contract defines the nature of a business agreement and ensures that expectations are clearly set.  Ensuring the contract is clear on expectations for both sides is critical for avoiding miscommunications and ensuring that business operates smoothly as well as protecting both sides in the (unfortunately all too common) case where something breaks down along the way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Often it may be possible to reference the contract to resolve issues that come up peacefully, but occasionally the situation still degrades to the point where the contract is necessary to ensure both sides get what they deserve when one side becomes an unwilling party.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've seen this happen on both multi-million dollar projects where the company I was working for at the time had to go after our vendor as well as on small projects where a failure of a client to provide details they were required to provide resulted in a missed deadline and they then put a stop payment on a check for several thousand dollars they had given us as an initial payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="994" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="437" RevisionGUID="dff712ec-27ea-4183-adfe-b0072fe81094" CreationDate="2013-06-11T19:37:47.220" UserId="281" Text="TL;DT: definitively&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a freelancer in germany and I used to work for a small web-design studio. However they managed a not-so-small eCommerce site. I got the job through a friend in this typical &quot;hey, we have a minor problem there, could you have a look&quot;-manner. So I took a look and fixed the bug. They were satisfied with my quick work and soon other minor thinks came up. Then bigger ones and so on until I became a regular supporter to their team. Well support is the wrong word here, I was their only programmer (and also the only one who knew HTML and CSS, but that's probably not so important in that business). We always said we really should have a contract, but we never actually did set one up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The last thing I did for them was a new newsletter system. The old one was just a php-script that had to run in an opened browser window. It processed a few addresses and then would reload the page to process the next few. This was ok in the beginning, but meanwhile they had more than 750,000 mails to deliver and so the browser page based version was to be replaced with a cron-job. The problem was: I didn't know how long the script would run. So it was executed every few minutes, checks if the script was still running by looking through a list of active processes (using `ps`) and terminates if it found the script to be running. It worked on my machine. I insisted on testing this more thoroughly, but the management decided to put it on for production. Production in this case meant: the same server where the database and apache ran on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, there was a bug. The newly executed script would only find old instances if the pid of the running instance was smaller than the new ones. It was a stupid bug and it was my fault. The script went production on a Friday and I was only notified on Monday. Meanwhile our hoster took down the entire server as it behaved like an infected machine, sending dozends of the same mails to the same addresses. The shop was offline for a whole weekend. Other weekends brought in sales of about 100,000 €. I was a student.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are employed at a company in germany you cannot be hold liable for this kind of damage (maybe if your contract sais otherwise, but I would guess that this isn't even legally possible). However, being a freelancer is a whole other story. By default I was liable. Now I did not agree to run this in production and I also -- long ago -- informed them that running everything on one server, especially the mailing system was not the best idea. But I couldn't proof it. We didn't have a contract and of course we never documented those kind of things neither.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end I was very lucky and they didn't try to hold me liable. I still had a few sleepless days till their decision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have a contract, check liabilities. Also think about thinks like licensing. Are they allowed to use your work in every manner they want? Can they resell thinks? May they used it in other countries? In other contexts? Do they need your permission, do you want (and deserve of course) extra money for that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may find better sleep ;D" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="995" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="438" RevisionGUID="dd01c2fd-05cf-4dac-8704-e139fcc1f8b9" CreationDate="2013-06-11T22:50:55.873" UserId="124" Text="I liken contracts to backups. Though you don't say what industry you work in, I am sure you backup your computer, invoices etc somehow even if it is a hard paper copy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You hope you never have to use a backup, but that one incident makes you are so grateful you did slog through them **&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In other words: Yes. Always use a contract, it is your safety net and doesn't just protect you but the people around you that you love. (Sole traders: What if someone came and took everything you own?)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="996" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="439" RevisionGUID="557f1b21-73e9-468b-963f-dadec05ad910" CreationDate="2013-06-11T22:55:50.650" UserId="124" Text="I am very clear with all my clients honesty works both ways. So I will generally not put in any backdoors. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**However** on the rare occasions I sense something maybe going a miss I do setup a backdoor, but this is all in the contract and I very politely mention when everyone is in good spirits  &quot;just like your gas company can cut you off if you don't pay the bills I can too. I am sure that will never apply but I do feel I should be open with you.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your work is web based possible consider offering the web hosting to go with a product, I do and whilst is only just covers its cost it does give me peace of mind, I need no backdoor for these clients - I am in control. And most the time clients are happy, they want me to be in control - they don't want to have anything to do with it!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="997" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="440" RevisionGUID="97b52c24-c83a-41ae-b2b0-6750cb9b8b51" CreationDate="2013-06-12T03:11:26.877" UserId="66" Text="Quoting from [freelancersunion](http://www.freelancersunion.org/blog/2011/09/12/use-a-contract-every-client-every-time/)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ___we urge all freelancers to use Contract Creator to help insure that they get paid on time, that their jobs are clearly defined, and that they are considered professionals by their clients.___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client owes you a relatively small amount of money, you may be able to take the matter to small claims court, where cases are decided by a judge, without the advice (and expense) of an attorney. Procedures for small claims courts vary from state to state.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For both freelancers and clients, court action is a last resort. Although it may be necessary when other measures have failed, the costs of bringing a lawsuit to court—in time, money, and frustration—usually outweigh the possible gain." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="998" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="441" RevisionGUID="fd1a65d2-07a6-4d3f-adcf-3f00a6188e80" CreationDate="2013-06-12T05:58:32.900" UserId="60" Text="You should always have a contract that fits what you are doing.  Depending on the kind of work you may want a written contract.   I have been self-employed for 9 years and my general rules are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Very small jobs (a few hours or less) do not require a written contract.  The reason here is that the effort in drafting a contract and reviewing it becomes a significant burden.  Nobody wants to sign and fax something back to get an hour of tech support.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  If there is something more specific, I go with a bidding process which establishes a contract.  Keep in mind that not all written contracts say they are contracts.  All that is necessary is an offer and an acceptance for an exchange.  That can be in writing without a contract document.  In essence I issue a quotation or estimate, which offers to do an appropriately scoped job (scoping info in the quote or estimate), payment terms etc.  When this is accepted this forms a contract (and it is a written one).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  Larger projects which are open ended typically have more complex terms and a contract which calls itself that and spells out those terms are often helpful." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="999" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="442" RevisionGUID="b6f54861-1f16-4e92-a417-701f46c74d3e" CreationDate="2013-06-12T10:44:02.257" UserId="164" Text="I often stand in the situation where I can choose between doing something myself or outsourcing it to someone else. Or I have a chance to so some extra work in a situation where they are not able to pay my full rate. As an aid in both these situations, I would like to be able to calculate the cost (to me) for working one extra hour. This is very simple if I am 100% utilized, because then I can easily calculate the opportunity cost (cost = to what I am missing out on). But as most freelancers I am just roughly 50% utilized. How do I calculate what the cost of an hour of work is to me? Or in other words, coming back to my outsourcing decision, how much would I be willing to pay to get someone to save me one hour of work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that the cost is just one part of the picture, as sometimes extra work can give me extra opportunities etc. etc. but it nevertheless helps to know the cost of my hours of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The perfect answer would probably involve some rough formula or rule of thumb." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1000" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="442" RevisionGUID="b6f54861-1f16-4e92-a417-701f46c74d3e" CreationDate="2013-06-12T10:44:02.257" UserId="164" Text="How do I calculate the cost (to me) of one hour of work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1001" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="442" RevisionGUID="b6f54861-1f16-4e92-a417-701f46c74d3e" CreationDate="2013-06-12T10:44:02.257" UserId="164" Text="|price-per-hour|consulting|strategy|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1002" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="443" RevisionGUID="dad133dd-c312-4b8a-b332-f14e69170fc1" CreationDate="2013-06-12T11:10:54.663" UserId="102" Text="Now thats an interesting subject. Actually two subjects :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. How to determine the price for one extra hour of my work&#xD;&#xA; 2. How to determine the total cost of outsourced hour of work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Ad 1)*** For me that depends if I am currently happy with the ammount of work I have and what kind of client wants it. **If I want to have more paid work, then I charge my hourly rate** (which is calculated in such way, that it includes my working time, time needed for &quot;switching the context&quot; to that project, other costs, reserves etc.) **If I do not need the work but I want the client to be happy, I will do it for my standard rate as well.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Otherwise I multiply the rate in such way, that the resulting number is enough for me to cover the loss of free time** (I really do base this on my emotions). It is usually between 20%-100% raise (unexpected weekend work is always 100% price raise for me - i consider weekend time essential to regeneration of body and mind and I am not willing to part with it)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Ad 2)*** I approach this more strictly (although I make sure I wont get paralyzed by analysis): **(Hourly rate of outsourced workforce * number of hours needed) + (time needed for testing the result myself * my hourly rate) + reserve for additional last minute work and snags.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I approximate the testing time as 20-50% of the amount of time needed for development I would go for 50% if it is one hour of work. Of course if you can trust your contractors, you can lower this estimate, but you need to test, because you dont want to hand over product with low quality to your customers. Even in consulting, you &quot;test&quot; by proofreading whatever falls out of your contractor, checking for mistakes, weak parts, redundancies, accomplishment of the goals etc. and ensuring that you are handing over high quality product to your customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I add 20% of the original ammount as the reserve, it is usually about right.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And thats it - if the number is lower than doing everything by myself (with the price calculated per no. 1), I would consider outsourcing the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you can see outsourcing the work would usually end up being more expensive than doing the work myself if it was only one hour job..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1003" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="441" RevisionGUID="7bf87844-6b99-46e8-b993-5d3047df7418" CreationDate="2013-06-12T12:32:24.840" UserId="60" Comment="added 1040 characters in body" Text="You should always have a contract that fits what you are doing.  Depending on the kind of work you may want a written contract.   I have been self-employed for 9 years and my general rules are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Very small jobs (a few hours or less) do not require a written contract.  The reason here is that the effort in drafting a contract and reviewing it becomes a significant burden.  Nobody wants to sign and fax something back to get an hour of tech support.  And generally my customer needs the opportunity to buy further services that collecting payment is not a problem (it has happened maybe twice for me in the last 9 years, and it was never enough to even justify going to small claims court.).  For small projects keep in mind that things may be dynamically negotiated through the short project as well.  &quot;Now that you fixed that could you also...&quot; is not that uncommon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  If there is something more specific (typically up to about 20-40 hours, for well defined projects), I go with a bidding process which establishes a contract.  Keep in mind that not all written contracts say they are contracts.  All that is necessary is an offer and an acceptance for an exchange.  That can be in writing without a contract document.  In essence I issue a quotation or estimate, which offers to do an appropriately scoped job (scoping info in the quote or estimate), payment terms etc.  When this is accepted this forms a contract (and it is a written one).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  Larger projects which are open ended typically have more complex terms and a contract which calls itself that and spells out those terms are often helpful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that the primary point of a contract is a shared reference.  If you are there for a couple hours doing something fairly simple, there is no real reason for a written contract.  If it is going to be spread out or scope needs to be determined in advance you need *a document* which specifies this and establishes a contract.  If scope is not easy to define, and so you need additional terms like cancellation terms, etc.  then you need a formal contract.  But in all cases you need it to fit the work and one size does not necessarily fit all." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1005" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="445" RevisionGUID="03010a4b-ed10-4b06-ae67-2f8580dd2ffb" CreationDate="2013-06-12T16:24:59.500" UserId="77" Text="I would challenge that you are looking at it wrong.  The relevant question is not &quot;what is the cost of one hour of your work&quot; so much as &quot;what is one hour of your time worth?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the case of outsourcing it is tricky as what your time is worth is complex.  You could be doing sales which might or might not produce money, you could be doing other work that pays more or less directly or you could be spending time with your friends/family/relaxing which the value is solely up to you.  It's tricky to measure since the value of sales depends on how good you are at it and how much time you are doing direct work.  It really comes down to how much you think your time is worth and how productive you are in general.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you know this, the other questions become simpler.  For outsourcing, you know if it is worth your time to do particular direct work or if you might be better off working on other things and taking a smaller cut.  If you think your time is worth $80 an hour and the job only pays $60, then outsource it for under $60 if you can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Similarly, if someone wants you to do extra work, you should first consider what it is worth to them for the work to be done.  Don't charge less than it should be worth to them.  If the amount it is worth to them is legitimately less than what your time is worth to you, then don't take it unless it's going to cost you other work that makes it overall worth the time. (Or outsource it if you can.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1006" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="446" RevisionGUID="55a4f237-339d-49d6-b6a9-054db7446d8b" CreationDate="2013-06-12T16:28:50.753" UserId="77" Text="You are far better off ensuring that you have strong contract language defending your position than any technical means.  If you have strong legal grounds, the technical measure is unnecessary as you can force them to discontinue use or pay up.  If you don't have strong legal grounds, they may actually be able to go after you for putting in the limiting feature for work they were paying you for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can't cover yourself legally, then technical measures will only make you look bad and possibly land you in financial and legal trouble.  The only time such technical measures really make sense is in the scope of broadly used software where it isn't feasible to ensure contract obligations are met (or that contracts or sales even occur) when dealing with broadly useful software." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1007" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="447" RevisionGUID="97efe87c-ce1a-4643-a78a-494628aa27a8" CreationDate="2013-06-12T17:59:46.650" UserId="295" Text="I've started the process of creating an LLC through Legalzoom. I've acquired a client now though, before hearing back from the Secretary of State, etc. (I'm in Ohio).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I start work/invoicing with the company name before the LLC is official?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once the LLC *is* official, is it a problem to have invoice dates that predate the date of incorporation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps, is this purely a State/legal question?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1008" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="447" RevisionGUID="97efe87c-ce1a-4643-a78a-494628aa27a8" CreationDate="2013-06-12T17:59:46.650" UserId="295" Text="Can I start doing work before my LLC paperwork has run through to completion?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1009" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="447" RevisionGUID="97efe87c-ce1a-4643-a78a-494628aa27a8" CreationDate="2013-06-12T17:59:46.650" UserId="295" Text="|legal|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1010" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="443" RevisionGUID="549caf3f-255d-4337-8169-b446a21d50a1" CreationDate="2013-06-12T18:05:43.190" UserId="58" Comment="grammar! and en-dashes! –! (and so on)" Text="Now that's an interesting subject. Actually, two subjects:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. How to determine the price for one extra hour of my work&#xD;&#xA; 2. How to determine the total cost of outsourced hour of work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Ad 1)*** For me, that depends on if I am currently happy with the amount of work I have, and what kind of client wants it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * If I want to have more paid work, then I charge my hourly rate (which is calculated in such a way that it includes my working time, time needed for &quot;switching the context&quot; to that project, other costs, reserves, etc.).  &#xD;&#xA; * If I do not need the work, but I want the client to be happy, I will do it for my standard rate as well.&#xD;&#xA; * Otherwise, I multiply the rate so that the resulting number is enough for me to cover the *loss of free time* (I really do base this on how I feel); this is usually between 20-100% extra (unexpected weekend work is always 100% more for me – I consider weekend time essential to regeneration of body and mind and I am not willing to part with it).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Ad 2)*** I approach this more strictly (although I make sure I wont get paralyzed by analysis): &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    (Hourly rate of outsourced workforce * number of hours needed)&#xD;&#xA;    + (time needed for testing the result myself * my hourly rate)&#xD;&#xA;    + reserve for additional last minute work and snags.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I approximate the testing time as 20-50% of the amount of time needed for development I would go for 50% if it is one hour of work. Of course if you can trust your contractors, you can lower this estimate, but you need to test; you don't want to hand over product with low quality to your customers, right?. Even in consulting, you &quot;test&quot; by proofreading whatever goes to your contractor, checking for mistakes, weak parts, redundancies, accomplishment of the goals, etc., and ensuring that you are handing over a high quality product to your customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I add 20% of the original amount as the reserve; it is usually about right.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And that's it – if the number is lower than doing everything by myself (with the price calculated per no. 1) – I would consider outsourcing the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you can see, outsourcing the work would usually end up being more expensive than doing the work myself if it was only for a one hour job..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1011" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="443" RevisionGUID="549caf3f-255d-4337-8169-b446a21d50a1" CreationDate="2013-06-12T18:05:43.190" Comment="Proposed by 58 approved by 69 edit id of 84" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1012" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="448" RevisionGUID="a3033742-b59b-469d-bfb0-fac4d6a0c8bb" CreationDate="2013-06-12T18:16:38.140" UserId="69" Text="No, you cannot start working and billing under the name of a legal entity that does not (yet) exist. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can certainly start work on the project, but as of now, you are still working as a sole proprietor. You would not be covered under any of the legal protections provided by the LLC. And you cannot retroactively claim the work was done &quot;under the corporation&quot; after the fact when the legal corporation is finally formed. That would be like taking out insurance *after* the event already happened." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1013" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="426" RevisionGUID="a526a0c4-90cd-4d72-8599-e31869fc7cae" CreationDate="2013-06-12T18:28:07.290" UserId="58" Comment="grammar, T&amp;C expansion." Text="If your art is original and you're the author, you have automatically copyright and the right to license the art. I don't know about CafePress, but some websites (like Facebook) have in their Terms and Conditions something like the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **You grant us a non-exclusive, transferable,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content&#xD;&#xA;&gt; that you post on or in connection with &amp;lt;service&amp;gt;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Which essentially means you waive all applicable rights to the content.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Check the CafePress T&amp;C for this!**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you still have your rights, find a good license for your product, or make one your own. You could think of things like author attribution, share rights for (non-)commercial goals, adaptation rights, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, make sure you can prove that you are the rightful owner and original author of your product. Someone else can always claim it was him who came up with the idea. Things you could do is take a high resolution photo of the product with a newspaper, but it's always safer to deposit your product at a registering service. Note that you'd have to pay for this. A registering service I know of is the [BOIP][2], but that one is only for the Benelux.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At last, make sure the people at CafePress can see how you have licensed your product. Also make sure they can contact you for further information. The latter isn't needed, but is good practice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After these steps, nobody may do anything that you don't want them to do (because of the license). Also, everyone knows what they may or may not do, because of the license information at CafePress. Lastly, when someone does do something they're not allowed to and claims they're the rightful owner, you have evidence that they are not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.boip.int/wps/portal/site/home/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1014" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="426" RevisionGUID="a526a0c4-90cd-4d72-8599-e31869fc7cae" CreationDate="2013-06-12T18:28:07.290" Comment="Proposed by 58 approved by 19 edit id of 86" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1015" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="449" RevisionGUID="3c3c0c44-fc2e-486b-bd8b-f86352ea70b3" CreationDate="2013-06-12T19:17:45.833" UserDisplayName="user10" Text="I work as a contractor with one full-time client, and I also have an S-Corp that I funnel my freelance work through via subcontracting and delegation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I get a lot of phone calls and LinkedIn messages from recruiters and managers, and I'm realizing that the opportunity cost of turning these people down is turning out to be greater than the wage my current gig pays.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now: I realize that this is not exactly in external recruiter's best interest, so I want to be clear that I'm not asking how to get a lead from a recuiter and then &quot;ditch the middle man.&quot; I just feel like this is a great opportunity to at least ask the question:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;I don't have the capacity to come work for you, but would you consider hiring my firm as a vendor?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anybody have experience navigating these tricky waters? I've asked around and one of the better suggestions I received was to respond to a soliciation with an email like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;Thanks for reaching out! I'm currently accepting work through my company, [name]. Let's schedule a call to see if its a good fit.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me, that seems good - it's succint, positive, and has an action item built into it. But of course, I'm asking, so I'm open to any and all suggestions and wisdom. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1016" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="449" RevisionGUID="3c3c0c44-fc2e-486b-bd8b-f86352ea70b3" CreationDate="2013-06-12T19:17:45.833" UserDisplayName="user10" Text="How does one turn a job offer into a sale?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1017" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="449" RevisionGUID="3c3c0c44-fc2e-486b-bd8b-f86352ea70b3" CreationDate="2013-06-12T19:17:45.833" UserDisplayName="user10" Text="|negotiation|connection|sales|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1018" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="449" RevisionGUID="d676f6f5-fd1a-499c-9b4b-506f65bf8063" CreationDate="2013-06-12T19:56:47.137" UserDisplayName="user10" Comment="edited title" Text="How does one transition a job offer into a sale?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1019" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="447" RevisionGUID="c998f93e-8c49-4ba9-938c-acb6340e610d" CreationDate="2013-06-13T00:03:50.210" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/344968315040575488" />
  <row Id="1020" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="126" RevisionGUID="6d0f8640-cdc2-4ded-a931-e41b08ae3d54" CreationDate="2013-06-13T06:03:50.133" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/345058911470108673" />
  <row Id="1021" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="450" RevisionGUID="3305f282-61af-40da-b1dd-29980dafb5cc" CreationDate="2013-06-13T07:47:21.543" UserId="102" Text="You answered yourself, that second response has everything. It is short, clear, friendly. If they are interested, they can come back to you. If the offer seems interesting, I might go little further myself - I would call them first. The email from headhunter will most likely contain phone number, so why not to proceed proactively. Only if I couldnt reach that person by phone, I would drop that email as a followup (kind of).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ***&quot;Thanks for reaching out! I'm currently accepting work through my&#xD;&#xA;&gt; company, [name]. I wasn't able to reach you via phone, so let's&#xD;&#xA;&gt; schedule a call at a date and time that suits us both to see if its a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; good fit.&quot;***" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1022" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="103" RevisionGUID="ffa2bab4-9146-4e9e-a656-e1d246d7bf34" CreationDate="2013-06-13T09:03:50.397" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/345104211526172672" />
  <row Id="1023" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="256" RevisionGUID="80a39ff3-7fc5-46e7-8a7d-4317289fe56d" CreationDate="2013-06-13T15:03:50.623" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/345194809016848384" />
  <row Id="1025" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="451" RevisionGUID="94c41891-e512-417a-b9b1-e08a09b81d8a" CreationDate="2013-06-13T18:58:27.780" UserId="314" Text="Even if you don't bill for the little interruptions, it's only fair to track your time. I've found that having the discipline to jot down your time throughout the day is paying back in several ways&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Your invoices are accurate from Client's perspective&#xD;&#xA; - Your invoices are accurate from your perspective (you know how much each job has taken you)&#xD;&#xA; - You're not wasting time &quot;recreating&quot; what your day was like&#xD;&#xA; - You can track non-billable tasks (distractions), too&#xD;&#xA; - You can revisit such detailed &quot;history&quot; and improve a lot how you approach project types, clients, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The definitive enabler is some form of time ledger. As simple as a spreadsheet or as powerful as a commercial accounting software with &quot;time sheets&quot;, the condition is that it's always on your fingertips. I've been using a commercial product with time sheets that automatically track client/project/phase. This makes generation of invoices together with accompanying detailed report of tasks performed as easy as a few clicks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1027" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="452" RevisionGUID="474bb77d-0e8b-40d2-98ef-664cd233db7f" CreationDate="2013-06-13T20:10:51.677" UserId="317" Comment="User toggled feature status. Now: not featured" Text="&lt;p&gt;Freelancing Stack Exchange is for questions relating to self-employed and freelance workers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;/search&quot;&gt;look around&lt;/a&gt; to see if your question has been asked before. It’s also OK to &lt;a href=&quot;/helpcenter/self-answer&quot;&gt;ask and answer your own question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If your question is not specifically on-topic for $SiteName, it may be on topic for another Stack Exchange site. If no site currently exists that will accept your question, you may &lt;a href=&quot;http://area51.stackexchange.com/faq&quot;&gt;commit to&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/76974/how-can-i-propose-a-new-site&quot;&gt;propose&lt;/a&gt; a new site at &lt;a href=&quot;http://area51.stackexchange.com/&quot;&gt;Area51&lt;/a&gt;, the place where new Stack Exchange communities are democratically created.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more help, see &lt;a href=&quot;/help/dont-ask&quot;&gt;&quot;What types of questions should I avoid asking?&quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1029" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="449" RevisionGUID="7fd8a3b7-6bba-447b-93da-d33a0f54ec9d" CreationDate="2013-06-14T00:03:50.613" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/345330703963127809" />
  <row Id="1030" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="454" RevisionGUID="1599749d-3667-48a6-a6a0-8d486a864d84" CreationDate="2013-06-14T02:14:55.347" UserId="318" Text="I would like to try working as a private tour guide. I live in Toronto, Canada, and have been here for most of my life.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a few bicycles, but no car. I do not own a [bicycle built for two](http://enwp.org/tandem_bicycle), but can rent one, and have experience in operating them. Perhaps environmentally-friendly downtown tandem tours could be my niche.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I speak English, plus a fair bit of Hebrew.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are some good ways for me to find customers? Should I post ads on Craigslist and Kijiji? Is it legal for me to solicit business in person, inside the Greyhound bus station or the train station? How about on the sidewalks just outside the stations? What else can I try?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1031" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="454" RevisionGUID="1599749d-3667-48a6-a6a0-8d486a864d84" CreationDate="2013-06-14T02:14:55.347" UserId="318" Text="Starting out as a private tour guide in a large North American city, how can I find customers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1032" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="454" RevisionGUID="1599749d-3667-48a6-a6a0-8d486a864d84" CreationDate="2013-06-14T02:14:55.347" UserId="318" Text="|marketing|attracting-clients|newcomer|growth|canada|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1033" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="454" RevisionGUID="498a0bdb-abd1-4642-9824-2fa569b56fa3" CreationDate="2013-06-14T02:21:02.023" UserId="318" Comment="+." Text="I currently do IT consulting but would like to try working as a private tour guide. I live in Toronto, Canada, and have been here for most of my life.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a few bicycles, but no car. I do not own a [bicycle built for two](http://enwp.org/tandem_bicycle), but can rent one, and have experience in operating them. Perhaps environmentally-friendly downtown tandem tours could be my niche.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I speak English, plus a fair bit of Hebrew.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are some good ways for me to find customers?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I post ads on Craigslist and Kijiji? Is it legal for me to solicit business in person, inside the Greyhound bus station or the train station? How about on the sidewalks just outside the stations? Should I create a sign?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What other advice can you offer me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1034" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="454" RevisionGUID="da2bd85d-66ad-4c94-a9a3-9acb3766acc5" CreationDate="2013-06-14T03:03:55.613" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/345376024332230656" />
  <row Id="1035" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="207" RevisionGUID="199570dd-34ec-44f7-84de-dfd367005949" CreationDate="2013-06-14T21:03:55.573" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/345647815000748032" />
  <row Id="1036" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="21" RevisionGUID="a71e8588-ed50-41be-8d75-7172e528aaee" CreationDate="2013-06-15T00:03:55.510" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/345693113668468736" />
  <row Id="1037" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="455" RevisionGUID="4d4fc8fc-5f1d-419a-933a-94dea8eea518" CreationDate="2013-06-15T00:31:53.107" UserId="231" Text="I am no accountant or lawyer. But since this is a site for freelancing Ill give my practical advice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do your books on a cash basis then it  matters when the check clears in your bank account not an invoice date. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And it really only matters to the IRS if you are collecting $600+ &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again not an expert but that's my interpretation. And if you have a paying customer, accept their pmt. The rest will fall in place soon. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1038" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="8" RevisionGUID="be56b199-bce7-49a8-9886-77846fc00141" CreationDate="2013-06-15T03:03:55.770" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/345738412294287360" />
  <row Id="1039" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="429" RevisionGUID="c85cd78a-8712-49e8-98dc-b2e6116f38ed" CreationDate="2013-06-15T06:03:55.707" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/345783710999781376" />
  <row Id="1040" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="456" RevisionGUID="335c94ae-8f37-4b85-bb58-76799814a417" CreationDate="2013-06-15T12:22:05.063" UserId="127" Text="I don't know about the legality of soliciting business at the bus or train station. But I think you are on the right track by thinking about:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Who would purchase my services, and&#xD;&#xA;* Where can I find those people&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some other suggestions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Connecting with the concierge service of some hotels that might get the customers interested in your service (probably not the ones catering to business travelers)&#xD;&#xA;* Connecting with some hostels&#xD;&#xA;* What about advertising with the local travel bureau? Or some group that purports to provide information to travelers?&#xD;&#xA;* Is there a free local publication geared towards environmentally friendly consumers? We have one here in Minnesota that comes out monthly, and is available at many places. (Yoga studios, natural food stores, etc.) If there is something comparable in Toronto, that might be a good place to advertise. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1041" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="269" RevisionGUID="1b4de320-e338-492e-a170-009b3e2e089c" CreationDate="2013-06-17T21:14:11.417" UserId="208" Comment="clarify title" Text="Donating my work to charitable organizations without incurring legal liability?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1042" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="269" RevisionGUID="1b4de320-e338-492e-a170-009b3e2e089c" CreationDate="2013-06-17T21:14:11.417" Comment="Proposed by 208 approved by -1 edit id of 87" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1043" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="269" RevisionGUID="f1d933b9-f8f1-411f-bbd9-0ba50ee4f822" CreationDate="2013-06-17T21:14:11.417" UserId="100" Comment="clarify title" Text="Donating my work to charitable organizations without incuring legal liability?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1044" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="457" RevisionGUID="a481a328-f23b-4077-95ff-6b48dfb7f7dc" CreationDate="2013-06-17T21:15:47.393" UserId="100" Text="I created a website for a client. I offered to install any future security updates for a fixed monthly fee (so it wouldn’t matter if there are 0 or 10 security updates in a month), but the client didn’t accept. I warned him what could happen to his site without applying security updates, but to no avail: the client wants no security updates at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the inevitable happened: the site got hacked. Now the client wants help as fast as possible, of course.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don’t like this task, it’s no fun. If it wouldn’t be my client, I’d probably decline this job. And on top of that, this is bad timing because I have no time for it actually. But as I created the site some time ago and I’m &quot;his&quot; web designer, I feel responsible for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I’m thinking »Damn, &lt;s&gt;we&lt;/s&gt; you could have saved &lt;s&gt;us&lt;/s&gt; me trouble if you’d have let me install security updates. Why didn’t you listen?! Now I have to clean up this mess.«. Could this be a reason to charge more for this job?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the one hand I’d feel like taking advantage of an emergency case and maybe also letting him learn the hard way. But on the other hand I’d feel like charging more because the job is harder in a way, not necessarily because of the required skills or time, but because of pressure (&quot;it has to be done *now*&quot;, &quot;help me, I can’t sell anymore&quot;) and because I grudge doing it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I deal with such cases?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1045" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="457" RevisionGUID="a481a328-f23b-4077-95ff-6b48dfb7f7dc" CreationDate="2013-06-17T21:15:47.393" UserId="100" Text="Charging more for emergencies because of negligence?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1046" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="457" RevisionGUID="a481a328-f23b-4077-95ff-6b48dfb7f7dc" CreationDate="2013-06-17T21:15:47.393" UserId="100" Text="|client|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1047" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="458" RevisionGUID="5db93e22-11d9-466d-b903-1107bb93f676" CreationDate="2013-06-17T23:39:16.810" UserId="127" Text="Pricing can depend on whatever you like. To me, the fact that it is an emergency means that you are free to charge a special &quot;rush&quot; fee or whatever you'd like to call it. Just make sure to tell him up front that this fee will be in effect. He has a right to know before you begin any of the work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally my pricing depends on a variety of things, including the timeline, my interest in doing the kind of work requested (charge more for yucky work), and how the work might benefit me professionally (charge less if I will learn something on the project that will help me find other work, for example).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1048" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="459" RevisionGUID="43fa1626-53c6-4cf9-a2c6-dbd898ad6c98" CreationDate="2013-06-18T07:07:04.137" UserId="102" Text="In your case I would definitely charge extra money - not only because the job is difficult, but because it is &quot;rush job&quot; that will create conflicts in your schedule. If clients wants premium services, then he has to accept the fact that he has to pay premium fee (good client will bite his lips but pay anyways since this is clearly his/her fault and you warned him/her ahead that this can happen if the site wont get updated regularly). And I would definitely point out to the client that because he saved money on monthly fee, now he is going to pay MUCH more to me for fixing the site - just like i told him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Which will actually give you a an opportunity to sell him the &quot;maintenance&quot; service now, so it wont happen again..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1049" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="421" RevisionGUID="41449f05-32b0-4ad5-a01c-4a83176c7355" CreationDate="2013-06-18T09:58:48.683" UserId="208" Comment="negates sense of sentence!" Text="To be honest, my view is slightly different.  Instead of a rule of always disclosing, I think you have two issues.  First is a question of customer priorities and the second is one of professionalism.  I think if you follow my rules the answer will be usually to disclose but do so carefully.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The issue of customer priorities is the first one.  Reporting these problems takes some time which you are probably billing them for.  In general my rule is this:  if it is within the scope of your project, always report it.  If it is not, ask the customer if they would like reports of other unrelated issues you find.  Chances are they will say yes.  Then report via email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second issue is one of professionalism and being respectful to other contractors.  You don't want to come across as cutting everyone else down because this reflects badly on you and will eventually alienate others you would like or need to work with later.  When you report an issue you should do your best to give the other the benefit of the doubt.  Instead of saying &quot;this is what is wrong&quot; say &quot;here is an issue I found during my review which may have been missed by the designer.&quot;  It's best to frame this as another set of eyes and a benefit of peer review rather than &quot;this design is bad.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1050" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="421" RevisionGUID="41449f05-32b0-4ad5-a01c-4a83176c7355" CreationDate="2013-06-18T09:58:48.683" Comment="Proposed by 208 approved by 60 edit id of 88" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1051" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="460" RevisionGUID="f85dbfd0-c731-4341-bfd5-1e0ab5bae3cb" CreationDate="2013-06-18T13:42:10.380" UserId="350" Text="There are several time tracking tools that look at your actual activity on the computer (like [Timing][1] for Mac). These tools will normally let you sort activities into projects based on url, path or similar features depending on program.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even though this has some limitations like: only tracking your time at the computer or may not be able to track some applications/pages depending on what information is available, it is a great tool to get general information on where your time has gone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hopefully you will spend more time producing than project managing and it's usually the project management/social aspects that are the hardest to track.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://timingapp.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1052" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="457" RevisionGUID="e0db899d-bb92-4fb1-bbd7-6327538fb912" CreationDate="2013-06-18T18:04:05.023" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/347052107821625345" />
  <row Id="1053" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="442" RevisionGUID="64a939db-8fcf-4526-94a5-fe48215052c4" CreationDate="2013-06-18T21:04:04.420" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/347097402995507200" />
  <row Id="1054" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="461" RevisionGUID="44f43a5b-35f4-4d4b-8997-e7789b1e3d1b" CreationDate="2013-06-19T06:18:10.623" UserId="358" Text="Been on Stack-Overflow for over a year, but just discovered Freelancing. Looking to get some feedback here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm at the point that I have to sue a client for non-payment. It's large enough that I can't afford to write it off, but small enough for small claims. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;According to the law I've researched, you may sue an out of state company in your own state if they are an internet based company that does business in your state. So, I'm planning on filing it in my state.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do have a contract with them, and plenty of evidence, so I give myself a strong chance of winning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have any experience in this. I've found plenty of dry legalese stating that I can do this, but no personal accounts on if it worked for them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1055" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="461" RevisionGUID="44f43a5b-35f4-4d4b-8997-e7789b1e3d1b" CreationDate="2013-06-19T06:18:10.623" UserId="358" Text="Out of State Lawsuit for Payment" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1056" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="461" RevisionGUID="44f43a5b-35f4-4d4b-8997-e7789b1e3d1b" CreationDate="2013-06-19T06:18:10.623" UserId="358" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1057" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="461" RevisionGUID="49e40048-3a68-44db-9a7d-7c709482312b" CreationDate="2013-06-19T13:19:35.537" UserDisplayName="user19" Comment="removed useless text" Text="I'm at the point that I have to sue a client for non-payment. It's large enough that I can't afford to write it off, but small enough for small claims. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;According to the law I've researched, you may sue an out of state company in your own state if they are an internet based company that does business in your state. So, I'm planning on filing it in my state.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do have a contract with them, and plenty of evidence, so I give myself a strong chance of winning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have any experience in this. I've found plenty of dry legalese stating that I can do this, but no personal accounts on if it worked for them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1058" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="461" RevisionGUID="49e40048-3a68-44db-9a7d-7c709482312b" CreationDate="2013-06-19T13:19:35.537" Comment="Proposed by 19 approved by 184 edit id of 89" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1059" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="462" RevisionGUID="573e78ea-2991-4a31-b875-b116ed516aa3" CreationDate="2013-06-19T13:53:03.053" UserId="153" Text="How does someone who's just started to pimp themselves actually go about figuring out the competition?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*I, personally, wish to focus on IT: Software and Infrastructure, etc. In case of, say, plumbers or handymen, they usually have a lookup directory or listing, etc.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For instance, the most I could imagine doing is either broad searches on a search engine. Beyond that, I think social meetings like user groups, conferences, etc is possibly the only other place I could hope to get a feet at.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can also think of faking an opportunity to see and judge the respondents, but it is something that might prove more hassle than worth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To keep this constructive, I am actually looking for ways in which I can identify the sources of this information. Infrastructure that might exist, but I'm oblivious to!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For all other non-constructive, forum'esque, basically non-Stack Exchange'y answers, I have cross-posted a Quora question: http://www.quora.com/Freelancing/How-can-a-new-freelancer-find-and-judge-competition&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a side note, please suggest better tags for this question!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1060" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="462" RevisionGUID="573e78ea-2991-4a31-b875-b116ed516aa3" CreationDate="2013-06-19T13:53:03.053" UserId="153" Text="How can a new entrant judge competition?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1061" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="462" RevisionGUID="573e78ea-2991-4a31-b875-b116ed516aa3" CreationDate="2013-06-19T13:53:03.053" UserId="153" Text="|marketing|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1062" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="462" RevisionGUID="611d50dd-4e79-4359-9c2a-d5ed28141b46" CreationDate="2013-06-19T13:57:29.913" UserId="69" Comment="deleted 299 characters in body" Text="How does someone who's just started to pimp themselves actually go about figuring out the competition?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*I, personally, wish to focus on IT: Software and Infrastructure, etc. In case of, say, plumbers or handymen, they usually have a lookup directory or listing, etc.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For instance, the most I could imagine doing is either broad searches on a search engine. Beyond that, I think social meetings like user groups, conferences, etc is possibly the only other place I could hope to get a feet at.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can also think of faking an opportunity to see and judge the respondents, but it is something that might prove more hassle than worth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am actually looking for ways in which I can identify the sources of this information. Infrastructure that might exist, but I'm oblivious to!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1063" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="462" RevisionGUID="55cbe295-29b8-44e5-9b4c-e0667d611d0e" CreationDate="2013-06-19T14:29:44.897" UserId="153" Comment="Added some more information" Text="How does someone who's just started to pimp themselves actually go about figuring out the competition?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*I, personally, wish to focus on IT: Software and Infrastructure, etc. In case of, say, plumbers or handymen, they usually have a lookup directory or listing, etc.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For instance, the most I could imagine doing is either broad searches on a search engine. Beyond that, I think social meetings like user groups, conferences, etc is possibly the only other place I could hope to get a feel at.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Asking other recruiters is also an option, but I believe that information such as this is not handed on a silver platter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can also think of faking an opportunity to see and judge the respondents, but it is something that might prove more hassle than worth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am actually looking for ways in which I can identify the sources of this information. Infrastructure that might exist, but I'm oblivious to! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1064" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="463" RevisionGUID="f34ef279-28ca-44b3-ae93-7bcef2cd5e1b" CreationDate="2013-06-19T14:30:31.640" UserId="102" Text=" This is what I do when I evaluate a market (for my needs or for my prospects):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I search on google for goods or services from that market and watch what shows up&#xD;&#xA; 2. I rotate different keywords to see who is advertising on them on google (no ads suggest that the market might not be profitable, if it is not worth money for ads to anyone)&#xD;&#xA; 3. I search online company directories (I think that there will be at least one in every country)&#xD;&#xA; 4. If possible, I check their probable customers, ask them directly if needed and possible (you would be surprised how often you will get honest answer to question like &quot;Would you mind telling me who is your supplier for this product?&quot; - especially if they are final consumer for that product)&#xD;&#xA; 5. I will make a list of places (virtual or real) where my competition can be present and then I investigate them (could be community web, coul be annual fair, etc.)&#xD;&#xA; 6. I look for enitites that provide certifications of some kind to providers of goods and services in that market (it can be MSDN certification, it can be ISO certificate, it can be some kind of &quot;Proper privacy policy&quot; certificate, it can be &quot;Retail seller of the year&quot; award or list of &quot;Official distributors&quot; etc.) and check their list of issued certificates, distributor list etc. (or ask them for it if it isnt easy to find).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course the evaluation is always specific depending on the nature of the market and it shuld get much deeper than this, but this can get you started in case you like it :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1068" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="462" RevisionGUID="f057b1bf-9617-4a50-9ade-d5f5895e2c5a" CreationDate="2013-06-19T18:04:05.053" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/347414494819004417" />
  <row Id="1070" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="466" RevisionGUID="a38a7815-3849-4448-9e69-ad9fa3438390" CreationDate="2013-06-19T20:38:17.897" UserId="336" Text="If I liked this client, I would consider giving him a one time deal of doing it for a &quot;normal&quot; price and mention the monthly security updates again. Let him know that this is in fact a one time deal and let him know what an estimated emergency cost would normally be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But from what I've gathered, you don't really care much if you have to do this or someone else does. To pick up this case, you'll have to put other work on the backburner. Fixing his problem is going to cost you time you don't have and might very well put you behind schedule. It's his fault for not keeping up with security updates, and you shouldn't feel guilty charging him more for an emergency, especially when you're already short on time. Don't charge an exorbitant amount, but certainly feel free to charge for time lost with your current clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regardless of how you handle the issue, if you take the job, make sure you mention the monthly maintenance fee and how it can keep this from happening again." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1072" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="461" RevisionGUID="4152b32f-a97b-4d96-84d8-53cbeb1f7a09" CreationDate="2013-06-19T21:04:05.303" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/347459792790487040" />
  <row Id="1073" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="101" RevisionGUID="94cf17d2-50c8-41b8-8e2d-8bed715c1546" CreationDate="2013-06-20T03:04:04.803" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/347550389345869824" />
  <row Id="1074" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="373" RevisionGUID="55fcdb51-772c-4245-8a0c-a97c31173234" CreationDate="2013-06-20T09:04:04.947" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/347640987511828480" />
  <row Id="1075" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="462" RevisionGUID="b0812e3c-6599-4077-80f2-416e3d328c20" CreationDate="2013-06-20T09:53:47.643" UserId="139" Comment="grammar, word choice" Text="How does someone who has just started to market themselves actually go about figuring out the competition?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*I, personally, wish to focus on IT: Software and Infrastructure, etc. In case of, say, plumbers or handymen, they usually have a lookup directory or listing, etc.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For instance, the most I could imagine doing is either broad searches on a search engine. Beyond that, I think social meetings like user groups, conferences, etc is possibly the only other place I could hope to get a feel at.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Asking other recruiters is also an option, but I believe that information such as this is not handed on a silver platter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can also think of faking an opportunity to see and judge the respondents, but it is something that might prove more hassle than worth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am actually looking for ways in which I can identify the sources of this information; infrastructure that might exist, which I'm oblivious to! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1076" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="462" RevisionGUID="b0812e3c-6599-4077-80f2-416e3d328c20" CreationDate="2013-06-20T09:53:47.643" Comment="Proposed by 139 approved by 43, 184 edit id of 90" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1077" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="467" RevisionGUID="b99fc2eb-0341-4a27-8662-20595fafab0f" CreationDate="2013-06-20T13:45:21.903" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="Here are a few things to do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Search on Google on the keywords you want to be found on - check the results and the adverts, and try to get a picture of the market shares on Google&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Think from the client point: where would you go to find a professional? Probably LinkedIn, freelance websites, startpages, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Check the portfolios of the people you find and try to come up with an answer to the question &quot;Why are they bad, and why am I better?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* If you can find their clients, contact them and ask why they chose for the company they chose for, and if they're satisfied or not - in both cases ask why&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* See what kind of product mix your competition has (what do they say why their product is the best) and tune in to that: you'll have to argue either _why you can do that, and better_ or _why you shouldn't want that_&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* If your competition gives non-committal offers, try it out. Think up a common example product and see how expensive they are and what they do to convince you to choose them" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1078" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="221" RevisionGUID="30a7af04-e52b-43f4-a3b4-a5ee8e329df6" CreationDate="2013-06-20T21:04:05.030" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/347822181432057856" />
  <row Id="1079" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="333" RevisionGUID="47b2dfdb-d0a1-4c10-9e28-8fbe19917710" CreationDate="2013-06-21T00:04:05.157" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/347867480322084864" />
  <row Id="1080" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="468" RevisionGUID="138b7f76-a660-422f-914d-6e224e176891" CreationDate="2013-06-21T09:49:46.043" UserId="157" Text="When accepting a job and negotiating a price, how much of this should be required up front before starting the work, especially when you haven't dealt with the client before? Should it be a flat retainer or a certain percentage of the work? Would you require this for all contract sizes or only for large ones?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally, answers would be based on the experiences people have had. Was there a case where the client refused to pay after the work was done? Did you ask a client for a part of your fee up front and they refused?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1081" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="468" RevisionGUID="138b7f76-a660-422f-914d-6e224e176891" CreationDate="2013-06-21T09:49:46.043" UserId="157" Text="How much payment should be required up front?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1082" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="468" RevisionGUID="138b7f76-a660-422f-914d-6e224e176891" CreationDate="2013-06-21T09:49:46.043" UserId="157" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1083" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="326" RevisionGUID="e7602139-61db-42ae-a626-2180b9439eef" CreationDate="2013-06-21T15:04:05.483" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/348093975267250177" />
  <row Id="1084" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="469" RevisionGUID="f621c625-0d10-433b-acb1-cec94f17cf22" CreationDate="2013-06-21T15:07:57.483" UserId="376" Text="I do not know how you bill, but let's say that you know exactly how much you will charge for a single job. Ask that the client pay 50% up front.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let me give you an example from my work. In addition to my computer consulting startup, I co-own an entertainment company. When we book gigs with clients, we ask that they pay a 50% deposit immediately after the closing of the deal. They will pay that via PayPal, the gig comes and goes and they pay us the remaining 50% via check right there and then." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1085" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="470" RevisionGUID="5bb54748-9272-4ab9-be76-1b443bd22801" CreationDate="2013-06-21T16:44:49.580" UserId="184" Text="It depends on the job - over what period and how much it pays.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is a short term job with a single deliverable, 50% up front with the remaining payable on delivery is common.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But consider something longer term - months to years in the making. 50% may be too much for a client to pay up-front (for something that hasn't been started yet, or simply, too much money in one go). Such proposals can be structured as milestones with payments being made when milestones are met. A good way to structure the payment is to have a bigger payment for the last milestone, when the full product has been delivered. This give you incentive to finish and the client feels that they have now paid for the finished product." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1087" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="468" RevisionGUID="0e585cf2-355d-442e-a8c7-18370b621ed6" CreationDate="2013-06-22T15:04:10.040" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/348456381378084864" />
  <row Id="1088" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="195" RevisionGUID="950347a7-ee8a-4819-a14d-a7f0c1a49d02" CreationDate="2013-06-23T03:04:10.747" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/348637578880245760" />
  <row Id="1089" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="471" RevisionGUID="d114c57c-506e-444f-a302-8fd2bf76f01d" CreationDate="2013-06-23T06:25:39.753" UserId="159" Text="I spent a good amount of time looking into this and there doesn't appear to be any general &quot;community&quot; where non-profits and volunteers interact (no less one specialized in websites). I couldn't even find a general community where volunteers interacted with other volunteers. There are some specialized forums for specific groups.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**But, there are a number of resources that bring volunteers and non-profits together.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This information tends to be U.S. centric. That wasn't my intention, it's just what I was able to find. None of these resources are centered around technology, but you can find 100's of listings from non-profits looking for website help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I searched for &quot;website&quot; and got lots of results, there were fewer results when I searched for &quot;webmaster&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Volunteer Match][1] allows you to search for &quot;Virtual opportunities&quot; which can be done remotely.  &#xD;&#xA;This link gives the results for a search with &quot;virtual opportunities&quot; selected and the keyword &quot;website&quot; (877 results):&#xD;&#xA;http://www.volunteermatch.org/search/index.jsp?k=website&amp;v=true&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[*Volunteer Solutions*][2]  &#xD;&#xA;[A search on *Volunteer Solutions* for &quot;website&quot; no location (100's of pertinent results)][3]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Things to consider and how to approach volunteer arrangements,][4] from Jayne Cravens at Coyote Communications. Some of the things discussed:  &#xD;&#xA;Create a written contract to avoid misunderstandings.  &#xD;&#xA;Discuss how you want the non-profit to recognize your donated services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.volunteermatch.org/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://volunteer.truist.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://volunteer.truist.com/volunteer/search-2?js_p=1&amp;target=&amp;__form_submitted__=_volunteer_search_tcl_3&amp;__init_request__=_volunteer_search_tcl_3&amp;keyword=website&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.coyotecommunications.com/volunteer/probono.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1090" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="471" RevisionGUID="8a87fc3a-63ce-4c0b-83c1-13fb60cfd498" CreationDate="2013-06-23T06:50:13.387" UserId="159" Comment="Formatting" Text="I spent a good amount of time looking into this and there doesn't appear to be any general &quot;community&quot; where non-profits and volunteers interact (no less one specialized in websites). I couldn't even find a general community where volunteers interacted with other volunteers. There are some specialized forums for specific groups.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**But, there are a number of resources that bring volunteers and non-profits together.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This information tends to be U.S. centric. That wasn't my intention, it's just what I was able to find. None of these resources are centered around technology, but you can find 100's of listings from non-profits looking for website help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I searched for &quot;website&quot; and got lots of results, there were fewer results when I searched for &quot;webmaster&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Volunteer Match][1] allows you to search for &quot;Virtual opportunities&quot; which can be done remotely.  &#xD;&#xA;This link gives the results for a search with &quot;virtual opportunities&quot; selected and the keyword &quot;website&quot; (877 results):&#xD;&#xA;http://www.volunteermatch.org/search/index.jsp?k=website&amp;v=true&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[*Volunteer Solutions*][2]  &#xD;&#xA;[A search on *Volunteer Solutions* for &quot;website&quot; no location (100's of pertinent results)][3]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Things to consider and how to approach volunteer arrangements,][4] from Jayne Cravens at Coyote Communications. Some of the things discussed:  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Create a written contract to avoid misunderstandings.&#xD;&#xA; - Discuss how you want the non-profit to recognize your donated services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.volunteermatch.org/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://volunteer.truist.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://volunteer.truist.com/volunteer/search-2?js_p=1&amp;target=&amp;__form_submitted__=_volunteer_search_tcl_3&amp;__init_request__=_volunteer_search_tcl_3&amp;keyword=website&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.coyotecommunications.com/volunteer/probono.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1091" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="179" RevisionGUID="2c518d09-e928-4a96-8aeb-19a5ce41197d" CreationDate="2013-06-24T03:04:11.993" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/348999970667495425" />
  <row Id="1092" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="461" RevisionGUID="022341bb-d6c8-4340-8dff-8aedad2b75a7" CreationDate="2013-06-24T05:19:12.527" UserId="78" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1093" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="461" RevisionGUID="f403c2f9-2f3a-45c5-9520-19c8e229d08f" CreationDate="2013-06-24T18:07:12.343" UserId="358" Comment="minor edits" Text="I'm at the point that I have to sue a client for non-payment. It's large enough that I can't afford to write it off, but small enough for small claims. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;According to the U.S. law I've researched, you may sue an out of state company in your own state if they are an internet based company that does business in your state. So, I'm planning on filing it in my state.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do have a contract with them, and plenty of evidence, so I give myself a strong chance of winning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Does anyone have any experience in this?** I've found plenty of dry legalese stating that I can do this, but no personal accounts on if it worked for them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1094" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="472" RevisionGUID="8bfba7d8-e397-477b-8e20-07a815b7a50c" CreationDate="2013-06-25T02:40:35.600" UserId="60" Text="Your question has to do with what a state feels they can regulate, and what other states will recognize regarding regulation.  I would recommend discussing this with a lawyer who can look at the specifics and give you real guidance.  This is mostly a response aimed at ensuring you get as much from such a meeting as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally some of this is generalizable to international business deals gone bad as well because most of the issues are the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First I want to point out that in general if you have to go to court or even collections you risk creating a bad dynamic regarding future work.  Additionally court takes a lot of effort on your part and it may not be worth your time unless it is a large amount.  What going to court *can* give you however is a better position if your client declares bankruptcy.  In court both sides lose, just one side loses more and you will never be able to bill for your time in preparing the court case.  So unless it is a lot of money, my recommendation is not to go to court.  BTW, a good reason for contracts is to minimize the times that court may be needed rather than actually making sure you can win in court.  You should go in assuming you will not be able to collect all your attorney's fees and that you are investing a lot of time you will never be paid for.  So take that as a big warning before you go to talk with an attorney.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So before you go you need to find out why they aren't paying.  If they simply cannot afford to pay right now you have to make the decision as to whether to pursue a case in court on the theory that if they go bankrupt you can more easily collect, or whether to just hope they do better and can pay you in the future.  If it is a contract dispute, if there is something you can do to make them happier and get them to pay you, that is better than going to court.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the key thing is that, in the US, states generally have the power to regulate businesses which do business in their areas.  I say &quot;generally&quot; because a lot of things are outside of this.   The reason is that the US Constitution vests the regulation of interstate commerce with the federal government, and this has long been interpreted to mean that states cannot impose barriers to business from other states.  This is the reason why, absent Congressional action, states cannot collect sales taxes across state lines for example.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The two major issues I can see that you would want to discuss with a lawyer are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Which state's courts *can decide* the issue.  My immediate thinking is that since this is probably a payment dispute only, either state probably can.  If there are other contractual issues however, this may complicate things.  Also you want to check any contracts you have with your customer to see what the contracts state, and if you don't have a choice of laws/venues provision consider adding one in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Which state's *laws* are at issue.  Which state's laws are most favorable to you?  If there is no choice of laws/venues provision this allows whoever files first to choose the venue which gives an advantage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  Are there any major reasons why the other state might decline to enforce a favorable ruling on your behalf?  In the US this is less of an issue but it does occasionally come up.  In international business this is a much bigger deal.  In general if a ruling would be clearly and heavily against public policy (again absent Congressional action if between states in the US), a state court *may* decline to enforce it at home.  (In International business dealings, states have much more leeway in deciding to do this btw, because the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution has no effect.)  Again, in the between the states, this isn't likely to be an issue but it is worth looking at just in case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You want to get your ducks in a row on these three issues before you file, and this means discussing all three with your lawyer.  The reason you should make sure you bring them all up is because you want to make sure that you have an opportunity to discuss all these issues and get feedback.  If you go to court, you want your attorney to be a collaborator, not the one simply in charge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once again, the above three generally apply to international lawsuits as well though the issues are usually more complex there.  Keep in mind every jurisdiction will likely have its own ways of answering all three.  Every state in the US, for example, has its own tradition of conflict of laws resolution and these apply roughly in the same way (aside from the Full Faith and Credit clause) to international lawsuits as well.  I would expect similar in the EU between countries, or between a business in Argentina and a business in Wisconsin." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1095" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="473" RevisionGUID="0feeca4f-a430-4d20-b084-1965c08220a9" CreationDate="2013-06-25T02:58:38.270" UserId="60" Text="There are a bunch of ways people do this.  One way I have seen is for clients pay a retainer and then be billed out of that (of the balance goes to 0, the project stalls until the retainer is refilled).  In general larger consulting businesses can more easily do this than freelancers but once you have a name for yourself, this may be an option.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Others range from full billing in arrears to milestones, to 50% down and 50% on completion of a singular project.  These have different benefits and costs, and it is important to think through these before hand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general I have found that most customers are willing to pay at least 50% up front.  The question usually comes down to what you are willing to take on in terms of the dynamics with the customer.  These include the risk of projects which may have to be delayed or abandoned.  It's a lot easier to decide a customer is too much trouble and to inform them that you are cancelling the project when they haven't paid you than it is when they have." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1096" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="288" RevisionGUID="a7fac054-317a-49dc-8904-c29d3d85de88" CreationDate="2013-06-25T03:04:12.443" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/349362361880158211" />
  <row Id="1097" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="474" RevisionGUID="7d129611-54e7-4dbe-937c-6b545ffbda14" CreationDate="2013-06-25T21:49:31.147" UserId="395" Text="Always. As I worked with a lot of small business and even people without contract I had a lot of problems. It's like levelnis said: the contract is your safety net: protect both sides.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't have to create a very big contract. I strongly recommend using the docracy, they have a strong library of [contracts][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, contracts will not make you very formal. But will you make you safe. Also, don't forget to put everything at the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had problems with three clients. They &quot;forget&quot; to pay for about two months. I don't recommend you working without contract, really.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.docracy.com/3884/contract-of-works-for-web-design" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1098" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="269" RevisionGUID="85f63df4-9117-4a8f-a9dc-a18a2a12386a" CreationDate="2013-06-26T00:04:21.843" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/349679489611071489" />
  <row Id="1099" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="169" RevisionGUID="00b15481-eabc-45af-ad5c-41614ab9ad93" CreationDate="2013-06-26T03:04:21.550" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/349724787460939776" />
  <row Id="1100" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="475" RevisionGUID="5dfb8541-310f-4247-b627-783572c86b55" CreationDate="2013-06-26T12:21:28.533" UserId="273" Text="I am a web developer, just starting out as a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have had a few people contact me through my website asking for a quote on how much a project will cost. In order to achieve a cost I must spend time and effort gathering as much information as possible; drawing out workflows; developing initial sitemaps etc. I dont know how long a project will take until I have done this, and all of this takes time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is, I work full time - so the only time I have is evenings and weekend. By that point the client has lost interest, and all my efforts go unpaid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is: how am I supposed to put a quote together on such little information without spending so much time researching, gathering data and working everything out?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client wants a quote within 5 hours, but I need 10 hours to work on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice much appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1101" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="475" RevisionGUID="5dfb8541-310f-4247-b627-783572c86b55" CreationDate="2013-06-26T12:21:28.533" UserId="273" Text="How much time to spend on an initial quote" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1102" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="475" RevisionGUID="5dfb8541-310f-4247-b627-783572c86b55" CreationDate="2013-06-26T12:21:28.533" UserId="273" Text="|client|project|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1103" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="476" RevisionGUID="ab543786-aa67-4c7e-beb1-430855924dcc" CreationDate="2013-06-26T12:27:02.063" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="When you can't estimate the time you will be working on a project, try to agree on a price per hour, and give the client a rough estimate of the time you'll need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When a client wants something in 5 hours, and you need 10 hours, tell him. He can either choose to wait 5 more hours, or to go with someone else. There's nothing to do about this _on short-term_. On long-term, you can develop your skills to save time later on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; How am I supposed to put a quote together on such little information without spending so much time researching, gathering data and working everything out?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have too little information, you can do two things or a combination of both:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Ask for more information&#xD;&#xA;* Give a very rough estimate with upper and lower boundaries&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will have to invest some time in making up the quote. When that takes too much time and you don't get the job, that's your risk being a freelancer. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1104" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="477" RevisionGUID="5968cd45-8eab-4555-9c6b-377b6058e8a8" CreationDate="2013-06-26T15:16:04.710" UserId="127" Text="I suggest two options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) You could create a questionnaire for potential clients that gathers a lot of information that you know you will need on most web sites. Yes, you may need more details, but you could try to gather the first round of information without investing a lot of time in the effort. (Your questionnaire could ask about if the site needs an e-commerce component, if you will need to gather contact information, etc., for example.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) I recommend you sell a design product to prospects. Here's how I'd pitch it: A good website requires a lot of thought go into the project. What do you need, who is your audience, etc. I will work with you to develop this information, put together sitemaps, workflows, etc. For this effort, I will charge you $X. Once this is done, I will provide you a bid for development of the website. I hope you use me for the site development too, but you can also take this  (the workflows, sitemaps, etc.) and get pitches from other web developers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The advantage to this second option is that you can charge something for the work you will be doing to actual develop the site, so it gets you to the quote process sooner. And you get away from tire kickers who are asking for a quote but don't want to invest any time in the effort." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1105" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="319" RevisionGUID="58dd2c17-3cd4-4f25-97d0-139111133cd1" CreationDate="2013-06-26T21:04:22.017" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/349996580260163585" />
  <row Id="1106" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="478" RevisionGUID="a2fc0042-6d9d-46be-84dd-2e7677c885ba" CreationDate="2013-06-27T05:43:01.347" UserId="64" Text="As someone who has worked as a freelancer while working full time, I've come to know that I just simply can't move as quickly as someone who works full time as a freelancer and who has no other work obligations. As a result, when someone claims they need something in a shorter time period than what I can possibly meet, then this is a red flag that this isn't the client for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client is giving unrealistic expectations during the estimate period, there's a strong likelihood the client will have these same unrealistic expectations once they're actually paying you money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I generally spend a couple days putting together an estimate for something that may take a few weeks to a couple months. When I've taken shortcuts in this area I've found that I went over my budget and had to eat some of the cost. So it's important to take a reasonable amount of time to estimate the project. The bigger and more complex the project, the longer the estimate may take.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, I've found that breaking up the project into several, paid deliverables can help speed up the estimate process by focusing only on one part at a time. For instance, if you take a 6 month project and break it up into 6 parts, you could give an estimate on the first deliverable. This of course depends on the client and whether or not they're willing to break things up, so be sure to talk with them about this first." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1108" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="475" RevisionGUID="dc0d3f2a-0cab-41dd-83f7-4939eef007d5" CreationDate="2013-06-27T21:04:22.560" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/350358969891553283" />
  <row Id="1109" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="323" RevisionGUID="f63a0ee9-6e3f-4a6c-a0b1-51c3cf0db0ca" CreationDate="2013-06-28T03:23:24.100" UserId="-1" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:97,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Juhana&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:106,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Simon&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:100,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;unor&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:43,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;levelnis&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="1110" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="278" RevisionGUID="3a036f87-b84e-4ffb-90ae-825854aa9b0c" CreationDate="2013-06-28T06:04:22.103" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/350494863168507904" />
  <row Id="1111" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="22" RevisionGUID="4c886605-f3b8-4338-a5d2-8a1c5eb6c969" CreationDate="2013-06-28T21:04:22.360" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/350721357467750400" />
  <row Id="1112" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="113" RevisionGUID="1c32562c-8bab-4164-b6d6-c77d79e76190" CreationDate="2013-06-29T09:04:40.113" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/350902625455177729" />
  <row Id="1113" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="479" RevisionGUID="ac13386c-e717-472e-8357-e7dd3595be39" CreationDate="2013-06-29T20:48:53.580" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/203201/how-to-get-paid-and-figure-out-if-i-want-to-keep-this-client" />
  <row Id="1114" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="479" RevisionGUID="eb68f39f-69f7-4cd9-97ee-bba62df633ea" CreationDate="2013-06-29T20:22:39.393" UserId="426" UserDisplayName="Heiner Fawkes" Text="I have a client who is not paying on time, but it looks like the specifics don't match similar questions on this SE site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I got a call from a client I did website work for years ago. I had not done this kind of work for many years and frankly I'm not sure I want to now, but nevertheless about a month ago I agreed to bring his website, SEO, social media, and overall marketing for his small business up to speed. Why? He has told me many times how I'm the most honest, most well-informed contractor he's had experience with. And I personally kind of like him too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I started working on an hourly basis. I sent one very small invoice and got paid. Then we talked a whole lot about all sorts of feature he would like me to implement. I started that work, and sent a second invoice on the first of the month (one of my two stated billing days). I didn't get paid. On every invoice it states that I charge a whopping ten percent per week late. I sent many voicemails and emails asking to please let me know what's going on with payment, and didn't get replies. Then the 15th of the month rolled around (which I stated initially as one of my invoicing dates). Since I hadn't been paid for the last invoice, I simply didn't send him an invoice at that time but emailed him and said that I will combine it with the next scheduled invoice for this reason (probably a bad idea I realize). Eventually he sent a portion of the invoice payment. I emailed back to let him know that he's three weeks late and what the remaining balance is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally we got in touch via phone. He basically told me that he thought I hadn't done all of the work I said I did. He looked at the page source code and it didn't look complete to him.  I explained why his perception would be different and what work I had done as specified. He accepted this and **said that part of the reason he didn't pay in full is that he's been swamped with personal family stuff, and part of the reason is that he didn't think I did all the work. That struck me as pretty weird.** He also expressed concern that he has no idea now how much all the changes he has asked for are going to cost. And once again, he told me how honest and high-quality my services are compared to others he has dealt with. He also said he would pay me more (but not all) of the now three weeks overdue invoice that day. I didn't receive any payment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically this is how the client relationship strikes me:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. He's not good at communication. He's very busy and English isn't his first language.&#xD;&#xA;2. He almost never replies to emails but phone calls are fine. He's asked me to avoid emails for communication and I've asked him to please use email. &#xD;&#xA;3. He might not have enough money to afford all the things he has asked for. But so far I have been working for an hourly fee (which is quite high).&#xD;&#xA;4. He also has started paying monthly for hosting and social media services from me. &#xD;&#xA;5. What seems very abnormal is for a client to be so overdue on payments and to actually withhold payment of an invoice without any communication because he didn't think the work was done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I told him that I will send dollar estimates of each module of remaining work so that we can decide which ones are the highest priority if he cannot afford them all. I also reiterated that in the future if he has doubts about the work or an inability to pay, he must contact me immediately to say so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I basically plan to state the following to him: I would like to work for him and help his business. I also have sympathy for his recent family difficulties. I am happy to figure out payment plans that would work better for him, but first I need to be paid in full for all outstanding invoices, especially given that I skipped one of them just to be nice. The most crucial thing I need is communication about any problems with my work or his ability to pay. Once again, he heeds to pay in full immediately before we negotiate anything else. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Does the above seem like an appropriate communication? Is anything missing from it? Is anything I'm doing here really abnormal? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1115" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="479" RevisionGUID="eb68f39f-69f7-4cd9-97ee-bba62df633ea" CreationDate="2013-06-29T20:22:39.393" UserId="426" UserDisplayName="Heiner Fawkes" Text="How to get paid and figure out if I want to keep this client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1116" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="479" RevisionGUID="eb68f39f-69f7-4cd9-97ee-bba62df633ea" CreationDate="2013-06-29T20:22:39.393" UserId="426" UserDisplayName="Heiner Fawkes" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1121" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="272" RevisionGUID="269615fe-1fa2-49e2-87ad-5453603b3a57" CreationDate="2013-06-30T09:04:40.050" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/351265013736017920" />
  <row Id="1122" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="481" RevisionGUID="17ad8418-bb8d-431e-8c7e-2161710a3d89" CreationDate="2013-06-30T09:07:36.393" UserId="61" Text="TL;DR: In any case, I would suggest to stay positive. Try to turn the things like you are not raising a conflict of interests by asking something for yourself. **Try to convince your client** that you have the same goals, to make the job done at minimal cost and maximum quality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, resolving an existing problem prior doing anything else seems to be a good idea to me as it will help you **both** keep your face and avoid loss of reputation/respect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have actually done a good insight into the problem. Let me focus on the following ideas:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You have highlighted what's wrong with the client, but you did not look what **you** have probably done wrong. Think of it for yourself and learn from it:&#xD;&#xA;   * Have you communicated with them often enough?&#xD;&#xA;   * Are you sure they were aware that you are on the right track?&#xD;&#xA;   * Have you raised the unsolved issues (like poor communication) early or let them stay unresolved?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Get to a mutual agreement of how you wrap up the work done **in the past**. I would not go ahead with any future tasks without it.&#xD;&#xA;1. Get to a **principal decision** on any future work. I mean, one of the possible outcomes may appear a decision just to throw this client away and look for another project for yourself. You said you want to keep the client, but reading your description I would probably decide to forget it;&#xD;&#xA;1. Get a **written contract** that will govern what you do and how. Ultimately, it should define:&#xD;&#xA;   1. Type of job, fixed scope + fixed price or per-hour work + flexible scope;&#xD;&#xA;      * In case of flexible scope, define very thoroughly how the scope is defined (certainly, not in a bunch of emails or, worse, over the phone) and what are **success criteria** to decide whether the job is done or not;&#xD;&#xA;      * Don't forget about milestones and deadlines as well;&#xD;&#xA;   1. Hourly rate or the final cost;&#xD;&#xA;   1. Terms on overdue delivery and overdue payment;&#xD;&#xA;   1. Terms on communication; weekly calls?&#xD;&#xA;   1. Terms on any extra payments like hosting or whatever; who's responsible for that? when and how it would be done?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my experience, I'm not really surprised by a client who does not like emails and prefers phone calls. [Schedule your communication](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/197/61) in a way that satisfies everyone." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1123" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="479" RevisionGUID="de4d7f1c-5daf-49b1-9551-af5191d6054b" CreationDate="2013-07-01T15:04:42.643" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/351718008164593664" />
  <row Id="1124" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="292" RevisionGUID="45189601-f5ec-454a-b9a8-8ce251dcc604" CreationDate="2013-07-01T18:04:42.277" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/351763305905389570" />
  <row Id="1125" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="479" RevisionGUID="04158fee-8bed-4d0c-b732-30ce4b85c338" CreationDate="2013-07-02T13:19:49.003" UserId="184" Comment="edited tags" Text="|client|payment-terms|project-management|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1126" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="475" RevisionGUID="59472f16-9e54-479b-91ae-fc58749e8f4a" CreationDate="2013-07-02T18:27:18.343" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title to make more specific; fixed grammar; removed plea for advice to focus on the main question" Text="I am a Web developer, just starting out as a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have had a few people contact me through my website asking for a quote on how much a project will cost. In order to achieve a cost, I must spend time and effort gathering as much information as possible; drawing out workflows; developing initial sitemaps, etc. I dont know how long a project will take until I have done this, and all of this takes time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is, I work full time -- so the only time I have is evenings and weekend. By that point the client has lost interest, and all my efforts go unpaid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is: How am I supposed to put a quote together on such little information without spending so much time researching, gathering data and working everything out?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client wants a quote within 5 hours, but I need 10 hours to work on it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1127" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="475" RevisionGUID="59472f16-9e54-479b-91ae-fc58749e8f4a" CreationDate="2013-07-02T18:27:18.343" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title to make more specific; fixed grammar; removed plea for advice to focus on the main question" Text="How much time to spend on an initial quote as a part-time freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1128" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="475" RevisionGUID="59472f16-9e54-479b-91ae-fc58749e8f4a" CreationDate="2013-07-02T18:27:18.343" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title to make more specific; fixed grammar; removed plea for advice to focus on the main question" Text="|client|project|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1129" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="475" RevisionGUID="59472f16-9e54-479b-91ae-fc58749e8f4a" CreationDate="2013-07-02T18:27:18.343" Comment="Proposed by 64 approved by 43, 69 edit id of 92" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1130" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="249" RevisionGUID="f4f6a1a3-679f-4ffa-afeb-aeda874d841d" CreationDate="2013-07-03T18:05:03.907" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/352488172841730048" />
  <row Id="1131" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="82" RevisionGUID="6a3c998d-8712-4ba8-96f7-784dd49c7f78" CreationDate="2013-07-04T18:05:04.000" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/352850560405344256" />
  <row Id="1132" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="420" RevisionGUID="bab6321a-51a7-427d-b7be-b9efe580f820" CreationDate="2013-07-05T22:35:26.237" UserId="64" Comment="clarifying the title to maybe help with search" Text="Freelancing and Using Open Source/GPL code to make money" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1133" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="385" RevisionGUID="16abaed9-ea64-452d-9e0c-2ef0694027a2" CreationDate="2013-07-05T22:36:56.213" UserId="64" Comment="clarified title to possibly help with searches" Text="Telling a client they won't have priority" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1135" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="385" RevisionGUID="6eb1d492-10f7-4173-a82b-da3f790c7ed9" CreationDate="2013-07-06T00:05:04.143" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/353303546424332289" />
  <row Id="1136" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="328" RevisionGUID="3f2408ed-c94c-4bd4-b1a3-70288fda62dc" CreationDate="2013-07-06T03:33:10.620" UserId="64" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:19,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Camil Staps&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Łukasz Lech&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="1137" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="400" RevisionGUID="144e43d2-d2fc-48bb-a7b6-b8ab30871668" CreationDate="2013-07-06T03:34:16.890" UserId="64" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:19,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Camil Staps&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="1140" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="344" RevisionGUID="cd813286-122f-4558-8d1e-cf64374a1148" CreationDate="2013-07-06T06:03:58.830" UserId="64" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[126],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:19,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Camil Staps&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:7,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;alecxe&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:61,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;bytebuster&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Hiroto&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="1141" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="385" RevisionGUID="57942a23-681c-4bc7-b9f1-e10e1b68465b" CreationDate="2013-07-06T17:09:48.000" UserId="54" Comment="edited body" Text="Is it appropriate to warn a client that they will no longer have top priority because they have not renewed a retainer in a timely fashion?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1142" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="314" RevisionGUID="e6de2885-3d14-412e-8196-c90b2f997213" CreationDate="2013-07-07T19:15:57.117" UserId="58" Comment="edited title; fits the SE model better." Text="Why should I not provide free services to friends when freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1143" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="372" RevisionGUID="57e7aa1a-328c-478e-b66d-2d68675b38d3" CreationDate="2013-07-07T22:26:11.050" UserId="58" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Hiroto&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="1144" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="482" RevisionGUID="19f72413-7857-4f3d-a5d3-a685b7788c74" CreationDate="2013-07-07T22:30:19.537" UserId="58" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1145" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="483" RevisionGUID="5e651dd2-6a8e-47b8-87d0-99bb6f18d93a" CreationDate="2013-07-07T22:30:19.537" UserId="58" Text="For questions concerning taxes taken by a local council or government entity." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1146" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="484" RevisionGUID="a83e1799-dbc6-4ad2-8b60-c93351d22bee" CreationDate="2013-07-07T22:31:59.357" UserId="58" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1147" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="485" RevisionGUID="33ae57eb-967f-4e9a-846e-39d27df1a5a6" CreationDate="2013-07-07T22:31:59.357" UserId="58" Text="For questions concerning turning an unincorporated business into a legal entity." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1148" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="486" RevisionGUID="997e1c98-07a6-48cf-88f7-448147a250d9" CreationDate="2013-07-07T22:33:15.377" UserId="58" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1149" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="487" RevisionGUID="d264d54b-7e72-4c0b-88bc-2f5d8091c183" CreationDate="2013-07-07T22:33:15.377" UserId="58" Text="For questions concerning the tool used to advertise a potential employee's viability to a potential employer/client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1150" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="372" RevisionGUID="a84ab039-1bda-4bf9-a152-967e5deaf042" CreationDate="2013-07-08T03:32:38.587" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title and added negotiation tag; removed newcomer; fixed spelling and grammar" Text="I am a recent college graduate with a BA in English. My writing and grammar skills are above average, and I am always searching new ways to improve myself. However, in the past few weeks I have been asked to edit articles for a new upcoming online magazine. I am interested, yet sort of new to freelance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since the company is new there is not much income, yet I wonder how long do I wait until I ask for more compensation? Should I give the founder my price rate before signing a contract or after signing? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1151" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="372" RevisionGUID="a84ab039-1bda-4bf9-a152-967e5deaf042" CreationDate="2013-07-08T03:32:38.587" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title and added negotiation tag; removed newcomer; fixed spelling and grammar" Text="As a new Freelance editor earning a low pay rate, how long should I wait before asking for a raise?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1152" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="372" RevisionGUID="a84ab039-1bda-4bf9-a152-967e5deaf042" CreationDate="2013-07-08T03:32:38.587" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title and added negotiation tag; removed newcomer; fixed spelling and grammar" Text="|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1153" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="488" RevisionGUID="0cbbfbec-06a7-4323-8ad1-2b3aa5ac9d6b" CreationDate="2013-07-08T09:11:07.953" UserId="461" Text="There are legal routes to take with your client such as debt collection. However if you take this route you will need to provided adequate proof that the client owes you money and you have satisfied all the legal requirements for your country/state (this normally involves sending a required number of notifications both electronic and verbally over the phone and provided the appropriate time to respond).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Often the threat of debt collection (and the ramifications on the client's credit record) is enough to get a payment out of the customer. Failing that it can still lead to a partial recovery (depending on the debt collection company's take and the total amount recovered).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just to stress, this should be a last step and probably only taken after consulting your local laws (or a lawyer)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1154" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="372" RevisionGUID="f9380be9-f347-44e4-8a18-727afdf5b458" CreationDate="2013-07-08T12:17:03.947" UserId="58" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Hiroto&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="1155" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="457" RevisionGUID="db68016a-2e69-44de-baa6-c8021ef96163" CreationDate="2013-07-09T02:53:36.777" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title to make it more clear it's client negligence; also fixed some minor grammar issues" Text="I created a website for a client. I offered to install any future security updates for a fixed monthly fee (so it wouldn’t matter if there are 0 or 10 security updates in a month), but the client didn’t accept. I warned him what could happen to his site without applying security updates, but to no avail: The client wants no security updates at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the inevitable happened: The site got hacked. Now the client wants help as fast as possible, of course.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don’t like this task; it’s no fun. If this wasn't my client, I’d probably decline this job. On top of that, this is bad timing because I have no time for it actually. But as I created the site some time ago and I’m &quot;his&quot; web designer, I feel responsible for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I’m thinking »Damn, &lt;s&gt;we&lt;/s&gt; you could have saved &lt;s&gt;us&lt;/s&gt; me trouble if you’d have let me install security updates. Why didn’t you listen?! Now I have to clean up this mess.«. Could this be a reason to charge more for this job?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the one hand I’d feel like taking advantage of an emergency case and maybe also letting him learn the hard way. But on the other hand, I’d feel like charging more because the job is harder in a way, not necessarily because of the required skills or time, but because of pressure (&quot;it has to be done *now*&quot;, &quot;help me, I can’t sell anymore&quot;) and because I grudge doing it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I deal with such cases?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1156" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="457" RevisionGUID="db68016a-2e69-44de-baa6-c8021ef96163" CreationDate="2013-07-09T02:53:36.777" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title to make it more clear it's client negligence; also fixed some minor grammar issues" Text="Charging more for emergencies because of the client's negligence?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1157" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="489" RevisionGUID="cd06592f-f5e8-45ac-b6c2-5a60256d98b8" CreationDate="2013-07-09T17:49:55.343" UserId="99" Text="How can I manage my clients and their projects, I was searching for management software or web apps, I couldn't find any with the features that I want, maybe because I'm searching the wrong way or with the wrong keywords, most of the apps that I found are for project collaboration or client management only.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I'm looking for, should have these features:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - client signup and project submission&#xD;&#xA; - Project status, so the client can see the project's progress&#xD;&#xA; - and a messaging system&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what do you use to manage your client and projects ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1158" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="489" RevisionGUID="cd06592f-f5e8-45ac-b6c2-5a60256d98b8" CreationDate="2013-07-09T17:49:55.343" UserId="99" Text="How to manage clients and their projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1159" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="489" RevisionGUID="cd06592f-f5e8-45ac-b6c2-5a60256d98b8" CreationDate="2013-07-09T17:49:55.343" UserId="99" Text="|client|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1160" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="489" RevisionGUID="756ffacd-6d7c-4096-9b45-01f8b89c5bd8" CreationDate="2013-07-09T20:57:09.403" UserId="64" Comment="edited to sound less like a poll" Text="How can I manage my clients and their projects, I was searching for management software or web apps, I couldn't find any with the features that I want, maybe because I'm searching the wrong way or with the wrong keywords, most of the apps that I found are for project collaboration or client management only.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I'm looking for, should have these features:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - client signup and project submission&#xD;&#xA; - Project status, so the client can see the project's progress&#xD;&#xA; - and a messaging system&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is a good solution to managing clients and their projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1161" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="490" RevisionGUID="5b36fad1-06d5-492d-8d24-f67ab2454fb0" CreationDate="2013-07-09T21:52:24.593" UserId="472" Text="There are hundreds of pieces of web and desktop software available that could help you. Most of them will offer free trails so I recommend you try a few and see what works best for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are a few I use:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Podio.com: this has an iOS app that goes alongside the website, you can have many projects, invite clients to post on message walls, set up projects and goals and customise pretty much everything about it. Layout finance plans, set task lists, assign tasks to collaborators. It's very full featured.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Trello.com: This is similar to podio, but simpler and easier to use. It's basically like a pin board with cards on it, but you can attach images, make todo lists, and rearrange the cards and move them into categories. Good for project management but not so good for clients&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;HarvestApp.com: This has some really handy time keeping software, all my client information, I can track expenses and projects, and it will generate and send my invoices for me based on the hours I've tracked, per project, and send them to the right client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those 3 are probably my favourite, they all come with really good iOS apps (probably android too), but like I said, you should try a few and see what works for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what you've described, Podio might suit you well" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1162" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="491" RevisionGUID="d0afc73e-8ca0-4bab-9b58-65db9f87b2f0" CreationDate="2013-07-10T10:04:59.830" UserId="477" Text="I think https://pancakeapp.com would do most of what you want - the benefit of pancake is it's self hosted and a one off $49, so it's not a long term commitment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1163" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="491" RevisionGUID="7833e4aa-8444-4c1a-8196-9f9191cabd1d" CreationDate="2013-07-10T16:38:55.390" UserId="58" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Hiroto&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="1164" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="491" RevisionGUID="7b9b15cf-0f26-4cdd-acf1-25c9293ca225" CreationDate="2013-07-10T23:33:05.777" UserId="58" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Hiroto&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="1165" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="489" RevisionGUID="fbbf0e2a-5c01-4643-9a00-ee5465811915" CreationDate="2013-07-11T04:07:21.273" UserId="64" Comment="1" />
  <row Id="1166" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="491" RevisionGUID="cf9cc780-f90c-4537-bd54-dbe52ae4c785" CreationDate="2013-07-11T09:43:27.210" UserId="477" Comment="expanded on point" Text="I think https://pancakeapp.com would do most of what you want - the benefit of pancake is it's self hosted and a one off $49, so it's not a long term commitment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To expand on this, it has:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Time tracking (like harvest)&#xD;&#xA; - The ability to send over proposals&#xD;&#xA; - A client area for interactions&#xD;&#xA; - A nice project management interface&#xD;&#xA; - Invoicing&#xD;&#xA; - It's also starting to get plugins that make it more extensible (I suppose this could be integration with payment processors etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me, it kills a lot of birds with one stone and if you are a small business then the one off cost could be a big draw." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1167" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="492" RevisionGUID="019a7657-82f6-49ae-a618-e19dbe8f5f8e" CreationDate="2013-07-11T09:47:29.650" UserId="477" Text="Not a direct answer to the question, but something useful (my answer is yes by the way, you should charge more):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I offer near enough the same service (updates etc paid on a monthly basis) and when a client doesn't take this I make them sign something along the lines of:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agree that as I am not taking out a maintenance contract the following are my responsibilities:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Updates&#xD;&#xA; - ... etc etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any work outside of a maintenance contract on any of the above items will be charges at X per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people read this and then decide to take the monthly contract, others don't and end up paying the fee's later down the line, but I like to think this covers some of the bases. It also gives them less of a shock when you tell them how much it will cost to fix their problem outside of the agreement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1168" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="493" RevisionGUID="fb9a1d42-5dcd-4fca-9b58-ea94c35744f2" CreationDate="2013-07-11T10:57:25.527" UserId="482" Text="I am Android Developer and I'm new in freelancing. I want to take project online I recently create account on freelancer.com and I want to take some project, so I want to know how to go step by step to get the project and how to bid there?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1169" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="493" RevisionGUID="fb9a1d42-5dcd-4fca-9b58-ea94c35744f2" CreationDate="2013-07-11T10:57:25.527" UserId="482" Text="Get project online and apply bid to the project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1170" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="493" RevisionGUID="fb9a1d42-5dcd-4fca-9b58-ea94c35744f2" CreationDate="2013-07-11T10:57:25.527" UserId="482" Text="|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1171" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="494" RevisionGUID="a630f651-2eca-49c6-a9d5-d851ef565187" CreationDate="2013-07-11T13:13:49.213" UserId="477" Text="I don't know specifically about freelancer.com but here's some good tips for these types of sites:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Start with a few simple jobs to get some feedback&#xD;&#xA; - Make your 'about me' type page well written and honest&#xD;&#xA; - Bid for jobs with honest pricing, don't go too low and don't bid on projects that don't pay what you think is an acceptable amount for the work involved&#xD;&#xA; - Communicate well and quickly with any enquiries you get&#xD;&#xA; - Have a strong portfolio" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1172" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="493" RevisionGUID="5dce8bcb-6295-48a5-8f7f-a50db1bfea13" CreationDate="2013-07-11T13:57:22.483" UserId="64" Comment="fixed spelling and grammar and removed redundant info; fixed title" Text="I am an Android Developer, and I'm new to freelancing. I recently created an account on freelancer.com, and I want to take on some projects.  As someone new to freelancing, how can I land a project? How do I bid there?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1173" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="493" RevisionGUID="5dce8bcb-6295-48a5-8f7f-a50db1bfea13" CreationDate="2013-07-11T13:57:22.483" UserId="64" Comment="fixed spelling and grammar and removed redundant info; fixed title" Text="Apply and bid for an Android Development freelancing project online" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1177" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="495" RevisionGUID="ca6e14c5-04ed-4ebc-9a07-6468abc27c83" CreationDate="2013-07-13T21:04:03.320" UserId="64" Text="If I have a client who is asking me to solve an automation problem that involves integrating different software solutions, like a payment gateway and a form builder tool, for instance, and we don't know if the integration will work the way he wants it to, how should we proceed in terms of estimating the costs?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, it's possible that error handling may be problematic and either would not be possible or would involve more work to find a solution." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1178" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="495" RevisionGUID="ca6e14c5-04ed-4ebc-9a07-6468abc27c83" CreationDate="2013-07-13T21:04:03.320" UserId="64" Text="How do I answer the &quot;How much will it cost&quot; question when researching a development task that has unknown variables?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1179" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="495" RevisionGUID="ca6e14c5-04ed-4ebc-9a07-6468abc27c83" CreationDate="2013-07-13T21:04:03.320" UserId="64" Text="|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1180" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="496" RevisionGUID="7a66cfb4-3973-4ba2-a8ac-51b35ecf52bf" CreationDate="2013-07-13T21:27:32.013" UserId="70" Text="When I have faced that scenario in the past, I have performed a small (10-20) hour engagement to define the requirements and design a solution.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The document that I put together then serves as a road map for the next phase, which could be performed by me or by another resource." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1181" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="497" RevisionGUID="b9e4eba8-2fd2-42bd-a86a-64e9c19b8338" CreationDate="2013-07-14T00:48:46.760" UserId="75" Text="I've worked on projects with unknown variables, and they tend to be a big pain in the rear. What has worked for me though...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Setup a time to talk with the client, and get information about what he wants done. This is much easier if he does not have a preference to the software or tools, and is willing to have everything happen from scratch. But you need somewhere to start with the project. Include any obscure feature that they want, especially if you are not building the project yourself.&#xD;&#xA;2. For product recommendations, you will need to do research. This time needs to be billed *somewhat*, as very few customers will pay a full rate for research. If you can discuss this beforehand, you may get away with it, but in my experience, no one would pay more then a couple hours of labour for research.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; When I talk research, I also mean to actually talk to the companies, and their technical team, to ensure that product X from Company Y will work with their Product Z. Get everything in an email format so there is a paper trail, and it includes any weird specifications that you may lose track of in just a phone conversation. You need to be on the ball!&#xD;&#xA;3. You will also need to check all the system requirements, license requirements, and any external factors needed (i.e. a separate LAN line or phone line). If the customer's machines need upgrading, that will need to be done before you recommend Product X and Z, and you will need to discuss who will cover the bill: part of your quote, or get another company to do that.&#xD;&#xA;4. Find out if there are trial versions of all the software available. You will need to get copies of the software, and ensure everything works together! As well, installing it on your own test machine will help you find out if there are weird setup instructions, or special requirements not mentioned elsewhere. I say to use trial versions as you will usually need a miracle to return opened software, and you should not have to eat the costs of that at this point. You haven't got the job yet, so you should not be out a few more thousand dollars!&#xD;&#xA;5. Once you have the final estimate, and every last feature is defined, write it up and **have the client sign it**! This will then go with your Scope of Work, and your contract. Include a list of the companies that will help support features A, B and C, and who will support features D, E and F. If you are covering all the support, ensure your costs are built in there, or the client understands your hourly rate for fixing products.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The biggest part of doing your homework though is to keep poking and prodding. One great thing about working with certain Windows programs is that many developers have public APIs available, so many other products *will* work, right out of the box. Not every program is like that though, so care must be taken to ensure all the requirements are met, and everything **works** as expected." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1182" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="498" RevisionGUID="89af8f98-6dad-45d0-9259-11b22588fff5" CreationDate="2013-07-14T06:52:49.187" UserDisplayName="user503" Text="I have only happy clients so far, and of course I'd like to increase this amount of happy clients, but I feel I'm loosing a bit too much time in finding serious people. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a lot of requests, asking about what's possible, about prices, time schedule, etc...&#xD;&#xA;I want to provide always good, exact and serious answers, so I deliver them the most what they wanted, in example a custom PDF file with great overview and info about their planned project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, from their side, everything is always &quot;okay&quot;, &quot;sounds great&quot;, until we come to the pre-payment (some % of the agreed project payment I take before I start).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The most often &quot;excuse&quot; I was told was that &quot;my wife was against the payment when I was on the bank yesterday to transfer the money&quot;, or &quot;a friend wanted to pay it, but just hasn't&quot;... and so on...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I am asking you, are there any hints to find out if a possible client is really serious, so I don't waste my time anymore with people who just have &quot;great ideas and plans&quot;, but not the intention to really pay that money for their projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1183" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="498" RevisionGUID="89af8f98-6dad-45d0-9259-11b22588fff5" CreationDate="2013-07-14T06:52:49.187" UserDisplayName="user503" Text="How to sort out new, possible and serious clients more fast?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1184" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="498" RevisionGUID="89af8f98-6dad-45d0-9259-11b22588fff5" CreationDate="2013-07-14T06:52:49.187" UserDisplayName="user503" Text="|client|time-management|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1185" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="499" RevisionGUID="e80ea0fa-0cc1-4172-bcdd-0c38cb786a16" CreationDate="2013-07-14T12:13:28.483" UserId="477" Text="What sort of projects do you do? Particularly custom work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I do is in the first phone conversation I give them a ball park starting from figure and tell them the minimum deposit - this gets rid of a few straight away. If all is good after the initial phone call I tend to set up a meeting and give them a more exact quite after the meeting and tell them the exact payment terms then - e.g. 30% up front, 30% on designs signed off and 40% upon completion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most seem pretty happy with this method for me, I try not to invest too much time until I know a client is definitely on board, around a 30 minute phone call, 30 minutes research and an hour meeting." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1186" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="500" RevisionGUID="1d5d034c-4bbe-4f34-9f6c-ca66e8ed4e32" CreationDate="2013-07-14T12:17:16.920" UserId="477" Text="This is a pretty hard scenario but this is what I do in this situation:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Try to work out a minimum cost to the client and a maximum cost to the client, it cam be hard and it might be a big gap but it's good to know what sort of ballpark you're in.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Book in for a specific amount of hours/days which will get you to a point where you can more accurately tell how long the project will take, so: &quot;if we book 5 days at X amount we can review where I'm at and I should be able to give you a better idea of how much longer it will take&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they aren't happy with that sort of arrangement then depending on where they are based you can offer to work on-site for the first few weeks, some people like this because they can *see* you doing the work, and they are more likely to trust your time estimates." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1187" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="498" RevisionGUID="63681f14-ea7d-42d9-9c8a-42d7499beda0" CreationDate="2013-07-14T19:37:10.960" UserId="58" Comment="deleted 8 characters in body; edited title" Text="I have only happy clients so far, and of course I'd like to increase this number, but I feel I'm losing a bit too much time in finding serious clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a lot of requests; asking about what's possible, about prices, time schedules, etc...&#xD;&#xA;I always want to provide good, exact and serious answers, so I give them a copy of their requirements, in a custom PDF file with a great overview and info about their planned project (for example).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, from their side, everything is always &quot;okay&quot;, &quot;sounds great&quot;, until we come to the pre-payment (some per cent of the agreed project payment I take before I start).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The most common &quot;excuse&quot; I was told was that &quot;my wife was against the payment when I was on the bank yesterday to transfer the money&quot;, or &quot;a friend wanted to pay it, but just hasn't&quot;... and so on...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I am asking you, are there any hints to find out if a possible client is really serious, so I don't waste my time with people who just have &quot;great ideas and plans&quot;, but not the intention to really pay that money for their projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1188" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="498" RevisionGUID="63681f14-ea7d-42d9-9c8a-42d7499beda0" CreationDate="2013-07-14T19:37:10.960" UserId="58" Comment="deleted 8 characters in body; edited title" Text="How to sort out new, possible and serious clients faster?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1189" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="499" RevisionGUID="a130337a-3ffb-4425-a1e1-96b27ab5cb22" CreationDate="2013-07-14T20:36:39.817" UserId="64" Comment="removed the question from the top of the answer so as to focus on the answer. Feel free to repost the question as a comment if you feel it's valuable -- see revision history: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/posts/499/revisions" Text="What I do is in the first phone conversation I give them a ball park &quot;starting from&quot; figure and tell them the minimum deposit - this gets rid of a few straight away. If all is good after the initial phone call I tend to set up a meeting and give them a more exact quite after the meeting and tell them the exact payment terms then - e.g. 30% up front, 30% on designs signed off and 40% upon completion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most seem pretty happy with this method for me, I try not to invest too much time until I know a client is definitely on board, around a 30 minute phone call, 30 minutes research and an hour meeting." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1190" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="499" RevisionGUID="9466ab31-43a3-42b0-942b-6d4bc24f5936" CreationDate="2013-07-14T22:12:47.470" UserId="477" Comment="typo" Text="What I do is in the first phone conversation I give them a ball park &quot;starting from&quot; figure and tell them the minimum deposit - this gets rid of a few straight away. If all is good after the initial phone call I tend to set up a meeting and give them a more exact quote after the meeting and tell them the exact payment terms then - e.g. 30% up front, 30% on designs signed off and 40% upon completion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most seem pretty happy with this method for me, I try not to invest too much time until I know a client is definitely on board, around a 30 minute phone call, 30 minutes research and an hour meeting." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1191" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="501" RevisionGUID="cb896d42-ef2f-421c-bbb7-9c4046623e8b" CreationDate="2013-07-15T12:47:14.227" UserId="504" Text="My wife thinks that just because I work at home means I'm available for home stuff at any hour, which creates problems in my relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to make her read a good article explaining why freelancers have work schedules that must be followed. Does anybody know such an article?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1192" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="501" RevisionGUID="cb896d42-ef2f-421c-bbb7-9c4046623e8b" CreationDate="2013-07-15T12:47:14.227" UserId="504" Text="How do you make family understand that you need to stick to a schedule?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1193" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="501" RevisionGUID="cb896d42-ef2f-421c-bbb7-9c4046623e8b" CreationDate="2013-07-15T12:47:14.227" UserId="504" Text="|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1194" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="502" RevisionGUID="87a4ebe6-a982-471c-afc8-1f57af6e957d" CreationDate="2013-07-15T12:51:03.353" UserId="184" Text="Articles? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just talk to her. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to set some base rules - things like working hours, when you can and cannot be interrupted and for what reasons you can. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is simple enough - if you are unable to complete your work, you will not get paid. And without money... well...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am sure she will understand this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1196" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="504" RevisionGUID="a5e62523-2698-4034-8e40-047eb590acf2" CreationDate="2013-07-15T13:03:37.820" UserId="477" Text="As above, she needs to understand that the work you are doing is important and directly correlates with money you bring in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another good thing to do is sometimes work out of home if you can at a local cafe etc - sometimes the change of scenery really helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1197" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="501" RevisionGUID="51769d43-35b1-46b9-ac86-1f588e706f3e" CreationDate="2013-07-15T13:23:08.953" UserId="504" Comment="added 11 characters in body" Text="My wife thinks that just because I work at home means I'm available for home stuff at any hour, which creates problems in my relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I make her understand (perhaps through some article or something) that freelancers have work schedules that must be followed just like anybody else?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1198" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="501" RevisionGUID="bb42e11e-fa5d-435b-96a2-bfabefa889f3" CreationDate="2013-07-15T13:48:30.900" UserId="504" Comment="deleted 15 characters in body" Text="My wife thinks that just because I work at home means I'm available for home stuff at any hour, which creates problems in my relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I make her understand (perhaps through some article or something) that freelancers must follow work schedules just like anybody else?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1199" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="502" RevisionGUID="53135081-6115-4dd5-9e8d-80ca5a8d2465" CreationDate="2013-07-15T14:52:01.240" UserId="184" Comment="added 202 characters in body" Text="Articles? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just talk to her. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to set some base rules - things like working hours, when you can and cannot be interrupted and for what reasons you can. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is simple enough - if you are unable to complete your work, you will not get paid. And without money... well...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am sure she will understand this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your contracts have them, the payment milestones / deadline / penalty sections can be quite effective in explaining how interruptions mean missing milestones / deadlines and can cause a penalty ." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1201" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="501" RevisionGUID="2a986e02-7ea5-47a9-9930-805b75398cd7" CreationDate="2013-07-15T18:06:02.100" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/356837070603436033" />
  <row Id="1202" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="498" RevisionGUID="f4fe40bd-faa0-4167-87c9-12d73fc3ab9f" CreationDate="2013-07-15T21:06:01.547" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/356882367421480960" />
  <row Id="1203" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="505" RevisionGUID="34115fbc-4943-46dc-8dd4-e82f5ca12080" CreationDate="2013-07-15T22:43:57.660" UserId="512" Text="Agree with [Oded](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/502/512) that talking should come first. Communication.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A little story of my own FWIW. My dad kept dropping in during work hours, despite my reminding him several times that I really needed to focus on work during the day and couldn't spend a lot of time chatting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He finally got the point after I sent him an invoice. He shows up looking for a coffee after work now, so things are shiny. (Mind you, he never paid the bill... must send him an overdue notice. (joke))" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1204" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="505" RevisionGUID="08e534f4-b583-4200-bcb3-4b6de176ef9d" CreationDate="2013-07-16T02:08:48.463" UserId="64" Comment="made it more clear what your answer is" Text="Agree with [Oded](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/502/512) that talking should come first. Communication. One technique you can use to get the point across is to send the person interrupting you an invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A little story of my own FWIW. My dad kept dropping in during work hours, despite my reminding him several times that I really needed to focus on work during the day and couldn't spend a lot of time chatting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He finally got the point after I sent him an invoice. He shows up looking for a coffee after work now, so things are shiny. (Mind you, he never paid the bill... must send him an overdue notice. (joke))" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1205" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="506" RevisionGUID="fd593fc1-1c39-4099-bf17-abbc01b8d6b4" CreationDate="2013-07-16T02:16:06.303" UserId="64" Text="It sounds like your wife may be a bit bored. She obviously wants to spend some time with you, but you also need to be able to focus on your work so that you get paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One possible solution, one that may possibly get ***her*** excited, is to ***give her something important to do.***  While she may not be a web designer or a programmer or have the skills to do whatever it is that you do for a living, there's generally a lot of administrative type work that goes along with freelancing, such as taxes, putting together invoices, tracking expenses, etc. So you can possibly save yourself some time that you would otherwise spend on these activities by delegating them to her.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The advantage of this solution is that you get to spend time together while you work, make her feel like she's an important part of the process, and get done with your work even earlier so that you can then spend more quality time together. Everybody wins. Of course, you still need be clear that you need to be able to focus if you're working on a challenging problem. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1206" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="505" RevisionGUID="52a5abf1-917a-4c68-a567-6659bd2eacb2" CreationDate="2013-07-16T06:22:55.503" UserId="512" Comment="Rollback to [34115fbc-4943-46dc-8dd4-e82f5ca12080]" Text="Agree with [Oded](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/502/512) that talking should come first. Communication.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A little story of my own FWIW. My dad kept dropping in during work hours, despite my reminding him several times that I really needed to focus on work during the day and couldn't spend a lot of time chatting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He finally got the point after I sent him an invoice. He shows up looking for a coffee after work now, so things are shiny. (Mind you, he never paid the bill... must send him an overdue notice. (joke))" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1207" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="507" RevisionGUID="36f7f20a-5e0f-4f53-9b2a-22a78af07f8a" CreationDate="2013-07-16T08:36:52.770" UserId="517" Text="The same problem here. However it is not a problem any more due to a mutual understanding and my better planning. Let me explain it to you.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The hardest part is to &quot;make them understand&quot; that it is a **job** and you have to work it regardless of the fact that you are sitting in your living room. And if you don't earn money or the job gets cancelled, will they say OK or will they blame you :). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The solution which works best for me is an everyday solution: **compromise**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- set work hours like in real business. if it's 4 hours a day, then make it 4, not 5&#xD;&#xA;- if she wants you two to go shopping, do not say NO all the time. like in a real job, sometimes leave work and go with her&#xD;&#xA;- compensate time: tell her that you have to stick to the schedule today and tomorrow, but you will he her the next 2 days&#xD;&#xA;- do not make yourself into slave in freelancing. if you work all the time, themoney you earn will be useless then. do freelancing and enjoy spending money&#xD;&#xA;- make her know that you are earning this money for some cause, like new TV, new kitchen appliance, etc. If you spend this money on drink and yourself only, then she does not notice that you two have more money from your freelancing&#xD;&#xA;- make a plan: we need $1000 for some trip. and you work and save money for that trip. when she sees that your freelancing covers costs, she and other people will treat this as a real job&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All this tips made my life easier. As I said, I worked a lot and did not have time to enjoy money I made. After 6 months, I started being sick of freelancing. Now I tell to myself that I work 4 hours a day, and I stick to it. Sometimes, but really sometimes, I work more and that is really rare. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, I earn almost the same when I worked all the time, and I enjoy money I earned and I am not neglecting my marriage. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try these advises and let me know if it works. I am not some kind of relationship expert, but I only wrote what worked in my case :). &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1208" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="508" RevisionGUID="ae477618-c85b-4911-baf5-90113fef36b1" CreationDate="2013-07-16T08:41:00.257" UserId="517" Text="All freelancing site have a good tutorial for beginners. Read the 10 times if needed and just keep bidding. You will best learn from your own experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We've all been there and there is not shortcut to success. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those who are patient will success in freelancing. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1209" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="509" RevisionGUID="9c23146a-6b30-48e3-9d47-1fbe74d9b050" CreationDate="2013-07-16T08:44:37.050" UserId="517" Text="Those things like email replies are called &quot;Advising&quot; in freelancing world. Before you charge your client, make sure he understand that you are charging advising as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may charge him every reply, or accumulate minutes to 1 work hour and then charge him. I prefer to charge him full hours with explanation, like &quot;advise on task 3 - 15 min, advise on task 33 - 10 min, etc.&quot;. So far none of my clients complained. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But the main thing is that you do not charge them for advising without letting them know. Many clients will rather search the net then ask you if they know they will be charged. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1214" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="511" RevisionGUID="c3a86bc0-f010-4062-ab92-f68da4e1b8a5" CreationDate="2013-07-16T08:56:38.923" UserId="517" Text="When I am making a price estimation in some project, I try to predict the number of work hours based on my experience or my logic. Of course, many times you face features you did not implement before and then you have to guess number of work hours. And in such cases, I am usually wrong and then I have to work extra hours for free since the clients usually say &quot;sorry we do not have any more money in this project for extra costs&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I know that companies usually count these extra work hours into its price. For example, if they estimate that they need 100 man hours, then they multiply 100 with some percentage to get the final estimation. Some other use standard deviation formulas, and so on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have 2 questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Can you tell me what percentage do you use to calculate all extra man hours for all unpredicted events?&#xD;&#xA;2. Do you increase number of work hours on your own or you make a special time milestone called &quot;Extra hours&quot; or &quot;unpredicted events&quot; which you spend in case you come across event I described here?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;NOTE: Since I am not sure which terminology to use, anyone can fix the title to make it better! It's possible that these extra hours in some project have its own name and I do not know it. Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1215" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="511" RevisionGUID="c3a86bc0-f010-4062-ab92-f68da4e1b8a5" CreationDate="2013-07-16T08:56:38.923" UserId="517" Text="What percentage do you count in price estimation to cover overtime?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1216" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="511" RevisionGUID="c3a86bc0-f010-4062-ab92-f68da4e1b8a5" CreationDate="2013-07-16T08:56:38.923" UserId="517" Text="|overtime|price|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1217" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="512" RevisionGUID="49180415-d645-4352-9682-f327d9a0ff5e" CreationDate="2013-07-16T09:24:19.473" UserId="43" Text="A standard contingency in many organisations I have worked in is 15%, but as you are working alone I would push that up to 20%, as I indicated in a [similar answer here][1]. The key is to get as much scope agreed with the client up front so that you don't have any surprises down the road, but the only thing that can really help you regarding estimation of time to deliver requirements is experience. The more experience you have of delivering similar functionality, the better your estimation will become.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In every project you undertake, try to get in the habit of recording how long every requirement takes to deliver, noting down in particular any aspects that took longer than expected. If you can build this log up over time it will become an invaluable resource for future estimation. The key to estimating well is to spot the potential gotchas early and incorporate enough time in your quote to deal with them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will have to gauge the client, but I think it's reasonable to provide a higher and lower estimation for areas of functionality that you are unsure of in terms of time. You could provide 2 quotes so that they prepare for the worst. If you can deliver to the lower quote it would stand you in good stead for future work if you then charge them the lower of the 2 quotes upon delivery.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are careful to define the scope up front with the client, then anything that falls outside of that can trigger a Change Control, which can be captured and charged for separately. The key here is that the extra work is because of functionality requested by the client and not because you underestimated the original scope.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/191/fixed-price-or-per-hour-for-a-webdeveloper/192#192" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1218" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="507" RevisionGUID="0a67df4a-7bf3-4ec3-9cf0-e7d3d56b519e" CreationDate="2013-07-16T10:12:26.113" UserId="184" Comment="Some spelling, grammar and other minor corrections" Text="The same problem here. However it is not a problem any more due to a mutual understanding and my better planning. Let me explain it to you.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The hardest part is to &quot;make them understand&quot; that it is a **job** and you have to work it regardless of the fact that you are sitting in your living room. And if you don't earn money or the job gets cancelled, will they say OK or will they blame you :). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The solution which works best for me is an everyday solution: **compromise**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Set work hours like any other business. If it's 4 hours a day, then make it 4, not 5&#xD;&#xA;- If she wants you two to go shopping, do not say NO all the time. Like any job, sometimes leave work and go with her&#xD;&#xA;- Compensate with time: tell her that you have to stick to the schedule today and tomorrow, but you will be hers the next 2 days&#xD;&#xA;- Do not make yourself into a freelancing slave. If you work all the time, the money you earn will be useless then. Do some work and enjoy spending money&#xD;&#xA;- Make her know that you are earning this money for a reason, like new TV, new kitchen appliance, etc. If you spend this money on drink and yourself only, then she does not notice that you two have more money from your freelancing&#xD;&#xA;- Make plans: we need $1000 for some trip. You work and save money for that trip. When she sees that your freelancing covers the costs, she and other people will treat this as a real job&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All these have made my life easier. As I said, I worked a lot and did not have time to enjoy the money I made. After 6 months, I started being sick of freelancing. Now I tell myself that I work 4 hours a day, and I stick to it. Sometimes, but really sometimes, I work more and that is really rare. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, I earn almost the same as when I worked all the time, I enjoy the money I earn and I am not neglecting my marriage. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1219" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="371" RevisionGUID="58be1805-cb60-4c5d-878a-e887e1db0515" CreationDate="2013-07-16T13:38:44.423" UserDisplayName="user510" Comment="Removed meta content." Text="**By default, share login access, use VCS and comment well...**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think about it from another perspective: If you were a developer who took over halfway through somebody else's project, what would you want available to you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're obviously going to need to make sure the client has SSH &amp; FTP access to the server, and preferably access to your `bzr` repository (or other version control system) to get the work that's done but not pushed live yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Commenting is important. As a developer picking up from someone else's 'bus effect', you're going to much better understand the code base if it has full documentation of its classes, methods etc. than if the comments are inconsistent (or worse, absent).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**There is more you can do, but it's time consuming...**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Past here, you'll want to be talking to the client about specific requirements which differ from project to project. If you're using a fairly common framework with a fairly linear set of requirements, you may not need any more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If, on the other hand, you're working on a 300KLOC C++ behemoth with custom libraries etc, you're probably going to want to document properly. Obviously, this is time consuming and a lot of clients will turn you down on it, but at that point you've done what you can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I always offer full UML planning for my projects and try to quote a reasonable fee, these are the easiest way for a client's new hire to recover from the bus effect." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1220" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="371" RevisionGUID="58be1805-cb60-4c5d-878a-e887e1db0515" CreationDate="2013-07-16T13:38:44.423" Comment="Proposed by 510 approved by 69 edit id of 95" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1221" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="513" RevisionGUID="87bb0c51-9143-487c-af06-cbd4c16c2954" CreationDate="2013-07-16T15:16:18.303" UserId="514" Text="You improve the bus factor by adding heads with the critical knowledge, or you make it moot by raising it beyond the number of key developers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had a number of clients, back when lots of companies were discovering what cool kinds of things they could make or do if they embedded a computer in their products. I was some of my clients' first and only software guy - bus factor 1.0.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BF improvement:&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What I did then was to keep my managers in the loop. They were usually engineers who realized they didn't have enough hands to do everything within their responsibility and who hired me to relieve them of the software duties. The contracts were R&amp;D, or Product Development, i.e., ongoing, and I'd convince them that they needed their special knowledge to reside with one or more people in-house, not just with me, and I'd help them select and train their first software hire. As they grew and needed more, but not quite 1.0, people, I got lots of callbacks as the fractional guy. Working myself out of a job was the mainstay of my early career.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BF mitigation:&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Documentation. I always figured that if I could re-acquaint myself with what I'd done 6 months ago, then a next person could, too. And as often as not, I was the next guy! I comment my code with that in mind. There were a couple of cases when the next person who wasn't me thanked me for making his job easier. I keep that in mind, too." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1222" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="514" RevisionGUID="cf408a04-c498-4c56-84eb-e2014b8f93fa" CreationDate="2013-07-16T15:20:02.297" UserId="517" Text="The scenario is the usual one: You are asked to make a price estimation. You analyse all features at your best knowledge, experience and logic. You event count the buffer of 20%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You then start the project and you realize that you estimated too few work hours. Since it's your bad estimation, do you ask the client for more money or you accept your mistake and work for free all extra hours?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far, I worked for free since it's my mistake. I would really like to know what is the practice of the community. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1223" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="514" RevisionGUID="cf408a04-c498-4c56-84eb-e2014b8f93fa" CreationDate="2013-07-16T15:20:02.297" UserId="517" Text="Do you fix hourly estimation or accept your mistake and do for free?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1224" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="514" RevisionGUID="cf408a04-c498-4c56-84eb-e2014b8f93fa" CreationDate="2013-07-16T15:20:02.297" UserId="517" Text="|overtime|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1225" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="515" RevisionGUID="1f8e7748-1841-433f-a5e9-27824faccdf5" CreationDate="2013-07-16T15:30:29.477" UserId="514" Text="If you have a separate workspace with a door, signal with the door.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Door open: I'm working but you can interrupt occasionally for a question.&#xD;&#xA; - Door ajar: Please hold stuff for later but you can interrupt me if it's necessary.&#xD;&#xA; - Door closed: I need to concentrate; interrupt me if there's blood or fire.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No door? Some people have successfully used a distinctive hat to mean &quot;don't interrupt me just now&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But yeah, it starts with an understanding and agreement that this is my job; when I'm at work, I have to work like anyone else (only I have a way better boss!); but since I'm home and I'm really glad you're in my life, I'll try not to be (too) hard-a**ed about it when I can not be and still get my work done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1226" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="516" RevisionGUID="294b808d-bc24-4c77-8265-63c7e6f390af" CreationDate="2013-07-16T15:41:45.993" UserId="514" Text="On a fixed-price engineering job I bill time and expenses for a couple of weeks (typically) while I'm mostly onsite getting familiar with the project's current state and the client's expectations and requirements, and co-writing a spec or work-statement. When we have agreed on the spec, I'm in a much better position to estimate the work that follows, and even so, I'll need to build in a little bit of contingency.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of my clients, and especially in R&amp;D, have preferred a T&amp;E contract anyway. I think they feel they have more flexibility to change course - or contractors! - as the project progresses. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1227" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="517" RevisionGUID="6bddcaba-9701-451c-a8ec-1fd7b3a9af37" CreationDate="2013-07-16T16:18:31.213" UserId="517" Text="Most times, clients ask me to skype talk. Since I do not like talking as I may say something unplanned, I always direct them to message rooms where they ask questions, and I reply after thinking about it. So far, this was a very good approach since I did not make any mistake when setting the job terms and the clients never complained.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the past, I rejected a few clients because they insisted we talk. I am now wondering if more serious clients with multiple project wish to talk to contractor, while single-project ones or unserious ones prefer messaging. What do you say?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you think that I can find long-term partners by avoiding skype talks?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1228" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="517" RevisionGUID="6bddcaba-9701-451c-a8ec-1fd7b3a9af37" CreationDate="2013-07-16T16:18:31.213" UserId="517" Text="To talk with client or to chat with client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1229" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="517" RevisionGUID="6bddcaba-9701-451c-a8ec-1fd7b3a9af37" CreationDate="2013-07-16T16:18:31.213" UserId="517" Text="|attracting-clients|long-term|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1230" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="518" RevisionGUID="8490a376-6475-484a-9b45-0dbebd052218" CreationDate="2013-07-16T17:23:58.633" UserDisplayName="user521" Text="Explain her how do you work. Show her deadlines, work plans, and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good understanding of your workflow for your relatives will help to overcome such issues." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1231" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="516" RevisionGUID="5cb14338-c91e-477b-ad4e-f7968add4d9f" CreationDate="2013-07-16T18:31:37.237" UserId="514" Comment="Expanded abbreviations" Text="On a fixed-price engineering job I bill time and expenses for a couple of weeks (typically) while I'm mostly onsite getting familiar with the project's current state and the client's expectations and requirements, and co-writing a spec or work-statement. When we have agreed on the spec, I'm in a much better position to estimate the work that follows, and even so, I'll need to build in a little bit of contingency.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of my clients, and especially in research &amp; development, have preferred a time and expenses contract anyway. I think they feel they have more flexibility to change course - or contractors! - as the project progresses. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1233" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="515" RevisionGUID="9f35885c-454c-4f55-917e-4fd725f97857" CreationDate="2013-07-16T19:38:37.600" UserId="58" Comment="minor grammar changes." Text="If you have a separate workspace with a door, signal with the door.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Door open: I'm working but you can interrupt occasionally for a question.&#xD;&#xA; - Door ajar: Please hold stuff for later but you can interrupt me if it's necessary.&#xD;&#xA; - Door closed: I need to concentrate; interrupt me if there's blood or fire.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No door? Some people have successfully used a distinctive hat to mean &quot;don't interrupt me just now&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But yeah, it starts with an understanding and agreement that this is my job; when I'm at work, I have to work like anyone else (only I have a way better boss!), but since I'm home and I'm really glad you're in my life, I'll try not to be (too) hard about it when I can, and still get my work done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1234" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="519" RevisionGUID="ff1f6108-0029-4838-9c87-320701ae6745" CreationDate="2013-07-16T22:48:48.617" UserId="477" Text="It depends what terms you have, you can bill them for all of your hours and try to give them a rough maximum amount, but if you have said it will just cost X amount then I would really stick to that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm usually pretty nervous about taking on projects where I'm going in a bit blind. In that situation I normally say I think it will be between X and Y hours, but I will have a clearer understanding after Z hours, so let's review it then.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On really small customisation jobs (maybe a few hours) I will just shoot them the price for my very top estimate - most of the time it takes me less time but sometimes it doesn't so it all balances out." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1235" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="520" RevisionGUID="8de8a9be-0ab5-4a16-a045-35771a869cc1" CreationDate="2013-07-16T22:52:19.227" UserId="477" Text="A lot of clients will want to chat because it helps them to understand what you are like as a person and can make them feel better about going with you - it also helps to show that you aren't a scammer that will run away with their money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, it's not my favourite thing to do but having that instant contact can be a great thing. If you are unsure of something when speaking to a client then just tell them you will email to confirm after doing some research etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1236" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="504" RevisionGUID="585ec00b-5ec7-489e-a803-aafbb57dea75" CreationDate="2013-07-16T22:52:50.790" UserId="477" Comment="added 21 characters in body" Text="As mentioned in other answers, she needs to understand that the work you are doing is important and directly correlates with money you bring in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another good thing to do is sometimes work out of home if you can at a local cafe etc - sometimes the change of scenery really helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1237" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="521" RevisionGUID="f0fd047e-8862-42dc-bdfe-e64511f50c24" CreationDate="2013-07-17T02:51:38.340" UserId="522" Text="As you go in for larger and higher-paying consulting projects, trust becomes increasingly more important.  Larger projects often start out with a phone interview, and if you do well there, the next question is often, &quot;how soon can we fly you out to meet our team?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's possible to land some large projects without in-person meetings, but rarely without some phone conversations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you plan to grow your practice to take on larger projects, it's definitely worthwhile to develop verbal communication skills.  If you have a strong aversion to verbal or in-person communication, you might consider coaching or practice, or you might try to find a person to front for you as a client liaison or project manager.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1238" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="518" RevisionGUID="a527e1b5-dfca-46c2-8ee9-7a60b8bdffa3" CreationDate="2013-07-17T08:24:00.273" UserDisplayName="user521" Comment="explained my point of view" Text="Explain her how do you work. Show her deadlines, work plans, and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good understanding of your workflow for your relatives will help to overcome such issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Update:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many problems in relationships have roots in misunderstanding. Your relatives have different picture in their's mind about your work. And due to this fact they make incorrect assumptions about you and your intentions and attitude towards your relatives.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Show them what is going on in your everyday work. How do you get new customers and plan your work, how do you meet the deadlines and how do you drive your business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And how much time does it take." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1239" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="522" RevisionGUID="092d39d7-1ddb-43d0-ae60-4dedbff09eea" CreationDate="2013-07-17T11:02:27.660" UserId="127" Text="It is your freelance business, and if you prefer written communication to voice communication, it is okay to make that choice. I prefer email to phone conversations, and I have been freelancing for &gt; 10 years. That being said, I do occasionally speak to my clients. Here are some observations:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* 90% of my communication is via email with my clients. I have been working with several of them more than 5 years, so they are &quot;serious&quot; and &quot;long-term&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;* Still, prospective clients who are not willing to communicate via email ever are not a good fit for me, and I do eliminate them early in the process. But early phone or in person conversations are inevitable. People need to feel comfortable w/ the person they are hiring.&#xD;&#xA;* With some clients, I have set up &quot;phone hours&quot; to limit the time I need to speak with them on the phone. Or I don't answer when my phone rings, and I force them to setup a time for a conversation.&#xD;&#xA;* Getting better with in personal communication is still important. Look for opportunities to practice! I joined my local chamber of commerce and a Toastmasters club. Gets me out of the house and meeting people, which means I'm better at &quot;live&quot; conversations and extemporaneous speaking. This will help your whole business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1247" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="524" RevisionGUID="ceee1a96-481c-4361-be96-98313e419ce5" CreationDate="2013-07-17T14:34:24.320" UserId="517" Text="To add, paying upfront means the client is serious. Not 100% proven method, but 99% proven. Of all my clients, only 1 paid upfront and I made project specs, and later he wanted me to return him some money since he wished to cancel the project before we started. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they refuse paying upfront, I simply don't work with them. Maybe I made a mistake, but I am 100% sure I am not on loss. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Potential clients are those who, after you give them ball park price, ask you can you do it cheaper. This gives you opportunity to tell them what you can do with the sum they are ready to pay. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And most uncertain and bad clients were those who approached to me the first time and wanted to hire me quickly. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1248" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="525" RevisionGUID="7328a683-7425-49d3-a92f-e48f27a6be05" CreationDate="2013-07-17T14:41:47.253" UserId="517" Text="If the project sum is too small, then I usually don't ask upfront. This means the project which I can finish in 1 week. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All other projects I take 20% to 25% without exceptions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is not willing to pay upfront then I kindly tell him that I cannot start working without upfront because of bad experience in the past, and if they still do not want to pay, I don't accept the job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some rare cases, I tell them that upfront will be accompanied with myself making a project specs sheet and this usually calms them down. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently I started including clients into our tools (SVN server with ticketing, Basecamp message room, Project management tool) and this somehow assures them that I am serious enough to get paid upfront. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are still reluctant and I really want the job, then I ask them to work hourly with demo each Fri or Mon. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this helped. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1249" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="526" RevisionGUID="4c1e27e4-16d5-461b-b706-b3944e3d5138" CreationDate="2013-07-17T15:21:30.427" UserId="127" Text="I only provide services on a fixed fee basis, so if I get the estimate wrong, I eat the cost, because I've assumed that risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do a few things to mitigate that risk, though. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* I work very hard to be accurate in my estimates, constantly improving how I put them together. &#xD;&#xA;* If I'm asked for a bid on something that I don't feel I can accurately estimate, I instead submit a bid for a discovery phase where I can gather enough information to more accurately bid the rest of the project. The deliverable is a document that the client can use to shop to other freelancers, if they desire (they rarely do, but that's how I pitch it.) &#xD;&#xA;* I cultivate clients who see the relationship as a partnership, not vendor/client. They want to be successful, and they want me to be successful too. On the rare occasion that my estimate is radically wrong, this has really worked to my benefit. A few years ago my bid on a project was off by 3 weeks, because I underestimated how difficult it would be to work with a required third party tool. After the project was complete, the client offered me an additional fee because they felt like it wasn't entirely my fault! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1250" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="527" RevisionGUID="4061eb99-de59-4f0c-9180-c5038684ec00" CreationDate="2013-07-17T21:34:58.633" UserId="514" Text="I either contract for a fixed price and stick to it - and only those jobs that can be well defined - or contract for an hourly rate and expect the client to stick to it. They can't have it both ways. If you're going to protect them from the cost of an over-run, make sure you've covered yourself for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client can choose anytime to reduce the scope, stop the project entirely, or limit me to billing no more than X amount per week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The point of a fixed price is to protect the client's budget and I take the risk, charging for it in my price. The point of billing time and expenses is to allow the client flexibility in the scope and direction of the project, protecting me against changes and unknowns, for which the client takes the risk but with the available &quot;outs&quot; I noted above. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once, when I had to discard some work through my error, I credited the client some hours at his request to retain his good will, but I normally expect to be paid for hours worked if that was the upfront agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1251" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="527" RevisionGUID="e46b113b-758a-4978-8c04-d87b27b3a6ea" CreationDate="2013-07-17T21:46:44.703" UserId="514" Comment="added 1031 characters in body" Text="I either contract for a fixed price and stick to it - and only those jobs that can be well defined - or contract for an hourly rate and expect the client to stick to it. They can't have it both ways. If you're going to protect them from the cost of an over-run, make sure you've covered yourself for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client can choose anytime to reduce the scope, stop the project entirely, or limit me to billing no more than X amount per week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The point of a fixed price is to protect the client's budget and I take the risk, charging for it in my price. The point of billing time and expenses is to allow the client flexibility in the scope and direction of the project, protecting me against changes and unknowns, for which the client takes the risk but with the available &quot;outs&quot; I noted above. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once, when I had to discard some work through my error, I credited the client some hours at his request to retain his good will, but I normally expect to be paid for hours worked if that was the upfront agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an analogy, I once owned an old house. When I'd put jobs out for estimates, the contractors understood &quot;estimate&quot; to mean what I would call a &quot;bid&quot; - an upfront agreed-upon price. And I'd ask them &quot;Is this a bid or an estimate?&quot; It was always a final price. Old houses being what they are - with each task bound to expose another task needing doing first - and the contractors being neighbors and/or people I might like to hire again, I'd offer to let them take the job on a time &amp; materials basis. I'd ask for an estimate but with the understanding that it was just that, an estimate, but that they'd bill - and I'd pay - their labor and materials cost. They were almost always relieved to not have to allow for unknows, and I usually got jobs done for less, but in any case, for the real costs without just-in-case padding.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You and your client choose the working arrangement that best seems to fit the job, and then stick with it. If it really starts looking likely to go south for either of you, sit down and re-negotiate." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1252" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="528" RevisionGUID="5d417b2f-94b7-4b93-a54b-e028c2bfbf37" CreationDate="2013-07-18T02:38:39.663" UserId="530" Text="I am working in one company from last 3 months, before 2 months i have created my personal account on one freelancing website. and for the trial purpose i have applied 4-5 proposal on site but i not woked with anyone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;now my company got informed of this &amp; they are saying me that I have did illegal things &amp; they are terminating me.&amp; they are not going to give my payment of 2 months.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;now my question is:- 1)is really i have done illegal things &amp; now what to do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-2)can anyone working in any company  open the account on freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1253" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="528" RevisionGUID="5d417b2f-94b7-4b93-a54b-e028c2bfbf37" CreationDate="2013-07-18T02:38:39.663" UserId="530" Text="while working in another company can i open account in freelancing website" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1254" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="528" RevisionGUID="5d417b2f-94b7-4b93-a54b-e028c2bfbf37" CreationDate="2013-07-18T02:38:39.663" UserId="530" Text="|newcomer|consulting|knowledge|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1255" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="528" RevisionGUID="1277a2e2-6374-4120-ad5a-48e8fe0bd67e" CreationDate="2013-07-18T07:31:04.657" UserId="43" Comment="Improved spelling and grammar" Text="I have been working for a company for the last 3 months. 2 months ago I created a personal account on a freelancing website and for trial purposes I have applied 4-5 proposals on the site but I have not worked with anyone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now my company have been informed of this and they are telling me that I have done illegal things. They are terminating my employment and are not going to pay me for the last 2 months.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Have I really done something illegal and what can I do now?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Can anyone working for any company open a freelancing website account?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1256" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="528" RevisionGUID="1277a2e2-6374-4120-ad5a-48e8fe0bd67e" CreationDate="2013-07-18T07:31:04.657" UserId="43" Comment="Improved spelling and grammar" Text="Whilst working for a company, can I open a freelancing website account?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1257" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="528" RevisionGUID="1277a2e2-6374-4120-ad5a-48e8fe0bd67e" CreationDate="2013-07-18T07:31:04.657" UserId="43" Comment="Improved spelling and grammar" Text="|legal|newcomer|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1258" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="529" RevisionGUID="65904583-9096-48c3-9abc-3c3457606bda" CreationDate="2013-07-18T09:47:45.893" UserId="517" Text="As someone said, you should consult your lawyer. He will read the agreement you both signed and then see if they are right or wrong. Most companies sign binding contracts with their developers which do not allow that their employee work in the same branch. For example, if your company develops slots machines, then you are not allowed to do such coding after the work. But you are allowed to do game coding or mobile apps coding since these are not related areas. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, the only thing that matter is what you signed in your contract with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, speaking honestly, you did not do anything wrong since you never did any job. But you may have talked with their competitors and most companies will punish such acts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask you lawyer to talk to your company and offer that they punish you (percentage of salary) if you did something which is illegal. It's pretty harsh just to fire you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And in the end, if you are a developer and good developer, then seek for another job. This company of yours looks like a horror company. If they punish small mistakes like that, then they do not appreciate their workers. Of course, I am speaking this in case this is your first mistake and you are usually a good worker. In such case, I would leave this company asap but consult the lawyer just to know if they had right to fire me. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1262" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="531" RevisionGUID="2bd86c1c-f849-47df-a7ab-73a9056b91a5" CreationDate="2013-07-18T14:03:07.827" UserId="121" Text="I use this as a rule of thumb, based on the total project time:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**&lt; 1 week**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;50% upfront, 50% after delivery&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**&lt; 1 month**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;25% upfront, 25% in the middle, 50% after delivery&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**&gt; 1 month**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;25% upfront, 25% after delivery and the remaining 50% is split into milestones" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1263" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="532" RevisionGUID="369732d0-2f99-4c07-bd48-45577351fbbf" CreationDate="2013-07-18T14:07:51.110" UserId="533" Text="My question is very simple,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any copyright problem in selling courses (PDF) online and in real life, on informatic language linked to a particuliar company ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My personnal problem concern the VBA langague, linked to Excel and so microsoft. Can I use their logo ? Screen captures ? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1264" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="532" RevisionGUID="369732d0-2f99-4c07-bd48-45577351fbbf" CreationDate="2013-07-18T14:07:51.110" UserId="533" Text="Copyright problem in Giving informatic courses?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1265" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="532" RevisionGUID="369732d0-2f99-4c07-bd48-45577351fbbf" CreationDate="2013-07-18T14:07:51.110" UserId="533" Text="|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1266" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="533" RevisionGUID="1339217c-2cd4-43e1-8589-35a0a0d1351b" CreationDate="2013-07-18T14:20:18.610" UserId="102" Text="Logo and any visual material (videos, manuals) provided by such company will be surely protected by copyright law. You should ask them on what conditions you can use such materials (their logo, their videos, their manuals or excerpts from videos and manuals).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By the way if you dont have MS certification in there areas, they might be reluctant to give you permissions to use their visual materials..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1271" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="532" RevisionGUID="202091e3-6686-41ed-adfb-131b65369994" CreationDate="2013-07-18T14:50:06.113" UserId="58" Comment="spelling, grammar, etc." Text="Are there any copyright problems in selling courses (in PDF format) online and in real life, on a programming language linked to a particular company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My concern is with the VBA language, linked to Excel (and so Microsoft). Can I use their logo? Screen captures? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1272" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="532" RevisionGUID="202091e3-6686-41ed-adfb-131b65369994" CreationDate="2013-07-18T14:50:06.113" UserId="58" Comment="spelling, grammar, etc." Text="Selling programming language courses - copyright issues?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1273" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="534" RevisionGUID="40da17d9-4d62-4a64-b92a-4b269f97387c" CreationDate="2013-07-18T16:36:18.590" UserId="48" Text="I'm a mobile developer in the state of Florida and I'm currently freelancing through an LLC I setup a couple years ago.  I went to a talk about business startups recently and the term PLLC, or professional limited liability company, was mentioned specifically in reference to computer professionals working by themselves through an LLC.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know much about the PLLC and I'm wondering if this type of company is more suited to the work that I'm doing.  What is the difference between an LLC and a PLLC and which is more suited for a developer working alone?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1274" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="534" RevisionGUID="40da17d9-4d62-4a64-b92a-4b269f97387c" CreationDate="2013-07-18T16:36:18.590" UserId="48" Text="What is the difference between an LLC and a PLLC?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1275" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="534" RevisionGUID="40da17d9-4d62-4a64-b92a-4b269f97387c" CreationDate="2013-07-18T16:36:18.590" UserId="48" Text="|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1276" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="535" RevisionGUID="9c30d5ce-cbcd-4ab6-a6b0-c179d7386042" CreationDate="2013-07-18T23:09:40.610" UserDisplayName="user503" Text="1. Tell your boss about why and what exactly you are planning and ask if it is legal by your contract you have.&#xD;&#xA;2. Inform yourself about extra taxes you have to pay to the government or to the social system in your country.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, there are people doing this already, just for some little extra money (for holidays, gifts, etc..) which should be fine in most cases." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1277" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="514" RevisionGUID="914a419a-771e-4d60-8c68-fe093d6846c4" CreationDate="2013-07-19T03:06:27.417" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/358060235862192128" />
  <row Id="1281" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="537" RevisionGUID="ef527938-8db2-4dad-b47d-6b234b9dd16a" CreationDate="2013-07-19T06:43:14.473" UserId="85" Text="You don't indicate where you are, so answering with any specific info is tricky, but...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract of employment you signed will have (probably) placed restrictions on any outside interests, although these are often far out-with what the law allows.  Certainly, here in the UK, there are doctrines on Restraint of Trade, which make it illegal for companies to prevent you working for other people!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, the manner of the process outlined suggests you are not in the UK...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suggest you ask for an &quot;on the record&quot; meeting to discuss why they have the objection they do, and you can give assurance that there is no conflict of interest in what you are doing, and that it does not (nor will not) affect your performance at work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Quite the opposite - you may learn new skills and techniques that could benefit them...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you do in your own time is none of their business - as long as there are no conflicts of interest." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1283" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="533" RevisionGUID="f76b2545-460a-460e-a924-7872c4710497" CreationDate="2013-07-19T09:46:26.357" UserId="102" Comment="Added link to MS copyright info" Text="Logo and any visual material (videos, manuals) provided by such company will be surely protected by copyright law. You should ask them on what conditions you can use such materials (their logo, their videos, their manuals or excerpts from videos and manuals).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By the way if you dont have MS certification in there areas, they might be reluctant to give you permissions to use their visual materials...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT: I found [this link][1] that could help evaluate conditions for using MS copyrighted content:  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/intellectualproperty/Permissions/default.aspx" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1284" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="539" RevisionGUID="4f10e90c-e0bf-4c36-9b88-89512eafcdf7" CreationDate="2013-07-19T11:14:41.920" UserId="485" Text="When you do speak to people on the phone, remember you don't have to answer a client's questions then and there or immediately provide quotes, time estimates or agree to their suggestions - you're perfectly within your rights to tell them you will think about it, get back to them, or you need to check.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Doing this will hopefully help you feel more in control of the situation and less pressurised (which is one of the reasons I personally resist phone calls whenever possible)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1286" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="101" RevisionGUID="f99e6482-3d87-4c6c-9ea5-3791534fcce4" CreationDate="2013-07-19T13:42:48.987" UserId="58" Comment="edited tags" Text="|client|growth|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1288" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="528" RevisionGUID="2f28d82b-4514-433f-ad14-2a1443b7d315" CreationDate="2013-07-19T13:45:07.857" UserId="58" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1289" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="454" RevisionGUID="52c2e8dc-4c87-489c-9c8d-e52ea2edb337" CreationDate="2013-07-19T13:45:21.467" UserId="58" Comment="edited tags" Text="|marketing|attracting-clients|growth|canada|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1290" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="11" RevisionGUID="6ca0f750-760e-4353-bf6f-e101966aca17" CreationDate="2013-07-19T13:45:58.440" UserId="58" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1291" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="540" RevisionGUID="491343aa-36f9-4755-8380-b03b2ce1e410" CreationDate="2013-07-20T23:22:19.577" UserId="543" Text="In North America, the 'average' consulting rate (according to the Wall Street Journal) is around $62 per hour.  If I look at Craigslist in certain high demand markets, I see rates offered for contracting, and those run from $60 to $80.  This would be for Java, C#, SQL Server, etc.  Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, ERP, and Oracle pay better rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good places to look in CL are Toronto, Ontario, which posts about 100 listings a day.  Toronto is a pretty expensive city.  Indeed.com is an amalgamator, and they sometimes post annual salaries - however they can make horrible mistakes.  I saw an IT Director for a school district offered $250,000, which was due to a misinterpretation of the annual salary terms posted on the original site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How this translates into Euros I can't tell, but generally if you have a feeling you're priced out of the market your feeling is probably right." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1292" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="541" RevisionGUID="65c7ebab-5fea-48cd-83fd-400398251ade" CreationDate="2013-07-20T23:33:51.317" UserId="543" Text="If you're doing software development, competition is not an issue.  What is an issue is local demand.  Markets in most of the country are cold, but a few are hot.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have had people vote down hard on the following summary, so take it with a grain of salt:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Within the US, one computer per worker, one per student, one per household, and 40 million servers plus 150 million smartphones.  This comes out to around 400 million desktop/laptop PCs, for a total of around 550 million programmable devices users can install software on.  Based on numbers at bls.gov, one could conclude there are somewhere between 1.2 million and 2 million developers in the US.  This is roughly 400 devices per programmer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This implies there is far more work than there are people to do it.  However, if you're in Albuquerque, forget it.  If you're in Detroit, you're in luck.  In short, if you can't find anything in your hometown, look down the road - see what's available in a 100 mile radius.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've found that the 'can opener' is Microsoft Access - there are a lot of small businesses that need this, and lots of IT people won't mess with it.  If you need street cred, this is a good way of getting it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1293" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="542" RevisionGUID="5e73dcf0-e205-4d81-9446-3abd16de253f" CreationDate="2013-07-21T13:25:47.827" UserId="543" Text="I was working with a smallish company that did legacy migrations, and we had a large IT services firm on the phone discussing a prospective project.  The account representative went on at some length about how their company did their projects 'on time and on budget'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's only one small problem with this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I spent a few days thinking about that, and made up two ads.  In the first one, you are lying face up on the operating table, and the doctor is about to put you under for major surgery, and he's telling you 'we'll have you out of here on time and on budget'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second one shows a well appointed lady in her lawyer's office, discussing her divorce. He's telling her he'll get the matter settled 'on time and on budget'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first example illustrates the fundamental question: you're relationship with your client is not merely 'finishing a garage' or wiring a building.  You are involved in the core of their business processes, and what you do affects the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization.  Therefore, your arrangement with them needs to be sustainable in the long term.  You can't do this if you keep eating costs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are you writing something like customer relationship management that you will need to keep operational and modify repeatedly over time?  If so, you're expected to understand how they do business.  This, on it's own, is as valuable as actual code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second example is somewhat different, in that the well appointed lady is not particularly interested in cost effectiveness - her intention is to maximize pain.  Her soon to be ex-hubby would appreciate cost management, unless it's his objective to make her struggle for every last dime.  In such situations cost criteria take a back seat to other objectives." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1294" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="543" RevisionGUID="f9043867-dc0c-4912-b3d3-39731d2d489c" CreationDate="2013-07-21T13:34:44.667" UserId="543" Text="My working relationships are always bill by the hour, bill every one to two weeks, and payment within one to two weeks after billing.  There is no doubt that the people I'm working with need what I do, and for the most part little doubt about whether I'll get paid. For the most part, I keep my project count limited to two or three at a time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're going after two and three month projects, you're barking up the wrong tree.  Generally sustainable work runs from six to eighteen months and should have potential for long term support - generally reports development and application customization up to five years out.  You should have one 'core' long term account and one or two 'contingency' accounts that have lower priority needs.  These latter 'backfill' in situations where you can't work on the core account for some reason.  Any more than three active projects and you'll be overextended, and all of your clients will start getting cranky." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1295" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="544" RevisionGUID="03292abb-b7f8-476f-a61b-fc22561fafe8" CreationDate="2013-07-22T06:49:54.977" UserId="546" Text="Which is the best website to start freelancing from ?  Because when I read the reviews of [freelancer](www.freelancer.com) on [SiteJabber](http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.freelancer.com) it has a rating of 1.5/5. There are allegations over freelancer not releasing money on almost all the posts. Similarly if I google Odesk reviews I get demotivating results. Can some please suggest a good website to start with ? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1296" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="544" RevisionGUID="03292abb-b7f8-476f-a61b-fc22561fafe8" CreationDate="2013-07-22T06:49:54.977" UserId="546" Text="Are Websites like Freelancer Trusted?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1297" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="544" RevisionGUID="03292abb-b7f8-476f-a61b-fc22561fafe8" CreationDate="2013-07-22T06:49:54.977" UserId="546" Text="|growth|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1298" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="544" RevisionGUID="849104cc-6397-4b1e-8582-f7dfe8c7abfa" CreationDate="2013-07-22T07:56:51.270" UserId="546" Comment="added 7 characters in body" Text="Which is the best website to start freelancing from ?  Because when I read the reviews of [freelancer](http://www.freelancer.com) on [SiteJabber](http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.freelancer.com) it has a rating of 1.5/5. There are allegations over freelancer not releasing money on almost all the posts. Similarly if I google Odesk reviews I get demotivating results. Can some please suggest a good website to start with ? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1299" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="544" RevisionGUID="b537df40-7be1-441d-9a0e-d6e7ab491aee" CreationDate="2013-07-22T11:58:07.797" UserId="546" Comment="added 31 characters in body" Text="Which is the best website to start freelancing from ?  Because when I read the reviews of [freelancer](http://www.freelancer.com) on [SiteJabber](http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.freelancer.com) it has a rating of 1.5/5. There are allegations over freelancer not releasing money on almost all the posts. Similarly if I google Odesk reviews I get demotivating results. Can someone please tell me how to verify the credibility of a freelance website ? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1300" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="544" RevisionGUID="1fb572f4-b99a-41c1-82c4-fc7153097914" CreationDate="2013-07-22T12:00:28.203" UserId="58" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Hiroto&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="1301" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="544" RevisionGUID="293be2b5-d43b-4e8c-b4f2-3d2a32a97959" CreationDate="2013-07-22T12:11:37.070" UserId="546" Comment="deleted 56 characters in body" Text="On reading the reviews of Freelancer.com on [SiteJabber](http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.freelancer.com) or the reviews of Elance on [Mouthshut](http://www.mouthshut.com/websites/Elance-com-reviews-925022895) the freelancing websites do not look convincing enough. The reviews suggest that most of them are stealers are reluctant in releasing money. How can the credibility of a website be known ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1306" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="546" RevisionGUID="6e829864-5465-4106-955b-e5ee8133e295" CreationDate="2013-07-22T13:19:28.510" UserDisplayName="user510" Text="Awhile back, I was approached by a prospective client with a project.  She had a pretty grand vision of what she wanted, but I managed to get her to agree to a limited scope for a first iteration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She seemed happy, and we started to move forward.  A contract was drafted, and an invoice for a down payment was sent out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A week later, she wanted to meet again, and she had some changes to make to the scope.  Specifically, she wanted to expand it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As soon as she said this, I felt my stomach twist, but I didn't know why.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I explained that the additional scope would mean higher cost and later delivery date, which she was ok with (even though she had initially indicated that there was a hard deadline on the project).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recommended that we start with a limited scope so that we can create an MVP before adding more features, but she was adamant that the additional features were necessary for the initial iteration (even though there would have been no difference in terms of pricing and time between producing the MVP in iteration one and then immediately beginning the second iteration to add the extra features that she wanted).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, I agreed to the increased scope, she agreed to the increased cost and new delivery date, everybody seemed happy, and we got ready to start up again (at this point, the contract was still unsigned, and the initial invoice was still unpaid).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A week later, she emailed me to let me know that she was dropping the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Was my instinct correct?  Is increasing the scope before work has started a &quot;red flag&quot;?  Or is that not usually a problem, and there was more likely something else going on here?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1307" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="546" RevisionGUID="6e829864-5465-4106-955b-e5ee8133e295" CreationDate="2013-07-22T13:19:28.510" UserDisplayName="user510" Text="Is increasing the scope before work has started a warning sign?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1308" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="546" RevisionGUID="6e829864-5465-4106-955b-e5ee8133e295" CreationDate="2013-07-22T13:19:28.510" UserDisplayName="user510" Text="|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1309" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="547" RevisionGUID="f8c0b735-2776-471f-959e-f5f1155fb4fa" CreationDate="2013-07-22T13:30:32.823" UserId="20" Text="Many states do not allow an LLC to be formed for professionals who require a license (e.g. lawyers, engineers). A PPLC is intended for licensed professionals who require the benefits of an LLC.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A professional limited liability company (“PLLC”) is a business entity&#xD;&#xA;&gt; designed for licensed professions, such as lawyers, doctors,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; architects, engineers, accountants, and chiropractors. While many&#xD;&#xA;&gt; businesses choose to form a limited liability company (“LLC”) because&#xD;&#xA;&gt; of the tax, limited liability, and other benefits, states generally&#xD;&#xA;&gt; don’t allow LLCs for businesses where a license is required. Licensed&#xD;&#xA;&gt; professionals who want the benefits of an LLC must form a PLLC&#xD;&#xA;&gt; instead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/what-professional-limited-liability-company.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although there is occasionally debate in the computer professional business (eg. the recent editorial in ACM Communications), I am not aware of any jurisdiction which requires software engineers to be licensed in a similar way as, say, a civil engineer. Perhaps your speaker thought it looked better (ie. more &quot;professional&quot;?).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1310" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="122" RevisionGUID="e8b7363e-6922-49f2-a9ce-3e3b59ba5e03" CreationDate="2013-07-22T15:11:37.903" UserDisplayName="user510" Comment="Fixed formatting, re-worded for clarity." Text="I would advise following approach:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. **Define the scope of the work** (which means &quot;what will be delivered&quot;). With an ongoing project like this you probably won't be able to do this retroactively (because you definitely do not want to damage your good relationship with the client).  But, you can do it for future requests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  I.e. &quot;&amp;lt;module&amp;gt;, that will have following functions and settings: &amp;lt;here goes your list&amp;gt;, admin will interact with it this way: &amp;lt;description of admin gui&amp;gt; and users will interact with it this way &amp;lt;user gui&amp;gt;&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. **Define what is not in scope** - This is actually very important, because as you gain experience, there will be many future enhancements you can anticipate, and you can decide with the client if they are in the scope or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  If the client decides to add these enhancements later, that is clearly change request and you will have less difficult negotiations to cope with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. When you hit a grey area like you just described, ask the client to pay, but first tell him what the change means for you. Imagine talking like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - You: &quot;You are asking me to add feature XYZ. That is reasonable, but since it was not described in the original request, it will cost me XY hours of work. Would you be willing to pay for the work, please?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;  - Client: &quot;But we agreed to a fixed price for the solution; you should calculate in unexpected changes like this.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;  - You: &quot;Not everything can be calculated in advance. You have a formal right to demand this feature as part of solution, but understand that if you force me to do it for free, it will have impact on the speed and quality - I will be forced to do it as quickly as possible so I wont lose much money on that. In the end, it will harm us both; please reconsider.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  And so on. In the end, if the client is honest and not just trying to take advantage of you, you will arrive at a compromise, and you will get at least some money for the extra work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  If he tries to rip you off, you know that you have to be strictly formal next time, not giving him any chances (and maybe not giving him your best, because that is reserved for clients who appreciate your work and are honest with you)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1311" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="122" RevisionGUID="e8b7363e-6922-49f2-a9ce-3e3b59ba5e03" CreationDate="2013-07-22T15:11:37.903" Comment="Proposed by 510 approved by 58 edit id of 97" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1312" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="548" RevisionGUID="cb77e090-6f4c-4028-8972-4df3246dec7a" CreationDate="2013-07-22T16:57:27.277" UserId="543" Text="There are plenty of people that have 'grand visions' and limited resources.  They'll get going on something and then realize either that they can't afford to use it the way they intended, it's going to take longer to do then they expected, or that their understanding of what they needed was incomplete and they really need something else.  This goes on all the time, and I wouldn't be surprised if she calls you up again in a month and says 'we need this after all'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have a 'first contact' that is tentative (new client you haven't worked with before).  Probably the best thing to do is keep rounds of communication going every month or so to see what her current projects are.  Rather than make 'all or nothing' software agreements, operate 'a la carte' time and materials.  You need to understand more about how this client does business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1313" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="549" RevisionGUID="1cf41e0f-484f-4e27-9b9f-7406eeec6d77" CreationDate="2013-07-22T17:18:57.293" UserId="543" Text="This is going to create problems.  The best thing to do early is recompose your CV.  If you have more than ten years of experience, you should probably compose 'custom' CVs for the specifics of jobs you're applying for.  I have a separate one for Access/SQL, C#/SQL, ASP.NET, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once it's clear recruiters will do this, create minor differences in each CV you publish or distribute, and keep a copy locally named with who you sent it to.  That way if a particular pattern shows up, you'll know where they got it from.  If it was published on a board then you know they pulled it from the board, even if you don't know who pulled it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have some obscure project you worked on, like FoxPro or LabView, keep this in the CV even if it seems irrelevant.  If the plagiarizer can't even explain what the product is, it will become clear to an employer they (either job candidate or recruiter) are cheating." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1315" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="550" RevisionGUID="a6d66a8a-1a48-4301-b5de-1bf7837c19ec" CreationDate="2013-07-22T20:10:56.620" UserId="553" Text="Yes, increasing or uncertain scope is a sign of unrealistic client expectations. Unrealistic expectations can be your fault (not clarifying what's realistic), or due to the client's inexperience, idealism, or deliberate attempt to get more than is realistically possible for their budget. It is critical to resolve scope creep early. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1316" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="551" RevisionGUID="7b5daf77-04e0-4db6-90a4-629ea7101df7" CreationDate="2013-07-22T21:19:19.533" UserId="553" Text="There's no hard rule. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally speaking, people don't like to prepay because it's a vulnerability for them. I hire more than I consult, and I almost exclusively never prepay. But I am willing to pay in small increments. I also usually do not require prepayment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are my thoughts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) How trustworthy is the client? If very trustworthy, the need for prepayment is less. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) How guaranteed is it that the client has realistic expectations and budget? If high, the need for prepayment is less. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) How much early costs will there be? i.e., for staff, expenses, etc? If high, get prepaid (retainer). You should not front much costs for a client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) How much institutional vagueness is there? i.e., question #1 is about trust, but sometimes even trustworthy clients don't seem to have their head totally in the game. If you sense that they are indecisive, then a retainer can really crystalize their thinking: The project has begun.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5) Don't waste your time with contracts. And don't sign NDAs unless they very clearly define the nature of the disclosure. But do create a very clear scope of work before starting. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1317" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="552" RevisionGUID="87a64d39-ec48-40e6-b4fa-32a87e33c7c7" CreationDate="2013-07-23T04:19:53.920" UserId="553" Text="The key is communication. Sure, you can have long term relationships -- with some personalities -- communicating only by text (e.g., email, text chat). The majority of people, however, I find feel that they get an insight through phone or in-person discussion which is essential. I think this partially comes down to introverts vs. extroverts. Generally speaking, any large budget project is going to require more human interaction. If you don't want to talk on the phone, for example, because English is not your native language -- you might consider mentioning that you feel you can express yourself more clearly in written language. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1318" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="553" RevisionGUID="5d4981d2-9127-4768-b237-fe90ac8e67ef" CreationDate="2013-07-23T14:48:33.133" UserId="553" Text="Try seeking out smaller-scale projects, particularly projects that require a higher-level of expertise. Choose projects that you have specific experience on. These might be as small as a few hour or few day projects. Be sure to mention your prior experience with software and the specific task at hand in your PMB. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1319" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="554" RevisionGUID="747689fe-090d-4e71-94cf-76105a30d6d4" CreationDate="2013-07-23T15:51:09.340" UserId="517" Text="Yes and no. In medium and larger projects, this means that the client did not seriously planned the project. If they had to change project specs with each &quot;change of mind&quot;, then they would not change it so often.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yet again, the client is not an expert in that area. He may find a &quot;cool and simple solution&quot; which will costs 50 work hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You as a contractor can only warn him/her that the small feature will increase costs and will prolong the deadline. I would never drop the project because of that. I also sometimes tell them that we can do that but I would have to put another person in the project and then the client usually drops his idea as he realizes it would cost too much. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, you asked if this should be a warning. The answer is: YES. Any unpredicted behaviour from the client should be a warning. But then again, is it a warning if a person comes to you without project specs? No, since you will offer to make specs for the money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. I hope you took some money in advance in this project before the client cancelled it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1320" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="555" RevisionGUID="ec2f22dc-7344-4649-bb0a-999e3ee26582" CreationDate="2013-07-23T19:29:35.023" UserId="517" Text="Many times in past I had more projects that I could handle myself. Most times the clients are so pushy that you simply cannot tell them that you don't have time. They like your work and they want to work with you only...period. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, in such situation I tried all scenarios:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- pay someone fix sum to finish it&#xD;&#xA;- hire someone part-time to do the project&#xD;&#xA;- hire junior to do easy stuff, then finish it yourself&#xD;&#xA;- etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In all such situations I faced the same problems:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- not meeting deadlines&#xD;&#xA;- quality decreased so I had to be much involved to push it to my quality level&#xD;&#xA;- contractors leaving project saying something is too hard for them&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I read recently about &quot;share ratio&quot; type of work. Some guy in some company told his employees that he will find project and they will share the profit. I think they mentioned that he took 40%, and gave the workers 60%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this case, it seemed that the employees likes this concept. Maybe because they liked transparency or because they knew the boss is not getting rich on their shoulders giving them the crumbles only. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you think that this approach would be good in cases like I had?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you think should be the optimum share ratio between myself and the person I outsourced project to? I obviously want to get some money from the projects since I found it and I put my name in front of it, and yet I don't want to underpay my contractor since I want him to work 110% in every project. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1321" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="555" RevisionGUID="ec2f22dc-7344-4649-bb0a-999e3ee26582" CreationDate="2013-07-23T19:29:35.023" UserId="517" Text="What is good share ratio when you outsource projects due to lack of time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1322" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="555" RevisionGUID="ec2f22dc-7344-4649-bb0a-999e3ee26582" CreationDate="2013-07-23T19:29:35.023" UserId="517" Text="|outsourcing|share-ratio|profit-share|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1323" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="556" RevisionGUID="82bfecad-5f15-485e-8ed1-591156b09b74" CreationDate="2013-07-23T19:30:55.810" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1324" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="557" RevisionGUID="9de884bf-8b2d-4d75-86dd-b7c71042e9e9" CreationDate="2013-07-23T19:30:55.810" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1325" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="558" RevisionGUID="bd9365c6-525f-4824-b68e-96d3cb3baaeb" CreationDate="2013-07-23T19:33:03.710" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1326" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="559" RevisionGUID="1d16de1c-69ca-4ff6-b33e-18dbfec426ea" CreationDate="2013-07-23T19:33:03.710" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1327" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="560" RevisionGUID="ec9c8a4d-9dda-47c6-b334-43b15551803e" CreationDate="2013-07-23T19:33:54.040" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1328" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="561" RevisionGUID="5edc1b6f-98e7-4815-bec8-5c06501960a9" CreationDate="2013-07-23T19:33:54.040" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1329" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="554" RevisionGUID="6a6dcd1e-3469-434a-b177-48dca0d8a32b" CreationDate="2013-07-23T19:34:40.667" UserId="517" Comment="deleted 3 characters in body" Text="Yes and no. In medium and larger projects, this means that the client did not seriously plan the project. If they had to change project specs with each &quot;change of mind&quot;, then they would not change it so often.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yet again, the client is not an expert in that area. He may find a &quot;cool and simple solution&quot; which will cost 50 work hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You as a contractor can only warn him/her that the small feature will increase costs and will prolong the deadline. I would never drop the project because of that. I also sometimes tell them that we can do that but I would have to put another person in the project and then the client usually drops his idea as he realizes it would cost too much. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, you asked if this should be a warning. The answer is: YES. Any unpredicted behaviour from the client should be a warning. But then again, is it a warning if a person comes to you without project specs? No, since you will offer to make specs for the money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. I hope you took some money in advance in this project before the client cancelled it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1330" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="562" RevisionGUID="d55295f7-43e2-4c8c-91ee-3b9121fa4db6" CreationDate="2013-07-23T19:50:53.590" UserId="517" Text="Since I work as both contractor and employer, I will share my experience by combining both roles. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Sometimes I have too little money for some project and then I tell they guys that I am seeking someone good who need experience. Try to find for such jobs. Apply by telling how much experience you have and how you plan to finish the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Seek for smaller jobs first. Try finding those you can finish in 1 day. Create a solution at home, take snapshots and apply saying something like &quot;I was free to finish my solution. Here are the snapshots. If you like it, I can adopt it to your need in a couple of hours&quot;. I remember this is how I got my first job. Of course, offer smaller price than the rest of the guys.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. If nothing works, try finding jobs you can finish in a couple of hours. Present yourself saying that you will do it for free since you need experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. If you are good, try finding project with very few applicants. Those are hard jobs that most lamers will never apply to. Present yourself explaining how good you are and how you plan to finish it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. When I am a client, I like contractors who ask me concrete questions. I especially like when someone asks me questions about some feature which I forgot to include. This means that this person thought about my project. This person gets short-listed in 1 second. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will add to this list as I come up with more advices..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1331" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="556" RevisionGUID="052a076f-a64a-41f9-830f-d92ca8ecc33e" CreationDate="2013-07-24T02:00:49.897" UserId="517" Comment="added 755 characters in body" Text="Profit sharing refers to various incentive plans introduced by businesses that provide direct or indirect payments to employees that depend on company's profitability in addition to employees' regular salary and bonuses. In publicly traded companies these plans typically amount to allocation of shares to employees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The profit sharing plans are based on predetermined economic sharing rules that define the split of gains between the company as a principal and the employee as an agent.[1] For example, suppose the profits are x, which might be a random variable.[1] Before knowing the profits, the principal and agent might agree on a sharing rule s(x).[1] Here, the agent will receive s(x) and the principal will receive the residual gain x-s(x).[1]" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1332" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="556" RevisionGUID="052a076f-a64a-41f9-830f-d92ca8ecc33e" CreationDate="2013-07-24T02:00:49.897" Comment="Proposed by 517 approved by 75 edit id of 98" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1333" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="558" RevisionGUID="61d406d3-3358-4329-9e5a-072bed70cc7d" CreationDate="2013-07-24T02:01:19.287" UserId="517" Comment="added 226 characters in body" Text="The ration at which you share some number. The term is usually used in business when one person gets a project for predefined sum of money, and then outsource it so other company paying them fixed percentage of project money. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1334" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="558" RevisionGUID="61d406d3-3358-4329-9e5a-072bed70cc7d" CreationDate="2013-07-24T02:01:19.287" Comment="Proposed by 517 approved by 75 edit id of 100" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1335" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="559" RevisionGUID="099f05a3-6401-4ccf-a220-0ae87e1f19c1" CreationDate="2013-07-24T02:01:58.900" UserId="517" Comment="added 226 characters in body" Text="The ration at which you share some number. The term is usually used in business when one person gets a project for predefined sum of money, and then outsource it so other company paying them fixed percentage of project money. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1336" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="559" RevisionGUID="099f05a3-6401-4ccf-a220-0ae87e1f19c1" CreationDate="2013-07-24T02:01:58.900" Comment="Proposed by 517 approved by 75 edit id of 101" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1337" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="557" RevisionGUID="6d31fe67-50eb-45c3-88d5-3b2c7f4500b7" CreationDate="2013-07-24T02:02:10.073" UserId="517" Comment="added 316 characters in body" Text="Profit sharing refers to various incentive plans introduced by businesses that provide direct or indirect payments to employees that depend on company's profitability in addition to employees' regular salary and bonuses. In publicly traded companies these plans typically amount to allocation of shares to employees." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1338" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="557" RevisionGUID="6d31fe67-50eb-45c3-88d5-3b2c7f4500b7" CreationDate="2013-07-24T02:02:10.073" Comment="Proposed by 517 approved by 75 edit id of 99" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1339" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="544" RevisionGUID="5fd618f1-a5ee-4311-ad2c-0e0552cf636d" CreationDate="2013-07-24T02:02:42.497" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="1340" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="563" RevisionGUID="03c6fa47-da10-4496-b64a-1d04877ad6f1" CreationDate="2013-07-24T02:14:01.430" UserId="75" Text="To me, this just sounds like a referral business. Depending how you lay your contract and Scope of Work out would determine if I would recommend this if you like working. I understand it's everyone's dream to just let other people work for you, making you money. This model would be great if you had multiple deals going on at a time, with multiple &quot;contractors&quot;. Screw it, call them employees!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are right that you need to worry about quality as well; remember the old adage, &quot;if you want it done right, do it yourself&quot;. If you decide you can trust others to do your work, you need to remember a few things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You need to pay for QUALITY work. This is not always true, but it will keep the good workers around. My previous employer lost me because he did not pay me enough, but I saw what we were making. I also had to educate and help other contractors who were paid much better then me, doing things that I always did simply. You need to pay enough that they want to do well, but not so little that anyone would just leave for an extra $1 or $2 per hour&#xD;&#xA;2. Supervision needs. Do you need to watch the contractor, or do they have enough of a track record you can leave them to do their own thing? Most people prefer to work on their own, without being micro-managed; you need to trust the people you hire to do the work. At the same time, if the contractor has never done *this specific type of work* before, you may need to mentor them, and you can go through the quality standards as well.&#xD;&#xA;3. Layout in your Scope of Work the estimated time of completion, and **PAD IT**. Mistakes will happen, no matter if you do it yourself or hire someone else to. Depending on your project, you'll sometimes run into times where skipping one section resulted in a domino effect, killing everything else. You don't want that. In the Scope of Work for your contractor, include the times that they have to complete the project, as well as the standards you expect them to adhere to. You must be specific! If you aren't supervising, make sure they have all the instructions they need, and write them so a 12 year old could follow them.&#xD;&#xA;4. Taxes/Deductions. Depending on your contract depends on if they require a paycheque (i.e. holding back taxes, paying Worker's Compensation Benefits, etc), or just a simple invoice-cheque solution, you should check with a lawyer as to what would be required on your part as the &quot;manager&quot; of the project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1341" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="544" RevisionGUID="3da09b16-cc5a-4ed2-bf00-fc4bf7e701ea" CreationDate="2013-07-24T02:41:38.277" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus on the process and less on opinion" Text="On reading the reviews of Freelancer.com on [SiteJabber](http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.freelancer.com) or the reviews of Elance on [Mouthshut](http://www.mouthshut.com/websites/Elance-com-reviews-925022895) the freelancing websites do not look convincing enough. The reviews suggest that most of them are stealers are reluctant in releasing money, but I'm not sure how to evaluate them properly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I measure the credibility of a Freelancing website?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1342" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="544" RevisionGUID="3da09b16-cc5a-4ed2-bf00-fc4bf7e701ea" CreationDate="2013-07-24T02:41:38.277" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus on the process and less on opinion" Text="How can I measure the credibility of a Freelancing website?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1348" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="563" RevisionGUID="0752f0e0-4bc0-4d71-a352-995c5808d733" CreationDate="2013-07-25T00:09:34.943" UserId="75" Comment="added 860 characters in body" Text="To me, this just sounds like a referral business. Depending how you lay your contract and Scope of Work out would determine if I would recommend this if you like working. I understand it's everyone's dream to just let other people work for you, making you money. This model would be great if you had multiple deals going on at a time, with multiple &quot;contractors&quot;. Screw it, call them employees!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are right that you need to worry about quality as well; remember the old adage, &quot;if you want it done right, do it yourself&quot;. If you decide you can trust others to do your work, you need to remember a few things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You need to pay for QUALITY work. This is not always true, but it will keep the good workers around. My previous employer lost me because he did not pay me enough, but I saw what we were making. I also had to educate and help other contractors who were paid much better then me, doing things that I always did simply. You need to pay enough that they want to do well, but not so little that anyone would just leave for an extra $1 or $2 per hour&#xD;&#xA;2. Supervision needs. Do you need to watch the contractor, or do they have enough of a track record you can leave them to do their own thing? Most people prefer to work on their own, without being micro-managed; you need to trust the people you hire to do the work. At the same time, if the contractor has never done *this specific type of work* before, you may need to mentor them, and you can go through the quality standards as well.&#xD;&#xA;3. Layout in your Scope of Work the estimated time of completion, and **PAD IT**. Mistakes will happen, no matter if you do it yourself or hire someone else to. Depending on your project, you'll sometimes run into times where skipping one section resulted in a domino effect, killing everything else. You don't want that. In the Scope of Work for your contractor, include the times that they have to complete the project, as well as the standards you expect them to adhere to. You must be specific! If you aren't supervising, make sure they have all the instructions they need, and write them so a 12 year old could follow them.&#xD;&#xA;4. Taxes/Deductions. Depending on your contract depends on if they require a paycheque (i.e. holding back taxes, paying Worker's Compensation Benefits, etc), or just a simple invoice-cheque solution, you should check with a lawyer as to what would be required on your part as the &quot;manager&quot; of the project&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Edit about Share Ratio**&#xD;&#xA;There is nothing wrong with sharing the profits, and your contractors will want a bigger piece of the pie if they're doing the work. If you want to keep more of the money, then you need to only give them the easy, remedial stuff that you don't want to do. This is the only way to negotiate a larger amount for yourself. If your contractor knows they're doing more work, they'll start asking for more, and you can pick a good share ratio. Having said that, I had started off my first two contractors at minimum wage +$5/hr, as they were just starting out and I was supervising them and teaching along the way. This was great for them. I am sure that when you get people who have been in the industry a while though, you'll have to up the price. I don't believe you can give a percentage, but that's just my experience in my town." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1349" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="565" RevisionGUID="d3ac3961-b18b-4cc1-800e-4a241be5c6c2" CreationDate="2013-07-25T19:04:37.700" UserId="572" Text="I am a developer / designer and I'm interested in establishing a retainer position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;__How do you structure a retainer arrangement?__&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is a Flat monthly rate is preferred? A client will likely want to know how many hours they get out of that monthly flat rate. Again, we are back to the hourly rate. How do you deal with this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you put a cap on the hours in that month? Charge an 'overage' fee for going over that limit?&#xD;&#xA;Do you get contracts? Up front payment?  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1350" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="565" RevisionGUID="d3ac3961-b18b-4cc1-800e-4a241be5c6c2" CreationDate="2013-07-25T19:04:37.700" UserId="572" Text="Retainer Agreements" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1351" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="565" RevisionGUID="d3ac3961-b18b-4cc1-800e-4a241be5c6c2" CreationDate="2013-07-25T19:04:37.700" UserId="572" Text="|contracts|price|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1352" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="566" RevisionGUID="40c27e77-3855-4b68-8e9c-a8373fcc1939" CreationDate="2013-07-26T01:14:05.167" UserId="64" Text="In important meetings, I won't use chat. I personally have trouble taking people seriously who only want to communicate purely over chat. Sure, chat is great for collaborating. It allows introverted people to be able to focus and then address the other party when he/she gets to a stopping point. When I'm programming, chat is awesome and is my preferred communication method. But for extended back and forth discussions or negotiations, chat, at least in my experience, has a lot of negatives for things that involve giving the other party 100% of your attention.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To rely solely on chat for everything means you lose out on the ability to have a *real* conversation, one that may involve debate, body language, being aware of the emotional state of the other party, compromise, and the human factor. You also lose out in situations where there exists great complexity and where focusing on the *person* is extremely important.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People chatting also get distracted by people who are physically in the room and who also crave attention. I've spent way too many 10 minute periods of infuriating silence waiting for someone to respond to an important chat because that person refused to take a call yet also stepped away from our active conversation to answer another question. This sort of thing rarely happens to me on a video call as other people are less likely to interrupt. If you work by yourself this may not be an issue, but it may be an issue for the other party.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While there are people who say you can choose your clients, and that's true, there are also people who won't do business with you if they can't at least meet with you once a week, either face to face or on a video call. If I'm paying you to do something complicated, I want to see your face when I explain it -- or at least hear the tone of your voice -- so that I know if you're confused or not. If you don't get what I'm asking you to do, I don't want to find out *after* you've already done all the work. :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The important thing to remember is that different forms of communication serve different purposes. While chat works well for semi-real time collaboration where focus on the task is important, phone calls and face-to-face meetings work better when debating or deciding how to approach a task or negotiating the terms of a contract. Email tends to work well for communications that aren't time-sensitive or that involve a lot of back and forth discussion. In short, use the communication tool that's appropriate for the task at hand and don't try to fit everything into one envelope. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Do you think that I can find long-term partners by avoiding skype talks?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can. But you're limiting yourself. It may increase the chances of you making a mistake due to a misunderstanding, which means the client may no longer want to do business with you. It may create distrust, since knowledge work oftentimes involves building and maintaining relationships. It may mean you're more likely to be blamed for mistakes, since it's arguably easier to blame faceless entities for problems rather than the friendly colleagues who you eat lunch with. It's not impossible, and you certainly can do well just by chatting, but you'll do *better* if you expand your communication skills!  Hope this helps!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1353" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="567" RevisionGUID="408ecfd4-8688-4b5a-84c9-73371b5be322" CreationDate="2013-07-26T05:59:05.500" UserId="85" Text="A *retainer* is a fee payable **in advance** for ensuring your *availability* to serve a client, and comes with a service level agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example the agreement should include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Duration (inc termination provisions)&#xD;&#xA; - What it includes... usually the first X hours&#xD;&#xA; - What it doesn't include... &#xD;&#xA; - Response times&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any time (or tasks) spent over and above the agreed X is billable, as are expenses incurred - both usually in arrears. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would expect that the retainer carries a premium over what it covers - after all, they are in effect paying for you to be &quot;on call&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1354" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="568" RevisionGUID="b0fd310f-36df-4d3c-a0e7-ace79f58a604" CreationDate="2013-07-26T14:28:12.863" UserId="575" Text="I live in Canada and for the last 2 years I was doing contract development under a federally incorporated business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But now I am full time and wondering what I need to do with my incorporation. I would like to keep it open in case I do side projects or eventually go back to contracting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've read that I need to &quot;fire&quot; myself otherwise I will have to continue paying into CPP/EI.  Is this correct?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1355" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="568" RevisionGUID="b0fd310f-36df-4d3c-a0e7-ace79f58a604" CreationDate="2013-07-26T14:28:12.863" UserId="575" Text="Contractor going Full time - what do I do with my incorporation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1356" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="568" RevisionGUID="b0fd310f-36df-4d3c-a0e7-ace79f58a604" CreationDate="2013-07-26T14:28:12.863" UserId="575" Text="|contracts|incorporation|canada|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1357" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="517" RevisionGUID="d160f28a-5afd-43d6-b846-9e723f248959" CreationDate="2013-07-27T03:06:48.157" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/360959425495834625" />
  <row Id="1358" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="568" RevisionGUID="3cdddf6b-48e6-465e-9fd0-10f3deb226d5" CreationDate="2013-07-27T04:16:11.040" UserId="64" Comment="editing to make sure we also get answers with how to determine the most up to date info for future visitors" Text="I live in Canada and for the last 2 years I was doing contract development under a federally incorporated business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But now I am full time and wondering what I need to do with my incorporation. I would like to keep it open in case I do side projects or eventually go back to contracting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've read that I need to &quot;fire&quot; myself otherwise I will have to continue paying into CPP/EI.  Is this correct? How can one determine what one must do with an incorporation when moving to a full time job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1359" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="565" RevisionGUID="e7d4965f-705e-49ee-ba8b-6febd5b839c5" CreationDate="2013-07-27T06:06:48.243" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/361004725245718528" />
  <row Id="1363" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="568" RevisionGUID="5aa216cd-f7dd-49f7-ab64-1be5ee00c5a1" CreationDate="2013-07-28T00:06:48.597" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/361276517453537280" />
  <row Id="1365" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="567" RevisionGUID="a74b7187-7551-456f-a879-3dbd6604f8e4" CreationDate="2013-07-28T12:43:04.850" UserId="85" Comment="Added to response times" Text="A *retainer* is a fee payable **in advance** for ensuring your *availability* to serve a client, and comes with a service level agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example the agreement should include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Duration (inc termination provisions)&#xD;&#xA; - What it includes... usually the first X hours&#xD;&#xA; - What it doesn't include... &#xD;&#xA; - Response times, both **in which** you will respond, as well as **by which** you will respond&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any time (or tasks) spent over and above the agreed X is billable, as are expenses incurred - both usually in arrears. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would expect that the retainer carries a premium over what it covers - after all, they are in effect paying for you to be &quot;on call&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1366" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="570" RevisionGUID="7e2e814a-d788-460f-993d-169803f73677" CreationDate="2013-07-28T12:58:23.937" UserId="85" Text="The rules in (and therefore the required answer for) Canada are probably different from the UK, but this answer gives my experience from a UK perspective, and will hopefully be of help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, you will be becoming an employee of another company - but there is nothing to stop you remaining an employee of your own company too.  In the UK, payroll taxes and deductions (collectively known as Pay As You Earn) are calculated on your salary, so assuming no payments are made, then no PAYE taxes are due.  It may be different in Canada.  Your local tax office should be able to give suitable guidance!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for the company - in the UK you have two options&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Make the company dormant&#xD;&#xA; 2. Dissolve the company&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Making a company dormant is straightforward... you don't actually have to do anything!  However, you will still have to file appropriate accounts and periodic Returns (Companies House and Inland Revenue for VAT, PAYE and corporation tax).  The company can be resurrected immediately if required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To close down a company is a little bit more cumbersome... you have to notify the tax authorities (in UK this is three separate branches of our Inland Revenue, covering VAT, PAYE and Corporation Tax) plus any creditors, and file a Notice to Strike Off (and Companies House) with the appropriate nominal fee...  assuming there are no problems, the Inland Revenue will agree to the closure, and the company will be closed by Companies House.  Note: from personal experience this takes approx 18 months!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, talk to your local tax office and/or company registration authority - they will give the best (unbiased) advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!  And perhaps you could post your findings...!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1367" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="571" RevisionGUID="c56a56a3-ef9b-4be6-a81e-e7466b204069" CreationDate="2013-07-28T18:58:53.150" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1368" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="572" RevisionGUID="5fb5ef6b-121e-4bde-9459-e458cedba3df" CreationDate="2013-07-28T18:58:53.150" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1369" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="271" RevisionGUID="ef61210e-c2bd-4491-a0b2-ff8988dea009" CreationDate="2013-07-28T19:32:40.500" UserId="85" Comment="Remove tag &quot;independent-contractor&quot; - pointless tag on a Freelancer forum (burn the tag!)" Text="|marketing|resume|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1370" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="271" RevisionGUID="ef61210e-c2bd-4491-a0b2-ff8988dea009" CreationDate="2013-07-28T19:32:40.500" Comment="Proposed by 85 approved by 58 edit id of 109" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1371" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="70" RevisionGUID="3d4bbfa3-bda6-4389-a193-8be2bd781cb9" CreationDate="2013-07-28T19:33:32.300" UserId="85" Comment="Terminology and expanded Wiki" Text="Questions concerning contracts between a freelancer, agent and a client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1372" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="70" RevisionGUID="3d4bbfa3-bda6-4389-a193-8be2bd781cb9" CreationDate="2013-07-28T19:33:32.300" Comment="Proposed by 85 approved by 58 edit id of 106" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1373" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="67" RevisionGUID="e1c6433e-0e57-4f28-83bc-07478ae7c4f2" CreationDate="2013-07-28T19:33:46.317" UserId="85" Comment="added 166 characters in body" Text="In a Freelance context, a *client* (also known as a *customer*) is a purchaser of services via a *Contract for Services*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not to be confused with an [tag:employer]" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1374" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="67" RevisionGUID="e1c6433e-0e57-4f28-83bc-07478ae7c4f2" CreationDate="2013-07-28T19:33:46.317" Comment="Proposed by 85 approved by 58 edit id of 104" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1376" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="69" RevisionGUID="d10afc3d-5da5-41df-a5a4-cfc955f9213b" CreationDate="2013-07-28T20:07:52.837" UserId="85" Comment="Terminology and expanded Wiki" Text="The contract details the terms and conditions of the relationship between a freelancer and their client (often via an agent).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: terminology is important - a freelancer will operate using a Contract For Services with a Client... an employee works under a Contract Of Service for an employer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1377" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="69" RevisionGUID="d10afc3d-5da5-41df-a5a4-cfc955f9213b" CreationDate="2013-07-28T20:07:52.837" Comment="Proposed by 85 approved by -1 edit id of 105" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1378" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="69" RevisionGUID="8b1a7d84-65dc-42e3-bcf8-f171eea52dc9" CreationDate="2013-07-28T20:07:52.837" UserId="64" Comment="Terminology and expanded Wiki" Text="The contract details the terms and conditions of the relationship between a freelancer and their client (often via an agent).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: terminology is important - a freelancer will operate using a Contract For Services with a Client... an employee works under a Contract Of Service for an employer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use this tag to identify questions that are about managing contracts, writing contracts, enforcing contracts, and problems Freelancers face with contracts." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1379" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="572" RevisionGUID="f31f82a8-8a90-46de-a919-94901e912ff7" CreationDate="2013-07-28T20:09:07.623" UserId="85" Comment="added 36 characters in body" Text="A contract (qv) whose value is fixed" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1380" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="572" RevisionGUID="f31f82a8-8a90-46de-a919-94901e912ff7" CreationDate="2013-07-28T20:09:07.623" Comment="Proposed by 85 approved by -1 edit id of 108" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1381" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="572" RevisionGUID="25d4f554-a8dd-4419-a47f-2730f9293607" CreationDate="2013-07-28T20:09:07.623" UserId="64" Comment="made excerpt focus on when to use the tag" Text="Use this tag for any questions about contracts that have a fixed value or fixed cost associated with them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1382" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="571" RevisionGUID="731f8074-b9bb-48ae-a29e-c9072b17b1f8" CreationDate="2013-07-28T20:10:03.127" UserId="85" Comment="added 324 characters in body" Text="A Fixed Price [tag:Contract] is one in which the price is fixed, irrespective of the time (or materials) incurred. Places the risk (but also potentially the reward) onto the supplier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Compare with a [tag:time-and-materials] contracts, whereby the client is billed for the number of hours worked and any expenses incurred." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1383" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="571" RevisionGUID="731f8074-b9bb-48ae-a29e-c9072b17b1f8" CreationDate="2013-07-28T20:10:03.127" Comment="Proposed by 85 approved by -1 edit id of 107" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1384" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="571" RevisionGUID="f6741b7b-1483-4208-88b3-bdcdef1ffa3d" CreationDate="2013-07-28T20:10:03.127" UserId="64" Comment="added in when to use the tag" Text="Use this tag for questions about contracts where the price is not hourly but is set before the work begins.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A Fixed Price [tag:Contract] is one in which the price is fixed, irrespective of the time (or materials) incurred. Places the risk (but also potentially the reward) onto the supplier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Compare with a [tag:time-and-materials] contracts, whereby the client is billed for the number of hours worked and any expenses incurred." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1385" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="565" RevisionGUID="f39cdea9-f9dd-4645-a14f-504ca58c83c6" CreationDate="2013-07-28T21:51:06.073" UserId="58" Comment="grammar, tags (also someone might shoot me for the oxford comma)" Text="I am a developer / designer, and I'm interested in establishing a retainer position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;__How do you structure a retainer arrangement?__&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is a flat monthly rate preferred? A client will likely want to know how many hours they get out of that monthly flat rate. Again, we are back to the hourly rate. How do you deal with this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you put a cap on the hours in that month, or charge an 'overage' fee for going over that limit?&#xD;&#xA;Do you use a contract, and is there up-front payment involved?  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1386" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="565" RevisionGUID="f39cdea9-f9dd-4645-a14f-504ca58c83c6" CreationDate="2013-07-28T21:51:06.073" UserId="58" Comment="grammar, tags (also someone might shoot me for the oxford comma)" Text="|contracts|consulting|retainer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1387" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="573" RevisionGUID="e3d8a1e9-59ab-4523-80cf-d2d75f99fb50" CreationDate="2013-07-29T06:42:24.380" UserId="592" Text="The answer to your question as stated is &quot;No&quot;. Increase in scope before work has started is good, since that usually means more pay. It also means that you don't have to go back and fix, undo, or change things in the project in order to accommodate the new items. I think the primary issue here is in your statement:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; But, I agreed to the increased scope, she agreed to the increased cost&#xD;&#xA;&gt; and new delivery date, everybody seemed happy, and we got ready to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; start up again ***(at this point, the contract was still unsigned, and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the initial invoice was still unpaid)***.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An unsigned contract is NO contract at all. It has no teeth and the 'client' has nothing vested in the project. Be sure that your contract clearly outlines 'Change Orders&quot; or &quot;Change In Scope&quot; consequences. Stipulate that the agreement is ratified and commencement of work begins ONLY upon obtaining signatures AND receipt of the deposit. In some cases, prospects will use your 'contract' to shop for a better deal, so it may also be a good idea to put an expiration on your quote/contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are great resources available on sites like LegalZoom.com and others for standard agreements and contracts that can be amended. If there's one difficult, but important thing I've learned in running a freelance business, it's how to say &quot;no thank you&quot; to a prospect. But it sure has saved me time and allowed me to focus on serving actual clients - ones that pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wish you well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1388" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="574" RevisionGUID="ca68fe2a-454a-419e-a71a-6034b5326668" CreationDate="2013-07-29T07:54:08.047" UserId="592" Text="I recommend you start by doing a Google/Bing search for the term &quot;crowdsourcing&quot; and see what shows up at the top of the organic search results - not the ads. Then perform another search of the site you're interested in joining, including certain keywords like &quot;scam, ripoff, spam, lawsuit, etc...&quot;. If a site is shady, it usually shows up in search. Keep in mind that the topic of crowdsourcing tends to evoke some passionate opinions on both sides, so you'll have to filter your results to determine if a 'hit' is an opinion or fact about the site you are researching. If all checks out, then move forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just about any subscription site will make you check the little box that asks if you &quot;agree to the Terms Of Service (TOS) or Terms Of Agreement(TOA)&quot; just before hitting that 'register' button. But how many of us (yes, myself included at times) actually read it? That's a great place to start. Since you are essentially signing a digital contract, it would be good to know what you are agreeing to - before you agree. Pay close attention to the sections that deal with how you will get paid, dispute resolution, and rights to the work you perform/submit. Most legitimate crowdsourcing sites often act as brokers or mediators and will hold any funds until the agreement between parties are satisfied.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the TOS appear to be acceptable and legitimate to you, then go ahead and register. If you have to pay to register, that's a good enough reason to stop. During the set up process, a good indication of a legitimate site is their request for your deposit preference and account verification. In many cases you won't need to provide that information until funds are ready for deposit, but having a verified account may help you when competing for projects. Having a PayPal account is very useful here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, your own experience will turn out to be the best gauge of legitimacy. Just be sure to calculate the amount of risk you are willing to expose yourself to, prior to getting into the pool.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Go get 'em." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1389" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="573" RevisionGUID="97c99a7d-3a17-48d8-be9e-2bd7100a779b" CreationDate="2013-07-29T08:34:38.183" UserId="592" Comment="added 'attorney review' sentence onto last paragraph." Text="The answer to your question as stated is &quot;No&quot;. Increase in scope before work has started is good, since that usually means more pay. It also means that you don't have to go back and fix, undo, or change things in the project in order to accommodate the new items. I think the primary issue here is in your statement:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; But, I agreed to the increased scope, she agreed to the increased cost&#xD;&#xA;&gt; and new delivery date, everybody seemed happy, and we got ready to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; start up again ***(at this point, the contract was still unsigned, and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the initial invoice was still unpaid)***.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An unsigned contract is NO contract at all. It has no teeth and the 'client' has nothing vested in the project. Be sure that your contract clearly outlines 'Change Orders&quot; or &quot;Change In Scope&quot; consequences. Stipulate that the agreement is ratified and commencement of work begins ONLY upon obtaining signatures AND receipt of the deposit. In some cases, prospects will use your 'contract' to shop for a better deal, so it may also be a good idea to put an expiration on your quote/contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are great resources available on sites like LegalZoom.com and others for standard agreements and contracts that can be amended. In any case, it's always good practice to have your attorney look over the contract to make sure you're covered. If there's one difficult, but important thing I've learned in running a freelance business, it's how to say &quot;no thank you&quot; to a prospect. But it sure has saved me time and allowed me to focus on serving actual clients - ones that pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wish you well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1390" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="575" RevisionGUID="ede458b4-d397-4398-bde9-f6c49e26fd25" CreationDate="2013-07-29T09:12:13.093" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1391" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="576" RevisionGUID="846aeb02-8fea-46e2-9620-e1f2235ac9b8" CreationDate="2013-07-29T09:12:13.093" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1392" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="571" RevisionGUID="3c40b473-a469-425d-91d7-a0883933af6b" CreationDate="2013-07-29T16:43:47.200" UserId="85" Comment="Additional xref" Text="Use this tag for questions about contracts where the price is not hourly but is set before the work begins.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A Fixed Price [tag:Contract] is one in which the price is fixed, irrespective of the time (or materials) incurred. Places the risk (but also potentially the reward) onto the supplier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Compare with a [tag:time-and-materials] or [tag:price-per-hour] contracts, whereby the client is billed for the number of hours worked and any expenses incurred." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1393" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="571" RevisionGUID="3c40b473-a469-425d-91d7-a0883933af6b" CreationDate="2013-07-29T16:43:47.200" Comment="Proposed by 85 approved by 75 edit id of 111" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1394" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="576" RevisionGUID="fb5e6107-fad3-4324-8fbf-1332deb9dad4" CreationDate="2013-07-29T16:43:53.573" UserId="85" Comment="added 107 characters in body" Text="Use this tag for questions about contracts where the invoiced value is based on the number of hours worked." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1395" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="576" RevisionGUID="fb5e6107-fad3-4324-8fbf-1332deb9dad4" CreationDate="2013-07-29T16:43:53.573" Comment="Proposed by 85 approved by 75 edit id of 113" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1396" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="575" RevisionGUID="d853bad4-a619-4480-91c8-c5b4c1f523f7" CreationDate="2013-07-29T16:44:01.827" UserId="85" Comment="added 403 characters in body" Text="Use this tag for questions about contracts where the invoiced value is based on the number of hours worked.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A By-The-Hour [tag:Contract] (also known as [tag:time-and-materials]) is one in which you get paid for each hour worked.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Compare with a [tag:fixed-price] contract, whereby the client is billed for a fixed amount for the job, irrespective of the number of hours worked or expenses incurred." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1397" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="575" RevisionGUID="d853bad4-a619-4480-91c8-c5b4c1f523f7" CreationDate="2013-07-29T16:44:01.827" Comment="Proposed by 85 approved by 75 edit id of 112" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1398" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="577" RevisionGUID="8f1ffceb-2458-413d-8f65-13c878d9fba4" CreationDate="2013-07-30T10:56:36.740" UserId="596" Text="I recently completed my bachelor and i am planning to join an IT company. I have been working as a freelancer for over a year and have a strong profile for the position i am applying. But most of the company argues that since i don't have any actual working experience i have to go through the probation period. Doesn't the freelancing experience counts to filter the probation period if most of my clients can recommend me? And isn't the freelance the actual working experience?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1399" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="577" RevisionGUID="8f1ffceb-2458-413d-8f65-13c878d9fba4" CreationDate="2013-07-30T10:56:36.740" UserId="596" Text="Does the freelancing expereince counts in business world?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1400" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="577" RevisionGUID="8f1ffceb-2458-413d-8f65-13c878d9fba4" CreationDate="2013-07-30T10:56:36.740" UserId="596" Text="|client|negotiation|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1401" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="578" RevisionGUID="14f1f8e1-d8a3-48a2-9fa5-e0826a7a8efa" CreationDate="2013-07-30T12:05:49.623" UserId="85" Text="I wasn't sure whether to post this as a comment, as it's not a direct answer to the question, but it is relevant(ish)...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personal Experience has shown that I've been required to complete probation at every permanent role I've had - even with 25+ years in the Big Wide World.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Probation is a two-way process, which allows **you** to see if you fit into the company and its culture, as well as the company assessing you.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1402" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="577" RevisionGUID="79b4db94-23b0-4900-9bdd-326052483bf0" CreationDate="2013-07-30T13:55:58.000" UserId="64" Comment="fixed spelling and grammar; fixed title" Text="I recently completed my bachelors degree, and I am planning to join an IT company. I have been working as a freelancer for over a year and have a strong profile for the position I am applying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But most of the company argues that since I don't have any actual working experience, I have to go through the probation period. Doesn't freelancing experience count to filter the probation period if most of my clients can recommend me? And isn't the freelancing the actual working experience?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1403" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="577" RevisionGUID="79b4db94-23b0-4900-9bdd-326052483bf0" CreationDate="2013-07-30T13:55:58.000" UserId="64" Comment="fixed spelling and grammar; fixed title" Text="Does freelancing experience count in the business world?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1404" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="577" RevisionGUID="f31f93e7-b4de-4b7f-b3c7-57bb0fe1b5ec" CreationDate="2013-07-30T14:02:01.087" UserId="64" Comment="focused the question on solving a problem" Text="I recently completed my bachelors degree, and I am planning to join an IT company. I have been working as a freelancer for over a year and have a strong profile for the position I am applying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But most of the company argues that since I don't have any actual working experience, I have to go through the probation period. Doesn't freelancing experience count to filter the probation period if most of my clients can recommend me? And isn't the freelancing the actual working experience? How can I approach this problem and make sure my freelancing experience counts as work experience?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1405" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="577" RevisionGUID="68701301-b81d-4f13-a2c2-a322e56478a6" CreationDate="2013-07-30T15:20:04.590" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|negotiation|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1406" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="579" RevisionGUID="151cc3f0-b342-4757-ba38-cb1e9118a20a" CreationDate="2013-07-30T17:51:27.097" UserId="599" Text="Freelancing experience does count. I have taken roles at companies based on my combined experience at &quot;a real company&quot; along with my freelance experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lot of it comes to your approach and your presentation of your experience. If you pitch your experience as having to jobs and building a customer base instead of &quot;just something I did on the side&quot;, it will matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Employers like to see employees who take initiative. Having a second job, that you created, shows great initiative. Don't sell yourself short. The freelance experience is oftentimes more important than your time at company x. Be sure to pitch it to your potential employer as such an asset.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Caveat: However, if your new employer uses probation for other purposes, there still may be a probationary period." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1407" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="578" RevisionGUID="8a423b4a-a816-4a82-8084-dd7121da0af4" CreationDate="2013-07-30T20:34:32.783" UserId="85" Comment="Extended answer" Text="I wasn't sure whether to post this as a comment, as it's not a direct answer to the question, but it is relevant(ish)...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your experience prior to the job is valid (whether freelance or otherwise) and will certainly be considered by prospective employers when assessing your CV.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However *Personal Experience* has shown that I've been required to complete probation at every permanent role I've had - even with 25+ years in the Big Wide World, of which 12 were &quot;full time&quot; freelance, and several others were/are part-time freelance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Probation is a two-way process, which allows **you** to see if you fit into the company and its culture, as well as the company assessing you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I certainly wouldn't take offence that you've been asked to undertake a probationary period... if they thought you were not up to the job, they wouldn't have offered you it!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1408" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="579" RevisionGUID="43d910c1-79c1-4208-811d-5632b2eceb4d" CreationDate="2013-07-30T20:38:36.573" UserId="599" Comment="Spelling error. Changed &quot;to&quot; to &quot;two.&quot;" Text="Freelancing experience does count. I have taken roles at companies based on my combined experience at &quot;a real company&quot; along with my freelance experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lot of it comes to your approach and your presentation of your experience. If you pitch your experience as having two jobs and building a customer base instead of &quot;just something I did on the side&quot;, it will matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Employers like to see employees who take initiative. Having a second job, that you created, shows great initiative. Don't sell yourself short. The freelance experience is oftentimes more important than your time at company x. Be sure to pitch it to your potential employer as such an asset.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Caveat: However, if your new employer uses probation for other purposes, there still may be a probationary period." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1409" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="578" RevisionGUID="e0c6fdb0-6a2c-4481-a0a7-166f1124d2c1" CreationDate="2013-07-30T20:56:19.120" UserId="85" Comment="Anecdote" Text="I wasn't sure whether to post this as a comment, as it's not a direct answer to the question, but it is relevant(ish)...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your experience prior to the job is valid (whether freelance or otherwise) and will certainly be considered by prospective employers when assessing your CV.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, and making an assumption, if the role you have been employed in is a Graduate Role, then your under-graduate work (no matter how valid or relevant) may well not be considered, as HR departments can be notorious box-tickers! [*] &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Personal Experience* has shown that I've been required to complete probation at every permanent role I've had - even with 25+ years in the Big Wide World, of which 12 were &quot;full time&quot; freelance, and several others were/are part-time freelance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Probation is a two-way process, which allows **you** to see if you fit into the company and its culture, as well as the company assessing you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I certainly wouldn't take offence that you've been asked to undertake a probationary period... if they thought you were not up to the job, they wouldn't have offered you it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[*] Off topic anecdote: in 2008, I was asked by the MD of my then main client to take on a full-time permanent role within the company. After some negotiation, we shook hands on a deal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then HR got involved, and amongst other things, I was required to submit two references (even though I'd been working with the company for several years).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My first two referees were rejected as being inappropriate - the Managing Director and the Engineering Director :)  So I had to get two people I hadn't spoken with for nearly five years to act as referees..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1410" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="580" RevisionGUID="c2bda0a4-600a-41c7-b6c0-82b6f647941d" CreationDate="2013-07-31T02:56:15.053" UserId="39" Text="*I don't know what I don't know, so I'm going to fumble through this question; edits welcome:*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What are the tax issues involved with &quot;employing&quot; a (part-time) worker in a different country?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I have a Virginia, USA, -based Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) through which I handle revenue and expenses for my freelancing work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I wanted to, say, pay someone in India (or France or Canada) $30/hour to provide user interface consulting, would the payments to that worker be considered wages? Would I need to pay payroll taxes, and to whom? What documentation would I need to claim the payroll expense? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1411" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="580" RevisionGUID="c2bda0a4-600a-41c7-b6c0-82b6f647941d" CreationDate="2013-07-31T02:56:15.053" UserId="39" Text="What are the tax issues involved with &quot;employing&quot; a worker in a different country?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1412" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="580" RevisionGUID="c2bda0a4-600a-41c7-b6c0-82b6f647941d" CreationDate="2013-07-31T02:56:15.053" UserId="39" Text="|taxes|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1413" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="580" RevisionGUID="8d1d2449-3acd-44d0-b1c7-61250bd9f8a9" CreationDate="2013-07-31T04:52:31.373" UserId="75" Comment="Removed meta info" Text="**What are the tax issues involved with &quot;employing&quot; a (part-time) worker in a different country?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I have a Virginia, USA-based Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) through which I handle revenue and expenses for my freelancing work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I wanted to, say, pay someone in India (or France or Canada) $30/hour to provide user interface consulting, would the payments to that worker be considered wages? Would I need to pay payroll taxes, and to whom? What documentation would I need to claim the payroll expense? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1414" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="577" RevisionGUID="9cf4a0e0-8f4e-4238-9538-105b513f6ed5" CreationDate="2013-07-31T06:07:16.167" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/362454393188139008" />
  <row Id="1415" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="581" RevisionGUID="78902a83-8909-4a7e-8c1c-d96e9bb7362c" CreationDate="2013-07-31T07:22:43.103" UserId="517" Text="If you were regularly paid and you paid taxes, then it counts since you have proof that you actually worked. No one is allowed to disregard this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other thing is that your employer CAN disregard this and if you do not like it, you can decline offer to work for him. If you think about this, then maybe a few months working as a beginner would not mean much if the company is good and promising. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, looking from the perspective of an employer and a person who employs freelancers - your experience should mean a lot to your employer if he is a smart man (if not, why would you work for such person). If you can prove your experience and if your experience can help you start from a higher level in some company, that the employer is a fool if he did not see that. I would kill for a person who can immediately start as a senior in our team :), instead of myself going thru all training procedures. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So maybe, you should ask yourself: &quot;Should I actually work for a guy who does not respect my experience but is rather looking to cut his costs by underrating me?&quot;. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1419" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="583" RevisionGUID="6787c922-40f2-4ada-bc8e-103f2e827482" CreationDate="2013-07-31T08:08:22.770" UserId="85" Text="Since you specifically state the UK, I'll start with a disclaimer: *I am not an authorised person within the terms of the Financial Services and Markets Act, and I am not authorised to give advice.*  As such, this is *Personal Opinion* only!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are many options available, depending on your attitude to risk, when you want to access the funds, and depending on how your self-employed activity is structured (self-employed as a sole-trader or partnership, or as an owner/director of a limited company etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You use the term &quot;Pension provision&quot; but there are many ways of providing for your retirement, than just pensions!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An important point to remember though, is do not let the tax tail wag the returns dog.  Do not be blinded by tax relief, if it ties you in long term to poorer performing investments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Specifically for a limited company, you have the choice of making payments from the company, or personally. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Company Funded**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Payments made by the company have to fall into one of two categories&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Payments to an approved pension scheme&#xD;&#xA; - Investments made by the company (and remaining the property of the company)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anything else will (most likely) be considered as either a payment in lieu of salary, a dividend (if appropriately declared) or a benefit in kind - each with tax considerations!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Company funded pension contributions (even into a personal pension) are made gross (so no income tax to reclaim) but they are deductible for corporation tax. But the main benefit is the saving of two lots of National Insurance (so approx 25%).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Optionally, the company can (if its articles allow) make investments in shares, property etc in its own name - profits will be subject to corporation tax - but I suggest taking appropriate advice before following this route.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Personally Funded**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, this way, you have to pay-out the moneyt, via either salary or dividends.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But once the money is in your hands, it can be invested as you see fit... options to &quot;traditional&quot; pension schemes include EIS/SEIS approved investments, ISAs etc - all of which offer tax relief in some form.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personal Opinion: As recent changes to pensions have shown, I do not trust Governments to resist the temptation to tax accrued funds further.  As such, I certainly do not have all my eggs in a Pension basket.  My various employment pensions are now all accumulated into a Self-Invested Personal Pension.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also maintain a broad ISA portfolio (which is, in effect, my main Retirement Provision) as this allows me to access the capital if/when I need it - or the Government fundamentally change the structure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also have a wide (higher risk) portfolio of unlisted shares (EIS, SEIS and VCT types) which offer higher returns, but with some risk!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whatever route you take, keep a broad portfolio, and keep as much control over it as you can." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1420" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="584" RevisionGUID="0e28fd93-f6d7-492a-a48f-01d014e6f806" CreationDate="2013-07-31T08:46:39.260" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1421" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="585" RevisionGUID="3899ebb8-b9c4-4a3e-8ed0-3c112567cd70" CreationDate="2013-07-31T08:46:39.260" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1422" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="344" RevisionGUID="71b83c72-aafd-4aa3-8fbf-8f9a615c3bb8" CreationDate="2013-07-31T10:43:17.083" UserId="104" Comment="Further clarification (on why the duplicate question is different)" Text="In the event of my untimely death -- before getting the chance to retire and wind-up the Company myself -- what should I have in place to ease someone else having to do this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm self-employed in the UK, through a Limited Company, currently with no other employees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm thinking along the lines of whether I need to appoint &quot;powers of attorney&quot; or nominate an accountant; whether should this be part of my personal will ... or is something company specific required?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Edit:** to clarify, I'm not after how to prepare my clients. I'm after advice to leave my spouse (or other will executor), to cover things like: getting monies out of the Company bank account, notifying tax authorities (VAT, PAYE, Inland Revenue), creditors, Companies House, etc.. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1423" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="580" RevisionGUID="9f20e29b-c2dd-4328-bf07-e3f30b2618b1" CreationDate="2013-07-31T14:16:32.837" UserId="39" Comment="added 98 characters in body" Text="*I don't know what I don't know, so I'm going to fumble through this question; edits welcome:*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What are the tax issues involved with &quot;employing&quot; a (part-time) worker in a different country?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I have a Virginia, USA-based Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) through which I handle revenue and expenses for my freelancing work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I wanted to, say, pay someone in India (or France or Canada) $30/hour to provide user interface consulting, would the payments to that worker be considered wages? Would I need to pay payroll taxes, and to whom? What documentation would I need to claim the payroll expense? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1424" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="586" RevisionGUID="a827f0bc-c960-4ccd-bed2-7bef986ac0ef" CreationDate="2013-07-31T15:14:48.850" UserId="201" Text="I am contemplating an offer for the design and development of some themes for a CMS.  The payment option is reimbursement based on the sale with a commission after the reimbursement for time spent in development.  I typically would not do this but it is a friend that I am helping to get started.  I will be the only one developing and I know this won't be based on &quot;who we like the best&quot; type of work.  So I am battling the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - How can I legally write the contract?&#xD;&#xA; - Is there a name for this type of work?&#xD;&#xA; - Even if the ideas are someone else's can I write a contract waving the intellectual property to myself until reimbursement?&#xD;&#xA; - Is this a common practice?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sorry if this question has been asked but upon my searches here I didn't see anything that may answer my question.  If it is called something in particular please let me know so I can search for something.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1425" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="586" RevisionGUID="a827f0bc-c960-4ccd-bed2-7bef986ac0ef" CreationDate="2013-07-31T15:14:48.850" UserId="201" Text="How can I write a contract based on intellectual property?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1426" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="586" RevisionGUID="a827f0bc-c960-4ccd-bed2-7bef986ac0ef" CreationDate="2013-07-31T15:14:48.850" UserId="201" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1428" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="584" RevisionGUID="3af4bfde-e480-4cf2-a2e3-adf93a6e3c94" CreationDate="2013-07-31T17:18:33.880" UserId="85" Comment="added 317 characters in body" Text="Questions related to pension provision, whether company or personally funded.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pensions are a regulated activity in most (all?) countries, so be mindful that answers from F.SE users should be viewed as opinion and certainly not as *advice* - unless the user clearly identifies them-self as Regulated and Authorised." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1429" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="584" RevisionGUID="3af4bfde-e480-4cf2-a2e3-adf93a6e3c94" CreationDate="2013-07-31T17:18:33.880" Comment="Proposed by 85 approved by 75 edit id of 114" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1430" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="585" RevisionGUID="87eef582-7b97-4802-8368-6d2b2bdcfdcd" CreationDate="2013-07-31T17:18:38.693" UserId="85" Comment="added 60 characters in body" Text="Use for questions relating to pensions and pension provision" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1431" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="585" RevisionGUID="87eef582-7b97-4802-8368-6d2b2bdcfdcd" CreationDate="2013-07-31T17:18:38.693" Comment="Proposed by 85 approved by 75 edit id of 115" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1437" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="580" RevisionGUID="21264282-d258-4420-b66a-97a03da9ed47" CreationDate="2013-07-31T19:28:15.500" UserDisplayName="user510" Comment="Removed meta content." Text="What are the tax issues involved with &quot;employing&quot; a (part-time) worker in a different country?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I have a Virginia, USA-based Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) through which I handle revenue and expenses for my freelancing work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I wanted to, say, pay someone in India (or France or Canada) $30/hour to provide user interface consulting, would the payments to that worker be considered wages? Would I need to pay payroll taxes, and to whom? What documentation would I need to claim the payroll expense? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1438" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="580" RevisionGUID="21264282-d258-4420-b66a-97a03da9ed47" CreationDate="2013-07-31T19:28:15.500" Comment="Proposed by 510 approved by 64 edit id of 116" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1439" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="588" RevisionGUID="64e84bdf-79ef-4e08-bacf-1702e7670ef3" CreationDate="2013-08-01T05:14:26.707" UserId="64" Text="[Ideas are meaningless. They don't create value.](http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/6949/forming-a-new-software-startup-how-do-i-allocate-ownership-fairly/23326#23326) Without actual inputs in the form of work, they'll never manifest into anything that can be bought or sold. The only intellectual property involved in your scenario are the actual designs and themes for the CMS that you will produce.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This isn't just my opinion. [USC Title 17 Section 102](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/102) states the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **(b)** In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any ***idea***, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.  &#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;*(Bold, italicized emphasis is mine.)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you're in the United States, you're governed by United States Copyright Law, which states the following in [17 USC § 201](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/201):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **(a) Initial Ownership.**— Copyright in a work protected under this title vests initially in the author or authors of the work. The authors of a joint work are coowners of copyright in the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **(b) Works Made for Hire.**— In the case of a work made for hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared is considered the author for purposes of this title, and, unless the parties have expressly agreed otherwise in a written instrument signed by them, owns all of the rights comprised in the copyright.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;According to the law, as stated above, the copyright for a work initially belongs to the author, unless the work is part of a &quot;work made for hire&quot;. In cases where the work is part of a work made for hire, the person commissioning the work owns the copyright, not the author.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have **no contract written** *and* you're **not an employee**, then according to [USC Title 17 Section 101](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/101), as cited below, the work is ***not*** a work for hire and hence the copyright belongs to you and whomever else actively works on the deliverables:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A “work made for hire” is—&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **(1)** a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **(2)** a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, ***if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire.*** For the purpose of the foregoing sentence, a “supplementary work” is a work prepared for publication as a secondary adjunct to a work by another author for the purpose of introducing, concluding, illustrating, explaining, revising, commenting upon, or assisting in the use of the other work, such as forewords, afterwords, pictorial illustrations, maps, charts, tables, editorial notes, musical arrangements, answer material for tests, bibliographies, appendixes, and indexes, and an “instructional text” is a literary, pictorial, or graphic work prepared for publication and with the purpose of use in systematic instructional activities.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;*(Bold, italics emphasis is mine.)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In summary, unless you explicitly agree in writing with the other party, your friend, that the work is a work made for hire, and your friend isn't doing any of the work to create the designs or themes, according to US Copyright Law, the copyright ownership falls to you. ***Note that &quot;work&quot; does not mean merely coming up with a cool idea while daydreaming, or staring into space, or chasing the [eye floaters in your eyes](http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/benign-eye-floaters).***. If you're not actually physically putting together the work, you're not the author.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, it sounds like your role in this is temporary, which means your friend likely doesn't intend to enter into a partnership with you. Therefore, it's in his or her best interests to enter into a written, contractual agreement that clearly outlines who owns what and to what rights and responsibilities each party has in regards to the works. You could certainly outline that the copyright ownership awarded to you transfers in full to your friend when payment is received in full. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, ***do not rely solely on the information here in this post.***  I've studied business law, but ***I'm not an attorney nor am I an authority on this matter***. If you visit any of the sources I've referenced, you'll see that the law is very verbose and very deep. Consequently, there may be hidden legal loopholes that I in my limited wisdom did not foresee.  The best course of action is to see an attorney who specializes in business law and/or copyright law, and hire that person to draft a professional contractual agreement that doesn't violate local, state, or federal laws. Illegal contracts may not be enforceable, and a licensed attorney will help make sure that you have a solid contract that will help prevent any problems or disagreements down the line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're thinking, &quot;Man, that sounds like a lot of work, and my friend wouldn't do anything unsavory&quot;, keep in mind that the goal of a contract isn't to beat someone over the head with it when things go bad; instead, it's designed to prevent unexpected and/or unforeseen problems and misunderstandings from turning into very heated and expensive legal battles. In many cases, a disagreement is resolved by never actually having a disagreement in the first place, by having everything clearly written out beforehand so that everyone is clear what his or her role is, both at the start of the work and once the work is completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For further reading, please see the [United States Copyright Office - Works Made For Hire](http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ09.pdf)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1440" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="588" RevisionGUID="dcf8f89e-1fc3-494a-ad2e-48f741fb94cf" CreationDate="2013-08-01T05:22:15.430" UserId="64" Comment="added 130 characters in body" Text="[Ideas are meaningless. They don't create value.](http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/6949/forming-a-new-software-startup-how-do-i-allocate-ownership-fairly/23326#23326) Without actual inputs in the form of work, they'll never manifest into anything that can be bought or sold. The only intellectual property involved in your scenario are the actual designs and themes for the CMS that you will produce.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This isn't just my opinion. [Cornell University Law School's Legal Information Institute, USC Title 17 Section 102](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/102) states the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **(b)** In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any ***idea***, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.  &#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;*(Bold, italicized emphasis is mine.)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you're in the United States, you're governed by United States Copyright Law, which states the following in [Cornell University Law School's - 17 USC § 201](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/201):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **(a) Initial Ownership.**— Copyright in a work protected under this title vests initially in the author or authors of the work. The authors of a joint work are coowners of copyright in the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **(b) Works Made for Hire.**— In the case of a work made for hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared is considered the author for purposes of this title, and, unless the parties have expressly agreed otherwise in a written instrument signed by them, owns all of the rights comprised in the copyright.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;According to the law, as stated above, the copyright for a work initially belongs to the author, unless the work is part of a &quot;work made for hire&quot;. In cases where the work is part of a work made for hire, the person commissioning the work owns the copyright, not the author.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have **no contract written** *and* you're **not an employee**, then according to [USC Title 17 Section 101](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/101), as cited below from Cornell University Law School, the work is ***not*** a work for hire and hence the copyright belongs to you and whomever else actively works on the deliverables:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A “work made for hire” is—&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **(1)** a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **(2)** a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, ***if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire.*** For the purpose of the foregoing sentence, a “supplementary work” is a work prepared for publication as a secondary adjunct to a work by another author for the purpose of introducing, concluding, illustrating, explaining, revising, commenting upon, or assisting in the use of the other work, such as forewords, afterwords, pictorial illustrations, maps, charts, tables, editorial notes, musical arrangements, answer material for tests, bibliographies, appendixes, and indexes, and an “instructional text” is a literary, pictorial, or graphic work prepared for publication and with the purpose of use in systematic instructional activities.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;*(Bold, italics emphasis is mine.)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In summary, unless you explicitly agree in writing with the other party, your friend, that the work is a work made for hire, and your friend isn't doing any of the work to create the designs or themes, according to US Copyright Law, the copyright ownership falls to you. ***Note that &quot;work&quot; does not mean merely coming up with a cool idea while daydreaming, or staring into space, or chasing the [eye floaters in your eyes](http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/benign-eye-floaters).***. If you're not actually physically putting together the work, you're not the author.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, it sounds like your role in this is temporary, which means your friend likely doesn't intend to enter into a partnership with you. Therefore, it's in his or her best interests to enter into a written, contractual agreement that clearly outlines who owns what and to what rights and responsibilities each party has in regards to the works. You could certainly outline that the copyright ownership awarded to you transfers in full to your friend when payment is received in full. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, ***do not rely solely on the information here in this post.***  I've studied business law, but ***I'm not an attorney nor am I an authority on this matter***. If you visit any of the sources I've referenced, you'll see that the law is very verbose and very deep. Consequently, there may be hidden legal loopholes that I in my limited wisdom did not foresee.  The best course of action is to see an attorney who specializes in business law and/or copyright law, and hire that person to draft a professional contractual agreement that doesn't violate local, state, or federal laws. Illegal contracts may not be enforceable, and a licensed attorney will help make sure that you have a solid contract that will help prevent any problems or disagreements down the line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're thinking, &quot;Man, that sounds like a lot of work, and my friend wouldn't do anything unsavory&quot;, keep in mind that the goal of a contract isn't to beat someone over the head with it when things go bad; instead, it's designed to prevent unexpected and/or unforeseen problems and misunderstandings from turning into very heated and expensive legal battles. In many cases, a disagreement is resolved by never actually having a disagreement in the first place, by having everything clearly written out beforehand so that everyone is clear what his or her role is, both at the start of the work and once the work is completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For further reading, please see the [United States Copyright Office - Works Made For Hire](http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ09.pdf)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1441" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="580" RevisionGUID="96b10b26-52ea-4406-9504-0687916b0d26" CreationDate="2013-08-01T14:06:37.473" UserId="39" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="**What are the tax issues involved with &quot;employing&quot; a (part-time) worker in a different country?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I have a Virginia, USA-based Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) through which I handle revenue and expenses for my freelancing work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I wanted to, say, pay someone in India (or France or Canada) $30/hour to provide user interface consulting, would the payments to that worker be considered wages? Would I need to pay payroll taxes, and to whom? What documentation would I need to claim the payroll expense? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1442" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="586" RevisionGUID="7f3c4395-e825-4a04-adb1-e7e4cb2720e2" CreationDate="2013-08-03T06:07:42.303" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/363541665660674049" />
  <row Id="1443" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="580" RevisionGUID="3acc5f70-7b53-4d62-86c3-a67f5b7d6aba" CreationDate="2013-08-04T03:07:42.427" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/363858756456558592" />
  <row Id="1445" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="528" RevisionGUID="6dd9bfcb-5fe7-4c05-8d10-169562734fb8" CreationDate="2013-08-05T18:07:41.980" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/364447635912278016" />
  <row Id="1446" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="555" RevisionGUID="4f03c863-5072-4d09-9493-d571e5a9a8d2" CreationDate="2013-08-05T21:07:41.977" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/364492933292392448" />
  <row Id="1447" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="495" RevisionGUID="4bd6a9b3-09be-4566-808e-147d78524aea" CreationDate="2013-08-06T03:07:42.113" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/364583531210477569" />
  <row Id="1452" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="590" RevisionGUID="a8d38504-6302-46a0-9132-4d0bb77c2a73" CreationDate="2013-08-06T08:29:23.920" UserId="637" Text="I am currently a student with no registered business etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, lately I have received out of no where a flurry of people wanting websites and web apps and as such I'm quite happy to facilitate their needs in exchange for payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem I've now got is the people want invoices for tax return purposes and I don't know where to start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not VAT registered so does that mean I only charge for my hours * standard rate and not add 20% for VAT?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or is the 20% for their return out of the aforementioned total?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know I sound completely clueless here but well, that's about the scale of things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help would be appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1453" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="590" RevisionGUID="a8d38504-6302-46a0-9132-4d0bb77c2a73" CreationDate="2013-08-06T08:29:23.920" UserId="637" Text="How do I invoice my client? - Tax (UK)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1454" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="590" RevisionGUID="a8d38504-6302-46a0-9132-4d0bb77c2a73" CreationDate="2013-08-06T08:29:23.920" UserId="637" Text="|client|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1455" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="591" RevisionGUID="24924d1f-3d21-4bf4-b421-e2e7c510155b" CreationDate="2013-08-06T15:52:56.773" UserId="43" Text="If you are UK based and not VAT registered then you cannot add VAT to your service charges. You should generate an invoice that just contains details of how to pay you (bank details, paypal, etc) along with either a breakdown of your charges or a total cost, depending upon how you're charging the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It can be as simple as a plain word doc to get you up and running. Just be sure to include a unique invoice number for both of your records. If you make it sequential you'll keep track of them more easily. If you don't start from 1 then it won't look as if you're just starting out, which will add to your air of professionalism. My first invoice was numbered 2701001 because I started freelancing on January 27th. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1456" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="590" RevisionGUID="5fd7bf6d-033e-451f-ab5b-6057ebb154ff" CreationDate="2013-08-06T15:53:54.043" UserId="43" Comment="Added taxes tag" Text="|client|invoices|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1457" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="592" RevisionGUID="22bd66b8-22d5-4f5e-8e10-4f0170432636" CreationDate="2013-08-06T21:12:15.833" UserId="85" Text="&gt; I am currently a student with no registered business etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are required to [register (link)][1] with [tag:HMRC] as self-employed in this case - and while you are at it (assuming profits are below the threshold) register as exempt from Class 2 National Insurance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Failure to register will result in a fine if (when?) you get tagged...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is required on a UK invoice is kindly explained by [the Government itself (link)][2] which includes the following provisions (copied/pasted for completeness):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You must clearly display the word ‘invoice’ on the document. You must&#xD;&#xA;&gt; also include:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; - a unique identification number&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - your company name, address and contact information&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the company name and address of the customer you are invoicing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - a clear description of what you are charging for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the date the goods or service were provided (supply date)&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the date of the invoice&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the amount(s) being charged&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - VAT amount if applicable&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the total amount owed&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you’re a sole trader, the invoice must also include:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the trader’s name or any business name being used&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - an address where any legal documents can be delivered to you if you are using a business name&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/register-selfemp.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers/overview" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1458" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="344" RevisionGUID="5a9ff66f-b9de-44db-a239-ebf271781e81" CreationDate="2013-08-07T05:38:45.030" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="1459" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="592" RevisionGUID="d4a979f0-2fa8-47d8-ad3e-22a70eea83d3" CreationDate="2013-08-07T05:50:32.373" UserId="85" Comment="Deal with VAT" Text="&gt; I am currently a student with no registered business etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are required to [register (link)][1] with [tag:HMRC] as self-employed in this case - and while you are at it (assuming profits are below the threshold) register as exempt from Class 2 National Insurance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Failure to register will result in a fine if (when?) you get tagged...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is required on a UK invoice is kindly explained by [the Government itself (link)][2] which includes the following provisions (copied/pasted for completeness):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You must clearly display the word ‘invoice’ on the document. You must&#xD;&#xA;&gt; also include:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; - a unique identification number&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - your company name, address and contact information&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the company name and address of the customer you are invoicing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - a clear description of what you are charging for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the date the goods or service were provided (supply date)&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the date of the invoice&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the amount(s) being charged&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - VAT amount if applicable&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the total amount owed&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you’re a sole trader, the invoice must also include:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the trader’s name or any business name being used&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - an address where any legal documents can be delivered to you if you are using a business name&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm not VAT registered so does that mean I only charge for my hours *&#xD;&#xA;&gt; standard rate and not add 20% for VAT?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are not registered for VAT, then VAT is irrelevant... you do not add it to your invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So your invoice value is (as you say) `hours x rate`.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do become VAT registered, VAT would be chargeable on future invoices (not retrospectively) as **an additional 20%** of the invoice value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/register-selfemp.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers/overview" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1460" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="592" RevisionGUID="a9a67e28-5fef-4f43-b42d-27dea610a0b9" CreationDate="2013-08-08T07:34:33.520" UserId="85" Comment="added 87 characters in body" Text="&gt; I am currently a student with no registered business etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are required to [register (link)][1] with [tag:HMRC] as self-employed in this case - and while you are at it (assuming profits are below the threshold) register as exempt from Class 2 National Insurance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Failure to register will result in a fine if (when?) you get tagged...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is required on a UK invoice is kindly explained by [the Government itself (link)][2] which includes the following provisions (copied/pasted for completeness):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You must clearly display the word ‘invoice’ on the document. You must&#xD;&#xA;&gt; also include:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; - a unique identification number&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - your company name, address and contact information&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the company name and address of the customer you are invoicing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - a clear description of what you are charging for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the date the goods or service were provided (supply date)&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the date of the invoice&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the amount(s) being charged&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - VAT amount if applicable&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the total amount owed&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you’re a sole trader, the invoice must also include:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the trader’s name or any business name being used&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - an address where any legal documents can be delivered to you if you are using a business name&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm not VAT registered so does that mean I only charge for my hours *&#xD;&#xA;&gt; standard rate and not add 20% for VAT?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are not registered for VAT, then VAT is irrelevant... you do not add it to your invoice - although this does mean you cannot reclaim any VAT you are charged on your purchases.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So your invoice value is (as you say) `hours x rate`.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do become VAT registered, VAT would be chargeable on future invoices (not retrospectively) as **an additional 20%** of the invoice value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/register-selfemp.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers/overview" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1461" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="593" RevisionGUID="0bed3208-c121-4260-992a-29274b42f7e6" CreationDate="2013-08-08T08:01:02.727" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1462" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="594" RevisionGUID="5c664fed-e5d5-4e3d-8247-99d05fe8fb30" CreationDate="2013-08-08T08:01:02.727" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1463" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="595" RevisionGUID="d32107d3-bed7-4b72-9277-a9ae840f15c3" CreationDate="2013-08-08T14:11:50.887" UserId="647" Text="I am a freelancer and often am in need of a pricing calculator for website and web application development. I have used one in the past at [DesignQuote][1], but didn't know if any better ones exist out there. With quick Google searches, I can find articles about [pricing my work][2] and optimum [hourly rate calculators][3], but I am interested in some different online calculators where I can enter some information about the project and it calculate the average costs of design work. This would allow me to give a good base price per project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.designquote.net/html/dq_estimate_wizard.cfm&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/workflow/pricing-your-work-how-to-guarantee-the-price-is-right/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://freelanceswitch.com/rates/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1464" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="595" RevisionGUID="d32107d3-bed7-4b72-9277-a9ae840f15c3" CreationDate="2013-08-08T14:11:50.887" UserId="647" Text="What are good resources for pricing calculators for web design work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1465" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="595" RevisionGUID="d32107d3-bed7-4b72-9277-a9ae840f15c3" CreationDate="2013-08-08T14:11:50.887" UserId="647" Text="|pay-rate|price|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1466" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="596" RevisionGUID="05d62792-3448-4e68-a87f-30757e767731" CreationDate="2013-08-08T14:35:06.427" UserId="647" Text="To answer your question, knowing the full scope of the project upfront is the ideal scene. Knowing the full intentions of the project allow you to better manage the project with time, costs, and updates. I have been working on a project now steadily for 14 months with the first edition going live within 2 months of the project. The scope of the project has grown by at least 1,000%. I have learned from this that the first release though being what the client wanted, was not exactly what the client needed. I have done triple and quadruple work that could have only been done once if I knew the project scope up front. project scope is inevitable with any good project. Controlling the project scope upfront takes skill and talent, but with practice it can be done. Having a good solid contract signed will also help control project scope. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will state that there is nothing at all wrong with project scope before the work has begone. However, project scope once the project has begun is when you will wish to drop the project at some times and pull your hair out. Offering an initial release is always a good idea if it can be done without increasing your load exponentially. This gives the client a product in a timely manner and allow them to make changes before all of the features are added in. Some people may disagree with this style of project management, but I always like to work in stages with approval on every stage to prevent a major change with the final product. Good communication is the key with any project! Talk with your client and listen to what they say, look at what they need, and suggest what you know will be needed. Remember that you are the expert and that they have you doing the work because they want your advice. With this knowledge it is never a problem to make suggestions or changes to the project scope upfront and shoot down what the client &quot;say&quot; they want when it conflicts what you know they need." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1467" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="597" RevisionGUID="ac5f35d9-21ca-4f33-aa89-e6d5a1413f1b" CreationDate="2013-08-08T16:48:27.207" UserId="75" Text="Unfortunately, I don't believe such a site exists, and I wouldn't expect it to be accurate either.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are working on projects, they are usually a per-project cost, which changes as the scope changes, with every single project. A calculator won't be able to detect this. It also will not be able to measure you skill level, or how much time it will take for each project. There are other unforeseen events you need to take into consideration as well. Below is a mini-list for web projects I've had to do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- SSL Certificates (extra cost per year)&#xD;&#xA;- Hosting (Extra cost per year, especially for their own .com or .net or other [TLD](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-level_domain))&#xD;&#xA;- Images (Whether it's a photoshoot or buying from an [iStock.com](http://www.istockphoto.com/) clone, for copyright purposes)&#xD;&#xA;- Changes (Inevitable. No one in their right mind leaves a webpage they made years ago, expecting it to &quot;just work&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;- Design (As always, starting with the paper design, then the storyboard mock up. You need to be compensated for this time, especially if you read stories on [ClientsFromHell](http://clientsfromhell.net))&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With some of the advanced projects, I always project an extra 50% of time/money for any extra functions that may affect the timeline. Once you build a module though (i.e. an authenticated login module with security and salting), it becomes much easier, and you can either pocket the difference, or charge less, for each module. The more you can modularize your projects and reuse code, the less time you spend building, and the more you know it works properly with all your clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, an online calculator for rates will not always work for projects, simply because of the varying details with every project. If you are doing simple brochure webpages, it becomes much easier, but for anything with user input being built in, there is always room to expand the project scope, as well as the cost. You must take this into consideration." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1468" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="593" RevisionGUID="675c290f-9335-4ee0-86a1-b53ce1a29d0b" CreationDate="2013-08-08T16:48:46.863" UserId="85" Comment="added 337 characters in body" Text="For questions related to working on a retainer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A retainer is a fee paid for a pre-determined amount of time or work. Most commonly, a percentage of a retainer is paid up-front for providing a specified number of hours or days of work within a time period.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The retainer fee is payable whether those services are called upon or not!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1469" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="593" RevisionGUID="675c290f-9335-4ee0-86a1-b53ce1a29d0b" CreationDate="2013-08-08T16:48:46.863" Comment="Proposed by 85 approved by 75 edit id of 117" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1470" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="405" RevisionGUID="2c07c976-0023-4a65-9493-14ec1129bdbc" CreationDate="2013-08-08T16:49:11.410" UserId="85" Comment="added 291 characters in body" Text="For questions about invoices and invoicing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An `invoice` is a commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer, indicating the products, quantities, and agreed prices for products or services the seller has provided the buyer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;`Invoicing` is the related process of raising an invoice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1471" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="405" RevisionGUID="2c07c976-0023-4a65-9493-14ec1129bdbc" CreationDate="2013-08-08T16:49:11.410" Comment="Proposed by 85 approved by 75 edit id of 119" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1472" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="406" RevisionGUID="033d07c4-b364-477b-9ab3-7ca10671e739" CreationDate="2013-08-08T16:49:16.223" UserId="85" Comment="added 43 characters in body" Text="For questions about invoices and invoicing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1473" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="406" RevisionGUID="033d07c4-b364-477b-9ab3-7ca10671e739" CreationDate="2013-08-08T16:49:16.223" Comment="Proposed by 85 approved by 75 edit id of 120" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1474" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="594" RevisionGUID="bd057aca-0bd4-49b2-9b8e-51857074c8c8" CreationDate="2013-08-08T16:49:19.333" UserId="85" Comment="added 100 characters in body" Text="Questions related to working on a retainer - a fee paid for a pre-determined amount of time or work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1475" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="594" RevisionGUID="bd057aca-0bd4-49b2-9b8e-51857074c8c8" CreationDate="2013-08-08T16:49:19.333" Comment="Proposed by 85 approved by 75 edit id of 118" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1476" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="598" RevisionGUID="ce9c94fd-7fc1-41b0-b6aa-8616caf572ef" CreationDate="2013-08-09T00:38:07.277" UserId="654" Text="I am a front-end and wordpress developer and after a while of undercharging to attract customers, I am ready to raise my rate. What is the industry rate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1477" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="598" RevisionGUID="ce9c94fd-7fc1-41b0-b6aa-8616caf572ef" CreationDate="2013-08-09T00:38:07.277" UserId="654" Text="Rate for a front-end and wordpress web developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1478" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="598" RevisionGUID="ce9c94fd-7fc1-41b0-b6aa-8616caf572ef" CreationDate="2013-08-09T00:38:07.277" UserId="654" Text="|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1481" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="598" RevisionGUID="5b513ee8-997b-4578-86cb-a2b7371ed425" CreationDate="2013-08-09T04:55:25.617" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus on the how and not the what" Text="I am a front-end and Wordpress developer and after a while of undercharging to attract customers, I am ready to raise my rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, how can I determine what I should charge clients? What should I take into consideration?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1482" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="598" RevisionGUID="5b513ee8-997b-4578-86cb-a2b7371ed425" CreationDate="2013-08-09T04:55:25.617" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus on the how and not the what" Text="How can I determine my rates as a freelance Wordpress developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1483" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="599" RevisionGUID="89edd1f3-92cd-454d-8a72-7391616cb598" CreationDate="2013-08-09T08:30:50.587" UserId="85" Text="If you were to sell a *widget*, the floor selling price would be calculated as:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; minimum selling price = cost to manufacture + required profit&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;where &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; cost to manufacture = unit manufacturing cost + proportion of fixed overhead costs&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;where the total of `fixed overhead costs` are amortised across all manufactured widgets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Delivery and transport (etc) are then added on top, as a separate line item.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pricing up the provision of services is exactly the same... you need to know the fixed costs of running your business, and the unit cost of producing each widget (webpage, website, hour-of-consultancy) etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And expenses incurred get added as disbursements (with or without a markup as agreed)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The trick is setting your prices so that your required profit at a level that you are happy with, and at a price that the customer is happy with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you set your profit too high, or your overheads are too high, or your unit costs are too high you will lose out!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no definitive answer to the question, though, as individual circumstances (of supplier or customer) will affect the prices." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1484" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="599" RevisionGUID="75531765-8419-41e2-b536-b55f2da8ebb6" CreationDate="2013-08-09T10:12:06.547" UserId="85" Comment="added 240 characters in body" Text="If you were to sell a *widget*, the floor selling price would be calculated as:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; minimum selling price = cost to manufacture + required profit&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;where &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; cost to manufacture = unit manufacturing cost + proportion of fixed overhead costs&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;where the total of `fixed overhead costs` are amortised across all manufactured widgets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Delivery and transport (etc) are then added on top, as a separate line item.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pricing up the provision of services is exactly the same... you need to know the fixed costs of running your business, and the unit cost of producing each widget (webpage, website, hour-of-consultancy) etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And expenses incurred get added as disbursements (with or without a markup as agreed)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The trick is setting your prices so that your required profit at a level that you are happy with, and at a price that the customer is happy with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you set your profit too high, or your overheads are too high, or your unit costs are too high you will lose out!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no definitive answer to the question, though, as individual circumstances (of supplier or customer) will affect the prices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: although the question is tagged as [tag:price-per-hour] there are other pricing models available for website development. Certainly I would expect website design to be more [tag:fixed-price] with support extra, but that's opinion!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1485" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="600" RevisionGUID="bf660360-11fe-46be-b5d9-b526efa98231" CreationDate="2013-08-09T10:39:24.927" UserId="184" Text="&gt; As a freelancer, how can I determine what I should charge clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One easy way it to shop around - do some market research. What do other freelancers in your area (profession, location and similar circumstances) charge? You will get a range of rates from people, which should give you a good starting point to position yourself and your rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; What should I take into consideration?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to consider your expenses and overheads - everything that you pay out in order to complete a job. This, devided by the amount of time you estimate a job to take will give you a estimated break-even rate - a rate that will end up with no profits or liabilities (assuming your estimates are correct). This is your _rock bottom_ rate - possibly a rate to attract customers with, but not a long term rate that you can profit from.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, you need to figure out how much of a profit you want / can make, taking into consideration the current rates you got from your market research. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Position yourself too low and you will get customers but no profit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Position yourself too high and you will not get many customers, but you will get high profit for each. This is risky, as you may not get _any_ customers and those you get may look elsewhere. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Position yourself somewhere in the middle, where you can both get happy customers and get a healthy profit." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1486" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="598" RevisionGUID="018326e9-8013-4f73-9f0e-fdcfff123ab4" CreationDate="2013-08-09T15:07:46.360" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/365851906838507520" />
  <row Id="1487" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="601" RevisionGUID="a039ba87-0469-47bf-9710-c870a7d1a54b" CreationDate="2013-08-09T16:46:21.550" UserId="662" Text="After I finished my CS school, I had an accident which took me far away from the industry for approximately 4 years. After that I worked on my dads business, and I didn't do much of programming.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All I did was 3-4 websites for friends with php and 2 smartphone applications with android.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All I did was trial and error. Now I see technologies as TDD, pattern design and many many frameworks. Honestly I think I've lost the bus.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The thing is that I really enjoying and still enjoy programming but with my experience, I don't know what to put on my CV(resume).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1488" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="601" RevisionGUID="a039ba87-0469-47bf-9710-c870a7d1a54b" CreationDate="2013-08-09T16:46:21.550" UserId="662" Text="how to put freelancing in my CV" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1489" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="601" RevisionGUID="a039ba87-0469-47bf-9710-c870a7d1a54b" CreationDate="2013-08-09T16:46:21.550" UserId="662" Text="|growth|resume|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1490" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="601" RevisionGUID="45cbe9ab-2bdb-40d0-ac2f-d0045b8401a8" CreationDate="2013-08-09T18:30:48.183" UserId="58" Comment="cleaned up the grammar a bit~" Text="After I finished my CS school, I had an accident which took me far away from the industry for approximately 4 years. After that I worked on my dad's business, and I didn't do much in the way of programming.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've done 3-4 websites in PHP (mostly for friends), and 2 Android Applications&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everything I've done so far was trial and error. Now, I see technologies like TDD, pattern design and frameworks galore. Honestly, I think I've missed the bus.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The thing is that I really enjoying and still enjoy programming but with my experience, I don't know what to put on my CV.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I put down Freelancing as an actual field of experience?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1491" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="601" RevisionGUID="45cbe9ab-2bdb-40d0-ac2f-d0045b8401a8" CreationDate="2013-08-09T18:30:48.183" UserId="58" Comment="cleaned up the grammar a bit~" Text="How do I put freelancing in my CV?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1492" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="602" RevisionGUID="fea9926d-3c05-449e-92ff-44907f02ec27" CreationDate="2013-08-09T18:47:34.743" UserId="58" Text="##The pain train&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was in the same boat as you for a while; I had ample experience over a few years where I worked on open source projects and websites for small-scale clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The easiest way to actually have freelancing on your CV? Put it there as previous work, and have some of your clients be references. It's as simple as that. As for the question of &quot;will employers see it as valuable?&quot;, well, just put it there. Give them examples they can look at.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##Portfolios&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're a web developer, which makes it really really easy to show off your frontend skills. We're also at the point where pretty much any developer these days has a Bitbucket or Github account, so there's the backend stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stick the websites you've worked on in a portfolio, and specifically target potential clients or employers with this (you can probably cram the usual HR buzz words in there somewhere, too).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be sure to link said portfolio gratuitously in your CV and covering letters, too (I put mine at the start and end of my CV, make it short and sweet, and let the client take a look for themselves if they're interested.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##Frameworks&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This one is web development-specific, too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you intend to be working with a business on any kind of backend code as a programmer (not a designer), you should learn the methodology and way of thinking behind nearly every framework for web development: [MVC][mvc]. It's also known as separation of concerns, too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you understand MVC, you can grasp nearly any framework in about a day or two of playing around with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##tl;dr&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long story short: just put it down as normal experience, and if you enjoy the work you do, do more of it (the only way to get better at programming is to do more programming, for example). Start small if you like, and build up notability and a strong reason to get a client or a job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [mvc]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93view%E2%80%93controller" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1493" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="600" RevisionGUID="7d3700c0-fbc1-4f70-8040-16a07ac1586a" CreationDate="2013-08-09T18:50:32.130" UserId="58" Comment="added 1 characters in body" Text="&gt; As a freelancer, how can I determine what I should charge clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One easy way it to shop around - do some market research. What do other freelancers in your area (profession, location and similar circumstances) charge? You will get a range of rates from people, which should give you a good starting point to position yourself and your rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; What should I take into consideration?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to consider your expenses and overheads - everything that you pay out in order to complete a job. This, divided by the amount of time you estimate a job to take, will give you a estimated break-even rate - a rate that will end up with no profits or liabilities (assuming your estimates are correct). This is your _rock bottom_ rate - possibly a rate to attract customers with, but not a long term rate that you can profit from.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, you need to figure out how much of a profit you want / can make, taking into consideration the current rates you got from your market research. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Position yourself too low and you will get customers but no profit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Position yourself too high and you will not get many customers, but you will get high profit for each. This is risky, as you may not get _any_ customers and those you get may look elsewhere. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Position yourself somewhere in the middle, where you can both get happy customers and get a healthy profit." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1494" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="601" RevisionGUID="ead694b1-56b9-4b6d-996f-b49d7255a769" CreationDate="2013-08-11T00:07:45.090" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/366350184394924032" />
  <row Id="1495" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="603" RevisionGUID="dec60dde-a24f-4d5d-b57c-255581ce7d83" CreationDate="2013-08-11T03:21:17.467" UserId="666" Text="What options do IT consultants have if they're interested in expanding their skillset with engagements outside of their corporate employer?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm interested in the fast-paced lifestyle of freelance consulting and think I could grow a lot from landing some after-hours gigs, but I'd like to do it in a manner where I can position myself as an architect and then sub out any development that I can't handle on my own, since time will be tight.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I fish for contracts with my resume and then explain how the work will be done (me part-time architect / PM with other full-time devs since I have a day-job)?  Or do I apply to jobs as a consulting agency and leave the fact that I'm employed out of the picture?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is all assuming that my current employer has approved this type of moonlighting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess what I'm asking is - **if I'm interested in making more money and developing more skills after 5PM (as a full-stack web developer), what's the best way to start?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1496" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="603" RevisionGUID="dec60dde-a24f-4d5d-b57c-255581ce7d83" CreationDate="2013-08-11T03:21:17.467" UserId="666" Text="Freelance Consulting while Employed" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1497" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="603" RevisionGUID="dec60dde-a24f-4d5d-b57c-255581ce7d83" CreationDate="2013-08-11T03:21:17.467" UserId="666" Text="|client|contracts|consulting|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1498" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="604" RevisionGUID="6c6492a2-c753-4df0-bf71-ab972fd766cf" CreationDate="2013-08-11T09:08:17.793" UserId="667" Text="In the context of listing company by company, and the dates worked for each company, I just put 'independent', itemizing my project work.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1499" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="605" RevisionGUID="db13e8d6-f2e5-40f5-a0c9-27a9fb5fc71e" CreationDate="2013-08-11T15:26:39.623" UserId="517" Text="Well a general tool like this does not exist and it will never will. Why? Because there are many parameters that it can never count like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Are you working in the rich country like US or some eastern country like India&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Do you have to pay taxes to your country working as a freelancer or you don't&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- You experience, type of work, complexity&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far, the best solution is to browser a freelancing sites and see the average price there. Then if you are just starting, set your price just below the avearage and increase it in time and with experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After a while you will know **your own hourly price**, not hourly price set by some other or by some &quot;reputable&quot; website or calculator. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working as a freelancer does not give you a privilege to start working with a fair price, but you have to start working on a minimum hourly rate and advance with time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why am I saying your own? Because, based on your location and economical circumstances, $10 an hour may be 3 times more money to you, then $60 per hour for someone living in New York or London. You will have enough money for a good life and yet be affordable to clients from New York or London who cannot afford their local contractors. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you ask me, the best calculator are the averages on the freelancing site you use." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1500" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="606" RevisionGUID="af6c08b1-e902-4e46-95aa-1d521ec82c94" CreationDate="2013-08-11T15:32:36.927" UserId="517" Text="It depends whether you work from home with minimum costs or you rent office.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you work from home, then just use the average rate from the freelacing website you use. Every freelancing site has such statistics. If you're just starting, then set the price form the lower side of the average and increase it with time and experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you rent an office, then you must first calculate ALL costs you have. Then divide it to 160 and you will get the minimum price that you can work without ending up in the minus. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that, compare this price with the average price of your freelancing site. This will also help you realize if that freelancing website is good for your or not. In the end, add your profit to this hourly price. Profit can be set randomly or by dividing your desired monthly salary by 160.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also keep in mind that in the beginning you will not work full time, so while you gain some experience, double your minimum price to maximase the chance for not ending up in the minus. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1501" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="607" RevisionGUID="64e2d471-159f-4a2b-aeed-5a1cb3fbf728" CreationDate="2013-08-11T15:38:17.743" UserId="517" Text="Well you cannot just put freelancing since it says nothing to your future employer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Employers don't care whether you worked as a freelancer or in multimillion company. They care only **how much you know and how much extra profit you can bring to his company**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having this in mind, I would make a list of all project I did in 4 years, describing each technology I used with URLs of such project. This will mean more to your employer than zillion of sweet words. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I employ someone for positions higher than junior L1, then I ask him/her to show me the list of all projects they took part in. In a matter of 1 hour or less, I can know how quality this person is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just a few days ago, I reviewed our new employer who showed me a list of 10 apps he did so far. After I reviewed them, I concluded that all these apps are easy or medium complexity and this person cannot get level higher than junior L2. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't be afraid of showing your works to your employers. Show them even your own projects, even if they are not yet published. The more you show, the more they will know of you and your qualities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1502" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="608" RevisionGUID="43fce216-c103-45dd-aa74-ae1041f14fbb" CreationDate="2013-08-11T15:40:13.360" UserId="517" Text="This is a legal issue and you should not trust anyone but your legal adviser. If your contract says you can work for other companies, then you can. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they forbidden this, then you cannot do anything while you work for that company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line is: you can do, what your work contract allowed you to do!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1503" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="595" RevisionGUID="fbc73c74-52cc-4372-ad75-4bcd37cb282a" CreationDate="2013-08-11T18:07:44.720" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/366621973763203073" />
  <row Id="1504" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="603" RevisionGUID="f41bdb62-7dbb-4994-99cc-f877877b3d0a" CreationDate="2013-08-11T18:33:01.410" UserId="666" Comment="added 9 characters in body" Text="What options do IT consultants have if they're interested in expanding their skillset with engagements outside of their corporate employer?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm interested in the fast-paced lifestyle of freelance consulting and think I could grow a lot from landing some after-hours gigs, but I'd like to do it in a manner where I can position myself as an architect and then sub out any development that I can't handle on my own, since time will be tight.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I fish for contracts with my resume and then explain how the work will be done (me part-time architect / PM with other full-time devs since I have a day-job)?  Or do I apply to jobs via RFPs as a consulting agency and leave the fact that I'm employed out of the picture?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is all assuming that my current employer has approved this type of moonlighting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess what I'm asking is - **if I'm interested in making more money and developing more skills after 5PM (as a full-stack web developer), what's the best way to start?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1505" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="555" RevisionGUID="6e1aed54-8cbf-48ac-9346-b27df47999fd" CreationDate="2013-08-11T20:38:12.210" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|outsourcing|share-ratio|profit-share|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1507" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="603" RevisionGUID="8dfe3c32-ca90-4e8b-a92c-1488dca0d3a1" CreationDate="2013-08-11T21:36:55.387" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus on the fact that you also want to subcontract" Text="What options do IT consultants have if they're interested in expanding their skillset with engagements outside of their corporate employer?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm interested in the fast-paced lifestyle of freelance consulting and think I could grow a lot from landing some after-hours gigs, but I'd like to do it in a manner where I can position myself as an architect and then sub out any development that I can't handle on my own, since time will be tight.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is all assuming that my current employer has approved this type of moonlighting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Questions:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I fish for contracts with my resume and then explain how the work will be done (me part-time architect / PM with other full-time devs since I have a day-job)?  Or do I apply to jobs via RFPs as a consulting agency and leave the fact that I'm employed out of the picture?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess what I'm asking is - **if I'm interested in making more money and developing more skills after 5PM (as a full-stack web developer), what's the best way to start?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1508" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="590" RevisionGUID="20474051-df27-4283-8357-42ea93a0b71e" CreationDate="2013-08-12T00:07:44.613" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/366712569710391298" />
  <row Id="1509" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="546" RevisionGUID="f3f4af9f-ffd4-4ea4-8a6a-6e26ff5fad23" CreationDate="2013-08-12T06:07:44.677" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/366803167926697984" />
  <row Id="1510" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="609" RevisionGUID="404cc933-f1e6-46d6-9b8d-6eecfa4198d9" CreationDate="2013-08-12T11:04:17.570" UserId="672" Text="**I consider few following factors when giving my rates.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;+ Type of Client (Wealthy clients or Economical clients)&#xD;&#xA;+ Level of your work&#xD;&#xA;+ Also it depends on your previous customer/client satisfaction rate&#xD;&#xA;+ Have someone recommended them your work&#xD;&#xA;+ How much knowledge do they have about WordPress/Development&#xD;&#xA;+ Can they easily elaborate their requirements &#xD;&#xA;(I had a very bad experience with an American Model and each time she called, she have some new requirements/specs)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If i get a wealthy client and good multinational product then i charge almost 25 to 30% more than my original rate.&#xD;&#xA;Also when someone comes to you with some of your old client reference, they are likely to get work done from you so you can add like 100$ extra to their invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also give them few options if they think that your rate/invoice is higher than their expectation&#xD;&#xA;Few extra options for your clients are below:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;+ I will maintain/fix your blog errors free for next 3 months&#xD;&#xA;+ I Will secure your blog for free&#xD;&#xA;+ I will optimize its database for free&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1511" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="544" RevisionGUID="5e9a5719-aec9-4388-a524-6ca1ca71c152" CreationDate="2013-08-13T03:07:44.367" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/367120255564656640" />
  <row Id="1512" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="599" RevisionGUID="e9b3ef57-1902-4f21-91de-9627478a3b22" CreationDate="2013-08-13T07:34:57.760" UserId="85" Comment="Added reference to an external article... thanks JM" Text="If you were to sell a *widget*, the floor selling price would be calculated as:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; minimum selling price = cost to manufacture + required profit&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;where &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; cost to manufacture = unit manufacturing cost + proportion of fixed overhead costs&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;where the total of `fixed overhead costs` are amortised across all manufactured widgets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Delivery and transport (etc) are then added on top, as a separate line item.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Update:** See also the excellent [blog article by Christopher Penn, titled &quot;How to set your consultant billing rate&quot;][1] identified by [@jmorte253 on Meta][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pricing up the provision of services is exactly the same... you need to know the fixed costs of running your business, and the unit cost of producing each widget (webpage, website, hour-of-consultancy) etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And expenses incurred get added as disbursements (with or without a markup as agreed)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The trick is setting your prices so that your required profit at a level that you are happy with, and at a price that the customer is happy with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you set your profit too high, or your overheads are too high, or your unit costs are too high you will lose out!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no definitive answer to the question, though, as individual circumstances (of supplier or customer) will affect the prices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: although the question is tagged as [tag:price-per-hour] there are other pricing models available for website development. Certainly I would expect website design to be more [tag:fixed-price] with support extra, but that's opinion!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.christopherspenn.com/2012/07/how-to-set-your-consultant-billing-rate/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/132/citing-sources-as-a-way-to-promote-the-site?noredirect=1#comment186_132" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1513" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="610" RevisionGUID="dcb7461b-8393-40b0-8de8-3f31cdb4a110" CreationDate="2013-08-13T08:00:45.270" UserId="677" Text="This calculator has been accurate to the nearest thousand dollars for me. Skillset, experience and location play a pivotal role in how much you can charge and what is appropriate to charge. I'm based in SoCal, Los Angeles county to be specific, and my hourly ranges anywhere from $180-220 based on what I'm given to do. I've worked with a few global brands and work mainly in print. It isn't uncommon for a good web designer (mainly frontend) or web developer to charge hourly rates like the aforementioned. Obviously your average WordPress developer wouldn't be able to charge rates as high as that. I work as a contractor through a digital media agency, and I'm effectively &quot;rented&quot; out in hourly blocks at a premium of around $485-500 an hour. I only work around 30-35 hours a month. A project or two a week, up to 36 hours at a time. Working freelance or &quot;freelance&quot; like I do is an incredibly stressful job choice. Choose wisely when it comes to your rates. It will make the difference between hating yourself and experience a sense of self-fulfillment, changing the world through people's eyes, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelanceswitch.com/rates/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1514" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="610" RevisionGUID="b170c831-896f-42b1-b43e-ec130ca74e33" CreationDate="2013-08-13T08:08:43.477" UserId="677" Comment="Edited to correct both spelling and grammatical errors. " Text="This calculator has been accurate to the nearest thousand dollars for me. Skillset, experience and location play a pivotal role in how much you can charge and what is appropriate to charge. I'm based in SoCal, Los Angeles county to be specific, and my hourly ranges anywhere from $180-220 based on what I'm given to do. I've worked with a few global brands and work mainly in print. It isn't uncommon for a good web designer (mainly frontend) or web developer to charge hourly rates like the aforementioned. Obviously your average WordPress developer wouldn't be able to charge rates as high as that. I work as a contractor through a digital media agency, and I'm effectively &quot;rented&quot; out in hourly blocks at a premium of around $485-500 an hour. I only work around 30-35 hours a month. A project or two a week, up to 36 hours at a time. Working freelance or &quot;freelance&quot; like I do is an incredibly stressful job choice. Choose wisely when it comes to your rates. It will make the difference between hating yourself and experiencing a sense of self-fulfillment, changing the world through people's eyes, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelanceswitch.com/rates/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1515" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="611" RevisionGUID="50aad3c4-f332-4cb4-86b6-de9674c4f21e" CreationDate="2013-08-13T08:20:46.373" UserId="677" Text="Your contract with the client should include a detailed entry of the scope of what will be done. within your contract should be a clause for scope creep. Often it should state that should a client go well outside of what was agreed, he or she must renegotiate a new contract in addition to paying a kill fee for the first unfinished project. There's a great video lecture on Vimeo titled &quot;Mike Monteiro | #### You. Pay Me&quot;, I highly suggest watching it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1516" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="608" RevisionGUID="ab84e220-02f0-4565-adf3-970af6af12ec" CreationDate="2013-08-13T09:46:43.720" UserId="517" Comment="added 2152 characters in body" Text="The first step is to be clear with your employer about your plans. If he gave you the green light, then read the following lines. If he did not give you green light (a reference for other readers of this topic), then you should visit a legal advisor to review your contracts. Employers are not always right and fair. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, you're asking how to approach to your future clients. Unfortunately, this is a two-bladed sword. One client will appreciate your honesty while other will run away from you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the first step is to understand that **you will not be able to work as much as you think**. You may be too tired on some days, you may have family issues, you may get sick, etc. So if your main work week takes 40 work hours, the realistic numbers are between 10 and 20 work hours that you can count on every week. And I am talking from my own experience as a freelancer and as an employer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After you realized your work capacity, you should approach to each project individually.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, for projects that you can finish in 1 month, I would not tell clients anything about my main job. These are the jobs you can finish in approx 60-80 work hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For larger jobs, you can do some of the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- increase time frame and decrease the price. most of my clients like this, except those who are in urgency&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- find your own contractor and outsource projects to them. you should know that by hiring someone else to do the job for you, you will not be able to sit in a chair and enjoy. you can trust me that you will spend all your work hours working on this project as well by planning it, monitoring it, pushing a contractor to work faster, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I would avoid urgent jobs if you cannot handle them yourself. All my mistakes came from taking urgent jobs and hired someone else to finish it. Baad mistakes of mine. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- if you take a large project, then you will either have to hire a team full time until the project is finished, or find a good remote team (who costs) and decrease your earning to minimum. I also avoid such project if my own team cannot handle it in-house. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, do not be too honest with clients. Most of them are scared and will decline you quickly. Those who don't decline you probably want much from you for little money. The only thing where you MUST be totally honest is time frame and costs and a knowledge that you can actually finish the job. Getting the job is most times easier than finishing it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1517" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="610" RevisionGUID="627d6b68-b781-417b-9a8f-fd6bdb83b22a" CreationDate="2013-08-13T20:19:49.353" UserId="75" Comment="added 23 characters in body" Text="[This calculator][1] has been accurate to the nearest thousand dollars for me. Skillset, experience and location play a pivotal role in how much you can charge and what is appropriate to charge. I'm based in SoCal, Los Angeles county to be specific, and my hourly ranges anywhere from $180-220 based on what I'm given to do. I've worked with a few global brands and work mainly in print. It isn't uncommon for a good web designer (mainly frontend) or web developer to charge hourly rates like the aforementioned. Obviously your average WordPress developer wouldn't be able to charge rates as high as that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work as a contractor through a digital media agency, and I'm effectively &quot;rented&quot; out in hourly blocks at a premium of around $485-500 an hour. I only work around 30-35 hours a month. A project or two a week, up to 36 hours at a time. Working freelance or &quot;freelance&quot; like I do is an incredibly stressful job choice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Choose wisely when it comes to your rates. It will make the difference between hating yourself and experiencing a sense of self-fulfillment, changing the world through people's eyes, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   [1]: http://freelanceswitch.com/rates/&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1518" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="612" RevisionGUID="0fd26df2-4b84-4f9e-a287-a7efc5269bb6" CreationDate="2013-08-14T02:12:57.723" UserId="684" Text="I recommend you build your own calculator. You know your skill level, and you know what resources/modules you have available to you. Set an hourly rate (at least for your calculator) and then estimate each project in terms of hours. Add 10-15% for unforseen bugs and nonsense. You could put it together in Excel or other similar app fairly easily - or find someone with Excel skills to build it for you based on information you provide, if you don't have the expertise or time to do it yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could also add a price per module integration in your custom calculator. Each reusable module you build can be assigned a particular integration cost and with a simple checkbox it can be factored into your estimate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me, getting started pricing I just did some web searches until I found some comparable businesses who listed their base prices and calculated mine accordingly (factoring in my skill level, overhead, etc). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1519" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="613" RevisionGUID="ab6386b1-c35c-4264-9533-2c33eaaea442" CreationDate="2013-08-14T03:56:21.487" UserId="684" Text="So this is an interesting question and I decided to do a little research. It seems that non-resident employees (those who live in one country but work in another) are subject to double taxation (being taxed by both their country of residence and country of work) without special dispensation by filing a lot of paperwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[New Zealand](http://www.ird.govt.nz/payroll-employers/make-deductions/special-workers/non-res/)  &#xD;&#xA;[UK](http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/pommanual/paye81625.htm)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The United States IRS has special tax codes specifically for U.S. residents who are employed by an international organization or foreign government. Apparently well-sourced and cited answers are discouraged here, so I'll post more links in comments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The UK also specifies particular tax requirements for employees in offshore areas, including the specific stipulation that _&quot;Most offshore areas are now designated as part of a particular country. Both employers and employees will almost certainly have to meet the taxation requirements of that country.&quot;_&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clearly the details of the taxation are going to be unique to each specific tax code of the two countries involved. Also note that these links apply to employees, not to independent contractors or suppliers (as Andrew mentioned). For contracting, you're actually purchasing a product/service so the taxation likely falls under trade agreements rather than employment tax law. Outsourcing to/from another country may be liable to import/export taxes. This blog post (see link in comments) has some useful advice in it regarding international independent contractors, though hard numbers are again going to be impossible to lay down without research into the specific countries involved.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your best bet is to talk to an accountant who is already familiar with these tax situations. Otherwise, spend a lot of time reading the tax code for each country where you plan to outsource." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1520" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="613" RevisionGUID="bcc02754-e412-4f83-91e6-a827dd32c2fb" CreationDate="2013-08-14T04:05:20.603" UserId="684" Comment="made it a bit less confusing about double taxation." Text="So this is an interesting question and I decided to do a little research. It seems that non-resident employees (those who are residents of one country but work in another) are subject to double taxation (being taxed by both their country of residence and country of work) without special dispensation by filing a lot of paperwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[New Zealand](http://www.ird.govt.nz/payroll-employers/make-deductions/special-workers/non-res/)  &#xD;&#xA;[UK](http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/pommanual/paye81625.htm)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The United States IRS has special tax codes specifically for U.S. residents who are employed by an international organization or foreign government. Apparently well-sourced and cited answers are discouraged here, so I'll post more links in comments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The UK also specifies particular tax requirements for employees in offshore areas, including the specific stipulation that _&quot;Most offshore areas are now designated as part of a particular country. Both employers and employees will almost certainly have to meet the taxation requirements of that country.&quot;_&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clearly the details of the taxation are going to be unique to each specific tax code of the two countries involved. Also note that these links apply to employees, not to independent contractors or suppliers (as Andrew mentioned). For contracting, you're actually purchasing a product/service so the taxation likely falls under trade agreements rather than employment tax law. Outsourcing to/from another country may be liable to import/export taxes. This blog post (see link in comments) has some useful advice in it regarding international independent contractors, though hard numbers are again going to be impossible to lay down without research into the specific countries involved.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your best bet is to talk to an accountant who is already familiar with these tax situations. Otherwise, spend a lot of time reading the tax code for each country where you plan to outsource." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1523" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="615" RevisionGUID="6c1ea9c7-d7c3-40d8-ba18-035e175d0c48" CreationDate="2013-08-14T16:37:43.067" UserId="61" Text="Unlink the projects you have worked in and your employment history.&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make two sections in your résumé:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **Projects**, This should include side projects and everything that **you** consider relevant evidences to prove your qualifications.  &#xD;&#xA;List *technical* details, e.g. development tools and platforms you have used (and supposedly you're familiar with).  &#xD;&#xA;Indicate your *role* and the most interesting activities you have participated in, regarding each project (expos, contests, whatever).  &#xD;&#xA;It does not matter who's the project owner. You may simply skip the employer's company name, but be ready to provide with references when asked.  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; My personal preference is to have this section just after the contact info, as it seems to be the most important to me.&#xD;&#xA;* **Career**, where all employers and formal positions (*employment history*) is recorded. You probably have this already.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Further reading from Workspace.SE:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* [How should I list the employer for contract work on my resume?](http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/4115/how-should-i-list-the-employer-for-contract-work-on-my-resume)&#xD;&#xA;* [Incorporating off-job technical qualifications on resume](http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/4168/incorporating-off-job-technical-qualifications-on-resume)&#xD;&#xA;* [Handling a Gap in Your Résumé](http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/3692/handling-a-gap-in-your-resume-travel-experience)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1525" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="562" RevisionGUID="dfcaf8ef-0bdf-42ca-a74d-49a49e35ef57" CreationDate="2013-08-14T18:32:53.817" UserId="517" Comment="added more points" Text="Since I work as both contractor and employer, I will share my experience by combining both roles. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Sometimes I have too little money for some project and then I tell they guys that I am seeking someone good who need experience. Try to find for such jobs. Apply by telling how much experience you have and how you plan to finish the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Seek for smaller jobs first. Try finding those you can finish in 1 day. Create a solution at home, take snapshots and apply saying something like &quot;I was free to finish my solution. Here are the snapshots. If you like it, I can adopt it to your need in a couple of hours&quot;. I remember this is how I got my first job. Of course, offer smaller price than the rest of the guys.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. If nothing works, try finding jobs you can finish in a couple of hours. Present yourself saying that you will do it for free since you need experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. If you are good, try finding project with very few applicants. Those are hard jobs that most lamers will never apply to. Present yourself explaining how good you are and how you plan to finish it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. When I am a client, I like contractors who ask me concrete questions. I especially like when someone asks me questions about some feature which I forgot to include. This means that this person thought about my project. This person gets short-listed in 1 second. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Create a killer portfolio of apps you did in the past. If you don't have paid projects, than take a week or more of your own time and create these killer projects in-house. Try to publish these works somewhere or even create a public project. Users or download number will be a good reference. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;7. Make a bunch of small sample project which encapsulate most wanted features your clients demand. Next time you see such project, just apply with your sample asking the client if this is what he wants. I guarantee that you will not be unnoticed. This is how I got my first job ever as a freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;8. When you come across the project you know you can make a killer result our of it, then don't spare your words. Right about it and describe your approach, propose a new or cool features to the client. Each time I got a &quot;click&quot; with some project and I wrote a long proposal, most of those times I got a job or the client returned to me saying that he liked my approach in my previous bid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;9. Don't try to win the project with the lowest bid. Such clients will usually make you hate yourself and will try to abuse you. If you want to bid with a nice price, then either wait a bit for others to bid, then take the average bid price and propose only slightly smaller price. The second approach (I never got lucky with this one, but I know people that did) is to approach to a client saying how good you are and that you are just starting on that freelancing site. Then telling him that your regular price would be X dollars, but since you are a new guy here, you are offering a 50% or some other large discount.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will add to this list as I come up with more advices..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1526" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="616" RevisionGUID="6cd35136-3550-4334-aee6-70d60f21ca82" CreationDate="2013-08-14T20:05:12.510" UserId="61" Text="I have a client that I'm tired dealing with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although we have a written contract, they often submit change requests that are not covered by the terms of the contract. When I remind about the fixed scope and placing those change requests on future phases, they argue like *&quot;oh, our attorney is not available, let's write it down later&quot;* (presumably, when the work is supposed to be done) or *&quot;don't you trust us?&quot;* and stuff like that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, they have delayed payments several times so far.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm at the point to take a decision of firing the client. OTOH, I understand that it's hard to find good clients and I'm not willing to throw away an existing one. So my goal is to answer for myself if my reasons are really solid to fire the client (or to salvage the relationship). Also, my primary goal is to save my face and reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't afford an attorney to struggle for this. Instead, I can afford firing the client and spend more time finding another one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is, **what are the key steps the freelancer should take in order to:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Decide for myself whether I should attempt to salvage the client?&#xD;&#xA;* As soon as the decision (either positive or negative) is made, how to do it smoothly?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1527" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="616" RevisionGUID="6cd35136-3550-4334-aee6-70d60f21ca82" CreationDate="2013-08-14T20:05:12.510" UserId="61" Text="How to fire or salvage a problem client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1528" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="616" RevisionGUID="6cd35136-3550-4334-aee6-70d60f21ca82" CreationDate="2013-08-14T20:05:12.510" UserId="61" Text="|client|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1529" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="617" RevisionGUID="185ec4cd-450a-4de1-b1b7-b02d96428361" CreationDate="2013-08-14T20:05:12.510" UserId="61" Text="Here's a small step-by-step procedure I found useful, but I admit it's far from being exhaustive, so other ideas are welcome.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Consider possible financial outcomes: not having a lawyer, it may lead myself to be the formal requestor of contract cancellation, hence I may be viable for cancellation fees;&#xD;&#xA;1. Consider all possible reputation outcomes, e.g. if two of your clients know each other;&#xD;&#xA;1. Try to **salvage** the client by speaking with them in person. Often it happens that some people are really horrible when communicating by email, but they appear nice guys while having a cup of coffee and talking about what makes me unhappy working with them; If not possible, try at least a phone call;&#xD;&#xA;1. Be very specific about what contract terms are violated;&#xD;&#xA;1. Not focus attention on the guilt of violation, but instead suggest acceptable ways to mitigate each particular problem;&#xD;&#xA;1. Ask for **their** opinion about how they see the problems can be solved;&#xD;&#xA;1. Make my **decision** at the time of discussion, not after it;&#xD;&#xA;1. If decided to fire them, re-check the complete list of final actions (completing a phase, payments, etc);&#xD;&#xA;1. Decide on who will be informed on results of our conversation;&#xD;&#xA;1. Write a detailed letter after the conversation; copy the letter to people in the list agreed in step above;&#xD;&#xA;1. If decided to continue, adjust the contract accordingly;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1530" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="611" RevisionGUID="b1e8243f-989d-4736-9bc3-27461acdc786" CreationDate="2013-08-14T20:24:55.813" UserId="61" Comment="Added links to video" Text="Your contract with the client should include a detailed entry of the scope of what will be done. within your contract should be a clause for scope creep. Often it should state that should a client go well outside of what was agreed, he or she must renegotiate a new contract in addition to paying a kill fee for the first unfinished project. There's a great video lecture titled &quot;Mike Monteiro | #### You. Pay Me&quot; ([Vimeo](http://vimeo.com/22053820), [Youtube](http://youtu.be/6h3RJhoqgK8?t=52s)), I highly suggest watching it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1531" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="611" RevisionGUID="b1e8243f-989d-4736-9bc3-27461acdc786" CreationDate="2013-08-14T20:24:55.813" Comment="Proposed by 61 approved by 75 edit id of 122" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1532" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="618" RevisionGUID="3f0ff13c-f662-4314-bf1d-c9b6a8025614" CreationDate="2013-08-14T21:12:47.050" UserId="75" Text="When there are breaches of contract, especially to the scope of work or payments, it's going to usually depend on the situation. For a late payment, I would give them a little extra time the first time it's missed, and gently remind them with a quick phone call. If they say the cheque is in the mail, I'll take their word for it, and try for another week. If I still don't get it, I put the work on hold and inform them of that. They will get told that I will start working again once the payment has made it into my hot little hands.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For scope creeping, the toughest thing about this is when they are actually changing it, or just interpreting what was agreed upon early on when they signed the SoW with you. For me in my IT field, almost anything can pop up unexpectedly, whether it be hackers, bad hardware, bad software, another tech was in there, an employee was in there, etc. For my work, I dictate that &quot;in a perfect world&quot;, this job would take *xx* hours to complete, but will bill for an extra 50%; if it takes less time, they get credit for the next job. If it takes more then 50% more then what was agreed, then there are underlying issues that need to be addressed **before** continuing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you decide to fire a client, you are right that you need to look out for yourself. Your reputation can be riding on it if the client has a big mouth. When you confront the client, **DO NOT** yell at them, curse, swear, smash or be angry towards them. This also includes passive-aggressive behaviour: do not belittle them or talk down to them. You must remain calm, and explain why. Have everything written out, including details of when you spoke with the client, and what was discussed. Nothing hurts more then being told that information I am giving is inaccurate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're in a small town, word will get out. I live in a town of 80,000, and within 2 days of me leaving my day job, almost every other IT tech in town heard I left, and either congratulated me, or asked me to go out for drinks with them to celebrate. In my case, I was well respected. When dealing with clients though, it will probably not be so friendly, especially if you end the relationship. Just like High School, there will be gossip. You cannot let the &quot;abuse&quot; continue though from your client until they fire *you*, otherwise you'll be the one who looks bad in this situation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1533" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="619" RevisionGUID="d64e568b-7c2f-40e3-858b-98646bf34b0f" CreationDate="2013-08-14T21:39:53.143" UserId="514" Text="I would include in my contract a statement to the effect that once a price and a statement of work are agreed on, any changes need to be renegotiated. It sounds like it is too late for that in your situation, but you can point out that the price you agreed to is for the work you agreed to, and that yes, you can accept the change but that naturally, &quot;it will increase the price. Shall we stop work now and negotiate the price new statement of work?&quot; That ought to at least bring the issue into sharp focus." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1534" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="620" RevisionGUID="180f2116-1680-43ad-87f9-a0539d71fd71" CreationDate="2013-08-14T21:43:38.370" UserId="75" Text="If I am starting out in my field as a freelancer, how can I determine what should be in a scope of work, and how can I decide what is acceptable in the Scope of Work before determining it must be changed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1535" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="620" RevisionGUID="180f2116-1680-43ad-87f9-a0539d71fd71" CreationDate="2013-08-14T21:43:38.370" UserId="75" Text="How to figure out the Scope of Work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1536" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="620" RevisionGUID="180f2116-1680-43ad-87f9-a0539d71fd71" CreationDate="2013-08-14T21:43:38.370" UserId="75" Text="|scope-of-work|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1537" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="621" RevisionGUID="993517a9-8541-47e5-b412-62f70954d05d" CreationDate="2013-08-14T21:43:38.370" UserId="75" Text="The Scope of Work is the second essential contract you need signed before you start working; the first is the contract, of course. Let's go over a few small things first:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You are the expert. Do not forget this. You would not be jumping into freelancing, expecting to make thousands (millions?) of dollars if you didn't know what you were doing. No, this means that taking a &quot;quiz&quot; online makes you a smart realtor; you need experience too. Do not let the customer question your abilities too often, otherwise you will start questioning them yourself, and start looking bad. Again, **YOU** are the expert.&#xD;&#xA;2. Get an understanding of what the client wants. Every client is different, and they all have different needs. If possible, have a tape recorder going as you're talking with them in the meeting, and write down as much information as possible about your project. Include drawings (even on napkins), notes, audio clips, video clips, photos, plans, ANYTHING. No matter how small the detail may be to the client, it could be the difference between a 2 hour job, and a 2 day job.&#xD;&#xA;3. Break out the SoW into smaller sections. If you need to, call them *Phase I*, *Phase II*, etc. In each phase, describe what needs to be done before that phase and why, and why this phase needs to be done at this time. You should decide which order it gets done in, but have it written down for reference. Do not build the bathroom before building the frame of the house.&#xD;&#xA;4. Agree on the scope **BEFORE** you start working. If the client has questions about what needs to be done, explain to them what they need to know, and nothing else. You need time to get the job done too, but you can't spend 4 days just answering questions before the client says &quot;Yes&quot;. When you are meeting with the client, make sure your phone's ringer is off, and you are concentrating on the conversation; you will likely not miss important information this way.&#xD;&#xA;5. Do not work until the contract and SoW have been signed and agreed upon. If you are charging a fee upfront, get the money before working. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is your first scope of work, I'd recommend a simple Microsoft Word document to start. Write out what you feel needs to be there, then do a role-reversal with a friend/family member: you are the client, and you want *Project Y* done within *this time frame*. As the client, what would be your questions? What would be your expectations? There is a lot to be said about role reversal, because it works! If you wouldn't like it if you're *pretending* to be paying for it, why would the *real* person paying for it appreciate it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1538" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="622" RevisionGUID="4eb961c9-f97e-4bd8-b205-5ad3180a5829" CreationDate="2013-08-15T01:05:09.600" UserId="684" Text="Since you're asking the question, I think the answer in your case is fairly obvious. If they had not already crossed the line, you would not be asking this question. They have breached your contract and broken your trust to a point that you doubt the future of your relationship with them. That doubt and uncertainty can not be repaired except by them and you can not coerce them into repairing it. Threatening to drop them might get them to shape up for a little while, but I doubt it would be permanent. You also need to be consistent in enforcing the terms of the contract and in properly addressing breaches of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another consideration is that forgiving behavior can lead to a client who doesn't clearly understand the consequences. Since you've let small changes slide in the past, they may not realize that their contract is in jeopardy by requesting another small change. In other words, they might believe that you won't enforce the contract since you haven't yet enforced it - you've set a precedent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, in many jurisdictions a verbal contract is binding. So even if your paper contract and Scope of Work say one thing, if they verbally change it and you agree (or if you disagree or say nothing but still perform the work) it is legally the same as renegotiating your contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These last two paragraphs probably don't change whether or not you should drop them as a client, but they may affect _how_ you drop them. I am personally a little relaxed about the boundaries of a contract, but I've had people walk all over me because I didn't set expectations early on." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1539" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="616" RevisionGUID="05f22856-1661-408e-bc6a-28112d55f54f" CreationDate="2013-08-15T01:35:45.037" UserId="61" Comment="Added some explanation and details as per my primary concerns" Text="I have a client that I'm tired dealing with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although we have a written contract, they often submit change requests that are not covered by the terms of the contract. When I remind about the fixed scope and placing those change requests on future phases, they argue like *&quot;oh, our attorney is not available, let's write it down later&quot;* (presumably, when the work is supposed to be done) or *&quot;don't you trust us?&quot;* and stuff like that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, they have delayed payments several times so far.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm at the point to take a decision of firing the client. OTOH, I understand that it's hard to find good clients and I'm not willing to throw away an existing one. So my goal is to answer for myself if my reasons are really solid to fire the client (or to salvage the relationship). Also, my primary goal is to save my face and reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't afford an attorney to struggle for this. Instead, I can afford firing the client and spend more time finding another one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is, **what are the key steps the freelancer should take in order to:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Decide for myself whether I should attempt to salvage the client?&#xD;&#xA;* As soon as the decision (either positive or negative) is made, how to do it smoothly?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking at the answers, I think I have to make an update:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* They are not bad people, generally. If I noticed they are deliberately doing something wrong, I would push them away without any questions;&#xD;&#xA;* While I'm confident that the client is violating the terms, it well may be that I'm wrong by overestimating the danger; as I said, I don't feel of being *cheated*, I'm just *tired* of issues here and there;&#xD;&#xA;* By asking here, my goal is to figure out a simple rule of thumb on how to behave in such situations, without taking into deeper details so that the answers would be helpful for further visitors;&#xD;&#xA;* Losing trust to the client is an important issue, but being able to learn for myself and *solve* the problem is also critical for me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1542" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="623" RevisionGUID="ddede4b2-d4c6-4e3a-8578-b54280ea28a8" CreationDate="2013-08-16T09:22:08.077" UserId="517" Text="For the last 3-4 years I have been both a freelancer and the client. I am client mainly when I outsource projects I cannot handle myself or when I seek for a specific expert as a part of project (designer, multimedia experts, etc.). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From the beginning I established my own quality standards which are in short: perfection in details, future-proof applications and top-notch graphics. To achieve something like this means that my projects take longer to finish, but the quality is the top one and the application is quickly appraised by the community (the client more quickly return money invested). Because of that I got a solid base of clients, both long-term and new ones recommended by other ex clients. And you would say this is ideal case? Umgh, no.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When the projects started coming faster than I was able to finish them, I started outsourcing projects. I changed more than 20 contractors and all of them work the same &quot;1st project done by my quality standards, the next ones they usually don't finish&quot;. I then tried hiring guys part-time to work for me solely until the project is done, this did not work as well. They all lost spirit at some point and I have to let them go. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I first thought that the money is an issue but I am paying them as same as other companies in the area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I asked myself if I am a nightmare boss - I don't think so. I usually leave contractors alone until they reach deadlines. Then I try pushing them in a polite manner so that they to do break deadline. If they break deadline and the client is not complaining, I am not penalizing them. The only thing I do is related to quality: I send dozens of request for small fixes until the app is perfect. But this is not wrong right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After 2 years of outsourcing, I am alone again with a notion &quot;if you want to do it right, do it yourself&quot;. Yet again, I am too deep in this business, have too many clients and if I start rejecting their project, I will lose them for sure. And how can that be good?!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Did anyone have such problems as myself and did he solve them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you maybe see where the problem here is? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I must have been making mistakes, but where?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1543" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="623" RevisionGUID="ddede4b2-d4c6-4e3a-8578-b54280ea28a8" CreationDate="2013-08-16T09:22:08.077" UserId="517" Text="Too much projects and no one to outsource them to - how is this possible?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1544" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="623" RevisionGUID="ddede4b2-d4c6-4e3a-8578-b54280ea28a8" CreationDate="2013-08-16T09:22:08.077" UserId="517" Text="|project-management|outsourcing|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1545" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="624" RevisionGUID="eca6b8b6-29b5-4eeb-9190-dbfbf73f809d" CreationDate="2013-08-16T10:08:25.780" UserId="61" Text="Probably, everyone who's in freelance/outsourcing business have had these problems. I'm not thinking my answer will contain an exhaustive list of your possible mistakes, but here are several ones that caught my eye when reading the question.  &#xD;&#xA;Prepend each item with &quot;possibly&quot;, &quot;IMHO&quot;, &quot;YMMV&quot;, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **Too high quality standards**. It well may be that you are requesting too high quality from the very beginning. For instance, if it's a mockup/prototype, your contractor may spend too much effort while developing it with full quality when it is not needed. Altogether it would lead towards losing time when working an actual product. I would expect that each subcontractor in a line may produce lower-quality result, and your role is to make it higher (finally, you are getting paid specifically for that).&#xD;&#xA;* Don't be afraid to **delegate**. *&quot;If you want to do it right, do it yourself&quot;* seems to be a wrong approach. Some tasks, indeed, require maximal quality your business entity (yourself plus subcontractors) can reach, hence they require your best attention, but it does not mean they can't be delegated &amp;mdash; at least, partially.&#xD;&#xA;* **Poor communication**. *&quot;leave contractors alone until they reach deadlines&quot;* &amp;mdash; I can't really think of a worse thing.  &#xD;&#xA;**&quot;Fire-and-forget&quot; subcontractor is a treasure**, I have barely seen a dozen of such people working as subcontractors as they usually quickly rise towards opening their business which is larger than mine. Finally, *they* are in position to hire me, not vice versa.  &#xD;&#xA;Usually, we are working with *average* people (not in a negative sense). People tend to make mistakes, and *continuous communication is the way to let average people to produce great results*.  &#xD;&#xA;So, [Schedule Your Communication](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/197/61). Don't set up yourself for a failure by [breaking deadlines, ever](http://workplace.stackexchange.com/a/5589/2145).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1546" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="625" RevisionGUID="209ea16a-3ca3-4ca3-814d-06e92da8b6b6" CreationDate="2013-08-16T10:43:09.970" UserId="631" Text="I would say that **No, increasing the scope of work, by itself, is not a warning sign**. In your specific situation, the part at the beginning: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  She had a pretty grand vision of what she wanted, but I managed to get her to agree to a limited scope for a first iteration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;is a much bigger warning sign to me. There are plenty of clients who don't understand software development, and more importantly, are unwilling to learn best practices from a &quot;mere contractor&quot;. The above quote makes it look probable that this client is one of those, but without the details, at this stage, we cannot be sure of that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, the above quote **combined** with the later increase of scope is a definite warning sign, that the client has not understood your reasons for cutting the project down and is still clinging to their vision of directly going to a grand version of the project chock full of every feauture they want. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's plenty of reasons a client might want to expand the scope of work from the original, but if they exhibit an understanding of the trade-offs, and without the presence of other warning signs like the above, that request cannot be considered a warning sign. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1547" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="626" RevisionGUID="c444a8c5-e12a-4f2d-be6a-f13236c79b7f" CreationDate="2013-08-16T10:50:44.020" UserId="631" Text="One (non-foolproof) method I use is, whenever I come across a new freelancing site, I search for `site_name scam` on Google. You have to be very discriminating for this to work though: *every* single site is going to have pages that say they're scammers. You can ignore the complaints are about scammers *within* the site (i.e. clients who are scammers), as that's generally unavoidable in any site. If, after that, many genuine complaints remain, and they're not individual payment glitches or random issues (like &quot;didn't receive email verification&quot; or &quot;not able to get jobs&quot;), then it can be warning sign about the site. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1548" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="624" RevisionGUID="37a2db44-fced-41d6-81a6-68420e0f94a4" CreationDate="2013-08-16T14:19:09.417" UserId="61" Comment="Added some philophy about personal involvement" Text="Probably, everyone who's in freelance/outsourcing business have had these problems. I'm not thinking my answer will contain an exhaustive list of your possible mistakes, but here are several ones that caught my eye when reading the question.  &#xD;&#xA;Prepend each item with &quot;possibly&quot;, &quot;IMHO&quot;, &quot;YMMV&quot;, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **Too high quality standards**. It well may be that you are requesting too high quality from the very beginning. For instance, if it's a mockup/prototype, your contractor may spend too much effort while developing it with full quality when it is not needed. Altogether it would lead towards losing time when working an actual product. I would expect that each subcontractor in a line may produce lower-quality result, and your role is to make it higher (finally, you are getting paid specifically for that).&#xD;&#xA;* Don't be afraid to **delegate**. *&quot;If you want to do it right, do it yourself&quot;* seems to be a wrong approach. Some tasks, indeed, require maximal quality your business entity (yourself plus subcontractors) can reach, hence they require your best attention, but it does not mean they can't be delegated &amp;mdash; at least, partially.&#xD;&#xA;* **Poor communication**. *&quot;leave contractors alone until they reach deadlines&quot;* &amp;mdash; I can't really think of a worse thing.  &#xD;&#xA;**&quot;Fire-and-forget&quot; subcontractor is a treasure**, I have barely seen a dozen of such people working as subcontractors as they usually quickly rise towards opening their business which is larger than mine. Finally, *they* are in position to hire me, not vice versa.  &#xD;&#xA;Usually, we are working with *average* people (not in a negative sense). People tend to make mistakes, and *continuous communication is the way to let average people to produce great results*.  &#xD;&#xA;So, [Schedule Your Communication](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/197/61). Don't set up yourself for a failure by [breaking deadlines, ever](http://workplace.stackexchange.com/a/5589/2145).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;A bit of philosophy to answer a question raised in a comment. This is a pure opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no ultimate answer on how to keep with own tasks.  &#xD;&#xA;My (a bit idealistic) understanding is that *if I'm getting paid for a job, the job is mine*. I can outsource it partially, but I can't avoid personal involvement, quality check, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of a large company (call them A) outsourcing at a subcontractor (B). B well may have different quality standards (not necessarily weaker than A's, but anyway). In order to place A's label on a product they **have** to be involved, e.g. run their own testing. This is why you may find cheaper &quot;copies&quot; of electronic equipment labeled B (or illegally labeled A). Chances are that you will find absolute copy, but out of a shipment of 100 items, say 5 would fail, while the A's quality allows maybe 1." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1549" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="627" RevisionGUID="182807e7-7e2b-42ca-8d88-f6c71a65b565" CreationDate="2013-08-16T19:19:30.427" UserId="75" Text="I am going to speak as the outsourced freelancer, specifically with IT projects (not necessarily programming).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I am given assignments, we would usually get treated like idiots, meaning that there is documentation up the ying-yang, including pictures and exact keys to press (i.e. Type `ipconfig /all` and press &lt;kbd&gt;enter&lt;/kbd&gt; to execute the command). There was a mis-communication with the instructions when doing work on a Cisco router (which I've never used before), and our instructions were to call in if there are ANY hiccups. We called, and had to wait almost 2 hours as they had to address all the other people with the same issue. The command in the documentation was off by a single digit; I knew the issue, but was not allowed to follow my instinct. I trust your situation is not as extreme.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To get the best quality of work, I have found that giving a large-picture scope, and letting the *minions* (for lack of a better word) do their own thing *within my scope*, worked best. I would provide bullet points for the mandatory items (i.e. labeling the plugs as FH1 for Front Hall 1), and then at the end, provide the EXACT steps if they get lost. I'm the type of person who will look at how it's expected to be done, then see if I know a better way to get the end result.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's great that you leave the contractors to do their own thing, but you will need to check on them, or ask them to check in with you every so often. Quality is an ongoing project, and you need to maintain that connection throughout the entire process. Do not micromanage, as that will get angry contractors. It's a fine-line balance, but remember: you are the professional, since you're the freelancer. Trust that the other freelancers you're hiring are professionals as well. If they do not perform up to your standards, let them know. If they continually go below your standards, you are in the right to let them go and find someone else." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1551" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="629" RevisionGUID="e1387a86-4638-497a-8da7-6cbe2dd3a721" CreationDate="2013-08-16T20:19:41.243" UserId="705" Text="Charge your clients based on the value you provide. If you're building a WordPress site, ask yourself and your client *why*. What are they hoping to get out of it? Do they want more leads? More people to walk through their door? And that naturally leads to the value you provide - how much are five more leads per month worth to them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Further reading: [How Your Clients Perceive Value](http://planscope.io/blog/how-your-clients-perceive-value/)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And you really ought to read [Double Your Freelancing Rate](http://doubleyourfreelancingrate.com) - that book totally changed my perspective on freelancing and how clients value our services." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1552" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="630" RevisionGUID="3da35f01-e564-40ac-b8e7-ffcbe9ea9e5a" CreationDate="2013-08-16T20:32:53.403" UserId="705" Text="I'd recommend structuring the retainer agreement such that you provide a certain amount of *value* to your client for a certain price per month (flat rate makes sense in this case). Forget about the hours - just focus on serving them and *making them more money than they spend on you*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's [an outstanding example](http://draft.nu/revise/) of a retainer agreement that doesn't even look like one - it looks like a product, and that's what businesses want. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your clients want to pay you for something and get some sort of predictable output from you. They don't care how many hours it takes you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1554" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="623" RevisionGUID="19815a01-469a-48e0-a933-b2eb4460ba79" CreationDate="2013-08-16T21:08:04.707" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/368479294994919425" />
  <row Id="1555" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="631" RevisionGUID="4c9966e8-45fc-4cec-b345-58a8c879c8d3" CreationDate="2013-08-17T11:32:32.577" UserId="708" Text="I have over 10 years design freelancing experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will **not** &quot;chat&quot; with clients, that includes Skype. I will use email, the phone, or in-person meetings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Early in my freelancing career I would use IM or Skype for a few clients and very quickly determined it is not a viable form of communication to convey ideas or desires. It's simply too easy for users to abbreviate thoughts so they don't have to type as much. I found this to be a VERY common issue with &quot;chatting&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When using &quot;chat&quot; clients often fail to fully explain a desire or they assume you understand what they mean in the fewest words possible. After several disastrous estimates due to failed scope perception I simply started refusing to allow chat for project assignment or initial contact. I simply explain I need a written reference in email so I can refer back to it... I need a phone call so inflection, tone, and attitude can be conveyed better.. or an in-person meeting for the same reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, clients who insist on &quot;chatting&quot; merely want immediate access to you assuming you are at their beckon call. I generally am not sitting around waiting for a client to tell me what to do next so I can't afford constant unnecessary interruptions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will allow clients to **schedule a chat** with me to go over **minor revisions** but that's as far as I let &quot;chat&quot; go.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have **never** acquired or maintained **any** client which insists on using &quot;chat&quot; as the primary form of communication. Relying on &quot;chat&quot; is just not good business for either party in my opinion. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1556" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="632" RevisionGUID="900d5126-f121-45ad-93a8-89127566fa3f" CreationDate="2013-08-17T11:57:37.993" UserId="708" Text="While not programming or development related, I have subcontracted and been a subcontractor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When hiring, I have found it very necessary to remain in constant contact with the subcontractor. Not incessantly so, but regularly. My favorite phrase is *&quot;Okay, I'll check back in X days to see where we're at.&quot;* And I do that repeatedly regardless of where the deadline is. Closer to the deadline, communication becomes more frequent. The communication isn't about changes or verifying work 90% of the time, it's about letting the subcontractor know I'm available and seeing if they are having any troubles or have questions I can answer. It's more about showing the subcontractor that I'm invested not absent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, the hire and forget until the deadline mentality is not serving you well. And may not be helping the subcontractor. Just touching base frequently can be of great benefit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, all this depends somewhat on *where* a subcontractor may be located. Some overseas subcontractors I've had to be in communication with every single step of the way to ensure the project was on the right path and avoid massive delays due to corrections later. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As to standards, if fees are the same for a client with very high standards as they are for a client with low standards, then subcontractors will migrate towards the clients with lower standards to earn properly. While you may be paying &quot;fair market rate&quot; your quality standards may demand you pay above market rate to ensure you retain the subcontractors. Double the work for the same amount of return is never fun for anyone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a subcontractor, I prefer the same sort of communication. I don't mind if a client/employer contacts me daily or weekly for a progress report or to see if I have any questions. In fact, it may be easier then my trying to get in touch with them. And I will quickly find other streams of income if a client becomes too demanding without compensation. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1557" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="631" RevisionGUID="cb76b46a-618e-4ce5-9f90-1f753331a3dc" CreationDate="2013-08-17T12:07:02.783" UserId="708" Comment="added 385 characters in body" Text="I have over 10 years design freelancing experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will **not** &quot;chat&quot; with clients, that includes Skype. I will use email, the phone, or in-person meetings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Early in my freelancing career I would use IM or Skype for a few clients and very quickly determined it is not a viable form of communication to convey ideas or desires. It's simply too easy for users to abbreviate thoughts so they don't have to type as much. I found this to be a VERY common issue with &quot;chatting&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When using &quot;chat&quot; clients often fail to fully explain a desire or they assume you understand what they mean in the fewest words possible. After several disastrous estimates due to failed scope perception I simply started refusing to allow chat for project assignment or initial contact. I simply explain I need a written reference in email so I can refer back to it... I need a phone call so inflection, tone, and attitude can be conveyed better.. or an in-person meeting for the same reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, clients who insist on &quot;chatting&quot; merely want immediate access to you assuming you are at their beckon call. I generally am not sitting around waiting for a client to tell me what to do next so I can't afford constant unnecessary interruptions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will allow clients to **schedule a chat** with me to go over **minor revisions** but that's as far as I let &quot;chat&quot; go.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want bigger, better clients, then chat is not something they even think about. Corporations don't have a &quot;Chat&quot; officer and if one of their employee sis sitting around &quot;chatting&quot; they generally have an issue with it because it's too difficult to determine what is work related and what may not be. &quot;Chat&quot; is not a bigger business choice in communication and has never been. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your milage may vary but, **I have *never* acquired or maintained *any* client which insists on using &quot;chat&quot; as the primary form of communication.** Relying on &quot;chat&quot; is just not good business for either party in my opinion. In my opinion, any serious client is not even interested in &quot;chat&quot; or a &quot;message board&quot;. It's email, phone, or in person every time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1558" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="631" RevisionGUID="b6e660b3-ba46-4f4a-a416-be1217d4d5a9" CreationDate="2013-08-17T12:12:17.603" UserId="708" Comment="added 385 characters in body" Text="I have over 10 years design freelancing experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will **not** &quot;chat&quot; with clients, that includes Skype. I will use email, the phone, or in-person meetings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Early in my freelancing career I would use IM or Skype for a few clients and very quickly determined it is not a viable form of communication to convey ideas or desires. It's simply too easy for users to abbreviate thoughts so they don't have to type as much. I found this to be a VERY common issue with &quot;chatting&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When using &quot;chat&quot; clients often fail to fully explain a desire or they assume you understand what they mean in the fewest words possible. After several disastrous estimates due to failed scope perception I simply started refusing to allow chat for project assignment or initial contact. I simply explain I need a written reference in email so I can refer back to it... I need a phone call so inflection, tone, and attitude can be conveyed better.. or an in-person meeting for the same reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, clients who insist on &quot;chatting&quot; merely want immediate access to you assuming you are at their beckon call. I generally am not sitting around waiting for a client to tell me what to do next so I can't afford constant unnecessary interruptions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will allow clients to **schedule a chat** with me to go over **minor revisions** but that's as far as I let &quot;chat&quot; go.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want bigger, better clients, then chat is not something they even think about. Corporations don't have a &quot;Chat&quot; officer and if one of their employee sis sitting around &quot;chatting&quot; they generally have an issue with it because it's too difficult to determine what is work related and what may not be. &quot;Chat&quot; is not a bigger business choice in communication and has never been. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your milage may vary but, **I have *never* acquired or maintained *any* client which insists on using &quot;chat&quot; as the primary form of communication. Any I would *never* ask a client to &quot;chat&quot; with me, ever.** Relying on &quot;chat&quot; is just not good business for either party in my opinion. My experience tells me, any serious client is not interested in &quot;chat&quot; or a &quot;message board&quot;. It's email, phone, or in person every time. If I were to even suggest &quot;chatting&quot; with many of my clients, they would laugh at me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1559" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="631" RevisionGUID="972373b3-594f-4053-9500-3992c4ea9c58" CreationDate="2013-08-17T14:58:59.010" UserId="708" Comment="edited body" Text="I have over 10 years design freelancing experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will **not** &quot;chat&quot; with clients, that includes Skype. I will use email, the phone, or in-person meetings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Early in my freelancing career I would use IM or Skype for a few clients and very quickly determined it is not a viable form of communication to convey ideas or desires. It's simply too easy for users to abbreviate thoughts so they don't have to type as much. I found this to be a VERY common issue with &quot;chatting&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When using &quot;chat&quot; clients often fail to fully explain a desire or they assume you understand what they mean in the fewest words possible. After several disastrous estimates due to failed scope perception I simply started refusing to allow chat for project assignment or initial contact. I simply explain I need a written reference in email so I can refer back to it... I need a phone call so inflection, tone, and attitude can be conveyed better.. or an in-person meeting for the same reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, clients who insist on &quot;chatting&quot; merely want immediate access to you assuming you are at their beckon call. I generally am not sitting around waiting for a client to tell me what to do next so I can't afford constant unnecessary interruptions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will allow clients to **schedule a chat** with me to go over **minor revisions** but that's as far as I let &quot;chat&quot; go.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want bigger, better clients, then chat is not something they even think about. Corporations don't have a &quot;Chat&quot; officer and if one of their employees is sitting around &quot;chatting&quot; they generally have an issue with it because it's too difficult to determine what is work related and what may not be. &quot;Chat&quot; is not a bigger business choice in communication and has never been. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your milage may vary but, **I have *never* acquired or maintained *any* client which insists on using &quot;chat&quot; as the primary form of communication. And I would *never* ask a client to &quot;chat&quot; with me, ever.** Relying on &quot;chat&quot; is just not good business for either party in my opinion. My experience tells me, any serious client is not interested in &quot;chat&quot; or a &quot;message board&quot;. It's email, phone, or in person every time. If I were to even suggest &quot;chatting&quot; with many of my clients, they would laugh at me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1560" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="604" RevisionGUID="31b77046-8ead-4b13-b86b-6d222536ffee" CreationDate="2013-08-17T14:59:30.313" UserId="58" Comment="added comment to the answer. remember: Stack Exchange isn't for conversation." Text="In the context of listing company by company, and the dates worked for each company, I just put 'independent', itemizing my project work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An example would look like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Independent - March 2010 – Present&#xD;&#xA; - Project Management and Consultation&#xD;&#xA; - Created proposals, specifications and schedules for numerous clients Windows Development&#xD;&#xA; - Developed an Outlook extensions in c++ that provided ...&#xD;&#xA;2. Company X - July 2008 - March 2010 &#xD;&#xA; - Developed Excel quantitative add-in used by stock traders&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1566" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="634" RevisionGUID="57878f45-898f-4553-babc-3e25406c2fbf" CreationDate="2013-08-17T16:23:01.320" UserId="712" Text="As someone who makes a living building teams of contractors to handle projects for my clients, I can say positively that communication, accurate expectations, and finding people who will work well together are crucial elements to a successful project. 10x that if your contractors are remote. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You mentioned that at one time you had 20 contractors working for you. That seems like a very heavy workload and some of your problems could stem from the need to delegate the management of at least some of those people and the work they're doing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're hiring good people, as a general rule they won't leave you in the proverbial lurch unless they have a reason for becoming disenchanted with the relationship or the project. If you're not communicating with your people throughout the project and then suddenly pushing them once a deadline is approaching, I know from experience that can create a stressful environment for a contractor. Again, if you're dealing with a talented person they won't stick around in that environment. I've seen that happen personally.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, I suspect that the majority of your problems come down to delegation and communication. My suggestion would be to get an outside consultant who can become deeply familiar with your process and procedures, and give you actionable steps to improve how you do business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1567" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="616" RevisionGUID="5aef5158-36d4-4e6b-ba7f-6c8b627df4f0" CreationDate="2013-08-17T18:08:21.160" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/368796454115999744" />
  <row Id="1568" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="635" RevisionGUID="6ccc28e9-07be-44d0-be23-ab1d9a421049" CreationDate="2013-08-17T20:14:14.713" UserId="517" Text="I asked the same question myself 4-5 years ago when I started freelancing. I will tell you what I did and how can you NOT make the same mistakes as myself. Since I will not do marketing for any freelancing site, I will not mention a specific names (and recommending would also be against the rules of this group). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I first used Google to see which freelancing sites are on the top based on my search terms. It turned our that Google does not tell you which sites are the best for a contractor or a client, but it simply telly you which website is better ranked in their indexes (and we all know what SEO experts can do). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So after I got results, I tried all of them or to be precise top 5-6 freelancing sites of today. I created accounts, filled all the requirements and after them I was able to find out the credibility by following these rules. You will see that credibility is largely based on your own experience with the website and the number of ways you can pull money from the website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. **The general look and ability to navigate yourself on the website**.  &#xD;&#xA;In my case, it turned out that those website whose UI is easy to navigate, not confusing and offers the minimum of learning curve, turned out to be better than confusing ones. Obviously, those websites paid more money for UI experts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. **Number of ways you can pull money our of the website**. At the time I started, PayPal was not available in my country and getting hold of the earned money was a pain. Those websites who offered more ways to withdraw money, turned out to be more reputable. More ways means that their contractors come from 3rd countries and the reason US, UK, Canadian and Australian clients visit these sites is to hire affordable contractors. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. **The quality of contractors' profile pages**. This accounts if you are a contractor. The more you are about to learn of the contractor, the better the freelancing website is. They live from the clients (who bring money) so if you are confused of how to find the right contractor or how to see his profile, leave that website immediately. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. **Number of bids on projects**. High number of bids (over 50) on most of projects usually means that the bidding policy is bad. If you're a client, you will easily be spammed. If you're a contractor, it would be harder for you to get the first job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. **Statistics**. A good and reputable websites nowadays have statistic page where you can see what kind of projects they offer, average prices, etc. I see this trending in the last year or a bit longer, and I would not trust a website which does not have this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. **Do they rip contractors?** Some websites take money from the contractor as soon as the project is accepted. This is a rip IMHO and as a contractor I would never work on such sites. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;7. **Number of 3rd party tools they offer.** Again, the more 3rd party tools a website offers (SVN connection, multimedia capabilities, connecting popular services which can help your work, etc.) the more reputable they are. All these tools cost money and it means that they can afford them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;8. **Support service**. The more support channels they offer (tickets, live, forum, email, etc.) and the quicker they reply, means the website is reputable. In my experience, this mean that money I invest there as a client or I earn as a contractor is pretty safe. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;9. **Resolution policy**. Very important for both clients and contractors. The more ways they offer in resolving problems, the more reputable they are. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;10. **Internal forums**. Reputable websites will have their own forums. Take a few days reading posts and you will face the main issues other people using that website have. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, don't trust forums too much. Authors of those articles are sometimes paid by competitors. Also someone's bad experience does usually means that he was careless, not necessarily that that website is bad. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, no matter what I tell you here, your experience with some website is the most important. The rule of thumb is: &quot;Start with small projects until you find out if everything is as shiny as they promised&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1570" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="636" RevisionGUID="9288d1f7-f0c5-4565-b37d-c1ffaec1e281" CreationDate="2013-08-18T17:05:39.073" UserId="78" Text="I'm planning longer pause (about 1 year) after current contract (IT - programmer). I have about 8 years of experience, and I haven't made such a long pause yet (maximal - 3 months). However, there are some private-sphere things I'd like to accomplish, and I want to strengthen my health, weakened by factory caging. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is, does such long pause have some negative impact on my chances of getting job and the rates I can negotiate? If so, how to minimize that effect?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't plan to completely escape from programming, I'm planning to do in that time a small, probably open-source project, by which I would learn new technologies. So theoretically I could put it in CV as making custom product (in case somebody would like to buy customizations or support). Is it a good idea to do that?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1571" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="636" RevisionGUID="9288d1f7-f0c5-4565-b37d-c1ffaec1e281" CreationDate="2013-08-18T17:05:39.073" UserId="78" Text="Impact of long pause in CV on finding job as contractor?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1572" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="636" RevisionGUID="9288d1f7-f0c5-4565-b37d-c1ffaec1e281" CreationDate="2013-08-18T17:05:39.073" UserId="78" Text="|contracts|resume|pause|it|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1573" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="637" RevisionGUID="bfbdc9be-8b9e-49b4-93df-125337be3421" CreationDate="2013-08-18T17:06:22.653" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1574" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="638" RevisionGUID="96345c03-ca4c-4995-b253-eb3df5a8eca5" CreationDate="2013-08-18T17:06:22.653" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1575" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="639" RevisionGUID="52676969-4256-4997-af43-4ccdce6294f9" CreationDate="2013-08-18T17:07:18.610" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1576" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="640" RevisionGUID="8e9a12a4-8e7d-48ad-a846-0475da0b2be5" CreationDate="2013-08-18T17:07:18.610" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1577" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="636" RevisionGUID="1e851bb9-177f-4b32-a747-f2345482d6a3" CreationDate="2013-08-18T18:14:48.477" UserId="58" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|resume|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1578" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="641" RevisionGUID="a72f0481-c602-4f20-85e7-9fb4973a3ec7" CreationDate="2013-08-18T19:34:29.347" UserId="97" Text="When you work from home or from your own office and charge by the hour, sometimes during contract negotiations a new client wants to know how they can trust that you won't add some extra hours to your invoice and overcharge them, especially when they haven't had much previous experience using contract work or if they've been burned in the past by another contractor or one of their own employees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's a good strategy to make a new client trust you when you haven't yet had the opportunity to build the trust? What kind of time tracking or reporting methods could you use (and tell to the client you use them) that are trustworthy and easily verifiable by the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1579" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="641" RevisionGUID="a72f0481-c602-4f20-85e7-9fb4973a3ec7" CreationDate="2013-08-18T19:34:29.347" UserId="97" Text="How to convince the client that you'll report hours truthfully?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1580" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="641" RevisionGUID="a72f0481-c602-4f20-85e7-9fb4973a3ec7" CreationDate="2013-08-18T19:34:29.347" UserId="97" Text="|client|time-tracking|trust|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1581" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="642" RevisionGUID="7d791337-034c-41b4-afdc-a185a8020e02" CreationDate="2013-08-18T19:57:27.200" UserId="708" Text="&quot;design, writing, programming&quot; is not clear enough either. With Design or writing there is a creative phase which can't really be verified. Such a creative phase can take 20 minutes or 20 hours. With programming there isn't the creative phase, planning maybe, but not creative.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Honestly, it is slightly offensive to be seen as a thief first regardless of any past experiences on the part of the client. And it's bad business on the part of the client if they immediately express to you they assume you're a thief.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, to alleviate things you can do the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Assure them you are accurate&#xD;&#xA;- Provide client references the new client can contact&#xD;&#xA;- Provide detailed, itemized, time reports&#xD;&#xA;- Be prepared to defend every dollar you invoice&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The #1 thing to alleviate this is to simply bid/bill per-project and provide hard quotes for the work to be done. This ensure the client pays what they need to pay and doesn't allow any cost creep. For new clients I often bid per-project with an explanation that I'm happy to bill hourly but per-project eliminates any surprises when an invoice is sent. Per-project pricing places the onus on me to accurately calculate the time needed to complete a project rather than on the client to pay me whatever it may take.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In reality, I never bill hourly for anything other than minor revisions. And I still provide the client with time estimates so they are aware of ballpark costs. I may use my hourly rate to calculate per-project fees, but it is rare that actual design is priced hourly. In my experience, pricing design hourly just serves to get you working far more than you should be. For many creative projects you may find [this question at GraphicDesign.stackexchange.com][1] helpful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/18142/which-is-a-better-design-pricing-model" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1582" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="642" RevisionGUID="e47ef6f9-f33e-42ce-a4e4-731395694dff" CreationDate="2013-08-18T20:03:42.460" UserId="708" Comment="added 94 characters in body" Text="&quot;design, writing, programming&quot; is not clear enough either. With Design there is a creative phase which can't really be verified. Such a creative phase can take 20 minutes or 20 hours. With writing there could be a creative phase or even a research phase which is also difficult to verify. With programming there isn't the creative phase, planning maybe, but not creative.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Honestly, it is slightly offensive to be seen as a thief first regardless of any past experiences on the part of the client. And it's bad business on the part of the client if they immediately express to you they assume you're a thief.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, to alleviate things you can do the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Assure them you are accurate&#xD;&#xA;- Provide client references the new client can contact&#xD;&#xA;- Provide detailed, itemized, time reports&#xD;&#xA;- Be prepared to defend every dollar you invoice&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The #1 thing to alleviate this is to simply bid/bill per-project and provide hard quotes for the work to be done. This ensure the client pays what they need to pay and doesn't allow any cost creep. For new clients I often bid per-project with an explanation that I'm happy to bill hourly but per-project eliminates any surprises when an invoice is sent. Per-project pricing places the onus on me to accurately calculate the time needed to complete a project rather than on the client to pay me whatever it may take.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In reality, I never bill hourly for anything other than minor revisions. And I still provide the client with time estimates so they are aware of ballpark costs. I may use my hourly rate to calculate per-project fees, but it is rare that actual design is priced hourly. In my experience, pricing design hourly just serves to get you working far more than you should be. For many creative projects you may find [this question at GraphicDesign.stackexchange.com][1] helpful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/18142/which-is-a-better-design-pricing-model" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1583" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="643" RevisionGUID="39882a10-c04b-4c2f-a250-7c6fd650546a" CreationDate="2013-08-18T20:06:03.453" UserId="717" Text="Looking at Outsourcing in SW development &amp; maintenance (mainly given to large service providers) and the current trends in crowdsourcing (e.g. SW testing) I am keen to understand whether freelancers will be combined in a crowdsourcing set up (e.g. by 3rd parties) and used to enter the large scale SW Outsourcing game (crowdsourcing set up replacing larger Service Providers). Will customers and freelancers (individuals) go for that?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1584" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="643" RevisionGUID="39882a10-c04b-4c2f-a250-7c6fd650546a" CreationDate="2013-08-18T20:06:03.453" UserId="717" Text="Will crowdsourcing impact the freelancer business in SW development? And how?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1585" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="643" RevisionGUID="39882a10-c04b-4c2f-a250-7c6fd650546a" CreationDate="2013-08-18T20:06:03.453" UserId="717" Text="|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1586" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="644" RevisionGUID="5659e88b-99fc-489b-bcdd-02b7f94c0567" CreationDate="2013-08-18T20:09:48.080" UserId="708" Text="I freelance full time and I avoid all crowd sourcing sites like the plague. They are bad for business here. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working on &quot;spec&quot; is just bad practice for freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As to impact, it has none here. My clients are not and never will be the clients who settle for crowd sourcing services. There is a market for crowd sourcing, but it's just not the same market I pursue." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1587" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3" RevisionGUID="88e3048c-0f66-4d38-aa78-2c3aa2adf9c3" CreationDate="2013-08-18T20:38:06.650" UserId="97" Comment="Changed the tag to a synonym that has other questions" Text="|client|time-management|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1588" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3" RevisionGUID="88e3048c-0f66-4d38-aa78-2c3aa2adf9c3" CreationDate="2013-08-18T20:38:06.650" Comment="Proposed by 97 approved by 58 edit id of 126" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1589" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="640" RevisionGUID="2ae9f9a6-bdaa-4dd7-a4da-813d4efa8f78" CreationDate="2013-08-19T02:47:43.923" UserId="78" Comment="added 55 characters in body" Text="Questions about contracting/freelancing in IT industry." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1590" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="640" RevisionGUID="2ae9f9a6-bdaa-4dd7-a4da-813d4efa8f78" CreationDate="2013-08-19T02:47:43.923" Comment="Proposed by 78 approved by 64 edit id of 125" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1591" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="635" RevisionGUID="245991ea-04d4-46fc-84c4-5418b085e923" CreationDate="2013-08-19T12:48:31.503" UserId="517" Comment="deleted 5 characters in body" Text="I asked the same question myself 4-5 years ago when I started freelancing. I will tell you what I did and how can you NOT make the same mistakes as myself. Since I will not do marketing for any freelancing site, I will not mention a specific names (and recommending would also be against the rules of this group). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I first used Google to see which freelancing sites are on the top based on my search terms. It turned our that Google does not tell you which sites are the best for a contractor or a client, but it simply telly you which website is better ranked in their indexes (and we all know what SEO experts can do). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So after I got results, I tried all of them or to be precise top 5-6 freelancing sites of today. I created accounts, filled all the requirements and after them I was able to find out the credibility by following these rules. You will see that credibility is largely based on your own experience with the website and the number of ways you can pull money from the website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. **The general look and ability to navigate yourself on the website**.  &#xD;&#xA;In my case, it turned out that those website whose UI is easy to navigate, not confusing and offers the minimum of learning curve, turned out to be better than confusing ones. Obviously, those websites paid more money for UI experts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. **Number of ways you can pull money our of the website**. At the time I started, PayPal was not available in my country and getting hold of the earned money was a pain. Those websites who offered more ways to withdraw money, turned out to be more reputable. More ways means that their contractors come from 3rd countries and the reason US, UK, Canadian and Australian clients visit these sites is to hire affordable contractors. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. **The quality of contractors' profile pages**. This accounts if you are a contractor. The more you are about to learn of the contractor, the better the freelancing website is. They live from the clients (who bring money) so if you are confused of how to find the right contractor or how to see his profile, leave that website immediately. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. **Number of bids on projects**. High number of bids (over 50) on most of projects usually means that the bidding policy is bad. If you're a client, you will easily be spammed. If you're a contractor, it would be harder for you to get the first job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. **Statistics**. A good and reputable websites nowadays have statistic page where you can see what kind of projects they offer, average prices, etc. I see this trending in the last year or a bit longer, and I would not trust a website which does not have this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. **Do they rip contractors?** Some websites take money from the contractor as soon as the project is accepted. This is a rip IMHO and as a contractor I would never work on such sites. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;7. **Number of 3rd party tools they offer.** Again, the more 3rd party tools a website offers (SVN connection, multimedia capabilities, connecting popular services which can help your work, etc.) the more reputable they are. All these tools cost money and it means that they can afford them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;8. **Support service**. The more support channels they offer (tickets, live, forum, email, etc.) and the quicker they reply, means the website is reputable. In my experience, this mean that money I invest there as a client or I earn as a contractor is pretty safe. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;9. **Resolution policy**. Very important for both clients and contractors. The more ways they offer in resolving problems, the more reputable they are. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;10. **Internal forums**. Reputable websites will have their own forums. Take a few days reading posts and you will face the main issues other people using that website have. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, don't trust forums too much. Authors of those articles are sometimes paid by competitors. Also someone's bad experience usually means that he was careless, not necessarily that that website is bad. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, no matter what I tell you here, your experience with some website is the most important. The rule of thumb is: &quot;Start with small projects until you find out if everything is as shiny as they promised&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1592" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="645" RevisionGUID="50f56c39-a3ab-4f68-a842-08fe6b15c47f" CreationDate="2013-08-19T14:04:10.743" UserId="517" Text="I have had the same clients like yourself. I also hired an agent whom I asked how can I be sure that his workers are reporting hours in a fair manner. He told me &quot;We trust our workers&quot; and I did not like his reply. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is what I worked as a contractor and I still do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Open an account at some large freelancing site as an employer. Open another account as a freelancer. Create an hourly job as an employer and invite your other self. set some minumum price like 0.01 per hour. download hourly tool and start reporting hours via desktop snapshots. give the client access to your **employer** account (employers cannot delete snapshots) so that he can review snapshots. As I can recall, odesk allows this way of work officially where you create your contractor and your agency and then accept yourself for some work. They refer to this as self-tracking&#xD;&#xA;In the next project you may propose him to skip this part since you've proven yourself. If he refuses, don't be angry if he's a good client. Try to understand him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Open a free SVN account and give client access to it. If he's paying you weekly, then you commit changes on Friday. Or the same day he pays you. Assure him that by having your sources, he can cancel the project any time safely (you don't want him to do this, but this will make them feel safe). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These 2 things made feel safe my toughest clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an extra, you can open some project management account on some service and record work hours there as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line is, it's not easy to pay someone hourly without having insight in his work. The remote types of works made clients being overly cautious  (not without reason, IMHO) and you have to make the feel comfortable. At some point, they will stop asking you to monitor your work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also do not think the client is a bad one if he's asking that. He must have been burned in the past. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1593" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="646" RevisionGUID="dff35d74-cd65-4365-bd50-f6863340652d" CreationDate="2013-08-19T14:11:28.193" UserId="517" Text="One year is a long time in the world of a programming. You idea to work on the private open source project is the best thing you can do. It will help your mind feel like you're actually working. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also suggest you make a good list of website which cover your programming area and monitor them regularly. This will help you be in touch with all new things. Also monitor good programming forums like Stackoverflow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line is that thou you're not working, make your mind think you are working. It's pretty hard to warm up cold brain. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may also try to read multiple programming books and do coding only as a practice from that book, but I know no one who can confirm what kind of an impact this approach may have. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, from the experience of my own workers, 3 months is the max time they can take off without having impact on their programming pace. Nowadays, I am also not coding as much as before. I also noticed that if I don't code 3 months, I can still code at the pace of 90% from time I was on peak. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My friend took a year off from programming (a freelancer as well), and when he tried to return he told me that he felt like he was starting from the beginning. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1594" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="647" RevisionGUID="8b2897b2-5cc2-480a-af5d-95cde46962f0" CreationDate="2013-08-19T15:14:07.773" UserId="127" Text="Frankly, this asks the wrong question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you can verify hours worked, how can the customer tell you aren't &quot;dragging your feet&quot; - working slowly to increase your billable time? Or using some other nefarious tactic?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good business relationships rely on trust. You need to trust them, and they need to trust you. If you are starting a relationship with a new client who does not trust you, you are starting from a hole that you are unlikely to climb out of.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead, you must start the relationship with a default position of trust. You must trust that they will behave as a honest and responsible adult, and they must trust you to do the same. Then both parties must do nothing to make the other party regret this trust. This means:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Always tell the truth&#xD;&#xA;* Be fair and reasonable when there are questions of scope&#xD;&#xA;* Don't assume the other party is evil&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, if either party sees evidence of dishonesty or bad behavior, then this is a different story. But a project will not be successful if one party distrusts the other party. And acting like it is reasonable for the other party to mistrust you when you have done nothing wrong does not help. They may have been mistreated by someone else, but that someone else is not you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agree that charging on a per-project basis can reduce this fear (I use this approach myself), but it doesn't really solve the problem. There still can be disagreements about scope that translate into questions of integrity. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't fall into the trap of assuming that their concern is reasonable. Treat them with respect and integrity, and expect that they treat you the same way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1595" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="632" RevisionGUID="a7c29e71-3949-4986-a636-6e293fa64303" CreationDate="2013-08-19T22:48:21.150" UserId="708" Comment="added 49 characters in body" Text="While not programming or development related, I have subcontracted and been a subcontractor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When hiring, I have found it very necessary to remain in constant contact with the subcontractor. Not incessantly so, but regularly. My favorite phrase is *&quot;Okay, I'll check back in X days to see where we're at.&quot;* And I do that repeatedly regardless of where the deadline is. Closer to the deadline, communication becomes more frequent. The communication isn't about changes or verifying work 90% of the time, it's about letting the subcontractor know I'm available and seeing if they are having any troubles or have questions I can answer. It's more about showing the subcontractor that I'm invested not absent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, the hire and forget until the deadline mentality is not serving you well. And may not be helping the subcontractor. Just touching base frequently can be of great benefit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, all this depends somewhat on the subcontractor themselves. Some subcontractors I've had to be in communication with every single step of the way to ensure the project was on the right path and avoid massive delays due to corrections later. Needless to say, these subcontractors were a 1-project-only venture.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As to standards, if fees are the same for a client with very high standards as they are for a client with low standards, then subcontractors will migrate towards the clients with lower standards to earn properly. While you may be paying &quot;fair market rate&quot; your quality standards may demand you pay above market rate to ensure you retain the subcontractors. Double the work for the same amount of return is never fun for anyone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a subcontractor, I prefer the same sort of communication. I don't mind if a client/employer contacts me daily or weekly for a progress report or to see if I have any questions. In fact, it may be easier then my trying to get in touch with them. And I will quickly find other streams of income if a client becomes too demanding without compensation. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1596" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="648" RevisionGUID="ddc9f087-643a-4374-b90b-44fc26dc5643" CreationDate="2013-08-20T05:54:41.740" UserId="726" Text="Two things come to mind.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're not hiring the right people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to let go a little, which is a vital part of being a good manager.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general I'd say to trust your instincts, but your high turnover leads me to wonder if you don't understand that delegation means letting go to a certain extent. Maybe their work is not what you would do, but it may still be the right fit for your client. Getting outside of your own ideas is hard, and as a creative having specific ideas is the value you bring, but if you can't do it while managing someone else than you're not cut out to manage other creative people. Motivating people to do there best can be a full-time job in and of itself, don't take it lightly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancing, inherently is about being dynamic, flexible, negotiating. You are not beholden to any one client, and no good client expects that from a freelancer. They get flexibility and so do you. If you have too high a demand, raise your rates, or stick with the clients that treat you the best or give you the most interesting work. It sounds like you value the work, and less maximizing billable hours - seems good to me, why are you even worried about outsourcing? A solid referral goes a long way too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always remember it's a two way street, and to focus on finding clients and collaborators that are a good fit - go for quality over quantity." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1597" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="649" RevisionGUID="436b8d32-446d-4dbb-bdc8-564e8d4932ad" CreationDate="2013-08-20T16:34:36.510" UserId="724" Text="I am an undergraduate student in University, studying French and German.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am interested in getting into freelance translation of texts on the internet, translating from French or German into English.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This usually includes two types of jobs:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Translation of text.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Proofreading of other translations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I want to know what sort of qualifications are required to do this.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, does one need a degree, certification, etc?  Or does one just have to be competent enough in the language to do this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1598" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="649" RevisionGUID="436b8d32-446d-4dbb-bdc8-564e8d4932ad" CreationDate="2013-08-20T16:34:36.510" UserId="724" Text="In terms of industry standard, what qualifications are required for internet-based freelance translating?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1599" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="649" RevisionGUID="436b8d32-446d-4dbb-bdc8-564e8d4932ad" CreationDate="2013-08-20T16:34:36.510" UserId="724" Text="|translations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1600" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="649" RevisionGUID="17e6a53b-0092-4278-bf4f-392468b2b730" CreationDate="2013-08-20T17:03:17.070" UserId="724" Comment="Added 'employment' tag." Text="|translations|employment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1601" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="650" RevisionGUID="647673a8-1110-4d93-a420-1be86ee8c13d" CreationDate="2013-08-20T17:04:15.133" UserId="75" Text="Speaking just in IT, certifications can mean the world, or nothing... In my case, they mean nothing. I get my jobs based on my experience and ability to adapt. If you are translating, certificates just mean you can pass a test. If you are able to speak it fluently, that would most likely be enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When applying to the projects, I'd probably recommend writing your letter to them in English, French and German, showing you can do it on the fly. I would also link to any other translation works you've done in the past to show your track record.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also start just on Open Source projects, as many of the smaller ones are always looking for translators. You may need a bit of programming experience, but it should be minimal if you work with the developer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1602" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="651" RevisionGUID="a19fb536-3cf9-4e33-a971-2c417b6be290" CreationDate="2013-08-21T07:25:55.460" UserId="735" Text="I sit in Germany (EU), and my customer is in Brazil:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;According to the department of finance in my home town, as a freelancer I do not have to bill VAT because my customer is an enterprise residing outside of Germany.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But: *Will Brasil take VAT, that for example my customer has to pay?*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1603" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="651" RevisionGUID="a19fb536-3cf9-4e33-a971-2c417b6be290" CreationDate="2013-08-21T07:25:55.460" UserId="735" Text="On an EU invoice, will my Brazilian customer have to pay VAT?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1604" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="651" RevisionGUID="a19fb536-3cf9-4e33-a971-2c417b6be290" CreationDate="2013-08-21T07:25:55.460" UserId="735" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1605" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="652" RevisionGUID="cb30a96b-18b3-44ec-bbfd-672746a7d0fa" CreationDate="2013-08-21T10:30:04.767" UserId="517" Text="My brother is a translator freelancer as well. Although he finished his college and is graduated professor of English and French, no one has ever asked him about his diploma. Somehow, people think it's natural that you are graduated if you're doing translation. Of course, he scanned his diploma and is ready to show it on request. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I would do in your place is put lower price because you're still a student and be honest with your employees. You can tell them that until you graduate, your rate will be lower, and later they can expect it to increase (after you graduate).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many clients will have someone to check up on your sample translations and you should be prepared for that. They may have lower standards if they know that you're still undergraduate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key is to be honest and not to misrepresent yourself." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1606" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="653" RevisionGUID="ead558e5-fc80-405b-82f8-280e186155a6" CreationDate="2013-08-21T11:37:04.757" UserId="735" Text="My customer just told me that they &quot;will have to pay 24% of taxes on [my] invoices to the Brazilian government&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1607" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="654" RevisionGUID="189dc260-c4df-454f-8957-41a0a82e8a8d" CreationDate="2013-08-21T12:31:24.783" UserId="78" Text="The qualifications are quite obvious: very good knowledge of the language in the particular domain. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some companies may require formal proof in form of some renown exam, some need references, portfolio, some others may just give you a job for trial. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But some things, like official documents, VAT invoices etc. must be translated by **licensed translator** (for example, in Poland). So if there is the institution of licensed translator in your country, you can consider making the papers, because it would give you some comparative advantage over the concurrence (every bigger company would need a licensed translator anyway)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1608" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="653" RevisionGUID="b2c8e5ec-36c7-4d90-949c-be824c9a2528" CreationDate="2013-08-21T18:00:56.970" UserId="735" Comment="added 515 characters in body" Text="My customer just told me that they &quot;will have to pay 24% of taxes on [my] invoices to the Brazilian government&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, I don't have an authoritative source. But common sense tells me that he is right. For example, some years ago, I imported a product from Switzerland, and when I picked it up at the customs office I had to pay VAT. Note that while Switzerland is in Europe, it is not part of the European Union (EU).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess in many countries there are similar rules, also concerning the import of services. Only, in Germany, many (not all) businesses and freelancers can get their expenses for VAT back in yearly or shorter intervals. I don't know how it is in Brazil." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1609" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="655" RevisionGUID="f202ae14-4fb9-4f6d-815b-9f0ed4b1a305" CreationDate="2013-08-21T18:41:13.150" UserId="85" Text="According to [HMRC's VAT section][1] the rules for export of [goods][2] and [services][3] are petty clear.  In summary:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - If **goods** are exported outside the EU, VAT isn't charged.&#xD;&#xA; - If the place of supply of your **services** is not in the EU, then your&#xD;&#xA;   supply of services is outside the scope of VAT. You don't have to&#xD;&#xA;   charge EU VAT or include the sale on your VAT Return.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In other words, if you are a UK company supplying goods or services to Brazil then VAT is not applicable, and you should ZERO RATE them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/managing/international/exports/index.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/managing/international/exports/goods.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/managing/international/exports/services.htm" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1610" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="651" RevisionGUID="ce262e20-8ac0-4628-8976-8b333fd65425" CreationDate="2013-08-21T18:46:49.897" UserId="735" Comment="edited body" Text="I sit in Germany (EU), and my customer is in Brazil:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;According to the department of finance in my home town, as a freelancer I do not have to bill VAT because my customer is an enterprise residing outside of Germany.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But: *Will Brazil take VAT, that for example my customer has to pay?*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1611" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="656" RevisionGUID="bce6060f-f5eb-415e-a3cc-9abcbeb7cdaf" CreationDate="2013-08-21T19:45:42.003" UserId="48" Text="My fiance has decided that she wants to start a dog walking business here in Florida.  We've already discussed her forming an LLC to protect her from liability but she also mentioned having dog walking insurance ([like this][1]).  I'm a software developer and have only ever freelanced or started a business in that field so I don't know much about dog walking businesses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this dog walking or pet business insurance necessary for starting a dog walking business?  If it's not required, is it recommended and/or beneficial to have it or is it just a wasted expense?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.petsitllc.com/pet_business_insurance.phtml" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1612" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="656" RevisionGUID="bce6060f-f5eb-415e-a3cc-9abcbeb7cdaf" CreationDate="2013-08-21T19:45:42.003" UserId="48" Text="Is pet business insurance required for a dog walking business?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1613" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="656" RevisionGUID="bce6060f-f5eb-415e-a3cc-9abcbeb7cdaf" CreationDate="2013-08-21T19:45:42.003" UserId="48" Text="|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1614" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="655" RevisionGUID="ae724799-709f-4175-98a9-2dc3afa03dc4" CreationDate="2013-08-21T19:59:56.637" UserId="85" Comment="Extended" Text="According to [HMRC's VAT section][1] the rules for export of [goods][2] and [services][3] are petty clear.  In summary:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - If **goods** are exported outside the EU, VAT isn't charged.&#xD;&#xA; - If the place of supply of your **services** is not in the EU, then your&#xD;&#xA;   supply of services is outside the scope of VAT. You don't have to&#xD;&#xA;   charge EU VAT or include the sale on your VAT Return.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In other words, if you are a UK company supplying goods or services to Brazil then VAT is not applicable, and you should ZERO RATE them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, that's the EU perspective...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Brazil, they also have a tax on the provision of services - ISS = Imposto Sobre Serviços&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best information I can find comes from [KPMG as a PDF][4]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It looks like this is chargeable on the supply to the Brazilian customer, even if the supplier is outside of Brazil...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/managing/international/exports/index.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/managing/international/exports/goods.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/managing/international/exports/services.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.kpmg.com/Global/en/services/Tax/GlobalIndirectTax/Documents/vat-gst-essentials-2012/brazil-2011-vat-gst-essentials.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1615" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="547" RevisionGUID="7c93f5b3-b1de-4909-a25c-5afbc21e0fe3" CreationDate="2013-08-21T20:59:22.920" UserId="48" Comment="Fixing a misspelled acronym" Text="Many states do not allow an LLC to be formed for professionals who require a license (e.g. lawyers, engineers, accountants). A PLLC is intended for licensed professionals who require the benefits of an LLC.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A professional limited liability company (“PLLC”) is a business entity&#xD;&#xA;&gt; designed for licensed professions, such as lawyers, doctors,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; architects, engineers, accountants, and chiropractors. While many&#xD;&#xA;&gt; businesses choose to form a limited liability company (“LLC”) because&#xD;&#xA;&gt; of the tax, limited liability, and other benefits, states generally&#xD;&#xA;&gt; don’t allow LLCs for businesses where a license is required. Licensed&#xD;&#xA;&gt; professionals who want the benefits of an LLC must form a PLLC&#xD;&#xA;&gt; instead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/what-professional-limited-liability-company.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although there is occasionally debate in the computer professional business (eg. the recent editorial in ACM Communications), I am not aware of any jurisdiction which requires software engineers to be licensed in a similar way as, say, a civil engineer. Perhaps your speaker thought it looked better (ie. more &quot;professional&quot;?).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1616" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="547" RevisionGUID="7c93f5b3-b1de-4909-a25c-5afbc21e0fe3" CreationDate="2013-08-21T20:59:22.920" Comment="Proposed by 48 approved by 75 edit id of 127" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1617" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="623" RevisionGUID="21554938-453e-4295-8701-6b0562a55eb9" CreationDate="2013-08-21T22:28:55.213" UserId="48" Comment="Fixing word usage in title. Editing body to get to character limit." Text="For the last 3-4 years I have been both a freelancer and the client. I'm the client mainly when I outsource projects I cannot handle myself or when I seek a specific expert as a part of a project (designer, multimedia experts, etc.). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From the beginning I established my own quality standards which are in short: perfection in details, future-proof applications and top-notch graphics. To achieve something like this means that my projects take longer to finish, but the quality is the top one and the application is quickly appraised by the community (the client more quickly return money invested). Because of that I got a solid base of clients, both long-term and new ones recommended by other ex clients. And you would say this is ideal case? Umgh, no.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When the projects started coming faster than I was able to finish them, I started outsourcing projects. I changed more than 20 contractors and all of them work the same &quot;1st project done by my quality standards, the next ones they usually don't finish&quot;. I then tried hiring guys part-time to work for me solely until the project is done, this did not work as well. They all lost spirit at some point and I have to let them go. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I first thought that the money is an issue but I am paying them as same as other companies in the area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I asked myself if I am a nightmare boss - I don't think so. I usually leave contractors alone until they reach deadlines. Then I try pushing them in a polite manner so that they to do break deadline. If they break deadline and the client is not complaining, I am not penalizing them. The only thing I do is related to quality: I send dozens of request for small fixes until the app is perfect. But this is not wrong right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After 2 years of outsourcing, I am alone again with a notion &quot;if you want to do it right, do it yourself&quot;. Yet again, I am too deep in this business, have too many clients and if I start rejecting their project, I will lose them for sure. And how can that be good?!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Did anyone have such problems as myself and did he solve them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you maybe see where the problem here is? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I must have been making mistakes, but where?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1618" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="623" RevisionGUID="21554938-453e-4295-8701-6b0562a55eb9" CreationDate="2013-08-21T22:28:55.213" UserId="48" Comment="Fixing word usage in title. Editing body to get to character limit." Text="Too many projects and no one to outsource them to - how is this possible?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1619" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="623" RevisionGUID="21554938-453e-4295-8701-6b0562a55eb9" CreationDate="2013-08-21T22:28:55.213" Comment="Proposed by 48 approved by -1 edit id of 128" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1620" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="623" RevisionGUID="bf9698fd-8891-4243-b926-ed973a5f3b97" CreationDate="2013-08-21T22:28:55.213" UserId="75" Comment="Fixing word usage in title. Editing body to get to character limit." Text="For the last 3-4 years I have been both a freelancer and the client. I'm the client mainly when I outsource projects I cannot handle myself, or when I seek a specific expert as a part of a project (designer, multimedia experts, etc). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From the beginning, I established my own quality standards which are in short:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- perfection in details&#xD;&#xA;- future-proof applications&#xD;&#xA;- top-notch graphics. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To achieve something like this means that my projects take longer to finish, but the quality is the top one and the application is quickly appraised by the community (the client more quickly return money invested). Because of that I got a solid base of clients, both long-term and new ones recommended by other ex clients. And you would say this is ideal case? Umgh, no.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When the projects started coming faster than I was able to finish them, I started outsourcing projects. I changed more than 20 contractors and all of them work the same &quot;1st project done by my quality standards, the next ones they usually don't finish&quot;. I then tried hiring guys part-time to work for me solely until the project is done, this did not work as well. They all lost spirit at some point and I have to let them go. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I first thought that the money is an issue but I am paying them as same as other companies in the area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I asked myself if I am a nightmare boss - I don't think so. I usually leave contractors alone until they reach deadlines. Then I try pushing them in a polite manner so that they to do break deadline. If they break deadline and the client is not complaining, I am not penalizing them. The only thing I do is related to quality: I send dozens of request for small fixes until the app is perfect. But this is not wrong right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After 2 years of outsourcing, I am alone again with a notion &quot;if you want to do it right, do it yourself&quot;. Yet again, I am too deep in this business, have too many clients and if I start rejecting their project, I will lose them for sure. And how can that be good?!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Did anyone have such problems as myself and did he solve them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you maybe see where the problem here is? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I must have been making mistakes, but where?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1621" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="649" RevisionGUID="9203e8ef-df1d-4873-b169-613c3402d650" CreationDate="2013-08-22T03:13:09.270" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/370383109348663296" />
  <row Id="1622" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="657" RevisionGUID="60733513-d576-486b-9af0-01e3c623b35d" CreationDate="2013-08-22T03:30:52.787" UserId="740" Text="In my sense, a long pause may cause problem if you are completely not working, because world is changing day to day, even minute to minute, but as you said that you will look for some freelancing during your pause time.&#xD;&#xA;That sounds good and its a good option if you really want to have a longer pause.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1623" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="658" RevisionGUID="6f354053-414b-46c0-bea4-c959b7dff066" CreationDate="2013-08-22T04:58:13.203" UserId="738" Text="Just what the title states. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How does outsourcing differ from subcontracting? Is it merely terminology that is different?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1624" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="658" RevisionGUID="6f354053-414b-46c0-bea4-c959b7dff066" CreationDate="2013-08-22T04:58:13.203" UserId="738" Text="Is there any difference between outsourcing and subcontracting?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1625" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="658" RevisionGUID="6f354053-414b-46c0-bea4-c959b7dff066" CreationDate="2013-08-22T04:58:13.203" UserId="738" Text="|outsourcing|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1626" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="659" RevisionGUID="880bad21-82b9-4303-957f-12b3fcbb2d8e" CreationDate="2013-08-22T14:37:30.423" UserId="85" Text="The terms do seem to be used interchangeably...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I would suggest that there is a semantic difference:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - [tag:outsourcing] is when your existing staff are transferred to a&#xD;&#xA;   third party supplier, and are then contracted back-in&#xD;&#xA; - [tag:subcontracting] is when work (supply of goods or services) is put out to tender without affecting any existing staff&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having Googled, this is in line with other opinions, eg:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - [Bob Bannister, senior consultant at Future Purchasing Performance][1]&#xD;&#xA; - A similar discussion on [Quora.com][2]&#xD;&#xA; - Altohugh [Wikipedia][3] is not quite in agreement&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.supplymanagement.com/resources/q-and-a/2004/subcontracting-versus-outsourcing/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.quora.com/Operations-Management/How-do-you-distinguish-between-subcontracting-and-outsourcing&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1627" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="660" RevisionGUID="915fc161-5338-4200-ae69-9de5fab838d7" CreationDate="2013-08-22T17:12:07.137" UserId="517" Text="As Andrew said, both terms have the same meaning, more or less.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But in my own experience, the clients approached to me with both terms and each time each of them was used in a similar manner. This made me think that there is a spoken meaning adopted among clients hiring freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Outsourcing - usually smaller projects. Another team is hired and the project is outsourced to them. The real client is usually not aware that his project is done by 3rd party. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Subcontracting - usually large projects. A big company took the project for large money and has hired another team to finish it for them. Such contractors usually last more than 6 months, or more often a year. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I said, this may be my own interpretation, but each time someone approached to me with a term &quot;outsourcing project&quot;, it was usually a smaller project. Whenever I hear a word &quot;subcontracting&quot;, then I am approached by a large company and I know that this project will occupy my whole team. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1628" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="659" RevisionGUID="c760c470-5aa8-4aca-ba38-b08534d0dfdf" CreationDate="2013-08-22T19:14:07.480" UserId="58" Comment="edited body" Text="The terms do seem to be used interchangeably...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I would suggest that there is a semantic difference:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - [tag:outsourcing] is when your existing staff are transferred to a&#xD;&#xA;   third party supplier, and are then contracted back-in&#xD;&#xA; - [tag:subcontracting] is when work (supply of goods or services) is put out to tender without affecting any existing staff&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having Googled, this is in line with other opinions, eg:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - [Bob Bannister, senior consultant at Future Purchasing Performance][1]&#xD;&#xA; - A similar discussion on [Quora.com][2]&#xD;&#xA; - Although [Wikipedia][3] is not quite in agreement&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.supplymanagement.com/resources/q-and-a/2004/subcontracting-versus-outsourcing/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.quora.com/Operations-Management/How-do-you-distinguish-between-subcontracting-and-outsourcing&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1629" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="661" RevisionGUID="9179ae8d-187b-44e1-9524-1da3769b3055" CreationDate="2013-08-22T22:00:48.123" UserId="743" Text="I hope I don't get down voted for posting in here I thought this would be the best place. I'm currently freelancing doing mostly frontend development and designing, things are going very well, sometimes a little too well... Lately I'm finding myself overbooked, if they are and hold ups along a project its eating away at my time and I'm starting to annoy clients because I'm over stretched! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd really like to find another freelancing in the UK who would be willing to partner up and take some load off me. Obviously I'd like to find someone who I could trust, and they would have to have strong skills. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just haven't got time to go to freelancing sites and do it that way, plus I'm really fussy about good clean consistent code. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have any other suggestions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1630" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="661" RevisionGUID="9179ae8d-187b-44e1-9524-1da3769b3055" CreationDate="2013-08-22T22:00:48.123" UserId="743" Text="Finding a freelancing partner for small business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1631" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="661" RevisionGUID="9179ae8d-187b-44e1-9524-1da3769b3055" CreationDate="2013-08-22T22:00:48.123" UserId="743" Text="|project-management|outsourcing|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1632" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="662" RevisionGUID="a4de5b75-e12f-4bd6-9012-36b858b8a5d8" CreationDate="2013-08-22T23:40:43.630" UserId="744" Text="I would like to work as freelancer for USA clients. Mostly because I am in Eu and  I don't want to weak up at the morning at my timezone. &#xD;&#xA;Several times I have applied to USA jobs, which allows remote and got refused. Or I don't receive any response or they want to make a regular employment and need a permission to work in USA and so on. What has that country so special as I got refused so many times?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I could work with contract and emit legal, valid invoice, if were needed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1633" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="662" RevisionGUID="a4de5b75-e12f-4bd6-9012-36b858b8a5d8" CreationDate="2013-08-22T23:40:43.630" UserId="744" Text="why nobody from USA wants to make a contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1634" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="662" RevisionGUID="a4de5b75-e12f-4bd6-9012-36b858b8a5d8" CreationDate="2013-08-22T23:40:43.630" UserId="744" Text="|remote|employment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1635" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="662" RevisionGUID="d63babcb-07a0-4942-9d92-487b3c17927c" CreationDate="2013-08-23T05:48:53.997" UserId="58" Comment="Grammar, changed the question a little." Text="I would like to work as freelancer for USA clients, mostly because I am in the EU, and I don't want to wake up at the morning in my timezone.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;I've applied to several jobs (which allow remote work) in the USA and been refused, or I haven't receive any response, or they want regular employment and I need a visa to work in USA (and so on).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it just the USA that seems to act in this way? I can work under contract and provide legal, valid invoices, if needed, so why the apparent restrictions on remote work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1636" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="662" RevisionGUID="d63babcb-07a0-4942-9d92-487b3c17927c" CreationDate="2013-08-23T05:48:53.997" UserId="58" Comment="Grammar, changed the question a little." Text="Why are the majority of my US clients so hesitant with contracting outside the US?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1637" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="662" RevisionGUID="d63babcb-07a0-4942-9d92-487b3c17927c" CreationDate="2013-08-23T05:48:53.997" UserId="58" Comment="Grammar, changed the question a little." Text="|usa|remote|employment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1638" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="663" RevisionGUID="136fca2a-1f56-4b82-9b61-67b2b45e2e07" CreationDate="2013-08-23T12:37:05.747" UserId="517" Text="We all increase our hourly price based on our experience. Is there some pattern we can use when deciding how much we will increase hourly price?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, we start with $20 per hour as a total newbie. Then with each project we finalize, the hourly price is increased by $1. Does this sound illogical? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My point is that the hourly price must increase along with experience. I know that some like to increase hourly price with dollar position on the market, and with some other economical circumstances. Some even choose their hourly price based on the wealth of the client (this is allowed of course, but this increase always has some pre-set percentage of increase). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it possible that some smart head has already written about how can we calculate personal price growth as we are becoming more wanted and more experienced? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. If someone disagrees that our price should grow with our experience, please write about it. I would like to hear your words as well. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1639" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="663" RevisionGUID="136fca2a-1f56-4b82-9b61-67b2b45e2e07" CreationDate="2013-08-23T12:37:05.747" UserId="517" Text="Is there a pattern we can use to increase our price along with experience?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1640" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="663" RevisionGUID="136fca2a-1f56-4b82-9b61-67b2b45e2e07" CreationDate="2013-08-23T12:37:05.747" UserId="517" Text="|price-per-hour|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1641" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="664" RevisionGUID="9ab0d8c7-e994-496c-84cb-9ed2dffca409" CreationDate="2013-08-23T12:48:25.073" UserId="517" Text="Why the are not choosing you? The reasons may be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- They prefer working with some in the USA. In case things go bad, they can always sue USA contractor. USA contractors are also aware of this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Price of the project - large project are usually not being subcontracted outside USA&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Remote workers are unreliable. I heard this sentence from many clients who tried hiring someone full-time remotely, and then got burnt heavily. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- They are afraid that remote worker may leave in the middle of the project. This is not rare as we all know. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think that these reasons may be the main reasons. Of course, some of them may be patriotic, but I think that most of clients would rather hire expert for a lower price, that USA mediocrity. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest you really try working for that company in the USA. If you are a developer and good one, after a year or so, you may be able to negotiate remote work. A personal friend of mine succeeded in this, but he had to work for that company 2 years on-site. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1642" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="665" RevisionGUID="b0902d01-a97c-4e8f-92e8-b7b5d84bd2e9" CreationDate="2013-08-23T14:49:57.743" UserId="127" Text="While it is generally true that a more experienced person can command a higher rate than a less experienced person, pricing is much more complex than that, making such a formula impossible. Consider just a few of the following additional factors that affect price:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Location&#xD;&#xA;* Upper limit that the market will bear&#xD;&#xA;* Urgency (some people will pay more for speed)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And these don't even include the obvious point which is that &quot;experience&quot; isn't necessarily transferrable to the next project. For example: if I am a web developer, my last project might include integration with Google Maps. On the next project, perhaps mapping isn't part of the project. So I have generally gained some experience, but some of it isn't at all applicable to the new project, and is therefore irrelevant to them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1643" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="666" RevisionGUID="8b168506-4ccd-432e-a799-75f352604835" CreationDate="2013-08-23T18:22:02.470" UserId="631" Text="It seems you're assuming their reason for not hiring you is the fact that you're outside US, but there doesn't seem to be any real evidence to think so. I have been freelancing for a few years and have a few friends doing the same, all of us regularly get awarded projects by US clients and have had generally pleasant experiences with them. If there are people who are over-patriotic or nationalistic enough to not choose non-US employees/contractors, they aren't numerous enough to affect our project pool significantly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend you to try contacting those who refused or ignored your application and politely asking them the reason for their rejection, but make sure you mention that you are asking this to improve your application process and not as a complaint against the rejection. It's possible they will ignore this mail also of course, but some may take the time to reply, and even a single reply can throw some light on whatever the real issue is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1644" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="658" RevisionGUID="d30ce3b8-0a85-41cb-9ec8-693e0286ddf7" CreationDate="2013-08-24T06:15:28.573" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/371153767926071296" />
  <row Id="1645" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="664" RevisionGUID="a082bf3c-730d-4bf0-b71c-8b4e848c384a" CreationDate="2013-08-24T13:48:51.417" UserId="517" Comment="deleted 1 characters in body" Text="Why the are not choosing you? The reasons may be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- They prefer working with some in the USA. In case things go bad, they can always sue USA contractor. USA contractors are also aware of this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Price of the project - large project are usually not being subcontracted outside USA&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Remote workers are unreliable. I heard this sentence from many clients who tried hiring someone full-time remotely, and then got burnt heavily. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- They are afraid that remote worker may leave in the middle of the project. This is not rare as we all know. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think that these reasons may be the main reason. Of course, some of them may be patriotic, but I think that most of clients would rather hire expert for a lower price, that USA mediocrity just cause he's American. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest you really try working for that company in the USA. If you are a developer and good one, after a year or so, you may be able to negotiate remote work. A personal friend of mine succeeded in this, but he had to work for that company 2 years on-site. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1646" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="667" RevisionGUID="f51ac02c-ac0b-4f3d-97fa-7540a3b41732" CreationDate="2013-08-24T13:59:23.963" UserId="517" Text="We all had a situation when the client sends a paper with questions where you have to spend a couple of hours replying. Then he replies back with more question, and again you spend a couple of hours replying. Even after that you have to spend some hours investigating technology he mentioned in order to give him a better proposal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, where is the limit here? So far, I was unable to find a good way to tell him that I cannot do so much work during estimation for free. In such situations, I told my clients that such details will be discussed when he has awarded me the contract, and 98% of then never contacted me again. Maybe they were not serious, maybe they wanted free info from me, maybe...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other cases finished in a way that a client stopped replying to my emails. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Either way, I feel abused without being able to find a way to deal with such clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you do here? How to satisfy the demanding client and get the job, and at the same time have all extraordinary work hours covered?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. I tried to find a question on this topic here, but I saw only similar ones. All similar discussed situations when you're already hired. None mentioned negotiation (estimation) phase. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1647" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="667" RevisionGUID="f51ac02c-ac0b-4f3d-97fa-7540a3b41732" CreationDate="2013-08-24T13:59:23.963" UserId="517" Text="What to do when the client in proposal phase requests to much work? Should all our work during estimation be free?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1648" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="667" RevisionGUID="f51ac02c-ac0b-4f3d-97fa-7540a3b41732" CreationDate="2013-08-24T13:59:23.963" UserId="517" Text="|negotiation|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1649" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="668" RevisionGUID="c9942798-b189-4c97-8595-813f4b45fa98" CreationDate="2013-08-24T18:38:13.033" UserId="754" Text="I do design/development of web sites, mainly WordPress based, and generally estimate a proposal--including client meeting, research and a draft of a contract--to take 4-5 hours of my time. How much I'm willing to go over that time depends on a few elements:&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; - size of project &amp; budget&#xD;&#xA; - relationship with prospective client &amp; likelihood of getting the gig&#xD;&#xA; - how applicable what I'm learning will be to future gigs&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, in most instances, my proposals and contracts are not specific about the technology I'll use to achieve an end (WordPress being an obvious exception and also if a client has a prior preference for an e-commerce solution), but am instead specific about what the end result will be (e.g., I commit to the fact that there will be a contact form in the site's footer, but not to whether we'll need to use a specific plugin or service to achieve that). I do this to specifically avoid the situation you're describing because:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. It means either during the proposal process or the discovery process that follows I learn about what the client needs this project or element to achieve and we're not locked into a solution that doesn't meet their needs; and&#xD;&#xA;2. The client is paying, in part, for my expertise in translating their needs and evaluating and providing solutions, and it doesn't make sense to me to provide this up front.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on what you've described, I think you need to be sure that you're not shutting down conversation with clients by refusing to do more research or adapt your proposals. Instead, you need to be more clear about what your proposals are and what your services are (i.e., differentiating between paying just for you to implement solutions vs. paying for you to be someone who solves problems) and be building the prospect's confidence that you're the person for the job.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1650" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="667" RevisionGUID="8e6c482c-45ff-46e3-8b52-28ec5461c420" CreationDate="2013-08-24T19:58:48.450" UserId="708" Comment="Corrected spelling" Text="What to do when the client in proposal phase requests too much work? Should all our work during estimation be free?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1651" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="667" RevisionGUID="8e6c482c-45ff-46e3-8b52-28ec5461c420" CreationDate="2013-08-24T19:58:48.450" Comment="Proposed by 708 approved by 517 edit id of 129" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
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  <row Id="1670" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="686" RevisionGUID="f4470086-e6fc-45c6-bb51-fac447bddd28" CreationDate="2013-08-25T09:09:22.860" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1671" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="676" RevisionGUID="b3f79b9d-002e-448c-81c4-4593b789eab0" CreationDate="2013-08-25T17:57:08.663" UserId="626" Comment="added 132 characters in body" Text="Subcontracting is the practice of assigning part of the obligations and tasks under a contract to another party (the subcontractor)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1672" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="676" RevisionGUID="b3f79b9d-002e-448c-81c4-4593b789eab0" CreationDate="2013-08-25T17:57:08.663" Comment="Proposed by 626 approved by -1 edit id of 139" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1673" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="676" RevisionGUID="36251262-2d2b-42ed-bb3a-00a0365446d5" CreationDate="2013-08-25T17:57:08.663" UserId="58" Comment="deleted 13 characters in body" Text="For questions about the practice of assigning all or part of an obligation or task (under a contract) to another party." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1674" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="687" RevisionGUID="a44566f5-ce38-4c84-80cf-61420a4093d7" CreationDate="2013-08-26T00:06:37.897" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/209467/how-much-should-i-charge-as-a-late-fee" />
  <row Id="1675" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="687" RevisionGUID="7b21e41c-307a-46e9-9ef4-7d940fe2d184" CreationDate="2013-08-25T23:06:45.547" UserId="762" UserDisplayName="Doug" Text="When a customer does not pay within 30 days, what fee should I charge? What models exist out there that are common to the software development world? How would VERY late payments work, such as 6 months late, etc.? Compounded interest?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1676" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="687" RevisionGUID="7b21e41c-307a-46e9-9ef4-7d940fe2d184" CreationDate="2013-08-25T23:06:45.547" UserId="762" UserDisplayName="Doug" Text="How much should I charge as a late fee?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
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  <row Id="1678" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="683" RevisionGUID="430bb4fb-8a62-464e-b7a7-75059ccfa611" CreationDate="2013-08-26T01:38:35.477" UserId="626" Comment="added 119 characters in body" Text="Accounting is defined by the systematic and comprehensive recording of financial transactions pertaining to a business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1679" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="683" RevisionGUID="430bb4fb-8a62-464e-b7a7-75059ccfa611" CreationDate="2013-08-26T01:38:35.477" Comment="Proposed by 626 approved by 64 edit id of 148" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1680" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="682" RevisionGUID="b7401b64-5bf6-4aa4-9168-85968058c4a6" CreationDate="2013-08-26T01:38:44.570" UserId="626" Comment="added 135 characters in body" Text="Payment terms are the statements by a business about *&quot;when&quot;* and *&quot;how&quot;* it should be paid for goods or services that it has supplied." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1681" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="682" RevisionGUID="b7401b64-5bf6-4aa4-9168-85968058c4a6" CreationDate="2013-08-26T01:38:44.570" Comment="Proposed by 626 approved by 64 edit id of 145" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1682" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="671" RevisionGUID="74354388-3ae9-45bb-9746-7461a14b016d" CreationDate="2013-08-26T01:39:03.743" UserId="626" Comment="added 107 characters in body" Text="The amount of money expected, required, or given in payment for something (for example: goods or services)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1683" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="671" RevisionGUID="74354388-3ae9-45bb-9746-7461a14b016d" CreationDate="2013-08-26T01:39:03.743" Comment="Proposed by 626 approved by 64 edit id of 132" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1684" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="688" RevisionGUID="876da6b7-9fb5-4120-9139-feb92ada8f75" CreationDate="2013-08-26T01:46:29.480" UserId="760" Text="Affirmed graphic designers or agencies bill for drafts. They tell in advance there is a fee and what this fee is. It's usually small and implies three or four different proposals the client can choose from. It makes sense because customers might run away with those drafts and make third parties implement or finish them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, big clients might have very slow and incoherent internal decision processes, so they might keep the drafts in a drawer for a years, then pop back up like nothing happened. And after all that time they might still be asking for some more draft proposals, because yes, they took a year to examine the previous ones.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, billing for drafts, in certain cases, is the only alternative to bankruptcy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Back to your case, **what do your proposals look like? Do they look like a real project**, with a customized graphic appeal, an overview of the necessary customizations, and a detailed cost (and time) estimate, maybe some presentation material, some graphs, some illustration, and some technology insight applied to your customer's needs? You can bill for that, because yes, you are delivering some value to the client, and that's what people pay for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If, instead, you want them to pay you to research technologies they though you knew already, getting nothing out of it... well, **are you a rockstar wordpresser, with a busy schedule, which they really really want to work with? Then your mere interest in their puny affairs** might be the value they want to pay for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, explain in advance why the proposals are not free, (*you're good and too busy, your proposals are pieces of art the customer can reuse, or something like that*) set some standard price for proposal, and make that price unequivocally clear upfront. You don't usually want to surprise customers with random bills." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1685" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="689" RevisionGUID="bd4bd895-d42f-4d22-889f-c4aad179e41e" CreationDate="2013-08-26T12:33:10.160" UserId="80" Text="There are several skills tests on freelancing sites.They are usually very long and very tough.I was wondering if getting good scores on these tests are helpful to the freelancer or is it just a waste of time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1686" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="689" RevisionGUID="bd4bd895-d42f-4d22-889f-c4aad179e41e" CreationDate="2013-08-26T12:33:10.160" UserId="80" Text="Is there any benefit of taking skills test on freelancing sites?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1687" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="689" RevisionGUID="bd4bd895-d42f-4d22-889f-c4aad179e41e" CreationDate="2013-08-26T12:33:10.160" UserId="80" Text="|information-technology|knowledge|approach|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1688" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="690" RevisionGUID="7253be0a-1318-4466-b215-14d6b1167c87" CreationDate="2013-08-26T13:06:21.483" UserId="20" Text="As someone who has hired people to write copy for me, the tests can be useful. I want someone who can write good English straight away. It is a pointless exercise if I hire someone and then have to fix their English!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1689" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="691" RevisionGUID="c12c7cb5-cdb8-44ad-b9a2-c4c97bc1f988" CreationDate="2013-08-26T13:11:04.297" UserId="20" Text="I have no direct experience, but what if something happens to one of the dogs? Escapes, gets run over? In such situations it would seem that insurance would be important to cover your liabilities but also be useful for your customers' piece of mind.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, what if one of the dogs causes damage to a third party? It seems insurance for that would also be very important, otherwise you could have some very expensive bills - eg. hospital bills?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for whether it is **required**, that will depend on your jurisdiction." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1690" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="692" RevisionGUID="c4088e51-2c4a-4be0-a4d2-0d637012ecda" CreationDate="2013-08-26T16:42:39.623" UserId="78" Text="I'm considering contracting in Western Europe, with the most probable target - Germany or Switzerland. I'm making cost analysis, so I'd like to know what is the approximate/average cost of bookkeeping for contractor in that countries? I don't want to make all things alone in foreign country, in foreign language (requires studying laws).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was contracting in Warsaw, when the cost of bookkeeping for contractor working on internal market was practically uniform (about 40€/month). I suppose that costs more on West, but how much more? 2 times more, 4 times more?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1691" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="692" RevisionGUID="c4088e51-2c4a-4be0-a4d2-0d637012ecda" CreationDate="2013-08-26T16:42:39.623" UserId="78" Text="Approximate cost of bookkeeping for contractor in Western Europe?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1692" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="692" RevisionGUID="c4088e51-2c4a-4be0-a4d2-0d637012ecda" CreationDate="2013-08-26T16:42:39.623" UserId="78" Text="|contracts|switzerland|accounting|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1693" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="664" RevisionGUID="536679c9-f5c6-4561-a579-738f66f89841" CreationDate="2013-08-26T16:54:45.443" UserId="517" Comment="added 436 characters in body" Text="Why the are not choosing you? The reasons may be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- They prefer working with some in the USA. In case things go bad, they can always sue USA contractor. USA contractors are also aware of this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Price of the project - large project are usually not being subcontracted outside USA&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Remote workers are unreliable. I heard this sentence from many clients who tried hiring someone full-time remotely, and then got burnt heavily. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- They are afraid that remote worker may leave in the middle of the project. This is not rare as we all know. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- &quot;And currency: given the current change rate, companies might be biased into thinking EU citizens are simply too expensive as workers&quot; by ZJR. I've faced the same problems with currency conversions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Some credit cards (like Payoneer) will charge up to 3% any US dollar leaves the US. Meaning, if you're paying someone outside USA $1000, they will charge you $30 extra (besides all other fees) because dollar had left the USA. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- &quot;Also timezones: a company might be already contracting overseas to China, and that requires a certain timezone juggling to brief, debrief and schedule meetings. Adding Europe into the mix might spike the management overhead, requiring too much energy and resources to keep things working&quot; by ZJR. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think that these reasons may be the main reason. Of course, some of them may be patriotic, but I think that most of clients would rather hire expert for a lower price, that USA mediocrity just cause he's American. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest you really try working for that company in the USA. If you are a developer and good one, after a year or so, you may be able to negotiate remote work. A personal friend of mine succeeded in this, but he had to work for that company 2 years on-site. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1694" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="693" RevisionGUID="34a4ae24-cd27-4402-8a1a-6b10581e0cdd" CreationDate="2013-08-26T17:04:08.683" UserId="517" Text="Well, they are useful but on the long run. Even if they don't praise you for good results on these tests, in my experience I learned a lot from them. So solving them is like reading a book: you find something unknown and you educate yourself on that topic. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other good news for you is that many large companies who hire freelancers DO respect results on these tests. I have been chosen a couple of times just because I was in top 5% in certain IT fields. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The third people will not hire you before you pass their tests. And they usually rent test services from the same companies like your freelancing websites. There are not many good test services. I've faces this scenario with large companies who have 1000+ employees. No way they will hire you without these tests. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will not happen momentarily, but will for sure on the long run. And if I am not mistaken, you are freelancing on the long run, right? :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So don't listen people on forums complaining about this since they all thought that heaven will open once they reach top 5% on some test.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just be patient and do any test for yourself on the first place, not for others. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1695" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="694" RevisionGUID="054fb724-6f69-4ded-b66a-b1e7cfbe835c" CreationDate="2013-08-26T17:08:04.573" UserId="517" Text="For such late payments, you should be lucky if you get the money they owe you. I would not count on any fees for being late payers. You're not a bank or something like that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only case you can get interest is if you are in the same country and you have a signed contract. Then you can deliver the case to the court and you will receive the money they owe you + interests stipulated by the Law of your country. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best thing you can do is charge them more next time, just because they were late. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any for god sake, use some escrow service. Or better yet, don't start working on new milestone, before they either pay you or load money to escrow. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. If you somehow manage to agree with them late fee, then use the late fee from the Law. No need to invent the wheel there. In my country, this rate is 1% for every month being late. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1696" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="695" RevisionGUID="a17b5adf-f2f9-4977-9866-6e12ad7abfca" CreationDate="2013-08-26T18:39:22.217" UserId="765" Text="I'm from Brazil, got more than 5 years of experience with ASP.NET, recently certified as MCSD Web Development. There's no freelancer market here in Brazil, only full time boring Jobs without career opportunities. I would like to start as Freelancer and maybe work full time at home, doing what I'm good, web apps. I'm good written, reading and medium as speaker in english.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where do I start? How do I find my first customer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm also have a blog about ASP.NET written in PT-BR. Should I do some kind of portifolio to show my expertice?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1697" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="695" RevisionGUID="a17b5adf-f2f9-4977-9866-6e12ad7abfca" CreationDate="2013-08-26T18:39:22.217" UserId="765" Text="How do I start my Freelancer career?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1698" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="695" RevisionGUID="a17b5adf-f2f9-4977-9866-6e12ad7abfca" CreationDate="2013-08-26T18:39:22.217" UserId="765" Text="|resume|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1699" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="696" RevisionGUID="cdb65abd-44c6-42a7-9c87-a8b6cccac0d3" CreationDate="2013-08-27T14:36:11.023" UserId="517" Text="You just have to start like all of us. I had 10 years of experience when started freelancing and even thou I was a beginner for remote clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So to answer your questions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm good written, reading and medium as speaker in english.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Work on your English. The language barrier may be larger obstacle than lack of knowledge. At least perfect your passive English (written language) so that you can flawlessly communicate via emails, chats, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Where do I start? How do I find my first customer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like we all did :). Google &quot;freelancing&quot; and register and top sites. Fill the profile professionally and start applying for jobs. If you do it all right, you should expect to get your first job (probably smaller one) in a month or so. You can expect to live from freelancing after 6 months in case you deliver quality products. &#xD;&#xA;Read this post of mine, it may help: [read this][1]. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm also have a blog about ASP.NET written in PT-BR. Should I do some&#xD;&#xA;&gt; kind of portifolio to show my expertice?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Absolutely! Portfolio is the best thing to prove your experience. Also do IT tests on those freelancing sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/544/how-can-i-measure-the-credibility-of-a-freelancing-website/635#635" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1700" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="161" RevisionGUID="829bd70c-fdae-405d-8880-513d82a478c6" CreationDate="2013-08-27T18:14:59.547" UserId="626" Comment="Replaced rather general Excerpt with a clear definition." Text="Information Technology is the branch of engineering that deals with the use of computers and telecommunications to retrieve and store and transmit information." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1701" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="161" RevisionGUID="829bd70c-fdae-405d-8880-513d82a478c6" CreationDate="2013-08-27T18:14:59.547" Comment="Proposed by 626 approved by 75 edit id of 146" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1702" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="685" RevisionGUID="11e651f1-538c-4c7e-8436-1ba56b3e821e" CreationDate="2013-08-27T18:15:07.890" UserId="626" Comment="added 327 characters in body" Text="An estimation is a rough calculation of the value, number, quantity, or extent of something. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It can be defined more precisely as the approximation, prediction, or projection of a quantity based on experience and/or information available at the time, with the recognition that other pertinent facts are unclear or unknown.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1703" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="685" RevisionGUID="11e651f1-538c-4c7e-8436-1ba56b3e821e" CreationDate="2013-08-27T18:15:07.890" Comment="Proposed by 626 approved by 75 edit id of 150" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1704" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="679" RevisionGUID="e02f4eca-fb03-44b5-9c50-4276e6b5774c" CreationDate="2013-08-27T18:15:13.920" UserId="626" Comment="added 118 characters in body" Text="Negotiation is the act of trying to reach an agreement or compromise by means of dialog and/or discussion with others." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1705" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="679" RevisionGUID="e02f4eca-fb03-44b5-9c50-4276e6b5774c" CreationDate="2013-08-27T18:15:13.920" Comment="Proposed by 626 approved by 75 edit id of 142" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1706" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="697" RevisionGUID="ab800405-7bb2-4b53-9ab3-53d6e0f23ea5" CreationDate="2013-08-27T18:26:59.917" UserId="85" Text="Over here in the UK we have a [statutory regime (link)][1] for charging interest and fees on late commercial debts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This provides that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you haven’t already agreed when the money will be paid, the law&#xD;&#xA;&gt; says the payment is late after 30 days for public authorities and 60&#xD;&#xA;&gt; days for business transactions&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The interest you can charge if another business is late paying for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; goods or a service is ‘statutory interest’ - this is 8% plus the Bank&#xD;&#xA;&gt; of England base rate for business to business transactions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;plus an admin fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, invoking such legislation is perceived as being a one-way bet on never getting any further work from that client, so use with caution!&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://www.gov.uk/late-commercial-payments-interest-debt-recovery/when-payment-becomes-late" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1707" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="698" RevisionGUID="938847a8-4214-430e-a8b1-778e2394701c" CreationDate="2013-08-27T20:22:59.267" UserId="774" Text="Price can be proportional to someone experience if that brings more value to the client, but the former is not directly related to the latter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Besides that, you need to consider supply and demand. Even you're very experienced, if demand is lower, the price goes down too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice is: in order to earn more, use your experience to create value where demand is higher.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order do encourage me, some time ago my wife said to me something like this: if you are a good professional, isn't enough you to know that, you need to show your value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck in your business!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1712" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="681" RevisionGUID="c6c25273-9c57-4940-8b49-ac5382a55daf" CreationDate="2013-08-27T23:48:56.097" UserId="626" Comment="added 135 characters in body" Text="Payment terms are the statements by a business about *&quot;when&quot;* and *&quot;how&quot;* it should be paid for goods or services that it has supplied." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1713" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="681" RevisionGUID="c6c25273-9c57-4940-8b49-ac5382a55daf" CreationDate="2013-08-27T23:48:56.097" Comment="Proposed by 626 approved by 58 edit id of 144" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1714" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="687" RevisionGUID="2533156c-fa7f-4f6e-8e5e-68809ef732dc" CreationDate="2013-08-27T23:50:49.870" UserId="85" Comment="Adding a tags" Text="|payment-terms|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1715" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="687" RevisionGUID="2533156c-fa7f-4f6e-8e5e-68809ef732dc" CreationDate="2013-08-27T23:50:49.870" Comment="Proposed by 85 approved by 58 edit id of 152" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1716" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="700" RevisionGUID="f08a33d2-3329-42ec-8f39-19fc96657749" CreationDate="2013-08-28T07:31:12.957" UserId="85" Text="I'm slightly cynical of most of these tests, because they are usually on sites that exist to sell you training... plus in the *Real World* you have to ask yourself whether hiring managers will know what they are, or what a test proves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, anything that you may consider a positive addition to your portfolio is worth pursuing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, it is impossible to predict what might be the decider that gets you the gig - but having something relevant (whether a certification or a good reputation on SE) that the other candidate(s) do not cannot be a bad thing?!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On a personal level, some years back I undertook a number of the [BrainBench][1] tests - after one of the assessments was required at an interview - but afterwards no-one else seemed to give a hoot. So I haven't done any recently...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.brainbench.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1717" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="701" RevisionGUID="e5b728a5-2b64-4f26-ba41-84f82f68214a" CreationDate="2013-08-28T15:33:25.430" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1718" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="702" RevisionGUID="2e27435d-c2ce-4847-988f-abe955f9cc4f" CreationDate="2013-08-28T15:33:25.430" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1719" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="703" RevisionGUID="4e59aded-f433-47d3-9cc3-76948c3480c7" CreationDate="2013-08-28T18:36:09.100" UserId="754" Text="You definitely do NOT want to be figuring this stuff out when the client is already late. If you don't have a contract that stipulates late fees, then maybe you need to take Peter's tactic of just being satisfied that they pay. My (US-based) contracts state the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Late payment is subject to an additional fee of 5% per month. In the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; case of late payment, you will be responsible for all debt collection&#xD;&#xA;&gt; fees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also have a system set up so I remind folks before their invoice is due, the day after it's due and repeatedly thereafter. I've only had to tack on the late fee once, but there was no dispute over it and the client is with me today." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1721" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="705" RevisionGUID="d9c97dda-d51c-4ea8-bd22-5f32d4ee977d" CreationDate="2013-08-28T19:55:50.210" UserId="708" Text="Place an advertisement in traditional venues (Online/newspapers).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You aren't going to just stumble upon someone. You will have to seek them out, or ask them to contact you then vet them yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, looking for people online with a specific skill set simply results in **a lot** of wasted time due to many *thinking* they can do a job they can't. You'll need to get a list of prospective partners, then go over their qualifications just as any employer would." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1723" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="661" RevisionGUID="e65f7dc8-74aa-440d-ae7f-2954c6942c75" CreationDate="2013-08-28T20:50:54.713" UserId="75" Comment="fixed grammar" Text="I'm currently freelancing doing mostly front-end development and design; things are going very well, sometimes a little too well... Lately I'm finding myself overbooked, if they are and hold ups along a project its eating away at my time and I'm starting to annoy clients because I'm over stretched! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd really like to find another freelancing in the UK who would be willing to partner up and take some load off me. Obviously I'd like to find someone who I could trust, and they would have to have strong skills. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just haven't got time to go to freelancing sites and do it that way, plus I'm really fussy about good clean consistent code. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have any other suggestions for finding a partner as a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1724" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="702" RevisionGUID="8e4912ff-64d1-43c4-972a-ea8ef8d84fce" CreationDate="2013-08-28T23:22:25.687" UserId="39" Comment="added 265 characters in body" Text="Time-tracking is the process of recording the passage of time spent per project or task. The data is often collected to support accurate client billing, and to provide management data for making operational decisions to increase productivity and reduce labor costs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1725" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="702" RevisionGUID="8e4912ff-64d1-43c4-972a-ea8ef8d84fce" CreationDate="2013-08-28T23:22:25.687" Comment="Proposed by 39 approved by 58 edit id of 154" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1726" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="695" RevisionGUID="edd9522b-5002-49a0-bbc9-59c4193f4594" CreationDate="2013-08-28T23:23:16.380" UserId="782" Comment="fixed grammar" Text="I'm from Brazil, have more than 5 years of experience with ASP.NET, and was recently certified as MCSD Web Development. There's no freelancer market here in Brazil, only full time boring jobs without career opportunities. I would like to start as a freelancer and maybe work full time at home, doing what I'm good, web apps. I am good at reading and writing, and I am medium as a speaker in English.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where do I start? How do I find my first customer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also have a blog about ASP.NET written in PT-BR. Should I do some kind of portfolio to show my expertise?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1727" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="695" RevisionGUID="edd9522b-5002-49a0-bbc9-59c4193f4594" CreationDate="2013-08-28T23:23:16.380" Comment="Proposed by 782 approved by -1 edit id of 155" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1728" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="695" RevisionGUID="3a4687b7-62cb-4401-9d3d-f5a36588ab11" CreationDate="2013-08-28T23:23:16.380" UserId="58" Comment="fixed grammar" Text="I'm from Brazil, have more than 5 years of experience with ASP.NET, and was recently certified as MCSD Web Development. There's no freelancer market here in Brazil, only full time boring jobs without career opportunities. I would like to start as a freelancer and maybe work full time at home, doing what I'm good, web apps. I am good at reading and writing, and I am medium as a speaker in English.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where do I start? How do I find my first customer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also have a blog about ASP.NET written in PT-BR. Should I do some kind of portfolio to show my expertise?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1729" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="701" RevisionGUID="f27a23f9-80df-4647-89cc-57ebfb6ff56c" CreationDate="2013-08-28T23:23:36.583" UserId="39" Comment="added 265 characters in body" Text="Time-tracking is the process of recording the passage of time spent per project or task. The data is often collected to support accurate client billing, and to provide management data for making operational decisions to increase productivity and reduce labor costs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1730" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="701" RevisionGUID="f27a23f9-80df-4647-89cc-57ebfb6ff56c" CreationDate="2013-08-28T23:23:36.583" Comment="Proposed by 39 approved by 58 edit id of 153" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1731" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="706" RevisionGUID="ff656af4-f3bd-4635-875b-c327bcc8af45" CreationDate="2013-08-29T03:01:37.700" UserId="413" Text="I'm just starting out as a freelance developer and I have referred clients that I've reached out to and I'm finding that they don't have work ready for me yet. How often would it be appropriate to follow-up with these clients to let them know that I am available and interested in work without seeming too pushy?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1732" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="706" RevisionGUID="ff656af4-f3bd-4635-875b-c327bcc8af45" CreationDate="2013-08-29T03:01:37.700" UserId="413" Text="What is an appropriate follow-up time with clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1733" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="706" RevisionGUID="ff656af4-f3bd-4635-875b-c327bcc8af45" CreationDate="2013-08-29T03:01:37.700" UserId="413" Text="|client|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1734" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="706" RevisionGUID="fceae3ad-2ce8-4c35-8a38-4f5c57edc399" CreationDate="2013-08-29T03:10:12.103" UserId="413" Comment="deleted 17 characters in body" Text="I'm just starting out as a freelance developer and I have referred clients that I've reached out to and they don't have work ready for me yet. How often would it be appropriate to follow-up with these clients to let them know that I am available and interested in work without seeming too pushy?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1735" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="706" RevisionGUID="d371d41a-e8ae-4a08-bf4a-3a3565d80d5d" CreationDate="2013-08-29T03:18:44.520" UserId="413" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="I'm just starting out as a freelance developer and I've reached out to clients who were referred to me and they don't have work ready for me yet. How often would it be appropriate to follow-up with these clients to let them know that I am available and interested in work without seeming too pushy?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1736" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="707" RevisionGUID="72a05f86-abcd-4979-9789-c3648d9e5a54" CreationDate="2013-08-29T11:49:37.637" UserId="787" Text="I have good experience in PHP and I want to start freelancing so I have opened my accounts on elance, freelancer, odesk and tring to bid on projects from last 2 months. But still I didn't get one reply from any projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please guide me where I did wrong and How I can get projects online to work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1737" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="707" RevisionGUID="72a05f86-abcd-4979-9789-c3648d9e5a54" CreationDate="2013-08-29T11:49:37.637" UserId="787" Text="Issues with start freelancing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1738" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="707" RevisionGUID="72a05f86-abcd-4979-9789-c3648d9e5a54" CreationDate="2013-08-29T11:49:37.637" UserId="787" Text="|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1739" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="706" RevisionGUID="d9f70016-a023-4dda-af52-69bd36bf0adb" CreationDate="2013-08-29T12:17:32.910" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/373056826356817920" />
  <row Id="1740" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="708" RevisionGUID="671af7f5-8fa0-4b9a-a7a7-9fb8018ec5bd" CreationDate="2013-08-29T12:48:13.230" UserId="517" Text="On the first place, PHP is the toughest to get job in since there are simply too many people. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I have a couple of advices for you:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Tech advice**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't just offer PHP since competition is too high. Specialize yourself in something narrower like Symphony or other PHP things. You are a new guy so offering something that a client can get from the experienced guy will not bring you jobs. Since PHP rates are really at the lowest, you cannot be competitive with low prices as well. I did the same thing in Java and C# - learned mobile tech. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Freelance website advice**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is your profile quality one? It's important to fill it with all details as publish as many samples as you can. Since you are new, samples have to sell you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Bid advice**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you bid? Clients on those websites are sick of &quot;Dead sir...&quot; bids with dozens of links. Be specific and give a client what he wants exactly. Try to find a smaller jobs first. For example, a client is looking for a special addon which you can make in 1 day - take a risk and make that addon, put it on your php engine and show the client the concrete sample. If I get approached like this, I would give you the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any beginning is hard. I see you've been trying for 2 months so I see you are persistent. Just keep it that way. And always have in mind, that 2 most wanted things are: &quot;a new hot technology from you area of specilty&quot; and &quot;knowledge of technology which is at the same time very wanted and very few people know it&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have any of these, the success is inevitable. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1741" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="709" RevisionGUID="95a96122-ccd8-4bca-a940-8adbfb269e2a" CreationDate="2013-08-29T12:55:54.837" UserId="517" Text="This is a tough questions and it really varies from a client to a client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would try once a month for a couple of months (let's say 3). Then move this to every 2 months. This is in case of a remote clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try to get friendly with some clients and ask then to contact you in case of any job, even in case of tasks only. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am doing it this way. Sometimes they don't reply at all, some times they tell me &quot;get back to me in a couple of weeks&quot;. If they stop replying, then I'd wait for 6 months - till they forget about you :). Occasionally you'll have to dismiss some clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1742" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="710" RevisionGUID="45cf3916-af1f-4a62-8865-56f478ca6796" CreationDate="2013-08-29T15:28:48.637" UserId="789" Text="I am working for an MNC in India and do sparetime freelancing jobs. I had worked for some 4-5 clients and got the payment transferred to my personal account. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently did my biggest project till date and they are asking my business account to transfer the payment(I donot have Business account)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Opening a business bank account requires registration and registration needs a CEO and Director. Everything seems good but I am not sure whether I can register myself as CEO of my own company while I am a full time employee of another company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any Advises on this please :( " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1743" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="710" RevisionGUID="45cf3916-af1f-4a62-8865-56f478ca6796" CreationDate="2013-08-29T15:28:48.637" UserId="789" Text="Can I register myself as CEO for my freelancing company besides being a regular full time employee in a Corporate" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1744" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="710" RevisionGUID="45cf3916-af1f-4a62-8865-56f478ca6796" CreationDate="2013-08-29T15:28:48.637" UserId="789" Text="|registration|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1746" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="712" RevisionGUID="2743cb58-701f-4029-9971-b79130125906" CreationDate="2013-08-29T16:16:08.607" UserId="75" Text="As with the previous posts, this is difficult to measure as a general rule. So let's look at it from the client's prospective. This will refer to the SPIN selling I mention in [this answer](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/223/75), as it applies here a little bit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to show your client that you fill a need, even if they don't know what the need is yet. In my industry (Information Technology), customers tend not to know how to do things quicker (i.e. with scripts or custom programs), or constantly (i.e. scheduling backups, checking logs, etc). I need to show them how the problems of not having me can have negative effects on the business. That is the Situation. The Problem is that they are not using me, and therefore, losing money (Implication). The Needs Payoff is when I come in, fix things up, make everything smoother then ever, and they get to work properly, and more efficiently.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for contacting them, unless they are expecting your call at the time, or you know them on a personal level, they will likely see calls as simple spam. Telephone marketing does not usually work on most professionals, in my experience (both selling myself as a freelancer, and as a salesman for a technology company). The two best forms of contacting a client are in person, or via email. Email is easy to disregard as spam, but is also much easier to deal with, and you can get away with sending in a promotion once a month, without getting on people's nerves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can get into the office of the person who is making the decision, you are over halfway there! That is when you can explain how your services will improve their business, make everyone more efficient, or whatever you may provide as a service. Sometimes you will have a &quot;gatekeeper&quot; (aka the secretary) who will always deny you, but that is when you can pull out the business card, and trade with the manager's email and full name on the card. You can then tell him/her that you will email the boss in a few days with an offer for your services, and that you look forward to talking with them in the near future. Always have a smile on your face, and **do not become the pushy salesperson**!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1750" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="707" RevisionGUID="d888b65d-3863-4955-b56c-e8debf8b3fb3" CreationDate="2013-08-29T16:33:55.997" UserId="75" Comment="added 7 characters in body; edited tags" Text="I have good experience in PHP and I want to start freelancing. I have opened my accounts on elance, freelancer, odesk and tring to bid on projects for the last 2 months, but I still didn't get a reply from any projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please help me to know where I did wrong, and how I can get online projects to work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1751" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="707" RevisionGUID="d888b65d-3863-4955-b56c-e8debf8b3fb3" CreationDate="2013-08-29T16:33:55.997" UserId="75" Comment="added 7 characters in body; edited tags" Text="|online|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1752" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="713" RevisionGUID="b7f340b7-d40e-41db-9ad2-50f5a360dc73" CreationDate="2013-08-29T16:49:54.847" UserId="791" Text="The title is a bit confusing, but here is an issue I face occasionally, but don't know how to bill. Here is an example, and I hope you can get the general idea and apply it to a broader concept of how to bill for time to research solutions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am an experienced and skilled programmer and the client asks for something I haven't coded for in the past (special animation, function, etc.). I have to take time to figure out how to do what they want, but am not specifically building the end product. Do I still count those hours spent researching and testing when I bill the client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For some reason, it feels slightly dishonest since I wasn't actively typing the final code the entire time, but I don't want to have that time be wasted, especially if it is a complex issue and I spend a few hours or more researching before I found a solution.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you all do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1753" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="713" RevisionGUID="b7f340b7-d40e-41db-9ad2-50f5a360dc73" CreationDate="2013-08-29T16:49:54.847" UserId="791" Text="Hourly billing, do you include time to research if you don't know how to do something?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1754" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="713" RevisionGUID="b7f340b7-d40e-41db-9ad2-50f5a360dc73" CreationDate="2013-08-29T16:49:54.847" UserId="791" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1755" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="714" RevisionGUID="8b2f89d0-3780-4864-b531-3a4850a921fb" CreationDate="2013-08-29T17:20:24.917" UserId="75" Text="This is a good question that I'm sure many people face when starting out. You need to decide on your pricing model first: are you billing by the hour, or by the project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are advantages and disadvantages to both, but it essentially comes down to your skills, and what the client is willing to pay. I have seen many animation or graphic projects (I call these &quot;creative&quot; projects) where they attempt the hourly rate, but the client never agrees to pay those ones! These are where you have a project billing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then there are other IT related jobs I have done that were by the project, but should have been by the hour. I learned my lesson quickly on this particular incident...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't know something, you need to figure it out before you start the project. This should be done in the discovery phase of your proposal. Do not invest too much un-paid time into research for one single project; if you do research it should have value in many future projects, otherwise you're wasting your time. When I research stuff, I am always asking myself, &quot;How can I implement this for other clients?&quot;. If I can't, then it usually gets billed in, either with the project or my hourly rate (agreed upon in advance). Remember, during the discovery phase, you need to be the expert by asking all the probing questions, so that there are minimal revisions later on. For creative projects, there will *always* be revisions, and that needs to be accounted for in your quote.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For my IT jobs, I quote how many hours it should take in a perfect situation (i.e. all the cables work, the program disks are all available, all the usernames have been given to me, etc). I then estimate any possible issues I may have, and add the cost in. I then pad it with 25-50% markup for anything outside the scope I may have missed when evaluating the client's needs. I give them this price, and mention that it may be lower, it may be higher; if it's higher, then there are serious issues that need to be addressed before I bill more then this amount. This also shows the client you understand they work for their money too, and you don't want to screw them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best thing to remember though, is that your research needs to be compensated. If you can use it with other clients, great! Don't bill the full amount to the first client to ask you to do something, but include parts of it in future projects. If you are researching for just one client, and don't feel it can be used elsewhere, then you must absolutely bill the client for it! Having said that, 99% of the time, you can use the skills you learned researching for other projects; there is always the exception that proves the rule though." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1756" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="715" RevisionGUID="f5c33e46-3390-4e5d-b27b-2c1f465da374" CreationDate="2013-08-29T21:14:24.740" UserId="78" Text="Hourly billing is the art of its kind, and there are many approaches. Many freelancers simply count all hours they've spend working on project, and bill them to the client. Time for research and learning new things is usually excluded, because the prerequisites for taking the task is that you have the knowledge and experience needed to accomplish it. If you need to learn or research something, it means you're working on prerequisites and not on the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, many more experienced freelancers are taking the model of the companies. They have fixed hourly rates, and when the client ask how much something would cost, you give the answer in hours, which translates directly to the invoice. If the client accept the sum, you do the task. You are taking the whole risk. If you do something faster than expected, you earn extra, and for client it doesn't matter because he/she have accepted the total price. If something takes longer, it's your risk, because you have underestimated and now you have to work more to earn the same amount of money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In end effect, all is the question of the final sum the client can accept. If you bill too much, you will discourage customers, no matter if you bill too many hours or you hourly rate is too high for the customer.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1757" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="561" RevisionGUID="59495d59-3f5d-4ee3-b8a0-8e9bf398c196" CreationDate="2013-08-30T02:53:51.493" UserId="626" Comment="added 132 characters in body" Text="Outsourcing is the act of obtaining goods or services from outside suppliers (especially, in place of one or more internal sources)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1758" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="561" RevisionGUID="59495d59-3f5d-4ee3-b8a0-8e9bf398c196" CreationDate="2013-08-30T02:53:51.493" Comment="Proposed by 626 approved by 75 edit id of 137" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1759" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="162" RevisionGUID="822b9a31-cc39-4447-9a1c-8da327c8aca2" CreationDate="2013-08-30T02:54:00.417" UserId="626" Comment="Replaced rather general Excerpt with a clear definition." Text="Information Technology is the branch of engineering that deals with the use of computers and telecommunications to retrieve and store and transmit information." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1760" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="162" RevisionGUID="822b9a31-cc39-4447-9a1c-8da327c8aca2" CreationDate="2013-08-30T02:54:00.417" Comment="Proposed by 626 approved by 75 edit id of 147" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1761" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="680" RevisionGUID="48996bc9-fe03-4ead-8ac9-6bac733dbcdd" CreationDate="2013-08-30T02:55:01.827" UserId="626" Comment="added 118 characters in body" Text="Negotiation is the act of trying to reach an agreement or compromise by means of dialog and/or discussion with others." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1762" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="680" RevisionGUID="48996bc9-fe03-4ead-8ac9-6bac733dbcdd" CreationDate="2013-08-30T02:55:01.827" Comment="Proposed by 626 approved by 75 edit id of 143" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1763" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="678" RevisionGUID="1bf7741f-67f5-4878-bee7-784f9e980558" CreationDate="2013-08-30T02:55:05.763" UserId="626" Comment="added 117 characters in body" Text="Design is the realization of a concept or idea into a configuration, drawing, model, pattern, plan or specification. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1764" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="678" RevisionGUID="1bf7741f-67f5-4878-bee7-784f9e980558" CreationDate="2013-08-30T02:55:05.763" Comment="Proposed by 626 approved by 75 edit id of 141" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1765" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="670" RevisionGUID="006ca5cb-aab3-4538-8474-87dfdb997f61" CreationDate="2013-08-30T02:55:45.143" UserId="626" Comment="added 150 characters in body" Text="Project management is the planning and organization of an organization's resources in order to move a specific task, event or duty toward completion. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1766" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="670" RevisionGUID="006ca5cb-aab3-4538-8474-87dfdb997f61" CreationDate="2013-08-30T02:55:45.143" Comment="Proposed by 626 approved by 75 edit id of 131" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1767" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="684" RevisionGUID="8da9f920-8762-439f-bb3e-cbd8941002be" CreationDate="2013-08-30T02:57:43.180" UserId="626" Comment="added 119 characters in body" Text="Accounting is defined by the systematic and comprehensive recording of financial transactions pertaining to a business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1768" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="684" RevisionGUID="8da9f920-8762-439f-bb3e-cbd8941002be" CreationDate="2013-08-30T02:57:43.180" Comment="Proposed by 626 approved by 75 edit id of 149" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1769" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="643" RevisionGUID="f7cc172c-2e09-4e61-92ff-21b0dced5354" CreationDate="2013-08-30T02:59:45.547" UserId="75" Comment="103" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Łukasz Lech&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="1770" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="661" RevisionGUID="6eae164b-9caa-4bf8-888e-6185b37cb057" CreationDate="2013-08-30T03:01:03.880" UserId="75" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="I'm currently freelancing doing mostly front-end development and design; things are going very well, sometimes a little too well... Lately I'm finding myself overbooked, if they are and hold ups along a project its eating away at my time and I'm starting to annoy clients because I'm over stretched! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd really like to find another freelancing in the UK who would be willing to partner up and take some load off me. Obviously I'd like to find someone who I could trust, and they would have to have strong skills. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just haven't got time to go to freelancing sites and do it that way, plus I'm really fussy about good clean consistent code. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have any other suggestions for how to find a partner as a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1771" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="716" RevisionGUID="7b2262cf-bcb3-4fc2-8f69-43855068ec49" CreationDate="2013-08-30T08:31:25.507" UserId="85" Text="The question &quot;whether I can register myself as CEO of my own company while I am a full time employee of another company&quot; boils down to what you have agreed in your contract of employment with the other company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See also: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/603/freelance-consulting-while-employed&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fundamentally, there is not usually a legal obstacle to holding down two employments - as long as the tax authorities get their cut - whether the second job is a second employment, or as self-employed or freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there was such an obstacle, then I suggest that a significant proportion of freelancers would have a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, your contract of employment may place restrictions on outside interests, especially if in a related field to your day-job - in such instances talk to your manager (or the HR department)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1772" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="707" RevisionGUID="536f49a9-df50-4d17-95f3-43c73ffa01e9" CreationDate="2013-08-30T09:19:32.430" UserId="58" Comment="cleaning up grammar~" Text="I have good experience in PHP and I want to start freelancing. I have opened my accounts on elance, freelancer, odesk and tring to bid on projects for the last 2 months, but I still didn't get a reply from any projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where have I went wrong, and how I can get online projects to work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1773" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="707" RevisionGUID="536f49a9-df50-4d17-95f3-43c73ffa01e9" CreationDate="2013-08-30T09:19:32.430" UserId="58" Comment="cleaning up grammar~" Text="Issues with starting freelancing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1774" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="717" RevisionGUID="9c8d94ad-5eab-4957-8040-f5ea6c52d0a7" CreationDate="2013-08-30T18:13:49.933" UserId="517" Text="You should consult a legal advisor for this. This is a strictly a legal issue. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my country you cannot &quot;sit on two chairs&quot; e.g. cannot be full-time employed in one company and be CEO in another. But I think some other countries allow this. Maybe India allows as well. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1775" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="718" RevisionGUID="d2f9b656-98b5-418b-9810-8f4c859c5076" CreationDate="2013-08-30T18:24:09.597" UserId="517" Text="I am using a model &quot;based on a situation&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if a client want me to code database and I don't know how to do it, then I will not charge him for the time I spend learning how to do this. As this is a simple and basic thing and I was supposed to know that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, if he's asking me to code some physics (smoke, clouds, etc.) where I have to test different algorithms, then I charge him for this since no one can do that out of his head (unless he did the exact same thing before).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is my theory. In practice, I sometimes charge client if I think that my research will make the app more beautiful thou he did not ask for that feature (like some cool animation). In other cases if I spend too much time on some algorithm or have too many bad tries of some algorithm (I am very neat, too much), then I don't have heart to tell him I spent 30 hours researching and then I just tell me less hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the golder rule is like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. If it is something simple that you should have known it before, then don't charge him. you will be able to reuse that code later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. If it's something that will take more than 1 hour or so, and it's not in the domain &quot;you should know that before you applied to job&quot;, then ask a client if he is ready to finance the research time since the product will be of higher quality. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In time, you will learn when you will ask a client and when not. Every time (now) when I tell the client that I spent X hours extra doing this and that feature, he's always happy. Not even once I was told that he does not want to pay for that. But you need experience to come to this level. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1776" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="719" RevisionGUID="4f9a38b2-8b83-48b8-8fdb-ba743cc39eef" CreationDate="2013-08-31T01:45:59.573" UserId="805" Text="Let's say your level is 8 out of 10. And you think you should work for money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where do you get started. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can you list steps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know portfolio would be one. But i don't where to apply just as a developer for these. I don't know and don't want to know php, ruby, rails, and other stuff. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1777" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="719" RevisionGUID="4f9a38b2-8b83-48b8-8fdb-ba743cc39eef" CreationDate="2013-08-31T01:45:59.573" UserId="805" Text="If you are good at html,css, and javascript/jquery where to do you freelance" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1778" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="719" RevisionGUID="4f9a38b2-8b83-48b8-8fdb-ba743cc39eef" CreationDate="2013-08-31T01:45:59.573" UserId="805" Text="|webmasters|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1779" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="719" RevisionGUID="4f757245-4aef-4c1b-b476-9a666a9490c9" CreationDate="2013-08-31T08:27:19.900" UserId="58" Comment="103" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Hiroto&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="1780" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="719" RevisionGUID="5d1c7edb-2dda-498c-bd56-b7123d7eac5b" CreationDate="2013-08-31T08:33:38.693" UserId="58" Comment="salvaged the question a little bit" Text="Let's say you're beginning web development, and you want to start earning money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where do you get started.?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know a portfolio would be a start, but I don't know where to apply just as a developer for these jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know and don't want to know PHP, ruby, rails, and other stuff. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1781" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="719" RevisionGUID="5d1c7edb-2dda-498c-bd56-b7123d7eac5b" CreationDate="2013-08-31T08:33:38.693" UserId="58" Comment="salvaged the question a little bit" Text="Where can a web developer start freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1782" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="719" RevisionGUID="a098efa4-4541-4875-ac5e-ef1480c04d6e" CreationDate="2013-08-31T08:36:37.223" UserId="58" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Hiroto&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="1783" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="713" RevisionGUID="8f70ac77-2ede-4061-b91c-f39d8767f5fc" CreationDate="2013-08-31T09:17:38.110" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/373736325608124416" />
  <row Id="1784" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="719" RevisionGUID="048f2829-3b3d-4800-8c80-88efe7744b4c" CreationDate="2013-08-31T15:39:39.207" UserId="805" Comment="added 94 characters in body; edited title" Text="Let's say you're beginning web development, and you want to start earning money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where do you get started.?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know a portfolio would be a start, but I don't know where to apply just as a developer for these jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know and don't want to know PHP, ruby, rails, and other stuff. I just want to do front end development part time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I find it interesting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I live in NYC.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1785" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="719" RevisionGUID="048f2829-3b3d-4800-8c80-88efe7744b4c" CreationDate="2013-08-31T15:39:39.207" UserId="805" Comment="added 94 characters in body; edited title" Text="Where can a front end web developer start freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1786" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="720" RevisionGUID="a186481d-c416-4472-9f78-0cedd40e5525" CreationDate="2013-08-31T16:54:02.677" UserId="64" Text="The challenge that you're going to run into with Freelance web development is that, in my experience, many Web developers have  pretty broad understanding of the entire development stack from databases to server-side coding to front-end HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thus, if you're just starting out and wish to avoid learning other parts of the stack, you may run into trouble finding work. In my experience, when a Freelancer needs to outsource something, it's because he or she needs a specialist in that area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Using myself as an example, I lack knowledge in design, so I'm less likely to find work building websites since most people who build websites can also manage to do the little bit of scripting necessary to make the site functional. However, I specialize in JavaScript. If you have a Web application and are stuck somewhere or are doing something complicated, that's where I come in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're going to specialize in nothing but the frontend, you're going to need to specialize in it, which means you're going to need to be rally good, write really clean, W3C-valid HTML code that works in every browser, and have a deep understanding of front-end User Experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even then, you need to understand at least a little server-side code. The best front-end coders I've ever worked with still knew a little PHP so that we could understand how we were going to integrate things. They weren't experts in it, but they weren't ignorant to it either; it's naive to think that you can get away with never ever knowing how the server-side works.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that said, you have to start somewhere, and the best way for you to do that is to look for small jobs that require just minor changes to existing front-end code. This will help build your skill-set in that area while hopefully giving you some income." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1787" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="721" RevisionGUID="c95ddce6-b519-4d3d-bf32-282aedae633a" CreationDate="2013-08-31T17:25:36.890" UserId="754" Text="I've come across two options for freelancers looking to build their portfolios with nonprofit clients:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The microvolunteer site [**SkillsforChange/Sparked**][1] has some of volunteer opportunities involving writing, data input and print design, but a fair number are also web-based--ranging from tweaks to existing sites, customization of WordPress themes to complete site overhauls. Unfortunately, it looks like they've redone their site so you must create an account to see the available opportunities.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Additionally, there are weekend events that bring together tech folks and nonprofits to work on web sites, mobile apps, etc. In the US, these events are held under the **[GiveCamp][2]** umbrella, but maybe something similar exists in Poland? It's a fun way to meet other tech folks and work together toward a common, worthy goal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Powodzenia! :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.skillsforchange.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://givecamp.org/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1788" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="722" RevisionGUID="26cb660f-0f16-4c2d-8646-dd9696fa400d" CreationDate="2013-08-31T17:29:17.470" UserId="75" Text="If you're doing front end development, you will need a portfolio before you get any big jobs, end of story. So how do you get a portfolio without the jobs? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I did before was make sample pages for friends of the family, and a couple volunteer organisations I belonged to. It was all under the impression that they only paid if they used my designs, but accept that it's just a start. I could at least get some styles that I could do. That portfolio should be online though on your personal website, so potential customers can see your skill, design, and technique. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, just make designs, no matter who for, and make sure they show your best talents" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1789" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="721" RevisionGUID="1785b32c-c995-47a4-bd23-33fecf8731d8" CreationDate="2013-08-31T17:30:42.567" UserId="754" Comment="added note about treating pro bono clients like the real deal" Text="I've come across two options for freelancers looking to build their portfolios with nonprofit clients:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The microvolunteer site [**SkillsforChange/Sparked**][1] has some of volunteer opportunities involving writing, data input and print design, but a fair number are also web-based--ranging from tweaks to existing sites, customization of WordPress themes to complete site overhauls. Unfortunately, it looks like they've redone their site so you must create an account to see the available opportunities.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Additionally, there are weekend events that bring together tech folks and nonprofits to work on web sites, mobile apps, etc. In the US, these events are held under the **[GiveCamp][2]** umbrella, but maybe something similar exists in Poland? It's a fun way to meet other tech folks and work together toward a common, worthy goal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, Codewaggle's link has some great points in it. Anytime I've done pro bono web design/development for nonprofits, I've treated it exactly like my paid clients:  they sign a contract, we have a timeline and they get an invoice at the end; even though the final invoice sum is for zero dollars, it shows them the hours I've contributed and the market price for what I've delivered. Additionally, if you hope to get referrals from the nonprofit, it pays to give them the full experience so they have a sense of your professionalism.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Powodzenia! :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.skillsforchange.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://givecamp.org/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1790" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="723" RevisionGUID="ba8a3ed3-cc59-4929-ada7-e650ac38a2f3" CreationDate="2013-08-31T19:22:07.100" UserId="517" Text="Why do you look for alternatives when you have freelancing websites? If you need experience or portfolio, just apply like other and let the client what you want and why you will do it for free?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best thing is that you will work on a real project which will help you in the future and also earn good rank on those websites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other option is to seek websites who offer cheap (very cheap) freelancers like [Fiverr][1]. Such clients are ready to deal with beginners so you don't actually have to work for free literary. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And last, but not least, religious organizations (churches, etc.) are always looking for charity work. If you can offer programming or design skills, then they will accept you with open hands. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://fiverr.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1791" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="717" RevisionGUID="fda83116-f1cf-448c-afb6-668051c25770" CreationDate="2013-08-31T19:24:30.420" UserId="517" Comment="added 36 characters in body" Text="You should consult a legal advisor for this. This is a strictly a legal issue. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my country [a small European country, Croatia] you cannot &quot;sit on two chairs&quot; e.g. cannot be full-time employed in one company and be CEO in another. But I think some other countries allow this. Maybe India allows as well. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1792" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="724" RevisionGUID="aee29367-2f38-45cc-bdca-e9cd2b135c27" CreationDate="2013-09-01T01:09:53.603" UserId="805" Text="I'd like to have a list of both offline and online. Latter preferred.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I live in nyc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a place where friendly people who are designers and developers hang out. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1793" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="724" RevisionGUID="aee29367-2f38-45cc-bdca-e9cd2b135c27" CreationDate="2013-09-01T01:09:53.603" UserId="805" Text="What are some good resources for new developer to join and get together to works as freelancing team" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1794" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="724" RevisionGUID="aee29367-2f38-45cc-bdca-e9cd2b135c27" CreationDate="2013-09-01T01:09:53.603" UserId="805" Text="|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1795" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="707" RevisionGUID="921e3117-92cb-4ff3-8f23-bcbfb14fe942" CreationDate="2013-09-01T05:49:33.543" UserId="782" Comment="fixed grammar" Text="I have good experience in PHP and I want to start freelancing. I have opened accounts on Elance, freelancer, oDesk and have been trying to bid on projects for the last 2 months, but I still didn't get a reply from any projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where have I gone wrong, and how I can get online projects to work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1796" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="707" RevisionGUID="921e3117-92cb-4ff3-8f23-bcbfb14fe942" CreationDate="2013-09-01T05:49:33.543" Comment="Proposed by 782 approved by 64 edit id of 158" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1797" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="719" RevisionGUID="b9d35ef0-13f1-434f-9abe-bd6319a619f3" CreationDate="2013-09-01T05:49:55.060" UserId="782" Comment="fixed grammar and content to be more logical and readable" Text="Let's say you're beginning web development, and you want to start earning money. Where do you get started?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know a portfolio would be a start, but I don't know where to apply just as a front-end developer for jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know and don't want to know PHP, Ruby, Rails, and other stuff. I just want to do front end development part time, because I find it interesting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By the way, if it helps, I live in NYC.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1798" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="719" RevisionGUID="b9d35ef0-13f1-434f-9abe-bd6319a619f3" CreationDate="2013-09-01T05:49:55.060" Comment="Proposed by 782 approved by 64 edit id of 157" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1799" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="724" RevisionGUID="ddee9174-ed53-48ab-8652-7507c7ae7874" CreationDate="2013-09-01T05:50:30.953" UserId="64" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="1800" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="725" RevisionGUID="6a537806-a580-47c7-9b2f-a0a74973ce2c" CreationDate="2013-09-01T10:08:29.923" UserId="738" Text="A locum, in NHS parlance, is a professional standing in for another.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - What companies in the Information/Communications Technology domain use locum to fill positions on their technology (programming, networking, support, qa) teams? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Have any ICT companies even adopted the locum paradigm?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1801" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="725" RevisionGUID="6a537806-a580-47c7-9b2f-a0a74973ce2c" CreationDate="2013-09-01T10:08:29.923" UserId="738" Text="What ICT companies fill a locum by a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1802" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="725" RevisionGUID="6a537806-a580-47c7-9b2f-a0a74973ce2c" CreationDate="2013-09-01T10:08:29.923" UserId="738" Text="|employment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1803" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="726" RevisionGUID="26a779c9-ff93-41b7-baec-5bf3faf7c975" CreationDate="2013-09-01T15:51:35.320" UserId="85" Text="In most situations, the two are very different...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Doctors in General Practice are usually self-employed or in small partnerships (no political discussion of recent NHS changes, please) and when one is absent, the practice is unlikely to be able to fill the void themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, ICT companies usually have enough staff to be able to cover (temporary) absence.  This also tends to apply in most hospitals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are two specific situations when &quot;locum&quot; staff are used within ICT:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. For long-term absence (whether due to sickness or perhaps maternity leave) then it is not uncommon for a company to bring in an agency temp as cover.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Extremely rarely, a freelancer has been allowed to supply a substitute worker. Substitution was seen as a *silver bullet* against the UK's [tag:ir35] laws, but IME client companies are seldom amenable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whilst in the NHS, some doctors make a good living out of being a career locum, this is not a business model I would have confidence in being lucrative for an ICT worker." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1804" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="167" RevisionGUID="91479d58-a54f-4e59-88a1-730c5597f780" CreationDate="2013-09-01T21:34:48.967" UserId="726" Comment="removed confusing/incorrect use of the word &quot;right&quot; (which was probably meant to be write) and removed double spaces after period because we're not writing on typewriters anymore" Text="This is highly dependent on local jurisdiction unless there is a contract governing the rights. The best practice is to have a lawyer draft up a boilerplate contract for you that specifies the rights in a way you are comfortable with and make sure they explain it to you so you understand the implications. Then if a client has questions about it or wants to make alterations, you understand what you are giving up if you remove a particular part of the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, be aware that if you want to maintain rights to code, it is also often necessary to have a solid NDA (non-disclosure agreement) that can help protect your clients' proprietary information and business processes that may be incorporated in the code. In those cases, you may have the rights to the code, but may not be able to reuse it without striping out the portions that fall under NDA restrictions." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1805" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="167" RevisionGUID="91479d58-a54f-4e59-88a1-730c5597f780" CreationDate="2013-09-01T21:34:48.967" Comment="Proposed by 726 approved by -1 edit id of 159" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1806" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="167" RevisionGUID="95751ddf-6c3e-4c01-a99b-c1b667338d6e" CreationDate="2013-09-01T21:34:48.967" UserId="58" Comment="removed confusing/incorrect use of the word &quot;right&quot; (which was probably meant to be write) and removed double spaces after period because we're not writing on typewriters anymore" Text="This is highly dependent on local jurisdiction, unless there is a contract governing the rights. The best practice is to have a lawyer draft up a boilerplate contract for you that specifies the rights in a way you are comfortable with and make sure they explain it to you so you understand the implications. Then if a client has questions about it or wants to make alterations, you understand what you are giving up if you remove a particular part of the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, be aware that if you want to maintain rights to code you've written, it is also often necessary to have a solid NDA (non-disclosure agreement) that can help protect your clients' proprietary information and business processes that may be incorporated in the code. In those cases, you may have the rights to the code, but may not be able to reuse it without stripping out the portions that fall under NDA restrictions." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1807" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="727" RevisionGUID="6679a065-341f-4a7c-98fd-5b324409d847" CreationDate="2013-09-01T23:54:38.593" UserId="812" Text="When I'm billing hourly, I build my monthly invoice on a spreadheet. Column A is start time. B is end time. C is a desription of what I did during the period, including maybe a statement about what I'm going to do next. Column D = B - A. Column E = D * my rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I send all this detail as my invoice with appropriate (pretty) header and footer, payment instructions, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long story short, I bill to the minute and provide details about the content of every phone conference, programming period, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BTW, in Excel &lt;Ctrl-;&gt;&lt;space&gt;&lt;Ctrl-Shift-;&gt; records date and time. And Column D needs formatting to display hh:mm." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1808" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="728" RevisionGUID="1966ef67-5674-4029-bf0f-3740a335e7e6" CreationDate="2013-09-02T01:10:38.037" UserId="726" Text="As a freelance software developer I've run into a contract with a &quot;Work For Hire&quot; clause. After doing a fair amount of research I've found that this clause seems too restrictive, especially in the case of software development, specifically work that would potentially involve contributing back to the open source community.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want contract language that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Gives my client piece of mind the software is free for them to use and change (like the MIT or something)&#xD;&#xA;2. Let them know I won't disclose their proprietary info (trade secrets and the like)&#xD;&#xA;3. Allows me to discuss architectural or design challenges indirectly on my own blog or twitter etc &#xD;&#xA;4. Allows me to potentially adapt and contribute some of my work back to the open source community (not a certainty, but likely that I'll at least be doing pull requests on related software)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't have a strong background in contract legal speak but I'm pretty sure I want to remain the copyright holder but provide reassurance to my client that I won't sell them out, compete against them, or disclose their trade secrets. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm looking for your thoughts and experiences you've had in crafting contracts where there client feels a great sense of urgency to own the IP but needs help in of education about the heavy reuse (via open source frameworks etc) present in modern software development.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1809" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="728" RevisionGUID="1966ef67-5674-4029-bf0f-3740a335e7e6" CreationDate="2013-09-02T01:10:38.037" UserId="726" Text="Work For Hire versus doing software dev that you want to be open source and blog friendly" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1810" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="728" RevisionGUID="1966ef67-5674-4029-bf0f-3740a335e7e6" CreationDate="2013-09-02T01:10:38.037" UserId="726" Text="|contracts|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1811" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="728" RevisionGUID="750c5176-73e1-4bd4-ae47-48ca9c93eb73" CreationDate="2013-09-02T05:43:02.457" UserId="726" Comment="added 201 characters in body" Text="As a freelance software developer I've run into a contract with a &quot;Work For Hire&quot; clause that I'm almost certainly going to reject. After doing a fair amount of research I've found that this clause seems too restrictive, especially in the case of software development, specifically work that would potentially involve contributing back to the open source community.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it reasonable to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Gives my client piece of mind the software is free for them to use and change (like the MIT or something)&#xD;&#xA;2. Let them know I won't disclose their proprietary info (trade secrets and the like)&#xD;&#xA;3. Allows me to discuss architectural or design challenges indirectly on my own blog or twitter etc &#xD;&#xA;4. Allows me to potentially adapt and contribute some of my work back to the open source community (not a certainty, but likely that I'll at least be doing pull requests on related software)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't have a strong background in contract legal speak but I'm pretty sure I want to remain the copyright holder but provide reassurance to my client that I won't sell them out, compete against them, or disclose their trade secrets. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I realize a lawyer is probably best equipped but as a starting point I am looking for your thoughts and experiences in crafting contract processes where there the client needs assurance you will protect their proprietary info in the face the natuarally reciprocal relationship present in modern software development -- open source frameworks, stackoverflow etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or am I just stuck with the accepting stringent terms and asking the client for circumstantial provisions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1812" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="728" RevisionGUID="8cb21da9-2431-40e3-ac0f-0b94448696a7" CreationDate="2013-09-02T05:48:35.577" UserId="726" Comment="added 201 characters in body" Text="As a freelance software developer I've run into a contract with a &quot;Work For Hire&quot; clause that I'm almost certainly going to reject. After doing a fair amount of research I've found that this clause seems too restrictive, especially in the case of software development, specifically work that would potentially involve contributing back to the open source community.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it reasonable to balance these requirements for a startup client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Gives my client piece of mind the software is free for them to use and change (like the MIT or something)&#xD;&#xA;2. Let them know I won't disclose their proprietary info (trade secrets and the like)&#xD;&#xA;3. Allows me to discuss architectural or design challenges indirectly on my own blog or twitter etc &#xD;&#xA;4. Allows me to potentially adapt and contribute some of my work back to the open source community (not a certainty, but likely that I'll at least be doing pull requests on related software)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't have a strong background in contract legal speak but I'm *pretty* sure I want to remain the copyright holder while allowing my client full use of the work legally while also provide reassurance that I won't sell them out, compete against them, or disclose their trade secrets. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I realize a lawyer is probably best equipped but as a starting point I am looking for your thoughts and experiences in crafting contract processes where there the client needs assurance you will protect their proprietary info in the face the natuarally reciprocal relationship present in modern software development -- open source frameworks, stackoverflow etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or am I just stuck with the accepting stringent terms and asking the client for circumstantial provisions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1813" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="726" RevisionGUID="2dc72889-b7a9-4873-acb4-73d0d481b84e" CreationDate="2013-09-02T08:36:30.243" UserId="85" Comment="added 16 characters in body" Text="In most situations, the two are very different...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Doctors in General Practice are usually self-employed or in small partnerships (no political discussion of recent NHS changes, please) and when one is absent, the practice is unlikely to be able to fill the void themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, ICT companies usually have enough staff to be able to cover (temporary) absence.  This also tends to apply in most hospitals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are two specific situations when &quot;locum&quot; staff are used within ICT:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. For long-term absence (whether due to sickness or perhaps maternity leave) then it is not uncommon for a company to bring in an agency temp as cover.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Extremely rarely, a freelancer has been allowed to supply a substitute worker. Substitution was seen as a *silver bullet* against the UK's [tag:ir35] laws, but IME client companies are seldom amenable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whilst in the NHS, some doctors make a good living out of being a career locum, the ICT career locum is not a business model I would have confidence in being lucrative for an ICT worker." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1814" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="729" RevisionGUID="80adb44f-4a96-4d48-8ceb-93335c9369c2" CreationDate="2013-09-02T12:43:36.343" UserId="816" Text="I'm not sure what the question is. Are those 4 things reasonable? Yeah, of course. Also, it sounds a bit like you're being asked to WFH contract to work on an open source (or &quot;to be open sourced at some future date&quot;) project, which seems like two very different copyright models. Work on open source code anonymously? No thanks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've never run into a WFH clause in a contract, and I would be equally hesitant to sign it. I think a simple &quot;no compete&quot; clause would do the trick here, especially if it's going to be on open source or partially open source code. I worked on some software for a guy a while back who was cool with giving the code away, but wanted me to sign a non-disclosure, non-compete agreement that I wouldn't work with any of his competitors for 3 years or something.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, yeah, non-disclose/non-compete seems like it would protect your client from what they're worried about, but WFH seems to me like an overwrought way of doing that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, yeah, talk to a lawyer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1815" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="730" RevisionGUID="3c512715-2126-490f-bae0-418e258f5115" CreationDate="2013-09-02T16:05:04.633" UserId="58" Text="If the company wants &quot;proprietary information&quot; in a program, then they should not make it open sourced, period (with a few exceptions).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if they do decide to open source some of the work that you do, you can just agree to be a contributor or agree to be attributed in the contract; this entire negotiating area is quite daunting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's a few rules that govern this, but if in doubt, *always* consult a lawyer or a government legal aide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - You are using an open-source framework that:&#xD;&#xA;  - allows commercial use, and&#xD;&#xA;  - doesn't force open-source (read: most licenses with the exception of the GPL), and&#xD;&#xA;  - your client is asking for an application that you will be writing&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then it is entirely reasonable (and even enforced in countries such as the USA) that they own copyright and licensing for that work. They can also enforce an NDA on the code you are writing, but this must be in the contract when you agree to write the software if they wish to enforce it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you were to make a program and then sell it, you still own the copyright and can license this however you wish. However, keep in mind that if you own the copyright to a piece of software, you are free to grant whoever you wish written consent to use the software in any way they please.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Concerning your worries about being unable to contribute back the work, you can agree to work on it if the work is licensed under the MIT or BSD (2 clause or 3 clause) license (or another compatible license; see OSI or a lawyer). With either, you are allowed to fork and contribute to the project separately without intervention from the client (provided you keep the mandatory source code header attribution for the BSD 3-clause)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1816" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="728" RevisionGUID="dd3fa1dd-fd38-4d9c-9a31-897ba25db07d" CreationDate="2013-09-02T16:59:42.553" UserId="726" Comment="added 1332 characters in body; edited title" Text="&gt; *Update: Sept, 2* The answers of @mysterycommand and @Hiroto gave some good insight and prompted me to be more clear. I've rephrased my question with explicit details; the intent is the same, hopefully clearer now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelance software developer I've run into a contract with a &quot;Work For Hire&quot; clause that effectively renders me an employee of my client. I have not signed this contract but it got me thinking:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**At what point do you need your employers permission to contribute to open source on the job? (see scenarios below)**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In software development it's common to use open source, permissively licensed software, i.e. ok for commercial reuse. The company you work for is not involved in open source but you choose to use it on the job (an application framework, blog, cms for instance). In the US it's assumed your employer generally owns the copyright on work done on the job. In the course of doing your job you write some code that you want to contribute back to the community — outlined are some examples:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* You find a bug in a some open source code you're using at work and you fix the bug. You've changed a few lines at most, maybe even just a few characters. **Do you need your employers permission to submit a pull request to contribute your change back into the project's public repo?**&#xD;&#xA;* You have a half finished piece of open source you've started on your own time. During the course of your work on the job you end up seeing the utility of your code so you choose to use your own previously written code. You end up needing to tweak the code, fix a function, or add a new feature so you can effectively complete your job. **Do you need your employees permission to publish the changes you made to the module you started on your own time but improved in the course of your work for the company?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above two cases seem very grey to me, so your insight would be helpful. Following is an example which seems less grey in terms of getting permission (it seems like an obvious yes) but seems like the logical next step in the topic:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* In the course of you work on the job you see the utility in creating a reusable module that will save you time in future projects at work. You write this module and realize that it's a pretty good bit of software and other people (outside your job) may find it useful too and may even help you make it better. **When you work for a company that is not active in the open source space, how do you approach conversations about the benefits of open sourcing work you made on the job?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Asking these questions has made me realize that it's important to be on the same page as your employer — for freelancers we can specifically walk away from projects which don't meet our standards and it generally seems better to retain the rights to work created on the job if you want to contribute back to the open source community — but I still think the question is valuable because you may find yourself in a situation where you need a job badly or jumped into work before reading the contract throughly. Thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1817" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="728" RevisionGUID="dd3fa1dd-fd38-4d9c-9a31-897ba25db07d" CreationDate="2013-09-02T16:59:42.553" UserId="726" Comment="added 1332 characters in body; edited title" Text="Contributing back to open source projects you use on the job" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1818" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="728" RevisionGUID="e90ac898-845e-4434-b7af-9a7c958dcd09" CreationDate="2013-09-02T17:06:00.843" UserId="726" Comment="added 27 characters in body" Text="&gt; *Update: Sept, 2* The answers of @mysterycommand and @Hiroto gave some good insight and prompted me to be more clear. I've rephrased my question with explicit details; the intent is the same, hopefully clearer now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelance software developer I've run into a contract with a &quot;Work For Hire&quot; clause that effectively renders me an employee of my client. I have not signed this contract but it got me thinking:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**At what point do you need your employers permission to contribute to open source on the job? (see scenarios below)**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In software development it's common to use open source, permissively licensed software, i.e. ok for commercial reuse. The company you work for is not involved in open source but you choose to use it on the job (an application framework, blog, cms for instance). In the US it's assumed your employer generally owns the copyright on work done on the job. In the course of doing your job you write some code that you want to contribute back to the community — outlined are some examples:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* You find a bug in a some open source code you're using at work and you fix the bug. You've changed a few lines at most, maybe even just a few characters. **Do you need your employers permission to submit a pull request to contribute your change back into the project's public repo?**&#xD;&#xA;* You have a half finished piece of open source you've started on your own time. During the course of your work on the job you end up seeing the utility of your code so you choose to use your own previously written code. You end up needing to tweak the code, fix a function, or add a new feature so you can effectively complete your job. **Do you need your employees permission to publish the changes you made to the module you started on your own time but improved in the course of your work for the company?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above two cases seem very grey to me, so your insight would be helpful. Following is an example which seems less grey in terms of getting permission (it seems like an obvious yes) but takes the question to the next logical step:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* In the course of you work on the job you see the utility in creating a reusable module that will save you time in future projects at work. You write this module and realize that it's a pretty good bit of software and other people (outside your job) may find it useful too and may even help you make it better. **When you work for a company that is not active in the open source space, how do you approach conversations about the benefits of open sourcing work you made on the job?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Asking this question has made me realize that it's important to be on the same page as your employer — for freelancers we can specifically walk away from projects which don't meet our standards (for instance I'm not sure Work For Hire is going to work for me) and it generally seems better to retain the rights to work created on the job in the case you want to contribute back to the open source community — but I still think the question is valuable because freelancers may need to take a WFH job or jumped into without knowing ahead of time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1819" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="728" RevisionGUID="2b74f1d1-138a-4f22-aaac-ab89f7c55f87" CreationDate="2013-09-02T17:12:38.373" UserId="726" Comment="edited title" Text="Contributing back to open source projects you use and improve on the job" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1820" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="731" RevisionGUID="744bc90e-efc6-425b-bf81-0053eb9c3f0d" CreationDate="2013-09-02T17:13:23.337" UserId="336" Text="To me it sounds like this person will have a hard time trusting you no matter what. If you're inexperienced I would push away from billing per project because it would depend on you properly estimating how long it will take. Giving a time estimate for smaller parts of the project might be worthwhile because it gives the client some knowledge ahead of time about how long something should take. However this does mean you need to sit down with the client for at least an hour to flesh out some of his/her needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If that doesn't work, you might try getting a smaller project or part of the main project as a paid trial to try to raise the client's trust of your abilities and how quickly you get things done. Pick something that will take maybe two weeks. Worst case scenario, you only wasted two weeks on a client that won't be happy with anything, and you still got paid for it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1821" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="728" RevisionGUID="9df6e140-333b-4c04-b12a-16702a8b8321" CreationDate="2013-09-02T17:18:12.253" UserId="726" Comment="edited title" Text="Contributing back to open source projects you use and improve on the job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1822" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="728" RevisionGUID="9df6e140-333b-4c04-b12a-16702a8b8321" CreationDate="2013-09-02T17:18:12.253" UserId="726" Comment="edited title" Text="&gt; *Update: Sept, 2* The answers of @mysterycommand and @Hiroto gave some good insight and prompted me to be more clear. I've rephrased my question with explicit details; the intent is the same, hopefully clearer now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelance software developer I've run into a contract with a &quot;Work For Hire&quot; clause that effectively renders me an employee of my client. I have not signed this contract but it got me thinking:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**At what point do you need your employers permission to contribute to open source code you use on the job? (see scenarios below)**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In software development it's common to use open source, permissively licensed software, i.e. ok for commercial reuse. The company you work for is not involved in open source but you choose to use it on the job (an application framework, blog, cms for instance). In the US it's assumed your employer generally owns the copyright on work done on the job. In the course of doing your job you write some code that you want to contribute back to the community — outlined are some examples:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* You find a bug in a some open source code you're using at work and you fix the bug. You've changed a few lines at most, maybe even just a few characters. **Do you need your employers permission to submit a pull request to contribute your change back into the project's public repo?**&#xD;&#xA;* You have a half finished piece of open source you've started on your own time. During the course of your work on the job you end up seeing the utility of your code so you choose to use your own previously written code. You end up needing to tweak the code, fix a function, or add a new feature so you can effectively complete your job. **Do you need your employees permission to publish the changes you made to the module you started on your own time but improved in the course of your work for the company?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above two cases seem very grey to me, so your insight would be helpful. Following is an example which seems less grey in terms of getting permission (it seems like an obvious yes) but takes the question to the next logical step:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* In the course of you work on the job you see the utility in creating a reusable module that will save you time in future projects at work. You write this module and realize that it's a pretty good bit of software and other people (outside your job) may find it useful too and may even help you make it better. **When you work for a company that is not active in the open source space, how do you approach conversations about the benefits of open sourcing work you made on the job?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Asking this question has made me realize that it's important to be on the same page as your client. As freelancers we can specifically walk away from projects which don't meet our standards (for instance I'm not sure Work For Hire is going to work for me). Also, it generally seems better to retain the rights to work created on the job in the case you want to contribute back to the open source community. I hope this question is still valuable because we may need to take a WFH job (fiscally compelled) or jumped into a contract without understanding ahead of time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1823" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="728" RevisionGUID="9df6e140-333b-4c04-b12a-16702a8b8321" CreationDate="2013-09-02T17:18:12.253" UserId="726" Comment="edited title" Text="|client|contracts|copyright|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1824" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="732" RevisionGUID="86957812-a396-4057-94c7-1ebdc1cd51b6" CreationDate="2013-09-02T17:34:44.370" UserId="726" Text="A client has given me a contract that needs some changes before I'd sign it. I have no problem reading and doing basic research for a few pages of legalese. Most of the contract is fine but there are specific parts which I want to change.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Two paths occur to me:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Get a lawyer involved on my behalf&#xD;&#xA;2. Express my concerns in plain language and have my clients lawyer incorporate the changes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I being naive assuming that option 2 is even a possibility?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1825" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="732" RevisionGUID="86957812-a396-4057-94c7-1ebdc1cd51b6" CreationDate="2013-09-02T17:34:44.370" UserId="726" Text="How do you give feedback on a contract from a client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1826" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="732" RevisionGUID="86957812-a396-4057-94c7-1ebdc1cd51b6" CreationDate="2013-09-02T17:34:44.370" UserId="726" Text="|contracts|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1827" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="733" RevisionGUID="81310f31-c2f9-43a7-a43d-aca0b6adb54d" CreationDate="2013-09-02T18:07:47.563" UserId="517" Text="Well, since my wife is a lawyer, I asked here such questions zillions of times :). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To change the contract, you can use the everyday language and, as you said, their lawyers will change the contract. But are you sure that you understand the contract 100%? Many, many times I've given a &quot;simple contract&quot; to my wife, and she found tens hidden clauses which I did not understand even after she explained them to me. The only thing I understood was that I should not sign that and that is bad for me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's like you're making an application for a client and he asks for source code. Do you really think he can understand the code like yourself and be able to find flaws in it? Or when he's testing a demo - a small slowdown in the app which he may not notice at all, can mean that you were lazy to properly handle some heavy task :). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To get back to your question. When I have to sign contracts, I do like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IF he can sue me and if I can face legal consequences (not all foreign clients can sue me), then I give this to my wife and I do not start working before all has been cleared up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IF he cannot sue me, then I usually sign after a quick look on it. Like when you sign NDAs or similar contracts. In such cases, I do not need a legal protection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Find your option and do not sorry for money you spend on a legal counsellor. Consequences may costs you 10 times more. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1828" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="728" RevisionGUID="e8c96635-e9c4-41b1-94a0-9987c1b3b643" CreationDate="2013-09-02T19:53:27.877" UserId="726" Comment="deleted 27 characters in body" Text="&gt; *Update: Sept, 2* The answers of @mysterycommand and @Hiroto gave some good insight and prompted me to be more clear. I've rephrased my question with explicit details; the intent is the same, hopefully clearer now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelance software developer I've run into a contract with a &quot;Work For Hire&quot; clause that effectively renders me an employee of my client. I have not signed this contract but it got me thinking:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**At what point do you need your employers permission to contribute to open source code you use on the job? (see scenarios below)**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In software development it's common to use open source, permissively licensed software, i.e. ok for commercial reuse. The company you work for is not involved in open source but you choose to use it on the job (an application framework, blog, cms for instance). In the US it's assumed your employer generally owns the copyright on work done on the job. In the course of doing your job you write some code that you want to contribute back to the community — outlined are some examples:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* You find a bug in a some open source code you're using at work and you fix the bug. You've changed a few lines at most, maybe even just a few characters. **Do you need your employers permission to submit a pull request to contribute your change back into the project's public repo?**&#xD;&#xA;* You have a half finished piece of open source you've started on your own time. During the course of your work on the job you end up seeing the utility of your code so you choose to use your own previously written code. You end up needing to tweak the code, fix a function, or add a new feature so you can effectively complete your job. **Do you need your employees permission to publish the changes you made to the module you started on your own time but improved in the course of your work for the company?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above two cases seem very grey to me, so your insight would be helpful. Following is an example which seems less grey in terms of getting permission (it seems like an obvious yes) but takes the question to the next logical step:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* In the course of you work on the job you see the utility in creating a reusable module that will save you time in future projects at work. You write this module and realize that it's a pretty good bit of software and other people (outside your job) may find it useful too and may even help you make it better. **When you work for a company that is not active in the open source space, how do you approach conversations about the benefits of open sourcing work you made on the job?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Asking this question has made me realize that it's important to be on the same page as your client. As freelancers we can specifically walk away from projects which don't meet our standards (for instance I'm not sure Work For Hire is going to work for me). Also, it generally seems better to retain the rights to work created on the job in the case you want to contribute back to the open source community. As freelancers we may need to take a WFH job (fiscally compelled) or have jumped into a contract without understanding ahead of time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1829" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="728" RevisionGUID="e8c96635-e9c4-41b1-94a0-9987c1b3b643" CreationDate="2013-09-02T19:53:27.877" UserId="726" Comment="deleted 27 characters in body" Text="Contributing back to open source projects you've used and improved on the job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1830" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="733" RevisionGUID="6db7b2a1-ced9-4302-8d7d-0143b698e8c9" CreationDate="2013-09-02T20:08:20.740" UserId="726" Comment="well written just tweaked a few awkward pieces of grammar" Text="Well, since my wife is a lawyer I've asked her such questions zillions of times :). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To change the contract, you can use the everyday language and, as you said, their lawyers will change the contract. But are you sure that you understand the contract 100%? Many, many times I've given a &quot;simple contract&quot; to my wife, and she found tens of hidden clauses which I did not understand even after she explained them to me. The only thing I understood was that I should not sign the contract as given.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's like you're making an application for a client and he asks for source code. Do you really think he can understand the code and find flaws in it? Or when he's testing a demo - a small slowdown in the app which he may not notice at all was due to a lazy implementation in your source :).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To get back to your question. When I have to sign contracts, I do like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IF he can sue me and if I can face legal consequences (not all foreign clients can sue me), then I give this to my wife and I do not start working before all has been cleared up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IF he cannot sue me, then I usually sign after a quick look on it. Like when you sign NDAs or similar contracts. In such cases, I do not need a legal protection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Find your option and do not sorry for money you spend on a legal counsellor. Consequences may costs you 10 times more. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1831" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="733" RevisionGUID="6db7b2a1-ced9-4302-8d7d-0143b698e8c9" CreationDate="2013-09-02T20:08:20.740" Comment="Proposed by 726 approved by 517 edit id of 160" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1832" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="730" RevisionGUID="9da647be-8f06-4bd4-a3a5-531dae1b026e" CreationDate="2013-09-02T20:37:36.217" UserId="58" Comment="added 1508 characters in body" Text="*Disclaimer: Always read contracts you sign multiple times. Regardless of whether or not a contract is enforceable, be sure you do not agree to anything you disagree with.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Do you need your employer's permission to submit a pull request to contribute your change back into the project's public repo? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nope. this is a straight up &quot;no&quot;, regardless. You are contributing to an open source project. For your employer/client to claim copyright over your contributions to an open-source project would violate *absolutely every single FOSS license* than has, can, does or will exist (bold statement in some countries, but you should **really** adhere to this).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you are employed**, pull request in your own time, away from work (as technically your employer can claim copyright and thus your pull request can be denied/invalidated, depending on license)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you are freelancing**, just pull request. Unless you accepted a contract which sold your soul to your client for every waking moment until the date your project is finished, there are no problems with contributing to open-source projects as a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Do you need your employees permission to publish the changes you made to the module you started on your own time but improved in the course of your work for the company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Something very, *very* important to note here is that you do not create the code as part of your client's module/program. Create it and license it, and you will own the copyright regardless of outcome. Just don't write it while on the client's premises.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also publish it somewhere well in advance, and use it as a library in the client's code. Be sure the license is compatible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## When you work for a company that is not active in the open source space, how do you approach conversations about the benefits of open sourcing work you made on the job?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should publish code you intend to reuse under a permissive license and then include them as libraries. Any other course of action can (and probably will) result in upset from software consumers who dislike open-source. I recall asking a Marketing Manager at Microsoft UK what his stance on open-source was and he looked at me like I'd just grown another head.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the company wants &quot;proprietary information&quot; in a program, then they will not make it open sourced, period (with a few exceptions).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if they do decide to open source some of the work that you do, you can just agree to be a contributor or agree to be attributed in the contract; this entire negotiating area is quite daunting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's a few rules that govern this, but if in doubt, *always* consult a lawyer or a government legal aide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - You are using an open-source framework that:&#xD;&#xA;  - allows commercial use, and&#xD;&#xA;  - doesn't force open-source (read: most licenses with the exception of the GPL), and&#xD;&#xA;  - your client is asking for an application that you will be writing&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then it is entirely reasonable (and even enforced in countries such as the USA) that they own copyright and licensing for that work. They can also enforce an NDA on the code you are writing, but this must be in the contract when you agree to write the software if they wish to enforce it.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1833" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="732" RevisionGUID="764be900-b703-4c06-bd71-f034c58cfb8a" CreationDate="2013-09-02T21:18:20.337" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/374642471751680000" />
  <row Id="1834" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="734" RevisionGUID="8737002e-27ba-409c-ac0f-3477447204d9" CreationDate="2013-09-03T06:23:15.133" UserId="667" Text="I occasionally have offers from people to help me get contracts.  In return, they want to be paid a commission or a certain percent of the net profits.  I have always had a hard time trying to figure what is acceptable, as well as, creating clearly defined terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For instance, let's say I will be the sole developer.  How do I calculate my work time into the equation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any good resources?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1835" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="734" RevisionGUID="8737002e-27ba-409c-ac0f-3477447204d9" CreationDate="2013-09-03T06:23:15.133" UserId="667" Text="Acceptable terms for sales contract" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1836" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="734" RevisionGUID="8737002e-27ba-409c-ac0f-3477447204d9" CreationDate="2013-09-03T06:23:15.133" UserId="667" Text="|contracts|sales|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1837" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="735" RevisionGUID="e951a24c-2d61-4352-a3bd-c945889dc671" CreationDate="2013-09-03T12:06:56.860" UserId="517" Text="This is as simple as this - find out your hourly price and stick to it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you get such offer, analize the project in details and calculate how many work hours it will take you to finish it. Then tell your price to your &quot;people&quot;. They can add their commission on your price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to go deeper, you can calculate your maximum hourly rate (for short projects) and your minimum hourly rate (for projects over X work hours). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But basically, it all comes back to you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are not sure about your hourly rate, then browse statistics on popular freelancing websites as they will offer the average hourly rate for each field. After that try to figure out if you can use the average rate or you have to (de/in)crease it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, don't be intimidated if they tell you &quot;Can you do this job for XY dollars&quot;. Simply analyse it to see how much work there is and then calculate the hourly rate. In a matter of a second you will know if you should take the project or not. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1838" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="730" RevisionGUID="d850199d-2355-478c-80cf-362d83425780" CreationDate="2013-09-03T12:33:52.843" UserId="58" Comment="edited body" Text="*Disclaimer: Always read contracts you sign multiple times. Regardless of whether or not a contract is enforceable, be sure you do not agree to anything you disagree with.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Do you need your employer's permission to submit a pull request to contribute your change back into the project's public repo? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nope. this is a straight up &quot;no&quot;, regardless. You are contributing to an open source project. For your employer/client to claim copyright over your contributions to an open-source project would violate *absolutely every single FOSS license* that has, can, does or will exist (bold statement in some countries, but you should **really** adhere to this).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you are employed**, pull request in your own time, away from work (as technically your employer can claim copyright and thus your pull request can be denied/invalidated, depending on license)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you are freelancing**, just pull request. Unless you accepted a contract which sold your soul to your client for every waking moment until the date your project is finished, there are no problems with contributing to open-source projects as a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Do you need your employees permission to publish the changes you made to the module you started on your own time but improved in the course of your work for the company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Something very, *very* important to note here is that you do not create the code as part of your client's module/program. Create it and license it, and you will own the copyright regardless of outcome. Just don't write it while on the client's premises.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also publish it somewhere well in advance, and use it as a library in the client's code. Be sure the license is compatible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## When you work for a company that is not active in the open source space, how do you approach conversations about the benefits of open sourcing work you made on the job?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should publish code you intend to reuse under a permissive license and then include them as libraries. Any other course of action can (and probably will) result in upset from software consumers who dislike open-source. I recall asking a Marketing Manager at Microsoft UK what his stance on open-source was and he looked at me like I'd just grown another head.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the company wants &quot;proprietary information&quot; in a program, then they will not make it open sourced, period (with a few exceptions).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if they do decide to open source some of the work that you do, you can just agree to be a contributor or agree to be attributed in the contract; this entire negotiating area is quite daunting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's a few rules that govern this, but if in doubt, *always* consult a lawyer or a government legal aide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - You are using an open-source framework that:&#xD;&#xA;  - allows commercial use, and&#xD;&#xA;  - doesn't force open-source (read: most licenses with the exception of the GPL), and&#xD;&#xA;  - your client is asking for an application that you will be writing&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then it is entirely reasonable (and even enforced in countries such as the USA) that they own copyright and licensing for that work. They can also enforce an NDA on the code you are writing, but this must be in the contract when you agree to write the software if they wish to enforce it.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1839" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="736" RevisionGUID="b93d3275-d999-447c-9364-924e8df33c60" CreationDate="2013-09-03T14:59:59.550" UserId="514" Text="Are they doing the upfront work only? Or adding some value over the course of the job, such managing your billing and payment, tax and other required deductions, and other ongoing support tasks? They should get paid for each effort.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For matchmaking, they should get paid a finder's fee. More if they are selling *you* specifically to a specific client than if they are just finding opportunities for you to sell yourself. The finder's fee might be a lump sum or it could be a (relatively small) percentage of your billing. For starters, what's an appropriate fee in your business, in your area? What's the length of your typical job? Divide, and take that as a guide. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they then want to act in some support role like billing, you should pay them whatever that service is worth to you. How much time can they save you? What are you willing to pay to not do it yourself? Perhaps you can knock out an invoice in 10 minutes and would rather do it. Or maybe you'd so much rather focus on your service than take time out to for support tasks that you'd gladly pay someone else to do it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1840" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="737" RevisionGUID="0206b84a-7098-43bc-acf2-ae7d682b9018" CreationDate="2013-09-03T15:26:17.980" UserId="820" Text="The bottom line is that you need to establish a relationship with the client. If they don't trust you to bill them fairly - they why are they trusting you to do the work correctly? Of course you know that, since you're essentially asking how to establish that kind of relationship with new clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's a couple of ways:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Do something small first**. If you can, pick a simple deliverable, where the client has a good idea of what time it should take. This doesn't prove that you'll be honest about things when the client doesn't have a good understanding of the time it should take, but the goal is to find something you both can be comfortable with at the start - to *establish* the trust needed down the road. Before signing that big contract, find something small to do. This also helps avoid costly, drawn-out interviews, as it's essentially a paid trial.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Overestimate your time**. At the start, if you consistently beat your estimated time, your new client will realize you're not trying a bait and switch. At the core, their fear is that they'll approve some project / task assuming a cost, and that cost will grow. Under-estimating to get approval will break their trust as much as padding hours. But at least you can prove you're not doing the former. For this to work well, you need to give estimates on small tasks, not large projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Outsource the trust** (at least to start things off). This is going to probably be the most controversial. I'm a full time contractor / freelancer, and I do *all* my hourly billing through [oDesk](https://www.odesk.com/) (and have done that for *years*). One reason I do that is they make it [easy for me to trust that the client will pay me](https://kb.odesk.com/questions/1385/What+is+oDesk%27s+payment+guarantee%3F) (they guarantee payment), and they make it [easy for the client to verify that I'm working](https://kb.odesk.com/questions/1167/What+does+the+Team+application%27s+Time+Tracker+record%3F) (they take random screen shots, and record keyboard / mouse activity levels). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do all three regularly. I don't estimate large projects, I work with new clients to find the smallest possible thing we can build - so they can feel comfortable spending a little money to evaluate my actual work. I also overestimate the time on that first deliverable. Yes, I loose some potential clients because of that - but I don't really want clients that are so tight on their budget that there no wiggle room. In that way, the process is a kind of trial run from my perspective as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And as mentioned, I use oDesk for all my hourly contracts. Even if the client contacts me directly, I have them signup and hire me through the platform (for more reasons than what is stated above).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a contract developer, this works well (I believe) for the kind of work I do. It may not work well for other kinds of contracting / freelancing, but I think it's at least worth considering. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1841" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="737" RevisionGUID="e56f3d8f-2695-4bea-9d52-350b5ec9de54" CreationDate="2013-09-03T15:44:00.340" UserId="820" Comment="deleted 10 characters in body" Text="The bottom line is that you need to establish a relationship with the client. If they don't trust you to bill them fairly - they why are they trusting you to do the work correctly? Of course you know that, since you're asking how to establish that kind of relationship with *new clients*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's a couple of ways:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Do something small first**. If you can, pick a simple deliverable, where the client has a good idea of what time it should take. This doesn't prove that you'll be honest about things when the client doesn't have a good understanding of the time it should take, but the goal is to find something you both can be comfortable with at the start - to *establish* the trust needed down the road. Before signing that big contract, find something small to do. This also helps avoid costly, drawn-out interviews, as it's essentially a paid trial.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Overestimate your time**. At the start, if you consistently beat your estimated time, your new client will realize you're not trying a bait and switch. At the core, their fear is that they'll approve some project / task assuming a cost, and that cost will grow. Under-estimating to get approval will break their trust as much as padding hours. But at least you can prove you're not doing the former. For this to work well, you need to give estimates on small tasks, not large projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Outsource the trust** (at least to start things off). This is going to probably be the most controversial. I'm a full time contractor / freelancer, and I do *all* my hourly billing through [oDesk](https://www.odesk.com/) (and have done that for *years*). One reason I do that is they make it [easy for me to trust that the client will pay me](https://kb.odesk.com/questions/1385/What+is+oDesk%27s+payment+guarantee%3F) (they guarantee payment), and they make it [easy for the client to verify that I'm working](https://kb.odesk.com/questions/1167/What+does+the+Team+application%27s+Time+Tracker+record%3F) (they take random screen shots, and record keyboard / mouse activity levels). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do all three regularly. I don't estimate large projects, I work with new clients to find the smallest possible thing we can build - so they can feel comfortable spending a little money to evaluate my actual work. I also overestimate the time on that first deliverable. Yes, I loose some potential clients because of that - but I don't really want clients that are so tight on their budget that there no wiggle room. In that way, the process is a kind of trial run from my perspective as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And as mentioned, I use oDesk for all my hourly contracts. Even if the client contacts me directly, I have them signup and hire me through the platform (for more reasons than what is stated above).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a contract developer, this works well (I believe) for the kind of work I do. It may not work well for other kinds of contracting / freelancing, but I think it's at least worth considering. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1842" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="737" RevisionGUID="08003c9b-60bf-49af-abcb-0c9d4789b628" CreationDate="2013-09-03T19:00:56.830" UserId="820" Comment="added 149 characters in body" Text="The bottom line is that you need to establish a relationship with the client. If they don't trust you to bill them fairly - they why are they trusting you to do the work correctly? Of course you know that, since you're asking how to establish that kind of relationship with *new clients*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's a couple of ways:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Do something small first**. If you can, pick a simple deliverable, where the client has a good idea of what time it should take. This doesn't prove that you'll be honest about things when the client doesn't have a good understanding of the time it should take, but the goal is to find something you both can be comfortable with at the start - to *establish* the trust needed down the road. Before signing that big contract, find something small to do. This also helps avoid costly, drawn-out interviews, as it's essentially a paid trial.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Overestimate your time**. At the start, if you consistently beat your estimated time, your new client will realize you're not trying a bait and switch. At the core, their fear is that they'll approve some project / task assuming a cost, and that cost will grow. Under-estimating to get approval will break their trust as much as padding hours. But at least you can prove you're not doing the former. For this to work well, you need to give estimates on small tasks, not large projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Outsource the trust** (at least to start things off). This is going to probably be the most controversial. I'm a full time contractor / freelancer, and I do *all* my hourly billing through [oDesk](https://www.odesk.com/) (and have done that for *years*). One reason I do that is they make it [easy for me to trust that the client will pay me](https://kb.odesk.com/questions/1385/What+is+oDesk%27s+payment+guarantee%3F) (they guarantee payment), and they make it [easy for the client to verify that I'm working](https://kb.odesk.com/questions/1167/What+does+the+Team+application%27s+Time+Tracker+record%3F) (they take random screen shots, and record keyboard / mouse activity levels). And that helps both parties feel comfortable when there's no prior relationship (a cold contact, not a referral through someone you mutually trust). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do all three regularly. I don't estimate large projects, I work with new clients to find the smallest possible thing we can build - so they can feel comfortable spending a little money to evaluate my actual work. I also overestimate the time on that first deliverable. Yes, I loose some potential clients because of that - but I don't really want clients that are so tight on their budget that there no wiggle room. In that way, the process is a kind of trial run from my perspective as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And as mentioned, I use oDesk for all my hourly contracts. Even if the client contacts me directly, I have them signup and hire me through the platform (for more reasons than what is stated above).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a contract developer, this works well (I believe) for the kind of work I do. It may not work well for other kinds of contracting / freelancing, but I think it's at least worth considering. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1843" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="738" RevisionGUID="576fa2c4-a2d7-4310-8eae-01e0eef1ccb1" CreationDate="2013-09-04T02:02:12.997" UserId="820" Text="I treat it case by case, and evaluate with these things in mind (I'm also a contract developer, so I'll use that context):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Is this something it's reasonable to expect I already know**? For example: if there's a new ORM I want to use, and I run into a roadblock setting it up, I won't bill that time. It's reasonable for the client to assume a web developer knows how to store data in a database. The client shouldn't pay for my decision to use a library I'm unfamiliar with (when I could have used the one I've used in the past). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I do mean a legitimate problem that takes some significant time. If the learning curve for me is just having some documentation open, and it taking a little longer to do something, I don't stop the clock. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Is this something the client specifically wanted**? This is the balance to the first - if a client is asking me to integrate with an API I've never used before, or setup some kind of authentication sync that's not something common to my field, the I bill for the time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Will this embarrass me?** Or perhaps better phrased, does this detract from my reputation. If I hit a significant time sync figuring something new out, then realize it was just me being kind of stupid, I may discount the time - even if it's something I'm not expected to know. In those cases I'll include the time I feel it should have taken me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that said, it's a very *feeling* based call - and a lot of it will depend on the dynamic I have with a client. If it's a long time client that is frequently asking for new technology / solutions - I'll feel more comfortable about including time then I would a new client where I'm still proving myself." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1844" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="739" RevisionGUID="00c76a33-6a5f-4f9e-87dd-eed9082dc829" CreationDate="2013-09-04T02:47:47.023" UserId="820" Text="[*A bit on my background, I'm a PHP developer, and I do all my hourly contracting through oDesk - been doing that for quite a while now.*]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, getting started can take some time. Not having a reputation / experience *contracting* is similar to not having a reputation / experience being a PHP Developer. Don't be discouraged, I mention this so you won't feel like you're taking a step back when it's hard to secure a project, or if you end up bidding at a lower rate than perhaps what you're used to making in traditional employment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just like you built up experience in your field, you'll need to build up experience in freelancing. But that certainly can be done. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's what I'd suggest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Be quick to respond:** face it, on the freelancing sites a public posting will get a *lot* of responses. Use whatever tools are available to be one of the first responses the client sees. In the past, I'd use an RSS reader to track job feeds on oDesk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Give away the secret:** in your bid, explain to the client how you'll implement / build / program whatever it is they're looking for. If it's a Twitter application, let them know why the want to use the streaming API instead of the REST API. Give them enough information that they feel like they should use your response to evaluate the rest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Find the right jobs:** this is doubly important for oDesk, where you're limited to a fixed number of bids per week. Setup searches that either identify jobs that match your experience well, or jobs that generally have less bids and you're able / willing to put in the work so you become experienced enough to respond to those jobs in a knowledgeable way. (*Again, oDesk search + RSS feeds can be great here.*)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Bring your own clients:** do you have clients outside these online marketplaces / platforms? Transition them to billing through the platform you like best. That's an easy way bring a local reputation online. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Avoid the bottom:** it may be tempting (all the while frustrating) to try to be the lowest bid. Don't do that. Yes, if you're starting out with no reputation as a contractor, you may need to bid lower than you'd want - but don't get caught up in trying to compete on price. This isn't a reverse eBay where the lowest bid wins - there are plenty of clients that ignore low bids, because they understand that reflects at least something about quality. Those are the clients you want. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first three are what I did to establish my reputation. Anymore I rarely bid on jobs, generally I just respond to requests (called interview invitations on oDesk). Sill, when I respond I try to give the potential client a detailed response that illustrates I am the contractor they want to use. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The fourth is what I wish I could have done, but I started out my freelancing career online.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope that's helpful.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1849" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="498" RevisionGUID="171fa0f2-ea8c-415f-995a-e51d20ae557b" CreationDate="2013-09-04T18:34:37.247" UserId="58" Comment="edited title to be easier to search for" Text="Sorting out the time wasters from serious clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1850" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="489" RevisionGUID="befbe1ee-ec32-43d1-b3bf-e59b37138316" CreationDate="2013-09-04T18:38:55.813" UserId="58" Comment="edited tags" Text="|client|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1851" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="546" RevisionGUID="ebd7d0a3-911e-4610-8d22-58502911b892" CreationDate="2013-09-04T18:49:01.967" UserId="58" Comment="edited title for better exposure" Text="|evaluating-clients|scope-creep|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1852" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="546" RevisionGUID="ebd7d0a3-911e-4610-8d22-58502911b892" CreationDate="2013-09-04T18:49:01.967" UserId="58" Comment="edited title for better exposure" Text="Is scope creep before work has even started a warning sign?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1854" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="707" RevisionGUID="a9fda154-a324-4253-a0bc-4ed9d3a8e68e" CreationDate="2013-09-04T18:54:54.913" UserId="58" Comment="edited tags" Text="|project-bidding|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1855" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="528" RevisionGUID="eb16a327-18bc-4365-9559-be4c6b9f14a8" CreationDate="2013-09-04T19:00:50.520" UserId="58" Comment="added 5 characters in body; edited tags; edited title" Text="I have been working for a company for the last 3 months. 2 months ago I created a personal account on a freelancing website and for trial purposes I have applied to 4-5 proposals on the site, but I have not worked with anyone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now my company have been informed of this, and they are telling me that I have done illegal things. They are terminating my employment and are not going to pay me for the last 2 months.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Have I really done something illegal and what can I do now?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Can anyone working for any company open a freelancing website account?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1856" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="528" RevisionGUID="eb16a327-18bc-4365-9559-be4c6b9f14a8" CreationDate="2013-09-04T19:00:50.520" UserId="58" Comment="added 5 characters in body; edited tags; edited title" Text="Whilst employed, can I open a freelancing website account?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1857" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="528" RevisionGUID="eb16a327-18bc-4365-9559-be4c6b9f14a8" CreationDate="2013-09-04T19:00:50.520" UserId="58" Comment="added 5 characters in body; edited tags; edited title" Text="|legal|consulting|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1858" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="741" RevisionGUID="4e4dfcb9-57e2-4b41-af1d-7967cfd24ebd" CreationDate="2013-09-04T21:45:05.647" UserId="827" Text="If you are in India, you're in trouble. Its illegal as per India law to have two jobs. My advice is assuming you are based in India.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will give you a general and least ethical but most practical advice. However it is really important to see your job contract to give a proper advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Firstly their decision of sacking off just for sending a proposal was unfair. This gives me an idea that you are working in a small firm that only cares for more business and more money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have never done any freelancing since you got this job. You can simply ask them to buzz off. They can never do anything to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are a Web Developer/SEO/Writing guy you can infact threaten them to stop or else this matter can go on the internet. If they really care for their reputation, then they will take this seriously and finish this off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want a peace of mind then ultimately the most they will want from you is money. I personally don't recommend but in case they are asking for something that is affordable to you, you can pay them. But since they already didn't pay you for 2 months. I recommend ask them for a PROPER Relieving letter and experience letter otherwise take this on twitter and everywhere on the web." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1859" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="742" RevisionGUID="afa23026-68f6-418c-b8af-f57de9ba0919" CreationDate="2013-09-05T09:11:58.243" UserId="830" Text="I am an experiences IT freelancer (15+ years of software development and systems administration) and have recently gained some SAP certification, actually the basic SAP ERP certificate (from SAP AG) and an ABAP certificate from a local university.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I'd like to apply my new skills a bit, preferably in a distance work setting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just on the well-known sites where freelance projects are posted there is barely any SAP stuff. Are there any special sites I just don't know about or does something like SAP distance contract work not exist at all?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1860" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="742" RevisionGUID="afa23026-68f6-418c-b8af-f57de9ba0919" CreationDate="2013-09-05T09:11:58.243" UserId="830" Text="Where to find remote contract work in SAP / ABAP?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1861" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="742" RevisionGUID="afa23026-68f6-418c-b8af-f57de9ba0919" CreationDate="2013-09-05T09:11:58.243" UserId="830" Text="|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1866" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="736" RevisionGUID="b4408b84-5f0f-483e-8a39-9948645ae812" CreationDate="2013-09-05T18:29:32.930" UserId="514" Comment="Clarify" Text="Would they do some upfront work only? Or continue to add some value during the course of the job, such managing your billing and payment, tax and other required deductions, and other ongoing support tasks? They should get paid for each effort.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For matchmaking, they should get paid a finder's fee. More if they are selling *you* specifically to a specific client than if they are just finding opportunities for you to sell yourself or mailing your resume to a hiring manager. The finder's fee might be a lump sum or it could be a (relatively small) percentage of your billing. For starters, what's an appropriate fee in your industry, in your area? What's the length of your typical job? Divide, and take that as a guide. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they then want to act in some support role like billing, you should pay them whatever that service is worth to you. How much time can they save you? What are you willing to pay to not do it yourself? Perhaps you can knock out an invoice in 10 minutes and would rather do it. Or maybe you'd so much rather focus on your service than take time out to for support tasks that you'd gladly pay someone else to do it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1867" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="744" RevisionGUID="064c8413-4787-45d2-bc53-96e74d166777" CreationDate="2013-09-05T20:01:16.273" UserId="517" Text="Being specialist in such tech is a good and bad thing. Good thing because you can set higher rates. Bad because there isn't much work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking for a specialized communities is a bit outdated. I once read that most such communities are abandoned nowadays. I am not sure about SAP, but it may be the same thing. Or maybe someone will give you a killer URL ;). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So first thing I would do is constantly monitoring top 5 freelancing sites ([google link][1]). Set up a good RSS which will inform you on any SAP job that is posted. Being so rare and you being so good will get you a change to win almost all such project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second thing I would do is not limiting myself to SAP or broadening my search. For example, I see a project where I see that the client is having a project where he may need my services in the future or he needs them now but did not explicitly asked for them. I would also apply to such job letting the client that he should need my services as well or offering myself for future work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As in real life, a client may not need you right now, but it's good you too introduce to each other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The third this is that I would find a large clients of a specific website. Once they post a job which comes into the category of my services, I would apply to it and introduce myself. Many such large clients will never post a job for a specific service because he has a lot of experience on those websites and he simply does not think that he will find a good person there. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&amp;channel=fs&amp;q=freelancing%20site&amp;ie=utf-8&amp;oe=utf-8#channel=fs&amp;q=best%20freelancing%20%20sites%202013" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1873" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="734" RevisionGUID="c4f87f16-45b8-4b1c-9654-984832c10e4b" CreationDate="2013-09-06T04:29:24.283" UserId="64" Comment="Focused the question on solving the problem." Text="I occasionally have offers from people to help me get contracts.  In return, they want to be paid a commission or a certain percent of the net profits.  I have always had a hard time trying to figure what is acceptable, as well as, creating clearly defined terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For instance, let's say I will be the sole developer.  How do I calculate my work time into the equation?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1874" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="734" RevisionGUID="c4f87f16-45b8-4b1c-9654-984832c10e4b" CreationDate="2013-09-06T04:29:24.283" UserId="64" Comment="Focused the question on solving the problem." Text="Acceptable terms for sales contract where I'm the sole developer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1877" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="741" RevisionGUID="d110633f-1ec6-4fb9-a430-5c694db58972" CreationDate="2013-09-06T19:58:28.823" UserId="827" Comment="added 17 characters in body" Text="&lt;strike&gt;If you are in India, you're in trouble. Its illegal as per India law to have two jobs.&lt;/strike&gt; My advice is assuming you are based in India.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will give you a general and least ethical but most practical advice. However it is really important to see your job contract to give a proper advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Firstly their decision of sacking off just for sending a proposal was unfair. This gives me an idea that you are working in a small firm that only cares for more business and more money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have never done any freelancing since you got this job. You can simply ask them to buzz off. They can never do anything to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are a Web Developer/SEO/Writing guy you can infact threaten them to stop or else this matter can go on the internet. If they really care for their reputation, then they will take this seriously and finish this off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want a peace of mind then ultimately the most they will want from you is money. I personally don't recommend but in case they are asking for something that is affordable to you, you can pay them. But since they already didn't pay you for 2 months. I recommend ask them for a PROPER Relieving letter and experience letter otherwise take this on twitter and everywhere on the web." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1879" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="735" RevisionGUID="38057f00-09e7-4558-acaf-1273317f848e" CreationDate="2013-09-07T03:00:27.063" UserId="64" Comment="fixed a typo, so I fixed some other grammar issues as well" Text="This is as simple as this - find out your hourly price and stick to it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you get such an offer, analyze the project in detail and calculate how many work hours it will take you to finish it. Then tell your price to your &quot;people&quot;. They can add their commission on top of your price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to go deeper, you can calculate your maximum hourly rate (for short projects) and your minimum hourly rate (for projects over X work hours). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But basically, it all comes back to you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are not sure about your hourly rate, then browse statistics on popular freelancing websites, as they will offer the average hourly rate for each field. After that, try to figure out if you can use the average rate or you have to (de/in)crease it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, don't be intimidated if they tell you &quot;Can you do this job for XY dollars&quot;? Simply analyze it to see how much work there is, and then calculate the hourly rate. In a matter of a seconds, you will know if you should take the project or not. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1880" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="728" RevisionGUID="50a880df-6880-4395-ac4b-c4988d2a8ecb" CreationDate="2013-09-07T03:04:41.440" UserId="64" Comment="fixed a typo and some grammar" Text="&gt; *Update: Sept, 2* The answers of @mysterycommand and @Hiroto gave some good insight and prompted me to be more clear. I've rephrased my question with explicit details; the intent is the same, hopefully clearer now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelance software developer I've run into a contract with a &quot;Work For Hire&quot; clause that effectively renders me an employee of my client. I have not signed this contract but it got me thinking:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**At what point do you need your employer's permission to contribute to open source code you use on the job? (see scenarios below)**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In software development it's common to use open source, permissively licensed software, i.e. ok for commercial reuse. The company you work for is not involved in open source but you choose to use it on the job (an application framework, blog, cms for instance). In the US, it's assumed your employer generally owns the copyright on work done on the job. In the course of doing your job, you write some code that you want to contribute back to the community — outlined are some examples:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* You find a bug in a some open source code you're using at work and you fix the bug. You've changed a few lines at most, maybe even just a few characters. **Do you need your employer's permission to submit a pull request to contribute your change back into the project's public repo?**&#xD;&#xA;* You have a half finished piece of open source code you've started on your own time. During the course of your work on the job, you end up seeing the utility of your code so you choose to use your own previously written code. You end up needing to tweak the code, fix a function, or add a new feature so you can effectively complete your job. **Do you need your employer's permission to publish the changes you made to the module you started on your own time but improved in the course of your work for the company?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above two cases seem very grey to me, so insight would be helpful. Following is an example which seems less grey in terms of getting permission (it seems like an obvious yes) but takes the question to the next logical step:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* In the course of you work on the job you see the utility in creating a reusable module that will save you time in future projects at work. You write this module and realize that it's a pretty good bit of software and other people (outside your job) may find it useful too and may even help you make it better. **When you work for a company that is not active in the open source space, how does one approach conversations about the benefits of open sourcing work made on the job?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Asking this question has made me realize that it's important to be on the same page as your client. As freelancers, we can specifically walk away from projects which don't meet our standards (for instance I'm not sure Work For Hire is going to work for me). Also, it generally seems better to retain the rights to work created on the job in the case you want to contribute back to the open source community. As freelancers, we may need to take a WFH job (fiscally compelled) or have jumped into a contract without understanding ahead of time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1881" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="730" RevisionGUID="f14c26f8-1666-42ad-8544-172d218e9b46" CreationDate="2013-09-07T03:07:28.813" UserId="64" Comment="fixed a typo -- very solid answer!" Text="*Disclaimer: Always read contracts you sign multiple times. Regardless of whether or not a contract is enforceable, be sure you do not agree to anything you disagree with.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Do you need your employer's permission to submit a pull request to contribute your change back into the project's public repo? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nope. this is a straight up &quot;no&quot;, regardless. You are contributing to an open source project. For your employer/client to claim copyright over your contributions to an open-source project would violate *absolutely every single FOSS license* that has, can, does or will exist (bold statement in some countries, but you should **really** adhere to this).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you are employed**, pull request in your own time, away from work (as technically your employer can claim copyright and thus your pull request can be denied/invalidated, depending on license)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you are freelancing**, just pull request. Unless you accepted a contract which sold your soul to your client for every waking moment until the date your project is finished, there are no problems with contributing to open-source projects as a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Do you need your employer's permission to publish the changes you made to the module you started on your own time but improved in the course of your work for the company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Something very, *very* important to note here is that you do not create the code as part of your client's module/program. Create it and license it, and you will own the copyright regardless of outcome. Just don't write it while on the client's premises.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also publish it somewhere well in advance, and use it as a library in the client's code. Be sure the license is compatible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## When you work for a company that is not active in the open source space, how do you approach conversations about the benefits of open sourcing work you made on the job?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should publish code you intend to reuse under a permissive license and then include them as libraries. Any other course of action can (and probably will) result in upset from software consumers who dislike open-source. I recall asking a Marketing Manager at Microsoft UK what his stance on open-source was and he looked at me like I'd just grown another head.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the company wants &quot;proprietary information&quot; in a program, then they will not make it open sourced, period (with a few exceptions).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if they do decide to open source some of the work that you do, you can just agree to be a contributor or agree to be attributed in the contract; this entire negotiating area is quite daunting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's a few rules that govern this, but if in doubt, *always* consult a lawyer or a government legal aide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - You are using an open-source framework that:&#xD;&#xA;  - allows commercial use, and&#xD;&#xA;  - doesn't force open-source (read: most licenses with the exception of the GPL), and&#xD;&#xA;  - your client is asking for an application that you will be writing&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then it is entirely reasonable (and even enforced in countries such as the USA) that they own copyright and licensing for that work. They can also enforce an NDA on the code you are writing, but this must be in the contract when you agree to write the software if they wish to enforce it.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1882" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="713" RevisionGUID="8a09b179-7a9b-4227-b3f3-01d8a94f2705" CreationDate="2013-09-07T03:10:01.260" UserId="64" Comment="edited question to match the title &quot;What do you do&quot; makes things sometimes appear too open ended for a Q&amp;A site" Text="The title is a bit confusing, but here is an issue I face occasionally, but don't know how to bill. Here is an example, and I hope you can get the general idea and apply it to a broader concept of how to bill for time to research solutions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am an experienced and skilled programmer and the client asks for something I haven't coded for in the past (special animation, function, etc.). I have to take time to figure out how to do what they want, but am not specifically building the end product. Do I still count those hours spent researching and testing when I bill the client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For some reason, it feels slightly dishonest since I wasn't actively typing the final code the entire time, but I don't want to have that time be wasted, especially if it is a complex issue and I spend a few hours or more researching before I found a solution.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it appropriate to include time to research if you don't know how to do something?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1883" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="713" RevisionGUID="8a09b179-7a9b-4227-b3f3-01d8a94f2705" CreationDate="2013-09-07T03:10:01.260" UserId="64" Comment="edited question to match the title &quot;What do you do&quot; makes things sometimes appear too open ended for a Q&amp;A site" Text="Hourly billing, is it appropriate to include time to research if you don't know how to do something?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1884" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="747" RevisionGUID="b48abc69-5d11-49e6-8596-c15643a2f1bf" CreationDate="2013-09-07T17:11:35.960" UserId="726" Text="It's acceptable to bill for research. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a very simple guiding principle: **be brutally honest with how much of the time spent learning strictly benefited your client**. Although I definitely appreciate a lot of the guidelines offered I firmly believe expanding a programmers skillsets is a billable effort.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since programming methodologies and technologies change often you're usually learning something new, every single project, even if it happens to be in a domain you are familiar with. Pushing yourself to tighten your methodology or learning a new skill for your current project will make you stronger on your next project and that is a real value that contract developers bring: adaptability and willingness to learn.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But you do have to differentiate necessary learning from just curious exploration. Client's aren't paying for you to be philosophical, research fringe topics, engage in pedantic conversations on web forums, or open ended exploration. In my own practice I know that as I'm gathering actionable information there will arise a curious question that I can't help but want to know more about. If it's not screwing up my timeline, I'll go answer it but when reviewing the days billable hours I'll make sure to subtract time spent being open ended.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no single criteria to differentiate billable and non-billable, I see it more as a range. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##Billability of Research &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    (low billability)                       (high billability)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    High Level concepts   • • • • • • • •   Low Level Concepts (close to implementation)&#xD;&#xA;    - comparing frameworks                  - digging deep into a framework you've chosen&#xD;&#xA;    - general software patterns             - optimizations&#xD;&#xA;    - opinion blog posts                    - best practices &#xD;&#xA;    - moderating/answering SO               - hardening&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The high level stuff is still necessary, and strengthens your general skillset but should probably be done on your own time. However it's fuzzy sometimes, and it really depends on what your client is bringing to the table. The more complex the project the fuzzier the line between high level general research and actionable info.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One time when trying to find a ready made solution to an implementation problem online I ended up adding my own solution to a SO question that already existed — while I did bill for initially researching and then implementing the solution I did not bill for authoring the answer on SO.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The closer your research reaches to the details of your implementation the more of that time you should allocate as billable since it's helping you do something actionable and specific for your client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1885" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="747" RevisionGUID="6933b1f6-fd71-4d2f-83e0-097b1459a88d" CreationDate="2013-09-07T17:22:05.337" UserId="726" Comment="added 538 characters in body" Text="It's acceptable to bill for research. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a very simple guiding principle: **be brutally honest with how much of the time spent learning strictly benefited your client**. Although I definitely appreciate a lot of the guidelines offered I firmly believe expanding a programmers skillsets is a billable effort.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to differentiate necessary learning from just curious exploration. Client's aren't paying for you to be philosophical, research fringe topics, engage in pedantic conversations on web forums, or open ended exploration. In my own practice I know that as I'm gathering actionable information there will arise a curious question that I can't help but want to know more about. If it's not screwing up my timeline, I'll go answer it but when reviewing the days billable hours I'll make sure to subtract time spent being open ended.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no single criteria to differentiate billable and non-billable, I see it more as a range. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##Billability of Research &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    (low billability)                       (high billability)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    High Level concepts   • • • • • • • •   Low Level Concepts (close to implementation)&#xD;&#xA;    - comparing frameworks                  - digging deep into a framework you've chosen&#xD;&#xA;    - general software patterns             - optimizations&#xD;&#xA;    - opinion blog posts                    - best practices &#xD;&#xA;    - moderating/answering SO               - hardening&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The high level stuff is still necessary, and strengthens your general skillset but should probably be done on your own time. However it's fuzzy sometimes, and it really depends on what your client is bringing to the table. The more complex the project the fuzzier the line between high level general research and actionable info.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**One time** when trying to find a ready made solution to an implementation problem online I ended up adding my own solution to a SO question that already existed — while I did bill for initially researching and then implementing the solution I did not bill for authoring the answer on SO.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Another time** I was trying to figure out how a certain library worked, and it's documentation mentioned that it used the decorator pattern. At the time I had a vague idea of what a decorator was but I wasn't 100% sure *and* I was struggling with how to properly implement a solution with the library. So I decided to research the decorator concept. While it turned out that my understanding was close enough it was important to verify this knowledge and got back to working on the implementation. I saw that as a 100% billable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The closer your research reaches to the details of your implementation the more of that time you should allocate as billable since it's helping you do something actionable and specific for your client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1886" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="501" RevisionGUID="e3dc1d74-c9f1-468e-a4cf-9abf82dc171a" CreationDate="2013-09-08T20:52:09.167" UserId="64" Comment="fixed a typo; added in an extra sentence that may help make it more searchable on google" Text="I'm having trouble balancing freelancing work with family.  My wife thinks that just because I work at home that this means I'm available for home stuff at any hour, which creates problems in my relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I make her understand (perhaps through some article or something) that freelancers must follow work schedules just like anybody else?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1887" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="724" RevisionGUID="f8d2c21a-bc4b-474a-8cb2-f20a5c52c895" CreationDate="2013-09-09T15:51:06.237" UserId="820" Comment="tried to make the question answerable" Text="Offline and online, what places should someone new to freelancing frequent to get a solid start? Specifically someone looking to partner with other freelancers?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are good places (both online and locally) to network with other freelancers to find potential partnerships, and sources for projects? What kinds of groups, books, sites should a new freelancer be aware of?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the same time, are there types of network groups, sites, etc that should be avoided as they seem to promise more value than they actually deliver (for the investment in time or money they require)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1888" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="724" RevisionGUID="f8d2c21a-bc4b-474a-8cb2-f20a5c52c895" CreationDate="2013-09-09T15:51:06.237" UserId="820" Comment="tried to make the question answerable" Text="What resources should a developer new to freelancing be aware of?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1889" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="724" RevisionGUID="f8d2c21a-bc4b-474a-8cb2-f20a5c52c895" CreationDate="2013-09-09T15:51:06.237" Comment="Proposed by 820 approved by 75 edit id of 162" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1890" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="748" RevisionGUID="e51de22a-7ea6-4431-b030-3cc1971f2aae" CreationDate="2013-09-09T23:16:18.043" UserId="863" Text="I have a client that has hired another website developer agency to create his website, but he wants me to design a better layout for the agency to implement since he isn't happy with what they have for him. I'm not completely sure what I should charge for this job, since it's kind if a odd job. Any ideas about what I should charge for this? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1891" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="748" RevisionGUID="e51de22a-7ea6-4431-b030-3cc1971f2aae" CreationDate="2013-09-09T23:16:18.043" UserId="863" Text="Quote for creating design for website without developing the site?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1892" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="748" RevisionGUID="e51de22a-7ea6-4431-b030-3cc1971f2aae" CreationDate="2013-09-09T23:16:18.043" UserId="863" Text="|client|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1893" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="749" RevisionGUID="4e3486c4-c656-46ae-bd4f-fe3379b6c41c" CreationDate="2013-09-10T04:11:28.030" UserId="789" Text="Its best to ask this question directly to your client. I generally give a questionnaire to my client before starting the work which at the end will have my billing/breakups. I also provide an option whether the client want to pay in installments or in an advance-afterComplete way. Either way its a win for us.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Calculate how much time it will take and decide how much to ask. Divide the total amount by hours and tell your client your hourly rate. I am sure he/she will give a nod. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If its a simple design layout, it should not take more than 4 hours ( I am not including the brainstorming you will do with your client or peers)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good Luck !" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1894" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="750" RevisionGUID="5b9195c9-18aa-4444-8acb-2dba69432d3d" CreationDate="2013-09-10T04:15:40.220" UserId="789" Text="Simple as in a Client's perspective. I am doing freelance web designing and most of my clients are from NON-COMPUTER side. I would like to integrate a simple management system which will enable them to track the project's progress with the hours (and hence the cost) during the development period. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I thought of writing my own system but that would take hell of my time. Is there any such products available in OPEN SOURCE ? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1895" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="750" RevisionGUID="5b9195c9-18aa-4444-8acb-2dba69432d3d" CreationDate="2013-09-10T04:15:40.220" UserId="789" Text="What is the simple Client Management software to be integrated in my site" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1896" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="750" RevisionGUID="5b9195c9-18aa-4444-8acb-2dba69432d3d" CreationDate="2013-09-10T04:15:40.220" UserId="789" Text="|client|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1897" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="751" RevisionGUID="9ff62d2f-a6f4-4edd-8cde-25e78bc0fdd7" CreationDate="2013-09-10T08:54:41.483" UserId="504" Text="I use WordPress and WordPress websites need regular updates, which can bring about conflicts between plugins or even some plugins ceasing to work. In such situations, it can take many hours to fix the problem. How to charge for these hours? Do you specify it in the contract, and if so how to you present it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1898" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="751" RevisionGUID="9ff62d2f-a6f4-4edd-8cde-25e78bc0fdd7" CreationDate="2013-09-10T08:54:41.483" UserId="504" Text="Charging a yearly support fee for commercial CMS based website?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1899" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="751" RevisionGUID="9ff62d2f-a6f4-4edd-8cde-25e78bc0fdd7" CreationDate="2013-09-10T08:54:41.483" UserId="504" Text="|support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1900" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="752" RevisionGUID="e2899657-8ecb-4b30-be74-2c89e0cf5f68" CreationDate="2013-09-10T11:22:31.750" UserId="735" Text="The German platform GULP frequently publishes [statistics][3] in press releases and in its [knowledge base][2]. There also is a [calculator][1] to estimate hourly rates. From my experience, they mostly staff consulting jobs at large companies in the area of SAP, banking, and automotive. As of August 2013, they claim that consultants in the age group 40 to 50 get the highest rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: http://www.gulp.de/kb/tools/money.html&#xD;&#xA;[2]: http://www.gulp.de/knowledge-base.html&#xD;&#xA;[3]: http://www.gulp.de/kb/st/stdsaetze/sstext.html&#xD;&#xA;[4]: http://www.gulp.de/kb/st/stdsaetze/sstext_AlterErfahrung.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1901" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="753" RevisionGUID="01423121-b307-4d0a-b366-bef271695d9a" CreationDate="2013-09-10T11:28:54.997" UserId="735" Text="As a German citizen, the only bookkeeping that I need to do is for the department of finance: I have to keep track of income and expenses, I have to charge for VAT for customers in Germany, and I have to pass on the VAT. With business customers in other countries things actually get simpler: I don't have to charge for VAT at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I assume that for Polish citizens it's similar, meaning that there should be no additional bookkeeping required beyond what you are already doing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1902" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="754" RevisionGUID="a390c7c3-fcfc-47d5-976d-bd6bf074b74e" CreationDate="2013-09-10T11:36:54.393" UserId="735" Text="Sometimes I have *some hours or days* to kill, meaning I have time for a *quick freelance job*. The problem with most sites on the web is that they require a comparatively lengthy application process for each project. This means that by the time my application is accepted, my free period has already ended. Also many projects are way too big, requiring more than just some hours or days. (In fact many projects are unrealistically bloated, and I wonder if they ever get finished.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there any sites that allow me to find quick jobs, and ideally ones that require high skill, resulting in good pay?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1903" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="754" RevisionGUID="a390c7c3-fcfc-47d5-976d-bd6bf074b74e" CreationDate="2013-09-10T11:36:54.393" UserId="735" Text="Freelance sites specializing in speed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1904" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="754" RevisionGUID="a390c7c3-fcfc-47d5-976d-bd6bf074b74e" CreationDate="2013-09-10T11:36:54.393" UserId="735" Text="|client|attracting-clients|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1905" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="752" RevisionGUID="26ac02f1-3a63-44a5-94fa-31b63effde31" CreationDate="2013-09-10T11:46:05.467" UserId="735" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="The German platform GULP frequently publishes [statistics][3] in press releases and in its [knowledge base][2]. There also is a [calculator][1] to estimate hourly rates. From my experience, they mostly staff consulting jobs at large companies in the area of SAP, banking, and automotive. As of August 2013, GULP [claims][4] that consultants in the age group 40 to 50 get the highest rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: http://www.gulp.de/kb/tools/money.html&#xD;&#xA;[2]: http://www.gulp.de/knowledge-base.html&#xD;&#xA;[3]: http://www.gulp.de/kb/st/stdsaetze/sstext.html&#xD;&#xA;[4]: http://www.gulp.de/kb/st/stdsaetze/sstext_AlterErfahrung.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1906" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="755" RevisionGUID="8912df07-a780-4fc5-b359-33d3afe76bf1" CreationDate="2013-09-10T12:08:00.883" UserId="735" Text="A good compromise is to offer that you work on-site for some time, then switch to remote. On the platform [GULP][1], for example, you can specify what is your total availability, and what is your availability on site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may actually call GULP to get advice targeted at your situation and preferences. I have noticed that they have some very helpful staff. [In August 2013][2], 18.2% of all projects offered on their site were for SAP, at an average rate of 89 EUR per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: http://www.gulp.de/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://www.gulp.de/kb/tools/gulpometer.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1907" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="756" RevisionGUID="d6754749-d284-4f56-a0a9-c401597339b5" CreationDate="2013-09-10T12:27:43.863" UserId="864" Text="I use [Kimai][1] as a time-tracking tool and it works well for me, my clients can see exactly how much is on the clock at any time. You give them view-only access to their particular project. The Kimai documentation is a little poor but you'll soon figure it out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.kimai.org" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1908" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="753" RevisionGUID="4782eb1f-62f5-4c3e-9586-0eff165fa4c1" CreationDate="2013-09-10T12:30:43.613" UserId="735" Comment="added 397 characters in body" Text="As a German citizen, the only bookkeeping that I need to do is for the department of finance: I have to keep track of income and expenses, I have to charge for VAT for customers in Germany, and I have to pass on the VAT. With business customers in other countries things actually get simpler: I don't have to charge for VAT at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I assume that for Polish citizens it's similar, meaning that there should be no additional bookkeeping required beyond what you are already doing. Of course, if you are relocating, then after some months you have to change residency, and then the rules of your new home country apply. And rules are vastly different. For example, during a recent stay in Spain, I was told by a fellow freelancer that he indeed has to pay for bookkeeping, and also for some form of social security. He relocated to Spain from Italy, so is not a Spanish citizen." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1909" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="755" RevisionGUID="9883e175-355f-4ce1-8005-fa3748b14a65" CreationDate="2013-09-10T12:32:19.620" UserId="735" Comment="deleted 9 characters in body" Text="A good compromise is to offer that you work on-site for some time, then switch to remote. On the platform [GULP][1], for example, you can specify what is your total availability, and what is your availability on site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As - according to your profile - you are from Germany, I suggest you call GULP to get advice targeted at your situation and preferences. I have noticed that they have some very helpful staff. [In August 2013][2], 18.2% of all projects offered were SAP projects, at an average rate of 89 EUR per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: http://www.gulp.de/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://www.gulp.de/kb/tools/gulpometer.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1910" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="757" RevisionGUID="7465db72-f022-441c-b98e-34ed747da673" CreationDate="2013-09-10T15:27:41.687" UserId="477" Text="Do you have a maintenance contract in place with them? is it a set price or is it based on an hourly amount?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These are easily covered in a simple contract, you can charge monthly for X amount of hours and then X amount for any time above that or you could charge a set rate and take the hit if it takes longer one month." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1911" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="758" RevisionGUID="8e43ab3a-40cd-44ea-a0d8-11f5947a3e44" CreationDate="2013-09-10T15:39:14.487" UserId="820" Text="Not sure you're going to find any sites that specialize in both on-demand style jobs (quick start to completion time), and require a specialized skill (meaning they pay what you seem to want). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, Amazon Turk offers jobs you could probably do *right now*, but they're jobs pretty much anyone can do, so the pay is next to nothing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your're probably better off to find **clients, not sites** that routinely have short jobs in a queue waiting to be done. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many of my clients tend to be long term - not that the project necessary lasts a long time, but they keep an open contract and request work as needed. Your situation would be similar, just the other way around (you contacting them when you have some free time).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1912" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="758" RevisionGUID="828ed872-a75e-4a2a-97ee-dd587daf3b25" CreationDate="2013-09-10T15:49:37.927" UserId="820" Comment="added 430 characters in body" Text="Not sure you're going to find any sites that specialize in both on-demand style jobs (quick start to completion time), and require a specialized skill (meaning they pay what you seem to want). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, Amazon Turk offers jobs you could probably do *right now*, but they're jobs pretty much anyone can do, so the pay is next to nothing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your're probably better off to find **clients, not sites** that routinely have short jobs in a queue waiting to be done. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many of my clients tend to be long term - not that the project necessary lasts a long time, but they keep an open contract and request work as needed. Your situation would be similar, just the other way around (you contacting them when you have some free time).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'll assume you're looking in the web design / development field. If you are, my guess is that design / development shops (more than one person shops) likely have jobs in a queue that they could pass to a freelancer, assuming the freelancer was willing to spend some time upfront to learn how the show manages work, the tools they use, etc. Advertising firms could also be a place to looks (to the extent they do work in-house)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1913" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="759" RevisionGUID="2a37ad4f-ec0e-424e-b183-8a894745d328" CreationDate="2013-09-10T16:01:36.107" UserId="820" Text="I tend to avoid *fees* as much as possible, and I also tend to avoid providing hosting services (or similar) for my clients. I'll certainly *manage* their hosting / backup / whatever they want at my hourly rate, but I don't want to become a reseller of someone else's products. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(*As an aside: I realize it can seem lucrative to markup and resell services like hosting, but it's easy to forget there is still a cost - now your client expects you to fix whatever is wrong with the service, not the original provider. You're no longer a freelancer, you're now a web host / email host / whatever - you just have very little control over the service you're selling.*)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's something that requires some kind of active observation on your part (in this case, keeping an eye on WordPress updates), I've found a kind of retainer with a few included hours is a reasonable way to package it. That way your client knows what the cost will be each month (I'd just be sure to present this as separate from any hosting, license, or similar fees) to have you manage their installation of WordPress. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When there's some significant change that requires more than the include hours, you can move to hourly billing, or just take a look at the last 6 months or so of work. If you're including 3 hours in the retainer fee, and you're only spending 30 minutes a month - it's probably best to keep the clock off (at least for a while).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1914" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="760" RevisionGUID="a5f97664-f4ac-432a-81ce-d6dd74bd009e" CreationDate="2013-09-10T16:32:11.460" UserId="517" Text="This is what we do in our team. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. If we are to make a completely new design, then I set up a fixed price for that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. If the client wants to keep existing design and our designer should &quot;make existing design better&quot;, then you should definitely go with hourly price since &quot;a simple shine effect&quot; may cost you 10 work hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But this is only a general suggestion. Talk to your client what he really needs then come back here for advise." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1915" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="761" RevisionGUID="9f37b199-f273-4611-b395-7a181f9cb9ab" CreationDate="2013-09-10T16:36:49.743" UserId="517" Text="Of course, there are, but don't expect to be paid much. Check out [Fiverr.com][1] where prices start from $5 and increase with features you are offering. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other option is to register at popular freelancing sites and watch RSS feeds on jobs under $500 or 10hrs/week jobs. Many of those will be slavery jobs (don't accept those) but you will occasionally come across 1-day jobs which you are looking for. They usually last a day or a couple of days at most. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But don't expect to earn a lot or be wanted due to your short time periods when you can work. You will find almost none of the clients whose projects can wait you to have free time. That is why I think that Fiverr may be the best for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. there may be other websites like Fiverr but most times I read about that service on diff websites&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://fiverr.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1916" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="762" RevisionGUID="2cc57249-c6b5-4b95-b4a3-737042e6eb02" CreationDate="2013-09-10T16:42:34.877" UserId="517" Text="You should negotiate to client and set up X work hours per year which he pays you in advance (for example, 20 hours in 2013). Until you spend these X work hours, your client will be prioritized and may reach you 24/7 (not literary) to start working on fixes. This is what big companies do and what you should do as well IMHO.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After he spends the annual work hours, then you can also work for him hourly but you are no longer obliged to make him prioritized client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But make sure you're client understands all this 100% since you don't want him to be surprised with you non-immediate-availability after he spends the pre-set number of work hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may check up [Retainer Agreement][1]. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retainer_agreement" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1917" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="763" RevisionGUID="a36682a1-4fbd-4792-938a-e4aa29da5bf1" CreationDate="2013-09-10T16:48:48.487" UserId="517" Text="You may try [Assembla][1] which is pretty much you'll ever need. You as admin can filter tabs your client can see. For example, leaving him Tasks tab only where he can make tasks for you, make comments on each, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other one is to try [Trello][2] which is visually richer. Yet again, he may not like drag&amp;drop things, popups etc. So maybe Assembla may be more Win95 in style :) and they may like it more. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Both are free to use and located in cloud. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third option is to use Google Docs where you set a public Excel doc where you both can enter tasks. Some of my clients prefer Excel, especially older ones. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But you must be clear with the client that they should put effort in the project as well **since you are not coding it alone but together with him**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://assembla.com&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://trello.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1918" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="764" RevisionGUID="e0ddffea-8e5f-48ad-9ad5-151326b43f14" CreationDate="2013-09-10T17:04:29.457" UserId="866" Text="I have been approached by a prospective client for a long-term support and development contract, but they require me to purchase roughly $4000 worth of third-party controls and tools.  These were used in the initial development of the software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Through my conversations with the client, I estimate it will take around 4 months to recoup this cost.  I expressed hesitation to do this, and the client seems understanding.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is, since the software (as it stands) requires these tools, doesn't it make more sense that the client should purchase them?  Any ideas on how best to frame this for the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1919" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="764" RevisionGUID="e0ddffea-8e5f-48ad-9ad5-151326b43f14" CreationDate="2013-09-10T17:04:29.457" UserId="866" Text="Is it appropriate for a prospective client to require me to purchase third-party tools?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1920" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="764" RevisionGUID="e0ddffea-8e5f-48ad-9ad5-151326b43f14" CreationDate="2013-09-10T17:04:29.457" UserId="866" Text="|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1921" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="765" RevisionGUID="1b154fe1-895b-438c-a142-e53348f12b0c" CreationDate="2013-09-10T17:58:38.343" UserId="820" Text="My perspective here is similar to this question: [Is it appropriate to include time to research if you don't know how to do something?](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/738/820)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**In your field, are those tools standard?** If I do 3D modeling for product prototype, I think it's acceptable for a client to assume I have one of a few industry standard CAD packages. If I work on the Microsoft stack, I think it's appropriate for a client to expect I use Visual Studio, or at least can interface seamlessly with developers that do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Outside of this client, are those tools useful?** Using the 3D modeling example, if a client expects me to have the same package they use internally - and there are (as I understand it, and let's just go with that for the example) a few CAD packages used industry wide - I think it's also appropriate to ask the client to cover a portion of the cost, somehow tied to how useful the package will be for other clients in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Are those tools completely project specific?** If this is the only project that the tools will be useful for (because they're for niche use cases, needed for legacy issues, etc) I think it's acceptable to expect the client to cover the cost, or provide the tools directly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To your specific case, if the client seems to understand your concern about the cost it maybe worth asking why they want you to purchase the tooling, instead of providing it for you. It could be that they don't / can't license the tools easily for a contractor to use. Or it could be that they can't purchase software that is installed on systems they don't own (internal IT policy).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If for some reason it needs to be purchased by the contractor, and the tools are very project specific, I'd tell them there will be a $4000 setup fee (or similar) and that will go to the cost of purchasing and setting up the tooling. If they balk at that, you could offer to discount the first 4 months of hours (or however you're billing them), to offset *some* of that cost." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1922" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="765" RevisionGUID="c514391a-9fd3-4b94-b9c9-6d16fc13e828" CreationDate="2013-09-10T18:06:58.427" UserId="820" Comment="added 107 characters in body" Text="My perspective here is similar to this question: [Is it appropriate to include time to research if you don't know how to do something?](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/738/820), as both tackle the issues of who should pay for something that may only be relevant to a single project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**In your field, are those tools standard?** If I do 3D modeling for product prototype, I think it's acceptable for a client to assume I have one of a few industry standard CAD packages. If I work on the Microsoft stack, I think it's appropriate for a client to expect I use Visual Studio, or at least can interface seamlessly with developers that do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Outside of this client, are those tools useful?** Using the 3D modeling example, if a client expects me to have the same package they use internally - and there are (as I understand it, and let's just go with that for the example) a few CAD packages used industry wide - I think it's also appropriate to ask the client to cover a portion of the cost, somehow tied to how useful the package will be for other clients in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Are those tools completely project specific?** If this is the only project that the tools will be useful for (because they're for niche use cases, needed for legacy issues, etc) I think it's acceptable to expect the client to cover the cost, or provide the tools directly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To your specific case, if the client seems to understand your concern about the cost it maybe worth asking why they want you to purchase the tooling, instead of providing it for you. It could be that they don't / can't license the tools easily for a contractor to use. Or it could be that they can't purchase software that is installed on systems they don't own (internal IT policy).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If for some reason it needs to be purchased by the contractor, and the tools are very project specific, I'd tell them there will be a $4000 setup fee (or similar) and that will go to the cost of purchasing and setting up the tooling. If they balk at that, you could offer to discount the first 4 months of hours (or however you're billing them), to offset *some* of that cost." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1924" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="767" RevisionGUID="5994d41f-a48a-4e49-924b-3e88258d8ca4" CreationDate="2013-09-10T20:29:14.533" UserId="78" Text="It's fully an agreement between you and the client. The client may avoid giving you personal licence because he's afraid you'd leave after a month and the costs would be too much... Or the client is considering that tool so standard, that he expect contractors to have licence for them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a contractor, you should calculate all costs before telling your price. $4000 is quite moderate sum, taking into account, that renting an apartment after relocation may cost you $1000 or more, and if you'd have to stay in hotel for a few months, prepare for $2000 or even more (monthly). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's quite natural that you should expect more money if the contract conditions require from you purchasing extra software. The client should understand that, and other contractors would also require more. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion, the best solution would be for the client to provide you licence for that tools for the time of the contract. It's also not unusual for contractors to work on client's workstations. In that case no licence transfer is required. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Otherwise, I'd made it so, that the costs of software should amortize in the first period of the contract. For example, if contract is signed for 4 months (even with prolong option), I'd require $1000 more monthly. But it is still problematic in case the client reserves the option to break contract prematurely. However, if you're going to have more money, it may be worth risking. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no single universal solution for that case, but you should take those factors into consideration and make decision yourself." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1925" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="732" RevisionGUID="27f5946d-f84f-4601-9e4a-523bbb7d7eec" CreationDate="2013-09-10T22:30:52.480" UserId="726" Comment="added 878 characters in body" Text="A client has given me a contract that needs some changes before I'd sign it. I have no problem reading and doing basic research for a few pages of legalese. Most of the contract is fine but there are specific parts which I want to change.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Two paths occur to me:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Get a lawyer involved on my behalf&#xD;&#xA;2. Express my concerns in plain language and have my clients lawyer incorporate the changes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I being naive assuming that option 2 is even a possibility?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Update**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I got some legal advice, and it was a great help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In five years of freelancing I've read probably a dozen different basic 1-2 page contracts that had very plain language and I had no problem understanding their intent, and felt comfortable with the terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I received a contract that was longer, more technical, and after a couple of hours of research I knew that some of it was over my head. After finding a local law firm  that I liked, I was able to parse through all of the confusion and I got to say, getting a lawyers help was a great idea. I found out that my reading of certain parts was maybe about %50 correct: I both completely misinterpreted the severity of certain statements and completely missed some problematic things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if you have a dense contract that is confusing it's probably a good idea to get some legal advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1926" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="753" RevisionGUID="3150a903-2c6b-423c-914b-513da8e031fe" CreationDate="2013-09-10T22:49:08.487" UserId="735" Comment="added 642 characters in body" Text="In Germany, freelancers ([Freiberufler][1]) enjoy many freedoms. I am not required to pay for social security, I can freely chose between public and private health insurance, and it is *not mandatory to use the services of a bookkeeper.* In fact, the only bookkeeping that I need to do is for the department of finance: I keep track of income and expenses, I charge for VAT for customers in Germany, and I pass on the collected VAT. With business customers in other countries things actually get simpler: I don't charge for VAT at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I assume that for Polish citizens it's similar, meaning that there should be no additional bookkeeping required beyond what you are already doing. However, if you are working on-site in Germany, then after some months you have to change residency, and then the rules of your new home country apply. For example, during a recent stay in Spain, I was told by a fellow freelancer that he indeed has to pay for bookkeeping, and also for social security. He is an Italian who changed his country of residence to Spain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a nutshell: *Bookkeeping costs vary greatly from country to country, and in the west they are not necessarily more expensive than in Poland.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to add: Health insurance can cost hundreds of Euro in Germany, and it is mandatory at least for German citizens living in Germany. Some years ago, for freelancers health insurance was not mandatory, i.e. you could decide to go uninsured, but that has changed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freiberufler" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1927" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="755" RevisionGUID="93ff854f-d451-45c1-a449-bc73be9b5834" CreationDate="2013-09-10T23:14:03.313" UserId="735" Comment="added 5 characters in body" Text="A good compromise is to offer that you work on-site for some time, then switch to remote. On the platform [GULP][1], for example, you can also specify what is your total availability, and what is your availability on-site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As - according to your profile - you are from Germany, I suggest you call GULP to get advice targeted at your situation and preferences. I have noticed that they have some very helpful staff. [In August 2013][2], 18.2% of all projects offered were SAP projects, at an average rate of 89 EUR per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: http://www.gulp.de/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://www.gulp.de/kb/tools/gulpometer.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1928" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="765" RevisionGUID="23f67878-ce41-4cb9-b11c-3ff666bbedd3" CreationDate="2013-09-11T01:11:17.127" UserId="820" Comment="added 54 characters in body" Text="My perspective here is similar to this question: [Is it appropriate to include time to research if you don't know how to do something?](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/738/820), as both tackle the issues of who should pay for something that may only be relevant to a single project, but may also be legitimatly expected of a contractor. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**In your field, are those tools standard?** If I do 3D modeling for product prototype, I think it's acceptable for a client to assume I have one of a few industry standard CAD packages. If I work on the Microsoft stack, I think it's appropriate for a client to expect I use Visual Studio, or at least can interface seamlessly with developers that do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Outside of this client, are those tools useful?** Using the 3D modeling example, if a client expects me to have the same package they use internally - and there are (as I understand it, and let's just go with that for the example) a few CAD packages used industry wide - I think it's also appropriate to ask the client to cover a portion of the cost, somehow tied to how useful the package will be for other clients in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Are those tools completely project specific?** If this is the only project that the tools will be useful for (because they're for niche use cases, needed for legacy issues, etc) I think it's acceptable to expect the client to cover the cost, or provide the tools directly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To your specific case, if the client seems to understand your concern about the cost it maybe worth asking why they want you to purchase the tooling, instead of providing it for you. It could be that they don't / can't license the tools easily for a contractor to use. Or it could be that they can't purchase software that is installed on systems they don't own (internal IT policy).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If for some reason it needs to be purchased by the contractor, and the tools are very project specific, I'd tell them there will be a $4000 setup fee (or similar) and that will go to the cost of purchasing and setting up the tooling. If they balk at that, you could offer to discount the first 4 months of hours (or however you're billing them), to offset *some* of that cost." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1929" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="764" RevisionGUID="cbed43b2-876d-4159-92f9-7c2b7251e7e6" CreationDate="2013-09-11T06:19:37.130" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/377677792248606720" />
  <row Id="1930" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="768" RevisionGUID="33573c3d-b6c6-4d01-b0d6-e5e7ba942ee9" CreationDate="2013-09-11T09:11:38.270" UserId="735" Text="If the controls and tools you are talking about are all software, then you could ask the client to provide you with a system that has these and that you can [remote][1] into. Later, when you find out that collaboration works well and that it is potentially long term, you can buy the controls and tools yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you need special hardware, then that's not a solution, or only a partial one, of course. Special hardware could for example be a device that you need to program firmware for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, consider that it is normally possible to sell the controls and tools if you don't need them anymore. This does not only hold true for hardware. At least in Germany, there have been [court Many vendors do this anyhow - I suggest asking before buying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_desktop&#xD;&#xA;[2]: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gebraucht-Software" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1931" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="768" RevisionGUID="3298e16f-72bb-4e9b-ab67-7ddf05ba6868" CreationDate="2013-09-11T09:22:29.540" UserId="735" Comment="added 66 characters in body" Text="If the controls and tools you are talking about are all software, then you could ask the client to provide you with a system that has these and that you can [remote][1] into. Later, when you find out that collaboration works well and that it is potentially long term, you can buy the controls and tools yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you need special hardware, then that's not a solution, or only a partial one, of course. Special hardware could for example be a device that you need to program firmware for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, consider that it is normally possible to sell the controls and tools if you don't need them anymore. This does not only hold true for hardware. At least in Germany, there have been [court orders][2] requiring vendors to allow or facilitate transfer of licenses. Many do this anyhow - I suggest asking before buying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_desktop&#xD;&#xA;[2]: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gebraucht-Software" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1932" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="769" RevisionGUID="bba3d6c4-af9f-4634-a57f-a367b1d12362" CreationDate="2013-09-11T15:10:16.820" UserId="116" Text="PeoplePerHour has a quick sign up time. Buyers post positions and sellers make proposals. Some job offers are marked as 'urgent', so that's a good place to start. Of course, freelancing is never a 'one size fits all' scenario, maybe you can start landscaping in your spare time, or do some industry research, or marketing yourself, gain a new skill, sort of some 'meta-freelance' opportunities." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1933" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="770" RevisionGUID="80e5c4b2-e43a-4225-8c4a-522c3935b453" CreationDate="2013-09-11T15:16:47.010" UserId="116" Text="Sounds like they want you to create a website template. There are two options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) If you charge by the hour, then quote a fair estimated number of hours you would require to complete the template.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) If you charge by the job, anticipate this being a common thing, and charge accordingly. You can either inflate slightly than #1 would be b/c you aren't doing the full site, or you could offer a discount on the hourly rate for whatever reason sounds marketable." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1934" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="769" RevisionGUID="f83e86a1-d69f-4e35-98db-21ef1c9418b8" CreationDate="2013-09-11T15:17:25.420" UserId="735" Comment="Added URL, which was missing" Text="[PeoplePerHour][1] has a quick sign up time. Buyers post positions and sellers make proposals. Some job offers are marked as 'urgent', so that's a good place to start. Of course, freelancing is never a 'one size fits all' scenario, maybe you can start landscaping in your spare time, or do some industry research, or marketing yourself, gain a new skill, sort of some 'meta-freelance' opportunities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: http://www.peopleperhour.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1935" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="769" RevisionGUID="f83e86a1-d69f-4e35-98db-21ef1c9418b8" CreationDate="2013-09-11T15:17:25.420" Comment="Proposed by 735 approved by 116 edit id of 163" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1936" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="771" RevisionGUID="fe6be50b-03d4-4e6f-9745-82d88447887d" CreationDate="2013-09-11T18:15:05.287" UserId="517" Text="Thou I mostly agree with @Lukasz Lech (sharing licence with you), there are situation where you may benefit more if you buy a licence yourself. For example, we once coded Unity3D game and had to buy some special addons. After estimation we realized that it is a good opportunity to &quot;force yourself&quot; to buy the licence. Later we used the same licence in multiple projects and never regret about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, in your case $4k is quite a sum so maybe this time the client should cover these costs and if you realize you can get more project using the same licence, then you should consider buying it yourself. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1937" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="751" RevisionGUID="51e636b9-471c-4cae-90c2-b5071b9ce18f" CreationDate="2013-09-11T21:19:39.363" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/377904293267140608" />
  <row Id="1938" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="772" RevisionGUID="dd851d83-b2a3-4d69-8797-86b325d11d12" CreationDate="2013-09-11T23:45:13.233" UserId="871" Text="[Freshbooks][1] also great for Time Tracking and Expenses tracking&#xD;&#xA;Use [Box][2] for file management, and sharing files with your clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.freshbooks.com&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://box.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1940" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="751" RevisionGUID="4650fe3e-551f-4163-9215-c5187789bbc2" CreationDate="2013-09-12T06:45:47.890" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags; fixed some grammar issues" Text="|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1941" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="751" RevisionGUID="4650fe3e-551f-4163-9215-c5187789bbc2" CreationDate="2013-09-12T06:45:47.890" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags; fixed some grammar issues" Text="I use WordPress and WordPress websites need regular updates, which can bring about conflicts between plugins or even some plugins ceasing to work. In such situations, it can take many hours to fix the problem. How to charge for these hours? Do you specify it in the contract, and if so how should I present it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1942" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="768" RevisionGUID="45159e18-b47d-4873-8395-88fdcb73cad1" CreationDate="2013-09-12T14:18:06.167" UserId="735" Comment="added 627 characters in body" Text="If the controls and tools you are talking about are all software, then you could ask the client to provide you with a system that has these and that you can [remote][1] into. Later, when you find out that collaboration works well and that it is potentially long term, you can buy the controls and tools yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that certain jurisdictions don't allow freelancing contracts if your work relationship resembles that of an employee (in Germany: &quot;[Scheinselbständigkeit][3]&quot;). However, I don't think that working remotely should get you into trouble. I have freelanced on-site for several months at a large company in Germany, and colleagues have done so for years - it's nothing unusual. While I had more freedom than an employee, for example no fixed office hours, that was probably a border case. Anyhow, risk was with the client company, and it had good lawyers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you need special hardware, then working remotely may not be a solution, or only a partial one. Special hardware could for example be a device that you need to program firmware for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, consider that it is normally possible to sell the controls and tools if you don't need them anymore. This does not only hold true for hardware. At least in Germany, there have been [court orders][2] requiring vendors to allow or facilitate transfer of licenses. Many do this anyhow - I suggest asking before buying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_desktop&#xD;&#xA;[2]: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gebraucht-Software&#xD;&#xA;[3]: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheinselbst%C3%A4ndigkeit" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1943" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="772" RevisionGUID="10fa9c56-fd1b-47d7-8c85-582a2e8f4bef" CreationDate="2013-09-12T15:10:36.007" UserId="871" Comment="added 246 characters in body" Text="[Freshbooks][1] is one great accounting systems out there, it has everything from Client management, Projects &amp; Time management, Expenses management, Billing and Reporting.&#xD;&#xA;If you are willing to pay a little bit for it, it can provide your clients a great way to see everything you do in a very organized way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use [Box][2] for file management, and sharing files with your clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.freshbooks.com&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://box.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1944" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="768" RevisionGUID="00c30a1e-044d-4b16-b42f-c4fbae843c48" CreationDate="2013-09-13T00:30:28.043" UserId="735" Comment="added 29 characters in body" Text="If the controls and tools you are talking about are all software, then you could ask the client to provide you with a system that has these and that you can [remote][1] into. Later, when you find out that collaboration works well and that it is potentially long term, you can buy the controls and tools yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that certain jurisdictions don't allow freelancing contracts if your work relationship resembles that of an employee (in Germany: &quot;[Scheinselbständigkeit][3]&quot;). However, I don't think that remoting into a machine located at the client should get you into trouble. I have freelanced on-site for several months at a large company in Germany, and colleagues have done so for years - it's nothing unusual. While I had more freedom than an employee, for example no fixed office hours, that was probably a border case. Anyhow, risk was with the client company, and it had good lawyers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you need special hardware, then accessing it remotely may not be a solution, or only a partial one. Special hardware could for example be a device that you need to program firmware for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, consider that it is normally possible to sell the controls and tools if you don't need them anymore. This does not only hold true for hardware. At least in Germany, there have been [court orders][2] requiring vendors to allow or facilitate transfer of licenses. Many do this anyhow - I suggest asking before buying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_desktop&#xD;&#xA;[2]: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gebraucht-Software&#xD;&#xA;[3]: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheinselbst%C3%A4ndigkeit" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1945" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="759" RevisionGUID="8a1c8ac7-d9f7-4e27-b6c4-f79a18210451" CreationDate="2013-09-13T03:48:55.170" UserId="820" Comment="added 21 characters in body" Text="I tend to avoid *fees* as much as possible, and I also tend to avoid providing hosting services (or similar) for my clients. I'll certainly *manage* their hosting / backup / whatever they want at my hourly rate, but I don't want to become a reseller of someone else's products. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(*As an aside: I realize it can seem lucrative to markup and resell services like hosting, but it's easy to forget there is still a cost - now your client expects you to fix whatever is wrong with the service, not the original provider. You're no longer a freelancer, you're now a web host / email host / whatever - you just have very little control over the service you're selling.*)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's something that requires some kind of active observation on your part (in this case, keeping an eye on WordPress updates), I've found a kind of retainer with a few included hours is a reasonable way to package it. That way your client knows what the cost will be each month (I'd just be sure to present this as separate from any hosting, license, or similar fees they pay to a vendor) to have you manage their installation of WordPress. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When there's some significant change that requires more than the include hours, you can move to hourly billing, or just take a look at the last 6 months or so of work. If you're including 3 hours in the retainer fee, and you're only spending 30 minutes a month - it's probably best to keep the clock off (at least for a while).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1946" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="754" RevisionGUID="dd33c903-cfeb-4fea-ace7-e7758509735b" CreationDate="2013-09-13T18:19:54.370" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/378583833530355712" />
  <row Id="1947" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="773" RevisionGUID="ef3cd1fd-0ba8-4289-a282-ab147ff5eea2" CreationDate="2013-09-13T20:30:18.323" UserId="209" Text="Do you know any freelance sites specifically within the project management/ HR/ recruiting areas?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1948" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="773" RevisionGUID="ef3cd1fd-0ba8-4289-a282-ab147ff5eea2" CreationDate="2013-09-13T20:30:18.323" UserId="209" Text="Freelance sites specifically for project management or recrruiting?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1949" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="773" RevisionGUID="ef3cd1fd-0ba8-4289-a282-ab147ff5eea2" CreationDate="2013-09-13T20:30:18.323" UserId="209" Text="|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1950" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="773" RevisionGUID="6844f6c5-c03e-48d3-b7ba-305b314d29df" CreationDate="2013-09-13T21:06:54.723" UserId="64" Comment="103" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="1951" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="493" RevisionGUID="85fe3051-8b42-4322-b224-992116061566" CreationDate="2013-09-14T04:13:01.867" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus on sites in general; edited tags" Text="I am an Android Developer, and I'm new to freelancing. I recently created an account on sites like freelancer.com, and I want to take on some projects.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As someone new to freelancing, how can I land a project? How do I bid on freelancing sites?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1952" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="462" RevisionGUID="b654fa64-5d14-41b7-9f56-3c3b6b304e17" CreationDate="2013-09-14T04:15:23.160" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title" Text="How can a new freelancer judge the competition?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1953" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="462" RevisionGUID="b654fa64-5d14-41b7-9f56-3c3b6b304e17" CreationDate="2013-09-14T04:15:23.160" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title" Text="|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1954" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="493" RevisionGUID="85fe3051-8b42-4322-b224-992116061566" CreationDate="2013-09-14T04:13:01.867" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus on sites in general; edited tags" Text="|marketing|group-freelancing|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1955" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="353" RevisionGUID="747da7cf-d274-4303-88c7-f46a9e24b259" CreationDate="2013-09-14T04:16:58.620" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags; fixed title" Text="|invoices|sales|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1956" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="353" RevisionGUID="747da7cf-d274-4303-88c7-f46a9e24b259" CreationDate="2013-09-14T04:16:58.620" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags; fixed title" Text="What should be included on a quotation or offer to perform services/deliver goods as a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1957" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="517" RevisionGUID="4914e502-67f7-4e7d-a396-84d61827f59f" CreationDate="2013-09-14T04:36:11.770" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags; fixed spelling/grammar; fixed title to try to make it easier to find" Text="|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1958" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="517" RevisionGUID="4914e502-67f7-4e7d-a396-84d61827f59f" CreationDate="2013-09-14T04:36:11.770" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags; fixed spelling/grammar; fixed title to try to make it easier to find" Text="Most times, clients ask me to talk in Skype. Since I do not like talking as I may say something unplanned, I always direct them to message rooms where they ask questions, and I reply after thinking about it. So far, this was a very good approach since I did not make any mistakes when setting the job terms, and the clients never complained.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the past, I rejected a few clients because they insisted we talk. I am now wondering if more serious clients with multiple projects wish to talk to contractor, while single-project ones or unserious ones prefer messaging. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;can I find long-term partners by avoiding Skype talks or will this limit me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1959" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="517" RevisionGUID="4914e502-67f7-4e7d-a396-84d61827f59f" CreationDate="2013-09-14T04:36:11.770" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags; fixed spelling/grammar; fixed title to try to make it easier to find" Text="To talk with client or to chat with client and the effects on landing contracts" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1960" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="763" RevisionGUID="6d3eb7f0-bd67-4125-b788-8401aeb5547a" CreationDate="2013-09-14T09:08:49.413" UserId="517" Comment="added 561 characters in body" Text="1) You may try [**Assembla**][1] which is pretty much you'll ever need. You as admin can filter tabs your client can see. For example, leaving him Tasks tab only where he can make tasks for you, make comments on each, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) The other one is to try [**Trello**][2] which is visually richer. Yet again, he may not like drag&amp;drop things, popups etc. So maybe Assembla may be more Win95 in style :) and they may like it more. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Both are free to use and located in cloud. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) Third option is to use **[Google Docs][3]** where you set a public Excel doc where you both can enter tasks. Some of my clients prefer Excel, especially older ones. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) Another option which is liked my current older client (55 yrs) is **[Basecamp][4]** room. He can write comments there, post images and docs, all is drag&amp;drop. He is not confused. Good thing is that Basecamp offers you 3 months for free. If you cannot afford Basecamp and project takes more than 3 months, then before 3 months-trial ends, export all the content and open a new free account. In a long run, this is pain and eventually you'll start with a paid account. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But you must be clear with the client that they should put effort in the project as well **since you are not coding it alone but together with him**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://assembla.com&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://trello.com&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://docs.google.com&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://basecamp.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1961" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="774" RevisionGUID="f62d1ae2-f317-4bdf-9d67-9e5b824477fc" CreationDate="2013-09-14T10:46:27.320" UserId="888" Text="I started freelancing 2 months ago with Android development and landed my first job in just 1 day. The key points are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - you are new and probably don't have a lot of experience. So, to have a good offer that the client will take into consideration you should ask for less money that most of the people bidding. This way, even if you don't have experience people will still probably take you into consideration because of the low price, which let's face it, attracts a lot of people. Don't worry about the low prices, you only need these for your first 2-3 projects so you can get a good rating and some experience. After that you can start raising your prices and you will continue on doing this for a while.&#xD;&#xA; - also make sure to state to the person that you are a beginner. Be 100% honest with that person so they know what they are getting into. So if he accepts then he is OK with your situation and is willing to take the risk of hiring you.&#xD;&#xA; - make a very good written offer. That means you explain to him your situation and then start asking about his project. Ask what you do not fully understand about his requirements. Also if you have ideas that will probably be good for him propose those ideas. Even if the person might not take into consideration and apply you ideas, he will still see that you are interested in what he needs.&#xD;&#xA; - if you get the project then ask a lot of questions when working on the project so you can make it exactly as the person wants it. Also propose better ways of creating something if you, as a developer, consider them better. &#xD;&#xA; - also have patience. Not all people want beginners to work on their projects. So don't despair if 10 clients refused your proposal. It's enough for 1 to accept and give you work that will keep you occupied for at least 1 month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's pretty much it. Remember low prices and good work at first, then higher prices and better work as you gain more experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1962" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="775" RevisionGUID="c8da5c50-da46-4c7e-8eab-512418beaa75" CreationDate="2013-09-14T12:40:00.083" UserId="890" Text="I've hired a freelancer quite recently, for a quick 1 week job. I find a good price to be around 20%-30%. Anything more than 50% is pushing it, unless the project itself costs a lot of money to start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Go too high and the employer might think that you're planning to run away with the money. Too low and the employer might worry about your commitment to the job. A little bit of money guilts a freelancer into finishing the job, on time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In situation where you can be absolutely certain of doing the job, like a signed contract with penalties for failure to deliver, the upfront payment can be much higher. If you can justify your costs for starting this, you can also request a lot more." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1963" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="776" RevisionGUID="73a6ca89-86ef-48f0-a49c-d2a6eda83b06" CreationDate="2013-09-14T12:48:13.340" UserId="890" Text="Just outright tell them that you have a better offer from someone else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my country, what we do is we outright tell the second guy that we've got a better offer. Heck, we even show them the offer letter sometimes. You don't actually have to show them the offer letter, especially if it's P&amp;C, but it gives more credibility to the excuse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Very often, the second guy will raise his pay to match and beat the first one. Once that happens, we go back to the first guy and tell them that we've just been offered something better. You can play them against each other, just be completely honest about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Few employers will actually blame you for going with someone who pays better. I've actually turned down a few offers from good employers. Sometimes they give me a better deal. Often they just give a gift instead, say &quot;No hard feelings, call me any time.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1964" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="777" RevisionGUID="c45cca1f-ecd6-4296-9704-b310c16a4919" CreationDate="2013-09-14T19:50:17.473" UserId="517" Text="I am always totally honest with the client. I first thank him for contacting me. Then I tell him that I am busy X number of hours on Y project which is expected to end on Z date. I ask him if he can wait till that date. If I am unavailable due to some nature events (tornados :) or similar ones), they I usually send them a link to this news and trying to predict when I can be available again. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No one ever found this approach of mine as rude or unprofessional. Even more they either tell me that they will contact me on a specific date or they tell me that they cannot wait so long and ask me if they can contact me in the future. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So instead of thinking what to say, simply tell the truth. Telling the truth will be the quickest way for you and your client will appreciate it very much. Being busy is nothing which will make them angry but will instead tell them how wanted you are. And receive truth from you will benefit you more than zillions &quot;good stories&quot;. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1965" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="776" RevisionGUID="19304ace-4b4d-4fb2-b538-865eb57e9eec" CreationDate="2013-09-15T01:15:55.900" UserId="890" Comment="deleted 4 characters in body" Text="Just outright tell them that you have a better offer from someone else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my country, what we do is we outright tell the second guy that we've got a better offer. Heck, we even show them the offer letter sometimes. You don't actually have to show them the offer letter, especially if it's P&amp;C, but it gives more credibility to the excuse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Very often, the second guy will raise his pay to match and beat the first one. Once that happens, we go back to the first guy and tell them that we've just been offered something better. You can play them against each other, just be completely honest about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Few clients will actually blame you for going with someone who pays better. I've actually turned down a few offers from good clients. Sometimes they give me a better deal. Often they just give a gift instead, say &quot;No hard feelings, call me any time.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1966" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="778" RevisionGUID="56931891-7db3-40dc-9854-ecd6cc54e5b8" CreationDate="2013-09-15T05:10:01.923" UserId="888" Text="These tests are just a little bit of information that shows how good you know of your field.  Usually, if you have experience then these will not be that hard. Don't expect people to hire you just for your great results but when having to choose between 2 freelancers the clue to will surely choose the one with the high score on the tests. So in short: no, it is not a requirement but yes, it will help out in some cases. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1967" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="779" RevisionGUID="8a7eddb6-4c42-40e7-925e-0e0bf18cc9e4" CreationDate="2013-09-15T15:05:58.480" UserId="895" Text="I've just started freelancing full-time. I've done bits here and there before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've mostly been drawn to freelancing because of the higher rates I can bill and the ability to be master of my own destiny.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've found though that I get this sort of guilty feeling when I'm invoicing a client, like I'm doing something wrong, or cheeky or asking for too much even though the client agreed to my rates. They don't say anything or quibble, and as far as I can tell, they're very happy with the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the crux of it is that I wouldn't be willing to pay £n for what I've supplied. That's not to say I do a poor job, I think I do as good as a job as anyone else they could hire. I think this comes down to the logical fact that I wouldn't pay someone to do what I do, because I can already do it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's very, very different to receiving your monthly paycheck from an employer straight into your account because you're normally actively asking 1 person directly for payment and if you're billing hourly, it could be more than they were expecting, this can feel uncomfortable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anybody else had these feelings before when starting out? How do you contend with them?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1968" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="779" RevisionGUID="8a7eddb6-4c42-40e7-925e-0e0bf18cc9e4" CreationDate="2013-09-15T15:05:58.480" UserId="895" Text="How to get over the discomfort of asking for money?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1969" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="779" RevisionGUID="8a7eddb6-4c42-40e7-925e-0e0bf18cc9e4" CreationDate="2013-09-15T15:05:58.480" UserId="895" Text="|pay-rate|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1970" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="750" RevisionGUID="bde9ff16-1888-4dc3-ba35-a45ba9c7d9f4" CreationDate="2013-09-15T15:20:08.813" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/379263371578974208" />
  <row Id="1971" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="780" RevisionGUID="c1b46150-5cfe-4ccf-86c9-56c710d1266b" CreationDate="2013-09-15T17:25:41.020" UserId="517" Text="I think most of fair freelancers felt the same. I felt the same when I had to charge mother of two, then again when I had to charge a student, and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But in the end, simply tell yourself that you have responsibility to your own family, your children, your parents, and so on. And this is the way to feed them, right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best way to overcome the guilt is to do a good job they paid you for and not to cheat on them ever. That way you will soon stop thinking like you're robbing them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And don't ever say &quot;I would never pay such money to someone else&quot;. Yes you would if you were burnt in the past by bad contractor and now you want to pay more for quality. Believe me. I used to hire quality contractors for higher hourly rate then I ever got for myself." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1972" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="489" RevisionGUID="29c586c4-93c8-4646-ab6a-30fb607d41ba" CreationDate="2013-09-15T18:18:49.323" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1974" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="780" RevisionGUID="cdd6abf8-7e7e-451d-9aec-a129f9e1bf0c" CreationDate="2013-09-16T09:47:21.063" UserId="517" Comment="added 391 characters in body" Text="I think most of fair freelancers felt the same. I felt the same when I had to charge mother of two, then again when I had to charge a student, and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But in the end, simply tell yourself that you have responsibility to your own family, your children, your parents, and so on. And this is the way to feed them, right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best way to overcome the guilt is to do a good job they paid you for and not to cheat on them ever. That way you will soon stop thinking like you're robbing them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And don't ever say &quot;I would never pay such money to someone else&quot;. Yes you would if you were burnt in the past by bad contractor and now you want to pay more for quality. Believe me. I used to hire quality contractors for higher hourly rate then I ever got for myself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also keep in mind the ultimate thought &quot;no matter how much you charged your clients, be sure that some company would charge them a couple of times more&quot;. For example, I once get hold of information that some company charged the work 10 times more that the costs are. After that I told myself, no matter how much I charge my clients, they always got a better deal then with some company. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1975" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="781" RevisionGUID="c8a0d294-ba0d-47c6-898a-65907f63ea98" CreationDate="2013-09-16T14:13:12.377" UserId="820" Text="*[tl;dr: Clients are paying for more than a task to be done, they're paying for you. Understand that, and make that product unique, valuable, and worth every penny.]*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are a few things to keep in mind:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Your time is limited**: When you're working hourly, the client's not just paying for the work to be done, they're paying for *you* to do it. A subtle distinction maybe, but a good client (the kind you want to work with), understands that each freelancer brings more to the table than just the completion of a task. They readily pay a higher rate because you're easy to work with, communicate well, can grasp the work quickly, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that point, your rate is not based only on the *kind* of work you do, it's based on your reputation / availability - and the fact that a client wants *you* to do the work, not just the work to be done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Be worth it**: If you continue to feel guilty, make sure you really are providing the best service available. Are you billing hours to figure out things that it's reasonable for the client to assume you already knew? The higher your rate, the more careful / sensitive you'll need to be about that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Figure out why your clients are happy paying your rate. Perhaps it's because you're faster than what they've worked with in the past. Realize that there are (depending on local law) various advantages to paying more hourly instead of hiring someone full time - and that's reflected in hourly rate higher than `weekly salary / 40 hours`.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Don't do everything**: I had a client that needed a web application fixed. He was very happy with my work. It was completed quickly, and (to him) it was obvious that I was more competent than the developers he'd hired in the past. Once the application was fixed, he also needed someone to edit content on his side (change field names, etc). There's no way he should have a senior developer do what anyone with a basic knowledge of HTML and PHP could do. I told him as much, but (see the first point) he wanted *me* to do it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And that's fine - if the client can actually afford your rate. But if you feel guilty that someone who can't afford it is paying you (at a senior rate) to do something that could be done by a far junior freelancer - stick to things that require your experience / knowledge, and find them someone else to do the rest." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1976" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="781" RevisionGUID="61e9b1a2-df0d-4284-b0d5-6f8a46a8d543" CreationDate="2013-09-16T15:33:33.750" UserId="820" Comment="added 106 characters in body" Text="*[tl;dr: Clients are paying for more than a task to be done, they're paying for you. Understand that, and make that product unique, valuable, and worth every penny.]*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are a few things to keep in mind:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Your time is limited**: When you're working hourly, the client's not just paying for the work to be done, they're paying for *you* to do it. A subtle distinction maybe, but a good client (the kind you want to work with), understands that each freelancer brings more to the table than just the completion of a task. They readily pay a higher rate because you're easy to work with, communicate well, can grasp the work quickly, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that point, your rate is not based only on the *kind* of work you do, it's based on your reputation / availability - and the fact that a client wants *you* to do the work, not just the work to be done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Be worth it**: If you continue to feel guilty, make sure you really are providing the best service available. Are you billing hours to figure out things that it's reasonable for the client to assume you already knew? The higher your rate, the more careful / sensitive you'll need to be about that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Figure out why your clients are happy paying your rate. Perhaps it's because you're faster than what they've worked with in the past. Realize that there are (depending on local law) various advantages to paying more hourly instead of hiring someone full time - and that's reflected in hourly rate higher than `weekly salary / 40 hours`.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Don't do everything**: I had a client that needed a web application fixed. He was very happy with my work. It was completed quickly, and (to him) it was obvious that I was more competent than the developers he'd hired in the past. Once the application was fixed, he also needed someone to edit content on his side (change field names, etc). There's no way he should have a senior developer do what anyone with a basic knowledge of HTML and PHP could do. I told him as much, but (see the first point) he wanted *me* to do it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And that's fine - if the client can actually afford your rate. But if you feel guilty that someone who can't afford it is paying you (at a senior rate) to do something that could be done by a far junior freelancer - stick to things that require your experience / knowledge, and find them someone else to do the rest. (If you want your relationship with the client to continue, make sure *you* find them someone competent.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1977" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="724" RevisionGUID="391416f6-51c5-45f7-bdb0-485475d1e1f6" CreationDate="2013-09-17T04:01:58.007" UserId="820" Comment="tried to clean up title" Text="Offline and online, what places should someone new to freelancing frequent to get a solid start? Specifically someone looking to partner with other freelancers?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are good kinds of places (both online and locally) to network with other freelancers to find potential partnerships, and sources for projects? What kinds of groups, books, sites should a new freelancer be aware of?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the same time, are there types of network groups, sites, etc that should be avoided as they seem to promise more value than they actually deliver (for the investment in time or money they require)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1978" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="724" RevisionGUID="391416f6-51c5-45f7-bdb0-485475d1e1f6" CreationDate="2013-09-17T04:01:58.007" UserId="820" Comment="tried to clean up title" Text="Where can a new freelancer find people to work with?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1979" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="724" RevisionGUID="391416f6-51c5-45f7-bdb0-485475d1e1f6" CreationDate="2013-09-17T04:01:58.007" Comment="Proposed by 820 approved by 64 edit id of 164" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1980" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="724" RevisionGUID="6b4af627-a609-4b32-a603-eeea8809d090" CreationDate="2013-09-17T04:04:08.420" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus on the how and why" Text="Offline and online, how can I determine what places someone new to freelancing should frequent to get a solid start; Specifically, someone looking to partner with other freelancers?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I determine what kinds of places (both online and locally) would be good to help me find potential partnerships, and sources for projects?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I determine what types of network groups, sites, etc that should be avoided as they seem to promise more value than they actually deliver (for the investment in time or money they require)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1981" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="724" RevisionGUID="227b1add-d49c-4f86-8962-979b17f013cf" CreationDate="2013-09-17T04:04:12.030" UserId="64" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="1982" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="773" RevisionGUID="d351f0e7-c1b4-4e97-836b-3a17dfa7e197" CreationDate="2013-09-17T04:22:45.780" UserId="64" Comment="edited the question to focus on what I believe is the problem and expanding a little better; edited tags" Text="I do project management and recruiting, and I was interested if there were specialized freelance sites for project management and recruiting, just as there are specialized freelance sites for copywriting, for instance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does this exist?  Is it possible to be a freelance recruiter or a freelance project manager? How can I go about finding one of these roles, and are there sites dedicated to helping find freelance jobs in these fields?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1983" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="773" RevisionGUID="dd2c9d6d-6a2b-44f2-8232-5922cc512c07" CreationDate="2013-09-17T04:22:52.983" UserId="64" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="1984" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="773" RevisionGUID="d351f0e7-c1b4-4e97-836b-3a17dfa7e197" CreationDate="2013-09-17T04:22:45.780" UserId="64" Comment="edited the question to focus on what I believe is the problem and expanding a little better; edited tags" Text="Is it possible to get freelancing gigs in project management or recruiting fields?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1985" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="773" RevisionGUID="d351f0e7-c1b4-4e97-836b-3a17dfa7e197" CreationDate="2013-09-17T04:22:45.780" UserId="64" Comment="edited the question to focus on what I believe is the problem and expanding a little better; edited tags" Text="|project-management|freelance-fields|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1986" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="295" RevisionGUID="26463bea-b779-4628-8a6b-0941aefc26da" CreationDate="2013-09-17T04:39:27.963" UserId="64" Comment="edited to fit within SE guidelines a bit better" Text="I've been asked to produce a report for clients that shows that I was working on their project for the number of hours that I bill them for. How could that be achieved? The client is familiar with oDesk and asked that I create a similar report.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The system at oDesk has the following features:  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Recording of keystrokes per time increment.  &#xD;&#xA;- Screenshots taken at set intervals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I create such a report using data that wasn't generated or altered by me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not asking if you would work under such conditions. I'm asking if there is a way to achieve this functionality?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1987" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="782" RevisionGUID="0d2496ca-84bd-4819-b393-95e5715f0e7a" CreationDate="2013-09-17T06:41:30.677" UserId="906" Text="I'd like to find out what everyone else quotes for when they quote on a website please? More particularly, what is it you quote for that I might not be factoring in which I should.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It wasn't until recently when I started work for a new agency that they asked me to add an additional $500 for a project management fee which I had never done in the past.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there other items everyone else quotes for that I may not be considering. It always feels as though I am coming in short and perhaps there are items I need to be charging for?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1988" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="782" RevisionGUID="0d2496ca-84bd-4819-b393-95e5715f0e7a" CreationDate="2013-09-17T06:41:30.677" UserId="906" Text="What I should be quoting for as a web designer / developer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1989" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="782" RevisionGUID="0d2496ca-84bd-4819-b393-95e5715f0e7a" CreationDate="2013-09-17T06:41:30.677" UserId="906" Text="|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1990" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="782" RevisionGUID="84c9cd1f-9b23-4c91-9434-4835ecea4ebe" CreationDate="2013-09-17T07:29:47.037" UserDisplayName="user19" Comment="Removed thanks &amp; clarified a bit." Text="As a webdesigner / webdeveloper, what is it that I can quote for?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It wasn't a long time ago, when I started work for a new agency, that they asked me to add an additional $500 for a project management fee which I had never done in the past.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there other items everyone else quotes for that I may not be considering? It always feels as though I am coming in short and perhaps there are items I could charge for?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1991" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="782" RevisionGUID="84c9cd1f-9b23-4c91-9434-4835ecea4ebe" CreationDate="2013-09-17T07:29:47.037" Comment="Proposed by 19 approved by 64 edit id of 165" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1992" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="783" RevisionGUID="821acb4e-20d4-4cfb-b0ec-6f7c698d849e" CreationDate="2013-09-17T12:12:22.663" UserId="85" Text="Certainly over here in the UK, there are plenty of opportunities for contract project managers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Both of the UK's main recruiting sites offer such roles:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.jobsite.co.uk/jobs/contract-project-manager&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.jobserve.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(neither offered as a recommendation, and other sites are available)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am sure that such sites are available in other countries too." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1993" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="784" RevisionGUID="69e1d007-179c-4bd7-b1f6-1aad71b4359e" CreationDate="2013-09-17T12:15:59.460" UserId="477" Text="I don't necessarily break it down for clients unless they want it that way. I charge for absolutely any time spent on the project - these can be things such as research meetings, project management and even phone calls.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are working on fixed prices this is where good estimating comes in to play from knowledge of previous projects." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1994" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="785" RevisionGUID="44e05dad-732d-4471-8241-7ac58f519719" CreationDate="2013-09-17T12:18:15.957" UserId="820" Text="My solution for this is to only work hourly, as that's really what I'm selling (my time / me). At that point, if one client's project is full of email conversations, managing other developers, iterating over designs - I don't have to capture that lost time with a 'management fee', I simply bill the hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand that depending on your specific market, it may be more common to charge per page, per site, or some other deliverable. But the less reproducible your work (designing a site, vrs slicing a PSD), the more you run into the problem you describe." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1995" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="786" RevisionGUID="5379fe31-71a5-4c52-9b93-ff1d40c6d31b" CreationDate="2013-09-17T12:20:16.040" UserId="477" Text="As Andrew has said, in the UK it is common to get contract positions as a project manager but these will generally be for a specific project or set or projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To my knowledge it is not that common to freelance as a project manager for lots of companies with lots of ongoing projects." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1996" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="787" RevisionGUID="ebd6c226-7731-40f2-917e-d91eddadae19" CreationDate="2013-09-17T15:57:50.647" UserId="517" Text="A webdeveloper was asked to do project management as well?! Hm, this is odd since doing project management puts you our of your primary domain - coding. Because of that it's almost impossible to say &quot;what else you can add&quot; to quoting. Basically with this approach you can add anything - make them morning coffee, massage them, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, getting back to things a webdeveloper can offer, I'd say they are:&#xD;&#xA;- coding&#xD;&#xA;- web design&#xD;&#xA;- optimization for mobile devices and tablets&#xD;&#xA;- hosting&#xD;&#xA;- selling web domain&#xD;&#xA;- basic web administration like the one you do for yourself on your own hosting server (like cPanel, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may also add SEO, but that also out of web developer area. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I may be too rigid since I don't know your capabilities. If you are capable of doing SEO and project management, then do that as well. But somehow, I think this may be too much for one person. Imagine 10 projects with all these tasks for one person only. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. Many times I also tried being a coder and project manager and QA to cut costs, but in the end neither of these task I was able to complete in a quality manner. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1997" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="788" RevisionGUID="2b5c34f1-c5eb-4d93-a5ba-937e3cad2b6f" CreationDate="2013-09-17T16:32:09.247" UserId="916" Text="I am looking for ideas on setting up a Source Control system for my one man shop. There would be occasional subcontractors. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally the system software would be either hosted or capable of running on low cost hardware. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Low cost is critical.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally it would integrate with Visual Studio 2012+&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are others using?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1998" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="788" RevisionGUID="2b5c34f1-c5eb-4d93-a5ba-937e3cad2b6f" CreationDate="2013-09-17T16:32:09.247" UserId="916" Text="Looking for ideas on a source control system for an idependent single/small group developer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1999" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="788" RevisionGUID="2b5c34f1-c5eb-4d93-a5ba-937e3cad2b6f" CreationDate="2013-09-17T16:32:09.247" UserId="916" Text="|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2000" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="789" RevisionGUID="c1bdd964-5d17-4628-859c-b49edbf04f54" CreationDate="2013-09-17T17:19:20.840" UserId="918" Text="Microsoft is offering a new Team Foundation Server Express for 5 developers or less (free). Could also provide a place for project tracking. Alos, have you tried Github? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2001" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="788" RevisionGUID="82969d9b-dfbf-4817-919e-a3f0c8099c22" CreationDate="2013-09-17T19:18:53.173" UserId="184" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:19,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Camil Staps&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:184,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Oded&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="2002" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="788" RevisionGUID="e6f20874-b1ed-47bd-a446-08b5a7ae0c54" CreationDate="2013-09-17T19:44:10.207" UserId="64" Comment="made this so it wasn't a polling question" Text="I occasionally work with subcontractors using Visual Studio 2012+ but don't understand how to properly handle change control in this situation, since we're all separate entities and don't work together in the same location.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I manage changes in a VS 2012 software project in a cost effective manner, and what type of features should I look for in a good change management solution?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2003" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="788" RevisionGUID="e6f20874-b1ed-47bd-a446-08b5a7ae0c54" CreationDate="2013-09-17T19:44:10.207" UserId="64" Comment="made this so it wasn't a polling question" Text="Source control systems for idependent single/small group developers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2004" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="773" RevisionGUID="e416aaa4-860c-4e22-af4e-41e865c0e0df" CreationDate="2013-09-17T21:07:40.133" UserId="209" Comment="added 39 characters in body" Text="I do project management and recruiting, and I was interested if there were specialized freelance sites for project management and recruiting (especially remote work), just as there are specialized freelance sites for copywriting, for instance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does this exist?  Is it possible to be a remote freelance recruiter or a remote freelance project manager? How can I go about finding one of these roles, and are there sites dedicated to helping find freelance jobs in these fields?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2005" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="773" RevisionGUID="e416aaa4-860c-4e22-af4e-41e865c0e0df" CreationDate="2013-09-17T21:07:40.133" UserId="209" Comment="added 39 characters in body" Text="|project-management|remote|freelance-fields|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2006" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="788" RevisionGUID="593d58fa-fc4c-4404-ab85-413e1e7c68fa" CreationDate="2013-09-18T04:24:58.983" UserId="64" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:19,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Camil Staps&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="2007" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="788" RevisionGUID="18a97457-6f71-4b82-800c-2ee02df2bd09" CreationDate="2013-09-18T04:37:07.020" UserId="64" Comment="2" />
  <row Id="2008" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="788" RevisionGUID="e97295ee-ea06-4580-85f7-fdddacea6d2c" CreationDate="2013-09-18T08:44:41.547" UserId="517" Comment="edited title" Text="Source control systems for independent single/small group developers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2009" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="790" RevisionGUID="cd94e0f9-0ed6-44cf-87d7-c1606921f5e5" CreationDate="2013-09-18T08:49:58.453" UserId="517" Text="TF is what all large companies use. They also attach to it a good bug tracking software so that you can make commits for each task you're working on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I personally don't use TF since IMHO there is a better free solution. Try [Assembla][1] which is basically all you need in one place for free (unfortunately 1 project only). You simply create SVN there, set up tasks, and so on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found Assembla after trying many, many paid solutions like Unfuddle, Basecamp, etc. Assemla beats them all. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And once you're done with your project, simply export it all, and create a new one. I once asked the support if this is allowed and they said yes. You can import/export as much as free project as you wish. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bad thing is that they don't have archive feature for paid projects (that's why I am still not their paid customer) like Unfuddle, but we can hope they will implement this one day. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.assembla.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2010" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="791" RevisionGUID="84aac79f-1c7c-4137-9128-9cfd9bf1d3be" CreationDate="2013-09-18T12:23:11.903" UserId="43" Text="To give a brief overview of source control system, there are 2 basic types of source control system - distributed and centralised. The key difference between these is that centralised systems hold the source code in one central place, whereas with distributed systems developers have their own local repository to push changes to before committing them to one (or many) centrally hosted repositories. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The distributed systems provide benefits around frequency of commits and impact on others using the repository. You are encouraged to commit more regularly as you are not affecting others with your changes until they are pushed to the central repository. This makes it easier for the source code merging tools to reconcile the changes over time. Examples of distributed systems include [Git][1] and [Mercurial][2].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would always recommend using distributed source control over centralised due to the merging experience that both provide. Microsoft have [modelled the merging behaviour of TFS 2012 on Git][3] as they have themselves realised the superiority Git has in this regard. If you wish to go down the distributed route, and given that you have a distributed team then I would definitely recommend it, then there are a couple of VS extensions that you can install to help with this: [Visual Studio tools for Git][4] and [Git Source Control provider][5]. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can then use one of the cloud hosting providers to act as your central repository host. The 2 main players are [Github][6] and [Bitbucket][7], the main difference between the 2 being cost for non-open source projects. Bitbucket is free for small teams (up to 5 users I believe and unlimited repositories) and can host private closed source repositories whereas Github is only free if your source code is open source. If you wish to host private repositories on Github you will need a paid plan. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The basic workflow for a distributed source control repository is (I'm not including any Continuous Integration steps here, this is just for source code management):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Developer pulls code from central repository to local repository on their local machine.&#xD;&#xA; - Developer makes required changes, commits regularly to local repository&#xD;&#xA; - When developer has enough functionality to push centrally, they pull any changes from the central repository and merge with their local&#xD;&#xA; - Developer pushes changes from local repository to central repository&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also go a step further if your project is a Microsoft .Net website (you didn't mention specifics in your question but this is useful for anyone developing .Net websites) and use either [AppHarbor][8] or [Azure Websites][9] to host the website, because both allow for continuous deployment hooks directly into Bitbucket or Github, meaning that you can push your changes to Bitbucket and have AppHarbor/Azure automatically deploy the website after a minute or 2.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The workflow then becomes:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Developer pulls code from central repository to local repository on their local machine.&#xD;&#xA; - Developer makes required changes, commits regularly to local repository&#xD;&#xA; - When developer has enough functionality to push centrally, they pull any changes from the central repository and merge with their local&#xD;&#xA; - Developer pushes changes from local repository to central repository&#xD;&#xA; - AppHarbor/Azure detects that changes have happened within the repository and deploys the website&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://git-scm.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://mercurial.selenic.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bharry/archive/2011/08/31/merge-enhancements-in-tfs-11.aspx&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/abafc7d6-dcaa-40f4-8a5e-d6724bdb980c&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/63a7e40d-4d71-4fbb-a23b-d262124b8f4c&#xD;&#xA;  [6]: https://github.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [7]: https://bitbucket.org/&#xD;&#xA;  [8]: https://appharbor.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [9]: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/services/web-sites/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2011" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="792" RevisionGUID="110e7824-cc39-4cb5-8ce8-67625bc66167" CreationDate="2013-09-18T17:45:30.623" UserId="609" Text="For long projects with unclear deliverables and (more importantly) unclear *gain to the client* - I try to charge weekly. Especially if it's the only project at that time. This prevents a lot of hassle over hours and availability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Depends on your niche] Figuring out the value you bring to the client in dollars, and charging a portion of it, is the way to go. So that means breaking up projects into smaller deliverables with projected dollar savings/earnings attached." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2012" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="788" RevisionGUID="053cfda5-6fa5-4b29-850f-2c5ef28f9e6f" CreationDate="2013-09-18T18:20:23.173" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/380395904882442240" />
  <row Id="2013" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="793" RevisionGUID="295669ab-a3fe-48ea-a60d-fde180046f06" CreationDate="2013-09-18T19:08:46.660" UserId="613" Text="i am working on an iOS app as a freelancer. I am in a bit of a confusion whether or not to charge my client for converting app compatible with iOS 6 to iOS 7. What should i do? Any opinion??" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2014" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="793" RevisionGUID="295669ab-a3fe-48ea-a60d-fde180046f06" CreationDate="2013-09-18T19:08:46.660" UserId="613" Text="Should i charge my client for converting ios 6 app to ios 7 app?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2015" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="793" RevisionGUID="295669ab-a3fe-48ea-a60d-fde180046f06" CreationDate="2013-09-18T19:08:46.660" UserId="613" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2016" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="794" RevisionGUID="bd2db2e2-9fcb-44ce-b41a-5ccba2e27dca" CreationDate="2013-09-18T19:50:48.593" UserId="116" Text="I wouldn't charge them a fee for this upgrade, primarily to prevent looking like I am one of those contractors that are always looking to charge more for something (as in 'wow! this car was a steal! Hey wait, what kind of gas? $50/gallon?!?!?!'), and I would chalk it up to a lesson learned on my part, it could be perceived as a 'hidden cost' to the client and I like to avoid even the perception of those like the black plague.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I actually forgot to arrange a maintenance agreement with a client recently for a website I built for them. I explained that after this year (which is year #2 btw), there is a maintenance fee, not only my cost for updates but also hosting fees, domain name, etc. I didn't eat a lot, but it was enough for me to probably not forget to do that again. My contact was very understanding about this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should mention though that if they choose to go through with another upgrade (especially if it's a feature-add and not just a compatibility check) that it won't be free, and negotiate a cost. Maybe even look into some subscription models, just a thought." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2017" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="795" RevisionGUID="430a132f-a7f7-4fd5-bf8f-ebe68ff55da5" CreationDate="2013-09-18T20:15:26.480" UserId="901" Text="If I'm working hourly, this is a simple answer: talk to my client, let them know how big the changes are expected to be, and charge for my time if the client gives the go-ahead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I was working on a fixed price, I would look at my contract. If it doesn't mention this case, I'd figure out what I want to do (either answer has pros and cons) and update my contract immediately. Then I'd do the update since it was my fault for not specifying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When working mobile you need to figure out how far back you support, and what you do if a new version drops during development and spell that out in the contract. The same applies to web developers and browser versions. Be willing to bend on it (&quot;I REALLY need this to work in IE 6&quot; is an acceptable response from them, but it opens up the dialogue of how much extra money you get to charge to make that happen), but be clear where the lines are drawn." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2018" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="796" RevisionGUID="50362828-add6-4f07-908e-1683a659032e" CreationDate="2013-09-19T02:56:41.990" UserId="929" Text="Life is a serious of uncomfortable conversations punctuated by lulls. When you realize this, life is easier and you grow up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you ask for too little, you get pulled in 100 directions and you will grow very curt and demanding in asking for money naturally. You will then be glad to get free time because you asked for too much." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2019" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="793" RevisionGUID="eaa65f08-f48d-474c-9cc1-da2fc4104d15" CreationDate="2013-09-19T03:20:34.750" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/380531854035931136" />
  <row Id="2020" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="779" RevisionGUID="e62b64fd-cccb-4789-9806-a074946e5c38" CreationDate="2013-09-19T09:20:34.787" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/380622452298350592" />
  <row Id="2021" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="782" RevisionGUID="c239a737-6f26-4856-891f-5a8889509ab2" CreationDate="2013-09-19T15:20:35.093" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/380713055052910592" />
  <row Id="2022" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="728" RevisionGUID="1a39c774-0381-41e8-a07d-d6b148e93fa2" CreationDate="2013-09-19T18:20:34.993" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/380758353754198017" />
  <row Id="2023" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="797" RevisionGUID="5204273c-6fa3-42ea-b6ff-4fad17660b2a" CreationDate="2013-09-21T08:45:12.267" UserId="517" Text="Absolutely YES. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you deliver the product you may offer a free support which counts only for the bugs appearing in the current version of OS (or older). iOS 7 is a new system and upgrading to it cannot be free. NEVER allow the clients to persuade you that you should do free bug fixing for things that appeared after you have delivered them the final version. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is up to you whether you will charge them fixed-price fee or hourly work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2024" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="798" RevisionGUID="2c8b41b5-c05f-4ce5-8bcb-895989360cec" CreationDate="2013-09-21T14:19:56.880" UserId="943" Text="I have made an application for android devices which basically predicts football games results depending on certain variables, this was a prototype. The method and principle are different from other mobile applications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem I'm having is giving an exclusive or non exclusive price for the app, which a person has asked to buy for his company which is fairly new. If the requirements are all met, what should I base the exclusivity price on or even if it not sold exclusively to him what should I sell it at.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can anybody help me with clear pointers I can go by?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2025" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="798" RevisionGUID="2c8b41b5-c05f-4ce5-8bcb-895989360cec" CreationDate="2013-09-21T14:19:56.880" UserId="943" Text="Company interested in mobile application" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2026" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="798" RevisionGUID="2c8b41b5-c05f-4ce5-8bcb-895989360cec" CreationDate="2013-09-21T14:19:56.880" UserId="943" Text="|client|price|expenses|information-technology|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2027" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="798" RevisionGUID="4c6f318b-c622-47b3-9c7f-10f2d8a34aa3" CreationDate="2013-09-21T14:26:30.647" UserId="943" Comment="added 32 characters in body" Text="I have made an application for android devices which basically predicts football games results depending on certain variables, this was a prototype, available free. The method and principle are different from other mobile applications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem I'm having is giving an exclusive or non exclusive price for the app, which a person has asked to buy for his company which is fairly new. If the requirements are all met, what should I base the exclusivity price on or even if it not sold exclusively to him what should I sell it at for his company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can anybody help me with clear pointers I can go by?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2028" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="799" RevisionGUID="975f3078-b374-4783-8d5b-5d0d7a3a6ead" CreationDate="2013-09-21T15:33:12.007" UserId="517" Text="If you are talking about selling your source code, then look at this question: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/206793/how-do-you-put-price-on-your-source-code&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are talking about selling the right to be the only user of the app (and later resell it himself) without selling your source code, then things getting more complex. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you have existing users of the app? How many?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much do you earn from this app monthly?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much do you predict the client will charge fee to his users?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After you figure out this, you have multiple choices:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Keeping your ads in the app, letting him marketing the app. He earns from fee, you earn from ads.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Selling him full rights for 1 year for the price you would earn in 1 year + adding 20% or so extra on that price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Combination of the above&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Beside your rent price, you can also talk with him about annual support contract where he will hire you for X number of work hours for the period of 1 year (as a programmer). In return, whenever there is a bug, you immediately fix it until you spend all pre-bought work hours. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2029" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="798" RevisionGUID="1ba47bc1-0c7c-41ef-8a1e-44d7262cac87" CreationDate="2013-09-21T18:02:35.220" UserId="517" Comment="added 407 characters in body" Text="I have made an application for android devices which basically predicts football games results depending on certain variables, this was a prototype, available free. The method and principle are different from other mobile applications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem I'm having is giving an exclusive or non exclusive price for the app, which a person has asked to buy for his company which is fairly new. If the requirements are all met, what should I base the exclusivity price on or even if it not sold exclusively to him what should I sell it at for his company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can anybody help me with clear pointers I can go by?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's a company that is interested in my app. He doesn't want the code, the company want my app under his company or made for his company using my methods. Initially the app wasn't aimed for making money since it was just a quick fun project. I want to know how much should I sell the whole application for? how do I calculate a figure for the company to purchase the app for the company's use?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2030" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="799" RevisionGUID="a0ac5298-a3bf-4af7-a45b-eb089e267654" CreationDate="2013-09-21T18:10:48.707" UserId="517" Comment="added 1581 characters in body" Text="If you are talking about selling your source code, then look at this question: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/206793/how-do-you-put-price-on-your-source-code&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are talking about selling the right to be the only user of the app (and later resell it himself) without selling your source code, then things getting more complex. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you have existing users of the app? How many?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much do you earn from this app monthly?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much do you predict the client will charge fee to his users?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After you figure out this, you have multiple choices:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Keeping your ads in the app, letting him marketing the app. He earns from fee, you earn from ads.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Selling him full rights for 1 year for the price you would earn in 1 year + adding 20% or so extra on that price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Combination of the above&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Beside your rent price, you can also talk with him about annual support contract where he will hire you for X number of work hours for the period of 1 year (as a programmer). In return, whenever there is a bug, you immediately fix it until you spend all pre-bought work hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After you additional info, I have something more to add.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also read a link I provided. You will see that people are recommending a few ways to calculate the price of the code which you can apply for your app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you know how many work hours it took you to make the app? Multiply it with your hourly price and then with number 3. You will get the price of your app where you will actually earn money. If you don't know your hourly price, then go to multiple top freelancing websites and check the average price of Android coding. I think it should be around $20 per hour. If you're however living in the USA and the company is from USA as well, then I think the hourly price will increase to at least $60.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I should warn you that after you calculate this, the price will probably be too high. Then do your best to get as closest price to this one as possible :). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since we have not see your app, keep in mind that you're not selling the app, but the algorithm. So if someone will make similar app for $500 or $1000, it does not mean that your algorithm does not costs as much as $10k. Betting is a serious business. As comparison, a friend of mine who has a team of developers and who code betting apps only, has recently got a contract with some South African company to make a betting app for them (actually to adopt his existing app to their needs), and he took $2M for that job. This is to be aware that is someone knows how to use your app, and if the algorithm is so good indeed, then such person can earn six figures pretty quickly. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2031" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="793" RevisionGUID="7e124682-36c0-42a9-b4de-294f488b1199" CreationDate="2013-09-21T21:53:10.963" UserId="64" Comment="ficed spelling and grammar" Text="I am working on an iOS app as a freelancer. I am confused whether or not to charge my client for converting the app so that it's compatible with iOS 6 and iOS 7. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I determine whether or not I should charge to make the app work in iOS 7?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2032" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="793" RevisionGUID="7e124682-36c0-42a9-b4de-294f488b1199" CreationDate="2013-09-21T21:53:10.963" UserId="64" Comment="ficed spelling and grammar" Text="How should I determine whether to charge my client for converting iOS 6 app to iOS 7 app?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2039" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="641" RevisionGUID="abfe299b-f721-462c-ad64-646618874d29" CreationDate="2013-09-22T18:21:03.590" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/381845614595948545" />
  <row Id="2040" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="801" RevisionGUID="5859b19f-dd7d-4ae2-bae4-6b27b607b63f" CreationDate="2013-09-22T22:15:42.127" UserId="48" Text="Whether the project you're working on is fixed price or hourly, you should look at your contract first and see how it was worded.  If the terms of the contract say that you're building an application that is to be targeting iOS 6.x then that's what you should be delivering.  If your client wants the application to be iOS 7 compatible then you should talk with them and amend the terms, possibly including the compensation, of your contract to include support for iOS 7.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to amend the terms of the contract is entirely up to the contract as well.  Most contracts have clauses in them for the process by which future amendments are made.  If your amendment process outlines that any changes could alter compensation then you might be able to charge more so long as it's justified.  If your contract doesn't have a process for amendments outlined then you'll have to work with the client and get something in writing that additional work will cost more money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't have a contract and/or your contract doesn't specify that the app be built for iOS 6.x then you might have to just do the work for free so long as it fits within the initial agreement, however that was made.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the future, it might be worth setting up a maintenance agreement or retainer for any future upgrades or bug fixes.  Be sure when setting up this agreement that you specify what does and does not count as maintenance to avoid having clients trying to get you to implement large new features and calling it a bug fix.  You should also include language that outlines that any new feature requests that are not outlined in your initial agreement, such as upgrading to iOS 7 if it would be a lot of work, require a new work order or contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Contracts are a tricky business but they exist to protect both the client and the developer.  Be sure you spend a good amount of time writing clear contracts so that it's not a question in the future of whether or not to implement something.  The contract should be able to answer any questions like this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2041" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="798" RevisionGUID="d4381470-754c-47b5-a36d-92c8005de479" CreationDate="2013-09-22T23:06:36.493" UserId="48" Comment="Made the title a bit more descriptive." Text="What options are available for licensing or selling a mobile application to another company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2042" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="798" RevisionGUID="d4381470-754c-47b5-a36d-92c8005de479" CreationDate="2013-09-22T23:06:36.493" Comment="Proposed by 48 approved by 58 edit id of 166" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2044" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="734" RevisionGUID="dd6f3f88-d36a-4829-a354-054fd6d9fad1" CreationDate="2013-09-23T09:21:16.620" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/382072161709871104" />
  <row Id="2045" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="773" RevisionGUID="c0dd3ef6-d5fe-40ee-b0b8-09bcc1c0acad" CreationDate="2013-09-23T12:21:25.540" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/382117497610457088" />
  <row Id="2046" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="802" RevisionGUID="f0b9db72-d86f-41b6-a693-c9408968399a" CreationDate="2013-09-23T14:48:55.170" UserId="955" Text="I'm a freelance web developer in the evenings and my framework of choice is Wordpress.org. Wordpress and its community plugins are updated frequently. Wordpress is also a highly targeted framework for hackers since it powers so many sites. I'm sure this question could be applied to other frameworks as well like Drupal, Joomla, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I'm wondering is what other web developers charge monthly to maintain their websites. By maintain I mean, keep plugins and core up to date, and run backups on theme files and the database. For those that do this, what is a reasonable rate to charge for this kind of monthly upkeep?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2047" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="802" RevisionGUID="f0b9db72-d86f-41b6-a693-c9408968399a" CreationDate="2013-09-23T14:48:55.170" UserId="955" Text="What do web developers charge for site maintenance (not changes/updates)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2048" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="802" RevisionGUID="f0b9db72-d86f-41b6-a693-c9408968399a" CreationDate="2013-09-23T14:48:55.170" UserId="955" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2049" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="803" RevisionGUID="bcd3eb79-afcc-4829-af32-c4146f72119c" CreationDate="2013-09-23T21:17:53.200" UserDisplayName="user958" Text="I'm wondering if there are places where people submit jobs in graphic design and where people can submit results, all without the process of an interview or a hiring system. I feel that I'm a pretty capable artist, but I don't want to get an actual job or contract. Rather, I prefer choose the jobs I want and choose what I want to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem with advertising on the internet with a website is that there are millions of designers waiting for someone to contact them with an offer, and a begineer like me will likely not be looked at.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there trustworthy places where people post jobs, people do the jobs, and the best one gets paid?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2050" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="803" RevisionGUID="bcd3eb79-afcc-4829-af32-c4146f72119c" CreationDate="2013-09-23T21:17:53.200" UserDisplayName="user958" Text="Freelance graphic design without true work experience or degree" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2051" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="803" RevisionGUID="bcd3eb79-afcc-4829-af32-c4146f72119c" CreationDate="2013-09-23T21:17:53.200" UserDisplayName="user958" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2052" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="804" RevisionGUID="6f1382fa-d06a-449e-9c05-1ded6a8ab603" CreationDate="2013-09-23T21:18:39.577" UserId="514" Text="Turn it around: How do you feel (about the biller) when you get your credit-card and utilities bills, etc.?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd guess that, if you're somewhat chagrined that you'd spent more than you'd intended, you still accept that the bill is for goods and services you've already received and at your own request. Your client is likely to look at it the same way. And unless your client is an individual or mom and pop businesses, your bill isn't going to come out of someone's pocket. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2053" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="805" RevisionGUID="cd01a4d0-e0e7-4076-9f2d-58935ead77d1" CreationDate="2013-09-23T21:53:35.677" UserId="514" Text="If you're in the United States, and you bill, pay taxes, and otherwise claim to work, as an independent contractor, one of the IRS' conditions for [considering you to be a contractor][1] is that you own/buy your tools.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The penalties when a &quot;contractor&quot; is reclassified as an employee are more onerous to the client-reclassified-as-employer than to the worker, so your client may have a strong interest in ensuring that your business relationship will not someday be reclassified.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&amp;-Self-Employed/Independent-Contractor-%28Self-Employed%29-or-Employee" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2054" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="806" RevisionGUID="69deb77f-1fa1-48cc-8bf1-01d0a3c70310" CreationDate="2013-09-23T22:23:01.390" UserId="514" Text="When I start a new development project, I'm usually tasked with developing a functional spec. It generally takes me a couple of weeks of working onsite, interviewing the manager and project members to learn the system's capabilities &amp; limitations, and their requirements &amp; expectations. During that time I might write a draft or two and critique it with the manager. Eventually I tell the manager I'm going to spend the next day at my own office (at home, but I refer to it in work terms - don't convey an image of bathrobe and slippers!) writing up a spec for us to review. I make a specific appointment with him/her to review it on the subsequent day. Then I do what I said I would do, appear on time with a review-worthy piece in hand, and prepared to discuss it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've never been questioned after that point about where I work or how much time I bill for it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2055" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="803" RevisionGUID="5e29d908-bf77-45cf-8699-d15a02f6d3fc" CreationDate="2013-09-24T01:01:25.567" UserId="75" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="2056" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="802" RevisionGUID="2568f035-830d-4b49-b2a8-e866b1c14cdc" CreationDate="2013-09-24T01:02:30.773" UserId="-1" Comment="Updated question with client info" Text="I'm a freelance web developer in the evenings and my framework of choice is Wordpress.org. Wordpress and its community plugins are updated frequently. Wordpress is also a highly targeted framework for hackers since it powers so many sites. I'm sure this question could be applied to other frameworks as well like Drupal, Joomla, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I'm wondering is what other web developers charge monthly to maintain their websites. By maintain I mean, keep plugins and core up to date, and run backups on theme files and the database. For those that do this, what is a reasonable rate to charge for this kind of monthly upkeep?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit: My clients are mostly small businesses (local restaurants, bars, farms)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2057" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="802" RevisionGUID="2568f035-830d-4b49-b2a8-e866b1c14cdc" CreationDate="2013-09-24T01:02:30.773" Comment="Proposed by anonymous approved by -1 edit id of 167" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2058" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="802" RevisionGUID="39da54e0-9b77-4e8f-8624-cb68d01c5851" CreationDate="2013-09-24T01:02:30.773" UserId="75" Comment="Updated question with client info" Text="I'm a freelance web developer in the evenings and my framework of choice is Wordpress.org. Wordpress and its community plugins are updated frequently. Wordpress is also a highly targeted framework for hackers since it powers so many sites. I'm sure this question could be applied to other frameworks as well like Drupal, Joomla, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I'm wondering is what other web developers charge monthly to maintain their websites. By maintain I mean, keep plugins and core up to date, and run backups on theme files and the database. For those that do this, what is a reasonable rate to charge for this kind of monthly upkeep?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My clients are mostly small businesses (such as local restaurants, bars, farms, etc)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2059" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="442" RevisionGUID="6ef030f4-2006-44fe-9572-209421dcecb7" CreationDate="2013-09-24T01:09:38.947" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|price-per-hour|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2060" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="303" RevisionGUID="dcb3dbeb-96b3-4024-a60e-df31cf2b998b" CreationDate="2013-09-24T01:09:52.627" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2061" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="803" RevisionGUID="0e7fd713-f97e-4b9b-8dc3-ebad10807353" CreationDate="2013-09-24T01:17:52.913" UserDisplayName="user958" Comment="edited to fit stackexchange rules" Text="I'm wondering if there are places where people submit jobs in graphic design and where people can submit results, all without the process of an interview or a hiring system. I feel that I'm a pretty capable artist, but I don't want to get an actual job or contract. Rather, I prefer choose the jobs I want and choose what I want to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem with advertising on the internet with a website is that there are millions of designers waiting for someone to contact them with an offer, and a begineer like me will likely not be looked at.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I find trustworthy places where people post jobs, people do the jobs, and the best one gets paid?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2062" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="803" RevisionGUID="44cd556d-6974-40a6-90e3-94bc947c4001" CreationDate="2013-09-24T01:18:47.240" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="2063" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="807" RevisionGUID="f7d6760d-c063-467c-a9c2-c7ef256b4993" CreationDate="2013-09-24T06:11:35.033" UserId="75" Text="[ChrisTravers](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/users/60/chris-travers) has a [good list](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/354/75) above, and I'd like to add a few more things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Dates the quote can be completed. You need a date for expiration (described in above answer), as well as for when the work can be done, from the time you get the OK. Will this project take 3 working days? Make sure that's on the quote! There is nothing good about saying it takes 3 working days, and 2 1/2 days later, the client wants it done right as soon as he says OK! &#xD;&#xA;- How much notice is needed. For larger projects, you may need to give notice for workers or resources to become available. This can be included with the dates, but should be included nonetheless&#xD;&#xA;- Depending on the scope or project, you can add a mini-FAQ of questions you believe the client may have, whether it's about the technology or the project itself" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2064" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="808" RevisionGUID="f354e471-d02d-4ca3-a884-fab139d4b27f" CreationDate="2013-09-24T09:10:57.687" UserId="517" Text="The most experienced ones will sell you the fixed-price package where they will list what you get for $$$ value. They have a lot of experience and they can go with fix price without being on loss.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But even they calculated its price based on work hours spent on the tasks listed in the offer. So **hourly price is always the basis** and you should start with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you have some experience, track how much time you need for frequent tasks and you will have your price in a minute. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Determining hourly price is different story and there are multiple approaches to it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2065" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="809" RevisionGUID="f3ab7d46-e9eb-4cfc-b876-98cf26ef0563" CreationDate="2013-09-24T09:15:49.100" UserId="517" Text="Do not be so pessimistic and think you're a small fish in an ocean. Yes, there are thousands of designers but if you are good one, you will always find a job. It will be hard in the beginning but we all have been there. There is no shortcut I am afraid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may also try making pro images in Photoshop and publish them on pro image selling sites. There are many of them in the net [Google: &quot;buy stock images&quot;].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I am more sceptic about earning money this way then trying on freelancing sites. I would always go with freelancing sites." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2066" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="803" RevisionGUID="e76d494b-1f41-40e6-97d6-b534adcbe7db" CreationDate="2013-09-24T12:21:30.570" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/382479906493718528" />
  <row Id="2067" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="810" RevisionGUID="c8bb809e-5908-4ab2-9a85-9603a89da449" CreationDate="2013-09-24T14:19:21.110" UserId="820" Text="If I understand your question correctly, you want to avoid 'profile' style sites, where clients stumble across your profile, and contact you for work. Here's a few 'types' of platforms where you can get work, perhaps it will help clarify where you want to focus your energy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Profile Listings**: &#xD;&#xA;One could argue that's also the internet in general (put up a page, wait for people to find you). [Fiverr](http://fiverr.com/) and [Zaarly](https://www.zaarly.com) are examples of that (although not really for the kind of work you're looking for). Posting your service on [craigslist](http://craigslist.org) is another example.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Job Marketplaces**: &#xD;&#xA;While sites like [oDesk](http://odesk.com), [Elance](http://elance.com) have that component, they're certainly not limited to it. The common usage of those sites is to view jobs clients post, submit a response, and potentially get the gig. It's far less common for clients to contact freelancers directly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is that the process you're looking for (you browse through potential projects, contact the client for ones you like, try to get the work)? If so, there are tons of sites like that out there, and I'm sure a few searches will turn up ones at least slanted towards the kind of work you want to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Contest Systems**: Many freelancers strongly dislike these sites, and they only work for a few types of jobs (graphic design being one of them). Here clients post a job, and freelancers post matching designs - then the client picks one winner. [99Designs](http://99designs.com/) and [crowdSPRING](http://www.crowdspring.com/) are examples of this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You said:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; where people submit jobs in graphic design and where people can submit results, all without the process of an interview or a hiring system&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems contest sites fit that requirement the best, and if you're just wanting to get used to the 'feel' of contract work, have the time, and aren't in dire need of money - it might be work pursuing. But in that case you're doing the work without any guarantee of payment, so I wouldn't make that a serious endeavor. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2068" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="811" RevisionGUID="38322d7e-5ced-4b99-bf33-bc6b736b8b5c" CreationDate="2013-09-24T14:50:06.480" UserId="820" Text="I'm a strong proponent of hourly billing, as that's what I'm selling (my time). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case, adding a retainer may be a good way to keep your clients comfortable with the arrangement (getting generally the same bill each month), while protecting against a major time loss for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Take what you think you'll spend (or have found already that you spend) per site to do this maintenance each month. Maybe it's generally an hour, or maybe it's ten. Package that time as a maintenance retainer - with the hours included. If you ever go over those hours, you start billing hourly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To the client, you're saying that to monitor the status of their site, apply patches, etc - they need to buy a minimum of hours monthly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it only takes an hour - you may want to make that retainer for two, if it's not worth the trouble just for an hour a month. If it takes ten, then maybe you want to adjust to retainer fee so the rate is a little less than your normal hourly - as they're constantly buying a chunk of time every month, and some months may not use it all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[*Note: While I don't maintain sites like this, I have some long time clients where I still manage their networks. It's a similar situation, and this is the approach I use.*]" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2069" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="802" RevisionGUID="41061fa5-f0a7-4b06-bf3b-af3c5f2a3087" CreationDate="2013-09-25T12:21:35.030" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/382842313179156481" />
  <row Id="2074" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="667" RevisionGUID="b0f2d0f3-a8c3-42aa-a58c-ba27fc21dc57" CreationDate="2013-09-26T12:21:41.480" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/383204727850541056" />
  <row Id="2076" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="645" RevisionGUID="16f86bc7-5949-4ef9-a48e-5a829889bf02" CreationDate="2013-09-26T23:01:37.877" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited." Text="I have had the same clients like yourself. I also hired an agent whom I asked how can I be sure that his workers are reporting hours in a fair manner. He told me &quot;We trust our workers&quot;, and I did not like his reply. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is how I worked as a contractor, and I still do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Open an account at some large freelancing site as an employer. Open another account as a freelancer. Create an hourly job as an employer and invite your other self. Set some minumum price, like 0.01 per hour. Download an hourly tool and start reporting hours via desktop snapshots. Give the client access to your **employer** account (employers cannot delete snapshots), so that he can review snapshots. As I can recall, [oDesk][1] allows this way of work officially where you create your contractor and your agency and then accept yourself for some work. They refer to this as self-tracking. In the next project you may propose him to skip this part since you've proven yourself. If he refuses, don't be angry if he's a good client. Try to understand him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Open a free [SVN][2] account and give client access to it. If he's paying you weekly, then you commit changes on Friday. Or the same day he pays you. Assure him that by having your sources, he can cancel the project any time safely (you don't want him to do this, but this will make them feel safe).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These two things made my toughest clients feel safe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an extra, you can open some project management account on some service and record work hours there as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line is, it's not easy to pay someone hourly without having insight in his work. The remote types of works made clients being overly cautious (not without reason, IMHO), and you have to make the feel comfortable. At some point, they will stop asking you to monitor your work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also do not think the client is a bad one if he's asking that. He must have been burned in the past. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ODesk&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_Subversion&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2077" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="645" RevisionGUID="16f86bc7-5949-4ef9-a48e-5a829889bf02" CreationDate="2013-09-26T23:01:37.877" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 75 edit id of 168" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2078" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="813" RevisionGUID="45a7f46a-3e6a-4180-88dd-cfac38548c6c" CreationDate="2013-09-27T02:12:55.147" UserId="205" Text="&gt; How do I find trustworthy places where people post jobs, people do the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; jobs, and the best one gets paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The 'where do I find places' part of this question has been answered by Tim, I just wanted to add my point of view regarding contests, and an alternative approach. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason why designers and freelancers are usually against contests is because there is no direct contact with the client, you have people working for little or nothing (mostly nothing), and clients see design as an *expense* and not an *asset*. Contests depend on luck, if you are lucky enough you will get paid for the effort you put into your submission. If not, too bad. For these and other reasons, most designers don't like them (and are explicitly against them) because they **devalue the industry as a whole**. Nobody should work for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But there are other ways of start working as designer without having to resort to contests. You mention you want to choose your projects. Well, sites like elancer and others list jobs (not designers), and the only thing you need to have is a good portfolio. You can create **pieces for fictional projects**, instead, and use those. Real experience is always better, of course, but you want to demonstrate you are capable of designing stuff, and you want to showcase your style. These portfolio pieces will give you that. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2079" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="810" RevisionGUID="6bd96087-8a4d-4c5d-8e61-49e68e8041f6" CreationDate="2013-09-27T23:46:58.357" UserId="820" Comment="added 7 characters in body" Text="If I understand your question correctly, you want to avoid 'profile' style sites, where clients stumble across your profile, and contact you for work. Here's a few 'types' of platforms where you can get work, perhaps it will help clarify where you want to focus your energy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Profile Listings**: &#xD;&#xA;One could argue that's also the internet in general (put up a page, wait for people to find you). [Fiverr](http://fiverr.com/) and [Zaarly](https://www.zaarly.com) are examples of that (although not really for the kind of work you're looking for). Posting your service on [craigslist](http://craigslist.org) is another example.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Job Marketplaces**: &#xD;&#xA;While sites like [oDesk](http://odesk.com), [Elance](http://elance.com) have the profile component, they're certainly not limited to it. The common usage of those sites is to view jobs clients post, submit a response, and potentially get the gig. It's far less common for clients to contact freelancers directly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is that the process you're looking for (you browse through potential projects, contact the client for ones you like, try to get the work)? If so, there are tons of sites like that out there, and I'm sure a few searches will turn up ones at least slanted towards the kind of work you want to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Contest Systems**: Many freelancers strongly dislike these sites, and they only work for a few types of jobs (graphic design being one of them). Here clients post a job, and freelancers post matching designs - then the client picks one winner. [99Designs](http://99designs.com/) and [crowdSPRING](http://www.crowdspring.com/) are examples of this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You said:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; where people submit jobs in graphic design and where people can submit results, all without the process of an interview or a hiring system&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems contest sites fit that requirement the best, and if you're just wanting to get used to the 'feel' of contract work, have the time, and aren't in dire need of money - it might be work pursuing. But in that case you're doing the work without any guarantee of payment, so I wouldn't make that a serious endeavor. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2080" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="814" RevisionGUID="54879696-f1b3-4695-9f1b-06b76212351f" CreationDate="2013-09-28T01:47:38.107" UserId="708" Text="First, I'll state what I'm sure many others may think.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you truly have no work experience and no degree, all I can say is good luck to you! You're asking for nearly the impossible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every year schools churn out more and more designers. That in addition to the thousands already freelancing or looking to freelance is going to make your efforts that much harder. *You aren't being realistic if you simply want to start freelancing with no experience*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't mean to be pessimistic, but is it **very important** that you set your expectations levels accordingly. Design is **not** simply making &quot;pretty images&quot;. There's a mountain of technical knowledge one needs - either for print or web or video or whatever your desired path. Traditionally that knowledge is gained either on the job or in school. If you have neither, I hope you've done a few months of intensive reading and experimenting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for where to find work....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Skip anything &quot;on spec&quot; ([no-spec.com][1]), as Yisela points out in her answer. You will **never** be successful if you work on spec. You may have fun and enjoy the projects, but if your goal is to actually turn it into a career, you need to avoid contests or anything of that nature. You will **never** learn anything via contests. 99.9% of the time there's *no* feedback at all and you waste your time pursuing the silly idea that IF you happen to win, you get less than minimum wage for your efforts. You may as well play the lotto, you'll have a better chance of gaining something.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The best place to find projects for someone starting out is right around you.** Narrow your focus. With little or no experience you simply can't yet compete with the whole wide world on the internet. So stay **local**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assuming you're somewhere in the US....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Join your local chamber of commerce. &#xD;&#xA; - Design a business card and get it printed (*actually commercially printed*, don't make them yourself) and hand them out to local store owners. &#xD;&#xA; - Read through your local Cragislist Gigs and Creative sections for one-off projects just to get started.&#xD;&#xA; - Get your own domain name and your own website. Don't piggy-back off of some free service.&#xD;&#xA; - If possible, network with other designers and see if they'd be willing to subcontract work to you. This will be the most fruitful because you may start learning all the things you don't know you don't know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's great to have a dream. And I ***encourage*** you to pursue it will great vigor. But you need to start realistically. Even those that go to school can't generally start freelancing regularly for a few years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://no-spec.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2081" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="814" RevisionGUID="76763a94-f159-4b43-ba27-2fe4569c1970" CreationDate="2013-09-28T02:09:19.910" UserId="708" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="First, I'll state what I'm sure many others may think.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you truly have no work experience and no degree, all I can say is good luck to you! You're asking for nearly the impossible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every year schools churn out more and more designers. That in addition to the thousands already freelancing or looking to freelance is going to make your efforts that much harder. *You aren't being realistic if you simply want to start freelancing with no experience*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't mean to be pessimistic, but is it **very important** that you set your expectations levels accordingly. Design is **not** simply making &quot;pretty images&quot;. There's a mountain of technical knowledge one needs - either for print or web or video or whatever your desired path. Traditionally that knowledge is gained either on the job or in school. If you have neither, I hope you've done a few months of intensive reading and experimenting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for where to find work....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Skip anything &quot;on spec&quot; ([no-spec.com][1]), as Yisela points out in her answer. You will **never** be successful if you work on spec. You may have fun and enjoy the projects, but if your goal is to actually turn it into a career, you need to avoid contests or anything of that nature. You will **never** learn anything via contests. 99.9% of the time there's *no* feedback at all and you waste your time pursuing the silly idea that IF you happen to win, you get less than minimum wage for your efforts. You may as well play the lotto, you'll have a better chance of gaining something.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The best place to find projects for someone starting out is right around you.** Narrow your focus. With little or no experience you simply can't yet compete with the whole wide world on the internet. So stay **local**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assuming you're somewhere in the US....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Join your local chamber of commerce. &#xD;&#xA; - Design a business card and get it printed (*actually commercially printed*, don't make them yourself) and hand them out to local store owners. &#xD;&#xA; - Read through your local Cragislist Gigs and Creative sections for one-off projects just to get started.&#xD;&#xA; - Get your own domain name and your own website. Don't piggy-back off of some free service.&#xD;&#xA; - If possible, network with other designers and see if they'd be willing to subcontract work to you. This will be the most fruitful because you may start learning all the things you don't know you don't know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's great to have a dream. And I ***encourage*** you to pursue it with great vigor. *But you need to start realistically.* Even those that go to school can't generally start freelancing regularly for a few years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://no-spec.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2082" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="810" RevisionGUID="ca383d04-95ff-4f7d-b4e9-be2419b75578" CreationDate="2013-09-28T03:29:02.597" UserId="820" Comment="added 7 characters in body" Text="If I understand your question correctly, you want to avoid 'profile' style sites, where clients stumble across your profile, and contact you for work. Here's a few 'types' of platforms where you can get work, perhaps it will help clarify where you want to focus your energy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Profile Listings**: &#xD;&#xA;One could argue that's also the internet in general (put up a page, wait for people to find you). [Fiverr](http://fiverr.com/) and [Zaarly](https://www.zaarly.com) are examples of that (although not really for the kind of work you're looking for). Posting your service on [craigslist](http://craigslist.org) is another example.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Job Marketplaces**: &#xD;&#xA;While sites like [oDesk](http://odesk.com), [Elance](http://elance.com) have the profile component, they're certainly not limited to it. The common usage of those sites is to view jobs clients post, submit a response, and potentially get the gig. It's far less common for clients to contact freelancers directly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is that the process you're looking for (you browse through potential projects, contact the client for ones you like, try to get the work)? If so, there are tons of sites like that out there, and I'm sure a few searches will turn up ones at least slanted towards the kind of work you want to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Contest Systems**: Many freelancers strongly dislike these sites, and they only work for a few types of jobs (graphic design being one of them). Here clients post a job, and freelancers post matching designs - then the client picks one winner. [99Designs](http://99designs.com/) and [crowdSPRING](http://www.crowdspring.com/) are examples of this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You said:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; where people submit jobs in graphic design and where people can submit results, all without the process of an interview or a hiring system&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems contest sites fit that requirement the best, and if you're just wanting to get used to the 'feel' of contract work, have the time, and aren't in dire need of money - it *might* be worth pursuing. But in that case you're doing the work without any guarantee of payment, so **I wouldn't make that a serious endeavor**. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2083" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="813" RevisionGUID="e67c634d-ca0e-4e22-a492-5ab7532d4adc" CreationDate="2013-09-28T03:35:48.677" UserId="820" Comment="Figured I'd at least link to my answer, since it's referenced." Text="&gt; How do I find trustworthy places where people post jobs, people do the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; jobs, and the best one gets paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The 'where do I find places' part of this question [has been answered by Tim](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/810/820), I just wanted to add my point of view regarding contests, and an alternative approach. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason why designers and freelancers are usually against contests is because there is no direct contact with the client, you have people working for little or nothing (mostly nothing), and clients see design as an *expense* and not an *asset*. Contests depend on luck, if you are lucky enough you will get paid for the effort you put into your submission. If not, too bad. For these and other reasons, most designers don't like them (and are explicitly against them) because they **devalue the industry as a whole**. Nobody should work for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But there are other ways of start working as designer without having to resort to contests. You mention you want to choose your projects. Well, sites like elancer and others list jobs (not designers), and the only thing you need to have is a good portfolio. You can create **pieces for fictional projects**, instead, and use those. Real experience is always better, of course, but you want to demonstrate you are capable of designing stuff, and you want to showcase your style. These portfolio pieces will give you that. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2084" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="813" RevisionGUID="e67c634d-ca0e-4e22-a492-5ab7532d4adc" CreationDate="2013-09-28T03:35:48.677" Comment="Proposed by 820 approved by 205 edit id of 169" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2085" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="815" RevisionGUID="e8afdec9-bb46-4ece-adf0-00feaf052a2e" CreationDate="2013-09-28T08:07:24.560" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="I works part time as a freelancer at odesk. Recently, I got a fixed price job of around 6 hours. I requested a 10% upfront payment for job. But, after spending 1:30 hours trying to do job, I figure out that I can't do job because of the hardness of job. So, I politely told the client the same and send him the refund. Note: It was not possible to determine hardness of job before starting it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I am just wondering what should I do in such cases in future. What professionals do in such cases.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A) Refund the upfont to client because I don't made progress in the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;B) Refuse to refund because even I failed I spend time in doing his job." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2086" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="815" RevisionGUID="e8afdec9-bb46-4ece-adf0-00feaf052a2e" CreationDate="2013-09-28T08:07:24.560" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="Should I offer refund of upfront payment of a job I failed to complete?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2087" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="815" RevisionGUID="e8afdec9-bb46-4ece-adf0-00feaf052a2e" CreationDate="2013-09-28T08:07:24.560" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="|payment-terms|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2088" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="816" RevisionGUID="a2d39d48-694b-400f-9cc8-81d90ca94654" CreationDate="2013-09-28T11:01:21.177" UserId="888" Text="Well, I'm not a big professional with a lot of years of experience but I would have probably done the same thing as you did. Just think of it this way: you are the client and pay a freelancer money to do something. After some time he says he can't do it. I can see 2 major aspects that will affect the client:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The **time** spent waiting for you. Maybe he needs this finished in 1 week and after 4 days you say you can't do it. You can imagine the stress he goes through to get another freelancer to do this job and finish it, and all this in just 3 days. &#xD;&#xA; 2. The **money** spent on you and on the next freelancer. Think of the price that new freelancer will ask to finish this job faster, which will certainly be higher. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2089" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="817" RevisionGUID="d83300e0-0abe-47a5-bbd0-34ad3b43db3c" CreationDate="2013-09-28T13:45:12.413" UserId="517" Text="In situations like yourself, refunding is something what every good contractor would do. If the client is good, then he could let you something to keep because you also spent time on the project. So YES, you did an honest and good thing. And 90 min of your time is not too much comparing the bad feedback he could have given you in case you refused to refund. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So **the only time you should never refund** is when you made a concrete product. For example, I also ask for a upfront and I use it to make detailed project specs. It takes me from 8 to 40 hours, depends on the project complexity. Sometimes, clients want to cancel the job after I made specs and in such cases I do not refund, since I spent my time and made something concrete. If an upfront sum is too large, then I return only the part above the value of my work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also in the future, if estimation will take 1 or 2 hours, you can do that without being chosen for the job. Some clients may write a bad feedback even thou you refunded them - they simply dislike the fact they lost time with you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2090" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="818" RevisionGUID="e75d82f3-03f7-4193-966b-651c316c7118" CreationDate="2013-09-28T14:43:35.597" UserId="820" Text="I only bill hourly, so my perspective is going to be a bit different. To start off, in your specific case, I would have probably done the same thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What's your reputation worth?** You did spend some time, and there's no guarantee (that I'm aware of) on oDesk's fixed bid jobs - so you could have kept it. But what would that have cost you in reputation (not just with that client, but in general)? In your specific case, considering that oDesk's ratings are *directly* tied to the amount spent, it makes sense to refund (at least some) when the project failure falls on you (you increase the potential of positive feedback, while lessening the impact of any negative feedback on your rating). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What did the client get?** In some cases, just knowing something *isn't* possible is a worthwhile outcome to the client. In this case, you seem to be saying that another freelancer could have completed it - it was just more than you were comfortable. So the only thing the client got was a better understanding of your abilities - and they shouldn't have to pay for that.* On the other hand, maybe I'm misunderstanding the situation, and the client asked for something that just *may not be possible*. If that's the case, and the client was aware of that possibility, there's less reason to refund - especially if they're not asking for it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In cases like that, I generally let the client know I'm going to take a few hours to test their concept, and see if it's possible. That's certainly billable time, but the likelihood of failure is made clear.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, with fixed big projects, you're selling the final product (and a product with parameters that someone else has mostly defined) - so it's harder to do that. Since I *only sell my time*, it's easier for clients to understand what they're paying for (but that's a topic of it's own). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[**This may sound harsh, I don't mean it to. You realized this at the right time, a much better time than when the project is supposed to be reaching completion.*]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2091" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="815" RevisionGUID="4e385b26-9236-4fcf-a8d7-a3e39c360e5e" CreationDate="2013-09-28T21:22:10.567" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/384065520951390208" />
  <row Id="2099" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="692" RevisionGUID="de6bc47f-6741-4579-b620-9b628f2acd4e" CreationDate="2013-09-30T18:22:16.380" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/384745022337593344" />
  <row Id="2100" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="815" RevisionGUID="56984b37-d01b-403e-9806-bcb43aa599bb" CreationDate="2013-09-30T19:13:42.020" UserId="43" Comment="Improved grammar" Text="I work part time as a freelancer at odesk. Recently, I got a fixed price job of around 6 hours. I requested a 10% upfront payment for the job. However, after spending 1:30 hours trying to do the job, I figured out that I couldn't do it because it was too difficult. So, I politely told the client the same and sent him the refund. Note: It was not possible to determine the job difficulty level before starting it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I am just wondering what I should do in such cases in the future. What do professionals do in such cases?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A) Refund the upfront payment to the client because I didn't make progress in the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;B) Refuse to refund because even though I failed I spent time doing the job." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2101" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="815" RevisionGUID="56984b37-d01b-403e-9806-bcb43aa599bb" CreationDate="2013-09-30T19:13:42.020" UserId="43" Comment="Improved grammar" Text="Should I offer to refund an upfront payment for a job I failed to complete?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2102" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="821" RevisionGUID="6c0a165e-55b4-4521-87c3-3f9582f54634" CreationDate="2013-09-30T20:12:22.070" UserId="1000" Text="This is a question to any developers out there.  How/when did you decide you were qualified to be hired as a developer?  How do you know when you're ready to put yourself out there to agencies and clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Specifically, I have been studying iOS development on my own for about 8 months.  I'm pretty comfortable in my ability to build a small app with a clean UI, but don't know the entire API in and out." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2103" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="821" RevisionGUID="6c0a165e-55b4-4521-87c3-3f9582f54634" CreationDate="2013-09-30T20:12:22.070" UserId="1000" Text="When did you decide you were ready? (Freelance developers)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2104" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="821" RevisionGUID="6c0a165e-55b4-4521-87c3-3f9582f54634" CreationDate="2013-09-30T20:12:22.070" UserId="1000" Text="|client|marketing|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2105" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="822" RevisionGUID="402cd988-6d39-47f1-b9f4-875d40f120b3" CreationDate="2013-09-30T20:41:57.127" UserId="999" Text="I think that I am in the same situation as you are. I study all kind of stuff especially in the computer-related area and I entertain the idea of working as a freelancer myself. So, just out of curiosity, I did a search on Google to find out about the ways one freelancer could use to promote himself and I have found a LOT of useful websites out there, most of them being websites where you can post your resume or to create a profile. Some of them are general, others are centred on niche activities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my advice is this: just do a Google search with the terms - freelancers websites - and you should see several of the most important freelancer websites and also a bunch of article titles sounding like this: &quot;10 (or 15, or 50) great websites for freelancers&quot;. In those articles you will find lots of freelancing websites and also interesting information about each one of them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Soon you will realise that not only you can easily promote yourself as a freelancer, and thus you can easily find new people to work with, but also the ways are so many that you will have to choose only several of them, only several preferred websites. Or, if you have the time and the patience to upload your resume and to be active in all of them, that's no problem!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2106" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="823" RevisionGUID="5d9f5938-d829-46e3-9328-5953b95eb90a" CreationDate="2013-09-30T20:45:16.660" UserId="127" Text="Knowing an entire API or framework inside and out is not really necessary. Every project I've worked on in 10 years of freelancing has involved something new that I've never done before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are &quot;qualified&quot; when someone is willing to hire you. And the only way to find out if you are is to put yourself out there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BUT...there is much more to being ready for a freelance developer career than just your technical skills. For example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Have you created a separate legal business entity (if you are required to)?&#xD;&#xA;* Do you have a contract template ready for the legal agreement between you and your clients?&#xD;&#xA;* Have you determined how and when you will charge clients?&#xD;&#xA;* Have you determined if you have any clients or projects that are &quot;out of bounds&quot;? For example: I don't work with clients who are out of state. Or projects that relate to gambling. &#xD;&#xA;* Do you have a process worked out for how you want to handle scope changes? Do you have it clearly documented somewhere?&#xD;&#xA;* Do you have any insurance that may be required by your local laws or prospective clients?&#xD;&#xA;* Do you a process set up for protecting your client's work in case of catastrophic hardware failure (offsite backup, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;* Do you have a plan for how you will market your services to clients? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your early experiences in freelance development will be better if you are prepared on the business end of things. Plenty of talented developers have sucked on the business side and thus had poor freelancing experiences. Don't make that mistake." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2107" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="821" RevisionGUID="8b3c4dfd-fc64-4d18-be5d-666823d88d54" CreationDate="2013-10-01T02:34:34.063" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="2109" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="821" RevisionGUID="0dd32640-ae42-4835-bb66-fc12f75fdcd6" CreationDate="2013-10-01T17:35:33.770" UserId="820" Comment="attempted to make it more answerable " Text="This is a question for freelance developers out there. How does a developer determine they are qualified to be hired as a freelance developer?  How can someone relatively new know they are ready to put themselves out there to agencies and clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my specific case, I have been studying iOS development on my own for about 8 months.  I'm pretty comfortable in my ability to build a small app with a clean UI, but don't know the entire API in and out." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2110" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="821" RevisionGUID="0dd32640-ae42-4835-bb66-fc12f75fdcd6" CreationDate="2013-10-01T17:35:33.770" Comment="Proposed by 820 approved by 75 edit id of 170" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2111" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="821" RevisionGUID="17576689-b7d3-45ef-871a-7b4cecb5e6fd" CreationDate="2013-10-01T17:35:38.800" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="2112" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="824" RevisionGUID="a957b9de-b409-430c-a770-4048c654b8ba" CreationDate="2013-10-01T18:00:34.787" UserId="820" Text="There are a few things you probably need to ask yourself before trying to book projects / find agencies to work through (although I know much less about how agencies operate).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your's is a unique question in that you're new to both software development *and* freelancing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Can you build it?**: Whatever projects you're trying to win (either a specific project, or a specific kind of project) - can you actually do it? When you're starting out there's less room for project where you need to learn something new / explore new technology to complete. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An experienced developer has a good feel for how long / how difficult it will be tackle a kind problem that they've not really worked on in the past. A new developer should probably be confident that there are few unknowns before taking on a project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With freelancing, there's generally no senior developer to go to when you run into a wall. So being very confident you can indeed build what the client is asking for is important.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Have you built it?**: Confidence only goes so far. If you're thinking of iOS development, you should have already built something similar yourself. In software development, reading the documentation can be very far away from actually writing software that uses the API / SDK / Platform. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You mention that you're confident in your ability to build a simple app - before you start looking for projects like that, you need to have actually build a few small apps. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Will they buy it?**: Honestly, the simplest way to identify that you're ready to start looking for clients, is seeing if they'll actually hire you. If you're confident in your ability and experience building whatever the project needs, then the next test is to see if you can convince a client of that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can't, ask why. And understand that since you're new to both freelancing and development, you can't likely demand the rate / price an experienced developer could when they started freelancing (which again, is likely less than the rates of an established freelance).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Know that your pricing should probably include the understanding that someone of what you're making is *reputation*. And know that if you end up charging more than the value (you charge what an established freelance developer would, but it's not the same quality, or it takes more time, etc) - you'll likely up paying for that difference with your reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[*This is all geared toward someone new to development and freelancing. If you're already an experienced developer, then the question is more about having considered and determined how to bill as a freelancer (vrs being an employee), understanding that there's no longer the support of a team - but it ends the same, see if clients will hire you. If not, identify why not.*] " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2113" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="825" RevisionGUID="799ec5fc-ce95-4d03-8e22-2e9d005a90b5" CreationDate="2013-10-01T19:38:28.753" UserId="1007" Text="**Background**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did some pro-bono work for a community organisation a year back which involved establishing a website prototype built from commercial third party services. Some services had a yearly recurring service fee, and during the prototype stage I - rather foolishly in retrospect - paid for a couple of these services with my own credit card in order to speed up the development process*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The community organisation did compensate me for this at the time and I had every expectation that any recurring billing arrangements currently linked to me would be transferred to the organisation prior to the next yearly payment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The organisation then had a change in management and direction; from a forward-thinking computer-literate president to one of those crypto-luddites we often assume don't exist in the 21st century. So now the organisation discards various &quot;online&quot; initiatives of the previous president, including this website prototype. This is irritating but I can accept it - it's the nature of pro-bono. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fast forward half a year, and for various reasons I have given up on helping this organisation**. So I handover all remaining digital assets and instruct them either de-link my credit card from any services they choose to keep - or close the services prior to the next auto-renewal charge. Since a few rare services for some insane reason I can't close myself despite being the owner of the associated billing account (credit card), I choose to trust the organisation to push through the appropriate business letterheads, etc. before I get charged in six month's time. *They fail to do this.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am now intend to interact with the service provider directly and get the service account closed and any errant auto-renewal charges refunded where applicable; regardless of any procedural nitpicking by the service provider's first-level customer helpdesk. I am after all the person actually paying the service. Due the community organisation's self-same sloth and incompetence, the services still have the same passwords and personal contact details as when I first handed over the prototype and instructed them to change these credentials.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Is possession of a digit asset nine tenths of the law?* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*If I am paying for a service; have no contractual obligation to the organisation for some ongoing gratuity or donation by way of funding this service; and I have (re)changed the passwords to assert sole control of the service account**** *- is the service account essentially mine to close?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt; * The organisation's sloth should have been my first clue. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt; * * Inept management practices; dispirited membership and volunteer outflow; a sharp swing towards regressive solutions; systemic structural flaws in the parent organisation; and so forth.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt; * * * They also haven't exerted any &quot;habitual expectation&quot; through use or access to the services I'm paying for.&lt;/sub&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2114" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="825" RevisionGUID="799ec5fc-ce95-4d03-8e22-2e9d005a90b5" CreationDate="2013-10-01T19:38:28.753" UserId="1007" Text="If I pay for and have sole control of a digital service and have no obligation to provide the service for gratis - Can I close the service?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2115" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="825" RevisionGUID="799ec5fc-ce95-4d03-8e22-2e9d005a90b5" CreationDate="2013-10-01T19:38:28.753" UserId="1007" Text="|invoices|subcontracting|nonprofit|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2116" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="603" RevisionGUID="d810d5d0-04f9-486d-9ab0-096343b8a4cd" CreationDate="2013-10-01T21:22:18.907" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/385152719725793280" />
  <row Id="2117" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="826" RevisionGUID="91a6b086-2876-4058-ac96-90f5fd45dc1e" CreationDate="2013-10-01T22:26:24.740" UserId="708" Text="**I'm not a lawyer**!!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'll state that again, I am not a lawyer. However, I would think the initial payment of the services would show intent to support the organization and therefore not allow you to claim ownership at this point. You've already established you'd pay for services benefiting the organization. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can **no longer** wish to pay for the services. Providing *any* organization with a locked in credit card password and account was nothing short of fool hearty if you ask me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Handing over all digital assets also indicated you were providing the organization with everything you had done, and thus relinquishing ownership as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While I can sympathize with the frustration, you've already laid groundwork for any claim they may have that they own everything." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2118" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="826" RevisionGUID="1866c64a-682f-4431-ad69-e2bb0365e315" CreationDate="2013-10-01T22:33:59.287" UserId="708" Comment="added 200 characters in body" Text="**I'm not a lawyer**!!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'll state that again, I am not a lawyer. However, I would think the initial payment of the services would show intent to support the organization and therefore not allow you to claim ownership at this point. You've already established you'd pay for services benefiting the organization. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can **no longer** wish to pay for the services. Providing *any* organization with a locked in credit card password and account was nothing short of fool hearty if you ask me. Yes the account is yours to close as you wish. It's your credit card, there's no contract in place, and you've provided the organization with more than ample time to ensure you were no longer billed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Handing over all digital assets also indicated you were providing the organization with everything you had done, and thus relinquishing ownership as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While I can sympathize with the frustration, you've already laid groundwork for any claim they may have that they own everything. However, they do **not** own your credit card. You can relinquish that access at any time, even going so far as to cancel the card and having a new one issued to you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2119" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="827" RevisionGUID="e03cbb08-62ff-44f0-a700-645f555b1dd5" CreationDate="2013-10-02T07:38:06.550" UserId="85" Text="You do not state your location, so that makes things a little bit difficult...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Common sense would suggest that (unless regulated within law) you have no legal obligation to pay for someone else's service - and if a customer is declining to pay, then you have no obligation to continue to provide it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding the payment aspects, certainly here in the UK, I suggest that the law is on your side (see [Financial Conduct Authority][1]):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; REMEMBER: IT IS YOUR RIGHT TO CANCEL CONTINUOUS PAYMENT AUTHORITIES&#xD;&#xA;&gt; DIRECTLY WITH YOUR CARD ISSUER&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of the banks tend to be supportive (eg [this from the Nationwide][2])&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My suggestion would be to follow these steps:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Put in writing that you will not be paying for any further subscriptions (I assume you have done this)&#xD;&#xA; 2. Put in writing to the supplier that your card is no longer to be used&#xD;&#xA; 3. Put in writing to your card supplier that your card is no longer to be used&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;More useful information available from [MoneySavingExpert][3]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.fca.org.uk/news/continuous-payment-authorities-your-right-to-cancel&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.nationwide.co.uk/search/DisplayArticle.aspx?article=1137&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/recurring-payments" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2120" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="828" RevisionGUID="754c56e9-ebcb-4f42-941d-75531ac331b0" CreationDate="2013-10-02T12:36:24.503" UserId="1011" Text="I have accepted a project on Freelancer.com . The project belongs to an agency that has a client. I have not signed any form of contract or written legal agreement. Despite the fact that I have done all the work as requested, they continued to ask me for additional modifications to the project description that I wished to stop operating because they were not paying me any extra. Of course, because of these, the deadline was not respected (I am already one month late). I have charged them 200 euros out of the initial agreement of 250. I delivered the project. Now they are threatening to sue me through international law for not respecting the deadline. How should I proceed in this situation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2121" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="828" RevisionGUID="754c56e9-ebcb-4f42-941d-75531ac331b0" CreationDate="2013-10-02T12:36:24.503" UserId="1011" Text="Can they sue me in this situation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2122" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="828" RevisionGUID="754c56e9-ebcb-4f42-941d-75531ac331b0" CreationDate="2013-10-02T12:36:24.503" UserId="1011" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2123" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="806" RevisionGUID="156dbd5c-ecfc-4166-a730-78dc0476bdc0" CreationDate="2013-10-02T16:32:06.310" UserId="514" Comment="added 482 characters in body" Text="When I start a new development project, I'm usually tasked with developing a functional spec. It generally takes me a couple of weeks of working onsite, interviewing the manager and project members to learn the system's capabilities &amp; limitations, and their requirements &amp; expectations. During that time I might write a draft or two and critique it with the manager. Eventually I tell the manager I'm going to spend the next day at my own office (at home, but I refer to it in work terms - don't convey an image of bathrobe and slippers!) writing up a spec for us to review. I make a specific appointment with him/her to review it on the subsequent day. Then I do what I said I would do, appear on time with a review-worthy piece in hand, and prepared to discuss it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've never been questioned after that point about where I work or how much time I bill for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit:&#xD;&#xA;As others have said, if the client really needs convincing that I'm honest, then I'll need convincing they'll continue to pay me in full and on time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I trust my clients until I have a reason not to, and I choose to work with clients who can work from a similar assumption. Otherwise there is too much distraction from the ostensible reason we're working together - to provide a service they want and believe I can deliver - for the relationship to be a productive one." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2124" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="829" RevisionGUID="cf4d7c50-c44c-4c21-a569-f600d3addabf" CreationDate="2013-10-03T15:40:35.473" UserId="1013" Text="That, my colleague is known as 'scope creep' and is one of the oldest problems known to freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It sounds in like they may be abusing the fact that you are 'not living around the corner'.  I avoid working for companies that I cannot drive over to and meet face to face.  There are too many people willing to twist things or railroad others in order to increase the scope of the project in their own favour. Distance working can make things even harder in that case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lot depends on whether or not the client provided a project brief based on 'time period' / price per hour or 'piece work'.  Piece work can be a problem with clients you are not familiar with.  I would in the future demand a 'per hour' or 1/2 day or Full Day rate.  And make sure to clearly define what a Full day means.  Mine is 10 hours inc travel time but not inc travel expenses for example.  I also have a different hourly rates for different services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to re-read all communications from them and see how vague / exact the wording is.  Words such as 'may' vs 'will' vs 'plan to' can mean different intentions.  I shared a house with a solicitor for 2 years so I know a bit about how subtleties in wording can be misused.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best kind of work is via referral and then at least if 'Dave' treats you badly you can at least complain to one of his peers or do some form of moving and shaking. I find that works quite nicely.  Of course you never keep *all* of your clients in just one group though.  That can be equally dangerous for obvious enough reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As IANAL indicates - surely freelance.com has some form of protection for this kind of thing anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition I would certainly advise that you take out professional indemnity insurance so that in the future you can counter their threats with a lot more confidence.  An email threatening to sue you can be countered with 'do it!' and no sleepless nights. It costs around £20 to £30 per month in the UK presently (Oct 2013).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I doubt that they are going to sue.  They're just trying to push you around.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, if it is not easy to physically speak to your client because they are 'too busy' or in a different time zone etc then I'd wonder why they were tendering the work out near you in the first place....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2125" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="695" RevisionGUID="3bdf6e24-c007-4257-a29a-d452cfb0294f" CreationDate="2013-10-03T18:22:37.983" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/385832276866924545" />
  <row Id="2126" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="828" RevisionGUID="caf12304-4fa5-4136-b24a-769ab6fd3daa" CreationDate="2013-10-03T23:17:39.530" UserId="64" Comment="paragraphs are your friend - edited for readability and grammar." Text="I have accepted a project on Freelancer.com. The project belongs to an agency that has a client. I have not signed any form of contract or written legal agreement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Despite the fact that I have done all the work as requested, they continued to ask me for additional modifications to the project description that I wished to stop operating because they were not paying me any extra. Of course, because of these, the deadline was not respected (I am already one month late). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have charged them 200 euros out of the initial agreement of 250. I delivered the project. Now they are threatening to sue me through international law for not respecting the deadline. How should I proceed in this situation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2129" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="831" RevisionGUID="9d036241-d250-4def-b142-030f13329769" CreationDate="2013-10-04T11:01:07.213" UserId="1018" Text="As much as possible, I try to batch tasks rather than attend to tasks as they arrive. Ignoring emails apart from two or three times a day helps. If clients need to communicate with you urgently then they'll ring you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't tend to worry if I am working on one task and quickly attend to an unscheduled urgent task for another client as this tends to even out over time. The alternative is to account for minutes rather than 15 minute blocks and the administration overhead becomes onerous. When I realise that I have dealt with several short tasks during the day for a particular client, then I might feel inclined to group these into a 15 minute block that is worth recording.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't tend to charge clients for simple advice that only takes me a minute or two to answer unless the accumulated total time for this type of request becomes disproportionate to billed hours for a particular client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2130" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="832" RevisionGUID="542711cb-d00c-4cf6-861f-0f590616dfae" CreationDate="2013-10-04T11:55:15.647" UserId="1018" Text="Setting boundaries early is essential as most clients quickly get used to you doing things for free and then they don't appreciate the free hours you put in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Establish agreed terms and conditions in advance that include a project sign-off date and warranty period.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My clients have two weeks to test and report bugs and I will happily fix these for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Beyond the two weeks, I don't charge for minor issues that only take me a minute or two to fix. Sometimes I don't charge for longer tasks but that's at my discretion. I'm more likely to do things for free if it's my mistake rather than something that looks more like a feature enhancement, something outside the original scope, or something that wasn't clearly defined to start with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Track your un-billed hours so you can tell clients with unreasonable expectations the ratio of un-billed hours to billed hours. 10% might be reasonable but 20% is probably stretching the friendship. If possible, show the un-billed hours on your invoices so clients are aware of the extra time you have put in for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't be afraid to sack clients who fail to appreciate excessive un-billed hours. Remember that losing a client is not the end of the world and is likely to open your schedule to a better client.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2131" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="828" RevisionGUID="6f1f17c8-4f40-44e3-8ce5-74cdebd2875f" CreationDate="2013-10-04T18:22:40.343" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/386194674241003521" />
  <row Id="2132" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="833" RevisionGUID="30b9d882-997a-4f83-9e4f-e0b7e487d769" CreationDate="2013-10-04T19:53:45.793" UserId="517" Text="As my wife attorney likes to say &quot;Everyone can sue you, but it does not mean he will win&quot; :). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, there are many things unsaid here. Like, are you registered on Freelancer with your real name and family name i.e. can Freelancer anyhow reach to you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other thing is the price of the project which is too low so I really doubt they would do it, even if they can!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have never heard of any such sue cases unless you drove to them and signed a contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All in all, I think they are trying to scare you. Ask them to tell you the name of the &quot;international law they are talking about&quot; so that you can sue them first for threatening you and for slavery. I'd say you have more chances to win than them. Of course you will not sue them since they will never tell you the name of that law. Somehow I don't think such law exists. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may rest and do REPORT them to Freelancer and provide all threatening evidence to Freelancer. Let us know what happened!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. I personally have a very bad opinion of Freelancer service. I find them unprofessional and rippers. I doubt they will do anything. I also had such case but on oDesk where the contractor blackmailed me to give him 5 starts before he sends me sources. I reported him to oDesk and 1 hour later he sent me sources with 1.000 apologies. This is what I call a good service." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2133" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="687" RevisionGUID="03f9a517-48c0-40a9-843d-cbc23fe0d929" CreationDate="2013-10-05T09:22:41.647" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/386421172625477632" />
  <row Id="2134" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="834" RevisionGUID="e49d6aa6-8cf8-45a3-8593-6a1bb6047b94" CreationDate="2013-10-05T14:09:35.877" UserId="888" Text="I never had such a problem so far but haven't heard of people that actually had this problem so here is my opinion here:**they will not sue you** and there are two big reasons for that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. They probably can't. International law or not, you haven't signed anything that makes you responsible. You accepted the job but without some signed documents you can't really do anything in court.&#xD;&#xA; 2. They probably don't want to. You said the job costed you 200 euros. To actually sue you they will have to pay o ton of money which doesn't sound reasonable at all. They will loose more than they could win. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, you might as well report them, which I am surprised you haven't already and don't do any more work before you get paid. Also, as a piece of advice, try working hourly or try making a document where you write exactly what the client wants you to do and stick to it. Any more work that is not in the document will cost extra. If they accept this from the beginning then you are set and if the client doesn't want to pay because they want extra features you can report them to the website working on." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2135" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="835" RevisionGUID="991796ab-9599-4288-8367-d8e92fd0c8f2" CreationDate="2013-10-05T14:50:51.490" UserId="754" Text="I offer actual bug fixes for 30 days after launch, but everything else is billable (either my hourly rate in half-hour increments or a minimum five-hour-per-month retainer for clients with whom I have an ongoing relationship). My contract is also explicit about what, if any, responsibilities I have post-launch. During our final project meeting (post-launch), I go over that with clients and remind them which bits of their sites need regular updates (e.g., WordPress, plugins) and their responsibilities with regard to backups of files and databases. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do this not to nickle-and-dime the client, but to protect my time. I can *always* choose/opt to offer to do a fix or update for free, but I want to have that choice. It's also important, I feel, to be tracking your time pretty diligently, including these sort of unbilled hours so you can identify where your time is going and make your business more efficient." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2136" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="836" RevisionGUID="40071d47-77ee-48c1-8d27-b56d47e43245" CreationDate="2013-10-05T21:06:02.310" UserId="1021" Text="As a web developer I've had a hard time trying to build a portfolio to share online and despite several attempts, I haven't had much success. Sure, I could use screenshots along with a description of the finished project and links to the actual website when available but is it enough? What if for example I show a small snippet of source code along with the project? Please know that my goal is to have my portfolio on my own website. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2137" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="836" RevisionGUID="40071d47-77ee-48c1-8d27-b56d47e43245" CreationDate="2013-10-05T21:06:02.310" UserId="1021" Text="How to build a portfolio for a Web Developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2138" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="836" RevisionGUID="40071d47-77ee-48c1-8d27-b56d47e43245" CreationDate="2013-10-05T21:06:02.310" UserId="1021" Text="|freelance-websites|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2139" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="837" RevisionGUID="2e4b5ea6-b089-48d1-9b11-b1db895a79f6" CreationDate="2013-10-05T21:51:34.907" UserId="1021" Text="Let's say for example I got a project for a total of 2000 dollars and said project is divided into 5 stages. Thus the payment for each stage is 400 dollars.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stage 1 is Research &amp; Analysis which comes before sending the quote to the client for approval. Once the client has approved, now comes the time for the down payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I don't want to be left in a situation where I do the work and end up not getting paid as it is a waste of time. Is it acceptable to charge the client for stage 1 (which was already done) and stage 2 (pending) together as the down payment? That way I don't have to worry about whether I'll get paid for the work I'll do but at the same time I don't want to pressure the client too much. Any advice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2140" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="837" RevisionGUID="2e4b5ea6-b089-48d1-9b11-b1db895a79f6" CreationDate="2013-10-05T21:51:34.907" UserId="1021" Text="How to split the total payment to assure I'm getting paid without pressuring the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2141" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="837" RevisionGUID="2e4b5ea6-b089-48d1-9b11-b1db895a79f6" CreationDate="2013-10-05T21:51:34.907" UserId="1021" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2142" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="836" RevisionGUID="fa90336f-9699-4e34-ae37-f8d720ecc9d7" CreationDate="2013-10-06T07:19:21.910" UserId="1021" Comment="Clarified the question and the title by providing more relevant details." Text="# Briefing: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a self-taught web developer with about 4 years of programming and design experience. My list of closed projects includes - complete websites from scratch, network-based web applications, and a few website designs for which I haven't done the programming. I'm trying to build an online portfolio that I can easily share with potential clients in the future and have everything in one convenient place where I'm in complete control.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# My Research: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on what I've seen around the web, most web developers showcase screenshots of their work along with a description of the project, a few relevant details, and links to the actual website or web application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# The Problem: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With all honesty, some of my design work is not very flattering (to me at least) but those projects are still very important to me as some of them were done for major companies in Kuwait albeit on strict time-restraints. Also, as I mentioned earlier, some of my projects are network-based and are only accessible from within the company thus I cannot provide links to them. Additionally, I have a group of web applications that use the same design and interface so screenshots are not very convincing in this situation. I also recently found out that a company for which I build a website for back in 2010 has had their hosting account suspended for not paying. I don't want my future clients to jump to false conclusions based on something I had nothing to do with so I can't have a link for it either. That leaves with very few websites that are currently accessible to the general public and that bothers me. Despite numerous attempts, I don't seem to be able to decide on a good way to showcase my available work professionally with the said limitations above. It's driving me insane! I've been at it for some time now! Please help!!!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2143" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="836" RevisionGUID="fa90336f-9699-4e34-ae37-f8d720ecc9d7" CreationDate="2013-10-06T07:19:21.910" UserId="1021" Comment="Clarified the question and the title by providing more relevant details." Text="How should I build my online portfolio as a web developer with limited projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2144" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="836" RevisionGUID="fa90336f-9699-4e34-ae37-f8d720ecc9d7" CreationDate="2013-10-06T07:19:21.910" UserId="1021" Comment="Clarified the question and the title by providing more relevant details." Text="|client|marketing|attracting-clients|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2145" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="838" RevisionGUID="08122e9d-cda4-4156-9833-1af3dddaa00e" CreationDate="2013-10-06T08:20:30.637" UserId="43" Text="The best advice I can give, as this is precisely the issue that I faced, is to build yourself a website that will act as your portfolio and let that website itself act as the showcase piece that shows off your talents. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can include a projects area in which you can add screenshots to those websites that you are comfortable showcasing and (very importantly) that you have permission, or can get permission from the site owners, to showcase. I was threatened with legal action from a former employer because I included screenshots of their website on my portfolio without their express consent. Don't place yourself in potentially difficult situations simply to highlight some of your work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Alongside each project (with or without screenshots) you can detail your exact involvement and achievements within the project. If you build the website yourself from scratch, rather than simply using an off-the-shelf CMS package, you can ensure that it is built to the standards that you set yourself professionally. You could also use it as an opportunity for self-learning new technologies/frameworks that may be required for upcoming client projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would also advocate (if you don't already) including a blog on the same site. This is particularly useful as you are a developer, because it allows you to write articles that convey your interests and expertise. It should also draw traffic to your site which will enhance your overall web presence. You can either build the blog yourself, which could be useful if you're planning to build something similar for a client, or embed one from a 3rd party - there are plenty around, many of which are free." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2146" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="838" RevisionGUID="7beed1d1-851e-4568-8edf-52d52e590ac3" CreationDate="2013-10-06T08:26:14.477" UserId="43" Comment="added 316 characters in body" Text="The best advice I can give, as this is precisely the issue that I faced, is to build yourself a website that will act as your portfolio and let that website itself act as the showcase piece that shows off your talents. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can include a projects area in which you can add screenshots to those websites that you are comfortable showcasing and (very importantly) that you have permission, or can get permission from the site owners, to showcase. I was threatened with legal action from a former employer because I included screenshots of their website on my portfolio without their express consent. Don't place yourself in potentially difficult situations simply to highlight some of your work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Alongside each project (with or without screenshots) you can detail your exact involvement and achievements within the project. If you build the website yourself from scratch, rather than simply using an off-the-shelf CMS package, you can ensure that it is built to the standards that you set yourself professionally. You could also use it as an opportunity for self-learning new technologies/frameworks that may be required for upcoming client projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can't actually get decent screenshots for specific projects you could include a section that talks about the technologies/techniques that you have used or the development process that you go through when building sites for clients. Anything that will convey how you can provide value to potential clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would also advocate (if you don't already) including a blog on the same site. This is particularly useful as you are a developer, because it allows you to write articles that convey your interests and expertise. It should also draw traffic to your site which will enhance your overall web presence. You can either build the blog yourself, which could be useful if you're planning to build something similar for a client, or embed one from a 3rd party - there are plenty around, many of which are free." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2147" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="837" RevisionGUID="c8bee29a-cb57-4d21-8539-6dd6a2bc35e2" CreationDate="2013-10-06T09:52:03.483" UserId="1021" Comment="Clarified the title and the question by adding more relevant information and updating the tags." Text="# Briefing: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently decided to get serious about establishing my freelance web development business and one of my biggest issues thus far is with the payment procedures. In the past, I used to charge my clients by the service with 25% to 50% as down payment. I learned the hard way that this method is highly inefficient as I have no good way of knowing how much time is needed for a service, and how much I should actually be getting paid for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Eventually I ended up missing deadlines and working much more for much less. Therefore I decided that I want to charge by the hour and ideally, I want to have an arrangement in which I get paid for the time before I start with the work so I wouldn't waste my hours like in the scenario below.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Scenario (example): #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agreed on a project with a client, did work which wasn't fully covered by the down payment I received and when I finished, said client disappeared and left me with no payment and with finished project files that I can't reuse without heavy modification.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Research: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After a few days of research, I've learned that each project should be divided into several stages like Research &amp; Development (R&amp;A), Design, and Programming for example. I also learned that before sending out the actual quote to the client, first I must complete the R&amp;A stage so that I would know exactly what the client wants and charge accordingly and in a fair manner to both parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Problem: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm aware that there's the risk where the client is &quot;just looking around&quot; and I end up wasting several hours for nothing. Charging the client before actually starting the R&amp;A stage would just get me a lot of bad words as I haven't reached that level of professionalism yet. With that in mind, I would like to somehow be compensated for my hours in the R&amp;A stage while also getting the payment for the *next* stage so my hours wouldn't be a waste even if my client decides to go all David Copperfield on me. Any suggestions please?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2148" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="837" RevisionGUID="c8bee29a-cb57-4d21-8539-6dd6a2bc35e2" CreationDate="2013-10-06T09:52:03.483" UserId="1021" Comment="Clarified the title and the question by adding more relevant information and updating the tags." Text="How can I organize my payment procedures to assure that I'm getting paid without excessive pressure on the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2149" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="837" RevisionGUID="c8bee29a-cb57-4d21-8539-6dd6a2bc35e2" CreationDate="2013-10-06T09:52:03.483" UserId="1021" Comment="Clarified the title and the question by adding more relevant information and updating the tags." Text="|client|payment-terms|invoices|estimation|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2150" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="837" RevisionGUID="2f37ff43-0c4c-4762-8e7b-b1d6ebfc457a" CreationDate="2013-10-06T15:22:47.030" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/386874179976720384" />
  <row Id="2151" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="839" RevisionGUID="b9611f28-1a34-4784-80f1-fb4883598010" CreationDate="2013-10-06T17:47:11.137" UserId="517" Text="Well you covered most of it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During the research phase when the client is not sure whether he will start the project or not, you will not be able to avoid couple of free hours of work. that's just the way for both of you to realize whether you can finish the project and for the client if he has money for it. If it takes more than a couple of hours that give him first a very rough costs idea and after that proceed to the Specs phase where you will make a good specs for him. after that you will be able to tell him your final price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, most ideally is when you work hourly via some freelancing website. You don't even have to use sites like oDesk, but you can sign up for some project management service and register work hours and then demand to be paid over the weekend. If you're not paid, you're not starting working on Monday on that project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, never send sources without being fully paid. As simple as that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to proceed with fixed-price milestones like you suggested, I have to warn you that more than 5 milestones may bring you new troubles. I used to work this way and I once waited 2 month to be paid for 1 milestone until I fixed the smallest bug. If I worked hourly, I would be paid and of course fix those bugs but without pressure. If you want to successfully work as a freelancer that you have to have a constant income, whether from your current long term job or from small side-jobs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask me if I did not cover something..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2157" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="841" RevisionGUID="ab273bd2-1da9-432b-b09d-9eb4151b1627" CreationDate="2013-10-07T00:15:04.123" UserId="820" Text="**About the R&amp;D phase**: Unless it's very project specific, the 'R&amp;D' of determining what a client needs / if you're able to do it isn't something you're likely able to charge for (it's really part of the 'interview' or 'on-boarding' process).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And spending a large amount of time determining *exactly* how much time it will take to complete a specific project isn't necessarily a good more either - as that biases you and the client against changing specs during the project (something that *should* be possible, as a lot is learned during the development process).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should be able to (or be working towards this ability) give a client a decent estimate of what time smaller parts of the project will take. Again, I emphasize *smaller* parts of a larger overall project, as you want those goals to remain fluid, as things progress.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course this applies more to custom development - if your clients are looking for a few page marketing sites, or what amounts to setup and theming of existing applications, then it becomes something you probably *can* quote for the whole project. You mention R&amp;D though, so I'm assuming that's *not* the kind of projects you're talking about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that point, you move from trying to charge for a relatively large amount of R&amp;D hours at the start of a project, to simplifying things to a smaller deliverable, where there's no question it's billable time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example: A client wants you to build an app that sends reminders to people. Instead of spending hours up front collecting requirements for all the potential features, and accounting for all the edge cases - propose to work for a few hours (say 5 to 10), and build what will have to be the core of that application (perhaps a simple API that accepts text, a date, and an number, and sends out a SMS at the right time). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You'll still need to have a rough idea of what the total time will be, but since you're actually delivering functionality in smaller steps, there's not a huge investment of time just to start working on the actual project. And, as long as you identify the core of a project, those first few deliverables are a sort of R&amp;D - but it's R&amp;D that results in something tangible for the client (and signals to both parties the likely success of the full project). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A long winded answer that boils down to this: **You're a freelancer, not an enterprise development shop, so don't act like one - think smaller, and smarter**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**About the client's payment**: My recommendation here is (and I don't work for them, only *through* them) just use [oDesk](http://odesk.com). I don't use oDesk for its job board (although that is useful at times). When I have a new client, I tell them to signup on oDesk, and we'll manage the contract through their system. With oDesk's platform, I don't have to send the client a single invoice, and I'm *guaranteed* that every hour I bill (as long as I use their monitoring software) will be paid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And it does remove any pressure *you* have to put on the client for payment, as it is oDesk that will charge their card when needed, and it is oDesk that will notify them (and you) that no more work will/should be done on the project until a payment method is restored (if a card fails, etc). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people complain about the 10% oDesk takes - but I think it's worth every penny to simplify my billing (literally, a few keystrokes to start and stop time tracking on a project is all the time I spend on invoicing), and insure that I get paid every week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[*This is a bit longer than I wanted, will try to simplify later, but hope it helps.*]" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2158" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="842" RevisionGUID="09b66ea9-dc65-4306-b9ef-33745974543b" CreationDate="2013-10-07T01:20:34.973" UserId="551" Text="Given the following facts regarding their agreement:&#xD;&#xA;- Client is past due their invoices&#xD;&#xA;- Freelancer is an independant contractor / consultant&#xD;&#xA;- Not always is there a deliverable product&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What options does a freelancer have if the client doesn't pay their invoices? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2159" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="842" RevisionGUID="09b66ea9-dc65-4306-b9ef-33745974543b" CreationDate="2013-10-07T01:20:34.973" UserId="551" Text="Clients who don't pay their invoices what are your options?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2160" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="842" RevisionGUID="09b66ea9-dc65-4306-b9ef-33745974543b" CreationDate="2013-10-07T01:20:34.973" UserId="551" Text="|legal|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2162" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="843" RevisionGUID="d0336cb6-b4e3-4e83-9f26-099e295bd711" CreationDate="2013-10-07T01:29:09.480" UserId="551" Text="What are some measures that one can put in place to ensure that clients pay their invoices in a timely manner?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2163" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="843" RevisionGUID="d0336cb6-b4e3-4e83-9f26-099e295bd711" CreationDate="2013-10-07T01:29:09.480" UserId="551" Text="Are there measures one can do to ensure clients paying on time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2164" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="843" RevisionGUID="d0336cb6-b4e3-4e83-9f26-099e295bd711" CreationDate="2013-10-07T01:29:09.480" UserId="551" Text="|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2168" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="845" RevisionGUID="3e2ce610-56e3-456f-9f64-3e041e8e8a7b" CreationDate="2013-10-07T01:44:54.213" UserId="551" Text="One can do the following to ensure that clients are paying on time:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;### Create expectations up-front&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To ensure that clients pay up front; establish win-win situations for you and your client. Be honest, effective by having them written out and available for the client to review.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;### Create contracts that protect you and the client&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consult a lawyer and have them proof your contract. Legal counsel and expertise with allow you to create an effective process and avoid vagueness in your contract so both parties can avoid escalating to legal disputes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;### Specify your terms in your contract&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Specify the payment terms in your invoice and in your contract: e.g. NET 15, 30, 45, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;### Provide client with a late payment policy&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Provide your client with your late payment policies. If necessary place in your contract and invoice what if or what late payment fees there are. Make sure that you document that your client agrees to such terms. Remember to be reasonable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2169" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="219" RevisionGUID="53459e76-8d71-4cff-9205-4a59c7e9ddef" CreationDate="2013-10-07T01:53:40.560" UserId="1021" Comment="Added an excerpt." Text="For questions about strategies or advice on how to attract potential clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2170" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="219" RevisionGUID="53459e76-8d71-4cff-9205-4a59c7e9ddef" CreationDate="2013-10-07T01:53:40.560" Comment="Proposed by 1021 approved by 64 edit id of 171" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2172" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="846" RevisionGUID="95754f56-8857-4b5e-9e64-63a9881e4f6a" CreationDate="2013-10-07T02:14:40.863" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2173" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="847" RevisionGUID="10f03b5b-4727-42f0-a4c6-69beace0124c" CreationDate="2013-10-07T02:14:40.863" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2174" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="847" RevisionGUID="2a1c58ad-7e4f-4e39-852a-3fb2c8eaadff" CreationDate="2013-10-07T02:22:11.840" UserId="1021" Comment="Fixed some grammar mistakes and clarified further." Text="For questions that are related to methods and advice on how to deal with late payments." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2175" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="847" RevisionGUID="2a1c58ad-7e4f-4e39-852a-3fb2c8eaadff" CreationDate="2013-10-07T02:22:11.840" Comment="Proposed by 1021 approved by 64 edit id of 173" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2176" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="846" RevisionGUID="c3948d29-66da-471f-8814-a84b95cfe9a9" CreationDate="2013-10-07T02:22:23.687" UserId="1021" Comment="Fixed some grammar mistakes and clarified further." Text="In the world of freelancing, it is not uncommon to find a case where a freelancer has to deal with late and/or over due payments from clients. Some of the most common problems resulting in late payments are bad communication, untrustworthy clients, failure to deliver work according to previously agreed specifications, abusive change requests, and even unclear payment methods or procedures." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2177" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="846" RevisionGUID="c3948d29-66da-471f-8814-a84b95cfe9a9" CreationDate="2013-10-07T02:22:23.687" Comment="Proposed by 1021 approved by 64 edit id of 172" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2179" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="848" RevisionGUID="76b5f9a9-77e4-4431-857f-3e1c8183d080" CreationDate="2013-10-07T06:51:04.963" UserId="1028" Text="How far overdue are they? Do you have any language in your contract about payment due dates? If you don't, you should -- managing expectations is the most important. Both you and client should be clearly understood about deliverables and deadlines.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your current case, start by contacting them both by email (establish a paper trail) and phone to discuss the problem. Try to sort out a payment plan. If they fail to pay, or they disappear, or don't reply at all, you can look into legal action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here in Ontario you can take somebody to provincial small claims court for issues under $5,000, fairly simple process and you don't need a lawyer. It's probably very different in other places. Talk to someone who knows your state law. Legal action is really not desirable but you need to know your rights, lest you need to exercise them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2180" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="849" RevisionGUID="50baa4e5-ae30-4812-9332-5271185c53b7" CreationDate="2013-10-07T07:19:54.603" UserId="1018" Text="Follow the steps in your contract agreement, if you have one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make it clear you intend to recover the amount owing by whatever means available to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This might include penalties for late payment such as applying interest to the fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client is suffering genuine hardship you might offer payment terms so that you can at least start to recover the debt. For example, you might accept half now and the balance in a months time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where clients don't seem willing to negotiate or communicate, then you might consider legal action and this can be straightforward using a small claim tribunal where the amount owed fits within the small claim tribunal limit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another tactic I have used is to threaten their credit rating. As a sole operator freelancer in Australia, I can't report unpaid debts directly to credit agencies but I can hire a debt recovery company who can do this on my behalf. Clients will often respond positively when their access to credit is under threat. You don't usually have to hire a debt recovery company, but let the client know this is what you will do if you don't hear back from them with the next 48 hours or similar." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2181" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="850" RevisionGUID="e9c756d9-1702-4fa3-b75b-6e39289c08c3" CreationDate="2013-10-07T11:04:19.800" UserId="1021" Text="# Briefing: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently made the jump and decided to get serious with my freelancing career in web design &amp; development. I charge by the hour and I've been thinking about how I can collect as much relevant information from a potential client as possible without wasting too much time on this stage or phase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of my projects are for small companies and individuals looking for a start-up. Also, I haven't made a name for myself yet so I feel it wouldn't be practical to charge my potential clients for the time I spend researching and analyzing their project in order to decide whether I should actually take it, not to mention the risk of time spent analyzing projects for potential clients who are just looking around.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I live and work in Kuwait and most of my clients are locals but I also have a few international clients so my solution needs to account for both.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Research: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that in mind and after some digging around the web and looking at how other freelancers deal with this, I saw that one possible solution for this would be to have an online questionnaire on my website that will send me the client's request via email for my review. I feel that it's a good solution but there's a few points I want to clarify before finalizing this. I also decided to split my R&amp;A into two parts with the first being the project intro and the second being the follow-up that would fill in the blanks and finalize the R&amp;A stage. As suggested in the following article:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - http://inspiredm.com/web-development-projects/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Problem: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel that the above solution would work well for international clients but perhaps not so much for local ones. Kuwait is a small country and meetings are easy to arrange but I want to avoid *unnecessary* meetings and interviews like the ones I've attended in the past which sometimes lasted for up to 3 hours! Ideally I want to keep the meeting for the second part of the R&amp;A to save as much time as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not quite sure how an online questionnaire will impact my potential clients. I realize that I have to try but I want to be as prepared as possible. Also, is it advisable to send an estimate after the first part of the R&amp;A, and then send the quote after the second R&amp;A part? Should I mention that I charge X amount of Kuwait Dinars per hour along with the online questionnaire? Should I mention some of the general terms of agreement during the online questionnaire or should I save that for the estimate or quote?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any suggestions or advice please? I noticed that thanking you good people in the comments is frowned upon so I thank you in advance!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2182" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="850" RevisionGUID="e9c756d9-1702-4fa3-b75b-6e39289c08c3" CreationDate="2013-10-07T11:04:19.800" UserId="1021" Text="Advice on efficient project Research &amp; Analysis for Web Development?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2183" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="850" RevisionGUID="e9c756d9-1702-4fa3-b75b-6e39289c08c3" CreationDate="2013-10-07T11:04:19.800" UserId="1021" Text="|client|time-management|business-plan|evaluating-clients|approach|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2184" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="851" RevisionGUID="786eb809-25f0-4c21-b586-379079100a45" CreationDate="2013-10-07T12:15:10.013" UserId="1030" Text="My suggestion comes from practical experience, see if it works for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually the approach a small firm will take, will be different from a large firm's. My answer focuses on approach for small firms.  Contracts are important and should be there but for a small firm, it is not easy or practical to take the legal option. Small firms just do not have the time, money or man-power to followup.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any business will always have non-paying or late-paying clients. Contradictory as it may seem to the bottom line, I think **the best measure is to *not* put time, energy and money on late/non-paying clients**. To ensure clients pay on time, it is about what one does before the order, then after it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I used to run an online store and had a very customer friendly policy. If customer complains about the product on receiving it, I have a no questions asked free replacement with free re-shipping policy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found customers **very** rarely cause problems or request a replacement, surprisingly, less then 1%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I ask for upfront payment but if customer puts in a request for urgent dispatch, I ship before receiving payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have found almost all the customers to be honest. In a rare case, a customer does not pay, I have a clear policy of not dealing with them again. It is their loss, they won't get my top notch service/product again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After 3 emails for pending payment, spaced over few weeks, I send a final email, letting them know never to order from me unless they pay for past orders and include a link to list of competitors, which I openly list on my website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This seems to work for me, and I have found customers pay up. Also, due to the open approach, the customers put in a good word and orders come in thru reference, without any marketing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Overall, instead of followup on non-payment, the best measure, that worked for me, is to establish yourself as the best place for your product/service. The growth in business due to customer confidence will out weigh occasional non-payments.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;YMMV, depending on your product or service and price/fee for same. I do understand, this approach, may not always be practical. Think about trying it for few months. If it does not work, you can always change it at anytime!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2185" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="851" RevisionGUID="20e73dd0-4062-496c-a86b-b9a054459841" CreationDate="2013-10-07T12:29:32.217" UserId="1030" Comment="grammer" Text="My suggestion comes from practical experience, see if it works for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually the approach a small firm will take, will be different from a large firm's. My answer focuses on approach for small firms.  Contracts are important and should be there but for a small firm, it is not easy or practical to take the legal option. Small firms just do not have the time, money or man-power to followup.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any business will always have non-paying or late-paying clients. Contradictory as it may seem to the bottom line, I think **the best measure is to *not* put lot of time, energy and money on late/non-paying clients**. To ensure clients pay on time, it is about what one does before the order, then after it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I used to run an online store and had a very customer friendly policy. If customer complains about the product on receiving it, I have a no questions asked free replacement with free re-shipping policy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found customers **very** rarely cause problems or request a replacement, surprisingly, less then 1%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I ask for upfront payment but if customer puts in a request for urgent dispatch, I ship before receiving payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have found almost all the customers to be honest. In a rare case, a customer does not pay, I have a clear policy of not dealing with them again. It is their loss, they won't get my top notch service/product again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After 3 emails for pending payment, spaced over few weeks, I send a final email, letting them know never to order from me unless they pay for past orders and include a link to list of competitors, which I openly list on my website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This seems to work for me, and I have found customers pay up. Also, due to the open approach, the customers put in a good word and orders come in thru reference, without any marketing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Overall, instead of followup on non-payment, the best measure, that worked for me, is to establish yourself as the best place for your product/service. The growth in business due to customer confidence will out weigh occasional non-payments.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;YMMV, depending on your product or service and price/fee for same. I do understand, this approach, may not always be practical. Think about trying it for few months. If it does not work, you can always change it at anytime!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2186" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="851" RevisionGUID="96deed7a-bc0a-4dc4-af47-c2a09d5c198b" CreationDate="2013-10-07T13:47:30.743" UserId="1030" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:1030,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;108ium&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="2187" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="851" RevisionGUID="c977c972-84a6-41a8-bbae-e735abe90817" CreationDate="2013-10-07T13:48:16.980" UserId="1030" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:1030,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;108ium&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="2188" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="851" RevisionGUID="011d7d25-25d8-4dad-ad18-b583a47039e1" CreationDate="2013-10-07T13:57:19.337" UserId="1030" Comment="trimmed, will try to make it still more concise!" Text="My suggestion comes from practical experience, see if it works for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Contracts are important and should be there but it is not easy or practical to take the legal option. Freelancers/Small firms just do not have the time, money or man-power to followup.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any business will always have non-paying or late-paying clients. Contradictory as it may seem to the bottom line, I think **the best measure is to *not* put lot of time, energy and money on late/non-paying clients**. To ensure clients pay on time, it is about what one does before the order, then after it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If service/product is good, I found customers **very** rarely cause problems or request a replacement, surprisingly, less then 1%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have found almost all the customers to be honest. In a rare case, a customer does not pay, I have a clear policy of not dealing with them again. It is their loss, they won't get my top notch service/product again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After 3 emails for pending payment, spaced over few weeks, I send a final email, letting them know never to order from me unless they pay for past orders and include a link to list of competitors, which I openly list on my website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This seems to work for me, and I have found customers pay up. Also, due to the open approach, the customers put in a good word and orders come in thru reference, without any marketing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Overall, instead of followup on non-payment, the best measure, that worked for me, is to establish yourself as the best place for your product/service. The growth in business due to customer confidence will out weigh occasional non-payments.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;YMMV, depending on your product or service and price/fee for same. I do understand, this approach, may not always be practical. Think about trying it for few months. If it does not work, you can always change it at anytime!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2192" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="672" RevisionGUID="7d0b9af5-8fd8-4975-9b8c-4cd9d46e5c38" CreationDate="2013-10-07T15:36:29.330" UserId="1021" Comment="Added an excerpt and extended the tag wiki for further clarification." Text="Questions related to the price or value of goods and services, regardless of whether given or received." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2193" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="672" RevisionGUID="7d0b9af5-8fd8-4975-9b8c-4cd9d46e5c38" CreationDate="2013-10-07T15:36:29.330" Comment="Proposed by 1021 approved by 75 edit id of 175" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2197" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="851" RevisionGUID="cdd5ade4-b0db-47f0-8f60-97a9ce15e184" CreationDate="2013-10-07T15:40:28.993" UserId="75" Comment="added 1 characters in body" Text="My suggestion comes from practical experience, see if it works for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Contracts are important and should be there but it is not easy or practical to take the legal option. Freelancers/Small firms just do not have the time, money or man-power to followup.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any business will always have non-paying or late-paying clients. Contradictory as it may seem to the bottom line, I think **the best measure is to *not* put lot of time, energy and money on late/non-paying clients**. To ensure clients pay on time, it is about what one does before the order, then after it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If service/product is good, I found customers **very** rarely cause problems or request a replacement, surprisingly, less then 1%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have found almost all the customers to be honest. In a rare case, a customer does not pay, I have a clear policy of not dealing with them again. It is their loss, they won't get my top notch service/product again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After 3 emails for pending payment, spaced over few weeks, I send a final email, letting them know never to order from me unless they pay for past orders and include a link to list of competitors, which I openly list on my website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This seems to work for me, and I have found customers pay up. Also, due to the open approach, the customers put in a good word and orders come in through reference, without any marketing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Overall, instead of followup on non-payment, the best measure, that worked for me, is to establish yourself as the best place for your product/service. The growth in business due to customer confidence will out weigh occasional non-payments.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;YMMV, depending on your product or service and price/fee for same. I do understand this approach may not always be practical. Think about trying it for few months. If it does not work, you can always change it at anytime!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2198" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="851" RevisionGUID="daca7088-6dd1-45c9-a187-8fed6f269f54" CreationDate="2013-10-07T16:40:37.203" UserId="1030" Comment="re-phrased" Text="My suggestion comes from practical experience, see if it works for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Contracts are important and should be there but it is not easy or practical to take the legal option. Freelancers/Small firms just do not have the time, money or man-power to followup.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any business will always have non-paying or late-paying clients. Contradictory as it may seem to the bottom line, I think **the best measure is to *not* put lot of time, energy and money on late/non-paying clients**. To ensure clients pay on time, it is about what one does before the order, then after it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If service/product is good, I found customers **very** rarely cause problems or request a replacement, surprisingly, less then 1%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have found almost all the customers to be honest. In a rare case, a customer does not pay, I have a clear policy of not dealing with them again. It is their loss, they won't get my top notch service/product again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After 3 emails for pending payment, spaced over few weeks, I send a final email, letting them know never to order from me unless they pay for past orders and include a link to list of competitors, which I openly list on my website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This seems to work for me, and I have found customers pay up. Also, due to the open approach, the customers put in a good word and orders come in through reference, without any marketing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Overall, instead of followup on non-payment, the best measure, that worked for me, is to establish yourself as the best place for your product/service. The growth in business due to customer confidence will out weigh occasional non-payments.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;YMMV, depending on your product/service and price/fee, this approach may not be practical." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2199" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="853" RevisionGUID="6b6c4af1-152c-49d8-a0d7-ce9147bd31cf" CreationDate="2013-10-07T18:13:24.017" UserId="1031" Text="If you are an independent consultant/contractor, working for multiple clients, how do you sell your services? Do you apply to job offers for regular positions and offer your services to the hiring manager?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My opinion is that a contractor is a great idea to see if you really need to take in a full-time employee, and thought if I could explain this to managers they would be open. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you think? Any other suggestions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2200" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="853" RevisionGUID="6b6c4af1-152c-49d8-a0d7-ce9147bd31cf" CreationDate="2013-10-07T18:13:24.017" UserId="1031" Text="selling/soliciting" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2201" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="853" RevisionGUID="6b6c4af1-152c-49d8-a0d7-ce9147bd31cf" CreationDate="2013-10-07T18:13:24.017" UserId="1031" Text="|attracting-clients|sales|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2202" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="854" RevisionGUID="b632ce69-065c-42be-95b2-9178502c6384" CreationDate="2013-10-07T18:32:11.873" UserId="517" Text="I do both. Usually the first contact with some company is applying for the job. Once you have done the job and the client is satisfied, I then ask him if he's willing to work with my team as well under my standards and my supervision. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Somehow, I don't think that approaching to the hiring manager directly would do much good since he does not know you. I, for example, instantly delete any email coming to my inbox where some anonymous is offering his services to me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, when I need a new team mate and an applicant says something like &quot;I am applying to this position, but in case you need my colleague is expert in XY area as well so we both can work together&quot; I will never delete him but will consider his team only if I am satisfied with his work on my project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess many client think the same as myself. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2203" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="855" RevisionGUID="dd8af908-a8f7-49a0-a874-8df3b6c270d2" CreationDate="2013-10-07T18:55:30.343" UserId="1031" Text="I charge X as an hourly rate for development and I will subcontract the support. My subcontractor charges X/2. Would you charge the Client the full X for on-going support hours provided fully by the contractor? I am somehow conflicted by earning the same as the contractor does when I am not doing the work. What is your opinion?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am the one signing the agreements, so my behind is on the line should the contractor screws up, so there would occasional supervision, but very little." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2204" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="855" RevisionGUID="dd8af908-a8f7-49a0-a874-8df3b6c270d2" CreationDate="2013-10-07T18:55:30.343" UserId="1031" Text="What to charge: dev rate vs. support rate" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2205" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="855" RevisionGUID="dd8af908-a8f7-49a0-a874-8df3b6c270d2" CreationDate="2013-10-07T18:55:30.343" UserId="1031" Text="|price-per-hour|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2206" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="855" RevisionGUID="69f22dbe-2789-4946-ba8e-228fbd86df10" CreationDate="2013-10-07T19:03:21.740" UserId="1031" Comment="edited title" Text="dev rate vs. support rate" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2207" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="856" RevisionGUID="bf8d0949-b1ba-4513-a8ea-6d2eb6ae190b" CreationDate="2013-10-07T19:32:26.197" UserId="43" Text="This is effectively how an agency works. They charge an external rate to their clients, which translates into a (usually different) internal rate depending upon the salary/rate being paid to the individual(s) performing the service. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are perfectly within your rights to charge a set fee to your clients and then subcontract certain elements to third parties, provided that the client get the level of service that you have both agreed. If your particular subcontractor was unavailable and the support work still needed to be done, then by the sound of things, you would need to undertake that yourself if you were unable to find another subcontractor. In that case, you would be out of pocket if you still charged X/2 to your client, and your relationship with them could become strained if you suddenly asked for X instead of X/2 because you were doing the work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as your client is concerned they have an agreement with you at rate X for Y services. If you have managed to keep them happy, keep up ongoing support, and perform those services at a lower cost to you, then in my mind that is good business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2208" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="855" RevisionGUID="94c4faab-77ca-4eb7-952b-f2f1a95eb166" CreationDate="2013-10-07T19:36:11.073" UserId="43" Comment="Improved the title" Text="Should I charge my client the same rate for support services as I do for development, especially if I subcontract the support work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2209" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="857" RevisionGUID="27b007e7-f19c-497f-b01b-e71fba5ea53b" CreationDate="2013-10-07T20:54:02.073" UserId="820" Text="I'll just provide a contracting model to this scenario. My view is my clients are paying for my time, and I don't want to add complexity to the equation, so I don't subcontract at all. I'd handle this by introducing another (perhaps junior) contractor to the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I'm needed to supervise the 'subcontractor', I simply bill my time. When I'm not needed, I don't make money (I realize that), but on the other hand, the client attributes each of our work correctly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, this means I don't make money off of other developers / workers / etc - however, I'm not an agency (and I don't want to be), I'm a *freelancer*." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2210" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="855" RevisionGUID="02642f48-2856-4b39-8d5e-0b8c8f46232e" CreationDate="2013-10-07T21:22:58.903" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/387327214611869696" />
  <row Id="2211" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="850" RevisionGUID="0ac0f13d-c6bb-4ffc-965f-0bc5556cd4c4" CreationDate="2013-10-07T21:25:26.950" UserId="1021" Comment="Clarified the title, clarified and shortened the question." Text="# Briefing: #&#xD;&#xA;I'm a new freelance web developer and I charge by the hour. I realized that my current research &amp; analysis plan is very inefficient and I'm looking to improve that to save more time and get better results. Most of my projects are for small companies and individuals looking for a start-up, but I do occasionally get larger projects. One of the steps I've taken is to split my R&amp;A phase into two parts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Preliminary R&amp;A:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - To review the client's initial request.&#xD;&#xA; - Decide whether I should take the project based on the collected data.&#xD;&#xA; - Send an estimate to the client if yes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Follow-up R&amp;A:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Granted upon the client's approval of the estimate.&#xD;&#xA; - Meet the client and review the results and fill in the blanks together.&#xD;&#xA; - Respond to the client with a detailed quote.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I drew my inspiration from this article: http://inspiredm.com/web-development-projects/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Problems: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't charge my clients for the preliminary R&amp;A as I have yet to decide whether I would actually accept their projects. However, I'm not sure about whether I should charge for the follow-up R&amp;A. Furthermore, I want to avoid unnecessary meetings which cost me a lot of time. Also I prefer a solution that would not take too much of my time even if the client was just looking around so to speak.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Research: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apart from splitting my R&amp;A process in two, looking at how other freelancers deal with this problem, one possible solution that appealed to me the most, is to have an online questionnaire on my website that will send me the client's request via email for my review. If I do this right, then said online questionnaire will act as the preliminary R&amp;A thus saving me a lot of time. I'm not sure how that would impact my clients. It works well for me but would it work well for them as well?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Summary: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Am I right to split my R&amp;A process in two parts?&#xD;&#xA; - Should I charge my clients for the Follow-up R&amp;A as per my hourly rate?&#xD;&#xA; - Would said R&amp;A process and online questionnaire help in reducing unnecessary meetings?&#xD;&#xA; - How do you think an online questionnaire would impact my future clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**P.S.** I noticed that thanking you good people in the comments is frowned upon so I thank you all in advance!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2212" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="850" RevisionGUID="0ac0f13d-c6bb-4ffc-965f-0bc5556cd4c4" CreationDate="2013-10-07T21:25:26.950" UserId="1021" Comment="Clarified the title, clarified and shortened the question." Text="How can I have a better Research &amp; Analysis plan for my projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2213" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="858" RevisionGUID="a859df9f-0f32-4a6f-a64f-3eeaa7b0f4f9" CreationDate="2013-10-07T23:36:01.527" UserId="820" Text="My answer is rather simplistic. I use [oDesk](http://odesk.com) for all my billing, so I never have to worry about clients that don't pay on time (they guarantee payment on every hour logged with their client application). I'm not aware of any other service that does that (although there may be). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could also certainly build an oDesk style system yourself (tie a time logging application to some payment service, and periodically place reserves against the payment method, then capture the payment weekly).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[*I realize most people view oDesk as a job board, I use it as a way to outsource all the invoicing / payment issues with clients.*]" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2214" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="850" RevisionGUID="2727285f-d40f-4ccf-b044-de43baf3173e" CreationDate="2013-10-08T01:05:23.090" UserId="1021" Comment="Added 2 extra points to the summary." Text="# Briefing: #&#xD;&#xA;I'm a new freelance web developer and I charge by the hour. I realized that my current research &amp; analysis plan is very inefficient and I'm looking to improve that to save more time and get better results. Most of my projects are for small companies and individuals looking for a start-up, but I do occasionally get larger projects. One of the steps I've taken is to split my R&amp;A phase into two parts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Preliminary R&amp;A:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - To review the client's initial request.&#xD;&#xA; - Decide whether I should take the project based on the collected data.&#xD;&#xA; - Send an estimate to the client if yes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Follow-up R&amp;A:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Granted upon the client's approval of the estimate.&#xD;&#xA; - Meet the client and review the results and fill in the blanks together.&#xD;&#xA; - Respond to the client with a detailed quote.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I drew my inspiration from this article: http://inspiredm.com/web-development-projects/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Problems: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't charge my clients for the preliminary R&amp;A as I have yet to decide whether I would actually accept their projects. However, I'm not sure about whether I should charge for the follow-up R&amp;A. Furthermore, I want to avoid unnecessary meetings which cost me a lot of time. Also I prefer a solution that would not take too much of my time even if the client was just looking around so to speak.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Research: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apart from splitting my R&amp;A process in two, looking at how other freelancers deal with this problem, one possible solution that appealed to me the most, is to have an online questionnaire on my website that will send me the client's request via email for my review. If I do this right, then said online questionnaire will act as the preliminary R&amp;A thus saving me a lot of time. I'm not sure how that would impact my clients. It works well for me but would it work well for them as well?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Summary: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Am I right to split my R&amp;A process in two parts?&#xD;&#xA; - Should I charge my clients for the Follow-up R&amp;A as per my hourly rate?&#xD;&#xA; - Would said R&amp;A process and online questionnaire help in reducing unnecessary meetings?&#xD;&#xA; - How do you think an online questionnaire would impact my future clients?&#xD;&#xA; - Should I mention my hourly rate along with the questionnaire?&#xD;&#xA; - Should I mention the general terms of agreement with the questionnaire?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**P.S.** I noticed that thanking you good people in the comments is frowned upon so I thank you all in advance!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2215" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="859" RevisionGUID="2116800e-34f4-4cab-ad02-9e016e0b18d2" CreationDate="2013-10-08T01:28:51.090" UserId="940" Text="What's a reasonable amount of time to expect a client to respond to an applicant before you retract an application for unresponsiveness?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2216" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="859" RevisionGUID="2116800e-34f4-4cab-ad02-9e016e0b18d2" CreationDate="2013-10-08T01:28:51.090" UserId="940" Text="Reasonable amount of time for clients to respond to applicants?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2217" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="859" RevisionGUID="2116800e-34f4-4cab-ad02-9e016e0b18d2" CreationDate="2013-10-08T01:28:51.090" UserId="940" Text="|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2218" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="860" RevisionGUID="1d8fa521-7f93-44cf-8655-8c38eb39f95e" CreationDate="2013-10-08T01:54:39.567" UserId="820" Text="Seems like the question has the context of an online job board, but a similar concept applies to more traditional interaction (such as sending a proposal via email):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Does it matter?** It's worth considering whether it matters or not. Actually withdrawing an application seems worthwhile only when it affects some kind of online metric. Perhaps a potentially discouraging bid to success ratio that's public, or (in the case of oDesk) is applied against the weekly limit of bids you can place (although, in that specific context, I'm not sure withdrawing gives you back a bid). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It also signals to a client that you're not interested anymore - which may be a good thing. If it's a potential client that asks a lot of questions, then goes silent, then is back with questions - it may be good to signal to them that there's no more interest (in traditional communication this would be a delicate email, for online job boards, it's a little less personal). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or, if your concerned about your time available, you may not want to pursue other work while still negotiating a potential contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course you it may not be a good thing to signal, if the client has just been distracted by pressing needs, and is not just stringing you along.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So how long?** Like a lot of things, it's kind of a case by case basis. Does the client just seem unreliable when it comes to communication? Then probably not someone you want to work with. Have they been very active, then fall silent for a few days? Might just be that something came up, and they need a gentle reminder. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How far along are the negotiations? If it's just the start, and there's no other advantages to close communication - I'd leave it open. At that point no party is really expecting anything, and if they come back after a week or so and your availability is gone - they really shouldn't be surprised.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're at that point where they've asked you to hold time open, then disappeared before taking whatever action needed to start work, then I'd only give it day or so (business days) until notifying them that I couldn't guarantee the time any longer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, I'd also consider what my current work load was, and if any other clients were wanting that time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[*A bit of a rambling answer, I know. Will try to tighten it up when I get a chance.*]" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2219" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="853" RevisionGUID="722dc47f-bbd1-483b-8c0b-1eb03de5c18e" CreationDate="2013-10-08T02:23:13.887" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus more on the core question" Text="If you are an independent consultant/contractor, working for multiple clients, how do you sell your services? Do you apply to job offers for regular positions and offer your services to the hiring manager?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My opinion is that a contractor is a great idea to see if you really need to take in a full-time employee, and thought if I could explain this to managers they would be open. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I sell/solicit my services by applying to regular positions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2220" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="853" RevisionGUID="722dc47f-bbd1-483b-8c0b-1eb03de5c18e" CreationDate="2013-10-08T02:23:13.887" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus more on the core question" Text="Can I sell/solicit my services by applying to regular job positions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2221" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="850" RevisionGUID="b3bafcb8-de56-446d-bcde-63daa40ad826" CreationDate="2013-10-08T03:15:00.720" UserId="1021" Comment="Further clarified the title and the question." Text="# Briefing: #&#xD;&#xA;I'm a new freelance web developer and I charge by the hour. I realized that my current research &amp; analysis plan is very inefficient and I'm looking to improve that to save more time and get better results. Most of my projects are for small companies and individuals looking for a start-up, but I do occasionally get larger projects. One of the steps I've taken is to split my R&amp;A phase into two parts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Preliminary R&amp;A:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - To review the client's initial request.&#xD;&#xA; - Decide whether I should take the project based on the collected data.&#xD;&#xA; - Send an estimate to the client if yes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Follow-up R&amp;A:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Granted upon the client's approval of the estimate.&#xD;&#xA; - Meet the client and review the results and fill in the blanks together.&#xD;&#xA; - Respond to the client with a detailed quote.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I drew my inspiration from this article: http://inspiredm.com/web-development-projects/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Problems: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't charge my clients for the preliminary R&amp;A as I have yet to decide whether I would actually accept their projects. However, I'm not sure about whether I should charge for the follow-up R&amp;A. Furthermore, I want to avoid unnecessary meetings which cost me a lot of time. Also I prefer a solution that would not take too much of my time even if the client was just looking around so to speak.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Research: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apart from splitting my R&amp;A process in two, looking at how other freelancers deal with this problem, one possible solution that appealed to me the most, is to have an online questionnaire on my website that will send me the client's request via email for my review. If I do this right, then said online questionnaire will act as the preliminary R&amp;A thus saving me a lot of time. I'm not sure how that would impact my clients. It works well for me but would it work well for them as well?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Summary: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Am I right to split my R&amp;A process in two parts?&#xD;&#xA; - Should I charge my clients for the Follow-up R&amp;A as per my hourly rate?&#xD;&#xA; - How do you think an online questionnaire would impact my future clients?&#xD;&#xA; - Should I mention my hourly rate along with the questionnaire?&#xD;&#xA; - Should I mention the general terms of agreement with the questionnaire?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any suggestions please?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2222" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="850" RevisionGUID="b3bafcb8-de56-446d-bcde-63daa40ad826" CreationDate="2013-10-08T03:15:00.720" UserId="1021" Comment="Further clarified the title and the question." Text="How can I improve my Research &amp; Analysis plan for my future projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2223" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="861" RevisionGUID="ac7ba45b-c135-4daf-88a2-e1df338c8a43" CreationDate="2013-10-08T08:03:43.047" UserId="517" Text="Well there are 2 scenarios that I am aware of. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Large companies charge support A LOT meaning that 1 annual contract allow them to cover yearly costs of the project. But those are large companies. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I personally charge my regular work hours + 50%. For example, a client and myself reach a retainer agreement where I promise that I will reserve X work hours just for him in one year and any bug which appears, I will fix asap (a day or two if not immediately). If the client finds it expensive, then I ask him to contact me in case of problems but I will fix them when I have time (and charge my regular work hours). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, regardless of the fact you're subcontracting, you subcontractor has a job because of **your client** and your reputation is on the line, not his. That is why, it's absolutely fair to charge &quot;his rate x 2&quot; i.e. you earn the same as himself. You will soon realize that there is no such thing as &quot;not working anything&quot; when you're subcontracting. I found myself managing subcontracted project 8 hours a day. Just like I am coding it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, the next point is sustainability of your business. You should charge as much as you can because you must keep the business going. It does not matter is you're charging 3 or 10 times more because there will be many situations where you will not be able to charge your client, but will have to pay subcontractor from your own pocket **just to preserve your reputation**. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2224" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="862" RevisionGUID="a809d46f-8bb3-453d-9d63-9897b332f9c5" CreationDate="2013-10-08T08:09:49.417" UserId="517" Text="My first question is &quot;Why would you ever want to retract&quot;? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd say 90% of time, you're being offended because the client is not responding. Well, don't be. There are multiple occasions where I was contracted 6 months after my application. Some clients are lazy and it does not mean that the project you're applying to is their priority project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And once the client contracts you if your price or costs of material have changed, simply inform the client offering him a new price. I faced the same thing with my hours roof repair just because I was lazy - once I called the contractor (3 months later) he told me that the costs are 5% higher because of the material. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Doing business successfully means that many times you'll have to put your anger or disappointment aside. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2225" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="859" RevisionGUID="2896989e-8861-4bfb-92cd-6991e58c7551" CreationDate="2013-10-08T09:23:01.967" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/387508421651869696" />
  <row Id="2226" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="853" RevisionGUID="c138a463-0e82-4935-9878-2edef7302589" CreationDate="2013-10-08T12:23:01.713" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/387553718943907840" />
  <row Id="2227" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="863" RevisionGUID="e234c149-5b99-43ce-a843-a76b82828fd0" CreationDate="2013-10-08T14:46:25.413" UserId="127" Text="Here are the things I do to insure on time payment:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Establish a standard.**&#xD;&#xA;My standard is payment to be received within 10 days of the invoice, but you can use a different rule. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Communicate the standard.**&#xD;&#xA;I let my customers know the requirement both via conversations with them during contract negotiation and within the contract itself. I also explicitly put a due date on every invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Make it easy to pay.**&#xD;&#xA;Allow multiple payment options.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Request partial payment up front.**&#xD;&#xA;On all my projects, I request an upfront payment of something between 10%-50% of the total project cost BEFORE work begins. (This is obviously easier to do when there is a flat project fee instead of an hourly rate, but on a larger project it is still be possible to ask for an up front fee.) This helps A LOT because the client must demonstrate through this payment that they are reliable and invested in the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Offer a discount for full payment up front.**&#xD;&#xA;One advantage to getting paid up front is that it is difficult for a client to cancel the project. Also late payment becomes a non-issue. This isn't an option I prefer, but I have seen others implement it successfully, and I've used it before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Stop work when payment is late.**&#xD;&#xA;I make it VERY CLEAR to clients that if their payments are late, work will not continue. If their project is halted while I have to wait for payment, I can't guarantee I will meet their deadlines. In fact, their work will go to the end of my queue. One advantage of using short payment terms like NET 10 days is that you know very quickly that there is a problem and so you won't spend as much time working without payment. With NET 30 you've already worked a month without getting paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I rarely have problems with late payments. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2233" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="843" RevisionGUID="d10bf685-c28d-4a46-aa52-cd1b6a34cf36" CreationDate="2013-10-09T03:23:01.890" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/387780211888365568" />
  <row Id="2234" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="836" RevisionGUID="93b56320-a8e3-4902-a83e-10691fef4631" CreationDate="2013-10-09T09:23:01.803" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/387870808573767680" />
  <row Id="2242" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="866" RevisionGUID="19c428ad-4da4-41b9-ba32-4c730ef461d7" CreationDate="2013-10-10T00:44:58.400" UserId="469" Text="I am a full-stack web developer interested in freelancing full-time, am wondering if anyone has had success with billing clients monthly recurring payments for providing general maintenance of an application and/or website? For reference, I will likely host clients on AWS. I could manage dependencies, bug fixes, file and database backups, etc. This obviously wouldn't include the initial cost to develop the application and design the user interface. So, has anyone been able to make this pricing structure work? Was it worth the hassle? Thanks in advance!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2243" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="866" RevisionGUID="19c428ad-4da4-41b9-ba32-4c730ef461d7" CreationDate="2013-10-10T00:44:58.400" UserId="469" Text="Can a monthly pricing structure work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2244" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="866" RevisionGUID="19c428ad-4da4-41b9-ba32-4c730ef461d7" CreationDate="2013-10-10T00:44:58.400" UserId="469" Text="|pay-rate|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2246" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="866" RevisionGUID="75fc85aa-7a06-4d4d-8845-abae4fa03e69" CreationDate="2013-10-10T03:14:28.027" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus on the actual question instead of whether other people have experienced this" Text="I am a full-stack web developer interested in freelancing full-time. I am planning on billing clients monthly recurring payments for providing general maintenance of an application or website. For reference, I will likely host clients on Amazon Web Services. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I plan to manage dependencies, bug fixes, file and database backups, etc. This obviously wouldn't include the initial cost to develop the application and design the user interface. But I'm wondering what types of issues I might run into with a recurring billing model and how to overcome those issues?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2247" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="866" RevisionGUID="75fc85aa-7a06-4d4d-8845-abae4fa03e69" CreationDate="2013-10-10T03:14:28.027" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus on the actual question instead of whether other people have experienced this" Text="How can I make a monthly maintenance pricing structure work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2248" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="866" RevisionGUID="5bb458d8-ecd3-4b79-b26d-f34557169dc6" CreationDate="2013-10-10T03:23:03.620" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/388142607047884800" />
  <row Id="2249" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="850" RevisionGUID="da04075f-b911-4568-8a73-ed1f6fa7b736" CreationDate="2013-10-10T06:23:03.463" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/388187905036128256" />
  <row Id="2253" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="849" RevisionGUID="a93eaf0d-74d8-4492-a3ec-0babac376188" CreationDate="2013-10-10T07:59:38.630" UserId="1018" Comment="added 11 characters in body" Text="Follow the steps in your contract agreement, if you have one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make it clear you intend to recover the amount owing by whatever means available to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This might include penalties for late payment such as applying interest to the fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client is suffering genuine hardship you might offer payment terms so that you can at least start to recover the debt. For example, you might accept half now and the balance in a months time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where clients don't seem willing to negotiate or communicate, then you might consider legal action and this can be straightforward using a small claim tribunal where the amount owed fits within the small claim tribunal limit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another successful tactic I have used is to threaten their credit rating. As a sole operator freelancer in Australia, I can't report unpaid debts directly to credit agencies but I can hire a debt recovery company who can do this on my behalf. Clients will often respond positively when their access to credit is under threat. You don't usually have to hire a debt recovery company, but let the client know this is what you will do if you don't hear back from them with the next 48 hours or similar." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2254" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="868" RevisionGUID="d6ec2373-94ac-4ad6-9244-d485ebe7cc59" CreationDate="2013-10-10T08:14:53.217" UserId="592" Text="Please bear with me as I set up and use this analogy from my days as a real estate agent:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the US, Real Estate Agents typically get paid a commission when escrow closes, that is, when the transaction is complete and the property is sold. It usually takes around 30 days and it's not uncommon for a deal to fall-through or cancel even at the last minute. Sometimes an Agent receives no payment in this case. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Such scenarios provide real estate professionals an incentive to 1) **pre-qualify** and often pre-approve potential home buyers, and 2) Create a detailed, written, and legally-binding **contract to be signed** before representing a client. As Independent Contractors, we should be doing the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Pre-Qualification #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In real estate, pre-qualifying clients is a way to determine if they have the means to purchase a house, either by cash, or most commonly, by getting a loan. Much of the pre-qualification process is automated and can be completed online. Oftentimes the loan pre-qualification process also sets parameters like: How much money they can borrow, how much cash they'll need to have saved up in the bank (the cost of the transaction), what interest rates are available, and more. A credit check will also be run. So there's a lot of vetting and research that goes on prior to signing that contract, let alone getting paid. **But the eye is definitely focused on that prize**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Dealing with clients over time will help to refine your methods and instincts in pre-qualifying your clients. Learn, document, and tweak the list of questions you need to ask a potential client when conducting that initial interview. And listen. And document.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Documents #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once the pre-qualification requirement has been satisfied, a real estate agent can start asking more specific questions of the potential buyer: what areas are you considering, how many bedrooms/baths, what style of home, amount of square footage desired, etc... and the list goes on. At this point some agents might show a few examples of what's available on the market - this to stimulate the clients' appetite. But most agents will be focused on getting a commitment by way of a signed agency contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Written and signed contracts are so overlooked when launching a new freelance business. For most real estate professionals - it's a lifeline. It may be the difference between getting paid and getting burned. **Any price tag you send your client needs the scope of work attached to it.** Work through the process and make sure you communicate clearly what is and what is NOT included in the price you quote.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# To Answer Your Questions #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - You are a service provider business. There are expenses, investments,&#xD;&#xA;   and revenue. **Always consider the ROI (Return On Investment)**, but&#xD;&#xA;   define a 'return' according to your terms. *Is time spent on a potential client a marketing expense or an investment?*&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - **Track your time**. Find out how long it takes to pre-qualify a client&#xD;&#xA;   and get a signed contract. It will help to figure out your ROI eventually.&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - Pre-qualify your clients. A form on your website is a good start, but&#xD;&#xA;   **nothing beats a live conversation** to fill out that questionnaire.&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - Never work without a signed contract detailing the scope of work and&#xD;&#xA;   timeframes. **Client won't sign? Not pre-qualified!**&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - Consider if value-based pricing is a better model for you, compared to charging hourly. How well can you communicate the amazing ROI you'll provide&#xD;&#xA;   for your client? **Is a $10,000 investment in you worth a $100,000&#xD;&#xA;   return for them?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps and happy freelancing!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2255" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="869" RevisionGUID="1dc64038-16b8-4879-8c66-d560a90f7b33" CreationDate="2013-10-10T09:16:49.867" UserId="592" Text="I use FreshBooks.com (no affiliation) which provides both of the features you need: [recurring autopay][2] billing and a support ticket system. For recurring autopay with a credit card, [you'll need a payment gateway account][1]. Otherwise, you can do the billing manually as long as you have the payment information on hand. Clients can log in and create support tickets (you set the permissions) or you can do it for them. Replies occur in a thread and you can assign the amount of time spent on a ticket.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For website maintenance subscriptions I offer a BareBones Plan, Basic Plan, and Custom Plans. The first 2 plans have very detailed and limited services spelled out. For instance, the BareBones Plan is basically designed to keep the lights on: WordPress core updates, plugin/theme updates, weekly database BAKs, monthly full site BAKs, and weekly security scans. Most of it is automated. The Basic Plan would include everything in Barebones plus some limited content-related services and troubleshooting. Both plans clearly state an hourly rate for requested services that are not covered by the subscription. A Custom Subscription is tailored to a client's needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The important thing is to clearly spell out your Terms Of Service (TOS) or Terms Of Agreement (TOA) in a document/contract that needs to be signed or accepted electronically. I state that a contract/subscription is considered signed and accepted once payment is received - which happens to be at the beginning of the covered month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://community.freshbooks.com/support/which-payment-gateway-should-i-choose/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://community.freshbooks.com/support/does-freshbooks-support-subscription-based-billing/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2256" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="870" RevisionGUID="4e607e8d-4ab7-4420-a194-49360d325b13" CreationDate="2013-10-10T14:19:32.963" UserId="127" Text="I provide flat rate monthly support options for custom software I build. It includes:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Bug fixes&#xD;&#xA;* Email support&#xD;&#xA;* Research &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The amount is different for each customer, because some applications are more difficult to support than others. Also the pricing depends on how quickly I guarantee a response - some are satisfied with 2 business day response, while others are looking for a response within 24 hours, any day of the week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Things you'll want to address in your agreement:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Response time. (Make it clear that &quot;response&quot; isn't necessarily the same as &quot;fixed&quot; - you can't guarantee that things will always be fixed within a certain amount of time, as some problems may be outside your control.)&#xD;&#xA;* What is covered. Bug fixes? Answering questions about how something works? Small cosmetic changes?  And make it clear what are acceptable contact methods. I don't want my phone ringing at 3am, so contact is supposed to be initiated with me via email. (I might speak with them later on the phone, but I'm not taking calls 24/7.)&#xD;&#xA;* How the contract ends. Mine are typically set up to require 90 days notice from either party, you may want to do something different.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, be cognizant of how much time this will really take. I set aside 25% of my time every month in case their is support requests, and I schedule other project work assuming only 75% availability. If support is needed for a client, I want to make sure I can still meet my regular project obligations. And I am careful not to take on more support clients than I can handle. Right now, I would not want to have any more than 4 support clients at any given time. Again - your circumstances may mean different limitations but consider what those might be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2257" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="870" RevisionGUID="add11e87-e487-45f3-9bbe-4da1cb0037d1" CreationDate="2013-10-10T16:20:09.493" UserId="75" Comment="added 1 characters in body" Text="I provide flat rate monthly support options for custom software I build. It includes:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Bug fixes&#xD;&#xA;* Email support&#xD;&#xA;* Research &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The amount is different for each customer, because some applications are more difficult to support than others. Also the pricing depends on how quickly I guarantee a response - some are satisfied with 2 business day response, while others are looking for a response within 24 hours, any day of the week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Things you'll want to address in your agreement:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Response time. (Make it clear that &quot;response&quot; isn't necessarily the same as &quot;fixed&quot; - you can't guarantee that things will always be fixed within a certain amount of time, as some problems may be outside your control.)&#xD;&#xA;* What is covered. Bug fixes? Answering questions about how something works? Small cosmetic changes?  And make it clear what are acceptable contact methods. I don't want my phone ringing at 3am, so contact is supposed to be initiated with me via email. (I might speak with them later on the phone, but I'm not taking calls 24/7.)&#xD;&#xA;* How the contract ends. Mine are typically set up to require 90 days notice from either party, you may want to do something different.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, be cognizant of how much time this will really take. I set aside 25% of my time every month in case there are support requests, and I schedule other project work assuming only 75% availability. If support is needed for a client, I want to make sure I can still meet my regular project obligations. And I am careful not to take on more support clients than I can handle. Right now, I would not want to have any more than 4 support clients at any given time. Again - your circumstances may mean different limitations but consider what those might be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2259" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="871" RevisionGUID="fc2c49e4-00e1-4203-a097-aaa98b7c9d03" CreationDate="2013-10-11T12:40:39.103" UserId="1042" Text="I am a 4 yrs+ Experienced Web Developer. I work for a company. I want to start my own company. How can i get work and clients. I know about few sites - freelancer.com , odesk.com , elance.com. Here i am like a small fish in ocean. I bid on projects but i don't get any. There are other players with paid membership and past experience on those sites so they get the job. Any suggestions what should i do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2260" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="871" RevisionGUID="fc2c49e4-00e1-4203-a097-aaa98b7c9d03" CreationDate="2013-10-11T12:40:39.103" UserId="1042" Text="How Do I Start my Own Company With Freelancing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2261" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="871" RevisionGUID="fc2c49e4-00e1-4203-a097-aaa98b7c9d03" CreationDate="2013-10-11T12:40:39.103" UserId="1042" Text="|freelance-websites|freelance-fields|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2262" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="872" RevisionGUID="b7f47bcb-3cd6-46aa-8d64-9c9b4dad142f" CreationDate="2013-10-11T13:54:56.253" UserId="1056" Text="As a freelancer and a client, I look for a 'genuine' person. &#xD;&#xA;-Don't hide behind a silly company name&#xD;&#xA;-Put your picture everywhere, doing all kinds of things.&#xD;&#xA;-Whatever you link to or reference, make sure it's updated/still live/has no bugs. Most portfolios are complete junk, and there's no reason for it.&#xD;&#xA;-If you have FB/Twit/Blog/etc..keep them up to date or don't reference them or close your accounts.&#xD;&#xA;-If you had all what I just mentioned, you would have been the only one while I was searching for someone to start on a project. I'm still searching ;)&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck. Just remember..go all in, or don't play at all." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2263" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="872" RevisionGUID="9bfa2029-db0f-4469-9e5c-e71b0696bb8e" CreationDate="2013-10-11T15:43:20.910" UserId="75" Comment="added 7 characters in body" Text="As a freelancer and a client, I look for a 'genuine' person. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Don't hide behind a silly company name&#xD;&#xA;- Put your picture everywhere, doing all kinds of things.&#xD;&#xA;- Whatever you link to or reference, make sure it's updated/still live/has no bugs. Most portfolios are complete junk, and there's no reason for it.&#xD;&#xA;- If you have a Facebook/Twitter/Blog/etc, keep them up to date; otherwise, don't reference them, or close your accounts.&#xD;&#xA;- If you had all what I just mentioned, you would have been the only one while I was searching for someone to start on a project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck. Just remember, go all in, or don't play at all." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2264" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="873" RevisionGUID="2669895d-923b-40e0-8ffa-46a6180c099e" CreationDate="2013-10-11T15:50:55.287" UserId="75" Text="1. Do you have a portfolio of previous projects? How are people going to know if you're any good without previous work being available? When I designed websites (back when I did), I had asked every client, before starting, if I could use it in my portfolio. Every one of them said to go ahead. That's the first thing.&#xD;&#xA;2. Until your name is well known, you may not get many jobs to start. You need to advertise yourself in every way: online presence, friends/family, Facebook, Twitter, maybe a blog... You need people to realize you are wanting to do web stuff, and you want to take on projects. See [this question](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/221/best-approach-to-finding-clients-in-your-own-city) for more info about finding clients in your local area.&#xD;&#xA;3. If you're bidding too high, you won't get the job; if you're bidding too low, you won't be satisfied. Determine your ideal rate. See [this question](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/191/fixed-price-or-per-hour-for-a-webdeveloper) for information on determining if it's a price per hour, or per project, that you should be using.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, it's how you advertise yourself, and what you can deal with for a job. Don't take a large project for pennies on the dollar, and don't undervalue yourself. I always estimate an extra 50%, because every client will want more and more and more; that's how I prepare for the inevitable." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2265" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="874" RevisionGUID="f0a08073-f791-4add-8c1e-eec91c821769" CreationDate="2013-10-11T17:16:51.660" UserId="1058" Text="I am a resident of British Columbia Canada and have been asked by a business in Sweden to do contract work as a web developer. What taxes would I have to pay/charge?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2266" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="874" RevisionGUID="f0a08073-f791-4add-8c1e-eec91c821769" CreationDate="2013-10-11T17:16:51.660" UserId="1058" Text="What taxes does a Canadian freelancer charge to other countries?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2267" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="874" RevisionGUID="f0a08073-f791-4add-8c1e-eec91c821769" CreationDate="2013-10-11T17:16:51.660" UserId="1058" Text="|taxes|canada|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2268" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="850" RevisionGUID="77fdf008-b221-4ca9-b17b-11dd682e1ade" CreationDate="2013-10-12T03:44:40.850" UserId="1021" Comment="Improved the question to make it more specific." Text="# Briefing: #&#xD;&#xA;I'm a freelance web developer and I charge by the hour. I realized that my previous Research &amp; Analysis process was very inefficient and I'm looking to improve that to save more time and get better results. Most of my projects are for small companies and individuals looking for a start-up, but I do occasionally get larger projects. One of the steps I've taken is to split my R&amp;A process into two parts which basically are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Preliminary R&amp;A:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Collect the basic project requirements from the client.&#xD;&#xA; - Review the project requirements and decide whether possible to accept the project.&#xD;&#xA; - Send an estimate to the client if the project should be accepted from my side.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client approves the estimate:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Follow-up R&amp;A:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Meet and review the results with the client to finalize the requirements.&#xD;&#xA; - Respond to the client with a detailed quote.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I drew my inspiration from this article: http://inspiredm.com/web-development-projects/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Problems: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging my clients for the preliminary R&amp;A is not logical but I'm not sure about whether I should charge for the follow-up R&amp;A and if no, how much time I should spend on it. Furthermore, I want to avoid unnecessary meetings and prefer a solution that would not take too much of my time even if the client was just looking around so to speak.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Research: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apart from splitting my R&amp;A process in two, looking at how other freelancers deal with this problem, one possible solution that appealed to me the most, is to have an online questionnaire on my website that will send me the client's request via email for my review. If I do this right, then said online questionnaire will act as the preliminary R&amp;A thus saving me a lot of time. Though I'm not sure how that would impact my clients. It works well for me but would it work for my clients as well?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Summary: #&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Am I right to split my R&amp;A process in two parts?&#xD;&#xA; - Should I charge my clients for the Follow-up R&amp;A as per my hourly rate?&#xD;&#xA; - How do you think an online questionnaire would impact my future clients?&#xD;&#xA; - Should I mention my hourly rate along with the questionnaire?&#xD;&#xA; - Should I mention the general terms of agreement with the questionnaire?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any suggestions please?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2269" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="850" RevisionGUID="77fdf008-b221-4ca9-b17b-11dd682e1ade" CreationDate="2013-10-12T03:44:40.850" UserId="1021" Comment="Improved the question to make it more specific." Text="How can I improve my Research &amp; Analysis process for my future projects as a Web Developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2270" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="874" RevisionGUID="7da3f557-51fb-4b0e-ac67-9c1d74859332" CreationDate="2013-10-12T09:23:17.187" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/388958036729290752" />
  <row Id="2271" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="821" RevisionGUID="64dff782-7789-44e7-abdf-e26eefb8bf01" CreationDate="2013-10-13T00:23:21.503" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/389184547239510016" />
  <row Id="2272" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="825" RevisionGUID="bb4f6a44-10e3-448f-9d4f-8ff6f8344dde" CreationDate="2013-10-13T06:23:21.643" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/389275144868601856" />
  <row Id="2273" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="850" RevisionGUID="0f13249c-ce40-4508-a350-5cd8a19ad9a9" CreationDate="2013-10-14T03:47:50.850" UserId="58" Comment="3" />
  <row Id="2274" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="875" RevisionGUID="43fed551-1a3e-43cc-b08e-b9679eb9674a" CreationDate="2013-10-14T07:14:15.917" UserId="1070" Text="I agreed to help a new client refactoring a piece of code. A simple task that should not take more than a couple of hours. He agreed to pay me my hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He didn't came to the meeting, sending a message after 30 minutes apologizing for not being able to come due by unforeseen circumstances.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually in these cases I don't make the client pay for the time, and if the client is a recurring offender I drop him, but I came to reevaluate my actions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I grant a client a max number of &quot;free&quot; small Inadempiences, or should I take an assertive approach and charge him with a malus right away?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2275" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="875" RevisionGUID="43fed551-1a3e-43cc-b08e-b9679eb9674a" CreationDate="2013-10-14T07:14:15.917" UserId="1070" Text="client needs help with Coding, does not come to the appointment. should i charge him?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2276" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="875" RevisionGUID="43fed551-1a3e-43cc-b08e-b9679eb9674a" CreationDate="2013-10-14T07:14:15.917" UserId="1070" Text="|contracts|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2277" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="707" RevisionGUID="9e77c7b5-dfcd-4f34-a9b9-978a057a9c54" CreationDate="2013-10-14T09:23:22.687" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/389682835470417920" />
  <row Id="2278" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="876" RevisionGUID="07e96385-04f4-4eda-a485-f1d7c2dd5ba5" CreationDate="2013-10-14T15:09:49.197" UserId="1021" Text="&lt;h1&gt;Risk and Compromise:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;As with any type of business, there are always risks and situations that require compromising to some extent and freelance Web Development is no exception. Web Development is a very wide field and there are a lot of things to consider before making an informed decision. Every project is unique and comes with its own set of challenges so I would advise you to not waste your time trying to come up with a one-size-fits-all solution.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Not every client that comes to you will equal an approved project. Maybe, the client is just looking around to get a better bargain or wants to know what you can offer for a project he/she has planned to put in action a year from now. Taking the time to evaluate a potential client and their project is, at the very least, a good investment. Look at it this way - You spent good time and money in educating yourself and learning the art of Web Development, not to mention the equipment you got yourself to do it, so why not spend some time to get good projects you can handle with confidence and earn from them?&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Flexibility:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Having a good set of methods and procedures is a priceless asset to your business but so is your ability to be flexible with your methods and procedures. Organize them in a way that allows you to &quot;break the rules&quot; if needed for the sake of a good project while still keeping things manageable and well-organized. It's in man's nature to prefer freedom over limitation. Think of your methods and procedures more as guidelines rather than absolute rules. When to be flexible or not is entirely up to you.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Example:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Generally I don't allow discounts but if a project is worth 2000$ and the client's budget is only 1900$, I would consider taking it. However, if the client's budget was only 1500$, I wouldn't. Losing 100$ to earn 1900$ is acceptable but not losing 500$ to earn 1500$.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Online Questionnaire:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;There's no harm in having an online questionnaire depending on how it's done. If you make it easy to use while collecting the information you need and guiding the user through every step of the way, you will be saving your time and your client's as well. Also, it will offer you a consistent way of collecting preliminary project information. Of course, just because you have one, doesn't mean every client must use it. You can for example use it yourself while meeting with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;R&amp;A Process Guideline:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Splitting your R&amp;A process is a good way to do it. There are no solid rules of thumb about how an R&amp;A process should be done, instead work on something that works for you in your current situation. Based on some further research, previous experience, and the &lt;a href=&quot;http://inspiredm.com/web-development-projects/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; you mentioned, here's a more organized way of structuring your Research &amp; Analysis process:&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Preliminary R&amp;A:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;b&gt;Non-disclosure Agreement&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-disclosure_agreement&quot;&gt;(more info)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Some of your clients may not know what an NDA is and may not ask for it but in any case, offer them one as part of your contract. Your clients will appreciate it.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Project Requirements Collection:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;This is the part where you collect the project's requirements from your potential client. Whether you wish to meet with them or collect this information through an online form is up to you. What matters is knowing beforehand what information you need in order to start analyzing the project so be sure to put a good amount of effort into it. The more detailed it is, the better, but do not overwhelm the client.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Project Requirements Analysis:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You collected the info and now it's time for you to analyze the project. Go through every detail carefully and make sure you understand everything. &lt;b&gt;Note:&lt;/b&gt; It's perfectly acceptable to contact the client and ask for clarification in case something is missing or you don't understand it. Missing or misunderstanding even a single detail can cause problems down the road.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Project Rejection:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You won't be able to accept every project you get. Sometimes the project interferes with your schedule or, the client might be asking you to use ASP when you only know PHP or, maybe what the client required is not covered by his/her budget. Be ready to reject some projects but know that it matters how you reject them. &lt;b&gt;Bonus Point:&lt;/b&gt; Offer your potential clients some alternatives like placing their location info on the same page as the contact form and reducing the cost for example.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Project Estimate:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;So far, you've analyzed the project enough to calculate roughly how much effort is required in terms of time and how much it will cost accordingly. Write down a good Estimate for your client and send it over. Keep in mind that a lot of clients heavily underestimate the work involved in developing a website and thus may not be happy with it. Be ready for anything and handle it professionally. Don't let the client push you around but don't attack the client either. ALWAYS BE POLITE AND PROFESSIONAL. If the client accepts the Estimate, then we move on to the second part of the R&amp;A process. Note that the project is still not officially approved and you will do well not to get your hopes up.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Follow-up R&amp;A:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;R&amp;A Finalization:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Whether you've already met and/or been in touch with your client or not, now is the time to do so (again if applicable) and fill in the blanks of the project requirements. If you've missed anything the first time, clear it up now. Be very detailed and very precise. Make sure you understand the client and that the client understands you, ask for examples, don't hold back on your questions. The more you understand about the project, the better the results. If the client is not willing to cooperate with you, feel free to reject the project right there and then as chances are, that client will not work well with you. Keep in mind that the client is not only helping you deliver better results but they are helping themselves as well.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Project Plan:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, you have a very clear picture of what the client wants and expects from you. This is when you create a plan of the project for yourself. Think of it as a treasure map. Yes, that's how important it is. The better your plan is, the better your project will be, the happier the client will be. Put some good effort into it. Don't just rely on your mind. You're human, you forget, you make mistakes. It's not a good feeling to remember that the client wanted a dynamic AJAX form on the Contact Us page 2 hours before the project delivery is due. Also, in case you've missed anything, creating a good plan will often expose that and you can clarify it with the client. Basically what you want from your project plan is have a clear picture of what needs to be done and how.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Project Quote:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;By now you should have a very clear understanding of the project and the client. You should be able to take those requirements as you have in the Estimate, along with your project plan, and make a good Quote out of it. Add all the necessary details to be able to quickly and easily identity the project just by looking at the quote, be very clear and honest about what you're charging for and how much. Eliminate the need for the client to call you asking what the hell is this amount for. It's also a good idea to include your terms and conditions regarding the payments, project delivery, etc. I personally like to consider the quote as the contract of the project to eliminate unnecessary paperwork and make things easier for myself and my clients.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Project Approval:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;If the clients accepts the quote, for local clients, the first payment along with a valid invoice and a signature, all attached to the quote is good enough. As for international clients, a valid receipt from Western Union attached with the quote will do the trick. This is what worked for me and I haven't had any problems.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Closing Notes:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Am I right to split my R&amp;A process in two parts?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;If you feel it's more organized and logical to you, then yes. There are no rules of thumb.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Should I charge my clients for the Follow-up R&amp;A as per my hourly rate?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Since you're just starting out, try the water first. See how things develop. The easier the process, the higher your chances of getting good projects. Don't complicate things by charging for the Follow-up R&amp;A. At least not for now. To counter that, you have to be efficient in your work.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Should I mention my hourly rate along with the questionnaire?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;While some clients prefer knowing ahead of time, keep in mind that it may scare most of them away. Most if not all of your clients don't know much about the work that's involved in Web Development so your perfectly reasonable rate may appear too high. On the other side, mentioning it will let your clients know that you're not playing games and that everyone gets the same rate.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Should I mention the general terms of agreement with the questionnaire?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;If these &quot;general&quot; terms of agreement apply to every project and every client, then yes.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2279" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="876" RevisionGUID="c342971a-7164-4711-a4fa-b3c383c21da0" CreationDate="2013-10-15T02:51:42.510" UserId="1021" Comment="Fixed spelling and grammar mistakes." Text="&lt;h1&gt;Risk and Compromise:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;As with any type of business, there are always risks and situations that require compromising to some extent and freelance Web Development is no exception. Web Development is a very wide field and there are a lot of things to consider before making an informed decision. Every project is unique and comes with its own set of challenges so I would advise you to not waste your time trying to come up with a one-size-fits-all solution.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Not every client that comes to you will equal an approved project. Maybe, the client is just looking around to get a better bargain or wants to know what you can offer for a project they plan to put in action a year from now. Taking the time to evaluate a potential client and their project is, at the very least, a good investment. Look at it this way - You spent good time and money educating yourself and learning the art of Web Development, not to mention the equipment you got yourself to do it, so why not spend some time to get good projects you can handle with confidence and earn from them?&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Flexibility:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Having a good set of methods and procedures is a priceless asset to your business but so is your ability to be flexible. Organize them in a way that allows you to &quot;break the rules&quot; if needed for the sake of a good project while still keeping things manageable and well-organized. It's in man's nature to prefer freedom over limitation. Think of your methods and procedures more as guidelines rather than absolute rules. When to be flexible or not is entirely up to you.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Example:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Generally I don't allow discounts but if a project is worth 2000$ and the client's budget is only 1900$, I would consider taking it. However, if the client's budget was only 1500$, I wouldn't. Losing 100$ to earn 1900$ is acceptable but I wouldn't bother losing 500$ to earn 1500$.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Online Questionnaire:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;There's no harm in having an online questionnaire depending on how it's done. If you make it easy to use while collecting the information you need, you will be saving your time and your client's as well. Also, it will offer you a consistent way of collecting preliminary project information. Of course, just because you have one, doesn't mean every client must use it. You can for example use it yourself while meeting with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;R&amp;A Process Guideline:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Splitting your R&amp;A process is a good way to do it. There are no solid rules of thumb about how an R&amp;A process should be done, instead work on something that works for you in your current situation. Based on some further research, previous experience, and the &lt;a href=&quot;http://inspiredm.com/web-development-projects/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; you mentioned, here's a more organized way of structuring your Research &amp; Analysis process:&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Preliminary R&amp;A:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;b&gt;Non-disclosure Agreement&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-disclosure_agreement&quot;&gt;(more info)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Some of your clients may not know what an NDA is and may not ask for it but in any case, offer them one as part of your contract. Your clients will appreciate it.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Project Requirements Collection:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;This is the part where you collect the project's requirements from your potential client. How you collect this information is up to you. A meeting is usually best but may not always be possible. What matters is knowing beforehand what information you need to collect in order to start analyzing the project so be sure to put a good amount of effort into it. The more detailed it is, the better, but do not overwhelm the client.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Project Requirements Analysis:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You collected the info and now it's time for you to analyze the project. Go through every detail carefully and make sure you understand everything. &lt;b&gt;Note:&lt;/b&gt; It's perfectly acceptable to contact the client and ask for clarification in case something is missing or you don't understand it. Missing or misunderstanding even a single detail can cause problems down the road.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Project Rejection:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You won't be able to accept every project you get. Sometimes the project interferes with your schedule or, the client might be asking you to use ASP when you only know PHP or, maybe what the client required is not covered by his/her budget. Be ready to reject some projects but know that it matters how you reject them. &lt;b&gt;Bonus Point:&lt;/b&gt; Offer your potential clients some alternatives.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Project Estimate:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;So far, you've analyzed the project enough to calculate roughly how much effort is required in terms of time and how much it will cost accordingly. Write down a good Estimate for your client and send it over. Keep in mind that a lot of clients heavily underestimate the work involved in developing a website and thus may not be happy with it. Be ready for anything and handle it professionally. Don't let the client push you around but don't attack the client either. ALWAYS BE POLITE AND PROFESSIONAL. If the client accepts the Estimate, then we move on to the second part of the R&amp;A process. Note that the project is still not officially approved and you will do well not to get your hopes up.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Follow-up R&amp;A:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;R&amp;A Finalization:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Whether you've already met and/or been in touch with your client or not, now is the time to do so (again if applicable) and fill in the blanks of the project requirements. If you've missed anything the first time, clear it up now. Be very detailed and very precise. Make sure you understand the client and that the client understands you, ask for examples, don't hold back on your questions. The more you understand about the project, the better the results. If the client is not willing to cooperate with you, feel free to reject the project right there and then as chances are, that client will not work well with you. Keep in mind that the client is not only helping you deliver better results but they are helping themselves as well.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Project Plan:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, you have a very clear picture of what the client wants and expects from you. This is when you create a plan of the project for yourself. Think of it as a treasure map. Yes, that's how important it is. The better your plan is, the better your project will be, the happier the client will be. Put some good effort into it. Don't just rely on your mind. You're human, you forget, you make mistakes. It's not a good feeling to remember that the client wanted a dynamic AJAX form on the Contact Us page 2 hours before the project delivery is due. Also, in case you've missed anything, creating a good plan will often expose that and you can clarify it with the client. Basically what you want from your project plan is to have a clear picture of what needs to be done and how.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Project Quote:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;By now you should have complete understanding of the project and the client. You should be able to take those requirements as you have in the Estimate, along with your project plan, and make a good Quote out of it. Add all the necessary details to be able to quickly and easily identity the project just by looking at the quote, be very clear and honest about what you're charging for and how much. Eliminate the need for the client to call you asking what the hell is this amount for. It's also a good idea to include your terms and conditions regarding the payments, project delivery, etc. I personally like to consider the quote as the contract of the project to eliminate unnecessary paperwork and make things easier for myself and my clients.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Project Approval:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;If the client accepts the quote, for local clients, the first payment along with a valid invoice and a signature, all attached to the quote is good enough. As for international clients, a valid receipt from Western Union attached with the quote will do the trick. This is what worked for me and I haven't had any problems. Also, this is when you have to collect sensitive information like hosting account usernames and passwords.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Closing Notes:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Am I right to split my R&amp;A process in two parts?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;If you feel it's more organized and logical to you, then yes. There are no rules of thumb.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Should I charge my clients for the Follow-up R&amp;A as per my hourly rate?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Since you're just starting out, try the water first. See how things develop. The easier the process, the higher your chances of getting good projects. Don't complicate things by charging for the Follow-up R&amp;A. At least not for now. To counter that, you have to be efficient in your work.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Should I mention my hourly rate along with the questionnaire?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;While some clients prefer knowing ahead of time, keep in mind that it may scare most of them away. Most if not all of your clients don't know much about the work that's involved in Web Development so your perfectly reasonable rate may appear too high. On the other side, mentioning it will let your clients know that you're not playing games and that everyone gets the same rate. It's up to you.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Should I mention the general terms of agreement with the questionnaire?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;If these &quot;general&quot; terms of agreement apply to every project and every client, then yes.&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2280" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="877" RevisionGUID="ac265ace-7720-47b8-839f-54bbf35fd015" CreationDate="2013-10-15T08:33:24.130" UserId="43" Text="I think your usual approach is the correct one. The vagaries of busy clients are an unfortunate obstacle to our making the best of of our freelance time. If you don't already, I would say it's good practice to send a courtesy email confirming the meeting on the day, just to ensure that it's still on the client's radar. It could be the most important meeting of your day but may well be a long way down the client's list of priorities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From a client's perspective, if a freelancer attempted to charge them for not attending a pre-arranged meeting, particularly if there is no contract in place that allows for time to be charged in this manner, I imagine that they would walk away. You'd find it very difficult to enforce the payment and would irreparably damage the relationship. If this is a first offence then you would be well advised to just take the hit and move on. If they are a repeat offender then they probably aren't worth pursuing. If they repeatedly fail to turn up to meetings then they are likely to be equally difficult to extract requirements/payment from." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2281" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="878" RevisionGUID="1f644c25-056a-4332-9f0c-e8dba09f8f71" CreationDate="2013-10-15T09:32:52.907" UserId="517" Text="I think you will have hard time trying to charge him for &quot;this&quot;. Ask yourself, what are you charging him for? Did you have to travel to meeting point, take a night at the hotel, and he bailed on you? In such case, it's logical you charge him for your costs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if you just went to a nearby coffee bar or you waited for him in your office, then you cannot charge him for your costs. What are the costs?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think you somehow got offended by this client and being a freelancer means that you do not have privileges to do that. IMHO if the client so much offended you and you cannot afford letting him go, then I would charge him any minute I worked for him - meaning I would turn my &quot;anger&quot; into &quot;sorry no free work for you&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But either of these ways will drive you to losing a client. So I guess, the smartest way is to swallow it and move on like nothing happened. After all, your **main goal is to keep your business alive** so you'll have to learn to swallow the larger things." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2282" PostHistoryTypeId="34" PostId="850" RevisionGUID="791db5a0-3593-4c21-bc1a-97bb5ef9ad4c" CreationDate="2013-10-15T22:34:37.470" UserId="58" Comment="3" />
  <row Id="2283" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="370" RevisionGUID="56721b49-042a-4e49-8656-d79dd1ac2f5f" CreationDate="2013-10-15T23:28:22.453" UserId="208" Comment="added 286 characters in body" Text="This sort of behavior is a known problem, see [Privacy Rights Clearinghouse 'Resume Database Nightmare: Job Seeker Privacy at Risk'](https://www.privacyrights.org/ar/Dixon-JobPrivacyRpt.htm)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One solution for the future may be to put a copyright notice on your CV, as recommended by &#xD;&#xA;['Let the resume wars begin' - Ask the Headhunter (Nick Corcodilos)](http://corcodilos.com/blog/317/let-the-resume-wars-begin). Then you can use a simple DMCA takedown notice. (To my knowledge, job-boards will not accept CVs with copyright notices. But this is a plus, not a minus, since there are compelling reasons to avoid job boards, as per the article. One is to prevent stale copies of your resume being downlaoded, retained and passed off (sometimes years later) without your knowledge or consent - relevant to your issue here.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But obviously your immediate priority is to track down which source/job-board/recruiter this happened with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you figure it out, let us know as a community service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We don't know who is actually behind it but whoever it is has been&#xD;&#xA;&gt; applying for roles using this CV. As for why, we have a hypothesis&#xD;&#xA;&gt; that it's a recruiter trying to get the inside track on active roles&#xD;&#xA;&gt; but this is only a hypothesis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yeah that sounds plausible. It wouldn't make any sense that they were trying to harm you personally, just using you as fodder to get their foot in the door at new clients, and your reputation might get harmed in the process. But it's clueless and unethical. You may be able to get them blacklisted.&#xD;&#xA;Presumably they hoax the email address to go to them, in which case you might be able to contact 'them' by email and then have proof they are doing this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2290" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="875" RevisionGUID="4caef2d8-d1dc-440b-9570-594981a17390" CreationDate="2013-10-16T09:25:19.280" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/390408100362354688" />
  <row Id="2292" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="881" RevisionGUID="6a2a0463-09d8-4778-8fe3-c251dd720856" CreationDate="2013-10-16T14:15:37.440" UserId="735" Text="I am located in Germany (EU), and my Brazilian customers say that for importing my services they have to pay 52% of taxes on top of my invoices. Previously, they [assumed it's 24%][1], but that turned out to be wrong. Apparently, there are strong protectionist measurements by the Brazilian government, hoping to stimulate the domestic market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any way to bring down these taxes? Could I, as a German citizen, found a company in Brazil?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/653/735" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2293" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="881" RevisionGUID="6a2a0463-09d8-4778-8fe3-c251dd720856" CreationDate="2013-10-16T14:15:37.440" UserId="735" Text="Serving Brazilian customers from the EU" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2294" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="881" RevisionGUID="6a2a0463-09d8-4778-8fe3-c251dd720856" CreationDate="2013-10-16T14:15:37.440" UserId="735" Text="|taxes|eu|foreign-markets|foreign-incorporation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2296" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="871" RevisionGUID="fb9a97d2-0329-4a77-8720-670eeb627352" CreationDate="2013-10-16T18:25:29.710" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/390544039378173952" />
  <row Id="2298" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="882" RevisionGUID="3e1493c0-829a-4042-a4c5-2195e482565a" CreationDate="2013-10-17T10:15:19.123" UserId="517" Text="The closest thing I know is a friend of mine who is from Southern Europe who founded a company in Chile or Peru I think. After 1 or 2 years of good business, he got their citizenship. He also told me that he's very satisfied with their tax policy, they returned him a lot of money in the end of a year. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe you try to investigate a solution to establish a company in any of such countries?!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2299" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="883" RevisionGUID="f27dae3c-586b-4145-a5c8-8aace2bcf018" CreationDate="2013-10-17T10:21:20.197" UserId="517" Text="Many clients want to build 1-million app for 1 thousand. So at some stage in the process you have to ask him about the budget he had in mind (if he does not mention it immediately). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, how soon do you ask this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of recently, I started ask for the budget pretty soon. Many times in my first email to a client. In that email I ask him questions about project features, ask for wireframes and documents, but I also let him know that my previous similar project cost XY dollars and does he have the budget which can cover such costs. I also let him know that costs may be lower, but also higher after we review all the specs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you think this is a good approach? For me it's good since if he does not reply back, I know that he is the client from my first sentence. In any case, working this way I do not waist my time on bad or irrational clients. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2300" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="883" RevisionGUID="f27dae3c-586b-4145-a5c8-8aace2bcf018" CreationDate="2013-10-17T10:21:20.197" UserId="517" Text="At what stage in negotaiations do you ask for the budget? If at all?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2301" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="883" RevisionGUID="f27dae3c-586b-4145-a5c8-8aace2bcf018" CreationDate="2013-10-17T10:21:20.197" UserId="517" Text="|estimation|budget|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2302" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="884" RevisionGUID="6aa65da3-0bef-450f-b1f5-797c01795b35" CreationDate="2013-10-17T10:23:00.450" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2303" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="885" RevisionGUID="98c0ac54-f43d-4e94-8599-9b535cc111f9" CreationDate="2013-10-17T10:23:00.450" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2304" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="689" RevisionGUID="939f9447-731c-4aec-be43-6201151524e4" CreationDate="2013-10-17T12:26:44.117" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/390816142518136832" />
  <row Id="2305" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="886" RevisionGUID="9b7fb7ff-3927-4b73-b49a-ac6058fcf4aa" CreationDate="2013-10-17T17:24:25.630" UserId="1058" Text="There is no tax. GST does not apply to sales of [Intangible Personal Property](http://www.cga-canada.org/en-ca/AboutCGACanada/CGAMagazine/2007/Nov-Dec/Pages/ca_2007_11-12_prof_taxfocus.aspx) to customers outside of Canada." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2306" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="883" RevisionGUID="e8557c9b-7485-4784-ab7b-2166a693b4ed" CreationDate="2013-10-18T09:28:24.577" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/391133653176418304" />
  <row Id="2307" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="887" RevisionGUID="cb435f0c-94b9-49e9-b526-fd0fb1372e4c" CreationDate="2013-10-18T14:49:26.983" UserId="551" Text="For the budget conscience scope creeper type client, it's always important to ensure you clear up what they want and what is the minimum viable product that they seek.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Always set expectations up front**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You approach is valid and IMHO the best approach. Set expectations in email or written communication and document the exchange if all possible: email responses, written Statement of Work, proposals, etc. This work can be time consuming but it'll allow you to manage scope and documentation for you to review later to better assess their needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Identify Risk**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From your short explanation of your context, it sounds like you've identified potential areas of risk where costs are higher now. No one likes hidden costs, so it's better to provide them with realistic expectations that X feature will cost more because it's a rather unknown where as Y feature is a basic feature and will require Z amount of hours if this and that are true.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Every client is important but...**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;as you said they may not be a good fit for you. So don't sell yourself short. If the client trusts you and you demonstrate enough value to them they will find ways to work with you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will provide you and your clients a win-win situation. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2308" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="883" RevisionGUID="5b1e9a66-70f8-4cbf-86e9-902624cb0cf4" CreationDate="2013-10-18T16:24:25.063" UserId="551" Comment="tweak the title" Text="At what stage in negotiations do you ask for the budget? If at all?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2309" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="883" RevisionGUID="5b1e9a66-70f8-4cbf-86e9-902624cb0cf4" CreationDate="2013-10-18T16:24:25.063" Comment="Proposed by 551 approved by 517 edit id of 179" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2310" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="888" RevisionGUID="672c8ea7-d087-49a7-b02b-e0a944339dfd" CreationDate="2013-10-18T16:50:17.703" UserId="551" Text="As a freelancer/Independant Contractor and given the changes with the recent Obamacare (Affordable Care Act and Patient Care and Coverage Act) changes (I prefer not to discuss political opinions please), what do freelancers have to do under this new laws?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it just that one must register with the healthcare exchange and are required to have health insurance or suffer the tax penalty?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2311" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="888" RevisionGUID="672c8ea7-d087-49a7-b02b-e0a944339dfd" CreationDate="2013-10-18T16:50:17.703" UserId="551" Text="Health insurance and freelancing in the US" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2312" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="888" RevisionGUID="672c8ea7-d087-49a7-b02b-e0a944339dfd" CreationDate="2013-10-18T16:50:17.703" UserId="551" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2313" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="889" RevisionGUID="95b13cdb-0c85-40d9-81de-87836098a5c0" CreationDate="2013-10-18T17:10:44.010" UserId="551" Text="[Entreprenuer magazine][1] recently published an article regarding this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Self employed individuals have several options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Option 1: Do nothing and forgo health insurance. You face paying the penalty:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The landmark law requires that most Americans have coverage starting&#xD;&#xA;&gt; next year or face a fine. Fees for those who opt not to buy individual&#xD;&#xA;&gt; coverage for 2014 is the higher of 1 percent of annual income or $95&#xD;&#xA;&gt; per person, increasing yearly to the higher of 2.5 percent of income&#xD;&#xA;&gt; or $695 per person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Source](http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228467#ixzz2i5qbY0Hn)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Option 2: If you have a previous plan you can keep it.** We've heard that many times on the news. So what that means that if you have an existing health insurance plan you can keep it regardless even if it doesn't meet the current government standards of coverage. It'll be grandfathered in because of the ACA (Affordable Care Act):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Under the ACA, if you have a plan that was in place prior to March 23,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 2010, it might be grandfathered in. However, these plans might not&#xD;&#xA;&gt; have the same protections created by the health reforms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Source](http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228467#ixzz2i5qwRDlj)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Option 3: Find a plan through a health care exchange.** States after October 1st, 2013, are required to establish an exchange or insurance marketplace where individuals can purchase health insurance:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Depending on family size and income, solo entrepreneurs and other&#xD;&#xA;&gt; individuals may qualify for federal subsidies if they purchase plans&#xD;&#xA;&gt; through their state-based marketplaces...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Source](http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228467#ixzz2i5rLeqEn)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Option 4: Find a plan outside the exchanges.** This option would mean that you would forgo goverment subsidees and risk potential health insurance that don't meet goverment standards for health insurance plans: e.g. free preventive care, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; People also will be able to buy insurance outside the marketplaces,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; through insurance agents or private-sector online brokerages.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Independent agents know the market well and can usually offer you&#xD;&#xA;&gt; options that will fit your needs. Be aware though that federal&#xD;&#xA;&gt; subsidies are available only through the government-overseen exchanges&#xD;&#xA;&gt; so you might not benefit from price breaks on premiums and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; out-of-pocket costs such as copayments and deductibles.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Source](http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228467#ixzz2i5v6rxL1)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Option 5: Become a legal entity and hire an employee** Businesses who have an employee and pay their employees through W-2 are required to provide health care plans and businesses are then allowed access to a business marketplace known as Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) Marketplace:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Once you have an employee, you are no longer a sole proprietor. As a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; micro-business, you are not obligated to purchase health insurance for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; your employees. The status makes you eligible to purchase insurance&#xD;&#xA;&gt; from your state's small business exchange, also called a Small&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Business Health Options Program (SHOP) Marketplace. Outside the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; exchange, some agents will also sell group premiums for 2 or more&#xD;&#xA;&gt; employees. If you decide being a sole proprietor no longer works for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; your business, make sure that you hire a full-time employee, the type&#xD;&#xA;&gt; whose income you report at the end of the year with a W-2. Hiring&#xD;&#xA;&gt; independent contractors will not make you eligible for the SHOP&#xD;&#xA;&gt; exchanges.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Source](http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228467#ixzz2i5sdnYBy)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228467" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2314" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="888" RevisionGUID="6486644a-c346-4020-bf31-7f30833fc82d" CreationDate="2013-10-18T17:11:08.993" UserId="551" Comment="deleted 1 characters in body" Text="As a freelancer/Independant Contractor and given the changes with the recent Obamacare (Affordable Care Act and Patient Care and Coverage Act) changes (I prefer not to discuss political opinions please), what do freelancers have to do under this new law?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it just that one must register with the healthcare exchange and are required to have health insurance or suffer the tax penalty?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2315" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="890" RevisionGUID="07022103-6942-4cb7-8dd2-59c90bf48dd6" CreationDate="2013-10-18T17:19:45.217" UserId="551" Text="I think the best approach to this is soft selling / PR. I would establish yourself as an expert in a particular niche and develop yourself as a brand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What this means is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;### Network with local businesses&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Attend local events either a BBB and offer to provide a presentations, or just meet with them. Always be out there to sell yourself and if the need arises people will come to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;### Find a hackathon or attend professional events&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Establish contacts with others in your own field. Build relationships with other freelancers. There are lots of work to go around. Other contractors can't take it all.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2316" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="884" RevisionGUID="35f7e0cb-73c9-420b-958c-05e8ac9922d5" CreationDate="2013-10-18T18:13:12.390" UserId="517" Comment="added 462 characters in body" Text="In freelancing, this often refers to the money a client is willing to pay for some project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An estimation of the revenue and expenses over a specified future period of time. A budget can be made for a person, family, group of people, business, government, country, multinational organization or just about anything else that makes and spends money. A budget is a microeconomic concept that shows the tradeoff made when one good is exchanged for another. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2317" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="884" RevisionGUID="35f7e0cb-73c9-420b-958c-05e8ac9922d5" CreationDate="2013-10-18T18:13:12.390" Comment="Proposed by 517 approved by 58 edit id of 177" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2318" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="885" RevisionGUID="6358c381-100f-4d5d-93b5-1e51b1b10f4e" CreationDate="2013-10-18T18:14:06.613" UserId="517" Comment="added 178 characters in body" Text="In freelancing, this often refers to the money a client is willing to pay for some project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An estimation of the revenue and expenses over a specified future period of time. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2319" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="885" RevisionGUID="6358c381-100f-4d5d-93b5-1e51b1b10f4e" CreationDate="2013-10-18T18:14:06.613" Comment="Proposed by 517 approved by -1 edit id of 178" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2320" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="885" RevisionGUID="9def30ae-a9c7-410c-a2c2-905dad88bfd5" CreationDate="2013-10-18T18:14:06.613" UserId="58" Comment="grammar~" Text="In freelancing, this often refers to the money a client is willing to pay for a project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An estimation of the revenue and expenses over a specified future period of time. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2325" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="892" RevisionGUID="9c342caf-8139-4ac8-bb15-73bf8396ff3f" CreationDate="2013-10-19T18:45:27.943" UserId="517" Text="I have been interviewed lately and during the interview a client told me that he liked my interview dress code. I was quite surprised since I had nothing special but a polo-shirt. I asked the client why he complimented my outfit since I was not wearing a tie, and he told me that his previous interviewer appeared on Skype interview in his undershirt (!). I was interviewed for a position which required a very experienced individual so I was surprised by his statement even more. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you think about freelancer dress code? How should he/she be dressed for freelance Skype interview? How are you dressed during such interview?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am here asking about Skype interview only, not about meeting the client face to face. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2326" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="892" RevisionGUID="9c342caf-8139-4ac8-bb15-73bf8396ff3f" CreationDate="2013-10-19T18:45:27.943" UserId="517" Text="A dress code during a freelance interview?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2327" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="892" RevisionGUID="9c342caf-8139-4ac8-bb15-73bf8396ff3f" CreationDate="2013-10-19T18:45:27.943" UserId="517" Text="|interview|dress-code|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2328" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="893" RevisionGUID="9ef1346d-3946-482d-9859-e7a5806d4731" CreationDate="2013-10-19T18:46:36.027" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2329" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="894" RevisionGUID="6f936d33-f67a-4013-87fa-26919b0a1d24" CreationDate="2013-10-19T18:46:36.027" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2330" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="895" RevisionGUID="02dede42-13c0-4d51-a1d7-9e578ba4c80d" CreationDate="2013-10-19T18:47:42.577" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2331" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="896" RevisionGUID="cfd3175a-e224-491d-8662-3a1c179b0b99" CreationDate="2013-10-19T18:47:42.577" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2333" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="892" RevisionGUID="eff784b4-ad0a-4946-bfcd-ee72d6359181" CreationDate="2013-10-19T21:00:33.427" UserId="64" Comment="Asking people to share how they dress in interviews invites polling, so I instead focused on the why and how so we get good answers not just people listing their favorite interview attire. Hope this helps!" Text="I have been interviewed lately and during the interview a client told me that he liked my interview dress code. I was quite surprised since I had nothing special but a polo-shirt. I asked the client why he complimented my outfit since I was not wearing a tie, and he told me that his previous interviewer appeared on Skype interview in his undershirt (!). I was interviewed for a position which required a very experienced individual so I was surprised by his statement even more. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How should a freelance candidate be dressed for a freelance Skype interview, and how can one tell what's appropriate and what isn't?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am here asking about Skype interview only, not about meeting the client face to face. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2334" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="896" RevisionGUID="e7d1439a-4a86-426b-ac57-7393a383bd48" CreationDate="2013-10-20T14:44:59.583" UserId="517" Comment="added 262 characters in body" Text="A job interview is a process in which a potential employee is evaluated by an employer for prospective employment in their company, organization, or firm. During this process, the employer hopes to determine whether or not the applicant is suitable for the role." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2335" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="896" RevisionGUID="e7d1439a-4a86-426b-ac57-7393a383bd48" CreationDate="2013-10-20T14:44:59.583" Comment="Proposed by 517 approved by 58 edit id of 183" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2336" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="897" RevisionGUID="0366f653-7fb3-4f19-b821-51246f29d6d3" CreationDate="2013-10-20T23:43:05.590" UserId="551" Text="I think it ultimately depends on how you want to market yourself and the industry. As a freelancer or contractor, you're ultimately the president, CEO and busybody. &#xD;&#xA;Based on that, use your best judgement as to how you want others to perceive you as a brand. If you're trying to speak to clients that are in the healthcare or financial industry, i would field their expectations accordingly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other factor to put into play is the industry that you're in. If you're a freelance painter, it might not make sense to wear a suit and tie.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, dressing and fashion is an art. If you're making a conscience decision on your attire feel confident about it and go with it and dress comfortably so that it supports your personality and you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2343" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="901" RevisionGUID="9540f21e-f5e3-43a2-a865-ec9b7bcfd727" CreationDate="2013-10-21T21:11:35.160" UserId="1104" Text="Walk in and see them. Pick a relatively quiet time, perhaps during the morning on a weekday. Whoever you see working there, ask them &quot;is this your business?&quot; They'll usually direct you to the owner. From there I expect you know what to do - if not, you would probably do better to hire a salesman rather than do this yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One trick I like personally is to take my baby with me, in the pram. Great for breaking the ice!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lot of marketing books for small businesses recommend the letter approach. For example, The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Book recommends personal letters on high-quality paper with handwritten envelopes. I've not yet done this myself, but I will in the next few months." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2344" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="902" RevisionGUID="8ecdd1a4-5249-4819-8cc8-3f02445f5677" CreationDate="2013-10-22T03:47:22.617" UserId="1108" Text="I have a technique that I have been using that involves cold calling, but it's slightly different than what has been said. It's another angle. First you need to be up to date with building for mobile, tablets and overall Responsive Design. Here is what you do. Every time you see a website advertised on a billboard, truck, commercial vehicle, etc.. Pull up their website on your phone. Most likely it is not designed for mobile. Call them and explain how you came across their website. Explain that you help companies redesign their sites to make them more friendly on cellphones and tablets and that considering the way they are advertising it is in their best interest to look into responsive techniques to make their potential customers have a better experience on their website. First impressions are very important. tell them you can do a simple mockup of their homepage and bring it to them running locally on your machine for a consultation. I have landed 5 jobs this way in the past few months. Local small business jobs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2345" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="892" RevisionGUID="dec9d52c-715e-4c84-9362-35641f8ff2cb" CreationDate="2013-10-22T15:34:13.803" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/392675266524626944" />
  <row Id="2346" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="58" RevisionGUID="8523e215-299f-454d-8aa6-871af4f963b0" CreationDate="2013-10-22T18:34:13.303" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/392720562826776577" />
  <row Id="2352" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="773" RevisionGUID="c1a9a7ed-f963-4e11-a5c3-de548cbac492" CreationDate="2013-10-25T01:37:58.317" UserId="64" Comment="4" />
  <row Id="2353" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="905" RevisionGUID="0769c718-b381-4c14-8c61-67bf8ee0de93" CreationDate="2013-10-25T10:22:18.650" UserId="124" Text="Personally I would say never cold call. Warm contacts are you way forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Find a mutual event, business networking groups such as BNI are a good way to do this. It lets you build a relationship with them. I have even done a great of research in the past to find out if the shops have a get together every so often, which they do and see if you can go there. Forget sales to start with, build relationships - in the long run it is a very efficient way of going about it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2354" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="906" RevisionGUID="9fbbdf20-67fe-4fca-b851-4b9f4ec408b4" CreationDate="2013-10-25T10:26:23.120" UserId="124" Text="If they have changed the name and contact details, I don't think you need to worry. It would be a very sharped eyed HR monkey (he says joking) to pick up on this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am too in the UK and there aren't any procedures or know best practice when it comes to this; thats not because no one has ever had their CV ripped off, its because it hasn't caused anyone damage I would think" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2355" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="907" RevisionGUID="f79efed8-520a-4081-92fd-a4ce97a847bc" CreationDate="2013-10-25T10:29:19.033" UserId="124" Text="This is a double edged sword:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Your business needs cash flow, so charge him&#xD;&#xA;but&#xD;&#xA;Your business also needs client relationships so forgive him**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally I would strike the balance between the two. IF you incurred costs (milage etc) recover that, but no don't charge him for your time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2356" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="908" RevisionGUID="2c6b82c5-c64c-4d6e-b900-54002f0c1132" CreationDate="2013-10-25T10:34:37.890" UserId="124" Text="I too am trying to build up the monthly payments. They are what keeps your business alive, in my experience I have found that the earlier you mention this the better. In your first meeting with a client bring the subject up, don't leave it till the end and say &quot;Oh you want that? I need another stack of money&quot; (unless you want to be the RyanAir of Web Design)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All joking aside, make sure you make the deal very clear, get your terms and conditions drawn up properly, and make sure you work out minimum terms etc. A shorted minimum term I have found is better, the client doesn't cancel if you do what you say you will but you do have the option to pull out should they start demanding unreasonable extras." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2363" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="905" RevisionGUID="6dc39985-99cb-4b77-b77d-838e2742945a" CreationDate="2013-10-25T16:42:27.090" UserId="124" Comment="Expanded the answer" Text="Personally I would say never cold call. Warm contacts are you way forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As the previous answers have suggested networking is a good way forward, BNI is a great example. It lets you build a relationship with them. I have even done a great of research in the past to find out if the shops have a get together every so often, which they do and see if you can go there. Forget sales to start with, build relationships - in the long run it is a very efficient way of going about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would also point out, don't just talk to your customers. Talk to others in your profession, I regularly meet up with email marketers, SEO experts and small business advisors that I have met in networking events. This is really important and many businesses I see focus on only ever having time in the day for people who might have money in their back pocket, you never know who that person is the son/daughter/partner of.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, go to the pub. You will hear the well off bankers and business owners saying &quot;oh we need this&quot;. Break the ice by saying &quot;sorry I have had a pint but I couldn't help over hearing XYZ, I can help you. Here is my card give me a ring an we can talk about it over a pub lunch&quot;. Thats a genuine bit of advice, I have done that numerous times and some of my highest paying and best clients were found in that way" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2364" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="905" RevisionGUID="ecaaa09b-1caf-4dc3-bde6-ffb032ee43f6" CreationDate="2013-10-25T16:45:19.597" UserId="75" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="Personally I would say never cold call. Warm contacts are you way forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As the previous answers have suggested networking is a good way forward, BNI is a great example. It lets you build a relationship with them. I have even done a great of research in the past to find out if the shops have a get together every so often, which they do and see if you can go there. Forget sales to start with, build relationships - in the long run it is a very efficient way of going about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would also point out, don't just talk to your customers. Talk to others in your profession, I regularly meet up with email marketers, SEO experts and small business advisors that I have met in networking events. This is really important and many businesses I see focus on only ever having time in the day for people who might have money in their back pocket, you never know who that person is the son/daughter/partner of.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, go to the pub. You will hear the well off bankers and business owners saying &quot;oh we need this&quot;. Break the ice by saying &quot;sorry I have had a pint but I couldn't help over hearing XYZ, I can help you. Here is my card give me a ring an we can talk about it over a pub lunch&quot;. That's a genuine bit of advice, as I have done that numerous times and some of my highest paying and best clients were found in that way" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2365" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="902" RevisionGUID="ce9279e2-6956-4b6c-b9b0-a3ce8a28a07b" CreationDate="2013-10-25T16:47:44.843" UserId="75" Comment="Improved readability" Text="I have a technique that I have been using that involves cold calling, but it's slightly different than what has been said. It's working another angle. First you need to be up to date with building for mobile, tablets and overall Responsive Design.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is what you do: every time you see a website advertised on a billboard, truck, commercial vehicle, etc, pull up their website on your phone. Most likely it is not designed for mobile. Call them and explain how you came across their website, and explain that you help companies redesign their sites to make them more friendly on cellphones and tablets. Considering the way they are advertising, it is in their best interest to look into responsive techniques to make their potential customers have a better experience on their website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First impressions are very important, so tell them you can do a simple mockup of their homepage and bring it to them running locally on your machine for a consultation. I have landed 5 jobs this way in the past few months, as local small business jobs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2369" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="875" RevisionGUID="5c9e8b6c-2add-48eb-a343-00e8ab03150d" CreationDate="2013-10-26T04:25:25.487" UserId="64" Comment="edited to fix terminology, grammar, and the title" Text="I agreed to help a new client refactor a piece of code. This is a simple task that should not take more than a couple of hours. He agreed to pay me my hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He didn't come to the meeting, sending a message after 30 minutes apologizing for not being able to come due to unforeseen circumstances.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually, in these cases I don't make the client pay for the time, and if the client is a recurring offender, I drop him. However, I came to reevaluate my actions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I grant a client a max number of &quot;free&quot; small absences, or should I take an assertive approach and charge him with a fee right away?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2370" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="875" RevisionGUID="5c9e8b6c-2add-48eb-a343-00e8ab03150d" CreationDate="2013-10-26T04:25:25.487" UserId="64" Comment="edited to fix terminology, grammar, and the title" Text="Should I charge a client who does not come to a code help appointment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2371" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="907" RevisionGUID="dea8e912-a7e9-4041-9235-1145b446deeb" CreationDate="2013-10-26T04:36:19.577" UserId="64" Comment="edited to fix grammatical errors" Text="This is a double edged sword:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Your business needs cash flow, so charge him, but your business also needs client relationships so forgive him.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I would strike the balance between the two. If you incurred costs (milage etc), then recover the costs through fees, but no, don't charge him for your time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2377" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="888" RevisionGUID="f9b41454-6cf1-4cca-b5b8-c50daf65da2f" CreationDate="2013-10-26T12:40:15.737" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/394081036994625536" />
  <row Id="2384" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="842" RevisionGUID="927798f2-9177-416a-91b8-ce2b6034fe51" CreationDate="2013-10-27T00:41:38.020" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/394262576366120960" />
  <row Id="2385" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="913" RevisionGUID="24729231-7cd3-4564-8d4c-2ea34adf8223" CreationDate="2013-10-28T01:16:52.443" UserId="1152" Text="I am a professional software developer with 6+ years of full-time experience, full degree, co-op program, currently employed at a programming desk job.  I would call my self at the intermediate level.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I read about the many programmers at the higher level making $100k+ a year with jobs lined up to hire them.  Or high level contractors with more clients than time.  Or people who work remotely earning comfortable 1st world wages and living in some cheap developing countries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my understanding (and definitely tell me if I am wrong), those people getting to those position not because of skill.  Programming language change all the time.  Skill set become obsolete.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess what I am asking is, how do I make that jump?  How many years of experience is required?  How do I get started?  Is it just the age thing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tried getting some contracts, and I have a hard time finding time on craiglist by just posting my resume.  How do I become a contractor and still make full-time wages?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2386" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="913" RevisionGUID="24729231-7cd3-4564-8d4c-2ea34adf8223" CreationDate="2013-10-28T01:16:52.443" UserId="1152" Text="How to make the jump from normal employee to higher level freelancing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2387" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="913" RevisionGUID="24729231-7cd3-4564-8d4c-2ea34adf8223" CreationDate="2013-10-28T01:16:52.443" UserId="1152" Text="|freelance-fields|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2388" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="913" RevisionGUID="47a92ae6-faab-4b95-a1d2-54a15e150775" CreationDate="2013-10-28T06:43:22.720" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/394716000295612416" />
  <row Id="2389" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="914" RevisionGUID="a115fc6d-607a-4fdf-95e1-a62c185a3274" CreationDate="2013-10-28T09:10:04.103" UserId="43" Text="When I first made the jump from permanent to contract, it was more by accident than by design. I had been made redundant (again) and the next role that I got was offered as a contract-to-perm gig. It had a good day rate with the option of going permanent at the end of the 3 months on an average senior developer salary. Having made the jump it was a no brainer to stick with the contracting and see where it would take me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The thing about being a contractor rather than a permanent employee, is that you are being hired to perform a specific service for a client. It's often programming-related if you're going for a developer position, but with the caveat that you are expected to be able to hit the ground running and get up to speed very quickly. Your rate is much higher than a permanent employee, so if it takes 2 months to get your feet under the table then you are going to struggle to get repeat contracts. The key is adaptability and willingness to keep abreast of changes in technology trends, most often by self-training. Whenever I look for a new contract, I ensure that it will provide me with something that would benefit future clients (on-the-job training) as much as considering what value I can provide to the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It all comes down to confidence and self belief, in that if you believe in your ability to deliver whatever needs a client may have and are willing to put the work in to understand whichever technologies to need to at any given time, then you have the aptitude to succeed as a contractor. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The trickiest aspect to contracting that I have seen, from discussions with other contractors and permies who are considering contracting, is making that initial jump. As to whether you are ready, if you ever work with another contractor and think &quot;I can do what they do&quot; or &quot;I'm as good as they are&quot; then you're ready to go contracting. It's then a matter of taking the step. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can put some money aside to live on for 2 or 3 months in the event that you don't find something immediately, then you can go for it. The problem is that you usually have a notice period to work that is significantly longer than clients would wait for a contractor. It's not uncommon for clients to bring a contractor on board within a few days of identifying the resource need. You may have to hand in your notice with nothing to go to and see what comes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the UK the contracting market is very buoyant so there are a lot of gigs available through recruitment agencies. Getting a large LinkedIn network can help as well. My first line of attack is usually to ping a mail to all of the contacts within organisations that I might like to work with, and if that yields nothing, to turn to the recruitment agencies that I am connected with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2390" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="915" RevisionGUID="b3803c16-9e6f-4f9f-a080-af0ff72deb66" CreationDate="2013-10-28T15:40:13.803" UserId="127" Text="The truly high-level freelancers you describe bring several things to the table. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Excellent technical skills - both deep and wide&#xD;&#xA; - Excellent communication skills&#xD;&#xA; - An ability be forward thinking - see more than just the problem at hand but also where the custom will be in the future and how the freelancer can help to get them there&#xD;&#xA; - A willingness to move away from thinking about and selling themselves as a commodity. When you are a commodity, people don't see a difference between hiring you and hiring another freelancer, except for price. You don't become a high-level freelancer by competing on price (or looking for jobs on Craigslist.)&#xD;&#xA; - An ability to demonstrate your value to clients and prospects. Your value is more than just the software you build if you are a programmer. Your value is in asking smart questions not just about the software, but the business model. Your value is making recommendations that will make or save your clients money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you get these things? Some things are learned or acquired through experience. Others may be more difficult to obtain, or may require you to shift your thinking.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2391" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="52" RevisionGUID="ab5fb338-f4c2-44fa-81cf-d10a33b02873" CreationDate="2013-10-28T21:43:43.307" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/394942579177172992" />
  <row Id="2392" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="916" RevisionGUID="03f0cc6e-69ac-4094-b6ef-e1548fe9c748" CreationDate="2013-10-29T06:20:38.373" UserId="85" Text="    Not always is there a deliverable product&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are providing a service, and payments are outstanding for that service, then you are perfectly at liberty of withdrawing that service provision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EG if a customer does not pay for website hosting, then replacing their webpage with a Holding Page suggesting &quot;Service suspended due to non-payment&quot; normally works VERY quickly.  This is a tactic I have previously resorted too (albeit reluctantly)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2393" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="917" RevisionGUID="76225b8f-4496-4bee-bb11-fd94858327df" CreationDate="2013-10-30T18:22:51.590" UserId="1169" Text="I recently came in contact with one of my Dad's friends who is looking for a website. This guy gave my Dad a job when we first moved to California and has been a really good &quot;family friend&quot; ever since.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He has gone off on his own new venture where he is selling items on eBay (and supposedly making a good amount of money from it). I don't know exactly what he sells, that's something I'm going to discover soon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My dad spoke with him recently and he said he is looking for a new website to sell his items and wants to pay me a percentage of all the money he makes from the items he sells.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does this sound like a bad idea? What kind of contract would I have him sign to make sure I am actually getting my money? How do I know if he is actually paying me the correct amount?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm hoping someone here will have a similar experience and can elaborate on what they did.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2394" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="917" RevisionGUID="76225b8f-4496-4bee-bb11-fd94858327df" CreationDate="2013-10-30T18:22:51.590" UserId="1169" Text="Client Wants To Pay a Percentage For Website" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2395" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="917" RevisionGUID="76225b8f-4496-4bee-bb11-fd94858327df" CreationDate="2013-10-30T18:22:51.590" UserId="1169" Text="|client|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2396" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="918" RevisionGUID="9c98b20a-a81d-4b7b-841e-8620e6eb86b1" CreationDate="2013-10-30T18:43:36.407" UserId="1170" Text="You need to decide how complicated the site is going to be and how long it will take for you to get it up and running, also - will there be any hosting/bandwidth costs, maintenance, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's nothing complicated and you can live without the money then by all means go for it, but it's a risky way to earn a living.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Get him to show you his trading volumes for the last 12-18 months and explain his business plan to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally I'd treat this as a franchise deal - you build and own the shop (design, code, domain, etc.) and charge a fixed/percentage amount for each transaction - consider the website as your 'seed investment' - if you don't get paid you always have the option of taking the site off-line." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2397" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="918" RevisionGUID="8e1807a1-0d85-4b95-a9e1-49a4dad62f87" CreationDate="2013-10-30T19:52:39.077" UserId="75" Comment="edited body" Text="You need to decide how complicated the site is going to be and how long it will take for you to get it up and running. Also, will there be any hosting/bandwidth costs, maintenance, etc.?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's nothing complicated and you can live without the money then by all means go for it, but it's a risky way to earn a living.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Get him to show you his trading volumes for the last 12-18 months and explain his business plan to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally I'd treat this as a franchise deal - you build and own the shop (design, code, domain, etc.) and charge a fixed/percentage amount for each transaction - consider the website as your 'seed investment' - if you don't get paid you always have the option of taking the site off-line." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2398" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="919" RevisionGUID="a1be44c2-f192-425d-b350-a61a6d2ff7ff" CreationDate="2013-10-30T20:01:57.877" UserId="75" Text="When dealing with projects like this that are based off of a commission, and no actual upfront costs, you need to remember a few things: if this site isn't making lots of money, you aren't making lots of money. This usually deters most people from following this model.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are taking the risk, you need to remain in control; this includes for hosting. If this is one of your first projects, make sure you know how much your &quot;business&quot; is going to cost to run, and make sure you can guarantee that kind of income with this site. For example, for a small site that is estimating to make $500 per month, and you're being offered 10% of the sales, you are only bringing in $50 per month! It's not guaranteed income, but it could also go much higher, depending on how well you market it, and your customer's product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are experienced, then this type of risk can be worth it; usually, you'll have a good hosting company, you may be able to combine products together to save money, and you'll likely have all the tools you need already at your disposal. I would definitely recommend **against** this approach for your first few projects, because the overhead can take a while to pay off, or to give you enough money to live off of. Yes, I've done it, and the first few times I lost money until about 2 years later when that project's bills finally became less then what I was bringing in off of it. The site has since shut down (product ran out), and I do not pay anything anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also make sure that all the details are written out in a contract; the customer feels better because he knows he doesn't have to give you a cent until you deliver, but you want you money as soon as it comes in to your customer! Almost a catch-22.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I recommend is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Write up a contract, dealing with how much, how often, you get paid&#xD;&#xA;- Include an initial setup fee (i.e. $50 for the first year, just to cover hosting and a LIMITED amount of time working on the setup. Adjust as necessary)&#xD;&#xA;- After you have &quot;recovered&quot; the initial setup fee, then start the commission. At this point, it shouldn't cost you anything to keep it running (except your hosting costs)&#xD;&#xA;- **Include an exit strategy**. If the site is costing you too much to run, you need a reason to get out. If their products are not flying off the e-shelves as fast as they should, you need the right to abandon the cause&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2411" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="917" RevisionGUID="400d2c34-6626-42ad-8ab6-0f1f9b25857b" CreationDate="2013-11-01T15:48:45.133" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/396302799560265728" />
  <row Id="2412" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="923" RevisionGUID="33af3f43-6300-403e-819b-4122118a9c75" CreationDate="2013-11-01T17:11:44.850" UserId="708" Text="Don't do it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there were actually a prospect of the site making any *real money* (thus commissions being worthwhile) the guy wouldn't be offering to pay you in commissions. He's offering this payment structure because he knows the return on commissions will be far less than any standard fees you may want. In general, those offering this type of structure ***don't have enough faith in their own business model to pay for your services up front.*** If they did, they'd realize in an instant that paying any fees you have directly would be more cost effective than giving up commissions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he insists upon a commission structure you need to alter it to ensure you get paid enough to compensate you at least a little. A flat fee per month plus commissions. But even then only do that if you *really want* to do the project. It may be better to lower the initial project fees and supplement that with commissions. For example... standard project fee minus 30%, then 5% royalty on all sales.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working solely on commission creates an unstable client relationship in my experience. **If the site makes no money, you make no money.** What if the client wants you to spend 60 hours changing the site in order to increase sales? You'll be doing all that for free. What if the site merely trickles in sales and your commissions are less than $50 a month? Are you going to feel it's worth spending time to improve the design in order to increase your commissions?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you really want to get into commission-based payments for a business site you should be **treating the site as any investor would**. Because, make no mistake, he's asking you to be an investor in the business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the business plan? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What's the anticipated user base? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What's the cost of user acquisition? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What are the monitization methods? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What's the rate of user decay? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What are the projected sales for the first month? quarter? year?  &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What type of products is the site selling?  &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What's the current market demand for those products? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;How are sales for the current (ebay) system? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;How much time, each month, is anticipated to be needed on your part? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;How long can you expect to wait before you recover your costs? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Do you like the business? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Is it something you want to be involved in? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Are you willing to work without payment in order to try and improve your returns? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most web designers/developers get approached with &quot;partnership&quot; or commission structures regularly. These ventures do **not** pay well 99.9% of the time. If you think you've got the something in that .1 percentile, go for it. But be aware the odds of you getting paid even your base rates are stacked against you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for &quot;knowing he's paying you the right amount&quot;.... as an investor (because that's what you would be) you should have the right to view sales for any given period and those amounts. Put that in a contract. If he's unwilling to do that, then don't walk, **run** away from his offer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2413" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="923" RevisionGUID="0a2c5750-cbce-4119-ac35-09747e99a44c" CreationDate="2013-11-01T17:21:11.283" UserId="708" Comment="added 281 characters in body" Text="Don't do it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there were actually a prospect of the site making any *real money* (thus commissions being worthwhile) the guy wouldn't be offering to pay you in commissions. He's offering this payment structure because he knows the return on commissions will be far less than any standard fees you may want. In general, those offering this type of structure ***don't have enough faith in their own business model to pay for your services up front.*** If they did, they'd realize in an instant that paying any fees you have directly would be more cost effective than giving up commissions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he insists upon a commission structure you need to alter it to ensure you get paid enough to compensate you at least a little. A flat fee per month plus commissions. But even then only do that if you *really want* to do the project. It may be better to lower the initial project fees and supplement that with commissions. For example... standard project fee minus 30%, then 5% royalty on all sales.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working solely on commission creates an unstable client relationship in my experience. **If the site makes no money, you make no money.** What if the client wants you to spend 60 hours changing the site in order to increase sales? You'll be doing all that for free. What if the site merely trickles in sales and your commissions are less than $50 a month? Are you going to feel it's worth spending time to improve the design in order to increase your commissions? Realize that this may be a &quot;hobby&quot; for the owner, a simply secondary income venture, while in most cases it may be your **primary** job or source of income. So your needs may be much greater than your clients. He may be okay if the site goes 6 months without making a dime. Would you be?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you really want to get into commission-based payments for a business site you should be **treating the site as any investor would**. Because, make no mistake, he's asking you to be an investor in the business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the business plan? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What's the anticipated user base? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What's the cost of user acquisition? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What are the monitization methods? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What's the rate of user decay? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What are the projected sales for the first month? quarter? year?  &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What type of products is the site selling?  &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What's the current market demand for those products? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;How are sales for the current (ebay) system? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;How much time, each month, is anticipated to be needed on your part? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;How long can you expect to wait before you recover your costs? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Do you like the business? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Is it something you want to be involved in? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Are you willing to work without payment in order to try and improve your returns? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most web designers/developers get approached with &quot;partnership&quot; or commission structures regularly. These ventures do **not** pay well 99.9% of the time. If you think you've got the something in that .1 percentile, go for it. But be aware the odds of you getting paid even your base rates are stacked against you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for &quot;knowing he's paying you the right amount&quot;.... as an investor (because that's what you would be) you should have the right to view sales for any given period and those amounts. Put that in a contract. If he's unwilling to do that, then don't walk, **run** away from his offer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2414" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="924" RevisionGUID="13b58d5e-2cd0-4c32-870e-f37074ce30bc" CreationDate="2013-11-01T22:51:26.777" UserId="1183" Text="The obvious answer: Quit your job and don't apply to other jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was in the same boat as you [literally: 6 years, degree, co-op] and have only been freelancing for a short period of time. I quit my job and moved to a new location due to other circumstances. I was initially looking for remote jobs since it was possible that I could be moving again shortly. None of the remote jobs actually worked out for me. In the meantime, I posted ads in classifieds stating my services are available, and I am now working with a few clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To answer your other questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How many years of experience is required?&#xD;&#xA;I think anyone could start freelancing at any experience level.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I get started?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let people know you are available. Look in your local classifieds for work. Have a strong social network presence (LinkedIn). (and of-course, quit your current job)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it just the age thing?&#xD;&#xA;Nope.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tried getting some contracts, and I have a hard time finding time on craiglist by just posting my resume. How do I become a contractor and still make full-time wages?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's definitely not easy at first but it is definitely possible. I recommend starting by showing people your skills, having recommendations. I thought the biggest barrier was not having a portfolio, but there are people out there that are willing to take risks and will value that you took a risk in quiting your job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good Luck!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The main reason for saying 'quit your job' is that, if this is something you want to do, you have to just do it. The motivation and learnings will come. If you are already in a nice cushy job, you definitely won't be making the jump.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2415" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="925" RevisionGUID="ee4311b5-dc11-4da3-8790-7048e484dcf4" CreationDate="2013-11-01T23:09:06.777" UserId="1183" Text="If this is an e-commerce site, build a tracking system that reports to you when profits are being made. You can easily know what your share is this way. You might even be able to program it so a certain percentage goes into your account automatically.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option: Get him to change his business to include you as a partner. If this person is serious enough about the business, he should be willing to do it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider your time to develop the site and the relationship you have with this person. From what you've said so far, you can keep things casual and without getting lawyers involved." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2416" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="926" RevisionGUID="60b12e5e-c053-47e6-95e4-eb5ac92dc3f2" CreationDate="2013-11-02T00:56:30.150" UserId="1185" Text="If a client needs a tiny amend making to their website (e.g. a phone number needs changing, a user profile needs to be updated in a way the site doesn't allow, etc.) I usually will not charge my clients. I see it as a small courtesy to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if the client is sending about 10 of these every month, I need to charge for them, and the question is: How much? If they were all given in one go, it'd be easy: I'd just charge an hourly rate. But when they're given one at a time, randomly, across the month, it's more difficult. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While a job (like updating a phone number) may take 5 minutes, it also disrupts your workflow from other clients, as you have to open the project, dig out the right file, make the change, connect over FTP and upload the file, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you try and calculate something based on your hourly rate (which seems like a good place to start), what's the smallest unit you charge for? An hour? Half an hour? 15 minutes? 5 minutes?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2417" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="926" RevisionGUID="60b12e5e-c053-47e6-95e4-eb5ac92dc3f2" CreationDate="2013-11-02T00:56:30.150" UserId="1185" Text="Lowest cost for a job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2418" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="926" RevisionGUID="60b12e5e-c053-47e6-95e4-eb5ac92dc3f2" CreationDate="2013-11-02T00:56:30.150" UserId="1185" Text="|price|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2419" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="927" RevisionGUID="2894b856-b225-4f62-bab9-efcfc7337b86" CreationDate="2013-11-02T06:32:34.520" UserId="708" Text="If I intend to charge at all for a minor thing, I charge a minimum of 15 minutes. Like you, I traditionally won't charge for anything exceptionally minor. However if the requests become more frequent, then I can't allow my workflow to be interrupted repeatedly for many &quot;minor&quot; things. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, there's no such thing as a &quot;30 second&quot; or &quot;1 minute&quot; change even if a client thinks that's all there is to it. It always entails navigating to files, changing things, updating server files if needed, then the communication back and forth with the client. This easily takes 15 minutes for even the smallest thing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A retainer is also a good idea. Average the time needed for these changes and approach the client with a monthly fee which allows for XX minor changes, or XX hours of work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2420" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="926" RevisionGUID="63af6803-6a56-4f2a-80f6-9952d45a1f01" CreationDate="2013-11-02T07:01:31.180" UserId="64" Comment="fixed titl" Text="What's the smallest unit of time I should charge for when clients request minor changes?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2421" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="892" RevisionGUID="18e4c8aa-1816-4f8e-bc92-97ea59df5be0" CreationDate="2013-11-02T20:07:13.313" UserId="517" Comment="added 40 characters in body" Text="I have been interviewed lately and during the interview a client told me that he liked my interview dress code. I was quite surprised since I had nothing special but a polo-shirt. I asked the client why he complimented my outfit since I was not wearing a tie, and he told me that his previous interviewer appeared on Skype interview in his undershirt (!). I was interviewed for a position which required a very experienced individual so I was surprised by his statement even more. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How should a freelance candidate be dressed for a freelance Skype (or any other similar conferencing app) interview, and how can one tell what's appropriate and what isn't?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am here asking about Skype interview only, not about meeting the client face to face. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2422" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="928" RevisionGUID="a8fd9730-a6eb-4061-b906-f3b965ea45d7" CreationDate="2013-11-02T20:16:29.370" UserId="517" Text="Since guys told you the most things which matter, I can only add a small thing to their reply without repeating their words. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When someone tells you &quot;make a website and I will give you a percentage of earned money&quot;, 99% of us would think they earned something when they get their first $100 or $1000. WRONG!!!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Once you have made a website and it's ready for publishing, you do not start from $0, but from a -$(timeInvestedInProject x youHourlyPriceInDollars).**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So before you earn the money you invested into project, you are basically not earning anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, the easiest thing is say &quot; I won't do it&quot;. And later when the website makes $1M in 2 months you will cry a river. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So these are the steps you should go through:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. evaluate the idea and see its earning potential. You are not aside figure, you **are an investor into this project investing your knowledge**&#xD;&#xA;2. ask yourself &quot;can I really make so quality website which will earn money&quot;&#xD;&#xA;3. if you see potential and you can do it, then set up **2 types of profit shares**&#xD;&#xA;3a. First share would be higher one, like 50% until you return money invested into project.&#xD;&#xA;3b. This is the percentage you will get after you are at real $0&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your father's friend rejects this idea, than just drop me a thanks note. I saved you from an mischievous a*****e. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2423" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="929" RevisionGUID="2b2ce693-5207-456d-895b-bfab228a527d" CreationDate="2013-11-02T20:20:46.483" UserId="517" Text="Don't charge him for a small task. But if you can accumulate multiple small tasks done in 1 month into a couple of work hours, then notify the client, explain to him how much time those tasks took you, and ask to be paid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If those tasks are really happening once a month, and obviously it would not be &quot;nice&quot; to charge your client at the end of a year, set a retainer agreement with him. Let him know that you cannot charge him for such a small tasks, but since those tasks are being repeated from month to month, he can buy a &quot;pack of support work hours&quot; from you. He pays you 5, 10 or 110 work hours for the year 2014, and both of you are happy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of us still did not learn how to utilize retainer agreements properly, while big companies support themselves via these agreements. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2424" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="930" RevisionGUID="c0adc63e-ab10-41cf-b073-f7ea18c71589" CreationDate="2013-11-02T23:53:05.903" UserId="1187" Text="first of all, some background informations about me. I'm a professional software engineer in my late 20s with a MSc in Computer Science and 3 years work experience in small companies (7+ years programming experience)... sounds good? Not at all... not here, where I'm located.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I'd like to develop **custom enterprise software** for small buisnesses. By the term **custom** I mean an individual peace of software for each customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is, I have no portfolio or something similar, because the software I've written is not open for the public.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, my idea is, to pick some small companies in my local area and to send them an **offer letter** where I explain how importent it is to support a buisness with specialized software, who I am and what I can do for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm pretty sure, that most of the recipients of such a letter will see it as kind of spam.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do You have any experience with offer lettes or any suggestions? Thank You.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2425" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="930" RevisionGUID="c0adc63e-ab10-41cf-b073-f7ea18c71589" CreationDate="2013-11-02T23:53:05.903" UserId="1187" Text="Softwareengineer - Sending Offer Letters" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2426" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="930" RevisionGUID="c0adc63e-ab10-41cf-b073-f7ea18c71589" CreationDate="2013-11-02T23:53:05.903" UserId="1187" Text="|client|attracting-clients|advertising|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2427" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="930" RevisionGUID="d1ba9e18-1bcd-491c-90d2-4066224a8f45" CreationDate="2013-11-03T05:00:25.983" UserId="64" Comment="edited to clean up the grammar and make it easier to read" Text="I'm a professional software engineer in my late 20s with a MSc in Computer Science and 3 years work experience in small companies (7+ years programming experience).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I'd like to develop **custom enterprise software** for small businesses. By the term **custom** I mean an individual piece of software for each customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is, I have no portfolio or something similar, because the software I've written is not open for the public.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, my idea is, to pick some small companies in my local area and to send them an **offer letter** where I explain how important it is to support a business with specialized software, who I am, and what I can do for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm pretty sure, that most of the recipients of such a letter will see it as kind of spam.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you have any experience with offer letters or any suggestions? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2428" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="930" RevisionGUID="d1ba9e18-1bcd-491c-90d2-4066224a8f45" CreationDate="2013-11-03T05:00:25.983" UserId="64" Comment="edited to clean up the grammar and make it easier to read" Text="Software Engineer - Sending Offer Letters" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2429" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="930" RevisionGUID="88ab7122-7229-40db-ba4e-df0d2443f2e3" CreationDate="2013-11-03T05:07:51.220" UserId="64" Comment="deleted 16 characters in body" Text="I'm a professional software engineer in my late 20s with a MSc in Computer Science and 3 years work experience in small companies (7+ years programming experience).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I'd like to develop **custom enterprise software** for small businesses. By the term **custom** I mean an individual piece of software for each customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is, I have no portfolio or something similar, because the software I've written is not open for the public.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, my idea is, to pick some small companies in my local area and to send them an **offer letter** where I explain how important it is to support a business with specialized software, who I am, and what I can do for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm pretty sure, that most of the recipients of such a letter will see it as kind of spam.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I make my offer letter not seem like spam?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2430" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="871" RevisionGUID="d3fcf868-1de2-4530-982e-0318f3904219" CreationDate="2013-11-03T05:16:11.047" UserId="64" Comment="fixed spelling and grammar" Text="I am a Web developer with over 4 years experience. I work for a company. I want to start my own company. How can I get work and clients. I know about few sites, like freelancer.com, odesk.com, elance.com. Here I am like a small fish in the ocean. I bid on projects, but I don't get any. There are other players with paid memberships and past experience on those sites so they get the job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I land a contract and get one of these jobs?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2435" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="926" RevisionGUID="cc0d2560-759f-41db-bf4c-6316b6ca0eeb" CreationDate="2013-11-03T15:52:26.597" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/397028504145260544" />
  <row Id="2437" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="932" RevisionGUID="a50b3159-4c36-42b3-a0b4-8dc3d22048d2" CreationDate="2013-11-03T20:15:18.277" UserId="517" Text="The first, as guys mentioned, you either must have a concrete product or a good plan. Although having the product will definitely bring more concrete money to your company. Unless you convince small companies to pre-register for you software for some discount. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;OK, once you have had it, sending emails or paper mails is IMHO waist of time. How wants to read a paper, then call the guy from the paper, then talk to him,... Most CEOs don't have time for this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to be more active and arrange the meeting with each company and present them your product. You will have a lot of declines, a lot of false promises, but you will also get a concrete customers. I mean, I would do it this way if I were you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So practice your talk, make a good plan or product, and go to action face to face. Jobs I arrange via email correspondence which takes 7 days, I arrange in 2 hours talking to the CEO face to face. If you want to be your own boss and before you gain good portfolio, this should be the proper way to go. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's see what others will say on this matter. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2439" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="933" RevisionGUID="47fb7c0a-c116-4cb0-b6c2-bf98bb6f14eb" CreationDate="2013-11-04T15:47:33.423" UserId="64" Text="The way it typically works is this:  Businesses are looking to solve a problem. It could be solved with software, or it could be solved with process improvements. Or it could be solved by a little of both.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may take 6 months or it may take three weeks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Despite your credentials, you still seem a little inexperienced. Maybe not in software, but definitely in the business of software.  Inexperienced developers tend to think too big in terms of scope. Again, I say inexperienced in the *business* of software, not necessarily as a developer. There is a difference.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Therefore, your best bet is to start off small. Look for businesses that just need a small change done. This will get you to the point where you're talking to real customers and finding out what they really need. In most cases, many businesses are going to just use pre-built software because it's cheaper and has been tried and tested in many different businesses and environments. Custom-built software is *expensive*, and most businesses who build custom software will either do it in-house or with experienced contractors. What's more, custom software is a long-term commitment with support contracts and SLA's and things that may arguably be difficult for a single sole proprietor to support.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, instead of approaching these businesses with a 6 month scope of work in an offer letter before even finding out what they're about, word it so that it sounds like you want to help them solve a *problem*. If you approach them with the idea that you're going to spend six months working on enterprise database software when all they really need is a simple solution to manage a few documents, they're immediately going to think that you're not really going to listen to their needs. The last thing any business wants to deal with is a contractor who doesn't listen to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Years ago, I worked for a company that needed a website built, and we hired a few different contractors because they all said they'd build the HTML to standard but ended up using tables (for non-technical readers, that's an outdated methodology). We finally found a contractor who would listen to what we needed, and that person got our repeat business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2445" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="935" RevisionGUID="485b4ab3-dd16-4177-9a75-7fd56d4eb969" CreationDate="2013-11-05T00:55:24.440" UserId="1202" Text="I have a web &amp; graphic design client that I've been working with since July of this year. Initially, the project was supposed to be completed, and launched, in full at the end of September. &#xD;&#xA;The client gave me several red flags that lack of experience (and need for money) at the time caused to me to look past. Needless to say, it's November and we're still working.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My frustrations have grown out of their complete lack of trust in my skill and ability; they push past my recommendations for what their friends &quot;vote&quot; on, despite any facts, studies, &quot;proof,&quot; etc I send to justify my choices. Additionally, they continually revert back to working on items they have already approved and confirmed are completed. As if that wasn't enough, their emails have become increasingly harsh in tone - even to the extent where they send follow up emails to apologize a day or so later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you can see, my questions here isn't whether or not to fire them but *how*, what wording to use, method, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Our terms state they are to pay my hourly rate for each round of revisions beyond the standard 3. When beginning this project I didn't have a solid method for tracking time(I use Basecamp and Pancake now), so I don't have a lot of proof and numbers to back this up, aside from a mountain of emails. I'm OK with letting this go. My terms also state that if the contract is dissolved at any point in time after designs have been presented, then 50% of remaining balance is owed. As previously mentioned, we have not launched heir site, nor is any aspect of it on the client's servers. My plan is to deliver all of their files - code, design, etc. - to them once I receive that final 50% payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My real challenge here, is how to I get all of this across to them without having to engage in a back and forth dialogue of *why?*** Might I encounter any legal trouble? I'm sure they are going to be upset and angered, what is the best way to navigate these waters?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2446" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="935" RevisionGUID="485b4ab3-dd16-4177-9a75-7fd56d4eb969" CreationDate="2013-11-05T00:55:24.440" UserId="1202" Text="firing a client due to difficult on going work relationship" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2447" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="935" RevisionGUID="485b4ab3-dd16-4177-9a75-7fd56d4eb969" CreationDate="2013-11-05T00:55:24.440" UserId="1202" Text="|client|contracts|contract-cancellation|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2448" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="936" RevisionGUID="2b4eed96-492c-4eec-b31c-bb2de355240c" CreationDate="2013-11-05T01:56:12.307" UserId="75" Text="If you need to cut them as a client, you need to do it sooner rather then later. Doing it later lets the problem build and build, and you carry more emotional weight when you finally do it. If it was a small problem brewing from a while ago, I'd talk to them about it, and possibly try to salvage the relationship. It sounds like you tried (showing proof, explaining reasoning, etc), so let's skip that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*(This section is 'in general')* Did you sign any contracts? If so, check what the contract states about terminating the agreement. Hopefully, you wrote it (or had a lawyer write it for you), and there is an exit clause that gets you out of everything clean and dry. If not, there may be a penalty. Since you actually *did* have a contract, check it over for what you can do with their data (if you can hold it till they pay, etc). Definitely worth checking with the lawyer about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there is no contract, then I would draft up a letter explaining that you cannot work on the project as agreed, and that they need to find another expert in the field. Explain that you are giving them one copy of any and all data you have regarding the project, and promising to destroy any other copies *after* giving them the backup, so they know it's not getting leaked to other clients. You do not need to give a reason for dropping the client, but it's up to your discretion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**IF** you decide to explain why to your client, you need to make sure you remain calm; just like talking with someone who just saw their mom get hit by a car, they are going to want to blame everyone else, and will likely flip out. They may yell, they may fight, they may call you names or threaten you; remain calm. I dislike confrontation, so I usually stick to a letter, and explain that my workload has changed, and I cannot continue with this work relationship anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always thank them for their service, if you got any; if they have been a royal pain in the you-know-what, then just a simple &quot;Thanks and Good Luck&quot; at the end may be all you need. Remember, you need to be respectful at all times, because anything in writing can come to bite you. Before submitting the letter, have a family member or trusted friend read it over." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2451" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="935" RevisionGUID="3e9f1daa-a805-4739-b2f3-7917886c107a" CreationDate="2013-11-05T05:34:43.147" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title and some minor grammatical issues" Text="I have a Web &amp; graphic design client that I've been working with since July of this year. Initially, the project was supposed to be completed, and launched, in full at the end of September. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client gave me several red flags that lack of experience (and need for money) at the time caused to me to look past. Needless to say, it's November and we're still working.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My frustrations have grown out of their complete lack of trust in my skill and ability; they push past my recommendations for what their friends &quot;vote&quot; on, despite any facts, studies, &quot;proof,&quot; etc. I send to justify my choices. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally, they continually revert back to working on items they have already approved and confirmed are completed. As if that wasn't enough, their emails have become increasingly harsh in tone - even to the extent where they send follow up emails to apologize a day or so later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you can see, my questions here isn't whether or not to fire them but *how*, what wording to use, method, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Our terms state they are to pay my hourly rate for each round of revisions beyond the standard 3. When beginning this project, I didn't have a solid method for tracking time (I use Basecamp and Pancake now), so I don't have a lot of proof and numbers to back this up, aside from a mountain of emails. I'm OK with letting this go. My terms also state that if the contract is dissolved at any point in time after designs have been presented, then 50% of remaining balance is owed. As previously mentioned, we have not launched their site, nor is any aspect of it on the client's servers. My plan is to deliver all of their files - code, design, etc. - to them once I receive that final 50% payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My real challenge here, is how do I get all of this across to them without having to engage in a back and forth dialogue of *why?*** Might I encounter any legal trouble? I'm sure they are going to be upset and angered, what is the best way to navigate these waters?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2452" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="935" RevisionGUID="3e9f1daa-a805-4739-b2f3-7917886c107a" CreationDate="2013-11-05T05:34:43.147" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title and some minor grammatical issues" Text="Firing a client due to difficult ongoing work relationship" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2453" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="937" RevisionGUID="9c442e31-178e-4850-88e2-508925b9dbfb" CreationDate="2013-11-05T07:23:36.167" UserId="517" Text="Although it may not be nice, you can always mention &quot;your future projects which cannot start because of this one&quot;. You also mention how &quot;you promised other clients that you will do their projects and you managed to prolong them for X days, but not anymore&quot;. You can also suggest another person to continue the project or a website where the client can find another contractor. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I understood that they still owe you 50% of the money? You should think of that money as well when terminating contract. I am not sure if you will be able to get some percentage of those 50%. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And as @Canadian Like said (there is also a saying in my country): &quot;Never use you a*s to close the door&quot;, meaning that no matter how horrible he was, it's smart to remain in good relations with him and leave the job like a gentleman. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2454" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="938" RevisionGUID="514adc8b-8af1-4c02-90ef-26c1a706d63b" CreationDate="2013-11-05T09:09:55.080" UserId="1204" Text="I have terminated a few contracts and I have always agonized about it. However, termination goes smoothly because the client usually hasn't gone through the mental anguish over the project that I have. They usually are pretty calm and professional about it, despite whatever shenanigans happened during the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I always use the timeline as a reason for termination and that I have other clients waiting. Usually I give a good amount of notice before terminating and usually time it around the invoicing cycle. Not only is giving notice a professional courtesy, but it also prepares them for the work that is involved in closeout, which includes final payment. So far, I haven't left money at the table in termination, but I am willing to take that chance. I'd hate to lose the opportunity for better clients because I stayed in a bad situation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the agony I have had in deciding to terminate, I am rewarded with the great sense of relief that it is over. We are freelancers and our work is &quot;at-will&quot; and the only person coercing us to stay is ourselves. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2455" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="935" RevisionGUID="d79c7a3e-4017-4773-af40-0126f7267ac6" CreationDate="2013-11-05T12:54:23.537" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/397708472021975040" />
  <row Id="2456" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="930" RevisionGUID="cb80a4be-2354-4b34-a2fe-b4dd2bba0c6f" CreationDate="2013-11-05T21:55:17.427" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/397844593569714176" />
  <row Id="2457" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="939" RevisionGUID="dcf815de-1680-49fe-8dda-d7820b3ef53a" CreationDate="2013-11-05T22:38:58.580" UserId="1206" Text="I have a client with a freelance website. We have agreed $125 to finish a project. He did a contract an Hourly Job. It's $3 per hour including the website's charge. 41 hours per week it will be $123. the last day of the first week, I messaged the client that I can't finish the task cause it is big than I thought, and I requested him, that he give me 1 more week and he said yes. So I continue working. There's a weekly timesheet for an hourly job in that website. I have automatically paid for my first week's timesheet. Then,my client rejected to pay me for the second week's timesheet because of the unfinished task. Also, I discontinued working. I told him, I thought he knew that the task is big that it can not finish it in 41 hours. The timesheet is in dispute, but the freelance website resolved the issue, they charged the client acoount for the time sheet and getting me paid. Now, the client is threatening to sue me, if I don't refund him the money. Is he capable of suing me that I am from a different country?  Am I breaching a contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2458" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="939" RevisionGUID="dcf815de-1680-49fe-8dda-d7820b3ef53a" CreationDate="2013-11-05T22:38:58.580" UserId="1206" Text="Client threatening to sue me" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2459" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="939" RevisionGUID="dcf815de-1680-49fe-8dda-d7820b3ef53a" CreationDate="2013-11-05T22:38:58.580" UserId="1206" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2460" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="940" RevisionGUID="f0ac6996-502b-4142-a40a-32b6886a6a7f" CreationDate="2013-11-06T02:48:55.997" UserId="1208" Text="***Hello Maybelline,***&#xD;&#xA;Don't be scared of that guy, there is no way that he can sue you, i assume you are talking about oDesk or something similar. When you register on that website there are some privacy and agreements that you and your client have to read.&#xD;&#xA;Clearly he is not aware that you weren't working for him under a real contract, that's just a contract on the website + that he didn't respected the rules of the website, once he accepted to give you one more week, then he had no right not to give you the money.&#xD;&#xA;Just ignore him and keep every evidence of your work for him, he cannot do anything about it, you're the winner. Head up, next client.&#xD;&#xA;Have a good day." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2461" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="939" RevisionGUID="3fd0b38f-4ed9-4299-8f47-25a42b889e17" CreationDate="2013-11-06T04:05:12.130" UserId="1207" Comment="formatting" Text="I have a client with a freelance website. We have agreed $125 to finish a project. He did a contract as an hourly job. It was $3 per hour including the website's charge. So 41 hours per week it would be be $123.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the last day of the first week, I messaged the client and told him that I can't finish the task because it is bigger than I thought, and I requested of him that he give me one more week. He said yes, so I continue working.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was paid for this work via an automatic online weekly timesheet. I have was automatically paid for my first week's timesheet. Then my client refused to pay me for the second week's timesheet because of the unfinished task. I discontinued working. I told him that I thought he knew that the task was so large that it could not be finished it in 41 hours. The timesheet is in dispute, but the freelance website resolved the issue, they charged the client acoount for the time sheet and getting me paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, the client is threatening to sue me, if I don't refund him the money. Is he capable of suing me that I am from a different country?  Am I breaching a contract?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2462" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="939" RevisionGUID="3fd0b38f-4ed9-4299-8f47-25a42b889e17" CreationDate="2013-11-06T04:05:12.130" Comment="Proposed by 1207 approved by 64 edit id of 188" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2463" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="939" RevisionGUID="f50a95cd-a9f7-4259-add8-e186322919a4" CreationDate="2013-11-06T04:14:45.893" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 8 characters in body" Text="I have a client with a freelance website. We have agreed $125 to finish a project. He did a contract as an hourly job. It was $3 per hour including the website's charge. So 41 hours per week would be $123.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the last day of the first week, I messaged the client and told him that I can't finish the task because it is bigger than I thought, and I requested of him that he give me one more week. He said yes, so I continue working.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was paid for this work via an automatic online weekly timesheet. I have was automatically paid for my first week's timesheet. Then my client refused to pay me for the second week's timesheet because of the unfinished task. I discontinued working. I told him that I thought he knew that the task was so large that it could not be finished it in 41 hours. The timesheet is in dispute, but the freelance website resolved the issue, they charged the client account for the time sheet and getting me paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, the client is threatening to sue me, if I don't refund him the money. Is he capable of suing me that I am from a different country?  Am I breaching a contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2464" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="941" RevisionGUID="4cfd44ae-062c-4675-a148-326b52da23c5" CreationDate="2013-11-06T06:51:56.703" UserId="1018" Text="It's important to make a good impression but not go over the top. I would aim to dress at least as smartly as peers might dress for an interview.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Expected dress standards will vary depending on the location and the type of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, as a remote office worker in Australia, I'd expect to at least wear a collared shirt or perhaps a polo shirt with a company logo. A tie would probably be over the top here unless dealing with a large corporate Sydney client.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2465" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="940" RevisionGUID="8a60ca05-6ba9-4a15-b5b2-6e5449806f4a" CreationDate="2013-11-06T07:10:02.603" UserId="64" Comment="removed greeting; posts are intended to address future visitors too; fixed grammar" Text="Don't be scared of that guy, there is no way that he can sue you, I assume you are talking about oDesk or something similar. When you register on that website there are some privacy and agreements that you and your client have to read.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clearly he is not aware that you weren't working for him under a real contract, that's just a contract on the website. Also, he didn't respect the rules of the website, once he accepted to give you one more week, then he had no right not to give you the money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just ignore him and keep every evidence of your work for him, he cannot do anything about it, you're the winner. Head up, and focus on the next client.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2466" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="942" RevisionGUID="1d8b637d-84e9-4996-881e-f6f7c4972967" CreationDate="2013-11-07T05:34:07.067" UserId="64" Text="Two freelancers have partnered up who both specialize in different aspects of Web development. They bill the client for all of the work done and then split the profits evenly, so both parties spend an equal share of time working on a particular contract and have equal say in decision making.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While looking for new projects, Freelancer A spotted a potential project online. Freelancer B reached out to the client to learn more about what the project entails and walked away with a bad feeling. The client didn't really seem to know what he was doing and even kept quoting different prices. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After starting work on the project, the client kept adding more and more to the scope, expecting the extra work be done for free. Months later, the two freelancers completed what was outlined in the contract but are still dealing with harassing emails from the client to do even more work for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When working with another freelancer, how can we resolve disagreements on what projects to take so that we avoid situations where one person's judgement about a client turned out to be better than another's?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2467" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="942" RevisionGUID="1d8b637d-84e9-4996-881e-f6f7c4972967" CreationDate="2013-11-07T05:34:07.067" UserId="64" Text="When working with another freelancer, how do we resolve disagreements on what projects to take?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2468" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="942" RevisionGUID="1d8b637d-84e9-4996-881e-f6f7c4972967" CreationDate="2013-11-07T05:34:07.067" UserId="64" Text="|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2469" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="943" RevisionGUID="52b136da-98d8-431c-b613-0a4bc84366e3" CreationDate="2013-11-07T06:50:12.097" UserId="1003" Text="I've seen a lot of successful sellers on eBay trying to launch their own websites. I personally tried it once. After all, it makes sense right? You have a super successful eBay store and you think your products are the best in the market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only problem is (are):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Visitors to your store are visitors for eBay, they are buying something from eBay, with its protection policy in place.&#xD;&#xA;2. Marketing and support are taken care of by eBay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you go ahead to launch your own e-commerce website, how will you handle marketing, what would be your returns policy, who will handle other logistics.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you are a web developer, you might already know that this business is more than just building the website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Take my word, do this only if you would like to operate a business in e-retail sector. Do not do this just to recover your web development costs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2471" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="945" RevisionGUID="68bcd1c2-4478-4a4f-b035-9186098281eb" CreationDate="2013-11-07T17:06:12.093" UserId="75" Text="I am going to assume that as it currently stands, you are both 50% with your decisions. This is definitely going to be hard to handle initially without some sort of system in place. The earlier it can be addressed, the better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One caution when working with others on the same level is that if you are friends, you need to put your friendship on hold sometimes for the company; hopefully, you both are mature enough to be friends after work is done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When people work together, there is always going to be a Leader and a Follower. Even the best of leaders will follow the right leader, and become followers themselves. Point is, there will always be one person who thinks they are &quot;slightly better&quot;, and this is where ego comes into play. It's an evil, but still quite unavoidable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When it comes to business, you need all your personal feelings aside, but you still need to trust your instinct. A growing freelancing business is like a child to you: you want to protect it, and make sure it grows to be a healthy business... Or adult, one of the two. Business decisions can sometimes be hard to make, but once you make them, stick to them. When one partner has a concern, both should talk about it until both are on the same page. If the concern isn't one to get worked up about, then someone will say so and the decision will be made. If the concern is something that would affect your partnership (business, personal relationship, reputation, stress...), then it needs to be dropped as soon as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The point is, you both need to talk about it, and both of you need to respect each other enough to listen to each others concerns or praise, as it deals with your babies, respectively. If a project is going to drain both of you so much that you are willing to destroy your business or drain your bank accounts, you need to see it before it gets too bad.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2474" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="942" RevisionGUID="71476a40-6aef-4eca-95b2-647f37fd7b3c" CreationDate="2013-11-08T03:59:09.767" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/398660940822228992" />
  <row Id="2479" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="947" RevisionGUID="181ceca0-8ddd-470a-9b48-3282545bff36" CreationDate="2013-11-08T05:22:30.433" UserId="939" Text="After discussion with a client, he offered me remote (work from home) job with him. I am working as a freelancer with him since last few months and now I would like to do remote job for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have two concern about remote work as below:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I will work with him for a duration, then I can include that duration in my CV and it will include in my experience or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I need to follow the guidelines to work with him?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance for your help." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2480" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="947" RevisionGUID="181ceca0-8ddd-470a-9b48-3282545bff36" CreationDate="2013-11-08T05:22:30.433" UserId="939" Text="Remote Working for a client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2481" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="947" RevisionGUID="181ceca0-8ddd-470a-9b48-3282545bff36" CreationDate="2013-11-08T05:22:30.433" UserId="939" Text="|remote|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2482" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="947" RevisionGUID="21013744-bc23-4171-8752-3a90731eb085" CreationDate="2013-11-08T05:30:40.693" UserId="64" Comment="removed part that was too broad" Text="After discussion with a client, he offered me remote (work from home) job with him. I am working as a freelancer with him since last few months and now I would like to do remote job for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have two concern about remote work as below:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I will work with him for a duration, then I can include that duration in my CV and will it include in my experience or not?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2483" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="948" RevisionGUID="a468ccb6-8b2d-4ce0-922c-f4f527ad1027" CreationDate="2013-11-08T11:20:31.730" UserId="517" Text="When I am really overloaded with work, I don't have time to reply to new client's requests on estimations (how much will it cost, can you do these addons,...) as I simply cannot concentrate to produce a quality reply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Often it takes up to 2 days before I reply them. And even after two days, I may reply by informing them that I am overloaded and that I will make a quality reply next week. No one has ever complained so far, but it does not mean that they did not have objections.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, what do you think of this? Am I being too rude or unprofessional? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Shall I just have a sentence which I can paste which tells them that I will reply asap or next week? I hate machine-type replies. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2484" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="948" RevisionGUID="a468ccb6-8b2d-4ce0-922c-f4f527ad1027" CreationDate="2013-11-08T11:20:31.730" UserId="517" Text="How important is a prompt reply in the freelance world?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2485" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="948" RevisionGUID="a468ccb6-8b2d-4ce0-922c-f4f527ad1027" CreationDate="2013-11-08T11:20:31.730" UserId="517" Text="|client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2486" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="949" RevisionGUID="4c0d3d98-29b8-4fc1-b78f-d8783329bb7e" CreationDate="2013-11-08T15:49:23.277" UserId="116" Text="If you're reply is simply I'm overloaded with work (etc), should it really take two days to send out?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a (part-time) freelancer, I don't have the problem of being overloaded with freelance work (not yet!), but when coupled with all of my other responsibilities, it does get demanding. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will say though that when I'm on the other end and hire contractors, if I leave a message to say I'm interested in having work done, I typically expect a call back within 1-2 business days. 3 is pushing it, depending on the service. If that doesn't happen, I assume they are &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A) Unprofessional or &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;B) Too busy to provide me quality service at this time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Time will tell if it's A or B. Eventually, if they do return my call, I still may ask for a quote from them if the work is still available, and may even go with them for this project or a future project. I understand some companies have busy seasons (landscape companies for example), and being busy myself I understand if small shops are overloaded at times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your response time would ring in right on the edge in my book. It would be a -1 though just to hear that you'd have to follow up with me next week. If the response is a 2-3 day period, I would expect the consult pretty much at that point in time, and not have to wait a business week just for a quote.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a remedy, perhaps set some time aside during the day for following up with prospective clients. A 24 hour response time to touch base with them to *schedule* a future consult could go a long ways, and if everyone has the time right then and there you could do the consult then. The key word here (obviously) is schedule, a prompt reply to schedule a future meeting can keep your foot in that door, because rest assured that client is (at least *should be*) contacting other companies/freelancers that provide the same service, and don't want to wait a couple of days just for you to say your too busy and will call have time back next week. It's a microwave world now, coal burning ovens are a thing of the past. Calling and scheduling a meeting with them would at least hold them off from committing to another company until they've heard your offer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, it could go the other way: If your reputation precedes you, they may even want to *wait* for you to have the time to do their work, because they've heard or know just what kind of work you produce.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being said, if you're too busy to provide quality work, you're too busy to take on the client at this point in time. It would hurt to turn down a client, but you should at least follow up with them quickly, perhaps the time frame for completing the project *does* line up with your future schedule, and if it doesn't then you've made a great impression and they may contact you for further work (nothing wrong with being a backup). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2487" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="950" RevisionGUID="61cbc33b-077f-4a89-8c98-6ce22ac23b05" CreationDate="2013-11-08T16:02:50.453" UserId="116" Text="In regards to your question about including it in your CV: Absolutely! Your commute (or lack thereof) does not take away from the fact that you performed a service for your client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When including it though, it should either fill a time gap, or highlight some special skill or knowledge you posses, and not just be there to 'pad' your CV." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2488" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="517" RevisionGUID="8ff6d506-0565-46bb-a2e1-ab6f0b6009c6" CreationDate="2013-11-08T17:13:26.567" UserId="517" Comment="added 641 characters in body" Text="Most times, clients ask me to talk in Skype. Since I do not like talking as I may say something unplanned, I always direct them to message rooms where they ask questions, and I reply after thinking about it. So far, this was a very good approach since I did not make any mistakes when setting the job terms, and the clients never complained.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the past, I rejected a few clients because they insisted we talk. I am now wondering if more serious clients with multiple projects wish to talk to contractor, while single-project ones or unserious ones prefer messaging. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;can I find long-term partners by avoiding Skype talks or will this limit me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just wanted to say that in the past months, I have made dozens of Skype talks to my clients. And results were EXTRAORDINARY. It was so good that I got multiple jobs just after ONE skype call. Yes, it lasted 60  to 90 minutes, but it was worth it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, I am constantly pushing clients to skype talk. If they refuse, then it tells me they are not prospective clients. And what is better, I saved so much time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I personally strongly suggest anyone to use Skype of phone talk, even during the evaluation phase since I tried both ways and I witnessed all the good things from the real voice call with the client. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2489" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="951" RevisionGUID="9070232c-395a-4eeb-8954-c0bacb3276ec" CreationDate="2013-11-08T19:33:03.480" UserId="517" Text="Of course you can and you should. Even more, once you have finished working with him, ask him for a recommendation letter. You can also ask him if he is willing you enlist him into your reference list. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your CV represents your experience which can be verified (hopefully). It does not matter if you coded 10 project from company's premises or you coded a rocket for Google from your home. Experience matters only. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2490" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="952" RevisionGUID="ec118cbe-4762-4e4a-821f-f4b996961344" CreationDate="2013-11-08T19:41:40.923" UserId="517" Text="I am afraid you have no much option in the current way of working since you equally own the company and thus you both have the right for a veto. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you can do is divide weekly time into (a) time you work on joint projects and (b) time you spend on your own projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not sure how this will work in reality since both your joint and own projects may suffer of slowness. If your own projects are not urgent ones, then you can divide weekly hours by 30:10 (where 10 represents your own projects). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to implement a rule &quot;one side can impose his project once a month and the other side cannot put veto on it&quot;. In such case, you will have to carefully assess the tasks in the project and the side can choose which side he will take. I am emphasising this since the other side will not have energy working on imposed projects so you will be forced to do harder and boring stuff, while another party will do easier and funnier tasks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the model I would accept if I were your partner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, you two should think about more important thing. It is &quot;why one side is so willing to accept the project&quot; and &quot;why the other side is so against it&quot;. Since IMHO it is not smelling right if two sides are so opposing, not only for their relations (if you're coders, does not mean you're born to work together), but also for the project (maybe there is something really fishy in the project and other side don't see it). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. In our team there is 4 of us with equal rights, so I am getting inspiration from our own team. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2491" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="947" RevisionGUID="5164c228-d32d-467c-9850-60dbbaa62b64" CreationDate="2013-11-08T21:35:55.273" UserId="75" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="2492" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="952" RevisionGUID="517bb1e7-edcc-4af0-a627-caadde673697" CreationDate="2013-11-08T22:23:10.833" UserId="517" Comment="added 1 characters in body" Text="I am afraid you have no many options in the current way of working since you equally own the company and thus you both have the right for a veto. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you can do is divide weekly time into (a) time you work on joint projects and (b) time you spend on your own projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not sure how this will work in reality since both your joint and own projects may suffer of slowness. If your own projects are not urgent ones, then you can divide weekly hours by 30:10 (where 10 represents your own projects). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to implement a rule &quot;one side can impose his project once a month and the other side cannot put veto on it&quot;. In such case, you will have to carefully assess the tasks in the project and the other side can choose which tasks he will take. I am emphasising this since the other side will not have energy working on imposed projects so you will be forced to do harder and boring stuff, while another party will do easier and funnier tasks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the model I would accept if I were your partner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, you two should think about more important thing. It is &quot;why one side is so willing to accept the project&quot; and &quot;why the other side is so against it&quot;. Since IMHO it is not smelling right if two sides are so opposing, not only for their relations (if you're coders, does not mean you're born to work together), but also for the project (maybe there is something really fishy in the project and other side doesn't see it). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. In our team there are 4 of us with equal rights, so I am getting inspiration from our own team. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2493" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="953" RevisionGUID="932a1542-e5e5-40b0-b1e8-87d74f70cb1d" CreationDate="2013-11-10T20:50:16.443" UserId="1221" Text="The main idea is to keep your customer up to date.&#xD;&#xA;Send a note saying that I will do it .... Just it.&#xD;&#xA;You do not need to do some overnight job" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2494" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="949" RevisionGUID="155b821b-0002-4550-b572-e10aade83bb6" CreationDate="2013-11-11T00:48:07.427" UserId="58" Comment="small grammar changes" Text="If your reply is simply &quot;I'm overloaded with work [... etc]&quot;, should it really take two days to send out?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a (part-time) freelancer, I don't have the problem of being overloaded with freelance work (not yet!), but when coupled with all of my other responsibilities, it does get demanding. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will say though that when I'm on the other end and hire contractors, if I leave a message to say I'm interested in having work done, I typically expect a call back within 1-2 business days. 3 is pushing it, depending on the service. If that doesn't happen, I assume they are &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A) Unprofessional or &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;B) Too busy to provide me quality service at this time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Time will tell if it's A or B. Eventually, if they do return my call, I still may ask for a quote from them if the work is still available, and may even go with them for this project or a future project. I understand some companies have busy seasons (landscape companies for example), and being busy myself I understand if small shops are overloaded at times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your response time would ring in right on the edge in my book. It would be a -1 though just to hear that you'd have to follow up with me next week. If the response is a 2-3 day period, I would expect the consult pretty much at that point in time, and not have to wait a business week just for a quote.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a remedy, perhaps set some time aside during the day for following up with prospective clients. A 24 hour response time to touch base with them to *schedule* a future consult could go a long ways, and if everyone has the time right then and there you could do the consult then. The key word here (obviously) is schedule, a prompt reply to schedule a future meeting can keep your foot in that door, because rest assured that client is (at least *should be*) contacting other companies/freelancers that provide the same service, and don't want to wait a couple of days just for you to say your too busy and will call have time back next week. It's a microwave world now, coal burning ovens are a thing of the past. Calling and scheduling a meeting with them would at least hold them off from committing to another company until they've heard your offer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, it could go the other way; if your reputation precedes you, they may even want to *wait* for you to have the time to do their work, because they've heard or know just what kind of work you produce.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being said, if you're too busy to provide quality work, you're too busy to take on the client at this point in time. It would hurt to turn down a client, but you should at least follow up with them quickly, perhaps the time frame for completing the project *does* line up with your future schedule, and if it doesn't then you've made a great impression and they may contact you for further work (nothing wrong with being a backup). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2495" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="953" RevisionGUID="4fdc4e37-5065-4bd2-a24a-72efb5d6f665" CreationDate="2013-11-11T03:23:58.367" UserId="1221" Comment="added 1851 characters in body" Text="*The main idea is to keep your customer up-to-date.* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Send a note saying that &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I will do it....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just it, something in this manner. There is no need in composing a legendary responce or do the task right away all the night over.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just think about it - your customer doesn't know what is going on... He has no reply and no job done... Do you need it? Right, you do not, same as your employer.&#xD;&#xA;Your customer will be satisfield when you get it ready but that is not same as if having conversation. No need it posting every 10 minutes explaining what the process is, but communication should take place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is always important to have fast responce, and I bet everyone working in freelance do pay attention to this aspect in some way. Else there is no way to get success - hope it is clear - nobody wants to pay for &quot;something that will be ready someday&quot; when your empleyee get in touch. And this is exactly the point where you get communication and understanding of your customer. When you are late then it is better to say couple of words, explain or just note that there is some delay and you will get better result. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It happened that recently it gained even more importance personally for me and by chance I had possibility to see real pros of fast &quot;note&quot;. The website I am used to work as freelancer - oDesk implemented new feature - tracking responce time. The main idea is to show customer regular contractor responce time. You get &quot;A&quot; if you reply within 24 hours. &quot;B&quot; if you reply in 48 hours and so on. (there are different rates used, I meantioned this way to get a clear example). And actually it worked like copetition motivastion for me not to get &quot;B&quot; and have fast response. When replying faster and have no **delays** in **communication** you make your customer much more satisfied then as if doing your job few days faster.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a result you get &quot;returning&quot; and happy customer. Obviously - it is one of the highest steps in freelance career ladder.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good Luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2496" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="954" RevisionGUID="6b65274d-d860-4f74-a5ec-7ef494baeed1" CreationDate="2013-11-11T11:26:46.410" UserId="87" Text="Most of the clients are prompt and pay the money on completion of the project. While some companies agree to pay the amount as soon as project delivery, it never happens as expected.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reasons they give we are testing. I am out of town. Please bear with the delay we are expecting some income from other source.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So in such cases having advance payment prior to project development is better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do i handle the contract situation in such cases? How do i make a contract prior to project development?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2497" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="954" RevisionGUID="6b65274d-d860-4f74-a5ec-7ef494baeed1" CreationDate="2013-11-11T11:26:46.410" UserId="87" Text="Is it good to get paid in advance and then start project development?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2498" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="954" RevisionGUID="6b65274d-d860-4f74-a5ec-7ef494baeed1" CreationDate="2013-11-11T11:26:46.410" UserId="87" Text="|client|contracts|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2499" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="955" RevisionGUID="bd1ee3f6-130b-4583-abcd-895848715374" CreationDate="2013-11-11T13:23:35.997" UserId="127" Text="There are obvious benefits to the freelancer if payment is made up front:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* No chasing the money at the end&#xD;&#xA;* Harder for a client to cancel the project if they've already paid&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is also a big risk to the client:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* What happens if the freelancer dies or disappears before the end of the project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have seen 2 reasons why clients are willing to take that risk:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* If there is a significant discount for pre[payment (say 10%)&#xD;&#xA;* Clients who have annual department budgets that they must spend by the end of the calendar year may use up front payment to insure that they can fund projects that cross budget years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, as a freelancer I have learned being paid the entire amount upfront is not for me. I've learned that my motivation to work on a project is tied to the money I will be earning. If I've already been paid for everything, my desire to work on the project tanks. That being said, I know other freelancers who prefer this approach and only take up front payments. And I almost always ask for partial payment up front, just not the whole thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding the contract...yes. You always create a contract prior to project development, and in this case you would just include that the terms are that payment must be received before the work can begin. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2500" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="948" RevisionGUID="73afe53a-e68a-45d2-aadb-73a035dfec49" CreationDate="2013-11-11T16:02:24.553" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/399930115574214656" />
  <row Id="2501" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="562" RevisionGUID="2bb04330-e974-4d3a-be4e-f081e3224f28" CreationDate="2013-11-12T05:08:58.483" UserId="64" Comment="fixed a few minor typos in this great post" Text="Since I work as both a contractor and employer, I will share my experience by combining both roles. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Sometimes I have too little money for some project, so I'll tell the guys that I am seeking someone good who needs experience. Try to look for such jobs. Apply by telling how much experience you have and how you plan to finish the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Seek for smaller jobs first. Try finding those you can finish in 1 day. Create a solution at home, take snapshots and apply, saying something like &quot;I was free to finish my solution. Here are the snapshots. If you like it, I can adopt it to your need in a couple of hours&quot;. I remember this is how I got my first job. Of course, offer smaller price than the rest of the guys.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. If nothing works, try finding jobs you can finish in a couple of hours. Present yourself saying that you will do it for free since you need experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. If you are good, try finding project with very few applicants. Those are hard jobs that most lamers will never apply to. Present yourself by explaining how good you are and how you plan to finish it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. When I am a client, I like contractors who ask me concrete questions. I especially like when someone asks me questions about some feature which I forgot to include. This means that this person thought about my project. This person gets short-listed in 1 second. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Create a killer portfolio of apps you did in the past. If you don't have paid projects, then take a week or more of your own time and create these killer projects in-house. Try to publish these works somewhere or even create a public project. Users or download number will be a good reference. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;7. Make a bunch of small sample projects which encapsulate most wanted features your clients demand. Next time you see such project, just apply with your sample asking the client if this is what he wants. I guarantee that you will not be unnoticed. This is how I got my first job ever as a freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;8. When you come across the project you know you can make a killer result out of it, then don't spare your words. Write about it and describe your approach, propose new or cool features to the client. Each time I got a &quot;click&quot; with some project and I wrote a long proposal, most of those times I got a job or the client returned to me saying that he liked my approach in my previous bid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;9. Don't try to win the project with the lowest bid. Such clients will usually make you hate yourself and will try to abuse you. If you want to bid with a nice price, then either wait a bit for others to bid, then take the average bid price and propose only slightly smaller price. The second approach (I never got lucky with this one, but I know people that did) is to approach to a client saying how good you are and that you are just starting on that freelancing site. Then telling him that your regular price would be X dollars, but since you are a new guy here, you are offering a 50% or some other large discount.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will add to this list as I come up with more advices..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2502" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="956" RevisionGUID="7fe3b12d-2495-4a0a-80f7-d563afb033b9" CreationDate="2013-11-12T08:54:52.277" UserId="1228" Text="My client request a general quotation about the design and development of the site, what i need is the specifications that i should evaluate the quotation on it, such as (need host &amp; domain, site responsive, multi language, ..... etc)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2503" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="956" RevisionGUID="7fe3b12d-2495-4a0a-80f7-d563afb033b9" CreationDate="2013-11-12T08:54:52.277" UserId="1228" Text="How to make a quotation for creating a website (design and development)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2504" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="956" RevisionGUID="7fe3b12d-2495-4a0a-80f7-d563afb033b9" CreationDate="2013-11-12T08:54:52.277" UserId="1228" Text="|client|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2505" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="954" RevisionGUID="40b3615a-c040-465d-8351-4ef71d78b566" CreationDate="2013-11-12T16:02:18.827" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/400292480446660608" />
  <row Id="2506" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="957" RevisionGUID="74a755f1-2546-41e4-8c5b-46c97aa7a342" CreationDate="2013-11-12T16:19:33.197" UserId="517" Text="Your client expects specification document which is nothing more than a list of all features, man hours for each and your hourly price. This can be a usual word document with text only or excel sheet with table and additional calculations like risk or unpredictable events, etc. If you're writing it for the first time, then a normal work doc is OK. You may format it to look more professional if you like. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, design and web development are two totally different things. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Design - I would give client a rough price for the design + let him know how many changes he can have for that price (5 for example). Yes, limit number of changes or you may end up doing touches on a small image for 1 month. To know the price you need to calculate work hours you need for this project. There is also a situation when client is willing to pay all time spent on design, but those cases are rare, at least with me and my friends. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Coding - make a list of all features. Do not miss any and do not think that some feature is implied. The client will know that you are estimating the price for the listed features only. This will also be a type of agreement between you two. The list of features can be as simple as this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Landing page (you may also add a description of it)&#xD;&#xA;1a. Left menu 5 man hours&#xD;&#xA;1b. Right menu 10 man hours&#xD;&#xA;1c. something else&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. About screen&#xD;&#xA;2a. Email feature 1 man hour&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end you put TOTAL and count man hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As third part you may add hosting price and your monthly support or something. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is a &quot;sure job&quot;, then make a list of features detailed ones. If this is only to see if the client will move forward, then list only high-level features letting the client know that you two will later make more detailed specs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask if I missed anything. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2507" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="956" RevisionGUID="1b76b3a0-500d-4a2a-9791-dd1271f8c079" CreationDate="2013-11-12T19:42:48.783" UserId="75" Comment="added 94 characters in body" Text="My client is requesting a general quotation about the design and development of their site. What I need is the specifications that I should evaluate the quotation on, such as if I need to host the domain, site responsiveness, multi-language, etc. **How can I make a &quot;general&quot; quotation before knowing what will be on the site?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2511" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="959" RevisionGUID="f1db6e42-7f4e-4ab7-89a8-69967db75f1a" CreationDate="2013-11-13T03:58:48.737" UserId="708" Text="**I always reply within 24 hours.** Even if that reply is to let the client know I received their email and have been unable to provide the attention it deserves. I then provide a specific date to expect a reply. Generally that date is within one or two days, rarely (if ever) longer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Prompt communication is imperative. Clients are generally more than willing to wait a bit if you ask them to. They tend to get upset and feel unimportant if you simply don't communicate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I set aside the first hour or so of every working day for clerical matters - responding to emails, invoicing, tracking, etc. Then another hour in the afternoon for the same thing. Communication is as important in the freelance world as the actual work. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2512" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="956" RevisionGUID="6ff355ad-e07d-4132-8401-5cfb3507bdec" CreationDate="2013-11-13T04:02:27.240" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/400473708701429760" />
  <row Id="2513" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="960" RevisionGUID="ff4c0046-1608-409c-9c20-0724dc1c2410" CreationDate="2013-11-13T10:06:08.693" UserId="517" Text="Based on my previous [post][1], we decided to hire part-time freelancer who will reply to all emails and do all non-technical correspondence with the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I am not sure how to train this person, that is, what tasks to give him/her. Let me present some of my concerns:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Should we hire a person who is not a developer or a designer? (our projects are development and design) Obviously we can get not only lower hourly rate, but I don't think that a designer or a developer would accept being a PA or something. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Should this person reveal his identity to clients (so that they know they are not talking to anyone of us directly) or the client should think he's talking to someone of us?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Should this person work our time or Philippines time or he/she should work US time (most clients are from the USA)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. At this point we plan to have a person who will reply emails only for those clients who contact us first. Do you think it's realistic that we train him/her to be able to bid to new projects in our name?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/948/how-important-is-a-prompt-reply-in-the-freelance-world" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2514" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="960" RevisionGUID="ff4c0046-1608-409c-9c20-0724dc1c2410" CreationDate="2013-11-13T10:06:08.693" UserId="517" Text="How to set a job for a freelancer who will talk to clients only?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2515" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="960" RevisionGUID="ff4c0046-1608-409c-9c20-0724dc1c2410" CreationDate="2013-11-13T10:06:08.693" UserId="517" Text="|freelance-fields|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2516" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="960" RevisionGUID="524c51b9-c8da-4854-b543-4eadd4a91d23" CreationDate="2013-11-13T10:56:32.250" UserId="517" Comment="edited title" Text="How to properly set tasks for a freelancer who will talk to clients only?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2520" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="959" RevisionGUID="600ba2de-08fb-4d99-b4c8-5f6fe5a4a37d" CreationDate="2013-11-13T16:45:58.563" UserId="708" Comment="added 1261 characters in body" Text="**I always reply within 24 (business) hours.** Even if that reply is to let the client know I received their email and have been unable to provide the attention it deserves. I then provide a specific date to expect a reply. Generally that date is within one or two days, rarely (if ever) longer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Prompt communication is imperative. Clients are generally more than willing to wait a bit if you ask them to. They tend to get upset and feel unimportant if you simply don't communicate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I set aside the first hour or so of every working day for clerical matters - responding to emails, invoicing, tracking, etc. Then another hour in the afternoon for the same thing. Communication is as important in the freelance world as the actual work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will add that I **do not** respond to emails, phone calls, text or other communications during *non-working* hours. For example, I have clients who will email me Friday night, Saturday morning, or Sunday evening. I **never** respond to those email until my next work day (Monday). **EVER**. As soon as you respond to someone during off-hours they assume your available during off-hours and will continue to expect replies in the future. ***Always*** use specific business hours to communicate with clients. Even if that means waiting two or three days (Friday to Monday) to respond.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The same holds true for general daily hours. I often work very late at night or very early morning. If I have an East coast client email me at 5 am and I happen to be working and see the email. I wait until at least 8 am my time (West coast) to respond. If a client calls or texts me at 10pm, I don't answer. They can leave a message and I'll get to it the next day. I'm not at their beckon call.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it is very important to be prompt in communication, it is also important to set some boundaries with clients for your own peace of mind. If you fail to do this, you'll start feeling like you are &quot;on-call&quot; 24/7 and that begins to wear on anyone eventually. Freelancing isn't about being a slave to clients. It's about freedom. Be certain to protect that freedom in situations such as these." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2521" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="962" RevisionGUID="019e94d8-8318-4646-aac9-183b8c0fec8e" CreationDate="2013-11-13T16:48:15.553" UserId="782" Text="I would hire someone who is not a developer/designer. That skillset is not important in this role, and may lead to some second-guessing of his/her bosses. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The person should say something like the following:&#xD;&#xA;    Hi! I am [insert name] and I am a [insert title, maybe contact manager?!?] for [insert company]. I will be your personal go-between with the devs and you. Anytime you need something, feel free to let me know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;US time. I wonder what is going on with people when I get emails from them at 3AM EST. You don't want that in the equation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yessir. You want them to do as much project management as possible. Give incentives to them for getting more work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Anyway, just my 2 bits.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2522" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="963" RevisionGUID="e688043e-ca51-44bc-a758-196d4a530e06" CreationDate="2013-11-13T17:06:11.643" UserId="708" Text="1. While you certainly don't need someone with the skillset of a developer or designer, you **do** need someone who understands the processes thoroughly. There's nothing more annoying to an educated client than dealing with an uneducated company representative. So, skills - probably no. But, understanding - definitely yes. If that means you need to train someone, that would work as well. They should be able to speak about design or development from a confident, knowledgeable place rather than simply taking notes and passing along messages. If a representative does NOT understand the business there is a great deal of delay in working. Often a 10 second, educated question can save three days of back and forth emails. That's what you should be seeking to make your life easier. They don't need to know specifically how to do XXXXX, but they should be aware of the information needed to accurately proceed with XXXXX.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. No. If you hire them as a company representative, they should be presented as a company representative and not as a third party. This should be outlined in a contract and a non-compete and non-disclosure agreement between your company and the representative. Your clients do not need to be aware of the business arrangement you have with the representative.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. When do YOU contact clients? Optimally the best time would be a blend of the two. For example 7am Pacific to 3pm Pacific Time. This would make the person available during morning hours on both US coasts, a full day on the east coast and most of the day on the west coast of the US. Or split it to 6-9am West coast, then 1-4pm West coast. Covering morning and afternoon hours on all US costs. These are just ideas. No matter when the person works, you can work around that since it's your representative. The key factor is to be able to touch base with clients in the morning and the afternoon regardless of which US coast they may be located on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. This goes back to item 1. If you expect someone to calculate quotes and bids they better be **completely** aware of your requirements and what it takes to complete client requests. In addition, you are placing *more* of your livelihood in their hands if they are bidding jobs for you. What if they forget something and underbid? What if they overbid and you suddenly find your client base dwindling. Frankly, I would not trust a contact worker who may or may not understand the work to be done with quoting or bidding ANYTHING.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2523" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="963" RevisionGUID="054cd398-fdb1-4338-a01b-b2a385690bf3" CreationDate="2013-11-13T17:47:30.243" UserId="75" Comment="added 1 characters in body" Text="1. While you certainly don't need someone with the skillset of a developer or designer, you **do** need someone who understands the processes thoroughly. There's nothing more annoying to an educated client than dealing with an uneducated company representative. So, skills - probably no. But, understanding - definitely yes. If that means you need to train someone, that would work as well. They should be able to speak about design or development from a confident, knowledgeable place rather than simply taking notes and passing along messages. If a representative does NOT understand the business there is a great deal of delay in working. Often a 10 second, educated question can save three days of back and forth emails. That's what you should be seeking to make your life easier. They don't need to know specifically how to do XXXXX, but they should be aware of the information needed to accurately proceed with XXXXX.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. No. If you hire them as a company representative, they should be presented as a company representative and not as a third party. This should be outlined in a contract and a non-compete and non-disclosure agreement between your company and the representative. Your clients do not need to be aware of the business arrangement you have with the representative.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. When do YOU contact clients? Optimally the best time would be a blend of the two. For example 7am Pacific to 3pm Pacific Time. This would make the person available during morning hours on both US coasts, a full day on the east coast and most of the day on the west coast of the US. Or split it to 6-9am West coast, then 1-4pm West coast. Covering morning and afternoon hours on all US coasts. These are just ideas. No matter when the person works, you can work around that since it's your representative. The key factor is to be able to touch base with clients in the morning and the afternoon regardless of which US coast they may be located on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. This goes back to item 1. If you expect someone to calculate quotes and bids they better be **completely** aware of your requirements and what it takes to complete client requests. In addition, you are placing *more* of your livelihood in their hands if they are bidding jobs for you. What if they forget something and underbid? What if they overbid and you suddenly find your client base dwindling. Frankly, I would not trust a contact worker who may or may not understand the work to be done with quoting or bidding ANYTHING.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2527" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="965" RevisionGUID="4f3242f3-1da8-47da-a1bd-322f449fa8ca" CreationDate="2013-11-14T09:50:22.410" UserId="517" Text="I recently heard that some freelancers use virtual offices not only for small team collaboration, but also when negotiating with clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is your experience with it? I would like to hear bad sides of it primarily. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it really something that you would recommend any freelancer use?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, it would be good you recommend a service you used where I seek most features for lowest price :). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2528" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="965" RevisionGUID="4f3242f3-1da8-47da-a1bd-322f449fa8ca" CreationDate="2013-11-14T09:50:22.410" UserId="517" Text="Virtual office for a team of freelancers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2529" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="965" RevisionGUID="4f3242f3-1da8-47da-a1bd-322f449fa8ca" CreationDate="2013-11-14T09:50:22.410" UserId="517" Text="|virtual-office|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2534" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="965" RevisionGUID="d391bba2-3d73-49c5-a340-406abaa76d06" CreationDate="2013-11-15T01:17:48.697" UserId="64" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="2535" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="967" RevisionGUID="9af60cb8-9bf0-4868-868d-160785aced71" CreationDate="2013-11-15T03:45:19.213" UserId="1248" Text="You have to make sure that the client pays some amount in advance. there is every reason that the client may decline the advance. So as a general level of strategy, before asking for the advance put up a mark in the client by establishing your credentials. Talking about your previous websites, deeds you have done , demonstrating your work etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2536" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="954" RevisionGUID="bcf43913-89d1-47f7-bd14-69b21ec9a8ee" CreationDate="2013-11-15T04:13:30.947" UserId="64" Comment="fixed grammar and capitalization" Text="Most of the clients are prompt and pay the money on completion of the project. While some companies agree to pay the amount as soon as project delivery, it never happens as expected.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reasons they give is that they are testing, or that they are out of town. They'll say &quot;Please bear with the delay we are expecting some income from other sources.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So in such cases, having advance payment prior to project development is better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I handle the contract situation in such cases? How do I make a contract prior to project development?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2537" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="968" RevisionGUID="6f58b610-ed7e-4829-a75d-c998b0ca338f" CreationDate="2013-11-15T10:50:38.690" UserId="124" Text="Yes. You are providing a service, investing your time ensure your clients are serious by investing their money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I ask for 50% deposit before any work, never had anyone dispute that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2538" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="960" RevisionGUID="a3214897-5059-48c2-80e9-cf172b7361d3" CreationDate="2013-11-15T16:02:52.170" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/401379783902494720" />
  <row Id="2539" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="954" RevisionGUID="1a486b7c-7eb2-4522-9c20-3f63f9eba4fb" CreationDate="2013-11-15T16:37:51.950" UserId="75" Comment="5" />
  <row Id="2541" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="939" RevisionGUID="6060069a-3cf7-4ed2-91c2-1a00a7f36bf9" CreationDate="2013-11-16T07:02:55.080" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/401606287844466688" />
  <row Id="2542" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="969" RevisionGUID="b6f37761-9f74-41c9-b271-8348bb43c93f" CreationDate="2013-11-17T02:26:46.750" UserId="1258" Text="Regular employees can choose what company to work for and stick with it. Freelancers meet new clients everyday - repeat businesses, referrals or simply new people. How can you pick and choose, especially when the reason is not quite clear? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I avoid websites with following themes - religious/adult/gambling/alcohol/meat etc. (I'm sure I'm missing some.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People even get offended/confused about why I'm turning their site down, if it's not blatantly clear (like porn?). Freelancing is greatly based on referrals, and when a client refers me to another client whose line-of-work I cannot approve, I run into embarrassing situation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, this one guy wrote about non-vegetarian recipes. He was like, &quot;I'm not selling any meat! Why can't you take my site?&quot; **I don't/can't, because I fall sick.**  (No, not a coincidence or a hint from universe, probably due to the dilemma eating my brain.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Telling me things like &quot;None-of-my-business&quot; does not work for me. I tried that over and over.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I contact several new prospects on my own daily (not cold-calling), but sometimes during the middle of the conversation, I realize I cannot work for the company due to their line-of-work, and it leads to a very embarrassing situation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also hope you realize that I'm not coming from &quot;holier-than-thou&quot; attitude. I'm sure I'm not better than anybody else ethically or morally, but I don't know what to do about this particular situation.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2543" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="969" RevisionGUID="b6f37761-9f74-41c9-b271-8348bb43c93f" CreationDate="2013-11-17T02:26:46.750" UserId="1258" Text="freelancing and ethical/moral dilemmas" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2544" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="969" RevisionGUID="b6f37761-9f74-41c9-b271-8348bb43c93f" CreationDate="2013-11-17T02:26:46.750" UserId="1258" Text="|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2545" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="969" RevisionGUID="761be9db-9b1e-4bf5-b7ef-17ff5288f98f" CreationDate="2013-11-17T02:55:08.843" UserId="1258" Comment="added 156 characters in body" Text="Regular employees can choose what company to work for and stick with it. Freelancers meet new clients everyday - repeat businesses, referrals or simply new people. How can you pick and choose, especially when the reason is not quite clear? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I avoid websites with following themes - religious/adult/gambling/alcohol/meat etc. (I'm sure I'm missing some.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People even get offended/confused about why I'm turning their site down, if it's not blatantly clear (like porn?). Freelancing is greatly based on referrals, and when a client refers me to another client whose line-of-work I cannot approve, I run into embarrassing situation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, this one guy wrote about non-vegetarian recipes. He was like, &quot;I'm not selling any meat! Why can't you take my site?&quot; **I don't/can't, because I fall sick.**  (No, not a coincidence or a hint from universe, probably due to the dilemma eating my brain.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Telling me things like &quot;None-of-my-business&quot; does not work for me. I tried that over and over.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I contact several new prospects on my own daily (not cold-calling), but sometimes during the middle of the conversation, I realize I cannot work for the company due to their line-of-work, and it leads to a very embarrassing situation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also hope you realize that I'm not coming from &quot;holier-than-thou&quot; attitude. I'm sure I'm not better than anybody else ethically or morally, but I don't know what to do about this particular situation.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question: How to turn down projects without upsetting the client or client's referral and creating an embarrassing situation for everyone involved?** " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2546" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="969" RevisionGUID="aeb5a79b-5154-470b-8c01-0b96a51d2d4a" CreationDate="2013-11-17T03:05:03.320" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title" Text="How to turn down freelancing projects due to ethical/moral dilemmas without upsetting client or referring party?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2547" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="970" RevisionGUID="2dcf2cba-8fb7-48f6-a937-6472c4ddb3bd" CreationDate="2013-11-17T04:07:33.800" UserId="708" Text="I don't understand the dilemma.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*&quot;Sorry, I'm not available to work on your project.&quot;* Should be **more** than sufficient.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If asked again, *&quot;Sorry, I'm just not available.&quot;* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If pressed... &quot;*Sorry, I just don't have available resources at the present time.&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's *no reason* you need to justify not doing the work. They aren't your &quot;boss&quot; if you're freelancing. You are perfectly within fair business practices to decline the work based on whatever reason you want to give. Using current workload as an excuse is often taken as &quot;less personal&quot; by some.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's also nothing wrong with stating, *&quot;Sorry, I just wouldn't be comfortable working a site dedicated to XXXXX.&quot;*  After all, if you aren't going to do the job now, two weeks from now, or a month from now, you may as well make it clear why you don't want the work rather than waste everyone's time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's often a freelancers folly to assume they need to please and stroke every single person who approaches them for work. That's a misconception. Do **not** waste the time of others. If someone has 50 sites to get done and they are all geared towards material you find objectionable, then turn them down and state you don't want to work on the sites due to the content but you'd be very happy to work with them on sites regarding different material. There's no shame in that. **Don't send mixed messages.** Clients will appreciate that far more than beating around the bush.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's **YOU CONTACTING THEM**... stop doing a **very poor job** of researching the company. You should **absolutely know, without a doubt**, you would do any work for them you are capable of doing, otherwise you should not be contacting them at all." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2548" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="971" RevisionGUID="45363e88-d5eb-46db-8a72-b412be341f81" CreationDate="2013-11-17T11:32:12.360" UserId="517" Text="You probably want to decline the project and keep the client for the future. It's like having 2 girls in the same time, not impossible, but hardly doable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first thing it to be honest and tell why you decline. I was once decline by a great designer because our design was against his religion believes. I was disappointed but respected his honesty. And we used his services after that so he did not lose me as a client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you send a honest reply chances are 50:50 that you will be considered ever in the future. But I guess you just have to take that risk. Just be honest and explain why you cannot do the job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IMHO the worst thing would be to take this job because you're scared for the future. You will break your believes and there are small chances you will be able to do quality work in the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hey, you should not be embarrassed because you decline someone during the first negotiations. It is their purpose so that you can see whether you can do the project or not. You should only be embarrassed if you accept the job and then decline. That is totally unacceptable. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2550" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="969" RevisionGUID="b76a10e4-bde6-43ee-bf4d-239e09e8efe6" CreationDate="2013-11-18T10:03:02.987" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/402376395953041408" />
  <row Id="2567" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="245" RevisionGUID="a6462eb4-0505-4d3c-a859-e799e5e153c9" CreationDate="2013-11-20T04:03:13.777" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/403010619693342720" />
  <row Id="2568" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="975" RevisionGUID="d0362032-5458-4971-a4f3-fd16928212ab" CreationDate="2013-11-20T10:13:43.110" UserId="517" Text="The questions is simple. I am outsourcing a project which I cannot handle. And I am taking percentage on every hour my contractor worked. I am closely monitoring this project and do all project management thing which sometimes take 1 hour a day, and sometimes 3 hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Shall I count these management work hours into the project timesheet or not (since I already take percentage)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this moment, I am not counting my work but only track hours the contractor spends. My friends tell me that I should charge my time as well. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2569" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="975" RevisionGUID="d0362032-5458-4971-a4f3-fd16928212ab" CreationDate="2013-11-20T10:13:43.110" UserId="517" Text="Shall I count my management work hours if I outsource the project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2570" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="975" RevisionGUID="d0362032-5458-4971-a4f3-fd16928212ab" CreationDate="2013-11-20T10:13:43.110" UserId="517" Text="|outsourcing|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2571" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="976" RevisionGUID="9f952d05-7ce4-476a-952c-d4ea4d326e25" CreationDate="2013-11-20T12:23:22.647" UserId="789" Text="I recently did a website work for client in UK.(I am from INDIA).&#xD;&#xA;Before giving the quotation I made a detailed research about the charges for web-development in UK and for a medium website, the charge went between 1000 to 2000 Pounds. My client wanted a much affordable quotation since they are outsourcing me and that UK designers have to pay a lot of taxes and I do not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally we made a decent website which took around 50 hours of dedicative input and I gave the final bill of 400 Pounds. Its over a month and my client is still processing the bill. They are giving reasons which are not convinving. Lately I got a doubt whether I had charged them above the expectation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you think this is a Fair amount..? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2572" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="976" RevisionGUID="9f952d05-7ce4-476a-952c-d4ea4d326e25" CreationDate="2013-11-20T12:23:22.647" UserId="789" Text="Am I charging them right?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2573" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="976" RevisionGUID="9f952d05-7ce4-476a-952c-d4ea4d326e25" CreationDate="2013-11-20T12:23:22.647" UserId="789" Text="|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2576" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="976" RevisionGUID="534b66be-612f-4fe7-9d40-483744eadaf7" CreationDate="2013-11-20T15:52:41.273" UserId="58" Comment="added 49 characters in body; edited tags" Text="I recently did web development work for client in UK (I am from India).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before giving the quotation, I did detailed research about the charges for web development in the UK and for a medium-sized website; the charge was between £1000-2000 on average.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My client wanted a much more affordable quotation since they are outsourcing me and UK designers have to pay a lot of taxes and I do not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally I made a decent website which took around 50 hours of work and I gave the final bill of £400. Its over a month and my client is still processing the bill; they are giving reasons which are not convincing.&#xD;&#xA;Lately, I'm doubting whether I had overcharged them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even though this is massively under the usual charge for the client, is this still reasonable behaviour?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2577" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="976" RevisionGUID="534b66be-612f-4fe7-9d40-483744eadaf7" CreationDate="2013-11-20T15:52:41.273" UserId="58" Comment="added 49 characters in body; edited tags" Text="|client|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2578" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="287" RevisionGUID="b2e140e8-4173-4101-864b-e27b56d08b0b" CreationDate="2013-11-20T16:03:14.037" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/403191815417126912" />
  <row Id="2579" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="978" RevisionGUID="54e6919a-7ecc-4e43-aa51-0d9c3a396487" CreationDate="2013-11-20T18:38:25.510" UserId="1278" Text="I would say yes. bringing more people on to a project always creates more work, and I don't see any reason you shouldn't bill for that work. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2580" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="979" RevisionGUID="54327d48-cd68-430c-8df7-c90f4d58a4e8" CreationDate="2013-11-20T19:12:23.267" UserId="517" Text="As I can see, you charged them 8 pounds per hour, which is $13 per hour. This is a very good price and you definitely did not overcharge them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your other mistake is that you investigated the price of work in the UK. You cannot do that. If they wanted a UK developer, they would have taken one. You have to charge them **your hourly price** which can give you a good life and satisfaction in India. I use to work for the UK companies who rent their developers for 300 pounds per hour, while they paid me less than 10% of than money. It was soar, but I could not complain since these are not the rules of this game.So accept it like me or you will have a lot of problems finding clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They still haven't paid you? This is suspicious. I sincerely hope that you did not transfer your work to their servers? Always keep work on your servers until your are fully paid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are asking is it reasonable? No it is not! 5 - 7 days is reasonable. 1 month is VERY suspicious. How are they paying you? Online service like paypal or some other ways?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2581" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="978" RevisionGUID="a679f40a-9f5e-4bde-abe6-75dfffcfec82" CreationDate="2013-11-20T19:31:57.660" UserId="1278" Comment="added 1088 characters in body" Text="I would say yes. bringing more people on to a project always creates more work, and I don't see any reason you shouldn't bill for that work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT: from Peter's comment below, and to expand on this thought a bit more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm saying this assuming that since you are outsourcing, you are interfacing with the client directly. And by that mean handling all invoicing and financial matters along with most if not all client communication. That would also mean that you are paying the outsourced person directly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is the case, then the subcontractor client is _you_ , not your client. That means, among other things, that you are responsible for his pay, not your client (even though your client is indirectly helping you cover that). In that case, the percentage you take off the top is your fee for handling the client relationship and assuming all the financial risk and responsibility that comes along with that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, your management tasks for the project, (which I'm assuming is mostly communication between you and the client and you and the subcontractor) is a service that you are providing your client. And as such, I will bill it in the same manner as you bill any other services to said client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2582" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="980" RevisionGUID="b03f7dbc-82aa-4320-8dce-26eb91f424be" CreationDate="2013-11-21T01:45:19.947" UserId="1287" Text="I am working with a web designer to create an educational web site, and while he was coding it he mentioned that he wanted to put his name on the homepage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I gave him the architecture of the site, the art, and I am also developing all the educational material that will be presented on the site. I mentioned that it would have a global reach and that I would prefer not to commercialize on the site besides what I am calling &quot;the sponsors&quot; and he seemed a little disappointed because he wanted to use my idea to promote his business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have already given him 10% of the revenue. I asked him to consider if he wanted to continue to work given the condition and he agreed. Was I out of line? Was he?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2583" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="980" RevisionGUID="b03f7dbc-82aa-4320-8dce-26eb91f424be" CreationDate="2013-11-21T01:45:19.947" UserId="1287" Text="Web designer's name on the homepage etiquette" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2584" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="980" RevisionGUID="b03f7dbc-82aa-4320-8dce-26eb91f424be" CreationDate="2013-11-21T01:45:19.947" UserId="1287" Text="|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2585" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="981" RevisionGUID="b9f2d0f4-463e-4d1a-9a48-21b25bb8186a" CreationDate="2013-11-21T07:23:08.810" UserId="517" Text="It's your business and your rules. We all would like to have our name imprinted into all projects we did, but that is impossible. If I only recall all the large projects I did and my name is not seen there. The only proof I have is their employee who hired me and whom I put as a reference. If he ever decides not to support me any more, I have no proof I did those project. But this is a freelancer reality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now back on topic. You contractor's wishes are one thing, you business plan is other. If you think that author's name should not be visible, then it's must be. And your contractor has to accept that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you can do as a sign of a good client is to allow him to present your work in his portfolio and to list you as a reference person. If you think this is nothing, then you should know that on multiple occasions I have been asked not to publicize some of my works since I was hired by the agency and the real client was not aware of me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think other freelancers will support this statement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, there are indeed some high-profile agencies and contractors (like @Hiroto mentioned) who insist of having their name imprinted in the project or they will not work on the project. If this case is such, then you have no option. But somehow, I think you are hiring &quot;one of us&quot; not some large and expensive agency or individual. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2590" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="978" RevisionGUID="d0d46fbb-573a-4384-8f58-a828fe495469" CreationDate="2013-11-21T16:00:21.037" UserId="1278" Comment="spelling fix" Text="I would say yes. bringing more people on to a project always creates more work, and I don't see any reason you shouldn't bill for that work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT: from Peter's comment below, and to expand on this thought a bit more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm saying this assuming that since you are outsourcing, you are interfacing with the client directly. And by that mean handling all invoicing and financial matters along with most if not all client communication. That would also mean that you are paying the outsourced person directly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is the case, then the subcontractor's client is _you_ , not your client. That means, among other things, that you are responsible for his pay, not your client (even though your client is indirectly helping you cover that). In that case, the percentage you take off the top is your fee for handling the client relationship and assuming all the financial risk and responsibility that comes along with that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, your management tasks for the project, (which I'm assuming is mostly communication between you and the client and you and the subcontractor) is a service that you are providing your client. And as such, I will bill it in the same manner as you bill any other services to said client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2591" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="983" RevisionGUID="0f096e6d-7c7a-4810-9c03-d3c4d55db3a6" CreationDate="2013-11-21T18:37:13.720" UserId="1292" Text="Usually a client does not know as much as a developer about software, that is why we are hired. The issue I run into is terminology. How do you communicate with a client that has limited computer experience, ex. a client that has never used a right click you can teach them the difference between a left click and a right click.  But in the case of a client that has this little experience is going to have other limitations on terms/experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am going to limit this to web pages since that is where the majority of my work is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have tried asking clients how they use web forms describing in their own terms.  I attempt to use their terms, but I tend to forget their terms (except one client calling a text box a &quot;message grabber&quot;, I couldn't stop laughing when I figured out what they were talking about).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have no issues with teaching a client all of the terms they want to learn, and I have tried this many times, as well as how to use everything that is created. Sometimes this information just cannot be learned in the time of a short contract. I often see clients get frustrated with the amount of new information and occasionally shutdown giving up on creating a website altogether.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have tried making sure I know their preferred method of contact so they are not going over another barrier they are not used to.  This seems to help the most, but I still see issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I would like see is any or all of the following ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Personal experience on how you have resolved/prevented similar issues in the past.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Advice (however obvious it might be) on how to improve communication in my situation.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Link(s) to articles that have **personally** helped you improve communication. (NOTE: I have found many articles online on how to improve communication, but I seem to be missing something critical. I want to know how the article helped you and why you are linking it. Please do not include the results of a web search.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Anything else you find relevant." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2592" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="983" RevisionGUID="0f096e6d-7c7a-4810-9c03-d3c4d55db3a6" CreationDate="2013-11-21T18:37:13.720" UserId="1292" Text="Client to Freelancer Communication - I Need Help to improve" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2593" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="983" RevisionGUID="0f096e6d-7c7a-4810-9c03-d3c4d55db3a6" CreationDate="2013-11-21T18:37:13.720" UserId="1292" Text="|client|evaluating-clients|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2594" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="984" RevisionGUID="bbfcbc48-c571-4811-bdd8-03c3f15d9c1d" CreationDate="2013-11-21T19:20:39.990" UserId="517" Text="You will probably hear a lot of suggestions, but they will eventually lead to the client itself. They are either willing to learn new things or not. And there is nothing you can do about it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, what you can do it make an initial conversation with them asking them about their technical knowledge of the area in question. I personally do not do that as I simply forget to ask them these things. Later in the process I may discover that they do not understand some terms and then I explain it additionally. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also have a habit of explaining specific terms in the brackets, a few first times I talk to the client. The second thing is that I tell them on the beginning to stop me any time I start sounding too technical. For example, last night I had to explain the client why I will be late 2 days on a certain task by introducing him to a term which made me work slower. Then I used good 5 sentences explaining to him what this term means, how is it used in the UI environment and why it's harder to detect bugs. Next time I mention this term, I do not have to make an essay. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far this either works with me or clients are too embarrassed to ask for clarification :). No one likes to sound stupid, although we'd never call them that way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This covers points 1 and 2. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I never tried point 3. Just learned from my experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom like is your behaviour as well. Never try to boast in front of the client by trying to look like guru or something. We are all gurus to them just by the fact that we are &quot;programmers&quot;. So he already sees a guru in you and if you talk simple with him, he will sooner interpret it as yourself stopping to his level, then yourself being ignorant or a bad programmer. So maybe you can have an introductory talk with the client to discover his technical background (again, I do not do that but it does not mean I am right so). &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2595" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="985" RevisionGUID="5f4c81d8-ae13-4aea-b98a-dc1b65c1eb8a" CreationDate="2013-11-22T00:03:27.570" UserId="1018" Text="The rate seems pretty fair to me but should not matter assuming you have an agreement from the client to pay an amount for a product or service that you have delivered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One tactic you might like to try is to threaten to place the debt with a debt collection agency in the UK if it is not paid within a certain amount of time. A UK debt collection agency will be able to submit the debt to a credit reference agency if it is not paid and this will affect your client's credit rating.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's unlikely a client would risk their credit rating over a £400 invoice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2597" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="986" RevisionGUID="92635bfe-b1d2-4901-b3b1-75a9c134ba6f" CreationDate="2013-11-22T06:58:32.150" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/219185/client-threatening-to-take-legal-actions" />
  <row Id="2598" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="987" RevisionGUID="9718fd97-e6d2-47b4-9579-6c3d143d04dc" CreationDate="2013-11-22T06:58:32.150" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/219185/client-threatening-to-take-legal-actions/219192#219192" />
  <row Id="2599" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="987" RevisionGUID="cdd19171-fbd5-43f0-ae3d-655a76b8582f" CreationDate="2013-11-22T06:44:21.080" UserDisplayName="nvoigt" Text="Never, ever send an email when you are angry. Nothing good can come out of this. Calm down, sleep a night about it and send a professional, cooperative message then. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have lost this client. If it would have been a good idea to keep it is an entirely different matter, but the way this ended is bad for you, simply because clients talk. They talk about you. It's in your best interest to have them talking positively about you so you get known and get contracts. Best case now is that he won't talk about you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may be a good idea to apologize to your client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For all legal matters, consult a lawyer. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2600" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="986" RevisionGUID="7b62f10e-2e21-4be4-ad92-eeab6f652cce" CreationDate="2013-11-22T04:43:22.167" UserDisplayName="anon" Text="I recently was in the mockup stage with a client (with whom I didn't enter any contract or anything) and provided him mockups of designs. I asked for an upfront (very small just because he was first client and I had to plan for worst) but he hesitated to pay me and wanted to pay me only after providing design. He continue to be so fussy about every mockup I sent and was always demanding big big changes. So I continued to be patient listen to him and deliver him mockups. He also continued to be like öne last chance I am giving you or else you are wasting my time. And that he is a busy person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then one day it just went beyond my patience and I decided to quit this work. I asked him to pay at least something for over 6-8 mockups that I sent him. But he hesitated and it made me so angry that I sent him an email infuriated and told him to stop being so uncooperative, fussy and arrogant with future freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Somewhere I remember mentioning that he was stupid that he didn't appoint anyone else to talk about the project when he was so busy. Because he was never clear about what he wanted and even on asking him, he was confused or hesitating to reply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So in reply to that email he threatened me that he will take legal action if I misbehave like this. Seriously, after all the efforts wasted and he paid me nothing, he wants to take legal action against me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can he really take legal action against me? And will he? On what grounds?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2601" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="986" RevisionGUID="7b62f10e-2e21-4be4-ad92-eeab6f652cce" CreationDate="2013-11-22T04:43:22.167" UserDisplayName="anon" Text="Client threatening to take legal actions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2602" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="986" RevisionGUID="7b62f10e-2e21-4be4-ad92-eeab6f652cce" CreationDate="2013-11-22T04:43:22.167" UserDisplayName="anon" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2603" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="988" RevisionGUID="f5c005eb-3bbf-4e8a-a18a-254c80022bff" CreationDate="2013-11-22T07:50:49.857" UserId="1298" Text="No matter what is the behavior of the customer, being aggressive and insulting never helps. In some countries, it can, indeed, allow your customer to take legal actions against you for defamation/slandering.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another consequence is that the insulting e-mail can find its way to internet. What if, a few years later, a potential customer—a large corporation, decides to check about you before asking you for your services? What if they ask your actual customer what he thinks about you, and as an example, he forwards them your e-mail?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order to avoid those cases, follow two guidelines:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. If you don't want to maintain relations with a customer who pays (for example because he's a jerk), ask for more money. Make *him* abandon you because he don't have enough money. Never abandon a customer yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. If the customer doesn't pay, there are two cases. Either you have enough leverage to force the customer to pay or you are able to take legal action. Or you can't, in this case you're screwed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2604" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="989" RevisionGUID="bfaefe01-c10a-4071-8be3-aec90c4b983d" CreationDate="2013-11-22T09:14:04.033" UserId="1300" Text="Other answers have said &quot;Don't be angry at a client&quot;, and whilst that is good advice, it doesn't answer your question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No, there is no legal basis for him to take any legal action against you.  You were not under contract and under no obligation to produce any work for him paid, or unpaid.  You are better off without this client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With regards to the content of your email, the other posters are correct - always act in a calm and professional manner.  However, you could have mentioned exactly what you're going to do with his wife and mother in a sauna - and he still wouldn't be able to take legal action as what you want to do with his wife and mother would be entirely opinion-based and not applicable to any libel/slander laws." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2605" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="990" RevisionGUID="83e16ba8-27f7-4ed7-a545-ae11f5913430" CreationDate="2013-11-22T21:04:49.503" UserId="517" Text="Yes, he can take legal action and sue you and... LOSE. I mean, what he will sue you for. For yourself being impatient, rude, non-being-slave-enough?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, does he know you full name and address? He has to put something in it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the future, if things like this happen, just reply to him &quot;Yes, please sue me. Can you also give me you full name and address as I want to sue you for slavery with is forbidden by every world's law?&quot;. I bet you will never hear from him again. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, you had a baptism of fire. Be smart in the future. Always work hourly with weekly payments or have money deposited into escrow service like Skrill for example. Then limit the number of changes you are willing to make. You are hired for your artistic abilities. If the client know what colour better suits some object, then why doesn't he do the design himself?!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I bet the client is some teenager who wanted to have his own slave. Just like the guy contacted me this morning and asked me &quot;I have a debug task for you. Do it and then we will talk about you continuing working on the project. Yes, sure I will do it, I replied. I predict it will take X hours so please deposit the money to the escrow&quot;. He did not reply a word :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2606" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="991" RevisionGUID="08d3c467-4f33-4241-8f93-78d1809635c7" CreationDate="2013-11-23T11:27:51.877" UserDisplayName="user202" Text="What is better for a freelancer, who are experienced in different fields (for example: LaTeX typesetting, physicist and statistician) to have multiple accounts (on Elance, oDesk or any other place) for each field, or stick everything for single account?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2607" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="991" RevisionGUID="08d3c467-4f33-4241-8f93-78d1809635c7" CreationDate="2013-11-23T11:27:51.877" UserDisplayName="user202" Text="Different fields of expertise: single or multiple account?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2608" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="991" RevisionGUID="08d3c467-4f33-4241-8f93-78d1809635c7" CreationDate="2013-11-23T11:27:51.877" UserDisplayName="user202" Text="|freelance-websites|resume|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2609" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="992" RevisionGUID="374d1665-f343-4060-89ad-27e167e8893f" CreationDate="2013-11-23T12:51:39.917" UserId="1308" Text="Well its totally up to you. Creating one account for each field will actually conclude to a large number of accounts for you. Choose a Brand name to represent yourself in the Business. Make accounts on that name everywhere." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2610" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="993" RevisionGUID="4f9f8596-2359-47c5-9eae-203eabd0e4ef" CreationDate="2013-11-23T13:09:16.880" UserId="1309" Text="I am starting a freelance design services business and was wondering how others do their project management and billing. I was planning on creating the proposal in indesign and then sending the invoice through freshbooks. But that is going to require some copy and pasting and could be receptive work. Got any suggestions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2611" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="993" RevisionGUID="4f9f8596-2359-47c5-9eae-203eabd0e4ef" CreationDate="2013-11-23T13:09:16.880" UserId="1309" Text="What do you use to create proposals and send invoices?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2612" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="993" RevisionGUID="4f9f8596-2359-47c5-9eae-203eabd0e4ef" CreationDate="2013-11-23T13:09:16.880" UserId="1309" Text="|contracts|design|accounting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2613" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="993" RevisionGUID="9ed22a36-b79c-456f-b1f2-cf72784b5ba4" CreationDate="2013-11-23T13:23:18.510" UserId="184" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:184,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Oded&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="2614" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="994" RevisionGUID="230b2b75-faa2-4943-9f3b-e45f997447a4" CreationDate="2013-11-23T14:11:18.137" UserId="1308" Text="Even i outsource my projects on which i can not provide much dedication and time. I also take all the fees including Management hours therefore it is actually fair if you deduct the fees for your management hours too." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2615" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="995" RevisionGUID="12439822-4a1a-4c90-b90a-ff0a3a4fb865" CreationDate="2013-11-23T19:48:21.910" UserId="517" Text="On Elance - You can have multiple categories and your rating is applied to each category individually. You can be level 10 in one category, and level 2 in another. Each category is paid indeed,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think on oDesk all is free. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But whatever freelancing site there is, they all have strict policies against multiple accounts. I remember I once tried this on odesk and they blocked both my accounts asking me to send ID for both persons. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, if you manage to find the way to be undetected (proxies or similar tricks), the answer to this is two sided. Many times they will choose you because of experience from previous jobs. Clients see 5 jobs and rarely look what kind of jobs they are. On the other hand, if you mess up in one category, it is not reflected to another. I think this is what concerns you, right? If you, give it a try with multiple accounts for a few months, they start using the one with most jobs awarded. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But IMHO you should go with 1 account. You will feel more professional and pressure of not making a mistake will make you be better. We all have 1 brand name and account. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2616" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="975" RevisionGUID="3728e5d9-763e-469d-91c9-eb8e7b43325a" CreationDate="2013-11-23T21:34:04.603" UserId="75" Comment="6" />
  <row Id="2617" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="993" RevisionGUID="982e0038-401a-4381-bc0b-d58ed565f900" CreationDate="2013-11-23T23:31:03.973" UserId="64" Comment="edited to eliminate all of the polling language" Text="I am starting a freelance design services business and need to handle project management and billing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was planning on creating the proposal in Adobe InDesign and then sending the invoice through FreshBooks. Unfortunately, that is going to require some copy and pasting and could be receptive, time consuming work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I make sure that I can quickly and efficiently create proposals and send invoices without it taking up a lot of time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2618" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="993" RevisionGUID="982e0038-401a-4381-bc0b-d58ed565f900" CreationDate="2013-11-23T23:31:03.973" UserId="64" Comment="edited to eliminate all of the polling language" Text="How to quickly and efficiently create proposals and send invoices?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2619" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="993" RevisionGUID="c7c590ae-9b8d-436e-917f-65a19f1c516e" CreationDate="2013-11-23T23:34:27.957" UserId="64" Comment="7" />
  <row Id="2620" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="993" RevisionGUID="8aa2a46f-f3a5-4e25-b661-fe8ee16f6700" CreationDate="2013-11-23T23:34:32.537" UserId="64" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="2621" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="986" RevisionGUID="f3315f0a-7521-4fe9-8d2d-d64abd6e6781" CreationDate="2013-11-23T23:37:12.143" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title" Text="I recently was in the mockup stage with a client (with whom I didn't enter any contract or anything) and provided him mockups of designs. I asked for an upfront (very small just because he was first client and I had to plan for worst) but he hesitated to pay me and wanted to pay me only after providing design. He continue to be so fussy about every mockup I sent and was always demanding big big changes. So I continued to be patient listen to him and deliver him mockups. He also continued to be like öne last chance I am giving you or else you are wasting my time. And that he is a busy person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then one day it just went beyond my patience and I decided to quit this work. I asked him to pay at least something for over 6-8 mockups that I sent him. But he hesitated and it made me so angry that I sent him an email infuriated and told him to stop being so uncooperative, fussy and arrogant with future freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Somewhere I remember mentioning that he was stupid that he didn't appoint anyone else to talk about the project when he was so busy. Because he was never clear about what he wanted and even on asking him, he was confused or hesitating to reply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So in reply to that email he threatened me that he will take legal action if I misbehave like this. Seriously, after all the efforts wasted and he paid me nothing, he wants to take legal action against me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can he really take legal action against me? And will he? On what grounds?  How should I have handled this situation to prevent this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2622" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="986" RevisionGUID="f3315f0a-7521-4fe9-8d2d-d64abd6e6781" CreationDate="2013-11-23T23:37:12.143" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title" Text="Client threatening to take legal actions -- How should I have prevented this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2624" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="996" RevisionGUID="be3cac74-75b1-47cf-a99f-d61c1a29a82f" CreationDate="2013-11-24T18:26:51.770" UserId="708" Text="No. It does not sound like there's is **any** basis for legal action (but I'm not an attorney). You can't sue people for arguing with you, calling you names, or being unpleasant when speaking (or emailing) in a person-to-person conversation. If all your communication was between only you and the client, there there's nothing he can do. Now, that being posted, if you were to write a blog post, post on a forum, email others stating &quot;The Client&quot; is &quot;stupid&quot; or &quot;arrogant&quot; or other less-than-favorable things, then yes. He could then possibly have grounds for a liable case. But you'd need to speak to an attorney if you did indeed do any of those things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some tips....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. If a client is hesitant to pay for anything at any time, chances are&#xD;&#xA;    they aren't going to pay you. Or, if they do pay, it will be after a&#xD;&#xA;    long delay with excuses and possibly badgering for discounts.&#xD;&#xA; 2. You probably know this, but **always** have an agreement in writing&#xD;&#xA;    regarding the work to be done and the fees associated with the work.&#xD;&#xA;    This doesn't have to be a contract. It can be emails. If emails&#xD;&#xA;    clearly detail the work to be completed and the fees to do that, and&#xD;&#xA;    the client responds agreeing, then there's your written contract.&#xD;&#xA; 3. As others have posted, never type angry or annoyed or frustrated.&#xD;&#xA;    Those attitudes **always** get conveyed in the email, even if you&#xD;&#xA;    think they aren't. Always take a beat and wait to reply if you are&#xD;&#xA;    upset.&#xD;&#xA; 4. When a client is repeatedly being unclear and asking for multiple&#xD;&#xA;    iterations and then being evasive when speaking about payment, those&#xD;&#xA;    should be huge red flags. If for nothing else, for you to stop, take&#xD;&#xA;    a step back, and organize the project yourself. If you've already&#xD;&#xA;    gone above and beyond what you feel is sufficient, then send an&#xD;&#xA;    email stating you are happy to continue working on revisions but are&#xD;&#xA;    unclear about what the final target is to be and that is causing&#xD;&#xA;    undo changes. Then detail what the current changes are which the&#xD;&#xA;    client wants. And ask, &quot;Does this encompass any and all changes at&#xD;&#xA;    this point? If it does not, please detail what has been missed or&#xD;&#xA;    any additional items I may not be aware of.&quot; Basically, stop working&#xD;&#xA;    and start talking. **DISCUSS** the changes rather than implementing&#xD;&#xA;    them. The goal should be to have a written list of items which is&#xD;&#xA;    all inclusive. That way, if new items are added you can refer back&#xD;&#xA;    to the list and state &quot;That's not on the specification sheet we&#xD;&#xA;    agreed upon.&quot; (scope creep)&#xD;&#xA; 5. When scope creep occurs, and it does to everyone. You have to make a&#xD;&#xA;    business decision. Is it worth allowing the creep without issue? Is&#xD;&#xA;    it creep well above and beyond anything reasonable? How much more do&#xD;&#xA;    you need to charge for the creep? Is the client prepared to pay for&#xD;&#xA;    the additional creep? How does creep effect delivery date? Is the&#xD;&#xA;    client prepared for any delay the creep will cause in delivery?&#xD;&#xA;    These are **all** important matters to discuss with the client when&#xD;&#xA;    creep occurs. Don't ever actually work on creep until you've&#xD;&#xA;    discussed it and you can't undeniably cite creep until you address&#xD;&#xA;    #4 above." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2625" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="997" RevisionGUID="08a8ee38-201a-4c44-944a-6655401c040b" CreationDate="2013-11-24T20:00:41.010" UserId="708" Text="The amount you charge is somewhat irrelevant. It does not even come remotely close to anything I'd ever consider as &quot;over&quot; charging. If I wanted to work for $13/hr I'd have full time job, which would still pay better than that. **All clients want better/cheaper pricing**. All of them. It's not up to the client to dictate your pricing, it's up to you. But that's another matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a preferred payment period, that should be noted on all invoices &quot;Due upon receipt&quot; or &quot;Net 15 days&quot; or whatever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You shouldn't overreact or worry if a client take 2, 3, or even 4 weeks to pay. Many simply have to processes the payment through various business sections. Remember if they mail a check, it could take 10 days to get to you easy, if not more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I use Net 15 days on my invoices but I won't say anything until day 31. Then I'll resend the invoice. If I don't see payment within 10 days of the second invoice, I start late fees and send a third overdue notice to the client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2626" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="991" RevisionGUID="2b2db65d-0f33-4ec7-a2a3-39dfcb780728" CreationDate="2013-11-25T22:43:28.843" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/405104479504457728" />
  <row Id="2627" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="998" RevisionGUID="008e672a-a9f8-4136-a382-8a9deb0ea007" CreationDate="2013-11-26T04:17:03.793" UserId="1323" Text="I've been freelancing as a UX designer for a year and a half, and I'm now in the midst of writing more project proposals.  My previous round of proposals was nearly a year ago.  I followed the format that Russ Unger and Carolyn Chandler recommend in *A Project Guide to UX Design*.  The project I landed in that round gave me work for most of this year, so my proposal writing skills are a bit rusty coming back to this now.  A prospect called me last week and asked me to write a proposal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are several things I wanted to include in this next proposal if legally possible, which are not mentioned in the *Project Guide To UX Design*:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The right to use the work I create in this project in my portfolio&#xD;&#xA; 2. What to do if the client doesn't pay (either a flat fee or a percentage of the unpaid invoice)&#xD;&#xA; 3. Cancellation fees&#xD;&#xA; 4. Policies for revisions (a lesson learned from the my most recent project)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Searching the web today for standard language to use for these, I found [a Smashing Magazine article with a contract template][1].  It has several sections I've never seen in a sample proposal, such as things about the Uniform Commercial Code, Code of Fair Practice, and Limitation of Liability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, rolling these sections into my existing proposal template, I'm starting to think that I have two separate documents in one.  The document is also starting to get quite long, and this proposal is for a short project.  So I have several related questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  1. Are proposals and contracts the same thing?&#xD;&#xA;  If not: &#xD;&#xA;  2. What are the differences between the two?&#xD;&#xA;  3. In which stages of the project would I send a proposal, and in which stages of the project would I send a contract?&#xD;&#xA;  4. Would I need to send both a proposal and a contract to a client?  If so, would I need them to sign both before I could start work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/06/07/how-to-spot-a-sketchy-client-plus-a-contract-template/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2628" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="998" RevisionGUID="008e672a-a9f8-4136-a382-8a9deb0ea007" CreationDate="2013-11-26T04:17:03.793" UserId="1323" Text="Are proposals and contracts the same thing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2629" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="998" RevisionGUID="008e672a-a9f8-4136-a382-8a9deb0ea007" CreationDate="2013-11-26T04:17:03.793" UserId="1323" Text="|client|contracts|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2630" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="999" RevisionGUID="2a338583-52fa-47c5-834b-6d473291626c" CreationDate="2013-11-26T06:12:36.207" UserId="592" Text="*(NOTE: Before moving forward, check your level of service with FreshBooks. Some features may not be available in the free tier.)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Staying Within FreshBooks**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've used FreshBooks since 2009 and have found at least a couple of ways to develop a fairly streamlined proposal system that stays within FreshBooks. If your proposal is simple enough, then see if the *'Terms'* or *'Notes'* section in the Estimate or Invoice is a good spot for that. I've also outlined proposals as bullet points using line items on an Estimate/Invoice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But for more complex proposals, especially ones involving images, files, or illustrations, the key is to use the *'Documents'* feature. I've found that PDF files are the easiest to share, so the first thing you may want to do is to make sure your proposal is in PDF form.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Documents**&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA;   Look for the *'Documents'* tab on your FreshBooks' dashboard. It's&#xD;&#xA;   close to the end of the main menu across the top of your screen. If&#xD;&#xA;   you don't see it, then go into *'Settings &gt; Permissions'* to make&#xD;&#xA;   sure that *'Documents'* is enabled as needed. This feature allows&#xD;&#xA;   authorized users to create folders, upload files, and share documents&#xD;&#xA;   with staff and clients. The account admin can set global permissions&#xD;&#xA;   or specify restrictions for each user.&#xD;&#xA; - **Folders**&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA;   Decide how you want to structure your folder tree (ie. by client&#xD;&#xA;   and/or by project). Files are not allowed to be uploaded into the&#xD;&#xA;   root, so a folder needs to be created first in order to upload any&#xD;&#xA;   files. Once this is done, upload your proposal and any supporting&#xD;&#xA;   files to the desired folder. You can now share this folder with your&#xD;&#xA;   client as you see fit.&#xD;&#xA; - **Estimates/Invoices**&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA;   One way to tie the invoice (or estimate) to your proposal docs that are in the&#xD;&#xA;   *Documents* section is to convert your invoice to PDF and upload it into the same folder as the proposal. If you can, consider&#xD;&#xA;   combining all docs into one PDF file first, then uploading it&#xD;&#xA;   into the folder.&#xD;&#xA; - **Reference The Proposal Docs**&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA;   Whether combined or separate, be sure to name the proposal document&#xD;&#xA;   along with any other required docs. Then reference them somewhere on&#xD;&#xA;   the Estimate/Invoice, either as a line item, noted in the *'Terms'*&#xD;&#xA;   section, or highlighted in the *'Notes'* section.&#xD;&#xA; - **FreshBooks support** offers essentially the same solutions here:&#xD;&#xA;      [http://community.freshbooks.com/support/can-i-attach-a-file-to-an-invoice-estimate-email/][1]&#xD;&#xA; - **FreshBooks Add-Ons**&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA;   FreshBooks also offers  a list of add-ons that &quot;connect to your FreshBooks account, giving you new functionality and creating a workflow catered to your business.&quot; These add-ons include popular project management apps such as BaseCamp, along with payment gateway, accounting, time-tracking apps and more. For a full list see [http://community.freshbooks.com/addons/][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; ----------&#xD;&#xA;**Outside Of FreshBooks**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Email.** Attaching your proposal as a PDF file to good 'ol email still works as long as it's not too big. For larger files, consider&#xD;&#xA;   using Box, GoogleDrive, or DropBox.&#xD;&#xA; - **DropBox.** I use the 'share link' or 'shared folder' features available in DropBox. If a client uses DropBox then I prefer to&#xD;&#xA;   create and share a folder with them. It just syncs automatically. And just like I would in&#xD;&#xA;   FreshBooks, I can create the folder structure as needed. For&#xD;&#xA;   non-users, I usually create a folder, upload project files to it and share the link to that folder via email. As long as I don't rename the folder or change its location, I can add, delete, or edit its contents. The folder stays updated with the latest while the link remains valid and can be bookmarked.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So there's a few ideas from my own workflow. Hope this helps get the ball rolling for you!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://community.freshbooks.com/support/can-i-attach-a-file-to-an-invoice-estimate-email/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://community.freshbooks.com/addons/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2631" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1000" RevisionGUID="5a0bff0a-1c4d-4948-a99d-90d16b1f1ab5" CreationDate="2013-11-26T08:22:53.050" UserId="517" Text="1. Definitely not. A contract is done by attorneys, proposal can send a garbage man.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Just said. One is legal doc which protects your right and your pocket, the other is your estimation of costs put in nice words. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Contract goes only in the end! Before you start working!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Not at the same time. He does not need to sign the proposal, but you can put a line in the contract saying like &quot;Hereby I acknowledge that I have seen and read the proposal sent by XYZ and I am totally aware of its blah blah blah&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you can do is what large companies does: make some official documents describing your way of work, liabilities, and so on. And during the conversation send it to a client to read it. It does not have to do anything with the contract since in the contract you will state that the client has read those document. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, this is all amateurish. If you want to do it properly, then you'd have to hire a legal advisor. It's your money in the game and mistakes can cost you much. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2632" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1001" RevisionGUID="78ea4007-fb74-45db-ad6e-d3046c046f84" CreationDate="2013-11-26T11:05:48.180" UserId="100" Text="It’s your call. If you didn’t agree upon including credits beforehand, you don’t have to. But …&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It’s *fair* to give credits to the web designer. It usually consists of three parts: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **name** of the web designer resp. the business&#xD;&#xA;* **link** back to the web designer’s website (possibly with `rel`-`nofollow`)&#xD;&#xA;* a **note** what was done by the web designer (e.g., in your case probably: &quot;technical implementation (HTML, CSS)&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But the *home page* is the most precious page of a website. I’d only give credits on the home page in rare cases, e.g., for people that made enormous contributions, or for people that worked as volunteers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The usual place for crediting the web designer would be an about or contact page.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may offer this as a compromise." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2633" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1002" RevisionGUID="5c94fbbc-2682-46fd-87d3-ad2ed3e380ec" CreationDate="2013-11-26T12:38:27.453" UserId="124" Text="No. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A Contract is the terms and conditions you lay down, normally across all projects (it is often a generic document).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A Proposal is job specific. It lays out what the project aims to achieve, the features it may have and timescales.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only variation is where the price is located. Some people put this in to the contract, however really it should be with the proposal so if the specification changes you can update the proposal and price without redoing the contract etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I normally send them together so the client can have everything together. All legal bits, if you don't pay and so forth, should be in the contract. I also ask my clients to sign both documents when they are happy to proceed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just remember this: A proposal should do the selling (less is more!) and a contract is for *all that extra stuff you have to say*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sources: http://www.ehow.com/info_8406405_difference-between-contract-proposal.html and http://www.sageweddingpros.com/2012/02/21/proposals-vs-contracts/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2634" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1003" RevisionGUID="25a5410c-a4e6-40ab-ae30-b62bf8b0d3f2" CreationDate="2013-11-26T12:46:14.293" UserId="124" Text="I have a decent client base now, after many years of hard work however increasingly clients are saying they will come to meet me. This is a change from what I am used to where I would always go and visit clients. The problem is I work from home and for various reasons I do not want to start using my home as a client meeting area (there is no where suitable for starters). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - How should I get around this, is it unprofessional to say can we meet&#xD;&#xA;   at a nice quirky coffee shop? &#xD;&#xA; - If they insist (which I have had) should I cave in and say ok?&#xD;&#xA; - Is it right to say to clients quite simply: I do not wish to meet at my home for personal reasons?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just for clarification, all of my clients know I work from home - I'm not hiding that, and clients are asking to meet me for a variety of reasons." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2635" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1003" RevisionGUID="25a5410c-a4e6-40ab-ae30-b62bf8b0d3f2" CreationDate="2013-11-26T12:46:14.293" UserId="124" Text="How should I deal with clients wanting to meet me, but I work at home?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2636" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1003" RevisionGUID="25a5410c-a4e6-40ab-ae30-b62bf8b0d3f2" CreationDate="2013-11-26T12:46:14.293" UserId="124" Text="|client-support|working-from-home|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2637" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1004" RevisionGUID="262a6762-b2f9-41d8-a849-e031881efe7f" CreationDate="2013-11-26T14:09:42.793" UserId="127" Text="It is perfectly acceptable to keep clients away from your home. I have been freelancing with local clients for 10 years and have never invited a client to my home. I offer to meet with them at:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Their offices&#xD;&#xA; - Coffee shops&#xD;&#xA; - Co-working spaces or other rent an office for a day locations&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've never had someone insist they should come to my office, but I'd simply say &quot;that's not an option&quot; and stick to my guns. No explanation is necessary, but if you prefer to have one you can try &quot;My home office is not designed for client interactions&quot; and leave it at that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2638" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1000" RevisionGUID="8cfd0db3-ccb8-45ff-bdef-992ab53b038c" CreationDate="2013-11-26T17:03:59.587" UserId="75" Comment="added 23 characters in body" Text="1. Definitely not. A contract is done by attorneys, whereas a proposal can be sent by a garbage man.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Just said. One is legal document which protects your right and your pocket, the other is your estimation of costs put in nice words. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Contract goes only in the end! Before you start working!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Not at the same time. He does not need to sign the proposal, but you can put a line in the contract saying like &quot;*Hereby I acknowledge that I have seen and read the proposal sent by XYZ and I am totally aware of its blah blah blah*&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you can do is what large companies does: make some official documents describing your way of work, liabilities, and so on. And during the conversation send it to a client to read it. It does not have to do anything with the contract since in the contract you will state that the client has read those document. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, this is all amateurish. If you want to do it properly, then you'd have to hire a legal advisor. It's your money in the game and mistakes can cost you much. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2639" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1005" RevisionGUID="fa61500e-f2ac-40a9-afb6-4c2989de722a" CreationDate="2013-11-26T17:24:33.300" UserId="75" Text="Reading though the Wikipedia article on [Types of Business Entities in Canada](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_business_entity#Canada), I can see how some Freelancers would fit in different parts of the list:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Rather, Canadian businesses are generally formed under one of the following structures:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **SP (Sole Proprietorship)**: No formal business structure is established  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; **GP (General Partnership)**: Either a formal structure with a partnership agreement, or an informal structure, in which case the Partnerships Act for the province will apply  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; **LP (Limited Partnership)**: An investment structure, limiting both the liability and the participation of the investor. An investor who takes an active role will be deemed a general partner, and become exposed to unlimited liability.  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Corporation**  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Joint Venture**: A business activity shared by two or more business entities. The joint venture's activities must be finite in terms of either time or scope.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have also heard that freelancers should change their entity to something such as a corporation, mostly for tax purposes. **What benefits does one gain by becoming a Corporation, and how would one go about it legally?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2640" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1005" RevisionGUID="fa61500e-f2ac-40a9-afb6-4c2989de722a" CreationDate="2013-11-26T17:24:33.300" UserId="75" Text="In Canada, how should I determine to be a different company entity?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2641" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1005" RevisionGUID="fa61500e-f2ac-40a9-afb6-4c2989de722a" CreationDate="2013-11-26T17:24:33.300" UserId="75" Text="|taxes|canada|entity|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2642" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1006" RevisionGUID="f591b2b4-d156-4a80-9994-079624b45508" CreationDate="2013-11-27T00:55:37.763" UserId="1283" Text="The particular break even point from Sole Proprietorship to Corporation depends on your personal circumstances but tends to be at around the 40-60K / year point. Talk to an accountant. Be aware that having a corporation also takes more time, from the time to set one up with a lawyer to the added time handling accounting (even if you are working with an accountant), and the added time of maintaining a separate bank account, credit card entity, etc.. The upfront costs range from 1.5 to 4K, and the yearly costs are about 3-500. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You'll want to use a lawyer because the cost of making a mistake or an oversight aren't worth saving $1500. You'll want to shop around because some lawyers overcharge substantially for setting up a corporation, and your needs are very simple, so you just want someone who specializes in churning out small business corporations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apart from the smaller tax burden, there is also some liability insulation. Downsides include that it is much harder to get valid house insurance (BCAA will do it). It also makes it easier to share your tax burden with your life partner in ways that can be quite beneficial. And if you use a lot of non-essential medical services (massage, physio-therapist prescribed personal training, etc.) you can set up a medical trust and save a lot of taxes that way. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2643" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1007" RevisionGUID="42727471-515a-4337-9aee-2020e0f4082e" CreationDate="2013-11-27T01:42:52.420" UserId="708" Text="There are **very** good reasons to **not** meet in your home (at least in the US).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client were to meet in your home for business, then have some accident, like tripping and falling, homeowner's insurance may not cover the accident if the due to the fact it was a business transaction and not standard home use. I know, odd, but leave it to insurance companies to find a way not to pay out. So, if you don't have business insurance for your home, you may be up the creek should something completely unforeseen happen.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's nothing wrong with coffee shops (free wi-fi). I use them quite often. However, they can get busy and distracting. Be sure to schedule meetings during off-peak hours. Nothing worse than a coffee shop around lunch time when you are trying to hold a conversation which contains critical work related content.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it bothers you or your client you can often rent an office space for a day. We have &quot;**day offices**&quot; (sometimes called &quot;office shares&quot;) here which can be rented for periods like 4 or 8 hours during a day for a small fee. I've found this to be the best option here if it's an important meeting where everyone needs to focus well and understand everything going on. It's professional, quiet, and free of distractions when needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Barring the above options, I think I'd look at other public places, a park in nice weather. The Library if you still have one around.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've never had a client insist on meeting in my home, but I have turned away a few who simply wanted to &quot;swing by&quot;. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2644" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1008" RevisionGUID="22283cb4-5393-4455-a27f-1ba687282b6a" CreationDate="2013-11-27T03:00:22.783" UserId="1283" Text="Firing yourself just means suspending/cancelling your payroll account, which is a simple phone call. A corporation is a little bit expensive (bank fees + annual report filing cost), but not as expensive as making a new one if your situation changes in less than 7-8 years." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2645" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1009" RevisionGUID="3a837258-9056-447e-acf1-023fb93feb52" CreationDate="2013-11-27T04:25:05.857" UserId="1283" Text="I, and other freelancers I know do a **lot** of meetings at coffee-shops. Also, I constantly see a part owner of a designer firm I know, who **has** a large office, also doing meetings in the same coffee shops.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Canada it is also very difficult to get home insurance (if you give full disclosure) if clients come to your home, or even if they don't but you are incorporated &amp; work at home. And, not giving full disclosure is kind of silly -- if you ever needed to make a major claim, they would have the grounds to deny it. **So, if clients insist, tell them you are unable to meet clients at home because it would invalidate your home insurance. It is probably true, and you should find this out**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In BC, Canada I was only able after much searching to find one company who would insure me: BCAA. I like to occasionally meet clients at my home office because I have pretty cool setup, and I also frequently pair program at my home office.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another place to consider meetings are University spaces during the times they are less busy. Universities have lots of large, airy, spacious study spaces with power outlets and decent tables/chairs. On off-hours they are often nearly empty.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A freelancing colleague of mine who does not like to work at home rents an &quot;enterprise&quot; space. This is a very common thing for non-tech businesses -- it is a space divided into lots of tiny offices that you rent, with a shared meeting room, kitchen, mailing address and optional answering service. They are inexpensive. I believe he pays $400CAD / month for a space large enough for three people to work in (I work there sometimes too). Smaller spaces are available for as little as $300/month." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2646" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1009" RevisionGUID="6f85df5a-6713-4852-a170-c15a296f7a38" CreationDate="2013-11-27T04:31:40.587" UserId="1283" Comment="added 68 characters in body" Text="I, and other freelancers I know do a **lot** of meetings at coffee-shops. Also, I constantly see a part owner of a designer firm I know, who **has** a large office, also doing meetings in the same coffee shops.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Canada it is also very difficult to get home insurance (if you give full disclosure) if clients come to your home, or even if they don't but you are incorporated &amp; work at home. And, not giving full disclosure is kind of silly -- if you ever needed to make a major claim, they would have the grounds to deny it. **So, if clients insist, tell them you are unable to meet clients at home because it would invalidate your home insurance. It is probably true, and you should find this out**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In BC, Canada I was only able after much searching to find one company who would insure me: BCAA. I like to occasionally meet clients at my home office because I have pretty cool setup, and I also frequently pair program at my home office. But I would never do it if my insurance didn't explicitly cover it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another place to consider meetings are University spaces during the times they are less busy. Universities have lots of large, airy, spacious study spaces with power outlets and decent tables/chairs. On off-hours they are often nearly empty.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A freelancing colleague of mine who does not like to work at home rents an &quot;enterprise&quot; space. This is a very common thing for non-tech businesses -- it is a space divided into lots of tiny offices that you rent, with a shared meeting room, kitchen, mailing address and optional answering service. They are inexpensive. I believe he pays $400CAD / month for a space large enough for three people to work in (I work there sometimes too). Smaller spaces are available for as little as $300/month." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2648" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1011" RevisionGUID="9619b609-047e-43b2-b185-b4d30fcd9c5a" CreationDate="2013-11-27T10:00:54.460" UserId="1335" Text="I'm starting a freelancing business and wondering how should I brand the new business:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Sole Freelancer. Expert in field.&#xD;&#xA;2. A small studio. Company. No &quot;Personal&quot; brand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand that there are pros and cons for each one - But what are the most important ones? What questions should I ask myself to get to the right conclusion?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S - The business is Software engineering.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2649" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1011" RevisionGUID="9619b609-047e-43b2-b185-b4d30fcd9c5a" CreationDate="2013-11-27T10:00:54.460" UserId="1335" Text="How should I brand myself?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2650" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1011" RevisionGUID="9619b609-047e-43b2-b185-b4d30fcd9c5a" CreationDate="2013-11-27T10:00:54.460" UserId="1335" Text="|marketing|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2652" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1012" RevisionGUID="9437e85d-93ff-4c43-a6e8-494c4da139a6" CreationDate="2013-11-27T17:04:59.293" UserId="1338" Text="There are two types of declines at issue here: Work you're offered in response to your marketing/self-promotion efforts, and work that comes to you unsolicited.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second case is easy. As has been stated, you're always at liberty to decline work by saying that you don't have the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other is a little more delicate. If you're soliciting work, and subsequently declining offers (as you're in your right to do) then you owe your client an explanation. Explaining yourself is delicate and inherently fraught with judgement and personal ethics.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would be far better to create a clear policy/position on the types of work you're not interested in doing. However, that can be a very negative opener to new business relationships. Instead, you need to turn your choices into a brand. Emphasize the positive choices you make. If you're going to be as discerning as you've implied, you need to turn it into a marketing platform. Brand yourself as a web developer with a conscience. If your marketing indicates that you only work on products that you would use yourself (or something to that effect) then you won't have to make apologies to anyone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, consider the way in which you decline offers. Understand (and make it clear to your clients) that not all of us hold the same beliefs and that you're not judging them for their choices. Show some sensitivity and repress any judgement. Be matter-of-fact. Don't apologize for your ethics, and don't expect any apologies from them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, as part of your marketing effort, make it clear to prospective clients that the quality of your work allows you to be selective. If you were starving, you might be more liberal with your ethical stance (or perhaps not). But, because your work is good and you are in demand, you're able to be more selective about the work you take on. You're only able to take on so much work. You may as well be selective about what you take on. This will position your brand more favorably. While many of your clients may not agree with you, they'll respect it and bring you only jobs that fit your guidelines. Before long, you won't have to give this too much more thought.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2653" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1013" RevisionGUID="d2245a29-6786-4454-a8b4-e3829002326f" CreationDate="2013-11-27T17:33:24.237" UserId="1338" Text="Possible? Sure. But it you have to consider the nature of project management to understand how to get work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As the project manager role is so critical to the success of a project, companies seeking this type of person will rely heavily on reputation and familiarity. You may be qualified, but why should a client entrust you with a project if they don't know you or your work? If you're hoping to land a project management gig on freelance.com or some similar site, I think you'll be frustrated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Start close to home. Identify the companies and management folks you work with on a regular basis. Evaluate your reputation in their eyes. Do they know you as a strong project manager type? If so, you probably wouldn't be posting this question – it would be simple to approach them and indicate your interest in freelancing for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, you may be known to some extent in your industry, but perhaps your colleagues, clients and vendors don't know you well enough to see you as a project manager. You need to build a portfolio and begin to demonstrate your abilities to colleagues who could become clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Express your desire to freelance to business contacts in the course of your regular dealings. &quot;Thanks for the order, Sue. I really enjoy working with your team. Not sure if you know this, but I do some project management on a contract basis, outside of my job here. If can introduce me to anyone in your organization who could use my skills, or if you can recommend me to any of your clients, I would appreciate it.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;DANGER: You run the risk of conflicting interests. If you have no intention to leave your employer and only intend to do this on the side, you should be completely forthcoming with your employer. If you intend to create a basis for an eventual leap, you still need to be completely above board, but perhaps less forthcoming. This part is complex and specific to each scenario (ie. post another question with more specifics).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2654" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1011" RevisionGUID="46a8f86c-5513-448c-b705-0e6d7e2f3718" CreationDate="2013-11-27T19:26:36.600" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 17 characters in body; edited tags; edited tags" Text="I'm starting a freelancing business and wondering how should I brand the new business:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Sole Freelancer. Expert in field.&#xD;&#xA;2. A small studio. Company. No &quot;Personal&quot; brand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand that there are pros and cons for each one - But what are the most important ones? What questions should I ask myself to get to the right conclusion?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The business is Software engineering." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2655" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1011" RevisionGUID="46a8f86c-5513-448c-b705-0e6d7e2f3718" CreationDate="2013-11-27T19:26:36.600" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 17 characters in body; edited tags; edited tags" Text="|marketing|entity|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2656" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1014" RevisionGUID="e5fcc4f5-48d2-4b8c-a0ae-4eafa8d9942c" CreationDate="2013-11-27T21:16:03.050" UserId="708" Text="Why maintain a false facade? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People **like** dealing with people. In fact, they often *prefer* it over dealing with a company. There's no reason to pretend you are something you are not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I contemplated this same thing briefly when starting out. What I found was ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**As an &quot;organization&quot;** when I received a cold call from someone, they were merely shopping around and trying to get general pricing or guidelines. Most never wanted to proceed past an initial exploratory conversation. A few did, but they were simple one-off, no relationship, jobs. I much prefer repeat business. I had to &quot;sell&quot; and convince these cold calls their project could be completed. If work was gained, the clients were far more rude and demanding. They failed to treat anything as if they were dealing with people and every conversation was along the lines of ordering lunch or some other non-personal conversation. It was very difficult to pick up fluctuations in perceptions and desires because everything was so cold and distant to a degree. Issues which arose were first seen as my &quot;company&quot; issues rather than an honest, open-minded look to se where a problem may lie. In short, as an organization you are treated like a building -- no personal connection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**As a person**, people speak with far more respect and value my time a great deal more. Cold calls were directly seeking to hire **me** and only wanted reassurance. I had to talk myself **out** of the work with these calls. Clients understand that it's *my* knowledge and experience at work not some nameless intern working on their project. They understand that if I present an issue they can't assume it's my fault. In fact, most assume the opposite knowing I wouldn't bring it up unless I needed to. I'm given far more consideration when I need more time on a project. I'm paid *much** faster and with less issues than I was as a non-personal company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, people treat people like they want to be treated. People treat businesses like the business is out to get one over on them. There's a world of difference.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being posted, if you present yourself as an &quot;organization&quot; do you really want to speak about yourself as a third person? What if you have a distinct personality conflict with a client mid-project and they want to work with someone else? Do you then disclose your'e a one-person operation? That will result in feelings of betrayal and a loss of trust - goodbye client forever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only feasible reason I can see to portraying yourself as a company is to have multiple personalities and use multiple email addresses to respond to clients. What about phone calls? What if a client asks, &quot;Why do was always deal with you? Is there someone else we can talk to?&quot; SUre as an organization you may be looked at for some larger projects by bigger clients. But if you can handle the project as an individual, you'll still be contact by those clients (provided your marketing is decent). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can be a one-person company operating under a company name but its only employee/owner/operator. That doesn't really seem to deter anyone who's ever contacted me. I brand my company. And I don't hide the fact that my company consists of only me. I didn't want to brand my name (it's too difficult to pronounce for some). It's okay to be a person with an accountant, or a person with an assistant, but in my view ***don't pretend to be something you're not***. It is way more hassle than it's worth in the long run and there are practically no benefits to it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2657" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1014" RevisionGUID="9050c856-de67-48c5-9894-df543c38bc28" CreationDate="2013-11-27T21:21:57.673" UserId="75" Comment="Minor grammar errors" Text="Why maintain a false facade? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People **like** dealing with people. In fact, they often *prefer* it over dealing with a company. There's no reason to pretend you are something you are not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I contemplated this same thing briefly when starting out. What I found was ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**As an &quot;organization&quot;** when I received a cold call from someone, they were merely shopping around and trying to get general pricing or guidelines. Most never wanted to proceed past an initial exploratory conversation. A few did, but they were simple one-off, no relationship, jobs. I much prefer repeat business. I had to &quot;sell&quot; and convince these cold calls their project could be completed. If work was gained, the clients were far more rude and demanding. They failed to treat anything as if they were dealing with people and every conversation was along the lines of ordering lunch or some other non-personal conversation. It was very difficult to pick up fluctuations in perceptions and desires because everything was so cold and distant to a degree. Issues which arose were first seen as my &quot;company&quot; issues rather than an honest, open-minded look to se where a problem may lie. In short, as an organization you are treated like a building -- no personal connection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**As a person**, people speak with far more respect and value my time a great deal more. Cold calls were directly seeking to hire **me** and only wanted reassurance. I had to talk myself **out** of the work with these calls. Clients understand that it's *my* knowledge and experience at work not some nameless intern working on their project. They understand that if I present an issue they can't assume it's my fault. In fact, most assume the opposite knowing I wouldn't bring it up unless I needed to. I'm given far more consideration when I need more time on a project. I'm paid *much** faster and with less issues than I was as a non-personal company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, people treat people like they want to be treated. People treat businesses like the business is out to get one over on them. There's a world of difference.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being posted, if you present yourself as an &quot;organization&quot; do you really want to speak about yourself as a third person? What if you have a distinct personality conflict with a client mid-project and they want to work with someone else? Do you then disclose your'e a one-person operation? That will result in feelings of betrayal and a loss of trust - goodbye client forever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only feasible reason I can see to portraying yourself as a company is to have multiple personalities and use multiple email addresses to respond to clients. What about phone calls? What if a client asks, &quot;Why do we always deal with you? Is there someone else we can talk to?&quot; Sure, as an organization you may be looked at for some larger projects by bigger clients. But if you can handle the project as an individual, you'll still be contact by those clients (provided your marketing is decent). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can be a one-person company operating under a company name but its only employee/owner/operator. That doesn't really seem to deter anyone who's ever contacted me. I brand my company. And I don't hide the fact that my company consists of only me. I didn't want to brand my name (it's too difficult to pronounce for some). It's okay to be a person with an accountant, or a person with an assistant, but in my view ***don't pretend to be something you're not***. It is way more hassle than it's worth in the long run and there are practically no benefits to it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2658" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1015" RevisionGUID="1812bb1d-2301-44a6-a427-b2b1fc21c3ba" CreationDate="2013-11-27T21:27:08.863" UserId="708" Text="Speak to uneducated clients in terms you would use for a 12 year old. That is not to say be condescending or speak down to them, but use the **words** a 12 year old would understand. Or another way... think of explaining things to someone who English is a second language too. That helps. I have some clients which aren't native English speakers so I often have to stop and restate a sentence using more basic words.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I too often fall into the &quot;*there's too much jargon in that*&quot; pitfall. I have to remember that in education, any education, you need to speak using universal words that even a child (pr pre-teen) will understand. Rather than &quot;text box&quot; or &quot;input field&quot; use &quot;the area where they type in their name&quot;. (Although, I'm using Message Grabber from now on.) Or &quot;spacing between sentences&quot; rather than &quot;line space&quot; or &quot;leading&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you do this a while you get the hang of it very quickly. And as I work with clients and they slowly learn what the terms mean it becomes less of an issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The tricky part is the initial conversations. You often don't know what the client doesn't know. So I try and pepper initial conversations with some terminology specifically (prepared to rephrase if needed) to see how astute the client maybe. The more astute the client the easier the conversations are." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2659" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1015" RevisionGUID="70c1ab21-b1f9-4123-8cd5-c2612411459b" CreationDate="2013-11-27T21:32:21.510" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 4 characters in body" Text="Speak to uneducated clients in terms you would use for a 12 year old. That is not to say be condescending or speak down to them, but use the **words** a 12 year old would understand. Or another way... think of explaining things to someone who English is a second language. That helps. I have some clients which aren't native English speakers so I often have to stop and restate a sentence using more basic words.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I too often fall into the &quot;*there's too much jargon in that*&quot; pitfall. I have to remember that in education, any education, you need to speak using universal words that even a child (pr pre-teen) will understand. Rather than &quot;text box&quot; or &quot;input field&quot; use &quot;the area where they type in their name&quot;. (Although, I'm using Message Grabber from now on.) Or &quot;spacing between sentences&quot; rather than &quot;line space&quot; or &quot;leading&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you do this a while you get the hang of it very quickly. And as I work with clients and they slowly learn what the terms mean it becomes less of an issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The tricky part is the initial conversations. You often don't know what the client doesn't know. So I try and pepper initial conversations with some terminology specifically (prepared to rephrase if needed) to see how astute the client maybe. The more astute the client the easier the conversations are." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2660" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1014" RevisionGUID="391abe00-9c8d-4c28-b280-59fcdcc65140" CreationDate="2013-11-27T21:35:16.273" UserId="708" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="Why maintain a false facade? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**People like dealing with people.** In fact, they often *prefer* it over dealing with a company. There's no reason to pretend you are something you are not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I contemplated this same thing briefly when starting out. What I found was ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**As an &quot;organization&quot;** when I received a cold call from someone, they were merely shopping around and trying to get general pricing or guidelines. Most never wanted to proceed past an initial exploratory conversation. A few did, but they were simple one-off, no relationship, jobs. I much prefer repeat business. I had to &quot;sell&quot; and convince these cold calls their project could be completed. If work was gained, the clients were far more rude and demanding. They failed to treat anything as if they were dealing with people and every conversation was along the lines of ordering lunch or some other non-personal conversation. It was very difficult to pick up fluctuations in perceptions and desires because everything was so cold and distant to a degree. Issues which arose were first seen as my &quot;company&quot; issues rather than an honest, open-minded look to se where a problem may lie. In short, as an organization you are treated like a building -- no personal connection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**As a person**, people speak with far more respect and value my time a great deal more. Cold calls were directly seeking to hire **me** and only wanted reassurance. I had to talk myself **out** of the work with these calls. Clients understand that it's *my* knowledge and experience at work not some nameless intern working on their project. They understand that if I present an issue they can't assume it's my fault. In fact, most assume the opposite knowing I wouldn't bring it up unless I needed to. I'm given far more consideration when I need more time on a project. I'm paid *much* faster and with less issues than I was as a non-personal company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, **people treat people like they want to be treated. People treat businesses like the business is out to get one over on them.** There's a world of difference.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being posted, if you present yourself as an &quot;organization&quot; do you really want to speak about yourself as a third person? What if you have a distinct personality conflict with a client mid-project and they want to work with someone else? Do you then disclose your'e a one-person operation? That will result in feelings of betrayal and a loss of trust - goodbye client forever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only feasible reason I can see to portraying yourself as a company is to have multiple personalities and use multiple email addresses to respond to clients. What about phone calls? What if a client asks, &quot;Why do we always deal with you? Is there someone else we can talk to?&quot; Sure, as an organization you may be looked at for some larger projects by bigger clients. But if you can handle the project as an individual, you'll still be contact by those clients (provided your marketing is decent). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can be a one-person company operating under a company name but its only employee/owner/operator. That doesn't really seem to deter anyone who's ever contacted me. I brand my company. And I don't hide the fact that my company consists of only me. I didn't want to brand my name (it's too difficult to pronounce for some). It's okay to be a person with an accountant, or a person with an assistant, but in my view ***don't pretend to be something you're not***. It is way more hassle than it's worth in the long run and there are practically no benefits to it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2661" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1014" RevisionGUID="03e870c6-da39-4bd5-8988-5948539be013" CreationDate="2013-11-27T21:49:45.017" UserId="708" Comment="added 427 characters in body" Text="Why maintain a false facade? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**People like dealing with people.** In fact, they often *prefer* it over dealing with a company. There's no reason to pretend you are something you are not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I contemplated this same thing briefly when starting out. What I found was ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**As an &quot;organization&quot;** when I received a cold call from someone, they were merely shopping around and trying to get general pricing or guidelines. Most never wanted to proceed past an initial exploratory conversation. A few did, but they were simple one-off, no relationship, jobs. I much prefer repeat business. I had to &quot;sell&quot; and convince these cold calls their project could be completed. If work was gained, the clients were far more rude and demanding. They failed to treat anything as if they were dealing with people and every conversation was along the lines of ordering lunch or some other non-personal conversation. It was very difficult to pick up fluctuations in perceptions and desires because everything was so cold and distant to a degree. Issues which arose were first seen as my &quot;company&quot; issues rather than an honest, open-minded look to se where a problem may lie. In short, as an organization you are treated like a building -- no personal connection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**As a person**, people speak with far more respect and value my time a great deal more. Cold calls were directly seeking to hire **me** and only wanted reassurance. I had to talk myself **out** of the work with these calls. Clients understand that it's *my* knowledge and experience at work not some nameless intern working on their project. They understand that if I present an issue they can't assume it's my fault. In fact, most assume the opposite knowing I wouldn't bring it up unless I needed to. I'm given far more consideration when I need more time on a project. I'm paid *much* faster and with less issues than I was as a non-personal company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, **people treat people like they want to be treated. People treat businesses like the business is out to get one over on them.** There's a world of difference.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being posted, if you present yourself as an &quot;organization&quot; do you really want to speak about yourself as a third person? What if you have a distinct personality conflict with a client mid-project and they want to work with someone else? Do you then disclose your'e a one-person operation? That will result in feelings of betrayal and a loss of trust - goodbye client forever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only feasible reason I can see to portraying yourself as a company is to have multiple personalities and use multiple email addresses to respond to clients. What about phone calls? What if a client asks, &quot;Why do we always deal with you? Is there someone else we can talk to?&quot; Sure, as an organization you may be looked at for some larger projects by bigger clients. But if you can handle the project as an individual, you'll still be contact by those clients (provided your marketing is decent). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can be a one-person company operating under a company name but its only employee/owner/operator. That doesn't really seem to deter anyone who's ever contacted me. I brand my company. And I don't hide the fact that my company consists of only me. I didn't want to brand my name (it's too difficult to pronounce for some). It's okay to be a person with an accountant, or a person with an assistant, but in my view ***don't pretend to be something you're not***. It is way more hassle than it's worth in the long run and there are practically no benefits to it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will add that if you choose to go with a company branding, your name or some other unique identifier in the company name can be **very** helpful. For example, people may forget that &quot;Blue Goat Coding&quot; did that work for them 5 years ago. Bu they *will* remember they dealt with &quot;Bob Smith&quot; on that project 5 years ago. If the company name is &quot;Smith Coding&quot; or &quot;Code by Bob&quot; it will assist in client retention in the long run." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2663" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1017" RevisionGUID="851f02df-c62e-4dd2-88b4-a164f23e93c3" CreationDate="2013-11-28T10:13:32.967" UserId="1346" Text="Yes, It is considered. &#xD;&#xA;I worked as a permanent employee for an MNC for 3 years and then worked as freelancer for about a year. So now my experience is 4 years and it is considered by all companies whether big, small or startups. It totally depends on how you are presenting and how much you have learnt. As the expectation from a freelancer is more compared to a person who is just changing his/her job. It is you who have worked wholly and solely on the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2664" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1018" RevisionGUID="3ba3469e-2c2e-4884-8903-fcbad7cf8424" CreationDate="2013-11-28T10:29:29.617" UserId="1347" Text="It should count as experience, but as others have mentioned, some companies may go out of their way to disregard it. I suppose it depends on how much value they think you can bring to their company. Someone also mentioned that how you present yourself makes a big difference. Just having completed my first year of freelancing as my full-time gig, I have had people ask me a few times if this is my full-time job. Freelancing is actually more difficult than showing up to a office style job in many ways, as you have to take care of all the administration and sales yourself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Find ways that you can present your freelancing experience as relevant to the job you are applying to, and the hiring manager should be able to discern your value to the company." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2665" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1019" RevisionGUID="96bd5747-b098-4f99-a63d-a25626010750" CreationDate="2013-11-28T10:35:03.873" UserId="1347" Text="Honesty is the best policy. Simply tell the client that there are certain sites that you do not take. If they continue to get belligerent, then you probably do not want to work with them anyway. If you are getting blind leads, with no information about what the sites *are*, that's probably not the best either. If at all possible, build up more of your target clients in your portfolio, and in time, you will find more of them coming your way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2666" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1020" RevisionGUID="58b363c8-3239-4ada-ac10-876524b6b112" CreationDate="2013-11-28T10:38:03.987" UserId="1347" Text="More often than not, I will go to the client's office (I also work from home). If that does not work for them, getting a coffee usually works very well. The thing to remember is they really just want to meet the person building their site and get a sense of who they are face to face. Seeing where you work is usually never their main concern." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2667" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1021" RevisionGUID="0a37cfdf-66c1-47f0-a9ad-e74337716ad8" CreationDate="2013-11-28T10:44:20.147" UserId="1347" Text="Most clients you will run into will not understand the terminology that we are used to. Jargon is a barrier meant to keep outsiders away. It is a code, and all professions have their jargon. Try to keep conversations free of words that the average person will not understand. Above all, be patient with clients. The biggest part of our job is relating to people, not writing code. Train yourself to explain things as simply as possible; don't go on for too long  or you will lose their attention and understanding." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2668" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1022" RevisionGUID="6399afdd-69f1-4ad7-83fb-eb907f5f16fa" CreationDate="2013-11-28T11:01:07.780" UserId="1348" Text="I am an advertising Freelance Copywriter. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I asked for all the content so I could quote on writing copy for a website. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client said they're satisfied with my hourly rates and that I should just keep track of my hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After the first round of amendments, he called and said they've chosen to not use my copy and that they'll write their own. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They said for that reason, they won't be paying me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did not sign a written contract with these guys so I understand that it's not likely that I'll be able to have them pay me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice would be much appreciated. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2669" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1022" RevisionGUID="6399afdd-69f1-4ad7-83fb-eb907f5f16fa" CreationDate="2013-11-28T11:01:07.780" UserId="1348" Text="Is there any way I can attempt to recover 16k from a client who doesn't feel it necessary to pay because they elected to not use my content?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2670" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1022" RevisionGUID="6399afdd-69f1-4ad7-83fb-eb907f5f16fa" CreationDate="2013-11-28T11:01:07.780" UserId="1348" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2671" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1023" RevisionGUID="9b7788d1-3b40-4e9a-bb22-4daf94b2a693" CreationDate="2013-11-29T01:15:15.237" UserId="75" Text="First off, have you tried contacting them about it? Most likely, they will ignore you, even if you had email communication. Yes, it is a written agreement, *to a point*, but unless you have a contract, it's very unlikely you'll get your money back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When trying to collect money, make sure that you have all your ducks in a row, so to speak:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- A signed, well-drawn out contract&#xD;&#xA;- A well-defined Scope of Work&#xD;&#xA;- Communication that shows they are interested&#xD;&#xA;- An invoice for work *that has been agreed upon and is completed*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can sometimes get away with less, but if you are talking about 16,000 in ANY currency, it's very important to get everything covered before you do the work. Remember, you're spending lots of time, and they currently can just walk away!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does your email mention anything about what happens if they don't like the design? Are they allowed to walk away after all your work? Did you give him a bill for the time you *have* spent on it? Try sending him the bill, and see what happens. Most likely, you won't get the money, but it shows you have tried.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Certain jurisdictions give different rules on taking someone to small claims court. In BC, it requires that you are seeking $10,000 or less from the person you are charging. If you decide to go this route, make sure you have your **concrete, bullet-proof proof** that the client had intended to use you, and agreed to the terms you set out. If you don't have an invoice to prove it though, this will likely get thrown out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I believe this is just going to go on the record as a &quot;lesson learned&quot; type deal, but hopefully you are better covered and protected in the future." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2673" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1024" RevisionGUID="28d69b0b-d9a8-469b-b9af-042415eb305a" CreationDate="2013-11-29T05:48:08.867" UserId="1350" Text="I am currently located in Germany and do not have permanent residency nor citizenship in Australia. I have potentially been offered a contract with a company in Australia. I will stay in Germany during the time I work on the project (apart from 1 or 2 trips to Australia for meetings).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wondered if I need to register my business in Australia, as I am physically not there and I don't sell material goods, but an intellectual research outcome.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a partner in a partnership (consisting of several freelancers) in Germany. If registering was required would it be easier as a partnership than as a single freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It boils down to this question: Would anybody know of good and detailed online ressources about the steps I have to take to properly do business in Australia as a small business?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2674" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1024" RevisionGUID="28d69b0b-d9a8-469b-b9af-042415eb305a" CreationDate="2013-11-29T05:48:08.867" UserId="1350" Text="Doing business in Australia as foreign freelancer located overseas" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2675" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1024" RevisionGUID="28d69b0b-d9a8-469b-b9af-042415eb305a" CreationDate="2013-11-29T05:48:08.867" UserId="1350" Text="|foreign-incorporation|registration|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2676" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1025" RevisionGUID="5076d39c-441c-4f6d-bf68-a577d5d861f4" CreationDate="2013-11-29T08:34:21.060" UserId="1343" Text="I'm in a maybe similar position - I'm a consultant who offers custom solution development for organisations as well as training. Your experience and credentials are all well and good, but if you do want to approach potential customers you need testimonials and demos. It is definitely worth your time to prepare a portfolio. Why not do it for yourself? Your decision to become a contractor means that you'll run a small business - so why not build a custom solution for yourself? This way you have something useful and you can show your clients that there are benefits to using what you produce instead of buying something off the shelves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might also find issues of course, but that's invaluable - it's better to realise that an idea might not work quite the way you've imagined early on, right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you've worked with clients who really liked what you did for them, ask them for testimonials. Take screenshots of completed work (if that's possible) and prepare a few presentations. Practice, as Jmort and Peter say, plan, plan, plan ... you do need to be clear on what it is you're offering.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd say, as long as you're still an employee, prepare for your new business venture by doing exactly what you are going to offer your clients - build a few custom solutions. Be your own client and your own worst critic. And consider building simpler solutions - 6 months is a long time and you'll need quite resourceful customers to commit to these kind of time scales and expenses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Danny" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2677" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1026" RevisionGUID="00e4a231-abd6-4c8c-851a-ea6a05ea0b75" CreationDate="2013-11-29T09:25:36.383" UserId="1343" Text="I'm a SharePoint consultant, developer and trainer and have been asked if I was interested to work in Brussels.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm now researching what's involved in regards to taxes and living expenses to come up with an appropriate rate. It might be important to mention that these may be long term contracts, e.g. 12 months.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I better off going through a management company or can I invoice clients directly without losing out in the long run?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone here have experience with this and can advise me on how to proceed? I could really do with some ideas to come up with an appropriate daily rate which covers expenses and potential tax implications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you very much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Danny" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2678" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1026" RevisionGUID="00e4a231-abd6-4c8c-851a-ea6a05ea0b75" CreationDate="2013-11-29T09:25:36.383" UserId="1343" Text="UK Contractors - Experience of working in Brussels?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2679" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1026" RevisionGUID="00e4a231-abd6-4c8c-851a-ea6a05ea0b75" CreationDate="2013-11-29T09:25:36.383" UserId="1343" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2683" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1028" RevisionGUID="24146292-8093-4a30-b04d-a42b1cf4ac4b" CreationDate="2013-11-30T11:58:54.163" UserId="124" Text="Australia is very tough on their immigration policies. It depends what type of visa you get, for example if you get a tourist visa I believe it states you must not work. There are plenty of Work Visas which are easy to get hold of if you are from the UK, it may well be the same if you are from Germany. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for registering your company, I doubt this as long as the authorities know you are working. I would also say unless you have a stack load of cash in the bank (or they have a *real* shortage of people in your industry) they won't let you start your own business straight away. With regards to partnerships, I would say no - this will just complicate it&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This page has a &quot;What Visa you Need&quot; search box: http://www.immi.gov.au/Visas/Pages/Find-a-visa.aspx&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A little bit extra**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although this isn't in direct response to your question it maybe helpful to know that&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Australia is very tough on immigration, don't do it right they **will** turn you away at the gate. So make sure you have all your documents, including written confirmation from the company that you are going to complete work for that you are indeed doing that.&#xD;&#xA; - Take a bank statement. It is most likely rare but when my sister went there they wanted to know how she was going to support herself in case her work fell through, could she manage. Bank statement is easy proof&#xD;&#xA; - Don't take travellers cheques, they are a pain in the a***&#xD;&#xA; - Want to extend your stay longer? [No problem, please leave the country first][1]. On most Visas you get one renewal, which must be submitted while you are out the country, so Auckland is filled with travellers who want a couple more months while they submit their visa. Oh and on some extensions you have to do 3 months agricultural work to be granted it. In short: When you are planning apply for the longest possible time you think you will be there.&#xD;&#xA; - You may well know this: Australia gets hot, very hot. If you are working in a northern territory then make sure you have air conditioned workspace sorted or you will do no work. If you are in Sydney then take this into consideration although it's not as bad you wouldn't be enjoying it much. I went in their winter and my poor British climatisation didn't like it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It has been 2 years since I had to do this research so something might have changed and don't let me put you off Australia is a fantastic place to go to. And if you have a few days go to Queenstown in NZ it is the most beautiful place I have ever been.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Moral of the Story**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Plan it out well*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/24/working-visa-australia" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2684" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="1029" RevisionGUID="f6757029-ad89-4e8c-8657-9aeb99b228d1" CreationDate="2013-11-30T18:39:35.033" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/16994/freelance-working-for-a-company-what-should-my-contract-include" />
  <row Id="2685" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1029" RevisionGUID="f572996d-9b54-4e47-891c-bd4320ef3d33" CreationDate="2013-11-29T09:49:20.330" UserId="1354" Text="I started working for a media company as freelance production manager/video editor  two months ago, and I just received a contract that doesn't explain anything but the pay I will earn per hour. The pay is decided by the company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They will pay me at the end of the month every month, and the pay will be based on the number of the hours I'll work during the month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I moved to the UK eight months ago, so I don't really know what to ask them to include in my contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I work for this media agency that has different clients, and I do videos for them (but not directly, the agency gives me the videos and the tasks to do). So am I considered Freelance or Contractor by the law?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Do I have to pay IR35?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. What should I ask to be included in my contract to protect my rights? For example, I'm still waiting, after one month, for my October pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I mainly work from home, but sometimes I have to go on location to film or meet with the clients. Should I ask to include transportation/food expenses? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2686" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1029" RevisionGUID="f572996d-9b54-4e47-891c-bd4320ef3d33" CreationDate="2013-11-29T09:49:20.330" UserId="1354" Text="Freelance working for a company - what should my contract include?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2687" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1029" RevisionGUID="f572996d-9b54-4e47-891c-bd4320ef3d33" CreationDate="2013-11-29T09:49:20.330" UserId="1354" Text="|contracts|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2689" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1022" RevisionGUID="f0873e52-8a9b-4a29-b78d-7325ca9ce76b" CreationDate="2013-11-30T18:49:22.160" UserId="64" Comment="reformatted question so it's... well... a question" Text="I am an advertising Freelance Copywriter. I asked for all the content so I could quote on writing copy for a website. The client said they're satisfied with my hourly rates and that I should just keep track of my hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After the first round of amendments, he called and said they've chosen to not use my copy and that they'll write their own. They said for that reason, they won't be paying me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did not sign a written contract with these guys so I understand that it's not likely that I'll be able to have them pay me, but what can I do to collect some form of pay, and what can I do in the future to ensure that I get paid? &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2690" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1026" RevisionGUID="b93e3b49-94ee-4f9b-b6bc-80f0c219533d" CreationDate="2013-11-30T18:53:06.900" UserId="64" Comment="made it more clear what the questions are" Text="I'm a SharePoint consultant, developer and trainer and have been asked if I was interested to work in Brussels.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm now researching what's involved in regards to taxes and living expenses to come up with an appropriate rate. It might be important to mention that these may be long term contracts, e.g. 12 months.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Am I better off going through a management company or can I invoice clients directly without losing out in the long run?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. How can I come up with an appropriate daily rate which covers expenses and potential tax implications?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2691" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1026" RevisionGUID="b93e3b49-94ee-4f9b-b6bc-80f0c219533d" CreationDate="2013-11-30T18:53:06.900" UserId="64" Comment="made it more clear what the questions are" Text="How can I get setup as a UK Contractor for long-term contracts and be sure to cover all expenses and tax implications?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2692" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1030" RevisionGUID="f4c439de-f35e-4945-834c-714f48c3c601" CreationDate="2013-11-30T21:09:51.587" UserId="1241" Text="Few days and I'll deliver the application and it's including a reports, you can't test reports till you have a real data, and client can provide these after delivery, so I want to know how to tell the client the support task for the application nicely including reports because sometimes clients ask for a change as support." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2693" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1030" RevisionGUID="f4c439de-f35e-4945-834c-714f48c3c601" CreationDate="2013-11-30T21:09:51.587" UserId="1241" Text="How to do the support after delivery?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2694" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1030" RevisionGUID="f4c439de-f35e-4945-834c-714f48c3c601" CreationDate="2013-11-30T21:09:51.587" UserId="1241" Text="|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2695" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1030" RevisionGUID="5ad55f8b-42ec-4908-a7f2-27081eff7a8d" CreationDate="2013-11-30T22:23:32.277" UserId="64" Comment="103" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="2696" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1030" RevisionGUID="47636089-ddbe-4611-ba14-bed4f7fe9609" CreationDate="2013-12-01T12:37:50.140" UserId="1241" Comment="Justifing the quesiton" Text="Myself and customer agreed on a support period after delivery, for the application testing is done and for reports also is done, but this test performed with demo data not actual live data (Application is Time Attendance system which need to be configured as customer's clients) so how to tell the customer nicely that any issue in UAT is within the report delivery and after fixing issues captured in UAT is support.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm asking this becasue I've a payment after deliver the reports itself, so how to declare the issues captured in UAT and issues captured after UAT." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2697" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1031" RevisionGUID="634bb161-f04e-4d98-8bdd-c24d3436ebaf" CreationDate="2013-12-01T13:23:29.330" UserId="1241" Text="I'm new in freelancing, I'm software developer and I want to know the stages of freelance software development project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In freelancing you're the CEO and the whole company, and as my full day career I'm only a developer not a salesman nor PM, so please I need to know what to do from the time customer call me to deliver the software and get the sign-off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2698" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1031" RevisionGUID="634bb161-f04e-4d98-8bdd-c24d3436ebaf" CreationDate="2013-12-01T13:23:29.330" UserId="1241" Text="What are the stages of freelance software development project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2699" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1031" RevisionGUID="634bb161-f04e-4d98-8bdd-c24d3436ebaf" CreationDate="2013-12-01T13:23:29.330" UserId="1241" Text="|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2700" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1003" RevisionGUID="ad43d0f9-93f9-4917-90f9-c3aab1f22523" CreationDate="2013-12-01T16:44:08.570" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/407188375419236353" />
  <row Id="2701" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="1030" RevisionGUID="026b86a6-c22e-4819-863b-3b52bf8b0b6c" CreationDate="2013-12-01T19:37:53.290" UserId="64" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="2702" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1032" RevisionGUID="0a05f2e6-6a8c-4ec8-a819-38309dbbb36c" CreationDate="2013-12-01T20:55:33.007" UserId="517" Text="Regardless of the fact you're coding off-site, the software delivering stages are not different from regular process. The only difference you may notice is yourself doing multiple roles. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most likely you will be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- coder&#xD;&#xA;- project management&#xD;&#xA;- QA&#xD;&#xA;- lead developer writing specs&#xD;&#xA;- designer when needed to chop out images from PSD or AI files&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In other terms, the process is basically the same. Here are my stages:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- short discussion up to 2 hours and delivering of estimation&#xD;&#xA;- negotiation on terms of payment and deadline. I prefer weekly payments&#xD;&#xA;- coding and delivering app per set milestones&#xD;&#xA;- QA of app between starting next milestone&#xD;&#xA;- delivery of final product&#xD;&#xA;- after client finalizes all payments, sending of sources and other material I created in the process&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does this help? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2703" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1033" RevisionGUID="3f85e665-543c-4627-8fef-41ac2ae8acce" CreationDate="2013-12-01T21:00:36.540" UserId="517" Text="The bottom line is support includes things which you to agree upon. Try searching the net for term &quot;Retainer Agreement&quot;. Basically, a client buys certain number of work hours and during those hours, you should (or must, based on the agreement) be available 24/7 to immediately start fixing bugs or code add-ons. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since this is a vast area, you should read it and then ask a more concrete question. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2704" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1034" RevisionGUID="51b408ec-9565-431b-a74d-b2204d43edc3" CreationDate="2013-12-02T03:27:16.423" UserId="1347" Text="Working for future commissions from sales amounts to working for free. My recommendation is to figure out how much value the website would provide to your clients, how much time and energy it will take you to create the site, and give them a quote based on that. If they balk at your proposed terms, then they most likely have no intention of paying you ever, or profit sharing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you do not have a long client history, aim for clients who value design and understand that building a website requires a budget.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2705" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1030" RevisionGUID="8f181833-79b5-4961-b68a-1fd4a05fc2cd" CreationDate="2013-12-02T07:44:08.183" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/407414866925064193" />
  <row Id="2706" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="871" RevisionGUID="d4604c1e-7fd1-4c47-b420-142b2598c65c" CreationDate="2013-12-02T08:43:16.773" UserId="64" Comment="added whitespace; fixed title" Text="I am a Web developer with over 4 years experience, and I currently work for a company. Now, I want to start my own company. How can I get work and clients? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know about few sites, like freelancer.com, odesk.com, elance.com. Here I am like a small fish in the ocean. I bid on projects, but I don't get any. There are other players with paid memberships and past experience on those sites, so they get the job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I land a contract and get one of these jobs?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2707" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="871" RevisionGUID="d4604c1e-7fd1-4c47-b420-142b2598c65c" CreationDate="2013-12-02T08:43:16.773" UserId="64" Comment="added whitespace; fixed title" Text="How Do I Start my Own Freelancing Company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2708" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="855" RevisionGUID="50bd8285-8e15-48fb-880b-fe2277da94e2" CreationDate="2013-12-02T08:46:43.247" UserId="64" Comment="made this a bit easier to read and used some more professional terminology" Text="I charge X as an hourly rate for development, and I will subcontract the support. My subcontractor charges X/2. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am the one signing the agreements, so I am responsible should the contractor screw up, so there would be occasional supervision, but very little.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I charge the client the full X for on-going support hours provided fully by the contractor? I am somehow conflicted by earning the same as the contractor does when I am not doing the work. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2709" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1031" RevisionGUID="431f02fc-c8a0-4577-8323-1d957c70a23e" CreationDate="2013-12-02T08:53:17.750" UserId="64" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="2710" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="917" RevisionGUID="cc833537-b862-4ff2-af61-3f858dddf045" CreationDate="2013-12-02T09:00:41.677" UserId="64" Comment="edited title to make it easier to search for; made better use of whitespace for improved readability by future visitors" Text="I recently came in contact with one of my Dad's friends who is looking for a website. This guy gave my Dad a job when we first moved to California and has been a really good &quot;family friend&quot; ever since.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He has gone off on his own new venture where he is selling items on eBay (and supposedly making a good amount of money from it). I don't know exactly what he sells, that's something I'm going to discover soon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My dad spoke with him recently and he said he is looking for a new website to sell his items and wants to pay me a percentage of all the money he makes from the items he sells.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm hoping someone here will have a similar experience and can elaborate on what they did. Does this sound like a bad idea? What kind of contract would I have him sign to make sure I am actually getting my money? How do I know if he is actually paying me the correct amount?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2711" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="917" RevisionGUID="cc833537-b862-4ff2-af61-3f858dddf045" CreationDate="2013-12-02T09:00:41.677" UserId="64" Comment="edited title to make it easier to search for; made better use of whitespace for improved readability by future visitors" Text="Client Wants To Pay a Percentage For Revenue Generated by Website" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2712" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="886" RevisionGUID="981b47f2-469f-44e8-9756-df60c7676fb9" CreationDate="2013-12-02T10:02:37.577" UserId="1058" Comment="added 466 characters in body" Text="There is no tax. GST does not apply to sales of [Intangible Personal Property](http://www.cga-canada.org/en-ca/AboutCGACanada/CGAMagazine/2007/Nov-Dec/Pages/ca_2007_11-12_prof_taxfocus.aspx) to customers outside of Canada.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Section 10.1 of Part V of Schedule VI of the Excise Tax Act received&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Royal Assent on June 22, 2007, and zero-rates all supplies of &#xD;&#xA;&gt; intangible personal property (IPP) made to non-residents that are not&#xD;&#xA;&gt; registered for GST. There are, however, certain exceptions, which&#xD;&#xA;&gt; generally concern supplies of IPP that are closely connected to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Canada. The exceptions are akin to other such exceptions found in&#xD;&#xA;&gt; similar zero-rating provisions for services." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2713" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1032" RevisionGUID="4601287c-cbfb-467e-a082-5216e96fbeb4" CreationDate="2013-12-02T10:18:22.457" UserId="517" Comment="added 350 characters in body" Text="Regardless of the fact you're coding off-site, the software delivering stages are not different from regular process. The only difference you may notice is yourself doing multiple roles. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most likely you will be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- coder&#xD;&#xA;- project management&#xD;&#xA;- QA&#xD;&#xA;- lead developer writing specs&#xD;&#xA;- designer when needed to chop out images from PSD or AI files&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In other terms, the process is basically the same. Here are my stages:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- short discussion up to 2 hours and delivering of estimation (*doc: simpler SOW and Quote, 2 docs. Sometimes this stage include myself signing NDA*)&#xD;&#xA;- negotiation on terms of payment and deadline. I prefer weekly payments (*docs: full SOW and Terms of Service, 2 docs*)&#xD;&#xA;- coding and delivering app per set milestones (*Invoice every Friday. If new clients, do not start next week before last Invoice has been processed. With old client I keep working but also take care that I don't start 3rd week before 1st one being processed*)&#xD;&#xA;- QA of app between starting next milestone&#xD;&#xA;- delivery of final product&#xD;&#xA;- after client finalizes all payments, sending of sources and other material I created in the process&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does this help? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2714" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1035" RevisionGUID="269e103b-42a4-4eb0-8b15-456f258b38a4" CreationDate="2013-12-03T07:25:54.653" UserId="517" Text="First question: Are you serious about this company and want to work there? If yes, then try to find a legal counsellor. He will best tell you what is the proper thing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, the contract is not something made in stone. You can enter inside whatever you want and is valid if both sides put signature on it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We can try to help you but it's all guessing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1 &amp; 2 - do not know&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Enter that you must receive payment by 5th in the month.If they limited number of work hours weekly, enter that as well. What ever they told you but did not put in the paper, write it yourself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Whenever you travel for business or for that company, they should pay you, especially when you have to meet clients. I am not sure about travelling from your home to their office. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest you find UK Labour law and read it. Such law in my country proscribes what are the minimum conditions each employee must have. UK is a strict country and I have no doubt they will stick to it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2715" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1036" RevisionGUID="c0d8b50c-e417-4b70-a918-b2ef07d9c9ea" CreationDate="2013-12-03T17:26:52.830" UserId="1367" Text="I am new here.so I don't know this kind of questions are asked before or not. So please consider me as a new comer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can any one please tell me or give me some ideas that how I demand price for android applications. i.e how to tell the client that how much i want. They are asking me to tell the time and cost for application. I can tell the time but I dont know how to tell the cost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How freelancers demand their price i.e per page or per activity and how much.(for example how much dollar or INR per page or per hour or per month)..please help.&#xD;&#xA;Suggestions are mostly appreciable.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2716" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1036" RevisionGUID="c0d8b50c-e417-4b70-a918-b2ef07d9c9ea" CreationDate="2013-12-03T17:26:52.830" UserId="1367" Text="Android:Demand price for freelancing android applications" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2717" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1036" RevisionGUID="c0d8b50c-e417-4b70-a918-b2ef07d9c9ea" CreationDate="2013-12-03T17:26:52.830" UserId="1367" Text="|price|price-per-hour|fixed-price|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2718" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1037" RevisionGUID="519a1f3d-c357-4741-a8f3-d3689e303430" CreationDate="2013-12-03T17:39:42.240" UserId="124" Text="I tend to work out all of my prices on a estimation of the time of the project as it is currently defined, +20% contingency. I will then look at how this fits with their budget, if I forsee they will be repeat clients and require maintenance I will often take this price lower.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend you do it in this way. Pricing &quot;by page&quot; generally devalues you work and doesn't normally reflect the fact you are producing quality work that you are proud of. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure that the requirements of the project are clearly laid out - if the client wants to add feature X this is known as [slippage][1] and should be chargeable extra. If you do not do this you may find you end up doing an awful lot of work for not a great deal!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a good article on pricing websites but is applicable to most situations: http://css-tricks.com/how-much-should-you-charge-for-a-website/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.brighthubpm.com/monitoring-projects/105678-how-to-prevent-project-slippage/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2719" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1038" RevisionGUID="653e90ec-4ca8-401d-80c3-9440079023a4" CreationDate="2013-12-03T17:48:51.833" UserId="124" Text="I have a repeat client however they have recently fallen behind on invoices, be it relatively small values.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are now overdue on some by 2 months. I have a clear contract with them outlining that I can cut them off if they don't pay - however I don't really want to do this. I am aware of some of my options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Cut off services until payment is made&#xD;&#xA; - Get a solicitor to draw up a final notice letter&#xD;&#xA; - Attempt to negotiate payment terms (unlikely to happen)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is: do you have any experience in my situation? I want to resolve this peacefully without creating tension. What order should the options take and how soon should I allow the client slippage as it isn't adversely affected me, however I worry the longer I leave it the weaker the position I will be in?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2720" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1038" RevisionGUID="653e90ec-4ca8-401d-80c3-9440079023a4" CreationDate="2013-12-03T17:48:51.833" UserId="124" Text="What is the correct steps in resolving lack of payment" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2721" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1038" RevisionGUID="653e90ec-4ca8-401d-80c3-9440079023a4" CreationDate="2013-12-03T17:48:51.833" UserId="124" Text="|client|payments|over-due|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2722" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1038" RevisionGUID="473e1126-7df7-4cba-be0a-61a239119635" CreationDate="2013-12-03T20:41:29.407" UserId="64" Comment="edited to put the focus more on the question and reorder the background info so it's *before* the question." Text="I have a repeat client however they have recently fallen behind on invoices, be it relatively small values.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are now overdue on some by 2 months. I have a clear contract with them outlining that I can cut them off if they don't pay - however I don't really want to do this. I am aware of some of my options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Cut off services until payment is made&#xD;&#xA; - Get a solicitor to draw up a final notice letter&#xD;&#xA; - Attempt to negotiate payment terms (unlikely to happen)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although it isn't adversely affecting me, I worry the longer I leave it the weaker the position I will be in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is: I want to resolve this peacefully without creating tension. What order should the options take? How soon should I allow the client slippage? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2723" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1038" RevisionGUID="473e1126-7df7-4cba-be0a-61a239119635" CreationDate="2013-12-03T20:41:29.407" UserId="64" Comment="edited to put the focus more on the question and reorder the background info so it's *before* the question." Text="What is the correct steps in resolving lack of payment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2724" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1039" RevisionGUID="418dd807-a4b1-4a06-95ed-2d44c8f5a291" CreationDate="2013-12-03T22:26:19.093" UserId="708" Text="I have a couple forms of dealing with slow payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) **Repeat clients who have paid without issue previously.** Allow them time. Send overdue notices and resend invoices every 15 days until payment is received. If nothing is received in 30 days, call and speak to them to politely ask, &quot;*Was there an issue with the invoice I sent on XXXX?*&quot; The thing to realize in these situations, for me, is that if the client previously paid without issue they may be experiencing a hardship, change in staff, or some other unknown delay. It's unlikely that a previously paying client suddenly &quot;stiffs&quot; you on something. So approach it from a curious standpoint, not a demanding standpoint. If you can't contact the client any longer, see #2 below.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) **New Clients and the first or first few invoices.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **15 days** after initial invoice, resend an overdue notice  (no markup for late payment). Cease all work at this point. &#xD;&#xA;- **30 days** after initial invoice, resend overdue notice with markup for late fees in addition to notice of service termination in 15 days. Call client to ask if there's an issue with the invoice. Set up payment arrangements if needed. &#xD;&#xA;- If still no contact with client, **45 days** past initial invoice, stop all services, resend late notice and invoice with late fees. &#xD;&#xA;- **60 Days** past invoice without any client contact - collections. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In many cases, I've received payment simply because I keep resending invoices. Clients are tired of seeing the invoices and just want it to stop, so they pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also important to take into account that there are times when a first invoice may have been overlooked, forgotten about, or lost. So the initial contact should from a friendly position." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2725" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1040" RevisionGUID="b7ef3e2c-5aab-4f2b-9f20-8e8c6753bc0a" CreationDate="2013-12-03T22:27:21.437" UserId="773" Text="Yes. If your time is worth $x per hour, that's what your time is worth. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also makes invoicing easier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think if you're tempted to charge a different rate for a different service, maybe you're in the wrong business?  Generally speaking, I think it's better to specialize.  If you have different rates for different things, I think your clients could be confused--they may want a specialist that only does that one thing they want." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2726" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1036" RevisionGUID="e866c75c-00a3-4efa-bebb-1dad095d9656" CreationDate="2013-12-04T01:19:28.390" UserId="64" Comment="edited to remove meta commentary; fix grammar and spelling; removed tag from title" Text="How do I determine how much to charge for building Android applications? In other words, how do I tell the client how much money I want? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is asking me to tell how much time it will take and the cost for the application. I can tell them the time, but I don't know how to approach determining the cost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do freelancers demand their price? Is it per page or per activity and how much? (For example, how much in dollars or INR per page or per hour or per month)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2727" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1036" RevisionGUID="e866c75c-00a3-4efa-bebb-1dad095d9656" CreationDate="2013-12-04T01:19:28.390" UserId="64" Comment="edited to remove meta commentary; fix grammar and spelling; removed tag from title" Text="How to determine what to charge for building custom Android applications?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2728" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1036" RevisionGUID="e866c75c-00a3-4efa-bebb-1dad095d9656" CreationDate="2013-12-04T01:19:28.390" UserId="64" Comment="edited to remove meta commentary; fix grammar and spelling; removed tag from title" Text="|price|price-per-hour|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2729" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1041" RevisionGUID="6114f8ae-aa4b-4ed6-be86-9d72a1601e6f" CreationDate="2013-12-04T02:18:46.230" UserId="535" Text="Does anyone have experience freelancing for a company located outside their own where they are legally authorised to work? What is the best way to handle taxes in this circumstance? For e.g., a freelancer located in India works for a company located in the United States. The worker must pay taxes in the country where they work, in this case India. But do they also have to pay taxes in the US? The worker does not have a US work permit and works out of their home office in India. Is it sufficient to file a Form-W-8BEN with the US-based employer? It is my understanding that freelancing marketplaces such as Odesk follow this method. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there similar workarounds for EU-based employers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2730" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1041" RevisionGUID="6114f8ae-aa4b-4ed6-be86-9d72a1601e6f" CreationDate="2013-12-04T02:18:46.230" UserId="535" Text="Global freelancers and taxation" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2731" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1041" RevisionGUID="6114f8ae-aa4b-4ed6-be86-9d72a1601e6f" CreationDate="2013-12-04T02:18:46.230" UserId="535" Text="|legal|taxes|remote|foreign-markets|virtual-office|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2732" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1042" RevisionGUID="ea2c90db-f13e-42e8-a2df-f550fee54dc3" CreationDate="2013-12-04T04:51:42.507" UserId="1368" Text="**Hey everyone.  So glad I found this website, I've been exploding with questions all day and can't seem to find any answers.  I decided a while back that I wanted to do journalism, so I looked into and then I settled on freelancing.  They say it's a hard field to make money in, but I want to see just how hard.  I've found this freelancing business a bit confusing as I try to learn about it, but I'm pretty sure it starts with blogging.  So I looked at blogging tips and how to get hired and I've learned a few things.  Let me see if I have this right.  When starting out with a blog for freelancing, you write about stuff and if people like it, they hire you.  Am I right so far?  Do they usually work for newspapers, magazines, etc?  Can I choose a topic to write about or will they already have a position open for me when hired?  What should you charge for freelancing, or does it vary greatly?  Thanks in advance for the answers.  I'm really looking forward to journalism and I hope I can make it!**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2733" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1042" RevisionGUID="ea2c90db-f13e-42e8-a2df-f550fee54dc3" CreationDate="2013-12-04T04:51:42.507" UserId="1368" Text="Aspiring Freelancer with Some Questions" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2734" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1042" RevisionGUID="ea2c90db-f13e-42e8-a2df-f550fee54dc3" CreationDate="2013-12-04T04:51:42.507" UserId="1368" Text="|freelance|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2735" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1042" RevisionGUID="0eda9e8b-1084-4b9d-9e5d-04fba3f6fb0c" CreationDate="2013-12-04T05:18:16.007" UserId="64" Comment="removed unnecessary formatting and added in some whitespace to make it easy to read" Text="So glad I found this website, I've been exploding with questions all day and can't seem to find any answers.  I decided a while back that I wanted to do journalism, so I looked into and then I settled on freelancing.  They say it's a hard field to make money in, but I want to see just how hard.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've found this freelancing business a bit confusing as I try to learn about it, but I'm pretty sure it starts with blogging.  So I looked at blogging tips and how to get hired and I've learned a few things.  Let me see if I have this right. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When starting out with a blog for freelancing, you write about stuff and if people like it, they hire you.  Am I right so far?  Do they usually work for newspapers, magazines, etc?  Can I choose a topic to write about or will they already have a position open for me when hired?  What should you charge for freelancing, or does it vary greatly?  Thanks in advance for the answers.  I'm really looking forward to journalism and I hope I can make it!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2736" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1042" RevisionGUID="e46247de-a1e4-4892-886e-c6f6985de312" CreationDate="2013-12-04T05:26:45.547" UserId="64" Comment="removed unnecessary formatting and added in some whitespace to make it easy to read; tried to reframe question to focus on a single topic and be more objiective" Text="I decided that I wanted to do journalism, so I looked into and then I settled on freelancing.  I hear it's a hard field to make money in, but I want to see just how hard.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've found freelancing a bit confusing as I try to learn about it, but I'm pretty sure it starts with blogging.  So I looked at blogging tips and how to get hired and I've learned a few things, and I've come up with a plan:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm planning to start blogging and write about stuff. Is this a good way to get hired?  I'd like to work for newspapers, magazines, etc?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I choose a topic to write about or will they already have a position open for me when hired?  What can I do to improve my chances of getting started as a freelance writer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2737" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1042" RevisionGUID="e46247de-a1e4-4892-886e-c6f6985de312" CreationDate="2013-12-04T05:26:45.547" UserId="64" Comment="removed unnecessary formatting and added in some whitespace to make it easy to read; tried to reframe question to focus on a single topic and be more objiective" Text="How can I get started as a freelance writer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2740" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1044" RevisionGUID="5931777a-39dd-44d7-97c6-b7071b3eb1a6" CreationDate="2013-12-04T16:56:50.103" UserId="684" Text="I will caveat my answer by saying that I am not a writer, so I'm certainly no expert in the field. That being said...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to get connected with journals, newspapers, or magazines, you'll need to write articles and submit them to the editors for review (by e-mail or snailmail) - and get ready for a LOT of rejection. I recommend you pick a particular genre that you can write about and select several magazines or journals from that genre - for example, you could pick science as the genre and select Scientific American, Popular Science, Discover Magazine, etc. as the magazines; then read those magazines. Get a feel for what the editors like to see. Similar to preparing for a job interview, tailor your resume (your articles) to the magazine or editor that you're writing for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When it comes to freelance writing, there is very rarely an &quot;opening&quot; that you apply for. You write and submit and write and submit until somebody publishes an article you wrote. If they like it enough, they *may* ask you to submit another article, but there is still no guarantee that it will get published as well. But as you repeat the process across multiple magazines, your chances of success will improve. If you're a good writer and a magazine has published a few of your articles, they *may* extend you an offer to be a full-time writer for them - which would make you no longer a freelancer ;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you can guess from the ambiguous maybes, there is a lot of uncertainty in freelancing. You need to be prepared for a lot of rejection and a lot of hard work; and even the best writers get rejected. Most editors sort through hundreds, sometimes thousands, of freelance articles to publish, and that's mostly to fill space when one of their full-time writers gets the flu. A blog can be an inexpensive and safe way to start and develop your skills, but it's a very different world from magazine and journal writing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Blogging makes you no money unless you have your own website with banner ads for ad revenue. Once you get popular as a blogger (which is getting harder and harder to accomplish) you might start an online store. Blogging *can* be an excellent way to hone your writing skills and zero-in on the topics that interest you the most and that you would like to write about. I definitely recommend you come up with something more specific than &quot;stuff&quot; to write about :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best way to connect blogging to magazine articles might be to look for *online* magazines to write for: such as MaximumPC (a completely online tech magazine). In this example if you write a good tech-related blog, you can reference a MaximumPC article and then pingback to your blog in the comments, potentially catching the attention of one of their writers or editors. They would review your blog and if they like it, they might invite you to write a guest blog for their site. You would also submit articles to online magazines directly, like with a paper magazine, but being online allows you to present your blog as a portfolio of prior articles that an editor can peruse and decide if they want to publish what you write." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2741" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1045" RevisionGUID="67e0a069-cf18-4e74-96ea-f0b87957e9c6" CreationDate="2013-12-04T17:14:41.753" UserId="684" Text="To offer a different perspective, I charge strictly hourly on all of my contracts. I like the flexibility this offers me when a client wants to add or change something to the project. It also lets me decide how much my time is worth - for example if I have a lot of free time and nothing to do, I can offer discount rates (supply &amp; demand, lots of time + no demand = cheap rates).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The down side to hourly rates is that it adds extra work to your bid. You have to be able to accurately estimate how long a particular project may take, which you may not be able to do if you're just starting out or if the project is complex.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As Tim.Baker said, make sure the requirements are clearly laid out. This is typically done through what is called a &quot;statement of work&quot;, which amounts to a contract that explains in detail what the customer expects of you and what you expect of your customer. This should have a clause that describes how you will charge for any additional work the customer adds to the project later on - whether you will charge hourly for the extra work or renegotiate the SOW and project price." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2742" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1046" RevisionGUID="3eb4e939-fc36-4fa7-bff9-c7b3a0423629" CreationDate="2013-12-04T18:25:20.510" UserId="684" Text="Since tax and trade agreements differ widely between different countries, the only thing we can address directly is your example - USA and India.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The United States charges a 30% flat tax rate for all foreign entities receiving income from a US entity. This rate may be lower if the foreign country has a tax treaty with the United States, which India does (10-15% is the tax rate in this case). In order to qualify for this treaty tax rate, a foreign person or corporation submits a W-8BEN to the US entity paying the income. The foreign entity must also file Form 8233 with the withholding agent to claim a tax treaty exemption on any personal service income. “Dependent Personal Services” or “Government Services” articles may provide an exemption for wages. The foreign employee may also be required to file a W-4.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;[Description of US flat tax rate and the purpose of the W-8BEN][1]&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;[US-India treaty tax rate and additional information specific to outsourcing to India][2]&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;[MUST READ - IRS PDF describing employer/employee responsibilities for witholding taxes on wage payments to foreign persons][3]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The payer (in this case, the US company employing the foreign individual) pays the specified taxes directly to the IRS; as near as I can tell, this is withheld from the paycheck the same as with a US employer and US employee. The foreign recipient is also still liable for tax in India.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As the foreign employee, your employer would typically be very meticulous about filing all of the appropriate tax documents, so as an employee you can probably rely on the US employer to make sure it's all done correctly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not all kinds of outsourcing are subject to this tax information. Certain kinds of employment, contracts, purchases, our outsourcing may qualify as trade or some other international agreement rather than employment, for which other tax laws will apply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For employers located in countries other than the USA, you'll have to research their particular tax laws. The same for employees located in countries other than India. EU countries may not have consistent tax laws and there may be EU taxes in addition to, for example, France or UK taxes. Likewise for the USA, different states may also have applicable tax laws.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://blogs.angloinfo.com/us-tax/2012/12/24/what-is-form-w-8ben-and-what-is-it-used-for/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.itoutsourcingindia.com/outsourcing/tax&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/withholding_and_reporting_of_tax_on_wage_payments_to_foreign_persons.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2743" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1047" RevisionGUID="4ba84ce8-f130-4f1f-b71c-23d7e285c5ae" CreationDate="2013-12-05T00:40:09.367" UserId="1018" Text="I have been freelancing for a few years and have quiet office away from home but am easily distracted with (for example):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - keeping up with news in my industry&#xD;&#xA; - staying current in my field of expertise&#xD;&#xA; - over delivering on projects&#xD;&#xA; - building credibility on work related forums and social networks&#xD;&#xA; - email&#xD;&#xA; - providing free advice to clients&#xD;&#xA; - research&#xD;&#xA; - in general, doing too many unbillable hours for clients that they often aren't even aware of&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is especially true when I don't have clear deadlines.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, how do you stay motivated and focused and ensure your billable hours are in sufficient proportion to your unbillable hours?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2744" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1047" RevisionGUID="4ba84ce8-f130-4f1f-b71c-23d7e285c5ae" CreationDate="2013-12-05T00:40:09.367" UserId="1018" Text="How do you discipline yourself as a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2745" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1047" RevisionGUID="4ba84ce8-f130-4f1f-b71c-23d7e285c5ae" CreationDate="2013-12-05T00:40:09.367" UserId="1018" Text="|productivity|billable-hours|motivation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2746" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1048" RevisionGUID="4094fa23-71a1-49b1-b0c7-2c50a5b6c4f1" CreationDate="2013-12-05T01:34:34.490" UserId="1018" Text="It depends on the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I charge most clients an hourly rate for this type of work. It often takes a few months before a whole hour is accumulated for a particular website and client. I have an arrangement with clients that anything less than an hour is held over to the next month as it's not worth raising an invoice for less than an hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A new client recently put me on a retainer for an hour a month to do this type of work for them as this helps them budget appropriately for this type of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When sensible precautions are taken (e.g. see http://stackoverflow.com/a/19139389/1983389), Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal etc are generally quite secure systems and you could charge a monthly fee to guarantee the security of the website. This could include restoring the website as part of the service if it becomes compromised. This gives clients peace of mind and is a service worth paying for.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2747" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1049" RevisionGUID="25ef502f-4579-4f7e-9831-46b2477228c0" CreationDate="2013-12-05T03:27:40.140" UserId="1379" Text="As the contributions are paid on your self-employed income (if any) from a corporation I was wondering why would you have to pay them? No self-employed income - no contributions. You'd still have to file payroll forms/reporting though for the corporation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your full-time employer will deduct and pay CPP/EI contributions on your salaried income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Disclaimer: I'd talk to your accountant if I'd be you - that's what they get paid for. You can also call CRA hotline for clarifications." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2748" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1050" RevisionGUID="55f37a6c-e576-4b00-ad34-30ed90d67812" CreationDate="2013-12-05T08:46:54.937" UserId="517" Text="Distraction occurs in normal job as well as while freelancing. The difference is that in freelancing you get less money so I'd say you're more motivated in freelancing to be as productive as possible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the best works to plan for every day what I do. My plan is fixed and looks like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. wake up 7.30&#xD;&#xA;2. drink coffee by the computer reading news and whatever is interesting till 8.30 or 8.15&#xD;&#xA;3. start working till 12.00&#xD;&#xA;4. lunch or coffee break till 2 PM&#xD;&#xA;5. working till 6 PM&#xD;&#xA;6. after that searching for clients, conducting interviews&#xD;&#xA;7. after 7 or 7.30 or even 8 PM I do my private things with family&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This may seems like a lot of work, but any CEO works even more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On every distraction like email of skype message, I either reply in 1 line or ask that person to contact me after 6 PM.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, sometimes I have to conduct interview before 6PM but I try to minimize such situations. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. I am also wondering how other freelancers organize their time since I am also struggling with productivity trying not to become a robot who only works and sleeps. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2749" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1051" RevisionGUID="b009c834-312e-4805-8edc-8e190694e595" CreationDate="2013-12-05T11:24:46.157" UserId="592" Text="Wow, I would venture to guess that there are entire books written to answer this one question! And I'm sure you'll find and read many of them in the near future. However, I'd like to focus on a couple of principles to consider along with some resources you may find helpful. Since this is a freelancing forum and you mentioned freelancing, my answer doesn't really address getting hired by a company - although it may possibly lead to just that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Pick Yourself**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Seth Godin][1] is a familiar name in the business and publishing world. His advice to entrepreneurs is to '[pick yourself][2]'. The meaning of this phrase boils down to not waiting for someone else to hire you or validate your ideas, but rather to act on them yourself. So look in the mirror and say &quot;You're hired!&quot;. Now, get to work and start writing. Find a large enough audience and those publishers will be the ones jumping up and down screaming &quot;pick me! pick me!&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The World Of Publishing**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The same Seth Godin has also been heralding ([and experimenting with][3]) the changes that have occurred in publishing and brought on by the internet. The new buzzword is 'digital media'. One of the greatest reasons to 'pick yourself' and begin your journalistic aspirations immediately is the low barrier to entry. You can start writing and sharing your work with little to no upfront costs at all. But it does require formulating a plan followed by lots of effort. The old way of marketing through agents and publishers are quickly fading. Self-publishing is flourishing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Strategy**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-***Find Your Niche.*** I would say that before you do anything, the first decision you should make is to pick a category or niche that you will focus on. Some examples would be politics, sports, religion, technology, travel, finances, etc. Choose something that you are passionate about. Chances are that you will already have some knowledge and experience in this area that will help to establish your credibility early on. If not, then start doing some research, get your hands dirty, and write about that. Choosing a niche early on will also help you focus on the outlets you would like to contribute to - and ultimately form a professional relationship with. Yes, get paid. Without getting into details, this will also help you with [future SEO efforts][4] and getting found in search results.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-***Understand Your Revenue Stream.*** There are many ways an author can receive payment for his work. Just make sure that you are legally set up to get paid the way you choose to earn your income. Freelancers (Independent Contractors) are typically paid per piece, but it really depends on the terms of a Contract or Agreement. Self publishers can generate revenue from selling paid subscriptions, advertising space, or syndication. Many successful authors also receive income from affiliate marketing - however, be mindful about 'spam' and possible negative SEO consequences of affiliate links. Another source of revenue can come from print and ebook sales. Sites such as www.iuniverse.com, www.lulu.com, and www.amazon.com are some places available to self-publishers. Search Google using the term 'self publishing' for a wealth of resources.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-***Focus On A Platform.*** Will you be primarily posting on your own site/blog, elswhere, or both? This decision will come a bit easier once you've thought through the ways you expect to draw some revenue from writing. Signing up for a free account on WordPress.com, Blogger(Google), or Medium.com is a great way to start publishing immediately. It's also important to make sure your platform is optimized for mobile devices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-***Share It On Social.*** Social media is your key marketing tool. Enlist your friends, family, and professional colleagues on Google+, Facebook, LinkedIN, and Twitter to help you get the word out and share your work. The platform you choose to publish on should be able to integrate with most major social media accounts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-***Fail, Fail Again.*** Author and business coach John Maxwell wrote a book called Failing Forward. The main idea was learning from our failures and mistakes in order to succeed. Write, post, and publish. Write for the love and joy of it. Be consistent and post on a regular basis. Grow a thick skin then get constructive feedback in order to hone your craft and develop your style. In the end, good writing is about making that connection with your audience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hopefully this provides some direction and clarity for you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/03/reject-the-tyranny-of-being-picked-pick-yourself.html&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.thedominoproject.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-vertical-search-and-semantic-technology-will-change-digital-advertising/65784/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2750" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1052" RevisionGUID="399309da-e609-4919-8d89-2fa24dc22a6c" CreationDate="2013-12-05T12:06:47.627" UserId="708" Text="I don't worry about it much to be honest. I concentrate on deadlines not every minute of my day. I choose to *work to live*, ***not** live to work*. I do not focus on billable and non-billable hours. That's too much like a 9 to 5 job. I know I need to make $XXXX this month. If I have 1 project which does that, that's all I need. If I have 4, then I have to complete all 4. If I don't have enough, I need to do some marketing. I have never looked at things such as I need 300 billable hours this month. (This may be due to the nature of my freelancing compared to yours more than anything).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I may work 2 hours one day, then 14 the next. It all greatly depends upon any deadlines I have and how I feel about that LCD glow on any given day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The worst part for me about being in a career which focuses heavily on computer use, is the computer itself. I generally do not feel well when I spend too much time in front of a computer. This is especially true if it's constant, steady, and predictable. I purposely started freelancing to get away from the &quot;stare into a monitor for 8 hours&quot; employment positions. If I schedule my days to do just that, I've lost my focus and subsequently motivation and zest for the work. [John Cleese stated it best in his &quot;Creativity&quot; speech][1] when he stated all creativity *requires a period of play*, but play must be scheduled for creativity to be effective (I'm paraphrasing).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I look at five **must have** important things which need to be accomplished every day:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I need to respond clients in the morning hours of every business day, either via email or phone calls. Often simply to provide quotes or acknowledge receipt of materials.&#xD;&#xA; 2. I need to respond to any &quot;emergencies&quot; promptly during standard business hours. Generally within in an hour. Respond does **not** mean drop everything and work on whatever it is. It may at rare times. By &quot;respond&quot; I mean acknowledge the client has an issue and provide a time of expected resolution whether it's ten minutes, an hour, a day, or longer. The important factor is to convey a sense of dependability and availability at all times, not that I'll drop everything every time a client asks me to.&#xD;&#xA; 3. I need to meet any and all deadlines without fail. &#xD;&#xA; 4. I need to respond or contact clients in the late afternoon of every business day. &#xD;&#xA; 5. At a minimum, I need to be available via phone every business day during standard working hours. I teach my clients that email is **not** a form of immediate communication. People in general have gotten into the habit of expecting that since they sent the email 30 seconds ago, you've seen it and expect an almost immediate response. That's *not* how I operate. I inform clients that email will be responded to within 24 hours, but if there's something more pressing they need to call.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those are my 5 priorities. As long as those 5 items are met, I'm free to do anything else I please. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *purposely* do not use Skype or any other instant messenger service. That simply causes far too many distractions and ties me to a desk, again defeating my purpose for freelancing. There is practically nothing I do which merits that type of instant availability. If a Skype or messenger is needed, it's scheduled like any meeting would be. My time is valuable, I am never &quot;just a button click away&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's up to me to figure out that a project needs XX hours to complete (which I've quoted) and I better put in X hours in this week if I want to be ahead of that curve. If I feel like working more, outside the scope of a quote, I will. But if I feel like stopping when a project is at it's expected delivery state, I stop.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I often complete things early and simply let them sit until the stated delivery date. This took some time before I started figuring out that it was actually better to *not* deliver something too early even if I thought it was complete. Delivery dates are stated and set, if I constantly finish early, and the client knows it, I'll find expected future dates start getting tighter and tighter until it's a problem. If I state it'll be done on the 15th and I finish it on the 12th.... I won't deliver until the 15th. Working this way gives me a couple advantages:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **Fresh eyes.** If I can walk away from something for a day then return to it, I can look at it from an entirely different mindset which may be a catalyst to *better* work rather than simply *more* work.&#xD;&#xA;- **Play Time.** If I've completed a project a day or two early, that means I don't have to spend X hours tomorrow finishing it so I've got free time to not bask in the LCD glow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not completely apathetic about billing. I generally have enough work to move onto something new once a project is complete so I don't generally have a lot of time to spend fussing and fiddling with a project that has been completed. If you find you aren't completing one thing to move onto another, perhaps you need more work? Or perhaps you should refocus and put that time into marketing and other self-promotion areas?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not schedule or budget my time other than to ensure I've got a phone on during the day and I check email two or three times a day, which I can do via my phone as well. So really, the only **must do** thing I have on any given day is to have my phone with me, charged and ready for use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, this may not seem like a very disciplined method for freelancing. But it has worked very well for me. The discipline comes in by knowing that in order to complete a project I must work XX hours. Where those hours fall, I'm free to decide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://vimeo.com/18913413" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2751" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1052" RevisionGUID="fff53086-3256-4f02-bf5a-d8cce50a7aba" CreationDate="2013-12-05T12:20:34.030" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 699 characters in body" Text="I don't worry about it much to be honest. I concentrate on deadlines not every minute of my day. I choose to *work to live*, ***not** live to work*. I do not focus on billable and non-billable hours. That's too much like a 9 to 5 job. I know I need to make $XXXX this month. If I have 1 project which does that, that's all I need. If I have 4, then I have to complete all 4. If I don't have enough, I need to do some marketing. If I have more than enough, I'm in great shape. I have never looked at things such as I need 300 billable hours this month. (This may be due to the nature of my freelancing compared to yours more than anything).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I may work 2 hours one day, then 14 the next. It all greatly depends upon any deadlines I have and how I feel about that LCD glow on any given day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The worst part for me about being in a career which focuses heavily on computer use, is the computer itself. I generally do not feel well when I spend too much time in front of a computer. This is especially true if it's constant, steady, and predictable. I purposely started freelancing to get away from the &quot;stare into a monitor for 8 hours&quot; employment positions. If I schedule my days to do just that, I've lost my focus and subsequently motivation and zest for the work. [John Cleese stated it best in his &quot;Creativity&quot; speech][1] when he stated all creativity *requires a period of play*, but play must be scheduled for creativity to be effective (I'm paraphrasing).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I look at five **must have** important things which need to be accomplished every day:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I need to respond clients in the morning hours of every business day, either via email or phone calls. Often simply to provide quotes or acknowledge receipt of materials.&#xD;&#xA; 2. I need to respond to any &quot;emergencies&quot; promptly during standard business hours. Generally within in an hour. Respond does **not** mean drop everything and work on whatever it is. It may at rare times. By &quot;respond&quot; I mean acknowledge the client has an issue and provide a time of expected resolution whether it's ten minutes, an hour, a day, or longer. The important factor is to convey a sense of dependability and availability at all times, not that I'll drop everything every time a client asks me to.&#xD;&#xA; 3. I need to meet any and all deadlines without fail. &#xD;&#xA; 4. I need to respond or contact clients in the late afternoon of every business day. &#xD;&#xA; 5. At a minimum, I need to be available via phone every business day during standard working hours. I teach my clients that email is **not** a form of immediate communication. People in general have gotten into the habit of expecting that since they sent the email 30 seconds ago, you've seen it and expect an almost immediate response. That's *not* how I operate. I inform clients that email will be responded to within 24 hours, but if there's something more pressing they need to call.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those are my 5 priorities. As long as those 5 items are met, I'm free to do anything else I please. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's up to me to figure out that a project needs XX hours to complete (which I've quoted) and I better put in X hours in this week if I want to be ahead of that curve. If I feel like working more, outside the scope of a quote, I will. But if I feel like stopping when a project is at it's expected delivery state, I stop.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I often complete things early and simply let them sit until the stated delivery date. This took some time before I started figuring out that it was actually better to *not* deliver something too early even if I thought it was complete. Delivery dates are stated and set, if I constantly finish early, and the client knows it, I'll find expected future dates start getting tighter and tighter until it's a problem. If I state it'll be done on the 15th and I finish it on the 12th.... I won't deliver until the 15th. Working this way gives me a couple advantages:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **Fresh eyes.** If I can walk away from something for a day then return to it, I can look at it from an entirely different mindset which may be a catalyst to *better* work rather than simply *more* work.&#xD;&#xA;- **Play Time.** If I've completed a project a day or two early, that means I don't have to spend X hours tomorrow finishing it so I've got free time to not bask in the LCD glow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not completely apathetic about billing. I generally have enough work to move onto something new once a project is complete so I don't generally have a lot of time to spend fussing and fiddling with a project that has been completed. If you find you aren't completing one thing to move onto another, perhaps you need more work? Or perhaps you should refocus and put that time into marketing and other self-promotion areas?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, this may not seem like a very disciplined method for freelancing. But it has worked very well for me. The discipline comes in by knowing that in order to complete a project I must work XX hours. Where those hours fall, I'm free to decide. The operative part of freelancing to me is **free**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://vimeo.com/18913413" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2752" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1053" RevisionGUID="b32516c1-5291-4eaf-a53b-7ea6d2970126" CreationDate="2013-12-05T12:23:58.453" UserId="592" Text="**Principle**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although I do like to have a routine, I tend to operate more on priorities rather than a routine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Dr. Stephen Covey authored a book called &quot;The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People&quot; wherein he explains the Time Management Matrix (pictured below). Basically, I try to operate within this grid. I have some set priorities in each quadrant and as issues pop-up throughout the day, I have to categorize them within one of these quadrants. That determines where they go on the list. There's a good breakdown of the process [here][1] on MindTools.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;![Time Management Matrix][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Tools**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-*Mozilla Thunderbird with Lighting* Calendar extension keeps me on schedule (with alerts) and projects on track using the 'tasks' feature. I use the 'Chat' feature to monitor my Twitter/Facebook feeds and communicate through GoogleTalk and IRC channels&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-*FreshBooks* for time/project/support tracking. And of course, billing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-*DropBox Pro* for accessing files anywhere across devices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-*Kindle Fire* with FlipBoard for scanning headlines, and mobile apps (WordPress, DropBox, etc.) for productivity when working remotely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Time**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We homeschool our kids so the hours of highest productivity for me are usually 10pm-3am...when everyone else is sleeping.&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_91.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/l3eoj.gif" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2757" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1047" RevisionGUID="d2d78809-8c80-45a4-9ca3-2d3e0d0534ec" CreationDate="2013-12-05T13:44:28.920" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/408592714037739520" />
  <row Id="2758" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1056" RevisionGUID="92f12b96-9008-4434-9a3a-ae8c1775013c" CreationDate="2013-12-05T15:55:08.527" UserId="684" Text="I want to second Scott's answer regarding &quot;not worrying about it&quot;. When I take freelance jobs, I schedule a delivery date for the finished product and that's pretty much it. During a project I'll occasionally schedule meetings with the client to clarify or obtain needed materials or feedback. But that's as close as I get to a time clock or a calendar.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *LOVE* computers. It's a passion for me. [&quot;Code-aholic&quot; describes me perfectly!][1] This passion makes it very easy to get distracted and over-deliver while under-billing as you described. But I don't mind as long as I am bringing in enough to pay the bills. Those distractions and over-producing are part of the passion in this industry that I love so much - I would hate my job if I didn't allow myself that flexibility. This is why I prefer freelancing over a regular 8-5. I could make a killing if I took the regular job, but it's not worth the passionless grind.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, as far as financing a loan, that complicates things. Any self-employed worker - freelancers, independent contractors, etc. - should be tracking his or her profit and loss monthly and annually. This is required for properly doing your taxes, but it's also important for any kind of financing. A banker or loan officer doesn't care how productive you are with your time or how distracted you are or aren't when you're working on a project. They care only about your net income after all business expenses and taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you haven't kept a running P&amp;L statement, I recommend you dig up bank statements going back at least 12 months and put one together. Audit a college accounting class if you need to so you can be familiar with accounting practices and what a Profit &amp; Loss statement should look like. When you have your business P&amp;L finished, that will give you a number that is essentially equivalent to your &quot;net income&quot; on a pay stub from a w-2 job. The banker will look at that number along with your personal and family expenses and credit history when they review your case and make a decision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If after doing the math you come up short, and what you're really asking in your question is how you can better manage your time to be more productive *so that you can increase your net income*, then the time management matrices and regularly scheduled work days may help. But create a schedule that works for you and your personality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my own experience, a regular schedule can help increase productivity, but if you're not flexible with it, it can also decrease productivity. When I work an 8-5 for someone else (like I'm doing now, since my net income was dipping over the summer) there may be 4 or 5 hours of twiddling my thumbs in an 8 hour work day. There are many things I could be doing during that time that would be very productive, even if they produced no income, but because I am locked into the schedule I am locked out of maximizing my productivity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.gpf-comics.com/archive/1999/02/06" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2763" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1041" RevisionGUID="70cafb2e-dd55-4bce-aacf-f99f5d8fbd9c" CreationDate="2013-12-05T19:44:35.530" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/408683339693162496" />
  <row Id="2766" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="57" RevisionGUID="f39b9be2-3435-48a6-ac54-7d15749aacfd" CreationDate="2013-12-05T21:47:01.137" UserId="75" Comment="8" />
  <row Id="2767" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1036" RevisionGUID="8923eb3c-339e-499c-aa97-57588ffb7bc6" CreationDate="2013-12-06T01:44:35.450" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/408773935539703808" />
  <row Id="2768" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1047" RevisionGUID="874a576d-1d64-47f9-a740-c1db64462678" CreationDate="2013-12-06T07:11:45.160" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus more on the asker" Text="I have been freelancing for a few years and have quiet office away from home but am easily distracted with (for example):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - keeping up with news in my industry&#xD;&#xA; - staying current in my field of expertise&#xD;&#xA; - over delivering on projects&#xD;&#xA; - building credibility on work related forums and social networks&#xD;&#xA; - email&#xD;&#xA; - providing free advice to clients&#xD;&#xA; - research&#xD;&#xA; - in general, doing too many unbillable hours for clients that they often aren't even aware of&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is especially true when I don't have clear deadlines.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, can I stay motivated and focused to ensure my billable hours are in sufficient proportion to my unbillable hours?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2769" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1047" RevisionGUID="874a576d-1d64-47f9-a740-c1db64462678" CreationDate="2013-12-06T07:11:45.160" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus more on the asker" Text="How can I discipline myself as a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2770" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1047" RevisionGUID="a64701e3-69f4-47f5-9f51-212ee2a1060f" CreationDate="2013-12-06T07:17:26.390" UserId="64" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="I have been freelancing for a few years and have quiet office away from home but am easily distracted with (for example):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - keeping up with news in my industry&#xD;&#xA; - staying current in my field of expertise&#xD;&#xA; - over delivering on projects&#xD;&#xA; - building credibility on work related forums and social networks&#xD;&#xA; - email&#xD;&#xA; - providing free advice to clients&#xD;&#xA; - research&#xD;&#xA; - in general, doing too many unbillable hours for clients that they often aren't even aware of&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is especially true when I don't have clear deadlines.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, how can I stay motivated and focused to ensure my billable hours are in sufficient proportion to my unbillable hours?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2777" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1059" RevisionGUID="9be14f45-0d13-448b-8474-4177dc819da6" CreationDate="2013-12-08T14:48:56.203" UserId="155" Text="What you have there is a very important question... One which I asked myself many years ago...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unlike Scott, I `DO` worry about it to be honest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However like others, I didn't want my answer to be so long but then once I started typing, I couldn't stop...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are mainly two types of freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Part time&#xD;&#xA;2. Full time&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The main source of income for `Part time` freelancer doesn't come from freelancing. They have some other source for monthly income. Be it 9 - 5 job, Or other `Part time` jobs. I used to fall in this category earlier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;`Full time` freelancer on the other hand have no other option for their monthly source of income other than freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The answer to your question will depend on what kind of freelancer are you and what are your plans with freelancing as a career.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before we visit both of them, here are some common points which are applicable to both of them. I call them `my 10 commandments :)`&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Commitment&#xD;&#xA;2. Keep On Learning&#xD;&#xA;3. Time management&#xD;&#xA;4. Good Communication Skills&#xD;&#xA;5. Meet Deadlines&#xD;&#xA;6. Self Motivated&#xD;&#xA;7. Attention to details&#xD;&#xA;8. Honest &#xD;&#xA;9. Strong Work Ethic&#xD;&#xA;10. Under Commit, Over Deliver&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to be very disciplined about these 10 commandments to be a successful freelancer. I have explained them at the end of the post.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not sure what you meant by email in your question but having an email as mentioned is not a part of being disciplined. Replying to emails of clients/vendors/peers/bosses etc on time is though a part of being disciplined.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now let's understand what Part/Full time freelancing is. This is important so that you understand how and on what you need to discipline yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;`Part time freelancing`&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are into `Part time` freelancing then you have two more questions which will decide what kind of discipline, you need to follow besides the `10 commandments`&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Do you just want to `Part time` freelance?&#xD;&#xA;2. Do you want to finally move from `Part time` to `Full time` freelancing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on the above two questions, the answer to your question may vary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you just want to be a `Part time` freelancer then your focus would be slightly different. You set your expectations with your clients in a different way. The clients know that you will not be available for a specific period of time... be it specific hours in a day or specific days in a week and so on. So you have the liberty/luxury to play around with the time that you have. Please note that this is not the same as `Time management` from the above 10 commandments. In such a case, it's very rare that you commit a specific date and time for delivering the project. You will always give approximate date and time. And if you do commit then that is the biggest mistake that you would be making. I agree that most of the time you would be able to deliver. But remember, this is `NOT` your main source of income. You never know what might impact your freelancing and affect your deliverables. A reputation once lost is almost impossible to regain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to finally move from `Part time` freelancer to `Full time` freelancer, then you need to start behaving like one. And that means you start taking the 10 commandments very seriously. Set specific hours in a day that no matter matter what, you will dedicate to freelancing. Now it is not necessary that you will have a project during those specific hours. So what do you do? **You plan**! **You hone your skills**! **You Learn**! And this is where the commitment from the 10 `commandments` come into play.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;`Full time freelancing`&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I suggest/mention below is what I do... is what I follow...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Full time freelancers have no where else to go to. Freelancing is the only thing that they know and which will bring `dinner to the table`. Once you understand this fact then you really don't `NEED` to worry about `discipline`! It will automatically come... Trust Me!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A full time freelancer follows the 10 commandments `religiously`. And that is the discipline he/she needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;`Explanation of 10 Commandments in detail`&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Commitment**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Commitment is not to be confused with meeting deadlines. Commitment is your pledge towards the cause of freelancing. It should be your religion! Your faith! There should be no scope of any lax towards your commitment&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Keep On Learning**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The career field is constantly changing. The worst thing that you can do is assume that you’ve know everything. I once learned from someone that&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*“You are never too old to learn and you are never too young too teach“*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if you want to remain in the competition or eventually grow then you have to constantly be in the process of `Learning`&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Time management**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This plays a very important role. With me serving over 145 clients in 7 continents (Yes, including Antarctica!), it becomes essential that you plan your time to cater to all different timezones in the most effective possible. If you won't then someone else will...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Good Communication Skills**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fortunately, English is almost globally accepted. Ensure that your English is good or at least easily understandable. You should be able to communicate and exchange ideas effectively. It's good for building a healthier relationship for the future. Please remember that you are not only aiming at just one project but all future projects. Be humorous. Most of the time this breaks the ice. One of my favorite lines as mentioned [here](http://www.freelancer.com/u/koolsidz.html?period=entire_history&amp;category=0)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Please remember I am not only aiming at your current project but all your future projects ;-) Humorously put; I want to take all your money :)* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Meet Deadlines**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Missing a deadline is unpardonable if you want to take freelancing seriously. I understand that there could be moments when you might miss the deadlines. In such a scenario, update the concerned party immediately and re-set your expectations. There is nothing worse than missing a deadline and not informing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Self Motivated**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There would be moments when you won't have a project. Don't get disheartened. Simply utilize your time to perhaps improve on your sales pitch... or creating new business opportunities... or simply revisit the current strategies and improve on them. Be innovative in whatever you do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Attention to details**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask questions if you do not understand. Ensure that you understand the requirements correctly. This will not only help you achieve your target of completing the project but also delivering over and above what was asked for. In many scenarios, I came up with suggestions which were not part of the project. This only ended up helping me building up my credibility as a consultant and not to mention client paying me some unexpected handsome bonuses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Honest** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This doesn't need explaining, I hope? Be honest to yourself. Don't take the client for a ride. You can easily loose the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Strong Work Ethic**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No matter what anyone says, never bill for hours which you didn't toil for. If you worked for 10 hours then only bill for 10 hours! Maintain a strong work ethic. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Under Commit, Over Deliver**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you makes ambitious claims and promises and then fail to live up to them, you end up with irate and disappointed clients. There is nothing better than a client who ends up pleasantly surprised after hiring you. Exceeding customer/client expectations is awesome and good for business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2778" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1060" RevisionGUID="5460fa33-b3bb-4cfa-ba74-9e085ab59fe4" CreationDate="2013-12-08T21:08:54.410" UserId="517" Text="I have a heavy customer who like to call 10PM about extra urgent thing which must be fixed asap or the Earth will stop existing. If I do not reply (as I usually don't at such hours), in the morning I get 5 messages on all types of contact devices. A client does not want to understand that we're not slaves and that a freelancer has office hours as well. What is really good about this customer is that he pays good money - hourly price 25% then other hourly prices and has work for me for a couple of years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No, should I forget about attitude and go for money (as I often advise here) or I should drop this client? I am not smart at all what to do here. Whatever I do, I will regret. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Did you have situations like this and what did you do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. I say &quot;money&quot; because there is work here for a 1 year at least, even more. It's 30 x 4 x 12 work hours. We communicate almost every day as I think you will ask he this question. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2779" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1060" RevisionGUID="5460fa33-b3bb-4cfa-ba74-9e085ab59fe4" CreationDate="2013-12-08T21:08:54.410" UserId="517" Text="A bad client who pays a lot - should money or attitude prevail?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2780" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1060" RevisionGUID="5460fa33-b3bb-4cfa-ba74-9e085ab59fe4" CreationDate="2013-12-08T21:08:54.410" UserId="517" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2781" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1061" RevisionGUID="760f963c-18d6-416a-bfa7-2c217cb431a1" CreationDate="2013-12-08T21:10:32.467" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2782" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1062" RevisionGUID="2a85498f-7884-4ea0-a0aa-b1290a293f09" CreationDate="2013-12-08T21:10:32.467" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2783" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1063" RevisionGUID="2e10c4d6-e356-4f86-a3c0-ae38f1c13617" CreationDate="2013-12-08T22:30:46.177" UserId="708" Text="I just ignore the off-hours contact and deal with things during traditional hours - even if that means I get emails and messages the next morning. I have a few clients who will email Sunday evening. While they may be expecting a reply, they don't get it until Monday. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like with any business, a client is free to email or call anytime, that doesn't mean I've got to respond at that time. In my experience, it isn't that clients think you are *always* available. It's somewhat human nature to not really perceive others over the internet (and sometimes phone) as actual people. They assume since they are at the computer, everyone is. It's a misconception which extends well beyond freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't see off-hours reaching out as an &quot;attitude&quot; per say. If the client is pleasant to deal with in spite of their &quot;panic attacks&quot;, they will eventually learn that they can't expect everything to be dropped immediately and their issue addressed simply because they ask. I wouldn't drop a client simply because they repeatedly reach out at odd hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, if the client is unpleasant to deal with on top of the panic attacks, I would probably be looking to supplement that income stream elsewhere." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2784" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1038" RevisionGUID="9c8833fb-07c6-4f2b-aa14-328bd951cda2" CreationDate="2013-12-08T22:45:00.817" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/409815906718842881" />
  <row Id="2785" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1060" RevisionGUID="50ca35f5-7780-489e-9feb-02fc8fea4aa9" CreationDate="2013-12-08T23:37:37.950" UserId="64" Comment="made it more clear what the question is" Text="I have a heavy customer who like to call 10PM about extra urgent thing which must be fixed asap or the Earth will stop existing. If I do not reply (as I usually don't at such hours), in the morning I get 5 messages on all types of contact devices. A client does not want to understand that we're not slaves and that a freelancer has office hours as well. What is really good about this customer is that he pays good money - hourly price 25% then other hourly prices and has work for me for a couple of years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Now, should I forget about attitude and go for money (as I often advise here) or I should drop this client?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. I say &quot;money&quot; because there is work here for a 1 year at least, even more. It's 30 x 4 x 12 work hours. We communicate almost every day as I think you will ask he this question. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2786" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="808" RevisionGUID="ed7a9e51-1df2-462d-b501-2e56ee0a6d75" CreationDate="2013-12-09T11:34:36.987" UserId="58" Comment="cleaning up grammar" Text="The most experienced web developers will sell you a fixed-price package where they will list what you get for a certain value. They have a lot of experience and they can go with a fixed price without being risk of loss.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But even then, that calculated price is usually based on estimated work hours spent on the tasks listed in the offer. So **hourly price** is always the basis, and you should start with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you have some experience, track how much time you need for frequent tasks and you will have your price in a minute. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Determining hourly price is a different story and there are multiple approaches to it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2787" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1064" RevisionGUID="242260e2-ef1f-4b24-b35a-32cd20e1bcb4" CreationDate="2013-12-09T11:42:49.500" UserId="1426" Text="There are really two possibilities here:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) You decide that you don't want to work off-hours. Then… don't. Don't check your emails or answer the phone off-hours, and be crystal clear about that with your client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Your client really wants to be able to join you anytime, and you are willing to provide that extra service. Realize that this is an extra service, and have a special rate for that. Make things expensive for him, he should think twice before calling you. And if he doesn't, you are not expensive enough." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2788" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1065" RevisionGUID="bf5f7b46-3c37-4f6b-8776-2d97acb97a52" CreationDate="2013-12-09T12:18:58.963" UserId="1176" Text="I am freelancer from over 2 years but I can't get the projects more than 7, from various freelancing sites.&#xD;&#xA;I want to know that which are other ways through I can directly contact the clients, who outsources their web development work. Specially from UK, USA, Australia and Others...&#xD;&#xA;How can big companies get the work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank You." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2789" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1065" RevisionGUID="bf5f7b46-3c37-4f6b-8776-2d97acb97a52" CreationDate="2013-12-09T12:18:58.963" UserId="1176" Text="How to find Web Development work outside the freelancing sites?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2790" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1065" RevisionGUID="bf5f7b46-3c37-4f6b-8776-2d97acb97a52" CreationDate="2013-12-09T12:18:58.963" UserId="1176" Text="|outsourcing|sales|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2791" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1047" RevisionGUID="e472273f-1d6a-4e69-9347-47c2520dfcc7" CreationDate="2013-12-09T12:52:29.900" UserId="1018" Comment="clarification on part-time vs full-time freelancer" Text="I have been freelancing full-time for a few years and have quiet office away from home but am easily distracted with (for example):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - keeping up with news in my industry&#xD;&#xA; - staying current in my field of expertise&#xD;&#xA; - over delivering on projects&#xD;&#xA; - building credibility on work related forums and social networks&#xD;&#xA; - email&#xD;&#xA; - providing free advice to clients&#xD;&#xA; - research&#xD;&#xA; - in general, doing too many unbillable hours for clients that they often aren't even aware of&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is especially true when I don't have clear deadlines.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, how can I stay motivated and focused to ensure my billable hours are in sufficient proportion to my unbillable hours?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2792" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1066" RevisionGUID="54874cc4-2fc3-4bb4-870b-a89f7cecd01c" CreationDate="2013-12-09T12:57:43.550" UserId="148" Text="I am about to start a contract with a remote client and want to start quickly. Rather than sending a signed contract by &quot;snail mail&quot; for them to sign and return, would it be enough to email the contract as a PDF attachment and ask them to reply by email stating their agreement to it? Would it stand up in a court if it had to go that far?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the answer to the above is no, other than a physical signature on paper, what alternative ways are there to formally agree to a business contract that will stand up in court." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2793" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1066" RevisionGUID="54874cc4-2fc3-4bb4-870b-a89f7cecd01c" CreationDate="2013-12-09T12:57:43.550" UserId="148" Text="Is an agreement by email reply enough to act as a signature in a legal contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2794" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1066" RevisionGUID="54874cc4-2fc3-4bb4-870b-a89f7cecd01c" CreationDate="2013-12-09T12:57:43.550" UserId="148" Text="|contracts|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2795" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1067" RevisionGUID="e9548803-e0f8-43b9-8694-d3363691d48f" CreationDate="2013-12-09T13:30:18.813" UserId="1018" Text="It depends on how desperate you are for the money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One of the reasons I got into freelancing is because I can choose who I wish to work with. If clients are rude and persistently call me outside of business hours and expect me to answer then I'd rather rather they hire someone else to abuse. If I needed the money that much, I'd go and get a real job!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have found out the hard way that consistently accommodating unrealistic expectations does not make the situation any better as clients have little or no respect for you and the unrealistic expectations and rudeness often become worse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By setting clear boundaries, you can earn some respect and clients can learn to appreciate that they might not be your only client, that you have a business of your own to run, and a life outside of work. Let clients know what your standard working hours are and that it's OK to leave messages and emails but that you may not respond until your standard business hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am happy to respond to clients in a genuine emergency out of business hours but make sure my clients don't get used to me answering phone calls or emails late at night or on a weekend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have managed to re-educate a few rude clients like this who are still clients today.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2796" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1068" RevisionGUID="b19a7086-fa8d-4c78-81e1-5b91360aad9f" CreationDate="2013-12-09T18:03:19.513" UserId="43" Text="What I do in the majority of contracts that I sign is to sign, date and scan the signature page, email it across as a PDF or even a jpeg and ask the other party to print, countersign and rescan before sending it back to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are concerned about the legality of this, which I haven't been you could look at using something like Adobe echo sign " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2797" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1069" RevisionGUID="e4e708d2-6c99-4f92-87a1-c6a315b7341f" CreationDate="2013-12-09T18:16:12.453" UserId="708" Text="Preface: I am not now, nor have I ever been a lawyer. For legal advice it is **always** best to ask someone trained in the versatility of the law.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A contract is a written agreement which shows a &quot;meeting of the minds&quot;. Email can be just that. It's my understanding that, while not as iron-clad as a physical signature, an email can be used to show intent and agreement. Just the same as a text message. Written evidence that a meeting of the minds was met is better than verbal agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While email *content* can be faked, server and routing addresses really can't easily. Emails can be traced to every server they touched. And should the need arise, the sending server (the clients) could confirm that an email to [you] was sent on [date].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But again, I'd consult an attorney if this is something which really troubles you. I've never been in a position to file a claim on a client, but I do use email as written agreements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding PDFs, Adobe's PDF structure allows for digital signatures. This means there's really no need to print, sign, and scan anything. One can digitally sign a pdf, save it and then send it back." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2798" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1070" RevisionGUID="803affb8-32af-495f-b372-ceb672cb701f" CreationDate="2013-12-09T19:26:04.937" UserId="517" Text="You can get work on different forums which deal with web development. Every of them has jobs section where people seeks for coders there rather on FL sites. But you need to have reputation there as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Big companies do not go to forums. Big companies do not go to FL sites. Big companies will very very very rarely hire a freelancers. They have larger projects and need a team. you should aim for individual clients or smaller companies. You will not get $1M project, but you will be able to earn 2 or 3 times your regular salary just accommodating those clients. Remember, all money you earn gets into your pockets. There is not middle man (boss) who take the big money and give you crumbs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In all my career I manage to get only 1 large company by accidentally working for some of their CEO who liked my work. And I really find this luck and do not expect such offers in the future. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2799" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1070" RevisionGUID="bb047c10-40fd-481b-9608-f5399b4e66c1" CreationDate="2013-12-09T20:19:28.497" UserId="58" Comment="Grammarz" Text="You can get work on different forums which deal with web development. All of them will have job sections where people look for programmers there, rather than on freelancing sites. But you need to have reputation there, too. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Big companies do not go to forums. Big companies do not go to freelancing sites. Big companies will very very rarely hire a freelancer; they have larger projects and need a team.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should aim for individual clients or smaller companies; you will not get million-dollar project, but you will be able to earn 2 or 3 times your regular salary just by accommodating those clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember, all money you earn goes into your pockets. There is not a middle man (aka a boss) who will take the big money and leave you the crumbs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In all my career I've only managed to get one large company, by accidentally working for a CEO who liked my work. And I really see this as luck; do not expect such offers in the future, as they're rare. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2800" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="976" RevisionGUID="3eb7a6a4-8242-4a8d-aa2b-36d793512533" CreationDate="2013-12-09T20:20:42.707" UserId="58" Comment="edited title" Text="Am I charging my clients too much?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2801" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="979" RevisionGUID="318d376f-430d-48e7-9bf3-f18bc64e0e5d" CreationDate="2013-12-09T20:24:52.260" UserId="58" Comment="Editing spree~" Text="As I can see, you charged them 8 pounds per hour, which is $13 per hour. This is a very good price and you definitely did not overcharge them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your other mistake is that you investigated the price of work in the UK. You cannot do that. If they wanted a UK developer, they would have taken one. You have to charge them **your** hourly price, which is enough to live comfortably (in India). I used to work for UK companies who rented their developers for 300 pounds per hour, while they paid me less than 10% of that money. I was sore, but I could not complain since these are not the &quot;rules of the game&quot;. So accept it like me or you will have a lot of problems finding clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they still have not paid you, this is suspicious. I sincerely hope that you did not transfer your work to their servers; always keep work on your servers until your are fully paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5 to 7 days is reasonable. 1 month is *very* suspicious. This is not reasonable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How are they paying you? An online service like PayPal, etc.?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2802" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1071" RevisionGUID="7d78f86a-eb51-4ae6-8138-9a6a894bc468" CreationDate="2013-12-09T20:40:59.377" UserId="58" Text="I actually cryptographically sign my emails* using an s/mime certificate, and my mail provider uses DKIM + SPF (gmail).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want real, unfalsifiable signatures, there is absolutely nothing else except strong cryptography. There never will be (In addition, you can do the same thing to PDFs using the same certificate).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I use the entire document, hashed, and then encrypt it with my private key and append my public key to documents (this ensures that the message was sent by me and has not been tampered with).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I'm a web developer, systems administrator, and systems penetration tester, so I guess my clients are actually way more likely to even begin to understand what a digital signature even is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to use email as a signature or contract agreement, I *strongly* recommend that you cryptographically sign them. If this is not possible, then save *the entire email*, which will most likely have more headers than actual text. This is possible with almost all email providers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The email will look a little something like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    To: email@example.com&#xD;&#xA;    From: email2@example.com&#xD;&#xA;    Mailed-By: mail.smtp.google.com&#xD;&#xA;    Reply-To: email3@example.com&#xD;&#xA;    Date: 0000-00-00T00:00:00Z&#xD;&#xA;    Content-Type: multipart/mixed; charset=utf-8; boundary=---EMAIL---&#xD;&#xA;    DKIM: abcdef1234567890&#xD;&#xA;    ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And so on. This is not perfect, and can still be spoofed, but is far better than a copy-pasted word document of an email (in fact, that is not actually an email&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;; a screenshot of your email program would do better)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;* I have actually signed my housing tenant agreement using a 4096bit RSA key. It was accepted, to my astonishment.&lt;/sub&gt;  &#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;1: I'm not a lawyer. &lt;/sub&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2803" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="707" RevisionGUID="9d093ef0-7ee5-4e64-b4bb-5a4a76e0e821" CreationDate="2013-12-10T06:31:11.243" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title" Text="How can I start freelancing and get online projects to work on?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2804" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1060" RevisionGUID="643b8c58-378b-4281-891a-bc8f9382e3ae" CreationDate="2013-12-10T10:45:04.603" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/410359503436394496" />
  <row Id="2805" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1072" RevisionGUID="e552ff3b-54ec-469c-861f-88fba7e8d8bd" CreationDate="2013-12-10T14:05:16.343" UserId="1353" Text="I also don't think you're undercharging. I contract in the UK and charge inbetween £250 &amp; £300 a day. My freelance contracts aren't as lucrative as that but a 'brochure' site (10-20 pages, no backend/database) would be charged at around £800-900.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have an advantage in as much as I also host the sites that I develop so, if a customer doesn't pay, then I can suspend their site until they do. I've written that clause into my terms and conditions (which appear on every invoice I issue).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also don't think that 40 day payment terms are out of the ordinary. However, it's worth getting these things straight before starting the contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2806" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1073" RevisionGUID="5d8bcb02-d756-4e29-adba-29775c10ca87" CreationDate="2013-12-10T14:09:10.943" UserId="1353" Text="This is a good place to start : http://www.contractoruk.com/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd get the tax issues sorted out ASAP as HMRC have a tendancy to foot you with a big bill if you leave it for too long !" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2807" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1074" RevisionGUID="7e7f8fe9-d4af-4fb9-a964-485521db0657" CreationDate="2013-12-10T14:14:23.000" UserId="1353" Text="Managment companies will take all (or most) of the headaches away from you. To invoice companies directly you'll have to start up a company, do your own accounts and have an accountant. Also, as a contractor, you may fall foul of recent legislation aimed at people in long term contract jobs who should really be full time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have a look here for information on starting a business : https://www.gov.uk/starting-up-a-business&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for daily rates, maybe work out what monthly salary you need to live comfortably, add to it taxes, NI &amp; overheads then divide it by the working days in a month - Hey Presto - daily rate :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2808" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1075" RevisionGUID="9a9f645a-4f46-4056-a6e2-961d245b7ca6" CreationDate="2013-12-10T15:29:34.977" UserId="1152" Text="In Canada, you need to collect tax if you make MORE than $30,000 in a year.  However, what about the first $30,000 while you are under?  I already have a tax number, and I will be starting my first contract soon (before this, I was a normal employee), I am wondering if I need to be collecting tax too." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2809" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1075" RevisionGUID="9a9f645a-4f46-4056-a6e2-961d245b7ca6" CreationDate="2013-12-10T15:29:34.977" UserId="1152" Text="As an Independent Contractor, do I need to collect tax on the first $30,000?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2810" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1075" RevisionGUID="9a9f645a-4f46-4056-a6e2-961d245b7ca6" CreationDate="2013-12-10T15:29:34.977" UserId="1152" Text="|taxes|canada|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2811" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1076" RevisionGUID="9df1df74-4e1e-4f2e-ae16-52c04af96a77" CreationDate="2013-12-10T15:48:23.913" UserId="684" Text="The crux of this question is really &quot;how do I market my business?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Marketing and advertising are probably the bane of all small-business owners (and as a freelancer, you are a small business owner). First, you need to have your own website; and it has to look *good*. Second, you need to fork out some money for standard advertising methods - google/yahoo/bing/facebook ads, newspaper, phonebook, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But what is going to cost you the most time and effort, but will likely bring the best results, is for you to go out and *find* customers yourself, instead of waiting for them to find you. Browse around the web and find really crappy looking websites and contact the owners with a pitch. Network with friends, relatives, and associates to give out your business information when they meet someone who needs a website. Walk down the street and stop at every business and give them a business card and a sales pitch. These won't be huge corporate jobs, but as Peter MV already said, those jobs have full-time dedicated internal developers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All of this hinges on you having something excellent to display and demonstrate your skills. Your own website should be the pinnacle of your skills. You should have a portfolio of previous websites that demonstrates your flexibility, adaptability, and design variety. You should have a simple but attention-getting business card to give to all of your clients so they can recommend you through word-of-mouth advertising. And I recommend that you do not try to search for business too far outside of your local area - the competition gets tougher, the pay get lower, and the taxes get higher. If you *are* going to pursue international customers, make sure you are *fluent* in the language where you are marketing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2812" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1077" RevisionGUID="1807df00-71b3-4483-a97a-679f93331ec5" CreationDate="2013-12-11T02:17:07.720" UserId="75" Text="If you have your HST/GST number, then you are required to collect tax as per normal. The issue comes in if you are making more than $30,000 per quarter, as you must then register and collect on future transactions [[Source - CRA Mandatory Registration](http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/gst-tps/rgstrng/mndtry-eng.html)]. I would double-check with an accountant though as per the possible penalty if you aren't charging taxes yet, but it doesn't sound like it's a concern. Do remember though, that you are allowed to push invoicing to the next year, if it helps you out to stay under the $30,000. As per the [CRA's page on voluntarily registering](http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/gst-tps/rgstrng/vlntry-eng.html), once you're registered, you MUST charge, unless you have [exempt items](http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/gst-tps/gnrl/txbl/menu-eng.html); check this list of [taxable items](http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/gst-tps/gnrl/txbl/txblxmpt-eng.html) as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See [CRA - How to charge GST/HST](http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/gst-tps/gnrl/stps/cllct-eng.html) and [CRA - Calculating how much GST/HST to send in](http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/gst-tps/gnrl/stps/wrkng-eng.html)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2813" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1078" RevisionGUID="7d10204a-07e8-460a-b8b9-972672829dea" CreationDate="2013-12-11T09:00:02.160" UserId="517" Text="Is there a good resource where I could find a quality contract sample which I can use for my clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally it would be a contract for IT expert, not plumber (since I found many contracts like that) :). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I really need it be quality one to cover all aspects of the work. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2814" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1078" RevisionGUID="7d10204a-07e8-460a-b8b9-972672829dea" CreationDate="2013-12-11T09:00:02.160" UserId="517" Text="Samples of legal contracts for contractors (freelancers)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2815" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1078" RevisionGUID="7d10204a-07e8-460a-b8b9-972672829dea" CreationDate="2013-12-11T09:00:02.160" UserId="517" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2819" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1080" RevisionGUID="922a517c-f852-4989-ace0-929dd1f789f1" CreationDate="2013-12-11T15:09:55.390" UserId="684" Text="I'm familiar with Docstoc.com and I just discovered Docracy.com the other day. Docracy has the advantages of real time customization and digital signing capability, allowing you to negotiate and sign contracts with remote clients without burning through stamps. I'm still doing my homework before signing up, but so far it looks good. Docstoc has been around longer, has more documents available, and is specifically geared towards small businesses; though, they are fond of sending you their newsletters (similar to linkedin).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Docracy.com][1]&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;[Docstoc.com][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.docracy.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.docstoc.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2820" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1078" RevisionGUID="4da9e789-24cf-4780-93f9-437610f966e4" CreationDate="2013-12-11T17:47:04.623" UserId="75" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[169],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:43,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;levelnis&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="2821" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1081" RevisionGUID="35712eb9-5d5d-4350-9115-fa56ecfc9685" CreationDate="2013-12-12T05:43:42.850" UserId="1452" Text="Your question is about one of personal preference, and only you can decide what's best for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's clear that you find late night calls to be crossing your line, so some questions you might ask your self are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) What amount of money would make you okay with after hours calls?&#xD;&#xA;- are you getting paid that amount of money?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) What are the ways I can insulate you self from this clients expectations that you find unreasonable?&#xD;&#xA; - are these steps worth taking so that I can continue to do business with  this client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1+2 = Can you re-work you contract such that you are paid more for after hours?&#xD;&#xA;- can it be a sliding (maybe even logarithmic) scale based on how far after hours?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My guess is that if you had to ask the internet to be your own personal career counsellor, the money you currently are making isn't enough; they should at least be paying for your extra trips to the psychiatrist / career counsellor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I prefer jobs that require me to be flexible provided I get flexibility in setting my hours in return.  I don't have a problem with rigidity hours / start times as long as they don't expect a ton of off hours work.  The mixing of the two is what made me leave consulting.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2822" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1066" RevisionGUID="82bca1b0-1da2-417a-97f1-4611fe33e0ec" CreationDate="2013-12-12T07:45:27.777" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/411039078675906560" />
  <row Id="2827" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1084" RevisionGUID="a5ec471a-f768-4154-8ce9-c30e82484dee" CreationDate="2013-12-12T21:02:23.707" UserId="1152" Text="OK, I did extensive research and here is the answer:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    You do need to collect tax as long as you have an Activated Tax Number.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I ended up doing is to Deactivate my Tax Number, which you can do over the phone so it's quite easy.  This allow me $30,000 of HST/GST free income, which at that point, THEN I will reactivate my Tax Number and start collecting tax again." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2830" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1086" RevisionGUID="724ffc49-61e5-4254-bb94-2b353a903d8a" CreationDate="2013-12-14T01:14:11.970" UserId="1473" Text="Getting work on elance, etc. often requires suicidally low bids. Is online really the way to go, or is it better to get clients through &quot;real-world&quot; networking in your city?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2831" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1086" RevisionGUID="724ffc49-61e5-4254-bb94-2b353a903d8a" CreationDate="2013-12-14T01:14:11.970" UserId="1473" Text="Best way to get clients as a freelance web developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2832" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1086" RevisionGUID="724ffc49-61e5-4254-bb94-2b353a903d8a" CreationDate="2013-12-14T01:14:11.970" UserId="1473" Text="|client|attracting-clients|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2833" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1087" RevisionGUID="651adcdd-5d7a-4981-a996-eab58809935e" CreationDate="2013-12-14T03:07:40.090" UserId="1474" Text="As a person who hires developers, I think you should do a mix of the two. You should do real world networking because there obviously is a demand for good developers. People want someone who gets what they're trying to build and can build it. So I'm sure eventually you'll have more referrals than you can handle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for online, you should do contests. 99Designs is the big one but Freelancer also has contests and other ones. If you just go balls out with your developing and impress them and win the contest, you have a client in the future." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2834" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1088" RevisionGUID="517a4d3b-ba0e-4eb2-ad91-bfa553614d9b" CreationDate="2013-12-14T10:29:09.260" UserId="517" Text="Regardless of where you seek for work, **reputation** is what matters. Once you achieve a reputation either on online freelancing websites or forums or in the local community, you will start getting satisfactory proposals. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Wherever you work, you will be forced to start from the bottom. If you think Elance is bad, try going to some local company and offer them you **real price**. You will soon think similarities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also advise you to browse ALL freelancing websites. They all have Search page where you can search for clients from your local area or your area of interest. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2835" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1089" RevisionGUID="6a240ec2-9678-4980-9a32-b376311889ab" CreationDate="2013-12-14T12:11:07.973" UserId="1018" Text="I suspect it takes quite a bit of time and effort and many &quot;lean&quot; jobs to build a reputation on Elance etc especially when you are in Canada and competing for jobs with people in other countries who can work for a much lower hourly rate than you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What worked best for me was using the reputation I already had in the &quot;real world&quot; by finding work from friends, family and other people who already know me. This type of work was at a reasonable hourly rate and once I started, there has always seemed to be plenty of work as existing clients will often refer me to new clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you have a portfolio of websites, you are in a good position to show this to people you don't know and convince them you can do the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2842" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1092" RevisionGUID="4b1e230e-cfe5-47a8-8d33-1edccf2e144b" CreationDate="2013-12-14T19:12:03.643" UserId="85" Text="Going through a Management Company will mean you are required to be paid PAYE - unless they are using dubious avoidance schemes, in which case, steer clear.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IR35 (the attempt to clamp down on &quot;disguised employment&quot;) applies if your contractual arrangements (or the reality on the ground) are akin to employment - ie you (personally) are under the direction and control of the client, and there are mutual obligations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are truly freelance/self-employed, irrespective of the length of contract, then you are better off using your own limited company - perhaps with the services of an accountant.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Day-rate questions are akin to *how long is a piece of string* - you may have a different rate for different clients, depending on what, where, when etc... viewing sites such as Jobserve or Jobsite will give an indication of the *going rate* (after agency fees - you can add another 20% on top for the client rate)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2843" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1075" RevisionGUID="2fa5de6a-b1f0-4719-9646-758bc5017707" CreationDate="2013-12-15T04:45:35.090" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/412080975372619776" />
  <row Id="2844" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1093" RevisionGUID="4e2c0140-5987-447e-bbe9-02328cf60c0a" CreationDate="2013-12-15T16:16:33.637" UserId="1323" Text="I am currently prospecting for a new round of UX design projects.  The prospects are all in the same industry.  Some are local, others non-local but domestic (US), others international.  Prospects from at least 4 continents are on my list of people to contact.  Travel costs to see some of them could easily run US $2000-3000+, and more if the travel is urgent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While I'm open to doing some on-site travel, my concern is that prospects will want me to go on-site before I land the project.  If they aren't my clients yet, they haven't signed any sort of proposal or contract yet saying that, among other things, they will pay for my costs of travel and pay for my work time while on-site.  (Assume that while I'm on travel, I won't be able to work for any other clients until I get back, so my paycheck is $0 if I'm not paid back.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do freelancers commonly handle this situation?  Is there a generally accepted way to approach this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2845" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1093" RevisionGUID="4e2c0140-5987-447e-bbe9-02328cf60c0a" CreationDate="2013-12-15T16:16:33.637" UserId="1323" Text="Generally accepted ways to handle travel costs to a prospect's site before you land the project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2846" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1093" RevisionGUID="4e2c0140-5987-447e-bbe9-02328cf60c0a" CreationDate="2013-12-15T16:16:33.637" UserId="1323" Text="|payment-terms|expenses|travel|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2847" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1094" RevisionGUID="bd95296b-17c9-447f-b1d5-04165e7c1b6c" CreationDate="2013-12-15T19:36:17.047" UserId="1489" Text="I have been working in the IT sector since the last few years; actually started a venture back in 2000 and have it going good now. Initially i used to get projects as the third party where someone from the US or some other country got the job from his client and he/she used to outsource the job to us. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I felt it many times that my client was not very happy with the job we delivered, not that the job we delivered didn't work, it did, but it always had something or the other missing that we forgot to test earlier. Your issues, rather than lying at your side, i believe lies at the side of the developer. I managed to find after a lot of bitter experiences that the quality of job I was working on and the quality of jobs my current employers expected from me were a lot different. For example, In India we have most of the people who just check if the project works or not, once they feel it does work, they say that the job is done. Like there is hardly any proper testing of the project at the client side, even a lot of times we have had situations here we delivered projects late; but still our clients were not too worried.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These resulted in making us a bit less proactive to the jobs we worked on. So once we got more professional jobs, we followed the earlier ideas we had, and the result; it didn't work out. After working on a number of jobs we understood that its quality that my client needed, along with the project working perfectly under every conditions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess you should take a proper look into the jobs, the guys you employ, have done earlier, the quality they have delivered and the effort they have put into it. That shall make it more clear about the abilities of the people you are going to hire. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope it helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2848" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1095" RevisionGUID="a2ddec1b-879e-4af2-a7c1-2973516d1020" CreationDate="2013-12-16T03:39:32.323" UserId="1490" Text="I have a client who used a licensed script as a foundation to their site.  They paid for the license and it is a lifetime, single-site license.  There are no more details than that concerning the license on the script website.  My client just asked me to remove any mention of the script name from the code as well as the logos and footers visible to the user.  I can understand removing the visible branding, but I'm a little wary to remove the copyright statements in the comments of the code.  What are your thoughts?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2849" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1095" RevisionGUID="a2ddec1b-879e-4af2-a7c1-2973516d1020" CreationDate="2013-12-16T03:39:32.323" UserId="1490" Text="Client asked me to remove copyright and name from licensed code" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2850" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1095" RevisionGUID="a2ddec1b-879e-4af2-a7c1-2973516d1020" CreationDate="2013-12-16T03:39:32.323" UserId="1490" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2851" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1096" RevisionGUID="d4060dbf-659b-47e0-90a3-02a84d87a746" CreationDate="2013-12-16T04:10:32.037" UserId="1490" Text="You just need to be versatile.  There are all sorts of ways to get work and you need to try them all.  I've found work online through sites like Craigslist and eLance, but I've also found work offline.  You can market yourself to your household contractors or you can talk to old college classmates.  I was catching up with an old friend through Hangouts and I got a decent long term contract with a major corporation through that conversation.  You just need to put yourself out there and produce quality work.  If you don't have work, build something of your own. Put it out there on Hacker News or Twitter and see if it gets any traction.  Just don't sit idle and keep building." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2852" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1097" RevisionGUID="11be49b7-ff86-4799-88d8-d31b0c48b56a" CreationDate="2013-12-16T07:29:43.013" UserId="1492" Text="I am an iOS Developer. I have just started the freelancing and this is my first project for the client. My client is from India and me too. My client has given a checklist of features to me that he wants in his app. He asked me to decide the time required to implement for each task and the price of each separately. he want the complete list of separate task and price of each task, now I am little confused as is this the correct way to decide the price or shall I charge for a complete project or an hourly basis. If I charge him for on feature basis then how would I decide the price, what parameters should I consider? The task include like Facebook, gmail authentication,user feedback, fb &amp; twitter sharing and  server side coding( I am handling server side as well), device orientation etc. Please help. Thanks in advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2853" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1097" RevisionGUID="11be49b7-ff86-4799-88d8-d31b0c48b56a" CreationDate="2013-12-16T07:29:43.013" UserId="1492" Text="How to charge for a iOS project on function/feature basis or for complete app or hourly basis" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2854" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1097" RevisionGUID="11be49b7-ff86-4799-88d8-d31b0c48b56a" CreationDate="2013-12-16T07:29:43.013" UserId="1492" Text="|pay-rate|payment-terms|time-tracking|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2855" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="1098" RevisionGUID="a89cf93c-7706-4b55-a025-f702f8294ce4" CreationDate="2013-12-16T07:50:49.200" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/221477/how-to-decide-the-price-for-an-ios-app-for-freelancer-feature-function-basis-or" />
  <row Id="2856" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1098" RevisionGUID="3eec877b-3350-4451-92e2-a098f9697d15" CreationDate="2013-12-16T07:32:59.463" UserId="1492" Text="I am an iOS Developer. I have just started the freelancing and this is my first project for the client. My client is from India and me too. My client has given a checklist of features to me that he wants in his app. He asked me to decide the time required to implement for each task and the price of each separately. he want the complete list of separate task and price of each task, now I am little confused as is this the correct way to decide the price or shall I charge for a complete project or an hourly basis. If I charge him for on feature basis then how would I decide the price, what parameters should I consider? The task include like Facebook, gmail authentication,user feedback, fb &amp; twitter sharing and server side coding( I am handling server side as well), device orientation etc. Please help. Thanks in advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2857" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1098" RevisionGUID="3eec877b-3350-4451-92e2-a098f9697d15" CreationDate="2013-12-16T07:32:59.463" UserId="1492" Text="How to decide the price for an iOS app for freelancer, feature/function basis or complete project or hourly?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2858" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1098" RevisionGUID="3eec877b-3350-4451-92e2-a098f9697d15" CreationDate="2013-12-16T07:32:59.463" UserId="1492" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2859" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1099" RevisionGUID="56e67bf8-5152-4e8c-b61a-f7306f29c99d" CreationDate="2013-12-16T07:55:57.703" UserId="708" Text="First, I'd contact the product producer and ask about branding/copyright removal. It's often not an issue with additional fees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, I'd express to the client that simply removing the branding/copyright may be against the terms of service for the product and could possibly result in legal action on behalf of Company X (product owner).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third, your contract should state something about you adhering to and abiding by all legal restrictions in good faith but you are not to be held liable for specific requests made by the client which may be outside the terms of use of any product/service used.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you've done the three above items... remove the branding. The onus then falls on the client to protect themselves. It's also wise to retain all communications regarding the matter." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2860" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1100" RevisionGUID="d560388e-a663-41d6-9d2c-783501c79b48" CreationDate="2013-12-16T08:12:33.303" UserId="708" Text=" 1. Figure your hourly rate if you don't already know it.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Calculate how much time each feature will take you to build.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Time to build feature multiplied by your hourly rate provides the Feature Cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Add up all the feature cost values to get total project cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Add up all the feature build time values to get total project time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Explain dependencies in your quote/bid -- i.e. &quot;Feature C can not be completed until Feature B has been implemented and tested&quot;. or &quot;Feature D through F must be completed simultaneously for a stable end product&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2861" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1101" RevisionGUID="0437654c-3a2e-4842-8883-5986e4419862" CreationDate="2013-12-16T08:30:03.127" UserId="708" Text="I have never gotten a single client from any web-based crowd source site. Ever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All my clients have come via word of mouth. Networking in real life is **far more valuable** than anything online in my opinion. If you network properly all it takes is one or two of the right contacts and you'll have all the work you need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Look at it this way.... you can float in a raft in the Atlantic ocean (the internet) *hoping* you are seen and deemed worthy of attention. Or you can throw an inner tube into the pond in your local park where you are sure to get stares and attention.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Chamber of Commerce&#xD;&#xA;- Local companies needing temporary support staff&#xD;&#xA;- Previous employment positions often offer exterior contacts in need" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2863" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1103" RevisionGUID="cd2d2177-a997-4639-8b8a-8b6effbc1a26" CreationDate="2013-12-16T17:43:53.100" UserId="124" Text="Charge him by the hour, but break it down for each task. So:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Facebook Integrations = 1 hour = Price X &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; GMail Auth = 3 Hours = Price Y&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Feedback = 2 hours = Prize Z&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then that way you are not under valuing your work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2864" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1097" RevisionGUID="55edafc8-ae9b-4837-af15-58b3c7267404" CreationDate="2013-12-16T18:56:41.580" UserId="75" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[1098],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="2866" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1104" RevisionGUID="81336cdf-3969-4392-9419-9149b9b835f1" CreationDate="2013-12-16T19:22:37.533" UserId="75" Text="Although I haven't run into this situation *as a freelancer*, I'd like to share my experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I was expected to be out of town for a &quot;potential&quot; client, they knew ahead of time that they would be paying for my travel. In my case, they bought the plane ticket for me (as opposed to a 10 hour drive), and paid for my hotel and 3 meals while I was there. This was perfectly acceptable to me, as there was almost no money out of my pocket; just the car to and from the airport in my city.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are not willing to pay for my travel, and I do **not** have a contract with them stating they will reimburse, then I won't go. The risk is too high at a couple thousand dollars. As stated above, it's a gamble as to whether it turns into a big project, or if it's a giant loss and I earn $0, and spend lots to learn that message! As a Freelancer, you need to be making money every month to survive, and this is one of the caveats.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, there are many things that can be done online instead. For example, when I did web development, I had a portfolio site online that I would email potential clients who asked to see my work. This prevents needing to travel to see them face to face. There are also different VoIP solutions, such as Skype, that allow us to talk face to face over the Internet, and even from my phone, virtually free of charge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the point of the story is, if the client really wants you, ask *them* to book the travel arrangements with *their* billing information. The cost would be too much for most freelancers to &quot;*just go*&quot; for a trip." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2867" PostHistoryTypeId="37" PostId="1097" RevisionGUID="21d621a7-6cc4-4a44-b556-6cb791a0b523" CreationDate="2013-12-16T19:47:20.173" UserId="75" Comment="to http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1098/how-to-decide-the-price-for-an-ios-app-for-freelancer-feature-function-basis-or" />
  <row Id="2868" PostHistoryTypeId="38" PostId="1103" RevisionGUID="21d621a7-6cc4-4a44-b556-6cb791a0b523" CreationDate="2013-12-16T19:47:20.173" UserId="75" Comment="from http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1097/how-to-charge-for-a-ios-project-on-function-feature-basis-or-for-complete-app-or" />
  <row Id="2869" PostHistoryTypeId="38" PostId="1098" RevisionGUID="21d621a7-6cc4-4a44-b556-6cb791a0b523" CreationDate="2013-12-16T19:47:20.173" UserId="75" Comment="from http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1097/how-to-charge-for-a-ios-project-on-function-feature-basis-or-for-complete-app-or" />
  <row Id="2870" PostHistoryTypeId="14" PostId="1097" RevisionGUID="1e31fb22-2e7e-44f1-b835-b25a63e56f78" CreationDate="2013-12-16T19:47:20.173" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="2872" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1106" RevisionGUID="d2bd9da8-6813-4ec9-84a6-f2043b6fcf25" CreationDate="2013-12-16T20:42:00.453" UserId="1498" Text="I got started by contacting local non-profits and offering to do simple design work for no fee to build my portfolio. It was a win-win; they got high-quality work and I was able to fill my portfolio with high-profile names (not to mention the high-quality work)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2873" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1106" RevisionGUID="1d3f16c2-6b81-4480-9cf3-4290ed341f30" CreationDate="2013-12-16T21:31:37.680" UserId="1498" Comment="Updated per request from Canadian Luke" Text="I'll preface by saying that one quote from your post stood out to me:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I feel that I'm a pretty capable artist, but I don't want to get an actual job or contract. Rather, I prefer choose the jobs I want and choose what I want to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I got started by contacting local non-profits and offering to do simple design work for no fee to build my portfolio. It was a win-win; they got high-quality work and I was able to fill my portfolio with high-profile names (not to mention the high-quality work).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a designer you always choose the jobs you want and choose what you want to do. With that in mind, you must remember that your clients pay you to create work for them. The contract is there to protect you and your client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm wondering if there are places where people submit jobs in graphic design and where people can submit results, all without the process of an interview or a hiring system.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Elance](https://www.elance.com/) and [99Designs](http://99designs.com/) sound like sites that you would have interest in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I personally don't like sites like these as I believe the degrade the value of our product/service. I will always suggest comping work for non-profits to build a strong portfolio and then networking to find clientele. If all you are looking for is small, quick jobs, by all means, check em out. If you're looking to build a strong, reputable freelancing career/side-job, consider taking the time to build a solid background, portfolio, and network." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2877" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1107" RevisionGUID="789d50bd-3d15-462f-ab46-dd258cdad9b8" CreationDate="2013-12-18T00:50:34.890" UserId="1288" Text="I have recently incorporated (provincially) and providing IT services as an employee of my incorporation. Its been couple of months and I need to run payroll for myself.&#xD;&#xA;Am not sure where/how to start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there are any online services at affordable price to run my payroll and calculate taxes online?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also what other options do I have?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am new to this incorporation/running payroll business, hence clueless.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2878" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1107" RevisionGUID="789d50bd-3d15-462f-ab46-dd258cdad9b8" CreationDate="2013-12-18T00:50:34.890" UserId="1288" Text="Running payroll for self - Provincially Incorporated in Canada" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2879" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1107" RevisionGUID="789d50bd-3d15-462f-ab46-dd258cdad9b8" CreationDate="2013-12-18T00:50:34.890" UserId="1288" Text="|incorporation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2880" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1107" RevisionGUID="db06c1f6-5797-43b9-8f78-2dedb4237f01" CreationDate="2013-12-18T01:00:09.507" UserId="1288" Comment="deleted 17 characters in body" Text="I have recently incorporated (provincially) and providing IT services as an employee of my incorporation. Its been couple of months and I need to run payroll for myself.&#xD;&#xA;Am not sure where/how to start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am new to this incorporation/running payroll business, hence clueless.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can someone provide me with steps involved I need to follow to run payroll for myself through incorporation owned by me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2881" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1107" RevisionGUID="5bc73b5a-b0d2-4986-a45f-082328cd29f3" CreationDate="2013-12-18T01:51:40.753" UserId="1288" Comment="added 5 characters in body" Text="I have recently incorporated (provincially) and providing IT services as an employee of my incorporation. Its been couple of months and I need to run payroll for myself.&#xD;&#xA;Am not sure where/how to start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am new to this incorporation/running payroll business, hence clueless.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can someone provide me with steps involved that I need to follow to run payroll for myself through incorporation owned by me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2886" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1107" RevisionGUID="75078605-462d-4029-bcb6-85cc3e17048d" CreationDate="2013-12-19T04:46:02.520" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/413530641054322688" />
  <row Id="2887" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1107" RevisionGUID="b4804173-c459-47a4-a1d1-48c63098f5f7" CreationDate="2013-12-19T06:45:37.360" UserId="1524" Comment="Added relevant tag" Text="|canada|incorporation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2888" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1107" RevisionGUID="b4804173-c459-47a4-a1d1-48c63098f5f7" CreationDate="2013-12-19T06:45:37.360" Comment="Proposed by 1524 approved by 1288 edit id of 190" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2889" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1109" RevisionGUID="775d9ae4-f08f-42d5-a9b2-d8a92023cbd3" CreationDate="2013-12-19T14:11:50.147" UserId="1531" Text="I have done all sorts of facilitation work (and some training) over the years as part of other jobs. I have quit my job following maternity leave I have decided to try setting up as a freelancer but I don't know where to start." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2890" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1109" RevisionGUID="775d9ae4-f08f-42d5-a9b2-d8a92023cbd3" CreationDate="2013-12-19T14:11:50.147" UserId="1531" Text="How can I get started as a freelance facilitator?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2891" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1109" RevisionGUID="775d9ae4-f08f-42d5-a9b2-d8a92023cbd3" CreationDate="2013-12-19T14:11:50.147" UserId="1531" Text="|attracting-clients|uk|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2894" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="1086" RevisionGUID="febbd763-f3bf-4bd0-8367-4150a7ca7fc4" CreationDate="2013-12-19T22:39:09.633" UserId="75" Comment="9" />
  <row Id="2895" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1111" RevisionGUID="6dcde7e9-6838-48d3-bdd1-67439ca3897f" CreationDate="2013-12-20T19:46:22.647" UserId="1546" Text="In this sort of situation the client is waiting for you to assert yourself (and a good client won't be offended when you do).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question is how valuable is the work? If the work is potentially very valuable, and you judge that travelling to see the client would make the difference between getting the sale on not getting it, then you could offer to pay for one trip and one day of your time for nothing, but only the basis that if you are appointed to the project, then the travel costs are to be added to your first invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you're not certain that travel would lead to a sale, then you should try and find other options to engage with the remote offices, ask them whether the staff are all getting together nearby, or whether you can engage using Skype or a Google hangout.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they insist that you travel, then be absolutely up-front and say, 'I would like you to cover my costs'.  A client covering your costs is very normal in this situation, and if they refuse, I suspect you don't want to work for someone that is clearly taking advantage of you.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2896" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1112" RevisionGUID="c268a619-c13d-4161-bd60-8902d3a1d835" CreationDate="2013-12-20T21:36:52.963" UserId="1547" Text="I would always advise you from doing something which you know is not legally right. I can't believe Scott's answer would even begin to suggest you do that. For one, Scott doesn't appear to be a lawyer so &quot;The onus then falls on the client to protect themselves. It's also wise to retain all communications regarding the matter.&quot; may be nebulous advise at best. Who has told Scott the onus is on the client? Who has told Scott he is protected if he keeps his correspondence? As a lawyer, I'd argue that Scott's correspondence is grounds to further hold him responsible as he clearly knew what he was doing was the wrong thing to do. The same way a soldier in Iraq isn't allowed to fall back on the excuse they murdered unarmed civilians because their commander told them to do it. If they know it's an unlawful order, they will be held accountable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now on to my own personal experience, I have been asked to do this by an employer (distinction between client) on several occasions. All of these times I refused and explained why it was wrong and why I wouldn't do it. The first request was asking me to copy the entire code of a competitor's website and rebrand it as our own. For one, I explained you can't even see the bulk of their code that makes their site work, but even just the visual appearance is copyrighted material. They also asked on another occasion for me to use a logo for another company and turn it into a logo for one of their companies. Their reasoning, &quot;the owner company is a Mexican company and they don't have copyright laws.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you can see, these situations are different than yours, however, you have no idea if the terms of the license state the copyright must remain intact. Until you know this information, you could be fully within the rights the company purchased, or you may be doing the wrong thing. Don't be that guy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2897" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1113" RevisionGUID="ccfe7c0c-b0b0-497f-8ed9-c9ef5ca188b2" CreationDate="2013-12-20T21:53:27.530" UserId="1547" Text="Why can't you charge future clients in upfront installments?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You take a certain percentage upfront&#xD;&#xA;2. You can milestone if you like or skip to 3 if smaller projects&#xD;&#xA;3. You load an installation of the project on your own servers for testing and show the client&#xD;&#xA;4. Client pays remainder&#xD;&#xA;5. You deliver the code and/or install it on their servers according to your contract&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That way, they can't get the goods and skip out on the bill. If they skip the bill, they don't get anything out of it as you shouldn't have even started without getting something upfront." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2898" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1114" RevisionGUID="00c64a86-419e-4a4b-97e4-d7d67cac0e1a" CreationDate="2013-12-20T23:33:54.850" UserId="124" Text="So I am running in to a bit of an issue, and although there are similar questions on FL nothing this specific:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How do I manage a clients expectations for a new website?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The issue arrises when they first see it go from mock up to actual working website. I'll give you the two approaches I have taken&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Show them the end product only**&#xD;&#xA;Once I am happy with the site I will show this to them, but only once I am happy. This often results in phone calls of &quot;what is happening&quot; and &quot;where is the site can I see it now&quot;? I do keep them in the loop with multiple emails per week so it doesn't look like I have run off - but clients seam to want to get their hands on it before they should. Note: all time-scales, with contingency, are laid out before hand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Involve them in ever step**&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand I can show them the site every step of the way. However I have found when I do this they seam to like to request odd changes and get a bit confused with it all (understandable). The main issue is, it seams to encourage them to request more and more, and increasingly not-the-right-thing changes; though they do not take kindly when I say &quot;this is the way to do it&quot;. It just seams as I say that this encourages more changes, though the benefit is if there is anything they really do not like we catch it early on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question is really: *Are there any approaches I have missed or is this just as hazard of the job and I should accept the lesser of two evils (the first I am currently thinking!)*&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2899" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1114" RevisionGUID="00c64a86-419e-4a4b-97e4-d7d67cac0e1a" CreationDate="2013-12-20T23:33:54.850" UserId="124" Text="How to manage a clients expectations" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2900" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1114" RevisionGUID="00c64a86-419e-4a4b-97e4-d7d67cac0e1a" CreationDate="2013-12-20T23:33:54.850" UserId="124" Text="|client|freelance-websites|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2901" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1115" RevisionGUID="fde0a3d1-5195-4d4b-a1b1-e73174edb588" CreationDate="2013-12-21T04:03:38.650" UserId="1549" Text="I'm starting my own business as freelance Web/Application Developer and I get allot of requests to design mobile App or web Application for some clients and they try to convince me their ideas are will become next Million dolor company and they don't have money to pay me money and  ask me  to be partner until  the product generate money and I really need money to support my business?  &#xD;&#xA;  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2902" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1115" RevisionGUID="fde0a3d1-5195-4d4b-a1b1-e73174edb588" CreationDate="2013-12-21T04:03:38.650" UserId="1549" Text="how to manage project that client offer partnership?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2903" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1115" RevisionGUID="fde0a3d1-5195-4d4b-a1b1-e73174edb588" CreationDate="2013-12-21T04:03:38.650" UserId="1549" Text="|freelance-websites|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2904" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1109" RevisionGUID="e7b93c5e-e973-4e0d-903a-19d895f4c67c" CreationDate="2013-12-21T04:46:10.370" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/414255450092482560" />
  <row Id="2905" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1112" RevisionGUID="bf9f1d2c-e568-4395-9b95-e70da0e19eb5" CreationDate="2013-12-21T11:38:34.373" UserId="58" Comment="removed the entire first paragraph; answers should answer the question, not respond to another answer, and certainly not be targeted at an individual." Text="I would always advise you from doing something which you know is not legally right. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now on to my own personal experience; I have been asked to do this by an employer (distinction between client) on several occasions. All of these times I refused and explained why it was wrong and why I wouldn't do it. The first request was asking me to copy the entire code of a competitor's website and re-brand it as our own. For one, I explained you can't even see the bulk of their code that makes their site work, but even just the visual appearance is copyrighted material. They also asked on another occasion for me to use a logo for another company and turn it into a logo for one of their companies. Their reasoning, &quot;the owner company is a Mexican company and they don't have copyright laws.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you can see, these situations are different than yours, however, you have no idea if the terms of the license state the copyright must remain intact. Until you know this information, you could be fully within the rights the company purchased, or you may be doing the wrong thing. Don't be that guy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2906" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="984" RevisionGUID="59417fdb-b6c8-408d-a72f-d2ae512e8e02" CreationDate="2013-12-21T12:05:46.333" UserId="58" Comment="Small english edit" Text="You will probably hear a lot of suggestions, but they will eventually lead to the client itself. They are either willing to learn new things or not. And there is nothing you can do about it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, what you can do it make an initial conversation with them asking them about their technical knowledge of the area in question. I personally do not do that as I simply forget to ask them these things. Later in the process I may discover that they do not understand some terms and then I explain it additionally. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also have a habit of explaining specific terms in the brackets, a few first times I talk to the client. The second thing is that I tell them on the beginning to stop me any time I start sounding too technical. For example, last night I had to explain the client why I will be late 2 days on a certain task by introducing him to a term which made me work slower. Then I used good 5 sentences explaining to him what this term means, how is it used in the UI environment and why it's harder to detect bugs. Next time I mention this term, I do not have to make an essay. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far this either works with me or clients are too embarrassed to ask for clarification :). No one likes to sound stupid, although we'd never call them that way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This covers points 1 and 2. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I never tried point 3. Just learned from my experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line is your behaviour as well. Never try to boast in front of the client by trying to look like a guru or something. We are all gurus to them just because we are &quot;programmers&quot;. So he already sees a guru in you and if you talk simple with him, he will sooner interpret it as yourself stooping to his level, then yourself being ignorant or a bad programmer. So maybe you can have an introductory talk with the client to discover his technical background (again, I do not do that, but it does not mean I am right to do so). &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2907" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="1112" RevisionGUID="9c75e791-810d-444f-99fd-d8cb8e0b6cdf" CreationDate="2013-12-21T17:05:49.843" UserId="1547" Comment="Rollback to [c268a619-c13d-4161-bd60-8902d3a1d835]" Text="I would always advise you from doing something which you know is not legally right. I can't believe Scott's answer would even begin to suggest you do that. For one, Scott doesn't appear to be a lawyer so &quot;The onus then falls on the client to protect themselves. It's also wise to retain all communications regarding the matter.&quot; may be nebulous advise at best. Who has told Scott the onus is on the client? Who has told Scott he is protected if he keeps his correspondence? As a lawyer, I'd argue that Scott's correspondence is grounds to further hold him responsible as he clearly knew what he was doing was the wrong thing to do. The same way a soldier in Iraq isn't allowed to fall back on the excuse they murdered unarmed civilians because their commander told them to do it. If they know it's an unlawful order, they will be held accountable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now on to my own personal experience, I have been asked to do this by an employer (distinction between client) on several occasions. All of these times I refused and explained why it was wrong and why I wouldn't do it. The first request was asking me to copy the entire code of a competitor's website and rebrand it as our own. For one, I explained you can't even see the bulk of their code that makes their site work, but even just the visual appearance is copyrighted material. They also asked on another occasion for me to use a logo for another company and turn it into a logo for one of their companies. Their reasoning, &quot;the owner company is a Mexican company and they don't have copyright laws.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you can see, these situations are different than yours, however, you have no idea if the terms of the license state the copyright must remain intact. Until you know this information, you could be fully within the rights the company purchased, or you may be doing the wrong thing. Don't be that guy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2908" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="1112" RevisionGUID="61719020-02c8-495f-883f-f6f828e93f1e" CreationDate="2013-12-21T17:18:05.333" UserId="708" Comment="Rollback to [bf9f1d2c-e568-4395-9b95-e70da0e19eb5]" Text="I would always advise you from doing something which you know is not legally right. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now on to my own personal experience; I have been asked to do this by an employer (distinction between client) on several occasions. All of these times I refused and explained why it was wrong and why I wouldn't do it. The first request was asking me to copy the entire code of a competitor's website and re-brand it as our own. For one, I explained you can't even see the bulk of their code that makes their site work, but even just the visual appearance is copyrighted material. They also asked on another occasion for me to use a logo for another company and turn it into a logo for one of their companies. Their reasoning, &quot;the owner company is a Mexican company and they don't have copyright laws.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you can see, these situations are different than yours, however, you have no idea if the terms of the license state the copyright must remain intact. Until you know this information, you could be fully within the rights the company purchased, or you may be doing the wrong thing. Don't be that guy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2909" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="1112" RevisionGUID="5473610f-3ce4-4447-8fe7-5616ea731f9b" CreationDate="2013-12-21T17:18:57.907" UserId="1547" Comment="Rollback to [c268a619-c13d-4161-bd60-8902d3a1d835]" Text="I would always advise you from doing something which you know is not legally right. I can't believe Scott's answer would even begin to suggest you do that. For one, Scott doesn't appear to be a lawyer so &quot;The onus then falls on the client to protect themselves. It's also wise to retain all communications regarding the matter.&quot; may be nebulous advise at best. Who has told Scott the onus is on the client? Who has told Scott he is protected if he keeps his correspondence? As a lawyer, I'd argue that Scott's correspondence is grounds to further hold him responsible as he clearly knew what he was doing was the wrong thing to do. The same way a soldier in Iraq isn't allowed to fall back on the excuse they murdered unarmed civilians because their commander told them to do it. If they know it's an unlawful order, they will be held accountable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now on to my own personal experience, I have been asked to do this by an employer (distinction between client) on several occasions. All of these times I refused and explained why it was wrong and why I wouldn't do it. The first request was asking me to copy the entire code of a competitor's website and rebrand it as our own. For one, I explained you can't even see the bulk of their code that makes their site work, but even just the visual appearance is copyrighted material. They also asked on another occasion for me to use a logo for another company and turn it into a logo for one of their companies. Their reasoning, &quot;the owner company is a Mexican company and they don't have copyright laws.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you can see, these situations are different than yours, however, you have no idea if the terms of the license state the copyright must remain intact. Until you know this information, you could be fully within the rights the company purchased, or you may be doing the wrong thing. Don't be that guy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2910" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="1112" RevisionGUID="7f61fb4b-f644-406f-97fe-aca81e213f7a" CreationDate="2013-12-21T17:20:36.607" UserId="708" Comment="Rollback to [61719020-02c8-495f-883f-f6f828e93f1e]" Text="I would always advise you from doing something which you know is not legally right. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now on to my own personal experience; I have been asked to do this by an employer (distinction between client) on several occasions. All of these times I refused and explained why it was wrong and why I wouldn't do it. The first request was asking me to copy the entire code of a competitor's website and re-brand it as our own. For one, I explained you can't even see the bulk of their code that makes their site work, but even just the visual appearance is copyrighted material. They also asked on another occasion for me to use a logo for another company and turn it into a logo for one of their companies. Their reasoning, &quot;the owner company is a Mexican company and they don't have copyright laws.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you can see, these situations are different than yours, however, you have no idea if the terms of the license state the copyright must remain intact. Until you know this information, you could be fully within the rights the company purchased, or you may be doing the wrong thing. Don't be that guy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2911" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="1112" RevisionGUID="0b75ccbd-131b-4941-85cf-d157b97bbc50" CreationDate="2013-12-21T17:24:25.060" UserId="1547" Comment="Rollback to [c268a619-c13d-4161-bd60-8902d3a1d835]" Text="I would always advise you from doing something which you know is not legally right. I can't believe Scott's answer would even begin to suggest you do that. For one, Scott doesn't appear to be a lawyer so &quot;The onus then falls on the client to protect themselves. It's also wise to retain all communications regarding the matter.&quot; may be nebulous advise at best. Who has told Scott the onus is on the client? Who has told Scott he is protected if he keeps his correspondence? As a lawyer, I'd argue that Scott's correspondence is grounds to further hold him responsible as he clearly knew what he was doing was the wrong thing to do. The same way a soldier in Iraq isn't allowed to fall back on the excuse they murdered unarmed civilians because their commander told them to do it. If they know it's an unlawful order, they will be held accountable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now on to my own personal experience, I have been asked to do this by an employer (distinction between client) on several occasions. All of these times I refused and explained why it was wrong and why I wouldn't do it. The first request was asking me to copy the entire code of a competitor's website and rebrand it as our own. For one, I explained you can't even see the bulk of their code that makes their site work, but even just the visual appearance is copyrighted material. They also asked on another occasion for me to use a logo for another company and turn it into a logo for one of their companies. Their reasoning, &quot;the owner company is a Mexican company and they don't have copyright laws.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you can see, these situations are different than yours, however, you have no idea if the terms of the license state the copyright must remain intact. Until you know this information, you could be fully within the rights the company purchased, or you may be doing the wrong thing. Don't be that guy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2912" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1112" RevisionGUID="9669b3ef-6117-4fba-b412-0b7568cd46b9" CreationDate="2013-12-21T17:31:39.967" UserId="64" Comment="edited out inflammatory statements" Text="I would always advise you from doing something which you know is not legally right.  As a lawyer, I'd argue that correspondence about illegal matters is grounds to further hold a person responsible as clearly knew what he was doing was the wrong thing to do. The same way a soldier in Iraq isn't allowed to fall back on the excuse they murdered unarmed civilians because their commander told them to do it. If they know it's an unlawful order, they will be held accountable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now on to my own personal experience, I have been asked to do this by an employer (distinction between client) on several occasions. All of these times I refused and explained why it was wrong and why I wouldn't do it. The first request was asking me to copy the entire code of a competitor's website and rebrand it as our own. For one, I explained you can't even see the bulk of their code that makes their site work, but even just the visual appearance is copyrighted material. They also asked on another occasion for me to use a logo for another company and turn it into a logo for one of their companies. Their reasoning, &quot;the owner company is a Mexican company and they don't have copyright laws.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you can see, these situations are different than yours, however, you have no idea if the terms of the license state the copyright must remain intact. Until you know this information, you could be fully within the rights the company purchased, or you may be doing the wrong thing. Don't be that guy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2913" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1099" RevisionGUID="9608fae0-bcea-47ff-b1c5-97cce57bc47f" CreationDate="2013-12-21T17:39:24.263" UserId="708" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="**First, I'd contact the product producer and ask about branding/copyright removal. It's often not an issue with additional fees.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, I'd express to the client that simply removing the branding/copyright may be against the terms of service for the product and could possibly result in legal action on behalf of Company X (product owner).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third, your contract should state something about you adhering to and abiding by all legal restrictions in good faith but you are not to be held liable for specific requests made by the client which may be outside the terms of use of any product/service used.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you've done the three above items... remove the branding. The onus then falls on the client to protect themselves. It's also wise to retain all communications regarding the matter." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2914" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1099" RevisionGUID="c6b07863-5136-4d73-be30-a6ea80762045" CreationDate="2013-12-21T17:55:04.910" UserId="708" Comment="added 221 characters in body" Text="*NOTE: I am not and have never been an attorney. I post merely based upon my own experience over a freelance career spanning a couple decades. For legal advice, it is **always** best to speak to an attorney directly.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**First, I'd contact the product producer and ask about branding/copyright removal. It's often not an issue with additional fees.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, I'd express to the client that simply removing the branding/copyright may be against the terms of service for the product and could possibly result in legal action on behalf of Company X (product owner).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third, your contract should state something about you adhering to and abiding by all legal restrictions in good faith but you are not to be held liable for specific requests made by the client which may be outside the terms of use of any product/service used.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you've done the three above items... remove the branding. The onus then falls on the client to protect themselves. It's also wise to retain all communications regarding the matter." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2915" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1116" RevisionGUID="f1bb776d-f0b4-493f-87cc-251f60a157af" CreationDate="2013-12-21T19:49:35.640" UserId="504" Text="I just starting using Elance and Freelancer. I was wondering if freelancers generally use these platforms to help them make ends meet, or if some freelancers actually make their entire living with jobs obtained there?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2916" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1116" RevisionGUID="f1bb776d-f0b4-493f-87cc-251f60a157af" CreationDate="2013-12-21T19:49:35.640" UserId="504" Text="Can one make a living just by working through Elance, Freelancer, oDesk, etc?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2917" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1116" RevisionGUID="f1bb776d-f0b4-493f-87cc-251f60a157af" CreationDate="2013-12-21T19:49:35.640" UserId="504" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2918" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1117" RevisionGUID="a16aaab0-76d4-4310-9fa8-649f77577ca3" CreationDate="2013-12-21T19:52:02.010" UserId="504" Text="Reading here and there articles on the Internet about good practices when bedding on Elance, I hread several times about people mentioning their professional URL in their bids. Is it something recommended? Is it actually allowed by Elance?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2919" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1117" RevisionGUID="a16aaab0-76d4-4310-9fa8-649f77577ca3" CreationDate="2013-12-21T19:52:02.010" UserId="504" Text="Is it allowed on Elance to mention one's personal freelance website's URL?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2920" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1117" RevisionGUID="a16aaab0-76d4-4310-9fa8-649f77577ca3" CreationDate="2013-12-21T19:52:02.010" UserId="504" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2921" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1118" RevisionGUID="83a315cd-d4a0-4217-9ff2-37c6a4db9aae" CreationDate="2013-12-21T22:47:04.077" UserId="517" Text="Yes, why not. Elance will allow you do that as long as your work via Elance. It is recommended!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you think you can outsmart them by finding clients on Elance and then doing the actual work off-Elance, then they will quickly track you down and lock your account. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So use Elance to work and if you don't like paying fee, just attach it to your desired price. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2922" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1119" RevisionGUID="fc36de0f-b6be-43ce-a81d-216947be3751" CreationDate="2013-12-21T22:48:32.603" UserId="517" Text="There are both scenarios. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ones will earn their living via Elance, odesk, guru, freelancer and other similar sites. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other will use those sites to find a good client and then start working for him only. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2923" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1120" RevisionGUID="712a5973-30bd-47d7-b934-27ca03251c7e" CreationDate="2013-12-21T23:47:32.143" UserId="1018" Text="In my experience, it depends on the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some clients like to micro manage and in this case it is probably better to wait until the website is nearing completion before showing them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other clients may have some useful input along the way and can be helpful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem with a new client is that you may not be able to tell which type of client you have.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There might also be a third option where you can occasionally email a screen capture or similar to show clients the current status and and ask for specific feedback if needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I lost one client because I involved them along the way in the development of their website. I was focusing on the most challenging part of the job which was developing multi page forms and PDF reports and planned to make it all look pretty at the end. Unfortunately, the client lost confidence because of the way the website looked even though most of the difficult part of the job was done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The lesson I learned was to progress the aesthetics and back-end development in parallel when clients are involved along the way.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2924" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1121" RevisionGUID="019f4d11-5e9c-477e-b572-fa8d4edb83a5" CreationDate="2013-12-22T00:02:39.750" UserId="1018" Text="I also get similar requests as a web developer and I tend to respond by saying I am not currently in a position to speculate and need to be paid in cash.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I might be inclined to take a risk on someone else's business idea if it looked promising enough and if I was in a better financial position but this hasn't happened yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a few business ideas of my own and would be more inclined to take a risk on these for 100% of the profit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As Oliver Emberton says:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Ideas are cheap, fleeting things; by itself an idea is worth less than&#xD;&#xA;&gt; a half-eaten sandwich. At least you can eat the sandwich.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2925" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1114" RevisionGUID="d5f98353-836b-4c35-8c5e-a63d3d7ea082" CreationDate="2013-12-22T07:46:35.413" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/414663241487622144" />
  <row Id="2926" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1122" RevisionGUID="c65b34b0-08c0-460f-b575-0461d679fc21" CreationDate="2013-12-22T13:03:39.357" UserId="127" Text="There are two issues here:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* How to respond to these types of requests.&#xD;&#xA;* How to decrease these types of requests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As Neil responded, it is completely okay to tell prospective clients that this is not something you offer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if you are getting these requests frequently, you should also investigate if there is something in your marketing that is attracting this type of client. Are you using language on your website or in your ads that suggest you are interested in working with start-ups? Are you advertising in places where start-ups are likely to be looking for clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I try to use language that signals my intent to work with only established organizations. And when clients call me and tell me they are a startup, I let them know right away that I only work with organizations that have been around for more than a few years. I want to work with companies who can pay me in dollars not stock, but also have an established history of paying vendors on time. Start-ups don't have this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2927" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1123" RevisionGUID="24e993ad-6c40-4128-ae63-6fc9d18b92b9" CreationDate="2013-12-23T02:48:26.723" UserId="1558" Text="I'm in the process of revamping my freelance brand identity and web presence in preparation for graduating, and I'm wondering whether I should think about trying to optimise for keywords etc, beyond general best practices? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd rather not get into the SEO game too much. My name is reasonably uncommon (although difficult to spell) but I have the top matches on Google for it. My main issue is that the field I'm going into (a mixture of front end development and interactive installations) doesn't really seem &quot;Googleable&quot;, in that it's unlikely I'll ever rank particularly highly for specific keywords. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given how much business comes through referrals/word of mouth, it seems like the time would be better spent improving personal contacts IRL rather than trying to move up the rankings for more general keywords.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2928" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1123" RevisionGUID="24e993ad-6c40-4128-ae63-6fc9d18b92b9" CreationDate="2013-12-23T02:48:26.723" UserId="1558" Text="Do I need to use SEO on my portfolio site?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2929" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1123" RevisionGUID="24e993ad-6c40-4128-ae63-6fc9d18b92b9" CreationDate="2013-12-23T02:48:26.723" UserId="1558" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2930" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1124" RevisionGUID="4c6a13ac-8f4c-49de-835e-a068cbb37bec" CreationDate="2013-12-23T11:20:18.590" UserId="534" Text="As freelancers we mostly sell work hours. The income is directly affected by the amount of work we put in. Is there a better business model? Something that will gradually grow into a stable passive income from the work we already have put in? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2931" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1124" RevisionGUID="4c6a13ac-8f4c-49de-835e-a068cbb37bec" CreationDate="2013-12-23T11:20:18.590" UserId="534" Text="How to build passive income instead of just selling work hours?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2932" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1124" RevisionGUID="4c6a13ac-8f4c-49de-835e-a068cbb37bec" CreationDate="2013-12-23T11:20:18.590" UserId="534" Text="|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2933" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1125" RevisionGUID="d11aa2a9-ddd9-4dae-9257-8b1a86abf207" CreationDate="2013-12-23T15:09:45.493" UserId="477" Text="What field of freelancing are you in Michael?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whilst not truly passive, if you are a web developer then offering maintenance/hosting is a great way to boost income and build up a stable monthly income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another great way is to create a product. For designers and developers the likes of codecanyon and themeforest can be very lucrative." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2934" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1126" RevisionGUID="dc884671-c65f-4bf8-a690-be5003fab6cb" CreationDate="2013-12-23T16:44:15.747" UserId="1563" Text="A similar thing happens with me as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let me suggest you a few pointers :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Charge the client for the initial cost , no matter how low it is. Think till the point where you think it is affordable. Do not go below that point.&#xD;&#xA;2) The partnership terms should be profitable for you . Therefore, an ideal percentage would be in the range of 40-50%&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client does not agree to these terms, I suggest you not to accept those projects at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I run a startup web development company. Therefore, trust me on this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2935" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1126" RevisionGUID="1b0260ae-35e6-46e9-b4a8-c5dd12820133" CreationDate="2013-12-23T16:52:36.730" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 87 characters in body" Text="A similar thing happens with me as well. Let me suggest you a few pointers :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Charge the client for the initial cost , no matter how low it is. Think till the point where you think it is affordable. Do not go below that point.&#xD;&#xA;2. The partnership terms should be profitable for you . Therefore, an ideal percentage would be in the range of 40-50%&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client does not agree to these terms, I suggest you not to accept those projects at all." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2936" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1126" RevisionGUID="f0f70aa7-4af0-4ff7-abee-4c335cfe8e37" CreationDate="2013-12-23T17:00:42.763" UserId="1563" Comment="added 771 characters in body" Text="A similar thing happens with me as well. Let me suggest you a few pointers :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Charge the client for the initial cost , no matter how low it is. Think till the point where you think it is affordable. Do not go below that point.&#xD;&#xA;2. The partnership terms should be profitable for you . Therefore, an ideal percentage would be in the range of 40-50%&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do not ask for 40-50%, you will eventually be ending up with a loss on that project since the income (proposed income) of that project would need to fill that void of money which was created when you did the project at a lower price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I once had an offer to develop a web app where the client told me that I should develop the web app for $300 , but the actual market price for that was $800.&#xD;&#xA;I was promised a lot of things but I suspected the client would not live up to his promise.&#xD;&#xA;You cannot trust a stranger completely in such matters.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hence, it is very important to validate the client in terms of money, attitude and their past business transactions with other developers . With this, you will get an idea of what person you are interacting with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client does not agree to these terms, I suggest you not to accept those projects at all." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2937" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1127" RevisionGUID="a053c788-e64e-4f94-a385-e71562ce9386" CreationDate="2013-12-23T20:21:19.897" UserId="1558" Text="It's hard to give specific answers without knowing what field you're in. I can give some examples...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As part of my course we interviewed the founder of a small &quot;boutique&quot; design agency — although not freelancers, they had the same issues of variable income depending on how many projects were coming in. They had a number of things they were doing to try and offset the problem. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- They designed an app (they contracted out the development).&#xD;&#xA;- They started selling products: t-shirts, skateboard decks, quirky signage. Some of those were by-products of client work, some they made specifically for selling.&#xD;&#xA;- They did some projects with startups on an equity share basis. This is obviously not the safest of investments but if you can afford the risk it could pay off handsomely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A different example is that of a web agency who take a regular retainer payment. Similar to what @user319940 proposes, that can cover hosting, maintenance, minor updates, CMS support, etc up to a certain number of hours per month. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a website or a blog, running ads can bring in some extra cash, although that's highly dependent on bringing enough people to your site on a regular basis. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2938" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1124" RevisionGUID="d3214c00-cf5b-439f-b0c1-d6607a9235af" CreationDate="2013-12-24T07:54:36.603" UserId="534" Comment="added field of expertise" Text="As freelancers we mostly sell work hours. The income is directly affected by the amount of work we put in. Is there a better business model? Something that will gradually grow into a stable passive income from the work we already have put in? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a Software Developer, mainly building custom web, mobile and desktop apps for businesses. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2939" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1124" RevisionGUID="08466b6c-829d-429a-a8bd-1257f7f882f7" CreationDate="2013-12-24T08:06:35.407" UserId="534" Comment="added 164 characters in body" Text="As freelancers we mostly sell work hours. The income is directly affected by the amount of work we put in. Is there a better business model? Something that will gradually grow into a stable passive income from the work we already have put in? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a Software Developer, mainly building custom web, mobile and desktop apps for businesses. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Things I've tried:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Hosting - Too cheap and requires a significant number of clients.&#xD;&#xA; - Support - Clients prefer to pay only when the problems arise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2940" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1128" RevisionGUID="d9f290d7-f8ae-43cc-be7e-1051279e5f0c" CreationDate="2013-12-24T15:55:46.713" UserId="1563" Text="If you want to focus on passive income while simultaneously working on other projects, I would recommend you take a partnership with some trusted client of yours on a project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have many clients of mine who offers a partnerships on the projects. In turn, I develop the requirements for a cheaper rate. Since there are trusted source, I am in a win-win situation long-term.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This elsewhere to focus on other projects or develop my own product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest you to have some trustworthy clients and offer them cheaper rates of development in exchange for a small percentage of the overall profit.&#xD;&#xA;The percentage of profit could be around 20 to 30% minimum.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this information was helpful to you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2941" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1129" RevisionGUID="1e161c0c-d786-4049-bff3-198fb57de1e1" CreationDate="2013-12-24T15:58:24.847" UserId="1563" Text="I would suggest you to do SEO for your portfolio website if you know how to do it.&#xD;&#xA;If you plan on outsourcing this to others, I would recommend a strict no because it would be a waste of money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer or a start-up company, it is always essential to keep the money in check because there are not many sources of income for us in that stage.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2942" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1130" RevisionGUID="e881a756-3bb3-4146-bf45-09579c4e2c1d" CreationDate="2013-12-24T16:01:16.860" UserId="1563" Text="It depends on what you do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I run a start-up and my company is primarily focused on providing services to our clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, it is very essential that in this age of strict competition in all the IT fields , it is essential that you come up with your own product as well which would sell in the market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suggest you to build a base using Elance or Odesk till the point to have a stable income from your client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that, do some market research and go directly into products and start coming up with products of your own." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2943" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1131" RevisionGUID="a643d9eb-cb30-44b5-affc-a7086f8552b6" CreationDate="2013-12-24T18:35:02.190" UserId="1563" Text="I think you should be focused on &quot;word of mouth&quot;approach because that is a real way to get clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients you get by this method are generally very trustworthy and would stick with you for a long time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Using online websites with jobs system medium but not a full-time source of income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There was a time 3 to 4 years ago where you could succeed easily on Elance and Odesk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But now, the market is very different because there are many competitors offering quality services at very low prices." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2944" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="170" RevisionGUID="46ddbcf8-be1c-49f2-90d3-3a5c7e9e7d72" CreationDate="2013-12-24T19:23:42.037" UserId="470" Comment="deleted 6 characters in body" Text="##For Information Technology / Software Development&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Master Service Agreement templates:&#xD;&#xA; * [Information Technology Master Service Agreement][1] from Global Data Consultants, LLC (free)&#xD;&#xA; * [Consulting Agreement contracts][3] (see also other categories on the same site; $35/month, credit card not changed if canceled within one week)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Statement of Work templates:&#xD;&#xA; * [Statement of Work (Red design)][2] from Microsoft Office templates (free)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/information-technology-master-service-ag-84601/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/statement-of-work-red-design-TC103923594.aspx&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://contracts.onecle.com/type/64.shtml" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2946" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1123" RevisionGUID="99d62f68-ea42-4e53-bd6c-9b8881a49dd3" CreationDate="2013-12-25T01:47:34.613" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/415660056886378496" />
  <row Id="2947" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1128" RevisionGUID="e32c4eb1-2164-4786-803f-f32f16a06f82" CreationDate="2013-12-25T04:20:55.663" UserId="1563" Comment="added 1 characters in body" Text="If you want to focus on passive income while simultaneously working on other projects, I would recommend you take a partnership with some trusted client of yours on a project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have many clients of mine who offers a partnerships on the projects. In turn, I develop the requirements for a cheaper rate. Since there are trusted source, I am in a win-win situation long-term.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This enables me to focus on other projects or develop my own product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest you to have some trustworthy clients and offer them cheaper rates of development in exchange for a small percentage of the overall profit.&#xD;&#xA;The percentage of profit could be around 20 to 30% minimum.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this information was helpful to you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2948" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1124" RevisionGUID="79485f0c-0327-4753-8ece-dd5ffb63a660" CreationDate="2013-12-25T19:47:36.143" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/415931854148349953" />
  <row Id="2949" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1132" RevisionGUID="006e60c0-0233-455b-ada8-2d02041c1507" CreationDate="2013-12-25T20:41:33.260" UserId="1581" Text="I know some talented developers who make a living through those sites, but they live in low-income countries like Chile or the Ukraine. Those sites attract businesses that want cheap labor and it's very hard to distinguish between someone who's good and someone who is merely &quot;productive&quot; (i.e., turning in the completed work on time, but it's an absolute mess)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2950" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1133" RevisionGUID="cdc9971a-b15a-41a1-8a5e-05b8dd277637" CreationDate="2013-12-25T20:47:25.603" UserId="1581" Text="Personally, I'm in France and the two most significant issues clients in the US raise are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Timezone (I'm often stopping work when they're starting)&#xD;&#xA;* The weak dollar&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, using a randomly selected $250 daily rate (I charge more), that currently works out to €183/day. That's far too little money for a Western European contractor who has a decent reputation. In fact, it's even low for the US, unless you live in a really small, cheap town.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And yes, there's the concern about offshore workers. If you disappear, the company's often not in a position to do anything about it. Of course, the reverse might be true." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2951" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1134" RevisionGUID="392ac191-790f-48ad-890f-9270697f46ff" CreationDate="2013-12-25T20:55:51.800" UserId="1581" Text="You may want to investigate a decent Agile project management methodology such as XP, Scrum, SOC, and so on. They can be harder to fine-tune for remote workers, but by doing this, you can get some work turned in earlier, review it, and give decent feedback to correct things before they go off course. Sending dozens of requests at the end of the app isn't good. This needs to be an ongoing process *while* developing the app. And you won't be able to independently manage 20 contractors like this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being said, you have a classic dilemma: excellence doesn't scale well. A master chef might open a top-notch restaurant, but for them to open more, they have to delegate their excellence and try to make it repeatable. That's not an easy task because a competent chef will see specials, or new foods, and try to incorporate them on a daily basis. The competent chef will work with what they have, but if you're trying to get other chefs to repeat what you're doing, they're locked into your working style. Thus, your excellence and flexibility often has to be dialed back as you scale.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me, if I subcontract, I let my client know and offer them a lower rate, along with lower expectations. Some clients are happy to do this and by setting expectations better, you can have more flexibility in what you offer a client (though I prefer to settle for fewer features instead of lower quality).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, have you asked your contractors why they won't come back?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2952" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1135" RevisionGUID="c2517ab9-c7e7-40ee-8d29-0c08a66dd444" CreationDate="2013-12-26T14:25:07.853" UserId="1278" Text="I am currently talking to a few potential clients about taking on near work in the near future, once I finish I current project, which has roughly four weeks of work left. The issue is that I only have the availability to take on one of the projects, but I am not sure how to proceed with these clients. I don't want to brush one off in case one prospect does not come through, but on the other side I don't want to end up over promising my availability and end up overbooked.  How should I proceed with these sales?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2953" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1135" RevisionGUID="c2517ab9-c7e7-40ee-8d29-0c08a66dd444" CreationDate="2013-12-26T14:25:07.853" UserId="1278" Text="How to handle multiple outstanding sales / proposals?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2954" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1135" RevisionGUID="c2517ab9-c7e7-40ee-8d29-0c08a66dd444" CreationDate="2013-12-26T14:25:07.853" UserId="1278" Text="|time-management|sales|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2955" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1136" RevisionGUID="0551d819-ba34-4a90-a329-59c37f129a9a" CreationDate="2013-12-26T14:38:28.537" UserId="127" Text="Before a project is approved, you can talk about how long the project will take to complete. You can also say: if you sign off on the project today, I can start the project on X date. Please understand that I have other projects pending approval, and if I receive approval for one of those projects first, your project start may be delayed. This usually also encourages someone to get approval done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once that first project is approved, I always let other customers know when discussing their projects that I cannot start them right away. I usually say something like &quot;I am currently scheduling new work to start in X month, as I am fully booked until then.&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it is possible they will take their work to someone else, this hasn't been my experience. My customers will almost always wait for me. But I have built up a lot of rapport with my clients, and finding another developer who is experienced and trustworthy isn't a simple thing for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2959" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1138" RevisionGUID="f8763b8f-d759-4ee4-b30b-260aaf1726c6" CreationDate="2013-12-26T18:34:40.147" UserId="1591" Text="Agree with Avonelle. Freelancing is pretty much a first-come, first-served business. There will be times when this burns you—you take on a bad job that precludes you from taking on a good job offered the next day. Conversely, you may find yourself blocking out time for a promised job that never arrives—I don't do that anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only alternative is to sleep less and cram everything in, although the quality of work usually suffers when you do that, and in the long run, it doesn't pay." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2960" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1116" RevisionGUID="d14cd882-494e-4bc3-83ad-846de8fda890" CreationDate="2013-12-26T19:47:36.037" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/416294240923443200" />
  <row Id="2961" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1139" RevisionGUID="55bef8db-d3f0-473a-b40b-da0b34388af6" CreationDate="2013-12-26T21:29:33.237" UserId="1278" Text="With all other things being equal, let's say you could pursue getting 6 clients that would pay you $5,000 per contract, or getting 3 clients that pay you $10,000 per contract. Assume that the work for option A and option B are equal. Would you prefer one approach to the other? What are some things to consider? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2962" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1139" RevisionGUID="55bef8db-d3f0-473a-b40b-da0b34388af6" CreationDate="2013-12-26T21:29:33.237" UserId="1278" Text="What are the pros and cons of having fewer, smaller clients compared to larger, bigger clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2963" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1139" RevisionGUID="55bef8db-d3f0-473a-b40b-da0b34388af6" CreationDate="2013-12-26T21:29:33.237" UserId="1278" Text="|client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2965" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1140" RevisionGUID="52de3622-f87f-426e-b893-42e767933099" CreationDate="2013-12-27T06:53:03.617" UserId="1343" Text="One thing I've learned to really appreciate is the power of agile development. Too often did I spend too much time second guessing the requester, creating something I was sure would be appreciated just to find out that they didn't like a button where it was or that they wanted changes which were very difficult to implement at that point. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is often that eventual product owners can't properly envisage a final solution. Once they see results they realise that they need more complex or additional features.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience it is best to start with user interface designs. Understand the problem that needs resolving, then design what the user will see, what they will interact with - don't worry too much about the actual functionality at that point. Involve the user, almost let them 'design' their solution. agree what's most important and develop that first. Demonstrate what you've done, then agree the next bit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That approach makes it often a little difficult to agree time scales, but with experience it becomes easier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me this approach resulted in happier end users and solutions being used for years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps a bit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Danny" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2966" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1117" RevisionGUID="51d29414-72cd-4da8-9186-85b51eb85ef2" CreationDate="2013-12-27T08:13:26.423" UserId="1598" Comment="corrected spelling and added citiation" Text="Reading here and there articles on the Internet about good practices when bidding on [Elance][1], I heard this several times about people mentioning their professional URL in their bids. Is it something recommended? Is it actually allowed by Elance?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elance" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2967" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1117" RevisionGUID="51d29414-72cd-4da8-9186-85b51eb85ef2" CreationDate="2013-12-27T08:13:26.423" Comment="Proposed by 1598 approved by 184 edit id of 191" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2968" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1141" RevisionGUID="a3bdb651-b644-4149-9655-6412b62b7e59" CreationDate="2013-12-27T13:23:48.263" UserId="1018" Text="I like working on a mix of larger and smaller projects to even out work flow and cash flow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes, you may be waiting on clients for a decision or other reasons and it's good to have something else to be going on with. A mix of projects means you will always have something to be going on with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Taking on too many large projects can mean waiting a while to get paid. A few smaller jobs happening at the same time can bring in some cash in the meantime.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While larger projects may have lower overheads (less invoices etc), advantages of smaller projects might include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - opportunities to network with more people&#xD;&#xA; - add more jobs / industry sectors etc to your portfolio&#xD;&#xA; - smaller jobs can often lead to larger jobs&#xD;&#xA; - less risk (e.g. if job goes bad or clients do not pay)&#xD;&#xA; - learn new skills gradually rather than in big chunks&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2969" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1142" RevisionGUID="49a46899-9f99-4559-89ac-be20b3f306bd" CreationDate="2013-12-27T14:35:50.293" UserId="1604" Text="Note that there is a distinction between &quot;project&quot; and &quot;client&quot;. Large clients can have small projects and vice versa. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**More/Smaller Clients**: Pros are (1) you are diversified and therefore, the loss of one client will have less impact on your work/cash flow; (2) getting into more clients should increase your marketability because of your greater visibility and larger number of reference clients and projects; (3) broader experience &amp; background because you are involved in more and different projects and clients. Cons are (1) more small projects leads to more (unpaid) overhead (there's always a certain amount admin work such as setting up contracts, time-keeping, and billing required for each client); (2) greater amount of task-switching overhead and therefore more potential for lost time; (3) greater possibility of conflicts as now you have more calendars to juggle; (4) potentially less follow-on work as smaller clients have smaller budgets / capacity for work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Fewer/larger clients**: Flip the above, plus add the Pro that larger clients offer potentially greater opportunity for finding additional projects within the same client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For your specific question**, I would prefer 3 x $10,000. Your project portfolio is still diversified and your project management / administration overhead is reduced. And either of the two options you mentioned is MUCH better, IMO, than a single $60,000 project. Large projects are nice for cash flow, but you can get buried in the project and lose your marketing edge... remember the old consultant's dilemma: &quot;If you're billing, you're not selling; and if you're selling, you're not billing!&quot; Striking the right balance is important for long-term success.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FYI, I've been an independent consultant since 1979." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2970" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1086" RevisionGUID="7bc9061f-2a3a-446b-9459-910dfa5c2f4d" CreationDate="2013-12-27T16:47:38.077" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/416611339315212289" />
  <row Id="2971" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1142" RevisionGUID="7241574a-0391-4bc1-8b5c-b8334f5e24ae" CreationDate="2013-12-27T17:39:21.600" UserId="75" Comment="added 17 characters in body" Text="Note that there is a distinction between &quot;project&quot; and &quot;client&quot;. Large clients can have small projects and vice versa. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**More/Smaller Clients**: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pros include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. you are diversified and therefore, the loss of one client will have less impact on your work/cash flow&#xD;&#xA;2. getting into more clients should increase your marketability because of your greater visibility and larger number of reference clients and projects&#xD;&#xA;3. broader experience &amp; background because you are involved in more and different projects and clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cons include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. more small projects leads to more (unpaid) overhead (there's always a certain amount admin work such as setting up contracts, time-keeping, and billing required for each client)&#xD;&#xA;2. greater amount of task-switching overhead and therefore more potential for lost time&#xD;&#xA;3. greater possibility of conflicts as now you have more calendars to juggle&#xD;&#xA;4. potentially less follow-on work as smaller clients have smaller budgets / capacity for work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Fewer/larger clients**: Flip the above, plus add the Pro that larger clients offer potentially greater opportunity for finding additional projects within the same client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For your specific question**, I would prefer 3 x $10,000. Your project portfolio is still diversified and your project management / administration overhead is reduced. And either of the two options you mentioned is MUCH better, IMO, than a single $60,000 project. Large projects are nice for cash flow, but you can get buried in the project and lose your marketing edge... remember the old consultant's dilemma: &quot;If you're billing, you're not selling; and if you're selling, you're not billing!&quot; Striking the right balance is important for long-term success.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FYI, I've been an independent consultant since 1979." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2972" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1140" RevisionGUID="dcc4d501-f820-4c4b-af21-6805ad10a35f" CreationDate="2013-12-27T17:40:31.090" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 35 characters in body" Text="One thing I've learned to really appreciate is the power of agile development. Too often did I spend too much time second guessing the requester, creating something I was sure would be appreciated just to find out that they didn't like a button where it was or that they wanted changes which were very difficult to implement at that point. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is often that eventual product owners can't properly envisage a final solution. Once they see results they realise that they need more complex or additional features.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience it is best to start with user interface designs. Understand the problem that needs resolving, then design what the user will see, what they will interact with - don't worry too much about the actual functionality at that point. Involve the user, almost let them 'design' their solution. agree what's most important and develop that first. Demonstrate what you've done, then agree the next bit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That approach makes it often a little difficult to agree time scales, but with experience it becomes easier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me this approach resulted in happier end users and solutions being used for years." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2973" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1143" RevisionGUID="47a7ad0c-1dc6-47ae-9991-222ee25edc09" CreationDate="2013-12-27T17:46:42.737" UserId="75" Text="My main source of income for day-to-day operations include just simply fixing computers or doing upgrades, which usually bill the client less then $200 when all is said and done. For this small of a charge (multiple clients per day, mind you), is it worthwhile having a contract and full Scope of Work drawn up? Is it OK to just use a work order and invoice? Or am I opening myself up to bigger issues?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2974" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1143" RevisionGUID="47a7ad0c-1dc6-47ae-9991-222ee25edc09" CreationDate="2013-12-27T17:46:42.737" UserId="75" Text="At what point are contracts necessary?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2975" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1143" RevisionGUID="47a7ad0c-1dc6-47ae-9991-222ee25edc09" CreationDate="2013-12-27T17:46:42.737" UserId="75" Text="|canada|small-projects|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2976" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1139" RevisionGUID="e11eed61-66b0-4334-86a7-8bfaf5e6de2d" CreationDate="2013-12-27T21:59:50.270" UserId="1278" Comment="edited title" Text="What are the pros and cons of having fewer, smaller projects compared to larger, bigger projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2978" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1144" RevisionGUID="5384be2e-5396-4341-9367-93fc93862060" CreationDate="2013-12-28T03:07:30.933" UserId="708" Text="Work orders and invoices are contracts. Documents detailing the agreed upon work to be done and payment for that work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Work orders define the scope of work and the invoice defines the terms of payment. You should have costs on the work order if you don't already. Listing your liability on work orders and dispute resolution terms on invoices is a good idea as well. If the client agrees to the work order, they've expressed agreement to the terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just because something doesn't have the word &quot;Contract&quot; on it, it doesn't mean it's not a contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2979" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1139" RevisionGUID="30f4f3ec-2b6f-4de1-aa05-e8117603a8f0" CreationDate="2013-12-28T04:48:48.970" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/416792831244898304" />
  <row Id="2980" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1095" RevisionGUID="5038e414-76cd-4e5c-a2ee-12c43371f014" CreationDate="2013-12-28T10:48:49.353" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/416883429356371968" />
  <row Id="2981" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1145" RevisionGUID="a1d68d60-03ac-4b96-997b-25486ff9c6aa" CreationDate="2013-12-28T11:09:12.533" UserId="1018" Text="As Scott says, your work order is a contract and should probably include the scope of work, the payment and payment terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I was doing this type of work years ago, I would not start on a job until the client signed a form agreeing that they are responsible for their own data, that they have a current backup and that I cannot be held responsible for any data loss. This is important to avoid being sued for any data loss, whatever the reason. Data loss can happen through hardware failure or malware or even your own mistakes but ideally the client should have a backup to be able to restore the data.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might also get clients to sign a document stating that they own appropriate licences for the software they are asking you to install on their computers. You don't want to be held responsible for installing unlicensed software on a machine when you have been led to believe there is a legitimate license." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2982" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1117" RevisionGUID="b00baa6e-02bf-4f67-b891-a9bcb83a6229" CreationDate="2013-12-28T16:48:49.137" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/416974024728920064" />
  <row Id="2983" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1146" RevisionGUID="47c64922-3e9d-4858-9b09-52dc2ba2fc95" CreationDate="2013-12-28T18:22:15.160" UserId="708" Text="I think it really depends upon your work style and, to a degree, the type of work you do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I prefer to mix thing up and have both going at most times. I enjoy the fact that if I'm in the middle of a large project I can take a break, do something small and alter my mindset for a period of time. This generally results in &quot;fresh eyes&quot; on larger projects and allows the work to be better overall. I'm simply not the type of person that can spend all day every day working on the same thing. I need variety to keep my interest going and ultimately to solve some design issues which may occur on projects. I'm a multi-tasker at heart, always have been. I know that about myself and try and steer my work schedule to accommodate that aspect of my personality. I get very, very, bored if I only have one or two large projects to complete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for pros and cons of each one that depends on the source of projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I generally only work with a few clients who have been regulars for years. It's not a problem to invoice these clients regularly regardless of the number or size of projects they've given me. However, if I were doing a great many small projects for a great many different clients, I would not enjoy the additional clerical time it would require to invoice for each and every project. At some point there would be a critical mass where I was spending so much time on clerical details that profit would most likely suffer, not to mention my overall enjoyment of freelancing. I don't want to be an accountant or office manager. I do it because I must. :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As others have mentioned, the big projects can at times be an issue if you can't invoice for them regularly. It's difficult to go long periods of time without any income or any income of note if working on a large project. For this reason I explain to the client (and in contracts) that invoicing will occur at milestones. This allows me to avoid that feeling of working for nothing, even though it's not really the case. No matter how much you are working, it's important to see a check every now and then. For me it's not about concern the client won't pay, of course they will if I invoice when the project is complete. I simply need to see checks every now and then so I feel like I'm doing well and not spinning my wheels without getting ahead." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2984" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1146" RevisionGUID="743694e4-f894-4a26-9dcb-3e976cff9529" CreationDate="2013-12-28T18:30:41.727" UserId="708" Comment="added 232 characters in body" Text="I think it really depends upon your work style and, to a degree, the type of work you do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I prefer to mix thing up and have both going at most times. I enjoy the fact that if I'm in the middle of a large project I can take a break, do something small and alter my mindset for a period of time. This generally results in &quot;fresh eyes&quot; on larger projects and allows the work to be better overall. I'm simply not the type of person that can spend all day every day working on the same thing. I need variety to keep my interest going and ultimately to solve some design issues which may occur on projects. I'm a multi-tasker at heart, always have been. I know that about myself and try and steer my work schedule to accommodate that aspect of my personality. I get very, very, bored if I only have one or two large projects to complete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for pros and cons of each one that depends on the source of projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I generally only work with a few clients who have been regulars for years. It's not a problem to invoice these clients regularly regardless of the number or size of projects they've given me. However, if I were doing a great many small projects for a great many different clients, I would not enjoy the additional clerical time it would require to invoice for each and every project. At some point there would be a critical mass where I was spending so much time on clerical details that profit would most likely suffer, not to mention my overall enjoyment of freelancing. I don't want to be an accountant or office manager. I do it because I must. :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As others have mentioned, the big projects can at times be an issue if you can't invoice for them regularly. It's difficult to go long periods of time without any income or any income of note if working on a large project. For this reason I explain to the client (and in contracts) that invoicing will occur at milestones. This allows me to avoid that feeling of working for nothing, even though it's not really the case. No matter how much you are working, it's important to see a check every now and then. For me it's not about concern the client won't pay, of course they will if I invoice when the project is complete. I simply need to see checks every now and then so I feel like I'm doing well and not spinning my wheels without getting ahead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your specific scenario -- 6 or 3 jobs.. my choice would depend entirely on the actual projects, not on the return, since the return is the same. I may even pick some from A and some from B (which may result in more return)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2985" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1147" RevisionGUID="6979a51f-7065-491c-a2c4-af1d99f92ba1" CreationDate="2013-12-28T21:55:04.153" UserId="517" Text="You can either do what Avonelle suggested, or simply pick the most interesting/profitable one. Then try to postpone others to after than one. you may lose all of remaining but you may also preserve one. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or you can do what I do: have a good freelancer at your disposal (from the same field) and give him the job and you take a certain percentage for being the middle-man. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may also try, what I never did, to tell them that there are 4 projects in the queue and see which client is willing to give you a hire rate (since it's obvious you're good when 4 clients are fighting over you). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2986" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1148" RevisionGUID="2f195e32-0872-4961-b0f9-b3f914f84c38" CreationDate="2013-12-28T21:57:36.420" UserId="517" Text="I would not dig myself into administrative things for such a small money and such a large number of clients. I sign contracts only where there is a good and long-term job where I want to bind the client not to make silly moves (like leaving me all of a sudden). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, the most important thing is what your Laws say. If they do not prescribe having contracts for such small jobs, then I would not complicate my life. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2987" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1149" RevisionGUID="ef4a2eb6-6acd-4272-8270-fc59397c4b57" CreationDate="2013-12-28T22:01:52.303" UserId="517" Text="As I mentioned a dozens time here, utilize &quot;retainer contracts&quot; as much as possible. All large companies do this. This way you have passive income for the next X months whether you work or not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One person suggested creating your own project. That is good in reality but your own project takes time and since you want to get as much money as possible from it, you will need constant updating. I built my own software as well and for years I have been hiring a full-time person to maintain it. And this person is busy all the time. So having your own product is not as easy as you think especially if you have to support yourself by doing projects for clients. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2989" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1093" RevisionGUID="63e6e3ca-f484-4e87-84f6-2895e6ac61a0" CreationDate="2013-12-29T01:48:49.953" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/417109923483623424" />
  <row Id="2990" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1125" RevisionGUID="d0c857f8-e02b-4d4a-9ac0-a07e413d5a26" CreationDate="2013-12-29T11:16:15.537" UserId="477" Comment="added 509 characters in body" Text="Whilst not truly passive, if you are a web developer then offering maintenance/hosting is a great way to boost income and build up a stable monthly income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another great way is to create a product. For designers and developers the likes of codecanyon and themeforest can be very lucrative.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit to answer a few points:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hosting - Too cheap and requires a significant number of clients. - why does it have to be cheap? I charge significantly more than my clients would pay elsewhere but they like having everything in one place so don't mind paying that much extra.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Support - Clients prefer to pay only when the problems arise. - this is where you need to be a salesman. Make your &quot;emergency support&quot; or &quot;hourly support&quot; quite high to make it worth your while and explain the value of taking out a monthly support agreement to your clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2991" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="976" RevisionGUID="5158419e-cfd7-4285-a245-3efc027e7968" CreationDate="2013-12-29T13:48:49.930" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/417291117856821248" />
  <row Id="2992" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1151" RevisionGUID="df86ee01-1ae9-4bcd-affb-90d7b78ee60f" CreationDate="2013-12-29T18:35:34.490" UserId="1563" Text="Yes, it is allowed.&#xD;&#xA;Actually, showing your work is the only major thing for a client to accept your proposal.&#xD;&#xA;You need to have relevant portfolio to show your skills and expertise to a client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2994" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1152" RevisionGUID="75f4dc49-8bc6-4da9-bcce-ecf8049afa8b" CreationDate="2013-12-29T21:52:34.273" UserId="43" Text="I get many requests of this nature as others have mentioned and most of the time I tended to follow the advice given here about how best to say no to these project requests. However, 18 months' ago I was approached by 3 partners who were looking for a fourth to deliver a new startup idea. It was the usual approach of offering equity due to them having no money. After careful consideration, instead of turning them down I actually decided to proceed with this one for these reasons:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. They had a clear idea about how the site was going to attain profitability and where the revenue streams would come from. &#xD;&#xA; 2. There were clear definitions of roles and responsibilities and I was given complete control over the tech approach.&#xD;&#xA; 3. It was understood that I would be developing the site out of normal office hours so there was a joint understanding that the sooner the site was completed, the sooner we could start marketing it, which meant that they agreed not to put pressure on me to deliver. If I couldn't work on the site for a number of days then so be it.&#xD;&#xA; 4. There was an MOU (Memorandum Of Understanding) drawn up between the parties, which acted as a legally binding contract-in-waiting in lieu of us actually forming a company, which contained roles/responsibilities and equity arrangements (amongst other things).&#xD;&#xA; 5. Probably the most important - it was a damn good idea that I could really see working and being very successful!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These sort of projects can work if you have another primary source of income that can support you whilst you effectively work 2 jobs and there are lower expectations around the time it will take you to deliver a working system. It also helps if the person with the idea understands how to make the project successful after you have fulfilled your end of the bargain. If they don't have experience within the site's target industry that would be a red flag for me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2995" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1135" RevisionGUID="cce61e42-5d97-4164-a706-d2e5642fc5b9" CreationDate="2013-12-30T01:48:50.323" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/417472314041987072" />
  <row Id="2996" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1152" RevisionGUID="2032d567-9034-4456-8d55-f486135cbc82" CreationDate="2013-12-30T10:44:12.453" UserId="43" Comment="added 67 characters in body" Text="I get many requests of this nature as others have mentioned and most of the time I tended to follow the advice given here about how best to say no to these project requests. However, 18 months' ago I was approached by 3 partners who were looking for a fourth to deliver a new startup idea. It was the usual approach of offering equity due to them having no money. After careful consideration, instead of turning them down I actually decided to proceed with this one for these reasons:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. They had a clear idea about how the site was going to attain profitability and where the revenue streams would come from. &#xD;&#xA; 2. There were clear definitions of roles and responsibilities and I was given complete control over the tech approach.&#xD;&#xA; 3. It was understood that I would be developing the site out of normal office hours so there was a joint understanding that the sooner the site was completed, the sooner we could start marketing it, which meant that they agreed not to put pressure on me to deliver. If I couldn't work on the site for a number of days then so be it.&#xD;&#xA; 4. There was an MOU (Memorandum Of Understanding) drawn up between the parties, which acted as a legally binding contract-in-waiting in lieu of us actually forming a company, which contained roles/responsibilities and equity arrangements (amongst other things).&#xD;&#xA; 5. Probably the most important - it was a damn good idea that I could really see working and being very successful!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These sort of projects can work if you have another primary source of income that can support you whilst you effectively work 2 jobs and there are lower expectations around the time it will take you to deliver a working system. It also helps if the person with the idea understands how to make the project successful after you have fulfilled your end of the bargain. If they don't have experience within the site's target industry that would be a red flag for me. The project is now live and going through a round of beta testing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2998" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1153" RevisionGUID="384c61b9-d6ef-4cdf-a632-7c957da874fb" CreationDate="2013-12-30T19:54:06.947" UserId="1630" Text="Is a contractor simply a glorified laborer? Is a consultant hired for his opinion and expertise, but no deliverables, per se?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are many dimensions to this question, but I saw none similar on SX, so I figured I would pose it here." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2999" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1153" RevisionGUID="384c61b9-d6ef-4cdf-a632-7c957da874fb" CreationDate="2013-12-30T19:54:06.947" UserId="1630" Text="How do you meaningfully distinguish between a contractor and a consultant?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3000" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1153" RevisionGUID="384c61b9-d6ef-4cdf-a632-7c957da874fb" CreationDate="2013-12-30T19:54:06.947" UserId="1630" Text="|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3001" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1154" RevisionGUID="d0b693cc-ebcc-4c26-8da8-0871422bcdb0" CreationDate="2013-12-30T20:31:07.220" UserId="75" Text="From [Tech Republic](http://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-difference-between-contracting-and-consulting-and-why-it-matters/):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You may be wondering why what you call yourself matters. The bottom&#xD;&#xA;&gt; line about whether you’re a consultant or a contractor is the bottom&#xD;&#xA;&gt; line. Generally, a consultant is paid higher fees than a contractor.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Of course, this depends on a lot of factors, such as the demand in&#xD;&#xA;&gt; your market, your skills, and the client’s need, but this is true more&#xD;&#xA;&gt; often than not.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; - A contractor generally bills based on time spent performing services. Invoices detail the number of hours worked multiplied by the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; set fee per hour. Contractors generally work onsite under direct&#xD;&#xA;&gt; supervision. They often work through agencies and don’t find their own&#xD;&#xA;&gt; work.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - A consultant most often bills by project, charging for designing and implementing the solutions offered. Consultants rarely work&#xD;&#xA;&gt; through agencies, and they’re often responsible for drumming up their&#xD;&#xA;&gt; own work, either by networking or marketing.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - A consultant sets pricing based on the quality of the solution and the demand for it, not just on time.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - As a consultant, you can bill by project and increase your hourly rate breakdown by working faster and more efficiently. In addition, many clients like this approach because they know what they’ll end up paying for the project, and they know there’s no incentive for you to drag out the work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3002" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1152" RevisionGUID="0cceb8c5-1e1c-4ad0-b7eb-a8f160e39d60" CreationDate="2013-12-30T21:43:00.233" UserId="43" Comment="added 479 characters in body" Text="I get many requests of this nature as others have mentioned and most of the time I tended to follow the advice given here about how best to say no to these project requests. However, 18 months' ago I was approached by 3 partners who were looking for a fourth to deliver a new startup idea. It was the usual approach of offering equity due to them having no money. After careful consideration, instead of turning them down I actually decided to proceed with this one for these reasons:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. They had a clear idea about how the site was going to attain profitability and where the revenue streams would come from. &#xD;&#xA; 2. There were clear definitions of roles and responsibilities and I was given complete control over the tech approach.&#xD;&#xA; 3. It was understood that I would be developing the site out of normal office hours so there was a joint understanding that the sooner the site was completed, the sooner we could start marketing it, which meant that they agreed not to put pressure on me to deliver. If I couldn't work on the site for a number of days then so be it.&#xD;&#xA; 4. There was an MOU (Memorandum Of Understanding) drawn up between the parties, which acted as a legally binding contract-in-waiting in lieu of us actually forming a company, which contained roles/responsibilities and equity arrangements (amongst other things).&#xD;&#xA; 5. My equity stake was proportional to the total number of partners in the business.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Probably the most important - it was a damn good idea that I could really see working and being very successful!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These sort of projects can work if you have another primary source of income that can support you whilst you effectively work 2 jobs and there are lower expectations around the time it will take you to deliver a working system. It also helps if the person with the idea understands how to make the project successful after you have fulfilled your end of the bargain. If they don't have experience within the site's target industry that would be a red flag for me. The project is now live and going through a round of beta testing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, don't just let the client sell you the dream - look beyond that and examine the reality. If they've put significant work into how they might realise that dream and are not just expecting you to do all the work and make them loads of money, then it might be worth deeper discussion with them. Just don't be strong-armed into a partnership that you aren't getting a fair deal on. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3003" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="741" RevisionGUID="6ecaefb0-8ec1-4910-90cf-8214de0bfb28" CreationDate="2013-12-30T22:32:45.053" UserId="470" Comment="orthography" Text="&lt;strike&gt;If you are in India, you're in trouble. It's illegal as per India law to have two jobs.&lt;/strike&gt; My advice is assuming you are based in India.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will give you a general and least ethical but most practical advice. However, it is really important to see your job contract to give proper advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Firstly, their decision of sacking off just for sending a proposal was unfair. This gives me an idea that you are working in a small firm that only cares for more business and more money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have never done any freelancing since you got this job, you can simply ask them to buzz off. They can never do anything to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are a Web Developer/SEO/Writing guy you can in fact threaten them to stop or else this matter can go on the internet. If they really care for their reputation, then they will take this seriously and finish this off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want peace of mind, then ultimately the most they will want from you is money. I personally don't recommend this, but in case they are asking for something that is affordable to you, you can pay them. But since they already didn't pay you for two months, I recommend asking them for a *proper* relieving letter and experience letter, otherwise take this to Twitter and everywhere on the Web." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3004" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="741" RevisionGUID="6ecaefb0-8ec1-4910-90cf-8214de0bfb28" CreationDate="2013-12-30T22:32:45.053" Comment="Proposed by 470 approved by 75 edit id of 192" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3005" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1155" RevisionGUID="c314a156-3908-4cf5-ab6c-4ab393340007" CreationDate="2013-12-31T09:54:56.363" UserId="1638" Text="I'm thinking of selling my software online, so via my website, and also via bidding sites such as ebay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Legally, is there any documentation I need to provide or get them to accept such as terms and conditions?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the user has to accept t and cs for example, then how do I ensure that on a site like ebay? Would just providing the t and cs pdf to them be adequate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3006" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1155" RevisionGUID="c314a156-3908-4cf5-ab6c-4ab393340007" CreationDate="2013-12-31T09:54:56.363" UserId="1638" Text="Selling software online" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3007" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1155" RevisionGUID="c314a156-3908-4cf5-ab6c-4ab393340007" CreationDate="2013-12-31T09:54:56.363" UserId="1638" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3008" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1115" RevisionGUID="a5260bc6-91b9-4b18-950a-be25d96aa303" CreationDate="2013-12-31T09:57:20.443" UserId="43" Comment="Improved grammar and tidied up the question a little" Text="I'm starting my own business as freelance Web/Application Developer and I get a lot of requests from clients to design mobile Apps or web Applications. They try to convince me that their idea will become the next million dollar company, but they don't have money to pay me and ask me to become a partner until the product generates income. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I deal with these kind of requests, given that I really need money to support my business?  &#xD;&#xA;  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3009" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1115" RevisionGUID="a5260bc6-91b9-4b18-950a-be25d96aa303" CreationDate="2013-12-31T09:57:20.443" UserId="43" Comment="Improved grammar and tidied up the question a little" Text="How to manage project requests from clients who offer partnerships?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3010" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1155" RevisionGUID="a10d84fd-0f4e-4be4-904b-20c784da34b5" CreationDate="2013-12-31T17:26:48.023" UserId="75" Comment="added 24 characters in body; edited tags" Text="I'm thinking of selling my software online, so via my website, and also via bidding sites such as eBay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Legally, is there any documentation I need to provide or get them to accept such as terms and conditions?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the user has to accept Terms and Conditions for example, then how do I ensure that on a site like eBay? Would just providing the Terms and Conditions PDF to them be adequate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3011" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1155" RevisionGUID="a10d84fd-0f4e-4be4-904b-20c784da34b5" CreationDate="2013-12-31T17:26:48.023" UserId="75" Comment="added 24 characters in body; edited tags" Text="|legal|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3012" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1156" RevisionGUID="0daecac5-3da8-42ab-a4f1-9b73a1945e64" CreationDate="2013-12-31T17:29:44.833" UserId="75" Text="I don't think I'd make it into a PDF, as people can skim through it, or you have to hope they have the PDF reader installed. What about systems that don't have the Admin privileges to install Adobe?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The point is, it's gotta be easy. Obviously, you have some terms you want your users to abide by, but you'll need some way of controlling that THAT is how it is being used. Personally, I'd set it up to &quot;call home&quot; when it's run, download the EULA, and force them to accept it there. When it's accepted, I get a notification at home that it's been read at *x:xx* time, by a user at IP address *xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx*. If it stays on my server, and the app knows not to launch without it, I get that confirmation (unless they are dirty, filthy pirates who crack everything)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3013" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1157" RevisionGUID="252ba902-540f-4255-9f5f-5b9679e27819" CreationDate="2014-01-01T01:14:51.950" UserId="1644" Text="I have been working as a freelancer since year 2009, Well sometimes it is hard to get a job there on Odesk/Elance. There are tons of people now, what you would do for someone in 500 dollars, another person may do the same task 10 times better than you at a very low cost. You can't just rely on freelancing sites. Few days ago all was well with me  but all of a sudden I wasn't getting jobs on Odesk, so expect for the unexpected, I know some people who are doing very well but it all depends how good you are, the luck factor and lots of things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I love working as a freelancer because I don't like to go to the office and money of course - If you would work hard I am sure you will get a lot more than your friends who go to offices." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3019" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1159" RevisionGUID="71320610-174d-4a77-95b2-b7491f08d3a6" CreationDate="2014-01-01T12:01:02.097" UserId="1650" Text="I am webeveloper and i am doing freelancing in developing webapplications.But currently i am doing freelacing (from india) for domestic cients and i am charging 250 - 300 rupees/hour... This is in the case of working with domestic clients. Now i had certain projects from middle east.The discussions are going on. So how much can i charge them for an hour. Is it the same rate of what i am doing now or can i increase the rate. If so how much will be a fair pricing.?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3020" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1159" RevisionGUID="71320610-174d-4a77-95b2-b7491f08d3a6" CreationDate="2014-01-01T12:01:02.097" UserId="1650" Text="How much cost can be charged for an hour in web development.?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3021" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1159" RevisionGUID="71320610-174d-4a77-95b2-b7491f08d3a6" CreationDate="2014-01-01T12:01:02.097" UserId="1650" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|price|price-per-hour|foreign-markets|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3022" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1160" RevisionGUID="5511b8e6-94a2-4514-b7ce-bfdc569b63db" CreationDate="2014-01-01T17:29:35.720" UserId="1323" Text="Geographically, it depends on where you are.  I'm based in the US and answering from that point of view.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been a full-time freelance UX designer since mid-2012.  I began by looking for projects on Elance and oDesk.  I was requested for several projects before I made my minimum rate public.  Over several months, I probably wrote about 5-10 proposals which took a lot of time to put together.  Each proposal had a fair rate of, at the time, $50-60 an hour.  (My rates are now higher.)  That's a fair rate for designers in my area (I'm currently in the Washington, DC, metro area), which I had verified with other designers via a question I asked on Quora.  I wasn't charging too much for someone who was first starting out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yet I wasn't winning any of these projects either.  Some of these projects seemed to be posted by the clients as a way to not hire anyone yet but just explore the possibilities and find out who they could hire for the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The tipping point for me, however, came after I wrote a long, detailed proposal (which took several full days to write) on a project where I met the job description's requirements very well.  The rate I bid was either $54.89 or $58.89 an hour; it's been over a year, so I don't remember which.  I thought I could get the project.  What happened?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client hired not one but two freelancers for the job.  Between the two of them, they didn't have the skills that the job description asked for, let alone my skill set.  **But they were bidding only $2-3 an hour.**  That rate is impossible to live on in the US, where the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and [some jurisdictions are higher than that][1].  (As of this writing, there are also currently proposals to raise the minimum wage.)  If working for $2-3 an hour as a designer doesn't sound like a problem, consider this: if I'm working for that rate and I go to a fast food restaurant in the US, the person taking my order is making 3-4 times as much per hour as I am and doesn't have nearly the skill set that I do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So as a design professional, I had to answer this question: How would I get work that actually paid me in line with my credentials (bachelor's degree from a top university in the US, 5 - now close to 7 - years of work experience, almost 2 years in UX design) and gave me a rate that I could live on?  And what would I advise others to do if they live in other countries where the cost of living is much higher than what most oDesk/Elance/... projects can pay?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The solution was this: I **stopped looking for work from these bid sites.**  I **picked an industry** and **learned how to do prospecting**.  And, while I've unfortunately had to do a lot of free work over the past year to build my portfolio, I have had more than enough work over the past year.  I got most of that work from one prospecting email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The prospecting course I took was [Warm Email Prospecting][2], offered about once a year through [International Freelancers Academy][3].  (Full disclosure: I am a student of this class, but I'm not affiliated with the group that offers it.)  I'd recommend subscribing to IFA's email list to find out when the class will be offered again.  The course costs hundreds of dollars, which isn't cheap but it is a good investment for freelancers who don't have a background in selling or prospecting.  As freelancers, selling and prospecting are skills that we need to have on the side to run a profitable business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What picking an industry will get you is domain expertise.  That will let you charge a higher rate than you would get working for just anyone who would give you a project.  Why?  You would be able to speak that industry's language and understand their business and their company's specific problems better than someone who only brings the technical skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you have picked an industry, make a list of companies in that industry which could use your skills.  Many job openings or opportunities for freelance work are not made public.  It is better to know - or find out about - specific people you can contact at the companies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage_in_the_United_States#List_of_minimum_wage_levels_by_jurisdiction&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://warmemailprospecting.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://internationalfreelancersacademy.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3027" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="986" RevisionGUID="a70bda6a-5cb8-449f-90ff-6e4279794106" CreationDate="2014-01-01T19:49:09.240" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/418468958719995904" />
  <row Id="3028" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1042" RevisionGUID="be6aaaef-15c7-4b87-ab07-6aea464d9995" CreationDate="2014-01-02T01:49:11.533" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/418559566277009408" />
  <row Id="3032" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1163" RevisionGUID="9b5981be-7c80-4e22-9d08-dbbbf3170391" CreationDate="2014-01-02T12:48:53.333" UserId="983" Text="I had looked into what you are asking..i had talked to some developers and found that the average rate they are charging internationally is approx 25-30 USD/hr. you can use the same as it is ideally an international project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Else it will be better if you approximated what is the amount of work, how much time it will take and how much are you expecting from it as a complete project. Once you are done with the calculations quote the price per hour accordingly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3033" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1164" RevisionGUID="da30c015-d85a-42ac-a489-49105d4655c0" CreationDate="2014-01-02T12:52:45.910" UserId="983" Text="I can make a suggestion that use an encryption logic in the start of your software. once installation is complete for the user to use, a licence key should be asked for. That can be procured when they contact you and pay you as per need. Make the encryption logic good enough so that it becomes user deployment specific only. thus better control." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3035" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1165" RevisionGUID="b684e157-1573-48b9-b51a-84906114af2b" CreationDate="2014-01-02T13:04:58.237" UserId="1661" Text="I'm working on a small engineering/programming project (~100kloc of code) which tackles many different areas of expertise. The program communicates with many external devices, has data processing and presentation capabilities, reporting module, etc. Basically it's a mashup of electrical engineering (electrical measurements), machine control, data processing, visualisation and project management.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to give the client a period of free technical service and bug-fixes after the sell.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm inclining to propose 6 months of free support but wanted to know what was the range of free support you agreed to (would agree to) after selling your project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you wouldn't agree to free support period what would be your support financing proposal - payed per hour, per day, per month?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3036" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1165" RevisionGUID="b684e157-1573-48b9-b51a-84906114af2b" CreationDate="2014-01-02T13:04:58.237" UserId="1661" Text="Free support after selling a project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3037" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1165" RevisionGUID="b684e157-1573-48b9-b51a-84906114af2b" CreationDate="2014-01-02T13:04:58.237" UserId="1661" Text="|project|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3039" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1166" RevisionGUID="5b02afe0-758f-4063-939f-cde0c58a9197" CreationDate="2014-01-02T16:28:11.353" UserId="127" Text="I typically offer free support on a software development project for 60 or 90 days after the project goes live.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that, I offer fixed-fee monthly support to clients. This support includes bug fixes, answering questions and general troubleshooting via email. I generally find that my customers appreciate knowing that they can call and I won't be starting a stop watch for billing purposes. (The price depends on the size of the app I am supporting and how quickly they will typically need a response.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3040" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1167" RevisionGUID="a31abcfa-3c9a-43f7-9641-ee78a6487b65" CreationDate="2014-01-02T17:10:29.687" UserId="75" Text="Remember that nothing in this world is free, no matter what the price tag itself says. If I am selling a program, and I'm expected to give support, I would build that cost into the cost of developing the product, but likely at a reduced price for the support (in the event they don't use it, they shouldn't feel ripped off). It's going to vary greatly on the amount of time to build the product, as well as how specialized the product is. If it's been sold to many customers and has been rock solid on every installation, I would only add on a little extra into the cost for support, and maybe offer 90 days support.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**But why only 90 days?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, that's a fair question. A lot can change in 6 months. I've seen some companies who get new systems every 6 months, just because they can. Management might change, and have new decisions, and want to switch to Macs all of a sudden. If my program doesn't work on Mac, I may have needed to rewrite everything for that one customer, or tell them to install Windows to keep it working. 90 days is standard in my country anyways, so I follow suit and agree to the same terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another issue may come up that they save all their support for the last bit; after a few months, I forget about a client's network and system's setup, especially when there are many one-off configurations (i.e. not all systems set up the same). This makes it difficult as well. Yes, keep notes; they will save you time and time again! And just in case you forgot already, **KEEP NOTES**. I keep them on my phone/tablet, and upload them to my server once I am finished with a site for any work I do. When I get back to my desktop, I can go and consolidate them with the previous versions of the notes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**OK, I get it. How do I determine how much to secretly (or publicly) charge?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, depends on you. Here's a short list:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- *Look at how long it takes to fix most bugs.* Does it require a complete recompile to fix any bugs? Can you simply change a text file of settings to fix it? Is it going to be many PEBCAK issues?&#xD;&#xA;- *You need to determine what type of issues you could see the company having.*&#xD;&#xA;- *Once you determine that, decide how long you think it would take on average to fix it.* You may include travel time for customers far away, or be able to offer remote support. One of my previous employers bought a license for a remote access program that worked quite well, and the first few customers that we charged to use it paid for it essentially; the rest was paying for my time to troubleshoot while working on other issues as well. Not the ideal situation, but saves money for us, and therefore, the clients.&#xD;&#xA;- *Are you going to support their entire computer system, and not just your program?* Some companies expect you to take over every aspect of support, and if you are not willing to take that on, **make sure you specify what you will offer support on**. Nothing like going in to fix a program, then be asked to update their website, unjam the printer, setup 4 new workstations out of the box, install a media program, THEN allow access to Facebook. SPECIFY what is free, and explain you'll charge for the rest." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3041" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1168" RevisionGUID="941a8b0d-6d52-4c0f-8502-84acb5e16d92" CreationDate="2014-01-02T20:36:49.717" UserId="517" Text="As far as I see it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I am hired as a **contractor**, then I am expected to do the coding and deliver the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I am hired as a **consultant**, then I usually review the project specifications and advise what technology or approach should be used to implement XY feature. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also saw some clients using these terms interchangeably, but I have to admin I saw this a few times only. Most of them properly distinguish the roles. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3042" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1165" RevisionGUID="74068fd2-88ba-4093-9160-1b1cfcc53887" CreationDate="2014-01-02T22:49:14.290" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/418876666010959872" />
  <row Id="3043" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1169" RevisionGUID="f93c6eb6-6a2b-47c7-9aa6-69144603a4b7" CreationDate="2014-01-02T23:08:42.787" UserId="124" Text="Some of the other answers have mentioned this but I want to clarify it:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Define Free**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What does your free support period offer:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Bug Fixes&#xD;&#xA; - Minor Changes to UI&#xD;&#xA; - Major Changes to UI (languages added for example)&#xD;&#xA; - Dependant on system, installing on more servers or computers in different locations&#xD;&#xA; - Changes to functions (major or minor)&#xD;&#xA; - Training (no matter how simple, some staff will always need to know where the on button is)&#xD;&#xA; - And the list goes on&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't think free support is bad at all, you just need to make sure you are clear with what it covers. Lastly which of the two applies you need to think about it (example 6 month period)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - The client has 6 months to request changes, these changes maybe actioned after this period&#xD;&#xA; or&#xD;&#xA; - All 'free' changes must take place within the 6 month period" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3044" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1170" RevisionGUID="0c025993-eac7-4703-8ce8-be6f82e3e98b" CreationDate="2014-01-03T06:28:30.793" UserId="1563" Text="Indian developers are always considered to be one of the best and the cheapest as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, your hourly rate totally depends on your own skills. If your client is a technical guy, it will take him one hour of Skype call to understand how good you are.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I run a startup web development company.&#xD;&#xA;My hourly rates as per my skills and expertise (for all clients,irrespective of the geographic location) are somewhat like :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**PHP - $12-$18,&#xD;&#xA;Ruby on Rails - $20-$30,&#xD;&#xA;Java - $20-$30,&#xD;&#xA;PSD to HTML &amp; Javascript - $13-$18.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to define a standard for yourself according to the services you have to offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IF you still have any doubts, do let me know.&#xD;&#xA;Thanks.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3045" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1170" RevisionGUID="497e59b2-d478-4c2c-8a5f-818a49066b4f" CreationDate="2014-01-03T06:56:21.017" UserId="58" Comment="Tidied up grammar slightly~" Text="Indian developers are always considered to be some of the best (and the cheapest as well).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But your hourly rate totally depends on your own skills. If your client is a technical guy, it will take him, say, one hour of Skype calling to understand how good you are.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I run a startup web development company.&#xD;&#xA;My hourly rates as per my skills and expertise (for all clients, irrespective of the geographic location) are somewhat like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* PHP - $12 - $18&#xD;&#xA;* Ruby on Rails - $20 - $30&#xD;&#xA;* Java - $20 - $30&#xD;&#xA;* PSD to HTML &amp; Javascript - $13 - $18.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to define a standard for yourself according to the services you have to offer.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3046" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1163" RevisionGUID="4531e6ca-5740-4bd5-a8c0-50e3be130cda" CreationDate="2014-01-03T07:02:46.027" UserId="58" Comment="Grammar fixup~" Text="I had looked into what you are asking; I had talked to some developers and found that the average rate they are charging internationally is approx. 25-30 USD/hr.  &#xD;&#xA;You can use the same as it is ideally an international project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, it would be better if you approximated what the amount of work required is, how much time it will take and how much are you expecting from it as a complete project. Once you are done with the calculations, quote the price per hour accordingly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3047" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1164" RevisionGUID="fc96ccc8-19c6-486a-bdc1-990ba2b64ced" CreationDate="2014-01-03T08:44:10.467" UserId="983" Comment="added 637 characters in body" Text="I can make a suggestion that use an encryption logic in the start of your software. once installation is complete for the user to use, a licence key should be asked for. That can be procured when they contact you and pay you as per need. Make the encryption logic good enough so that it becomes user deployment specific only. thus better control.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Workflow encryption system is as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Build a Licence Verification system in your application.&#xD;&#xA;This system will flag the rest of the system if the application is licensed or not.&#xD;&#xA;So in case you have a web based application which has DB access, you would need to build a flag system, so that in case some one who has not bought the license would not be able to access the application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A very Good example should be like the Microsoft software in which you always need a licence or activation key to use the product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And you can provide the Licence Key when the buyer mails you and then you can verify the same." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3048" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1171" RevisionGUID="5e80658c-da8a-4f97-b6af-cc9f91fe5fdf" CreationDate="2014-01-03T09:31:50.420" UserId="1650" Text="I am working for an frim in India and do sparetime freelancing software development. I had worked for less then 10 clients and got the payment transferred to my personal account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question is do in need to register as a freelancer under any authorities to work as a freelancer or not.? Also me and my friends are doing it by a group if its a little bit bigger job. So if it is required to register under an authority can we combine and register as one group or do we need to register individually.?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also being an indian citizen and if i move to some other counrty can i continue freelancing there in some other countries where i live.? Is there any restrictions there.?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any Advises on this please :(" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3049" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1171" RevisionGUID="5e80658c-da8a-4f97-b6af-cc9f91fe5fdf" CreationDate="2014-01-03T09:31:50.420" UserId="1650" Text="Is it required to register under any autorities to work as a freelancer.?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3050" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1171" RevisionGUID="5e80658c-da8a-4f97-b6af-cc9f91fe5fdf" CreationDate="2014-01-03T09:31:50.420" UserId="1650" Text="|group-freelancing|freelance|registration|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3052" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1173" RevisionGUID="3c563b0d-86bf-49c7-908a-a47ae97ac5c7" CreationDate="2014-01-03T15:00:59.637" UserId="1672" Text="I've been freelancing since June 2013 and haven't been able to find work in all that time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm very short on funds so I'm sticking to free online classifieds but I haven't had so much as a nibble from any of my ads.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've got a facebook page and twitter account that I'm relatively active on, but I'm not getting any likes/follows... My website is also SEO'd up the wazoo and despite getting dozens of hits daily, I'm not getting any business...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have any suggestions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3053" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1173" RevisionGUID="3c563b0d-86bf-49c7-908a-a47ae97ac5c7" CreationDate="2014-01-03T15:00:59.637" UserId="1672" Text="Struggling to find work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3054" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1173" RevisionGUID="3c563b0d-86bf-49c7-908a-a47ae97ac5c7" CreationDate="2014-01-03T15:00:59.637" UserId="1672" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3058" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1175" RevisionGUID="4970dcdc-f0bd-414c-9f28-03a268136867" CreationDate="2014-01-03T16:37:33.603" UserId="1674" Text="I've started an initiative with two of my co-workers a year ago. We kicked off great but after a couple of months, they both started to skip work with no reason. I don't want to throw away our 3-4 months of effort and I don't want to work alone as our projects are no one man jobs. We've spent some money and built the foundation but we didn't register any patents or even a company. my questions are&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. What can I do to proceed with my startup (with or without my partners)&#xD;&#xA; 2. Where can I find the right people to join me? What should be their attributes? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm good at reading people, but I don't know what to look for in a partner as my last 3 efforts of building a startup has failed because of the people I chose.&#xD;&#xA;I'm in software industry and I'm very good at the technical aspect of the job. I'm also good at leading and influencing people but not yet at managing them. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3059" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1175" RevisionGUID="4970dcdc-f0bd-414c-9f28-03a268136867" CreationDate="2014-01-03T16:37:33.603" UserId="1674" Text="Choosing the right partners" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3060" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1175" RevisionGUID="4970dcdc-f0bd-414c-9f28-03a268136867" CreationDate="2014-01-03T16:37:33.603" UserId="1674" Text="|business-plan|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3061" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1176" RevisionGUID="0ccced59-3c8d-45c4-82d2-9ee1be16c497" CreationDate="2014-01-03T16:47:16.963" UserId="972" Text="Here's a question for you - what sort of structure are you providing to encourage your people to perform?  Do you have a mutually beneficial and understood verbal or written contract that specifies who is responsible for what, what kind of work each person is responsible to put in to be counted as a full participant, and what kind of rewards they can expect for staying the course?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People are people, regardless of how smart they are.  They lose interest quickly, get distracted, and often after a while begin to look for reasons to put in less than their best efforts, especially when the payout for their work is seen as iffy or a long way off.  Very few are disciplined enough to work consistently for long periods of time towards a goal without some incentive along the way to continue to do so. Could this be what needs to be tweaked, or maybe has been missing altogether, in your last three efforts? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3062" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1177" RevisionGUID="c71c0b5b-fd7c-4079-9f1c-211de85ac963" CreationDate="2014-01-03T16:55:53.687" UserId="972" Text="The main question you need to ask is - how do you expect to use your portfolio site?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are expecting to direct people with whom you've already made contact to it to view more expansive examples of your work, then SEO will not be of much use to you, because you will provide these folks with a URL and they will not be needing to look for you to get to where you want them to go.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you expect people to be looking for you online, and for that to be a major route for obtaining invitations to apply for open jobs (ie, you are fishing for recruiters) then you may benefit from some SEO.  But, as mentioned already, do it yourself or set a reasonable budget that you can live with for the work to be done.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3063" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1176" RevisionGUID="4e620af8-73e2-4f3a-bd3c-b54780965f23" CreationDate="2014-01-03T17:09:15.273" UserId="972" Comment="added 1223 characters in body" Text="Here's a question for you - what sort of structure are you providing to encourage your people to perform?  Do you have a mutually beneficial and understood verbal or written contract that specifies who is responsible for what, what kind of work each person is responsible to put in to be counted as a full participant, and what kind of rewards they can expect for staying the course?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People are people, regardless of how smart they are.  They lose interest quickly, get distracted, and often after a while begin to look for reasons to put in less than their best efforts, especially when the payout for their work is seen as iffy or a long way off.  Very few are disciplined enough to work consistently for long periods of time towards a goal without some incentive along the way to continue to do so. Could this be what needs to be tweaked, or maybe has been missing altogether, in your last three efforts? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, to answer your two questions, here is what I would do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to proceed with your start up, make sure that you have a clear understanding of the roles and work required to pull it off, and put this down somewhere in writing.  Perhaps in your business plan.  Then be sure that anyone who signs on from now on understands what is expected of them and what the rewards will be and the consequences for not following through. Interview potential partners like you would a potential employee to make sure they have the background and skills required to deliver. Offer incentives for good work. Get something in writing for your protection and for the protection of your new partners.  A memorandum of understanding may work just fine, or a simple contract.  Be sure to invest a bit of cash in having it vetted by a business lawyer before you sign it or ask someone else to sign it.    &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to proceed without partners, then I'd start looking for some sharp folks who are willing to freelance for you for wages.  Then I'd take my completed business plan and start shopping around for capital... investors, loans, savings.  There are whole books on how to do that, and many are industry specific.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3064" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1178" RevisionGUID="b4badcd9-c16a-4407-bded-7706fe0159c9" CreationDate="2014-01-03T17:40:46.927" UserId="504" Text="I'd like to start working at an office to limit procrastination and give fresh air to my wife who's a housewife.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Among you guys are there some who work in an office outside? How much do you pay?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3065" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1178" RevisionGUID="b4badcd9-c16a-4407-bded-7706fe0159c9" CreationDate="2014-01-03T17:40:46.927" UserId="504" Text="Working as a freelancer at an office in the UK" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3066" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1178" RevisionGUID="b4badcd9-c16a-4407-bded-7706fe0159c9" CreationDate="2014-01-03T17:40:46.927" UserId="504" Text="|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3068" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1179" RevisionGUID="f0ac9b4d-177a-4d62-95de-a4f48be2633f" CreationDate="2014-01-03T18:17:22.070" UserId="58" Text="It's very common to have a separate office space purely for working; In the UK, you can get tax breaks for the costs of doing so (when helps to keep costs at a reasonable amount).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For many people, it can help with motivation; If you work from home at your usual home computer, you'll have a chance of lapsing into a cycle of procrastination easier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It also helps make a clear division between your work and home life.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for pricing, this is wildly dependent on where you live (and how many successful businesses are working in the area), but try to look for buildings made exclusively for office space: a big block of offices of varying sizes. The rent for these offices are determined by how big they are, in square feet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the Northeast of the UK, for example, a small office (~100sq ft) is usually around £240-320/month excluding VAT and including all utilities. If you have a business, you can claim tax breaks from VAT as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another choice is to create a home office in another part of your house, and have your wife understand that work time is when you're in that room." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3069" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1173" RevisionGUID="38411fa3-e2f9-4c18-9eb5-1ac2dcf16787" CreationDate="2014-01-03T18:26:42.970" UserId="1672" Comment="added 214 characters in body" Text="I've been freelancing since June 2013 and haven't been able to find work in all that time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm very short on funds so I'm sticking to free online classifieds but I haven't had so much as a nibble from any of my ads.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've got a facebook page and twitter account that I'm relatively active on, but I'm not getting any likes/follows... My website is also SEO'd up the wazoo and despite getting dozens of hits daily, I'm not getting any business...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm offering software development services using the Microsoft .NET Framework (both Visual Basic and C# programming languages) and web design/development using asp.NET, wordpress, php, jquery, css3, html5, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have any suggestions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3070" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1180" RevisionGUID="0c0d427d-8c14-4716-a447-5c0397d97a2a" CreationDate="2014-01-03T19:19:45.333" UserId="127" Text="The best way to find work is to go where your best customers will be. You've described the kind of service you can provide, but you haven't focused at all (at least in your question) about the type of customer you want to work for. Consider the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Is your best customer local or anywhere? (Local makes a lot of legal and payment things easier and allows you to work onsite, non-local complicates these things and may mean remote only work)&#xD;&#xA;* How big is your best customer? (Are they small or large?)&#xD;&#xA;* What market segment is your best customer in? (Private? Government? Non-profit? Industry specific?)&#xD;&#xA;* etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may think you are better off not answering these questions or saying &quot;all&quot; to them, but actually it is better to come up with real answers to these questions. Different clients will look for freelancers in different ways. For example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I provide similar services to you (.NET, mostly ASP.NET). I work only with small, local tech-savvy companies. These organizations typically look for freelance programmers via their network and via Google. So I use 3 marketing strategies:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* I keep in regular contact with my network and have lunch/coffee/whatever with them to let them know when I am looking for new work.&#xD;&#xA;* I joined my local chamber of commerce so I am regularly meeting a lot of small business owners.&#xD;&#xA;* I occasionally use Google Adwords.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For other types of customers, you may need other approaches. Here are some other things worth considering:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Working with a third party firm.&#xD;&#xA;* Attending user groups / code camps / etc. and networking.&#xD;&#xA;* Joining industry specific groups.&#xD;&#xA;* Using some kind of freelance site for finding work.&#xD;&#xA;* Contacting colleagues and asking for referrals.&#xD;&#xA;* Contacting former clients and asking for work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But again - this will largely depend on what kind of customer/projects you are interested in. It is better to narrow your focus because then you can properly put effort into a couple of key strategies, instead of throwing everything against the wall and seeing what sticks. You want to look very attractive to the type of customer that you want to work for, and a scattershot approach won't make you look attractive, it will make you look desperate. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3071" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1181" RevisionGUID="4023fd51-f52d-499e-8847-338e87a7d6d9" CreationDate="2014-01-03T19:54:00.417" UserId="1558" Text="Depending on your needs, you may be able to rent a desk, either in a dedicated co-working space or from a company with excess space. As per @Santa's answer the price will vary depending on where you are — the ones I've looked at in my area (Central Scotland) are about half the price of a dedicated office, generally &lt;£200 a month, and that will usually include utilities." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3072" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1182" RevisionGUID="8609043a-c517-4ea8-a312-7bfa0d00b3bd" CreationDate="2014-01-03T20:11:15.310" UserId="1278" Text="I would like to get an idea of what my CPA client is. I am having a bit of trouble figuring out how to go about this. This is really a two part question:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) What do I include? Sales meetings &amp; calls are obvious ones. As are marketing related things such as blog writing and going to networking events, as are the related expenses. Are there other things I should include? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) How do I put a value on my time? With clients it's easy, that hour is worth what I made. When I am doing something like a sales call, how should I factor that in? I thought about using my usual hourly rate as a value, but I feel like that assumes that if I wasn't in a sales meeting I would have had an additional hour of billable work, which isn't always true. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would you approach this problem?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3073" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1182" RevisionGUID="8609043a-c517-4ea8-a312-7bfa0d00b3bd" CreationDate="2014-01-03T20:11:15.310" UserId="1278" Text="How can I calculate my Cost Per Acquisition?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3074" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1182" RevisionGUID="8609043a-c517-4ea8-a312-7bfa0d00b3bd" CreationDate="2014-01-03T20:11:15.310" UserId="1278" Text="|finance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3075" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1183" RevisionGUID="f039e1dc-20fb-40a1-a9a3-131d3ddbb1f2" CreationDate="2014-01-03T20:18:11.350" UserId="1278" Text="Consultants are responsible for the business value of their work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I am working for someone as a **contractor**, I build what they tell me to like a good little code monkey.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I am working for someone as a **consultant** we discuss what the client's pain points are, define metrics to measure success, implement solutions, and then view the metrics to see if our approach is successful and if it can be improved." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3076" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1184" RevisionGUID="76ff8471-df50-48b6-9519-3d170422f7c7" CreationDate="2014-01-03T20:53:30.417" UserId="972" Text="Things I would include in client cost besides straight out of pocket expenses:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Mileage.  You may have already factored that in, but just in case...&#xD;&#xA;2.  Whatever percentage of your cell phone or business phone bill that gets used to make sales calls every month.&#xD;&#xA;3.  SEO, if you use it.  Web hosting costs, percentage of internet costs.  &#xD;&#xA;4.  Cost of industry publications, if they include advice on getting or keeping clients.&#xD;&#xA;5.  Software used to keep track of and communicate with clients, ie, if you have a CRM (customer relationship management) program of any kind that would be included.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the time, I'd use my regular hourly rate.  This is why - I believe you are supposed to use your &quot;opportunity cost&quot; for this sort of thing, since no one is ever going to pay you to drum up business for yourself so trying to figure out what the going rate is, is kind of meaningless.  Yes, you may not have enough business now to have to make a choice to forgo paying work to spend that time finding clients, but hopefully some day you will, and when that day comes you need to be able to compare apples with apples in order to have a meaningful analysis of your business costs over time.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edited to add:  You are probably already doing this, but... when it comes time to calculate how much getting clients is costing you, don't forget to add in your time spent that did NOT result in getting the client.  Ie, take the total number of hours spent on client acquisition, divide by number of clients acquired during that time.  That's your real cost.  Keeping track of what it costs you to obtain a particular client may also be helpful in deciding whether to keep them or not, or whether to try to find another client like them or not, but that's another subject.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3077" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1184" RevisionGUID="f6ffa658-8e05-4d5f-974f-e3516e41a72a" CreationDate="2014-01-03T21:00:00.347" UserId="972" Comment="added 44 characters in body" Text="Things I would include in client cost besides straight out of pocket expenses:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Mileage.  Standard practice includes enough to cover wear and tear and insurance on your vehicle.  You may have already factored that in, but just in case...&#xD;&#xA;2.  Whatever percentage of your cell phone or business phone bill that gets used to make sales calls every month.&#xD;&#xA;3.  SEO, if you use it.  Web hosting costs, percentage of internet costs.  &#xD;&#xA;4.  Cost of industry publications, if they include advice on getting or keeping clients.&#xD;&#xA;5.  Software used to keep track of and communicate with clients, ie, if you have a CRM (customer relationship management) program of any kind that would be included.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the time, I'd use my regular hourly rate.  This is why - I believe you are supposed to use your &quot;opportunity cost&quot; for this sort of thing.  Since no one is ever going to pay you to drum up business for yourself, trying to figure out what a reasonable &quot;going rate&quot; for your time spent acquiring clients is kind of meaningless.  Yes, you may not have enough business now to have to make a choice to forgo paying work to spend that time finding clients, but hopefully some day you will, and when that day comes you need to be able to compare apples with apples in order to have a meaningful analysis of your business costs over time.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edited to add:  You are probably already doing this, but... when it comes time to calculate how much getting clients is costing you, don't forget to add in your time and money spent that did NOT result in getting a particular client.  Ie, take the total number of hours spent on client acquisition, divide by number of clients acquired during that time.  That's your real cost.  Keeping track of what it costs you to obtain a particular client may also be helpful in deciding whether to keep them or not, or whether to try to find another client like them or not, but that's another subject.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3078" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1185" RevisionGUID="025b21da-4259-4252-bfad-1eb039ff6e4c" CreationDate="2014-01-04T16:27:31.773" UserId="1679" Text="There are several options to get desk space to work at. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - serviced offices (little private offices incl most bills*)&#xD;&#xA;[More privacy, higher cost, less of a community]&#xD;&#xA; - coworking spaces (normally open plan spaces incl bills)&#xD;&#xA;[Less Privacy, lower cost, most community]&#xD;&#xA; - individual desks in current businesses&#xD;&#xA;[No privacy, lower cost, source of income possible]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;each are great for different stages and types of freelancers/entrepreneurs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*But please please please be careful of hidden fees like paying for internet (yes in this day and age it still happens)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We work with quite a few desk space providers at [www.deskand.co][1] who guarantee transparency, and if we don't have a host partner in your area let me know and I'll see what we can do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://deskand.co" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3079" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1186" RevisionGUID="189393d1-aa29-422b-8de4-844264c83f47" CreationDate="2014-01-04T22:04:57.257" UserId="1278" Text="- create a product based on your knowledge, such as an eBook or SkillShare course.&#xD;&#xA;- as others stated, monthly retainer agreements&#xD;&#xA;- create something small that can be resold, such as a WordPress plugin or theme&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I listed some other [product ideas for freelancers](http://100kconsultant.tumblr.com/post/71666719156/productization-ideas-for-developers) here. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3080" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1187" RevisionGUID="a65e83ed-21a8-4ae8-a91b-f9906c46eb1c" CreationDate="2014-01-06T02:03:58.777" UserId="245" Text="I've been a freelancer (both hardware and software design) for 35 years and am well aware of the ceiling you can put on your income based on the maximum hours one can work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You mention that you already build mobile apps.  So write an app for the iPhone or iPad, or Android based devices, and sell it on their stores.  I recently designed a hardware dongle for the iPhone, and had to get a Mac Mini to test with, so I bought a used one off of eBay.  So along with my iPhone/iPad, I know have everything I need.  I'm currently learning Object C so I can write an app.  I spend most of my time writing in C, and I also know C++, so it's not too much of a stretch.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Several years ago I wrote a shareware application for the PC.  After doing some beta testing, I believe the first version I put up for sale was 1.03.  By the time it got up to 1.07, it was stable and I never got another bug report or had to update it again.   Meanwhile it just keeps producing income, not a lot these days, but without any effort on my part.  When someone purchases it, they are sent to a PayPal page which collects the money which goes into my PayPal account, and I get an email informing me of the purchase.  All written in PHP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as making people aware of my apps among the million or so iPhone apps), I have acquired about 50 domain names along the way-- some of which are specific to the products I plan to develop, and some will be used to develop information portals which will dispense free time-sensitive information on a variety of topics based on their zipcode.  On these info sites, instead running Google ads for example, I will run my own ads pointing to my product websites.  These links will also help my Google ranking." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3081" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1187" RevisionGUID="6f0bc5c4-f896-4c42-8464-44b0498a2e4c" CreationDate="2014-01-06T02:35:11.407" UserId="245" Comment="added 1073 characters in body" Text="I've been a freelancer (both hardware and software design) for 35 years and am well aware of the ceiling you can put on your income based on the maximum hours one can work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You mention that you already build mobile apps.  So write an app for the iPhone or iPad, or Android based devices, and sell it on their stores.  I recently designed a hardware dongle for the iPhone, and had to get a Mac Mini to test with, so I bought a used one off of eBay.  So along with my iPhone/iPad, I know have everything I need.  I'm currently learning Object C so I can write an app.  I spend most of my time writing in C, and I also know C++, so it's not too much of a stretch.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Several years ago I wrote a shareware application for the PC.  After doing some beta testing, I believe the first version I put up for sale was 1.03.  By the time it got up to 1.07, it was stable and I never got another bug report or had to update it again.   Meanwhile it just keeps producing income, not a lot these days, but without any effort on my part.  When someone purchases it, they are sent to a PayPal page which collects the money which goes into my PayPal account, and I get an email informing me of the purchase.  All written in PHP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as making people aware of my apps among the million or so iPhone apps), I have acquired about 50 domain names along the way-- some of which are specific to the products I plan to develop, and some will be used to develop information portals which will dispense free time-sensitive information on a variety of topics based on their zipcode.  On these info sites, instead running Google ads for example, I will run my own ads pointing to my product websites.  These links will also help my Google ranking.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Something else to consider which has already been mentioned is writing an eBook and selling it on Amazon or elsewhere. I was amazed at the number of eBooks some authors are selling.  There is a post on the eBook Stack Exchange discussing income, and one best-selling author that was surveyed says she sold just over 100,000 copies of her 12 eBooks in 2012, and 370,000 in 2013. They sell for $0.00 to $10.00, of which she gets about 60% of the selling price. Wow. The free ones are of course to get people interested in her work, and then buy the others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These of course are not technical (they are in the romantic suspense and paranormal fields) but I had no idea anyone was making that kind of money selling self-published books.  If one could sell just 5000 copies of a technical book at $10 apiece, that would be $30k.  I started my own non-technical eBook a while back -- in fact spent about 15 hours on it last week -- and hope to finish it by the end of this summer.  I've already got a domain name based on the title, so I can add a blog and discussion area." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3082" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1187" RevisionGUID="cd5b4daa-49e2-4386-a333-9e5931eafb61" CreationDate="2014-01-06T04:11:59.440" UserId="245" Comment="deleted 48 characters in body" Text="I've been a freelancer (both hardware and software design) for 35 years and am well aware of the ceiling you can put on your income based on the maximum hours one can work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You mention that you already build mobile apps.  So write an app for the iPhone or iPad, or Android based devices, and sell it on their stores.  I recently designed a hardware dongle for the iPhone, and had to get a Mac Mini to test with, so I bought a used one off of eBay.  So along with my iPhone/iPad, I know have everything I need.  I'm currently learning Objective C so I can write an app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Several years ago I wrote a shareware application for the PC.  After doing some beta testing, I believe the first version I put up for sale was 1.03.  By the time it got up to 1.07, it was stable and I never got another bug report or had to update it again.   Meanwhile it just keeps producing income, not a lot these days, but without any effort on my part.  When someone purchases it, they are sent to a PayPal page which collects the money which then goes into my PayPal account, and I get an email informing me of the purchase.  All written in PHP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as making people aware of my apps (there are, for example, nearly one million or so iPhone/iPad apps), I have acquired about 50 domain names over the years -- some of which are specific to the products I plan to develop, and some will be used to develop information portals which will dispense free time-sensitive information on a variety of topics based on the user's zipcode.  On these info sites, instead of running Google ads for example, I will run my own ads pointing to my product websites.  These links will also help my Google ranking.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Something else to consider which has already been mentioned is writing an eBook and selling it on Amazon or elsewhere. I was amazed at the number of eBooks some authors are selling.  There is a post on the eBook Stack Exchange discussing income, and one best-selling author that was surveyed says she sold just over 100,000 copies of her eBooks in 2012, and 370,000 copies in 2013. They sell for $0.00 to $10.00, of which she gets about 60% of the selling price.  So do the math.  Wow. The free ones are of course to get people interested in her work, and then buy the others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These eBooks are not technical (they are in the romantic suspense and paranormal fields) but I had no idea anyone was making that kind of money selling self-published books.  If one could sell just 4000 copies of a technical book at $10 apiece, that would be nearly $25k/year. This is way more than you would get from a traditional publisher that typical pays a 10% to 15% royalty.  You wouldn't want to pick a subject that is rapidly changing though or you would be constantly updating it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3083" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1188" RevisionGUID="5795e9f7-9260-4ea6-b3d4-9d43fe11290a" CreationDate="2014-01-06T19:31:44.850" UserDisplayName="user1692" Text="I want to take care of various pets for various (even dirt-cheap) prices just to be sure I can get any client to accept my offers. If I make prices unbelievably low, people will likely want me because I won't ask for much. Problem?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As the title reads, **I have low self-confidence**. I have to fake every smile, and often times people can read through it. I am not a very talkative person to strangers, and I'd have to &quot;force it out&quot;, which makes me seem very fake. I am not unwilling, unskilled, or lacking experience, **but just lacking confidence**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I grew up in not so good environment, and my esteem was crushed endlessly. I have drive, but I don't have people skills, esteem, confidence, or much self-worth(I also have mild Social Anxiety, and can't manage a typical hourly-setting job). Will I be too big of a burden to handle this kind of work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3084" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1188" RevisionGUID="5795e9f7-9260-4ea6-b3d4-9d43fe11290a" CreationDate="2014-01-06T19:31:44.850" UserDisplayName="user1692" Text="How to work as a pet sitter with low self-confidence?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3085" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1188" RevisionGUID="5795e9f7-9260-4ea6-b3d4-9d43fe11290a" CreationDate="2014-01-06T19:31:44.850" UserDisplayName="user1692" Text="|attracting-clients|growth|trust|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3086" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1189" RevisionGUID="ab905d32-b4da-43e1-a66f-df79839b1ed7" CreationDate="2014-01-06T21:15:39.460" UserId="127" Text="I disagree with your premise. Most people who would hire a pet sitter care about their pets. Unbelievably low prices sends the message you aren't that good, or may have nefarious intentions. People who care about their animals won't risk it. Price will be a factor in their decision, but it probably won't be the main one. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So don't set your prices unbelievably low, try for the lower half of the typical range.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know how to address your main issue, but I will tell you that many of us struggle with self-confidence, and faking smiles and small talk is not unusual at all. That doesn't solve your problem, but hopefully knowing you aren't alone helps a little.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were you, I'd look for opportunities to meet people with pets who might need your services, where the social interaction required will be minimal. Perhaps start hanging out at a dog park or volunteering at an animal shelter. Build up your confidence slowly. Don't try too many new things all at once.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think you can get there, but it will take lots of patience. Don't give up!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3087" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1187" RevisionGUID="ace1542d-2b6b-4a75-95fc-370d047d04ce" CreationDate="2014-01-06T21:53:31.420" UserId="245" Comment="added 70 characters in body" Text="I've been a freelancer (both hardware and software design) for 35 years and am well aware of the ceiling you can put on your income based on the maximum hours one can work per week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You mention that you already build mobile apps.  So write an app for the iPhone, iPad, or Android based devices, and sell it on their stores.  A while back I designed a hardware dongle for the iPhone, and had to get a Mac Mini to test it with.  I bought a used one off of eBay.  So along with my iPhone/iPad, I know have everything I need to write apps.  I'm currently learning Objective C in my spare time so I can do so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Several years ago I wrote a shareware application for the PC.  After doing some beta testing, I believe the first version I put up for sale was 1.03.  By the time it got up to 1.07, it was stable and I never got another bug report or had to update it again.   Meanwhile it just keeps producing income, not a lot these days, but without any effort on my part.  When someone purchases it, they are sent to a PayPal page which collects the money which then goes into my PayPal account, and I get an email informing me of the purchase.  All of the website software written in PHP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as making people aware of my apps (there are, for example, nearly one million or so iPhone/iPad apps), I have acquired about 50 domain names over the years -- some of which are specific to the products I plan to develop, and some will be used to develop information portals which will dispense free time-sensitive information on a variety of topics based on the user's zipcode.  On these info sites, instead of running Google ads for example, I will run my own ads pointing to my product websites.  These links will also help my Google ranking.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Something else to consider which has already been mentioned is writing an eBook and selling it on Amazon or elsewhere. I was amazed at the number of eBooks some authors are selling.  There is currently a post on the eBook Stack Exchange discussing income, and one best-selling author that was surveyed says she sold just over 100,000 copies of her eBooks in 2012, and 370,000 copies in 2013. They sell for $0.00 to $10.00, of which she gets about 60% of the selling price.  So do the math.  Wow. The free ones are of course to get people interested in her work, and then buy the others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Her eBooks are not technical (they are in the romantic suspense and paranormal fields) but I had no idea anyone was making that kind of money selling self-published books.  If one could sell just 4000 copies of a technical book at $10 apiece, that would be nearly $25k/year. This is way more than you would get from a traditional publisher that typically pays a 10% to 15% royalty.  You wouldn't want to pick a subject that is rapidly changing though or you would be constantly updating it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3088" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="803" RevisionGUID="f8d58df3-963b-43e3-9584-e50c7c748212" CreationDate="2014-01-07T01:31:02.267" UserDisplayName="user958" Comment="added 14 characters in body" Text="I'm wondering if there are places where people submit jobs in graphic design and where people can submit results, all without the process of an interview or a hiring system. I feel that I'm a pretty capable artist, but I don't want to get an actual job or contract. Rather, I prefer choose the jobs I want and choose what I want to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem with advertising on the internet with a website is that there are millions of designers waiting for someone to contact them with an offer, and a begineer like me will likely not be looked at.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I find trustworthy places where designers can get work (freelance, online) without a complicated hiring system?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3089" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1190" RevisionGUID="29e25d53-5018-4821-8eed-c6a29073ac19" CreationDate="2014-01-07T03:56:29.033" UserId="1583" Text="As a developer freelancer as well I would recommend two things, first think of a product or service you can make once and then support and sell, as that way you can scale. Things like support do scale but can also swallow time that you were not planning, and like some of the other comments say can often be a hard sell.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second with your product or supporting a service as you first suggested go after a vertical market or two and then tie down what they need and automate as much as possible. If you can automate it but sell it as doing the full work you are saving your self time and so profit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This was some advice I was given for digital products. As an idea a lot of people have is write an ebook on a technical subject, but writing books is hard for the price you get. Start in the middle of this ladder of products and then fill in the steps. As the best way to sell one product is have a companion product that people can choose to spend more or less on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     | ^ |&#xD;&#xA;    Custom training/consulting&#xD;&#xA;     | ^ |&#xD;&#xA;    Seminar&#xD;&#xA;     | ^ |&#xD;&#xA;    Speaker&#xD;&#xA;     | ^ |&#xD;&#xA;    Webinar&#xD;&#xA;     | ^ |&#xD;&#xA;    Video&#xD;&#xA;     | V |&#xD;&#xA;    Audio&#xD;&#xA;     | V |&#xD;&#xA;    Book&#xD;&#xA;     |   |&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if you wanted to write a book, start with running a 2hr - half day training seminar for 4-10 people. If you can get them to pay a days pay to attend all the better, if not just video yourself to camera, or do it as a free trail and get recommendations from them to run it paid again with other people. Product 1. As talking to people is the most natural and you can just go with the flow and get their feedback its much easier than writing (ok so maybe you write notes first).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that pay a friend or company to video you, edit and sell this Product 2.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With the video cut off the visuals and check the edit again as an Audio mp3, Product 3.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At each stage you can find the price and demand and see what your customers like, finding new ones or selling back to the old.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With the audio you can pay someone to transcribe it with a cheap paid service or on your own. This will then give you a draft of a book you can work with. All for the work of prep + half day + video edit + audio edit + transcript (much of which you can get someone to do for you) Much less work than a year of writing a book.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can then choose if customers want to start at top or bottom of the ladder and offer speaking or custom consultation on top of it or using the experience to do a new product and sell back to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be interested how you get on, which ever route you choose. I am trying a SaaS app as a 20% of my time project. Then write and talk about it as I go&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3090" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1188" RevisionGUID="aa7616c2-1af1-4797-bcf7-73427c84b5b0" CreationDate="2014-01-07T08:06:31.967" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/420466466069426176" />
  <row Id="3091" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1191" RevisionGUID="b1671771-8cfb-4d32-898c-c7acfbb0b7d8" CreationDate="2014-01-07T16:36:41.317" UserId="1705" Text="I do sketchnotes as a hobby.  I'd like to do it professionally, as a freelancer to supplement my income.  I found some established people online - they are selling books, running their own companies etc.  So there seems to be work in this field.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there anyone here who actually does sketchnoting? If yes, how do I go about finding work? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3092" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1191" RevisionGUID="b1671771-8cfb-4d32-898c-c7acfbb0b7d8" CreationDate="2014-01-07T16:36:41.317" UserId="1705" Text="Freelance work doing sketchnoting - How do I start?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3093" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1191" RevisionGUID="b1671771-8cfb-4d32-898c-c7acfbb0b7d8" CreationDate="2014-01-07T16:36:41.317" UserId="1705" Text="|freelance-fields|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3094" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1173" RevisionGUID="2435aca3-095a-43b2-b111-5ed79e448aaf" CreationDate="2014-01-07T17:26:21.107" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/420607349263695872" />
  <row Id="3095" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1192" RevisionGUID="635dd248-f37e-4a79-895e-409e987ee2ff" CreationDate="2014-01-07T18:38:14.327" UserId="104" Text="In the UK, you need to contact HMRC [(link)](http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/dealingwith/changes/close-sell-business.htm).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can get an accountant to do this on your behalf [(link)](http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/dealingwith/changes/close-sell-business.htm#3),&#xD;&#xA;in which case you'd need to tee up your spouse/partner with your accountant's details.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or your spouse/partner can speak to HMRC directly [(link)](http://search2.hmrc.gov.uk/kb5/hmrc/contactus/results.page?affinity=2039) or use the &quot;Tell Us Once&quot; service [(link)](https://www.gov.uk/after-a-death/organisations-you-need-to-contact-and-tell-us-once).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In terms of closing Bank Accounts, here's a snippet from [Santander - How do I close an account?](https://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/ContentServer?c=Page&amp;canal=CABBEYCOM&amp;cid=1210616054766&amp;empr=Abbeycom&amp;leng=en_GB&amp;pagename=Abbeycom%2FPage%2FWC_ACOM_TemplateA2) &#xD;&#xA;&gt; It depends on what type of account this is. Mainly a Grant of Probate or a Small Estates Indemnity form is required. However, if it is a limited company or partnership then you will be contacted over what more is required of you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for a Limited Company, no further clarity beyond &quot;contact the Bank&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3096" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1193" RevisionGUID="ee474391-1f29-4ace-b14a-b0892242a8a1" CreationDate="2014-01-07T20:05:03.270" UserId="1706" Text="You are not REQUIRED to state terms and conditions except that in the case with Ebay, you must state your refund policy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally, terms and conditions are there to protect **you** from getting sued.  You typically see this labelled as &quot;License Agreement&quot; in software installers.  As long as it's in your installer, I think (I'm not an attorney) you'd be covered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's an example of [what I'm describing](http://images.sixrevisions.com/2009/05/11-03_rubyscreenshot2.jpg)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Java runtime license agreement, for example, reads &quot;Don't use this for controlling nuclear sites or aircraft!!!  If you do, we've warned you!&quot; because eventually some idiot **will**." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3097" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1194" RevisionGUID="9392da2b-1828-4c34-ae21-8009bc4d9e26" CreationDate="2014-01-07T20:14:59.383" UserId="1707" Text="I brought a homeowner's dryer gas line up to code.  I billed the customer for my full time in installing and also charged the customer at the installation rate, for my figuring out the bill. She sqwaked.  Doesn't everyone charge customers for billing time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3098" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1194" RevisionGUID="9392da2b-1828-4c34-ae21-8009bc4d9e26" CreationDate="2014-01-07T20:14:59.383" UserId="1707" Text="Can I charge customer at my installation rate for the time it takes me to figure out the bill?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3099" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1194" RevisionGUID="9392da2b-1828-4c34-ae21-8009bc4d9e26" CreationDate="2014-01-07T20:14:59.383" UserId="1707" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3100" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1195" RevisionGUID="59291442-aac1-4319-a96d-4f4d42ebc857" CreationDate="2014-01-07T20:28:42.160" UserId="1706" Text="That might be considered &quot;overhead&quot; time.  If you've advertised or communicated that the customer's cost will only be for the installation, then turned around and added something else, YES, she's got something to balk about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can either&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(a) Bump up the installation cost to cover for the time you'll need - and stop making a surcharge.&#xD;&#xA;(b) &quot;Eat&quot; that extra time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then your customers have nothing to complain about.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3101" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1196" RevisionGUID="7213338c-4041-4e12-965f-45fc652f3615" CreationDate="2014-01-07T20:57:48.337" UserId="127" Text="I don't have any experience sketchnoting. But for any freelance business, the answer to &quot;how do I find work&quot; starts with:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* What kind of customers would need this product/service?&#xD;&#xA;* How would those customers look for someone to perform this product/service (or will they have to be educated on sketchnoting first)?&#xD;&#xA;* How can I make myself attract to them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were you, I'd start coming up with a list of situations where sketchnoting could benefit a potential client. That will probably lead you to the type of customer who would buy this service, and hopefully will get you started on the other items as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: If your potential clients will need to be educated on sketchnoting, then it might not work very well as a part-time business - the client acquisition costs may be too high.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3102" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1197" RevisionGUID="750614ef-b1b1-4e0f-b2ff-ce4aad4058be" CreationDate="2014-01-07T21:00:53.473" UserId="1706" Text="Put it this way.  If you're charging $5/day when the going rate is $25/day ( I don't know the rates ), somebody's gonna think you're stupid.  If they've spent good money on a pet, why would they want to trust their investment with somebody stupid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***I'm NOT calling you stupid.***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have costs involved.  Is the owner providing food?  Other materials?  You'll be spending your time cleaning up poop, doing walks, feeding.  Don't short-change yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I would recommend is that you find out the going rate for someone that's been doing it for a few years, and knock off 20% for your first time out.  It gives someone an incentive to hire you, but doesn't raise any red flags.  You can probably look at craiglist in your area to see what the going rate is.  Start with ONE dog, and once you start getting the hang of it, you'll figure out how to adjust your prices for more than one, and start raising your rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3103" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1198" RevisionGUID="d1ce09a2-285e-406a-8558-855f85d4d2d9" CreationDate="2014-01-08T16:59:09.960" UserId="1711" Text="Can anyone with experience in running a start-up software/web design business give me a few solid recommendations on how your general client experience works?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm interested in what sort of communication takes place up front after a client contacts you desiring a website for their group/organization/business/etc and then what sort of actions you take from agreement to completion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some specific areas of my inquiry include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - How do you go about gathering information and requirements for the software/website? (phone calls, emails, etc)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - How do you communicate your ideas/layout/features for the website to the client? (create sketches, create actual simple prototypes, etc)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Do you create a sort of finalized conceptual that becomes part of the agreement?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Do you draw up a contract and what general things are contained in that contract (I'm not looking for legalise, just general things you consider)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This isn't a general business question but is directly in the realm of a software-related start-up so any suggestions or advice on how to approach these topics from a software/web design focused business perspective would really be appreciated from anyone whose worked through some of these things already. Thanks so much in advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3104" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1198" RevisionGUID="d1ce09a2-285e-406a-8558-855f85d4d2d9" CreationDate="2014-01-08T16:59:09.960" UserId="1711" Text="Seeking advice on web design startup" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3105" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1198" RevisionGUID="d1ce09a2-285e-406a-8558-855f85d4d2d9" CreationDate="2014-01-08T16:59:09.960" UserId="1711" Text="|client|business-plan|freelance|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3106" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1199" RevisionGUID="d8903b2c-2e5b-4f1b-bbf9-7e9982312175" CreationDate="2014-01-08T18:56:00.717" UserId="972" Text="This is not a complete answer, as I don't really have time to write one at the moment, but this part of your post is something I wanted to take a minute to address a few items that I've found to be necessary.  My apologies if any of this seems self-evident or already on your list of things to do.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Do you draw up a contract and what general things are contained in that contract (I'm not looking for legalise, just general things you consider)?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm sure you realize that web and web application design is a VERY risky business, for both you and the customer. If you want a better idea of what can go wrong from both sides, google &quot;software design risk management.&quot;  So, because this is a risky business you are venturing into, you need to take steps from the get-go to minimize the worst of the risk to both parties in order to have a successful experience.  In particular, there are several points during the process where things could go wrong for you, and you need to be able to ensure that if that happens, your books aren't summarily put into the red or you aren't put out of business altogether.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, many clients will ask you to do a LOT of work up front before they sign a contract or advance you any funds.  Sometimes they want you to go all the way to showing them a complete UI and working prototype before they pay.  This is pretty unreasonable, from my point of view, because it puts all the risk on you should they decide they don't want to continue the project for whatever reason, or decide after a while to go with someone else to do the work. (It is even possible that folks like this may have several other design firms on the hook at the same time doing all this work before they make a decision. To my mind, this is like telling five tailors to make you a special suit and not picking which one you are actually going to pay for until the pants are just about ready to hem.)  You need to decide how much work you are willing to do up front and stand firm or at least negotiate aggressively if pushed to do more than that.  Standing firm on your terms and work is part of being professional, but it is difficult to do, especially when first starting out.  There is nothing wrong, btw, with asking for some &quot;earnest money&quot; up front when starting a new project.  Or at least, working that into the very early checkpoints with the client.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, you need to have some idea of how to set firm expectations of what you are planning to do for the client, and have that in writing and signed off by the client.  You need to state your process for handling disputes and changes.  If you do not have a &quot;change management&quot; process in place that you follow with your clients, you may find you've done twice or three times the work you thought you agreed to do by the time the project is over.  Everyone always wants more, that's human nature.  Once they see what you can do for them, you will probably get a lot of requests to &quot;gold plate&quot; things or add more functionality here and there.  These may all be very small changes, but they add up fast into lost revenue.  The key here is to have the project scope set out clearly and agreed to by both parties beforehand.  I'm not saying you should turn down new work, just find a way to firmly tell them that you'd love to do that, but you need to finish what you contracted to do in the first place, because that's the professional way to do business, and then after that, you would be thrilled to talk about &quot;version 2.&quot;  ;-)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third, many clients are slow to pay.  This part definitely needs to be spelled out in detail in your contracts.  I once worked through an advertising company that billed their clients NET 90 days.  So of course, their clients paid on day 90 or 91, if not later.  They expected to be billed on the same terms and not until their clients paid them.  And, of course, the advertising firm paid their bills on day 90 or 91!  So, if you can't afford to wait 6 months for payment of work done, be sure this is spelled out from the very beginning. I hate to say it, but when it comes to money, some companies will try a lot of really shady stuff to make their bottom line look good - at the expense of yours.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, another way to cover your tail, financially, is to set up certain check points during the process, and have the client sign off on work completed to that point.  And then bill them for it immediately.  Make sure the client understand that this protects them, too - they don't have to pay before they see work they approve of.  And, of course, it protects you, because you aren't waiting till the very end to get all of your money. That is always risky, risky, risky.  But doing it this way, if they were to abandon the project in the middle of it, well, you're covered because you've billed and been paid for all or almost all of the work you've put into it to that point. Or, if they take your initial concepts and specs and then shop them out to a $2 an hour overseas web sweatshop, well, then you are covered for that much, anyway. It may be little compared to what you were hoping to make on the project, but at least you didn't give it away for free. (We won't go into the ethics or intellectual property aspect here.)  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, just some thoughts to consider on the contracting aspect.  Best of luck!  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3107" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1199" RevisionGUID="2b372bc3-b61f-4608-9c97-7dfed70cf220" CreationDate="2014-01-08T19:53:59.343" UserId="972" Comment="added 23 characters in body" Text="This is not a complete answer, as I don't really have time to write one at the moment, but I wanted to take a minute to address a few issues relevant to the contracting questions you raised in your post.  (My apologies if any of this seems self-evident or is already on your list of things to do.)  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Do you draw up a contract and what general things are contained in that contract (I'm not looking for legalise, just general things you consider)?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm sure you realize that web and web application design is a VERY risky business, for both you and the customer. If you want a better idea of what can go wrong from both sides, google &quot;software design risk management.&quot;  So, because this is a risky business you are venturing into, you need to take steps from the get-go to minimize the worst of the risk to both parties in order to have a successful experience.  In particular, there are several points during the process where things could go wrong for YOU, and you need to be able to ensure that if that happens, your books aren't summarily put into the red or that you aren't put out of business altogether.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, many clients will ask you to do a LOT of work up front before they sign a contract or advance you any funds.  Sometimes they want you to go all the way to showing them a complete UI and working prototype before they pay.  This is pretty unreasonable, from my point of view, because it puts all the risk on you should they decide they don't want to continue the project for whatever reason, or decide after a while to go with someone else to do the work. (It is even possible that folks like this may have several other design firms on the hook at the same time doing all this work before they make a decision. To my mind, this is like telling five tailors to make you a special suit and not picking which one you are actually going to pay for until the pants are just about ready to hem.)  You need to decide how much work you are willing to do up front and stand firm or at least negotiate aggressively if pushed to do more than that.  Standing firm on your terms and work is part of being professional, but it is difficult to do, especially when first starting out.  There is nothing wrong, btw, with asking for some &quot;earnest money&quot; up front when starting a new project.  Or at least, working that into the very early checkpoints with the client.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, you need to have some idea of how to set firm expectations of what you are planning to do for the client, and have that in writing and signed off by the client.  You need to state your process for handling disputes and changes.  If you do not have a &quot;change management&quot; process in place that you follow with your clients, you may find you've done twice or three times the work you thought you agreed to do by the time the project is over.  Everyone always wants more, that's human nature.  Once they see what you can do for them, you will probably get a lot of requests to &quot;gold plate&quot; things or add more functionality here and there.  These may all be very small changes, but they add up fast into lost revenue.  The key here is to have the project scope set out clearly and agreed to by both parties beforehand.  I'm not saying you should turn down new work, just find a way to firmly tell them that you'd love to do that, but you need to finish what you contracted to do in the first place, because that's the professional way to do business, and then after that, you would be thrilled to talk about &quot;version 2.&quot;  ;-)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third, some clients are slow to pay.  Payment terms definitely need to be spelled out in detail in your contracts.  As an example - I once worked through an advertising company that billed their clients NET 90 days.  So of course, their clients paid on day 90 or 91, if not later.  They expected to be billed on the same terms and not until their clients paid them.  And, of course, the advertising firm paid their bills on day 90 or 91!  So, if you can't afford to wait 6 months for payment of work done, be sure this is spelled out from the very beginning. I hate to say it, but when it comes to money, some companies will try a lot of really shady stuff to make their bottom line look good - at the expense of yours.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, another way to cover your tail, financially, is to set up certain check points during the process, and have the client sign off on work completed to that point.  And then bill them for it immediately.  Make sure the client understand that this protects them, too - they don't have to pay before they see work they approve of.  And, of course, it protects you, because you aren't waiting till the very end to get all of your money. That is always risky, risky, risky.  But doing it this way, if they were to abandon the project in the middle of it, well, you're covered because you've billed and been paid for all or almost all of the work you've put into it to that point. Or, if they take your initial concepts and specs and then shop them out to a $2 an hour overseas web sweatshop, well, then you are covered for that much, anyway. It may be little compared to what you were hoping to make on the project, but at least you didn't give it away for free. (We won't go into the ethics or intellectual property aspect here.)  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, just some thoughts to consider on the contracting aspect.  Best of luck!  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3108" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1200" RevisionGUID="815048e9-a1d9-46b8-9288-05b9fa5f6593" CreationDate="2014-01-09T01:15:06.517" UserId="1706" Text="Wow, Teresa was spot on!  I'll add this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Wherever the road takes you, a repeating theme you're going to see is &quot;move the risk&quot;.  What is that?  Let me give you an example.  You're a web designer.  When you're using your favorite HTML tool - that you've spent good money on - and something's not quite right, you can PICK UP THE PHONE and get an answer (to some degree), whereas with using open source, you run the risk of having no support at all.  Then you're stuck, and your ability to do your business stops.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'll tie this in now.  Clients will want to &quot;move the risk&quot; first and foremost by having you bid out for fixed price.  That way, if **you** haven't asked the right questions up front or **you** didn't budget so that the price you charge allows you to *eat* and *pay your bills*, it's not **their** problem, it's **yours**.  They've moved the risk to you.  On the other hand, if you're billing by the hour, then the client can goof up as much as they like over time, and it should make little difference to you since you're earning by the hour.  In this latter scenario, the *client* is exposed to the risk.  The latter scenario is the best one when the client knows they need your services, but also want to engage you in figuring out exactly how.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Learn some accounting terms.  &quot;NET DUE ON RECEIPT&quot; is your best friend.  Net 10, Net 15.  As Teresa mentioned, some clients want to pull that stuff where you don't get paid until they get paid.  But you can't use that line with your electric company, phone company, or landlord, right???  So don't fall for it.  As a matter of fact, ask for net 10/15 terms up front.  ALWAYS make it a point to discuss this before you start any work.  Some clients will say, &quot;our standard is net 30&quot;.  Don't be afraid to counter with better terms.  Big businesses may do net 30 as a matter of course, but will do shorter times ONLY IF YOU ASK.  so **ASK ASK ASK**.  The worst they can say is &quot;no&quot; and then you can make an informed decision.  An organization that has trouble with net 10 or 15 terms might not be a good client anyhow (cash flow problems).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Google &quot;how to research trade references&quot;.  If you have any doubts about how well a client will pay their bills, you should be asking their other vendors (basically a credit check) or asking for some money up front.  If the retainer can cover your business costs and cover your living expenses, and THEN the client doesn't pay at the END, at least you still have a roof over your head.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No spec work for fixed-bid projects!  If you are required to deliver project plans, drawings, or technical documentation as a condition before actually starting the technical work, you should be getting paid for this.  When you turn over the project for the client to use, that's known as a *deliverable*, but turning over the documents is ALSO a deliverable.  You might structure things UP FRONT so that payment must be rendered by the client for each stage of deliverable.  If you don't make it known that you expect to be paid, very few clients are going to make it a point to do it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be prepared to bill for time on the telephone and constructing e-mails.  This is valid, don't be fooled!  Your time is valuable and you will doubtlessly run into that client who feels it's okay to call and talk to you all day.  On a fixed-bid project, this is murder to your profits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In summary, there's a lot to the EMOTIONAL aspect of the work, and if you aren't prepared to stand your ground when necessary, the wrong client will run all over you.  Be judicious, and not too &quot;nice&quot;.  Good luck!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3109" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1201" RevisionGUID="a85018c0-62ef-4b31-9be0-08048cab692e" CreationDate="2014-01-09T05:25:36.590" UserId="1018" Text="I am in the fifth year of running my own web design and development business. I hired a legal professional to help me with my terms and conditions and despite the copyright notice on my website, my terms and conditions have been copied by web design and development firms all over the world, often with very little changes. I guess I should be flattered!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How do you go about gathering information and requirements for the software/website? (phone calls, emails, etc)**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For larger projects, I suggest getting clients to complete a web design brief or similar. This is a standard form that is sent to clients to gather key information. The type of information collected in a web design brief will include (for example):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - client contact details&#xD;&#xA; - current web address (if any)&#xD;&#xA; - current hosting (if any)&#xD;&#xA; - key aim of the website&#xD;&#xA; - required features&#xD;&#xA; - who will supply the images for the website&#xD;&#xA; - who will supply the logo for the website&#xD;&#xA; - who will supply the text content for the website&#xD;&#xA; - look and feel of the website&#xD;&#xA; - approximate number of pages&#xD;&#xA; - website target audience&#xD;&#xA; - who will maintain the website&#xD;&#xA; - expected time frames&#xD;&#xA; - anything else the client thinks you should know&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It can be useful to meet clients face to face at least once if you are in the same geographic area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally at a face to face meeting, ask clients to show you some websites they find inspiring can help in figuring out what they are after. Get them to point out the features that they like on each website e.g. is it the layout, the colours, the responsive slideshow, the contact form etc etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How do you communicate your ideas/layout/features for the website to the client? (create sketches, create actual simple prototypes, etc)**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use the information you have collected to write a project proposal outlining the proposed deliverables and associated costs and time frames.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending on the complexity of the project, you might include in the proposal a draft menu structure and layout using tools such as yEd and Balsamiq.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On simpler projects you could specify that the menu structure and layout can evolve in consultation with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When dealing with larger organisations, ask them to designate a single point of contact so you receive consistent rather than conflicting instructions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On most website projects, I evolve the website design and development in parallel and provide access for clients to monitor progress and provide feedback if I have gone off-track. On some (usually clearly defined) projects, it is easier to work without constant feedback and provide the delivered project at the end for review and adjustment if required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Do you create a sort of finalized conceptual that becomes part of the agreement?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This can be useful to help define the scope and to refer back to if the client goes off on a different tangent so that an additional fee can be charged for clear variations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might be comfortable with certain clients (e.g. ones you have worked with in the past) to let the design and structure of the website evolve, and build this into the budget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Do you draw up a contract and what general things are contained in that contract (I'm not looking for legalise, just general things you consider)?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally it is best to eliminate assumptions on both sides or state any assumptions to make it clear what is and isn't going to be delivered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suggest you create some standard terms and conditions that can be included in each proposal to make it clear what is and isn't expected.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Examples for a web design job might include such things as:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - the deposit amount before work will start&#xD;&#xA; - payment terms&#xD;&#xA; - any additional expenses (for domain registration, web hosting, stock imagery etc)&#xD;&#xA; - any delays in supply of content entitle you to extend the completion date&#xD;&#xA; - limits to the number of design changes before they become chargeable&#xD;&#xA;   variations&#xD;&#xA; - client responsibility in regard to licensing of supplied materials&#xD;&#xA;   such as stock images etc&#xD;&#xA; - no guarantee of specific search engine rankings&#xD;&#xA; - non disclosure of client's confidential information&#xD;&#xA; - whose responsibility backups are&#xD;&#xA; - ownership of domain names and web hosting&#xD;&#xA; - cross browser compatibility expectations&#xD;&#xA; - limitation of liability on e-commerce websites&#xD;&#xA; - review period and approval/rejection of work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think you have to expect and allow for a certain amount of variation when embarking on a large project and build this into the budget. This usually results in an optimum solution being delivered that you can both be proud of.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some clients will try to take advantage of you and you need to be constantly on the alert for variations to the agreed scope so you can point this out to the client **at the time**. I have made the mistake in the past of allowing a small variation without saying anything to the client and then before realising it, have spent many hours on something for which I have no formal agreement to charge anything extra for. A better way to handle this might be to send a short email to the client explaining that the item doesn't appear to be in the agreed scope but you are happy to include it for free if it takes less than half an hour etc. Then there are no surprises for the client if there is an additional item on the invoice if the task goes over the stated limit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3110" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1198" RevisionGUID="93738a6c-8f47-464f-a3aa-993cc457c6ba" CreationDate="2014-01-09T11:27:47.393" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/421241889288118272" />
  <row Id="3115" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1204" RevisionGUID="50a19c32-771b-4cd3-b2c9-19ee001f1ad8" CreationDate="2014-01-09T18:01:51.913" UserId="1278" Text="I commonly get the question of 'Who is your ideal client / target audience?', and I am not sure to proceed in identifying and defining my ideal client. I do feel that it would lead to having a much more targeted and effective marketing approach. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I go about defining my ideal client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3116" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1204" RevisionGUID="50a19c32-771b-4cd3-b2c9-19ee001f1ad8" CreationDate="2014-01-09T18:01:51.913" UserId="1278" Text="What are some approaches for identifying your ideal customer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3117" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1204" RevisionGUID="50a19c32-771b-4cd3-b2c9-19ee001f1ad8" CreationDate="2014-01-09T18:01:51.913" UserId="1278" Text="|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3118" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1205" RevisionGUID="775e8516-9058-430c-a44e-2247b0e32318" CreationDate="2014-01-09T21:24:46.630" UserId="127" Text="The first time I got this question, I was completely stuck. My stuttering answer was: &quot;someone who pays me on time&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ugh.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It took me awhile to arrive at understanding my ideal customer, mainly because I kept trying to think of it in terms of industry or type of app (I'm a programmer). Eventually I figured out that for me these attributes were irrelevant. Instead I tried to broaden my thinking in terms of client attributes. Consider these basic attributes that will apply to most clients:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Size (small or large)&#xD;&#xA;* Location (local or non-local)&#xD;&#xA;* Age (established or start-up)&#xD;&#xA;* Speed of change (nimble or methodical)&#xD;&#xA;* For profit / non profit / gov't&#xD;&#xA;* etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think about the people you will work with inside the organization as well, and their attributes:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Age (young or older)&#xD;&#xA;* Communication style (electronic / voice / in person)&#xD;&#xA;* Detailed or high level thinking&#xD;&#xA;* etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending on what you do, you may also consider your ideal project with attributes like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Team size (small or large)&#xD;&#xA;* Role on team&#xD;&#xA;* Process structure&#xD;&#xA;* Communication structure&#xD;&#xA;* etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may not have opinions on all these things, but try to pick one extreme or the other as much as possible. As you said, you want to identify your ideal client to develop more effective marketing, but you will often end up with clients that are close to your ideal client but not exactly meeting the criteria.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, let bad experiences guide you. If you had a bad experience with a client once, think about their attributes and consider choosing an opposite attribute for your ideal client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending on your business, there will likely be other attributes that are relevant to you. For me, type of technology, and the tools that will be used are relevant. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is an example of my current ideal client (excluding technical stuff):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Local small business (&lt; 50 employees)&#xD;&#xA;* My contact is the owner - so he can make the money decisions&#xD;&#xA;* He is tech savvy - may have been a programmer previously but now focuses mainly on the business&#xD;&#xA;* For profit, not non-profit or gov't&#xD;&#xA;* Company has been around at least 10 years&#xD;&#xA;* Most communication via email or phone&#xD;&#xA;* Detailed person&#xD;&#xA;* Decisive - doesn't change his mind repeatedly&#xD;&#xA;* Sees me as a partner, not a vendor&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me, this really helped because I now have a clear picture in my head of the kind of businesses and people I want to work with, and I can tell fairly quickly if a project isn't right for me because they will miss on multiple criteria.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3120" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1206" RevisionGUID="9aa1e4ad-5f23-47c3-ac35-f1e61ac1bead" CreationDate="2014-01-10T08:22:46.793" UserId="1725" Text="So it has come to this...the new US healthcare laws require that all health insurance plans subsidize some things which I find to be immoral (specifically abortifacients, contraception, and sterilization). Anyone who does not sign up for a &quot;government approved&quot; plan will face fines. However, I'm willing to pay the fines. Now I'm left with trying to figure out how to create my own &quot;personal health insurance plan&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've always had insurance so I'm a bit ignorant of how things have been working for the uninsured. Aside from setting up a savings account used for emergencies, what can one do to pay for and/or reduce the cost of health care? Are there certain types of healthcare providers who accept cash instead of insurance? Are there generic insurance plans that could be used in place of a real health insurance plan?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3121" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1206" RevisionGUID="9aa1e4ad-5f23-47c3-ac35-f1e61ac1bead" CreationDate="2014-01-10T08:22:46.793" UserId="1725" Text="How to reduce the cost of healthcare without paying for health insurance?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3122" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1206" RevisionGUID="9aa1e4ad-5f23-47c3-ac35-f1e61ac1bead" CreationDate="2014-01-10T08:22:46.793" UserId="1725" Text="|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3123" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1207" RevisionGUID="24a4c371-2f53-4aa2-8a31-3f3f7fea1e59" CreationDate="2014-01-10T15:07:00.257" UserId="148" Text="A few years ago I had an enquiry from a potential client who was an acquaintance of a friend. I had my doubts early on about him but decided to continue based on the off-chance that I was wrong but also curiosity about what he would say and how it would proceed if it was a scam.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a brief history of the interactions along with events that triggered the alarm bells:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Initially very hazy about what his business did. Didn't seem to be able to give an adequate explanation of how it worked, his product or target market.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Vague and suspicious story about previous web designer who disappeared without finishing the job (I asked him about any previous sites or design work carried out on his business). There were a few graphics and a page of text but there never was an actual website for the business.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Met in small rented office with no phones, computers or filing cabinets.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Checked out the business name on Companies House register (the official UK corporation register for those who don't know) and the name is listed there but I didn't pay the fee to get more details. Thought it could be a sign of legitimacy.&#xD;&#xA; 5. A phone call one evening that he had to pay an urgent bill but all his payment cards and cheque books were locked in a filing cabinet for which he had lost the key. Wanted to borrow money from me to pay for a locksmith and to help pay the urgent bill (first major alarm bell that made me conclude this was most likely a scam in progress). I said I couldn't help with that and to have a chat with his bank.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Silence for about 6 months. Then another phone call wanting to continue the web development work.&#xD;&#xA; 7. More vague information over the phone followed by a face-to-face meeting in which he requested to borrow from me £2000 to help with some cashflow problems and said he would pay me back &quot;generously&quot;. I said I'm not in a position to help with those sorts of things.&#xD;&#xA; 8. I didn't hear back from him for about a year. Then I got an email out-and-out just asking for £20,000 to help with his business (again offering to make it &quot;worth my while&quot;). I ignored it.&#xD;&#xA; 9. Another year or so, last November, he contacts me again and is just interested this time in getting the website built again. I'm curious to see what he says this time so I go along with it. I tell him I can't meet him but we can talk on the phone. He says he has dissolved his last business (checked out Companies House register and the business name is listed as dissolved). I checked their list of disqualified directors and his name does not appear there.&#xD;&#xA; 10. I email him my contract and fee schedule and tell him I need his signature and an address to send it to (thinking it would put him off) - he seems willing to sign it; however, he keeps telling me how his business is in the process of being &quot;reconstituted&quot; and they don't have an address yet but I can send the contract to the address of one of his &quot;associate partners&quot; whose office he is temporarily using (in the same serviced office building as before).&#xD;&#xA; 11. He was also reluctant to register the domain via my web hosting website and he wanted me to register it for him and add it to the overall bill for web development. I told him I keep the two services separate (partly because I prefer to do it that way, but also I wanted to see if he would give an address after I told him the domain can be seized if he provides false information). He is making vague excuses for not doing that.&#xD;&#xA; 12. Now he is saying things like &quot;you said you would start on this date&quot; and &quot;there seems to be a miscommunication&quot; and &quot;I can go to someone else to do the website if you prefer&quot;.&#xD;&#xA; 13. I have just now told him that I expect him to sign and return the contract before I start and that he needs to sign it either as an individual with his home address, or as a representative of his company with the trading address that is registered with Companies House. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't expect I will hear back or, if I do, it will be another excuse for not giving the information or accusing me of not being trusting in some way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I only continued with this in the hope that if it was a scam I could help someone else avoid being scammed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although I strongly suspect a scammer is at work, I want to know whether this is a common experience among freelances and is this a commonly known scam tactic?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also want to know, if it is a scam, what can be done to inhibit such actions? &#xD;&#xA;He has done nothing illegal to me as yet but he may have done so to others in the past. Is there some kind of organisation or group (in the UK) that monitors or investigates these kinds of activities that have the potential to be illegal but have not yet crossed that line?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3124" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1207" RevisionGUID="24a4c371-2f53-4aa2-8a31-3f3f7fea1e59" CreationDate="2014-01-10T15:07:00.257" UserId="148" Text="Signs of a scamming client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3125" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1207" RevisionGUID="24a4c371-2f53-4aa2-8a31-3f3f7fea1e59" CreationDate="2014-01-10T15:07:00.257" UserId="148" Text="|contracts|legal|uk|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3126" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1207" RevisionGUID="8f4d63c9-42fe-40d5-b575-ea4e7ab49954" CreationDate="2014-01-10T15:14:17.350" UserId="148" Comment="improved question phrasing" Text="A few years ago I had an enquiry from a potential client who was an acquaintance of a friend. I had my doubts early on about him but decided to continue based on the off-chance that I was wrong but also curiosity about what he would say and how it would proceed if it was a scam.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a brief history of the interactions along with events that triggered the alarm bells:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Initially very hazy about what his business did. Didn't seem to be able to give an adequate explanation of how it worked, his product or target market.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Vague and suspicious story about previous web designer who disappeared without finishing the job (I asked him about any previous sites or design work carried out on his business). There were a few graphics and a page of text but there never was an actual website for the business.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Met in small rented office with no phones, computers or filing cabinets.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Checked out the business name on Companies House register (the official UK corporation register for those who don't know) and the name is listed there but I didn't pay the fee to get more details. Thought it could be a sign of legitimacy.&#xD;&#xA; 5. A phone call one evening that he had to pay an urgent bill but all his payment cards and cheque books were locked in a filing cabinet for which he had lost the key. Wanted to borrow money from me to pay for a locksmith and to help pay the urgent bill (first major alarm bell that made me conclude this was most likely a scam in progress). I said I couldn't help with that and to have a chat with his bank.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Silence for about 6 months. Then another phone call wanting to continue the web development work.&#xD;&#xA; 7. More vague information over the phone followed by a face-to-face meeting in which he requested to borrow from me £2000 to help with some cashflow problems and said he would pay me back &quot;generously&quot;. I said I'm not in a position to help with those sorts of things.&#xD;&#xA; 8. I didn't hear back from him for about a year. Then I got an email out-and-out just asking for £20,000 to help with his business (again offering to make it &quot;worth my while&quot;). I ignored it.&#xD;&#xA; 9. Another year or so, last November, he contacts me again and is just interested this time in getting the website built again. I'm curious to see what he says this time so I go along with it. I tell him I can't meet him but we can talk on the phone. He says he has dissolved his last business (checked out Companies House register and the business name is listed as dissolved). I checked their list of disqualified directors and his name does not appear there.&#xD;&#xA; 10. I email him my contract and fee schedule and tell him I need his signature and an address to send it to (thinking it would put him off) - he seems willing to sign it; however, he keeps telling me how his business is in the process of being &quot;reconstituted&quot; and they don't have an address yet but I can send the contract to the address of one of his &quot;associate partners&quot; whose office he is temporarily using (in the same serviced office building as before).&#xD;&#xA; 11. He was also reluctant to register the domain via my web hosting website and he wanted me to register it for him and add it to the overall bill for web development. I told him I keep the two services separate (partly because I prefer to do it that way, but also I wanted to see if he would give an address after I told him the domain can be seized if he provides false information). He is making vague excuses for not doing that.&#xD;&#xA; 12. Now he is saying things like &quot;you said you would start on this date&quot; and &quot;there seems to be a miscommunication&quot; and &quot;I can go to someone else to do the website if you prefer&quot;.&#xD;&#xA; 13. I have just now told him that I expect him to sign and return the contract before I start doing any work and that he needs to sign it either as an individual providing his home address, or as a representative of his company providing the trading address that is registered with Companies House.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't expect I will now hear back or, if I do, it will be another excuse for not giving the information or accusing me of not being trusting in some way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I only continued with this in the hope that if it was a scam I could help someone else avoid being scammed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although I strongly suspect a scammer is at work, I want to know whether this is a type of scam widely experienced by freelancers?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also want to know, if it is a scam, what can be done to inhibit such actions? &#xD;&#xA;Though he has done nothing illegal to me yet, he may have done so to others. Is there some kind of organisation or group (in the UK) that monitors or investigates these sorts of activities?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3127" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1207" RevisionGUID="8f4d63c9-42fe-40d5-b575-ea4e7ab49954" CreationDate="2014-01-10T15:14:17.350" UserId="148" Comment="improved question phrasing" Text="Signs of a fraudulent client and a scam in progress?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3128" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1207" RevisionGUID="b782996c-ab60-4e76-9311-79da7a3fa84a" CreationDate="2014-01-10T15:20:05.970" UserId="148" Comment="additional details" Text="A few years ago I had an enquiry from a potential client who was an acquaintance of a friend. I had my doubts early on about him but decided to continue based on the off-chance that I was wrong but also curiosity about what he would say and how it would proceed if it was a scam.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a brief history of the interactions along with events that triggered the alarm bells:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Initially very hazy about what his business did. Didn't seem to be able to give an adequate explanation of how it worked, his product or target market.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Vague and suspicious story about previous web designer who disappeared without finishing the job (I asked him about any previous sites or design work carried out on his business). There were a few graphics and a page of text but there never was an actual website for the business.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Met in small rented office with no phones, computers or filing cabinets.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Checked out the business name on Companies House register (the official UK corporation register for those who don't know) and the name is listed there but I didn't pay the fee to get more details. Thought it could be a sign of legitimacy.&#xD;&#xA; 5. A phone call one evening that he had to pay an urgent bill but all his payment cards and cheque books were locked in a filing cabinet for which he had lost the key. Wanted to borrow money from me to pay for a locksmith and to help pay the urgent bill (first major alarm bell that made me conclude this was most likely a scam in progress). I said I couldn't help with that and to have a chat with his bank.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Silence for about 6 months. Then another phone call wanting to continue the web development work.&#xD;&#xA; 7. More vague information over the phone followed by a face-to-face meeting in which he requested to borrow from me £2000 to help with some cashflow problems and said he would pay me back &quot;generously&quot;. I said I'm not in a position to help with those sorts of things.&#xD;&#xA; 8. I didn't hear back from him for about a year. Then I got an email out-and-out just asking for £20,000 to help with his business (again offering to make it &quot;worth my while&quot;). I ignored it.&#xD;&#xA; 9. Another year or so, last November, he contacts me again and is just interested this time in getting the website built again. I'm curious to see what he says this time so I go along with it. I tell him I can't meet him but we can talk on the phone. He says he has dissolved his last business (checked out Companies House register and the business name is listed as dissolved). I checked their list of disqualified directors and his name does not appear there.&#xD;&#xA; 10. He is reluctant to call me asking me to call him because of the cost of his mobile phone tariff. He wants me to always call him (though it also costs me more to call mobiles!). He does not have use of a fixed-line phone and uses a public telephone box when I ask him for fixed-line number to call.&#xD;&#xA; 11. I email him my contract and fee schedule and tell him I need his signature and an address to send it to (thinking it would put him off) - he seems willing to sign it; however, he keeps telling me how his business is in the process of being &quot;reconstituted&quot; and they don't have an address yet but I can send the contract to the address of one of his &quot;associate partners&quot; whose office he is temporarily using (in the same serviced office building as before).&#xD;&#xA; 12. He was also reluctant to register the domain via my web hosting website and he wanted me to register it for him and add it to the overall bill for web development. I told him I keep the two services separate (partly because I prefer to do it that way, but also I wanted to see if he would give an address after I told him the domain can be seized if he provides false information). He is making vague excuses for not doing that.&#xD;&#xA; 13. Now he is saying things like &quot;you said you would start on this date&quot; and &quot;there seems to be a miscommunication&quot; and &quot;I can go to someone else to do the website if you prefer&quot;.&#xD;&#xA; 14. I have just now told him that I expect him to sign and return the contract before I start doing any work and that he needs to sign it either as an individual providing his home address, or as a representative of his company providing the trading address that is registered with Companies House.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't expect I will now hear back or, if I do, it will be another excuse for not giving the information or accusing me of not being trusting in some way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I only continued with this in the hope that if it was a scam I could help someone else avoid being scammed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although I strongly suspect a scammer is at work, I want to know whether this is a type of scam widely experienced by freelancers?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also want to know, if it is a scam, what can be done to inhibit such actions? &#xD;&#xA;Though he has done nothing illegal to me yet, he may have done so to others. Is there some kind of organisation or group (in the UK) that monitors or investigates these sorts of activities?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3129" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1208" RevisionGUID="7bfff853-39eb-4176-90f1-34514dd7d3da" CreationDate="2014-01-10T15:33:21.463" UserId="148" Text="Did he know up front that you would charge him if he did not turn up? If not, then not only would you find it legally difficult to extract the payment from him, there is also the ethical issue of whether it is right for you to even ask him for it. It could be argued, if he knew that was going to be the case, he would have perhaps taken more effort to ensure he was there. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That raises another important point: If a client knows there is a financial penalty for missing meetings (i.e. they pay for your time regardless of whether they show up or not) they'd be much more likely to turn up (or at least make more effort). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They'll also more likely contact you sooner to let you know they can't make in the hope of either avoiding the need to pay by preventing you turning up or, if you are already there or on your way, apologising in the hope of obtaining your grace and favour by way of not charging them or dropping them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You would need this to have this arrangement agreed in writing beforehand, though." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3130" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1209" RevisionGUID="f5fce493-57b7-4807-b52a-cc823ef88497" CreationDate="2014-01-10T15:46:30.277" UserId="148" Text="I have a little bit of sympathy for the client because you told him that you expected the work to take a certain amount of time (and thus a certain cost) and it took longer and cost more. It is important to develop the skill of good estimation in freelance work. If you look at it from his point of view, he was told certain things regarding duration and cost that turned out to be wrong. that can be frustrating. He is not the expert here, you are, and for these things he must rely on your expertise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*However*, the time for disputing should have been at the moment you told him it would take more time. He may have had a case at that point according to the rules of the website to ask for a refund or at least to walk away with the work done up to that point (I don't know the rules of those sites) but from the moment he agreed to more time he lost his right to complain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For you, it is important to gain more experience, and perhaps be more careful in how you estimate the time it will take to finish projects. You should always factor in some &quot;slippage&quot; time which usually means, in most project work, at least double the amount of time you expect the project to last. This might be difficult in competitive sites like eLance or similar where you compete for a contract with others who may be saying they can do it in a much shorter time frame but, in the long run, by proving yourself to be more reliable and accurate than the others you will gain a good reputation, more satisfied clients and thus more work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We all have made these sorts of mistakes early in our careers (and even later) but hopefully, this answer and your experience will helpful to you for future work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3131" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1209" RevisionGUID="6430857c-f0b1-44f5-a2b0-cafa5f8660df" CreationDate="2014-01-10T15:56:19.677" UserId="148" Comment="added 8 characters in body" Text="I have a little bit of sympathy for the client because you told him that you expected the work to take a certain amount of time (and thus a certain cost) and it took longer and cost more. It is important to develop the skill of good estimation in freelance work. If you look at it from his point of view, he was told certain things regarding duration and cost that turned out to be wrong. that can be frustrating. He is not the expert here, you are, and for these things he must rely on your expertise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*However*, the time for disputing should have been at the moment you told him it would take more time. He may have had a case at that point according to the rules of the website to ask for a refund or at least to walk away with the work done up to that point (I don't know the rules of those sites) but from the moment he agreed to more time he lost his right to dispute the cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For you, it is important to gain more experience, and perhaps be more careful in how you estimate the time it will take to finish projects. You should always factor in some &quot;slippage&quot; time which usually means, in most project work, at least double the amount of time you expect the project to last. This might be difficult in competitive sites like eLance or similar where you compete for a contract with others who may be saying they can do it in a much shorter time frame but, in the long run, by proving yourself to be more reliable and accurate than the others you will gain a good reputation, more satisfied clients and thus more work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We all have made these sorts of mistakes early in our careers (and even later) but hopefully, this answer and your experience will helpful to you for future work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3136" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1211" RevisionGUID="dc7fe24b-7c00-46e8-8cb3-924dc38bc096" CreationDate="2014-01-10T16:24:05.297" UserId="1706" Text="I really can't agree with the other posts here, not a bit.  The whole underlying thing here is that you are being paid for your time.  Your time, not your good will, not your demeanor, not anything else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This situation is no different than if you went into a restaurant, ordered a meal, but didn't eat it.  You'd still have to pay nonetheless because resources and effort went into getting your order, preparing a place for you to sit, having a clean restroom, transporting the food, powering the stove, and eventually getting a plate of hot food onto the table.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't value your time, nobody else will.  That's what you're selling.  That time that you spent setting up for the meeting, and waiting, cannot be recovered.  You could have spent that time working for another client.  So with this client, I'd make it known that you're going to charge for the time.  Even if it's just an hour or two, it trains your client that you're a businessman and not a pushover.  If the client balks, then you know that this is not a client that you need to be working with for very much longer.  At that point, you might continue the job but make a quick exit plan, and get outta there as soon as you can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3137" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1212" RevisionGUID="f93917f4-1007-4746-a5dc-dd7598bf8cb9" CreationDate="2014-01-10T16:39:22.043" UserId="1706" Text="Leave this dude alone.  You're going to get burned.  There is nothing particular to web site development that this guy is doing.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's look at this objectively.  This is someone who you don't have any vested relationship with -- an acquaintance; not a close friend or family member.  To add, he hasn't even become a customer!!!  Yet he felt it was okay to call you on three occasions to ask you for money.  Do you think he called his banker, or asked the manager at the grocery store, or walked into a police station and approached the person at the front desk, and subsequently asked for a significant &quot;loan&quot;??  No!  And you already know, in each of these situations, what would have happened.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The promise of becoming one of your customers is the &quot;golden carrot&quot; he's dangling in front of you just to keep you from ignoring him outright.  He probably does the same thing with mechanics, building contractors, SMALL business owners, and so forth all over the place.  If  there's a scam, it's just to keep these sort of people close to him until someone takes the bait.  It's not illegal per se.  But the other side of the coin is that once he gets what he's looking for, his victim will have no way of finding him ever again -- that's deliberate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only thing you can do is that when he calls, FIND SOME CONVENIENT EXCUSE TO END THE CALL RIGHT AWAY.  I'm saying this because it doesn't sound like you can use your caller-id to notice the call and not answer at all -- he keeps moving around.  If you do what I'm saying, he'll eventually get the idea that you're on to his game, and leave you alone for good.  But you must be firm about it.  Because he's a friend of a friend, you may run across him again.  If you do, and he gives you the story about how he's been trying to get in touch with you, play &quot;stupid&quot; - engage in as little small talk as possible, but do not engage in conversations about more business because the same mess will start all over again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3138" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1208" RevisionGUID="6f51d457-1f73-4b80-a190-b90254298563" CreationDate="2014-01-10T16:57:54.907" UserId="148" Comment="corrections because I misread the question" Text="Did he know up front that you would charge him if he did not turn up? Was your agreement verbal or written? If it was only verbal, then you may find it legally difficult to extract the payment from him. The fact that they will have to pay for a no show is obvious to most of us but it's surprising how many clients don't get this fact. It's worth making the point clear to them, and preferably in writing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That raises another important point: If a client knows there is a financial penalty for missing meetings (i.e. they pay for your time regardless of whether they show up or not) they'd be much more likely to turn up (or at least make more effort). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They'll also more likely contact you sooner to let you know they can't make in the hope of either avoiding the need to pay by preventing you turning up or, if you are already there or on your way, apologising in the hope of obtaining your grace and favour by way of not charging them or dropping them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You would need this to have this arrangement agreed in writing beforehand, though." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3139" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1208" RevisionGUID="eeca117f-3a97-443e-8db7-954d307d5476" CreationDate="2014-01-10T17:03:26.993" UserId="148" Comment="deleted 86 characters in body" Text="Did he know up front that you would charge him if he did not turn up? Was your agreement verbal or written? If it was only verbal, then you may find it legally difficult to extract the payment from him. The fact that they will have to pay for a no show is obvious to most of us but it's surprising how many clients don't get this fact. It's worth making the point clear to them, and preferably in writing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That raises another important point: If a client knows there is a financial penalty for missing meetings (i.e. they pay for your time regardless of whether they show up or not) they'd be much more likely to turn up (or at least make more effort). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They'll also more likely contact you sooner to let you know they can't make in the hope of either avoiding the need to pay by preventing you turning up or, if you are already there or on your way, apologising in the hope of obtaining your grace and favour by way of not charging them or dropping them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3140" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1204" RevisionGUID="b60b479e-8a29-41d9-af8c-ec6d5ef2e823" CreationDate="2014-01-10T17:39:25.843" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/421697803568820224" />
  <row Id="3141" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1213" RevisionGUID="220be2e8-33b8-4fcf-94f9-19dde2a65fde" CreationDate="2014-01-10T17:57:29.013" UserId="124" Text="I actually have to say, I don't think this is a &quot;scam&quot;. He has been in touch over a very extended period of time. I do think how this is a very bad idea. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I often meet other freelancers, who with all the best intention in the world really do believe they have the next Facebook. I believe you may be dealing with someone who isn't fully aware of what makes businesses work and may always be likely to blame others for failures which are evidently their own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Check what you bank offers**&#xD;&#xA;Many banks, including my own, offer services to help businesses. Barclays offers a credit check service which allows you to check someones credit history without them ever knowing; best of all the first 5 (I think) are free. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are in a situation like this already I would recommend you speak to legal services of some description  as soon as possible. It is worth noting that anything discussed over the phone is worthless, make sure everything is in writing somehow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line: Stay far, far away from anyone who won't give an address and sign a contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3142" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1214" RevisionGUID="a6840cef-9e0a-4b7f-a0d4-c0d59b902827" CreationDate="2014-01-10T18:16:29.917" UserId="972" Text="This may not be a &quot;scam&quot; per se, but it's certainly showing all the signs of being run by someone who is lacking in their communication, accounting, ethics, proper business practices, budgeting, business plans, and general common sense.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And for what it's worth, I think it IS a scam.  This person has promised the world and given nothing, has attempted to manipulate you, put you off, dropped off the face of the earth for long periods of time (running away from his creditors, perhaps?) and on top of all that has asked on more than one occasion to BORROW MONEY FROM A CONTRACTOR. How could this NOT be a scam? The only scenario I can imagine where this is NOT a scam is the guy is a complete moron. I don't think someone could offer me enough money to be worth the risk in taking this person on as a client.  I'd have bailed long before now. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3143" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1215" RevisionGUID="205cf669-c1ed-4f7f-a9f1-daef138a5396" CreationDate="2014-01-10T19:06:05.507" UserId="1732" Text="I am newbie android dev in my final year college. I have developed an app in [Play Store][1] and then I got approached by a client in facebook to build a Translation of The Holy Quoran . He is from UAE. He said he will give me 3000INR($50) for the app and gave me the website too from which I have to parse the content. I used the the content and gave him 5 prototypes at every 15 to 20 % of progress and I had completed it in 3 weeks of full work and had sent him the work with 99% completed and only the icon has to be provided for the app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I sent it to my friends for testing the app and they said to me that $50 is too less for the work. They told me of the developer fees per hour. They asked me to calculate the rate as $5/hr and it will cost to a minimum of $100. So I just asked the client of the hourly developer rates and **asked his opinion** of giving me $100 and **dint demand him**. He said he can't and I said I can give him for $50. But he  said its too unethical to discuss of the new rates once the rate is fixed and said he doesn't need my app at all. Asked me to delete my project files and he doesn't care of the work and broke off. I have the app with 99% work completed and now its vain and 0% percent as the content of translation I used was a copyrighted one and I can't publish it. Its not about the money much but the client din't treated my work like a trash and it worries me a lot. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I used the app as a framework and made Bible and sold it for ($125) . So as a newbie &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;how can I know if I am being underpaid? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I had accepted the client for the work with less and if the app grows then how can I approach him?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Due to outsourcing how can I calculate the cost?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Yennaachi.Wordzilla" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3144" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1215" RevisionGUID="205cf669-c1ed-4f7f-a9f1-daef138a5396" CreationDate="2014-01-10T19:06:05.507" UserId="1732" Text="Cost of an android app - newbie help" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3145" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1215" RevisionGUID="205cf669-c1ed-4f7f-a9f1-daef138a5396" CreationDate="2014-01-10T19:06:05.507" UserId="1732" Text="|contracts|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3146" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1215" RevisionGUID="5e7ad3b6-2ff5-4a3b-82a4-b30a4a2bd43e" CreationDate="2014-01-10T19:12:45.863" UserId="1732" Comment="edited tags" Text="|client|contracts|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3147" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1216" RevisionGUID="76d1cdcf-2cc9-4f22-bb0f-b916654dea06" CreationDate="2014-01-10T19:44:43.810" UserId="1706" Text="(1) You are not charging enough -- listen to your friends!!!  You should have looked around for jobs similar to what you do and found out how much others were being paid.  Don't feel that your work is worth much less because you are a newbie, because the client will take it when you release it to him and earn much, much more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(2) But also, the client is correct in saying you can't raise the price after starting the work.  You can only raise the price **if the client is asking you to add in more work that you did not previously agree upon before.**  That is how contracts work, all over the world.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(3) If you have a good product, don't sell it outright.  Put it on the Play Store so it will keep on making you money forever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3148" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1217" RevisionGUID="94ef32b0-06a0-49de-94e9-ff6f4f0c814b" CreationDate="2014-01-10T23:10:43.273" UserId="1018" Text="I'd be hesitant to deal with a potential client with no obvious business or home contact details and who has asked multiple times to borrow money!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ...if it is a scam, what can be done to inhibit such actions?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As part of my standard terms and conditions, I charge a 50% up-front fee for projects. This is intended to cover my costs including domain registration, web hosting, software licensing, stock imagery etc and at least some of the expended hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The 50% up-front fee means clients take an equal stake in the project and would likely scare away potential scammers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On lower risk projects where I know the client well, or the project is small, I sometimes waive the up-front fee to simplify invoicing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3149" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="939" RevisionGUID="6ea0bc4f-3fe4-4c71-993c-829eda8ee713" CreationDate="2014-01-11T00:22:43.820" UserId="148" Comment="grammatical corrections" Text="I have a client with a freelance website. We agreed on $125 to finish a project. He agreed to a contract as an hourly job. It was $3 per hour including the website's charge. So 41 hours per week would be $123.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the last day of the first week, I messaged the client and told him that I can't finish the task because it is bigger than I thought, and I requested of him that he give me one more week. He said yes, so I continue working.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was paid for this work via an automatic online weekly timesheet. I was automatically paid for my first week's timesheet. Then my client refused to pay me for the second week's timesheet because of the unfinished task. I discontinued working. I told him that I thought he knew that the task was so large that it could not be finished it in 41 hours. The timesheet is in dispute, but the freelance website resolved the issue, they charged the client account for the time sheet and getting me paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, the client is threatening to sue me, if I don't refund him the money. Is he capable of suing me given that I am from a different country?  Am I breaching a contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3150" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="939" RevisionGUID="6ea0bc4f-3fe4-4c71-993c-829eda8ee713" CreationDate="2014-01-11T00:22:43.820" Comment="Proposed by 148 approved by 708, 69 edit id of 194" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3151" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1218" RevisionGUID="89b16e1f-a4c1-45e8-b495-8b77f50daac0" CreationDate="2014-01-11T07:53:45.587" UserId="1737" Text="I would not charge him in your case because you did not explicitly outline the terms of the agreement, including what happens in the case of a cancellation. In the future, you can include things in the contract such as minimum hours worked, and minimum amount of time needed to cancel. For example, you must be notified of a cancellation by 8AM of the day in question, and failure to do so will result in the client being charged for 1 hour plus transportation costs (or perhaps travel time). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, you would benefit from the advice of a attorney who specializes in contracts and serves consultants in your industry, both to get wording right and to learn what the standard terms are for consultants in your area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, the leniency you have with clients probably depends on your workload. The assumption is that there is a certain opportunity cost you paid for the late cancellation. If you're not fully booked or close to it, I would let it slide in the interest of good will. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the same time, if you do have it in the contract and are explicitly ignoring it, make sure you still put it in the invoice as a &quot;good will discount&quot; or something to that effect. Never give a discount without making it clear to the client that you are doing so." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3152" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1219" RevisionGUID="8836c87c-af63-47d4-a098-ab9524ee8381" CreationDate="2014-01-11T08:47:01.180" UserId="517" Text="It also depends on what kind of a person your are and your (current) aspirations in freelancing. Ideal client is the same as ideal boss in full-time jobs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if your current aspiration is to earn as much money as you can (maybe you're buying a new car or a house), then your ideal client would be the one who pays you a lot. If besides paying a lot, he has other attributes (like good person, not treat you as a slave, etc.), then it's even better. But on this stage, you are willing to accept bad-nature person just because he pays a lot. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or if you do not need much money at the moment and want a pleasant day with money which will cover all your costs, then you're ideal client would be the one who you will enjoy working for although he pays the average money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you see, it very much depends on who you are at the moment. I personally transition thru a several personal phases in a year thus changing the description of my ideal client. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3153" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1220" RevisionGUID="2d4d949b-aff5-4bc7-828d-e68cc5fba35c" CreationDate="2014-01-11T08:55:03.633" UserId="517" Text="Read other topics here about how to calculate your hourly rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the beginning try to calculate how much money you need for living in 1 month. The divide it to 4 weeks and that is money you have to earn in 1 week. You may further divide it with 40 to get your hourly rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And this is the MIN hourly rate only IF you work 40 hours a week. Many freelancers will double or triple their hourly rates because you can hardly work 40 hours a week as a beginner and you need to earn your living somehow. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also $5 per hour may be low for USA or UK, but for example, even in my country this rate produces a good monthly wage. So try to calculate your rate and compare it to your friends' advise" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3154" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1221" RevisionGUID="baeac7ce-f0ed-4f9f-b78f-0db9508d86b0" CreationDate="2014-01-11T09:00:20.290" UserId="517" Text="Why she sqwaked? I mean how much time did you have to charge?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually you never charge for this. Why? Because before you start working you will figure out the bill. This time is basically free. For example, if a client approaches to me asking me to spend 2-3 hours figuring out his costs, I will not get paid for that time. It was estimation time and I see now why to charge him those hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or other example, I brought car to the official dealer show and they spent 1 full day figuring out the error in my car system. They charged me only 1 hour for diagnosis. Imagine they charged me 8 hours just to tell me what's the issue and how much I have to pay to fix it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IMHO you're on the thin ice. If you want to get that money, you should camouflage it under something else, although I don't think it's fair to your customer.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3155" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1222" RevisionGUID="70cd7384-1837-4d84-bc6c-17bc0cabf9c4" CreationDate="2014-01-11T09:24:26.087" UserId="517" Text="We were asked to do a few jobs via odDesk, elance and guru freelance websites. While working via these services, I noticed that there are many &quot;companies&quot; there who basically use these services to find clients and at the same time their company members have accounts there attached to its company account. Even more, their workers will bid the project and negotiate the clients, while all earned money goes to company's pocket and they receive crumbles only. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, how is possible that such companies work and make profit when their workers can see price of every job? Aren't workers discouraged knowing the price of a job and comparing to what they get? I see they mostly work hourly for small money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let me elaborate the question. The first thing I learned when started working for a company was that I never knew how much they charge their clients. I am getting my monthly salary and I don't care if my company earns $1000 or $1000000. It's better if the company is earning a lot because I will have salary, but in general it was not my concern. We heard stories about how we now work on multi-million project, but we were never able to know how much they charge their clients for our work. And we could do nothing because we were not in their league - their clients would not even talk to us, God forbid they offer us multi-million job. So after a couple of years I figured our I can earn more and work in a less stressful environment by working as a freelancer, so I quit and became a freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The story of mine is not unique. It's a story of every freelancer here. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, back to my question. When you have clients and workers on the same network where **workers can see earnings of their bosses**, how can such company survive? Why would some person work for $10/h if you see that your company is charging the client $100/h? Shouldn't such worker go to their boss asking higher hourly wage for that job? Or start working alone for the same or larger money without pressure and from your own home? And yet, they have workers who work for them for years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We all know that 99% of people will become envy and angry just by knowing that your boss is earning 10 times more on your work working with clients you can also reach (approach to). These websites are not Intel or Kodak or USPS company where you can never reach CEOs. Here you have a direct access to the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the 3rd time, how do such companies remain on the market? Why would I work for someone giving me A dollars per hour, if I can see he earns 5xA per hour? Even thou I understand the whole principles of a business, I don't think I would be able to work as quality as I in cases I don't know how much my boss charges our clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have I elaborated this thoroughly enough?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3156" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1222" RevisionGUID="70cd7384-1837-4d84-bc6c-17bc0cabf9c4" CreationDate="2014-01-11T09:24:26.087" UserId="517" Text="How do freelance agencies work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3157" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1222" RevisionGUID="70cd7384-1837-4d84-bc6c-17bc0cabf9c4" CreationDate="2014-01-11T09:24:26.087" UserId="517" Text="|client|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3158" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1222" RevisionGUID="f9c6e8f4-8b0c-405f-abf7-6f781b3130aa" CreationDate="2014-01-11T11:06:05.270" UserId="517" Comment="edited title" Text="How do companies sustain by working on freelancing sites?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3159" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1223" RevisionGUID="6957cf48-f028-4d26-b556-d35aeadb2728" CreationDate="2014-01-11T11:13:02.530" UserId="517" Text="Companies are forced to seek long-term partners ([term][1]) if they think to live for years and keep up with all costs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are we, freelancers, forced to do the same? Or since our costs are at the minimum and there is a lot of job (especially in IT area) we should not stick to long-term clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not sure if I am a grunch, but I better deal with new clients and their projects seems more interesting. Because with long-term clients I am somehow &quot;forced&quot; to take any project they offer me and I cannot reject them by saying &quot;that project is boring&quot;. With new clients, I have no such issues since I only chose projects which are interesting to me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_sustainability" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3160" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1223" RevisionGUID="6957cf48-f028-4d26-b556-d35aeadb2728" CreationDate="2014-01-11T11:13:02.530" UserId="517" Text="Should freelancers seek long-term clients or not?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3161" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1223" RevisionGUID="6957cf48-f028-4d26-b556-d35aeadb2728" CreationDate="2014-01-11T11:13:02.530" UserId="517" Text="|client|long-term|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3162" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1224" RevisionGUID="8d771ead-fd21-445b-9d28-3f3aae55c3dc" CreationDate="2014-01-11T11:15:21.950" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3163" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1225" RevisionGUID="1631e461-f4bb-4e22-b39a-07076f9899fd" CreationDate="2014-01-11T11:15:21.950" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3164" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1209" RevisionGUID="8a75cffd-35f7-4e2d-876a-a55b623af3bf" CreationDate="2014-01-11T13:39:44.657" UserId="148" Comment="expanding on some ideas" Text="I have a little bit of sympathy for the client because you told him that you expected the work to take a certain amount of time (and thus a certain cost) and it took longer and cost more. To help see things in perspective and avoid conflict, put yourself in his shoes and then imagine how you would feel. Then use that experience as you discuss the problem with him. It is a good way to increase understanding and avoid conflict.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is important to develop the skill of good estimation in freelance work. If you look at it from his point of view, he was told certain things regarding duration and cost that turned out to be wrong. that can be frustrating. He is not the expert here, you are, and for these things he must rely on your expertise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*However*, the time for disputing should have been at the moment you told him it would take more time. He may have had a case at that point according to the rules of the website to ask for a refund or at least to walk away with the work done up to that point (I don't know the rules of those sites) but from the moment he agreed to more time he lost his right to dispute the cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The learning experience: For you, it is important to gain more experience, and perhaps be more careful in how you estimate the time it will take to finish projects. You should always factor in some &quot;slippage&quot; time which usually means, in many projects, this will be at least double the amount of time you expect the project to last. This might be difficult in competitive sites like eLance or similar where you compete for a contract with others who may be saying they can do it in a much shorter time frame but, in the long run, by proving yourself to be more reliable and accurate than the others you will gain a good reputation, more satisfied clients and thus more work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We all have made these sorts of mistakes early in our careers (and even later) but hopefully, this answer and your experience will helpful to you for future work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3165" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1207" RevisionGUID="0d9e8f3b-e949-4379-9e91-b89a76a7660b" CreationDate="2014-01-11T14:22:50.830" UserId="148" Comment="clarified background to question" Text="A few years ago I had an enquiry from a potential client who was an acquaintance of a friend. I had my doubts early on about him but decided at that point to continue based on the off-chance that I was wrong. Despite soon concluding it was most likely a scam in progress I was curious about what he would say and how it would proceed if it was a scam.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a brief history of the interactions along with events that triggered the alarm bells:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Initially very hazy about what his business did. Didn't seem to be able to give an adequate explanation of how it worked, his product or target market.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Vague and suspicious story about previous web designer who disappeared without finishing the job (I asked him about any previous sites or design work carried out on his business). There were a few graphics and a page of text but there never was an actual website for the business.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Met in small rented office with no phones, computers or filing cabinets.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Checked out the business name on Companies House register (the official UK corporation register for those who don't know) and the name is listed there but I didn't pay the fee to get more details. Thought it could be a sign of legitimacy.&#xD;&#xA; 5. A phone call one evening that he had to pay an urgent bill but all his payment cards and cheque books were locked in a filing cabinet for which he had lost the key. Wanted to borrow money from me to pay for a locksmith and to help pay the urgent bill (first major alarm bell that made me conclude this was most likely a scam in progress). I said I couldn't help with that and to have a chat with his bank.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Silence for about 6 months. Then another phone call wanting to continue the web development work.&#xD;&#xA; 7. More vague information over the phone followed by a face-to-face meeting in which he requested to borrow from me £2000 to help with some cashflow problems and said he would pay me back &quot;generously&quot;. I said I'm not in a position to help with those sorts of things.&#xD;&#xA; 8. I didn't hear back from him for about a year. Then I got an email out-and-out just asking for £20,000 to help with his business (again offering to make it &quot;worth my while&quot;). I ignored it.&#xD;&#xA; 9. Another year or so, last November, he contacts me again and is just interested this time in getting the website built again. I'm curious to see what he says this time so I go along with it. I tell him I can't meet him but we can talk on the phone. He says he has dissolved his last business (checked out Companies House register and the business name is listed as dissolved). I checked their list of disqualified directors and his name does not appear there.&#xD;&#xA; 10. He is reluctant to call me asking me to call him because of the cost of his mobile phone tariff. He wants me to always call him (though it also costs me more to call mobiles!). He does not have use of a fixed-line phone and uses a public telephone box when I ask him for fixed-line number to call.&#xD;&#xA; 11. I email him my contract and fee schedule and tell him I need his signature and an address to send it to (thinking it would put him off) - he seems willing to sign it; however, he keeps telling me how his business is in the process of being &quot;reconstituted&quot; and they don't have an address yet but I can send the contract to the address of one of his &quot;associate partners&quot; whose office he is temporarily using (in the same serviced office building as before).&#xD;&#xA; 12. He was also reluctant to register the domain via my web hosting website and he wanted me to register it for him and add it to the overall bill for web development. I told him I keep the two services separate (partly because I prefer to do it that way, but also I wanted to see if he would give an address after I told him the domain can be seized if he provides false information). He is making vague excuses for not doing that.&#xD;&#xA; 13. Now he is saying things like &quot;you said you would start on this date&quot; and &quot;there seems to be a miscommunication&quot; and &quot;I can go to someone else to do the website if you prefer&quot;.&#xD;&#xA; 14. I have just now told him that I expect him to sign and return the contract before I start doing any work and that he needs to sign it either as an individual providing his home address, or as a representative of his company providing the trading address that is registered with Companies House.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't expect I will now hear back or, if I do, it will be another excuse for not giving the information or accusing me of not being trusting in some way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I only continued with this in the hope that if it was a scam I could help someone else avoid being scammed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although I strongly suspect a scammer is at work, I want to know whether this is a type of scam widely experienced by freelancers?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also want to know, if it is a scam, what can be done to inhibit the risks of people falling for such scams?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there some kind of organisation or group (in the UK) that monitors or investigates these sorts of activities can be reported to? (I understand he has done nothing illegal yet, but there may be some watchdog group that monitors this type of activity)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3166" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1207" RevisionGUID="ae8a11e0-2f53-4f31-9d3b-e7f27fb6efd2" CreationDate="2014-01-11T14:30:36.957" UserId="148" Comment="clarified question title" Text="A few years ago I had an enquiry from a potential client who was an acquaintance of a friend. I had my doubts early on about him but decided at that point to continue based on the off-chance that I was wrong. Despite soon concluding it was most likely a scam in progress I was curious about what he would say and how it would proceed if it was a scam.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a brief history of the interactions along with events that triggered the alarm bells:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Initially very hazy about what his business did. Didn't seem to be able to give an adequate explanation of how it worked, his product or target market.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Vague and suspicious story about previous web designer who disappeared without finishing the job (I asked him about any previous sites or design work carried out on his business). There were a few graphics and a page of text but there never was an actual website for the business.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Met in small rented office with no phones, computers or filing cabinets.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Checked out the business name on Companies House register (the official UK corporation register for those who don't know) and the name is listed there but I didn't pay the fee to get more details. Thought it could be a sign of legitimacy.&#xD;&#xA; 5. A phone call one evening that he had to pay an urgent bill but all his payment cards and cheque books were locked in a filing cabinet for which he had lost the key. Wanted to borrow money from me to pay for a locksmith and to help pay the urgent bill (first major alarm bell that made me conclude this was most likely a scam in progress). I said I couldn't help with that and to have a chat with his bank.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Silence for about 6 months. Then another phone call wanting to continue the web development work.&#xD;&#xA; 7. More vague information over the phone followed by a face-to-face meeting in which he requested to borrow from me £2000 to help with some cashflow problems and said he would pay me back &quot;generously&quot;. I said I'm not in a position to help with those sorts of things.&#xD;&#xA; 8. I didn't hear back from him for about a year. Then I got an email out-and-out just asking for £20,000 to help with his business (again offering to make it &quot;worth my while&quot;). I ignored it.&#xD;&#xA; 9. Another year or so, last November, he contacts me again and is just interested this time in getting the website built again. I'm curious to see what he says this time so I go along with it. I tell him I can't meet him but we can talk on the phone. He says he has dissolved his last business (checked out Companies House register and the business name is listed as dissolved). I checked their list of disqualified directors and his name does not appear there.&#xD;&#xA; 10. He is reluctant to call me asking me to call him because of the cost of his mobile phone tariff. He wants me to always call him (though it also costs me more to call mobiles!). He does not have use of a fixed-line phone and uses a public telephone box when I ask him for fixed-line number to call.&#xD;&#xA; 11. I email him my contract and fee schedule and tell him I need his signature and an address to send it to (thinking it would put him off) - he seems willing to sign it; however, he keeps telling me how his business is in the process of being &quot;reconstituted&quot; and they don't have an address yet but I can send the contract to the address of one of his &quot;associate partners&quot; whose office he is temporarily using (in the same serviced office building as before).&#xD;&#xA; 12. He was also reluctant to register the domain via my web hosting website and he wanted me to register it for him and add it to the overall bill for web development. I told him I keep the two services separate (partly because I prefer to do it that way, but also I wanted to see if he would give an address after I told him the domain can be seized if he provides false information). He is making vague excuses for not doing that.&#xD;&#xA; 13. Now he is saying things like &quot;you said you would start on this date&quot; and &quot;there seems to be a miscommunication&quot; and &quot;I can go to someone else to do the website if you prefer&quot;.&#xD;&#xA; 14. I have just now told him that I expect him to sign and return the contract before I start doing any work and that he needs to sign it either as an individual providing his home address, or as a representative of his company providing the trading address that is registered with Companies House.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't expect I will now hear back or, if I do, it will be another excuse for not giving the information or accusing me of not being trusting in some way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to help others avoid being scammed like this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this is a type of scam widely experienced by other freelancers / small businesses?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can be done to inhibit the risks of people falling for such scams?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there some kind of organisation or group (in the UK for me) that monitors or investigates these sorts of activities that scammers can be reported to? (I understand he has done nothing illegal yet, but there may be some watchdog group that monitors this type of activity and provides alerts about them)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3167" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1207" RevisionGUID="ae8a11e0-2f53-4f31-9d3b-e7f27fb6efd2" CreationDate="2014-01-11T14:30:36.957" UserId="148" Comment="clarified question title" Text="What to do about a fraudulent client and a scam in progress?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3168" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1175" RevisionGUID="691dd617-8002-434e-9d16-68b5db8caf44" CreationDate="2014-01-11T14:43:48.020" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/422015993423347712" />
  <row Id="3169" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1207" RevisionGUID="448c2f96-febe-402f-864a-47bdc83dde05" CreationDate="2014-01-11T14:45:14.270" UserId="148" Comment="edited tags" Text="What to do about a possible fraudulent client and a scam in progress?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3170" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1207" RevisionGUID="448c2f96-febe-402f-864a-47bdc83dde05" CreationDate="2014-01-11T14:45:14.270" UserId="148" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|uk|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3171" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1215" RevisionGUID="ce11ee9e-e884-4206-a806-af7b9116cf0c" CreationDate="2014-01-11T15:28:12.753" UserId="1732" Comment="deleted 40 characters in body" Text="I am newbie android dev. I have developed an app in [Play Store][1] and then I got approached by a client in facebook to build a Translation of a religious word as an app. He said he will give me $50 for the app and gave me the website too from which I have to parse the content. I used the the content and gave him 5 prototypes at every 15 to 20 % of progress and I had completed it in 3 weeks of full work and had sent him the work with 99% completed and only the icon has to be provided for the app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I sent it to my friends for testing the app and they said to me that $50 is too less for the work. They told me of the developer fees per hour. They asked me to calculate the rate as $5/hr and it will cost to a minimum of $100. So I just asked the client of the hourly developer rates and **asked his opinion** of giving me $100 and **dint demand him**. He said he can't and I said I can give him for $50. But he  said its too unethical to discuss of the new rates once the rate is fixed and said he doesn't need my app at all. Asked me to delete my project files and he doesn't care of the work and broke off. I have the app with 99% work completed and now its vain and 0% percent as the content of translation I used was a copyrighted one and I can't publish it. Its not about the money much but the client din't treated my work like a trash and it worries me a lot. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I used the app as a framework and made Bible and sold it for ($125) . So as a newbie &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;how can I know if I am being underpaid? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I had accepted the client for the work with less and if the app grows then how can I approach him?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Due to outsourcing how can I calculate the cost?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Yennaachi.Wordzilla" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3172" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1226" RevisionGUID="78ba1e96-c474-487a-aaf9-a98a00d2dfe4" CreationDate="2014-01-11T16:11:52.277" UserId="127" Text="There are advantages to long-term clients as well as disadvantages. The advantages I have found to long-term clients are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Lower cost of sales/marketing (the customer already knows and trusts me and so it is easier to convince them to select me for a new project)&#xD;&#xA;* Lower risk (you already know you can work successfully with the customer, they have proven themselves to be honest and trustworthy)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you say, the disadvantages can be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* It is harder to say no to an existing client&#xD;&#xA;* Their work can get boring, especially if you just tweaking previous work you did for them&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being said, I disagree that you are &quot;forced&quot; to take any project you are offered from an existing client. For example, one of my clients requested a bid for a Silverlight development project. At first, I thought &quot;hey, I'll learn something new&quot;, and I started working on the bid. Then as time went on, I realized that there was little value for me in learning Silverlight. So I politely explained to them that I had decided to decline bidding on their project - it just wasn't a direction I wanted to take my career. I was worried the customer would be angry, but instead they told me they respected me more for my honesty!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately you need to decide what kinds of customers makes you the happiest. If always finding new clients is worth the effort for you, then by all means go for it. My business model is built around long-term relationships with clients so that I don't have to constantly find new ones. In a typical year, I work with 4-6 active clients, and perhaps only one of them is a new client. That new client doesn't always convert into a long-term client, but that is usually my goal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3173" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1227" RevisionGUID="0ab189bd-69c5-4858-9f6e-3637c554091f" CreationDate="2014-01-11T18:11:59.607" UserId="1563" Text="It is totally dependent on the kind of work that is being done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A long term client is good if the person is giving a steady flow of projects or a single project that is going on and on for quite some time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Short term projects are a means of earning a quick buck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Therefore, both the alternatives are not different. You can choose both type of clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3174" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1228" RevisionGUID="01773108-873c-42a1-96f2-e581a53280d9" CreationDate="2014-01-11T21:09:37.580" UserId="1323" Text="As a freelance UX designer, here's my perspective:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Advantages of long-term clients:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Good source of steady income. &#xD;&#xA; 2. Good source of recommendations.  Those who give you testimonials will know you well.&#xD;&#xA; 3. You don't have to prospect for new work as often. &#xD;&#xA; 4. You will feel more like a part of their company but still have the advantages of freelancing like being your own boss, setting your own hours, and working wherever you want.&#xD;&#xA; 5. Socially, I think it's better because you get to know people and that may help with feelings of isolation.  I think that extroverts and others who value having work friends would benefit more from long-term projects.  And in turn, that makes people more likely to recommend you.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Less time bookkeeping (assuming you work on only a few projects at a time), and some accounting software is less expensive if you work on fewer projects.  In other words, it could lower your overhead.&#xD;&#xA; 7. If you are a generalist, these projects might lend themselves better to follow-on/maintenance work because you are seen more like an employee and less like someone hired for a quick job.  You might get experience at different stages of the project/product life cycle than you would otherwise, depending on the kind of work you do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Disadvantages of long-term clients:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. If they haven't recommended you yet, prepare yourself for the possibility that they won't.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Your portfolio might not have enough variety in it to get you hired easily for future work (if you are in a field such as design where portfolios are very important).&#xD;&#xA; 3. If your clients don't stay on top of new technology, your skill set might get stale and you may find it harder to compete with other providers for new work.  This could be seen as a risk in short-term projects too.  It depends on the clients.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Prospecting may be harder and slower because there is a higher risk for clients in hiring you.&#xD;&#xA; 5. Your prospecting/sales skills might not stay as sharp because you might not be using them as often.  Returning to prospecting after a long project ends could mean you have a long lead time re-learning what to do to land more clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Advantages of short-term clients:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. They can help you get a lot of variety in your portfolio quickly.&#xD;&#xA; 2. They can fill in gaps between longer-term projects or give you something to do during a slow period in a long-term project.&#xD;&#xA; 3. They can help you get recommendations quickly.&#xD;&#xA; 4. It may be easier for you to specialize in a few services rather than getting pulled into being a generalist if your projects are shorter-term.&#xD;&#xA; 5. They can provide quick money.&#xD;&#xA; 6. They are potentially lower risk for the client.  Getting hired for these might not take as long or require as many stages of approval.&#xD;&#xA; 7. It might be easier to raise your rates because clients won't be as accustomed to paying less for your services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Disadvantages of short-term projects:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Having to prospect and sell often.&#xD;&#xA; 2. More time spent administering the business (taxes, accounting).&#xD;&#xA; 3. You need more clients, which means that you'll need to spend more time researching clients or specialize in a wider niche.&#xD;&#xA; 4. If you don't have a backlog of new projects, it could be more stressful because you won't necessarily know where your next work will come from.  If you do have a backlog of new projects, it could be more stressful because one project running late could easily delay all the others.&#xD;&#xA; 5. Your rates may become more subject to changes in the market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It depends on the nature of your business, your portfolio needs, and what your business needs to keep the amount of work optimal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With this in mind, I'm currently prospecting for a mix of long-term and short-term work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3175" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1225" RevisionGUID="4af10808-bc94-4014-b2a7-e1063c2496df" CreationDate="2014-01-12T00:24:32.083" UserId="517" Comment="added 194 characters in body" Text="A project, job or client who you stick to for more than 3 months. In term of freelancing, this is usually a project which you will work for longer period thus ensuring yourself a steady income. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3176" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1225" RevisionGUID="4af10808-bc94-4014-b2a7-e1063c2496df" CreationDate="2014-01-12T00:24:32.083" Comment="Proposed by 517 approved by 43, -1 edit id of 195" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3177" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1225" RevisionGUID="f41b090f-0ec9-41a7-afc2-578a074a687d" CreationDate="2014-01-12T00:24:32.083" UserId="58" Comment="added 34 characters in body" Text="A project, job or client with whom you work with for a longer period of time. In terms of freelancing, this is usually a project in which you ensure your income remains steady by building a long-term relationship with a client. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3178" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1216" RevisionGUID="b521c091-b069-44ec-ac75-f312b4b5d41a" CreationDate="2014-01-12T00:27:37.927" UserId="58" Comment="Formatting~" Text="1. You are not charging enough: listen to your friends!  You should have looked around for jobs similar to what you do and found out how much others were being paid.  Don't feel that your work is worth much less because you are a newbie, because the client will take it when you release it to him and earn much, much more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. The client is correct in saying you can't raise the price after starting work. You can only raise the price **if the client is asking you to add in more work that you did not previously agree upon before.**  That is how contracts work, all over the world.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. If you have a good product, don't sell it outright.  Put it on the Play Store so it will keep on making you money forever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3184" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1231" RevisionGUID="b1ed67dc-66d9-4444-a2c4-d0cfd4e7e807" CreationDate="2014-01-12T21:20:49.567" UserId="1734" Text="I'm seeking software development work -- all types *except* .NET -- on job boards. I seem to be inundated with potential clients that *you* could service. (I cannot because I have no experience with .NET.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you haven't mentioned job boards, I think they could be your answer: workopolis, monster, linkedin, craigslist, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you become active on some of the job boards, you *will* be approached by agencies/recruiters about contract work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And there's the meta search job sites -- indeed, eluta, simplyhired, etc -- that search the web for you. They too will find agencies/recruiters having contract work.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3185" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1231" RevisionGUID="ea4734e3-b46b-4392-bddd-7ab5330d195b" CreationDate="2014-01-12T21:26:22.183" UserId="1734" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="I'm seeking software development work -- all types *except* .NET -- on job boards. I seem to be inundated with potential clients that *you* could service. (I cannot because I have no experience with .NET.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you haven't mentioned **job boards**, I think they could be your answer: workopolis, monster, linkedin, craigslist, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you become active on some of the job boards, you *will* be approached by agencies/recruiters about contract work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And there's the meta search job sites -- indeed, eluta, simplyhired, etc -- that search the web for you. They too will find agencies/recruiters having contract work.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3186" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1152" RevisionGUID="162742ae-e261-48b2-a125-9ce47e26404d" CreationDate="2014-01-12T23:38:28.087" UserId="43" Comment="Added extra point as per comment" Text="I get many requests of this nature as others have mentioned and most of the time I tended to follow the advice given here about how best to say no to these project requests. However, 18 months' ago I was approached by 3 partners who were looking for a fourth to deliver a new startup idea. It was the usual approach of offering equity due to them having no money. After careful consideration, instead of turning them down I actually decided to proceed with this one for these reasons:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. They had a clear idea about how the site was going to attain profitability and where the revenue streams would come from. &#xD;&#xA; 2. There were clear definitions of roles and responsibilities and I was given complete control over the tech approach.&#xD;&#xA; 3. It was understood that I would be developing the site out of normal office hours so there was a joint understanding that the sooner the site was completed, the sooner we could start marketing it, which meant that they agreed not to put pressure on me to deliver. If I couldn't work on the site for a number of days then so be it.&#xD;&#xA; 4. There was an MOU (Memorandum Of Understanding) drawn up between the parties, which acted as a legally binding contract-in-waiting in lieu of us actually forming a company, which contained roles/responsibilities and equity arrangements (amongst other things).&#xD;&#xA; 5. My equity stake was proportional to the total number of partners in the business.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Probably the most important - it was a damn good idea that I could really see working and being very successful!&#xD;&#xA; 7. It's a project that I find very interesting and can learn from participating in, both on the technical side (as per point 2) and on the business side.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These sort of projects can work if you have another primary source of income that can support you whilst you effectively work 2 jobs and there are lower expectations around the time it will take you to deliver a working system. It also helps if the person with the idea understands how to make the project successful after you have fulfilled your end of the bargain. If they don't have experience within the site's target industry that would be a red flag for me. The project is now live and going through a round of beta testing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, don't just let the client sell you the dream - look beyond that and examine the reality. If they've put significant work into how they might realise that dream and are not just expecting you to do all the work and make them loads of money, then it might be worth deeper discussion with them. Just don't be strong-armed into a partnership that you aren't getting a fair deal on. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3187" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="255" RevisionGUID="a1ef2fa8-ab22-4708-a1fc-90dc110a895a" CreationDate="2014-01-12T23:55:35.920" UserId="1734" Comment="Important (meaningful) format change." Text="I absolutely understand what you mean. A couple of years ago I faced the same dilemma. No matter how low I bid, I could never get a project. But as of today if I bid on a project, 90% of the chances are that I will get it. Thanks to more than [110 Five Star Ratings][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was almost on the verge of giving it up but then someone gave me this advice which I am going to pass on to you. This helped me get my first project! After then there was no looking back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how did I manage to do it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A. Create a proposal where you explain why you should be picked even though you are new.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It could be some thing like&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Dear XYZ&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I have been in this industry for XX years and such jobs are my daily practice. This is my first time on this site and hence you can see that I do not have any ratings/testimonials to show you. I can assure you that if you work with me once, you will always work with me for these kind of projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now you mention stuff here on why the employer should choose you.... Attach a sample and tell the employer that it can be delivered the moment he chooses your bid...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**B. Submit samples of your previous work**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just don't submit any sample. The sample should be relevant to the current project you are bidding on&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**C. Submit working sample of the current work.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do not want to do that then attach a video of the working application. I use CAMTASIA to record a video to show how the completed project looks like. Trust me this almost will seal the project for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Start with these 3 and you will see results very soon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.freelancer.com/users/feedback_1193882.html?period=entire_history&amp;category=0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3188" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="255" RevisionGUID="a1ef2fa8-ab22-4708-a1fc-90dc110a895a" CreationDate="2014-01-12T23:55:35.920" Comment="Proposed by 1734 approved by 43, -1 edit id of 196" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3189" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="255" RevisionGUID="04cb61e6-0807-4a9c-aca5-4d1609970144" CreationDate="2014-01-12T23:55:35.920" UserId="58" Comment="Important (meaningful) format change. (+ edited out sentence which read like a spam email)" Text="I absolutely understand what you mean. A couple of years ago I faced the same dilemma. No matter how low I bid, I could never get a project. But as of today if I bid on a project, 90% of the chances are that I will get it. Thanks to more than [110 Five Star Ratings][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was almost on the verge of giving it up but then someone gave me some advice which helped me get my first project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how did I manage to do it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A. Create a proposal where you explain why you should be picked even though you are new.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It could be some thing like&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Dear XYZ&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I have been in this industry for XX years and such jobs are my daily practice. This is my first time on this site and hence you can see that I do not have any ratings/testimonials to show you. I can assure you that if you work with me once, you will always work with me for these kind of projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now you mention stuff here on why the employer should choose you.... Attach a sample and tell the employer that it can be delivered the moment he chooses your bid...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**B. Submit samples of your previous work**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just don't submit any sample. The sample should be relevant to the current project you are bidding on&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**C. Submit working sample of the current work.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do not want to do that then attach a video of the working application. I use CAMTASIA to record a video to show how the completed project looks like. Trust me this almost will seal the project for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Start with these 3 and you will see results very soon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.freelancer.com/users/feedback_1193882.html?period=entire_history&amp;category=0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3190" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1232" RevisionGUID="81274666-01e0-40b3-a5e2-ec33e3ba3c4f" CreationDate="2014-01-13T01:51:11.503" UserId="1706" Text="Peter,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To answer your question, the guys who are using actually using the bid sites aren't the same guys who end up doing the work -- not if they're trying to run things as a multi-person business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, someone from the company has to FIND the work.  Let's say this person finds a gig worth $25000.  They evaluate the job, and determine that it's feasible.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Okay, then somebody has to **finance** the work.  Computer equipment and networking.  Internet access.  Development tools.  Office space.  Utilities.  That person with the money isn't necessarily the person that finds the job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then somebody has to find the talent to do the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then somebody has to manage the talent to do the work, and will probably liaison with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Oh, and of course there are the people **doing** the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the person who finds the work must understand that he can't have the whole $25000 to himself, because he can't do it ALL.  Possible, but cutting corners can be quite impractical in the end.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3191" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1223" RevisionGUID="acb16857-b8f2-4349-a29a-d48348ec9ac5" CreationDate="2014-01-13T06:25:20.503" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/422615327261077504" />
  <row Id="3193" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1234" RevisionGUID="74619504-f9ac-4a79-9375-4e896969e5db" CreationDate="2014-01-13T18:07:40.820" UserId="358" Text="@Avonelle &amp; @codenoire both have good answers.&#xD;&#xA;Here's one more suggestion to add to the mix.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Get a partner/salesperson. This person will be the &quot;face&quot; of your business. They will go out and find the pet sitting gigs for you. You would then pay them a percentage of the gig. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This person could even explain to the clients how you are such an animal lover, with lots of experience &amp; skills, but that you are very shy around people. You are being hired based on your ability to take care of their pets needs. If they know in advance that you're not a people person, then they won't care. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of it this way. When you go to a restaurant, they put the bright cheerful person up front as the hostess. This is the first face you see. The server, will usually have a nice smile too. But how about the dishwasher in the back? Odds are, they are not smiling. Does this affect your experience? No. You go to a restaurant to have a nice meal &amp; be treated nicely. If they do their job, then everyone is happy. You are getting what you paid for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, I urge you to seek some counseling. You sound like a nice girl, but need some help to find your self-confidence. If you can't afford it, the county you're in should have some free alternatives. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3196" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1157" RevisionGUID="a0b34966-dc70-4434-b334-a85ed4fb7ff5" CreationDate="2014-01-14T06:31:00.460" UserId="1644" Comment="added 297 characters in body" Text="I have been working as a freelancer since year 2009, Well sometimes it is hard to get a job there on Odesk/Elance. There are tons of people now, what you would do for someone in 500 dollars, another person may do the same task 10 times better than you at a very low cost. You can't just rely on freelancing sites. Few days ago all was well with me  but all of a sudden I wasn't getting jobs on Odesk, so expect for the unexpected, I know some people who are doing very well but it all depends how good you are, the luck factor and lots of things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I love working as a freelancer because I don't like to go to the office and money of course - If you would work hard I am sure you will earn a lot more than your friends who go to offices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, If you are from the developed countries, I think you are gonna struggle to get job because for me and most of the people from developing countries for them Even 1 dollar is a lot of money, if I work 8 hours a day I may have 14000 bucks by the end of the month which is quite Okay to me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3197" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1235" RevisionGUID="9e6ec9ee-1a58-4c7d-8eb3-d6a4d962c6cc" CreationDate="2014-01-14T09:55:40.307" UserId="1754" Text="I been in freelancing for like 2-3 years now, and earning my bread and butter via freelancing on sites like odesk etc. Mainly i use odesk as i had many projects and ratings too. But now, i have hit a rock bottom (i think), i was sick due to my back and i was running here and there, in which a contract was paused as i told my client the case. Later i resumed and i did work, the code was written very bad and they even had no idea on how to do it. So it took me couple of hours to fix it (on the clock), turns out the client went all crazy and haywire due to overstepping budget. Hence gave me a bad rating. As some of you might know, these sites has formula of making the rating go down fast, and slow increase in overall rating when someone rates you bad. So my 5 star rating got fallen to 4.81, Now its been good 15-20 days, i been applying for jobs and i am getting none. Whereas before, i use to get a lot of invite without even applying. &#xD;&#xA;I am really panic now, as my earning depends on it. I always been a 5 star contractor. What should i do to control the damage control? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3198" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1235" RevisionGUID="9e6ec9ee-1a58-4c7d-8eb3-d6a4d962c6cc" CreationDate="2014-01-14T09:55:40.307" UserId="1754" Text="Bad rating has decreased my chances of getting work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3199" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1235" RevisionGUID="9e6ec9ee-1a58-4c7d-8eb3-d6a4d962c6cc" CreationDate="2014-01-14T09:55:40.307" UserId="1754" Text="|contracts|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3200" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1215" RevisionGUID="25f80e84-1920-44ea-8df9-299edf9121a5" CreationDate="2014-01-14T12:49:44.620" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/423074453543993344" />
  <row Id="3206" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1235" RevisionGUID="f2067d8e-d254-4434-8377-abf483fc2f70" CreationDate="2014-01-14T16:37:12.227" UserId="61" Comment="tagged and made minor formatting improvements" Text="I been in freelancing for like 2-3 years now, and earning my bread and butter via freelancing on sites like oDesk etc. Mainly I use oDesk as I had many projects and ratings too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But now, I have hit a rock bottom (I think), I was sick due to medical reasons and I was running here and there, in which a contract was paused as I told my client the case. Later I resumed and I did work, the code was written very bad and they even had no idea on how to do it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So it took me a couple of hours to fix it (on the clock), turns out the client went all crazy and haywire due to overstepping budget. **Hence gave me a bad rating**. As some of you might know, these sites has formula of making the rating go down fast, and slow increase in overall rating when someone rates you bad. So my 5 star rating got fallen to 4.81, Now its been good 15-20 days, I been applying for jobs and I am getting none. Whereas before, i use to get a lot of invite without even applying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am really panic now, as my earning depends on it. I always been a 5 star contractor.  &#xD;&#xA;**What should I do to control the damage?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3207" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1235" RevisionGUID="f2067d8e-d254-4434-8377-abf483fc2f70" CreationDate="2014-01-14T16:37:12.227" UserId="61" Comment="tagged and made minor formatting improvements" Text="|contracts|attracting-clients|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3208" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1235" RevisionGUID="f2067d8e-d254-4434-8377-abf483fc2f70" CreationDate="2014-01-14T16:37:12.227" Comment="Proposed by 61 approved by 69 edit id of 197" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3210" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1237" RevisionGUID="d0cf2ef8-d787-4f80-808b-0d1c2caef2a7" CreationDate="2014-01-14T18:04:35.500" UserId="1761" Text="I would say that you started on the right track. Asking questions on discussion boards gets you acquainted with peers in the freelancing world that could give you suggestions and possible project referrals - which you can make intelligent choices from. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you've never started on any freelance project before, the challenge lies on what you could possibly show your potentials client to have enough confidence in you to do the work. Yes, your skills maybe impeccable and you could commit yourself to an excellent output. However, you're going to have to show something to your prospects to prove it. Your communication and interpersonal skills [during an interview or a meeting] would come in handy. If you cannot impress them with the skills in your profile, then get their trust with how you present yourself in a discussion. Clients would love to hear more about what you can do in details.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The suggestion to start building your reputation on a freelancing platform can help, too. Create a profile on popular freelancing channels and bid on a job advert you believe you could make wonders at. A lot of clients in those platforms are willing to give &quot;entry-level&quot; freelancers a chance. I'm sure you've told to be careful about bidding on projects though. Yes, usually, clients will have a brief background of what they are about on their job adverts. Platforms like Elance and oDesk also show how far they are within the site: how many contractors they have hired, how much they paid, and how trusted their are as described in their feedback comments and scores. You'll pretty much have an idea who you want to work with. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And as you said, you already have your website up and running (optimised and all), a little more perseverance is strongly suggested. You can't just be all over the World Wide Web as it's way too big for you. Discover where your kind of expertise hangs around and stay with them for a while until you get prospects. Listen to what your peers talk about by saving a few links to blogs, social media profile, and discussion boards. This will not only help you find prospects but will also update what you think you already know. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope my insights make sense and I wish you and our fellow freelancers all the best. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cheers!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yuoseff&#xD;&#xA;http://frontlinefundamentals.wordpress.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3211" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1237" RevisionGUID="ba90bed0-f272-43ad-a395-cef3e277590d" CreationDate="2014-01-14T18:11:10.103" UserId="1761" Comment="deleted 1 characters in body" Text="I would say that you started on the right track. Asking questions on discussion boards gets you acquainted with peers in the freelancing world that could give you suggestions and possible project referrals - which you can make intelligent choices from. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you've never started on any freelance project before, the challenge lies on what you could possibly show your potential client to have enough confidence in you to do the work. Yes, your skills maybe impeccable and you could commit yourself to an excellent output. However, you're going to have to show something to your prospects to prove it. Your communication and interpersonal skills [during an interview or a meeting] would come in handy. If you cannot impress them with the skills in your profile, then get their trust with how you present yourself in a discussion. Clients would love to hear more about what you can do in details.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The suggestion to start building your reputation on a freelancing platform can help, too. Create a profile on popular freelancing channels and bid on a job advert you believe you could make wonders at. A lot of clients in those platforms are willing to give &quot;entry-level&quot; freelancers a chance. I'm sure you've told to be careful about bidding on projects though. Yes, usually, clients will have a brief background of what they are about on their job adverts. Platforms like Elance and oDesk also show how far they are within the site: how many contractors they have hired, how much they paid, and how trusted their are as described in their feedback comments and scores. You'll pretty much have an idea who you want to work with. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And as you said, you already have your website up and running (optimised and all), a little more perseverance is strongly suggested. You can't just be all over the World Wide Web as it's way too big for you. Discover where your kind of expertise hangs around and stay with them for a while until you get prospects. Listen to what your peers talk about by saving a few links to blogs, social media profile, and discussion boards. This will not only help you find prospects but will also update what you think you already know. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope my insights make sense and I wish you and our fellow freelancers all the best. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cheers!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yuoseff&#xD;&#xA;http://frontlinefundamentals.wordpress.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3212" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1238" RevisionGUID="c659275a-9585-4566-b390-d84e9748ecca" CreationDate="2014-01-14T18:45:35.037" UserId="517" Text="Well first don't be in panic. I read on multiple location that clients don't mind any score above 3.5. So if these facts are true, you are getting great. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other fact is (which I just checked) is that in search term the max category is 4.5 an above. So you're in the top as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd just keep working as usual. I would say that the problem is not in your rating but in something else. Maybe you make bad offers or charge too much or something else. I noticed that in the last 3 months, rates declined 20% which is normal since it Xmas and New Year so clients have to recover from costs as well. I bet in February things will get better. Now I remembered that 2 of my clients told me that they will continue projects in Feb. It could not be coincidence. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How many jobs do you have there? Solved with good rating. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3213" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1239" RevisionGUID="9a888d11-844a-41fe-aac6-b2cf8422732c" CreationDate="2014-01-14T18:49:00.423" UserId="61" Text="**Short answer**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * Mail to the client and ask them what can be done to get things recovered. Mutually agree on scope and rate. Best if after all they change their feedback at oDesk, but even if they can't, it still worth trying.&#xD;&#xA; * Improve the way how you **communicate** with the clients. The ultimate goal is to make them absolutely certain what are you currently doing, when the next delivery will occur, etc.&#xD;&#xA; * *It is absolutely unacceptable if at the moment of delivery the contractor comes up and says they need more time.* Report of any issues soon.&#xD;&#xA; * Be proactive. Try to **inform** your client before they actually ask. Otherwise they will certainly ask you at the time when you are not ready to answer. Including urgent phone calls at 4:00AM if you are in different time zones.&#xD;&#xA; * Keep things written. Don't let them go implied.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Before getting to the **long answer**, let's define several things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The ultimate goal of the client is getting the job done. Job is scope + budget + terms. Unless they are totally insane, they give you bad feedback because they feel the job was worse than the expected. It can be scope, budget, or terms in any combination.  &#xD;&#xA;I would not agree that having a 5-star is the ultimate goal on freelancing Web sites. Yes, contract applications are sorted by contractors' rating so it helps finding *new* contracts easier, but the reputation of 4.81 seems quite good for me.  &#xD;&#xA;Yet another problem that indeed worth your attention is **how do you manage the problem situations**. And (not to rant) you seem to have handled it wrong this time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, the entire question seems to be split into several smaller ones, let me formulate them:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* How do I recover with the client who gave me bad rating and convince them to give me a better feedback?&#xD;&#xA;* How do I find new projects while having less-than-5-stars reputation?&#xD;&#xA;* What should I do to avoid losing reputation in the future?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to recover with the client?&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may or may not will to get further projects from this very client, but you most likely are interested to keep your reputation with them. Even regardless oDesk feedback, the professional world is very small, and sooner or later it hits you back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I said, the client gives bad feedback because they feel the job is worse than expected. It may or may not be recoverable as of today, but you should certainly try to recover. It will open some nice opportunities to you:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* You get chance to convince the client to reconsider their feedback;&#xD;&#xA;* You turn yet another project into **successful** one and can refer to it;&#xD;&#xA;* You learn how to manage problems;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, ask the client what exactly is wrong with the job you have done.  &#xD;&#xA;It's not about your medical issues. You have signed for a job **and** have not completed it **and** apparently not reported that you're unable to continue. This is the thing to be recovered in the first order. I believe, this is the major (or entire) reason of the bad feedback.  &#xD;&#xA;Unless you have totally ruined your reputation and they refuse to talk to you (which seems to be not the case here), think what practical, doable items can be there.  &#xD;&#xA;I did not say it must be free. If they paid you for the certain work done, you have to get it done. But usually, the scope changes over time.  &#xD;&#xA;Specifically ask what can be done so that they changed their feedback. I mean, not only the &quot;4 stars&quot; or &quot;5 stars&quot;. It's important what they write in an accompanying note. Even if it is &quot;4 stars&quot;, but they state that you have been able to resolve the issues, you can always let the others to read it.  &#xD;&#xA;The better you recover with an unhappy client, the less you would lose due to a low reputation.  &#xD;&#xA;Improve the way how you communicate (see below) and avoid common mistakes in the future.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to get future jobs having low reputation?&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A 4.81 reputation is not a disaster. A good client will not only look at &quot;stars&quot;, but also read the accompanying notes. This is why I think they are important.  &#xD;&#xA;Try to find several smaller jobs and get good feedbacks for getting them done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to avoid problems in the future?&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**This is not about incomplete or badly written code**. Contractors get bad ratings when/because they did not &quot;make the client happy&quot;. There are many subjective aspects here which can't be covered in this answer. The objective ones are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Satisfying the requirements. The work has a certain scope and budget. By signing up to the work, you agreed with these scope and budget.&#xD;&#xA;* Things change. You may have underestimated required effort, the client may have increased scope or changed priorities. Have you tracked the issues? Have you raised possible problems early?&#xD;&#xA;* Handle the problems. Let's make it straight: I have failed many projects while keeping great reputation with the project owners. On the other hand, there were seemingly good jobs of mine which nevertheless ruined my relationship with the clients. When I thought about it, I figured out that *the entire thing was about how I managed problem situations*.&#xD;&#xA; * Improve the way how you communicate. There are lots of answers here on this topic, I would not repeat all of them. **Communicate on time. Be proactive. Report the problems early. Get things written.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With all above, I hope you will get recovered quickly, your reputation will raise, and your clients will give you good feedback in the future." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3214" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1239" RevisionGUID="0b477095-d5ca-41bc-9031-39fa38838dab" CreationDate="2014-01-14T19:20:52.243" UserId="61" Comment="updated according to the OP's comment" Text="**Short answer**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * Mail to the client and ask them what can be done to get things recovered. Mutually agree on scope and rate. Best if after all they change their feedback at oDesk, but even if they can't, it still worth trying.&#xD;&#xA; * Improve the way how you **communicate** with the clients. The ultimate goal is to make them absolutely certain what are you currently doing, when the next delivery will occur, etc.&#xD;&#xA; * *It is absolutely unacceptable if at the moment of delivery the contractor comes up and says they need more time.* Report of any issues soon.&#xD;&#xA; * Be proactive. Try to **inform** your client before they actually ask. Otherwise they will certainly ask you at the time when you are not ready to answer. Including urgent phone calls at 4:00AM if you are in different time zones.&#xD;&#xA; * Keep things written. Don't let them go implied.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Before getting to the **long answer**, let's define several things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The ultimate goal of the client is getting the job done. Job is scope + budget + terms. Unless they are totally insane, they give you bad feedback because they feel the job was worse than the expected. It can be scope, budget, or terms in any combination.  &#xD;&#xA;I would not agree that having a 5-star is the ultimate goal on freelancing Web sites. Yes, contract applications are sorted by contractors' rating so it helps finding *new* contracts easier, but the reputation of 4.81 seems quite good for me.  &#xD;&#xA;Yet another problem that indeed worth your attention is **how do you manage the problem situations**. And (not to rant) you seem to have handled it wrong this time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, the entire question seems to be split into several smaller ones, let me formulate them:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* How do I recover with the client who gave me bad rating and convince them to give me a better feedback?&#xD;&#xA;* How do I find new projects while having less-than-5-stars reputation?&#xD;&#xA;* What should I do to avoid losing reputation in the future?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to recover with the client?&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may or may not will to get further projects from this very client, but you most likely are interested to keep your reputation with them. Even regardless oDesk feedback, the professional world is very small, and sooner or later it hits you back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I said, the client gives bad feedback because they feel the job is worse than expected. It may or may not be recoverable as of today, but you should certainly try to recover. It will open some nice opportunities to you:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* You get chance to convince the client to reconsider their feedback;&#xD;&#xA;* You turn yet another project into **successful** one and can refer to it;&#xD;&#xA;* You learn how to manage problems;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, ask the client what exactly is wrong with the job you have done.  &#xD;&#xA;It's not about your medical issues. You have signed for a job **and** have not completed it **and** apparently not reported that you're unable to continue. This is the thing to be recovered in the first order. I believe, this is the major (or entire) reason of the bad feedback.  &#xD;&#xA;Unless you have totally ruined your reputation and they refuse to talk to you (which seems to be not the case here), think what practical, doable items can be there.  &#xD;&#xA;I did not say it must be free. If they paid you for the certain work done, you have to get it done. But usually, the scope changes over time.  &#xD;&#xA;Specifically ask what can be done so that they changed their feedback. I mean, not only the &quot;4 stars&quot; or &quot;5 stars&quot;. It's important what they write in an accompanying note. Even if it is &quot;4 stars&quot;, but they state that you have been able to resolve the issues, you can always let the others to read it.  &#xD;&#xA;The better you recover with an unhappy client, the less you would lose due to a low reputation.  &#xD;&#xA;Improve the way how you communicate (see below) and avoid common mistakes in the future.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to get future jobs having low reputation?&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A 4.81 reputation is not a disaster. A good client will not only look at &quot;stars&quot;, but also read the accompanying notes. This is why I think they are important.  &#xD;&#xA;Try to find several smaller jobs and get good feedbacks for getting them done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to avoid problems in the future?&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**This is not about incomplete or badly written code**. Contractors get bad ratings when/because they did not &quot;make the client happy&quot;. There are many subjective aspects here which can't be covered in this answer. The objective ones are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Satisfying the requirements. The work has a certain scope and budget. By signing up to the work, you agreed with these scope and budget.&#xD;&#xA;* Things change. You may have underestimated required effort, the client may have increased scope or changed priorities. Have you tracked the issues? Have you raised possible problems early?&#xD;&#xA;* Handle the problems. Let's make it straight: I have failed many projects while keeping great reputation with the project owners. On the other hand, there were seemingly good jobs of mine which nevertheless ruined my relationship with the clients. When I thought about it, I figured out that *the entire thing was about how I managed problem situations*.&#xD;&#xA; * Improve the way how you communicate. There are lots of answers here on this topic, I would not repeat all of them. **Communicate on time. Be proactive. Report the problems early. Get things written.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With all above, I hope you will get recovered quickly, your reputation will raise, and your clients will give you good feedback in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;Update:  &#xD;&#xA;The feedback specifically says that you were &quot;very easy to work with&quot; and did a good job until medical issues affected your performance. I guess, you should certainly contact them and say something like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I understand that my performance was not good, and I think the &quot;4 stars&quot; feedback is pretty much fair. However, I'm looking forward to get further projects from your company. I'm also aware about my reputation at oDesk as I freelance for living.  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Can we negotiate about what can I do to convince you to change your feedback?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here you may list what you can actually do for the past project (if it's not completed yet) or for another project with the same client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm absolutely confident you can get through it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3215" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1240" RevisionGUID="03e12177-7f57-4b4f-8f89-cb2f4dcc4df2" CreationDate="2014-01-14T20:18:23.840" UserId="835" Text="Here I mean the type of software, not particular brands and names.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We had a remote developer in our team and quite often we needed more than just email or voice call. Sometimes we shared screens for a some sort of peer programming, sometimes we needed to draw diagrams and discuss them. Planning and design discussions required the broadest functionality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bugtracking, wiki and other software like that was not sufficient for us. However there are many examples of successful open source projects where teams used only source control system, and discussion lists.&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;So I admit that our process of development could be not perfect and want to here from you which collaborative functionality is mostly needed in your work. How do you communicate in case of distributed teams?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3216" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1240" RevisionGUID="03e12177-7f57-4b4f-8f89-cb2f4dcc4df2" CreationDate="2014-01-14T20:18:23.840" UserId="835" Text="Which collaborative software do you usually need in you work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3217" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1240" RevisionGUID="03e12177-7f57-4b4f-8f89-cb2f4dcc4df2" CreationDate="2014-01-14T20:18:23.840" UserId="835" Text="|communication|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3218" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1235" RevisionGUID="b24a0a9f-d152-41fb-891c-6a7a599f4590" CreationDate="2014-01-14T21:49:44.853" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/423210350084128768" />
  <row Id="3219" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1241" RevisionGUID="ee157cee-6a96-4999-a047-3ad60046063a" CreationDate="2014-01-15T03:50:54.867" UserId="1761" Text="Project collaborations need not to be complicated to use.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My former web development and online marketing team used either **Basecamp** and/or **Teambox**. They're a web-based project collaboration programs that allow you to view everybody's activity at a given period. They're quite efficient especially if you need to check on the progress of the the project. They also allow you to categorise your projects for a better organisation. I'm not sure if this will be useful or applicable to the kind of collaboration you're doing with your team but I hope it helps. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cheers!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yuoseff" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3220" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1242" RevisionGUID="87a84fa6-3b03-4ffb-9889-94478ad2887f" CreationDate="2014-01-15T04:52:59.033" UserId="1768" Text="I'm answering this mostly because it's what I do every day. First things first, anyone who is online should think about SEO if they want to maximize the number of visitors to their site.  Targeting specific keywords that customers might type in to find your product or service is key.  I'm always amazed at how many people will spend money to build a site and start a business but not  promote it.  Having said that, promoting yourself online AND offline is the way to go. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All the best my friend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Jen&#xD;&#xA;Kangaroo SEO&#xD;&#xA;http://www.kangarooseo.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Give your website a jump!&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3222" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1244" RevisionGUID="cfded816-525e-4880-b33e-44446626aafb" CreationDate="2014-01-15T09:47:23.577" UserId="1390" Text="I am on freelancer for the past 4 months, I have continuously applying jobs, but did not heard from any client back. We have done couple of work listed portfolio on my freelancer as well as on my site. but still due to no work done on freelancer no one is hiring us. Can you please suggest the points I should take care to get hired ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3223" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1244" RevisionGUID="cfded816-525e-4880-b33e-44446626aafb" CreationDate="2014-01-15T09:47:23.577" UserId="1390" Text="How to get work on freelancer.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3224" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1244" RevisionGUID="cfded816-525e-4880-b33e-44446626aafb" CreationDate="2014-01-15T09:47:23.577" UserId="1390" Text="|freelance-websites|freelance|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3227" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1246" RevisionGUID="4c8ad0c9-608d-446b-9077-7b99ac7a1fd0" CreationDate="2014-01-15T15:42:50.557" UserId="972" Text="For remote work, the types of applications I've found most useful are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Chat, IRC or Skype communication software.  These allow real time communication amongst team members, and most can allow you to bring your group together for a virtual &quot;meeting.&quot;  Screen share is very helpful, so try to pick one that's got that feature. These are almost all free, or have a free version. I know a lot of folks use GoToMeeting for team meetings, but it's not free.  Their pricing structure for smaller groups isn't bad, however.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Group collaboration software.  Google is a decent one, and if everyone has a gmail account it's probably the easiest to incorporate.  There are also collaborative softwares and apps based upon group management of textual content, ie, Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress. At the very basic, you probably need to be able to review and edit/comment on documents and papers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  File sharing software.  You also need to be able to share files, because not everything can or should go through email. Google Drive can handle this, and so can shared ftp accounts (although for these, you will need to make sure everyone on the team can deal with using the software.) Dropbox is another file sharing option - you can share a folder in your Dropbox with your team and everyone can leave files there for each other without email file size or type limitations. For geeks, there's GitHub. It's not just for software development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4.  Nice to have:  Group dashboard like Trello to help manage work flow.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These applications, plus whatever special apps you need to do the specific work you need to do, should handle at least 90% of the virtual communication required for remote work. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3228" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1246" RevisionGUID="b12bc4c9-bd86-4bf7-98f1-7cd862dd0d7a" CreationDate="2014-01-15T15:49:15.147" UserId="972" Comment="added 161 characters in body" Text="For remote work, the types of applications I've found most useful are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Chat, IRC or Skype communication software.  These allow real time communication amongst team members, and most can allow you to bring your group together for a virtual &quot;meeting.&quot;  Screen share is very helpful, so try to pick one that's got that feature. These are almost all free, or have a free version. I know a lot of folks use GoToMeeting for team meetings, but it's not free.  Their pricing structure for smaller groups isn't bad, however.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Group collaboration software.  Google is a decent one, and if everyone has a gmail account it's probably the easiest to incorporate.  There are also collaborative softwares and apps based upon group management of textual content, ie, Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress. At the very basic, you probably need to be able to review and edit/comment on documents and papers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  File sharing software.  You also need to be able to share files, because not everything can or should go through email. Google Drive can handle this, and so can shared ftp accounts (although for these, you will need to make sure everyone on the team can deal with using the software.) Dropbox is another file sharing option - you can share a folder in your Dropbox with your team and everyone can leave files there for each other without email file size or type limitations. For geeks, there's also GitHub. It's not just for software development, but make sure you get a private option if you are going to be sharing files for business purposes.  That will cost a bit, but I don't think it's too much. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4.  Nice to have:  Group dashboard like Trello to help manage work flow.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These applications, plus whatever special apps you need to do the specific work you need to do, in my experience will handle most of the virtual communication required for remote work. Right now our team is using Gmail, Google+ and Google Drive for file sharing and email/video/audio/screensharing communication, IRC for basic chat, and Trello to keep everyone up to date on what's being done or planned at the moment.  That, and our SVN server, gets pretty much all of our team work done. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3229" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1247" RevisionGUID="f6b2c9e0-870d-4528-b767-bb0106685f29" CreationDate="2014-01-15T18:45:19.317" UserId="1278" Text="I have debated wether or not doing pro bono work for non profit or community organizations is a good idea or not. On the one hand, I would view it as a 'donation' of my time and services to a cause I believe in. In the other hand, I am concerned about getting into situations where I get taken advantage of by an organization. I am also concerned that working for free can tend to hurt the freelancing profession as a whole, and does reinforce the idea that freelancers are cheap and not valuable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, charity work. Good idea or bad idea, and why?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3230" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1247" RevisionGUID="f6b2c9e0-870d-4528-b767-bb0106685f29" CreationDate="2014-01-15T18:45:19.317" UserId="1278" Text="Should I work for free for non-profit orginizations?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3231" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1247" RevisionGUID="f6b2c9e0-870d-4528-b767-bb0106685f29" CreationDate="2014-01-15T18:45:19.317" UserId="1278" Text="|nonprofit|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3236" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1249" RevisionGUID="13aff1ca-bb70-4d72-9c6c-145f666cc569" CreationDate="2014-01-15T21:12:26.393" UserId="708" Text="This is somewhat of an opinion-based question. So, my answer will be primarily opinion-based as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pro Bono means **for the good of all**. There are *many* non-profit or not-for-profit organizations which are not &quot;for the good of all&quot; but rather the &quot;good of our select group&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's important to first realize that many non-profit organizations still make a profit. The difference is their tax status and the idea that they reinvest the profit into the organization rather than distributing dividends to shareholders or owners. That does **not** mean they have no money. Many &quot;non-profit&quot; organizations pay their employees very handsome salaries. You may be interested in the [salary studies for nonprofit executives][1] (view the PDF link at that page).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm generalizing here. There are non-profit organizations which are solely focused on their mission. But I feel it's a common misconception that &quot;nonprofit&quot; means &quot;no money&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My point is many nonprofit organizations are merely businesses with a special tax status. That does not mean they can't afford to pay for services just like any other business. They all *ask* for reduced pricing or free work, but the reality is they have funds they *could* allocate if they saw the need as important enough. This is *no different* than any client I've ever come across.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being posted....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I have donated services.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I have worked at reduced pricing for some organizations.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I have worked at full rate for nonprofit organizations.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not see any detrimental aspects to working for nonprofit organizations you believe in and wish to support. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Donating specialized services on a volunteer basis (or reduced cost) is merely one way you can give to charity other than your physical presence. In fact, it is often a better use of those with specialized skills the organization is in need of. [Grassroots.org][2] is an organization specifically designed to match up those with special skills with non-profit or volunteer organizations in need of those skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**It is important to treat any donations or reduced cost work as *real* work though. With full project specifications, timelines, and budgets.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need the full project scope so you can cap what you are doing and prevent the ever-running project scope which may happen. Set hard milestones or finalization factors and once they are met close the project. Don't let the organization stray, they will tend to without any direct malice. You need to manage them because without pricing involved, they may tend to just keep asking for more. You can always work on multiple projects, but don't let it become one ever-increasing morphing thing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Really the only difference on your end should be the invoice. Either it is due or not. If you have an agreement to donate services, it's a good idea to still send the invoice but mark it as &quot;donated&quot; or indicate a discount if working at reduced rates. This way the organization has an understanding of what you are doing for them beyond the actual work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you don't charge the organization a penny, you need to have them agree on the price of what you are providing (tax purposes). If you donate a $500 item to your local Goodwill (assuming US locale) that is a tax deduction. **Check with your accountant**, but any donated services may also alter your tax situation depending upon the organization. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**In short, No.** I do not believe supporting any nonprofit or not-for-profit organization you wish to help is detrimental to any industry as a whole. It is only working for commercial, sales/service, profit-driven, businesses which lowers the standards other clients have for freelancing. And to be honest all the &quot;contest&quot; sites on the web do more harm there than you ever will.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm/bay/studies.ceo.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.grassroots.org/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3237" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1250" RevisionGUID="0071e67b-c72d-411f-aac2-ce23c1f2f39f" CreationDate="2014-01-15T21:45:09.633" UserId="1706" Text="You need to set GOOD BOUNDARIES because if you run into the wrong organization you can get suckered in to need, need, need and cut yourself short.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example - doing a web site.  You build it, and turn it over.  Who maintains it in the long run?  Does the organization call you at a moment's notice, and expect your full cooperation, because a year later someone finds out that you forgot to put a period at the end of a sentence?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep the scope tight.  A fixed start and a fixed end.  Don't be confused by &quot;non profit&quot;.  I guarantee you - the landlord, the water and power company, and the phone company that the non profit pays each month for services aren't a bit confused.  It's just that the non profit doesn't deal with these organizations face-to-face, so there are less chances for them to ask for a &quot;deal&quot; which really ends up being a &quot;steal&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3238" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1240" RevisionGUID="3347cfb0-dab8-45e1-95af-11420628d278" CreationDate="2014-01-15T21:50:04.420" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/423572819260493824" />
  <row Id="3239" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1251" RevisionGUID="489faf96-6773-4703-821a-6f81f94fc0f3" CreationDate="2014-01-16T04:50:15.157" UserId="1779" Text="Replicon's project management software can be one of the choice for the sort of work that you are in search of. We use the same in our company that operates in multiple locations in a cloud based platform. The hassle free experience helps make the things all right at all instances. Check out the link here - http://www.replicon.com/project-and-program-management" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3240" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1242" RevisionGUID="e797f672-cc7d-45f6-8843-d5ad52ce71b4" CreationDate="2014-01-16T07:31:21.627" UserId="61" Comment="removed a signature" Text="I'm answering this mostly because it's what I do every day. First things first, anyone who is online should think about SEO if they want to maximize the number of visitors to their site.  Targeting specific keywords that customers might type in to find your product or service is key.  I'm always amazed at how many people will spend money to build a site and start a business but not  promote it.  Having said that, promoting yourself online AND offline is the way to go." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3241" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1242" RevisionGUID="e797f672-cc7d-45f6-8843-d5ad52ce71b4" CreationDate="2014-01-16T07:31:21.627" Comment="Proposed by 61 approved by 708, 517 edit id of 198" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3244" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1244" RevisionGUID="3dbef6eb-fa16-48ae-b66f-7ad3190deed7" CreationDate="2014-01-16T08:14:05.030" UserId="64" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:61,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;bytebuster&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="3245" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1247" RevisionGUID="dbd71f9e-fa0c-48ee-a944-f6680d025f8d" CreationDate="2014-01-16T09:55:36.577" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/423755407195385856" />
  <row Id="3246" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1244" RevisionGUID="10033822-4c76-4d6f-9a1c-939d9e87e8d1" CreationDate="2014-01-16T10:50:21.670" UserId="1390" Comment="added 483 characters in body" Text="I am on freelancer for the past 4 months, I have continuously applying jobs, but did not heard from any client back. We have done couple of work listed portfolio on my freelancer as well as on my site. but still due to no work done on freelancer no one is hiring us. Can you please suggest the points I should take care to get hired ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; EDIT :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have applied to around 7 to 8 projects a week for the last 4 months. I tried to provide best lowest bid for the same, but still I didnt even contacted by any of the employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can any one help me specifying how should I write a cover letter or message to client to get contacted by the employer ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I need to do anything else that bidding on the project ? After bidding the project I do not do anything else that checking for the message if employer has sent any.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3251" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1244" RevisionGUID="578eb58d-83d8-48fb-8dd5-4ecee25e7ce5" CreationDate="2014-01-16T18:20:47.127" UserId="64" Comment="focused a bit more by cleaning up spelling/grammar" Text="I have been on freelancer for the past 4 months, and I have been continuously applying for jobs.  I did not hear back from any client. We have done couple of work, and I listed my portfolio on my freelancer as well as on my Web site. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Still due to no work done on freelancer, no one is hiring us. Can you please suggest the points I should take care to get hired?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have applied to around 7 to 8 projects a week for the last 4 months. I tried to provide best lowest bid for the same, but still I didn't get contacted by any of the clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can any one help me specifying how should I write a cover letter or message to client to get contacted by the employer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer who is new to freelancer.com, how can I maximize my chances of landing a contract?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3252" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1244" RevisionGUID="578eb58d-83d8-48fb-8dd5-4ecee25e7ce5" CreationDate="2014-01-16T18:20:47.127" UserId="64" Comment="focused a bit more by cleaning up spelling/grammar" Text="How to get work on freelancer.com as an existing contractor but new to freelancer.com?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3253" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="1244" RevisionGUID="d3ed66b8-9cbb-4c00-9842-b5bed2aac328" CreationDate="2014-01-16T18:20:51.440" UserId="64" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="3254" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1253" RevisionGUID="4775ca31-18c7-4356-8918-9cee01f17f30" CreationDate="2014-01-16T18:26:32.897" UserId="1323" Text="**Bad idea** - unless the project is very small, the scope is very well-defined, and you get to work on your own terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To get some work into my UX design portfolio, I worked for free for a non-profit and for a club run by volunteers.  While I value the experience of both projects, both projects had significant problems with scope creep, as other answers to this question have described.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What follows is my experience with scope creep on these projects:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Non-profit redesign project*: I was working with 3 other people: a developer, an artist, and someone who was there as another idea guy.  Due to their priorities changing over time, none of them finished the project with me.  I had to take on all of the development work, which meant working full time for free for several more weeks.  The organization was going through very difficult times at that moment.  This led me to stop work on other projects for several weeks to help them during those times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Club redesign project*: Scope creep happened in two ways here.  First, this was originally just a design project but I took on many of the development duties as well to make sure the sites could go live.  This included months of bug fixes and cross-browser testing.  Second, my proposal did not provide for additional revisions, but the client had me do several before they would launch the sites.  I did follow through with these revisions, which made the design and my design skills much better but resulted in a lot more working for free than I had planned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would advise now that anyone working for free should only do one revision on their terms and on their schedule (no deadlines).  Please also read [Requests for Free Work: Surprising Revelations][1] and its comments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Overall, the added responsibilities in these projects and the additional revisions that one of the clients wanted more than doubled the amount of time that I had planned to work for free.  Although I'm not completely opposed to working for free, I'm not planning to work for free again for a while, if ever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fortunately, I've finished my obligations for both of these clients now and I'm still friends with both of these clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/06/requests-for-free-work-surprising-revelations/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3255" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1254" RevisionGUID="ccbcc6a9-88cc-4500-95fe-b6b3b44b3128" CreationDate="2014-01-16T18:33:58.087" UserId="1323" Text="I upvoted Łukasz L.'s answer, which addresses the body of your question well (taxes/invoicing concerns).  I'd like to answer the other part of your question, &quot;Why should I not provide free services to friends when freelancing?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a freelance UX designer.  I have done two free projects for friends, as I described in my answer to http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1247/should-i-work-for-free-for-non-profit-orginizations.  Designers are frequently asked for free work, possibly more than many other professionals are.  Some advice about free work from [this article][1] by Speider Schneider and its comments: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Do free work for friends only if you are getting something back in return.&#xD;&#xA; - Have a quota for how many hours of free work you are willing to do per month or quarter.  Don't go over that quota.&#xD;&#xA; - On free projects, only do one revision.  Don't accommodate change requests or new revisions (I would add: without charging your rate for it).  Do your best on that revision.  If it's for your portfolio, it represents the best of your professional ability.&#xD;&#xA; - Do the project on your terms - no requirements and no deadlines.&#xD;&#xA; - [Don't do jobs on spec][2].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd add this advice:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Clearly define the project's scope.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Don't make it a team project unless your friends are staff members&#xD;&#xA;   with a key role working for the client.  (In my second project's&#xD;&#xA;   case, the developer has served for years as the client's webmaster&#xD;&#xA;   and we know he is dependable.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Have a very detailed task breakdown.  (I've been a software engineer&#xD;&#xA;   and know that this is a huge risk in software projects, but it can be&#xD;&#xA;   mitigated with a good task breakdown.)&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - Have sufficient outside income stream(s) while you work on the free project, whether that means having other paying client(s) or having an outside job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Understand how much of a return on investment there is for you in doing the free project.  Consider [diminishing marginal utility][2].  I did full site redesigns for my friends, and I'm not sure today if designing any more than the homepage for free was a good decision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - During the time period when you are working on the project, keep spending time with these friends doing things that aren't related to work.  I'm still friends with the people I did free work for, in part because of this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/06/requests-for-free-work-surprising-revelations/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marginal_utility" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3256" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1255" RevisionGUID="08be7b9c-50e8-40f5-9303-423eb8788d54" CreationDate="2014-01-17T00:08:51.917" UserId="1786" Text="When I work with clients as a web designer, I often have conversations like this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Me:** The first thing a visitor sees when they come to your window cleaning website is a picture of a kitten. How does that fit in with your message?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Client:** It doesn't, but it's such a cute picture!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Me:** Don't you think visitors will get confused? It's important that they know they're in the right place when they arrive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Client** (Here's the kicker)**:** I've shown this site to lots of people and they all say &quot;Wow, cute kitten!&quot; so we can't get rid of it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't seem to get through to clients that being pretty/cute/slick is less important than communicating their message. It is especially hard when they have shown something to their friends and all their friends have exclaimed at how pretty/cute/slick it is." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3257" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1255" RevisionGUID="08be7b9c-50e8-40f5-9303-423eb8788d54" CreationDate="2014-01-17T00:08:51.917" UserId="1786" Text="How do I convince clients not to use irrelevant pictures on their site?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3258" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1255" RevisionGUID="08be7b9c-50e8-40f5-9303-423eb8788d54" CreationDate="2014-01-17T00:08:51.917" UserId="1786" Text="|client|freelance-websites|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3259" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1256" RevisionGUID="bfb91213-df42-49a6-aba6-1bbce1f1b3a8" CreationDate="2014-01-17T06:12:42.290" UserId="1761" Text="I would agree with Teresa here about how you expect to use your portfolio. Before you get busy with the SEO techniques, you need to set a clear definition of your portfolio site's purpose. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Do you expect an audience to find you through various search engines and get in touch with you for enquiries and possible projects?** If yes, then you should get to work. The challenge of being &quot;found&quot; though lies mainly in your situation where what you offer does not seem very &quot;searchable&quot;. In this case you may need to brainstorm about very similar words to use - words that people use to search for the kind of services  that you do. Then use it to your advantage. Try to see your competition's site and find out the keywords they are using for your content optimisation. And then listen to what your industry talks about by getting updated on discussion boards, blogs, Social Media and other Internet channel. This should give you a good grasp on how you can structure your optimisation.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Do you merely just want a site to direct the people you have already contacted to show your completed projects and offer them services?** If yes, then maybe there's not much need for you to be at the very top of Search Engine Results Pages. If you've already got a list of prospects and you're not over the moon about writing down your portfolio over and over again (or even maybe creating a template too long for them to read in your proposals), getting in touch with them and providing them a link where they could thoroughly review your qualifications and your completed projects will be very useful. SEO-wise, you may just need to skip that bit, as you've already gathered everyone you want to show yourself to. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although I believe that every person online who wants to increase their audience should engage in SEO by being searchable through various engines, on-page optimisation is just on factor of the strategy. There are other ways in which you could promote your site, build a reputation for yourself and have &quot;crawling &amp; indexing&quot; merits for it, and eventually be at the top ranks of Search Engine Results Pages. And it definitely does not stop at &quot;dressing up&quot; your portfolio site with the SEO components like meta-tags, keyword-rich content, meta-heads, and what have yous. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Rome wasn't built in  a day. It will be wise not to expect your portfolio site to be searchable right away. Optimising is a work in progress and SEO is dynamic. The Google process itself changes from time to time - giving and taking away merits to various SEO factors. The SEO technique you might apply today may not have much bearing to Google's process tomorrow.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this makes sense. :-) I wish you and our fellow freelancers nothing but the best. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cheers!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yuoseff&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://frontlinefundamentals.wordpress.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3260" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1257" RevisionGUID="6b334e58-783a-4cb5-9ed0-dc2f1ca471eb" CreationDate="2014-01-17T07:05:53.780" UserId="1018" Text="I have been in similar situations where clients won't listen to sensible advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One approach is to accept that **the customer is always right** and proceed with whatever they instruct. Under these circumstances, you might like to consider:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - not including a link back to your website (if the website could&#xD;&#xA;   affect your reputation)&#xD;&#xA; - seeking an up-front payment (if the project is not the success the client expects, then they may be more reluctant to pay you even though it's not your fault)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another approach is to **dig your heels in** and say you can't continue with the project under the particular circumstances. You may not receive your full fee or any fee though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A third option might be to urge the client to get some **independent professional advice**. Rather than relying on friends and relatives, is there someone else they know in the industry that could provide some unbiased advice or do you have a colleague that would be willing to weigh in on the issue?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best option might be to **implement an A/B test** where page A has the cute kitty and page B has something more suited to the business. Measure the success of the page via newsletter sign ups or analytics or some other metric and you may be able to convince the client with some real world data. Be prepared to be wrong though, in case the cute kitty is a winner! :)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3261" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1256" RevisionGUID="e1f4d303-e59d-47a9-ad74-4940904bbc0c" CreationDate="2014-01-17T08:27:11.430" UserId="1761" Comment="added 1 characters in body" Text="I would agree with Teresa here about how you expect to use your portfolio. Before you get busy with the SEO techniques, you need to set a clear definition of your portfolio site's purpose. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Do you expect an audience to find you through various search engines and get in touch with you for enquiries and possible projects?** If yes, then you should get to work. The challenge of being &quot;found&quot; though lies mainly in your situation where what you offer does not seem very &quot;searchable&quot;. In this case you may need to brainstorm about very similar words to use - words that people use to search for the kind of services  that you do. Then use it to your advantage. Try to see your competition's site and find out the keywords they are using for your content optimisation. And then listen to what your industry talks about by getting updated on discussion boards, blogs, Social Media and other Internet channel. This should give you a good grasp on how you can structure your optimisation.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Do you merely just want a site to direct the people you have already contacted to show your completed projects and offer them services?** If yes, then maybe there's not much need for you to be at the very top of Search Engine Results Pages. If you've already got a list of prospects and you're not over the moon about writing down your portfolio over and over again (or even maybe creating a template too long for them to read in your proposals), getting in touch with them and providing them a link where they could thoroughly review your qualifications and your completed projects will be very useful. SEO-wise, you may just need to skip that bit, as you've already gathered everyone you want to show yourself to. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although I believe that every person online who wants to increase their audience should engage in SEO by being searchable through various engines, on-page optimisation is just one factor of the strategy. There are other ways in which you could promote your site, build a reputation for yourself and have &quot;crawling &amp; indexing&quot; merits for it, and eventually be at the top ranks of Search Engine Results Pages. And it definitely does not stop at &quot;dressing up&quot; your portfolio site with the SEO components like meta-tags, keyword-rich content, meta-heads, and what have yous. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Rome wasn't built in  a day. It will be wise not to expect your portfolio site to be searchable right away. Optimising is a work in progress and SEO is dynamic. The Google process itself changes from time to time - giving and taking away merits to various SEO factors. The SEO technique you might apply today may not have much bearing to Google's process tomorrow.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this makes sense. :-) I wish you and our fellow freelancers nothing but the best. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cheers!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yuoseff&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://frontlinefundamentals.wordpress.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3262" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1258" RevisionGUID="7b6333a0-ed5c-4e9c-9a09-5018c9300800" CreationDate="2014-01-18T08:01:27.940" UserId="517" Text="Try **Assembla.com**. The UI is more for the programmer, then for others (others may find it ugly and confusing), but it has all collaborative features: tickets, code repository, messages, time management, etc. all for free. I went from Basecamp/Unfuddle to this free solution and never returned back. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yet again, if you come from non-programming world where you don't need code repositories, then you'll probably like any site like **Basecamp**, **Trello** or **Teambox**. I personally use Trello instead of a board, and like Basecamp but does not like lack of a free account + impossibility to store code there. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3263" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1259" RevisionGUID="b5b6b5e9-4585-4218-8344-6b25b33df912" CreationDate="2014-01-18T08:04:44.427" UserId="517" Text="I would not bother with such things as you simply cannot change everyone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I simply offer my solution, explaining why it's good. I can spend 10 sentences to explain it if need be. In the end I say something like &quot;of course you're financing the project and your word is last one&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Things like &quot;customer is always right&quot; apply only if the customer is well educated for the field in question. If I am expert in XY technology, then it's my professional duty to be boring to the client by directing him to the right path. Only if the client is so stubborn, I quit. But in the end, I will stop working with such a client since there are small chances I will be able to put his project into my portfolio. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3264" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1260" RevisionGUID="5eca8f6d-cc7a-46b8-8ae8-44a5ffed5164" CreationDate="2014-01-18T08:09:46.690" UserId="517" Text="IF you earn enough working without this charity,  &#xD;&#xA;IF you have free time to do this charity work,  &#xD;&#xA;IF you believe in charity and wants to contribute your community,  &#xD;&#xA;IF they will be thankful and not spit in your face,  &#xD;&#xA;IF they will understand you're working for free and would not bother you with small things like when they're paying you,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;THEN I strongly suggest you do it. If all of the above is true, you will feel like a better person helping your community. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just establish good boundaries with them so that they know your working for free and you may not work or stop work or refuse work ANY TIME YOU LIKE.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had some bad experience with such work because I did not set boundaries and they treated me like they're paying me. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3265" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1261" RevisionGUID="be2339b7-e3fd-499f-a681-e5e6477d2476" CreationDate="2014-01-18T09:56:26.887" UserId="1792" Text="this is my first time posting in here, so please let me know if this kind of question is inappropriate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will be an IT graduate this coming April, and wanted to be a programmer since I entered college.. Though a software developer sounds nice, I wanted to work with my time in control, then arises the freelance thing, so I thought to myself, if I will be a freelancer, how can I earn money for myself and my family, the answer is: *&quot;I don't really know how&quot;*  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just saw this Q&amp;A in stackexchange and decided that you guys could give me some head start on how I can work out myself to have passive income from home.  &#xD;&#xA;I am still an intern and I am not entirely sure if I can land a job, so this will help me a lot. thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3266" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1261" RevisionGUID="be2339b7-e3fd-499f-a681-e5e6477d2476" CreationDate="2014-01-18T09:56:26.887" UserId="1792" Text="How to effectively gain constant income" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3267" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1261" RevisionGUID="be2339b7-e3fd-499f-a681-e5e6477d2476" CreationDate="2014-01-18T09:56:26.887" UserId="1792" Text="|freelance-websites|pay-rate|marketing|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3268" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="119" RevisionGUID="4715b5e1-b7bb-44db-a4d2-59348c4f1d15" CreationDate="2014-01-18T15:21:54.417" UserId="1223" Comment="added the advertising tag" Text="|attracting-clients|advertising|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3269" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="119" RevisionGUID="4715b5e1-b7bb-44db-a4d2-59348c4f1d15" CreationDate="2014-01-18T15:21:54.417" Comment="Proposed by 1223 approved by 708, 517 edit id of 200" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3270" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1262" RevisionGUID="eca9dc54-6979-4613-be84-b547672a4b7b" CreationDate="2014-01-18T15:32:18.837" UserId="517" Text="I will be frank: it will be hard to become a freelancer just after you graduate. Almost impossible. Why? Because there are very few junior positions offered to freelancers and most clients wants the job be done by some expert. So once you join any freelancing website, you will see that there is no job for you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So basically, you are a step beyond this group. This does not mean you cannot ask questions, it's just you have nothing to offer to a prospective client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be your next steps:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Find a trainee or junior job locally and see how things work in IT industry. try coding, be learned by senior colleague how to code, how not to code, etc. This way you will learn the very basics which are not thought on the college. Most successful freelancers first worked for some large company, learned proper procedures and then decided to work as freelancers because you can earn the same working when you want in pyjama eating pizza and being unshaven :). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. If there is not IT job locally, then decide what you want to do: .NET, Java, web, mobile, games, etc. Then find THE BEST book which will most probably have 1500 or more pages. Do extensive training of at least 6 months. Try to create an real app while do the training - you can later publish it and earn money + you will have a real experience on good/bad coding practices. While training yourself, keep looking what jobs clients are posting and features they are requesting (from your chosen domain, of course). After that time, you will be able to find a job. Start with small jobs, then slightly move to larger.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All successful freelancers started either of these 2 steps. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And yes, don't be misled by people saying that there is a shorter way. There isn't. If you want to be good and be able to have a good living from your work. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3271" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1255" RevisionGUID="65cfb485-6923-441a-acd0-1113033ce732" CreationDate="2014-01-18T19:12:49.080" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/424620409217380352" />
  <row Id="3272" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1263" RevisionGUID="597d5643-765f-43d1-8834-8895de1ade08" CreationDate="2014-01-19T05:04:33.530" UserId="1798" Text="I hired a freelancing company for a project which is worth about $2,000. I asked the owner of the company to produce some work before i can make the fist payment request of $700 so He gave me a 10 mock up design of the website within a week. After completing another 20 pages of design in TWO months, he requested another $300 before starting the coding part.  Four months later at this point  moths i have paid him in total $1000 and the coding is near completion but still needs some work, and obvious bug fixing done before actual testing can take place. Couple days ago i asked him to put the site on my staging server server so my testers can test the site for any issues. His answer was that &quot;i need to pay rest of the money before it can be uploaded to my server&quot;. I tried to convince him that the site is still not complete yet and needs to be tested for any bugs, issues etc. I made it clear to him that i am not going to pay rest of the money wich is another $1000 without having any knowledge of product quality or any ownership of the finished product. But he did not listen to any of my points and kept on telling me that this is the company policy and he can not change it. After try to reason which him for long time, i told him that i would pay another 25% more  which is 75% of the total cost if he would upload the untested work to my staging server and allow my testers to test the website. But he would not even agree to my reasonalble offer and kept telling me that i need to pay at least 80 % which is about total $1000 which i paid plus another $800. I told him that is too much money without anything in my hand. Then he said that i can let my tester test the site on his server and pay when finsihed. I did not agree to it and since the coversation was not going anywhere we decided to end it. &#xD;&#xA;I need a advice from the freelancing community about this issue and how it should be resolved. am i asking for too much by not paying almost 100% of the cost without having any thing in my hands. I had bad experience with them trying to get them to finish any work, In the beginning they would not even spend serious time on the job, i guess they were busy with other projects. Then finely things have moved and got results but not this issue comes up. It has been over six months dealing with these guys, i had to tell him each and every point of the site to complete it, countless hours and nights without proper sleep. I am feeling bit frustrated and it seems like we are in the gridlock situation. Please give me your advice on what are my options and how i can approach this problem withing having to waste my 6 months of hard word. &#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3273" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1263" RevisionGUID="597d5643-765f-43d1-8834-8895de1ade08" CreationDate="2014-01-19T05:04:33.530" UserId="1798" Text="Question regarding paying a freelancer company." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3274" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1263" RevisionGUID="597d5643-765f-43d1-8834-8895de1ade08" CreationDate="2014-01-19T05:04:33.530" UserId="1798" Text="|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3276" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1265" RevisionGUID="e4e39956-9ef9-4979-9190-6937bee89ab4" CreationDate="2014-01-19T12:41:02.800" UserId="517" Text="The contractor is absolutely right. Why? Putting the website on your server, he's giving you a code or moving the code to your server. And the code is delivered in the end, unless you're paying your contractor hourly. Since we work remotely, we cannot give the code to the client, before we are fully paid for the work (again unless we're paid hourly in which case the client will get what we made within paid hours). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only solution is to test the website on his server. Why were you against it? For your testers it's the same whether they test on your on his server. For him, it's not the same. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The only situation when you can get your copy of app to test**, is when a developer can produce EXE or any other binary file which your testers can test. In case of mobile apps, it's the usual practice the client tests on company's servers. We did the same for multi-million project, and I am doing the same while working as a freelancer. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3277" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1247" RevisionGUID="75ba1b1e-1c47-4d08-85f1-592da49fa196" CreationDate="2014-01-19T12:41:37.553" UserId="517" Comment="added 3 characters in body; edited title" Text="I have debated whether or not doing `pro bono` work for non profit or community organizations is a good idea or not. On the one hand, I would view it as a 'donation' of my time and services to a cause I believe in. In the other hand, I am concerned about getting into situations where I get taken advantage of by an organization. I am also concerned that working for free can tend to hurt the freelancing profession as a whole, and does reinforce the idea that freelancers are cheap and not valuable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, charity work. Good idea or bad idea, and why?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3278" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1247" RevisionGUID="75ba1b1e-1c47-4d08-85f1-592da49fa196" CreationDate="2014-01-19T12:41:37.553" UserId="517" Comment="added 3 characters in body; edited title" Text="Should I work for free for non-profit organizations?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3279" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1263" RevisionGUID="6a1c4723-1056-4a53-87c1-20001ce90548" CreationDate="2014-01-19T14:53:11.750" UserId="43" Comment="Improved formatting and fixed a few typos" Text="I hired a freelancing company for a project which is worth about $2,000. I asked the owner of the company to produce some work before I can make the first payment request of $700 so he gave me a 10 mock up design of the website within a week. After completing another 20 pages of design in TWO months, he requested another $300 before starting the coding part.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Four months have now passed since the project started and I have paid him in total $1000. The coding is near completion but still needs some work, and obviously bug fixing done before actual testing can take place. A couple of days ago I asked him to put the site on my staging server so my testers can test the site for any issues. His answer was that &quot;I need to pay the rest of the money before it can be uploaded to my server&quot;. I tried to convince him that the site is still not complete yet and needs to be tested for any bugs, issues etc. I made it clear to him that I am not going to pay the rest of the money, which is another $1000, without having any knowledge of product quality or any ownership of the finished product. But he did not listen to any of my points and kept on telling me that this is the company policy and he can not change it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After try to reason which him for a long time, I told him that I would pay another 25% more  which is 75% of the total cost if he would upload the untested work to my staging server and allow my testers to test the website. But he would not even agree to my reasonable offer and kept telling me that I need to pay at least 80% which is the $1000 which I have paid plus another $800. I told him that is too much money without anything in my hand. Then he said that I can let my tester test the site on his server and pay when finished. I did not agree to it and since the coversation was not going anywhere we decided to end it.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;I need advice from the freelancing community about this issue and how it should be resolved. Am I asking for too much by not paying almost 100% of the cost without having anything in my hands? I had a bad experience with them trying to get them to finish any work. In the beginning they would not even spend serious time on the job, I guess they were busy with other projects. Then finally things have moved and got results but this issue still comes up. It has been over six months dealing with these guys, I had to tell them each and every point of the site to complete it, countless hours and nights without proper sleep. I am feeling a bit frustrated and it seems like we are in a gridlock situation. Please give me your advice on what my options are and how I can approach this problem without having to waste my 6 months of hard word." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3280" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1263" RevisionGUID="6a1c4723-1056-4a53-87c1-20001ce90548" CreationDate="2014-01-19T14:53:11.750" UserId="43" Comment="Improved formatting and fixed a few typos" Text="Question regarding paying a freelancer company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3281" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1266" RevisionGUID="7baa136d-c259-4469-857a-8954dcdcfbf4" CreationDate="2014-01-19T15:48:07.707" UserId="1800" Text="This is a US specific scenario that I ran into recently and was wondering if it is up to the employer or the contractor to provide the 1099-MISC tax filing form? The contractor recently asked me to provide one before any payment could be made, which seemed backwards to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my understanding, a 1099-MISC is to be supplied by the employer, completed with their information, at the end of the year and submitted by the contractor around tax filing time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3282" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1266" RevisionGUID="7baa136d-c259-4469-857a-8954dcdcfbf4" CreationDate="2014-01-19T15:48:07.707" UserId="1800" Text="Is it up to the Contractor, or the Employer to provide the 1099?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3283" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1266" RevisionGUID="7baa136d-c259-4469-857a-8954dcdcfbf4" CreationDate="2014-01-19T15:48:07.707" UserId="1800" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3284" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1263" RevisionGUID="5816f0f9-fea4-4780-bb5e-7a65aa65d8e2" CreationDate="2014-01-19T21:34:19.063" UserId="1798" Comment="added 85 characters in body" Text="I hired a freelancing company for a project which is worth about $2,000. I asked the owner of the company to produce some work before I can make the first payment request of $700 so he gave me a 10 mock up design of the website within a week. After completing another 20 pages of design in TWO months, he requested another $300 before starting the coding part.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Four months have now passed since the project started and I have paid him in total $1000. The coding is near completion but still needs some work, and obviously bug fixing done before actual testing can take place. A couple of days ago I asked him to put the site on my staging server so my testers can test the site for any issues. His answer was that &quot;I need to pay the rest of the money before it can be uploaded to my server&quot;. I tried to convince him that the site is still not complete yet and needs to be tested for any bugs, issues etc. I made it clear to him that I am not going to pay the rest of the money, which is another $1000, without having any knowledge of product quality or any ownership of the finished product. But he did not listen to any of my points and kept on telling me that this is the company policy and he can not change it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After try to reason which him for a long time, I told him that I would pay another 25% more  which is 75% of the total cost if he would upload the untested work to my staging server and allow my testers to test the website. But he would not even agree to my reasonable offer and kept telling me that I need to pay at least 80% which is the $1000 which I have paid plus another $800. I told him that is too much money without anything in my hand. Then he said that I can let my tester test the site on his server and pay when finished. I did not agree to it and since the coversation was not going anywhere we decided to end it.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;I need advice from the freelancing community about this issue and how it should be resolved. Am I asking for too much by not paying almost 100% of the cost without having anything in my hands? I had a bad experience with them trying to get them to finish any work. In the beginning they would not even spend serious time on the job, I guess they were busy with other projects. Then finally things have moved and got results but this issue still comes up. It has been over six months dealing with these guys, I had to tell them each and every point of the site to complete it, countless hours and nights without proper sleep. I am feeling a bit frustrated and it seems like we are in a gridlock situation. Please give me your advice on what my options are and how I can approach this problem without having to waste my 6 months of hard word.                            Note: it's a web application developed using PHP, MySQL  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3285" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1267" RevisionGUID="55acc532-8d62-4dfb-be78-6c38ec900d86" CreationDate="2014-01-20T01:24:35.033" UserId="124" Text="I take a different approach depending what situation it is, the first being the most easily persuaded the last is for clients who really do need a bit of a wake up!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**1 Examples** for a lot of clients this will be enough. Get to photoshop with a screenshot, show them the alternative in a mockup&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2 Comparisons** show them sites that do convey the message very well, make it clear that you aren't saying you need ugly images of their products/services but emotive images they should associate with, *and make them look professional*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**3 try to highlight** that it doesn't look professional and that it is the wrong image (semi heavy worded)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A strongly worded chat** I have previously had to say this &quot;i am not cheap, and I am more than happy to help but it is only worth it if you trust my professional opinion&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3286" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1266" RevisionGUID="87bf7e88-6004-49f6-ab44-4d09941b0c73" CreationDate="2014-01-20T04:13:03.050" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/425118750573355008" />
  <row Id="3287" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1267" RevisionGUID="e6a8fa44-199f-4e70-ba17-e73a78138d3b" CreationDate="2014-01-20T09:09:21.033" UserId="124" Comment="Gramatical errors" Text="I take a different approach depending what situation it is, the first being the most easily persuaded the last is for clients who really do need a bit of a wake up!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**1 Examples** for a lot of clients this will be enough. Get to photoshop with a screenshot, show them the alternative in a mockup&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2 Comparisons** show them sites that do convey the message very well, make it clear that you aren't saying you need ugly images of their products/services but emotive images they should associate with, *and make them look professional*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**3 Try to highlight** that it doesn't look professional and that it is the wrong image (semi heavy worded)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**4 A strongly worded chat** I have previously had to say this &quot;i am not cheap, and I am more than happy to help but it is only worth it if you trust my professional opinion&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3288" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1268" RevisionGUID="55f39ca1-d58a-41c5-ab87-c79993669654" CreationDate="2014-01-20T09:31:21.947" UserId="517" Text="I can see that almost all, if not all, top freelancing service allow you to specify minimum hourly wage. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But how really smart is to do that? Should not such price be exclusive and only for special customers or projects?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason for this questions is that the client saw my minimum hourly wage and was offended by hourly price I offered to him. I explained to him when and how I give minimum hourly price, but I think I lost this client for good. Somehow I don't think this client is alone, but may be the first one who told me he's offended. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3289" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1268" RevisionGUID="55f39ca1-d58a-41c5-ab87-c79993669654" CreationDate="2014-01-20T09:31:21.947" UserId="517" Text="How smart is to disclose minimum hourly wage?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3290" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1268" RevisionGUID="55f39ca1-d58a-41c5-ab87-c79993669654" CreationDate="2014-01-20T09:31:21.947" UserId="517" Text="|client|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3291" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1269" RevisionGUID="3bd48043-3ddb-4d31-9670-551d3ebfee50" CreationDate="2014-01-20T18:44:41.027" UserId="1141" Text="I don't have a lot of experience with this, but I look up market rates and present them to the client. There are several ways to do that, but I use Bureau of Labor Statistics to look up salary/wages and then find an hourly rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I explain that I typically add or subtract up to 10% depending on the special details of the job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wouldn't worry about being consistent -- I would worry about being fair though. My rate might be X on one month, and on another month when I'm short the hours, I sometimes lower the rate. It's probably beneficial to try to keep the rate in the same range at all times... Look, everybody knows that on one particular week, the cost of a 12 pack of Coke may vary wildly. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3292" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1270" RevisionGUID="e800aec9-b086-4a61-8eaf-b92066e39b38" CreationDate="2014-01-20T19:01:27.993" UserId="1810" Text="It depends on what services you offer and if it is usual in your field to have your prices open.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most likely you have some concept for your pricing and if you customer doesn't like it... Well then you would have been to expensive to them anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like I have a minimum price: Working from remote with my choice of tools on projects I like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every time one of these parameters changes it gets more expensive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. On site? Depends on the distance.&#xD;&#xA;2. Your toolchain? Depends on how much I know / like them.&#xD;&#xA;3. Morally challenging or otherwise uncomfortable to me? You pay extra.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Customer doesn't like the price? So be it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if it is usual in your field to post any price, it should not be bad to post minimal wage (or any price and then saying &quot;Cool projects get 10% off&quot;). If it is unusual in your field to post any price, every price you post is bad." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3293" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1268" RevisionGUID="b31154ef-4f25-408a-b532-edde6a71f81b" CreationDate="2014-01-20T19:48:58.257" UserId="517" Comment="added 46 characters in body" Text="I can see that almost all, if not all, top freelancing service allow you to specify minimum hourly wage. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But how really smart is to do that? Should not such price be exclusive and only for special customers or projects?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason for this questions is that the client saw my minimum hourly wage and was offended by hourly price I offered to him. I explained to him when and how I give minimum hourly price, but I think I lost this client for good. Somehow I don't think this client is alone, but may be the first one who told me he's offended. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am in programming business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So 2 things are bound to my question. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I have to write estimations. And it's not just a few lines with sum, but listing features, estimating best, worst and probable case, adding risk formula. And all has to be nicely formatted since that's the way I do. Anyway it's taking pretty much time to create it and in the end a client complaints about unfair pricing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Clients usually look at the price at the end, when I calculate all the costs. Then they ask me &quot;why this hourly rate when I see that your minimum is XY, why can't I get minimum, etc&quot;. Too many nasty question before the real work started. And that is never good for relations. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3294" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1270" RevisionGUID="32ef8150-0cbd-4016-8e37-08df92ad8a58" CreationDate="2014-01-20T20:13:38.407" UserId="1810" Comment="added 387 characters in body" Text="It depends on what services you offer and if it is usual in your field to have your prices open.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most likely you have some concept for your pricing and if you customer doesn't like it... Well then you would have been to expensive to them anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like I have a minimum price: Working from remote with my choice of tools on projects I like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every time one of these parameters changes it gets more expensive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. On site? Depends on the distance.&#xD;&#xA;2. Your toolchain? Depends on how much I know / like them.&#xD;&#xA;3. Morally challenging or otherwise uncomfortable to me? You pay extra.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Customer doesn't like the price? So be it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if it is usual in your field to post any price, it should not be bad to post minimal wage (or any price and then saying &quot;Cool projects get 10% off&quot;). If it is unusual in your field to post any price, every price you post is bad.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just to make my point clear: My stance is that I don't usually tell customers the calculation behind my per-hour fee, because that causes too much trouble. Its just &quot;Thats my fee&quot; and period. If somebody else ask they get a different number. My experience is that usual customers don't value the transparency in any way I find satisfying, but only use it to try to get a lower price." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3295" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1271" RevisionGUID="05bda672-4650-496f-a7e1-c7f21a1325a3" CreationDate="2014-01-20T20:16:54.397" UserId="1630" Text="Employers send 1099-MISC to contractors, not vice-versa. Even if the employer does not send a 1099 to a contractor, the contractor is still on the hook for the taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The instructions for form 1099 explain it very clearly: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1099msc.pdf&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;File Form 1099-MISC, Miscellaneous Income, for each person ***to whom*** you have paid during the year:&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3296" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1272" RevisionGUID="befd6cba-5305-4a63-8026-84e72a509749" CreationDate="2014-01-20T20:39:53.403" UserId="1706" Text="You seem frustrated, but let's look at this a bit more objectively.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you were paying for any kind of custom work to be done on your home - by this I mean tile cutting, countertops, carpentry, or picture frames, or even blinds at Home Depot, nobody's going to do anything for you without putting down a deposit.  No one wants to ever run the risk that you have them start on work that they can't re-use for anyone else's home if you decide to back out.  The materials ... gone.  The labor ... the employees still have to be paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I surmise that you think the custom-work paradigm is supposed to be any different for someone performing web site development!  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You didn't offer a deposit, nor did the developer ask for one (unless you excluded that part).  Let me tell you, starting new work for a client is **risky**.  It's even more risky if the person doing the work doesn't live or have their offices near you.  If you decided not to pay, it'd usually cost more to get the courts involved than to just grin and bear it.  So a good faith deposit at least allows your contractor to know that you're not COMPLETELY full of hot air. (I'm not saying that you are, i'm just giving an example)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Somewhere in the middle of the work being done, you asked the contractor to allow you to involve a &quot;tester&quot;.  Was this in your original agreement?  Probably not.  Additionally, you wanted to have the contractor release code to you that wasn't completely paid for.  But when's the last time you walked into a jewelry store and &quot;borrowed&quot; a ring, or a necklace; and subsequently, **took it home without making payment in full** to see if the person that you bought it for would like it?  You might think it's real simple but just as you could have disappeared with the jewelry store's stuff, you could have disappeared with your contractor's unfinished work and the contractor would have little recourse because you've probably never even met face to face.  I bet your contractor doesn't even have an address for you, and maybe even a full name.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to imply that the behavior above is characteristic of you **personally**, but such behavior happens every day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3298" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1274" RevisionGUID="54fe1d24-49fd-4d9f-ad95-9d65033d5540" CreationDate="2014-01-20T20:44:56.250" UserId="1706" Text="Sell your work directly as code libraries, installable apps, mobile apps, and virtual machine images.  You can do well if you figure out the right market (specialty), but it will take some time.  Marketing is important, don't underestimate the need to include that part." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3299" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1275" RevisionGUID="7ae3a366-ed80-4e15-9fcb-eeec3697a5dd" CreationDate="2014-01-20T20:52:46.217" UserId="1706" Text="If you are taking in customers where the most important aspect is price, they're really going to annoy you.  I promise!!!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. First they'll want you to agree to a cheap hourly rate&#xD;&#xA; 2. Then, they don't want to give a deposit to start work&#xD;&#xA; 3. Next, they'll expect to keep you on the phone for as long as they like, but refuse to pay for the time.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Also, they will nitpick over every little detail but have a problem with you adding more hours to the bill.&#xD;&#xA; 5. Lastly, they don't pay on time!!!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your rate is your rate.  You have to decide -- from the place where you're trying to &quot;sell&quot; your work -- what is attainable to keep your belly full.  But like a fisherman has to throw sickly-looking fish back, you have to throw certain clients back as well.  Some of them will even pressure you or try to make you feel guilty if you tell them you can't work with them.  Don't fall for it, you might actually be the 10th person to turn them down!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3300" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1276" RevisionGUID="6630399b-1041-49b8-8fdf-30fdbdb4426b" CreationDate="2014-01-20T21:36:34.520" UserId="1706" Text="Ask the client if he/she would put the same image on a business card or product sell sheet.  If the client says no, but still wants the image on the site, then you know you're working for an idiot." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3301" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1277" RevisionGUID="b274d6aa-89e1-48f2-b530-05633518db86" CreationDate="2014-01-20T22:31:38.450" UserId="61" Text="There are many good ideas listed in answers above, and I agree with most of them.  &#xD;&#xA;However, to my mind, the main thing has not been spoken out:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The minimum wage means minimal (or zero) profit margin, hence, it is associated with **maximal risk** I can afford. A single tiny step down, and it won't worth even starting. Hence, I have to be **absolutely certain on everything else** in oder to agree working on minimum hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are some considerations I should take before working on my minimal rate:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * **Work load.** There are lots side activities associated with every job. A brief chat over an instant messenger takes several minutes and it is not usually billed. I'm fine if I have 6 billed hours per day and spend 30 minutes non-billable extra. However, the same 30 minutes of chatting in addition to 30 billable minutes becomes a huge overhead, making my rate to raise.  &#xD;&#xA;  *In order to convince me working at minimal rate, you should load me with 4+ billable hours a day.*&#xD;&#xA; * **Late payments.** We are all people, and delayed payments happen. However, working at minimal rate leaves me without financial buffer.  &#xD;&#xA;  *You must be my old, reliable customer in order to let me work on minimal rate.*&#xD;&#xA; * **Dispute.** Misunderstanding happens. Even when you have the most meticulous approach (like I do), sometimes we end up with a dispute. A client thinks I've done work that worth $100, I think I've done work that worth $120. Everyone makes a step back, we mutually agree on $110, everyone's happy.  &#xD;&#xA;  **Familiar? Forget it.** Working at the lowest possible rate, you can't afford to make a step back.  &#xD;&#xA;  *I must be absolutely certain there will be no dispute with the client when I'm working on my lowest rate. Am I sure there won't be?*&#xD;&#xA; * **Priority.** Unless this job takes full 8 hours of my day, you may assume I'm doing several projects at time. Hence, I prioritize what to do in first order. The lowest-rate work will likely get the lowest priority among the other activities of mine. No, I will not fail the formal agreement, but one may expect some difference in quality of what I have done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, while discussing it with the client, you should not copy and paste what I have said above since it will sound rude. :-) You have to formulate it in a polite manner so that the client understood that your goal is to make your business relationship strong and reliable. Then you can mutually agree on lowest possible rates." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3302" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1261" RevisionGUID="5fc4eae3-37c5-49e6-9570-19ea365cee42" CreationDate="2014-01-21T04:23:24.387" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="3306" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1278" RevisionGUID="2945c16b-cb7d-43ac-8001-e7e9bde45ea0" CreationDate="2014-01-21T14:55:04.017" UserId="1815" Text="I have been introducing me in the world of mobile apps development , and in every site of freelancing I have entered the clients request that the app work for Android and iOS too. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that exist frameworks like _PhoneGap_, _Titanium_, etc, that allow you to develop using HTML, CSS and JavaScript to various mobile platforms avoid to re-code the app to iOS or Android, but I hear too that this frameworks have limitations relative to the platforms and it's better using the native language.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a client that offers me jobs of this kind, I means app to run over Android and iOS on the same time, more specifically business app. My question is : &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How I can measure the cost for this business apps if I decide to develop it in Objective-C and Java, for iOs and Android respectively?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3307" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1278" RevisionGUID="2945c16b-cb7d-43ac-8001-e7e9bde45ea0" CreationDate="2014-01-21T14:55:04.017" UserId="1815" Text="How to determine the price for an app to run over Android and iOs?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3308" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1278" RevisionGUID="2945c16b-cb7d-43ac-8001-e7e9bde45ea0" CreationDate="2014-01-21T14:55:04.017" UserId="1815" Text="|price-per-hour|freelance|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3309" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1206" RevisionGUID="9a45d4e1-5a64-4170-aa31-1e976b7d85c4" CreationDate="2014-01-21T15:20:31.523" UserId="1223" Comment="added the usa tag" Text="|usa|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3310" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1206" RevisionGUID="9a45d4e1-5a64-4170-aa31-1e976b7d85c4" CreationDate="2014-01-21T15:20:31.523" Comment="Proposed by 1223 approved by 69 edit id of 203" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3311" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1266" RevisionGUID="2079db5b-6f0c-44fd-bb28-abdfceb15224" CreationDate="2014-01-21T15:20:39.990" UserId="1223" Comment="added the legal tag" Text="|legal|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3312" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1266" RevisionGUID="2079db5b-6f0c-44fd-bb28-abdfceb15224" CreationDate="2014-01-21T15:20:39.990" Comment="Proposed by 1223 approved by 69 edit id of 201" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3313" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1263" RevisionGUID="0ab772f1-27a5-4fb0-a823-3a49154992cd" CreationDate="2014-01-21T15:21:01.807" UserId="1223" Comment="added the payment-tems tag" Text="|payment-terms|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3314" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1263" RevisionGUID="0ab772f1-27a5-4fb0-a823-3a49154992cd" CreationDate="2014-01-21T15:21:01.807" Comment="Proposed by 1223 approved by 69 edit id of 202" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3320" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1281" RevisionGUID="f258ae71-4d93-40f3-983d-e13408da9fab" CreationDate="2014-01-21T17:42:20.333" UserId="1706" Text="In my neighborhood there are many urgent-care providers who accept cash.  I've seen prices from $50 to $125.  This will get you through the easy stuff - flu, ear infection, pink eye, maybe (as a male, I can't vouch for this) female concerns -- the low hanging fruit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hospitals will take cash!  I think many hospitals bump up their prices as a way to finance the long process of them getting paid by the insurance companies, and I'm sure some will bump the rates down if you're paying cash.  But depending on the situation, you may be still looking at a whole lot of money (i.e. intensive or inpatient care).  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3322" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1283" RevisionGUID="94171e3e-042c-47b5-8741-0469a76a234d" CreationDate="2014-01-21T18:17:56.440" UserId="1818" Text="This is a very tough situation and may be too late in your case.  The solution to this dilemma  is actually at the very beginning of the process.  Together, you need to document the deliverables and payments for the work.  Both sides have legitimate concerns about the loss of leverage after their last step: buyer making the final payment or seller delivering the finished product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This document should spell out timelines/milestones, payments and mutually agreeable definitions of &quot;complete&quot; at each milestone.  It has been pointed out here and on other questions, that this document may not hold up in court or that going to court to achieve settlement may not be financially viable for either side.  However, this document will establish expectations on both sides and hopefully establish a better basis for a satisfactory completion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FWIW, if either side reneges on the agreement, there may not be much recourse.  Chalk it up to experience." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3323" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1278" RevisionGUID="9be126f0-b0fa-4318-93c1-dfe2568f81f1" CreationDate="2014-01-21T19:26:49.603" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|price-per-hour|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3324" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1284" RevisionGUID="397a9193-f86e-471e-a004-6508c0443aff" CreationDate="2014-01-21T20:06:57.440" UserId="1706" Text="Because you are bound to run into specific issues related to each platform (no different than web sites and the IE-vs-everything else concerns) maybe you should bill hourly.  It makes for less risk because you don't control OS releases, which can actually become a factor between the time you start developing and the time you finish." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3326" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1285" RevisionGUID="f0bdd5d1-3b33-4d12-b088-a4d8aa6a9471" CreationDate="2014-01-22T05:59:03.737" UserId="1754" Text="This is from my previous [post][1], which answer shed a part of my problem but i have been having a long issues since when i apply for job, it get declined, reason? &quot;**Choose another contractor**&quot;, i changed my format of writting cover letter as i think the problem might lies this. I have 4.81 score and i am a web developer, i scored in top10% in few test and few in top 20%. Typically my format of writting a cover letter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     Hello,&#xD;&#xA;    I have read your job in detail; I would like to do your project, as I am very good in &#xD;&#xA;    - skill 1, &#xD;&#xA;    - skill 2, &#xD;&#xA;    - skill 3,&#xD;&#xA;    - skill 4,&#xD;&#xA;    - skill 5,&#xD;&#xA;    - skill 6&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    I am listed in top 10 abc contractors. I am well versed with abc, xyz, and abc. I am available to start the project. My availability is 40+ hours a week.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Few of my work in abc are&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    www.abc.org&#xD;&#xA;    www.abc.com&#xD;&#xA;    www.xyz.com&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    I look forward for your consideration.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Regards,&#xD;&#xA;    my name&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why is it that, client 99% reject my application with reason of choose another contractor, i understand that there are many other and its up to the client, yet 99-100% of my applied jobs gets rejected. why?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1235/bad-rating-has-decreased-my-chances-of-getting-work/1239?noredirect=1#1239" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3327" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1285" RevisionGUID="f0bdd5d1-3b33-4d12-b088-a4d8aa6a9471" CreationDate="2014-01-22T05:59:03.737" UserId="1754" Text="Application getting constant declined" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3328" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1285" RevisionGUID="f0bdd5d1-3b33-4d12-b088-a4d8aa6a9471" CreationDate="2014-01-22T05:59:03.737" UserId="1754" Text="|attracting-clients|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3329" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1286" RevisionGUID="3a0ab14a-0772-49b8-b1be-15b573c8fd00" CreationDate="2014-01-22T07:48:49.550" UserId="517" Text="I don't fully understand your question. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are asking about how to measure the cost of apps where you have to code Android/iOS part? If so, then just count additional hours needed to code this part. You may use your own hourly rate for such coding. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3332" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1288" RevisionGUID="e7ff6155-9426-4215-ba61-62463a379260" CreationDate="2014-01-22T07:55:38.713" UserId="517" Text="The style is OK. Pay attention to addressing client's requirements and also always write the secret work the say you write on the beginning. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also try changing style and see which works best. Experiment with styling. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why you're being rejected is impossible to guess. Maybe you're too expensive? Maybe they want the lowest bid? Maybe they saw your portfolio and want someone who made more complex apps? Who knows. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again I'd say to keep biding. To make it easy, I also have not been called and got a new job since mid Dec. And yesterday another client called asking for some updates. So I'd say clients are starting to recover from vacations and costs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3334" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1289" RevisionGUID="017ba4c8-a7f6-4e86-8e8c-812dc0f9c1f6" CreationDate="2014-01-22T12:57:34.423" UserId="1826" Text="My answer would be to start with a 20-30$ project and offer it to do for 10$.&#xD;&#xA;If you are able to do  the project according to the clients needs,hopefully he will give you the 5 star rating&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's how you get the start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And secondly when you apply for the job make sure you just don't say that you have experience in blah blah fields etc.No one is interested to hear about your qualifications,they want real work,so instead just show them   links to the screenshots of the similar work you have done in that field....... " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3335" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1290" RevisionGUID="50be1c81-5b7a-43a2-a597-8060c363a184" CreationDate="2014-01-22T16:23:08.057" UserId="972" Text="Please don't take offense, but one thing that might be turning clients off is the poor grammar and sentence structure in your letter, which makes you look less professional than you probably would like to potential clients. I realize that proper grammar isn't required to be a great contractor, but when you are trying to get clients, you need to put your best foot forward.  Also, if English is not your first language you need to reassure them that you can adequately and professionally communicate with them about their project in English.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;TL;DR: You might consider having someone with better English writing skills and grammar edit your stock proposal letter. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3336" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1286" RevisionGUID="93d5a481-203c-4acc-996c-6ad5240a0c07" CreationDate="2014-01-22T17:22:23.290" UserId="517" Comment="added 146 characters in body" Text="You are asking about how to measure the cost of apps where you have to code Android/iOS part? If so, then just count additional hours needed to code this part. You may use your own hourly rate for such coding. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the problem by counting extra work hours you spend coding mobile parts of web site? Is the client willing to finance this? As he should since it's a decent amount of extra work. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3337" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1291" RevisionGUID="73f49330-764f-4fdd-9538-8bdcecadaa4b" CreationDate="2014-01-22T17:26:23.900" UserId="1818" Text="When you are searching for work through any of these freelancing sites, you are playing a numbers game and you need to focus on how to adapt to that environment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The number of applicants on these sites can be very high, so you are competing against a very large pool.  You mentioned in the other post that you unfortunately have a reduced performance rating.  In a large pool, this could get you removed from consideration almost immediately.  If I had 50 contractors submit a proposal and 49 had a score of 5 and one has a score of 4.81, the 5s are going to get the most serious consideration.  4.81 may not be a bad score, but if there are plenty of others with a good score, you may lose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your rate may not be competitive in the market you are addressing.  In the US, 15 (I am assuming hourly) might be a low rate but in other markets there may be 50 other contractors who submit a proposal and have a lower rate.  They may not all be better than you, but if there are that many to choose from the project owner is likely to find someone with acceptable skills and a lower rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure you understand your competition pool and the market you are competing in, then make sure your proposal covers you in those aspects.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3338" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1292" RevisionGUID="c3a52db0-3b2e-4c10-9fa6-da8965105582" CreationDate="2014-01-22T17:47:16.657" UserId="1706" Text="Please don't be offended.  I'm sure you're working really hard.  But if it were me trying to get some work done, and I received a contact that looked like yours, I'd probably delete it right away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It reads more like a short resume than a genuine effort to communicate with a buyer as to why they should spend money on you.  It's not personal.  You do share the fact that you are familiar with technology a, b, c, and z, but there are 100,000 other people out there who can write a list to claim the same thing.  You're going to have to give the potential client a bit more than just a list.  This might take more effort but it does communicate to the client that you're doing more than cut and paste.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3339" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1293" RevisionGUID="2e617c38-86c9-4ffb-8a88-c009702025be" CreationDate="2014-01-22T18:23:37.080" UserId="1830" Text="First of all, I doubt you are that low-self confident because you posted a picture of yourself, which is something people who lack self-confidence wouldn't do.  Secondly, you're such a pretty girl, how can you feel that way!?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In regard to professional confidence and competency, I recommend learning some skills of your trade.  For instance, seek higher education in the field of zoology. This will give you a leg up on any discussion and your opinions will be seeked and respected. Thus, confidence abounds.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In regard to personal confidence, I feel really good about myself because I carry myself well.  I mean, I dress to impress!  I would encourage you to go out, get your hair done, buy a cute outfit, etc.  The better you carry yourself, people will notice and they will let you know that they noticed. That will be a major confidence booster.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps!  Good luck!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-Dom" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3340" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1285" RevisionGUID="0eb733b5-f467-4c9e-a998-4a3099ee58a6" CreationDate="2014-01-23T04:13:50.380" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/426206112803999744" />
  <row Id="3344" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1295" RevisionGUID="3c3e18c1-5e5a-4ea1-a6b8-a63be7c6a5d0" CreationDate="2014-01-23T10:37:29.587" UserId="1835" Text="**Thank you for being so honest.** This the first question I read on Freelancing, after answering many questions on StackOverflow. It is refreshing to read this. I personally do not believe you need &quot;help&quot; to do anything you want to do. Maybe some books... but you have an amazing advantage I mention below.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My local veterinary clinic has a young man in it who sounds how you describe your self. I find that the effort he puts into every interaction makes me value his strength, and each time I see him, he is stronger and brighter and it seems easier for him. I look forward to our awkward moments and he seems to feel the same. Life is a puzzle being fit together, it's not anywhere near comfortable to be alive. So remember, you are totally normal to be anxious, no matter how it feels like that is inappropriate. It is just feeling more of the truth of life than most.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Anyway, why is my local veterinary clerk changing so fast?* I feel it is because of the &quot;animals,&quot; far more than the &quot;humans.&quot; In your particular case, you have such a huge gift ahead of you. Just like how in massage the goal is to &quot;feel the bones&quot; not &quot;kneed the muscles&quot; ... focus on the animals, and ask for what you're worth. **Charge no less than 20% below the market rate, even at first.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do, you respect your self, the animals, and you will attract the kinds of clients who have the energy inside to see you for who you are, and appreciate you for who you are for their animals and their own lives. You are a very sincere person with hope and faith in your self. *Congratulations!* You are an asset of amazing value to anyone and everyone you force your smile upon. If it feels like force, it's really not. **It's *making* your smile.** We all were pushed out of another body, we were all the cause of tremendous pain, just to walk the Earth... so too our smiles. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One day, you'll wag your tail by accident and smile at moments of inner turmoil. You are doing the right thing to push into the unknown and uncomfortable. Keep going. Charge what it costs you to breathe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And a book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Scott_Peck#The_Road_Less_Traveled&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's about love and self-awareness. I think that is more where you're actually headed, than business. Focus on the relationships you create... and your love... the discipline you have in extending your self." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3345" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1295" RevisionGUID="ba066fe4-efa6-4237-a805-e1b57c519b37" CreationDate="2014-01-23T10:46:16.093" UserId="1835" Comment="added 514 characters in body" Text="**Thank you for being so honest.** This the first question I read on Freelancing, after answering many questions on StackOverflow. It is refreshing to read this. I personally do not believe you need &quot;help&quot; to do anything you want to do. Maybe some books... but you have an amazing advantage I mention below.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My local veterinary clinic has a young man in it who sounds how you describe your self. I find that the effort he puts into every interaction makes me value his strength, and each time I see him, he is stronger and brighter and it seems easier for him. I look forward to our awkward moments and he seems to feel the same. Life is a puzzle being fit together, it's not anywhere near comfortable to be alive. So remember, you are totally normal to be anxious, no matter how it feels like that is inappropriate. It is just feeling more of the truth of life than most.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Anyway, why is my local veterinary clerk changing so fast?* I feel it is because of the &quot;animals,&quot; far more than the &quot;humans.&quot; In your particular case, you have such a huge gift ahead of you. Just like how in massage the goal is to &quot;feel the bones&quot; not &quot;kneed the muscles&quot; ... focus on the animals, and ask for what you're worth. **Charge no less than 20% below the market rate, even at first.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do, you respect your self, the animals, and you will attract the kinds of clients who have the energy inside to see you for who you are, and appreciate you for who you are for their animals and their own lives. You are a very sincere person with hope and faith in your self. *Congratulations!* You are an asset of amazing value to anyone and everyone you force your smile upon. If it feels like force, it's really not. **It's *making* your smile.** We all were pushed out of another body, we were all the cause of tremendous pain, just to walk the Earth... so too our smiles. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One day, you'll wag your tail by accident and smile at moments of inner turmoil. You are doing the right thing to push into the unknown and uncomfortable. Keep going. Charge what it costs you to breathe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**One suggestion only...** go sit at a dog park with your dog, even if you need to borrow one... and just play with whoever your dog finds for you. The animals are more of a factor than we perceive them to be. Don't think about the humans so much, don't try to appeal to the humans... just be your dog's friend, and have some business cards ready. Don't focus on anything but what the animals need and appreciate. The humans will not only deal with it, they will admire it... or you don't need them as clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And a book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Scott_Peck#The_Road_Less_Traveled&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's about love and self-awareness. I think that is more where you're actually headed, than business. Focus on the relationships you create... and your love... the discipline you have in extending your self." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3346" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1295" RevisionGUID="ddadb4b3-e0e5-4cd5-8de2-4fd1995f1f19" CreationDate="2014-01-23T10:52:07.633" UserId="1835" Comment="added 514 characters in body" Text="**Thank you for being so honest.** This the first question I read on Freelancing, after answering many questions on StackOverflow. It is refreshing to read this. I personally do not believe you need &quot;help&quot; to do anything you want to do. Maybe some books... but you have an amazing advantage I mention below.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My local veterinary clinic has a young man in it who sounds how you describe your self. I find that the effort he puts into every interaction makes me value his strength, and each time I see him, he is stronger and brighter and it seems easier for him. I look forward to our awkward moments and he seems to feel the same. Life is a puzzle being fit together, it's not anywhere near comfortable to be alive. So remember, you are totally normal to be anxious, no matter how it feels like that is inappropriate. It is just feeling more of the truth of life than most. Anyway...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Why is my ultra-shy &amp; 'awkward' local veterinary clerk changing so fast?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel it is because of the &quot;animals,&quot; far more than the &quot;humans.&quot; In your case, you have such a huge gift ahead of you. The animals literally give you their love and self-respect. They fill you with everything you said you don't have. *That's what they do to us.* We give them order, they give us love. So just like how in massage the goal is to &quot;feel the bones&quot; not &quot;kneed the muscles&quot; ... focus on the animals, and ask for what you're worth. **Charge no less than 20% below the market rate, even at first.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do, you respect your self, the animals, and you will attract the kinds of clients who have the energy inside to see you for who you are, and appreciate you for who you are for their animals and their own lives. You are a very sincere person with hope and faith in your self. *Congratulations!* You are an asset of amazing value to anyone and everyone you force your smile upon. If it feels like force, it's really not. **It's *making* your smile.** We all were pushed out of another body, we were all the cause of tremendous pain, just to walk the Earth... so too our smiles. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One day, you'll wag your tail by accident and smile at moments of inner turmoil. You are doing the right thing to push into the unknown and uncomfortable. Keep going. Charge what it costs you to breathe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**One suggestion only...** go sit at a dog park with your dog, even if you need to borrow one... and just play with whoever your dog finds for you. The animals are more of a factor than we perceive them to be. Don't think about the humans so much, don't try to appeal to the humans... just be your dog's friend, and have some business cards ready. Don't focus on anything but what the animals need and appreciate. The humans will not only deal with it, they will admire it... or you don't need them as clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And a book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Scott_Peck#The_Road_Less_Traveled&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's about love and self-awareness. I think that is more where you're actually headed, than business. Focus on the relationships you create... and your love... the discipline you have in extending your self." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3347" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1296" RevisionGUID="dd39c152-0415-48f5-98db-3cfdfa3309c9" CreationDate="2014-01-23T12:17:03.827" UserId="1390" Text="This is very bad experience with new developers. As you dont know much about that developer and their strength and ethics. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing to be kept in mind every time when you post a project on any freelancing site you must complete each and every milestone in that site only. If you get stuck that site may help you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am agree with Peter developer is right in one way that he will not provide source code until you pay full amount. But you both need to communicate and find another option like test on their server and for testing coding standard you might ask for a part of project`s source code. If developer is genuine he wont denied it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One more thing There are plenty of developer I know who just take 35 to 50% upfront and ongoing projects and remaining amount after completion of work. you should contact such team and or mention this things in contract clearly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3348" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1297" RevisionGUID="09696954-bbfd-40e6-be15-08a5719cc1e5" CreationDate="2014-01-23T14:41:46.107" UserId="1563" Text="As a freelancer or a developer, you need some leverage in terms of business.&#xD;&#xA;If you move the code to the client's server, then the developer's role is almost finished and he is done for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to set up milestones and decide on the cash you send per milestone completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do my business on Elance and Odesk. &#xD;&#xA;Me and my clients set up milestones and the payment is made accordingly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is the tradition of the freelance community" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3349" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1268" RevisionGUID="1c895947-443d-4bc4-a1e1-25ba9b62cd16" CreationDate="2014-01-23T16:13:52.210" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/426387314877927424" />
  <row Id="3350" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1298" RevisionGUID="094c97f2-bd40-4ab2-a68b-c3d099b3d072" CreationDate="2014-01-23T16:39:55.670" UserId="1836" Text="Please take your time to read the below otherwise click elsewhere. I will try and make it short but I feel I need to explain the situation fully so that you guys can help me decide whether my quotation is on point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hey guys, I'm glad there is a place on stackexchange to ask this question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a great client, our business relationship has extended for a year now and I've offered him two solutions for his two businesses. I charged him £9k each. Everything went smoothly both iPad based applications were completed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I flew to my client's country to take down all requirements in full for the third project. A full electronic college application. Then he realised that it needed to be put on hold and instead he would need a payrolls application for the college first since he makes payments to his staff members every month and the majority of his payroll office have quit knowing that it will all be electronic based in the future, hence the urgency for the payroll application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, its a bummer because it does mean the price I wanted to charge will have to be reduced since hes reduce the project scope. This project will include the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - a Biometric system that will interface with my application, it will clock in and out staff members attendance for payroll. These machines would be laid out around the college entrances and exits, and at the security office for security staff to clock in and out too.&#xD;&#xA; - client's iPad will display dashboard data, how much money he needs to&#xD;&#xA;   pay his staff members at the college, in cash and to the banks.&#xD;&#xA; - There would also need to be another module at the payroll office where one staff member can check exactly which staff member is owed how much cash, with a printer printing out invoices/a little staff payroll sheet that will print that the cash was collected.&#xD;&#xA; - a timetable module for the head teacher of the college to be able to see all staffs time tables for when they should be in and when not.&#xD;&#xA; - To be able to edit staff's working hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For this project application for one business only he will be quoted around £23k. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is fine, however I received a call a month ago where he's requested for these additional features.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - He now wants a centralised payroll system for ALL of his businesses, (theme park, college, food company with head office and factories, hotel, and the future hotels that he is building) each business have staff members ranging from 30+ staff members, to 200+ staff members.&#xD;&#xA; - To be able to add biometric machines in the future, as many as he likes, that can be placed in his future businesses and any new businesses that he starts up.&#xD;&#xA; - To be able to monitor his range of businesses from his app all in one place. &#xD;&#xA; - So he can continue to implement a biometric full system in every single new business he opens with this application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is then means that he would no longer need to come back to me everytime he wants to implement a new biometric system for his other business and future businesses since my application would now be able to handle new biometric devices being added.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is like an unlimited license that he's asking for. How much should one charge for a situation like this? What should be my multiplier?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's what I dont want to do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Charge him for every new device that's added into the system say £2k for every new device. That's silly for me.&#xD;&#xA; - I also don't want to charge him for every new business he wants to extend the application for&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I have decided to give him a one of fee, the question is how much? I have thought about multiplying the original price by 2.3, £23k x 2.3 = £53k.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And thought of increasing maintenance by £2k increments for each new branch he extends within the app for every year after his initial 1 year free app maintenance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I charging too much or am I charging too little for this unlimited license?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3351" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1298" RevisionGUID="094c97f2-bd40-4ab2-a68b-c3d099b3d072" CreationDate="2014-01-23T16:39:55.670" UserId="1836" Text="How much to charge for an unlimited licence for iOS based solution" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3352" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1298" RevisionGUID="094c97f2-bd40-4ab2-a68b-c3d099b3d072" CreationDate="2014-01-23T16:39:55.670" UserId="1836" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3353" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1298" RevisionGUID="3a508d2f-061e-4abd-b5fc-05f6dd62a139" CreationDate="2014-01-23T16:50:16.073" UserId="1836" Comment="edited title" Text="How much to charge for an unlimited licence for software/hardware payroll solution" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3354" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1299" RevisionGUID="a6b93c76-2030-46d5-bd6c-c57322108c18" CreationDate="2014-01-23T18:36:42.437" UserId="1706" Text="I'd not worry about the license price so much.  If you can get yourself into a long term maintenance situation, you've struck gold." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3355" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1263" RevisionGUID="91ac9c91-419e-445b-b4ce-b21fedce9cee" CreationDate="2014-01-24T13:14:00.260" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/426704438339055616" />
  <row Id="3356" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1300" RevisionGUID="7812afd9-8def-47c0-b99e-e58655ff4b34" CreationDate="2014-01-24T16:00:35.447" UserId="972" Text="Regarding pricing, one thing you could do is to go to several ERP or Payroll type application sites, and see what the multiplier is that they are using to cover conversion of a one-company app to unlimited, or if they even allow that.  That should give you an idea of what the market will bear and what standard practices for this type of software licensing are.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd not want to give him unlimited licenses, personally - I mean, how many legit businesses can one person be actually managing at one time? I'd give him at the most, say, 10 - 20 licenses. By the way, I hope you are thinking of possibly making this app a commercial product that you could sell to more than just this one guy.  Negotiating a contract where you retain ownership of the code base and can market it to other businesses may be another way for you to keep generating revenue from it and make up for allowing this guy to use it multiple times for his business needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another question - will this guy be charging the companies he wants to install this app for? My guess is yes - even if he's not paying for the app, he'll be spending time installing and configuring it and will want to be compensated for that time. If so, what's to keep him from setting up a business as a consultant to market and install the payroll system *you've* written, indefinitely, with no further compensation to you?  In fact, with no licensing scheme built into it, it's only a matter of time before your application is pirated, and that's bad for you both.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;TL;DR:  With the changes your client wants to make, you really need to think hard about negotiating a more equitable contract than just giving it all to him to use anywhere he wants with no additional compensation to you.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3357" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1298" RevisionGUID="c6ff83b3-1a2c-4f97-ad36-79a910db743a" CreationDate="2014-01-24T16:58:25.967" UserId="1836" Comment="added 449 characters in body" Text="Please take your time to read the below otherwise click elsewhere. I will try and make it short but I feel I need to explain the situation fully so that you guys can help me decide whether my quotation is on point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hey guys, I'm glad there is a place on stackexchange to ask this question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a great client, our business relationship has extended for a year now and I've offered him two solutions for his two businesses. I charged him £9k each. Everything went smoothly both iPad based applications were completed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I flew to my client's country to take down all requirements in full for the third project. A full electronic college application. Then he realised that it needed to be put on hold and instead he would need a payrolls application for the college first since he makes payments to his staff members every month and the majority of his payroll office have quit knowing that it will all be electronic based in the future, hence the urgency for the payroll application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, its a bummer because it does mean the price I wanted to charge will have to be reduced since hes reduce the project scope. This project will include the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - a Biometric system that will interface with my application, it will clock in and out staff members attendance for payroll. These machines would be laid out around the college entrances and exits, and at the security office for security staff to clock in and out too.&#xD;&#xA; - client's iPad will display dashboard data, how much money he needs to&#xD;&#xA;   pay his staff members at the college, in cash and to the banks.&#xD;&#xA; - There would also need to be another module at the payroll office where one staff member can check exactly which staff member is owed how much cash, with a printer printing out invoices/a little staff payroll sheet that will print that the cash was collected.&#xD;&#xA; - a timetable module for the head teacher of the college to be able to see all staffs time tables for when they should be in and when not.&#xD;&#xA; - To be able to edit staff's working hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For this project application for one business only he will be quoted around £23k. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is fine, however I received a call a month ago where he's requested for these additional features.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - He now wants a centralised payroll system for ALL of his businesses, (theme park, college, food company with head office and factories, hotel, and the future hotels that he is building) each business have staff members ranging from 30+ staff members, to 200+ staff members.&#xD;&#xA; - To be able to add biometric machines in the future, as many as he likes, that can be placed in his future businesses and any new businesses that he starts up.&#xD;&#xA; - To be able to monitor his range of businesses from his app all in one place. &#xD;&#xA; - So he can continue to implement a biometric full system in every single new business he opens with this application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is then means that he would no longer need to come back to me everytime he wants to implement a new biometric system for his other business and future businesses since my application would now be able to handle new biometric devices being added.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is like an unlimited license that he's asking for. How much should one charge for a situation like this? What should be my multiplier?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's what I dont want to do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Charge him for every new device that's added into the system say £2k for every new device. That's silly for me.&#xD;&#xA; - I also don't want to charge him for every new business he wants to extend the application for&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I have decided to give him a one of fee, the question is how much? I have thought about multiplying the original price by 2.3, £23k x 2.3 = £53k.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And thought of increasing maintenance by £2k increments for each new branch he extends within the app for every year after his initial 1 year free app maintenance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I charging too much or am I charging too little for this unlimited license?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**UPDATE 1**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In regards to one question from one of the answers: The businesses that he will continue to install this application for will be his own businesses so that he can monitor the accounting information that would be automatically tracked. The information that will be tracked is how much to pay his staff members each month through the biometric system that he wants to continue to install and monitor in his future businesses to come.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3359" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1278" RevisionGUID="4199c3dc-274e-4b29-afda-7ab3d0fca4b4" CreationDate="2014-01-25T19:14:00.733" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/427157424303517696" />
  <row Id="3360" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1301" RevisionGUID="6fa0f339-9018-4a2f-91c7-ae3c066b94b3" CreationDate="2014-01-26T07:34:57.190" UserId="1780" Text="I do not think the designer/developer is unreasonable. You can steal his work without completing payment for it if he hands it all over to you. Clients did this even when I was working for an experienced ad agency. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems very improbable that if he completed the project he would refuse to give you the files after payment. That would destroy credibility for his business and presumably, even in India, expose him to terrible reviews. What would he want with your files that he would keep them? There's no benefit to him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if he has stopped working on the site, my guess is that you had too many mid-project changes, and the project is already unprofitable for him. Your wording on this is brief and somewhat cagey. You can not expect any firm to agree to a project and then accommodate unlimited fine-tuning for the same price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In case it is a Wordpress project and you wind up unsatisfied, you might consider looking at purchasing one of the many affordable customizable templates from one of the hundreds of talented template library development firms out there that fits your needs and save further frustration and sleepless nights.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Barring that solution, I recommend that you agree to his proposal to test it on his servers, request no more changes that are not actual bugs or spelling and grammar errors that **HE** made, and if the site works as expected, take it and pay for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hopefully you have spelled out in advance what tests must be passed - what browsers must read it without error, and whether or not there should be optimization for devices. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My guess is that you yourself would not be able to evaluate the code quality. If that's the case, I wouldn't worry about it as long as the site works and neither you nor anyone else plan to modify the code any time soon. The people who come to your site are not going to view the source code and make &quot;tsk!&quot; noises. If you are able to evaluate the code quality, or know someone else who is, that also can be done when he sets up the site for review on his servers. ***However, unless he agreed to a formalized standard of coding in advance, he is not obligated to write code according to anyone's preference but his own, even if it is below standards.***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For future sites, if you aren't thoroughly opposed to considering it, choose a firm or freelancer who has a contract with steps clearly defined: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. what is to be done&#xD;&#xA; 2. by when &#xD;&#xA; 3. when payment must be made to continue on to the next step&#xD;&#xA; 4. what is to be expected if a step or a payment falls behind&#xD;&#xA; 5. what browsers the site will work on&#xD;&#xA; 6. how it will work on devices&#xD;&#xA; 7. how mid-project changes will be handled and billed&#xD;&#xA; 8. how testing and bugs will be handled&#xD;&#xA; 9. what constitutes final project closure - usually, when both parties agree that all obligations above have been fulfilled, and files are delivered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For coding quality, rather than outlining standards formally, it would be best if you or a qualified friend examine the code in other work the firm or freelancer has done. If you like what you see, your own site will probably be comparable. If not, consider another firm.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3361" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1301" RevisionGUID="ed51a242-318f-45e4-8a30-c1d374e3d40f" CreationDate="2014-01-26T07:43:36.283" UserId="1780" Comment="added 98 characters in body" Text="I do not think the designer/developer is unreasonable. You can steal his work without completing payment for it if he hands it all over to you. Clients did this even when I was working for an experienced ad agency. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems very improbable that if he completed the project he would refuse to give you the files after payment. That would destroy credibility for his business and presumably, even in India, expose him to terrible reviews. What would he want with your files that he would keep them? There's no benefit to him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if he has stopped working on the site, my guess is that you had too many mid-project changes, and the project is already unprofitable for him. Your wording on this is brief and somewhat cagey. You can not expect any firm to agree to a project and then accommodate unlimited fine-tuning for the same price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In case it is a Wordpress project and you wind up unsatisfied, you might consider looking at purchasing one of the many affordable customizable templates from one of the hundreds of talented template library development firms out there that fits your needs and save further frustration and sleepless nights.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Barring that solution, I recommend that you agree to his proposal to test it on his servers, request no more changes that are not actual bugs or spelling and grammar errors that **HE** made, and if the site works as expected, take it and pay for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hopefully you have spelled out in advance what tests must be passed - what browsers must read it without error, and whether or not there should be optimization for devices. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My guess is that you yourself would not be able to evaluate the code quality. If that's the case, I wouldn't worry about it as long as the site works and neither you nor anyone else plan to modify the code any time soon. The people who come to your site are not going to view the source code and make &quot;tsk!&quot; noises. If you are able to evaluate the code quality, or know someone else who is, that also can be done when he sets up the site for review on his servers. ***However, unless he agreed to a formalized standard of coding in advance, he is not obligated to write code according to anyone's preference but his own, even if it is below standards.***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For future sites, if you aren't thoroughly opposed to considering it, choose a firm or freelancer who has a contract with steps clearly defined: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. what is to be done&#xD;&#xA; 2. by when &#xD;&#xA; 3. when payment must be made to continue on to the next step&#xD;&#xA; 4. what is to be expected if a step or a payment falls behind&#xD;&#xA; 5. ***exactly*** what the security requirements are (&quot;code is secure, robust&quot; is not adequate)&#xD;&#xA; 6. what browsers the site will work on&#xD;&#xA; 7. how it will work on devices&#xD;&#xA; 8. how mid-project changes will be handled and billed&#xD;&#xA; 9. how testing and bugs will be handled&#xD;&#xA; 10. what constitutes final project closure - usually, when both parties agree that all obligations above have been fulfilled, and files are delivered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For coding quality, rather than outlining standards formally, it would be best if you or a qualified friend examine the code in other work the firm or freelancer has done. If you like what you see, your own site will probably be comparable. If not, consider another firm.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3362" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1301" RevisionGUID="ae873421-5690-458c-b257-ad5efabbda90" CreationDate="2014-01-26T07:50:30.280" UserId="1780" Comment="added 98 characters in body" Text="I do not think the designer/developer is unreasonable. You can steal his work without completing payment for it if he hands it all over to you. Clients did this even when I was working for an experienced ad agency. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems very improbable that if he completed the project he would refuse to give you the files after payment. That would destroy credibility for his business and presumably, even in India, expose him to terrible reviews. What would he want with your files that he would keep them? There's no benefit to him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if he has stopped working on the site, my guess is that you had too many mid-project changes, and the project is already unprofitable for him. Your wording on this is brief and somewhat cagey. You can not expect any firm to agree to a project and then accommodate unlimited fine-tuning for the same price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In case it is a Wordpress project and you wind up unsatisfied, you might consider looking at purchasing one of the many affordable customizable templates from one of the hundreds of talented template library development firms out there that fits your needs and save further frustration and sleepless nights.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;====================================================================&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Barring that solution, I recommend that you agree to his proposal to test it on his servers, request no more changes that are not actual bugs or spelling and grammar errors that **HE** made, and if the site works as expected, take it and pay for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;====================================================================&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hopefully you have spelled out in advance what tests must be passed - what browsers must read it without error, and whether or not there should be optimization for devices. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My guess is that you yourself would not be able to evaluate the code quality. If that's the case, I wouldn't worry about it as long as the site works and neither you nor anyone else plan to modify the code any time soon. The people who come to your site are not going to view the source code and make &quot;tsk!&quot; noises. If you are able to evaluate the code quality, or know someone else who is, that also can be done when he sets up the site for review on his servers. ***However, unless he agreed to a formalized standard of coding in advance, he is not obligated to write code according to anyone's preference but his own, even if it is below standards.***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally, as alluded to by another answer, **these three things are separate:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- code quality&#xD;&#xA;- security&#xD;&#xA;- testing the site &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For future sites, if you aren't thoroughly opposed to considering it, choose a firm or freelancer who has a contract with steps clearly defined: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. what is to be done&#xD;&#xA; 2. by when &#xD;&#xA; 3. when payment must be made to continue on to the next step&#xD;&#xA; 4. what is to be expected if a step or a payment falls behind&#xD;&#xA; 5. ***exactly*** what the security requirements are (&quot;code is secure, robust&quot; is not adequate)&#xD;&#xA; 6. what browsers the site will work on&#xD;&#xA; 7. how it will work on devices&#xD;&#xA; 8. how mid-project changes will be handled and billed&#xD;&#xA; 9. how testing and bugs will be handled&#xD;&#xA; 10. what constitutes final project closure - usually, when both parties agree that all obligations above have been fulfilled, and files are delivered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For coding quality, rather than outlining standards formally, it would be best if you or a qualified friend examine the code in other work the firm or freelancer has done. If you like what you see, your own site will probably be comparable. If not, consider another firm.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3363" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1301" RevisionGUID="b1f538af-81e3-44aa-8300-86cb83f34793" CreationDate="2014-01-26T07:56:25.897" UserId="1780" Comment="added 98 characters in body" Text="I do not think the designer/developer is unreasonable. You can steal his work without completing payment for it if he hands it all over to you. Clients did this even when I was working for an experienced ad agency. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems very improbable that if he completed the project he would refuse to give you the files after payment. That would destroy credibility for his business and presumably, even in India, expose him to terrible reviews. What would he want with your files that he would keep them? There's no benefit to him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if he has stopped working on the site, my guess is that you had too many mid-project changes, and the project is already unprofitable for him. Your wording on this is brief and somewhat cagey. You can not expect any firm to agree to a project and then accommodate unlimited fine-tuning for the same price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In case it is a Wordpress project and you wind up unsatisfied, you might consider looking at purchasing one of the many affordable customizable templates from one of the hundreds of talented template library development firms out there that fits your needs and save further frustration and sleepless nights.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;====================================================================&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Barring that solution, I recommend that you agree to his proposal to test it on his servers, request no more changes that are not actual bugs or spelling and grammar errors that **HE** made, and if the site works as expected, take it and pay for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;====================================================================&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hopefully you have spelled out in advance what tests must be passed - what browsers must read it without error, and whether or not there should be optimization for devices. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My guess is that you yourself would not be able to evaluate the code quality. If that's the case, I wouldn't worry about it as long as the site works and neither you nor anyone else plan to modify the code any time soon. The people who come to your site are not going to view the source code and make &quot;tsk!&quot; noises. If you are able to evaluate the code quality, or know someone else who is, that also can be done when he sets up the site for review on his servers. ***However, unless he agreed to a formalized standard of coding in advance, he is not obligated to write code according to anyone's preference but his own, even if it is below standards.***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally, as alluded to by another answer, **these three things are separate:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- code quality&#xD;&#xA;- security&#xD;&#xA;- testing the site &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For future sites (or perhaps, future readers of this question), choose a firm or freelancer who has a contract with steps clearly defined: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. what is to be done&#xD;&#xA; 2. by when &#xD;&#xA; 3. when payment must be made to continue on to the next step&#xD;&#xA; 4. what is to be expected if a step or a payment falls behind&#xD;&#xA; 5. ***exactly*** what the security requirements are (&quot;code is secure, robust&quot; is not adequate)&#xD;&#xA; 6. what browsers the site will work on&#xD;&#xA; 7. how it will work on devices&#xD;&#xA; 8. how mid-project changes will be handled and billed&#xD;&#xA; 9. how testing and bugs will be handled&#xD;&#xA; 10. what constitutes final project closure - usually, when both parties agree that all obligations above have been fulfilled, and files are delivered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For coding quality, rather than outlining standards formally, it would be best if you or a qualified friend examine the code in other work the firm or freelancer has done. If you like what you see, your own site will probably be comparable. If not, consider another firm.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3364" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="399" RevisionGUID="a53dd4a3-6625-493c-9f70-7afe7b7a73bd" CreationDate="2014-01-27T02:05:02.250" UserId="52" Comment="added 20 characters in body" Text="**LLC disadvantages vs. sole proprietorship:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. **Government fees** to establish and maintain the LLC (usually $100-$500 first year and up to $100 subsequent years, depending on your state).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. **Paperwork** to to establish and maintain the LLC. However, in some states, this is nearly zero - just a few minutes of filling out government web forms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's it. Taxes are the same if you choose pass-through taxation. Keeping separate bank accounts is a good idea to maximize liability protection, but is not required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Incorporation disadvantages vs. sole proprietorship:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Same as LLC (government fees and paperwork), except much more extensive. Additionally, accounting regulations and taxes could be worse, depending on the type of corporation you choose. These disadvantages were the motivation for the invention of LLCs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Resource: [Nolo LLC Basics][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/llc-basics-30163.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3365" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1298" RevisionGUID="e146312e-1112-464c-b847-6acd34e92d28" CreationDate="2014-01-27T04:33:24.240" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/427660588601602048" />
  <row Id="3366" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1302" RevisionGUID="af691d75-ec82-4a60-a988-95d3369ed565" CreationDate="2014-01-27T17:23:14.017" UserId="1860" Text="While it is typically clients that send contrators 1099's, if a third-party payment provider like PayPal is used to pay the contractors, it is the responsibility of that provider to give a 1099-K. However, the threshold for the 1099-K is $20,000 is gross proceeds, not the typically $600 level for 1099-MISC.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Therefore, if you are freelancing and getting paid via PayPal, Venmo, etc., it is crucial that you keep track of your own earnings rather than rely on the company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2012/01/09/taxes-the-irs-introduces-the-1099-k-aka-paypal-1099-from-your-online-payment-provider/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3371" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1304" RevisionGUID="1725f917-2b05-43db-987c-7bd71f7c0dc8" CreationDate="2014-01-28T13:53:02.723" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="I work as a part timer freelancer at oDesk. At oDesk client budget is already written on job posts. So, many times there are chances that after a successful job with client, he/she offer me an another job without giving a budget. Since, I am not very good in determining job bid in such cases, I find it difficult to make a good bid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I am wondering should I ask the client for a rough budget or I should try to bid myself? What's happen in such cases and whose responsibility is to give first bid?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3372" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1304" RevisionGUID="1725f917-2b05-43db-987c-7bd71f7c0dc8" CreationDate="2014-01-28T13:53:02.723" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="Who is expected to giving the budget: Client or Contractor?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3373" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1304" RevisionGUID="1725f917-2b05-43db-987c-7bd71f7c0dc8" CreationDate="2014-01-28T13:53:02.723" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3374" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1305" RevisionGUID="ec19072f-adc6-4acb-82e3-ba3c3b098f3d" CreationDate="2014-01-28T15:19:04.627" UserId="1869" Text="If I implement some software that is illegal (for example, for something as small as sending unsolicited email, or something as big as a deliberate bug that would cause a death), at the request of a client, am I legally liable for it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does it make a difference whether or not I know the law, and have explained it to the client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a freelancer in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Out of interest: I'm not trying to get around the law, but trying persuade my client to stick to the law)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3375" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1305" RevisionGUID="ec19072f-adc6-4acb-82e3-ba3c3b098f3d" CreationDate="2014-01-28T15:19:04.627" UserId="1869" Text="If a client asks for something that is illegal, am I legally liable for implementing it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3376" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1305" RevisionGUID="ec19072f-adc6-4acb-82e3-ba3c3b098f3d" CreationDate="2014-01-28T15:19:04.627" UserId="1869" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3377" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1306" RevisionGUID="0c8b3aca-0117-45ca-b3af-667b5e109ba2" CreationDate="2014-01-28T18:14:50.413" UserId="1706" Text="Here's a parallel.  You work in a store.  A friend wants to pay you to leave the back door open when you close up the store at night, so he can burglarize it.  If you go through with it, who ends up in jail?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3378" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1307" RevisionGUID="d9a9b2b0-c0a6-419c-a159-a3f7dce3182d" CreationDate="2014-01-29T01:48:44.173" UserId="1872" Text="I am a developer and in the past have had to tell clients  that I would not do something because it was illegal.  A perfect example of this would be embedding copyrighted images or fonts on a webpage without a license.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember when Megaupload was busted they even arrested the graphic designer.  None of those detained were US citizens, but since the domain name and/or servers were  from the US they were still considered to be under FBI jurisdiction. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as sending unsolicited email, it is illegal in the UK as well as just about everywhere else in the world:&#xD;&#xA;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy_and_Electronic_Communications_%28EC_Directive%29_Regulations_2003&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They say ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law (Ignorantia juris non excusat), but this is more of a legal principle than a &quot;law&quot;.  However I would assume if you are not aware of the infraction you can still be held liable in the UK.  But I suppose that holds true for your boss as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But in the end I think to truly answer this question you would need to talk to a lawyer, and to tell him/her specific details of the possible infraction.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3379" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1308" RevisionGUID="7476c8fd-3417-4c1e-a9e3-d377ecf2c1a9" CreationDate="2014-01-29T16:06:31.027" UserId="60" Text="I don't think this can be answered in generalities.  It depends to a large extent what is going on, what the nature of the conduct is, etc.  In general, if in doubt, ask a lawyer.  I could imagine cases where it might come out either way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general if something is illegal and/or harmful, and you know this, you shouldn't implement it whether or not you are liable.  If things go badly, you may be adversely affected and even if it doesn't cost you money it will cost you some of your hard-earned reputation.  There may be exceptions to this rule but it is almost always a good starting point.  You don't want to be associated with failures, particularly failures that make the news, and in some cases, this could lead to liability on your part." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3380" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1309" RevisionGUID="3233f3fa-39cb-4f9e-94f8-a80a795f9fb2" CreationDate="2014-01-29T17:29:46.687" UserId="517" Text="When client does not offer budget, he either wants to see if you can do it cheaper that he's ready to pay or he simply does not know the costs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you can do these things. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Analyze the work, count how many work hours it will take, then multiply work hours with your hourly rate, and you will get your price&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. When you are sure how many days/weeks it will take to finish job, **and you know your desired weekly earning**, you can propose the price by counting `numOfweeksToImplementJob x weeeklyCompansation`&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Ask the client how much is he ready to spend to see if you can do it for his money. This should be the last resort since working this way, you don't know what your price is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course you can always combine points 1 and 2. If the sum on point 1 is too large, you can decrese it as long as it's larger than the sum in the point 2. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3381" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1310" RevisionGUID="bd3ac46b-4498-4036-ac30-59a25fb19de4" CreationDate="2014-01-29T17:35:20.297" UserId="517" Text="Since this is a **legal issue**, it is **very smart to consult a legal counselor**, Paying him 1 hour work advise will save you a lot of money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, to reply how I see this, in case you want to risk your money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are a company or a registered invidual, and the client comes to your business and you implement illegal app, you **are legally responsible**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are his full-time employee and among other tasks he gives you a task to creaet such software, then you are **not legally responsible**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;now you probably now it's smart to stay away from such project. If you really want it since the money is good, then get a contract where the project will look like a legal thing (collecting emails can be legally used in statistics as well) and put the clause where you are not reliable if the client uses the product for illegal matters. Then it's his responsibility to use it legally or not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But to repeat again, get a professional advise in written from the legal counsel. This money will be well spent money. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3382" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1304" RevisionGUID="ce077bf1-5651-4b56-a4dc-49d7997c4797" CreationDate="2014-01-29T17:53:05.483" UserDisplayName="user702" Comment="edited title" Text="Whose responsibility is to give budget for job: Freelancer or Client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3383" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1310" RevisionGUID="62e928b7-bcc9-4b0f-af3c-7719c7046565" CreationDate="2014-01-30T00:02:16.983" UserId="75" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="Since this is a **legal issue**, it is **very smart to consult a legal counselor**, Paying him 1 hour work advise will save you a lot of money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, to reply how I see this, in case you want to risk your money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are a company or a registered individual, and the client comes to your business and you implement illegal app, you **are legally responsible**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are his full-time employee and among other tasks he gives you a task to create such software, then you are **not legally responsible**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now you probably know it's smart to stay away from such project. If you really want it since the money is good, then get a contract where the project will look like a legal thing (collecting emails can be legally used in statistics as well) and put the clause where you are not reliable if the client uses the product for illegal matters. Then it's his responsibility to use it legally or not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But to repeat again, get a professional advise in written from the legal counsel. This money will be well spent money. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3387" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1295" RevisionGUID="0c1e5c06-70d7-444a-9ccc-1f68e177b004" CreationDate="2014-01-30T13:03:13.977" UserId="1835" Comment="remove book link" Text="**Thank you for being so honest.** This the first question I read on Freelancing, after answering many questions on StackOverflow. It is refreshing to read this. I personally do not believe you need &quot;help&quot; to do anything you want to do. Maybe some books... but you have an amazing advantage I mention below.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My local veterinary clinic has a young man in it who sounds how you describe your self. I find that the effort he puts into every interaction makes me value his strength, and each time I see him, he is stronger and brighter and it seems easier for him. I look forward to our awkward moments and he seems to feel the same. Life is a puzzle being fit together, it's not anywhere near comfortable to be alive. So remember, you are totally normal to be anxious, no matter how it feels like that is inappropriate. It is just feeling more of the truth of life than most. Anyway...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Why is my ultra-shy &amp; 'awkward' local veterinary clerk changing so fast?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel it is because of the &quot;animals,&quot; far more than the &quot;humans.&quot; In your case, you have such a huge gift ahead of you. The animals literally give you their love and self-respect. They fill you with everything you said you don't have. *That's what they do to us.* We give them order, they give us love. So just like how in massage the goal is to &quot;feel the bones&quot; not &quot;kneed the muscles&quot; ... focus on the animals, and ask for what you're worth. **Charge no less than 20% below the market rate, even at first.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do, you respect your self, the animals, and you will attract the kinds of clients who have the energy inside to see you for who you are, and appreciate you for who you are for their animals and their own lives. You are a very sincere person with hope and faith in your self. *Congratulations!* You are an asset of amazing value to anyone and everyone you force your smile upon. If it feels like force, it's really not. **It's *making* your smile.** We all were pushed out of another body, we were all the cause of tremendous pain, just to walk the Earth... so too our smiles. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One day, you'll wag your tail by accident and smile at moments of inner turmoil. You are doing the right thing to push into the unknown and uncomfortable. Keep going. Charge what it costs you to breathe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**One suggestion only...** go sit at a dog park with your dog, even if you need to borrow one... and just play with whoever your dog finds for you. The animals are more of a factor than we perceive them to be. Don't think about the humans so much, don't try to appeal to the humans... just be your dog's friend, and have some business cards ready. Don't focus on anything but what the animals need and appreciate. The humans will not only deal with it, they will admire it... or you don't need them as clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3388" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1312" RevisionGUID="43aec88f-0d88-442e-9a2b-3a54f053417f" CreationDate="2014-01-30T13:38:25.050" UserId="514" Text="Even if your client suggests a budget, you still need to make the kind of estimate that others have suggested. Some clients have no idea what it will take to do a project and some do but will try to get a low ball price from you. You need to be aware, before you sign something, of what you think it will actually cost you in hours to do his job. Some jobs (and some clients!) are not worth taking. &#xA;&#xA;Estimating is something you get better at with practice. Estimate every job even if you been given a budget. Make notes about where the unknowns are and later, where you took longer than you expected and by how much, to finish that part. Keep those notes and review them when you are looking at the next job.&#xA;&#xA;Secondly, limit your risks by estimating the job in parts. Propose a partial payment when you finish writing the specs, for instance. The next part may be due on demonstration of a working skeleton; and the final payment due on delivery of a content-complete system. Estimating and billing in stages may also give you some room to recover on the next stage some of the short fall on the previous one." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3390" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1313" RevisionGUID="10424d2f-f263-47e9-9de5-60303d1e43bb" CreationDate="2014-01-31T07:59:20.370" UserId="1761" Text="As freelancers, I believe that we need to define our own income goals and at the same time keep it in line with our target to provide the most cost-efficient solutions to our clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is unsure about how much to pay, create a defined proposal - with a breakdown of all the work costs. If they have a pre-determined budget for project, compare it with your usual earnings for projects of the same kind and see how you can come up with a compromise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Suppose the client presents us with a smaller budget as opposed to how we usually charge, bargaining with them may be a plausible option. Discuss the client's budget and come up with a plan to execute the project without compromising the quality. Talk to them about how their limited budget may affect the number of output to be delivered. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand that a lot of us are working so hard to deliver an excellent quality of solutions. Do not compromise it over a small budget. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, do not easily agree to a very low budget. It might hurt the market without you knowing it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The previous answers were on point here, too. Think about how you could work on the project. The hours you'll most likely spent completing it, together with the amount of research work you'll have to put in and present them to your client. The costs you will show them should be concretely backed up by justified means of delivering the output. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they insist on giving you a very low price, it's your call to agree on completing just part of it - what you deem is appropriate for the amount they will pay you. Offering clients a markdown on your service charges could also help you establish a trusted working relationship with them. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3397" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1304" RevisionGUID="da12b2ca-09ec-44ec-8b8a-0e19aba39599" CreationDate="2014-02-01T04:35:08.583" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/429472964380471296" />
  <row Id="3400" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1316" RevisionGUID="cadd487e-5617-42ef-8732-a7a9cb380bac" CreationDate="2014-02-01T14:49:36.383" UserId="1904" Text="&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The tax issues are very real, and very true. What if your friend itemizes the service you provided for themselves to get a tax break, etc? Then you are now &quot;on the radar&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not suggest working &quot;under the radar&quot; but i will say that for friends and family, working &quot;officially&quot; is usually more headache than it's worth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Several years ago, I provided resumes for clients and had a nice little client base. I started by providing free to friends and family, once the decision was made to actually be a business, i stopped providing free services to them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead i offered a steep discount for immediate family and friends. Friends of friends, or people who only had a passing friendship received 20-30% off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There was a distinct difference in the client relationship. Before, they would press for things on their resumes or phrasing that was very unprofessional or even detrimental to their CV.... after, even close family stopped being so argumentive and respected my opinion more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom line? Free = hobby and they know better than you... Paid = professional&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3401" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1317" RevisionGUID="32d221fe-dcfa-48bf-b248-abff97361a7a" CreationDate="2014-02-01T15:04:36.620" UserId="708" Text="I always cringe a bit when I hear a freelancer ask a perspective client &quot;What's your budget?&quot; Isn't that the same as asking &quot;How much can I get away with charging you?&quot; Or &quot;Can I charge you *more* than I normally would without you realizing it?&quot; For me, there is absolutely *no reason* I need to know the client's budget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *rarely* get a budget from any any client (but I don't use online services either). If I do get a budget it is *after* my quote in an effort to possibly lower my costs to meet a lower budget (or as a negotiating tactic on their end).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I price all work according to what I need to earn**. Isn't that how everyone should be pricing? I've calculated my hourly rate, then bear in mind current market rate trends, and ensure I'm **never** at a loss for any project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I calculate, based on the project scope, I need to charge $5000 to complete it. Then that's what I need to earn and that's what I quote. It makes **no difference** if the client has an $8000 budget. I price based on my rates, *not* what the client has in their pockets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine this... you go into a store and want to buy a stick of gum. You walk up to the cashier and she looks at you, and then says &quot;Well, we would have priced that gum at $1, but since you have $20 in your pocket, how about we charge you $19.99 for it?&quot; -- *This is what you are trying to do* by pricing based on the client budget. It's a fool's errand and ultimately will do you more harm with clients than good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Determine your rates and then calculate project costs based on that. The client's budget should really make no difference to you at all." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3402" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1318" RevisionGUID="ca3dd536-011f-455a-ba79-b4681a9f81f4" CreationDate="2014-02-01T15:08:32.353" UserId="1904" Text="&#xD;&#xA;I had similiar issues in my freelance Resume service back when i was running it. My answer would be to check out Guerrilla Marketing for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My other suggestion would be, Pound The Pavement. If you can create software and webdesign, start hitting up small businesses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Restaurants? Create a &quot;package deal&quot; where you would create a small website that lists their location, menu, fun facts, etc. Offer in the package to include them on yelp and other social sites. If it's relevant (ie: delivery, reservations) offer to create an app, (if you are able) for them for those types of services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Local sportscard/Comic Book/ etc... offer a website package that can link to a database that would have their items on hand. You could even create a &quot;barcode&quot; program that would link to their database and autopost on the website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Heck, if you have time, pull up their website, redesign it, and then take in your mock up to the owner and tell them what you can do. I've found that small biz owners need tangible proof their website is horrible compared to a pro's.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My only warning would be: DO NOT WORK FOR THEM FOR FREE, NOR OFFER STRICT DISCOUNTS.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They'll say &quot;you already made the site&quot; why not give it to me for half. Advise them that's just visual, and doesn't have code needed to run properly. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3403" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1317" RevisionGUID="9e22a6e9-a8f3-4ad4-a7a5-eea84c1e7eb0" CreationDate="2014-02-01T15:10:45.987" UserId="708" Comment="added 186 characters in body" Text="I always cringe a bit when I hear a freelancer ask a perspective client &quot;What's your budget?&quot; Isn't that the same as asking &quot;How much can I get away with charging you?&quot; Or &quot;Can I charge you *more* than I normally would without you realizing it?&quot; For me, there is absolutely *no reason* I need to know the client's budget. I need to know the breadth, scope, and complexity of the project, that's all. It's for me to determine if it's a $500 or $50,000 job, then they can determine if they wish to pay for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *rarely* get a budget from any any client (but I don't use online services either). If I do get a budget it is *after* my quote in an effort to possibly lower my costs to meet a lower budget (or as a negotiating tactic on their end).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I price all work according to what I need to earn**. Isn't that how everyone should be pricing? I've calculated my hourly rate, then bear in mind current market rate trends, and ensure I'm **never** at a loss for any project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I calculate, based on the project scope, I need to charge $5000 to complete it. Then that's what I need to earn and that's what I quote. It makes **no difference** if the client has an $8000 budget. I price based on my rates, *not* what the client has in their pockets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine this... you go into a store and want to buy a stick of gum. You walk up to the cashier and she looks at you, and then says &quot;Well, we would have priced that gum at $1, but since you have $20 in your pocket, how about we charge you $19.99 for it?&quot; -- *This is what you are trying to do* by pricing based on the client budget. It's a fool's errand and ultimately will do you more harm with clients than good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Determine your rates and then calculate project costs based on that. The client's budget should really make no difference to you at all." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3404" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1317" RevisionGUID="cfb82cbd-fd27-4767-97a9-21792a7c8887" CreationDate="2014-02-01T15:18:26.097" UserId="708" Comment="added 7 characters in body" Text="I always cringe a bit when I hear a freelancer ask a perspective client &quot;What's your budget?&quot; Isn't that the same as asking &quot;How much can I get away with charging you?&quot; Or &quot;Can I charge you *more* than I normally would without you realizing it?&quot; For me, there is absolutely *no reason* I need to know the client's budget. I need to know the breadth, scope, and complexity of the project, that's all. It's for me to determine if it's a $500 or $50,000 job, then they can determine if they wish to pay for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *rarely* get a budget from any any client (but I don't use online services either). If I do get a budget it is *after* my quote in an effort to possibly lower my costs to meet a lower budget (or as a negotiating tactic on their end).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I price all work according to what I need to earn**. Isn't that how everyone should be pricing? I've calculated my hourly rate, then bear in mind current market rate trends, and ensure I'm **never** at a loss for any project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I calculate, based on the project scope, I need to charge $5000 to complete it. Then that's what I need to earn and that's what I quote. It makes **no difference** if the client has an $8000 budget. I price based on my rates, *not* what the client has in their pockets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine this... you go into a store and want to buy a stick of gum. You walk up to the cashier and she looks at you, and then says &quot;Well, we would have priced that gum at $1, but since you have $20 in your pocket, how about we charge you $19.99 for it?&quot; -- *This is what you are trying to do* by pricing based on the client budget. It's ethically questionable and ultimately will do you more harm with clients than good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Determine your rates and then calculate project costs based on that. The client's budget should make no difference** to you at all. Unless they express their budget is lower than your quote/bid and then it's up to you to determine if you wish to lower your pricing to meet a lower budget." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3405" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1317" RevisionGUID="efeb384e-7625-42c7-8ba9-a08455d26711" CreationDate="2014-02-01T15:23:57.323" UserId="708" Comment="added 7 characters in body" Text="I always cringe a bit when I hear a freelancer ask a perspective client &quot;What's your budget?&quot; Isn't that the same as asking &quot;How much can I get away with charging you?&quot; Or &quot;Can I charge you *more* than I normally would without you realizing it?&quot; For me, there is absolutely *no reason* I need to know the client's budget. I need to know the breadth, scope, and complexity of the project, that's all. It's for me to determine if it's a $500 or $50,000 job, then they can determine if they wish to pay for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *rarely* get a budget from any any client (but I don't use online services either). If I do get a budget it is *after* my quote in an effort to possibly lower my costs to meet a lower budget (or as a negotiating tactic on their end).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I price all work according to what I need to earn**. Isn't that how everyone should be pricing? I've calculated my hourly rate, then bear in mind current market rate trends, and ensure I'm **never** at a loss for any project. Is there a possibility that I could charge another 20% and retain the work, maybe. But is it worth finding out? Most often not. As long as I'm earning what I've determined I want to earn why chase after unicorns and rainbows? You know, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush and all that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I calculate, based on the project scope, I need to charge $5000 to complete it. Then that's what I need to earn and that's what I quote. It makes **no difference** if the client has an $8000 budget. I price based on my rates, *not* what the client has in their pockets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine this... you go into a store and want to buy a stick of gum. You walk up to the cashier and she looks at you, and then says &quot;Well, we would have priced that gum at $1, but since you have $20 in your pocket, how about we charge you $19.99 for it?&quot; -- *This is what you are trying to do* by pricing based on the client budget. It's ethically questionable and ultimately will do you more harm with clients than good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Determine your rates and then calculate project costs based on that. The client's budget should make no difference** to you at all. Unless they express their budget is lower than your quote/bid and then it's up to you to determine if you wish to lower your pricing to meet a lower budget." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3406" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1319" RevisionGUID="6a780844-60ec-4a24-a656-ad913b9c5c5e" CreationDate="2014-02-01T15:53:52.623" UserId="1904" Text="&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Coding in Java is different than coding in an HTML environment and porting it through an application to have it in java.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ethically, i would not bill a client for hours coding in a language i was not coding in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if you code in HTML, that what i would bill. If you then convert it to Java through a program, certainly bill for the time it took you to convert over, but not as if you programmed it yourself in java.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sorry if i misunderstood the intent of your question. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3407" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1305" RevisionGUID="ce553871-9d50-488c-b5f4-031545af7f04" CreationDate="2014-02-01T19:35:11.163" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/429699468636995585" />
  <row Id="3409" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1320" RevisionGUID="40d2b0ea-ec88-454e-8364-0becce4a168d" CreationDate="2014-02-02T02:26:37.190" UserId="1905" Text="The two terms mean the same thing from a business perspective.  It has nothing to do with size.  Entire departments for call centers, accounting, order fulfillment consisting of hundreds of employees can be contracted out to professionals on a long term recurring basis. The outsourcing is governed by a contract stipulating the services expected and the payment terms that may be fixed-priced for the duration of the contract or based on some sort of pay-per- use/service arrangement. Hence, it is essentially a subcontracting effort so that someone else does the job instead of the company doing it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the 50s until now, airlines subcontract their sales operations to general sales agencies and their airport operations to ground handling agents in cities the airline serves so they don't need to hire and send their own staff to these cities and pay them more.  The term outsourcing didn't exist then, but these subcontracting efforts have the same implication to the airline business in that others do the job the airline could have done but at a lower operating cost. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3410" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1321" RevisionGUID="f43869a6-83b9-410c-9a39-1b920367dfd1" CreationDate="2014-02-02T05:19:41.863" UserId="1906" Text="Let say there is a project, which does not have an exact set of requirements.&#xD;&#xA;And then the clients as for an &quot;tentative&quot; quote.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no way to decide that, for example, an iPad app for a hotel can be made in a range of $500 - $5000, Depending on the quality of design, look, UX, features, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if the client asks us for the budget, what is to be done? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3411" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1321" RevisionGUID="f43869a6-83b9-410c-9a39-1b920367dfd1" CreationDate="2014-02-02T05:19:41.863" UserId="1906" Text="Deciding budget of a project which does not have exact requirements" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3412" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1321" RevisionGUID="f43869a6-83b9-410c-9a39-1b920367dfd1" CreationDate="2014-02-02T05:19:41.863" UserId="1906" Text="|client|contracts|price-per-hour|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3413" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1322" RevisionGUID="1bfc0068-6993-4754-835b-19ae05ad64d9" CreationDate="2014-02-02T05:30:10.893" UserId="1906" Text="How does the client get to know how many hours we worked?&#xD;&#xA;If i work at my place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if i am ethical, and dont fake my number of hours, how to make the client believe it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3414" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1322" RevisionGUID="1bfc0068-6993-4754-835b-19ae05ad64d9" CreationDate="2014-02-02T05:30:10.893" UserId="1906" Text="how does hourly system work? How does the client know how many hours we worked?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3415" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1322" RevisionGUID="1bfc0068-6993-4754-835b-19ae05ad64d9" CreationDate="2014-02-02T05:30:10.893" UserId="1906" Text="|client|price-per-hour|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3416" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1323" RevisionGUID="506f15cd-2296-4d61-a232-e2352377a57e" CreationDate="2014-02-02T05:34:19.667" UserId="1907" Text="Well you already answeredto the first part of your question by yourself. There is no real way to tell the budget. &#xD;&#xA;Besides that, in my experience I always tell the client without any requirements which should be at least a small scope statement. In addition you could provide your customer with examples or &quot;price ranges&quot; from your existing portfolio. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However without any requirements it is impossible to set up a correct budget. If a customer really want one, I prefer giving him examples by (making up) sample requirements or portfolio items and their approx. costs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3417" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1324" RevisionGUID="25661722-dbe0-4392-9670-1964caa72392" CreationDate="2014-02-02T05:40:22.500" UserId="1906" Text="For students, age 18-22, pursuing Engineering, How the hourly rates, or freelancing rates are determined?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For e.g, I am 20, have 2 years of experience in making iOS apps, have about 10-15 apps in my portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how can a rate be decided. Are students paid equally as normal freelancers, or we are paid less.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And I am able to give adequate time to iOS development." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3418" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1324" RevisionGUID="25661722-dbe0-4392-9670-1964caa72392" CreationDate="2014-02-02T05:40:22.500" UserId="1906" Text="Freelancing rates for students" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3419" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1324" RevisionGUID="25661722-dbe0-4392-9670-1964caa72392" CreationDate="2014-02-02T05:40:22.500" UserId="1906" Text="|client|contracts|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3420" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1323" RevisionGUID="a4c5c03a-6cd5-4ab2-8625-ea180bb7eaa1" CreationDate="2014-02-02T05:40:46.833" UserId="1907" Comment="grammar." Text="Well you already answered to the first part of your question by yourself. There is no real way to tell the budget. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Besides that, in my experience I always tell the client without any requirements which should be at least a small scope statement.  &#xD;&#xA;In addition you could provide your customer with examples or &quot;price ranges&quot; from your existing portfolio. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However without any requirements it is impossible to set up a correct budget.  &#xD;&#xA;If a customer really want one, I prefer giving him examples by (making up) sample requirements or portfolio items and their approx. costs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3421" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1194" RevisionGUID="c745ebcc-6614-42de-8a73-6412e0e567d5" CreationDate="2014-02-02T07:35:11.937" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/429880664784371712" />
  <row Id="3422" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1325" RevisionGUID="c8741b74-5508-44c1-a278-0f956ac07242" CreationDate="2014-02-02T11:16:40.917" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="I am a student and a part time freelancer. My income is not even considered taxable at this point. Most of the time, I work at crowd sourcing sites like oDesk and some time I work directly for client and payment is made using PayPal. So, Why should I create a invoice at the end of job and not just ask for payment directly? What are its advantages?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3423" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1325" RevisionGUID="c8741b74-5508-44c1-a278-0f956ac07242" CreationDate="2014-02-02T11:16:40.917" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="Why create invoice as a freelance" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3424" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1325" RevisionGUID="c8741b74-5508-44c1-a278-0f956ac07242" CreationDate="2014-02-02T11:16:40.917" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="|invoices|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3425" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1326" RevisionGUID="99a35f1f-85d5-4675-af7f-32dec97266f7" CreationDate="2014-02-02T17:21:00.973" UserId="1909" Text="It's not about advantages, it is about law and also about your clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. In some countries, it is illegal to work without invoicing (France for instance).&#xD;&#xA; 2. If you work as a contractor for a company, it is likely that the company will need an invoice for its accounting. Otherwise it will not be possible to justify the expense to the tax authority, and then it will be mandatory to pay taxes on the money that is long gone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3426" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1327" RevisionGUID="38c9893d-08b0-4b5f-9f2f-3e2fc5f95dbb" CreationDate="2014-02-02T20:43:27.437" UserId="1916" Text="I just went through this with a client.  I had to think about what was said in the discovery meeting and then also think about how the client conducts business and where their revenue comes from.  I went through a few bullet point lists that gave me some priorities for the business and a few options for how a customer might go through a process of paying for the services being offered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead of mocking up working prototypes, I spent a little bit of time in Illustrator making a few static options and pairing the static options with a bullet point of what each example will do. Each example was another increase in complexity, and I tried to make each jump significant enough that it wouldn't allow them to merge the options or allow feature creep.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as a specific dollar amount quote, double whatever you think the quote will be.  If you come in under the budget, your client will feel like they got a good deal when your final invoice is less that originally estimated.  And if the vaugue-ness continues through-out the project, you won't feel gipped.  I would recommend setting the project with very specific milestones that the client has to sign-off on before you proceed to the next milestone.  It'll, again, prevent the client from backtracking on you within the project. Your milestones can be something like achieving each bullet point that you made earlier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3427" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1328" RevisionGUID="ef986da6-c885-4489-8276-064b8bd3a940" CreationDate="2014-02-02T21:02:23.973" UserId="1917" Text="That's a good question, but I don't think there's any purely logical answer to it. A surprising amount of business is still conducted on the honor system (with each side taking different things on trust). I have freelanced primarily in editing for print publications, and a little bit in design and writing. Some of my clients want an hourly fee, and others want a per-word or project fee. Some who work with hourly fees put a cap on the number of hours I can claim. Sometimes there's an arrangement that if I think I'm going to go over the maximum, I should talk it over with them, and if there's a good reason, they'll usually increase the hours. I'm sure if I spent a ridiculous number of hours on an easy project, a client would just not hire me again. I have never had anyone ask me to prove how many hours I spent on a task. Really, if a client wanted some kind of proof of hours, it would be up to them to ask for it at the start. No matter what payment system you use, somebody is taking a risk. I think it's just one of the ways freelancing is different from staff work. In the long run, both freelancer and client are asking &quot;does this benefit me, and is it worth what I put in?&quot; as long as the answers are &quot;yes,&quot; the exact number of hours may not matter." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3428" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1329" RevisionGUID="d776377f-5487-49e6-ad0e-e0a846d94eaa" CreationDate="2014-02-03T10:54:40.080" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="&gt; For students, age 18-22, pursuing Engineering, How the hourly rates, or freelancing rates are determined?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Rates are not something that depend upon age. They depend upon other factors like knowledge, experience, communication skills, quality of work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;For e.g, I am 20, have 2 years of experience in making iOS apps, have about 10-15 apps in my portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;So how can a rate be decided. Are students paid equally as normal freelancers, or we are paid less.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;And I am able to give adequate time to iOS development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It cannot be answered that easily. From my experience (I am 19), I have met several clients (very few) who just don't want to hire because of my age. Apart from this, clients have a fear that students freelancers are generally non-serious, time waster and irresponsible. So, you have to act like a professionals and deliver the work with quality. If you made to this point, you can earn even more an adult freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are beginning, I advice to observe the market, keep your hourly rates slightly lower than other, deliver high quality work in a timely manner, and build a reputation. Once you build a reputation, you can earn a lot.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S. Don't keep your hourly rates much lower. It shows you are unconfident about your skills. Keeping rates very lower also harms the market." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3429" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1330" RevisionGUID="ccd36052-e971-4326-b2dd-bea50797899a" CreationDate="2014-02-03T14:00:21.463" UserId="1323" Text="One way to prove the number of hours you work - and build trust with your clients - is to use a time tracker.  Most kinds of freelancing / small business accounting software such as [FreshBooks][1] or [QuickBooks][2] (both available in the US) have some support for this built in.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've also tried some free, standalone time tracker applications such as [Chrometa][3] and [Toggl][4].  Of those, I found Toggl easier to use because it feels more natural to use it.  You can tell Toggl, &quot;I'm doing work for this client now&quot; or &quot;I'm doing this kind of work for this client now&quot; and the clock just runs until you tell it to stop.  So it is easier to account for time that you work offline that way.  (As a UX designer I spend a good deal of time sketching, so that is not on the computer.)  Toggl also sends you an email if you leave the clock running longer than a certain amount of time like 8 hours or 24 hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you use a time tracker and the client doubts that you're actually doing your work during the whole time, use a productivity tracker.  Chrometa has some of these capabilities built in because you have to match every webpage you look at to a project.  (I found that rather tedious and switched to Toggl.)  [RescueTime][5] is a productivity tracker with free and premium plans.  It only tracks time when you're actually doing something on the computer, not just when the computer is on.  It has preset ratings (very distracting, distracting, neutral, productive, and very productive) which it is able to assign for many major websites.  You can override the rating for any website.  The Pro version shows you how much time you spend in individual documents and gives you a Stay Focused feature to block all very distracting sites for the period of time that you specify.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are getting work through freelancing websites (I don't), some of them use screen snapshot software to take screenshots of your computer.  Last time I checked, oDesk was doing this and their software took screenshots every 10 minutes to send to the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.freshbooks.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://quickbooks.intuit.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.chrometa.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://www.toggl.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://www.rescuetime.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3430" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1331" RevisionGUID="d35562fc-3b36-4344-8281-3023e4521918" CreationDate="2014-02-03T14:09:23.057" UserId="1920" Text="I work with an inventor who creates product lines and I do the design work for him.  He's an engineer who is picky and wants it exactly his way so usually the projects take a while due to him not explaining what he wants clearly.  In the past I have charged an hourly rate which has been great since, like I said, it takes him a while to figure out what exactly he wants.  Recently he asked me to become an employee as opposed to a freelancer and instead of hourly get a percentage.  We have not discussed a percent yet but currently I charge him $25/hr.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;My main questions are these:&lt;/b&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;Would this transition be worth it?&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;What percent would I charge?&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;Is it ok to ask for a small fee up front and then collect the percentage as sales start?&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any other information about this subject would be great to.  Unfortunately I cannot really give out a lot of information due to the fact that the product has not been released yet.  From the people I have talked to and the products of his in the past, I think that this product line will do well if he markets it right.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks for all the help in advance&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;i&gt;Sarah&lt;/i&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3431" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1331" RevisionGUID="d35562fc-3b36-4344-8281-3023e4521918" CreationDate="2014-02-03T14:09:23.057" UserId="1920" Text="Should I settle for a percentage or keep with an hourly rate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3432" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1331" RevisionGUID="d35562fc-3b36-4344-8281-3023e4521918" CreationDate="2014-02-03T14:09:23.057" UserId="1920" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3433" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1332" RevisionGUID="f0338a9b-9fbc-49d6-bc4b-e4e2e6566969" CreationDate="2014-02-03T14:18:16.437" UserId="1920" Text="I know from experience that clients like to have official invoices for their own records.  That way if they need more design work in the future they can go back through the invoices of designers they have worked with in the past, compare rates, projects, expenses, etc and can make an easier decision than going through countless emails.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The invoices I make are not complex.  Just look online for simple forms.  They usually include your contact information, the project's name, the agreed payment, hours worked, and sometimes I attach a small screenshot of the finished design.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope that helps!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3434" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1333" RevisionGUID="94af66df-3cf4-4ab3-8245-6364abf7dce2" CreationDate="2014-02-03T14:26:54.067" UserId="1920" Text="Another way to build that trust along side using a time tracker is to explain to the client everything that you worked on during those hours.  As a graphic designer, I list out things like &quot;1.5 hours creating sketches&quot; then attach a small picture of those sketches, &quot;30 mins scanning and editing sketch&quot; &quot;2 hours finalizing outlines of logo&quot; so on and so forth.  Keep records of the different stages you are in and make multiple files of your work.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a developer, I'm not too sure the process you go through but every hour take a screenshot or list out the problems you solved.  If the client sees that you are getting work done during the hours they are paying you then you will be able to build up that trust." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3435" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1331" RevisionGUID="4bb5b480-4070-496e-ae43-590a6570284c" CreationDate="2014-02-03T14:45:17.863" UserId="1920" Comment="edited tags" Text="|pay-rate|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3436" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1334" RevisionGUID="b64fb797-f7bd-4574-b513-c4cbea4c9176" CreationDate="2014-02-03T16:44:16.583" UserId="1907" Text="This really depends on the percentage and workload. Get paided in percentage is overall more risky then payed by hour - if you want more profit, you must assume greater risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A bigger company** will give you the option for percentage either to reduce their risk and there variable costs or **most likely** as the percentage model (%-model) would just **cost less**. &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;**A smaller company** or f.e. entrepreneurs which don't have much capital mostly have to use such as participating interests models (including a %-model) as it reduces costs if f.e. the product doesn't sell as anticipated. However if the product sells good there is a good chance making alot of profit and much more compared if you would have been paid per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another factor to consider is the overall **workload**. If you would have to do alot of work at the beginning and would have less to do over the product cycle lifetime percentage is always an good choice. See that simple example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Product:** Couch | **Return/h**:25$ | **Return/%:** 10%  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Workload:** **1st Year:** 500h / **2ndY**: 400h / **3rdY:** 100h  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Eearnings Company:**  **1st Year:** 30.000$ / **2ndY**: 150.000$ / **3rdY:** 100.000$  / **4rdY:** 50.000$ / **5rdY:** 50.000$  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; **HOURLY RETURN:** (500+400+100)*25 = [[[**25.000$**]]]  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; **% RETURN:** (30000*0,1)+(150.000*0,1)+(100.000*0,1) [....] = [[[**38.000$**]]]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you would end up with 13.000$. But this is just an simple example. I just wanted to point out if you have less workload and higher earnings later (espc. long term) where you don't have work anymore its definitely worth taking the risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Concluding**, the %-model gives you the *opportunity to earn more money or even less* compared the the hourly model. Especially long term earnings where you recieve a percentage of it is worth going for if you know the business and his risks. As you said you're working at the Design so this could be a good opportunity. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to charge upfront as a basis its totalty up to you and your business partner. It's nothing unusal (at least in Germany). &#xD;&#xA;As a personal tip, **take care of the legal part**! Most business partners try to pull you out as soon they see that their %-Model cost them too much. Do long-term contracts, not based on years. I saw this dozen of times." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3437" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1335" RevisionGUID="893583ea-d02f-4e4e-a211-4929af6f8519" CreationDate="2014-02-03T17:15:29.003" UserId="1706" Text="Sarah, this one's tricky.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What comes to mind for me instantly is the plight of recording artists that get signed to a label.  The label, by legal statute, has to pay the artists a minimum amount for each year they're signed.  But while the contracts will demand that the artists produce a certain number of titles, the same contract ***does not guarantee that the record companies must invest a  single cent*** in manufacturing or promoting the finished titles once turned over.  This sort of occurrence actually happens quite a bit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, if you sign up for a percentage, you're in the same boat as these recording artists I've described.  You can pour your work into the project, but contractually you may have no power to balk if this person decides to seek greener pastures at some time.  What will you ***own*** or be entitled to?  Since you didn't state it, I'm going to guess that it probably wasn't discussed.  The answer from **s1x** is accurate in describing how in later stages, business partners will start to change their tune when a percentage deal is costing them too much.  But I think the part left out is that RIGHT NOW, you might be perceived as costing too much so instead of continuing to pay you hourly, your client is hoping you'll issue a Sarah Mastercard.  Risky.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You must do your due diligence.  I wonder if this client has done the same thing with any other designers!  Obviously he's got enough to pay you so far.  But consider the notion that you work for free for a jolly good amount of time and maybe, just maybe, your client takes your work product and starts up production and sales of it off-the-books, i.e. with a different corporate entity that's out of your reach.  If such a thing happens, depending on your financial situation, you may not even be in a position to legally assert your position because paying an attorney will take food off your table -- and just wash your hands of it.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to kill off your enthusiasm but I see this sort of pay-you-back-later arrangement being offered on Craigslist quite a bit.  Your client might even be one of the well-intentioned ones but consider the fact that about 95% of business ventures don't succeed.  That alone is a heck of a gamble.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Get *something* for your effort." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3438" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1336" RevisionGUID="9d8054b4-dba7-40a4-9d8b-21b1d6bb766d" CreationDate="2014-02-03T17:26:37.797" UserId="1706" Text="Your first mistake is telling your clients that you're a student.  It's not something you are required to share with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We're all students in some way or another.  Your clients, or potential ones, might have some money to spend on a project but it doesn't guarantee that your work will ever earn them one thin dime.  So as you're gaining experience, your clients are too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why I mention this is that whether you're a student or not, your work has value.  I've never gone into a McDonald's and been able to get a Big Mac for 50% off because the cashier was a student.  The McDonald's can't pay the cashier 50% off the minimum wage because the cashier is a student.  Are you following this?  (I hope you're a ***smart*** student!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;VarunAgw is right about keeping your hourly rates lower - it is a tool to at least get some work and take the edge off of client expectations.  You can use that angle for a while, but just a while.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you're dealing in BUSINESS, you need to lead with your strengths, i.e.:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I CAN do _______&#xD;&#xA; - I can ALSO do _______&#xD;&#xA; - I'm great at _______&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You throw all that strength out the window the first time you say&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - BUT ... I'm a student.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been there.  Do your thing.  Get those skills, and get your money." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3439" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1337" RevisionGUID="af250ba5-9f6e-4771-9660-c39305ab7e67" CreationDate="2014-02-03T17:36:43.397" UserId="1706" Text="An invoice clarifies, in a single document, what's been paid for.  And for your future work that **doesn't** come to you by way of odesk or similar, it states:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The date of the invoice&#xD;&#xA; 2. The parties involved &#xD;&#xA; 3. The payment terms (if you don't know what this means, you'd better ask somebody -- but this is usually agreed upon out before starting work.)&#xD;&#xA; 4. The date payment is due.&#xD;&#xA; 5. The invoice number.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you have to contact a client and ask, 'hey, where's my money,'  if the client can find invoice # xyz123 that has all of the above on it, there's really nothing to debate about as to whether you should have a check in your hand or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't be lazy-minded.  This is how it's done if you're going to play with the big boys.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3440" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1325" RevisionGUID="fb348f5e-1f3c-490a-818a-0bad4a2d4a73" CreationDate="2014-02-03T17:54:10.440" UserDisplayName="user702" Comment="edited title" Text="Why create invoice as a freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3441" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="1338" RevisionGUID="fa8f3676-02f9-4708-b198-8d49b33681b8" CreationDate="2014-02-04T15:01:21.260" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/226525/how-to-deal-with-this-unknown-person-call-who-is-asking-for-help" />
  <row Id="3442" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1338" RevisionGUID="691afa48-f841-47a6-866e-d3370fc4ac5d" CreationDate="2014-02-03T12:09:14.880" UserId="1921" Text="This has happened with me multiple times that I got from some unknown person who gives reference from my known indirect contacts..  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And start directly putting his/her needs that I want so and so thing to be done, can you please start doing it now or as soon as possible without even asking me about I would like to work or what they would pay me to get work done or working terms..  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even when I ask for payment they say,&#xD;&#xA;&gt;oh we can even pay you if you want to get paid for that work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or sometimes  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;We were just thinking if you can help us out on phone itself&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;which means I will nothing - Is there any chance of earning here as I am not aware how to act in such case?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am totally surprised by such approaches of people asking me to help them without anything for me to earn in return.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. How should I handle such things into benefit of own and they getting want they want?&#xD;&#xA;2. How cash in where people ask for help over phone only?&#xD;&#xA;3. Sometimes people say they will pay after they get payment from their prospects and never return to pay, So is there any secure way to get paid with such?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3443" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1338" RevisionGUID="691afa48-f841-47a6-866e-d3370fc4ac5d" CreationDate="2014-02-03T12:09:14.880" UserId="1921" Text="How to deal with this unknown person call who is asking for help" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3444" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1338" RevisionGUID="691afa48-f841-47a6-866e-d3370fc4ac5d" CreationDate="2014-02-03T12:09:14.880" UserId="1921" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3445" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1339" RevisionGUID="829df89b-462e-4bc2-bea2-67963fea5378" CreationDate="2014-02-04T15:36:06.407" UserId="1861" Text="&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A potential client requested an estimate for an pretty large e-commerce website with ~20 pages pages, item customization plugin, live chat, newsletter, slideshow, automated e-mails, payment processor and lots of different functionality that will require 430+ hours of work. We will be doing everything from setting up the db, servers, design, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The entire estimate came close to $30,000. The client owns a very large company and can afford it and has many potential projects in the future (so he said). He did not complain about the price, he simply said he'll compare all the estimates and let me know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Was my estimate reasonable? How much would 'professional' web development studio / company charge for such a project? I would hate to lose this client, I am not sure how to proceed, what would be a good way to respond to him wanting to 'compare estimates' in a way that slightly persuades him towards picking me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I appreciate any suggestions, thanks in advance!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3446" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1339" RevisionGUID="829df89b-462e-4bc2-bea2-67963fea5378" CreationDate="2014-02-04T15:36:06.407" UserId="1861" Text="Client comparing estimates" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3447" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1339" RevisionGUID="829df89b-462e-4bc2-bea2-67963fea5378" CreationDate="2014-02-04T15:36:06.407" UserId="1861" Text="|client|contracts|freelance-websites|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3448" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1338" RevisionGUID="a8942f56-dcae-43a8-a6d1-691f7373607b" CreationDate="2014-02-04T17:28:35.303" UserId="1921" Comment="retagged as per freelancing related tags" Text="|client|legal|payment-terms|negotiation|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3449" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1340" RevisionGUID="8d3aa62f-ce5b-459f-8f99-d5a6f7488679" CreationDate="2014-02-04T18:06:47.023" UserId="517" Text="As with any project, you separate it to simple units (tasks, features). Then you estimate time in work hours needed for any of the small unit. Then you sum all and get a total of work hours needed to finish the project. You can add certain percentage (10%, 50%, 100%, etc.) to QA and bug fixing and research. In the end you multiply the TOTAL with your hourly rate and you will get how much you should charge the project so that your every work hours is paid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, deciding on your final price is up to you. You can decrease or increase it as long as you feel you are not losing anything in the project and as long as your are competitive. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3450" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1341" RevisionGUID="31d82f75-d733-4c18-9d44-ff58486f76d9" CreationDate="2014-02-04T18:11:37.060" UserId="517" Text="As guys suggested above, you can use time tracking tools to take snapshot of your desktop and to track time. But even then it will prove that you only worked. For example, a client will look at 8 hours of desktop snapshots without knowing what you did. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far, **the best mechanism I came across** is a system of estimation and approval. How does it work? You make a list of features, then you estimate price (or work hours) for each ticket. The client can verify estimation with anyone if he wants. The thing is that you **don't start working on a task** before the client gave you green light. This way, if he's ready to finance implementation of a feature X which takes Y hours, then you don't have to prove yourself. You can be honest and tell him if it took less time or you can simply charge him estimated work hours. As we all know that some tasks you will finish sooner and some later. In the end, no one is on loss. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3451" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1342" RevisionGUID="9387f2d3-216c-437b-9674-a62401ba913b" CreationDate="2014-02-04T18:18:19.070" UserId="517" Text="Regardless of a person is known or unknown, you should do like in any project. You connect with it, discuss all details, give your estimation, set milestones, take upfront (or not) and start working. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But you are probably asking about situations where you do all tasks until the estimation, and the clients says you're too expensive. Because of this, it is wise you state your hourly rate in advance so the client can immediately say if he has money for you or not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After the client is aware of your rates and you invite him for meeting to discuss project details, 99% of fake clients will never attend this meeting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if you simply don't want to work, you can always be &quot;politically (or freelancingly) correct&quot; and say that you are overloaded with other project and you cannot accept his project. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3452" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1343" RevisionGUID="c051c04b-55a4-494f-a33a-e633370aa956" CreationDate="2014-02-04T18:25:36.693" UserId="517" Text="&gt; ...that will require 430+ hours of work... I would hate to lose this client...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only thing you can do is to lower your hourly rate. You may lower it to your minimum hourly but not below. And you must also know that with large clients, even with the lowest rates, the quality must be superb. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The golden rule in business is that no matter how hard you push, you can never win some projects. We once bid a $20k project and thought we were expensive, the client said he will think about it, and then he chose a company who charged him $50k+.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So with large clients, it's never about money. The want top-notch quality and the widest range of services. What does this mean? It means that the estimation must be such that it replies to any side question he may have. For example, did you offer retainer agreement or did you mention support or 24/7 hot line, etc. The other company will have all this on paper and on paper the other company will look better, even thou they will charge him $40k. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3453" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1344" RevisionGUID="5579a206-3c9a-4b23-acf1-c6d5f6993ef7" CreationDate="2014-02-04T19:52:01.777" UserId="1706" Text="If I received the same call and the client started barking requests at me before I could even figure out to whom I was speaking, I think I'd become a bit defensive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think it's always important, as a creative professional, that you're able to engage with the client at a certain pace.  My &quot;pace&quot; includes:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Who are you?&#xD;&#xA; - What line of business are you in?&#xD;&#xA; - What are you looking to accomplish -- in summary?&#xD;&#xA; - What are your constraints - time, money, or quality?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After these elements, I can gauge - through the speaker's technical depth, or lack of it, what I'm dealing with, and make a decision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyone who rushes me to the end is going to set off some alarms.  If such a prospective client went to the doctor or dentist and tried to rush directly into the examination room, the physician or dentist would probably refuse to see him/her, and for good reason.  I can't attest to the finer points of your system of determining whether to engage with a client or not -- because they're all different -- but if the prospect makes you uncomfortable, back things up a bit, or turn the prospect away if necessary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3454" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1345" RevisionGUID="15010431-6594-414b-a353-e0cba2416174" CreationDate="2014-02-04T20:24:11.163" UserId="1931" Text="We have a project at hand where in we have to develop a mobile application that runs in both android and iOS. We are 3 people working on it. Client doesnt care what technology we use for development. We are making a hybrid app with JS,HTML,CSS, phonegap and also native coding in some places.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Application is not so complex. But we are all newbies to it so learning and implementing things. Now the tough part is doing cost estimation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are the things to consider while estimating costs?&#xD;&#xA;We live in Bangalore, India&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your answers are appreciated.." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3455" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1345" RevisionGUID="15010431-6594-414b-a353-e0cba2416174" CreationDate="2014-02-04T20:24:11.163" UserId="1931" Text="Cost Estimation for mobile app development" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3456" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1345" RevisionGUID="15010431-6594-414b-a353-e0cba2416174" CreationDate="2014-02-04T20:24:11.163" UserId="1931" Text="|price|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3457" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1325" RevisionGUID="a6f17239-267a-4a1e-affb-f8535c1a9036" CreationDate="2014-02-05T07:35:30.090" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/430967904491044864" />
  <row Id="3458" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1346" RevisionGUID="23947d0c-730f-44d5-af8f-fda6593a8293" CreationDate="2014-02-05T09:11:33.633" UserId="1390" Text="First of all you need to derive the minimum hourly rate for your location.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you need to calculate the time required for doing the things and just multiply it with hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here one thing you need to consider in mind is that you also consider the testing part in the time estimation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the beginning try to calculate how much money you need for living in 1 month. The divide it to 4 weeks and that is money you have to earn in 1 week. You may further divide it with 40 to get your hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And this is the MIN hourly rate only IF you work 40 hours a week. Many freelancers will double or triple their hourly rates because you can hardly work 40 hours a week as a beginner and you need to earn your living somehow. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thats all enjoy freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;refer the answer of Peter here http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1215/cost-of-an-android-app-newbie-help" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3459" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1347" RevisionGUID="b4bb56af-5fbd-4d0a-91e1-9c6aeab71140" CreationDate="2014-02-05T17:35:43.823" UserId="1323" Text="I'm an incorporated freelancer with a company name that is very hard for Westerners to pronounce, and most of my prospects are in the West.  I know this based on hearing a lot of recruiters and others try to pronounce or spell my company's name.  This was confirmed when I ran a survey in which I read &quot;The name of the website is (my domain name)&quot; and none of the 50+ respondents could spell it properly.  So I am renaming my company and trying to narrow down from three possible name ideas.  This could be a long process involving analytics with several online ads because I want to pick the most effective name.  It won't be - and hasn't been - an immediate decision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Currently, I am prospecting for new clients via email using an email address on another domain I bought, which is keyword-based and most likely not the final name.  (**Edit:** Most of these prospects have never heard of me before.)  Here's the format of my email signature:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Regards,&#xD;&#xA;    David (last name)&#xD;&#xA;    Owner &amp; User Experience Designer, (Official company name)&#xD;&#xA;    (official company name's website) | (website corresponding to this email address)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you were doing a rebrand of your company and the new company name wasn't final, how would you approach prospecting - both in the initial contact email and when you're talking with the prospect?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3460" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1347" RevisionGUID="b4bb56af-5fbd-4d0a-91e1-9c6aeab71140" CreationDate="2014-02-05T17:35:43.823" UserId="1323" Text="Looking for clients while rebranding my company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3461" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1347" RevisionGUID="b4bb56af-5fbd-4d0a-91e1-9c6aeab71140" CreationDate="2014-02-05T17:35:43.823" UserId="1323" Text="|attracting-clients|marketing|branding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3462" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1348" RevisionGUID="5b0113b2-ada8-47bc-97da-1b171f79616a" CreationDate="2014-02-05T21:53:35.600" UserId="1943" Text="I live in PA (in the USA) and am not sure if I should be collecting sales tax for my part-time consulting and Web Development business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm registered as a Sole Proprietorship with the state and have applied for and received my federal EIN from the IRS.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've tried reading the state.pa.us site for our state IRS rules, but there was a lot there, I'm not a lawyer, and it was overwhelming.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would it be acceptable to take the easy way out and place the verbiage &quot;Please pay all applicable Use Tax for services provided&quot; at the bottom of my invoice?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've heard that services are not taxable unless you provide tangible goods, but the PA IRS site makes this confusing and really doesn't just come right out and say what I need to understand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there tax on my Web Development but not on my Consulting? Neither? Both? Why does tax code in this country have to be so confusing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3463" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1348" RevisionGUID="5b0113b2-ada8-47bc-97da-1b171f79616a" CreationDate="2014-02-05T21:53:35.600" UserId="1943" Text="PA Sales Tax On Consulting and Programming" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3464" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1348" RevisionGUID="5b0113b2-ada8-47bc-97da-1b171f79616a" CreationDate="2014-02-05T21:53:35.600" UserId="1943" Text="|freelance-websites|taxes|usa|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3465" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1349" RevisionGUID="84c04e27-eef8-4ed5-91d8-4617111cf90f" CreationDate="2014-02-06T13:10:29.860" UserId="1950" Text="You can make an agreement with a salesperson and offer them a portion of profit. This is a lot easier and you can concentrate on your work rather than social relations." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3466" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1350" RevisionGUID="80470782-d48b-4edc-8c1a-12b33e3e43a8" CreationDate="2014-02-06T15:50:25.470" UserId="1945" Text="If there's a duplicate, please direct me to. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to collect final payments from users who runs away after taking the product and paying only half ? - only (mostly) applies to projects bid online. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Multiple times fellow freelancers had talked about facing such unfortunate incidents. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is a proven model or method to release product by parts and secure final part of the payments?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3467" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1350" RevisionGUID="80470782-d48b-4edc-8c1a-12b33e3e43a8" CreationDate="2014-02-06T15:50:25.470" UserId="1945" Text="Collecting final payments" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3468" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1350" RevisionGUID="80470782-d48b-4edc-8c1a-12b33e3e43a8" CreationDate="2014-02-06T15:50:25.470" UserId="1945" Text="|payment-terms|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3469" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1351" RevisionGUID="ba9970d0-3ef6-488b-b34a-334ecb96280c" CreationDate="2014-02-06T16:23:25.607" UserId="1706" Text="I'm gonna assume you mean web development and related work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Don't put any work on your client's servers until it's completely paid for.  No matter how much they beg, plead, or try to make you feel guilty, don't do it.&#xD;&#xA; 2. If it's possible, it's an even better idea if you don't let them access the work except through a remote desktop situation, so nobody can steal any content." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3470" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1345" RevisionGUID="f57e9db8-e7bc-44c1-8618-15e29e4b0fc6" CreationDate="2014-02-06T16:35:31.903" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/431466195418898432" />
  <row Id="3471" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1352" RevisionGUID="93e90e7e-4a51-49ce-aac5-0c4ddd36177d" CreationDate="2014-02-06T17:13:00.983" UserId="1105" Text="Short answer: Definitely!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long Answer (2 examples I know of):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is definitely required in e.g. Germany, Austria.Both even have (lacking a better translation)_Restricted Businesses_.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Germany it is not usually possible without a proper formal education to freelance in IT, you have to create a company which has implications on taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Austria it is possible there are at least 3 options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Freelance -- as in take a job, charge for it, deliver, .....&#xD;&#xA;* &quot;_free employee_&quot; -- a special contract which practically gives you most of the pros (and cons) of being an employee but usually at higher rates...&#xD;&#xA;* Creating a &quot;proper business&quot;[1]. Quite a bit more paperwork but more freedom in terms of what you are allowed to do, how you can employ people and how much of your private property will be lost in case you go bankrupt -- also within that option there are about a gazillion options hidden...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: This is very subjective to my culture and not meant negative in any way. It is simply how you are tought to think about businesses..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3472" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1353" RevisionGUID="c4ba264d-20c5-4605-b162-a74344af3ac8" CreationDate="2014-02-06T17:17:02.860" UserId="1788" Text="I want to work online.Can anybody suggest me trusted freelancing websites for electronics related project ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank You." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3473" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1353" RevisionGUID="c4ba264d-20c5-4605-b162-a74344af3ac8" CreationDate="2014-02-06T17:17:02.860" UserId="1788" Text="Trusted freelancing websites" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3474" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1353" RevisionGUID="c4ba264d-20c5-4605-b162-a74344af3ac8" CreationDate="2014-02-06T17:17:02.860" UserId="1788" Text="|freelance-websites|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3475" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1353" RevisionGUID="0ace3b56-00b7-4e61-a413-9fcd15ed5dd5" CreationDate="2014-02-06T18:32:10.997" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="3477" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="1173" RevisionGUID="06e48cab-f0ad-44c6-bcea-63722e3cbf11" CreationDate="2014-02-06T18:39:05.343" UserId="75" Comment="11" />
  <row Id="3478" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1354" RevisionGUID="99a7eff5-bdcd-420f-bb32-7d1e5016384d" CreationDate="2014-02-06T20:51:34.400" UserId="1953" Text="I estimated X hours. As I showed them the progress, they started adding more things to do that was outside what was expected or was not portrayed in the beginning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I asked for 50% of the original estimate (tiny budget) but they want all the features that was added along the way until even half of the agreed upon payment that was supposed to have been made earlier on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I thought if they can't even pay 50% of the budget when I reached alpha stage, and that they are wanting all these extra features, I simply must bill them for more. I billed them for another X hours including the extra time that went in implementing their other requests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I do at this point? It's likely that this client will walk away and probably attempt it with another freelancer. I've decided it's not worth it and other they agree to the new X hours and allow me to finish.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's super complicated now. I totally regret doing jobs on these freelancer websites." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3479" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1354" RevisionGUID="99a7eff5-bdcd-420f-bb32-7d1e5016384d" CreationDate="2014-02-06T20:51:34.400" UserId="1953" Text="Did I deal with a client squeezing extra work properly?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3480" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1354" RevisionGUID="99a7eff5-bdcd-420f-bb32-7d1e5016384d" CreationDate="2014-02-06T20:51:34.400" UserId="1953" Text="|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3481" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1355" RevisionGUID="5d05d843-48ca-4f63-8a1a-cf86c8f27afb" CreationDate="2014-02-06T22:17:58.537" UserId="517" Text="I'd firstly say: don't do cheap underpriced projects!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, you conduct seems OK. I would do the same. You agreed on one things, they started adding new features without wanting to compensate extra work, so it's smart you froze the work. Don't abandon the client, just keep asking him will you complete the project or not. Once he pays one milestone, go to another, and so on. If the sum is so low and the whole project is one milestone, then simply ask them to pay you 50% or some percentage. This will show you how fake or right they are. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Did you make official proposal by making a list of features and giving your price for that specific list? If not, then it's your flaw and you can't blame the client for that (not saying you have to work for free). For us &quot;share content to 5 social services&quot; means implementing 5 SDKs and to the client it means &quot;adding 5 texts share and binding the text to sharing in max 1 hour&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3482" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1356" RevisionGUID="f5373121-52d2-4ccd-acbc-8441e6eda5fa" CreationDate="2014-02-06T22:20:47.290" UserId="517" Text="To add to codenoire. He talked only about the securing your sources, not about payment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For secure payment you can use several methods:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Milestones&#xD;&#xA;2. Weekly or bi-weekly payments by counting work hours spent on specific set of tickets&#xD;&#xA;3. Loading money to some escrow service" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3483" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1357" RevisionGUID="2f130ce1-9eb6-4178-b7fb-da3c73e854f1" CreationDate="2014-02-07T00:13:37.453" UserId="1706" Text="It seems that you need to formalize your change-request process a bit better.  Yes, allow the client to make changes along the way.  But if you are charging 50% up front for the initial project, generate an estimate on the change requests also and charge 50% on the change request before starting any work.  You have to be fair to yourself.  If a client figures out that you're not going to establish good boundaries about the work you're doing for them, then they will drive you into the ground.  There's no reason to be too upset about it, just handle your business better up front so you won't be disappointed in the end." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3487" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1353" RevisionGUID="4235dc04-784c-4958-96d5-e029aab810f7" CreationDate="2014-02-07T01:08:15.827" UserId="1788" Comment="improved formating" Text="I want to work online.Can anybody suggest me trusted freelancing websites for electronics related project ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Actually I tried freelancer.com.But there is most of buyers are fake.In beginning they are talking like they want to give you projects but first they have to test you first and they asking some other question or task ( they give you their work and tell you that that is sample work),after sample work they just invisible or blocked by freelancer (fake accounts).Also I read many negative reviews about freelancer.com.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I heard about two good websites: peopleperhour.com and fiverr.com.These sites are good for work ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So please tell me trusted online freelancing website that originally help you.    &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank You.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3488" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="1353" RevisionGUID="1daac962-8fae-40fc-9c64-36ab5cf02c6e" CreationDate="2014-02-07T01:15:04.787" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="3490" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1350" RevisionGUID="ea86a7f2-1889-4793-a9f9-29d20ffc7b81" CreationDate="2014-02-07T04:35:31.083" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/431647387367784448" />
  <row Id="3497" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1361" RevisionGUID="468bbacb-0ef8-4280-aaaa-3df85b56717d" CreationDate="2014-02-07T07:00:57.010" UserId="1953" Text="At the time of answering an email, I quoted a company overseas by X/hr based on the assumption that I would be building with ABC technology stack. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During discussion over the phone, it turns out we will be using XYZ and ABC technology stack.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working with XYZ and ABC will require things outside of &quot;coding&quot;, meaning it takes time to research to find best practices, quality assurance, documentation etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I explain to a client I meet next week that the hourly rate I quoted will be higher? How much higher would be justified?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, I feel that my rate is quite low and feel like I should correct it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3498" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1361" RevisionGUID="468bbacb-0ef8-4280-aaaa-3df85b56717d" CreationDate="2014-02-07T07:00:57.010" UserId="1953" Text="How do you explain a higher rate in person than what you've quoted in an email?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3499" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1361" RevisionGUID="468bbacb-0ef8-4280-aaaa-3df85b56717d" CreationDate="2014-02-07T07:00:57.010" UserId="1953" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3500" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1349" RevisionGUID="80562027-8ad9-44f5-9426-f69e5ecbe681" CreationDate="2014-02-07T07:21:33.680" UserId="1950" Comment="added 857 characters in body" Text="You can make an agreement with a salesperson and offer them a portion of profit. This is a lot easier and you can concentrate on your work rather than social relations. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Main advantage of this approach is you won't promise a profit to someone which you don't have, so it is better than hiring a salesperson. It may seem a little bit &quot;I am doing all the work, why would I share my profit&quot; but being able to attract customers, have a good relation with them, getting feedbacks and most importantly convincing them is actually a talent and takes time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Convincing part is most important because as you are a freelancer, you probably won't have some kind of contract. And some customers tend to give up at the end of the project, start to request many nonsenseble things to delay pay date. An experienced salesperson is usually good at managing these type of things, because he/she will do this for also himself/herself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, it has a motivation part, you will feel like a team and will be able to more projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3501" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1362" RevisionGUID="b5b42d7b-f42c-4728-95d7-2e2afbee96cb" CreationDate="2014-02-07T13:47:56.147" UserId="1964" Text="There are some web applications (that also have a mobile app) that you can use to help track your time. One I have in mind is called [Harvest](http://www.getharvest.com/), they have a free plan and paids one as well (depending on how many clients you handle at a time, the free option may work fine for you). You can break down your time by creating tasks, e.g. Design, Development, Research, and Administrative (time dealing with the client). The purpose of doing this is you can then have Harvest generate an invoice for you and send that to your client. The client can then have a breakdown of exactly what you spent your time on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But my honest opinion is that if they want to know how much time you spent on each specific task, such as designing &quot;A&quot; and writing copy for &quot;B&quot;, and so on, then they have a trust issue. If they don't trust you enough to handle yourself on the specifics and want to micromanage you, then you should look at your situation and see if you need that client. Don't be afraid to fire them, you don't need someone questioning every move you make. You were hired by them, that means you were professional enough for them to decide to (hopefully) pay you for your time and work. You can try talking to them, see what is causing the situation, but sometimes some clients just feel like if they don't have their hands in a project all the time then they aren't doing their job. Those kinds of clients can be a drain on you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3502" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1363" RevisionGUID="fffe6d81-cdba-435a-817b-6748952d0b9f" CreationDate="2014-02-07T13:59:23.480" UserId="1964" Text="There is nothing wrong with adjusting your quote. You need to understand and really believe that. If you don't, it can be heard in your voice (if you are on a call) or it can be seen in body language.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You quoted an amount based on an assumption from an email. You had limited information on the scope of the project and based on what information was given to you, you felt the original quote was appropriate. However, after further discussion you found that the scope changed to include other aspects that will consume additional time and resources. Based on the change of scope, the rate will change.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best advice I can give you is that it's okay if a client thinks that you aren't being fair in your rate change. The best thing you can reply to them with is that the scope and terms changed, and your quote is tied to those. If they don't want a quote change then they need to be verbose about their project requirements from the beginning. You can't give an accurate quote without all the information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they protest about it, be firm. This is your time and energy being spent, and you don't get those back." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3503" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1353" RevisionGUID="96bd2b7f-f8a6-43ec-802f-6507cccf0e94" CreationDate="2014-02-07T17:30:16.530" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, structure of question (moving questions to bottom)" Text="I want to work online. I've tried freelancer.com, but most of the buyers seem fake. At first, they talk as if they'd like to give you projects, but they have to test you and ask other questions or give other tasks. After completing these tasks, they become invisible or become blocked by freelancer.com as fake accounts. I've also read many negative reviews about that site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I heard about two good websites: peopleperhour.com and fiverr.com. Are these sites are good for work? Can anyone please suggest trusted freelancing websites for electronics-related projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3504" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1353" RevisionGUID="96bd2b7f-f8a6-43ec-802f-6507cccf0e94" CreationDate="2014-02-07T17:30:16.530" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 204" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3505" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1364" RevisionGUID="7c016781-b6eb-4968-bfe1-d72b1691e5cd" CreationDate="2014-02-07T20:04:27.210" UserId="1524" Text="You're a victim of scope creep. It's not uncommon, it happens to many, including yours truly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Possibly the ideal way to head it off before it happens is to create a mutually-agreed upon list of features for the current project or iteration, and set it in stone. Add requests for additional features or changes to a list and revisit that at a later point. Focus on the current scope first. If the client *must* have the feature/change done sooner, then discuss the possibility of trading off a feature. If not, then work on a revised time/cost budget. Ideally the details of how this work are built into your contract. If not, get an agreement in writing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3506" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1365" RevisionGUID="d3c8d448-db84-48b3-9040-ec558adf889c" CreationDate="2014-02-07T20:15:39.987" UserId="517" Text="Andrew in his [reply][1] showed us what should Retainer Agreement hold. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I started writing a Retainer Agreement and it became more complex that I thought it would. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Immediately write Retainer for 1 year or offer 3,6,9,12-month periods? Freelancers would prefer 1-year contract of course, while clients would prefer smaller chunks. &#xD;&#xA;2. How many work hours to offer per 1 month? I usually work immediately on those fixes so I cannot offer 40 work hours per week since it's not realistic + clients will find it too expensive&#xD;&#xA;3. What happens if a client buys 500 work hours for 5 months and we use only 250? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I think of new ones, I will edit this question. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/565/retainer-agreements" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3507" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1365" RevisionGUID="d3c8d448-db84-48b3-9040-ec558adf889c" CreationDate="2014-02-07T20:15:39.987" UserId="517" Text="How to properly make Retainer Agreement for IT company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3508" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1365" RevisionGUID="d3c8d448-db84-48b3-9040-ec558adf889c" CreationDate="2014-02-07T20:15:39.987" UserId="517" Text="|retainer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3509" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1366" RevisionGUID="439b9bd2-4a43-4c2b-aa59-b05939ec1f21" CreationDate="2014-02-07T22:41:45.320" UserId="127" Text="One of the glories of being a freelancer is that you can be flexible. So you can craft a retainer agreement that makes sense to you, and it doesn't even have to be the same for each client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding your specific questions...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **Duration?** There are advantages and disadvantages to a lengthy contract. One disadvantage is that if it turns out the customer is a poor retainer client, you can opt out of the agreement sooner. At any rate, you might try adjusting the rate depending on the duration, if a longer agreement is your goal. That will encourage clients to choose the longer duration. (Personally, my agreements allow either party to opt out with 60 days notice.) Also, you can point out that a longer agreement locks in the rate for that time period, a shorter agreement could mean your rates go up sooner.&#xD;&#xA;* **How many work hours**? I confess - this isn't an issue for me. I have 3 clients who use a retainer agreement with me, but we don't do it by number of hours so I don't have a set number of hours. Then again, I don't generally charge by the hour. My agreement typically covers answering questions, troubleshooting problems, and bug fixes. It doesn't include new projects. I've never had a client abuse this (but I work hard to maintain relationships with only very high quality customers.)&#xD;&#xA;* **What if they don't use the # of hours?** This is one reason why I don't charge by the hour. The client may feel like they got a raw deal if they don't use the hours, even if they had the benefit of being at the top of your queue. But here's what I'd argue to the client: because they purchased the hours, you had to set aside the time and couldn't take other work. To be fair to them, you'll have to help them keep careful track of the hours so that they can appropriately use the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3510" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1367" RevisionGUID="3d28968a-623a-4f34-bc39-219e65074ff5" CreationDate="2014-02-07T23:31:01.687" UserId="100" Text="I run a website (let’s say, a blog) as a hobby. I have to pay for hosting, I don’t earn anything with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I want to include advertisements/affiliate links, so it’s likely that I will earn some money with this website. (Depending on the website, it might become *much* money.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does that make me a freelancer? Or, in other words, **do I have to register a business** or something like that? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(I’m mostly interested in Germany, but it might also be interesting if there are big differences in other countries.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3511" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1367" RevisionGUID="3d28968a-623a-4f34-bc39-219e65074ff5" CreationDate="2014-02-07T23:31:01.687" UserId="100" Text="(When) is a business required if getting paid by advertisers for a hobby website?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3512" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1367" RevisionGUID="3d28968a-623a-4f34-bc39-219e65074ff5" CreationDate="2014-02-07T23:31:01.687" UserId="100" Text="|registration|webmasters|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3513" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1368" RevisionGUID="1491cc50-e2c4-4435-9fb4-ca5025f7a249" CreationDate="2014-02-08T05:32:07.437" UserId="1452" Text="&#xD;&#xA;##Personally, I let them know that &quot;I'm a late riser&quot; and what my typical hours before we settle on pay.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###If they insist I be available before 11 am, I insist on an increase in my hourly rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being open up front, and negotiating adequate compensation accordingly prevents future disgruntlements." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3514" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1369" RevisionGUID="444cab03-02e7-4429-b9bd-ab35f3d4353b" CreationDate="2014-02-08T09:14:44.093" UserId="1909" Text="I'm not sure I get your question right : you gave to your prospective client an hourly rate. This hourly rate may be too low in absolute, but I don't see any reason that the rate may change depending on the technology you will need to use. What can change is the number of hours you will spend on the tasks : if the technology is complicated, then you need more hours, but there is no reason to change the price of the hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem here is that the client will have difficulties to understand why a given task need so much hours to be completed (the real reason is that you don't know very well the technology that must be used, but you probably don't want to tell that to your client).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think that for this time there is not much you can do. You can see this project as an investment on a new technology, since the next time you will work with it, you will not need the extra time for documentation, etc.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3515" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1353" RevisionGUID="4bd54ce5-f2ba-48de-83e2-dd84417b4aec" CreationDate="2014-02-08T13:21:27.243" UserId="1452" Comment="Revised the question so to avoid opinions about which sites are best" Text="I want to work online. I've tried freelancer.com, but most of the buyers seem fake. At first, they talk as if they'd like to give you projects, but they have to test you and ask other questions or give other tasks. After completing these tasks, they become invisible or become blocked by freelancer.com as fake accounts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I avoid this?   Do all freelancing sites suffer from this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3516" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1353" RevisionGUID="4bd54ce5-f2ba-48de-83e2-dd84417b4aec" CreationDate="2014-02-08T13:21:27.243" UserId="1452" Comment="Revised the question so to avoid opinions about which sites are best" Text="How can I prove my competence without working for free?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3517" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1353" RevisionGUID="4bd54ce5-f2ba-48de-83e2-dd84417b4aec" CreationDate="2014-02-08T13:21:27.243" Comment="Proposed by 1452 approved by 61, 1788 edit id of 205" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3518" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1370" RevisionGUID="0ae7ba67-de9f-402b-a64f-fa904d072110" CreationDate="2014-02-08T13:39:55.847" UserId="61" Text="There are several key considerations here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Risks**. Getting into any financial affair is accompanied with certain risks. These risks are mutual; it is theoretically possible that contractor runs away with the advance payment **or** the client runs away before paying the final payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Trust**. Your goal is to build trustful relations so that the risks went away. There are many proven ways to do that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Take small tasks first. If a small task gets *off the hook*, the parties minimize their losses;&#xD;&#xA;* Scheduling. When you get to bigger tasks, make sure they are scheduled into smaller chunks. Ensure you have three key things defined well:&#xD;&#xA;    * Scope — *what* to be done;&#xD;&#xA;    * Timeline — *when* to be done;&#xD;&#xA;    * Cost — *how much* to be paid;&#xD;&#xA;* Get familiar with the one you are working with. The best way to know your partner is getting out from some problem situation. Of course, don't *make* such situation, but if it occasionally happens, look carefully and expect they will look at you as well;&#xD;&#xA;* Use secure payments systems. Most of freelancers' Web sites have kind of escrow system that withdraw payment from the task owner and let them be released to the contractor as soon as the task is completed. In case if the task owner refuses to release money, the dispute service will review the case and decide how to proceed. You may assume escrow services take significant interest, kind of 10%;&#xD;&#xA;* In order to employ the dispute system, make sure you **keep the key communication and all key artifacts via the escrow system**. It would be unable to help you if there were no communication recorded.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having everything above in place, you will eliminate most risks, build trustful relationship with clients, and finally you will be able to concentrate on your work, not on the risks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3519" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1367" RevisionGUID="22553aa3-84ce-41f1-9d29-e26be9e43d99" CreationDate="2014-02-08T16:38:54.440" UserId="1452" Comment="Clarified title question and body text" Text="I run a website as a hobby. I have to pay for hosting, I don’t earn anything with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to include advertisements/affiliate links, so it’s likely that I will earn some money with this website. (Potentially a lot of money.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does that make me a freelancer? Or,  **do I have to register a business** or do I need to do something else? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(I’m mostly interested in Germany, but it might also be interesting if there are big differences in other countries.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3520" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1367" RevisionGUID="22553aa3-84ce-41f1-9d29-e26be9e43d99" CreationDate="2014-02-08T16:38:54.440" UserId="1452" Comment="Clarified title question and body text" Text="In Germany do I need to file as a business in-order to receive ad revenue?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3521" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1367" RevisionGUID="22553aa3-84ce-41f1-9d29-e26be9e43d99" CreationDate="2014-02-08T16:38:54.440" Comment="Proposed by 1452 approved by 61, 127 edit id of 206" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3522" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1371" RevisionGUID="410175bc-393c-4dc9-abec-84f3c54f6d7a" CreationDate="2014-02-08T21:37:57.027" UserId="75" Text="Although Avonelle Lovhaug has an excellent write up, I'll give my two cents as an answer. First off, the only retainers I've used have been with 2 very good clients that I've known for years; they know me well, and I know them well. When I did the retainer agreements, one of them was a lawyer, and I trust him to draw up the contract, and allow areas for us to write in numbers and dates. The reason? It's a legal agreement, and I can change it as needed in certain areas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What the lawyer did was sit me down, and ask me in plain English what I wanted. I explained what I wanted, and they added some more suggestions that seemed good. For example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Date it starts&#xD;&#xA;- Monthly Renewal date (if applicable)&#xD;&#xA;- Notice before cancelling the contract&#xD;&#xA;- My right to stop working if the retainer is used up&#xD;&#xA;- What hours I'm available for regular work (my normal price) and my emergency rate (double my normal price). This also included how long of a response time I was guaranteeing, as well as offering the ability to send in someone else if I'm not there. (*Personal Note: I am one of the higher ups for other IT contractors, so I know many of them. I've brought in others for helping with projects before, and most are available at a phone call for me if I'm not available for a project or emergency*)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then, of course, blank fields for the customer's business name and address, contact information, etc. The clients usually have their own agreement(s) to sign as well (i.e. Non Disclosure Agreement), and they get signed at the same time. Now, back on topic...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With a retainer, you need to remember that you are basically becoming &quot;on call&quot; for the client, and usually also need to give priority service. Because of this, I do not feel I would do more than two or possibly three at a time, unless I have staff under me. I don't think the clients would feel good to hear &quot;Sorry, but I got another priority client who paid the retainer this month, so you'll have to wait your turn&quot;. Now, back to your 3 questions...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. My retainers are unlimited, and sold as blocks of time; usually, 30 hours each time. My clients do not require me to be full time at their office, unless we are doing a project (i.e. refreshing all systems). Because of this, I know I will work between 15 and 30 hours (15 to account for any &quot;emergency&quot; calls). I keep track of it with an invoice sent from my phone billed to the account instead of asking for money. Once it says that the time has been used, new retainer starts up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Again, depending on your industry, this will vary greatly. For me, when I do good work in IT, I only need a couple hours of maintenance per month per client. I usually reserve the first half of a day doing maintenance/billings. Once that's done, it's just work for the rest of my time. I do not do retainers with an end date, just a length of time they need to give before cancelling the contract when they have money left over &quot;in the account&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Again, because I don't do the traditional retainer you are thinking of, this doesn't apply to me; what I would probably propose though is to have a certain cut off that will roll over to the next month; for example, 75% of whatever is leftover from the previous month gets pushed into the next month, free of charge. Again, I don't do this, but something you may want to consider. My reasoning for not giving ALL the money is because you still need to be paid just for being on call, period. Even when you aren't working, you need to be making money since you are essentially promising to be available." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3523" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1361" RevisionGUID="f9e27768-571e-4944-9504-ca1c1c9c8b38" CreationDate="2014-02-09T10:35:47.210" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/432462827451064320" />
  <row Id="3524" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1372" RevisionGUID="27200847-9fbd-4f55-a442-cc311d942fa7" CreationDate="2014-02-09T17:49:59.983" UserId="1975" Text="In my 10 years freelancing I've found the best ways to avoid this are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- be clear on payment arrangement to start, leaving no vague areas.  Hourly with timesheets, monthly, project based.&#xD;&#xA;- be clear on when payment is expected, exactly, before you start.  Don't just assume when you finish it you'll be paid, state it clearly in an email with confirmation.&#xD;&#xA;- Get paid ongoingly, or milestones, so the final payment is not the majority part.  Half up front, half on finish.  Or divided monthly.  I never go over a month without a milestone payment.&#xD;&#xA;- always send a formal invoice the day of a milestone or month is reached.  Don't delay it days or weeks.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If payment isn't received:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- for short term, remind.  But eventually you'll need to stop working until caught up.&#xD;&#xA;- if final payment, remind on increments. 10 days, 20, 30.  Formal invoices and certified mail if needed.   &#xD;&#xA;- final recourse is small claims court with documentation of payment schedule and confirmation of completed work.  most people don't let it get that far.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note:&#xD;&#xA;you can protect the work you've done for payment, but you can't do anything to harm their website or business as retaliation, or you'll end up in trouble.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3525" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1350" RevisionGUID="8a23aeb4-c1cb-4486-9541-c2410588510f" CreationDate="2014-02-09T19:43:44.050" UserId="64" Comment="edited to remove meta-commentary and fix spelling and grammar" Text="How to collect final payments from users who run away after taking the product and paying only half? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is a proven model or method to release product by parts and secure final part of the payments?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3526" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1350" RevisionGUID="8a23aeb4-c1cb-4486-9541-c2410588510f" CreationDate="2014-02-09T19:43:44.050" UserId="64" Comment="edited to remove meta-commentary and fix spelling and grammar" Text="Collecting final payments from clients who disappear without making full payment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3527" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1373" RevisionGUID="3c83e338-2fa3-4e35-ad03-dcd5f0144aac" CreationDate="2014-02-10T00:29:22.557" UserId="72" Text="I used [Toggl][1] for time tracking, and I'm pretty diligent about starting a new task for pretty much every thing I'm working on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently, while working at home, I had to use the restroom, and afterwards grabbed a small snack. After returning to my computer, I saw that Toggl was still tracking my time as working. I quickly tried to estimate my adventure, and accommodate for it in my daily log. Ultimately, I had deducted 7 minutes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I wondered if I was crazy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I realize the implications of deciding either way are likely trivial, but I'm curious as to what the commonly accepted practice is. Do I make sure to stop time tracking every time I get up from my desk? Or am I just being too obsessive over a minor billing infraction?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://toggl.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3528" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1373" RevisionGUID="3c83e338-2fa3-4e35-ad03-dcd5f0144aac" CreationDate="2014-02-10T00:29:22.557" UserId="72" Text="Should I bill my clients for bathroom breaks or other various interruptions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3529" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1373" RevisionGUID="3c83e338-2fa3-4e35-ad03-dcd5f0144aac" CreationDate="2014-02-10T00:29:22.557" UserId="72" Text="|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3530" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1373" RevisionGUID="e6539e3b-70ca-4c7c-b255-beba89223e5e" CreationDate="2014-02-10T00:36:33.513" UserId="72" Comment="deleted 1 characters in body" Text="I use [Toggl][1] for time tracking, and I'm pretty diligent about starting a new task for pretty much every thing I'm working on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently, while working at home, I had to use the restroom, and afterwards grabbed a small snack. After returning to my computer, I saw that Toggl was still tracking my time as working. I quickly tried to estimate my adventure, and accommodate for it in my daily log. Ultimately, I had deducted 7 minutes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I wondered if I was crazy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I realize the implications of deciding either way are likely trivial, but I'm curious as to what the commonly accepted practice is. Do I make sure to stop time tracking every time I get up from my desk? Or am I just being too obsessive over a minor billing infraction?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://toggl.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3531" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1374" RevisionGUID="997d8590-bc8f-4d58-b5e0-32892e51be0c" CreationDate="2014-02-10T02:21:39.563" UserId="1018" Text="I don't think it's reasonable to charge clients while on a break so personally would tend to stop the clock running when charging by the hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On longer projects where a day rate or similar has been agreed, it's understandable that short breaks will be needed and this should probably factored into the rate.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3532" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1375" RevisionGUID="cb00514c-2d6e-44a7-a6e4-d749ab719307" CreationDate="2014-02-10T07:33:17.640" UserId="155" Text="I agree with Neil here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ethically, when I charge my client (for big projects, of course), I charge them by hour and yes, those hours are excluding&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Bathroom Breaks&#xD;&#xA;2. Snack Time&#xD;&#xA;3. House Catching on Fire&#xD;&#xA;4. Neighbor dropping in&#xD;&#xA;5. etc...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whenever you are in doubt, ask yourself the same question. When you hire a freelancer would you be ok if he or she charged you for bathroom breaks/Snack time etc? And if you are ok, then Pleaaaaaaseeeee hire me next time :p" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3533" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="255" RevisionGUID="a9d6275c-6f59-4c22-8d7e-dec2f6cbc6d7" CreationDate="2014-02-10T07:43:19.900" UserId="155" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="I absolutely understand what you mean. A couple of years ago I faced the same dilemma. No matter how low I bid, I could never get a project. But as of today if I bid on a project, 90% of the chances are that I will get it. Thanks to more than [110 Five Star Ratings][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was almost on the verge of giving it up but then someone gave me some advice which helped me get my first project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how did I manage to do it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A. Create a proposal where you explain why you should be picked even though you are new.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It could be some thing like&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Dear XYZ&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I have been in this industry for XX years and such jobs are my daily practice. This is my first time on this site and hence you can see that I do not have any ratings/testimonials to show you. I can assure you that if you work with me once, you will always work with me for these kind of projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now you mention stuff here on why the employer should choose you.... Attach a sample and tell the employer that it can be delivered the moment he chooses your bid...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**B. Submit samples of your previous work**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just don't submit any sample. The sample should be relevant to the current project you are bidding on&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**C. Submit working sample of the current work.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do not want to do that then attach a video of the working application. I use CAMTASIA to record a video to show how the completed project looks like. **Trust me this almost will seal the project for you**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Start with these 3 and you will see results very soon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.freelancer.com/users/feedback_1193882.html?period=entire_history&amp;category=0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3534" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1376" RevisionGUID="7e058b66-4c0c-4877-bc5f-908c8d906800" CreationDate="2014-02-10T07:46:51.783" UserId="1980" Text="I have a simple rule, that guides me on anything related to the client: the &quot;sunshine test&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine at some stage in the future your client figures out that you've charged him for X, i.e. although it might have been buried in some other item on the final bill, suddenly there's sunlight shining upon it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then ask yourself the question: Could I, without hesitation, tell the client why I put this on his invoice - and feel confident that s/he would agree? If the answer is yes, I'll charge, else I won't. And if in doubt, I won't charge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So in your example, I would not charge for these &quot;events&quot; if it's a few hour project. If we're talking about a multiple day project payed by day rates, I sure would (assuming we're talking about a few minutes and not hours and hours) - would I work on site with daily rates, I'd have these breaks, too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other examples where the sunshine test helps:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Flying business class to meet the client: if the client asked me to&#xD;&#xA;   join last minute - or it is very likely the date gets pushed around -&#xD;&#xA;   yes, fly business and charge. Else fly Eco.&#xD;&#xA; - Charging for software licenses/hardware: did I buy this exclusively for the project, i.e. would I not have bought, had I not been on the&#xD;&#xA;   project - charge. Else, dont.&#xD;&#xA; - ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Okay, now let me switch my toggl back to the project and continue working! ;-)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3535" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1376" RevisionGUID="015c738f-9b81-4739-adac-c1a414c1c24a" CreationDate="2014-02-10T08:49:08.100" UserId="1980" Comment="added 10 characters in body" Text="I have a simple rule, that guides me on anything related to invoicing the client: the &quot;sunshine test&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine at some stage in the future your client figures out that you've charged him for X, i.e. although it might have been buried in some other item on the final bill, suddenly there's sunlight shining upon it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then ask yourself the question: Could I, without hesitation, tell the client why I put this on his invoice - and feel confident that s/he would agree? If the answer is yes, I'll charge, else I won't. And if in doubt, I won't charge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So in your example, I would not charge for these &quot;events&quot; if it's a few hour project. If we're talking about a multiple day project payed by day rates, I sure would (assuming we're talking about a few minutes and not hours and hours) - would I work on site with daily rates, I'd have these breaks, too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other examples where the sunshine test helps:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Flying business class to meet the client: if the client asked me to&#xD;&#xA;   join last minute - or it is very likely the date gets pushed around -&#xD;&#xA;   yes, fly business and charge. Else fly Eco.&#xD;&#xA; - Charging for software licenses/hardware: did I buy this exclusively for the project, i.e. would I not have bought, had I not been on the&#xD;&#xA;   project - charge. Else, dont.&#xD;&#xA; - ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Okay, now let me switch my toggl back to the project and continue working! ;-)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3536" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1377" RevisionGUID="d5caae87-73fe-4c25-8cb2-c3c2c685b0a1" CreationDate="2014-02-10T14:02:01.087" UserId="1975" Text="I would say that for anything less than a day's project, you don't charge for bathroom breaks, or any other interruption.  If you're not using a time tracker program and take a short break somewhere, then you just work that much longer past the 8 hour mark.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For anything that gets into a multi-day project, and definitely a 40 hour week situation, I would expect to include bathroom breaks in the time working, and even a couple 5ish minute coffee breaks during the 8 hour day.  I would not include lunch breaks however, and also not include anything that I was leaving the house or office for a short break.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For ethical comparison, think of the break schedule of a regular hourly employee.  They probably get one 15 minute paid break per 4 hours, and some unpaid lunch window schedule too.  While not the same as a 1099 for sure, you're still working for own business and deserve the ability to be able to take a bathroom break as part of a work week without tracking it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When using timesheets to be paid in the past for long term gigs, almost all did not want to be bothered with anything for breaks.  They would say-- we trust are aren't abusing breaks, just show a 40 hour week with a lunch window included every day (whether you take it or not), and we're happy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3537" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1377" RevisionGUID="f61ba425-efa3-4833-8920-14c6fb56992a" CreationDate="2014-02-10T14:22:08.490" UserId="1975" Comment="added 5 characters in body" Text="I would say that for anything less than a day's project, you don't charge for bathroom breaks, or any other interruption.  If you're not using a time tracker program and take a short break somewhere, then you just work that much longer past the 8 hour mark.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For anything that gets into a multi-day project, and definitely a 40 hour week situation, I would expect to include bathroom breaks in the time working, and even a couple 5ish minute coffee breaks during the 8 hour day.  I would not include lunch breaks however, and also not include anything that I was leaving the house or office for a short break.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For ethical comparison, think of the break schedule of a regular hourly employee.  They probably get one 15 minute paid break per 4 hours, and some unpaid lunch window schedule too.  While not the same as a 1099 for sure, you're still working for your own business and deserve the ability to be able to take a bathroom break as part of a work week without tracking it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When using timesheets to be paid in the past for long term gigs, almost all did not want to be bothered with anything for breaks.  They would say-- we trust are aren't abusing breaks, just show a 40 hour week with a lunch window included every day (whether you take it or not), and we're happy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3538" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1378" RevisionGUID="36fc5893-face-4c54-97aa-09a4a0d45367" CreationDate="2014-02-10T15:57:34.357" UserId="1985" Text="I'm usually rather slack in accounting, both ways. I won't deduct the time for my bathroom break, but I also won't charge you if I have a good idea during the weekend. If stuck, I may even take a walk in the park on project time, because thinking about the issue while breathing fresh air is more productive than just staring at the problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I consider my main contribution to the project brainpower, rather than typing, and it is impossible to turn off my brain instantly. If I only charged for the time I spend in front of a computer, I'd be cheating myself, and if I micro-accounted everything, I'd increase the unproductive overhead (which I'd have to factor into my hourly rate).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion, both the customer and I come out ahead with this arrangement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3539" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1379" RevisionGUID="c3b5f344-2796-4b96-a4ce-e229b7ab9862" CreationDate="2014-02-10T21:14:56.053" UserId="1978" Text="Though we admittedly haven't been freelancing that long, we have never run into this sort of a problem :(  After setting up profiles on freelancer, freelance, elance and odesk, I have to say that I favor elance greatly.  They don't freak out when you put a link to your portfolio, they facilitate smooth communication, they secure up front payments for non-hourly work (we work on a project per project basis) and they paid out easily to our bank account.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I however will also say we are somewhat selective in what we bid for.  We only bid on projects that are clearly and professionally written.  If the person listing the job can't bother to use punctuation, or makes more than a couple typos, it's hard to take them seriously.  We also don't bid on jobs that are very vague, or jobs that seem shifty.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck with your freelancing... defiantly check out elance.com we've had a lot of luck there!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3541" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1373" RevisionGUID="62d78c03-74d2-4192-a481-47c476befb85" CreationDate="2014-02-10T22:35:50.830" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/433006424328011776" />
  <row Id="3546" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1381" RevisionGUID="834a7cf1-5443-4a28-a325-feaef1bfe931" CreationDate="2014-02-11T10:40:33.660" UserId="517" Text="So I made an app, we tested it and the app is published to public. The client returns to me in 10-15 days saying that users reported more bugs. I usually give 1 to 3 months of free after-release support which states that I will fix bugs for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I have some questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Since I have multiple project in working and in queue, should I fix those bugs immediately if the support period has not expired or I should tell the client that I will fix it as soon as I have free time? What I am asking is does free support mean that I have to fix bugs immediately or simply free but in my free time?  &#xD;&#xA;As you see I am confused with &quot;support&quot; and &quot;retainer&quot; terms. Since I see **support** as whether I will charge the client or not, while **retainer** means to me immediate action on any issues. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. What is the optimum free support in terms of duration? Is 1 month too short or is 3-month period too long? Should we offer free support at all since we're freelancers, not companies?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am basically asking how do you handle such situations. Since right now the client hired me 40 hours a week and it's not fair I cut from 8-hour day work by doing bug fixes. And yet again, fixing those bugs at night it error prone since I am tired. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3547" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1381" RevisionGUID="834a7cf1-5443-4a28-a325-feaef1bfe931" CreationDate="2014-02-11T10:40:33.660" UserId="517" Text="How prompt should we fix bugs after app release?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3548" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1381" RevisionGUID="834a7cf1-5443-4a28-a325-feaef1bfe931" CreationDate="2014-02-11T10:40:33.660" UserId="517" Text="|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3549" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1382" RevisionGUID="e5d242ae-0cff-43d3-8ea4-6e06cd07bfa6" CreationDate="2014-02-11T10:56:15.113" UserId="517" Text="How do you decide on how long you will offer free support? Obviously a 3-month project and 3-day bug fixes will not be treated equally. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my case, when I do the whole project, I offer free 1- to 3-month support. In case of bug fixes, I usually do not mention free support but whenever the client returns to me saying the fix is still not working as it should be, I do the work for free again. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently, multiple clients returned to me asking for bug fixes and it's hard to handle ongoing project and bug fixes. Yet again, I don't want to be the one who charges any hours spent working on some task especially when it comes to bug fixing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. How do you decide on duration of support for full projects?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. How long does you support last for bug fixes?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3550" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1382" RevisionGUID="e5d242ae-0cff-43d3-8ea4-6e06cd07bfa6" CreationDate="2014-02-11T10:56:15.113" UserId="517" Text="Should all project get the same post-release support?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3551" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1382" RevisionGUID="e5d242ae-0cff-43d3-8ea4-6e06cd07bfa6" CreationDate="2014-02-11T10:56:15.113" UserId="517" Text="|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3552" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1383" RevisionGUID="ac59bf03-c7dd-40b4-aa50-00fbdf3130e0" CreationDate="2014-02-11T11:18:34.043" UserId="43" Text="In a project I recently finished, we offered a warranty period for 60 days after the release date, in which we agreed to fix all critical and high priority defects within 48 hours. You could offer something similar. The key is to get mutual agreement on what is critical/high priority.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Is this just copy changes? Could be low, could be high depending on the nature of the copy&#xD;&#xA; - Is this because the user expected a feature to work in a different way? That's a change request&#xD;&#xA; - Is this actually an area of functionality that is broken?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You probably need to think about the kind of issues that are being found on your projects currently and decide on what you believe is a critical/high priority issue. That should give you some guidance that you can give to clients regarding the kind of issues that would fall under critical/high priority. That's the only grey area in this really. If you don't provide boundaries for priority there is a chance that a client could try to push all defects through as critical. Each needs to be evaluated separately but you should agree the priority before tackling each one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a reported defect is not critical/high priority, you could still agree to fix those within X days (7 for example). Once the warranty period elapses, any further reported defects should be chargeable. I think it's entirely reasonable to expect the client to pay for your time to fix defects if they don't find them for 2 months after you complete work on their software. As long as you are up front about that and the warranty period and defect resolution agreements are written into your contract then you should be covered for the point at which you can start charging for fixes. The only issue that might arise is if a defect takes longer than 48 hours to fix. You probably want to include a clause in the contract allowing for this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could even state that you will fix critical/high bugs within 48 hours in the first 30 days and within 7 days in the second 30 days (or something like that), which should encourage the client to fully test the app post-release and report issues promptly so that you can deal with them and hopefully put the project to bed without it rumbling on and disrupting other projects that you may also be working on." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3553" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1384" RevisionGUID="e4d415e5-1324-4258-b3fa-d376795bc28c" CreationDate="2014-02-11T12:04:33.090" UserId="9" Text="&gt; Since I have multiple project in working and in queue, should I fix those bugs immediately if the support period has not expired or I should tell the client that I will fix it as soon as I have free time? What I am asking is does free support mean that I have to fix bugs immediately or simply free but in my free time?&#xA;As you see I am confused with &quot;support&quot; and &quot;retainer&quot; terms. Since I see support as whether I will charge the client or not, while retainer means to me immediate action on any issues.&#xA;&#xA;What you could do temporarily, if your time allows for it, is to set aside one or two hours a day for bug fixes. Free bug fixes can be on your own schedule provided the contract doesn't specify a time limit on post-acceptance bug fixes.&#xA;&#xA;That being said, you may want to specify in your future contracts that post-acceptance bug fixes will be prioritized (on a scale of wrong-shade-of-turquoise to does-not-work-in-IE10) and fixed in a reasonable amount of time for the bug's severity.&#xA;&#xA;&gt; What is the optimum free support in terms of duration? Is 1 month too short or is 3-month period too long? Should we offer free support at all since we're freelancers, not companies?&#xA;&#xA;It depends on what &quot;free support&quot; means. After the client has signed off on it, that means that they've accepted the current state of code as being complete. At most, I would offer a discounted rate for 30 days after acceptance for major issues, but I would not offer free support. That attaches more value to the acceptance testing, which helps your overall timeline and reduces surprise time commitments.&#xA;&#xA;To bounce back to your other question, being on retainer implies that the client has paid you an amount of money to remain available to them. If they have paid this, then you may treat bug fixes at the same priority level as current work projects." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3554" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1350" RevisionGUID="5290d12c-81e5-44d5-9dea-2399ff9799af" CreationDate="2014-02-11T12:44:11.473" UserId="1945" Comment="modify by adding more information on the scenario" Text="How to collect final payments from users who run away after taking the product and paying only half? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is a proven model or method to release product by parts and secure final part of the payments?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All of our past projects we have the following payment method regardless of the project type. We work on three types:- 1. web including websites 2. desktop based tools, softwares etc 3. others&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Collection of requirements via authorized emails&#xD;&#xA;2. One to one vidoe/audio chat&#xD;&#xA;3. Issue quotation &amp; contract &#xD;&#xA;4. Advance payment (usually 1/3 of total quote) collection along signed contract &#xD;&#xA;5. Release payment acknowledgement papers with confirmed contract&#xD;&#xA;6. Send a video of full product OR present or send prototype with 1 main function without database connectivity for most web portal &amp; desktop based applications - if a db is required for application&#xD;&#xA;7. User acceptance of prototype - collection of signed papers &amp; 2nd portion of payment&#xD;&#xA;8. Demo the final product. Provide user guides. Functional Specs and other relevant files.&#xD;&#xA;9. Collection of final payment. Release full produtct. Collection of sign off papers. &#xD;&#xA;10. Give 1 week time to user to get back on any **minor** modifications : free of charge, but user has to fill up a form for modifications. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of the time certain remote clients have refused to pay the final payment, even after seeing the full product or accepting prototype. They want the full product before paying. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;e.g. People purchase online just by looking at an image. There's no fuss when they make that payment and to receive the goods later. So why can't the same go for freelacing products specially after seeing the full product demo or a prototype?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can suggest a better payment collection, product release model then that would be great. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3555" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1385" RevisionGUID="9c2a78e2-e317-4d86-b466-3c4afbf91a3f" CreationDate="2014-02-11T14:48:19.740" UserId="1964" Text="I think this has to be done on a case-by-case basis. What is good for one project is not always good for another. I usually base my support cycle on the scope of the project. If it was a weekend project, I'll give it a week to find any bugs. If it takes longer, say a few months, then I may give it around a month. The problem is, there isn't a magic number or a rule of thumb that fits well enough to be given. So much of what you do depends on the project that you really have to find something you are comfortable with. That said there are some things to keep in mind when making yourself available for support on what you produce:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Always, _ALWAYS_, have any support you offer be explicitly outlined in a contract. &quot;I will offer support for N months and it will cover X, Y, and Z. Anything beyond that will require another contract and additional payment.&quot;. Clients that don't like this are usually the ones that want free work. If they want to negotiate terms that's fine, but don't leave gray areas.&#xD;&#xA; - The complexity of the project can yield more problems, so it may be helpful to support it longer.&#xD;&#xA; - Sometimes the client may be a factor in how long you support them.&#xD;&#xA; - Don't ever get persuaded into doing extra support for free. Put it in a contract how long and what type of support you offer. If they want more, then you have to negotiate on price and terms.&#xD;&#xA; - If you find that you are supporting something you produced long after it was delivered to the client, you may have to look at the cause of the problems. You may have missed something, or it could just be a picky client.&#xD;&#xA; - Never, _NEVER_, agree to anything you don't feel comfortable doing. If the client seems to be giving you grief at every turn just trying to get through signing the initial contract, e.g. they want to haggle over every tiny detail and always seem to be pushing you to something you feel is unfair, dump the client. You don't need that and shouldn't put up with it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3556" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1386" RevisionGUID="c64dd4ae-a305-4959-a653-3207666e016a" CreationDate="2014-02-11T15:06:59.273" UserId="1964" Text="Going along with what @ChrisForrence said, set aside some time each day to deal with bugfixes for previous clients. If you are still in a &quot;support period&quot; with them, and I assume they paid you already, then you owe it to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, I would limit the priority to these areas (in order of priority):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Critical Failure, the app does not function as you said it would and cannot be used properly until fixed.&#xD;&#xA; - Level 3 (or whatever), the app still functions but there is a feature that is failing and it's readily apparant to the end user. The problem is seen by 75%+ of users.&#xD;&#xA; - Level 2, Same as L1 but is seen by more users, generally 41% to 75%.&#xD;&#xA; - Level 1, the app functions just fine but a feature is not functioning correctly. Less than 40% of the users affected.&#xD;&#xA; - Level 0, the bug was only noticed by an edge case. E.g. the users was wearing an aluminum hat, had their feet in a bucket of ice water, and they were in a centrifuge used to test human endurance for space missions and said centrifuge was operating at 100%. Congratulate them for even being able to attempt to use your app under these conditions before explaining that you'll get to it if you can find the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Just to be up front about my method, I completely made up these numbers once. They have no basis on any research, they were just gut feeling numbers.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3557" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1221" RevisionGUID="d84080ab-064b-49d3-8fc3-cfdfd59370db" CreationDate="2014-02-11T17:08:05.657" UserId="517" Comment="edited body" Text="Why she sqwaked? I mean how much time did you have to charge?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually you never charge for this. Why? Because before you start working you will figure out the bill. This time is basically free. For example, if a client approaches to me asking me to spend 2-3 hours figuring out his costs, I will not get paid for that time. It was estimation time and I see now way to charge him those hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or other example, I brought car to the official dealer show and they spent 1 full day figuring out the error in my car system. They charged me only 1 hour for diagnosis. Imagine they charged me 8 hours just to tell me what's the issue and how much I have to pay to fix it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IMHO you're on the thin ice. If you want to get that money, you should camouflage it under something else, although I don't think it's fair to your customer.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3558" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1381" RevisionGUID="33f0f931-4daa-40fa-8af6-c68cbf474e3e" CreationDate="2014-02-11T17:09:35.397" UserId="517" Comment="edited body" Text="So I made an app, we tested it and the app is published to public. The client returns to me in 10-15 days saying that users reported more bugs. I usually give 1 to 3 months of free after-release support which states that I will fix bugs for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I have some questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Since I have multiple project in working and in queue, should I fix those bugs immediately if the support period has not expired or I should tell the client that I will fix it as soon as I have free time? What I am asking is does free support mean that I have to fix bugs immediately or simply free but in my free time?  &#xD;&#xA;As you see I am confused with &quot;support&quot; and &quot;retainer&quot; terms. Since I see **support** as whether I will charge the client or not, while **retainer** means to me immediate action on any issues. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. What is the optimum free support in terms of duration? Is 1 month too short or is 3-month period too long? Should we offer free support at all since we're freelancers, not companies?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am basically asking how do you handle such situations. Since right now the client hired me 40 hours a week and it's not fair I cut from 8-hour day work by doing bug fixes. And yet again, fixing those bugs at night is error prone since I am tired. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3559" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1381" RevisionGUID="2e9e7777-1dae-481c-9494-018ca00bc738" CreationDate="2014-02-11T19:35:52.487" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/433323519754403840" />
  <row Id="3562" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1388" RevisionGUID="4f554df4-235c-44bd-9206-4d8e7d87b515" CreationDate="2014-02-12T15:34:32.707" UserId="2001" Text="The first answer to questions regarding taxes and creating a business structure is to consult tax and legal professionals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know about Germany, but you mentioned that you are interested in other countries as well, so I will answer this for the United States.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, you should consult the above mentioned professionals no matter which country you are in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the U.S. you are automatically a business when you make money which isn't already accounted for by some other tax scheme. In other words, the money isn't from your employer (which is a W2 form in the U.S.) and it's not counted as income from another business you own. In the U.S. that makes you a sole proprietor. There is nothing special that you need to do for having your own sole proprietorship. It's automatic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I imagine Germany is similar because there needs to be a tax form to deal with that income. There is nothing blocking payments just because you didn't formally setup a business structure. You got paid, now you need to pay your taxes. There will be a way for Germany to get its share.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally, there is likely some local things that you may need to do. Generally the city requires that you get a business license or something similar. That has nothing to do with your business structure though. There also might be laws regarding where you are able to work from. Generally these laws are in place to make sure you aren't setting up a factory in a residential area. How many people in your situation actually bother getting their businesses licensed is another question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another item to note is that in some cases, income from abroad is taxed differently from income which comes in from within your country. For example, in the Philippines (where I'm currently living) there are special economic zones in which you get a tax holiday for all income from abroad while operating from those zones. Other countries have similar.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, I'm not a tax or legal professional. Do your own research. If you feel that consulting pro's is too much for the income that you expect to receive, then I imagine Germany has a website where you can get more info. Download the forms. read the info. I'm sure you will see boxes on the forms you typically fill out for income which is for everything that's not your employer.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3563" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1207" RevisionGUID="6d7db033-4dec-4e0a-a1de-cfc90bfa3cdc" CreationDate="2014-02-12T15:59:58.587" UserId="148" Comment="elaboration" Text="A few years ago I had an enquiry from a potential client who was an acquaintance of a friend. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had my doubts early on that he was a scammer but initially gave the benefit of the doubt, and then continued out of curiosity as to what he would do, with no intention of ever parting with money or doing work without a full contract in place. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The following is a brief outline of some of our interactions, along with alarm bell triggers, which I include mainly for the benefit of those who may face a similar situation and who may want to know how such a scam might progress (questions at the end):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Initially very hazy about what his business did. Didn't seem to be able to give an adequate explanation of how it worked, his product or target market.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Vague and suspicious story about previous web designer who disappeared without finishing the job (I asked him about any previous sites or design work carried out on his business). There were a few graphics and a page of text but there never was an actual website for the business.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Met in small rented office with no phones, computers or filing cabinets.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Checked out the business name on Companies House register (the official UK corporation register for those who don't know) and the name is listed there but I didn't pay the fee to get more details. Thought it could be a sign of legitimacy.&#xD;&#xA; 5. A phone call one evening that he had to pay an urgent bill but all his payment cards and cheque books were locked in a filing cabinet for which he had lost the key. **Wanted to borrow money from me** to pay for a locksmith and to help pay the urgent bill (first major alarm bell that made me conclude this was most likely a scam in progress). I said I couldn't help with that and to have a chat with his bank.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Silence for about 6 months. Then another phone call wanting to continue the web development work.&#xD;&#xA; 7. More vague information over the phone followed by a face-to-face meeting in which he **requested to borrow from me £2000** to help with some cashflow problems and said he would pay me back &quot;generously&quot;. I said I'm not in a position to help with those sorts of things.&#xD;&#xA; 8. I didn't hear back from him for about a year. Then I got an email out-and-out just **asking for £20,000** to help with his business (again offering to make it &quot;worth my while&quot;). *I ignored it.*&#xD;&#xA; 9. Another year or so, last November, he contacts me again and is just interested this time in getting the website built again. I'm curious to see what he says this time so I go along with it. I tell him I can't meet him but we can talk on the phone. He says he has dissolved his last business (checked out Companies House register and the business name is listed as dissolved). I checked their list of disqualified directors and his name does not appear there.&#xD;&#xA; 10. He is reluctant to call me asking me to call him because of the cost of his mobile phone tariff. He wants me to always call him (though it also costs me more to call mobiles!). He does not have use of a fixed-line phone and uses a public telephone box when I ask him for fixed-line number to call.&#xD;&#xA; 11. I email him my contract and fee schedule and tell him I need his signature and an address to send it to (thinking it would put him off) - he seems willing to sign it; however, he keeps telling me how his business is in the process of being &quot;reconstituted&quot; and they don't have an address yet but I can send the contract to the address of one of his &quot;associate partners&quot; whose office he is temporarily using (in the same serviced office building as before).&#xD;&#xA; 12. He was also reluctant to register the domain via my web hosting website and he wanted me to register it for him and add it to the overall bill for web development. I told him I keep the two services separate (partly because I prefer to do it that way, but also I wanted to see if he would give an address after I told him the domain can be seized if he provides false information). He is making vague excuses for not doing that.&#xD;&#xA; 13. Now he is saying things like &quot;you said you would start on this date&quot; and &quot;there seems to be a miscommunication&quot; and &quot;I can go to someone else to do the website if you prefer&quot;.&#xD;&#xA; 14. I have just now told him that I expect him to sign and return the contract before I start doing any work and that he needs to sign it either as an individual providing his home address, or as a representative of his company providing the trading address that is registered with Companies House.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**UPDATE:** A month later I receive no reply after asking for a home or registered trading address - the strongest evidence of a scam, I think.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. *Are scams like this widely experienced by other freelancers / small businesses?*&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 2. *What can be done to inhibit the risks of people falling for such scams?*&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 3. *As he has done nothing illegal yet, are there any standards, quality-control, or investigatory groups that monitor/investigate potential scams from B2B clients / customers?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are usually several official/unofficial organisations that monitor &amp; investigate unscrupulous traders and service providers but, as far as I am aware, none that look into clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3564" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1389" RevisionGUID="e96adf00-f002-496a-a6ec-7f00de0fe4fb" CreationDate="2014-02-12T16:16:18.870" UserId="1978" Text="We had luck sending very personal customized proposals.  We do iOS apps, and have found a lot of the (cheaper) competition uses a very cut-and-paste system of submitting proposals to EVERYTHING.  We have had several people thank us for actully reading their full job descriptions and responding appropriately.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3565" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1382" RevisionGUID="344953a3-cef9-47f3-908c-9f7d439e49c3" CreationDate="2014-02-12T19:36:34.937" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/433686086456717312" />
  <row Id="3566" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1024" RevisionGUID="73299201-0fe2-45d9-b2c6-318a677e9670" CreationDate="2014-02-13T01:36:35.133" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/433776683414728704" />
  <row Id="3567" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1390" RevisionGUID="06443cb0-f2b7-4f9e-8f26-4dcd8f690be0" CreationDate="2014-02-13T02:12:07.850" UserId="1836" Text="So I have secured a project worth £44.5k for an employee management system that will manage his employees for 4 of his companies. This employee management system will integrate a biometric hardware solution on computer stations that communicate with iPads (for the managers/receptionist of each company) all connected to a cloud based server. The project will last around 3 months, and the customer is entitled to as many small intricate software changes as they like in the first year after which the service costs £8,000 a year to maintain the solution I'm about to implement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Problem:&#xD;&#xA;Thats all great, but I'm having a hard time trying to explain I will be charging them 8k a year to keep things running after the first free year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are my reasons for charging that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Main two reasons**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I Blaaaady worked so hard in that first free year implementing all the feature changes that they suddenly realise they require new quick to implement, small feature upgrades sometimes big in the current software implementation that I feel I need to make my money back on the second and third year because of the extra hours put in after project completion.&#xD;&#xA;- Apple no matter what will have Yearly iOS operating system upgrades for all devices, and so will the MAC OS X. So these applications will have to be updated regardless yearly anyway.&#xD;&#xA;- Back ups of the server, and databases. &lt;- this sounds really silly when I tell the client this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Small extra reasons but that don't necessarily weigh significantly on the SLA cost**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I provide the client direct access to me, 24/7 telephone service as opposed to emails or any other communication method or having to go through my receptionist, I save that for the smaller projects. My client loves this and sure does use it whenever possible by dropping me many texts whenever a new feature is required, or when he needs something to change in the back end.&#xD;&#xA;- Server costs, this is such a small amount that I can just pay this out of my own pocket since it only costs about £40 a month. &#xD;&#xA;- Flexibility - we provide a no problem service attitude.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everything is run on my side, if I wanted to, I just have to redirect the server elsewhere and all applications will cease to exist for the other projects I've worked on with this client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But as far this goes, that's it. My client is asking me what will happen after the first free year if no updates are required in the second year, will he still need t pay the 8k? It's a good question, but that's not the point, I've told him these are the running costs for managing the service that I am providing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Could someone please help me on outlining other important things that I am possibly missing from this SLA agreement that could help justify the cost? I find the app development aspect of it is more than enough to justify that cost, since some companies charge £25-30k in upgrades and app revisions where as he is able to come to me at any time of the year and send me a new list of features required with no hassle.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3568" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1390" RevisionGUID="06443cb0-f2b7-4f9e-8f26-4dcd8f690be0" CreationDate="2014-02-13T02:12:07.850" UserId="1836" Text="Am I charging my client too much for my SLA - Service level agreement?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3569" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1390" RevisionGUID="06443cb0-f2b7-4f9e-8f26-4dcd8f690be0" CreationDate="2014-02-13T02:12:07.850" UserId="1836" Text="|contracts|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3570" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1390" RevisionGUID="07716209-9d9e-406f-9528-e27d6a52cc5d" CreationDate="2014-02-13T02:45:39.860" UserId="1836" Comment="edited tags" Text="|client|contracts|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3571" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1391" RevisionGUID="6e62bb8b-b7ca-440b-af56-89a86307b2bb" CreationDate="2014-02-13T03:58:52.093" UserId="1978" Text="I wouldn't lower your rate.  For a long time I always under sold myself.  It's easy to do when you really want to make sure you get a contract.  But if it's a really big project and your portfolio speaks for itself, then charge 30k with confidence!  Don't undercharge and get locked into a lower rate than you are worth. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We sometimes throw in a &quot;we will give you 10% off for repeat business&quot;, might not be a bad idea for you too, assuming you can take 10% off and still be making enough for your work!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3572" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1392" RevisionGUID="a53ba135-7d6e-4342-ba5d-5c46938edbf3" CreationDate="2014-02-13T10:04:59.867" UserId="1390" Text="I have started a project with a client where the deal was like to upfront amount and he will do escro of all the money and all money will be released after completion of project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have started working on it,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Initially I sent the design to him he said design is fine for him, then I have sent many builds for getting feedback. generally I was sending build every 3 to 4 days. but he didnt provided any response. and I continued working by thinking no feedback means client is good with what is going on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just provided the last build(Complete) a week ago, but now client does not comes to online.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;before a week his site was down so I contacted him and he had responded and solved the issue. but now I am not able to communicate with him. Please suggest me what could be done now ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;also If client comes back and what if he suggest a big change ? as you all know if a change is given after completion of the app it will require lot effort to fix rather than if it would be specified at the development time it self. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3573" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1392" RevisionGUID="a53ba135-7d6e-4342-ba5d-5c46938edbf3" CreationDate="2014-02-13T10:04:59.867" UserId="1390" Text="How to tackle situation when client do not respond for an escro project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3574" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1392" RevisionGUID="a53ba135-7d6e-4342-ba5d-5c46938edbf3" CreationDate="2014-02-13T10:04:59.867" UserId="1390" Text="|client|client-support|approach|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3575" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1393" RevisionGUID="7d7711a5-bca0-46ed-a5f9-8e71ddddc2c9" CreationDate="2014-02-13T11:43:17.727" UserId="888" Text="If a client doesn't respond after sending the first build then you should not continue with the project. You stated the problem yourself: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; also If client comes back and what if he suggest a big change ? as you all know if a change is given after completion of the app it will require lot effort to fix rather than if it would be specified at the development time it self.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are running out of time then it's because of him and not you. And it's also strange that he responded fast when his site was down but not when you are sending him messages. That means he's not that busy or away or something. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And also, a client should respond to messages or at least tell you to do it how you think it's best. There is no &quot; no feedback means client is good with what is going on&quot;. A good client always has 1-2 minutes to reply to a message. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he comes back to suggest a big change then I suggest you just do it. It's pretty much your fault because you have done work without him agreeing to it. And next time just don't do any work without feedback to avoid these kind of situations." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3577" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1395" RevisionGUID="e3941766-9414-4eb2-acfc-44f33bd02e72" CreationDate="2014-02-13T15:32:22.107" UserId="127" Text="I don't think those are small reasons, especially the first one. Here's how I would explain it:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;I have to set aside time in my schedule to be available if you have questions or problems. That time costs money. If I don't set aside that time and you have an issue, suddenly all my other work has to be dropped by the way-side which is not fair to those other clients. I have to do this regardless of whether or not you use it.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, I don't think you sound silly at all regarding backups of the server and databases. Consider that this isn't just the backups, it is also the recovery if there is a problem. That will take your time, and it will happen at the worst possible moment. Your fee has to take into account that possibility. And let's face it, it isn't just an automated process to run the backup. You have to also occasionally verify that the backups are still happening (how many times have we seen something break those?)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3578" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1396" RevisionGUID="f398dd9e-2ce7-44f8-b5b9-387e7a670eac" CreationDate="2014-02-13T15:47:23.510" UserId="1975" Text="For SLA agreements you should be able to make an estimate based on fixed tasks and average expected work for improvements/bugs.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For fixed tasks:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Server costs.  If you're paying for this-- add it up and add this to the rest of the total.  Don't just absorb it.&#xD;&#xA;- Outline an update plan.  For instance, Update all server software monthly.  All device software monthly.  Even if it ends up being trivial, expect it to be an X hour task you plan for and total up for the year.  This makes you send organized at the very least.&#xD;&#xA;- Backups and database -- if it is actually needed and you're doing it on a schedule, it counts.  Describe the schedule.  &quot;Monthly directed backup of code and database.  Recovery plan in case of fail.&quot;.  If automated, probably a lesser verification+maintenance.  Average the hours per month here and add in.  Apply hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For updates/fixes:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Generally a combination of the average for past year and expectations for upcoming year if it will be dramatically slower.  Have no updates been needed in the 2nd half of the first free year?  You'll need to gauge this-- and assume a certain minimum here.  If you plan for 1 fix for the year and you end up with 6, you're eating the cost.  Better to have a minimum of 5 expected, and okay to eat a couple if happens. You're also being paid for being available for those cases, where otherwise you could commit your time exclusively to another client.  It's a retainer of sorts.  Estimate hours and apply hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;- 24/7 support.  You mentioned it was for a smaller client, so this is probably minimal.  I would note it though as part of the total you're trying to justify.  You're providing something big here.&#xD;&#xA;- Flexibility - Some companies like to see SLA expressed like &quot;for moderate size issues: will acknowledge all issue requests via email within 4 hours, will propose solution within 8 hours, and will deploy solution within 48 hours.&quot;, &quot;for significant issues, within 4 days&quot;.  etc.  These are ways to quantify the SLA service, and that you generally fix things fast.  This is paid for, as the cheaper version would be the 1-2 week turnaround, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For possibility where no fixes are needed, the SLA still applies. You're being paid for retaining possible availability, with fast/reliable turnaround.  It's a guarantee to the client that if things go wrong, they'll be resolved.  It's a 1 year contract, and perhaps the following year would be a reduced estimate based on the lower expectation of needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3580" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1390" RevisionGUID="2d1cf47c-b990-4cdc-b61a-471bb8ac7b3d" CreationDate="2014-02-13T21:30:17.910" UserId="1836" Comment="added 41 characters in body" Text="So I have secured a project worth £44.5k for an employee management system that will manage his employees for 4 of his companies. This employee management system will integrate a biometric hardware solution on computer stations that communicate with iPads (for the managers/receptionist of each company) all connected to a cloud based server. The project will last around 3 months, and the customer is entitled to as many small intricate software changes as they like in the first year after which the service costs £8,000 a year to maintain the solution I'm about to implement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Problem:&#xD;&#xA;Thats all great, but I'm having a hard time trying to explain I will be charging them 8k a year to keep things running after the first free year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are my reasons for charging that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Main two reasons**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I Blaaaady worked so hard in that first free year implementing all the feature changes that they suddenly realise they require new quick to implement, small feature upgrades sometimes big in the current software implementation that I feel I need to make my money back on the second and third year because of the extra hours put in after project completion.&#xD;&#xA;- Apple no matter what will have Yearly iOS operating system upgrades for all devices, and so will the MAC OS X. So these applications will have to be updated regardless yearly anyway.&#xD;&#xA;- Back ups of the server, and databases. &lt;- this sounds really silly when I tell the client this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Small extra reasons but that don't necessarily weigh significantly on the SLA cost**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I provide the client direct access to me, 24/7 telephone service as opposed to emails or any other communication method or having to go through my receptionist, I save that for the smaller projects. My client loves this and sure does use it whenever possible by dropping me many texts whenever a new feature is required, or when he needs something to change in the back end.&#xD;&#xA;- Server costs, this is such a nominal amount that I could just pay this out of my own pocket since it only costs about £40 a month, not that I would take up the cost ;) &#xD;&#xA;- Flexibility - we provide a no problem service attitude.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everything is run on my side, if I wanted to, I just have to redirect the server elsewhere and all applications will cease to exist for the other projects I've worked on with this client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But as far this goes, that's it. My client is asking me what will happen after the first free year if no updates are required in the second year, will he still need t pay the 8k? It's a good question, but that's not the point, I've told him these are the running costs for managing the service that I am providing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Could someone please help me on outlining other important things that I am possibly missing from this SLA agreement that could help justify the cost? I find the app development aspect of it is more than enough to justify that cost, since some companies charge £25-30k in upgrades and app revisions where as he is able to come to me at any time of the year and send me a new list of features required with no hassle.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3582" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1397" RevisionGUID="132dde18-1eec-44a2-8ae5-ca3e98fa5cc4" CreationDate="2014-02-14T17:00:19.537" UserId="972" Text="Do you have proof the client actually placed funds into the escrow account?  If not, I definitely would have not started the project without that proof.  If so, then you might contact the escrow company and determine what their process is for a dispute.  Keep copies of all of your communications with the client, and a copy of your signed contract with them (you DO have one, don't you?) and then if it were me, I'd send one more notice to your client... a notice that sets a deadline for responding with reasonable changes, and/or release of escrow funds after which you will be filing a dispute over the unreleased funds with the escrow company or whoever they designate to act as mediator in situations like this.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By the way, no comments from a client is not always a good thing.  In your case, I would have refused to continue with the work unless they signed off on each of the deliverables phases.  I don't know whether not having that approval for work already done will help or hinder your ability to get the money you are owed.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3583" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1392" RevisionGUID="0638a356-8d3f-4faa-91b7-7ac2e55b42e8" CreationDate="2014-02-14T17:39:06.220" UserId="75" Comment="added 32 characters in body" Text="I have started a project with a client where the deal was to upfront an amount of money, then he will do escrow for all of the remaining money, with it being released after completion of the project. I have started working on the project already.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Initially, I sent the design to him he said the design is fine for him.  I have sent many builds for getting feedback, generally every 3 to 4 days. But, he didn't provided any response, and I continued working, by thinking no feedback means client is good with what is going on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just provided the last build (Complete) a week ago, but now client does not come online. Before, his site was down for a week, so I contacted him and he had responded and solved the issue. However, I am now not able to communicate with him. **What could be done now?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Also, if the client comes back and if he suggest a big change, what should I do?** As you all know, if a change is given after completion of the app, it will require lot effort to fix, rather than if it would be specified at the development time itself. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3584" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1398" RevisionGUID="098a539e-3579-48d2-81ea-976b0a53a28e" CreationDate="2014-02-14T21:12:27.583" UserId="2032" Text="A detailed, personalized project proposal is a big plus, and was what got me over the hump of getting the first job on a freelance site. Be as specific as possible about how you would tackle the project and attach a sample of your work that is relevant to the project. It is a lot more work for each proposal, but it is more likely to be successful than a shotgun approach of bidding with stereotypical proposals on everything in sight.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the freelancer site lets you see the range and average of other bids, try to set your first bids a little below the median bid for the job. I don't recommend going for the lowest bids unless you are prepared to compete with freelances bidding $2-5 per hour. In my experience, if you bid a little below the median at first you will not have trouble raising your rate as you build a reputation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3585" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1399" RevisionGUID="4d9381d1-1df0-4e6f-814c-e74858269611" CreationDate="2014-02-14T21:26:16.307" UserId="2032" Text="I am sure that the last thing you want to hear about is another software tool, but I like the feature on KanbanFlow (https://kanbanflow.com/) that allows you to keep time for your tasks using the Pomodoro approach. Pomodoro sets up a 25-minute period of concentrated, highly focused work on the project followed by a five-minute break for stretching, going to the bathroom, grabbing a quick snack or whatever. After four work periods, you get a longer break of 15-30 minutes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I am using timekeeping software such as Elance's WorkView, I usually leave the meter running for the five-minute breaks and clock out for the longer ones. I believe that a freelancer should consider how a typical workplace handles time for bathroom breaks, etc. Most places I have worked in recent years do not consider these short breaks as time off the clock. There are exceptions, of course - assembly lines are (in)famous for only permitting bathroom breaks when you have a reliever. If I am working on a very small project, say 2 hours or less, I will clock out for all breaks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3586" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1382" RevisionGUID="4c1be40b-a770-4b5a-bd0e-3f33bb0df7ce" CreationDate="2014-02-15T02:24:32.387" UserId="64" Comment="removed some of the &quot;What would *you* do&quot; type language to focus more on what you should do, as the former could lead to polling." Text="How can I determine how long I should offer free support? Obviously a 3-month project and 3-day bug fixes will not be treated equally. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my case, when I do the whole project, I offer free 1- to 3-month support. In case of bug fixes, I usually do not mention free support. But whenever the client returns to me saying the fix is still not working as it should be, I do the work for free again. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently, multiple clients returned to me asking for bug fixes, and it's hard to handle ongoing projects and bug fixes. Yet again, I don't want to be the one who charges any hours spent working on some task especially when it comes to bug fixing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. How can I decide what type of support for full projects?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. How should I determine what to support for bug fixes?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3587" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1390" RevisionGUID="2abf4c72-7719-4da6-8e15-85a2eef162a3" CreationDate="2014-02-15T10:37:07.110" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/434637489140432896" />
  <row Id="3597" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1402" RevisionGUID="c31bab05-ae30-4895-9391-e9be25fb7925" CreationDate="2014-02-16T00:52:34.640" UserId="2042" Text="As a web coder, I work remotely for a studio. This allows me to have time flexibility but it also means I sometimes feel isolated from the learning process that I feel I could have if employed in a company. Any advice for getting around this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3598" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1402" RevisionGUID="c31bab05-ae30-4895-9391-e9be25fb7925" CreationDate="2014-02-16T00:52:34.640" UserId="2042" Text="How do I keep up to date with the industry when I spend time working alone?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3599" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1402" RevisionGUID="c31bab05-ae30-4895-9391-e9be25fb7925" CreationDate="2014-02-16T00:52:34.640" UserId="2042" Text="|productivity|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3600" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1402" RevisionGUID="6a72ec11-4b32-46d0-9714-9ec3484200eb" CreationDate="2014-02-16T00:54:13.587" UserId="64" Comment="made sure question in body matches title" Text="As a web coder, I work remotely for a studio. This allows me to have time flexibility but it also means I sometimes feel isolated from the learning process that I feel I could have if employed in a company. How can I keep my skills up to date with the industry when I'm working alone?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3601" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1403" RevisionGUID="9183bd5c-04fa-4916-9d4e-a3c53f652ff5" CreationDate="2014-02-16T00:57:54.100" UserId="64" Text="There's a lot to be said for working with others to gain skills. While I've honed my skills working for a company, I've also gained a lot by following and answering questions on [Stack Overflow](http://stackoverflow.com).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a coder with a job, you know loosely what types of things you need to focus on to be successful. So focus your time on answering questions about stuff that relates to your work. For instance, if you use JavaScript a lot, then look for questions about JavaScript. You'll find there's many questions you don't know the answer to, and this gives you an opportunity to research, learn, and also help others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, there's a lot of knowledge waiting to be obtained through online communities. You don't need to work directly with those people to learn from them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, even if you're not a coder, there are resources, forums, Q&amp;A sites, and other repositories of knowledge in which one can keep up to date with the latest trends, techniques, skills, technologies, and processes and procedures." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3602" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1402" RevisionGUID="dffc14bc-8464-4b63-b4b5-66ec4dacc13c" CreationDate="2014-02-16T07:37:08.597" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/434954583761506304" />
  <row Id="3603" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1404" RevisionGUID="70f452b4-af71-416e-aee2-7d0439b21f17" CreationDate="2014-02-16T11:43:21.540" UserId="2047" Text="   I face this situation many time where client have unique idea for a website and he have that fear represented in that if he tell me or any other developer about his website idea,that the developer will take the idea and implement it for his own account as it was his idea ... as a developer,i understand this Phobia but there is solution by which client can protect his right about his idea ... what can convince him to go ahead and disclosure his idea with trust in others ... wait for replay especialy from who have similar situation ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**(note that Intellectual Property right not guranteed in client opinion)**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3604" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1404" RevisionGUID="70f452b4-af71-416e-aee2-7d0439b21f17" CreationDate="2014-02-16T11:43:21.540" UserId="2047" Text="My client afraid from me get stealing his website idea" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3605" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1404" RevisionGUID="70f452b4-af71-416e-aee2-7d0439b21f17" CreationDate="2014-02-16T11:43:21.540" UserId="2047" Text="|client|freelance-websites|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3606" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1404" RevisionGUID="f13a2575-c5e2-4e58-9a2b-910e5df3da28" CreationDate="2014-02-16T12:48:08.633" UserId="58" Comment="The Whole Shebang~" Text="I've been in the situation many times where a client has a &quot;unique&quot; idea for a website and they fear that if they tell myself or any other developer about this that we &quot;evil developers&quot; will go and steal that idea and implement it elsewhere.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a developer, I can sort of understand this phobia, but is there a way that I can convince the client to actually confide in others and allow work to be done without trickling information in?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3608" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1406" RevisionGUID="0827e0c1-f62f-42b9-8c26-5775420358b5" CreationDate="2014-02-16T12:56:38.090" UserId="58" Text="This is sort of a familiar one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A client wants someone to build a website, and doesn't want to give them all the pieces of the puzzle at once (or is very vague about it).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are three choices here:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Continue being trickled information, eventually going insane.&#xD;&#xA;2. Leave that client instantly, without hesitation.&#xD;&#xA;3. Tell your client, plain and simple, that they absolutely have to give you all of the information you need or they will not have their site finished (without huge delays and vastly more money).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's also a fourth, oft-cited but never usually done by clients that act this way:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Sign a contract, stating that you will not do so (aka a Non-Disclosure Agreement)**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's a really simple process for the client, but too often I see clients with no real business sense trying to protect an idea without a clue what they can do except hog the puzzle pieces and not give you them until you've solved the rest of the puzzle (which is a grossly unacceptable way to create a website, to be frank).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Explain to your client, in relatively simple terms, that keeping ideas and designs to themselves is the absolute wrong way to go about designing a successful website. Explain that many things on the website (skeleton layout, templating, major parts of CSS) cannot start without the entire picture in place. If they did start without the entire design, for example, you would be constantly remaking the site's skeleton layout from scratch.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3609" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1404" RevisionGUID="e9ccf60b-9057-40b8-8c48-179e15b88301" CreationDate="2014-02-16T12:57:14.473" UserId="58" Comment="edited title" Text="How can I reassure a client who is scared of me stealing their idea?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3610" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1407" RevisionGUID="9e3a23b8-04b6-4800-a099-0a78b09ea3c5" CreationDate="2014-02-16T13:19:04.577" UserId="58" Text="There's a few things that can really help with keeping up-to-date with the world from a programmer's point of view.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Follow tech blogs for your entire stack.&#xD;&#xA;If you (for example) have a stack using PHP, nginx, mysql and redis (and a server company)... follow their blogs.&#xD;&#xA;Follow them, and keep up-to-date with improvements, new features, quality-of-life improvements, and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Heck, follow them on twitter (it's the fastest resource I've seen besides nagios for alerting you to an issue on the internet).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Join a community&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working from home is very, very isolating. I often have to take breaks and go outside (the horror) due to burnout and feeling isolated. But you don't *have* to go outside; join an open source community on freenode IRC, for example. Start helping out, if you'd like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Make a website for personal development&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a website and server setup that practically **bleeds** money. I've been working on it since 2009, and it has been the largest single source of new knowledge about programming for me. It's gotten me jobs before, and it gathers about 90,000 views/day. I wouldn't have it any other way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*And it's pretty much just a place where I code for fun (it's a radio station).*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do something that interests you, and make it **big**. It doesn't have to gather a community; it could be something neat that you want to experiment with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Ask and answer questions on stackoverflow&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Answer questions on things you care about. It might just help you learn a best practice (or something new) about what you work with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could probably set yourself a challenge to hit 3k rep in a tag, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# In short&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try to keep everything you work with up-to-date with the absolute latest versions (and pay attention to breaking changes, or new features). This will not only keep you up-to-date with the industry as a whole, it will actually put you *ahead* of it. Companies are notoriously inefficient with updating their software.  &#xD;&#xA;*(Note: this is only really true for backend web development unless using javascript libraries or the like)*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3613" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1408" RevisionGUID="f018ead5-3acb-4f5b-94ed-34f2156682df" CreationDate="2014-02-16T21:41:24.313" UserId="1975" Text="I've got a long term client that I'm currently on a 15hr a week arrangement with for a flat monthly rate with the general understanding of about 3hrs a day, with flexibility on managing that.  Since it is a long term respected client, and a guaranteed rate, I'll sometimes go beyond the time to get certain things done, but am diligent about meeting the minimum otherwise.  He manages what I work on daily using a bug tracking system for the project, assigning and checking things on completion, and there is daily interactions 90% of the time, unless he is away for business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Each month I invoice him for the month and the flat fee, and have for 5 months now.  This month after invoicing him he asked for a detailed itemization on where the time was spent and the dates of completion for each item, so he can &quot;know where his money is going&quot;.  It was a slower month due to him being away on business some.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is, what responsibility is it for me to provide a post-month itemization if we are not on a task or project based arrangement and it has never been my responsibility to manage or provide this?  Basically, it is pretty tedious to have to figure this out post-month, when all I track is the 3 hrs a day gets met.  Should the time invoice be enough for a client?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3614" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1408" RevisionGUID="f018ead5-3acb-4f5b-94ed-34f2156682df" CreationDate="2014-02-16T21:41:24.313" UserId="1975" Text="Client requests for extensive task information when invoicing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3615" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1408" RevisionGUID="f018ead5-3acb-4f5b-94ed-34f2156682df" CreationDate="2014-02-16T21:41:24.313" UserId="1975" Text="|client|invoices|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3616" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1409" RevisionGUID="9c51d066-e28a-41a7-ad0d-dfcd5e1c8d3a" CreationDate="2014-02-16T22:30:27.160" UserId="127" Text="I tell customers who ask for detailed itemization of time usage that &quot;this is not a service I provide&quot;. If pressed, I note that tracking that level of detail for him would create administrative overhead for you, and that you would either have to tack that time on to his bill, or adjust your rates to compensate. Since your goal is to provide value to your clients, not paperwork, you've opted instead to not offer either option and instead just decline to provide the service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, there is a risk that the client will prefer to find someone else who is willing to meet his administrative demands, but if they are happy with your services this is pretty unlikely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once I've told customers I don't provide that kind of itemization, they have backed off right away, and it was a non-issue. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3617" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1365" RevisionGUID="d22ced22-8a10-46f0-9716-a9a4633d340a" CreationDate="2014-02-16T22:37:15.943" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/435181107945164800" />
  <row Id="3618" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1407" RevisionGUID="aaec89e4-3aa1-4619-ba10-a0301eca0782" CreationDate="2014-02-16T22:46:08.640" UserId="64" Comment="Fixed minor spelling/formatting; fixed spelling of &quot;Stack Overflow&quot;, which is two words. See http://stackexchange.com/legal/trademark-guidance" Text="There's a few things that can really help with keeping up-to-date with the world from a programmer's point of view.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Follow tech blogs for your entire stack&#xD;&#xA;If you (for example) have a stack using PHP, nginx, mysql and redis (and a server company)... follow their blogs.&#xD;&#xA;Follow them, and keep up-to-date with improvements, new features, quality-of-life improvements, and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Heck, follow them on twitter (it's the fastest resource I've seen besides nagios for alerting you to an issue on the internet).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Join a community&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working from home is very, very isolating. I often have to take breaks and go outside (the horror) due to burnout and feeling isolated. But you don't *have* to go outside; join an open source community on freenode IRC, for example. Start helping out, if you'd like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Make a website for personal development&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a website and server setup that practically **bleeds** money. I've been working on it since 2009, and it has been the largest single source of new knowledge about programming for me. It's gotten me jobs before, and it gathers about 90,000 views/day. I wouldn't have it any other way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*And it's pretty much just a place where I code for fun (it's a radio station).*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do something that interests you, and make it **big**. It doesn't have to gather a community; it could be something neat that you want to experiment with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Ask and answer questions on Stack Overflow&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Answer questions on things you care about. It might just help you learn a best practice (or something new) about what you work with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could probably set yourself a challenge to hit 3k rep in a tag, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# In short&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try to keep everything you work with up-to-date with the absolute latest versions (and pay attention to breaking changes, or new features). This will not only keep you up-to-date with the industry as a whole, it will actually put you *ahead* of it. Companies are notoriously inefficient with updating their software.  &#xD;&#xA;*(Note: this is only really true for backend web development unless using JavaScript libraries or the like)*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3619" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1410" RevisionGUID="8082b06e-4d4f-4c22-aeae-7b77bcb9c123" CreationDate="2014-02-16T22:53:11.290" UserId="1018" Text="Ideas are cheap and plentiful and most developers would probably have a few of their own that they'd like time to explore rather than stealing from someone else!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To come to fruition, ideas need good execution and ideas need to be shared before this will happen. If key information is withheld from developers, it's likely costs and time will spiral as tasks have to be redone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sharing the idea will also help find the best people for the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Non disclosure agreements are often proposed as a way forward in this situation but as a developer, it's usually not a good idea to sign an NDA because:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - a client who asks you to sign an NDA is basically saying they don't&#xD;&#xA;   trust you so maybe they are not the right client for you&#xD;&#xA; - you should probably get legal advice to check an agreement before signing it but why should you be burdened with a legal cost before knowing if you want the job or can even do the job?&#xD;&#xA; - an NDA places legal obligations on you but none on the client&#xD;&#xA; - once you have signed an NDA, it can be risky taking on similar&#xD;&#xA;   work in case you get sued&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, clients need to find someone to work with that they can trust and an NDA is usually not the best tool to &quot;force&quot; this trust.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3620" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1411" RevisionGUID="8b9abeb1-2eff-4715-907c-8b3cedd33139" CreationDate="2014-02-17T02:11:56.800" UserId="1953" Text="so I met this client three times already. first time I gave them a quote based on the email conversation and told them in person my rate. second time we met at the office with another business partner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;the third time they brought another freelancer. i get the impression that we both work on the project for the price i quoted earlier. but this is all my assumption they haven't said a word about money figures.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've provided over 4 hours of consulting already. I'm kinda getting annoyed because estimating and consulting I guess is not billable but then again I have spent x amount of hours thinking and giving advices on technical side of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;anyways, now they've released milestones and list of specifications. and it's hard to quote an hour for each item.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;in general, I'm feeling a lack of incentive to continue. It seems like they want to keep going forward without talking about money. Right now, I have no idea as to what they thought of my quote, how I will get paid and when.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I ask for 30% down payment in order to continue? I feel like in order to make this worth my time, I have to receive compensation because it kinda feels like I'm doing work for free and I'm more anxious because although we seem to be going forward with the project (discussing due dates and milestones), no money has been discussed. I don't know if I'm getting quoted at 10 an hour or 40 an hour or if this other freelance developer will undercut me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3621" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1411" RevisionGUID="8b9abeb1-2eff-4715-907c-8b3cedd33139" CreationDate="2014-02-17T02:11:56.800" UserId="1953" Text="When should you discuss getting paid?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3622" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1411" RevisionGUID="8b9abeb1-2eff-4715-907c-8b3cedd33139" CreationDate="2014-02-17T02:11:56.800" UserId="1953" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3623" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1412" RevisionGUID="3426ed84-648e-4d1d-bd4b-326ccfb54e1b" CreationDate="2014-02-17T02:25:49.333" UserId="1963" Text="Estimating and consulting are absolutely billable. If you're making an estimation and they're holding the other freelancer to that estimate then you've already provided them with tangible value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before you continue meeting or talking further about the project you should schedule a meeting or at least send an email stating that the rate and the terms need to be ironed out. If you feel like you are beyond that point then you should take the initiative and send them a proposal that they should review and sign before anything moves forward. The benefit of this is since they've completely danced around the issue you can control the terms." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3624" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1413" RevisionGUID="3c4168e9-1b66-47ff-b739-7db50cbdbc9c" CreationDate="2014-02-17T02:28:29.243" UserId="1018" Text="Once I have met with a client and am keen on the project, I write a formal proposal confirming the milestones and payment terms which usually includes a 50% up front payment so the client is also taking a stake in the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project can start once the client formally agrees to the proposal and the initial deposit is paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This method would probably help you avoid the situation you are now in." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3625" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1414" RevisionGUID="7ed7db19-220a-41ee-8f7a-e62b3a3a12b9" CreationDate="2014-02-17T02:31:49.810" UserId="1963" Text="In my experience this is a huge flag. For one reason or another trust has broken down with the client, which is indicative by them asking for an itemized report.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One way to salvage the relationship is to simply ask them what is the motivation behind the request for an itemized report? Ask them if they feel like they're getting less than what they paid for? If they feel like they have ask them how they came to these conclusions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other option that I've seen people do is to simply provide the commit log for the time frame in question." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3626" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1408" RevisionGUID="d90173db-92c7-407b-bff5-d95e714cf786" CreationDate="2014-02-17T04:37:17.077" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/435271705469419520" />
  <row Id="3627" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1415" RevisionGUID="c0cfab19-3610-4cd2-bedf-f76ebd0e6175" CreationDate="2014-02-17T13:45:52.507" UserId="1964" Text="Everyone will have a different approach, so find what works for you. That can be an amalgamation of what you find here and elsewhere, or it could be absolutely nothing you garner from answers found here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, here's what I suggest to protect yourself and your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Offer a free consultation of 20 to 30 minutes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Inside that time frame you should be able to gather a decent understanding of what they are trying to do and have a ballpark figure of what it will take to complete (i.e. how long it will take, what it will involve, and how much it will cost). People tend to like &quot;free consultations&quot; simply because (in my opinion) they can get an understanding of their situation from a professional. In that time you can also find whether or not it is worth it for you to take on the client. Always remember that just because you meet with a potential client, it doesn't mean you have to take them on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - 1 to 2 hour meeting at your Administrative cost&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your Administrative cost is what you should charge for doing overhead. I like to go over what they are going to receive from you first. Once they know what they are going to get, it's easier to talk to them about how much it will cost. Be explicit with the cost of the project. Don't let them brush you off with a &quot;we can go over figures later&quot;. Never accept that, just politely reply with, &quot;I have the estimations right here in front of us. If you are unwilling to go over them now then I cannot continue working with you.&quot; If they keep pressing you remind them that you already gave them free time, from here on that will not be the case. You are a professional, as such you expect your time to be paid for. Paying for your time ensures that you give the client your full attention." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3628" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1416" RevisionGUID="be8778d7-c505-491c-a6b9-04364f7e97b9" CreationDate="2014-02-17T13:54:20.837" UserId="1964" Text="To be honest, I've never found someone who has a truly unique idea. I'm not saying they don't exist, but too often I've heard, &quot;Hey I've got an absolutely fantastic idea! There's nothing like it out there! It's like Facebook, but for your dog!&quot;. At which point I ask the nearest waiter/waitress for the bill so I can leave.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sarcasm aside, people that fear others will steal their great idea are usually falling victim to what I view as a deep emotional attachment to their idea. It has become a child to them, they fear the evils of the world will try to take it and corrupt it. People like this, and I cannot say I am not guilty of acting the same, are hard to reason with. Often times, it may just be better to say, &quot;Sorry but I can't take on clients at the moment&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To help put their mind at ease and avoid an NDA, you can offer to meet them in a private place and have the conversation recorded and you each receive a copy. That should protect them in the case that you do steal their idea, because they have evidence they met with you so you could build the site for them. However, it also protects you because if they later try to say, &quot;Well we discussed this and you stole my idea!&quot; you have evidence (hopefully) to the contrary." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3629" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1415" RevisionGUID="a4822f8b-089f-43b1-8a18-24c5e1e12e18" CreationDate="2014-02-17T13:57:06.117" UserId="1964" Comment="Added a thought I skipped" Text="Everyone will have a different approach, so find what works for you. That can be an amalgamation of what you find here and elsewhere, or it could be absolutely nothing you garner from answers found here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, here's what I suggest to protect yourself and your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Offer a free consultation of 20 to 30 minutes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Inside that time frame you should be able to gather a decent understanding of what they are trying to do and have a ballpark figure of what it will take to complete (i.e. how long it will take, what it will involve, and how much it will cost). Ask a lot of questions here, probe for some details you know to be relevant but they don't understand the connection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People tend to like &quot;free consultations&quot; simply because (in my opinion) they can get an understanding of their situation from a professional. In that time you can also find whether or not it is worth it for you to take on the client. Always remember that just because you meet with a potential client, it doesn't mean you have to take them on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - 1 to 2 hour meeting at your Administrative cost&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your Administrative cost is what you should charge for doing overhead. I like to go over what they are going to receive from you first. Once they know what they are going to get, it's easier to talk to them about how much it will cost. Be explicit with the cost of the project. Don't let them brush you off with a &quot;we can go over figures later&quot;. Never accept that, just politely reply with, &quot;I have the estimations right here in front of us. If you are unwilling to go over them now then I cannot continue working with you.&quot; If they keep pressing you remind them that you already gave them free time, from here on that will not be the case. You are a professional, as such you expect your time to be paid for. Paying for your time ensures that you give the client your full attention. If someone doesn't like to discuss money and how much you get paid in the beginning, then they will most likely be just as apprehensive when it comes to getting paid in the end." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3630" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1322" RevisionGUID="f250956f-c3f3-4756-8da5-2a633b3acda8" CreationDate="2014-02-17T18:00:02.437" UserId="58" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[641],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Hiroto&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="3631" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1417" RevisionGUID="9fefd479-268f-4477-8723-00200e983a6b" CreationDate="2014-02-17T23:21:02.253" UserId="1949" Text="Following on from the other responses about online communities, something that I've found gets me feeling more involved is finding one you don't get lost in because they've grown so big: I work with WordPress so made a bit of an effort to break into contributing there, but didn't really feel engaged until I found a small open source project that only has a handful of us contributing to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This Freelancing StackExchange feels a bit like that; cosier than StackOverflow!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3632" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1418" RevisionGUID="0d976f16-a899-40a3-b627-b967039dd561" CreationDate="2014-02-17T23:39:57.630" UserId="2058" Text="Yes, i know i should of waited for the Escrow account to be funded by the client, but my experience with Elance is very short, and most of the clients i noticed do not fund Escrow, so i thought once everything is doccumented and writed down in messages and emails it will not be a problem. And it was not... until this client. He needed a very fast turnaround, which i did, then he asked for another service, one that i would not have a problem performing just that is not under my expertise. I mentioned that, i sugested to find another provider, and that was it. Time passed, he sent me an email at some point stating that he still waits to see if the images provided are good enough (as if i would work a second more to the already payd job, even if the images were not good at all... but they were) as the job was under graphic design. It is almost a month now and he does not communicate with me neither on Elance or email. I wrote to Elance three times, asking for support - they denyed saying as long as Escrow was not funded the job cannot be disputed. Then i wrote again, mentioning that the client still posts for jobs, is very active on Elance, and he can do this &quot;no pay job&quot; over and over again, and i was expecting for Elance to take some actions. Ok, i understand they can release the money that are not there, but at least a reminder, an email, closing the account, something... anything. Every answer from Elance was the same, no matter my argumetns, saying they cannot involve in a dispute unless the Escrow is funded. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question is - what should i do? How can i get my money from the client? He is from US, i am from Romania, it was a $200job. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3633" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1418" RevisionGUID="0d976f16-a899-40a3-b627-b967039dd561" CreationDate="2014-02-17T23:39:57.630" UserId="2058" Text="Client refuses to pay on Elance. No Escrow funded" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3634" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1418" RevisionGUID="0d976f16-a899-40a3-b627-b967039dd561" CreationDate="2014-02-17T23:39:57.630" UserId="2058" Text="|payment-terms|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3635" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1419" RevisionGUID="6197e126-8213-4267-8b86-f95b3a2326c2" CreationDate="2014-02-18T02:46:40.270" UserId="2060" Text="I work freelance approximately 40-hours a month as part-time work. When determining my taxes how should I calculate the amount of time I use my home office for working? I do not use the home office exclusively for work, as I also use it for general web usage. And along those lines, how would I calculate the amount of Internet I use, if I wanted to write-off some of my internet bill?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3636" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1419" RevisionGUID="6197e126-8213-4267-8b86-f95b3a2326c2" CreationDate="2014-02-18T02:46:40.270" UserId="2060" Text="How to determine percentage of time home office used for freelance" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3637" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1419" RevisionGUID="6197e126-8213-4267-8b86-f95b3a2326c2" CreationDate="2014-02-18T02:46:40.270" UserId="2060" Text="|taxes|expenses|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3638" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1420" RevisionGUID="c3f82c80-a5a0-46ba-ba95-72bddf3a8823" CreationDate="2014-02-18T03:29:49.317" UserId="1018" Text="It's probably reasonable for you to make a rough estimate of the percentage of business use for your home office and Internet. You could keep a diary for a week or a month, noting down your hours for personal and business use and then extrapolate these numbers for the whole year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no easy way for the tax department to check the actual percentages so they need to rely on your honesty and are unlikely to question your estimate unless it seems excessive (e.g compared to what others claim).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as you can explain how you arrived at the percentage amount, you should be fine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should probably get some professional advice about the tax implications of claiming your home office as a tax deduction. In some jurisdictions, this isn't always a good idea. In Australia for example, home owners have a capital gains tax exemption on the home they live in but claiming a home office as a tax deduction can affect the exemption with potentially huge financial implications.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3639" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1420" RevisionGUID="6cb65c87-91a5-4fa7-8c94-da38fd99113b" CreationDate="2014-02-18T03:35:04.530" UserId="1018" Comment="Fix grammar." Text="It's probably reasonable for you to make a rough estimate of the percentage of business use for your home office and Internet. You could keep a diary for a week or a month, noting down your hours for personal and business use and then extrapolate these numbers for the whole year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no easy way for the tax department to check the actual percentages so they need to rely on your honesty and are unlikely to question your estimate unless it seems excessive (e.g compared to what others claim).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as you can explain how you arrived at the percentage amounts, you should be fine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should probably get some professional advice about the tax implications of claiming your home office as a tax deduction. In some jurisdictions, this isn't always a good idea. In Australia for example, home owners have a capital gains tax exemption on the home they live in but claiming a home office as a tax deduction can affect the exemption with potentially huge financial implications.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3640" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1421" RevisionGUID="5b8fe0b1-8754-4744-b525-b04199b5657d" CreationDate="2014-02-18T08:25:19.557" UserId="888" Text="I'm sorry to say but you can't. And I'm sorry again to say but the people on elance are right. They always state clearly when getting a new job to NOT WORK until the escrow account is funded. They even send emails reminding to not work until the account is funded. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I once did something like this, I started working and finished before realizing the account was not funded. Of course, the difference was that I already did 2 jobs for this client so I had trust in him. That doesn't mean I didn't wait for 2 weeks to get paid for a 1 day job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line is they can't do anything because technically that client respected the rules and you didn't. it's a hard blow, I know, but you must get over it and learn from it. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3644" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1421" RevisionGUID="4efad9a6-75f0-4a94-95ee-2bbd36c19252" CreationDate="2014-02-18T08:35:23.680" UserId="888" Comment="added 155 characters in body" Text="I'm sorry to say but you can't. And I'm sorry again to say but the people on elance are right. They always state clearly when getting a new job to NOT WORK until the escrow account is funded. They even send emails reminding to not work until the account is funded. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I once did something like this, I started working and finished before realizing the account was not funded. Of course, the difference was that I already did 2 jobs for this client so I had trust in him. That doesn't mean I didn't wait for 2 weeks to get paid for a 1 day job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line is they can't do anything because technically that client respected the rules and you didn't. it's a hard blow, I know, but you must get over it and learn from it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And about getting the money, the chances are slim. There are a lot of people who want to take advantage of good people, and that client seems to be one. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3645" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1418" RevisionGUID="b183203f-f54f-49de-a597-6d28d07dd3ec" CreationDate="2014-02-18T17:33:56.010" UserId="75" Comment="Removed excess info about ELance (We don't do their support, they do); improved grammar and spelling; sorted into paragraphs" Text="Yes, I know I should have waited for the Escrow account to be funded by the client, but my experience with Elance is very limited. Most of the clients I noticed do not fund Escrow, so I thought once everything is documented and written down in messages and emails, it would not be a problem. And it was not, until this client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He needed a very fast turnaround, which I did, then he asked for another service, one that I would not have a problem performing, except that it is not under my expertise. I mentioned that, suggested to find another provider, and that was it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Time passed, and he sent me an email, stating that he still waits to see if the images provided are good enough (as if I would work a second more to the already paid job, even if the images were not good at all... but they were), as the job was under graphic design.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is almost a month now and he does not communicate with me neither on Elance or email. I wrote to Elance three times, asking for support - they denied it, saying that as long as Escrow was not funded, the job cannot be disputed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question is - what should I do? How can I get my money from the client? He is from USA, I am from Romania. It was a $200 job. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3647" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1423" RevisionGUID="956442bb-60d9-4eb3-86d2-ca566882b225" CreationDate="2014-02-18T20:01:01.420" UserId="517" Text="Contracts mean squat where you work with remote workers. How do you know that John Q is actually John Q? Some clients asked me to send them my scanned ID and I refused just to be 110% my identity will not be stolen. So there is no real proof that you actually signed contract with John Q. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how can you assure the client? Very hardly. I got those question 1 in 20 times and I usually reply that &quot;freelancing is my full-time job and stealing their idea would mean that I'd have to work for free coding this app and then wait for money to come. I cannot afford that since I don't have a boss who will pay me if I don't earn money myself&quot;. This answer usually is Ok. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you work via freelancing sites, you can tell them to check feedback and see if any client complained you stole their idea. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I personally have bad experience with such clients since those clients are so scared that they will probably not give anyone to code their idea. And if the idea is so good and lucrative and will bring millions, why they don't hire local agency for $150/h which he can sue if they steal his idea. Because he does not believe in his idea so much ;). I never waste lot of time with such client, just reply to them in a few sentences. I suggest you do the same. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3648" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1424" RevisionGUID="5bddec83-6082-4d85-b0b6-fc7a4e09ccd0" CreationDate="2014-02-18T20:07:20.850" UserId="517" Text="&gt; My question is, what responsibility is it for me to provide a post-month itemization if we are not on a task or project based arrangement and it has never been my responsibility to manage or provide this? Basically, it is pretty tedious to have to figure this out post-month, when all I track is the 3 hrs a day gets met. Should the time invoice be enough for a client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have the same client. however, I use online desktop tracking system where I set tasks and the app takes my desktop snapshots. So the client can visually see that I spent 1h on XY task and he can even see what I did. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Setting things like this, I no longer write extensive reports. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd say that a client has right to ask that. I don't say it's fair cause guess what would happen if he asks a local company to monitor every minute of their work. But without looking at it from the dark side, this can yield good results. You will create a productive yourself and your client will have 10 times more trust in you being able to visualise your work. Remember how we all trust more to painter (which work we can see and monitor) or hairdresser then to a translator who disappears and comes back with 10 translated pages?! Your eyes are your best proof. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3649" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1425" RevisionGUID="a7f7fef8-7b53-4f01-98db-83401a78000b" CreationDate="2014-02-18T20:12:13.667" UserId="517" Text="This is a tricky question. We all are bound to do free estimation time, but not for good. I think there is a good top question here on How long should free estimation last. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, IMHO I would tell them that I feel like we've moved to another phase -low-level estimation. I would ask them if my terms are OK for them so that I know before we continue. I would also mention that if they hire me, I would need 30% upfront. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they say OK, I would tell that that I am willing to spend another 1,2,3 (you decide!) hours doing free estimation as a sign of a good faith. After that we have to conclude a contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think this will make it clear whether they are serious or not. Just stick to your words. And have courage to leave if need be. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3650" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1419" RevisionGUID="329f526a-b153-4cb4-85b4-0b9fd034a656" CreationDate="2014-02-18T22:40:12.180" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/435906623337664512" />
  <row Id="3651" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1426" RevisionGUID="59ed428e-3c91-47b4-81d3-c05bd6df09e4" CreationDate="2014-02-18T23:37:12.137" UserId="1953" Text="so we started this project in January but going into it things were difficult because the I felt the other freelancer would undermine my decisions when it came to tech and estimates. For example, I estimated X amount of hours and he would say things like I Can do that in a few minutes or have a strong bias against the technology I chose. My instinct tells me that he's trying to cut down the span of the project so he can move on (as he is working part time), but that would leave me with the burden of the work to do by myself. How do I respond to this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3652" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1426" RevisionGUID="59ed428e-3c91-47b4-81d3-c05bd6df09e4" CreationDate="2014-02-18T23:37:12.137" UserId="1953" Text="How to work with another freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3653" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1426" RevisionGUID="59ed428e-3c91-47b4-81d3-c05bd6df09e4" CreationDate="2014-02-18T23:37:12.137" UserId="1953" Text="|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3654" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1411" RevisionGUID="e4bf1169-395b-401d-bbd9-2755b1776a75" CreationDate="2014-02-18T23:41:19.643" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 16 characters in body" Text="I met this client three times already. first time I gave them a quote based on the email conversation and told them in person my rate. second time we met at the office with another business partner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The third time they brought another freelancer. i get the impression that we both work on the project for the price i quoted earlier. but this is all my assumption they haven't said a word about money figures.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've provided over 4 hours of consulting already. I'm kinda getting annoyed because estimating and consulting I guess is not billable but then again I have spent x amount of hours thinking and giving advices on technical side of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now they've released milestones and list of specifications. and it's hard to quote an hour for each item.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, I'm feeling a lack of incentive to continue. It seems like they want to keep going forward without talking about money. Right now, I have no idea as to what they thought of my quote, how I will get paid and when.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I ask for 30% down payment in order to continue? I feel like in order to make this worth my time, I have to receive compensation because it kinda feels like I'm doing work for free and I'm more anxious because although we seem to be going forward with the project (discussing due dates and milestones), no money has been discussed. I don't know if I'm getting quoted at 10 an hour or 40 an hour or if this other freelance developer will undercut me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3655" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1411" RevisionGUID="c02aea80-7d9b-4877-8734-4c71298edccf" CreationDate="2014-02-19T01:40:12.317" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/435951921313382400" />
  <row Id="3656" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1418" RevisionGUID="47e6992e-a241-43cc-ac1c-ec31b639c85b" CreationDate="2014-02-19T04:40:12.057" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/435997219276464128" />
  <row Id="3657" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1427" RevisionGUID="130323bb-502f-4b89-9b3e-dc3e74d4bcbd" CreationDate="2014-02-19T05:36:38.747" UserId="1953" Text="My role as a contractor for a US firm is about to start on Friday and I also have another local startup company with an offer and don't know which to choose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The US firm has done background checks, and it's a 9 to 5, M-F, indefinitely. They employ many freelancers and also local developers and appear to be financially solid.&#xD;&#xA;The local startup company is different. I will be making twice the hourly rate the one US firm is paying, and will be working 9-5 M-F but for 3 months. They say that there will be more work after but it's just thin air as much as I hope so, it's not good enough seeing that they are a startup. Also they mentioned three conditions which I find is not really suitable for me, in particular if they run out of funding, they won't be able to pay me, and if they are not satisfied with my performance, they will let me go mid project, and third they want me working only on their project and not with the US based firm.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I do? I'm worried that although the startup company offers more money, it's hard to say whether they will actually follow through and who knows if after a month they will point to funding or not being happy with my work? It's a big risk. It does pay twice the hourly rate I will make at the US firm, but the US firm is more stable, and it seems like there will always be work but I don't know this 100% but it appears to be a regular ongoing work, doing tickets." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3658" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1427" RevisionGUID="130323bb-502f-4b89-9b3e-dc3e74d4bcbd" CreationDate="2014-02-19T05:36:38.747" UserId="1953" Text="Two contracting offers what should I do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3659" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1427" RevisionGUID="130323bb-502f-4b89-9b3e-dc3e74d4bcbd" CreationDate="2014-02-19T05:36:38.747" UserId="1953" Text="|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3660" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1404" RevisionGUID="cbe88c6c-3567-40cf-ae29-1a21e7a5b03c" CreationDate="2014-02-19T07:40:12.360" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/436042519676452864" />
  <row Id="3661" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1428" RevisionGUID="61178947-af83-4a32-a6c1-ffacbc4ee5dc" CreationDate="2014-02-19T08:11:43.710" UserId="517" Text="Obviously you either have a wrong partner or your bad project manager. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you both are the experts from the same area, let's say php, then give him opportunity to estimate the project. You can then review it and correct it if necessary. But be sure you correct it with him and with his approval. After all, he will do the work and things you can do in 5 hours, he may need 8. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that, hold him responsible for his own estimations. Each time I estimated something for my colleagues, I made a mistake. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding technology, you should either talk more or try to find a solution on StackOverflow. I guess if those experts stand on the side of one of you, then it should matter a lot. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, if you think your partner is dishonest, dump him and find another one." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3662" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1429" RevisionGUID="1361d869-1ffc-4100-a91c-2d598ad26ff0" CreationDate="2014-02-19T08:19:53.197" UserId="517" Text="It seems that you want to break the eggs, eat them scrambled, and yet to have eggs unbroken. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to choose between longer less-paid job and shorter double paid job. So you are scared to take change with a local start-up and yet not willing to work half money you can work with them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Firstly, you have to check with the start-up if they can **guarantee 3 months of work**. Have them set that in the agreement that if they have less work, you are paid for 3 months anyway. Of course, you have to tell them that you are choosing between them and larger agency. So they know what you need 3-month guarantee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you set all this, and since they are paying double money, you should think of it like this: 3 months for them is actually 6 months for larger agency. So after 3 months if they break contracts, you still have 3 months to find another job and be on the positive side. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other side, does large agency guarantee you will work 6 months or more? Apply the same mathematics. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would always chose longer project, even less paid as I can always ask raise. I also have pretty nasty experience of startups offering years and years of work, and them coming back to me after 2-3 months saying that they overestimated their efforts and they cannot pay me any more due to lack of work.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3663" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1430" RevisionGUID="551691a6-c3a1-4341-b0e9-b3f145ef62b6" CreationDate="2014-02-19T10:38:08.307" UserId="43" Text="I'm sorry, but this is the nature of contracting work. I don't know how the laws work where you are, but if a company offered me an indefinite contract of 9-5 work I would run a mile. That isn't contracting, that's permanent employment without some of the extra perks. In the UK, that would most likely be caught by [IR35][1] (caveat: I'm not a lawyer but have been contracting for circa 5 years and have to understand about IR35 because it potentially affects me for every contract that I take) and you would be expected to pay full tax on your earnings exactly the same way as you would if you were permanent. The whole point of contracting on the financial side is that you are paid very well to offset the risk you take due to the role not being long term and having a definite end date. You are a specialist fulfilling a short-term business need that the client has, and they pay accordingly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The concerns that the start-up have are very real and should be taken into account when deciding whether to take on that role. Start-ups are inherently risky as they are very volatile in nature and could have funding pulled or fold at any time so you have to decide whether the nature of the work and the fee you would command are worth the risk. In the UK, 3 months is a fairly common length for a contract but I would be very concerned if that contract contained a clause stating that they company would continue to pay me for those 3 months even if there was not enough work. One of the key indicators of being in business of your own account is [mutuality of obligation][2] and I would want to take legal advice to understand whether asking the company to continue to pay me for the duration of the contract even if there wasn't enough work would fall foul of this legislation if it is a concern in the US.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to decide whether to go for the risky or the safe option. If you believe in your abilities and experience and have the confidence that you will be able to get further contracts relatively quickly then you could choose the better paid option. If, however, you are fairly new to contracting then the more stable option might give you the opportunity to build up more money in the bank before deciding to go after shorter term, better paid gigs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ir35/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/esmmanual/esm0543.htm" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3664" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1427" RevisionGUID="5d6927f5-dab9-4da6-a966-33eb77f9d7b1" CreationDate="2014-02-19T13:40:13.177" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/436133118882623488" />
  <row Id="3665" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1431" RevisionGUID="af8de47f-bfa1-41e1-9886-e21cc6caecd5" CreationDate="2014-02-19T14:26:22.163" UserId="1964" Text="I've dealt with someone like this before, but it was a full time job not a freelancer. So take what you can from our advice here:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;TL;DR version: make them quantify why a certain technology/framework is bad for the project, not just the developer. Go to the boss and talk with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Put their feet to the fire, so to speak. If they try to claim a certain technology/framework isn't good, make them explain in quantifiable detail. What does that mean? I'll give you an example.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had a job where we wrote vanilla PHP and JS a lot for an in-house application we were building. The team lead who was also the project manager felt that frameworks were too restrictive to be used. All frameworks. So we were stuck writing a lot of code that I felt was unnecessary. I came into the project half way and it was littered with near identical code, as if the idea of reuse was completely foreign. One day when I proposed we stop progress and take a week or two to convert to a framework, he again pushed back saying that they are too restrictive. I immediately fired back with, &quot;How are they too restrictive?&quot; He replied that they force you to do things their way. I kept pressing, &quot;What frameworks have you looked at and what restrictions are you trying to avoid?&quot;. TL;DR, he never was able to justify it. All I got was &quot;they just are&quot;. If they can't say &quot;X technology uses a methodology that is counter-productive to the project's needs&quot; then they are just being biased. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for quoting time, he would tell our mutual boss that a given task could be completed in a week. I always felt his time was too short, and it wasn't until later I found out all his estimates were on a 50-60 hour work week. In the contract I signed with them, it said 40 hours. I got a lot of grief later for only putting in 40, they tried to guilt me and put a carrot on a string in front of me to get more hours. I hated working under those conditions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My solution was to bring it up to our mutual boss. He would tell me to my face that he completely understands me, and he doesn't like what was being done. Sadly, I found out he was the kind of guy who would be sympathetic to you one-on-one but ignore you as soon as you walked out the door.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I left that job in search of better work, and the stress I no longer have is worth leaving a steady job." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3666" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1432" RevisionGUID="a145d7d8-e11a-41f6-b192-08f0a534e38f" CreationDate="2014-02-19T14:33:34.213" UserId="2079" Text="I own a Software Development business with just myself. I use it for all of my freelance work. I also have tons of experience with Private Investigations and I have a few old clients wanting to know if I still do PI work. My business is registered in CO so I can legally do PI work without a license. My question is, can a single business entity perform multiple different services that are not alike? Can a development company also do Private Investigations under one roof? The PI work is simply going to be a very secondary service that will only be casually advertised. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3667" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1432" RevisionGUID="a145d7d8-e11a-41f6-b192-08f0a534e38f" CreationDate="2014-02-19T14:33:34.213" UserId="2079" Text="Can a business have two compleely different services?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3668" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1432" RevisionGUID="a145d7d8-e11a-41f6-b192-08f0a534e38f" CreationDate="2014-02-19T14:33:34.213" UserId="2079" Text="|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3669" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1432" RevisionGUID="96ff529a-396d-4933-98f2-daecc6384333" CreationDate="2014-02-19T14:39:33.100" UserId="2079" Comment="deleted 1 characters in body; edited title" Text="I own a Software Development business with just myself. I use it for all of my freelance work. I also have tons of experience with Private Investigations and I have a few old clients wanting to know if I still do PI work. My business is registered in CO so I can legally do PI work without a license. My question is, can a single business entity perform multiple different services that are not alike? Can a development company also do Private Investigations under one roof? The PI work is simply going to be a very secondary service that will only be casually advertised." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3670" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1432" RevisionGUID="96ff529a-396d-4933-98f2-daecc6384333" CreationDate="2014-02-19T14:39:33.100" UserId="2079" Comment="deleted 1 characters in body; edited title" Text="Can a business have two completely different services?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3671" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1433" RevisionGUID="b7f90601-34ab-441d-9e1f-f3a129402b58" CreationDate="2014-02-19T15:48:48.477" UserId="1964" Text="As far as I understand it, unless there is a specific law in your state/province prohibiting a services without a license, you can offer as many different services as you like. You can be paid to cook someone breakfast, make their website, change the oil in their car, and investigate a potentially cheating spouse. Then bill all those services under a single entity." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3672" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1353" RevisionGUID="80b91308-b38a-4e7b-8369-8a1c8f5e89db" CreationDate="2014-02-19T16:40:13.370" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/436178418972258305" />
  <row Id="3673" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1426" RevisionGUID="910d9e09-49d1-4892-b172-c9f049a61c56" CreationDate="2014-02-19T16:46:42.533" UserId="75" Comment="Improved formatting; changed all tenses to the present; punctuation; line breaks; capital letters" Text="Another freelancer and I started this project in January, but going into it, things are difficult. I felt the other freelancer would undermine my decisions when it came to tech and estimates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I estimated *X* amount of hours, and he would say things such as &quot;I can do that in a few minutes&quot;, or he has a strong bias against the technology I choose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My instinct tells me that he's trying to cut down the span of the project so he can move on (as he is working part time), but that would leave me with the burden of the work to do by myself. How do I respond to this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3674" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1426" RevisionGUID="910d9e09-49d1-4892-b172-c9f049a61c56" CreationDate="2014-02-19T16:46:42.533" UserId="75" Comment="Improved formatting; changed all tenses to the present; punctuation; line breaks; capital letters" Text="|partner|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3675" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1433" RevisionGUID="7003cbd2-6df7-4b14-b4b6-ddbb8b8fb18a" CreationDate="2014-02-19T17:51:05.133" UserId="1964" Comment="correcting grammar error" Text="As far as I understand it, unless there is a specific law in your state/province prohibiting a service without a license, you can offer as many different services as you like. You can be paid to cook someone breakfast, make their website, change the oil in their car, and investigate a potentially cheating spouse. Then bill all those services under a single entity." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3676" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1431" RevisionGUID="11c99f22-d196-44b0-873b-d3e881282e47" CreationDate="2014-02-19T17:55:52.857" UserId="1964" Comment="Removed small personal rant." Text="I've dealt with someone like this before, but it was a full time job not a freelancer. So take what you can from our advice here:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make them quantify why a certain technology/framework is bad for the project, not just them as a developer. As for the cost/quoting problem, go to the boss and talk with them about it privately.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are in a discussion as a group and they try to claim something isn't good, put their feet to the fire. Figuratively of course. If they try to claim a certain technology/framework isn't good, make them explain in detail. What does that mean? It means they have to provide objective reasons, such as &quot;The routing method that framework A uses is counter-productive to what we are trying to accomplish.&quot; Not, &quot;I don't like the way this framework structures their folders.&quot; Often times they will either back down or show they don't know what they are talking about." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3677" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1434" RevisionGUID="1ff2e7fe-0070-4989-89cb-cbd7a830c800" CreationDate="2014-02-19T19:10:34.050" UserId="2080" Text="I'm going to start a side job to create a custom program for a couple guys.  &#xD;&#xA;They've sent me a contract, which I'm attempting to understand.  &#xD;&#xA;It looks fairly standard, but I'm not sure about the part where they want full copyright to the finished work.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I'm mostly ok with this, as I don't have the time to be their full time support person, they have a guy that can probably do day to day tweaks, and they would just call me in when a major change is needed.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I'm wondering about is this all normal (such as a work for hire), and is there a way to ask for a royalty if by some chance they sell the software to Google for a billion dollars or something crazy?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3678" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1434" RevisionGUID="1ff2e7fe-0070-4989-89cb-cbd7a830c800" CreationDate="2014-02-19T19:10:34.050" UserId="2080" Text="Copyright on freelance work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3679" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1434" RevisionGUID="1ff2e7fe-0070-4989-89cb-cbd7a830c800" CreationDate="2014-02-19T19:10:34.050" UserId="2080" Text="|legal|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3680" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1435" RevisionGUID="50b9a154-2162-412b-9111-ee19665bb2fd" CreationDate="2014-02-19T20:08:10.123" UserId="517" Text="Welcome to the world of freelancing :). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reply: Yes that is normal what they ask and we face that every day. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, what can you do about it? Options are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Give them full copyright to the code or give them ownership of the code. Most of us do that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Refuse to give code since it's you intellectual property. Some guys do that as well and this is especially present in game development where you protect your code from being used as a template for other games. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, we can start a long discussion on pro and cons of this approach, but it will end up on the sum-ups I stated above. You can probably give the rights on some simple things, and negotiate different terms when you get a more complex project. I would do that. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3681" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1436" RevisionGUID="cf2c2081-00ec-4e31-8a1f-f1f028476f05" CreationDate="2014-02-19T20:34:10.790" UserId="1706" Text="Here's a different approach.  Instead of 8k a year, offer the client your available time in smaller chunks:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;8k / year&#xD;&#xA;750 / mo&#xD;&#xA;200 / seven business days&#xD;&#xA;75 / per EACH incident (with some limitation!!!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client will have to get wise real quick.  Backups and maintenance is nothing trivial, and maybe you set a separate price for just that alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3682" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1437" RevisionGUID="af91bd24-52a6-4cd1-a29e-bc6e2385d322" CreationDate="2014-02-19T20:41:19.557" UserId="1706" Text="What I'm reading here is that maybe you didn't have the roles within the business defined very well at all.  Business partnership is like marriage!  You are tied at-the-hip to the good and bad decisions your partner makes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're really having a lot of conflict, and you're not too vested in the arrangement, a ***last resort*** is to sell your interest in the deal and just let your partner finish the work.  Or, to buy your partner out, and you finish. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I couldn't tell directly if you're trying to do the project full time but if your partner is part-timing it, the first thing to recognize is the fact that you have a lot more at stake (risk) than he does if the project fails and you don't get paid!!!  This is the sort of thing that should have been discussed in detail before the two of you agreed to work together.  You might patch it up, but it will be a challenge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3683" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1438" RevisionGUID="019ea97f-c639-419b-bfc8-f2d81f33f328" CreationDate="2014-02-19T20:52:36.633" UserId="1706" Text="In our line of work we sell two things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Our work (outright) and the rights to copyright it, OR&#xD;&#xA; 2. The right to use the work (a license), and retain the copyright.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We use the first approach when it's unlikely that we can market the same work to other interested parties because of its uniqueness.  We hand it off.  The client can use it, or flush it down the toilet.  We've been paid in a 1:1 ratio for our time vs the work product, and the client owns it.  We assume no risk other than not being paid for our time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We use the second approach when it's a lot more likely that we can market the same work to other interested parties.  (Think of Itunes, or app stores, or even the 'old' music business).  We are betting on spreading our production cost out over lots and lots of purchasers.  If we can earn more than our production cost, that's great -- but just to break even is a great achievement.  Often with this approach, we assume all the risk (in other words, work for free) and earn money only through licensing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't think any client will be willing to pay you for full development cost AND licensing that you're going to offer to other parties as well (namely, the client's competitors).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You'll have to decide on whether this opportunity is your Sure Thing before you even think about a licensing approach, because you may end up losing your shirt in the process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3684" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1432" RevisionGUID="15f60519-043b-471b-8991-fea5b732dfec" CreationDate="2014-02-19T21:02:37.660" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3685" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1433" RevisionGUID="d9075056-c15d-4a2e-9b11-f64d1ead0b5a" CreationDate="2014-02-19T21:40:53.760" UserId="1964" Comment="drastically changed my answer based on advice from senior member" Text="I have done some cursory searching, and it seems what you are proposing is &quot;unrelated diversification&quot;. I am having a hard time finding if there is any way to have such acts be illegal. Quite the opposite, I have been finding nothing but a myriad of strategies on how to diversify. That said, I would recommend contacting a lawyer who is licensed to practice in your area for a final word. If you don't want to ask a local lawyer, you can always go to a legal website (a few of them are free) and ask there. I would highly recommend doing one or the other." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3686" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1434" RevisionGUID="cab423da-a401-421a-95a1-ce88a37d19b7" CreationDate="2014-02-19T22:40:13.543" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/436269016374870017" />
  <row Id="3690" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1324" RevisionGUID="344cf102-9095-475f-9d27-031e2b481783" CreationDate="2014-02-20T01:40:14.097" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/436314317798273025" />
  <row Id="3691" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1427" RevisionGUID="f56eb7e6-bc2c-426b-ba93-5d2f888346a9" CreationDate="2014-02-20T05:19:59.210" UserId="1953" Comment="deleted 381 characters in body" Text="My role as a contractor for a US firm is about to start on Friday and I also have another local startup company with an offer and don't know which to choose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The US firm has done background checks, and it's a 9 to 5, M-F, indefinitely. They employ many freelancers and also local developers and appear to be financially solid.&#xD;&#xA;The other American startup company is different. I will be making more than the hourly rate the one first firm is paying, and will be working 9-5 M-F but for 3 months. They say that there will be more work after but it's just thin air as much as I hope so, it's not good enough seeing that they are a startup. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I do? I'm worried that although the startup company offers more money, it's hard to say whether they will actually follow through and who knows if after a month they will point to funding or not being happy with my work? It's a big risk. a bit more than I will make at the first firm, but this firm is more stable, and it seems like there will always be work but I don't know this 100%." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3695" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1427" RevisionGUID="8ae752d0-5895-4fce-a5e6-cb5539f88883" CreationDate="2014-02-20T07:44:09.947" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3696" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1354" RevisionGUID="8214ee90-c23b-41bf-ad4f-52bc1543054a" CreationDate="2014-02-20T07:45:56.830" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|estimation|scope-creep|scope-of-work|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3697" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1353" RevisionGUID="d6add501-c301-4dd4-a228-d84e5bd5480b" CreationDate="2014-02-20T07:46:56.647" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3698" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1379" RevisionGUID="82820e7e-7fe2-4e30-8028-7345401c4314" CreationDate="2014-02-20T07:50:07.363" UserId="64" Comment="fixed spelling and grammar" Text="Though we admittedly haven't been freelancing that long, we have never run into this sort of a problem. :(  After setting up profiles on Freelancer, Freelance, Elance and oDesk, I have to say that I favor Elance greatly.  They don't freak out when you put a link to your portfolio. They facilitate smooth communication. They secure up front payments for non-hourly work. We work on a project per project basis, and they paid out easily to our bank account.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I will also say we are somewhat selective in what we bid for.  We only bid on projects that are clearly and professionally written.  If the person listing the job can't bother to use punctuation or makes more than a couple typos, it's hard to take them seriously.  We also don't bid on jobs that are very vague or jobs that seem shifty. Best of luck with your freelancing. Definitely check out elance.com, as we've had a lot of luck there!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3702" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1440" RevisionGUID="584aa112-2348-4cd5-b44d-c7edfdd3ce50" CreationDate="2014-02-20T08:24:15.020" UserId="60" Text="Here's how I usually approach this sort of question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My approach is something like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Offer a brief consultation *to see what I can do to help.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Inform customer that this is pre-sales support, to hammer out what I can do and for what rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  After talking with the prospect, let the prospect know what I am able to do and what it will cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This allows me to effectively avoid saying no, to set expectations, and to hopefully get business.  It doesn't always work.  I have had prospects walk away because they didn't like my recommendations only to eventually pay someone else to struggle with the way they wanted things done, and then eventually come around to seeing things my way after paying someone a bunch of money on a solution that didn't pan out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now maybe the conversation leads the prospect to do things themselves.  This has happened.  But the time I spend on it is minimal and I do get business this way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3703" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1441" RevisionGUID="418a54bc-80a7-4e70-8b24-601006945c9b" CreationDate="2014-02-20T08:33:08.003" UserId="60" Text="In the US 1% to 1.5% per month (simple, not compounding) is not uncommon.  It's usually stated on the invoice and the quotation.  In general if it is not there, it is going to be hard to collect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The point of having a late fee is to encourage people to be timely with payment.  There are, after all, three kinds of customers who pay late:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Those who don't care&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Those who are disorganized&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  Those who are short on money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, mentioning a late fee in the invoice isn't going to affect the third category (and if you have trouble collecting you should assume your customer is there), but it does help prevent the first two from falling in there.  In short, the purpose of a late fee is not to collect it but to prevent late payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, if you find yourself with a customer in the third category, the best thing to do in my experience is to offer to waive the late fee in exchange for a payment arrangement.  In general, this is also a sign not to do further work for this customer absent payment up front, but the late fee gives you some leverage there.  Thus far, I have only had two customers (and about a total of less than $2k) that I have had to write off after such attempts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most people don't like being late with payments.  Late payments are a way of adding a little bit of bite to the expectations.  It doesn't have to be a lot." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3704" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1441" RevisionGUID="bf33f74a-f4fa-4f7f-9c42-186c527cae2c" CreationDate="2014-02-20T08:38:29.827" UserId="60" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="In the US 1% to 1.5% per month (simple, not compounding) is not uncommon.  It's usually stated on the invoice and the quotation.  In general if it is not there, it is going to be hard to collect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The point of having a late fee is to encourage people to be timely with payment.  There are, after all, three kinds of customers who pay late:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Those who don't care&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Those who are disorganized&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.  Those who are short on money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, mentioning a late fee in the invoice isn't going to affect the third category (and if you have trouble collecting you should assume your customer is there), but it does help prevent the first two from falling in there.  In short, the purpose of a late fee is not to collect it but to prevent late payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, if you find yourself with a customer in the third category, the best thing to do in my experience is to offer to waive the late fee in exchange for a payment arrangement.  In general, this is also a sign not to do further work for this customer absent payment up front, but the late fee gives you some leverage there.  Thus far, I have only had two customers (and about a total of less than $2k) that I have had to write off after such attempts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most people don't like being late with payments.  Late payment fees are a way of adding a little bit of bite to the expectations.  It doesn't have to be a lot." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3705" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1442" RevisionGUID="4e2378b4-c7ab-4596-a9e5-8d3e74036ae1" CreationDate="2014-02-20T08:49:26.960" UserId="60" Text="Unfortunately it is normal.  I usually push back on such things, but sometimes we can achieve an arrangement.  For example, when I wrote some whitepapers for Microsoft (which were then published) they gave me back a license under the Microsoft Permissive License, which was good enough for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I usually charge a premium for handing over copyright unless I get a permissive license that provides for my own ownership of further developments on it back.  I can do that because of the work I am in.  I am not sure everyone can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am happy to accept a license back which does not allow me to sell licenses for the work as I initially wrote it, but would allow me to sell licenses to any further modifications I make.  But what I usually don't want to see is what happens if I write something that looks superficially similar and then there's a copyright infringement lawsuit.  The customer has some legitimate needs too, and those can be addressed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3708" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="101" RevisionGUID="c6e45e91-da43-4ff9-84c9-f690960cc291" CreationDate="2014-02-20T09:38:33.770" UserId="58" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Hiroto&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="3709" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1331" RevisionGUID="01710c0a-3f9d-4510-af3c-237ba1fd9e3a" CreationDate="2014-02-20T13:40:15.417" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/436495516005048320" />
  <row Id="3710" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="1379" RevisionGUID="7e71f6de-e09c-4888-a2c0-d8e7356656f5" CreationDate="2014-02-20T14:47:40.020" UserId="1978" Comment="Rollback to [c3b5f344-2796-4b96-a4ce-e229b7ab9862]" Text="Though we admittedly haven't been freelancing that long, we have never run into this sort of a problem :(  After setting up profiles on freelancer, freelance, elance and odesk, I have to say that I favor elance greatly.  They don't freak out when you put a link to your portfolio, they facilitate smooth communication, they secure up front payments for non-hourly work (we work on a project per project basis) and they paid out easily to our bank account.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I however will also say we are somewhat selective in what we bid for.  We only bid on projects that are clearly and professionally written.  If the person listing the job can't bother to use punctuation, or makes more than a couple typos, it's hard to take them seriously.  We also don't bid on jobs that are very vague, or jobs that seem shifty.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck with your freelancing... defiantly check out elance.com we've had a lot of luck there!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3711" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1419" RevisionGUID="c5c6500c-e65f-4fc5-ab1c-10068cfea5f9" CreationDate="2014-02-20T15:22:40.817" UserId="784" Comment="Tax questions should be tagged with appropriate geography to avoid misinterpretation" Text="|taxes|usa|expenses|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3712" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1419" RevisionGUID="c5c6500c-e65f-4fc5-ab1c-10068cfea5f9" CreationDate="2014-02-20T15:22:40.817" Comment="Proposed by 784 approved by 69 edit id of 208" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3713" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1444" RevisionGUID="34c19164-6de0-4528-8857-215c472da5cc" CreationDate="2014-02-20T19:28:30.217" UserId="1916" Text="As Scott has commented on your question, &quot;home deductions&quot; are pretty hard to claim if you have a &quot;mixed use&quot; area in your home.  My experience in this area has evolved from part-time freelance to starting a full time operation, but all of it still resides within my home.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My accountant has had me create dedicated Quickbooks accounts (you can use Freshbooks, Mint, whatever) and actually enter bills for rent and utilities from my personal life to my business operations.  The amount I invoice for is the estimated percentage of use, and I arrived at this percentage basically doing as Neil Robertson suggested.  At the end of the year, you have a record of the specific amount that your business has contributed towards your rent and utilities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, for example:  In your Quickbooks file for your freelance operation, make a &quot;Vendor&quot; that's actually you (or in my case, my wife).  Now, enter a bill from this vendor for the amount your freelance business owes in rent and utilities for the month.  Pay this bill from your freelance checking account/cash/PayPal/cookie jar every month.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As the last part suggests, you might want to have a dedicated checking account or something that you can track your income and expenses for your freelance, but that wasn't part of your original question.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, I'm not an accountant, but this is what my accountant has me do.  If you have an accountant or financial advisor, check with them about this advise before really moving forward." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3714" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1321" RevisionGUID="724105cf-eb30-407d-89aa-abee7c234b40" CreationDate="2014-02-21T01:40:29.853" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/436676771246014464" />
  <row Id="3715" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1354" RevisionGUID="e5a0635d-6a61-4080-baf0-44f4dce8805a" CreationDate="2014-02-21T04:40:29.813" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/436722070324772864" />
  <row Id="3721" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1446" RevisionGUID="5215e69a-8d99-4cb9-948a-25b2faa85671" CreationDate="2014-02-21T19:13:53.000" UserId="1975" Text="When considering freelance opportunities I've always considered that for shorter contract terms, a higher rate should be charged, and for longer terms up to an indefinite full time commitment (ie, a full time role) a lower rate can be assumed.   So, a company that expects about 30-60 day commitment/expectation with only a possibility of further projects following would assume a higher contracting rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I'm struggling with is when companies ask about your last long term rate, then assume they'll just have the same rate for a short commitment.  How do people normally handle the quoting process around this?  What if they ask your rate before committing to whether it is a 30 day or 6 month project expectation?   Or, do you just use one averaged rate and take whatever length project they offer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've considered asking for a 3-month minimum, but I feel like it alienates clients upfront which I hate to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT:&#xD;&#xA;This can also apply to a contract-to-hire compared to full time role.  I'd assume a 1099 contract-to-hire with no benefits would be a higher rate, but companies want to assume it is the same rate as a full time job, just no commitment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3722" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1446" RevisionGUID="5215e69a-8d99-4cb9-948a-25b2faa85671" CreationDate="2014-02-21T19:13:53.000" UserId="1975" Text="Evaluating short term contracts and pay rate" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3723" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1446" RevisionGUID="5215e69a-8d99-4cb9-948a-25b2faa85671" CreationDate="2014-02-21T19:13:53.000" UserId="1975" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3724" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1447" RevisionGUID="e2aa402e-9369-4971-a177-45c0f8d768fc" CreationDate="2014-02-21T20:02:21.550" UserId="1975" Text="IRS requirements call for regular and exclusive usage of the office for your work, and generally allow percentage rooms, or percentage square feet.  So, 1 room in 5 (20%), or 200 sq ft out of 1000 sq ft (20%).  It sounds like you're not full time, so I would just declare a regular space you use exclusively for work and stick to it.  It could be a small office in your home, or depending on your living situation, 30% of a spare room for instance.  Just be reasonable in the estimate, and not try to declare your entire living room, bedroom, or dining room absurdly.  If it's reasonable, they're generally just going on your honestly for this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3725" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1447" RevisionGUID="c9c65132-124d-4534-84df-b3dd763d9659" CreationDate="2014-02-21T20:07:49.590" UserId="1975" Comment="added 368 characters in body" Text="IRS requirements call for regular and exclusive usage of the office for your work, and generally allow percentage rooms, or percentage square feet.  So, 1 room in 5 (20%), or 200 sq ft out of 1000 sq ft (20%).  It sounds like you're not full time, so I would just declare a regular space you use exclusively for work and stick to it.  It could be a small office in your home, or depending on your living situation, 30% of a spare room for instance.  Just be reasonable in the estimate, and not try to declare your entire living room, bedroom, or dining room absurdly.  If it's reasonable, they're generally just going on your honestly for this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For things like internet, make an educated estimate based on your history.  Do you spend about 10 hours a week on internet for personal use?  Then do 50/50% for business personal.   Do you spend significantly more time for personal use than business?  Go 25/75% for business personal.  Over the years I've stopped trying to come up with numbers like 47%." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3726" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1448" RevisionGUID="f46c2e34-7111-44dd-8ed6-0c8bb32c2d0f" CreationDate="2014-02-21T23:31:05.477" UserId="1706" Text="Try this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    &quot;My rate for shorter term projects is &lt;fill in the blank&gt;.  For projects that are more than &lt;fill in the blank&gt; in duration, I may be willing to negotiate a better rate for you.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way, you don't cut yourself short.  Start with the higher number.  Also, be wary of customers who are shopping on solely price instead of quality because you may likely discover that once you get on board with such a customer, they'll want to nickel and dime you (and pay late, if at all) every step of the way.  For me, the more a customer focuses on &quot;price, price, price, price, price&quot;, the less I want to deal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3727" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1449" RevisionGUID="a5d1e580-3630-4e61-bd57-83d93b4bdbc3" CreationDate="2014-02-22T05:00:49.820" UserId="1111" Text="The title might be a little tricky, so I'll elaborate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I finished a website for a client, got it in Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools and is showing up fine and dandy in search results. When you google the company name, their site is the first result you'll get. However, the second result is a page in my portfolio site about this project. They googled themselves and don't like my site being the second result, because &quot;people may end up in your site instead of ours&quot;. The page in my site simply describes my work in this project and offers a direct link to their site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They've asked me to get my site out of the Google Results. Should I comply? On one hand, I want to keep a good relationship with the client; on the other one, this is a website I developed and I'm proud of. What should I do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3728" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1449" RevisionGUID="a5d1e580-3630-4e61-bd57-83d93b4bdbc3" CreationDate="2014-02-22T05:00:49.820" UserId="1111" Text="Should I remove my portfolio website from Google if it competes with the website I built for a client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3729" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1449" RevisionGUID="a5d1e580-3630-4e61-bd57-83d93b4bdbc3" CreationDate="2014-02-22T05:00:49.820" UserId="1111" Text="|client|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3730" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1446" RevisionGUID="c65b5cc8-e248-4d6a-9d31-efcb963f47a8" CreationDate="2014-02-22T10:40:32.760" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/437175066368147456" />
  <row Id="3731" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1450" RevisionGUID="fdcd84d5-9112-4bbe-80b8-fc4bcbb12f2c" CreationDate="2014-02-22T11:26:34.190" UserId="1018" Text="I would not want to upset the client but a counter proposal might be appropriate where you can offer to do some more SEO work on the website to strengthen their position and add additional entries that will push down your own search result for the website!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It might also be a temporary problem that fixes itself after a few weeks once the new website has more credibility. You could ask the client to adopt a wait and see attitude for a month or so and if the issue is still present, then offer to remove the link in the meantime." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3732" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1451" RevisionGUID="6c36923a-2f9e-4ae7-8def-a746888afab0" CreationDate="2014-02-22T14:12:10.387" UserId="517" Text="I work like this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Projects up to &lt;enter work hours&gt; have such and such rate. Projects over &lt;amount of work hours&gt; get minimum hourly rate. This works well in case you immediately know the scope of the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What in case you are not sure whether you will spent 15 or 155 work hours? In such cases I tell my clients that hourly rate will be XY dollars until we reach special amount of work hours (100, 200,...). After that I will charge them minimum rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you work fixed-price projects only, then always try to earn your monthly salary. If the project will last 1 month, then minimum price is &lt;you monthly salary&gt;. Start with higher amount, but don't go below your salary. If you have an office, that instead of &quot;salary&quot; the term &quot;office costs&quot; should be used. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If anyone has a better methodology, I'd like to hear it as well. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3733" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1452" RevisionGUID="0192bf85-8835-42f2-ad3f-77c79860bb3c" CreationDate="2014-02-22T14:14:17.567" UserId="517" Text="I would also remove the website or set untraceable URL for Google SEO. If I were the client, I would like that as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just put yourself in the client's perspective and you would probably react the same way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3734" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1453" RevisionGUID="135bacfb-862f-4609-9843-0c4cae64e377" CreationDate="2014-02-22T14:25:18.440" UserId="517" Text="So far, I have coded multi-user applications either used by client's company staff or by clients selling them via some web application shops. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, for the first time I was hired by middle man who disclosed his plans :). He wants me to make enterprise multi-user application which he will sell to another company. I know that app will be used by XY number of users and I have to calculate the price for `development` + `distribution to XY number of users`.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's say that the price of the whole development process will be $10.000 (sum I am charging middle man). How shall I calculate the price if the app will be distributed to 100 users?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3735" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1453" RevisionGUID="135bacfb-862f-4609-9843-0c4cae64e377" CreationDate="2014-02-22T14:25:18.440" UserId="517" Text="How to set price when the app will be distributed to 100+ user machines?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3736" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1453" RevisionGUID="135bacfb-862f-4609-9843-0c4cae64e377" CreationDate="2014-02-22T14:25:18.440" UserId="517" Text="|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3737" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="452" RevisionGUID="79e3ddf9-8637-4a30-9a7c-fd73cec8e21a" CreationDate="2014-02-23T00:52:06.113" UserId="64" Comment="Moderator edits article" Text="&lt;p&gt;Freelancing Stack Exchange is for questions relating to &lt;b&gt;self-employed and freelance workers.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;**If your question covers...**&#xA;&#xA;* Agency work while freelancing&#xA;* Selling services to different employers without a long-term contract with any of them&#xA;* Client responsibilities to freelancers&#xA;* Cross-border requirements and laws for freelancing&#xA; &#xA;**and isn't about...**&#xA; &#xA;* Working in a part-time of full-time setting for a company&#xA;* Asking for life experiences or opinions on freelancing&#xA; &#xA;...then you’re in the right place to ask your question!&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;/search&quot;&gt;look around&lt;/a&gt; to see if your question has been asked before. It’s also OK to &lt;a href=&quot;/helpcenter/self-answer&quot;&gt;ask and answer your own question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If your question is not specifically on-topic for $SiteName, it may be on topic for another Stack Exchange site. If no site currently exists that will accept your question, you may &lt;a href=&quot;http://area51.stackexchange.com/faq&quot;&gt;commit to&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/76974/how-can-i-propose-a-new-site&quot;&gt;propose&lt;/a&gt; a new site at &lt;a href=&quot;http://area51.stackexchange.com/&quot;&gt;Area51&lt;/a&gt;, the place where new Stack Exchange communities are democratically created.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more help, see &lt;a href=&quot;/help/dont-ask&quot;&gt;&quot;What types of questions should I avoid asking?&quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3738" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="452" RevisionGUID="79e3ddf9-8637-4a30-9a7c-fd73cec8e21a" CreationDate="2014-02-23T00:52:06.113" UserId="64" Comment="Moderator edits article" Text="What topics can I ask about here?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3739" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1454" RevisionGUID="bff96f28-b736-432f-9331-3c689ae2ce57" CreationDate="2014-02-23T02:33:16.713" UserId="64" Text="Do not talk about working with the client on their own SEO until you've fixed this problem. This is something *you* caused. Instead, tweak your own SEO so that a search for the client's website doesn't turn up your site. You don't have to remove the website from your portfolio, but there is something very simple you can do to avoid stealing SEO traffic from your client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Besides, if people are searching for &quot;example&quot;, they aren't looking for a website. Consider whether this could have a negative impact on your own SEO by Google ranking you *lower* for terms such as &quot;website design&quot; or &quot;website development&quot;. Good SEO is about target marketing, not mass marketing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client is example.com and folks search &quot;example&quot; and find your site, which has nothing to do about &quot;example&quot; but is instead about building websites, then something is wrong with *your* SEO. Folks should only find your site if they are searching for terms that represent business you compete in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The simple solution to this problem is to use the [NoFollow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nofollow) attribute on links on your website that lead to the client's site. This tells search engine bots not to let the content from the linked site affect SEO results. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if your client's website is www.example.com, then here is what the  link on your own website would look like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;    &amp;lt;a href=&quot;http://www.example.com/&quot; **rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;**&amp;gt;Link text&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for offering to handle the client's SEO, I wouldn't suggest doing that until *after* you've fixed this problem. If you were to bring up the subject of tweaking my site's SEO when part of the problem was caused by *you*, I'd be really hesitant to deal with you in the future. I wouldn't be mean about it, but it would definitely affect our business relationship and my desire to give you more money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's more, if I saw a review about such an issue, I would steer clear of doing business with you. This isn't to say you have bad intentions, just that I tend to be extremely conservative in who I do business with; I pay *close* attention to potential red flags, and something like this would heavily influence my decision." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3740" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1452" RevisionGUID="30e3a4bc-316d-4c69-860f-5b69b902d901" CreationDate="2014-02-23T20:50:45.207" UserId="64" Comment="We were thinking of converting this to a comment to Neil's answer, but I instead edited to make it more clear what you're suggesting and make it standalone as its own answer. Hope this helps." Text="You should definitely comply. I would simply remove the website or set untraceable URL for Google SEO. If I were the client, I would like that as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just put yourself in the client's perspective and you would probably react the same way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3741" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1449" RevisionGUID="9bb86a54-c8ae-4bc6-955d-5df713bad03c" CreationDate="2014-02-23T22:41:38.953" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/437718925582041088" />
  <row Id="3742" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1263" RevisionGUID="67103a4b-540f-4ca0-b8fd-e41f9a480fe6" CreationDate="2014-02-24T00:24:17.620" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3743" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1263" RevisionGUID="36e9c86b-9583-4ba1-a1d5-f6380221c532" CreationDate="2014-02-24T00:30:04.600" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="How do I resolve a payment dispute when trying to obtain code for testing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3744" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1244" RevisionGUID="b66e4751-7e81-4184-b7d9-e383cd24578e" CreationDate="2014-02-24T00:30:51.570" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3745" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1215" RevisionGUID="b809af71-c2dc-46c9-8319-a7684e6e75fb" CreationDate="2014-02-24T00:37:02.627" UserId="64" Comment="fixed question grammar and spelling; fixed tags" Text="I am new to Android development. I have developed an app in [Play Store][1] and then I got approached by a client in Facebook to build a translation of a religious word as an app. He said he will give me $50 for the app and gave me the website too from which I have to parse the content. I used the the content and gave him 5 prototypes at every 15 to 20% of progress. I had completed it in 3 weeks of full work and had sent him the work with 99% of it completed. Only the icon has to be provided for the app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I sent it to my friends for testing the app and they said to me that $50 is too less for the work. They told me of the developer fees per hour. They asked me to calculate the rate as $5/hr and it will cost to a minimum of $100. So I just asked the client of the hourly developer rates and **asked his opinion** of giving me $100 and **didn't demand him**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He said he can't and I said I can give him for $50. But he said it's too unethical to discuss the new rates once the rate is fixed and said he doesn't need my app at all. He asked me to delete my project files and he doesn't care about the work and broke off. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have the app with 99% work completed and now its vain and 0% percent as the content of translation I used was a copyrighted one and I can't publish it. It's not about the money much but the client treated my work like trash and it worries me a lot. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I used the app as a framework and made Bible and sold it for ($125). So as someone new to freelancing, how can I know if I am being underpaid? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I had accepted the client for the work with less and if the app grows then how can I approach him?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Due to outsourcing how can I calculate the cost?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Yennaachi.Wordzilla" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3746" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1215" RevisionGUID="b809af71-c2dc-46c9-8319-a7684e6e75fb" CreationDate="2014-02-24T00:37:02.627" UserId="64" Comment="fixed question grammar and spelling; fixed tags" Text="How do I estimate the cost of building an Android app?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3747" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1215" RevisionGUID="b809af71-c2dc-46c9-8319-a7684e6e75fb" CreationDate="2014-02-24T00:37:02.627" UserId="64" Comment="fixed question grammar and spelling; fixed tags" Text="|contracts|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3748" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1198" RevisionGUID="395fff2f-5361-4d4a-85ce-1581f88ea8ca" CreationDate="2014-02-24T00:38:48.743" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|business-plan|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3749" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1178" RevisionGUID="05265aa6-54da-4d8d-948a-735fd6aafff0" CreationDate="2014-02-24T00:39:34.590" UserId="64" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="3750" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1178" RevisionGUID="a7b40459-48b9-4791-877d-51e21e9b9053" CreationDate="2014-02-24T00:40:45.363" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3751" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1171" RevisionGUID="04f5e24e-bd73-4fe9-beb5-275a01fecbe3" CreationDate="2014-02-24T00:43:02.810" UserId="64" Comment="you don't need both a period and a question mark at the end of a sentence; fixed spelling and grammar; fixed tags; edited tags" Text="I am working for an friend in India and do spare time freelancing software development. I had worked for less then 10 clients and got the payment transferred to my personal account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question is do I need to register as a freelancer under any authorities to work as a freelancer or not? Also, me and my friends are doing it by a group if it's a little bit bigger job. So if it is required to register under an authority, can we combine and register as one group or do we need to register individually?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, being an Indian citizen and if I move to some other country, can I continue freelancing there in some other countries where I live? Is there any restrictions there?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3752" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1171" RevisionGUID="04f5e24e-bd73-4fe9-beb5-275a01fecbe3" CreationDate="2014-02-24T00:43:02.810" UserId="64" Comment="you don't need both a period and a question mark at the end of a sentence; fixed spelling and grammar; fixed tags; edited tags" Text="Is it required to register under any authorities to work as a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3754" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="1352" RevisionGUID="e9773382-86db-482b-8833-fae5c0a5823a" CreationDate="2014-02-24T00:46:49.763" UserId="64" Comment="13" />
  <row Id="3755" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1171" RevisionGUID="04f5e24e-bd73-4fe9-beb5-275a01fecbe3" CreationDate="2014-02-24T00:43:02.810" UserId="64" Comment="you don't need both a period and a question mark at the end of a sentence; fixed spelling and grammar; fixed tags; edited tags" Text="|legal|group-freelancing|registration|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3756" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="452" RevisionGUID="7dffb793-c677-49de-8b95-64c9a1cb5a0c" CreationDate="2014-02-24T00:53:22.557" UserId="64" Comment="Moderator edits article" Text="&lt;p&gt;Freelancing Stack Exchange is for questions relating to &lt;b&gt;self-employed and freelance workers.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;**If your question covers...**&#xA;&#xA;* Agency work while freelancing&#xA;* Selling services to different employers without a long-term contract with any of them&#xA;* Client responsibilities to freelancers&#xA;* Cross-border requirements and laws for freelancing&#xA; &#xA;**and isn't about...**&#xA; &#xA;* Working in a part-time of full-time setting for a company&#xA;* Asking for life experiences or opinions on freelancing&#xA; &#xA;...then you’re in the right place to ask your question!&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;/search&quot;&gt;look around&lt;/a&gt; to see if your question has been asked before. It’s also OK to &lt;a href=&quot;/helpcenter/self-answer&quot;&gt;ask and answer your own question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If your question is not specifically on-topic for $SiteName, it may be on topic for another Stack Exchange site. If no site currently exists that will accept your question, you may &lt;a href=&quot;http://area51.stackexchange.com/faq&quot;&gt;commit to&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/76974/how-can-i-propose-a-new-site&quot;&gt;propose&lt;/a&gt; a new site at &lt;a href=&quot;http://area51.stackexchange.com/&quot;&gt;Area51&lt;/a&gt;, the place where new Stack Exchange communities are democratically created.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more help, see &lt;a href=&quot;/help/dont-ask&quot;&gt;&quot;What types of questions should I avoid asking?&quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;##How should I answer?&#xA;&#xA;Your answer should provide enough context to help the asker determine if the answer is right for them. Answers based on facts, references, and specific expertise are preferable.&#xA;&#xA;If the question has the [legal](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/legal) tag, you should include references or citations to back up your answer. &#xA;&#xA;In general, your answer should always include material to support or explain why your answer is correct. Answers that don't meet these guidelines may be removed. For more information, see [the back it up rule](http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/55/should-this-site-have-a-back-it-up-rule)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3757" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1097" RevisionGUID="098d2290-8762-4ac3-b718-edb543300971" CreationDate="2014-02-24T01:08:55.933" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags; fixed spelling and grammar" Text="|pay-rate|payment-terms|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3758" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1097" RevisionGUID="098d2290-8762-4ac3-b718-edb543300971" CreationDate="2014-02-24T01:08:55.933" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags; fixed spelling and grammar" Text="I am an iOS Developer. I have just started the freelancing and this is my first project for the client. My client is from India and me too. My client has given a checklist of features to me that he wants in his app. He asked me to decide the time required to implement for each task and the price of each separately. he want the complete list of separate task and price of each task, now I am little confused as is this the correct way to decide the price or shall I charge for a complete project or an hourly basis. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I charge him for on feature basis then how would I decide the price, what parameters should I consider? The task include like Facebook, Gmail authentication, user feedback, Facebook and Twitter sharing, and server-side coding (I am handling server side as well), device orientation etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3759" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1042" RevisionGUID="6fb60f42-3041-4a43-8529-a16d8c086094" CreationDate="2014-02-24T01:10:36.020" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3760" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1392" RevisionGUID="08efc51c-c2b9-4d66-b35d-289768f5e241" CreationDate="2014-02-24T01:12:18.243" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|client-support|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3761" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="850" RevisionGUID="29644ae7-8b50-469c-96cc-fe978cec9e75" CreationDate="2014-02-24T01:17:36.703" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|time-management|business-plan|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3762" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="1031" RevisionGUID="304c519d-9cae-4b46-a140-c2c622a8fa1e" CreationDate="2014-02-24T01:21:04.250" UserId="64" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="3763" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="1031" RevisionGUID="4ae6efbc-1f3e-4703-887d-23d63155d4c5" CreationDate="2014-02-24T01:21:29.457" UserId="64" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="3764" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1031" RevisionGUID="c6dc41c8-449a-4a59-a2b2-b0fb4ac264f3" CreationDate="2014-02-24T01:21:43.690" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3765" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1003" RevisionGUID="c17294aa-c042-413c-928f-57be6a66c713" CreationDate="2014-02-24T01:21:59.037" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|client-support|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3766" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="689" RevisionGUID="35a40efe-8b4c-4984-995a-98404bc9685c" CreationDate="2014-02-24T01:24:06.137" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags; edited tags" Text="|information-technology|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3767" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="304" RevisionGUID="5c67edc6-9dc3-462c-8fb4-2f3cccfb1047" CreationDate="2014-02-24T01:25:16.347" UserId="64" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="3768" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="304" RevisionGUID="265ae890-fee7-4ab3-8b13-b5aaffc1b35d" CreationDate="2014-02-24T01:26:02.460" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3769" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="449" RevisionGUID="cc3a83f7-e595-4e7d-bb2f-9238c31f592e" CreationDate="2014-02-24T01:26:55.133" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|negotiation|sales|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3770" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="278" RevisionGUID="54f0e75d-3e42-4612-b949-0b7e13a17209" CreationDate="2014-02-24T01:28:09.623" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|consulting|accounting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3771" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1455" RevisionGUID="d2db1edb-b533-482a-84b4-56079bb65799" CreationDate="2014-02-24T05:29:26.750" UserId="2112" Text="If you are in India - then no, there is no legal requirement for you to register yourself as a freelancer. However, if you are directly involved with Govt. contracting then you must hold a valid Govt. issued license. As of your income, you must pay your income taxes regardless.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For freelancing in other countries, you will face numerous restrictions (almost in 70 to 80% countries in the world) to do freelancing due to immigration reasons. The reason is that freelancing is considered to be self employment and those countries allow self employment for citizens or naturalized citizens only. For example, if you move to America in a work/non-immigrant visa (H1/L1 etc.) you will and must be employed by an employer at all times and get monthly paychecks. Also, based on the kind of non-immigrant visa you hold, you may or may not be allowed to change employers (example L1 visa holders cannot change their L1 visa holding employer whereas an H1 visa holder can). You will not be allowed to do any kind of work that can be considered as self employment until you obtain naturalization through an immigrant visa application which could take 5 to 10 years (for Indians and Chinese citizens specifically, since they are exempt from visa lottery) depending upon various situations. There are various ways an immigrant visa can be filed and in your case the most probable method would be employer based, where your employer would need to file your non immigrant work permit or naturalization. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;European countries also impose several such limitations to non-immigrant applicants. That is, until you obtain a legal immigrant status you would be limited in terms of self employment. European visas are points based and there are numerous criteria to fulfill to gather appropriate points for filing a visa (just an FYI) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of your question, once you immigrate to a different country (i.e. become a naturalized citizen) your records will be tracked by their Labor Departments automatically since your application for immigration will most likely need labor department's approval, so there may not be a legal need for you to register yourself as a freelancer/self employed. However, some countries may indeed require you to register yourself with an additional public or private body for you to be able to legally perform freelancing or start a business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**NOTE**: I am not an attorney or their representative. These are legal topics and you should consult an immigration lawyer or paralegal for all your immigration and non-immigration processes and needs outside of India. The content of this answer is just for your information purposes. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3772" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1455" RevisionGUID="641d42b9-7b85-4111-aea1-f1964d6fc97a" CreationDate="2014-02-24T05:40:26.917" UserId="2112" Comment="added 374 characters in body" Text="If you are in India - then no, there is no legal requirement for you to register yourself as a freelancer. However, if you are directly involved with Govt. contracting then you must hold a valid Govt. issued license. As of your income, you must pay your income taxes regardless. If you are getting paid directly to your bank account then it would be good to find out if it is TDS i.e. Tax Deducted at Source. This means that appropriate taxes were deducted  (and paid on your behalf to the Govt.) before the monies were paid to you. If it is not, then it is your responsibility to pay your taxes at the end of the financial year (i.e. March for India).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For freelancing in other countries, you will face numerous restrictions (almost in 70 to 80% countries in the world) to do freelancing due to immigration reasons. The reason is that freelancing is considered to be self employment and those countries allow self employment for citizens or naturalized citizens only. For example, if you move to America in a work/non-immigrant visa (H1/L1 etc.) you will and must be employed by an employer at all times and get monthly paychecks. Also, based on the kind of non-immigrant visa you hold, you may or may not be allowed to change employers (example L1 visa holders cannot change their L1 visa holding employer whereas an H1 visa holder can). You will not be allowed to do any kind of work that can be considered as self employment until you obtain naturalization through an immigrant visa application which could take 5 to 10 years (for Indians and Chinese citizens specifically, since they are exempt from visa lottery) depending upon various situations. There are various ways an immigrant visa can be filed and in your case the most probable method would be employer based, where your employer would need to file your non immigrant work permit or naturalization. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;European countries also impose several such limitations to non-immigrant applicants. That is, until you obtain a legal immigrant status you would be limited in terms of self employment. European visas are points based and there are numerous criteria to fulfill to gather appropriate points for filing a visa (just an FYI) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of your question, once you immigrate to a different country (i.e. become a naturalized citizen) your records will be tracked by their Labor Departments automatically since your application for immigration will most likely need labor department's approval, so there may not be a legal need for you to register yourself as a freelancer/self employed. However, some countries may indeed require you to register yourself with an additional public or private body for you to be able to legally perform freelancing or start a business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**NOTE**: I am not an attorney or their representative. These are legal topics and you should consult an immigration lawyer or paralegal for all your immigration and non-immigration processes and needs outside of India. The content of this answer is just for your information purposes. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3773" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1157" RevisionGUID="6ad04d73-5d0f-4080-b41c-fbc3b453f9e6" CreationDate="2014-02-24T07:23:40.200" UserId="1644" Comment="added 24 characters in body" Text="I have been working as a freelancer since year 2009, Well sometimes it is hard to get a job there on Odesk/Elance. There are tons of people now, what you would do for someone in 500 dollars, another person may do the same task 10 times better than you at a very low cost. You can't just rely on freelancing sites. Few days ago all was well with me  but all of a sudden I wasn't getting jobs on Odesk, so expect for the unexpected, I know some people who are doing very well but &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; it all depends how good you are, the luck factor and lots of things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I love working as a freelancer because I don't like to go to the office and money of course - If you would work hard I am sure you will earn a lot more than your friends who go to offices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you are from the developed countries, I think you are gonna&#xD;&#xA;&gt; struggle to get job because for me and most of the people from&#xD;&#xA;&gt; developing countries for them Even 1 dollar is a lot of money, if I&#xD;&#xA;&gt; work 8 hours a day I may have 14000 bucks by the end of the month&#xD;&#xA;&gt; which is quite Okay to me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3774" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1456" RevisionGUID="4c4fe7be-9da3-48c5-8acd-9c3c02e26149" CreationDate="2014-02-24T08:06:30.277" UserId="2112" Text="It's difficult to say how much exactly you should charge the company for your app without knowing much details, but here are some pointers. Apart from man hours  and logistics value required to create the app you must consider the technical value of your app. Pricing could be evaluated from the answers to question below-&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. How much value or ROI will it bring to your customer (The &quot;Company&quot;)?&#xD;&#xA;2. How scalable is your app? i.e. How good it can handle from a 100 users to 10,000 users. And how expensive would be the infrastructure to support such scalability?&#xD;&#xA;3. How much platform independent your app is? Would it run on Windows, OSX, UNIX etc.?&#xD;&#xA;4. How likely are you and your app are to get replaced by your competitor and how much your competitor values and prices their app?&#xD;&#xA;5. How user friendly and upgrade friendly is your app?&#xD;&#xA;6. How are your post sales product support? (Because a bad post sales support is a huge detractor, which could make your customer move from you to your competitor)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, these are just pointers because there could be a lot more to it based on the complexity of your deliverable, the desperation of your customer and the market stand of your competitor." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3775" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1456" RevisionGUID="c7d2b4cc-ce4a-4094-b94b-27107c0a9d4a" CreationDate="2014-02-24T08:18:19.557" UserId="2112" Comment="added 796 characters in body" Text="It's difficult to say how much exactly you should charge the company for your app without knowing much details, but here are some pointers. Apart from man hours  and logistics value required to create the app you must consider the technical value of your app. Pricing could be evaluated from the answers to question below-&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. How much value or ROI will it bring to your customer (The &quot;Company&quot;)?&#xD;&#xA;2. How scalable is your app? i.e. How good it can handle from a 100 users to 10,000 users. And how expensive would be the infrastructure to support such scalability?&#xD;&#xA;3. How much platform independent your app is? Would it run on Windows, OSX, UNIX etc.?&#xD;&#xA;4. How likely are you and your app are to get replaced by your competitor and how much your competitor values and prices their app?&#xD;&#xA;5. How user friendly and upgrade friendly is your app? How secure is your app?&#xD;&#xA;6. How are your post sales product support? (Because a bad post sales support is a huge detractor, which could make your customer move from you to your competitor) Would only &quot;you&quot; be enough to support this app if they were to increase the number of users from 100s to 1000s?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, these are just pointers because there could be a lot more to it based on the complexity of your deliverable, the desperation of your customer and the market stand of your competitor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would also be important to understand whether you plan to sell just single user or multi-user licenses or would like to sell your app altogether. Software Licensing and selling/ownership are different ballgames altogether as you may already know. Licensing could make your liability more than just selling the app so you need to have follow appropriate legal procedures and have ample insurance in-case your app were to screw up $1Mn worth of customer's production data, cause a major loss, or cause security leaks/breaches. But if you sell it, the app pretty much belongs to your customer and so does the source code and so does the liability since you loose ownership of the product and the flexibility of making money by selling it to other &quot;similar&quot; customers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3776" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1456" RevisionGUID="c6c4118d-5493-4581-9e7d-9369aa41a19b" CreationDate="2014-02-24T08:27:49.110" UserId="2112" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="It's difficult to say how much exactly you should charge the company for your app without knowing much details, but here are some pointers. Apart from man hours  and logistics value required to create the app you must consider the technical value of your app. Pricing could be evaluated from the answers to questions below-&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. How much value or ROI will it bring to your customer (The &quot;Company&quot;)?&#xD;&#xA;2. How scalable is your app? i.e. How good it can handle from a 100 users to 10,000 users. And how expensive would be the infrastructure to support such scalability?&#xD;&#xA;3. How much platform independent your app is? Would it run on Windows, OSX, UNIX etc.?&#xD;&#xA;4. How likely are you and your app are to get replaced by your competitor and how much your competitor values and prices their app?&#xD;&#xA;5. How user friendly and upgrade friendly is your app? How secure is your app?&#xD;&#xA;6. How are your post sales product support? (Because a bad post sales support is a huge detractor, which could make your customer move from you to your competitor) Would only &quot;you&quot; be enough to support this app if they were to increase the number of users from 100s to 1000s?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, these are just pointers because there could be a lot more to it based on the complexity of your deliverable, the desperation of your customer and the market stand of your competitor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would also be important to understand whether you plan to sell just single user or multi-user licenses or would like to sell your app altogether. Software Licensing and selling/ownership are different ballgames altogether as you may already know. Licensing could make your liability more than just selling the app so you need to have follow appropriate legal procedures and/or have ample insurance in-case your app were to screw up $1Mn worth of customer's production data, cause a major loss, or cause security leaks/breaches. But if you sell it, the app pretty much belongs to your customer and so does the source code and so does the liability since you loose ownership of the product and the flexibility of making money by selling it to other &quot;similar&quot; customers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3777" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1455" RevisionGUID="991987d4-0cc5-42b4-acee-ba5594a8b7cd" CreationDate="2014-02-24T08:46:24.353" UserId="2112" Comment="added 373 characters in body" Text="If you are in India - then no, there is no legal requirement for you to register yourself as a freelancer. However, if you are directly involved with Govt. contracting then you must hold a valid Govt. issued license. As of your income, you must pay your income taxes regardless. If you are getting paid directly to your bank account then it would be good to find out if it is TDS i.e. Tax Deducted at Source. This means that appropriate taxes were deducted  (and paid on your behalf to the Govt.) before the monies were paid to you. If it is not, then it is your responsibility to pay your taxes at the end of the financial year (i.e. March for India).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For freelancing in other countries, you will face numerous restrictions (almost in 70 to 80% countries in the world) to do freelancing due to immigration reasons. The reason is that freelancing is considered to be self employment and those countries allow self employment for citizens or naturalized citizens only. For example, if you move to America in a work/non-immigrant visa (H1/L1 etc.) you will and must be employed by an employer at all times and get monthly paychecks. Also, based on the kind of non-immigrant visa you hold, you may or may not be allowed to change employers (example L1 visa holders cannot change their L1 visa holding employer whereas an H1 visa holder can). You will not be allowed to do any kind of work that can be considered as self employment until you obtain naturalization through an immigrant visa application which could take 5 to 10 years (for Indians and Chinese citizens specifically, since they are exempt from visa lottery) depending upon various situations. There are various ways an immigrant visa can be filed and in your case the most probable method would be employer based, where your employer would need to file your non immigrant work permit or naturalization. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;European countries also impose several such limitations to non-immigrant applicants. That is, until you obtain a legal immigrant status you would be limited in terms of self employment. European visas are points based and there are numerous criteria to fulfill to gather appropriate points for filing a visa (just an FYI) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of your question, once you immigrate to a different country (i.e. become a naturalized citizen) your records will be tracked by their Labor Departments automatically since your application for immigration will most likely need labor department's approval, so there may not be a legal need for you to register yourself as a freelancer/self employed. However, some countries may indeed require you to register yourself with an additional public or private body for you to be able to legally perform freelancing or start a business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**NOTE**: I am not an attorney or their representative. These are legal topics and you should consult an immigration lawyer or paralegal for all your immigration and non-immigration processes and needs outside of India. The content of this answer is just for your information purposes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;References-&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Immihelp Comparison of H1B to L1 US Visas- ([URL][1])&#xD;&#xA;2. Immihelp article on immigrant visa - ([URL][2])&#xD;&#xA;3. UK's points based immigration system- ([URL][3])&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.immihelp.com/l1-visa/l1-visa-h1b-visa-comparison.html&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.immihelp.com/immigrant-visa/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.workpermit.com/uk/uk-immigration-tier-system.htm" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3778" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1455" RevisionGUID="afcdd468-abd3-41cb-8d8e-64f0909039ef" CreationDate="2014-02-24T08:54:29.480" UserId="2112" Comment="added 373 characters in body" Text="In India:&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;If you are in India - then no, there is no legal requirement for you to register yourself as a freelancer. However, if you are directly involved with Govt. contracting then you must hold a valid Govt. issued license. As of your income, you must pay your income taxes regardless. If you are getting paid directly to your bank account then it would be good to find out if it is TDS i.e. Tax Deducted at Source. This means that appropriate taxes were deducted  (and paid on your behalf to the Govt.) before the monies were paid to you. If it is not, then it is your responsibility to pay your taxes at the end of the financial year (i.e. March for India).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Other Countries:&#xD;&#xA;------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For freelancing in other countries, you will face numerous restrictions (almost in 70 to 80% countries in the world) due to immigration reasons. The reason is that freelancing is considered to be self employment and those countries allow self employment for citizens or naturalized citizens only. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if you move to America in a work/non-immigrant visa (H1/L1 etc.) you will and must be employed by an employer at all times and get monthly paychecks. Also, based on the kind of non-immigrant visa you hold, you may or may not be allowed to change employers (example L1 visa holders cannot change their L1 visa holding employer whereas an H1 visa holder can). You will not be allowed to do any kind of work that can be considered as self employment until you obtain naturalization through an immigrant visa application which could take 5 to 10 years (for Indians and Chinese citizens specifically, since they are exempt from visa lottery) depending upon various situations. There are various ways an immigrant visa can be filed and in your case the most probable method would be employer based, where your employer would need to file your non immigrant work permit or naturalization. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;European countries also impose several such limitations to non-immigrant applicants. That is, until you obtain a legal immigrant status you would be limited in terms of self employment. European visas are points based and there are numerous criteria to fulfill to gather appropriate points for filing a visa (just an FYI) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of your question, once you immigrate to a different country (i.e. become a naturalized citizen) your records will be tracked by their Labor Departments automatically since your application for immigration will most likely need labor department's approval, so there may not be a legal need for you to register yourself as a freelancer/self employed thereafter. However, some countries may indeed require you to register yourself with an additional public or private licensing body for you to be able to legally perform freelancing or start a business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Quick Summary:&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is not legally required for you to be registered as a Freelancer in India. However, if you intend to move to another country, since freelancing is treated as self employment, you might need to acquire appropriate work authorization or even naturalization or citizenship of that country through an immigrant visa process or other legal procedures authorized by local laws.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**NOTE**: I am not an attorney or their representative. These are legal topics and you should consult an immigration lawyer or paralegal for all your immigration and non-immigration processes and needs outside of India. The content of this answer is just for your information purposes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;References-&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Immihelp Comparison of H1B to L1 US Visas- ([URL][1])&#xD;&#xA;2. Immihelp article on immigrant visa - ([URL][2])&#xD;&#xA;3. UK's points based immigration system- ([URL][3])&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.immihelp.com/l1-visa/l1-visa-h1b-visa-comparison.html&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.immihelp.com/immigrant-visa/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.workpermit.com/uk/uk-immigration-tier-system.htm" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3779" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1455" RevisionGUID="fdcb94bd-0a24-4283-8c2b-3c4d7b88fe9a" CreationDate="2014-02-24T09:00:27.940" UserId="2112" Comment="added 209 characters in body" Text="In India:&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;If you are in India - then no, there is no legal requirement for you to register yourself as a freelancer. However, if you are directly involved with Govt. contracting then you must hold a valid Govt. issued license. As of your income, you must pay your income taxes regardless. If you are getting paid directly to your bank account then it would be good to find out if it is [TDS][1] i.e. Tax Deducted at Source. This means that appropriate taxes were deducted  (and paid on your behalf to the Govt.) before the monies were paid to you. If it is not, then it is your responsibility to pay your taxes at the end of the financial year (i.e. March for India).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Other Countries:&#xD;&#xA;------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For freelancing in other countries, you will face numerous restrictions (almost in 70 to 80% countries in the world) due to immigration reasons. The reason is that freelancing is considered to be self employment and those countries allow self employment for citizens or naturalized citizens only. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if you move to America in a work/non-immigrant visa (H1/L1 etc.) you will and must be employed by an employer at all times and get monthly paychecks. Also, based on the kind of non-immigrant visa you hold, you may or may not be allowed to change employers (example L1 visa holders cannot change their L1 visa holding employer whereas an H1 visa holder can). You will not be allowed to do any kind of work that can be considered as self employment until you obtain naturalization through an immigrant visa application which could take 5 to 10 years (for Indians and Chinese citizens specifically, since they are exempt from visa lottery) depending upon various situations. There are various ways an immigrant visa can be filed and in your case the most probable method would be employer based, where your employer would need to file your non immigrant work permit or naturalization. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;European countries also impose several such limitations to non-immigrant applicants. That is, until you obtain a legal immigrant status you would be limited in terms of self employment. European visas are points based and there are numerous criteria to fulfill to gather appropriate points for filing a visa (just an FYI) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of your question, once you immigrate to a different country (i.e. become a naturalized citizen) your records will be tracked by their Labor Departments automatically since your application for immigration will most likely need labor department's approval, so there may not be a legal need for you to register yourself as a freelancer/self employed thereafter. However, some countries may indeed require you to register yourself with an additional public or private licensing body for you to be able to legally perform freelancing or start a business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom Line:&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it is not legally required for you to be registered as a Freelancer in India, it may not be a bad idea for you to be associated with a more larger professional group of freelancers. If you intend to move to another country and continue freelancing, and since freelancing is treated as self employment, you might need to acquire appropriate work authorization or even naturalization or citizenship of that country through an immigrant visa process or other legal procedures authorized by local laws.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**NOTE**: I am not an attorney or their representative. These are legal topics and you should consult an immigration lawyer or paralegal for all your immigration and non-immigration processes and needs outside of India. The content of this answer is just for your information purposes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;References-&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Immihelp Comparison of H1B to L1 US Visas- ([URL][2])&#xD;&#xA;2. Immihelp article on immigrant visa - ([URL][3])&#xD;&#xA;3. UK's points based immigration system- ([URL][4])&#xD;&#xA;4. An Economic Times article on Freelancing in India - ([URL][5])&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Deducted_at_Source&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.immihelp.com/l1-visa/l1-visa-h1b-visa-comparison.html&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.immihelp.com/immigrant-visa/&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.workpermit.com/uk/uk-immigration-tier-system.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-01-13/news/46149963_1_randstad-india-threeyear-average-annual-profit-companies-bill" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3780" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1455" RevisionGUID="009ccd00-c417-4ea1-8509-f88915a06ab0" CreationDate="2014-02-24T09:06:11.210" UserId="2112" Comment="added 8 characters in body" Text="In India:&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;If you are in India - then no, there is no legal requirement for you to register yourself as a freelancer. However, if you are directly involved with Govt. contracting then you must hold a valid Govt. issued license. As of your income, you must pay your income taxes regardless. If you are getting paid directly to your bank account then it would be good to find out if it is [TDS][1] i.e. Tax Deducted at Source. This means that appropriate taxes were deducted  (and paid on your behalf to the Govt.) before the monies were paid to you. If it is not, then it is your responsibility to pay your taxes at the end of the financial year (i.e. March for India).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Other Countries:&#xD;&#xA;------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For freelancing in other countries, you will face numerous restrictions (almost in 70 to 80% countries in the world) due to immigration reasons. The reason is that freelancing is considered to be self employment and those countries allow self employment for citizens or naturalized citizens only. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if you move to America in a work/non-immigrant visa (H1/L1 etc.) you will and must be employed by an employer at all times and get monthly paychecks. Also, based on the kind of non-immigrant visa you hold, you may or may not be legally allowed to change employers (example L1 visa holders cannot change their L1 visa holding employer whereas an H1 visa holder can). You will not be allowed to do any kind of work that can be considered as self employment until you obtain naturalization through an immigrant visa application which could take 5 to 10 years (for Indians and Chinese citizens specifically, since they are exempt from visa lottery) depending upon various situations. There are various ways an immigrant visa can be filed and in your case the most probable method would be employer based, where your employer would need to file your non immigrant work permit or naturalization. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;European countries also impose several such limitations to non-immigrant applicants. That is, until you obtain a legal immigrant status you would be limited in terms of self employment. European visas are points based and there are numerous criteria to fulfill to gather appropriate points for filing a visa (just an FYI) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of your question, once you immigrate to a different country (i.e. become a naturalized citizen) your records will be tracked by their Labor Departments automatically since your application for immigration will most likely need labor department's approval, so there may not be a legal need for you to register yourself as a freelancer/self employed thereafter. However, some countries may indeed require you to register yourself with an additional public or private licensing body for you to be able to legally perform freelancing or start a business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom Line:&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it is not legally required for you to be registered as a Freelancer in India, it may not be a bad idea for you to be associated with a more larger professional group of freelancers. If you intend to move to another country and continue freelancing, and since freelancing is treated as self employment, you might need to acquire appropriate work authorization or even naturalization or citizenship of that country through an immigrant visa process or other legal procedures authorized by local laws.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**NOTE**: I am not an attorney or their representative. These are legal topics and you should consult an immigration lawyer or paralegal for all your immigration and non-immigration processes and needs outside of India. The content of this answer is just for your information purposes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;References-&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Immihelp Comparison of H1B to L1 US Visas- ([URL][2])&#xD;&#xA;2. Immihelp article on immigrant visa - ([URL][3])&#xD;&#xA;3. UK's points based immigration system- ([URL][4])&#xD;&#xA;4. An Economic Times article on Freelancing in India - ([URL][5])&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Deducted_at_Source&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.immihelp.com/l1-visa/l1-visa-h1b-visa-comparison.html&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.immihelp.com/immigrant-visa/&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.workpermit.com/uk/uk-immigration-tier-system.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-01-13/news/46149963_1_randstad-india-threeyear-average-annual-profit-companies-bill" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3781" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1455" RevisionGUID="6b6193c1-c287-4371-b71c-6a64106bdb2b" CreationDate="2014-02-24T09:12:13.877" UserId="2112" Comment="added 8 characters in body" Text="In India:&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;If you are in India - then no, there is no legal requirement for you to register yourself as a freelancer. However, if you are directly involved with Govt. contracting then you must hold a valid Govt. issued license. As of your income, you must pay your income taxes regardless. If you are getting paid directly to your bank account then it would be good to find out if it is [TDS][1] i.e. Tax Deducted at Source. This means that appropriate taxes were deducted  (and paid on your behalf to the Govt.) before the monies were paid to you. If it is not, then it is your responsibility to pay your taxes at the end of the financial year (i.e. March for India).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Other Countries:&#xD;&#xA;------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For freelancing in other countries, you will face numerous restrictions (almost 95% countries in the world) due to immigration reasons. The reason is that freelancing is considered to be self employment and those countries allow self employment for citizens or naturalized citizens only. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if you move to America in a work/non-immigrant visa (H1/L1 etc.) you will and must be employed by an employer at all times and get monthly paychecks. Also, based on the kind of non-immigrant visa you hold, you may or may not be legally allowed to change employers (example L1 visa holders cannot change their L1 visa holding employer whereas an H1 visa holder can). You will not be allowed to do any kind of work that can be considered as self employment until you obtain naturalization through an immigrant visa application which could take 5 to 10 years (for Indians and Chinese citizens specifically, since they are exempt from visa lottery) depending upon various situations. There are various ways an immigrant visa can be filed and in your case the most probable method would be employer based, where your employer would need to file your non immigrant work permit or naturalization. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;European countries also impose several such limitations to non-immigrant applicants. That is, until you obtain a legal immigrant status you would be limited in terms of self employment. European visas are points based and there are numerous criteria to fulfill to gather appropriate points for filing a visa (just an FYI) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of your question, once you immigrate to a different country (i.e. become a naturalized citizen) your records will be tracked by their Labor Departments automatically since your application for immigration will most likely need labor department's approval, so there may not be a legal need for you to register yourself as a freelancer/self employed thereafter. However, some countries may indeed require you to register yourself with an additional public or private licensing body for you to be able to legally perform freelancing or start a business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although, a small subset of countries such as Bhutan, Nepal etc. may allow you to work there as freelancer without any necessary documentation but for a limited period of time (This applies to Indian Citizens only).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom Line:&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it is not legally required for you to be registered as a Freelancer in India, it may not be a bad idea for you to be associated with a more larger professional group of freelancers. If you intend to move to another country and continue freelancing, and since freelancing is treated as self employment, you might need to acquire appropriate work authorization or even naturalization or citizenship of that country through an immigrant visa process or other legal procedures authorized by local laws.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**NOTE**: I am not an attorney or their representative. These are legal topics and you should consult an immigration lawyer or paralegal for all your immigration and non-immigration processes and needs outside of India. The content of this answer is just for your information purposes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;References-&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Immihelp Comparison of H1B to L1 US Visas- ([URL][2])&#xD;&#xA;2. Immihelp article on immigrant visa - ([URL][3])&#xD;&#xA;3. UK's points based immigration system- ([URL][4])&#xD;&#xA;4. An Economic Times article on Freelancing in India - ([URL][5])&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Deducted_at_Source&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.immihelp.com/l1-visa/l1-visa-h1b-visa-comparison.html&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.immihelp.com/immigrant-visa/&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.workpermit.com/uk/uk-immigration-tier-system.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-01-13/news/46149963_1_randstad-india-threeyear-average-annual-profit-companies-bill" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3782" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1457" RevisionGUID="8a02eda6-d9d1-483a-9f31-11033424b1c5" CreationDate="2014-02-24T12:32:43.863" UserId="2116" Text="I have a question regarding my portfolio. I'm a UX worker who has been employed either client side or for agencies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What am I allowed to produce or publish onto an online portfolio?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to avoid publishing the actual work, or company logos and I'm more keen to showcase one's thought process and ways of thinking. How the projects improved me etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for instance. I did some work for Coca Cola. They will clamp on me for putting their logo onto my website. But am I allowed to put an icon of a soda bottle onto a red circle instead?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And instead of showing an entire wireframe am I allowed to show a snapshot or maybe some stock photography that I purchase instead?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3783" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1457" RevisionGUID="8a02eda6-d9d1-483a-9f31-11033424b1c5" CreationDate="2014-02-24T12:32:43.863" UserId="2116" Text="Creating a portfolio that could include copyright material or sensitive info?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3784" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1457" RevisionGUID="8a02eda6-d9d1-483a-9f31-11033424b1c5" CreationDate="2014-02-24T12:32:43.863" UserId="2116" Text="|portfolio|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3788" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1459" RevisionGUID="8815106c-0402-4c14-8d72-5b4331c5f3be" CreationDate="2014-02-24T14:27:14.230" UserId="708" Text="My contract states I have the right to display work for self-promotional purposes unless it is a work-for-hire situation or otherwise requested. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, in any **non**-work-for-hire situation you own the rights to everything except the final deliverables unless you've agreed otherwise. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now that doesn't mean you own the rights to the Coca-Cola logo, but you own the rights to the design preliminaries and all pieces which lead up to the final deliverables. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's generally understood that any freelance labor, especially that of a creative nature, has a need to display pieces to promote themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Advertising agencies and designers have been using pieces for decades to promote themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being posted, I have worked on some confidential documents where the client specifically asked that I not display them for any reason and that was honored. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only thing I'd **ever** be wary of displaying is secret proprietary information I created for the company, but logos, photos, and UIs are hardly secret. If the UI is of a confidential nature, you could just change the data to be generic." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3789" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1460" RevisionGUID="ff47aee1-6014-4be2-9af7-b1170beb99ff" CreationDate="2014-02-24T15:33:28.340" UserId="1975" Text="I'm a developer with extensive work experience in Web Development and a few years experience with Iphone (IOS) development as well too.  Most of my experience has been full time with big companies, but I also have a variety of freelance type projects including a couple devoted ones recently. I'm having trouble with how to present a portfolio or code sample set to potential future freelance projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For portfolio, I'm not a designer but a developer, so while I can show some screenshots of recent work-- they are mostly built to spec.  I did not design them, but coded them.  How appropriate is it to present screenshots as a candidate for a project as a developer?  Am I being judged on the designers work in that case?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other side is the code sample.  I don't have code samples from many past corporate jobs as the code was usually shared among many developers, and definitely private+proprietary.  I've been able to post my most recent IOS projects to github, but how do I explain that I have many years experience but only share code from the past 6 months?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How is best to present screens+code as a developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3790" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1460" RevisionGUID="ff47aee1-6014-4be2-9af7-b1170beb99ff" CreationDate="2014-02-24T15:33:28.340" UserId="1975" Text="Developer Portfolio - screenshots and codesamples?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3791" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1460" RevisionGUID="ff47aee1-6014-4be2-9af7-b1170beb99ff" CreationDate="2014-02-24T15:33:28.340" UserId="1975" Text="|portfolio|interview|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3792" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1461" RevisionGUID="acecb6f9-133f-4ee3-874a-c8cd8db4ee72" CreationDate="2014-02-24T16:38:04.483" UserId="1964" Text="My advice would be to simply be up front. Note that you did not do any design work, and that you can only offer the last 6 months for the reasons you stated. The right kind of clients will be understanding, and may in fact respect that you are not disclosing old code because it is proprietary." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3793" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1460" RevisionGUID="6562d2f9-5ba2-4a8e-93ba-490326310e0d" CreationDate="2014-02-24T16:43:25.437" UserId="1975" Comment="added 220 characters in body" Text="I'm a developer with extensive work experience in Web Development and a few years experience with Iphone (IOS) development as well too.  Most of my experience has been full time with big companies, but I also have a variety of freelance type projects including a couple devoted ones recently. I'm having trouble with how to present a portfolio or code sample set to potential future freelance projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For portfolio, I'm not a designer but a developer, so while I can show some screenshots of recent work-- they are mostly built to spec.  I did not design them, but coded them.  How appropriate is it to present screenshots as a candidate for a project as a developer?  Am I being judged on the designers work in that case?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other side is the code sample.  I don't have code samples from many past corporate jobs as the code was usually shared among many developers, and definitely private+proprietary.  I've been able to post my most recent IOS projects to github, but how do I explain that I have many years experience but only share code from the past 6 months?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, is it appropriate to include a personal programming project I did for my own use (an iphone app), even though it was unpaid?  I'm worried it makes me come off as ameteur, with lack of other projects to present.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How is best to present screens+code as a developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3795" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1462" RevisionGUID="98fb2d32-0b95-4009-bd7c-e4729ea32932" CreationDate="2014-02-24T17:19:39.767" UserId="127" Text="I usually try to do it in the form of a case study instead of worrying about screen shots. My case study would include the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Overall goal of the application&#xD;&#xA;* How it helps the customer's business&#xD;&#xA;* Some interesting technical features&#xD;&#xA;* What technologies the application uses&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If possible, I include the organization's name, but if not, I just say something like &quot;Sales system for major construction company&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I may include a single screen shot, but you could also use a simple logo or nothing at all. To me, the important thing is that I want the potential client to see that I built something that improved my client's business, with as many specifics as is possible." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3796" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1456" RevisionGUID="bcdff951-556a-4f7e-b26e-b1562de67670" CreationDate="2014-02-24T18:01:11.300" UserId="2112" Comment="added 15 characters in body" Text="It's difficult to say how much exactly you should charge the company for your app without knowing much details, but here are some pointers. Apart from man hours  and logistics value required to create the app you must consider the technical and functional value of your app. Pricing could be evaluated from the answers to questions below-&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. How much value or ROI will it bring to your customer (The &quot;Company&quot;)?&#xD;&#xA;2. How scalable is your app? i.e. How good it can handle from a 100 users to 10,000 users. And how expensive would be the infrastructure to support such scalability?&#xD;&#xA;3. How much platform independent your app is? Would it run on Windows, OSX, UNIX etc.?&#xD;&#xA;4. How likely are you and your app are to get replaced by your competitor and how much your competitor values and prices their app?&#xD;&#xA;5. How user friendly and upgrade friendly is your app? How secure is your app?&#xD;&#xA;6. How are your post sales product support? (Because a bad post sales support is a huge detractor, which could make your customer move from you to your competitor) Would only &quot;you&quot; be enough to support this app if they were to increase the number of users from 100s to 1000s?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, these are just pointers because there could be a lot more to it based on the complexity of your deliverable, the desperation of your customer and the market stand of your competitor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would also be important to understand whether you plan to sell just single user or multi-user licenses or would like to sell your app altogether. Software Licensing and selling/ownership are different ballgames altogether as you may already know. Licensing could make your liability more than just selling the app so you need to have follow appropriate legal procedures and/or have ample insurance in-case your app were to screw up $1Mn worth of customer's production data, cause a major loss, or cause security leaks/breaches. But if you sell it, the app pretty much belongs to your customer and so does the source code and so does the liability since you loose ownership of the product and the flexibility of making money by selling it to other &quot;similar&quot; customers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3797" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1463" RevisionGUID="87aab445-f34e-46ee-b86b-ca32f0fcd6d8" CreationDate="2014-02-24T20:45:22.530" UserId="1323" Text="A portfolio does need to be at least somewhat visual.  My original UX design portfolio consisted entirely of text.  (At the time, the portfolio site itself was also the only item in my portfolio!)  Text is, not surprisingly, not the best way to communicate what I have done on my interaction design and visual design projects.  When I met with the CEO of another design company, his first reaction upon seeing my portfolio was that I needed to build it around images.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, your assumption that a portfolio of only screenshots would show off the work of only the designer is correct - at least as a first impression.  Most people spend only a few seconds on a webpage, so that first impression may stay with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been a member of Behance for most of the time I've been in business.  I notice that Behance's featured work is biased towards the visually stunning.  People who are great artists or great graphic designers - and I am not - get great exposure on Behance.  Information architects and interaction designers are less likely, because their work is like a developer's: the real magic is behind the scenes.  (Within UX, there is a concept of emotional design - one tenet of which is that products that look nice are more likely to be perceived as user-friendly even if they are not.  I suspect that's in play here.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a developer, code samples are important to show the quality of the code that you write.  But there are other important factors:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - You need to show that your code *works*.  I would recommend linking to&#xD;&#xA;   a live site and/or the app's listing in the App Store.  If it is not&#xD;&#xA;   available there, **record a screencast video** with a tool such as Jing&#xD;&#xA;   to explain your process and how you worked.&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - You need to show that your code is of *high quality*.  If you can share the code with people, I would recommend **linking to a&#xD;&#xA;   GitHub account**.  Let people see your process - what you do for&#xD;&#xA;   changesets, what you do for unit testing.&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - Show that you are *good at working with others*.  Have **testimonials**&#xD;&#xA;   from clients and, where possible, others on your project team.  If&#xD;&#xA;   you can get a testimonial from the designer of one of your apps, that&#xD;&#xA;   makes it clear that 1) you do good enough work for the designer to&#xD;&#xA;   recommend you, and 2) you didn't do the design work for the app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lot of people think now that developers are designers.  There is a lot of overlap in job descriptions on both sides now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So to make it clear that you do not do UI or UX design work, I would recommend **including a list of services rendered** with each project.  It can be as simple as &quot;Design&quot;, &quot;Development&quot;, &quot;Project Management&quot;, etc.  Or if you want to also include languages you worked with, that is probably fine for a development portfolio as well.  (For a design portfolio, I haven't found that people care about which responsive frameworks I use - but if I were still a developer seeking dev work, people absolutely would care!)  If your portfolio site is a WordPress site with portfolio capabilities, you may be able to specify categories and have a list of projects that can be filtered according to the kind of work you did.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personal programming projects are fine to include in portfolios.  You don't have to say that they were personal or unpaid.  Just present them like any other project.  I know of professional designers who have done design work as employees of Facebook, but they have still included personal projects in their portfolios.  Personal projects show that you love what you're doing enough to spend at least some of your personal time advancing your skills." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3798" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1464" RevisionGUID="81252613-ac36-4b64-99bf-e2bae64a1cd4" CreationDate="2014-02-24T21:05:58.563" UserId="1323" Text="Skills tests are good for self-assessment.  If I were you, I wouldn't spend a lot of time on them unless required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I first started freelancing in 2012 and was looking for work on bid sites, I took a lot of skills tests on Elance and oDesk.  This got me several invitations to write proposals for projects.  However, because these clients would not pay a rate that I could live on in the US, I didn't get the job.  I haven't landed any jobs on bid sites.  From that perspective, a lot of those tests wasted my time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ever since I left the bid sites, I haven't taken any skills tests.  The only real benefit I would see is that skills tests, if written well, give me an idea of where my **gaps in knowledge** are.  For example, if there is a big feature of CSS3 that I simply haven't had to learn anything about during a previous project, the skills tests show me that I need to study this feature.  A lot of companies (particularly technical/development companies) ask you to rate yourself from 1 to 10 with a particular skill.  Skills tests are a good way to determine what your rating actually is.  A lot of people tend to rate themselves high, not knowing that there is a whole large chunk of a skill that they possibly haven't even touched.  (To use the CSS3 example again: You can think of a self-assessed 1-10 scale like this: If 1 means I've never used CSS and 10 means I'm Eric Meyer, most people that use CSS daily are probably 5 to 7.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before I was freelancing (as a UX designer), I was in the corporate world as a software developer.  I'm familiar with technical interviews, which usually involved solving programming problems on the spot.  Most of the dev shops that interviewed me were interested in seeing how good I was at thinking on my feet.  Only one shop had me take a BrainBench test (in Java).  I did fine but not great on it.  If I recall correctly, that particular shop was a temp agency that turned out to not really have the position I interviewed for available.  Lacking another suitable position, they offered me an interview for a job with another client with a far lower salary.  I, of course, said no.  One place that did hire me later had me take a test which was similar to an IQ test.  Other than that and some technical questions (programming, object-oriented design, databases), they didn't give me any skills tests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Overall, your **work samples** and **references** speak louder than your ability to do well on skills tests.  *Show results*.  One place where I worked hired someone with a long list of certifications who had freelanced for 2 years before coming to that company.  He was fired less than 2 months later after multiple mistakes at the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Certifications and skills tests may allow you the opportunity to interview for a particular position or project, but don't stop there.  Show that you do the work well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3799" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1465" RevisionGUID="5c6e8795-2526-435a-ab30-f42a2a964bff" CreationDate="2014-02-24T21:35:40.570" UserId="1323" Text="**Yes** - at least in my state (Maryland).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I formed an LLC in June 2012, not exactly sure what I'd be doing at the beginning.  So my website promoted that I was a user experience designer and QA tester.  (I never got any QA work through the business despite a previous background in it, so by the end of the year I was only a UX designer.)  I've also explored the possibility of doing photography professionally on the side.  Through the LLC, that is possible.  However, I decided against that because of the tax situation.  (I would have to sell photography equipment that I already own to my company - from me to me - and account for that in taxes.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I did to have effectively a general purpose LLC was this: I worded my company's statement of purpose in its Articles of Organization to effectively allow for any kind of work.  It says the purpose is &quot;... user experience consulting and **to engage in any other lawful act or activity** for which a Limited Liability Company may be formed in the state of Maryland.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If Colorado requires you to do a personal property return or otherwise say what equipment you use in the business, you need to tell them both the items you use for software development and the items you use for PI." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3800" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="36" RevisionGUID="cc85b1f4-9a4f-480a-b348-db8a5cf4f9a9" CreationDate="2014-02-24T22:23:34.910" UserId="75" Comment="added 428 characters in body" Text="Answers with this tag must follow the &quot;Back it up&quot; rule, in which you must show citations or some sort of legal text to back up your answer. Answers without proper citations may be edited or removed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For questions, you must tell us what jurisdiction you are located in; for example, `I am in British Columbia, Canada`. Blanket legal questions without some sort of research or agreement in place to fall back on may be closed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3801" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="37" RevisionGUID="063d7a4a-0751-4cb4-865e-6ee1448a9044" CreationDate="2014-02-24T22:23:34.910" UserId="75" Comment="added 61 characters in body" Text="A tag for legal issues surrounding freelance work, such as tax or company incorporation. Questions with this tag *must* follow the &quot;Back it up&quot; rule." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3802" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="1452" RevisionGUID="33960006-d02c-46b7-b8c9-c35fb5560689" CreationDate="2014-02-24T22:23:55.413" UserId="75" Comment="14" />
  <row Id="3803" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1461" RevisionGUID="110bf7e6-907c-4a75-8efa-c4b0f0452480" CreationDate="2014-02-25T02:08:16.580" UserId="1964" Comment="explained in slightly more detail" Text="My advice would be to simply be up front. Note that you did not do any design work, and that you can only offer the last 6 months for the reasons you stated. The right kind of clients will be understanding, and may in fact respect that you are not disclosing old code because it is proprietary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Often times when showcasing your work, you can simply put &quot;designed by...&quot; or add a small &quot;tag&quot; system saying what your involvement was on each project. As far as proprietary work, while you can't show the code I don't think there is anything barring you from saying what you worked on at the company so long as you didn't sign an NDA saying you wouldn't. I would suggest reviewing any paperwork you signed with those companies before posting what you have done with them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3805" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1206" RevisionGUID="9d71a37a-41c8-4112-8ae0-2e0c53046013" CreationDate="2014-02-25T03:13:18.473" UserId="64" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:43,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;levelnis&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:61,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;bytebuster&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="3811" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1465" RevisionGUID="aa227572-be79-4f10-883c-4aa0aef1b5e3" CreationDate="2014-02-25T03:32:37.510" UserId="1323" Comment="Added sources as requested in a comment" Text="**Yes** - at least in my state (Maryland).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I formed an LLC in June 2012, not exactly sure what I'd be doing at the beginning.  So my website promoted that I was a user experience designer and QA tester.  (I never got any QA work through the business despite a previous background in it, so by the end of the year I was only a UX designer.)  I've also explored the possibility of doing photography professionally on the side.  Through the LLC, that is possible.  However, I decided against that because of the tax situation.  (I would have to sell photography equipment that I already own to my company - from me to me - and account for that in taxes.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I did to have effectively a general purpose LLC was this: I worded my company's statement of purpose in its Articles of Organization to effectively allow for any kind of work.  It says the purpose is &quot;... user experience consulting and **to engage in any other lawful act or activity** for which a Limited Liability Company may be formed in the state of Maryland.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If Colorado requires you to do a personal property return or otherwise say what equipment you use in the business, you need to tell them both the items you use for software development and the items you use for PI.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit: Some sources using the &quot;any other lawful purpose&quot; example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[State of Maryland Attorney General][1] (&quot;any lawful activity&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[BizFilings][2]: &quot;When a more detailed description is used, the generic or catchall phrase 'any other lawful purpose' should be used in addition to the detailed description.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[An example with Colorado][3]: &quot;and to &#xD;&#xA;pursue any other lawful purpose for which a limited liability company may be organized &#xD;&#xA;under Colorado law.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.oag.state.md.us/legalaspects.pdf&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.bizfilings.com/toolkit/sbg/run-a-business/assets/form-an-llc-or-corporation.aspx&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.bfw-law.com/bfwpages/bios/partners/BioH_LidstoneContent/LLC-form%20single%20member%20agr.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3812" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="36" RevisionGUID="e0ccf5b8-ab66-4e0e-b1ca-5769bcbc4673" CreationDate="2014-02-25T04:49:04.573" UserId="64" Comment="added meta references" Text="Answers with this tag must follow the [&quot;Back it up&quot; rule](http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/55/64), in which you must show citations or some sort of legal text to back up your answer. Answers without proper citations may be edited or removed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For questions, you must tell us what jurisdiction you are located in; for example, `I am in British Columbia, Canada`. Blanket legal questions without some sort of research or agreement in place to fall back on may be closed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3813" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="37" RevisionGUID="c565bf7f-8a72-48e0-a2ef-590e7a47a776" CreationDate="2014-02-25T04:49:04.573" UserId="64" Comment="[Edit removed during grace period]" Text="A tag for legal issues surrounding freelance work, such as tax or company incorporation. Questions with this tag *must* follow the &quot;Back it up&quot; rule." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3814" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1116" RevisionGUID="940932a9-1256-46d9-b50d-d9bb806e9951" CreationDate="2014-02-25T04:53:37.187" UserId="64" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="3816" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1466" RevisionGUID="910b54b9-67cf-45db-b851-a0209eaa6a02" CreationDate="2014-02-25T10:57:29.843" UserDisplayName="user2131" Text="I have been a full-time sole trader in the UK for 2.5 years. I build websites for both agencies and direct clients, and over these 2.5 years I have built up a good reputation, contacts and client base in my local area. The town I live in isn't huge, but many of my clients are nationwide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My experience building websites stretches back 15 years post-degree, and I have led teams of developers on large projects in previous employed positions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a possible opportunity to merge with a local agency, who I have been working with for some time. They are more established with a larger client base but they don't have in-house web skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is; how do I value my business in negotiations?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are many nuances to this - would you simply value based on a multiple of annual revenue? Size of client base? Potential revenue from client base? How about valuing my skills as an individual? Good developers aren't easy to come by, not to mention all-rounders with project management and people management experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not asking anyone to value my business of course, rather I'd like some pointers on how I value it.  Does anyone have any experience of such a merging process?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3817" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1466" RevisionGUID="910b54b9-67cf-45db-b851-a0209eaa6a02" CreationDate="2014-02-25T10:57:29.843" UserDisplayName="user2131" Text="Valuing My Freelance Business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3818" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1466" RevisionGUID="910b54b9-67cf-45db-b851-a0209eaa6a02" CreationDate="2014-02-25T10:57:29.843" UserDisplayName="user2131" Text="|negotiation|uk|growth|ownership|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3819" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1467" RevisionGUID="a157d32c-6382-47a7-a022-96525e2d2c27" CreationDate="2014-02-25T11:58:35.447" UserId="477" Text="I don't have much experience with this but here's a few of my thoughts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Try and work out a figure in your head that you would be happy with&#xD;&#xA; 2. I assume you have an accountant? they may be able to help you value the business based on a formula.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All of the nuances you raise above are exactly why companies are sometimes very hard to value - just look what happened with WhatsApp recently.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may be able to get someone involved who is more experienced in order to broker a deal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3825" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1469" RevisionGUID="56f43ba1-275f-4ee5-99cc-b691bb107789" CreationDate="2014-02-25T19:53:50.963" UserId="517" Text="You made add-ons to an app which was coded by someone else. The code does not have unit tests. Then some bugs appear cause a new code collided with existing code somewhere. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, the client will tell you &quot;the code worked before you made add-ons, will I be charged while you fix it&quot; as they don't know anything about regression and QA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you charge regression costs if you are the only coder involved in the project? You give a discount, fix it for free or some 3rd option?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously fixing it for free will not make you profit and thou you are responsible for bugs, the lack of unit tests made you not being able to predict them. Then again, if you look from client's perspective, you made a bug, and why should he pay for something you messed up. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3826" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1469" RevisionGUID="56f43ba1-275f-4ee5-99cc-b691bb107789" CreationDate="2014-02-25T19:53:50.963" UserId="517" Text="How do you charge regression testing in programming?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3827" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1469" RevisionGUID="56f43ba1-275f-4ee5-99cc-b691bb107789" CreationDate="2014-02-25T19:53:50.963" UserId="517" Text="|regression-testing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3828" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1470" RevisionGUID="a61b4823-a453-459f-b5a6-ecc659285c88" CreationDate="2014-02-25T19:54:27.437" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3829" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1471" RevisionGUID="29b94d76-8d17-4630-a026-769c8baf1d26" CreationDate="2014-02-25T19:54:27.437" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3830" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1047" RevisionGUID="99d708a4-51cc-4ba2-9cdf-d2b97a2284fb" CreationDate="2014-02-25T21:22:13.720" UserId="9" Comment="Removing [motivation] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9)" Text="|productivity|billable-hours|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3831" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1047" RevisionGUID="99d708a4-51cc-4ba2-9cdf-d2b97a2284fb" CreationDate="2014-02-25T21:22:13.720" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 58 edit id of 211" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3832" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="662" RevisionGUID="2f599f73-7223-4e9f-a568-637a825db4d4" CreationDate="2014-02-25T21:30:35.677" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [employment] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9)" Text="|usa|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3833" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="662" RevisionGUID="2f599f73-7223-4e9f-a568-637a825db4d4" CreationDate="2014-02-25T21:30:35.677" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 58 edit id of 213" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3837" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1466" RevisionGUID="5cca2c78-a27f-4a00-9276-f23cd3de6783" CreationDate="2014-02-25T22:41:43.207" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/438443719491350528" />
  <row Id="3838" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="649" RevisionGUID="a240c03c-e3a1-4ef5-9a39-17f74ceabdd3" CreationDate="2014-02-25T23:35:29.543" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [employment] tag (as per http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/325/9)" Text="|translations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3839" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="649" RevisionGUID="a240c03c-e3a1-4ef5-9a39-17f74ceabdd3" CreationDate="2014-02-25T23:35:29.543" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 127, 75 edit id of 216" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3840" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="325" RevisionGUID="805dc617-3390-4a11-9b15-fa66967d63cc" CreationDate="2014-02-25T23:35:45.450" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [employment] tag (as per http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/325/9)" Text="|legal|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3841" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="325" RevisionGUID="805dc617-3390-4a11-9b15-fa66967d63cc" CreationDate="2014-02-25T23:35:45.450" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 127, 75 edit id of 214" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3842" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="725" RevisionGUID="16e7cf9a-029a-45a0-bd06-695d12e7c534" CreationDate="2014-02-25T23:36:08.577" UserId="9" Comment="Replaced [employment] tag (http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/325/9) with [subcontracting], the closest tag fit for 'locum'" Text="|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3843" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="725" RevisionGUID="16e7cf9a-029a-45a0-bd06-695d12e7c534" CreationDate="2014-02-25T23:36:08.577" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 215" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3844" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1191" RevisionGUID="3ed71dbd-9a3f-4348-9b34-5280e202bcaa" CreationDate="2014-02-26T06:30:13.040" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3845" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="871" RevisionGUID="3caad801-3f75-407c-b4bf-12219bdd7c2f" CreationDate="2014-02-26T06:30:45.243" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3846" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="786" RevisionGUID="04e87ec5-2724-457a-a4be-b7f60d4992ac" CreationDate="2014-02-26T06:31:38.373" UserId="64" Comment="15" />
  <row Id="3847" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="773" RevisionGUID="ec24838b-1cd4-4690-a697-74f0be47c9b6" CreationDate="2014-02-26T06:32:25.767" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|project-management|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3848" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1472" RevisionGUID="14e8cfd9-980c-4d53-98e1-52331115d5e8" CreationDate="2014-02-26T06:33:28.647" UserId="64" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3849" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1473" RevisionGUID="055fe086-4d12-4187-bdcc-410e5cf5ee6d" CreationDate="2014-02-26T06:33:28.647" UserId="64" Text="Use this tag for questions about working on contracts remotely. This could be from a home office or from another country." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3850" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1460" RevisionGUID="ecd0a76e-83c0-4edf-af77-c42d0bd86391" CreationDate="2014-02-26T07:41:43.027" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/438579614336946176" />
  <row Id="3851" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1474" RevisionGUID="960977d9-7459-4384-91fa-7331d79e39c4" CreationDate="2014-02-26T09:16:06.877" UserId="60" Text="I try to charge enough that I can do this work for free.  But some customers don't like this arrangement so sometimes I have to make other arrangements. YMMV.  The question really comes down to who gets to assume risk.  There should be a financial premium on assuming risk to help even things out a bit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's the basic issue:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  The customer doesn't want to get stuck with an unknown bill for a project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  You don't want to get stuck with a whole bunch of work that brings your per hourly earnings down below what you can live on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Resolving this conflict requires adding on a basic third piece:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-  Whoever assumes the risk should get, on average, a modest financial reward for assuming that risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I typically do is offer a rate that includes, free of charge, bugfixes afterwards for a year.  That rate is double (!) my desired hourly rate.  In most cases, I spend no time on after-market fixes.  In a few cases I spend a lot of time.  I try to plan so that I spend about 2/3 of my time as billable under this arrangement.  This:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Protects my interests and ensures I am making money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Protects my customers, ensuring they don't get stuck with large after-market bills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For some customers though, they don't like this arrangement, and it breaks down for very large projects, so I also offer another rate in those cases (not advertised and sometimes as low as 50% my initial offer rate) with the explicit terms that the work comes with no warranty.and that I will bill for everything.  On average I make a little less on these projects, but I also bear none of the testing and bugfix risk." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3857" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1476" RevisionGUID="920eb5eb-f685-4910-823c-6beb5d7f5e3d" CreationDate="2014-02-26T13:03:42.107" UserId="2149" Text="I was wondering, How does a website that is based around content uploaded by users get started? When the website launches there is no content for the users to view or use/interact with so there really is not much of a drive for the user to make a account and use the website. How do I get started? Dummy content? Or just good SEO and patience? In case it's not clear what I mean; think of it as day 1 of Youtube(Example site) what motivated people to still upload content and continue to visit/use the site? I hope I'm posting in the right Stackexchange. Thanks in advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3858" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1476" RevisionGUID="920eb5eb-f685-4910-823c-6beb5d7f5e3d" CreationDate="2014-02-26T13:03:42.107" UserId="2149" Text="How does a website with user provided content get started?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3859" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1476" RevisionGUID="920eb5eb-f685-4910-823c-6beb5d7f5e3d" CreationDate="2014-02-26T13:03:42.107" UserId="2149" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3860" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1477" RevisionGUID="b29b6540-767d-4715-94fa-9852b1dc9ba6" CreationDate="2014-02-26T13:56:45.870" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3861" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1478" RevisionGUID="403988f6-2f0e-4c25-85ae-7cac6120d636" CreationDate="2014-02-26T13:56:45.870" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3862" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1479" RevisionGUID="c66bb1d4-7245-4643-95e9-d19c5dab6b22" CreationDate="2014-02-26T14:08:08.623" UserId="1964" Text="There are usually two methods to getting users, and deciding which one to focus more into or what balance you will strike is, as always, up to you. There is no magic method, no algorithm, no howtoforge.com article you can follow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As always, content is king, so if your content isn't what people want you can do everything in your power to get visitors but nothing will help. That said, here are some tips.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Something I have heard dubbed, &quot;organic growth&quot; which is usually under the banner of &quot;word of mouth&quot;. I have always found this method of growth to be far more reliable because it is not just a potential user learning about a website, they are learning about it while hearing someone else talk about it in a positive light. The more the person is trusted, the more likely they are to participate or buy. One way to get this type of growth is to just start sharing on social media. Get it in front of the right people on Twitter, post links on Reddit or Hacker News or some other site. This isn't always a reliable method as you can't control how many people see it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other method, which is the one that costs money, is to buy advertising to sites that fit the demographic of the user base you are trying to build. Some times you can pay a price for a certain period of time at a single site, other times you may have to pay more but you get many sites that your ad is featured on." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3863" PostHistoryTypeId="14" PostId="1476" RevisionGUID="be5319ef-22e9-4fe4-8701-c0d8f57aefe1" CreationDate="2014-02-26T17:19:14.743" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="3864" PostHistoryTypeId="35" PostId="1476" RevisionGUID="2782aaa9-3b41-4e3f-8843-2fa5ef3e72fa" CreationDate="2014-02-26T17:19:14.743" UserId="75" Comment="to http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/58778/how-does-a-website-with-user-provided-content-get-started" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="3865" PostHistoryTypeId="35" PostId="1479" RevisionGUID="c0a1963c-5825-432c-a568-177ae51eb6ea" CreationDate="2014-02-26T17:19:14.743" UserId="-1" Comment="to http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/58778/how-does-a-website-with-user-provided-content-get-started" />
  <row Id="3866" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1476" RevisionGUID="f75564bc-d044-4179-b601-37550c9d2b06" CreationDate="2014-02-26T17:19:14.743" UserId="75" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="3867" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1449" RevisionGUID="32e6135f-447f-45bb-91b4-918d1d470299" CreationDate="2014-02-26T17:19:47.057" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9" Text="|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3868" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1449" RevisionGUID="32e6135f-447f-45bb-91b4-918d1d470299" CreationDate="2014-02-26T17:19:47.057" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 127, 75 edit id of 217" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3869" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="924" RevisionGUID="71e30f7d-f50c-4103-a441-edecf4d42664" CreationDate="2014-02-26T17:20:20.763" UserId="9" Comment="Quote formatting for inline questions from original question" Text="The obvious answer: Quit your job and don't apply to other jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was in the same boat as you [literally: 6 years, degree, co-op] and have only been freelancing for a short period of time. I quit my job and moved to a new location due to other circumstances. I was initially looking for remote jobs since it was possible that I could be moving again shortly. None of the remote jobs actually worked out for me. In the meantime, I posted ads in classifieds stating my services are available, and I am now working with a few clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To answer your other questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;How many years of experience is required?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think anyone could start freelancing at any experience level.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;How do I get started?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let people know you are available. Look in your local classifieds for work. Have a strong social network presence (LinkedIn). (and of-course, quit your current job)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Is it just the age thing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nope.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I tried getting some contracts, and I have a hard time finding time on craiglist by just posting my resume. How do I become a contractor and still make full-time wages?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's definitely not easy at first but it is definitely possible. I recommend starting by showing people your skills, having recommendations. I thought the biggest barrier was not having a portfolio, but there are people out there that are willing to take risks and will value that you took a risk in quitting your job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good Luck!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The main reason for saying 'quit your job' is that, if this is something you want to do, you have to just do it. The motivation and learning will come. If you are already in a nice cushy job, you definitely won't be making the jump." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3870" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="924" RevisionGUID="71e30f7d-f50c-4103-a441-edecf4d42664" CreationDate="2014-02-26T17:20:20.763" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 127, 75 edit id of 219" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3871" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="913" RevisionGUID="56406514-1b53-45fb-9762-172fbee94166" CreationDate="2014-02-26T17:31:32.690" UserId="9" Comment="Retagged from [freelance-fields] as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9" Text="|attracting-clients|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3872" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="913" RevisionGUID="56406514-1b53-45fb-9762-172fbee94166" CreationDate="2014-02-26T17:31:32.690" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 220" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3873" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="960" RevisionGUID="e3d1af02-4956-40d9-9215-d2be9dfc6896" CreationDate="2014-02-26T17:31:45.677" UserId="9" Comment="Retagging from [freelance-fields] as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9. time-management from pt3, outsourcing from pt2, sales from pt4" Text="|time-management|outsourcing|sales|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3874" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="960" RevisionGUID="e3d1af02-4956-40d9-9215-d2be9dfc6896" CreationDate="2014-02-26T17:31:45.677" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 221" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3876" PostHistoryTypeId="15" PostId="1476" RevisionGUID="22588c8e-9b46-4327-a528-bab27eab6849" CreationDate="2014-02-26T18:21:18.440" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="3877" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1390" RevisionGUID="5e083b84-b08b-45b6-9a17-c41ef9885b56" CreationDate="2014-02-26T19:35:28.610" UserId="9" Comment="Retagged (changed from [client] per meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167 to [client-support])" Text="|contracts|invoices|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3878" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1390" RevisionGUID="5e083b84-b08b-45b6-9a17-c41ef9885b56" CreationDate="2014-02-26T19:35:28.610" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 127, 58 edit id of 222" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3879" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1339" RevisionGUID="1c3519bf-bbff-4d95-abab-a45224507cca" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:51:54.970" UserId="9" Comment="Removing [clients] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), adding [project-bidding]." Text="A potential client requested an estimate for an pretty large e-commerce website with ~20 pages pages, item customization plugin, live chat, newsletter, slideshow, automated e-mails, payment processor and lots of different functionality that will require 430+ hours of work. We will be doing everything from setting up the database, servers, design, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The entire estimate came close to $30,000. The client owns a very large company and can afford it and has many potential projects in the future (so he said). He did not complain about the price; he simply said he'll compare all the estimates and let me know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Was my estimate reasonable? How much would 'professional' web development studio / company charge for such a project? I would hate to lose this client, I am not sure how to proceed, what would be a good way to respond to him wanting to 'compare estimates' in a way that slightly persuades him towards picking me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I appreciate any suggestions, thanks in advance!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3880" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1339" RevisionGUID="1c3519bf-bbff-4d95-abab-a45224507cca" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:51:54.970" UserId="9" Comment="Removing [clients] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), adding [project-bidding]." Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|negotiation|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3881" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1339" RevisionGUID="1c3519bf-bbff-4d95-abab-a45224507cca" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:51:54.970" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 64 edit id of 225" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3882" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1404" RevisionGUID="e5212107-c85d-4053-8bf7-3f199a097656" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:52:05.377" UserId="9" Comment="Removing [clients] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9)" Text="|freelance-websites|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3883" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1404" RevisionGUID="e5212107-c85d-4053-8bf7-3f199a097656" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:52:05.377" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 64 edit id of 224" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3884" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1338" RevisionGUID="a05ae467-e187-4dec-aade-28bbfe1e9238" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:52:18.690" UserId="9" Comment="Removing [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), replaced with [difficult-client]" Text="|legal|payment-terms|negotiation|consulting|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3885" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1338" RevisionGUID="a05ae467-e187-4dec-aade-28bbfe1e9238" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:52:18.690" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 64 edit id of 226" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3886" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1322" RevisionGUID="ec926de7-b224-4eb4-99f2-66754ce34a97" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:52:39.643" UserId="9" Comment="Removing [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9) and [client-support] (not as relevant), added [time-tracking], grammar" Text="How does the client get to know how many hours we worked if I work at my place?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if I am ethical, and don't fake my number of hours, how can I help the client believe it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3887" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1322" RevisionGUID="ec926de7-b224-4eb4-99f2-66754ce34a97" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:52:39.643" UserId="9" Comment="Removing [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9) and [client-support] (not as relevant), added [time-tracking], grammar" Text="|price-per-hour|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3888" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1322" RevisionGUID="ec926de7-b224-4eb4-99f2-66754ce34a97" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:52:39.643" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 64 edit id of 228" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3889" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1268" RevisionGUID="b5ea865a-5945-498a-92e9-b7e43ca9a623" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:52:59.317" UserId="9" Comment="Removing [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9)" Text="|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3890" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1268" RevisionGUID="b5ea865a-5945-498a-92e9-b7e43ca9a623" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:52:59.317" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 64 edit id of 229" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3891" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1408" RevisionGUID="3740fb63-1eec-420a-9b84-4d7c75388b5e" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:53:17.803" UserId="9" Comment="Replacing [clients] (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9) with [time-tracking]" Text="|invoices|time-management|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3892" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1408" RevisionGUID="3740fb63-1eec-420a-9b84-4d7c75388b5e" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:53:17.803" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 64 edit id of 223" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3893" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1321" RevisionGUID="ce5c43e7-41cb-411a-98d4-f52e4f46f888" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:53:27.837" UserId="9" Comment="Removing [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), grammar, added [project-bidding]" Text="Let's say there is a project which does not have an exact set of requirements.&#xD;&#xA;And then the clients ask for an &quot;tentative&quot; quote.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no way to decide that, for example, an iPad app for a hotel can be made in a range of $500 - $5000, since it depends on the quality of design, look, UX, features, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if the client asks us for the budget, what is to be done? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3894" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1321" RevisionGUID="ce5c43e7-41cb-411a-98d4-f52e4f46f888" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:53:27.837" UserId="9" Comment="Removing [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), grammar, added [project-bidding]" Text="|contracts|price-per-hour|client-support|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3895" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1321" RevisionGUID="ce5c43e7-41cb-411a-98d4-f52e4f46f888" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:53:27.837" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 64 edit id of 230" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3896" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1324" RevisionGUID="12273f4e-fc52-41e1-98e1-20169c88777c" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:53:42.197" UserId="9" Comment="Removing [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), minor grammar fixes" Text="For students, age 18-22, pursuing engineering, how are the hourly rates, or freelancing rates, determined?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I am 20, have 2 years of experience in making iOS apps and have about 10-15 apps in my portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how can a rate be decided? Are students paid equally as normal freelancers, or we are paid less?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I _am_ able to give adequate time to iOS development." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3897" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1324" RevisionGUID="12273f4e-fc52-41e1-98e1-20169c88777c" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:53:42.197" UserId="9" Comment="Removing [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), minor grammar fixes" Text="|contracts|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3898" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1324" RevisionGUID="12273f4e-fc52-41e1-98e1-20169c88777c" CreationDate="2014-02-26T20:53:42.197" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 64 edit id of 227" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3899" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="798" RevisionGUID="1eca7b9a-77a5-4345-9163-97516bd5ad59" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:49:53.257" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), adverb in title" Text="Licensing or selling a mobile application to another company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3900" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="798" RevisionGUID="1eca7b9a-77a5-4345-9163-97516bd5ad59" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:49:53.257" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), adverb in title" Text="|price|expenses|information-technology|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3901" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="798" RevisionGUID="1eca7b9a-77a5-4345-9163-97516bd5ad59" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:49:53.257" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 251" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3902" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="917" RevisionGUID="148314f8-b82a-421a-ade5-77f5b6d983c3" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:01.023" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), added [contracts], casing in title" Text="Client wants to pay a percentage of revenue generated by website" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3903" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="917" RevisionGUID="148314f8-b82a-421a-ade5-77f5b6d983c3" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:01.023" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), added [contracts], casing in title" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3904" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="917" RevisionGUID="148314f8-b82a-421a-ade5-77f5b6d983c3" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:01.023" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 247" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3905" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1086" RevisionGUID="6423478a-8fc1-4be3-a818-66e35c64a985" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:06.867" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9)" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3906" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1086" RevisionGUID="6423478a-8fc1-4be3-a818-66e35c64a985" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:06.867" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 237" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3907" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="706" RevisionGUID="beea2e08-17eb-457b-884e-8ed20d60c4a7" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:26.587" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), replaced with [communication]" Text="|attracting-clients|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3908" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="706" RevisionGUID="beea2e08-17eb-457b-884e-8ed20d60c4a7" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:26.587" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 256" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3909" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="998" RevisionGUID="ccf12df6-2d2d-4d6a-95f8-51070a0d69af" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:30.307" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9)" Text="|contracts|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3910" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="998" RevisionGUID="ccf12df6-2d2d-4d6a-95f8-51070a0d69af" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:30.307" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 239" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3911" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="837" RevisionGUID="a2b1476a-5fa8-42c0-86ad-d9fb67730d5f" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:36.043" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9)" Text="|payment-terms|invoices|estimation|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3912" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="837" RevisionGUID="a2b1476a-5fa8-42c0-86ad-d9fb67730d5f" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:36.043" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 248" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3913" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="754" RevisionGUID="b0fb08bc-67f3-4c17-9324-e6fc283e12ac" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:41.353" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), replaced 'speed' with 'quick turnaround' in title" Text="Freelance sites specializing in quick turn-around?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3914" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="754" RevisionGUID="b0fb08bc-67f3-4c17-9324-e6fc283e12ac" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:41.353" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), replaced 'speed' with 'quick turnaround' in title" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3915" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="754" RevisionGUID="b0fb08bc-67f3-4c17-9324-e6fc283e12ac" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:41.353" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 252" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3916" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="836" RevisionGUID="3a8e265b-dae1-47f8-9898-abd435389d1f" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:47.277" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), adverb in title" Text="Building my online portfolio as a web developer with limited projects" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3917" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="836" RevisionGUID="3a8e265b-dae1-47f8-9898-abd435389d1f" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:47.277" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), adverb in title" Text="|attracting-clients|marketing|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3918" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="836" RevisionGUID="3a8e265b-dae1-47f8-9898-abd435389d1f" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:47.277" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 249" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3919" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="948" RevisionGUID="57c6d469-80cf-453d-ac77-3e572187d611" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:52.417" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), replaced with [communication]" Text="|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3920" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="948" RevisionGUID="57c6d469-80cf-453d-ac77-3e572187d611" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:52.417" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 244" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3921" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="479" RevisionGUID="b774a78e-f55b-48c9-87c3-8ddc5f4f7093" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:57.810" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), replaced with [difficult-client]" Text="|payment-terms|project-management|evaluating-clients|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3922" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="479" RevisionGUID="b774a78e-f55b-48c9-87c3-8ddc5f4f7093" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:50:57.810" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 262" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3923" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="976" RevisionGUID="f901986c-4ce0-429e-9de4-3cbdf4cb7638" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:51:01.653" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), added [over-due] and [outsourcing]" Text="|uk|outsourcing|over-due|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3924" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="976" RevisionGUID="f901986c-4ce0-429e-9de4-3cbdf4cb7638" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:51:01.653" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 241" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3925" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="935" RevisionGUID="c756dbd4-c7b7-4841-9eb4-0011d041363f" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:51:04.653" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), replaced with [difficult-client]" Text="|contracts|communication|difficult-client|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3926" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="935" RevisionGUID="c756dbd4-c7b7-4841-9eb4-0011d041363f" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:51:04.653" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 245" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3927" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="748" RevisionGUID="39c9578b-0f16-4f20-a064-06cfd117fe6d" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:51:07.840" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), added [design]" Text="|price|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3928" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="748" RevisionGUID="39c9578b-0f16-4f20-a064-06cfd117fe6d" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:51:07.840" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 254" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3929" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="641" RevisionGUID="cb23b4b0-6a3a-4944-b878-bea94268a483" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:51:10.933" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9)" Text="|time-tracking|trust|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3930" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="641" RevisionGUID="cb23b4b0-6a3a-4944-b878-bea94268a483" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:51:10.933" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 257" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3931" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="603" RevisionGUID="e3844063-284b-45d1-989c-610d173242ae" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:59:03.413" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9)" Text="|contracts|consulting|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3932" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="603" RevisionGUID="e3844063-284b-45d1-989c-610d173242ae" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:59:03.413" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 260" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3933" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="954" RevisionGUID="5339e62a-ec40-44b9-ad5a-15f3b073f808" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:59:07.010" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), replaced with [payment-terms]" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3934" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="954" RevisionGUID="5339e62a-ec40-44b9-ad5a-15f3b073f808" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:59:07.010" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 243" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3935" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1038" RevisionGUID="fa45297c-84c1-49f6-bd38-c1fba1f3a9f4" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:59:13.697" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9)" Text="I have a repeat client. However, they have fallen behind on invoices, albeit at relatively small values.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are now overdue on some by two months. I have a clear contract with them outlining that I can cut them off if they don't pay - however I don't really want to do this. I am aware of some of my options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Cut off services until payment is made&#xD;&#xA; - Get a solicitor to draw up a final notice letter&#xD;&#xA; - Attempt to negotiate payment terms (unlikely to happen)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although it isn't adversely affecting me, I worry the longer I leave it, the weaker the position I will be in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to resolve this peacefully without creating tension. What order should the options take? How soon should I allow the client slippage? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3936" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1038" RevisionGUID="fa45297c-84c1-49f6-bd38-c1fba1f3a9f4" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:59:13.697" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9)" Text="|payments|over-due|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3937" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1038" RevisionGUID="fa45297c-84c1-49f6-bd38-c1fba1f3a9f4" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:59:13.697" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 238" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3938" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1255" RevisionGUID="3c498648-0624-45e9-8449-526a392a31a5" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:59:18.930" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), added [difficult-client]" Text="|freelance-websites|communication|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3939" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1255" RevisionGUID="3c498648-0624-45e9-8449-526a392a31a5" CreationDate="2014-02-26T23:59:18.930" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 127, 75 edit id of 231" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3940" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1222" RevisionGUID="b85d16cf-3ae0-46a6-9a32-9dd7312a2f69" CreationDate="2014-02-27T00:13:01.743" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), added [group-freelancing] and [price-per-hour]" Text="|contracts|price-per-hour|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3941" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1222" RevisionGUID="b85d16cf-3ae0-46a6-9a32-9dd7312a2f69" CreationDate="2014-02-27T00:13:01.743" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by -1 edit id of 233" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3942" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1222" RevisionGUID="ec16ce0d-5b92-428d-988d-a01527af53f6" CreationDate="2014-02-27T00:13:01.743" UserId="58" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), added [group-freelancing] and [price-per-hour]" Text="We were asked to do a few jobs via oDesk, elance and guru freelance websites. While working via these services, I noticed that there are many &quot;companies&quot; there who basically use these services to find clients and at the same time their company members have accounts there, attached to its company account. Even more, their workers will bid the project and negotiate the clients, while all earned money goes to company's pocket and they only receive crumbs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, how is possible that such companies work and make a profit when their workers can see the price of every job? Aren't workers discouraged from knowing the price of a job and comparing it to what they get? These people mostly work hourly for small sums of money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let me elaborate the question: the first thing I learned when started working for a company was that I never knew how much they charge their clients. I am getting my monthly salary and I don't care if my company earns $1000 or $1000000. It's better if the company is earning a lot because I will have a salary, but in general it was not my concern. We heard stories about how we were working on on multi-million dollar projects, but we were never able to know how much they charge their clients for our work. And we could do nothing because we were not in their league - their clients would not even talk to us, God forbid they offer us a multi-million dollar job. So after a couple of years I figured out that I can earn more and work in a less stressful environment by working as a freelancer, so I quit and became a freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The story of mine is not unique. It's a story of every freelancer here. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, back to my question. When you have clients and workers on the same network where **workers can see earnings of their bosses**, how can such a company survive? Why would some person work for $10/h if you see that your company is charging the client $100/h? Shouldn't such a worker go to their boss asking for a higher hourly wage for that job? Or start working alone for the same (or larger) amount of money without pressure, from your own home? And yet, they have workers who work for them for years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A majority of people would become envious and angry just by knowing that their boss is earning 10 times more on your work working with clients you can also reach (approach to). These websites are not Intel or Kodak or USPS company where you can never reach CEOs. Here you have a direct access to the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the 3rd time, how do such companies remain on the market? Why would I work for someone giving me A dollars per hour, if I can see he earns 5xA per hour? Even though I understand the whole principles of a business, I don't think I would be able to work as quality as I in cases I don't know how much my boss charges our clients. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3943" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1474" RevisionGUID="f7561ea3-d17a-45b0-8199-25544008a2cd" CreationDate="2014-02-27T02:10:02.357" UserId="60" Comment="added 302 characters in body" Text="I try to charge enough that I can do this work for free.  But some customers don't like this arrangement so sometimes I have to make other arrangements. YMMV.  The question really comes down to who gets to assume risk.  There should be a financial premium on assuming risk to help even things out a bit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's the basic issue:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  The customer doesn't want to get stuck with an unknown bill for a project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  You don't want to get stuck with a whole bunch of work that brings your per hourly earnings down below what you can live on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Resolving this conflict requires adding on a basic third piece:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-  Whoever assumes the risk should get, on average, a modest financial reward for assuming that risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I typically do is offer a rate that includes, free of charge, bugfixes afterwards for a year.  That rate is double (!) my desired hourly rate.  In most cases, I spend no time on after-market fixes.  In a few cases I spend a lot of time.  I try to plan so that I spend about 2/3 of my time as billable under this arrangement.  This:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  Protects my interests and ensures I am making money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.  Protects my customers, ensuring they don't get stuck with large after-market bills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For some customers though, they don't like this arrangement, and it breaks down for very large projects, so I also offer another rate in those cases (not advertised and sometimes as low as 50% my initial offer rate) with the explicit terms that the work comes with no warranty.and that I will bill for everything.  On average I make a little less on these projects, but I also bear none of the testing and bugfix risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**TL;DR:** I try to throw in these free of charge by billing at a rate that allows me to make more doing this.  For large projects, or certain customers, I may however shift the risk to the customer and offer a large discount.  I believe that this approach best meets the interests of all involved." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3946" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="616" RevisionGUID="4c4c2c01-0f80-41ab-aac3-376340927d5d" CreationDate="2014-02-27T07:46:31.717" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), replaced with [difficult-client]" Text="|difficult-client|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3947" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="616" RevisionGUID="4c4c2c01-0f80-41ab-aac3-376340927d5d" CreationDate="2014-02-27T07:46:31.717" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 61 edit id of 258" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3948" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1114" RevisionGUID="48aea025-2803-485d-bb1b-f42ca4068e54" CreationDate="2014-02-27T08:53:17.467" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), minor grammar" Text="So I am running in to a bit of an issue, and although there are similar questions on FL nothing this specific:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How do I manage a client's expectations for a new website?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The issue arises when they first see it go from mock up to actual working website. I'll give you the two approaches I have taken&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Show them the end product only**&#xD;&#xA;Once I am happy with the site I will show this to them, but only once I am happy. This often results in phone calls of &quot;what is happening&quot; and &quot;where is the site can I see it now&quot;? I do keep them in the loop with multiple emails per week so it doesn't look like I have run off - but clients seam to want to get their hands on it before they should. Note: all time-scales, with contingency, are laid out before hand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Involve them in ever step**&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand I can show them the site every step of the way. However I have found when I do this they seam to like to request odd changes and get a bit confused with it all (understandable). The main issue is, it seams to encourage them to request more and more, and increasingly not-the-right-thing changes; though they do not take kindly when I say &quot;this is the way to do it&quot;. It just seams as I say that this encourages more changes, though the benefit is if there is anything they really do not like we catch it early on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question is really: *Are there any approaches I have missed or is this just as hazard of the job and I should accept the lesser of two evils (the first I am currently thinking!)*&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3949" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1114" RevisionGUID="48aea025-2803-485d-bb1b-f42ca4068e54" CreationDate="2014-02-27T08:53:17.467" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), minor grammar" Text="How to manage a client's expectations" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3950" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1114" RevisionGUID="48aea025-2803-485d-bb1b-f42ca4068e54" CreationDate="2014-02-27T08:53:17.467" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), minor grammar" Text="|freelance-websites|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3951" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1114" RevisionGUID="48aea025-2803-485d-bb1b-f42ca4068e54" CreationDate="2014-02-27T08:53:17.467" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 61, 517 edit id of 235" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3952" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2" RevisionGUID="f8099e92-aad0-41d7-a84e-3d066dfead4d" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:38:35.763" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), replaced with [project-bidding], [difficult-client] and [attracting-clients]" Text="|attracting-clients|project|difficult-client|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3953" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2" RevisionGUID="f8099e92-aad0-41d7-a84e-3d066dfead4d" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:38:35.763" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 43 edit id of 264" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3954" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="221" RevisionGUID="b6d32b56-042b-4652-b37e-fc103560baa3" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:38:56.327" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), minor grammar" Text="I am working as a Software Engineer, but I want to add to my pay by freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;What is the best way to find clients in my own city? I am open to doing small projects (like for schools or small businesses), but how do I ask them if they want any projects when they are not advertising anything?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I approach people in this situation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3955" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="221" RevisionGUID="b6d32b56-042b-4652-b37e-fc103560baa3" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:38:56.327" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), minor grammar" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3956" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="221" RevisionGUID="b6d32b56-042b-4652-b37e-fc103560baa3" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:38:56.327" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 43 edit id of 278" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3957" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1223" RevisionGUID="3f2d6c4a-5156-4582-8666-3c8676c5d8f1" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:39:34.207" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), added more specific [evaluating-clients]" Text="Companies are forced to seek long-term partners ([term][1]) if they think to live for years and keep up with all costs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are we, freelancers, forced to do the same? Or since our costs are at the minimum and there are many jobs (especially in IT area) we should not stick to long-term clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not sure if I'm a grunch, but I deal better with new clients, and their projects seems more interesting. With long-term clients, I am somehow &quot;forced&quot; to take any project they offer me, and I cannot reject them by saying that their project &quot;is boring&quot;. With new clients, since I only chose projects which are interesting to me, I have no such issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_sustainability" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3958" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1223" RevisionGUID="3f2d6c4a-5156-4582-8666-3c8676c5d8f1" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:39:34.207" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), added more specific [evaluating-clients]" Text="|evaluating-clients|long-term|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3959" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1223" RevisionGUID="3f2d6c4a-5156-4582-8666-3c8676c5d8f1" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:39:34.207" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 127, 43 edit id of 232" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3960" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3" RevisionGUID="f445f8bd-97af-453d-bdb1-19a0e59bda9e" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:39:41.673" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9)" Text="|time-management|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3961" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3" RevisionGUID="f445f8bd-97af-453d-bdb1-19a0e59bda9e" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:39:41.673" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 43 edit id of 265" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3962" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="956" RevisionGUID="51d8b3bc-32d6-4ae2-b010-cc724a3e36da" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:39:52.143" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), added [estimation], adverb in title" Text="Making a quotation for creating a website (design and development)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3963" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="956" RevisionGUID="51d8b3bc-32d6-4ae2-b010-cc724a3e36da" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:39:52.143" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), added [estimation], adverb in title" Text="|freelance-websites|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3964" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="956" RevisionGUID="51d8b3bc-32d6-4ae2-b010-cc724a3e36da" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:39:52.143" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 43 edit id of 242" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3965" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="44" RevisionGUID="8acc3ea6-646e-4353-a128-22b21a548b80" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:40:04.927" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), added [fixed-price]" Text="I am pretty good at estimating my time on a project.  For this question, let's say it is for a simple WordPress website with a custom theme development.  I have quoted and set my contract with my client to be $2500 for the project, as it will take a total of 45 hours of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've now spent 45 hours on the project, but I am not yet done.  What is the process to go to the client and ask for more money because the build is taking longer than expected?  Is it even appropriate to ask the client for some more money to finish the project, or am I just stuck finishing the development and &quot;working for free&quot; at that point?  Should I begin putting a clause in my contract with a client to cover myself in this case?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3966" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="44" RevisionGUID="8acc3ea6-646e-4353-a128-22b21a548b80" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:40:04.927" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), added [fixed-price]" Text="|contracts|overtime|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3967" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="44" RevisionGUID="8acc3ea6-646e-4353-a128-22b21a548b80" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:40:04.927" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 43 edit id of 268" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3968" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="191" RevisionGUID="bfd9a212-1635-4e85-b127-dcc00f2fd4bb" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:40:23.473" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), better markdown" Text="I am a starting freelancer in the webdevelopment sector. I focus on both personal or one-man business full websites and websites for advanced users for which I write plugins or add features (but don't build the whole site). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to know if there is any rule of thumb for determining whether you should use a fixed-price or a price per hour for these clients. For now, I'm using fixed prices because it adds clarity for both parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the second type, fixed prices are fine. There is a clear functional design and I can estimate the time I'd need for it. For the client, a fixed price is good: they get what they want and they know how much it costs, unlike employees of which you don't know what you get for how much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first type doesn't have any knowledge of programming, most of the time, and doesn't know how much time the development of the product will take. A price per hour may seem useless to them. So _if_ I'd use a price per hour, I'd have to give my clients at least a rough estimate of the time I'd need. This isn't a major problem, I can do that.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I'm more worried about is that, since those clients don't have knowledge of the subject, they cannot provide me with a good functional design. Most of the time it's more like &quot;can you make that somewhat lighter&quot; and such. I'm fine with all these minor tweaks, but it takes a lot time, especially contact-with-customer time. Therefore, I would be much happier to use a price per hour. However, that might destroy the good relationship with the client, as he would have in his mind that every minute costs money.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A solution would be to make a functional design or layout before starting developing, and use a fixed price. However, I don't think I want that. For these clients, it's very hard to make up a nice layout without actually seeing it on the website. This would result in bad products.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, how can I avoid this problem? Should I use a fixed price or price per hour for these clients and what should I do to deliver a good product and keep a good relationship with the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3969" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="191" RevisionGUID="bfd9a212-1635-4e85-b127-dcc00f2fd4bb" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:40:23.473" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), better markdown" Text="Fixed price or per hour for a web developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3970" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="191" RevisionGUID="bfd9a212-1635-4e85-b127-dcc00f2fd4bb" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:40:23.473" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), better markdown" Text="|price-per-hour|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3971" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="191" RevisionGUID="bfd9a212-1635-4e85-b127-dcc00f2fd4bb" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:40:23.473" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 43 edit id of 276" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3972" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="983" RevisionGUID="624f058c-0fb2-41ef-9964-d812ad410ee7" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:40:36.883" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), improved title (more searchable)" Text="Usually a client does not know as much as a developer about software, that is why we are hired. The issue I run into is terminology. How do you communicate with a client that has limited computer experience, ex. a client that has never used a right click you can teach them the difference between a left click and a right click.  But in the case of a client that has this little experience is going to have other limitations on terms/experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am going to limit this to web pages since that is where the majority of my work is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have tried asking clients how they use web forms describing in their own terms.  I attempt to use their terms, but I tend to forget their terms (except one client calling a text box a &quot;message grabber&quot;, I couldn't stop laughing when I figured out what they were talking about).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have no issues with teaching a client all of the terms they want to learn, and I have tried this many times, as well as how to use everything that is created. Sometimes this information just cannot be learned in the time of a short contract. I often see clients get frustrated with the amount of new information and occasionally shutdown giving up on creating a website altogether.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have tried making sure I know their preferred method of contact so they are not going over another barrier they are not used to.  This seems to help the most, but I still see issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I would like see is any or all of the following ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Personal experience on how you have resolved/prevented similar issues in the past.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Advice (however obvious it might be) on how to improve communication in my situation.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Link(s) to articles that have **personally** helped you improve communication. (NOTE: I have found many articles online on how to improve communication, but I seem to be missing something critical. I want to know how the article helped you and why you are linking it. Please do not include the results of a web search.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Anything else you find relevant." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3973" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="983" RevisionGUID="624f058c-0fb2-41ef-9964-d812ad410ee7" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:40:36.883" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), improved title (more searchable)" Text="Trying to improve my freelancer-to-client communication" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3974" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="983" RevisionGUID="624f058c-0fb2-41ef-9964-d812ad410ee7" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:40:36.883" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), improved title (more searchable)" Text="|evaluating-clients|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3975" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="983" RevisionGUID="624f058c-0fb2-41ef-9964-d812ad410ee7" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:40:36.883" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 43 edit id of 240" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3976" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6" RevisionGUID="7fe02974-2f38-4f68-9f7e-862fe38d53da" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:40:46.850" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9)" Text="|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3977" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6" RevisionGUID="7fe02974-2f38-4f68-9f7e-862fe38d53da" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:40:46.850" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 43 edit id of 266" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3978" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="590" RevisionGUID="84351547-7f09-4d9f-9e26-b811a5daab47" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:41:36.073" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), minor grammar" Text="I am currently a student with no registered business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, lately I have received, out of nowhere, a flurry of people wanting websites and web apps. As such, I'm quite happy to facilitate their needs in exchange for payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem I've now got is the people want invoices for tax return purposes and I don't know where to start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not VAT registered so does that mean I only charge for my hours * standard rate and not add 20% for VAT?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or is the 20% for their return out of the aforementioned total?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know I sound completely clueless here but well, that's about the scale of things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help would be appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3979" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="590" RevisionGUID="84351547-7f09-4d9f-9e26-b811a5daab47" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:41:36.073" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), minor grammar" Text="How do I invoice my client correctly in the UK?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3980" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="590" RevisionGUID="84351547-7f09-4d9f-9e26-b811a5daab47" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:41:36.073" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), minor grammar" Text="|taxes|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3981" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="590" RevisionGUID="84351547-7f09-4d9f-9e26-b811a5daab47" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:41:36.073" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 43 edit id of 259" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3982" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1480" RevisionGUID="01d9eda7-2be7-4a68-bf2f-9c27afd59f0e" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:42:48.563" UserId="1278" Text="I consider it part of the job. If there is the possibility that your code could cause bugs with existing functionality, Then that should be tested, fixed, and charged for before delivery. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it looks like you have inherited a code base with some potential issues, I would let the client know before hand. Tell them that the previous developer didn't account for the changes you are now making, and how could they? (This removes you from blame, but isn't throwing the previous developer under the bus _too_ harshly). As such, you will need time to make sure your new features integrate nicely with existing functionality and don't cause any new bugs. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3983" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="750" RevisionGUID="9a875ecf-616f-4fc1-982e-9d07facdd29e" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:43:46.960" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), added [project-management], title, removed uppercasing from question" Text="I am doing freelance web designing, and most of my clients are not computer-savvy. I would like to integrate a simple management system which will enable them to track the project's progress with the hours (and hence the cost) during the development period. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I thought of writing my own system but that would take hell of my time. Is there any such open-source products available?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3984" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="750" RevisionGUID="9a875ecf-616f-4fc1-982e-9d07facdd29e" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:43:46.960" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), added [project-management], title, removed uppercasing from question" Text="Looking for a simple client management software to integrate into site" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3985" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="750" RevisionGUID="9a875ecf-616f-4fc1-982e-9d07facdd29e" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:43:46.960" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), added [project-management], title, removed uppercasing from question" Text="|project-management|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3986" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="750" RevisionGUID="9a875ecf-616f-4fc1-982e-9d07facdd29e" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:43:46.960" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by -1 edit id of 253" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3987" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="750" RevisionGUID="a0f33bc3-2a11-4ef2-9a61-7b7b06036c6c" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:43:46.960" UserId="43" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), added [project-management], title, removed uppercasing from question" Text="Integrating simple client management software into a website" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3988" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="101" RevisionGUID="7d093d6f-f612-4a3f-97ee-720799fd4376" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:43:56.803" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), replaced with [freelance-websites]" Text="|freelance-websites|growth|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3989" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="101" RevisionGUID="7d093d6f-f612-4a3f-97ee-720799fd4376" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:43:56.803" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 43 edit id of 271" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3990" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="245" RevisionGUID="b0849c77-26a3-449e-8dcd-1c96dfced123" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:44:00.647" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9)" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3991" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="245" RevisionGUID="b0849c77-26a3-449e-8dcd-1c96dfced123" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:44:00.647" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 43 edit id of 279" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3992" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="8" RevisionGUID="fc2cca19-e485-4fd4-bf5c-643c1ea04ea3" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:44:04.537" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), replaced with [communication]" Text="|time-management|project-management|communication|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3993" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="8" RevisionGUID="fc2cca19-e485-4fd4-bf5c-643c1ea04ea3" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:44:04.537" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 43 edit id of 267" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3994" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="498" RevisionGUID="81dd6413-a9ce-4d88-b29b-b29340005f2d" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:44:13.477" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9)" Text="|pay-rate|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3995" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="498" RevisionGUID="81dd6413-a9ce-4d88-b29b-b29340005f2d" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:44:13.477" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 43 edit id of 261" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3996" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="126" RevisionGUID="0cf74c61-9777-49e7-b0f7-b723b10ee5ed" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:44:20.603" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), replaced with [client-support]" Text="|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3997" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="126" RevisionGUID="0cf74c61-9777-49e7-b0f7-b723b10ee5ed" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:44:20.603" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 43 edit id of 263" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3998" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="113" RevisionGUID="30801cad-bd2e-4fad-8ed4-056268f2cd5f" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:44:31.883" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), markdown" Text="I am creating an online education portal for a client who pays on time and likes the work which I'm doing but after a day he says _&quot;Hey, I liked the work you did to the ABC section but after discussing with my partner/adviser I realized that without XYZ, ABC would not look nice and much functional.&quot;_&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let me explain one situation: The website has a forum. The full layout of the forum was discussed and approved with the client before the starting of the project. Now when it has been created, he says to add a star-rating system in every comment. Now I have to create another module for this which will consume extra time and effort without money as this is a fixed-cost project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how do I deal with this type of clients such that they are satisfied as well as I get paid well?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3999" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="113" RevisionGUID="30801cad-bd2e-4fad-8ed4-056268f2cd5f" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:44:31.883" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), markdown" Text="|scope-creep|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4000" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="113" RevisionGUID="30801cad-bd2e-4fad-8ed4-056268f2cd5f" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:44:31.883" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 43 edit id of 273" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4001" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1139" RevisionGUID="11476f95-abc3-4d68-addc-efc1eb99cb3d" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:49:03.370" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), replaced with [project-bidding] and [pay-rate]" Text="|pay-rate|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4002" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1139" RevisionGUID="11476f95-abc3-4d68-addc-efc1eb99cb3d" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:49:03.370" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 127 edit id of 234" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4003" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="129" RevisionGUID="d0e6414f-f85b-4464-a394-4246dd53cfa7" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:49:20.887" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), rearranged" Text="I'm a freelance developer who started over 20 years ago. I need to improve my ability to avoid clients that can be considered a bad use of my time. So I'm asking you (developer or not): what is the most important consideration that you keep in mind when a new client knocks on the door, to decide whether you'll accept them or not?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, how do I know when a customer is not worth my while?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4004" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="129" RevisionGUID="d0e6414f-f85b-4464-a394-4246dd53cfa7" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:49:20.887" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), rearranged" Text="|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4005" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="129" RevisionGUID="d0e6414f-f85b-4464-a394-4246dd53cfa7" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:49:20.887" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 43, 127 edit id of 274" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4006" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="821" RevisionGUID="15d92de3-e03c-4de2-899e-f84176babff5" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:49:33.670" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), removed parentheses in title" Text="When did you decide you were ready, freelance developers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4007" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="821" RevisionGUID="15d92de3-e03c-4de2-899e-f84176babff5" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:49:33.670" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), removed parentheses in title" Text="|marketing|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4008" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="821" RevisionGUID="15d92de3-e03c-4de2-899e-f84176babff5" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:49:33.670" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 127 edit id of 250" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4009" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="75" RevisionGUID="a16d8c4a-1127-4a79-86d9-1c464a69f37a" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:49:50.640" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9)" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4010" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="75" RevisionGUID="a16d8c4a-1127-4a79-86d9-1c464a69f37a" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:49:50.640" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 43, 127 edit id of 269" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4011" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="195" RevisionGUID="6e0de40e-b8d1-49f8-baea-08747352abbd" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:49:55.297" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), replaced with [communication]" Text="|time-management|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4012" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="195" RevisionGUID="6e0de40e-b8d1-49f8-baea-08747352abbd" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:49:55.297" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 43, 127 edit id of 277" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4013" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="930" RevisionGUID="168dc7bf-c0b6-42ea-890c-e12702e2e2b5" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:49:59.970" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), improved title (more searchable)" Text="Sending advertising offer letters to local businesses" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4014" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="930" RevisionGUID="168dc7bf-c0b6-42ea-890c-e12702e2e2b5" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:49:59.970" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), improved title (more searchable)" Text="|attracting-clients|advertising|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4015" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="930" RevisionGUID="168dc7bf-c0b6-42ea-890c-e12702e2e2b5" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:49:59.970" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 127 edit id of 246" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4016" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="96" RevisionGUID="7d70b1b7-b020-4c1b-a422-a6d2c20077b8" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:50:06.093" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9), replaced with [freelance-websites]" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|marketing|growth|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4017" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="96" RevisionGUID="7d70b1b7-b020-4c1b-a422-a6d2c20077b8" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:50:06.093" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 127 edit id of 270" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4018" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="603" RevisionGUID="49533b87-d8ef-4443-91a3-4c2776fcb4c3" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:51:41.830" UserId="58" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|consulting|business-plan|moonlighting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4019" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1481" RevisionGUID="32a143cf-90ed-48cb-9c93-681cf38be3a7" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:58:29.530" UserId="58" Text="&gt; *moonlighting: noun [u]* `/ˈmuːnlaɪtɪŋ/`  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  paid work that you do in addition to your normal job, especially without telling your employer  &#xD;&#xA;&gt;      &gt; *With average wages a miserable $38 a month, people are heavily dependent on moonlighting.*&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  &lt;sub&gt;*(Source: [Cambridge Business English Dictionary](http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/moonlighting))*&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Moonlighting is freelancing done in addition to a regular full-time job, especially (but not always) without telling your employer, usually after hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Moonlighting generally occurs when an employer is under-paying someone, or their circumstances change and they have to work extra hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It can also occur if a person wants to develop their skills (or a different set of skills) away from their company while maintaining a steady income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use this tag as a generic &quot;freelancing while employed&quot; tag." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4020" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1482" RevisionGUID="22545320-0cd8-4a26-a31c-a04da8c15fa0" CreationDate="2014-02-27T14:58:29.530" UserId="58" Text="Moonlighting is paid work that you do in addition to a regular full-time job, especially (but not always) without telling your employer, usually after hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use this tag as a generic freelancing-while-employed tag" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4021" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="173" RevisionGUID="aa4dc0fd-44fc-42bc-93fc-41a38f394fe7" CreationDate="2014-02-27T16:52:11.783" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9)" Text="|contracts|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4022" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="173" RevisionGUID="aa4dc0fd-44fc-42bc-93fc-41a38f394fe7" CreationDate="2014-02-27T16:52:11.783" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 127, 75 edit id of 275" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4023" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="457" RevisionGUID="baa2fe47-af70-4f54-be76-3faa26beb29c" CreationDate="2014-02-27T16:52:35.673" UserId="9" Comment="Replaced [client] tag with [client-support], more obvious thought delineation, grammar in last paragraph" Text="I created a website for a client. I offered to install any future security updates for a fixed monthly fee (so it wouldn’t matter if there are 0 or 10 security updates in a month), but the client didn’t accept. I warned him what could happen to his site without applying security updates, but to no avail: The client wants no security updates at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the inevitable happened: The site got hacked. Now the client wants help as fast as possible, of course.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don’t like this task; it’s no fun. If this wasn't my client, I’d probably decline this job. On top of that, this is bad timing because I have no time for it actually. But as I created the site some time ago and I’m &quot;his&quot; web designer, I feel responsible for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I’m thinking _&quot;Damn, &lt;s&gt;we&lt;/s&gt; you could have saved &lt;s&gt;us&lt;/s&gt; me trouble if you’d have let me install security updates. Why didn’t you listen?! Now I have to clean up this mess.&quot;_. Could this be a reason to charge more for this job?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the one hand, I feel like I'd be taking advantage of an emergency case and maybe also letting him learn the hard way. But on the other hand, I feel like charging more would be right because the job is harder, not necessarily because of the required skills or time, but because of pressure (&quot;it has to be done *now*&quot;, &quot;help me, I can’t sell anymore&quot;) and because I grudge doing it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I deal with such cases?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4024" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="457" RevisionGUID="baa2fe47-af70-4f54-be76-3faa26beb29c" CreationDate="2014-02-27T16:52:35.673" UserId="9" Comment="Replaced [client] tag with [client-support], more obvious thought delineation, grammar in last paragraph" Text="|pay-rate|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4025" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="457" RevisionGUID="baa2fe47-af70-4f54-be76-3faa26beb29c" CreationDate="2014-02-27T16:52:35.673" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 280" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4026" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="728" RevisionGUID="bff56533-87c2-4b4f-be4d-907021237349" CreationDate="2014-02-27T16:52:52.877" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag (as per http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/167/9)" Text="|contracts|consulting|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4027" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="728" RevisionGUID="bff56533-87c2-4b4f-be4d-907021237349" CreationDate="2014-02-27T16:52:52.877" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 127, 75 edit id of 255" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4028" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1469" RevisionGUID="768e1a49-84ed-47a7-9e7b-51f2fef950e0" CreationDate="2014-02-27T19:41:44.973" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/439123204180025344" />
  <row Id="4034" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1484" RevisionGUID="a3507c87-bdd6-43ce-8c8f-14cf91ed15b1" CreationDate="2014-02-28T14:42:19.853" UserId="2008" Text="I will not tell you all the bla bla you can find into the books and other resources...&#xD;&#xA;You are ready when ? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - cash:&#xD;&#xA;You need cash... I know this is not technical and not related to your competencies... But I repeat you need some cash because unless you are a rock star, the beginning is always a bit slow... Even if you have a good reputation as an employee, the people will look at you with some distrust... They don't know you... What will happen if they hire you ? If you have some bench time it is not a catastroph... But you will loose money... You have to be able to deal with that... Are you ready to loose money if you are sick ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - health: &#xD;&#xA;You will maybe laugh at me... If your health is not perfect forget to be a freelance... You have to work more... More often than the other... If for some reasons you are sick, you need cash but it can't be forever... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - lot of confidence in yourself:&#xD;&#xA;What is your biggest supporter ? You! You have to be able to deal with difficult periods (less work) and you also have to work more... Because a freelance is expected to work more than an employee and you employers will not allow any problems... You are more or less alone... You will build a network but... as a freelance there is more concurrency... In difficult situations you must remain calm and believe in yourself. You will do it !&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - stress:&#xD;&#xA;You will have to deal with more people... More interviews... More companies... It is very rewarding but it means also more challenging... Can you deal with stressful situations... Because you cannot know everything and they expect that you know everything... At the end of the day you have to be able to relax... To sleep... To calm down...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - money:&#xD;&#xA;Except if you make a ton of cash don't become a freelance if you spend too much... You will (normally) make more money than an employee... But... You will have to give back a lot of this money... (social security in Belgium). At Sun I had a very nice BMW... As a freelance I have a very nice VW Golf... :-) I wanted to start low because my objective is the long term... The reward will come but if it is only the money... For me the reward is the control I have on my own career and on myself... OK. I have bought an average budget car... But it is a decision I did myself... I can buy any laptop I want... Don't have to beg... I can buy a nice smartphone... But I am not a rich boy... The money cannot be the most important factor...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - sell yourself:&#xD;&#xA;If you cannot face the interviews you are a dead man... Your network and your reputation will help... But your are supposed to go to a lot of interviews... To answer question you don't know... To sell your CV... To sell your image... To give them confidence you will solve more problems than you will create :-) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - technical competencies:&#xD;&#xA;Oh boy... Tough... I personnaly like to learn all the time... It is my life... Always be learning... Always... Like a movie star you have to be bankable... As an employee... Ok you can call the experts in house... Your colleagues, your friends... As a freelance... You are the one... It means you have to invest a lot in your competencies and it is for the rest of your career... If you don't like the idea to learn every single day... Do something else...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If don't want to give you the impression that becoming a freelance is not a nice experience... It is nice... You have more control... You don't have anymore to deal with a manager who doesn't care... You like to develop/to code ? You will !!! But of course everything has a cost... Employee ? It is great ! Freelance ? Also. You have to choose what is good for you... " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4035" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1484" RevisionGUID="30f9e4b5-1da9-4c9d-952a-ab163f202557" CreationDate="2014-02-28T14:47:53.360" UserId="2008" Comment="deleted 14 characters in body" Text="I will not tell you all the bla bla you can find into the books and other resources...&#xD;&#xA;You are ready when ? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - cash:&#xD;&#xA;You need cash... I know this is not technical and not related to your competencies... But I repeat you need some cash because unless you are a rock star, the beginning is always a bit slow... Even if you have a good reputation as an employee, the people will look at you with some distrust... They don't know you... What will happen if they hire you ? If you have some bench time it is not a catastroph... But you will loose money... You have to be able to deal with that... Are you ready to loose money if you are sick ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - health: &#xD;&#xA;You will maybe laugh at me... If your health is not perfect forget to be a freelance... You have to work more... More often than the other... If for some reasons you are sick, you need cash but it can't be forever... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - lot of confidence in yourself:&#xD;&#xA;What is your biggest supporter ? You! You have to be able to deal with difficult periods (less work) and you also have to work more... Because a freelance is expected to work more than an employee and you employers will not allow any problems... You are more or less alone... You will build a network but... as a freelance there is more concurrency... In difficult situations you must remain calm and believe in yourself. You will do it !&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - stress:&#xD;&#xA;You will have to deal with more people... More interviews... More companies... It is very rewarding but it means also more challenging... Can you deal with stressful situations... Because you cannot know everything and they expect that you know everything... At the end of the day you have to be able to relax... To sleep... To calm down...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - money:&#xD;&#xA;Except if you make a ton of cash don't become a freelance if you spend too much... You will (normally) make more money than an employee... But... You will have to give back a lot of this money... (social security in Belgium). At Sun I had a very nice BMW... As a freelance I have a very nice VW Golf... :-) I wanted to start low because my objective is the long term... The reward will come but if it is only the money... For me the reward is the control I have on my own career and on myself... OK. I have bought an average budget car... But it is a decision I did myself... I can buy any laptop I want... Don't have to beg... I can buy a nice smartphone... But I am not a rich boy... The money cannot be the most important factor...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - sell yourself:&#xD;&#xA;If you cannot face the interviews you are a dead man... Your network and your reputation will help... But your are supposed to go to a lot of interviews... To answer question you don't know... To sell your CV... To sell your image... To give them confidence you will solve more problems than you will create :-) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - technical competencies:&#xD;&#xA;Oh boy... Tough... I personally like to learn all the time... It is my life... Always be learning... Always... Like a movie star you have to be bankable... As an employee... Ok you can call the experts in house... Your colleagues... As a freelance... You are the one... It means you have to invest a lot in your competencies and it is for the rest of your career... If you don't like the idea to learn every single day... Do something else...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - price&#xD;&#xA;(related to the money) Don't be too expensive... What you need is to be able to start (maybe slowly)... Be a little less expensive that the average price... Later when they trust you you will be able to increase the rate... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If don't want to give you the impression that becoming a freelance is not a nice experience... It is nice... You have more control... You don't have anymore to deal with a manager who doesn't care... You like to develop/to code ? You will !!! But of course everything has a cost... Employee ? It is great ! Freelance ? Also. You have to choose what is good for you... " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4036" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1484" RevisionGUID="94ab8f9f-6a88-4d22-b5fc-0afc27390405" CreationDate="2014-02-28T14:54:37.217" UserId="2008" Comment="added 198 characters in body" Text="I will not tell you all the bla bla you can find into the books and other resources...&#xD;&#xA;You are ready when ? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - cash:&#xD;&#xA;You need cash... I know this is not technical and not related to your competencies... But I repeat you need some cash because unless you are a rock star, the beginning is always a bit slow... Even if you have a good reputation as an employee, the people will look at you with some distrust... They don't know you... What will happen if they hire you ? If you have some bench time it is not a catastroph... But you will loose money... You have to be able to deal with that... Are you ready to loose money if you are sick ? If you like the job security... Drop it... It is not for you... You like to be a freelance because you like the idea that there is no job security... You like it because everything moves faster... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - health: &#xD;&#xA;You will maybe laugh at me... If your health is not perfect forget to be a freelance... You have to work more... More often than the other... If for some reasons you are sick, you need cash but it can't be forever... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - lot of confidence in yourself:&#xD;&#xA;What is your biggest supporter ? You! You have to be able to deal with difficult periods (less work) and you also have to work more... Because a freelance is expected to work more than an employee and you employers will not allow any problems... You are more or less alone... You will build a network but... as a freelance there is more concurrency... In difficult situations you must remain calm and believe in yourself. You will do it !&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - stress:&#xD;&#xA;You will have to deal with more people... More interviews... More companies... It is very rewarding but it means also more challenging... Can you deal with stressful situations... Because you cannot know everything and they expect that you know everything... At the end of the day you have to be able to relax... To sleep... To calm down...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - money:&#xD;&#xA;Except if you make a ton of cash don't become a freelance if you spend too much... You will (normally) make more money than an employee... But... You will have to give back a lot of this money... (social security in Belgium). At Sun I had a very nice BMW... As a freelance I have a very nice VW Golf... :-) I wanted to start low because my objective is the long term... The reward will come but if it is only the money... For me the reward is the control I have on my own career and on myself... OK. I have bought an average budget car... But it is a decision I did myself... I can buy any laptop I want... Don't have to beg... I can buy a nice smartphone... But I am not a rich boy... The money cannot be the most important factor...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - sell yourself:&#xD;&#xA;If you cannot face the interviews you are a dead man... Your network and your reputation will help... But your are supposed to go to a lot of interviews... To answer question you don't know... To sell your CV... To sell your image... To give them confidence you will solve more problems than you will create :-) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - technical competencies:&#xD;&#xA;Oh boy... Tough... I personally like to learn all the time... It is my life... Always be learning... Always... Like a movie star you have to be bankable... As an employee... Ok you can call the experts in house... Your colleagues... As a freelance... You are the one... It means you have to invest a lot in your competencies and it is for the rest of your career... If you don't like the idea to learn every single day... Do something else...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - price&#xD;&#xA;(related to the money) Don't be too expensive... What you need is to be able to start (maybe slowly)... Be a little less expensive that the average price... Later when they trust you you will be able to increase the rate... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If don't want to give you the impression that becoming a freelance is not a nice experience... It is nice... You have more control... You don't have anymore to deal with a manager who doesn't care... You like to develop/to code ? You will !!! But of course everything has a cost... Employee ? It is great ! Freelance ? Also. You have to choose what is good for you... " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4037" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1485" RevisionGUID="db3cc0c3-db5b-4bee-8748-134e5d6d3fce" CreationDate="2014-02-28T16:13:24.040" UserId="2170" Text="If you are a developer, and not a designer, then I expect that potential clients are really only after acquiring your ability to write good code. This is the exact same situation that I am in and I have had huge success with my blog where I regularly write small articles which solve specific coding problems in my main language (WPF/XAML/C'#). I also am a very active member of StackOverflow where I answer tough coding questions and have built up an impressive profile doing this. New clients get a link to my blog and stackoverflow page and that is usually enough to establish my credentials. Every client I have worked with has been happy with the fact that I cannot discuss or show other clients code. Any client that insists on seeing confidential client code should be avoided." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4038" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1486" RevisionGUID="1bcfd709-270f-4578-a086-d55b1aedcb1e" CreationDate="2014-02-28T17:58:42.977" UserId="9" Text="I was approached by a friend to build a site for them. After some negotiation, we accepted that I would build it for $100, plus 4% of future revenue from the site (payable quarterly). Before the inevitable calls of &quot;You're charging too little!&quot; come in, I trust that $100 actually _is_ the limit. The idea to charge 4% in the future had been mine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, one of the advantages that I have is that I'm _not_ an active freelancer, so I'd be doing this project instead of another learning project. In addition, I'm looking at a delivery time of 5-6 months (instead of 5-6 weeks, which I had been anticipating before negotiation).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it common to ask for a percentage of future revenue? How would I write this in the contract?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Here is the current wording in the contract:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * 50% ($50) due within one week of the contract signing,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * 50% ($50) due before the site content is delivered, and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * 4% of any revenue generated by the site, to be paid quarterly (and due within thirty days of the quarter's end)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4039" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1486" RevisionGUID="1bcfd709-270f-4578-a086-d55b1aedcb1e" CreationDate="2014-02-28T17:58:42.977" UserId="9" Text="Charging future percentage of revenue: acceptable?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4040" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1486" RevisionGUID="1bcfd709-270f-4578-a086-d55b1aedcb1e" CreationDate="2014-02-28T17:58:42.977" UserId="9" Text="|payment-terms|friends-services|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4045" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="475" RevisionGUID="3b223612-a796-4877-9356-c9f0e4fb0e38" CreationDate="2014-02-28T18:12:41.333" UserId="9" Comment="Replaced [client] tag with [moonlighting], minor grammar" Text="I am a web developer, just starting out as a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have had a few people contact me through my website asking for a quote on how much a project will cost. In order to achieve a cost, I must spend time and effort gathering as much information as possible: drawing out workflows, developing initial sitemaps, etc. I don't know how long a project will take until I have done this, and all of this takes time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is, I work full time -- so the only time I have is evenings and weekend. By that point, the client has lost interest, and all my efforts go unpaid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is: How am I supposed to put a quote together on such little information without spending so much time researching, gathering data and working everything out?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client wants a quote within 5 hours, but I need 10 hours to work on it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4046" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="475" RevisionGUID="3b223612-a796-4877-9356-c9f0e4fb0e38" CreationDate="2014-02-28T18:12:41.333" UserId="9" Comment="Replaced [client] tag with [moonlighting], minor grammar" Text="|price|project|moonlighting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4047" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="475" RevisionGUID="3b223612-a796-4877-9356-c9f0e4fb0e38" CreationDate="2014-02-28T18:12:41.333" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 127, 43 edit id of 282" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4048" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1487" RevisionGUID="bf4fe30f-020c-46f0-8f52-32f7426a41fc" CreationDate="2014-02-28T18:45:11.710" UserId="75" Text="I'll weigh in on this one, as I've done it before, where I also suggested the percentage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending on the type of website, and how your client think it will generate revenue depends on what I would suggest! If he has a proper business plan that looks like it will produce money, then I would say go ahead. It's not any more work for you to keep it updated (I hope!), and if the money is coming in as expected, this can last for a long time, without you doing anything more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are just *hoping* money comes in, I would not touch this type of deal. Ever again. Period. It can be damaging to your friendship if you are promised lots of money from a website, and you decide to cut a deal for the setup of it. I have worked diligently to prevent this particular scenario from happening, and would recommend you tread lightly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the latest one that I did this for, it was for selling some new-born puppies, purebred English Bulldogs. Apparently, they can be sold for anywhere from $2,500 to $3,500 each. I suggested 10% of the sale of each of the 4 pups, and started building the website. I thought I could potentially get $1,000 from a basic website with a photo album and contact form, as their plan was to sell them after 3 months. Unfortunately, within that 3 months, one died (mother dog rolled on it and suffocated it), and one other one was sold privately, not because of the website. The other two, they became attached too, and decided not to sell them. So, my net profit is $0, and my costs include the time I spent taking pictures, setting up the site, and buying/hosting the domain name.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As with any deal you make, make sure there is an exit strategy, and that you will get paid what you're worth. If you can make this website, deliverable, for only $100, then you are OK, everything else will be icing on the cake. **THIS IS GOOD**. If it will cost your more than $100 (whether it's your time, the hosting, the research, the physical or licensing components, etc), then this deal will probably not be a good one. Again, there needs to be a proper business plan that outlines how it's going to be making money, in order for it to make money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I would recommend, if you don't think that $100 will cut it, is specify a minimum payment per quarter. In this case, you may not need it, since it's only $100, but for other users, think about the minimums you need to keep something running." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4049" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="385" RevisionGUID="310a6f75-59c4-4af5-a117-2292626729e5" CreationDate="2014-02-28T18:46:40.513" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] in favor of [retainer]" Text="|contracts|retainer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4050" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="385" RevisionGUID="310a6f75-59c4-4af5-a117-2292626729e5" CreationDate="2014-02-28T18:46:40.513" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 284" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4051" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="430" RevisionGUID="84576877-79fc-40eb-8b51-978281616a8c" CreationDate="2014-02-28T18:46:45.217" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4052" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="430" RevisionGUID="84576877-79fc-40eb-8b51-978281616a8c" CreationDate="2014-02-28T18:46:45.217" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 283" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4055" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="326" RevisionGUID="c97c9105-ce16-4f95-81ef-2e4cc7d03a06" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:08:27.260" UserId="9" Comment="Replaced [client] with [freelance-websites] and [communication], minor grammar fixes" Text="I'm starting to freelancer in the web development sector. I'm constantly searching for new projects on (Dutch equivalents of) websites like oDesk. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many clients add both an e-mail and a telephone number to their vacancies. Up to now, I always reply by e-mail or send a text via the system. Often, I don't get a response. I'm considering calling more often to actually get to speak someone, so that I can attract more clients. This would also give me some implicit feedback on my selling skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would it be a good idea to call more often? Is it, in some way, expected that I call? Would it be considered annoying if I call instead of just leaving a message?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4056" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="326" RevisionGUID="c97c9105-ce16-4f95-81ef-2e4cc7d03a06" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:08:27.260" UserId="9" Comment="Replaced [client] with [freelance-websites] and [communication], minor grammar fixes" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|marketing|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4057" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="326" RevisionGUID="c97c9105-ce16-4f95-81ef-2e4cc7d03a06" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:08:27.260" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 290" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4058" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="383" RevisionGUID="d1bac5a6-b9b1-45d0-ae88-fb7bd285599a" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:08:48.747" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client], grammar and tidying of title and body" Text="I'm new to freelancing, and I have doubts on how to correctly bill in time increments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While researching about how to measure the time spent on each client, I [read](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3/tracking-hours-you-are-working-for-clients) that some people do time-dependent billing on 15-minute increments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nowadays, I split the work on 25-minute increments to do tasks. Can I use this increment for the purpose of billing on a time-dependent basis like the 15 minutes increments are used to?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**NOTE**: I split work by a 25-minute increment, since I use the [pomodoro technique](http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4059" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="383" RevisionGUID="d1bac5a6-b9b1-45d0-ae88-fb7bd285599a" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:08:48.747" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client], grammar and tidying of title and body" Text="Billing on 25, 30-minute increments?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4060" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="383" RevisionGUID="d1bac5a6-b9b1-45d0-ae88-fb7bd285599a" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:08:48.747" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client], grammar and tidying of title and body" Text="|time-management|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4061" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="383" RevisionGUID="d1bac5a6-b9b1-45d0-ae88-fb7bd285599a" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:08:48.747" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 285" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4062" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="103" RevisionGUID="6e4ba68e-ac77-4308-9d39-57da971630b1" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:08:56.013" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, removed [client]" Text="I was working on an Android project. The client asked me to change the app design every few days, but it was very difficult to change the design in the middle of a huge project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would I deal with the client in such situations? Would making a contract and adding a clause at the start would be one way?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4063" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="103" RevisionGUID="6e4ba68e-ac77-4308-9d39-57da971630b1" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:08:56.013" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, removed [client]" Text="How do I deal with clients who ask me to change the design every few days?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4064" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="103" RevisionGUID="6e4ba68e-ac77-4308-9d39-57da971630b1" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:08:56.013" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, removed [client]" Text="|changes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4065" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="103" RevisionGUID="6e4ba68e-ac77-4308-9d39-57da971630b1" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:08:56.013" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 288" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4066" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="56" RevisionGUID="d542cfc6-35bb-4b33-b34b-ca9bf524c94c" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:09:05.077" UserId="9" Comment="Replaced [client] with [attracting-clients] and [moonlighting]" Text="|attracting-clients|marketing|moonlighting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4067" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="56" RevisionGUID="d542cfc6-35bb-4b33-b34b-ca9bf524c94c" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:09:05.077" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 287" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4068" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="314" RevisionGUID="12358e4e-341d-4f8e-9249-d8369c6b1c4d" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:09:37.577" UserId="9" Comment="Embedded link, removed [client]" Text="I'm running a relatively small one-man business in the software sector. I just started and am trying to create a larger portfolio. For that, I offer some friends free services. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found a few reasons to send these clients €0,- invoices, mostly similar to the reasons to send 100% discount invoices to charity funds that I gave [here](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/270/19):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Clarity about what has to be done and when &#xD;&#xA;* No transfers (as I would have with a 0% discount bill and returning the money as a gift)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And also:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* With an invoice I have more distinguishable clients which makes that I have more chance on getting a better certificate from the state (doesn't matter how it exactly works, this is an advantage)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Suppose that these clients won't have a problem with the €0,- invoices, **could there be any reason for me to not send them?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I ask this, because I've never seen people sending invoices like this, and I can only see advantages." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4069" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="314" RevisionGUID="12358e4e-341d-4f8e-9249-d8369c6b1c4d" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:09:37.577" UserId="9" Comment="Embedded link, removed [client]" Text="|invoices|portfolio|friends-services|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4070" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="314" RevisionGUID="12358e4e-341d-4f8e-9249-d8369c6b1c4d" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:09:37.577" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 289" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4071" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="292" RevisionGUID="930d3d46-d301-4120-b271-6b923a797cb9" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:09:45.513" UserId="9" Comment="Replaced [client] with [taxes], unordered list format" Text="When arranging to do work remotely, how can you verify that the client is legitimate and that you can trust them with your personal tax ID (social security number in the US)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the US, employers are required to get your tax ID if they want to deduct the amount they pay you from their income, so it's reasonable for them to request it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All of the remote work I've done so far has been for clients that were vouched for by someone that I trusted. In some of those cases, the client wouldn't make any payments until I sent them my Tax ID.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This question is specifically about dealing with a situation where you don't know anything about the client. For example: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* You reply to a listing they posted on a job site.&#xD;&#xA;* They contact you on your site or through a site where you've posted your resume.&#xD;&#xA;* They are not a large company with an easy to verify existence and history.&#xD;&#xA;* They are a small company, which may have been founded 10 years or 10 months ago.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what do you do when a new client wants your tax ID before they will make any payments?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it reasonable to ask the client for references? If so, what kind of references and how should they be verified?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some possible reference types I've thought of:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* People who've worked for them.&#xD;&#xA;* Some of their clients/customers.&#xD;&#xA;* The bank where they maintain their business account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I realize that there's a certain amount of trust required on the part of both parties when doing remote work, but how do you go about minimizing the risks of giving out your tax ID?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4072" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="292" RevisionGUID="930d3d46-d301-4120-b271-6b923a797cb9" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:09:45.513" UserId="9" Comment="Replaced [client] with [taxes], unordered list format" Text="|taxes|usa|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4073" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="292" RevisionGUID="930d3d46-d301-4120-b271-6b923a797cb9" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:09:45.513" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 286" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4074" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="366" RevisionGUID="0c76fd98-05f2-43d7-9a6f-728a34d669ee" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:29:42.943" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag, changed first sentence from &quot;It's normal to...&quot; to &quot;It seems normal to...&quot; for a better transition to the next sentence" Text="It seems normal to charge friends, relatives, neighbours, etc. a lower price than people you don't know at all. However, wouldn't that be _price discrimination_, and isn't that a crime?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to get sued by a company for letting him pay a higher price than a friend of mine while it's for a similar product. Is there any chance on that when I charge friends with lower prices than others?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If so, how can I make sure I don't discriminate with my prices?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The easy solution would be to charge them the same, but that might look bad from a social perspective. Another solution would be not to work with people I know in a personal sphere, but then I would lose clients and portfolio opportunities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;Note: I'm a web developer. Most of the time, assignments are significantly different and the problem won't arise. However, when clients ask for basic websites which isn't more than a WordPress installation and a simple theme, there might be a problem.&lt;/sub&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4075" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="366" RevisionGUID="0c76fd98-05f2-43d7-9a6f-728a34d669ee" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:29:42.943" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [client] tag, changed first sentence from &quot;It's normal to...&quot; to &quot;It seems normal to...&quot; for a better transition to the next sentence" Text="|price|friends-services|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4076" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="366" RevisionGUID="0c76fd98-05f2-43d7-9a6f-728a34d669ee" CreationDate="2014-02-28T19:29:42.943" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 291" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4077" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="381" RevisionGUID="3c7383ab-3866-48df-881f-3a37b90a6d82" CreationDate="2014-02-28T20:11:33.933" UserId="9" Comment="Heavy grammar/clarity changes in content, removed [client]" Text="I'd like to define the following case as the **Loner Freelance Case**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* The freelancer is a full-stack web designer and developer.&#xD;&#xA;* The client is a small company who wants a web page.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many software development enterprises use [agile methodologies][1] to get their job done. I've researched agile's approach to the software development process to see whether or not it is viable on a small team. If so, I figure it can be applicable to other scenarios (say, with more people involved). I've learned that their main advantage lies in their adaptability to change. This can be really useful in many cases, but especially in the loner freelance case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what I've learned, I can conclude that delivering a usable product to the client often results in that client collaborates rather than observing the process, giving a valuable feedback.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a few questions, though:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Is my conclusion correct?&#xD;&#xA;2. In the loner freelance case, could the relation between the client and the freelance be considered a &quot;team&quot; because both work together?&#xD;&#xA;3. Assuming the agile methodologies are meant for teamwork, could it be useful in the Loner Freelance Case, even though it's not exactly a &quot;team&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Side note:** I have seen [this question][2], but this question involves only two entities in the development process: the freelancer and the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; [1]: http://www.agilemanifesto.org&#xD;&#xA; [2]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/328" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4078" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="381" RevisionGUID="3c7383ab-3866-48df-881f-3a37b90a6d82" CreationDate="2014-02-28T20:11:33.933" UserId="9" Comment="Heavy grammar/clarity changes in content, removed [client]" Text="|time-management|project-management|productivity|changes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4079" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="381" RevisionGUID="3c7383ab-3866-48df-881f-3a37b90a6d82" CreationDate="2014-02-28T20:11:33.933" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 127, 75 edit id of 292" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4080" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1488" RevisionGUID="3b89a885-46fe-435a-9ac5-97f576d8753a" CreationDate="2014-02-28T20:28:17.030" UserId="972" Text="Another thing that you might consider is putting into words exactly what &quot;revenue&quot; is.  Is this what the company makes after subtracting basic costs like rent, utilities and salaries?  Or after subtracting basic costs and taxes?  Or after subtracting basic costs, taxes, money spent on a company meeting in Hawaii, new equipment purchases, yearly cost of company cars for execs, D-grade celebrities for publicity stunts, charity sponsorships, retained earnings, and yearly bonuses?  (Yes, I'm exaggerating on that last one, but I think you can see what I'm saying here.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are going to go the 4% of revenue route, you and your business partners need to agree upon and spell out how that will be calculated.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4090" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1486" RevisionGUID="69191862-98e4-4ecb-bb5c-9ef5189285e3" CreationDate="2014-03-01T19:42:42.707" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/439848222446866432" />
  <row Id="4091" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1478" RevisionGUID="e80c34ca-3000-4508-a829-8e62819de543" CreationDate="2014-03-01T19:44:11.553" UserId="9" Comment="Creating tag excerpt" Text="A freelance website is a site which links freelancers to clients and (more specifically) client projects, often through a bidding process. Examples include oDesk, eLance, etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4092" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1478" RevisionGUID="e80c34ca-3000-4508-a829-8e62819de543" CreationDate="2014-03-01T19:44:11.553" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 43, 64 edit id of 293" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4093" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1477" RevisionGUID="9604a8c8-1c08-407e-ade9-66b135122322" CreationDate="2014-03-01T19:51:41.790" UserId="64" Comment="added in a tag wiki body based on the original excerpt and added an example question" Text="A freelance website is a site which links freelancers to clients and (more specifically) client projects, often through a bidding process. Examples include oDesk, eLance, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##Example questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While this question, http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1244/how-to-get-work-on-freelancer-com-as-an-existing-contractor-but-new-to-freelance, primarly targets non-experts, it's a good example of when to use this tag. The question is more of a marketing question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4094" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1478" RevisionGUID="6f9cfa3f-a14b-488d-9500-36389230e4fa" CreationDate="2014-03-01T19:51:41.790" UserId="64" Comment="added in a tag wiki body based on the original excerpt and added an example question" Text="This tag should be used for questions about freelancing problems that involve freelancing websites like oDesk, eLance, etc. For software support questions, see that vendor's customer support page." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4100" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1453" RevisionGUID="3885deff-158b-44f9-95e7-d401f2ffda18" CreationDate="2014-03-02T16:42:46.030" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/440165326349942784" />
  <row Id="4101" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1159" RevisionGUID="f8839820-0c16-4756-ba4f-ab2290b1e8a8" CreationDate="2014-03-02T20:44:39.560" UserId="9" Comment="Clarity/grammar" Text="I am a freelance web developer in India, charging between 250 and 300 rupees/hour for domestic clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I have discussions ongoing regarding certain projects in the Middle East. How much can I charge them per hour? Would it be the same rate as I charge for domestic clients, or can I increase the rate? If I can, what would be a fair rate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4102" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1159" RevisionGUID="f8839820-0c16-4756-ba4f-ab2290b1e8a8" CreationDate="2014-03-02T20:44:39.560" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 58 edit id of 294" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4103" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1494" RevisionGUID="e5513115-ddda-4484-8cb1-15576703ab11" CreationDate="2014-03-02T21:52:06.610" UserId="1963" Text="I'm going to go with my favorite accounting answer on this one, &quot;it depends&quot;. The direct answer to your questions is that for international developers I've heard them charging anywhere between between $12 to $55 per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The more roundabout answer is it depends on the client. Unless you are working through a third party you have the opportunity to conduct a client interview to get as much information as possible: specifically what do they value and what does their budget look like?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For instance if their budget is $1000 and they want to get a number of features out in one week well then the most you can get out of them will be $25/hr. But what if its $10,000? Then your upper limit is $250/hr. How can you convince them you are worth that much? By aligning what you deliver around what they value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I've done is experiment from client to client. I've tried to offer different hourly rates or weekly rates. This way I can find what works best for not only me but the different kind of clients I've had.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4105" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1495" RevisionGUID="070a79c9-d7ea-4664-932a-62422f426e3d" CreationDate="2014-03-03T14:19:04.177" UserId="2189" Text="I'm currently under contract with a company, and it basically works like this. This company puts me through there training program, at the end of that they market me to clients and I have to get offered a corp to corp contract opportunity. It is unethical because (no mention in contract or my knowledge prior to signing the contract) I am a fresher, and they are marketing me as someone with 5 years exp. This alone isn't enough to void a contract correct? &#xD;&#xA;Can anyone attest to the legality of some of the clauses in this contract.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Some conditions of the contract state:&#xD;&#xA;If I break the contract, I may have to return all monies earned during the training period.&#xD;&#xA;Will have to pay 1000 for every month I had left on the contract.&#xD;&#xA;The contract also states after the contract is over I cannot work for a company whom I have worked for while under my current contract for 12 months. (Legal?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;TLDR &#xD;&#xA;Can a contract be voided for unethical practices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If anything is unclear just ask" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4106" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1495" RevisionGUID="070a79c9-d7ea-4664-932a-62422f426e3d" CreationDate="2014-03-03T14:19:04.177" UserId="2189" Text="Voiding a Contract for Unethical practices" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4107" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1495" RevisionGUID="070a79c9-d7ea-4664-932a-62422f426e3d" CreationDate="2014-03-03T14:19:04.177" UserId="2189" Text="|contracts|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4108" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1496" RevisionGUID="9546a8f7-ce3e-4fc2-b6a3-f0b8e42f356d" CreationDate="2014-03-03T17:56:22.937" UserId="1323" Text="Admittedly, I haven't really been in any situations as a freelancer that required me to be on call 24 hours a day.  But one thing that may help you communicate with international clients is **working a split shift**, if possible.  This is an idea I got from my college days, working in retail.  While our store was doing inventory, they would have me work the morning to set the sales floor and then come back in the evening to do inventory.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my previous corporate job, I was officially supposed to work 40 hours per week, roughly 9am - 5:30pm (I wasn't paid for lunch breaks).  However, I would usually get tired  around 2-3pm and accomplish very little in that period - even after I started taking short exercise breaks in the afternoon.  I ended up frequently working late because of this.  At this workplace, we also had an offshore contractor who had almost a 12-hour time difference from us.  One or two days a week, their team would stay late and we would come in early to do a phone call with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So since I've been freelancing, I've rarely worked an entire afternoon.  Instead, *I take about 3 hours off every afternoon* to exercise. Then, I work well into the evening when I don't have to go somewhere else.  I'll usually work a schedule like this: 8 - 8:30 am, 9:30am - ~2:30pm, 5:30pm - 7pm, 7:45pm - (anywhere between 9pm and midnight).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How a split shift schedule would impact interfacing with clients:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Since I have an &quot;about 10 hours out of about 14&quot; workday, I'm more available to clients without working a great deal of hours myself.  And I tend to get more done because I'm working at my peak times.&#xD;&#xA; - In proposals, I list my core hours as 10am-2pm.  I say that communication from me can generally be expected between 8am and 10pm.&#xD;&#xA; - I try to respond to emails within 24 hours (aside from weekends).  For improved productivity, I only open my email client about 3 times a day most days.&#xD;&#xA; - I send status emails at least once a week. Frequency varies based on project needs and the stage of the project.&#xD;&#xA; - Although I haven't had to do this as a freelancer yet, I would recommend scheduling status meetings at a mutually agreeable time at least once a week.&#xD;&#xA; - I'm more responsive on the phone or if somebody tags me in a Facebook&#xD;&#xA;   work group post.&#xD;&#xA; - Some freelancers, such as the 1WD.tv founders, recommend charging a higher hourly rate for a certain number of support hours per month.  I am considering implementing this sort of policy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4109" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1497" RevisionGUID="29ca28f2-ec65-4b66-8a0f-037a19e28cfe" CreationDate="2014-03-03T19:36:41.500" UserId="1953" Text="What actionable steps do you take to land a app/web contract in your local city? What things do you look for in particular that has yielded a consistent client base?&#xD;&#xA;I look on craigslist but it's often hit or miss. I end up doing meeting people for free and giving them free consultation and then have them back out at the last minute.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't mind following up on leads but it's just so sporadic, wondering what channels I should be looking into besides craigslist to find app/web contracts that I can work on after my day job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially I will have about 5 hours after work each day and I don't want to charge by the hour and prefer to a project based on deliverables." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4110" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1497" RevisionGUID="29ca28f2-ec65-4b66-8a0f-037a19e28cfe" CreationDate="2014-03-03T19:36:41.500" UserId="1953" Text="How do you find contracts locally?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4111" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1497" RevisionGUID="29ca28f2-ec65-4b66-8a0f-037a19e28cfe" CreationDate="2014-03-03T19:36:41.500" UserId="1953" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4112" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1498" RevisionGUID="3f0ec674-eeba-4e0a-a40a-76760e298e75" CreationDate="2014-03-03T19:56:40.577" UserId="127" Text="To make it easier for potential clients to find me, I:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Determine how my target market will find clients.&#xD;&#xA;* Make sure I am visible in those places.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my case, my target market will either do a Google search or they will use a referral. In the first case, I will at times use Google ad words localized to my area to make myself more visible. (But in my case this can get a bit pricey.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other target markets may do things differently, so that's why understand how your clients will look for you is so important.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I try to keep up with my referral network. I have lunch regularly with people who are good at referring me to their contacts. And I try to expand it by attending events where I will meet potential clients and connectors. My target market is small business owners, so I joined my local chamber of commerce. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also contact former clients to see how things are going and if there are new opportunities with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my case, Craigslist would be a poor source of leads. People using craigslist tend to be tire kickers and cheap, and those are not clients I'm interested in.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4113" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1484" RevisionGUID="46f177ff-7daa-4607-8ded-e29301d6f109" CreationDate="2014-03-03T19:57:44.420" UserId="9" Comment="Heavy grammar/wording, formatting fixes" Text="I won't tell you all the fluff that you can find in books and other resources. You are ready when:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Cash__: You need cash. I know this isn't a technical requirement, but unless you are a rock star, starting out will be slow. Even if you have a good reputation as an employee, people may look at you with some distrust. I mean, they don't know you, so what will happen if they hire you? If you have some bench time, it won't be a catastrophe, but you will lose money. You have to be able to deal with that. Are you prepared to lose money if you fall sick? If you like job security, forget about being a freelancer; it's not for you. You like being a freelancer because you like the idea that there is no job security, that everything moves faster.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Good Health__: You may laugh, but if your health is not perfect, forget being a freelancer. You'll have to work more, and if for some reason you fall sick, you need cash (that won't last forever).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Self-Confidence__: Who is your biggest supporter? You! You have to be able to deal with difficult periods (when there is less work), but you will also have to work more. A freelancer is expected to work more than a regular employee, and your employers will not allow any problems. You are, more or less, alone. In difficult situations, you must remain calm and believe that you _can_ do it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Stress Management__: You will have to deal with people, interviews and companies. It is rewarding, but it is also more challenging. Can you deal properly with stressful situations? You cannot know everything, and your clients will expect you to know everything. At the end of the day, you have to be able to relax, sleep, calm down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Money Management__: Unless you make a LOT of money, don't become a freelancer if you spend too much. Normally, you will make more money than being an employee, but you will have to give back a good amount of that money (Social Security in Belgium, for example). At Sun, I had a very nice BMW. As a freelancer, I have a very nice VQ Golf.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    I wanted to start low, because my objective was focusing on the long-term. The rewards will come, but it may shift from monetary rewards to intangible things such as control over one's career and self. Sure, I bought an average-budget car, but it was one that I _could_ make for myself. I can buy any laptop I want, a nice smartphone, but money cannot be the most important factor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Selling Yourself__: If you cannot face the interviews, you are a dead man. Networking and your personal reputation will help, but you are supposed to go to many interviews, possibly answering questions that you may not know. You need to sell your CV, your image, and you need to give your clients confidence that you will solve more problems than you will create!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Technical Compentency__: Personally, I like to learn all the time; it is my life. As a freelancer, you should _always_ be learning. As an employee, you can get advice or help from other experts or colleagues, but as a freelancer, _you_ are the one. You have to invest a lot into your compentencies for the rest of your career; if you don't like the idea of learning every single day, you may want to do something else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Rates__: Don't be too expensive at first; start slowly. Start by being a little less expensive than the average price, then as clients trust you more, you will be able to increase your rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to give the impression that becoming a freelancer is a bad experience; it's nice! You have more control, you don't have to deal any more with uncaring managers, you get to do what you love! Everything has a cost, betwen regular employment and freelancing. You have to choose what is good for you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4114" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1484" RevisionGUID="46f177ff-7daa-4607-8ded-e29301d6f109" CreationDate="2014-03-03T19:57:44.420" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 43, 75 edit id of 295" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4115" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1499" RevisionGUID="d78c496f-69ff-43b5-82ad-627672949b17" CreationDate="2014-03-03T20:01:34.933" UserId="2192" Text="Not specifically freelancing, but this list fit the bill better than any others!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If an American business wants to employ someone in, say France (who is French), for example, do they need to have an office in France? Are there specific hoops they must jump through in order to employ a foreign national? This would be a full-time employee, not a part-time contractor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there resources for this sort of thing?&#xD;&#xA;Cheers!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4116" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1499" RevisionGUID="d78c496f-69ff-43b5-82ad-627672949b17" CreationDate="2014-03-03T20:01:34.933" UserId="2192" Text="Does an American business need to have a foreign office to employ foreign workers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4117" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1499" RevisionGUID="d78c496f-69ff-43b5-82ad-627672949b17" CreationDate="2014-03-03T20:01:34.933" UserId="2192" Text="|outsourcing|foreign-incorporation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4118" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1495" RevisionGUID="db74e127-cfc2-48b5-9d5a-51d941fdefd5" CreationDate="2014-03-04T03:47:49.040" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar/clarity, added information provided by asker (US-based company), formatting, added [contract-cancellation] " Text="I'm currently under contract with a US-based company. This company puts me through their training program, and at the end of the program, they market me to clients. I then have to get offered a corporation-to-corporation contract opportunity. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I am new to this, but they are marketing me as someone with five years experience. I didn't know that I would be marketed like this prior to signing the contract, and it isn't mentioned in the contract. Is this unethical? This isn't enough to void a contract, correct?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, can anyone attest to the legality of the following contract clauses?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* If I break the contract, I may have to return all monies earned during the training period, and I will have to pay $1000 for each month left on the contract.&#xD;&#xA;* After the contract is over, I cannot work for a company whom I have worked for while under my current contract for a full year. (Legal?)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4119" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1495" RevisionGUID="db74e127-cfc2-48b5-9d5a-51d941fdefd5" CreationDate="2014-03-04T03:47:49.040" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar/clarity, added information provided by asker (US-based company), formatting, added [contract-cancellation] " Text="Voiding a contract for unethical practices" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4120" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1495" RevisionGUID="db74e127-cfc2-48b5-9d5a-51d941fdefd5" CreationDate="2014-03-04T03:47:49.040" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar/clarity, added information provided by asker (US-based company), formatting, added [contract-cancellation] " Text="|contracts|legal|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4121" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1495" RevisionGUID="db74e127-cfc2-48b5-9d5a-51d941fdefd5" CreationDate="2014-03-04T03:47:49.040" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 127, 75 edit id of 296" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4123" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1497" RevisionGUID="8e6b4a25-7610-4213-a49d-c5d0e64fa220" CreationDate="2014-03-04T07:13:41.487" UserId="1953" Comment="added 191 characters in body" Text="What actionable steps do you take to land a app/web contract in your local city? What things do you look for in particular that has yielded a consistent client base?&#xD;&#xA;I look on craigslist but it's often hit or miss. I end up doing meeting people for free and giving them free consultation and then have them back out at the last minute.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't mind following up on leads but it's just so sporadic, wondering what channels I should be looking into besides craigslist to find app/web contracts that I can work on after my day job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially I will have about 5 hours after work each day and I don't want to charge by the hour and prefer to a project based on deliverables.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Update: The problem with craigslist is that there it's hard or I don't know how to find descent contract jobs. What other sources do you recommend that is NOT odesk,freelancer,guru etc.? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4124" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1500" RevisionGUID="b371889f-0846-42f1-b6a6-cb488123c6e4" CreationDate="2014-03-04T09:46:13.183" UserId="517" Text="&gt; If I break the contract, I may have to return all monies earned during the training period, and I will have to pay $1000 for each month left on the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have seen this in other contracts. They want back the money they invested in you. Since I am not a lawyer, I am not sure if this is legal. But I have seen this in many, many contracts. Especially in large companies. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; After the contract is over, I cannot work for a company whom I have worked for while under my current contract for a full year. (Legal?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes. I have seen this as well. I cannot remember how this clause is called right now, but they are limiting you from work in a competing industry for X number of months. I usually see from 6 to 12 months. In our country, they even put 18 months or more years, which I don't find to be legal, but no one has ever tried to prove that on the court. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4125" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1484" RevisionGUID="1b74aafe-aa7d-41e3-9036-5a8b1dc0356a" CreationDate="2014-03-04T13:45:00.147" UserId="2008" Comment="VQ is wrong. It is Volkswagen, VW." Text="I won't tell you all the fluff that you can find in books and other resources. You are ready when:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Cash__: You need cash. I know this isn't a technical requirement, but unless you are a rock star, starting out will be slow. Even if you have a good reputation as an employee, people may look at you with some distrust. I mean, they don't know you, so what will happen if they hire you? If you have some bench time, it won't be a catastrophe, but you will lose money. You have to be able to deal with that. Are you prepared to lose money if you fall sick? If you like job security, forget about being a freelancer; it's not for you. You like being a freelancer because you like the idea that there is no job security, that everything moves faster.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Good Health__: You may laugh, but if your health is not perfect, forget being a freelancer. You'll have to work more, and if for some reason you fall sick, you need cash (that won't last forever).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Self-Confidence__: Who is your biggest supporter? You! You have to be able to deal with difficult periods (when there is less work), but you will also have to work more. A freelancer is expected to work more than a regular employee, and your employers will not allow any problems. You are, more or less, alone. In difficult situations, you must remain calm and believe that you _can_ do it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Stress Management__: You will have to deal with people, interviews and companies. It is rewarding, but it is also more challenging. Can you deal properly with stressful situations? You cannot know everything, and your clients will expect you to know everything. At the end of the day, you have to be able to relax, sleep, calm down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Money Management__: Unless you make a LOT of money, don't become a freelancer if you spend too much. Normally, you will make more money than being an employee, but you will have to give back a good amount of that money (Social Security in Belgium, for example). At Sun, I had a very nice BMW. As a freelancer, I have a very nice VW Golf :-)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    I wanted to start low, because my objective was focusing on the long-term. The rewards will come, but it may shift from monetary rewards to intangible things such as control over one's career and self. Sure, I bought an average-budget car, but it was one that I _could_ make for myself. I can buy any laptop I want, a nice smartphone, but money cannot be the most important factor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Selling Yourself__: If you cannot face the interviews, you are a dead man. Networking and your personal reputation will help, but you are supposed to go to many interviews, possibly answering questions that you may not know. You need to sell your CV, your image, and you need to give your clients confidence that you will solve more problems than you will create!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Technical Compentency__: Personally, I like to learn all the time; it is my life. As a freelancer, you should _always_ be learning. As an employee, you can get advice or help from other experts or colleagues, but as a freelancer, _you_ are the one. You have to invest a lot into your compentencies for the rest of your career; if you don't like the idea of learning every single day, you may want to do something else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Rates__: Don't be too expensive at first; start slowly. Start by being a little less expensive than the average price, then as clients trust you more, you will be able to increase your rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to give the impression that becoming a freelancer is a bad experience; it's nice! You have more control, you don't have to deal any more with uncaring managers, you get to do what you love! Everything has a cost, betwen regular employment and freelancing. You have to choose what is good for you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4126" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="1484" RevisionGUID="6220afeb-33f7-4793-8334-b8933f96d2ee" CreationDate="2014-03-04T16:29:46.317" UserId="75" Comment="Rollback to [46f177ff-7daa-4607-8ded-e29301d6f109]" Text="I won't tell you all the fluff that you can find in books and other resources. You are ready when:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Cash__: You need cash. I know this isn't a technical requirement, but unless you are a rock star, starting out will be slow. Even if you have a good reputation as an employee, people may look at you with some distrust. I mean, they don't know you, so what will happen if they hire you? If you have some bench time, it won't be a catastrophe, but you will lose money. You have to be able to deal with that. Are you prepared to lose money if you fall sick? If you like job security, forget about being a freelancer; it's not for you. You like being a freelancer because you like the idea that there is no job security, that everything moves faster.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Good Health__: You may laugh, but if your health is not perfect, forget being a freelancer. You'll have to work more, and if for some reason you fall sick, you need cash (that won't last forever).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Self-Confidence__: Who is your biggest supporter? You! You have to be able to deal with difficult periods (when there is less work), but you will also have to work more. A freelancer is expected to work more than a regular employee, and your employers will not allow any problems. You are, more or less, alone. In difficult situations, you must remain calm and believe that you _can_ do it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Stress Management__: You will have to deal with people, interviews and companies. It is rewarding, but it is also more challenging. Can you deal properly with stressful situations? You cannot know everything, and your clients will expect you to know everything. At the end of the day, you have to be able to relax, sleep, calm down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Money Management__: Unless you make a LOT of money, don't become a freelancer if you spend too much. Normally, you will make more money than being an employee, but you will have to give back a good amount of that money (Social Security in Belgium, for example). At Sun, I had a very nice BMW. As a freelancer, I have a very nice VQ Golf.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    I wanted to start low, because my objective was focusing on the long-term. The rewards will come, but it may shift from monetary rewards to intangible things such as control over one's career and self. Sure, I bought an average-budget car, but it was one that I _could_ make for myself. I can buy any laptop I want, a nice smartphone, but money cannot be the most important factor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Selling Yourself__: If you cannot face the interviews, you are a dead man. Networking and your personal reputation will help, but you are supposed to go to many interviews, possibly answering questions that you may not know. You need to sell your CV, your image, and you need to give your clients confidence that you will solve more problems than you will create!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Technical Compentency__: Personally, I like to learn all the time; it is my life. As a freelancer, you should _always_ be learning. As an employee, you can get advice or help from other experts or colleagues, but as a freelancer, _you_ are the one. You have to invest a lot into your compentencies for the rest of your career; if you don't like the idea of learning every single day, you may want to do something else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Rates__: Don't be too expensive at first; start slowly. Start by being a little less expensive than the average price, then as clients trust you more, you will be able to increase your rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to give the impression that becoming a freelancer is a bad experience; it's nice! You have more control, you don't have to deal any more with uncaring managers, you get to do what you love! Everything has a cost, betwen regular employment and freelancing. You have to choose what is good for you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4127" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1484" RevisionGUID="57767676-2d9a-447b-b619-12e1dd148c21" CreationDate="2014-03-04T16:30:34.290" UserId="75" Comment="added 8 characters in body" Text="I won't tell you all the fluff that you can find in books and other resources. You are ready when:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Cash__: You need cash. I know this isn't a technical requirement, but unless you are a rock star, starting out will be slow. Even if you have a good reputation as an employee, people may look at you with some distrust. I mean, they don't know you, so what will happen if they hire you? If you have some bench time, it won't be a catastrophe, but you will lose money. You have to be able to deal with that. Are you prepared to lose money if you fall sick? If you like job security, forget about being a freelancer; it's not for you. You like being a freelancer because you like the idea that there is no job security, that everything moves faster.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Good Health__: You may laugh, but if your health is not perfect, forget being a freelancer. You'll have to work more, and if for some reason you fall sick, you need cash (that won't last forever).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Self-Confidence__: Who is your biggest supporter? You! You have to be able to deal with difficult periods (when there is less work), but you will also have to work more. A freelancer is expected to work more than a regular employee, and your employers will not allow any problems. You are, more or less, alone. In difficult situations, you must remain calm and believe that you _can_ do it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Stress Management__: You will have to deal with people, interviews and companies. It is rewarding, but it is also more challenging. Can you deal properly with stressful situations? You cannot know everything, and your clients will expect you to know everything. At the end of the day, you have to be able to relax, sleep, calm down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Money Management__: Unless you make a LOT of money, don't become a freelancer if you spend too much. Normally, you will make more money than being an employee, but you will have to give back a good amount of that money (Social Security in Belgium, for example). At Sun, I had a very nice BMW. As a freelancer, I have a very nice Volkswagon Golf.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    I wanted to start low, because my objective was focusing on the long-term. The rewards will come, but it may shift from monetary rewards to intangible things such as control over one's career and self. Sure, I bought an average-budget car, but it was one that I _could_ make for myself. I can buy any laptop I want, a nice smartphone, but money cannot be the most important factor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Selling Yourself__: If you cannot face the interviews, you are a dead man. Networking and your personal reputation will help, but you are supposed to go to many interviews, possibly answering questions that you may not know. You need to sell your CV, your image, and you need to give your clients confidence that you will solve more problems than you will create!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Technical Compentency__: Personally, I like to learn all the time; it is my life. As a freelancer, you should _always_ be learning. As an employee, you can get advice or help from other experts or colleagues, but as a freelancer, _you_ are the one. You have to invest a lot into your compentencies for the rest of your career; if you don't like the idea of learning every single day, you may want to do something else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* __Rates__: Don't be too expensive at first; start slowly. Start by being a little less expensive than the average price, then as clients trust you more, you will be able to increase your rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to give the impression that becoming a freelancer is a bad experience; it's nice! You have more control, you don't have to deal any more with uncaring managers, you get to do what you love! Everything has a cost, betwen regular employment and freelancing. You have to choose what is good for you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4128" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1501" RevisionGUID="2d96930a-c53c-4944-94ee-449f263db4ee" CreationDate="2014-03-05T02:00:41.623" UserId="2205" Text="You can turn this around by asking *them* some questions. It'll show your interest, **evaluate how serious they are** and avoid giving away all your technical secrets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Ask if they have **previous experience** doing any sort of project like this. (Don't insult them: ask it in a way that lets them know how much help you think they'll need. And if they think this is *easy* that's  red flag.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Ask about the **problem  they are trying to solve**. This will tell you how serious they are about this project.  And, As Einstein said &quot;if I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 50  minutes investigating it&quot;.  Undestanding the problem is far more important than understanding the solution.  I do realize it's not your job to make sure they solve the problem, *but the more successful you help them to be, the more willing and able you will be to pay you in the future.*  And it shows (hopefully honestly!) that you are interesting in working with them to solve the problem.&#xD;&#xA;3. Ask them to make an **initial small milestone payment** (maybe even just an hour or two to cover you doing a more detailed estimate). But ask this after the other questions so you establish that you are interested in the project not just the money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4129" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1502" RevisionGUID="811d2cfb-6738-495e-8886-aba560ffe746" CreationDate="2014-03-05T02:14:34.343" UserId="2205" Text="Your real value to them is bringing in clients.  That is not an easy thing to do.  It's much harder than web development (as all the freelancers on here can probably tell you).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd view yourself as two pieces:&#xD;&#xA;1. Sales Guy&#xD;&#xA;2. Technical Guy&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recommend you think long and hard about which of these you want to do. This is a wonderful opportunity do both or shift back to *Technical Guy* or forward to more *Sales*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Sales Guy**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is perpetual value and value they may be able to leverage better than you could on your own.&#xD;&#xA;I would view your current and future business as if you were a &quot;rainmaker&quot; or sales guy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if you can bring with you $200K in billable time then what would a parnter of the company get for generating that much business? Or what would they pay for that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, I would also *ask* for a % (it might be small maybe 5%) of any future business from those clients. You might also ask to be their contact person. (This was a big deal when I was a consultant 15 years ago -whoever has the relationship with the client is viewed as the conduit to that business).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're bringing them clients. That's a BIG deal, especially if they can do more for that client than you could by yourself. That's a win-win for everyone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could start (or become) the head of their &quot;Web Development Department&quot;. Make sure you're ready for that. There can be a lot subtle politics you have to deal with in that sort of a position. BUT... you don't have to worry about your skills expiring: people skills will last as lon as there are people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Technical Guy**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would treat your value as an employee seperately.  I'd base my salary on that.&#xD;&#xA;That's just the going rate for someone with your skill." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4130" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="182" RevisionGUID="aed81a2d-d5ab-43b6-9231-403ac4988ca8" CreationDate="2014-03-05T02:35:16.727" UserId="52" Comment="deleted 3 characters in body" Text="Directly acknowledge that you are a single individual, and provide a continuity plan for your client in case you become unavailable. This means asking the right questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **How can I reassure the client that I am not going to disappear tomorrow?** You can't. You can't even reassure yourself, if you're honest. But you can provide your client a continuity plan to reassure them that someone else can pick up where you left off if necessary. Document your work as you go (not just at the project's end). Use source control and ensure your client has full, up-to-date access to all your work for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **How do I not look like a single person?** Don't try. Acknowledge who you are. Remind your client that even for a full-time employee, they need a contingency for if he gets &quot;hit by a bus&quot;. Then circle back to that continuity plan.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **How do I make them trust that I'll be there for them?** You can't. However, you can *earn* that trust over time. When practical, start small. A customer will be less hesitant to try a lone wolf on a limited-scope project. Use the project to be awesome and show your reliability. This will make you appealing for larger projects, even without a big team behind you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4131" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1499" RevisionGUID="eddb16f7-3038-474d-8244-e311dcfb8e92" CreationDate="2014-03-05T13:45:35.557" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/441207901601169408" />
  <row Id="4132" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1503" RevisionGUID="744d4d96-dc56-4c28-b2f9-60464757a7ff" CreationDate="2014-03-05T15:55:28.340" UserId="2214" Text="I make web applications for a living working from home.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes a client pick a technology stack that is likely to hurt the project (severely over-engineered, bad combination of components or just the wrong set of tools for the task).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The cynical may think: bad choices for the client are not necessarily a bad deal for you, aren't you charging by hour?&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;However this is a tough spot when you operate over online freelancer markets like oDesk/Elance, because a disaster project is likely to get you a bad review and hurt your reputation, even if it is not your fault.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My dad used to say that either you have the customer or have the reason; how do you talk sense into a client that made wrong choices for the project?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4133" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1503" RevisionGUID="744d4d96-dc56-4c28-b2f9-60464757a7ff" CreationDate="2014-03-05T15:55:28.340" UserId="2214" Text="How to handle silly requirements?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4134" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1503" RevisionGUID="744d4d96-dc56-4c28-b2f9-60464757a7ff" CreationDate="2014-03-05T15:55:28.340" UserId="2214" Text="|freelance-websites|project-management|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4135" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1504" RevisionGUID="ca206cfa-0e13-45bf-af6e-f66d164647e4" CreationDate="2014-03-05T16:14:38.630" UserId="2196" Text="In my experience, when prospective clients specify technologies, they're coming more from a place of having heard of others using them successfully, rather than of having considered the use case and made an educated and informed decision. I talk to them about why they chose the tools they did. If their reasoning is sound, awesome. If not, I remind them that they hired me for my expertise and that my job is to choose the most appropriate tools. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4136" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1504" RevisionGUID="0e5b9e3a-557e-482b-b842-4c008b90886c" CreationDate="2014-03-05T16:22:17.320" UserId="2196" Comment="deleted 1 characters in body" Text="In my experience, when prospective clients specify technologies, they're coming more from a place of having heard of others using them successfully, rather than of having considered the use case and made an educated and informed decision. I talk to them about why they chose the tools they did. If their reasoning is sound, awesome. If not, I remind them that they hired me for my expertise and that my job is to choose the most appropriate tools." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4137" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1481" RevisionGUID="8686a042-73f5-4d77-a7c0-a49d08b54a27" CreationDate="2014-03-05T19:26:26.790" UserId="58" Comment="Removed bias from previous source, and cited dictionary.com as a new source." Text="&gt; *moonlighting: verb* `/ˈmuːnlaɪtɪŋ/`  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  To work at an additional job after one's regular, full-time employment, as at night.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  &lt;sub&gt;*(Source: [Collin's English Dictionary Complete &amp; Unabridged 10th Edition &amp;lt;dictionary.reference.com&amp;gt;, accessed 5th March 2014](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/moonlighting))*&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Moonlighting is freelancing done in addition to a regular full-time job, with or without telling your (full-time) employer, and usually after-hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Moonlighting generally occurs when an employer is under-paying someone, or their circumstances change and they have to work extra hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It can also occur if a person wants to develop their skills (or a different set of skills) away from their company while maintaining a steady income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use this tag as a generic &quot;Freelancing while employed&quot; tag." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4138" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1482" RevisionGUID="9c6cbd3c-0dab-4b9a-a1a9-a834990d2ac3" CreationDate="2014-03-05T19:26:26.790" UserId="58" Comment="Removed bias from previous source, and cited dictionary.com as a new source." Text="Moonlighting is working in addition to a regular full-time job, usually after-hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use this tag as a generic &quot;Freelancing while employed&quot; tag." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4139" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1505" RevisionGUID="54a5b106-a179-428f-a32c-05354549c19a" CreationDate="2014-03-05T20:54:35.587" UserId="2219" Text="If, after talking with them at length about their requirements and how well their requirements mesh with my capabilities, they still choose a platform that isn't as well suited to their project as others, I make sure to include assumptions in my proposal that cover problems I anticipate I might have. I'll have made sure to tell them that some requirements, like choosing the platform, may increase development time required even if all other aspects of the project remain the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For instance, a client may choose Ruby on Rails, and require that Heroku be used.  Now a simple three file PHP site with a DB on a cheap host might meet all their other needs, but if they insist then I make sure to quote my time estimates accordingly, beef up the section on website maintenance needed after my development is done, suggesting that maintenance will be necessary due to various Heroku issues I've dealt with in the past, and added assumptions such as, &quot;Heroku supports necessary rails libraries and I won't have to debug anything but my own code&quot; etc. They know that if the assumptions break, then we'll have to have a talk about time estimate overruns.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4140" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1506" RevisionGUID="6a7a4401-ca0e-4ee3-8bb9-615208e39cac" CreationDate="2014-03-05T21:07:04.370" UserId="2219" Text="&gt; Does the above seem like an appropriate communication? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's fine.  Practices vary, but your decisions and path aren't out of the ordinary, and are quite generous (though your fee per week late is exceptional!).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Is anything missing from it? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A contract, and written communications.  The real problem here is that he doesn't pay attention to email, and unless he's very organized he isn't remembering phone conversations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Send him paper invoices in the mail.  Don't rely on email invoicing for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't do any further work until you and he both agree on what work you'll do, and what payment plan he will follow to catch up.  Tell him this is as much to protect him as it is for you - you don't want to exacerbate the financial situation by running the bill higher until you both agree on how to deal with the existing problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you add a new charge to the invoice every week, you better send him a new invoice each week.  A 10% penalty per week is high, and since you have no contract and most of your communications are via phone, then you are on shaky ground.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I'd say, &quot;Look, I'm going to stop charging you the late fee so you can catch up.  I'm not going to work on the website until you catch up.  Once you catch up, we can decide how to proceed.  I expect a fixed bid per change will work best for you.  We'll decide what tasks need to be done and how we can verify together that they were done, and I'll affix a price to each one.  If it's too high, then we don't do it, or we change the plan so it is easier, and thus cheaper.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Is anything I'm doing here really abnormal? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not really. Note that this client may have accepted the late fee policy, but many clients, particularly large corporations with lawyers, will laugh at you. You might want to find out what industry practice is for your area and expertise. Maybe it's normal and you're fine, but it does seem a little excessive." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4141" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1507" RevisionGUID="56fcfded-060a-4f57-8a17-d9fcebdd48f1" CreationDate="2014-03-05T21:26:33.700" UserId="609" Text="Depends on what you mean by &quot;employ.&quot; Depends on the type of business and the work you are asking &quot;employees&quot; to do. There's a big difference between asking people to build 500 widgets, or do programming on a web application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many American businesses hire foreign freelancers on a contract basis. You provide steady work like an employee would receive, but do not provide benefits, and work is technically on a longterm contract basis. You cannot legally control other work they take on. Research the concept of *corp-to-corp*. There are less hoops to jump through. You are a business, paying their business to perform some service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Definitely** consult your tax advisor in this area." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4142" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1508" RevisionGUID="c0fd4c50-c5ba-4f83-9fbc-c32aadaf7123" CreationDate="2014-03-05T23:13:22.610" UserId="2223" Text="For projects that require you to bill per emails read and written, how would you present this information to clients? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there any tools or services that solve this need?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4143" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1508" RevisionGUID="c0fd4c50-c5ba-4f83-9fbc-c32aadaf7123" CreationDate="2014-03-05T23:13:22.610" UserId="2223" Text="How to bill per email" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4144" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1508" RevisionGUID="c0fd4c50-c5ba-4f83-9fbc-c32aadaf7123" CreationDate="2014-03-05T23:13:22.610" UserId="2223" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4146" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1509" RevisionGUID="85639a27-6cca-4c48-a5f8-45672e2a11ce" CreationDate="2014-03-06T04:41:44.983" UserId="2229" Text="I am a US citizen and I have the opportunity to work for a company that is based out of the UK, but performs most of its business globally and on-site. Most of my contract work for them will be performed in the US, but may also occur in other countries. I will not be moving to the UK and the likelihood of me actually performing work for them in the UK would be extremely rare.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I need a special work permit or visa in order to perform work for this company as a freelancer? What about as a full-time employee?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4147" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1509" RevisionGUID="85639a27-6cca-4c48-a5f8-45672e2a11ce" CreationDate="2014-03-06T04:41:44.983" UserId="2229" Text="U.S. Citizen performing contract work globally for a U.K.-based company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4148" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1509" RevisionGUID="85639a27-6cca-4c48-a5f8-45672e2a11ce" CreationDate="2014-03-06T04:41:44.983" UserId="2229" Text="|uk|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4149" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1503" RevisionGUID="41e8b193-7fe3-4d15-b0f1-fb9c557e8bf5" CreationDate="2014-03-06T04:45:34.893" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/441434391328600064" />
  <row Id="4150" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1509" RevisionGUID="bef7d1f3-421f-4513-8598-61216721fec0" CreationDate="2014-03-06T05:33:12.990" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 36 characters in body" Text="I am a US citizen and I have the opportunity to work for a company that is based out of the UK, but performs most of its business globally and on-site. Most of my contract work for them will be performed in the US, but may also occur in other countries. I will not be moving to the UK and the likelihood of me actually performing work for them in the UK would be extremely rare.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I need a special work permit or visa in order to perform work for this company as a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4151" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="1508" RevisionGUID="82e6f5bb-a2c8-47e0-8a53-938421e6ed26" CreationDate="2014-03-06T07:14:08.160" UserId="64" Comment="16" />
  <row Id="4152" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1509" RevisionGUID="9c3b7f88-78ed-42fb-a21e-5fa214713f09" CreationDate="2014-03-06T13:45:35.027" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/441570286803353600" />
  <row Id="4153" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1510" RevisionGUID="56e5337a-c74e-4d4b-a515-c1ee91bedb06" CreationDate="2014-03-06T14:30:58.423" UserId="1929" Text="A company can contract another company to provide services from anywhere in the world so I can't see why you'd need a work permit to perform freelancing services remotely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you physically travel to the UK to perform your duties then you probably will need a work permit. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Official government guidelines here: https://www.gov.uk/visas-immigration&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*(usual disclaimers apply - IANAL, the internet is no substitute for professional advice, etc, etc...)*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4154" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1432" RevisionGUID="bd68b230-1f1d-46c6-905a-046e651c1cc9" CreationDate="2014-03-06T16:45:35.073" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/441615586804920320" />
  <row Id="4155" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1159" RevisionGUID="f1304ac1-38a7-4a3c-8324-29f53db35efd" CreationDate="2014-03-06T19:45:37.427" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/441660893009420288" />
  <row Id="4157" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1339" RevisionGUID="7b50293c-4b02-4f39-b0e2-06e3ad45129f" CreationDate="2014-03-07T04:45:37.200" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/441796788027396096" />
  <row Id="4158" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1511" RevisionGUID="61abab51-7696-42ec-b842-4eb548016805" CreationDate="2014-03-07T09:50:30.927" UserId="1390" Text="Many peoples are doing the same thing but using some tricks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are contacting offshore development centre.&#xD;&#xA;you need not to tackle all such things depending on particular country. You just need to some company based in that country and hire the employees of that company. other all the things for that country will be taken care by that offshore development centre.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am running offshore development centre in India for the last 4 years. I am handling all the tax and other benefits of employees. I have allocated some employees to 1 us based client and some to 1 uk based client. The employees seems directly working for the client, but they are in our environment. and using our resources. Clients just need to contact project managers in our offshore centre and he gets their work done !!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also do such things to hire developers from foreign countries.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4159" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1115" RevisionGUID="c6411cda-b578-4469-ab51-abab6ef732aa" CreationDate="2014-03-07T13:46:03.407" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/441932793661374464" />
  <row Id="4161" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1513" RevisionGUID="6b40de9b-e200-42bf-ba26-45f170d2b42c" CreationDate="2014-03-07T16:23:12.577" UserId="2244" Text="A year ago I agreed a fulltime contract which was convenient for us both. As the project grew the workload became higher and the customer had financial problems leading to decreasing of working hours that had fixed hour rate even to partial pauses for several weeks. This is a financial problem, most contracts in this area are fulltime, new clients demand fulltime envolvment. I've discussed this problem with the customer and proposed to review and change the current contract, to my current worload and work time. This was ignored. I'm not willing to break the contract, how can I force to change the contract to overcome the financial problem?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4162" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1513" RevisionGUID="6b40de9b-e200-42bf-ba26-45f170d2b42c" CreationDate="2014-03-07T16:23:12.577" UserId="2244" Text="How to explaing the customer to raise to hour payment" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4163" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1513" RevisionGUID="6b40de9b-e200-42bf-ba26-45f170d2b42c" CreationDate="2014-03-07T16:23:12.577" UserId="2244" Text="|pay-rate|price-per-hour|payments|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4164" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1511" RevisionGUID="fde61792-38ff-45e4-a6b2-222e3168eedf" CreationDate="2014-03-07T17:40:51.403" UserId="75" Comment="added 19 characters in body" Text="Many people are doing the same thing but using some tricks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are contacting offshore development centers. You don't need to tackle all the things, depending on the particular country. You just need to some company based in the country, and hire the employees of that company. All the other things for that country will be taken care by that offshore development center.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been running an offshore development center in India for the last 4 years. I am handling all the tax and other benefits of employees. I have allocated some employees to 1 USA-based client, and some to 1 UK-based client. The employees seem to be directly working for the client, but they are in our environment, and using our resources. Clients just need to contact project managers in our offshore center, and he gets their work done!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also do such things to hire developers from foreign countries." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4166" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1514" RevisionGUID="7990e14a-ec69-489e-a1a3-802f8dab28ee" CreationDate="2014-03-08T01:12:34.187" UserId="2249" Text="not entirely sure if this is the right SE to ask this, but does anyone know the rules for visas while freelancing?  I am specifically curious about the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Typically to stay in a country like the UK for longer then a few months you need a work visa.  this usually requires you to have a job offer from a local company, etc.  But in today's world of telecommuting and freelancing, are there any ways around that?  What if:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A:  You make your living through freelance work, say as a web designer.  Perhaps you have an LLC registered in the US or maybe you've just been doing it as a Sole Proprietor, but want to move to the UK, would that be sufficient to get a Visa of some kind?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;B: What if you telecommute for a US company full time, but want to live in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In both cases you aren't taking a job from a UK citizen, nor are you just moving there to become a homeless person living off the system, but are in fact actually bringing money into the country, so I would assume they'd be okay with it, just couldn't find any information about a work visa that didn't require you to have a job offer, or maybe an investor visa which requires an insane amount of cash up front." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4167" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1514" RevisionGUID="7990e14a-ec69-489e-a1a3-802f8dab28ee" CreationDate="2014-03-08T01:12:34.187" UserId="2249" Text="Freelancing overseas" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4168" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1514" RevisionGUID="7990e14a-ec69-489e-a1a3-802f8dab28ee" CreationDate="2014-03-08T01:12:34.187" UserId="2249" Text="|legal|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4169" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1514" RevisionGUID="3e063dd8-c42b-4c02-ba2c-7cc4245f04d1" CreationDate="2014-03-08T10:46:02.877" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/442249881357647872" />
  <row Id="4170" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1515" RevisionGUID="019ea630-815a-4e3e-b9e1-7a819be23762" CreationDate="2014-03-08T22:27:30.707" UserId="2214" Text="By all means, get a layer. If you are a professional freelancer, you must someone that can:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - make sure you get paid&#xD;&#xA; - do the unpleasant talks for you when business get sour&#xD;&#xA; - protect you from liability&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancing is hard enough without spending mental and emotional energy with this kind of thing. I could not put it better than Mike Monteiro:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://shelby.tv/video/vimeo/22053820/2011-03-mike-monteiro-f-ck-you-pay-me" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4171" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1515" RevisionGUID="c832f1e7-2b97-4a7d-8418-e622db4b9f1c" CreationDate="2014-03-08T22:37:27.517" UserId="2214" Comment="added 217 characters in body" Text="By all means, get a layer. Why?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Freelancing is hard enough without spending mental and emotional energy with this kind of thing. Let someone else handle the unpleasant talks.&#xD;&#xA; 1. You are a business, having a legal counselor is the professional way to do it.&#xD;&#xA; 1. I like to think all business start with the best of intentions from both parts, but often things go wrong. You need a hired gun to make sure you will get paid no matter what and to  cover your ass (last thing you want is exposing yourself to liability).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I could not put it better than Mike Monteiro:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://shelby.tv/video/vimeo/22053820/2011-03-mike-monteiro-f-ck-you-pay-me" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4172" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1515" RevisionGUID="ff18f25f-49c5-43b4-9166-7f75a8680ce7" CreationDate="2014-03-08T23:12:49.160" UserId="2214" Comment="added 346 characters in body" Text="By all means, get a layer. Why?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Freelancing is hard enough without spending mental and emotional energy with this kind of thing. Let someone else handle the unpleasant talks.&#xD;&#xA; 1. You are a business, not having legal counseling is something you can't afford.&#xD;&#xA; 1. I like to think all business start with the best of intentions from both parts, but often things go wrong. You need a hired gun to make sure you will get paid no matter what and to  cover your ass (last thing you want is exposing yourself to liability).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I could not put it better than Mike Monteiro (Design Director and co-founder of [Mule Design Studio][3]) did on his [CreativeMornings][1] talk - I wish I had watched [this video][2] when I started freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some countries you can get free or affordable advice from your union or small business bureau.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.creativemornings.com&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://shelby.tv/video/vimeo/22053820/2011-03-mike-monteiro-f-ck-you-pay-me&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.muledesign.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4173" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1235" RevisionGUID="cfab7c41-923f-493e-8b8b-533e1a827a21" CreationDate="2014-03-09T01:19:29.950" UserId="64" Comment="made title more SEO friendly" Text="Bad rating has decreased my chances of getting work - How can I recover from bad feedback?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4174" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1241" RevisionGUID="f5ddfd3f-527d-445f-8cba-379a19a0d771" CreationDate="2014-03-09T01:26:42.647" UserId="64" Comment="removed signature as per http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/help/behavior" Text="Project collaborations need not to be complicated to use.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My former web development and online marketing team used either **Basecamp** and/or **Teambox**. They're a web-based project collaboration programs that allow you to view everybody's activity at a given period. They're quite efficient especially if you need to check on the progress of the the project. They also allow you to categorise your projects for a better organisation. I'm not sure if this will be useful or applicable to the kind of collaboration you're doing with your team but I hope it helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4175" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1240" RevisionGUID="438752b5-aafe-427b-ac22-fab7e8c8f74b" CreationDate="2014-03-09T01:27:40.010" UserId="64" Comment="fixed typo in title" Text="Here I mean the type of software, not particular brands and names.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We had a remote developer in our team and quite often we needed more than just email or voice call. Sometimes we shared screens for a some sort of peer programming, sometimes we needed to draw diagrams and discuss them. Planning and design discussions required the broadest functionality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bug tracking, wiki and other software like that was not sufficient for us. However there are many examples of successful open source projects where teams used only source control system, and discussion lists.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I admit that our process of development could be not perfect and want to here from you which collaborative functionality is mostly needed in your work. How do you communicate in case of distributed teams?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4176" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1240" RevisionGUID="438752b5-aafe-427b-ac22-fab7e8c8f74b" CreationDate="2014-03-09T01:27:40.010" UserId="64" Comment="fixed typo in title" Text="Which collaborative software do you usually need to work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4180" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1517" RevisionGUID="f22256ee-82e6-401b-a89d-23a7b6e80cc3" CreationDate="2014-03-09T20:02:39.077" UserId="2260" Text="I have this freelance job by a company which is not registered in Germany and I am going to Germany on study visa. They allow me to work 20 hours/week. My company will wire money to my home country and not to Germany. Can I work on this job while I don't get paid in Germany and can I work more than 20 hours a week? To be precise, I am working in Germany on Study visa while getting paid in my home country." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4181" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1517" RevisionGUID="f22256ee-82e6-401b-a89d-23a7b6e80cc3" CreationDate="2014-03-09T20:02:39.077" UserId="2260" Text="Can I work in Germany on Study Visa with a non German employer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4182" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1517" RevisionGUID="f22256ee-82e6-401b-a89d-23a7b6e80cc3" CreationDate="2014-03-09T20:02:39.077" UserId="2260" Text="|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4183" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1515" RevisionGUID="aecb9043-e6d6-428a-afcc-f3d3e6c68c14" CreationDate="2014-03-10T00:03:29.553" UserId="2214" Comment="added 1 characters in body" Text="By all means, get a lawyer. Why?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Freelancing is hard enough without spending mental and emotional energy with this kind of thing. Let someone else handle the unpleasant talks.&#xD;&#xA; 1. You are a business, not having legal counseling is something you can't afford.&#xD;&#xA; 1. I like to think all business start with the best of intentions from both parts, but often things go wrong. You need a hired gun to make sure you will get paid no matter what and to  cover your ass (last thing you want is exposing yourself to liability).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I could not put it better than Mike Monteiro (Design Director and co-founder of [Mule Design Studio][3]) did on his [CreativeMornings][1] talk - I wish I had watched [this video][2] when I started freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some countries you can get free or affordable advice from your union or small business bureau.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.creativemornings.com&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://shelby.tv/video/vimeo/22053820/2011-03-mike-monteiro-f-ck-you-pay-me&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.muledesign.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4184" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1517" RevisionGUID="47115278-e256-46fe-86af-dd634c366e0f" CreationDate="2014-03-10T01:35:17.533" UserId="64" Comment="103" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="4187" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1517" RevisionGUID="b85b120a-c33d-4687-b9cc-de8095cd6eda" CreationDate="2014-03-10T07:13:31.260" UserId="2260" Comment="added 7 characters in body" Text="I have this freelance job by a company which is not registered in Germany and I am going to Germany on study visa. Study visa allows me to work 20 hours/week. My company will wire money to my home country and not to Germany. Can I work on this job while I don't get paid in Germany and can I work more than 20 hours a week? To be precise, I am working in Germany on Study visa while getting paid in my home country." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4188" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="1517" RevisionGUID="b1d6e89f-64f6-4e9f-a6d6-6cc907a98939" CreationDate="2014-03-10T07:31:12.017" UserId="64" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="4189" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1513" RevisionGUID="e1f7dd0e-e7fe-4509-a3b4-286c694a98e7" CreationDate="2014-03-10T10:45:42.250" UserId="2244" Comment="added 889 characters in body" Text="A year ago I agreed a fulltime contract which was convenient for us both. As the project grew the workload became higher and the customer had financial problems leading to decreasing of working hours that had fixed hour rate even to partial pauses for several weeks. This is a financial problem, most contracts in this area are fulltime, new clients demand fulltime envolvment. I've discussed this problem with the customer and proposed to review and change the current contract, to my current worload and work time. This was ignored. I'm not willing to break the contract, how can I force to change the contract to overcome the financial problem?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit:&#xD;&#xA;This is a general question because we are a small team of freelancers suffering from same problem. For workload I mean, that we are doing stuff that was not discussed when we agreed to work together and this costs higher.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, we agreed 10$/hr for 40hrs/week. So a fulltime contract.  After the project has grown more work is needed to be done, which requires for the contract to be reviewed. We are doing this work with the same hour rate, because we had good working relationship.&#xD;&#xA;Things have changed, the customer offers only 15-20hours to work, so I obtain 50% of payments. He doesnt want to review the contract as he will &quot;soon&quot; find investors and I'll get the same 40hrs. But that does not happen. New customers demand 40hrs/week envolvment. So to work on new people I need to termnate the current contract or live on receiving half or less of agreed payments.&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, the new customer agrees to pay more $/hr as this is the new average hour rate for this work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4191" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1515" RevisionGUID="bab4b61b-db7a-4e93-b06c-d983c8914f8d" CreationDate="2014-03-10T11:01:54.197" UserId="2214" Comment="added 513 characters in body" Text="If negotiation is getting painful, get a lawyer. Why?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Freelancing is hard enough without spending mental and emotional energy with this kind of thing. Let someone else handle the unpleasant talks.&#xD;&#xA; 1. You are a business, not having legal counseling is something you can't afford.&#xD;&#xA; 1. I like to think all business start with the best of intentions from both parts, but often things go wrong. You need a hired gun to make sure you will get paid no matter what and to  cover your ass (last thing you want is exposing yourself to liability).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I could not put it better than Mike Monteiro (Design Director and co-founder of [Mule Design Studio][3]) did on his [CreativeMornings][1] talk - I wish I had watched [this video][2] when I started freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some countries you can get free or affordable advice from your union or small business bureau.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[update] &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For every relationship problem in life (professional or personal) there are always 4 alternatives:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **flee**: get another job&#xD;&#xA; 2. **change the other** (tricky one): make him pay for the full month&#xD;&#xA; 3. **change yourself**: cut expenses?&#xD;&#xA; 4. **suffer**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are you choosing number 4?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another tip: if you are a group of contractors working for the same client, avoid collective negotiation - it is always easier to get a raise for yourself then for a dozen people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.creativemornings.com&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://shelby.tv/video/vimeo/22053820/2011-03-mike-monteiro-f-ck-you-pay-me&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.muledesign.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4192" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1518" RevisionGUID="d37bdf48-6ad2-45b7-af26-622ac4e91cb9" CreationDate="2014-03-10T12:12:58.423" UserId="2265" Text="If I understand correctly you need the 40 hrs to make this contract worth while because the hourly rate is too low. Currently you only get 15-20 hrs per week and this will not increase. Your options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Negotiate new rate&#xD;&#xA; 2. Cancel the contract and find a new project&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as you are transparent about this there does not need to be a conflict. Explain to the customer that you understand his financial situation but that you also need to think about yours. If he cannot offer more hours or a better rate you cannot afford to continue this project.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, keep in mind any legal or contractual issues concerning the cancellation of the contract: it may contain a notice period, a fine for terminating or any other stipulation that would get you in trouble if you cancel. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On a side note, it is better not to take contracts that are only feasible if you get enough hours. Stick to an hourly rate that works OR add a mandatory number of hours per week in your contracts that you can invoice. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4193" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1519" RevisionGUID="6fe1be90-67db-428d-9caa-c5bc82de89fc" CreationDate="2014-03-10T12:19:01.207" UserId="2265" Text="Keep a log of the emails. Just have a document open all day and add one line per email:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    10/03/2014 13:10: email X read &#xD;&#xA;    10/03/2014 13:16: email X read / reply sent&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Add this to your invoice. If any questions arise you can always look up the specific email in an inbox/archive/sent folder. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's manual work but shouldn't take much time and gives your customer a complete overview of the work you do.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4194" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1513" RevisionGUID="5ee06043-6e65-4b16-b689-2941f324970b" CreationDate="2014-03-10T12:32:13.633" UserId="2244" Comment="edited title" Text="How to get the client the review the contract if the workload has changed" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4195" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1513" RevisionGUID="c4f2daaa-f059-4efd-b614-325b02d07666" CreationDate="2014-03-10T12:38:25.027" UserId="2244" Comment="edited title" Text="A year ago I agreed a fulltime contract which was convenient for us both. As the project grew the workload became higher and the customer had financial problems leading to decreasing of working hours that had fixed hour rate even to partial pauses for several weeks. This is a financial problem, most contracts in this area are fulltime, new clients demand fulltime envolvment. I've discussed this problem with the customer and proposed to review and change the current contract, to my current worload and work time. This was ignored. I'm not willing to break the contract, how can I force to change the contract to overcome the financial problem?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Update:&#xD;&#xA;This is a general question because we are a small team of freelancers suffering from same problem. For workload I mean, that we are doing stuff that was not discussed when we agreed to work together and this costs higher.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, we agreed 10$/hr for 40hrs/week. So a fulltime contract.  After the project has grown more work is needed to be done, which requires for the contract to be reviewed. We are doing this work with the same hour rate, because we had good working relationship.&#xD;&#xA;Things have changed, the customer offers only 15-20hours to work, so I obtain 50% of payments. He doesnt want to review the contract as he will &quot;soon&quot; find investors and I'll get the same 40hrs. But that does not happen. New customers demand 40hrs/week envolvment. So to work on new people I need to termnate the current contract or live on receiving half or less of agreed payments.&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, the new customer agrees to pay more $/hr as this is the new average hour rate for this work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Update2: The pay rate was agreed when we had 40 hr/week to make agreed work. Currently the amount of work is the same as for 40hrs but the client demands in 15hrs. This an ongoin project that grows in functionality very quickly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4198" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1521" RevisionGUID="52e47143-f19b-4276-bd6f-fb495dd200fd" CreationDate="2014-03-10T12:49:07.720" UserId="1779" Text="Basically I am also a freelancer and literally I opt to have certain limited no of clients with me. To manage the related work and related tasks, I have opted to go with the cloud based task management solutions which makes the interaction with the clients and also the emails, task allocation and other related stuffs. The tool that I have been using is the cloud based task management software from Replicon. Check out the link here for more details - http://www.replicon.com/olp/task-management-software.aspx" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4199" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="983" RevisionGUID="d2e546ab-3718-4f82-a778-daaea4e2a630" CreationDate="2014-03-10T13:52:11.170" UserId="1292" Comment="change the title to a question" Text="Can someone suggest how I can improve my freelancer-to-client communication?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4200" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1522" RevisionGUID="23abb260-3146-486c-8122-c06567291fcd" CreationDate="2014-03-10T16:54:56.997" UserId="1563" Text="I think there may be something you could do with your way of interacting with the client in terms of communications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try to get local clients via word of mouth. Use them to make your portfolio get better.&#xD;&#xA;It worked for me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4201" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1523" RevisionGUID="110b8ed0-4134-4e58-9411-2325ada46e0a" CreationDate="2014-03-10T18:47:38.080" UserId="2244" Text="If you are selling your time payed per hour then that is no problem. I have worked with several client, there was always a part which I had never worked of with, for example a new technology, new library or an another component that is need to be used. For example in the past I've newer worked with social websites, so I've explained the client and he agreed to spend some time on research.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as the client is in course for what you are spending his money (research, coding, qa) that's ok. Remember the client need's a solution." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4202" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1513" RevisionGUID="53ad26c3-444e-4294-ad2f-69a16786b44c" CreationDate="2014-03-10T19:46:20.900" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/443110627738152960" />
  <row Id="4203" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1523" RevisionGUID="ca45e223-3178-499c-b924-c6840e055ae3" CreationDate="2014-03-10T19:48:07.407" UserId="75" Comment="added 41 characters in body" Text="If you are selling your time paid per hour then that is no problem. I have worked with several clients, where there was always a part which I had never worked of with. For example, a new technology, new library or an another component that is need to be used. Another example, in the past I've never worked with social websites, so I explained this to the client, and he agreed to spend some time on research.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as the client is aware of what you are spending his money on (research, coding, Quality Assurance, etc), then that's OK. Remember the client needs a solution." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4204" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1515" RevisionGUID="6c52629d-6f8c-4bc8-9d82-d4c9c6f65ad7" CreationDate="2014-03-10T21:01:09.837" UserId="2214" Comment="edited body" Text="If negotiation is getting painful, get a lawyer. Why?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Freelancing is hard enough without spending mental and emotional energy with this kind of thing. Let someone else handle the unpleasant talks.&#xD;&#xA; 1. You are a business, not having legal counseling is something you can't afford.&#xD;&#xA; 1. I like to think all business start with the best of intentions from both parts, but often things go wrong. You need a hired gun to make sure you will get paid no matter what and to  cover your ass (last thing you want is exposing yourself to liability).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I could not put it better than Mike Monteiro (Design Director and co-founder of [Mule Design Studio][3]) did on his [CreativeMornings][1] talk - I wish I had watched [this video][2] when I started freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some countries you can get free or affordable advice from your union or small business bureau.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[update] &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For every relationship problem in life (professional or personal) there are always 4 alternatives:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **flee**: get another job&#xD;&#xA; 2. **change the other** (tricky one): make him pay for the full month&#xD;&#xA; 3. **change yourself**: cut expenses?&#xD;&#xA; 4. **suffer**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are you choosing number 4?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another tip: if you are a group of contractors working for the same client, avoid collective negotiation - it is always easier to get a raise for yourself than for a dozen people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.creativemornings.com&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://shelby.tv/video/vimeo/22053820/2011-03-mike-monteiro-f-ck-you-pay-me&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.muledesign.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4205" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1524" RevisionGUID="d61f6b22-aa57-41cb-b028-974c68340bb1" CreationDate="2014-03-11T02:24:37.543" UserId="2271" Text="As an organization development professional, I take the view that scrum agile is a project management tool that is very lightweight and flexible for small teams.  For a freelancer, the use of planning poker, concept of story points, and daily stand ups with the product owner are essential tools in the communication of expected functions and features within budget and on time.   I would urge you to go to YouTube and do some search on scrum methodology. Search for keywords scrum and tutorial to get up to speed. Visit Scrum Alliance for more information." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4206" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1525" RevisionGUID="4e154dc1-9dc4-4983-9d2e-940812804f89" CreationDate="2014-03-11T03:31:02.670" UserId="1066" Text="So a client has asked be for a registration number on an invoice. The client is in the EU, and I'm in the UK. I'm self-employed and not sure what number I can give them? UTR? NINO? That seems like sensitive information, and I'm somewhat weary to share that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there some sort of registration number I can include, or is it OK to share my UTR with a client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4207" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1525" RevisionGUID="4e154dc1-9dc4-4983-9d2e-940812804f89" CreationDate="2014-03-11T03:31:02.670" UserId="1066" Text="EU client wants 'registration number' on invoice (I work in the UK)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4208" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1525" RevisionGUID="4e154dc1-9dc4-4983-9d2e-940812804f89" CreationDate="2014-03-11T03:31:02.670" UserId="1066" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4209" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1526" RevisionGUID="1956afb4-8ff2-44cb-a776-72a0a51a468d" CreationDate="2014-03-11T05:40:35.087" UserId="60" Text="This varies from place to place and sometimes with time, as well as the relationships of the countries involved.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, it is a reasonably safe bet that some sort of work permit is required to do billable work onsite for a customer in another country.  The form of work permit may vary.  For example, if you are a professional in IT services with a 4 year degree (whether it is related or not), and an American travelling to Canada to work, you can get a NAFTA-related permit on arrival (last I did this it was $150 CAD).  The same, I believe, is true of Mexicans entering the US for such things, or to Canada, and Canadians entering the US and Mexico, since it is governed by NAFTA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Similarly, with the UK, answers will probably depend on whether you are coming from another EU country (I would expect low to no visa requirements, but check with a lawyer since it is better to be safe than sorry), coming from a commonwealth country (in which case I am not sure, but would expect no or minimal visa requirements), or other countries.  I would expect it to be easier to go do work in the UK from Canada or Australia than from the US.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The point is that this question rarely is answerable even in the case of a single country regarding a single set of rules.  The relationship and trade agreements between countries are necessarily important because you are, in effect, trading services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the telecommunicating example, this varies with local law, so be sure to ask a lawyer.  Many countries in fact do allow telecommuting to a business outside their borders without a work permit but some do not.  I don't know specifically about the UK.  I suspect with most countries, like the UK, you are more likely to run into length of stay issues when working for an employer or client in your home country while residing there.  I would not expect this to be an easy way to a long-term stay (again unless there are other treaties involved).  However there are exceptions.  I know someone who lives in Malaysia and owns a house there but leaves every three months for a weekend or so he can get a new entry visa.  Many countries don't look kindly on that practice though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This would be a good question to ask on the expat SE site when it enters beta (commit to it on area51 today)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4210" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1522" RevisionGUID="246d6de8-fb26-475c-b673-260e3294cbf9" CreationDate="2014-03-11T05:55:30.757" UserId="1563" Comment="added 573 characters in body" Text="I think there may be something you could do with your way of interacting with the client in terms of communications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This could be done with some of the following :&#xD;&#xA;1) Provide constant status reports  &#xD;&#xA;2) Contact the client first instead of the contacting you. The whole perspective of the conversation changes.  &#xD;&#xA;3) Provide quality work . I know you do but if you have a technical client, you might wanna up the quality a bit.  &#xD;&#xA;4) Give suggestions. If you think your client is wrong, tell them upfront rather than saving it for later.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you use Odesk or Elance, the ratings and feedback can be a real pain if not 5 stars.&#xD;&#xA;Why not go local ? &#xD;&#xA;Surf around your network and ask for a service . If a friend needs some work to be done, you are guaranteed of a 5 star review .&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4211" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1527" RevisionGUID="706ebcdd-a4b4-4614-bcf8-31f90b201daa" CreationDate="2014-03-11T11:42:12.017" UserId="2265" Text="I assume this is for VAT purposes, if you don't have a VAT registration number UTR fulfills the same role. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In many EU countries including the one I mainly work in an invoice needs to include the VAT registration number of the supplier as well as the client. Also, for business within the EU (above a certain amount) you need to fill in an EU sales list which includes all your EU suppliers and their registration numbers. So it seems like a reasonable request. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;NINO is something completely different as far as I know, this relates to you personally and not your freelancing activities and should never be asked by a client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;_(I am a freelancer in EU, non UK)_" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4212" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1528" RevisionGUID="0702d9f4-bed4-4cdb-acaa-7913f2805a2c" CreationDate="2014-03-11T14:14:41.263" UserId="1975" Text="What are the ethical limitations of reusing existing code for a future, different client's project?  I'm mostly thinking about generic low level code, not proprietary features, algorithms or designs.  Assume no NDA was signed also.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For instance, if you were a specialist in writing code to create &quot;Dynamic Widgets&quot;, and created a great Widget Factory for one client, is it acceptable to use some of the underlying widget code for another client that wants to make a non-competing Widget Editor.  Lets assume that the second client hired you because you have such great Widget experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Further, if writing a Widget Editor from scratch generally takes 10 hours to piece together, but because you can reuse some of your past code it will probably just take 5 hours-- should you charge them for the original estimate or pass the time savings from the reused code you've previously written.  This is for a project or task based estimate/cost given up front, not straight hourly timesheets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4213" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1528" RevisionGUID="0702d9f4-bed4-4cdb-acaa-7913f2805a2c" CreationDate="2014-03-11T14:14:41.263" UserId="1975" Text="Reusing freelance code for future projects" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4214" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1528" RevisionGUID="0702d9f4-bed4-4cdb-acaa-7913f2805a2c" CreationDate="2014-03-11T14:14:41.263" UserId="1975" Text="|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4215" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1529" RevisionGUID="007a6d56-0ed0-4a58-a432-331755e43630" CreationDate="2014-03-11T16:48:12.773" UserId="75" Text="This will borrow my knowledge from [this question](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/713/hourly-billing-is-it-appropriate-to-include-time-to-research-if-you-dont-know), because I feel a lot of the knowledge would be the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First off, from when I was a freelance web programmer, using PHP and MySQL (I do not do design), a lot of the code was fairly straight forward, even the custom stuff. When I did my research in how to do something, if I could see how it would help future clients, I would not charge the full rate of researching it, and would just add the cost to the next few clients who wanted that same feature. Everyone feels like a win-win.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it ethical? I believe to. My time needs to be paid for, but that's not the reason you're paying me. They're paying me for my expertise. There are only a few ways to add two numbers on a computer, the most common being `x += 1`. If I use this for Client A, does this mean for Client B, I need to use `x = x + 1`? Does not seem logical.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The main issue is that almost everything has been done. For those that haven't been done, you are probably not the first. If you come up with a method that adds two numbers together, is flawless, and works perfectly no matter how you implement it, it's *stupid* to not use it. All the clients I have dealt with understand that they pay me for my expertise, not my time. I know the process, I know what works, because as a freelancer, *I am the expert in my field*. This is the attitude to go forward with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client who pays by the project does not care if it takes 5 or 10 hours, they just want it to work. If you charge $500 for the Widget Factory component, and the first time it takes you 10 hours, you're billed out at $50/hour. If you can reuse it for the next client, while still charging $500 for the component, and you can re-use old code and have it working in 5 hours, that's $100/hour you're charging! You are getting paid for your expertise, not your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Does the client make you sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement)?** Then check to see what it covers, hopefully with a lawyer. If it's just the *general idea of the project as a whole*, then you should be safe keeping snippets that help you out more. *Ask before signing the agreement!* The last thing you want is to get in hot water with a company that could put you through court for months at a time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4216" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1522" RevisionGUID="7e6182f1-0db8-4776-a4a9-fdf8368acf30" CreationDate="2014-03-11T16:50:09.703" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 10 characters in body" Text="I think there may be something you could do with your way of interacting with the client in terms of communications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This could be avoided with some of the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Provide constant status reports  &#xD;&#xA;2. Contact the client first instead of the contacting you. The whole perspective of the conversation changes.  &#xD;&#xA;3. Provide quality work . I know you do but if you have a technical client, you might wanna up the quality a bit.  &#xD;&#xA;4. Give suggestions. If you think your client is wrong, tell them upfront rather than saving it for later.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you use Odesk or Elance, the ratings and feedback can be a real pain if you do not rate 5 stars. Why not go local? Surf around your network and ask for a service. If a friend needs some work to be done, you are guaranteed of a 5 star review." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4217" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1527" RevisionGUID="b0e40243-edf4-4b14-9613-a597a671d1aa" CreationDate="2014-03-11T21:52:56.043" UserId="2265" Comment="added 183 characters in body" Text="I assume the request for a registration number is for VAT purposes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In many EU countries including the one I mainly work in an invoice needs to include the VAT registration number of the supplier as well as the client. Also, for business within the EU (above a certain amount) you need to fill in an EU sales list which includes all your EU suppliers and their registration numbers. So asking for a tax registration number seems like a reasonable request. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are not registered for VAT then there is no VAT registration number to give of course.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;NINO is something completely different as far as I know, this relates to you personally and not your freelancing activities and should never be asked by a client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;UTR is used for your yearly self assessment and should not involve an overseas client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;_(I am a freelancer in EU, non UK)_" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4218" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1530" RevisionGUID="d80ebf2a-0b02-46b3-83c8-d52623dd4345" CreationDate="2014-03-12T19:41:50.060" UserId="2293" Text="I've been working as a contract editor for the same company for about seven years. About three years ago, they changed the terms of their contract, which is now resulting in a huge pay loss for me (we went from getting royalties on books sold to getting paid per word). Although I did very well the last couple of years, this year I'm making about 1/6 of what I made the previous two years. We were told they can't give us raises due to IRS regulations; because we're contract workers, we have to submit a rate change request and they'll either approve it or not. My recent review was superb. How do I word a letter requesting an increase, and what sort of percentage would be reasonable? I can't really go by industry standards because, honestly, there aren't any. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4219" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1530" RevisionGUID="d80ebf2a-0b02-46b3-83c8-d52623dd4345" CreationDate="2014-03-12T19:41:50.060" UserId="2293" Text="Asking for a rate increase after a rate drop" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4220" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1530" RevisionGUID="d80ebf2a-0b02-46b3-83c8-d52623dd4345" CreationDate="2014-03-12T19:41:50.060" UserId="2293" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4221" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1525" RevisionGUID="34c9d2f3-80eb-44ef-bf7d-978f826570c5" CreationDate="2014-03-12T19:46:23.557" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/443835416643661825" />
  <row Id="4222" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1531" RevisionGUID="2d9adcef-e811-4a54-bd1f-7e14039971f3" CreationDate="2014-03-12T20:06:16.550" UserId="2290" Text="I'm about at my wit's end with a particular client. The project I've been working on for them for almost the past year is in a constant state of flux. The first sticking point is totally on me and my naivete, I never got a concrete set of requirements from them before starting work. It's an upgrade job and their requirements were basically &quot;like the old system, but better.&quot; Lesson learned there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bulk of my frustrations is a never ending cycle of lax QA testing, minimal feedback, and feature creep. I ask questions and responses take weeks, if at all. I put new features or parts of the system in the testing environment, tell them to test it out, whole months will go by before I hear anything. Without fail, their testing reports contain a laundry list of new requirements. Then they ask why it's taking so long...sigh.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been paid half the quoted amount already per the pricing schedule set up in the SOW and I'm seriously considering dropping them as a client and just taking the hit. I've already spent 3 times as long as I thought I would simply because I've had to gather the requirements as I went along. My only concern is what kind of legal issues I might be opening myself up to by doing this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think I'm in the clear since, aside from an initial statement of work, there was never anything approaching a contract involved. I certainly never signed anything. It was basically an email exchange along the lines of: Me: &quot;Here's what's involved and what the payment structure will be. See attached SOW.docx&quot; Them: &quot;Sounds good. Go for it&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I worrying over nothing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4223" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1531" RevisionGUID="2d9adcef-e811-4a54-bd1f-7e14039971f3" CreationDate="2014-03-12T20:06:16.550" UserId="2290" Text="Legal ramifications of walking away" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4224" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1531" RevisionGUID="2d9adcef-e811-4a54-bd1f-7e14039971f3" CreationDate="2014-03-12T20:06:16.550" UserId="2290" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4235" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1534" RevisionGUID="9b1b582f-dba7-4c9a-94c3-933b15a452d6" CreationDate="2014-03-13T10:48:43.417" UserId="2298" Text="I run into many small business owners who have played with a website builder from their webhost. When I tell them I'm a web developer, they think that all i do is use one of these builders.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They think I select a background colour from a dropdown menu, press a little button that says B for bold text, etc. If I can do something they couldn't achieve with their builder, they think it's just because I knew the secret of where to find the setting in the builder.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm having a terrible time explaining that what I do is more complicated and time-consuming, and that I can offer more than that. They don't understand why they should hire me. Then when they do hire me, they think that every time they ask for a change, it just takes me a minute to select some option.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I make them understand?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4236" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1534" RevisionGUID="9b1b582f-dba7-4c9a-94c3-933b15a452d6" CreationDate="2014-03-13T10:48:43.417" UserId="2298" Text="How do you explain to the computer illiterate what a web developer does?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4237" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1534" RevisionGUID="9b1b582f-dba7-4c9a-94c3-933b15a452d6" CreationDate="2014-03-13T10:48:43.417" UserId="2298" Text="|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4238" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1535" RevisionGUID="6d9b733c-68f0-4b84-810d-7cbbf18fed69" CreationDate="2014-03-13T11:42:17.083" UserId="2299" Text="I understand you.Just say them that web development is like playing a musical equipment like piano, every can make sound of it, but only professionals can make music out of it. Similarly  every one can use tool and make text bold and other formatting, but only professions know  how to do it properly to make a web page look good and function properly" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4239" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1535" RevisionGUID="73a3fa9f-04b6-49dc-98d0-52f5992692d0" CreationDate="2014-03-13T11:47:37.233" UserId="2299" Comment="added 268 characters in body" Text="I understand you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;i will give you two similarities&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just say them that web development is like playing a musical equipment like piano, every can make sound of it, but only professionals can make music out of it. Similarly  every one can use tool and make text bold and other formatting, but only professions know  how to do it properly to make a web page look good and function properly&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Web development is like building a building, every one can bring the bricks and sand and put it in place but only professional know where to put each materials and what ratio he should use and stuff like that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and for second part of your question if they think that you can do changes immediately tell them it is like building a home with several floors and if want to remove a top floor it is easy, but removing a ground floor will make the whole building to reconstruct it" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4240" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1531" RevisionGUID="f696e13a-2f48-4c31-bea7-023314be6ca8" CreationDate="2014-03-13T14:57:35.310" UserId="2290" Comment="added 149 characters in body" Text="I'm about at my wit's end with a particular client. The project I've been working on for them for almost the past year is in a constant state of flux. The first sticking point is totally on me and my naivete, I never got a concrete set of requirements from them before starting work. It's an upgrade job and their requirements were basically &quot;like the old system, but better.&quot; Lesson learned there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bulk of my frustrations is a never ending cycle of lax QA testing, minimal feedback, and feature creep. I ask questions and responses take weeks, if they're addressed at all. I put new features or parts of the system in the testing environment, tell them to test it out, whole months will go by before I hear anything. When I do hear back, without fail, their testing reports contain a laundry list of new requirements, either things they forgot to tell me about initially or new features they insist are necessary to the system. Then they ask why it's taking so long...sigh.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been paid half the quoted amount already per the pricing schedule set up in the SOW and I'm seriously considering dropping them as a client and just taking the hit. I've already spent 3 times as long as I thought I would simply because I've had to gather the requirements as I went along. My only concern is what kind of legal issues I might be opening myself up to by doing this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think I'm in the clear since, aside from an initial statement of work, there was never anything approaching a contract involved. I certainly never signed anything. It was basically an email exchange along the lines of: Me: &quot;Here's what's involved and what the payment structure will be. See attached SOW.docx&quot; Them: &quot;Sounds good. Go for it&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I worrying over nothing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4241" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1536" RevisionGUID="e73ae2d6-b9cb-4b5e-af80-17adf62f785d" CreationDate="2014-03-13T15:17:50.277" UserId="2265" Text="The lack of a contract does not necessarily mean there is none. I can only speak for the countries I worked in (all EU) but all of them have law that says if services where delivered over a certain  period of time and payment was received for these services during an ongoing project there is some sort of contract or engagement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending how much trouble you walking away gives the client (i.e., revenue lost or expenses to replace you and possible know-how you acquired of the organization) and in what way you intend to do it (send an email saying &quot;goodbye&quot; and disappear or do a decent transfer of knowledge, code, etc.) I would not assume they will just accept it. They might, but they don't have to. And depending on local law they might have a case. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4242" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1537" RevisionGUID="098a99c4-176d-417e-9e91-d1e7b0ff6132" CreationDate="2014-03-13T15:24:31.680" UserId="2302" Text="I am building multiple websites that are geared toward providing information as well as user submitted content (like fan art). A few ad programs and affiliate programs I have looked at ask me to &quot;Provide a brief description of the kind of business you provide&quot; this question also came up when I went to apply for a DBA. At first I was just going to list my self as an Ecommerce site but I am not directly selling anything. Am I still considers an E-commerce site or is there some other designation for what I do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4243" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1537" RevisionGUID="098a99c4-176d-417e-9e91-d1e7b0ff6132" CreationDate="2014-03-13T15:24:31.680" UserId="2302" Text="Am I considered Ecommer when registering for DBA/Affiliate porgrams?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4244" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1537" RevisionGUID="098a99c4-176d-417e-9e91-d1e7b0ff6132" CreationDate="2014-03-13T15:24:31.680" UserId="2302" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4245" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1538" RevisionGUID="5735fe62-d92c-4a69-8e5c-fb29f459f9f1" CreationDate="2014-03-13T15:33:48.797" UserId="2265" Text="I think you should put limits on the explaining you do. If a customer does not value your service for what it is, you _will_ run into trouble and discussions later on. If you are a new freelancer there is always the temptation to take every customer you can but sometimes it isn't worth it. I speak out of plenty of experience, unfortunately.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being said, use comparisons that they do understand. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Using Word (them), using a Word Template (the website builder tool), making the Word templates from scratch with macros, defined fields, layout (you). &#xD;&#xA; - Logo templates vs letting a pro make it: you can go to a site and choose a default and add some color (website builder) but you are stuck with the design the site offers. Instead, if a pro makes a nice, custom logo it looks much better and professional. &#xD;&#xA; - Putting together IKEA furniture vs building your own furniture: sure you can buy IKEA and follow the manual, but you can only use the nuts and bolts they provided or it will fall apart. If you make your own furniture it'll be more expensive but you can decide everything&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, keep in mind that for some clients such a website builder may be exactly what they need. Some clients feel they need a web site because every one has one and no matter how hard you try they cannot be convinced of the added value. Send them to a nice website or hosting company that provides that service: they will be happy at first, when they discover they do need a real website they might come back. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4247" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1540" RevisionGUID="64ff4c56-0d70-4309-8fde-2c59cf0d2e10" CreationDate="2014-03-13T15:47:35.853" UserId="2265" Text="Best way to ask for higher rates is to do just that: ask for a higher rate. Mention you have good reviews and have been a steady reliable worker for many years and request a rate suitable for your quality. Compare it to other work you did to determine what is a good rate. If comparison is not possible, than simply request a rate that you think makes it worth your while. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One note though: be prepared to walk if you do not get a higher rate. If you're not, that seriously undermines your position for negotiations and as soon a they figure it out you will have a very hard time negotiating higher rates. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4248" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1538" RevisionGUID="f8610df7-d9b7-4074-9d37-edc9cf86b8bc" CreationDate="2014-03-13T15:52:43.593" UserId="2265" Comment="added 62 characters in body" Text="I think you should put limits on the explaining you do. If a customer does not value your service for what it is, you _will_ run into trouble and discussions later on. If you are a new freelancer there is always the temptation to take every customer you can but sometimes it isn't worth it. I speak out of plenty of experience, unfortunately.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being said, use comparisons that they do understand. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Using Word (them), using a Word Template (the website builder tool), making the Word templates from scratch with macros, defined fields, layout (you). &#xD;&#xA; - Logo templates vs letting a pro make it: you can go to a site and choose a default and add some color (website builder) but you are stuck with the design the site offers. Instead, if a pro makes a nice, custom logo it looks much better and professional but it will be more expensive and take longer. &#xD;&#xA; - Putting together IKEA furniture vs building your own furniture: sure you can buy IKEA and follow the manual, but you can only use the nuts and bolts they provided or it will fall apart. If you make your own furniture it'll be more expensive and take longer but you can decide everything&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, keep in mind that for some clients such a website builder may be exactly what they need. Some clients feel they need a web site because every one has one and no matter how hard you try they cannot be convinced of the added value. Send them to a nice website or hosting company that provides that service: they will be happy at first, when they discover they do need a real website they might come back. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4249" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1541" RevisionGUID="6b578b47-600f-45e4-88d2-6ed4971798b8" CreationDate="2014-03-13T17:54:16.253" UserId="2304" Text="You are receiving income in the UK so, for tax purposes, it makes sense to forward your UTR with the invoice. It will be taxed as foreign income but you only get taxed if the income is over £2000. I am not an accountant but I had the same question and asked the folks at SimpleTax (UK) and they gave this feedback as well as this link: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/migrantworkers/tax-non-uk.htm&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4252" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1543" RevisionGUID="01e9a36f-0da2-4599-a813-914a60c50d6f" CreationDate="2014-03-13T18:53:14.917" UserId="9" Text="If your sites are not geared towards selling _anything_ (whether printed fanart, T-shirts, etc.), then e-commerce would not be a correct designation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From your description of what your sites entail, you may look to be designated as a Content site or a Showcase site (depending on whether or not emphasis is given more towards the information or towards the user-submitted content).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;References:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* [Network Solutions][1]: Definition of an ecommerce site&#xD;&#xA;* [Wikipedia][2]: Types of sites&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; [1]: http://www.networksolutions.com/education/what-is-ecommerce/&#xD;&#xA; [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website#Types_of_websites" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4254" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1544" RevisionGUID="e4bf2a61-9d88-472d-bbb0-1e62001869a8" CreationDate="2014-03-13T19:11:02.833" UserId="75" Text="I'm going to speak just as a suggestion: if there is no clear scope within the first 2 meetings, walk away. You are supposed to be getting paid for your *expertise*, not your time. With your expertise, you should estimate the amount of time to accomplish X, Y and Z goals, within the scope.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another issue is not having a contract. Always get a contract, especially with Scope of Works being drawn up. In your contract, you need to make sure you have an Exit Strategy, so that either one of your can exit the contract as needed. Usually, if I cancel the contract for whatever reason, I offer to give up to 2 weeks notice (large projects), or as little as a week. It's reasonable, and proves to the client I won't bugger off right away. They can also cancel the project, usually for a fee. This is because if I don't have other work lined up (i.e. They promised to use me for 6 months and cancel after 2), I need some cash to fall back on while I get the next job in motion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Scope Of Work may include the payment terms, but does it describe anything about you *having to stay on until completion*? If not, then I would not worry about the legal aspect (read: IANAL). As stated above as well, you should talk to your client, and express your concerns. You will need to be firm, otherwise you are setting yourself up for failure. If I hired someone to refloor my living room, but I left the furniture there, I'd feel bad since that's not his job. His job is to refloor the living room, and that's it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When people hire freelancers, it's *usually* because they can't do it themselves, and it's likely the client does not understand the work. Write notes, bring printed emails, draw diagrams, and do your best to explain the issues *in person*. There is nothing like an email &lt;strike&gt;argument&lt;/strike&gt; conversation between two people who don't understand each other. When you talk, make sure he's being respectful of your time talking (i.e. not answering phone calls, not interrupting, etc), and make sure you don't talk to him like he's a kid. When it's his turn to speak, follow the same rules. He can't help you fix a problem if he doesn't know what it is though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's just a matter of scope creep, then I would just refer to the Scope of Work, and explain that's what he paid you to do, so that's all you're doing. If he wants more work done, explain *I would love to do that work, let me draw up a secondary Scope of Work and contract*. This shows you are willing to work with him, but that you need proper documentation of the project first." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4255" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1534" RevisionGUID="e0f4649a-34e8-4593-9e04-2fd257f4dc03" CreationDate="2014-03-13T19:46:25.440" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/444197810507096064" />
  <row Id="4256" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1537" RevisionGUID="4d47b019-493b-4b97-9fb6-de0252afbd3b" CreationDate="2014-03-13T20:51:09.723" UserId="2302" Comment="edited title" Text="Am I considered E-Commerce when registering for DBA/Affiliate porgrams?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4257" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1545" RevisionGUID="fdfe457b-c2f9-4a52-a873-4de452091aee" CreationDate="2014-03-14T04:31:36.043" UserId="2309" Text="I have two friends who work for small businesses. Neither are the decision-makers/budget-holders but both have some influence over those processes. Both have mentioned to me that they are considering revamping their websites. As I am in the process of starting my own web development business, I obviously would like a chance at this business. What tactics can I use to try and get myself to the decision-maker through my friends without seeming overly pushy? Neither of these friends are close friends so I can't simply badger them until they relent. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4258" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1545" RevisionGUID="fdfe457b-c2f9-4a52-a873-4de452091aee" CreationDate="2014-03-14T04:31:36.043" UserId="2309" Text="I have two warm leads. How can I make them hot?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4259" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1545" RevisionGUID="fdfe457b-c2f9-4a52-a873-4de452091aee" CreationDate="2014-03-14T04:31:36.043" UserId="2309" Text="|attracting-clients|sales|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4260" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1546" RevisionGUID="25a70f7f-1efc-4a66-ad3d-88914ffd35c9" CreationDate="2014-03-14T06:30:07.743" UserId="1953" Text="I want to use Adwords to get local leads to my web/app development service website. What are some things I should look out for?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Currently I'm thinking of starting with a tiny budget ($1 a day), maybe not enough to get leads because at most I will be getting 1 click a day at a cost of 0.05/click. So I would need more fine tuned keywords (how can I find a good keyword to find people searching for web development service in my city?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are some other tips and tricks to acquire leads from google?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4261" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1546" RevisionGUID="25a70f7f-1efc-4a66-ad3d-88914ffd35c9" CreationDate="2014-03-14T06:30:07.743" UserId="1953" Text="Strategy for buying local leads from Adwords?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4262" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1546" RevisionGUID="25a70f7f-1efc-4a66-ad3d-88914ffd35c9" CreationDate="2014-03-14T06:30:07.743" UserId="1953" Text="|advertising|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4263" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1547" RevisionGUID="678dadb9-0b64-4503-a2ae-b1c6ddbab5b6" CreationDate="2014-03-14T07:45:56.440" UserId="2265" Text="They are considering revamping their website, that is not the same as actually wanting to do it. I've heard this many times back in my web design days, it could be months before they actually act upon it, if at all. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, just ask your friends to be put in contact with the decision maker (giving contact detail does not require a close friendship I would say) and ask the decision maker if they are interested in revamping their website and if you can make an offer. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4264" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1548" RevisionGUID="1218a696-d181-4ef4-a640-12a9e284d020" CreationDate="2014-03-14T07:56:22.723" UserId="2265" Text="Unless you are in a niche, $1 a day might be too little. Web development is definitely not a niche, so unless you offer a very specific service within web development you will get very little results with the current budget. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To find good keywords, define which keywords you would like people to search for when they find you or what you expect people to search for. Again, &quot;web development Yourcity&quot; will most likely be a very expensive set of keywords so you'll need to specify and diversify: do you have a specific type of customer in mind? Do you have a specialty?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Google offers some tools to analyze searches for finding keywords, most notably [Keyword Planner](https://adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner/Home). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4265" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1547" RevisionGUID="725362bb-c544-4f48-8248-2de442623eb1" CreationDate="2014-03-14T07:57:43.447" UserId="2265" Comment="added 113 characters in body" Text="They are considering revamping their website, that is not the same as actually wanting to do it. I've heard this many times back in my web design days, it could be months before they actually act upon it, if at all. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, just ask your friends to be put in contact with the decision maker (giving contact detail does not require a close friendship I would say) and ask the decision maker if they are interested in revamping their website and if you can make an offer. Mention the people that gave you their contact details and throw in your references or a link to your portfolio. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4266" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1549" RevisionGUID="f8a4f9a6-b78f-4839-ba3a-9b2ab41ddcf1" CreationDate="2014-03-14T09:48:20.833" UserId="2311" Text="It doesn't sound to me as though you're being exploited - you actually want them to use you more - and you seem to lack an understanding of the financials of running a business. Fixed rates and equipment are factored into pricing and a percentage of them is paid for by every single job, otherwise when would they ever be paid? Secondly, even taking business from referrals is expensive for an established company. It's not simply the case that the client telephones and hands over the money, there will be sales and planning meetings, legal and administration costs and there will be referrals that come in with all those associated costs but do not sign up. There will be costs to cover late payers and someone being paid to administrate that and people that don't pay at all or go bust, which is all their risk that you don't need to worry about. That's if you don't factor in marketing and PR costs that goes into building that trust and identity in the brand even for a referral and you could go even further and factor the huge costs and effort of the initial sale that brought the referral.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bear in mind that if you were working directly for a client and you managed to get their interest and be ready to close a sale, they are going to squeeze your rate as tightly as they can, so think of these guys not as your employer (they're not) but as your direct client. Then the question you need to concern yourself with is - do I want to take these guys $20 per hour and whether I do or I don't where am I going to find the people who will pay me the same or more." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4267" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1550" RevisionGUID="fb997fbd-9984-4063-b4d1-8054223a527d" CreationDate="2014-03-14T10:22:31.000" UserId="517" Text="He's a computer illiterate, not global illiterate person ;). First try thinking like that. Then ask him what he does in his life. If he's, for example, a construction worker, then explain to him by comparing to his work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I often explain estimation as house reconstruction. No matter how precisely I try to estimate, a water pipe can always break, or we can find bugs in woods, etc. Having such explanation in area which is familiar to your client, will make him understand everything. He will respect you for that and he will better understand your work cause he'll be able to compare it to his everyday work. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4268" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1551" RevisionGUID="e7c362c4-ff64-49e4-bc5b-5009bd019717" CreationDate="2014-03-14T10:25:16.747" UserId="517" Text="When you're not sure, aim to the head!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Prepare a good plan, prepare yourself, practice what you will say, then ask your friends to arrange meeting with CEO boards and present them your idea. I think there is no better way since you will immediately know where you are. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some other will try bribing &quot;friends&quot; into giving them some percentage or some other benefits, but I am not good at such stuff so I better don't say much about it :). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4269" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1552" RevisionGUID="357393f1-3f20-48ca-badb-512313fd73ee" CreationDate="2014-03-14T15:52:31.900" UserId="1975" Text="There is an old rule of thumb when negotiating hourly rate for salaried jobs, that it's best for the candidate to let the employer be the first to throw out the salary number and to negotiate from there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does this suggestion apply to contractors negotiating hourly rate for a new per-hour project with a new client?  Should the contractor ask what the expected rate is, or just state their ideal hourly rate when asked inevitably?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4270" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1552" RevisionGUID="357393f1-3f20-48ca-badb-512313fd73ee" CreationDate="2014-03-14T15:52:31.900" UserId="1975" Text="New client, hourly rate negotiating-- should client still state first?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4271" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1552" RevisionGUID="357393f1-3f20-48ca-badb-512313fd73ee" CreationDate="2014-03-14T15:52:31.900" UserId="1975" Text="|price-per-hour|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4272" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1553" RevisionGUID="581a8731-2d4f-4e1e-8641-976eca08992a" CreationDate="2014-03-14T17:16:25.703" UserId="2313" Text="I have a client. I need to create wordpress template for him (as he told in the starting) he shared 2 HTMLs in the starting. Once that is done, he said mistakenly he sent that file then he shared a link from where he copied that 2 HTMLs. That link is not a normal static website, it is full fledge ecommerce site. they want replica of that in the same price which is 100 dollar only.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to handle these types of clients?, I am expecting more work from that client in future" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4273" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1553" RevisionGUID="581a8731-2d4f-4e1e-8641-976eca08992a" CreationDate="2014-03-14T17:16:25.703" UserId="2313" Text="client is asking for too much" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4274" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1553" RevisionGUID="581a8731-2d4f-4e1e-8641-976eca08992a" CreationDate="2014-03-14T17:16:25.703" UserId="2313" Text="|payment-terms|evaluating-clients|budget|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4275" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1554" RevisionGUID="8071e097-6d21-4a1c-8633-c2d9e35c258d" CreationDate="2014-03-14T18:58:57.450" UserId="517" Text="In my case, this works **rarely** and only with fixed-price jobs. But even then, very few clients are clear about how much they are ready to pay, and those clients will usual underpay you. Other will simply come saying &quot;can you do this for XY dollars&quot; and it's up to you to get more or to refuse. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When we talk about hourly price, I had no chance so far that the client proposes hourly rate. I usually set my hourly rate for new clients. If he accepts immediately, then I knew I could have asked more :). If he negotiates, then I knew I may have to lower the usual rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to hear what other have to say. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4276" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1555" RevisionGUID="864c0547-1a70-43fa-8a1c-36889131a8f3" CreationDate="2014-03-14T19:02:40.917" UserId="517" Text="May I guess. He approached to you saying if you do this for bargain, you will get more work? Yes you will get more work, 5 times more complex for 50% more money - $150 in your case. Any serious client will let you first do 1 project, and only then he will talk about more work. Because if they immediately say that they have more work, even a bad contractor will push 110% to impress them in the first project. So I'd say these are clients looking for cheap slavery work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would refuse saying that for $100 I can only do X, Y and Z, and for more, I have to recalculate my price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But be careful if you're on rating systems like oDesk cause they will most likely give you a bad feedback. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4277" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1556" RevisionGUID="a041f7ed-8740-438d-a39d-dbef87174d16" CreationDate="2014-03-14T20:58:30.380" UserId="1706" Text="This client may have never intended for you to do the work shown in the initial links sent.  Perhaps the client is hoping that you will take the bait and actually commit to doing much harder work without changing your price.  I'd inform the client that because of a change in scope, you have to change your price.  Don't worry about what happens in the future, you have to make your position as a smart business person NOW.  If the client makes trouble, leave that client alone.  It's not worth it.  If you accept the client's behavior now, the client will do it again!!!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4278" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1557" RevisionGUID="39465f8c-a631-4909-a4eb-9964a6ba4d4f" CreationDate="2014-03-14T21:02:13.237" UserId="1706" Text="Peter MV's got some good points.  State your rate.  But bump it up a little higher than what you're really looking for.  If the client doesn't complain, GREAT!  If the client does complain, knock your price down - a little at a time - until the client is satisfied, but of course don't go lower than what you were really looking for in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This approach lets the client feel as if he/she had some &quot;power&quot; to control what gets spent.  It's a silly game, but not so silly after it works for you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4279" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1558" RevisionGUID="8f736d6c-09db-43e2-8c5a-ecfc1e0be74e" CreationDate="2014-03-14T21:17:55.357" UserId="1706" Text="This one's pretty simple.  Unless you are limited by your contract, send your client a written notice:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Dear Client:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of [Date], our current economic situation will require our clients to pay for a minimum of [number] hours per week, whether that time is actually used by our developers or not.  We thank you for your past business, and hope to continue working with you in the future.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I noticed in one of your comments that you seemed concerned with whether the client will &quot;be angry&quot;.  Friend, you are in business.  People are important, that's for sure.  I don't know where you're located but I can also say for sure that if you are running a business, you're paying for electricity, maybe office space, water, etc.  When you don't pay your rent, no one gets angry - the landlord kicks you out; it's NOT personal.  When you don't pay your electric bill, they just turn it off; again, no anger, because it's NOT personal.  That's how business works.  You can't treat your client like a charity case, or you won't be in business very long.  Or if you WANT to treat your clients like charity cases, open an orphanage and get out of the web business (smile!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best regards.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4280" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1537" RevisionGUID="3dfb7679-1117-45b8-b4a4-4496bf26812e" CreationDate="2014-03-14T23:29:36.037" UserId="2310" Comment="fix typos." Text="I am building multiple websites that are geared toward providing information as well as user submitted content (like fan art). A few ad programs and affiliate programs I have looked at ask me to &quot;Provide a brief description of the kind of business you provide.&quot; This question also came up when I went to apply for a DBA. At first I was just going to list my self as an E-commerce site but I am not directly selling anything. Am I still considers an E-commerce site or is there some other designation for what I do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4281" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1537" RevisionGUID="3dfb7679-1117-45b8-b4a4-4496bf26812e" CreationDate="2014-03-14T23:29:36.037" UserId="2310" Comment="fix typos." Text="Am I considered E-Commerce when registering for DBA/Affiliate programs?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4282" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1537" RevisionGUID="3dfb7679-1117-45b8-b4a4-4496bf26812e" CreationDate="2014-03-14T23:29:36.037" Comment="Proposed by 2310 approved by 2302 edit id of 297" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4283" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1559" RevisionGUID="b868ffd0-f2bd-4075-8622-53e68cd0b46f" CreationDate="2014-03-14T23:37:27.183" UserId="2265" Text="You never HAVE to become a freelancer of business. Even if you generate income. As long as you declare the income on your yearly tax statement it's all official (and don't receive any VAT from customers of course). &#xD;&#xA;The reason people become freelancers or start a business is because there is less taxation if it is income from employment, freelancing or business ownership than &quot;general&quot; income put straight into your yearly statement. I'm quite sure this works the same in most EU countries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On a practical note, if you generate a few bucks just don't bother. If this becomes a structural income, say a few hundred euros per month, you may want to make it official. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(I'm an EU national, not DE)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4284" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1559" RevisionGUID="a6b59c7a-42e6-4424-86ed-936a33c3301e" CreationDate="2014-03-14T23:50:48.567" UserId="2265" Comment="edited body" Text="You never HAVE to become a freelancer or business. Even if you generate income. As long as you declare the income on your yearly tax statement it's all official (and don't receive any VAT from customers of course). &#xD;&#xA;The reason people become freelancers or start a business is because there is less taxation if it is income from employment, freelancing or business ownership than &quot;general&quot; income put straight into your yearly statement. I'm quite sure this works the same in most EU countries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On a practical note, if you generate a few bucks just don't bother. If this becomes a structural income, say a few hundred euros per month, you may want to make it official. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(I'm an EU national, not DE)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4289" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1552" RevisionGUID="abd3e7b8-f7f8-4862-9935-e534b62cbdea" CreationDate="2014-03-15T16:46:44.970" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/444877369283592192" />
  <row Id="4290" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1553" RevisionGUID="5a04493d-1d1b-4787-9dd4-aa03bf9cbc94" CreationDate="2014-03-15T19:31:09.463" UserId="64" Comment="fixed spelling and grammar and punctuation" Text="I have a client. I need to create a Wordpress template for him (as he told in the listing). He shared two HTML pages in the initial meeting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He said mistakenly he sent that file then he shared a link from where he copied those two HTML pages. That link is not a normal static website, it is a full fledged e-commerce site. They want a replica of that for the same price, which is 100 dollars only.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I handle these types of clients?  I am expecting more work from that client in the future." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4291" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1553" RevisionGUID="5a04493d-1d1b-4787-9dd4-aa03bf9cbc94" CreationDate="2014-03-15T19:31:09.463" UserId="64" Comment="fixed spelling and grammar and punctuation" Text="The client is asking for too much work for the money" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4292" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1559" RevisionGUID="86e77b5c-d5b7-4a2b-a940-a32112d4a80b" CreationDate="2014-03-15T20:42:02.070" UserId="2265" Comment="added 228 characters in body" Text="You never HAVE to become a freelancer or business. Even if you generate income. As long as you declare the income on your yearly tax statement it's all official (and don't receive any VAT from customers of course). &#xD;&#xA;The reason people become freelancers or start a business is because there is less taxation if it is income from employment, freelancing or business ownership than &quot;general&quot; income put straight into your yearly statement. I'm quite sure this works the same in most EU countries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some clarification on this: there is a difference between having the most appropriate setup tax-wise and being allowed to generate income. You can always generate income as long as you officially declare it in your taxes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On a practical note, if you generate a few bucks just don't bother. If this becomes a structural income, say a few hundred euros per month, you may want to make it official.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(I'm an EU national, not DE)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4297" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1562" RevisionGUID="7ba28871-4366-4003-b432-567455e9cf6c" CreationDate="2014-03-17T02:08:18.830" UserId="2157" Text="I've found an illustrator, who's work I really like. I saw his work online so have never met the person in 'real life'. He's named his price which is quite a lot of money. Therefor I've got concerns about paying someone who I don't really know. The last thing I'd want is for them to take off with my money without doing the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've proposed a half now and half on completion, although half is still quite a lot of money. If possible I don't want to go through one of those freelancing sites, like elance, as I can imagine they'd probably take quite a large cut.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anyone got experience with this, and how to tackle payment safely?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4298" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1562" RevisionGUID="7ba28871-4366-4003-b432-567455e9cf6c" CreationDate="2014-03-17T02:08:18.830" UserId="2157" Text="How should I pay a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4299" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1562" RevisionGUID="7ba28871-4366-4003-b432-567455e9cf6c" CreationDate="2014-03-17T02:08:18.830" UserId="2157" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4300" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1562" RevisionGUID="3d32bb46-74e4-442e-8674-7d5014a56fc9" CreationDate="2014-03-17T02:32:03.693" UserId="64" Comment="made the specifics a bit more clear; fixed spelling errors" Text="I've found an illustrator, who's work I really like. I saw his work online so have never met the person in 'real life'. He's named his price which is quite a lot of money. Therefore, I have concerns about paying someone who I don't really know. The last thing I'd want is for them to take off with my money without doing the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've proposed half now and half on completion, although half is still quite a lot of money. If possible, I don't want to go through one of those freelancing sites, like Elance, as I can imagine they'd probably take quite a large cut.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I tackle payment safely so that I know the freelancer won't run off?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4301" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1562" RevisionGUID="3d32bb46-74e4-442e-8674-7d5014a56fc9" CreationDate="2014-03-17T02:32:03.693" UserId="64" Comment="made the specifics a bit more clear; fixed spelling errors" Text="Concerned freelancer I don't know may run off. How should I pay a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4302" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1563" RevisionGUID="97e1001c-8f5b-4ee9-8c2e-acfbee4740df" CreationDate="2014-03-17T08:45:55.767" UserId="517" Text="So you want a feast without spending an ounce of flour? If you find a solution I would like to hear it as well :). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working with a remote freelancer is always risky. That's why you **always start with small** and in time increase amount of work. Why don't you give him to do only a part of a job?! Paying 50% of the small part is worth of risk. If you however started with a large project, then you're probably not so good with money planning and you will eventually be hurt. You have to build trust with the remote freelancer first. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, web services like odesk or elance offer clients a great comfort since you can review freelancer's portfolio and your money is pretty safe in fixed-price projects. And **they charge you for that safety**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, services like Skrill offer money escrow so you may take a look at that as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. I am writing this thinking that you two cannot sign a liable contract e.g. you cannot sue him efficiently. If you can sign a good contract where he can financially be responsible for bad work, then sign it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4303" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1562" RevisionGUID="68f43862-2158-4d0a-b698-bb23263644e6" CreationDate="2014-03-17T09:16:19.657" UserId="2157" Comment="edited title" Text="Concerned, freelancer I don't know may run off. How should I pay a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4307" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1565" RevisionGUID="d276eab3-5280-4363-b12b-2837c3ff26d3" CreationDate="2014-03-17T16:11:43.000" UserId="2331" Text="This service seems like it offers the protection you require and gives a third party the funds until the freelancer has completed and delivered the product&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.escrow.com/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Escrow.com reduces the risk of fraud by acting as a trusted third-party that collects, holds and only disperses funds when both Buyers and Sellers are satisfied." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4308" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1553" RevisionGUID="0dc108ae-520c-4b4b-819a-480c4c47f23f" CreationDate="2014-03-17T16:59:22.510" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/445605323077083136" />
  <row Id="4309" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1566" RevisionGUID="7a1623ac-af42-47b8-857f-982c566ca10f" CreationDate="2014-03-17T17:15:09.453" UserId="1975" Text="I've got a freelance client that I'm working a set number of monthly hours for, who I bill every month on the 1st for the same sum.  This is a medium term arrangement set to continue indefinitely.  The work is daily and interactive with him, and currently accounts for half of my total income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand that generally after invoicing for a freelancing gig, it may take at least 30 days to receive payment.  However, given that this is a recurring payment, essentially a &quot;salary&quot;, is it reasonable to expect payment in a more reasonable timeframe?  I almost wonder how he can't be prepared for it by now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently I received no response to the invoice for 15 days and sent a friendly reminder about it, for which I received a response not to harass him about payment.  This isn't a client I want to lose, so I wonder how I can better arrange for timely payment without giving the impression of harassing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4310" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1566" RevisionGUID="7a1623ac-af42-47b8-857f-982c566ca10f" CreationDate="2014-03-17T17:15:09.453" UserId="1975" Text="30-days to pay with recurring payment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4311" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1566" RevisionGUID="7a1623ac-af42-47b8-857f-982c566ca10f" CreationDate="2014-03-17T17:15:09.453" UserId="1975" Text="|payment-terms|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4312" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1567" RevisionGUID="41a8d2fd-f4e6-4ac9-a711-46945b2007c2" CreationDate="2014-03-17T17:42:17.160" UserId="1630" Text="Never **ever** bill by the hour. It's inherently unethical, and you're leaving money on the table. I've written extensively on the rationale, which I won't post here, but you can read it [here][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.markrichman.com/never-bill-hour-redux/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4313" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1568" RevisionGUID="0599d73e-51ba-4daf-ba4b-1144e05939b8" CreationDate="2014-03-17T17:42:31.187" UserId="75" Text="This sounds very close to a retainer style agreement, but with payments in arrears. I don't like this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you and the client know that it will cost $xxx of money every month, it should be due by the 1st of each month, in advance. That would make it a proper retainer. You need an agreement in place (contract, Scope of Work, etc) to protect you, and the client. Even if the client is big, you should not be bullied around. Period.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend getting a proper retainer contract drawn up with a lawyer, and making sure issues like this will not happen again. For example, how does one party end the contract? What happens if payment is not made? What happens if they want you working more than what is in your retainer account? A lawyer will get all this written down, in plain Legalese writing, and explain in detail what you are signing with your client. In my experience, I only do this type of arrangement with 2 very good clients, and it does include a lot of *reasonable* restrictions. See [this answer](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1365/how-to-properly-make-retainer-agreement-for-it-company/1371#1371) for what I do and suggest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, you need these terms worked out ahead of time. After work has started, you may only be going on the client's good word that you'll get paid, and on time. Every time you do something for a client, it needs to be billed out; whether it's once a month, or as you leave their site each day. On the invoice, it should state your payment terms, and it should be clear before working for the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you already did the work and billed the client, you are currently waiting for the money to come in. I would suggest getting the contract (as suggested above) drawn up, ready to sign with the client. Schedule a meeting to talk to the client, and explain (very calmly!) your concerns about payment, and the work you are doing. Make sure you never put down the client, but that he respects you as you respect him. If he is being rude, interrupting when you are speaking, etc., then I would just leave the client; you may try another day if you feel that would help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When dealing with businesses, they have their own practices. If they do not work for your company, you need to address that with them, and potentially reach a compromise with them. Remember, they are paying for your expertise, and they expect to get their money's worth. They need to feel as though they are in charge, and that you are there just to guide them and complete anything they can't/won't themselves. I would start the conversation slowly and softly, and explain that you do like this working relationship, but would like to see the money a little quicker. *It will be a touchy subject for most clients, so please don't beat around the bush to talk to them*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, do I feel you are in the right for calling and asking about the money owed, after only 15 days? I'm on the fence. I believe I need to get paid in a timely manner, but I also send out the bill every day, as soon as the work is done. My terms are set to Net 30, so I don't even *think* about the bill until the next month. Usually, I set aside the 1st of each month to go through &quot;overdue&quot; bills, and just send a friendly reminder. After 60 days, I add 2%, compounded monthly. I have not gotten to 90 days yet, as the 2% late fee after 60 days gets the money almost right away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps, and do realize, this may be a touchy subject. Don't beat around the bush, respect them in your conversations, and understand their point of view (i.e. Joe Freelancer wants money quicker than usual for some reason)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4314" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1569" RevisionGUID="850fb822-6ecd-4ca2-95eb-85070169b9b7" CreationDate="2014-03-17T19:10:26.070" UserId="2265" Text="Payment terms can alter depending on the country, type of client, type of work etc. Generally I stick to a 30 day payment period for all my work, it's reasonable for me and usually for the client as well. There are exceptions however, e.g. if I work for a government institution I know in advance it may take 90 days or more to get paid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Important thing is to get a term discussed and written down, so I would advise you to get it done with the client as soon as possible. It's nothing to be hesitant about, just mention to the client that you neglected to discuss payment terms and would like to do so now. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, what a lot of people seem to forget, when an invoice is sent you can request payment immediately. Payment terms are a favor to your customers, not an obligation: there is no law stating you HAVE to grant 30 days payment period. Although I understand everyone does work with payment terms (I do as well) it can't hurt to mention this when you want to start discussing the payment terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, I don't like the way your clients said you were harassing him: you did your work and sent an invoice, nothing wrong with requesting payment. Again, payment terms are a favor from a supplier to a customer, nothing less!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4315" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1570" RevisionGUID="70533d5c-e646-4d4a-add4-8362033888b7" CreationDate="2014-03-17T19:24:27.977" UserId="2265" Text="For fixed price projects, depending on the size of the contract I always did 50% up front and 50% upon delivery. For larger contracts (+1500 euros) I took 30% up front. The freelancer things the same way: &quot;I'm not going to do work if there is a chance the client just runs off with my work and doesn't pay me!&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is always a risk, but if the freelancer has decent references there is no reason he would want to run off: if he just does his job he gets another 50% or 70%. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I never worked with escrow services, it just costs extra and I never heard of a freelancer taking half and just running off. Which of course doesn't offer any certainty, and I should mention I never worked with freelancers or clients that where more than a few hundred kilometers from me.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4316" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1570" RevisionGUID="dee0db9f-42e7-4e8d-bad1-dcc0fcf1e142" CreationDate="2014-03-17T20:10:13.650" UserId="2265" Comment="edited body" Text="For fixed price projects, depending on the size of the contract I always did 50% up front and 50% upon delivery. For larger contracts (+1500 euros) I took 30% up front. The freelancer thinks the same way: &quot;I'm not going to do work if there is a chance the client just runs off with my work and doesn't pay me!&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is always a risk, but if the freelancer has decent references there is no reason he would want to run off: if he just does his job he gets another 50% or 70%. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I never worked with escrow services, it just costs extra and I never heard of a freelancer taking half and just running off. Which of course doesn't offer any certainty, and I should mention I never worked with freelancers or clients that where more than a few hundred kilometers from me.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4317" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1565" RevisionGUID="93431792-a367-4b6b-9a01-1f622f5453ca" CreationDate="2014-03-17T21:34:46.777" UserId="517" Comment="deleted 299 characters in body" Text="----spam------------------------------------------" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4318" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="1565" RevisionGUID="b833c70b-dbed-42de-9201-defc1c76db4f" CreationDate="2014-03-17T22:25:48.703" UserId="2331" Comment="Rollback to [d276eab3-5280-4363-b12b-2837c3ff26d3]" Text="This service seems like it offers the protection you require and gives a third party the funds until the freelancer has completed and delivered the product&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.escrow.com/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Escrow.com reduces the risk of fraud by acting as a trusted third-party that collects, holds and only disperses funds when both Buyers and Sellers are satisfied." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4319" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1571" RevisionGUID="23855940-1a13-4fd9-8048-16f5c9ebe81c" CreationDate="2014-03-17T23:49:27.267" UserId="1706" Text="Friend, your effective &quot;contract&quot; would be your SOW plus any written communications.  And then I see one of two things, either:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. There are specific boundaries of time and resources in those writings (as well as oral agreements) to constrain the terms of the contract, AND you are not pushing back when the client crosses those boundaries; OR&#xD;&#xA; 2. You have no stated boundaries at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Either of these is problematic.  Now, I found an interesting document:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://home.uchicago.edu/omri/pdf/articles/Fixing_Unfair_Contracts.pdf&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Within that document, I found a GREAT point:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;The standard criterion for filling gaps in contracts is to supply the most reasonable, majoritarian term.  While this criterion is more often identified with gap filling in indefinite contracts or as a solution to the battle of the forms, it is also a sensible solution to filling the gap arising from the invalidated excessive term.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What does this mean?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You started out fixed-price and ***you allowed*** the client to expand the scope past your original understanding or agreement.  I'm gonna put a LOT of focus on &quot;you allowed&quot; because the thing to do when you want to stay in business is to make the client responsible for changing his/her mind, and NOT to eat it.  But that's water under the bridge now.  As the situation is at current, if the client is going to control the scope of the work and continue to expand it, you have three ***reasonable*** choices:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Demand a higher price because of the scope change.  Note that scope change doesn't ONLY include the specific deliverable, but also WHEN the client has completed anything that might prevent you from finishing.&#xD;&#xA; - Change the terms to time-and-materials.  And !%#&amp;^%@!^!, get a written contract this time.&#xD;&#xA; - Stop working altogether.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's going to be up to you to present these options to the client with a ***reasonable*** lead time and force the client to make a decision.  You can consult an attorney (cause I'm not one), and I'm pretty sure you'd be okay.  There's not a court in the land that will support a contract situation where you've basically sold yourself into slavery - that's known as an unconscionable agreement based on the fact that it gives one party the power to literally exploit the other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4320" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1567" RevisionGUID="cd84f4fb-242f-492f-9131-becb914f0205" CreationDate="2014-03-17T23:59:56.453" UserId="1630" Comment="added 813 characters in body" Text="Never **ever** bill by the hour. It's inherently unethical, and you're leaving money on the table. I've written extensively on the rationale, which I won't post here, but you can read it [here][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.markrichman.com/never-bill-hour-redux/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Summary:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I’ve found the biggest problem a consultant will encounter is a client who is unable to articulate value. You have to help the client understand the difference it will make to them and their business if their problem is solved/removed. Only then can they explain it to you so you can understand it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hourly billing isn’t transparent, it’s unethical. The longer the client waits, the richer the consultant gets (if you consider a couple of hundred bucks “riches”). If you want to be a commodity, bill by the hour and suffer price competition. If you want to be a consultant, bill according to the value of the results you help generate. Helping a client in five minutes is far more valuable than five weeks, so why not believe in yourself and charge for your talent not your time? I’m outta here!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4321" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1572" RevisionGUID="be31c125-8a70-4d87-84b7-901b0509e769" CreationDate="2014-03-18T00:04:28.833" UserId="1706" Text="&quot;I understand that generally after invoicing for a freelancing gig, it may take at least 30 days to receive payment&quot;  **-- this is incorrect.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have the power to set forth your own payment terms.  But you have to do this BEFORE STARTING WORK!!!  Don't make the mistake of getting through even a day's work without covering this incredibly important element.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a musician friend who got burned by having the wrong expectation.  He works as an independent contractor, and the bandleader (his friend) got a gig for a big restaurant company in the area.  The &quot;standard&quot; setup is that musicians get paid on the same night, but whether the restaurant followed the &quot;standard&quot; or not was never discussed.  **After** the gig (or a few nights???), the restaurant managers told the band leader to submit an invoice and that payment would be rendered within 30 days -- but again this only happened because the band leader didn't discuss it up front.  For my friend, it got ugly for his financial situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's perfectly okay, BEFORE starting work, to ask: &quot;Are you able to meet Net 15 payment terms?&quot;  Or whatever is a good number for you.  Many businesses I deal with tell me that their &quot;standard&quot; is 30 days, but are willing to meet my terms because I've **asked** for them.  For me, 30 days is very, very risky.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The closed mouth won't get fed.  Open your mouth and ask.  The worst a potential client can say is, &quot;no, I can't meet those terms.&quot;  At that point, you still have the ability to make an educated decision whether or not to continue; without asking, you're just guessing.  I've been foolish in that regard, but I learned better.  Getting your money should never be guess-work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4327" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1562" RevisionGUID="1d60f286-8c45-4d56-bcc1-924f06419c90" CreationDate="2014-03-19T04:59:29.700" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/446148935300964352" />
  <row Id="4328" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="1574" RevisionGUID="1295c500-7dc7-482e-acfd-c0380a3cc598" CreationDate="2014-03-19T12:42:31.117" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/232732/is-it-appropriate-to-ask-for-a-referral-fee-when-sending-work-to-another-freelan" />
  <row Id="4329" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="1575" RevisionGUID="0339b278-b3a7-4bce-b64a-8c832c8b8430" CreationDate="2014-03-19T12:42:31.117" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/232732/is-it-appropriate-to-ask-for-a-referral-fee-when-sending-work-to-another-freelan/232737#232737" />
  <row Id="4330" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1575" RevisionGUID="2a1125d6-12eb-4d0f-a5b0-3634c2e638b1" CreationDate="2014-03-18T00:02:40.927" UserDisplayName="DACrosby" Text="Sole-proprietor, web development LLC owner here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I have too much work or jobs that aren't quite in my expertise, I'll generally sub it out to a 3rd party. A bit different than straight out referring my client to the 3rd party because I still play point man and have control over the end result of the project - the 3rd party works for me, I work for the client. My &quot;referral fee&quot; is some small percent above the 3rd party's price, enough to pay for my time managing the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's a job that I have no interest in managing, I'll generally refer them to a 3rd party &quot;in good faith&quot; that the 3rd party will send some work my way when he/she can. Like you said, there's certain places that willingly offer a referral bonus to you (I know an excellent videographer that'll send me 15% of the project if I make an in-person introduction with the client), but if they don't offer a bonus, are reluctant when you mention it, and you can't find anyone else to refer the client to.. Feel at ease that you didn't have time to work on the client's project anyways.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, don't be afraid to tell clients that you're a couple weeks out at getting to their project (say it upfront, don't wait until after they agree to the project). Most people are fine waiting a little while, especially  if the outcome happens to go a bit above and beyond the requirements in some way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4331" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1574" RevisionGUID="488d5bdb-bd27-4a7e-b7d4-45efe0a2e277" CreationDate="2014-03-17T22:30:14.170" UserId="2362" UserDisplayName="David Archer" Text="If I have a client who needs some work done that I am either too busy to do or that I don't have specific expertise in, I'd like to refer the work over to another freelance software developer who can help them address their needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it customary/appropriate to ask for a &quot;referral fee&quot; when sending work to another freelancer? I had a freelancer who I wanted to send some work to get insulted when I asked for a 10% fee so I'd like to get some other perspectives.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know lawyers do this and likely other professions but is it &quot;different&quot; for software for some reason?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT: To clarify, this is a customer that I have a long term relationship with so it is in my best interest to only refer someone who is competent and also the fee would be disclosed to the client. I believe that would address any ethical concerns [again, using the guidelines that the ABA sets for lawyers to do referrals which are probably more strict than what you'd normally see in software]." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4332" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1574" RevisionGUID="488d5bdb-bd27-4a7e-b7d4-45efe0a2e277" CreationDate="2014-03-17T22:30:14.170" UserId="2362" UserDisplayName="David Archer" Text="Is it appropriate to ask for a referral fee when sending work to another freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4333" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1574" RevisionGUID="488d5bdb-bd27-4a7e-b7d4-45efe0a2e277" CreationDate="2014-03-17T22:30:14.170" UserId="2362" UserDisplayName="David Archer" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4334" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1531" RevisionGUID="7296cabb-77f3-4684-bf93-ff7e07f52395" CreationDate="2014-03-19T13:59:29.750" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/446284830771519488" />
  <row Id="4338" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1577" RevisionGUID="fb7ee688-fea2-488c-a431-3a1dd05d064d" CreationDate="2014-03-19T16:23:49.793" UserId="2265" Text="In my experience (IT consulting, not developing) referral fees are common practice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It all depends on the context of course, but from what I've seen this usually happens when an experienced freelancer with lots of work decides to tell his client &quot;I can't do the project, but I know someone who can, he is good&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not so much, &quot;give some, get some&quot;. People giving you leads do not expect something back in terms of projects, they have plenty. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I got a few projects this way from an experienced freelancer: he refers his customers to me. He worked for these clients, built a relation with them and basically handed me a project without having to do anything for it in terms of presales. The customer I got was also much larger than I usually get on my own and therefore prepared to pay higher fees:  I used a good rate for myself, added the referral fee on top and the customer was still satisfied with the price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Few remarks:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I agree to fixed fees per day I work for the client, not percentages&#xD;&#xA; - These referral fees are linked to a project, not a customer&#xD;&#xA; - It should be reasonable (obviously perhaps, but still), 10% does not seem unreasonable but it depends on the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me it was simple: without the referral I would have never gotten this client so I was more than happy to pay it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4340" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1578" RevisionGUID="f4bd463d-c7a2-4348-ada7-eff2ed42d5d6" CreationDate="2014-03-19T17:58:33.853" UserId="609" Text="Give them simple bullet points. Use lots of examples.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - You do marketing and design so the proper feeling gets imprinted on your customer.&#xD;&#xA; - The only way to make things pixel-perfect is to write complex code.&#xD;&#xA; - You think about the website in terms of the user's experience, much like a director and producer of a movie thinks about the flow and experience.&#xD;&#xA; - They are hiring you to them look good to their audience amongst other expertly-crafted websites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can't explain complex concepts to newbies, then it's something to practice. You'll win more clients. People/clients tend to oversimplify what they do not understand. Your job is to help them, without berating them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they don't trust your expertise, then perhaps they are not a good fit as a client anyways." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4341" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1579" RevisionGUID="4835d2a8-00ce-4377-ab47-d12d2da3fddb" CreationDate="2014-03-19T18:30:27.550" UserId="2350" Text="I want to generate business through emailing, but I don't have an idea on an appropriate &quot;cold&quot; email. I'm targeting businesses in my local area and I want to build awareness.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have a good link that has a good &quot;cold&quot; email, or do you have an template that has worked well for you?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4342" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1579" RevisionGUID="4835d2a8-00ce-4377-ab47-d12d2da3fddb" CreationDate="2014-03-19T18:30:27.550" UserId="2350" Text="Where can I find examples of a great &quot;cold call&quot; email for freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4343" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1579" RevisionGUID="4835d2a8-00ce-4377-ab47-d12d2da3fddb" CreationDate="2014-03-19T18:30:27.550" UserId="2350" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4344" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1580" RevisionGUID="f278d3fa-9378-4aee-adde-dcaeaa80411b" CreationDate="2014-03-19T19:19:33.087" UserId="2265" Text="By definition an effective &quot;cold calling&quot; (cold emailing?) email should be tailor made and not from a template. Even more so if you are targeting local business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion, creating awareness and cold calling are two different things. You can start an awareness campaign and follow it up with cold calling (which would seem the logical order). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you need the template because of layout (although I assumed you were after content), have look at Mailchimp. They offer some great templates and tips on making an effective campaign." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4345" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1581" RevisionGUID="ce121c0f-44c5-4d2c-a9ad-4224560db6a0" CreationDate="2014-03-19T19:22:14.070" UserId="1706" Text="10%??? I hope you're not walking around dressed up in a cape, stacked heels, bell bottoms and oversized gaudy hat, because it seems you're trying to pimp your colleague!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To sub it out is one thing -- YOU have to do the work to analyze the requirements, make sure the client is qualified to pay the bills, and front money to your subs even if the end-customer isn't paying on time.  There's some risk that you're assuming.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if you're not subbing out the work, why not just ask for a flat referral fee?  $100.00? Some FIXED fraction of the value of the job?  Or &quot;dinner's on you&quot;?  Most of us freelancers are doing what we do because we got tired of being pimped on a 9-to-5, and the mind game that goes on in the workplace is hell to get away from successfully for those of us who dare to try.  I probably would have been insulted also.  A percentage referral means that you are asking to be a thumbscrew in the other freelancer's side ***forever***.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't really compare it with how lawyers work because the whole legal game is for the attorney, when opportunity opens itself up, to attach himself/herself to lots and lots of streams of income by way of their clients -- that's their BUSINESS that they spend all day trying to perfect.  No freelancer wants to think that **any time** the end client calls on the telephone there has to be an ***added*** task of sending out another check to the person that referred the work -- the &quot;work&quot; is enough as-is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4346" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1582" RevisionGUID="f8a06a5d-81c1-4ca5-b89e-d03067f73637" CreationDate="2014-03-19T19:41:18.010" UserId="517" Text="I have to disagree with @codenoire. I always charge such fee. I mean if 90% is not enough for your &quot;friend&quot; for the job that came out of nowhere without him having to negotiate terms, price, etc...and he still complaints! If someone does that to me I would never offer him anything ever again. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The same happens with me. When I am offered to do some job for someone else, I expect him to take his referral fee. As my thank to him for getting me a job without myself having to move a finger. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you should do like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. if it's only for referral and you will never have to talk to the client, then 10% is ok&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. if you will however put your name in front and be responsible for work, mistakes, payment delays, then you should take more percentage since you will actually work a lot in this project as a project manager. even in case the project gets into trouble, you will have to find another freelancer to finish the work. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4347" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1574" RevisionGUID="81167f8e-ce54-46da-b97d-07ba8c3db247" CreationDate="2014-03-19T22:59:31.493" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/446420732713906176" />
  <row Id="4360" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1574" RevisionGUID="80714182-f57c-452b-9cdf-dd2445708dd8" CreationDate="2014-03-20T15:27:05.660" UserId="9" Comment="Retagged from [untagged] to [payment-terms] and [referral], minor grammar, emphasized EDIT clause" Text="If I have a client who needs some work done that I am either too busy to do or that I don't have specific expertise in, I'd like to refer the work over to another freelance software developer who can help them address their needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it customary/appropriate to ask for a &quot;referral fee&quot; when sending work to another freelancer? I had a freelancer who I wanted to send some work to get insulted when I asked for a 10% fee so I'd like to get some other perspectives.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know lawyers do this and likely other professions, but is it &quot;different&quot; for software for some reason?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT**: To clarify, this is a customer that I have a long term relationship with so it is in my best interest to only refer someone who is competent and also the fee would be disclosed to the client. I believe that would address any ethical concerns (again, using the guidelines that the ABA sets for lawyers to do referrals, which are probably more strict than what you'd normally see in software)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4361" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1574" RevisionGUID="80714182-f57c-452b-9cdf-dd2445708dd8" CreationDate="2014-03-20T15:27:05.660" UserId="9" Comment="Retagged from [untagged] to [payment-terms] and [referral], minor grammar, emphasized EDIT clause" Text="|payment-terms|referral|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4362" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1574" RevisionGUID="80714182-f57c-452b-9cdf-dd2445708dd8" CreationDate="2014-03-20T15:27:05.660" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 127, 58 edit id of 298" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4363" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1574" RevisionGUID="bdd052ff-4a54-4494-b18f-5df7ec67cf2f" CreationDate="2014-03-20T15:28:49.423" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 10 characters in body" Text="If I have a client who needs some work done that I am either too busy to do or that I don't have specific expertise in, I'd like to refer the work over to another freelance software developer who can help them address their needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it customary/appropriate to ask for a &quot;referral fee&quot; when sending work to another freelancer? I had a freelancer who I wanted to send some work to get insulted when I asked for a 10% fee so I'd like to get some other perspectives.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know lawyers do this and likely other professions, but is it &quot;different&quot; for software for some reason?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To clarify, this is a customer that I have a long term relationship with so it is in my best interest to only refer someone who is competent and also the fee would be disclosed to the client. I believe that would address any ethical concerns (again, using the guidelines that the ABA sets for lawyers to do referrals, which are probably more strict than what you'd normally see in software)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4365" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1586" RevisionGUID="44f6cf68-9600-4f56-be24-795dfd7f26c0" CreationDate="2014-03-20T20:15:01.263" UserId="1630" Text="I have been asked to subcontract a wireframing project. I do not bill by the hour. What is the best approach to arrive at a fixed fee for the project? Budget is unstated, but the timeframe for delivery is about 3 weeks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4366" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1586" RevisionGUID="44f6cf68-9600-4f56-be24-795dfd7f26c0" CreationDate="2014-03-20T20:15:01.263" UserId="1630" Text="Pricing a Wireframe Project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4367" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1586" RevisionGUID="44f6cf68-9600-4f56-be24-795dfd7f26c0" CreationDate="2014-03-20T20:15:01.263" UserId="1630" Text="|freelance-websites|estimation|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4368" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1587" RevisionGUID="5740566f-6273-4691-abe8-6930264f39e4" CreationDate="2014-03-20T20:31:11.220" UserId="2265" Text="I'd say that depends on the requirements, the time you think it will take you and how much you want or need the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no objective guideline to come to a price. If all else fails, just decide what amount will make it worth your while.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By the way, a bit off topic: I think you should bill by the hour. Solves all of these questions and in the end it is the fairest agreement for you as well as the client in my opinion. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4369" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1588" RevisionGUID="f440a403-bab9-4392-ad8d-ac5900872212" CreationDate="2014-03-20T21:45:09.430" UserId="2265" Text="I ran into an interesting discussion below [this](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1586/pricing-a-wireframe-project/1587?noredirect=1#comment1892_1587) question regarding ethics in billing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where I think hourly billing is the most transparent way to bill, the other side has written, [extensively](http://www.markrichman.com/never-bill-hour-redux/) I might add, on why it isn't and one should go for fixed price instead. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion the way you charge a project does not determine whether you charge unethically or not. I can charge more hours than I actually worked because I actually work much faster than the customer thinks I do. &#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, fixed price projects offer an ideal opportunity to set a price that is too high which the customer will always be forced to pay whether a project took three weeks or only one to complete.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what is the most honest, transparent or ethical way to bill? Hourly or fixed price? Or is there no answer and does it all depend on how you do business and not how you charge? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;_I realize this might be more of a discussion than a question and I'm unsure if this falls within the scope of the site, but I think it is a very relevant topic for many freelancers_ " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4370" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1588" RevisionGUID="f440a403-bab9-4392-ad8d-ac5900872212" CreationDate="2014-03-20T21:45:09.430" UserId="2265" Text="Which is the most honest or ethical way to bill, hourly or fixed price?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4371" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1588" RevisionGUID="f440a403-bab9-4392-ad8d-ac5900872212" CreationDate="2014-03-20T21:45:09.430" UserId="2265" Text="|fixed-price|billing|hourly|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4372" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="1588" RevisionGUID="d2403a11-a830-449e-816d-7f6394a1ab61" CreationDate="2014-03-21T02:25:34.810" UserId="64" Comment="17" />
  <row Id="4373" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1588" RevisionGUID="1b821f68-3d73-48e3-ad34-7dab7916a959" CreationDate="2014-03-21T07:59:32.260" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/446919019506180096" />
  <row Id="4374" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1588" RevisionGUID="9eea6084-0091-415d-bb54-7e1edcfe458d" CreationDate="2014-03-21T08:39:55.100" UserId="2265" Comment="added 403 characters in body" Text="I ran into an interesting discussion below [this](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1586/pricing-a-wireframe-project/1587?noredirect=1#comment1892_1587) question regarding ethics in billing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where I think hourly billing is the most transparent way to bill, the other side has written, [extensively](http://www.markrichman.com/never-bill-hour-redux/) I might add, on why it isn't and one should go for fixed price instead. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion the way you charge a project does not determine whether you charge unethically or not. I can charge more hours than I actually worked because I actually work much faster than the customer thinks I do. &#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, fixed price projects offer an ideal opportunity to set a price that is too high which the customer will always be forced to pay whether a project took three weeks or only one to complete.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---edit: clarification that the question is not about ethical business in general, but specifically billing ----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand doing business in an ethical way does not need to be determined by the billing, if you want to pull one over on your customer it can be done in any way number of ways. However, I think hourly billing at least is the best way to bill: you are transparent on the amount of work you performed and that's what you bill. No black box lump sum amount which may or may not represent work. If you want to account for experience and skill, just raise your hourly price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---end edit----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what is the most honest, transparent or ethical way to bill in your opinion? Hourly or fixed price?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;_I realize this might be more of a discussion than a question and I'm unsure if this falls within the scope of the site, but I think it is a very relevant topic for many freelancers_ " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4375" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1589" RevisionGUID="05bb3876-e5e5-4bb5-bedb-0bf865d89be0" CreationDate="2014-03-21T08:54:52.520" UserId="708" Text="Unethical people can be unethical completely regardless of any payment structure. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pricing high does not instantly make someone unethical. Perhaps that price for the three week project is accurate even though experience allows the work to be done faster. There are simply too many variables here to answer in any sort of definitive manner&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;	&#xD;&#xA;Here's a scenario.... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bob has 20 years experience and charges $500 an hour.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Chuck has 2 years experience and charges $50 an hour&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Both are presented a project.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Bob estimates it at 10 hours totaling $5k.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Chuck estimates 100 hrs totaling $5k.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Both provide the client with a flat rate quote of $5k and 2 weeks to complete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It actually takes Chuck 86 hours to complete the project.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Bob takes 9.5 hours to complete it. Because experience allows him to estimate with slightly more accuracy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would sound as though you feel Chuck is then unethical if he invoiced for the agreed upon $5k because technically, based on the stated hourly rates, he should invoice for $4300. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't understand how that would be logical. And I don't understand how, if the client agrees upon the $5k why it's even an issue. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hourly rates are never hard quotes, at least for me. Hourly rates are always *estimates*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my field (design) hourly rate work is reserved for edits and maintenance, not projects on the whole. Flat rate (or value-based) pricing is always a much better pricing model in my opinion. There are solid reasons you should [fire your hourly rate][1] which I won't go into here. However, one thing is certain hourly rates are a sure way to ensure you lose money as you gain experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We all know those clients that freak out at higher hourly rates but have no issue paying larger invoices. If both Chuck and Bob quote the job at $5k and the client is happy there's no issue - ethical or otherwise. However, it is doubtful that Bob get any work if he quotes the project at $500/hr for 10 hours and Chuck quotes it at $50/hr for 100 hours. Bob can't spread out the 10 hours needed over 100 hours and it makes no business or financial sense for Bob to lower his hourly rate to match Chuck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The easiest, hardest to discover, way of over billing is to bill hourly then forge or fabricate the actual hours needed to complete something. Flat rate pricing ensure the client *knows* what they will be charged before a project begins. If that figure is agreed upon, and the work is completed when it is slated to be everything else is somewhat irrelevant.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://baltimoredrew.com/fire-your-hourly-rate/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4376" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1589" RevisionGUID="7e42b72c-5517-40a2-99fb-fbd48666871e" CreationDate="2014-03-21T09:00:00.267" UserId="708" Comment="added 208 characters in body" Text="Unethical people can be unethical completely regardless of any payment structure. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pricing high does not instantly make someone unethical. Perhaps that price for the three week project is accurate even though experience allows the work to be done faster. There are simply too many variables here to answer in any sort of definitive manner&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;	&#xD;&#xA;Here's a scenario.... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bob has 20 years experience and charges $500 an hour.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Chuck has 2 years experience and charges $50 an hour&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Both are presented a project.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Bob estimates it at 10 hours totaling $5k.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Chuck estimates 100 hrs totaling $5k.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Both provide the client with a flat rate quote of $5k and 2 weeks to complete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It actually takes Chuck 86 hours to complete the project.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Bob takes 9.5 hours to complete it. Because experience allows him to estimate with slightly more accuracy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would sound as though you feel Chuck is then unethical if he invoiced for the agreed upon $5k because technically, based on the stated hourly rates, he should invoice for $4300. Or you feel Bob is unethical because if it only took him 9.5 hours he should somehow not charge his standard hourly rate... or that everyone should have the same hourly rate (which makes absolutely no sense).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't understand how that would be logical. And I don't understand how, if the client agrees upon the $5k why it's even an issue. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hourly rates are never hard quotes, at least for me. Hourly rates are always *estimates*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my field (design) hourly rate work is reserved for edits and maintenance, not projects on the whole. Flat rate (or value-based) pricing is always a much better pricing model in my opinion. There are solid reasons you should [fire your hourly rate][1] which I won't go into here. However, one thing is certain hourly rates are a sure way to ensure you lose money as you gain experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We all know those clients that freak out at higher hourly rates but have no issue paying larger invoices. If both Chuck and Bob quote the job at $5k and the client is happy there's no issue - ethical or otherwise. However, it is doubtful that Bob get any work if he quotes the project at $500/hr for 10 hours and Chuck quotes it at $50/hr for 100 hours. Bob can't spread out the 10 hours needed over 100 hours and it makes no business or financial sense for Bob to lower his hourly rate to match Chuck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The easiest, hardest to discover, way of over billing is to bill hourly then forge or fabricate the actual hours needed to complete something. Flat rate pricing ensure the client *knows* what they will be charged before a project begins. If that figure is agreed upon, and the work is completed when it is slated to be everything else is somewhat irrelevant.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://baltimoredrew.com/fire-your-hourly-rate/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4377" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1589" RevisionGUID="91c8dd46-2c53-4bef-86b9-2b9ab1249d18" CreationDate="2014-03-21T09:18:35.047" UserId="708" Comment="added 465 characters in body" Text="Unethical people can be unethical completely regardless of any payment structure. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pricing high does not instantly make someone unethical. Perhaps that price for the three week project is accurate even though experience allows the work to be done faster. There are simply too many variables here to answer in any sort of definitive manner&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;	&#xD;&#xA;Here's a scenario.... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bob has 20 years experience and charges $500 an hour.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Chuck has 2 years experience and charges $50 an hour&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Both are presented a project.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Bob estimates it at 10 hours totaling $5k.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Chuck estimates 100 hrs totaling $5k.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Both provide the client with a flat rate quote of $5k and 2 weeks to complete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It actually takes Chuck 86 hours to complete the project.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Bob takes 9.5 hours to complete it. Because experience allows him to estimate with slightly more accuracy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would sound as though you feel Chuck is then unethical if he invoiced for the agreed upon $5k because technically, based on the stated hourly rates, he should invoice for $4300. Or you feel Bob is unethical because if it only took him 9.5 hours he should somehow not charge his standard hourly rate... or that everyone should have the same hourly rate (which makes absolutely no sense).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't understand how that would be logical. And I don't understand how, if the client agrees upon the $5k why it's even an issue. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hourly rates are never hard quotes, at least for me. Hourly rates are always *estimates*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my field (design) hourly rate work is reserved for edits and maintenance, not projects on the whole. Flat rate (or value-based) pricing is always a much better pricing model in my opinion. There are solid reasons you should [fire your hourly rate][1] which I won't go into here. However, one thing is certain hourly rates are a sure way to ensure you lose money as you gain experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We all know those clients that freak out at higher hourly rates but have no issue paying larger invoices. If both Chuck and Bob quote the job at $5k and the client is happy there's no issue - ethical or otherwise. However, it is doubtful that Bob get any work if he quotes the project at $500/hr for 10 hours and Chuck quotes it at $50/hr for 100 hours. Bob can't spread out the 10 hours needed over 100 hours and it makes no business or financial sense for Bob to lower his hourly rate to match Chuck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The easiest, hardest to discover, way of over billing is to bill hourly then forge or fabricate the actual hours needed to complete something. I would hazard a guess that this is the most used unethical manner of pricing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Flat rate pricing ensures the client *knows* what they will be invoiced before a project begins. If that figure is agreed upon, and the work is completed on time and in satisfactory condition, everything else is somewhat irrelevant. To me, if you deliver a solid, complete project, on its scheduled deadline, there's really very little way one could be unethical with flat-rate or value-based pricing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- [Related regarding &quot;billable hours&quot; and freelancing.][2]&#xD;&#xA;- [Also related, regarding pricing and budgets][3]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://baltimoredrew.com/fire-your-hourly-rate/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1047/how-can-i-discipline-myself-as-a-freelancer/1052#1052&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1304/whose-responsibility-is-to-give-budget-for-job-freelancer-or-client/1317#1317" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4378" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1590" RevisionGUID="71a99ad3-3c03-4209-8f13-908671e50d70" CreationDate="2014-03-21T13:53:05.530" UserId="148" Text="I have use both hourly billing and flat fee billing. I used to always favour hourly billing on the basis that I felt it was more ethical, but soon changed my mind about this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The main reason for my change of mind is that time is not always a valid reflector of the value of the work done, e.g.: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - A job might take longer but contain more repetitive unskilled work; should it then cost more?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - A job might take a shorter amount of time but depend on my primary area of expertise for which I have trained for (at cost) and practised for many years; should I then charge less than someone with less experience and less training?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will, however, still sometimes use hourly billing. My choice of billing method depends on a number of factors:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - What the client asks for / insists on. Whether or not I agree it is the best fit, do I refuse for ethical reasons or, perhaps, practical reasons? Often I will just accommodate but explain why I think it is a bad idea e.g. that they may end up paying more, or that my hourly rate is quite high for this one because I am charging for my experience/skill level. If I know the client well or they are favoured and I want to keep their custom, I will be more accommodating.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - If it is a short and easily estimable job, particularly if it does not require much skill (e.g. making customer-requested edits to a finished work). In these cases it is sometimes easier to just say &quot;This will take me two hour to do and I will charge £60 an hour.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - If is a long and not-so-easily estimable job, and I know that I will likely either over or under-estimate it, I will use my best estimate of the hours worked (with some slippage time) but quote the fixed fee because I cannot determine if an hourly rate would work out better or worse for the customer. If the fixed fee I give is agreeable to the customer, then there's no worries on either side - we're both happy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you implied in the question, this is a more complex topic than just saying one is more ethical than the other. It depends on many factors such as the the particular circumstances of the business arrangement. In my view, neither is better or worse that the other because it is impossible to define one method that fits every circumstance, i.e. one billing method may better fit one circumstance, and another billing method may better fit another. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, in my view, if you value your work at a certain level, and the customer agrees with your valuation in the form of a signed contract, and you deliver on the contract on time and to spec, then *there is nothing ever unethical in the method with which you bill*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What raises issues of good/bad ethics in billing are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Your intention - do you intend to deceive your customer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Your honesty and clarity upfront in the contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. Do you stick to your contract/fee even if your chosen billing method resulted in a loss to you and chalk it up as a learning experience?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 4. Are you willing to shift your fee position if your mistaken choice of billing method ended up causing loss to your customer? (If it's your mistake, your customer should not have to pay for it.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above can happen with either hourly or fixed billing, so clearly it's not the billing *method*, but the *biller*, that is the determining factor in matters of ethics.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my answer to your question is: **Neither hourly or fixed price is more or less ethical than the other.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4379" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1590" RevisionGUID="bdc4841a-5e31-4a64-9fd2-ba624e7d5fa7" CreationDate="2014-03-21T14:04:01.160" UserId="148" Comment="elaborating and clarifying" Text="I have use both hourly billing and flat fee billing. I used to always favour hourly billing on the basis that I felt it was more ethical, but soon changed my mind about this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The main reason for my change of mind is that time is not always a valid reflector of the value of the work done, e.g.: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - A job might take longer but contain more repetitive unskilled work; should it then cost more?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - A job might take a shorter amount of time but depend on my primary area of expertise for which I have trained for (at cost) and practised for many years; should I then charge less than someone with less experience and less training?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will, however, still sometimes use hourly billing. My choice of billing method usually depends on a number of factors:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - What the client asks for / insists on. Whether or not I agree it is the best fit, do I refuse for ethical or practical reasons, even if I want the contract? Often I will just accommodate but explain why I think it is a bad idea e.g. that they may end up paying more. I will explain, if necessary, that my hourly rate is quite high for this one because I am charging for my experience/skill level. If I know the client well or they are favoured and I want to keep their custom, I will be more accommodating than with others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - If it is a short and easily estimable job, particularly if it does not require much skill (e.g. making customer-requested edits to a finished work). In these cases it is sometimes easier to just say &quot;This will take me two hour to do and I will charge £60 an hour.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - If is a long and not-so-easily estimable job, and I know that I will likely either over or under-estimate it, I will use my best estimate of the hours worked (with some slippage time) but quote the fixed fee because I cannot determine if an hourly rate would work out better or worse for the customer. If the fixed fee I give is agreeable to the customer, then there's no worries on either side - we're both happy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you implied in the question, and you can see from the above, that this is a more complex topic than just saying one is more ethical than the other. It depends on several factors such as the the particular circumstances of the business arrangement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my view, neither is better or worse that the other ethically because it is impossible to pin the answer down to one that fits every circumstance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, in my view, if you value your work at a certain level, and the customer agrees with your valuation in the form of a signed contract, and you deliver on the contract on time and to spec, then *there is nothing ever unethical in the method with which you bill*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What raises issues of good/bad ethics in billing are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Your intention - do you intend to deceive your customer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Your honesty and clarity upfront in the contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. Do you stick to your contract/fee even if your chosen billing method resulted in a loss to you and chalk it up as a learning experience?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 4. Are you willing to shift your fee position if your mistaken choice of billing method ended up causing loss to your customer? (If it's your mistake, your customer should not have to pay for it.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above can happen with either hourly or fixed billing, so clearly it's not the billing *method*, but the *biller*, that is the determining factor in matters of ethics.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my answer to your question is: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Neither hourly or fixed price is more or less ethical than the other generally. But, in any particular circumstance, one method *may* be more ethical depending on the details of the circumstance.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4387" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1514" RevisionGUID="4b265359-903c-4709-915b-5b6530c074de" CreationDate="2014-03-22T18:02:10.040" UserId="64" Comment="fixed spelling, grammar, formatting; add tag; fixed title" Text="What are the rules for visas while freelancing?  I am specifically asking about the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Typically, to stay in a country like the UK for longer then a few months, you need a work visa.  This usually requires you to have a job offer from a local company, etc.  But in today's world of telecommuting and freelancing, are there any ways around that?  What if:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You make your living through freelance work, say as a web designer.  Perhaps you have an LLC registered in the US or maybe you've just been doing it as a Sole Proprietor, but want to move to the UK, would that be sufficient to get a Visa of some kind? **OR....**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. What if you telecommute for a US company full time, but want to live in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In both cases, you aren't taking a job from a UK citizen, nor are you just moving there to become a homeless person living off the system. Instead, you are in fact actually bringing money into the country. So I would assume they'd be okay with it, but I just couldn't find any information about a work visa that didn't require you to have a job offer, or maybe an investor visa which requires an insane amount of cash up front." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4388" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1514" RevisionGUID="4b265359-903c-4709-915b-5b6530c074de" CreationDate="2014-03-22T18:02:10.040" UserId="64" Comment="fixed spelling, grammar, formatting; add tag; fixed title" Text="|legal|uk|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4389" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1514" RevisionGUID="4b265359-903c-4709-915b-5b6530c074de" CreationDate="2014-03-22T18:02:10.040" UserId="64" Comment="fixed spelling, grammar, formatting; add tag; fixed title" Text="What are the rules for Freelancing overseas with a US company but residing in the UK?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4390" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1592" RevisionGUID="77d7b1e0-6e24-4c6c-8472-85af6cbf7143" CreationDate="2014-03-22T23:37:42.090" UserId="2375" Text="From a programmers point of a view many times you end up with problems that are related to the domain of the programmer's knowledge. Nobody knows everything and sometimes errors happen because of that and I want to believe I am not the only one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While working as a freelancer should anyone charge for the time they use to troubleshoot a problem?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If not, for what kind of troubleshooting should you charge money?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4391" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1592" RevisionGUID="77d7b1e0-6e24-4c6c-8472-85af6cbf7143" CreationDate="2014-03-22T23:37:42.090" UserId="2375" Text="Should I charge money for troubleshooting?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4392" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1592" RevisionGUID="77d7b1e0-6e24-4c6c-8472-85af6cbf7143" CreationDate="2014-03-22T23:37:42.090" UserId="2375" Text="|payment-terms|pay-rate|budget|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4395" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1593" RevisionGUID="411df8a1-314d-4899-adab-c4ca92de2422" CreationDate="2014-03-23T09:21:51.640" UserId="87" Text="It depends on the kind of troubleshooting and the time that you spend on the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the troubleshooting takes a long time yes i would charge on hourly basis. After all we spend time in solving the problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it takes less time and its just a minor fix then there is no need to charge. But if the troubleshooting is often (more than twice) then consider charging a small amount even for minor fixes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had delivered a android application to client. The client wanted to test the code and he had no knowledge of what tools to be used and how to run the app on the real device. So i installed all the tools downloading and showing him how to run the app and how to troubleshoot if he end ups in errors or stuck in a problem. The whole process took about a hour or two considering the download time. So i charged for the 2 hours and the client was happy to pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could make a agreement prior to delivery with the client that troubleshooting will cost based on the time you spend (hours/days spend).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4396" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1594" RevisionGUID="4470859b-9005-40ef-9c63-49de6c09d32e" CreationDate="2014-03-24T15:06:19.710" UserId="2383" Text="For contracts where you own the software and are granting a perpetual license for use to the client, how do you deliver the final project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you give the a tarball of the source code, read only access to the repository, fork the repository and transition ownership of the fork to the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4397" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1594" RevisionGUID="4470859b-9005-40ef-9c63-49de6c09d32e" CreationDate="2014-03-24T15:06:19.710" UserId="2383" Text="How to deliver licensed software to client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4398" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1594" RevisionGUID="4470859b-9005-40ef-9c63-49de6c09d32e" CreationDate="2014-03-24T15:06:19.710" UserId="2383" Text="|software|ownership|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4399" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1592" RevisionGUID="d71ce4eb-c719-4611-823d-ae63f9a51fe3" CreationDate="2014-03-24T19:40:29.517" UserId="517" Comment="added 212 characters in body" Text="From a programmers point of a view many times you end up with problems that are related to the domain of the programmer's knowledge. Nobody knows everything and sometimes errors happen because of that and I want to believe I am not the only one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While working as a freelancer should anyone charge for the time they use to troubleshoot a problem?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If not, for what kind of troubleshooting should you charge money?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An example: For example client asked to implement technology x, I am not familiar with technology x and hence there is a lot of troubleshooting regarding the installation/use and compatibility of technology x&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4400" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1595" RevisionGUID="4ee61589-fa7a-409c-8361-2767a948c93a" CreationDate="2014-03-25T00:50:59.933" UserId="551" Text="I normally just charge an hourly rate of time and materials. A potential client has asked to perform work on a [retainer basis](https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+a+retainer&amp;oq=what+is+a+retainer&amp;aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.1760j0j1&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;espv=2&amp;es_sm=125&amp;ie=UTF-8). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm slightly concerned that since my business is mostly based cash upon receipt (I own a home and it goes directly to my mortgage company) it would cause a cash flow issue. E.g. if they don't ask for me to used up all the retainer hours; they'd need the money returned. Thus, each parties would lose-lose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't ever work with a retainer arrangement. Are there any disadvantages of a retainer?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4401" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1595" RevisionGUID="4ee61589-fa7a-409c-8361-2767a948c93a" CreationDate="2014-03-25T00:50:59.933" UserId="551" Text="Are there any disadvantages of taking work based on a retainer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4402" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1595" RevisionGUID="4ee61589-fa7a-409c-8361-2767a948c93a" CreationDate="2014-03-25T00:50:59.933" UserId="551" Text="|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4404" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1594" RevisionGUID="b14044a0-e77f-4dce-aa9f-fe48d0992038" CreationDate="2014-03-25T05:00:18.483" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/448323466962677760" />
  <row Id="4406" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1595" RevisionGUID="917dceee-801f-485a-92e4-d85c3edc0d1b" CreationDate="2014-03-25T08:00:20.783" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/448368775625445376" />
  <row Id="4407" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1596" RevisionGUID="60f408bd-0202-4502-b930-170943ee23a5" CreationDate="2014-03-25T09:41:48.630" UserId="517" Text="You are not informed properly, retainer money **is not returned**! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are paying you to save your time for them and act on their requests immediately, not tomorrow, not when you have time, but right now. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, you save 5 or 10 hours a week for this client. If there is work, you work every day. If not, you can drink coffee or do other work in **his** time, but **you are obliged to work on his tasks immediately upon they come**!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So he bought your time for the period of 1 month or 3 months or 1 year and you are not obliged to compensate anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just check a few of my last questions about retainer since I got great advises there. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And about disadvantages, the largest is that you are bound to this client and you have to work for him, regardless how interesting project you have aside. He bought you time and you have to serve him firstly and always, even if you planned to have casual Friday :). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4413" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1599" RevisionGUID="a122b065-409a-420c-8468-2d74a2005565" CreationDate="2014-03-25T20:04:51.657" UserId="1706" Text="You generate executables.  NEVER give up your source code (and likewise, rights to your repository) unless that's what the client is paying for." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4414" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1600" RevisionGUID="99c96589-16dd-4f01-9139-e0a1c40eff3a" CreationDate="2014-03-25T20:47:29.523" UserId="820" Text="**Short version**: the easiest way to bill ethically, is to match what you're selling. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Longer version**: My product is very clearly my time. Clients hire me to build custom web applications, and many times the specifications around that are very fluid (and they should be), so the client is really purchasing my time to work with them refining and building their idea iteratively. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I tried to break that into deliverables with fixed prices, one - or both - of us will get the short end of the deal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For other freelancers the product is very clearly *not* time (at least they way the approach it). They may be selling things like wordpress installations, HTML slicing, etc. You can certainly track those things in time, but it's a very definable product. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients know what they're buying, and the deliverable is easy to recognize.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In those cases, you set a price the market will bear, and create the most efficient and quality workflow to maximize profit. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So **charge for what you're selling**, if you're selling your time, bill hourly, if you're selling a deliverable, bill for the 'thing' (fixed billing). That's not a guarantee of ethical billing, but considering what it is you're selling, and billing for that, makes it easier to bill ethically and reasonably - for those that have that goal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4415" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1199" RevisionGUID="29e784f8-48d2-46f8-80ab-9f3b9a7254f4" CreationDate="2014-03-25T22:14:46.237" UserId="972" Comment="deleted 1 characters in body" Text="This is not a complete answer, as I don't really have time to write one at the moment, but I wanted to take a minute to address a few issues relevant to the contracting questions you raised in your post.  (My apologies if any of this seems self-evident or is already on your list of things to do.)  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Do you draw up a contract and what general things are contained in that contract (I'm not looking for legalise, just general things you consider)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm sure you realize that web and web application design is a VERY risky business, for both you and the customer. If you want a better idea of what can go wrong from both sides, google &quot;software design risk management.&quot;  So, because this is a risky business you are venturing into, you need to take steps from the get-go to minimize the worst of the risk to both parties in order to have a successful experience.  In particular, there are several points during the process where things could go wrong for YOU, and you need to be able to ensure that if that happens, your books aren't summarily put into the red or that you aren't put out of business altogether.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, many clients will ask you to do a LOT of work up front before they sign a contract or advance you any funds.  Sometimes they want you to go all the way to showing them a complete UI and working prototype before they pay.  This is pretty unreasonable, from my point of view, because it puts all the risk on you should they decide they don't want to continue the project for whatever reason, or decide after a while to go with someone else to do the work. (It is even possible that folks like this may have several other design firms on the hook at the same time doing all this work before they make a decision. To my mind, this is like telling five tailors to make you a special suit and not picking which one you are actually going to pay for until the pants are just about ready to hem.)  You need to decide how much work you are willing to do up front and stand firm or at least negotiate aggressively if pushed to do more than that.  Standing firm on your terms and work is part of being professional, but it is difficult to do, especially when first starting out.  There is nothing wrong, btw, with asking for some &quot;earnest money&quot; up front when starting a new project.  Or at least, working that into the very early checkpoints with the client.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, you need to have some idea of how to set firm expectations of what you are planning to do for the client, and have that in writing and signed off by the client.  You need to state your process for handling disputes and changes.  If you do not have a &quot;change management&quot; process in place that you follow with your clients, you may find you've done twice or three times the work you thought you agreed to do by the time the project is over.  Everyone always wants more, that's human nature.  Once they see what you can do for them, you will probably get a lot of requests to &quot;gold plate&quot; things or add more functionality here and there.  These may all be very small changes, but they add up fast into lost revenue.  The key here is to have the project scope set out clearly and agreed to by both parties beforehand.  I'm not saying you should turn down new work, just find a way to firmly tell them that you'd love to do that, but you need to finish what you contracted to do in the first place, because that's the professional way to do business, and then after that, you would be thrilled to talk about &quot;version 2.&quot;  ;-)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third, some clients are slow to pay.  Payment terms definitely need to be spelled out in detail in your contracts.  As an example - I once worked through an advertising company that billed their clients NET 90 days.  So of course, their clients paid on day 90 or 91, if not later.  They expected to be billed on the same terms and not until their clients paid them.  And, of course, the advertising firm paid their bills on day 90 or 91!  So, if you can't afford to wait 6 months for payment of work done, be sure this is spelled out from the very beginning. I hate to say it, but when it comes to money, some companies will try a lot of really shady stuff to make their bottom line look good - at the expense of yours.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, another way to cover your tail, financially, is to set up certain check points during the process, and have the client sign off on work completed to that point.  And then bill them for it immediately.  Make sure the client understand that this protects them, too - they don't have to pay before they see work they approve of.  And, of course, it protects you, because you aren't waiting till the very end to get all of your money. That is always risky, risky, risky.  But doing it this way, if they were to abandon the project in the middle of it, well, you're covered because you've billed and been paid for all or almost all of the work you've put into it to that point. Or, if they take your initial concepts and specs and then shop them out to a $2 an hour overseas web sweatshop, well, then you are covered for that much, anyway. It may be little compared to what you were hoping to make on the project, but at least you didn't give it away for free. (We won't go into the ethics or intellectual property aspect here.)  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, just some thoughts to consider on the contracting aspect.  Best of luck!  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4416" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1601" RevisionGUID="83d88b8f-3043-4de1-982a-1d3ad5615ea7" CreationDate="2014-03-25T22:25:14.337" UserId="972" Text="Peter is absolutely correct.  Retainers are NOT refunded if the time is not used. Retainers are to ensure that if something comes up that's urgent, you will drop everything possible to see to their needs first.  Since this arrangement potentially results in an &quot;opportunity cost&quot; to you, the money is yours to keep even if no work needs to be done that month.  So if your client is expecting their retainer returned each month, you need to set them straight on that pretty quickly.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Btw, one way to make sure you don't lose a lot of money on a retainer job is to decide beforehand how many hours the retainer should reasonably cover before you revert back to a per-hour billing - and write that into your contract.  For example, you could say that the monthly retainer is good for up to 10 hours of work, but if they run into problems that will take longer than that to fix, after that 10 hours the work will be billed at $xx.xx per hour.  This keeps you from losing money if the client decides that having you on retainer means they can call you up all month long at all hours for absolutely anything, no matter what, and their bill will never go up.  I'm sure you know what the result of that situation could be..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4417" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1602" RevisionGUID="33f87e6e-5997-4ee8-9f2a-17cec529f724" CreationDate="2014-03-25T22:34:54.597" UserId="972" Text="If **YOU** own the code, then **YOU** are the only one who gets to keep the source code.  Clients get installation files, compiled or otherwise.  And a written licensing agreement that asserts your rights over the product and says what they can and cannot do with those install files.  Don't skimp on the licensing part - write it once, write it well, and then you can reuse it later for other projects.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Especially* if your work is plain text script, don't skimp on the licensing agreement. There is nothing to prevent your work from being copied and shared in that case, but without a stringently worded license, you may find you have a hard time making a case for compensation if you find your work has been stolen.  Wouldn't hurt to also have at least a few files embedded with [steganographic][1] information as well.  It's hard for a dishonest person to later prove their assertion that &quot;it's all **MY** work!&quot; when decoded key files in the application show **your** copyright declaration.   :-) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4418" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1603" RevisionGUID="0801b10c-3a60-4d72-b8f5-24d6b299f51e" CreationDate="2014-03-25T23:51:04.793" UserId="2147" Text="I'm a software consultant for a software company, which basically means I spend a lot of time setting up, installing, configuring and troubleshooting software on client environments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I bill a lot of time for troubleshooting problems in their environments, at the same rate as we charge for development. The decision to bill or not is usually dependent on the reason that troubleshooting is needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if troubleshooting is required because the client's environment and/or third party systems (webserver hosting our app, etc.) is poorly maintained/configured, then I bill. It's not my responsibility to maintain these systems and time spent troubleshooting them is an additional service provided to the client, in lieu of them having proper admins.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If troubleshooting is required because the client has asked me to set-up a third party component which I'm not familiar with then I bill, but the client should be aware beforehand that this isn't my area of expertise. It's not reasonable for the client to expect me to be an expert in all third party software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If troubleshooting is required when setting up one of our packages because I'm unfamiliar with the package, I bill for the set-up but not the troubleshooting. I class this as time spent learning, which the client could reasonably expect to have been done prior to the contracted work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If troubleshooting is required because it turns out there is a bug in our software, then I do not bill. The client has already paid for the software licenses and should be able to expect it to work without also paying additional troubleshooting and rework, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The decision to bill or not does not depend on the duration of the troubleshooting for me; small investigations can add up to days of work. Also, clients can start to abuse you as a free IT support/admin service if they think they can get away with it, although this probably applies less in the case of freelance development." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4425" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1605" RevisionGUID="df124344-310c-46e4-97cf-7e71f047e5e3" CreationDate="2014-03-26T14:52:45.010" UserId="2405" Text="15 years as an independent consultant (IT), 99% of the time I bill hourly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hate to go against your 'no hourly' constraint, but if it's a short wf project with no scope but expected duration of 3 weeks...aren't you trying to determine 'how much of my time will it take to complete the wf deliverables within the timeline'? Of course, defining the scope of what the wireframe requirements / end result will be useful - otherwise you are guessing. You might walk from the deal if you believe it's a 5 week project and they only have 3 weeks to do it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you wanted to try 'value pricing' - have your client determine what the value of the wf will be. My assumption is they will have no clue, since clients don't tend to think of deliverables in terms of value, but rather cost. My clients (Fortune 50 size) would laugh me out of business if I charged based on value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also - don't assume that you are the only resource they are soliciting either. What will your competition charge? What's the going market 'value rate' or 'hourly rate' for similar services? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4426" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1590" RevisionGUID="771557ec-0a23-4c98-9019-e1e993b69e61" CreationDate="2014-03-26T17:12:53.610" UserId="148" Comment="added 682 characters in body" Text="I have use both hourly billing and flat fee billing. I used to always favour hourly billing on the basis that I felt it was more ethical, but soon changed my mind about this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The main reason for my change of mind is that time is not always a valid reflector of the value of the work done, e.g.: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - A job might take longer but contain more repetitive unskilled work; should it then cost more?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - A job might take a shorter amount of time but depend on my primary area of expertise for which I have trained for (at cost) and practised for many years; should I then charge less than someone with less experience and less training?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will, however, still sometimes use hourly billing. My choice of billing method usually depends on a number of factors:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - What the client asks for / insists on. Whether or not I agree it is the best fit, do I refuse for ethical or practical reasons, even if I want the contract? Often I will just accommodate but explain why I think it is a bad idea e.g. that they may end up paying more. I will explain, if necessary, that my hourly rate is quite high for this one because I am charging for my experience/skill level. If I know the client well or they are favoured and I want to keep their custom, I will be more accommodating than with others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - If it is a short and easily estimable job, particularly if it does not require much skill (e.g. making customer-requested edits to a finished work). In these cases it is sometimes easier to just say &quot;This will take me two hour to do and I will charge £60 an hour.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - If is a long and not-so-easily estimable job, and I know that I will likely either over or under-estimate it, I will use my best estimate of the hours worked (with some slippage time) but quote the fixed fee because I cannot determine if an hourly rate would work out better or worse for the customer. If the fixed fee I give is agreeable to the customer, then there's no worries on either side - we're both happy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you implied in the question, and you can see from the above, that this is a more complex topic than just saying one is more ethical than the other. It depends on several factors such as the the particular circumstances of the business arrangement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my view, neither is better or worse that the other ethically because it is impossible to pin the answer down to one that fits every circumstance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, in my view, if you value your work at a certain level, and the customer agrees with your valuation in the form of a signed contract, and you deliver on the contract on time and to spec, then *there is nothing ever unethical in the method with which you bill*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What raises issues of good/bad ethics in billing are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Your intention - do you intend to deceive your customer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Your honesty and clarity upfront in the contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. Do you stick to your contract/fee even if your chosen billing method resulted in a loss to you and chalk it up as a learning experience?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 4. Are you willing to shift your fee position if your mistaken choice of billing method ended up causing loss to your customer? (If it's your mistake, your customer should not have to pay for it.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above can happen with either hourly or fixed billing, so clearly it's not the billing *method*, but the *biller*, that is the determining factor in matters of ethics.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my answer to your question is: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Neither hourly or fixed price is more or less ethical than the other generally. But, in any particular circumstance, one method *may* be more ethical depending on the details of the circumstance.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT:** Subsequent to posting this answer I found a series of articles that addresses some of the ethical issues of choosing a billing method:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[How to Charge for Websites: Fixed-Price Projects][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[How to Charge for Websites: Pay-Per-Hour Projects][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[How to Charge for Websites: the Agile Way][3]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The third article may resolve some of the quandaries a freelancer might face in determining how to bill in the most ethical and transparent way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.sitepoint.com/charge-websites-fixed-price-projects/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.sitepoint.com/charge-websites-pay-per-hour-projects/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.sitepoint.com/charge-websites-agile-way/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4431" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1592" RevisionGUID="c6c7e587-4299-41c2-be15-40fb33a59d73" CreationDate="2014-03-26T23:00:35.277" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/448957715386466305" />
  <row Id="4436" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1530" RevisionGUID="e5842f2d-0d28-451e-8aa2-c317393eca49" CreationDate="2014-03-27T23:00:37.033" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/449320111779094528" />
  <row Id="4437" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1608" RevisionGUID="f93b94af-f75d-4ff9-bb9c-22f82b8a32c9" CreationDate="2014-03-28T03:22:10.200" UserId="805" Text="Basically i am talking about projects like website development. Not only you have to do a lot but you have to do it in different mindsets. In a dream world you would have to do only one thing and than you can just take your sweet time doing it and perfecting it. But in reality you most of the time have to take on many roles for example...in developing web alone i have to&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;think of features, customers, trends, usability, aesthetics, flow of website.&#xD;&#xA;What would users want..what else to provide...what library to use to minimize work...are there any requirements of technical kind from client...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how do i as new lone developer take on projects that are full. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(research&gt;features&gt;plans&gt;technologicalResearch&gt;Design&gt;development&gt;testing&gt;marketing)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4438" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1608" RevisionGUID="f93b94af-f75d-4ff9-bb9c-22f82b8a32c9" CreationDate="2014-03-28T03:22:10.200" UserId="805" Text="How to handle projects that are medium to large as freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4439" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1608" RevisionGUID="f93b94af-f75d-4ff9-bb9c-22f82b8a32c9" CreationDate="2014-03-28T03:22:10.200" UserId="805" Text="|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4443" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1610" RevisionGUID="dd88ca1b-7052-4ec0-bdb6-6127f99534d0" CreationDate="2014-03-28T09:43:38.060" UserId="60" Text="It depends on the license.  You may provide only binaries.  I usually license under the GPL and deliver a source tarball.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a very large field and it depends on the specifics of the license and the license offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another point is that you may want to license it under various terms and sell an additional license for the source code.  In this case you would deliver binaries with a source distribution costing extra.  In other words, this is for you and your customer to negotiate." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4444" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1608" RevisionGUID="960fa54a-f918-4fbf-b6dd-4cd2c240d231" CreationDate="2014-03-28T17:43:19.143" UserId="805" Comment="added 264 characters in body" Text="Basically i am talking about projects like website development. Not only you have to do a lot but you have to do it in different mindsets. In a dream world you would have to do only one thing and than you can just take your sweet time doing it and perfecting it. But in reality you most of the time have to take on many roles for example...in developing web alone i have to&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;think of features, customers, trends, usability, aesthetics, flow of website.&#xD;&#xA;What would users want..what else to provide...what library to use to minimize work...are there any requirements of technical kind from client...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how do i as new lone developer take on projects that are full. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(research&gt;features&gt;plans&gt;technologicalResearch&gt;Design&gt;development&gt;testing&gt;marketing)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it's unusual to be given this kind of work to a freelancer... i am interested in knowing because there are some personal projects that i want to do. And having ability to do these will also help take on bigger projects. Yes subcontracting is possible too. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4446" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1611" RevisionGUID="391b8fa3-a379-4e3f-acf4-75d28ac9deb1" CreationDate="2014-03-29T07:31:35.200" UserId="1754" Text="I been doing my source of income from freelance site and just one only called oDesk. Things has been slow down for me since start of this year, as i mentioned in my other post about slowing down and i got major response that things get picked up in march because people have spend a lot on Christmas. &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;So, now i am having almost 800 hours. A 4.90 feedback, i think my [profile][1] is good, i update it as i get my projects completed. Typically i get job invite, but it has been cold turkey for me and i am worried. I do apply but its like the client never open my letter, i never get response. I get that i am not a native English person but this is how i write my cover letter &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Hello,&#xD;&#xA;    I have 3+ years of experience in wordpress. I have created more than 50 websites in wordpress. I am listed in top 10 wordpress developers. I have full control of HTML, CSS, Plugin creation, jQuery, Javascript thus making a child theme or converting PSD to WP. I have a great feedback. Following are my few sites&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    www.abc.com.au &#xD;&#xA;    www.abc.com&#xD;&#xA;    www.abc.net&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    I have many other sites, that i have worked on. I am also looking for long term working opportunity. I hope you like my work and would consider hiring me.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    I am always available on email and skype.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Regards,&#xD;&#xA;This is my general format, with good feedback, i believe i do work great but i don't understand why then i don't get client (inviting me to job or accepting my letter), i understand there are many potential candidates besides me. But i totally feel i am failing miserably. Apart from that, i see those test in oDesk or any other site to be obsolete, questions which aren't ask. Why do they have such question? &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;I don't raise my per hour rate, because i don't want miss out client but i am not getting client anyway.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;I need some really good advice. I want my ball to keep rolling.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.odesk.com/users/~01e96a9471b01d213f" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4447" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1611" RevisionGUID="391b8fa3-a379-4e3f-acf4-75d28ac9deb1" CreationDate="2014-03-29T07:31:35.200" UserId="1754" Text="slow growth on freelance website" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4448" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1611" RevisionGUID="391b8fa3-a379-4e3f-acf4-75d28ac9deb1" CreationDate="2014-03-29T07:31:35.200" UserId="1754" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|pay-rate|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4449" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1612" RevisionGUID="944b473d-6026-412d-9838-b9069b747031" CreationDate="2014-03-29T15:46:25.970" UserId="888" Text="I see you have a ton of experience which is good, but it's not enough to convince a client. I have been working for almost 8 months now and I'm starting to get more work than I can handle. Here are some tips to get more jobs:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Don't start with &quot; I have a lot of experience...&quot;. It's good that you have, but keep that to the end. You must first catch the client's attention.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Try demonstrating that you understood the project. Ask the client questions about the project, things you didn't understand, things you think will help him get a better product. Tell him how you plan on making certain features for the project and show him projects you have worked on that involve something similar.&#xD;&#xA; 3. You should have the client's attention with that presentation so now it's time to tell him how great you are. Show him your best work, preferably relevant with this project. Tell him about your experience, the ratings you have received so far on the site(congrats on that). &#xD;&#xA; 4. As a last advice, try to not bid a value the first time, if that feature is available on that site. Just bid and wait for a response. A lot of clients filter freelancers by their bid value, so you might loose a lot. But if you first make him become interested in you then you can ask for more than all the other freelancers and he will still pay you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had to hire myself a freelancer and I experienced what clients feel. The things I learned from that are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Be personal. People usually avoid companies.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Make a short introduction and don't bore me with details. I will ask them if I am interested.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Show interest in my project by asking a question, giving some advice etc. If you just say &quot;I can do this&quot; I'm not convinced.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Try to speak in English and don't make a lot of mistakes or write using SMS language like tnx, k etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's about it from what I learned so far. I'm not as experienced as you but I'm sure some of this advice will help you out.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4450" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1611" RevisionGUID="dc60e007-2732-4235-83c9-182894072ad6" CreationDate="2014-03-29T17:57:05.527" UserId="64" Comment="copy edited and clarified the question" Text="My source of income has been coming from freelance sites, such as oDesk. Things have been slow for me since the start of this year. As I mentioned in my other post about slowing down, I got a response that things pick up in March because people have spend a lot on Christmas. They have picked up for me!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, now I am having almost 800 hours, and a 4.90 feedback score. I think my [profile][1] is good. I update it as I get my projects completed. Typically, I get job invites, but it has been cold turkey for me, and I am worried. I do apply, but it's like the client never open my letter. I never get response. I get that I am not a native English person, but this is how I write my cover letter:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Hello,&#xD;&#xA;    I have 3+ years of experience in wordpress. I have created more than 50 websites in wordpress. I am listed in top 10 wordpress developers. I have full control of HTML, CSS, Plugin creation, jQuery, Javascript thus making a child theme or converting PSD to WP. I have a great feedback. Following are my few sites&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    www.abc.com.au &#xD;&#xA;    www.abc.com&#xD;&#xA;    www.abc.net&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    I have many other sites, that i have worked on. I am also looking for long term working opportunity. I hope you like my work and would consider hiring me.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    I am always available on email and skype.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Regards,&#xD;&#xA;This is my general format, with good feedback. I believe I do work great, but I don't understand why then I don't get the client inviting me to job or accepting my letter. I understand there are many potential candidates besides me. However, I totally feel I am failing miserably. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apart from that, I see those tests in oDesk or any other site to be obsolete, questions which aren't asked. Why do they have such questions?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't raise my per hour rate because I don't want miss out on clients, but I am not getting clients anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I ensure that I'm doing what I need to do in my cover letter to get more clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.odesk.com/users/~01e96a9471b01d213f" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4451" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1611" RevisionGUID="dc60e007-2732-4235-83c9-182894072ad6" CreationDate="2014-03-29T17:57:05.527" UserId="64" Comment="copy edited and clarified the question" Text="How can I edit my cover letter to get more clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4457" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1614" RevisionGUID="aca992bd-b39a-435c-99f2-829a60a34422" CreationDate="2014-03-30T23:50:28.680" UserId="9" Text="I am beginning to work with a remote client. It is the first time that I've encountered work with their type of business (home remodeling/renovation), so I've allotted some time to do some research on their business and an analysis of their competitors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, one of the issues that I'll be facing is not being able to meet face-to-face with the client. We live in different areas, with different types of concerns (I'd imagine). As an example, the client is based in a rural area in the Mid-Atlantic United States, while I live outside a Southern city.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What sort of concerns do I need to take into account for doing this sort of research? Does the client business type make all the difference between researching a specific area vs researching a broader area?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4458" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1614" RevisionGUID="aca992bd-b39a-435c-99f2-829a60a34422" CreationDate="2014-03-30T23:50:28.680" UserId="9" Text="How would I handle researching a remote client's business?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4459" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1614" RevisionGUID="aca992bd-b39a-435c-99f2-829a60a34422" CreationDate="2014-03-30T23:50:28.680" UserId="9" Text="|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4460" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1615" RevisionGUID="4b06ab55-2ac3-4e58-b480-998e93cb8d38" CreationDate="2014-03-31T00:03:41.943" UserId="9" Text="I have a remote client who is also considering going with Freelancer Anne (who lives in the same area as the client). This would give Freelancer Anne an advantage off the bat, since she can easily meet with the client face-to-face. The cost of travel for me to do a face-to-face meeting would be prohibitive in this case (since freelancing is not my full-time job).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What pricing considerations should I make for this? Should I make myself more available to the client (allowing phone calls during my regular job's lunch break, responding to emails during said lunch break), and/or should I give a discount on my services due to the inconvenience?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4461" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1615" RevisionGUID="4b06ab55-2ac3-4e58-b480-998e93cb8d38" CreationDate="2014-03-31T00:03:41.943" UserId="9" Text="Pricing for a remote client when going against local freelancers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4462" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1615" RevisionGUID="4b06ab55-2ac3-4e58-b480-998e93cb8d38" CreationDate="2014-03-31T00:03:41.943" UserId="9" Text="|attracting-clients|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4463" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1616" RevisionGUID="7af9b64e-db58-4b66-90b2-311f7a7f9458" CreationDate="2014-03-31T12:19:28.727" UserId="708" Text="In my experience, projects that in depth and involved are taken on by studios or agencies and companies looking for that scope of work are not looking for one individual unless that individual is perhaps a project manager, not web designer/developer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of it as building a house. You don't hire the electrician to do *everything*. You hire the electrician to do the electrical work. If you are looking for a one-person contact, you hire a contractor who then *manages* other various specialty workers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are seeking steps to project management, there are a great deal of reasources on the web already. There are [books][1], [blogs][2] ([2][3]), and [articles][4] which all will help lead you in the proper direction. Ultimately it takes experience to find the workflow that makes sense to you and serves your desires the best. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.fivesimplesteps.com/products/a-practical-guide-to-managing-web-projects&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.thesambarnes.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.creativebloq.com/design/5-valuable-tips-good-project-management-2133013&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.thesambarnes.com/web-agency-management/what-makes-a-great-web-project-manager/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4464" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1615" RevisionGUID="efc9e4da-87ae-452c-a2bc-918792d529b5" CreationDate="2014-03-31T14:00:57.353" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/450633851761860608" />
  <row Id="4465" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1617" RevisionGUID="29f8fed7-173d-4e09-84bb-4d2688beb042" CreationDate="2014-03-31T17:13:07.637" UserId="517" Text="As Scott said, in general you don't change your price or rules a lot. If you can get 5 clients with your rules, don't change them for the 6th client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, there are some situations that you WANT to get that job. It's either interesting or you see more work or you don't have much work currently etc. No matter what, if you really want that job, then soften your rules while still earning money.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, offer lower price than Ann by offering discount. Everyone likes discount. Make sure he knows your real price. If Ann can meet him each week, offer him meeting once a month, over the weekend maybe, if you  can afford it. If convenient for you, offer him work on Saturdays, not only on weekdays, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My point is that yourself being better than Ann just by 1 point will not make him change his mind. But if he sees 3,4,5,... points better than Ann, then you will get the job. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4467" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1618" RevisionGUID="db8e4447-5136-4ca3-a262-4939dc97f0b8" CreationDate="2014-04-01T23:54:51.380" UserId="1706" Text="If your only edge vs other freelancers is price, you've already lost this battle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why not offer some nominal service as a bonus, that won't tax you too heavily and keep the price consistent?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also - promote yourself on what you can accomplish, and not just price.  Anybody can promote on being the cheapest, but the cheapest ain't always the best!  Real, genuine expertise is attractive to a potential client.  That means that when you're trying to get the business, you can't use a boilerplater template to try to get a new client because a boilerplate doesn't communicate how your ***expertise*** is going to ***specifically*** make things better for the client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4468" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1619" RevisionGUID="2570a063-f986-4e6e-bf3a-db56f46d1930" CreationDate="2014-04-02T02:00:25.257" UserDisplayName="user2452" Text="I am using oDesk and I completed my first job. I have a github account where I put all my open source code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is what to do with the code you have written after the job has been completed?&#xD;&#xA;Do I open source it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4469" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1619" RevisionGUID="2570a063-f986-4e6e-bf3a-db56f46d1930" CreationDate="2014-04-02T02:00:25.257" UserDisplayName="user2452" Text="What to do with code after job completion?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4470" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1619" RevisionGUID="2570a063-f986-4e6e-bf3a-db56f46d1930" CreationDate="2014-04-02T02:00:25.257" UserDisplayName="user2452" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4472" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1605" RevisionGUID="d6466986-79d1-4577-9d42-1eb3e08d3632" CreationDate="2014-04-02T05:12:02.670" UserId="64" Comment="replaced wf abbreviation with &quot;wireframes&quot; so all freelancers of all types understand and can benefit from the answer" Text="15 years as an independent consultant (IT), and 99% of the time I bill hourly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hate to go against your 'no hourly' constraint, but if it's a short wireframe project with no scope but expected duration of 3 weeks, aren't you trying to determine 'how much of my time will it take to complete the wireframe deliverables within the timeline'? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, defining the scope of what the wireframe requirements / end result will be is useful - otherwise you are guessing. You might walk from the deal if you believe it's a 5 week project and they only have 3 weeks to do it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you wanted to try 'value pricing' - have your client determine what the value of the wireframe will be. My assumption is they will have no clue, since clients don't tend to think of deliverables in terms of value, but rather cost. My clients (Fortune 50 size) would laugh me out of business if I charged based on value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, don't assume that you are the only resource they are soliciting either. What will your competition charge? What's the going market 'value rate' or 'hourly rate' for similar services?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4473" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1508" RevisionGUID="b984b74d-d677-4b59-a16b-67eea1c66b52" CreationDate="2014-04-02T05:21:54.997" UserId="64" Comment="103" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:19,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Camil Staps&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="4474" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1614" RevisionGUID="9c6e714f-a99e-4253-acf0-06e481c6538d" CreationDate="2014-04-02T05:23:15.380" UserId="64" Comment="added in info from the comments" Text="I am beginning to work with a remote client. It is the first time that I've encountered work with their type of business (home remodeling/renovation), so I've allotted some time to do some research on their business and an analysis of their competitors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, one of the issues that I'll be facing is not being able to meet face-to-face with the client. We live in different areas, with different types of concerns (I'd imagine). As an example, the client is based in a rural area in the Mid-Atlantic United States, while I live outside a Southern city.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With limited time on both of our ends, I want any questions that I have regarding my clients' business to be as specific as possible, so that I don't waste either of our time. I'm not a home remodeling expert, so I'm trying to understand the business, so I know what concerns to prioritize, and which concerns will likely have minimal effect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What sort of concerns do I need to take into account for doing this sort of research? Does the client business type make all the difference between researching a specific area vs researching a broader area?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4476" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1620" RevisionGUID="d4d3f663-64cc-417f-8363-979df0a099ed" CreationDate="2014-04-02T07:38:54.867" UserId="659" Text="Actually, it sounds like your project is not planned very well. I'm not a freelancer but I'm working as a PM in an offshoring development scenario (me in Germany (client) and my developers are in India (service provider - you)). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you're not the person who has initialized the project the planning part should be on your clients side. But you can suggest him the following, so that the client is seeing that you really want to do your job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You should have a direct project responsible you can talk to. Let me guess you're talking to the boss directly, right? (Short on time and difficuilt to get.) So try to get one who can also answer calls spontanuously, so that the waiting time is as small as possible. &#xD;&#xA;2. Fixed appointments to discuss issues. The best is that you send your queries one or a half day before the appointment, so that your counterpart can prepare.&#xD;&#xA;3. Milestones to have certain goals, so that you know what the topic is and do your researches. They're simply helping you to focus on the right things and are giving the client a good indication of the project progress.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you think about the whole situation you will identify some more points. So here is my more generic advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you need from your client's side to get the job done? If it's not clear, when the job is done, then you should probably clarify this first. ;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sounds all like the usual project management issues. :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4477" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1620" RevisionGUID="526ba974-ae6a-4af5-b85a-41e2ae813d32" CreationDate="2014-04-02T09:31:04.113" UserId="659" Comment="fix spelling" Text="Actually, it sounds like your project is not planned very well. I'm not a freelancer but I'm working as a PM in an offshoring development scenario (me in Germany (client) and my developers are in India (service provider - you). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you're not the person who has initialized the project the planning part should be on your clients side. But you can suggest him the following, so that the client is seeing that you really want to do your job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You should have a direct project responsible you can talk to. Let me guess you're talking to the boss directly, right? (Short on time and difficuilt to get.) So try to get one who can also answer calls spontanuously, so that the waiting time is as small as possible. &#xD;&#xA;2. Fix appointments to discuss issues. The best is that you send your queries one or a half day before the appointment, so that your counterpart can prepare.&#xD;&#xA;3. Milestones to have certain goals, so that you know what the topic is and do your researches. They're simply helping you to focus on the right things and are giving the client a good indication of the project progress.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you think about the whole situation you will identify some more points. So here is my more generic advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you need from your client's side to get the job done? If it's not clear, when the job is done, then you should probably clarify this first. ;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sounds all like the usual project management issues. :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4478" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1621" RevisionGUID="1bc1f8ad-229a-4cf3-a4d9-01138ffe5197" CreationDate="2014-04-02T11:37:13.937" UserId="2456" Text="I expect that you **business** has no value (apart from cash in the bank), as without you it cannot generate income.   Your repeat customers come back to **you**, not to your business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I think you are just asking what value to **you** brink to them by working for them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4479" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1619" RevisionGUID="14b07264-88f0-4500-b7f1-e9dd7967a669" CreationDate="2014-04-02T13:58:14.900" UserId="64" Comment="added 78 characters in body; edited tags" Text="I am using oDesk and I completed my first job. I have a github account where I put all my open source code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I and the client are continents far. No written contract but a virtual one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is what to do with the code you have written after the job has been completed? Do I open source it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4480" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1619" RevisionGUID="14b07264-88f0-4500-b7f1-e9dd7967a669" CreationDate="2014-04-02T13:58:14.900" UserId="64" Comment="added 78 characters in body; edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4481" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1619" RevisionGUID="727d65de-c459-4c3f-8e66-a30786632efe" CreationDate="2014-04-02T14:01:48.163" UserId="64" Comment="103" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="4482" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1619" RevisionGUID="73d7a149-01d0-4f0a-ab17-c267f4c10cb1" CreationDate="2014-04-02T14:24:08.177" UserDisplayName="user2452" Comment="For On Hold status." Text="I am using oDesk and I completed my first job. I have a github account where I put all my open source code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I and the client are continents far. No written contract but a virtual one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is what to do with the code you have written after the job has been completed? Do I open source it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit:&#xD;&#xA;I live in Pakistan while the Client lives in Texas." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4483" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1621" RevisionGUID="4607ea20-f21d-4381-98fd-1b99a750e70e" CreationDate="2014-04-02T18:05:46.010" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 1 characters in body" Text="I expect that your **business** has no value (apart from cash in the bank), as without you, it cannot generate income.   Your repeat customers come back to **you**, not to your business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I think you are just asking what value **you** bring to them by working for them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4488" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1619" RevisionGUID="d4c26245-f094-40b0-87f0-2ec166aba2af" CreationDate="2014-04-03T03:26:45.793" UserId="64" Comment="moved some things around to make it flow better" Text="I am using oDesk and I completed my first job. I have a Github account where I put all my open source code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I and the client are continents far. I live in Pakistan while the client lives in Texas. We have no written contract but a virtual one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is what to do with the code you have written after the job has been completed? Do I open source it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4489" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="1619" RevisionGUID="7555da05-f300-4b4c-93e7-7820843bb702" CreationDate="2014-04-03T03:26:46.243" UserId="64" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="4490" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1619" RevisionGUID="96397874-73b7-4ffc-82a4-9242fdd8f638" CreationDate="2014-04-03T05:06:38.540" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/451586551391473664" />
  <row Id="4491" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1623" RevisionGUID="f338e4b9-e61f-461c-af6b-401bef3d5958" CreationDate="2014-04-03T08:33:54.513" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="There is a written contract between yourself and the client, you signed it when you accepted the oDesk Terms Of Service (TOS). I also work on oDesk and so am familiar with their TOS:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking [here][1] under section 3.6:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Proprietary Rights in Work Product shall be owned by Freelancer until payment has been made by Client, at which time Freelancer will be deemed to have assigned all Proprietary Rights in the Work Product to Client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This means that once the client has paid you for the work you did, they own the code that you wrote. The intellectual property rights belong to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is up to the client to decide what you do with that code. I usually store all the code I write in a private repository, so that if the client needs me to do more work or modify the code I wrote, I can easily access it. If the client requires I delete all the code (which is rare, but possible), then I am contractually obligated to do that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, making that code public is not up to you, it's up to the client to decide what they will do with the code. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Side note: Usually most people don't read the TOS for websites, but there are some cases, like this one, where it is incredibly important to read the TOS and know what's in there, otherwise there can be real, legal consequences.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.odesk.com/info/terms/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4497" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1623" RevisionGUID="b11031ec-c11b-41d8-8776-b9ef738ce8eb" CreationDate="2014-04-03T11:15:10.207" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="deleted 11 characters in body" Text="There is a written contract between yourself and the client, you signed it when you accepted the oDesk Terms Of Service (TOS). I also work on oDesk and so am familiar with their TOS:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking [here][1] under section 3.6:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Proprietary Rights in Work Product shall be owned by Freelancer until payment has been made by Client, at which time Freelancer will be deemed to have assigned all Proprietary Rights in the Work Product to Client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This means that once the client has paid you for the work you did, they own the code that you wrote. The intellectual property rights belong to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is up to the client to decide what you do with that code. I usually store all the code I write in a private repository, so that if the client needs me to do more work or modify the code I wrote, I can easily access it. If the client requires I delete all the code (which is rare, but possible), then I am contractually obligated to do so. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Making that code public is not up to you, it's up to the client to decide what they will do with the code. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Side note: Usually most people don't read the TOS for websites, but there are some cases, like this one, where it is incredibly important to read the TOS and know what's in there, otherwise there can be serious legal consequences.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.odesk.com/info/terms/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4498" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1619" RevisionGUID="864a9b6b-7ada-49d6-9fce-12c8afa4e7f3" CreationDate="2014-04-03T14:56:29.237" UserDisplayName="user2452" Comment="deleted 3 characters in body" Text="I am using oDesk and I completed my first job. I have a Github account where I put all my open source code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I and the client are continents far. I live in India while the client lives in Texas. We have no written contract but a virtual one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is what to do with the code you have written after the job has been completed? Do I open source it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4499" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1626" RevisionGUID="c9b1f695-17b3-46ba-a1e8-262b392e28f4" CreationDate="2014-04-03T19:16:00.270" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="This comes down to how long you're planning on spending in the UK. If you want to live there for a few months (&lt;6 months) and experience a new country, then there may be visa options for you that allow this. In the case of less than 6 months, you don't have to worry about tax, you can prove that you can afford to live there and pay your way, and generally are pretty low risk as far as the government is concerned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, when you start moving into longer amount of time (6 months or more), the question of taxes and tax residency comes into play. If you're living in the UK, you are using their public transport and their roads and enjoying their well looked after gardens and parks. The government pays for this stuff using taxes, and generally if you're working on a work visa somewhere for more than 6 months, you need to pay some degree of taxes to the government*, This usually involves getting a tax number, and your home government usually recognises the tax paid in the UK as a tax credit so you don't pay tax twice *. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a couple of things also to consider. Even though you may be contributing money into the economy, the government has to also consider the economical impact of you on their government infrastructure in the long run. Freelance work can have it's ups and downs, and usually everyone who has the legal right to be in the UK for any kind of relative long term basis will be supported on their national healthcare/unemployment programs to some extent.* This may have an effect on whether they grant you a visa or for how long. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the government, this is a matter of risk vs reward, and they have very strict (mostly automated) criteria for determining how risky your case is. These systems have been in place for years, much longer than freelancing online has been around, and so a lot of the systems do not really cater for the kind of world travel that freelancers like you and I can now do. It's going to take a couple of years before the immigration/visa laws start catering for workers online. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've spent quite a lot of time researching into this, and it seems we may just need to be patient and wait for the immigration laws to catch up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    * In general, in my experience. I am not a tax expert." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4500" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1627" RevisionGUID="16b398b9-74b3-4e7b-a3da-6339d07e5015" CreationDate="2014-04-03T19:45:13.640" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="The value of something is inherently determined based on how much someone wants what you offer. Either you offer your time, or you offer a product. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you offer your time, it's a matter of how in demand you are, how many other projects you have going on at the same time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you offer a product, it's a matter of how much someone is willing to pay for the final thing. Then competition comes into play.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since both of the above you have mentioned you don't consider good enough means of measurement:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm not interested in competition. They can go to India if the want they cheapest brain surgeon&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  I do not bill by the hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to pick some other means of defining what you offer and how it will be measured. Fileize? Lines of code?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There aren't many other options apart from the two that you have mentioned that you aren't interested in considering. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would consider how long it would take me, multiply that by my going rate, and bill that. Yes, hourly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My hourly rate is determined by how many people want my time. Every time someone wants more time from me, my rate goes up a couple of $/hour. I don't think I'm being cheated because I solve the problem faster. If I can get it done in so many hours, and my time is considered to be of a certain value, then that is the value of the final product. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People hire me because I solve problems quickly. My rate is higher because I'm fast, so they cancel out. More people hire me, the higher my rate goes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I find this works really well for me, and It's my suggestion to you, because supply and demand determine how much I get paid, and I feel like that's a win-win situation for me and for my client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Else, why not just thumb suck a number and make an offer? If they say yes, great, of not, negotiate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4502" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1627" RevisionGUID="5ee2e8d5-aaf5-4ed4-9d43-9c5a1dba3a7a" CreationDate="2014-04-04T00:34:58.103" UserId="64" Comment="too many one-sentence paragraphs. I grouped similar ideas together" Text="The value of something is inherently determined based on how much someone wants what you offer. Either you offer your time, or you offer a product. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If you offer your time, it's a matter of how in-demand you are, based on how many other projects you have going on at the same time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If you offer a product, it's a matter of how much someone is willing to pay for the final thing. Then competition comes into play.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since both of the above you have mentioned you don't consider good enough means of measurement:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm not interested in competition. They can go to India if the want they cheapest brain surgeon&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  I do not bill by the hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to pick some other means of defining what you offer and how it will be measured. File size? Lines of code? There aren't many other options apart from the two that you have mentioned, which you aren't interested in considering. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I determine price based on hours. I personally would consider how long it would take me, multiply that by my going rate, and bill that. My hourly rate is determined by how many people want my time. Every time someone wants more time from me, my rate goes up a couple of dollars per hour. I don't think I'm being cheated because I solve the problem faster. If I can get it done in so many hours, and my time is considered to be of a certain value, then that is the value of the final product. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People hire me because I solve problems quickly. My rate is higher because I'm fast, so they cancel out. More people hire me, the higher my rate goes. I find this works really well for me, and It's my suggestion to you, because supply and demand determine how much I get paid, and I feel like that's a win-win situation for me and for my client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Otherwise, why not just thumb suck a number and make an offer? If they say yes, great, of not, negotiate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4506" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1611" RevisionGUID="40d66b14-888e-498e-8d65-83bb737acf60" CreationDate="2014-04-04T08:06:47.223" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/451994274000027648" />
  <row Id="4508" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1629" RevisionGUID="697aa75c-51e7-404b-8a9c-4a25ee5d2395" CreationDate="2014-04-04T14:23:56.293" UserId="2489" Text="I'll keep my answer simple.   If a client is asking for a custom full-fledged CMS/e-commerce site for a $100, as a freelancer, you should read that as &quot;this person is a complete waste of my time,&quot; and move on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, don't say that to the client.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To the client, be very professional and polite.  Thank them for considering you, apologize for not being able to meet their price.  Quote 'your' price and let them know to contact you in the future if you can be of assistance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4509" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1630" RevisionGUID="8c085145-3bc6-4212-8503-df8a3fb4a3b7" CreationDate="2014-04-04T17:28:03.283" UserId="2489" Text="The simple answer is You are free to do what you want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work with a group of freelancers in Toronto and we generally refer business to each other without asking for anything back - when I refer a client to another freelancer, either they are a 'better fit for the job,' or I'm just too busy at the time - but I always make sure I'm putting the prospective client in good hands.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have, in the past, requested and received referral fees - but I prefer the 'good faith,' 'karma,' 'what goes around comes around,' philosophy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are some helpful ideas:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. If you are requesting or giving referral fees, make sure you have a discussion upfront, and agreement, with the freelancers you are working with.  This will make sure everybody is working with a common understanding.   Get a least a memo of understanding in writing that you can refer back too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. If somebody refers business to you, make sure you thank and keep them in the loop.  If you gain a profitable contract through a referral, you could offer to buy the person who referred you a couple of beers, or dinner - or even send them some cash as a thank you - this will keep people keen on referring clients to you (it shows appreciation and keeping good referrals coming is good for your business).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. ABOVE ALL:  Keep your client's and prospective clients' best-interests at heart.  Never make a referral on the basis that you can make money from simply making the referral.  Remember, every time you make a referral, your reputation is stake too!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4510" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1631" RevisionGUID="e1f49473-c236-4c76-af78-8036a08be773" CreationDate="2014-04-04T18:03:10.703" UserId="2489" Text="As a solo freelancer, in order to take on larger projects, you will need to build a trusted team you can work with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will take time and effort.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One way to begin, is by joining and participating in local user groups, attend the workshops and social evenings.   You will get to know other freelancers, what their strengths/weaknesses are.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assume that if you are going after larger-scale contracts, you are also taking on some responsibilities, including&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Account Management / Project Management&#xD;&#xA; - Requirements Analysis&#xD;&#xA; - Quoting and setting Payment Milestones&#xD;&#xA; - Ensuring your clients are happy and your designer/developers are happy&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider where it leaves you if the either a) the client doesn't pay; b) your freelancers don't deliver as promised?   This going to happen from time to time - how will you handle it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Going after large-scale projects is doable as a solo-freelancer - but make sure you know what you are getting into when you are assembling and managing project teams.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When it works - it's a dream - and can be very profitable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When things go south - look out - it can be a world of pain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I worked for a web firm first, managing large scale projects - that gave me the experience to do it on my own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't have that experience, then be frank with with the freelance team you put together about your goals and ambitions - make sure they are the type of people you can rely on - and that they are willing to work with you to go after the 'big fish.'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It can be done! (But it's not without it's risks).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4511" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1630" RevisionGUID="c9454ea0-e852-4d3b-b629-bf5721b53797" CreationDate="2014-04-04T18:28:26.150" UserId="75" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="The simple answer is YOU are free to do what you want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work with a group of freelancers in Toronto and we generally refer business to each other without asking for anything back - when I refer a client to another freelancer, either they are a 'better fit for the job,' or I'm just too busy at the time - but I always make sure I'm putting the prospective client in good hands.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have, in the past, requested and received referral fees - but I prefer the 'good faith,' 'karma,' 'what goes around comes around,' philosophy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are some helpful ideas:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. If you are requesting or giving referral fees, make sure you have a discussion upfront, and agreement, with the freelancers you are working with.  This will make sure everybody is working with a common understanding.   Get a least a memo of understanding in writing that you can refer back too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. If somebody refers business to you, make sure you thank and keep them in the loop.  If you gain a profitable contract through a referral, you could offer to buy the person who referred you a couple of beers, or dinner - or even send them some cash as a thank you - this will keep people keen on referring clients to you (it shows appreciation and keeping good referrals coming is good for your business).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. ABOVE ALL:  Keep your clients' and prospective clients' best-interests at heart.  Never make a referral on the basis that you can make money from simply making the referral.  Remember, every time you make a referral, your reputation is at stake too!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4512" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1631" RevisionGUID="f5f3b7fb-47ba-4ca3-b96b-bb24fe934680" CreationDate="2014-04-04T18:29:59.957" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body" Text="As a solo freelancer, in order to take on larger projects, you will need to build a trusted team you can work with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will take time and effort.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One way to begin, is by joining and participating in local user groups, attend the workshops and social evenings.   You will get to know other freelancers, what their strengths/weaknesses are.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assume that if you are going after larger-scale contracts, you are also taking on some responsibilities, including&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Account Management / Project Management&#xD;&#xA; - Requirements Analysis&#xD;&#xA; - Quoting and setting Payment Milestones&#xD;&#xA; - Ensuring your clients are happy and your designer/developers are happy&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider where it leaves you if either a) the client doesn't pay, or b) your freelancers don't deliver as promised?   This going to happen from time to time - how will you handle it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Going after large-scale projects is doable as a solo-freelancer - but make sure you know what you are getting into when you are assembling and managing project teams.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When it works - it's a dream - and can be very profitable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When things go south - look out - it can be a world of pain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I worked for a web firm first, managing large scale projects - that gave me the experience to do it on my own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't have that experience, then be frank with with the freelance team you put together about your goals and ambitions - make sure they are the type of people you can rely on - and that they are willing to work with you to go after the 'big fish.'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It can be done! (But it's not without its risks).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4513" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1632" RevisionGUID="b86c7cf4-10ab-4d44-b38d-336bf061da5c" CreationDate="2014-04-04T20:08:59.420" UserId="2489" Text="A good alternative to a 'retainer' is a 'monthly maintenance' package.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for example, a monthly maintenance package could include&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Regular ongoing updates to the site software (i.e. especially important if you are using software packages such as Joomla! or Wordpress);&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Regular back-ups (off-site and tested);&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) A set amount of hours for available phone and/or email support per month; and&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) Security response (you have to be careful with this one - if you offer it, you have to be competent and have a process to handle security issues (i.e. a DDoS attack and so many others)).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can effectively communicate the value proposition to the client for a monthly maintenance package (and there is enormous value in such a package), you can then discount 6 months or or annual packages - in order to get bulk payments upfront.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not only will you be better serving your client, you will help them to budget and you will also improve your cash-flow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a sense, this is a type of retainer for your services - just not one for 'hourly design/development.'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Putting the shoe on the other foot - the only time, as a client, I would consider paying a 'retainer' to an I.T. Freelancer is if a) I knew that I would have at least a set amount of ongoing work for that Freelancer; **and** b) it would be difficult, if not impossible, to secure those particular expertise when required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, if a client is willing to pay you a retainer, it is likely because they want to ensure your availability and dedication to their projects.   If that's the case, it is one of the highest compliments you can get as a freelancer and if you like the work, the client and the compensation - take the retainer and pat yourself on the back!!!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4514" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1633" RevisionGUID="e3c188f3-f342-4d84-acda-90ed1bcd5c4e" CreationDate="2014-04-04T20:54:40.353" UserId="2489" Text="YES!!!  If you have a great portfolio then SEM/SEO is a great way to attract new clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need a good strategy to do it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm going to assume that you know how to do the basics (i.e keyword research and using the correct tags in your code, sitemaps, etc).  For starters, there is a great guide available at http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo, and also lot's of great info on the web.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But you will still need a 'workable' approach that won't break the bank. A great approach is to attach a blog to your portfolio site - and here is were you can really demonstrate your knowledge and attract clients at the same time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can write a blog post that gets an average of 100 visitors/months, do that twice a week for a year,  that translates into over 10,000 visitors/month, 2yrs, that's about 20,000  visitors/month, and so on (yes, I'm over-simplifying this), but that's the idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Put in a nice slider highlighting your portfolio in your blog articles (i.e. right-hand column), and a call-to-action (i.e. &quot;Contact me for a free quote today&quot;) - and you've got a great SEM/SEO strategy for your portfolio site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Go for short-articles (500 to 1000 words) on topics that you feel prospective client would be interested in (i.e. &quot;How can a blog help my business get clients?&quot; ;-) ).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For extra mileage, make sure your blog posted are tweeted, posted on FB and G+." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4515" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1608" RevisionGUID="6b7cfe5b-86d7-4a7a-a08e-5c4ca1d62e34" CreationDate="2014-04-04T23:06:46.637" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/452220765078061056" />
  <row Id="4518" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1635" RevisionGUID="9eb3b84c-ad7e-46fd-b388-b8a87b72171b" CreationDate="2014-04-06T09:17:10.973" UserId="820" Text="As far as I see it, the single most important thing you can do in your cover letter is **tell them how you'll solve their problem**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's really what (in most cases) they're looking for. They only care about your past work, your experience, or how well you're rated in terms of how it relates to their specific project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So don't make them do the work of relating those things - show them how your experience makes you a good match for *their* project by laying out what you'll do for *them*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they're looking for a WordPress developer to write a custom plugin, take their description and give them an idea of how it would work, Maybe it would be best implemented as a short code, maybe best as something else. Give them a comparison and recommendation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By just listing your experience and portfolio of sites, you're leaving it up to them to determine if you're a good fit for their specific project. Don't do that, show them they can be certain you're able to complete their project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you do this, **you'll become how they measure other contractors**. Using the above example, did anyone else explain that there are roughly two ways to implement what they want in WordPress? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now you're the leader by default.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another way to look at this: pretend they're already selected you as the contractor. **What are the first set of questions you'd as them as a client? Ask those questions in the cover letter.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4519" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1635" RevisionGUID="95ccf0c6-6a7e-485d-9c78-4d4a21b64911" CreationDate="2014-04-06T16:38:13.653" UserId="820" Comment="added 88 characters in body" Text="*[Bit of background, I've done contract work exclusively through oDesk since 2006.]*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as I see it, the single most important thing you can do in your cover letter is **tell them how you'll solve their problem**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's really what (in most cases) they're looking for. They only care about your past work, your experience, or how well you're rated in terms of how it relates to their specific project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So don't make them do the work of relating those things - show them how your experience makes you a good match for *their* project by laying out what you'll do for *them*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they're looking for a WordPress developer to write a custom plugin, take their description and give them an idea of how it would work, Maybe it would be best implemented as a short code, maybe best as something else. Give them a comparison and recommendation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By just listing your experience and portfolio of sites, you're leaving it up to them to determine if you're a good fit for their specific project. Don't do that, show them they can be certain you're able to complete their project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you do this, **you'll become how they measure other contractors**. Using the above example, did anyone else explain that there are roughly two ways to implement what they want in WordPress? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now you're the leader by default.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another way to look at this: pretend they're already selected you as the contractor. **What are the first set of questions you'd as them as a client? Ask those questions in the cover letter.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4520" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1636" RevisionGUID="12e90b4e-cf50-4756-869d-636f84e7e178" CreationDate="2014-04-06T17:04:23.340" UserId="2501" Text="I am an `Infrastructure engineer` on the `Windows Platform`. Is there a website dedicated for freelance troubleshooting and admin jobs for the `Windows Server Platform` ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Websites like `Elance.com`, `Odesk.com` and some others are very generic and do not target a specific client-group." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4521" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1636" RevisionGUID="12e90b4e-cf50-4756-869d-636f84e7e178" CreationDate="2014-04-06T17:04:23.340" UserId="2501" Text="Is there a freelancers' website only for Windows Server troubleshooting job" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4522" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1636" RevisionGUID="12e90b4e-cf50-4756-869d-636f84e7e178" CreationDate="2014-04-06T17:04:23.340" UserId="2501" Text="|freelance-websites|client-support|information-technology|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4526" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1614" RevisionGUID="9ac29525-b777-4bf1-be91-e70c9135216e" CreationDate="2014-04-06T20:14:58.530" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/452902305407696896" />
  <row Id="4527" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1545" RevisionGUID="7661a5a0-bf79-4ade-bbc7-fe0a55b45557" CreationDate="2014-04-06T23:14:58.770" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/452947603958030336" />
  <row Id="4533" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1636" RevisionGUID="b7e17a32-ae76-4ba7-8348-f6413c1df46a" CreationDate="2014-04-07T05:07:15.360" UserId="64" Comment="removed code block syntax around some words; fixed spelling/grammar" Text="I am an Infrastructure engineer on the Windows Platform. Is there a website dedicated for freelance troubleshooting and administrator jobs for the Windows Server Platform?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Websites like Elance.com, Odesk.com and some others are very generic and do not target a specific client-group." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4534" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1636" RevisionGUID="b7e17a32-ae76-4ba7-8348-f6413c1df46a" CreationDate="2014-04-07T05:07:15.360" UserId="64" Comment="removed code block syntax around some words; fixed spelling/grammar" Text="Is there a freelancers' website only for Windows Server troubleshooting jobs?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4535" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1596" RevisionGUID="ba5048c5-c125-43e7-90fb-96224442c0b0" CreationDate="2014-04-07T14:50:04.487" UserId="517" Comment="added 285 characters in body" Text="You are not informed properly, retainer money **is not returned**! This is true in the **IT industry only**, especially programming. In other industries, companies don't usually use the term &quot;retainer&quot; as they don't want to return unused money. That is why you will more often see them sell premium support or similar service which are not refundable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are paying you to save your time for them and act on their requests immediately, not tomorrow, not when you have time, but right now. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, you save 5 or 10 hours a week for this client. If there is work, you work every day. If not, you can drink coffee or do other work in **his** time, but **you are obliged to work on his tasks immediately upon they come**!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So he bought your time for the period of 1 month or 3 months or 1 year and you are not obliged to compensate anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just check a few of my last questions about retainer since I got great advises there. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And about disadvantages, the largest is that you are bound to this client and you have to work for him, regardless how interesting project you have aside. He bought you time and you have to serve him firstly and always, even if you planned to have casual Friday :). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4538" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1596" RevisionGUID="6fbc0204-0734-4a77-8f4b-8afd5a2ad165" CreationDate="2014-04-07T16:18:21.163" UserId="517" Comment="added 187 characters in body" Text="You are not informed properly, retainer money **is not returned**! This is true in the **IT industry**, especially programming, and some other industries like legal. &#xD;&#xA;In other industries, companies don't usually use the term &quot;retainer&quot; as they don't want to return unused money. That is why you will more often see them sell premium support or similar service which are not refundable. &#xD;&#xA;Take note that I am not capable of listing all services which return or not return retainer. I can only talk for my field of expertise - programming. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are paying you to save your time for them and act on their requests immediately, not tomorrow, not when you have time, but right now. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, you save 5 or 10 hours a week for this client. If there is work, you work every day. If not, you can drink coffee or do other work in **his** time, but **you are obliged to work on his tasks immediately upon they come**!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So he bought your time for the period of 1 month or 3 months or 1 year and you are not obliged to compensate anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just check a few of my last questions about retainer since I got great advises there. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And about disadvantages, the largest is that you are bound to this client and you have to work for him, regardless how interesting project you have aside. He bought you time and you have to serve him firstly and always, even if you planned to have casual Friday :). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4543" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1641" RevisionGUID="c4a1dac9-0ed6-4cdd-8465-57cdcf0a68c3" CreationDate="2014-04-07T20:17:14.107" UserId="2489" Text="In today's open-source world (even if you keep your code proprietary and working on proprietary code - that's what you are competing against), your value to clients is in your ability to deliver solid code, tried tested and proven, that meets the clients needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the answer is a definite yes!  Re-use your code, incorporate code from other projects, revisit your code, re-factor it, improve it, add to it - increase your value to your clients and your 'coding-fu' - this is one of the greatest pleasures and rewards of years 'at it' if you are a coder.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be wary of any legal limitations which may prevent you from re-using your own code on other projects." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4545" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1641" RevisionGUID="4c14f696-efec-499c-92fe-b3c6d618839e" CreationDate="2014-04-07T20:58:31.657" UserId="2489" Comment="added 3057 characters in body" Text="Here are the possible scenarios&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) If you contract to bill by the hour, then it would be unethical to do otherwise.  Whether or not you re-use code (assuming you are legally entitled to do so), is a non-factor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) If you provide a fixed quote, then if you are able to deliver high-value for less effort on your part, you have every right to do so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Both approaches are valid (bill by the hour or fixed-price) and re-using your code (provided you are legally permitted to do so) is a 'given' in today's world.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In fact, I try to find a happy-medium by passing on some cost savings, and improving my $$$'s made per hour, by taking the following approach with clients:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;I've done a similar project before and can re-use a lot of the code, so I can save you some money on the development.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, my preference, as a freelancer, is 'fixed-price, fixed-scope' projects and I stick to that - so if I've done $50,000 worth of development work for one client, and it's going to take me 10% of the time, I'm not going to charge only $5,000 - I'd charge $12,500, and here is my rationale:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) The client is only paying 25% of the 'full development' cost - they are saving significantly;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Your clients are in business to make money - so are you and you are not a 'charity,' you deserve to earn for your work and for the 'value' you provide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(ASIDE: Of course, I make special exceptions for not-for-profits and charitable organizations - and help them out when I can).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the flip-side, if I get a paid project to develop code that I know I'm going to be able to re-use and resell, then I might quote much lower than the actual 'cost per hour' to develop - it's a smart business move, because you've now added to your library.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can then go to clients and say, &quot;I've just developed this for client XYZ and I thought can provide these 'upgrades' to your site for a reduced a cost if you'd like to incorporate these changes.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your a Freelancer and Entrepreneur - this is the name of the game - as long as you are being honest and transparent with your clients, there is nothing unethical about these approaches - it is understood that this is the way things are done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is also understood that building relationships based on trust is critical to long-term business success!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(CAVEAT: Use common-sense here.  If you use this approach with a client's direct competitor, in my view, you are being unethical (and sleazy)), but for example, if you build a 'Store Locator' feature for client that sells Men's Gifts, and you have small chain 'Pet Stores' - you can safely use this approach).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember that, especially when getting into developing 'custom applications,' pricing is very 'arbitrary.' &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charge too little, and your clients are likely to not respect your level of expertise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charge too much, and your clients will feel like you are taking advantage of them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can, try and have a frank discussion with the client of what they feel the project is worth - ask them! (you'd be surprised how often they throw out a bigger number than you had in mind) - and seek some consensus.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is some 'safety' in charging per hour - lots of people prefer that - but you are limiting your potential to earn money - and being able to re-use code and use code repositories, etc. should enable you to earn much more overall - while delivering better value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So questions like, &quot;What was the budget you had in mind for this project?&quot; are powerful tools in your arsenal as a freelancer who has to cost out projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they name a price you're happy with, then just respond with, &quot;Yes, we can do that,&quot; dig into your code library, make money and make your client happy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4546" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1642" RevisionGUID="08e8256f-de03-49aa-a2fa-f18135e42bdd" CreationDate="2014-04-07T21:25:39.113" UserId="2489" Text="I often do small projects, complete web sites, in the $1500 - $2000 range for small business owners.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where I get stuck is in the pricing for designing logos (I can do it - I've got some skills, but I'm a not a graphic designer - so this takes me forever).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not only is logo design subjective, but part of a 'creative' process - so it's impossible for me to estimate this - and truthfully, I'd rather outsource this part of the project - but handle that for the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where I need some help is how to price out and approach logo development, so that I can outsource it, get the web contract completed, have a happy client - and not lose hours or days trying to do the logo development myself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I approach this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4547" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1642" RevisionGUID="08e8256f-de03-49aa-a2fa-f18135e42bdd" CreationDate="2014-04-07T21:25:39.113" UserId="2489" Text="How to handle pricing and design for logos on small scale web projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4548" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1642" RevisionGUID="08e8256f-de03-49aa-a2fa-f18135e42bdd" CreationDate="2014-04-07T21:25:39.113" UserId="2489" Text="|estimation|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4549" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1619" RevisionGUID="65a70aeb-2278-4eaa-ad66-4b243931875d" CreationDate="2014-04-07T23:09:52.617" UserId="100" Comment="added &quot;oDesk&quot; to title because question and answer are specifically about this service; added tag; added link to Wikipedia article" Text="I am using [oDesk](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ODesk) and I completed my first job. I have a [GitHub](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GitHub) account where I put all my open source code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I and the client are continents far. I live in India while the client lives in Texas. We have no written contract but a virtual one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is what to do with the code you have written after the job has been completed? Do I open source it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4550" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1619" RevisionGUID="65a70aeb-2278-4eaa-ad66-4b243931875d" CreationDate="2014-04-07T23:09:52.617" UserId="100" Comment="added &quot;oDesk&quot; to title because question and answer are specifically about this service; added tag; added link to Wikipedia article" Text="What to do with code after oDesk job completion?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4551" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1619" RevisionGUID="65a70aeb-2278-4eaa-ad66-4b243931875d" CreationDate="2014-04-07T23:09:52.617" UserId="100" Comment="added &quot;oDesk&quot; to title because question and answer are specifically about this service; added tag; added link to Wikipedia article" Text="|freelance-websites|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4552" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1619" RevisionGUID="65a70aeb-2278-4eaa-ad66-4b243931875d" CreationDate="2014-04-07T23:09:52.617" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 75 edit id of 299" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4553" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1636" RevisionGUID="1a414954-c1dc-481c-b620-3cdc4f2d7609" CreationDate="2014-04-07T23:51:39.967" UserId="2501" Comment="added 20 characters in body" Text="I am an Infrastructure engineer on the Windows Platform and I live in India. Is there a website dedicated for freelance troubleshooting and administrator jobs for the Windows Server Platform?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Websites like Elance.com, Odesk.com and some others are very generic and do not target a specific client-group." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4555" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1636" RevisionGUID="7e4600b2-a676-4ea5-8c56-54b59b59dee1" CreationDate="2014-04-08T02:01:48.330" UserId="2501" Comment="added 14 characters in body" Text="I am an Infrastructure engineer on the Windows Platform and I live in India. Is there a website dedicated for remote freelance troubleshooting and remote administrator jobs for the Windows Server Platform?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Websites like Elance.com, Odesk.com and some others are very generic and do not target a specific client-group." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4556" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1643" RevisionGUID="de579d2c-f854-46f1-bfc4-87e61e1ef234" CreationDate="2014-04-08T07:22:03.320" UserId="517" Text="Why running away from outsourcing the design phase? This is something I do all the time, as well as 90% of other freelancers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pros:&#xD;&#xA;- you have more time for coding&#xD;&#xA;- a client will get professional design&#xD;&#xA;- you can earn some extra for taking percentage on the design (don't need to if you don't want to)&#xD;&#xA;- you keep the client and tell him you're capable of solving things out of your expertise&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally you will connect your design and the client to some online service like basecamp or trello where the client will have a direct access to design sketches and will be able to influence the design. You will be like a mediator there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The latest thing I would do it try to design if I don't have eye for it. It will not only be ugly but it will take you a week for the work a professional can do in 1 day. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: a logo design is very cheap. I've seen people paying $30 or $50 for it on odesk or elance. And those designers are able to finish it in a day or less. And the final output does not look ugly at all, on the contrary. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4557" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1644" RevisionGUID="f29321ed-b39a-4ff2-b98f-2e7a6a099580" CreationDate="2014-04-08T10:16:18.593" UserId="2520" Text="&#xD;&#xA;I see on job sites many contract positions with certain hourly or daily rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are those numbers normally include the VAT?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is country specific, I primarily interested in UK.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4558" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1644" RevisionGUID="f29321ed-b39a-4ff2-b98f-2e7a6a099580" CreationDate="2014-04-08T10:16:18.593" UserId="2520" Text="Freelance job posts VAT" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4559" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1644" RevisionGUID="f29321ed-b39a-4ff2-b98f-2e7a6a099580" CreationDate="2014-04-08T10:16:18.593" UserId="2520" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4560" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1642" RevisionGUID="1a9aed6d-f061-4500-bdaa-c80945ab73ca" CreationDate="2014-04-08T14:26:58.720" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/453539504398540800" />
  <row Id="4561" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1645" RevisionGUID="0b3f1454-128d-47e4-852c-6492797d6ae8" CreationDate="2014-04-08T19:01:41.670" UserId="2489" Text="I've run into exactly the same problem.   I left a web design firm where I was an account exec, went out on my own, built teams and won some large scale contracts, and made great money with some great people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(I took a 3yr hiatus to windsurf - reflected on what I wanted to do, and realized, I love coding - I want to stick with that - so I'm longer trying to build a bigger company and manage large teams (i.e. 6 or 7 consultants)).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So based on that, here is my suggestion on how you can approach this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most importantly, you have to begin by deciding why you are in this business and what type of freelance company you want to be - this is key because the more you scale up, the more you are in hands-on management and less involved in actual design and development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) If your first love is programming and design, then stick to that, build your company on personal attention to projects, your reputation and excellence.  That means taking on less projects, but being much personally involved in both - everything you touch will be done to your standards - you can take a lot of pride and have a lot of satisfaction in that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) If you want to grow a company in size (number of consultants and projects), you are then switching hats to becoming great at managing people and clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My suggestion is to take some to reflect on what you want for yourself as a career.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's the first, take on less - do what you love to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's the second, then accept that you are now a team manager, project manager ad account executive at the same time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is some helpful advice if you want to grow your team and clients and keep that growth sustainable:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) I avoid taking on employees.  My preference has always been to hire freelancers who have worked for companies, gained that experience, but then went out on their own.  I've made exceptions for freelancers who have been highly recommended and demonstrated great attitude.  I found the ideal is to be their biggest client, but not their only client.   Don't overload them either - keep them hungry and available to scale up to take more work as you get more work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) It takes time to find the right people to work with (i.e. I've had to go through about 6 or 7 prospects before finally finding 1 good one).  When trying somebody new, hope for the best and expect the worst - make sure you have a project with a long enough time line that if they don't work out, you can hire somebody else to fill the gap (this going to happen from time to time).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) Here is how I price out my projects, protect myself, my clients and the freelancers from a financial perspective.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Handle the requirements phase - get this down pat.  Your requirements need to be detailed so that everybody on the team knows the scope and specs they are building towards.  Have provisions to handle 'scope creep' that are understood by all involved - and require a written change request and approved cost-estimates for those.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Break the project up into skills-sets required, then get the prospective freelancer to quote (tip: I add 10% to the contract for the freelancer to guarantee no cost overruns - they happily take the extra cash with no complaints)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Once I have all my costs added up, I double the price and request 50% upfront and 50% on 'substantial completion' of the project.  The 50% covers my costs, so I know I can always pay my freelancers (important! - even if it's the clients who stiff you, the freelancers expect to get paid and you are responsible)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I give my freelancers a 50% deposit on their quote (that's half of your 50% deposit) on project commencement.   I don't touch the rest of the client's deposit.  It sits in a bank account until my Freelancers have delivered, at which my Freelancers get fully paid out.  As far as I'm concerned, until all deliverables are met - I haven't earned a cent - it's more important to have that cash on reserve to pay your freelancers (or to hire somebody if one isn't delivering).  You are fully responsible to the client for project completion - remember that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - When the project is completed, the client is invoiced, you get the second 50%, everybody's happy, your freelancers have gotten both a substantial deposit upfront and paid timely (pay them fast on completion and get them used to that - they will automatically prioritize your projects because they know they will get money quickly after completion!!!), the client has their project delivered, and you've made a good profit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will build a great team over time with this approach.  Some freelancers will come and so will go.   But you will build a core team that knows that they 'get clear specs, get a deposit and get paid in full' every time the work for you - and that's rare and sought after these days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, it is going to be your 'people skills' and your 'management skills' that will be your greatest assets - you've switched from designing and development to running a business and managing people and projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Expect it will be a rocky road at times - your challenge is to foresee potential risks and navigate those.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it is excellence you seek, then be very careful in who you bring on - look at their past work - you'll see very quickly if they are the type of people who push out 'mediocrity' - or if they have that same 'gleam in their eye' for high-quality work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, and I've saved this for last, because it is so important for dealing with people, and you brought up the loss of motivation.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've found that, in the long-term, money is not much of a motivator to drive 'excellence' - you have to recognize it in people, compliment them on it and express appreciation - people thrive on validation and if you can give them that, it's like an addictive drug that keeps things challenging, fun and rewarding!!! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For those who work for you and excel, build up their confidence, tell them how much you appreciate having somebody on the team you can count on - make it a very rewarding experience for those who do great work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4562" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1646" RevisionGUID="86d93e38-9f7b-4c70-a6e0-e79034998477" CreationDate="2014-04-08T19:08:34.380" UserId="1706" Text="I think the role you're trying to fit, because it is moreso task oriented and not product (deliverable) oriented, is not a good fit for the websites you're describing in the comments.  Aside from that -- consider something else. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I run a business.  Now, please keep reading - but this is not a personal slight to you, okay?  It'd be a rare, rare, RARE occasion when I allow someone who I've never seen, who lives in another country, who I am likely to never meet face-to-face, to connect to my business Windows (or other) infrastructure machines from wherever I've been ***told*** such a person is located, and then assume administrative tasks!!!  That person might be the best administrator in the world but if something's screwed up and I incur a loss, I can't say, &quot;Oh, not my fault.  Blame Lars/Abdul/Kiswele/Hanna in Senegal/Budapest/Mumbai/Caracas&quot;!!!  I can't establish a chain-of-control, and would thus be held liable for any damages.  I can't sue and recover those damages from someone halfway around the globe -- at least not easily.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If such a person were attached to a larger business, it might work out better - but I'm still not going to pass on much in the way of administration tasks.  It leaves me far too vulnerable.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4563" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1647" RevisionGUID="b6604c1e-c67d-4b1a-a27a-72113a05d6aa" CreationDate="2014-04-08T19:31:23.493" UserId="1706" Text="Edward Brey's comment is pretty much spot as far as liability is concerned.  Other than (well put, Edward!) illegal activity, the LLC form protects the owners and operators from incurring personal liability as a result of activities carried out for the business of the LLC.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The LLC business entity is a simpler approach than a corporation because it removes the need for shareholders, annual meetings, and so forth.  Taxwise, an LLC (in the US) can register as a sole proprietorship (single-member LLCs), partnership, or corporation as far as how the taxes are ***processed***.  An LLC can buy, sell, and transact just like a corporation or a living person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've heard of some real cool approaches to having LLCs.  Celebrities establish them to hold title to their residences (it keeps the paparazzi away, because the celeb's name is not in the public tax roll).  In certain states, buying certain types of property is taxed heavily when being sold to a living person, but taxed less heavily when sold to an LLC (motor homes, for example).  With as little as it costs to form an LLC (Wyoming costs $50), the advantages are many.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as loans are concerned (I used to work for a lease broker for business equipment) the big deal is that with a loan made to an LLC (or corporation), its operators can disappear with the proceeds and the lender has no recourse for a &quot;dead&quot; business entity with no assets and no income.  That's the reason why they require a living, breathing body to co-sign for new business entities.  A living, breathing person can be JAILED (smil e), whereas the business entity cannot.  This is standard practice until the business entity builds credit in its own name, which is not easy to do.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I worked for the broker, there were countless people I'd talk to who'd fill out applications and want to do everything &quot;in the name of the business&quot; and be adamant about not co-signing -- and they'd get turned away.  The most adamant ones were, to no large surprise, the ones with lousy personal credit. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4564" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1648" RevisionGUID="19a79096-f4b2-4562-acc6-a15d76a640a7" CreationDate="2014-04-09T05:03:05.027" UserId="2489" Text="First of all, it depends on the license of software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) A 'Perpetual License for Use' is non-descriptive.  You must define 'use' (i.e. use to sell, use to re-distribute, use to modify are all possible interpretations of the word 'use').   It is quite common at law that when there is ambiguous wording of the contract, the courts will deem that to be the fault of the person who drafted the contract (this is common with insurance, for example), so make sure you define 'use.' (And as I am not a lawyer, please seek clarification from a qualified legal professional - this applies to the full contents of this answer, including this point and points below).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Given the above, if 'use' does not include a right to source-code (which it seems from your question it does not), then if you can, deliver an executable, or your code in manner which permits the intended use, but prevents the ability to copy and redistribute.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) However, if you are required, under the license and/or terms of your agreement to provide source-code, then certain ancillary obligations come with that.  For example, under an open-source license, those obligations may include, but may not be limited to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - making the code available from a suitable distribution point (i.e. USB key, your website, project hosting sites, a repository that is accessible to the client, etc); and&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; - must include the source code for any other open-source components you have used in your project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For further information on obligations of making open-source code available, see http://oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/opensourceyourcode#making-the-code-available&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) For proprietary software, (i.e. software in which you are not obligated to provide your source code), you would generally define terms (including prohibition to do such things as 'reverse-engineer,' 'redistribute' etc.) in what's called an EULA (End-User License Agreement) - but you must be careful that the client has access to and can review the EULA *prior* to purchasing or contracting for the software, otherwise the EULA may be considered void (for example, in shrink-wrapped software).   Your EULA should define how the software may be delivered to the client and what the client may or may not be permitted to do with the software you provide." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4565" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1648" RevisionGUID="f8b4717a-09f7-4ef1-b51e-8cd9ee274fa5" CreationDate="2014-04-09T06:53:15.003" UserId="64" Comment="formatted lists tend to be a little more readable.  " Text="First of all, it depends on the license of software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. A 'Perpetual License for Use' is non-descriptive.  You must define 'use' (i.e. use to sell, use to re-distribute, use to modify are all possible interpretations of the word 'use').   It is quite common at law that when there is ambiguous wording of the contract, the courts will deem that to be the fault of the person who drafted the contract (this is common with insurance, for example), so make sure you define 'use.' (And as I am not a lawyer, please seek clarification from a qualified legal professional - this applies to the full contents of this answer, including this point and points below).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Given the above, if 'use' does not include a right to source-code (which it seems from your question it does not), then if you can, deliver an executable, or your code in manner which permits the intended use, but prevents the ability to copy and redistribute.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. However, if you are required, under the license and/or terms of your agreement to provide source-code, then certain ancillary obligations come with that.  For example, under an open-source license, those obligations may include, but may not be limited to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - making the code available from a suitable distribution point (i.e. USB key, your website, project hosting sites, a repository that is accessible to the client, etc); and&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; - must include the source code for any other open-source components you have used in your project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For further information on obligations of making open-source code available, see [OSS Watch's Making the Code Available](http://oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/opensourceyourcode#making-the-code-available) section.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For proprietary software, (i.e. software in which you are not obligated to provide your source code), you would generally define terms (including prohibition to do such things as 'reverse-engineer,' 'redistribute' etc.) in what's called an EULA (End-User License Agreement) - but you must be careful that the client has access to and can review the EULA *prior* to purchasing or contracting for the software, otherwise the EULA may be considered void (for example, in shrink-wrapped software).   Your EULA should define how the software may be delivered to the client and what the client may or may not be permitted to do with the software you provide." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4567" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1649" RevisionGUID="84aa7b27-bbcc-46b5-bc39-bf6ad4e18ea0" CreationDate="2014-04-09T18:03:39.437" UserId="1323" Text="I'm a freelance user experience (UX) designer, and I'm about to productize one of my service offerings.  The service is a usability evaluation of clients' websites.  It is designed with two kinds of clients in mind: those who want to redesign their website now (as a preliminary step) and those who want to just see how well their website is doing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not yet sure how many usability evaluations I could accommodate per year or what the demand is.  For this discussion, let's suppose I'll do one per month, alongside my design services.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since my prospects vary greatly in size and budget, I want to offer this service in different tiers.  On the higher tiers, I want to use third-party tools to give clients a deeper evaluation of their website.  The highest tier, or an alternative service (I haven't decided yet) would also involve my checking a client's website, as well as the website of one of their competitors.  (Here is [another vendor which does competitive evaluations][1] on a much larger and deeper scale.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One of the third-party software products I would be using has a freemium model.  The lower-end usability evaluations would employ its free version.  The higher-end usability evaluations (which would cost around $3500-4000 at present) would be using the paid version of the tool, which provides more features and analyzes sites more deeply.  I have not bought this tool yet because no clients have asked me to use it yet.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The paid version of the tool costs **about $500**.  Based on where my business is right now (recovering from having done a substantial amount of work for free), this isn't a trivial cost.  But using this tool in my more in-depth evaluations would give me a nice advantage over my competitors, for clients willing to pay for more labor from me.  (My competitors work in a related industry but a different field.  There is some overlap between their fields and mine.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would you handle the cost of this tool?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  1. Charge $500 to every client who wants me to use it, since no clients have asked for it yet?&#xD;&#xA;  2. Charge $500 to only the first client who wants me to use it, and then other clients who want it later don't have to pay for this?&#xD;&#xA;  3. Charge a percentage of $500 to all clients who want me to use it, to amortize its cost?  (If so, what's a good amount to charge?)&#xD;&#xA;  4. Raise my hourly rate for all services?  (This may be hard.  Clients in my industry may resist paying the higher rates of UX designers already.  They are used to web designers, who are on average less expensive.)&#xD;&#xA;  4. Another approach?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.nngroup.com/consulting/ux-research-usability-testing/#Benchmarking%20&amp;%20Competitive%20Analysis" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4568" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1649" RevisionGUID="84aa7b27-bbcc-46b5-bc39-bf6ad4e18ea0" CreationDate="2014-04-09T18:03:39.437" UserId="1323" Text="If I need to use more expensive software for one service offering than another, is there a standard way to build this into my rates?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4569" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1649" RevisionGUID="84aa7b27-bbcc-46b5-bc39-bf6ad4e18ea0" CreationDate="2014-04-09T18:03:39.437" UserId="1323" Text="|price|consulting|expenses|small-projects|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4570" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1650" RevisionGUID="8933acc4-5d30-47c9-bbf0-60b5945616f3" CreationDate="2014-04-09T21:48:10.440" UserId="2535" Text="I worked with a logo designer to create a logo for my small business. He came up with several designs that I didn't think were anywhere near on par with what he presented in his portfolio, and in the end, we just couldn't agree on a design.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand why he is pitching the final design he came up with. It makes rational sense, but I don't like it design; it's not inline with the image I want to project, and I'm not going to use it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I paid him 50% up front for this project. The terms were informal through an email: &quot;I charge 50% up front, and 50% after project completion.&quot; Do I have to pay him the remaining 50% for a logo I'm not going to use? I haven't yet received the final vector images from him, so I couldn't use it if I wanted to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not as worried about the legal implications (there was no contract), but the ethical implications. I know if I were him I would want to get paid, but I'm on a shoestring budget and need to hire someone else to do the job now. Do I pay him the remainder?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4571" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1650" RevisionGUID="8933acc4-5d30-47c9-bbf0-60b5945616f3" CreationDate="2014-04-09T21:48:10.440" UserId="2535" Text="Logo designer and I cannot agree on final product. Do I still have to pay?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4572" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1650" RevisionGUID="8933acc4-5d30-47c9-bbf0-60b5945616f3" CreationDate="2014-04-09T21:48:10.440" UserId="2535" Text="|design|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4573" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1650" RevisionGUID="1599d1aa-ca14-438e-8117-ddf50b2f840e" CreationDate="2014-04-09T21:54:09.513" UserId="2535" Comment="added 1 characters in body" Text="I worked with a logo designer to create a logo for my small business. He came up with several designs that I didn't think were anywhere near on par with what he presented in his portfolio, and in the end, we just couldn't agree on a design.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand why he is pitching the final design he came up with. It makes rational sense, but I don't like the design; it's not inline with the image I want to project, and I'm not going to use it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I paid him 50% up front for this project. The terms were informal through an email: &quot;I charge 50% up front, and 50% after project completion.&quot; Do I have to pay him the remaining 50% for a logo I'm not going to use? I haven't yet received the final vector images from him, so I couldn't use it if I wanted to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not as worried about the legal implications (there was no contract), but the ethical implications. I know if I were him I would want to get paid, but I'm on a shoestring budget and need to hire someone else to do the job now. Do I pay him the remainder?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4574" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1651" RevisionGUID="e9ce2893-f00e-46e3-a532-0c1daab16827" CreationDate="2014-04-09T23:22:10.770" UserId="2489" Text="1) Don't assume that there is no contract.  Your emails and verbal communications may be construed as one;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) It appears, based on your question, that you didn't define 'project completion.'  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it was agreed that 'Acceptance of final design by the client and delivery of vector images to the client' constitutes 'project completion,' then, technically, you don't have to pay - as the test for 'project completion' has not been met.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) From an ethical point of view, your budget constraints are no fault of the graphic designer - it appears he/she did their best - they deserve to get paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, you can always negotiate and come to an agreement - let the graphic designer know you appreciate their efforts, but cannot use their work, and if they'd settle for 25% instead of 50% - under the agreement that you will not use their work in production.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Graphic designers should always quote in terms of 'number of versions or concepts' because design is a very subjective and creative process - it could take months, if ever, for a client to be happy with a logo, and where does that leave a graphic designer in terms of being able to put food on the table?  However, graphic designers do this day in and day - they should know how to contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In terms of an 'ethical compromise' did exactly this in similar situation with a Flash designer - they were talented, diligent and professional - but it became clear that they could not pull off the job to the acceptance of the client.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We discussed the situation - and I told the designer that the current circumstances were not their fault, I could not continue with the them and I would like an amicable resolution.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I asked what price would satisfy him - he told me, I paid it - and we remain on great terms ever since.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The 'ethical' thing to do is work out a fair compromise with the designer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although I could have easily 'not paid' the designer, I never regret that I took the time to negotiate a fair compromise - and looking back, I trust if you take that approach you will feel that you've done the right thing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4575" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1652" RevisionGUID="23655be2-fefb-4d10-b314-09067e7ea6b9" CreationDate="2014-04-10T06:24:50.933" UserId="708" Text="As a designer myself my experience would tell me to work with you to find an logo you *do* want to use. I'd have a difficult time working on a logo and not satisfying the client in the end. If you haven't expressed clearly what you do not like and why you feel the current revision is unsuitable you should do so in a polite and respectful manner. Simply opening the discussion may be very beneficial. I know it would be for any client of mine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should be seeing his portfolio then a final... there should be multiple steps in between those two to ensure he *is* on the right track. If that's not the case, perhaps you need to ask why you aren't seeing preliminary ideas and only final designs and push him back a bit to show *ideas* before working towards final images. This is the most common path taken - discussion - 3-5 roughs - discussion - additional roughs or 1-3 comps (based on roughs) - discussion - 1-2 refined comps - discussion - 1 final.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have explained and the designer is still not &quot;getting&quot; it, and you are still unhappy with the work, and you just want to move on, then I personally, as a designer, would retain the initial 50% deposit/payment and not invoice for the remaining 50% (and not deliver final files)&gt; I can't feel good about charging final payments if the work was not satisfactory to the client. In reality though, every effort would be made to find something which *is* satisfactory before I reach this point with any of my clients. You really should speak to the designer about thi. They may feel a small fee is warranted, or they may feel that a &quot;kill&quot; fee equal to the amount you've already paid is fair. Only the designer can decide what they feel is amicable to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As @NivF007 posted, emails *can* be construed as a &quot;meeting of the minds&quot; and therefore a contract. Any good designer I know is going to seek resolution rather than trying to charge you for work you don't find worthwhile.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted, forgive me, but without knowing you or the designer it could be assumed the difficulty lies with you and your expectations. If your expectations are above and beyond what would be considered &quot;normal&quot; and the designer has made every effort to meet them, you are still unhappy, and the designer is no longer interested in seeking a solution for you. Then in those cases it's not uncommon for both parties to agree to walk away for fees already collected/paid. Again, I don't think anyone can tell you what is &quot;right&quot; or &quot;fair&quot; except the designer you are working with. If unreasonable demands caused the designer many, many more hours of work than was anticipated, he/she may feel warranted in charging you to cover that extra work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4576" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1653" RevisionGUID="4d673163-4ef3-4f45-ac7b-42550a10cc31" CreationDate="2014-04-10T06:33:44.963" UserId="708" Text="Software fees are the cost of doing business, thus overhead and not the responsibility of *any* client to pay for directly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't charge each of my clients for Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign although I use them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd be angry if my plumber charged me for his wrench every time I called him for a job. Or my mechanic charged me for his timing gun when he had to use it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Software tools are part of business overhead and in that sense should be worked into your hourly rate *as overhead* not as additional fees any client needs to pay for. You don't charge clients when you need new pencils or when you need a new office chair because yours broke. In the same manner, you shouldn't directly charge clients for other tools you use to complete your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted, if the client has a *specific* request for some *specific* web package or something which you would not use *beyond* that specific request. Then it would be reasonable to charge *that client* the fees associated with the tool they, and only they, need. For example (to use my field [design])... if a client requests a specific typeface from me and I do not already own it. Then that client is invoiced for the cost of that typeface, the license is therefor in the clients name and the typeface is not used for other clients. In this situation the purchase is the clients, not my businesses, so it is not overhead and the purchase is not an asset of *my* business given this scenario." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4577" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1652" RevisionGUID="085ace86-1114-4d48-9a38-39dc40815350" CreationDate="2014-04-10T06:42:31.387" UserId="708" Comment="added 105 characters in body" Text="As a designer myself my experience would tell me to work with you to find an logo you *do* want to use. I'd have a difficult time working on a logo and not satisfying the client in the end. If you haven't expressed clearly what you do not like and why you feel the current revision is unsuitable you should do so in a polite and respectful manner. Simply opening the discussion may be very beneficial. I know it would be for any client of mine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, perhaps I'm wrong but from the wording of your question it would see you saw his portfolio then a final design... This should not be the case. There should be multiple steps in between those two to ensure he *is* on the right track. If that's not the case, perhaps you need to ask why you aren't seeing preliminary ideas and only final designs and push him back a bit to show *ideas* before working towards final images. This is the most common path taken - discussion - 3-5 roughs - discussion - additional roughs or 1-3 comps (based on roughs) - discussion - 1-2 refined comps - discussion - 1 final.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have explained and the designer is still not &quot;getting&quot; it, and you are still unhappy with the work, and you just want to move on, then I personally, as a designer, would retain the initial 50% deposit/payment and not invoice for the remaining 50% (and not deliver final files)&gt; I can't feel good about charging final payments if the work was not satisfactory to the client. In reality though, every effort would be made to find something which *is* satisfactory before I reach this point with any of my clients. You really should speak to the designer about thi. They may feel a small fee is warranted, or they may feel that a &quot;kill&quot; fee equal to the amount you've already paid is fair. Only the designer can decide what they feel is amicable to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As @NivF007 posted, emails *can* be construed as a &quot;meeting of the minds&quot; and therefore a contract. Any good designer I know is going to seek resolution rather than trying to charge you for work you don't find worthwhile.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted, forgive me, but without knowing you or the designer it could be assumed the difficulty lies with you and your expectations. If your expectations are above and beyond what would be considered &quot;normal&quot; and the designer has made every effort to meet them, you are still unhappy, and the designer is no longer interested in seeking a solution for you. Then in those cases it's not uncommon for both parties to agree to walk away for fees already collected/paid. Again, I don't think anyone can tell you what is &quot;right&quot; or &quot;fair&quot; except the designer you are working with. If unreasonable demands caused the designer many, many more hours of work than was anticipated, he/she may feel warranted in charging you to cover that extra work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4578" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1654" RevisionGUID="0d6c55d9-d032-4e48-95e3-f4b561c73598" CreationDate="2014-04-10T06:45:00.693" UserId="2489" Text="I'm going to go with e) another approach&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charge the rate you estimate will bring you the most profit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the best answer in your case is to use a 'payoff matrix' to help you decide&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's a very quick way about how it works and you an can use it to help set the most profitable prices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's assume you have 20 clients - run some estimates of what you feel the outcome would be, and then select the price point you think would give you the highest profit. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) $500 per clients - clients are interested but price is high so you estimate the probability that only 1/20 will purchase - your expected value is $500, but you profit is $0 ($500 sales - $500 costs).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) $250 per client - more clients are interested at this price, so you estimate 6 (3/1) purchase - your expected values is $1500, but your profit $1000 ($1500 sales - $500 cost).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3 $100 per client  - many client are interests at this price, so you estimate 20 (100%) purchase - your estimated value is $2000, but your profit $1500 ($2000 sales - $500 costs).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because there are uncertainties, the approach is you to give your best estimate at guessing the number of clients who would purchase at each price point, and see which price point provides the most profit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is simplified version of the Payoff Matrix - a business planning tool which helps account for risk and uncertainty.   You can [read more about the Payoff Matrix here.][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is often said there is no such thing as 'certainty' in business - it's quite common in business (even large business) to use tools such as the Payoff Matrix to make business decisions - and in your case, it would only take a few minutes - and provided guidance on the best price points to make you the most money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.buec.udel.edu/kmetzj/business_consulting/Payoff%20matrix.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4579" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1655" RevisionGUID="c6261505-8218-4052-a399-9b65893c4a5e" CreationDate="2014-04-10T08:12:28.310" UserId="60" Text="One other thing that the other answers have not dealt with is how to handle time commitments.  Large jobs, if you don't throttle them, can be very damaging to your business because they can take you out of circulation for a long time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So in addition to building a trusted team you also need to make sure you have time to continue to be involved in all the things you do to build your business including taking on other jobs.  This can require a larger trusted team too...." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4580" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1650" RevisionGUID="95195388-0e2b-46e2-bb7f-ccc59f7f7595" CreationDate="2014-04-10T11:27:31.940" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/454219120264118272" />
  <row Id="4581" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1656" RevisionGUID="67dc3958-6422-43ec-83a0-77af33f34324" CreationDate="2014-04-10T11:30:45.600" UserId="16" Text="I have been working on a &quot;big&quot; advertising website for a known company in my country. The job wasn't much paid but interested so I did it. I also worked lot of overtime to build everything they needed, and they thanked me a lot for that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But then when it comes to payment, no one is answering me. It's been more than a month and I can't get any contact.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I'm thinking of just shutting off the website, or directly adding a message on it, that would generate bad buzz for them and bring attention. Do I risk anything legal doing that sort of things?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the precision: I have not signed any contract specifying any sorts of term. I have just a signed invoice with a description of the work. I also wasn't the only person working on it (I was on the technical part but there was some artists and authors too)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4582" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1656" RevisionGUID="67dc3958-6422-43ec-83a0-77af33f34324" CreationDate="2014-04-10T11:30:45.600" UserId="16" Text="Do I risk anything if I shut down a product that hasn't been paid?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4583" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1656" RevisionGUID="67dc3958-6422-43ec-83a0-77af33f34324" CreationDate="2014-04-10T11:30:45.600" UserId="16" Text="|contracts|legal|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4584" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1657" RevisionGUID="d36926b3-def0-4f9f-807a-3a5183248072" CreationDate="2014-04-10T13:34:10.177" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="I would take it down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if there was no written contract, there was an oral agreement between you and your client, where they would pay you and in return receive a product. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since they have not paid, they have not held up their end of the agreement, so the product is not theirs to have; take it down." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4585" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1657" RevisionGUID="1df360da-98ab-44fa-b938-a992696c95de" CreationDate="2014-04-10T13:42:31.177" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 254 characters in body" Text="I would take down all the parts that you produced.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if there was no written contract, there was an oral agreement between you and your client, where they would pay you and in return receive a product. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since they have not paid, they have not held up their end of the agreement, so the product is not theirs to have; take your work down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit: If you only contributed to part of the website, then you have every right to take down the parts that you produced. I wouldn't recommend taking off the work that other people did, since it's not yours to do with as you please.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4586" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1657" RevisionGUID="0722dbc0-7efd-49d2-a41a-d154df02bec6" CreationDate="2014-04-10T13:48:06.257" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 254 characters in body" Text="I don't think so*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would take down all the parts that you produced.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if there was no written contract, there was an oral agreement between you and your client, where they would pay you and in return receive a product. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since they have not paid, they have not held up their end of the agreement, so the product is not theirs to have; take your work down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They don't have any legal repercussions if you remove the work that you did that you haven't been paid for.* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit: If you only contributed to part of the website, then you have every right to take down the parts that you produced. I wouldn't recommend taking off the work that other people did, since it's not yours to do with as you please.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;\* I am not a lawyer. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4587" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1658" RevisionGUID="d280095c-d8fb-45d1-8224-eb983f9ba69f" CreationDate="2014-04-10T17:01:08.860" UserId="1706" Text="Oh, Malharak.  My goodness.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to shut it down ASAP.  Chances are that by now, your &quot;client&quot; has cloned all of your work -- which is not hard to do at all -- and put it up on a different domain.  I put the world client in quotes because frankly, without a written contract, you really don't have anything that would prove how the other party is a &quot;client&quot;.  You may never see a cent from this project.  Whoops! (frown)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It can be very, very difficult to get any money thru a court of law when there's no contract.  Here in the USA, even if a court renders a judgment in one's favor, that doesn't guarantee that one can **collect** on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't EVER, ever take this approach again.  Never feel like you're not being &quot;nice&quot; if you ask the client to sign a written agreement -- that's not how business works.  There are many more writings in this forum that pertain to the same thing, so I won't wear out the subject because you can just search through the listings, and study them -- study hard.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4588" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1651" RevisionGUID="03975f26-e94b-472e-b989-2a415a0da4f6" CreationDate="2014-04-10T17:07:19.460" UserId="75" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="1. Don't assume that there is no contract.  Your emails and verbal communications may be construed as one;&#xD;&#xA;2. It appears, based on your question, that you didn't define 'project completion.' If it was agreed that 'Acceptance of final design by the client and delivery of vector images to the client' constitutes 'project completion,' then, technically, you don't have to pay - as the test for 'project completion' has not been met.&#xD;&#xA;3. From an ethical point of view, your budget constraints are no fault of the graphic designer - it appears he/she did their best - they deserve to get paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, you can always negotiate and come to an agreement - let the graphic designer know you appreciate their efforts, but cannot use their work, and if they'd settle for 25% instead of 50% - under the agreement that you will not use their work in production.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Graphic designers should always quote in terms of 'number of versions or concepts' because design is a very subjective and creative process - it could take months, if ever, for a client to be happy with a logo, and where does that leave a graphic designer in terms of being able to put food on the table?  However, graphic designers do this day in and day out - they should know how to use a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In terms of an *ethical compromise*, I did exactly this in similar situation with a Flash designer - they were talented, diligent and professional - but it became clear that they could not pull off the job to the acceptance of the client.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We discussed the situation - and I told the designer that the current circumstances were not their fault, I could not continue with the them and I would like an amicable resolution.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I asked what price would satisfy him - he told me, I paid it - and we remain on great terms ever since.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The 'ethical' thing to do is work out a fair compromise with the designer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although I could have easily 'not paid' the designer, I never regret that I took the time to negotiate a fair compromise - and looking back, I trust if you take that approach you will feel that you've done the right thing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4589" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1652" RevisionGUID="20ea9e57-a4f7-46e6-9068-7379f05c2225" CreationDate="2014-04-10T17:13:03.667" UserId="75" Comment="added 137 characters in body" Text="As a designer myself, my experience would tell me to work with you to find an logo you *do* want to use. I'd have a difficult time working on a logo and not satisfying the client in the end. If you haven't expressed clearly what you do not like and why you feel the current revision is unsuitable you should do so in a polite and respectful manner. Simply opening the discussion may be very beneficial. I know it would be for any client of mine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, perhaps I'm wrong but from the wording of your question it would see you saw his portfolio then a final design... This should not be the case. There should be multiple steps in between those two to ensure he *is* on the right track. If that's not the case, perhaps you need to ask why you aren't seeing preliminary ideas and only final designs and push him back a bit to show *ideas* before working towards final images. This is the most common path taken - discussion - 3-5 roughs - discussion - additional roughs or 1-3 comps (based on roughs) - discussion - 1-2 refined comps - discussion - 1 final.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have explained and the designer is still not &quot;getting&quot; it, and you are still unhappy with the work, and you just want to move on, then I personally, as a designer, would retain the initial 50% deposit/payment and not invoice for the remaining 50% (and not deliver final files). I can't feel good about charging final payments if the work was not satisfactory to the client. In reality though, every effort would be made to find something which *is* satisfactory before I reach this point with any of my clients. You really should speak to the designer about this. They may feel a small fee is warranted, or they may feel that a &quot;kill&quot; fee equal to the amount you've already paid is fair. Only the designer can decide what they feel is amicable to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As [@NivF007][1] [posted][2], emails *can* be construed as a &quot;meeting of the minds&quot; and therefore a contract. Any good designer I know is going to seek resolution rather than trying to charge you for work you don't find worthwhile.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted, forgive me, but without knowing you or the designer, it could be assumed the difficulty lies with you and your expectations. If your expectations are above and beyond what would be considered &quot;normal&quot; and the designer has made every effort to meet them, you are still unhappy, and the designer is no longer interested in seeking a solution for you. Then in those cases, it's not uncommon for both parties to agree to walk away for fees already collected/paid. Again, I don't think anyone can tell you what is &quot;right&quot; or &quot;fair&quot; except the designer you are working with. If unreasonable demands caused the designer many, many more hours of work than was anticipated, he/she may feel warranted in charging you to cover that extra work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/users/2489/nivf007&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/1651/75" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4590" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1658" RevisionGUID="4b9627c4-0aed-4e49-b0b4-a473b7b727fb" CreationDate="2014-04-10T17:25:05.457" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 50 characters in body" Text="You need to shut it down ASAP.  Chances are that by now, your &quot;client&quot; has cloned all of your work, which is not hard to do at all, and put it up on a different domain.  I put the word *client* in quotes because, without a written contract, you really don't have anything that would prove how the other party is a &quot;client&quot;.  You may never see a cent from this project.  Whoops!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It can be very, very difficult to get any money through a court of law when there's no contract.  Here in the USA, even if a court renders a judgment in one's favor, that doesn't guarantee that one can **collect** on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't **EVER**, ever take this approach again.  Never feel like you're not being &quot;nice&quot; if you ask the client to sign a written agreement, as that's not how business works.  There are many more writings in this forum that pertain to the same thing, so I won't wear out the subject because you can just search through the listings, and study them -- study hard." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4591" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1659" RevisionGUID="d210db1b-3c24-4668-a10a-46c4a24d8096" CreationDate="2014-04-10T17:37:26.913" UserId="517" Text="You have to ask a specific client about this. Some do include all fees, some note. There is no rule. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only true is that if you don't ask, they will pay you offered price with yourself handling all fees. The only way to prevent this is to ask them. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4592" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1660" RevisionGUID="1dd662c3-211f-46da-a9f6-1e9f51f1558d" CreationDate="2014-04-10T17:42:26.860" UserId="517" Text="The easiest thing is to shut down all, but what if the client is sick or something. Chances are 90% that they don't want to pay you, but there are still 10% which you need to consider. This is all true if you expect more work from them and if you really like the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you have a direct contact with the client? Do Skype call to his mobile and see what is going on. Send them email with read recipient. PM him via some messaging service. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be kind and let them know that you have not heard from them X days and that you want to be paid. Ask for an immediate reply, any kind of. The most important thing is to **tell them that unless they reply in Y days, you will be forced to shut down their web service**. If they still don't reply, push them another reminder 3-5 days before the deadline. If still no replied, then shut down the service. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client has a really good reason for not replying, he will appreciate such conduct of yours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4593" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1661" RevisionGUID="f24aea31-4140-4203-afdf-08e9649b387c" CreationDate="2014-04-10T17:50:15.043" UserId="517" Text="Any serious designer will tell you that for the money you're paying him, he is giving you X number of changes. Did he mention this? If not, don't pay him. If yes and you're still not getting what you want, then there are chances that it's your fault. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although I am a developer, I mediate in design projects between my friend designer and the client. I immediately tell the client how many changes we offer for our price. And I don't change that. If I see that my friend made the wrong design in spite of client's clear instructions, then we do **one more change for free**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So maybe you explain your designer that you don't like the final design (you have right not to like it!) , try to list changes you requested and see if it's his or your mistake. Also ask for the last free change (only if he set how many changes his price includes).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since I am mediating such project, I see both sides and client's sentences like &quot;make the logo cuter with lighter effect&quot; will not help my designer to make what the client wants. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if he accepts for the final design, then have a audio talk with him, and describe each step of a design in details. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If nothing helps, then seek another designer. If the same thing happens with him, there are high chances that the problem is in you. In such case, find **the exact design or effect or color scheme you like** and tell the designer that you want such design. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4594" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1662" RevisionGUID="95d76d19-5035-4fb5-be3c-d9eb5fad7a6d" CreationDate="2014-04-10T19:59:04.110" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="Some time there are clients you have worked with and you are pretty sure they are not going to cheat. Also another case is escrow which also nearly eliminate non-payment risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there any good reason in such cases to stick with principle of asking for upfront?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4595" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1662" RevisionGUID="95d76d19-5035-4fb5-be3c-d9eb5fad7a6d" CreationDate="2014-04-10T19:59:04.110" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="Should I ask client for a upfront with whom I have worked earlier?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4596" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1662" RevisionGUID="95d76d19-5035-4fb5-be3c-d9eb5fad7a6d" CreationDate="2014-04-10T19:59:04.110" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="|payment-terms|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4597" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1663" RevisionGUID="739fcaef-6ace-4667-963b-fe8abb5cb8ee" CreationDate="2014-04-10T20:31:03.727" UserId="2541" Text="Yes, taking action here has substantial risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you add a message &quot;that would generate bad buzz for them and bring attention&quot; you could be sued for libel or slander by the customer. Maybe you wouldn't lose in court, but you probably don't want to go the expense and trouble of hiring a lawyer and going to court.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you shut down / remove the site, you could be criminally charged with computer misuse / hacking (depending on local laws). If you were the one paying the bill you could probably safely stop paying it (since the client isn't giving you any funds with which to pay it) and let the hosting company shut it down for non-payment. But since you say you are not the one paying the hosting bill, you do not have a right to shut it down. Again, you might ultimately prevail in court, but you probably don't want to go through this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The safe thing to do is to continue trying to contact the customer, and if that fails, sue for payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4598" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1664" RevisionGUID="2adbd191-3453-4eb0-a691-178965bdb3e0" CreationDate="2014-04-10T21:22:38.050" UserId="2543" Text="As a contractor, finding work can take up a lot of your precious time.  This is time I'd rather be spending making money, and not trying to guarantee my survival.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it feasible to hire a headhunter, or a marketing person whom you pay commission when they land you a successful contract, when your contracts a typically 3-6 months in duration?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there real people out there that specialize in this kind of work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4599" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1664" RevisionGUID="2adbd191-3453-4eb0-a691-178965bdb3e0" CreationDate="2014-04-10T21:22:38.050" UserId="2543" Text="Is good practice to hire a headhunter or marketer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4600" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1664" RevisionGUID="2adbd191-3453-4eb0-a691-178965bdb3e0" CreationDate="2014-04-10T21:22:38.050" UserId="2543" Text="|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4601" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1665" RevisionGUID="a3d06641-9cd6-4f56-b88e-6c2a71ba4d5e" CreationDate="2014-04-10T21:32:56.563" UserId="75" Text="I've been offered the services of lead generators, but for my business, they wouldn't work; they were in a call center in another country, wanting to cold call a bunch of businesses. That's not how I work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your business plan should be information about how you are hoping to attract and keep your clients. Make sure you stick to it! It is possible that head hunters work for your industry, and I respect that... But for my business, it would be a kick-in-the-face to my customers, and the types of customers I want to attract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another thing to be wary of is how will these headhunters know how much you charged a client, or that the client is the right fit for you? Will the head hunters get a commission *everytime* you sell work/services to that particular client? It seems very shady and vague as to what it would account to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I recommend is creating your own network, and using clients from there. Be it other freelancers, or just friends/family. Give them a kick back (i.e. a percent of the sale, a nice dinner, etc) for referring customers, but leave it at that. You are the one that then works on the relationship with your client, and you shouldn't need to be at a debt to someone else just to keep a client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4605" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1659" RevisionGUID="a8b28a34-728b-407f-8c8f-4ac592b12637" CreationDate="2014-04-10T21:39:56.260" UserId="2545" Comment="spelling mistake. " Text="You have to ask a specific client about this. Some do include all fees, some not. There is no rule. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only truth is that if you don't ask, they will pay you offered price and handle the fees yourself. The only way to prevent this is to ask them. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4606" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1659" RevisionGUID="a8b28a34-728b-407f-8c8f-4ac592b12637" CreationDate="2014-04-10T21:39:56.260" Comment="Proposed by 2545 approved by 75 edit id of 301" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4610" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1667" RevisionGUID="6a13c359-9fc6-4e63-a654-76b24b42d37f" CreationDate="2014-04-11T01:01:54.940" UserId="708" Text="Preface: I don't work with crowd sourcing sites such as elance, odesk or similar. I work with direct contact clients and not through some middleman portal. For this reason I have direct contact information with the client, their accounting, etc as they do mine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I always charge a percentage up front of any *new* client which I've never worked with before - regardless of how we came in contact with each other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I never charge a deposit or percentage up front for a client I've worked with (successfully) in the past. Previous clients have already proven the ability and willingness to pay. I've never been shorted by a previous client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The initial, first, project with a client is an exploratory phase for both you and the client. You're protecting yourself by requiring an upfront fee. The client is protecting themselves by not paying everything up front. Once business trust is established - you know they will pay and they know you can complete the work - that extra level of protection is often not needed in my experience. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4611" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1668" RevisionGUID="fbf5816f-72a4-4181-80ab-ad1d3dccb752" CreationDate="2014-04-11T03:23:04.757" UserId="2546" Text="Always ask for a percentage upfront for any new client. It's a good practice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What about the existing trustworthy clients?&#xD;&#xA;Don't become to bureaucratic with them. Because you are a freelancer, what they really need for you is to bear as much risk as possible and first of all to get the job done without wasting too much of their time (I'm speaking about repeating customers who you do know for a fact that they will always pay their debts).&#xD;&#xA;What you should never do is price reductions, too many concessions just because they are coming back to you with more work need to be done or low prices just because you are a freelancer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4612" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1669" RevisionGUID="96870fc9-bd3b-438c-97a5-ea20e4dd727f" CreationDate="2014-04-11T03:27:59.653" UserId="2546" Text="If you are the one who's doing the SEO for you than you should always do SEO for all your projects. First, it's about making the habit of using good practices on the job and secondly, you never know what your real opportunities are until you test all of them.&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, if you have five clients waiting for you to get their work done, than, it will be best if before doing the SEO you will get your clients money by doing the work they asked for." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4613" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1662" RevisionGUID="87ae2203-3605-45e4-8dbd-710c9d57b5ae" CreationDate="2014-04-11T04:23:40.440" UserId="64" Comment="edited for grammar and formatting; made question more clear" Text="I've had clients I've worked with who I'm pretty sure are not going to cheat by skipping paying. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Two options in cases of doubt is to put money up front in escrow, which nearly eliminates non-payment risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How will I know whether I should stick with principle of asking for partial payment upfront, when working with existing clients, or simply getting paid at the end?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4614" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1669" RevisionGUID="1aea04c1-ee13-4d9c-9efc-166d0eb62bfa" CreationDate="2014-04-11T04:35:21.580" UserId="2546" Comment="deleted 69 characters in body" Text="If it cost's nothing, than do the SEO.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have clients waiting for you to get their work done, put SEO on wait.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have to choose between doing SEO and improving personal contacts, choose improving personal contacts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you think long term, give priority on building a good word of mouth image and only than a good SEO presence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My pick: don't waste too much time with SEO." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4615" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1670" RevisionGUID="e168ad94-4607-4d47-8f51-bc688683ab49" CreationDate="2014-04-11T05:04:25.250" UserId="2546" Text="Each of your actions can make you liable later on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is also bad practice to shut-down work you've done (the client can state in any moment that it's intention was to pay but was short on cash and will spread the word that you are in bad faith and untrustworthy). You knew from the beginning the risks involved (or, you should have).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Leave aside your frustration end ego and act smart.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Write an email, send a letter and go in person and speak with whom was your contact until today.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's a well used practice to pay the bills after a month or more. Don't get scared by this delay. Use this time to find new clients and in meanwhile, send them recurring reminders that they need to pay the bill.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4616" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1626" RevisionGUID="45390314-7325-456a-ade4-d46f0fa87ddf" CreationDate="2014-04-11T08:25:31.273" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="deleted 3 characters in body" Text="This comes down to how long you're planning on spending in the UK. If you want to live there for a few months (&lt;6 months) and experience a new country, then there may be visa options for you that allow this. In the case of less than 6 months, you don't have to worry about tax, you can prove that you can afford to live there and pay your way, and generally are pretty low risk as far as the government is concerned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, when you start moving into longer amount of time (6 months or more), the question of taxes and tax residency comes into play. If you're living in the UK, you are using their public transport and their roads and enjoying their well looked after gardens and parks. The government pays for this stuff using taxes, and generally if you're working on a work visa somewhere for more than 6 months, you need to pay some degree of taxes to the government*, This usually involves getting a tax number, and your home government usually recognises the tax paid in the UK as a tax credit so you don't pay tax twice *. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a couple of things also to consider. Even though you may be contributing money into the economy, the government has to also consider the economical impact of you on their government infrastructure in the long run. Freelance work can have it's ups and downs, and usually everyone who has the legal right to be in the UK for any kind of relative long term basis will be supported on their national healthcare/unemployment programs to some extent.* This may have an effect on whether they grant you a visa or for how long. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the government, this is a matter of risk vs reward, and they have very strict (mostly automated) criteria for determining how risky your case is. These systems have been in place for years, much longer than freelancing online has been around, and so a lot of the systems do not really cater for the kind of world travel that freelancers like you and I can now do. It's going to take a couple of years before the immigration/visa laws start catering for workers online. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've spent quite a lot of time researching into this, and it seems we may just need to be patient and wait for the immigration laws to catch up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;\* In general, in my experience. I am not a tax expert." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4617" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1671" RevisionGUID="6eb4c2d7-be1e-4d80-a327-ac85792283bc" CreationDate="2014-04-11T09:31:12.847" UserId="2550" Text="I am an IT student and I know some programming languages. I want to do projects in freelancer. But I dont know how to start , how to get projects from others. First the employer might check my profile whether to give me the project or not. But I am just starting to work so how can I have a good profile in freelancer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4618" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1671" RevisionGUID="6eb4c2d7-be1e-4d80-a327-ac85792283bc" CreationDate="2014-04-11T09:31:12.847" UserId="2550" Text="How to start working in freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4619" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1671" RevisionGUID="6eb4c2d7-be1e-4d80-a327-ac85792283bc" CreationDate="2014-04-11T09:31:12.847" UserId="2550" Text="|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4620" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1672" RevisionGUID="473aed3e-0267-4a67-adc1-0b790491270a" CreationDate="2014-04-11T10:55:07.557" UserId="2551" Text="I'm a Software Engineering student, and first thing you do, make yourself an online portfolio. Showcase your skills. As a student you will have a lot of projects, add them on as you progress in your course. If your skills are good, hardly you'll have any project that wouldn't be worth showing. &#xD;&#xA;In regards to how to get projects. It depends on what area of IT you want to freelance in. IT is a very broad term. When I was doing Web Design, I went door-to-door offering my services to various businesses in town." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4621" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1673" RevisionGUID="3f2e0460-3441-470e-968d-b992d6838c3f" CreationDate="2014-04-11T15:17:55.170" UserDisplayName="user2554" Text="I went to a gamification conference in Dec. I met a HR from HCL. He gave his card and asked me to email him. I think he was offerening me a job. His designation is &quot;Senior Director Talent Acquisition&quot; I am thinking of doing some freelance gamification consultancy work to get some money which I can then invest in my startup. I was thinking of emailing him. Should I talk about fixed price or hourly? How much can I charge?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4622" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1673" RevisionGUID="3f2e0460-3441-470e-968d-b992d6838c3f" CreationDate="2014-04-11T15:17:55.170" UserDisplayName="user2554" Text="Pricing tips for a first time student Gamification Consultant?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4623" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1673" RevisionGUID="3f2e0460-3441-470e-968d-b992d6838c3f" CreationDate="2014-04-11T15:17:55.170" UserDisplayName="user2554" Text="|price-per-hour|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4627" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1675" RevisionGUID="b1452205-95ed-4fa8-bbcb-e3d2a61b85d3" CreationDate="2014-04-11T17:40:55.620" UserId="2546" Text="First of all, search for some internship to a company (a place where you give your time in exchange for the opportunity to gain knowledge and real life experience).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why do this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It will open many doors. You will meet people, you will have what to write in your CV and what to show when some one ask's for your portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In meanwhile, hustle; search for jobs in newspapers, on the internet of ask your friends.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not for last, make a habit of speaking about you as working in the given area of IT. Example: if you plan writing Java applications or games or mobile apps, when you speak about yourself to strangers say &quot;I do mobile applications&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4628" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1676" RevisionGUID="f08786f0-7461-4ae2-b7e7-12d1d87c6578" CreationDate="2014-04-11T18:05:56.257" UserId="517" Text="Well it depends. I have never used one, but if I plan to I would use him only to find me a potential long-term client. Not to negotiate in any way in my favour. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But be prepare to set a very, very precise rules as to what kind of jobs you seek, type of clients and other small details which you normally find &quot;normal&quot; when you look at some posting. Otherwise you will end up replying or chatting with clients whose projects are not interesting to you or you would never apply to in the first place. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This can be done by your PA as well. The key is to train person very well. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4629" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1671" RevisionGUID="4c6df131-b647-4fcd-a3ed-2e9eb6c140b7" CreationDate="2014-04-11T18:24:31.230" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="4631" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1677" RevisionGUID="de9e6518-b86c-4fa1-8eef-b35def7ba362" CreationDate="2014-04-11T19:00:39.583" UserId="708" Text="I work with *several* marketing teams. In my field (design) I've made connections with many marketers. The marketers often have clients in need of design. And I often have clients in need of marketing help. So, we trade referrals back and forth quite a bit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me, I would never want to &quot;hire&quot; someone to find clients. I want to make connections with people in related but different areas of my work. If you're a web developer, connections with marketing teams, web designers, publicists, writers, etc. will all yield new clients for you via referrals. There's generally no cost to you this way and most clients have already proven themselves to be valuable clients due to working with someone you already know. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4632" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1678" RevisionGUID="1032e71e-1384-4a14-b7df-05aa2a015bfe" CreationDate="2014-04-11T20:30:43.520" UserId="2489" Text="What skills-sets are considered essential for freelance developers (i.e. 'developers' as apposed to 'designers' - folks who 'code')?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*(i.e. mark up, scripting/programming languages, design, RDBMs etc.)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This question is targeted to freelance developers who want a career in 'coding.'" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4633" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1678" RevisionGUID="1032e71e-1384-4a14-b7df-05aa2a015bfe" CreationDate="2014-04-11T20:30:43.520" UserId="2489" Text="What 'skill-sets' do you need to learn to be a successful freelance web developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4634" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1678" RevisionGUID="1032e71e-1384-4a14-b7df-05aa2a015bfe" CreationDate="2014-04-11T20:30:43.520" UserId="2489" Text="|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4635" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1678" RevisionGUID="fbc07ed8-3eb4-43b5-acec-e67c15982f4c" CreationDate="2014-04-11T20:38:39.473" UserId="2489" Comment="edited tags" Text="|consulting|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4640" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1675" RevisionGUID="3de6d934-98a8-4b61-9478-c79155925fa3" CreationDate="2014-04-11T21:24:30.703" UserId="2546" Comment="edited body" Text="First of all, search for some internship to a company (a place where you give your time in exchange for the opportunity to gain knowledge and real life experience).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why do this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It will open many doors. You will meet people, you will have what to write in your CV and what to show when some one ask's for your portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In meanwhile, hustle; search for jobs in newspapers, on the internet or ask your friends.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not for last, make a habit of speaking about you as working in the given area of IT. Example: if you plan writing Java applications or games or mobile apps, when you speak about yourself to strangers say &quot;I do mobile applications&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4642" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1678" RevisionGUID="4b63eebe-42ad-4eda-8630-1af9f41737eb" CreationDate="2014-04-12T00:27:43.963" UserId="2489" Comment="Question was considered too broad.  Edited to narrow the focus to a) technical skills-sets; and b) freelance web developers has been narrowed to include only 'freelance web application developers (coders).'" Text="What technical skills-sets are considered essential for freelance web application developers (coders)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*(i.e. mark up, scripting/programming languages, design, RDBMs, versioning etc.)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This question relates specifically to 'technical skill-sets' (i.e. please don't include soft-skills such as people skills, or time-management skills, etc. as those are not 'technical' skills and beyond the scope of this question).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4643" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1678" RevisionGUID="4b63eebe-42ad-4eda-8630-1af9f41737eb" CreationDate="2014-04-12T00:27:43.963" UserId="2489" Comment="Question was considered too broad.  Edited to narrow the focus to a) technical skills-sets; and b) freelance web developers has been narrowed to include only 'freelance web application developers (coders).'" Text="What 'technical skill-sets' do you need to know (or be willing to learn) to be a successful freelance web application developer (coder)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4645" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1678" RevisionGUID="0ed03d97-c6ef-43a3-b3b4-9b2f550a04e9" CreationDate="2014-04-12T02:01:29.927" UserId="64" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="4647" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1680" RevisionGUID="4aba3de1-e269-40d9-9b29-faa090a877ce" CreationDate="2014-04-12T06:39:14.690" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="I have seen many peoples here claiming they have never worked on freelancing sites and get work directly from clients. How these peoples find new clients? In case they get referral how they managed to get their first client. Also, With my experience on freelancing sites, I found that referrals and repeating work with a client are never enough to keep you busy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4648" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1680" RevisionGUID="4aba3de1-e269-40d9-9b29-faa090a877ce" CreationDate="2014-04-12T06:39:14.690" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="How to get direct freelancing work without job portals" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4649" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1680" RevisionGUID="4aba3de1-e269-40d9-9b29-faa090a877ce" CreationDate="2014-04-12T06:39:14.690" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4650" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1681" RevisionGUID="d006b95e-0f91-4032-af69-e8b26df8394d" CreationDate="2014-04-12T06:58:08.747" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="&gt;He gave his card and asked me to email him. I think he was offering me a job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First of all you wait till he actually invited you for the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To decide your income, you can consult with your friends, professors and try to get idea of how much at similar posts other peoples are making. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Choosing a fixed price or hourly depends upon which you and your employer are comfortable. Are you good in setting fixed price budget or you good in working hourly. You should discuss it with your employer as they may have some preference for hourly or fixed price jobs. In case of confusion, you can left it upon employer to decide and later change it when you are comfortable with other. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4651" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1681" RevisionGUID="192aed7e-a5af-4d6a-8e0c-e05680ae7e01" CreationDate="2014-04-12T07:13:37.573" UserDisplayName="user702" Comment="added 1 characters in body" Text="&gt;He gave his card and asked me to email him. I think he was offering me a job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First of all you wait untll he actually invites you for the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To decide your income, you can consult with your friends, professors and try to get idea of how much at similar posts other peoples are making. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Choosing a fixed price or hourly depends upon which you and your employer are comfortable. Are you good in setting fixed price budget or you good in working hourly. You should discuss it with your employer as they may have some preference for hourly or fixed price jobs. In case of confusion, you can left it upon employer to decide and later change it when you are comfortable with other. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4652" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1682" RevisionGUID="fff5b524-ded7-4cfe-b238-1bfeb8605bb8" CreationDate="2014-04-12T09:14:30.957" UserId="708" Text="Business networking and word-of-mouth are the primary ways I receive clients. My connections established in this manner have always resulted in clients with considerable repeat business and an overwhelming amount of referrals. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've never found any need to seek clients through online crowd sourcing sites. I find the impersonal connection to be more harmful than anything. Business to business is a much better model than business-middleman-business in my opinion. People like working with people... not web sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To get connections you need to be in places where connections exist, - local chamber of commerce, business gatherings, industry functions, etc. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4657" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1684" RevisionGUID="19f6b627-00ca-42fd-95b8-cbe06d040497" CreationDate="2014-04-12T14:10:04.443" UserId="127" Text="The key to finding clients is to understand where your best clients will be, and then go there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thus the answer to your question depends largely on the kind of work you do, the kinds of customers you are interested in serving, and the types of projects that you want to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example: I am a freelance ASP.NET developer. I have decided my BEST clients are small organizations (&lt; 50 employees), where I work directly with the owner. These organizations are typically for profit, and are local to my area (so I don't have to worry about finding them if they don't pay up.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These customers tend to hire freelancers because they don't want the overhead of a consulting firm. They look for freelancers in their network, and they may do their own google search to find resources also. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thus, the best ways for me to find clients has been via referrals, and occasionally using very targeted local Google Ad Words. In 11+ years of freelancing, I am rarely slow for very long. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your situation may be different. If you want to work with larger companies, they may prefer to work through intermediaries. They may only hire organizations on &quot;approved&quot; lists. Some industries have trade groups that could provide a good &quot;in&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, you need to determine the attributes of your &quot;best&quot; clients, and then figure out how they would look for you and also where they will likely be. Then go there." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4658" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="821" RevisionGUID="4f349e2f-461d-4d09-95fd-be44609bb7ae" CreationDate="2014-04-12T14:17:46.360" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title; put questions at the bottom and the situation description at the top" Text="I have been studying iOS development on my own for about 8 months.  I'm pretty comfortable in my ability to build a small app with a clean UI, but don't know the entire API in and out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How does a developer determine they are qualified to be hired as a freelance developer?  How can someone relatively new know they are ready to put themselves out there to agencies and clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4659" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="821" RevisionGUID="4f349e2f-461d-4d09-95fd-be44609bb7ae" CreationDate="2014-04-12T14:17:46.360" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title; put questions at the bottom and the situation description at the top" Text="How does a developer determine they are qualified to be hired as a freelance developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4660" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1673" RevisionGUID="69bb034d-37c0-4404-a4cc-677abbf4d46c" CreationDate="2014-04-12T14:21:30.210" UserDisplayName="user702" Comment="just spelling correction" Text="I went to a gamification conference in Dec. I met a HR from HCL. He gave his card and asked me to email him. I think he is offering me a job. His designation is &quot;Senior Director Talent Acquisition&quot; I am thinking of doing some freelance gamification consultancy work to get some money which I can then invest in my startup. I was thinking of emailing him. Should I talk about fixed price or hourly? How much should I charge?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4661" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1673" RevisionGUID="69bb034d-37c0-4404-a4cc-677abbf4d46c" CreationDate="2014-04-12T14:21:30.210" Comment="Proposed by 702 approved by -1 edit id of 302" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4662" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1673" RevisionGUID="c01e1010-d4ea-4560-a0ba-a0206f138373" CreationDate="2014-04-12T14:21:30.210" UserId="64" Comment="just spelling correction; fixed title and some other copy issues; changed direction of the question to focus on the why and how" Text="I went to a gamification conference in December. I met someone in HR from HCL. He gave his card and asked me to email him. I think he is offering me a job. His designation is &quot;senior director talent acquisition&quot;. I am thinking of doing some freelance gamification consultancy work to get some money, which I can then invest in my startup. I was thinking of emailing him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I determine whether to talk about fixed price or hourly? How do I determine how much I should charge?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4663" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1673" RevisionGUID="c01e1010-d4ea-4560-a0ba-a0206f138373" CreationDate="2014-04-12T14:21:30.210" UserId="64" Comment="just spelling correction; fixed title and some other copy issues; changed direction of the question to focus on the why and how" Text="How to determine what to charge for a first time student applying to be a gamification consultant?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4664" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1680" RevisionGUID="c9b8fc16-6576-4c95-abb3-2d974a403f38" CreationDate="2014-04-12T14:34:48.350" UserId="64" Comment="put questions at the bottom and background at the top; copy edited\" Text="With my experience on freelancing sites, I found that referrals and repeating work with a client are never enough to keep you busy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have seen many people here claim they have never worked on freelancing sites and get work directly from clients. How do people like this find new clients? In cases where they get referrals from clients, how did they manage to get their first client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4665" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1680" RevisionGUID="c9b8fc16-6576-4c95-abb3-2d974a403f38" CreationDate="2014-04-12T14:34:48.350" UserId="64" Comment="put questions at the bottom and background at the top; copy edited\" Text="How to get direct freelancing work without job portals?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4666" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1338" RevisionGUID="fc7bacaf-07ad-4404-b0f4-34e44bc128fe" CreationDate="2014-04-12T14:53:18.053" UserId="1921" Comment="small correction of grammer" Text="This has happened with me multiple times that I got from some unknown person who gives reference from my known indirect contacts..  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And start directly putting his/her needs that I want so and so thing to be done, can you please start doing it now or as soon as possible without even asking me about I would like to work or what they would pay me to get work done or working terms..  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even when I ask for payment they say,&#xD;&#xA;&gt;oh we can even pay you if you want to get paid for that work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or sometimes  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;We were just thinking if you can help us out on phone itself&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;which means I will get nothing - Is there any chance of earning here as I am not aware how to act in such case?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am totally surprised by such approaches of people asking me to help them without anything for me to earn in return.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. How should I handle such things into benefit of own and they getting want they want?&#xD;&#xA;2. How cash in where people ask for help over phone only?&#xD;&#xA;3. Sometimes people say they will pay after they get payment from their prospects and never return to pay, So is there any secure way to get paid with such?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4667" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1685" RevisionGUID="cf257491-7733-432d-8172-713161f31718" CreationDate="2014-04-12T15:46:18.797" UserId="517" Text="As other said, it's a continuous process in which you have to be based onto building good relations, but also producing a quality output. Be a &quot;man&quot; and not an &quot;as****e&quot; who only wants one-time profit and will screw his client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nothing will sell you more than quality product which is capable of earning money to your client. No matter if he never thought of offering you another project, eventually he will either offer you a new project or merge with another person into new project or simply recommend you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also you have to be a man of word: if you promised something, do that even you had to work each weekend. Then be communicative and update the guy who is bringing you money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, it's a long process where for the next 2 years you may have only a couple of clients, and then the next year 20 clients. Freelancing is a strenuous process and many will try, but only few will stick to it and succeed. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4673" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1687" RevisionGUID="eaf223a3-2849-40c8-9845-51eef456a1c8" CreationDate="2014-04-13T15:47:09.513" UserId="2573" Text="I think this topic will be useful for a lot of people here. We are a growing digital agency, with over 8 years of good work, well known clients and great success stories. Our clients are mostly in the US and we are located in Colombia.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the past we have won clients through client references but we want to be more selective now, particularly in terms of project budget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We offer design, programming, online marketing (SEO/SEM) and some social media services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anyone direct experiencing hiring, working and evaluating commission based salespeople in the US?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cheers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4674" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1687" RevisionGUID="eaf223a3-2849-40c8-9845-51eef456a1c8" CreationDate="2014-04-13T15:47:09.513" UserId="2573" Text="How to find and evaluate a commission-based sales person for digital agency work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4675" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1687" RevisionGUID="eaf223a3-2849-40c8-9845-51eef456a1c8" CreationDate="2014-04-13T15:47:09.513" UserId="2573" Text="|sales|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4676" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1687" RevisionGUID="08832fa1-d4d4-45a3-8f64-14a74ec39a14" CreationDate="2014-04-13T16:11:37.890" UserId="64" Comment="focused on what the actual question is" Text="We are a growing digital agency, with over 8 years of good work, well known clients and great success stories. Our clients are mostly in the US and we are located in Colombia.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the past we have won clients through client references but we want to be more selective now, particularly in terms of project budget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We offer design, programming, online marketing (SEO/SEM) and some social media services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I find and evaluate a commission-based sales person for digital agency work?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4677" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1688" RevisionGUID="f6736991-1ea0-4e89-99fe-aa81ae5b6c85" CreationDate="2014-04-13T18:19:45.030" UserId="2574" Text="I'm putting a contract together. I had a previous verbal agreement with my client that they pay my invoices within 2 weeks (issued on a weekly basis), but it feels too long. So I want to have a clause in the contract to reflect a shorter period - say 1 week. What is a reasonable amount of time to pay weekly invoice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4678" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1688" RevisionGUID="f6736991-1ea0-4e89-99fe-aa81ae5b6c85" CreationDate="2014-04-13T18:19:45.030" UserId="2574" Text="What is reasonable time to allow to pay invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4679" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1688" RevisionGUID="f6736991-1ea0-4e89-99fe-aa81ae5b6c85" CreationDate="2014-04-13T18:19:45.030" UserId="2574" Text="|contracts|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4680" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1689" RevisionGUID="74059582-90b5-41ae-a691-7a2ab9369a5f" CreationDate="2014-04-13T20:44:47.203" UserId="2576" Text="There is no standard for this. Some corporate clients will take months to pay you. Some clients will proceed and pay instantly. For my part, I usually accept a 2-3 months payment delay." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4681" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1690" RevisionGUID="6030e8a7-a4c1-4176-bda1-b4270ca07e44" CreationDate="2014-04-13T21:32:31.797" UserId="708" Text="I put net 15 days on invoices. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;15 days is customarily the minimum. Remember payment may need to be routed through accounting, or the mail if a check is sent. You can't expect or require immediate payment in most cases, even though it's nice when clients do that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a weekly invoice, with 15 days you'll always be a week behind. The other option would be to request the first week up front (at contract signing), that way you are always a week ahead and can stop work if payment hasn't been received for the the coming week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Related: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1038/what-is-the-correct-steps-in-resolving-lack-of-payment?rq=1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4682" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1691" RevisionGUID="db335614-04d9-4423-9214-0a7a58760d9c" CreationDate="2014-04-13T22:43:23.733" UserId="2489" Text="What is reasonable in the circumstances depends on what you feel comfortable working out with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the best solution in your scenario is to very politely ask the client if you can shorten the payment terms to 1 week - you've got nothing to lose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They'll likely prioritize your invoices over their other bills (esp. if and when they are short on cash flow) because you asked.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to have a sense of what you can openly discuss and ask of the client without irritating them - but if you feel comfortable go for it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4683" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1678" RevisionGUID="c7d7f525-9c2b-46ad-b000-93a67997d8e7" CreationDate="2014-04-14T01:49:33.493" UserId="64" Comment="added in the &quot;why&quot; component" Text="What technical skills-sets are considered essential for freelance web application developers (coders)? Why are they essential?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*(i.e. mark up, scripting/programming languages, design, RDBMs, versioning etc.)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This question relates specifically to 'technical skill-sets' (i.e. please don't include soft-skills such as people skills, or time-management skills, etc. as those are not 'technical' skills and beyond the scope of this question).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4684" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1678" RevisionGUID="c7d7f525-9c2b-46ad-b000-93a67997d8e7" CreationDate="2014-04-14T01:49:33.493" UserId="64" Comment="added in the &quot;why&quot; component" Text="What 'technical skill-sets' do you need to know (or be willing to learn) to be a successful freelance web application developer (coder) and why?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4685" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="1678" RevisionGUID="f19fee1f-b22b-4e48-88d9-5152f9c8cd8e" CreationDate="2014-04-14T01:50:36.843" UserId="64" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:2489,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;NivF007&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="4687" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1692" RevisionGUID="3798fa8b-76e2-4ccf-b352-6ecf25d4cb69" CreationDate="2014-04-14T04:38:21.983" UserId="2579" Text="Recently a friend &amp; business owner has asked if I could assist a junior iOS developer employed under him with a project for a couple hours per week.  Having never heard of this kind of engagement before, how would I structure it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should the rate I charge be different if I only provide advising on best practices, versus actually producing code from time to time?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I proposed an hourly agreement at first, and then later moving onto a retainer once a fit has been established.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I imagine the role to be equivalent to acting like a teacher, with perhaps some occasional debugging to fix gnarly bugs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4688" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1692" RevisionGUID="3798fa8b-76e2-4ccf-b352-6ecf25d4cb69" CreationDate="2014-04-14T04:38:21.983" UserId="2579" Text="How to structure an agreement for training a junior developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4689" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1692" RevisionGUID="3798fa8b-76e2-4ccf-b352-6ecf25d4cb69" CreationDate="2014-04-14T04:38:21.983" UserId="2579" Text="|payment-terms|consulting|programmer|retainer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4690" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1693" RevisionGUID="bdc7a634-61a7-49e9-90db-f304c068f4df" CreationDate="2014-04-14T05:36:25.327" UserId="75" Text="I understand where you're coming from: you aren't doing as much work in your opinion, so you don't want to charge your full rate. I'm going to tell you though...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;CHARGE YOUR FULL RATE&#xD;&#xA;=&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why? Because, as a Freelancer, **you** are the professional, and companies need to realize that. As I state in other answers, you are being hired for your expertise, not your time. If you are selling just your time, you may as well be at a 9 to 5 job. Just because they don't want to use all your skills does not mean they automatically get a discount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An hourly agreement would probably be the best bet in this case, instead of by-project; you don't know exactly how much time will be needed here. And absolutely, get a retainer! Your retainer should be enough to cover you week-to-week, and documented carefully. See the other questions around here about retainers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, what happens when this contract is done? Do they give you 2 weeks notice, or some other notice period? They better! You are putting off other clients to help this one out, and you need to keep food on the table. When making your contract, add information about how either party can terminate the agreement; if they terminate before a deadline date, include a &lt;strike&gt;penalty&lt;/strike&gt; portion of the remaining payment. If you need to terminate the contract, offer to work until the retainer is completely drained, but explaining you will not be allowing them to refill it. This way, both of you have to agree to the end of the contract, or else the other has to deal with a &quot;consequence&quot;, so to speak.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Until you are done with this client, you will unlikely be helping other people. You need to be prepared for that, and be compensated accordingly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, what about the student's code? What if they need you later on in life? Can you restart the contract? Absolutely! Can you offer free support? Absolutely! Would I *recommend* offering free support? Heck no! It's up to the little tyke you're tutoring to ask all the questions they need to get going on their project. If they forget to ask something critical, and you remember, ethics tell us that you should tell them, and you absolutely should! But be aware of scope creep, or being contacted outside of the hours set aside for this client. You need compensated for your time and knowledge, which is what gives you value for your work. Never forget that!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4691" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1694" RevisionGUID="a9bae251-3b17-4172-a6c7-65aed87f2239" CreationDate="2014-04-14T07:44:56.880" UserId="43" Text="If you are going to be a successful freelance developer, then you need to be very competent across the entire web stack, from manipulation of data right through to presentation in the browser. You can't simply be a specialist in either front or back end development and rely on another team member to provide specialism in the other discipline, unless you partner up with someone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given the breadth of internet enabled devices that websites are expected to work on these days, a solid understanding of HTML/CSS and responsive layouts is a must. I don't believe that it's a designer's job to work on the presentation layer of a website. As soon as you have to crank up an IDE and write any kind of code (and I include HTML and CSS here) then you are firmly within the remit of the developer. Besides, having a flair for front end development is where you have the largest impact on your clients, because that is what they see. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Coupled with strong front end coding skills, which has to also include JavaScript, must come a strong appreciation of website usability and user experience. You often need to guide the client on the best way to present a particular feature, so having good UX skills is key. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't have to go much beyond a simple brochure website before a client is requesting features that require some kind of server side language, so competence in your chosen server side discipline is a given. The level of expertise and whether you also need any expertise in database design and manipulation will be determined by the kind of websites that your clients require. If they need something that is very data-centric or bespoke, then it becomes very important. If the website is not dependent on data particularly, or requires a CMS plugging in, then most of that is taken care of for you. The problems with not having expertise in the database aspect come when the inevitable question comes in asking you to customise this little bit over here and store some custom data. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Aside from the overall programming aspects, strong knowledge of whichever server platform you need to deploy your client sites too becomes far more important, whether that is IIS configuration for Windows, or Linux/Unix/Apache, etc. If the site needs to be deployed to the cloud, you need to be prepared to become an expert in whichever cloud hosting platform your client wishes to use. The more of an expert you can become in the way that these platforms work, the features that they provide, and crucially, how much they cost, the greater impact you can have on your clients' decision making in this regard.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also be comfortable with a variety of source control systems. I am currently working with clients that ask me to use Git and TFS and have also had to use Subversion and Mercurial, so having a willingness to embrace these technologies helps, both with client relationships and your own technical development." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4692" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1695" RevisionGUID="aeadbc2e-e09e-4a33-a242-39bdd92a30e0" CreationDate="2014-04-14T09:09:18.780" UserId="2489" Text="If you are a seasoned expert, you are passing on years of knowledge and industry expertise on a personalized basis - that is worth a premium.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This sounds like a good fit for a 'Mentorship Guidance Contract.'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(You can Google 'Sample Mentorship Contracts' for some examples).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charge your full rate.   I would suggest 2hr minimum sessions for this type of arrangement, and any additional prep, research and documentation should also be billable - same rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can, at your option and if agreed to by the client, include 'coding' (alternatively 'application development and consulting') fees, but keep your rate the same - you are being hired in an 'expert' capacity, and you generally don't switch hats in these types of arrangements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just make sure to define the scope of your engagement. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4693" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1696" RevisionGUID="f2991067-1418-4f32-8fab-39d0f232909b" CreationDate="2014-04-14T09:36:33.083" UserId="2585" Text="Recently one of my friend have started a new IT business,&#xD;&#xA;Previously he used to use freelance sites to get projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to Market a New Business and get projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4694" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1696" RevisionGUID="f2991067-1418-4f32-8fab-39d0f232909b" CreationDate="2014-04-14T09:36:33.083" UserId="2585" Text="How to Market a New Business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4695" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1696" RevisionGUID="f2991067-1418-4f32-8fab-39d0f232909b" CreationDate="2014-04-14T09:36:33.083" UserId="2585" Text="|marketing|consulting|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4696" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1696" RevisionGUID="a9884b0a-198b-41f4-9f57-abf06b749713" CreationDate="2014-04-14T09:42:48.200" UserId="2585" Comment="deleted 121 characters in body" Text="How to Market a New Business and get projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4697" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1696" RevisionGUID="1f6ef4fc-f5f9-4360-92cd-b1876408ed35" CreationDate="2014-04-14T09:51:24.097" UserId="2585" Comment="added 12 characters in body; edited title" Text="How to Market a New IT Services Business to get web &amp; software development projects?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4698" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1696" RevisionGUID="1f6ef4fc-f5f9-4360-92cd-b1876408ed35" CreationDate="2014-04-14T09:51:24.097" UserId="2585" Comment="added 12 characters in body; edited title" Text="How to Market a New IT Services Business?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4702" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1696" RevisionGUID="03571285-9484-4d65-a9b1-febe2032105c" CreationDate="2014-04-14T10:12:05.010" UserId="2585" Comment="edited tags" Text="|marketing|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4703" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1696" RevisionGUID="f2259921-b882-4df3-b5a7-47d9ae323367" CreationDate="2014-04-14T11:22:11.217" UserId="2585" Comment="added 756 characters in body" Text="One of my colleagues will be starting a new web and desktop software development company specializing in development of products &amp; providing services for Real estate, finance and healthcare sector. He wants to get clients for his product and services.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Previously he used to work as a full time freelancer and used to get projects from freelnace sites where there was no need to find clients as they post their jobs and we bid on it.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Now the step where he is stuck at is &quot;Getting Clients&quot;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;How to find and let potential clients know about products &amp; Services he is providing? &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;I wonder how big companies do this. What are the ways/steps they use to get clients?&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;1. He built a mailing list of potential clients and sent them mails but did not got any response&#xD;&#xA;2. Tried making Phone calls to list of people but that also did not work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4704" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1696" RevisionGUID="d25fdab1-ad4c-4084-a8a9-14278a132e3a" CreationDate="2014-04-14T11:28:41.777" UserId="2585" Comment="added 756 characters in body" Text="One of my colleagues will be starting a new web and desktop software development company specializing in development of products &amp; providing services for Real estate, finance and healthcare sector. He wants to get clients for his product and services.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Previously he used to work as a full time freelancer and used to get projects from freelnace sites where there was no need to find clients as they post their jobs and we bid on it.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Now the step where he is stuck at is &quot;Getting Clients&quot;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;How to find and let potential clients know about products &amp; Services he is providing? &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;I wonder how big companies do this. What are the ways/steps they use to get clients?&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;1. He built a mailing list of potential clients and sent them mails but did not got any response&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;2. Tried making Phone calls to list of people but that also did not work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4705" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1698" RevisionGUID="8a071758-acf4-4249-97c8-647a61742c7f" CreationDate="2014-04-14T13:47:30.080" UserId="2588" Text="I want to build an application for a client, I do not have a business registered. Is ok to send an invoice to a client through PayPal and use my own name in the invoice, not any business name?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4706" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1698" RevisionGUID="8a071758-acf4-4249-97c8-647a61742c7f" CreationDate="2014-04-14T13:47:30.080" UserId="2588" Text="Can I invoice a client for programming freelance work without having a business registered in the USA?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4707" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1698" RevisionGUID="8a071758-acf4-4249-97c8-647a61742c7f" CreationDate="2014-04-14T13:47:30.080" UserId="2588" Text="|invoices|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4708" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1699" RevisionGUID="b6506181-8853-4765-94a6-3a15b91df311" CreationDate="2014-04-14T14:55:14.860" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="Sure, of course it is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Invoices are not just for businesses, and you don't need to be registered as a business to sell a product or service. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are reasons to register as a business, though. Some people register a company so that they may sell shares to potential investors. Some people register a company because of the limited liability benefits that come along with. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Neither of those are necessary, though. If you're just starting out, there is no problem delaying business registration until you have reason to. I've been operating this way for the past 18 months." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4710" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1696" RevisionGUID="0bcc0147-c909-4aeb-a482-98992ea2ba06" CreationDate="2014-04-14T16:23:10.417" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 13 characters in body; edited tags" Text="One of my colleagues will be starting a new web and desktop software development company, specializing in development of products &amp; providing services for the real estate, finance and healthcare sectors. He wants to get clients for his product and services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Previously, he used to work as a full time freelancer and used to get projects from freelance sites, where there was no need to find clients, as they post their jobs and we bid on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the step where he is stuck at is &quot;Getting Clients&quot;. How to find and let potential clients know about products &amp; Services he is providing? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am wondering how big companies do this. What are the ways/steps they use to get clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. He has built a mailing list of potential clients and sent them mails but did not got any response&#xD;&#xA;2. He has tried making phone calls to list of people but that also did not work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4711" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1696" RevisionGUID="0bcc0147-c909-4aeb-a482-98992ea2ba06" CreationDate="2014-04-14T16:23:10.417" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 13 characters in body; edited tags" Text="|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4712" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1669" RevisionGUID="aa72af08-325f-4d2a-920c-dae51c3c920f" CreationDate="2014-04-14T16:28:49.150" UserId="9" Comment="Minor grammar, reworking of fourth sentence." Text="If it costs nothing, than do the SEO.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have clients waiting for you to get their work done, put SEO on hold.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have to choose between doing SEO and improving personal contacts, choose improving personal contacts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the long term, give priority on building a good word-of-mouth image. Only after that should you work on building a good SEO presence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My pick: don't waste too much time with SEO." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4713" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1669" RevisionGUID="aa72af08-325f-4d2a-920c-dae51c3c920f" CreationDate="2014-04-14T16:28:49.150" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 69 edit id of 304" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4718" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1669" RevisionGUID="dcb21c83-fd93-4150-a5d3-bd324938c829" CreationDate="2014-04-14T16:39:13.847" UserId="75" Comment="edited body" Text="If it costs nothing, then do the SEO.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have clients waiting for you to get their work done, put SEO on hold.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have to choose between doing SEO and improving personal contacts, choose improving personal contacts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the long term, give priority on building a good word-of-mouth image. Only after that should you work on building a good SEO presence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My pick: don't waste too much time with SEO." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4719" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1700" RevisionGUID="5190fb9b-b6d6-4621-84c5-5e8c910a9cb7" CreationDate="2014-04-14T18:29:03.423" UserId="2489" Text="Treat this just as would if you where hiring a paid employee, except that as freelancer, they can work remotely and the hours that they choose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Develop your job description, including an overview of your company (what you do, benefits of working with you), the roles and responsibilities, the 'skill-sets' (hard skills and soft skills) you are looking for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Specify that this is a commission based role and whether or not training is provided.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask for references and check those.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will find that most people are looking for at least some sort of base pay - but you never know - I have seen digital marketing agencies that have done quite well with commission only staff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Post on the job boards (Google &quot;Job Boards for Freelancers&quot; and don't forget about job boards like Craigslist, Monster, Workopolis).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can have a 'Careers' section on your web site too, and post the job description there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also get the word out on social networks (business and professional) and let people know  a) to tell their friends; and b) who to get in-touch with if interested.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To attract good talent on a commission structure, you will need to make the potential pay very rewarding.  To keep that talent, you will need to work with your commissioned sales staff to make sure that excellent remuneration is achievable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In particular, for commissioned sales jobs, you will be looking for professionalism, very outgoing personality - someone with a lot of energy, initiative and especially confidence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your commission structure is good and your services are 'sell-able,' then both you and the commissioned sales person should have an idea, after about 1 week, whether or not you have good job fit for the salesperson and a good salesperson for the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they show promise, reward them and continue to help them get better at sales.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if after a week, it becomes obvious that they aren't showing promise, get them to move on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Expect to have a high turnover rate for commission only sales positions - the most talented commissioned based sales people are like mercenaries - they'll go where they make they believe they can make most the most money, and why not?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So think about the payment structure and if that is what you want for your company.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4720" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1701" RevisionGUID="742f1ccd-81a4-4c4d-b9ca-3ab459316bc4" CreationDate="2014-04-14T18:29:06.543" UserId="1923" Text=" - **Always make it clear, in writing, what the payment terms and deadlines are.** I've seen anything from 10 to 60 days in various industries, but *never less than 10 days*. As already mentioned, there are a lot of hoops to jump internally for some companies to cut a check, so give them a reasonable amount of time. On the other hand, some companies will put off paying you as long as possible if there are no late penalties (especially if they have cash-flow issues already).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Include a moderate late payment penalty**, both in the contract and on each invoice, and hold them to it. [Late penalties are fairly standard][1], and something like 10-20% APY is common - see [this article][2] for how to apply the penalties, and send them a new invoice within after the due date that includes the new penalty.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Consider the trade off between your business relationship and prompt payment.** If a client is always a few days late, but always pays, is demanding a check 2 days earlier really going to matter if it might cost you the customer? On the flip side, if you're spending hours of your time chasing someone for money after each project, you might be ahead to drop them. Either way, discuss it with them. You might choosing to waive the late penalty for a good client - but make sure they are aware it is a per-instance exception and not a change to your terms (but don't rub their face in it).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your particular case, where **you have already agreed to an invoicing period**, even though it was 'only' verbally, I would be very hesitant to try changing that on a written contract. As a client, I would see that as pulling a fast one and would a little be wary of trusting you in the future. If this project goes well, you can always adjust the terms on the next project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancefolder.com/what-you-should-say-to-your-client-when-their-payment-is-delinquent/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/applying-interest-rates-invoice-36694.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4721" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1702" RevisionGUID="654293dd-06ad-4267-be8e-6bbf6c424244" CreationDate="2014-04-14T18:48:10.530" UserId="2489" Text="Let's face it - even asking somebody to design a 'quick and simple' web site to a Freelancer is liking telling somebody to just go write a 'quick and simple' book - you need some form of outline, content, branding, defined business goals etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So before you begin to develop or design a web site, what information should you get from the client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(i.e. Do they have a logo? What features are they looking for?  Do they have content? etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is a good way to 'sell the client' on providing you that information upfront, without over complicating the process, but making sure you, as a Freelance Developer have enough info to get the job done?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4722" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1702" RevisionGUID="654293dd-06ad-4267-be8e-6bbf6c424244" CreationDate="2014-04-14T18:48:10.530" UserId="2489" Text="Before you begin web design or development projects, what information should you get from the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4723" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1702" RevisionGUID="654293dd-06ad-4267-be8e-6bbf6c424244" CreationDate="2014-04-14T18:48:10.530" UserId="2489" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4724" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1703" RevisionGUID="9ebe073d-d452-4522-8318-bd55d1977eda" CreationDate="2014-04-14T19:38:44.847" UserId="517" Text="I am not a designer, but I pass all designs of my projects to my friend designer where I act as a middle man. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what we usually ask from the clients:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- official business colors&#xD;&#xA;- logo&#xD;&#xA;- design sketches (written on paper by hand, or by some pro tool)&#xD;&#xA;- a design he likes most or more of them&#xD;&#xA;- how professional or how artistic it has to be&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After all this info my friend tries to dig into client's head and then he make a draft. Since we already have important info (he will not create cartoon design for Pro business design), we rarely miss the topic. The client reviews it and then we all have the basis which will lead us to the final version. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The most important thing is NOT to miss the basic concept. After that, all will go more or less smoothly. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4725" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1704" RevisionGUID="175356d7-c548-4398-acf4-649381ffbfba" CreationDate="2014-04-14T21:21:28.360" UserId="1706" Text="Mistake #1 is labeling yourself as a &quot;coder&quot;.  To succeed in this game, you have to know how all the technical pieces fit together, and why, and when to use them.  That could mean:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Use of RDBMS or NoSQL databases&#xD;&#xA; - web services - use and implementation&#xD;&#xA; - file services - use and implementation&#xD;&#xA; - TCP/IP protocols - use and pitfalls&#xD;&#xA; - how to use one web server implementation vs another (IIS vs Apache vs NGINX, for example)&#xD;&#xA; - Networking (subnets)&#xD;&#xA; - when to use a CMS, and when NOT to use a CMS&#xD;&#xA; - Browser quirks&#xD;&#xA; - Caching - http and application&#xD;&#xA; - Secure sockets&#xD;&#xA; - Picking the best OS for an implementation (it matters)&#xD;&#xA; - Do's and don'ts of sending mass email or SMS&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All of these are technical skills that clearly transcend the role of a &quot;coder&quot;.  But go ahead, keep calling yourself a &quot;coder&quot; and you'll earn the pay of someone limited to flexing a singular technical skill.  To a veteran, this is ***engineering***.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4726" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1704" RevisionGUID="fc665294-e965-4bd7-b811-2353565ad98e" CreationDate="2014-04-14T22:15:27.967" UserId="1706" Comment="added 235 characters in body" Text="To succeed in this game, you have to know how all the technical pieces fit together, and why, and when to use them.  That could mean:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Use of RDBMS or NoSQL databases&#xD;&#xA; - web services - use and implementation&#xD;&#xA; - file services - use and implementation&#xD;&#xA; - TCP/IP protocols - use and pitfalls&#xD;&#xA; - how to use one web server implementation vs another (IIS vs Apache vs NGINX, for example)&#xD;&#xA; - Networking (subnets)&#xD;&#xA; - when to use a CMS, and when NOT to use a CMS&#xD;&#xA; - Browser quirks&#xD;&#xA; - Caching - http and application&#xD;&#xA; - Secure sockets&#xD;&#xA; - Picking the best OS for an implementation (it matters)&#xD;&#xA; - Do's and don'ts of sending mass email or SMS&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is a big mistake to label yourself as a &quot;coder&quot;.  All of these are technical skills that clearly transcend such a label.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your customers (or prospects) will develop a limited expectation of you by the very label you use (or allow them to use).  This limited expectation will often translate into the prospect paying you less than your real value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I answer to 'contractor', 'developer' or 'software engineer'.  'Technologist' isn't so bad though I think it's a term that doesn't indicate anything.  But never 'coder', and most especially, never 'hacker'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4727" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1692" RevisionGUID="3a018913-6e3f-4c40-8be9-87ab3935219d" CreationDate="2014-04-14T23:44:03.877" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/455854026178195457" />
  <row Id="4728" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1705" RevisionGUID="cf322e51-3202-40f7-811f-ce4f5dd87fd7" CreationDate="2014-04-15T05:10:39.483" UserId="2489" Text="You can take a couple of approaches:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Get a Business Partner that is Established and Well-Respected in that Target Market&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, let's focus on the service offerings for real estate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have no clients, it's tough to get the first one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if you got a well-known broker using your software, and it's good software, others will take interest, and you have instant 'street cred' because a well-known and successful person is using your software offering already.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Further, if you have that broker helping you to develop the 'tools' that all brokers need, your software offerings will be that much better.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, having the broker as a partner means that if more brokers use the software, that broker will make money as well - and they'll help promote the software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Offering custom application development to the broker is a very nice 'carrot on a stick,' and you can approach such a person, if you have a personal connection, at first as a mentor (i.e. ask them to evaluate and help improve - they can use the software for free).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to be careful how you structure such an agreement - but that's beyond the scope of this question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key here is to break into a specific target market and gain credibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) An SEO'd web site with a demo and good social media strategy is also a 'must.'  This is basic and straight forward.  A good web site can do wonders.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure you do some keyword mining, SEO'd blogs about the subject, integrate the blog into your web site and social media - make sure you have clear path to 'attract, convert and attach revenue to those conversion.'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, there are lot's more ways - but the above 2 can be pretty effective and are great starting points.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4729" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1705" RevisionGUID="58fc8ecd-f24c-4df6-936c-efa74059217b" CreationDate="2014-04-15T05:22:41.960" UserId="2489" Comment="added 1043 characters in body" Text="You can take any or all of the following approaches:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**1) Get a Business Partner that is Established and Well-Respected in that Target Market**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, let's focus on the service offerings for real estate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have no clients, it's tough to get the first one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if you got a well-known broker using your software, and it's good software, others will take interest, and you have instant 'street cred' because a well-known and successful person is using your software offering already.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Further, if you have that broker helping you to develop the 'tools' that all brokers need, your software offerings will be that much better.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, having the broker as a partner means that if more brokers use the software, that broker will make money as well - and they'll help promote the software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Offering custom application development to the broker is a very nice 'carrot on a stick,' and you can approach such a person, if you have a personal connection, at first as a mentor (i.e. ask them to evaluate and help improve - they can use the software for free).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to be careful how you structure such an agreement - but that's beyond the scope of this question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key here is to break into a specific target market and gain credibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2) Basic Online Marketing - Web Site, Blog, Social Media and SEO**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An SEO'd web site with a demo and good social media strategy is also a 'must.'  This is basic and straight forward.  A good web site can do wonders.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure you do some keyword mining, SEO'd blogs about the subject, integrate the blog into your web site and social media - make sure you have clear path to 'attract, convert and attach revenue to those conversion.'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, there are lot's more ways - but the above 2 can be pretty effective and are great starting points.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**3) Get a Mentor and Ask for Help**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, if you know someone in the target market, use that to your advantage.  Take them out for a coffee, let them know you want their advice on how to market your product.  Don't try to sell to them, get their advice on how to sell to their peers - this is a great way to build allies and support network.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember, that a lot of big companies started small, with just one client (i.e. 'Apple Computer') - everybody has to start somewhere, and people helped them along the way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**4) Put on Seminars**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Put on seminars and provide some useful information to your target market.   Look for associations, user groups, MeetUp groups etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Offer attendees a free consultation on how they can improve [insert relevant topic here], provide value in advance, build awareness and positive relationships.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a saying, &quot;If business isn't walking through the door, then you have to go out and get it.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4730" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1688" RevisionGUID="faa5aac6-f84b-4900-ae47-0f4c2cbce7ea" CreationDate="2014-04-15T05:48:42.800" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/455945794139717632" />
  <row Id="4735" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1707" RevisionGUID="f3859c74-b5ed-4aa0-95d8-5e40dc97cd7a" CreationDate="2014-04-15T12:28:34.700" UserId="2599" Text="Honestly you are selling yourself, and your ability to create something, your clients likely will not care what technologies you use in the process. Therefore I would say being competent with at least one set of full stack technologies. As others have mentioned this almost certainly means having a solid grounding in HTML, CSS and Javascript (arguably you can get by using templating languages and CSS preprocessors, but it all ends up being HTML/CSS/javascript). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From there it can go any direction, many folks enjoy the Ruby language and therefore the Ruby-on-Rails framework is a great toolkit. A great aspect to rails is the ecosystem of plugins (Ruby gems) for doing almost anything you will need for building most web applications. If you really enjoy javascript there is node.js and a number of front/back end frameworks from express to angular to meteor. These just scratch the surface of what is out there of course, the point I think is to find something you enjoy working with, and use that for a while. Also, regardless of the framework and language you use, it is important to have knowledge and experience with some sort of database system be it a RDBMS or NoSQL.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Design is a great technical skill, 'technical' may not be the right word though, nevertheless it is very important as its the part most customers will be heavily focused upon. Good design skills are a mix of passion, artistry and understanding your client and by extension, their customers. Its easy to imitate what other people have done, what has worked well, but knowing what design to apply where and when is what makes for a successful designer. I think practice is inevitable and invaluable, always seek feedback, but don't always listen to it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;TL;DR - Start with a full stack, and expand from there." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4737" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1709" RevisionGUID="01449bb6-6dda-4273-8820-43b313376b60" CreationDate="2014-04-15T15:19:49.143" UserId="2601" Text="If you mistrust a repeat customer, why are you continuing to accept work from them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agree that you can ask for payment upfront; that will 1.)scare away any potential scammers 2.)show you're serious about the job." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4740" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1710" RevisionGUID="6e9ab5fb-698c-4b56-8140-d8b6cc666ebb" CreationDate="2014-04-15T20:53:11.623" UserId="2607" Text="I know that there are other similar topics but I want to ask differently and I hope you answer differently too. I developed some apps and I have some experience. I created some apps as freelancer for customers too and I have calculated my hour rate for now (it's okay for now, when I learn more and more things it would grown).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My main problem is that I can't estimate right cost for app. So I want to ask if there is some general solution for estimating price. I know that easiest way is to multiply hours for developing app by my hour rate but how can I exactly find out exact hours need to spend for app? I have all pages/activities/views/... and functions needed for app written in contract but how can I figure out that this application with 4pages took 80hours and this app with 3pages took 130hours (because second is complicated). Should I use some program for this (like Excel, ...)? Is there a tutorial to estimate price? Or a book?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can imagine that I would use Excel and I have in one column list of functions and other things and in second column list of hours needed to solve/create that things in first column and my price would be sum of that hours*my hour rate. But I am not sure if it is good solution. Ofcourse it could work for some project. But I think there could be much better solution (more accurately estimate and other things). And in this solution I can estimate time for functions I know how much it take to develop but what if it would be new thing? Right now I should estimate price for OCR iOS app. How can I estimate OCR function which I don't do yet?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For every tip/answer/solution and other things I would be very glad :) I want to create some complex method from start to finish which gives me at start some early price. After full app description to have maximize precise price. And after work is done maybe some new experiences in next estimates." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4741" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1710" RevisionGUID="6e9ab5fb-698c-4b56-8140-d8b6cc666ebb" CreationDate="2014-04-15T20:53:11.623" UserId="2607" Text="How do I estimate the cost of building an mobile app?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4742" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1710" RevisionGUID="6e9ab5fb-698c-4b56-8140-d8b6cc666ebb" CreationDate="2014-04-15T20:53:11.623" UserId="2607" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|price-per-hour|price|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4743" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1711" RevisionGUID="700957a3-aedb-4e89-9d9a-b4ea2ab11cec" CreationDate="2014-04-15T22:46:41.113" UserId="1706" Text="Libor,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no formula for magically determining the number of hours a task will take based on complexity.  Rather than agreeing to a fixed price, you might want to break your project into milestones and give an ESTIMATE of the number of hours between milestones, and ***charge hourly***.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is most important especially when you consider the fact that as you finish your milestones, your client is probably going to be asking for changes.  If you do fixed price, you can't recover for such changes.  If ultimately the client is in charge of requirements then you want to avoid the client having the ability to make the work take much longer without you having any ability to receive reasonable compensation for your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4744" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1711" RevisionGUID="1bd0585f-85dc-4b6d-8bd3-1f3d43366b34" CreationDate="2014-04-16T00:34:09.817" UserId="64" Comment="removed greeting and fixed formatting" Text="There is no formula for magically determining the number of hours a task will take based on complexity.  Rather than agreeing to a fixed price, you might want to break your project into milestones and give an *estimate* of the number of hours between milestones, and ***charge hourly***.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is most important especially when you consider the fact that as you finish your milestones, your client is probably going to be asking for changes.  If you do fixed price, you can't recover for such changes.  If ultimately the client is in charge of requirements then you want to avoid the client having the ability to make the work take much longer without you having any ability to receive reasonable compensation for your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4745" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1687" RevisionGUID="55362ded-bf33-4a42-b630-73fc7d40211b" CreationDate="2014-04-16T00:34:49.120" UserId="2489" Comment="This is a a Q&amp;A for 'Freelancing' - Hiring employees for companies is beyond the scope of 'Freelancing.'  The edits made, however, change the question to hiring a 'freelance' commissioned based-sales person - that brings this question back within the proper scope of this topic." Text="We are a growing digital agency, with over 8 years of good work, well known clients and great success stories. Our clients are mostly in the US and we are located in Colombia.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the past we have won clients through client references but we want to be more selective now, particularly in terms of project budget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We offer design, programming, online marketing (SEO/SEM) and some social media services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I find and evaluate a freelance commission-based sales person for digital agency work?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4746" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1687" RevisionGUID="55362ded-bf33-4a42-b630-73fc7d40211b" CreationDate="2014-04-16T00:34:49.120" UserId="2489" Comment="This is a a Q&amp;A for 'Freelancing' - Hiring employees for companies is beyond the scope of 'Freelancing.'  The edits made, however, change the question to hiring a 'freelance' commissioned based-sales person - that brings this question back within the proper scope of this topic." Text="How to find and evaluate a freelance commission-based sales person for digital agency work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4747" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1687" RevisionGUID="55362ded-bf33-4a42-b630-73fc7d40211b" CreationDate="2014-04-16T00:34:49.120" Comment="Proposed by 2489 approved by 517, 64 edit id of 305" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4748" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1712" RevisionGUID="453ddf2c-9e63-4b83-a802-63471c25a55e" CreationDate="2014-04-16T08:22:28.823" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="A client hired me to research and develop a signal processing algorithm which would eventually be used in a final product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A couple of months in, I realise that the client's specifications are almost impossible to achieve. I put together a document detailing why, but the client continues to insist on paying for myself and a team of people to continue to research this particular idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's been getting to the point where myself and the team I manage are becoming very discouraged because we all can see that this isn't going to work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I really want to fire this client, but he is relying on my to manage his team and lead this project, so he's not going to be very happy with me at all. How do I get myself out of this without ruining my oDesk rating?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4749" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1712" RevisionGUID="453ddf2c-9e63-4b83-a802-63471c25a55e" CreationDate="2014-04-16T08:22:28.823" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="How do I fire a client who is asking the impossible?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4750" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1712" RevisionGUID="453ddf2c-9e63-4b83-a802-63471c25a55e" CreationDate="2014-04-16T08:22:28.823" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4751" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1712" RevisionGUID="392bec24-e320-4aca-ac10-c0a9ca94ea31" CreationDate="2014-04-16T08:28:54.760" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 59 characters in body" Text="A client hired me to research and develop a signal processing algorithm which would eventually be used in a final product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A couple of months in, I realise that the client's specifications are almost impossible to achieve. I put together a document detailing why, but the client continues to insist on paying for myself and a team of people to continue to research this particular idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's been getting to the point where myself and the team I manage are becoming very discouraged because we all can see that this isn't going to work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I really want to fire this client, but he is relying on me to manage his team and lead this project, so he's not going to be very happy with me at all. He's absolutely convinced that this is the Best Idea Ever. How do I get myself out of this without ruining my oDesk rating?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4753" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1714" RevisionGUID="89d319c2-dcee-4118-9af0-db06d4da55f8" CreationDate="2014-04-16T15:01:55.857" UserId="2546" Text="Increasing your fee and asking for some perks is a very good idea." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4754" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1715" RevisionGUID="00df69ec-b9fb-439c-90b0-8428b094f44d" CreationDate="2014-04-16T15:16:43.107" UserId="2546" Text="I believe the most important thing to ask for is the name of the person who will provide you with all you need to get the job done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before this, listen to the client ideas and expectation. You need to understand what the client knows, what he/she thinks of having an idea about and what you should talk about when the client stops talking.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you need assess is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Can I get the information/materials I will need when I start?&#xD;&#xA;- Will the client complain with my requests?&#xD;&#xA;- How many times he/she will ask me to redo the work?&#xD;&#xA;- How willing the client is to spend money on secondary needs (a logo you cannot provide, a photo session, and so one.)&#xD;&#xA;- How much the client or his employee know the job you are about to accept?&#xD;&#xA;- What the expectations are?&#xD;&#xA;- The history related to attempts on doing or maintaining the job/task/project you are about to take responsibility for." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4755" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1716" RevisionGUID="814f4221-8031-46f0-801a-af3dfdfb8a76" CreationDate="2014-04-16T15:25:29.727" UserId="2546" Text="Is there **someone from Great Britain** who can help me understand how much pay should I ask for as a Freelance Web-designer in case I start offering my services in UK?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a minimum that will not **unfairly** compete with the British IT Companies or the other Freelancers? How much should amount this minimum pay?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4756" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1716" RevisionGUID="814f4221-8031-46f0-801a-af3dfdfb8a76" CreationDate="2014-04-16T15:25:29.727" UserId="2546" Text="As a Freelancer how much should I ask to a British company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4757" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1716" RevisionGUID="814f4221-8031-46f0-801a-af3dfdfb8a76" CreationDate="2014-04-16T15:25:29.727" UserId="2546" Text="|freelance-websites|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4759" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1716" RevisionGUID="7d1a1e47-1b55-45f8-8499-65f6c7c0dfaf" CreationDate="2014-04-16T15:57:08.987" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|pay-rate|webmasters|great-britain|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4760" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1717" RevisionGUID="ee438780-431c-43e5-bb6f-6b89acc7da70" CreationDate="2014-04-16T16:09:21.523" UserId="75" Text="![enter image description here][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Show them the Service Triangle. Ask them to pick any two.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All joking aside, you need to remember that *you* are the expert, not him. If you documented it, I hope you explained the *technical* limitations, and possible even cited some sources that explain why it's impossible with `{ current technology | current hardware | current man=power | current laws }`. I would try to meet with him one more time, and simply explain to him one last time, &quot;Hey, this isn't going to work because of reasons A, B and C. We cannot accept anymore money, as money is not going to fix the issues preventing this from happening. It's not us, it's `{insert excuse here}`.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he doesn't listen this second (or third) time, you'll just need to walk away. It's harsh, but freelancers should not be walked all over. If they give you a negative rating, I would try to explain the issue to oDesk (I don't use oDesk, so I don't know how easy that would be, unfortunately). I prefer being able to sleep at night though, knowing I've made the world a bit better with my work. I have found that impossible problems kept me up at night, and it messed with my health because of that. Learn to say no, and stick to your guns. Your subordinates will thank you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/JKcdJ.jpg" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4761" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1714" RevisionGUID="e052412f-5f5a-4a4f-9cc9-1fd2f48e7d5c" CreationDate="2014-04-16T17:24:30.773" UserId="2546" Comment="added 805 characters in body" Text="From what I understand, you would like to fire your client and in the same time keep your good reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are many approaches to this situation:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Assure yourself that the client asks for what he/she really wants. Sometimes, they keep asking for improved standards or better quality just because they want to make sure they receive the maximum return on their investment and that the product can't get any better.&#xD;&#xA;2. Increase your fee and/or ask for some perquisites (perks). It may sound an odd idea but actually it can be the only way of closing the relationship by accepting client demands and in the same time making it impossible for him/her to afford your services.&#xD;&#xA;3. Ask for some external assessment (analysis) of the project. See if you can get some third party to enforce your believe that the specifications of the project can't get any better." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4762" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1717" RevisionGUID="c44a5c3c-bb00-4338-90e0-e1dd482645cb" CreationDate="2014-04-16T18:06:01.573" UserId="2489" Comment="Excellent answer.  I've edited to make it more concise.  If you are not an expert on oDesk, better not provide an opinion.   The joke that begins the answer and the opinion on oDesk detracted from the core answer, which IMHO, is excellent, so I suggest just leaving the 'informative bits.'" Text="You need to remember that *you* are the expert, not him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an expert, you should provide your client with a document explaining the *technical* limitations and, if possible, cite authoritative sources that explain why it's impossible with `{ current technology | current hardware | current man=power | current laws }`. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would try to meet with him one more time, and simply explain to him one last time, &quot;Hey, this isn't going to work because of reasons A, B and C. We cannot accept anymore money, as money is not going to fix the issues preventing this from happening. It's not us, it's `{insert reason here}`.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he doesn't listen this second (or third) time, you'll just need to walk away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's harsh, but freelancers should not be walked all over. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have found that impossible problems kept me up at night, and it messed with my health because of that. Learn to say no, and stick to your guns. Your subordinates will thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4763" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1717" RevisionGUID="c44a5c3c-bb00-4338-90e0-e1dd482645cb" CreationDate="2014-04-16T18:06:01.573" Comment="Proposed by 2489 approved by 75 edit id of 306" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4764" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1644" RevisionGUID="d5b5f29c-3acb-48f2-8a9e-cf30dcbbf946" CreationDate="2014-04-16T18:06:53.297" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body; edited tags" Text="I see on job sites many contract positions with certain hourly or daily rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are those numbers normally include the VAT?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is country specific, I primarily interested in UK.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4765" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1644" RevisionGUID="d5b5f29c-3acb-48f2-8a9e-cf30dcbbf946" CreationDate="2014-04-16T18:06:53.297" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body; edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4766" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="334" RevisionGUID="dca24b14-65f8-4037-8c26-ebe9763eba4f" CreationDate="2014-04-16T18:58:51.470" UserId="85" Comment="Added &quot;or members.&quot;" Text="It should be remembered that with any form of Limited Liability structure (LLC, Ltd, PLC) etc the liability is limited only to the **shareholders** or **members**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the event of a company failing, other than losing their investment, shareholders/members are only liable for any unpaid share purchase money (or nil, if all shares are fully paid up).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Beyond that, anyone may have further liability:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - The directors and office holders have a fiduciary duty to operate the company within the law, and can be held personally liable in the event of non-compliance.&#xD;&#xA; - Within many professions, there are rules to comply with - whether imposed under statute, or by the Professional Bodies.  Non-compliance may result in you being&quot;struck off&quot; or lose your approval to operate.&#xD;&#xA; - Any individual employee has an obligation to act professionally at all times, and can be personally liable in the case of negligence - hence the general recommendation to maintain Professional Indemnity insurance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, in the case of a freelancer, you wear all of these hats.  But a key skill to learn is to recognise which hat you are wearing, and when.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4767" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1718" RevisionGUID="b4a1563a-fd36-4f08-8df2-c56d39e4db3a" CreationDate="2014-04-16T21:04:26.313" UserId="612" Text="I have a small task that needs to be done and I projected to let the client pay 400 €. However, he now asked that the deadline should be set to next Saturday (in three days), and proposed to give 300 € if I do the task and 400 € if I do it for Saturday. I don't think I would drop my rate to 300 € because it sounds a lot devaluating, so I would like to let him pay 400 € if I do this task at all and 700 € if I do it for Saturday. Does that sound okay to you (friday is a holiday here in Europe, so I officialy only have one day to do the task, and especially he only has one day to find another freelancer, which I doubt he could do because he already builds the whole site with my contract))&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First question here, please comment if the quality is not there." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4768" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1718" RevisionGUID="b4a1563a-fd36-4f08-8df2-c56d39e4db3a" CreationDate="2014-04-16T21:04:26.313" UserId="612" Text="By how much can you increase your rate if the work is urgent?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4769" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1718" RevisionGUID="b4a1563a-fd36-4f08-8df2-c56d39e4db3a" CreationDate="2014-04-16T21:04:26.313" UserId="612" Text="|price|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4770" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1719" RevisionGUID="356fea57-1a6e-4340-b35a-7c0cd1c5e833" CreationDate="2014-04-16T21:40:22.340" UserId="2489" Text="I am a freelance web developer operating out of Toronto, Canada.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of my clients are in Toronto. Some of my clients are from other provinces.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also have many clients from the States and the odd one in Europe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All of my work is delivered electronically (i.e. as a web site (or as an enhancement to an existing web site) on a server).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What taxes do I need to charge (i.e. HST) for each of these cases?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4771" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1719" RevisionGUID="356fea57-1a6e-4340-b35a-7c0cd1c5e833" CreationDate="2014-04-16T21:40:22.340" UserId="2489" Text="I am a freelance web developer located in Toronto, Canada. What taxes do I need to charge for my services?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4772" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1719" RevisionGUID="356fea57-1a6e-4340-b35a-7c0cd1c5e833" CreationDate="2014-04-16T21:40:22.340" UserId="2489" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4773" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1720" RevisionGUID="da1930a9-5a64-4777-993d-f7ab72216bbe" CreationDate="2014-04-16T21:43:04.713" UserId="2546" Text="I myself am from Europe. I think Easter is at the same time for many people.&#xD;&#xA;Anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your client is negotiating with you. And you should do the same with him.  &#xD;&#xA;€700 is a good start and in this case you should expect €600. It will be OK to deliver until Saturday (April 19, 2014) only if you get at least €600. And, for the future, you should keep an eye on this client because he already showed a lack of respect by trying to negotiate so low with you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another detail. And this should be your decision.  &#xD;&#xA;In my opinion he offered €400 expecting you to ask for €500. If this is OK for you, you can start from €600 and split the difference by accepting €500 (but no less than €500).  &#xD;&#xA;Leave away your ego. Think strictly from an opportunity cost stand-point. If you have no other opportunities than be flexible (but, not too flexible because if you make a rush concession now, you will suffer on the long-run in revenue and image)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4774" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1721" RevisionGUID="b787db6a-8c5a-4635-a70f-8c86e629fa20" CreationDate="2014-04-16T22:33:35.133" UserId="2489" Text="It's not uncommon for freelance developers to charge double-time for last minute, urgent items, in fact I recommend it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As freelancers, we often get 'last minute urgent work' through no fault of our own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In effect, charging a premium for 'urgent' work is a good way to train clients to respect your worth and your time - but also provide an option that will remunerate you properly for effectively putting your life on hold to focus on their urgent project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4775" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1721" RevisionGUID="cedef786-6f1d-4fae-820a-5b97251da929" CreationDate="2014-04-16T22:45:33.063" UserId="2489" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="It's not uncommon for freelance developers to charge double-time for last minute, urgent items. In fact, I recommend it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As freelancers, we often get 'last minute urgent work' through no fault of our own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In effect, charging a premium for 'urgent' work is a good way to train clients to respect your worth and your time - but also provide an option that will remunerate you properly for effectively putting your life on hold to focus on their urgent project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4776" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1722" RevisionGUID="8b744335-7fc8-4c6a-98f3-ba4896c2bd65" CreationDate="2014-04-16T22:54:43.887" UserId="75" Text="According the [this CRA PDF File](http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/gm/b-090/b-090-e.pdf), you do not charge *any* tax if the product is for use outside of Canada, and it's not a physical product. It counts as an Electronic Product, so no taxes get charged if selling over the border.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This also applied if you host the website on your own server, within Canada. If they are getting services over the border though, it appears to not want you to charge any taxes (zero-rated)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It looks, though, that if you provide services within Canada, you charge your own tax ([CRA Source](http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/gst-tps/gnrl/hst-tvh/srvcs/cmptr-ntrnt-eng.html))" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4777" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1644" RevisionGUID="6bffd42f-a3c2-42ba-aef6-4427dd38571b" CreationDate="2014-04-16T22:59:45.777" UserId="2489" Comment="fixed grammer" Text="I see on job sites that many contract positions advertise a certain hourly or daily rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do those rates normally include the VAT?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is country specific, I primarily interested in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4778" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1644" RevisionGUID="6bffd42f-a3c2-42ba-aef6-4427dd38571b" CreationDate="2014-04-16T22:59:45.777" Comment="Proposed by 2489 approved by 75 edit id of 307" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4779" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="1723" RevisionGUID="a815e81d-f948-43bb-8f9f-4ee7c9945f67" CreationDate="2014-04-17T01:53:54.100" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/22789/how-to-talk-to-a-company-as-a-prospective-contractor-vs-employee" />
  <row Id="4780" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="1724" RevisionGUID="b5c767b6-8100-485a-bfb9-a2351462f80b" CreationDate="2014-04-17T01:53:54.100" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/22789/how-to-talk-to-a-company-as-a-prospective-contractor-vs-employee/22794#22794" />
  <row Id="4781" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1724" RevisionGUID="32493b2a-3b7b-4a38-8c0b-a5d91252562b" CreationDate="2014-04-16T16:33:47.290" UserId="1818" Text="Having been down this path before, here are some thoughts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Resume**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Since you are not an established contractor and likely can not share&#xD;&#xA;   any work from your current employer, your resume is the next best&#xD;&#xA;   thing to show to the company that you are qualified to do the work. &#xD;&#xA;   While your brother may have vouched for you, the managers involved&#xD;&#xA;   will need to see something to help justify bringing you on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Compensation**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - As always compensation is up for negotiations, you need to find a&#xD;&#xA;   number that you would be happy to work for and they are willing to&#xD;&#xA;   pay.  Using your current salary as a basis is as good start.  It is&#xD;&#xA;   good that you are already aware of the increased costs you will&#xD;&#xA;   incur, like Social Security.  You should analyze what you want to&#xD;&#xA;   take home and account for the added costs of taxes, social&#xD;&#xA;   security,etc and come up with a number. This can be your starting&#xD;&#xA;   point for negotiations.  Be forewarned though, as justifiable as it&#xD;&#xA;   seems to you, at some point they may consider your rate so high that&#xD;&#xA;   they might as well hire a fulltime developer.  This is were you will need to negotiate if you really want the work.&#xD;&#xA; - If you are only willing to work 10-20 hours per week, I would not include any bonus incentives based on completion time.  You need to remember that you still have your regular job.  What will happen if you decide to put in more hours to achieve this bonus payout and your regular job suffers.  I think a bonus clause can create a bad situation with conflicts as long as you are a full time employee somewhere else.  Current employer should be priority one, unless you are willing to lose that job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Expenses**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I usually provided a simple document spelling out types of expenses and who was responsible for the cost.  Both sides signed the document and off we went.&#xD;&#xA; - Any standard development software that has general purpose value, you should probably by for yourself,as you may use it again and it is not appropriate for them to pay for it if they are not the only company you use it for.  Any special software, that they require, they should pay for.  For example, I always owned my own copy of Visual Studio as I needed it for most of my work.  However, one of my customers required that I integrate with their source-control system whoich was required a per user license.  Since I did not need/desire this software for any other jobs, I had them pay for the license and uninstalled the software when the job was done.&#xD;&#xA; - Any travel that was required and was not to their office was to be covered by them.  I did have one client who needed me to meet with some of their clients off-site and that was their cost.  I consider travel to visit my client in his/her office as part of the cost of doing business.&#xD;&#xA; - I would say since the laptop is for you, you should buy it.  If they require that your development machine be managed by them for security reasons, like VPN access, then they should be responsible for that machine.&#xD;&#xA; - LLC fees don't need to be that high, although that certainly depends on the state and country you are working in.  I was able to form an LLC in the US in New Jersey for a recurring state fee of approximately $60 (if memory serves).  I didn't use a lawyer, you should check to see if there is a legal requirement to do so in your area.  I would suggest that for you own sake, forming an LLC or some other legal entity is a good idea.  This can help separate any work finances/obligations from your private finances.&#xD;&#xA; - In the end, I would say anything that is general use and/or valuable to you, should come out of your pocket, any special requests that apply only to them should come out of their pocket.  Of course all of this can be negotiated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4782" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1723" RevisionGUID="424e7fdb-fa97-4536-b13a-bb0adf9ea151" CreationDate="2014-04-16T15:14:24.103" UserId="2620" Text="Background: I am a software engineer. Throughout my career I have been a salaried employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My brother's company has some imminent deadlines and they could use some extra help with things that I have a lot of experience with; I recently discussed with his boss about possibly doing consulting and she seemed very excited about the idea. I already told them that while I'd love to help them with 10-20 hours per week, I'm not interested in leaving my current job nor moving (he and his company are in a different state).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question: I have never &quot;applied&quot; to work as a contractor before, and I'm wondering what is different about the process. A few questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Resume:** My brother asked me to give their HR department a resume. I think of myself more as a vendor than as an employee, is this request typical for contracting?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Compensation:**&#xD;&#xA;    - How much should I quote my hourly rate to be? I'm not asking for a number, I'm asking for the markup from what my time is worth, the fact that I need to pay extra for social security, etc. In other words, should I ask for 20% more? 50% more? Other?&#xD;&#xA;    - Should I try to negotiate a bonus in advance? I know they are really pressed by deadlines, should I ask for something like &quot;if we get done by this calendar date, I'd like a speed bonus of X% more&quot;. Is that sort of thing normal or should it just be a simple rate?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Expenses:**&#xD;&#xA;    - If I need to buy a commercial software tool, how do these costs get calculated? Should I just roll this into my hourly rate? Should I expect them to pay for it and expect to give them the license when the project is complete?&#xD;&#xA;    - I want to buy a new laptop. I was going to do this anyway even without this consulting gig. My brother's boss seemed skeptical about giving me VPN access on a personal laptop, but it didn't seem like a dealbreaker. How should this factor into the negotiations?&#xD;&#xA;    - They want me to form an LLC for myself. The fees are reasonably high to do this. Should I attempt to build this into my hourly rate as well?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Is there anything else I should know?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S. If this question is too broad or off topic, please let me know in the comments and I will do my best to edit to address these issues." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4783" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1723" RevisionGUID="424e7fdb-fa97-4536-b13a-bb0adf9ea151" CreationDate="2014-04-16T15:14:24.103" UserId="2620" Text="How to talk to a company as a prospective contractor vs. employee" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4784" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1723" RevisionGUID="424e7fdb-fa97-4536-b13a-bb0adf9ea151" CreationDate="2014-04-16T15:14:24.103" UserId="2620" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4787" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1723" RevisionGUID="57967ad1-ceea-4317-a815-a8053dd96dc3" CreationDate="2014-04-17T03:52:08.323" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|price|consulting|negotiation|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4788" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1725" RevisionGUID="5bcbb41f-a6a3-4438-828c-e0aa1a9237a5" CreationDate="2014-04-17T05:12:58.890" UserId="2517" Text="I've done about 2.5 years of certification course from Aptech in different types of programming languages. And now I want to earn my bread and butter from freelancing sites like Odesk and Elance.I've made my profile on that but the actual problem is that that I've only basic understanding of web development and on these sites there are lot of competition with more experience and low price bid.&#xD;&#xA;Now I'm in fix, that how can I make good reputation on these sites to make my future in this industry?&#xD;&#xA;I want to work from home as a web developer. But I've no professional experience on making a big projects. I've made small projects during my course. And my interest is in Asp.net web development.&#xD;&#xA;What steps and schedule should I choose to be professional in the Asp.net development industry?&#xD;&#xA;How and how long it will take me, when I can say that I am a good professional?&#xD;&#xA;Any suggestions and ideas will be greatly appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4789" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1725" RevisionGUID="5bcbb41f-a6a3-4438-828c-e0aa1a9237a5" CreationDate="2014-04-17T05:12:58.890" UserId="2517" Text="What way shold I go for?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4790" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1725" RevisionGUID="5bcbb41f-a6a3-4438-828c-e0aa1a9237a5" CreationDate="2014-04-17T05:12:58.890" UserId="2517" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4791" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1726" RevisionGUID="2d7af80c-2cf7-443b-a572-d1e4b309ef3d" CreationDate="2014-04-17T09:45:35.063" UserId="517" Text="There is not easy bred. You start with simple tasks, crumbles, and with growing experience start taking larger projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also it's advisable you build your own website firstly since building it you will face a lot of things you will later meet in another projects. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4792" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1727" RevisionGUID="f70f7bbf-1197-4bc1-8586-970adc954f26" CreationDate="2014-04-17T09:53:29.803" UserId="517" Text="No one can answer this because each estimation is based on someone's experience. If you've paid me to calculate it for you, I would also make a mistake cause you and I don't code at the same speed. Get it?!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would clearly state the client parts of the project which you are 100% sure of how long it will take. And then mark those which you are unsure. If you have split features to simple tasks, then you probably know how long it will take. And for all those unclear situations don't be afraid to say &quot;it may take 4 to 20 work hours&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then on some project management tool or Excel sheet (when you get the job), make a list of all tasks and then estimate all those individually as the project advances.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This all is true in case you have hourly-based project. In case of a fixed-price project, just give your best estimation if your really want the job. Yes, you will probably make a mistake and calculate less work hours, but you will gain great experience from that. We all started that way. Projects I coded for $500 when I started, I can now charge $5000 just because I am able to better calculate costs and cause I have knowledge and strong portfolio. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, give it a try. If you carefully detected all basic features and calculated the work behind them, you're on a good path. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4793" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1716" RevisionGUID="8452a1be-e543-46a4-82c4-23e96e276ca2" CreationDate="2014-04-17T10:21:13.490" UserId="2546" Comment="added 779 characters in body" Text="Is there **someone from Great Britain** who can help me understand how much pay should I ask for as a Freelance Web-designer in case I start offering my services in UK?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a minimum that will not **unfairly** compete with the British IT Companies or the other Freelancers? How much should amount this minimum pay?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By searching the internet I found this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ...you could be looking at the following price ranges in the UK from a reputable web agency:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - A small static web site with approximately 5-10 pages, design, coding, content and content optimisation, W3C Strict compliance: £2,000 - £5,000&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - As above with 20-30 pages £4,000 - £8,000&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - Content managed web site allowing you to add pages, upload content and images and create search engine friendly pages with compliant code output 8,000 - £15,000&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - Bespoke database or e-commerce web site with specific requirements and content-management facility £10,000+&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Source: http://www.the-escape.co.uk/reference/how-much-should-a-website-cost/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Given this scenario, how much should a freelancer ask for in comparison?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4794" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1728" RevisionGUID="8e5b3a0a-5866-4ab8-9e7b-914ddf786cd7" CreationDate="2014-04-17T15:36:49.283" UserId="890" Text="I'm freelancing with mobile apps now. Estimating prices has been far more difficult than the coding itself!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Time estimation&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;It is possible to estimate time required. Break it into a to do list. Nothing on your list should take more than 4 hours to build. Break it down further. Something like `Upload data (?? hours)` can be broken down into `Prototype sending binary data (1 hour)` + `Upload data from activity 1 (2 hours)` + `Process upload confirmation (2 hours)` + `Display upload success in activity 2` and so on. The smaller the tasks, the more accurate your estimates. It might take time to plan all this, but it will speed up your productivity and your client's confidence in the long run.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you haven't done something before, dedicate about half an hour to researching whether it exists and how hard it would be. Something like QR codes are very easy because there are plenty of libraries out there, yet PDF is near impossible. But it takes research to realize this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do your best estimate. Break things down if it's tough - time needed to prototype and test are important. Then multiply your target by 3. So if you think you can do something in 1 week, set a target of 3 weeks to cater for the unexpected, including redoing things from scratch if it fails.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best estimates are the ones you have experience with. I track down every task I do and use them for estimates in future tasks. My favorite tool for this is Sublime Text with the PlainTasks plugin.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients will want things their way&#xD;&#xA;--------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think a job will take 3 months? Your client will add a lot of time to it. In my experience:&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; - Polish adds 2 weeks to a job. More for Android. This includes cleaning code and comments, if you're giving them your source code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Allocate another 1-3 months to polish if you're dealing with a job where polish is vital, like clients in the field of event management and hotels. They'll complain about your corners not being rounded enough and ask why the fancy buttons they demanded look weird on large screens, even though you told them earlier that it wouldn't scale.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - If it relies on a webservice or API, prepare for development hell. Be prepared to demand that they finish their API first before you take on the job. I've seen 2 month jobs delay to almost a year because of waiting for their API.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - If your client is actually contracting out a job for another bigger client, be careful. Since apps are usually the front end, you'll be responsible for delays on the back end. They'll use you in order to buy time and appear like they're making progress. This week they'll want blue buttons this week and switch the color scheme to beige next week to appease their client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Many clients think changing the layout of an app is like making a powerpoint presentation. I have had arguments with almost every client about this. Make it very clear that it's not trivial to change their minds.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This may not always happen, but take it into consideration. There is no such thing as a 3 day job, unless they don't want polish. You'll have to be firm on what is and isn't included as a part of your contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have charges for changes outside what is agreed upon. Almost every freelancer has fallen into the trap of being nice and doing small changes for free, only to have a client eventually take advantage of that goodwill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apps based on special events are generally good, like those for elections or sports events. There's a 'hard deadline' after which they won't be demanding more work from you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Check out outsourcing components&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;What I normally do is outsource small components out to people online. This gives a good feel of worldwide rates for the competition as well as the market prices for certain components. Outsourcing is a useful skill to have for times if you have multiple projects running in parallel.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Actually getting your price&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;The reality is that you shouldn't be charging based on how much work *you* have to do. Market rate for an employee and market rate for an app are very different things! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;App development is a specialized field. iPhone has only been out a few years so there's nobody out there with 10 years experience. Larger companies can do better, but some will charge $100k for a job that takes 3 months to do. Freelancers are rare, especially those with experience. Learn who your biggest competitors are - this varies a lot within countries. The higher the education level, the lower your costs... something like Indonesia might probably have the highest rates for freelancers, because of the high mobile usage and less competitors per capita.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Many app developers can name their prices as high as they like because of the lack of competition. But be reasonable.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of it from the perspective of the person you're negotiating with. They need to convince their bosses as well. Don't explain how many hours *you* put into it. A fresh graduate in your town will do it for fast food wages. Some guy in India with a good degree and a year of experience is willing to work for $5 for 3 days. **Explain how you're more reliable than that guy.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should be charging based on how much your app is contributing to your client's finances. I've done multiple apps that digitize paperwork. These are the best because you're saving a company hundreds of thousands of dollars a year because of improved productivity, improved workflow, not having to lug as much paper around. You can charge hundreds of thousands for those. If you think that's too much money for an individual, let them negotiate it down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've done apps for small events like marathons. These don't pay well, but the benefit is that they can be used for every similar event. If you're looking for freelancing, that's not so great. But if you're looking at product development, building your own company, and financial independence, these can be good in the long run.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your app is part of a company's core business model, charge more. If it's just a fancy nice thing to have on the side, charge less but go for quantity." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4795" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1729" RevisionGUID="60a4f4b8-2cfa-4c29-a214-d50a318cb85f" CreationDate="2014-04-17T15:50:44.573" UserId="890" Text="Check out your country's labor laws. In my country (Malaysia), working overtime is 1.5x wages, working 7 days a week is 2x wages, and working on a public holiday is 3x wages.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the absolute minimum legal price increase for a developing country. If you live in a developed country with better labor protection, charge more. In Europe, double price for working your weekends off is probably cheap." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4796" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1716" RevisionGUID="961438ef-4191-4a36-9fc4-ccea0074bb8c" CreationDate="2014-04-17T16:35:23.307" UserId="890" Comment="A clearer title could attract the right people to answer..." Text="As a web developer, how much should I charge a British company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4797" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1716" RevisionGUID="961438ef-4191-4a36-9fc4-ccea0074bb8c" CreationDate="2014-04-17T16:35:23.307" Comment="Proposed by 890 approved by 2546 edit id of 308" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4798" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1730" RevisionGUID="368337dc-2ef8-4648-88cd-4043c90d902a" CreationDate="2014-04-17T17:17:44.507" UserId="2546" Text="- Each of this two sites have a sort of ability tests which you can use in building a good first impression. If you have theoretical knowledge, than you should score high. By doing this, you will gain edge (things will get easier).&#xD;&#xA;- Start small with small steps. Don't aim high (you risk losing optimism and enthusiasm). Do your bidding for small projects.&#xD;&#xA;- Make time and create a personal webpage and some sort of on-line presence (LinkedIn profile,  etc.)&#xD;&#xA;- Don't wait to be chosen. Hustle on both websites. You need to bid as many times as possible and when you do so, make sure your offer is hard to be dismissed.&#xD;&#xA;- Do some &quot;community&quot; work. Find a project or a non-profit organisation for which you can serve with enthusiasm and responsibility. This will help build a real-life experience.&#xD;&#xA;- Don't expect immediate results. It takes time and hard work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4802" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1732" RevisionGUID="32dca020-4238-4915-82a6-3c73506ee0ec" CreationDate="2014-04-17T20:03:31.477" UserId="2489" Text="I'm a freelance web designer and developer.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've very strong on the front-end (HTML/CSS/JavaScript), but need to work on my PHP skill-set.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I work from home and independently, it's up to me to develop my skills including a structured learning path - the problem is, as a freelancer running a business, it seems overwhelming and I don't have time, nor the money to invest in expensive course.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm looking for guidance on a structured learning path that I can spend 1 or 2 hours a day, that will take me from a novice PHP Programmer to 'PHP Cutting-Edge Master' over the next 2 to 3 years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I approach this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I learn, in what order, and what software and tools should I get familiar with?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any helpful tips?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How many hours a day is sufficient to set aside (is 1 or 2 sufficient?) and how long should it take before I can advertise myself as a Custom Application Developer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The answer I'm looking for is a 'high-level outline' that Freelancers working from home who are strong on the front-end but want to get good at PHP can follow, and eventually add those service offerings to their Web Design and Development businesses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4803" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1732" RevisionGUID="32dca020-4238-4915-82a6-3c73506ee0ec" CreationDate="2014-04-17T20:03:31.477" UserId="2489" Text="A solid structured learning path and approach to go from PHP 'Novice' to PHP 'Cutting-Edge Master'?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4804" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1732" RevisionGUID="32dca020-4238-4915-82a6-3c73506ee0ec" CreationDate="2014-04-17T20:03:31.477" UserId="2489" Text="|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4805" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1732" RevisionGUID="2fb47d4a-48a6-48cd-899d-ffa5aab0f7d9" CreationDate="2014-04-17T20:24:10.383" UserId="2489" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="I'm a freelance web designer and developer.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've very strong on the front-end (HTML/CSS/JavaScript), but need to work on my PHP skill-set.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I work from home and independently, its up to me to develop my skills including a structured learning path - the problem is, as a freelancer running a business, it seems overwhelming and I don't have time, nor the money to invest in expensive course.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm looking for guidance on a structured learning path that I can spend 1 or 2 hours a day, that will take me from a novice PHP Programmer to 'PHP Cutting-Edge Master' over the next 2 to 3 years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I approach this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I learn, in what order, and what software and tools should I get familiar with?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any helpful tips?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How many hours a day is sufficient to set aside (is 1 or 2 sufficient?) and how long should it take before I can advertise myself as a Custom Application Developer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The answer I'm looking for is a 'high-level outline' that Freelancers working from home who are strong on the front-end but want to get good at PHP can follow, and eventually add those service offerings to their Web Design and Development businesses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4806" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1733" RevisionGUID="e2814f9a-0de7-4daa-9d0c-d7ea36f713d7" CreationDate="2014-04-17T20:46:21.570" UserId="2546" Text="You should start by learning the basics of PHP and MySQL. For all available resources go on [Google: the basics of php](https://www.google.com/search?q=the+basics+of+php&amp;hl=en&amp;output=search).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, you need to understand what [MVC](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93view%E2%80%93controller) and a [PHP Framework](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_application_frameworks#PHP) is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In meanwhile you should strengthen your MySQL skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you are familiar with both of them, try CodeIgniter (is the easiest PHP Framework to learn). After that, jump directly to Laravel (my choice) or YII. If you think you can, there are also Symfony and Zend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As today, I find Laracasts.com to be a very good resource of tutorial (dedicated to Laravel).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you love hard-core learning, you can try WordPress. If not, look ad Joomla and Drupal. Of course, trying to learn by working with a _CMS_ is not to much of a big deal. Maybe as a front-end template designer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What tools you should use?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- NetBeans is a good IDE.&#xD;&#xA;- Git is a must.&#xD;&#xA;- Some text editor.&#xD;&#xA;- A local server (XAMPP is a good idea).&#xD;&#xA;- PHPMyAdmin (included with XAMPP).&#xD;&#xA;- MySQL Workbench.&#xD;&#xA;- A terminal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Starting from scratch is not easy. You will need patience and hard work. There is no single book, tutorial or approach able on giving you the right way of learning PHP from _Novice_ to _Cutting-Edge-Master_.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use as much as you can the [PHP Documentation](http://www.php.net/manual/en/). Be consistent and keep yourself up-to-date with current technologies." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4807" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1733" RevisionGUID="e4b7c83a-b76b-4aa0-b4aa-1a929d9d4a3b" CreationDate="2014-04-17T20:57:30.270" UserId="2546" Comment="added 26 characters in body" Text="You should start by learning the basics of PHP and MySQL. For all available resources go on [Google: the basics of php](https://www.google.com/search?q=the+basics+of+php&amp;hl=en&amp;output=search).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;_What else you shoold keep an eye on is Git and Composer (are two essential tools you should know about later on)._&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, you need to understand what **Unit testing**,  [MVC](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93view%E2%80%93controller) and a [PHP Framework](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_application_frameworks#PHP) is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In meanwhile you should strengthen your MySQL skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you are familiar with both of them, try CodeIgniter (is the easiest PHP Framework to learn). After that, jump directly to Laravel (my choice) or YII. If you think you can, there are also Symfony and Zend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As today, I find Laracasts.com to be a very good resource of tutorial (dedicated to Laravel).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you love hard-core learning, you can try WordPress. If not, look ad Joomla and Drupal. Of course, trying to learn by working with a _CMS_ is not to much of a big deal. Maybe as a front-end template designer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What tools you should use?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- NetBeans is a good IDE.&#xD;&#xA;- Git is a must.&#xD;&#xA;- Don't forget Composer.&#xD;&#xA;- Some text editor.&#xD;&#xA;- A local server (XAMPP is a good idea).&#xD;&#xA;- PHPMyAdmin (included with XAMPP).&#xD;&#xA;- MySQL Workbench.&#xD;&#xA;- A terminal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Starting from scratch is not easy. You will need patience and hard work. There is no single book, tutorial or approach able on giving you the right way of learning PHP from _Novice_ to _Cutting-Edge-Master_.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use as much as you can the [PHP Documentation](http://www.php.net/manual/en/). Be consistent and keep yourself up-to-date with current technologies." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4808" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1733" RevisionGUID="4afbd31b-ca0b-42cf-a13a-b235a430605b" CreationDate="2014-04-17T21:33:34.660" UserId="2489" Comment="A couple of typos fixed.   Some links to good resources added, etc.  Some additional misc. edits." Text="You should start by learning the basics of PHP and MySQL. For all available resources go on [Google: the basics of php](https://www.google.com/search?q=the+basics+of+php&amp;hl=en&amp;output=search).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;_What else you shoold keep an eye on is Git and Composer (are two essential tools you should know about later on)._&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, you need to understand what **Unit testing**,  [MVC](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93view%E2%80%93controller) and a [PHP Framework](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_application_frameworks#PHP) is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In meanwhile you should strengthen your MySQL skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you are familiar with both of them, try CodeIgniter (is the easiest PHP Framework to learn). After that, jump directly to Laravel (my choice) or YII. If you think you can, there are also Symfony and Zend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As today, I find Laracasts.com to be a very good resource of tutorial (dedicated to Laravel).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you love hard-core learning, you can try WordPress. If not, look at Joomla and Drupal. Of course, trying to learn by working with a _CMS_ is not to much of a big deal. Maybe as a front-end template designer, but learning how to modify and extend the PHP of those CMS involves a learning curve and you might consider joining a user group or participating in a support forum.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What tools you should use?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- NetBeans is a good IDE.&#xD;&#xA;- Git is a must.&#xD;&#xA;- Don't forget Composer.&#xD;&#xA;- Some text editor.&#xD;&#xA;- A local server (XAMPP is a good idea).&#xD;&#xA;- PHPMyAdmin (included with XAMPP).&#xD;&#xA;- MySQL Workbench.&#xD;&#xA;- A terminal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Starting from scratch is not easy. You will need patience and hard work. There might be some good books or tutorials that can help to teach you the best-practices while learning PHP and moving from _Novice_ to _Cutting-Edge-Master_.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, [Sitepoint's PHP &amp; MySQL: Novice to Ninja][1] and [Sitepoint's PHP Master: Write Cutting-Edge Code][2] can help get you started on put you on the right path.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use as much as you can the [PHP Documentation](http://www.php.net/manual/en/). Be consistent and keep yourself up-to-date with current technologies as PHP and PHP Frameworks are continuously evolving.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.sitepoint.com/store/php-mysql-novice-to-ninja/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.sitepoint.com/store/php-master-write-cutting-edge-code/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4809" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1733" RevisionGUID="4afbd31b-ca0b-42cf-a13a-b235a430605b" CreationDate="2014-04-17T21:33:34.660" Comment="Proposed by 2489 approved by 2546 edit id of 309" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4812" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1734" RevisionGUID="ad4e56ee-4e3c-46f6-9cf8-0d64f8468304" CreationDate="2014-04-18T05:02:16.110" UserId="980" Text="I receive a lot of leads requesting quotes for work to be done. Most of these leads end up fruitless. I've started to think that most of these come from other upcoming freelancers who are looking to provide estimates to their own clients without putting an effort to it.&#xA;&#xA;I would like to know as to what the best practices are in vetting a potential lead before providing time and cost estimates." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4813" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1734" RevisionGUID="ad4e56ee-4e3c-46f6-9cf8-0d64f8468304" CreationDate="2014-04-18T05:02:16.110" UserId="980" Text="How can one identify if a lead is genuine or not" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4814" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1734" RevisionGUID="ad4e56ee-4e3c-46f6-9cf8-0d64f8468304" CreationDate="2014-04-18T05:02:16.110" UserId="980" Text="|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4816" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1735" RevisionGUID="c3bfe647-f608-442a-8e20-f1009ce471df" CreationDate="2014-04-18T11:45:10.890" UserId="517" Text="Impossible in 99% of cases!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a long time, I am of the opinion that 4 of 5 estimations I make are done for other freelancers. At first, I was furious and could not know what to do, but then I sat and thought about it. What is an estimation in its essence? It a synergy of **YOUR** skills, experience and ability to solve problems. So if I estimate some project for 100 work hours, some other developer will finish it in 300 or in 50. After that I was relieved cause I knew that with each estimation I also get better at estimating and the bad freelancer will get into trouble cause he'll either not get the job (client will say it's overestimated) or he will need more work and will have to work for free. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are you relieved now?! :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But what should you not do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- give low-level estimation without receiving upfront&#xD;&#xA;- spend more than a couple of hours estimating&#xD;&#xA;- go into detailed discussion on technology you plan to use&#xD;&#xA;- reveal any your own trade secrets you reveal to your clients&#xD;&#xA;- not propose any new feature (I say here something like &quot;I have a few cool ideas how to make the app better, but I will disclose them after we start working&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, you should also rely on your hunch. If the client seems fishy, there are high chances he is. For that client either decline him immediately (I don't do this, very rarely) or give him a 15min estimation saying if he's interested you can talk more, blah blah. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4817" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1736" RevisionGUID="86cd441b-effa-4aa4-968d-28a5a9ca7ced" CreationDate="2014-04-18T15:45:18.613" UserId="127" Text="This is probably industry specific, but I will say this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a developer, the best clients for me are ones that will work in a partnership on their projects. I can't build a successful application for a customer if I don't have their regular interaction and guidance. This is probably also true for creative endeavors such as logo and website design.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Poor prospects (those who are tire kickers or other freelancers looking for price info) won't spend the time and effort answering questions about their project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A good way that I have found for weeding out some of these non-real requests are to ask a series of questions of the prospect to see their response. Optimally this would be a somewhat generic questionnaire that you could send to all prospects as a first step in your process. My questionnaire might ask:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Describe the goal of your project. What are you trying to achieve?&#xD;&#xA;* How will be measure the success of the project?&#xD;&#xA;* How many users do you anticipate having?&#xD;&#xA;* Do you need to support international users?&#xD;&#xA;* What kind of testing resources will be available during development?&#xD;&#xA;* etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It shouldn't be completely overwhelming to the prospect, but the reality is that asking questions like this can be an eye opener to someone who doesn't really understand the work involved in a project like this. I'd prefer to work with someone who has realistic expectations from the beginning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And for tire kickers and competitive-spies, they are unlikely to take the time to respond. Which is great, because now you don't have to pursue this any further.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Related: If this is a big problem for you, you may need to re-examine your marketing to determine why you are getting so many of these types of requests. You may need to tighten up the language or find better marketing avenues." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4818" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1735" RevisionGUID="99bb920f-1829-4c9a-bbf8-5d35541d55e1" CreationDate="2014-04-18T15:52:02.777" UserId="2546" Comment="To be sure people get the &quot;not do&quot; instead of reading &quot;do&quot;" Text="Impossible in 99% of cases!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a long time, I am of the opinion that 4 of 5 estimations I make are done for other freelancers. At first, I was furious and could not know what to do, but then I sat and thought about it. What is an estimation in its essence? It a synergy of **YOUR** skills, experience and ability to solve problems. So if I estimate some project for 100 work hours, some other developer will finish it in 300 or in 50. After that I was relieved cause I knew that with each estimation I also get better at estimating and the bad freelancer will get into trouble cause he'll either not get the job (client will say it's overestimated) or he will need more work and will have to work for free. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are you relieved now?! :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But what should you **not do**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- give low-level estimation without receiving upfront&#xD;&#xA;- spend more than a couple of hours/week estimating&#xD;&#xA;- go into detailed discussion on technology you plan to use&#xD;&#xA;- reveal any your own trade secrets you reveal to your clients&#xD;&#xA;- not propose (_explicitly_) any new feature (I say here something like _&quot;I have a few cool ideas how to make the app better, but I will disclose them after we start working&quot;_)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, **you should also rely on your hunch**. If the client seems fishy, there are high chances he is. For that client either decline him immediately (I don't do this, very rarely) or give him a 15min estimation saying if he's interested you can talk more, blah blah. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4819" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1735" RevisionGUID="99bb920f-1829-4c9a-bbf8-5d35541d55e1" CreationDate="2014-04-18T15:52:02.777" Comment="Proposed by 2546 approved by 127, 517 edit id of 310" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4820" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1716" RevisionGUID="002b1a91-1b18-47f6-8acb-8b117f0e2fa8" CreationDate="2014-04-18T18:13:19.993" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, removed some emphasis, retagged [great-britain] to [uk]" Text="Is there someone from Great Britain who can help me understand how much pay should I ask for as a freelance web designer in case I start offering my services in the UK?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a minimum amount that will not *unfairly* compete with British IT companies or other freelancers? How much should this minimum pay?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By searching the internet I found this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ...you could be looking at the following price ranges in the UK from a reputable web agency:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - A small static web site with approximately 5-10 pages, design, coding, content and content optimisation, W3C Strict compliance: £2,000 - £5,000&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - As above with 20-30 pages £4,000 - £8,000&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - Content managed web site allowing you to add pages, upload content and images and create search engine friendly pages with compliant code output 8,000 - £15,000&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - Bespoke database or e-commerce web site with specific requirements and content-management facility £10,000+&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Source: http://www.the-escape.co.uk/reference/how-much-should-a-website-cost/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given this scenario, how much should a freelancer ask for in comparison?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4821" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1716" RevisionGUID="002b1a91-1b18-47f6-8acb-8b117f0e2fa8" CreationDate="2014-04-18T18:13:19.993" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, removed some emphasis, retagged [great-britain] to [uk]" Text="|pay-rate|uk|webmasters|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4822" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1716" RevisionGUID="002b1a91-1b18-47f6-8acb-8b117f0e2fa8" CreationDate="2014-04-18T18:13:19.993" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 2546 edit id of 311" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4823" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1716" RevisionGUID="3e9dae71-6610-4d09-bda3-4f1f0729e012" CreationDate="2014-04-18T18:13:55.533" UserId="2546" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="Is there someone from Great Britain who can help me understand how much pay should I ask for as a freelance web designer in case I start offering my services in the UK?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a minimum amount that will not *unfairly* compete with British IT companies or other freelancers? How much should this minimum be?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By searching the internet I found this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ...you could be looking at the following price ranges in the UK from a reputable web agency:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - A small static web site with approximately 5-10 pages, design, coding, content and content optimisation, W3C Strict compliance: £2,000 - £5,000&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - As above with 20-30 pages £4,000 - £8,000&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - Content managed web site allowing you to add pages, upload content and images and create search engine friendly pages with compliant code output 8,000 - £15,000&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - Bespoke database or e-commerce web site with specific requirements and content-management facility £10,000+&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Source: http://www.the-escape.co.uk/reference/how-much-should-a-website-cost/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given this scenario, how much should a freelancer ask for in comparison?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4824" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1733" RevisionGUID="916f1ff3-31f6-4e98-b161-01f454070f61" CreationDate="2014-04-18T18:32:15.333" UserId="2546" Comment="added 64 characters in body" Text="You should start by learning the basics of PHP and MySQL. For all available resources go on [Google: the basics of php](https://www.google.com/search?q=the+basics+of+php&amp;hl=en&amp;output=search).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;_What else you shoold keep an eye on is Git and Composer (are two essential tools you should know about later on)._&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, you need to understand what **Unit testing**,  [MVC](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93view%E2%80%93controller) and a [PHP Framework](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_application_frameworks#PHP) is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In meanwhile you should strengthen your MySQL skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you are familiar with both of them, try CodeIgniter (is the easiest PHP Framework to learn). After that, jump directly to Laravel (my choice) or YII. If you think you can, there are also Symfony and Zend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As today, I find Laracasts.com to be a very good resource of tutorial (dedicated to Laravel).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you love hard-core learning, you can try WordPress. If not, look at Joomla and Drupal. Of course, trying to learn by working with a _CMS_ is not to much of a big deal. Maybe as a front-end template designer, but learning how to modify and extend the PHP of those CMS involves a learning curve and you might consider joining a user group or participating in a support forum.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What tools you should use?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- NetBeans is a good IDE.&#xD;&#xA;- Git is a must ([Here](http://git-scm.com/book) you can find a very good book).&#xD;&#xA;- Don't forget Composer.&#xD;&#xA;- Some text editor.&#xD;&#xA;- A local server (XAMPP is a good idea).&#xD;&#xA;- PHPMyAdmin (included with XAMPP).&#xD;&#xA;- MySQL Workbench.&#xD;&#xA;- A terminal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Starting from scratch is not easy. You will need patience and hard work. There might be some good books or tutorials that can help to teach you the best-practices while learning PHP and moving from _Novice_ to _Cutting-Edge-Master_.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, [Sitepoint's PHP &amp; MySQL: Novice to Ninja][1] and [Sitepoint's PHP Master: Write Cutting-Edge Code][2] can help get you started on put you on the right path.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use as much as you can the [PHP Documentation](http://www.php.net/manual/en/). Be consistent and keep yourself up-to-date with current technologies as PHP and PHP Frameworks are continuously evolving.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.sitepoint.com/store/php-mysql-novice-to-ninja/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.sitepoint.com/store/php-master-write-cutting-edge-code/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4825" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1737" RevisionGUID="8931c477-8a55-426c-8757-062c9e6c1579" CreationDate="2014-04-18T19:08:08.637" UserId="2546" Text="There are many screening techniques but before I go in further details please bear in mind one aspect of the problem: _&quot;By doing this (deep-screening) you risk loosing potential customers which is, there is always a good or a bad in every chosen approach.&quot;_&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are some vetting techniques:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- When you receive a new request, make them work for it. Ask for some specifics about the project. The more they invest, the more engaged they get and of course there is your proof that they have good intentions.&#xD;&#xA;- Before answering, make sure they speak in the behalf of a real company (an authentic email message should contain the telephone number, the name and the address of the company, first and last name of the person who sent the email and so on.)&#xD;&#xA;- When you first respond, you should always be brief by asking more questions than making statements (if you don't know your prospective client, how can you tell that your estimate is what they really want?)&#xD;&#xA;- Identify the channel which brings you the most time-wasting requests (your website, some ad in a paper, social media, other sources). Once identified the source, change what's necessary; the message, the price, the terms." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4826" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1737" RevisionGUID="1d25b0b3-e76f-4a3b-8f62-a4ff025f96ed" CreationDate="2014-04-18T19:57:27.573" UserId="2546" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="There are many screening techniques but before I go in further details please bear in mind one aspect of the problem: _&quot;By doing this (deep-screening) you risk loosing potential customers which is, there is always a good and a bad in every chosen approach.&quot;_&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are some vetting techniques:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- When you receive a new request, make them work for it. Ask for some specifics about the project. The more they invest, the more engaged they get and of course there is your proof that they have good intentions.&#xD;&#xA;- Before answering, make sure they speak in the behalf of a real company (an authentic email message should contain the telephone number, the name and the address of the company, first and last name of the person who sent the email and so on.)&#xD;&#xA;- When you first respond, you should always be brief by asking more questions than making statements (if you don't know your prospective client, how can you tell that your estimate is what they really want?)&#xD;&#xA;- Identify the channel which brings you the most time-wasting requests (your website, some ad in a paper, social media, other sources). Once identified the source, change what's necessary; the message, the price, the terms." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4827" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1738" RevisionGUID="e6c3e574-ee4e-4c4a-9d80-f68232eee9de" CreationDate="2014-04-18T22:36:06.833" UserId="1706" Text="What in the world do you mean by &quot;unfair&quot;???  We live in a global economy now.  Your price is your price.  Your expertise is ***your*** expertise.  There's no such thing as an unfair price.  Unfortunate for some and fortunate for others --- that will ALWAYS be the case no matter what kind of business you're talking about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't worry about what the next guy is earning until you have a bona fide reason to.  If your expertise validates your price, that's all that matters in the end.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4828" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1739" RevisionGUID="71ec7e8b-6f0b-425c-804f-7b0de920d363" CreationDate="2014-04-18T22:59:33.393" UserId="9" Text="The main reason that companies will undercut prices is to take a short-term loss, drive competitors out (since they can no longer compete in that market), then raise prices again, since they now have an effective monopoly in the area. However, since the barriers to entry for web designing are pretty low, it is easy to enter and exit the market (in comparison to, say, manufacturing). You can undercut prices, but it wouldn't heavily affect other companies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the end of the day, you should charge money dependent on the market _and_ your level of expertise. Feel free to use the guide that you found, but it shouldn't be the end-all be-all. Keep in mind that incoming work may be unstable, so you need to take that into consideration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing you can do to determine a price is to use a calculator (such as [this][1]) to see how much you need for _your_ comfort.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; [1]: http://www.yourrate.co/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4829" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1718" RevisionGUID="a7604c90-3415-4c46-b2e4-2f99f686b1b4" CreationDate="2014-04-19T00:14:57.407" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/457311352928083968" />
  <row Id="4830" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1740" RevisionGUID="d53eca84-0cfd-4027-bdc3-f7523ed11ec9" CreationDate="2014-04-19T00:33:44.683" UserId="2546" Text="Usually, companies seek for a contractor because of three main reasons:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- contractors usually do the job better and quicker.&#xD;&#xA;- almost always is cheaper than a permanent employee.&#xD;&#xA;- a contractor can be fired easier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why you should know this?  &#xD;&#xA;Because any investment from your part will end up by lowering your profit margin and make the risk bigger.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My point of view is this one:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Create a resume and a cover letter with the power to show the benefits the company will have by employing your services. In short words: &quot;show them the money&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;2. Don't spend any money. If you start by spending money on a laptop, new software, or something else, your risk goes up and the profit margin goes down. The hourly rate can't get any higher than what will cost by employing other contractor or no contractor at all.&#xD;&#xA;3. Leave all expenses be handled by the company (software, licences, laptop, etc.) The less you will spend from your pocket, the more you can focus on the job. Usually it costs less the company to buy you a laptop than to pay for your personal computer. And, as you already saw, they prefer to have the control. If you don't have to, avoid undesirable problems (obstacles). Keep the cash in your pocket. You can spend it later after you end the relationship with the company.&#xD;&#xA;4. You should focus on what the LLC costs and how much you have to pay in taxes and social insurance. My opinion? After you expense all the taxes a 30%/h more than you get at your actual job should be the minimum hourly rate. Obviously, you can go as high as 100%/h if the situations allows such a thing.&#xD;&#xA;5. You are a contractor. Bonuses are for employees. If you need more money, increase your hourly rate. But, remember, the best practice is to be clear about your rates right from the beginning.&#xD;&#xA;6. Milestones are made to get the job done in time and to the required standards. You can ask for more money if you have to work on extra features, at an increase pace or a longer period of time. You cannot ask for more money or a bonus just because you delivered on time.&#xD;&#xA;7. Don't dream too much. Being a contractor isn't an easy job.&#xD;&#xA;8. Pay attention to the negative effects it can have overall. Under no circumstance leave the part-time negatively influence your current full-time job or your personal life.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4831" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1738" RevisionGUID="4a5a7520-49dd-46d3-b1e5-387755c66e72" CreationDate="2014-04-19T16:17:58.250" UserId="64" Comment="fixed formatting issues and removed question." Text="We live in a global economy.  Your price is your price.  Your expertise is ***your*** expertise.  There's no such thing as an unfair price.  Unfortunate for some and fortunate for others --- that will *always* be the case no matter what kind of business you're talking about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't worry about what the next guy is earning until you have a bona fide reason to.  If your expertise validates your price, that's all that matters in the end." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4832" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1716" RevisionGUID="3e819f5f-2683-4111-9319-ce5baabdf47e" CreationDate="2014-04-19T16:19:10.137" UserId="64" Comment="added some clarification to the question based on what I think you're trying to say; fixed title" Text="Is there someone from Great Britain who can help me understand how much pay should I ask for as a freelance web designer in case I start offering my services in the UK?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a minimum amount that will not *unfairly* compete with British IT companies or other freelancers? How much should this minimum be?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By searching the internet I found this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ...you could be looking at the following price ranges in the UK from a reputable web agency:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - A small static web site with approximately 5-10 pages, design, coding, content and content optimisation, W3C Strict compliance: £2,000 - £5,000&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - As above with 20-30 pages £4,000 - £8,000&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - Content managed web site allowing you to add pages, upload content and images and create search engine friendly pages with compliant code output 8,000 - £15,000&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - Bespoke database or e-commerce web site with specific requirements and content-management facility £10,000+&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Source: http://www.the-escape.co.uk/reference/how-much-should-a-website-cost/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given this scenario, how do I determine how much a freelancer should ask for in comparison so that I get business without undercutting myself?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4833" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1716" RevisionGUID="3e819f5f-2683-4111-9319-ce5baabdf47e" CreationDate="2014-04-19T16:19:10.137" UserId="64" Comment="added some clarification to the question based on what I think you're trying to say; fixed title" Text="As a web developer, how do I determine how much should I charge a British company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4834" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1718" RevisionGUID="a2daf82c-bf1e-4e48-8db8-84fe27bdb118" CreationDate="2014-04-19T16:23:46.183" UserId="64" Comment="split into paragraphs to make more readable" Text="I have a small task that needs to be done and I projected to let the client pay 400 €. However, he now asked that the deadline should be set to next Saturday (in three days), and proposed to give 300 € if I do the task and 400 € if I do it for Saturday. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't think I would drop my rate to 300 € because it sounds a lot devaluating, so I would like to let him pay 400 € if I do this task at all and 700 € if I do it for Saturday. Does that sound okay to you (Friday is a holiday here in Europe, so I officially only have one day to do the task, and especially he only has one day to find another freelancer, which I doubt he could do because he already builds the whole site with my contract).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By how much can you increase your rate if the work is urgent?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4835" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1716" RevisionGUID="f969b7d6-04bd-4626-9d28-149f51d5918a" CreationDate="2014-04-19T16:50:23.527" UserId="2546" Comment="edited title" Text="As a web developer, how much should I charge a British company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4836" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1716" RevisionGUID="6ced24f1-baee-460e-9586-b00658531014" CreationDate="2014-04-19T17:10:10.570" UserId="2546" Comment="deleted 19 characters in body" Text="Is there someone from Great Britain who can help me understand how much pay should I ask for as a freelance web designer in case I start offering my services in the UK?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a minimum amount that will not *unfairly* compete with British IT companies or other freelancers? How much should this minimum be?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By searching the internet I found this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ...you could be looking at the following price ranges in the UK from a reputable web agency:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - A small static web site with approximately 5-10 pages, design, coding, content and content optimisation, W3C Strict compliance: £2,000 - £5,000&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - As above with 20-30 pages £4,000 - £8,000&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - Content managed web site allowing you to add pages, upload content and images and create search engine friendly pages with compliant code output 8,000 - £15,000&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - Bespoke database or e-commerce web site with specific requirements and content-management facility £10,000+&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Source: http://www.the-escape.co.uk/reference/how-much-should-a-website-cost/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given this scenario, how much a freelancer should ask for in comparison so that I get business without undercutting myself?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4837" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1723" RevisionGUID="a93ab641-100f-4710-a6f8-6011d83b8bf3" CreationDate="2014-04-19T21:15:20.157" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/457628536573292544" />
  <row Id="4839" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1729" RevisionGUID="dad34777-2d86-49c3-8b74-fc7566a0deb6" CreationDate="2014-04-20T21:29:13.670" UserId="890" Comment="added 85 characters in body" Text="Check out your country's labor laws. [In my country (Malaysia), working overtime is 1.5x wages, working 7 days a week is 2x wages, and working on a public holiday is 3x wages][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the absolute minimum legal price increase for a developing country. If you live in a developed country with better labor protection, charge more. In Europe, double price for working your weekends off is probably cheap.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/WEBTEXT/48055/66265/E55mys01.htm" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4842" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1741" RevisionGUID="16967969-238d-4b96-8737-ab21f4a7353c" CreationDate="2014-04-21T04:55:05.670" UserId="890" Text="You've done good research on how much you should charge. You can follow those guidelines.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might have to undercut at first to prove your credibility. There are plenty of web designers out there, but do research on how many are in the area that you live. Nobody is going to hire someone who is untested until they prove that they can do the job. Freelancing is highly dependent on a portfolio. Since you seem to be new, I'd recommend approaching some high profile clients and offering to do a job for cheap. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There might not be a minimum amount, but if you set your prices too low, people might expect a rush job from you. You should make it clear that you're doing so to build up your reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't have a portfolio, aim for the lower end, but never the bottom! That is, if the range is around $4000-$8000, charge around $4500 to $5000.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you're at a stage where you have so many projects that you have to continually reject some, you can start charging higher prices. Reputation pays a lot, and with a strong reputation, you can charge around $9000 for a job where the expected range is $4000-$8000." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4843" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1742" RevisionGUID="318f6bb6-97d4-4bcb-9e74-8ce3ef153429" CreationDate="2014-04-21T05:47:48.350" UserDisplayName="user2654" Text="This is my habit issue, which a lot of my technology friends say is a bad idea:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me to finish a small project, that takes me about a week, I do not sleep for up to three days to get it done as fast as possible, then I go to sleep for almost 24 hours after it is completed. Then I use the rest of the time to fix mistakes, errors, and complete the small tidbits of code required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Is this normal to do as a freelancer, sacrifice a few days of sleep to get your projects done and keep the clients happy?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My concern that is is not bad on my health, because I already know it is. My concern is, along with my question, is if it is the right thing to do in the development cycle? My lack of sleep allows it to get done faster, but I feel I will get tired of doing web development freelancing with this cycle." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4844" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1742" RevisionGUID="318f6bb6-97d4-4bcb-9e74-8ce3ef153429" CreationDate="2014-04-21T05:47:48.350" UserDisplayName="user2654" Text="Lack of Sleeping for Projects" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4845" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1742" RevisionGUID="318f6bb6-97d4-4bcb-9e74-8ce3ef153429" CreationDate="2014-04-21T05:47:48.350" UserDisplayName="user2654" Text="|business-plan|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4846" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1743" RevisionGUID="81864716-2ee0-4bbb-9b4c-d7cadf7765f8" CreationDate="2014-04-21T07:35:02.337" UserId="87" Text="You should never neglect your health. You should sleep for about 6-8 hours a day to be healthy. You can end up in trouble at a later age.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Plan out in such a way that you don't overwork and you need to skip your sleep.You can Work for 8 hours- 10 hours a day and still end up finishing the project. If you end up in minor bugs you can speak to the client and ask for few more days to fix the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients do expect in time delivery and they are happy if you deliver a quality project in time. So if the work takes 1 week depending on the project take few extras days. Inform the client the project will be completed in 1 and half weeks. Don't fix on exact 1 week cause there might be days when your ill and you can't take up work on that day. Always better to quote a few days extra.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Definitely in the long run working continuously without sleep affects health. If its absolutely urgent and you need to deliver the project the next day you can skip sleep for a day. I encountered a situation where i had to deliver an update (not a final delivery) to the client and i got stuck on some issue. I din't sleep that night fixed the issue and delivered the update. But if it is likely to repeat (skipping sleep) for few day's i would certainly not think of skipping sleep." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4847" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1744" RevisionGUID="ca212ad2-8f1b-466d-b89d-9fd8df5dc808" CreationDate="2014-04-21T09:59:25.257" UserId="2546" Text="In the past I myself did the same. And with time I became concerned by the rightness of this (what I now call) _bat habit of mine_.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, I still do it. Not as intense as in the past but sometimes, without intent I wake-up at four in the morning still coding. Maybe a new feature (which I start at midnight after I end a project for some client) or maybe a small project about which I think is best if I get it done fast and by doing this, it will give me time to focus on the big projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I saw along the path is that this disrupts my work-flow which is, at the end I end tiered and unable to focus as when I work with self-discipline.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My fix about this is not full proof but this is what I recommend you do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Dedicate time for work from early in the morning (five or six o'clock) until mid day. Take a break of two or more hours and start again. At six or seven o'clock in the afternoon stop and use the time for leisure, learning, family, personal time.&#xD;&#xA;- Be patient. If you think the project can be ready in five days, inform your client that the best you can do are seven days.&#xD;&#xA;- Start working at two features (if is feasible) at a time. At one of them in the morning, at the other in the afternoon. Even if you don't finish the first one in the morning, leave it for the next day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why I think working three days in a row is bad?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After making some adjustments (I still work on my self-discipline from this point of view) I got more time to spend with the loved one and this gave me more quality time dedicated to my work. Moreover, I start seeing things from another perspective and with time, from three skills I arrived to six and I also am on the road of getting a degree. What else changed was the number of clients. With time and experience I saw they expect me to deliver not sooner than a week or so and this allowed me to dedicate time thinking at other things (one of them: &quot;to search after another clients while I work for the others&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For now, it can be OK what you do but on the long run I know is a very bad habit (with negative effects on you, your work and personal life) which I think you need replace with self-discipline and of course, with some good habits starting as right from this moment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4848" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1744" RevisionGUID="b09a3def-a496-4d5b-8058-a27ce722cb52" CreationDate="2014-04-21T15:03:35.603" UserId="2546" Comment="added 8 characters in body" Text="In the past I myself did the same. And with time I became concerned by the rightness of this (what I now call) _bat habit of mine_.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, I still do it. Not as intense as in the past but sometimes, without intent I wake-up at four in the morning still coding. Maybe a new feature (which I start at midnight after I end a project for some client) or maybe a small project about which I think is best if I get it done fast and by doing this, it will give me time to focus on the big projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I saw along the path is that this disrupts my work-flow which is, at the end I find myself tiered and unable to focus as when I work with self-discipline.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My fix about this is not full proof but this is what I recommend you do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Dedicate time for work from early in the morning (five or six o'clock) until mid day. Take a break of two or more hours and start again. At six or seven o'clock in the afternoon stop and use the time for leisure, learning, family, personal time.&#xD;&#xA;- Be patient. If you think the project can be ready in five days, inform your client that the best you can do are seven days.&#xD;&#xA;- Start working at two features (if is feasible) at a time. At one of them in the morning, at the other in the afternoon. Even if you don't finish the first one in the morning, leave it for the next day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why I think working three days in a row is bad?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After making some adjustments (I still work on my self-discipline from this point of view) I got more time to spend with the loved one and this gave me more quality time dedicated to my work. Moreover, I start seeing things from another perspective and with time, from three skills I arrived to six and I also am on the road of getting a degree. What else changed was the number of clients. With time and experience I saw they expect me to deliver not sooner than a week or so and this allowed me to dedicate time thinking at other things (one of them: &quot;to search after another clients while I work for the others&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For now, it can be OK what you do but on the long run I know is a very bad habit (with negative effects on you, your work and personal life) which I think you need replace with self-discipline and of course, with some good habits starting as right from this moment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4849" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1745" RevisionGUID="e28b83a6-1289-45e7-b0b1-f01c5030e0f4" CreationDate="2014-04-21T15:12:26.200" UserId="2601" Text="The first answer telling you how much you should sleep are both wrong and condescending. Not only does each person require an individualized sleep plan, you should simply do what works for you. If you feel your method produces a better product in the end, stick with it. If not (or if you do feel less healthy), find a way to balance the two." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4853" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1747" RevisionGUID="24c9fc29-4fbd-4815-b8fd-fcf3d15369df" CreationDate="2014-04-21T15:26:16.247" UserId="2489" Text="If you are a Freelancer and a client does not show up at an appointment or calls in late after the fact and cancels, here is what you should do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) **First time:** Be very courteous, cordial and understanding.  Send them a follow up email.  Let them know a) not to worry; and b) while it is your regular practice to do so, you will not be charging for this missed appointment.  Ask when would they like to reschedule.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The idea here is to be very nice and understanding, set the tone and move your business forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) **Second time:**  Again, be very cordial, but charge for the missed appointment and reschedule.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client balks at payment, let them know you will waive the charge, but that your general practice is charge for missed appointments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Often they will just accept that your time for set appointments is billable and pay without any objections.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) **Third time:**  Charge the client and be firm about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your time is money.  If you are dealing with a client who habitually misses appointments that's one thing.  If they don't respect that you are to get paid for your time, that's entirely another.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Three missed appointments is sufficient to either begin billing for your time for those missed appointments or to lose the problematic client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You want to build your business on clients who respect your worth and professionalism - sometimes that means letting problematic clients go.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4854" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1748" RevisionGUID="8ce63694-7e16-4041-900b-2836691761f0" CreationDate="2014-04-21T19:10:26.457" UserId="517" Text="The only thing I can add to all this is: &quot;You cannot finish the project faster than it really takes it to finish it&quot;. Any such efforts like yours, will not only destroy your health and keep you unproductive for weeks, months or years, but it will bring question to quality of such project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you REALLY want to finish projects so fast and you REALLY cannot make client get more realistic deadline, then I'd suggest you go to increase your rate and get help in the project. So you can work 10-12 hrs if you can on more complex things, and the rest of the work is done by junior/mid-senior who can cover you when you're resting. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4856" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1750" RevisionGUID="e62d5acf-afee-4d41-9bc7-cb43178ad636" CreationDate="2014-04-21T23:31:33.953" UserDisplayName="user2654" Text="THis is a small situation which I am starting to run into now, I am a freelance Web Developer that builds websites, web applications, and fix mistakes of past projects that I get hired for. I make pretty good money now doing this and I am taking on a lot of work each week and month. I am starting to wonder if I should hire someone who can help me with these tasks and pay them the percentage which we agree upon for the work which he does.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, my question is this, **is it right to hire another freelancer friend to work with you on projects?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do have some ideas floating around by just starting up a small company with him, but I usually go my own routes with everything and I am spontaneous with new projects, development of the web application, and workflow." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4857" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1750" RevisionGUID="e62d5acf-afee-4d41-9bc7-cb43178ad636" CreationDate="2014-04-21T23:31:33.953" UserDisplayName="user2654" Text="Freelancer hiring Freeolancer for help" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4858" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1750" RevisionGUID="e62d5acf-afee-4d41-9bc7-cb43178ad636" CreationDate="2014-04-21T23:31:33.953" UserDisplayName="user2654" Text="|business-plan|growth|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4860" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1751" RevisionGUID="28b8cb5d-7a40-4627-9ab0-1965fd2a4c2e" CreationDate="2014-04-22T02:44:21.847" UserId="75" Text="Absolutely, it's allowable to get help with projects! But you take on a different type of role, depending on the project: the **Project Manager**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First off, decide if you really need someone else coming on, and taking money from you. Yes, they may make you lots more money, but many people want to hire people for the lowest possible rate; can you accept that decent help costs decent money? Would you like being hired at $10/hr, while the project manager (or lead freelancer) is pulling in $100+ /hr? I know I would be pissed off about that...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When dealing with bringing people on, get a contract. No way around it. If you don't use a contract, you have NO protection from them, or the unknown. What happens if they get hit by a bus? What happens if they run away with your idea or proprietary code? Decide on what terms you want, and **talk to a lawyer** to get a proper contract written up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure before you start, you have a clear scope of what needs to be done, from start to end. Then, break up the steps. Do not tell them &quot;I need you to make a database&quot;. Tell them &quot;I have these requirements for a database, and these constraints. I need xx tables for y, and zz tables for n.&quot; You will need to be specific. If you leave the picture *too broad*, you'll never see the end of the project how you envisioned it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you decide to partner with someone on an *ongoing basis*, then good for you! Hopefully, it means you're busy enough to keep expanding. Make sure you vet your potential partners, as you now must be responsible for this new person. They say on their resume that they know C, but you constantly see `goto` statements? Red flag, don't you think?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck! It's a great time when you can bring on help, and get more business and a better reputation! Keep up the good work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4866" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1753" RevisionGUID="e64c8b4a-4665-4f71-8e2c-95cd20d31ad2" CreationDate="2014-04-22T05:28:13.737" UserId="2546" Text="One or maybe two times it can be harmless to hire a friend of yours for help. On the long run, the work-relationship can't go so far, not if your friend will expect more than the hourly rate you pay him/her or if he or she requires more than a temporary job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Closing this argument:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Hiring another freelancer to help you achieve the deadlines or for successfully handling the situations when you have more clients than you can manage by yourself is a good idea.&#xD;&#xA;- Hiring a friend is a complicated decision. On the long run it can hurt your friendship or it can do damages to your work achievements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What about starting a small-business with your friend? Well, this isn't a bad idea. The only aspect you should keep present is the fact that in this case some-one has to handle the bureaucratic aspects:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Paperwork.&#xD;&#xA;- Accounting.&#xD;&#xA;- Strategy.&#xD;&#xA;- Budgeting.&#xD;&#xA;- Planning.&#xD;&#xA;- Managing.&#xD;&#xA;- Human resources.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you become a business each decision you take will affect others and this should always be in your attention. Moreover, if you will start this small-business with partners and not by yourself, than you should remember that their will sometimes trumps yours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now you do things in your way. In the presence of some business partners, your freedom of decision making and vision will be somehow limited. And this, is a big _&quot;what if&quot;_ you should think about before taking any action. If you are ready to change your habits and the way you do things than, you can consider building a team (the same if you have enough resources and afford to start the business with you as the sole partner - which is not too smart because you will bear all the costs and risks).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a conclusion:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If you have to and if this should be the solution, hire a freelancer! Why not?&#xD;&#xA;- If you decide to hire a freelancer and you have options, hire the best event if this implies giving up on your friend.&#xD;&#xA;- When you hire a freelancer you become _&quot;the client&quot;_. In this case, you have to protect your interests by means of a contract.&#xD;&#xA;- On the other hand, if this is the case, starting a small-business isn't a bad idea. But, pay attention at how you choose your partners and the implications of such a decision.&#xD;&#xA;- Don't over-think the problem. Start by taking small steps. First, ask your friend for help. If the situation repeat itself, ask again. Than, hire a freelancer, than, if the inflow of clients keeps growing, start searching for partners and consider the possibility of starting a small-business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4872" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1656" RevisionGUID="6582f68f-4aec-485a-bdca-3f673d54ca4a" CreationDate="2014-04-22T12:27:54.083" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/458582968467193856" />
  <row Id="4877" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1756" RevisionGUID="34989a25-8af7-418d-a83f-7c98df3a7047" CreationDate="2014-04-22T19:15:47.337" UserId="2484" Text="Doing the impossible and making it look easy can be fun, but like many have said, it's a bad idea to make a practice of doing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Besides the health and safety problems, which are fairly obvious, you're also setting an expectation that you are their slave and are willing to do inhuman things to accomplish what their lack of planning and unrealistic timeline goals can not.  Driving while sleep deprived is on par with drunk driving by the way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, this type of practice tends to make clients and partners undervalue you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's a very rare occurrence, usually mandated by client contracts to others or outages, that would require this kind of effort.  I only do this kind of thing when things are on fire and I'm the only metaphorical fireman on site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Normally I would advice taking an appropriate amount of padding in the assignment/project to allow for it to be done professionally instead of a madcap nosleep endurance dash that could have embarrassing artifacts produced in the midst of a sleep-dep walking sleep.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So yes.  This is not normal, nor should it be considered normal.  Even if you don't realize it, you'll be hitting diminishing returns after about a day.  You will achieve more with a properly focused and regimented schedule." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4881" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1750" RevisionGUID="dafe3060-4c3e-4c6e-97f6-6887be358498" CreationDate="2014-04-23T01:37:10.933" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, phrasing" Text="I'm starting to run into a small situation. I am a freelance web developer to build websites, build web applications and fix mistakes of past projects. I make pretty good money now doing this, but I am taking on a lot of work each week and month. I am starting to wonder if I should hire someone who can help me with these tasks and pay them an agreed-upon percentage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it right to hire another freelancer friend to work with you on projects?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm floating some ideas of starting up a small company with him, but I usually go my own routes with everything; I am spontaneous with new projects, development of the web application and workflow." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4882" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1750" RevisionGUID="dafe3060-4c3e-4c6e-97f6-6887be358498" CreationDate="2014-04-23T01:37:10.933" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, phrasing" Text="Hiring another freelancer for help" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4883" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1750" RevisionGUID="dafe3060-4c3e-4c6e-97f6-6887be358498" CreationDate="2014-04-23T01:37:10.933" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 64 edit id of 313" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4886" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="452" RevisionGUID="1e7c496b-a89d-4af5-b6f9-435418d24390" CreationDate="2014-04-23T09:02:27.717" UserId="-1" Comment="Migration of MSO links to MSE links" Text="&lt;p&gt;Freelancing Stack Exchange is for questions relating to &lt;b&gt;self-employed and freelance workers.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If your question covers...&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Agency work while freelancing&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Selling services to different employers without a long-term contract with any of them&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Client responsibilities to freelancers&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Cross-border requirements and laws for freelancing&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;and isn't about...&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Working in a part-time of full-time setting for a company&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Asking for life experiences or opinions on freelancing&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...then you’re in the right place to ask your question!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;/search&quot;&gt;look around&lt;/a&gt; to see if your question has been asked before. It’s also OK to &lt;a href=&quot;/helpcenter/self-answer&quot;&gt;ask and answer your own question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If your question is not specifically on-topic for $SiteName, it may be on topic for another Stack Exchange site. If no site currently exists that will accept your question, you may &lt;a href=&quot;http://area51.stackexchange.com/faq&quot;&gt;commit to&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/76974/how-can-i-propose-a-new-site&quot;&gt;propose&lt;/a&gt; a new site at &lt;a href=&quot;http://area51.stackexchange.com/&quot;&gt;Area51&lt;/a&gt;, the place where new Stack Exchange communities are democratically created.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more help, see &lt;a href=&quot;/help/dont-ask&quot;&gt;&quot;What types of questions should I avoid asking?&quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;How should I answer?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your answer should provide enough context to help the asker determine if the answer is right for them. Answers based on facts, references, and specific expertise are preferable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the question has the &lt;a href=&quot;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/legal&quot;&gt;legal&lt;/a&gt; tag, you should include references or citations to back up your answer. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general, your answer should always include material to support or explain why your answer is correct. Answers that don't meet these guidelines may be removed. For more information, see &lt;a href=&quot;http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/55/should-this-site-have-a-back-it-up-rule&quot;&gt;the back it up rule&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4889" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1750" RevisionGUID="8a0d993d-9f75-4c9a-8c13-e52a1f0626d3" CreationDate="2014-04-23T09:36:19.470" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/458902176581304320" />
  <row Id="4890" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1758" RevisionGUID="5bb1ef27-c842-4200-81f5-e8b7ae55963e" CreationDate="2014-04-23T13:05:40.307" UserId="2669" Text="**Charging and tracking the &quot;small&quot; changes.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Early on when freelance web-hosting was a hobby for me I would gladly make any small tweaks with no charge for the few clients I had since most of them were friends and other acquaintances. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Eventually I did start to wonder how much time it was taking so after some research I realized that a few hosting services offer free license to scripts such as **WHMCS** (Web Host Manager Complete Solution) which is great billing and accounting software and more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After setting it up, not only did it help keep a list of billable services but also sent overdue reminders to late accounts. That function actually pestered a neglectful client to finally sending in their payment with out my intervention. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After a month of keeping track of the small changes one particular client asked of me, I decided not to charge them but still sent an invoice of the work done including the time spent on researching and responding to inquiries.&#xD;&#xA;To my pleasant surprise their company sent a check for the services without me asking for compensation and still continue to use my consulting services often.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The real time saver is now that I have most of the common activities already listed in the WHMCS script, invoicing and job quotes take only minuets to conjure and send. The ROI for only two days of learning and setup of the system has turned out to be amazing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Naturally each situation is different per client and developer and depending on their relationship what expenses are expected to be compensated for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just though I would share my experience with the WHMCS and how new webmasters may be sitting on a very useful benefit provided by their hosting service not realizing they had access to such a time saver. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4891" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="452" RevisionGUID="749b546a-d1f3-4b8e-aff7-b4aae55234dc" CreationDate="2014-04-23T13:41:57.807" UserId="-1" Comment="Fixup of bad MSO links to MSE links migration" Text="&lt;p&gt;Freelancing Stack Exchange is for questions relating to &lt;b&gt;self-employed and freelance workers.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;**If your question covers...**&#xA;&#xA;* Agency work while freelancing&#xA;* Selling services to different employers without a long-term contract with any of them&#xA;* Client responsibilities to freelancers&#xA;* Cross-border requirements and laws for freelancing&#xA; &#xA;**and isn't about...**&#xA; &#xA;* Working in a part-time of full-time setting for a company&#xA;* Asking for life experiences or opinions on freelancing&#xA; &#xA;...then you’re in the right place to ask your question!&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;/search&quot;&gt;look around&lt;/a&gt; to see if your question has been asked before. It’s also OK to &lt;a href=&quot;/helpcenter/self-answer&quot;&gt;ask and answer your own question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If your question is not specifically on-topic for $SiteName, it may be on topic for another Stack Exchange site. If no site currently exists that will accept your question, you may &lt;a href=&quot;http://area51.stackexchange.com/faq&quot;&gt;commit to&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/76974/how-can-i-propose-a-new-site&quot;&gt;propose&lt;/a&gt; a new site at &lt;a href=&quot;http://area51.stackexchange.com/&quot;&gt;Area51&lt;/a&gt;, the place where new Stack Exchange communities are democratically created.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more help, see &lt;a href=&quot;/help/dont-ask&quot;&gt;&quot;What types of questions should I avoid asking?&quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;##How should I answer?&#xA;&#xA;Your answer should provide enough context to help the asker determine if the answer is right for them. Answers based on facts, references, and specific expertise are preferable.&#xA;&#xA;If the question has the [legal](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/legal) tag, you should include references or citations to back up your answer. &#xA;&#xA;In general, your answer should always include material to support or explain why your answer is correct. Answers that don't meet these guidelines may be removed. For more information, see [the back it up rule](http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/55/should-this-site-have-a-back-it-up-rule)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4893" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1756" RevisionGUID="9f46e555-8448-4672-b7f0-ddb6361d0146" CreationDate="2014-04-23T21:53:39.683" UserId="2484" Comment="edited body" Text="Doing the impossible and making it look easy can be fun, but like many have said, it's a bad idea to make a practice of doing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Besides the health and safety problems, which are fairly obvious, you're also setting an expectation that you are their slave and are willing to do inhuman things to accomplish what their lack of planning and unrealistic timeline goals can not.  Driving while sleep deprived is on par with drunk driving by the way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, this type of practice tends to make clients and partners undervalue you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's a very rare occurrence, usually mandated by client contracts to others or outages, that would require this kind of effort.  I only do this kind of thing when things are on fire and I'm the only metaphorical fireman on site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Normally I would advise taking an appropriate amount of padding in the assignment/project to allow for it to be done professionally instead of a madcap nosleep endurance dash that could have embarrassing artifacts produced in the midst of a sleep-dep walking zombie state.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So yes.  This is not normal, nor should it be considered normal.  Even if you don't realize it, you'll be hitting diminishing returns after about a day.  You will achieve more with a properly focused and regimented schedule." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4894" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1759" RevisionGUID="52820302-9ecb-4b6f-be62-f057a5ac6c6f" CreationDate="2014-04-23T22:30:16.840" UserId="2675" Text="If you insist on sprinting to complete the project at the beginning, I would suggest looking into [polyphasic sleep](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep) as a possibly healthier alternative. Basically, instead of sleeping once per day for 6 to 8 hours straight, you spread your sleep time across each 24-hour period and require less total sleep-time in the process. It might give you a head start on those huge projects. However, in my opinion, this should not be a long-term lifestyle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On your profile you mention that you're studying psychology. You might then know that prolonged exertion of the mind doesn't promote mental hygiene. You'll get physically and mentally exhausted in the long run, which in turn __will negatively affect your performance__.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're still young and you probably don't grasp all the consequences of this on your health and psyche on the long term. It's *always* relevant to maintain a healthy lifestyle and balance all aspects of your life. Otherwise, in the long run it'll probably end up costing you more (on many aspects) than what you hope to gain right now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your main concern is a lack of time, you should investigate more effective productivity habits. In between projects, go hang around [Personal Productivity SE](http://productivity.stackexchange.com/). Remove distractions, work in a quiet environment. Learn to work smarter, not harder." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4895" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1760" RevisionGUID="ab178315-a915-4245-8cca-e3d8c723cb56" CreationDate="2014-04-24T07:17:01.377" UserId="2008" Text="Most of the time when I am late on something it is because I **didn't focus 100%** on the task to be executed. Your method to work 3 days in a row is not ***normal*** for the average human being. &#xD;&#xA;&lt;BR&gt;We need to sleep :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - to give a break to our body (p/pc balance read below).&#xD;&#xA; - to think to what we have made (produced) during the day and take corrective actions the day after.&#xD;&#xA; - to find a solution to the problems we didn't solve during the day.&#xD;&#xA; - to (find a good reason).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I come back on focusing. Did you read the books of Uncle Bob ? He wrote. I pay you for 8 hours of good work. Not less. But not more. 8 hours is a lot of time! If you focus on the project, the task that has to be executed. No web browsing for the fun. You turn you phone off. You do not waste your times with the non urgent emails. You do not let the people distract you. Believe me you'll see that so much things can be done in 8 hours of ***quality work***!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; But effort and speed are not related. It is easy to expend a tremendous amount of effort and make no progress at all. Hell, it's easy to expend gargantuan effort and make negative progress. Effort equates neither to speed nor direction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Read on The Start Up Trap][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you have written reminds me of what was also written by Steven Covey. When you work 3 days in a row you neglect the P/PC balance (principle). You produce a lot but to the detriment of your health and believe me that will not last forever!&#xD;&#xA;&lt;BR&gt;[Read on The Goose and the Golden Egg][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Summary. Produce 8 hours of quality work! Sleep what is necessary. This is the way to go.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://blog.8thlight.com/uncle-bob/2013/03/05/TheStartUpTrap.html&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.franklincovey.com/academyarchive/AdamAcademyArchivePDFS/Aug08ProgramVideoGuide233tipsheets/Program%20Video%20Tip%20Sheets/The7HabitsSignatureProgram/TheGooseandtheGoldenEgg.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4896" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1761" RevisionGUID="2408237f-7265-41d9-96e0-546537d6f92e" CreationDate="2014-04-24T07:37:51.207" UserId="2681" Text="I just recently started freelancing (software development) for a new client; they're a startup and my old boss is the CTO.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They gave me a 3 month freelancing contract which doesn't specify how many hours but rather that we loosely agree to work together. They're my only client on the moment and they need me. Since they just started out and because he is an old coworker come friend I have lowered my rate considerably. That was probably a mistake right there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I gave a talk at a conference and afterwards someone from a big company emailed me and asked if I wanted to freelance for them for a very lucrative rate doing a _very_ visible project. It's something that, in my country, millions of people would be using quite regularly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The thing is they want me to start very soon and I still have about 2 month left on my current contract. I'm not very worried about the legal aspects of leaving because I am not an employee and suing would not help them in any way other than cost them time and money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Besides the fact that I hate being unreliable, I know that for a freelancer reputation is quite important so I don't want to flake out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand securing a great client like this won't come around every day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What to do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4897" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1761" RevisionGUID="2408237f-7265-41d9-96e0-546537d6f92e" CreationDate="2014-04-24T07:37:51.207" UserId="2681" Text="Is it unprofessional to not stay until the end of your contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4898" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1761" RevisionGUID="2408237f-7265-41d9-96e0-546537d6f92e" CreationDate="2014-04-24T07:37:51.207" UserId="2681" Text="|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4899" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1760" RevisionGUID="47ee4811-8512-4593-9e0f-0ef1b993c53d" CreationDate="2014-04-24T09:25:13.637" UserId="2008" Comment="spelling" Text="Most of the time when I am late on something it is because I **didn't focus 100%** on the task to be executed. Your method to work 3 days in a row is not ***normal*** for the average human being. &#xD;&#xA;&lt;BR&gt;We need to sleep :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - to give a break to our body (p/pc balance read below).&#xD;&#xA; - to think to what we have made (produced) during the day and take corrective actions the day after.&#xD;&#xA; - to find a solution to the problems we didn't solve during the day.&#xD;&#xA; - to (find a good reason).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I come back on focusing. Did you read the books of Uncle Bob ? He wrote. I pay you for 8 hours of good work. Not less. But not more. 8 hours is a lot of time! If you focus on the project, the task that has to be executed. No web browsing for the fun. You turn your phone off. You do not waste your times with the non urgent emails. You do not let the people distract you. Believe me you'll see that so much things can be done in 8 hours of ***quality work***!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; But effort and speed are not related. It is easy to expend a tremendous amount of effort and make no progress at all. Hell, it's easy to expend gargantuan effort and make negative progress. Effort equates neither to speed nor direction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Read on The Start Up Trap][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you have written reminds me of what was also written by Steven Covey. When you work 3 days in a row you neglect the P/PC balance (principle). You produce a lot but to the detriment of your health and believe me that will not last forever!&#xD;&#xA;&lt;BR&gt;[Read on The Goose and the Golden Egg][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Summary. Produce 8 hours of quality work! Sleep what is necessary. This is the way to go.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://blog.8thlight.com/uncle-bob/2013/03/05/TheStartUpTrap.html&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.franklincovey.com/academyarchive/AdamAcademyArchivePDFS/Aug08ProgramVideoGuide233tipsheets/Program%20Video%20Tip%20Sheets/The7HabitsSignatureProgram/TheGooseandtheGoldenEgg.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4900" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1762" RevisionGUID="0ff29371-2bf3-47c2-b60e-9b0ac5817035" CreationDate="2014-04-24T10:01:26.160" UserId="517" Text="Is it unprofessional - Yes.&#xD;&#xA;Should you skip lucrative opportunity - probably not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, these two things are in collision, as they always are. The only thing you can do here is work lucrative job in regular work hours, and do bargain job after that (probably late afternoon and night). So paid jobs are done in the prime time, and low-paid job after.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before you do that, you should explain your friend that you gave them extra low price cause you are friends, and that you got a lucrative opportunity (2, 3 times more money) and that you have to prioritize that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They should understand this, thou they will not be glad. They may offer you the same money to keep you focused on the job, thou they probably won't. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But plan your time carefully, cause you MUST NOT leave project unfinished. That's the most unprofessional thing to do and you must not get used to it. The only case you can leave the project if work conditions are horrible (interpersonal relations), but never cause at some point you gave them your work for small money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. I am in the same situation. Gave the client 2.5 lower hourly rate cause I was out of work. After that I got 2 lucrative projects, and now I am doing his project a couple of hours at night. I explained to him about this, and he did not complain. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4901" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1763" RevisionGUID="78d164f2-1309-4238-b8bf-f0b158d0a258" CreationDate="2014-04-24T10:01:48.003" UserId="2546" Text="At the end of the day it comes to your own decision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you know for a fact that on the long run choosing the new client will compensate for dropping your to date employer (client) than choose the arising opportunity. We need remember that the most important is your well-being (it is in your duty to defend your best interests).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe, the most important aspect is to measure, how much good the new opportunity brings compared to what you have right now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't be shy or afraid about change. There are many situations when **you will be unable to do good for everyone**. Some sacrifices must be considered (for your sake and the good of others).  &#xD;&#xA;This being said, consider renegotiating your present contract by lowering the number of weekly hours or by getting a higher hourly rate. If this isn't a good perspective, just terminate the contract (if as you say, there is no concern about serious liability.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What about ethics?    &#xD;&#xA;Well, this is a complicated matter. Of course, sticking with your past decisions is part of your responsibilities and determines your reputation. But, as you know, the law makes you liable to your clients/suppliers and requires you to act in the best interests of the company (in this case yourself) - so, which one you choose first?  &#xD;&#xA;If the new contract will bring you enough resources to cover the (eventual) costs in case you are made liable, if this resources will help you secure the future of your freelancing activity and if your potentially _&quot;unethical&quot;_ decision to give up on this client will be soon forgotten and you know is not who you are, than look forward by choosing the opportunity at hand (this new promising project)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4902" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1761" RevisionGUID="0bb10495-a5c1-4410-a8ed-6ec830133401" CreationDate="2014-04-24T10:03:03.763" UserId="517" Comment="a title with more sense" Text="I just recently started freelancing (software development) for a new client; they're a start-up and my old boss is the CTO.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They gave me a 3 month freelancing contract which doesn't specify how many hours but rather that we loosely agree to work together. They're my only client on the moment and they need me. Since they just started out and because he is an old co-worker come friend I have lowered my rate considerably. That was probably a mistake right there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I gave a talk at a conference and afterwards someone from a big company emailed me and asked if I wanted to freelance for them for a very lucrative rate doing a _very_ visible project. It's something that, in my country, millions of people would be using quite regularly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The thing is they want me to start very soon and I still have about 2 month left on my current contract. I'm not very worried about the legal aspects of leaving because I am not an employee and suing would not help them in any way other than cost them time and money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Besides the fact that I hate being unreliable, I know that for a freelancer reputation is quite important so I don't want to flake out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand securing a great client like this won't come around every day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What to do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4903" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1761" RevisionGUID="0bb10495-a5c1-4410-a8ed-6ec830133401" CreationDate="2014-04-24T10:03:03.763" UserId="517" Comment="a title with more sense" Text="Unprofessional to leave before project ended for better paid project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4904" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1763" RevisionGUID="221b0c59-01bc-4f96-928a-7e1cae0baf16" CreationDate="2014-04-24T10:16:51.283" UserId="2546" Comment="added 428 characters in body" Text="At the end of the day it comes to your own decision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you know for a fact that on the long run choosing the new client will compensate for dropping your to date employer (client) than choose the arising opportunity. We need remember that the most important is your well-being (it is in your duty to defend your best interests).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe, the most important aspect is to measure, how much good the new opportunity brings compared to what you have right now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't be shy or afraid about change. There are many situations when **you will be unable to do good for everyone**. Some sacrifices must be considered (for your sake and the good of others).  &#xD;&#xA;This being said, consider renegotiating your present contract by lowering the number of weekly hours or by getting a higher hourly rate. If this isn't a good perspective, just terminate the contract (if as you say, there is no concern about serious liability.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What about ethics?    &#xD;&#xA;Well, this is a complicated matter. Of course, sticking with your past decisions is part of your responsibilities and determines your reputation. But, as you know, the law makes you liable to your clients/suppliers and requires you to act in the best interests of the company (in this case yourself) - so, which one you choose first?  &#xD;&#xA;If the new contract will bring you enough resources to cover the (eventual) costs in case you are made liable, if this resources will help you secure the future of your freelancing activity and if your potentially _&quot;unethical&quot;_ decision to give up on this client will be soon forgotten and you know is not who you are, than look forward by choosing the opportunity at hand (this new promising project).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;_A quick thought (maybe unrelated to the topic)_&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; _I think is wrong (bad practice) to accept projects for a lower than normal rate just because you are out of work. I also think that **it is ethical to stick with such a decision once it has been made**. What should happen if you terminate a contract in exchange for some other promising offer and as soon you do so another more promising opportunity comes to your attention?_&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4905" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1764" RevisionGUID="c641488e-821e-4fc6-85c8-ff4e1aabf43f" CreationDate="2014-04-24T11:04:57.780" UserId="2484" Text="I think it would be reasonable, since you're only on a three month contract with no specified goals besides &quot;do some work&quot; (my favorite kind of contractual agreement btw), to give them a heads up that you're going to be decreasing your involvement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's where you could offer some creative solutions.  Since the hours that you spend on things is not scalable, you could backfill yourself on your low billable friend-rate gig with a subcontractor and take a slice to support them in their ramp up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been more than happy to sub when I get my end and understand the deal.  I imagine most professionals are." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4906" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1765" RevisionGUID="a88490ca-de92-419b-add2-9f384226a9c1" CreationDate="2014-04-24T14:29:55.063" UserId="2689" Text="Contract positions, almost without exception, are advertised exclusive of VAT. I say 'almost' but in several years of freelance working I've never been presented with a rate that was inclusive of VAT.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason for this is that everybody in the chain of employment - the client, the agent (if there is one) and the contractor are all VAT registered. Each company is claiming back from HMRC the VAT they pay to their suppliers. So when publishing and discussing rates, figures can be assumed to be net (VAT exclusive) unless otherwise stated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, it is possible that an agency might deliberately fail to tell you that the figure you are discussing is gross (VAT inclusive) while you think it is net (VAT exclusive). To avoid this potential issue (again, this hasn't happened to me) I make it clear in all written correspondence that my rates are exclusive of VAT. There's no harm in spelling it out. It'll also be specified in your contract. When I deal with a new agency I ask for a 'specimen contract' so that I can review their business terms, and this is one of the points I check (of course once I have an offer on the table I'll get the contract checked for IR35 compliance)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4907" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1766" RevisionGUID="7714f50d-9c91-4f21-90be-b44dd079a366" CreationDate="2014-04-24T14:46:28.707" UserId="2691" Text="Rates are usually quoted excluding VAT, because your VAT registered status will determine whether you should charge it or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;More info on the VAT threshold here:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/forms-rates/rates/rates-thresholds.htm#2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4908" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1762" RevisionGUID="a0dae773-e06f-4171-b2a0-ba7822e61805" CreationDate="2014-04-24T15:39:34.353" UserId="75" Comment="added 8 characters in body" Text="Is it unprofessional - Yes.&#xD;&#xA;Should you skip lucrative opportunity - probably not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, these two things are in collision, as they always are. The only thing you can do here is work lucrative job in regular work hours, and do bargain job after that (probably late afternoon and night). So paid jobs are done in the prime time, and low-paid job after.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before you do that, you should explain your friend that you gave them extra low price cause you are friends, and that you got a lucrative opportunity (2, 3 times more money) and that you have to prioritize that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They should understand this, though they will not be glad. They may offer you the same money to keep you focused on the job, though they probably won't. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But plan your time carefully, because you MUST NOT leave project unfinished. That's the most unprofessional thing to do and you must not get used to it. The only case you can leave the project if work conditions are horrible (interpersonal relations), but never because at some point you gave them your work for small money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. I am in the same situation. Gave the client 2.5 lower hourly rate cause I was out of work. After that I got 2 lucrative projects, and now I am doing his project a couple of hours at night. I explained to him about this, and he did not complain. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4909" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1767" RevisionGUID="da2e034b-e349-42d1-9361-74c267b852cb" CreationDate="2014-04-24T15:56:16.200" UserId="2695" Text="If your current client decided that you were not satisfactory, he would fire your ass. Thanks, bye. Why should you feel any greater sense of obligation to him? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1 - Accept the new job. And make damn sure you really have it before you say anything to the existing client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2 - Once the new bird is in the hand, explain the situation to the old client, and see if there is anything you can do for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to see this in ethical terms, how about this; the fact that the new client will pay more means that the economy is telling you you would be more productive at the new task. The only good reason for ignoring this information is if you disagree. And remember that the economy is a whole lot smarter than you will ever be." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4912" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1769" RevisionGUID="33d6ee09-9545-4c3a-90a5-9aa705c3d6ca" CreationDate="2014-04-24T21:56:21.920" UserId="2669" Text="Assuming this is for a website, first they would need to provide what kind of content will be displayed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Does their site sell products like a store front?**  Will you need prices of services to be listed? Will they be providing stock photos?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How much interaction do they expect from visitors?** Will the site need a customer relations function such as bill payments or newsletters? Do they only need a contact us page for call back quotes?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being home remodeling / renovation do they have a portfolio or pictures of past jobs, customer testimonials, other business credentials such as the Better Business Bureau®. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What types of payments do they accept? Visa, Mastercard, Bitcoin?&#xD;&#xA;Company history / about us, service areas / business locations, office hours, phone numbers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you mentioned look at other sites, competitor or otherwise, and see what industry specific content they provide and ask your client to personalize similar information. See if they have a brochure already prepared. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I usually ask my clients if there are any other sites that they would like to emulate (not duplicate). This assists in figuring out what the client likes in existing sites in order to get a basis of what matters most to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask what makes their company stand out above the crowd, find out what they consider an attribute of their services that others in the trade lack. Better customer service, better quality products, better deals and value, money back guarantee. Try to find information that other sites lack that may be an incentive to pick them instead of the other dozen that do not give free ice-cream with every order.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you send them a list be sure to bullet point each question that needs answered. This should prevent any being missed and needing reiterated wasting said time.&#xD;&#xA;If you are interested I may suggest you talk with a sales person to see what the customer experience will be like as well as glean some knowledge on how to portray the company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other important questions are the terms of your employment. Your expectations regarding compensation and their expectations regarding the final product.&#xD;&#xA;I know that is a general statement but it is important that each party knows what the other is needing. Ideally a lawyer reviewed contract is the way to go but in lieu of that get as many specifications in writing as possible. &quot;Sorry sir but it says here you wanted MapQuest not Google Maps&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this helps you move forward in your quest." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4913" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1770" RevisionGUID="3343457a-2027-4185-aa8e-e206d3294c90" CreationDate="2014-04-24T22:44:41.740" UserId="2669" Text="**First Steps of Freelancing:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend creating a resume of past facilitating jobs and education in the field and posting it on your own blog / website. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However the trick is to make it look more like a business page with services offered, a portfolio and client testimony, opposed to just being a resume form list of past jobs and schooling.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead of saying: facilitator looking for a job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask: Are you looking for an experienced facilitator to assist in your company planning?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One says I need you the other says You need me. This is the difference between being an employee and being your own boss / business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should then be ready to list your availability at sites that focus on freelancing and other outsourcing opportunities. There are a few to choose from but I'm sure Google can help find the right one for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After you have your information readily available you can &quot;hoof it&quot; and cold call the type of organizations you have had experience with. Leave your business card / pamphlet even if they already have a monthly planner person and ask to be considered if their situation ever changes (which it most likely will eventually).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Call upon some of your old employees. Ask if they are in need of your services anymore. Since they are most likely in communications with other similar groups ask if they know of any leads, or ask them to put the good word out for you. (leave them some pamphlets or refrigerator magnets with your info) 80% of my early freelancing business was word of mouth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Networking is one of the most important aspects of any business and with freelancing it does not always come easy. You must get in touch with others of your craft and help each other out with leads and ideas. Find that website where your kin gather or if you have the resources, create that website for your kin to join you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Contracts**, you must have a contract prepared or at least an outline of expectations, pay schedule / rates, what the job entails what you expect from the client and what the client should expect from you. A lawyer reviewed contract is your only defense against a company / person who decides they don't have to pay you or undervalues your work, or claims you mislead them, or didn't preform as agreed. There are many different excuses people use to keep their money and even if you rendered services as expected, with out the contract you will probably have no legal recourse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few other thoughts on resources, If you are just starting out and may not have resources for lawyers or pamphlets, consider bartering your services for what you may need. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck on your adventure. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4914" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1763" RevisionGUID="ae3a39cc-8ff8-4cd3-a4fc-e771c28dcd76" CreationDate="2014-04-24T22:54:11.883" UserId="2546" Comment="deleted 56 characters in body" Text="If you know for a fact that on the long run choosing the new client will compensate for dropping your to date employer (client) than choose the arising opportunity. We need remember that the most important is your well-being (it is in your duty to defend your best interests).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe, the most important aspect is to measure, how much good the new opportunity brings compared to what you have right now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't be shy or afraid about change. There are many situations when **you will be unable to do good for everyone**. Some sacrifices must be considered (for your sake and the good of others).  &#xD;&#xA;This being said, consider renegotiating your present contract by lowering the number of weekly hours or by getting a higher hourly rate. If this isn't a good perspective, just terminate the contract (if as you say, there is no concern about serious liability.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What about ethics?    &#xD;&#xA;Well, this is a complicated matter. Of course, sticking with your past decisions is part of your responsibilities and determines your reputation. But, as you know, the law makes you liable to your clients/suppliers and requires you to act in the best interests of the company (in this case yourself) - so, which one you choose first?  &#xD;&#xA;If the new contract will bring you enough resources to cover the (eventual) costs in case you are made liable, if this resources will help you secure the future of your freelancing activity and if your potentially _&quot;unethical&quot;_ decision to give up on this client will be soon forgotten and you know is not who you are, than look forward by choosing the opportunity at hand (this new promising project).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;_A quick thought (maybe unrelated to the topic)_&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; _I think is wrong (bad practice) to accept projects for a lower than normal rate just because you are out of work. I also think that **it is ethical to stick with such a decision once it has been made**. What should happen if you terminate a contract in exchange for some other promising offer and as soon you do so another more promising opportunity comes to your attention?_&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4915" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1771" RevisionGUID="d19857e2-fcb9-417d-9efc-a4fc41353204" CreationDate="2014-04-25T00:17:40.267" UserId="2712" Text="Telling your new employer that you are not leaving until things are settled at your old job shows professional behaviour and, not recommended, but maybe you can offer to work on both jobs for a while with reduced hours? I did that once and all parties are still happy, but it was a lot of work, so only do it if you are really up for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't burn bridges with people you consider your friends, one day you might be working together again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also it might be a trick from the new employer to see how desperate you are for the job/money." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4917" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1760" RevisionGUID="09f8a499-8e89-45de-8011-971621de2391" CreationDate="2014-04-25T03:51:40.897" UserId="2008" Comment="spelling and more clear presentation" Text="Most of the time when I am late on something it is because I **didn't focus 100%** on the task to be executed. Your method to work 3 days in a row is not ***normal*** for the average human being. &#xD;&#xA;&lt;BR&gt;We need to sleep :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - to give a break to our body (p/pc balance read below).&#xD;&#xA; - to think to what we have made (produced) during the day and take corrective actions the day after.&#xD;&#xA; - to find a solution to the problems we didn't solve during the day.&#xD;&#xA; - to (find a good reason).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I come back on focusing. Did you read the books of Uncle Bob ? He wrote. I pay you for 8 hours of good work. Not less. But not more. 8 hours is a lot of time! If you focus on the project, the task that has to be executed. No web browsing for the fun. You turn your phone off. You do not waste your time with the non urgent emails. You do not let the people distract you. Believe me you'll see that so much things can be done in 8 hours of ***quality work***!&#xD;&#xA;&lt;P&gt;I quote Uncle Bob:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; But effort and speed are not related. It is easy to expend a tremendous amount of effort and make no progress at all. Hell, it's easy to expend gargantuan effort and make negative progress. Effort equates neither to speed nor direction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Read on The Start Up Trap][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you have written reminds me of what was also written by Steven Covey. When you work 3 days in a row you neglect the P/PC balance (principle). You produce a lot but to the detriment of your health and believe me that will not last forever!&#xD;&#xA;&lt;BR&gt;[Read on The Goose and the Golden Egg][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Summary. Produce 8 hours of quality work! Sleep what is necessary. This is the way to go.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://blog.8thlight.com/uncle-bob/2013/03/05/TheStartUpTrap.html&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.franklincovey.com/academyarchive/AdamAcademyArchivePDFS/Aug08ProgramVideoGuide233tipsheets/Program%20Video%20Tip%20Sheets/The7HabitsSignatureProgram/TheGooseandtheGoldenEgg.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4918" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1762" RevisionGUID="681ae751-27e5-4bdf-b29f-df8b03010b50" CreationDate="2014-04-25T03:53:56.090" UserId="-1" Comment="improved english" Text="Is it unprofessional - Yes.&#xD;&#xA;Should you skip a lucrative opportunity - probably not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, these two things are in collision, as they always are. The only thing you can do here is work the lucrative job in regular work hours, and do the bargain job after that (probably late afternoon and night). So paid jobs are done in the prime time, and low-paid jobs after.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before you do that, you should explain to your friend that you gave them an extra low price cause you are friends, and that you got a lucrative opportunity (2, 3 times more money) and that you have to prioritize that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They should understand this, though they will not be glad. They may offer you the same money to keep you focused on the job, though they probably won't. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But plan your time carefully, because you MUST NOT leave project unfinished. That's the most unprofessional thing to do and you must not get used to it. The only case you can leave the project if work conditions are horrible (interpersonal relations), but never because at some point you gave them your work for small money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. I am in the same situation. Gave the client 2.5 lower hourly rate cause I was out of work. After that I got 2 lucrative projects, and now I am doing his project a couple of hours at night. I explained to him about this, and he did not complain. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4919" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1762" RevisionGUID="681ae751-27e5-4bdf-b29f-df8b03010b50" CreationDate="2014-04-25T03:53:56.090" Comment="Proposed by anonymous approved by 64 edit id of 316" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4920" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1763" RevisionGUID="1f97204e-d991-418f-a7e1-47aa1cb142d1" CreationDate="2014-04-25T04:00:01.677" UserId="64" Comment="copy edited; fixed formatting issues, some grammar, highlighted sections with bold, and removed quote block on last section" Text="If you know for a fact that, in the long run, choosing the new client will compensate for dropping your to-date employer (client), then choose the arising opportunity. We need to remember that the most important thing is your well-being (it is in your duty to defend your best interests).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe, the most important aspect is to measure, how much good the new opportunity brings compared to what you have right now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't be shy or afraid about change. There are many situations when **you will be unable to do good for everyone**. Some sacrifices must be considered (for your sake and the good of others).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This being said, consider renegotiating your present contract by lowering the number of weekly hours or by getting a higher hourly rate. If this isn't a good perspective, just terminate the contract (if as you say, there is no concern about serious liability.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What about ethics?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, this is a complicated matter. Of course, sticking with your past decisions is part of your responsibilities and determines your reputation. But, as you know, the law makes you liable to your clients/suppliers and requires you to act in the best interests of the company (in this case yourself) - so, which one do you choose first?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the new contract will bring you enough resources to cover the (eventual) costs in case you are made liable, if these resources will help you secure the future of your freelancing activity, and if your potentially _&quot;unethical&quot;_ decision to give up on this client will be soon forgotten and you know it is not who you are, then look forward by choosing the opportunity at hand (this new promising project).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**_A quick thought (maybe unrelated to the topic)_**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;_I think is wrong (bad practice) to accept projects for a lower than normal rate just because you are out of work. I also think that **it is ethical to stick with such a decision once it has been made**. What should happen if you terminate a contract in exchange for some other promising offer and as soon you do so another more promising opportunity comes to your attention?_&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4921" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1767" RevisionGUID="ff2ca27c-9a04-4637-b7a7-c9d6d135c8ca" CreationDate="2014-04-25T04:01:16.827" UserId="64" Comment="removed some unprofessional language and fixed a typo; fixed formatting of numbered list" Text="If your current client decided that you were not satisfactory, he would fire you. Thanks, bye. Why should you feel any greater sense of obligation to him? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Accept the new job. And make sure you really have it before you say anything to the existing client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Once the new bird is in the hand, explain the situation to the old client, and see if there is anything you can do for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to see this in ethical terms, how about this; the fact that the new client will pay more means that the economy is telling you that you would be more productive at the new task. The only good reason for ignoring this information is if you disagree. And remember that the economy is a whole lot smarter than you will ever be." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4922" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1773" RevisionGUID="d6ce940a-9904-413c-8703-023ff8bad109" CreationDate="2014-04-25T04:23:35.093" UserId="1451" Text="Only ever risk your friendship for work if you are willing to forgo that friendship, for that is surely how it will end.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Only ever add someone to your business who can make you money.  To do otherwise is to invite failure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Structure your business so someone (you!) has a tie-breaking vote on how things get done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ensure you get a contract, ensure every piece of work you assign is accurately and completely described, and ensure you quality-inspect every result.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4923" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1774" RevisionGUID="3fbfe05d-521b-454a-8698-77bbfab8658e" CreationDate="2014-04-25T04:31:40.853" UserId="1451" Text="You end your question with &quot;I feel I will get tired of doing web development freelancing with this cycle.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The answer, I expect, is right there.  If you love working for 3 days straight, then by all means, do that.  If you don't love it, or feel it is negatively impacting your life, then don't do it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Listen to your instincts and find a way that is both productive and compatible with your lifestyle and you will be successful." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4924" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1761" RevisionGUID="4dc07403-da6a-4366-9dd1-a850fc882a35" CreationDate="2014-04-25T04:45:37.543" UserId="64" Comment="clarified question; added tag" Text="I just recently started freelancing (software development) for a new client; they're a start-up and my old boss is the CTO.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They gave me a 3 month freelancing contract which doesn't specify how many hours but rather that we loosely agree to work together. They're my only client on the moment and they need me. Since they just started out and because he is an old co-worker come friend I have lowered my rate considerably. That was probably a mistake right there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I gave a talk at a conference and afterwards someone from a big company emailed me and asked if I wanted to freelance for them for a very lucrative rate doing a _very_ visible project. It's something that, in my country, millions of people would be using quite regularly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The thing is they want me to start very soon and I still have about 2 month left on my current contract. I'm not very worried about the legal aspects of leaving because I am not an employee and suing would not help them in any way other than cost them time and money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Besides the fact that I hate being unreliable, I know that for a freelancer reputation is quite important so I don't want to flake out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand securing a great client like this won't come around every day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it unprofessional to leave a contract before the project ended for better paid project? How should I approach terminating the contract if I do decide to do this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4925" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1761" RevisionGUID="4dc07403-da6a-4366-9dd1-a850fc882a35" CreationDate="2014-04-25T04:45:37.543" UserId="64" Comment="clarified question; added tag" Text="|evaluating-clients|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4926" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="686" RevisionGUID="258b688f-082a-49c9-9cce-f905d87933b4" CreationDate="2014-04-25T04:45:51.070" UserId="9" Comment="Created excerpt from first sentence of tag wiki, added in possible use cases" Text="An estimation is a rough calculation of the value, number, quantity, or extent of something. For freelancing, this may relate to time estimation (how long a task will take to be completed) or cost estimation (how much to charge for completing a particular task)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4927" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="686" RevisionGUID="258b688f-082a-49c9-9cce-f905d87933b4" CreationDate="2014-04-25T04:45:51.070" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 708, 64 edit id of 315" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4928" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1775" RevisionGUID="46578ab4-86b7-4b1c-b389-c943daa73803" CreationDate="2014-04-25T05:36:46.547" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4929" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1776" RevisionGUID="6d182f2c-b5a8-40a1-9b55-42dbae9653db" CreationDate="2014-04-25T05:36:46.547" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4930" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1761" RevisionGUID="c9c018c5-945e-4840-8a8e-9e41009ba448" CreationDate="2014-04-25T06:37:38.870" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/459581986559250432" />
  <row Id="4932" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1778" RevisionGUID="c25a9fdd-a937-4371-9ed1-6af211404833" CreationDate="2014-04-25T07:41:29.347" UserId="2716" Text="It is totally depends upon the modules,language,time period,features, How much modules are you creating on that mobile app, which language are you using to develop, what time it will take to build it, and what are the features should be available on that app. these are the things should be there while estimating a cost." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4933" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1779" RevisionGUID="c4f8e16b-9478-41f0-9e9e-b8498ae36b57" CreationDate="2014-04-25T07:56:35.937" UserId="2716" Text="There are many possible ways to advertise yourself , but the best way is to advertise yourself is social media , because lots of folks were using social media just like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and many of the folks are always like to connect with it, " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4934" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1780" RevisionGUID="bf811b88-0d1c-4b73-a3c8-34a07402f911" CreationDate="2014-04-25T08:06:16.737" UserId="2716" Text="Possibly it depends upon the task, the rate should be increased up to 30% of the actual price. If any of the customer want their work in an urgent way, then definitely rate should be  increased. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4935" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1781" RevisionGUID="60f5c0dd-d2ab-4e40-abd9-9c0ca2b9301d" CreationDate="2014-04-25T08:15:32.510" UserId="2716" Text="It is quite difficult to identify the generated lead whether it is genuine or fake. There are little ways to identify it. Check the profiling this is one of the better ways to check it, It will give you clear idea whether it is fake or genuine. What do you check in profiling, you have to check it his/her Name,Age,Occupation, Photo whether it is related to the name , age , Sex ." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4937" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1782" RevisionGUID="ef1a8c26-9bd8-441f-8362-5a2a2f5f1861" CreationDate="2014-04-25T15:37:06.340" UserId="124" Text="Some simple tips that I follow, though I have to say I  haven't ever said go away on the off chance I am wrong - just given less time to it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Get more detail from then then record it. Ask them the same detail next time, if it is the same result chances are the aren't making it up on the spot&#xD;&#xA; - Dig deep. Use linked in, or anything else to find a trace of something. Chances are if they are genuine there will be a record of them somewhere out there. &#xD;&#xA; - Look at trademarks. Similar to the above, its unlikely a website is the first thing they are doing as a business. Here in the UK you can search for any company to see its status, board etc. If it is a proper company chances are it will be registered&#xD;&#xA; - This depends on your industry entirely, but if you are a webdesigner offer to secure their domain immediately. It only costs a few pounds/dollars and if they are genuine they will likely jump at the chance to have myname.com (if it is available!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As everyone has said though, there are no 100% rules here. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4938" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1783" RevisionGUID="ad7620ef-0b47-4b95-960e-d4dde6f352ca" CreationDate="2014-04-25T17:43:12.267" UserId="1706" Text="If you are being paid hourly, then the company that you're working for has no recourse because the contract is divisible and does not specify a number of hours.  If you were doing fixed-price work, it'd be a different case.  I'm not an attorney, but I'm pretty sure that this is the case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second part is, as shown in the other comments, an ethics concern.  Or actually, a few:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I don't know who set the price you're getting.  If it was your boss, it was unethical for him to offer much-lower-than-market prices.  On the other hand, if it were you, it was unethical for you to accept three months' work on the cheap if you were really waiting to land something else.&#xD;&#xA; - If you stay on the existing gig, and don't level with the CTO as to your real needs, the project (and your morale) will suffer.&#xD;&#xA; - If you jump ship, it may bite you in the ^@#*!&amp;@^* someday.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's a hard spot to be in.  Be careful of doing anything too pre-emptively (meaning before company #2 has made a solid offer).  &quot;Old boss&quot; may be willing to work with you, but you can't stretch him too far because he's got a business to run.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4946" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1787" RevisionGUID="0a32905c-5192-494c-8bf6-6ffc50747080" CreationDate="2014-04-25T20:09:20.683" UserId="2693" Text="I’m getting started doing some freelance web design and front end development, and had a question about what is the norm for copyrights in the US.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you create a custom web site for a client, do you:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1)	Retain the copyright of the site, granting the client use of it for his business, but not giving him the right to transfer ownership, or limiting the modifications he can make?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2)	 Give client the whole shebang, with the ability to modify it as he wishes, sell it to the highest bidder, or anything else, with the designer retaining the right to use the original design as a portfolio piece?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or something else entirely?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4947" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1787" RevisionGUID="0a32905c-5192-494c-8bf6-6ffc50747080" CreationDate="2014-04-25T20:09:20.683" UserId="2693" Text="Web design copyright norm" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4948" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1787" RevisionGUID="0a32905c-5192-494c-8bf6-6ffc50747080" CreationDate="2014-04-25T20:09:20.683" UserId="2693" Text="|contracts|usa|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4949" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1788" RevisionGUID="012aed21-8632-4e51-b6b5-efb102825cbe" CreationDate="2014-04-25T20:15:01.447" UserId="2546" Text="There are many variables.  &#xD;&#xA;In short words, you have to know how to licence your work and this should happen when you write the contract with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found on internet a very good article which gives you a very good idea about how copyrighting works. Here is how it starts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The moment a work is created in a tangible form, it immediately becomes the property of the author who created it. As soon as you draw that illustration, snap that photo, or write that article, it belongs to you. As owner of that work, you can license its use to another (and even restrict how it’s used), or transfer ownership entirely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The exception to the above is “work for hire.” That’s when someone else hires you to take the photo or write the article; or when an employee creates a work within the scope of his or her employment. As a freelance designer or programmer, it’s important that your contract makes that distinction; otherwise, the work you perform could be deemed as “work for hire” in a court of law.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can read more details [here](http://www.sitepoint.com/the-web-designers-copyright-crash-course/)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4950" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1788" RevisionGUID="6ada6a13-303d-414f-8ee7-fe032f07b5d8" CreationDate="2014-04-25T20:23:28.177" UserId="2546" Comment="Improved my answer content and message" Text="There are many variables.  &#xD;&#xA;In short words, you have to know how to licence your work and this should happen when you write the contract with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, there are many aspects of the problem you should consider:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Does the work contain parts over which your client has full copyright (logo, text, colors, design, source code, trademarks)?&#xD;&#xA;- What can you reuse in the future? Should this parts of your work be licensed under specific terms?&#xD;&#xA;- What exactly the client is willing to pay for? Should you give up all the rights for the work or the price the client pays covers only a limited licence which allows you to resell or reuse part of the work (idea, design, source code)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No matter what the situation is, you should always consider this legal concern. Moreover, make sure your work doesn't defaults as the property of the client just because you were payed and asked to do the job (it happens in most of the cases).  &#xD;&#xA;Look, i found on internet a very good article which gives you a very good idea about how copyrighting works and the way you shuld handle this matter. Here is how it starts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The moment a work is created in a tangible form, it immediately becomes the property of the author who created it. As soon as you draw that illustration, snap that photo, or write that article, it belongs to you. As owner of that work, you can license its use to another (and even restrict how it’s used), or transfer ownership entirely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The exception to the above is “work for hire.” That’s when someone else hires you to take the photo or write the article; or when an employee creates a work within the scope of his or her employment. As a freelance designer or programmer, it’s important that your contract makes that distinction; otherwise, the work you perform could be deemed as “work for hire” in a court of law.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can read more details [here](http://www.sitepoint.com/the-web-designers-copyright-crash-course/)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4951" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1789" RevisionGUID="e828d6c9-4bd4-446a-b1a2-429f837783af" CreationDate="2014-04-25T21:09:30.777" UserId="1818" Text="Taking this action sends a message that you are always willing to leave when something better comes along.  You may not mind sending this message to your friend, given the circumstances.  Do you really want to send this message to the new employer?  They may be happy that you are coming on board, but they already know you are willing to jump ship at any point you see something better." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4952" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1790" RevisionGUID="82967ea4-25c1-4892-9a1b-775fe385224a" CreationDate="2014-04-25T21:13:15.250" UserId="2731" Text="I recently did some web design samples for a client. The client was looking for an e-commerce website and wanted to see samples of what I intended to make the site look like. They were very adamant on the samples either being right the first time, or they were going to decline and move on to a different developer (should have taken this as the first bad sign, right?). I never had a client with this sort of mentality before (usually clients ask for revisions until it looks good, then move on), so we agreed that if they liked the samples, they would pay a 50% down payment and I would start development on the site (no extra cost for the samples). If they did not like the samples, they would only owe $100 for the work spent creating the samples for them. These terms were agreed upon via email as well as verbal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Needless to say, after sending the samples they informed me that they did not like them and were going to find someone else (ouch). No problem, I sent them an invoice for the $100. I received an email the next day stating that they disliked the samples so much that they refuse to pay for them (double ouch). I politely apologized that they did not like the samples but due to the terms of our agreement, a $100 fee was owed for the work I did for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Today is the due date for the payment before a 5% late fee as written in our agreement. Since they don't appear to be anywhere near paying today (they aren't responding to my curtesy reminder emails either), I assume they have no intention of paying at all. I realize it's only $100, but the client was rude regarding the rejection and with the samples in hand, they could realistically bring them to another developer to use without me getting a dime.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My Question: What is a reasonable approach to getting the money the client agreed to pay me?** Most options seem to cost more than the amount due.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For reference: Both parties are from Texas, USA (Dallas area); I have a written document regarding the terms of the work and design--my work did not breach the terms at all; I have email documentation regarding the $100 fee should they choose to not continue on with the project afterwards.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*P.S. Hindsight is 20/20. Should have said no to the project. At the very least, should have required the $100 upfront!*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4953" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1790" RevisionGUID="82967ea4-25c1-4892-9a1b-775fe385224a" CreationDate="2014-04-25T21:13:15.250" UserId="2731" Text="Client refusing to pay" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4954" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1790" RevisionGUID="82967ea4-25c1-4892-9a1b-775fe385224a" CreationDate="2014-04-25T21:13:15.250" UserId="2731" Text="|contracts|legal|difficult-client|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4955" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1788" RevisionGUID="5e8c3e2b-d414-48f6-89f1-c932b2dfeac2" CreationDate="2014-04-25T21:38:33.503" UserId="2546" Comment="Added My case section" Text="There are many variables.  &#xD;&#xA;In short words, you have to know how to licence your work and this should happen when you write the contract with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, there are many aspects of the problem you should consider:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Does the work contain parts over which your client has full copyright (logo, text, colors, design, source code, trademarks)?&#xD;&#xA;- What can you reuse in the future? Should this parts of your work be licensed under specific terms?&#xD;&#xA;- What exactly the client is willing to pay for? Should you give up all the rights for the work or the price the client pays covers only a limited licence which allows you to resell or reuse part of the work (idea, design, source code)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No matter what the situation is, you should always consider this legal concern. Moreover, make sure your work doesn't defaults as the property of the client just because you were payed and asked to do the job (it happens in most of the cases).  &#xD;&#xA;Look, i found on internet a very good article which gives you a very good idea about how copyrighting works and the way you shuld handle this matter. Here is how it starts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The moment a work is created in a tangible form, it immediately becomes the property of the author who created it. As soon as you draw that illustration, snap that photo, or write that article, it belongs to you. As owner of that work, you can license its use to another (and even restrict how it’s used), or transfer ownership entirely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The exception to the above is “work for hire.” That’s when someone else hires you to take the photo or write the article; or when an employee creates a work within the scope of his or her employment. As a freelance designer or programmer, it’s important that your contract makes that distinction; otherwise, the work you perform could be deemed as “work for hire” in a court of law.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can read more details [here](http://www.sitepoint.com/the-web-designers-copyright-crash-course/)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My case?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do web design as a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- The logo, color scheme, images, texts are copyrighted to the client. I don't have and don't exert any rights over what is property of the client.&#xD;&#xA;- The source code will always be under my copyright (I keep all the rights). The client can use the website (source code) as it is, bring changes or replace it with someones else work (with no limitations). What I never allow my clients do is to resell or reuse as part of some other products the source code over which I have (and exert) property rights (except plugins or other peaces I have the right to sell/re-sell as they are).&#xD;&#xA;- As mentioned above, I many times use the work of others as part of my product (plugins, images).  I always make sure I have the right to use them as part of the product that I'm selling and I do not exert any property right over this parts (the client can do whatever he/she wants).&#xD;&#xA;- The copyright over the visual aspect (theme/template) is a complicated matter. Usually I try to be original and to avoid building websites visually similar. But, in the end, all of them have a navbar, header, sections, footer, some sliders and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Controlling what happens with the source code after it was delivered to the client is very hard. For this reason, when I ask for a price I consider all the implications (including what can happen after I no longer have control over my work)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4956" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1790" RevisionGUID="e380703f-751d-4228-8fc2-434e6c9d57b2" CreationDate="2014-04-26T03:37:38.887" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/459899076516282368" />
  <row Id="4957" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1742" RevisionGUID="ed170e3a-77e3-4b80-89e9-03f3a060106f" CreationDate="2014-04-26T09:37:38.910" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/459989672916418561" />
  <row Id="4958" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1791" RevisionGUID="a142c829-3215-4856-9b8c-8e0c34732dc1" CreationDate="2014-04-26T12:33:23.500" UserId="1706" Text="Devin, you're probably screwed here.  You took some work &quot;on spec&quot;.  Don't ever do this.  There's a whole site devoted to this:  http://www.nospec.com/faq&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your contract is pretty much garbage.  Why is that?  Sure, you can sue for your $100.  But you have to do it in the county where the client's business is located (Peter MV, that's how it works in the states).  That, in turn, means that you have to get yourself there after finding out how to open a case, take time off from working, and wait your turn to see a judge.  Then, a judge CAN issue a judgment in your favor, but that doesn't mean for certain that you will collect a cent.  You'd be better off taking a hundred-dollar bill and burning it than doing all of the above.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider the chance that the client was working-over you **and** other designers for samples ***all at once***, and never really intended to pay in the first place.  Be smarter about your business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4959" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1734" RevisionGUID="bbb2b0f8-1b37-4761-9d1d-4897835cd934" CreationDate="2014-04-26T12:37:38.877" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/460034971965857792" />
  <row Id="4963" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1793" RevisionGUID="0b17c308-108e-4520-911b-cb456febfc1d" CreationDate="2014-04-26T16:28:34.730" UserId="708" Text="Be aware, even if you were to pursue something like small claims court and win, it's still *your job* to collect. **A court won't collect for you.** They merely allow you to legally pursue avenues of collection such as garnishment. If you were to use something like a collection agency you'd be giving up a percentage of the whatever was collected. So you'll never gain the full $100 that way either and that's *if* the agency collects anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For $100, I'd simply keep sending invoices every 15 days until the end of time or until I get paid. I find that for some stubborn clients the constant invoice becomes *highly* annoying to them and eventually they may pay to simply stop the invoices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other avenues aren't really worth their cost to pursue. So chalk it up to a learning cost, be smarter about it next time, and move on. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4964" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1710" RevisionGUID="774859c0-0431-4ba2-99ad-d6b70b641be8" CreationDate="2014-04-26T18:41:36.807" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/460126566375518208" />
  <row Id="4969" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1795" RevisionGUID="e0c1989c-13b6-442d-88ec-dd0d5d9326fe" CreationDate="2014-04-26T23:19:44.857" UserId="2546" Text="From your position is best not waste too much time asking what big companies will do. You don't have neither the influence nor the financial power to penetrate the market by means of big PR campaigns or aggressive marketing strategies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Email lists or cold calling is also wrong. Why? Email marketing at this point is simple SPAM. Cold calling is inefficient because the targeted market is, for sure, already well served by others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can you do from such an unfavourable position?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Make sure the message sent by your company (on various channels), clearly differentiates your product from the competition.&#xD;&#xA;- Focus on a single market penetrating strategy. My choice will be direct marketing one client at a time. Choose a potential client and do the impossible to sell them your product. After ten or more sales you can consider expanding your marketing/selling strategy.&#xD;&#xA;- Get endorsed by a big player in the industry. The bigger the company, the better.&#xD;&#xA;- Make friends with influencers in the industry.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will not speak about advertising, public relations, resource management or messaging. I suppose you already are familiar with what you should do before you knock at your prospective clients door.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4971" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1725" RevisionGUID="d91a6866-6f88-42cb-ab96-15ff57d09ff8" CreationDate="2014-04-27T03:11:56.873" UserId="2740" Comment="formatting, spelling of title, grammar" Text="I've done about 2.5 years of certification course from Aptech in different types of programming languages. And now I want to earn my bread and butter from freelancing sites like Odesk and Elance. I've made my profile on that but the actual problem is that that I've only basic understanding of web development and on these sites there are lot of competition with more experience and low price bid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I'm in a fix, how can I make a good reputation on these sites to make my future in this industry?&#xD;&#xA;I want to work from home as a web developer. But I've no professional experience on making a big projects. I've made small projects during my course. And my interest is in Asp.net web development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What steps and schedule should I choose to be professional in the Asp.net development industry?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How and how long it will take me, when I can say that I am a good professional?&#xD;&#xA;Any suggestions and ideas will be greatly appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4972" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1725" RevisionGUID="d91a6866-6f88-42cb-ab96-15ff57d09ff8" CreationDate="2014-04-27T03:11:56.873" UserId="2740" Comment="formatting, spelling of title, grammar" Text="What way should I go for?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4973" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1725" RevisionGUID="d91a6866-6f88-42cb-ab96-15ff57d09ff8" CreationDate="2014-04-27T03:11:56.873" Comment="Proposed by 2740 approved by 708, 64 edit id of 318" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4974" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1680" RevisionGUID="3759d1a7-6aac-415c-b209-7e195c5791bf" CreationDate="2014-04-27T03:41:36.847" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/460262462101921792" />
  <row Id="4977" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1796" RevisionGUID="48d61ca7-31a4-4105-a28c-7927bb3def23" CreationDate="2014-04-28T16:42:22.957" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4978" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1797" RevisionGUID="8613011d-c2a4-4469-8f43-326ba9b483d7" CreationDate="2014-04-28T16:42:22.957" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4979" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1719" RevisionGUID="d873f543-2bcd-438d-b794-e43290957033" CreationDate="2014-04-28T18:41:36.723" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/460851342102495232" />
  <row Id="4988" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1797" RevisionGUID="d5898d7e-d3d4-4d61-82d4-dc4073dc0c69" CreationDate="2014-04-29T01:08:29.617" UserId="9" Comment="added 116 characters in body" Text="A list of overarching goals for a company, along with an outline of how the company plans to accomplish those goals." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4989" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1797" RevisionGUID="d5898d7e-d3d4-4d61-82d4-dc4073dc0c69" CreationDate="2014-04-29T01:08:29.617" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 64 edit id of 320" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4990" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1796" RevisionGUID="5046da7d-67af-4873-b45c-2f7f03ceb249" CreationDate="2014-04-29T01:08:56.887" UserId="9" Comment="added 942 characters in body" Text="## Definition&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A business plan, as defined by [Entrepeneur.com][1] is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A written document describing the nature of the business, the sales&#xD;&#xA;&gt; and marketing strategy, and the financial background, and containing a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; projected profit and loss statement&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is useful to have a business plan, as it sets down what you'd like your business to accomplish.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Writing a Business Plan&#xD;&#xA;There are many good resources to help one write their own business plan. Of note:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* [SBA.gov: How to Write a Business Plan][2]&#xD;&#xA;* [Harvard Business School: Resources - Business Plans][3]&#xD;&#xA;* [Entrepreneur.com: Business Plan Guide][4]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/business-plan&#xD;&#xA;[2]: http://www.sba.gov/category/navigation-structure/starting-managing-business/starting-business/how-write-business-plan&#xD;&#xA;[3]: http://www.hbs.edu/entrepreneurship/resources/businessplan.html&#xD;&#xA;[4]: http://www.entrepreneur.com/businessplan/index.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4991" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1796" RevisionGUID="5046da7d-67af-4873-b45c-2f7f03ceb249" CreationDate="2014-04-29T01:08:56.887" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 64 edit id of 319" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4992" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="674" RevisionGUID="3ebae3c2-32d3-4cd1-a0b5-225db6a06658" CreationDate="2014-04-29T01:09:02.913" UserId="9" Comment="Modified excerpt from GD.SE, modified full tag wiki from SO" Text="Copyright is a legal concept enacted by most governments to give creators of original works exclusive rights to it. This is usually time-limited, and is intended to allow the creator to be compensated for their work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4993" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="674" RevisionGUID="3ebae3c2-32d3-4cd1-a0b5-225db6a06658" CreationDate="2014-04-29T01:09:02.913" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 64 edit id of 322" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4994" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="673" RevisionGUID="d3a5bd1d-3de3-47ef-8595-6c8926029a5a" CreationDate="2014-04-29T01:09:17.403" UserId="9" Comment="Modified excerpt from GD.SE, modified full tag wiki from SO" Text="Copyright law gives exclusivity of the rights to copy, distribute and modify a work to its creator for a given period of time, in the interest of getting such a work disclosed to the public. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are various differences in copyright law across countries, and the frequent advice given on Stack Exchange regarding it is **I Am Not A Lawyer (IANAL)** - we are freelancers, and given the complexity of copyright law, we are not a sufficiently good resource for asking in-depth questions about copyright.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since the standard **IANAL** tagline is to *consult a lawyer*, [a question](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/613396/how-do-you-find-a-lawyer-who-is-able-to-answer-software-development-questions) was posed on Stack Overflow regarding where to find them, and is a suggested resource for finding one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are opinions specifically on software copyright, but much more debate can be found in the wider world of copyright as a whole - see the [Philosophy of Copyright](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_copyright) for both sides of the issue." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4995" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="673" RevisionGUID="d3a5bd1d-3de3-47ef-8595-6c8926029a5a" CreationDate="2014-04-29T01:09:17.403" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 64 edit id of 321" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4997" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1800" RevisionGUID="b78493d1-655a-4606-8de3-c6b3141c96a0" CreationDate="2014-04-29T04:58:44.257" UserId="2766" Text="Absolutely.  The technical term for doing so is called being a &quot;sole proprietor&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Sole proprietorship&quot; refers to how your business is &quot;organized&quot; as per the IRS.  A sole proprietor may use their own name for conducting business, or may register a business name with their municipality if they want. (My town registers business names for two years for $60.  With the resulting document, you can get a bank account in your business' name.)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4998" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1801" RevisionGUID="e8b7f1bb-c371-49a6-8b85-676de7ea6497" CreationDate="2014-04-29T06:18:15.383" UserId="2768" Text="I own a small photography business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once the client decides to go with my services, I charge them 50% off the full cost of service, to be paid within 5 days upon agreement. This payment secures their date.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Meanwhile, the remaining 50% is not due until 2 days before their actual event date, which is typically months away. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to find a software that allows me to have a single &quot;sales order&quot; (the bi picture), but which allows me to invoice the customer off of that order twice, for the corresponding 50% payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This would allow me to have independent due dates for the two payments, and have greater accuracy on who owes money, who is on track, and especially, how much money is planned to be coming in during the following months. Suppose a customer has an event in June and I will charge her $1,000. $500 of that amount should be considered for money coming in this month, while another $500 should be assigned to the Money coming in during June category.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All this, wothout having to create two separate, unrelated invoices. I'd love to find something where the two partial invoices are connected to a single sale, and where I can send the second invoice showing the transaction history for the sale, i.e. the amount billed in the first partial invoice, payments received, plus what is being billed now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've tried Xero, Kashflow and Zoho Invoice but haven't found a way to do this in any of them. I've seen some articles on QuickBooks describing something like this, but I'm not sure it will have all the Income forecasting features that I've talked about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd love to hear your ideas if anybody else needs to do something similar to this for their invoicing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Carmen&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4999" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1801" RevisionGUID="e8b7f1bb-c371-49a6-8b85-676de7ea6497" CreationDate="2014-04-29T06:18:15.383" UserId="2768" Text="Which software can I use to do partial / progress invoicing? I.e. &quot;Installment invoicing?&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5000" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1801" RevisionGUID="e8b7f1bb-c371-49a6-8b85-676de7ea6497" CreationDate="2014-04-29T06:18:15.383" UserId="2768" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|invoices|payments|accounting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5001" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1802" RevisionGUID="8b22180c-95ed-424f-8b36-5832a6fbf520" CreationDate="2014-04-29T08:35:42.937" UserId="2770" Text="For me it's important to remember that you are a freelance, not a slave. So I would sincerely talk to them and try to find a solution that would benefit both. Because you say that you have a contract were &quot;we loosely agree to work together&quot;, try to work the flexibility of that agreement instead of seeing from the point of view of breaking it completely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When working with clients as a freelancer it's always a push&amp;pull and a lot of negotiation, I would encourage you to negotiate with a friendly and honest approach showing that you are willing to help but do not want to miss new good opportunities either." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5002" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1612" RevisionGUID="c322c48f-7ffc-4c4e-8a1e-25df44c0c15c" CreationDate="2014-04-29T08:36:11.983" UserId="888" Comment="added 1413 characters in body" Text="I see you have a ton of experience which is good, but it's not enough to convince a client. I have been working for almost 8 months now and I'm starting to get more work than I can handle. Here are some tips to get more jobs:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Don't start with &quot; I have a lot of experience...&quot;. It's good that you have, but keep that to the end. You must first catch the client's attention.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Try demonstrating that you understood the project. Ask the client questions about the project, things you didn't understand, things you think will help him get a better product. Tell him how you plan on making certain features for the project and show him projects you have worked on that involve something similar.&#xD;&#xA; 3. You should have the client's attention with that presentation so now it's time to tell him how great you are. Show him your best work, preferably relevant with this project. Tell him about your experience, the ratings you have received so far on the site(congrats on that). &#xD;&#xA; 4. As a last advice, try to not bid a value the first time, if that feature is available on that site. Just bid and wait for a response. A lot of clients filter freelancers by their bid value, so you might loose a lot. But if you first make him become interested in you then you can ask for more than all the other freelancers and he will still pay you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had to hire myself a freelancer and I experienced what clients feel. The things I learned from that are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Be personal. People usually avoid companies.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Make a short introduction and don't bore me with details. I will ask them if I am interested.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Show interest in my project by asking a question, giving some advice etc. If you just say &quot;I can do this&quot; I'm not convinced.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Try to speak in English and don't make a lot of mistakes or write using SMS language like tnx, k etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's about it from what I learned so far. I'm not as experienced as you but I'm sure some of this advice will help you out.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**UPDATE**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's an example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hi, how are you? Great I hope! I'm interested in helping you out with&#xD;&#xA;&gt; your project. I think it's interesting and I'll enjoy working on it. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; But first I'd like to ask some questions to get a better understanding&#xD;&#xA;&gt; of what you need.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; First question.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Second question. Etc&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; These should be legit questions. There's always something to ask. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; If it's a website, app etc then you test it a bit, if you can, and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; write some feedback. For example: I tested your current Android app&#xD;&#xA;&gt; and I feel it's good but it needs some modifications to be great. I&#xD;&#xA;&gt; think X feature is not working properly or it's hard to understand how&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to use even for an experienced user like me.  Don't make this generic,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ask something your really think and after you really test it.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Google the client's name, see if you find info about him. If yes,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; check out what he worked on and tell him this. For example, I had a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; case where the client had a personal blog and website for the app, so&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I gave him some feedback about the website, about what he wrote in the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; blog. This just shows you are interested.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Now you say what you can do. I have been freelancing for x years and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; programming for y years etc. You do your thing here but try to send&#xD;&#xA;&gt; relevant sample, if you have and explain a bit what it has in common&#xD;&#xA;&gt; with what he needs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5003" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1803" RevisionGUID="0f06f1b8-bdca-4fb7-ad0b-d3017b944cf9" CreationDate="2014-04-29T08:38:49.697" UserId="2484" Text="Perhaps this is just semantics, but it sounds to me like you're invoicing for a retainer, and then you're invoicing for your service.  For me in this context, client receivable tracking is more important than crowding it into one invoice; I'd just have two invoices, track payments to each, and issue a credit on the second invoice.  If I were to do it the way you're proposing anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a Freshbooks [1] user myself, but if I did things over again, I'd want to give Wave [2] a try.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The minutiae of billing twice for the same invoice is lost on me, but I've done things like this with my Freshbooks invoicing; I've sent an invoice, collected a payment, and for client billing simplicity, I've modified that invoice to show additional work, then they paid me for it, and I marked it paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I imagine that you can perform these tasks using any of the popular internet invoice/accounting software packages in some way if you're a tiny bit adaptable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1] http://www.freshbooks.com/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[2] https://www.waveapps.com/invoicing/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5004" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1804" RevisionGUID="95334aa3-52df-4fb5-99b4-d1b747e9a319" CreationDate="2014-04-29T08:57:10.180" UserId="1754" Text="I been reading a lot about writting in cover letter, &quot;How would you solve there problem&quot;, whereas clients who are posting jobs, wants you to apply and require there work to be done e.g a job position posting like this &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;        We are looking for a talented and motivated developer with superior PHP/Zend framework skills to work on the oDesk Corporate site. This is an exciting opportunity to work directly on the platform you utilize as a freelancer!&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    This position is part of a worldwide development team, that works collaboratively in an agile environment. You will play in an important role in developing new features for our site, as well as enhancing existing code. The projects are managed by the Product Architects based in the United States, so good English skills are imperative.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    We look for individuals who are able to commit full-time (35+ hours per week). You can work whatever schedule is best for you, we just will need you to be available a few hours in the Pacific Time Zone for meetings.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Skills Required:&#xD;&#xA;    PHP, Zend Framework, Unit testing, OO design - expert level&#xD;&#xA;    PSQL and some Perl experience is a plus&#xD;&#xA;    JS/HTML5/CSS3 - strong knowledge&#xD;&#xA;    Good Experience in GIT&#xD;&#xA;    Backbone.js/Angular.js is a big plus&#xD;&#xA;    Sass/Compass is a big plus&#xD;&#xA;    English - good&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    All candidates must be willing and able to conduct interviews via Skype/video/chat. This is a long term gig of 6+ months and we would want this role to be your first priority. No agencies please.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now in this kind of job, there is no ***problem to solved***, as many people say to mention in cover letter to tell them &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. How can you fix the problem or help them achieve what they want. &#xD;&#xA; 2. How do i tell the client, how can i do what they need to have done?&#xD;&#xA; 3. How do i ask them question, like in a effective cover letter?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, what i am trying to ask if a example on how to write a effective cover letter, that is above the rest applicant or can get you noticed. A example would be great." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5005" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1804" RevisionGUID="95334aa3-52df-4fb5-99b4-d1b747e9a319" CreationDate="2014-04-29T08:57:10.180" UserId="1754" Text="Cover letter : How to tell client that i can fix the problem" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5006" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1804" RevisionGUID="95334aa3-52df-4fb5-99b4-d1b747e9a319" CreationDate="2014-04-29T08:57:10.180" UserId="1754" Text="|attracting-clients|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5011" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1806" RevisionGUID="01b2776b-37aa-435c-8fd2-495b9764c30e" CreationDate="2014-04-29T15:26:24.270" UserId="127" Text="To me, what you are describing is a statement, not an invoice. Statements show history, invoices do not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For what it is worth, my business is all fixed fee and in most cases my work is split into multiple payments (sometimes 50/50, sometimes spread over several phases.) I use Quicken Home and Business for managing my finances. When I set up a new project, I create estimate items for each invoice I intend to create. The estimates allow me to put in a date and amount, and can be converted to an invoice. These estimates records are all tied back to a single project.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As my work progresses, I can see which items are left to be billed and convert them to invoices as needed. The estimate list shows the customer, project, date and amount, and I just convert the estimate to an invoice when it is time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Quicken also shows me who hasn't paid me yet and when their due date is. There is a way to &quot;print statements&quot; but I don't use that feature as I typically only have 2-4 outstanding invoices at any one time. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5012" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1804" RevisionGUID="38d338b6-04a0-4eb9-b5a6-902bb5015a77" CreationDate="2014-04-29T16:12:07.530" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, Markdown, title" Text="I have been reading a lot about writing a cover letter, &quot;How would you solve their problem&quot;, whereas clients want you to apply and require their work to be done. For example, a job posting may look like this: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;We are looking for a talented and motivated developer with superior PHP/Zend framework skills to work on the oDesk Corporate site. This is an exciting opportunity to work directly on the platform you utilize as a freelancer!&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;&gt;This position is part of a worldwide development team, that works collaboratively in an agile environment. You will play in an important role in developing new features for our site, as well as enhancing existing code. The projects are managed by the Product Architects based in the United States, so good English skills are imperative.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;&gt;We look for individuals who are able to commit full-time (35+ hours per week). You can work whatever schedule is best for you, we just will need you to be available a few hours in the Pacific Time Zone for meetings.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;&gt;Skills Required:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * PHP, Zend Framework, Unit testing, OO design - expert level&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * PSQL and some Perl experience is a plus&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * JS/HTML5/CSS3 - strong knowledge&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * Good Experience in GIT&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * Backbone.js/Angular.js is a big plus&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * Sass/Compass is a big plus&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * English - good&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;&gt;All candidates must be willing and able to conduct interviews via Skype/video/chat. This is a long term gig of 6+ months and we would want this role to be your first priority. No agencies please.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now in this kind of job, there is no stated problem to solve, as many people say to mention in cover letter to tell them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. How can you fix the problem or help them achieve what they want? &#xD;&#xA;2. How do I tell the client, how can I do what they need to have done?&#xD;&#xA;3. How do I ask them questions, like in a effective cover letter?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would I write a effective cover letter, one that is above the rest or can get you noticed? An example would be great." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5013" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1804" RevisionGUID="38d338b6-04a0-4eb9-b5a6-902bb5015a77" CreationDate="2014-04-29T16:12:07.530" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, Markdown, title" Text="How to tell client that I can fix their problem in a cover letter" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5014" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1804" RevisionGUID="38d338b6-04a0-4eb9-b5a6-902bb5015a77" CreationDate="2014-04-29T16:12:07.530" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 127, -1 edit id of 323" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5015" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1804" RevisionGUID="4d5aa9a4-7fc5-4d26-9887-6d189333a1d1" CreationDate="2014-04-29T16:12:07.530" UserId="58" Comment="Grammar, Markdown, title" Text="I have been reading a lot about writing a cover letter, &quot;How would you solve their problem&quot;, where clients want you to apply and require their work to be done. For example, a job posting may look like this: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;We are looking for a talented and motivated developer with superior PHP/Zend framework skills to work on the oDesk Corporate site. This is an exciting opportunity to work directly on the platform you utilize as a freelancer!&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;&gt;This position is part of a worldwide development team, that works collaboratively in an agile environment. You will play in an important role in developing new features for our site, as well as enhancing existing code. The projects are managed by the Product Architects based in the United States, so good English skills are imperative.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;&gt;We look for individuals who are able to commit full-time (35+ hours per week). You can work whatever schedule is best for you, we just will need you to be available a few hours in the Pacific Time Zone for meetings.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;&gt;Skills Required:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * PHP, Zend Framework, Unit testing, OO design - expert level&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * PSQL and some Perl experience is a plus&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * JS/HTML5/CSS3 - strong knowledge&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * Good Experience in GIT&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * Backbone.js/Angular.js is a big plus&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * Sass/Compass is a big plus&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * English - good&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;&gt;All candidates must be willing and able to conduct interviews via Skype/video/chat. This is a long term gig of 6+ months and we would want this role to be your first priority. No agencies please.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now in this kind of job, there is no stated problem to solve, as many people say to mention in cover letter to tell them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. How can you fix the problem or help them achieve what they want? &#xD;&#xA;2. How do I tell the client, how can I do what they need to have done?&#xD;&#xA;3. How do I ask them questions, like in a effective cover letter?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would I write a effective cover letter, one that is above the rest or can get you noticed? An example would be great." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5016" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1801" RevisionGUID="272afc45-b37b-488f-ab62-2dc91d137206" CreationDate="2014-04-29T16:13:10.513" UserId="58" Comment="blarrggghhhh (tagline removal)" Text="I own a small photography business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once the client decides to go with my services, I charge them 50% off the full cost of service, to be paid within 5 days upon agreement. This payment secures their date.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Meanwhile, the remaining 50% is not due until 2 days before their actual event date, which is typically months away. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to find a software that allows me to have a single &quot;sales order&quot; (the bi picture), but which allows me to invoice the customer off of that order twice, for the corresponding 50% payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This would allow me to have independent due dates for the two payments, and have greater accuracy on who owes money, who is on track, and especially, how much money is planned to be coming in during the following months. Suppose a customer has an event in June and I will charge her $1,000. $500 of that amount should be considered for money coming in this month, while another $500 should be assigned to the Money coming in during June category.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All this, wothout having to create two separate, unrelated invoices. I'd love to find something where the two partial invoices are connected to a single sale, and where I can send the second invoice showing the transaction history for the sale, i.e. the amount billed in the first partial invoice, payments received, plus what is being billed now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've tried Xero, Kashflow and Zoho Invoice but haven't found a way to do this in any of them. I've seen some articles on QuickBooks describing something like this, but I'm not sure it will have all the Income forecasting features that I've talked about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd love to hear your ideas if anybody else needs to do something similar to this for their invoicing.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5017" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1807" RevisionGUID="514de284-57f7-481a-9537-9445e42b8a4a" CreationDate="2014-04-29T19:24:48.770" UserId="517" Text="This is pretty tricky since the client is odesk at their own site. On the other hand, it also means that they are serious and have quality people who will inspect each application. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if you have a good reputation there, I would start the same: introduce yourself, ask them to check your previous jobs, check portfolio, etc. You can also state why you want to work for them, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding questions, I would ask questions which concern &quot;PHP, Zend Framework, Unit testing&quot;. They seek expert level so if you're expert, you gotta have a few questions which will intrigue them. I know, I would have. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I'd probably ask about work hours since they did not state that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can tell them that you have more questions, but you will ask that during the interview with odesk expert. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope I helped your getting some ideas how to approach to this job. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5018" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1807" RevisionGUID="d00d05c3-6aaa-4252-b09e-b460d1a79836" CreationDate="2014-04-30T07:26:23.673" UserId="517" Comment="added 1036 characters in body" Text="This is pretty tricky since the client is odesk at their own site. On the other hand, it also means that they are serious and have quality people who will inspect each application. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if you have a good reputation there, I would start the same: introduce yourself, ask them to check your previous jobs, check portfolio, etc. You can also state why you want to work for them, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding questions, I would ask questions which concern &quot;PHP, Zend Framework, Unit testing&quot;. They seek expert level so if you're expert, you gotta have a few questions which will intrigue them. I know, I would have. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I'd probably ask about work hours since they did not state that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can tell them that you have more questions, but you will ask that during the interview with odesk expert. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope I helped your getting some ideas how to approach to this job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;oDesk likes South-Asia workers so if you're from India or Pakistan or other such countries, you should not fear that they will reject you because of your region and region-specific expressions in English language.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Concerning other clients like this and who post jobs like this on Freelancing websites like oDesk, I approach to them in 2 ways:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Write official proposal stating how experienced I am, send a few links to my best work and in a few sentences describe why I am the best choice for them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. I don't write much just ask them to contact me if the like my portfolio. And then I describe myself in a few sentences and my experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, when I choose 1 and when 2 - there is no rule. I simply read the proposal and then ad hoc decide which way I will approach. I act on my hunch here. This is because some companies who like friendly tone (way 2) post official project text, and some companies who like traditional applications (way 1), post friendly project text. So that's why I act on my hunch." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5019" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1808" RevisionGUID="070ef236-1b93-4060-a38c-827d59a806f4" CreationDate="2014-04-30T20:37:36.797" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5020" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1809" RevisionGUID="c1cdf5ca-5cec-4400-9070-efa07b226b75" CreationDate="2014-04-30T20:37:36.797" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5021" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1809" RevisionGUID="2dd62dc0-5b8e-4c5e-864f-d35f7d81b0e0" CreationDate="2014-04-30T22:44:50.160" UserId="9" Comment="added 169 characters in body" Text="Growth can refer to the expansion of an individual's specific or general knowledge, or it can refer to the expansion of their business to meet the needs of more clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5022" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1809" RevisionGUID="2dd62dc0-5b8e-4c5e-864f-d35f7d81b0e0" CreationDate="2014-04-30T22:44:50.160" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 324" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5026" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1725" RevisionGUID="13a1ab0f-bb21-41be-8e0e-66e60b6f1a17" CreationDate="2014-04-30T22:50:34.413" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5027" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1649" RevisionGUID="38c0e986-28e6-4684-9e72-0bf7f55a068e" CreationDate="2014-04-30T22:51:17.070" UserId="75" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[764],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5028" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1810" RevisionGUID="a07a4ece-5ed5-4d6c-9845-82d6501b953b" CreationDate="2014-05-01T07:31:49.057" UserId="2766" Text="I suppose you're going to have to construe &quot;problem&quot; a bit differently than in the usual sense of a _technical_ problem.  In your example, the hiring company has a problem -- a _staffing_ problem.  They have more work than they have hands to do it, and they expect to get more work in.  They know what technologies that work will involve, but they don't yet know all the details of what it will entail.  Actually, they may not know anything of what it will entail at this point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what their problem is, is that they need an employee with skills in a bunch of core areas, who will be versatile and responsive to whatever work they throw his or her way.  They need someone they can rely on to rise to the occasion, and be the productive team member the team needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Allow me to stress that &quot;team&quot; part.  Consider how much of that listing was about being part of a team:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; This position is **part of** worldwide development **team**, that works **collaboratively** in an agile environment. You will **play in an important role** in developing new features for our site, as well as enhancing existing code. The **projects are managed** by the Product Architects [==who aren't you] based in the United States, so good English skills are imperative.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We look for individuals who are able to commit full-time (35+ hours per week). You can work whatever schedule is best for you, we just will need you to be available a few hours in the Pacific Time Zone for **meetings**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This company is saying loud and clear that they have no use for loose cannons and prima donnas.  They want someone who can take direction from leaders, cooperate with peers, and be okay with it, emotionally, that their work is only one fragment of a larger whole.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This suggests that they have had a problem with that in the past.  And, well, they're oDesk; they have a nigh-infinite supply of potential employees, all of whom were too independent to tolerate being directly employed and that's why they became freelancers. ;)  They've probably had a lot of unhappy experience hiring unmanageable or unintegratable employees from their own pool of talent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to me, beyond any specific technical skills you bring to a job like this, the problem you need to explain how you'd solve, is the one about their needing a new team member." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5029" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1811" RevisionGUID="96d1ffae-ae44-40ff-8f65-fb58dd48d56e" CreationDate="2014-05-01T08:24:04.247" UserId="2780" Text="I'm a British citizen, living and working in Europe, and I recently did some work for a small US company based in California.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My client was working for a third-party and I was sub-contracted to work on the project. It was cut short early, but other than that it went well, everyone was happy with the work. I sent my invoice and my client said they would be paying when the third-party pays them. We have a contract stipulating that invoices should be paid within 40 days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is now more than 2 months past the due date and the client has not yet paid. After contacting them, they initially told me the payment would be made within 1 month of the due date, and subsequently that it would happen before the end of April.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I plan to wait a while longer before pursuing any legal action, but I just wanted to find out if anyone knows what my options are? Can I, as a foreign national, make a claim in a US small claims court?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5030" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1811" RevisionGUID="96d1ffae-ae44-40ff-8f65-fb58dd48d56e" CreationDate="2014-05-01T08:24:04.247" UserId="2780" Text="Non-paying international client (US client, UK freelancer)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5031" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1811" RevisionGUID="96d1ffae-ae44-40ff-8f65-fb58dd48d56e" CreationDate="2014-05-01T08:24:04.247" UserId="2780" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5032" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1811" RevisionGUID="c527f2a1-be38-46fb-b914-86af44121639" CreationDate="2014-05-01T09:17:36.250" UserId="2780" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5033" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1811" RevisionGUID="74bce4a8-6333-43f9-b442-28d321ab4858" CreationDate="2014-05-02T00:48:26.953" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/462030822670102528" />
  <row Id="5038" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1804" RevisionGUID="8d4e83a4-6b2a-4dd0-b37c-50711bf9b42b" CreationDate="2014-05-02T06:48:29.127" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/462121429816066048" />
  <row Id="5039" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1813" RevisionGUID="67d9ed72-4199-42ab-9430-45a90ffb9775" CreationDate="2014-05-02T07:33:18.040" UserId="2789" Text="I've been freelancing for a couple months now and since I was just starting out I set my hourly rate fairly low. (On the popular freelancing websites)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This has indeed helped and got me my first few clients - all of them satisfied with my work - and a couple of them asked me to keep working with them, in a flexible, hourly basis. (No contract/agreement)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For multiple reasons, I believe that increasing my hourly rate will allow me to provide better quality to my current and future clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you communicate an increase of rate to existing, ongoing clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5040" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1813" RevisionGUID="67d9ed72-4199-42ab-9430-45a90ffb9775" CreationDate="2014-05-02T07:33:18.040" UserId="2789" Text="Increase hourly rate in ongoing projects" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5041" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1813" RevisionGUID="67d9ed72-4199-42ab-9430-45a90ffb9775" CreationDate="2014-05-02T07:33:18.040" UserId="2789" Text="|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5047" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1816" RevisionGUID="4b8a6111-bde6-4d01-ad7e-4a3c722a2753" CreationDate="2014-05-02T09:02:31.347" UserId="2546" Text="I'm not a US citizen. Like you, living in Europe. But, in the past I needed some legal assistance overseas. At that time, I got on the internet, searched for some legal advisor and found a lawyer who assisted me and for my surprise, delivered results.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can you do from your situation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I was you, I will search for a legal adviser in the US and ask this legal adviser to send them (to your client) a letter by mail post (I believe the synonym to Royal Mail in the UK used for handling most of the legal communications is USPS). What this letter should do? Inform your client about his obligations to you, the time and legal constrains and some other legal stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why send them such a letter? Because this is how a civil law process starts/gets prevented (if the defendant fulfils his contractual obligations). By doing this, you give the defendant the chance to solve the conflict before taking any official and future legal actions (maybe isn't the most appropriate comparison but take this first step as part of an &quot;informal litigation&quot;).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Waiting will do any good.  &#xD;&#xA;Start sending them daily reminders about the due payment and meanwhile, find a legal assistant overseas. As soon you found someone, send them a letter by mail post.  &#xD;&#xA;This is all you can do from your current position before starting a civil action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And, in the future, do one of the essential things any freelancer should do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Keep some sort of control over your work until you receive the final payment (or at least ask for as much money as possible before handling the final work).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Will this solve your problem? Let us know.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5048" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1817" RevisionGUID="d04da61f-5f7e-4d27-bb65-515381b13bee" CreationDate="2014-05-02T13:07:35.210" UserId="2791" Text="If you give them prior notice of the increase (e.g. by sending them an email/letter stating something like 'Please note that from 1st June the hourly rate for maintenance will be £xx/hour') then they will probably be fine with it. If you want, you can add that any work booked in before such-and-such date will be charged at the current rate, subject to a maximum of xx hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, you have to ask yourself - if I charge this and they go elsewhere, will I still have clients? If I DON'T charge this, will I feel that I am being ripped off when working for them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(I'm speaking from about 10 years' experience of self-employment when I consistently undercharged!)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5049" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1818" RevisionGUID="c9dcb922-4277-4b96-8a48-d4effbce31cb" CreationDate="2014-05-02T18:20:26.950" UserId="2792" Text="As a freelancer, you need to ask yourself how often you would increase your rate and by how much. If your clients are satisfied with your work and you only increase your rate every year at a reasonable rate, then naturally your clients will be ok with it. If you are constantly increasing your rate, your clients may become annoyed and decide to go elsewhere. So I'd be very cautious when you decide to roll out increases in your rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I was first starting out, I didn't increase my rate until after 2 years because I felt like my work was evolving and getting better but was not enough to warrant a rate increase. Once I decided I wanted to increase my rate I simply notified my clients about 2 months before the increase, then notified them that there would be a 3% increase every year at the same time. So notifying the client and giving them a schedule to follow will be easier for clients to get on board." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5050" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1819" RevisionGUID="88a601a3-caac-450e-afd1-c1401c4c841d" CreationDate="2014-05-02T18:45:03.947" UserId="245" Text="I've been freelancing for 35 years, so obviously I've had to deal with multiple rate increases over the years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Rather than increase my rate every year or even two years, which seems somewhat petty, I usually wait a few years and increase my rates by a higher percentage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have both long-term -- some more than five years -- and short-term clients (a few months).  I will typically increase my rate for *new* short term clients first, but not for any current ones (either short-term or long-term).  Such increases will typically be 20% or so over my previous rate. Of course the new client won't know what my previous rate was.  Eventually the short-term clients billed at the now lower rate will all drop off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;About a year later, I will send a letter (well, now an email) to my long-term client(s), saying that I have increased my rates and have been billing such and such an amount over the last year.  But since they are a long-term client, I will be billing them at only 90% of the new rate.  I am still getting a substantial rate increase for my long-term clients, and they see they are getting a better deal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've never had a client drop me because of my rate increases as far as I know.  Then again, I'm probably billing a little bit under market." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5051" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1716" RevisionGUID="aa885b89-24bf-48b8-9f5c-b715a755384f" CreationDate="2014-05-02T21:56:37.887" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/462349971577372672" />
  <row Id="5052" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1664" RevisionGUID="105d38cc-51cc-437c-970e-981e29c05e6a" CreationDate="2014-05-03T03:56:22.497" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/462440503762776064" />
  <row Id="5053" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1804" RevisionGUID="cf3a9cb8-bb0c-46b6-8456-9012915a243d" CreationDate="2014-05-03T09:57:08.303" UserId="2766" Comment="Improved title, corrected punctuation" Text="How to tell client that I can fix their problem in a cover letter, when they haven't specified a problem" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5054" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1804" RevisionGUID="cf3a9cb8-bb0c-46b6-8456-9012915a243d" CreationDate="2014-05-03T09:57:08.303" Comment="Proposed by 2766 approved by 517, 708 edit id of 325" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5056" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1712" RevisionGUID="31f682cb-c73f-4af0-a1da-d3fe0e5eefcd" CreationDate="2014-05-03T19:01:52.827" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/462668382547218432" />
  <row Id="5057" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1821" RevisionGUID="0369a011-578d-4fc8-bfd4-dc40221c99e7" CreationDate="2014-05-03T21:34:51.603" UserId="2601" Text="I am a freelance translator who has found himself losing a substantial amount of time to billing. My current method is to use Excel templates, which is very inefficient because I still have to tab around and basically create each one from scratch.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm looking for a solution that perhaps lets me create a profile for each company I do work for and presents a pre-made form which only requires a couple seconds to input all the relevant information. I work per word, not per hour, so I don't believe time management software will work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What software exists that will help me automate the process more and increase my working hours?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5058" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1821" RevisionGUID="0369a011-578d-4fc8-bfd4-dc40221c99e7" CreationDate="2014-05-03T21:34:51.603" UserId="2601" Text="How to increase productivity when invoicing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5059" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1821" RevisionGUID="0369a011-578d-4fc8-bfd4-dc40221c99e7" CreationDate="2014-05-03T21:34:51.603" UserId="2601" Text="|invoices|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5060" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1821" RevisionGUID="ae131ed9-c36b-400c-8763-5e7fdbbb5cbe" CreationDate="2014-05-04T17:04:59.517" UserId="64" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5061" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1821" RevisionGUID="70a4de26-0f3e-415f-b8ee-f429d98bd9fc" CreationDate="2014-05-04T17:36:35.173" UserId="64" Comment="edited to expand the question on the why and how as I do think there's something here we can help with constructively." Text="I am a freelance translator who has found himself losing a substantial amount of time to billing. My current method is to use Excel templates, which is very inefficient because I still have to tab around and basically create each one from scratch.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm looking for a solution that perhaps lets me create a profile for each company I do work for and presents a pre-made form which only requires a couple seconds to input all the relevant information. I work per word, not per hour, so I don't believe time management software will work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **What software exists that will help me automate the process more and increase my working hours? Why is this a good choice?**&#xD;&#xA;- **What should I look for when evaluating such software and why?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5062" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="1821" RevisionGUID="d9ebea8d-06c8-4543-877e-b2aff629d213" CreationDate="2014-05-04T17:36:54.087" UserId="64" Comment="18" />
  <row Id="5063" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="1821" RevisionGUID="a8302d38-661a-4e83-a6f4-b467727fd3ec" CreationDate="2014-05-04T17:36:59.537" UserId="64" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5064" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1821" RevisionGUID="fcaa486a-33ee-4138-9036-042508898186" CreationDate="2014-05-05T01:01:52.053" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/463121364334153728" />
  <row Id="5065" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1662" RevisionGUID="832d578b-92c8-4cd2-aa26-905277200891" CreationDate="2014-05-05T07:06:26.090" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/463213110485352448" />
  <row Id="5066" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1822" RevisionGUID="e5160217-80f4-4f06-8775-6e1f30668d0d" CreationDate="2014-05-05T09:13:08.583" UserId="2799" Text="If you want a simple solution the you can look for a opensource invoicing control at github, sourceforge and others, or you can set it up on MSaccess database  if you need a little degree of customization.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you need a more professional solution then look for ERP like openERP, that includes CRM project managemant, sales and a lot of other features in modular instalation, or buy a comercial software solution. but it is more dificult to setup and hard/costly to customize.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;any of these choices are better for control than excel sheets. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the unit of work in management, it depends on the level of control that you need. maybe a good choice is the rate of work -word per hour, words per day... sou you can measure your productive better.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5067" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1732" RevisionGUID="3b7cda78-454b-4692-83cc-dc5d6e38e4a6" CreationDate="2014-05-05T10:06:26.090" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/463258408888844288" />
  <row Id="5068" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1823" RevisionGUID="8215c981-ec42-45ff-ba03-3156c060ab0f" CreationDate="2014-05-05T11:34:08.800" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="It was my first job with a new client. The job was short (2 days only) but because of very slowness of client in responsing to E-Mails, it took nearly a month to finish it. The client took time ranging from few days to even a week in replying to E-Mails. That wasted mine lot of time as I was not able to work continuously and I have to setup work environment everytime. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since the contract doesn't talk about response hours limit and was fixed price, can I still ask the client for extra payment for my time wasted due to very slow response to E-Mails? Will be considered ethical or unethical?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5069" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1823" RevisionGUID="8215c981-ec42-45ff-ba03-3156c060ab0f" CreationDate="2014-05-05T11:34:08.800" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="Should I charge extra to a client who was very slow in responsing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5070" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1823" RevisionGUID="8215c981-ec42-45ff-ba03-3156c060ab0f" CreationDate="2014-05-05T11:34:08.800" UserDisplayName="user702" Text="|payment-terms|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5071" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1823" RevisionGUID="8aa147a2-57e2-43c8-865b-55bb5936627e" CreationDate="2014-05-05T11:52:13.583" UserDisplayName="user702" Comment="added 85 characters in body" Text="It was my first job with a new client. The job was short (2 days only) but because of very slowness of client in responsing to E-Mails, it took nearly a month to finish it. The client took time ranging from few days to even a week in replying to E-Mails. That wasted mine lot of time as I was not able to work continuously and I have to setup work environment everytime. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since the contract doesn't talk about response hours limit and was fixed price, can I still ask the client for extra payment for my time wasted due to very slow response to E-Mails? Will be considered ethical or unethical? If yes how much should I increase and what reason should I give the client for that?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5072" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1823" RevisionGUID="b5372555-dac8-4ce1-b8e0-2eb163b788bd" CreationDate="2014-05-05T12:11:01.627" UserId="2301" Comment="fixed some spelling" Text="It was my first job with a new client. The job was short (2 days only) but because the client was very slow in responding to E-Mails, it took nearly a month to finish it. The client took time ranging from few days to even a week in replying to E-Mails. That wasted mine lot of time as I was not able to work continuously and I have to setup work environment every time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since the contract doesn't talk about response hours limit and was fixed price, can I still ask the client for extra payment for my time wasted due to very slow response to E-Mails? Will be considered ethical or unethical? If yes how much should I increase and what reason should I give the client for that?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5073" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1823" RevisionGUID="b5372555-dac8-4ce1-b8e0-2eb163b788bd" CreationDate="2014-05-05T12:11:01.627" UserId="2301" Comment="fixed some spelling" Text="Should I charge extra to a client who was very slow in responding?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5074" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1823" RevisionGUID="b5372555-dac8-4ce1-b8e0-2eb163b788bd" CreationDate="2014-05-05T12:11:01.627" Comment="Proposed by 2301 approved by 702 edit id of 326" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5075" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1824" RevisionGUID="1db81219-78d3-41c4-a6e3-4808613269c3" CreationDate="2014-05-05T12:35:04.770" UserId="2801" Text="I think you should not charge any extra, because there was no mention of max response time in the initial terms of agreement or SLA (Service Level Agreement).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can take it as a learning and specify some time frame in which the client is expected to answer in the agreement itself. But if the extra time/cost is not significant, I recommend not charging the client extra, as it could endanger your healthy relationship with him/her.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5076" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1825" RevisionGUID="6680fe26-e202-4502-a59c-6db4c373caf7" CreationDate="2014-05-05T19:39:07.713" UserId="517" Text="If you charge per hour, then charge all time you spent, even checking if he replied.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, there is no fee for slow clients. All you can do it either ditch him and stop working with him or charge him more the next job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I suggest you seriously talk to him and explain to him why his slow reply made your work conditions bad. He may be OK client, but did not think that quick reply is so important to you. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5078" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1696" RevisionGUID="ae23c394-e192-4acf-8d3b-c77bb96f23cb" CreationDate="2014-05-06T07:15:16.800" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/463577723764744192" />
  <row Id="5079" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1826" RevisionGUID="46e6341b-f16c-4b25-8a62-db34c5184659" CreationDate="2014-05-06T12:03:29.713" UserId="2601" Text="It is not unethical to want to charge him more for his ineptitude. The worst that will happen is that you'll lose a client that you likely need to cut anyways." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5080" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1827" RevisionGUID="a280d5ef-d132-421b-b3a7-76de145b9ba2" CreationDate="2014-05-06T18:20:34.070" UserId="1278" Text="I prefer [FreshBooks](http://www.freshbooks.com) for automating the billing process. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Create a profile for each of your clients, and a project for each of them. &#xD;&#xA;- Use their time tracker, and track time as you work.&#xD;&#xA;- Go to invoices &gt; create invoices, and select the client&#xD;&#xA;- A pop-up that says &quot;this client has unbilled time. add all items&quot; will appear, click it. You're done!&#xD;&#xA;- click 'Send by email', or 'Send by snail mail' if you're old fashioned. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5081" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1828" RevisionGUID="457e46f8-1def-4db9-9a9e-0daac5d863dd" CreationDate="2014-05-06T22:07:24.330" UserId="820" Text="I just avoid invoicing completly by outsourcing it to [oDesk](http://odesk.com/). The time I spend invoicing clients is literally **the time it takes to hit `Ctrl` + `Alt` + `Page Up` and then `Ctrl` + `Alt` + `Page Down` when I'm done.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, that costs me 10% (or I have to charge 10% more, if you want to look at it that way), but I'm fine with that for a few reasons. First, as you've realized, at its worse invoicing is painful and time-consuming. And even if you setup an efficient automated system yourself, it's still yet another thing on your to-do list. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I don't want to spend my time doing something I'm not actually paid to do.** Invoicing is not something that relates at all to what I do. I'm a contract software developer, invoicing is not software development, and I'm very happy to avoid that context switch.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But perhaps the most value I get form oDesk - and this is outside the context of the question, but I'll add it as it's a common complaint when invoicing clients - is that **I'm *guaranteed* to be paid**. As long as I use their software client to track the time, oDesk guarantees the payment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So there's no need for me to match checks with invoices, and remind clients when a payment has not been sent.***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On top of all that, the money is direct deposited to my account every week. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Not sure it could get more simple than two sets of keystrokes, and direct deposit every week.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*\*Quick note on the obvious response I always get when making this point: Yes, if that were a frequent issue, I'm really bad a picking clients. But it's not just bad clients that miss an invoice, there are a few clients I invoice outside oDesk and from time to time an invoice will get lost / forgotten amidst all the other invoices they get. For my oDesk clients I never have to worry about that, and I don't have to spend any time checking it.*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5087" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1823" RevisionGUID="e7f9f8f7-ff3f-47cb-b343-903487e9a9b0" CreationDate="2014-05-07T04:17:42.910" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/463895426203017216" />
  <row Id="5088" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1830" RevisionGUID="b340437d-8286-43a2-b42f-fabadfe76495" CreationDate="2014-05-07T13:46:39.040" UserId="2819" Text="I charge a fixed $150/month for the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Smart updates...the whole backup, test, launch (or restore) routine&#xD;&#xA; - Malware monitoring, protection, and cleanup&#xD;&#xA; - Uptime monitoring&#xD;&#xA; - Daily offsite backups&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I chose $150/month because I figured maybe once per year each client would need some extra attention to resolve a plugin conflict, crash, or something similar. So the months where everything went smoothly would help subsidize the one problem per year, and they don't get stuck with a $1000 repair bill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The last 3 components of my service are mostly automated, but help to round it out and make it look more enticing. Here's my landing page that describes the service: http://studio625.net/healthy-wp.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wrote a blog post about actually selling the service here: http://www.chrisfletcher.net/how-to-sell-your-client-on-a-wordpress-maintenance-plan/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5089" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1831" RevisionGUID="dcd5f49b-eb91-49a5-8890-7b2edbfa7bb2" CreationDate="2014-05-07T14:16:54.410" UserId="2820" Text="**What software exists that will help me automate the process more and increase my working hours?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend Xero: http://www.xero.com/us/&#xD;&#xA;It's cloud based, and makes invoicing, client tracking, and recurring billing very easy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Why is this a good choice?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It cloud based.&#xD;&#xA;They have a tone of integrations: http://www.xero.com/us/add-ons/&#xD;&#xA;It syncs with bank accounts which allows you to reconcile expenses and revenue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What should I look for when evaluating such software and why?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Simple software gets used more.&#xD;&#xA;Beware of selecting software that only meets part of your needs.&#xD;&#xA;Avoid selecting software just because the price is right. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5091" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1830" RevisionGUID="64690280-1e9f-40f9-a750-e13b1da875e5" CreationDate="2014-05-07T20:35:27.447" UserId="75" Comment="Removed advertisement " Text="I charge a fixed $150/month for the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Smart updates...the whole backup, test, launch (or restore) routine&#xD;&#xA; - Malware monitoring, protection, and cleanup&#xD;&#xA; - Uptime monitoring&#xD;&#xA; - Daily offsite backups&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I chose $150/month because I figured maybe once per year each client would need some extra attention to resolve a plugin conflict, crash, or something similar. So the months where everything went smoothly would help subsidize the one problem per year, and they don't get stuck with a $1000 repair bill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The last 3 components of my service are mostly automated, but help to round it out and make it look more enticing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wrote a [blog post](http://www.chrisfletcher.net/how-to-sell-your-client-on-a-wordpress-maintenance-plan/) about actually selling the service to clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5093" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1644" RevisionGUID="52e24ead-cb6b-4d86-969a-7cf7649d6f47" CreationDate="2014-05-08T07:20:45.347" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/464303877865500672" />
  <row Id="5094" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1833" RevisionGUID="2f2da9cb-f57b-4556-9e71-373812423759" CreationDate="2014-05-08T10:52:06.243" UserId="820" Text="When I use (or hear) the terms:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Outsourcing**: Something you do with a project or task, you sent it to an individual or organization outside of your company, and the expectation is that they will return it completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We outsourced the project to another firm.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Subcontracting**: Someone you hire, generally to assist with a project or task, but that isn't a traditional employee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We subcontracted a few people to finish up the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note**: My definitions and usage are *very industry and experience specific*. To manufacturing / enterprise outsourcing and subcontracting have a different meaning. In the context of freelance web development and smaller scale web development shops, I believe the preceding definitions are more consistent. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5095" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1830" RevisionGUID="3585e52f-29e2-4113-bd62-32b3d74d5e25" CreationDate="2014-05-08T11:08:34.010" UserId="2819" Comment="adding some extra details" Text="I charge a fixed $150/month for the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Smart updates...the whole backup, test, launch (or restore) routine&#xD;&#xA; - Malware monitoring, protection, and cleanup&#xD;&#xA; - Uptime monitoring&#xD;&#xA; - Daily offsite backups&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I chose $150/month because I figured maybe once per year each client would need some extra attention to resolve a plugin conflict, crash, or something similar. So the months where everything went smoothly would help subsidize the one problem per year, and they don't get stuck with a $1000 repair bill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The last 3 components of my service are mostly automated, but help to round it out and make it look more enticing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wrote a [blog post](http://www.chrisfletcher.net/how-to-sell-your-client-on-a-wordpress-maintenance-plan/) about actually selling the service to clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's the gist of it:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Leaving things up to chance is a bad strategy that will eventually bite you in the ass&#xD;&#xA;2. Why this kind of service is valuable, and many clients are willing to pay for it&#xD;&#xA;3. How I sell it to my existing clients&#xD;&#xA;4. How I sell it to new clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5096" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1830" RevisionGUID="aceffcbc-0020-473f-a2b1-d9712f4a7fbc" CreationDate="2014-05-08T16:03:18.740" UserId="2819" Comment="after reading the thread in more detail, it seems like no one is talking about the real issue" Text="Okay, after reading all the answers and comments here, I would like to add a few additional points to my answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**First off, as freelancers we normally trade our time for money.** So it seems natural to base the price of a monthly service off of how much time it takes us to do it. And that might be fine if you're just getting started, but like Joe (OP) said, *how should you charge for something that took you time to setup, but doesn't take any time to continue running, like a cron job?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the answer (as hinted at in the comments of some of the other answers), is to look at the value you're providing. Or another way of looking at it: what does the client miss out on if they don't buy your service?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Their site could go down for 24 hours? A week? Forever?&#xD;&#xA;- Total data loss/have to start over from scratch&#xD;&#xA;- Missing out on sales and leads&#xD;&#xA;- Taking time out of their busy schedules to futz around with WordPress&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are plenty more, that's just scratching the surface.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's not on the list? &quot;Joe must be at his keyboard at least x hours per month&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They could care less about the mechanism of how the benefits are delivered, all that matters is whether they get the benefits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Okay so what should you charge? That depends on two factors:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Your absolute minimum should be based on how much time you think it will take you per month. &#xD;&#xA;2. Beyond that, think about how much value your clients are getting from their website in the first place, and what kind of price they would tolerate. For example, a local quilting club website probably wouldn't pay much, while a t-shirt printing company that primarily sells product through their website would pay quite a bit to make sure their business remained open and profitable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What I charge and offer in my maintenance service:**&#xD;&#xA;$150/month for the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Smart updates...the whole backup, test, launch (or restore) routine&#xD;&#xA; - Malware monitoring, protection, and cleanup&#xD;&#xA; - Uptime monitoring&#xD;&#xA; - Daily offsite backups&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I chose $150/month because I figured maybe once per year each client would need some extra attention to resolve a plugin conflict, crash, or something similar. So the months where everything went smoothly would help subsidize the one problem per year, and they don't get stuck with a $1000 repair bill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The last 3 components of my service are mostly automated, but help to round it out and make it look more enticing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I wrote a more in-depth [blog post](http://www.chrisfletcher.net/how-to-sell-your-client-on-a-wordpress-maintenance-plan/) about actually selling the service to clients.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's the gist of it:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Leaving things up to chance is a bad strategy that will eventually bite you in the ass&#xD;&#xA;2. Why this kind of service is valuable, and many clients are willing to pay for it&#xD;&#xA;3. How I sell it to my existing clients&#xD;&#xA;4. How I sell it to new clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5097" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1636" RevisionGUID="7e8e77cd-4974-4671-8ff6-cfe7095d8db2" CreationDate="2014-05-08T16:20:43.647" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/464439766105083904" />
  <row Id="5098" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1528" RevisionGUID="b7f3a5f8-fb78-43ae-b33d-c31efab67d06" CreationDate="2014-05-08T19:20:43.613" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/464485064961560576" />
  <row Id="5105" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1836" RevisionGUID="b62b1315-4864-4fec-b1f3-f14d61a95dc9" CreationDate="2014-05-09T09:24:21.297" UserId="2836" Text="Unfortunately I often have situation that I often need to go to another task or stop working for a while. That's why I need time tracking software. I prefer desktop software for Windows with one-time fee (or yearly for new upgrades).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't need any invoicing module or sending reports for clients, it has to be just for myself. Best option would be setting manually timers which are visible in Windows tray and the software should stop timer after x min of inactivity. Of course there should be possibility to create tasks, clients and so on. And it would be great if there were some charts/statistics that let me optimize my time usage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm looking this kind of software for a long time but cannot find anything. Many solutions are just online, desktop ones usually doesn't offer any statistics/charts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I've already checked:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Grindstone&#xD;&#xA; - Klok 2&#xD;&#xA; - Manic Time&#xD;&#xA; - Fanurio&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;None of them is what I'm looking for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What software (if any) do you use? What's your best solutions to optimize your time usage and not to be disturbed by e-mails / forum or any other tasks when you are realizing your goal?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5106" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1836" RevisionGUID="b62b1315-4864-4fec-b1f3-f14d61a95dc9" CreationDate="2014-05-09T09:24:21.297" UserId="2836" Text="Desktop software for time tracking" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5107" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1836" RevisionGUID="b62b1315-4864-4fec-b1f3-f14d61a95dc9" CreationDate="2014-05-09T09:24:21.297" UserId="2836" Text="|time-management|time-tracking|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5108" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1837" RevisionGUID="d092102e-de87-4db8-9051-ae5dbf35916e" CreationDate="2014-05-09T10:47:23.623" UserId="512" Text="I quite like [TraxTime](http://www.spudcity.com/traxtime/) for this sort of thing. Simple punch-clock like interface, easy to edit the in/out times if you forget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Unfortunately, I don't run Windows much these days or I would still use it.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5117" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1338" RevisionGUID="1d006fb5-5080-4e23-a8c5-d48e43f883f4" CreationDate="2014-05-09T16:22:02.773" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/464802485274955777" />
  <row Id="5119" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1836" RevisionGUID="b3936ea0-c8c6-4e0f-9f48-fb3d8b88a738" CreationDate="2014-05-09T16:45:29.210" UserId="75" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5120" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="1836" RevisionGUID="f9aeb638-40f3-46d5-8011-6b96a1cf518b" CreationDate="2014-05-09T17:24:33.333" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5121" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1837" RevisionGUID="8b51810b-34aa-419e-b170-84b1c56ce320" CreationDate="2014-05-09T20:24:20.970" UserId="512" Comment="deleted 81 characters in body" Text="I quite like [TraxTime](http://www.spudcity.com/traxtime/) for this sort of thing. Simple punch-clock like interface, easy to edit the in/out times if you forget." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5122" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1833" RevisionGUID="5d1ae7c0-5af7-4ef8-9c0d-4c324e6ed8a6" CreationDate="2014-05-09T22:59:22.380" UserId="820" Comment="deleted 12 characters in body" Text="When I use (or hear) the terms:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Outsourcing**: Something you do with a project or task, you sent it to an individual or organization outside of your company, and the expectation is that they will return it completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We outsourced the project to another firm.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Subcontracting**: Someone you hire, generally to assist with a project or task, but that isn't a traditional employee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We subcontracted a few people to finish up the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note**: My definitions and usage are *very industry and experience specific*. To manufacturing / enterprise outsourcing and subcontracting have a different meaning. In the context of freelance web development and smaller scale web development shops, I believe the my definitions are consistent. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5125" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1841" RevisionGUID="a64b8ca6-93dd-417a-849e-6010dcb1e6ce" CreationDate="2014-05-10T13:40:29.953" UserId="1754" Text="I see many test in freelancing sites are old or question that don't get used in practical sense, how do one pass these question, when your master of say photoshop but questions are odd like of 6.0. Do the expert people research and see what questions are being used and copy them to answer them or how?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5126" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1841" RevisionGUID="a64b8ca6-93dd-417a-849e-6010dcb1e6ce" CreationDate="2014-05-10T13:40:29.953" UserId="1754" Text="Passing odd questions on freelance websites" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5127" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1841" RevisionGUID="a64b8ca6-93dd-417a-849e-6010dcb1e6ce" CreationDate="2014-05-10T13:40:29.953" UserId="1754" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5132" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1836" RevisionGUID="2358df00-dda0-4b24-b58a-6b618768cab9" CreationDate="2014-05-11T01:29:44.520" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/465302706350219265" />
  <row Id="5133" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="119" RevisionGUID="1c8674a5-8b84-475f-ad09-ea2dc9e05200" CreationDate="2014-05-11T07:30:10.777" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/465393412858863617" />
  <row Id="5134" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1843" RevisionGUID="39d55faf-e872-4832-ab1c-c39bb07b3e7b" CreationDate="2014-05-11T11:00:52.937" UserId="1754" Text="I want to start serving in new field, such a iOS app and Magento based ecommerce websites. I have no project in past for both, meaning i have studied on my own and did the quiz projects on sites like teamtreehouse, Now how i market my new skill on oDesk or elance? Where they have exams which are majorly outdated and when i don't have any projects to demonstrate.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Also if i want to create a project for my own purpose for the sake of demonstrating, how do i do it? like there are o requirements, or end product in mind or on paper." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5135" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1843" RevisionGUID="39d55faf-e872-4832-ab1c-c39bb07b3e7b" CreationDate="2014-05-11T11:00:52.937" UserId="1754" Text="Marketting new skill or line of business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5136" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1843" RevisionGUID="39d55faf-e872-4832-ab1c-c39bb07b3e7b" CreationDate="2014-05-11T11:00:52.937" UserId="1754" Text="|attracting-clients|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5137" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1843" RevisionGUID="63249bf7-031c-4c30-a9bf-43c939a53109" CreationDate="2014-05-11T22:35:44.977" UserId="64" Comment="fixed typo in the title; 'i' should be capitalized when referring to oneself. Fixed spelling of the freelancing websites. Split into paragraphs." Text="I want to start serving in a new field, such a iOS app and Magento based e-commerce websites. I have done no projects in past for both, meaning I have studied on my own and did the quiz projects on sites like Treehouse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, how do I market my new skills on oDesk or Elance where they have exams which are majorly outdated and when I don't have any projects to demonstrate?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, if I want to create a project for my own purposes for the sake of demonstrating, how do I do it? There are no requirements or end product in mind or on paper." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5138" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1843" RevisionGUID="63249bf7-031c-4c30-a9bf-43c939a53109" CreationDate="2014-05-11T22:35:44.977" UserId="64" Comment="fixed typo in the title; 'i' should be capitalized when referring to oneself. Fixed spelling of the freelancing websites. Split into paragraphs." Text="Marketing new skill or line of business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5139" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1348" RevisionGUID="a0b105f8-819f-444c-802a-9e7b2b78318b" CreationDate="2014-05-12T07:30:10.657" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/465755799688458242" />
  <row Id="5140" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1841" RevisionGUID="681a5a17-3b07-4f8b-b7a8-f8838d9e619c" CreationDate="2014-05-12T16:08:20.163" UserId="75" Comment="added 83 characters in body" Text="I see many tests on freelancing sites that are old, or questions that don't get used in a practical sense. How does one pass these question, when you're master of Adobe Photoshop, but questions are odd? For example, using only version 6.0.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do the expert people research and see what questions are being used, and copy them to answer them? How do they determine these test questions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5141" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1844" RevisionGUID="68e1e3c9-3c68-4d75-9e5f-0e9e2497055b" CreationDate="2014-05-12T16:22:43.970" UserId="75" Text="What I did was I offered to do something [pro-bono](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_bono) for a community- or non-profit-organization that I believe in. Even if it's given to them, it fills up my portfolio, and I'm remembered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Great*, you say, *free work when I'm trying to get paid! How would that help?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, about 80-90% of the adults involved in these type of organizations are nice people, who have other things to do as well with their lives. For my organization, there are people who meet with politicians, people who travel throughout the province for work, and others who belong to companies with headquarters in our city. These people know the right people, and will often put in a good word for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's assume that I did 2 hours of &quot;free&quot; work (which I donated, causing a tax refund in my country) for Organization A, with 50 adults. Of those 50 people, I tell 45 of them that I did project *x*, *y* and *z* in only 2 hours for them. They check out the work, and decide they like it, or possibly offer me advice on how to improve. I am friendly about the criticism, and mention in passing, &quot;*If you know anyone who could use my services, I only charge $xxx*&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because they know me on what feels like an intimate level (remember, we're all volunteers!), they feel very inclined to help another member out. So 10 of them find me new clients I didn't have before, in my new line of work (or sometimes my old line). Now, the 2 hours of &quot;free&quot; work added up to over 20 hours! If this was an investment, it would have seen over 1000% in growth (Yes, that's one thousand!).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth referrals. Especially when diving into new technology, you need to get people to know you can do these projects. Keep studying on the side though, and build up that portfolio! You only need 2 or 3 **good** projects of each technology you want to show off; the rest can really be whatever." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5145" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1846" RevisionGUID="b9200971-84df-4ef5-9751-7bd5afb05380" CreationDate="2014-05-12T20:39:00.980" UserId="1706" Text="Try http://billable.me.  Very, very simple.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could also do quickbooks or freshbooks but in my opinion they're overpriced.  If you use an online service, a good feature to have is one that can show when (or if) your client has viewed the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've seen this one too (http://www.getharvest.com/) but have no experience with it.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Invoicing should be a HAPPY event.  You're printing money!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5146" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1847" RevisionGUID="2075080f-9f90-4529-8f12-cbd37c50e72d" CreationDate="2014-05-13T02:03:03.587" UserId="404" Text="I've been working as a freelance developer for almost two years now, and I've managed to find myself in a pretty good situation. I'm working part time for a great client who loves me and has enough work to keep me busy full-time if I wanted it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Part of the reason I wanted to be a freelancer was so that I could have more time and freedom to work on side projects, but now I only want to work on my own projects (which don't make any money), and I have a hard time staying motivated to do the work that actually pays the bills. And even though I'm paid more per hour than I ever have been before in my life, I'm barely keeping ahead of my expenses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I had a 9-to-5 I had a good work ethic, I wouldn't even read a personal email during work hours, but now that I'm working for myself I feel free to fritter hours away without guilt, because I only bill my client for the hours I do work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm considering applying for 9-to-5 jobs, just to have some stability and force myself to focus on a job. But that seems silly, since I already have a stable client and the only thing standing in the way of me making more money is my inability to focus.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Surely I'm not the only one who's been in this situation. Are there any techniques you use to stay focused and motivated? Any ways you can &quot;trick&quot; yourself into working more? Maybe there is a different perspective from which I can view my time and income that will motivate me better." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5147" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1847" RevisionGUID="2075080f-9f90-4529-8f12-cbd37c50e72d" CreationDate="2014-05-13T02:03:03.587" UserId="404" Text="How do you motivate yourself when you're your own boss?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5148" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1847" RevisionGUID="2075080f-9f90-4529-8f12-cbd37c50e72d" CreationDate="2014-05-13T02:03:03.587" UserId="404" Text="|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5149" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1847" RevisionGUID="4c85c3b8-4e39-4ef7-be8c-8ad313307490" CreationDate="2014-05-13T04:04:07.833" UserId="64" Comment="edited this down a bit to focus on a specific question" Text="I've been working as a freelance developer for almost two years now, and I've managed to find myself in a pretty good situation. I'm working part time for a great client who loves me and has enough work to keep me busy full-time if I wanted it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Part of the reason I wanted to be a freelancer was so that I could have more time and freedom to work on side projects, but now I only want to work on my own projects (which don't make any money), and I have a hard time staying motivated to do the work that actually pays the bills. And even though I'm paid more per hour than I ever have been before in my life, I'm barely keeping ahead of my expenses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What technique should I use to motivate myself as my own boss?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5150" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1848" RevisionGUID="ef0b7e8d-62cb-43c9-9fd8-f987e316c986" CreationDate="2014-05-13T05:19:46.123" UserId="517" Text="All those test can be taken a few times, each time after X days have passed. You can either memorize odd questions and find an answer on the net, or simply take screenshots of them and find the answers later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are mostly of general type just to show potential clients your potential qualities. If you're in 1%, it does not mean that you're a good worker. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5152" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1847" RevisionGUID="bdf3f88a-38bd-4bec-a75a-f82c952bf3d8" CreationDate="2014-05-13T07:30:10.523" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/466118187851857920" />
  <row Id="5153" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1849" RevisionGUID="98534d2c-783e-4844-93f7-f5ae6dbb6e53" CreationDate="2014-05-13T10:29:59.303" UserId="708" Text="In literal terms, **be your own boss** in every sense of the word.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I find that motivation for client projects is slipping I fall into &quot;boss&quot; mode. That is, I **set a schedule** for work and adhere to it as if I had a boss. It doesn't have to be a strict 9 to 5 schedule, but a block of time -- 4, 6 or 8 hrs -- every day where I will *not* touch anything other than client projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't &quot;cheat&quot; and venture off. No random social network/forum/SE surfing during this time. No personal phone calls or text messages. No unnecessary breaks. I treat my office as if I didn't own it and someone else was responsible for my paychecks. This helps me ensure I stay disciplined and get work completed as I need to. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It can sometimes be very difficult to spend time doing things you would rather not be doing at the time. But if you had a 9-5 job, that's exactly what you would be doing most days. There are times where I must simply force myself to buckle-down and get things done. This is especially true if you're own lack of motivation is financially becoming an issue. Remember, slack off too much and you'll be looking for a new job which will probably pay less, if not new clients in a desperate fashion. If that's not motivation for you, it should be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also find that after the first 30 minutes to an hour, the motivation is no longer an issue for that particular day, sometimes more. Much like any task in life you *really* don't *feel* like doing.... once you start it, it becomes far less daunting that staring at it from across the room.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's a related question at GraphicDesign.StackExchange.com: &#xD;&#xA;[How to Get motivated When Drained][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/20963/how-to-get-motivated-when-drained" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5154" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1850" RevisionGUID="c11adb42-386e-45ca-836d-f8d8f7d20798" CreationDate="2014-05-13T13:16:27.403" UserId="2546" Text="I myself got in the trap of &quot;the desire to work only on my personal projects&quot; but the problem is that you need cash without which your personal projects (until they'll pay-off) are domed to failure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tried to work less hours on personal projects and be more organized but I failed. So, this is what I did and worked for my case:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I shifted all my attention on generating cash. This implied no more free time or time for &quot;my personal affairs&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;2. I truncated all my personal projects from six down to only two and I put them on wait (in the beginning I didn't touched them at all for nine weeks).&#xD;&#xA;3. As the time passed I learned to live without the other four projects and I saw that in the short-run it was impossible for any of them to generate the cash I needed in the first place to make them possible.&#xD;&#xA;4. I made the habit of dedicating all my free time to research and the acquirement of new skills. This shifted completely my perception about the success of all of my own projects. Now I know many of them were inefficient or not a good fit on the long-run.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**As a conclusion**, I recommend you to put on rest all your personal projects for at least four weeks. If after this time they still seem as important as you think they are today, than maybe they truly are but, given that you need cash my advise for you is to go back to them once every eight weeks for no longer than ten days.  &#xD;&#xA;It is what I actually do. After each time period or amount of money gained for my clients I dedicate some time to perpetuate the two personal projects that I still believe that in the long-run are good for my business and my well-being." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5156" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1367" RevisionGUID="d8f6dd8a-1af0-413f-ada6-0ffb3fee221d" CreationDate="2014-05-14T19:32:21.050" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/466662315882856448" />
  <row Id="5157" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1851" RevisionGUID="898354d9-5c91-4813-8c82-9a42f7171c49" CreationDate="2014-05-14T19:40:11.647" UserId="2872" Text="I have been asked back for one week at an establishment that I used to work for.  In the past, whenever I worked for Establishment A, I would go through an agency, Agency B.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, Establishment A have told me that they want me to invoice them directly without involving Agency B.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem I have with this is that I have never billed anyone for any freelance work in the past as I have always worked directly for an establishment, and I have no idea what I should charge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When working for Establishment A via Agency B most recently, I was paid an hourly rate (by Agency B) of £10.86; however, Agency B were paid considerably more by Establishment A, of which I unfortunately do not know the specifics, but I would estimate that Agency B received approximately £19.00-£20.00 per hour as this is something that I saw many years ago whilst working elsewhere that also dealt with Agency B.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The questions I have are as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**1.  *How* should I charge Establishment A?**  *Hourly or a one-off fee?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2.  *How much* should I charge Establishment A?**  *Do I charge them somewhere in the middle ~£15.00ph/£600 one-off (5 days at 8 hours per day) or should I aim lower / closer to the top-end like Agency B were being paid for me?  The problem with this is that I don't want to take the proverbial and cause offence as I know the people at Establishment A very well.  However, being self-employed, I now have overheads which I will have to account for, such as tax calculations and travel.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help would be wonderful as I am unsure what the best practice would be here as both appear to have an equal balance of pros and cons." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5158" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1851" RevisionGUID="898354d9-5c91-4813-8c82-9a42f7171c49" CreationDate="2014-05-14T19:40:11.647" UserId="2872" Text="From Agency to Freelance - What Should I Charge?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5159" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1851" RevisionGUID="898354d9-5c91-4813-8c82-9a42f7171c49" CreationDate="2014-05-14T19:40:11.647" UserId="2872" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5160" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1852" RevisionGUID="dbe3b36e-c0fe-4454-869a-8a98d16399e2" CreationDate="2014-05-14T21:12:23.380" UserId="2546" Text="You should charge what Agency B charged Establishment A previously. If you charge lower you create a precedent and you will never get from Establishment A what you work actually worth's.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Until now, Agency B handled all the PR and bore the risk implied by working with Establishment A. This was the cost you payed by receiving just half from what Agency B got from Establishment A (you didn't have to search for, manage and handle the client which is a plus from a standpoint).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the best practice on how to charge them?  &#xD;&#xA;Many charge by the hour. If you think it will take 5 days (8 hours a day) to get the job done, add another 10 hours and after that divide the Total Value you believe your work is worth to the total number of hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;```Example: £600 / Hours 50 = £12/hour&#xD;&#xA;```&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the hourly rate you get is lower than a minimum threshold you know will cover all your expenses (lets say £15/hour) than you should charge by the hour at £15/hour.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5161" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1853" RevisionGUID="49acc773-0dd1-4743-b96f-f95a42d7026d" CreationDate="2014-05-14T21:12:51.053" UserId="2874" Text="Ahhh the age old problem: &quot;How much should I charge?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The short answer is: As much as the client will pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The longer beginning of an answer is: What is the client's budget for the project? If they are a reputable company then they should have a budget for the project. Ask them. If they play coy that is first of all a warning sign that things may not be smooth down the road.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second part is how much do you want to make from doing this project? Thinking about how long is it going to take you to to complete the task. Then think about your cost benefit of spending time on this project versus a different project. Will you enjoy this work? Is there potential for more work? etc. If you are comfortable getting the normal rate you were paid by the agency then you have just saved the client 50% of their budget. That can make you look much more favorable down the line. If you are just starting out on your own it may be more important to have reliable work than high paying work. Cash flow is the most important thing to keep in mind as a business owner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in ming that you may have trouble getting them to pay more later on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My suggestion is to talk with them about the project and learn more about why they don't want to work with the agency anymore. A general assumption is that they want to save money, but that doesn't have to be the main reason. They may like being able to communicate directly to you, in which case saving money isn't their focus so you should be charging the existing rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you propose a price and they accept it without question then you are leaving money on the table. Keep that in mind for the next project or client. Negotiating about the price is part of doing business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The important thing to remember with pricing is that its completely arbitrary. It is based on what the client perceives to be valuable, and what you need to earn to put food on the table. Get paid what you need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been in sales for over 14 years and running my own company for 5 and I still don't know what I should be charging.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5162" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1852" RevisionGUID="1b612135-243d-40e3-9fca-d22bbf65920b" CreationDate="2014-05-14T21:31:49.680" UserId="2546" Comment="added 937 characters in body" Text="You should charge what Agency B charged Establishment A previously. If you charge lower you create a precedent and you will never get from Establishment A what you work actually worth's.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Until now, Agency B handled all the PR and bore the risk implied by working with Establishment A. This was the cost you payed by receiving just half from what Agency B got from Establishment A (you didn't have to search for, manage and handle the client which is a plus from a standpoint).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the best practice on how to charge them?  &#xD;&#xA;Many charge by the hour. If you think it will take 5 days (8 hours a day) to get the job done, add another 10 hours and after that divide the Total Value you believe your work is worth to the total number of hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;```Example: £600 / Hours 50 = £12/hour```&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the hourly rate you get is lower than a minimum threshold you know will cover all your expenses (lets say £15/hour) than you should charge by the hour at £15/hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Now, if you ask for a fixed amount or you negotiate a hourly rate and get hired for the exact amount of hours that will ensure the total you aim for, this is only a matter of semantics.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my case, I charge fixed amounts for one/first time projects (of which costs I can estimate with precision) or for fixed services (monthly maintenance, new versions, etc.) and hourly rates for on request maintenance or similar situations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you know your costs and are familiar with the client and the way he/she works with contractors (pays on time, knows what to ask and expect for, has clear ideas, it is a good communicator) than, **I encourage you to charge a fixed amount (as high as possible) based on the value of your work** and not by calculating the total amount of hours you invest in getting the job done. If the project spans (requires you to work on it) more than 10 work days than you should consider charging by the hour.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5163" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1852" RevisionGUID="a485ef75-1884-4763-83d9-e2624d870556" CreationDate="2014-05-14T21:42:02.577" UserId="2546" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="**You should charge what Agency B charged Establishment A previously**. If you charge lower you create a precedent and you will never get from Establishment A what you work actually worth's.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Until now, Agency B handled all the PR and bore the risk implied by working with Establishment A. This was the cost you payed by receiving just half from what Agency B got from Establishment A (you didn't have to search for, manage and handle the client which is a plus from a standpoint).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the best practice on how to charge them?  &#xD;&#xA;Many charge by the hour. If you think it will take 5 days (8 hours a day) to get the job done, add another 10 hours and after that divide the Total Value you believe your work is worth to the total number of hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;```Example: £600 / Hours 50 = £12/hour```&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the hourly rate you get is lower than a minimum threshold you know will cover all your expenses (lets say £15/hour) than you should charge by the hour at £15/hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Now, if you ask for a fixed amount or you negotiate a hourly rate and get hired for the exact amount of hours that will ensure the total you aim for, this is only a matter of semantics.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my case, I charge fixed amounts for one/first time projects (of which costs I can estimate with precision) or for fixed services (monthly maintenance, new versions, etc.) and hourly rates for on request maintenance or similar situations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you know your costs and are familiar with the client and the way he/she works with contractors (pays on time, knows what to ask and expect for, has clear ideas, it is a good communicator) than, **I encourage you to charge a fixed amount (as high as possible) based on the value of your work** and not by calculating the total amount of hours you invest in getting the job done. If the project spans (requires you to work on it) more than 10 work days than you should consider charging by the hour.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5164" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1854" RevisionGUID="596717ba-030a-4958-8e4f-7eaee9c33bb0" CreationDate="2014-05-15T05:12:47.737" UserId="517" Text="Since you are new to the standalone work and you have no idea should your hourly fee be $15 or $55 and you also don't know how much the Agency charged the client (I frankly doubt the took **only double hourly fee**), you should avoid working hourly for some time. Why? Because if they're used to pay $55 per hour and you ask them $15, you will hardly reach the fee they are used to pay. So I strongly suggest you go with fixed price **as long as you are 99% sure how much they were used to pay** or **what is your own hourly price** (for the later, there is a good topic how to calculate it, but for that you need time and experience).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can however calculate fixed price based on the hourly work you estimate in the background (10 hours x my_guess_fee = total_sum_to_work_for).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is IMHO the only way to protect yourself and to be able to work for the real hourly rate. At this point all above 10/h seems OK for you, but if you start freelancing professionally and the bills start coming, you may find yourself not to work for $0/h but maybe -$10/h. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We all started with fixed prices, while those who work via freelancing sites had a chance to see average hourly price. You do not have such luxury. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5165" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1855" RevisionGUID="35093d13-51fc-45a5-b3e0-43f05ea84edc" CreationDate="2014-05-15T06:17:43.953" UserId="672" Text="I am working as freelancer from last few years. **&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Rates increment are related more to quality of work you are doing....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My work as a UI/UX designer two years ago was not that good. So i went to learn a lot when i was sick (last 6 months) increased quality of my work. Or even shifted my career from a Web Designer (Designer, coder) to simply UI/UX Interaction Designer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are **sets of rates for a specific category** of work, if you try to jump out of it, you will lose work.&#xD;&#xA;Second is your **quality of work**. If you produce quality work, and you want to increase your rate even 20%, your clients who admire you will be happy to hear unless your clients prefer saving money over quality...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Increasing rates for an ongoing project is not that good option unless the project specs or revisions have increased a lot. I don't suggest you to increase rates for ongoing projects. Even if you want to, you should not go above 5%&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5166" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1855" RevisionGUID="41f62af4-b66b-4c95-9bfb-95a63dcf4eb8" CreationDate="2014-05-15T06:33:22.153" UserId="672" Comment="highlighted key points" Text="I am working as freelancer from last few years. For me there are two main key points for rate increment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Rates increment are related more to quality of work you are doing....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My work as a UI/UX designer two years ago was not that good. So i went to learn a lot when i was sick (last 6 months) increased quality of my work. Or even shifted my career from a Web Designer (Designer, coder) to simply UI/UX Interaction Designer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; There are **sets of rates for a specific category** of work, if you&#xD;&#xA;&gt; try to jump out of it, you will lose work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second is your **quality of work**. If you produce quality work, and you want to increase your rate even 20%, your clients who admire you will be happy to hear unless your clients prefer saving money over quality...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Increasing rates for an ongoing project is not that good option unless the project specs or revisions have increased a lot. I don't suggest you to increase rates for ongoing projects. Even if you want to, you should not go above 5%&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5170" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1857" RevisionGUID="be203f0c-4e28-4404-80ac-6f28c2416a95" CreationDate="2014-05-15T13:50:12.477" UserId="2872" Text="I posted [this question][1] yesterday regarding how much to charge a client - and by which method (hourly or one-off payment) that I have previously worked with on a non-freelance basis, but I now want to know whether or not I should charge VAT?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have little knowledge of how VAT works and I understand that there a few factors to be taken into account.  First of all, the work I will be doing is office-based, however I plan on working from a satellite office in order to complete the task.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know where to start when trying to work out if/how/when to charge VAT, so thought that I would put my question out there to those who do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My concerns are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I am not VAT registered and don't know if I should be if I'm not&#xD;&#xA;    going to charge VAT;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Can VAT only be applied to certain types of work? *(Such as labour, skilled tasks (such as software development), etc.)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help with this topic would be wonderful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/1851/2872" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5171" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1857" RevisionGUID="be203f0c-4e28-4404-80ac-6f28c2416a95" CreationDate="2014-05-15T13:50:12.477" UserId="2872" Text="Should I Charge VAT?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5172" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1857" RevisionGUID="be203f0c-4e28-4404-80ac-6f28c2416a95" CreationDate="2014-05-15T13:50:12.477" UserId="2872" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5174" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1858" RevisionGUID="c49b042e-d91e-414e-9b89-9f357845280d" CreationDate="2014-05-15T18:53:52.260" UserId="2872" Text="After having carried out further research since posting this question, I have learned the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - a company/person must be VAT registered in order to charge VAT;&#xD;&#xA; - a company/person can register for VAT if turnover reaches a certain threshold (currently £81,000)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At present, my work will not amount to that much which in turn answers my question with a simple &quot;no&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you to all who took the time to consider this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5176" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1859" RevisionGUID="b645a3ba-8fc2-42b4-acae-66857c2b795d" CreationDate="2014-05-16T13:23:11.657" UserId="2872" Text="I have been told by a client that they will pay me £500.00 for a week's work, &quot;which includes £50.00 to cover my travel costs / expenses&quot; (their words).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When it comes to &quot;that time of year&quot; and I am listing how much I have earned and how much my expenses came to, how would I account for this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My initial thought was something along the lines of this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Total earned: £500.00&#xD;&#xA;    Profit: £450.00&#xD;&#xA;    Expenses: £50.00&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I thought that I could ask for payment in the form of two cheques from my client; one for £450.00 (cost of work) and one for £50.00 (expenses); however, this then made me wonder if that would be entirely relevant as my expenses would almost certainly not be precisely £50.00.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I list a payment of £500.00 minus any expenses, whatever they may be?  I am completely unsure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question, therefore, is this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How should I list this payment of £500.00 at the end of the year considering the above information?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5177" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1859" RevisionGUID="b645a3ba-8fc2-42b4-acae-66857c2b795d" CreationDate="2014-05-16T13:23:11.657" UserId="2872" Text="Pay - How To Claim Expenses" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5178" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1859" RevisionGUID="b645a3ba-8fc2-42b4-acae-66857c2b795d" CreationDate="2014-05-16T13:23:11.657" UserId="2872" Text="|taxes|payments|hmrc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5179" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1860" RevisionGUID="3f1d1941-25b7-41ef-a661-05ce17617e4c" CreationDate="2014-05-16T20:07:24.047" UserId="805" Text="Jquery is part of many bigger things. Alone it is not much. So how do i demonstrate my jquery skills efficently.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What qualities Senior developers are looking in of a jquery developer when they are hiring one. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can think on top of my head.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Understanding Javascript well.&#xD;&#xA; - Understanding jquery's plugins or make them (sadly i can't, does that mean i suck as jquery developer).&#xD;&#xA; - Dom Manipulation, Event Binding, Ajax..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please Help..I am trying to add 2 big and 15 small examples that showcase my abilities as Jquery developer so what is that you would like to see in a portfolio of a Jquery Dev. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5180" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1860" RevisionGUID="3f1d1941-25b7-41ef-a661-05ce17617e4c" CreationDate="2014-05-16T20:07:24.047" UserId="805" Text="What should be in portfolio for jquery developer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5181" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1860" RevisionGUID="3f1d1941-25b7-41ef-a661-05ce17617e4c" CreationDate="2014-05-16T20:07:24.047" UserId="805" Text="|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5186" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1862" RevisionGUID="8f16d197-9d4c-4098-b29d-96779dc24522" CreationDate="2014-05-16T23:03:28.920" UserId="1018" Text="Hopefully there are some tax experts here as I'm not one!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally, the £50 (or the actual travel expense amount) should be entered as a reimbursement of an expense so that you aren't paying VAT that you would pay if it was entered as income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The VAT has presumably already been paid when you paid for your travel." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5189" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1851" RevisionGUID="c5db11a2-0bc4-4796-a086-408d7784d7b8" CreationDate="2014-05-17T04:06:24.893" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/467516459803893761" />
  <row Id="5190" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1863" RevisionGUID="1b06aa3f-4e3e-4dec-864c-7e6d58b8c406" CreationDate="2014-05-17T14:35:26.490" UserId="517" Text="I suggest you visit popular freelancing websites like freelancer.com or odesk.com or elance.com and find their top jQuery developers and see what they have listed into their portfolio. Since themselves being top developers, they will have good portfolio. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is much quicker and better way then waiting for such global reply here. If you would have questions after examining their portfolios, then come back here and ask more specific question. I am sure someone will reply. Developers are busy people and they tend not to spend their precious time answering global questions. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5194" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1843" RevisionGUID="f5667950-ed8a-4514-ad70-328a220423b5" CreationDate="2014-05-18T04:08:20.733" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/467879333273415680" />
  <row Id="5195" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1864" RevisionGUID="c73c75d7-e66a-410e-b1cd-aa600128edb6" CreationDate="2014-05-18T04:26:43.137" UserId="2895" Text="The client is right. You can't raise the cost at the middle. That is unethical. that's why mostly the client goes away. That is not the business at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try find some cost estimation sites and do calculate. Most of those sites have 50$ - 75$ and I personally charge 35$ to 40$ per hour. But for you I think it is better to start with 20$ per hour. That is good for start and build some customer base.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And again never try to increment your fee at the middle. Word is a word in business and once agree you take whole responsibility." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5196" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1865" RevisionGUID="4902931c-8dc9-4850-9cac-4a54b7ef10d4" CreationDate="2014-05-18T15:14:33.987" UserId="2899" Text="I’m planning to build websites that do not have a CMS (Content Management System) to enable the user to update their content. I have more than enough expertise to enter this business. The only thing that occupies my mind is the limitation of updating the websites content **by myself** because doing update needs technical knowledge that a typical user does NOT have.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Considering the money I take from each customer for the *design*, am I under obligation to provide the content update service **for lifetime**?! I’m really concerned about how to responsibly **end support** for a customer because ending customer support is a perfectly legitimate concept.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please note the option of developing a CMS for these websites is *off the table*. Also, suppose that **no other developers** are going to accept to provide content update service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please help me sort out this mess.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5197" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1865" RevisionGUID="4902931c-8dc9-4850-9cac-4a54b7ef10d4" CreationDate="2014-05-18T15:14:33.987" UserId="2899" Text="Designing Websites without CMS" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5198" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1865" RevisionGUID="4902931c-8dc9-4850-9cac-4a54b7ef10d4" CreationDate="2014-05-18T15:14:33.987" UserId="2899" Text="|contracts|client-support|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5199" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1866" RevisionGUID="1d4b69dd-513a-4f28-8bb0-d3b6f3fe1857" CreationDate="2014-05-18T15:43:06.673" UserId="2675" Text="You could have separate terms and fees for the designing/development, hosting, and updating/management.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Most likely, you'll charge once for a specific design.&#xD;&#xA;- Typically, you'll charge monthly or yearly for the hosting and domain name. &#xD;&#xA;- Updates and management could be also on a monthly or yearly basis, depending on the estimated workload. In that case, don't forget to include a clause about the maximum amount of work included. Either that, or you can charge update by the hour or block of hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your terms, be certain to specify what kind of work constitutes an &quot;update&quot;. If changes are too significant, you may want to consider that as a new project altogether." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5200" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1865" RevisionGUID="6fb84588-5352-4235-9114-1ba80adbb950" CreationDate="2014-05-18T16:01:21.067" UserId="64" Comment="just clarified the question to make it stand out a bit more" Text="I’m planning to build websites that do not have a CMS (Content Management System) to enable the user to update their content. I have more than enough expertise to enter this business. The only thing that occupies my mind is the limitation of updating the websites content **by myself** because doing update needs technical knowledge that a typical user does NOT have.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Considering the money I take from each customer for the *design*, am I under obligation to provide the content update service **for lifetime**?! I’m really concerned about how to responsibly **end support** for a customer because ending customer support is a perfectly legitimate concept.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please note the option of developing a CMS for these websites is *off the table*. Also, suppose that **no other developers** are going to accept to provide content update service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I handle content changes and small updates through the lifetime of the website, without a CMS?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5201" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1867" RevisionGUID="5dcdd08f-4304-491d-b880-2985b74fbdc4" CreationDate="2014-05-18T16:19:22.690" UserId="2546" Text="Don't bother thinking how, whom or when a product will be updated if you plan selling stand-alone services.  &#xD;&#xA;Your only responsibility is to inform your clients about what they really get by choosing you (your services) against other options.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Using, selling or offering CMS as part of your product is not a requirement but merely an option. What else is optional is you taking the responsibility over how or when a product gets updated (changed, extended, modified).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your choice is to sell the design as a stand-alone product (service) and than offer maintenance and regular updates as two separate services but no CMS integration, that's fine.  &#xD;&#xA;Don't ask yourself what will happen in the long run. If the client chooses you today but tomorrow will prefer someone else or no one, it should be OK as long as you make sure to explain to your clients what they really get, the costs and implications and of course, as long as you make sure the contract between you and your clients protects you by stating that the product/service is delivered as it and that further changes/updates will be subject of another contractual agreement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5202" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1867" RevisionGUID="d6f7bdd7-ef18-4aa1-9abe-2c02c8d2db91" CreationDate="2014-05-18T16:32:11.050" UserId="2546" Comment="added 976 characters in body" Text="Don't bother thinking how, whom or when a product will be updated if you plan selling stand-alone services.  &#xD;&#xA;Your only responsibility is to inform your clients about what they really get by choosing you (your services) against other options.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Using, selling or offering CMS as part of your product is not a requirement but merely an option. What else is optional is you taking the responsibility over how or when a product gets updated (changed, extended, modified).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your choice is to sell the design as a stand-alone product (service) and than offer maintenance and regular updates as two separate services but no CMS integration, that's fine.  &#xD;&#xA;Don't ask yourself what will happen in the long run. If the client chooses you today but tomorrow will prefer someone else or no one, it should be OK as long as you make sure to explain to your clients what they really get, the costs and implications and of course, as long as you **make sure the contract** between you and your clients **protects you by stating that** the product/service is delivered as it and that **further changes/updates will be subject of another contractual agreement**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bear in mind that you are under the obligation to provide content update only if explicitly stated by the terms of the contract.  &#xD;&#xA;As a best practice, when you write the contract, make clear the fact that you don't offer CMS like integration and that the product/service doesn't come with a FREE/Included &quot;content update/modification&quot; service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, **what else you should pay attention to is not to write contradictory contractual terms**.  &#xD;&#xA;In many countries it is mandatory to offer a money back guaranty, technical assistance that covers errors of which you are responsible and so one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice to you:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Explain to your clients (and make sure they understend your message) that you don't offer &quot;like CMS integration&quot; and that the maintenance/assistance are services you sell separately.&#xD;&#xA;2. When you write the contract, offer a Guaranty period (that includes FREE maintenance/assistance) and state that after that, this services are possible only by means of a new contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5203" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1868" RevisionGUID="ab8b513d-17b1-4d55-80ce-838f8e4f7b9a" CreationDate="2014-05-18T20:47:58.560" UserId="708" Text="I do this all the time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I made the mistake of providing hosting/domain services for a couple clients a few years ago. It was a nightmare and I won't do it again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While a perfectly valid revenue stream, I do *not* want to be &quot;IT Support&quot; for my clients. That means I don't resell/offer hosting. I don't maintain various CMS packages for clients, etc. It's just not my business model. I'm a designer and as soon as other services are offered clients start calling with email problems or &quot;Can you add this plug in to Wordpress?&quot;, etc. That's just not something I choose to take on. The residual income from such maintenance is nice but I just don't have the resources to concern myself with the ever-changing desires of every client I have. I also generally work on larger projects and can not devote a few hours a day to updates and maintenance that happen to pop up *way* more often when there's an ongoing maintenance fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client needs hosting/domain services I point them to a company I like to use. Explain what is needed (with a direct link) and ask that they sign up for hosting/domains then simply forward the &quot;Welcome&quot; email they receive to me so I can have access. I explain that this puts control over the hosting and domains in *their hands* not mine. So that they get notified or renewal times and can be free to renew services for the periods they wish, move services whenever they like, and don't have to worry about their web site begin held &quot;hostage&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I sell the design services not ongoing web maintenance.** This includes design and implementation of the initial web site for a quoted fee. I upload pages to *their* hosting account and then the project is complete. I offer a grace period (based on the size of the site) for any corrections or issues with the primary design. After that.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Any future updates are billed on an as needed, hourly, basis.*** This includes adding pages, changing images, adjusting text, etc. The client contacts me with &quot;I'd like to ..... to the web site.&quot; I write up an estimate for that work and get approval. Then schedule the work. I find any retainer or maintenance fee being paid by the client results in regular, constant, demands from the client - after all, if they are paying for it they'll use it, naturally.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I actually find many clients like the fact that there is no ongoing retainer needed and they can simply pay for changes when they need them. This also ensures clients think more about changes and plan ahead before asking for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When quoting the initial design, I clearly explain to clients that the files are built using HTML5/CSS/PHP etc as needed and that anyone with that knowledge is capable of making changes int eh future. In addition to the fact that I'm perfectly happy to make changes and updates at a later time which are billed at X/hour." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5206" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1865" RevisionGUID="31ad18ad-3d46-41e5-822f-213cd5c09a9f" CreationDate="2014-05-19T04:14:09.753" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/468243184716247040" />
  <row Id="5207" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1869" RevisionGUID="86194310-39ac-4c5a-9e11-3ab556912761" CreationDate="2014-05-19T14:27:39.727" UserId="1975" Text="I have a long term development client that recently needed to suspend development due to some financial issues on his side.  Up until now for most of this year I've been on an hourly time commitment at a set rate and not on a project rate.  He notified me ahead of time that starting this month, hopefully temporarily, dev work would be put on hold, and I understood and agreed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, not 4 days after that he already had a request for me to fix something targeted for one of his clients.  This goes along with ongoing site maintenance, and isn't new work.  Ongoing site maintenance was probably 30% of the work I've done previously and been paid for hourly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He seemed to indicate that since it was a &quot;bug&quot;, it should be fixed even though we were not on a payment agreement anymore.  The feature in question was built perhaps 6 months ago, and was only recently discovered in this client situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it appropriate to let him know I can't be fixing bugs when our agreement is suspended?  Is there a way to express this without alienating him as a client, since our work may resume as soon as next month?  I've let him know already that small emergency situations can be handled, but situations like this were one user finds a bug do not qualify as emergency, despite it being a client-facing issue.  And it will just need to sit until work resumes." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5208" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1869" RevisionGUID="86194310-39ac-4c5a-9e11-3ab556912761" CreationDate="2014-05-19T14:27:39.727" UserId="1975" Text="Client suspended dev work, but still wants fixes" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5209" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1869" RevisionGUID="86194310-39ac-4c5a-9e11-3ab556912761" CreationDate="2014-05-19T14:27:39.727" UserId="1975" Text="|client-support|retainer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5210" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1870" RevisionGUID="5f02145f-c31b-4ea0-a8a4-758c9a09063c" CreationDate="2014-05-19T17:35:59.457" UserId="2546" Text="An exception or two can be made.  &#xD;&#xA;When you do so (fix bugs for free, outside your economic/contractual agreement) don't forget to remember to your client that what you do is a favor/exception because you know it is only a one time request and because you appreciate him/her as a respectful/respectable client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine that at his/her turn was (maybe) in the same situation when his/her client asked for the bug to be fixed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand your need to get mad and feel frustrated when it comes to money but in the same time, please remember that a small favor made today can bring you more money tomorrow; this because, at the end of the day your client will appreciate you supporting his business even during difficult economic times.  &#xD;&#xA;Of course, your role is to make sure his/hers request is genuine and not an attempt to make you work for free or a lower hourly rate. If this is the case, than you know better what you should do (maybe terminate the contract between you two or something else that best fits your expectations or business strategy)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5211" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1869" RevisionGUID="e57e5bed-62a9-4f7b-91e8-c0cd7d41b37c" CreationDate="2014-05-19T19:15:31.490" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/468470020717420544" />
  <row Id="5212" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1871" RevisionGUID="8e054aae-f10a-47e2-bf9a-3a15902daafe" CreationDate="2014-05-19T20:38:58.057" UserId="1706" Text="You don't get free maintenance on a vehicle (unless you've paid for it, which means it really isn't free) or it's under warranty.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Likewise, unless you handed over your code and specifically mentioned a warranty in your contract (which can be oral), then it was delivered AS-IS, and the client needs to pay.  Most markedly, the client also needs to understand that QA doesn't come for free (which seems to be the missing element)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5214" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1872" RevisionGUID="d219b93c-ce28-44f9-a4c7-b16a9700d2a8" CreationDate="2014-05-20T06:28:52.937" UserId="805" Text="I am trying to become a front end web developer. Initially i thought i'd be just web designer. But i also wanted to do animation myself, so i learned javascript thoroughly and css3. While i was at it i also learned jquery as well. I have expert level skills in javascript, jquery, css3, and html. However, i realized that my design skills are actually very bad. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tried to improve them but it just won't work out, So i changed my focus from design to all development..my design skills have improved but not at the level. Being developer i learned lots of things that as a designer i'd have paid no attention to or not enough. For example, Pixel density, media queries, touch states, svg/canvas/css3 performance, site structure, seo, and stuff like inventing new form of scrolling.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far i know html, css, js/jquery, less, seo, copywriting, responsive site, mobile design.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think i need to know more such as angularjs (will take 3 months), jq ui, bootstrap, yeomanjs, git, underscorejs, understand wordpress, and finally linux as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But are these too many or just the right mixture? What are essential skills i need to excel at and that i can put in my portfolio that will result in better business for me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If i go by job descriptions they would have me believing that i need to be pro at front end, back end, 3 cms, 2 frameworks, and master of additional 3 contradicting libraries ( if you are using jquery then you won't be using YUI)..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am very new so i need some perspective. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5215" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1872" RevisionGUID="d219b93c-ce28-44f9-a4c7-b16a9700d2a8" CreationDate="2014-05-20T06:28:52.937" UserId="805" Text="What skills does front end developer needs to be marketable as freelance?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5216" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1872" RevisionGUID="d219b93c-ce28-44f9-a4c7-b16a9700d2a8" CreationDate="2014-05-20T06:28:52.937" UserId="805" Text="|design|programmer|webmasters|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5217" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1873" RevisionGUID="926b731b-c682-4a3b-9220-c7f7195b74cd" CreationDate="2014-05-20T08:08:32.603" UserId="1754" Text="I have posted question about my work being very slow [here][1] [here][2] and [here][3] and now it seem dead. The reason i say &quot;dead&quot; is that for months, i haven't been contracted by any client, i applied 100's of application and no reply yet. I changed my format for cover letters, yet nothing. I even hired a Resume Writer, followed her instruction and nothing. I use to earn good, with projects leading to 1000$. &#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;I understand that in start of year people were recovering from christmas budget expense and work might be slow, but i haven't been able to see any change in my line of work. I have been rated in top 10% of wordpress developer and other things.Here is my [profile][4]. So should i go back to working for a office because its been 5 months since i am able to make any money 500$ and that was in April, or what should i do? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1235/bad-rating-has-decreased-my-chances-of-getting-work-how-can-i-recover-from-bad&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1285/application-getting-constant-declined&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1804/how-to-tell-client-that-i-can-fix-their-problem-in-a-cover-letter-when-they-hav/1807?noredirect=1#comment2231_1807&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://www.odesk.com/users/~01e96a9471b01d213f" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5218" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1873" RevisionGUID="926b731b-c682-4a3b-9220-c7f7195b74cd" CreationDate="2014-05-20T08:08:32.603" UserId="1754" Text="Freelance work gone cold turkey" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5219" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1873" RevisionGUID="926b731b-c682-4a3b-9220-c7f7195b74cd" CreationDate="2014-05-20T08:08:32.603" UserId="1754" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|working-from-home|scope-of-work|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5220" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1873" RevisionGUID="040ea0bc-6f0a-43b7-b320-1d638e59a480" CreationDate="2014-05-20T09:44:29.633" UserId="58" Comment="Updated your grammar and spelling quite a bit." Text="I have posted numerous questions about my work being very slow ([here][1] [here][2] and [here][3]) and now it seems like work has dried up or died. The reason i say &quot;died&quot; is that for months, I haven't been contracted by any client; I've sent hundreds of applications. I even hired a Resume Writer, followed her instructions and got nothing. I used to earn good money, even on smaller projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand that in at the start of the year, people were recovering from christmas budget expenses and work might be slow, but I haven't been able to see any change in my line of work. I have been rated highly (top 10%) for wordpress development, among other things; here is my [profile][4].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I go back to working in an office? It's been 5 months since I've been able to make any decent money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1235/bad-rating-has-decreased-my-chances-of-getting-work-how-can-i-recover-from-bad&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1285/application-getting-constant-declined&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1804/how-to-tell-client-that-i-can-fix-their-problem-in-a-cover-letter-when-they-hav/1807?noredirect=1#comment2231_1807&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://www.odesk.com/users/~01e96a9471b01d213f" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5221" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1864" RevisionGUID="293bef1f-d320-475c-8c15-a2b26866869a" CreationDate="2014-05-20T09:50:17.707" UserId="58" Comment="English/wording updates" Text="The client is right. You can't raise the cost of a project halfway through; that is unethical. That's probably why clients go away. That is not business at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try find some cost estimation sites and do calculate. Most of those sites have $50 - $75 per hour, and I personally charge $35 to $40 per hour. But for you, I think it is better to start with $20 per hour. That is good for a start and building some kind of customer base.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And again, never try to increase your fee in the middle of a contract. Word is word in business, and once you agree on something (especially if you sign a contract), you take full responsibility." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5222" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1873" RevisionGUID="f32324c3-11fa-4be8-8273-62ef035b6895" CreationDate="2014-05-20T14:36:25.203" UserId="1754" Comment="added 119 characters in body; edited title" Text="I have posted numerous questions about my work being very slow ([here][1] [here][2] and [here][3]) and now it seems like work has dried up or died. The reason i say &quot;died&quot; is that for months, I haven't been contracted by any client; I've sent hundreds of applications. I even hired a Resume Writer, followed her instructions and got nothing. I used to earn good money, even on smaller projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand that in at the start of the year, people were recovering from christmas budget expenses and work might be slow, but I haven't been able to see any change in my line of work. I have been rated highly (top 10%) for wordpress development, among other things; here is my [profile][4].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I go back to working in an office? If so, what do i tell them about my 3 years gap in CV.It's been 5 months since I've been able to make any decent money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I do? Should i or shouldn't i?, If not, then how do make my work more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1235/bad-rating-has-decreased-my-chances-of-getting-work-how-can-i-recover-from-bad&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1285/application-getting-constant-declined&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1804/how-to-tell-client-that-i-can-fix-their-problem-in-a-cover-letter-when-they-hav/1807?noredirect=1#comment2231_1807&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://www.odesk.com/users/~01e96a9471b01d213f" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5223" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1873" RevisionGUID="f32324c3-11fa-4be8-8273-62ef035b6895" CreationDate="2014-05-20T14:36:25.203" UserId="1754" Comment="added 119 characters in body; edited title" Text="Should i switch to regular job after no long for a while now?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5224" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1873" RevisionGUID="ee109cbb-082e-4444-9dd7-50adc43139b4" CreationDate="2014-05-20T16:00:32.100" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 160 characters in body; edited tags" Text="I have posted numerous questions about my work being very slow ([here][1] [here][2] and [here][3]), and now it seems like work has dried up or died. The reason I say &quot;died&quot; is because for months, I haven't been contacted by any client; I've sent hundreds of applications. I even hired a Resume Writer, followed her instructions and got nothing. I used to earn good money, even on smaller projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand that in at the start of the year, people were recovering from Christmas budget expenses, and work might be slow; but I haven't been able to see any change in my line of work. I have been rated highly (top 10%) for Wordpress development, among other things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I determine if I should go back to working in an office? If I did, what would I tell the employer about my 3 years gap in my CV? It's been 5 months since I've been able to make any decent money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1235/bad-rating-has-decreased-my-chances-of-getting-work-how-can-i-recover-from-bad&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1285/application-getting-constant-declined&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1804/how-to-tell-client-that-i-can-fix-their-problem-in-a-cover-letter-when-they-hav" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5225" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1873" RevisionGUID="ee109cbb-082e-4444-9dd7-50adc43139b4" CreationDate="2014-05-20T16:00:32.100" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 160 characters in body; edited tags" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5226" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1873" RevisionGUID="ee109cbb-082e-4444-9dd7-50adc43139b4" CreationDate="2014-05-20T16:00:32.100" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 160 characters in body; edited tags" Text="How to determine switching to regular job after no contracts for a while?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5227" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1874" RevisionGUID="a0cb97fc-9e92-45f7-a6e8-d55cb90c7c53" CreationDate="2014-05-20T16:58:54.937" UserId="517" Text="Such question can only be answered by you. I also had a gap and I am still now earning as much as I was earning in the last quarter of 2013. I solved this gap by working real low wages (30% of my real hourly rate) so that I am not just on zero and covering the remaining money from the safe fund. I guess such things happen. I managed to return my work load to the one from the last quarter. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, no one here can answer what went wrong with you. Either high rates or bad clients or wrong website or bad previous work, etc. If you have chance to get a quick job, then I suggest you do it. Even with such job you can still maintain freelancing by working 20 hours a week. I know many people do that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How shall you determine if you should return? Do you support anyone? Are you in lack of money? Will you be on $0 in 1 month? If yes, then get a money gaining job asap. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With a steady income, you will be able to seek for good jobs and long term clients. When you find one, seek for quality, not speed. Quality work will get you more clients. Aim to pixel perfection, not quick work. Don't post 10 bids a day - post 1 well planned for prospective client and with bids + samples that will shake your potential client. Since you will be less stressed and will have money inflow, I think you will be able to write better proposals. I write best proposals, when I have good project and when I am satisfied." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5228" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1872" RevisionGUID="9480522a-593c-468d-9610-4b622e7c97b0" CreationDate="2014-05-20T16:59:16.350" UserId="805" Comment="edited title" Text="What skills does front end developer needs to be marketable as freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5229" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1875" RevisionGUID="d6af9e9b-6cae-4e70-965c-e23215d3ee22" CreationDate="2014-05-20T17:06:10.867" UserId="517" Text="Front end development, and web development, is a very general thing. Ideally you will find the part you like most and you rock most. We cannot tell you where you are best at, that is what you have to figure out by working on web projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the beginning, as more things you can do, the more work you will get. I would go for hot things such as adaptive websites (mobile-optimized) or some cooler technology I am not aware of. The hotter technology you know and the less competition will be, and you will get more work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, in my area of expertise (embedded devices), new gears like Google Glass or Google Gear or other smart watches and smart TVs, are the hot things. I invested my time and gave my clients very low rates to learn such things, and now I know that clients will seek me cause I know hot techy and I have portfolio of that hot techy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So do some research and find what 5 hottest things in the web development. Learn at least 2 of such things and seek for work. Of course, doing hotties, clients will probably ask for traditional things, which you know as well, so that will be a plus. You will see how easier is to get a job with the knowledge of hot technology then being another fish in the sea of css/js/jq/xyz front end developers. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5230" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1876" RevisionGUID="92338af1-dfe0-4499-8501-ef13afaa60d2" CreationDate="2014-05-20T18:26:05.390" UserId="708" Text="In my world, I don't think I've ever come across a &quot;front-end developer&quot;. Front-end is synonymous with design and Developer is synonymous with back-end. There are front-end designers, and then back-end developers. However, &quot;Front-End Developer&quot; sounds odd to me the same way &quot;Back-End Designer&quot; sounds odd.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;HTML, CSS, jQuery, javascript are all indeed front-end, but most often fall into the &quot;Designer&quot; bucket of work. If the designer is not capable of these, then the back-end developer tends to take them on, in addition to PHP, ASP, .NET, e-commerce etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Front end is all about look and feel. It would sound as though you want to work on the front end, but not concern yourself with look and feel. I, personally, don't see how you could get ahead with the model. If you accurately are self-aware enough to know you don't posses the skills necessary to design a functional, fluid, good-looking, front end then I don't know anyone who would hire you to simply code HTML, CSS, and javascript/jquery. You would be a middle-man between the designer and developer and, honestly, superfluous in most cases.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most clients I work with want design and front-end code (HTML/CSS) then development back-end (Databased, e-commerce, etc). If the front-end designer is incapable of coding out the HTML/CSS then that aspect falls onto the back-end developer. There aren't really positions for anywhere in between. Why would a client pay a third party to part of the work the other two can most likely accomplish?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It sounds to me as though you are looking to create a position somewhere in between front-end designer and back-end developer.... I don't know how successful you'll be in that quest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason you see job postings with so much emphasis on other languages or markups is that if you are a &quot;Developer&quot; you're expected to know the back-end. If you have experience as a developer, you'll be aware of many of the requirements. If the posting is for a &quot;Designer&quot; then your'e expected to have a creative, aesthetic eye with less concern on code, including HTML and CSS and certainly javascript.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Where you might find some work is the &quot;PSD to HTML&quot; sect.** Taking the images from those that can't code a front-end and coding it for them. This would negate the need to have any aesthetic ability or sever-side scripting knowledge. There are several places who do this already so you'd be competing with them and most projects would be one-off projects. Whenever I've done this for clients, there generally isn't any return business and web sites are essentially small, brochure-style, sites. You may be able to gain some financial return doing this, but you would need to be diligent about always seeking new clients. Brochure-style sites aren't updated with much regularity and simply don't generate a great deal of return business in my experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5231" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1876" RevisionGUID="55722b55-cc41-4b67-b05f-4ebce09013ae" CreationDate="2014-05-20T18:44:38.087" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 176 characters in body" Text="In my world, I don't think I've ever come across a &quot;front-end developer&quot;. Front-end is synonymous with design and Developer is synonymous with back-end. There are front-end designers, and then back-end developers. However, &quot;Front-End Developer&quot; sounds odd to me the same way &quot;Back-End Designer&quot; sounds odd.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;HTML, CSS, jQuery, javascript are all indeed front-end, but most often fall into the &quot;Designer&quot; bucket of work. If the designer is not capable of these, then the back-end developer tends to take them on, in addition to PHP, ASP, .NET, e-commerce etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Front end is all about look and feel. It would sound as though you want to work on the front end, but not concern yourself with look and feel. I, personally, don't see how you could get ahead with the model. If you accurately are self-aware enough to know you don't posses the skills necessary to design a functional, fluid, good-looking, front end then I don't know anyone who would hire you to simply code HTML, CSS, and javascript/jquery. You would be a middle-man between the designer and developer and, honestly, superfluous in most cases.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most clients I work with want design and front-end code (HTML/CSS) then development back-end (Databased, e-commerce, etc). If the front-end designer is incapable of coding out the HTML/CSS then that aspect falls onto the back-end developer. There aren't really positions for anywhere in between. Why would a client pay a third party to compelte part of the work the other two can most likely accomplish?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason you see job postings with so much emphasis on other languages or markups is that if you are a &quot;Developer&quot; you're expected to know the back-end. If you have experience as a developer, you'll be aware of many of the requirements. If the posting is for a &quot;Designer&quot; then you're expected to have a creative, aesthetic, eye with less concern on code, including HTML and CSS and certainly javascript.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Where you might find some work is the &quot;PSD to HTML&quot; sect.** Taking the images from those that can't code a front-end and coding it for them. This would negate the need to have any aesthetic ability or sever-side scripting knowledge. There are several places who do this already so you'd be competing with them and most projects would be one-off projects. Whenever I've done this for clients, there generally isn't any return business and web sites are essentially small, brochure-style, sites. You may be able to gain some financial return doing this, but you would need to be diligent about always seeking new clients. Brochure-style sites aren't updated with much regularity and simply don't generate a great deal of return business in my experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5232" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1877" RevisionGUID="42aaba89-ef19-454b-b749-2b0c381ac107" CreationDate="2014-05-21T03:59:34.193" UserId="2917" Text="An old friend of mine from school and I have started doing web design and development work under a single name. Work is ad-hoc - we're both full time students - and is mostly 'friend of a friend' stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally client work is found and done by just one of us, however we split larger projects between us (I'm better at backend/programming work, he's better at frontend/design work). Our portfolio is combined (this is a big plus!).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For work that we do independent of each other the person doing the work takes the payment for the job, when we work together we work out our own split - usually 50/50.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We offer hosting and maintenance, which most clients take, for a monthly fee. This fee is kept as 'company money' for paying the bills and for other purchases. I'm currently using a personal 'e-savings' account for this which had no other use. I pay all the bills myself so this works. We're looking at opening a business bank account soon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Side note: I trust the guy I'm working with, I highly doubt they'll be any issues working with him with regard to money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - Is this a good way to do things? How would we improve the way we work?&#xD;&#xA;  - We're not earning enough to be paying tax. But are there any problems with the way we're operating? (UK) We're not in any way 'registered' or official.&#xD;&#xA;  - If we did this full-time how should we change the way we work? I'd envisage pooling contact income and paying ourselves a salary, work varies though so this amount would also vary." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5233" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1877" RevisionGUID="42aaba89-ef19-454b-b749-2b0c381ac107" CreationDate="2014-05-21T03:59:34.193" UserId="2917" Text="Currently in a new freelancing partnership, advice to develop business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5234" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1877" RevisionGUID="42aaba89-ef19-454b-b749-2b0c381ac107" CreationDate="2014-05-21T03:59:34.193" UserId="2917" Text="|taxes|payments|finance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5235" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1878" RevisionGUID="34f7be12-4640-463b-9e83-9884f51f24b9" CreationDate="2014-05-21T04:50:13.760" UserId="517" Text="So you passed the first test - finding clients and managing to finish the project. That is the most important aspect. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But now you will face a new area - business management. That is a horror for programmers since it's out of our expertise. I am sure all guys freelancing for longer time will be able to tell you how to manage their business, but myself and my colleagues do it this way:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- we set our salaries (spending without limits will leave you out of money)&#xD;&#xA;- we set premium for all overtime work paid by number of work hours we had to work overtime&#xD;&#xA;- the rest of the money is piled up for our rainy-day salaries&#xD;&#xA;- from that money we pay office costs, buy software and equipment for the office&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So to achieve this, you have to seek long-term clients. You will sign retainer agreements with them (Google this term for more info) and of course you must offer them more services which will generate you monthly income. The most important aspect is to have clients who will bring you money each month and to build the client structure. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5236" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1879" RevisionGUID="a43a83bf-1702-4f9d-8f3b-1a51d4810aaf" CreationDate="2014-05-21T09:18:27.903" UserId="2872" Text="I have been asked by a client to work on-site for a period in order to complete a project.  However, my office is registered at my home address - can I still claim expenses which occur during this period or must I omit them in this instance?  For example, must I deduct, say, the amount of energy I use at my office/home for those five days?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FYI: I am based in London, England (UK)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5237" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1879" RevisionGUID="a43a83bf-1702-4f9d-8f3b-1a51d4810aaf" CreationDate="2014-05-21T09:18:27.903" UserId="2872" Text="Expenses - Office At Home But Working On Site for Client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5238" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1879" RevisionGUID="a43a83bf-1702-4f9d-8f3b-1a51d4810aaf" CreationDate="2014-05-21T09:18:27.903" UserId="2872" Text="|expenses|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5239" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1879" RevisionGUID="9e71d3ac-3e05-4386-85ff-8a9ffe166746" CreationDate="2014-05-21T09:40:37.170" UserId="2872" Comment="added 74 characters in body" Text="I have been asked by a client to work on-site for a period in order to complete a project due to the confidential nature of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, my office is registered at my home address - can I still claim expenses which occur during this period or must I omit them in this instance?  For example, must I deduct, say, the amount of energy I use at my office/home for the five days that I am based at the client's site?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FYI: I am based in London, England (UK)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5240" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1880" RevisionGUID="b961d645-97da-4b44-81f9-64e660ebb9e6" CreationDate="2014-05-21T19:12:48.953" UserId="75" Text="I like the way you and your friend think and operate, starting so young and using both your talents! I hope for your sake, it lasts for many, many years. But you need to start setting some rules.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First off, each of you should list off your abilities, and label them on a scale from 1 to 5 about how you feel with each skill. This should help you determine where you want to focus on. For example, I love doing the back-end stuff, hate doing design or front end design. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have a general business account set up (as noted above, you'll need business paperwork in order to do so). **All** income will go into this account. Every last cent. I don't know about the UK, but in Canada and the USA, business income is taxed much lower; most successful people I know use their business for all their income, and only pay themselves minimum wage (or even less!) to avoid a majority of taxes. Talk to an accountant about this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You'll need to bill yourself to your company, so there is paperwork of where the money is going. If there is a tax advantage for paying yourself as little as possible, and using the company account for purchasing/leasing (!) items you need, then do that. My business would pay for my rent (working out of my home), my car, and my cell phone. I basically took my $8/hr salary for going out and having fun. The rest stayed in the company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also when working with a partner or friend, you will need a lawyer. End of story. The lawyer can represent you both when starting up the business, and will ask you many, many more questions that we can to help work out the kinks *before* they occur. They will help you work out what happens if one of you wants to split, or how decisions are made when you both have 50% of the vote. Do not skip this much-needed step.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As the back-end guy, I will manage the customer's servers, and that is what most of the retainer fee goes towards (unofficially). But again, because I'm paying myself so little and letting the company pay for my &lt;strike&gt;toys&lt;/strike&gt; tools, the company can afford to pay for other things that the company itself needs, not just myself or my partner." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5241" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1881" RevisionGUID="0830d0d2-ca9f-42b0-a764-557729653d9c" CreationDate="2014-05-21T19:14:24.210" UserId="75" Text="Although I have no web reference to back this up, I would still write off the part of my home used as an office. Remember, you may need to do paperwork back there as well, right? You aren't renting it out as a room to someone else, and it is required of your business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just because you don't use the desktop computer at home for your business everyday, doesn't mean you don't write it off when it's primarily used for your business, correct?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5242" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1882" RevisionGUID="d8ca95d3-d49e-41d7-8f4d-0c2e36c20413" CreationDate="2014-05-22T04:09:05.953" UserId="64" Text="I work in the IT/development sector in the United States. I recently did some consulting work for a client for a fixed fee.  While successful, I did go over my budget and was planning on eating the cost myself. However, the client graciously agreed to help offset the costs by offering me a discount on the services that they provide, which I personally am in need of. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I represent this on the invoice I send the client? Should I represent this on the invoice at all? If so, how would I indicate that the payment would not be in cash?  The services I would consume would be for personal use, not part of my business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5243" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1882" RevisionGUID="d8ca95d3-d49e-41d7-8f4d-0c2e36c20413" CreationDate="2014-05-22T04:09:05.953" UserId="64" Text="When invoicing clients, what is the process for handling exchanges of consulting services for the client's services?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5244" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1882" RevisionGUID="d8ca95d3-d49e-41d7-8f4d-0c2e36c20413" CreationDate="2014-05-22T04:09:05.953" UserId="64" Text="|invoices|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5245" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1883" RevisionGUID="4805106b-849d-458c-994b-943330d4272d" CreationDate="2014-05-22T12:24:27.037" UserId="2933" Text="An old client asked me to work on a project which is kind of a social networking website. The idea is very good though. I know that guy and his company, he lives in EU while I am in Asia. We never met but I can say the idea seems good. My question is should I accept that 50%/50% partnership? This will be 2 months job for a beta and then we will see how it works. I will handle all the development here. And all the expenses on web hosting and scripts and plugin we will buy would be on him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We signed a contract and exchanged using email. He owns the domains and hosting etc.&#xD;&#xA;Basically we would be interesting in selling it then to some big companies or big people if all goes well.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any idea in the field of digital product partnership would be highly appreciated. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Awasi!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5246" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1883" RevisionGUID="4805106b-849d-458c-994b-943330d4272d" CreationDate="2014-05-22T12:24:27.037" UserId="2933" Text="Should I partnership in a Social Networking Project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5247" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1883" RevisionGUID="4805106b-849d-458c-994b-943330d4272d" CreationDate="2014-05-22T12:24:27.037" UserId="2933" Text="|legal|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5248" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1884" RevisionGUID="93063abd-dda0-4f2b-967a-2303cc7ee3e5" CreationDate="2014-05-22T15:16:50.470" UserId="2546" Text="You say your partnership is protected by a written contract. That's good.  &#xD;&#xA;Now, you have to answer to this questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Does the contract specifies ownership transfer of the domain name from just your partner to both of you?&#xD;&#xA;- Is the contract wrote in such a way that all your responsibilities/rights are listed clear and without any confusion?&#xD;&#xA;- Does this contract list both of you as equal partners with equal &quot;ex-ante&quot;/&quot;ex-post&quot; rights and responsibilities?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The idea is that you have to make sure all your present and future rights/responsibilities are covered (and protected) by the contract. Otherwise you expose yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a final point; should you partnership?  &#xD;&#xA;Well, if you have the time and resources, if you believe that this is a good investment and you have no reason to chose otherwise than YES, you should partnership.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5249" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1884" RevisionGUID="c667ea4a-9c66-4ad6-bc52-95553b2df82d" CreationDate="2014-05-22T15:30:41.357" UserId="2546" Comment="added 429 characters in body" Text="You say your partnership is protected by a written contract. That's good.  &#xD;&#xA;Now, you have to answer to this questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Does the contract specifies ownership transfer of the domain name from just your partner to both of you?&#xD;&#xA;- Is the contract wrote in such a way that all your responsibilities/rights are listed clear and without any confusion?&#xD;&#xA;- Does this contract list both of you as equal partners with equal &quot;ex-ante&quot;/&quot;ex-post&quot; rights and responsibilities?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The idea is that you have to make sure all your present and future rights/responsibilities are covered (and protected) by the contract. Otherwise you expose yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are from Asia and he lives in the EU. Is he a EU citizen or same country as yours?  &#xD;&#xA;If you are from Asia and he is from EU or another continent than bear in mind that an eventual lawsuit will mean considerable resources from your part this because contractual obligations can be enforced by suing in the country where the defendant resides or the legal personality was created (someone, please correct me if I'm wrong).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a final point; should you partnership?  &#xD;&#xA;Well, if you have the time and resources, if you believe that this is a good investment and you have no reason to chose otherwise than YES, you should partnership.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5250" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1885" RevisionGUID="1c49477a-bf06-4081-b340-591db55c6f5c" CreationDate="2014-05-22T18:45:48.050" UserId="2937" Text="I have been freelance consulting for only a short while (about 6 months) and things have been going great so far.  Lately, I've been getting calls from recruiters and networking referrals to various job opportunities, some of which seem like a good fit for my skill set.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a tactful and effective way to convert these job opportunities into consulting gigs?  I don't want to misrepresent myself and go on a job interview when I really want a consulting relationship, but I don't want to pass by a potential opportunity either.  Have others had luck doing this in the past?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5251" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1885" RevisionGUID="1c49477a-bf06-4081-b340-591db55c6f5c" CreationDate="2014-05-22T18:45:48.050" UserId="2937" Text="How to convert employment opportunities into consulting jobs?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5252" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1885" RevisionGUID="1c49477a-bf06-4081-b340-591db55c6f5c" CreationDate="2014-05-22T18:45:48.050" UserId="2937" Text="|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5253" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1886" RevisionGUID="9cdc18b8-50c3-40e4-9839-5b41fe9cefae" CreationDate="2014-05-22T22:01:50.200" UserId="1706" Text="Look, if a recruiter calls and says the job is **full time**, then it's just that - a full time job, not a consulting opportunity.  Don't waste anybody's time trying to change what's offered, because the recruiter has already established the situation with the end-client.  Now, what you'd be looking for are **contract** jobs instead.  (I take these gigs myself, so I know.)  Some recruiters don't offer contract jobs at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Contract jobs are abundant in certain parts of the country (I'm gonna assume you are in the US) but rare in others.  They're most plentiful in larger cities like L.A. and New York.  The recruiter might offer to pay you as a W-2 employee, or you might have the option of what we call &quot;corp-to-corp&quot; (corp-to-corp assumes that you have established a legal business entity such as a corporation or LLC).  There's another classification called a 1099 job which is the recruiter paying you directly without the need for the corporation or LLC, but these are really rare.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's a big pond.  Don't get eaten by the sharks.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5254" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1887" RevisionGUID="24d2f004-803d-4364-94f1-66baaa1a3a0f" CreationDate="2014-05-22T22:15:33.377" UserId="1706" Text="With the utmost respect to you, this is a dumb idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Running a multinational business is nothing trivial.  Where will the head office be located?  What is the business form?  (corporation, etc).  Who are the officers?  Where will official business documents be physically stored??  Who can establish the business entity, and handle things like taxes, business licenses, and so forth?  And most especially, who's got access to the money (banking, merchant accounts, Paypal) when it's time to get paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're taking a huge risk by being the developer on such a project.  The work product will be your &quot;baby&quot;.  You might have some help in designing this with your customer, but who's to guarantee that once you're done, your partner won't disappear with your work, or be selling it branded as something else?  Unless you have answered all of these questions, I wouldn't expect to earn one cent if I were you.  Then again, maybe you like working for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just remember - once you upload your work onto a server your partner can access, you've basically given away the business in a sense.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might have a contract, sure enough.  But which jurisdiction will the contract be enforceable in - yours, or his?  (Here in the US, we usually specify that a contract will be directed by the laws of a particular state, just so it's clear).  If you ever need to sue your partner, you'll have to either travel to the EU or pay an attorney there.  If you can't afford to do that, then you will learn real quick how useless some contracts are when you cross international borders.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd give this a WHOLE lot of consideration if I were you.  Don't take it for granted that you've worked with this client for some time.  You don't know how your potential partner is actually conducting business in the EU, because you're not there.  Business partnerships are like marriages.  Would you marry someone via e-mail, in another country?  Think about it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5255" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1888" RevisionGUID="d8d7f21a-8752-4493-9f64-0516424429e0" CreationDate="2014-05-22T23:08:52.313" UserId="1706" Text="Don't put this on your invoice at all.  The offered discount has nothing to do with the work you've already done.  It is a separate transaction, most especially because you intend to take up on that discount for personal use." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5256" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1889" RevisionGUID="5d062c12-c661-481b-b617-a014618472a5" CreationDate="2014-05-22T23:11:35.360" UserId="1706" Text="No.  Your office expenses (energy, phone, internet, etc) are overhead costs and will not be reflected on an invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if the client agrees to pay for mileage, lodging, materials, or any special services required specifically for the project (printing, etc), then these are things that you should put on the invoice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5257" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1890" RevisionGUID="e3bf9f47-5645-4674-8d16-a9d335800602" CreationDate="2014-05-23T02:28:00.677" UserId="2938" Text="I agreed to do icon and screenshot work for a company who makes apps for a payment. Except I was kinda stupid for not backing up myself with a contract or sending previews instead of the actual design files. The payment we agreed on is on a per week basis. I've done a lot of stuff already, but still have a lot of work in the coming days. Is it still not too late to suddenly send previews instead and mention that I will need a payment before releasing the actual files? I'm to be paid today, but have nothing to back me up in case they say &quot;we can't pay you&quot; or something horrific like that. I think I should send the client a message about this, but not sure what to say exactly. I hope I can still do something to fix this. Help! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5258" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1890" RevisionGUID="e3bf9f47-5645-4674-8d16-a9d335800602" CreationDate="2014-05-23T02:28:00.677" UserId="2938" Text="Need help fixing my design work ethic mistake" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5259" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1890" RevisionGUID="e3bf9f47-5645-4674-8d16-a9d335800602" CreationDate="2014-05-23T02:28:00.677" UserId="2938" Text="|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5261" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1879" RevisionGUID="8a81f3d9-41d8-45fc-af2e-02bd4f008f80" CreationDate="2014-05-23T08:12:49.163" UserId="2872" Comment="added 236 characters in body" Text="I have been asked by a client to work on-site for a period in order to complete a project due to the confidential nature of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, my office is registered at my home address - can I still claim expenses which occur during this period or must I omit them in this instance?  For example, must I deduct, say, the amount of energy I use at my office/home for the five days that I am based at the client's site?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FYI: I am based in London, England (UK)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**UPDATE:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not asking if I should bill my client for the amount of expenses incurred; I merely want to know if I need to deduct the amount of energy, etc., used during the period whilst I am working at my client's premises." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5262" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1891" RevisionGUID="389be502-0959-41cf-9f9f-665e56004695" CreationDate="2014-05-23T08:53:33.217" UserId="2888" Text="I found my longest term client by offering the consulting at the time they were looking for a perm. YMMV.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is another way looking at this: if a lead is looking for the expanding their business, they are not meeting their current demand with the available resources. It is a powerful trigger what makes your approach to them relevant and timely. The problem is, recruiters are just not into it. To maximize your chances, you should circumvent the recruiter and go directly to the decision maker - who might be actually a level above the hiring manager (the latter guy might be just interviewing anyone he is told to - perms, temps, consultants).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not suggest being unethical to the recruiters and steal their data. Typically the job description for this opportunity is scattered across the web, sometimes at the employee website or with indications pointing to one. Recruiters, on other hand, tend to hide this information, mostly from each other. So just google the most unique-looking parts of the JD and sometimes you find who are the guys. Then dig into their corporate site, LinkedIn profiles etc. and find the guy who should be a decision maker for this position. Then connect to them via a short email or call. Email is better here because it gives them time to actually consider your offer rather than switch to defensive mode. Keep it &lt;100 words and to the point. Do not sell there for now, just make the person interested. Do not boast how great you are, tell how great you made your clients who are just like them. Add links to portfolio, testimonials etc. here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Your might find better luck with smaller organizations where you can go to C-suite or director level with this decision - they are more flexible than larger shops." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5263" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1891" RevisionGUID="b09552f8-287e-4931-9b30-056db0e1d53c" CreationDate="2014-05-23T09:06:33.077" UserId="2888" Comment="deleted 4 characters in body" Text="I found my longest term client by offering the consulting at the time they were looking for a perm. YMMV.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is another way looking at this: if a lead is looking for expanding their business, they are not meeting their current demand with the available resources. It is a powerful trigger what makes your approach to them relevant and timely. The problem is, recruiters are just not into it. To maximize your chances, you should circumvent the recruiter and go directly to the decision maker - who might be actually a level above the hiring manager (the latter guy might be just interviewing anyone he is told to - perms, temps, consultants).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not suggest being unethical to the recruiters and stealing their data. Typically the job description for this opportunity is scattered across the web, sometimes at the employee website or with indications pointing to one. Recruiters, on other hand, tend to hide this information, mostly from each other. So just google the most unique-looking parts of the JD and sometimes you find who are the guys. Then dig into their corporate site, LinkedIn profiles etc. and find the guy who should be a decision maker for this position. Then connect to them via a short email or call. Email is better here because it gives them time to actually consider your offer rather than switch to defensive mode. Keep it &lt;100 words and to the point. Do not sell there for now, just make the person interested. Do not boast how great you are, tell how great you made your clients who are just like them. Add links to portfolio, testimonials etc. here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Your might find better luck with smaller organizations where you can go to C-suite or director level with this decision - they are more flexible than larger shops." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5264" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1891" RevisionGUID="9056c60d-bbd1-4c02-8da9-971e5833de25" CreationDate="2014-05-23T09:22:54.570" UserId="2888" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="I found my longest term client by offering the consulting at the time they were looking for a perm. YMMV.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is another way looking at this: if a lead is looking for expanding their business, they are not meeting their current demand with the available resources. It is a powerful trigger what makes your approach to them relevant and timely. The problem is, recruiters are just not into it. To maximize your chances, you should circumvent the recruiter and go directly to the decision maker - who might be actually a level above the hiring manager (the latter guy might be just interviewing anyone (s)he is told to - perms, temps, consultants).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not suggest being unethical to the recruiters and stealing their data. Typically the job description for this opportunity is scattered across the web, sometimes at the employee website or with indications pointing to one. Recruiters, on other hand, tend to hide this information, mostly from each other. So just google the most unique-looking parts of the JD and sometimes you find who are the guys. Then dig into their corporate site, LinkedIn profiles etc. and find the guy who should be a decision maker for this position. Then connect to them via a short email or call. Email is better here because it gives them time to actually consider your offer rather than switch to defensive mode. Keep it &lt;100 words and to the point. Do not sell there for now, just make the person interested. Do not boast how great you are, tell how great you made your clients who are just like them. Add links to portfolio, testimonials etc. here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Your might find better luck with smaller organizations where you can go to C-suite or director level with this decision - they are more flexible than larger shops." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5265" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1892" RevisionGUID="2ff9f5e2-afae-44b0-a400-75231c9fe71f" CreationDate="2014-05-23T13:09:35.213" UserId="2741" Text="When I receive recruiter emails, I politely respond with my situation (I work from home, do hourly consulting, won't relocate, always have people knocking, etc.) and say if that doesn't work for them, then I won't be able to help them. The responses usually come in two forms:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Thanks for your response, but my client (confirms they're a real recruiter, and not even necessarily an employee of the company they have an email address at) requires on site. Do you know of anyone that might fit?&#xD;&#xA; 2. We really want to grow the team locally, but need someone right away. Can we talk further about what you might be able to do for us? (confirms that it's actually an employee, that they are actually hiring to fill a specific need, not just generic growing, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second one, *for me*, has turned in to a consulting gig more often than not. It fulfills what codenoire says about not wasting time, but also confirms that it's actually a full time spot. A real recruiter will get paid more for full time placement so, of course, they won't lead with consulting opportunities. A team of real employees just needs to get work done. If their recruiters are failing, they'll need to fill in regardless. If you're the right person, they'll usually appreciate the simplicity of a consulting agreement over hiring, anyway, especially since it's gives them flexibility down the road.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Incidentally, unlike what codenoire says, *all* my contract work is 10-99 based. All my work is done in the state I'm located at; my clients are never in my home state, though. Video calls have almost completely removed the need for on-site visits. (Unfortunately, I enjoy the occasional work trips.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5266" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1893" RevisionGUID="c51634e6-5124-4e76-a027-015ccd2049c6" CreationDate="2014-05-23T17:01:09.743" UserId="75" Text="Step 1 - Get written confirmation of their intention to pay you for your work!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This can be done via email, or just by a letter, and asking for them to sign and return it to you to get your artwork. You haven't given them the work, so it's still all yours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With this written confirmation, make sure it acknowledges that you have done work, and you expect $ *xxx* for your work in order to give it to your client. Showing the intent to pay will help you *if* you need to go to collections. If they refuse to sign, I would hold on to the work until they show you the money (in cash!). Anyone who runs a legit business and **actually** wants the work will sign the deal, or email you with intent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Step 2 - Contact a lawyer, and get some contract templates drawn up immediately! Yes, they can cost anywhere from $150 to $750, but allowing you to fill in the blanks and keep it legal will help you further in your career. Do not start any work for any client until a contract is signed, *and a scope of work has been determined*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Step 3 - ???&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Step 4 - PROFIT! You've done everything you can, and now you can relax! Your next job will be easier, and you will be able to sleep at night again." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5267" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1885" RevisionGUID="a5ae76e9-8b78-4470-81e2-ef6fe303f058" CreationDate="2014-05-23T19:21:47.647" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/469921148969684992" />
  <row Id="5268" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1894" RevisionGUID="6108b7cb-b907-4a37-9c47-12a9e445fa4d" CreationDate="2014-05-23T22:32:43.267" UserId="2888" Text="[Toggl][1] works for me for several years. It is an online service but they have a desktop app (as well as Android/iOS apps); Their desktop app detects the inactivity and asks you to keep or drop this time. The basic functionality is free and I like their online reporting features. They also allow downloading CSVs with your time and tasks; I used to write programs what took this input and created the invoices in the client-specific format, so there is a room for automation of your lower level bookkeeping.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As to the tracking the time wasters, I use RescueTime (paid version); I set up a few messages what pop up when the trigger is met, like: &quot;You spent a hour today reading news. Maybe you are updated enough to start working.&quot; and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://toggl.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5269" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1895" RevisionGUID="6b0d870c-6ab0-4668-b7b9-8935de6e4390" CreationDate="2014-05-23T23:24:46.083" UserId="805" Text="I have always wondered that people who outsource their work, meaning pay someone here or someone in another country. Do their clients need to know that it was outsourced even if they take a look at it work themselves and work with others who they have outsourced to make sure that work is of the quality they expected. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5270" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1895" RevisionGUID="6b0d870c-6ab0-4668-b7b9-8935de6e4390" CreationDate="2014-05-23T23:24:46.083" UserId="805" Text="Should your client know that you intend to outsource several parts or the whole project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5271" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1895" RevisionGUID="6b0d870c-6ab0-4668-b7b9-8935de6e4390" CreationDate="2014-05-23T23:24:46.083" UserId="805" Text="|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5272" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1896" RevisionGUID="b70214b0-3965-4be2-b7a2-b91363ffc98d" CreationDate="2014-05-24T01:10:36.000" UserId="1018" Text="I think it's reasonable to continue to claim expenses for your home office even when you are temporarily away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are likely resources in your office that are still in use even if you are not there physically every day such as storage space for filing, and books etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Potentially you may have a server or desktop in the office that you can access remotely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might even use the printer at the end of the day when you are back at home.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you were working away on a 6 month contract, it might be hard to justify home office expenses but perfectly reasonable for a few weeks away if the home office is your normal place of work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5273" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1897" RevisionGUID="1c488f4a-e4fc-423c-a3d9-bf2a23693045" CreationDate="2014-05-24T09:16:20.370" UserId="517" Text="This all depends on your relations with the client and your own professional conduct. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many contractors will simply take and pile up jobs and subcontract them without informing clients or taking care about quality of such product. Those persons may have elevated progress of their business, but in long term, they will fail. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I personally tell my clients if I will outsource some part of the project (design, audio overlay, etc.) because that way my client can communicate with my subcontractor directly which makes my life easier and I don't have to spend time passing messages between them (Basecamp room is great for such conversations). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then again, there were times when I had to code some nasty logic which was boring and I simply was not in mood to do it. So I outsourced it and closely monitored the output and the code so it fits my quality standards. A client was not aware of this. Not because I did not want to tell him or something, but because he did not need such information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I am always to tell your clients. If you're afraid that subcontractor may still your client, then you're subcontracting the wrong person or team. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5274" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1898" RevisionGUID="9dc60cfe-35e9-4c35-a75e-551a9836b2d9" CreationDate="2014-05-24T15:29:29.390" UserId="2946" Text="I have been working as an IT Freelancer (Self-Employed) for some years now. The hourly rate for my first larger Job was a suggestion from my client, and over the years it evolved by aligning with the rate of other freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I miss from time to time, especially in salary negotiations, is kind of a formula / system to exactly explain to my customer why I charge what I charge. So I started to develop something. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My current calculation is based on an Entrepreneurs Salary (based on what I could earn as an employee) plus Healthcare/Social Insurance, Taxes and Operating cost (Hardware, Tax Counsel, ...).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This, I compare to the work hours per year based on how many hours I would work as an regular employee minus the time I need to invest for administrative Stuff, Planning and aquiring new jobs in order to get a hourly rate equal to regular employment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I miss in my calculation is Risk. There are certain risks that i just won´t have as an employee. (Especially in Austria where I live you are secured against almost everything as an employee - be it a longer leave due to illness or accident, or if your employer declares bankruptcy) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now, the difference between my hourly rate and the calculation to be even with an emoloyee (in the terms mentioned before) is 15%, what i see as my calculated risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I´ve already done some reasearch on the web, but I still can´t find any values I could compare my 15% against. So what I am looking for is a percent value, backed by some credible source or professional experience for usual values for calculated risk. Preferably from some smaller company in IT, but for starters, any credible value will do as I don´t have anything to compare mine to. Perfect, of course, would be a credible value from another freelancer, but I´m not sure if that´s realistic to ask for.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5275" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1898" RevisionGUID="9dc60cfe-35e9-4c35-a75e-551a9836b2d9" CreationDate="2014-05-24T15:29:29.390" UserId="2946" Text="Common values for calculated risk (as a freelancer)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5276" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1898" RevisionGUID="9dc60cfe-35e9-4c35-a75e-551a9836b2d9" CreationDate="2014-05-24T15:29:29.390" UserId="2946" Text="|pay-rate|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5281" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1898" RevisionGUID="1b5ce120-a79a-48a0-b578-9df57a447bee" CreationDate="2014-05-24T22:33:22.420" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/470331749113663489" />
  <row Id="5282" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1883" RevisionGUID="1a49f1db-6f0d-4fa2-8656-dfeeaf0ba7af" CreationDate="2014-05-25T04:33:25.087" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/470422358193217536" />
  <row Id="5283" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1897" RevisionGUID="00c7536e-c4aa-47a2-8aa8-ed1a3aa17b16" CreationDate="2014-05-25T08:15:24.847" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="This all depends on your relations with the client and your own professional conduct. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many contractors will simply take and pile up jobs and subcontract them without informing clients or taking care about quality of such product. Those people may have elevated progress of their business, but in long term, they will fail. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I personally tell my clients if I will outsource some part of the project (design, audio overlay, etc.) because that way my client can communicate with my subcontractor directly which makes my life easier and I don't have to spend time passing messages between them (Basecamp room is great for such conversations). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then again, there were times when I had to code some nasty logic which was boring and I simply was not in mood to do it. So I outsourced it and closely monitored the output and the code so it fits my quality standards. A client was not aware of this. Not because I did not want to tell him or something, but because he did not need such information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I am always to tell your clients. If you're afraid that subcontractor may steal your client, then you're subcontracting the wrong person or team. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5284" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1898" RevisionGUID="6c76d7b5-b019-49fc-9495-155dd7d2e3f7" CreationDate="2014-05-25T11:32:28.550" UserId="2946" Comment="added 19 characters in body" Text="I have been working as an IT Freelancer (Self-Employed) for some years now. The hourly rate for my first larger Job was a suggestion from my client, and over the years it evolved by aligning with the rate of other freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I miss from time to time, especially in salary negotiations, is kind of a formula / system to exactly explain to my customer why I charge what I charge. So I started to develop something. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My current calculation is based on an Entrepreneurs Salary (based on what I could earn as an employee) plus Healthcare/Social Insurance, Taxes and Operating cost (Hardware, Tax Counsel, ...).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This, I compare to the work hours per year based on how many hours I would work as an regular employee minus the time I need to invest for administrative Stuff, Planning and aquiring new jobs in order to get a hourly rate equal to regular employment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I miss in my calculation is Risk. There are certain risks that i just won´t have as an employee. (Especially in Austria where I live you are secured against almost everything as an employee - be it a longer leave due to illness or accident, or if your employer declares bankruptcy) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now, the difference between my hourly rate and the calculation to be even with an emoloyee (in the terms mentioned before) is 15%, what i see as my calculated risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I´ve already done some reasearch on the web, but I still can´t find any values I could compare my 15% against. So what I am looking for is a percent value (EDIT: or a range), backed by some credible source or professional experience for usual values for calculated risk. Preferably from some smaller company in IT, but for starters, any credible value will do as I don´t have anything to compare mine to. Perfect, of course, would be a credible value from another freelancer, but I´m not sure if that´s realistic to ask for.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5285" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1900" RevisionGUID="cc89c497-31a5-479c-81c8-4ae5fd778b27" CreationDate="2014-05-25T11:47:33.223" UserId="2951" Text="I'm a freelancer, but I don't actually get very involved with programming or application development myself. I thought this would be an interesting question to put across to you as many of you are technically focused freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently hired a freelancer to build me a simple app in Ruby on Rails. To cut a long story short I've so far paid over £4,000 and they still want an outstanding £2,000+. My issue is, the site is not very good and the only features it has are, you can sign in and out as an admin, edit products and upload new products, with descriptions, images and price. The developers have told me I'll have to put all prices in pennies since they haven't sorted that issue out, for example I have to input 1000 for £10. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I get the feeling what has been built could be put together remarkably quick and I'm wondering what your thoughts are as a community. I'm currently learning some Ruby on Rails myself and apart from the CSS they've done I could have done what they've done so far and quickly (I have no previous experience)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for you time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5286" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1900" RevisionGUID="cc89c497-31a5-479c-81c8-4ae5fd778b27" CreationDate="2014-05-25T11:47:33.223" UserId="2951" Text="What's a fair price? and how to point that out?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5287" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1900" RevisionGUID="cc89c497-31a5-479c-81c8-4ae5fd778b27" CreationDate="2014-05-25T11:47:33.223" UserId="2951" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|payment-terms|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5288" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1901" RevisionGUID="0d72bfed-5d8a-4193-b202-b0c1e65a882b" CreationDate="2014-05-25T14:57:29.487" UserId="1706" Text="I don't develop in Ruby but I am familiar with it.  For the functionality you're describing, Ruby or not, you've spent a ridiculous amount of money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are PHP guys who'd work for $15/hr (I'm not one of them!) and for the price you've paid so far, it would have bought you almost 450 hours of development time.  Perhaps you are working with a digital services &quot;agency&quot; that is greatly marking up the price of their developers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for pointing it out - you've already agreed to it.  Maybe the best thing you can do is to get all your source code and find a less expensive option for further work.  You've spent quite a bit for an app that doesn't do anything useful yet." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5289" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1902" RevisionGUID="828c6d72-5dc2-43e5-8be2-c2997452e93e" CreationDate="2014-05-25T15:01:53.553" UserId="2303" Text="Well i am short of telling you they are scamming you.&#xD;&#xA;If you can provide us with a sample of the site to check the real complexity of it, we might shed some more light about what **we** consider a fair price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've recently started to learn web development three months ago (i like more PHP, since its available everywhere) and now i can set up this in 8 hours (version 1 took me 2 months and a half, this is version 2, from scratch): &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    (user/pass: juan)&#xD;&#xA;        http://pringles.esy.es/intranet/computos/impresoras&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The site is in spanish, my development and design skills sucks, but hey, this was done for free to cover a specific need i had at work (manage the toner stock wich we were doing by paper so far)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The penny problem is something i had to learn too, what you need to do is add the &quot;step&quot; configuration to the html control, like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;        &lt;input type=&quot;number&quot; step=&quot;0.01&quot; value=&quot;0&quot; name=&quot;pounds_amount&quot;&gt;&lt;/input&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;this way you can set pounds as the zero.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding your question, a fair price is the price you are willing to pay for something, if you do your duty and research before contracting you will see different prices for the same thing, and then you settle for the one you feel comfortable, maybe someone from abroad (like me) will charge you 1000 o 500 for the job (currency convertion rates are a godsend for people in your country), but then he will work remotely, probably someone from the U.K. will charge you 4.000 for the job, but he lives close to your work and you can visit him to check progress...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5290" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1903" RevisionGUID="5ad1f519-be0f-43a4-888c-f6271bb70a31" CreationDate="2014-05-25T15:08:34.003" UserId="1706" Text="Martin, I know this doesn't answer your question exactly, but have you ever considered the fact that you don't have to justify your price, and that's that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This really comes down to whether or not the services you offer fit a client's needs, and whether the client is ready to pay your price or not.  You don't have to validate it, or back it up with facts and figures, or explain it.  As long as whatever you're charging meets your needs, don't worry about explaining your price.  You'll just drive yourself nuts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Customers who are shopping only on price will drive you nuts.  There's always gonna be somebody cheaper than you, and always gonna be somebody more expensive than you.  You can charge astronomical prices (compared to &quot;market&quot;) and run the risk that the client will find out and seek greener pastures -- but on the other hand, you have to make your money while you *can* sometimes.  (and this is the reason you never want to rely on only one client if possible)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So pick your price, and stand by it.  To be slick about it, bump up the number you *need* to earn by a few bucks an hour or so.  If a client whines about the price, then you have some leeway to lower the final price without cutting yourself short, and the client is no more the wiser but will feel as if he/she has received a &quot;deal&quot;. (smile)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5294" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1905" RevisionGUID="4e700059-b931-49de-8d2b-8d07bb4ef7d8" CreationDate="2014-05-25T15:16:12.183" UserId="1706" Text="You charge sales tax on tangible products, not services.  If you were selling packaged software, then sales tax would apply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case, you would not charge sales tax on web development nor consulting (though I don't understand how you define one vs the other).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's a parallel.  When you get something fixed at your local mechanic, you pay sales tax on replacement parts and materials (oil, brake fluid, transmission fluid, etc) but *not* the labor." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5295" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1906" RevisionGUID="ecc4d397-2ba6-41b0-af0d-34bcb7428c52" CreationDate="2014-05-25T18:01:08.660" UserId="2953" Text="The question of whether you retain copyright or transfer/assign copyright to your client is more of a business question and a question of how you prefer to work.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many clients don't negotiate copyright ownership especially when issues regarding delivery of work and payment terms take greater precedence to both parties.  If you educate your clients about copyright &amp; IP issues involved in how they receive work from you, you can make your work more valuable to clients and get them to pay for the increased value you can deliver.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Two options/solutions on how to handle copyright with a client:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Give your client a non-exclusive license to use your web design work that likely includes assets that also belong to them (e.g., logos, photos, copy, etc).  This works for many clients, and is implicitly what you and a client get when you don't address these issues head on. You remain the copyright owner of the work you create. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Give your client the ability to receive full copyright &amp; IP ownership to your work so they have full ownership of your web design to alter or update in the future as they wish without having to consult with you first as the default copyright owner of the work. If you do this, you should charge an additional fee to cover the increased value of what you delivering to them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's a resource that covers some of the basics of freelancer/client copyright issues to look out for: &quot;[How Mismanaging Your Copyright &amp; IP Rights is Ruining Your Career as a Creative or Freelancer (And How to Fix It!)][1]&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the end of the day, you have make it's a business question of whether you retain or transfer copyright ownership. Just make sure you receive the added business value as a creative of transferring copyright to a client since you are delivering more value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://blog.kunvay.com/how-mismanaging-your-copyright-ip-rights-is-ruining-your-career-as-a-creative-or-freelancer-and-how-to-fix-it/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5296" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1907" RevisionGUID="9c6a8732-74e0-4740-a377-b6a12675fc2e" CreationDate="2014-05-26T06:11:12.650" UserId="517" Text="From what you described, we can indeed say that's something's fishy there. Yet again, if you take a look at my current project which I have been coding for 3 weeks now and has like 30ish classes, complete database layer with MVC architecture, etc., and again if you start it you will see only 3 UI screens with a few silly features implemented. Am I scamming my client cause he already paid not so little money? Not at all, because I am still coding the logic invisible to users (background logic).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My point is that you shared too little information and you did not tell us how you handled project management. Do you have a system of milestones? Did you approve of each milestone before going to another? Were you able to review the demo at the end of each milestone? Were you able to submit bug reports after each demo? These are just a few of the questions which you did not mention. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your next step could be either of these:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- take a week break and review all current work and submit all bug reports and ask to be fixed before going further&#xD;&#xA;- stop the project and ask the code. you may be asked to pay for all the work they did so far before getting your code&#xD;&#xA;- tell them your worries about project costs and hire an external expert to review the project&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note as well: client are always worried about costs. How to explain some client that I will charge him 4 times more than &quot;cheap coder&quot; for the same product? I can't really. The client will never see that I spent 1 full day tweaking some animations while cheap coder will simply paste the code and finish the animation in 15min. On the surface, I may be overcharging the client (or scamming as someone said). But in the end, when users start liking app because of that simple animation and app starts getting him some money, everything changes. Web applications are expensive if they are to be coded properly. I (as a part of a team), once coded an app which we charged client like $100k for 6 months of work. Then the client returned to us after 6 months saying &quot;guys guess what, I earned my first million&quot; :). Ok this is just one good sample, but would this guy succeed if he found a team for $10k? Maybe yes, but I IMHO doubt. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5297" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1908" RevisionGUID="80431c3a-a24b-4e71-81bb-019104929b0d" CreationDate="2014-05-26T09:28:01.393" UserId="2958" Text="I am in a difficult situation currently. I am an experienced C++/Qt plus Embedded C/C++ developer. Together with a good friend I planned to open some development service business here in Germany. We are an extremely good match regarding our personality and regarding our technical skills!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately he decided to incur serious private liabilities that make him inflexible in matters of time and money while I took the opposite path. I can not consider him a good partner for starting a business anymore. What a pitty.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tought about starting a business on my own. But I don't think I should do this without one or two people that complete my personal and professional profile in a way that allows serious and reliable development and business operations. I think I really have valuable and essential strengths but also some weaknesses that do not make me a real good &quot;lone wolf&quot; but a good team member.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know there are a lot of freelancer websites out there. But I should find people based on their *talents* (if possible in Germany; however I worked in an international environment for years so this is not essential).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My questions: &#xD;&#xA;What is the best way to find such people? Are there any popular freelancer/start-up web services that include systematical team building? Any concrete suggestions how to proceed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5298" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1908" RevisionGUID="80431c3a-a24b-4e71-81bb-019104929b0d" CreationDate="2014-05-26T09:28:01.393" UserId="2958" Text="Finding partners for development startup (preferable Germany)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5299" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1908" RevisionGUID="80431c3a-a24b-4e71-81bb-019104929b0d" CreationDate="2014-05-26T09:28:01.393" UserId="2958" Text="|freelance-websites|group-freelancing|programmer|working-from-home|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5300" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1900" RevisionGUID="8b2dea5f-befa-4d22-8368-d3f005036ac4" CreationDate="2014-05-26T10:47:02.443" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/470878770598264832" />
  <row Id="5301" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1909" RevisionGUID="4a022d01-52d7-4f61-884a-a5845bb1dcf0" CreationDate="2014-05-26T12:24:03.037" UserId="2962" Text="You should try to find someone with a lot of experience on LinkedIn. People who use freelance websites are usually not looking for a business commitment. That being said it does not mean you cannot find someone on a freelance website.&#xD;&#xA;What I would do (I don't know if it's your case) is find someone from with  recommendation from someone like an ex coworker, professor or university colleague. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also get to know the person and give them some work before jumping into anything to see if you are a good match.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5302" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1910" RevisionGUID="9fab161b-1098-4157-8ee5-811b6d368a9c" CreationDate="2014-05-26T13:03:36.273" UserId="2963" Text="As a general rule, it seems reasonable to me that you NOT do maintenance work for free after they have suspended your development contract and pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, there might be a few exceptions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(1)  If it is written in your (now suspended) contract that a certain amount of maintenance/bug fixes will be done at no charge.&#xD;&#xA;(2)  If you feel that providing one or two bug fixes would be good PR and possibly result in the reinstatement of your contract, or a referral to other business in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This also all boils down to what constitutes a &quot;bug&quot;.  You indicated that in the past, 30% of your time was doing bug fixes/maintenance.  However, this was at an hourly rate, not part of a fixed project bid.  So it seems logical that future &quot;bug fixes&quot; and maintenance would also be at an hourly rate, not a free rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It sounds to me like you have the high ground here, and can require them to pay your hourly rate to continue doing work.  So far there is no precedence of you doing work for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any case, if you decide not to do the work, I would certainly be very cordial and polite with any correspondence to the employer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5303" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1910" RevisionGUID="a4148fd2-f280-4895-96ba-0ed517272d5b" CreationDate="2014-05-26T16:04:30.217" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body" Text="As a general rule, it seems reasonable to me that you NOT do maintenance work for free after they have suspended your development contract and pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, there might be a few exceptions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  If it is written in your (now suspended) contract that a certain amount of maintenance/bug fixes will be done at no charge.&#xD;&#xA;2.  If you feel that providing one or two bug fixes would be good PR and possibly result in the reinstatement of your contract, or a referral to other business in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This also all boils down to what constitutes a &quot;bug&quot;.  You indicated that in the past, 30% of your time was doing bug fixes/maintenance.  However, this was at an hourly rate, not part of a fixed project bid.  So it seems logical that future &quot;bug fixes&quot; and maintenance would also be at an hourly rate, not a free rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It sounds to me like you have the high ground here, and can require them to pay your hourly rate to continue doing work.  So far there is no precedence of you doing work for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any case, if you decide not to do the work, I would certainly be very cordial and polite with any correspondence to the employer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5304" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1911" RevisionGUID="9ef3d94b-5ba6-4955-a85d-a0b4f4fd324b" CreationDate="2014-05-26T17:11:04.913" UserId="2964" Text="To start, I spoke with friends &amp; family who are involved with businesses and they either had no work or known some one who was in need and introduced me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way is very hit and miss, but nonetheless, I think it does have some value (However, if you have already started out and completed a few projects, you most-likely don't need to do this.) Cheers!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, have a killer website/work. That always helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5309" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1914" RevisionGUID="e3aadfcb-853b-4e42-964f-1cf6fd291031" CreationDate="2014-05-26T18:53:09.170" UserId="1953" Text="time to time I get a client saying that they don't like the number of hours estimated. I always estimate a good breathing space to ensure that it doesn't result in a crappy product by rushing through it. Especially when they wait weeks without communicating with you and then coming back and say &quot;we asked around and other people say they can get it done faster, did you make a mistake?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;how do you deal with these types? Is it worth not doing the project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5310" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1914" RevisionGUID="e3aadfcb-853b-4e42-964f-1cf6fd291031" CreationDate="2014-05-26T18:53:09.170" UserId="1953" Text="number of hours is too high?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5311" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1914" RevisionGUID="e3aadfcb-853b-4e42-964f-1cf6fd291031" CreationDate="2014-05-26T18:53:09.170" UserId="1953" Text="|billable-hours|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5312" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1902" RevisionGUID="e19fef7b-2f60-4d13-a69c-d8befbb4f15a" CreationDate="2014-05-26T19:08:38.563" UserId="2303" Comment="initial paragraph came out wrong and jumped to conclusions." Text="If you can provide us with a sample of the site to check the real complexity of it, we might shed some more light about what **we** consider a fair price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've recently started to learn web development three months ago (i like more PHP, since its available everywhere) and now i can set up this in 8 hours (version 1 took me 2 months and a half, this is version 2, from scratch): &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    (user/pass: juan)&#xD;&#xA;        http://pringles.esy.es/intranet/computos/impresoras&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The site is in spanish, my development and design skills sucks, but hey, this was done for free to cover a specific need i had at work (manage the toner stock wich we were doing by paper so far)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The penny problem is something i had to learn too, what you need to do is add the &quot;step&quot; configuration to the html control, like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;        &lt;input type=&quot;number&quot; step=&quot;0.01&quot; value=&quot;0&quot; name=&quot;pounds_amount&quot;&gt;&lt;/input&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;this way you can set pounds as the zero.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding your question, a fair price is the price you are willing to pay for something, if you do your duty and research before contracting you will see different prices for the same thing, and then you settle for the one you feel comfortable, maybe someone from abroad (like me) will charge you 1000 o 500 for the job (currency convertion rates are a godsend for people in your country), but then he will work remotely, probably someone from the U.K. will charge you 4.000 for the job, but he lives close to your work and you can visit him to check progress...&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5313" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1915" RevisionGUID="f922ca8f-a038-4e41-b97b-cd884d53187c" CreationDate="2014-05-26T20:30:56.987" UserId="517" Text="Welcome to reality! :) Either those clients are looking for cheap work or you really suck in estimation. Kidding about the later ;).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can try things like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- separate estimation to most ideal, medium, and worst case estimation&#xD;&#xA;- separate estimation to its basic unit and then evaluate each. &#xD;&#xA;- separate testing from coding, make sure it's visible&#xD;&#xA;- try giving price in man days instead in work hours (1 man day looks better than 8 work hours in cheap eyes)&#xD;&#xA;- try going with fix price and giving only price and time frame&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other than this you cannot do much. Such clients are usually like that. Even if you gave them 30% of estimation, they would still complain. I suggest you stick to your own estimation and **keep notes on how much time you need to implement repeating features**. It will help you make better estimation. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5316" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1916" RevisionGUID="c1be73b5-adf9-441c-8705-5285a26117a8" CreationDate="2014-05-26T22:24:57.450" UserId="2546" Text="**Keep doing what you do.** It is a good filter method which protects and helps you get rid of clients that want cheap labor or quick fixes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I cannot find anything wrong with your method of estimating the amount of time you find necessary for getting the work done.  &#xD;&#xA;If this is what you need to deliver quality than there is no reason to change. Not if your business generates profit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, there are faster workers. And Yes, there is cheaper labor force.  &#xD;&#xA;This being said; stay who you are and negotiate what you think is best for your business in order to maintain a high rate of client satisfaction (and implicitly generate word of mouth) by delivering quality and high standards.  &#xD;&#xA;The market has an invisible hand and it is capable of reaching an equilibrium without the need that you lower your prices or rush the work you do (just because one of ten clients says so). If your clients want someone else (faster, cheaper or just better) let them have this other person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*&quot;It is worth not doing the project?&quot;*  &#xD;&#xA;YES. If you loose money by lowering your standards or by making too many concessions than yes, it is worth not doing the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*&quot;How do you deal with this types?&quot;*  &#xD;&#xA;You negotiate what's best for you.  &#xD;&#xA;If you feel you need a certain amount of time and if you aim for a certain amount of money, than defend your interests by being the better negotiator between you and your prospective client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5317" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1917" RevisionGUID="b1a2784d-71ce-4daa-a3a6-dfb59f9a0b39" CreationDate="2014-05-26T23:06:03.690" UserId="1706" Text="Don't sell yourself short.  It's really not worth it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The type of client that complains that a task will take two hours is the same client that would sue the pants off a building contractor for using substandard materials and cutting corners, *even in the case where the client has pressured the contractor to work as cheaply as possible*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The next time this happens, turn it around on the client (gently).  Ask, &quot;what basis are you using that tells us that I'm estimating too many hours?&quot;  You'll often hear, &quot;well, my project isn't really that complicated.&quot;  At that juncture, you might decide that the client needs some education on how things really work.  You might even engage the client to PAY you to explain, with brevity, how the development cycle works -- doing this will tend to correct the client's expectations.  Some clients will balk at paying &quot;tuition&quot; to learn about the inner workings of their proposed project.   THOSE clients are the ones you need to drop like a bad habit, or you'll have hell for the duration of the project because the client just doesn't get it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5319" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1918" RevisionGUID="8547b267-248f-4c9c-a748-9e49fd2f6f65" CreationDate="2014-05-27T06:35:33.983" UserId="2973" Text="Recently I've become really frustrated after moving from regular office job to the freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since I am new to freelancing I decided to do some low-quality cheap job to get some stars in my profile and get some nice feedbacks. But now I am just so exhausted by that chatty stuff that sometimes I feel that I am a professional linguist.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And after 2 costumers who spent lots of money on the site, I suddenly came to realization that I spend more time trying to realize what is actually the thing that the costumer needs. Sometimes it is that ridiculous that I feel being a decoder who translates the costumer's speech into those outright number of points where are the possible variants of what he wanted to say are stored.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this a normal thing? I'm a native English speaker as well as the costumers, but the communication on the tasks is such a disgrace.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe the point that I am doing a very low-rated jobs (also regarded to Joomla and WP, sigh) and due to the price policy the costumers allow themselfs not to allow their tasks in a proper, comprehensive way?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5320" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1918" RevisionGUID="8547b267-248f-4c9c-a748-9e49fd2f6f65" CreationDate="2014-05-27T06:35:33.983" UserId="2973" Text="Is this a normal thing that I spend 80% trying to get the task while 20% regards to actually doing some coding" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5321" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1918" RevisionGUID="8547b267-248f-4c9c-a748-9e49fd2f6f65" CreationDate="2014-05-27T06:35:33.983" UserId="2973" Text="|time-management|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5322" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1919" RevisionGUID="8a3f2c4a-b669-4814-83b3-e147229f36aa" CreationDate="2014-05-27T07:05:13.723" UserId="517" Text="Since you are training yourself as a freelancer, you are also training yourself as a project manager, finance manager, negotiator and boss. Freelancing is just a group name for 5-6 roles (I think that once a guy told me that I am doing the work for 6 men). So besides training your coding skills, you'll have to train other skills as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One of them is customer or client relations. No matter you work $100 or $10k job, you must act like it's $100k job. Such conduct will not only make you look Pro in the eyes of clients, but will also train you to become better freelancer (thus earning more money). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So even with low-budget clients, you must behave the same if you want to actually earn something. Don't be intimidated by the price of the project. So do this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- project divided into milestones or tasks&#xD;&#xA;- no task is taken to work before fully understood. This means that you must push clients to chat or talk to you until ALL has been cleared. You cannot ditch slow-replying clients at this phase so you must be prepared to be very patient&#xD;&#xA;- have some project management system where you and clients can discuss tasks into its own thread. They will probably say that email is better, they are used to it. So simply proposed PM systems (I use Assembla) which are able to send notification on each action and where you can reply using emails. This way, you will keep conversation in its own thread. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are also true that having good specs in low-budget project is utopia. So the solution is to gently force them to use PM software which will make your life easier. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5323" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1909" RevisionGUID="9cd275d7-05ec-4d31-8b39-f23dad3def1b" CreationDate="2014-05-27T07:51:02.483" UserId="2962" Comment="deleted 4 characters in body" Text="You should try to find someone with a lot of experience on LinkedIn. People who use freelance websites are usually not looking for a business commitment. That being said it does not mean you cannot find someone on a freelance website.&#xD;&#xA;What I would do (I don't know if it's your case) is find someone with a recommendation from someone like an ex coworker, professor or university colleague. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also get to know the person and give them some work before jumping into anything to see if you are a good match.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5324" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1920" RevisionGUID="150ce2bf-b26f-421d-a47f-a8e87731ea23" CreationDate="2014-05-27T10:06:41.547" UserId="2978" Text="I'm doing webdevelopment at an x rate per hour.&#xD;&#xA;My client want to chat with me almost every day and at the end of the month I end up with more than 20 hours of skype call.&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes (not always) we do visual tweaks during a call but others I'm just on support with hosting company for problems or doing brain storming.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far I charge the same amount but I wonder, should I charge on a different rate while on skype call or not?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5325" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1920" RevisionGUID="150ce2bf-b26f-421d-a47f-a8e87731ea23" CreationDate="2014-05-27T10:06:41.547" UserId="2978" Text="Should I charge the same amount while in skype call?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5326" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1920" RevisionGUID="150ce2bf-b26f-421d-a47f-a8e87731ea23" CreationDate="2014-05-27T10:06:41.547" UserId="2978" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5328" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1922" RevisionGUID="c7c6a73d-f56f-4481-abfd-1154b7d420da" CreationDate="2014-05-27T12:19:43.323" UserId="2963" Text="As a long-time IT consultant, I generally like to charge the same amount regardless of whether the work is done face-to-face or over Skype/video conferencing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, there is one situation in which I might charge less.  If the client is allowing me to do the video conferencing in lieu of driving to a physical location, then I might charge less.  By avoiding the drive in, I've saved time, gas, and money.  Therefore, I can charge less to the client and still end up the same financially overall.  Also, the client gets a small break on the fee, and therefore are more likely to agree to remote video conferencing in the future.  In this case, it is a win-win for both of us.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case, it is not clear whether Skype is the norm or the exception.  I would base my rate decision on that I suppose." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5329" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="200" RevisionGUID="2fda1245-eb4c-42c1-9a2a-270bd2bac55d" CreationDate="2014-05-27T13:45:39.927" UserId="1434" Comment="retag so this isn't [untagged]" Text="If I have a client who is interested in bartering their goods or service for my service, how would I propose negotiations that would protect myself, my client, and my work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is offering to barter the construction of a hand made guitar in exchange for a web site that I will be building alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since there is no plan for cash to change hands, the value of services seems hard to quantify. How should I write out a contract that ensures proper delivery of goods and services on both ends? Also, should I take into account any taxes, even though no money is changing hands?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[The entire transaction will take place in the state of New York in the US.]" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5330" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="200" RevisionGUID="2fda1245-eb4c-42c1-9a2a-270bd2bac55d" CreationDate="2014-05-27T13:45:39.927" UserId="1434" Comment="retag so this isn't [untagged]" Text="|usa|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5331" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="200" RevisionGUID="2fda1245-eb4c-42c1-9a2a-270bd2bac55d" CreationDate="2014-05-27T13:45:39.927" Comment="Proposed by 1434 approved by 517, 61 edit id of 327" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5332" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1098" RevisionGUID="6e475646-d718-4389-b216-ac9c3c5df18b" CreationDate="2014-05-27T13:45:50.923" UserId="1434" Comment="retag so this isn't [untagged] - " Text="I am an iOS Developer. I have just started freelancing and this is my first project for the client. My client is from India and so am I. My client has given a checklist of features to me that he wants in his app. He asked me to decide the time required to implement for each task and the price of each separately. He wants the complete list of separate tasks and the price of each task. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I am a little confused: is this the correct way to decide the price or should I charge for a complete project on an hourly basis? If I charge him on a feature basis, then how would I decide the price? What parameters should I consider? The task includes features  like Facebook, Gmail authentication, user feedback, FB &amp; Twitter sharing, and server side coding (I am handling the server side as well), device orientation etc. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5333" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1098" RevisionGUID="6e475646-d718-4389-b216-ac9c3c5df18b" CreationDate="2014-05-27T13:45:50.923" UserId="1434" Comment="retag so this isn't [untagged] - " Text="How to decide the price for an iOS app for freelancer - feature/function basis or complete project or hourly?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5334" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1098" RevisionGUID="6e475646-d718-4389-b216-ac9c3c5df18b" CreationDate="2014-05-27T13:45:50.923" UserId="1434" Comment="retag so this isn't [untagged] - " Text="|payment-terms|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5335" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1098" RevisionGUID="6e475646-d718-4389-b216-ac9c3c5df18b" CreationDate="2014-05-27T13:45:50.923" Comment="Proposed by 1434 approved by 517, 61 edit id of 328" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5336" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1923" RevisionGUID="77cb99d1-3abb-4826-b2f0-bbbc6feeafb0" CreationDate="2014-05-27T14:41:55.740" UserId="61" Text="Short answer: depending on what **role** you are acting during the communication.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the case when calls and meetings naturally belong to receiving *your* tasks, reporting *your* results (including weekly/monthly meetings), or resolving technical issues, I would say that the rate should be the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you help others getting their tasks, balance these tasks among several people, this can be considered **Manager's role** and may be billed at another rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A side note, make sure that time spent for *Communication and Team Collaboration* purposes should be a special article in project timeline. This would prevent people thinking that communication is for free." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5346" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1920" RevisionGUID="f55ab435-f5af-49a5-8e8b-e93bc8a960d3" CreationDate="2014-05-28T01:52:38.983" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/471469061915025409" />
  <row Id="5347" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1926" RevisionGUID="24e9425c-009e-4136-96a5-40aee030b7cd" CreationDate="2014-05-28T03:35:09.877" UserId="2991" Text="Quickbooks desktop version will let you do &quot;Progress Invoicing&quot; which is what you're describing.  The online version, unfortunately, does not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. You'll create a progress invoice for the total amount, for example, $100.&#xD;&#xA; 2. You'll set the progress to 50%, the invoice will total $50 and the customer receives that.&#xD;&#xA; 3. When the job is done, update the progress to 100%, the first $50 shows under 'Payment/Credits Received' and the Balance Due will show the remaining $50." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5348" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1920" RevisionGUID="6758cc28-4129-4c2c-b3d8-d602ca65d279" CreationDate="2014-05-28T09:20:32.730" UserId="61" Comment="tagged and fixed minor spelling and formatting" Text="I'm doing Web development at a certain rate per hour.  &#xD;&#xA;My client wants to chat with me almost every day and at the end of the month I end up with more than 20 hours of Skype call.  &#xD;&#xA;Sometimes (not always) we do visual tweaks during a call, but other than that I'm just on support with hosting company for problems or doing brain storming.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far I charge the same amount but I wonder, should I charge on a different rate while on Skype call or not?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5349" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1920" RevisionGUID="6758cc28-4129-4c2c-b3d8-d602ca65d279" CreationDate="2014-05-28T09:20:32.730" UserId="61" Comment="tagged and fixed minor spelling and formatting" Text="|freelance-websites|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5350" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1923" RevisionGUID="8adf96d1-b144-4836-a3e5-afba287b481c" CreationDate="2014-05-28T09:27:51.217" UserId="61" Comment="added another example" Text="Short answer: depending on what **role** you are acting during the communication.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the case when calls and meetings naturally belong to receiving *your* tasks, reporting *your* results (including weekly/monthly meetings), or resolving technical issues, I would say that the rate should be the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you help others getting their tasks, balance these tasks among several people, this can be considered **Manager's role** and may be billed at another rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Update) There could be other roles, like **Solution Architect** or **Business Analyst**, you name it depending on your company's and projects' staffing schemes. They are hard to separate in case of single-person projects, but when your project team grows, and you are doing these tasks, you will have some opportunity to charge different rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A side note, make sure that time spent for *Communication and Team Collaboration* purposes should be a special article in project timeline. This would prevent people thinking that communication is for free." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5351" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1920" RevisionGUID="c4fe4ebc-3eec-4313-82a2-0e048a083b62" CreationDate="2014-05-28T16:10:37.420" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 17 characters in body; edited tags" Text="I'm doing Web development at a certain rate per hour. My client wants to chat with me almost every day and at the end of the month I end up with more than 20 hours of Skype call.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes (not always) we do visual tweaks during a call, but other than that I'm just on support with hosting company for problems or doing brain storming.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far I charge the same amount but I wonder, should I charge on a different rate while on Skype call or not?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5352" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1920" RevisionGUID="c4fe4ebc-3eec-4313-82a2-0e048a083b62" CreationDate="2014-05-28T16:10:37.420" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 17 characters in body; edited tags" Text="|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5353" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1911" RevisionGUID="14075195-ee89-4445-bc94-d50fc5d8fbda" CreationDate="2014-05-28T16:11:36.030" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 18 characters in body" Text="To start, I spoke with friends &amp; family who are involved with businesses and they either had no work or known some one who was in need and introduced me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way is very hit and miss, but nonetheless, I think it does have some value. However, if you have already started out and completed a few projects, you most-likely don't need to do this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, have a killer website/work. That always helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5354" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1927" RevisionGUID="dee024e6-340c-42d6-9239-5010d0a61340" CreationDate="2014-05-28T16:15:22.397" UserDisplayName="user2554" Text="I am new to freelancing, I have just started with a new account on websites such as freelancer.com, oDesk and elance. I see that a major percentage of projects getting closed without any freelancer choosen. Why is it so?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5355" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1927" RevisionGUID="dee024e6-340c-42d6-9239-5010d0a61340" CreationDate="2014-05-28T16:15:22.397" UserDisplayName="user2554" Text="Why so many cancelled projects on all freelancing websites?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5356" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1927" RevisionGUID="dee024e6-340c-42d6-9239-5010d0a61340" CreationDate="2014-05-28T16:15:22.397" UserDisplayName="user2554" Text="|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5357" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1927" RevisionGUID="5a1a57a0-2c17-4f60-8eb3-8c47afa7d463" CreationDate="2014-05-28T16:16:20.613" UserId="184" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:184,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Oded&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5362" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1914" RevisionGUID="60c77e10-c838-4861-bfc1-016aa84095d0" CreationDate="2014-05-29T01:56:37.060" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/471832448859242496" />
  <row Id="5363" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1929" RevisionGUID="1d81ea3a-668e-4dc3-bf72-64eeeb6bf995" CreationDate="2014-05-29T20:01:55.500" UserId="2963" Text="It takes a while, but word of mouth is probably the best.  However, that word of mouth can be physical face-to-face referrals, or can also be online referrals on any of the job sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd pick your favorite job site (Freelanced.com is my favorite, but Elance or Freelancer are also good), then use all the tools available to build your online portfolio.  Make it colorful and interesting, with your best samples.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then, after you've landed a few jobs, don't be afraid to reach out to your clients (after the job is complete) and ask them to refer you in the future.  If they were happy with your work, I've found that they often times will.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some of the job boards also have ways to elevate your portfolio to get it additional exposure.  These are usually paid options, and the fees depend on the site.  You could try those and measure the results, although I'll guess that your results will vary depending on your field, skill, portfolio, and other factors.  Just try it for a limited time and see if it pays for itself or not.  Probably landing 1 job would be worth several months of fees, depending on your rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unrelated to your question, but one more thing I'll mention.  Don't be afraid to turn down very low paying or low quality work.  You won't build your reputation by doing jobs that pay 1/3 of what you're worth.  I'd choose quality (and higher pay) over quantity (and lower pay)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5364" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1930" RevisionGUID="d54ff710-b189-41f0-aab4-f8766427bb13" CreationDate="2014-05-30T02:57:02.977" UserId="3008" Text="You should definitely charge for skype time. You're not only being paid to write code, but help your client accomplish their goals. Your a consultant as much as you are a laborer, and the time spent explaining, brainstorming, and helping are all part of that. I would inform the client that you are charging for all time spent on the project. It's totally reasonable. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5365" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1930" RevisionGUID="eeaac63d-8e43-41e1-bd37-0d0e4fed23f4" CreationDate="2014-05-30T04:39:17.343" UserId="75" Comment="added 9 characters in body" Text="You should definitely charge for Skype time. You're not only being paid to write code, but help your client accomplish their goals. You are a consultant as much as you are a laborer, and the time spent explaining, brainstorming, and helping are all part of that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would inform the client that you are charging for all time spent on the project. It's completely reasonable. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5369" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1932" RevisionGUID="b016cc4f-f061-443a-b9df-eabd98858626" CreationDate="2014-05-30T15:39:26.747" UserId="3011" Text="I have a customer who is interested in pre purchasing development days from me. For instance 120 days over the space of a year for a fixed price. These days will cover numerous projects over the given time period.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone know of any contract templates I could use for such a scenario? or at least what the proper name for such an agreement would be?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5370" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1932" RevisionGUID="b016cc4f-f061-443a-b9df-eabd98858626" CreationDate="2014-05-30T15:39:26.747" UserId="3011" Text="Fixed price development days contract" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5371" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1932" RevisionGUID="b016cc4f-f061-443a-b9df-eabd98858626" CreationDate="2014-05-30T15:39:26.747" UserId="3011" Text="|fixed-price|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5372" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1908" RevisionGUID="d6169b1c-c031-46a1-a823-9a4f2d6da447" CreationDate="2014-05-30T16:59:34.550" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/472422073110126592" />
  <row Id="5373" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1933" RevisionGUID="7d89ab31-6dab-41d6-9a79-5e13f3fee3e5" CreationDate="2014-05-30T17:58:00.170" UserId="75" Text="You'll want a sort of retainer agreement. There are [other](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/1365/75) [answers](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1566/30-days-to-pay-with-recurring-payment/1568#1568) that explain about retainers, and when to use them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, they want you available for a long while, which gives you some security (which can be good, it could be bad). Do not fall into the trap of it becoming *just a job*, with them just paying you as a contractor but expecting you to act like an employee. Make sure you keep that distinction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You'll also need to keep track of your days and time you are working for this client. Do you know ahead of time what 120 days you will be working? Every Monday and Wednesday, with a couple Fridays thrown in for good measures? Do you choose the time to come in? Will you be given notice when you are expected to be there? Are you working 14 hour days for this client for each of the 120 days?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The red flag for me that it is a retainer is that you are not specifying that it's 120 *consecutive* working days. So I would be a little concerned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- What happens if you don't work for a month / take a vacation?&#xD;&#xA;- When will you be expected to show up when you are told?&#xD;&#xA;- Are off hours **truly** time off (as in, you won't be called in while out of town, or with other clients)?&#xD;&#xA;- Does this client take priority over other jobs?&#xD;&#xA;- What happens at the end of the year or the end of the 120 days? What if you need to work more days, or if there are extra work days paid for in advance?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would personally charge them up front for the first two months, and expect to have the &quot;retainer&quot; filled up by 1 month's pay by the first of the previous month (i.e. starting in January, you should be paid January and February by January 1st, March on February 1st, etc). Find out how much each &quot;month&quot; will cost, and stick to it. If they don't use you during the month (and you've been available), then you get the rest of the retainer for that month. If you hit *10* hours per month (I'm going to assume 10 hours per month, based on 12 equal months), then all work should stop until your retainer is filled up again, or until the next month. **THIS MUST BE CLEAR**, otherwise you will be taken advantage of." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5374" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1934" RevisionGUID="cad26170-3bd4-4bb6-a5f5-f0be8b9bb0b4" CreationDate="2014-05-30T18:45:50.223" UserId="3014" Text="SEO can be beneficial for you. You should create an excellent website and start SEO of that website. Once your site will be at the top you can get clients directly via Google. &#xD;&#xA;Another thing you can do is to submit your portfolio on various web developer portfolio websites. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5376" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1936" RevisionGUID="0bc89753-fe33-4994-9521-b8cf5c5d3a4f" CreationDate="2014-05-30T19:13:17.530" UserDisplayName="user3016" Text="You have not listed php I guess. Php is the most usable language for all front end web developers. You should definitely learn that with these languages. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5381" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1883" RevisionGUID="755f4450-8af0-4ad3-a7d9-885ddce19bee" CreationDate="2014-05-31T03:07:30.187" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus the question more on the how." Text="An old client asked me to work on a project which is kind of a social networking website. The idea is very good though. I know that guy and his company, he lives in EU while I am in Asia. We never met but I can say the idea seems good. My question is should I accept that 50%/50% partnership? This will be 2 months job for a beta and then we will see how it works. I will handle all the development here. And all the expenses on web hosting and scripts and plugin we will buy would be on him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We signed a contract and exchanged using email. He owns the domains and hosting etc. Basically we would be interesting in selling it then to some big companies or big people if all goes well.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I evaluate whether or not a partnership in a Social Networking Project is a good idea?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5382" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1883" RevisionGUID="755f4450-8af0-4ad3-a7d9-885ddce19bee" CreationDate="2014-05-31T03:07:30.187" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus the question more on the how." Text="How can I evaluate whether or not a partnership in a Social Networking Project is a good idea?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5383" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1938" RevisionGUID="a937ed5c-466b-444f-8e6e-4ccd6677f363" CreationDate="2014-05-31T06:53:26.047" UserId="3014" Text="Personally I recommend WordPress for those who don`t have any technical knowledge about website. If you want there are various companies who can design custom CMS for you. They are easy to use even if you are unable to perform any technical action." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5384" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1939" RevisionGUID="205dcb30-c381-4352-a549-66d0acf2430a" CreationDate="2014-05-31T06:57:36.923" UserId="3014" Text="Freelancing is not an easy job. For a person who is freelancer it is not just a challenge to get client, but the selection of clients is one more tough task. &#xD;&#xA;There are various things you should keep in mind. &#xD;&#xA;Choose clients according to your workflow and guess that if your job is going to be comfortable with that. There are various clients who are difficult to handle. They demand too much, while give less money and keep you irritating all the time. I personally avoid such clients. Try searching for the project of big cost and less work. Be good in communication to get such projects. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5392" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="1883" RevisionGUID="5cfa655a-c315-4b79-a9a2-9c82ba615557" CreationDate="2014-06-01T05:06:09.873" UserId="75" Comment="19" />
  <row Id="5393" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1918" RevisionGUID="adc5a2dd-f5aa-458f-8d6a-470f8bc3c6e2" CreationDate="2014-06-01T15:41:54.990" UserId="64" Comment="edited to remove the &quot;shock value&quot; and make the post sound more professional; also did some copy editing to fix spelling and grammar." Text="Recently I've become really frustrated after moving from a regular office job to freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since I am new to freelancing, I decided to do some low-quality, cheap jobs to get some stars in my profile and get some nice feedbacks. But now, I am just so exhausted by that chatty stuff that sometimes I feel that I am a professional linguist.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And after 2 customers who spent lots of money on the site, I suddenly came to the realization that I spend more time trying to realize what is actually the thing that the customer needs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this a normal thing? I'm a native English speaker, as well as the customer, but the communication on the tasks is such a disgrace.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this communication issue because I am doing very low-rated jobs, and due to the price policy the customers allow themselves not to handle their tasks in a proper, comprehensive way?  How can I improve this communication?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5394" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1918" RevisionGUID="adc5a2dd-f5aa-458f-8d6a-470f8bc3c6e2" CreationDate="2014-06-01T15:41:54.990" UserId="64" Comment="edited to remove the &quot;shock value&quot; and make the post sound more professional; also did some copy editing to fix spelling and grammar." Text="As a new freelancer, how can I improve my communication with the clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5395" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1941" RevisionGUID="45219f1e-1447-4240-96eb-720fc81cb07a" CreationDate="2014-06-02T13:07:39.547" UserId="3032" Text="I've a query regarding the time spent on requirement discussion with client. Working as a remote freelance under hourly basis, we tend to spend hours in requirement discussion with our clients. I wonder whether those hours should be counted while billing the charges...or it would be unfair to count those hours. Please suggest me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--Ishwor" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5396" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1941" RevisionGUID="45219f1e-1447-4240-96eb-720fc81cb07a" CreationDate="2014-06-02T13:07:39.547" UserId="3032" Text="Time spent on requirement discussion with client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5397" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1941" RevisionGUID="45219f1e-1447-4240-96eb-720fc81cb07a" CreationDate="2014-06-02T13:07:39.547" UserId="3032" Text="|contracts|legal|attracting-clients|payment-terms|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5398" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1941" RevisionGUID="a397c6d2-56dc-4b27-a8b7-4104320cfaf9" CreationDate="2014-06-02T14:49:05.263" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 131 characters in body; edited tags" Text="Working as a remote freelance under hourly basis, we tend to spend hours in requirement discussion with our clients. I wonder whether those hours should be counted while billing the charges, or would it be unfair to count those hours?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5399" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1941" RevisionGUID="a397c6d2-56dc-4b27-a8b7-4104320cfaf9" CreationDate="2014-06-02T14:49:05.263" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 131 characters in body; edited tags" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5400" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1942" RevisionGUID="467c8e26-b201-4773-9998-5e3ff0a6b79b" CreationDate="2014-06-02T14:54:19.790" UserId="75" Text="If you are spending more than an hour on the requirements, then absolutely! Remember, you are the professional, and if you are giving away free advice, they aren't going to pay!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Walk into the situation with all the knowledge you know. Let the client know about some of your previous work, and let them know that if the discussions about their requirements take more than, say, 15 minutes, you will need to bill for the time it takes. When you are discussing requirements with **Client A**, you are taking time away from **Client B**, which means you still need compensation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Making this requirement up front also separates those who just want your ideas, from those who want you to do it. I let them know at the start of the meeting, and so far, all my clients have understood. If it's less than 15 minutes (timer on my phone), then that part is free. But if I have to keep coming back to the client to get more information, or if important details are left out, then it gets billed in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because of how I charge for that, I will usually tell the client in email or over the phone during the initial contact to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- write out any questions for me&#xD;&#xA;- design mock-ups should be drawn up&#xD;&#xA;- how they perceive the project should look/function.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These people are not web designers, but they can at least get a bulk of the work done on their time alone. There is no reason to walk blind into a meeting and have the client expect the world from you, especially if you prepare them ahead of time. A simple 1-minute conversation can save you *hours* of headaches later on." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5401" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1943" RevisionGUID="a69a1d71-73ed-4786-8c55-f90e58d7811b" CreationDate="2014-06-02T15:59:44.813" UserId="3014" Text="I agree with the points that Avram wrote. These points are excellent and I follow them too. &#xD;&#xA;Separate estimation to most ideal, medium, and worst case estimation is the beset point. When I get the project, I tell client the most ideal timing. Later on if I feel that I need more time to do the job, I discuss in detail with the client. In my case I personally try to do every job in the most ideal timing. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5402" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1944" RevisionGUID="aaec6621-d7d3-4ab8-a4d1-ffaa97a99c26" CreationDate="2014-06-02T20:01:51.333" UserId="3033" Text="I think the two responses so far offer excellent points, and I hope there are more perspectives to come. I will try to keep my two cents short, in that I find communication is my biggest hurdle in working independently.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With some clients I might turn to something like Basecamp to document or plan out a project so that we can share a document which visualizes everything we're dealing with. On some level that may work on some level, but the efficiency factor is not as tangible with two people unless their both fully committed. Also, I find it kind of passive in terms of direct accountability. Automated responses can be ignored. You need to take the time to fire off something accountable for whats up. Really good communication is very important, and Basecamp is kind of passive in that automatic way. Freelancers need to be very direct, accountable, and documented with information at every stage. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So after a phone conversation, I probably need to email a follow-up, just so that we're on the same page. This kind of speaks against that funny google hangouts commercial, where a team of collaborators are breaking from a meeting, with no need for this kind of followup, and that may be possible in some cases, but with client work, all of these steps are stages in fulfilling contracts, and need better accountability, like receipts or verbal signatures, or prompts for validation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5403" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1945" RevisionGUID="6e805546-7b47-4bee-9e91-748c6797aae3" CreationDate="2014-06-02T22:27:16.363" UserId="3034" Text="I have always thought that startups should swap some equity with other startups in order to lower the extreme risk they take on, similarly to what venture capital companies do by having portfolios.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancers could also hedge risk by doing something similar.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is combined with, say an incubator or some social setting where freelancers help each other, risk hedging and helping your fellow freelancer would not only be nice, but profitable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been looking for solutions in this space, and I have only found one, The Founders Club which is for startups where there is an equity exchange in a pool of other startups managed by VCs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I am asking for is other examples of equity exchange, rating systems connected to risk hedging or similar systems where risk hedging is done for startups or freelancers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5404" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1945" RevisionGUID="6e805546-7b47-4bee-9e91-748c6797aae3" CreationDate="2014-06-02T22:27:16.363" UserId="3034" Text="Which systems are available for reducing risk by swapping/pooling income, sometimes called &quot;equity exchange&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5405" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1945" RevisionGUID="6e805546-7b47-4bee-9e91-748c6797aae3" CreationDate="2014-06-02T22:27:16.363" UserId="3034" Text="|profit-share|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5406" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1946" RevisionGUID="1416da2a-4f2f-4df6-91e9-7b9042ea16ff" CreationDate="2014-06-03T10:43:15.977" UserId="3014" Text="I registered myself as a CEO of the company in the start of my freelance business. At that time I had an office address where I used to work. Currently all my payments are coming to that account. I think that this is better to register yourself as a CEO of the company. This will be better for bigger transactions. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5407" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1945" RevisionGUID="045cb94a-3f5b-4923-bb1c-ed14044281a1" CreationDate="2014-06-03T14:17:36.553" UserId="64" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5408" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1941" RevisionGUID="92aaaeb5-410c-4ad0-8aa7-788bfd6fd30e" CreationDate="2014-06-03T15:52:29.733" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/473854744989937666" />
  <row Id="5413" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1948" RevisionGUID="eb687f66-2cc5-4e7c-b73c-0573fdd5ecfc" CreationDate="2014-06-04T07:59:17.440" UserId="3014" Text="I am a Freelance web designer and developer with a small team of freelancer. I had an office for last three years. But I felt that as a Freelancer I can do better work. So I hired various team members from different countries and states and closed my office. &#xD;&#xA;I developed a custom time tracking system by which I will be able to calculate my tram`s work time and give them salaries. Currently this is the start of the work with a freelance team. Please suggest me some good ideas by which I will be able to keep an eye on my team and know better if they are really working. &#xD;&#xA;I have also various ideas but I guess talking with other freelancers will help me exploring some more unique ideas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5414" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1948" RevisionGUID="eb687f66-2cc5-4e7c-b73c-0573fdd5ecfc" CreationDate="2014-06-04T07:59:17.440" UserId="3014" Text="How do I know my freelance team working at home?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5415" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1948" RevisionGUID="eb687f66-2cc5-4e7c-b73c-0573fdd5ecfc" CreationDate="2014-06-04T07:59:17.440" UserId="3014" Text="|time-management|time-tracking|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5416" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1916" RevisionGUID="624f136b-d0b0-4bde-abb0-9d96373dd2fe" CreationDate="2014-06-04T09:01:11.087" UserId="35" Comment="Spelling, grammar, colloquial English" Text="**Keep doing what you do.** It is a good filter method which protects and helps you get rid of clients that want cheap labor or quick fixes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I cannot find anything wrong with your method of estimating the amount of time you find necessary for getting the work done.&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;If this is what you need to deliver quality, then there is no reason to change. Not if your business generates profit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, there are faster workers. And, yes, there is cheaper labor force.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This being said, stay who you are and negotiate what you think is best for your business in order to maintain a high rate of client satisfaction (and implicitly generate word of mouth) by delivering quality and high standards.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;The market has an invisible hand and it is capable of reaching an equilibrium without the need that you lower your prices or rush the work you do (just because one of ten clients says so). If your clients want someone else (faster, cheaper or just better) let them have this other person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*&quot;Is it worth not doing the project?&quot;*  &#xD;&#xA;YES. If you lose money by lowering your standards or by making too many concessions then yes, it is worth not doing the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*&quot;How do you deal with these types?&quot;*  &#xD;&#xA;You negotiate what's best for you. If you feel you need a certain amount of time and if you aim for a certain amount of money, than defend your interests by being the better negotiator between you and your prospective client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5417" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1916" RevisionGUID="624f136b-d0b0-4bde-abb0-9d96373dd2fe" CreationDate="2014-06-04T09:01:11.087" Comment="Proposed by 35 approved by 2546 edit id of 329" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5423" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1918" RevisionGUID="f4f33ae4-ac37-4059-8f02-3969946564eb" CreationDate="2014-06-04T15:53:54.433" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/474217489874710528" />
  <row Id="5424" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1951" RevisionGUID="f9be4653-bf4c-45fc-8e4d-dd913832eb8e" CreationDate="2014-06-04T16:27:28.363" UserId="517" Text="You cannot control if they work, nor you should. You should control their result!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make a good system of tasks and milestones and make work-hour calculations for each task. If they are beginners, add some percentage to it and tell them to stick to that calculations meaning that they will be paid for those specific work hours only. All hours above that is unpaid and it should be OK since they are beginners. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When working with seniors, then you should give them each task to estimate their own time of implementation. Compare it with your estimation and try to see why they estimated more or less time. **Lower estimation does NOT always mean they are better then you, it can mean that they missed some facts in the logic**. After that either try to negotiate they are paid for their estimation or you can allow them some overhead to their estimation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way, you will see if they have result. This is all that matters.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5429" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1948" RevisionGUID="ff671198-22cb-463a-87ed-167dc2333f45" CreationDate="2014-06-04T17:01:06.723" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 4 characters in body" Text="I am a Freelance web designer and developer with a small team of freelancer. I had an office for last three years. But I felt that as a Freelancer I can do better work. So I hired various team members from different countries and states and closed my office. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I developed a custom time tracking system by which I will be able to calculate my team's work time and give them salaries. Currently this is the start of the work with a freelance team. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am looking for some good ideas by which I will be able to keep an eye on my team and know better if they are really working. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have also various ideas but I guess talking with other freelancers will help me exploring some more unique ideas." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5430" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="1836" RevisionGUID="ab4d191f-4081-4f7e-97c1-f889e181407e" CreationDate="2014-06-04T17:03:27.063" UserId="75" Comment="20" />
  <row Id="5432" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1953" RevisionGUID="bab6f117-74c0-4cc3-a4c8-6951c5cd7f83" CreationDate="2014-06-04T19:58:17.307" UserId="3055" Text="As an experienced Software Developer in the United Kingdom, I am looking for a mature Freelance or Contracting website that caters mostly for United Kingdom based companies and remote-based IT workers (including software developers). I have looked at People Per Hour (which seems to have a UK base) - but the user base seems relatively small and the projects of poor quality. So I'm hoping to find other oDesk / Elance style sites, but with a UK focus (hopefully with better quality and more available projects than People Per Hour).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a specific need to work from home (not a choice or something that I just feel like doing) - thus the need to be remote-based (with occasional visits to the client if needed). I have tried sites like oDesk before, but I've been stung there before by companies who lied to me regarding the nature of how they run their business and what they really wanted me to do - something that would probably have been easier to detect if I'd had the opportunity to meet them face-to-face when needed. I thus want to target clients who are based in the UK and are happy to use remote based IT workers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(I know about remote freelancing sites like oDesk, Elance, Freelancer.com, Guru etc. None of those sites seem to match the criteria I've established above.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5433" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1953" RevisionGUID="bab6f117-74c0-4cc3-a4c8-6951c5cd7f83" CreationDate="2014-06-04T19:58:17.307" UserId="3055" Text="Is there a freelance / contracting website that mostly focuses on the United Kingdom market and caters mostly for UK remote-based IT workers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5434" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1953" RevisionGUID="bab6f117-74c0-4cc3-a4c8-6951c5cd7f83" CreationDate="2014-06-04T19:58:17.307" UserId="3055" Text="|freelance-websites|uk|programmer|working-from-home|information-technology|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5435" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1954" RevisionGUID="cdaa0627-a613-4856-b048-76a9a4c292af" CreationDate="2014-06-04T20:43:19.217" UserId="3055" Text="Have weekly on-line team meetings, giving an opportunity for each team member to discuss what work they have done, what work blockages there may be, give an opportunity to ask questions, and most importantly, regularly do a review of work done or ask them to do a demo at regular intervals. If you regularly interact and meet on-line with your team members, and your team does work reviews at regular milestones or intervals - then you should have less risk that someone is messing around with you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5436" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1955" RevisionGUID="20b03bbc-5e7a-46b4-88af-399da096c0a0" CreationDate="2014-06-05T09:17:58.967" UserId="1634" Text="I am a freelancer front-end web developer based in India. I have worked with clients in Canada, US and India. I have been freelancing full-time since the past three months and the projects are getting bigger with each client. Timelines have increased from 2-3 weeks to 1-2 months. I have also been getting graphic and other related work done from other freelancers who I pay on a project basis. In general things seem to be going upswing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently I have decided to start a separate account for my business and somebody asked me whether I was a business entity or just an individual.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are the benefits of becoming a business entity?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I go about setting this up in India?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5437" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1955" RevisionGUID="20b03bbc-5e7a-46b4-88af-399da096c0a0" CreationDate="2014-06-05T09:17:58.967" UserId="1634" Text="Freelancer: Business Entity or Individual?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5438" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1955" RevisionGUID="20b03bbc-5e7a-46b4-88af-399da096c0a0" CreationDate="2014-06-05T09:17:58.967" UserId="1634" Text="|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5439" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1956" RevisionGUID="7a925d0d-fc74-4101-a104-fbf5ab3896b7" CreationDate="2014-06-05T11:30:09.480" UserId="3060" Text="I have a prospect with both an idea and an existing customer of theirs who want to pay for this idea to be implemented.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The customer want to pay only when the implementation is complete. My prospect has separate investors that will fund the implementation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The prospect wants to know how much I will charge for the implementation so that he knows how much to ask the investors for. Before I can estimate reliably I need to work with the prospect to develop an implementation plan.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This planning work will take time that I want to charge for. The prospect doesn't have enough money to pay me until the investment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to make sure I am paid for the planning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I resolve this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5440" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1956" RevisionGUID="7a925d0d-fc74-4101-a104-fbf5ab3896b7" CreationDate="2014-06-05T11:30:09.480" UserId="3060" Text="How to charge for software design" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5441" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1956" RevisionGUID="7a925d0d-fc74-4101-a104-fbf5ab3896b7" CreationDate="2014-06-05T11:30:09.480" UserId="3060" Text="|contracts|price|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5442" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1957" RevisionGUID="f9764fa8-ac45-4a06-a588-b1e3bf981956" CreationDate="2014-06-05T15:43:04.173" UserId="2964" Text="I am doing some cold calling and I had some interest with a few prospects. I sent them some of my previous work and have yet to hear back from them. Mind you, it's only been a couple days. I want to call them and thought about our previous conversation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to come off as desperate but I do want to keep the interest/excitement up. Am I over-thinking calling too soon or is it smarter to give them a few days?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cheers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5443" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1957" RevisionGUID="f9764fa8-ac45-4a06-a588-b1e3bf981956" CreationDate="2014-06-05T15:43:04.173" UserId="2964" Text="Working Leads/Prospects" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5444" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1957" RevisionGUID="f9764fa8-ac45-4a06-a588-b1e3bf981956" CreationDate="2014-06-05T15:43:04.173" UserId="2964" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5445" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1955" RevisionGUID="6ba9858e-1dac-46c4-87ba-22aca6558d07" CreationDate="2014-06-05T15:50:53.580" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 3 characters in body; edited tags" Text="I am a freelancer front-end web developer based in India. I have worked with clients in Canada, US and India. I have been freelancing full-time since the past three months and the projects are getting bigger with each client. Timelines have increased from 2-3 weeks to 1-2 months. I have also been getting graphic and other related work done from other freelancers who I pay on a project basis. In general things seem to be going upswing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently I have decided to start a separate account for my business and somebody asked me whether I was a business entity or just an individual.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are the benefits of becoming a business entity? How do I go about setting this up in India?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5446" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1955" RevisionGUID="6ba9858e-1dac-46c4-87ba-22aca6558d07" CreationDate="2014-06-05T15:50:53.580" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 3 characters in body; edited tags" Text="|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5447" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1958" RevisionGUID="4ba59fa0-ba33-4fb2-a3e4-f876a274e3b1" CreationDate="2014-06-05T16:01:28.533" UserId="75" Text="Sometimes, you need to learn to say no, and sometimes, you need to trust people. Unfortunately, I've been burned a few times by people &quot;promising&quot; money coming in, but never got around to it. It's happened 3 times, with different clients. I now ask for at least a DEPOSIT up front.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's assume they can secure the investment after your meeting. How long do you propose your meeting is going to take? How about any work you need to do at home calculating costs? You'll need to be an expert at estimations, which can be difficult.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let the client know you will be charging for the initial meeting at *xx* amount per hour. You are setting aside up to **y** hours to talk to them, so that initial cost will be $ **zzzz**. Let them know that if it takes less time, they'll get a lower bill *for that part only*. I would also recommend going in prepared with all the questions you'll need answered, and knowing not to give the end completion date unless you have all details, and a deposit is paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Luckily, short meetings for getting the scope of the project won't kill you, as long as you limit how much time you're spending on it. An hour here or there will add up, but you sound like you have enough work to cover those few hours. But you need to set the precedent that you need paid for your time, otherwise you'll seem like a kid off the street.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Questions you may need to ask should be written down, so you can ask them, right down the answer, and move on. Ask the client to do the same thing. They should have:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- The project scope (and goal).&#xD;&#xA;- Are the assets already obtained/easily obtained? (i.e. images, servers, licensing, etc)&#xD;&#xA;- A drawing of the layout they want.&#xD;&#xA;- Easy-to-follow diagrams that explain what each function is they want to implement (i.e. Click the Widget button, and bring up the Widget Item Entry form).&#xD;&#xA;- All the above should be *on paper*, not just emailed. Leave room for writing notes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client does a majority of the above work, your initial meeting will be short (saving you time, and potentially money if they **don't** pay as expected), and sweet. As well, it lets you get to the programming aspect, which I assume you enjoy a lot more than drawing pictures and writing questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can contact your client ASAP about what you need from him, and explain that it will help move the project right along, they should respect you for it, and also show they are willing to go to the investors and actually **fight** for the money... Mentally, I mean, not physically. It will help separate the freeloaders from the people who actually want it done, and are *willing to pay for it*." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5448" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1957" RevisionGUID="c5e34557-5639-4122-a381-5770ad5ce43e" CreationDate="2014-06-05T16:02:00.020" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 11 characters in body" Text="I am doing some cold calling and I had some interest with a few prospects. I sent them some of my previous work and have yet to hear back from them. Mind you, it's only been a couple days. I want to call them and thought about our previous conversation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to come off as desperate but I do want to keep the interest/excitement up. Am I over-thinking calling too soon or is it smarter to give them a few days?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5449" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1959" RevisionGUID="7842d6e2-705a-4deb-851a-74d4215fa63b" CreationDate="2014-06-06T01:45:48.970" UserId="3063" Text="To get the first job you should start really low on bids and make the contacts and your rating high, this will lead to you earn your repo and attract employers.&#xD;&#xA;To submit your proposol for job you can try on elance and many more employers are there." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5454" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1962" RevisionGUID="7553f511-5fe2-4caa-94ea-fc51278f83a5" CreationDate="2014-06-06T19:18:59.410" UserId="2942" Text="I don't know if I made a mistake on giving my client my personal WhatsApp number. Now whenever he has something to say about the service I delivered, he contacts me by that channel because he knows I'm always there. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I consider WA to be a good tool for keeping my client updated about small maintainance and changes but how do I tell him politely about my &quot;office hours&quot; which I didn't specified in the business contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5455" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1962" RevisionGUID="7553f511-5fe2-4caa-94ea-fc51278f83a5" CreationDate="2014-06-06T19:18:59.410" UserId="2942" Text="I added my client to WhatsApp, now I get messages from him at 11pm. How to act?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5456" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1962" RevisionGUID="7553f511-5fe2-4caa-94ea-fc51278f83a5" CreationDate="2014-06-06T19:18:59.410" UserId="2942" Text="|client-support|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5457" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1963" RevisionGUID="908d2288-00e6-4db5-9361-5e2fc00b1791" CreationDate="2014-06-06T19:39:21.533" UserId="75" Text="Do you use WhatsApp personally? Or just for your business?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would just create a canned response, and turn the app OFF after business hours. Turn it back on in the morning when you're expected to be at work, then resume.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is the issue that it wakes you up at night? All phones have a method of disabling notifications form certain apps, and some can even turn off notifications *during specific periods of time automatically*. I'd suggest looking into those options.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The great thing about WhatsApp (from what I remember - It was a while ago!) is that it shows them when you received the message. But if you make it clear to them by *communicating* that you do not work after business hours, then they have no reason to get angry with you. Everyone needs downtime, and unless something has catastrophically crashed and burned, there's no reason to disturb someone outside of business hours." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5458" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1964" RevisionGUID="e1c7c903-9b08-42af-b956-fbfa9b533946" CreationDate="2014-06-06T23:39:14.600" UserId="3072" Text="We are about to take a job developing an app for a client, and are concerned with the wording in their work contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To us, it seems that by signing this, we grant the client all the rights to our previous works, and any kind of unique feature that we come up with (example if we had come up with the hamburger menu on iPhone apps), then the company would own the rights and we would have never been able to use it in another app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are we wrong? Is this pretty standard?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(B)	Background Technology.  Contractor will disclose any Background Technology that Contractor proposes to use or incorporate in connection with performance of its Services to Company. If Contractor discloses no Background Technology, Contractor warrants that it will not use Background Technology or incorporate it into Work Product provided pursuant thereto.    &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(C)	***License to Background Technology***. Contractor hereby automatically grants to Company a non-exclusive, perpetual, fully-paid and royalty-free, irrevocable and world-wide right, with rights to sublicense through multiple levels of sublicensees, to reproduce, make derivative works of, distribute, publicly perform, and publicly display in any form or medium, whether now known or later developed, make, have made, use, sell, import, offer for sale, and exercise any and all present or future rights in the Background Technology incorporated or used in Work Product.     &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(D)	Ownership of Work Product and Intellectual Property.  Contractor agrees that the Work Product is work made for hire. If any Work Product does not qualify as work made for hire, Contractor agrees that, the Work Product, including without limitation all Intellectual Property Rights in the Work Product, will be and is assigned to Company. Except as set forth below, Contractor retains no rights to use, and agrees not to challenge the validity of Company’s ownership in, such Intellectual Property Rights. Contractor hereby waives any moral rights, ***rights of paternity***, integrity, disclosure and withdrawal or inalienable rights under applicable law in and to the Work Product.    &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(E)	License to or Waiver of Other Rights. If Contractor has any right to the Work Product, including without limitation any Intellectual Property Right, that cannot be assigned to Company by Contractor, Contractor hereby automatically unconditionally and irrevocably grants to Company during the term of such rights, an exclusive, even as to Contractor, irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, fully paid and royalty-free license to such rights, with rights to sublicense through multiple levels of sublicensees, to reproduce, make derivative works of, distribute, publicly perform and publicly display in any form or medium, whether now known or later developed, make, use, sell, import, offer for sale and exercise any and all such rights.  If Contractor has any rights to such Work Product that cannot be assigned or licensed, Contractor hereby automatically unconditionally and irrevocably waives the enforcement of such rights, and all claims and causes of action of any kind against Company or related to Company’s customers, with respect to such rights, and agrees, at Company’s request and expense, to consent to and join in any action to enforce such rights.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5459" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1964" RevisionGUID="e1c7c903-9b08-42af-b956-fbfa9b533946" CreationDate="2014-06-06T23:39:14.600" UserId="3072" Text="IP Contract clause help for Freelance project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5460" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1964" RevisionGUID="e1c7c903-9b08-42af-b956-fbfa9b533946" CreationDate="2014-06-06T23:39:14.600" UserId="3072" Text="|contracts|contract-to-hire|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5461" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1965" RevisionGUID="926983ea-1a22-4e44-ade1-a6f7b0639ccb" CreationDate="2014-06-07T00:24:58.047" UserId="2888" Text="Well, you called THEM so probably your services are not very urgent to them at this moment. Looking up your samples and making the decision takes up time from their already pretty much full schedule. They are (typically) nice people and (some of them) want to work with you, so do not expect anything wrong if they have not rushed to assess your offer. Again, you are probably not at the top of their TODO list, not yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your task is to keep yourself in this list without bugging them too much. I personally consider it polite to follow-up once in a business week. Try not to sound as if they owe you something." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5462" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1966" RevisionGUID="338ff0b7-c019-4688-b8c2-5263e9c121c0" CreationDate="2014-06-08T03:32:19.613" UserId="3075" Text="I work for a custom wine cellar company and have been their one and only designer for a year and half now. The owner used to do the design but of course you cant run a company sitting behind a mouse designing all day so he got me. I have a degree that I learned in AutoCAD. I never go to use it and when I found this company the owner asked me if I knew sketchup, which is what we use of course.I learned the program and started doing small designs for 13.50 and hour and was quickly moved up to 15 per hour. My boss told me not long after that he was already thinking about my next raise, he didnt know when it would be or how much but just wanted me to know it was on his mind. That was about a year ago. He has since then told me more than once that my list of responsibilities has grown more than he ever intended and he was please with my work. Now they have brought up the idea of paying me buy the designs that sell and taking an hourly cut or being independent all together requiring me to do a 1099 and blah blah, that's all fine. I have thought to request a minimum for each job so I know if a design sells I am guaranteed at least that much. As of now, I take a design request form. I create a SKP file for the dealer and home owner or business and create the cellar they have dictated with our cabinet options. Sometimes I am given free range and have done quite well. They have said they would like to pay me a percentage of each job that sells but that is hard to get income in mind when we may sell 1 cellar a week or we may sell 6 and they can range from $3000 up to 45K but average I suppose is around 7 to 10k. We have a custom wood shop with about 20 employees that get paid to. I create  3D design presentations for our dealers to take to there customers, the design comes back for at least one revision to tweak something normally. Once we sell it we take a 50% deposit and I i create a 2D design with measurement of the room and all wine racks for the dealer/home owner to sign off on insuring the racks fit. That same document I then pair with a cover sheet and very detailed component list for the shop to create the cellar, we then ship freight, ups, or maybe even have the customer come pick it up if they are close enough and so choose. Since I was hired, they have purchased a 135k dollar cnc machine and several other large saws and sanders, just saying the money is obviously coming in. He has even hired more shop labor since I came one, maybe four or five people. And I almost forgot, we state that we require a $50 dollar design fee on our request form but it isnt inforced and it is just hidden in the final price (should that be mine or is that small potatoes for what I should be concerned with) I act as a designer, office help when needed, and have for a while now been dealing with our lead dealers directly and any questions about a design or quote usually comes back to me.   SO all that said, what numbers do I sit down with? How much do I ask for, whats fair, what should I consider good or great money? Whats the least I should settle for and should there be a minimum?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5463" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1966" RevisionGUID="338ff0b7-c019-4688-b8c2-5263e9c121c0" CreationDate="2014-06-08T03:32:19.613" UserId="3075" Text="Whats my time really worth?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5464" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1966" RevisionGUID="338ff0b7-c019-4688-b8c2-5263e9c121c0" CreationDate="2014-06-08T03:32:19.613" UserId="3075" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5465" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1967" RevisionGUID="1bfeb714-82ba-4cc3-9f5a-f8556f01c220" CreationDate="2014-06-08T06:11:47.470" UserId="1752" Text="I break it down into more lay language below, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;B) Disclose any Background IP that you need to use to make us our product.  If you don't disclose any background IP, we assume what you do for us is clean-roomed and that we will own it all (so if you don't disclose it, but use it in whatever you build them, they own it).  This doesn't mean they own everything you ever worked on, just whatever you make them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;C) All your background IP rights are belong to us...any background IP in the product you make us, you give us all licenses to use, forever, to copy, to modify, to use as we wish.  This does NOT appear to include ownership (i.e. you can still use your background IP as you wish, sell it, give it to other customers, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;D) Work for hire, we own all IP on the work that you do for us, literally you assign us all IP ownership (very standard, but many Software/Design/Web services companies fight back on this clause, see below).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;E) If, for D) above, there is an non-assignable right (e.g. some law precluding the author/maker/creator to assign the IP ownership), you will give us an all inclusive license as in C) to use the IP, forever.  In the case where you cannot assign a license, you promise not to sue us.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is all fairly standard and agreeable, *provided that you are charging high enough rates.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The major issue for most Engineering/Software/Design/Web freelancers is that &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Often value for the customer is achieved through *reuse* of *existing* or *previously developed* IP.  If every customer retains all the IP, then how can reuse occur for a new customer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Given the above, additional cost must be born by the client who wants all the IP, and all the IP will be done in a clean-room fashion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would speak to your lawyer about changing that C) clause into something more balanced, *or raise your rates accordingly.*  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, tell your clients that since they will not allow any reuse of IP generated for their work, that you cannot give them any benefits of Background IP (unless of course you *charge them accordingly*)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5466" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1967" RevisionGUID="056de5fe-e88a-41c7-81b1-f7429ec4aaa6" CreationDate="2014-06-08T06:17:06.157" UserId="1752" Comment="added 382 characters in body" Text="I break it down into more lay language below, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;B) Disclose any Background IP that you need to use to make us our product.  If you don't disclose any background IP, we assume what you do for us is clean-roomed and that we will own it all (so if you don't disclose it, but use it in whatever you build them, they own it).  This doesn't mean they own everything you ever worked on, just whatever you make them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;C) All your background IP rights are belong to us...any background IP in the product you make us, you give us all licenses to use, forever, to copy, to modify, to use as we wish.  This does NOT appear to include ownership (i.e. you can still use your background IP as you wish, sell it, give it to other customers, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;D) Work for hire, we own all IP on the work that you do for us, literally you assign us all IP ownership (very standard, but many Software/Design/Web services companies fight back on this clause, see below).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;E) If, for D) above, there is an non-assignable right (e.g. some law precluding the author/maker/creator to assign the IP ownership), you will give us an all inclusive license as in C) to use the IP, forever.  In the case where you cannot assign a license, you promise not to sue us.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is all fairly standard and agreeable, *provided that you are charging high enough rates.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To answer your questions, no, it does not assign them the rights to all of your previous works, it assigns them a perpetual right to use whatever previous IP you have included in any work that you do for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, they will own any unique feature that you come up with, *if it is included in the work that you do for them, and you wouldn't be able to use it in another app.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The major issue for most Engineering/Software/Design/Web freelancers with part D) is that &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Often value for the customer is achieved through *reuse* of *existing* or *previously developed* IP.  If every customer retains all the IP, then how can reuse occur for a new customer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Given the above, additional cost must be born by the client who wants all the IP, and all the IP will be done in a clean-room fashion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would speak to your lawyer about changing that D) clause into something more balanced, *or raise your rates accordingly.*  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, tell your clients that since they will not allow any reuse of IP generated for their work, that you cannot give them any benefits of Background IP (unless of course you *charge them accordingly*)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5467" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1967" RevisionGUID="0040f51a-ad23-4e36-8742-e98337a75a66" CreationDate="2014-06-08T06:23:03.730" UserId="1752" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="I break it down into more lay language below, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;B) Disclose any Background IP that you need to use to make us our product.  If you don't disclose any background IP, we assume what you do for us is clean-roomed and that we will own it all (so if you don't disclose it, but use it in whatever you build them, they own it).  This doesn't mean they own everything you ever worked on, just whatever you make for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;C) All your background IP rights are belong to us...any background IP in the product you make us, you give us all licenses to use, forever, to copy, to modify, to use as we wish.  This does NOT appear to include ownership (i.e. you can still use your background IP as you wish, sell it, give it to other customers, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;D) Work for hire, we own all IP on the work that you do for us, literally you assign us all IP ownership (very standard, but many Software/Design/Web services companies fight back on this clause, see below).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;E) If, for D) above, there is an non-assignable right (e.g. some law precluding the author/maker/creator to assign the IP ownership), you will give us an all inclusive license as in C) to use the IP, forever.  In the case where you cannot assign a license, you promise not to sue us.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is all fairly standard and agreeable, *provided that you are charging high enough rates.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To answer your questions, no, it does not assign them the rights to all of your previous works, it assigns them a perpetual right to use whatever previous IP you have included in any work that you do for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, they will own any unique feature that you come up with, *if it is included in the work that you do for them, and you wouldn't be able to use it in another app.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The major issue for most Engineering/Software/Design/Web freelancers with part D) is that &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Often value for the customer is achieved through *reuse* of *existing* or *previously developed* IP.  If every customer retains all the IP, then how can reuse occur for a new customer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Given the above, additional cost must be born by the client who wants all the IP, and all the IP will be done in a clean-room fashion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would speak to your lawyer about changing that D) clause into something more balanced, *or raise your rates accordingly.*  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, tell your clients that since they will not allow any reuse of IP generated for their work, that you cannot give them any benefits of Background IP (unless of course you *charge them accordingly*)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5468" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1962" RevisionGUID="1344b082-91d6-4813-a4f3-3151b35108f3" CreationDate="2014-06-08T07:24:19.263" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/475538798194212864" />
  <row Id="5469" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1968" RevisionGUID="b0cb0578-bfe0-43fb-9054-6fc676050ff4" CreationDate="2014-06-08T22:26:20.510" UserId="2964" Text="I agree with Peter, if you are outsourcing your work without telling your client, how you can be a great service to them if you don't know/can't explain what your outsourced contractor has done? How can you fix the issue?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am sure there are a lot of clever ways to deal with that kind of situation but it seems that the best way is to be honest and do the work yourself/with your team so you offer the best product and service to your clients. (All this said and done, I don't have anything against outsourcing but informing your client is a good idea. Build and maintain trust. )" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5470" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1969" RevisionGUID="7c57e747-bb8e-4c8d-b9ac-5053cf75918f" CreationDate="2014-06-09T00:01:26.037" UserId="2964" Text="I recently had a conversation with a lead that could give me the opportunity to do some responsive web work to an already designed site. My question is what is the best way to approach gaining access to the site? I know the client would grant me access, but I am talking about obtaining access from the old designer of the site. Are there any things I need to look out for?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5471" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1969" RevisionGUID="7c57e747-bb8e-4c8d-b9ac-5053cf75918f" CreationDate="2014-06-09T00:01:26.037" UserId="2964" Text="Doing Freelance work on top of someone else's work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5472" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1969" RevisionGUID="7c57e747-bb8e-4c8d-b9ac-5053cf75918f" CreationDate="2014-06-09T00:01:26.037" UserId="2964" Text="|small-projects|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5473" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1966" RevisionGUID="fa0ecb54-d389-48ff-a3b5-5551eb80aff5" CreationDate="2014-06-09T06:08:36.210" UserId="517" Comment="added 24 characters in body" Text="I work for a custom wine cellar company and have been their one and only designer for a year and half now. The owner used to do the design but of course you cant run a company sitting behind a mouse designing all day so he got me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a degree that I learned in AutoCAD. I never go to use it and when I found this company the owner asked me if I knew sketchup, which is what we use of course.I learned the program and started doing small designs for 13.50 and hour and was quickly moved up to 15 per hour. My boss told me not long after that he was already thinking about my next raise, he didn’t know when it would be or how much but just wanted me to know it was on his mind. That was about a year ago.He has since then told me more than once that my list of responsibilities has grown more than he ever intended and he was please with my work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now they have brought up the idea of paying me by the designs that sell and taking an hourly cut or being independent all together requiring me to do a 1099 and blah blah, that's all fine. I have thought to request a minimum for each job so I know if a design sells I am guaranteed at least that much. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, I take a design request form. I create a SKP file for the dealer and home owner or business and create the cellar they have dictated with our cabinet options. Sometimes I am given free range and have done quite well. They have said they would like to pay me a percentage of each job that sells but that is hard to get income in mind when we may sell 1 cellar a week or we may sell 6 and they can range from $3000 up to 45K but average I suppose is around 7 to 10k. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We have a custom wood shop with about 20 employees that get paid to. I create  3D design presentations for our dealers to take to there customers, the design comes back for at least one revision to tweak something normally. Once we sell it we take a 50% deposit and I i create a 2D design with measurement of the room and all wine racks for the dealer/home owner to sign off on insuring the racks fit. That same document I then pair with a cover sheet and very detailed component list for the shop to create the cellar, we then ship freight, ups, or maybe even have the customer come pick it up if they are close enough and so choose. Since I was hired, they have purchased a 135k dollar cnc machine and several other large saws and sanders, just saying the money is obviously coming in. He has even hired more shop labor since I came one, maybe four or five people. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And I almost forgot, we state that we require a $50 dollar design fee on our request form but it isn’t enforced and it is just hidden in the final price (should that be mine or is that small potatoes for what I should be concerned with) I act as a designer, office help when needed, and have for a while now been dealing with our lead dealers directly and any questions about a design or quote usually comes back to me.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So all that said, what numbers do I sit down with? How much do I ask for, whats fair, what should I consider good or great money? Whats the least I should settle for and should there be a minimum?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5474" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1957" RevisionGUID="b6f1ddc6-fada-41b5-81bb-3615eafc7c43" CreationDate="2014-06-09T10:24:23.653" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/475946503333113856" />
  <row Id="5475" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1970" RevisionGUID="064fc587-7f10-4a77-ac05-9c2677e451c8" CreationDate="2014-06-09T12:03:10.227" UserId="2839" Text="I agreed with a customer to import data from excel files and build a report with them. Since it was not a big project I charge not too much. I asked also an annual fee for bug fixing and maintenance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As in the [boiling frog story][1], customer asked little changes now and then (the frog is me). After more than a year I realized I've build a sort of an ERP, where importing excel data has just used only once to avoid the initial manual data entry phase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To get the report I had implemented (for free) a lot of business logic, many statistical calculations just to have a &quot;correct&quot; model (suited for customer tastes).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to give to my customer a new version of the contract I use for ERP programs (and not for import/export utilities as I did with him), with higher prices for software initial cost, annual maintenance and other contract conditions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project is nearly completed. How can I tell all of this to the customer? I'm afraid he could reply &quot;Hey, we have agreed to this price, I'll pay you only that. The changes you made are part of annual maintanence after all&quot;. And as I managed the things he wouldn't be completely wrong. I'd like just to try to recover the situation if possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for your help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog%20boiling%20frog%20story" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5476" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1970" RevisionGUID="064fc587-7f10-4a77-ac05-9c2677e451c8" CreationDate="2014-06-09T12:03:10.227" UserId="2839" Text="Project bigger than what was initially planned. How to tell the customer the higher price and different contract conditions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5477" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1970" RevisionGUID="064fc587-7f10-4a77-ac05-9c2677e451c8" CreationDate="2014-06-09T12:03:10.227" UserId="2839" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5478" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1971" RevisionGUID="7d754328-2233-4bf1-b317-520ba9b838b3" CreationDate="2014-06-09T15:24:57.317" UserId="1711" Text="I'm just starting out on my own as a web design &amp; development start-up and **I'm seeking advice on how to propose design concepts to my clients**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Currently I have a series of questions I ask them which I use to gather, among other things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - *Main pages &amp; features they're expecting*&#xD;&#xA; - *Language &amp; tone of the website*&#xD;&#xA; - *The website's target audience*&#xD;&#xA; - *Examples of websites they find particularly appealing and why*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After I've gathered this information, I'm considering creating a sketch of sorts using Visio which would use placeholder text and generic images to give my clients an idea of what the page structure and element placement would look like. Very similar to [this][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been told in the past however that these types of generic sketches can confuse most clients and that they have a hard time envisioning the design from these sketches. Ideally I'd prefer not to have to create a fully styled mock-up with real images and the whole nine yards as that can take quite a bit of time in and of itself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Can anyone offer any advice on techniques they've used or heard of in regards to proposing initial design concepts to their clients?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://tfa.stanford.edu/sp2011/ex_wireframes/21-sketched-ui-wireframe.jpeg" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5479" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1971" RevisionGUID="7d754328-2233-4bf1-b317-520ba9b838b3" CreationDate="2014-06-09T15:24:57.317" UserId="1711" Text="How to propose design concepts to clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5480" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1971" RevisionGUID="7d754328-2233-4bf1-b317-520ba9b838b3" CreationDate="2014-06-09T15:24:57.317" UserId="1711" Text="|freelance-websites|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5481" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1970" RevisionGUID="dcb179a7-372e-4960-8051-7697938d3860" CreationDate="2014-06-09T17:06:36.523" UserId="43" Comment="Fixed link and grammar" Text="I agreed with a customer to import data from excel files and build a report with them. Since it was not a big project I did not charge too much. I also asked for an annual fee for bug fixing and maintenance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As in the [boiling frog story][1], the customer asked for little changes now and then (the frog is me). After more than a year I realized that I'd built a sort of ERP, where importing excel data was used only once to avoid the initial manual data entry phase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order to get the report, I had implemented (for free) a lot of business logic and many statistical calculations just to have a &quot;correct&quot; model (bespoke to the customer).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to give to my customer a new version of the contract I use for ERP programs (and not for import/export utilities as I did with him), with higher prices for the initial software cost, annual maintenance and other contract conditions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project is nearly completed. How can I tell all of this to the customer? I'm afraid he could reply &quot;Hey, we have agreed to this price, I'll pay you only that. The changes you made are part of annual maintanence after all&quot;. And as I managed the things he wouldn't be completely wrong. I'd like just to try to recover the situation if possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for your help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5482" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1967" RevisionGUID="7eee8dcf-7a4e-435c-ad29-df05bfa828db" CreationDate="2014-06-09T17:29:51.933" UserId="1752" Comment="added 56 characters in body" Text="I break it down into more lay language below, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;B) Disclose any Background IP that you need to use to make us our product.  If you don't disclose any background IP, we assume what you do for us is clean-roomed and that we will own it all (so if you don't disclose it, but use it in whatever you build them, they own it).  This doesn't mean they own everything you ever worked on, just whatever you make for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;C) All your background IP rights are belong to us...any background IP in the product you make us, you give us all licenses to use, forever, to copy, to modify, to use as we wish.  This does NOT appear to include ownership (i.e. you can still use your background IP as you wish, sell it, give it to other customers, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;D) Work for hire, we own all IP on the work that you do for us, literally you assign us all IP ownership (very standard, but many Software/Design/Web services companies fight back on this clause, see below), except for any Background IP which you declared per B).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;E) If, for D) above, there is an non-assignable right (e.g. some law precluding the author/maker/creator to assign the IP ownership), you will give us an all inclusive license as in C) to use the IP, forever.  In the case where you cannot assign a license, you promise not to sue us.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is all fairly standard and agreeable, *provided that you are charging high enough rates.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To answer your questions, no, it does not assign them the rights to all of your previous works, it assigns them a perpetual right to use whatever previous IP you have included in any work that you do for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, they will own any unique feature that you come up with, *if it is included in the work that you do for them, and you wouldn't be able to use it in another app.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The major issue for most Engineering/Software/Design/Web freelancers with part D) is that &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Often value for the customer is achieved through *reuse* of *existing* or *previously developed* IP.  If every customer retains all the IP, then how can reuse occur for a new customer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Given the above, additional cost must be born by the client who wants all the IP, and all the IP will be done in a clean-room fashion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would speak to your lawyer about changing that D) clause into something more balanced, *or raise your rates accordingly.*  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, tell your clients that since they will not allow any reuse of IP generated for their work, that you cannot give them any benefits of Background IP (unless of course you *charge them accordingly*)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5483" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1972" RevisionGUID="0d45ad70-28f6-4eef-8e84-3e56e548dee9" CreationDate="2014-06-10T00:58:06.957" UserId="2964" Text="Your idea to create sketches/wireframes is generally a good way to go in order to evade using a lot of time to create detailed mockups. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask them for websites that they really like in terms of layout, color, style, and functionality, then you can reference those sites in some ways to create a better image for them. If you tell them you are adding a *slider* in one section and a *rss* feed in another, they might get confused, depending on the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5484" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1967" RevisionGUID="3c19d5a4-cf6e-4a6f-8d5e-0ec638c19d7e" CreationDate="2014-06-10T05:52:20.253" UserId="1752" Comment="added 8 characters in body" Text="I break it down into more lay language below, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;B) Disclose any Background IP that you need to use to make us our product.  If you don't disclose any background IP, we assume what you do for us is clean-roomed and that we will own it all (so if you don't disclose it, but use it in whatever you build them, they own it).  This doesn't mean they own everything you ever worked on, just whatever you make for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;C) All your background IP rights are belong to us...any background IP in the product you make us, you give us all licenses to use, forever, to copy, to modify, to use as we wish.  This does NOT appear to include ownership (i.e. you can still use your background IP as you wish, sell it, give it to other customers, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;D) Work for hire, we own all IP on the work that you do for us, literally you assign us all IP ownership (very standard, but many Software/Design/Web services companies fight back on this clause, see below), except for any Background IP which you declared per B).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;E) If, for D) above, there is an non-assignable right (e.g. some law precluding the author/maker/creator to assign the IP ownership), you will give us an all inclusive license as in C) to use the IP, forever.  In the case where you cannot assign a license, you promise not to sue us.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is all fairly standard and agreeable, *provided that you are charging high enough rates.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To answer your questions, **no**, it does not assign them the rights to all of your previous works, it assigns them a perpetual right to use whatever previous IP you have included in any work that you do for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Yes**, they will own any unique feature that you come up with, *if it is included in the work that you do for them, and you wouldn't be able to use it in another app.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The major issue for most Engineering/Software/Design/Web freelancers with part D) is that &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Often value for the customer is achieved through *reuse* of *existing* or *previously developed* IP.  If every customer retains all the IP, then how can reuse occur for a new customer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Given the above, additional cost must be born by the client who wants all the IP, and all the IP will be done in a clean-room fashion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would speak to your lawyer about changing that D) clause into something more balanced, *or raise your rates accordingly.*  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, tell your clients that since they will not allow any reuse of IP generated for their work, that you cannot give them any benefits of Background IP (unless of course you *charge them accordingly*)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5485" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1973" RevisionGUID="fb3f3936-77e9-4044-88b3-e28807499ebb" CreationDate="2014-06-10T11:44:55.900" UserId="4085" Text="I live in Europe, while my clients are mostly from US. Thus, the smallest timezone difference between me and my clients is -4hours, the biggest being -9hours. Yet, I also have a customer in Asia, giving me a +4hours customer. Scheduling calls starts to be a bit painful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My method is to have 2 days a week marked as call-possible-days, and on those days I offer time slots when a client asks for a call or I need one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you have any other tools/methods you use? This is not a &quot;wood under the toe nail&quot; problem, but definitely something that grinds my gears." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5486" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1973" RevisionGUID="fb3f3936-77e9-4044-88b3-e28807499ebb" CreationDate="2014-06-10T11:44:55.900" UserId="4085" Text="Scheduling calls with clients in different timezones" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5487" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1973" RevisionGUID="fb3f3936-77e9-4044-88b3-e28807499ebb" CreationDate="2014-06-10T11:44:55.900" UserId="4085" Text="|time-management|client-support|communication|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5488" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1970" RevisionGUID="a9b0f09f-3ff0-4557-a9b9-2eea5a1feba7" CreationDate="2014-06-10T13:24:45.943" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/476354283265204225" />
  <row Id="5489" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1974" RevisionGUID="a5f0d1c4-3684-4688-ad7f-016f150e49b6" CreationDate="2014-06-10T17:11:26.423" UserId="4090" Text="Your time is as valuable as you make it. I started at $20/hour, then when I hit capacity for a few months, bumped my prices to $35. Once I hit work capacity for a few months, I jumped to $50, then $85. I've been stuck at $85 for three years now -- although I might be able to charge more, $85/hour is more than enough to keep me happy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's all about supply and demand. If you're in demand, increase your prices until you start to see demand fall off." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5490" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1975" RevisionGUID="67c262ce-7d95-493d-aef5-b78540f6c769" CreationDate="2014-06-10T17:38:14.197" UserId="4085" Text="Well. It's kinda late, but still possible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, make a list of what's in your opinion new feature and what's yearly maintenance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then get in call with your customer (do not do this over an email) and show him the list. Explain that what went into the work is much more than maintenance and stress how much that increases the value of the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since it's very late, I'd also offer a discount, but stage this as a &quot;we want more business discount&quot;. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5491" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1976" RevisionGUID="4486f22b-3071-4701-a85a-905945221f62" CreationDate="2014-06-11T06:30:51.847" UserId="517" Text="I also have clients from the US/Canada and South America. I do not have practice to have call days. I rather set call time for each client individually. So Jeff knows that we can talk on Mon at 9AM his time, Matt knows that we can talk on Wed 12PM his time, and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they need me quickly, they can always message me via Skype and see if I am available for a quick chat. In urgent matters, I will leave my current work and go talk to them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I really see no point why limiting yourself for calls or have special call days. Each call is not just a call, but it's a remote meeting so it should be treated as a meeting not as a call from a friend. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5495" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1978" RevisionGUID="46a12e2d-2332-4166-ad61-fe374f06099b" CreationDate="2014-06-11T06:36:48.103" UserId="517" Text="Usually, we do not prefer making sketches. Not only they consume time, but clients cannot see the technique there. Most of times it will be a blank shot. Unpaid blank shot. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We send clients previous designs similar to his idea in technique and topic. If he likes the style, then we talk further and start paid cycle. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, since you are a start-up and don't have large portfolio, it's very crucial you have a good sample database. Note down each design concept which is usually asked by your clients (shopping basket design, sports website design, etc.). Then whenever you are free (you will be at the start), spend time creating samples. Quality samples! In a month or two you will be able to show those samples to your clients. More than anything, clients like to see samples of design. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I remember when I started I created like 10 or so applications as a proof of concept. They helped me get my first job. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5499" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1980" RevisionGUID="a1bc12e8-cea6-4ddf-9347-374333ed5de8" CreationDate="2014-06-11T10:47:04.043" UserId="2586" Text="I am redesigning my website to show my skills and experience, and I thought it would be a nice idea to have the logos of companies I have worked for and with (directly and indirectly). I'm wondering if I can use their logos without requiring their express consent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a software engineer who has done only permanent jobs (i.e. not contract) though did freelance as a journalist many years ago. I'd like to include the logos of the publications as well as these were big companies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A couple of examples:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Commissioned on a freelance basis for Publications P1,P2,P3 (name published)&#xD;&#xA; 2. Employee of CompanySW who supply bespoke software solutions to BigCompanyAV, BigCompanyMS, BigCompanyJJ&#xD;&#xA; 3. Employee of CompanyEE working directly with engineers at CarCompanyV, CarCompanyF, and indirectly by supplying software to dealerships of CarCompanyK&#xD;&#xA; 4. Employee at CompanyC which supplies their flagship product to 100s of companies (this feels different to me than #2)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I also use products? For example at CompanySW we developed a component for FamousProductA. Can I put that on my site?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5500" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1980" RevisionGUID="a1bc12e8-cea6-4ddf-9347-374333ed5de8" CreationDate="2014-06-11T10:47:04.043" UserId="2586" Text="Can I use logos of companies I have worked for, directly &amp; indirectly, on my website?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5501" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1980" RevisionGUID="a1bc12e8-cea6-4ddf-9347-374333ed5de8" CreationDate="2014-06-11T10:47:04.043" UserId="2586" Text="|attracting-clients|marketing|branding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5503" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1982" RevisionGUID="5c8a3a1f-fe74-41a6-b4ec-e32e0e868cf2" CreationDate="2014-06-11T13:12:37.640" UserId="3014" Text="I think your client will be happy if you use their logo in your portfolio. This is a kind of promotion for client as well. I don`t think anything negative in this. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5504" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1983" RevisionGUID="c429a4a7-ba2f-4fd2-91d9-0f14f3b5593b" CreationDate="2014-06-11T15:59:30.647" UserId="517" Text="It's always safer to ask, right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if you want our **opinion**, then: Yes, you can use it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just be professional there as well. Do not give project names or project specifications, but rather only company name and technologies you used while working for them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have, however, created a cool thing and want to brag with it, then it's a must to ask your company for permission to disclose such information. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5506" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1984" RevisionGUID="1c2c0bca-dc3a-4691-aa94-2635f7dd4fc1" CreationDate="2014-06-11T21:18:23.653" UserId="1706" Text="No logos.  Putting someone's logo on your site without permission can be seen to imply endorsement by that company.  You can end up in hot water.  If in doubt, get permission." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5508" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1980" RevisionGUID="74bdc084-a13a-42e3-b5a5-473eb3a64027" CreationDate="2014-06-12T01:25:01.413" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/476897929743962112" />
  <row Id="5510" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1986" RevisionGUID="716a747f-d70f-4e22-aa2d-df0590fddce4" CreationDate="2014-06-12T11:16:11.107" UserId="3014" Text="I think that you should create a real website image on Photoshop. This kind of images are not confusing for the client. At this image you can even write the explanation like this is slider, this is link, this is button etc. &#xD;&#xA;Before doing this all you have to ask about client`s choice as well. You can ask for their inspiration. This information will help you designing the website that will suite the specific client. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5511" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="1986" RevisionGUID="a855f083-12f1-4df3-aad9-bda96f39462e" CreationDate="2014-06-12T16:08:04.923" UserId="75" Comment="22" />
  <row Id="5512" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1987" RevisionGUID="b2fc875f-79ae-408e-92be-3c06ad0391ae" CreationDate="2014-06-12T20:28:29.877" UserId="4106" Text="IANAL, so I cannot give you advice. I can only tell you how *I* would use a trademark on a web page of my own design.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, I referred to Wikipedia and found a description of [Nominative Use][1] in a trademark context.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I take it to mean that I can use a client's trademark only enough to identify them in a statement, such as, &quot;I taught AIX classes for IBM as a subcontractor to a now-defunct licensed training provider.&quot; (Which is a true statement, in my case.) In this statement, I use trademarked words, AIX and IBM, to identify them as a subject I taught and a client I taught for, both in the nominative case from a semantics perspective. I would expect to have no challenge for using such a statement on a web page that described my services that I had provided for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I would draw the line at using &quot;AIX&quot; in its usual Roman font or the &quot;IBM&quot; stylized blue logo because a visitor to my site might infer that I was claiming that IBM had endorsed me for the services I was promoting, which is not the case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I *REALLY* wanted to used the stylized logo, I feel that I would have to get permission, and I would expect IBM to want to see my draft web page design so they can assess the context of my use of their logo. Too much hassle for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_use" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5513" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1971" RevisionGUID="e8c2eee2-8254-4288-a9c2-9c5a4193a6d4" CreationDate="2014-06-13T07:25:11.570" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/477350957798289408" />
  <row Id="5526" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1993" RevisionGUID="533bbed3-8fc7-4c90-8977-d9bfc3d45929" CreationDate="2014-06-14T04:47:38.357" UserDisplayName="user4118" Text="I began doing freelance work before reading [**&quot;f*ck you, pay me.&quot;** by Mike Monteiro][1], and did not negotiate a contract when starting my first job. I will be sure to use a contract in the future, but I'm trying to decide whether or not I should negotiate one for this job, before receiving payment. *(Luckily, the client is willing to pay)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I began developing an application where the client negotiated a pretty low price (it's my first production development gig, after all) in return for two promises:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- He'd cooperate with any trouble due to bugs, so long as I fixed them quickly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- He'd help me sell the app for full price to 2-3 other business owners in his line of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because of these terms, I think it's appropriate that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I retain the rights to distribute the software, and sell him the rights to use, but not sell, the software indefinitely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I retain the rights to sell any updates to the software in the future as I see fit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since we started this job without a contract, would it be appropriate for me to negotiate one before I hand over a copy of the product?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I'm not worried that the business owner will sell (if he knew how to) or distribute the software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I'm not worried that I won't be paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Is it too late to / should I negotiate a contract now?** If not, how should I discuss this with the client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://creativemornings.com/talks/mike-monteiro--2/1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5527" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="1993" RevisionGUID="533bbed3-8fc7-4c90-8977-d9bfc3d45929" CreationDate="2014-06-14T04:47:38.357" UserDisplayName="user4118" Text="I went into my first freelance job without a contract. Is it too late to negotiate one now?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5528" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="1993" RevisionGUID="533bbed3-8fc7-4c90-8977-d9bfc3d45929" CreationDate="2014-06-14T04:47:38.357" UserDisplayName="user4118" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5529" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1994" RevisionGUID="5ee0175c-8dea-485b-b213-677f4285649c" CreationDate="2014-06-14T07:04:54.520" UserId="517" Text="It's not late till it's late, the saying says :). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should definitely try that. Explain to him that you did not ask for it before, but now when you are so deep in the project, you think that you two need a written agreement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Negotiating the contract terms, you will probably see if the client is really good or just one of those looking for cheap slavery work. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5531" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1973" RevisionGUID="ef42e37d-3e36-41be-9772-e6f06ec48055" CreationDate="2014-06-14T19:28:28.653" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/477895365857800192" />
  <row Id="5534" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="1086" RevisionGUID="ca3a779a-8c23-4691-8bae-8f13755bc27c" CreationDate="2014-06-15T02:46:24.660" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5535" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="1086" RevisionGUID="356d9186-991e-4cd1-a244-2573bc29c51c" CreationDate="2014-06-15T02:47:29.860" UserId="64" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5536" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1995" RevisionGUID="2ff3f3bb-916b-487d-a533-a0a0b59cf426" CreationDate="2014-06-15T12:10:51.770" UserId="4122" Text="Definitely not too late. You'll have in your favor the fact that you're not trying to change the terms of payment, simply be more explicit about the surrounding terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client balks at negotiating one now, you can simply complete work to the nearest milestone (assuming you have development/payment milestones agreed to), then end the relationship. It's not worth working cheaply for someone who doesn't respect you enough as a professional to agree to a contract (unless you are actually desperate for the money, but it doesn't sound like that's the case). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5537" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1996" RevisionGUID="fbcce1e4-7977-4429-a620-46a32ccf7f35" CreationDate="2014-06-15T12:20:21.903" UserId="4122" Text="You could consider using [Pattern Lab][1] or similar to create something that will perhaps feel more &quot;real&quot; to the client, while still avoiding the old-school process of creating super-detailed photoshop comps that get you locked into a very specific visual design too early in the process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://patternlab.io/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5538" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1993" RevisionGUID="b4be8c33-463d-4175-b01e-9eccd1e29de7" CreationDate="2014-06-15T17:39:08.153" UserDisplayName="user4118" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="I began doing freelance work before watching [**&quot;f*ck you, pay me.&quot;** by Mike Monteiro][1], and did not negotiate a contract when starting my first job. I will be sure to use a contract in the future, but I'm trying to decide whether or not I should negotiate one for this job, before receiving payment. *(Luckily, the client is willing to pay)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I began developing an application where the client negotiated a pretty low price (it's my first production development gig, after all) in return for two promises:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- He'd cooperate with any trouble due to bugs, so long as I fixed them quickly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- He'd help me sell the app for full price to 2-3 other business owners in his line of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because of these terms, I think it's appropriate that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I retain the rights to distribute the software, and sell him the rights to use, but not sell, the software indefinitely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I retain the rights to sell any updates to the software in the future as I see fit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since we started this job without a contract, would it be appropriate for me to negotiate one before I hand over a copy of the product?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I'm not worried that the business owner will sell (if he knew how to) or distribute the software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I'm not worried that I won't be paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Is it too late to / should I negotiate a contract now?** If not, how should I discuss this with the client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://creativemornings.com/talks/mike-monteiro--2/1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5539" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1966" RevisionGUID="112a8ecb-b6b9-4d1e-a8e2-b5a7701e5d43" CreationDate="2014-06-15T20:11:35.900" UserId="64" Comment="fixed spelling and grammar issues, including many run on sentences that made your post hard to read." Text="I work for a custom wine cellar company and have been their one and only designer for a year and half now. The owner used to do the design, but you can't run a company sitting behind a mouse designing all day, so he got me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a degree that I learned in AutoCAD. I never got to use it, and when I found this company, the owner asked me if I knew SketchUp, which is what we use. I learned the program, and started doing small designs for $13.50 per hour and was quickly moved up to $15 per hour. My boss told me not long after that he was already thinking about my next raise; he didn’t know when it would be or how much but just wanted me to know it was on his mind. That was about a year ago. He has since then told me more than once that my list of responsibilities has grown more than he ever intended, and he was please with my work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now they have brought up the idea of paying me by the designs that sell and taking an hourly cut or being independent altogether, requiring me to do a 1099, which is fine with me. I have thought to request a minimum for each job so I know if a design sells, I am guaranteed at least that much. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, I take a design request form. I create a SKP file for the dealer and home owner or business and create the cellar they have dictated with our cabinet options. Sometimes I am given free range and have done quite well. They have said they would like to pay me a percentage of each job that sells but that is hard to get income in mind when we may sell one cellar a week or we may sell six and they can range from $3000 up to $45K. The average, I suppose, is around $7 to $10k. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We have a custom wood shop with about 20 employees that get paid too. I create  3D design presentations for our dealers to take to their customers. The design comes back for at least one revision to tweak something normally. Once we sell it, we take a 50% deposit, and I create a 2D design with measurement of the room and all wine racks for the dealer/home owner to sign off on. This ensures the racks fit. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That same document I then pair with a cover sheet and very detailed component list for the shop to create the cellar. We then ship freight, UPS, or maybe even have the customer come pick it up if they are close enough and so choose. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since I was hired, they have purchased a $135k dollar CNC machine and several other large saws and sanders. The money is obviously coming in. He has even hired more shop labor since I came on, maybe four or five people. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We state that we require a $50 design fee on our request form, but it isn't enforced, and it is just hidden in the final price (should that be mine or is that small potatoes for what I should be concerned with). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I act as a designer, office help when needed, and have for a while now been dealing with our lead dealers directly and any questions about a design or quote usually comes back to me.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So all that said, how do I determine what numbers to sit down with? How do I determine how much to ask for and what's fair? How do I determine the minimum I should ask for?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5540" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1966" RevisionGUID="112a8ecb-b6b9-4d1e-a8e2-b5a7701e5d43" CreationDate="2014-06-15T20:11:35.900" UserId="64" Comment="fixed spelling and grammar issues, including many run on sentences that made your post hard to read." Text="How do I determine what my time is really worth?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5542" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="1998" RevisionGUID="e4b33f9a-59d1-406d-958c-eed40e366132" CreationDate="2014-06-15T20:29:16.363" UserId="2546" Text="You complicate a simple matter.  &#xD;&#xA;First, think at how to find more than just on client, then make a habit writing a contract after negotiations end (not after a client promises' you help to sell the product is paying for).  &#xD;&#xA;In life is good not be greedy. You will always gain more by trusting your partners in business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This being said; it is smart to write a contract at least now if not from the beginning. If the client already agreed to this, then for sure you should write a contract.  &#xD;&#xA;Should you try re-negotiate on it? Definitely YES. The smartest thing you can do is to ask for more instead of giving up just because you say so. If you don't ask, you receive nothing.  &#xD;&#xA;Now, I will bring into discussion the fairness behind your actions. Re-negotiate the terms because is smart doing so but not only because you became greedy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5543" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1998" RevisionGUID="525b1469-57a9-474a-8de9-2d5b5fbd7ebc" CreationDate="2014-06-16T02:14:40.197" UserId="64" Comment="fixed a typo, and fixed some other minor grammatical errors while I was at it." Text="You complicate a simple matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, think at how to find more than just one client, then make a habit writing a contract after negotiations end (not after a client promises' you help to sell the product he/she is paying for).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In life, it is good not be greedy. You will always gain more by trusting your partners in business. This being said, it is smart to write a contract, at least now, if not from the beginning. If the client already agreed to this, then for sure you should write a contract.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should you try re-negotiate on it? Definitely YES. The smartest thing you can do is to ask for more instead of giving up just because you say so. If you don't ask, you receive nothing.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I will bring into discussion the fairness behind your actions. Re-negotiate the terms because it is smart doing so but not only because you became greedy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5549" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1993" RevisionGUID="661bab05-74fb-434c-a613-cc46873c5bb8" CreationDate="2014-06-16T10:33:10.590" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/478485429381906432" />
  <row Id="5551" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2001" RevisionGUID="f2cbc38f-d7aa-463d-a31a-4cd400a42fc1" CreationDate="2014-06-16T16:05:55.897" UserId="4131" Text="Studying smartphone development from a book.&#xD;&#xA;Since I don't have any real projects to showcase, is it normal to include projects I've done following the books I've read about development? &#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that I changed all the names in my own version of the projects, including the look and feel, even the code to an extent." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5552" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2001" RevisionGUID="f2cbc38f-d7aa-463d-a31a-4cd400a42fc1" CreationDate="2014-06-16T16:05:55.897" UserId="4131" Text="May you include projects from books into your portfolio" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5553" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2001" RevisionGUID="f2cbc38f-d7aa-463d-a31a-4cd400a42fc1" CreationDate="2014-06-16T16:05:55.897" UserId="4131" Text="|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5554" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1956" RevisionGUID="758abd5c-29da-4f0a-b2e0-c5845d38da9a" CreationDate="2014-06-16T16:33:10.783" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/478576026507681793" />
  <row Id="5555" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2002" RevisionGUID="2e48f0c1-1e6b-4f8e-ba4f-e932c01147ae" CreationDate="2014-06-16T16:53:07.727" UserId="75" Text="Absolutely! You are not writing the code for a customer, so you don't need permission, especially if you learned how to do something. Created a marquee on a website? Sure, show it off! Create a beautiful, stunning, responsive website that works on mobile devices and desktop computers of all shapes and sizes? Show it off!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The point of the portfolio is to show what you can do, without directing them away from you. Check your book's copyright notice though, and make sure they allow you to use what you learned in the book for your own gain. I don't know of any books that say that, but that'd be the only &quot;gotcha&quot; I can think of.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My portfolio site was taken from stringing together lots of concepts I learned from a PHP and MySQL book together - Forum, calendar, contact management, email system and a chat system, all rolled into one. I got the concepts from the book, but changed it completely to match what my goal was, and it's up and live! It's on a free sub-domain, but it demonstrates the concepts, which is what a portfolio is for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are you on the artistic side of things? Then you want just simple PNG or JPG images of the works you've done, and never the source files! Are you on the programming side of things? Explain what your program does, and include some screen shots. Are you on the Web Development side of things? Follow the above to steps together. Your portfolio should **NEVER** include the raw source code, as that's what makes you stand out. You may, however, explain some of the concepts you used (i.e. *I used Javascript to do this, and PHP to do this, and Brainfuck to do this*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People should be able to check your portfolio and decide for themselves, &quot;*I like how this person did task **X**, **Y** and **Z**. I'll hire him/her.* They will not likely be inspecting your code for how you accomplished a task, especially before the project has even been accepted! The point is, like a gallery, people look and contact you further if they like what they see. You should not be &quot;creating&quot; a portfolio for each client contact, as that will take too much of your time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5556" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="1996" RevisionGUID="a7b249e5-88e5-4b85-9727-870081d3cdc0" CreationDate="2014-06-16T17:01:14.150" UserId="75" Comment="24" />
  <row Id="5557" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="1971" RevisionGUID="773ddff7-3126-4fa8-8526-57816edd54dd" CreationDate="2014-06-16T17:01:23.167" UserId="75" Comment="25" />
  <row Id="5561" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2003" RevisionGUID="03c1c03d-6098-4268-9602-79fe08cfae4b" CreationDate="2014-06-16T20:55:24.813" UserId="1706" Text="No, no, no, no, no.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no one in his (or her) right mind that will pay you as a work-for-hire and then allow you to retain ownership.  That'd be really a really stupid business move on the part of your client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's think about this a second.  What if, instead of the software business, you were in the home building business?  Someone pays you to build a home, and halfway down the way of getting the home built, you tell the person you want to ***license*** the home instead of selling it.  GTFOOH!  If you tried to force your hand on significantly changing the contract terms, a competent court of law would bury you *beneath* the courthouse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You DO have a contract, though it seems you don't have a written one.  It is never too late to put together a written contract to memorialize the agreement that has already been expressed orally, but your client will not go for what you're trying to do.  Then again, maybe you have a really, really dumb client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5562" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2004" RevisionGUID="320a8eba-06a3-4e9d-a7b7-3eb61e3b5fbb" CreationDate="2014-06-16T20:59:00.130" UserId="1706" Text="Approach this with caution.  It's easy to copy something out of a book, and change images and text.  It's MUCH harder if you don't really know the technology that the code from the book is utilizing, and need to materially modify the code.  Clients WILL ask for modifications.  The worst response you can ever give a client is, &quot;Yes, that's my demo site.  But I don't know how to modify it.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5563" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2005" RevisionGUID="0f03e3f0-e605-437f-8c13-3a3c7481293d" CreationDate="2014-06-16T21:00:01.557" UserId="52" Text="I have a client who is a small ISV about to release their first PC application. They are looking to me as the app developer for advice on the EULA to accompany the software. Is there a boilerplate starting point, which I can tune based on my knowledge of the application and the business? One goal is to minimize legal expenses." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5564" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2005" RevisionGUID="0f03e3f0-e605-437f-8c13-3a3c7481293d" CreationDate="2014-06-16T21:00:01.557" UserId="52" Text="Boilerplate text for an End User License Agreement (EULA)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5565" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2005" RevisionGUID="0f03e3f0-e605-437f-8c13-3a3c7481293d" CreationDate="2014-06-16T21:00:01.557" UserId="52" Text="|legal|software|licensing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5566" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2006" RevisionGUID="341f28f2-eee4-416c-96d6-236263dc9cab" CreationDate="2014-06-16T21:43:14.947" UserId="4133" Text="IMO, you should support your code (bug-fixes are always free). Although you were &quot;on a time commitment&quot; but are no longer, has no bearing on your reputation as a developer -- you should support your code. Code changes are not the same as bug-fixes. You should be paid for changes, enhancements, site maintenance, and so on but you should stand behind the code you write.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is assuming you are a 1099 or otherwise independent contractor, not an employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Supporting your code gives the client peace of mind in using you (instead of your competitor) in the first place. It also gives you a solid rep as a reliable developer, and usually opens many more doors for future work either for this client or referrals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5567" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2001" RevisionGUID="c704b5d2-1783-4093-ba67-78b22e3a1faa" CreationDate="2014-06-16T22:35:23.890" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/478667181157134336" />
  <row Id="5572" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2008" RevisionGUID="fd52f316-4127-4c9a-a9c0-ef952f3bfc31" CreationDate="2014-06-17T20:50:07.907" UserId="208" Text="I'm not aware of any boilerplate off the top of my head (I'm sure it's out there) but here are some basics to consider based on my experience:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - even when you (contractor), the client and the (expected) userbase are all located in the US, it's still possible some users outside the US could buy it/download it, e.g. Canada? EU? Japan?&#xD;&#xA; - EULAs often define the legal jurisdiction to be some defined county in the US. Commonly a business-friendly jurisdiction where you live and work. The default in Silicon Valley is Santa Clara County, California. Delaware is also a common choice due to companies being incorporated there, and none of your customers are likely to live there, or be bothered filing a court case there. Deterrence.&#xD;&#xA; - there are other boilerplate clauses to exclude implied warranty, no guarantee of service, limit liability, consequential damages etc.&#xD;&#xA; - if the product/service is **anything** more a shrinkwrapped product/download, e.g. if it stores any user data or logs (e.g. SaaS, social etc.) you will want to think about data use policy, retention, privacy, how we use your data, consent, marketing etc. This varies hugely by jurisdiction esp. EU, Germany. These terms are generally not spelled out in the EULA, since they generally change over time, but they are incorporated by reference in the EULA *&quot;How we use XYZ data is governed by our privacy policy which is stated on our website, and may vary from time to time at our discretion&quot;*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not a lawyer, this does not constitute advice, disclaimer, etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5573" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2009" RevisionGUID="ccf2171b-f588-4955-8e8e-5104957c3657" CreationDate="2014-06-18T00:21:51.590" UserId="208" Text="Ok I see two things in your situation:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Client appears to be in financial trouble, but is trying to get you to work for free, to bridge them with their customer. You need to decide if client's woes are temporary, or if the client is going down the plughole. (Did the client pay your last invoices?) Do some discreet investigating. If you have other clients offering paid work, use that as a bargaining lever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Validation, bugtesting, QA, should all be scoped as a separate acceptance phase of the contract (for which you get paid, like any other work - you can schedule that that phase covers n weeks, and beyond that, any incremental work is billed hourly). This should all be clearly spelled out in the contract and project schedule: who does testing, their deliverables to you (e.g. their buglist from validation).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. Maintenance is also separate work, for which, as you point out, you deserve to get paid. Define maintenance as any bug/issue/spec change/enhance they/you didn't catch in acceptance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So this boils down to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;a) The cleanest and most mutually satisfactory way is to spell all this stuff upfront in the contract and schedule: including acceptance phase, acceptance criteria, billing; their obligation to send you a complete buglist by the end of their validation. Prevention better than cure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;b) If you really want to keep the customer, and they're not bouncing checks all over town and getting foreclosed on, then you can make sure to communicate in writing that this is an exceptional one-off customer-loyalty situation, issue them an invoice for &quot;13 x $60 hours maintenance, with a 100% customer loyalty discount&quot;, so that the invoice zeros out. But if they think they can now randomly phone you weekly for free maintenance, you're going to go nuts. Invoice them and be prepared to walk. You might extend the invoicing terms to net-90. Or give them a discount. It comes down to: how badly do you need them, and are you prepared to walk? Do you expect them to ever pay you?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5574" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2010" RevisionGUID="9b92fc2b-a7df-4e73-9551-f5af87261afd" CreationDate="2014-06-18T01:15:02.597" UserId="4146" Text="Going to be freelancing as a web designer and web developer soon, creating websites for local businesses. I'm expecting to use a payment plan in which they pay a down payment of 50% to begin work, and they pay the remaining 50% after the website goes live. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will be charging fixed costs instead of an hourly rate, so how do I go about deciding what the cancellation fee should amount to at different points in the project? Do I just estimate the % of the total work that I have completed and bill them on that? This doesn't seem very set in stone and it is the reason why I ask. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5575" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2010" RevisionGUID="9b92fc2b-a7df-4e73-9551-f5af87261afd" CreationDate="2014-06-18T01:15:02.597" UserId="4146" Text="How to handle cancellation fee when a client cancels at different points in a project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5576" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2010" RevisionGUID="9b92fc2b-a7df-4e73-9551-f5af87261afd" CreationDate="2014-06-18T01:15:02.597" UserId="4146" Text="|payment-terms|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5577" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2011" RevisionGUID="bf7cce52-de5f-4da5-93a3-bc3e487a8049" CreationDate="2014-06-18T02:01:41.697" UserId="4146" Text="Upcoming freelancer in web development here. I understand the steps necessary after the contract is signed, which simply includes commencing work and maintaining communication with the client. What I am still not clear on are all the steps between contacting a prospective client, and signing the contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I gather information from their business and what they want and then run them a quote? What are the steps to take if they are okay with the quote and want to work with me? What is a job proposal and at what point does it come in? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5578" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2011" RevisionGUID="bf7cce52-de5f-4da5-93a3-bc3e487a8049" CreationDate="2014-06-18T02:01:41.697" UserId="4146" Text="All steps to take BEFORE the contract is signed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5579" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2011" RevisionGUID="bf7cce52-de5f-4da5-93a3-bc3e487a8049" CreationDate="2014-06-18T02:01:41.697" UserId="4146" Text="|freelance-websites|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5589" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2012" RevisionGUID="c5c8f5ec-b517-4dd7-acac-32ee80c6a03b" CreationDate="2014-06-18T06:44:16.380" UserId="517" Text="When going 50/50, it's very hard to be covered as you would. So maybe 50/50 is not a good plan for larger projects. It's better for a smaller tasks which you can finish in 1 week or so. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would rather go with a milestone plan. It's still a fixed-price project, but you are paid after each milestone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the flow: Milestone 1 finished -&gt; Client test and verifies -&gt; you do bug fixes -&gt; client tests again and confirms that all is ok -&gt; milestone 1 money is paid -&gt; you start working on milestone 2&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way, the most you can lose is the money from the last milestone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can put all kinds of covering clauses in the contract, but it will be very hard to determine if you finished 50% or 75% of the disputable milestone. This does not mean that you should not put this clause, I am just telling you how hard it to determine the percentage. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5590" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2013" RevisionGUID="b60c1f11-ecba-4f47-91ca-8232d7c259e5" CreationDate="2014-06-18T06:47:58.530" UserId="517" Text="The shortest I can say is: it depends on the contract :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some will include research phase into the contract and will not start research before the contract has been signed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Others will do this research before the contract is signed, and then gather this costs later in the process. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IMHO I would not do any research longer than 1-2 hours before the contract has been signed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In technical terms, before the contract you can only make a very high-level and rough estimation on costs. Make a list of milestones with features that belong to that milestone, and tell the client approximate costs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After the contract has been signed, you make a detailed plan for each milestone which will create your final price. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5591" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2014" RevisionGUID="c769f692-b0dc-4a45-a877-e1869b897413" CreationDate="2014-06-18T09:41:17.163" UserId="1754" Text="I have learned new skills and I want to apply for jobs, the question is how do I manage when writing a cover letter.how do I give them example? Even If I am contacted back. How do I tell them I don't have any previous projects. How do I satisfy and get the job.&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5592" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2014" RevisionGUID="c769f692-b0dc-4a45-a877-e1869b897413" CreationDate="2014-06-18T09:41:17.163" UserId="1754" Text="Bidding for a new skill (without any history)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5593" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2014" RevisionGUID="c769f692-b0dc-4a45-a877-e1869b897413" CreationDate="2014-06-18T09:41:17.163" UserId="1754" Text="|attracting-clients|marketing|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5594" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2015" RevisionGUID="73a997b5-cfab-467e-9225-903c0cd2c936" CreationDate="2014-06-18T10:09:10.923" UserId="517" Text="Don't be a guy with no projects. Projects don't have to be paid ones. Have you created projects during the learning phase? You must have had so put those into portfolio. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also create a few more projects with that skill and put in the portfolio. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients don't care much if you had paid projects. They need to see projects to see what your skill are. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5595" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1859" RevisionGUID="27d0b484-b984-4e36-8075-fea62c617620" CreationDate="2014-06-18T10:41:12.730" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/479212226218188800" />
  <row Id="5596" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2014" RevisionGUID="99cf86e8-ad04-4308-b7f8-fddba09aafad" CreationDate="2014-06-18T15:59:58.150" UserId="75" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[1843],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5597" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2016" RevisionGUID="7fcce325-f21a-42ad-bbe7-bb42454f74fb" CreationDate="2014-06-18T18:30:05.933" UserId="4150" Text="A friend of mine has put me in touch with one of his co-workers who wants a website for his business. He simply requested that we meet up in person the next day. I have no idea what to discuss during this meeting, and in what order. Most of my knowledge of freelancing so far is of the stages to go through after the contract as been signed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have absolutely no idea where to go with this meeting and what to talk about first. I know I need to cover things such as my process for making a website, and what he needs so i can give him a quote, but in what order and in what fashion? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A very detailed answer that outlines all the things I need to cover with this guy tomorrow would be so very much appreciated. I would also use this information in all my future interaction with clients. I'm panicking at the moment, and I really need this cleared up. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5598" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2016" RevisionGUID="7fcce325-f21a-42ad-bbe7-bb42454f74fb" CreationDate="2014-06-18T18:30:05.933" UserId="4150" Text="I have a meeting with a potential client tomorrow and I have no idea what to do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5599" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2016" RevisionGUID="7fcce325-f21a-42ad-bbe7-bb42454f74fb" CreationDate="2014-06-18T18:30:05.933" UserId="4150" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5600" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2017" RevisionGUID="982d875e-117f-4fd2-be44-1ce1cf29b738" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:20:12.373" UserId="75" Text="First off, calm down. Nothing good comes from those who panic, and don't think things thoroughly! &lt;sigh&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now that you're calmed down, I want you to [Ask a Duck][1]. Pretend your duck is the client, and they are asking you questions about a website. What seems important? Write it down! What seems like an asinine request? Ignore it! You may look silly, but I promise it will help!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For websites specifically, I always have the client be prepared for the meeting. I let them know that my time is valuable *as well* (never leave out that part!), and that they only get one hour of free consultation to a website with me, so it's cheaper for them to come up with the general guidelines. On paper, with a pen or pencil, they should have a rough layout of what they want, and how the pages should flow (menu wise or link wise). They should be able to describe the type of content they want on each page.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, do they need to know the colour scheme already? Have all the stock photos? Not yet. That can come later. Your job is to understand how they want the website to work, then estimate how long it would take. But, have them do the most work with doing a quick design first on paper. **DO NOT HAVE THEM DO IT IN MICROSOFT WORD!** They will likely spend too much time on it, and it will make it harder for you (as the designer) to implement it from a Word document. Mostly, it will take them too much time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tell the client that you need this BEFORE you meet, so they are prepared, and have an idea of what it is they want. The first meeting is supposed to be quick, so visuals help. It also cuts down on *you* doing *all* the drawing, and just *hoping* that the client likes it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://blog.codinghorror.com/rubber-duck-problem-solving/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5601" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2018" RevisionGUID="2fdf7de7-2413-4e72-8e89-7278e9465f46" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:25:43.840" UserId="517" Text="To add to Luke's reply. Don't panic! Nothing big will happen tomorrow :). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Go to this meeting and gather information about website this person wants. You will NOT have to give any quote tomorrow nor you should do. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will NOT have to talk much tomorrow, cause it's his idea. Just listen, and ask questions if something is not clear. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then go back home, and try to set the price, or arrange another meeting where you will ask more details. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If convenient, think of the best website you did, but it's not necessary. You can email him list of your cool websites. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And don't forget to take all contact details :). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck and come back here reporting if we helped you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5602" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2019" RevisionGUID="f0ca1b53-2c95-4942-a9cb-381b1cad1adb" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:29:06.827" UserId="514" Text="This is a sales meeting. It's for you to find out what he wants, for him to get a sense of who you are, and for both of you to decide whether his requirements and your skills are a good match and whether you want to work with one another. To that extent, it's a little bit social, a little bit techy, and a little bit business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your goal for the meeting should be to come away with at least enough of an idea of what he wants to have a gut feel for how realistic his ongoing requests are likely to be, enough sense of what he want that you can draft a preliminary design or two for a next meeting, and ultimately, whether you want this project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;His goals should be to get a feel for your competence, your ability to create his project within budget and deadlines, and that you'll be able to support him as issues come to light or he needs enhancements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't forget the social part of the meeting. Whether he's aware of it or not, he's not just looking for a tech-head; he's also sizing you up as a someone who's reasonable to work with and he can depend on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for tomorrow, you don't need or want an outline as much as you want to your plain old likeable, reliable self. Your competence will come through as you get to chatting about weather, your families, sports teams or whatever else grabs you or him. If you can shift your venue for this meeting to a less formal environment, f/ex, a coffee shop, it should help you two get going.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does this sound like a first date? You might think of it that way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5605" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2021" RevisionGUID="e9823367-1957-43bd-8bab-44f7e5363706" CreationDate="2014-06-19T05:08:28.463" UserId="4161" Text="First of all you should ask him/her several prominent questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - What type of website do you want?&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - How much time-space do you lend?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - How much is your total budget?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - How far you prospect of the future of this website goes?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Though you might already be aware of what s/he wants, nevertheless you have to get his/her very detailed ideas, since those ideas should pass your filter of time/budget/skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is worth mentioning that it is better to not be so much passionate, be realistic since you might lose the thread and then give him/her suggestions which are out of your scope, such as &quot; It is better also to add a form like this, or like that&quot;. Of course, I mean any suggestion which is out of the scope agreed upon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good Luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5606" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="1821" RevisionGUID="5f62f9e7-f5a3-4951-acb2-eae00233b1e7" CreationDate="2014-06-19T05:12:19.557" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5608" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2019" RevisionGUID="677c5e33-1750-46d6-b2e8-a2b16d1aeb25" CreationDate="2014-06-19T10:51:21.027" UserId="514" Comment="added 8 characters in body" Text="This is a sales meeting. It's for you to find out what he wants, for him to get a sense of who you are, and for both of you to decide whether his requirements and your skills are a good match and whether you want to work with one another. To that extent, it's a little bit social, a little bit techy, and a little bit business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your goal for the meeting should be to come away with at least enough of an idea of what he wants to have a gut feel for how realistic his ongoing requests are likely to be, enough sense of what he want that you can draft a preliminary design or two for a next meeting, and ultimately, whether you want this project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;His goals should be to get a feel for your competence, your ability to create his project within budget and deadlines, and that you'll be able to support him as issues come to light or he needs enhancements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't forget the social part of the meeting. Whether he's aware of it or not, he's not just looking for a tech-head; he's also sizing you up as a someone who's reasonable to work with and he can depend on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for tomorrow, you don't need an outline as much as you want to bring your plain old likeable, reliable self. Your competence will come through as you get to chatting about weather, your families, sports teams or whatever else grabs you or him. If you can shift your venue for this meeting to a less formal environment, f/ex, a coffee shop, it should help you two get going.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does this sound like a first date? You might try thinking about it that way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5609" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2022" RevisionGUID="86a32ab1-e66e-47e2-b433-e5ad6a8038ad" CreationDate="2014-06-19T15:52:55.813" UserId="1711" Text="I'm starting out as a small web design and development business. I'd prefer that after I launch a site for a client, they then own and be responsible for the management and recurring payment of their domain name and hosting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm just curious how some of you handle this. Do you have them handle the sign up and registration of their own domain name and hosting through a provider of their own choosing,  and then just turn over the website files for them to deploy? Or do you assist them in getting a domain name and hosting setup and if so how do you go about making sure that they are the ones that receive support and billing notifications from the hosting provider after you've set it up for them? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any guidance or experience in this type of client interaction would be invaluable, thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5610" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2022" RevisionGUID="86a32ab1-e66e-47e2-b433-e5ad6a8038ad" CreationDate="2014-06-19T15:52:55.813" UserId="1711" Text="How to setup client ownership of domain name and hosting" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5611" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2022" RevisionGUID="86a32ab1-e66e-47e2-b433-e5ad6a8038ad" CreationDate="2014-06-19T15:52:55.813" UserId="1711" Text="|freelance-websites|client-support|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5612" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2023" RevisionGUID="a2bc90e7-9019-4608-a3a9-f03d4ac32fd4" CreationDate="2014-06-19T16:31:41.317" UserId="75" Text="I have a friend who is part owner of **many** hosting companies throughout the USA and Canada (he has dual citizenship), and he is able to have the customers sign up directly through him. I assume this is not the case with you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you are creating the websites, you should be running everything off of YOUR servers, so you maintain control until all the bills have been paid. Once the client has decided on a domain name, though, they should be the ones to register the domain themselves, or you can do it on their behalf if you get all their information (including the **credit card numbers needed**, which could be dangerous!).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My recommendation? I sit with them as they are typing it in, to make sure the information is accurate. I usually set myself up as the Technical Support contact for domain names with my customers, as the people who *would* call that contact are usually technical themselves. For the Administrative contact and Owner, I'd put your client's personal information there, for their company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, for billing, NEVER use your own credit card. What happens if the client doesn't pay, and the registrar takes payments from your card automatically? It becomes a nightmare, and I'm not willing to deal with it again. Have them do it, and stick to the development and designing of the web site." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5613" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2024" RevisionGUID="2c7ba8c3-d36b-4287-a6ec-549b21381bfe" CreationDate="2014-06-19T17:09:34.823" UserId="4172" Text="I will usually recommend a domain and web hosting provider for my clients, since they normally do not have any existing hosting, and don't usually know enough to choose one themselves.  I will sometimes give them a couple of options to choose from and let them select which one they prefer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am normally remote from my clients, so I will email them detailed instructions on how to sign up (including the details of exactly which package to sign up for).  If there is a maintenance contract in place, I will tell them to use my details as the technical contact, otherwise I will tell them to use their own contact details for everything.  That way they are the owners and are responsible for biling.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once they have signed up, I then have them forward the details on to me, including the password they used to sign up.  I can then log in to the hosting, create the database, configure everything and upload their site.  After everything is set up and they have verified everything is working, I tell them they can change the password for the account.  If there is a maintenance contract in place, I'll first create another login for me to use when I need to make any changes." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5614" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2025" RevisionGUID="f811197e-ca0e-444d-8944-5d5da00e7dbf" CreationDate="2014-06-19T18:33:14.100" UserId="2546" Text="The best thing you can do is listen as much as you can.  &#xD;&#xA;Don't interrupt, don't ask stupid questions and avoid forcing a certain tone for the meeting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first thing you need get from this first encounter is what the client want's exactly. In general (80% of the times) they expect solutions that have nothing in common with what they really need and here you come into the picture. But, the tricky thing is they actually know what they want (yes, I know, I contradict myself but it's true).  &#xD;&#xA;The client has no clue about how the solution will look at the end and because of this your role is to listen and see how far your client imagination (expectations) can go.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the end of the meeting, make of the list with what you understood and ask the client if this is what he/she wanted you to learn. If not, ask the client to make thing more clear. When this happens, close the meeting by proposing what should be done next and by making the client to engage by committing to some sort of terms, conditions and responsibilities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What the client needs to learn about you is that you can solve his problems. Not what kind of website (application, technologies, etc. will get) or other detail insignificant; just that you are the solution is searching for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5616" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2026" RevisionGUID="8d2bc614-5216-40db-b217-1b992c06c611" CreationDate="2014-06-20T03:02:15.470" UserId="708" Text="Most often what I do is send the client a link....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hi Client,&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Here is a link to the hosting package you'll need:&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;(insert link here)&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Please follow the steps to sign up, including paying for the hosting. You can register your domain at the same time, so it should be a simple one-time processes.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;This hosting provider is one of the best I've found. You get unlimited email and FTP accounts, a control panel .. (etc. etc. etc.. about the account - this is done to combat the &quot;but I heard GoDaddy is good&quot; arguments)&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;By having you do this rather than myself, it ensures you get the notices about renewal or issues with the account rather than relying on me to act as a middleman to relay such information. This also ensures that you are in control of the accounts and you don't have to be concerned about unauthorized access due to users you aren't aware of.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Once you are done signing up, you'll receive a &quot;Welcome&quot; email from (company). Please forward that email to me. It will contain passwords and log in information I need in order to upload files and set up the web site.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that, I wait for the &quot;welcome&quot; email. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While developing the site, I host the dev site on **my** servers until everything has been paid. Once payment is received, I upload everything to their hosting account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd recommend *not* providing hosting yourself unless you don't mind being the IT person for the client and dealing with the off-hour phone calls about email not working or some other random web issue." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5618" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2028" RevisionGUID="8e34b0b7-a731-4a2d-a58d-dc2b0f7b3883" CreationDate="2014-06-20T12:20:56.610" UserId="3014" Text="Seems like you are too panic. First of all calm down. Your client is not a giant who will eat you. lol! &#xD;&#xA;You should trust in your abilities. You should improve your communication. In my opinion your portfolio matters a lot but with that your way to present your work matters same as well. &#xD;&#xA;You should dress up in professional way. Read some good articles of how to dress up in a meeting and how to act in a meeting. &#xD;&#xA;These are all general thing I am mentioning here. As all other people are guiding you the technical aspects, I want to guide something different. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5626" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2030" RevisionGUID="4b0a25b1-cf6a-4a23-a15c-97964ba185a0" CreationDate="2014-06-20T16:22:37.873" UserId="1752" Text="Software and works like web page design are governed/protected by *copyright* in the United States.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you had no verbal or written contract stating that your work is a *work for hire* or that you grant IP to your client, then you automatically retain all copyrights.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What this implies is the following :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* In order for your client to use your work legally, you **must** provide them with a written license, or agree to assign the IP to your client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* In the absence of any agreement, they cannot use your work (in practice copyright is only enforced if the copyright holder sues for infringement, so by doing nothing you can effectively grant a license, but this is a future landmine for the client if you happen to change your mind for some reason).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would advise that you pay a lawyer to write up a license agreement with the terms that you want, and give it to the client.  Explain that he will need this to legally use the software. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then wait and see if he negotiates the terms, he may not..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5627" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2016" RevisionGUID="390e73b5-334c-456f-8bfe-ffd04887f262" CreationDate="2014-06-20T19:46:38.097" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/480074262363906048" />
  <row Id="5628" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2009" RevisionGUID="b5b97ec2-c929-4e2e-a0a9-1a7f86116c42" CreationDate="2014-06-21T04:59:58.913" UserId="208" Comment="added 461 characters in body" Text="Ok I see several things in your situation:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Client appears to be in financial trouble, but is trying to get you to work for free, to bridge them with their customer. You need to decide if client's woes are temporary, or if the client is going down the plughole. (Did the client pay your last invoices?) Do some discreet investigating. If you have other clients offering paid work, use that as a bargaining lever why you should not work on the current thing, unless he pays you some modest amount. I wouldn't accept deferred compensation or loosen credit terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1b. you seem to have gotten yourself into a bad situation where you are heavily dependent on this client (why?). Maybe it's better to spend (most/all of) your time rustling up other customers. At least it gives you leverage to require them to pay you something.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Validation, bugtesting, QA, should all be scoped as a separate acceptance phase of the contract (for which you get paid, like any other work - you can schedule that that phase covers n weeks, and beyond that, any incremental work is billed hourly). This should all be clearly spelled out in the contract and project schedule: who does testing, their deliverables to you (e.g. their buglist from validation).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. Maintenance is also separate work, for which, as you point out, you deserve to get paid. Define maintenance as any bug/issue/spec change/enhance they/you didn't catch in acceptance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So this boils down to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;a) The cleanest and most mutually satisfactory way is to spell all this stuff upfront in the contract and schedule: including acceptance phase, acceptance criteria, billing; their obligation to send you a complete buglist by the end of their validation. Prevention waaay better than cure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;b) If you really want to keep the customer, and they're not bouncing checks all over town and getting foreclosed on, then you can make sure to communicate in writing that this is an exceptional one-off customer-loyalty situation, at your sole discretion issue them an invoice for &quot;13 x $60 hours maintenance, with a 100% customer loyalty discount&quot;, so that the invoice zeros out. But if they think they can now randomly phone you weekly for free maintenance, you're going to go nuts. In that case, invoice them and be prepared to walk. You might extend the invoicing terms to net-90. Or give them a discount. It comes down to: how badly do you need them, and are you prepared to walk? Do you expect them to ever pay you?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5629" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2009" RevisionGUID="c65f1c5e-fda1-4751-9d8d-473d5260f2f0" CreationDate="2014-06-21T05:07:24.403" UserId="208" Comment="added 461 characters in body" Text="Ok I see several things in your situation:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Client appears to be in financial trouble, but is trying to get you to work for free, to bridge them with their customer. You need to decide if client's woes are temporary, or if the client is going down the plughole. (Did the client pay your last invoices?) Do some discreet investigating. If you have other clients offering paid work, use that as a bargaining lever why you should not work on the current thing, unless he pays you some modest amount. I wouldn't accept deferred compensation or loosen credit terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1b. you seem to have gotten yourself into a bad situation where you are heavily dependent on this client (why?). Maybe it's better to spend (most/all of) your time rustling up other customers. At least it gives you leverage to require them to pay you something.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Validation, bugtesting, QA, should all be scoped as a separate acceptance phase of the contract (for which you get paid, like any other work - you can schedule that that phase covers n weeks, and beyond that, any incremental work is billed hourly). This should all be clearly spelled out in the contract and project schedule: who does testing, their deliverables to you (e.g. their buglist from validation).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. The point is that the acceptance phase has a sharp cutoff, they pay while the clock is running in acceptance phase, and anything discovered after that cutoff is not a bug, it's a change request/maintenance. Do not accept the client's characterization of things as bugs, as that may weaken your stance if they subsequently try to stiff paying you by alleging crap like breach of contract and non-performance. (It doesn't matter here since this guy is apparently headed for credit troubles/bankruptcy not civil court, but generally don't do it.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 4. Maintenance is also separate work, for which, as you point out, you deserve to get paid. Define maintenance contractually as any bug/issue/spec change/enhance they/you didn't catch in acceptance. Define that maintenance constitutes paid work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So this boils down to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;a) The cleanest and most mutually satisfactory way is to spell all this stuff upfront in the contract and schedule: including acceptance phase, acceptance criteria, billing during acceptance phase, how to resolve disputes over acceptance, that you continue to get paid if they want to dispute acceptance; their obligation to send you a complete buglist by the end of their validation. Prevention waaay better than cure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;b) If you really want to keep the customer, and they're not bouncing checks all over town and getting foreclosed on, then you can make sure to communicate in writing that this is an exceptional one-off customer-loyalty situation, at your sole discretion issue them an invoice for (say) &quot;13 x $60 hours maintenance, with a 100% customer loyalty discount&quot;, so that the invoice zeros out. But if they think they can now randomly phone you weekly for free maintenance, you're going to go nuts. In that case, invoice them and be prepared to walk. I wouldn't extend the invoicing terms to net-90. But you might give them a discount at your discretion. It comes down to: how badly do you need them, and are you prepared to walk? Do you expect them to ever pay you? Why not just suspend further work until they pay you?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5633" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2022" RevisionGUID="9226c98c-3fb8-4e23-b1e4-3e48eec8de61" CreationDate="2014-06-21T10:47:13.127" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/480300901329293312" />
  <row Id="5634" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2032" RevisionGUID="d90cd55b-a9df-4271-853a-47ee510d1deb" CreationDate="2014-06-22T05:32:52.740" UserId="708" Text="Bill the full amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Accept the discount as payment terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, you bill $500. Client offers $100 in services discounts + $400 cash. Accept that payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The invoice should not reflect *how* the client is paying. However, the receipt for payment may. Similar to how you'd bill $X amount but offer a 10% discount for cash... the payment receipt would show the discount, not the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't customarily create receipts, do so for situations such as this so the client can show they've paid and you have a record of what was accepted as payment (should they fail to provide the discount)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5637" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2032" RevisionGUID="cdcca5a6-4e49-49e7-99e8-eef2b81e372d" CreationDate="2014-06-22T17:53:48.603" UserId="708" Comment="added 1050 characters in body" Text="Bill the full amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Accept the discount as payment terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, you bill $500. Client offers $100 in services discounts + $400 cash. Accept that payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The invoice should not reflect *how* the client is paying. However, the receipt for payment may. Similar to how you'd bill $X amount but offer a 10% discount for cash... the payment receipt would show the discount, not the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't customarily create receipts, do so for situations such as this so the client can show they've paid and you have a record of what was accepted as payment (should they fail to provide the discount).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In that case, the discount being offered is for a personal, non-business related, service or product, I believe they should be separate. The same way your business can't pay for your groceries directly - you can't accept a personal discount on behalf of the business. Therefore the business has nothing to do with the discount they are offering. It would equate to a &quot;kickback&quot;. Imagine if you had an employee in the same position.. what would you advise? Would the business lower an invoice so your employee could get a personal discount somewhere? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pay for the discounted service they are offering out of your pocket.... leave the business out of it, would be my advice.&#xD;&#xA;	&#xD;&#xA;The other option, is the business accepts the discounted service and pays for it... then you pay the business for the service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, if it's a personal item/service you should personally be paying for the service/item. If the business merely acts as a middleman, I believe that's fine. But be aware, I ***am not an accountant or tax attorney.***" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5638" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2016" RevisionGUID="810b7042-182c-41a2-ad75-a53017f1d2ba" CreationDate="2014-06-22T22:30:04.973" UserId="64" Comment="fixed grammar." Text="A friend of mine has put me in touch with one of his co-workers who wants a website for his business. He simply requested that we meet up in person the next day. I have no idea what to discuss during this meeting and in what order. Most of my knowledge of freelancing so far is of the stages to go through after the contract as been signed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have absolutely no idea where to go with this meeting and what to talk about first. I know I need to cover things such as my process for making a website and what he needs so I can give him a quote, but I'm not sure in what order and in what fashion to proceed? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A very detailed answer that outlines all the things I need to cover with this guy tomorrow would be so very much appreciated. I would also use this information in all my future interaction with clients. I'm panicking at the moment, and I really need this cleared up. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5639" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2016" RevisionGUID="810b7042-182c-41a2-ad75-a53017f1d2ba" CreationDate="2014-06-22T22:30:04.973" UserId="64" Comment="fixed grammar." Text="I have a meeting with a potential client tomorrow and I have no idea what to do" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5640" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2016" RevisionGUID="810b7042-182c-41a2-ad75-a53017f1d2ba" CreationDate="2014-06-22T22:30:04.973" UserId="64" Comment="fixed grammar." Text="|client-support|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5641" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1959" RevisionGUID="4a43bd43-3592-4715-bf9c-bf9a052af385" CreationDate="2014-06-22T22:32:44.907" UserId="64" Comment="fixed grammar and spelling" Text="To get the first job you should start with really low on bids and make the contacts and your rating high. This will lead to you earning a reputation and attracting employers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To submit your proposal for a job, you can try on Elance. Many more employers are there." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5642" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2032" RevisionGUID="4519b883-0817-4070-9592-55f465a0336f" CreationDate="2014-06-22T22:38:26.607" UserId="64" Comment="enumerated options" Text="Bill the full amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Accept the discount as payment terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, you bill $500. Client offers $100 in services discounts + $400 cash. Accept that payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The invoice should not reflect *how* the client is paying. However, the receipt for payment may. Similar to how you'd bill $X amount but offer a 10% discount for cash... the payment receipt would show the discount, not the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't customarily create receipts, do so for situations such as this so the client can show they've paid and you have a record of what was accepted as payment (should they fail to provide the discount).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In that case, the discount being offered is for a personal, non-business related, service or product, I believe they should be separate. The same way your business can't pay for your groceries directly - you can't accept a personal discount on behalf of the business. Therefore the business has nothing to do with the discount they are offering. It would equate to a &quot;kickback&quot;. Imagine if you had an employee in the same position.. what would you advise? Would the business lower an invoice so your employee could get a personal discount somewhere? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Pay for the discounted service they are offering out of your pocket.... leave the business out of it, would be my advice.&#xD;&#xA;	&#xD;&#xA;2. The other option, is the business accepts the discounted service and pays for it... then you pay the business for the service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, if it's a personal item/service you should personally be paying for the service/item. If the business merely acts as a middleman, I believe that's fine. But be aware, I ***am not an accountant or tax attorney.***" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5643" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2010" RevisionGUID="45137d7b-1963-4bd8-bb4b-b1228ec85cb6" CreationDate="2014-06-22T22:55:10.150" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/480846483995242496" />
  <row Id="5652" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2035" RevisionGUID="a9173aac-bd7c-408d-8415-95b3a80fb185" CreationDate="2014-06-23T17:36:31.647" UserId="514" Text="**Ongoing site maintenance was probably 30% of the work I've done previously and been paid for hourly.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your prior agreement included maintenance as paid work. Now he wants to change that and you to work for free - inappropriate. You can be Mr. Nice Guy, as a couple of posters have suggested, to help them through a rough time, but yeah, tell them your aren't starting a new policy, &amp; document it (invoice with discount). Otherwise (and maybe anyway!) you'll be spending a lot of time on free maintenance or sour your relationship when you finally say &quot;no more&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5660" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2037" RevisionGUID="b9b951ba-4c1a-46a5-ae7c-3c9d35c0fe74" CreationDate="2014-06-24T16:49:16.057" UserId="4197" Text="I have been offered to develop a web application from scratch and have been offered 10% of the pie, if and when the project becomes profitable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not sure if 10% is right, they say I will be the fifth partner. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is 10% about right in such situations? Where a technical guy develops from scratch? Can somebody point to any metrics I should consider?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5661" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2037" RevisionGUID="b9b951ba-4c1a-46a5-ae7c-3c9d35c0fe74" CreationDate="2014-06-24T16:49:16.057" UserId="4197" Text="I have been offered 10% of the profit, how do I know if this is the right percentage?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5662" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2037" RevisionGUID="b9b951ba-4c1a-46a5-ae7c-3c9d35c0fe74" CreationDate="2014-06-24T16:49:16.057" UserId="4197" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|pay-rate|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5663" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1948" RevisionGUID="e5248e44-236a-4dce-871c-b4c3e2a6576c" CreationDate="2014-06-24T17:04:44.013" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/481483070613504001" />
  <row Id="5664" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2038" RevisionGUID="db0e14a9-c931-44df-b45d-86e610134b3f" CreationDate="2014-06-24T17:19:03.697" UserId="1706" Text="You're being duped.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're doing 100% of the work for the POTENTIAL of 10% of the profits.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How will the site be marketed?  &#xD;&#xA;How much money will be spent on marketing?  &#xD;&#xA;*Whose* money will be spent on marketing?&#xD;&#xA;What *is* the target market?  &#xD;&#xA;How much will the services be sold for?&#xD;&#xA;Who collects the money?&#xD;&#xA;How long between the time a customer pays and the time you get your 10%???&#xD;&#xA;Who OWNS the software?&#xD;&#xA;Who's going to run and control the web server?  &#xD;&#xA;Who will be the owner-of-record for the site?&#xD;&#xA;Can you prevent your business partners from running off with your work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you haven't answered all of these questions, don't do a shred of work until you can.  If you go asking these questions and there's any hesitation by your partners, RUN LIKE HELL.  Leave it alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5665" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2038" RevisionGUID="a8683d80-84e3-4b56-a420-6f2456f36887" CreationDate="2014-06-24T17:24:42.780" UserId="1706" Comment="added 348 characters in body" Text="You're being duped.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're doing 100% of the work for the POTENTIAL of 10% of the profits.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- How will the site be marketed?   &#xD;&#xA;- How much money will be spent on   marketing?  &#xD;&#xA;- *Whose* money will be spent on marketing? &#xD;&#xA;- What *is* the target market?   &#xD;&#xA;- How much will the services be sold for? &#xD;&#xA;- Who collects and distributes the money? &#xD;&#xA;- How long between the time a customer pays and the time you get your 10%???&#xD;&#xA;- Who OWNS the software? &#xD;&#xA;- Who's going to run and control the web server?   &#xD;&#xA;- Who will be the owner-of-record for the site? &#xD;&#xA;- Can you prevent your business partners from running off with your work?&#xD;&#xA;- What is the form of the organization? (corporation, LLC, partnership, etc)&#xD;&#xA;- *How* will it be documented that you are a partner?&#xD;&#xA;- What is the work background of all the partners?  How does each one's experience directly benefit the partnership?&#xD;&#xA;- How much work is everyone else expected to do? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you haven't answered all of these questions, don't do a shred of work until you can.  If you go asking these questions and there's any hesitation by your partners, RUN LIKE HELL.  Leave it alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5666" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2037" RevisionGUID="e54fb6ee-c7f5-4bcd-b6bb-9e2b1093f28d" CreationDate="2014-06-24T20:03:02.583" UserId="75" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[917],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5667" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2039" RevisionGUID="c76e5a99-a410-494f-a0b9-7bab48dbb3d9" CreationDate="2014-06-24T21:37:49.467" UserId="4199" Text="&#xD;&#xA;Diagnosing a washing machine I thought it was the belt\idler pulley. They were purchased and installed but did not solve the problem. I have come to understand that it may be the drum bushing, clutch, or transmission. The dolor amount of those items, installed, may come to close to the price of a new unit. I don't really want to get into changing any of those as it basically becomes a tear down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now my question is what to do about payment. I have been paid to fix it already, having left it in working order the night before. The next day with a nice heavy load in it, it wouldn't spin and melted the belt. I consider myself handy but this repair would near the scope of my ability. I am considering refunding half the bill(for time spent?) less the price of the parts I purchased and having them call a pro or get a new unit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am new to 'contracting' out my skills but have been doing rehab\repair work for years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How do repairmen bill for time and money spent on something only then to find out it's un-fixable?**&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5668" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2039" RevisionGUID="c76e5a99-a410-494f-a0b9-7bab48dbb3d9" CreationDate="2014-06-24T21:37:49.467" UserId="4199" Text="How do repairmen bill for time and money spent on something only then to find out it's un-fixable?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5669" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2039" RevisionGUID="c76e5a99-a410-494f-a0b9-7bab48dbb3d9" CreationDate="2014-06-24T21:37:49.467" UserId="4199" Text="|contracts|payments|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5672" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2040" RevisionGUID="1753e18c-137f-4958-acf0-c4be2b767d4c" CreationDate="2014-06-24T22:10:00.140" UserId="75" Text="In my province, we have lots of mines and mills, and many of these sites generate tens of thousands of dollar per hour. The customers do not want any downtime whatsoever, but rarely want to pay for it. This leads to the hammar story.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Someone was called out to a mine to fix a critical machine. The entire&#xD;&#xA;&gt; time it was down, the mine was losing over $50,000. It was&#xD;&#xA;&gt; unacceptable! So the repair guy came, looked at the machine, hit it&#xD;&#xA;&gt; with a hammer, and left them a $25,000 bill.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Accounting was furious, and asked for a detailed invoice. Here's what&#xD;&#xA;&gt; they received&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt;     Hammer            $25&#xD;&#xA;&gt;     Knowing where to hit&#xD;&#xA;&gt;     the machine   $24,975&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So knowledge and time have to paid for, no matter what. Materials should always be covered whenever used, as no one will ever purchase a used product. OK, maybe not &quot;no one&quot;, but very few people would accept a used part in an industrial machine, unless they are extremely cheap people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your time is valuable, and you need two separate cost factors: your time (non-refundable), and supplies used (non-refundable). But, if the client complains, or what you did didn't fix it, what do you do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is where the cost of customer service comes in. Parts should always be charged (unless they're cheap enough you can &quot;give them a discount&quot;), but time is always negotiable. There is a reason there are quotes done, and that's to give an *estimate* as to the total cost of a service or repair.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the customer asks you to go ahead with the estimate you give them, you do what you can. As soon as you realize it's going to be too much money, **STOP**! This is when you contact the customer with your new findings, and new recommendations. If you just discovered this, then first step is to call the client, and explain what you found, in plain English. Your recommendation is to scrap it? Fine, tell them what the cost would be anyways, but let them decide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No one likes a surprise bill, so you need to make sure you are upfront, and tell your client as soon as you realize there's an issue. They will give you more respect, as they see it as you saving them more money, in the end.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5676" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="923" RevisionGUID="f583ad76-6f7d-4831-b57f-61ba2b8e3ea2" CreationDate="2014-06-25T05:10:07.280" UserId="708" Comment="added 355 characters in body" Text="Don't do it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there were actually a prospect of the site making any *real money* (thus commissions being worthwhile) the guy wouldn't be offering to pay you in commissions. He's offering this payment structure because he knows the return on commissions will be far less than any standard fees you may want. In general, those offering this type of structure ***don't have enough faith in their own business model to pay for your services up front.*** If they did, they'd realize in an instant that paying any fees you have directly would be more cost effective than giving up commissions. TO be fair, many would-be entrepreneurs may also see the commission structure as &quot;Hey! I won't have to pay him/her *anything* until I start making money.&quot; It may not be a malicious offer, however it's generally not a good offer unless the site/project is *already* making money and there are *already* figures for what your commissions would be in place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he insists upon a commission structure you need to alter it to ensure you get paid enough to compensate you at least a little. A flat fee per month plus commissions. But even then only do that if you *really want* to do the project. It may be better to lower the initial project fees and supplement that with commissions. For example... standard project fee minus 30%, then 5% royalty on all sales.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working solely on commission creates an unstable client relationship in my experience. **If the site makes no money, you make no money.** What if the client wants you to spend 60 hours changing the site in order to increase sales? You'll be doing all that for free. What if the site merely trickles in sales and your commissions are less than $50 a month? Are you going to feel it's worth spending time to improve the design in order to increase your commissions? Realize that this may be a &quot;hobby&quot; for the owner, a simply secondary income venture, while in most cases it may be your **primary** job or source of income. So your needs may be much greater than your clients. He may be okay if the site goes 6 months without making a dime. Would you be?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you really want to get into commission-based payments for a business site you should be **treating the site as any investor would**. Because, make no mistake, he's asking you to be an investor in the business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the business plan? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What's the anticipated user base? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What's the cost of user acquisition? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What are the monitization methods? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What's the rate of user decay? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What are the projected sales for the first month? quarter? year?  &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What type of products is the site selling?  &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What's the current market demand for those products? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;How are sales for the current (ebay) system? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;How much time, each month, is anticipated to be needed on your part? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;How long can you expect to wait before you recover your costs? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Do you like the business? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Is it something you want to be involved in? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Are you willing to work without payment in order to try and improve your returns? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most web designers/developers get approached with &quot;partnership&quot; or commission structures regularly. These ventures do **not** pay well 99.9% of the time. If you think you've got the something in that .1 percentile, go for it. But be aware the odds of you getting paid even your base rates are stacked against you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for &quot;knowing he's paying you the right amount&quot;.... as an investor (because that's what you would be) you should have the right to view sales for any given period and those amounts. Put that in a contract. If he's unwilling to do that, then don't walk, **run** away from his offer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5677" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2042" RevisionGUID="2f334255-5d20-447d-817a-f689ab002ce3" CreationDate="2014-06-25T05:59:03.637" UserId="517" Text="Many freelancers, including myself, calculate a man day as 8 hours of work. I've heard of stories that large companies count their work day as 6 productive hours for an individual programmer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that other professions like a design or customer support can have 8 or 10 productive hours a day, but all programmers know what it means to achieve 6 productive hours a day (especially when coding nasty algorithm). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there anyone around who is close to some executive in an company to confirm how many productive hours they count as &quot;one man day&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5678" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2042" RevisionGUID="2f334255-5d20-447d-817a-f689ab002ce3" CreationDate="2014-06-25T05:59:03.637" UserId="517" Text="How many hours a man day really is? (programming)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5679" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2042" RevisionGUID="2f334255-5d20-447d-817a-f689ab002ce3" CreationDate="2014-06-25T05:59:03.637" UserId="517" Text="|productivity|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5680" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2043" RevisionGUID="faf193e6-071b-4791-bdc2-4e13e7830785" CreationDate="2014-06-25T09:03:54.817" UserId="43" Text="I'm a software developer who has been practicing the [pomodoro technique][1] for the last few months, in part to show me how long I actually spend performing tasks, but also to find out how much productive time I actually spend during a day. Even on a day that I have a well defined task to work on and no distractions (Skype and email are switched off, etc), when starting at 8am I found myself having to work through until around 7pm to complete 16 blocks of focused work, which isn't even actually 8 hours if the breaks in between focused work blocks are discounted. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So to actually work for 8 hours requires, in my experience, 10, 11 or even 12 hours of time to be spent. Given that a standard working day is 8 hours, then 6 hours is more than most people are able to spend being productive. Most of the organisations I've worked for quote between 6 and 7 hours to be a standard working day, in terms of billable time. The quote I provided for this project was based on a working day of 8 hours, so I have been working 11-12 hour days to ensure that I worked productively for the client for the stated 8 hours per day. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://pomodorotechnique.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5681" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2044" RevisionGUID="bea8ee7d-459e-4013-abd4-ad8f5bb18c20" CreationDate="2014-06-25T11:42:08.900" UserId="4203" Text="I was hired for a small web development job by a client. The job was small and of less budget. After I finished the job and notified the client, he didn't replied for several days. This made me think he is planning to not pay for the job. After several days and multiple E-Mails client finally told me that he is not going to pay me giving some some vague reasons. Since the job is of small amount I can't opt for legal options which it will be more costly and troublesome.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But accidentally client forgot to change the cPanel login details and I can still login to the server. So the only option I am left with is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;+ Delete all the client data (including that was not uploaded by me) and move on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;+ Download the client data, delete it from server and ask client to pay (extra) to get his data back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you people think? Is is unethical to do so? I tried to be professional but it was client who started unethical behaviour. So, can I opt for above two methods?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5682" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2044" RevisionGUID="bea8ee7d-459e-4013-abd4-ad8f5bb18c20" CreationDate="2014-06-25T11:42:08.900" UserId="4203" Text="Is it unethical to sabotage client website who refused to pay?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5683" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2044" RevisionGUID="bea8ee7d-459e-4013-abd4-ad8f5bb18c20" CreationDate="2014-06-25T11:42:08.900" UserId="4203" Text="|payment-terms|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5684" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2044" RevisionGUID="1304036b-690a-4e1f-a90a-64fb0e768014" CreationDate="2014-06-25T12:37:41.157" UserId="4203" Comment="deleted 9 characters in body" Text="I was hired for a small web development job by a client. The job was small and of less budget. After I finished the job and notified the client, he didn't replied for several days. This made me think he is planning to not pay for the job. After several days and multiple E-Mails client finally told me that he is not going to pay me giving some some vague reasons. Since the job is of small amount I can't opt for legal options which it will be more costly and troublesome.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But accidentally client forgot to change the cPanel login details and I can still login to the server. So the only option I am left with is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;+ Delete all the client data (including that was not uploaded by me) and move on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;+ Download the client data, delete it from server and ask client to pay (extra) to get his data back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you people think? Is is unethical to do so? I tried to be professional but it was client who started unethical behaviour. He has left with no options" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5686" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2045" RevisionGUID="9cc4fdd9-38ec-4524-8a3e-fdb30c6ba765" CreationDate="2014-06-25T14:25:07.343" UserId="4172" Text="Yes, it is definitely unethical.   You do have other options. You could:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Do nothing**.  Just take the loss and treat it as a learning experience.  Next time you will know to never give the client the finished website until they have paid in full.  Always host the site on your own servers during development and only transfer the site to the client's servers when they have paid all or most of the agreed price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Continually remind the client that payment is due**.  Send overdue invoice reminders every two weeks.  I think this works better with paper invoices, but sometimes with small amounts, clients get annoyed at the hassle and pay the invoice just to make the annoyance go away.  But given that the client did give vague reasons for non payment and not just tell you to get lost, they may eventually pay up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Remove *only your work* from his servers**.  You should not delete anything without having a backup, and you should definitely not touch anything that is not your work.  If your work is now entwined with work done by others then you don't have this option.  I don't really recommend this, but if you do it, you must let him know that you have taken the site down and that you will restore it as soon as he pays what he agreed to.  Do not try to extort any &quot;extra&quot; from him.  What you are trying to do is recreate what should have happened in the first place, namely that your site does not get onto his server until you are paid in full.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if the client has behaved unprofessionally, that is no reason for you to do so also.   My recommendation is to persist in asking for payment for a while, but to treat this as a lesson and move on.  Be glad it was only for a small amount, and that you now know better how to protect yourself in the future." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5687" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2046" RevisionGUID="7c3099f5-34f4-4411-a5de-5b675cf9c165" CreationDate="2014-06-25T14:25:18.747" UserId="9" Text="The short answer: **YES**, it is highly unethical and likely illegal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The two last resorts that you describe can be boiled down to two words: vandalism and ransom. Would your business survive being associated with either of those?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's only a small amount as you describe, then chalk it up to experience and let it go. You can certainly refuse to do future work for that client, but what you're describing is [retaliation][2], which is certainly unethical.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/27773/is-it-unethical-to-sabotage-client-website-who-refused-to-pay&#xD;&#xA;[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_for_an_eye" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5688" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2046" RevisionGUID="dd9d7c9e-5de9-467b-b761-21ecc81a0c0d" CreationDate="2014-06-25T14:31:35.543" UserId="9" Comment="added 236 characters in body" Text="The short answer: **YES**, it is unethical and likely illegal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The two last resorts that you describe can be boiled down to two words: vandalism and ransom. Would your business survive being associated with either of those? You can certainly refuse to do future work for that client, but you should limit your own potential losses (of reputation and future work) first.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you describe it as being only a small amount, chalk it up to experience and let it go (or send the bill to collections). In the future, you'll want to change your billing practices to require a deposit (money for the project provided up-front as a sign of good faith). This way, if a client doesn't pay at the end of the project, you at least get _something_ out of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/27773/is-it-unethical-to-sabotage-client-website-who-refused-to-pay" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5689" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2047" RevisionGUID="394f2a89-7668-485e-bedb-c17dd9efcffc" CreationDate="2014-06-25T15:10:51.480" UserId="517" Text="Wait, if I understood:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- you were hired to make a website&#xD;&#xA;- you did it and the client did not pay it&#xD;&#xA;- you have access to admin service hosting the website&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I understood it properly, than the content on his website is still your. Transfer of intellectual rights happens when one side is paid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So IMHO you should definitely take back your property (source codes), delete content on his server and send him a message (polite one!) that you had to revoke all files because your work was not paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is completely ethical and IMHO proper thing to do. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unethical part comes when you act in revenge or destroy data permanently. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5690" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2044" RevisionGUID="446ebfb9-bf36-4dbd-b6cb-5911304a918d" CreationDate="2014-06-25T16:04:05.083" UserId="-1" Comment="reworked question to be constructive and on topic" Text="I was hired for a small web development job by a client. The job was small and of less budget. After I finished the job and notified the client, he didn't replied for several days. This made me think he is planning to not pay for the job. After several days and multiple E-Mails client finally told me that he is not going to pay me giving some some vague reasons. Since the job is of small amount I can't opt for legal options which it will be more costly and troublesome.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But accidentally client forgot to change the cPanel login details and I can still login to the server. I have a few options I am considering:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;+ Delete all the client data (that was created as part of the project) and move on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;+ Download the client data, delete it from server and ask client to pay (extra) to get his data back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you people think? Is is unethical to do so? I tried to be professional but it was client who started unethical behaviour. He has left with no options.  How should I this situation" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5691" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2044" RevisionGUID="446ebfb9-bf36-4dbd-b6cb-5911304a918d" CreationDate="2014-06-25T16:04:05.083" UserId="-1" Comment="reworked question to be constructive and on topic" Text="How should I deal with a client who refuses to pay after receiving the finish product?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5692" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2044" RevisionGUID="446ebfb9-bf36-4dbd-b6cb-5911304a918d" CreationDate="2014-06-25T16:04:05.083" Comment="Proposed by anonymous approved by 75 edit id of 330" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5698" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2049" RevisionGUID="65589da3-fdf4-4a73-880a-cc329ecdbcf7" CreationDate="2014-06-26T00:12:37.450" UserId="4199" Text="I'm a nub repairman. If I did something wrong I'd expect to eat that cost. If I did what I think every other guy would do (a logical repair check list) to diagnose a machine, and then several purchased parts later, only to find that the unit is totaled, **do I deserved to be paid for my time and the materials purchased?** I sort of asked this question before and was left an interesting comment; someone asked weather I had quoted &quot;replacing the parts&quot; or &quot;fixing the unit&quot;. Another answer was about the $25,000 Hammer Fix. Here's a question for that: **If hitting it with a hammer didn't work, who is *ethicly* liable for the $25 hammer?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5699" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2049" RevisionGUID="65589da3-fdf4-4a73-880a-cc329ecdbcf7" CreationDate="2014-06-26T00:12:37.450" UserId="4199" Text="How to quote\charge for diagnostic work that unknowingly leads into the item being totaled?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5700" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2049" RevisionGUID="65589da3-fdf4-4a73-880a-cc329ecdbcf7" CreationDate="2014-06-26T00:12:37.450" UserId="4199" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5702" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2049" RevisionGUID="1e566343-3ef5-4d92-bdba-38dc041e2b3c" CreationDate="2014-06-26T04:38:50.050" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar/spelling, clarity, removed unneeded formatting" Text="I'm a rookie repairman. If I do something wrong, I'd expect to eat that cost. If I did what I think every other guy would do (a logical repair check list) to diagnose a machine, and then several purchased parts later, only to find that the unit is totaled, do I deserved to be paid for my time and the materials purchased?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I asked a similar question before and was left an interesting comment; someone asked whether I had quoted &quot;replacing the parts&quot; or &quot;fixing the unit&quot;. Another answer was about the $25,000 Hammer Fix. Regarding that answer, if hitting it with a hammer doesn't work, who is *ethically* liable for the $25 hammer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5703" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2049" RevisionGUID="1e566343-3ef5-4d92-bdba-38dc041e2b3c" CreationDate="2014-06-26T04:38:50.050" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar/spelling, clarity, removed unneeded formatting" Text="How to quote/charge for diagnostic work that unknowingly leads into the item being totaled" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5704" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2049" RevisionGUID="1e566343-3ef5-4d92-bdba-38dc041e2b3c" CreationDate="2014-06-26T04:38:50.050" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 4199 edit id of 331" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5705" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2050" RevisionGUID="e67b4685-5785-464f-8159-3453952a0dad" CreationDate="2014-06-26T05:40:19.800" UserId="517" Text="So I know the minimum amount of money I have to earn in a week (weekly salary), I know the minimum hourly rate and I know how much hours I have to work in a week. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But every now and then I am asked by old or new clients to do some quick things where hourly rate is usually 50% larger than the regular hourly rate. So it's smart way to have a daily buffer for these kinds of unplanned tasks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you plan such unplanned tasks? Do you plan them at all? Or when they come, you leave the current work aside and catch up with it tomorrow?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was thinking to have 1 or 2 hours a day aside for such tasks. If they come, I can do them. If they don't come, I can either work that time or take a rest. But of course, in the other 6 hours I have to be so productive to earn my weekly salary (at least)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5706" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2050" RevisionGUID="e67b4685-5785-464f-8159-3453952a0dad" CreationDate="2014-06-26T05:40:19.800" UserId="517" Text="How do you divide your time between planned and unplanned/new work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5707" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2050" RevisionGUID="e67b4685-5785-464f-8159-3453952a0dad" CreationDate="2014-06-26T05:40:19.800" UserId="517" Text="|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5708" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2051" RevisionGUID="8e45978b-ad22-4dfa-be97-e1f4ba860016" CreationDate="2014-06-26T10:39:45.373" UserId="3014" Text="When such situations come to me, I simply work hard over night. Overtime work is the only solution for this purpose. There are situations, when I worked more than 24hrs and had no sleep for 2 days. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5709" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2050" RevisionGUID="9d4c7471-3876-4730-8e20-41ef4cc58297" CreationDate="2014-06-26T11:01:05.007" UserId="517" Comment="added 207 characters in body" Text="So I know the minimum amount of money I have to earn in a week (weekly salary), I know the minimum hourly rate and I know how much hours I have to work in a week. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But every now and then I am asked by old or new clients to do some quick things where hourly rate is usually 50% larger than the regular hourly rate. So it's smart way to have a daily buffer for these kinds of unplanned tasks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you plan such unplanned tasks? Do you plan them at all? Or when they come, you leave the current work aside and catch up with it tomorrow?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was thinking to have 1 or 2 hours a day aside for such tasks. If they come, I can do them. If they don't come, I can either work that time or take a rest. But of course, in the other 6 hours I have to be so productive to earn my weekly salary (at least).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since being a family man with kids, working over nights is not really a solution. I wake up early and go to bed around 10PM and try to spend quality time with kids when I finish my day work. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5710" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2052" RevisionGUID="4608080a-a136-4f09-836a-69478edfd5dd" CreationDate="2014-06-26T14:04:34.353" UserId="127" Text="I schedule planned work for less than 40 hours a week. (Typically for me it is closer to 25.) If nothing else comes in, then I usually continue to work on planned and try to get ahead. If other things do come in, I have a buffer to work with. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That doesn't help 100% of the time - sometimes lots of things come in at once, but it does help. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5711" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2053" RevisionGUID="13127908-7f2e-4b69-8909-f63037483618" CreationDate="2014-06-26T16:04:18.300" UserId="4214" Text="I'm not sure where the 6 hours have come from but with my corporate team leader head on, I use velocity to measure estimates against actual work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My team (heavily supporting users as well as coding) estimates hours for tasks. I then have a monitored velocity where I see that in 37.5 hours of actual 'work' people can squeeze in between 15 and 25 hours of estimated work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The remaining time is still productive, but on non-'ticketed' or 'bug related' duties that we do not plan in advance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the 6 hours have a somewhat similar background, just they are static and poor estimates cannot be 'mapped'. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I was freelancing and seeing that I do 6 hours of productive work yet spend the other two or four or however I do on duties researching the specifics of a job related problem, I'd still charge for them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5712" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2054" RevisionGUID="f055f2a2-4916-4f93-bb72-7b624e955149" CreationDate="2014-06-26T18:46:28.397" UserId="4216" Text="If the job is under $5k then go to small claims court and win your case.  After the determination by the judge (you won) take the results to the clients bank and get your money.   Remember to always get a deposit from the client so you will know what bank they use..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5713" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2050" RevisionGUID="4fd8a4bb-d9f8-44ea-9dfb-82252e839419" CreationDate="2014-06-27T05:04:52.983" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/482389077183188992" />
  <row Id="5714" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2042" RevisionGUID="8ad6423e-9580-4790-8e38-96e6e23166ca" CreationDate="2014-06-27T11:05:01.010" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/482479708874235904" />
  <row Id="5715" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2044" RevisionGUID="09240969-fb38-4d5a-b5d5-18c01ae25a63" CreationDate="2014-06-27T14:05:00.860" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/482525005759414274" />
  <row Id="5716" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2055" RevisionGUID="01b24361-6a9d-41b5-8f4e-3cea564a4da8" CreationDate="2014-06-28T02:32:18.147" UserId="4226" Text="&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Wow, this thread really does strike the cord of all freelancers, doesn't it? Hot button issue: the cancellation!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am in the tutoring business and would say that I am in pretty high demand -- just being honest to make my point, not a braggart...but, you know, I'm kind of a big deal. lol&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyone who endorses a &quot;slap on the wrist&quot; is automatically, and immediately, weak in the eyes of the client. YOU are manipulatable....you are the lower hand to his upper. You don't understand human psychology and you will get trampled if the client -- and this is a gargantuan IF -- if the client hires you, and...trust me....he probably won't, but IF he does ----&gt; he will shit on you.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I charge a full lesson fee for anyone who cancels 48 hours before a pre-scheduled lesson. In the summer, I make everyone pay in advance. From that day I started working freelance to today, I've grown more successful but I never, and I mean, NEVER forgave anyone for canceling within 24 hours. Full $225.00 lesson fee. If you doubt what I am saying and aren't in complete agreement, you don't understand human psychology and you don't understand business strategy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;YOU determine your worth, freelancers! Don't you get it? Picture this: You're a character animator, the last of a dying breed. You got a big blank week of no appointments, no prospects, no nothing in front of you...and then suddenly, boom!  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;DREAMWORKS CALLS!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;....and says they need you in right away, Steven Spielberg needs to meet you and if you don't come right now, they will find someone else for the job. What do you do? Those who race to dreamworks are the same chumps who grant freebies to flakes... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, those who are busy today but politely make arrangements for Thursday morning, charming the receptionist with their phone manner and getting Stephen to see VALUE in waiting for YOU....Mr. Awesome Freelancer....well those people charge for their time....no matter what....come hell or high water!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Case closed! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5717" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1955" RevisionGUID="ff72e432-c60c-4c89-8489-811349f8118d" CreationDate="2014-06-28T08:08:16.650" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/482797617769091073" />
  <row Id="5718" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2056" RevisionGUID="889475ad-557e-46d2-af9e-ab845ace7b6e" CreationDate="2014-06-28T15:10:38.840" UserId="1706" Text="If the site was HTML-only, then the client may have ripped off the HTML content and moved on.  You might be wasting your time trying to pursue the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there is PHP (or another server side scripting language) and then a database, (and this was me) I'd backup both the PHP content and script out the database, and remove the database and content from CPANEL completely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your work is not the client's to use and have until it's PAID FOR.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5719" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2055" RevisionGUID="eff8422f-f501-43a9-a6e6-aa1198eaf9c9" CreationDate="2014-06-29T01:51:13.153" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 177 characters in body" Text="Wow, this thread really does strike the cord of all freelancers, doesn't it? Hot button issue: the cancellation!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyone who endorses a &quot;slap on the wrist&quot; is automatically, and immediately, weak in the eyes of the client. YOU are manipulable....you are the lower hand to his upper. You don't understand human psychology and you will get trampled if the client -- and this is a gargantuan IF -- if the client hires you, and...trust me....he probably won't, but IF he does ----&gt; he will take advantage of you.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I charge a full lesson fee for anyone who cancels 48 hours before a pre-scheduled lesson. In the summer, I make everyone pay in advance. From that day I started working freelance to today, I've grown more successful but I never, and I mean, NEVER forgave anyone for canceling within 24 hours. Full $225.00 lesson fee. If you doubt what I am saying and aren't in complete agreement, you don't understand human psychology and you don't understand business strategy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;YOU determine your worth, freelancers! Don't you get it? Picture this: You're a character animator, the last of a dying breed. You got a big blank week of no appointments, no prospects, no nothing in front of you... and then suddenly, boom! DREAMWORKS CALLS!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They say they need you in right away, claiming Steven Spielberg needs to meet you! And if you don't come right now, they will find someone else for the job. What do you do? Those who race to Dreamworks are the same chumps who grant freebies to flakes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, those who are busy today but politely make arrangements for Thursday morning, charming the receptionist with their phone manner and getting Stephen to see VALUE in waiting for YOU... Mr. Awesome Freelancer... well, those people charge for their time, no matter what, come Hell or high water!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Case closed! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5720" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2057" RevisionGUID="29796e51-e77b-4dd8-adfc-b00fae9a43b2" CreationDate="2014-06-29T09:37:49.083" UserId="4231" Text="I'm looking to get some extra work and start my own I.T support business for **home users only**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Examples of work:&#xD;&#xA;- Working on computers in front of the client&#xD;&#xA;- Clients drop off computers, I fix them, they collect them&#xD;&#xA;- Remote work (client will be able to see everything I do)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm aware with any business you have to protect yourself. Below are a few issues I one day expect to come across and need to know how to protect myself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**&quot;You've deleted some of my files&quot;** - I haven't but I'm likely to get accused of this at some point. I could backup their data before hand but this is not only time consuming but I am then keeping hold of their private data.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**&quot;You've been viewing my private data&quot;** - I haven't, but they may accuse me of this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**&quot;My computer is still full of viruses&quot;** - the truth is when I handed it back to the client it was virus free and shortly after they've downloaded more viruses and are accusing my of not doing my job properly!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**&quot;My computer is now worse&quot;** - let's say they hand me a PC which is crumbling. I use it for an hour and something blows up (e.g power supply) and I'm accused of breaking the machine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. How best to cover myself against these points? There are many more but I can't see how I can cover everything so what's the best practice?!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. I guess the only way around any of these is to cover all these points in a contract and before any work takes place the client must sign it? Is replying to an email with the contract attached sufficient/legal?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. For remote work, how best to take payment? If I don't take payment before, once the PC is repaired they could cut the connection and never speak to me again. If I do take payment, they may have to do it online - if there computer is full of viruses this is not wise for obvious reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks,&#xD;&#xA;Ricky" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5721" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2057" RevisionGUID="29796e51-e77b-4dd8-adfc-b00fae9a43b2" CreationDate="2014-06-29T09:37:49.083" UserId="4231" Text="I.T home support - protecting myself" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5722" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2057" RevisionGUID="29796e51-e77b-4dd8-adfc-b00fae9a43b2" CreationDate="2014-06-29T09:37:49.083" UserId="4231" Text="|contracts|legal|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5723" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1873" RevisionGUID="c65b3c6d-26e6-4ec9-bb33-2b29aa0683ed" CreationDate="2014-06-29T17:15:49.477" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/483297801351471104" />
  <row Id="5724" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2058" RevisionGUID="b8bb10a9-a57f-4ed0-93ef-f1c540aeb889" CreationDate="2014-06-30T02:56:36.233" UserId="75" Text="Although open-ended, I'll try to address it as best as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;GET A CONTRACT DRAWN UP ASAP! Do not offer remote support, except to those you know quite well, and personally.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract should be signed before you take in the system, and before you touch it. It should explain that you are a professional, but shit happens... Essentially. It needs to explain what can *potentially* go wrong, and that you will try everything in your power to not have it happen. Although contracts exist around the Internet, it doesn't hurt to spend a couple hundred dollars on a lawyer to look them over, and make sure it will cover your ass.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the remote support, that's a very good possibility (of them running away once it's fixed). For this reason, I only do remote support for my **very** good clients, and never anyone new. My good clients have established trust with me, and I know where they live. I haven't run into someone trying to skip out on a bill when I explain I only do it for my best clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for emailing a contract and just having them reply: I doubt it, but talk to a lawyer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're running any business, you can also pick up liability insurance; it may be expensive, but it would cover you for virtually *anything* that goes wrong. You'll need to learn to assess the risk involved, and make sure that if you get a gut-feeling that someone is bad news, you just don't deal with them. End of story." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5725" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2059" RevisionGUID="2cfdc455-e94f-4bb1-987c-3dff9a1ff839" CreationDate="2014-06-30T08:12:24.190" UserId="2546" Text="1. You should always back-up your clients data. Yes, it's time consuming. It is also the best practice. Obviously this should happen after you asses the situation and only if the conclusion is that the next best thing you should do before starting work is to back-up the data.&#xD;&#xA;2. Because you will keep the client behind you watching what you are doing, if you don't look expressly to their private data, no one will accuse you of nothing.&#xD;&#xA;3. A work well done will never put you in this situation. If you know what you are doing, and if you give instructions and train your clients by making them familiar to the best practices regarding &quot;how to avoid getting viruses&quot; then be sure no one will accuse you of nothing.&#xD;&#xA;4. Yes, it happens many times; after you do your work, the computer can be worse than before. If this happens, start again until the computer will work properly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You speak about home users. With them, it will be harder to close a contract. They usually close contracts with the banks and maybe when they get a new internet connection (or something of this sort).  &#xD;&#xA;It is hard to believe that they will trust you once you ask them to sign a contract with you. I don't say you shouldn't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What about the payment?  &#xD;&#xA;Well, home users are used to pay before getting the service so, when you work remotely, first take the money and then start doing your thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5726" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2060" RevisionGUID="2582975d-8eb2-451d-b7ae-afd2801ec922" CreationDate="2014-06-30T14:07:55.067" UserId="1762" Text="I've had a few bad experiences where I've been paid past due, and I'm concerned about building products for clients that I'll never see a dime for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have some friends that get credit card information from their clients before starting work to ensure that they are paid for the time they spend on their work, but I wonder if this scares away potential clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this a good practice?  Are there other reliable ways to ensure that you get paid for the work you complete as a freelance programmer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5727" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2060" RevisionGUID="2582975d-8eb2-451d-b7ae-afd2801ec922" CreationDate="2014-06-30T14:07:55.067" UserId="1762" Text="Is it OK to Ask For a Credit Card Before Beginning Work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5728" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2060" RevisionGUID="2582975d-8eb2-451d-b7ae-afd2801ec922" CreationDate="2014-06-30T14:07:55.067" UserId="1762" Text="|payment-terms|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5729" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2061" RevisionGUID="cacd288e-36e9-4a3a-a3ca-1dc8f2faecd1" CreationDate="2014-06-30T14:31:13.667" UserId="9" Text="To address your direct question, no, it's not a great practice. To think of it in terms of risks, I would not want to risk my clients' credit card information being stolen (because I would likely be liable for that!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A more common practice is to require a **deposit**, or a percentage of the total fee due upfront before any work is to be completed. This ensures that, no matter what, you've at least received something for your time. Also, the client is motivated to follow through with the contract, since they've already paid money to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another practice is to require payments upon certain **milestones**, or well-defined break marks in the project. Work would not begin on the next milestone until payment has been made.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it 100% reliable? No. Does it ensure that you at least get something for your time? Yes." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5730" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2062" RevisionGUID="ef3129c5-14c2-4ead-be45-f30f4db8938c" CreationDate="2014-06-30T15:28:06.407" UserId="4242" Text="So I made an app for this person and he did give me 50% of the money. But the thing is he just gave me 50% of the money and put the app on the play store. Now whenever I try to contact him he says he is busy or in hospital or something. I stopped all his ad services but still isn't replying. Is there any way I can remove his app from the play store." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5731" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2062" RevisionGUID="ef3129c5-14c2-4ead-be45-f30f4db8938c" CreationDate="2014-06-30T15:28:06.407" UserId="4242" Text="Person didn't pay yet took the app and put it online" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5732" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2062" RevisionGUID="ef3129c5-14c2-4ead-be45-f30f4db8938c" CreationDate="2014-06-30T15:28:06.407" UserId="4242" Text="|difficult-client|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5733" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2063" RevisionGUID="69995e37-8c76-40c5-9720-a0751c3dbdbb" CreationDate="2014-06-30T17:39:41.077" UserId="517" Text="No you cannot. Did you give him the sources? I hope not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can give his app negative comment and you can rate the client badly via the website you used to work thru. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You said you have access to his add service? That is good cause you control his money inflow. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But other that what you already did, there is not anything you can do. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5734" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2064" RevisionGUID="9ae0ac06-b2a8-4613-b3a3-f139b2963004" CreationDate="2014-06-30T18:23:18.397" UserId="4247" Text="Be careful asking for (and storing) credit card information. Unless you're a [PCI-compliant][1] business, there are portions of credit card info that you aren't supposed to store anywhere as part of a transaction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A deposit is a good choice. Always have a contract that states the payment terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some freelancers also have a &quot;kill fee&quot; where you still get paid X amount if the client decides to cancel the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's a [great talk(maybe nsfw, language)][2] on this subject that addresses common pitfalls you're likely to encounter when trying to get paid for freelance work. Some of it applies more to design than programming, but it's still definitely useful information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_DSS &quot;PCI compliant&quot;&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://creativemornings.com/talks/mike-monteiro--2/1 &quot;F*ck You, Pay Me&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5735" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2065" RevisionGUID="6eea01f0-fad2-423a-97e8-8e9a1d963906" CreationDate="2014-06-30T18:25:59.370" UserId="4246" Text="While I agree with @ChrisForrence about the deposits, percentages and milestones for payments, I disagree that it isn't a good practice *if done correctly*, meaning you have a legally binding agreement that authorizes you to charge their credit card upon non-payment of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have a contract that says something to the effect:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You authorize [company name or your name] to charge your credit card for any unpaid amounts of work after completion of project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Below this sentence they would fill in their credit card information and sign the paper. This gives you the authorization to charge their credit card if they never pay for the work. Of course I would recommend having a lawyer create this document so it complies with any legal requirements but I have seen this used before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This method can be used in conjunction with deposits or milestone payments. Those who use this kind of a document tell me they typically try to contact the client before making the charge. It is when the client either refuses to pay or won't reply to them that they charge the card.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, when using this information be sure the contract with the credit card info is kept in a locked and secure place." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5736" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2066" RevisionGUID="e45cdfc3-30cb-4ab1-8587-13f95e5d2ae5" CreationDate="2014-06-30T18:30:16.147" UserId="1706" Text="I think an actual deposit is better, whether it's in direct bank funds (cash, check, cashier's check, money order, ACH), or a credit card transaction UP FRONT (meaning that you get the info and make a charge RIGHT AWAY), or maybe even PayPal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's why:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can collect the credit card info as you are describing, but ***until you do a transaction, you don't know if the funds are actually available!!!***  Doing it early will let you know what kind of customer you're dealing with.  Customers who start backtracking when you ask for credit card information might be indicating, inadvertently, that they don't actually have the money to pay you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time.&quot;- Maya Angelou&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5737" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2067" RevisionGUID="9b1e33b2-0b16-4958-8616-1817fa6bc8de" CreationDate="2014-06-30T18:32:05.473" UserId="4245" Text="This is your mistake: you hired a developer to make something that already exists and can be bought for less than it costs to make a new one. ALWAYS consider the cost of buying some existing software instead of paying to develop something. It is almost always more costly to develop something than to buy it. IMO, you're being charged fairly for what you're asking the person to do. Developing a fully featured e-commerce system isn't a small task.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, it is a stupid task. I've been writing code for 30 years - I would never agree to do your project. We would need to have a really long conversation about why none of the hundreds of pre-built e-commerce solutions won't work for you, and even then I probably wouldn't take the project, or I would take it but inform you that I will be customizing an existing product. Ethically, I wouldn't feel right about charging you to develop a whole new e-commerce system. Unethically, I might charge you to develop the product and then I would sell it independently from you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, all you can do is try to mitigate the damage. Make sure your contract includes exclusive rights to the code so YOU can sell this e-commerce system if it's any good. Your other option is to just eat the loss, buy an e-commerce solution you can be happy with, and move on." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5738" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2068" RevisionGUID="a070c18c-5071-4a5c-88be-c335efaba494" CreationDate="2014-06-30T18:32:29.300" UserId="1706" Text="You're probably screwed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't do this again.  When final payment is due, DEMONSTRATE the app via Skype, but don't send a thing to the client until you've received ALL your money.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5739" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2069" RevisionGUID="caa429d3-df37-40e2-a86f-4fd41a89a032" CreationDate="2014-06-30T18:38:06.157" UserId="1706" Text="&quot;Invent&quot; a needed repair for a device that you own and take it to Best Buy for their Geek Squad service.  While in line, &quot;review&quot; their contract (i.e. snap a few photos with your phone to capture the language in the contract).  Then, suddenly decide you don't want to go through with the repair.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm gonna assume that the Geek Squad people deal with what you're describing very often, and a big-$$$ service provider such as Geek Squad isn't going to leave itself exposed to stupidness for very long.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The point is to figure out what language you'll need to protect yourself, as you are requesting.  Review the photos at your leisure, and figure out what you need for when you generate contracts of your own, and get it into your own WRITTEN contract.  Voila! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5743" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2071" RevisionGUID="87b59d8d-acad-4596-b45a-3f62868b679a" CreationDate="2014-06-30T19:46:00.870" UserId="4250" Text="I am facing a somewhat similar issue myself, but I would **never**, **never**, **never** (did I emphasize that enough?) consider doing anything to the deadbeat's site. Don't even use the credentials to keep tabs on it. Why?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) His nonpayment is simply a civil matter, but **you may be committing a felony** *(Are you absolutely sure that you've got the law on your side?)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Regardless of the legality, **you give the guy a cudgel** to use against you, either at law or in bad-mouthing you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) Unless your proposed action is explicitly mentioned in your contract with him, **it's very unprofessional.** I myself would be very reluctant to hire someone who did what you propose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my own case, if I don't get paid, I am considering bad-mouthing the company in a civil &quot;just the facts, ma'am&quot; manner in the company's professional circles. (But even here I'm concerned that the negativity might rub off on me, so I wouldn't do it until I was well-situated with a continuing client.) That might not work for you if your deadbeat is a really small operator. My company is well known in a restricted niche.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5745" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2060" RevisionGUID="c251fee2-d2ed-4393-bca3-da29fc574060" CreationDate="2014-07-01T08:18:33.403" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/483887368148361216" />
  <row Id="5746" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2072" RevisionGUID="a054969d-9e86-44e6-84b9-8a33ec0cd376" CreationDate="2014-07-01T09:50:23.837" UserId="4262" Text="@user3772366, was the 50% that he paid you an initial milestone payment? If you've tried talking to him already and it doesn't work, perhaps it's time to shoot an email to the Google Developers Support team and tell them your situation and tell you them you have the original source code to prove that the app was developed by you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This has happened to another developer that I know of and it was resolved when Google took the app offline while they wait for the guy that posted the app online to respond to the conflict.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think it's definitely worth a shot. I seriously hope you have the payment arrangement in paper trial (emails, letters, etc) so that you can prove that he has not fulfill his side of the bargain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FYI, perhaps watch this before you start any new job ;) [F@%# You, Pay Me][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://creativemornings.com/talks/mike-monteiro--2/1 &quot;F@%# You, Pay Me&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5747" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2073" RevisionGUID="be427a90-f113-4c51-be53-d735639cb671" CreationDate="2014-07-01T09:56:26.913" UserId="4262" Text="If you DO NOT live in Australia, and DO NOT have an Australian Bank, then there's no reason why you need to pay tax here. Ok, so your client is located here in Australia, however, isn't your own country's tax enough? Your client is the one that has to pay Tax, not you. Perhaps this link might help: [Australia caught out by Freelancer.com][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; At law **the payer** is supposed to withhold 46.5 per cent and send this&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to the ATO. A person doing exactly the same work living overseas does&#xD;&#xA;&gt; not have this restriction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/11/19/information-technology/australia-got-caught-out-freelancercom" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5748" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2074" RevisionGUID="0986d71f-0731-48b8-b823-16d49102c3a8" CreationDate="2014-07-01T10:10:57.607" UserId="4262" Text="When you're just starting out Freelancing, I would highly recommend freelancing sites like Freelancer.com or Elance.com. I know for a fact that on Freelancer.com, they give you tips on what to do when you start freelancing, and would recommend you the steps you **should** take when starting a job (before all the contract bits).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They also have teams that will assist with dispute management should your work arrangement ever fall through and you need to dispute payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are just Freelancing on your own, then make sure that you have nutted out their requirements and check whether they require you to sign a NDA before you present them with your own contract. If they do require you to sign an NDA, **read** through it first and make sure that you clarify any ambiguity!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some examples of contract templates for freelancers are below if you haven't got one already:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Free Contract Templates][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Contract Templates for Designers][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://theultralinx.com/2013/07/free-contract-templates-legal-resources-freelancers.html&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://designmodo.com/contract-templates-freelance-designer/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5749" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2075" RevisionGUID="1353f692-94b7-410d-ac5e-cad817cdae53" CreationDate="2014-07-01T10:13:02.207" UserId="4262" Text="Absolutely not. Unless the client has a retainer agreement with the previous web developer, there's no reason why the client can't give you the access details to the website him/herself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, think about it from this point of view, there's a reason why you are talking to this client, because the previous developer could not (or would not) do further work for them and this give you the right to request access to the right to do your job." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5750" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2057" RevisionGUID="0648c3e2-b61d-4c08-9c5e-308e3c14c710" CreationDate="2014-07-01T11:18:22.677" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/483932622213890048" />
  <row Id="5751" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2076" RevisionGUID="bbaedd09-8448-492f-a196-6678369c6a02" CreationDate="2014-07-01T14:17:58.667" UserId="4271" Text="I have just read your previous thread also. I feel you need some more advice on this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) VAT - You can charge VAT 'IF' you are VAT registered. It's also important to know that if you are setup as a Ltd company **you can voluntarily** register for VAT no matter how much your company earns.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, for any work your company does (if you register for VAT) you MUST charge VAT at 20%. If you are (which you most likely will be) on the flat rate scheme then 14.5%  of the total amount is given to the tax man and you keep the remainder.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;eg&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;you bill £100 which is £100 + VAT = £120&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;£14.50 goes to tax man&#xD;&#xA;£5.50 goes to your company - corporation tax&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) *from previous thread* - How much to charge&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This basically all sounds like you are now contracting. Do you have a Ltd company setup? Business bank account? or are you sticking to freelance?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't forget you have to declare ALL income to the tax man and register for self assessment. If you are going Ltd then you need to factor in Corporation tax.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;£200 a day sounds very low for your skills. I did a freelance job in Manchester for 4 weeks at £200 a day so London should easily be £300 per day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) Be aware of IR35.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) Get an accountant.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5) Get an accountant&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5752" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2077" RevisionGUID="c271430f-e639-4f5e-b874-6ba581427e2a" CreationDate="2014-07-01T14:41:00.060" UserId="4271" Text="Ideally you will bill the client £500. Then you claim back your expenses from your company (you need receipts) you will then only be taxed on the remainder. Which is what I assume you mean by 'that time of year'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An accountant would be able to advise you more ;)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5753" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2078" RevisionGUID="c047ed8f-dbee-4a91-b0d1-945c7ad21b87" CreationDate="2014-07-01T15:35:22.883" UserId="43" Text="You would be advised to to do some research regarding the [Flat Rate VAT Scheme][1], which is a scheme that you can choose to register for if your annual turnover is less than £150,000. It simplifies your VAT calculations significantly. The basic premise is that you charge VAT to your clients for the provision of your services but you cannot claim VAT back on purchases that you make (save, I think, for single items exceeding £2000 - you should verify this separately). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then, when you complete your VAT return, the amount that you pay to HMRC is calculated using a lower percentage than the standard rate of VAT, and you keep the difference. The actual percentage varies depending on the type of services that you provide. This is to offset the VAT that you have to pay for purchases that you make. If you're going down the limited company route, it's well worth doing, but as @testydonkey mentioned - get an accountant, get an accountant, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/start/schemes/flat-rate.htm" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5754" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2079" RevisionGUID="3ea937be-937b-480f-ac23-534f3c01cd33" CreationDate="2014-07-01T19:26:31.580" UserId="4275" Text="I would tell the client that in order to do the work you must have access to the site. It's up to them to figure that out and contact the previous developer and obtain access if they do not have access already." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5755" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2080" RevisionGUID="e8a4875a-ecb4-403d-9fb3-4da5e060edf0" CreationDate="2014-07-01T20:53:29.953" UserId="4277" Text="Even though the amount due may not be much, it can still be worthwhile to pursue legal action in small claims court, as you can get more than the original amount - **depending on the contract you agreed to**; If you entered into a verbal contract or no contract at all - this will be a loss you shouldn't pursue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Provided that's the case, you should examine the contracts of others, along with this experience, and write an effective contract that will fairly protect you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do have paperwork to back you up, you can claim several additional fees which will make using the legal system more palatable, provided you have clauses in your agreement. I would limit the number of points you would pursue to one or two of the worst, as if you go to court and list too many issues the judge might get a bad impression;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Interest / Late fees. Since you're not being paid on time, the client may have to pay additional fees.&#xD;&#xA; - Hours lost. For every hour you're in court or assembling documentation, you can claim time lost which you could have spent on real clients. You may be able to claim these as overtime/unplanned hours if you have a separate rate for them. Have paperwork to back up every minute and don't go overboard.&#xD;&#xA; - Undue stress; you are being inconvenienced because you haven't been paid. That money might have been part of your budget, which is now unbalanced. This is a weaker point, but might help if you don't have substantial claims.&#xD;&#xA; - Court costs. Depending on the jurisdiction, you may be entitled to claim any costs associated with filing your claims." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5756" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2081" RevisionGUID="d1772137-f597-47d1-8992-35642e0685b3" CreationDate="2014-07-02T10:03:23.490" UserId="4280" Text="First, it would really depend on the agreement between your client and the old designer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;so you really have to talk to the client first and ask about their agreements and if he can contact the old designer to give you an access. You know it's really a sad thing when your client would look for another developers and would like to revision your work. So, it's better if your client is the one who would request it :D" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5757" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2082" RevisionGUID="ca0576e5-00ab-41d7-83f0-5deb554ab2ef" CreationDate="2014-07-02T11:04:01.273" UserId="3047" Text="Is there some general rule to follow when delivering a project after the date that was agreed upon?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's say you have one month to prepare the project but you deliver it in six weeks. At what point you should offer some kind of compensation to keep relations good? How big should be the compensation - deduct how many percents from final price? Or what other compensation should I offer, if any?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know this should not happen in the first place, but when it does, what are proper manners?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you for your answers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5758" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2082" RevisionGUID="ca0576e5-00ab-41d7-83f0-5deb554ab2ef" CreationDate="2014-07-02T11:04:01.273" UserId="3047" Text="What are proper manners when delivering project after agreed date?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5759" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2082" RevisionGUID="ca0576e5-00ab-41d7-83f0-5deb554ab2ef" CreationDate="2014-07-02T11:04:01.273" UserId="3047" Text="|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5760" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2082" RevisionGUID="80d17d05-950c-4b1d-93b8-12d98605c2b5" CreationDate="2014-07-02T11:13:33.440" UserId="3047" Comment="edited tags" Text="|time-management|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5761" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2039" RevisionGUID="a638d47f-87d8-4f61-99a3-75bf22851843" CreationDate="2014-07-02T11:26:46.460" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/484297122515542016" />
  <row Id="5762" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2083" RevisionGUID="ef45bdfd-204a-4124-98b6-99cb813f2508" CreationDate="2014-07-02T11:57:51.210" UserId="517" Text="Well I also did some deductions after I was late in the project. I took down my hourly price 25%. In the end, the client was happy, but I am not sure I did the right way. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that, I start informing client as soon as I run across the bottleneck or slow task explaining him why I estimated this for X hours and I know realize it will take Y hours. So far, this works well and I don't have to drop my price down. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the key is in the communication and keeping the client aware of all good and bad things. You can always pack bad things in the nice wrapping, but I would always tell the client about the issues, then do them the wrong way or tell him in the last minute. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5763" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2084" RevisionGUID="7b7858c6-1b80-47e3-b223-20e1bbf7628c" CreationDate="2014-07-02T12:33:42.130" UserId="1018" Text="For the best result, I think it's important to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. let the client know as soon as possible that you may not be able to&#xD;&#xA;    meet the deadline (this gives the client the maximum amount of time to make alternative arrangements if needed)&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 2. be honest and explain why (it may be something out of your control)&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 3. find out what the impact to the client will be (it may not be an&#xD;&#xA;    issue)&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 4. if the client is impacted, work out what you can do to reduce the&#xD;&#xA;    impact as much as possible (e.g. maybe you can deliver critical&#xD;&#xA;    parts of the project on time and the less critical parts later)&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 5. work out what you can do to make it up to the client (something that&#xD;&#xA;    is commensurate with the impact, if there is one)&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 6. don't make a habit of breaking deadlines with any particular client&#xD;&#xA;    so you can keep your reputation intact&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some ideas on compensating your client for a missed deadline are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. reduce the agreed price (e.g. by 10%)&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 2. complete an out of scope task for free&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 3. offer to reduce your price on the next project&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 4. deliver something extra the client isn't expecting&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're not sure what would make the client happy, then ask them!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5764" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2083" RevisionGUID="b18c48d4-65a6-4d82-adfb-c97464c3096a" CreationDate="2014-07-02T12:51:43.140" UserId="517" Comment="added 8 characters in body" Text="Well I also did some deductions after I was late in the project. I took down my hourly price 25%. In the end, the client was happy, but I am not sure I did the right way. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After this event, I started informing clients as soon as I run across the bottleneck or slow task by explaining them why I estimated atask for X hours and now realize it will take Y hours. So far, this works well and I don't have to drop my price down. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the key is in the communication and keeping the client aware of all good and bad things. You can always pack bad things in the nice wrapping, but I would always tell the client about the issues, than implement them the quick &amp; wrong way or telling him about it in the last minute. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5765" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="2079" RevisionGUID="5f40502a-750f-4f6e-b826-0f73f8990cd0" CreationDate="2014-07-02T15:43:34.667" UserId="75" Comment="26" />
  <row Id="5766" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2085" RevisionGUID="1765b882-9dbf-49bd-a34f-7ab70ab9d798" CreationDate="2014-07-02T19:35:36.447" UserId="4275" Text="If I have projects to complete that I have committed to, I continue working on them and give the client requesting the additional work a time frame (maybe within two weeks) that I will be able to get to it. Then, when I happen to have the time, I work on that project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5768" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2086" RevisionGUID="f0051bd8-21b7-4f28-861b-a8536181ce3c" CreationDate="2014-07-04T00:17:00.217" UserId="1018" Text="Good question and one which most freelancers can probably relate to!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the best way to handle your workload is to educate clients that you are only one person and will do your best to manage the competing demands of all your clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This might mean occasionally missing a deadline by a day or two if another client has an emergency that you can't ignore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If clients can't cope with the odd missed deadline then they probably need to be hiring a larger firm that can absorb peak work loads easier than you can. The disadvantage for the client with a larger firm is that they will likely need to pay a higher rate associated with a larger firm's overheads.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In summary, I think the answer is in managing client expectations. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5769" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2086" RevisionGUID="671e9d08-920b-4811-8d6e-27a1b42729da" CreationDate="2014-07-04T00:22:26.153" UserId="1018" Comment="Improve answer." Text="Good question and one which most freelancers can probably relate to!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the best way to handle your workload is to educate clients that you are only one person and will do your best to responsibly manage the competing demands of all your clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This might mean occasionally missing a deadline by a day or two if another client has an emergency that you can't ignore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If clients can't cope with the odd missed deadline then they probably need to be hiring a larger firm that can absorb peak work loads easier than you can. The disadvantage for the client with a larger firm is that they will likely need to pay a higher rate associated with a larger firm's overheads.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally, it is also good to under promise and over deliver. In terms of deadlines, maybe add some time to allow for unexpected work. For example, if you think you can get a task finished by Wednesday then tell the client it will be finished by Friday. If no extra work comes in and you finish by Wednesday, then the client will be happy. If extra work comes in and you don't finish the task until Friday, then there's no harm done and everyone is still happy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In summary, I think the answer is in managing client expectations. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5770" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2087" RevisionGUID="12de234a-24cc-4bd2-ae6f-21cbeb72ab7c" CreationDate="2014-07-04T01:43:32.063" UserId="1018" Text="Spending money to find out if an item can be repaired is justifiable if the fee is reasonable compared to the cost of a replacement unit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I'd probably be willing to spend $100 to find out if a (not too old) $800 washing machine can be fixed. If the inspection and repair fee was $400 or more, I'd be more inclined to just go and buy a new machine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a customer, I don't have the skill to repair the washing machine myself so I am relying on the experience and advice of the repairman. If the repairman is telling me there is a good chance that the unit can be repaired for a reasonable cost, then I will be happy to pay the cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course there are no guarantees and if one part is repaired only to find there is a more serious problem, then I wouldn't hold the repairman responsible for this as I already authorised the initial repair. It would then be time to reassess whether to continue with repairing the machine or to cut my losses and buy a new one.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5771" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2088" RevisionGUID="13003023-5892-42d5-a75c-68f270af97ae" CreationDate="2014-07-04T01:58:51.780" UserId="1018" Text="8 hours seems like a reasonable number to me but this will mean different things to different people and freelancers and clients will need to agree on a more detailed definition so that a fair rate can be calculated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, 8 hours of continuous uninterrupted work could take 10 or 12 hours to complete once breaks are added. Alternatively, 8 hours work might mean 8am to 5pm with an hour for lunch and include an allowance for a few interruptions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The important thing is that a definition is agreed and a fair rate is charged.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5772" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2089" RevisionGUID="c08c3e63-02e0-49ca-8b29-22d78e025dec" CreationDate="2014-07-04T16:32:28.197" UserId="4303" Text="I have finished some work for a client, he paid 50% for the work done. &#xD;&#xA;After the work was finished and delivered he failed to pay the rest 50%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Legally there isn't much to do with it, it will end up being a waste of time because the amount was not so significant (400$). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However my client happens to be a student and I thought of turning him in to the teacher. My issue is, will I have any consequences and is it even worth it? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What advise do you have to give?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5773" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2089" RevisionGUID="c08c3e63-02e0-49ca-8b29-22d78e025dec" CreationDate="2014-07-04T16:32:28.197" UserId="4303" Text="Client does not pay" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5774" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2089" RevisionGUID="c08c3e63-02e0-49ca-8b29-22d78e025dec" CreationDate="2014-07-04T16:32:28.197" UserId="4303" Text="|payment-terms|payments|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5775" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2089" RevisionGUID="09e4e399-f50f-4be8-9230-c037ce81ea34" CreationDate="2014-07-04T21:17:16.000" UserId="4303" Comment="added 199 characters in body" Text="I have finished some work for a client, he paid 50% for the work done. &#xD;&#xA;After the work was finished and delivered he failed to pay the rest 50%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Legally there isn't much to do with it, it will end up being a waste of time because the amount was not so significant (400$). &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However my client happens to be a student and I thought of turning him in to the teacher. My issue is, will I have any consequences and is it even worth it? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT:** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project was solving multiple of his homework for school related project. It is academic dishonesty for him and punishable by his university possibly with warning or he will get expelled.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They client is not reachable by any means and ignores all forms of communication. There was no contract signed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What advise do you have to give?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5776" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2090" RevisionGUID="0de81f5b-e9e8-41bc-8a91-36c4c5669b72" CreationDate="2014-07-05T02:26:25.157" UserId="1018" Text="Given that your client is ignoring all forms of communication with you, it seems like you only have three options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**1. Do Nothing**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be grateful that you received 50% of your fee and forgive the balance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One disadvantage (especially if your client talks about this to others) might be that you get a reputation as a &quot;push over&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2. Final communication attempt (ultimatum)**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With no contract, the only leverage you seem to have to motivate your client to pay is to threaten contacting the teacher.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This might achieve your final payment or it might not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The disadvantage with this option is that you are breaking an implied client confidence. This might be perceived as not being very professional but other potential clients will probably understand this is a reasonable course of action given the circumstances.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It might be the case that your client just doesn't have the money to pay you right now. If you can establish communication, and your client is having financial difficulties, you might consider offering payment terms so you do get paid eventually.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**3. Contact the teacher**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're not prepared to forgive the debt and Option 2 is unsuccessful, then your only other course of action is to contact the teacher. It's unlikely this will result in being paid the final 50% but it will send a message to other clients and potential clients that you are not someone who can easily be taken advantage of.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5779" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2091" RevisionGUID="85b591ae-6862-45f7-9a93-7f7e68739e1d" CreationDate="2014-07-05T04:48:41.200" UserId="4295" Text="I am a open source developer , and i want to start free lancing work in my field. i want to know that what things to keep in mind when you are going to start your free lancing work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5780" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2091" RevisionGUID="85b591ae-6862-45f7-9a93-7f7e68739e1d" CreationDate="2014-07-05T04:48:41.200" UserId="4295" Text="what to keep in mind before starring a free lancing work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5781" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2091" RevisionGUID="85b591ae-6862-45f7-9a93-7f7e68739e1d" CreationDate="2014-07-05T04:48:41.200" UserId="4295" Text="|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5782" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2091" RevisionGUID="9b484781-2b89-4abd-9bbf-79f06a077b73" CreationDate="2014-07-05T05:52:29.963" UserId="64" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5783" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="2091" RevisionGUID="74120e0f-701b-406a-86fd-4eeeb6479d32" CreationDate="2014-07-05T05:55:20.257" UserId="64" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5784" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2091" RevisionGUID="496311f3-df2e-4f12-9584-d9b986038c92" CreationDate="2014-07-05T05:55:36.080" UserId="64" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[101],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5786" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2089" RevisionGUID="4ab7ce65-273a-411b-b602-044320fb5e79" CreationDate="2014-07-06T16:11:26.323" UserId="64" Comment="highlighted question and removed plea for advice" Text="I have finished some work for a client, he paid 50% for the work done. &#xD;&#xA;After the work was finished and delivered he failed to pay the rest 50%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Legally there isn't much to do with it, it will end up being a waste of time because the amount was not so significant (400$). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project was solving his homework for a school related project. It is academic dishonesty for him and punishable by his university, possibly with warning or he will get expelled.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is not reachable by any means and ignores all forms of communication. There was no contract signed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However my client happens to be a student and I thought of turning him in to the teacher. **My issue is, will I have any consequences and is it even worth it if I turn him in?** " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5787" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2089" RevisionGUID="4ab7ce65-273a-411b-b602-044320fb5e79" CreationDate="2014-07-06T16:11:26.323" UserId="64" Comment="highlighted question and removed plea for advice" Text="Client does not pay - Should I turn him in?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5788" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2092" RevisionGUID="d8f26ae3-28a6-4b89-b20a-531fa8096b32" CreationDate="2014-07-07T00:26:42.507" UserId="4315" Text="If you are not being paid in Germany, not paying German taxes, and it is not affecting your school work, then I think you can. So long as you keep your grades up the German government will not know that you work more than 20 hours a week as a freelancer. If they ask, I would state that you work for the company, but stretch the truth that you work no more than 20 hours a week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is important to know though, that if they catch you lying on this paperwork, that you can get in trouble. It varies on how much trouble, but it is a possibility. (In the US not abiding by your agreement while on Visa status can get your visa revoked) however as a freelancer it's a lot harder for them to track down exactly how much you've worked.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5789" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2093" RevisionGUID="0d140829-6177-4d0b-9dc6-de87f8c4d5a3" CreationDate="2014-07-07T09:04:39.393" UserId="888" Text="I also had an idea that I work 8-10 hours a day but I was surprised when I worked for some clients on elance using the elance tracker. What I noticed is that, for starters, I couldn't work 8 hours in a day. The maximum I managed to do is about 6-7 hours. I'm talking about actual work involving programming, without counting breaks. With those I worked from 8 AM to about 6-7 PM, so almost all day. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another thing I noticed is that I work more on Monday and less on Friday. I might work all day on Monday and get a lot of work done, but on Friday I can barely work half a day, and I'm not very productive. So on Friday I usually do about 2-3 hours of actual work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5793" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2095" RevisionGUID="c539771c-4371-47dc-a8b5-9b3747364ed0" CreationDate="2014-07-07T17:40:44.187" UserId="4321" Text="I'm a comic artist in the UK. I earn money from my website, 3rd party merchandise sales and commissions. I've recently been commissioned to draw illustrations for an international magazine. They want my VAT number and other details so they can pay me online. I don't earn much money so I've never registered for VAT. Can they pay me without a VAT number? Do I need to register my business? Do I need to pay tax? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm lost so if anyone could help, I'd be very appreciative." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5794" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2095" RevisionGUID="c539771c-4371-47dc-a8b5-9b3747364ed0" CreationDate="2014-07-07T17:40:44.187" UserId="4321" Text="What should I know about taxes/VAT being a freelance artist?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5795" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2095" RevisionGUID="c539771c-4371-47dc-a8b5-9b3747364ed0" CreationDate="2014-07-07T17:40:44.187" UserId="4321" Text="|invoices|taxes|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5796" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2057" RevisionGUID="f4e17afd-d29f-4800-9b39-80e86a70485f" CreationDate="2014-07-07T18:07:29.137" UserId="4231" Comment="Their vs there typo." Text="I'm looking to get some extra work and start my own I.T support business for **home users only**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Examples of work:&#xD;&#xA;- Working on computers in front of the client&#xD;&#xA;- Clients drop off computers, I fix them, they collect them&#xD;&#xA;- Remote work (client will be able to see everything I do)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm aware with any business you have to protect yourself. Below are a few issues I one day expect to come across and need to know how to protect myself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**&quot;You've deleted some of my files&quot;** - I haven't but I'm likely to get accused of this at some point. I could backup their data before hand but this is not only time consuming but I am then keeping hold of their private data.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**&quot;You've been viewing my private data&quot;** - I haven't, but they may accuse me of this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**&quot;My computer is still full of viruses&quot;** - the truth is when I handed it back to the client it was virus free and shortly after they've downloaded more viruses and are accusing my of not doing my job properly!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**&quot;My computer is now worse&quot;** - let's say they hand me a PC which is crumbling. I use it for an hour and something blows up (e.g power supply) and I'm accused of breaking the machine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. How best to cover myself against these points? There are many more but I can't see how I can cover everything so what's the best practice?!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. I guess the only way around any of these is to cover all these points in a contract and before any work takes place the client must sign it? Is replying to an email with the contract attached sufficient/legal?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. For remote work, how best to take payment? If I don't take payment before, once the PC is repaired they could cut the connection and never speak to me again. If I do take payment, they may have to do it online - if their computer is full of viruses this is not wise for obvious reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks,&#xD;&#xA;Ricky" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5798" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2082" RevisionGUID="ce502d42-ecb4-4b16-9241-ce88f07063fe" CreationDate="2014-07-08T05:35:34.370" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/486383067079385088" />
  <row Id="5799" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2096" RevisionGUID="1c077d86-a2cd-494b-8d13-f0e485886b56" CreationDate="2014-07-08T07:25:32.350" UserId="4323" Text="I believe what your client is doing is also not ethical. So you need to teach him a lesson. I would like to share almost the same experience with me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was given 50% of the fees and I completed the work and then he stopped responding to my all modes of communication. I transferred the complete website one folder with name &quot;iausdh&quot; its doesn't have any meaning. and on the root i create a index file where I wrote ... the website is down due to the non-payment. like a normal 404 page styles. Now he started calling me text me and i didn't responded him for 2 days. Then I pick his call on 3rd day, he paid my rest amount (Nego). And Website was again up and running :P &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5804" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="2044" RevisionGUID="ac9f2703-471c-4119-b7b4-8af309c40856" CreationDate="2014-07-08T16:10:40.803" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5805" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2096" RevisionGUID="49641e6f-0506-4a6c-a47a-744f47f9debe" CreationDate="2014-07-08T16:13:25.403" UserId="75" Comment="Grammar" Text="I believe what your client is doing is also not ethical. So you need to teach him a lesson. I would like to share almost the same experience with me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was given 50% of the fees, I completed the work and then he stopped responding to my all modes of communication. I transferred the complete website folder with the name &quot;iausdh&quot;; it doesn't have any meaning. On the root, I create a index file where I wrote a message stating *The website is down due to the non-payment*. I made it look like a normal 404 Not Found page.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, he has started calling me, texting me, and I didn't responded him for 2 days. Then I pick his call on 3rd day, he paid the rest of the amount. And their website was again up and running." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5806" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2098" RevisionGUID="6a2a29b8-813c-4cbe-aab5-0f32653298db" CreationDate="2014-07-08T21:23:17.807" UserId="1706" Text="OMG!  If you contact the school, you might be on the hook for helping him cheat.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, you could threaten to contact the school, for some leverage -- but again, ACTUALLY doing so may land you in hot water.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is ignoring contacts, the above is certainly one way to get his attention." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5807" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2099" RevisionGUID="8a645e68-5593-4a9c-9b11-e4be10198ab7" CreationDate="2014-07-08T23:38:21.433" UserId="4333" Text="Every single person on this planet had the most brilliant business idea of their time and beyond.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Multiple times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Idea is nothing. Implementation, monetization, found product-market-fit, optimal business model, flexibility, field expertise, risk taking, perseverance have some value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now this is that this guy will not believe for you. Probably will believe for Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jjcolao/2013/04/03/your-idea-is-worth-nothing-a-rant-sparked-by-the-snapchat-lawsuit/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5808" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2100" RevisionGUID="8502f12e-afcb-468c-95f2-2bad37017b38" CreationDate="2014-07-09T07:25:00.967" UserId="4338" Text="What is the best way to answer this question: &quot;Is your rates negotiable?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am looking for way which will not offend the client and would also ensure that I don't end up decreasing my rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please let me know." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5809" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2100" RevisionGUID="8502f12e-afcb-468c-95f2-2bad37017b38" CreationDate="2014-07-09T07:25:00.967" UserId="4338" Text="How to answer this: &quot;Is your rates negotiable?&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5810" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2100" RevisionGUID="8502f12e-afcb-468c-95f2-2bad37017b38" CreationDate="2014-07-09T07:25:00.967" UserId="4338" Text="|payment-terms|price-per-hour|negotiation|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5811" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2049" RevisionGUID="81407eb9-7157-40fd-a3c7-e08a94c1645a" CreationDate="2014-07-09T08:36:43.737" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/486791044412227584" />
  <row Id="5813" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2100" RevisionGUID="010624e1-fa65-4d32-a8b9-0686fa1dd162" CreationDate="2014-07-09T13:41:34.333" UserId="69" Comment="Clarified the context of the question" Text="What is the best way to tell a client that your rate is not negotiable when they ask?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am looking for way which will not offend the client and would also ensure that I don't end up decreasing my rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please let me know." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5814" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2100" RevisionGUID="010624e1-fa65-4d32-a8b9-0686fa1dd162" CreationDate="2014-07-09T13:41:34.333" UserId="69" Comment="Clarified the context of the question" Text="How to respond to &quot;Is your rates negotiable?&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5815" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1879" RevisionGUID="7aab4aba-4d92-4713-ad93-1b19f7527dd5" CreationDate="2014-07-09T14:36:41.577" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/486881633447206913" />
  <row Id="5816" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2102" RevisionGUID="3285d5c9-82d5-43ad-9f48-74e64df2639d" CreationDate="2014-07-09T14:50:24.650" UserId="888" Text="You could tell him that the rate is calculated so you earn enough to pay the bills and have a decent living. This will imply that asking for less will affect you and it's not really that you don't want to ask for less, but you just can't, which if I think about it, is the case with a lot of freelancers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5817" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2103" RevisionGUID="a636544a-3306-4126-8afe-ba2f7b96a585" CreationDate="2014-07-09T15:08:16.693" UserId="708" Text="I simply state, &quot;Sorry. Pricing is set and rates are non-negotiable.&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I haven't run into an instance where that offended anyone. I may not get the work but, if they won't pay my rates, I don't see that as a problem. You aren't ***required*** to explain anything to clients in terms of your business structure or calculations. Actually going into too much detail is a *bad thing* and conveys a lack of confidence and the need to rationalize your business practices. This leads to a definite perception of a weak negotiator. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5818" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2100" RevisionGUID="c9bb7f91-3539-43ec-87df-32bb67c831fd" CreationDate="2014-07-09T15:23:33.210" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 24 characters in body; edited title" Text="What is the best way to tell a client that your rate is non-negotiable when they ask?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am looking for way which will not offend the client and would also ensure that I don't end up decreasing my rates." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5819" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2100" RevisionGUID="c9bb7f91-3539-43ec-87df-32bb67c831fd" CreationDate="2014-07-09T15:23:33.210" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 24 characters in body; edited title" Text="How to respond to &quot;Are your rates negotiable?&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5821" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="1373" RevisionGUID="8d2f7242-c090-4bc1-900d-b266d24a17ea" CreationDate="2014-07-09T15:53:02.810" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5822" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2099" RevisionGUID="c1e7f6f5-7a38-4958-bb8b-61d337c2eb73" CreationDate="2014-07-09T15:59:17.300" UserId="75" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="Every single person on this planet had the most brilliant business idea of their time and beyond. Multiple times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Idea is nothing. Implementation, monetization, found product-market-fit, optimal business model, flexibility, field expertise, risk taking, and perseverance have some value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now this is that this guy will not believe for you. Probably will believe for [Forbes](http://www.forbes.com/sites/jjcolao/2013/04/03/your-idea-is-worth-nothing-a-rant-sparked-by-the-snapchat-lawsuit/).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5823" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2098" RevisionGUID="d59b0ea9-a2f3-4a47-8514-0aa280959191" CreationDate="2014-07-09T21:44:15.220" UserId="1706" Comment="added 24 characters in body" Text="OMG!  If you contact the school, you might be on the hook for helping him cheat.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, you could threaten to contact the school, for some leverage -- but again, ACTUALLY doing so may land you in hot water.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is ignoring contacts, threatening to contact the school is certainly one way to get his attention." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5824" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2104" RevisionGUID="b86bb167-2263-4251-a281-9571489ab8ae" CreationDate="2014-07-10T19:37:17.067" UserId="517" Text="As we often say here &quot;what does the contract say about the scope of work&quot;? If the scope is vague, you will have hard time get the money you earned in the extra work. If not, make a list of **any feature outside of the scope of work** and charge it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure you keep all extra work safe at your place until you are paid for it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am afraid you cannot do anything more. You can lastly write a letter directing client's conscience, but there is little conscience in business. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5825" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2105" RevisionGUID="25c27c9e-a984-4a7f-8794-0f6c3a58677a" CreationDate="2014-07-10T19:57:50.557" UserId="4348" Text="Any combination of:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A) We can certainly set this up as a [fixed bid/hourly contract] instead if that makes it easier for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;B) Projects with unique requirements will, of course, entail negotiation. For the scope we've discussed [our standard price applies/I've already applied the appropriate discount of X from our base price].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;C) No.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;D) If there's something you want to change about the contract, negotiate away.  You can always negotiate and end up where you started.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Honestly, negotiating isn't bad and it doesn't mean you're necessarily taking a pay cut.  It gives you an opportunity to find out what's important to them and structure things to better fulfill those needs.  They're happier and you can often charge more or make the work situation better fit what you like (remote vs. onsite/delivery date/office accommodations/long term contracts/travel/etc.). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5826" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2100" RevisionGUID="bdaa7565-4053-4a4f-9a9c-592c4b874b0d" CreationDate="2014-07-10T20:37:07.503" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/487334725632425984" />
  <row Id="5827" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2106" RevisionGUID="b479adb9-4498-4b09-9fcb-2a4811c66424" CreationDate="2014-07-11T12:25:07.980" UserId="4353" Text="Yes, they can pay you without a VAT number. Just tell them that you're not VAT-registered, and send them the normal details (bank account and sort code, or address to send a cheque to).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you earn [over £10,000][0] in any tax year, and are [resident in the UK][1], you must pay tax.  &#xD;&#xA;If you earn over £81,000, you must [register for VAT][2].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Registering for VAT means you receive a VAT registration number, and then charge your customers VAT on their purchases, but can reclaim VAT on goods and services you purchase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can register for VAT voluntarily if you don't meet the threshold, but this is generally a bad idea if your business mostly involves selling stuff to samll companies or individuals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Read more about [income tax on the HMRC website][3].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [0]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/it.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/international/rdr3.pdf&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/start/register/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/index.htm" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5828" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2106" RevisionGUID="252f41b9-78e6-4684-a836-d63966dafcbb" CreationDate="2014-07-11T12:30:54.900" UserId="4353" Comment="minor wording change" Text="Yes, they can pay you without a VAT number. Just tell them that you're not VAT-registered, and send them the normal details (bank account and sort code, or address to send a cheque to).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you earn [over £10,000][0] in any tax year, and are [resident in the UK][1], you must pay tax.  &#xD;&#xA;If you earn over £81,000, you must [register for VAT][2].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Registering for VAT means you receive a VAT registration number, and then charge your customers VAT on their purchases, but can reclaim VAT on goods and services you purchase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can register for VAT voluntarily even if you don't meet the threshold, but this is generally a bad idea for businesses that mostly involve selling stuff to small companies or individuals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Read more about [income tax on the HMRC website][3].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [0]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/it.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/international/rdr3.pdf&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/start/register/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/index.htm" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5829" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2107" RevisionGUID="fedbf494-78e9-4ff4-810e-9d728ce0eafc" CreationDate="2014-07-11T13:09:40.323" UserId="4353" Text="There's no sense in creating a bill with a 100% discount, unless you want them to know how much the services would have cost normally for some reason.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead, send them a simple plan outlining the work that will be done, and stating that you're giving the work away for free. You may wish to specify an open-source license such as [The GPL][1], [Creative Commons][2], or simply declare it as being in the public domain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're worried about being sued for any possible problems, I think the standard practice in software development is to include an aggressively capitalized disclamier, as so:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF&#xD;&#xA;&gt; MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY&#xD;&#xA;&gt; CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE&#xD;&#xA;&gt; SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://creativecommons.org/choose/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5830" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1895" RevisionGUID="2428e593-975a-4009-9a0a-072021c24a86" CreationDate="2014-07-12T20:39:19.633" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/488060056228069377" />
  <row Id="5831" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2108" RevisionGUID="5dadadcd-2ae2-43e0-b90a-95e1b315d36d" CreationDate="2014-07-13T08:29:33.907" UserId="1369" Text="I currently work as a freelance writer in addition to doing a 9-5 in another field.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An opening as a full-time writer has come up, and I would like to apply. However, to get references I will almost certainly need to ask my existing editors, thus alerting them to the fact I'm applying for a full-time post with one of their competitors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not sure how to handle this. I am very unlikely to get this full time post (the competition is going to be extremely fierce), and if it's a choice between applying or keeping favour with my existing employers, I'd go with the latter every time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are my editors likely to take offence if I ask for a reference or recommendation for this full-time post? Is there anything I can do to minimise the chances of causing offence when asking?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5832" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2108" RevisionGUID="5dadadcd-2ae2-43e0-b90a-95e1b315d36d" CreationDate="2014-07-13T08:29:33.907" UserId="1369" Text="References from freelancer employers when looking for full-time" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5833" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2108" RevisionGUID="5dadadcd-2ae2-43e0-b90a-95e1b315d36d" CreationDate="2014-07-13T08:29:33.907" UserId="1369" Text="|referral|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5834" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2109" RevisionGUID="937a1a05-3a55-4649-8039-1085440952d6" CreationDate="2014-07-13T09:05:54.280" UserId="1018" Text="This is a fairly common dilemma and your prospective employer will likely be satisfied if you explain that references can be supplied once you are seriously being considered for the position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consulting referees is usually the last step in the recruitment process so this should not affect your chances of winning the position." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5835" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2108" RevisionGUID="331f78af-b085-43ed-a86b-9154d1aeb4c5" CreationDate="2014-07-13T10:51:29.960" UserId="1369" Comment="added 139 characters in body; edited title" Text="I currently work as a freelance writer in addition to doing a 9-5 in another field.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An opening as a full-time writer has come up, and I would like to apply. However, to get references I will almost certainly need to ask my existing editors, thus alerting them to the fact I'm applying for a full-time post with one of their competitors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not sure how to handle this. I am very unlikely to get this full time post (the competition is going to be extremely fierce), and if it's a choice between applying or keeping favour with my existing employers, I'd go with the latter every time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because it's going to be a competitive post, I'd like to secure an advantage by getting letters of recommendation from some of my existing clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are my editors likely to take offence if I ask for a recommendation for this full-time post? Is there anything I can do to minimise the chances of causing offence when asking?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5836" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2108" RevisionGUID="331f78af-b085-43ed-a86b-9154d1aeb4c5" CreationDate="2014-07-13T10:51:29.960" UserId="1369" Comment="added 139 characters in body; edited title" Text="Recommendations from freelancer employers when looking for full-time" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5837" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2109" RevisionGUID="918980e3-5765-4d62-b579-7d18680c4cc4" CreationDate="2014-07-13T13:13:52.270" UserId="1018" Comment="New answer after update to question." Text="It's probably reasonable to ask for testimonials from clients on behalf of your current employer and this might be sufficient especially where testimonials mention you by name. If you have a good relationship with your clients, or have done some work you are especially proud of, you could ask for this specifically.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your current employer would likely welcome some fresh testimonials from clients so this could be a win-win!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5838" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2109" RevisionGUID="ae36c4ef-7fb6-480e-afb9-0a4adde8e027" CreationDate="2014-07-13T13:26:35.997" UserId="1018" Comment="Improved answer." Text="**1. Could a Testimonial be sufficient?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's probably reasonable to ask for testimonials from clients on behalf of your current employer and this might be sufficient especially where testimonials mention you by name. If you have a good relationship with your clients, or have done some work you are especially proud of, you could ask for this specifically.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your current employer would likely welcome some fresh testimonials from clients so this could be a win-win!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2. 'Fessing Up**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Alternatively, you could just some clean with your current employer. Sometimes it can be good to let employers know you are looking elsewhere so they don't take you for granted and so they have the opportunity to address any issues you may have with your current employment. Some employers may admire your ambition.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course there is a risk of offending your current employer with this option and you should be prepared to leave if you have to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes you have to close a door before another one will open.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5839" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1882" RevisionGUID="9eadb936-1853-4d01-b81e-d4913ca33fad" CreationDate="2014-07-13T20:43:04.990" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/488423399157665792" />
  <row Id="5843" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2111" RevisionGUID="11f1d429-1918-4b53-92f7-60148b3b5135" CreationDate="2014-07-14T05:51:54.953" UserId="4368" Text="In the past, I've tried to maintain a passive search for new opportunities.  That way, when I find one that I may be interested in, I can inform my current employer/client that, at the moment, I'm just keeping my options open.  It sounds like that's basically what you're doing, anyway.  You're not definitively leaving.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many professionals will tell you that you appear more valuable if you already have a job.  In other words, the best time to look for a job is when you already have one.  You should always be passively pursuing alternative jobs; you never know when you'll lose your current position, or you'll find another job that you like better.  Plus, it keeps you from getting rusty, and forces you to maintain your value.  If you start to fall behind in your industry, you'll know pretty quickly if you're on the job market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any employer worth getting a reference from would agree with that logic." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5844" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2112" RevisionGUID="d51c3b66-52b3-418f-8497-cba1f527d85e" CreationDate="2014-07-14T05:55:41.913" UserId="4368" Text="Academic dishonesty isn't exactly illegal, unless someone is stealing intellectual property.  That doesn't mean an large, wealthy entity like an academic institution with coercive power to protect isn't going to fight to the death.  I wouldn't test your luck.  You shouldn't have taken on the job in the first place." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5845" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2113" RevisionGUID="48914b37-ff60-461a-83b6-0a2d1504315f" CreationDate="2014-07-14T06:06:27.667" UserId="4368" Text="It's actually illegal to store a credit card number outright, though some old terminals still print summaries with full numbers at the end of each day (which is, of course, illegal).  If you store any payment information, there are very strict policies and laws that you have to follow.  It would cost you more to implement a compliant system than it's worth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One option is to use something like Stripe, which stores a client's information for you.  You can charge the client at any point, but it's not going to help you much: they can still file a chargeback later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless you can obtain payment up front or in very small increments (each day/week/etc.), you're best off using an escrow service, such as [Escrow.com](https://escrow.com/services/general-merchandise-escrow.aspx).  I'd recommend Agreed.com, but they're more specialized (specifically for domain names and websites)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5846" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2114" RevisionGUID="2899ffd8-6d40-41d3-915d-7dee87bf1d57" CreationDate="2014-07-14T06:16:53.627" UserId="4368" Text="Get business insurance.  This is not optional, especially if you're conducting business in person.  For typical consumer IT support, it's pretty cheap, because the risks are low.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being said, I offered various forms of consumer and B2B IT support for several years and never once encountered any of the problems that you mentioned--at least, not to the point that it became problematic.  As long as you're very nice and explain everything in simple terms, people tend to return the favor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have had people complain that I didn't fix their problem.  100% of the time I was sure I did and 100% of the time I was proven wrong.  People who don't know exactly what they're doing manage to cause the most obscure problems.  The solution is very simple: take the computer back, fix it (again) for no additional charge, apologize, work with the user on-site to ensure they're satisfied that it's fixed, and everyone wins.  As long as you charge enough initially, the extra time is negligible, and people really appreciate it--which means they recommend you to their friends.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Probably the worst problem I ever had was when I helped a customer set up a new laptop.  A few days afterward, the hard drive kicked out.  I spent the weekend on the phone trying to get the manufacturer to replace it--they wouldn't agree until their stupid WD utility agreed with me that the hard drive was the culprit.  Eventually I just told them that the utility reported a failure (it didn't) and the replaced it, which, of course, fixed the problem.  It was worth the effort: that client became my best customer for years." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5856" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2116" RevisionGUID="4bf0faf4-fd8b-404f-bd66-39d71be74cc3" CreationDate="2014-07-14T19:56:15.523" UserId="3014" Text="For your current customer I would also suggest you Mdomans points. But this situation will come various times in your career. So I would suggest you to work on hourly rate. With this way you will be able to charge from your customer anytime he will required any change. And you will not feel nervous for asking for more money. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5857" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2116" RevisionGUID="e3f685ff-bcd5-4b4d-955d-0f53d2c6a30c" CreationDate="2014-07-14T21:56:32.193" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 144 characters in body" Text="I would suggest you work on an hourly rate. This way, you will be able to charge your customer anytime he will require any change. You will not feel nervous for asking for more money." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5858" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2117" RevisionGUID="8224e632-977a-4e8b-9b0b-4fd613e2a4f7" CreationDate="2014-07-14T22:49:55.550" UserId="4314" Text="I have a client--perhaps business partner is a better term, he generally calls the shots and handles the business side of things but I'm also a member of the business and I'll be supporting the software and getting part of the income--who has, well, &quot;a lot of vision.&quot; He set out with an idea of what he wanted to end up with for this website and it's not a bad design by any means, but the product has evolved and he still seems caught in his original expectations of perfection. I don't consider what we've changed to be compromises at all, we've made some huge improvements and made some processes way more automated than was ever imagined back in the days of V1. But now he's trying to apply the same degree of user-input and the same expectations to a completely different system. He's making suggestions that just don't really make sense and aren't necessary with the new workflow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyways, we're still in the early stages of our beta--we haven't gone a full day without something going wrong at some point yet--and he's started focusing on a particular feature that only applies 2% of the time. He's calling it our top priority when, again, we haven't even gone a day without other, more severe problems popping up. But he insists that this 2%-case is much of what's holding up his work, even though he's still managing to get what he's supposedly blocked on done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He doesn't understand the technical aspects so I try to explain things to him in laymen's terms, but today he emailed me to say that he had actually brought our problem to another developer asking for advice. Aside from the frustration that goes with his priorities being clearly wrong, this is also somewhat embarrassing to me: he went to a developer asking a dumbed-down question and saying I didn't know how to fix it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I explain all this to him, but in a way that won't strain the relationship or provoke him to just start messaging me more and more about irrelevant things while I'm trying to work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I know what I'm doing, and he can trust me to design the software in a way that he'll learn to prefer after a couple weeks. Not to mention, he can trust that I'll resolve problems or ask for help on my own, and that I won't (and couldn't possibly) tell him every technical detail about every problem I face in the day, since facing problems is more or less my job description.&#xD;&#xA; 2. That we should build a working product before we start worrying about the minor intricacies of *how* it works. Big picture is important, little picture is easy enough to throw in and not make a fuss of, but asking for major UI changes after we have something that mostly works just isn't my priority right now." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5859" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2117" RevisionGUID="8224e632-977a-4e8b-9b0b-4fd613e2a4f7" CreationDate="2014-07-14T22:49:55.550" UserId="4314" Text="Dealing with a Client with Bad Priorities" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5860" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2117" RevisionGUID="8224e632-977a-4e8b-9b0b-4fd613e2a4f7" CreationDate="2014-07-14T22:49:55.550" UserId="4314" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5861" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2118" RevisionGUID="796a89bb-3852-49dc-ab5a-f680f6bab3f4" CreationDate="2014-07-14T23:41:00.450" UserId="4314" Text="I've dealt with a few clients over the years who have wanted, understandably, to stick with the project at every turn. For the most part I haven't had any issues with that, but when I start hitting a bug, I often find it difficult to explain what's going on to them. I could go into detail and write out paragraph upon paragraph of everything I know as a developer and everything that's ever happened in my life that might apply here, but that's just a waste of my time and theirs. Generally I explain at a super top-level, knowing that if they don't really understand it but think they do, it'll all be resolved in a day or two and it won't have made any difference.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That works in most cases, but sometimes I find an email in my inbox from them saying something along the lines of:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; So we know you've been having some trouble with this one problem so we spoke with a developer friend of ours and told him you've been facing this, and he suggested you try this&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Except the explanation I gave them was, while not untrue, a fairly dumbed-down form of what was actually a legitimate problem worthy of actual thought.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much time should be spent explaining problems to clients, versus actually solving the problems?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5862" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2118" RevisionGUID="796a89bb-3852-49dc-ab5a-f680f6bab3f4" CreationDate="2014-07-14T23:41:00.450" UserId="4314" Text="How Much Information is Enough Information?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5863" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2118" RevisionGUID="796a89bb-3852-49dc-ab5a-f680f6bab3f4" CreationDate="2014-07-14T23:41:00.450" UserId="4314" Text="|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5864" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2119" RevisionGUID="ea2c7125-3578-4768-a2d1-c6e996db8ddb" CreationDate="2014-07-15T00:52:44.290" UserId="2839" Text="Customers want always a quotation and an amount of time it will take to write a certain feature (printing a new report, adding a new form, importing/exporting data, etc.). &#xD;&#xA;Suppose I guess the correct amount of time needed (it seldomly happens to me). I can give an accurate quotation with an hourly rate ( = hours x hourly rate). Wonderfull!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But things seldom goes as imagined, and customers actually wanted the feature a little different with respect to what I implemented. So I begin to change this little thing, maybe the font, 'blue' color in 'dark blue', dash line into dotted line, ... all easy '5 minutes' task, delivered one at a time to let the customer to verify the result... and each little task needs a little test time, a little commit time, more time to compile and upload the upgrade to the customer... so I added extra work (adjustments) for free. Maybe the time estimated was 2 days but in the end I actually worked 3 days for the same amount of money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because of quotation I cannot ask more money to the customer: I fixed the price with it and the little changes are to reach the 'correct desired result', for customer-programmer misunderstandings or things unsaid (think about the [tree-swing comic][1] ;-) ).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In other cases, I think the hourly rate is not applicable since my quotation would be too high with respect to market price. There are little task that are a big tricky, you spend a lot of time to make things work but no one will spend hundreds of dollars for that (sorry, at the moment I cannot find an example). &#xD;&#xA;So I fill forced to write as a quotation something similar to the 'market price' (pretending I will resell this feature to someone, sometime in the future).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In both cases I end up doing a certain amount of work, for a very low hourly rate. As you may imagine I fill frustated at times, because since I don't even get the 'hourly rate', the though to 'gain something' seems an impossible dream.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you manage this cases? Where am I wrong?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you for any suggestion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://blog.thingsdesigner.com/?/archives/354-The-infamous-software-designdevelopment-process-tree-swing-comic.html &quot;tree-swing comic&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5865" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2119" RevisionGUID="ea2c7125-3578-4768-a2d1-c6e996db8ddb" CreationDate="2014-07-15T00:52:44.290" UserId="2839" Text="Quotation not favorable (against me) to write software features" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5866" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2119" RevisionGUID="ea2c7125-3578-4768-a2d1-c6e996db8ddb" CreationDate="2014-07-15T00:52:44.290" UserId="2839" Text="|price-per-hour|price|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5867" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2118" RevisionGUID="fbc77205-6a2b-4140-8687-23b8f7660776" CreationDate="2014-07-15T04:27:06.760" UserId="4314" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="I've dealt with a few clients over the years who have wanted, understandably, to stick with the project at every turn. For the most part I haven't had any issues with that, but when I start hitting a bug, I often find it difficult to explain what's going on to them. I could go into detail and write out paragraph upon paragraph of everything I know as a developer and everything that's ever happened in my life that might apply here, but that's just a waste of my time and theirs. Generally I explain at a super top-level, knowing that if they don't really understand it but think they do, it'll all be resolved in a day or two and it won't have made any difference.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That works in most cases, but sometimes I find an email in my inbox from them saying something along the lines of:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; So we know you've been having some trouble with this one problem so we spoke with a developer friend of ours and told him you've been facing this, and he suggested you try this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Except the explanation I gave them was, while not untrue, a fairly dumbed-down form of what was actually a legitimate problem worthy of actual thought.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much time should be spent explaining problems to clients, versus actually solving the problems?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5868" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2120" RevisionGUID="6be902fa-8302-4944-bfda-cca64d563d08" CreationDate="2014-07-15T05:52:29.993" UserId="517" Text="The question seems ok!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, how much information is too much?! Ideally, clients should be aware of all good things happening in the project and be unaware of all bad things like bugs or bottlenecks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can achieve this with some clients, but you cannot with other. I go into the same situation as yourself and the more I talk about the bugs and involve the client into bugs details, in the end they don't rate me as an expert, but let's say I am rated 4 out of 5. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if you can, avoid details about bugs or other bad things. If you need more time, just tell them why and use neutral words like &quot;optimization&quot; or &quot;refactoring&quot; or &quot;speed up the things&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are however, rare cases when the client is a developer as well. And in such cases you can talk to him about the issues because he will understand you on the first place, and he may be able to help as well by Googling and sending you good links. You do need help from a programmer when solving problems, but you do not need help from non-programmer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5869" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2121" RevisionGUID="ce8c5b42-e775-47f8-b565-14026e03841a" CreationDate="2014-07-15T06:01:22.450" UserId="517" Text="Go hourly whenever you can. It will solve all these issues. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then clients do want fixed-price projects and in such cases do a few things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Add MAX number of changes you will undertake for free in terms of colors, fonts, effects and other such things. this does not apply to bug fixing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Calculate some percentage as extra time which will cover or unplanned works. Like if you have ideal and worst-case estimation, don't go with ideal but rather with medium value between these two&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Have specifications always, do stick to them and do force the client to have them. Specs are your only things you can point to when a client asks for more&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Do separate things into milestones and do put work hours or man days next to it. You may need more hours or man days and you will then talk to the client asking for more time and money. Although it's hard to get more money in fixed price projects&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. Try to charge per work day or work week. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But in the end, it's all about the understanding between you and the client. Have a long talk to him before the project explaining things that may go wrong. Ask him in advance what may happen and how you may ask for more money and time. This way, before the project starts, you will be able to feel who the client really is and you may be able to envisage future problems in the communication. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5870" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2122" RevisionGUID="a7ac0588-932b-4bc9-b643-fce8ff9d8348" CreationDate="2014-07-15T06:11:04.560" UserId="517" Text="IMHO I see problems here. And yes, it was a bad thing not cause he addressed issues to another developer, but because he told you that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this a local partner or remote one?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you have to make another project as a partner? Can you be a partner in project 1 and do others as a paid contractor? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From technical aspect, you obviously need a good project management software where you can rate tasks by priorities. This way you can mark his silly requests as low priority. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, the most important aspect is Division of Roles. You have to make it %150 clear: he does the Business side you do the Technical side. You don't interfere to his role, he does not interfere to your. Any of you can suggest things to a role leader, but the role leader has the final work. If you say it's low priority, then it is. If he complains, then he should find another partner. As clear as this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do tell him what bad thing he did talking to another developer. Maybe be does not understand that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I see, you two have inter-personal communication issues and one person not respecting a Role and boundaries of another partner. Unless you solve this asap, you will have hard time finishing this project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. When I read this, I am glad I don't do partnership with anyone :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5871" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2123" RevisionGUID="e3f58496-2f64-4456-9fc6-fbd411049c54" CreationDate="2014-07-15T11:51:17.270" UserId="4385" Text="As mentioned in other answers, you may not need to register your business in Australia just to deliver work to an Australian client.  However, if you wish to, the steps are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) [Register the business][1] in order to get an Australian Business Number.  The ABN is required for a variety of business-related operations such as opening bank accounts and issuing Tax Invoices.  There is provision for ABNs to be issued to foreign companies who are doing business in Australia.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) If you want to incorporate in Australia (rather than just have an ABN issued to your existing business), there are a variety of other requirements, which for your purposes would be purely administrative.  You will need an Australian address - you may wish to use a virtual office supplier, such as [Regus][2].  For the process of incorporating, I used [ClearDocs][3] - a fully online business incorporation service, which cost around $600AUD.  Most of that money goes towards registration fees required by the various government departments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) You may choose to [register for GST][4] with the Australian Tax Office (ATO).  Companies which turn over more than $75,000 per year [must register for GST][5], but even if you don't turn over that amount, you may choose to register.  The benefit of GST registration is that you can charge GST to your customers and claim back GST credits on your business purchases.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) Optionally, you may want to open an Australian bank account.  This will reduce the administrative complexity for your customers to pay you, as they will be able to pay to an Australian account in Australian dollars.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5) Understanding the [requirements for issuing Tax Invoices within Australia][6].  This is the mechanism by which most companies interact financially and if you are freelancing, almost certainly the mechanism your customers will be expecting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6) Engage an Australian accountant.  There are approaches you can take to how you structure your business and how you collect and report your tax which you will need assistance with.  You'll need to understand your Business Activity Statement (BAS) and other annual reporting requirements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://abr.gov.au/For-Business,-Super-funds---Charities/Applying-for-an-ABN/ABN-for-business-outside-of-Australia/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.regus.com.au/virtual-office/australia/sydney&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.cleardocs.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Registration/Add-or-cancel-a-registration/GST/&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://www.business.gov.au/registration-and-licences/Pages/register-for-goods-and-services-tax-(GST).aspx&#xD;&#xA;  [6]: https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/GST/Issuing-tax-invoices/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5872" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2116" RevisionGUID="85e38285-d7b8-46f4-9629-def7ce82bf76" CreationDate="2014-07-15T20:51:45.770" UserId="3014" Comment="Another suggestion added. " Text="I would suggest you work on an hourly rate. This way, you will be able to charge your customer anytime he will require any change. You will not feel nervous for asking for more money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another thing that you can do is that you should mention your every client before the project start that any change that will be required later will be charged. If the change is due to the client's mistake or it is just client's demand, you should charge him specific amount. Otherwise you should not charge him.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you think that hourly rate will increase the project price too high, you can simply go with the second suggestion. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5877" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2125" RevisionGUID="8da505ed-683f-40eb-940c-1a4e69b7c626" CreationDate="2014-07-16T09:53:47.500" UserId="2391" Text="Suggest an hourly rate, with max budget, for the preparing the initial specification and then a fixed price for the implementation. But as Peter says hourly rate for the whole thing irons all of this out. You just know things are going to change and someone is going to lose out; either the client is paying over the odds if you do it quicker than expected (does that ever happen??) or you get into the situation you described and your rate gets diluted." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5878" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2119" RevisionGUID="ba3d5d9d-9c91-427f-bb16-7a1e7b451290" CreationDate="2014-07-16T11:57:28.120" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/489378276818034688" />
  <row Id="5879" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2126" RevisionGUID="4648a4da-b821-47b9-a85c-a1488fa907b6" CreationDate="2014-07-16T13:32:04.383" UserId="4403" Text="Nine months ago I agreed to exchange my services as a designer in return for free consultations from the client (who is a doctor). We agreed that we would exchange our services by matching hours for hours (eg. I would give him 12 hours of my service in exchange for 12 hours of his consultation).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During the course of this period, I had been in for a few consultations, roughly amounting to 4 hours of his service rendered to me. Meanwhile he had made some small steps with beginning the design project, but it was moving very slowly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Today I get an email stating that he worked with another designer to do the job, and since I haven't performed any work for him, he's chosen to invoice me for the hours he's rendered to me. We have no contract but we have a series of emails outlining what would be exchanged, and money wasn't stated as a form of potential compensation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am wondering if the client has the right to claim for monetary compensation if they are backing out of the arrangement, or if I have some kind of power to offer an exchange of other services as originally agreed? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Doesn't this also amount to a breach of an agreement on their side, and therefore they aren't entitled to anything at all as a result?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5880" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2126" RevisionGUID="4648a4da-b821-47b9-a85c-a1488fa907b6" CreationDate="2014-07-16T13:32:04.383" UserId="4403" Text="Bartering - client has cancelled and is asking for money" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5881" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2126" RevisionGUID="4648a4da-b821-47b9-a85c-a1488fa907b6" CreationDate="2014-07-16T13:32:04.383" UserId="4403" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|legal|negotiation|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5882" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2127" RevisionGUID="3d3cad40-7e26-4e7b-a596-b5eb3187247e" CreationDate="2014-07-16T14:08:27.983" UserId="4354" Text="I am about to quote for my first eCommerce solution to one of my new client. The client is looking to sell the product online with ebay , amazon integration, various payment gateways,  marketing campaigns, analytics etc. I am a Web freelancer with .NET (as server side). I have examined some products which can be used as out of the box such as uCommerce. However it costs about 2500 to 5000 Euros **per year**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The quotation going to be full price (i.e. not hourly charged) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(1). For e.g. if I go for product like uCommerce. Do I exclude the subscription charges from my quote? i.e. £X for consultancy + 2500 Euro for ucommerce (This would be my preference) or should I quote for the first year with everything included for the first year (which is adding above two)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(2) I can see this is going to cost me £ X but when I see other leased eCommerce solutions, my quote looks ridiculously expensive (or their's so unbelievably cheap)? Why are those online solutions (for e.g. 1and, godaddy to name few) are so cheap?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(3) (this should be question #1). How do you decide the quote?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5883" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2127" RevisionGUID="3d3cad40-7e26-4e7b-a596-b5eb3187247e" CreationDate="2014-07-16T14:08:27.983" UserId="4354" Text="How to quote (and justify) for eCommerce solution to non technical customer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5884" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2127" RevisionGUID="3d3cad40-7e26-4e7b-a596-b5eb3187247e" CreationDate="2014-07-16T14:08:27.983" UserId="4354" Text="|price|estimation|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5885" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2128" RevisionGUID="e3af3716-f0d9-4340-87d6-2053cd309eaf" CreationDate="2014-07-16T14:44:27.493" UserId="517" Text="If you two have no contract, then what is he breaching? on the other hand, the mutual understanding is valid in front of the law. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd say that he was not acting correctly, from what you wrote. He should have given you more tasks. And if not being satisfied, he should have told you that. So if this comes to the arbitration, I'd say that email are enough of the evidence. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But bare in mind that we are not legal counsellors, and maybe you should ask someone &quot;more law related&quot; about this. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5886" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2129" RevisionGUID="33e620e3-2557-4d8f-b6c7-898444bbbe75" CreationDate="2014-07-16T18:31:01.960" UserId="1818" Text="Don't try to explain anymore than the customer is fully able to comprehend, otherwise the discussion will never end.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the end of the day, what the customer should care about is impact: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - how long will this delay the project&#xD;&#xA; - what are the trade-offs for the possible solutions&#xD;&#xA; - what are the alternative solutions if the issue can't be fixed&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your discussions with the customer, you should spend more time explaining the impacts and less about the specific details of the problem." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5887" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2127" RevisionGUID="18863f8b-c69a-4c28-b4c6-d4883da098d9" CreationDate="2014-07-16T21:15:14.947" UserId="9" Comment="Clarity, grammar, moved the third question to the top" Text="I am a web freelancer with .NET experience, and I am about to give my first eCommerce solution quote to a new client. The client is looking to sell their product online with eBay, integrate with Amazon, utilize various payment gateways, add analytics, etc. I have examined some out-of-the-box products such as uCommerce, but a solution like that would cost between 2500 to 5000 euros per year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The quotation going to be full price (i.e. not hourly charged).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. How do you decide the quote?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. If I go for a product like uCommerce, do I exclude the subscription charges from my quote? That is, would I quote £X for consultancy + 2500 euros for uCommerce, or should I quote for the first year with everything included for the first year (which is adding above two)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. I can see that this will cost me £X, but when I see other leased eCommerce solutions, my quote looks ridiculously expensive in comparison (or theirs so unbelievably cheap). Why are those online solutions (1-and-1, GoDaddy, etc.) so cheap?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5888" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2127" RevisionGUID="18863f8b-c69a-4c28-b4c6-d4883da098d9" CreationDate="2014-07-16T21:15:14.947" UserId="9" Comment="Clarity, grammar, moved the third question to the top" Text="How to quote and justify an eCommerce solution to a non-technical customer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5889" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2127" RevisionGUID="18863f8b-c69a-4c28-b4c6-d4883da098d9" CreationDate="2014-07-16T21:15:14.947" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 333" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5890" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2130" RevisionGUID="fb46cd9c-1e62-4a95-9123-ac6cb0e4e954" CreationDate="2014-07-17T11:00:07.457" UserId="4412" Text="**1. Decide the quote based on the job, and amount of work-hour it would take. Even-though you are not working per hour basis.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Things to remember : &#xD;&#xA; - You can start with a lower rates if you expect to get more work from&#xD;&#xA;   the same client in the future.&#xD;&#xA; - Consider market rates,if you are a starter it is better to start at&#xD;&#xA;   reasonable/cheaper rate.&#xD;&#xA; - Your quote should cover all related expenses for the particular job.&#xD;&#xA;   In case you took any additional help, cover that as well*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2. Add part of the subcription charges to your quote, as you will re-use it, and not just for this perticular job.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**3. Those eCommerce solutions are in business for years, so they can cut their profit by giving discounts to attract more customers.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5891" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2131" RevisionGUID="2cbba7d4-773f-46a5-801d-a92598a26397" CreationDate="2014-07-17T11:12:07.940" UserId="4386" Text="website design+choose images for banner + database for upload&#xD;&#xA;missing child related website project, i don't no how much can i ask.&#xD;&#xA;so please help me to ask.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5892" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2131" RevisionGUID="2cbba7d4-773f-46a5-801d-a92598a26397" CreationDate="2014-07-17T11:12:07.940" UserId="4386" Text="How much cost can i ask for website design to client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5893" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2131" RevisionGUID="2cbba7d4-773f-46a5-801d-a92598a26397" CreationDate="2014-07-17T11:12:07.940" UserId="4386" Text="|project-bidding|project|small-projects|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5894" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2131" RevisionGUID="62643816-9ed4-4403-84d7-9c1a8d6ffd70" CreationDate="2014-07-17T11:32:21.813" UserId="4386" Comment="added 17 characters in body" Text="website design+choose images for banner + database for upload&#xD;&#xA;missing child related website project contains 7 pages, i don't no how much can i ask.&#xD;&#xA;so please help me to ask.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5895" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2132" RevisionGUID="f5387485-8aee-4c46-885d-bcba96a23c71" CreationDate="2014-07-17T12:40:03.250" UserId="4412" Text=" 1. Decide an hourly rate for yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Estimate how much work-hour it may take for the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. Consider any other expenses you want to cover.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 4. Sum all to know how much you should ask." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5896" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2133" RevisionGUID="8bbe80a7-845c-437c-bc59-19d113ee916c" CreationDate="2014-07-17T12:44:52.073" UserId="4407" Text="Look at how much other people are charging. Compare your work with their work. Think about how much time it will take to complete and how much your time is worth. If the customer/client wants work done very quickly, normally you'd have to put other things on hold, so you'd charge more. Remember that you can actually speak with your customer about it, also. Your goal is for both of you to come out better off than you were without the deal. Your customer/client will appreciate this and might even send more business your way. Just make sure you stay professional about it and realistic to the market." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5897" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2134" RevisionGUID="f5a3d72e-7361-4252-9dc4-aa7e26241fdf" CreationDate="2014-07-17T12:49:42.157" UserId="4407" Text="Take your dumbed down version of the problem that you have right now and take it to another manager/marketer/business development person and ask their opinion about the problem. Bring it back to your &quot;partner&quot; so he can have an understanding of the situation...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seriously though, it sounds like it might be time to either, 1) Move on, or 2) as the other answer says, talk about your roles within the organization, and possibly think about setting up a contractual agreement between the two of you so that your roles in the future are more clear.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wouldn't want to continue to work with someone that doesn't respect my professional opinion when they have no experience or technical knowledge of the domain." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5898" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2099" RevisionGUID="6cf5dbce-b3f6-4970-9b25-d9ee1eb3c4b5" CreationDate="2014-07-17T15:57:55.780" UserId="4333" Comment="added 496 characters in body" Text="Every single person on this planet had the most brilliant business idea of their time and beyond. Multiple times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Idea is nothing. Implementation, monetization, found product-market-fit, optimal business model, flexibility, field expertise, risk taking, and perseverance have some value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now this is that this guy will not believe for you. Probably will believe for [Forbes](http://www.forbes.com/sites/jjcolao/2013/04/03/your-idea-is-worth-nothing-a-rant-sparked-by-the-snapchat-lawsuit/).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not think I (we) could do too much here. Some business owner in the world believes in something that is maladaptive. If i should name the primary obstacle in freelancing or consultancy, I would say &quot;changing mindsets&quot;. I believe icevolcanooo - and every self-employed - got to learn how to handle this. Probably the best approach is just consider if do or don't. Then decide if one can/want to work with such conditions. And if the answer is &quot;does not worth the effort&quot;, then quit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5899" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2131" RevisionGUID="c7a11b5d-aea1-4570-98c7-360a9e271ec9" CreationDate="2014-07-17T18:37:05.397" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="5901" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2135" RevisionGUID="dfb72152-2d41-4fb7-870a-a9a2a0867adc" CreationDate="2014-07-18T07:47:53.020" UserId="4423" Text="I'm new to freelancing and have recently been approached by a client to make an basic but moderately functional android app for commercial purposes. It will need minimal design, and the client has asked me to submit a quote(bid) for the project. By my estimate, it will take me about 15-20 hrs of work to get it fully functional. Please advise me on how to bid for it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5902" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2135" RevisionGUID="dfb72152-2d41-4fb7-870a-a9a2a0867adc" CreationDate="2014-07-18T07:47:53.020" UserId="4423" Text="Submit bid for a android app!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5903" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2135" RevisionGUID="dfb72152-2d41-4fb7-870a-a9a2a0867adc" CreationDate="2014-07-18T07:47:53.020" UserId="4423" Text="|project-bidding|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5904" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2135" RevisionGUID="f5a25ecd-0b70-48da-b0ce-17db705b3287" CreationDate="2014-07-18T08:22:38.197" UserId="58" Comment="Previous title reads as though it were spam. Also edited english a bit." Text="I'm new to freelancing and have recently been approached by a client to make a basic but moderately functional android app for commercial purposes. It will need minimal design, and the client has asked me to submit a quote(bid) for the project. By my estimate, it will take me about 15-20 hours of work to get it fully functional.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I bid for this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5905" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2135" RevisionGUID="f5a25ecd-0b70-48da-b0ce-17db705b3287" CreationDate="2014-07-18T08:22:38.197" UserId="58" Comment="Previous title reads as though it were spam. Also edited english a bit." Text="How do I quote/bid for an android app?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5906" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2136" RevisionGUID="76a81e00-2a58-452b-ac71-0e847578c4a4" CreationDate="2014-07-18T08:43:31.643" UserId="805" Text="I live in Nyc. I am hoping to go around and sell my service as a contract job..So I'll make them static sites with contact form. Good design but lack of advance features such as admin panel, blog, members only area, shopping cart, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is going to be my first time doing real work like this, I can setup domain, hosting, code site and design within a week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am thinking of charging as follows...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - whole static site for $350...(custom made no templates)&#xD;&#xA; - Hosting and 1 hr/mo maintenance $50.&#xD;&#xA; - SEO $80.&#xD;&#xA; - Social Sites setup $150.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I discussed this another pro developer i know and he said usually it goes like $5000 instead of $400 i am probably thinking of getting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That sounded absurd, but he said once you get into industry you will understand. So is he right. I am entry level but i know how to get things done..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have more questions then i am going to ask separately, but i am going to list them: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - how to convince client that website will help them improve their business when you are not sure if it can..but everyone says it will. For example to grocery store..what do you say. Do corner groceries even need one..?&#xD;&#xA; - What is a difference between freelance or self run business? What saves you more in taxes?&#xD;&#xA; - What are tax requirements in nyc for freelancers?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found extremely good and insightful information on reddit but i need more..Thanks for understanding. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5907" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2136" RevisionGUID="76a81e00-2a58-452b-ac71-0e847578c4a4" CreationDate="2014-07-18T08:43:31.643" UserId="805" Text="How much should i charge for web development, hosting and maintenance..just starting out" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5908" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2136" RevisionGUID="76a81e00-2a58-452b-ac71-0e847578c4a4" CreationDate="2014-07-18T08:43:31.643" UserId="805" Text="|freelance-websites|price|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5909" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2137" RevisionGUID="6e152307-8728-4677-89d4-23a5682f949f" CreationDate="2014-07-18T14:34:15.333" UserId="9" Text="Your friend has good reasoning. Here's a few reasons why charging more will be better for you:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. **Slow periods**: One reason to charge more is to be able to live off of past earnings. If you have four projects this month and none next month, that second month is going to seem pretty darn lean, especially for living in New York City!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;                       Charging $400  | Charging $5000&#xD;&#xA;        ----------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;        5 Projects   | $2,000         | $25,000&#xD;&#xA;        0 Projects   | $0             | $0&#xD;&#xA;        ----------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;                     | $1,000/month   | $12,500/month&#xD;&#xA;        20% Tax(*)   | $800/month     | $10,000/month&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;        (*): Please note that this is purely an estimate, although it does look to be at least&#xD;&#xA;             15.3%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; That's neither taking late payments into account, nor times where you aren't working (sick days, vacation). It also shows you how you can better spend your time; you'd have to complete _twelve_ $400-projects to approach the earnings that you would for completing _one_ $5,000-project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. **Overhead**: When you're freelancing, you're essentially running a business. That means that you have taxes to pay and equipment to buy, at the very least. You absolutely need to keep those in mind, since that's money that's directly coming out of pocket. There's also time spent doing administrative work, such as billing/invoicing, following up on leads, etc. While it's not money directly coming out of your pocket, you are having to spend _time_ on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. **Perception**: A common perception is that a site will either be cheap or good, but not both. Even though the perception may not hold true in all cases, you would have to think: would you want to be the cheap designer or the good designer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's a good exercise for you to undertake: figure out how much you want to earn in a year, then break that down and figure out how much you would have to earn per hour (assuming a 40-hour work week). Use that to help determine your rate." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5910" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2132" RevisionGUID="17ab7c4a-4570-4921-a781-5ac4b4b72863" CreationDate="2014-07-18T20:29:57.350" UserId="4412" Comment="added 26 characters in body" Text=" 1. Decide an hourly rate for yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Estimate how much work-hour it may take for the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. Consider any other expenses you want to cover.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 4. Sum all to know how much you should ask.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- hope this will help." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5911" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2138" RevisionGUID="ca413cfd-c43c-4d49-8d3c-13b7ffd82fdc" CreationDate="2014-07-20T15:28:40.943" UserId="4437" Text="I'm new to freelancing and an international client of mine is interested in hiring me to help with his startup. In the process, he wants to preserve his intellectual property and has sent me a Non Disclosure Agreement to sign. The agreement contains nothing about the nature of work and the financial details. I'm a bit skeptic about this, as a lawyer has suggested me to get all the details in a single agreement. I'm really confused, need advice very urgently." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5912" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2138" RevisionGUID="ca413cfd-c43c-4d49-8d3c-13b7ffd82fdc" CreationDate="2014-07-20T15:28:40.943" UserId="4437" Text="Non disclosure agreement?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5913" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2138" RevisionGUID="ca413cfd-c43c-4d49-8d3c-13b7ffd82fdc" CreationDate="2014-07-20T15:28:40.943" UserId="4437" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5914" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2139" RevisionGUID="56121c0d-78f1-4d68-8050-bcd5a74c9468" CreationDate="2014-07-20T20:06:32.463" UserId="708" Text="Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) do **not** state anything about the actual project or compensation. They are an agreement of secrecy separate from any financial arraignment. Because you are being asked to legally promise you will keep the product secret, they will not disclose what the project entails until *after* you've agreed you will not share those details.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Financial compensation, timeframe, and scope items should be detailed in a **separate** contract. After the NDA is signed, then the client can share details about the project and you can work out scope and costs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**NDAs are not an agreement to complete work.** They are an agreement to keep the clients IP secret regardless of whether or not you do any work for the client. And NDAs are *always* a separate agreement because you are bound to it above anything else." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5915" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2136" RevisionGUID="d5007ebe-d677-46c3-bc11-b4b75439fd1f" CreationDate="2014-07-21T04:00:29.583" UserId="9" Comment="Heavy grammar fixes, removed extra questions (that were making the question too broad)" Text="I live in New York City, and am hoping to go around and sell my service as a contract job. I'll be making static websites with good design and a contact form for clients, but I won't add advanced features (administration panel, blog, members-only area, shopping cart, etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will be my first time doing real work like this. I can set up a domain and hosting, create the design and write the site within a week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am thinking of charging as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **$350**: Whole static site (custom-made, no template)&#xD;&#xA;- **$50**: Hosting and 1 hr/month of maintenance&#xD;&#xA;- **$80**: SEO&#xD;&#xA;- **$150**: Social site setup&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I discussed this with a professional developer that I know, and he said that would usually go for something closer to $5,000 instead of the $400 that I'm thinking of getting. That sounded absurd to me, but he said that once you get into the industry, you will understand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, is he right? I am entry-level, but I know how to get things done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5916" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2136" RevisionGUID="d5007ebe-d677-46c3-bc11-b4b75439fd1f" CreationDate="2014-07-21T04:00:29.583" UserId="9" Comment="Heavy grammar fixes, removed extra questions (that were making the question too broad)" Text="Starting out, how much to charge for development, hosting and maintenance?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5917" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2136" RevisionGUID="d5007ebe-d677-46c3-bc11-b4b75439fd1f" CreationDate="2014-07-21T04:00:29.583" UserId="9" Comment="Heavy grammar fixes, removed extra questions (that were making the question too broad)" Text="|price|taxes|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5918" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2136" RevisionGUID="d5007ebe-d677-46c3-bc11-b4b75439fd1f" CreationDate="2014-07-21T04:00:29.583" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 708, 75 edit id of 335" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5922" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2126" RevisionGUID="fe18fc60-714a-493d-bc51-707f39f3acd9" CreationDate="2014-07-21T12:19:43.070" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/491195815437008899" />
  <row Id="5924" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2141" RevisionGUID="85e03837-79f9-43b7-9a27-d845a4ce450d" CreationDate="2014-07-21T21:58:32.623" UserDisplayName="user4450" Text="I wouldn't even give them an option to use a credit card if you are just doing freelance work, if you insist on using it, make sure to have a terminal or some sort to process the information. Maybe use Bitcoin(or other cryptocurrencies), Paypal (wait a week or so to ensure it's not fraudulent, or get them to take a picture with their I.D [Sensitive areas blacked out of course]), or even bank wiring (many scams happen that way, though). Try to find a good escrow service that will be cheap (or free).  I really recommend to get a down payment, also." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5925" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2142" RevisionGUID="1650879e-2d55-4c27-a3ee-f2081340e647" CreationDate="2014-07-21T22:07:16.420" UserId="9" Text="A project bid should basically contain the information needed for the client to determine whether or not to use your services. It can be delivered in different formats, depending on your or your client's preference (such as paper, a PDF, a single-page site, etc.).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Chris Travers][1] and [Canadian Luke][2] had posted answers on a separate question regarding the information that should be included within a bid. The information includes:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * A clear description of what is offered, including as appropriate quantity, scope, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * A clear description of who is responsible for overruns. This can be further clarified by labelling the document a QUOTATION for fixed bids and an ESTIMATE for estimates of hourly work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * A clear description of payment terms, late fees, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * Any other terms of service, either incorporated literally or by reference.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * An expiration date, informing the customer how long they have before the rates may need to be rechecked or renegotiated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * Dates the quote can be completed. You need a date for expiration (described in above answer), as well as for when the work can be done, from the time you get the OK. Will this project take 3 working days? Make sure that's on the quote! There is nothing good about saying it takes 3 working days, and 2 1/2 days later, the client wants it done right as soon as he says OK!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * How much notice is needed. For larger projects, you may need to give notice for workers or resources to become available. This can be included with the dates, but should be included nonetheless&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * Depending on the scope or project, you can add a mini-FAQ of questions you believe the client may have, whether it's about the technology or the project itself&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that if your bid differs greatly from the contract after you've won the bid (especially in areas of price/scope/dates), then you may end up losing the bid after all (and getting some negative reputation). If there are changes between the bid and the contract, please make sure that the client understands the differences and that they'd accept the differences.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/354/9&#xD;&#xA;[2]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/807/9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5926" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2143" RevisionGUID="2fedeb00-9b80-41b6-9f7f-3f1e116a2c0b" CreationDate="2014-07-22T00:37:54.113" UserId="1752" Text="In the US he would essentially be in breach of contract, but you still used his services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A judge would probably rule for you to do something like pay for the 4 hours at a cost equivalent *to your no profit rate,* in other words what the traded hours are worth to you (likely discounted off of the doctor's asking rate).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;US law typically attempts to resolve breaches and conflicts in a fair manner, so you really do owe him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that being said US law would also specify that the doctor *has a duty to mitigate your damages.*  What this means for you is that the doctor needs to provide the remaining 8 hours of service that was agreed to for a rate equal to your zero profit costs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you only had a verbal agreement, however, good luck with enforcement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have at least emails documenting the agreement, then you have a good case...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Negotiation**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even at something like $250/hour (for $1000 invoice to you) I would advise against taking this issue to a court, simply because it will cost you far more than that in terms of time, even small claims would probably not be worth it.  If it is significant (more than $5,000 to $10,000) then you may want to pursue court action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would advise that you negotiate with the doctor, since he doesn't want to continue the relationship and you have essentially 8 hours of discounted service remaining. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should (in an assertive but polite manner) ask if you could pay for just 1 or 2 hours and let that be the end of the issue.  There may be a little back and forth, but most reasonable people will negotiate something that is agreeable to both of you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No matter what jurisdiction you reside in, once you come to an agreement, make sure to document it in writing, with signatures, etc.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5927" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2117" RevisionGUID="69f7f85c-466b-4399-b193-4e7722b350f0" CreationDate="2014-07-22T03:23:31.983" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/491423267857924096" />
  <row Id="5931" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2145" RevisionGUID="48c95112-59ac-41a5-b0ca-cd9caeee6624" CreationDate="2014-07-22T16:55:12.050" UserId="9" Text="I'm going to be renovating a client website in the near future. However, I had a lot of manual processes with my first client that I'd like to change, particularly with my back-end organization of things and how I communicate with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One improvement that I plan on making is maintaining an up-to-date list of specifications and progress and making it available to my client through some medium (either through email or through a password-protected area of my site). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have the two things to consider:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I plan on emailing a status update on a weekly basis, and&#xD;&#xA;2. I may not have an even amount of time to work week-to-week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Considering that, should I share progress on specific specifications with the client, or should it be more of a &quot;general idea&quot; of progress (as would be normally communicated in a status update email)? How detailed is _too_ detailed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5932" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2145" RevisionGUID="48c95112-59ac-41a5-b0ca-cd9caeee6624" CreationDate="2014-07-22T16:55:12.050" UserId="9" Text="How much detail to use when communicating progress to client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5933" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2145" RevisionGUID="48c95112-59ac-41a5-b0ca-cd9caeee6624" CreationDate="2014-07-22T16:55:12.050" UserId="9" Text="|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5935" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2146" RevisionGUID="c4bec73e-a4ba-49f6-a463-1c9043cdfdde" CreationDate="2014-07-23T04:56:26.900" UserId="4468" Text="I have an open source project that gets ~15K views and ~2K downloads per week. I just got an email from a company willing to be a sponsor for the project. The email basically says &quot;What's your sponsoring price?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I never thought about offering sponsorships but I would love it if I was able to gather enough sponsors to work on my open source full time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My first thought was to treat it as another contract and say &quot;My rate is X/hr, how many hours per month do you want to sponsor?&quot; but then I thought it might not be handled this way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How is this usually done? How do open source projects come up with their sponsorship prices?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5936" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2146" RevisionGUID="c4bec73e-a4ba-49f6-a463-1c9043cdfdde" CreationDate="2014-07-23T04:56:26.900" UserId="4468" Text="Open source sponsoring terms" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5937" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2146" RevisionGUID="c4bec73e-a4ba-49f6-a463-1c9043cdfdde" CreationDate="2014-07-23T04:56:26.900" UserId="4468" Text="|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5938" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2147" RevisionGUID="f26e0b51-7604-4b62-9433-f20961fcfd99" CreationDate="2014-07-23T08:23:10.240" UserId="2145" Text="A very good customer of mine, gave me various digital media on USB sticks and CDs to put on this newly created website. One CD in particular was an unpublished song of his and he told me this was the only MASTER CD of that day in the studio. I instantly took the song and put it on his website and stored the CD in my usual lock-box to be sure that nothing happens to it. Usually we meet in irregular intervals and I intended to return it at the next opportunity. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now several weeks after he gave me the initial sign off and paid the invoice he came back that the song was missing on the website. When checking I saw that indeed that one song was uploaded twice. I went to my lock-box and retrieved the MASTER CD and the other CD in question and realized that both songs were indeed the very same thing. I am sure that I am not making the mistake here as nobody else has access to the lock-box and I have only received one MASTER CD and no other CDs that were self-pressed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After I have told him that he now claims that I must have misplaced the CD and that it is my fault. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is not about &quot;terms and conditions&quot; as I have a document which I always send to new customers and resend when I have to update them, which states that Data Security and Backups is the customers responsibility. I just wonder if any of you guys have a good tip on how to salvage this situation and hopefully keep this otherwise loyal customer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5939" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2147" RevisionGUID="f26e0b51-7604-4b62-9433-f20961fcfd99" CreationDate="2014-07-23T08:23:10.240" UserId="2145" Text="How do I not loose an otherwise good customer over a minor misunderstanding" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5940" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2147" RevisionGUID="f26e0b51-7604-4b62-9433-f20961fcfd99" CreationDate="2014-07-23T08:23:10.240" UserId="2145" Text="|contracts|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5941" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2147" RevisionGUID="7af24e18-1caf-4f26-94f9-ab6facfda5f0" CreationDate="2014-07-23T11:20:45.773" UserId="2145" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="A very good customer of mine, gave me various digital media on USB sticks and CDs to put on this newly created website. One CD in particular was an unpublished song of his and he told me this was the only MASTER CD of that day in the studio. I instantly took the song and put it on his website and stored the CD in my usual lock-box to be sure that nothing happens to it. Usually we meet in irregular intervals and I intended to return it at the next opportunity. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now several weeks after he gave me the initial sign off and paid the invoice he came back that the song was missing on the website. When checking I saw that indeed that one song was uploaded twice. I went to my lock-box and retrieved the MASTER CD and the other CD in question and realized that both songs were indeed the very same thing. I am sure that I am not making the mistake here as nobody else has access to the lock-box and I have only received one MASTER CD and no other CDs that were self-pressed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After I have told him that he now claims that, I must have misplaced the CD and that it is my fault. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is not about &quot;terms and conditions&quot; as I have a document which I always send to new customers and resend when I have to update them, which states that Data Security and Backups is the customers responsibility. I just wonder if any of you guys have a good tip on how to salvage this situation and hopefully keep this otherwise loyal customer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5942" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2148" RevisionGUID="e50413a5-22d5-4205-b56c-e71df245d95a" CreationDate="2014-07-23T16:26:50.530" UserId="75" Text="He screwed up. Plain and simple.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyone who has important data should do a 3-2-1 backup - You want **3 copies** of your data in different places, on **2 types** of media (i.e. hard drive, flash drive, DVD-ROM, cloud storage, paper, etc), and at least **1 copy** always kept off site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, let's say that he did his backups. He has nothing to worry about, right? But he didn't. Who's fault is it? Did you go an edit the *read only* disk? Of course not!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just because he burned the wrong song, and did not make a backup, does not make it your fault. You need to own that statement, and make him understand it. You have in your contract information about data backup? Let him know! Point him to a computer blog that explains how DVDs don't simply grab the wrong file as they're getting burned, it's **always human error**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He's gotta suck it up, and understand it's not your fault. Period. Good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5943" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2147" RevisionGUID="b6ca8d85-e210-4316-9d74-c89999409908" CreationDate="2014-07-23T16:47:18.780" UserId="75" Comment="added 19 characters in body; edited title" Text="A very good customer of mine, gave me various digital media files on USB sticks and CDs to put on this newly created website. One CD in particular was an unpublished song of his and he told me this was the only MASTER CD of that day in the studio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I instantly took the song and put it on his website and stored the CD in my usual lock-box to be sure that nothing happens to it. Usually we meet in irregular intervals and I intended to return it at the next opportunity. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now several weeks after he gave me the initial sign off and paid the invoice, he came back to me, saying that the song was missing on the website. When checking, I saw that indeed that one song was uploaded twice. I went to my lock-box and retrieved the MASTER CD and the other CD in question, and realized that both songs were indeed the very same thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am sure that I am not making the mistake here, as nobody else has access to the lock-box, and I have only received one MASTER CD and no other CDs that were self-pressed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After I told him that, he now claims that I must have misplaced the CD and that it is my fault. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is not about &quot;terms and conditions&quot;, as I have a document which I always send to new customers and resend when I have to update them, which states that Data Security and Backups is the customers responsibility. I just wonder if there are any good tips on how to salvage this situation and hopefully keep this otherwise loyal customer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5944" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2147" RevisionGUID="b6ca8d85-e210-4316-9d74-c89999409908" CreationDate="2014-07-23T16:47:18.780" UserId="75" Comment="added 19 characters in body; edited title" Text="How do I not lose an otherwise good customer over a minor misunderstanding?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5945" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2149" RevisionGUID="71308c54-da5b-40ca-8efa-72fa773b9c71" CreationDate="2014-07-23T18:39:16.170" UserId="4473" Text="This is a tough one.  While it is tempting to just write it off as a loss, you sound like you want to maintain the relationship.  T&amp;C aside, there is also your own reputation to think of.  Past research says that bad word-of-mouth news affects up to 18 other possible clients.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would try to establish a &quot;let's solve this together&quot; approach where you present yourself as being equally concerned about the problem, make a visible effort to locate the original disc and ask the client to do the same.  And actually try to do as you say.  Be authentic.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is not helpful to go into all the obvious precautions, what's done is done.  Try to get your client to move beyond the emotions of the blame game and try to solve the situation together.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5946" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2150" RevisionGUID="f6752127-01c4-478a-973c-27b1f986a6f2" CreationDate="2014-07-23T20:09:10.313" UserId="708" Text="Forgive me if this is somewhat subjective and feel free to close if it's too broad.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been a freelance designer for a bit more than a decade. I work from home. I don't really have any complaints in terms of the projects, work, money, clients, hours, etc. Well, no more complaints than would be considered standard in the course of a week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I find myself terribly isolated and not necessarily by choice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A bit of background for clarity: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I am single, never married, no children, and no immediate family. In fact, only distant family across the country I haven't really seen in 25 years or more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I'm not a drinker. Therefore I tend not to venture out to pubs, bars, or parties. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I'm a steadfast atheist so church or religious gatherings are best avoided, otherwise I simply anger people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I don't feel *anything* on the internet - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, discussion forums, SE - is *really* socializing. Ultimately you're still by yourself typing. In addition, simply repeating what I do for a living is not a break from work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I know people, well, I know a few *couples*. But couples don't tend to hang out or socialize much with non-couples. And, while I do take opportunities when they are presented, being the third-wheel can become stale in itself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Customarily, I would meet friends at work or school, neither of which have applied for many years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I thought about taking classes at the local community college or something but do I really want to pay for a class in a subject I could not possibly care less about just to socialize? The local schools offer literally *nothing* of interest (smaller city without a great deal of diversity).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not lonely, just always alone. I think my work could only improve by being exposed to more social aspects in life.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I find myself always working because I have the time. This has been good for business but not necessarily good for attitude at times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So, working from home, alone, how does one combat the inevitable isolation which arises?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5947" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2150" RevisionGUID="f6752127-01c4-478a-973c-27b1f986a6f2" CreationDate="2014-07-23T20:09:10.313" UserId="708" Text="How to combat the isolation which can become prevalent when freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5948" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2150" RevisionGUID="f6752127-01c4-478a-973c-27b1f986a6f2" CreationDate="2014-07-23T20:09:10.313" UserId="708" Text="|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5949" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2151" RevisionGUID="0650ac94-3328-4d98-87c5-dddf6972ff6d" CreationDate="2014-07-23T23:45:17.237" UserId="127" Text="The first few years I was freelancing, I was so happy to not leave the house every day and be around people because I really prefer to be alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I realized that after a while I was TOO isolated. When I did see people, I felt awkward because I was out of practice. And it helps to be around other people sometimes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So here are some things I do to combat this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* I try to have lunch 1-2 days a week with friends or former colleagues. This is fun and is good for my business, too. Helps me to keep in contact with people who may hear about potential opportunities.&#xD;&#xA;* I belong the local chamber of commerce, and I go to a couple of events per month. &#xD;&#xA;* I joined Toastmasters. Since the whole focus is on communication (not just public speaking, but also listening and impromptu talks), this has been great for me.&#xD;&#xA;* Sometimes I work at a coffee shop instead of at home, just for the change of pace.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I like @ChrisForrence's gym suggestion, too.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5952" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2152" RevisionGUID="e8dff47f-e28e-4d7d-82b7-830eeffb2a55" CreationDate="2014-07-24T06:17:58.887" UserId="1350" Text="I live in a city with half a million people and there are startups and small companies who want to share their office. That should exist even in smaller places.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am mainly a software developer and I share an office with 3 industrial designers and 1 electrical engineer. Not only is it nice to have company, but there is also the advantage of new and interesting input that is not from my field. That means nice lunch breaks and interesting coffee breaks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could try to look up &quot;co-working spaces&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5953" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2153" RevisionGUID="248ef471-76e1-4077-ab8a-99be56620fdd" CreationDate="2014-07-24T14:43:06.777" UserId="4473" Text="I agree with your concern about &quot;getting out of the house&quot;.   Online social sites really are not satisfying. For me this meant getting out of my comfort zone as I tend to be introverted and had to teach myself conversation skills.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Along with the other suggestions already posted,  you might consider doing community volunteerism or look into meetups.com and possibly a local career networking meeting, meant for unemployed. There are many of these around the country. This form of getting out has the advantage of actually having a meaningful impact on other people's lives, not just socializing.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One other place to look at are some of the the innovation centers that seem to be popping up around the country. These are places where an organization helps small companies get on their feet and launch into the business world.   Just show up at their meetings and try schmoozing a little.  I don't know where you are located but in my area are the Boulder New Tech and the Innosphere. Both have a different way of doing things and a slightly different type of people they draw. Maybe something similar in your area.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Doug" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5954" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2154" RevisionGUID="500fe6fd-6fe6-41a1-a941-b135b2b43c69" CreationDate="2014-07-24T14:51:08.037" UserId="4473" Text="Depends on the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may even consider creating some sort of a client rating on how much detail to provide. A simple three point system of A, B, and C should do fine. Use A for those who want a lot and C for those how really are only interested in the bottom line or finished product.   Keep in mind, the more detail you provide, gives the client more opportunity to &quot;manage&quot; your time. This could be good or bad, depending.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5955" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2155" RevisionGUID="9b2d381c-4e5a-4c61-b0b9-292f66907486" CreationDate="2014-07-24T14:58:20.650" UserId="4473" Text="Agree with the previous.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; The NDA is not a work agreement, it only allows you to talk freely with a prospect about their proprietary information. If you both decide a contracting agreement is needed, you then set up the terms, compensation, and I always ask for an SOW (scope of work).  If they decide no, then everyone walks away from the table and any surviving aspects of the NDA, remain in place to protect their IP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;~doug&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5956" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2156" RevisionGUID="066c6913-c6ef-464a-b260-7aa8cc8fd3d3" CreationDate="2014-07-24T17:08:01.930" UserId="1752" Text="We recently came to the end of a 6 month hourly contract (at about 25 hours per week).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client and my company discussed renewal, but the sticking point became our hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client wanted us to lower our rate in exchange for a 12 month contract, but the initial price that we gave them was already, in my opinion, low.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anything lower than our current rate would risk our company not making money, or having to cut our employees salaries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This resulted in negotiations stalling, and the client has informed us that they will be reallocating our work to someone else, but have asked for *transition* of all work to whoever is taking over.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will certainly involve discussions and training on the code that has been currently written (which hasn't been fully documented due to time pressure, part of the task list going forward if renewal occurred was for all code to be properly documented).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because the relationship (other than the renewal disagreement) was quite amicable and we really enjoyed working with the people and we enjoyed the work technically, I'm prepared to offer some level of *free transition service.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For this level of contract (6 months, 25 hours per week) what is the appropriate level/amount of free transition/free training to give them?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to give too much, especially since they didn't renew..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5957" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2156" RevisionGUID="066c6913-c6ef-464a-b260-7aa8cc8fd3d3" CreationDate="2014-07-24T17:08:01.930" UserId="1752" Text="How many hours of free transition/exit time should I give a client who just ended a long term contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5958" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2156" RevisionGUID="066c6913-c6ef-464a-b260-7aa8cc8fd3d3" CreationDate="2014-07-24T17:08:01.930" UserId="1752" Text="|contracts|client-support|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5959" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2156" RevisionGUID="f05ecf28-3bed-409d-b080-34a24c736181" CreationDate="2014-07-24T17:19:38.877" UserId="1752" Comment="added 277 characters in body" Text="We recently came to the end of a 6 month hourly contract (at about 25 hours per week).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client and my company discussed renewal, but the sticking point became our hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client wanted us to lower our rate in exchange for a 12 month contract, but the initial price that we gave them was already, in my opinion, low.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anything lower than our current rate would risk our company not making money, or having to cut our employees salaries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This resulted in negotiations stalling, and the client has informed us that they will be reallocating our work to someone else, but have asked for *transition* of all work to whoever is taking over.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will certainly involve discussions and training on the code that has been currently written (which hasn't been fully documented due to time pressure, part of the task list going forward if renewal occurred was for all code to be properly documented).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because the relationship (other than the renewal disagreement) was quite amicable and we really enjoyed working with the people and we enjoyed the work technically, we are prepared to offer some level of *free transition service.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For this level of contract (6 months, 25 hours per week) what is the appropriate level/amount of free transition/free training to give them?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We don't want to give too much, especially since they didn't renew...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Our question is similar to [this question][1], but we want to determine upfront how much free time we want to provide, instead of negotiating after the fact.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1869/client-suspended-dev-work-but-still-wants-fixes" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5960" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2156" RevisionGUID="5cb1b665-d30f-4db5-a887-a2ad64dd8084" CreationDate="2014-07-24T17:29:17.240" UserId="1752" Comment="added 308 characters in body" Text="We recently came to the end of a 6 month hourly contract (at about 25 hours per week).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client and my company discussed renewal, but the sticking point became our hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client wanted us to lower our rate in exchange for a 12 month contract, but the initial price that we gave them was already, in my opinion, low.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anything lower than our current rate would risk our company not making money, or having to cut our employees salaries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This resulted in negotiations stalling, and the client has informed us that they will be reallocating our work to someone else, but have asked for *transition* of all work to whoever is taking over.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project was a somewhat open-ended optics/systems/software engineering project.  The product is currently in the design and implementation phase, so there is no final product from us.  This is *not* a fixed price contract.  There was no support agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will certainly involve discussions and training on the code that has been currently written (which hasn't been fully documented due to time pressure, part of the task list going forward if renewal occurred was for all code to be properly documented).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because the relationship (other than the renewal disagreement) was quite amicable and we really enjoyed working with the people and we enjoyed the work technically, we are prepared to offer some level of *free transition service.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For this level of contract (6 months, 25 hours per week) what is the appropriate level/amount of free transition/free training to give them?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We don't want to give too much, especially since they didn't renew...and the final product is about 2 years away...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Our question is similar to [this question][1], but we want to determine upfront how much free time we want to provide, instead of negotiating after the fact.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1869/client-suspended-dev-work-but-still-wants-fixes" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5964" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2156" RevisionGUID="b42f6902-c51e-4a11-b2de-a823e51dc7ca" CreationDate="2014-07-24T18:37:56.870" UserId="1752" Comment="added 232 characters in body" Text="We recently came to the end of a 6 month hourly contract (at about 25 hours per week).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client and my company discussed renewal, but the sticking point became our hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client wanted us to lower our rate in exchange for a 12 month contract, but the initial price that we gave them was already, in my opinion, low.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anything lower than our current rate would risk our company not making money, or having to cut our employees salaries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This resulted in negotiations stalling, and the client has informed us that they will be reallocating our work to someone else, but have asked for *transition* of all work to whoever is taking over.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project was a somewhat open-ended optics/systems/software engineering project.  The product is currently in the design and implementation phase, so there is no final product from us.  This is *not* a fixed price contract.  There was no support agreement.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Our only termination obligation under the contract is to transfer all currently generated materials (including source code, documentation, design documents, etc.) and all of the client owned/purchased hardware to the client.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will certainly involve discussions and training on the code that has been currently written (which hasn't been fully documented due to time pressure, part of the task list going forward if renewal occurred was for all code to be properly documented).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because the relationship (other than the renewal disagreement) was quite amicable and we really enjoyed working with the people and we enjoyed the work technically, we are prepared to offer some level of *free transition service.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For this level of contract (6 months, 25 hours per week) what is the appropriate level/amount of free transition/free training to give them?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We don't want to give too much, especially since they didn't renew...and the final product is about 2 years away...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Our question is similar to [this question][1], but we want to determine upfront how much free time we want to provide, instead of negotiating after the fact.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1869/client-suspended-dev-work-but-still-wants-fixes" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5965" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2153" RevisionGUID="9424b38f-b3b4-47d1-ba95-26e22c6f2833" CreationDate="2014-07-24T19:53:28.603" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 14 characters in body" Text="I agree with your concern about &quot;getting out of the house&quot;.   Online social sites really are not satisfying. For me this meant getting out of my comfort zone as I tend to be introverted and had to teach myself conversation skills.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Along with the other suggestions already posted,  you might consider doing community volunteerism or look into meetups and possibly a local career networking meeting, meant for unemployed. There are many of these around the country. This form of getting out has the advantage of actually having a meaningful impact on other people's lives, not just socializing.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One other place to look at are some of the the innovation centers that seem to be popping up around the country. These are places where an organization helps small companies get on their feet and launch into the business world.   Just show up at their meetings and try schmoozing a little.  I don't know where you are located but in my area are the Boulder New Tech and the Innosphere. Both have a different way of doing things and a slightly different type of people they draw. Maybe something similar in your area." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5967" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2158" RevisionGUID="2aff7d32-fdab-4696-bc48-7e26bcdd37ad" CreationDate="2014-07-24T20:14:58.803" UserId="1706" Text="A few options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Spend some time at a co-working location during the week.  There will be other like minded individuals there.&#xD;&#xA; - Join a Meetup group in tune with your interests (http://www.meetup.com/)&#xD;&#xA; - Join a business networking group like BNI.&#xD;&#xA; - Volunteer your time with seniors, Boy Scouts, or something of that nature.&#xD;&#xA; - Join Sierra Club and go take a hike!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5968" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="457" RevisionGUID="44e68b5f-92c1-4e8c-90d9-b0a745a47784" CreationDate="2014-07-24T20:19:27.640" UserId="1752" Comment="corrected word usage" Text="I created a website for a client. I offered to install any future security updates for a fixed monthly fee (so it wouldn’t matter if there are 0 or 10 security updates in a month), but the client didn’t accept. I warned him what could happen to his site without applying security updates, but to no avail: The client wants no security updates at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the inevitable happened: The site got hacked. Now the client wants help as fast as possible, of course.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don’t like this task; it’s no fun. If this wasn't my client, I’d probably decline this job. On top of that, this is bad timing because I have no time for it actually. But as I created the site some time ago and I’m &quot;his&quot; web designer, I feel responsible for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I’m thinking _&quot;Damn, &lt;s&gt;we&lt;/s&gt; you could have saved &lt;s&gt;us&lt;/s&gt; me trouble if you’d have let me install security updates. Why didn’t you listen?! Now I have to clean up this mess.&quot;_. Could this be a reason to charge more for this job?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On one hand, I feel like I'd be taking advantage of an emergency case and maybe also letting him learn the hard way. On the other hand, I feel like charging more would be right because the job is harder, not necessarily because of the required skills or time, but because of pressure (&quot;it has to be done *now*&quot;, &quot;help me, I can’t sell anymore&quot;) and because I begrudge doing it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I deal with such cases?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5969" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="457" RevisionGUID="44e68b5f-92c1-4e8c-90d9-b0a745a47784" CreationDate="2014-07-24T20:19:27.640" Comment="Proposed by 1752 approved by -1 edit id of 336" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5970" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="457" RevisionGUID="0e5d3191-d0a8-49b0-848f-56271ea7ea1c" CreationDate="2014-07-24T20:19:27.640" UserId="1706" Comment="corrected word usage" Text="I created a website for a client. I offered to install any future security updates for a fixed monthly fee (so it wouldn’t matter if there are 0 or 10 security updates in a month), but the client didn't accept. I warned him what could happen to his site without applying security updates, but to no result: the client wants no security updates at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the inevitable happened: the site got hacked. Now the client wants help as fast as possible, of course.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't like this task; it's no fun. If this wasn't my client, I’d probably decline this job. On top of that, this is bad timing because I have no time for it actually. But as I created the site some time ago and I'm &quot;his&quot; web designer, I feel responsible for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I’m thinking _&quot;Damn, &lt;s&gt;we&lt;/s&gt; you could have saved &lt;s&gt;us&lt;/s&gt; me trouble if you’d have let me install security updates. Why didn't you listen?! Now I have to clean up this mess.&quot;_. Could this be a reason to charge more for this job?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On one hand, I feel like I'd be taking advantage of an emergency case and maybe also letting him learn the hard way. On the other hand, I feel like charging more would be right because the job is harder; not necessarily because of the required skills or time, but because of pressure (&quot;it has to be done *now*&quot;, &quot;help me, I can’t sell anymore&quot;) and because I am reluctant to do it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I deal with such cases?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5971" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2159" RevisionGUID="ae575b02-9e99-4688-87c2-769fb197ab88" CreationDate="2014-07-24T20:26:49.460" UserId="1706" Text="Free???  No, no, no.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client has already indicated that they're looking to save a buck.  Now, pose this question:  how does the work that you've already been doing **suddenly** become worth less money per hour???  Where I'm going with this is to point out that if the client needs the services you have to offer, they'll find some way to get the money to spend (or plan B is to manipulate you into working for much less).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you are transitioning the work to someone else, you need to be paid your full rate, plain and simple.  Come on, now.  Just look around.  Neither your physician, attorney, local utilities, cell phone provider, ISP or anyone else that you do business with is offering a &quot;transition&quot; rate.  Your services are valuable, and though you might not be on the same standing as a large company, you are important to your clients or they wouldn't bother you in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stick to your guns, and if the client balks, ***keep it pushin'*** and go on about your business!!!.  Sometimes you have to close one door to open another." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5972" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2160" RevisionGUID="b144c5d7-6ec3-412c-85de-5bb913d85380" CreationDate="2014-07-24T20:35:01.487" UserId="1706" Text="To this one, I call &quot;b.s.&quot;!!!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your mistake was in accepting, with knowledge, his one-and-only master.  But there's nothing you can do about that now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I really think your client has misplaced his materials and is looking for you as a bailout.  But here's the thing.  A &quot;day in the studio&quot; doesn't produce a standard stereo CD without one or several individual tracks being mixed down to two.  By that token, *somebody* may have the multi-track recording somewhere in digital form.  If your client has lost the stereo mixdown, he'll have to go back to whomever did the mixdown to get it again, and more than likely some money will have to change hands.  This is probably why the client is on *your* case - he doesn't want to pay for his mistake!!!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes, you just have to tell a client, &quot;sorry, there's nothing I can do for you.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5973" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2161" RevisionGUID="b91d6c2b-3588-4839-8b5d-68e1a1662778" CreationDate="2014-07-24T20:43:54.827" UserId="1706" Text="The doctor can't unilaterally modify the terms of your original agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your agreement gives you both the *option* of using one anothers' services, with no specific mention of cash compensation.  You've exercised your option, but the doctor has not.  It's that simple.  There's no breach but there is a little funny-business going on here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The doctor can sell his rights under the agreement to someone else (so the other party could then utilize the hours), but cannot force you to pay any money.  It's been his choice alone to not exercise the option." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5974" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2162" RevisionGUID="5db65d8b-e9f8-4618-99e1-720e0a3585df" CreationDate="2014-07-24T20:51:23.767" UserId="1706" Text="A few points:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I don't think you have your partnership well defined.  It certainly doesn't appear that you have anything on paper to attest as to what the partnership is and what it isn't.&#xD;&#xA; 2. I don't get the sense that any money has changed hands yet.  It is important for you to recognize that your work product is in your existing code.  Your * cough * partner is already shopping for solutions with another developer.  Does he have the capability of sharing, or even giving, your code to anyone else?  The fact that he's involved a second developer, probably without consulting with you first, would be a huge red flag for me.&#xD;&#xA; 3. As the others have written, you DO need to define your roles, and both of you need to respect them.  But given what's happened already, you might consider an exit strategy AS WELL as how to define those roles.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5976" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2156" RevisionGUID="ddc2ccc6-2af2-4f12-82ce-42de890439e2" CreationDate="2014-07-25T09:43:50.443" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/492606139063099392" />
  <row Id="5977" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2163" RevisionGUID="aa5f97fa-8fe7-4595-b626-bccaff135a4c" CreationDate="2014-07-25T14:38:45.070" UserId="4473" Text="I would only add that as a result of my using an NDA with every client, I have learned there are a number of things to watch for in the NDA itself.   Very often the NDA and subsequent work agreement are slanted very heavily to the company's advantage.   Be especially careful and always feel free to mark up the agreement and ask for changes.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing I always like to see is the term &quot;mutual&quot;, as in mutual nondisclosure agreement. Naming the company and the contractor as the &quot;parties&quot; and thereafter all provisions apply equally to both parties.   In other words we share equally in risk and liability.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5978" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2156" RevisionGUID="25f90698-2c6b-48a3-b2fe-2db3f5bbc44f" CreationDate="2014-07-25T16:04:45.840" UserId="1752" Comment="added 248 characters in body" Text="We recently came to the end of a 6 month hourly contract (at about 25 hours per week).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client and my company discussed renewal, but the sticking point became our hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client wanted us to lower our rate in exchange for a 12 month contract, but the initial price that we gave them was already, in my opinion, low.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anything lower than our current rate would risk our company not making money, or having to cut our employees salaries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This resulted in negotiations stalling, and the client has informed us that they will be reallocating our work to someone else, but have asked for *transition* of all work to whoever is taking over.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project was a somewhat open-ended optics/systems/software engineering project.  The product is currently in the design and implementation phase, so there is no final product from us.  This is *not* a fixed price contract.  There was no support agreement.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Our only termination obligation under the contract is to transfer all currently generated materials (including source code, documentation, design documents, etc.) and all of the client owned/purchased hardware to the client.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will certainly involve discussions and training on the code that has been currently written (which hasn't been fully documented due to time pressure, part of the task list going forward if renewal occurred was for all code to be properly documented).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because the relationship (other than the renewal disagreement) was quite amicable and we really enjoyed working with the people and we enjoyed the work technically, we are prepared to offer some level of *free transition service.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For this level of contract (6 months, 25 hours per week) what is the appropriate level/amount of free transition/free training to give them?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We don't want to give too much, especially since they didn't renew...and the final product is about 2 years away...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Our question is similar to [this question][1], but we want to determine upfront how much free time we want to provide, instead of negotiating after the fact.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Update**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I informed the client that I will provide *1 hour* of questions, etc. for transition and that any other support will require a new contract, and any contract less than 3 months in length will be billed at our full non-discounted rate.&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1869/client-suspended-dev-work-but-still-wants-fixes" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5979" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2164" RevisionGUID="5ceadf57-bc07-4624-9845-273151f83a92" CreationDate="2014-07-25T20:01:23.237" UserId="4485" Text="It is imperative that even while freelancing that you keep your network of people you know growing.  It is also important to keep in touch with prior relationships.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tell my freelancers that they should book, and don't cancel, lunches OUT with a friend or business relationship at least one a week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Benefits?  Your sanity.  Meeting new people in your business (who knows where your next assignment will come from).  To learn - there is always something interesting to learn from others.   Sure, you may lose a billable hour here and there but keeping your mind fresh and moving away from your laptop will be more healthy in the long run" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5980" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2165" RevisionGUID="cd4ded7a-a85d-4c4a-81ab-6e46b2e80492" CreationDate="2014-07-25T20:05:42.580" UserId="4485" Text="Yes.  The way I look at this - my attorney get a retainer before she starts work. My builder needed a deposit to start work.  So do most professionals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can always get a check and put it in escrow or ask for partial payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agree with other comments that credit cards and paypal both have protection for the buyer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've paid freelances this way for initial work with my company.  After we know each other better, they invoice me and I cut and mail a check." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5985" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2167" RevisionGUID="d4cbe593-8e7d-4c1f-b52e-af056734b6e9" CreationDate="2014-07-28T00:39:10.420" UserId="3014" Text="I am a Freelancer and I have a small team of freelancers that works with me on large freelance web development projects. I am offering Web design, development and SEO. I created a website with many pages that includes my portfolio, about me and many more things. I saw that various freelancers created one page website to present their work and they are ranking on the top Google pages. My question is that as a freelancer what kind of website design is better to choose for SEO and for visitors?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regards" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5986" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2167" RevisionGUID="d4cbe593-8e7d-4c1f-b52e-af056734b6e9" CreationDate="2014-07-28T00:39:10.420" UserId="3014" Text="Single Page Vs Various pages" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5987" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2167" RevisionGUID="d4cbe593-8e7d-4c1f-b52e-af056734b6e9" CreationDate="2014-07-28T00:39:10.420" UserId="3014" Text="|freelance-websites|portfolio|design|webmasters|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5988" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2168" RevisionGUID="64122824-8dee-4f62-8df1-f7e5ba0c5536" CreationDate="2014-07-28T09:05:14.310" UserId="4493" Text="there is no design that is better for SEO ... there are rules for content, the only way a single page app could rank higher than a multi page app is by the content you are showing off, basically one of the most basic rules would be to have more than 15% relevant text content on a page. in most multi page apps this is not possible and because of that, a single-page app that doesn't follow all the rules can sometimes rank higher. regardless of this single rule, there are many techniques that you can use to rank a site high, another example would be backlinks. it is logically understandable that a single page app will only have backlinks to it's index whilst a multi page app can have them divided.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;it would be better if you provide some examples and test them with various tools like pagespeed, yslow, woorank, etc to have a general understanding of how those sites work in &quot;trending&quot; seo. even so, these tools will not total all the algorithms used by search engines and without having access to trending search engines webmaster tools you are unable to know all the gimmicks a site uses to rank high (for example, even if a site is single page, the sitemap can divide itself into all the links available in the navigation, providing custom content crawlable by search engines). a complete seo analysis of the sites you are looking at will give you better insight than any answer given here, as research is always better than guessing !&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;keep in mind that every search engine has some basic rules and you really need to dig into these sites a bit to figure out what you are dealing with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;hope this helps" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5990" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2150" RevisionGUID="caf663cb-697e-436b-87e6-77a447b44e3f" CreationDate="2014-07-28T12:47:55.930" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/493739630853103616" />
  <row Id="5997" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2168" RevisionGUID="bee69af5-ce8b-41ce-b1ec-27ce983db3ee" CreationDate="2014-07-28T17:06:38.523" UserId="75" Comment="Grammar; readability" Text="There is no design that is better for SEO - there are rules for content, the only way a single page app could rank higher than a multi-page app is by the content you are showing off. Basically, one of the most basic rules would be to have more than 15% relevant text content on a page. In most multi-page apps this is not possible and because of that, a single-page app that doesn't follow all the rules can sometimes rank higher.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regardless of this single rule, there are many techniques that you can use to rank a site high, with another example being backlinks. It is logically understandable that a single page app will only have backlinks to its index whilst a multi-page app can have them divided.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would be better if you provide some examples and test them with various tools like pagespeed, yslow, woorank, etc to have a general understanding of how those sites work in &quot;trending&quot; SEO. Even so, these tools will not total all the algorithms used by search engines and without having access to trending search engines webmaster tools, you are unable to know all the gimmicks a site uses to rank high. For example, even if a site is single page, the sitemap can divide itself into all the links available in the navigation, providing custom content crawlable by search engines. A complete SEO analysis of the sites you are looking at will give you better insight than any answer given here, as research is always better than guessing!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that every search engine has some basic rules and you really need to dig into these sites a bit to figure out what you are dealing with." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5998" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2171" RevisionGUID="e1f751fe-e191-4972-b2be-f66b06ec4a21" CreationDate="2014-07-28T18:27:58.733" UserId="4500" Text="I've seen this asked a few different ways (closest was [here][1]), but I am looking to find out from the business's perspective, how to report (if necessary) the amount paid to a foreign contractor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My situation is as follows: I have a US LLC and am wanting to contract an agency in India that I have found via [odesk.com][2]. I know I'd have to file a 1099 for a US contractor working in the US, and I think the 1042(S) for a foreign contractor working in the US, but what if I have a foreign contractor working outside of the US? Would this fall in a box of the 1065? Should I file a 1099/1042(S)? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm sure there's a form for it; any help is greatly appreciated!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/580/what-are-the-tax-issues-involved-with-employing-a-worker-in-a-different-countr&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.odesk.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5999" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2171" RevisionGUID="e1f751fe-e191-4972-b2be-f66b06ec4a21" CreationDate="2014-07-28T18:27:58.733" UserId="4500" Text="Tax considerations for outsourcing freelance work to foreign country" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6000" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2171" RevisionGUID="e1f751fe-e191-4972-b2be-f66b06ec4a21" CreationDate="2014-07-28T18:27:58.733" UserId="4500" Text="|taxes|foreign-markets|contract-to-hire|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6001" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1822" RevisionGUID="ec3caece-7420-4276-af11-8d80cfe922c5" CreationDate="2014-07-28T20:54:05.677" UserId="1697" Comment="[Odoo](https://www.odoo.com/) (formerly OpenERP)" Text="If you want a simple solution the you can look for a opensource invoicing control at github, sourceforge and others, or you can set it up on MSaccess database  if you need a little degree of customization.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you need a more professional solution then look for ERP like [Odoo](https://www.odoo.com/) (formerly OpenERP), that includes CRM project managemant, sales and a lot of other features in modular instalation, or buy a comercial software solution. but it is more difficult to setup and hard/costly to customize.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any of these choices are better for control than excel sheets. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the unit of work in management, it depends on the level of control that you need. maybe a good choice is the rate of work -word per hour, words per day... so you can measure your productive better.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6002" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1822" RevisionGUID="ec3caece-7420-4276-af11-8d80cfe922c5" CreationDate="2014-07-28T20:54:05.677" Comment="Proposed by 1697 approved by -1 edit id of 337" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6003" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1822" RevisionGUID="4d486419-9904-46f3-befd-9ce29cc03096" CreationDate="2014-07-28T20:54:05.677" UserId="1706" Comment="[Odoo](https://www.odoo.com/) (formerly OpenERP)" Text="If you want a simple solution then you can look for a open source invoicing package at github, sourceforge or others, or you can set it up on an MS Access database if you need a little degree of customization.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you need a more professional solution then look for an ERP package like [Odoo](https://www.odoo.com/) (formerly OpenERP), which includes CRM, project management, sales and a lot of other features.  Or, buy a commercial software solution.  Either of these will be more challenging to set up and customize.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any of these choices are better for increasing your productivity than excel sheets. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for managing by unit of work, it will depend on the level of control that you need.  Maybe a good choice is the rate of work - words per hour, words per day - so that you can measure your productivity better.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6007" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="613" RevisionGUID="78d1cd81-fc35-4386-946a-81cb9a437287" CreationDate="2014-07-29T05:07:26.893" UserId="684" Comment="Moved sources and links to answer rather than comments. Modified phrasing for clarity." Text="So this is an interesting question and I decided to do a little research. It seems that non-resident employees (those who are residents of one country but work in another) are subject to double taxation (being taxed by both their country of residence and country of work) unless they obtain special dispensation by filing a lot of paperwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[New Zealand](http://www.ird.govt.nz/payroll-employers/make-deductions/special-workers/non-res/)  &#xD;&#xA;[UK](http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/pommanual/paye81625.htm)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The United States IRS has special tax codes specifically for U.S. residents who are employed by an international organization or foreign government. &lt;br&gt;[Source](http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Persons-Employed-by-a-Foreign-Government-or-International-Organization---FIT)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The UK also specifies particular tax requirements for employees in offshore areas, including the specific stipulation that _&quot;Most offshore areas are now designated as part of a particular country. Both employers and employees will almost certainly have to meet the taxation requirements of that country.&quot;_ &lt;br&gt;[Source](http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/pommanual/PAYE81720.htm)&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;[More Info](http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/pommanual/paye81500.htm)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clearly the details of the taxation are going to be unique to each specific tax code of the two countries involved. Also note that these links apply to employees, not to independent contractors or suppliers (as Andrew mentioned). For contracting, you're actually purchasing a product/service so the taxation likely falls under trade agreements rather than employment tax law. Outsourcing to/from another country may be liable to import/export taxes. [This blog post](http://hrhorizons.nacubo.org/newsletter/past-issues/volume-7-issue-1/hiring-independent-contractors-abroad.html) has some useful advice in it regarding international independent contractors, though hard numbers are again going to be impossible to lay down without research into the specific countries involved.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your best bet is to talk to an accountant who is already familiar with these tax situations. Otherwise, spend a lot of time reading the tax code for each country where you plan to outsource." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6008" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2173" RevisionGUID="be569bf3-1caa-4f77-ad3d-0b12f4c19e0b" CreationDate="2014-07-29T18:25:53.683" UserId="9" Text="Creating a price based on your hourly rate is certainly a valid one and the one that most groups that maintain open-source projects take. However, instead of asking them how many hours they'd like to sponsor, I'd suggest using a *tiered pricing* model and asking what level they'd like to contribute at.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why tiered pricing? It allows companies to choose from a limited range of options, making it easier for a sponsor to make a choice (four choices, as opposed to &quot;Do we want to sponsor 25 or 26 hours?&quot;). Their marketing department can also put a name to their level of commitment. For example, which sounds better from their point of view:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * &quot;We're a proud sponsor of Library X&quot;, or &#xD;&#xA; * &quot;We're a proud diamond-level sponsor of Library X&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can determine the pricing of the tiers based on your hourly rate (as you suggest). Of course, higher tier levels beget higher visibility on the site. Your highest-level sponsors might get prime page estate and influence on any dynamic content (such as blog posts or the like), while your bronze-level sponsors might just get a nice mention on your Thank You page.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for determining the rate, I do suggest basing it off of an hourly rate. It can be something like this (assuming $50/hr):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **Bronze**: $100/month, or 2 hours&#xD;&#xA;* **Silver**: $200/month, or 4 hours&#xD;&#xA;* **Gold**: $500/month, or 10 hours&#xD;&#xA;* **Platinum**: $1000/month, or 20 hours&#xD;&#xA;* **Diamond**: $2500/month, or 50 hours&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By breaking down each tier into a number of hours, you'll be able to track when it becomes worth it to work on your project full-time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Examples of tiered pricing in action:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* [The Perl Foundation][1] (Donor Prospectus)&#xD;&#xA;* [pgRouting][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0U6pBm3WGeed0lXaWI5ZXV3azA/edit&#xD;&#xA;[2]: http://pgrouting.org/donate.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6009" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2174" RevisionGUID="f94d4aaf-614c-4da5-9d2b-c422266b4654" CreationDate="2014-07-29T19:37:14.017" UserId="4511" Text="I am german and have a MSc in CS. Since I am planning to live in Dublin for the next years and want to keep some of my current german customers as freelance developer, what legal steps do I need to follow to start a business in Ireland? Where do I need to register? How much does it cost? How much work is the tax stuff every year/month? Are their any exceptions if the income is lower than a certain amount?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;German tax system was already confusing, so I can't imagine figuring all out myself. Where could I get help? Where can I find more information?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6010" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2174" RevisionGUID="f94d4aaf-614c-4da5-9d2b-c422266b4654" CreationDate="2014-07-29T19:37:14.017" UserId="4511" Text="What do I need when I want to work as freelance developer in Ireland (Dublin)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6011" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2174" RevisionGUID="f94d4aaf-614c-4da5-9d2b-c422266b4654" CreationDate="2014-07-29T19:37:14.017" UserId="4511" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6012" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2174" RevisionGUID="509177b8-e55c-4710-9dee-569ba6def891" CreationDate="2014-07-29T20:32:57.080" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6013" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2175" RevisionGUID="35d64e5a-3755-4c73-9935-39656e8fa488" CreationDate="2014-07-29T23:44:00.963" UserId="4514" Text="It's hard to say exactly, but here is what I'd do if it's a SaaS app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try to determine their customer lifetime value. That is, how much is each customer worth from day one to cancellation. Then apply a formula based on the amount of customers you think will be created.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If their average monthly price is $89 and on average, a customer is a paying customer for 2 years, then the lifetime value is $89 X 24 months = $2136. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, estimate how many of your users will convert to customers. 8,000 (downloads per month) X .01 = 80 new customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, at a 1% conversion rate, they will earn 80 x $2136 = $170,880&#xD;&#xA;Or at a .05% conversion rate, they will earn 40 x $2136 = $85,440&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, these are all estimates. But, with a little research, you can probably get in the ballpark. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, what is their current customer acquisition cost? Again, use your best judgement. Look at Google Adwords and try to estimate what comparable traffic would cost them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If, on average, they spend $600 to acquire a new customer, you should charge accordingly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, how much should you charge? Well, if you're creating $170,880 of customer value then you should charge accordingly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind, these companies HAVE TO pay for their users. They are looking at your project as a marketing opportunity. Charge accordingly :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6014" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2176" RevisionGUID="328a3181-306a-4760-8cfd-1c7716a1452c" CreationDate="2014-07-30T00:43:09.437" UserId="4514" Text="You're pricing yourself into the ground. @ChrisForrence has great points and I'll add a few more...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will NEVER and I repeat NEVER profit from charging $350 for a site. Let's break this down from the first meeting...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. First meeting. Needs assessment - 1 hour&#xD;&#xA;2. Contract writing - 2 hours&#xD;&#xA;3. Concept development (for a basic site) - 2 hours&#xD;&#xA;4. Second meeting. Present concept to client - 1 hour&#xD;&#xA;5. Make changes to concept (yes, the client WILL make changes) - 1 hour&#xD;&#xA;6. Third meeting. Client buy-off on concept - 1 hour&#xD;&#xA;7. Begin design - 16 hours&#xD;&#xA;8. Fourth meeting. Show client progress - 1 hour&#xD;&#xA;9. Make requested changes - 2 hours&#xD;&#xA;10. Wait for copy and images from client....&#xD;&#xA;11. Get some half-baked copy and insert into HTML pages - 1 hour&#xD;&#xA;12. Edit the copy when the resend the &quot;final&quot; copy - 1 hour&#xD;&#xA;13. Prep the server, DNS etc. - 1 hour&#xD;&#xA;14. Fifth meeting. Client sign off (bu not really) - 1 hour&#xD;&#xA;15. Make requested changes - 1 hour&#xD;&#xA;16. Last pre-launch meeting - 1 hour&#xD;&#xA;17. Upload files and make sure the site is functioning properly - 1 hour&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, don't offer SEO service. You're not really doing anything for $80. You'll just piss off clients when the &quot;don't appear at the top of the Googles&quot; for every search term imaginable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, let's do the math:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Total price = $350&#xD;&#xA;Total hours = 34 &#xD;&#xA;$350/34 = $10.29/hour&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;McDonalds pays about $8 - $9 per hour and it's consistent money. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6015" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2177" RevisionGUID="8a3f8447-cd6b-4206-95b0-2837b70d696c" CreationDate="2014-07-30T06:10:36.310" UserId="4516" Text="I was hired by a client to develop an Android app for him. We've worked together once, and when he offered me the job we didn't make any formal agreement. Now after finishing the development of the app, the client is demanding various changes which wasn't a part of the initial requirement. I told him that I would make any changes he wants but we need to pay for it. Besides I requested him to release at least a portion of the project budget as the app is complete according to the initial requirement. He didn't agree. For this reason and various other reasons our relationship gone bad and now he is threatening me that he would hire another developer to complete the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I'm trying to make everything alright but as he already threatened me that he would hire a new developer, I'm considering distributing the application myself (through Google Play and other services) if he just walk away. Will it be a good idea? Considering that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - There was no formal agreement when I took the project (it was set up through our Skype conversation)&#xD;&#xA; - I haven't signed any NDA. When expressing his idea and sending the details (through Skype and Dropbox), he never requested me to keep it secret.&#xD;&#xA; - He haven't paid me anything yet " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6016" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2177" RevisionGUID="8a3f8447-cd6b-4206-95b0-2837b70d696c" CreationDate="2014-07-30T06:10:36.310" UserId="4516" Text="Using client's idea to develop an app" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6017" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2177" RevisionGUID="8a3f8447-cd6b-4206-95b0-2837b70d696c" CreationDate="2014-07-30T06:10:36.310" UserId="4516" Text="|legal|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6018" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2178" RevisionGUID="2f7a2ca9-873f-4098-9f49-2d7923de9eb5" CreationDate="2014-07-30T06:36:44.490" UserId="4514" Text="Obviously, I (or anyone here) have not been part of your negotiations or development, but I can tell you, you're only going to add fuel to the fire. You're also going to put yourself into a legally sticky situation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You did yourself a disservice by not writing a contract/scope of work etc. At this point, you're both stuck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You also made a mistake by not charging him anything upfront.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try and salvage the relationship. If that doesn't work, consider this a learning experience. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6019" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2179" RevisionGUID="7fb7b0b8-3841-4f10-8318-0dcdacd82e5e" CreationDate="2014-07-30T09:10:48.303" UserId="2839" Text="I agree with Paul.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;He never requested me to keep it secret&quot;... but he never says you can distribute it alone. Your job has been to develop the app. If you start distributing the app yourself you can have many more troubles (eg. his paternity of idea, lost customers, lost sells...). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some countries who develops the app has the property of source code... but he said he would hire another developer to complete the job... I imagine he has the source code already. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider that probably reading your skype conversation and considering which rules (written or not) you both followed in the previous work, someone can see your behavour wrong and maybe an aim to damage him someway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe you can do a little agreement now to be sure you'll be paid at completion of the app (with changes no part of the initial agreement... if you'll end up with a very low price consider it is better then nothing, you reduce your present lost).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's an error I did years ago: developing a custom e-commerce site without written agreement. I ended up with a working website that he didn't need anymore since he had nothing to sell &quot;at the moment&quot;. 2 months of work wasted :P" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6020" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2179" RevisionGUID="e116c212-6010-4a01-9e2f-f9c29e58a01d" CreationDate="2014-07-30T15:18:54.337" UserId="75" Comment="added 6 characters in body" Text="&quot;He never requested me to keep it secret&quot;... but he never says you can distribute it alone. Your job has been to develop the app. If you start distributing the app yourself you can have many more troubles (eg his paternity of idea, lost customers, lost sales, etc). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some countries, he who develops the app has the property of source code. However, he said he would hire another developer to complete the job, so I imagine he has the source code already. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider that probably reading your Skype conversation and considering which rules (written or not) you both followed in the previous work, someone can see your behaviour as wrong and maybe an aim to damage him someway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe you can do a little agreement now to be sure you'll be paid at completion of the app (with changes not being part of the initial agreement). Even if you end up with a very low price, consider it is better then nothing, as you will reduce your present lost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's an error I did years ago: developing a custom e-commerce site without written agreement. I ended up with a working website that he didn't need anymore, since he had nothing to sell &quot;at the moment&quot;. 2 months of work wasted." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6021" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2167" RevisionGUID="d0619877-1406-4968-bdff-6b759c60e480" CreationDate="2014-07-30T15:58:06.687" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/494512266675757056" />
  <row Id="6022" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2180" RevisionGUID="fc81a623-4b1d-48cd-8514-7415fad1d18c" CreationDate="2014-07-30T17:08:13.107" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="I am the owner of a small company, self-employed and working with freelancers every now and then. Working in a high-tech area (IT), selling a software packet and delivering development services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have opportunities to address bigger companies. These have concerns regarding stability and durability of my company, and they are right. The main issues to be addressed for the long run are 1) availability of the product; 2) technical support; 3) continued evolution; 4) preservation of the know-how.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am open to many options, including partial buy-out of the company, but this is not my preferred one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there known solutions to handle such situations ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6023" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2180" RevisionGUID="fc81a623-4b1d-48cd-8514-7415fad1d18c" CreationDate="2014-07-30T17:08:13.107" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Company stability" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6024" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2180" RevisionGUID="fc81a623-4b1d-48cd-8514-7415fad1d18c" CreationDate="2014-07-30T17:08:13.107" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="|business-plan|sales|long-term|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6028" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2182" RevisionGUID="d87424d8-b61b-4421-90a9-7ffa27132793" CreationDate="2014-07-30T19:21:15.693" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Can you collect any evidence that there has been an informal contract between you ? Like e-mails, recorded Skype messages, any trace of Dropbox transactions showing that you delivered source code, testimonials, whatever...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can provide material elements showing that you worked for him, then there is no need for a full-fledged written contract. Send him an invoice for the work you've done, by registered mail. Let him understand that you will play it fair if he does as well, but warn him of possible legal actions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will not improve your relation to this guy, but will put you in a better position to claim your due. What do you have to lose ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He will probably try on that moment to negotiate new clauses (such as acknowledging tribute to him) and tell you &quot;I'll pay if...&quot;. Stay firm on your position, he has to pay first before any new arrangement is made.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If that works, be fair with him after payment; it may be possible to keep the relation. If not, evaluate if it is worth to go to court.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the opposite, you have no evidence of anything, drop the money and go your own way. Claiming that it was his idea will force him to admit he appointed you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any case, stay fair, avoid making justice yourself if possible." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6029" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2182" RevisionGUID="2fcdf43e-b8ef-4f09-ad4c-6f9d77d08a0d" CreationDate="2014-07-30T19:26:32.597" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="added 24 characters in body" Text="Can you collect any evidence that there has been an informal contract between you ? Like e-mails, recorded Skype messages, any trace of Dropbox transactions showing that you delivered source code, testimonials, whatever...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can provide material elements showing that you worked for him, then there is no need for a full-fledged written contract. Send him an invoice for the work you've done, by registered mail. Let him understand that you will play it fair if he does as well, but warn him of possible legal actions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will not improve your relation to this guy, but will put you in a better position to claim your due. What do you have to lose ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He will probably try on that moment to negotiate new clauses (such as acknowledging tribute to him) and tell you &quot;I'll pay if...&quot;. Stay firm on your position, he has to pay first before any new arrangement is made, as the trust relationship seems to be gone. Work done must be paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If that works, be fair with him after payment; it may be possible to keep the relation. If it doesn't work, evaluate if it is worth to go to court.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the opposite, you have no evidence of anything, drop the money and go your own way. Claiming that it was his idea will force him to admit he appointed you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any case, stay fair, avoid making justice yourself if possible." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6031" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2183" RevisionGUID="363f3d76-75ad-4661-bb6d-dee147e09825" CreationDate="2014-07-30T20:48:27.600" UserId="4514" Text="I don't really see any options other than target a different market. Start selling to smaller companies. Build your business. Once you do that, the concerns of the large corporations will be reduced.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They want to protect their ass. You're not going to trick them. Build a business, then grow into the enterprise market." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6032" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2184" RevisionGUID="ff0ed235-c27e-4a6b-8084-2a6523b14bc6" CreationDate="2014-07-30T20:53:30.033" UserId="4514" Text="You're thinking about it backwards. Top freelancers can build a crappy site, and still rank. It's about reputation. Contribute to opensource projects, start a blog, get known. This will attract links (reputation) and you'll start to see an improvement. No amount of on-site SEO will matter at this point." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6033" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2185" RevisionGUID="a46b41b7-798a-457b-87e9-c9a8faceda0f" CreationDate="2014-07-30T21:35:46.550" UserId="4524" Text="I have a client that wants me to post a competition for a large group of student freelancers to build an app for an alumni group. The problem is that I have looked at the basic spec and it really doesn't fit an app. It fits a good mobile website. His prize is also a trip to the iOS developer conference and a 3 year personal iOS developers license. I guess my question is three parts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there is no actual device hardware interaction wouldn't a mobile optimized website inside an appframe be the best option not a dedicated app?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially how do I politely convince a non technical client that he is requesting something that is somewhat of a technical bad practice?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't think the prize is really gonna convince many college students to put a serious effort into this. How should I get this across to the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6034" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2185" RevisionGUID="a46b41b7-798a-457b-87e9-c9a8faceda0f" CreationDate="2014-07-30T21:35:46.550" UserId="4524" Text="Convincing A Client Against an App" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6035" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2185" RevisionGUID="a46b41b7-798a-457b-87e9-c9a8faceda0f" CreationDate="2014-07-30T21:35:46.550" UserId="4524" Text="|freelance-websites|communication|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6036" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2185" RevisionGUID="8641446f-410d-4d17-9f0c-055c22d56b8c" CreationDate="2014-07-30T22:05:14.337" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [freelance-websites], minor grammar changes, numbered list" Text="I have a client that wants me to post a competition for a large group of student freelancers to build an app for an alumni group. The problem is that I have looked at the basic spec and it really doesn't fit an app. It fits a good mobile website. His prize is also a trip to the iOS developer conference and a 3-year personal iOS developer license.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is three parts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. If there is no actual device hardware interaction, wouldn't a mobile-optimized website inside an appframe be the best option not a dedicated app?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. How do I politely convince a non-technical client that he is requesting something that is somewhat a technical bad practice?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. I don't think the prize is really gonna convince many college students to put a serious effort into this. How should I get this across to the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6037" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2185" RevisionGUID="8641446f-410d-4d17-9f0c-055c22d56b8c" CreationDate="2014-07-30T22:05:14.337" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [freelance-websites], minor grammar changes, numbered list" Text="|communication|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6038" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2185" RevisionGUID="8641446f-410d-4d17-9f0c-055c22d56b8c" CreationDate="2014-07-30T22:05:14.337" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 4524 edit id of 339" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6039" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2185" RevisionGUID="8d389069-0d25-43fa-82f0-df3c73fc362a" CreationDate="2014-07-30T22:05:48.667" UserId="4524" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="I have a client that wants me to post a competition for a large group of student freelancers to build an iOS app for an alumni group. The problem is that I have looked at the basic spec and it really doesn't fit an app. It fits a good mobile website. His prize is also a trip to the iOS developer conference and a 3-year personal iOS developer license.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is three parts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. If there is no actual device hardware interaction, wouldn't a mobile-optimized website inside an appframe be the best option not a dedicated app?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. How do I politely convince a non-technical client that he is requesting something that is somewhat a technical bad practice?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. I don't think the prize is really gonna convince many college students to put a serious effort into this. How should I get this across to the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6040" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2185" RevisionGUID="8d389069-0d25-43fa-82f0-df3c73fc362a" CreationDate="2014-07-30T22:05:48.667" UserId="4524" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="Convincing A Client Against an App/ Technical lessons for a non-Technical Client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6041" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2186" RevisionGUID="8ed842a3-de9a-4314-b3fa-2c315230598f" CreationDate="2014-07-30T22:37:27.027" UserId="4514" Text="Simply tell him your feelings. If he doesn't understand, turn down the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know enough about the situation, but it looks like he's simply trying to exploit the eagerness of students. As you said, the prize is hardly worth the effort." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6042" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2187" RevisionGUID="617f89e9-7223-41a7-a3ae-27d6a06b6c7c" CreationDate="2014-07-30T23:17:59.030" UserId="1752" Text="As @Paul said in his answer above, you can change your market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option other than the buyout (or partial buyout) from the large corporations would be to attempt to form a *consortium* of buyers for your product + support.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you could get a few different companies to agree to pay for product support for some number of years, then that would mitigate much of the stability issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is sort of how CVS and SVN (versioning systems) were funded I believe.  It can be done, but is likely not easy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6043" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2180" RevisionGUID="81abfe0f-7a67-43c6-a539-1a13825e6fcc" CreationDate="2014-07-31T00:58:09.163" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/494648172619530240" />
  <row Id="6044" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2188" RevisionGUID="1889ee80-6bd5-40d8-bc67-3d3c3ca3e0f0" CreationDate="2014-07-31T02:21:43.797" UserId="4474" Text="I'm a freelancer, too, for about 30 years now. I work out of my home. It can be very isolating, so I can appreciate what you're feeling. My husband works outside the home, and when he comes home from work, he often has 1000s of things to tell me about his day, while I just look at him and think....uh...what did I DO today???  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Per not going to church because you are an Atheist, I belong to a church that welcomes people of all faiths and no faiths...Unitarian Universalism....Look it up.  There may be a Fellowship or congregation near you where you do NOT have to &quot;praise&quot; a higher power, but a place you can express your own thoughts and listen to interesting and thought provoking &quot;sermons&quot; plus have wonderful conversations with new people of like (or non-like) minds. Within many UU churches there are opportunities to become involved in social action, the ecology around you, music, book groups, etc.  It can give you the social you may want without the &quot;religion&quot;. This has worked for me. Best of luck to you!  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6046" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2189" RevisionGUID="54859f8a-58e8-44ae-9329-8d0a07da61d7" CreationDate="2014-07-31T09:34:41.893" UserId="4530" Text="I usually tend to go with something in between a more general or detailed approach. So, then an option would be to go with a more component based progress mail. E.g.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Slideshow: about halfway. High Priority. Probably finished by tomorrow. &#xD;&#xA; - Layout news detail page: Normal priority. Postponed till next week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also list any questions per component. This way the client has a better overview and also the opportunity to re-adjust priorities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But as dougp01 said; in the end it's up to the client on what they prefer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6047" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2189" RevisionGUID="c2ae6ba1-1c8c-4635-afac-aa935955169b" CreationDate="2014-07-31T09:51:49.337" UserId="4530" Comment="added 64 characters in body" Text="I usually tend to go with something in between a more general or detailed approach. So, then an option would be to go with a more component/task based progress mail. E.g.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Slideshow: about halfway. High Priority. Probably finished by tomorrow. &#xD;&#xA; - Layout news detail page: Normal priority. Postponed till next week.&#xD;&#xA; - Responsiveness: Minor issues on tablet and phone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also list any questions per component/task. This way the client has a better overview and also the opportunity to re-adjust priorities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But as dougp01 said; in the end it's up to the client on what they prefer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6048" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="2150" RevisionGUID="273e86df-5368-4b04-9137-25d46941298d" CreationDate="2014-07-31T16:15:42.470" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6049" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2190" RevisionGUID="ecfb0a5d-1da0-48d9-85b7-568ab3138d21" CreationDate="2014-07-31T23:27:27.830" UserId="1706" Text="Personally, I wouldn't want to touch anything that victimizes naive up-and-coming developers.  Seems like he wants this app to sell, and wants to pimp the college kids out of their time.  The prize likely doesn't match what he'd pay YOU to do it, which is why this approach is being taken.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This may haunt you in the future if you decide to take on the work!!! :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6050" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2191" RevisionGUID="10c2adfc-c15e-4648-984c-1c903e1a635d" CreationDate="2014-07-31T23:34:16.300" UserId="1706" Text="You've used your tools, your knowledge, and your time.  Until he PAYS for it, it's your property. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Friend, it's a ***really, really*** stupid idea to ask him to release a &quot;portion of the project budget&quot; if the work is completed.  He needs to be paying 100% of the price for a 100% complete application.  If you turn the work over for anything less than your full price right now, I guarantee you that this client will disappear and you'll never get the rest of what's due.  This is mostly especially because you don't have a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd tell this guy that he has 7 days to pay, or you keep the app and post it to the Play Store  yourself.  I mean, think now -- what can he do?  He has no written contract that even gives him a hint of ownership in your work.  And as far as I can tell, you've not received ANY money.  He's got no recourse." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6051" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="588" RevisionGUID="4b5b48c0-594e-4c98-a5a7-9e0ce0312f83" CreationDate="2014-08-01T06:08:46.033" UserId="64" Comment="fixing broken link. (answers.onstartups.com was shut down and content moved to brightjourney.com)" Text="[Ideas are meaningless. They don't create value.](http://www.brightjourney.com/q/forming-new-software-startup-allocate-ownership-fairly#a-23326) Without actual inputs in the form of work, they'll never manifest into anything that can be bought or sold. The only intellectual property involved in your scenario are the actual designs and themes for the CMS that you will produce.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This isn't just my opinion. [Cornell University Law School's Legal Information Institute, USC Title 17 Section 102](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/102) states the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **(b)** In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any ***idea***, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.  &#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;*(Bold, italicized emphasis is mine.)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you're in the United States, you're governed by United States Copyright Law, which states the following in [Cornell University Law School's - 17 USC § 201](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/201):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **(a) Initial Ownership.**— Copyright in a work protected under this title vests initially in the author or authors of the work. The authors of a joint work are coowners of copyright in the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **(b) Works Made for Hire.**— In the case of a work made for hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared is considered the author for purposes of this title, and, unless the parties have expressly agreed otherwise in a written instrument signed by them, owns all of the rights comprised in the copyright.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;According to the law, as stated above, the copyright for a work initially belongs to the author, unless the work is part of a &quot;work made for hire&quot;. In cases where the work is part of a work made for hire, the person commissioning the work owns the copyright, not the author.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have **no contract written** *and* you're **not an employee**, then according to [USC Title 17 Section 101](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/101), as cited below from Cornell University Law School, the work is ***not*** a work for hire and hence the copyright belongs to you and whomever else actively works on the deliverables:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A “work made for hire” is—&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **(1)** a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **(2)** a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, ***if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire.*** For the purpose of the foregoing sentence, a “supplementary work” is a work prepared for publication as a secondary adjunct to a work by another author for the purpose of introducing, concluding, illustrating, explaining, revising, commenting upon, or assisting in the use of the other work, such as forewords, afterwords, pictorial illustrations, maps, charts, tables, editorial notes, musical arrangements, answer material for tests, bibliographies, appendixes, and indexes, and an “instructional text” is a literary, pictorial, or graphic work prepared for publication and with the purpose of use in systematic instructional activities.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;*(Bold, italics emphasis is mine.)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In summary, unless you explicitly agree in writing with the other party, your friend, that the work is a work made for hire, and your friend isn't doing any of the work to create the designs or themes, according to US Copyright Law, the copyright ownership falls to you. ***Note that &quot;work&quot; does not mean merely coming up with a cool idea while daydreaming, or staring into space, or chasing the [eye floaters in your eyes](http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/benign-eye-floaters).***. If you're not actually physically putting together the work, you're not the author.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, it sounds like your role in this is temporary, which means your friend likely doesn't intend to enter into a partnership with you. Therefore, it's in his or her best interests to enter into a written, contractual agreement that clearly outlines who owns what and to what rights and responsibilities each party has in regards to the works. You could certainly outline that the copyright ownership awarded to you transfers in full to your friend when payment is received in full. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, ***do not rely solely on the information here in this post.***  I've studied business law, but ***I'm not an attorney nor am I an authority on this matter***. If you visit any of the sources I've referenced, you'll see that the law is very verbose and very deep. Consequently, there may be hidden legal loopholes that I in my limited wisdom did not foresee.  The best course of action is to see an attorney who specializes in business law and/or copyright law, and hire that person to draft a professional contractual agreement that doesn't violate local, state, or federal laws. Illegal contracts may not be enforceable, and a licensed attorney will help make sure that you have a solid contract that will help prevent any problems or disagreements down the line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're thinking, &quot;Man, that sounds like a lot of work, and my friend wouldn't do anything unsavory&quot;, keep in mind that the goal of a contract isn't to beat someone over the head with it when things go bad; instead, it's designed to prevent unexpected and/or unforeseen problems and misunderstandings from turning into very heated and expensive legal battles. In many cases, a disagreement is resolved by never actually having a disagreement in the first place, by having everything clearly written out beforehand so that everyone is clear what his or her role is, both at the start of the work and once the work is completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For further reading, please see the [United States Copyright Office - Works Made For Hire](http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ09.pdf)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6052" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2192" RevisionGUID="81713730-24c2-445d-b0a3-59040d2591d8" CreationDate="2014-08-01T13:35:28.517" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="1.How can you fix the problem or help them achieve what they want? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They describe their problem form the very first sentence: &quot;We are looking for a talented and motivated developer with superior PHP/Zend framework skills to work on the oDesk Corporate site.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.How do I tell the client, how can I do what they need to have done?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By being available, by being talented and motivated, and by having superior PHP/Zend framework skills. This may sound a silly answer, but these are their expressed requirements. Show them that you have **read** them, **understood** them and that you can **address** them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.How do I ask them questions, like in a effective cover letter?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I ignored that a cover letter was a place to ask questions. I thought more it was to draw the recruiter's attention and have your CV be put on top. Can you explain ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6060" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2194" RevisionGUID="4a289d9a-d845-4b4a-b382-71851b8bd4ac" CreationDate="2014-08-02T18:46:08.967" UserId="4545" Text="I've had this happen with two potential clients now and I'm really hoping there's a good way to handle it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't do this as a full time job, but I run into people every now and then that want me to write an app or website for them. I'm always happy for the opportunity and email them back right away, but sometimes I have to wait **weeks** or even **MONTHS** for them to reply. When they do reply, they're very apologetic; I try to be professional and tell them that it's OK because I understand what it's like to be busy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But it's not really OK. The longer they take to reply, the more time I have to put off helping other people. I don't want to chew them out, but I do want them to be respectful of my time and understand that I could be helping other people. Has anyone else experienced this problem? What did you do to resolve it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6061" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2194" RevisionGUID="4a289d9a-d845-4b4a-b382-71851b8bd4ac" CreationDate="2014-08-02T18:46:08.967" UserId="4545" Text="How to let a client know that not replying is not acceptable?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6062" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2194" RevisionGUID="4a289d9a-d845-4b4a-b382-71851b8bd4ac" CreationDate="2014-08-02T18:46:08.967" UserId="4545" Text="|communication|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6063" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2195" RevisionGUID="588b30c7-9ad3-4609-a03c-5be9d91acc53" CreationDate="2014-08-02T20:14:18.033" UserId="4546" Text="As Entrepreneur I cannot see the value to pay per hour. &#xD;&#xA;It is exactly the opposite metric - I am interested in the work done with minimum hours spent. And freelancer is incentivised naturally to increase the number of hours. I just feel it is wrong base for collaboration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Shouldn't we be looking instead to align our goals? Care about quality, working atmosphere? Compliment and reward each other?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As Employer, I look for quality work, competent, fast (within reason). Also I look to be impressed. A greater attention to details, a new angle I haven't thought about - you name it! The more I am impressed, the more I am willing to pay. Even better, I will offer this myself! So that this great impressive freelancer keeps up quality work, and I keep up rewarding her the best I can. Now our incentives are aligned!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now from the question I get the impression that neither client nor freelancer know exactly what work is involved, so fixing both price and time upfront is simply counter-productive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As freelancer, I would have an honest discussion outlining what possible work can be done with what outcomes. That is, tangible outcomes that client can appreciate. Assuming, they don't have a long relationship as of yet, and have to see how things move, picking a small job leading to a fast valuable outcome for the client would be the best thing to do. That way the freelancer knows it won't take too long, will possibly see a way to impress the client, and will know that client will appreciate the job and will gladly pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then, once both sides are happy after the first job is done, it is much easier to agree for the next. And so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So in conclusion, the newer your relationship is, the shorter job you should take at a time. That is the only way I see to keep both sides happy and working towards the same goal, not the opposite ones.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6064" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2196" RevisionGUID="8a935f4f-5752-403c-a1b8-66341c331f9b" CreationDate="2014-08-03T00:23:34.780" UserId="4514" Text="I used to run into the same problem. It happened for two reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I worked with the wrong types of clients&#xD;&#xA;2. I allowed it to happen&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're picking &quot;bottom of the barrel&quot; clients that pay very little money, they have very little to loose. They also tend to be the most demanding and/or difficult clients. They don't care if it takes a week or year because they're not committed to the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, to avoid it:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Avoid these types of clients, or...&#xD;&#xA;2. Write something in your contract that releases you of your committed time frame if the client doesn't respond within a pre-determined amount of time. If the client fails to perform and you've made every reasonable attempt at keeping the project on track, place the client on hold and inform them (in a nice way) that their project has now been put on the back burner and they'll have to wait their turn going forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't let a non-performing client hold you back from other work. It's not ethical on their end and you shouldn't feel bad about being a bit forceful. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6066" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2197" RevisionGUID="112b7d9e-a399-4356-a6af-648dae15d96b" CreationDate="2014-08-03T10:37:21.043" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="My own policy is to do fixed price offers based on sufficiently detailed specifications, and give an hourly rate for extras. When I feel the need, I also explicitly state what is not included in the basis offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then during execution of the contract, when new requests pop up, I can raise the flag &quot;this is extra&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having a relatively high hourly rate for the extras is no problem as you can explain to the customer that this breaks your schedule, induces project overhead and impacts your other projects...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To avoid scaring them, I also leave the option of working on the basis of a secondary fixed-price offer in case the &quot;extras&quot; would tend to extend." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6067" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2197" RevisionGUID="3e8f74b5-0519-4582-82ae-0f4106ee9d19" CreationDate="2014-08-03T10:43:38.377" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="added 182 characters in body" Text="My own policy is to do fixed price offers based on sufficiently detailed specifications, and give an hourly rate for extras. When I feel the need, I also explicitly state what is not included in the basis offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then during execution of the contract, when new requests pop up, I can raise the flag &quot;this is extra&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having a relatively high hourly rate for the extras is no problem as you can explain to the customer that this breaks your schedule, induces project overhead and impacts your other projects...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To avoid scaring them, I also leave the option of working on the basis of a secondary fixed-price offer in case the &quot;extras&quot; would tend to extend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may also sometimes help to include a comment saying that the specs were not fully available at the time of writing so that a &quot;reasonable&quot; interpretation of the task will hold." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6068" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2197" RevisionGUID="838c2a09-5698-432d-a119-78ee0c12abb9" CreationDate="2014-08-03T10:51:41.317" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="added 182 characters in body" Text="My own policy is to do fixed price offers based on sufficiently detailed specifications, and announce an hourly rate for extras. When I feel the need, I also explicitly state what is not included in the basis offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then during execution of the contract, when new requests pop up, I can raise the flag &quot;this is extra&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having a relatively high hourly rate for the extras is no problem as you can explain to the customer that this breaks your schedule, induces project overhead and impacts your other projects...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To avoid scaring them, I also leave the option of working on the basis of a secondary fixed-price offer in case the &quot;extras&quot; would tend to extend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may also sometimes help to include a comment saying that the specs were not fully available at the time of writing so that a &quot;reasonable&quot; interpretation of the task will hold.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Last but not least, there can be (in my case there are always) unknowns when preparing the offer. In the cases that these unknowns can become problematic, I explain to the customer that I cannot assume all the risk alone. So I propose to agree on the sharing of the risk (say both parties will take half of the extra costs if they arise), or I warn of an upfront surcharge to cover it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6069" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2198" RevisionGUID="c33872ba-bc2f-418d-bb79-0f8c94b109c4" CreationDate="2014-08-04T12:16:23.000" UserId="4553" Text="Go hourly seems the advice here, and from the freelancer programmer perspective it would be very preferable. And it goes hand in hand with the commonly espoused view that *estimating is hard*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All true to a degree,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, what other trade would this be acceptable ? For me none, I would never get a plumber/builder to do a job without first agreeing an upfront fee. I once had a painter and decorator respond to &quot;how long will it take to plaster 3 rooms?&quot; with &quot;how long is piece of string?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course programming is different, and customers change requirements. But that can be dealt with. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess I am highlighting that reliable estimating is not actually impossible, and nether should it be viewed as. Expecting customers to work on a day rate is rather presumptuous - conversely it is also quite common, often due to customers ineptitude imo.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6070" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2177" RevisionGUID="39b9f99b-3bd3-4684-8335-636405761d4c" CreationDate="2014-08-04T13:00:34.983" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/496279529535836161" />
  <row Id="6071" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2199" RevisionGUID="365567b5-6177-4716-a57f-e36828de06ba" CreationDate="2014-08-04T13:51:42.153" UserId="4554" Text="I have done many small programming gigs for random people I met online. Now, I want to use their websites in my portfolio. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know the safest answer would be &quot;just ask for consent first&quot;. However, I am no longer in touch with these people and emailing them would be very embarrassing due to some personal reasons. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is my plan: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Go to their websites, take screenshots of the respective homepages and post those images on my website along with their url's.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'll mark it simply as &quot;**projects I have contributed to**&quot;. I was also going to mention what exactly I contributed to the project, but maybe these people don't want that information public.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, I know the safest answer is &quot;just ask&quot;. However, I just want to know what all I can post legally on my website without getting in trouble. (Obviously, I did not sign NDA or have any informal NDA, otherwise I would not be asking this question.)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6072" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2199" RevisionGUID="365567b5-6177-4716-a57f-e36828de06ba" CreationDate="2014-08-04T13:51:42.153" UserId="4554" Text="As a freelance programmer, how to include projects in portfolio without legal trouble?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6073" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2199" RevisionGUID="365567b5-6177-4716-a57f-e36828de06ba" CreationDate="2014-08-04T13:51:42.153" UserId="4554" Text="|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6074" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2136" RevisionGUID="8aae0fdd-ef2f-4e19-bbfd-f5fc26ee8bf3" CreationDate="2014-08-04T16:02:48.150" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/496325386574495745" />
  <row Id="6075" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2200" RevisionGUID="8b677928-8c16-4cd3-8cbf-1b7ed97c64a2" CreationDate="2014-08-04T16:24:17.793" UserId="4556" Text="If you haven't signed an NDA, and have no contract in place for the work that mentions this, then posting the work on your site would seem to be fair use, I would also infer that there is no obvious legal obligation either way here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client does have an objection then they can request you remove the images. I believe the worst case scenario here would be a letter from a lawyer requesting you remove the content.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously if you can contact your clients to get specific permission that would be ideal but in my experience most clients will not have an issue with you featuring their sites in your portfolio, the exception to this being venture funded startups how are often more sensitive." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6076" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2201" RevisionGUID="7cbfe370-6b12-4820-b4e9-b55f2828a709" CreationDate="2014-08-04T16:53:31.877" UserId="4500" Text="I eventually had to talk to an accountant. He told me that regardless of method of payment, my US LLC does not have to withhold taxes or report the payment as payments to contractors (1099/1042(S)) to the IRS; it is simply a business expense.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He said this gets more complicated if the recipient is working in the US (regardless of nationality), but that is not my case." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6077" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2202" RevisionGUID="8f1c02c3-cf89-4da7-b4f5-88760829a9f2" CreationDate="2014-08-04T16:58:19.687" UserId="4556" Text="You'll need to ask a legal or tax advisor in India, but in *non-country specific terms* the benefits of a business entity rather than an individual trading in your own name are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Tax benefits — as a business entity you may pay less, or different taxes, and may be able to reclaim sales tax or benefit from other tax incentives for businesses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Liability sheild — a common reason to incorporate a business is to create a liability shield between yourself and your business, so for example if a client sues you, your house etc… are somewhat protected, the extent of this protection varies from country to country.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Employees — in many countries, in order to employ a person you need to be incorporated as a business entity and register with the relevant government body. Obviously this only applies if you intend to hire a full time employee and not just contractors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Legitimacy — not a great reason to incorporate but a number of large corporations will only deal with other business entities, if your clients are in government or multinational business this may be a reason to do so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course as a UK business owner with knowledge of US and EU businesses laws I may be missing something specific to India, other's may be able to help more but ultimately you should check with a local tax or legal advisor." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6078" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2203" RevisionGUID="ebd679b7-d35d-44c3-abca-a225511fa0b5" CreationDate="2014-08-04T18:44:12.877" UserId="4556" Text="**If you're working outside the UK, you do not need a UK work visa.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Visas are for those physically entering the UK — should you to travel to the UK you can find a definitive answer on the UK government's website: https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example for visits of less than 6 months you _may_ not need one: https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa/y/usa/work/six_months_or_less&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Typically in this situation you will invoice the company you're working for and they will pay you as a contractor (they may ask about VAT, which as a non-EU business you do not charge), you will then be liable for the relevant state and federal taxes in the US in the same way you would for any other revenue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*I am not a lawyer or tax professional and you should certainly consult one with experience in your jurisdiction to ensure you're correctly setup to pay US taxes.*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6079" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2204" RevisionGUID="5d9e2d70-1a6e-4b0b-a82b-0c51e7b48a25" CreationDate="2014-08-04T19:05:28.880" UserId="1706" Text="When a client asks you for fixed-price, in essence the client is asking you to absorb the risk.  Unless your specs are done in mind boggling detail, the client is going to assume that anything caused by poor communication is a cost that *you* are going to absorb.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So here's a fair exchange: if the client has the capability to alter the requirements, then *you* must have the capability to charge more.  This is accomplished most easily by going hourly, but many clients balk at that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're doing fixed-price and your client starts coming up with substantial, material changes, ***require the client to submit a written change order*** to which you can invoice and demand some more money.  That's the best way to force the client to think before asking you to deliver more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6080" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2205" RevisionGUID="e355bb0b-3126-49a2-8d82-263bcc7a4635" CreationDate="2014-08-04T19:08:23.410" UserId="4558" Text="So I have been doing websites as freelancer now for some time. Couple clients likes to do small scale development now and then to their site, which is great but the problem is that they have always tight schedule. So example scenario:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Week 1: They ask how much it would cost to do this feature. I let them know and they say they think about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Week 3: They say they want it, but they need it tomorrow. Well obviously my schedule for next day is full already.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the problem... I would like to do this and since usually the development is something simple and quick. Max one hour billable. But that they want this to be done fast gives problems. I have said multiple times that these things should be scheduled at least few days beforehand or ideally week(s) before. What would you do in my shoes? Ask higher fee for quick job? How much is suitable? 10%-15% extra?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6081" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2205" RevisionGUID="e355bb0b-3126-49a2-8d82-263bcc7a4635" CreationDate="2014-08-04T19:08:23.410" UserId="4558" Text="Clients ask quick jobs, how to bill" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6082" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2205" RevisionGUID="e355bb0b-3126-49a2-8d82-263bcc7a4635" CreationDate="2014-08-04T19:08:23.410" UserId="4558" Text="|time-management|difficult-client|overtime|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6083" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2206" RevisionGUID="da4a1a5f-510a-4547-9864-7b9850c31481" CreationDate="2014-08-04T20:24:03.643" UserId="127" Text="I typically tell customers that these jobs will get fit into my schedule when possible, and that 1 day lead time is not sufficient. However, I have also on occasion charged more for bumping other work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When possible, I'd try to quote both rates to the customer up front - &quot;If you want my guaranteed attention immediately, it will be $X, but if it can wait a few days or a week, then the cost will be $Y.&quot; But if you don't quote them an &quot;emergency rate&quot; up front, you can still offer them the choice once they come back with &quot;Approved, but must be done today&quot;. In those cases, I'd at least be very clear in your original bid that the number is based on 2 day notice or something to that effect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much? Well, I don't charge hourly, but honestly, 10%-15% sounds paltry to me on a small project like this. I'd probably charge 50% markup. But that's just me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6084" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2207" RevisionGUID="e191ef5a-6fd0-426f-8708-18f0234bccc1" CreationDate="2014-08-04T22:45:36.980" UserId="4514" Text="I agree with Avonelle. However, I'd charge 100% (or more). Every industry has a rush fee. Shipping, design, transportation etc. It's nothing new or unheard of to mark the price up drastically. I  don't do it to make more money, I do it to discourage the habit. Once you do something as a rush for free, you devalue your time and establish an environment that welcomes the behavior." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6085" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2208" RevisionGUID="a04ea5a1-ed0b-4668-b8bd-22c30a37b7f7" CreationDate="2014-08-04T23:49:40.513" UserId="1706" Text="Payment FIRST!  Clients like to rush, rush, rush and if you're not careful all you'll see is dollar signs in front of your eyes without examining the situation properly.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client needs to be in as much of a rush to PAY you as the client is to get the work finished.  Write a strong contract and don't rush the details.  ***Beware the client who says, &quot;can't we handle all of that stuff later????&quot;***" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6086" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2209" RevisionGUID="f7b1a3c0-52f1-4e97-a2ec-272ba547a125" CreationDate="2014-08-05T00:13:19.477" UserId="4561" Text="I deal with this with my clients and I am this type of client sometimes to others. (Sorry, did they say how sorry they were?...)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First - as the contractor when I propose work I always include something along the lines of: The terms and conditions of the proposal are effective through _____.  Acceptance after that date may necessitate increased fees or altered conditions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Never-mind no one seems to actually read the proposal, this still covers you if they come back months later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have not done this but I have ready others say they get fast invoice payment by offering a discount if they pay within a certain amount of time.  That might work in a proposal too - 3% discount if you sign and send a deposit by ____ date...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And then some people charge a premium for rush jobs.  So if they ignore you then respond months later and suddenly need it now but you're busy with a different client, you can say &quot;We can do that under our premium price if you need it now...&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As to why they do this from the other side of the fence.  Some people really ARE busy.  Some are just disorganized.  Regardless, what is one big project that you're hoping to land from your perspective may be one of 20 projects this person is trying to coordinate/manage and it's not their sole focus the way it may be yours.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It doesn't hurt to politely remind them you exist.  They may be putting out the closest fires and you can become that next fire.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have noticed in my line of work that most of my clients are like this so I expect it and accept it and just try not to let their demands become my emergency.  Multiple times I have literally worked all night for last minute requests someone HAD to have right away only to discover later that it sat in their in box for days before they dealt with it.  It's hard but now I try to stay calm and give realistic time frames and not spoil my clients by indulging their last minute emergency mindsets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck and I am curious to hear what you do if you get good results.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Emily" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6087" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2210" RevisionGUID="5fcfa5c1-d8dd-42ff-ae91-8c2358ef8575" CreationDate="2014-08-05T00:21:52.093" UserId="4561" Text="What others said...  Assuming the client is not difficult in other ways, I would:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Never respond after hours (unless you perceive a real emergency).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) When you do respond Monday morning - don't give them any priority over your other email responses (IOW don't let their 5-modes-of-contact-spaz-attack panic you into giving them preferential treatment.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) When you do respond, never apologize for being inaccessible during off time or indicate that there is anything wrong/unusual with how long it took you to get back to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are training them that they can email you any time but they won't get a response until business hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It could be this client is just one who has a lot of &quot;ideas&quot; and wants to get them to you right away as they occur.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the phone ringing at all hours is bothering you, set your phone to not ring during off hours.  For example, I use a Google Voice number for business which rings both my home and cell phone.  I can set it not to ring one or either of the phones during certain hours.  So if someone calls my home phone direct (friend/family) that comes through, but when clients call my business line at night, it just goes to VM.  I think I can also set it to send certain numbers to VM during certain hours.  That might be ideal here...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With clients like this even during normal working hours I will sit on their email/phone call a bit just to manage expectations.  They must understand they are not your ONLY client.  If they were your sole priority you would not be able to be in business to help them in the first place." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6088" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2211" RevisionGUID="74e18978-e426-442b-8c95-78a95b6a8fff" CreationDate="2014-08-05T00:44:16.173" UserId="4561" Text="I do custom computer programming for businesses and I usually end up working very closely with my client's IT director.  Often my proposals all go through the IT director.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a new client whose contracts out their IT to a company that does LAN administration AND programming similar to what I do.  So to my client this is their IT person.  To me, she is a competitor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to share my pricing with her.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However she is the one contacting me for everything they need done now.  I put a confidentiality clause in my proposal regarding my pricing but my client forwarded my proposal and emails that mention pricing to her regardless. (I think they didn't pay attention.)  Also we were in meetings where they asked about pricing in front of her.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now she is the one contacting me for all follow up work and asking &quot;What will this cost?&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this normal? Should I just accept that she is going to get all my pricing information if I want things to run smoothly for my client?  If I refuse to send pricing through her, I will create an inconvenience for my client as they are quite technologically clueless and have no idea how to evaluate any of this.  But it really bothers me to send her my pricing.  I mentioned to my client directly that I would prefer to discuss pricing with them confidentially, but the IT person is still the one emailing me requests.  And she told the client she would run point on all requests that go to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I being unreasonably paranoid/protective about my pricing?  Do you try to protect your price information from getting into the hands of your competitors?  How would you handle this?  Just let it go?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6089" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2211" RevisionGUID="74e18978-e426-442b-8c95-78a95b6a8fff" CreationDate="2014-08-05T00:44:16.173" UserId="4561" Text="How tightly to guard pricing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6090" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2211" RevisionGUID="74e18978-e426-442b-8c95-78a95b6a8fff" CreationDate="2014-08-05T00:44:16.173" UserId="4561" Text="|contracts|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6091" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2212" RevisionGUID="faf0ed10-aedc-4d18-9887-177df454a9c3" CreationDate="2014-08-05T00:49:01.063" UserId="4514" Text="Am I being unreasonably paranoid/protective about my pricing? - Yes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you try to protect your price information from getting into the hands of your competitors? - No&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would you handle this? Just let it go? - Yes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Who cares if your price is public? Most IT/dev hourly rates are pretty easy to figure out. If your value is only based on your price, you're doing something wrong." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6097" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2214" RevisionGUID="f900e8fd-727b-40b8-99b4-656206f02183" CreationDate="2014-08-05T05:29:26.470" UserId="2653" Text="As both new to entrepreneurship and freelancing, I have just come into a position where I need to start hiring freelancers and this confuses me. How do other employers deal with this? Are there tools/software for monitoring/control of the freelancers that I would employ, that are commonly used? Would special contracts need to be arranged? Is it worth the effort over a fixed price for the project at hand, even if I don't know if I would be overpaying? What are common best practices? I am completely lost. Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6098" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2214" RevisionGUID="f900e8fd-727b-40b8-99b4-656206f02183" CreationDate="2014-08-05T05:29:26.470" UserId="2653" Text="What are the best practices that ensure the pay-per-hour freelancers are only paid for hours that they have actually worked?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6099" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2214" RevisionGUID="f900e8fd-727b-40b8-99b4-656206f02183" CreationDate="2014-08-05T05:29:26.470" UserId="2653" Text="|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6100" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2215" RevisionGUID="5ebf0f70-1264-4612-9146-f0266e2cb5a7" CreationDate="2014-08-05T06:47:31.727" UserId="4568" Text="I'm new to freelance consulting. I'm performing a statistical analysis in R.&#xD;&#xA;I've been hired to perform a specific analysis and give a specific predictive model.  &#xD;&#xA;I've only agreed to give the analysis as is without the code, but they would like the code considering a different price. This specific client is known to reuse expertise they find and pick from consultants and use in house assets to replicate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that they won't know how to read it nor seem to fully understand the fact that most of what is written is very case specific and very well not be applicable to similar events. Although I do risk being not hired again. I'm tempted to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Say no (original price, give only results and workflow)&#xD;&#xA;* Give them the whole code and see if they're able to decipher it. Results workflow and scripts (bigger price)&#xD;&#xA;* Try to meet at the middle and give a better idea as how would they be able to perform similar analysis under similar conditions. This actually means training their personnel. Results , workflow, scripts, time explaining the details to their personnel (even bigger price + hours training)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a bit lost and would like to hear what's the industries standard regarding this (if any).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;TL;DR &#xD;&#xA;in R consulting is it normal to give and explain the code used to obtain certain answer (scripting wise) or is an explanation of the workflow sufficient. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6101" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2215" RevisionGUID="5ebf0f70-1264-4612-9146-f0266e2cb5a7" CreationDate="2014-08-05T06:47:31.727" UserId="4568" Text="Give code (scripts) to statistical analysis or not?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6102" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2215" RevisionGUID="5ebf0f70-1264-4612-9146-f0266e2cb5a7" CreationDate="2014-08-05T06:47:31.727" UserId="4568" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|licensing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6103" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2216" RevisionGUID="4dbd7835-e38a-46c9-9af5-ddc4b6d2e00a" CreationDate="2014-08-05T12:34:31.960" UserId="1711" Text="I'm curious to hear if anyone has any experience as a subcontractor partnering with another business/contractor and if so how you go about setting parameters around each project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been approached by a local graphic design firm to help them with a website they're currently working on. Their client has asked for a few things that will require some programming and the design firm has asked if they could hire me to take care of these items.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Can anyone offer any suggestions as to how you go about quoting out such work?&#xD;&#xA; - If you establish a contract between yourself and the firm you're being hired by?&#xD;&#xA; - If you do use a contract, what does it generally look like?&#xD;&#xA; - Do you have any sort of general agreement between yourself and the other party which can be used as a sort of &quot;running&quot; agreement for this type of work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you for any guidance you can provide." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6104" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2216" RevisionGUID="4dbd7835-e38a-46c9-9af5-ddc4b6d2e00a" CreationDate="2014-08-05T12:34:31.960" UserId="1711" Text="How to quote &amp; bill as a subcontractor" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6105" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2216" RevisionGUID="4dbd7835-e38a-46c9-9af5-ddc4b6d2e00a" CreationDate="2014-08-05T12:34:31.960" UserId="1711" Text="|contracts|design|subcontracting|partner|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6111" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2219" RevisionGUID="3fdfadfa-b6f4-4432-9f30-2ab9afc33a06" CreationDate="2014-08-05T15:04:11.893" UserId="127" Text="There are monitoring software options out there. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before you go down that route, I suggest you consider two things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* If a freelancer provides a fixed bid and you agree that it is a fair price, if it takes a less time than you thought it would, you are not &quot;overpaying&quot;. You are paying what you agreed was a fair price. In these cases, you are sharing the risk with the freelancer. Obviously there is also a risk to the freelancer than it will take more time than they anticipated. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* While there is software that can monitor computer usage, it can be thwarted. Further, it doesn't show the whole picture. Rather than worrying about such things, you should focus on hiring someone you trust. Check their references. Do the due diligence to make sure they are the right fit for your project. And also make sure you are a good partner. Treating a freelancer like they can't be trusted sets up the relationship for failure." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6112" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2220" RevisionGUID="8b948f3b-d8ea-4946-9d16-ab1616cad9cc" CreationDate="2014-08-05T15:13:08.083" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="You quote the hiring company exactly like a customer, be it fixed price or hourly fee, and you bill them. It may be the case that the hiring company takes a commission, don't be worried (but don't lower your prices for this reason).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You absolutely establish a contract with this firm. You can make it longer term than for the initial project if you want, but having a first &quot;test&quot; run is convenient. The contract will be similar to any service contract. It may or not include specific clauses about the end customer, depending on the situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't establish a direct contract with the end customer. Make sure that the respective responsibilities of the two service providers are clearly stated and don't accept risks that are not yours. (In particular, the main contractor not being paid by the customer is not a valid reason not to pay you.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6114" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2197" RevisionGUID="baf283af-a25a-4b09-a20b-6645e76c5dfd" CreationDate="2014-08-05T15:35:17.903" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="added 49 characters in body" Text="My own policy is to do fixed price offers based on sufficiently detailed specifications, and announce an hourly rate for extras. When I feel the need, I also explicitly state what is not included in the basis offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then during execution of the contract, when new requests pop up, I can raise the flag &quot;this is extra&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having a relatively high hourly rate for the extras is no problem as you can explain to the customer that this breaks your schedule, induces project overhead and impacts your other projects...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To avoid scaring them, I also leave the option of working on the basis of a secondary fixed-price offer in case the &quot;extras&quot; would tend to extend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may also sometimes help to include a comment saying that the specs were not fully available at the time of writing so that a &quot;reasonable&quot; interpretation of the task will hold.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Last but not least, there can be (in my case there are always) unknowns when preparing the offer. In the cases that these unknowns can become problematic, I explain to the customer that I cannot assume all the risk alone. So I propose to agree on the sharing of the risk (say both parties will take half of the extra costs if they arise), or I warn of an upfront surcharge to cover it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's all about telling things **in advance**." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6116" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2223" RevisionGUID="b64683ab-9ff2-4d02-9bed-72e4bc6296c6" CreationDate="2014-08-05T19:01:18.013" UserId="4561" Text="I would start with a small project to see what it's like to work with the freelancer.  I have even hired multiple people to do the initial small project so I could compare them and meet multiple qualified freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is software that will track, I know that online sites like odesk and elance have it.  I have hired through them and initially I requested some freelancers use it.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But now, at least for the free lancers I've worked with, I don't ask that they use it.  I don't want them to feel like I'm watching them and don't trust them and I have to assume the software is creepy and annoying to an independent person.  If they want to be watched like that they would just work a regular job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, think about the value you are getting - it's not just the number of hours the person spends.  Some people work much faster/more efficiently than others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BTW I did have one person manage to rip me off despite the tracking software so, go figure.  That's where starting small pays off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By the way - regarding contracts - Yes, use one.  But know that if the relationship were to sour, the contract probably won't help much because enforcing it will cost you so much time and attorney fees.  To me, the contract makes expectations clear, but I don't assume it truly protects me.  Especially if the freelancer is in another country.  Another reason to start small and get to know the freelancer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6117" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2224" RevisionGUID="f08ef364-efee-485a-86a8-d4ca2249950b" CreationDate="2014-08-05T20:32:25.660" UserId="4575" Text="The difference between employees and freelancers is that you don't monitor their time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question is not how much is their time worth, it is how much is the service they provide worth. So if you get one XYZ-module for 10.000€ and it is finished after 2 months like you agreed in your contract (important!!), does it really matter how many hours he spent on it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Often practiced is that the freelancer has to &quot;guess&quot; their hours before the project starts and then he is allowed to ask for 20% more if it was more complicated than expected.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another idea is to agree on a fixed price. No surprises for you and if he finishes faster, he has some free time to spend with his family.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't monitor the person, only monitor the results. Let him show early versions, look at the code quality. Otherwise you will spend a lot of hours trying to figure out if he is cheating or not, depending on your hourly rate it will become a very expensive project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And don't forget the costs for the looney bin afterwards!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6121" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2226" RevisionGUID="a4d6ed4b-6db2-4fa4-b937-7b8d1763ea69" CreationDate="2014-08-06T02:41:07.267" UserId="64" Text="###Negotiate, and give the client what they need&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless they are taking other business from you, give them the scripts and offer to walk through the code, assuming you are being compensated for your time and the value you add. Agreeing initially for just the results and not the code allows them to pay a cheaper price in the event that your work was done poorly or didn't actually meet their needs. Since the original agreement was for a lower price without code, consider this as a bonus and as a way of them saying that your work provides value. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;### Why do businesses hire consultants?&#xD;&#xA;Businesses hire consultants because they have a problem that they cannot solve with in-house talent in either a timely manner or an affordable manner, and these folks oftentimes look to consultants for additional training or to solve a recurring problem in their business. Good examples might be a wellness coach, an anti-discrimination coach, or a product safety specialist. You know, the type of person who comes to your workplace to teach you how to eat healthier, or how to work in diverse environments, or how to use a piece of equipment without chopping off your fingers!  In short, they provide value in the form of knowledge that lasts long after they are gone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or maybe they hire a consultant to provide statistical analysis, first by giving them a fish then by teaching them how to fish. They're now asking you to teach them to fish, and it sounds like they are willing to pay you for it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###There may be future work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As the expert in their specific problem, there may come a time when they come back to you with more needs that their in-house talent cannot meet in either a timely or a cost-effective manner. Having had a positive business relationship with them in the past, one that doesn't involve you holding them hostage, they are likely to reach out to you should they have more tough problems to solve.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've only had a few freelance clients in the past seven to ten years, but those few have given me plenty of repeat business as a result of the services I provide. Make sure you're being compensated, but don't hold your clients' hostage either. There's more money in building a solid reputation and network either in recurring work or in referrals." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6123" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2200" RevisionGUID="5ee607b5-4d90-4f36-8695-5f104968cc6a" CreationDate="2014-08-06T10:55:06.533" UserId="4556" Comment="Updated answer to include more detail on 'what to share' as requested in the comments." Text="If you haven't signed an NDA, and have no contract in place for the work that mentions this, then posting the work on your site would seem to be fair use, I would also infer that there is no obvious legal obligation either way here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client does have an objection then they can request you remove the images. I believe the worst case scenario here would be a letter from a lawyer requesting you remove the content.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously if you can contact your clients to get specific permission that would be ideal but in my experience most clients will not have an issue with you featuring their sites in your portfolio, the exception to this being venture funded startups how are often more sensitive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, regarding what information you can share about a project, if in doubt, share less. If you're a Ruby/PHP/Python developer, it's going to be fairly clear what language you were using and adding the area (admin / front-end) isn't going to give too much away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd also not worry about mentioning things that someone could learn by looking at the website, such as which payment gateway is used, or which CSS framework, however would steer away from anything that might be considered proprietary, such as &quot;we use a combination of news RSS feeds combined with Twitter mentions to calculate relevancy…&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6124" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2227" RevisionGUID="6d49de4f-72ab-4d0b-b0a7-f21e260b44d2" CreationDate="2014-08-06T11:28:41.203" UserId="4556" Text="Whilst impossible to state that 'no that site does not exist', I can say that no such site exists that has *significant market share* and thus would not suffer from the same problem as the PeoplePerHour UK site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially your question is centred around two issues; needing higher quality (ideally UK) clients, and differentiating yourself from $5 per hour competition.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some solutions for working remotely with clients and ensuring higher quality projects:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Use higher quality sites like pickcrew.com or authenticjobs.com (with the freelancer or contract filter), these sites require clients to pay to list, which ensures a higher quality of client than some others and will eliminate much of the $5 competition&#xD;&#xA; - For non-UK clients use Skype, or Google Hangouts to get that 'face-to-face' meeting, whilst it's not a perfect substitute it at least gives you some indication. I've had projects started with both face-to-face and Skype meetings go south — neither of them is a silver bullet.&#xD;&#xA; - Local creative meetups, networking events, or user groups might be a good place to find local agencies or companies looking for freelancers, hopefully projects with them will then lead to word-of-mouth referrals for more local (and thus UK) clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In terms for avoiding $5 per hour competition:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Either avoid those sites or work hard to clearly differentiate yourself and why the client should be willing to pay 20–30x more for your services. Focus on your speciality, so instead of a '.NET programmer', market yourself as a '.NET API integration specialist with 10 years of industry experience' (bad example but you get the point), convince the client that you're an expert worth paying for.&#xD;&#xA; - I hinted at this above, but try looking for sites with a listing fee, clients willing to pay to list their projects are likely to be less price sensitive than those on other sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this answer isn't too far off topic and answers some of the underlying points in your question, even if I'm not able to provide a conclusive site recommendation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6125" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2200" RevisionGUID="a5cc928a-2a4b-45f9-b9e9-0fc378bcb179" CreationDate="2014-08-06T16:13:26.797" UserId="75" Comment="edited body" Text="If you haven't signed an NDA, and have no contract in place for the work that mentions this, then posting the work on your site would seem to be fair use. I would also infer that there is no obvious legal obligation either way here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client does have an objection then they can request you remove the images. I believe the worst case scenario here would be a letter from a lawyer requesting you remove the content.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously if you can contact your clients to get specific permission that would be ideal but in my experience most clients will not have an issue with you featuring their sites in your portfolio, the exception to this being venture funded startups who are often more sensitive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, regarding what information you can share about a project, if in doubt, share less. If you're a Ruby/PHP/Python developer, it's going to be fairly clear what language you were using and adding the area (admin / front-end) isn't going to give too much away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd also not worry about mentioning things that someone could learn by looking at the website, such as which payment gateway is used, or which CSS framework, however would steer away from anything that might be considered proprietary, such as &quot;we use a combination of news RSS feeds combined with Twitter mentions to calculate relevancy…&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6129" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="284" RevisionGUID="f203dc17-0066-4291-8e37-bc368c63e235" CreationDate="2014-08-06T21:33:41.673" UserId="-1" Comment="permanent should read contract as it is the contrasting point" Text="In both cases you need to point the **technologies** you know and your **skills**. You need to write what tools and technologies you have been using and for how long. However, I've noted a few differences:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When applying for permanent position I was asked to make CV concentrated on **companies** for which I've worked. It's good to accent that you have worked for one company for at least a few years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When applying for contract position, I was usually asked to concentrate on **projects** I was involved in, even if there were a few projects in single company. It's good to accent that you have been involved in many projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another difference: applying for contractor position, I was never asked to put hobbies into CV. Generally, by contractors, it's not as important to learn the candidate as the person. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6130" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="284" RevisionGUID="f203dc17-0066-4291-8e37-bc368c63e235" CreationDate="2014-08-06T21:33:41.673" Comment="Proposed by anonymous approved by -1 edit id of 340" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6131" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="284" RevisionGUID="4a9da4f0-3a11-439b-8f87-e955bc6a58a6" CreationDate="2014-08-06T21:33:41.673" UserId="1706" Comment="Lots of grammar changes." Text="In both cases you need to point the **technologies** you know and your **skills**. You need to write what tools and technologies you have been using and for how long. However, I've noted a few differences:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When applying for a permanent position I was asked to make my CV concentrated on **companies** for which I've worked. It's good to point out that you have worked for one company for at least a few years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When applying for contract positions, I was usually asked to concentrate on **projects** I was involved in.  This was the case even if there were multiple projects for a single company. It's good to point out that you have been involved in many projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another difference: when applying for contractor positions, I was never asked to put hobbies into my CV. For contractors, it's not as important to learn the candidate's personal interests." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6132" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2211" RevisionGUID="a51fbba4-cbf0-4ea8-b1eb-e63704440a60" CreationDate="2014-08-07T04:13:14.233" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/497233982208360449" />
  <row Id="6133" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2228" RevisionGUID="5fd44579-39ca-4dbe-81ea-823fc22b3140" CreationDate="2014-08-07T07:57:35.213" UserId="3014" Text="I am working on a popular freelance website as a freelancer. I used to withdraw my funds by my Payoneer credit card for so long. In this way I received funds immediately. But the issue is that in this way charges of transfer are too high. I felt that almost 10%-15% payment deducts on every payment withdraw. I tried to receive money via bank. But that takes too long (more than 10-12 days). Is there any other way by which I could withdraw money with speed and low rate. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6134" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2228" RevisionGUID="5fd44579-39ca-4dbe-81ea-823fc22b3140" CreationDate="2014-08-07T07:57:35.213" UserId="3014" Text="Fastest way of USA to Pakistan Transacations" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6135" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2228" RevisionGUID="5fd44579-39ca-4dbe-81ea-823fc22b3140" CreationDate="2014-08-07T07:57:35.213" UserId="3014" Text="|freelance-websites|payment-terms|payments|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6136" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2229" RevisionGUID="bef0ca82-18cd-41d7-bc8d-eeb71fb29837" CreationDate="2014-08-07T08:44:19.953" UserId="517" Text="Payoneer is the cheapest way around. Rates are Freelancers site's fees + 1% if you want immediate load + up to 3% Payoneer fees when you pay on POS. The latest fee is charged because dollar has left the USA :). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have no idea how you came up to 10-15%. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6139" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2230" RevisionGUID="fd4dedb7-e006-4d4f-900a-603416f79046" CreationDate="2014-08-07T23:00:31.993" UserId="1752" Text="Note, this is an answer modified from one I gave on the workplace stackexchange.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to find out the market rate for an equivalent employee first, then your costs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The following costs must be accounted for accurately in order to compute an hourly rate just to keep you on par with the salaried employee&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* G &amp; A (this is accounting speak for computers, software costs, office space, electricity, rent, travel, professional development; things you cannot charge a client for directly)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Overhead (this is mostly labor that you cannot charge to a client, but sometimes includes things I stuck in G &amp; A above)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Fringe benefits (this is retirement, health insurance, liability insurance, workman's comp, taxes, paid time off)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Profit (you need a little of this, you are taking on some risk by not being permanently employed)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, the G &amp; A + overhead costs for a contractor are high because contractors typically only work between 20 and 30 hours per week.  If you are billing by the hour, you can only bill the actual hours worked for a client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently finished a contract where the scope of the work which I was hired for was equivalent to an engineer in the $115-135,000 annual salary range.  I just happened to pick $125,000 as my break even calculation number.  Note that I live in Arizona, USA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For this calculation I lumped G &amp; A and Overhead costs together, since for me they are really the same thing when working out of my home office, and I don't have any other employees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My annualized costs were : &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* G &amp; A + Overhead : $23,000 (note that this is with no rent, but includes computer upkeep and software licensing, travel, phone, accountant, invoicing software, and other test hardware)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Fringe Benefits : $43,000 (this includes heath, all taxes, liability insurance, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above were actual costs.  You will need to *use your own costs in your calculations.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I need to calculate the hourly rate.  To accomplish this task, I need to compute how many hours per week that I work on an annualized basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I actually worked about 30-32 hours per week on the contract, the rest of the time I was working on billing, accounting, hour tracking, task reports, etc. (all unbillable to the client). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also need to remember vacation for this calculation, and I'll use 6 weeks of paid time off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My total annualized billable hours were (52 - 6) weeks*32 hours/week = 1472 hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My total costs were $23,000 + $43,000 + $125,000 = $191,000.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This means that my hourly rate must be $191,000/1472 hours = $129.76/hour, **just to break even!**  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the *no profit rate.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that the way I computed the hourly rate here *implicitly accounts for* paid time off and non-billable overhead labor, if you need or want explicit numbers you can do that as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This rate is *2.16 times* the 40 hour equivalent of $125,000 per year ($60.10/hour).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before contracting and setting a rate, you need to figure out all of these costs for yourself, then do the above break even calculation.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some things you must pay for in the US are : &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Software for commercial use (sans alternatives)&#xD;&#xA;* Taxes&#xD;&#xA;* Various insurance (depends on location)&#xD;&#xA;* Hardware, electricity, internet, etc. for you business&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;but other costs are up to you.  I refuse to go without health insurance, for instance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you cannot close contracts at more than the break even number (for hourly billing), then you should attempt to obtain a regular salaried position.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*If you choose to not include benefits, retirement costs, etc. in your calculations, you are effectively working for below market rate.*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6140" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2230" RevisionGUID="eb609b4f-a446-49eb-acef-ee68c0a2c350" CreationDate="2014-08-07T23:12:19.677" UserId="1752" Comment="added 174 characters in body" Text="Note, this is an answer modified from one I gave on the workplace stackexchange.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to find out the market rate for an equivalent employee first, then your costs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The following costs must be accounted for accurately in order to compute an hourly rate just to keep you on par with the salaried employee&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* G &amp; A (this is accounting speak for computers, software costs, office space, electricity, rent, travel, professional development; things you cannot charge a client for directly)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Overhead (this is mostly labor that you cannot charge to a client, but sometimes includes things I stuck in G &amp; A above)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Fringe benefits (this is retirement, health insurance, liability insurance, workman's comp, taxes, paid time off)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Profit (you need a little of this, you are taking on some risk by not being permanently employed)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, the G &amp; A + overhead costs for a contractor are high because contractors typically only work between 20 and 30 hours per week.  If you are billing by the hour, you can only bill the actual hours worked for a client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently finished a contract where the scope of the work which I was hired for was equivalent to an engineer in the $115-135,000 annual salary range.  I just happened to pick $125,000 as my break even calculation number.  Note that I live in Arizona, USA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For this calculation I lumped G &amp; A and Overhead costs together, since for me they are really the same thing when working out of my home office, and I don't have any other employees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My annualized costs were : &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* G &amp; A + Overhead : $23,000 (note that this is with no rent, but includes computer upkeep and software licensing, travel, phone, accountant, invoicing software, and other test hardware)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Fringe Benefits : $43,000 (this includes heath, all taxes, liability insurance, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above were actual costs.  You will need to *use your own costs in your calculations.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I need to calculate the hourly rate.  To accomplish this task, I need to compute how many hours per week that I work on an annualized basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I actually worked about 30-32 hours per week on the contract, the rest of the time I was working on billing, accounting, hour tracking, task reports, etc. (all unbillable to the client). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also need to remember vacation for this calculation, and I'll use 6 weeks of paid time off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My total annualized billable hours were (52 - 6) weeks*32 hours/week = 1472 hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My total costs were $23,000 + $43,000 + $125,000 = $191,000.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This means that my hourly rate must be $191,000/1472 hours = $129.76/hour, **just to break even!**  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the *no profit rate.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want a bit of profit, you need to add that to this rate.  For example, to have a profit rate of 10% I would need a hourly rate of 1.10*$129.76/hour = $142.74/hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that the way I computed the hourly rate here *implicitly accounts for* paid time off and non-billable overhead labor, if you need or want explicit numbers you can do that as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The break-even rate ($129.76/hour) is *2.16 times* the 40 hour equivalent of $125,000 per year ($60.10/hour).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before contracting and setting a rate, you need to figure out all of these costs for yourself, then do the above break even calculation.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some things you must pay for in the US are : &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Software for commercial use (sans alternatives)&#xD;&#xA;* Taxes&#xD;&#xA;* Various insurance (depends on location)&#xD;&#xA;* Hardware, electricity, internet, etc. for you business&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;but other costs are up to you.  I refuse to go without health insurance, for instance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you cannot close contracts at more than the break even number (for hourly billing), then you should attempt to obtain a regular salaried position.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*If you choose to not include benefits, retirement costs, etc. in your calculations, you are effectively working for below market rate.*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6141" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2216" RevisionGUID="32c61a98-f5af-421e-88fe-11f28bb4486d" CreationDate="2014-08-08T01:16:57.070" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/497552006178148352" />
  <row Id="6142" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2231" RevisionGUID="44602830-6eb8-4cfb-bfa8-356edf700ba0" CreationDate="2014-08-08T21:43:33.870" UserId="4600" Text="Similar questions have been answered here before but my case is a bit different, hence opening up a new question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Client from Sweden sent me a contract stating it is governed by US laws. I am in India but I never signed and sent it back to him.&#xD;&#xA; 2. We do have a NDA signed between us.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am working with him for about 8 months. **In last 3 months, most of his developers have quit and a framework we decided to try for project failed and that costed us 1 month. Even before using framework, I had well explained over chats that I do not have any experience with this framework and even I am not sure if this will solve our problem.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In last 1 month, over email mail I committed 40 hours/week but due to some reasons I failed to put that up that for 2 weeks and then got back to usual decided schedule.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All this time his requirements kept changing, new features kept adding up and previous ones kept getting modified. This is taking time to complete the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now client wants to sue me for the delay in project that happened because of Framework we decided to try and failed. Also he wants to sue me for not working for 40hours/week in those 2 weeks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is, does he stands a legal ground?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Our relations have really soured now and I want to move on. Shall I request him for money or how should I move ahead given amount is a hefty sum.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in Advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6143" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2231" RevisionGUID="44602830-6eb8-4cfb-bfa8-356edf700ba0" CreationDate="2014-08-08T21:43:33.870" UserId="4600" Text="Client threatening to sue me for a failed task" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6144" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2231" RevisionGUID="44602830-6eb8-4cfb-bfa8-356edf700ba0" CreationDate="2014-08-08T21:43:33.870" UserId="4600" Text="|legal|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6145" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2232" RevisionGUID="950dbf8a-2c32-41f2-98aa-d663f3b6bfa4" CreationDate="2014-08-08T22:01:11.287" UserId="4514" Text="First of all, nobody here will be able to answer your questions. We don't know the exact details, we don't know what was agreed to and we're only getting one side of the story.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From reading what you wrote, my immediate questions are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. If you didn't have the experience, why did you take the job?&#xD;&#xA;2. Why did you not fulfill your obligations in regard to 40/hrs per week?&#xD;&#xA;3. What does &quot;failed&quot; mean? I'm sure it can be fixed, right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom line. He probably can't sue you if you're in a different country. If he tried, it would probably cost more than it's worth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always remember, the law isn't everything. You nee to be ethical too." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6146" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2232" RevisionGUID="5cee5e57-f16b-4cb4-a514-7df10f4b527c" CreationDate="2014-08-08T22:09:48.747" UserId="4514" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="First of all, nobody here will be able to answer your questions. We don't know the exact details, we don't know what was agreed to and we're only getting one side of the story.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From reading what you wrote, my immediate questions are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. If you didn't have the experience, why did you take the job?&#xD;&#xA;2. Why did you not fulfill your obligations in regard to 40/hrs per week?&#xD;&#xA;3. What does &quot;failed&quot; mean? I'm sure it can be fixed, right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom line. He probably can't sue you if you're in a different country. If he tried, it would probably cost more than it's worth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always remember, the law isn't everything. You need to be ethical too." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6147" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2215" RevisionGUID="702fa842-38b8-4894-aa22-4e98dd71dff1" CreationDate="2014-08-08T22:22:08.017" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/497870399783579648" />
  <row Id="6148" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2233" RevisionGUID="2fdacd00-29bc-4932-8fbe-d4f5c616846e" CreationDate="2014-08-09T00:39:20.787" UserId="4601" Text="I agree with most of the answers given.  I would add the following considerations.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If possible, get the NDA to include a time limit.  This is typically 1 to 5 years.  I explain to clients that I want to take their needs seriously and do not want to agree to something that I cannot uphold.  I get worried about keeping secrets longer than 5 years just because they become absorbed in general knowledge and can therefore become part of conversations with others.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Request that all information that is to be considered confidential be marked confidential.  Further, request that any information that is transmitted by non-written means and is confidential, be followed up by a written note that says x and y in the conversation of such and such a date was confidential, and that the note be delivered not later than about a week after the conversation.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The NDA should include terms that state that information each of you receive through other means, providing that those means do not violate an NDA, is not confidential information.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do think that some very general description of what areas of work are being discussed probably does belong in the NDA.  Something along the lines of: &quot; the parties wish to work together on a development of xxx and to share information on it&quot;.  Otherwise it is just too vague.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6150" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1455" RevisionGUID="e270265c-a5aa-48d4-b5db-9f2cd6f5b231" CreationDate="2014-08-09T06:58:05.373" UserId="2112" Comment="added 94 characters in body" Text="In India:&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;If you are in India - then no, there is no legal requirement for you to register yourself as a freelancer. However, if you are directly involved with Govt. contracting then you must hold a valid Govt. issued license. As of your income, you must pay your income taxes regardless. If you are getting paid directly to your bank account then it would be good to find out if it is [TDS][1] i.e. Tax Deducted at Source. This means that appropriate taxes were deducted  (and paid on your behalf to the Govt.) before the monies were paid to you. If it is not, then it is your responsibility to pay your taxes at the end of the financial year (i.e. March for India).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Other Countries:&#xD;&#xA;------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For freelancing in other countries, you will face numerous restrictions (almost 95% countries in the world) due to immigration reasons. The reason is that freelancing is considered to be self employment and those countries allow self employment for citizens or naturalized citizens only. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if you move to America in a work/non-immigrant visa (H1/L1 etc.) you will and must be employed by an employer at all times and get monthly paychecks. Also, based on the kind of non-immigrant visa you hold, you may or may not be legally allowed to change employers (example L1 visa holders cannot change their L1 visa holding employer whereas an H1 visa holder can). You will not be allowed to do any kind of work that can be considered as self employment until you obtain naturalization through an immigrant visa application which could take 5 to 10 years (for Indians and Chinese citizens specifically, since they are exempt from visa lottery) depending upon various situations. There are various ways an immigrant visa can be filed and in your case the most probable method would be employer based, where your employer would need to file your non immigrant work permit or naturalization. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;European countries also impose several such limitations to non-immigrant applicants. That is, until you obtain a legal immigrant status you would be limited in terms of self employment. European visas are points based and there are numerous criteria to fulfill to gather appropriate points for filing a visa (just an FYI) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of your question, once you immigrate to a different country (i.e. become a naturalized citizen) your records will be tracked by their Labor Departments automatically since your application for immigration will most likely need labor department's approval, so there may not be a legal need for you to register yourself as a freelancer/self employed thereafter. However, some countries may indeed require you to register yourself with an additional public or private licensing body for you to be able to legally perform freelancing or start a business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although, a small subset of countries such as Bhutan, Nepal etc. may allow you to work there as freelancer without any necessary documentation but for a limited period of time (This applies to Indian Citizens only).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom Line:&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it is not legally required for you to be registered as a Freelancer in India, it may not be a bad idea for you to be associated with a more larger professional group of freelancers. If you intend to move to another country and continue freelancing, and since freelancing is treated as self employment, you might need to acquire appropriate work authorization or even naturalization or citizenship of that country through an immigrant visa process or other legal procedures authorized by local laws.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;**NOTE**: I am not an attorney or their representative. These are legal topics and you should consult an immigration attorney or paralegal for all your immigration and non-immigration questions and concerns. The content of this answer is just for your information purposes. &lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;**References**-&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Immihelp Comparison of H1B to L1 US Visas- ([URL][2]) &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Immihelp article on immigrant visa - ([URL][3]) &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sup&gt;UK's points based immigration system- ([URL][4]) &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sup&gt;An Economic Times article on Freelancing in India - ([URL][5]) &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Deducted_at_Source&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.immihelp.com/l1-visa/l1-visa-h1b-visa-comparison.html&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.immihelp.com/immigrant-visa/&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.workpermit.com/uk/uk-immigration-tier-system.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-01-13/news/46149963_1_randstad-india-threeyear-average-annual-profit-companies-bill" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6151" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2234" RevisionGUID="e2405b0e-0d3a-48aa-a637-823c3b74bf1d" CreationDate="2014-08-09T08:44:26.887" UserId="4600" Text="In India, you are not required to register as a freelancer to start working. What you do need to do is to report each and every penny earned using freelance in Tax Returns and also mention your PAN Number for every financial transactions. Also you need to create your profit loss statement while filing tax returns.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your net earning from Freelance increases more than INR 1,000,000 then you need to start charging client for Service Tax and usually advised to register your company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While registering make sure you either register as a LLC or Pvt Ltd company, they do involve an upfront cost but come with a piece of mind.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not aware of rules in other countries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Source: Based on discussion with my Charter Accountant." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6152" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2235" RevisionGUID="9707f8b2-b211-4535-9b0c-539626e005b4" CreationDate="2014-08-10T18:21:04.143" UserId="4606" Text="Depending on their area of business, for example medicine, it might be neccessary for them to provide the steps taken to get results too. If they weren't sure about your expertise it might have been a smart move to first let you produce results and only then the scripts if they work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When making a price for the scripts, you need to consider two facts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- How much is it worth them, meaning how much would it cost them to develop the same script from scratch? Here with the side condition that they have input and output as a test case. How much of that was already paid for the results?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- How much would it cost them to hire another freelancer to do the job?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending on these you can figure out a fair price and you can back it up with the good results you already provided. Don't overcharge or they will look for other options, but also don't undercharge or they will keep abusing you and you will hardly get to higher prices once the first is too low.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With the time you already spent, also consider how much it costs to clean up your code for delivery, if it is in a bad quick and dirty hacked state.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is also not unusual to ask for code in any area of development, be it only to have a backup in case your company/freelancing stops working. I've seen factors of 2x to 10x of the product price, but that largely depends on the above questions, how much it is worth to them, not how much it costs you to produce it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6153" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2236" RevisionGUID="d6550eab-f990-4c61-a7c4-563a69e18d8e" CreationDate="2014-08-10T23:48:54.297" UserId="4607" Text="I've been a solopreneur for a number of years now, and when my son was old enough, I got him involved in helping with my business. But he is off to college soon and I will need to hire a replacement that will do his work and hopefully much more as the business continues to grow. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The new employee will start part-time and grow to full-time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a technical person, not a business administration person. So I'm bewildered and nervous about making this leap. Currently I feel fairly under-informed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm looking for a highly recommended source of concise, condensed information to help me navigate the hiring process and the legal requirements, while hopefully guiding me away from potential pitfalls that can get me into trouble.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you've been in my shoes, what book, or website, or organization did you find most useful in covering this area to give you knowledge and confidence in making your first hire and making the most of that first hire." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6154" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2236" RevisionGUID="d6550eab-f990-4c61-a7c4-563a69e18d8e" CreationDate="2014-08-10T23:48:54.297" UserId="4607" Text="Where can I find condensed information useful for when I hire my first employee?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6155" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2236" RevisionGUID="d6550eab-f990-4c61-a7c4-563a69e18d8e" CreationDate="2014-08-10T23:48:54.297" UserId="4607" Text="|legal|business-plan|partner|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6156" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2237" RevisionGUID="3836c2fb-1799-470b-b2b1-b15be6a45910" CreationDate="2014-08-11T01:52:26.007" UserId="4608" Text="NDAs are very common in industry. Some companies won't even let you in the door without signing an NDA; you sign an NDA at the same time you sign in the guestbook. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In most cases, the NDA doesn't matter. Unless you intentionally release information that was revealed to you, which is covered by the NDA, you didn't violate the NDA.  So: If you sign an NDA, don't talk about the content of the meeting. No problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The NDA also aren't easy to enforce. If the company sues you, they have to prove what information they revealed to you and that you released that information. They also have to prove it harmed them.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6157" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2238" RevisionGUID="be1e0143-8c34-43e7-bcff-2d57aa46eaae" CreationDate="2014-08-11T02:26:58.880" UserId="4608" Text="Whenever possible, you should have a **complete and thorough** specification of what is being built, including every detail of the user interface and any backend technologies.  Many specifications even include method-level detail regarding what each method will do in the implementation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A thorough specification helps eliminate risk, because it documents exactly what is to be built and how it's to be built. In a flat fee contract, the contractors are absorbing all of the risk, including any risk introduced by ambiguous requirements, because the contractor is paid a flat fee to complete the project, despite the ambiguous definition of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a situation like yours, it's particular vital to write a **complete and thorough** specification, because the client is not clear on what they want built.  That's a huge warning sign that this could be a major project failure, unless you force a clear definition of the project at the start.  You need every little minute detail on paper.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The alternative - which you can spell out to the client - is that if you aren't sure what needs to be built, you need to start multiplying the project cost estimate by a factor of 2 or 3 with the assumption you'll have to rebuild it several times, until the client is happy.  Or charge an hourly rate. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6158" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2239" RevisionGUID="98da96d6-ec82-49c7-874f-dd7e3f5c5c60" CreationDate="2014-08-11T03:24:22.590" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/32119/as-a-contractor-should-i-own-the-github-repo-until-final-payment" />
  <row Id="6159" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2240" RevisionGUID="4b817019-a92d-4b72-8d97-73e0954517d4" CreationDate="2014-08-11T03:24:22.590" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/32119/as-a-contractor-should-i-own-the-github-repo-until-final-payment/32120#32120" />
  <row Id="6160" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2240" RevisionGUID="a7662841-2dff-4260-bfee-386ead124390" CreationDate="2014-08-11T03:18:19.337" UserDisplayName="user4200" Text="There are a couple reasons why I would not recommend the approach you suggest:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) In many cases, the client expects you to collaborate with their own employees while you are working. You may even need to work in a repo that they already control. Though it sounds like you aren't dealing with that here, since such scenarios are common, you ought to have a way of working that accommodates them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) You will be much more successful as a consultant if you can establish relationships based on trust rather than distrust. Keeping the repo to yourself may provide you with the leverage to ensure that final payment, but it doesn't create the &quot;warm fuzzy&quot; that will get you future work, recommendations, etc. (See reference below.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead I would suggest adopting the stance that the client owns the code from day one, and make sure they have visibility, access, and even the ability to boot you out when *they* want to. The idea is to make yourself easy to fire. (Again, see reference below.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then do other things to increase the chances of getting paid:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Bill incrementally.&#xD;&#xA;* Demo your work regularly so that if there are concerns, you catch them early.&#xD;&#xA;* Charge enough so that if the client stiffs you on the last payment, you'll survive.&#xD;&#xA;* If the client is smaller and you don't feel comfortable that you'll be paid, you might ask for a reasonable advance payment. (Larger clients won't typically do this, just because you shouldn't have to worry that a large client won't pay.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, related to the points above (including the &quot;warm fuzzy&quot; idea, the idea of making yourself easy to fire, etc.), I can't recommend this article highly enough:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6161" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2239" RevisionGUID="16d6cabf-d46f-4069-891a-679ce7ca97de" CreationDate="2014-08-11T02:33:33.403" UserDisplayName="Ben" Text="I know a contractor generally owns the code being developed until final payment from the client. If using GitHub, does this mean the contractor should pay for a private repo on GitHub, work on the project from his/her account, then transfer ownership of the repo once final payment is received?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6162" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2239" RevisionGUID="16d6cabf-d46f-4069-891a-679ce7ca97de" CreationDate="2014-08-11T02:33:33.403" UserDisplayName="Ben" Text="As a contractor, should I own the GitHub repo until final payment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6163" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2239" RevisionGUID="16d6cabf-d46f-4069-891a-679ce7ca97de" CreationDate="2014-08-11T02:33:33.403" UserDisplayName="Ben" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6164" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2240" RevisionGUID="ab8193a4-5d7e-4ba9-b825-e07fcf947837" CreationDate="2014-08-11T03:26:10.633" UserDisplayName="user4200" Comment="edited body" Text="There are a couple reasons why I would not recommend the approach you're entertaining:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. In many cases, the client expects you to collaborate with their own employees while you are working. You may even need to work in a repo that they already control. Though it sounds like you aren't dealing with that here, since such scenarios are common, you ought to have a way of working that accommodates them.&#xD;&#xA; 2. You will be much more successful as a consultant if you can establish relationships based on trust rather than distrust. Keeping the repo to yourself may provide you with the leverage to ensure that final payment, but it doesn't create the &quot;warm fuzzy&quot; that will get you future work, recommendations, etc. (See reference below.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead I would suggest adopting the stance that the client owns the code from day one, and make sure they have visibility, access, and even the ability to boot you out when *they* want to. The idea is to make yourself easy to fire. (Again, see reference below.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then do other things to increase the chances of getting paid:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Bill incrementally.&#xD;&#xA;* Demo your work regularly so that if there are concerns, you catch them early.&#xD;&#xA;* Charge enough so that if the client stiffs you on the last payment, you'll survive.&#xD;&#xA;* If the client is smaller and you don't feel comfortable that you'll be paid, you might ask for a reasonable advance payment. (Larger clients won't typically do this, just because you shouldn't have to worry that a large client won't pay.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, related to the points above (including the &quot;warm fuzzy&quot; idea, the idea of making yourself easy to fire, etc.), I can't recommend this article highly enough:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6165" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2239" RevisionGUID="0f2004d1-4a03-40d9-af4f-537c75ca72ef" CreationDate="2014-08-11T03:27:36.407" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|payment-terms|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6166" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2241" RevisionGUID="0bc8fe2e-c715-4000-9009-17f261a46382" CreationDate="2014-08-11T14:20:27.637" UserId="4612" Text="I mostly agree @willie.  I think all those points are valid, but I also think it is reasonable to maintain some control over the work product.  This should be clearly stated in the contract as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did some work that was back loaded on payment and got burned.  My next contract clearly spelled out payment points.  1/3 up front, 1/3 at beta demo, 1/3 on final delivery.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My contract clearly stated deliverables and what form they would take.  I did not really state what technologies I would use for source control, just that I would turn over full access to the source after final acceptance and payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is very concerned about access to the servers and access to the source code and wants to do payments backload, these should be red flags about a client that may likely stiff you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6167" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2242" RevisionGUID="46beeb15-0261-49eb-8de1-8363083840d0" CreationDate="2014-08-11T14:47:34.753" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/32127/whats-a-fair-price-to-charge-a-client-for-backups-that-only-i-have" />
  <row Id="6168" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2243" RevisionGUID="933b4977-d152-4939-9484-aa009b230d72" CreationDate="2014-08-11T14:47:34.753" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/32127/whats-a-fair-price-to-charge-a-client-for-backups-that-only-i-have/32128#32128" />
  <row Id="6169" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2244" RevisionGUID="9d06919b-184c-4091-89f2-57a8e5dbcd04" CreationDate="2014-08-11T14:47:34.753" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/32127/whats-a-fair-price-to-charge-a-client-for-backups-that-only-i-have/32135#32135" />
  <row Id="6170" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2245" RevisionGUID="a06778cb-9f4a-4f3a-8cd4-379a9d6730c3" CreationDate="2014-08-11T14:47:34.753" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/32127/whats-a-fair-price-to-charge-a-client-for-backups-that-only-i-have/32137#32137" />
  <row Id="6171" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2246" RevisionGUID="18bedb0b-38c9-4a74-8c6f-06c1a1147e8d" CreationDate="2014-08-11T14:47:34.753" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/32127/whats-a-fair-price-to-charge-a-client-for-backups-that-only-i-have/32151#32151" />
  <row Id="6172" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2243" RevisionGUID="bbeff468-671a-4945-b185-9383de6a25f3" CreationDate="2014-08-11T08:45:55.373" UserDisplayName="Jan Doggen" Text="Step 1&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;I happen to have an old backup lying around that may be of use to you. You can have it to try and restore your database from, but there are no guarantees. Do you want to have it?&quot; It's a service from you, let them handle it from there. You don't charge anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Step 2&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;If I have to restore it I'll charge you $$ an hour&quot; with $$ the regular hourly rate your charge for anybody. Again, no guarantees that the data are complete after that.   &#xD;&#xA;Agreement (on what the task includes and what it costs) in writing before you start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Or maybe you prefer to make an estimate of the number of hours it will take and bill them one sum. But if you have e.g. to merge old and new data it could be quite a job and you're better off charging by the hour)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6173" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2244" RevisionGUID="18e369f8-5db2-4ef7-8523-cd044c4f9168" CreationDate="2014-08-11T10:55:44.117" UserId="2222" Text="The data does not belong to you, and demanding money for release of the data as such may (ignoring the moral issue) easily be qualified as extortion, with all kinds of civil and criminal unpleasantries - so if you really want to go that way, then ask a lawyer first for your own safety.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being said, a fair price for the task of you restoring backups will be the same as a fair price of other similarly qualified services you would do for them; I would recommend to charge for X hours of backup recovery the exact same amount as for X hours of spam cleaning." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6174" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2245" RevisionGUID="4ae9a518-2e9a-4dbe-ae49-5c62c3abf808" CreationDate="2014-08-11T11:13:39.573" UserId="4615" UserDisplayName="aroth" Text="Careful.  What you're planning sounds quite close to [extortion][1].  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bear in mind that the data that you have is actually _the property of your customer_.  If you made and retained the backup 'incidentally' without their knowledge or express consent, you likely ran afoul of all sorts of copyright/IP laws, technically speaking.  And if you try to force them to pay you to hand over data that technically you should not have in the first place, you can expect those technicalities to become very real problems if your customer is even remotely competent.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what's the fair price to charge for a backup that only you have that you created and retained without the customer's knowledge and consent? **$0**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the fair price to charge if you actually _did_ have their consent?  Whatever your contract says.  Though likely they would have paid you for your time to create the backup, and not for the handing over of the backup data itself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And what's the fair price to charge for helping them install your backup data (if they ask you to do that for them, which they probably will if you hand the data over for free)?  Whatever your normal hourly rate is when doing comparable work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extortion" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6175" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2246" RevisionGUID="14496c18-156e-4d72-b9a3-4e419acdcb5b" CreationDate="2014-08-11T14:34:35.207" UserId="4613" UserDisplayName="Joe" Text="I would say that, to the extent this is a [Workplace](http://workplace.stackexchange.com) question, that your consideration should be weighing your desire for continued work from this client.  This is not dissimilar to the question of how you deal with a client who asks you to step in and do urgent work (ie, without giving time to properly spec out and bid the work).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You weigh how much you want further work from them, versus how much you want to dissuade them from coming to you in similar situations in the future. If you want to encourage them back, charge them very little - your normal rate for how long it would take to give them (whatever).  If you want to discourage them from doing this in the future, you charge a higher, penalty rate.  Not with the intent of extorting them - but with the intent of influencing their behavior in the future.  As such, it should be an appropriate additional amount based on their ability to pay, so that it is a noticeable hit (if you ask for peanuts, they will just sign off automatically and not change) but not extortionate.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is aside from the issues raised related to whether you ought to have kept the data in the first place; that might affect whether you charge or what you charge, but I feel that's outside the scope of Workplace and more in the scope of [DBA.se](http://dba.stackexchange.com) or [Server Fault](http://serverfault.com) or such." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6176" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2242" RevisionGUID="d89da933-d3d3-49bb-af6c-514e2c7b1a99" CreationDate="2014-08-11T08:37:40.567" UserId="4622" UserDisplayName="Stuart P. Bentley" Text="I have a client whose forum was recently taken down due to an inordinate amount of spam. After I sifted through their entire database from the only working backup their hosting provider (Bluehost) provided, I determined that all the posts had been lost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They told me that they had paid for Bluehost's &quot;pro&quot; backup service to keep the site backed up, but I checked and explained to them that Bluehost's &quot;pro&quot; backup service still doesn't keep more than a month's worth of backups (the only thing their &quot;pro&quot; backup system adds is the ability to restore individual files from the web console).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have an incidental backup that I made when I was last brought in to clean spam out from their system, and this has most of the missing posts. Due to their negligence in their own backup system, I am the only one who can provide this backup. How should I determine the price to restore their missing data?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6177" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2242" RevisionGUID="d89da933-d3d3-49bb-af6c-514e2c7b1a99" CreationDate="2014-08-11T08:37:40.567" UserId="4622" UserDisplayName="Stuart P. Bentley" Text="What's a fair price to charge a client for backups that only I have?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6178" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2242" RevisionGUID="d89da933-d3d3-49bb-af6c-514e2c7b1a99" CreationDate="2014-08-11T08:37:40.567" UserId="4622" UserDisplayName="Stuart P. Bentley" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6183" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2242" RevisionGUID="5bfcd062-c9b9-40c4-9818-92f444e76e6b" CreationDate="2014-08-11T16:29:44.983" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/498868883206725632" />
  <row Id="6185" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2246" RevisionGUID="a2a572e9-fd79-42cf-9542-f8091b68ad96" CreationDate="2014-08-11T18:18:52.783" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 422 characters in body" Text="I would say that your consideration should be weighing your desire for continued work from this client.  This is not dissimilar to the question of how you deal with a client who asks you to step in and do urgent work (ie, without giving time to properly spec out and bid the work).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You weigh how much you want further work from them, versus how much you want to dissuade them from coming to you in similar situations in the future. If you want to encourage them back, charge them very little - your normal rate for how long it would take to give them (whatever).  If you want to discourage them from doing this in the future, you charge a higher, penalty rate.  Not with the intent of extorting them - but with the intent of influencing their behavior in the future.  As such, it should be an appropriate additional amount based on their ability to pay, so that it is a noticeable hit (if you ask for peanuts, they will just sign off automatically and not change) but not extortionate." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6188" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2248" RevisionGUID="989d3330-26f1-4aa3-8841-7d4eec8a47e7" CreationDate="2014-08-11T20:42:34.637" UserId="4319" Text="*This is in regards to me providing a website design/development&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a potential client which is now simply waiting for me to provide my job proposal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In terms of the contract side of it, what exactly do I need to supply for something to be considered a 'contract'. The last page of my proposal after the terms of service is simply this type of thing:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Acceptance of Proposal&#xD;&#xA;CLIENT COMPANY NAME (Hidden) authorises My Company Name to perform website development services defined in this proposal at the quoted rates, under the Terms and Conditions detailed above. This page acts as a sales order for the services and products outlined herein and forms a legal contract between the authorised signatory and My Company Name.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;SIGNATURE BOX  &#xD;&#xA;DATE BOX  &#xD;&#xA;PRINTED NAME BOX  &#xD;&#xA;COMPANY NAME &amp; POSITION BOX&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this one little page at the end enough to be a binding contract? If not, what's everyone elses means to this thing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6189" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2248" RevisionGUID="989d3330-26f1-4aa3-8841-7d4eec8a47e7" CreationDate="2014-08-11T20:42:34.637" UserId="4319" Text="Having a client sign a contract" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6190" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2248" RevisionGUID="989d3330-26f1-4aa3-8841-7d4eec8a47e7" CreationDate="2014-08-11T20:42:34.637" UserId="4319" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6193" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2138" RevisionGUID="f4e1cdff-a307-4510-b72a-876f7ae14f35" CreationDate="2014-08-11T22:29:45.487" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/498959482152816640" />
  <row Id="6194" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2245" RevisionGUID="dde24f06-30e8-4d99-8ae3-36124390b374" CreationDate="2014-08-12T00:28:43.657" UserId="4615" Comment="added 93 characters in body" Text="Careful.  What you're proposing (charging some amount _extra_ simply because you're the only person who possesses a backup) sounds quite close to [extortion][1].  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bear in mind that the data that you have is actually _the property of your customer_.  If you made and retained the backup 'incidentally' without their knowledge or express consent, you likely ran afoul of all sorts of copyright/IP laws, technically speaking.  And if you try to force them to pay you to hand over data that technically you should not have in the first place, you can expect those technicalities to become very real problems if your customer is even remotely competent.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what's the fair price to charge for a backup that only you have that you created and retained without the customer's knowledge and consent? **$0**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the fair price to charge if you actually _did_ have their consent?  Whatever your contract says.  Though likely they would have paid you for your time to create the backup, and not for the handing over of the backup data itself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And what's the fair price to charge for helping them install your backup data (if they ask you to do that for them, which they probably will if you hand the data over for free)?  Whatever your normal hourly rate is when doing comparable work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extortion" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6195" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2242" RevisionGUID="cc919c10-05cc-4386-9c83-8089d3a1b7b5" CreationDate="2014-08-12T01:37:13.983" UserId="4622" Comment="Add tags" Text="|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6196" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2250" RevisionGUID="22fe2af4-0808-40a2-bc5c-fd5f81e7e296" CreationDate="2014-08-12T02:11:34.890" UserId="4621" Text="I have done many website design and development as a freelancer and over time, I have my own set of &quot;business procedures&quot; to properly (or so I thought) determine project scope and budgets **before** signing of the contract. However, recently I was engaged by an interior designer and things got sour because we could not agree what phase we are in. So, I want to know and relearn what is the actual web design and development industry practice regarding the design of website before and/or after the contract?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**TLDR;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I told him that as I understood in this case, the development phase starts when the contract is signed and from that point onwards, I should not be getting requests such as &quot;[looking at another website] Oh this looks nice! Can you make something like this and *let us see*?&quot;. I explained that I can accept if he affirmed &quot;No! That is not what I agreed to, *[this] is what I wanted*!&quot;, but I simply cannot create actual web pages one after another to let him choose and pick like shopping.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The interior designer insist that he knows better since he is in the design industry longer than I am (his age is probably 15 years older, or more). He maintains that the design phase comes **after** the signing of contract. He said he would sit with the client, go through several revisions, sign off the designs, before getting down to development phase. He also doubts me because he thinks it is not feasible to commit time and effort at the design phase without a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The main source of confusion in this episode is a *Design Intent* document provided by the client. I normally come up with my draft designs before meeting the client but this time, they have done all the &quot;screenshots&quot; in the Design Intent with detailed text annotations. I thought I am supposed to follow the document, I even clarified my doubts extensively, but after signing the contract, they said it is &quot;for design intent only&quot; and anything can change!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The main problem I have with his practice is that I find that it is impossible to draw up the schedule and cost without first having a clear understanding of the scope. Therefore, the steps I normally take would be like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Client looks for me by word-of-mouth and asks &quot;How much do you charge?&quot;&#xD;&#xA; 2. I ask for requirements such as nature of business, purpose&#xD;&#xA;    of website, target market, reference websites for look and feel and&#xD;&#xA;    functionality.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Client gets back to me with information and I decide&#xD;&#xA;    if I am capable to meet expectations. If I am not confident, I let&#xD;&#xA;    them know and decline the job, otherwise;&#xD;&#xA; 4. I will offer &quot;Can you let me come up with a/several designs and see if there is anything you like?&quot;. This takes about 1 week and will usually include as many different page layout as practical and usually the more important pages like product, about, contact.&#xD;&#xA; 5. If he likes it, I will let him know a rough quote and then set up the first meeting with them to **explain and agree on the design** and also check if there are additional/hidden requirements. This meeting will usually uncover further functional requirements which I will add to the rough quote.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Finally, I return home and draw up the schedule and cost, using the design JPG (which is now final) as scope, and get the contract signed. &#xD;&#xA; 7. During development, I normally do not accede to major change requests without additional charge especially if they affect schedule." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6197" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2250" RevisionGUID="22fe2af4-0808-40a2-bc5c-fd5f81e7e296" CreationDate="2014-08-12T02:11:34.890" UserId="4621" Text="What is the web design and development industry procedure leading up to signing of contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6198" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2250" RevisionGUID="22fe2af4-0808-40a2-bc5c-fd5f81e7e296" CreationDate="2014-08-12T02:11:34.890" UserId="4621" Text="|contracts|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6200" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2250" RevisionGUID="c7f581d6-ac4f-4dc8-a768-9316af9fddcb" CreationDate="2014-08-12T06:46:20.973" UserId="4621" Comment="added 155 characters in body" Text="I have done many website design and development as a freelancer and over time, I have my own set of &quot;business procedures&quot; to properly (or so I thought) determine project scope and budgets **before** signing of the contract. However, recently I was engaged by an interior designer and things got sour because we could not agree what phase we are in. So, I want to know and relearn: **In web design and development industry, do you do the design before signing of contract so that you have a something to create your project baselines estimates, or do you design after signing the contract and accede to the client to experiment with different designs until satisfied?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**TLDR;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I told him that as I understood in this case, the development phase starts when the contract is signed and from that point onwards, I should not be getting requests such as &quot;[looking at another website] Oh this looks nice! Can you make something like this and *let us see*?&quot;. I explained that I can accept if he affirmed &quot;No! That is not what I agreed to, *[this] is what I wanted*!&quot;, but I simply cannot create actual web pages one after another to let him choose and pick like shopping.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The interior designer insist that he knows better since he is in the design industry longer than I am (he is probably 15 years more senior at least). He maintains that the design phase comes **after** the signing of contract. He said he would sit with the client, go through several revisions, sign off the designs, before getting down to development phase. He also doubts me because he thinks it is not feasible to commit time and effort at the design phase without a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The main source of confusion in this episode is a *Design Intent* document provided by the client. I normally come up with my draft designs before meeting the client but this time, they have done all the &quot;screenshots&quot; in the Design Intent with detailed text annotations. I thought I am supposed to follow the document, I even clarified my doubts extensively, but after signing the contract, they said it is &quot;for design intent only&quot; and anything can change!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The main problem I have with his practice is that I find that it is impossible to draw up the schedule and cost without first having a clear understanding of the scope. Therefore, the steps I normally take would be like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Client looks for me by word-of-mouth and asks &quot;How much do you charge?&quot;&#xD;&#xA; 2. I ask for requirements such as nature of business, purpose&#xD;&#xA;    of website, target market, reference websites for look and feel and&#xD;&#xA;    functionality.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Client gets back to me with information and I decide&#xD;&#xA;    if I am capable to meet expectations. If I am not confident, I let&#xD;&#xA;    them know and decline the job, otherwise;&#xD;&#xA; 4. I will offer &quot;Can you let me come up with a/several designs and see if there is anything you like?&quot;. This takes about 1 week and will usually include as many different page layout as practical and usually the more important pages like product, about, contact.&#xD;&#xA; 5. If he likes it, I will let him know a rough quote and then set up the first meeting with them to **explain and agree on the design** and also check if there are additional/hidden requirements. This meeting will usually uncover further functional requirements which I will add to the rough quote.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Finally, I return home and draw up the schedule and cost, using the design JPG (which is now final) as scope, and get the contract signed. &#xD;&#xA; 7. During development, I normally do not accede to major change requests without additional charge especially if they affect schedule." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6201" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2250" RevisionGUID="c7f581d6-ac4f-4dc8-a768-9316af9fddcb" CreationDate="2014-08-12T06:46:20.973" UserId="4621" Comment="added 155 characters in body" Text="In web design and development, should design come before contract or vice versa?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6202" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2250" RevisionGUID="ab00e3ca-d39c-4970-ba33-f5e7886820a7" CreationDate="2014-08-12T07:29:45.740" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/499095378546130945" />
  <row Id="6203" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2251" RevisionGUID="459b4cc9-3eab-4818-9f35-e682700a1900" CreationDate="2014-08-12T07:33:07.460" UserId="4621" Text="Disclaimer: This is not legal advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also sign on it, and as long as both parties understand what signing on the piece of paper means, it will be enough to be a binding contract. Even verbal agreements can be construed as contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When in conflict, normally there is no way to deny unless he wasn't sane when he signed it or he can prove he was misled into signing, or if the terms and conditions &quot;above&quot; are ambiguous and he has [mistaken][1]. As such it will be the terms clauses that are under scrutiny, not the final acceptance clause. You should check what are the ways the contract can be voided and try to cover those grounds.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistake_(contract_law)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6204" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2252" RevisionGUID="e7c80eed-9fed-471b-ae83-ea19466688d7" CreationDate="2014-08-12T17:12:19.467" UserId="4630" Text="Assuming they were willing to pay for backup at their provider and this failed they will be glad to have a backup from you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Important: You were really just about to delete it, just didn't have the time cause you are so busy. Or you kept it as proof/documentation of the work you did for them. Difficult topic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would ask them how much it is worth to them and whatever they offer is a fair price. Nobody sane will say $0.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6205" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2253" RevisionGUID="c0ca1b6d-f2a3-4637-9d3b-3d28f92584e1" CreationDate="2014-08-12T18:15:35.030" UserId="4550" Text="The firs four jobs wasn't problem to me and neither more jobs but problem is I am not getting jobs. Invitations are keep coming and client isn't awarding project.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;What do I offer client in Graphic Design project?&lt;/strong&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6206" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2253" RevisionGUID="c0ca1b6d-f2a3-4637-9d3b-3d28f92584e1" CreationDate="2014-08-12T18:15:35.030" UserId="4550" Text="Write proposal for logo design project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6207" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2253" RevisionGUID="c0ca1b6d-f2a3-4637-9d3b-3d28f92584e1" CreationDate="2014-08-12T18:15:35.030" UserId="4550" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6209" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2254" RevisionGUID="64dae944-3b7b-4cd7-ab4f-532cb0f35aba" CreationDate="2014-08-12T18:33:13.650" UserId="4635" Text="1. The price for [accidentally] possessing the backup? $0&#xD;&#xA;2. The price for *restoring* the backup? Whatever you normally charge. Maybe a bit extra for an &quot;urgent&quot; job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just be clear that it is not part of your responsibility to maintain your client's backups unless they are explicitly paying you for that service, and that you took that backup during the course of previous work and it is a matter of sheer luck that it was not deleted when that work was completed. [Note: This can be a double-edged sword in the case that they take issue with you being in possession of their data without their knowledge.]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you absolutely *do not want* is for your client to continue to be irresponsible because &quot;Stuart keeps backups anyway&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now would be a good time to tack on some additional services for your client, like a &quot;Have a peek once in a while to make sure your forum isn't filling up with spam&quot; or &quot;Long-term backups&quot;. You would be shocked at how many people so not look at their site more than once in a blue moon and won't notice that it's completely hooped until months after the last clean backup was dropped from the set." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6210" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2253" RevisionGUID="d712a3a3-133c-4c2c-bf78-9e84c1c526f1" CreationDate="2014-08-12T19:19:43.867" UserId="4550" Comment="added 12 characters in body" Text="The firs four jobs wasn't problem to me and neither more jobs but problem is I am not getting jobs. Invitations are keep coming and client isn't awarding project.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;What do I offer client in proposal of Graphic Design project?&lt;/strong&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6211" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2255" RevisionGUID="9fd51be1-98eb-4e84-a68c-93153562ea9e" CreationDate="2014-08-12T21:47:42.297" UserId="1706" Text="Jake,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think you're shooting yourself in the foot with your current approach.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine a house painter offering services.  The client doesn't know what he wants, but calls up the painter.  The painter paints the house red on Monday.  The client doesn't like it.  The painter paints the house green on Tuesday.  The client still doesn't like it.  The painter shows up on Wednesday expecting to paint the house purple, but the house has already been painted orange (apparently by someone else).  Then the client tells the painter, in not so many words, to get lost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paint, labor, fuel, brushes, phone calls, and all that stuff COST MONEY.  However, the painter didn't get a written contract from the client to pay for this three-day &quot;design session&quot;, so the painter's screwed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're doing the same thing!!!  You are opening yourself up to abuse by basically taking work &quot;on spec&quot;, i.e. no contract gets signed until you *work* to come up with a design that the client likes.  It wastes your time.  To a savvy client, it makes you look ***pretty stupid*** but the client *isn't going to tell you that* if the client essentially asks you to work for free and you accept.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You'll turn around and say, &quot;but the client is demanding ______&quot;.  Okay, that's nice.  But it's your business!  The client can demand whatever, whenever, but if it's not to the terms that you need to keep money in your pocket, WALK.  You don't let a client decide how your business is run.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client wants iterative design, great.  But the client should be paying for your time and materials along the way.  You should capture this in a written contract before starting ANY work, no matter how &quot;little of a task&quot; your client tries to tell you the design portion comprises.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;More on NOT doing &quot;spec&quot; work :  http://www.nospec.com/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6212" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2256" RevisionGUID="f72b475b-a606-41b9-aaf5-8e898d4a870f" CreationDate="2014-08-12T21:55:48.673" UserId="1706" Text="If you are doing any work that will be available to the client (or client's employees) then you might consider not doing ANY work unless you receive a deposit as a guarantee that the client doesn't disappear with your work-product.  (this happens every day)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're starting a four-week project, get a deposit for the first week and bill weekly.  DON'T start week 2 until you've been paid for it.  This minimizes the risk to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is perfectly okay to explain to a client that part of your business practice includes minimizing risk to yourself.  You don't have to be a jerk about it and declaring this up front gives you a platform to compromise with, according to how you're feeling that this client will perform (in terms of paying your invoices) in the long term.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Overall, just don't walk in with a blind eye.  Everybody's not honest.  Keep your Github repo private and if the client is asking to dig into it, make sure some money changes hands first.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6213" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2257" RevisionGUID="62876714-5d84-43d1-b38b-96c2b3e9c8aa" CreationDate="2014-08-12T22:02:27.230" UserId="1706" Text="There are books on exactly what you're asking:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&amp;field-keywords=human%20resources&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd run down to Barnes and Noble to see what they have to offer.  It will vary from state to state (I assume you're in the U.S.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the &quot;money&quot; side of the issue, I'd recommend you find yourself a payroll processor.  I use ADP Run, and for $40/month they'll do direct deposit, calculate and transmit fed and state taxes, and generate W-2s at the end of the year for up to 10 employees.  There are lots of other companies but you'll have to dig around for what suits your needs and budget.  I did this 'cause I don't want to be a payroll expert -- I just need it to work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6214" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2258" RevisionGUID="e70751be-a822-4ad9-83ad-4c1ead0b273b" CreationDate="2014-08-12T22:13:47.807" UserId="1706" Text="My observation:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**&quot;Now client wants to sue me for the delay in project that happened because of Framework we decided to try and failed.&quot;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client was paying for your time, NOT a finished product.  You made a reasonable effort to apply your time to meet the client's requirements, but in the end found the task impossible.  The client got what he paid for -- the use of your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**&quot;Also he wants to sue me for not working for 40hours/week in those 2 weeks.&quot;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any U.S. venue, the client would have to prove *actual* damages caused by you not working those two weeks.  When such information is presented to a court, it has to make some sense.  It can't just be some made-up amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**&quot;Shall I request him for money or how should I move ahead given amount is a hefty sum.&quot;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should stop working now and ask for payment for your work so far before you do ANY more work!!!  I don't think this client is going to pay you in the end, if the client is already threatening to sue.  You'd better be very careful.  Those other developers quit *for a reason*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6215" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2259" RevisionGUID="47227901-d350-403b-a892-075f30f44bba" CreationDate="2014-08-12T22:15:17.687" UserId="4640" Text="You should only provide a mock-up if you are asked anything, and the mock-up should be in the form of a low resolution picture. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Never provide a web-visible, HTMLized proper mock up. Its easy to just grab it from there and skin it into a template/website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The picture you give should be low resolution, so that slicing it and skinning it into a website should not easy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are some who even try to grab the design from low res pictures, or copy the main elements in the design and evade paying.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6216" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2260" RevisionGUID="f50332c9-71ac-435b-80d6-4f830c8d1254" CreationDate="2014-08-12T22:20:42.253" UserId="4640" Text="You must learn the laws governing the business agreements IN THE LOCALE you are in. Because these may change from locale to locale.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example in Europe, agreeing to something in an email that can be reliably tracked back to you is legally acceptable as evidence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some countries, verbal agreement is also acceptable - despite it is extremely unreliable to prove.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some countries which are decentralized, local laws may override federal laws or there may be federal laws which may override everything. (Like usa, india, spain).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Therefore, it is rather silly to ask this here - you MUST seek a legal counsel in the place you are conducting your business in. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6217" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2236" RevisionGUID="87aeed81-42d4-4a4f-94e4-c8a4e8d1cfb9" CreationDate="2014-08-13T00:25:31.850" UserId="4607" Comment="Updated the question to be more specific rather than asking for a &quot;book recommendation&quot; and modified title." Text="I've been a solopreneur for a number of years now, and when my son was old enough, I got him involved in helping with my business. But he is off to college soon and I will need to hire a replacement that will do his work and hopefully much more as the business continues to grow. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a person in mind to hire, but I need to put together an offer, and the new employee will start part-time and grow to full-time. I feel confident in the persons abilities and that they'll be a good fit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what things do I need to be concerned with -- administrative-wise, tax-wise, legal-wise -- when hiring my first employee?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6218" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2236" RevisionGUID="87aeed81-42d4-4a4f-94e4-c8a4e8d1cfb9" CreationDate="2014-08-13T00:25:31.850" UserId="4607" Comment="Updated the question to be more specific rather than asking for a &quot;book recommendation&quot; and modified title." Text="When hiring my first employee, what should be my main &quot;HR&quot; concerns?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6219" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2261" RevisionGUID="529ad556-647a-4362-a041-e0b02ecaef8f" CreationDate="2014-08-13T00:37:08.103" UserId="2271" Text="Mark,&#xD;&#xA;Your state department of labor/employment ought to be able to help you with the regulations and policies.  I remember that Texas Employment Commission had sample employee handbooks for employers on its web site, so I did a Google search on that as a search string. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&amp;ion=1&amp;espv=2&amp;ie=UTF-8#q=employee%20handbook%20examples&amp;safe=active&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can peruse the samples and see what the responsibilities you'll need to cover.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6229" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2264" RevisionGUID="dcd8e101-7c4a-4434-b4bb-2d66e6c8af3d" CreationDate="2014-08-13T11:50:27.973" UserId="4648" Text="I am building my personal portfolio. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have very few works to showcase which I have freelanced.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I have extensive amount of experience working in client projects during my job as a Frontend developer in previous organizations. My best works to be showcased are the ones I have built during that period.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So is it legal to display screenshots of those client projects in my personal portfolio?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6230" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2264" RevisionGUID="dcd8e101-7c4a-4434-b4bb-2d66e6c8af3d" CreationDate="2014-08-13T11:50:27.973" UserId="4648" Text="Can I use screenshots of my development works in a huge organization in my personal portfolio?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6231" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2264" RevisionGUID="dcd8e101-7c4a-4434-b4bb-2d66e6c8af3d" CreationDate="2014-08-13T11:50:27.973" UserId="4648" Text="|legal|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6232" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2253" RevisionGUID="5c9bfb74-30a6-4dab-badd-dc62914e36c1" CreationDate="2014-08-13T15:22:43.127" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, clarification, removed HTML in favor of plaintext" Text="I've started to use a freelance website. I was able to handle the first four jobs that I received on the site, but I haven't been able to get jobs lately. Invitations keep coming in, but the potential clients aren't awarding their projects to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do I offer a client in a Graphic Design project proposal?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6233" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2253" RevisionGUID="5c9bfb74-30a6-4dab-badd-dc62914e36c1" CreationDate="2014-08-13T15:22:43.127" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, clarification, removed HTML in favor of plaintext" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6234" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2253" RevisionGUID="5c9bfb74-30a6-4dab-badd-dc62914e36c1" CreationDate="2014-08-13T15:22:43.127" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 1706, 58 edit id of 341" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6235" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2265" RevisionGUID="7632d626-7eac-4dd3-85ff-b2c952e54e2b" CreationDate="2014-08-13T15:42:03.020" UserId="58" Text="Generally, in asking for concrete evidence that *work done is work done*, you're going to lose a vast amount of potential freelancers; they're probably expecting you to have actually done a bit of research into their CV and references and are assuming that by agreeing to a price, you are actually trusting them. In addition, you should generally *use a contract for almost anything with a freelancer* that sets out expectations and deliverables, for some form of professional clarity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being paranoid that people are slacking on the job is something that goes through the majority of managers' minds, but actually enforcing that actively (through micro-management, constantly interrupting them, etc.) just generates misery and is seen as a complete breakdown of trust.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With freelancers, you should interview them and have someone you trust (potentially a current employee of yours) assess if they actually know their stuff to avoid getting ripped off. If your project isn't a software project (or cant be assessed through a computer, such as asset designing or video creation), then there is usually no sane way that you can track your freelancer's time through software such as oDesk. I'd probably use Harvest or a simple timer if billing hourly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, if you pay a fixed price for a project and it is done faster, you are not overpaying, period; you agreed to a fixed price for a project and the freelancer gave an estimate of how much it would cost. Besides, if you paid $35,000 for a 4 month project and it only took one, most clients I've known and worked with wouldn't complain and would probably be glad that they have an extra three months for integration and testing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In these cases, generally a freelancer will give an estimate based on how many projects they are currently working on, and the odds are highly likely that they completed/lowered priority on other tasks for your project in order to get it done faster. Trying to penalise them or lower the price you pay because something was done faster than expected is the most efficient and reliable way to lose a good worker and a heap of reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, don't push monitoring software onto freelancers unless they reasonably expect it (such as oDesk contracts). Trust them to do work that you've both agreed to; use a contract, and don't cut corners.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6236" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2266" RevisionGUID="aa50e29e-ffed-40f0-8e87-dd143c7d6fac" CreationDate="2014-08-13T15:52:38.463" UserId="58" Text="In a proposal for a website, you should never just throw a mock-up out there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When creating designs for a client, it's pretty important to work with them and find out what they need. Any client who simply takes a mockup offered from proposals is usually skipping the entire decision process and hoping that they can get a free (or at least cheap) design that they like from freelancers offering mockups.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try and look for clients who are requesting graphic designers with portfolios. Provide live, previous examples of work you've done (with previous clients' permission), and build a portfolio to sell yourself to a client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any work you do should be paid for, in general; in some cases offering value to a client can be a good thing (and will possibly help them to reconsider you for their next piece of work), but when a client is fishing blindly for freelancers and saying something along the lines of *&quot;Make me a design like x, and show me a mockup&quot;*, and posting this on a bidding site, they are hoping that they can cut as many corners as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were you, I'd stop sending a mockup in a bid and instead send a strong portfolio and a resume with references when bidding for these proposals. Act professional, and in your bid explain your experience and previous projects, and possibly how you handle the design process.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6238" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2267" RevisionGUID="913b19cd-af76-4a2d-98e8-389da76e7f1d" CreationDate="2014-08-14T05:29:37.430" UserId="4655" Text="Use the company name your considering, its an effective strategy to determine if you like the new brand in action. Provided that the service or product is satisfactory, customer base ought to hold steady. If the test brand is not going to work out it's essential to promote the finalized brand like crazy to make sure clients are crystal clear about the transition.&#xD;&#xA;Live test marketing are &quot;mini-launches&quot; usually focused in limited target areas, its a essential step before any large scale Brand launch occurs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6239" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2255" RevisionGUID="20e597a0-1963-45f1-a3cf-bc08989effe5" CreationDate="2014-08-14T05:38:55.287" UserId="64" Comment="Please, no greetings or signature taglines as per http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/help/behavior. Thank you!" Text="I think you're shooting yourself in the foot with your current approach.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine a house painter offering services.  The client doesn't know what he wants, but calls up the painter.  The painter paints the house red on Monday.  The client doesn't like it.  The painter paints the house green on Tuesday.  The client still doesn't like it.  The painter shows up on Wednesday expecting to paint the house purple, but the house has already been painted orange (apparently by someone else).  Then the client tells the painter, in not so many words, to get lost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paint, labor, fuel, brushes, phone calls, and all that stuff *cost money*.  However, the painter didn't get a written contract from the client to pay for this three-day &quot;design session&quot;, so the painter's screwed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're doing the same thing!  You are opening yourself up to abuse by basically taking work &quot;on spec&quot;, i.e. no contract gets signed until you *work* to come up with a design that the client likes.  It wastes your time.  To a savvy client, it makes you look ***pretty stupid*** but the client *isn't going to tell you that* if the client essentially asks you to work for free and you accept.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You'll turn around and say, &quot;but the client is demanding ______&quot;.  Okay, that's nice.  But it's your business!  The client can demand whatever, whenever, but if it's not to the terms that you need to keep money in your pocket, *walk*.  You don't let a client decide how your business is run.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client wants iterative design, great.  But the client should be paying for your time and materials along the way.  You should capture this in a written contract before starting *any* work, no matter how &quot;little of a task&quot; your client tries to tell you the design portion comprises.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;More on NOT doing &quot;spec&quot; work can be found at [NO!SPEC](http://www.nospec.com/).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6240" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2268" RevisionGUID="48463183-d36b-4dac-8519-5ea70b2e015c" CreationDate="2014-08-14T07:13:44.580" UserId="4514" Text="Why don't you ask for feedback? Simply say, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;Sorry to hear I didn't get the job, but I'm glad you found someone&#xD;&#xA;&gt; who you're comfortable working with. To help me with my future&#xD;&#xA;&gt; proposals, would you mind telling me where I went wrong?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Asking this question will tell you everything you need to know." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6245" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2270" RevisionGUID="7b826660-d4dd-4097-b976-db1e853e88f6" CreationDate="2014-08-14T09:57:20.840" UserId="43" Text="The way that we approach projects for all our customers is to split the work into 2 distinct parts: analysis and build. The analysis phase is the scoping phase and contains no design work. Everything relating to screen layouts and functionality is captured through a wireframing tool such as Balsamiq. This allows both us and the customer to go back and forth until we are both happy that all of the screens required have been mocked up. This is done on a time and materials basis and I usually quote around 3 weeks for this phase. Once this phase is complete and the customer has signed off the wireframes, we draw up a contract for the build phase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The systems we've been building have tended not to have a strong bespoke design element to them. They've more been admin or workflow systems where the design has been taken care of via a professional Bootstrap theme. That said, if we were to take on a project that required a strong design aspect, we would still insist on a contract for the design phase, but the contract would be on a time and materials basis rather than a fixed cost. That way, if the customer wants to keep changing things they have to keep paying for our time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you start with the design phase whilst still trying to determine the requirements you run a very real risk of the customer fixating on how the site should look rather than what the site should do. The analysis phase also allows you to fully understand how the customer's business processes work and what their business is about, which should help you during the design phase. Obviously, some work has to be done before drawing up a contract or you'll never understand the full scope of work. The more abstract you can make the output in this initial phase, the more the customer will be able to focus on the functionality of the project without distraction." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6254" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2272" RevisionGUID="26dba0e9-d449-47cc-b45d-4f549eff2491" CreationDate="2014-08-14T15:05:52.403" UserId="4556" Text="Showing work you have completed as a freelancer is obviously preferable. Whether you can legally show the work  you did for a previous employer **will depend on your employment contract and/or whether you signed an NDA**. Those things aside, you *should* be fine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's worth bearing in mind that the copyright for each site will be owned either by your previous employer or their client, who can therefore legitimately request you remove the site(s) from your portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To help avoid that happening there are a few other things you can check:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Is the work done by your previous employer covered by a clients' NDA?** If so avoid listing it, since you are likely also bound by the NDA.&#xD;&#xA; - **Is the work on your previous employers website?** In this case you're probably fine showing the site and writing about your contributions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have personally listed work done for a previous employer without issue, though now I only do so in proposals for which I'm lacking other examples of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*If you have any doubt about your contract, NDAs, or legal obligations, please consult a legal professional in your jurisdiction — I am not a lawyer.*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6255" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2273" RevisionGUID="934a50ec-7134-4b30-81d9-3ff3680f80a6" CreationDate="2014-08-14T21:36:51.907" UserId="4561" Text="I do custom software but I am not a web developer.  However, I recently hired a company to develop a website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;MY CONSUMER PERSPECTIVE:&#xD;&#xA;The company I settled on did the contract before the design.  NO ONE offered a design in advance of a contract.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In their contract they said &quot;We will submit up to X designs for you to choose from for the home page plus X internal pages&quot; and &quot;We will make X revisions to the chosen design.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I chose them without a design based on designs in their client portfolio.  I also liked that they were local, met with me in person, and did invest some of their own time to research certain unique things my website needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We signed the contract which included pricing.  They submitted designs, we picked from them, then we went back and forth getting the design &quot;just so&quot; and now they are cutting the HTML code.  Imagine their nightmare if they'd given me unlimited design options at no additional cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are very helpful and accomodating, but naturally some &quot;ideas&quot; only occurred to us as we went along.  We understand that if those are important to us, they will cost us extra.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We almost went with a different company that does a discovery phase that was about $3K (if I recall)  They said we could take that &quot;report&quot; of what we needed anywhere, we weren't obligated to move forward with them.  I understood why they did that but found the idea of committing $3K up front to find out what the whole project would cost a little scary/off putting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As stated, we initially inquired with about 7 web developers.  NO ONE offered to submit designs to us without a commitment and while most gave us ball park pricing, no one could give us solid pricing without going over our specs first.  Hence the &quot;Up to x design submissions&quot; language in the contract we did sign.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;DEVELOPER PERSPECTIVE&#xD;&#xA;As a software developer however, I realize that most people cannot visualize something that is described.  So when I have ideas on how to automate something I will often do a mock up to land the business.  I try not to put too much time into it though.  But I may do some dialog boxes that are not fully coded but that show how the work will flow.  Sometimes I even do a YouTube video showing features I've developed for others, explaining how their software would work.  I know I have landed clients because of this, but I am careful not to invest hours with someone who I sense is bargain hunting and/or not serious about buying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;INTERIOR DESIGNER PERSPECTIVE&#xD;&#xA;I've no experience here but I do watch a lot of home renovation shows on TV...  I've seen some where contractors compete with designs, and the favorite design wins the bid.  So maybe it is normal to do the design in advance with interior design, but I don't think it is with web design.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think your client is confusing his industry with yours.  Good luck explaining that to him... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the future I'd make sure your contract spells things out clearly to protect you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6256" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2274" RevisionGUID="ba04e013-d715-4cb8-a744-8d8ac4ba8f1d" CreationDate="2014-08-15T00:33:57.787" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/32312/how-to-start-who-should-start-first-interview-over-skype" />
  <row Id="6257" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2275" RevisionGUID="2bd8cfd2-4ec7-4854-a19f-f46e6ac6186a" CreationDate="2014-08-15T00:33:57.787" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/32312/how-to-start-who-should-start-first-interview-over-skype/32316#32316" />
  <row Id="6258" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2276" RevisionGUID="38b7f694-23de-429b-ae34-df2647fa88e9" CreationDate="2014-08-15T00:33:57.787" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/32312/how-to-start-who-should-start-first-interview-over-skype/32317#32317" />
  <row Id="6259" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2277" RevisionGUID="f14a059e-1749-435e-ad54-0c77e839ad26" CreationDate="2014-08-15T00:33:57.787" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/32312/how-to-start-who-should-start-first-interview-over-skype/32330#32330" />
  <row Id="6260" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2275" RevisionGUID="f38217cc-2dac-4bec-b8fa-b3a8a43265cc" CreationDate="2014-08-14T13:38:06.127" UserId="10777" UserDisplayName="Vig" Text="I would start with an email to schedule a date and time, and possibly send your details if you haven't already.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would wait for their reply regarding the available date and time before discussing about the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6261" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2276" RevisionGUID="a4fd680a-0bf6-4615-a6f1-99265caf3e31" CreationDate="2014-08-14T13:52:29.393" UserId="4142" Text="From what you have said it sounds like they haven't decided to use your services for their project yet, but they wanted your contact information should they choose to use your services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now that you have sent them your Skype information here is what you should do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Set yourself working time every day that you are willing to work.&#xD;&#xA;    - This will show that you have a steady Freelance work schedule.&#xD;&#xA;2. Log on to Skype during those times religiously.&#xD;&#xA;3. Be close to your computer during the times that you are connected to Skype&#xD;&#xA;    - The could contact you at any time and will want a prompt response to show them that you are working during your work hours.&#xD;&#xA;4. Be constructive while you wait&#xD;&#xA;    - Make sure that you have your schedule handy, and be prepared to write a new project in.&#xD;&#xA;5. Make sure that you are &quot;Dressed to Impress&quot; &#xD;&#xA;    - They will be able to see you if they choose a video call, so be prepared for that&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then all there is to do is wait for them to contact you, they haven't decided whether you are the right person for the job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Something that you can do in the mean time while you are waiting for them to contact you is study up on their company so that you know who they are and what they are about (even who they are if it is an individual) it helps to know who you are talking to sometimes." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6262" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2277" RevisionGUID="38c5c0a3-c1dd-4d5d-8c30-b247e8ae96e4" CreationDate="2014-08-14T15:45:53.107" UserId="1850" Text="First the title, the interview has to be initiated by the interviewer, them in this case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. An email would be the best to continue a conversation that stopped a while ago after getting your details. A text chat will be my 2nd preference.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Depends on how much time has passed. If it is just 2-3 days, wait. But if it is too long (like a month or more), may be they have abandoned the project for some reasons or completed it already. In case it is neither too long not too little time after your first conversation, trying to talk may work for you.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Subject to the timelines mentioned above, you can initiate a text chat asking for the appropriate time to talk. Voice/Video for the first time is never a good idea when you are a candidate." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6263" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2274" RevisionGUID="22c7097b-16a4-4f6e-ab04-093b193ae62c" CreationDate="2014-08-14T12:20:30.067" UserId="4688" UserDisplayName="TurboJupi" Text="I'm new to freelancing and I recently sent a few proposals for jobs. Two clients (individuals, not companies) asked me for my Skype id and added me on Skype, but no one has interviewed me yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- What is the appropriate way to start the conversation? &#xD;&#xA;- Should I initiate the conversation or should I wait for them to call me? &#xD;&#xA;- Is it OK to start it via chat (to ask for details about project or when they have time) or are the only appropriate ways voice and/or video?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6264" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2274" RevisionGUID="22c7097b-16a4-4f6e-ab04-093b193ae62c" CreationDate="2014-08-14T12:20:30.067" UserId="4688" UserDisplayName="TurboJupi" Text="How to start &amp; who should start first interview over Skype?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6265" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2274" RevisionGUID="22c7097b-16a4-4f6e-ab04-093b193ae62c" CreationDate="2014-08-14T12:20:30.067" UserId="4688" UserDisplayName="TurboJupi" Text="|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6266" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2274" RevisionGUID="411cdf8d-8eaa-4cdd-8274-110255ba304b" CreationDate="2014-08-15T00:35:03.707" UserId="64" Comment="copy edited" Text="I'm new to freelancing, and I recently sent a few proposals for jobs. Two clients (individuals, not companies) asked me for my Skype id and added me on Skype, but no one has interviewed me yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- What is the appropriate way to start the conversation? &#xD;&#xA;- Should I initiate the conversation, or should I wait for them to call me? &#xD;&#xA;- Is it okay to start it via chat (to ask for details about project or when they have time) or are the only appropriate ways voice and/or video?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6268" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2278" RevisionGUID="1543c472-6a7a-4b18-ae4b-9b707391a719" CreationDate="2014-08-15T06:13:08.253" UserId="4659" Text="It happens! no need to worry. They will surely contact you. What you can do is to send them an mail saying. As I have already sent you my skype ID and I am waiting for revert to schedule skype meeting regarding your project. Kindly revert with timings so that I can schedule my other project accordingly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am sure they will get back to you. It will be preferable to send them an official email first.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6269" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2279" RevisionGUID="5f3f948d-3e90-4861-9b62-7c5b74426bb7" CreationDate="2014-08-15T15:31:09.847" UserId="4670" Text="I'm setting up my freelance rate for web design services. In the states I would charge $65 hourly. Should I charge a lower rate if I'm working for a client in the states but I live in a country where the market rate is lower?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6270" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2279" RevisionGUID="5f3f948d-3e90-4861-9b62-7c5b74426bb7" CreationDate="2014-08-15T15:31:09.847" UserId="4670" Text="Freelance rate based on my country" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6271" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2279" RevisionGUID="5f3f948d-3e90-4861-9b62-7c5b74426bb7" CreationDate="2014-08-15T15:31:09.847" UserId="4670" Text="|freelance-websites|pay-rate|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6272" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="2274" RevisionGUID="ae07168b-d2f9-4fa2-85bd-ec569c9ee244" CreationDate="2014-08-15T15:34:06.597" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6273" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2280" RevisionGUID="1b60a040-bf2e-427a-bc00-0d97e8116a04" CreationDate="2014-08-15T16:26:11.787" UserId="4514" Text="I think it all depends on your skill set and portfolio. It also depends on what segment of the market you're targeting. It also depends on where you're finding the work (elance etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're finding work on sites such as elance, don't expect to get higher rates. People use these sites to find cheap labor in foreign countries. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're finding work based off of referrals, open source projects, etc. then you can probably get higher rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, if your work is simply awesome then nothing else matters. Simple supply and demand will take over and you can charge whatever rate you want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Figure out who your customer is and charge accordingly. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6274" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2274" RevisionGUID="199dc3d4-3c32-450f-86a1-82fded8e3d80" CreationDate="2014-08-15T16:39:45.627" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/500320953101193216" />
  <row Id="6281" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1455" RevisionGUID="ea1ad143-9c3d-4069-8469-d6884cd6e4cf" CreationDate="2014-08-16T00:38:22.703" UserId="2112" Comment="added 60 characters in body" Text="In India:&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;If you are in India - then no, there is no legal requirement for you to register yourself as a freelancer. However, if you are directly involved with Govt. contracting then you must hold a valid Govt. issued license. As of your income, you must pay your income taxes regardless. If you are getting paid directly to your bank account then it would be good to find out if it is [TDS][1] i.e. Tax Deducted at Source. This means that appropriate taxes were deducted  (and paid on your behalf to the Govt.) before the monies were paid to you. If it is not, then it is your responsibility to pay your taxes at the end of the financial year (i.e. March for India).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Other Countries:&#xD;&#xA;------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For freelancing in other countries, you will face numerous restrictions (almost 95% countries in the world) due to immigration reasons. The reason is that freelancing is considered to be self employment and those countries allow self employment for citizens or naturalized citizens only. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if you move to America in a work/non-immigrant visa (H1/L1 etc.) you will and must be employed by an employer at all times and get monthly paychecks. Also, based on the kind of non-immigrant visa you hold, you may or may not be legally allowed to change employers (example L1 visa holders cannot change their L1 visa holding employer whereas an H1 visa holder can). You will not be allowed to do any kind of work that can be considered as self employment until you obtain naturalization through an immigrant visa application which could take 5 to 10 years (for Indians and Chinese citizens specifically, since they are exempt from visa lottery) depending upon various situations. There are various ways an immigrant visa can be filed and in your case the most probable method would be employer based, where your employer would need to file your non immigrant work permit or naturalization. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;European countries also impose several such limitations to non-immigrant applicants. That is, until you obtain a legal immigrant status you would be limited in terms of self employment. European visas are points based and there are numerous criteria to fulfill to gather appropriate points for filing a visa (just an FYI) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of your question, once you immigrate to a different country (i.e. become a naturalized citizen) your records will be tracked by their Labor Departments automatically since your application for immigration will most likely need labor department's approval (better known as &quot;*DOL*&quot; or &quot;*Department or Labor/Labour*&quot;), so there may not be a legal need for you to register yourself as a freelancer/self employed thereafter. However, some countries may indeed require you to register yourself with an additional public or private licensing body for you to be able to legally perform freelancing or start a business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although, a small subset of countries such as Bhutan, Nepal etc. may allow you to work there as freelancer without any necessary documentation but for a limited period of time (This applies to Indian Citizens only).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom Line:&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it is not legally required for you to be registered as a Freelancer in India, it may not be a bad idea for you to be associated with a more larger professional group of freelancers. If you intend to move to another country and continue freelancing, and since freelancing is treated as self employment, you might need to acquire appropriate work authorization or even naturalization or citizenship of that country through an immigrant visa process or other legal procedures authorized by local laws.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;**NOTE**: I am not an attorney or their representative. These are legal topics and you should consult an immigration attorney or paralegal for all your immigration and non-immigration questions and concerns. The content of this answer is just for your information purposes. &lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;**References**-&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Immihelp Comparison of H1B to L1 US Visas- ([URL][2]) &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Immihelp article on immigrant visa - ([URL][3]) &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sup&gt;UK's points based immigration system- ([URL][4]) &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sup&gt;An Economic Times article on Freelancing in India - ([URL][5]) &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Deducted_at_Source&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.immihelp.com/l1-visa/l1-visa-h1b-visa-comparison.html&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.immihelp.com/immigrant-visa/&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.workpermit.com/uk/uk-immigration-tier-system.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-01-13/news/46149963_1_randstad-india-threeyear-average-annual-profit-companies-bill" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6283" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2239" RevisionGUID="1adfa90b-4ce7-4689-bedf-a24600a8e3c5" CreationDate="2014-08-16T07:39:58.450" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/500547499829264384" />
  <row Id="6284" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2282" RevisionGUID="170e1a21-a849-41d1-9701-22074a5897eb" CreationDate="2014-08-17T01:38:47.100" UserId="4680" Text="Anything below 5 minutes is not even worth thinking about, just answer the email and forget it. If you have a request that takes you long to investigate or test stuff, it is normal work and you charge it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do not interrupt current work for requests, best you can do is close the email program, logout or whatever. Then you  work 2-3 straight on a task and when you start losing your flow you can take a break, eat something, check your mail and answer it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you try to answer all emails in real time you will lose a lot of effet with context switching.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also make sure, people have a way to contact you if they really need something urgent, cell phone number would be optimal if they understand the term emergency, otherwise a secretary service, call centers offer that, is nice to use too." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6298" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="3" RevisionGUID="3e0d674f-5dc4-4327-880b-ccc336822cb5" CreationDate="2014-08-18T05:51:50.127" UserId="517" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6300" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2285" RevisionGUID="39f75e78-2127-4b30-8f4b-e79598ae1e26" CreationDate="2014-08-18T14:32:48.873" UserId="4689" Text="My client, Widgets Inc, hires a freelance designer, Bob, to do flyers and such. He's good at it. Bob figured out how to install Wordpress and is now calling himself a web designer. I tried to talk to him about CSS and he didn't know what it was.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Widgets Inc has hired Bob to build a customized e-commerce solution for them, which happens to be my specialty. Bob has outsourced this work to me at what appears to be a fraction of the pay. He told Widgets Inc that I am &quot;helping him&quot; with the project. I don't want to turn this down because Widgets Inc is a great client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't mind the pay cut so much as the fact that Bob is now my boss on the project. All my questions have to be directed to Bob instead of Widgets Inc, and he seems to be making up answers (for example what currencies, payment methods to support). I tried to talk to Widgets Inc directly about this and they told me to just talk to Bob. He is also trying to tell me how to do the work when he doesn't know what he is talking about. I don't think he's doing it on purpose, he just doesn't realize that web development is more complicated than a Wordpress install.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I explain what's wrong to Widgets Inc without being a jerk?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6301" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2285" RevisionGUID="39f75e78-2127-4b30-8f4b-e79598ae1e26" CreationDate="2014-08-18T14:32:48.873" UserId="4689" Text="How can you inform a client that a freelancer is unqualified without being a jerk?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6302" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2285" RevisionGUID="39f75e78-2127-4b30-8f4b-e79598ae1e26" CreationDate="2014-08-18T14:32:48.873" UserId="4689" Text="|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6303" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2286" RevisionGUID="d1e03246-4a4e-42ef-95fc-ac3d962e82e3" CreationDate="2014-08-18T15:31:24.340" UserId="517" Text="Do you REALLY have to work for this client? Can't you tell him that you do not have time for this extra task?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To be frank, I would not try to disclose the other guy since you do not know their relations. If you have more jobs with this company, then you may jeopardize all of them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would simply try to withdraw from the project by telling him that this job is causing you to lose focus from other jobs and let Bob spoils the project. When the client realizes that something is odd, he will be angry with Bob. If you two blow up the project together, do you really think that the client will be angry with Bob only and that your explanations will be listened?!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6305" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2288" RevisionGUID="98e5dae9-88bf-4609-a382-fec3eac141b2" CreationDate="2014-08-18T18:17:39.600" UserId="708" Text="Short answer --- **You can't**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a chain of command.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may not like the chain of command. But it's been established.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been in this position. It is not pleasant. You essentially have 2 options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Deal with it. Do what Bob tells you. Relay questions to Bob. Use what Bob tells you for answers. Do the work solely based on the information Bob has presented you. **Keep records**. If things blow up, fail, or need to be redone, cite the records and charge accordingly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Leave the project for whatever reason you want to use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You **never** want to state *anything* negative about *anyone* else if you are a freelancer. Your comments, regardless of how true they may be, could be construed as slander or liable and end you in legal trouble due to any loss of work on the part of Bob. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are *many* positions where a supervisor doesn't understand or know how to complete something. Bob not knowing something is not, in itself, an issue. It's your job to educate and inform Bob of what needs to be done since *you* are the expert who has been hired to complete it. If Bob fails to listen to your requirements or needs, then do what you can and if approached by the company, simply explain you needed X Y and Z and never received X and Z.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realize that if you were an employee you could always go to your boss or above your boss' head to complain about something. But you aren't an employee. Bite your tongue and either do what you're asked to do, how you're asked to do it, or reject the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6306" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2288" RevisionGUID="be598656-3cfb-4ff6-87fc-96e10f2febf7" CreationDate="2014-08-18T19:00:02.503" UserId="708" Comment="added 92 characters in body" Text="Short answer --- **You can't**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a chain of command.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may not like the chain of command. But it's been established.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been in this position. It is not pleasant. You essentially have 2 options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Deal with it. Do what Bob tells you. Relay questions to Bob. Use what Bob tells you for answers. Do the work solely based on the information Bob has presented you. Express your concerns about the project to Bob and let Bob determine solutions to use, etc. **Keep records**. If things blow up, fail, or need to be redone, cite the records and charge accordingly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Leave the project for whatever reason you want to use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You **never** want to state *anything* negative about *anyone* else if you are a freelancer. Your comments, regardless of how true they may be, could be construed as slander or liable and end you in legal trouble due to any loss of work on the part of Bob. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are *many* positions where a supervisor doesn't understand or know how to complete something. Bob not knowing something is not, in itself, an issue. It's your job to educate and inform Bob of what needs to be done since *you* are the expert who has been hired to complete it. If Bob fails to listen to your requirements or needs, then do what you can and if approached by the company, simply explain you needed X Y and Z and never received X and Z.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realize that if you were an employee you could always go to your boss or above your boss' head to complain about something. But you aren't an employee. Bite your tongue and either do what you're asked to do, how you're asked to do it, or reject the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6307" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2289" RevisionGUID="d1bd867d-8b8b-4449-8f22-a5dcddc66172" CreationDate="2014-08-18T20:01:13.827" UserId="4540" Text="I do not have employees, but I may hire independent contractors in the future. I am currently working as a freelancer (duh) but I am contemplating becoming a sole proprietor. It's really cheap, so I figure why not? I want to get my business license one day, but financially, now is not the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just wondering why I should/shouldn't proceed with this option. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6308" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2289" RevisionGUID="d1bd867d-8b8b-4449-8f22-a5dcddc66172" CreationDate="2014-08-18T20:01:13.827" UserId="4540" Text="Any opinions on whether I should fill out paperwork to be a sole proprietor or not? Working freelance now, not sure how SP would change my work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6309" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2289" RevisionGUID="d1bd867d-8b8b-4449-8f22-a5dcddc66172" CreationDate="2014-08-18T20:01:13.827" UserId="4540" Text="|legal|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6310" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2290" RevisionGUID="58e4f0ce-bbff-4388-8c50-6c9dacd0628d" CreationDate="2014-08-18T21:02:08.623" UserId="4561" Text="I agree with the others that it would be imprudent to say something overtly negative about Bob.  Though you might be able to get the client to realize by asking &quot;innocent&quot; sounding questions &quot;Why did you and Bob decide to skip XXX?&quot; &quot;Is there room in the budget for rebuilding XYZ because we went did ABC?&quot; etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can get this over quickly, you might suck it up and do that.  But if this is a long term project, I think I would keep going to Bob with project stalling questions that he can't answer.  He wanted to be in charge and the client agreed to that - let them rue the day.  I would force him to make every decision and I would not *give* him a free web development education in the process.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you believe Bob's decisions are putting the project in jeopardy you might say something to the client (or Bob) like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;I understand I work for Bob on this project, but as a professional, I cannot, in good conscience, proceed per current direction.  You are a very important client to me and your success is crucial.  As a business owner myself, I also have a reputation for competence that I've worked many years to build.  I cannot put my name and reputation behind the current design. eCommerce is very complex.  There are laws and security issues... XYZ could happen...(blah blah blah say something to scare them straight here).  The last thing I want to do is become one more problem to you, but *I am extremely concerned about this and feel an ethical obligation to bring it to your attention.*&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On a side note: &#xD;&#xA;The situation has changed.  You had a direct client and now suddenly you are a sub contractor working for less money for Bob who doesn't know what he's doing.  The message your client is getting is that you were over charging them in the past and you're desperate enough for work to lower your rates and give up your authority.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know the details but I wonder if the fact that you accepted this project as Bob's contractor for less money than you normally charge lowers your value, and the value/importance of the work, in your client's eyes.  You say the money doesn't matter, but I think it does.  Maybe not to you personally, but it may affect how your client perceives you, or reveal how they saw you all along.  Maybe something to think about...  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have learned that yes, it's good to be accommodating, but there is a line.  I would never (now that I'm older and wiser) let a client turn me into a sub contractor for someone less competent than me and pay me less than they always have.  You are where you are on this project but at the very least you can prepare yourself for how to handle things should this type of situation arise in the future, especially with this client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6313" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2289" RevisionGUID="5da7121d-e8ee-478b-a18e-b1457defdeeb" CreationDate="2014-08-19T14:44:21.480" UserId="4540" Comment="I reworded my question to relate only to legalities instead of opinions." Text="I do not have employees, but I may hire independent contractors in the future. I am currently working as a freelancer (duh) but I am contemplating becoming a sole proprietor. It's really cheap, so I figure why not? I want to get my business license one day, but financially, now is not the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what I have researched, the biggest benefit to becoming a sole proprietor is legally doing work under a business name. I know that once you become a licensed business you also get some protection as far as personal property goes - if you're sued as a sole proprietor, individuals can come after your personal belongings, where as a business they can only come after the business' belongings. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I see the benefits of becoming a business, so I'm looking for legal differences between being freelance, a sole proprietor and even a business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6314" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2289" RevisionGUID="5da7121d-e8ee-478b-a18e-b1457defdeeb" CreationDate="2014-08-19T14:44:21.480" UserId="4540" Comment="I reworded my question to relate only to legalities instead of opinions." Text="What legal benefits are there to working as a sole proprietor vs. a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6315" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2289" RevisionGUID="3054679d-ed98-4fef-882a-f5475f72469f" CreationDate="2014-08-19T15:31:46.433" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|business-plan|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6316" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2289" RevisionGUID="3054679d-ed98-4fef-882a-f5475f72469f" CreationDate="2014-08-19T15:31:46.433" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="I do not have employees, but I may hire independent contractors in the future. I am currently working as a freelancer. but I am contemplating becoming a sole proprietor. It's really cheap, so I figure why not? I want to get my business license one day, but financially, now is not the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what I have researched, the biggest benefit to becoming a sole proprietor is legally doing work under a business name. I know that once you become a licensed business you also get some protection as far as personal property goes - if you're sued as a sole proprietor, individuals can come after your personal belongings, where as a business they can only come after the business' belongings. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I see the benefits of becoming a business, so I'm looking for legal differences between being freelance, a sole proprietor and even a business. I am currently located in Washington State, USA." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6317" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2291" RevisionGUID="3ec2c7e7-ec5e-42ad-a570-99710d1f5fcd" CreationDate="2014-08-19T15:49:44.130" UserId="4700" Text="A few years ago I did 2 consecutive summer internships at a company. The company has a core system X which is used for many ‘events’ (I don’t want to give too much away about the companies involved etc). X is a fairly complicated system, which could be implemented in many ways. I have not seen/heard etc how it works exactly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I started my internship we had a piece of software that was a long way from being finished, but had core functionality, and needed to be finished and released to a paying customer. Over the 2 summers I was pretty much the only person working on this software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After I finished my internship I left and have been freelancing since. During my freelancing work I have been developing a lot of web/cloud based software, and recently it struck me that their software would benefit massively from this approach. A chunk of what they have would be salvageable (although probably not a good idea). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would I go about pitching this to them, or even should I both? I know they have 1 developer working on this software full time already. As it is nothing groundbreaking in anyway (“Take your software and make it web based”), so what’s to stop them from just taking the idea and doing it themselves? As well as making it cloud based there are other massive improvements that could be done at the same time, making a cheap(er) and more useful solution to what they currently offer, however I feel I am blocked in doing this on my own as they have a patent on system X and whilst I have not looked at it as I stated earlier and could develop something similar, I feel this is asking for trouble. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6318" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2291" RevisionGUID="3ec2c7e7-ec5e-42ad-a570-99710d1f5fcd" CreationDate="2014-08-19T15:49:44.130" UserId="4700" Text="Approaching a company with an idea" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6319" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2291" RevisionGUID="3ec2c7e7-ec5e-42ad-a570-99710d1f5fcd" CreationDate="2014-08-19T15:49:44.130" UserId="4700" Text="|legal|attracting-clients|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6320" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2292" RevisionGUID="a9bd728d-5f95-4718-bf3d-ca5cd0b2556a" CreationDate="2014-08-19T16:05:55.767" UserId="75" Text="First off, **how marketable is the product**? Is it something that someone else would pay to use? If no one else in the world could use it, don't waste your time if you have other paying customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are in the position to do the cloud work, and do it *well*, then I would suggest meeting with your old manager, and asking the question. Mention that the cloud offers benefits X Y and Z over the traditional model, it can save the company (or their client(s)) a lot of money, etc. The big part to realize though, is money matters. If it's a product for just one client, it's doubtful they would pull any more resources in for it. If it's a product that they want to sell worldwide, then it's worth their time. Make that distinction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, could they just take your idea and run? Absolutely! But it's a risk you'll need to take. If you are paranoid that it could net you thousands of dollars in revenue, then I would do some work on it as a side project, well before introducing it to them. If they haven't thought of it by then, then you'll have the upper hand and be able to sell it first.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, are there any NDA or NCC agreements (Non-Compete Contract) in place, saying you can't contact their customers? This may make it tricky to do on your own. Double check everything first with any contracts you had with this client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, let's say they bring you on, and love the idea! What now?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you took my advice about starting the work as a side project first, you'll have a good framework. Combine that with the work they currently have, and you'll be finished in no time! But, as always, make sure you can complete the project, and that the cloud is the best way to deploy it. If it's highly specialized, it may require additional considerations for it to function, depending on what it is." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6321" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2291" RevisionGUID="b4ebd4f1-efe8-44a0-bc51-da0526f122f6" CreationDate="2014-08-19T16:28:14.123" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/501767604797980672" />
  <row Id="6322" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2293" RevisionGUID="b00b9da4-ead7-4c37-9b78-7ea7cd86577c" CreationDate="2014-08-19T20:46:54.133" UserId="1706" Text="(in yoda voice:)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Skimpy, the details are.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Little software is patentable.  I'd check that fact for myself if I were you.  Smart businesses, with no disrespect to you at all, do not put interns close to that kind of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now.  The other part of my response has to do with your idea of putting things in the cloud.  ***What*** goes into the cloud?  Data?  Application?  Network?  Support?  Telephones?  You're playing for high stakes by walking in with a CEO if all you have is an idea.  Since your idea is *not* patentable, you're going to have to bring a lot more to the table as to why *your* plan should win out over your average frustrated Joe Middle Manager can present to the boss.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you walk into a meeting with no leverage (WHYYYYYYYYYY should they spend any money on you????)  you may as well take all that money you spend driving there, fancy suit, phone calls, and emails, and just burn it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Flipping back, if the product's not truly patentable then you might roll your own product.  But you're still going to have to figure out how to sell it -- a skill many developers, admittedly or not, do NOT have.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6323" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2294" RevisionGUID="670159ee-7b66-45a1-8160-abedf9b13369" CreationDate="2014-08-19T21:37:04.683" UserId="1706" Text="First, let's clean up the language:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every individual conducts BUSINESS.  As with you.  Whether you &quot;own&quot; a business or not, if you work for somebody else, you're in the BUSINESS of transacting between your employer and yourself, Alicia Uhacz (let's pretend that you're Alicia Uhacz, Inc -- it'd be the same!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are several business forms:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Sole proprietorship (every sole proprietorship is &quot;freelance&quot;.  It means the same thing.)&#xD;&#xA; - Partnership&#xD;&#xA; - Association&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Corporation&#xD;&#xA; - LLC&#xD;&#xA; - Trust&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - There are others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With the first three, liability is assigned to the business owner(s).  With the last three, liability is shifted to a legal business entity (the corporation, LLC, or trust).  Such a legal entity can buy and sell property, make contracts, etc. in its own name -- whereas this with the sole proprietorship, everything is done in *your* name.  A corporation, trust, or LLC can outlive its creators.  A partnership is dissolved when any of the partners die.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*ALL* of these require a whirlwind of paperwork to administer.  The corporation allows for the most options and least liability, but it's more paperwork than all the others.  The business forms that leave you most liable also require the least amount of paperwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For ME, an LLC is a happy medium.  I want to limit liability but as a small (for now) business I don't want to drown myself in paperwork to maintain it.  You may feel different -- but do your homework!!!!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6324" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2295" RevisionGUID="546b54f7-1ebb-4812-b934-5c7c1cb465e8" CreationDate="2014-08-20T00:49:01.057" UserId="1706" Text="Here's what you can do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure EVERY meeting and phone call you schedule has both Bob and the client.  Make sure EVERY e-mail you send gets under the client's nose.  Bob is optional, whether he knows it or not.  For best results, it's your task to stealthily get the client to realize that, but you must not *state* it directly.  That preserves Bob's reputation.  Eventually, the client will figure it out.  What the client does with Bob after that is not your concern.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe Bob ends up working for ***you*** if you pull it off correctly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6325" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2285" RevisionGUID="235c9976-e4e5-4c08-a29f-918b89ba3139" CreationDate="2014-08-20T07:29:43.180" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/501994470666436608" />
  <row Id="6326" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2289" RevisionGUID="c320922c-b7c4-4741-b70a-9acdc3aa0559" CreationDate="2014-08-20T10:34:04.993" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/502040867470053376" />
  <row Id="6327" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2288" RevisionGUID="9ca3670e-b574-486b-894f-58d93996268f" CreationDate="2014-08-20T13:05:35.730" UserId="58" Comment="s/liable/libel/" Text="Short answer --- **You can't**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a chain of command.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may not like the chain of command. But it's been established.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been in this position. It is not pleasant. You essentially have 2 options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Deal with it. Do what Bob tells you. Relay questions to Bob. Use what Bob tells you for answers. Do the work solely based on the information Bob has presented you. Express your concerns about the project to Bob and let Bob determine solutions to use, etc. **Keep records**. If things blow up, fail, or need to be redone, cite the records and charge accordingly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Leave the project for whatever reason you want to use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You **never** want to state *anything* negative about *anyone* else if you are a freelancer. Your comments, regardless of how true they may be, could be construed as slander or libel and end you in legal trouble due to any loss of work on the part of Bob. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are *many* positions where a supervisor doesn't understand or know how to complete something. Bob not knowing something is not, in itself, an issue. It's your job to educate and inform Bob of what needs to be done since *you* are the expert who has been hired to complete it. If Bob fails to listen to your requirements or needs, then do what you can and if approached by the company, simply explain you needed X Y and Z and never received X and Z.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realize that if you were an employee you could always go to your boss or above your boss' head to complain about something. But you aren't an employee. Bite your tongue and either do what you're asked to do, how you're asked to do it, or reject the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6328" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2296" RevisionGUID="5e47b656-48c9-406f-9780-a4272c7a048c" CreationDate="2014-08-20T19:42:11.437" UserId="4710" Text="&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have developed a Windows based software in Visual studio C# and MS access.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is asking me the estimated cost of software..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;can anyone help me to calculate it as i have never done it before.. The software is only a standalone windows software having multiple account and other features. the database have around 1500 rows and around 25 columns.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It took me around 18-20 days to complete with around 80 hrs of coding and developing.. Is there any formula to calculate this or is this only our own price?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please help me asap&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6329" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2296" RevisionGUID="5e47b656-48c9-406f-9780-a4272c7a048c" CreationDate="2014-08-20T19:42:11.437" UserId="4710" Text="How can i calculate the estimation cost of my developed software?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6330" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2296" RevisionGUID="5e47b656-48c9-406f-9780-a4272c7a048c" CreationDate="2014-08-20T19:42:11.437" UserId="4710" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6335" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2296" RevisionGUID="376aaec0-64b8-4883-8c34-b4287a18770f" CreationDate="2014-08-21T05:04:02.773" UserId="64" Comment="copy edited" Text="I have developed a Windows based application in Visual studio C# and MS access.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is asking me the estimated cost of software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I calculate it, as I have never done it before? The software is only a standalone windows application having multiple accounts and other features. The database have around 1500 rows and around 25 columns.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It took me around 18-20 days to complete with around 80 hours of coding and developing. Is there any formula to calculate this or is this only our own price?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6336" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2296" RevisionGUID="376aaec0-64b8-4883-8c34-b4287a18770f" CreationDate="2014-08-21T05:04:02.773" UserId="64" Comment="copy edited" Text="How can I calculate the estimation cost of my developed software?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6337" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2296" RevisionGUID="376aaec0-64b8-4883-8c34-b4287a18770f" CreationDate="2014-08-21T05:04:02.773" UserId="64" Comment="copy edited" Text="|contracts|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6338" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2298" RevisionGUID="9728c31d-b03c-4f6b-b68d-11cbbcecb85d" CreationDate="2014-08-21T05:50:22.280" UserId="517" Text="The first approach would be to search for topics here that deal with selling software. There are not so many of them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Summed up, here it is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are you selling a licence, your coding service or full app with all code and resources?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Licence.&#xD;&#xA;You have to see the price of similar software and then set your accordingly. Or you can ask yourself &quot;if I want to return invested money/time in 100 licences, the price is...&quot;. Then see if the price is too high/low and fix it accordingly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Service.&#xD;&#xA;You have been hired to do the coding. Calculate your hourly rate and multiply it with 80 work hours you spent on the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Selling all code.&#xD;&#xA;This is the hardest thing and there are multiple topics covering this. Basically, you have to calculate all costs involved creating the software then multiply it with *something*. This &quot;something&quot; can be either time in which the buyer will return money or some other formula. There are many of them on the net. The time in which the buyer will return invested money is time needed to sell so many copies of software to return money the buyer spent buying the software. If this time is 1 year, for example, then try to estimate how many copies he can sell in 1 year, then multiply it with the price of 1 licence + add your developing costs - the price you get will be close to the real price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly. &#xD;&#xA;Since this is the market, there may not be real formula to calculate the price of software. Many will tell you to get as much as you can, regardless of all formulas results. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6344" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2300" RevisionGUID="5342efd9-4f41-4c66-b387-7e29320c082e" CreationDate="2014-08-21T12:58:07.573" UserId="4713" Text="I read this post which would answer part of my question:&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2022/how-to-setup-client-ownership-of-domain-name-and-hosting&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I mostly work for organizations having at least one or two ITs of their own. Often their own servers. But what of the following case:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Client is a very small business/non-profit organisation or a standalone person&#xD;&#xA; 2. Client is non technical&#xD;&#xA; 3. Client has or course no server of its own &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this case, if you use a Panel created Drupal/Wordpress/... site, it will be fully managed after server downtime or hardware failure. It will just restart and work. Backups are taken care of.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But what is lets say you'd rather use django or the play framework ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I'll need console access, with sufficient privileges to set it up. &#xD;&#xA; 2. I'll need to take care of inittab setup so app restarts in case of trouble, so I need to be root.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Questions:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Will it be enough to &quot;get rid of the client&quot; ? Are you in this case condemned to use a major panel created CMS ? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does someone has experience delivering a play or django app to a non-technical client without further support ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6345" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2300" RevisionGUID="5342efd9-4f41-4c66-b387-7e29320c082e" CreationDate="2014-08-21T12:58:07.573" UserId="4713" Text="django and play apps for non-technical clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6346" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2300" RevisionGUID="5342efd9-4f41-4c66-b387-7e29320c082e" CreationDate="2014-08-21T12:58:07.573" UserId="4713" Text="|freelance-websites|nonprofit|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6347" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2300" RevisionGUID="fe12fd2d-f956-4d77-a1a1-a105d1fab994" CreationDate="2014-08-21T13:30:15.693" UserId="4713" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="I read this post which would answer part of my question:&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2022/how-to-setup-client-ownership-of-domain-name-and-hosting&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I mostly work for organizations having at least one or two ITs of their own. Often their own servers. But what of the following case:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Client is a very small business/non-profit organisation or a standalone person&#xD;&#xA; 2. Client is non technical&#xD;&#xA; 3. Client has of course no server of its own &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this case, if you use a Panel created Drupal/Wordpress/... site, it will be fully managed after server downtime or hardware failure. It will just restart and work. Backups are taken care of.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But what if, lets say, you'd rather use django or the play framework ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I'll need console access, with sufficient privileges to set it up. &#xD;&#xA; 2. I'll need to take care of inittab setup so app restarts in case of trouble, so I need to be root.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Questions:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Will it be enough to &quot;get rid of the client&quot; ? Are you in this case condemned to use a major panel created CMS ? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does someone has experience delivering a play or django app to a non-technical client without further support ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6352" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2302" RevisionGUID="e9e2c991-b5ae-472c-b214-bb56ed334c12" CreationDate="2014-08-21T18:00:18.877" UserId="4550" Text="This is the first time working as writer.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just sent him written article, he checked it and said &quot;good&quot; but he want expression of a word &quot;Hydroponic supplies&quot; in article.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;**What does he mean by expression in article?**&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Is he taking about writing &quot;hydroponic supplies&quot; word in article, if not than what doens he mean by expression.&lt;/em&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6353" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2302" RevisionGUID="e9e2c991-b5ae-472c-b214-bb56ed334c12" CreationDate="2014-08-21T18:00:18.877" UserId="4550" Text="Client needs expression in article" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6354" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2302" RevisionGUID="e9e2c991-b5ae-472c-b214-bb56ed334c12" CreationDate="2014-08-21T18:00:18.877" UserId="4550" Text="|project|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6355" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2302" RevisionGUID="b2abe5b9-87b6-490d-ace4-c72e7002c321" CreationDate="2014-08-21T18:32:07.563" UserId="4550" Comment="added 144 characters in body" Text="This is the first time working as writer.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just sent him written article, he checked it and said &quot;good&quot; but he want expression of a word &quot;Hydroponic supplies&quot; in article.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;**What does he mean by expression in article?**&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&lt;em&gt;massage from client:&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;It is good, but I need the expression : &quot;Hydroponic supplies&quot; to appear 5 time at least! &lt;/strong&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Is he taking about writing &quot;hydroponic supplies&quot; word in article, if not than what doens he mean by expression.&lt;/em&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6356" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2296" RevisionGUID="b20c9dd6-d2bc-4179-9d4f-0bacec04bb90" CreationDate="2014-08-21T19:35:38.670" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/502539543678296065" />
  <row Id="6357" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2303" RevisionGUID="3c876100-b3fc-4b73-903c-0b9004d15198" CreationDate="2014-08-21T23:22:16.247" UserId="4561" Text="Yes, &quot;hydroponic supplies&quot; is the *expression*.  He wants that string of text to appear at least 5 times in the article.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My guess is that this article is for web content and he wants search engines to find this article when people search for &quot;hydroponic supplies.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, as they use to say to us in English class when we learned new words  - use it in a sentence.  (In this case, at least five times.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6358" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2194" RevisionGUID="34bf170e-09d1-4806-9fc8-28021c95feea" CreationDate="2014-08-22T01:41:50.803" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/502631700766392323" />
  <row Id="6359" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2199" RevisionGUID="22a2139d-e532-4719-87c8-9f43c5adc47d" CreationDate="2014-08-22T10:41:50.630" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/502767596299902976" />
  <row Id="6360" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2304" RevisionGUID="1827e516-aedc-463e-bb22-bd04557b9363" CreationDate="2014-08-22T13:43:03.267" UserId="4724" Text="I have been working a person X which always had some interesting projects with well known companies or known people (outside of IT world), but I've been always working as a subcontractor, meaning that probably the person or company that hired him didn't know he was being aid not only by me (some knew). The point is, if I don't include this projects my  work experience would be probably null, since this is one the first person I've worked for on serious projects. Is this professional, to include work that you worked on as a subcontrator (I work for this person almost full time almost everyday on working hours, even though I still consider it as a freelance, since we don't even have written contract or If I got stuff to do I just let him know) or should I ask him first?." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6361" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2304" RevisionGUID="1827e516-aedc-463e-bb22-bd04557b9363" CreationDate="2014-08-22T13:43:03.267" UserId="4724" Text="Is it ok to include reference of work performed as a subcontractor?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6362" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2304" RevisionGUID="1827e516-aedc-463e-bb22-bd04557b9363" CreationDate="2014-08-22T13:43:03.267" UserId="4724" Text="|contracts|subcontracting|resume|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6363" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2302" RevisionGUID="209e5a60-706a-4e18-890c-496a961667cd" CreationDate="2014-08-22T13:54:58.937" UserId="9" Comment="Markdown formatting, grammar/clarity, removed some formatting" Text="This is my first time working as a writer. I've sent my client a written article. He checked it and sent the following message:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;__Client:__  &#xD;&#xA;It is good, but I need the expression : &quot;Hydroponic supplies&quot; to appear 5 time at least! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What does he mean by &quot;expression&quot;? Is he talking about writing the specific words &quot;hydroponic supplies&quot; in the article? If not, what does he mean by it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6364" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2302" RevisionGUID="209e5a60-706a-4e18-890c-496a961667cd" CreationDate="2014-08-22T13:54:58.937" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 4550 edit id of 342" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6365" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2304" RevisionGUID="592dc5f7-c916-4b53-ac58-03b3c25944aa" CreationDate="2014-08-22T15:19:55.717" UserId="9" Comment="Split into paragraphs, used example name, rearranged for clarity" Text="I've been working with Bob (name changed) as a subcontractor. He's always had some interesting projects with well-known companies and well-known people. However, since I had been working as a subcontractor, many of those companies and people might not know that he had been aided by other people. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To get to the heart of the issue, if I don't include these projects, my work experience would be very light, since he is one of the first people I've worked for on serious projects. I've worked for Bob almost full-time, almost every day, and during working hours. I still consider it as a freelance gig, since we don't have a written contract between us, and if I have other work to do, I just inform him of the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it professional to include subcontractor work, or should I ask for Bob's permission first?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6366" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2304" RevisionGUID="592dc5f7-c916-4b53-ac58-03b3c25944aa" CreationDate="2014-08-22T15:19:55.717" UserId="9" Comment="Split into paragraphs, used example name, rearranged for clarity" Text="Is it OK to refer to work performed as a subcontractor?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6367" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2304" RevisionGUID="592dc5f7-c916-4b53-ac58-03b3c25944aa" CreationDate="2014-08-22T15:19:55.717" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 4724 edit id of 343" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6368" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2305" RevisionGUID="543d05a4-5102-4f59-b007-ba7cc1d86259" CreationDate="2014-08-22T16:48:45.963" UserId="4675" Text="Unless you have a non-disclosure agreement, I do not think you need to worry about any legal repercussions from disclosing your work with Bob. If Bob is giving his clients the impression he is doing all of the work himself, then it is his problem to deal with. If he hasn't asked you to sign a NDA, then it is likely he is not doing that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that being said, as a matter of professional courtesy you could consider asking Bob if it is OK. Of course, if he says no then you risk burning a bridge by disclosing the work. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6369" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2146" RevisionGUID="9adee5b1-96d9-4db9-b12f-bdef05f07c2c" CreationDate="2014-08-23T01:43:49.817" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/502994588580478976" />
  <row Id="6370" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2306" RevisionGUID="5f742d36-4b51-499f-bf69-3c1da23a8f25" CreationDate="2014-08-23T04:18:40.990" UserId="4728" Text="I had made an app for an employer and he just paid half the money and put the app on the Play Store. When I asked about the rest of the money he started abusing me and didn't pay. So I complained to Google and got the app removed and his account blocked. No he is abusing me and saying he is going to complain to police and stuff. What should I do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6371" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2306" RevisionGUID="5f742d36-4b51-499f-bf69-3c1da23a8f25" CreationDate="2014-08-23T04:18:40.990" UserId="4728" Text="Freelancer : Employer trouble" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6372" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2306" RevisionGUID="5f742d36-4b51-499f-bf69-3c1da23a8f25" CreationDate="2014-08-23T04:18:40.990" UserId="4728" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6373" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2306" RevisionGUID="78178d23-3046-4bac-a192-8c61f3df20d4" CreationDate="2014-08-23T09:03:00.373" UserId="4728" Comment="deleted 23 characters in body" Text="I had made an app for an employer and he just paid half the money and put the app on the Play Store. When I asked about the rest of the money he started abusing me and didn't pay. So I complained to Google and got the app removed. Now he is abusing me and saying he is going to complain to police and stuff. What should I do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6374" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2147" RevisionGUID="f5859436-19b9-4c24-a9b7-3af0e5fbaf4a" CreationDate="2014-08-23T13:43:49.893" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/503175782890749952" />
  <row Id="6376" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2308" RevisionGUID="d7ffc797-8192-42f6-aa29-fefb2ee1962e" CreationDate="2014-08-24T10:25:12.870" UserId="517" Text="Are you his regular employee paid monthly or he hired you to code him this app?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are full-time employee, then you had no right to remove the app. You should have filed a complain to the court asking your earned money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I guess, he hired you via some online service to make him an app. True? In such case, you did the right thing. He can complain, he can threat, but he cannot do anything. Yes, he can leave you a bad review, but even the bad review can be voided at odesk or elance if you prove that he did it in a way to hurt your business, and so on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would sit tight and explain to him that you had full right to do that since he did not pay you. Be calm. Tell him that if he pays the rest of the money, you will reupload the app and send him the source code. Keep in mind that your aim is to get your money, not to get revenge with the bad client. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6377" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2309" RevisionGUID="7af0377d-88cd-4e60-bf27-7e93b89a8d8c" CreationDate="2014-08-24T10:54:53.433" UserId="4737" Text="I created one year ago a limited company. At this time, I chose to use my personal address as my &quot;Registered Address&quot;. Now I am thinking of changing flat, so I have to change this address and I am wondering what are the best choices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was looking on internet a little and I see the concept of virtual office : &#xD;&#xA;on sites like :&#xD;&#xA;https://www.rapidformations.co.uk/additional-services/london-registered-office/&#xD;&#xA;or&#xD;&#xA;http://yourvirtualofficelondon.co.uk/registered-office-address-london/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to cost around 50£/year, witch seems reasonable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it a good choice? Is there other choices?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6378" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2309" RevisionGUID="7af0377d-88cd-4e60-bf27-7e93b89a8d8c" CreationDate="2014-08-24T10:54:53.433" UserId="4737" Text="Choosing Uk registered address for a limited company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6379" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2309" RevisionGUID="7af0377d-88cd-4e60-bf27-7e93b89a8d8c" CreationDate="2014-08-24T10:54:53.433" UserId="4737" Text="|uk|registration|virtual-office|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6380" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2309" RevisionGUID="c6db8cde-4186-424e-b40f-a4de78428950" CreationDate="2014-08-24T11:28:30.410" UserId="4737" Comment="improved formating" Text="I created one year ago a limited company. At this time, I chose to use my personal address as my &quot;Registered Address&quot;. Now I am thinking of changing flat, so I have to change this address and I am wondering what are the best choices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was looking on internet a little and I see the concept of virtual office on sites like :&#xD;&#xA;https://www.rapidformations.co.uk/additional-services/london-registered-office/&#xD;&#xA;or&#xD;&#xA;http://yourvirtualofficelondon.co.uk/registered-office-address-london/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to cost around 50£/year, witch seems reasonable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it a good choice? Is there other choices?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6381" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2310" RevisionGUID="de58c573-604b-4a82-86e9-1efd6c13224f" CreationDate="2014-08-24T18:58:07.187" UserId="4738" Text="Since your question is about how to calculate cost not time, I have my own simple method on estimating the cost of a project.&#xA;&#xA;First of all you must set a monthly revenu target amount. Let's say that you want to be paid 2000$ per month from all your freelance tasks.&#xA;&#xA;The cost should be like this: &#xA;&#xA;1- Estimate the time you need to complete the project.&#xA;&#xA;2- Then multiply the 2000$ by the time you have calculated.&#xA;&#xA;Let's say that you need two weeks to complete the project, then the cost will be : 2000$ × 0.5 = 1000$&#xA;&#xA;If two months, the cost will be: 2000$ × 2 = 4000$&#xA;&#xA;The important thing in this method is how are you valuing yourself and of course your time. It depends on alot of things: Your Skills, Your Expertise,  Your country's economy ... etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6383" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2306" RevisionGUID="5c8e18cf-e80f-4625-a2f3-6ea7c00a555e" CreationDate="2014-08-25T07:37:21.503" UserId="64" Comment="clarified the question based on the comments; added tags" Text="I had made an app for an employer on Freelancer. He just paid half the money and put the app on the Play Store. When I asked about the rest of the money, he started abusing me and didn't pay. So I complained to Google and got the app removed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now he is abusing me and saying he is going to complain to police and stuff. Should I not have taken the app down? Should I put it back up? What should I say to the client in response to his threat to involve police?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6384" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2306" RevisionGUID="5c8e18cf-e80f-4625-a2f3-6ea7c00a555e" CreationDate="2014-08-25T07:37:21.503" UserId="64" Comment="clarified the question based on the comments; added tags" Text="What should I do about a Freelancer client threatening to call the police for me taking down an app?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6385" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2306" RevisionGUID="5c8e18cf-e80f-4625-a2f3-6ea7c00a555e" CreationDate="2014-08-25T07:37:21.503" UserId="64" Comment="clarified the question based on the comments; added tags" Text="|freelance-websites|difficult-client|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6386" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2306" RevisionGUID="a72cbf8f-8bd4-4512-9775-398f238f362f" CreationDate="2014-08-25T07:43:05.043" UserId="517" Comment="added 4 characters in body; edited title" Text="I had made an app for an employer on Freelancer. He just paid half the money and put the app on the Play Store. When I asked about the rest of the money, he started abusing me and didn't pay. So I complained to Google and got the app removed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now he is abusing me and saying he is going to complain to police and stuff. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I not have taken the app down? Should I put it back up? What should I say to the client in response to his threat to involve police?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6387" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2306" RevisionGUID="a72cbf8f-8bd4-4512-9775-398f238f362f" CreationDate="2014-08-25T07:43:05.043" UserId="517" Comment="added 4 characters in body; edited title" Text="What should I do about a client threatening to call the police for me taking down an app?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6392" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2313" RevisionGUID="fc8924c5-eb4f-4aa9-8816-b8d12fbf4714" CreationDate="2014-08-25T17:19:01.233" UserId="1706" Text="I can't vouch for what takes place in other countries, but if your client did that here in the US, the police would probably laugh at him (after getting off the phone).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Under US law, this would be purely a civil matter, whether between an employee and employer, or contractor and client.  The esteemed Mr. Peter MV's answer is spot-on.  If you're not getting paid, then you have the right to do just as you did.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But what I'd like to add is that  in many situations such as yours, it's pretty far-gone with the contractor-client relationship when you have to resort to such tactics.  You may get your money -- you just might.  But don't be expecting to do more work with this client.  Peter didn't really explain it in depth, and that's okay -- when Peter mentions giving up the source code as well, I'm sure (correct me if I am wrong) he is suggesting that you get yourself far, far away from this client and that you don't look back.  Don't agree to do maintenance, perform subsequent uploads, changes or anything.  You are working with a bloodsucker and such a client will drain you of your morale, energy, time, and money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead, figure out what you did wrong.  Here's are some things to consider:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Always have a written contract (you haven't mentioned one) with a specific statement of work (SOW)&#xD;&#xA; - Your contract should specify deliverables&#xD;&#xA; - Be extremely careful of giving any work product to a new client if you're not sure how well the client pays his/her bills.  In your case, I wouldn't have uploaded anything to an app store without making the client pay for the product you've developed.  &#xD;&#xA; - Often the client will try to induce you to believe that it's a better deal for you to wait until income starts flowing from the product, but if you think about it, when the product's ready for that stage you've already done your work, so how does it benefit you to wait further??? It DOESN'T.  Don't fall for this.  The client-contractor relationship becomes muddy with these kinds of deals because you change into a de facto *business partner*, and assume more risk that way, and are less likely to be paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These things apply no matter where you are.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, come back to this site and post whenever you can.  Make an effort to contribute, and you'll learn a lot in the process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best regards." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6393" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2314" RevisionGUID="456a85fe-5ff8-406a-9d6e-50fb084f4c58" CreationDate="2014-08-25T17:23:16.960" UserId="1706" Text="It's perfectly fine to mention Bob as your current or former client.  But on paper or while in discussion, be careful about mentioning the finer details of Bob's **business**.  You can talk about off-the-shelf technologies that you used to solve a problem while you were working for him because methods of using development tools are no big secret and such information is openly available." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6394" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2315" RevisionGUID="bf1263fc-1b81-4821-b85c-d250dce967a4" CreationDate="2014-08-25T17:26:16.600" UserId="1706" Text="Friend, we have a great tool that people in businesses of all types use.  It's called the dictionary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/expression&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;ex·pres·sion noun \ik-ˈspre-shən\&#xD;&#xA;: the act of making your thoughts, feelings, etc., known by speech, writing, or some other method : the act of expressing something&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;: a word or phrase&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;: the way someone's face looks that shows emotions and feelings" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6395" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2316" RevisionGUID="5d6eafe1-97b8-4ee5-ba37-51a8fc2b9986" CreationDate="2014-08-25T17:41:59.417" UserId="1706" Text="If you're trying to set this thing up without having to do further support, then you need to skip the VPS route entirely and find a service provider that directly supports the CMS you're going to use.  Specifically, a provider that allows you to provide only your email and a payment, and POOF, there's a blank version of the CMS for you to modify.  You specified that you'd need root access, but sometimes you can work with an online file manager instead.  The online file manager is a better option for handing-off the work product to the client because you'll burn a lot of time trying to train your client how to use it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure the CMS that you choose is well documented, even if it's not the &quot;best&quot; one in your opinion.  As a matter of fact, you can have a copy of the manual printed and bound and SEND IT to the client.  This way, when the client calls asking stupid questions, you can respond with some nice version of &quot;RTFM&quot;!!! (I'll let you Google this term.  It is powerful.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How you hand-off your work is just as important as the work itself.  I'm seeing that you feel you need closure with this client, and to accomplish that, you need to specifically make an appointment with the client to discuss what you will do after finishing the work and what you won't.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm even sensing that maybe you've been burned before by clients who keep coming back forever and ask for little changes without offering to pay for them, and maybe it's put you in a bad situation.  You can defeat this by writing better contracts.  In order to write better contracts, you need to READ a lot of contracts to see what can be done and what cannot.  You may say, while reading this, &quot;But I'm not an attorney.  And reading a bunch of contracts doesn't earn me any money.&quot;  The first part is true -- you're not an attorney.  But the second part is vital for conducting business, no matter what kind of work you do.  The more you know about ***possibilities***, the better you can adapt.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best regards!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S. Little details such as described above always need to be ***written***.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6404" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="2304" RevisionGUID="0d218738-f4c6-4795-af6a-a4ec8bf84f41" CreationDate="2014-08-26T16:09:26.753" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6405" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2316" RevisionGUID="a2a2d0ce-682d-4395-ad1c-4a167416c160" CreationDate="2014-08-26T23:19:28.853" UserId="1706" Comment="added 14 characters in body" Text="If you're trying to set this thing up without having to do further support, then you need to skip the VPS route entirely and find a service provider that directly supports the CMS you're going to use.  Specifically, a provider that allows you to provide only your email and a payment, and POOF, there's a blank version of the CMS for you to modify.  You specified that you'd need root access, but sometimes you can work with an online file manager instead.  The online file manager is a better option for handing-off the work product to the client because you'll burn a lot of time trying to train your client how to use the command line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure the CMS that you choose is well documented, even if it's not the &quot;best&quot; one in your opinion.  As a matter of fact, you can have a copy of the manual printed and bound and SEND IT to the client.  This way, when the client calls asking stupid questions, you can respond with some nice version of &quot;RTFM&quot;!!! (I'll let you Google this term.  It is powerful.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How you hand-off your work is just as important as the work itself.  I'm seeing that you feel you need closure with this client, and to accomplish that, you need to specifically make an appointment with the client to discuss what you will do after finishing the work and what you won't.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm even sensing that maybe you've been burned before by clients who keep coming back forever and ask for little changes without offering to pay for them, and maybe it's put you in a bad situation.  You can defeat this by writing better contracts.  In order to write better contracts, you need to READ a lot of contracts to see what can be done and what cannot.  You may say, while reading this, &quot;But I'm not an attorney.  And reading a bunch of contracts doesn't earn me any money.&quot;  The first part is true -- you're not an attorney.  But the second part is vital for conducting business, no matter what kind of work you do.  The more you know about ***possibilities***, the better you can adapt.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best regards!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S. Little details such as described above always need to be ***written***.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6407" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2300" RevisionGUID="1bcc1833-95ce-4b43-86c5-92104a073683" CreationDate="2014-08-27T06:24:15.017" UserId="64" Comment="103" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6408" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2302" RevisionGUID="9df2f40b-a070-4689-af30-559d3e36e309" CreationDate="2014-08-27T06:28:20.527" UserId="64" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6415" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2306" RevisionGUID="c48d643a-89f1-4b4e-a1ae-ad7ae9a2a779" CreationDate="2014-08-28T02:13:23.417" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/504813966951202816" />
  <row Id="6420" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2320" RevisionGUID="2a59b98a-ccd4-458c-bff5-a179fda1aca1" CreationDate="2014-08-28T15:34:43.853" UserId="4776" Text="A virtual office can be useful but decide what you need it to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are some very cheap solutions out there (as previously linked) and that's fine if you just want to avoid having to change business stationery and want very little else (i.e an accommodation address).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The people I use run a real business centre too. The beauty of having a virtual office with someone like this [Liscard Business Centre Virtual Office](http://www.liscardbusinesscentre.com/virtual-offices) is that if someone Google's you, you appear as being a business that has decent premises and get taken more seriously than if Streetview just shows residential buildings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They also do mail handling &amp; call handling so it's an easy way to portray yourself in a much more professional light - and saves all the hassle of changing paperwork whenever you move. Works for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edited to add: I see the OP is in London so my recommendation may not work for him but of course London is full of similar business centres, as in all things I'd advise &quot;Buy Cheap, Buy Twice&quot; - don't go too cheap, it's false economy!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6424" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2236" RevisionGUID="c13dc2e1-6299-4b55-925d-c36f3afaed5a" CreationDate="2014-08-28T23:16:25.703" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/505131820883927041" />
  <row Id="6425" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1803" RevisionGUID="7d1eee1a-dc50-4d80-bbbb-927017e7d494" CreationDate="2014-08-29T00:16:01.493" UserId="39" Comment="Turning footnotes into links." Text="Perhaps this is just semantics, but it sounds to me like you're invoicing for a retainer, and then you're invoicing for your service.  For me in this context, client receivable tracking is more important than crowding it into one invoice; I'd just have two invoices, track payments to each, and issue a credit on the second invoice.  If I were to do it the way you're proposing anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a [Freshbooks][1] user myself, but if I did things over again, I'd want to give [Wave][2] a try.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The minutiae of billing twice for the same invoice is lost on me, but I've done things like this with my Freshbooks invoicing; I've sent an invoice, collected a payment, and for client billing simplicity, I've modified that invoice to show additional work, then they paid me for it, and I marked it paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I imagine that you can perform these tasks using any of the popular internet invoice/accounting software packages in some way if you're a tiny bit adaptable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.freshbooks.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.waveapps.com/invoicing/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6426" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1803" RevisionGUID="7d1eee1a-dc50-4d80-bbbb-927017e7d494" CreationDate="2014-08-29T00:16:01.493" Comment="Proposed by 39 approved by 517, 1706 edit id of 344" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6428" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2145" RevisionGUID="d50d0890-3837-4e21-9aee-da865bc518cf" CreationDate="2014-08-29T05:19:25.460" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/505223171822596096" />
  <row Id="6429" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2321" RevisionGUID="4ca2ff82-357e-4c65-899d-850d0911c46d" CreationDate="2014-08-29T10:11:01.377" UserId="2973" Text="I'll just provide a bit of a background:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm quite a solid front-end developer (html/css/less/sass/gruntjs) with quite a solid hourly rate. Everything seems to be fine except one thing:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;About 4 months ago I discovered that I have to skip 9 out of 10 jobs for Front End developers, because I do not now a single thing of Javascript/jQuery.&#xD;&#xA;I'm not talking about advanced frameworks like Angular/Ember/Knockout/Backbone etc. Just a plain JS and jQ API.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I started learning it about 4 months ago. Watched a lot of some kind of &quot;theory&quot; lectures. Learned the basic syntax, methods, API, browser's API (a bit). The same is with jQuery. I know how to do very basic things and DOM manipulation and all that. Can write/edit small scripts. But it doesn't seem to be enough. At least for me to take money for that. It looks like I have to learn using client's funds.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**And the question is**. Where's this boundary, when I can already include the JS-stuff in my skill-list and apply for the jobs that include some JS/jQ enchanhements. How to know, whether I'm capable and take money from the client for that tasks?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm just stuck now and don't know what to do.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6430" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2321" RevisionGUID="4ca2ff82-357e-4c65-899d-850d0911c46d" CreationDate="2014-08-29T10:11:01.377" UserId="2973" Text="How to diagnose whether you are competent of JSing and all that" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6431" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2321" RevisionGUID="4ca2ff82-357e-4c65-899d-850d0911c46d" CreationDate="2014-08-29T10:11:01.377" UserId="2973" Text="|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6432" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2322" RevisionGUID="c675e764-a14e-466c-869f-0c65bbc73aa3" CreationDate="2014-08-29T15:39:20.927" UserId="127" Text="The question really boils down to: when can I consider myself &quot;competent&quot; enough in a skill that I can take money for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And the answer is really simple: You can take money for it when someone is willing to pay you for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Especially with something like programming, you will never know everything. And things are changing very, very fast. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So instead of worrying about whether you know enough, instead focus on finding projects that will allow you to use this new skill in a more limited fashion, and build on that experience as you go.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even very experienced programmers learn new things with every project. So long as you aren't taking on gigantic projects that are nothing but javascript, you will be fine. And obviously, don't portray your experience to prospective clients dishonestly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6433" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2320" RevisionGUID="68e29d9b-7b80-447e-b3aa-35c97471c543" CreationDate="2014-08-29T19:38:28.027" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 104 characters in body" Text="A virtual office can be useful but decide what you need it to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are some very cheap solutions out there (as previously linked) and that's fine if you just want to avoid having to change business stationery and want very little else (i.e an accommodation address).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The people I use run a real business centre too. The beauty of having a virtual office with someone  is that if someone Google's you, you appear as being a business that has decent premises and get taken more seriously than if Streetview just shows residential buildings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They also do mail handling &amp; call handling so it's an easy way to portray yourself in a much more professional light - and saves all the hassle of changing paperwork whenever you move. Works for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edited to add: I see the OP is in London so my recommendation may not work for him but of course London is full of similar business centres, as in all things I'd advise &quot;Buy Cheap, Buy Twice&quot; - don't go too cheap, it's false economy!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6438" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2324" RevisionGUID="682afbf6-d2be-452b-9b0b-5d43a201adca" CreationDate="2014-08-30T10:24:30.287" UserDisplayName="user4429" Text="I know about bidding website where companies &amp; freelancers place their bid to get work from domestic or international client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It might you had face a problems of regarding project dispute because of some issue while discussion initially when project begins.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Same something like if happens client say to complete a set of features A, B, C, D &amp; later once all this has done if client say to complete other sub tasks of A, B etc in same cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do we should take extra cost for this ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If suppose client at that time try to threat developer for project dispute then How to handle this situation ? Should We have to give complete payment whatever we get or any other concept for this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6439" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2324" RevisionGUID="682afbf6-d2be-452b-9b0b-5d43a201adca" CreationDate="2014-08-30T10:24:30.287" UserDisplayName="user4429" Text="How to handle situtation when client try to threat developer for project dispute" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6440" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2324" RevisionGUID="682afbf6-d2be-452b-9b0b-5d43a201adca" CreationDate="2014-08-30T10:24:30.287" UserDisplayName="user4429" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6441" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2325" RevisionGUID="8c192d99-dee7-45a1-b984-7ea9201f70e4" CreationDate="2014-08-30T10:35:16.090" UserDisplayName="user4429" Text="I am working on one client project in which I give support of product like bug fixing &amp; updates etc. I am working on hour based job in which client finalized to work 10 hours in a week for next 2 years. It is ok once I have completed 10 hours work then client release funds.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But Suppose in a month, one week client I don't have a task to work on bugs or new updates so should I take a payments of initial finalized 10 hours work or not." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6442" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2325" RevisionGUID="8c192d99-dee7-45a1-b984-7ea9201f70e4" CreationDate="2014-08-30T10:35:16.090" UserDisplayName="user4429" Text="How request for payment process work on elance in hourly based job" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6443" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2325" RevisionGUID="8c192d99-dee7-45a1-b984-7ea9201f70e4" CreationDate="2014-08-30T10:35:16.090" UserDisplayName="user4429" Text="|freelance-websites|hourly|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6444" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2325" RevisionGUID="c8b7b5ae-48f9-4456-808c-05cca4081fe0" CreationDate="2014-08-30T10:44:35.707" UserDisplayName="user4429" Comment="added 86 characters in body" Text="Suppose If anyone working on one client project in which he gives support of product like bug fixing &amp; updates etc. He is working on hour based job in which client finalized to work 10 hours in a week for next 2 years. It is ok once he has completed 4 hours work then client release funds.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But Suppose in a month, one week client he hasn't work  work on bugs or new updates because client didn't have any updates &amp; project was working fine no bugs so should he takes a payments of initial finalized 4 hours work or not ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6445" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2171" RevisionGUID="abb5845e-f33d-48c3-9097-246827afb43a" CreationDate="2014-08-30T17:22:05.133" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/505767423342284800" />
  <row Id="6446" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2326" RevisionGUID="5980d991-2da5-4af8-b40b-5cc48e863d48" CreationDate="2014-08-31T11:15:25.897" UserId="517" Text="Do you have project specifications? If yes, then your bid is valid only for the things inside the specs. All that is not in the docs is considered an extra. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you however don't project specs, then client can ask many subtasks which are close to your oral Scope of Work. You will have hard time getting more money for such tasks. you can only get money for features which are clearly different from the initial oral agreement. So, do ask clients to send you project specs to avoid such situation. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6448" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2328" RevisionGUID="a6b2cae3-0727-4272-903f-67093fbc96ab" CreationDate="2014-08-31T18:38:34.363" UserId="4794" Text="I've been freelancing for quite a few years and I'd say this is an expected problem. Not that I wish it to happen but I won't be surprised if it does. That why it is very important to define the scope *as clear as possible* in the agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But by the time this problem arises it's usually to late. So I ask myself: are subtasks A, B, and C **expected** from a **reasonable person's view**?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without getting into how a *reasonable man* is constructed in court cases, think of this example: if I order a burger with soda, is it reasonable for the restaurant to charge me $1 for the paper cup, $0.5 for the wrappers of the burger? Are customers *expected* to bring their own cups? If the answer is yes (everybody in this town brings their own cup), then the charge is reasonable and you cannot argue with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A more realistic example: if a client asks for a login page, then it make sense that there should be some mechanism for users to signup. If the developer's answer is &quot;you only asked for a login page, you have to manually write SQLs to signup users&quot; then I'd say this is unacceptable. But if the client says &quot;users should be verified by sending SMS to their phones&quot;, then I'd say &quot;no, this is an extra feature and the cost is $x&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6449" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2324" RevisionGUID="abfd9917-2037-49b9-92ef-611a00cc33bb" CreationDate="2014-09-01T02:42:18.510" UserId="64" Comment="edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6450" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2324" RevisionGUID="88e7c506-4115-4a45-a51e-9a1eed61f6a5" CreationDate="2014-09-01T02:55:00.683" UserId="64" Comment="copy edits" Text="I know about bidding websites where companies and freelancers place their bids to get work from domestic or international clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Suppose my client says to complete a set of features, like A, B, C, D and then later once all this has done, the client says to complete some other sub tasks of A, B etc, but for the same price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I eat the cost for this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Suppose the client at that time also tries to threaten the developer for a project dispute. How would I handle this situation? Should I only accept complete payment, or just settle for whatever I can get?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6451" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2324" RevisionGUID="88e7c506-4115-4a45-a51e-9a1eed61f6a5" CreationDate="2014-09-01T02:55:00.683" UserId="64" Comment="copy edits" Text="How to handle a situation when client tries to threaten a developer for a project dispute?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6452" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2328" RevisionGUID="25338710-c39e-4488-860a-cbec76a1eb9d" CreationDate="2014-09-01T04:42:29.307" UserId="4794" Comment="spelling mistakes" Text="I've been freelancing for quite a few years and I'd say this is an expected problem. Not that I wish it to happen but I won't be surprised if it does. That's why it is very important to define the scope *as clear as possible* in the agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But by the time this problem arises it's usually too late. So I ask myself: are subtasks A, B, and C **expected** from a **reasonable person's view**?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without getting into how a *reasonable man* is constructed in court cases, think of this example: if I order a burger with soda, is it reasonable for the restaurant to charge me $1 for the paper cup, $0.5 for the wrappers of the burger? Are customers *expected* to bring their own cups? If the answer is yes (everybody in this town brings their own cup), then the charge is reasonable and you cannot argue with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A more realistic example: if a client asks for a login page, then it make sense that there should be some mechanism for users to signup. If the developer's answer is &quot;you only asked for a login page, you have to manually write SQLs to signup users&quot; then I'd say this is unacceptable. But if the client says &quot;users should be verified by sending SMS to their phones&quot;, then I'd say &quot;no, this is an extra feature and the cost is $x&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6453" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2329" RevisionGUID="9031ddb4-de12-4bba-ac73-f2f14b76d34b" CreationDate="2014-09-01T06:29:29.640" UserId="4561" Text="He should get paid for the 4 hours work he did.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The 10 hours a week probably means UP TO 10 hours a week, not definitely 10 hours every week.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if he works 4 hours 1 week and 0 hours the next week, he should get paid for the 4 hours the first week, and get paid nothing for the second week.  The third hour he may have more work to do or not, depending on what the client asks him to do.  He should get paid for whatever hours he works up to 10 hours.  He should never work more than 10 hours in one week unless he clears that with the client first." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6454" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2330" RevisionGUID="31279f47-7fe8-43e1-8460-af2964c7b67e" CreationDate="2014-09-01T09:52:00.867" UserId="4797" Text="I do have a freelancer account and an agency account on odesk for a real company.&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to apply to a job on the behalf of the agency account.&#xD;&#xA;To get paid, tax informations are required.&#xD;&#xA;The company (a real one) is based in Hong Kong.&#xD;&#xA;ODESK asks to fill in the W-8BEN form which is for individual, not company (should be W-8BEN-E).&#xD;&#xA;ODESK says that they want the owner of the company to fill the individual tax form.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not want to be charged on my indivudal taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you do it ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thierry" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6455" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2330" RevisionGUID="31279f47-7fe8-43e1-8460-af2964c7b67e" CreationDate="2014-09-01T09:52:00.867" UserId="4797" Text="ODESK Task form for agency" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6456" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2330" RevisionGUID="31279f47-7fe8-43e1-8460-af2964c7b67e" CreationDate="2014-09-01T09:52:00.867" UserId="4797" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6458" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2332" RevisionGUID="06837893-f782-4aa8-83b1-fc12c9530c0d" CreationDate="2014-09-02T07:09:09.423" UserId="4804" Text="I want to spend some part of my monthly freelance income in a smart way to promote my services, build a stronger personal brand and do other things that will help me in finding higher-profile clients, get to the next level.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, assume, I have $1-2k monthly to spend on this kind of business improvement. Should I find an specialised agency that would go through pages of my personal site, or single specialists that could point me to the weak sides of my business and branding, build a plan and go with that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would you as a freelancer spend money on making your business more reliable and streamlined, joyful, predictable?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6459" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2332" RevisionGUID="06837893-f782-4aa8-83b1-fc12c9530c0d" CreationDate="2014-09-02T07:09:09.423" UserId="4804" Text="How to wisely spend money on improving my freelance business?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6460" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2332" RevisionGUID="06837893-f782-4aa8-83b1-fc12c9530c0d" CreationDate="2014-09-02T07:09:09.423" UserId="4804" Text="|communication|consulting|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6461" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2332" RevisionGUID="4eb6d8e8-ab5f-41e0-ad86-0efa141239c3" CreationDate="2014-09-02T07:30:42.153" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus on the asker, not random people on the Internet" Text="I want to spend some part of my monthly freelance income in a smart way to promote my services, build a stronger personal brand and do other things that will help me in finding higher-profile clients, get to the next level.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have $1-2k monthly to spend on this kind of business improvement. Should I find a specialised agency that would go through pages of my personal site, or single specialists that could point me to the weak sides of my business and branding, build a plan and go with that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I invest my profits in making sure my business has a steady stream of income?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6462" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2332" RevisionGUID="4eb6d8e8-ab5f-41e0-ad86-0efa141239c3" CreationDate="2014-09-02T07:30:42.153" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus on the asker, not random people on the Internet" Text="How to wisely spend money on improving my freelance business to result in a steady stream of income?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6463" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2330" RevisionGUID="3b8e1f43-9ed2-4596-8546-fe1bd762aa25" CreationDate="2014-09-02T07:35:53.417" UserId="64" Comment="copy edited. oDesk isn't spelled in all caps." Text="I do have a freelancer account and an agency account on oDesk for a real company.&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to apply to a job on the behalf of the agency account. To get paid, tax informations are required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The company (a real one) is based in Hong Kong.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;oDesk asks to fill in the W-8BEN form which is for individual, not company (should be W-8BEN-E).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;oDesk says that they want the owner of the company to fill the individual tax form.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not want to be charged on my individual taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I do this?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6464" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2330" RevisionGUID="3b8e1f43-9ed2-4596-8546-fe1bd762aa25" CreationDate="2014-09-02T07:35:53.417" UserId="64" Comment="copy edited. oDesk isn't spelled in all caps." Text="oDesk task form for agency" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6465" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2330" RevisionGUID="f65d492b-1089-4bdf-91a2-a1be90c936bd" CreationDate="2014-09-02T07:36:07.097" UserId="64" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6466" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2330" RevisionGUID="b7ad9817-bbba-42e8-b09a-28a703e2d688" CreationDate="2014-09-02T07:42:50.580" UserId="4797" Comment="added 315 characters in body" Text="I do have a freelancer account and an agency account on oDesk for a real company.&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to apply to a job on the behalf of the agency account. To get paid, tax informations are required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The company (a real one) is based in Hong Kong.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;oDesk asks to fill in the W-8BEN form which is for individual, not company (should be W-8BEN-E).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;oDesk says that they want the owner of the company to fill the individual tax form.&#xD;&#xA;	&#xD;&#xA;I did email the oDesk support. They answered me a copy of their policy rule and a comment to say to fill in the tax form for individual and that they don't care about agencies.&#xD;&#xA;Since few months ago, there was no different tax forms for individual and business, I think their support has no answer to give.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not want to be charged on my individual taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How agencies do this?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6467" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="2330" RevisionGUID="4ad0e8e1-f874-4882-b8a7-c9c81d9f6724" CreationDate="2014-09-02T07:48:42.260" UserId="64" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6468" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2330" RevisionGUID="461b0b4c-adfe-4723-8577-fc549364b841" CreationDate="2014-09-02T07:51:06.050" UserId="64" Comment="copy edited; clarified" Text="I do have a freelancer account and an agency account on oDesk for a real company.&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to apply to a job on the behalf of the agency account. To get paid, tax information is required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The company (a real one) is based in Hong Kong.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;oDesk asks me to fill in the W-8BEN form, which is for individuals, not companies  (should be W-8BEN-E).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;oDesk says that they want the owner of the company to fill the individual tax form.&#xD;&#xA;	&#xD;&#xA;I did email oDesk support. They answered me with copy of their policy rules and a comment asking me to fill in the tax form for individuals and that they don't care about agencies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few months ago, there was no different tax forms for individual and business, I think their support has no answer to give.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not want to be charged on my individual taxes as I work for an agency and am taxed through them. How do I keep my individual taxes out of this and still work as an agency on oDesk?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6469" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2330" RevisionGUID="461b0b4c-adfe-4723-8577-fc549364b841" CreationDate="2014-09-02T07:51:06.050" UserId="64" Comment="copy edited; clarified" Text="How do I keep my individual taxes separate, as an agency on oDesk?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6470" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2333" RevisionGUID="52e0627e-25be-4247-ae51-2cb8637a2169" CreationDate="2014-09-02T08:28:49.347" UserId="4806" Text="I've been asked to sign an IPR-Assignment by someone who is paying me to do developer work for them on a freelance basis. I'm new to all of this and I'm just unsure whether it's appropriate to sign such a document? I would imagine you would need to see the agreement to tell for sure but the description of 'software product' I feel isn't clear enough and I'm worried (because I don't know what I'm doing) about signing away more than intended.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there's anyone with advice on this matter, I would much appreciate it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6471" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2333" RevisionGUID="52e0627e-25be-4247-ae51-2cb8637a2169" CreationDate="2014-09-02T08:28:49.347" UserId="4806" Text="IPR assigment for freelance work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6472" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2333" RevisionGUID="52e0627e-25be-4247-ae51-2cb8637a2169" CreationDate="2014-09-02T08:28:49.347" UserId="4806" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6473" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2334" RevisionGUID="8d7f42d2-e97f-4ec2-80f1-55a0468dc70d" CreationDate="2014-09-02T15:30:21.820" UserId="2672" Text="First of all, I'm assuming by IPR, you mean &quot;Intellectual Property Rights&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not a lawyer, but the short answer to this is get professional legal advice. Over the years, I have seen contracts that range from &quot;the employer only has IPR over the specific products being developed&quot; to &quot;the employer owns IPR on ideas the employee has in his/her own free time&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the risk of repeating, there really is no subsitute for having a lawyer read through the document and discuss the implications with you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6474" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2334" RevisionGUID="1ffac61d-0a4c-4b71-ac7d-8e2568dac091" CreationDate="2014-09-02T15:42:47.950" UserId="2672" Comment="added info on negotiation" Text="First of all, I'm assuming by IPR, you mean &quot;Intellectual Property Rights&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not a lawyer, but the short answer to this is get professional legal advice. Over the years, I have seen contracts that range from &quot;the employer only has IPR over the specific products being developed&quot; to &quot;the employer owns IPR on ideas the employee has in his/her own free time&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the risk of repeating, there really is no subsitute for having a lawyer read through the document and discuss the implications with you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, in my experience, these things are almost always negotiable. So if there is something in there that you don't like, do not be afraid to ask for it to be changed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6478" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2109" RevisionGUID="dda94e44-4404-443e-b708-3b41411c3285" CreationDate="2014-09-03T04:42:48.563" UserId="64" Comment="copy edited" Text="**1. Could a Testimonial be sufficient?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's probably reasonable to ask for testimonials from clients on behalf of your current employer and this might be sufficient especially where testimonials mention you by name. If you have a good relationship with your clients, or have done some work you are especially proud of, you could ask for this specifically.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your current employer would likely welcome some fresh testimonials from clients so this could be a win-win!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2. 'Fessing Up**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Alternatively, you could just come clean with your current employer. Sometimes it can be good to let employers know you are looking elsewhere so they don't take you for granted and so they have the opportunity to address any issues you may have with your current employment. Some employers may admire your ambition.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, there is a risk of offending your current employer with this option, and you should be prepared to leave if you have to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes you have to close a door before another one will open.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6479" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2108" RevisionGUID="b86c9dd7-be08-4257-84e7-b159f4677fb4" CreationDate="2014-09-03T04:48:48.590" UserId="64" Comment="edited title as part of review to maybe make this post more visible" Text="how can I get references from my freelance editors when looking for a job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6480" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2120" RevisionGUID="dfeddff9-2af8-4f2f-9902-e2ca9fa3b42a" CreationDate="2014-09-03T05:08:58.367" UserId="64" Comment="copy edited" Text="Now, how much information is too much?! Ideally, clients should be aware of all good things happening in the project and be unaware of all bad things like bugs or bottlenecks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can achieve this with some clients, but you cannot with others. I go into the same situation as yourself, and the more I talk about the bugs and involve the client into bug details, the more they don't rate me as an expert. Let's say, I am rated 4 out of 5. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if you can, avoid details about bugs or other bad things. If you need more time, just tell them why, and use neutral words like &quot;optimization&quot; or &quot;refactoring&quot; or &quot;speed up the things&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are however, rare cases when the client is a developer as well. And in such cases, you can talk to him about the issues because that person will understand you, and that person may be able to help as well by googling and sending you good links. You do need help from a programmer when solving problems, but you do not need help from non-programmer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6481" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2330" RevisionGUID="e7852c9c-e818-40f2-a519-72e93b5db962" CreationDate="2014-09-03T08:39:08.320" UserId="4797" Comment="deleted 5 characters in body" Text="I do have a freelancer account and an agency account on oDesk for a real company.&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to apply to a job on the behalf of the agency account. To get paid, tax information is required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The company (a real one) is based in Hong Kong.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;oDesk asks me to fill in the W-8BEN form, which is for individuals, not companies  (should be W-8BEN-E).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;oDesk says that they want the owner of the company to fill the individual tax form.&#xD;&#xA;	&#xD;&#xA;I did email oDesk support. They answered me with copy of their policy rules and a comment asking me to fill in the tax form for individuals and that they don't care about agencies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few months ago, there was no different tax forms for individual and business, I think their support has no answer to give.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not want to be charged on my individual taxes as I own an agency and am taxed through them. How do I keep my individual taxes out of this and still work as an agency on oDesk?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6482" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2335" RevisionGUID="5a6facc5-8aa2-4b7d-9ad7-0ad49f024222" CreationDate="2014-09-03T18:23:55.323" UserId="1706" Text="Use the form that they're providing.  This advisory says you can use that form until the end of the year.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[IRS Advisory](http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw8bene.pdf)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6483" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2336" RevisionGUID="afc558ae-4952-40ed-8d61-aa68eeee93ba" CreationDate="2014-09-03T18:30:35.310" UserId="1706" Text="Networking and building your brand is the best thing you can do with a little money and spare time.  When you're doing this, you'll figure out how to adjust your promotional materials and web site accordingly.   You can spin your wheels on site-redesign until you're blue-in-the-face but none of that matters without some living, breathing clients that know who you are, know what you do, and are ready to slide some cash across the table in order for you to do it.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6484" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2337" RevisionGUID="994675f3-db08-4f62-94d5-2b3d5f3041e2" CreationDate="2014-09-03T18:36:34.710" UserId="1706" Text="Don't engage non technical clients in technical subjects, unless you're being paid to *train on technical subjects*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Invariably you will get the non-technical client with a little knowledge and a lot of ego.  THIS client will wear you down trying to show how much he or she knows.  This client is a technical wanna-be, but you can never *say* that because the client's helping to get your bills paid.  He/she will talk, and talk, and talk in order to seek your acknowledge --- and you'll waste a LOT of time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's okay to explain that such-and-such isn't working correctly.  But leave out technical terms as much as possible so that the non-technical person doesn't latch on to jargon and end up suggesting that you allow the client's son/daughter, the &quot;HTML expert because he took a class in high school&quot;, become an unwanted contributor to your work product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6485" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2338" RevisionGUID="4bfe78d2-1d5b-4d84-90ed-8b555f4e1178" CreationDate="2014-09-03T18:40:59.310" UserId="1706" Text="You need to formalize your partnership and set up some written ground-rules:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- What's the company name?  &#xD;&#xA;- What are the roles each partner will take *solely*?&#xD;&#xA;- Who is responsible for handling money?&#xD;&#xA;- How is money divided?&#xD;&#xA;- How are expenses handled when there's not enough money to go around?&#xD;&#xA;- How are you going to deal with taxation and payroll?&#xD;&#xA;- Will you run as a general partnership, corporation, or some other business form?&#xD;&#xA;- How will you deal with liability in case something goes wrong?  (***important***)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Dealing with the above will cut out friction later on." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6487" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2340" RevisionGUID="6cdcd1d2-08cb-4399-b433-1db121420456" CreationDate="2014-09-03T18:53:29.593" UserId="1706" Text="Part of &quot;competency&quot; includes knowing that no accomplished developer with skills in Javascript and jQuery will be using terms, as you did, like &quot;JS&quot;, &quot;jQ&quot;, and &quot;JSing&quot; ... You are making these expressions up.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I hear the term &quot;javascripting&quot;, I think of recruiters who are calling me and really have no clue about the work.  Friend, this is really important.  You'll disqualify yourself from *real* work very quick using these made-up terms." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6489" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2341" RevisionGUID="c4900d61-06d8-49ce-9728-53809e169d70" CreationDate="2014-09-04T07:17:17.273" UserId="517" Text="I know that 90% of us are freelancing in fields where freelancing is easy, like programming, design, technical support, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone know or can direct me in a way that an agronomist find work as a freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am trying to help a friend of mine who cannot find local work as an agronomist. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help or website or advise would be highly appreciated. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6490" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2341" RevisionGUID="c4900d61-06d8-49ce-9728-53809e169d70" CreationDate="2014-09-04T07:17:17.273" UserId="517" Text="Possible for agronomist to do remote freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6491" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2341" RevisionGUID="c4900d61-06d8-49ce-9728-53809e169d70" CreationDate="2014-09-04T07:17:17.273" UserId="517" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6492" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2337" RevisionGUID="f6068de3-6259-435d-b5cd-a02599fa87e6" CreationDate="2014-09-04T17:16:57.627" UserId="1706" Comment="added 27 characters in body" Text="Don't engage non technical clients in technical subjects, unless you're being paid to *train on technical subjects*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Invariably you will get the non-technical client with a little knowledge and a lot of ego.  THIS client will wear you down trying to show how much he or she knows.  This client is a technical wanna-be, but you can never *say* that because the client's helping to get your bills paid.  He/she will talk, and talk, and talk in order to seek your acknowledgement (i.e. to feel smarter) --- and you'll waste a LOT of time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's okay to explain that such-and-such isn't working correctly.  But leave out technical terms as much as possible so that the non-technical person doesn't latch on to jargon and end up suggesting that you allow the client's son/daughter, the &quot;HTML expert because he took a class in high school&quot;, become an unwanted contributor to your work product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6502" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2325" RevisionGUID="5a0391bc-84ee-4498-9cd1-e1bcc881997f" CreationDate="2014-09-05T04:55:56.677" UserId="64" Comment="103" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6503" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2167" RevisionGUID="8e4f3279-67ab-45f8-8783-9adcb62390c2" CreationDate="2014-09-05T05:08:21.523" UserId="64" Comment="copy edited and fixed title" Text="I am a freelancer, and I have a small team of freelancers that works with me on large freelance Web development projects. I am offering Web design, development, and SEO. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I created a website with many pages that includes my portfolio, about me, and many more things. I saw that various freelancers created one page website to present their work, and they are ranking on the top Google pages. My question is that as a freelancer, what kind of website design is better to choose for SEO and for visitors, a multi-page site or a single-page site?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6504" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2167" RevisionGUID="8e4f3279-67ab-45f8-8783-9adcb62390c2" CreationDate="2014-09-05T05:08:21.523" UserId="64" Comment="copy edited and fixed title" Text="Is a single page site better for SEO and visitors, or is a site with various pages better?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6505" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2138" RevisionGUID="79b56070-454e-4bd8-abb4-1a4fd731c6f8" CreationDate="2014-09-05T05:16:51.767" UserId="64" Comment="103" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6506" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2171" RevisionGUID="6601d720-23fd-4a3c-a62b-d7d6857bf267" CreationDate="2014-09-05T05:20:25.250" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title" Text="I've seen this asked a few different ways (closest was [here][1]), but I am looking to find out from the business's perspective, how to report (if necessary) the amount paid to a foreign contractor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My situation is as follows: I have a US LLC and am wanting to contract an agency in India that I have found via [odesk.com][2]. I know I'd have to file a 1099 for a US contractor working in the US, and I think the 1042(S) for a foreign contractor working in the US, but what if I have a foreign contractor working outside of the US? Would this fall in a box of the 1065? Should I file a 1099/1042(S)? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/580/what-are-the-tax-issues-involved-with-employing-a-worker-in-a-different-countr&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.odesk.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6507" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2171" RevisionGUID="6601d720-23fd-4a3c-a62b-d7d6857bf267" CreationDate="2014-09-05T05:20:25.250" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title" Text="When outsourcing freelance work to foreign country, do I file a 1065, a 1099/1042(S)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6508" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2146" RevisionGUID="b7df3424-4c65-430b-8a31-631036424a12" CreationDate="2014-09-05T05:30:31.337" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title" Text="How do open source projects come up with their sponsorship prices?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6509" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="754" RevisionGUID="9c370b47-bc0d-4714-9f48-5c3df0988a6a" CreationDate="2014-09-05T05:42:32.020" UserId="64" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6511" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2343" RevisionGUID="40569444-5b6e-4705-b140-90b0d7665753" CreationDate="2014-09-05T06:56:45.133" UserDisplayName="user4830" Text="In Germany, according to [§ 15 Abs. 2 EStG][1], you must register a business if you&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. are self-employed (&quot;selbständig&quot;),&#xD;&#xA;2. plan to generate income (&quot;mit der Absicht, Gewinn zu erzielen&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;3. in the long run (&quot;nachhaltig&quot;),&#xD;&#xA;4. deal with others (&quot;Beteiligung am allgemeinen wirtschaftlichen Verkehr&quot;), and&#xD;&#xA;5. are not working in agriculture and forestry or a so-called &quot;free&quot; academic profession (&quot;[freier Beruf][2]&quot;) (e.g. physician, lawyer, artist, architect, journalist, scientist, etc.).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is the relevant paragraph in full:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Eine selbständige nachhaltige Betätigung, die mit der Absicht, Gewinn zu erzielen, unternommen wird und sich als Beteiligung am allgemeinen wirtschaftlichen Verkehr darstellt, ist Gewerbebetrieb, wenn die Betätigung weder als Ausübung von Land- und Forstwirtschaft noch als Ausübung eines freien Berufs noch als eine andere selbständige Arbeit anzusehen ist.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You do not have to register a business if you just sell your old stuff on a flea market or through the internet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The height of your income does not matter for the necessity to register a business, but you don't have to pay taxes if your income is below a certain threshold. You still have to declare every cent you earn in your tax declaration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In sum, as these two lawyers explain for the examples of [Google AdSense][3] and [Amazon Associates (&quot;Amazon PartnerNet&quot;)][4], you **must** register a business if you create revenue through internet advertising, no matter how little.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/estg/__15.html&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freier_Beruf_%28Deutschland%29&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.frag-einen-anwalt.de/AdSense-und-AdWords-Einkommenssteuer---f223200.html&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.frag-einen-anwalt.de/Amazonde-Partnerprogramm-Gewerbescheinpflichtig---f10102.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6512" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2344" RevisionGUID="80429668-1f28-4841-acd6-9caaa28bfcb4" CreationDate="2014-09-05T07:16:42.517" UserDisplayName="user4830" Text="I'm a self-published writer and want to market myself as a brand to my target audience. In **social media marketing**, is it better to&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. use only one platform (e.g. Facebook or my own website) and publish all my news, blog posts and images there,&#xD;&#xA;2. publish the same content on several platforms, or&#xD;&#xA;3. publish different content on different platforms (e.g. &quot;private&quot; news and images of myself on Facebook, photos I took on Pinterest, stuff I like on Tumblr, how-I-write blog posts on Blogger, instructional videos on YouTube, artistic videos on Vimeo, questions and answers on ask.fm, etc.) and connect everything through link lists in each platform's sidebar?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I ask this, because personally, when I find someone interesting, I dislike having to hunt for all their activities across all the net, never knowing if I have missed something interesting or important, on the other hand, if their website or Facebook profile is all someone has, they don't appear very interesting because I have quickly exhausted their depth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, what strategy works best? If you can, don't just post your private opinion, but quote research or expert publications, or give successful examples (and successful counter examples)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6513" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2344" RevisionGUID="80429668-1f28-4841-acd6-9caaa28bfcb4" CreationDate="2014-09-05T07:16:42.517" UserDisplayName="user4830" Text="Social media strategy for self-employed business-to-consumer branding" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6514" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2344" RevisionGUID="80429668-1f28-4841-acd6-9caaa28bfcb4" CreationDate="2014-09-05T07:16:42.517" UserDisplayName="user4830" Text="|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6515" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2345" RevisionGUID="70be644b-5e00-4b7b-830c-b58490ac93f0" CreationDate="2014-09-05T10:55:30.583" UserId="2391" Text="As said above, if you are upfront with the client about how long you've been using the skill and they are willing to pay you for the job ... you've got a billable skill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was in a similar situation with JavaScript: Having been programming for almost twenty years I started learning JS about two years ago. I started off doing a project for a minimal fee for a organisation I volunteer for, which I was then able to grow and release as a general purpose FLOSS app. I also monitor questions on SO for simpler questions I can take on and learn how to do (nice to have real world problems to solve), contribute to FLOSS projects that interest me, work on my own personal JS projects, and look for smaller jobs on the online freelancing sites (oDesk and Guru my favs). This all helps build up my experience and portfolio, and gives me the confidence to apply for jobs that seem within my range without feeling like a fraud!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6516" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2346" RevisionGUID="9cc391bd-5b1f-437e-9f8f-75eedae4064c" CreationDate="2014-09-05T16:36:57.030" UserId="4834" Text="I'm not planning on doing freelance work full time but I have done a few sites for some small businesses and I now have small business owners asking me to do work for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All of my work has been for myself or people that I have close relationships with.  I explained how hosting works and I had these people pay directly to their web host.  I would assume that you would make this transparent to customers but I wanted to see what other did.  Do you full time freelancers pay for hosting and then place pages on the host/account that you manage?  Do you usually purchase the domain and leave the customers out of that as well?  If the answer to any of these questions is yes, how do you deal with it in your contracts?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6517" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2346" RevisionGUID="9cc391bd-5b1f-437e-9f8f-75eedae4064c" CreationDate="2014-09-05T16:36:57.030" UserId="4834" Text="Site hosting and charging a customer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6518" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2346" RevisionGUID="9cc391bd-5b1f-437e-9f8f-75eedae4064c" CreationDate="2014-09-05T16:36:57.030" UserId="4834" Text="|freelance-websites|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6519" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2347" RevisionGUID="07fcc480-b5b6-41e9-bf5a-8b617e3783eb" CreationDate="2014-09-05T18:34:49.303" UserId="9" Text="A relevant quote from [Contract Killer 3][1] (a boilerplate contract):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ## Technical Support&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We’re not a website hosting company so we don’t offer support for website hosting, email or other services relating to hosting. You may already have professional hosting and you might even manage that hosting in-house; if you do, great. If you don’t, we can set up an account for you at one of our preferred hosting providers. We can set up your site on a server, plus any statistics software such as Google Analytics and we can provide a separate estimate for that. Then, the updates to, and management of that server will be up to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agree with you in that you want to make this transparent to your customer (which is what a contract should do). I would let the client purchase the domain and hosting (guiding them through how to do such if required), then I would, as part of my contract, deliver the site and deploy it on that server.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a few advantages with this approach:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* The customer is the one that gets the bills for the website, not you. That means one less step for them getting their bills paid (the customer pays the hosting provider, instead of the customer paying you, then you paying the hosting provider).&#xD;&#xA;* The customer is the owner of the domain. This can prevent any awkward situations where [you are unable to transfer the domain to them][2], but the domain renewal is due next week.&#xD;&#xA;* It's one less thing for you to manage, freeing your time for non-maintenance activities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://gist.github.com/malarkey/4031110&#xD;&#xA;[2]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/126/9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6520" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2348" RevisionGUID="0506b036-8fc0-4e60-9681-ca5f43c82fce" CreationDate="2014-09-06T05:42:12.867" UserId="4835" Text="We do all of the above depending on the needs of the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. For some we build the site on their servers.&#xD;&#xA; 2. For some we host their site on our servers, but they maintain their own DNS registration.&#xD;&#xA; 3. For premium clients, we take care of everything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It all come down to the needs of the client. We do all the above and more because each client is unique. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We don't try to lock clients into any particular plan. The client's needs often evolve over time, so what is right at one point may not be right later on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By meeting real needs we add the most value. This is the best way to retain client loyalty.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BTW: Everything we build is on GNU/Open Source tools. Thus, we avoid locking clients into proprietary products. They are always free leave taking their site, and all code and data with them. It's better to compete on real value than vendor lock-in." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6521" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2349" RevisionGUID="c3d46e64-43b8-4304-89ae-71f6d06195dc" CreationDate="2014-09-06T17:57:24.950" UserId="4794" Text="Usually I would host the work on my server as demo to the client. Unless the client requested, I would just give them the source code and (a few) deployment instructions. The demo is deleted from my server once the client accepts the delivery as final.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some clients have servers and would like me to upload to their server. Usually I don't charge this as it's just a matter of deploying to another address. If they need help to setup the server then I may charge a fee on a case by case basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some clients don't have servers/hosting but would like advise on finding one. I'd generally recommend a few to choose from, and pro/cons comparison (I just make recommendations, I'm not a sales person). They always pay for it themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, unless otherwise specified, **it is the client's responsibility to provide a working server or hosting to host their code.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I never host their websites on my servers because freelance work is usually &quot;deliver and forget&quot;. I'm not a web hosting company and do not want that responsibility either.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(of course, as a freelancer you can make your own rules as long as they're clear and in mutual agreement between you and the client.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6522" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2350" RevisionGUID="183c246a-0456-427a-abbb-91ccf2935442" CreationDate="2014-09-06T19:06:01.607" UserId="4837" Text="I took on a side-project as an experiment of sorts and I'm learning I grossly undercharged, in addition to providing a level of technical support I definitely did not sign up for.  I'd worked up a fixed price contract and find myself rather un-inclined to complete the work.  The big emotional problems I face is that she's REALLY nice -- like a grandmother -- and I think she's already struggling to make payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So.. what to do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* ask for more money for the entire project which would change the contract &#xD;&#xA;* find ways to ask to charge for my time -- ie. $X / hour for technical support (I've spent several hours already on basic computer tasks like &quot;download and unzip into this folder&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;* avoid any and all &quot;gold-plating&quot; and build only the bare minimum to satisfy requirements&#xD;&#xA;* walk and give her the source code for everything I've done so far&#xD;&#xA;* suck-it-up and just do the work as &quot;charity&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6523" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2350" RevisionGUID="183c246a-0456-427a-abbb-91ccf2935442" CreationDate="2014-09-06T19:06:01.607" UserId="4837" Text="Learning I undercharged -- now what?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6524" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2350" RevisionGUID="183c246a-0456-427a-abbb-91ccf2935442" CreationDate="2014-09-06T19:06:01.607" UserId="4837" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6525" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2325" RevisionGUID="14bc1c38-4f7d-49b1-b81e-c69b4982e1cb" CreationDate="2014-09-07T00:01:22.200" UserId="64" Comment="edited to clarify what I think you're asking" Text="Suppose if someone is working on a client project, in which they give support for a product, like bug fixing &amp; updating the project.  This person is working on an hour-based rate, in which client finalized that the work will be 10 hours in a week for the next 2 years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is okay, once the person has completed four hours work that the client release the funds?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But suppose, in a month, there wasn't any bugs or maintenance. Should the freelancer still get paid for the four hours of work that person didn't do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6526" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2325" RevisionGUID="14bc1c38-4f7d-49b1-b81e-c69b4982e1cb" CreationDate="2014-09-07T00:01:22.200" UserId="64" Comment="edited to clarify what I think you're asking" Text="How request for payment process work on Elance in hourly based job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6527" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="2325" RevisionGUID="75498196-7e88-4ead-a631-a72a964c6dd4" CreationDate="2014-09-07T00:03:07.323" UserId="64" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6533" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2352" RevisionGUID="0bdce422-92a4-4956-a5b8-06d443157c78" CreationDate="2014-09-07T16:50:03.367" UserId="4842" Text="There are some non-commission based freelancer sites and usually, in case of disputes they don't interfere. They don't hold money from employer like odesk or similar sites. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an employer:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-  How do I ensure that freelancer I hired delivers? Obviously, making an upfront payment is never a good idea, so paying in small chunk  or milestone based would help I guess. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Or as an employer, it's better to hire from commission based sites only, who ensure safety? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Contract may work in US, but internationally chances are thin&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- How do I ensure client keeps paying me? What if he vanishes after I complete the project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6534" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2352" RevisionGUID="0bdce422-92a4-4956-a5b8-06d443157c78" CreationDate="2014-09-07T16:50:03.367" UserId="4842" Text="What are some practices to follow, to get not cheated when freelancing on non-commission based platforms" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6535" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2352" RevisionGUID="0bdce422-92a4-4956-a5b8-06d443157c78" CreationDate="2014-09-07T16:50:03.367" UserId="4842" Text="|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6536" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2352" RevisionGUID="d9bbca2e-0db5-4555-9a57-df99c92e4624" CreationDate="2014-09-07T18:59:15.213" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|price|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6538" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2315" RevisionGUID="0a9cfbe3-8bbd-4217-b08e-b793fe20585a" CreationDate="2014-09-08T02:07:24.380" UserId="64" Comment="Try to tone down the sarcasm. Different people take it differently, and as a site dedicated to being a high quality resource for professionals, we want to put our best foot forward." Text="[From the Merriam Webster dictionary defining &quot;expression&quot;](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/expression):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;ex·pres·sion noun \ik-ˈspre-shən\&#xD;&#xA;: the act of making your thoughts, feelings, etc., known by speech, writing, or some other method : the act of expressing something&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;: a word or phrase&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;: the way someone's face looks that shows emotions and feelings" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6539" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2353" RevisionGUID="f98eb2c4-b834-4c6b-8cf2-92ce3a58df84" CreationDate="2014-09-08T10:30:59.090" UserId="4556" Text="As a UK freelancer working with primarily US clients, I'm often on the opposite side of the arrangement. I personally tend to work with either milestones and/or a 25–50% upfront deposit (depending on the overall size of the project).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To answer your specific questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How do I ensure that freelancer I hired delivers? and how do you ensure safety?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pre-vetting your freelancers is a good start (check they have testimonials, past work on display, multiple means of contacting them), but it's also worth remembering that if you're paying a fair rate, that it's also in the freelancer's best interest to complete the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One approach that I've seen used by a few companies is to work from a shared Github repository, where the code I've worked on gets pushed up as soon as it's complete, and then once they've paid the related invoice, we continue with the next feature.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course that won't work for design based projects, however again, small steps like design mockups, initial concepts etc… can be used to give you natural breaks in the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, the freelancer you chose may not be the best fit for you or your project and having the option to terminate after a smaller amount of work, might be in everyone's best interests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A contract may work in US, but internationally chances are thin**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Providing you're working with a freelancer in a developed nation then a contact will be enforceable, however even US-US, you'll often find that the amount you'd gain from a settlement/victory in court is not worth the cost of litigating the case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Contracts are also a last-resort, ideally you'll never actually need one, though you should always have one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How do I ensure client keeps paying me? What if he vanishes after I complete the project?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is a particular worry, escrow services do exist, however they obviously cost money to use. A common alternative is an upfront deposit that is then applied to the final invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember that a business contract exists because it benefits both parties, thus, structuring a contract/project in such a way as to provide value to both sides a little at a time should minimise the risk to either party.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client does vanish without payment then (depending on the contract) they have likely stolen the code, and as a freelancer you would be within your rights to resell that code and/or remove it from any server to which you have access. You might also pursue a court claim against them although internationally that could get expensive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However as a general rule I've found being firm but understanding is the best approach and that non-payment has typically been due to accounting screw-ups or cash flow problems and has eventually been simply a late payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6540" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2354" RevisionGUID="ddd33094-6bf1-47a8-8f1c-2a32fa6c6bcc" CreationDate="2014-09-08T10:52:06.760" UserId="4556" Text="Tax law is complicated the world over, and as a general rule you should seek the advise of a tax specialist in the jurisdiction where you'll need to pay taxes, they'll also likely be able to incorporate a company for you if that will be the best option.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In 2001 Ireland moved from a system of tax-free allowance, to one based upon tax credits, the principal tax credit being €1,650 (directly offset against your tax bill), which is roughly equivalent to a tax free allowance of €8,250, you can [find out more on Wikipedia entry for Taxation in Ireland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland#Rates_of_income_tax).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also worth pointing out that as in most countries, there are tax benefits to being a registered company:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; As a sole trader you pay income tax at the same rates as PAYE employees, but based on your net annual profit (i.e. after the deduction of legitimate expenses). If you’re operating as a limited company, however, you could be paying tax at a mere 12.5 per cent or even at just 10 per cent. This means that there can be a considerable tax advantage in operating a business through a company instead of as an individual.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; [via Just Landed](http://www.justlanded.com/english/Ireland/Ireland-Guide/Money/Taxable-Income)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ireland is known for it's low corporate tax rates (EU customers of many multinationals will often be billed by the Irish subsidiary of the company for exactly this reason; e.g. Amazon AWS), so you may find that the turnover at which it makes sense to incorporate is significantly lower than it would be in Germany. Again, you should seek professional advise specific to your situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To find an accountant in Ireland you might want to try the [Chartered Accountants Ireland website's Member Search](http://www.charteredaccountants.ie/en/Members/Member-Search/), and I'd suggest looking for one in the town or city you'll be living." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6541" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2355" RevisionGUID="fc3488f1-ad08-4e15-bd86-e168baaf9f85" CreationDate="2014-09-08T11:23:44.480" UserId="9" Text="Last night, I provided support to a recent customer by setting up their small business's email address to be read within an email client. I had already done this on one of their devices as part of the contracted work (with the majority of the work being web design/development), and what I did last night was adding sending/receiving email capabilities to two more machines. Overall, the time spent doing this was one hour rounded.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, we don't have a formal contract for this kind of small support, but my customer asked me to send along the bill. As I see it, I have a few different options for how to approach the billing in this case (along with different lines of reason):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **Free**: They were good customers, it would add goodwill (which isn't really needed at this point; they're happy with my work), and it could be considered as part of the original contracted work.&#xD;&#xA;* **Invoice for a percentage of my per-hour rate**: I don't have any pricing models set up for a retainer rate or support work like this, and I didn't perform web design work. Therefore, how can I justifying charging the full rate to myself?&#xD;&#xA;* **Invoice for full per-hour rate**: At the end of the day, I used time that I would be spending on another customer's work, and I shouldn't be selling myself short.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a case such as this, what would be the best way to handle pricing for minor support issues that are _possibly_ unrelated to the original work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would contend that [this][1] does not apply as a duplicate, since I did not contract the work out to a third party&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/855/9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6542" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2355" RevisionGUID="fc3488f1-ad08-4e15-bd86-e168baaf9f85" CreationDate="2014-09-08T11:23:44.480" UserId="9" Text="How do I determine support rate if not previously negotiated?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6543" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2355" RevisionGUID="fc3488f1-ad08-4e15-bd86-e168baaf9f85" CreationDate="2014-09-08T11:23:44.480" UserId="9" Text="|contracts|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6544" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2356" RevisionGUID="aa3d487f-292e-498d-a8bd-1bc25b5b31c9" CreationDate="2014-09-08T12:02:28.840" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="I would bill for your full-price rate in this case. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even though the work is unrelated, your discussion with the client about the task can be considered as an informal agreement. Since price was not mentioned during this discussion, it is assumed that the client is happy to pay the existing rate that you have negotiated in the past. If the client wanted to negotiate the price further, it would have been mentioned in discussion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an aside, I do sometimes do minor changes for free (&lt; 30 min) for clients with whom I have a great relationship and charging them for the short amount of time is not worth the hassle. (If the client starts taking advantage of this, then I'll reconsider free work for them). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6545" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2357" RevisionGUID="d5357f9c-cd28-478b-8d5b-3c8d262087a8" CreationDate="2014-09-08T12:17:22.547" UserId="4844" Text="One of the biggest lessons I've learned is never to undervalue yourself. No matter if it's a big corporation or a &quot;grandmotherly&quot; like figure, your time and what you create is valuable. Chances are what you are making will make the owner more profitable which creates value for them and not you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You also have to be careful about letting clients guilt you into feature creep which is why defining a very detailed scope of work is crucial on fixed price projects so that expectations are clear on both sides.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it comes down to you not estimating properly then unfortunately that is usually on you unless the client originally misguided or didn't disclose certain information which caused you to give a different number. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I've done in the past when I grossly misquoted a project before I knew what I was getting into was have a direct talk with the client and say I apologize but I originally wasn't clear on just how complex this would be. Here are a couple options: a.) we raise the project budget to XX or b.) we reduce some of the deliverables to make up for the difference. If they give a lot of push back then there's not a lot you can do and if you signed the contract, you are out of luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6546" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2358" RevisionGUID="267a5d61-13fa-4217-b7be-657c8c34d34e" CreationDate="2014-09-08T12:33:58.293" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="Communication with the client is really important. I would speak to her and mention that you under estimated and negotiate with her if it is possible to come to a new agreement that better suits both of you. This may include changing to an hourly payment schedule. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is really important to define the scope of your work beforehand. Document it, agree on it, and don't deviate from it. It is also really important to define what you do in general as a professional. Even though you may be capable of doing something, does not necessarily mean you should do it for a client. While I can program in C, it is not my speciality and so I do not do that for clients. I will point them in the direction of a C programmer. This allows me time to focus on my work and spend time doing what I want to specialise in. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client has trouble downloading and unzipping the file I send them and it is a significant amount of work to fix, I'll mention that this is not within the scope of the work that I'm being paid to do and charge them extra. You cannot foresee all of these little things that will come up. This is why defining your work scope is so important. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is relying on you, as the professional, to advise her on how long these things will take. With experience you begin to get better at estimating, defining work scopes, and see problems before they arise (to some extent). However, it is impossible to predict everything, and so these kinds of situations will inevitably happen, and when they do, communicate and renegotiate. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6547" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2358" RevisionGUID="66d93b66-6e1f-478a-bf23-e102bdb2c3c3" CreationDate="2014-09-08T12:39:59.690" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 42 characters in body" Text="Communication with the client is really important. I would speak to her and mention that you under estimated and negotiate with her if it is possible to come to a new agreement that better suits both of you. The two of you should go through the options you've mentioned and decide which option is the best. (Apart from the charity one! That's your personal choice after discussion with her about the rest.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is really important to define the scope of your work beforehand. Document it, agree on it, and don't deviate from it. It is also really important to define what you do in general as a professional. Even though you may be capable of doing something, does not necessarily mean you should do it for a client. While I can program in C, it is not my speciality and so I do not do that for clients. I will point them in the direction of a C programmer. This allows me time to focus on my work and spend time doing what I want to specialise in. Additionally, If I do work that is not my area of expertise, I may perform sub-optimally and the client may get a bad impression. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client has trouble downloading and unzipping the file I send them and it is a significant amount of work to fix, I'll mention that this is not within the scope of the work that I'm being paid to do and charge them extra. You cannot foresee all of these little things that will come up. This is why defining your work scope is so important. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is relying on you, as the professional, to advise her on how long these things will take. With experience you begin to get better at estimating, defining work scopes, and see problems before they arise (to some extent). However, it is impossible to predict everything, and so these kinds of situations will inevitably happen, and when they do, communicate and renegotiate. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6548" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2359" RevisionGUID="ddd47c6e-b244-4b9e-b8ee-e771db62c6a2" CreationDate="2014-09-08T13:06:09.923" UserId="517" Text="Is this the first such task? Is he a really good client? If you are not in need of those 1 hour, give them that hour for free. The golder rule of the premium hotels is &quot;no matter how rich you are, everyone likes a free champagne&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do this for very good clients and they appreciate it. Just make sure they are aware of it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One more consideration. If possible, try to predict if the client is not one of those who will bother you with &quot;when will I get more free hours&quot;. If you suspect that, then charge him your regular hourly price. One good indicator of such client if that such clients often mention your hourly price and ask for discounts. For example, I clearly stated a client of mine that after we work together for 100 work hours, I will give him discounted price. After 20 or so work hours, he started asking me if he can already get the discounted price. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6549" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2360" RevisionGUID="0e5bd758-db6e-4d9f-96aa-d56080f16ade" CreationDate="2014-09-08T18:19:23.587" UserId="4556" Text="Firstly, I'm assuming your friend is a qualified agronomist and knows how to do the job, with that said; part of the role of an agronomist is typically field-based work, so they may need to be prepared to travel or make alternative arrangements for soil sampling, field scouting etc, that part of the job aside there's no reason it wouldn't be possible to work as a &quot;remote freelance agronomist&quot;, providing they are *able to find clients*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As with any freelance role they'll need to consider the way they position the services of an agronomist. The Alberta government list a [series of things for farmers to consider](http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$Department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex13366) which might make a reasonable starting point for working out how to pitch the role to clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also worth noting that many farmers may not be aware that they have the option to hire an Agronomist (whether a freelancer or part of a company), so your friend may want to consider cold-calls, advertising, or writing on related topics, in order to generate leads. They should also try and get testimonials from any past-clients in order to establish that they have experience in this field and aren't straight out of University.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, in terms of resources I'd suggest reading around outbound marketing techniques (particularly traditional approaches; cold-calls, direct mail etc…), looking into local trade shows related to farming/agronomy that they could attend, and potentially joining a trade organisation (if they aren't already a member)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6553" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2362" RevisionGUID="10d31b1e-dd86-44b0-b0fb-67c4700b5073" CreationDate="2014-09-08T21:34:00.517" UserId="4850" Text="I would bill your full price, since this has not been agreed upon before and the client asked for your bill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this case, I think billing this hour full price establishes the price of your support for future support they might need. As you rightfully remark, you don't want to sell yourself short. If they are a good client and they are happy with your work, you can always give them another hour another time for free, which might be better appreciated because they have paid the full price once and know what they are getting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do decide to give that hour for free, of course, do send the bill for XXX and then &quot;offered&quot;, so they know the nature and amount of the gift..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6554" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2362" RevisionGUID="34f30c9c-4973-452b-acb0-bf87f997685f" CreationDate="2014-09-08T21:40:31.337" UserId="4850" Comment="added 27 characters in body" Text="I would bill your full price, since this has not been agreed upon before and the client asked for your bill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this case, I think billing this hour full price establishes the price of your support for future support they might need. As you rightfully remark, you don't want to sell yourself short. If they are a good client and they are happy with your work, you can always give them another hour another time for free, which might be better appreciated because they have paid the full price once and know what they are getting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do decide to give that hour for free, of course, do send the bill for XXX and then add &quot;offered&quot; at the end of the line, so they know the nature and amount of the gift..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6555" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2138" RevisionGUID="25d34304-1beb-4f56-a726-04e00cc56233" CreationDate="2014-09-08T22:01:55.417" UserId="1706" Comment="added 25 characters in body" Text="I'm new to freelancing and an international client of mine is interested in hiring me to help with his startup business. In the process, he wants to preserve his intellectual property and has sent me a Non Disclosure Agreement to sign. The agreement contains nothing about the nature of the work or the financial details. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a bit skeptic about this, as a lawyer has suggested that I get all the details in a single agreement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm really confused, and need advice very urgently." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6556" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2363" RevisionGUID="42e6ee3b-1655-40e5-805c-ad9f929f5f31" CreationDate="2014-09-08T22:04:55.753" UserId="1706" Text="Full hourly rate is the way to go.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - It establishes you as a serious professional&#xD;&#xA; - It trains your client to not expect freebies.  This is something that has to be done early on in the relationship.&#xD;&#xA; - It pays you what you're worth (did you have a dispute about this part??)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6557" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2364" RevisionGUID="26abb702-746d-4d06-908b-78db6f65e71d" CreationDate="2014-09-08T22:19:12.903" UserId="4850" Text="I think the first question to ask yourself is &quot;how much time am I ready to spend managing my social web presence?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This should already narrow down how many platforms you should tackle in working on your &quot;brand&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Effective Social media strategies take time, so make sure that whichever you choose, you have time to do it well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. one platform: I would suggest trying the different platforms you believe are most interesting for your line of work one after the other, to try and see which offers the most engagement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. While you could have one platform (it could be your website) that you would use as a hub to give an overview of all your social media presence, I would strongly advise against publishing the same content in several places. It is frustrating for anyone following you to see the same thing appear several times in their feeds in different platforms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. While not &quot;all&quot; social media platforms will yield the same engagement from the public, it is interesting to diversify if you feel it actually serves your branding. Different platforms call for different content, and complementarity content makes sense. You don't say the same things in pictures (instagram) or in words (medium) or in video (youtube or vimeo) etc.. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But this all boils down to time. A social media where you can't engage with the public, where you don't answer questions or join the conversation is a dead social media and does more to give a bad impression than having just one channel you use to market yourself. Keyword: &quot;social&quot;. Be social, join the conversation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found a few of thise &quot;how to&quot; guides quite useful, even if they are more general than specific. But they do give a good starting point to choose the right media and see how to go about using it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - [Platform specific best practices - TUFTS][1] &#xD;&#xA; - [Social media - a beginner's guide to building your brand - Guardian][2]&#xD;&#xA; - [A Beginner’s Social Media Guide for Small Businesses - Social Media Examiner][3]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end though, time is key. Time is care, time is attention, and it's the attention you give that will get you the attention you seek.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://webcomm.tufts.edu/social-media-best-practices13/#platformspecific&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2014/sep/03/social-media-building-brand-beginners-guide&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-guide-small-businesses/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6558" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2300" RevisionGUID="e160842a-c3aa-4a6f-ae4b-28510f3a1761" CreationDate="2014-09-09T05:22:59.867" UserId="64" Comment="edited to try and clarify the post. " Text="I read this post which would answer part of my question:&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2022/how-to-setup-client-ownership-of-domain-name-and-hosting&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In that question, the asker wanted to know how to make sure ownership of the domain/hosting is handed off to the client so that person wouldn't have to manage it indefinitely. I have a similar question:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I mostly work for organizations having at least one or two IT departments of their own. Oftentimes, they have their own servers. However, not all clients have their own infrastructure. For instance, let's picture the following client:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The client is a very small business or non-profit organisation, or is a standalone person&#xD;&#xA; 2. The client is non-technical&#xD;&#xA; 3. The client has no server infrastructure. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this case, if you create a Drupal/Wordpress/etc site using a panel, it will be fully managed after server downtime or hardware failure. It will just restart and work. The backups are taken care of by the hosting provider.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But what if, lets say, you'd rather use Django or Play Framework? This requires more complex tooling. For instance, I'll need the following items:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Console access, with sufficient privileges to set up the server. &#xD;&#xA; 2. I'll need to take care of inittab setup, so the application restarts in case of trouble. I'll need to be root.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Questions:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When using something like Django or the Play Framework, will using something like inittab be enough to allow me to disengage from the client and not have to maintain the system? If I want to disengage, must I use a major panel created CMS or will the above plan work? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6559" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2300" RevisionGUID="e160842a-c3aa-4a6f-ae4b-28510f3a1761" CreationDate="2014-09-09T05:22:59.867" UserId="64" Comment="edited to try and clarify the post. " Text="Must I use cPanel-based hosting providers for applications I built for a client where I don't want to manage things after deployment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6560" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2365" RevisionGUID="b979c43c-e8f0-43fb-804b-283842c6405a" CreationDate="2014-09-09T17:25:23.557" UserId="1818" Text="There are too many variables for us to be able to say what is correct for you: your relationship with the client, how many clients you have, the state of your cash flow, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have set a fair (to both sides) price on the original work, you should be able to absorb the one hour if you choose to.  This can create or enhance the goodwill you have built up with this client.  Not only can this lead to more work from the client, but it can also lead to good word of mouth advertising from this client.  This can be the most powerful form of advertising for you.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you have a marketing budget?  How does this one hour of review compare to your other marketing expenses?  Is this a reasonable trade-off for you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end you need to know your client well enough to to identify whether they are likely to take advantage of you or like you more than they already do.  If they are good client, you could get much more value out of this than the one billable hour." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6561" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="592" RevisionGUID="44b4c961-15e2-4d1b-9ba6-7766e0add7ad" CreationDate="2014-09-09T20:08:34.220" UserId="4556" Comment="Corrected a link to point to Gov.uk rather than the old version in the National Archives (visit old link to see)." Text="&gt; I am currently a student with no registered business etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are required to [register (link)][1] with [tag:HMRC] as self-employed in this case - and while you are at it (assuming profits are below the threshold) register as exempt from Class 2 National Insurance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Failure to register will result in a fine if (when?) you get tagged...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is required on a UK invoice is kindly explained by [the Government itself (link)][2] which includes the following provisions (copied/pasted for completeness):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You must clearly display the word ‘invoice’ on the document. You must&#xD;&#xA;&gt; also include:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; - a unique identification number&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - your company name, address and contact information&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the company name and address of the customer you are invoicing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - a clear description of what you are charging for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the date the goods or service were provided (supply date)&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the date of the invoice&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the amount(s) being charged&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - VAT amount if applicable&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the total amount owed&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you’re a sole trader, the invoice must also include:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - the trader’s name or any business name being used&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - an address where any legal documents can be delivered to you if you are using a business name&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm not VAT registered so does that mean I only charge for my hours *&#xD;&#xA;&gt; standard rate and not add 20% for VAT?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are not registered for VAT, then VAT is irrelevant... you do not add it to your invoice - although this does mean you cannot reclaim any VAT you are charged on your purchases.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So your invoice value is (as you say) `hours x rate`.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do become VAT registered, VAT would be chargeable on future invoices (not retrospectively) as **an additional 20%** of the invoice value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gov.uk/register-for-self-assessment&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers/overview" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6562" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="592" RevisionGUID="44b4c961-15e2-4d1b-9ba6-7766e0add7ad" CreationDate="2014-09-09T20:08:34.220" Comment="Proposed by 4556 approved by 85 edit id of 348" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6563" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2321" RevisionGUID="baa67766-82cc-4a06-b1f4-9a1920bcfc32" CreationDate="2014-09-09T20:09:09.127" UserId="4556" Comment="Clarifying the intent of the question and rewriting parts to try and make the situation and question clearer." Text="I'm quite a solid front-end developer with a solid hourly rate. Everything seems to be fine except one thing; about 4 months ago I discovered that I have to skip 9 out of 10 jobs for Front End developers, because I do not know anything about basic Javascript/jQuery.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I started learning it about 4 months ago. Watched a lot of some kind of &quot;theory&quot; lectures. Learned the basic syntax, methods, API, browser's API (a bit). I did the same thing with jQuery. I know how to do very basic things, DOM manipulation, and can write/edit small scripts. But it doesn't seem to be enough, at least for me to take money for that. It looks like I need to learn whilst working on clients' projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So the question is:** Where's this boundary, when I can include JS/jQuery work in my skill-list and apply for the jobs that include it. How do I know whether I'm competent enough to charge clients for JS work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6564" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2321" RevisionGUID="baa67766-82cc-4a06-b1f4-9a1920bcfc32" CreationDate="2014-09-09T20:09:09.127" UserId="4556" Comment="Clarifying the intent of the question and rewriting parts to try and make the situation and question clearer." Text="How to know when you are a competent enough programmer to charge clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6565" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2321" RevisionGUID="baa67766-82cc-4a06-b1f4-9a1920bcfc32" CreationDate="2014-09-09T20:09:09.127" UserId="4556" Comment="Clarifying the intent of the question and rewriting parts to try and make the situation and question clearer." Text="|price-per-hour|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6566" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2321" RevisionGUID="baa67766-82cc-4a06-b1f4-9a1920bcfc32" CreationDate="2014-09-09T20:09:09.127" Comment="Proposed by 4556 approved by 517, 85 edit id of 346" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6567" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2355" RevisionGUID="85cf93c0-2136-4260-9b99-205ff9994d30" CreationDate="2014-09-09T23:58:14.717" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/509490998687195136" />
  <row Id="6568" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="2300" RevisionGUID="1bc94567-2a03-4c35-b049-01ee6adc18b2" CreationDate="2014-09-10T03:20:05.110" UserId="64" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6569" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2366" RevisionGUID="a7a070c4-b51b-4f05-a564-0a171d9642df" CreationDate="2014-09-10T09:47:49.560" UserId="4860" Text="For our eCommerce business, I'm writing a series of articles cosmetics tips &amp; trends that tie into our products. Once I have a few up (about 8), I want to hire a freelancer online, ideally a girl/lady who's passionate about cosmetics, writes interestingly and can take decent photos (mobile is ok with me). She would then report to me and write certain number of blog articles weekly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This would be my first time hiring a freelance blogger/writer, so I'd like advice on the following please:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - How to find good fashion writers? Do I advertise on outsourcing forums? Do I look for writers' forums? &#xD;&#xA; - What signs do I look out for in a good blogger employee? What are red flags to avoid?&#xD;&#xA; - How do I compensate this person? Per article? Per wordcount? Hours? What is the decent market rate for this work? What is the market rate for foreign outsourced workers?&#xD;&#xA; - How do I manage this person remotely to ensure good article pipeline, quality of content and employee happiness?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6570" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2366" RevisionGUID="a7a070c4-b51b-4f05-a564-0a171d9642df" CreationDate="2014-09-10T09:47:49.560" UserId="4860" Text="Going about hiring freelance bloggers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6571" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2366" RevisionGUID="a7a070c4-b51b-4f05-a564-0a171d9642df" CreationDate="2014-09-10T09:47:49.560" UserId="4860" Text="|freelance-websites|payment-terms|pay-rate|portfolio|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6572" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2367" RevisionGUID="1b896147-be4c-49bd-858c-1e60bf46bf25" CreationDate="2014-09-10T10:03:48.367" UserId="121" Text="Generally speaking, looking at how other large organizations that provide products that can be self-installed (e.g. Automattic provides WordPress self-hoster; although it's open source and not a paid product, the idea behind it is still the same):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Provide the product in a working state on the server. Once both you and the client agree that it's in a working state **the initial contract is over**. Make sure you clearly state this in there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. If support is needed after the initial deployment, e.g. the customer is unable to install plugins on his own, or needs small changes to the template, or wants to move the product completely to a different server, etc; **work by the hour**. Either extend the initial contract to state your hourly rate for after-deployment support or sign a new contract as needed for the support part only. In all cases, make sure you are paid your worth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, going the above route you have somewhat discarded the possibility for scope creep and endless comebacks from the client for small (unpaid) changes. Also, you may easily discard support requests in case you are busy with another client, although I wouldn't recommend this practice, because it can get you bad reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you deploy the product, your job is done and you are paid it is not your problem to manage the client's infrastructure and maintain it. You are not his IT guy or IT department. You are not paid for this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6573" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2366" RevisionGUID="659d29c9-688c-4885-a1fb-c65ad883e79e" CreationDate="2014-09-10T11:32:56.110" UserId="4860" Comment="added 90 characters in body" Text="For our eCommerce business, I'm writing a series of cosmetics tips &amp; trends blog posts that tie into our products. Once I have a few up (about 8), I want to hire a freelancer online, ideally a girl/lady who's passionate about cosmetics, writes interestingly and can take decent photos (mobile is ok with me). She would then report to me and write certain number of blog articles weekly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This would be my first time hiring a freelance blogger/writer, so I'd like advice on the following please:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - How to find good fashion writers? Do I advertise on outsourcing forums? Do I look for writers' forums? &#xD;&#xA; - What signs do I look out for in a good blogger employee? What are red flags to avoid?&#xD;&#xA; - How do I compensate this person? Per article? Per wordcount? Hours? What is the decent market rate for this work? What is the market rate for foreign outsourced workers? Actually I'd love to compensate based on effectiveness per article (likes, shares). Is that sensible?&#xD;&#xA; - How do I manage this person remotely to ensure good article pipeline, quality of content and employee happiness?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6574" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2366" RevisionGUID="73fd01c8-66d8-4b0f-88fe-83ad7f3693ff" CreationDate="2014-09-10T17:59:53.040" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/509763202054246401" />
  <row Id="6575" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2368" RevisionGUID="301a5040-51a0-4191-a1f3-e51fccf3f13f" CreationDate="2014-09-10T22:31:51.740" UserId="4862" Text="I have a website for high school and college wrestling.  It stores data for the users and they can generate reports, see statistics, etc.  It's been running for 4 seasons now and I have around 350 accounts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm close to releasing my Android App that will allow users to score matches from a tablet at matside and upload the results to the website vs manually entering the results on the website from a scorebook.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I offer the website free to users, I generate some revenue from ads. I'm having problems deciding on a price for the app since it's really unique or should I charge for the website and give the app out free or charge for both?  This app will only be of use to people that have an account on my website.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any suggestions?   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6576" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2368" RevisionGUID="301a5040-51a0-4191-a1f3-e51fccf3f13f" CreationDate="2014-09-10T22:31:51.740" UserId="4862" Text="What to charge for android app" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6577" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2368" RevisionGUID="301a5040-51a0-4191-a1f3-e51fccf3f13f" CreationDate="2014-09-10T22:31:51.740" UserId="4862" Text="|payment-terms|price|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6578" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2368" RevisionGUID="23e133d8-5983-40bb-9d26-e87295d93d5b" CreationDate="2014-09-11T03:51:27.347" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus on the question, not suggestions.  Also edited title to match the question in the body" Text="I have a website for high school and college wrestling.  It stores data for the users and they can generate reports, see statistics, etc.  It's been running for 4 seasons now and I have around 350 accounts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm close to releasing my Android App that will allow users to score matches from a tablet at matside and upload the results to the website vs manually entering the results on the website from a scorebook.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I offer the website free to users; I generate some revenue from ads. I'm having problems deciding on a price for the app, since it's really unique. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I charge for the website and give the app out free or charge for both?  This app will only be of use to people that have an account on my website.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6579" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2368" RevisionGUID="23e133d8-5983-40bb-9d26-e87295d93d5b" CreationDate="2014-09-11T03:51:27.347" UserId="64" Comment="edited to focus on the question, not suggestions.  Also edited title to match the question in the body" Text="Should I charge for an Android app by charging for access to a companion website or should I just charge for the app itself?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6580" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2366" RevisionGUID="84fd9cbe-6ff6-4614-863b-c4e2bf0c9bb8" CreationDate="2014-09-11T03:56:41.153" UserId="4860" Comment="deleted 483 characters in body; edited title" Text="For our eCommerce business, I'm writing a series of cosmetics tips &amp; trends blog posts that tie into our products. Once I have a few up (about 8), I want to hire a freelancer online, ideally a girl/lady who's passionate about cosmetics, writes interestingly and can take decent photos (mobile is ok with me). She would then report to me and write certain number of blog articles weekly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This would be my first time hiring a freelance blogger/writer, so I'd like advice on the following please:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - How to find good fashion writers? Do I advertise on outsourcing forums? Do I look for writers' forums? &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6581" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2366" RevisionGUID="84fd9cbe-6ff6-4614-863b-c4e2bf0c9bb8" CreationDate="2014-09-11T03:56:41.153" UserId="4860" Comment="deleted 483 characters in body; edited title" Text="Freelance Bloggers [1/4] - Finding them" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6582" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2369" RevisionGUID="4b011fb8-0f4e-4ae1-a0a0-0879171b14b4" CreationDate="2014-09-11T03:58:26.167" UserId="4860" Text="For our eCommerce business, I'm writing a series of cosmetics tips &amp; trends blog posts that tie into our products. Once I have a few up (about 8), I want to hire a freelancer online, ideally a girl/lady who's passionate about cosmetics, writes interestingly and can take decent photos (mobile is ok with me). She would then report to me and write certain number of blog articles weekly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This would be my first time hiring a freelance blogger/writer, so I'd like advice on the following please:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - What signs do I look out for in a good blogger employee? What are red flags to avoid?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6583" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2369" RevisionGUID="4b011fb8-0f4e-4ae1-a0a0-0879171b14b4" CreationDate="2014-09-11T03:58:26.167" UserId="4860" Text="Freelance Bloggers [2/4] - spotting good ones" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6584" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2369" RevisionGUID="4b011fb8-0f4e-4ae1-a0a0-0879171b14b4" CreationDate="2014-09-11T03:58:26.167" UserId="4860" Text="|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6585" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2370" RevisionGUID="9808d8ec-b5d0-47aa-9d96-59149526dad1" CreationDate="2014-09-11T04:03:52.803" UserId="4860" Text="For our eCommerce business, I'm writing a series of cosmetics tips &amp; trends blog posts that tie into our products. Once I have a few up (about 8), I want to hire a freelancer online, ideally a girl/lady who's passionate about cosmetics, writes interestingly and can take decent photos (mobile is ok with me). She would then report to me and write certain number of blog articles weekly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This would be my first time hiring a freelance blogger/writer, so I'd like advice on the following please:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - How do I manage this person remotely to ensure good article pipeline, quality of content and employee happiness?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6586" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2370" RevisionGUID="9808d8ec-b5d0-47aa-9d96-59149526dad1" CreationDate="2014-09-11T04:03:52.803" UserId="4860" Text="Freelance Bloggers [4/4] - Employee management" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6587" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2370" RevisionGUID="9808d8ec-b5d0-47aa-9d96-59149526dad1" CreationDate="2014-09-11T04:03:52.803" UserId="4860" Text="|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6588" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2371" RevisionGUID="ce0a1f67-f6cf-4cc1-adf0-5c8b51ba3fb6" CreationDate="2014-09-11T04:10:39.540" UserId="4860" Text="For our eCommerce business, I'm writing a series of cosmetics tips &amp; trends blog posts that tie into our products. Once I have a few up (about 8), I want to hire a freelancer online, ideally a girl/lady who's passionate about cosmetics, writes interestingly and can take decent photos (mobile is ok with me). She would then report to me and write certain number of blog articles weekly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This would be my first time hiring a freelance blogger/writer, so I'd like advice on the following please:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - How do I compensate this person? Per article? Per wordcount? Hours? What is the decent market rate for this work? What is the market rate for foreign outsourced workers? &#xD;&#xA; - Actually I'd love to compensate based on effectiveness per article (likes, shares). Is that sensible?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6589" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2371" RevisionGUID="ce0a1f67-f6cf-4cc1-adf0-5c8b51ba3fb6" CreationDate="2014-09-11T04:10:39.540" UserId="4860" Text="Freelance Bloggers [3/4] - Compensation" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6590" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2371" RevisionGUID="ce0a1f67-f6cf-4cc1-adf0-5c8b51ba3fb6" CreationDate="2014-09-11T04:10:39.540" UserId="4860" Text="|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6591" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2369" RevisionGUID="dd7e66ec-3fd4-4810-a935-1e80fa43ed25" CreationDate="2014-09-11T04:19:49.137" UserId="4860" Comment="edited title" Text="Freelance Bloggers [2/4] - Spotting talent" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6592" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2368" RevisionGUID="c7b74a74-07f5-44c9-baf1-381c17315313" CreationDate="2014-09-11T06:03:22.327" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/509945273611612160" />
  <row Id="6593" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2350" RevisionGUID="d3932ec2-5afc-4094-bdb8-23f525520ff5" CreationDate="2014-09-11T15:03:22.190" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/510081168625000448" />
  <row Id="6594" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2366" RevisionGUID="30744c29-97ef-4905-8133-273793f3dece" CreationDate="2014-09-11T18:07:49.300" UserId="9" Comment="Edited title, removed most tags (not related to question), worked question into text" Text="For our eCommerce business, I'm writing a series of cosmetics tips &amp; trends blog posts that tie into our products. Once I have a few up (about 8), I want to hire a freelancer online, ideally a girl/lady who's passionate about cosmetics, writes interestingly and can take decent photos (mobile is ok with me). She would then report to me and write certain number of blog articles weekly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This would be my first time hiring a freelance blogger/writer, so how would I find good fashion writers? Would it be best to advertise on outsourcing forums, or would I look on writers' forums?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6595" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2366" RevisionGUID="30744c29-97ef-4905-8133-273793f3dece" CreationDate="2014-09-11T18:07:49.300" UserId="9" Comment="Edited title, removed most tags (not related to question), worked question into text" Text="Finding freelance bloggers in specialized field" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6596" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2366" RevisionGUID="30744c29-97ef-4905-8133-273793f3dece" CreationDate="2014-09-11T18:07:49.300" UserId="9" Comment="Edited title, removed most tags (not related to question), worked question into text" Text="|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6597" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2366" RevisionGUID="30744c29-97ef-4905-8133-273793f3dece" CreationDate="2014-09-11T18:07:49.300" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 351" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6598" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2352" RevisionGUID="7492ba74-7567-405e-8e53-c2b72294d69a" CreationDate="2014-09-11T21:03:22.097" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/510171765273022464" />
  <row Id="6599" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2372" RevisionGUID="6bc22d71-c3c6-4c66-9da6-1f5697a3c492" CreationDate="2014-09-11T21:39:01.147" UserId="1754" Text="I have a client, who wants me to work on a plugin, enhance/rewrite the code of a plugin. She has asked me what would be my price.I never worked on fixed prices in which the client don't give me any budget and i had to decide. So now given such situation in which i have to work for a client, which has not set a budget and wants me to quote the price, how do i do that? what are the factors i will have to keep in mind?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6600" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2372" RevisionGUID="6bc22d71-c3c6-4c66-9da6-1f5697a3c492" CreationDate="2014-09-11T21:39:01.147" UserId="1754" Text="Quoting a project with a open budget" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6601" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2372" RevisionGUID="6bc22d71-c3c6-4c66-9da6-1f5697a3c492" CreationDate="2014-09-11T21:39:01.147" UserId="1754" Text="|price|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6602" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2373" RevisionGUID="a9b553c9-507f-4a77-966a-2b93e19d4fd2" CreationDate="2014-09-11T22:03:21.423" UserId="127" Text="Here are the factors I use when determining a fixed price for clients:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* My estimated time to complete the work&#xD;&#xA;* My confidence level in that estimate (is it similar to work I've done before? Then I might have more confidence. If it isn't similar, or has other risk factors, then I might charge more on a fixed bid to mitigate that risk.)&#xD;&#xA;* Any third party tools or components I will need to use and pay for?&#xD;&#xA;* How easy or difficult is it to work with this client? If they are pain, I might charge more.&#xD;&#xA;* Is the work interesting? Something that will help me in the future? If so, I might charge a little less. &#xD;&#xA;* Does my estimate really capture everything required? (Documentation? Training? Installation?)&#xD;&#xA;* For how long will they expect to receive fixes to this plugin after delivery? plan on some time and factor it into your price, and make sure the contract makes it clear when that is done.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6603" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2374" RevisionGUID="4870061c-c26e-4138-8dde-e4ffd4923ea2" CreationDate="2014-09-11T22:40:52.850" UserId="4870" Text="Whether or not you are &quot;competent&quot; in a certain technology shouldn't be the deciding factor for whether or not you should charge someone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The real question is: can you deliver value, generally through a product, to your client? If so, you should absolutely charge the client for the value you provide. Your client likely doesn't care if you are a wizard in Javascript/Jquery/etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**They want to know if you can build them a piece of software that improves their bottom line**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Coming from personal experience, I started my freelance business bidding on Ruby on Rails projects before I had ever touched the framework. However, I was confident in my ability to pick up the new skill and provide value to the client. And hell yeah they paid me for it!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6604" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2372" RevisionGUID="bd2850ba-da0e-4c5d-a7c3-ebda9e19c71a" CreationDate="2014-09-12T11:37:55.077" UserId="517" Comment="edited title" Text="Quoting a project with an open budget" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6605" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2375" RevisionGUID="59b9cd2e-4291-448f-b68f-3dd81665f7e4" CreationDate="2014-09-12T11:40:55.510" UserId="517" Text="Just to add to Avonelle's topic since you replied you have no experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try to cut the project to the smallest units and then estimate each unit's time for implementation. Add 30% to research and testing. Then multiply the time you get with your hourly price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you still cannot get estimate or the final price seems too high, then think of how much time you need, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month. Determine the price accordingly which will satisfy you. There are high chances that you will work more this time, but it will be a good start for the next similar tasks. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6606" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2376" RevisionGUID="0fb9ebaf-e617-4174-b21f-09b898b54039" CreationDate="2014-09-12T14:22:14.073" UserId="4871" Text="Good question, with such a small user base one cannot do many experiments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a fine line between &quot;covering your costs&quot; and &quot;making a profit&quot;. Users tend to accept the first but tend to get unhappy about the second. If you decide on asking a price then you want to explain your decision accordingly. With a good reasoning  you can charge a price that your users consider as being reasonable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you would want to ensure that asking for compensation is based on the app offering a distinct benefit to the user. You will want to get the user into the mindset of them getting their moneys worth. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, with 350 users and not everybody wanting to purchase the app, probably you can expect only a contribution towards the expense of running the website. App prices are on a all time low. A dollar or two is not much to cover developers expenses. &#xD;&#xA;The web site will have a ongoing cost, developing and maintaining an app are ongoing expenses, too. Selling an app is a one-off event. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing that comes to mind is a subscription model. You could charge the user for access per season. That way you would have a more regular form of income.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6607" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2372" RevisionGUID="1c092a02-6663-4c05-809d-d4975c69a83c" CreationDate="2014-09-12T18:43:14.447" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, split into two sections (background and question), added [project-bidding]" Text="I have a client who wants me to enhance/rewrite a plugin's code. She's asked what my price would be for completing the work, but she didn't give me a budget. However, I've never had to come up with a fixed price for my work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given this situation, how would I go about quoting a price, and what factors do I have to keep in mind?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6608" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2372" RevisionGUID="1c092a02-6663-4c05-809d-d4975c69a83c" CreationDate="2014-09-12T18:43:14.447" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, split into two sections (background and question), added [project-bidding]" Text="|price|project-bidding|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6609" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2372" RevisionGUID="1c092a02-6663-4c05-809d-d4975c69a83c" CreationDate="2014-09-12T18:43:14.447" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 75 edit id of 353" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6610" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2377" RevisionGUID="18bdc80d-f2fa-4e20-bef7-5eab9ea67e0f" CreationDate="2014-09-12T19:36:46.007" UserId="1323" Text="**TL;DR:** Fake it until you make it.  Position yourself as a consultant who can solve business problems with technology.  Don't just say that you are willing to learn new skills, but also prove it by doing great work along the way using your other skills.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;I'm a UX designer with my own company.  Many designers deal with [impostor syndrome][1] - even those of us who are great at what we do.  And there is a temptation to have a sense of inferiority compared to other designers or compared to people who have skills that we don't.  Technology changes fast for us too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, what clients are looking for is not a JavaScript developer or a jQuery developer or a Ruby On Rails developer.  In his podcast, [The Business of Freelancing][2], Brennan Dunn says that what clients are looking for is a business consultant who can solve their business problems using technical skills.  Position yourself first as **someone who can solve the problems that your clients' businesses are facing**.  You'll always have value there.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, position yourself as **someone who can do great work**.  You might have different skills right now than what your clients are asking for, but keep the quality of your work high regardless of what you are working on, and your clients will understand that when you tell them you're willing to learn something new, you'll still work at a high quality.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you said you already have a solid hourly rate, I assume you have done this to some extent and that you are bringing value to your clients.  If you meet too much resistance with not having the skills, teach the skills to yourself on your own time and create a personal project for your portfolio.  I would say at that point, you could include js/jQuery in your skill list.  That will also show clients that you have a strong enough interest in your craft to stay on top of new technology.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I no longer believe that &quot;when can I start charging for this?&quot; is the right question to ask.  I switched from working as a software developer in a traditional corporate setting to doing UX design as a full-time freelance business owner.  Big leap.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So when I first started freelancing, I did a lot of free work.  I thought that would get me exposure and put work in my portfolio.  The clients gave me some thank yous and recommendations, and I was grateful for that.  But ultimately, the inbound leads that it generated were from other people who told me I was too expensive even though I was quoting them less than the average hourly rate for UX designers in my area.  **Free/cheap work attracts other free/cheap clients.**  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm still paying for the decision I made last year to work for free.  I wish that if I had done any free work at all, that it had been a very small project instead of a series of large websites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's never a reason for a working professional to work for free, unless a) you have other income paying your bills, b) you are doing this as a volunteer for an organization you care about, who can't pay you, and c) there is a very clearly-defined project scope.  Outside these parameters, if you promise to finish a free project, it's just a gift that keeps on taking from you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-business-of-freelancing/id567557176?mt=2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6611" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2372" RevisionGUID="b7251a36-8236-4145-8c7d-76f513cdd90f" CreationDate="2014-09-13T12:17:29.693" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/510764200608530432" />
  <row Id="6612" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2370" RevisionGUID="81c081ac-25af-405b-999c-f74ff87c4d50" CreationDate="2014-09-13T18:42:40.250" UserId="64" Comment="We want each question to stand on its own. More editing could be done to differentiate these, but this is a good start." Text="For our eCommerce business, I'm writing a series of cosmetics tips &amp; trends blog posts that tie into our products. Once I have a few up (about 8), I want to hire a freelancer online, ideally a girl/lady who's passionate about cosmetics, writes interestingly and can take decent photos (mobile is ok with me). She would then report to me and write certain number of blog articles weekly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This would be my first time hiring a freelance blogger/writer. How do I manage this person remotely to ensure good article pipeline, quality of content and employee happiness?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6613" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2370" RevisionGUID="81c081ac-25af-405b-999c-f74ff87c4d50" CreationDate="2014-09-13T18:42:40.250" UserId="64" Comment="We want each question to stand on its own. More editing could be done to differentiate these, but this is a good start." Text="How do I manage a remote freelance writer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6614" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2369" RevisionGUID="15cd639a-c37a-4009-a9eb-b262af6e115b" CreationDate="2014-09-13T18:45:36.807" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title and removed plea for advice, which puts focus on Q&amp;A. SE is not a discussion forum." Text="For our eCommerce business, I'm writing a series of cosmetics tips &amp; trends blog posts that tie into our products. Once I have a few up (about 8), I want to hire a freelancer online, ideally a girl/lady who's passionate about cosmetics, writes interestingly and can take decent photos (mobile is ok with me). She would then report to me and write certain number of blog articles weekly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I spot a talented freelance blogger? What are red flags to avoid?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6615" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2369" RevisionGUID="15cd639a-c37a-4009-a9eb-b262af6e115b" CreationDate="2014-09-13T18:45:36.807" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title and removed plea for advice, which puts focus on Q&amp;A. SE is not a discussion forum." Text="How can I spot a talented freelance blogger?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6616" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2371" RevisionGUID="a3debaef-6b96-4436-a122-c9e1d856ea4d" CreationDate="2014-09-13T18:50:03.747" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title" Text="For our eCommerce business, I'm writing a series of cosmetics tips &amp; trends blog posts that tie into our products. Once I have a few up (about 8), I want to hire a freelancer online, ideally a girl/lady who's passionate about cosmetics, writes interestingly and can take decent photos (mobile is ok with me). She would then report to me and write certain number of blog articles weekly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This would be my first time hiring a freelance blogger/writer, so I have questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - How do I compensate this person? Per article? Per word count? Hours? What is the decent market rate for this work? What is the market rate for foreign outsourced workers? &#xD;&#xA; - Actually I'd love to compensate based on effectiveness per article (likes, shares). Is that sensible?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6617" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2371" RevisionGUID="a3debaef-6b96-4436-a122-c9e1d856ea4d" CreationDate="2014-09-13T18:50:03.747" UserId="64" Comment="fixed title" Text="How do I compensate a freelance blogger that I want to hire?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6618" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2378" RevisionGUID="bc404260-5226-4ba3-8b03-4fb77afcb558" CreationDate="2014-09-13T22:56:14.967" UserId="4878" Text="You should charge more for the skype time, just because it is skype! :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It keeps you from working, in the early hours from being productive and probably drops your overall mood during the day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think nobody wants to start their day with talking one hour instead of getting work done. Skype calls are like meetings and should be set in the evening or around lunch time when your job related productivity is down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people keep the impression that work is not getting done if they are not actively present, either in the room or by skype. It is hard to change their minds, but show that you can work without the permanent control and they will go annoy someone else." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6621" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2321" RevisionGUID="71466a37-da42-402b-8c25-2742894376fc" CreationDate="2014-09-14T12:20:37.863" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/511127377611468801" />
  <row Id="6622" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2380" RevisionGUID="d6bf2289-d964-4b9f-b9f1-fe569c4b63b5" CreationDate="2014-09-14T12:25:03.317" UserId="4628" Text="Get used to the &quot;not knowing the clients budget&quot; idea...you probably will rarely know that information, and to be honest, it's irrelevant anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to put a value on your time and knowledge...productivity etc etc.  Learn to break projects down into small bite-sized chunks and start getting a real handle on how long it you to get stuff done in a professional manner.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You mention you have no experience with this...fine, all the more reason to follow this advice.  Not only will you learn the processes, but you will gain very valuable insight on how fast (or slow) development takes without losing you shirt if you guess wrong in the beginning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't afford to be the cheapest estimate around...that race-to-the-bottom is a losing proposition for everyone involved.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The ability to estimate time and negotiate a fair and &quot;value-rich&quot; agreement between you and clients could very well be as if not more important than actual coding skills if you decide to be a long-term IC." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6623" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2381" RevisionGUID="00eeddec-f8e9-46e2-b522-c6f597cdb05b" CreationDate="2014-09-14T20:32:30.803" UserId="4887" Text="I am an Android and Web Developer and I worked with my mate which has holding all the customers and receiving the money, deadlines and that stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When finished these apps, he didn't want to pay me anything but I have prooves on emails and SMS where he said he was going to pay me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have never signed any document where I declare that I give all my projects to him, so on Android part I have **keystores**, **Google Accounts for APIs (Google Maps, Analytics)** and sources.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be my &quot;technologic weapons&quot; if I have to go to legal with him?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6624" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2381" RevisionGUID="00eeddec-f8e9-46e2-b522-c6f597cdb05b" CreationDate="2014-09-14T20:32:30.803" UserId="4887" Text="Wage employment / Freelancer - How holds the project doesn't want to pay me" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6625" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2381" RevisionGUID="00eeddec-f8e9-46e2-b522-c6f597cdb05b" CreationDate="2014-09-14T20:32:30.803" UserId="4887" Text="|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6626" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2382" RevisionGUID="2c976b07-5aad-4f74-b47d-79e486b6dfd2" CreationDate="2014-09-14T23:17:54.787" UserId="4889" Text="First change the password for all accounts. Do you have access to the developer console for uploading apps?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would not mention it to him and try solving the problem by talking. If all fails, you could worst case take the apps offline until he pays. But this will affect the users and can cause other legal problems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you consider this, go first talk to a lawyer! You might end up paying him instead of getting money!!!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6627" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2383" RevisionGUID="21d55e0c-2ad0-4769-acd2-a1a221b542a8" CreationDate="2014-09-15T00:15:44.023" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/256277/as-a-freelancer-how-do-you-quote-charge-for-a-project-estimation" />
  <row Id="6628" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2384" RevisionGUID="52bd4370-f8af-4c82-b64f-a65348bb277f" CreationDate="2014-09-15T00:15:44.023" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/256277/as-a-freelancer-how-do-you-quote-charge-for-a-project-estimation/256278#256278" />
  <row Id="6629" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2384" RevisionGUID="55e14883-afce-419e-b399-c46d5f5bc5e6" CreationDate="2014-09-14T18:30:01.460" UserId="4892" UserDisplayName="Esben Skov Pedersen" Text="Both are commonly used and you have to agree with your customer how you will bill this project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You as a contractor have to consider the risk of the project and add a safety margin. The higher the risk the higher a margin is added.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The customer will know this. If the project have a high risk it would make sense for him to ask you to bill by the hour. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These are just two examples. It all depends on what the customer expects.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6630" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2383" RevisionGUID="10e00592-f35a-472d-b858-fa6a0709d134" CreationDate="2014-09-14T18:15:50.403" UserId="4891" UserDisplayName="conor" Text="I am currently estimating effort, and therefore, the cost of a project for somebody who has asked &quot;how much is it going to cost for X&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After a discussion about functionality/scope I am providing a list of all the functionality to be developed and the number of hours to complete each. Then, multiplying the sum of hours by my hourly rate to determine project cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems simple, right.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But is this quote final then, so I have to deliver the specified functionality at that price? Or is it a case that I charge an hourly rate and will work to get everything done. If things crop up then it may take a little longer, and if I am honest then I will declare if something takes less time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically my question is:&#xD;&#xA;If I incorrectly estimate the time required to develop a feature, who pays? The client for extra time or my, the developer who messed up the estimate and just stomachs it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for any input." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6631" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2383" RevisionGUID="10e00592-f35a-472d-b858-fa6a0709d134" CreationDate="2014-09-14T18:15:50.403" UserId="4891" UserDisplayName="conor" Text="As a freelancer how do you quote/charge for a project [estimation]" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6632" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2383" RevisionGUID="10e00592-f35a-472d-b858-fa6a0709d134" CreationDate="2014-09-14T18:15:50.403" UserId="4891" UserDisplayName="conor" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6633" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2344" RevisionGUID="0805c897-7af4-45b3-a3a2-59ba48d2bd33" CreationDate="2014-09-15T00:20:38.117" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/511308572668358656" />
  <row Id="6634" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2383" RevisionGUID="de6944d3-42ba-4409-92ea-995b5d0429ce" CreationDate="2014-09-15T01:14:55.137" UserId="64" Comment="removed tag from title and put it where it belongs, in the tags section. Copy edited grammar." Text="I am currently estimating effort; therefore, I'm estimating the cost of a project for somebody who has asked &quot;how much is it going to cost for X&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After a discussion about functionality/scope I am providing a list of all the functionality to be developed and the number of hours to complete each. Then, multiplying the sum of hours by my hourly rate to determine project cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems simple, right.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But is this quote final then, so I have to deliver the specified functionality at that price? Or is it a case that I charge an hourly rate and will work to get everything done. If things crop up then it may take a little longer, and if I am honest then I will declare if something takes less time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically my question is:&#xD;&#xA;If I incorrectly estimate the time required to develop a feature, who pays? The client for extra time or me, the developer who messed up the estimate and just stomachs it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6635" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2383" RevisionGUID="de6944d3-42ba-4409-92ea-995b5d0429ce" CreationDate="2014-09-15T01:14:55.137" UserId="64" Comment="removed tag from title and put it where it belongs, in the tags section. Copy edited grammar." Text="As a freelancer how do you quote/charge for a project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6636" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2383" RevisionGUID="de6944d3-42ba-4409-92ea-995b5d0429ce" CreationDate="2014-09-15T01:14:55.137" UserId="64" Comment="removed tag from title and put it where it belongs, in the tags section. Copy edited grammar." Text="|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6637" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2385" RevisionGUID="a39f499d-20bf-4d13-8408-4aa0a373ccac" CreationDate="2014-09-15T01:33:01.183" UserId="708" Text="First you need to establish whether you are **estimating** the project cost or providing a **quote**. They are different.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An **estimate** is just that - based on the current scope defined, the amount you *estimate* it will take in hours to complete which calculates to X amount. In an *estimate* both parties should understand that the final cost and hours needed for completion is a &quot;best guess&quot; and are **not solid numbers**. Estimates should be *close* to final numbers but they often change. Estimating is often best for projects which have some ambiguous scope definitions or areas where it is unclear what may be needed until that stage of the project is reached.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A **quote** indicates that, based upon agreed scope, the cost for the project will be X. No guess work, no estimating. Quotes state &quot;this is what it will cost.&quot; It is agreed upon that $X is what you will charge and $X is what the client will pay. If you fail to calculate the time you need accurately, you'll need to eat any extra hours it may take. Quotes are **hard numbers** and should not be changed unless both parties readily agree things have surpassed project definitions. Quotes are best used when the project is clear, straight-forward, and contains no guess work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client is paying you hourly, then most instances would indicate an *estimate* and not a quote. Hourly pay is generally reserved for estimates because you *guessed* at the initial negotiations, therefore the client needs to see how much time things are taking and how close you are to the predefined estimate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pay for *quotes* isn't traditionally something which is done hourly. In many cases an upfront deposit is paid, then possibly a middle 1/3 payment, then a payment upon completion. The client isn't kept abreast of how many hours the project is taking because they've already agreed upon a flat **quoted** fee and that's what they expect to pay regardless of whether the project takes 5 hours or 50 hours. It's your job to calculate your time accurately when providing a quote.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, you need to negotiate with your client as to what payment structure best suits both of you. There's no right or wrong way to do this. It's all a matter of agreement between you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6639" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2386" RevisionGUID="8d0e077f-af78-43a4-a477-64d56e47a909" CreationDate="2014-09-15T12:50:16.457" UserId="4896" Text="So, I used to do freelance/contract work consistently for years. Mainly full LAMP stack developing. Now I am doing purely Linux/Unix system administration work with dabbling in development when the task dictates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, I am getting approached for some freelance/contract work that would use a small slice of my skill set &amp; I am unclear if there is any common method of tiering an hourly rate based on skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Meaning, for me I would value my hands-on Linux/Unix system administration skills as well as development skills at the highest tier. But if someone—let’s say—wants me to do a project review, code review, code cleanup, training or one-shot management of a system admin task they know I can handle well, how would I properly bill for that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my mind, the less hands on my consulting would be the less the hourly would be. And perhaps it would be best to have a clearly delineated one-time engagement fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or am I just overthinking all of this &amp; should just see all my services as one flat rate irregardless of how much hands-on “heavy lifting” I am doing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know this question might veer into an opinion question, but perhaps there are established guidelines folks commonly use that I am unaware of?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6640" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2386" RevisionGUID="8d0e077f-af78-43a4-a477-64d56e47a909" CreationDate="2014-09-15T12:50:16.457" UserId="4896" Text="How to best tier consulting rates for different aspects of one’s skill set?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6641" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2386" RevisionGUID="8d0e077f-af78-43a4-a477-64d56e47a909" CreationDate="2014-09-15T12:50:16.457" UserId="4896" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6642" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2387" RevisionGUID="08a6866b-c90c-47f9-b999-b225a94ea14d" CreationDate="2014-09-15T16:46:59.827" UserId="1549" Text="Hi I had started a business for IT consulting. I charge HST  for eash invoice.I went to an accounting to do my business tax for last month. my problem is the  accounting want me to  set salary  and to buy HST ,IE and  CPP?just I want to ask this I am the owner and the only worker and owner &quot;sole proprietorship&quot;  of the company should I set another salary to take from my salary ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6643" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2387" RevisionGUID="08a6866b-c90c-47f9-b999-b225a94ea14d" CreationDate="2014-09-15T16:46:59.827" UserId="1549" Text="sole proprietorship in Canada tax &amp; salary?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6644" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2387" RevisionGUID="08a6866b-c90c-47f9-b999-b225a94ea14d" CreationDate="2014-09-15T16:46:59.827" UserId="1549" Text="|taxes|consulting|subcontracting|canada|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6645" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2388" RevisionGUID="5933399a-bb66-42f6-9564-94c30b15c8f6" CreationDate="2014-09-15T19:03:24.900" UserId="75" Text="This is a common technique that some people do, in order to show their income level as low, but still having lots of income. When you set your company up as a sole proprietor, you can treat it like a separate entity. Actually, you should!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are taxed less as a company, then as an individual. The goal here is that you are paying *less* taxes overall, and getting more benefits! For anything that is determined by your annual income, this can be helpful (i.e. alimony/child support) if you show low income. You also qualify for other tax breaks, and other tricks that better accountants could tell you about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This also allows you to expand quicker when needed. If you find another IT consultant looking for work, you can use that freelancer to generate more income for you, while you either do more work, or sit and relax. Paying out a salary/wage, and doing the deductions, for other people or even just yourself, save you money down the line. Doing it now can be helpful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The goal is to buy anything you can *remotely* need for your company, under your company's name. The house, the vehicle, the cell phone, the Internet, etc. If you put it under your company's name, you can get better deals sometimes, and even write off the taxes you pay on certain services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not have the links readily available for more information, but I can certainly look, and post then later on for you to read through." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6646" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2386" RevisionGUID="d3d9fea2-fa3b-4960-aecf-98780140d0ec" CreationDate="2014-09-15T21:26:44.857" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/511627200311750656" />
  <row Id="6647" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2387" RevisionGUID="5bd86230-0a4a-47a3-8f5d-a4a9f0099e7b" CreationDate="2014-09-15T23:22:40.520" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar/spelling fixes, removed [subcontracting], rearranged title" Text="I've started a business doing IT consulting, and I am the sole proprietor of that business. I charge HST for each invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I went to an accountancy to calculate my business tax for the past month. However, they want me to set a salary and to buy HST, IE and CPP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm the only worker and sole proprietor, should I set another salary to take from my salary?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6648" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2387" RevisionGUID="5bd86230-0a4a-47a3-8f5d-a4a9f0099e7b" CreationDate="2014-09-15T23:22:40.520" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar/spelling fixes, removed [subcontracting], rearranged title" Text="Taxation and salary for a sole proprietorship in Canada" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6649" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2387" RevisionGUID="5bd86230-0a4a-47a3-8f5d-a4a9f0099e7b" CreationDate="2014-09-15T23:22:40.520" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar/spelling fixes, removed [subcontracting], rearranged title" Text="|taxes|consulting|canada|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6650" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2387" RevisionGUID="5bd86230-0a4a-47a3-8f5d-a4a9f0099e7b" CreationDate="2014-09-15T23:22:40.520" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 1549 edit id of 354" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6652" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2389" RevisionGUID="53933737-6583-45b4-9788-7ca519c397ef" CreationDate="2014-09-16T14:50:42.667" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="As an Electrical Engineer who knows enough programming to get offered programming related tasks on a regular basis, I have to deal with this particular situation quite often. These are a couple of things I consider while deciding on a price:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Do I really have the skills to do this job?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While your client may think you do have the level of skills required, do you think you can do the job? If you are working in a field that you don't specialise in, you may not be able to perform to the standard that the client is used to seeing from you, because you aren't as skilled. This can leave the client disappointed because you're slow or not meeting their expectations in some other way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The way I see it, is I have a responsibility as a professional to hold up a particular standard of work. If I think I won't be able to do that for a particular job or task, I won't take it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Do I want to do this job?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it what you enjoy? If a client is asking me to perform a task I don't enjoy, I charge them more. How much more? Until I'll be happy to perform the task. If you're not happy with working for your current rate, but would be happy with an increased rate, charge that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Do I have time for the job?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My last 10 hours a week are always charged at a premium rate. If you have no time for the job, or are super busy, or need to fit them in somewhere, charge more. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Do I want to work for this client?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is the client difficult? Do they have unrealistic expectations? Can you forsee scope creep? If I do decide I'm going to work for them, charge more. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A note on supply and demand**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My rate is almost always determined by supply and demand. If I have no work, I'll charge less because I'm not in demand but need the money. Each time I get a new client and my hours a week start to get taken up, I charge a bit more each time until my week is full and the last 10 hours are sold at a premium. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the end of the day, you are selling your time and skills as a professional.  It's a balance between what you think you're worth and what the client thinks you're worth. If you ask for what you think you're worth, and the client isn't happy, you can negotiate a rate that works for both of you, or decide to call it off altogether, depending on how much you need the money, of course :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6653" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2390" RevisionGUID="80c3f12f-8371-410a-b6ce-4082d7280b9e" CreationDate="2014-09-16T18:17:33.710" UserId="4901" Text="I got an email that basically said: &quot;Hey, person X told me that you designed her website. I'm starting up a company, how much would you charge me for something similar to that site?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the first time I've been approached by someone I dont know. What should I keep in mind when writing a response? I'm obviously not looking for someone to provide me with a full email example. But some general tips for how I make sure she picks me would be good (besides that I should tell her how much I would charge.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6654" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2390" RevisionGUID="80c3f12f-8371-410a-b6ce-4082d7280b9e" CreationDate="2014-09-16T18:17:33.710" UserId="4901" Text="Land a client who contacted me" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6655" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2390" RevisionGUID="80c3f12f-8371-410a-b6ce-4082d7280b9e" CreationDate="2014-09-16T18:17:33.710" UserId="4901" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6656" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2391" RevisionGUID="5f7acf9e-d476-458e-b78e-ab85973b33b7" CreationDate="2014-09-16T18:24:26.347" UserId="4902" Text="First, don't sell under worth, you can get easily stuck in that area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, he or she liked the other homepage enough to ask, so it seems more like a request to make sure you are not overcharging.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third, the &quot;similar&quot; can mean anything. A simple looking extra feature can double the time you spend on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use a wide range for the price, something like 500-2000$ (or less/more, whatever applies) and offer to first talk to them for free about the details before you can establish a price.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6657" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2392" RevisionGUID="9ba10f31-eb43-4222-9497-86a8ecb84bcf" CreationDate="2014-09-17T03:55:47.563" UserId="4896" Text="The person requesting your services asked this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hey, person X told me that you designed her website. I'm starting up a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; company, how much would you charge me for something similar to that&#xD;&#xA;&gt; site?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do not take that initial contact literally. Interpret it like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Blah, blah, blah you did work for someone else &amp; I would like to hire&#xD;&#xA;&gt; you blah, blah, blah.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Meaning, this is simply a lead to do work. You should not assume they saw another site &amp; they want simply a carbon copy. Human nature being what it is, they most likely want what—key point—*they believe* the site to be. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is now your job to define what they want &amp; explore their request. It took me a long time of trial &amp; error to realize I need to phase in clients, but the reality is the quicker you “jump into bed” with a client without a clear definition of tasks &amp; expectations, the quicker you yourself will be burned at worst, be miserable at best.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I recommend something along the following lines to define &amp; structure your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **Stage One: Discovery** They have contacted you &amp; they have seen a site you have done, but honestly you do not know what they want or expect. At this stage I would encourage you have a face-to-face meeting with the potential client to go through the details of their request. You can charge a flat rate or do it for free as a free initial consultation. Or perhaps charge a fee and make it clear the fee is non-refundable, but offer that the consultation fee can be used against the final fee.&#xD;&#xA;- **Stage Two: Platform Definition/User Experience** At this stage you should be in process &amp; perhaps meet again to define the technology that will be used &amp; perhaps define user experience parameters. At this point you are further focusing the work done &amp; agreeing on expectations.&#xD;&#xA;- **Stage Three: Wireframes/Engineering** At this point you would provide the client wireframes explaining what the site would look like &amp; map out the site. Engineering can be considering lightweight testing on your side to see how realistic expectations set during stage two. Chances are you know your chops &amp; engineering is just a more detailed presentation of what you would be doing at this stage. But play that by ear.&#xD;&#xA;- **Stage Four: Design/Functional Design** At this stage you are actually doing real work. And how you manage that is your call. But this can be considered past the 50% point. I would recommend setting timelines &amp; milestones at this stage.&#xD;&#xA;- **Stage Five: Quality Assurance/User Acceptance Testing** At this point the site should be done. But this stage should exist because we are all humans and make mistakes. Especially in a code crunch period. So the way it would be presented is you and the client will go through the site, find things that can be tweaked &amp; work with the client to finalize.&#xD;&#xA;- **Stage Six: Launch/Post-Launch** This depends on the clients technical expertise. In many cases at this point I simply handed code over to a client &amp; they handled the launch. But at this point the site is true done, ready to go live &amp; that might be your job.  The post-launch phase is something you might want to offer as an extra level of quality assurance. Hopefully post launch—when real humans are interacting with the site—all is good &amp; stable. But you need to be ready to job in to fix things if something goes wrong.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend three payment stages: Consultation, first 50%, final 50%. So using the above outline, stage one is consultation. Once you work on stage two, you should get the first 50% of the agreed upon fee. You should request the final 50% sometime between stages five &amp; six. That is the tricky area. You do not want to pass along code without getting the final 50%, but your call on client trust.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the grey area of this structure is post launch. You do not want to be on the hook forever. So perhaps set an hourly rate and state clearly that after the post-launch period has passed you go hourly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6658" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2390" RevisionGUID="3e3c9108-df45-4dc0-aefc-d33bcef5432e" CreationDate="2014-09-17T05:29:06.370" UserId="4896" Comment="Small formatting issues." Text="I got an email that basically said: “Hey, person X told me that you designed her website. I'm starting up a company, how much would you charge me for something similar to that site?”&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the first time I’ve been approached by someone I don’t know. What should I keep in mind when writing a response? I’m obviously not looking for someone to provide me with a full email example. But some general tips for how I make sure she picks me would be good (besides that I should tell her how much I would charge.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6659" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2390" RevisionGUID="3e3c9108-df45-4dc0-aefc-d33bcef5432e" CreationDate="2014-09-17T05:29:06.370" UserId="4896" Comment="Small formatting issues." Text="How to land a client who contacted me directly?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6660" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2390" RevisionGUID="3e3c9108-df45-4dc0-aefc-d33bcef5432e" CreationDate="2014-09-17T05:29:06.370" Comment="Proposed by 4896 approved by 4901 edit id of 355" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6661" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2393" RevisionGUID="4c04e348-c360-4099-be80-f8bab17a6d17" CreationDate="2014-09-17T06:43:26.753" UserId="4645" Text="considering cutting edge competition in freelancing, is it good idea to move for full time job ? and  does this freelancing expedience counts on CV ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6662" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2393" RevisionGUID="4c04e348-c360-4099-be80-f8bab17a6d17" CreationDate="2014-09-17T06:43:26.753" UserId="4645" Text="does this freelancing expedience counts on Resume?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6663" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2393" RevisionGUID="4c04e348-c360-4099-be80-f8bab17a6d17" CreationDate="2014-09-17T06:43:26.753" UserId="4645" Text="|resume|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6664" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2393" RevisionGUID="aadc5601-ead1-4ce5-ae14-524aa797f876" CreationDate="2014-09-17T10:18:48.963" UserId="517" Comment="added 6 characters in body; edited title" Text="Considering cutting edge competition in freelancing, is it a good idea to move for full time job ? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And  does this freelancing expedience counts on CV ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6665" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2393" RevisionGUID="aadc5601-ead1-4ce5-ae14-524aa797f876" CreationDate="2014-09-17T10:18:48.963" UserId="517" Comment="added 6 characters in body; edited title" Text="Does this freelancing experience count on Resume?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6666" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2393" RevisionGUID="fa8ae9e5-0de5-41b0-9e9c-1b706492c53a" CreationDate="2014-09-17T11:21:00.917" UserId="58" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6667" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2394" RevisionGUID="5ecb7717-57f8-4f78-bfa9-81c5e9ad0e3d" CreationDate="2014-09-17T15:00:21.817" UserId="4907" Text="It would be a good idea to compensate based on effectiveness and how well the article was received, likes, shares and positive comments/starting up of discussion should all be paid for&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could pay at a percentage per unit system i.e. for every 100 likes they get 10% of an agreed deadline amount (say the most you will pay them for one article is £100 and if the article gets 100 likes you pay them for 10% of that. and so on and so forth, coming up with your own boundaries for shared and comments.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6668" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2393" RevisionGUID="d380207c-5d15-4037-9430-346b351ef482" CreationDate="2014-09-17T18:39:25.757" UserId="4645" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="shall I mention freelancing experience on Resume to apply for fulltime job ?&#xD;&#xA;freelancing is done on sites like freelancer.com, elance.com etc..&#xD;&#xA;please advise" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6669" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2395" RevisionGUID="8cc37a9e-90e6-445f-9c18-3f4cc6e56f22" CreationDate="2014-09-18T00:01:49.500" UserId="4910" Text="@Scott he is specifically asking about &quot;technological weapons&quot;, where changing account passwords falls under. Maybe the correct timeline is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- talk to a lawyer about the options&#xD;&#xA;- change passwords&#xD;&#xA;- talk to the partner&#xD;&#xA;- let the lawyer do his work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it is the noble and grown up way to sort this out in court, chances are it will take years, end up in a mutual agreement about less money or the partner declaring bankruptcy and no money is to be earned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Threating in this early and promising stage to take down the app might be an option to avoid this, but it has to be clear what risks are involved with this approach, so really consulting a lawyer is the only way to do it right." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6670" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2390" RevisionGUID="455ace6e-02f9-436b-8058-6b90156e7be3" CreationDate="2014-09-18T00:38:44.713" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/512400293976633346" />
  <row Id="6671" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2393" RevisionGUID="a303aa95-bc02-4f2a-b25e-2a612fb97c48" CreationDate="2014-09-18T03:52:05.313" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="Cleaned up grammer, thanks unnecessary" Text="Should I mention freelancing experience on my resume when applying for a fulltime job?&#xD;&#xA;In particular, freelancing work done on sites like freelancer.com or elance.com." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6672" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2393" RevisionGUID="a303aa95-bc02-4f2a-b25e-2a612fb97c48" CreationDate="2014-09-18T03:52:05.313" Comment="Proposed by 152 approved by -1 edit id of 356" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6673" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2393" RevisionGUID="9eeef0a0-108b-480f-8317-e01fc2ca7ec3" CreationDate="2014-09-18T03:52:05.313" UserId="4645" Comment="Cleaned up grammer, thanks unnecessary" Text=" Should I mention freelancing experience on my resume when applying for a fulltime job? In particular, freelancing work done on sites like freelancer.com or elance.com." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6674" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2393" RevisionGUID="f3bb829c-b7b8-4b14-aba9-b182c25cda61" CreationDate="2014-09-18T05:29:21.677" UserId="4645" Comment="added 154 characters in body" Text=" Should I mention freelancing experience on my resume when applying for a fulltime job? In particular, freelancing work done on sites like freelancer.com or elance.com.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am freelancing as php developer which also includes several cms's but mainly magento, wordpress, joomla, drupal&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this info will be helpful." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6675" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="2393" RevisionGUID="82271164-56ce-4ce9-b1d1-e38e72bdbc0c" CreationDate="2014-09-18T07:13:27.647" UserId="64" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6676" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2396" RevisionGUID="a207c1b0-25e7-4829-b94d-746419a6a40b" CreationDate="2014-09-18T10:43:20.070" UserId="4913" Text="I want to add my first software product as an independent programmer to my Amazon store. However, they are asking me for an EAN or UPC code. I can buy one for about 10 pounds, but will one be sufficient for all my stock of 100 CDs (of the same product)? Or do I have to purchase 100 separate EAN codes?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6677" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2396" RevisionGUID="a207c1b0-25e7-4829-b94d-746419a6a40b" CreationDate="2014-09-18T10:43:20.070" UserId="4913" Text="EAN and UPC codes on Amazon" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6678" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2396" RevisionGUID="a207c1b0-25e7-4829-b94d-746419a6a40b" CreationDate="2014-09-18T10:43:20.070" UserId="4913" Text="|legal|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6679" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2381" RevisionGUID="68ea3968-3b90-4e0c-af28-24f4470f54c6" CreationDate="2014-09-18T19:44:48.397" UserId="4896" Comment="Spelling &amp; casual tone." Text="I am an Android and Web Developer and I worked with my mate which has holding all the customers and receiving the money, deadlines and that stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When finished these apps, he didn't want to pay me anything but I have proof on emails and SMS where he said he was going to pay me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have never signed any document where I declare that I give all my projects to him, so on Android part I have **keystores**, **Google Accounts for APIs (Google Maps, Analytics)** and sources.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be my &quot;technologic weapons&quot; if I have to go to legal with him?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6680" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2381" RevisionGUID="68ea3968-3b90-4e0c-af28-24f4470f54c6" CreationDate="2014-09-18T19:44:48.397" Comment="Proposed by 4896 approved by 75 edit id of 357" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6681" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2397" RevisionGUID="b0480e12-e056-4abe-bc42-b4bb82d8e329" CreationDate="2014-09-18T20:22:08.157" UserId="4917" Text="Think the question is on topic, or maybe better suited for startups, however:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need one code for every distinct product. So for 100 identical products probably one code will be enough. But if you want to add an expansion pack or version 2.0 or anything else than the original, you will need new codes. Or you just keep selling them under the old code, but then the user can't distinguish them on the shops.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also there has been rumours of free codes from amazon, according to amazon they are not true." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6683" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2399" RevisionGUID="de6ae854-23b2-4e5c-88f6-5460b4393f17" CreationDate="2014-09-19T02:30:24.047" UserId="2567" Text="I had an interview with the manager of a small company who sought a web programmer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He told me he was glad to have had the interview because he ended quite happy whith me. Nevertheless there were still four more interviews and he had to finish them all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A week later he sent me an email telling me I wasn't hired.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I am really curious about the reason he didn't give me the job, cause I was quite sure about the result. And for other hand, it would serve me well if I knew the reasons he didn't stay with me... I've been thinking to give him a call but it may put him in a difficult position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you think?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6684" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2399" RevisionGUID="de6ae854-23b2-4e5c-88f6-5460b4393f17" CreationDate="2014-09-19T02:30:24.047" UserId="2567" Text="Is it right to call a client who didn't hire you to ask for the reasons he/she didn't?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6685" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2399" RevisionGUID="de6ae854-23b2-4e5c-88f6-5460b4393f17" CreationDate="2014-09-19T02:30:24.047" UserId="2567" Text="|communication|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6686" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2400" RevisionGUID="e58d4ad3-7ffa-4c52-a47a-0841dac52d1f" CreationDate="2014-09-19T03:11:41.323" UserId="4896" Text="First you say this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; He told me he was glad to have had the interview because he ended&#xD;&#xA;&gt; quite happy whith me. Nevertheless there were still four more&#xD;&#xA;&gt; interviews and he had to finish them all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I  hate to break the news to you, but I am fairly confident he said that to each candidate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A week later he sent me an email telling me I wasn't hired.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And one week later is not a bad amount of timing for a normal interview cycle like this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Now, I am really curious about the reason he didn't give me the job…&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We all are curious about why we were passed over for anything in life. But the reality you simply calling him might not result in the answer you want. For all you know you will get some more puffery tossed your way (i.e.: white lies to soften the blow but ultimately they just don’t want to talk to you) at best and at worst you will be a pest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice? Respond to the rejection thanking them for their time &amp; indicating if they ever need someone in the future to handle similar tasks you would be welcome to talking again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you want an answer? Or do you want to at least have a chance in the future? My advice is to be as polite &amp; acknowledging of the rejection as possible while presenting yourself to future opportunities. That is the best tact to be professional in a case like this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6687" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2401" RevisionGUID="218ce2c1-e897-4771-8512-e8d59bd36003" CreationDate="2014-09-19T04:19:15.643" UserId="4561" Text="I would not put them on the spot by calling, but I think it's acceptable and smart to ask by email.  I would be polite and leave the door open for future business as JakeGould suggested because new hires fall through and disappoint all the time, but if you ask professionally I don't think it will be off putting at all.  It may even make you stand out in their memory.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would say something like this (maybe shorten it...):&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Thank you for letting me know, I really appreciate your time and consideration.  I am always looking for ways to improve my business and learn more about what clients are looking for in web design.  May I ask what key factors went into your final decision? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, I was very impressed with you and your organization and thought your project sounded very interesting.  I would welcome an opportunity to work with you on this or any future projects should you find you need additional assistance.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They may have told everyone they interviewed that they were quite happy with them, but not necessarily.  When I hired a web developer there was one company that really stood out that we *almost* went with.  But ultimately we chose someone else.  When I let them know we had chosen another company they emailed and asked something along the lines of what I put above.  I was not put off at all and my business partner and I spent a good hour or two giving them a detailed explanation of our thought process, what we really liked about them, but why we ultimately went another way.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A phone call would have been awkward, but the email was fine.  The only thing that left a bad taste in my mouth was that while they had been thorough on following up when we were deciding and professional in accepting our decision and asking why, they never acknowledged the explanation we sent.  Now THAT did irritate me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6696" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2405" RevisionGUID="2a3f826c-5501-4e3b-98f3-cf1bd14ea8ee" CreationDate="2014-09-19T13:49:03.287" UserId="2740" Text="My wife, a violinist, used to play weddings where we used to live. She was plugged into the local network, and would sometimes be at bridal shows, paying their nominal charges to local vendors, because she would make it back in one wedding. She would arrange to play with as many musicians as the bride wanted, taking about a 25% cut of the extra price per musician.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now we live in NYC. No strings musicians pay the exorbitant costs for a booth at the local bridal shows. My wife cut a special deal with one show, they gave her just a small table outside the entrance, which was plenty for her, but so recent that she hasn't played any weddings yet (these weddings could be a year or more out). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The brides paid $25 a head to come to the show. My wife paid $200 for the table. We got about 60 or so brides' contact infos, with about half phone numbers. (I helped her solicit brides, next time we'll do better.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another big show is coming up that charges $75 per bride. Again, they have no other string musicians. They're offering have my wife to pay $1750 for a booth, exclusivity in her field (string instruments), and to have her play several times during the show. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She doesn't need a booth. She isn't selling anything but herself. My opinion is that they should be paying my wife to play, not asking her to pay to play. Since I'm providing the funds to get her going in NYC, I've only agreed to let her pay $250. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I asked her how badly she wants to be there on a scale of 1 to 10, and she told me 7. It seems to me that string musicians do *not* pay to play very frequently at these shows. I doubt they'll have someone else if my wife does not play. I wonder how &quot;High-end&quot; it can be if they have a DJ or rock band, I don't know that market well here, maybe they'll have them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My main question  is, &quot;What's the value in this, and what should our negotiating position be?&quot; Obviously don't want to pay what they're asking. They don't seem to want to negotiate, but I'm thinking it's likely they'll accept her $250 offer at the last minute, rather than not have any strings at their event whatsoever. Would it be worth paying their full asking price? How would I calculate that? Maybe she should just pay the $75 entry fee, and network with vendors?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6697" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2405" RevisionGUID="2a3f826c-5501-4e3b-98f3-cf1bd14ea8ee" CreationDate="2014-09-19T13:49:03.287" UserId="2740" Text="Should a string musician pay to play at a high-end Bridal Show?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6698" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2405" RevisionGUID="2a3f826c-5501-4e3b-98f3-cf1bd14ea8ee" CreationDate="2014-09-19T13:49:03.287" UserId="2740" Text="|price|negotiation|sales|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6699" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2406" RevisionGUID="b550c138-adab-464c-ac16-4fdf6481390d" CreationDate="2014-09-19T15:39:29.560" UserId="517" Text="Since they said most of things I think, I will be short. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't call them. He may lie something just to get rid of you. Send him email saying that although you were disappointed they had not chosen you, you would appreciate it a lot if they frankly and openly say why you were not chosen. Tell them that you would like to fix your flaws and he can help you be better on the next interview with another client. Thanks him a lot in advance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he does not reply anything, either he's an a** or you really screw things up. Since they are a small company, I guess he will be open. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6702" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2400" RevisionGUID="d5752ea1-f14f-4922-a701-bdd088a1db65" CreationDate="2014-09-19T19:37:52.377" UserId="4896" Comment="added 5 characters in body" Text="First you say this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; He told me he was glad to have had the interview because he ended&#xD;&#xA;&gt; quite happy whith me. Nevertheless there were still four more&#xD;&#xA;&gt; interviews and he had to finish them all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I  hate to break the news to you, but I am fairly confident he said that to each candidate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A week later he sent me an email telling me I wasn't hired.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And one week later is not a bad amount of timing for a normal interview cycle like this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Now, I am really curious about the reason he didn't give me the job…&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We all are curious about why we were passed over for anything in life. But the reality you simply calling him might not result in the answer you want. For all you know you will get some more puffery tossed your way (i.e.: white lies to soften the blow but ultimately they just don’t want to talk to you) at best and at worst you will be a pest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice? Respond to the rejection thanking them for their time &amp; indicating if they ever need someone in the future to handle similar tasks you would be open to talking to them again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you want an answer? Or do you want to at least have a chance in the future? My advice is to be as polite &amp; acknowledging of the rejection as possible while presenting yourself to future opportunities. That is the best tact to be professional in a case like this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6703" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2407" RevisionGUID="f46b704c-4bd4-4356-9b94-b31568c71e11" CreationDate="2014-09-19T22:13:47.460" UserId="4561" Text="I would mention it.  I'd list it with work experience like all my other work history.  I would not necessarily say &quot;freelancer.com,&quot; but rather that I have X number of years experience dong Y type of development as an independent contractor (or self employed, or had my own part time business - whatever sounds best).  Then list your duties.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The benefit to a potential employer is that your freelancing is that much more experience that you have.  The potential drawback is that they might worry that your freelancing work will interfere with their full time position.  So I would be prepared to explain how you've been challenged and learned XYZ doing it but how it never interferes with your day job." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6704" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2408" RevisionGUID="5c1d36a5-f35b-4feb-9596-f27e478199f6" CreationDate="2014-09-19T22:33:04.567" UserId="4561" Text="I don't know the music industry, so my answer is really several questions to consider:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) How much is one potential client worth?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) What are the odds of picking up a client from such an event?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) What track record can the trade show point to in terms of how many brides you can expect to expect to be there?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) If there probably are no other string players champing at the bit to be there, would the show be interested in an &quot;in kind&quot; sponsorship where she does not have a booth but plays for their event for free in exchange for a mention in the program and/or the opportunity to hand out business cards?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5) If this opportunity is really worth $1,750 why aren't there other string players vying to be there? (or maybe there are)  NYC is a populated area, she can't be the only string player who wants exposure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6) Is there anyone you know with a complimentary service she could share a booth with? (If so, this may be one of those &quot;asking forgiveness is better than requesting permission&quot; situations 'cause other vendors will not be happy to know people got to split the cost)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;7) If she just pays the $75 to gain entrance and network, how many brides can she realistically rub shoulders with enough to let them know what she does just milling about? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;8) Now that we're thinking networking - if this doesn't work out, are there other places/events she could play for free to gain exposure to the right type of people?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Networking takes time.  Something like this might pay off tenfold - years from now..., but as you've noted, it's a chunk of change when you're just getting started and might not realize any payback from it.  It seems to me that a string player for their event would be a very nice touch and if she approaches it like &quot;We aren't in a position to purchase a booth this year, but we can offer our services complimentary&quot; they just ***might*** go for it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6705" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2409" RevisionGUID="ffb20a15-1ff8-4839-8b45-f259c3af2f2b" CreationDate="2014-09-19T22:48:23.783" UserId="4561" Text="It sounds to me like they are price shopping.  Which is fine but be careful to be broad in the price you give because as other have stated, they probably don't really know/understand what they need.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would try to have a conversation with them that involves a lot of questions on your end about what they are looking for before giving them any number.  That will establish your value that you know what you're doing and protect you from the unrealistic expectations of someone who has no idea what to ask for regarding a web page.  Someone like that might ask 5 developers &quot;what that web page costs&quot; and get answers that have nothing to do with what ***their*** web page will cost, but then they'll choose the cheapest response.  Then they may end up with a very rude awakening when suddenly ***their*** web page needs so much more that they didn't know to ask for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also - another translation for you: &quot;I am starting a business&quot; may mean &quot;I don't have much money right now.&quot;  This could be a great way for you to help them get started and gain some valuable work experience that you can put in your portfolio, but be careful when tossing out numbers.  If you're new to development work you'll learn about &quot;scope creep&quot; soon enough... ;-)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6706" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2392" RevisionGUID="61d22f2b-7eb6-42fc-8057-02ef01d39672" CreationDate="2014-09-19T23:13:26.980" UserId="4896" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="The person requesting your services asked this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hey, person X told me that you designed her website. I'm starting up a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; company, how much would you charge me for something similar to that&#xD;&#xA;&gt; site?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do not take that initial contact literally. Interpret it like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Blah, blah, blah you did work for someone else &amp; I would like to hire&#xD;&#xA;&gt; you blah, blah, blah.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Meaning, this is simply a lead to do work. You should not assume they saw another site &amp; they want simply a carbon copy. Human nature being what it is, they most likely want what—key point—*they believe* the site to be. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is now your job to define what they want &amp; explore their request. It took me a long time of trial &amp; error to realize I need to phase in clients, but the reality is the quicker you “jump into bed” with a client without a clear definition of tasks &amp; expectations, the quicker you yourself will be burned at worst, be miserable at best.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I recommend something along the following lines to define &amp; structure your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **Stage One: Discovery** They have contacted you &amp; they have seen a site you have done, but honestly you do not know what they want or expect. At this stage I would encourage you have a face-to-face meeting with the potential client to go through the details of their request. You can charge a flat rate or do it for free as a free initial consultation. Or perhaps charge a fee and make it clear the fee is non-refundable, but offer that the consultation fee can be used against the final fee.&#xD;&#xA;- **Stage Two: Platform Definition/User Experience** At this stage you should be in process &amp; perhaps meet again to define the technology that will be used &amp; perhaps define user experience parameters. At this point you are further focusing the work done &amp; agreeing on expectations.&#xD;&#xA;- **Stage Three: Wireframes/Engineering** At this point you would provide the client wireframes explaining what the site would look like &amp; map out the site. Engineering can be considering lightweight testing on your side to see how realistic expectations set during stage two. Chances are you know your chops &amp; engineering is just a more detailed presentation of what you would be doing at this stage. But play that by ear.&#xD;&#xA;- **Stage Four: Design/Functional Design** At this stage you are actually doing real work. And how you manage that is your call. But this can be considered past the 50% point. I would recommend setting timelines &amp; milestones at this stage.&#xD;&#xA;- **Stage Five: Quality Assurance/User Acceptance Testing** At this point the site should be done. But this stage should exist because we are all humans and make mistakes. Especially in a code crunch period. So the way it would be presented is you and the client will go through the site, find things that can be tweaked &amp; work with the client to finalize.&#xD;&#xA;- **Stage Six: Launch/Post-Launch** This depends on the client's technical expertise. In many cases at this point I simply handed code over to a client &amp; they handled the launch. But at this point the site is true done, ready to go live &amp; that might be your job.  The post-launch phase is something you might want to offer as an extra level of quality assurance. Hopefully post launch—when real humans are interacting with the site—all is good &amp; stable. But you need to be ready to job in to fix things if something goes wrong.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend three payment stages: Consultation, first 50%, final 50%. So using the above outline, stage one is consultation. Once you work on stage two, you should get the first 50% of the agreed upon fee. You should request the final 50% sometime between stages five &amp; six. That is the tricky area. You do not want to pass along code without getting the final 50%, but your call on client trust.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the grey area of this structure is post launch. You do not want to be on the hook forever. So perhaps set an hourly rate and state clearly that after the post-launch period has passed you go hourly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6707" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2410" RevisionGUID="58f02582-cd06-43af-800b-855a271c3201" CreationDate="2014-09-19T23:28:01.870" UserId="1706" Text="For $1,750 you'd better be clued-in on how many other vendors are gonna be there, whether their merchandise is considered high-end or not (heck, I don't know), and exactly how much time can be devoted to demonstrations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd be looking for some sort of guarantee, i.e. X number of *potential new clients* will be showing up for that kind of money... because if nobody shows up, or if only a small percentage are actually going to BUY anything, you're screwed.  Maybe they can implement the pricing on a sliding scale, with $1,750 being the MAX that gets paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6708" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2411" RevisionGUID="356732e1-ea3a-48be-990e-071a5bab2ffd" CreationDate="2014-09-19T23:32:01.793" UserId="1706" Text="Emily has a GREAT point. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Put the emphasis on the client and how well you've met the requirements; dates, company name, and technologies used.  Do not use the word &quot;freelance&quot; ANYWHERE if you're looking for a full time position -- this implies risk for an employer because the concern will be that you're not devoting your entire brain to the job only.  Use the word &quot;contract&quot; instead.  Also, write more (in length) for your longer term projects, and skip projects of very short duration UNLESS they're very, very relevant." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6709" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2412" RevisionGUID="43c150ca-5ab6-4f9e-a006-661659b85880" CreationDate="2014-09-20T04:49:42.817" UserId="4931" Text="You can look at this scenario fairly objectively from a math perspective. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the first event you described, there was a $200 fee that resulted in 60 contacts/leads. That translates into $3.33 per lead. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're expecting to see a similar return on the second event, take the $1750 and divide it by $3.33 which comes out to 525.5.  Rounding up, do you think the 2nd event will generate this many contacts for your wife or at least the equivalent amount of exposure/audience size? If the answer is yes, do the event. If the answer is no, you might still want to consider the following...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Out of the 60 contacts that your wife met during the first event, how many hired her or referred her? Depending on how valuable you think these types of contacts are, you can still justify her participation. If one contact results in at least $1750 worth of new business, you'll break event from a monetary standpoint, and net a positive return with regards to overall business value. Your wife will build her client roster and hopefully in turn, will generate referrals in the long-run.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the math + your gut tells you the investment isn't worth it, the $75 entrance fee to network seems like a no brainer.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6710" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2413" RevisionGUID="8f7fa6dc-bdac-477b-9bc0-92ac8d64de0d" CreationDate="2014-09-20T05:01:10.233" UserId="4931" Text="Consider positioning yourself as a business owner/consultant vs. freelancer. You can create a section on your CV below your previous job or above it, depending on what is most current and is more impressive. Something like this: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***&quot;Your Name Consulting, 2004 - Present&quot;** &#xD;&#xA;Offers design and development work to a range of clients (you can be descriptive and specify things like non-profits, small-medium size businesses or event cite specific industries they touched like education and health care clients).  I specialize in deploying CMS platforms that extend to Magento, Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to go the extra distance, you can build yourself a very simple portfolio site to showcase some of your work. It will give employers added credibility to see what you've shipped and the type of skills you possess. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6711" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2414" RevisionGUID="8322dd95-6c4e-4e35-86ef-de32f2b280f3" CreationDate="2014-09-20T05:18:04.427" UserId="4931" Text="Lucky for you, there's no shortage of fashion bloggers on the web. However, their writing styles, reliability, and fees will vary drastically.  More often than not, you're going to get what you pay for. Here are the 4 tiers of writers out there, how you might find them, and what a pay structure could look like if you hire them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Fashion Bloggers with an audience - These are bloggers who reach a&#xD;&#xA;   sizeable audience, both on their site and usually across other&#xD;&#xA;   platforms like Twitter, Instagram, etc.  They write with an authentic&#xD;&#xA;   voice and might already have deals in place with brands to produce&#xD;&#xA;   sponsored content. You could build a roster of bloggers like this to&#xD;&#xA;   either syndicate content on your site OR contribute regularly.&#xD;&#xA;   Depending on who you find, you'll have to compensate them with a&#xD;&#xA;   combination of either free product(s) or high fees ($200+ post). &#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - Fashion bloggers without an audience - You can probably find dozens&#xD;&#xA;   of fashion bloggers who are passionate about the subject of fashion&#xD;&#xA;   and have a decent ability to create content for the web. You might be&#xD;&#xA;   able to source these writers by searching for certain hashtags on&#xD;&#xA;   Twitter/Instagram like #NYFW or #fashionblogger. Email them and ask&#xD;&#xA;   if they'd be open to writing for you. Just the fact that you're&#xD;&#xA;   reaching out and asking might be flattering enough where they'll say&#xD;&#xA;   yes. If they ask what you're willing to pay per post, start at&#xD;&#xA;   $75/post for 500 words. If you don't get any bites, bump up the rate.&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - Freelance copywriters - Trained journalists and copywriters should be&#xD;&#xA;   able to produce decent content for your site, despite their lack of&#xD;&#xA;   enthusiasm for fashion. You can write a job ad and post it to sites&#xD;&#xA;   like Craigslist, TaskRabbit, Elance and Odesk. I'll warn you in&#xD;&#xA;   advance though, that you'll wind up sifting through a lot of very&#xD;&#xA;   unqualified resumes and poor candidates. That said, this would be&#xD;&#xA;   your cheapest option in the sense that writers on these sites are&#xD;&#xA;   sometimes willing to bill at $20/hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Last but not least, you could create a part-time or freelance based &quot;content editor&quot; position for your business and put someone on a monthly retainer to produce X number of posts per month within your set budget.  Businesses try to do this with interns, but often they require more handholding than its worth. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6713" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2396" RevisionGUID="de203830-37d6-4550-b55f-5e1dc4bdebe7" CreationDate="2014-09-21T14:58:42.543" UserId="4896" Comment="Removing casual tone." Text="I want to add my first software product as an independent programmer to my Amazon store. However, they are asking me for an EAN or UPC code. I can buy one for about 10 pounds, but will one be sufficient for all my stock of 100 CDs (of the same product)? Or do I have to purchase 100 separate EAN codes?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6714" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2396" RevisionGUID="de203830-37d6-4550-b55f-5e1dc4bdebe7" CreationDate="2014-09-21T14:58:42.543" Comment="Proposed by 4896 approved by 517, 1706 edit id of 358" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6715" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2397" RevisionGUID="60ed4b46-a51c-4313-a9aa-0620140536cb" CreationDate="2014-09-21T17:24:47.273" UserId="64" Comment="once you earn 5 rep, you can participate on meta. At 50 you can leave comments. I removed the meta commentary so we keep the answer focused on the question" Text="You need one code for every distinct product. So for 100 identical products probably one code will be enough. But if you want to add an expansion pack or version 2.0 or anything else than the original, you will need new codes. Or you just keep selling them under the old code, but then the user can't distinguish them on the shops.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also there has been rumours of free codes from amazon, according to amazon they are not true." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6717" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2393" RevisionGUID="47485379-f3aa-4ec2-8390-fc897abb439b" CreationDate="2014-09-21T17:49:36.980" UserId="64" Comment="some last minute edits to make the title more clear, fix some punctuation and grammar, and make the question in the title match the body." Text="Should I mention freelancing experience on my resume when applying for a full time job? In particular, should I mention freelancing work done on sites like freelancer.com or elance.com?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am freelancing as a PHP developer, which also includes several CMS's, but mainly Magento, Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does this experience count? How should I mention it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6718" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2393" RevisionGUID="47485379-f3aa-4ec2-8390-fc897abb439b" CreationDate="2014-09-21T17:49:36.980" UserId="64" Comment="some last minute edits to make the title more clear, fix some punctuation and grammar, and make the question in the title match the body." Text="Does this freelancing experience count on a resume for a full time job? How do I mention it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6720" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2416" RevisionGUID="7457f54e-5dbf-4b6f-b89f-ad2671527ced" CreationDate="2014-09-22T03:09:42.010" UserId="4937" Text="Even if you were to call they probably would not give you an honest answer. They are either scared of getting sued (if they are in the US) if they reveal the true reason or quite frankly can't even remember who you were and why they rejected you. For all they know you are a grape in the bunch. Forget them and move on to other employers. For me, this has been the best strategy! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6722" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2405" RevisionGUID="ba861fba-57f1-41f4-912a-2b5e96ab06b5" CreationDate="2014-09-22T03:55:22.163" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/513899327219986432" />
  <row Id="6731" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2393" RevisionGUID="309f494f-d99e-40e0-b405-d5006b0144d3" CreationDate="2014-09-22T21:59:17.617" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/514172106004000768" />
  <row Id="6732" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2419" RevisionGUID="c045f5be-dd5e-412f-9ae6-348d29e5ed54" CreationDate="2014-09-22T23:48:58.907" UserId="1706" Text="If the purpose of the skype call is to make sure you're sitting at a desk, you unfortunately start to resemble an employee.  That's not good!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, any other Skype time should be billed at your regular rate.  Your full attention must go into the call, so the client should pay you full price.  It's that simple.  Don't over-complicate it with secondary pricing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6733" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2420" RevisionGUID="ff967d34-9387-41de-bf29-8cbc08e72198" CreationDate="2014-09-22T23:56:46.340" UserId="1706" Text="Pump the brakes!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stop developing the app and see if you can monetize the website first.  Marketing!!!  Clean it up and make it stable.  Make your payment process 100% easy for the users.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It makes no sense to go on to develop an app if you can't do the above first.  Then you'd have two products where neither are making money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An interim would be to make the site mobile-ready, and curtail the need for a separate app completely.  But you still shouldn't take this step until you've figured out how to expand past your 350 users.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;If it don't make dollars, it don't make sense.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6734" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2421" RevisionGUID="497298fe-65d3-420f-b3b0-f132fe30e3a9" CreationDate="2014-09-22T23:58:16.527" UserId="4945" Text="I am confined to a wheelchair (paralysed) so I have very extensive care needs. I'm very interested in computer security, but am not able to work a traditional 9 to 5 on site. Is it possible (how) to become a security consultant that works freelance from home? What specialism (If any) would offer me the best chance?&#xD;&#xA;Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6735" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2421" RevisionGUID="497298fe-65d3-420f-b3b0-f132fe30e3a9" CreationDate="2014-09-22T23:58:16.527" UserId="4945" Text="Security work as a freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6736" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2421" RevisionGUID="497298fe-65d3-420f-b3b0-f132fe30e3a9" CreationDate="2014-09-22T23:58:16.527" UserId="4945" Text="|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6737" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2422" RevisionGUID="70b84909-0c11-47fa-aebd-4df9e01de78a" CreationDate="2014-09-23T00:06:49.000" UserId="1706" Text="I'm biased.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were hiring a security consultant, the first thing I'd have to recognize for myself is the fact that for my business, there are resources available:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. In-the-office for inside use only (no remote access)&#xD;&#xA; 2. In-the-office with remote access as an option&#xD;&#xA; 3. External facing stuff (i.e. websites) where this is the original intention&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's going to be hard to make the first two items above available for someone who doesn't work in the office.  Additionally it will be super difficult to share the &quot;tribal knowledge&quot; about such systems.  Personally, I wouldn't want to share even login and password information with someone remote, as it's very, very vulnerable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The skill you're proposing to utilize touches very, very private information within a business.  I'm sure there's training for it somewhere but you must consider the practical social limitations of a client's willingness to hand you the keys to the entire kingdom, sight unseen.  Usually a consultant in this situation would be paired with someone from the inside, for balance's sake.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6738" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2423" RevisionGUID="1accc140-02ae-47f7-b9f2-413ba049e383" CreationDate="2014-09-23T00:16:33.423" UserId="1706" Text="De-personalize it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sign up with one of these feedback-form sites, or find an open-source one.  Contact the client and see if the client is willing to fill out the form.  Keep the questionnaire short and concise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might get further this way because the client doesn't have to fish for words to say, as would be the case if you asked directly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6739" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2421" RevisionGUID="da8ec8f2-4e1a-40f2-9125-ce6331f3ae8e" CreationDate="2014-09-23T00:56:18.867" UserId="4896" Comment="Fromatting &amp; clarity." Text="I am confined to a wheelchair (paralyzed) so I have very extensive care needs. I’m very interested in computer security, but I am not able to work a traditional 9-to-5 job onsite. Is it possible (how?) to become a security consultant that works freelance from home? What specialism (If any) would offer me the best chance?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6740" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2421" RevisionGUID="da8ec8f2-4e1a-40f2-9125-ce6331f3ae8e" CreationDate="2014-09-23T00:56:18.867" Comment="Proposed by 4896 approved by 4945 edit id of 359" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6741" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2424" RevisionGUID="06fb5529-0493-496e-9554-06200f1bb659" CreationDate="2014-09-23T06:49:15.163" UserId="3014" Text="You can find good freelance bloggers on freelancer websites such as Elance, Freelancer or Fiverr. There are few things that you should keep in mind. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Ask for the lady to show her sample writing. &#xD;&#xA;2. Confirm that the writings she has shared are actually written by her. &#xD;&#xA;3. Her charges for writing for you. &#xD;&#xA;4. Her experience on writing about this kind of topics. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope these 4 things will help you in finding the best writer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regards!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6742" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2421" RevisionGUID="b9204dc6-9bd2-40d6-a09e-d366167c1cfb" CreationDate="2014-09-23T10:00:28.853" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/514353598608973824" />
  <row Id="6743" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2425" RevisionGUID="1c4a82a3-bf0d-482d-a3ff-119d0a72fbee" CreationDate="2014-09-24T00:02:18.993" UserId="4954" Text="Are you able to see people at your place? This might help lower the personal issues a customer could have about sharing security details with you. With a certain expertise and reputation it shouldn't be hard to even skip that part. I worked with many people I never met because they got recommended by someone I trust.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you mean with interested? No experience yet? If not, you can start look into securing servers, those are usually remote from the office too, so it doesn't really matter where you work. Then you need to decide which kind of servers you wanna specialize on, Linux, Windows, all. Get to know the basic tools like OpenVPN, SSH login with certificates, Firewall-Rules, SSL/Https in Webservers like Nginx and Apache, port blocking tools like fail2ban, maybe things like XSS and SQL injections, depending what kind of security you prefer. From there your interests will take you in the right direction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Start training on an own server, either as a VM or a real one at a provider, help friends look into their setups, and so on. To really consult people you should know what you are talking about in general. You don't need to know all specific commands and it's okay to learn during the job. Security is more about planning ahead and preventing problems than actually dealing with live hacks, so you are not really on a hot schedule.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should have a broad knowledge of all possible security threats and either know how to handle those or who to use for subtasks you are not familiar with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For &quot;on-site&quot; working there are tools like remote desktop in the windows world or on linux you open a terminal anyway. That's not really an issue if the client trusts you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6744" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2426" RevisionGUID="3763e9f6-f49f-4b5e-abb9-28204a585ae5" CreationDate="2014-09-24T12:26:50.143" UserId="4958" Text="I was recently contacted by a small design studio in Canada to do some freelance design. I live in Nebraska, which they said is not an issue to work with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the best way to ensure payment and ask about insuring payment? Since I would not be working with them locally." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6745" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2426" RevisionGUID="3763e9f6-f49f-4b5e-abb9-28204a585ae5" CreationDate="2014-09-24T12:26:50.143" UserId="4958" Text="Project from Canada" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6746" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2426" RevisionGUID="3763e9f6-f49f-4b5e-abb9-28204a585ae5" CreationDate="2014-09-24T12:26:50.143" UserId="4958" Text="|contracts|price|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6747" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2426" RevisionGUID="b600ecb6-5dd8-449e-983a-5c8dff19db95" CreationDate="2014-09-25T07:09:44.720" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/515035407348924416" />
  <row Id="6749" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2428" RevisionGUID="ae35ceb4-30a9-4f5c-b195-0ca16daadaca" CreationDate="2014-09-25T10:54:40.613" UserId="4822" Text="The competition clause of my consultancy agreement contains that&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*The resignation means that the consultant is ineligible during 1 year after the retirement date to begin, take employment with, or directly or indirectly interested in any business wholly or partly competes with the business which the company operates at the consultant's resignation.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the official way to prove that I terminated a contract on a certain date? If 1 year after the terminated I will start business in the same industry I would no get into any trouble.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it enough if I have sent e-mail to the CEO?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6750" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2428" RevisionGUID="ae35ceb4-30a9-4f5c-b195-0ca16daadaca" CreationDate="2014-09-25T10:54:40.613" UserId="4822" Text="What is the way to prove termination of a contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6751" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2428" RevisionGUID="ae35ceb4-30a9-4f5c-b195-0ca16daadaca" CreationDate="2014-09-25T10:54:40.613" UserId="4822" Text="|contracts|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6752" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2429" RevisionGUID="4611d000-f0ef-4d4c-999b-6b711450d379" CreationDate="2014-09-25T19:02:16.547" UserId="27" Text="I've had the opportunity to work on many internal projects, projects that either offline or protected by admin credentials, for different clients - I'm wondering what's  the best way to refer to these projects on my LinkedIn/website/resume?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6753" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2429" RevisionGUID="4611d000-f0ef-4d4c-999b-6b711450d379" CreationDate="2014-09-25T19:02:16.547" UserId="27" Text="What is the best way to add internal projects as references?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6754" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2429" RevisionGUID="4611d000-f0ef-4d4c-999b-6b711450d379" CreationDate="2014-09-25T19:02:16.547" UserId="27" Text="|resume|linkedin|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6755" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2430" RevisionGUID="1bac1fe5-0f3c-4a1b-9aa6-88cc30ec92b8" CreationDate="2014-09-25T19:05:03.913" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="I've worked with some clients that have very high privacy expectations (military, etc), and the rule of thumb that I always stick to is that if the paper or concept is available online and can be found easily by anyone using Google, then there is no issue mentioning it. NDAs generally cover information that is unique to the company that is not available elsewhere. For example, I could mention that I implemented a kalman filter for a company, but I wouldn't be able to talk about *how* I did it in specific. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So in your resume you can probably mention general broad details without mentioning specifics. By keeping it broad, you also minimise the chance of Bob being caught out. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6756" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2431" RevisionGUID="805e2caa-be06-4232-91bb-fbf7423de762" CreationDate="2014-09-26T01:28:09.737" UserId="4218" Text="The answer probably depends on the country, as @Canadian Luke points out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have worked in four countries, and companies usually provide a formal letter, stating the formal end date of the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Such a letter is easy to write. Your company should provide it to you, even retrospectively. If they do not have a template yet, there are many samples across the web to pass them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6757" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2428" RevisionGUID="afabccfe-9d41-40aa-a87a-5bcbb4c93ee5" CreationDate="2014-09-26T04:12:20.680" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/515353150316740608" />
  <row Id="6762" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2433" RevisionGUID="000813f9-2861-4cd8-afce-4c4af6cb3a12" CreationDate="2014-09-27T05:07:23.270" UserId="4505" Text="I do freelancing works, It's getting overwhelming to keep track of client's data like security certificates, encryption keys, numerous passwords, recurring payments &amp; subscriptions. My question is how do you keep track of all client related data?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6763" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2433" RevisionGUID="000813f9-2861-4cd8-afce-4c4af6cb3a12" CreationDate="2014-09-27T05:07:23.270" UserId="4505" Text="Best way to organise &amp; keep track of client data" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6764" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2433" RevisionGUID="000813f9-2861-4cd8-afce-4c4af6cb3a12" CreationDate="2014-09-27T05:07:23.270" UserId="4505" Text="|freelance-websites|accounting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6768" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2435" RevisionGUID="7dd5cd6c-f459-495b-ac6d-0d9d8e0d0e58" CreationDate="2014-09-27T07:29:20.683" UserId="517" Text="I keep them on the cloud services like Dropbox. I have folders created for each client, then subfolder for the project, then more subfolders like code, certificates, misc. etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For password I strongly recommend using LastPass. I pay them pro account for $1 per month (aren't they a ripoff :)). For many years I kept passwords inside Firefox or Chrome and did not want to use cloud service. Then I tried it as a part of another project and I immediately liked it. Not only I can access it from anywhere, but I can easily share it with any subcontractor (the login field auto-login and they cannot see passwords). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So as you see, I moved all to the cloud. Is cloud safe? I'd say that there are fewer chances that someone will hack my account then the bad electricity will burn my harddisk. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, it's all up to your organisation. If your file structure is a mess, no service will fix it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let me know if you need to know more. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6769" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2436" RevisionGUID="8932d014-e127-406b-82f6-44ea4b0654cb" CreationDate="2014-09-27T12:29:57.887" UserId="4985" Text="The repair person has every right to be paid, but it would help to be very clear in the first place.  &quot;This could be X or it could be Y.  If it is X, it will cost $50 to fix.  If X does not fix it, that means it is Y and it is not fixable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ethics aside, I think you will build a TON of goodwill by not always charging for such services.  If my car mechanic was in the situation you describe, they would not charge me for labor.  I recommend them to everyone." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6770" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2437" RevisionGUID="3e884680-ce25-44bf-93df-42b35ce7ea0e" CreationDate="2014-09-27T13:51:29.083" UserId="4986" Text="Your office expenses are a cost of being in business at all for ALL of the year. Your accountant should know this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6774" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2439" RevisionGUID="d906728b-36ae-4d2e-87c9-109ce537badc" CreationDate="2014-09-28T01:05:58.810" UserId="4988" Text="The first step is to start with time tracking. I would recommend ManicTime which has a variety of tools to manage and report on your time. http://www.manictime.com/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will then need to use any of a large variety of accounting software to apply Canadian payroll and income tax regulations. This can be done in Excel or a custom application like Quickbooks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, it might be worth a look at getting a local chartered accountant to handle your payroll, or even setting up an ADP account. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6775" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2440" RevisionGUID="60168da1-d7ff-4ba2-bbaa-7bfd54418cd4" CreationDate="2014-09-28T06:11:29.683" UserDisplayName="user19" Text="Why not open a little enquête for your users? Ask what they would be willing to pay for what service, and in what way (per season or once). Like this you get an overview of your target audience and you can calculate the consequences of pricing the app and pricing the website. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6776" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2441" RevisionGUID="6198d47f-577a-4b7b-afd0-705a2cf793ff" CreationDate="2014-09-28T15:08:16.007" UserId="4473" Text="I am using Google drive, dropbox and onebox. This is a result of client preferences for file transfer. I also create a Google drive folder for every client regardless of their use of the drive. At the top of each GD client folder I have a ganntter project file. If the client also shares a GD folder, this is a  sub folder of the main client folder. I do not want them to see all the files I create for that account.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For my email and calendar I use a Gmail account and alias all account addresses created for me by my clients. The Google calendar is tied to this and meeting invitations add in nicely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Synchronization to my mobile device is automatic. Including email, contacts and calendar.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the computer, I am now using Thunderbird as an email client since it also supports alias email addresses. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not store sensitive data on the cloud such a client server passwords or contracts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, I attempted putting Dropbox inside my Google drive area and the resulting corruption almost destroyed my work. Thankfully, I have an external hard drive with regular backup.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Doug" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6777" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2442" RevisionGUID="50d41635-39cd-492c-9dc0-d283332547a6" CreationDate="2014-09-28T21:13:56.197" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="There are a couple of options. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) *Freelance websites*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a couple of websites which offer various services for freelancers/clients, like offering an application to automatically keep track of hours worked and bill the client weekly for the previous weeks work. They also facilitate payment for fixed-price jobs and can do milestone payout. These websites usually have a fixed percentage that they charge of your income for their services. Odesk.com, elance.com guru.com, matchist.com and freelancer.com are all examples of this type of service. These websites also offer a platform for freelancers to post their service offerings and potential client to post jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) *Escrow service*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An escrow website could be used to facilitate the payment of milestones on a project. For example, escrow.com offers a service where the client pays them the money for the job, and when each milestone is completed successfully, they pay you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) *Direct payment*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client could pay you directly into your bank account using a wire transfer. By agreeing to milestones, both you and your client could minimise the risk of with party failing to meet their obligations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Other Notes*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While these above do offer some degree of protection, there are other precautions you can take to minimise risk:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Ask for an initial payment percentage as a deposit before work begins and plan milestones for logical stages throughout the process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Agree on definite criteria with the client for the milestones to ensure that the scope and criteria for completion of each stage is clear.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) Initially start on smaller, less costly projects with the client before moving onto larger ones. This will allow you to establish a relationship with the client and build some trust with them&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6778" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2424" RevisionGUID="a49fd381-19fb-4ad7-8360-b6f769db6e0b" CreationDate="2014-09-29T01:54:02.513" UserId="4896" Comment="Removing casual tone." Text="You can find good freelance bloggers on freelancer websites such as Elance, Freelancer or Fiverr. There are few things that you should keep in mind. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Ask for the lady to show her sample writing. &#xD;&#xA;2. Confirm that the writings she has shared are actually written by her. &#xD;&#xA;3. Her charges for writing for you. &#xD;&#xA;4. Her experience on writing about this kind of topics. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope these 4 things will help you in finding the best writer. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6779" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2424" RevisionGUID="a49fd381-19fb-4ad7-8360-b6f769db6e0b" CreationDate="2014-09-29T01:54:02.513" Comment="Proposed by 4896 approved by 517, 1018 edit id of 360" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6780" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2433" RevisionGUID="210546d9-f3e3-477f-ac16-900ffd2fe45c" CreationDate="2014-09-29T16:22:59.860" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/516624189017427968" />
  <row Id="6781" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2399" RevisionGUID="54d7c1e0-0b0a-4ef4-b8a9-f68fcf7a49a4" CreationDate="2014-09-29T22:23:00.063" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/516714787108315136" />
  <row Id="6785" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2383" RevisionGUID="46045d03-94b4-423d-8214-7aba35d6855b" CreationDate="2014-09-30T04:28:59.113" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/516806889972432896" />
  <row Id="6786" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2444" RevisionGUID="188f3b42-2935-4cdf-ac57-149efbc7d731" CreationDate="2014-09-30T04:42:31.393" UserId="5006" Text="I would like to know why people would prefer to freelance than to work as an employee.&#xD;&#xA;I hope to get various answers. I don't think there would be a definitive answer to this question.&#xD;&#xA;PS:&#xD;&#xA;Again not sure which tag to use." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6787" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2444" RevisionGUID="188f3b42-2935-4cdf-ac57-149efbc7d731" CreationDate="2014-09-30T04:42:31.393" UserId="5006" Text="Why should I be a freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6788" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2444" RevisionGUID="188f3b42-2935-4cdf-ac57-149efbc7d731" CreationDate="2014-09-30T04:42:31.393" UserId="5006" Text="|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6789" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2445" RevisionGUID="8861903c-bfb8-47fa-9857-ff93e1813132" CreationDate="2014-09-30T06:55:22.460" UserId="3014" Text="There are various reasons. As a Freelancer what I think is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. A Freelancer is free to work. He is not bound for certain  working hours. &#xD;&#xA;2. He is free to accept or reject any work. &#xD;&#xA;3. He is free to choose his rates. (I think that usually freelancers charge less than any other employee)&#xD;&#xA;4. A freelancer can do various jobs at a time from his home or any other location. He is not bound to sit and work in office. &#xD;&#xA;5. A Freelancer is not bound to have a physical work location. He can take work just via telling his country name. (No need to disclose his complete address) " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6790" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2444" RevisionGUID="986443f1-9ac4-4ed4-8e40-b6b44173e780" CreationDate="2014-09-30T13:20:45.950" UserId="58" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:43,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;levelnis&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6791" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2446" RevisionGUID="41ec2cdc-36e8-499d-a1a1-86ac6d5dfadf" CreationDate="2014-09-30T13:57:47.490" UserId="5009" Text="The best option would be to contact the company and get them to provide you a headed letter that proves when you let contract was terminated as this provides everything you should need in one letter. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6792" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2447" RevisionGUID="761c1fae-622e-45ae-9252-d0413d22f494" CreationDate="2014-09-30T16:31:48.160" UserId="4985" Text="A former colleague contacted me about purchasing and setting up equipment for her company.  We agreed to scope and an hourly rate via email.  I met with her on location to physically inspect the area and to get specs so I can order the appropriate equipment.  Do I charge for that meeting or part of that meeting since half of it was idle chit-chat/catching up?  Or are first meetings always free?  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6793" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2447" RevisionGUID="761c1fae-622e-45ae-9252-d0413d22f494" CreationDate="2014-09-30T16:31:48.160" UserId="4985" Text="What are best practices around billing for the initial consultation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6794" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2447" RevisionGUID="761c1fae-622e-45ae-9252-d0413d22f494" CreationDate="2014-09-30T16:31:48.160" UserId="4985" Text="|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6795" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2448" RevisionGUID="963197f7-a4be-41f5-aca0-d458e252b704" CreationDate="2014-09-30T18:51:43.267" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="I would charge what is considered reasonable. If the person was not a friend, would you spend as much time chatting to them? If not, then I would hesitate to charge for that extra time. Charging for it may make the client feel cheated and put strain on the relationship. I try to be as reasonable as possible to keep the relationship healthy and my clients happy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I did a client visit to discuss work at their premises, which I charged for. The client also happens to be a good friend. We went out for lunch afterwards and I didn't charge for that. I try to keep the business talk separate from the friendly talk. It's easier for both parties to keep track of what is being charged for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6796" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2448" RevisionGUID="d7cb3b34-cb6a-4faf-893b-8909664b48d6" CreationDate="2014-09-30T18:59:30.977" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 391 characters in body" Text="I usually start charging once negotiations are complete and a rate has been decided on and there is mutual agreement about the terms. Once the discussion changes from discussing rates to discussing the project and work detils, I start to charge. If the initial meeting were a negotiation type meeting, then it would be free, but any meetings after that about the project are charged for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would charge what is considered reasonable. If the person was not a friend, would you spend as much time chatting to them? If not, then I would hesitate to charge for that extra time. Charging for it may make the client feel cheated and put strain on the relationship. I try to be as reasonable as possible and tend to err on the side of caution to keep the relationship healthy and my clients happy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I did a client visit to discuss work at their premises, which I charged for. The client also happens to be a good friend. We went out for lunch afterwards and I didn't charge for that. I try to keep the business talk separate from the friendly talk. It's easier for both parties to keep track of what is being charged for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6797" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2449" RevisionGUID="943df462-7b49-49b6-8550-158fe9d61838" CreationDate="2014-09-30T20:03:47.360" UserId="1818" Text="First meeting or 20th, bill for the time you actually worked for them.  Chit-chatting and catching up are not work regardless of which meeting it is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Negotiations is before the work starts, that time is your cost to try to get the job.  Inspecting the area and getting specs are work and are billable. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6798" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2450" RevisionGUID="14823454-7366-4c58-94ca-04adfd0b82d8" CreationDate="2014-09-30T21:49:21.900" UserId="5012" Text="A portion of my income is derived from contracts through the freelancing website oDesk.  For their trouble, oDesk skims 10% off the top of what the end client is charged and forwards the rest on to me.  As I also have income that doesn't derive from oDesk, I use accounting software (FreshBooks) to track everything relating to my freelancing.  When entering my oDesk work on FreshBooks, there are two possibilities: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Create an invoice for the full amount **billed to the client** by oDesk, and record the 10% commission as an expense against that invoice&#xD;&#xA;2. Create an invoice for the full amount **paid to me** by oDesk&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Which method is most advantageous from a tax perspective?  To me, it boils down to whether Canada Revenue Agency allows me to deduct that commission I pay as an expense; their website has much about deducting expenses for employees earning commission, but nothing that I could find on self-employed people who pay commissions to earn income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6799" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2450" RevisionGUID="14823454-7366-4c58-94ca-04adfd0b82d8" CreationDate="2014-09-30T21:49:21.900" UserId="5012" Text="How to treat commissions paid to a freelancing website when tracking income? [Canada]" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6800" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2450" RevisionGUID="14823454-7366-4c58-94ca-04adfd0b82d8" CreationDate="2014-09-30T21:49:21.900" UserId="5012" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6801" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2387" RevisionGUID="077c7c85-f731-417c-bfbd-4a932dd27efd" CreationDate="2014-09-30T22:33:15.307" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/517079755557208064" />
  <row Id="6802" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2450" RevisionGUID="7a112490-e0bc-4d69-b950-e7736fc6a27b" CreationDate="2014-10-01T01:36:28.220" UserId="64" Comment="We can use tags for country identification; Fixed title; edited tags" Text="A portion of my income, in Canada, is derived from contracts through the freelancing website oDesk.  For their trouble, oDesk skims 10% off the top of what the end client is charged and forwards the rest on to me.  As I also have income that doesn't derive from oDesk, I use accounting software (FreshBooks) to track everything relating to my freelancing.  When entering my oDesk work on FreshBooks, there are two possibilities: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Create an invoice for the full amount **billed to the client** by oDesk, and record the 10% commission as an expense against that invoice&#xD;&#xA;2. Create an invoice for the full amount **paid to me** by oDesk&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Which method is most advantageous from a tax perspective?  To me, it boils down to whether Canada Revenue Agency allows me to deduct that commission I pay as an expense; their website has much about deducting expenses for employees earning commission, but nothing that I could find on self-employed people who pay commissions to earn income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6803" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2450" RevisionGUID="7a112490-e0bc-4d69-b950-e7736fc6a27b" CreationDate="2014-10-01T01:36:28.220" UserId="64" Comment="We can use tags for country identification; Fixed title; edited tags" Text="How to treat commissions paid to a Canadian freelancing website when tracking income?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6804" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2450" RevisionGUID="7a112490-e0bc-4d69-b950-e7736fc6a27b" CreationDate="2014-10-01T01:36:28.220" UserId="64" Comment="We can use tags for country identification; Fixed title; edited tags" Text="|taxes|canada|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6806" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2451" RevisionGUID="22137afc-acff-4113-baac-be0959dff2f6" CreationDate="2014-10-01T06:15:01.643" UserId="4822" Text="It is usually / possible to state in a consultancy contract that the payer will pay via Bitcoin and not via regular bank transfer? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6807" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2451" RevisionGUID="22137afc-acff-4113-baac-be0959dff2f6" CreationDate="2014-10-01T06:15:01.643" UserId="4822" Text="Pay consultancy invoices via Bitcoin?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6808" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2451" RevisionGUID="22137afc-acff-4113-baac-be0959dff2f6" CreationDate="2014-10-01T06:15:01.643" UserId="4822" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|consulting|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6809" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2451" RevisionGUID="ed78b67d-51af-48b3-a9ce-2f636b1b0e24" CreationDate="2014-10-01T06:20:12.863" UserId="4822" Comment="added 53 characters in body" Text="It is usually / possible that a consultancy contract contains hourly rate in Bitcoin unit and not in EUR or USD? And so payer will pay via Bitcoin - and not via regular bank transfer? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6810" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2452" RevisionGUID="ee545c76-91fb-4447-b6ff-5cd932241469" CreationDate="2014-10-01T06:30:36.650" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="It is important to note that the legality of the use of bitcoins (and the recognition of them) [varies wildly from country to country][2] due to the lack of regulation of the currency and the potential for money laundering and tax evasion. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, since there are people who have [no problem working for bitcoins][1], it is definitely a possible mechanism by which people can be paid. So yes, if you and the other party agree for payment in bitcoins (and both people aren't breaking the law by doing so in their country), I don't think there would be an issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.reddit.com/r/Jobs4bitcoins&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_Bitcoin_by_country" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6812" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2454" RevisionGUID="23560236-aa9f-4dec-a760-61a7004880c6" CreationDate="2014-10-01T08:48:23.663" UserId="5014" Text="In Denmark (where I live) a chain of 200+ restaurants and fast food joints have accepted BitCoins as a valid payment, and this has made a solid shift in how danes see bitcoins. (Especially students)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So here, it's just as valid as say a PayPal transfer in EUR or USD.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But we felt the solid social differences when talking to our neighbours in Germany, where the few that has heard about BitCoins are still very sceptical.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So it is absolutely possible, I don't know of any country that has rules about it. I guess the main thing here is : **Just ask.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can make an invoice in any currency you want, even digital currencies. We had a community manager that got paid in EVE Isk, and that was completely valid with legal since it was his payment request, and not us forcing it upon him." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6813" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2451" RevisionGUID="002d8756-aa80-4dee-ade1-27db55b1b3f3" CreationDate="2014-10-01T12:26:22.740" UserId="4822" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body" Text="It is usual / possible that a consultancy contract contains hourly rate in Bitcoin unit and not in EUR or USD? And so payer will pay via Bitcoin and not via regular bank transfer? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6814" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2450" RevisionGUID="1b5e4366-899a-4312-8aa6-081390209425" CreationDate="2014-10-01T13:33:15.920" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/517306250338373633" />
  <row Id="6815" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2341" RevisionGUID="6893c425-9086-4e1e-b310-4a0095f61e9c" CreationDate="2014-10-01T19:34:33.823" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/517397174041452545" />
  <row Id="6816" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2455" RevisionGUID="de2c25fb-e189-4e5a-8a39-a1b41411bc22" CreationDate="2014-10-01T23:54:56.103" UserId="5020" Text="There are countries that treat bitcoins as illegal because you circumvent their money system.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But other than legality there is also the factor taxes, how can you pay 30% of your earned bitcoins for example? You will have to put a value on them and then calculate taxes in your normal currency.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6818" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2457" RevisionGUID="6a60c9d3-3ec9-44bd-b832-0bd5111647c6" CreationDate="2014-10-02T11:32:29.193" UserId="1706" Text="Unfortunately, you can't eat a bitcoin, apparently unless you're in Denmark.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You'd have to either spend all your bitcoins with merchants that accept them.  Otherwise you'll be responsible for converting bitcoins back to some local currency that you can **actually** use, and bitcoin purchasers will charge a fee (as do all money exchanges) for you to do so.  It might not be worth the hassle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, maybe you'd just like bragging rights to say you have some bitcoins.  Whatever the case, know the true costs **first**." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6823" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2451" RevisionGUID="9a011c35-ac0b-4a0d-bc07-43f487f3e22b" CreationDate="2014-10-02T13:36:41.783" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/517669501660192768" />
  <row Id="6827" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2461" RevisionGUID="50cb9977-6804-4a21-bbbe-c9cb65165835" CreationDate="2014-10-02T16:32:32.807" UserId="708" Text="Here's what I tell others in my industry - design - which may be related.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seven steps to preparing to freelance full time&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. First, figure out your rates. Know the minimum you need to charge if&#xD;&#xA;    you were working freelance. Once you know the minimum, add 20-50% to&#xD;&#xA;    it. This will provide some profit margin. I won't go into&#xD;&#xA;    calculating    your rates, but there is an excellent answer over at &#xD;&#xA;    [GraphicDesign.StackExchange.com][1] regarding this. It would apply &#xD;&#xA;    to *any* freelancer.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Second, figure out what **unique** tools, skills, knowledge you&#xD;&#xA;    bring to clients as opposed to your competition. Look at your skill&#xD;&#xA;    set from an outside perspective and be **honest** with yourself&#xD;&#xA;    regarding your skills. Are you exceptionally skilled in a specific&#xD;&#xA;    area? Are you grossly under skilled in a commonly needed area? Think&#xD;&#xA;    about an &quot;elevator pitch&quot; for clients - a short 30 second to 1&#xD;&#xA;    minute paragraph which defines *why* you would be valuable to them&#xD;&#xA;    were they to work with you. You should be able to recite this off&#xD;&#xA;    the top of your head - not in an &quot;I practiced this&quot; manner, but you&#xD;&#xA;    should be able to *clearly* explain your value.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Third, use the above two items and work in your spare time. Dedicate&#xD;&#xA;    a couple hours in the evening each day and time on the weekends to&#xD;&#xA;    work freelance projects. This will **build a stable of clients**&#xD;&#xA;    while you still have the security of employment. This will help you&#xD;&#xA;    learn the ins and outs of client-based work. It's much different&#xD;&#xA;    than being employed. You need to be far more diplomatic, less&#xD;&#xA;    willing to complain, and always willing to smile. It also takes&#xD;&#xA;    practice to learn to say &quot;NO&quot; to a someone willing to pay you. This&#xD;&#xA;    &quot;spare time&quot; work will be invaluable in learning how to deal with&#xD;&#xA;    clients and the job you have will provide a safety net while you&#xD;&#xA;    stumble through it at first - like we *all* have.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Fourth, while working this part time freelancing, pass on the&#xD;&#xA;    smaller inconsequential projects. Remember, you're looking to build&#xD;&#xA;    relationships with high-end, repeat client. You don't want to waste&#xD;&#xA;    time on the small one-off, no repeat, down-and-dirty, projects. You&#xD;&#xA;    want clients that appreciate and respect your work. Don't bid/quote&#xD;&#xA;    on anything which is not &quot;shooting for the stars&quot; for you. Go after&#xD;&#xA;    those high-end projects. After all, if you don't get them you still&#xD;&#xA;    have your job and that paycheck. So, aim high.&#xD;&#xA; 5. Fifth, **save money**. While enjoying the regular paycheck tuck part&#xD;&#xA;    of it away. As much as you can. Before even *considering*&#xD;&#xA;    freelancing full time you need to have a **minimum** of 6 months to&#xD;&#xA;    live off of. More is *always* better. If you have a family or large&#xD;&#xA;    debts, you may want to consider a minimum of one year salary before&#xD;&#xA;    considering full time freelancing. Remember to factor in things your&#xD;&#xA;    employer is currently paying for - healthcare, 401k, dentists, etc.&#xD;&#xA;    These expenses will be *yours* if you are self-employed. Figure out&#xD;&#xA;    your &quot;cushion&quot; - that is how long you could go without *any* income&#xD;&#xA;    and still be okay. If it's under 6 months (or preferably a year) you&#xD;&#xA;    aren't ready financially to make the move to full time freelancing.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Sixth, **pay down debts**. Try to eliminate any ongoing debts you&#xD;&#xA;    may have. Pay down credit cards, get rid of store credit cards, pay&#xD;&#xA;    off a debt such as a car if possible. Basically, you want to get&#xD;&#xA;    your monthly debt to income ratio down to as little as possible. The&#xD;&#xA;    goal is to have as much money coming *in* as possible while needing&#xD;&#xA;    to pay out the *smallest* possible amount each month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Repeat all the above regularly. Keep working towards these six items until you think you have them down solid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 7. -**Evaluate**- Evaluate yourself ***honestly*** every couple months. And I do mean **honestly**. &#xD;&#xA; - Are you maintaining the part-time freelance clients? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you always looking for work? Are you struggling financially? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you missing freelance deadlines? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you finding your freelance clients are often upset or dissatisfied?&#xD;&#xA; - Are you turning away projects due to your own lack of knowledge/experience? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you not following through with freelance opportunities when the present themselves? &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;If the&#xD;&#xA;    answer to *any* of this is &quot;yes&quot; you aren't ready and you need to&#xD;&#xA;    focus on the areas you aren't meeting. These are *very important*&#xD;&#xA;    when freelancing. You need to be dependable in addition to having a&#xD;&#xA;    dependable income stream.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**When to jump.....**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you have a stable of repeat clients that keep you working most of the time (during your designated freelance hours) **without** any great need to go find new projects, you have that 6 months/1 year of saved income, aren't currently struggling to make financial ends meet, and you are bringing in enough freelance money to sustain 3/4 of your debt each month.... you are probably ready to make the leap to full time freelancing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, having a stable of good clients, even if they are merely part-time clients *before* you quit regular employment is critical. Don't even consider freelancing full time if you have no *repeat* freelance clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then of course there is option 2.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just quit and start doing it. Be prepared to bomb and need to frantically find a new employment position if things fail. And be prepared to struggle if you can't find that new employment. Some people thrive in chaos and it motivates them. I would not recommend this method, but to each his own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/a/959/3270" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6828" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2461" RevisionGUID="345946c1-7468-4593-afea-499325b40092" CreationDate="2014-10-02T16:40:54.723" UserId="708" Comment="added 862 characters in body" Text="Here's what I tell others in my industry - design - which may be related. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, age never matters to any real degree. Most of my clients have no clue how old I may be - and they don't care. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Experience matters. The more years of experience you have the better off you are in terms of marketing yourself. However, high-end, visible experience will outweigh years of non-visible experience (example: developed some well known iOS apps but only have 3 years experience as opposed to 10 years experience working for &quot;johns programming&quot; where nothing is publicly known).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know your market, but in mine.. Craigslist is about as *far away* as you can get from finding *good* clients. You need to network and find clients via word of mouth or referrals. Join the Chamber of Commerce, seek local social groups dedicated to your field. Tell people you know (not other employees) that you want to start finding jobs you can complete in your spare time. Look at the dedicated employment web sites - NOT craigslist. The employment sites (in my experience) aren't great for maintaining a freelance career (in my field) - they make you work way too hard and rarely have repeat clients for you - but they are a way to get your foot in the door. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My general seven steps to preparing to freelance full time&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. First, figure out your rates. Know the minimum you need to charge if&#xD;&#xA;    you were working freelance. Once you know the minimum, add 20-50% to&#xD;&#xA;    it. This will provide some profit margin. I won't go into&#xD;&#xA;    calculating    your rates, but there is an excellent answer over at &#xD;&#xA;    [GraphicDesign.StackExchange.com][1] regarding this. It would apply &#xD;&#xA;    to *any* freelancer.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Second, figure out what **unique** tools, skills, knowledge you&#xD;&#xA;    bring to clients as opposed to your competition. Look at your skill&#xD;&#xA;    set from an outside perspective and be **honest** with yourself&#xD;&#xA;    regarding your skills. Are you exceptionally skilled in a specific&#xD;&#xA;    area? Are you grossly under skilled in a commonly needed area? Think&#xD;&#xA;    about an &quot;elevator pitch&quot; for clients - a short 30 second to 1&#xD;&#xA;    minute paragraph which defines *why* you would be valuable to them&#xD;&#xA;    were they to work with you. You should be able to recite this off&#xD;&#xA;    the top of your head - not in an &quot;I practiced this&quot; manner, but you&#xD;&#xA;    should be able to *clearly* explain your value.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Third, use the above two items and work in your spare time. Dedicate&#xD;&#xA;    a couple hours in the evening each day and time on the weekends to&#xD;&#xA;    work freelance projects. This will **build a stable of clients**&#xD;&#xA;    while you still have the security of employment. This will help you&#xD;&#xA;    learn the ins and outs of client-based work. It's much different&#xD;&#xA;    than being employed. You need to be far more diplomatic, less&#xD;&#xA;    willing to complain, and always willing to smile. It also takes&#xD;&#xA;    practice to learn to say &quot;NO&quot; to a someone willing to pay you. This&#xD;&#xA;    &quot;spare time&quot; work will be invaluable in learning how to deal with&#xD;&#xA;    clients and the job you have will provide a safety net while you&#xD;&#xA;    stumble through it at first - like we *all* have.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Fourth, while working this part time freelancing, pass on the&#xD;&#xA;    smaller inconsequential projects. Remember, you're looking to build&#xD;&#xA;    relationships with high-end, repeat client. You don't want to waste&#xD;&#xA;    time on the small one-off, no repeat, down-and-dirty, projects. You&#xD;&#xA;    want clients that appreciate and respect your work. Don't bid/quote&#xD;&#xA;    on anything which is not &quot;shooting for the stars&quot; for you. Go after&#xD;&#xA;    those high-end projects. After all, if you don't get them you still&#xD;&#xA;    have your job and that paycheck. So, aim high.&#xD;&#xA; 5. Fifth, **save money**. While enjoying the regular paycheck tuck part&#xD;&#xA;    of it away. As much as you can. Before even *considering*&#xD;&#xA;    freelancing full time you need to have a **minimum** of 6 months to&#xD;&#xA;    live off of. More is *always* better. If you have a family or large&#xD;&#xA;    debts, you may want to consider a minimum of one year salary before&#xD;&#xA;    considering full time freelancing. Remember to factor in things your&#xD;&#xA;    employer is currently paying for - healthcare, 401k, dentists, etc.&#xD;&#xA;    These expenses will be *yours* if you are self-employed. Figure out&#xD;&#xA;    your &quot;cushion&quot; - that is how long you could go without *any* income&#xD;&#xA;    and still be okay. If it's under 6 months (or preferably a year) you&#xD;&#xA;    aren't ready financially to make the move to full time freelancing.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Sixth, **pay down debts**. Try to eliminate any ongoing debts you&#xD;&#xA;    may have. Pay down credit cards, get rid of store credit cards, pay&#xD;&#xA;    off a debt such as a car if possible. Basically, you want to get&#xD;&#xA;    your monthly debt to income ratio down to as little as possible. The&#xD;&#xA;    goal is to have as much money coming *in* as possible while needing&#xD;&#xA;    to pay out the *smallest* possible amount each month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Repeat all the above regularly. Keep working towards these six items until you think you have them down solid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 7. -**Evaluate**- Evaluate yourself ***honestly*** every couple months. And I do mean **honestly**. &#xD;&#xA; - Are you maintaining the part-time freelance clients? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you always looking for work? Are you struggling financially? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you missing freelance deadlines? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you finding your freelance clients are often upset or dissatisfied?&#xD;&#xA; - Are you turning away projects due to your own lack of knowledge/experience? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you not following through with freelance opportunities when the present themselves? &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;If the&#xD;&#xA;    answer to *any* of this is &quot;yes&quot; you aren't ready and you need to&#xD;&#xA;    focus on the areas you aren't meeting. These are *very important*&#xD;&#xA;    when freelancing. You need to be dependable in addition to having a&#xD;&#xA;    dependable income stream.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**When to jump.....**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you have a stable of repeat clients that keep you working most of the time (during your designated freelance hours) **without** any great need to go find new projects, you have that 6 months/1 year of saved income, aren't currently struggling to make financial ends meet, and you are bringing in enough freelance money to sustain 3/4 of your debt each month.... you are probably ready to make the leap to full time freelancing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, having a stable of good clients, even if they are merely part-time clients *before* you quit regular employment is critical. Don't even consider freelancing full time if you have no *repeat* freelance clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then of course there is option 2.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just quit and start doing it. Be prepared to bomb and need to frantically find a new employment position if things fail. And be prepared to struggle if you can't find that new employment. Some people thrive in chaos and it motivates them. I would not recommend this method, but to each his own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/a/959/3270" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6829" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2461" RevisionGUID="6f060eb6-5e51-441d-9554-ef8a53eabc9d" CreationDate="2014-10-02T16:48:21.363" UserId="708" Comment="added 5 characters in body" Text="Here's what I tell others in my industry - design - which may be related. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, age never matters to any real degree. Most of my clients have no clue how old I may be - and they don't care. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Experience matters. The more years of experience you have the better off you are in terms of marketing yourself. However, high-end, visible experience will outweigh years of non-visible experience (example: developed some well known iOS apps but only have 3 years experience as opposed to 10 years experience working for &quot;johns programming&quot; where nothing is publicly known).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know your market, but in mine.. Craigslist is about as *far away* as you can get from finding *good* clients. You need to network and find clients via word of mouth or referrals. Join the Chamber of Commerce, seek local social groups dedicated to your field. Tell people you know (not other employees) that you want to start finding jobs you can complete in your spare time. Look at the dedicated employment web sites - NOT craigslist. The employment sites (in my experience) aren't great for maintaining a freelance career (in my field) - they make you work way too hard and rarely have repeat clients for you - but they are a way to get your foot in the door. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My general seven steps to preparing to freelance full time&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. First, figure out your rates. Know the minimum you need to charge if&#xD;&#xA;    you were working freelance. Once you know the minimum, add 20-50% to&#xD;&#xA;    it. This will provide some profit margin. I won't go into&#xD;&#xA;    calculating    your rates, but there is an excellent answer over at &#xD;&#xA;    [GraphicDesign.StackExchange.com][1] regarding this. It would apply &#xD;&#xA;    to *any* freelancer.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Second, figure out what **unique** tools, skills, knowledge you&#xD;&#xA;    bring to clients as opposed to your competition. Look at your skill&#xD;&#xA;    set from an outside perspective and be **honest** with yourself&#xD;&#xA;    regarding your skills. Are you exceptionally skilled in a specific&#xD;&#xA;    area? Are you grossly under skilled in a commonly needed area? Think&#xD;&#xA;    about an &quot;elevator pitch&quot; for clients - a short 30 second to 1&#xD;&#xA;    minute paragraph which defines *why* you would be valuable to them&#xD;&#xA;    were they to work with you. You should be able to recite this off&#xD;&#xA;    the top of your head - not in an &quot;I practiced this&quot; manner, but you&#xD;&#xA;    should be able to *clearly* explain your value.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Third, use the above two items and work in your spare time. Dedicate&#xD;&#xA;    a couple hours in the evening each day and time on the weekends to&#xD;&#xA;    work freelance projects. This will **build a stable of clients**&#xD;&#xA;    while you still have the security of employment. This will help you&#xD;&#xA;    learn the ins and outs of client-based work. It's much different&#xD;&#xA;    than being employed. You need to be far more diplomatic, less&#xD;&#xA;    willing to complain, and always willing to smile. It also takes&#xD;&#xA;    practice to learn to say &quot;NO&quot; to a someone willing to pay you. This&#xD;&#xA;    &quot;spare time&quot; work will be invaluable in learning how to deal with&#xD;&#xA;    clients and the job you have will provide a safety net while you&#xD;&#xA;    stumble through it at first - like we *all* have.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Fourth, while working this part time freelancing, pass on the&#xD;&#xA;    smaller inconsequential projects. Remember, you're looking to build&#xD;&#xA;    relationships with high-end, repeat client. You don't want to waste&#xD;&#xA;    time on the small one-off, no repeat, down-and-dirty, projects. You&#xD;&#xA;    want clients that appreciate and respect your work. Don't bid/quote&#xD;&#xA;    on anything which is not &quot;shooting for the stars&quot; for you. Go after&#xD;&#xA;    those high-end projects. After all, if you don't get them you still&#xD;&#xA;    have your job and that paycheck. So, aim high.&#xD;&#xA; 5. Fifth, **save money**. While enjoying the regular paycheck tuck part&#xD;&#xA;    of it away. As much as you can. Before even *considering*&#xD;&#xA;    freelancing full time you need to have a **minimum** of 6 months to&#xD;&#xA;    live off of. More is *always* better. If you have a family or large&#xD;&#xA;    debts, you may want to consider a minimum of one year salary before&#xD;&#xA;    considering full time freelancing. Remember to factor in things your&#xD;&#xA;    employer is currently paying for - healthcare, 401k, dentists, etc.&#xD;&#xA;    These expenses will be *yours* if you are self-employed. Figure out&#xD;&#xA;    your &quot;cushion&quot; - that is how long you could go without *any* income&#xD;&#xA;    and still be okay. If it's under 6 months (or preferably a year) you&#xD;&#xA;    aren't ready financially to make the move to full time freelancing.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Sixth, **pay down debts**. Try to eliminate any ongoing debts you&#xD;&#xA;    may have. Pay down credit cards, get rid of store credit cards, pay&#xD;&#xA;    off a debt such as a car if possible. Basically, you want to get&#xD;&#xA;    your monthly debt to income ratio down to as little as possible. The&#xD;&#xA;    goal is to have as much money coming *in* as possible while needing&#xD;&#xA;    to pay out the *smallest* possible amount each month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Repeat all the above regularly. Keep working towards these six items until you think you have them down solid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 7. -**Evaluate**- Evaluate yourself ***honestly*** every couple months. And I do mean **honestly**. &#xD;&#xA; - Are you maintaining the part-time freelance clients? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you always looking for work? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you struggling financially? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you missing freelance deadlines? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you finding your freelance clients are often upset or dissatisfied?&#xD;&#xA; - Are you turning away projects due to your own lack of knowledge/experience? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you not following through with freelance opportunities when the present themselves? &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;If the&#xD;&#xA;    answer to *any* of this is &quot;yes&quot; you aren't ready and you need to&#xD;&#xA;    focus on the areas you aren't meeting. These are *very important*&#xD;&#xA;    when freelancing. You need to be dependable in addition to having a&#xD;&#xA;    dependable income stream.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**When to jump.....**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you have a stable of repeat clients that keep you working most of the time (during your designated freelance hours) **without** any great need to go find new projects, you have that 6 months/1 year of saved income, aren't currently struggling to make financial ends meet, and you are bringing in enough freelance money to sustain 3/4 of your debt each month.... you are probably ready to make the leap to full time freelancing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, having a stable of good clients, even if they are merely part-time clients *before* you quit regular employment is critical. Don't even consider freelancing full time if you have no *repeat* freelance clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then of course there is option 2.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just quit and start doing it. Be prepared to bomb and need to frantically find a new employment position if things fail. And be prepared to struggle if you can't find that new employment. Some people thrive in chaos and it motivates them. I would not recommend this method, but to each his own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/a/959/3270" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6830" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2461" RevisionGUID="6748ee20-4e80-41d9-98c3-0844e498e3b8" CreationDate="2014-10-02T16:57:46.250" UserId="708" Comment="added 5 characters in body" Text="Here's what I tell others in my industry - design - which may be related. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, age never matters to any real degree. Most of my clients have no clue how old I may be - and they don't care. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Experience matters. The more years of experience you have the better off you are in terms of marketing yourself. However, high-end, visible experience will outweigh years of non-visible experience (example: developed some well known iOS apps but only have 3 years experience as opposed to 10 years experience working for &quot;johns programming&quot; where nothing is publicly known).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know your market, but in mine.. Craigslist is about as *far away* as you can get from finding *good* clients. You need to network and find clients via word of mouth or referrals. Join the Chamber of Commerce, seek local social groups dedicated to your field. Tell people you know (not other employees) that you want to start finding jobs you can complete in your spare time. Look at the dedicated employment web sites - NOT craigslist. The employment sites (in my experience) aren't great for maintaining a freelance career (in my field) - they make you work way too hard and rarely have repeat clients for you - but they are a way to get your foot in the door. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My general seven steps to preparing to freelance full time&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. First, figure out your rates. Know the minimum you need to charge if&#xD;&#xA;    you were working freelance. Once you know the minimum, add 20-50% to&#xD;&#xA;    it. This will provide some profit margin. I won't go into&#xD;&#xA;    calculating    your rates, but there is an excellent answer over at &#xD;&#xA;    [GraphicDesign.StackExchange.com][1] regarding this. It would apply &#xD;&#xA;    to *any* freelancer.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Second, figure out what **unique** tools, skills, knowledge you&#xD;&#xA;    bring to clients as opposed to your competition. Look at your skill&#xD;&#xA;    set from an outside perspective and be **honest** with yourself&#xD;&#xA;    regarding your skills. Are you exceptionally skilled in a specific&#xD;&#xA;    area? Are you grossly under skilled in a commonly needed area? Think&#xD;&#xA;    about an &quot;elevator pitch&quot; for clients - a short 30 second to 1&#xD;&#xA;    minute paragraph which defines *why* you would be valuable to them&#xD;&#xA;    were they to work with you. You should be able to recite this off&#xD;&#xA;    the top of your head - not in an &quot;I practiced this&quot; manner, but you&#xD;&#xA;    should be able to *clearly* explain your value.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Third, use the above two items and work in your spare time. Dedicate&#xD;&#xA;    a couple hours in the evening each day and time on the weekends to&#xD;&#xA;    work freelance projects. This will **build a stable of clients**&#xD;&#xA;    while you still have the security of employment. This will help you&#xD;&#xA;    learn the ins and outs of client-based work. It's much different&#xD;&#xA;    than being employed. You need to be far more diplomatic, less&#xD;&#xA;    willing to complain, and always willing to smile. It also takes&#xD;&#xA;    practice to learn to say &quot;NO&quot; to a someone willing to pay you. This&#xD;&#xA;    &quot;spare time&quot; work will be invaluable in learning how to deal with&#xD;&#xA;    clients and the job you have will provide a safety net while you&#xD;&#xA;    stumble through it at first - like we *all* have.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Fourth, while working this part time freelancing, pass on the&#xD;&#xA;    smaller inconsequential projects. Remember, you're looking to build&#xD;&#xA;    relationships with high-end, repeat client. You don't want to waste&#xD;&#xA;    time on the small one-off, no repeat, down-and-dirty, projects. You&#xD;&#xA;    want clients that appreciate and respect your work. Don't bid/quote&#xD;&#xA;    on anything which is not &quot;shooting for the stars&quot; for you. Go after&#xD;&#xA;    those high-end projects. After all, if you don't get them you still&#xD;&#xA;    have your job and that paycheck. So, aim high.&#xD;&#xA; 5. Fifth, **save money**. While enjoying the regular paycheck tuck part&#xD;&#xA;    of it away. As much as you can. Before even *considering*&#xD;&#xA;    freelancing full time you need to have a **minimum** of 6 months to&#xD;&#xA;    live off of. More is *always* better. If you have a family or large&#xD;&#xA;    debts, you may want to consider a minimum of one year salary before&#xD;&#xA;    considering full time freelancing. Remember to factor in things your&#xD;&#xA;    employer is currently paying for - healthcare, 401k, dentists, etc.&#xD;&#xA;    These expenses will be *yours* if you are self-employed. Figure out&#xD;&#xA;    your &quot;cushion&quot; - that is how long you could go without *any* income&#xD;&#xA;    and still be okay. If it's under 6 months (or preferably a year) you&#xD;&#xA;    aren't ready financially to make the move to full time freelancing.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Sixth, **pay down debts**. Try to eliminate any ongoing debts you&#xD;&#xA;    may have. Pay down credit cards, get rid of store credit cards, pay&#xD;&#xA;    off a debt such as a car if possible. Basically, you want to get&#xD;&#xA;    your monthly debt to income ratio down to as little as possible. The&#xD;&#xA;    goal is to have as much money coming *in* as possible while needing&#xD;&#xA;    to pay out the *smallest* possible amount each month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Repeat all the above regularly. Keep working towards these six items until you think you have them down solid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 7. -**Evaluate**- Evaluate yourself ***honestly*** every couple months. And I do mean **honestly**. &#xD;&#xA; - Are you maintaining the part-time freelance clients? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you always looking for work? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you struggling financially? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you missing freelance deadlines? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you finding your freelance clients are often upset or dissatisfied?&#xD;&#xA; - Are you turning away projects due to your own lack of knowledge/experience? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you not following through with freelance opportunities when the present themselves? &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;If the&#xD;&#xA;    answer to *any* of this is &quot;yes&quot; you aren't ready and you need to&#xD;&#xA;    focus on the areas you aren't meeting. These are *very important*&#xD;&#xA;    when freelancing. You need to be dependable in addition to having a&#xD;&#xA;    dependable income stream.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**When to jump.....**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you have a stable of repeat clients that keep you working most of the time (during your designated freelance hours) **without** any great need to go find new projects, you have that 6 months/1 year of saved income, aren't currently struggling to make financial ends meet, and you are bringing in enough freelance money to sustain 3/4 of your debt each month.... you are probably ready to make the leap to full time freelancing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, having a stable of good clients, even if they are merely part-time clients *before* you quit regular employment is critical. Don't even consider freelancing full time if you have no *repeat* freelance clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then of course there is option 2.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just quit and start doing it. Be prepared to bomb and need to frantically find a new employment position if things fail. And be prepared to struggle if you can't find that new employment. Some people thrive in chaos and it motivates them. I would not recommend this method, but to each his own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In either situation there is risk. If you are the type of person who is risk-adverse then you need to ensure the seven steps above are taken care of completely. Yes it can be scary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**After you make the leap...** give it 90 days. If after 90 days of full-time freelancing you aren't facing any any major concerns in terms of finances or workload, you'll most likely be fine and things will only improve. If after 90 days you aren't bring in enough money or aren't finding any work then you may want to start looking for other employment. However, thanks to the cushion in #5 above, it won't be a frantic rush to &quot;save the house&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember to always keep that &quot;cushion&quot;. Freelance income is feast or famine - you may do great one month then not so great the next. So, during good months don't go rushing out to buy new equipment or something. Remember lean times *will* come so be prepared for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/a/959/3270" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6835" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2462" RevisionGUID="41027a93-5180-4d97-a94c-f7741b7c86dc" CreationDate="2014-10-02T20:23:00.997" UserId="75" Text="Personally, I would use the rate I am paid. If I charge $100/hr, and through a service like oDesk, I'm paid $90/hr, I'd report as $90/hour. They are not taking off taxes, so I don't say I made $100/hr. They are an expense from before you get your gross income. The CRA will care more for the money you are actively making, as oDesk has their own tax implications (taking commission off the top).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Quoting the [CRA](http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/slprtnr/rprtng/t2125/ln9270-eng.html):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; There are expenses you can incur to earn income, other than those listed on Form T2125, Statement of Business or Professional Activities. Enter, on this line the total of other expenses you incurred to earn income, as long as you did not include them on a previous line. You do not have to list these expenses on the form.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;More info from the [CRA](http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/slprtnr/bsnssxpnss/menu-eng.html), including what is allowable expenses. Because it does not *cost* you, you don't include it as an expense in your taxes. Claim the $90/hr wage." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6836" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2463" RevisionGUID="76b981cf-cd9c-4381-b7a2-e0ddac473f24" CreationDate="2014-10-03T05:18:01.933" UserId="5026" Text="The last week we had a meeting at our office. I heard an interesting thing said by the CEO there: &quot;Business is possible only after three parts are put together, those parts are: Work, Investment, Risk&quot;. I have no idea where this sentence was taken from, but it makes sense. You could have an investment, but with no work and no risk there will be no business... As well, You could work, but with no investment and no risk there will be no business. And so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking at Your own situation, I see that You come to the place where You have to take a risk (will make it or not) and work more (for two projects now) and treat both projects as the investment (into Your competence). You have to hold on if You want Your competence to prosper.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You got the problem which is an opportunity for You to grow. Which is good!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One more thing to mention. I am in the office where working with freelancers is quite common thing to do. And there are the interesting part of it - some freelancers has their own assistants they work with. I never knew that is usual practice to do, but it is. However, not so many people could offer assistant for them selves, because it means You have to find a job for the assistant as well as for yourself. It is Your problem how You will legalize the assistant, but there are some ways: offer to work with him as freelancer with freelancer, rent a coder from the company You trust (some companies rent coders), create a small company and hire that assistant. There are many ways to go. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6838" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2346" RevisionGUID="77c19744-7386-400a-b60a-4c1fbda413d6" CreationDate="2014-10-03T14:31:05.820" UserId="58" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[2022],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:1706,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;codenoire&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6839" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2464" RevisionGUID="8cc0ca8a-2d42-4a07-882d-c930f9a55b57" CreationDate="2014-10-03T14:56:07.877" UserId="4794" Text="Like others, I create a specific folder for each project I start. Here's a typical structure:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Software Development&#xD;&#xA;      --&lt;project name&gt;&#xD;&#xA;        --Designer work      //the client hired a designer&#xD;&#xA;        --Screen shots&#xD;&#xA;        --Code&#xD;&#xA;        --Terms&#xD;&#xA;        --Invoices&#xD;&#xA;        --Backups&#xD;&#xA;        --passwords.txt&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Terms** are the legal documents I signed with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When the project has multiple milestones (with payment after each one), they're stored in **Invoices**. If I see 4 milestones in the agreement, but only 3 invoice files in this folder, I know where I am. I may also have a **Receipts** folder if I send them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also backup the code at the end of each stage to **Backups**; in the event I mess up, I can start from there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**passwords.txt** has all the admin panel logins, connection strings, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;The whole folder is stored on OneDrive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Is OneDrive secure? I say yes. I have setup 2 factor auth, so someone needs to steal my cellphone if they want the files.&#xD;&#xA; - The files are always online anywhere and anytime I need them. If my client suddenly asks for something, all I need is a internet-connected computer.&#xD;&#xA; - ***Most importantly***, in the event that there's a fire or lightning strike and my HDD is damaged, I still have the files (otherwise I'd have to re-work them again!)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6840" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="1761" RevisionGUID="1ad1733d-9d96-4c11-8e7c-39ceb7871ac5" CreationDate="2014-10-03T15:39:06.780" UserId="75" Comment="28" />
  <row Id="6841" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="1761" RevisionGUID="50caab16-45ab-4d9b-86d8-c5937b83f77e" CreationDate="2014-10-03T15:39:13.120" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6843" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2465" RevisionGUID="a3679cb0-cc13-4af4-ae49-41c1c7e241e6" CreationDate="2014-10-03T23:37:03.743" UserId="1963" Text="That's a good amount of cash but the best way to promote your services and separate yourself into a niche or as an authority is to teach. Teaching isn't necessarily restricted to blog articles. It can also be hosting workshops or writing open source software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example I have a friend who built an open source library on top of Stripe. It gained a good following and suddenly he was able to increase his rates from $125/hr to $200 to $300/hr. It's not like he suddenly became some kind of Stripe expert overnight but he positioned himself as an authority.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I realize all of this doesn't answer your original question about how to spend your money. But if you find yourself not having the time to promote yourself maybe you use the money to delegate work to an administrative assistant or to hire some copywriters/editors for some blog articles." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6844" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2466" RevisionGUID="2799f1b2-bf51-4896-a6bf-af9b96074620" CreationDate="2014-10-04T18:29:00.497" UserId="4794" Text="Just put it down. Write a simple description about it if the nature of the project is not obvious from the title.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're putting it in a website, than a few screenshots should sell the idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's for your resume, than screenshots are not necessary. Your potential employer will likely ask you more about it if he is interested. Companies also come and go; even if it was an online project, it can be shut down. As long as you can talk about it, you'll be fine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a job interview, you may also show a demo, using fake data." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6845" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2332" RevisionGUID="e45a8f32-8166-4275-8553-6a03e52f408e" CreationDate="2014-10-05T19:46:27.287" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/518849717950619648" />
  <row Id="6846" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2467" RevisionGUID="ad4bdbe6-e429-4d7c-bdfa-2c9355359417" CreationDate="2014-10-05T23:24:08.967" UserId="5046" Text="I am considering to work as a freelancing engineer additionally to my full-time employment, maybe even reduce the full-time employment and work more as freelancer. With my education I qualify as a german &quot;Freiberufler&quot;, which has a special status.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What limits are there on billable hours, income, insurance, taxes, etc? I heard some rumours, but nothing to back them up, like for example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  * freelance only 2-3 hours weekly, you don't have to pay health insurance for that&#xD;&#xA;  * work too little, it is considered a hobby and you cannot deduce expenses&#xD;&#xA;  * freelance more than 19.5 hours, it is full-time and you pay social taxes&#xD;&#xA;  * earn more money than in your full-time job and something happens&#xD;&#xA;  * you can earn a million working just one hour and you don't pay taxes&#xD;&#xA;  * your third party insurance counts for freelancing too&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before I jump into the cold water, I would like to assess the possible risks and limitations that would come with the job. Answers with links to official laws would be great, but any hints in the right direction (even more rumours I have to evaluate) are welcome too." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6847" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2467" RevisionGUID="ad4bdbe6-e429-4d7c-bdfa-2c9355359417" CreationDate="2014-10-05T23:24:08.967" UserId="5046" Text="Part-time freelancing in Germany" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6848" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2467" RevisionGUID="ad4bdbe6-e429-4d7c-bdfa-2c9355359417" CreationDate="2014-10-05T23:24:08.967" UserId="5046" Text="|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6849" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2468" RevisionGUID="eff46f54-6fb1-46ab-9c63-cf9894b42ced" CreationDate="2014-10-06T00:44:46.863" UserId="2740" Text="My wife is a music teacher with lots of experience, but she recently moved to NYC. She was introduced to a music school earlier, who finally got around to contacting her to teach. They were impressed with her performance and resume, and asked her a week ago to start this Monday. They waited until Friday to give her a contract with lots of terms they didn't mention before (probably because they didn't want to scare her off). These previously unmentioned terms include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * &quot;responsible for submitting copy of Professional Liability Insurance&quot;&#xD;&#xA; * &quot;agrees to provide and/or authorize a completed criminal record check&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They also gave her a yes/no availability form that lists from 11:00 to 8:00 every weekday, 9 to 5 on Saturdays, 12 to 5 on Sundays, whereas they had implied to her that most students were in school and would start around 3:00 pm, and explicitly told her she wouldn't work on Sundays.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm mostly concerned with the fact that they didn't even mention these things up front, and she finds out about them the weekend prior to starting. I think she should refuse to pay for these things on principle. I also think if she chooses not to get insurance, she should ignore that clause of the contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are their actions acceptable? Should she buy insurance for a very part-time gig paying $20 an hour that they seem to want to schedule her at any time of the week? Regarding scheduling, should she give them an availability schedule that has all the times she was expecting based on their verbal conversations?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6850" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2468" RevisionGUID="eff46f54-6fb1-46ab-9c63-cf9894b42ced" CreationDate="2014-10-06T00:44:46.863" UserId="2740" Text="Hired as a contractor to start Monday, recieved unsigned contract Friday before with unmentioned terms" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6851" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2468" RevisionGUID="eff46f54-6fb1-46ab-9c63-cf9894b42ced" CreationDate="2014-10-06T00:44:46.863" UserId="2740" Text="|contracts|negotiation|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6855" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2470" RevisionGUID="d0bb83bf-7b31-4a76-a633-0501c7f90814" CreationDate="2014-10-06T06:15:50.970" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="It's possible that the person who did the negotiating didn't prepare the contract and instead gave it to someone else to do without telling them the details of what was discussed. So it is possible that they aren't really trying to be deceitful as such. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't feel pressured into signing just because she is due to start work on Monday. You are under no obligation to agree to their terms and have every right to challenge them. If this negotiation takes longer, then the school must make a plan. They should have got the contract to you sooner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend approaching them with changes to the contract which match the verbal agreement that was negotiated previously. Talking to them about the new contract terms allows them to also discuss why there is insurance in there and why the schedule is as it is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have every right to make changes to the contract and negotiate new terms with them. While this client's actions are not ideal, they are common. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6856" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2470" RevisionGUID="cc686e94-1052-4af3-bec9-2ba303c3753c" CreationDate="2014-10-06T06:22:03.270" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 12 characters in body" Text="It's possible that the person who did the negotiating didn't prepare the contract and instead gave it to someone else to do without telling them the details of what was discussed. So it is possible that they aren't really trying to be deceitful as such. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't feel pressured into signing just because she is due to start work on Monday. You are under no obligation to agree to their terms and have every right to challenge them. If this negotiation takes longer, then the school must make a plan. They should have got the contract to you sooner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend approaching them with changes to the contract which match the verbal agreement that was negotiated previously. Talking to them about the new contract terms allows them to also discuss why there is insurance in there and why the schedule is as it is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have every right to make changes to the contract and negotiate new terms with them. While this client's actions are not ideal, this kind of thing is common." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6857" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2471" RevisionGUID="b7c2c215-9826-45f7-b2fe-f0361c7020b1" CreationDate="2014-10-06T06:50:22.920" UserId="4822" Text="Let assume I earn 4000 EUR per month in yearly, long term pay-rate. Now a client is asking my pay-rate but in daily, weekly base. How should I calculate it? I would use a form like: 4000/4*weekly_factor 4000/30*daily_factor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is `weekly_factor` and `daily_factor`?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6858" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2471" RevisionGUID="b7c2c215-9826-45f7-b2fe-f0361c7020b1" CreationDate="2014-10-06T06:50:22.920" UserId="4822" Text="How is it worth to calculate short term contract pay rate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6859" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2471" RevisionGUID="b7c2c215-9826-45f7-b2fe-f0361c7020b1" CreationDate="2014-10-06T06:50:22.920" UserId="4822" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6860" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2471" RevisionGUID="16f7259e-aa70-4e9d-90ce-cd681d85ddf3" CreationDate="2014-10-06T14:39:18.120" UserId="4822" Comment="added 4 characters in body; edited title" Text="I have googled that an iOS programmer can earn 4000 EUR / month in EU in a full time job. This is 25 EUR / hour. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much higher is hour-rate if client use programmer only short-terms i.e. only for hours or for days as it would be a consultant? How much do you think it is worth to charge them for?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Which site do you know to follow IT consultants pay-rate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6861" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2471" RevisionGUID="16f7259e-aa70-4e9d-90ce-cd681d85ddf3" CreationDate="2014-10-06T14:39:18.120" UserId="4822" Comment="added 4 characters in body; edited title" Text="How much an iOS developer can charge?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6864" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2472" RevisionGUID="25f82019-0b89-4abf-8231-8805c2960a53" CreationDate="2014-10-06T15:53:58.567" UserId="5054" Text="Not pertaining to iOS specificall, but freelancing in general, also as a citizen/resident of the USA, I would charge roughly 4 times the hourly rate you get from an employer. I've seen other freelancers charge around this much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if an iOS dev is making 25EUR/hour, then freelance, said dev would charge 100EUR/hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This may seem high, but there are few reasons to charge this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You have to bring in the same salary, so you will charge 25EUR/hour minimum.&#xD;&#xA;2. You have taxes, insurance, infrastructure investment, and other liabilities, this can be come near your take home pay.&#xD;&#xA;3. You will not likely bill for full-time hours, so you have to account for all the upaid work you will do. Freelancers do alot, upto 50%, of unbillable work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course there is latitude in how much you charge, but hiring a freelance shouldn't be assumed to be cheaper for the customer, or more/less lucrative for the developer. The benefit of freelancing is freedom in working how you would like work, or working with someone who can work with or around you more easily.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6865" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2473" RevisionGUID="d51ccd1d-a004-4816-bd49-d60f6e13e755" CreationDate="2014-10-06T15:56:59.560" UserId="5054" Text="I would consider your infrastructure before marketing. In my experience, you need to be able to absorb risk and error as easily as possible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you have backups, transportation, file and data management, invoicing, and a proper computer? Do you have everything you need to do business and handle emergencies?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember, you can't lose work or drop in quality, especially if you thrive off of word-of-mouth. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6866" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2474" RevisionGUID="ebc23d56-a0a5-4b57-9cc9-2dd892b0e535" CreationDate="2014-10-06T18:51:02.990" UserId="5055" Text="Sometimes I'm faced with clients who run away or avoid the content planning or wireframing. &#xD;&#xA;I hate to work with lorem ipsum, I need the content, I need to plan everything to design it, isn't this what is all about?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of website designs require a plan, however, I feel like some clients don't like to be charged for wireframing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I just skip these clients, or is there an approach of convincing the client that having, planning and wireframing the content is the foundation of website design?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I rarely had clients who told me &quot;I appreciate your professional way of dealing with this&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most responses that I get when submitting wireframes are &quot;Fine with me, let's proceed.&quot; and no other comments. It's to no surprise later that they require stupid layout changes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you cope with this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6867" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2474" RevisionGUID="ebc23d56-a0a5-4b57-9cc9-2dd892b0e535" CreationDate="2014-10-06T18:51:02.990" UserId="5055" Text="Content planning and wireframing. Many clients don't want to hear about this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6868" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2474" RevisionGUID="ebc23d56-a0a5-4b57-9cc9-2dd892b0e535" CreationDate="2014-10-06T18:51:02.990" UserId="5055" Text="|freelance-websites|design|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6869" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2475" RevisionGUID="724101d7-12ab-47b5-bb43-06aef1850464" CreationDate="2014-10-06T19:25:24.587" UserId="4845" Text="It **depends** on the Freelancing service you provide. If you are doing something that would go viral then you need to invest in Twitter/FB/Google Adwords because something that can go viral should catch the eye of as much people as possible and in this way you would have a strong network as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are freelancing locally or something, like teaching, you can get cheap pamphlets done and distribute them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Depending** on the Freelancing thing you do, you can invest **from advertisement to simply printing business cards.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is just about finding what your business/freelancing model **lacks** at present. There is no general answer to this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6872" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2468" RevisionGUID="0218af3e-378a-4df8-beaa-56d2d5bd1fc8" CreationDate="2014-10-07T05:04:03.530" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/519352431617269760" />
  <row Id="6876" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2477" RevisionGUID="7e0699c4-709e-426e-bfa5-d8642fb592f5" CreationDate="2014-10-07T20:13:41.060" UserId="5067" Text="Have been searching on the internet for a bit without much luck so thought I would post my question up here (I imagine I am not the first with this though!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm 28 years old and have about 5 years experience in programming/web design (good CV, work for investment banks in London, 1st in my degree, etc).  After a year of backpacking in South America I'm now in Lima and don't really want to return to the UK.  A friend of mine has offered me part time work for his web design company and now I'm looking at extra things to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just wondering which of the online freelancing sites would be best for me to explain&#xD;&#xA;&quot;YES THE FLAG SHOWS PERU BUT I'M ACTUALLY FROM THE UK!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;After a year and a half of speaking Spanish everyday I've realised that the difference between &quot;speaking&quot; a language (what does that mean anyway) and being able to conduct business in that language is massive.   Absolutely massive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially I'll be able to charge rates of a Fiver an hour, and that would be a comfortable salary here.  The time difference is only 6 hours as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far I'm thinking of signing up for PeoplePerHour (as that's based in the UK) and my options would be&#xD;&#xA;- Have the flag set as Peru (because they have my IP address) but write &quot;UK EXPAT&quot; in my description&#xD;&#xA;- login into PPH through a proxy so it looks like I'm in the UK (sounds dodgy!)&#xD;&#xA;- send proof of my latest UK bank statements to PPH to make them change my location to UK (I'm still a UK resident with an active bank account)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Really though I would want people to see where I am so they can understand my pricing, while knowing that if they call me I will understand them completely (both in language terms and culturally!).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also I've enough money saved that I could really not earn anything for the next 2 years and still jump on a flight back to the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nice one everyone!&#xD;&#xA;Buswell" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6877" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2477" RevisionGUID="7e0699c4-709e-426e-bfa5-d8642fb592f5" CreationDate="2014-10-07T20:13:41.060" UserId="5067" Text="From the UK and want to freelance while living in Latin America - best way to advertise I am English but cheaper because I live in another country?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6878" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2477" RevisionGUID="7e0699c4-709e-426e-bfa5-d8642fb592f5" CreationDate="2014-10-07T20:13:41.060" UserId="5067" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|attracting-clients|uk|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6879" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2253" RevisionGUID="1553d842-4182-4155-a497-e9db9b368e34" CreationDate="2014-10-07T20:43:18.400" UserId="-1" Comment="103" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Stacey&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6880" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2333" RevisionGUID="0763d84e-3bd3-4db5-8004-1c21c3dea310" CreationDate="2014-10-07T20:51:11.077" UserId="-1" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:1706,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;codenoire&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Stacey&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6881" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2478" RevisionGUID="5b02db53-5a19-4efa-b1a3-217b6640e4ca" CreationDate="2014-10-07T22:01:27.827" UserId="708" Text="I'm not 100% certain this is related to &quot;freelance&quot; as much as it is to workflow. But... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I find wire framing critical. But it needs to often be explained to the client. At the very least the *level of importance* needs to be explained to clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- This is the skeleton or backbone of your site. It shows relative size and positioning for the general areas of content we've discussed.&#xD;&#xA;- Approval of this structure for content will be the basis of further design. &#xD;&#xA;- Changes requested at a later date which deviate from this backbone may incur **additional costs** and time to complete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client passes it off with an &quot;okay let's proceed.&quot; then later, when they want layout changes, it's my job to point to the wireframe and explain &quot;you approved this&quot; along with &quot;there will be additional costs incurred&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6882" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2479" RevisionGUID="0d67a2a2-3b99-4993-82c7-ab97b13968cd" CreationDate="2014-10-08T00:46:47.190" UserId="5068" Text="You could get projects for let's say 50 pound an hour, but you want to charge 5 because you happen to live somewhere else? Pricing should always be determined by the worth it adds to customers business, which is probably in the UK, so UK pricing levels apply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you really don't want the money, give it away to those in need. Why would you save a company money? Companies do business, business costs money, that's normal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if you completely go crazy (good thing!) you can charge the UK companies the normal prices, let people in Peru work on the projects and give them higher salaries than they are used to or they could negotiate with a UK customer themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if you don't care about all that altruistic stuff, just think about the difference of working 2 hours a day and 12 hours a day for the same money. You have 10 hours more every day to sit on the beach, drink piña coladas and enjoy your life.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Back to your question, you are an UK citizen, so I would create a UK website, offer your services there, and on job portals I would use the UK flag.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this was advertisement for how cheap life in Peru is, you almost had me. ;)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6884" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2480" RevisionGUID="470dfc73-04f9-415c-8c3d-a1c76b8f26c8" CreationDate="2014-10-08T05:07:21.990" UserId="4561" Text="I would draw a line through any terms that are not agreeable and just say NO to the times that are not agreeable.  If they need it signed by Monday they can accept the black lined copy.  Otherwise, they can renegotiate and wait.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is probably a standard contract that they try to get everyone to sign, though it may have been deliberately manipulative to spring it on her at the last second when they  know she wanted the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My guess regarding the times is that's just a questionnaire they give all employees regardless of desired working times.  It sounds bureaucratic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been in this type of situation before and was very concerned that I'd come across as difficult, but I balked at the terms regardless and later learned that almost everyone balked at the same terms.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my case, I had one company with a particularly ridiculous contract just give up and we didn't have a contract.* In another case the organization (a government entity) waived the insurance requirement and said they were used to waving it for independent contractors.  In another case (also government) they could not waive it but they raised my hourly rate to defray the cost for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*regarding the company that I could not reach an agreement with - I had been doing business with them as a sub contractor for years and they suddenly decided they wanted an agreement, which I did too, but their agreement was ridiculously slanted in their favor.  They would not relent so I started making requests in my favor that sounded reasonable but I knew they could not accommodate.  They dropped the subject.  Since we already had a working business relationship I felt reasonably safe continuing to work for them and it's worked out fine." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6885" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2475" RevisionGUID="d0af176e-3062-4421-bc49-8c08e6323820" CreationDate="2014-10-08T12:32:29.377" UserId="9" Comment="Removed unneeded markdown, moved the heart of the answer (finding what it lacks, depends on the service) to the top, grammar fixes" Text="There is no general answer to this. It is just about finding what your business/freelancing model **lacks** at present, and it depends on the freelancing service you provide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are doing something that could go viral, then you need to invest in Twitter/Facebook/Google Adwords. Something that can go viral should catch the eyes of as many people as possible, and you would have a strong network as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are freelancing locally (teaching, tutoring, etc.), you can print and distribute cheap pamphlets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending on your field, you can invest in a variety of services and products, from advertisements to simply printing business cards." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6886" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2475" RevisionGUID="d0af176e-3062-4421-bc49-8c08e6323820" CreationDate="2014-10-08T12:32:29.377" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 4845 edit id of 364" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6887" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2481" RevisionGUID="03a37af3-713d-4e70-8b5e-5eb289188250" CreationDate="2014-10-08T12:49:57.757" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="There are some sites where your location doesn't matter. I have worked outside my home country before and have never had an issue with the website looking at my location (IP). I was using odesk.com at the time, I'm sure there are a number of others that don't take location too seriously as long as you prove that you are who you say you are. I have validated my bank account using my government ID in the past and that was adequate enough. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as telling people that you're from the UK, just do that in your profile! It's not necessary to make a big thing about it. Just say that you're English but living in Peru. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as rate goes, I would hesitate to drop my rate significantly unless I really can't find work. If you're being paid a lot less that what the client is used to paying someone with your skill, you may find that they don't take you seriously. They may hand off menial tasks to you because (while it's not your area of expertise), you're cheaper than the people they pay locally to do those things. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's really important to note that the relationship here is *not* supposed to be an employee-employer one. You are the professional, you call the shots, you say what you will and won't do and for how much. This is important because you need to make decisions in a professional capacity and it's important that the client takes you seriously and respects you, your time and your opinion. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest that you aim for the middle ground between what you need to live and what they'd pay locally, and then push that up as more work comes along and as you get more experience as a freelancer. You should be paid as much as you're worth to the client. This worth is mostly determined by experience - you hit a &quot;sweet spot&quot; where you're getting enough work to keep you busy but still getting paid enough to have the client think twice before giving you something menial to do. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6888" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2481" RevisionGUID="1b1f6be7-be85-458d-8456-dfc1b9d88679" CreationDate="2014-10-08T12:56:27.277" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 8 characters in body" Text="There are some sites where your location doesn't matter. I have worked outside my home country before and have never had an issue with the website looking at my location (IP). I was using odesk.com at the time, I'm sure there are a number of others that don't take location too seriously as long as you prove that you are who you say you are. I have validated my bank account using my government ID in the past and that was adequate enough. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as telling people that you're from the UK, just do that in your profile! It's not necessary to make a big thing about it. Just say that you're English but living in Peru. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as rate goes, I would hesitate to drop my rate significantly unless I really can't find work. If you're being paid a lot less that what the client is used to paying someone with your skill, you may find that they don't take you seriously. They may hand off menial tasks to you because (while it's not your area of expertise), you're cheaper than the people they pay locally to do those things. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's really important to note that the relationship here is *not* supposed to be an employee-employer one. You are the professional, you call the shots, you say what you will and won't do and for how much. This is important because you need to make decisions in a professional capacity and it's important that the client takes you seriously and respects you, your time and your opinion. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest that you aim for the middle ground between what you need to live and what the client expects locally, and then push that up as more work comes along and as you get more experience as a freelancer. You should be paid as much as you're worth to the client. This worth is mostly determined by experience - you hit a &quot;sweet spot&quot; where you're getting enough work to keep you busy but still getting paid enough to have the client think twice before giving you something menial to do. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6892" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2468" RevisionGUID="3d4f970d-217b-49a6-a166-96b926adc04c" CreationDate="2014-10-08T13:05:33.187" UserId="2740" Comment="added 520 characters in body" Text="My wife is a music teacher with lots of experience, but she recently moved to NYC. She was introduced to a music school earlier, who finally got around to contacting her to teach. They were impressed with her performance and resume, and asked her a week ago to start this Monday. They waited until Friday to give her a contract with lots of terms they didn't mention before (probably because they didn't want to scare her off). These previously unmentioned terms include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * &quot;responsible for submitting copy of Professional Liability Insurance&quot;&#xD;&#xA; * &quot;agrees to provide and/or authorize a completed criminal record check&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They also gave her a yes/no availability form that lists from 11:00 to 8:00 every weekday, 9 to 5 on Saturdays, 12 to 5 on Sundays, whereas they had implied to her that most students were in school and would start around 3:00 pm, and explicitly told her she wouldn't work on Sundays.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm mostly concerned with the fact that they didn't even mention these things up front, and she finds out about them the weekend prior to starting. I think she should refuse to pay for these things on principle. I also think if she chooses not to get insurance, she should ignore that clause of the contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are their actions acceptable? Should she buy insurance for a very part-time gig paying $20 an hour that they seem to want to schedule her at any time of the week? Regarding scheduling, should she give them an availability schedule that has all the times she was expecting based on their verbal conversations?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;_____ &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Conclusion**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She went in Monday, they quickly folded to her pushback verbally. However, she did sign it as it was, without striking through the disagreeable parts. They said they would not hold her to those parts, but they still might attempt to if they want to get rid of her. However, while we're principled, we don't have any desire to be litigious. If they want to get rid of her, she won't want to work with them regardless. Thanks for the answers, it certainly helped to get outside perspective." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6893" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2474" RevisionGUID="0bb2c893-a7b7-4861-96f2-f74f4894d212" CreationDate="2014-10-08T20:11:45.137" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/519943247955628032" />
  <row Id="6899" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2486" RevisionGUID="e4444c09-d76c-42ad-8121-d6eec6a571b4" CreationDate="2014-10-09T15:41:14.053" UserId="5085" Text="In situation of hiring people, I like these, who com back to me and ask.&#xD;&#xA;This indicates the candidates will to improve, and often there will be an other chance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The most pleasant way to ask (in my eyes) is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. If your customer has a secretary, then call by phone and ask for an short appointment&#xD;&#xA; 2. If there was a human resource employ attending the meeting, then you can ask him&#xD;&#xA; 3. Else try to send a short mail with your questions and add the option for an short phone call.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reasons for my advices are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Managers always are interested in good employees&#xD;&#xA; 2. Most people can feel with your situation and will help you&#xD;&#xA; 3. Direct communication shows your courage&#xD;&#xA; 4. A written answer (in case of mail) is more laboriously than spoken answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Ask per mail, whether you may come back for ask&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6902" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2487" RevisionGUID="76d360d1-4a34-4981-adb1-d4558f32869a" CreationDate="2014-10-09T20:01:40.687" UserId="5089" Text="Rate is dictated in majority by experience and locality/geography.&#xD;&#xA;iOS and Android carry the same rate burden in most cases.&#xD;&#xA;I will site examples for three major metro areas on the West Coast, USA:&#xD;&#xA;+These are observations based on my 15 years recruiting experience and can vary of course by the client/company and project duration (if Contract) and role designation - like a team lead, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The SF Bay Area&#xD;&#xA;Experience 3-8 years&#xD;&#xA;Contract: 50-160hr&#xD;&#xA;FT: 80-220k&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Los Angeles, CA&#xD;&#xA;Experience 3-8 years&#xD;&#xA;Contract: 40-140hr&#xD;&#xA;FT: 70-170k&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Portland, OR&#xD;&#xA;Experience 3-8 years&#xD;&#xA;Contract: 40-120hr&#xD;&#xA;FT: 65-160k" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6905" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="2477" RevisionGUID="1506ab39-aafc-418a-acc8-89e22697b461" CreationDate="2014-10-09T22:23:42.210" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6909" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2477" RevisionGUID="774f05e1-2c01-4f8b-8b0a-602145dcd3df" CreationDate="2014-10-10T05:11:45.217" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/520441531635740672" />
  <row Id="6911" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2325" RevisionGUID="93e89173-ac29-4ffe-9765-cdb5efa8fea1" CreationDate="2014-10-10T08:11:44.730" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/520486828802310144" />
  <row Id="6913" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2490" RevisionGUID="e17cda3d-a49c-43e8-bd03-0d452186f3ec" CreationDate="2014-10-10T10:34:44.777" UserId="5097" Text="I see developers regularly charge $100-200/hr but as I've been researching personal branding, contractor strategy, and best practices, I've come across several alarming figures. In one YouTube video I watched it was stated that some highly specialized software developers are commanding as much as $800/hr with week-long minimums. Obviously, only large corporations could finance this without blinking an eye but the wheels of motion are slow so I just don't see this happening often at all, if ever. Does it? Obviously if it does, it's not something you do 52 weeks out of the year, but even at 10 weeks a year, you're making a nice chunk of change.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To be clear, I am not asking what the most common payment ceilings are. I am asking how much you have personally witnessed a consultant, freelancer, or independent contractor charge for (successfully) his work. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6914" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2490" RevisionGUID="e17cda3d-a49c-43e8-bd03-0d452186f3ec" CreationDate="2014-10-10T10:34:44.777" UserId="5097" Text="How much can a specialized software engineer really make as a consultant/independent contractor?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6915" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2490" RevisionGUID="e17cda3d-a49c-43e8-bd03-0d452186f3ec" CreationDate="2014-10-10T10:34:44.777" UserId="5097" Text="|pay-rate|price|price-per-hour|payments|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6921" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2492" RevisionGUID="a39c174e-0029-4cba-95dd-57fe14ad5412" CreationDate="2014-10-10T14:07:56.630" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="One particular client is notorious for not keeping the skype meeting times we set up. On several occasions the meeting time has come and gone, and I've sent a message though and they have replied saying they're really busy and can we move the meeting to tomorrow. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These meeting times are usually agreed on a number of days in advance and are organised through Google calender.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I deal with this? It's getting to the point where it's becoming very inconvenient. I have mentioned to the client that I'd appreciate more warning, and I'm charging the client for the time I've spent waiting, but it seems like the respect and value for my time just isn't there. Is there anything else I can do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6922" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2492" RevisionGUID="a39c174e-0029-4cba-95dd-57fe14ad5412" CreationDate="2014-10-10T14:07:56.630" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="How to deal with a client who doesn't pitch up to meetings on time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6923" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2492" RevisionGUID="a39c174e-0029-4cba-95dd-57fe14ad5412" CreationDate="2014-10-10T14:07:56.630" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6924" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2492" RevisionGUID="264a1aaf-0a3a-44cd-8d12-2daf1fd31a77" CreationDate="2014-10-10T14:13:09.700" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 41 characters in body" Text="One particular client is notorious for not keeping the skype meeting times we set up. On several occasions the meeting time has come and gone, and I've sent a message though and they have replied saying they're really busy and can we move the meeting to tomorrow. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These meeting times are usually agreed on a number of days in advance and are organised through Google calender. This isn't a matter of miscommunication.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I deal with this? It's getting to the point where it's becoming very inconvenient. I have mentioned to the client that I'd appreciate more warning, and I'm charging the client for the time I've spent waiting, but it seems like the respect and value for my time just isn't there. Is there anything else I can do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6930" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2494" RevisionGUID="f500e953-d6df-4087-ab7f-49c003cf0b8e" CreationDate="2014-10-11T00:50:05.083" UserId="5106" Text="Only answer you can get to this question is it depends what you can offer and how much this is worth to someone:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; There was an engineer who had an exceptional gift for fixing all things mechanical. After serving his company loyally for over 30 years, he happily retired.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Many years later the company contacted him regarding a seemingly impossible problem they were having with one of their multimillion dollar machines. They had tried everything and everyone else to get the machine to work but to no avail.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; In desperation, they called on the retired engineer who had solved so many of their problems in the past. The engineer reluctantly took the challenge.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; He spent a day studying the huge machine. At the end of the day, he marked a small &quot;x&quot; in chalk on a particular component of the machine and stated, &quot;This is where your problem is.&quot; The part was replaced and the machine worked perfectly again.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The company received a bill for $50,000 from the engineer for his service. They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The engineer responded briefly:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;One chalk mark $1. Knowing where to put it $49,999&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Source: http://jokes4us.com/peoplejokes/engineersjokes/retiredengineerjoke.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6931" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2495" RevisionGUID="15d7a14c-a5dd-4270-b1f3-18c1e9773fa0" CreationDate="2014-10-11T01:58:03.427" UserId="708" Text="Either fire the client or charge for meeting time regardless of whether he's there or not. It was agreed upon... your time is billable, right?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6932" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2495" RevisionGUID="acb05656-7e01-42d0-bd1a-fbdb4a41b9bf" CreationDate="2014-10-12T01:49:48.387" UserId="708" Comment="added 364 characters in body" Text="Either fire the client or charge for meeting time regardless of whether he's there or not. It was agreed upon... your time is billable, right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are already billing for the time and the client is paying, even though they aren't showing up, I'm uncertain what the issue would be. I mean you're making money for nothing essentially. If the continued missing of scheduled meetings bothers you, even though you are being paid for the time, then the only real recourse is to quit working for the client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6940" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2497" RevisionGUID="e95f20a6-78a4-40a1-891b-b8bf68c1c8a1" CreationDate="2014-10-13T22:31:02.280" UserId="708" Text="The principal behind freelance workers is that they do not *want* to be managed by others and have chosen a career path which allows them to manage *themselves*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you hire a freelance writer, it is not your position to manage them as an employee. You can set expectations as to quality and guidelines for delivery time/method(s). However, beyond that the &quot;happiness&quot; of the freelancer is the freelancer's responsibility. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember, freelancers are *not* your employees. They are a hired specialist and should be treated as such. Treating a freelancer as if they were your &quot;employee&quot; will probably not go over well with many. Treat any freelancer as you would treat any specialist you use - mechanic, doctor, plumber, electrician, etc. Yes you can set expectations and control your attitude while dealign with them. But in terms of quality and delivery it's up to them to live up to the expectations you've set forth." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6942" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2118" RevisionGUID="be32a2e9-6c02-4f4f-bc3e-d8ea139d8d5a" CreationDate="2014-10-14T08:27:49.943" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/521940428690841600" />
  <row Id="6946" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2499" RevisionGUID="5543cd07-e185-4fc5-a1dd-c26f743382d5" CreationDate="2014-10-14T22:06:38.893" UserId="504" Text="My question relates to law enforcement for freelancers, I hope it has its place here. Are there inspections of freelance workers in the UK, that is, do HMRC agents visit freelancers' homes to check their bookkeeping records? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6947" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2499" RevisionGUID="5543cd07-e185-4fc5-a1dd-c26f743382d5" CreationDate="2014-10-14T22:06:38.893" UserId="504" Text="Tax inspection for freelancers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6948" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2499" RevisionGUID="5543cd07-e185-4fc5-a1dd-c26f743382d5" CreationDate="2014-10-14T22:06:38.893" UserId="504" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6953" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2501" RevisionGUID="c6593c49-6532-4e58-945d-7ec41b74c8da" CreationDate="2014-10-15T15:44:40.327" UserId="1369" Text="I do some small-scale freelance work in addition to working a 9-6 job. I have a couple of clients who regularly commission work from me, and who trust me to get stuff done on time because I've never, ever missed a deadline.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have just this moment been offered a big commission from a new client. It's really exciting stuff - high-profile material for a big name in the business, who are offering to pay well. I'd be mad to turn it down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, it's going to eat up my entire non-working week to get finished. That means letting down my regular clients, whose work is not going to get turned over by the asking date.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I best handle this situation, short of loading up on amphetamines and working the nights away?  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6954" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2501" RevisionGUID="c6593c49-6532-4e58-945d-7ec41b74c8da" CreationDate="2014-10-15T15:44:40.327" UserId="1369" Text="What to do with regular work disrupted by a sudden, unexpected offer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6955" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2501" RevisionGUID="c6593c49-6532-4e58-945d-7ec41b74c8da" CreationDate="2014-10-15T15:44:40.327" UserId="1369" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6956" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2502" RevisionGUID="6aed0cea-effc-4617-aa20-f57023679d5c" CreationDate="2014-10-15T16:36:58.137" UserId="1818" Text="The number of hours that you are willing to stay awake and working is entirely up to you.  Be careful of the downward spiral this could create, as all of your projects could be negatively impacted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I believe your primary focus should be your existing customers.  Trust lost is very hard to regain.  These customers are a known commodity.  They are a reliable stream of projects and your best references for additional clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  I'd be mad to turn it down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe, or maybe not.  Maybe you'd be mad to take it, if the work would knowingly diminish the quality of the work for your other clients.  You don't know what the future will hold for this new client, do you want to risk the business relationship with your current customers for that unknown future?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can you suggest to the new client that you'd love to take on the project, but can't start for a short period of time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6957" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2503" RevisionGUID="511ffba0-29d7-49a9-b975-c7c489bcb0ef" CreationDate="2014-10-15T16:59:21.613" UserId="708" Text="Be very, very careful putting all your eggs in one basket. No matter how shiny and sparkly that basket may be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you *already* have deadlines then you should honor those. Prior commitments should *never* be ignored due to a new offer. You need to negotiate the new offer so that it allows you to complete anything you have already committed to. If that can not be done, it may be best to pass on the new offer, no matter how great it looks. By abandoning existing commitments you do far more harm to your reputation than any new client will add.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, since you already have a 9-5 job, there isn't the same need for security which full time freelancers have. So, if you're okay burning your existing clients, possibly upsetting them and never seeing another project from them, and realizing they aren't going to be recommending you to anyone.. then burn the bridges down if that's what you want to do. Just realize that if things don't work out with this new client, you may have to start all over from zero. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6958" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2503" RevisionGUID="c0dddf50-1a1b-45e0-8b4a-1db61154d779" CreationDate="2014-10-15T17:15:05.377" UserId="708" Comment="added 81 characters in body" Text="Be very, very careful putting all your eggs in one basket. No matter how shiny and sparkly that basket may be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you *already* have deadlines then you should honor those. Prior commitments should *never* be ignored due to a new offer. You need to negotiate the new offer so that it allows you to complete anything you have already committed to. If that can not be done, it may be best to pass on the new offer, no matter how great it looks. By abandoning existing commitments you do far more harm to your reputation than any new client will add.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, since you already have a 9-5 job, there isn't the same need for security which full time freelancers have. So, if you're okay burning your existing clients, possibly upsetting them and never seeing another project from them, and realizing they aren't going to be recommending you to anyone.. then burn the bridges down if that's what you want to do. Just realize that if things don't work out with this new client, you may have to start all over from zero (even less than zero since you failed to meet commitments with previous clients). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6959" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2504" RevisionGUID="7ff7f14f-7c97-47c3-a0d2-1fb894cb82a7" CreationDate="2014-10-15T19:05:18.983" UserId="805" Text="The common advice is to do free work to get portfolio started, however, I have found that businesses that do care about having a site usually also care about finding the best person to handle their site. Business that don't care about their site just use a templated if there exists one, they get lucky if it meets their needs other wise they just leave it at that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So when you have no experience and you approach a business they also demand a portfolio, which was the real purpose of doing the design for free. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess i am lost on how to approach and find businesses online and offline whose website i think could use a great redesigning and they want it to be redesigned. I once found a local company their site was unusable, broken links, half flash, etc. I offered them in detail why they need the redesign, and how could i help them etc. No response?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I was a business and if my site mattered to me remotely won't i just accept that offer, but again if i did care my site wouldn't have been in state where even free work would be beneficial.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what to do when even for free work you need to prove yourself :D /" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6960" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2504" RevisionGUID="7ff7f14f-7c97-47c3-a0d2-1fb894cb82a7" CreationDate="2014-10-15T19:05:18.983" UserId="805" Text="how to find companies willing to accept free home page redesign" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6961" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2504" RevisionGUID="7ff7f14f-7c97-47c3-a0d2-1fb894cb82a7" CreationDate="2014-10-15T19:05:18.983" UserId="805" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6962" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2505" RevisionGUID="7904f159-4b38-45e9-b266-df915d81c7c8" CreationDate="2014-10-15T20:06:19.550" UserId="4846" Text="Say you get a 6 month contract via a recruiter.  Now you finish that contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How many months should you wait before approaching the company directly?   Or should you never do this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the unwritten rule regarding this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6963" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2505" RevisionGUID="7904f159-4b38-45e9-b266-df915d81c7c8" CreationDate="2014-10-15T20:06:19.550" UserId="4846" Text="If you are hired via a recruiter, how long should you wait before going direct?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6964" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2505" RevisionGUID="7904f159-4b38-45e9-b266-df915d81c7c8" CreationDate="2014-10-15T20:06:19.550" UserId="4846" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6965" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2506" RevisionGUID="55c16208-bb30-4d25-b080-881998124dd9" CreationDate="2014-10-15T20:28:01.787" UserId="4561" Text="Did you have a contract with the recruiter? If so, there is probably a specific time frame in the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am in the US and have done training as a sub contractor for companies that specialize in getting big contracts and filling them with sub contractors and their terms were usually 2 years from the end of my doing business with that client through them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there is no mention of this in a contract and the contractor never said &quot;don't approach our client directly,&quot; then ***legally***, you are free to do so now. Of course that doesn't mean you should.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would never approach their client directly as long as I hoped for more business from the contractor, because If they know you approached the client they sent you to directly, they will feel betrayed and be afraid to send you to any other clients.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you believe the contractor has no intention to get more business from that client and would never find out, that might change things.  For example, if you can offer the client a similar service that is not quite what the contractor offers.  Even in that case, if you want to maintain a good relationship with the contractor you might talk to them first, to explain why what you're doing for this client is not taking business away from them, in case they hear about it elsewhere and get the wrong impression.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6966" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2507" RevisionGUID="908c244a-babc-4a5c-b730-1763abcb1762" CreationDate="2014-10-16T03:34:08.153" UserId="4172" Text="Rather than offering to redesign existing websites, you could look for organisations in your community that don't have a web presence already and offer to build something for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Non-commercial entities are often on particularly low budgets and are often very grateful for any sort of help.  Look for charities, clubs, sports leagues, local chapters of larger associations and other community groups in your area and offer to help your services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will have to be clear that although your services will be free, there will still be some annual charge for them in paying for the domain name and web hosting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6967" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2508" RevisionGUID="8c484586-0fbf-4fc8-aa08-6fc818f57240" CreationDate="2014-10-16T06:36:27.373" UserId="382" Text="This might be a stupid question, but I want to cover all my bases, after all, that's the whole point of having a contract, right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've prepared a contract for my freelance work. When I approach a company, and they send someone over to sign a contract, how do I know that that person is actually authorized to sign it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, Company X can send over the janitor, and he unknowingly signed the contract on behalf of Company X. Let's say I did some work for Company X and after a while I demand payment, only to find that they deny ever having entered into a contract with me. And when I show Company X the contract, they said it was void because the janitor was not authorized to sign.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I avoid this situation from occurring? Is there a clause I must put into the contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6968" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2508" RevisionGUID="8c484586-0fbf-4fc8-aa08-6fc818f57240" CreationDate="2014-10-16T06:36:27.373" UserId="382" Text="How to ensure the person signing the contract is authorized to do so by the company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6969" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2508" RevisionGUID="8c484586-0fbf-4fc8-aa08-6fc818f57240" CreationDate="2014-10-16T06:36:27.373" UserId="382" Text="|contracts|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6970" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2509" RevisionGUID="132e9e32-5042-4e5a-ba9f-199b38689ed2" CreationDate="2014-10-16T13:17:21.363" UserId="3014" Text="I think that there several things that you can do. Search about that company on Google. Usually I prefer the company which address is verified. Also a company which have a good website or good social network engagement is authentic. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6971" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2510" RevisionGUID="15ef6300-b492-4a5e-8c26-0606f577a7f7" CreationDate="2014-10-16T21:47:41.087" UserId="5148" Text="How do you know the person they have sent is actually their janitor? How do you know it is not a complete stranger?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could ask for some notarially certified document, proving they are they and proving they are responsible for company. However for small contracts or if you are not very specialized in something they need, it will be easier for them to find another freelancer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6972" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2511" RevisionGUID="6dc13d6f-b6d1-4291-9382-6ee90ec682c3" CreationDate="2014-10-16T21:59:19.200" UserId="708" Text="**Ultimately this is a question for your lawyer*** not a bunch of other freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I am NOT a lawyer.** I do not intend to give legal advice and make no representation that what I post will suffice for your situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most contracts have a signature line, followed by a &quot;for&quot; line. I.E. John Doe for Company X.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then in the body of the contract there's a clause stating something like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Each person signing this Agreement represents and warrants that he or she is duly authorized and has legal capacity to execute and deliver this Agreement. Each party represents and warrants to the other that the execution and delivery of the Agreement and the performance of such party's obligations hereunder have been duly authorized and that the Agreement is a valid and legal agreement binding on such party and enforceable in accordance with its terms. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's generally called an &quot;authorization&quot; or &quot;representation&quot; clause.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should the signer *not* be authorized and sign, given this clause, you would legally go after the person signing the contract for misrepresentation, rather than the company." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6981" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2514" RevisionGUID="9c7400a1-c2f8-4c25-a07f-c52344f7fc93" CreationDate="2014-10-18T03:54:49.967" UserId="4561" Text="I think Sarah's answer is brilliant.  Something else you might try is to make it very clear to people how you will benefit from the &quot;free&quot; work you'd like to do for them.  There may be many reasons the company you mentioned did not respond to you, but two concerns that jumps to my mind are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) People are inherently suspicious of any stranger offering them something for &quot;free.&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You must want ***something*** from them.  No one can afford to run around building free websites for random strangers, so what's the catch? They probably assumed your ultimate goal is money and you're being deceptive about the free site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) What if they don't like the site you design for them? They may be worried they'll be stuck with it, or they may feel bad about wasting your time and hurting your feelings.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, I would not throw a bunch of unsolicited information at anyone, particularly a stranger.  I would send a short, friendly note that gives a reason why you're willing to do this (You have experience but are striking out on your own and need to build a portfolio.  You're a student and need to revamp an existing website for a college class.  Etc.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would they be interested in having a free site built (or their existing site repaired) in exchange for letting you show the work you did in your portfolio?  It would be completely free to them with no obligation to use it, and anyone would be able to maintain it once it was built (they would not be stuck with you whom they don't yet know).  You might mention you noticed some broken links on their site but I would not go into detail until they show interest.  Too much unsolicited information will overwhelm them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom line, put them at ease by letting ***them*** know they are doing ***you*** a favor.&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;I would approach several people understanding that many will ignore any email from someone they don't know.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6982" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2505" RevisionGUID="6adf198a-2237-4226-a12e-0972b883d707" CreationDate="2014-10-18T08:52:04.440" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/523396081645027328" />
  <row Id="6983" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1254" RevisionGUID="5a35f74e-5b52-4f42-8024-83b7638ede9a" CreationDate="2014-10-19T03:08:10.160" UserId="1323" Comment="fixed link (two links had been pointing to the same article)" Text="I upvoted Łukasz L.'s answer, which addresses the body of your question well (taxes/invoicing concerns).  I'd like to answer the other part of your question, &quot;Why should I not provide free services to friends when freelancing?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a freelance UX designer.  I have done two free projects for friends, as I described in my answer to http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1247/should-i-work-for-free-for-non-profit-orginizations.  Designers are frequently asked for free work, possibly more than many other professionals are.  Some advice about free work from [this article][1] by Speider Schneider and its comments: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Do free work for friends only if you are getting something back in return.&#xD;&#xA; - Have a quota for how many hours of free work you are willing to do per month or quarter.  Don't go over that quota.&#xD;&#xA; - On free projects, only do one revision.  Don't accommodate change requests or new revisions (I would add: without charging your rate for it).  Do your best on that revision.  If it's for your portfolio, it represents the best of your professional ability.&#xD;&#xA; - Do the project on your terms - no requirements and no deadlines.&#xD;&#xA; - [Don't do jobs on spec][2].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd add this advice:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Clearly define the project's scope.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Don't make it a team project unless your friends are staff members&#xD;&#xA;   with a key role working for the client.  (In my second project's&#xD;&#xA;   case, the developer has served for years as the client's webmaster&#xD;&#xA;   and we know he is dependable.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Have a very detailed task breakdown.  (I've been a software engineer&#xD;&#xA;   and know that this is a huge risk in software projects, but it can be&#xD;&#xA;   mitigated with a good task breakdown.)&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - Have sufficient outside income stream(s) while you work on the free project, whether that means having other paying client(s) or having an outside job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Understand how much of a return on investment there is for you in doing the free project.  Consider [diminishing marginal utility][3].  I did full site redesigns for my friends, and I'm not sure today if designing any more than the homepage for free was a good decision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - During the time period when you are working on the project, keep spending time with these friends doing things that aren't related to work.  I'm still friends with the people I did free work for, in part because of this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/06/requests-for-free-work-surprising-revelations/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.nospec.com/articles/just-say-no&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marginal_utility" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6984" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2515" RevisionGUID="ef7f6757-e5e9-460b-8bef-cd1d1b2d4baa" CreationDate="2014-10-19T22:55:47.510" UserId="4561" Text="If the new client needs you to start immediately, I would ask you existing clients: How urgent is this?  I've had some things come up and I'm trying to prioritize.  Will it impact you negatively to push back our deadline to ____?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may be pleasantly surprised to learn they really don't care.  I have nearly killed myself over deadlines only to learn later they were pretty arbitrary on the client's part, and the client was clueless that I stayed up all night.  When I hire freelancers I let them know if something is not urgent because I know what it's like to be the freelancer, freaking over deadlines.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most clients aren't thinking about that but they must be aware you have other clients/projects and if they like you and your work so far they'll probably be perfectly happy to let you coast a week or two.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;ALSO - one way to buy yourself time is to send them some questions that need to be answered before you can resume their work (and will take a little thought on their part).  9 times out of 10 they won't get back to you for some time unless the work is truly urgent.  Maybe I'm a bad person but I have had great success with that technique - just bounce that ball back into their court and and get cranking on the new client's project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FINALLY - do you have any personal days you can take off from your 9 to 6 job?  If so, you could use that time to get things under control.  May be a downer to use your time that way but it could also launch you into new work that may ultimately free you up to quit your day job..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6989" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2517" RevisionGUID="20f393e2-922e-4e7c-90bc-d1d7486511c8" CreationDate="2014-10-20T16:15:41.673" UserId="5168" Text="- new client &#xD;&#xA;- got client from internet &#xD;&#xA;- photo editing &#xD;&#xA;- graphic design freelance&#xD;&#xA;- we will be using paypal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please let me know. thanks.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6990" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2517" RevisionGUID="20f393e2-922e-4e7c-90bc-d1d7486511c8" CreationDate="2014-10-20T16:15:41.673" UserId="5168" Text="I'm a freelancer. Do I give the finished work to client before or after they paid me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6991" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2517" RevisionGUID="20f393e2-922e-4e7c-90bc-d1d7486511c8" CreationDate="2014-10-20T16:15:41.673" UserId="5168" Text="|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6992" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2517" RevisionGUID="dc7ac80e-9d22-4381-a48a-785e4c954df4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T16:22:15.337" UserId="75" Comment="103" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="6994" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2518" RevisionGUID="e9b43cac-fb7a-4ee1-be1e-5195ec183eb5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T16:34:49.120" UserId="1706" Text="I worked for a client in Los Angeles whose bread and butter was high-profile independent movie studios and the fashion folks.  One of their salespeople got a lead from, uh, the guys with the famous animated mouse :)  That company wanted to have my client do some work, but allegedly had reservations because my client did work with its competitors (other studios).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My client's people got greedy and in an effort to secure work from said *potential* customer, basically told all their small clients in broadcast that they'd have to find a new provider.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then the great big potential client CHANGED ITS MIND.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The moral of the story: respect what you've got going on already, and clients who are already *paying*." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6995" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2517" RevisionGUID="ee32fb78-a8a2-43da-85e2-22d67a297f84" CreationDate="2014-10-20T16:42:29.723" UserId="5168" Comment="added 9 characters in body" Text="I have a &#xD;&#xA;- new client &#xD;&#xA;- got client from internet &#xD;&#xA;- photo editing &#xD;&#xA;- graphic design freelance&#xD;&#xA;- we will be using paypal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please let me know. thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6996" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2517" RevisionGUID="7f59b4f0-f961-4db3-83f2-56647cb83a3a" CreationDate="2014-10-20T16:50:35.060" UserId="5168" Comment="added 27 characters in body" Text="I have a new client. I got the client from internet. I have to photo editing his work. Im a graphic design freelancer. We will be using paypal for payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please let me know. thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6997" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2519" RevisionGUID="a890f0d8-ebfc-49c0-b1e6-c762e289ee26" CreationDate="2014-10-20T17:00:25.693" UserId="5168" Text="Im a graphic design freelancer. I got a new client the from internet. I have to photo edit his work. We will be using paypal for payment. So do I collect the payment before or after I send his work online?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please let me know. thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6998" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2519" RevisionGUID="a890f0d8-ebfc-49c0-b1e6-c762e289ee26" CreationDate="2014-10-20T17:00:25.693" UserId="5168" Text="I'm a graphic designer freelancer. Do I give the finished work to client before or after they paid me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6999" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2519" RevisionGUID="a890f0d8-ebfc-49c0-b1e6-c762e289ee26" CreationDate="2014-10-20T17:00:25.693" UserId="5168" Text="|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7000" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2520" RevisionGUID="4de9fb56-3a95-4c61-902d-cbe8d1c09b8c" CreationDate="2014-10-20T17:05:59.487" UserId="708" Text="It is customary, especially for new clients, to ask for an upfront deposit, then the bulk of payment upon delivery.For random internet clients I **always** ask for an upfront **non-refundable** deposit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it is a larger projects, I ask for 33% up front. Then another 33% upon delivery of mockups. Then the remaining 33% upon delivery of the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's a smaller project, I ask for 50% up front, then the remaining 50% upon completion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way, if you do get ripped off, you only lose part of the project revenue and not all of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately **there are no rules for this**. It's merely a matter of how **you** wish to handle it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7001" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2520" RevisionGUID="cc98d08a-a351-4c7e-87a9-13102f7a24ba" CreationDate="2014-10-20T17:11:16.797" UserId="708" Comment="added 263 characters in body" Text="It is customary, especially for new clients, to ask for an upfront deposit, then the bulk of payment upon delivery.For random internet clients I **always** ask for an upfront **non-refundable** deposit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it is a larger projects, I ask for 33% up front. Then another 33% upon delivery of mockups. Then the remaining 33% upon delivery of the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's a smaller project, I ask for 50% up front, then the remaining 50% upon completion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way, if you do get ripped off, you only lose part of the project revenue and not all of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately **there are no rules for this**. It's merely a matter of how **you** wish to handle it. You should also be *very careful* posting the same question just a few moments after your original question has been put on hold. Had I seen the duplicate I would not have answered this. Continually posting like that could result in your account being suspended." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7005" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2519" RevisionGUID="e7011fd6-14d5-44ef-b051-ee19aef75542" CreationDate="2014-10-20T18:42:40.980" UserId="75" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[2517],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="7006" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2522" RevisionGUID="f57822df-c0cb-4124-a472-e5e182169929" CreationDate="2014-10-20T19:35:09.527" UserId="4561" Text="I often do on-site software training for my clients.  When I do this, I typically bill a daily or half-day rate.  My &quot;half-day only&quot; rate is about 65% of my daily rate because even though I'm only working a half-day, it's usually logistically impossible for me to see two &quot;half day&quot; clients in one day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently I've had some clients asking for &quot;an hour or two&quot; of training (or other on site consulting), and they usually want it during the lunch hour.  While it's only an hour or two, if I do it during the lunch hour, it effectively kills my day for any other on site work, and, woes me - the time to get ready and travel there and back - kills productivity for most of my day period.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do most of you bill when a client wants you to come on site to work on something?  Just for the actual time or do you have a minimum &quot;physical appearance&quot; fee?  Do you bill for the time to travel to and from the client site?  Do you have a sense of what the client expects to pay when they ask a freelancer to come on site?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sorry if I'm over complicating my question but another situation I've encountered is a client asking me to come &quot;for the day,&quot; but then only met with me a couple hours then dismissed me.  Then I am start to wonder  - will they be outraged if I bill for a day when we only worked a couple hours?  I turned other clients away to set that day aside for them, but they probably don't see it that way...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7007" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2522" RevisionGUID="f57822df-c0cb-4124-a472-e5e182169929" CreationDate="2014-10-20T19:35:09.527" UserId="4561" Text="How do you bill for on-site work? What do clients expect?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7008" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2522" RevisionGUID="f57822df-c0cb-4124-a472-e5e182169929" CreationDate="2014-10-20T19:35:09.527" UserId="4561" Text="|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7009" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2523" RevisionGUID="c13115f1-d454-41ce-929c-cbba5261014d" CreationDate="2014-10-20T20:09:47.920" UserId="75" Text="Right up my alley!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I worked for a company that charged even for my travel time, x2 (one for each way). It pissed off close customers, but I had to do as I was told.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I started working for myself, I offered the first 15 minutes of travel (you can vary it if you want) for free, in total. Any other travel time was billed at xx% of my regular rate - I used 80%. The Minimum Callout rate was always set to one hour, no matter what. This guaranteed the customer would use my time as effectively as they could, and we would both be happy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For trips that do take longer, the driving time MUST be charged, as you're putting wear and tear on your vehicle, and that's one of your costs as a freelancer!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client wants to book me for a certain time period (i.e. half day, all day, etc), I make it clear *before I commit* that I will book that time for them, and they will be charged the entire time, even if only a bit of it was used. I explain this for the same reasons you do: I block it out from work I could be doing for other clients. After one or two of these &quot;appointments&quot; where they want a quick 20 minute session, they learn very quickly to not ask for a full day, unless they have an itemized list of what they need accomplished. Without that list, they run the risk of things not getting done, or communicated to me properly, which costs them money - But not me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7010" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2504" RevisionGUID="ac20d441-0b8d-4063-9cca-075f77323381" CreationDate="2014-10-20T21:11:24.483" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/524306915677851648" />
  <row Id="7011" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2524" RevisionGUID="a565ccc7-d1fd-49d8-ad06-8e40e3cfddcd" CreationDate="2014-10-20T21:38:37.187" UserId="5172" Text="I use a rate sheet, which details, two per diem rates, one short term (higher rate), one long  term lower full daily rate, and below that a half day rate for work including travel time of 60% of day rate. (it effectively is explained as that blocks out accepting another client for a full day).  Note on bottom of rate sheet &quot;A per hour rate is available to times which are at my convenience, minimum of one hour.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7012" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2525" RevisionGUID="28421076-2e36-464c-b26b-c597e4bac850" CreationDate="2014-10-20T21:47:08.430" UserId="5172" Text="You can invoice at rate of €xx for job  then do a second line that gives a 100% discount. Thus net invoice is for €0.00. However this is best if you are not VAT registed. If VAT registered and thus VAT is also zero, you need to explain why it is discounted. Probably best not to offer for 'free' but for a very low price, and thus keep things straight for tax reasons. You remember are the one who sets the price." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7014" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2527" RevisionGUID="f6898c03-3953-4b8d-a4e5-04efe548bc12" CreationDate="2014-10-20T21:57:10.253" UserId="5172" Text="You can send a letter detailing the conversation, date, time, persons, questions etc, where disputed clauses were said to be &quot;not actionable&quot; and that she signed 'under presure of the explaination'. Send it by registered mail so you have receipt of delivery. Once on record they have two choices  a) accept the letter or b) dismiss the lady. I would advise not working under a contract that had objectionable clauses. However it is your choice. In UK we have a freelancers association that will check contracts for you for a small sum, but hat needs time to allow them to review. In USA , it is too long since I worked there to know current answers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7015" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2501" RevisionGUID="cb4586d8-d7fd-4838-88e5-72e38367d420" CreationDate="2014-10-21T09:11:27.597" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/524488123640971266" />
  <row Id="7016" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2508" RevisionGUID="1c80c9f0-2af6-49f8-95c0-fea810ef8ff4" CreationDate="2014-10-21T15:11:24.263" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/524578706036391936" />
  <row Id="7019" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2527" RevisionGUID="84c6aed9-0764-4630-96b7-0e9eaa9dad9c" CreationDate="2014-10-21T18:17:11.753" UserId="2740" Comment="spelling.." Text="You can send a letter detailing the conversation, date, time, persons, questions etc, where disputed clauses were said to be &quot;not actionable&quot; and that she signed 'under pressure of the explanation'. Send it by registered mail so you have receipt of delivery. Once on record they have two choices  a) accept the letter or b) dismiss the lady. I would advise not working under a contract that had objectionable clauses. However it is your choice. In UK we have a freelancers association that will check contracts for you for a small sum, but that needs time to allow them to review. In the USA, it is too long since I worked there to know current answers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7020" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2527" RevisionGUID="84c6aed9-0764-4630-96b7-0e9eaa9dad9c" CreationDate="2014-10-21T18:17:11.753" Comment="Proposed by 2740 approved by 75 edit id of 368" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7021" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2528" RevisionGUID="22be8a1f-bc35-4872-a9d3-f7c8e0d7fb10" CreationDate="2014-10-22T02:48:38.000" UserId="4561" Text="Reading these responses it occurs to me that I need to decide if I'm willing to book &quot;an hour&quot; on site.  And if not, just not do it.  (And I've decided I'm not.) I'm worried about disappointing clients but I really can't afford to kill my day that way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also think I will make up a boilerplate &quot;confirmation&quot; type email to send after client's book me that confirms the hours and re-iterates the rate and &quot;daily&quot; policy, because the biggest concern I've had has been when longstanding clients who usually deal with me by phone/internet ask me to come to their office, they aren't aware of the policy even though it was sent to them before - that may have been months/years ago." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7025" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2530" RevisionGUID="2f984f8f-1f27-4365-8d29-fb9b6c562f0e" CreationDate="2014-10-22T11:49:24.697" UserId="2973" Text="The question is based on the following: should freelancing be considered *somewhat* like a full-time office job or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If yes**, then you are free to charge him, when, for example, you are preparing for the project, you are going to the loo, or when you are making a cup of espresso and etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If no**, then it is expected that you only track time when you are working. And always stop when not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I'll give a practical example:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before now, I was only tracking time when I either write code or thinking over the architecture. Or whatever related to that. I did not track time when was getting ready for the work and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I think that it is legit to basically track any time of your activity that is aimed at the work to be done, etc:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I will track time when setting up VirtualBox, opening PhotoShop&#xD;&#xA;   there&#xD;&#xA; - I will track time when opening folders, running terminal,&#xD;&#xA;   running GruntJS, text editors, documentation &#xD;&#xA; - I will track time&#xD;&#xA;   when going away for 5-10 mins etc to have some rest or listen to music.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So basically will be tracking NOT ONLY the time when I directly do the job, but any activity that I do because of I am working.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So am, is my thing something legit or I am just ill and drunk?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7026" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2530" RevisionGUID="2f984f8f-1f27-4365-8d29-fb9b6c562f0e" CreationDate="2014-10-22T11:49:24.697" UserId="2973" Text="Am I free to bill the time when preparing for the work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7027" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2530" RevisionGUID="2f984f8f-1f27-4365-8d29-fb9b6c562f0e" CreationDate="2014-10-22T11:49:24.697" UserId="2973" Text="|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7028" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2530" RevisionGUID="55a90e3f-d5b2-4963-bc79-28334ff85c73" CreationDate="2014-10-22T11:58:56.000" UserId="2973" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="The question is based on the following: should freelancing be considered *somewhat* like a full-time office job or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If yes**, then you are free to charge clients, when, for example, you are preparing for the project, you are going to the loo, or when you are making a cup of espresso and etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If no**, then it is expected that you only track time when you are working. And always stop when not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I'll give a practical example:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before now, I was only tracking time when I either write code or thinking over the architecture. Or whatever related to that. I did not track time when was getting ready for the work and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I think that it is legit to basically track any time of your activity that is aimed at the work to be done, etc:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I will track time when setting up VirtualBox, opening PhotoShop&#xD;&#xA;   there&#xD;&#xA; - I will track time when opening folders, running terminal,&#xD;&#xA;   running GruntJS, text editors, documentation &#xD;&#xA; - I will track time&#xD;&#xA;   when going away for 5-10 mins etc to have some rest or listen to music.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So basically will be tracking NOT ONLY the time when I directly do the job, but any activity that I do because of I am working.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So am, is my thing something legit or I am just ill and drunk?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7029" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2524" RevisionGUID="2c44f037-1b92-4649-930e-53e72719b80f" CreationDate="2014-10-22T12:09:07.733" UserId="5172" Comment="added 2410 characters in body" Text="I use a rate sheet, which details, two per diem rates, one short term (higher rate), one long  term lower full daily rate, and below that a half day rate for work including travel time of 60% of day rate. (it effectively is explained as that blocks out accepting another client for a full day).  Note on bottom of rate sheet &quot;A per hour rate is available to times which are at my convenience, minimum of one hour.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Emily, Specific to the hourly billing rate, I usually use this for long term clients who need me to do jobs at home (bill by hour) or extra visits to site. My rate sheet contains something like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Schedule of fees.&#xD;&#xA;For fiscal year 01 July 2014 to 30 June 2015.&#xD;&#xA;Fee rates are exclusive of United Kingdom VAT&#xD;&#xA; and in GBP.&#xD;&#xA;“Day” is defined as a standard working day of 7 hours 30 minutes.&#xD;&#xA;Hourly pro-rata applies to extra hours or non-site work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;United Kingdom services.&#xD;&#xA;First two days of a consultancy period: 	£590-00 per day&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next five days of a consultancy period: 	£510-00 per day&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Subsequent days of a consultancy period: 	£440-00 per day&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;European Union services external to UK.&#xD;&#xA;Days of a consultancy period:			£800-00 per day &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other Territories        			By negotiation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long term contracts can be mutually negotiated according to length and scope of work.&#xD;&#xA;Reasonable out of pocket expenses, where appropriate, will be charged as extra to above&#xD;&#xA;and the scope of these will be agreed prior to the commencement of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Travel will be charged at; &#xD;&#xA;Mileage 45 pence per mile.&#xD;&#xA;Rail and air fares inclusive of booking and finance charges (at cost). *&#xD;&#xA;Hotels and subsistence inclusive of booking and finance charges (at cost) *&#xD;&#xA;Local transport (at cost) *&#xD;&#xA;Consular Fees (at cost)&#xD;&#xA;* Unrecoverable EU VAT inclusive (DE, DK, FR, NL, etc.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;External documentation:&#xD;&#xA;Chamber fees and chamber documentation charges (at cost)&#xD;&#xA;Consular and Adval fees (at cost)&#xD;&#xA;Translation (at cost) plus secretarial (at cost).&#xD;&#xA;	Court certified translator services (at GBP/USD cost equivalent).&#xD;&#xA;Publications (at cost) plus delivery charges.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other expenses. At cost plus 20% plus withholding taxes, if any.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Payment: All fees and charges are strictly net 30 days from date of invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yours faithfully,&#xD;&#xA;For on behalf of &#xD;&#xA;&quot;Company Name&quot; &amp; signature&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Emily:&#xD;&#xA;Note: 75% of my work comes from one client (2~3 days per week, long term contract and extra from home (the hourly billing as I can do my work from home, which is not your situation), this is my bread and butter, [I refuse to do more, as otherwise  in case of problems there is no other income available] 15%~25% comes from another  four clients on a casual basis, capable of developing to replace the main client.&#xD;&#xA;I suggest a minimum of a half day fee for any work on customer's site or premises&#xD;&#xA;Regards, Eionmac&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7030" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2531" RevisionGUID="2e2f191a-fe33-40b4-a86d-3e68da149daa" CreationDate="2014-10-22T12:15:02.533" UserId="5172" Text="I understand, the could casue trouble in court bit for USA, however in my letter I state &quot; This letter confirms my understanding and is the only basis on which I will proceed with work under our contract and this letter forms part of our agreed conditions and is incorporated into the contract.&quot;  This is why they must accept or refuse  contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7031" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2532" RevisionGUID="85c8d3f6-240c-4a49-bfd5-879990fa8608" CreationDate="2014-10-22T12:42:58.173" UserId="5172" Text="YES! and YES! The HMRC (Her Majesties Revenue and Customs) has a very formal method of analysing freelancer self-employed or agency supplied personnel or small one man companies providing services to other companies.See www.hmrc.gov.uk/ir35/  if IR35 applies then you can be 'deemed' an employee and the employee tax rules apply. Theyare looking for folk who pay themselves by dividend rather than taxed wages to avoid high tax rates and  Employer's National Insurance and employee's National Insurance Taxes, so they are looking at the avoidance issue and can audit your books if they think their is a case to answer. Sometimes they just send a tax  bill and you need to defend  that it is unrealistic and a few go to court. Use your search engine on &quot;IR35&quot; will give you loads of data." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7032" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2533" RevisionGUID="9f2737a1-3015-4f38-bf52-7f04a6da473d" CreationDate="2014-10-22T12:53:50.533" UserId="5172" Text="In any country, Import duty and sales taxes (or VAT, if VAT type tax is used) is payable when goods 'CROSS the frontier'. It is peculiarity of customs &amp; tax unions that there may be no tax payable inside a tax union and no customs duties payable inside a customs union. The EU is a customs union and has specific tax rules. NOTE the VAT in Germany applies to all invoices even those for export customers but the RATE applicable to exports is 'zero per cent' The invoice does carry EU VAT but at a zero rate.&#xD;&#xA;VAT exempt supplies and services are very specific and very few. &#xD;&#xA;in Brazil there are many sales taxes at Federal, state and district level, even goods crossing from one state to another inside Brazil causes many tax papers to be filed.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7033" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2534" RevisionGUID="60bba38f-56e1-435d-995c-a43262e673a0" CreationDate="2014-10-22T13:03:30.403" UserId="5172" Text="1 there are two situations: a) Quoting for a job, b) Doing a job for which your are under a paid contract to do.&#xD;&#xA;In &quot;a&quot; you do work at your own risk and at your own cost. Until you are under contract you cannot bill any time.&#xD;&#xA;In &quot;b&quot; you have to employ yourself as if a full set of Health and Safety  and Environment rules were in place whether you have formal rules or not. So If you bill by the day &quot;per diem&quot; this fee includes your normal break time and lunch hour etc .e.g. on site 9 hours with one 0.5 hour break and one 1 hour break is billed as 'one day'. If you bill by the hour then you have to exclude the lunch hour (non work time) but 'comfort breaks' are within the other hours. If you abuse the  times for billing then your customer may cancell your contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7034" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2535" RevisionGUID="98d927d6-5782-447d-a757-50045099208e" CreationDate="2014-10-22T13:18:29.497" UserId="5172" Text="The complexity of both Federal and Land taxes makes it imperative you should first of all talk to or visit your local tax office.  Some activities of possible &quot;Freiberufler&quot;, may be undertaken as 'employees' and not as 'free professionals'." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7035" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2534" RevisionGUID="22a6edbf-6132-4010-8715-5aa4c4333f0f" CreationDate="2014-10-22T17:07:51.483" UserId="75" Comment="added 13 characters in body" Text="There are two situations: A) Quoting for a job, B) Doing a job for which your are under a paid contract to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In **A** you do work at your own risk and at your own cost. Until you are under contract, you cannot bill any time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In **B** you have to employ yourself as if a full set of Health and Safety  and Environment rules were in place, whether you have formal rules or not. So if you bill by the day &quot;per diem&quot;, this fee includes your normal break time and lunch hour, etc (e.g. on site 9 hours with one 0.5 hour break and one 1 hour break is billed as 'one day').&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you bill by the hour then you have to exclude the lunch hour (non-work time) but 'comfort breaks' are within the other hours. If you abuse the  times for billing then your customer may cancel your contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7037" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2517" RevisionGUID="ca5f92a3-3d4a-4919-92b8-e47e0d453cb3" CreationDate="2014-10-22T18:37:48.430" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="Made question more readable, fixed title, removed end thanks." Text="I have a new client that I met online for whom I have been doing some photo editing. We will be using paypal for payment. Do I give the finished work to client before or after they have paid me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7038" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2517" RevisionGUID="ca5f92a3-3d4a-4919-92b8-e47e0d453cb3" CreationDate="2014-10-22T18:37:48.430" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="Made question more readable, fixed title, removed end thanks." Text="Do I give the finished work to client before or after they paid me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7039" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2517" RevisionGUID="ca5f92a3-3d4a-4919-92b8-e47e0d453cb3" CreationDate="2014-10-22T18:37:48.430" Comment="Proposed by 152 approved by 517, 1706 edit id of 366" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7040" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2499" RevisionGUID="28b95bb7-6f7f-497a-bae4-aec54d12f2cd" CreationDate="2014-10-22T18:38:29.860" UserId="100" Comment="added &quot;uk&quot; tag as OP asks about UK" Text="My question relates to law enforcement for freelancers. Are there inspections of freelance workers in the UK, that is, do HMRC agents visit freelancers’ homes to check their bookkeeping records? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7041" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2499" RevisionGUID="28b95bb7-6f7f-497a-bae4-aec54d12f2cd" CreationDate="2014-10-22T18:38:29.860" UserId="100" Comment="added &quot;uk&quot; tag as OP asks about UK" Text="|taxes|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7042" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2499" RevisionGUID="28b95bb7-6f7f-497a-bae4-aec54d12f2cd" CreationDate="2014-10-22T18:38:29.860" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 517, 1706 edit id of 371" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7043" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2471" RevisionGUID="121e4a20-b571-4f6b-bf68-ff6e78baf88b" CreationDate="2014-10-22T18:38:46.687" UserId="39" Comment="Improving the question's grammar without altering the meaning." Text="Based on my research, I have determined that an iOS programmer can earn 4000 EUR / month in the EU in a full time job. This is 25 EUR / hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much of a premium should a programmer charge for short-term (i.e. only hours or days) consulting? Are there any sites that provide IT consultant rates?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7044" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2471" RevisionGUID="121e4a20-b571-4f6b-bf68-ff6e78baf88b" CreationDate="2014-10-22T18:38:46.687" UserId="39" Comment="Improving the question's grammar without altering the meaning." Text="How much can an iOS developer charge?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7045" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2471" RevisionGUID="121e4a20-b571-4f6b-bf68-ff6e78baf88b" CreationDate="2014-10-22T18:38:46.687" Comment="Proposed by 39 approved by 517, 1706 edit id of 365" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7046" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2536" RevisionGUID="7fd312b7-ebc0-496e-b741-289d4856a873" CreationDate="2014-10-22T18:49:37.390" UserId="1706" Text="If I were her, I'd push the issue on creating an addendum to either void the clause about the professional liability insurance, or to bump up her $$$ rate if it is a requirement.  There IS no in-between.  Either they require it, or they don't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for availability -- as long as she's not BOUND to any times that she reports as tentatively available, there's nothing wrong with that AFAIC.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7049" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2537" RevisionGUID="9ab2a806-8ba0-4c17-b3e2-73c2dfd027ee" CreationDate="2014-10-23T06:06:11.703" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="It seems you are being paid hourly, so I'm going to assume that is the case for the purposes of this answer (rather than a fixed price job).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually when an employer is employing an employee (on-site), they are usually obligated to maintain certain workplace standards (bathroom facilities, reasonable working hours, etc). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you are self-employed, you are both the employee and the employer at the same time. So you are responsible for the above*, not the client. The client is paying you for your time applied to their project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This means that you should be billing the client for only the time you spend working for them. Usually I ask myself: &quot;would I still be doing this even if I was not working on this project?&quot; For example, making coffee, rest time, and bathroom breaks are not work time but things I would be doing in any case. So I don't charge for them. This is within reason. I'm not going to discard a whole 10 minutes just because I got up to go to the bathroom for one. However, billing for the entire 10 minutes spent making coffee/resting/in the bathroom is dubious.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order to compensate for these small amounts of time here and there, Charging a higher rate compensates for this. With the increased rate, You can pay yourself for the time spent in the bathroom and during lunch even though the client only paid for the time spent on their work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*This responsibility may or may not be regulated, depending on where you live and what kind of entity you are operating under. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7050" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2537" RevisionGUID="e62964dc-d837-422f-a40b-910a1d6c828a" CreationDate="2014-10-23T06:11:52.610" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 153 characters in body" Text="It seems you are being paid hourly, so I'm going to assume that is the case for the purposes of this answer (rather than a fixed price job).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually when an employer is employing an employee (on-site), they are usually obligated to maintain certain workplace standards (bathroom facilities, reasonable working hours, etc). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you are self-employed, you are both the employee and the employer at the same time. So you are responsible for the above*, not the client. The client is paying you for your time applied to their project**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This means that you should be billing the client for only the time you spend working for them. Usually I ask myself: &quot;would I still be doing this even if I was not working on this project?&quot; For example, making coffee, rest time, and bathroom breaks are not work time but things I would be doing in any case. So I don't charge for them. This is within reason. I'm not going to discard a whole 10 minutes just because I got up to go to the bathroom for one. However, billing for the entire 10 minutes spent making coffee/resting/in the bathroom is dubious.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging a higher rate compensates for these small amounts of time here and there. With the increased rate, You can pay yourself for the time spent in the bathroom and during lunch even though the client only paid for the time spent on their work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;Notes:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; \*  This responsibility may or may not be regulated, depending on where you live and what kind of entity you are operating under. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; \** This is assuming that your contract is a standard one (work x for pay y). If it includes bathroom breaks/whatever else then that's a different story!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7051" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2537" RevisionGUID="6f6db492-d6e9-4713-a066-1a52f8e642ff" CreationDate="2014-10-23T06:17:05.090" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 153 characters in body" Text="It seems you are being paid hourly, so I'm going to assume that is the case for the purposes of this answer (rather than a fixed price job).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually when an employer is employing an employee (on-site), they are usually obligated to maintain certain workplace standards (bathroom facilities, reasonable working hours, etc). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you are self-employed, you are both the employee and the employer at the same time. So you are responsible for the above*, not the client. The client is paying you for your time applied to their project**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This means that you should be billing the client for only the time you spend working for them. Usually I ask myself: &quot;would I still be doing this even if I was not working on this project?&quot; For example, making coffee, rest time, and bathroom breaks are not work time but things I would be doing in any case. So I don't charge for them. This is within reason. I'm not going to discard a whole 10 minutes just because I got up to go to the bathroom for one. However, billing for the entire 10 minutes spent making coffee/resting/in the bathroom is dubious. Time spent on client-specific tasks like software installs and setup, or anything else that you are only doing because you have this client paying you, is billable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging a higher rate compensates for these small amounts of time here and there. With the increased rate, you can pay yourself for the time spent in the bathroom and during lunch even though the client only paid for the time spent on their work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;Notes:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; \*  This responsibility may or may not be regulated, depending on where you live and what kind of entity you are operating under. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; \** This is assuming that your contract is a standard one (work x for pay y). If it includes bathroom breaks/whatever else then that's a different story!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7052" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2537" RevisionGUID="58a22289-b293-463d-90cf-bba16977d17e" CreationDate="2014-10-23T06:49:27.933" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="deleted 144 characters in body" Text="Usually when an employer is employing an employee (on-site), they are usually obligated to maintain certain workplace standards (bathroom facilities, reasonable working hours, etc). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you are self-employed, you are both the employee and the employer at the same time. So you are responsible for the above*, not the client. The client is paying you for your time applied to their project**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This means that you should be billing the client for only the time you spend working for them. Usually I ask myself: &quot;would I still be doing this even if I was not working on this project?&quot; For example, making coffee, rest time, and bathroom breaks are not work time but things I would be doing in any case. So I don't charge for them. This is within reason. I'm not going to discard a whole 10 minutes just because I got up to go to the bathroom for one. However, billing for the entire 10 minutes spent making coffee/resting/in the bathroom is dubious. Time spent on client-specific tasks like software installs and setup, or anything else that you are only doing because you have this client paying you, is billable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging a higher rate compensates for these small amounts of time here and there. With the increased rate, you can pay yourself for the time spent in the bathroom and during lunch even though the client only paid for the time spent on their work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;Notes:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; \*  This responsibility may or may not be regulated, depending on where you live and what kind of entity you are operating under. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; \** This is assuming that your contract is a standard one (work x for pay y). If it includes bathroom breaks/whatever else then that's a different story!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7054" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2538" RevisionGUID="7acb6778-04be-4b82-a0b4-108f4e7fb259" CreationDate="2014-10-23T09:01:46.457" UserId="5088" Text="To build a portfolio, instead of stuffing it with rework of existing web sites, I'd rather recommend design something new. To do that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Find a problem. You don't have one? Try searching on the Internet (on Reddit, particularly, there're a lot).&#xD;&#xA;2. Think about how you could cover it with design. I'd even suggest that making a good single landing page is enough to train your skill and do something valuable at the same time. Still don't have any idea? What about a website where some members could dump their ideas and other members could pick those to put into practice, to solve a &quot;still don't have any idea&quot; problem?&#xD;&#xA;3. Do it. Open the tools you use (or want to, or you think you have to) and set your hands at the task.&#xD;&#xA;4. Show off. Post it on Dribbble or elsewhere, the place where you can get some feedback.&#xD;&#xA;5. Soak up the feedback, digest it, extract advice, adjust your direction.&#xD;&#xA;6. Repeat.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't think I gave a direct answer to the question, but I suggest it just a good advice to consider further path of self development as a design professional.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When offering a free redesign of an existing web site to an existing company, you make it generally worse because a) you discredit the concept that a designer should be paid for her work, and  b) you aren't as aligned to do it good as if you were paid, and the client isn't as committed as if he was billed. As a result, you contribute to strenghtening an idea that design is cheap and client's nephew is the right person to be entrusted with company's web site redesign because, well, he seem talented and can work for free." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7055" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2539" RevisionGUID="f82d4fad-4b18-4552-903a-4845b24cc342" CreationDate="2014-10-23T14:44:46.197" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="The majority of countries only charge taxes on people for either (1) the time that they were working there, or (2) who have been physically present in the country for a significant period of time (&quot;tax residents&quot;). This is [residency based taxation][1]. Most countries have a [physical presence test][2] for this kind of thing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're not present in the a residence-based taxation country at all for the year of work, you almost certainly do not need to pay tax to that countries' government. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even though the US is even more strict about who pays taxes, you still need to be physically present in order to pay taxes, either as a [citizen or resident][3], or as a [nonresident-alien][4].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A quote from the irs website about non-resident aliens elaborates (emphasis mine):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you are any of the following, you must file a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; return:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  &#xD;&#xA;&gt;  - A nonresident alien individual engaged or considered to be&#xD;&#xA;&gt; engaged in a trade or business *in the United States* during the year.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ,,,&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So even in the case of the US, it is necessary to be physically present in the US at the time that you're working in order to pay taxes there (as long as you're a nonresident alien)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The rest of the countries operate under a territorial taxation system, notably Singapore and Hong Kong. Residents of these countries only pay tax on local income. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_taxation#Residency&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_presence_test&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Substantial-Presence-Test&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Taxation-of-Nonresident-Aliens" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7056" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2539" RevisionGUID="d58deb6d-93c5-40eb-94a0-17431963204a" CreationDate="2014-10-23T14:51:32.640" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="deleted 172 characters in body" Text="The majority of countries only charge taxes on people for either (1) the time that they were working there, or (2) who have been physically present in the country for a significant period of time (&quot;tax residents&quot;). This is [residency based taxation][1]. Most countries have a [physical presence test][2] for this kind of thing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even though the US is even more strict about who pays taxes, as a [non-resident alien][3], you still need to be physically present in order to pay taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A quote from the irs website about non-resident aliens elaborates (emphasis mine):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you are any of the following, you must file a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; return:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  &#xD;&#xA;&gt;  - A nonresident alien individual engaged or considered to be&#xD;&#xA;&gt; engaged in a trade or business *in the United States* during the year.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ,,,&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So even in the case of the US, it is necessary to be physically present in the US at the time that you're working in order to pay taxes there (as long as you're a nonresident alien)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The rest of the countries operate under a territorial taxation system, notably Singapore and Hong Kong. Residents of these countries only pay tax on local income. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_taxation#Residency&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_presence_test&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Taxation-of-Nonresident-Aliens" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7060" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2541" RevisionGUID="2ad808fa-471d-424e-9e65-c5e0c878de3c" CreationDate="2014-10-23T17:14:49.347" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/41266/im-new-to-this-how-much-should-i-charge-and-how" />
  <row Id="7061" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2541" RevisionGUID="b2ec88ba-bb10-480b-8dd0-be9537ad6f1f" CreationDate="2014-10-23T17:01:48.043" UserDisplayName="Jonathan" Text="I am a beginner at graphic design work but I have been using Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and other computer programs for years. I currently live in Austin, TX where there are tons of freelance designers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A couple months ago, I was working for an event production company as a personal assistant and online brand manager. I was managing the company blog, Wordpress website, social media and basically anything else they needed done. I had two rates as an employe. My regular office rate was $11.50 per hour and $15.00 per hour for on-site event pay. About half of my time was spent in the office and the other half was mostly spent at events on the weekend. After a while, I decided to leave due to the the company's personal politics and I wanted to focus more on my own creative work. Plus, the pay was hard to live on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So…my ex-boss now wants me to come back and work for her. She is overwhelmed and needs someone asap. This time I would be working from home on the online updates for the company site, blog, designing event programs, brochures, etc. They liked my work and like the fact that we worked together. She hasn't told me how much she is willing to pay but I don't expect it to be much since the hours will be only a few random hours a week. Knowing this company the hours will be sometimes more and sometimes less.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My goal is to have (generally) regular hours one day a week and be paid fairly. I would be on contract as a freelance designer so I have think about taxes. The main question I'm looking to get input on is how much would you charge for this type of arrangement? I definitely want to keep things regulated and simple. Again, I am new at this. I'd appreciate your input!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7062" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2541" RevisionGUID="b2ec88ba-bb10-480b-8dd0-be9537ad6f1f" CreationDate="2014-10-23T17:01:48.043" UserDisplayName="Jonathan" Text="I'm new to this… How much should I charge and how?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7063" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2541" RevisionGUID="b2ec88ba-bb10-480b-8dd0-be9537ad6f1f" CreationDate="2014-10-23T17:01:48.043" UserDisplayName="Jonathan" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7064" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2542" RevisionGUID="5c534fe7-781f-4f80-8335-cf91bb728daa" CreationDate="2014-10-23T17:52:01.277" UserId="5190" Text="The most conservative approach is to perform an analysis of your monthly expenses, added to the possibility of business (hardware/software) expenses. This number, divided by the hours you think you can bill for, should be the very minimum you can and should charge a client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that you will spend time marketing yourself, training, and drumming up work, and no one will pay you for those hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In freelancing, you will find eventually the need for accounting and legal services, as well as periods of inactivity. This is why most freelancers charge at least an additional third of their base salary for these inevitable contingencies. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7065" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2543" RevisionGUID="14abd47a-31c4-4cc1-847c-54dd1c4bcbf7" CreationDate="2014-10-23T18:23:26.113" UserId="5191" Text="Do not do free web sites for companies. I'd even suggest avoiding it for non-profits. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Succesful design requires a partnership between you the design and the client. When the client has no money in the game, they're not much of a partner. And you're not going to gain a lot of real experience that way. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, you end up working with clients who think it's smart to try and get their professional services for free. Which is rarely a good idea. So again, not great clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd suggest focusing on your own personal projects. What's your hobby? Put up a site dedicated to it. Have an interest? Design a blog around it. That kind of thing. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7066" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2544" RevisionGUID="1688ba18-1dd0-4088-ba64-67aa2ce0d503" CreationDate="2014-10-23T20:28:38.500" UserId="708" Text="First realize that depending upon where you are in the US $11-$15 is practically minimum wage. Not quite, but it's not much more. If the companies can't go out and pull someone off the street to do your job, you're worth much more than minimum wage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;@DA01 gave an excellent link in his comment: http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/a/959/306 check that. There are **a lot** of overhead charges as a freelancer you don't have as an employee - software, hardware, health care, electricity, heat, gas, water, organization dues, equipment maintenance, accounting, clerical hours, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's also a common thought that freelance rates should be approximately 3 times as large as any employment rate. So, if you were making $12/hr as an employee you'd charge roughly $36/hr as a freelancer. I, personally, still think that is much too low in most cases for anyone with more than a year or two of experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Truth of the matter is, no one can tell *you* what *you* should charge. It's all based upon *your* overhead and *your* experience and expertise. Someone who has 5 years experience is almost always going to be worth more than someone with 1 year of experience. In addition, there can be other factors such as region of work, type of work, specialized style, etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7067" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2545" RevisionGUID="125cee74-9712-41ab-a29a-1635d49fe128" CreationDate="2014-10-23T21:40:38.203" UserId="5194" Text="Based on standard freelance practice and the information that you provided your fair billing fee should be exactly:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;$27.50 per hour" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7068" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2541" RevisionGUID="ed139825-84e9-4a59-afce-10c9dbd923d4" CreationDate="2014-10-23T22:08:07.860" UserId="75" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[1851],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="7072" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2519" RevisionGUID="3eae06e5-60be-4fc2-8a0a-f51814376433" CreationDate="2014-10-24T00:48:22.513" UserId="5175" Comment="Fixed the grammar of the post." Text="I am a freelancing graphic designer and I just received a new client (via the internet) who wants me to edit some photographs. We will be using PayPal to transfer the payment, but I was wondering if I should collect the payment before or after I send the final product online?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you in advance for the help." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7073" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2519" RevisionGUID="3eae06e5-60be-4fc2-8a0a-f51814376433" CreationDate="2014-10-24T00:48:22.513" Comment="Proposed by 5175 approved by 517, 708 edit id of 369" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7074" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2486" RevisionGUID="99df04b7-de8c-43e5-aa51-7e2e3029ee43" CreationDate="2014-10-24T07:34:32.303" UserId="5085" Comment="fixed my bad english ..." Text="In situation of hiring people, I like these, who com back to me and ask.&#xD;&#xA;This indicates the candidate is willing to improve, and often there will be an other chance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The most pleasant way to ask (in my eyes) is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. If your customer has a secretary, then call by phone and ask for an short appointment&#xD;&#xA; 2. If there was a human resource employ attending the meeting, then you can ask him&#xD;&#xA; 3. Else try to send a short mail with your questions and add the option for an short phone call.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reasons for my advices are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Good Managers always are interested in good employees&#xD;&#xA; 2. Most people can feel with your situation and will help you&#xD;&#xA; 3. Direct communication shows your courage&#xD;&#xA; 4. A written answer (in case of mail) is more laboriously than spoken answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Ask per mail, whether you may come back for a talk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7075" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2546" RevisionGUID="0c3ef18b-052d-49db-aa1b-4e4711f79d6b" CreationDate="2014-10-24T18:41:04.923" UserId="5088" Text="I wonder if it is even possible to find a freelance request for proposals which is related to project management, a client seeking for a manager? Why is such a job so rare?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7076" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2546" RevisionGUID="0c3ef18b-052d-49db-aa1b-4e4711f79d6b" CreationDate="2014-10-24T18:41:04.923" UserId="5088" Text="How does one find a project management related freelance project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7077" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2546" RevisionGUID="0c3ef18b-052d-49db-aa1b-4e4711f79d6b" CreationDate="2014-10-24T18:41:04.923" UserId="5088" Text="|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7078" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2547" RevisionGUID="95ecd9af-e9d3-42d1-943c-b2c14265c761" CreationDate="2014-10-24T23:23:21.037" UserId="5203" Text="Usually you need a manager if you have many people in a project, so the ratio managers:developers is already low.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And then you have teams that have enough experience to manage themselves, means they don't need managers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And then most people don't realize that they need a manager, just hire some developers, mostly unexperienced. When the project derails and they realize it, most of the time it is too late to get a manager on board or they don't realize how important it is, throw in more developers and go bankrupt even faster.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the companies that realize how important managers are and that stay on the market as potential customers, usually there is already a manager or a team of them present, so they don't need a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A good way might be to offer both management and consulting services, usually people are ready to pay for some consultation how to get the project running, and then you might have an in to convince them they need a project manager and that you would be a good fit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you charge differently for management and consulting, you should state this up front, not after you already have them convinced." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7079" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2548" RevisionGUID="2502864b-1883-48b4-962f-6a1404834a43" CreationDate="2014-10-25T12:04:10.583" UserId="5207" Text="My question is quite simple, how to find a company which wants to outsource a long-term project to someone? Maybe there are some special websites for that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We are a small team of web developers. We work together for many years but all projects we get either from freelance websites or from former clients recommendations. Main our problem is that all our projects are quite small, like 2-3 months of work for 2-3 people. And then we need to search for new project again, this is very exhausting for all team members. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7080" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2548" RevisionGUID="2502864b-1883-48b4-962f-6a1404834a43" CreationDate="2014-10-25T12:04:10.583" UserId="5207" Text="How to find clients/companies with long-term projects and/or steady flow of work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7081" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2548" RevisionGUID="2502864b-1883-48b4-962f-6a1404834a43" CreationDate="2014-10-25T12:04:10.583" UserId="5207" Text="|outsourcing|long-term|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7082" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2549" RevisionGUID="42c92a7a-1ffb-4411-b68d-48b04b380e5b" CreationDate="2014-10-25T14:57:07.297" UserId="5209" Text="You should always have overlapping projects, so you don't sit idle in between. This also gives you flexibility if you run into problems on one project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It will increase your average delivery time, but it also shows your customer you have other projects going and are not just hobby programming in your garage and jumping from project to project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Needs more effort for time tracking etc, but you should do that anyway even on single projects to get better estimations." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7083" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2550" RevisionGUID="2469457e-8938-4fc0-b41b-2ce13ccbc9b6" CreationDate="2014-10-25T17:05:42.160" UserId="517" Text="Everyone of us has been asking himself the same question. I've seen people getting long-term good clients after only a couple of projects. Others, are still searching for them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have only a few long-term clients but none of them is able to give me continuous work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far, I have concluded that it's just a luck. Eventually, you will find a client who is able to give you continues work. In the meantime, do as we all: have multiple projects and try to never work 40hrs on one project. This way, you will always have work. Maybe not full week, but continuous work if nothing. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7084" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2381" RevisionGUID="58d7253e-b5e5-40b6-ae22-e5f0d5963d42" CreationDate="2014-10-25T17:06:44.027" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="Clarified title" Text="What do I do if my business partner doesn't want to pay me my share?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7085" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2381" RevisionGUID="58d7253e-b5e5-40b6-ae22-e5f0d5963d42" CreationDate="2014-10-25T17:06:44.027" Comment="Proposed by 152 approved by 708, 517 edit id of 372" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7086" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2551" RevisionGUID="cb12a818-e32d-481d-be0a-c8ed94f4bf6c" CreationDate="2014-10-25T20:48:56.970" UserId="5211" Text="I have had a good experience with sites like Thumbtack and Fiverr. Some you have to pay a small amount to submit a quote or a fee when you accept a job; but it is minimal. For me, spending about 30 minutes/day (when I'm approaching the end of a project) preparing quotes for these sites has paid off in steady business. I suspect it wouldn't work as well, if your work cannot be performed virtually though; the possibilities would decrease with the smaller geographical area." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7087" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2548" RevisionGUID="a2646c0f-8b2b-4cd3-8eed-4775d8bb6357" CreationDate="2014-10-25T21:15:46.203" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/526119953481478144" />
  <row Id="7088" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2551" RevisionGUID="2bddd576-97fd-4b82-a1db-37c5473e3838" CreationDate="2014-10-25T21:18:26.983" UserId="5211" Comment="Added info about building a portfolio." Text="I have had a good experience with sites like Thumbtack and Fiverr. Some you have to pay a small amount to submit a quote or a fee when you accept a job; but it is minimal. For me, spending about 30 minutes/day (when I'm approaching the end of a project) preparing quotes for these sites has paid off in steady business. I suspect it wouldn't work as well, if your work cannot be performed virtually though; the possibilities would decrease with the smaller geographical area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Re: a portfolio - I offered an exchange with my veterinarian. I noticed she owned a domain name, but didn't have a website up; so I offered to make a site for her in exchange for a discount of her services (I have 3 cats). She agreed; and it turned out to be a good business decision." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7093" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2546" RevisionGUID="8ca1c352-676b-4073-a359-5b4434a9aff2" CreationDate="2014-10-26T09:15:59.340" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/526301203341131777" />
  <row Id="7105" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2557" RevisionGUID="cfd866f6-d0a3-4eec-a35e-e17c7a110b10" CreationDate="2014-10-27T16:15:04.473" UserDisplayName="user5221" Text="If I were to sign a freelancing contract with a person (client) from another country,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;which country's jurisdiction should we agree upon?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I **don't** want to agree upon his country's law and he doesn't want to agree upon my country's law. Is there a neutral law that can be used here?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- What should we put under the &quot;choice of governing law&quot; section?&#xD;&#xA;- What happens if we leave that section out altogether?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7106" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2557" RevisionGUID="cfd866f6-d0a3-4eec-a35e-e17c7a110b10" CreationDate="2014-10-27T16:15:04.473" UserDisplayName="user5221" Text="How to deal with cross country contracts?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7107" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2557" RevisionGUID="cfd866f6-d0a3-4eec-a35e-e17c7a110b10" CreationDate="2014-10-27T16:15:04.473" UserDisplayName="user5221" Text="|contracts|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7108" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2557" RevisionGUID="314fb2c1-326f-4908-9622-7311a56426a0" CreationDate="2014-10-27T18:22:02.247" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/526801007850700800" />
  <row Id="7109" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2558" RevisionGUID="16cbb2f1-d25a-4ab6-8c82-ab814f0738cf" CreationDate="2014-10-27T18:39:44.057" UserDisplayName="user5221" Text="What is the use of signing a contract?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can the client sue me for poor quality work if we don't have a signed contract?&#xD;&#xA;(Emails are the only sources of proofs for invoices and payments)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7110" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2558" RevisionGUID="16cbb2f1-d25a-4ab6-8c82-ab814f0738cf" CreationDate="2014-10-27T18:39:44.057" UserDisplayName="user5221" Text="Contract vs no-contract" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7111" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2558" RevisionGUID="16cbb2f1-d25a-4ab6-8c82-ab814f0738cf" CreationDate="2014-10-27T18:39:44.057" UserDisplayName="user5221" Text="|contracts|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7112" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2559" RevisionGUID="c2ff3633-d412-4409-ae46-a1877dcc57b2" CreationDate="2014-10-27T18:55:04.310" UserId="5047" Text="There is no guarantee with or without a contract that you will not have legal action taken by a client.  The contract would/should state the work that would be done and the payment for that work. In the case of a law suit, there would not be a case of he said, she said when there is a contract in place.  This can be either positive for you or negative depending on the circumstances and the evidence of the claims being made.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##Always best to have some contract in place that client and vendor feel comfortable that what is agreed upon will be executed whether that is work being done or payment for that work.##" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7113" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2560" RevisionGUID="f5955591-86cc-43fa-b0d8-8b7677785806" CreationDate="2014-10-27T18:57:26.237" UserId="517" Text="It depends on you. If you sign a contract with remote client, who says that you cannot tell him your name is John Smith. If you mess up, he can sue John Smith.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In freelancing, it's all about trust and building a connection. So if you do a good job, the client will recommend you by your name to someone else. The same is if you do the bad job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, the contract is not a Bible. You can choose what to put in it. If you don't feel like putting your real address, then don't do it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I see no reason why should you avoid contract taking into account that you are skillful and you can complete the job given and your intentions are not to trick the client. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7114" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2561" RevisionGUID="88ca2b94-0c9a-42f7-9438-1bb991818cfa" CreationDate="2014-10-27T20:19:49.073" UserId="5088" Text="With or without a contract, there are always many ways, for two sides, to sue each other. You get your work done bad, the client gets it proven that it's certainly your work, then his loss is considered to be reimbursed by one who caused it (you), and there's no need to have a physical paper that states your relationships. But having a contract may accelerate things. It may turn out good or bad for you, equiprobably.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But there are a lot of positive points about having a contract signed. It disciplines both of you and sets boundaries. It makes it clear what a contractor should do to state his work 100% complete, without scope creep, unending additional little features, and all that hardly anticipated stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A contract fixed a &quot;project triangle&quot;, which consists of cost, time, and budget. You and your client agree, once and forever, that this project will contain certain set of features and will cost a client certain sum. If you are in doubt about whether such boundaries are useful then, well, you probably haven't finished a single freelance project yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having a contract signed is also a good way to strengthen your &lt;s&gt;bureaucracy&lt;/s&gt; formal relationships skill. You'll have probably been glad for such an experience after being offered to dive into a really big and profitable gig.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* you may get sued even without a contract,&#xD;&#xA;* you may not get sued with a contract signed, especially if you carefully read it (and get an experienced consultant to take part in it),&#xD;&#xA;* legal costs aren't as dangerous as ruining your reputation, and&#xD;&#xA;* if you aren't ready to deliver at least moderate quality then you probably shouldn't take the project at all." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7115" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2562" RevisionGUID="e110cec0-7536-4f0a-81d4-7998923b9d6d" CreationDate="2014-10-27T22:14:57.893" UserId="5229" Text="If you deliver work, it has to be &quot;state of the art&quot; or &quot;lege artis&quot; how the doctors call it. There is a certain amount of quality expected, which is usual in your business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can of course deliver lower quality if the client asks you for it, but then I would always get it in writing. To avoid later confusion, you should put all agreements in writing anyway, be that a contract of emails.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The next point to think of is if something goes wrong, you can get sued by the insurance company of your client, not only by the client. So even if they don't want to take legal action, they have to. Same if it is a company with stakeholders. Or if the client goes bankrupt, someone will pick up all the pieces and one of them will be you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make contracts, it can save your life!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7116" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2563" RevisionGUID="1e4a1390-a565-4538-97e0-64c061f95043" CreationDate="2014-10-28T12:19:17.897" UserId="5235" Text="I'm currently working on-site as a contractor in a bigger software project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client and I have closed a contract which run's until the end of the year. Now I've gathered from talking to coworkers that this project is expected to run much longer than that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately I already know that I will not be available next year to work on this project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My questions is, when should I tell the project manager this? Right away? Only after they have asked to extend the contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7117" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2563" RevisionGUID="1e4a1390-a565-4538-97e0-64c061f95043" CreationDate="2014-10-28T12:19:17.897" UserId="5235" Text="When to inform client that a contract extension is not possible" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7118" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2563" RevisionGUID="1e4a1390-a565-4538-97e0-64c061f95043" CreationDate="2014-10-28T12:19:17.897" UserId="5235" Text="|contracts|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7119" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2564" RevisionGUID="ac0ef6fc-9235-497c-8702-d79f8aea9b8e" CreationDate="2014-10-28T12:47:51.593" UserId="517" Text="If the company is serious enough and professional, I would tell them ASAP since it's November already. They have to find someone to replace you + you have to train him and all of that has to be done before Jan 1. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if they were OK with you, talk to the person in charge and inform them of your unavailability. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But for your sake, check the contract and what does it say about your decision. Maybe you cannot resign before the project is over. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7120" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2565" RevisionGUID="4038ca88-2a7d-451a-bfbb-e5ceffb7e8ce" CreationDate="2014-10-28T14:47:01.617" UserId="75" Text="I'm taking the approach of what's written, and that the company knows what's going on. &#xA;&#xA;If the contract ends December 31, and YOU feel it needs to be extended (whether by you or someone else), you should meet with the manager at least a month ahead of time for an update, and recommendation for going forward.&#xA;&#xA; &#xA;If they do not need to bring you back, you won't need to worry about mentioning it! Remember the old adage, &quot;Poor planning on their part does not constitute an emergency on my part&quot;. You give them at least a month's notice to get someone else to finish (if that's how you feel it will go), but wait to see if they ask for you specifically. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7121" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2558" RevisionGUID="487a4281-1e16-4706-b6fc-b8f782150737" CreationDate="2014-10-29T12:30:36.900" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/527437344299683840" />
  <row Id="7127" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2567" RevisionGUID="1dfe85b6-fff8-4825-8634-c26bf0a75398" CreationDate="2014-10-29T21:14:05.877" UserId="1706" Text="Have you considered (smile) using a third country's laws?  This is VERY far fetched.  But the choice of venue is important!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't pick a venue, then typically a party that initiates legal action (in order to receive damages) must do it in the venue of the *other* party.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As the comments have stated, &quot;international&quot; law won't cut it.  If it's going to be so difficult to agree on a venue, you basically don't have a *usable* contract because you don't have an underlying venue upon which to enforce the terms of said contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7128" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2568" RevisionGUID="d06df99f-dced-4b21-9692-a90f33e7c522" CreationDate="2014-10-29T21:17:42.817" UserId="1706" Text="This isn't a matter of luck!!!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe you should be paying someone to work within your group and find projects as often as your little group would be available to work on them.  If you're pricing correctly, then there's no such thing as TOO MUCH work because you can always outsource or get more developers if you're swamped.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyways, this person's job would be called &quot;business development&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7129" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2396" RevisionGUID="155b8451-0b1f-4622-a7fc-2983b77b0837" CreationDate="2014-10-29T22:49:33.620" UserId="-1" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:1706,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;codenoire&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Stacey&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:1018,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Neil Robertson&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="7132" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2569" RevisionGUID="69a89fa6-9748-4562-9ded-cf4c9a8b9188" CreationDate="2014-10-30T12:39:21.020" UserId="5253" Text="I see two potential problems:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1: Your sales process and articulation of the value proposition.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;2: Possibly your annotation and markup of the wireframes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Firstly you are separating wireframing and design, but they are both types of design. Secondly, if a client can't understand a wireframe then you haven't explained it well enough. We understand wireframes because we are used to them, but to a client it will be dry. You could use something like Lucidcharts to build a wireframe which is navigable - I use this and it's like Visio on the web for a hundred bucks a year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you pitch the job the first process is wireframing because this defines the layout and usability (both parts of the design) and, as Scott says in his answer, allows you to track deviations from the backbone of the proposed site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't treat wireframing as something that is not necessary. I've moved away from calling it wireframing (i.e. the word 'wireframing' doesn't appear on the quote) and instead make it part of the design concepts phase. Clients seem more able to understanad the phrase 'design concepts' (you can still explain it will contain just the form and structure of the site)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7136" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="1801" RevisionGUID="49403813-f9e1-4025-beef-c0d2070a1550" CreationDate="2014-10-30T15:55:22.197" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="7144" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2572" RevisionGUID="2c2b3f7e-ea1d-4326-90f0-0b4675361c3c" CreationDate="2014-10-30T22:47:14.057" UserId="916" Text="I am trying to locate an accounting package that will allow me to sell clients prepaid blocks of time (retainer) for my organizations services and then allow me to give them updated statements showing time remaining.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My preferences would be for non-cloud based.  I am currently using Quicken Home &amp; Business but have not been able to find this capability in there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any suggestions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7145" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2572" RevisionGUID="2c2b3f7e-ea1d-4326-90f0-0b4675361c3c" CreationDate="2014-10-30T22:47:14.057" UserId="916" Text="Accounting software that will allow me to sell prepaid blocks of time to clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7146" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2572" RevisionGUID="2c2b3f7e-ea1d-4326-90f0-0b4675361c3c" CreationDate="2014-10-30T22:47:14.057" UserId="916" Text="|accounting|retainer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7147" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2573" RevisionGUID="2f8d853d-c05b-448b-8cf4-d174b3600766" CreationDate="2014-10-31T07:35:33.040" UserId="5026" Text="I agree with each of You posted above: &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;@user5209 (&quot;You should always have overlapping projects&quot;), &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;@peter-mv (&quot;I have only a few long-term clients but none of them is able to give me continuous work.&quot;),&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;@codenoire (&quot;...you should be paying someone to work within your group and find projects&quot;).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I wanna add:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Money is just one of many things attracting people. The rest could be: the value of the project content, the competence of colleagues, possibilities to become visible, many other. Just google about the motivation. It means You do not have to think about money at first place when asking somebody to help You. However, paying money if person gets You the job (money) sounds to be fair.&#xD;&#xA;- The person finding You the job could be a company also. I have no idea if there are any companies working on finding new clients for other companies, but I believe such companies should exist somewhere...&#xD;&#xA;- Keep searching for new big projects throw old big projects. Clients are attracting each other personally, by the business model they use, by the strategy involving other companies (e.g. partnership), etc. Just look around the existing big project and You will see other big projects around. At the end, You will see the companies responsible for managing those big projects. Contact those companies.&#xD;&#xA;- Keep suggesting. Find companies that could pay You money for big projects and make an idea-offer to them. Keep doing that.&#xD;&#xA;- Use government resources. There are government institutions offering local or international contests on really big projects. It can be the government of Your country, it can also be the government of other country. Really big government projects tends to be international.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7148" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2574" RevisionGUID="422b0a32-812e-49fb-a718-948587e8f0d8" CreationDate="2014-10-31T09:45:00.690" UserId="5266" Text="I've worked reasonably paid (by western standards) for 15 years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm wondering whether there is any point me trying to crack the online freelance market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) I compete against thousands of people with a markedly lower sense of &quot;reasonable pay&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) I have no publicly available work to show. Why would anyone give me my first contract?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems like a lot of hard work. Is it worth it, and how should I go about it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7149" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2574" RevisionGUID="422b0a32-812e-49fb-a718-948587e8f0d8" CreationDate="2014-10-31T09:45:00.690" UserId="5266" Text="Can a western IT software developer make it in online freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7150" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2574" RevisionGUID="422b0a32-812e-49fb-a718-948587e8f0d8" CreationDate="2014-10-31T09:45:00.690" UserId="5266" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7151" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2575" RevisionGUID="88254eb1-1d53-449e-ba82-a75a39444912" CreationDate="2014-10-31T16:03:20.717" UserId="517" Text="&gt; 1) I compete against thousands of people with a markedly lower sense&#xD;&#xA;&gt; of &quot;reasonable pay&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It always like that. Welcome to the world of freelancers. The only way to get some work as the Western contractor is to provide quality, on-site presence and warranty. There are many clients who either want a local or US contractor or clients who want US-type warranty. They are your target clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, if I am not mistaken, I think that I read that Elance has large amount of US contractors. You may check Elance and see how other work, their hourly rate, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 2) I have no publicly available work to show. Why would anyone give me&#xD;&#xA;&gt; my first contract?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you need it after 15 years in the industry? I am sure you can put a few best projects in your portfolio and during the interview you can talk to the client about them. I highly doubt that there isn't any project that you cannot show them. I know other contractors who worked for the large companies and they put the large CMS' into their portfolio stating that they did not code them but they took part in them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; It seems like a lot of hard work. Is it worth it, and how should I go&#xD;&#xA;&gt; about it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, a lot and lot of hard work, a lot of  thinking and a lot of other things you never faced sitting by the desk of the large company. That is why we say &quot;you are either a freelancer or not&quot;. It's not easy at all, but for me it was harder to sit by the desk 9 to 5 then to be 1 month without any project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No one can answer should you do it. You should start part-time freelancing on per project basis. Then after some time you will realize whether you will go back to your current work or you will drop it and become a freelancer. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7152" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2576" RevisionGUID="1cd12ea8-b3af-49e9-bf75-0458ad300ab1" CreationDate="2014-10-31T16:17:45.503" UserId="5267" Text="I've been developing a web app for a customer where we agreed on a fixed price for a set of requirements, but now in the final stages of the development they want me to add a new feature, which is something I didn't expect. I've never heard of it before, and the list of requirements doesn't include this particular feature. In their opinion, it should've been part of the delivery (though they're willing to pay me half the price to add it). Developing this feature also makes me liable to fix bugs and implement smaller changes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is that the set of original requirements wasn't very clear, but it did contain features smaller or equal in scope.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can I do? I don't want to do the extra work for half the money; I want to wrap up the project. Or get fully paid as if it was a new feature. I'm starting to care less about keeping them as a customer as there seems to be a pattern emerging.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7153" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2576" RevisionGUID="1cd12ea8-b3af-49e9-bf75-0458ad300ab1" CreationDate="2014-10-31T16:17:45.503" UserId="5267" Text="Customer and I have different opinions about scope" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7154" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2576" RevisionGUID="1cd12ea8-b3af-49e9-bf75-0458ad300ab1" CreationDate="2014-10-31T16:17:45.503" UserId="5267" Text="|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7155" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2576" RevisionGUID="588b509a-cdbf-4f0a-86b3-97d398b203fa" CreationDate="2014-10-31T16:28:06.470" UserId="5267" Comment="deleted 100 characters in body" Text="I've been developing a web app for a customer where we agreed on a fixed price for a set of requirements, but now in the final stages of the development they want me to add a new feature, which is something I didn't expect. I've never heard of it before, and the list of requirements doesn't include this particular feature. In their opinion, it should've been part of the delivery (though they're willing to pay me half the price to add it). Developing this feature also makes me liable to fix bugs and implement smaller changes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is that the set of original requirements wasn't very clear, but it did contain features smaller or equal in scope.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can I do? I don't want to do the extra work for half the money; I want to wrap up the project. Or get fully paid as if it was a new feature.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7156" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2577" RevisionGUID="d660af17-43d4-4a32-b70c-1fb63833ed2e" CreationDate="2014-10-31T16:38:44.890" UserId="75" Text="Lesson hopefully learned: use a clear, concise scope of work (SoW). What you are experiencing is called &quot;scope creep&quot; by many people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Scope Creep is when a client expects you to give more and more than what the original Scope of Work allow, while paying you no more. Unfortunately, it can be hard to defend against your first few times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First tip is to explain, clearly, in writing/email, that you will do *x, y and z features* as part of the scope, which entails using or doing only *a, b and c*. Let them know that your hourly rate for any *additional* work outside of this scope is *$xxx/hour*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, stick to it. They will likely try again to get more features for free, expecting that it is very quick for you. Be prepared to defend your position. Explain the time commitments you have with other customers, your work-life balance, and any extra costs or restrictions you have.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, have the balls (so to speak) to say no to additional things, if they keep persisting. Finish off what you have promised to do, then let the client know you can no longer work with them under the conditions set out. Will they be angry? Likely. But you need to be able to stand up for yourself, and freelancers all around, and make it clear that there is a scope for a reason. What may help is knowing what the client does or sells, and flip it around on them: if a customer asked for *x*, then just as you were almost finished, asked why *y* wasn't done for the same cost, what would you say?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first couple times you do this, it may be hard, especially if you're a nice person. But realize that everyone in the world is trying to take your money. Just like you're trying to take their money by working for them (although, I doubt you charge more than you say you would, just a metaphor). Be nice, courteous, and respectful the entire time. Do **NOT** raise your voice, or **blame the customer** at all!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7159" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2578" RevisionGUID="8fa18d87-b42e-412d-90f3-781a7a40c8ff" CreationDate="2014-11-01T20:53:21.397" UserId="5274" Text="I believe that being a 'Westerner' definitely works to your advantage for many reasons.&#xD;&#xA;Let me share part of my experience on the subject, as a freelance developper who started in London, then move on to other 'western' countries. I had no portfolio, having done only bar work since I left Uni, but I was really motivated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, as you said, the market is flooded by low-rates developpers, asking as little as 3$/hour. But the quality of the work they provide, and the heart they put in it reflects the rate they offer. Think about it, if they were skilled enough to ask 10 times the rate they offer, they probably would. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of the time, when you put an ad on Elance, you receive instantly a dozen of generic replies, often in broken English, and obviously copypasted from a defined set, maybe triggered by a keyword like 'wordpress' or similar. Here's how to take advantage of that :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; **1. Choose the proposals carefully, and personalize your reply.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   Take some time to read the proposal, and start thinking about how you'll solve the client's problem, instead of copypasting a list of your 'skills' that he/she doesn't know anything about. Find something you're interested in doing, and be enthusiastic in your reply. At the beginning, I used to choose only challenging proposals, that I knew I could fix, but didn't know exactly how. I was doing a bit of research on Google, then explained my 'plan' to the client. Often, the actual solution I ended up using was different than the original plan, but it didn't matter, I had made a difference by showing some 'care' in my answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; **2. Emphasize the fact that you do speak English perfectly.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  This is a bit controversial, but once the client will have struggled his way through 10 replies full of spelling/grammar mistakes, your proposal will be a breeze of fresh air to them. Remind them of that discreetly in your answer. I usually use almost informal language, to further distance myself from the 'Dear Sir, ...' answers, and I always mention the fact that I do speak good English. TL;DR : Make your answer pleasant to read, and you'll score more points.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; **3. Your rate shows your worth, so don't undervalue yourself.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Once again, you want to set yourself aside from the pack. there always will be clients who will choose Price over Quality, but my advice is that you should avoid them, or your hours and stress levels are going to skyrocket, and you'll be back behind your office in no time. If I'm unsure what the client is looking for, I don't give a rate right away, and ask him to clearly to pick 2 out of these 3 things : Speed,Quality, Price. (can't remember how it's called, someone please add a link?). Be daring, and it will pay off, you'll make strong relationships with good people, who will reward you fairly and value your work. That's what I appreciate the most about freelancing, you're not stuck with a nasty boss, ever. That being said, you can set your rate a little bit lower at the start, if you want to build a portfolio quickly. Remember however that you will most likely buld long-lasting relationships with your clients, so it'll be harder to up your rate later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do all those things, your portfolio and feedback will quickly match your big mouth, and you'll learn which proposals to answer, and which to avoid. By being 'different' in your approach, you'll become the go-to guy for all your previous clients, and there will be no more competition for you. If you have it in you, it is definitely worth it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7160" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2576" RevisionGUID="946f35cb-2e55-4bfc-bbc9-805ceaeb2798" CreationDate="2014-11-01T21:39:22.090" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/528662607226363904" />
  <row Id="7165" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2578" RevisionGUID="fcd5072d-7d6f-4fd9-9ae6-0b4fbfcd03e3" CreationDate="2014-11-02T02:18:09.620" UserId="5274" Comment="added 60 characters in body" Text="I believe that being a 'Westerner' definitely works to your advantage for many reasons.&#xD;&#xA;Let me share part of my experience on the subject, as a freelance developper who started in London, then moved on to other 'western' countries. I had no portfolio, having done only bar work since I left Uni, but I was really motivated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, as you said, the market is flooded by low-rates developpers, asking as little as 3$/hour. But the quality of the work they provide, and the heart they put in it reflects the rate they offer. Think about it, if they were skilled enough to ask 10 times the rate they offer, they probably would. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of the time, when you put an ad on Elance, you receive instantly a dozen of generic replies, often in broken English, and obviously copypasted from a defined set, maybe triggered by a keyword like 'wordpress' or similar. Here's how to take advantage of that :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; **1. Choose the proposals carefully, and personalize your reply.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   Take some time to read the proposal, and start thinking about how you'll solve the client's problem, instead of copypasting a list of your 'skills' that he/she doesn't know anything about. Find something you're interested in doing, and be enthusiastic in your reply. At the beginning, I used to choose only challenging proposals, that I knew I could fix, but didn't know exactly how. I was doing a bit of research on Google, then explained my 'plan' to the client. Often, the actual solution I ended up using was different than the original plan, but it didn't matter, I had made a difference by showing some 'care' in my answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; **2. Emphasize the fact that you do speak English perfectly.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  This is a bit controversial, but once the client will have struggled his way through 10 replies full of spelling/grammar mistakes, your proposal will be a breeze of fresh air to him. Remind them of that discreetly in your answer. I usually use almost informal language, to further distance myself from the 'Dear Sir, ...' answers, and I always mention the fact that I do speak good English. **TL;DR :** Make your answer pleasant to read, and you'll score more points.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; **3. Your rate shows your worth, so don't undervalue yourself.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Once again, you want to set yourself aside from the pack. there always will be clients who will choose Price over Quality, but my advice is that you should avoid them, or your hours and stress levels are going to skyrocket, and you'll be back behind your office in no time. If I'm unsure what the client is looking for, I don't give a rate right away, and ask him to clearly to pick 2 out of these 3 things : Speed,Quality, Price. (can't remember how it's called, someone please add a link?). Be daring, and it will pay off, you'll make strong relationships with good people, who will reward you fairly and value your work. That's what I appreciate the most about freelancing, you're not stuck with a nasty boss, ever. That being said, you can set your rate a little bit lower at the start, if you want to build a portfolio quickly. Remember however that you will most likely build long-lasting relationships with your clients, so it'll be harder to up your rate later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do all those things, your portfolio and feedback will quickly match your big mouth (which remains your best asset as it shows confidence), and you'll learn which proposals to answer, and which to avoid. By being 'different' in your approach, you'll become the go-to guy for all your previous clients, and there will be no more competition for you. If you have it in you, it is definitely worth it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7168" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2574" RevisionGUID="4f222db3-2bb4-4f0c-bf6c-6e851786f9dc" CreationDate="2014-11-02T03:39:22.523" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/528753204989681666" />
  <row Id="7172" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2582" RevisionGUID="46960771-71a4-44d0-ad15-c8642602eaa3" CreationDate="2014-11-03T01:58:15.743" UserId="1583" Text="I would agree. I find the answer to this is most often that they are paying an external service provider (freelance or agency) to take the time and responsibility away from themselves. They do not want to be part of the process as that is what they believe they are paying you for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So in a way it is more that wireframing and UX are really agile parts often presented back into a waterfall process. You need to try and sell agile to them, and not that you have to do the whole iterative process all the way. Just that if they are part of the process at some stages then the product will grow around them and be a much better fit and sell better to customers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have seen this as a freelancer and as a contractor to an agency in the last 3 years. The bit that is a gamble on a project is will you get a good product owner at the client. Will you get someone who has the time to give you 1-3 days a week to do, not their normal job (which is often key, this project is not paying their bills or job description). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I try to get better at taking small steps in with the person or people from the client at seeing if they get the concept and have the time. Some people who set up the contract are not the people who will use it and have no interest apart from getting a good price so it does not matter what process you give them the most they will do is regular visual briefings and sign off. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can sell agile scrum with Release planning meetings and then sprint planning meetings you know they will at least divote some time to planning with you and so may be open to understanding what ux and wireframes are. Most clients do not have the time or the vocabulary to deal with it. For example when as ask them to weight page blocks to a total of 10 they are just happy I do it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So go with that you keep the wireframing as a cost and be happy they dont engage and that you have had them pay for more up front thinking by you. Or you keep it all in house and dont charge for it. Give clients 10 years more and some might be more into the process. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7179" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="623" RevisionGUID="df809340-a5fd-4df0-9132-d123680fce82" CreationDate="2014-11-03T16:57:45.773" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="7186" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2563" RevisionGUID="2b696fe6-b3fc-44e9-88b5-01147718a5a9" CreationDate="2014-11-04T06:55:17.300" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/529527284177178624" />
  <row Id="7187" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2586" RevisionGUID="65586a91-859c-420f-b275-0a21c6fcde5e" CreationDate="2014-11-04T12:16:50.737" UserId="5292" Text="I'm going to work on updating a client's software. It was built with a framework which is free to use if you make the software open source, but otherwise requires a license.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I make it clear that the client is responsible for possible licensing? Is the client(and not me) liable by default? Is it enough if I clarify this in an email? Should I write an agreement for me and the client to sign?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7188" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2586" RevisionGUID="65586a91-859c-420f-b275-0a21c6fcde5e" CreationDate="2014-11-04T12:16:50.737" UserId="5292" Text="How to keep client liable for licenses?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7189" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2586" RevisionGUID="65586a91-859c-420f-b275-0a21c6fcde5e" CreationDate="2014-11-04T12:16:50.737" UserId="5292" Text="|legal|licensing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7190" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2587" RevisionGUID="d469cd66-b4e1-42c9-926a-fab0dbb07844" CreationDate="2014-11-04T16:53:45.600" UserId="75" Text="Although I don't deal much with framework licensing, I'm going to assume it's similar to regular Software licensing - Either with verification of an email showing it's been purchased, or an actual keycode to enter in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When a client needs software (i.e. Windows Server, or Windows licenses for their personal computers), I do not buy them with my own money. I will give the client a couple choices of where to purchase from, and the exact product name to ask for. Once they buy it, I tell them I can do the work with it then.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By doing this, I am lowering my chances to near zero about getting involved in software licensing, and I do not need to worry about asking for reimbursement for something I don't need, if the client does not pay me for it. Remember, once software has been opened, it's *extremely* difficult to return it (who's to say it wasn't copied and the key code already used by a previous person?). They purchase the package themselves, then give me the package while I'm on premise to install it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have had clients who offered to just write down a keycode, but would always refuse to tell me where they got it from. I can only assume, but not say for certain, that they are hiding it for some reason they don't trust me for. These clients, I just politely say I cannot work with the code, without seeing the actual keycode from its source - a physical package they bought, an email from the company with the payment made, or a reputable website that displays the keycode.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You already know the licensing for that framework, so you need to make sure your client is following the rules. In many jurisdictions (Remember, I am not a lawyer!), other people involved can be on the hook for licensing fees, as well. If it's a small company, you may be able to email them directly, and ask if XYZ Industries has purchased a license for their software. I don't know if you would get a reply, but if they have no record of it, it would send off warning bells... And make me question the client in general." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7192" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2588" RevisionGUID="4095076d-0f39-4a93-94f4-bcdfa6cfa1d3" CreationDate="2014-11-05T08:49:35.023" UserId="2391" Text="I wondered the same thing when I started out: how to set myself apart and make a livable wage, but applying what I've listed below has almost got me there! But it has been a slog - two years and counting - as my existing skills didn't really match with online freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Specialise**. Find something you are passionate about - this will come out in your responses to clients - and there is a demand for. Take on as much open source projects as you can find; find the forums where other specialists in your field hand out; take on as many little jobs as you can to get your rating up.&#xD;&#xA; - **Find your rate.** This one I'm still working on, as as xShirase says it can be harder to up your rate later, but once I'd decided on my speciality I looked to see what the rate being charged by those with decent rankings was and priced myself at that. I then adjusted my rate until I started getting plenty of interest. Hopefully I'll be able to start upping that rate as my ranking increases.&#xD;&#xA; - **Explore keywords**. This one was a surprise for me, but by playing around with the keywords I managed to find a whole raft of new jobs for my skills.&#xD;&#xA; - **Pick a decent freelancing site**. I've tried Elance, Guru, Freelancer and oDesk and oDesk is the only one I bother with now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck! Nothing beats the range of challenges you get thrown from all around the world - and you get paid for it :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7193" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2589" RevisionGUID="2d4003ff-d1af-4c3a-933c-cdc54c8edd25" CreationDate="2014-11-05T10:34:32.050" UserId="5303" Text="If I make a website for a client and all the coding is original work and I sell them a non-exclusive license to use the material in their business, would they be allowed to modify the source code in the future, or even have another developer come in and modify it for them, or is this only something they can do if they pay extra for the exclusive license?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7194" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2589" RevisionGUID="2d4003ff-d1af-4c3a-933c-cdc54c8edd25" CreationDate="2014-11-05T10:34:32.050" UserId="5303" Text="Legalities of client making modifications to source code under a non-exclusive license" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7195" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2589" RevisionGUID="2d4003ff-d1af-4c3a-933c-cdc54c8edd25" CreationDate="2014-11-05T10:34:32.050" UserId="5303" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7197" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2590" RevisionGUID="d0e55ed3-10ff-4efc-a2df-5e87c9e5b0b5" CreationDate="2014-11-05T11:21:21.117" UserId="4384" Text="I am using **Ubuntu 14.04 Server**, and I was looking for a solution combined with my Google Drive account. The way I have mounted it, is this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At **Google Drive** I have my customers data organised by projects. I have created a folder for every project that I developed. Then, inside this folder I have created subfolders to classify every kind of information related to the project (i.e. documents, reports, zipped backups of source codes, related invoices)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To keep this information synchronized, I found [grive][1], a non official Google application developed by &quot;**The Fan Club**&quot;. First of all, you must follow up the instructions explained on the link to his website I have put above, I will make a little summary:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Execute Grive Setup.&#xD;&#xA; - You must accept permissions to permit to Grive to access to your Google Drive account.&#xD;&#xA; - Copy the key that Google generated and paste it inside the input box at the application.&#xD;&#xA; - Then, automatically, begins the sync process to your machine&#xD;&#xA; - You could have an icon system to control the synchronization executing Grive Tools application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.thefanclub.co.za/how-to/ubuntu-google-drive-client-grive-and-grive-tools&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope you find it useful.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7198" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2591" RevisionGUID="9ecde9b8-0358-49ec-906f-4d5dd3fe33c3" CreationDate="2014-11-05T11:41:54.927" UserId="517" Text="It all depends on your contractor. You should never rely on things that are &quot;generally known&quot; or you may be negatively surprised. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if the contract is still active, I suggest you clear this explicitly in the contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you however want to know how some of us deal with this, I personally hand over all the sources and do not care if anyone else will modify the code or not. If someone modified the code, screwed things up and the client comes back to me asking to fix this, I will rarely fix messed code but I will continue from my own code and charge him accordingly. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7199" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2592" RevisionGUID="2d467c58-e2ef-4bb4-b877-8ae34c71a9ff" CreationDate="2014-11-05T14:25:51.943" UserId="4891" Text="So,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have found myself in a situation where I am working on a project that I want to get out of.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A quick overview of my situation is that I underestimated the effort. Was also giving a good price before that fact. It was supposed to have a quick turn around but it has become clear that the client is still not 100% on what he wants. It looks to me as it will be open ended and will be next to impossible to extract profit from.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My client paid me the deposit up front along with the deposit for the first milestone, which admittedly was my mistake. I shouldn't have accepted the payment until milestone complete. There has been nothing in writing except a few emails. No formal contract. I have also carried out a nice chunk of work, which I am willing to write off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, to my question, what is the best way to cancel this project? Unfortunately, it will be difficult to met so it must be over telephone. I am thinking of opening with something along the lines of &quot;I cannot commit to doing this project any longer.&quot; I'm unsure about how much of an explanation I need to give. I think I will say the delivery date is much further down the line than originally expect and no longer works for me. It is better to cancel now rather that both of us putting in more work and having complications down the line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have many of you been in this situation before?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7200" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2592" RevisionGUID="2d467c58-e2ef-4bb4-b877-8ae34c71a9ff" CreationDate="2014-11-05T14:25:51.943" UserId="4891" Text="Cancelling a project on a client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7201" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2592" RevisionGUID="2d467c58-e2ef-4bb4-b877-8ae34c71a9ff" CreationDate="2014-11-05T14:25:51.943" UserId="4891" Text="|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7202" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2593" RevisionGUID="077e2b09-f5af-4966-a8da-f18e74e7288f" CreationDate="2014-11-05T14:33:48.770" UserId="4891" Text="I have limited experience but going through something similar at the moment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any new clients I receive will be politely asked if they know exactly what they want and if the have a relatively detailed requirement spec and concerns as to how things will work. It is important to see if they have any concerns because this highlights the fact they have thought about it in detail.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for me, the main red flag is whether or not somebody knows what they want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they don't know what they want, fine by me, don't turn down the business just yet. Tell them you will help them, as a consultant, to figure out exactly what they want and build a specification for the project. Then once it is clear what they require, create a proposal to build the project for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be careful with this initial &quot;consulting work&quot;, require a retainer fee, which should cover a substantial amount of the consultation so they don't just run off after getting your expert advice to which you cannot be paid for." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7203" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2589" RevisionGUID="d8ecdeb6-6cb2-487a-ac56-ffc8d6a1ae8f" CreationDate="2014-11-05T16:02:27.417" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/530027371798081536" />
  <row Id="7204" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2594" RevisionGUID="0a62b880-69d4-41f3-a767-d44df287009d" CreationDate="2014-11-05T19:49:49.543" UserId="5274" Text="You have a tough decision to take here. The good thing about freelancing is that you are more or less able to bail on projects if you 'change your mind', but it can be dangerous for your career. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few factors to take into account :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**- How much can your reputation be hurt?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you've been hired through one of the main websites, canceling the project is likely to land you a nasty feedback. Be prepared to explain yourself to future potential clients, and also to be a bit less likely to get jobs in the short term, until the bad feedback is pushed down by new ones.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**- Can you give the paid money back?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you decide to cancel anyway, you have to pay the client back fully, no matter the amount of work you've put in already. Getting over a bad feedback is annoying, but if it involves money, any potential employer will see so many red flags that you won't be able to get a job anytime soon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**- Could you outsource the project?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead of losing the money, and to make something out of the work you've put in, maybe you can outsource the project, or parts of it? There's plenty of low rates developpers who can handle the most tedious bits of a project. Just be sure to not invest more money than what the client paid you already. In addition, you'll get an interesting experience on managing people/projects, which is always a plus.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Piece of advice :**&#xD;&#xA;If you do decide to cancel, I would recommend that you do it in writing, to keep a record of the agreement. Some clients may feel frustrated and start getting nasty when you bail out on them. Keep things professional, offer to bring the next guy up to speed on the part you've done already, and everything should be fine. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The naughty way :** I must mention it, because I've done it in my younger years, but I wouldn't recommend it. Remember school times? Kids were so inventive when it came to not do homework... Well, most of these tricks still work, and nobody will give you a bad feedback because your mom died/you lost a leg, or whatever you can come up with. It doesn't mean that they'll believe you either, but you can get away with the benefit of the doubt. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an example : Last week, a client paid only half of my invoice, 15 days late, and told me &quot;My pet just died and I was too upset to think straight&quot;. So I empathized and told him that everything was fine... School time never ends.&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7205" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2595" RevisionGUID="970d9f8f-0261-4f18-9085-85df7e8abf84" CreationDate="2014-11-05T19:59:31.590" UserId="404" Text="I was contacted by a startup to build an iOS app for their prototype hardware product. I quoted my hourly rate, but they said they didn't have any funding yet and offered me equity. At this point I would normally walk away, but their project sounds cool, and I don't think it would be a huge time commitment to make their app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what are best practices for negotiating a fee paid in equity?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One method I've thought of would be to go ahead and bill at my hourly rate, and then convert that to equity at their current valuation. I guess I would have to determine whether I thought their valuation was BS or not, and maybe adjust my own rate accordingly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another method would be to just do the work for a fixed percentage of the company, but that has all the problems of a fixed bid contract, I would think, such as scope creep and me underestimating the time it would take." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7206" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2595" RevisionGUID="970d9f8f-0261-4f18-9085-85df7e8abf84" CreationDate="2014-11-05T19:59:31.590" UserId="404" Text="How do you negotiate your fee in equity?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7207" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2595" RevisionGUID="970d9f8f-0261-4f18-9085-85df7e8abf84" CreationDate="2014-11-05T19:59:31.590" UserId="404" Text="|price-per-hour|estimation|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7208" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2596" RevisionGUID="894a2057-8f12-429a-bd6b-f851cbc360d7" CreationDate="2014-11-05T21:13:28.073" UserId="5274" Text="It all boils down to one thing, **do you believe in the project?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Accepting equity is always a bet, because so many things can go wrong at every step of the startup way. The moment you accept, **you are becoming an active part of the company** as opposed to just a contractor, and you have to be ready to push the project ahead with all you can give, because your future income depends on it. Yes, it does mean scope-creep, responsibilities, long hours, and stress. But it is also be a very exciting ride and certainly extremely instructive. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were you, I'd estimate the time needed to build the app, multiply it by 2-3, then weigh that time against potential value of the product. **You need to know as much as possible about the company, including their business plan and profit expectations.** Only with a full picture in mind  will you be able to make an informed decision. If their plan seems shaky, or if they do not have one, I would strongly recommend that you try to get at least some compensation. It's not uncommon to ask for low salary+equity in order to minimize your losses if the project doesn't work. If their plan makes sense, and you believe in it, go for it, and enjoy!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;About the negotiation, remember that ideas are worthless, only products have value. So do not undervalue yourself just because it doesn't seem like a huge commitment at the time, you are critical to the company. Make an offer based on how many people are on board, and ask for an equal share (eg: if 4 people, ask for 25%). This gives you room to negotiate when they make you a counter offer. If they are also inexperienced and freak out, explain your reasoning and always keep the door open for negotiation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7209" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2597" RevisionGUID="186d9a2b-1ce4-4b21-8959-216c949d7b36" CreationDate="2014-11-06T03:39:31.520" UserId="4432" Text="Our company is currently halfway through a software project with a consulting firm. As someone who will be taking ownership of the project after the consultants finish, is it reasonable for our company to ask the consultants to write automated test scripts and pass them on to us?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7210" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2597" RevisionGUID="186d9a2b-1ce4-4b21-8959-216c949d7b36" CreationDate="2014-11-06T03:39:31.520" UserId="4432" Text="Is it reasonable for a client to expect automated test scripts as project deliverables?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7211" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2597" RevisionGUID="186d9a2b-1ce4-4b21-8959-216c949d7b36" CreationDate="2014-11-06T03:39:31.520" UserId="4432" Text="|consulting|project|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7218" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2600" RevisionGUID="a0825167-1578-4086-8306-726c8f240a89" CreationDate="2014-11-06T08:02:29.790" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="Usually the project deliverables are established at the start of the project in the project scope. The contractor uses this scope to establish the cost of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you didn't mention automated test scripts at the beginning in the scope, then the cost of the project didn't include those as deliverables.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Asking for extra deliverables after the scope has been established is called scope creep. You can ask the contractor if they could include these, and the additional cost of doing so, however the contractor is not obligated to agree to your new terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;\* Unless the contractor can read minds. In which case, Keep them!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7219" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2600" RevisionGUID="ee59afb8-2931-4df5-8f54-a56ef14eb031" CreationDate="2014-11-06T08:09:40.933" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="edited body" Text="Usually the project deliverables are established at the start of the project in the project scope. The contractor uses this scope to establish the cost of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you didn't mention automated test scripts at the beginning in the scope, then the cost of the project didn't include those as deliverables.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Asking for extra deliverables after the scope has been established is called scope creep. You can ask the contractor if they could include these, and the additional cost of doing so, however the contractor is not obligated to agree to your new terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;\* Unless the contractor can read minds. In which case, keep them!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7225" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2602" RevisionGUID="5074818e-c959-4982-a535-77e9d8644ba0" CreationDate="2014-11-06T12:59:36.073" UserId="517" Text="Always and always, check in the scope document.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But in general, tests are NOT part of the regular development as they are a story on its own. I never offer them and from 10 clients I mention tests, maybe 1 to zero will tell me to code them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But just in case for the future, always mention tests and ask the client if he wants them. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7229" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2603" RevisionGUID="67b0bf4d-7138-428a-b966-f92151f1ecbe" CreationDate="2014-11-06T17:52:41.300" UserId="1706" Text="Conor,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looks as if you've kind of blew it on this one.  When a client reserves the right to make changes to requirements, then you CAN'T do fixed price and expect to make a profit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your only saving grace might be that you've set milestones, thereby making portions of the project severable.  If I were you, I'd turn over the work for the first milestone, if it's done, and keep your payment for the same (which you've already received).  For anything beyond that, either negotiate hourly terms or drop out." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7230" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2604" RevisionGUID="d22e7054-4f79-42c3-8532-e0fb8a8435b8" CreationDate="2014-11-06T17:59:00.833" UserId="1706" Text="If you make a website for the client, the CLIENT owns the work product (it is a work-for-hire).  You can't license something to the client that the client already owns!!!!  If your contract doesn't specify that you retain ownership of work product, then YOU DON'T OWN IT.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Accordingly, the client can put another developer in the mix for modifications at the client's discretion.  Once you hand it off, you are not responsible for it -- not EVER.  You might have a client who badgers you to do minor fixes, or even repairs after someone else screws things up -- don't do it for free!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7231" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2605" RevisionGUID="1a981c62-56a3-4db1-bcfc-57693a511e20" CreationDate="2014-11-06T18:02:43.870" UserId="1706" Text="Not your problem!  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The software is not being used for your benefit, but to the client's benefit instead.  You can make the client aware, but you can't force the client to go out and purchase licenses.  As long as you can point to the fact that the client has been informed, let it go.  You didn't initiate it -- you're the repairman!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7232" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2606" RevisionGUID="7bae14a5-3740-4589-ad65-316042614b57" CreationDate="2014-11-06T18:05:10.973" UserId="1706" Text="This one's simple:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Say NO.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're not obligated to work past the scope that the client has agreed to and is paying for.   If you're ready to be done, then be done.  The client can find another developer if that part of the project is worthwhile -- but that's not your problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Get your final payment; hand off everything in a mature fashion." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7233" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2607" RevisionGUID="6831d002-39ff-46d7-b59a-7f6cfedcda3e" CreationDate="2014-11-06T19:37:11.077" UserId="5308" Text="_Disclaimer_: I am not a lawyer or a legal professional, and this not meant as professional legal advice.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From the [Digital Media Law Project](http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/understanding-difference-between-transfer-and-license):  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;A license is a grant of permission to exercise your rights under copyright...  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; + When you give someone a **non-exclusive license**, you give the licensee permission to exercise the right in question, but you also reserve the right to continue exercising it yourself and to authorize others to do so.  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; + When you give someone an **exclusive license**, you promise that the licensee and only the licensee may exercise the right. This means that when you grant an exclusive license, _even **you may not** exercise the granted right_, nor may you authorize anyone else to do so.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; (emphasis mine)  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So a license means you retain ownership of copyright even though another party is now authorized to act as the owner of the copyright.    &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An exclusive licensing agreement differs from a non-exclusive one in that it limits **you** -- the orginal copyright owner of the work -- from licensing the work to anyone else. Presumably you would charge a hefty premium for this legal guarantee to the client that they are the only party with the legal right to use the work -- even you have given up the right to use the work for the duration of the agreement, though you do retain ownership of the copyright throughout.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether exclusive or non-exclusive, licensing your work to the client without restriction means they have permission to use it _as they see fit_, including modifying it, bringing in another developer to build on it, etc.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may however [limit rights](http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/which-rights-can-be-transferred-or-licensed) licensed in an agreement. As an example, when I deliver a web site design to a client do so under a limited license. The client is granted the right to use the design work for only _one_ business -- the one I was contracted to design for. They are **not** permitted to copy/paste the design with altered content to market another business.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Conversely, the client may negotiate a limited exclusive license with my firm -- for instance that I will not sell the same or similar design to a competitor within their market and region. Again, this is something for which I would charge a premium. The client is paying for a competitive advantage.    &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding the specifics of your question, as stated in Section 106 of the Copyright Act you _**can**_ limit  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;The right to make derivative works based upon the copyrighted work (this basically means the right to make adaptations of the work)&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;in your copyright agreement. However you should be up front and make sure the client knows and understands this before signing documents.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also ask yourself why you feel this is necessary for you, and how this serves the best interests of your clients. There are other avenues you can pursue that will lead to repeat business for yourself and a better end result for your clients.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7237" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2609" RevisionGUID="86e52fc5-b27e-45b4-9f97-957c2af5c37c" CreationDate="2014-11-07T09:57:44.383" UserId="5026" Text="Is there the list of hours already spent on the project? If so, You can add Your own hours into the same list. Agree (written form) with the company board members (or just CEO) on how those hours in the list will become real money. This is the simplest way I know of.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would also say that all members of start-up company are equal in jobs they do. Entire team is necessary, so I see no reason why one of members would get less or more moeny (per hour) for the job he/she do while there is no income. Of course, members could have different level of competence, so the result would be better or worse at the end. For example, You can take not experienced programmer or experienced programmer - the final result will be different. However, start-up company has the members it has because: it cannot get better members on the board, it do not accept bad members on the board.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could also try to buy some shares of the company. Buy shares at the current value - You will simply invest into the company as many investors do. You will have dividends later, even if You will stop working on the project. Privilege of buying shares at the early stage of the company could also be the benefit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could also combine those two ways (the hours list + shares), for example:&#xD;&#xA;Buy shares at later value instead of being paid for the hours from the list. Again, agree on such possibility before starting Your job." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7241" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2509" RevisionGUID="d10e765e-2098-4990-9e9d-29565fc9a6d9" CreationDate="2014-11-07T10:12:46.117" UserId="-1" Comment="Detailed UK company directors listed in Companies House reports" Text="I think that there several things that you can do. Search about that company on Google. Usually I prefer the company which address is verified. Also a company which have a good website or good social network engagement is authentic. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IN UK, Request and require that contract is signed by a Company Director (any director' ssignature binds the company). A short paid query to Companies House for copy of last accounts or register of members will define the Directors and company secretary or get buy credit reference from a credit agency" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7242" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2509" RevisionGUID="d10e765e-2098-4990-9e9d-29565fc9a6d9" CreationDate="2014-11-07T10:12:46.117" Comment="Proposed by anonymous approved by -1 edit id of 367" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7243" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2509" RevisionGUID="20a32b15-cf20-48b9-a6d3-3d924f62e7b9" CreationDate="2014-11-07T10:12:46.117" UserId="85" Comment="Detailed UK company directors listed in Companies House reports" Text="I think that there several things that you can do. Search about that company on Google. Usually I prefer the company which address is verified. Also a company which have a good website or good social network engagement is authentic. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the UK, Request and require that contract is signed by a Company Director (any director's signature binds the company). A short paid query to Companies House for copy of last accounts or register of members will define the Directors and company secretary or get buy credit reference from a credit agency" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7248" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2611" RevisionGUID="f5f21e69-3c73-4f63-8250-0900351f653d" CreationDate="2014-11-08T09:47:01.327" UserId="5088" Text="I often see great requests for proposals which are provided with preferred hourly rate range. Sometimes the hourly rate itself isn't comfortable for me (honestly, far too low), despite the project is great and I have similar prior experience (say, I perceive myself as a top 10% match). How should I ask a client to switch the project from one that is paid hourly to one that has fixed both scope and cost? What I want to benefit from that is a) time flexibility, b) having it unnecessary to cheat on time to get the hourly rate I think I should (let's pretend I really love the project but not this much to work for almost free). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7249" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2611" RevisionGUID="f5f21e69-3c73-4f63-8250-0900351f653d" CreationDate="2014-11-08T09:47:01.327" UserId="5088" Text="How should one convince the client to switch from hourly pay to fixed cost?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7250" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2611" RevisionGUID="f5f21e69-3c73-4f63-8250-0900351f653d" CreationDate="2014-11-08T09:47:01.327" UserId="5088" Text="|payment-terms|negotiation|fixed-price|proposal|hourly|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7251" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2612" RevisionGUID="88d2f06b-5bc0-4c18-bdb2-8b98e6911240" CreationDate="2014-11-08T16:08:59.143" UserId="5274" Text="There are a few solutions to this dilemma.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1 - If your platform allows it, you can answer to the client without specifying an amount in your answer. This way, you avoid being discarded on price only and it gives you a chance to prove your skills and communication abilities to the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2 - I found that if the client is looking for really low hourly rates, it's most of the time not worth looking at the project. You'll be worth nothing to the client and he'll treat you as such. Some people are very condescending and will expect you to be eternally thankful for these 3 to 5$/hour they so generously give you... There's always a next project, so don't feel bad discarding an interesting job on price only.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3 - And lastly, be careful of switching the project to fixed price. If the client has set this really low hourly rate, it means that he doesn't really care how many hours it will take, he just needs someone on hand to do whatever he wants. You may be able to switch to a fixed price, but you won't switch the client's expectations, and you'll end up doing many many hours, until you realize that your hourly rate has fallen dramatically.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I suggest that you write a really nice answer to the client, showing your worth and explaining why you feel like you're in the top 10% for the job, as well as showing a lot of interest and care. Disclose your hourly rate inside the answer, but do not make it definitive (see point 1). A few clients will realize that your offer is far better that the dozens of cheap replies they have, and you'll get the job. Most of the time, these clients will be the ones who already had bad experiences hiring low-rates devs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps, and good luck in your career!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7252" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2613" RevisionGUID="c1e0e7d9-a3ae-4f9c-9beb-e9e3cc0c2fc1" CreationDate="2014-11-08T17:15:49.277" UserId="517" Text="There are multiple approaches to this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) You start working at lower hourly rate, then after some time, you talk to the client and tell him that you would like to increase your hourly rate since you've proved yourself. The risk here is that he will refuse it and you will have to finish the project with small rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) You propose the client task-based system where you estimate each task in work hours, but you are paid in milestones. For example, milestone 1 is 40 work hours which is 1 week. On Friday you show the client that you finished tasks worth 40 work hours, and he pays you. Downside of this is a lot of administration. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3)You tell the client frankly: my hourly rate is XY but for the first 40 hours I will work at your proposed hourly rate. If you like my work after 40 hours, we will switch to my hourly rate. Downside of this is that you may have to finish the project after 1 week and client may not be happy, thou he said yes at the beginning. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But you should never, never and never cheat on your client. Only one client is enough to write a review saying that you are cheating with hours, and your career will decline 90%. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you really think that you are worth certain hourly rate and being offered small hourly rate, you can make a video proving why you are worth your hourly rate. For example, a guy was a Symphony coder and he made a 5-min video showing how someone will need 1 hour to finish the task he can do in 10min. And the other rate was 50% his rate. This way the client was able to see that guy A will cost him 3 times more that guy B who at first has double rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No matter what, stand behind your hourly rate and have quality as well. I was approached by $50/h guys who had qualities lower than $10/h guys. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7253" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2574" RevisionGUID="f6cbeae8-7c4e-4eb1-9b2e-222cc8cf2fac" CreationDate="2014-11-08T17:18:58.677" UserId="100" Comment="added tag; formatted" Text="I’ve worked reasonably paid (by Western standards) for 15 years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm wondering whether there is any point me trying to crack the online freelance market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I compete against thousands of people with a markedly lower sense of &quot;reasonable pay&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. I have no publicly available work to show. Why would anyone give me my first contract?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems like a lot of hard work. Is it worth it, and how should I go about it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7254" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2574" RevisionGUID="f6cbeae8-7c4e-4eb1-9b2e-222cc8cf2fac" CreationDate="2014-11-08T17:18:58.677" UserId="100" Comment="added tag; formatted" Text="Can a Western IT software developer make it in online freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7255" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2574" RevisionGUID="f6cbeae8-7c4e-4eb1-9b2e-222cc8cf2fac" CreationDate="2014-11-08T17:18:58.677" UserId="100" Comment="added tag; formatted" Text="|freelance-websites|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7256" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2574" RevisionGUID="f6cbeae8-7c4e-4eb1-9b2e-222cc8cf2fac" CreationDate="2014-11-08T17:18:58.677" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 1706, 517 edit id of 375" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7257" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2614" RevisionGUID="1f8fa3e4-84b0-47f3-9f67-8ed7da5b9331" CreationDate="2014-11-08T17:47:27.733" UserId="5308" Text="Without knowing what legal jurisdiction you are subject to, no-one can offer anything more then the broadest answers:  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ###  Defamation  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; n. the act of making untrue statements about another which damages his/her reputation. If the defamatory statement is printed or broadcast over the media it is **libel** and, if only oral, it is **slander**... Damages for slander may be limited to actual (special) damages unless there is malice... Most states provide for a demand for a printed retraction of defamation and only allow a lawsuit if there is no such admission of error.  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; -- Definition from [law.com](http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=1969)  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To sue you successfully he has to prove you damaged his reputation by publishing untruths about him or speaking to others untruthfully about him -- and that you did so with malicious intent if he's going to get any serious money out of you.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From the situation you described, that seems unlikely. As noted above, if you were to send another email retracting your assertions that he is &quot;uncooperative, fussy and arrogant&quot; with freelancers, and too &quot;stupid&quot; to delegate, that may establish a good shield for you against any legal action he may take on the matter.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, it sounds like this guy is full of hot air. Unless you know he has sued people before, I'd hire a lawyer to send the retraction on your behalf as a physical letter in the mail with big scary law firm letterhead.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A barking dog tucks tail and runs at the scent of a wolf.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But that's just me. YMMV" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7260" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2613" RevisionGUID="8e179505-a53f-4cff-8ea6-7f6a7ee036d0" CreationDate="2014-11-10T17:55:18.747" UserId="517" Comment="added 102 characters in body" Text="There are multiple approaches to this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) You start working at lower hourly rate, then after some time, you talk to the client and tell him that you would like to increase your hourly rate since you've proved yourself. The risk here is that he will refuse it and you will have to finish the project with small rate. This is true if you work via rating systems like odesk/elance and you want to avoid negative comment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) You propose the client task-based system where you estimate each task in work hours, but you are paid in milestones. For example, milestone 1 is 40 work hours which is 1 week. On Friday you show the client that you finished tasks worth 40 work hours, and he pays you. Downside of this is a lot of administration. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3)You tell the client frankly: my hourly rate is XY but for the first 40 hours I will work at your proposed hourly rate. If you like my work after 40 hours, we will switch to my hourly rate. Downside of this is that you may have to finish the project after 1 week and client may not be happy, thou he said yes at the beginning. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But you should never, never and never cheat on your client. Only one client is enough to write a review saying that you are cheating with hours, and your career will decline 90%. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you really think that you are worth certain hourly rate and being offered small hourly rate, you can make a video proving why you are worth your hourly rate. For example, a guy was a Symphony coder and he made a 5-min video showing how someone will need 1 hour to finish the task he can do in 10min. And the other rate was 50% his rate. This way the client was able to see that guy A will cost him 3 times more that guy B who at first has double rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No matter what, stand behind your hourly rate and have quality as well. I was approached by $50/h guys who had qualities lower than $10/h guys. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7261" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2597" RevisionGUID="e0e74485-6887-4820-8006-7598fee25b97" CreationDate="2014-11-11T04:30:12.543" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/532027489003241473" />
  <row Id="7262" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2616" RevisionGUID="cacb89f4-f75f-4bbb-9572-46cb82706230" CreationDate="2014-11-11T06:25:08.960" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="There are several advantages to using a fixed cost project that you've mentioned. For example, reduced risk on the client's part, since they know they will only be spending $x. The only real thing you can do is present this to the client as an option and see what they say. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for how to apply, it is possible on some platforms to receive a fixed-price payment even on an hourly contract*. I've received fixed price payments through odesk in this way. Additionally, some rating systems only rate after some kind of payment is made on a contract**. So if you put in a bogus hourly value, the feedback won't count unless payment has gone through in any case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Make it very clear you want a fixed price payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Don't do any hourly work on the contract, even if you can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) The client feedback doesn't count on a contract that's been paid less than $1 net, so if everything falls though, your rating shouldn't be affected. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;References:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;\* Fixed price payment on hourly contract: [Odesk Support][1], [Elance Support][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;\** Rating only counts after payment: [Odesk Support][3], [Elance Support][4]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Odesk links require login)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://support.odesk.com/entries/23138581-How-do-I-pay-my-freelancer-for-work-that-wasn-t-automatically-billed-&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://help.elance.com/hc/en-us/articles/203736343-How-do-I-make-a-Bonus-Expense-or-other-Miscellaneous-Payments-&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://support.odesk.com/entries/23121551-How-does-the-contract-feedback-system-work-&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://help.elance.com/hc/en-us/articles/203736353-How-do-I-leave-Feedback-for-my-Freelancer-" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7263" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2426" RevisionGUID="072118c3-4003-4c70-bf3a-657118c81c78" CreationDate="2014-11-11T09:52:28.283" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="fixed title" Text="How do I ensure payment on international projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7264" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2426" RevisionGUID="072118c3-4003-4c70-bf3a-657118c81c78" CreationDate="2014-11-11T09:52:28.283" Comment="Proposed by 152 approved by 1706, 85 edit id of 376" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7273" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2619" RevisionGUID="cc44e2ab-a0b0-44b0-8726-9c91aa73faf6" CreationDate="2014-11-12T19:14:32.990" UserId="5346" Text="I agreed to work for a remote client (USA). He had almost no specs defined. Up to a point I kept asking questions to him to derive features but later he grew greedy and kept asking for more and more features.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We exchanged very long emails wherein I tried to explain that I was already stretching myself to meet my ends, and I could only provide certain features agreed before the costs were finalized. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this whole process I lost trust that whatever features I am doing work for, I will not get paid for as well. Before 100% payment goal, I have committed all code and shared with him a month before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yet he is not well with it - despite code he is trying to find faults with it. As for bugs, he holds final say because I don't own as many hardware as him, and even if I fix things, it's up to him to spell out success / failure. I do not always get his feedback also, yet he keep disapproving my fixes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I provided him with testable builds but he says code pushed doesn't compile by someone whom he has hired locally!!! I built everything from scratch for him, yet I am supposed to provide support to his team.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is citing one of my very earlier emails wherein I had promised to deliver features on earlier date (not bug free off course but fully integrated) - the timelines delayed due to his insisting of more and more. As of today, I am not denying any delivery to him but I am not sure I will get paid, and I have taken other clients' work due to him being greedy. So I have suggested him to deliver things later, to which he doesn't agree.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Despite my delivery of features he is citing bugs and threatening to sue me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this possible given that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I and him being in different country?&#xD;&#xA; - I do not operate as a company but he does. I am self employed freelancer.&#xD;&#xA; - We do not have any written spec to start with except the wireframes were all provided by him. He didn't spell out the details. I asked as much as I could on skype chat but later on he became too much wanting, so I stopped. He kept thinking that it's my job to derive specs.&#xD;&#xA; - We neither had any signed contract except for NDA and itemized list of features to deliver (not descriptive list). All other communication has happened through email only.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are my options here?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7274" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2619" RevisionGUID="cc44e2ab-a0b0-44b0-8726-9c91aa73faf6" CreationDate="2014-11-12T19:14:32.990" UserId="5346" Text="Client expanding the scope - now demands refund" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7275" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2619" RevisionGUID="cc44e2ab-a0b0-44b0-8726-9c91aa73faf6" CreationDate="2014-11-12T19:14:32.990" UserId="5346" Text="|legal|difficult-client|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7277" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2619" RevisionGUID="8121bd5d-b659-4232-9a90-0f81821e0c95" CreationDate="2014-11-12T22:30:55.580" UserId="5346" Comment="added 84 characters in body" Text="I agreed to work for a remote client (USA). He had almost no specs defined. Up to a point I kept asking questions to him to derive features but later he grew greedy and kept asking for more and more features.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We exchanged very long emails wherein I tried to explain that I was already stretching myself to meet my ends, and I could only provide certain features agreed before the costs were finalized. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this whole process I lost trust that whatever features I am doing work for, I will not get paid for as well. Before 100% payment goal, I have committed all code and shared with him a month before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yet he is not well with it - despite code he is trying to find faults with it. As for bugs, he holds final say because I don't own as many hardware as him, and even if I fix things, it's up to him to spell out success / failure. I do not always get his feedback also, yet he keep disapproving my fixes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I provided him with testable builds but he says code pushed doesn't compile by someone whom he has hired locally!!! I built everything from scratch for him, yet I am supposed to provide support to his team.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is citing one of my very earlier emails wherein I had promised to deliver features on earlier date (not bug free off course but fully integrated) - the timelines delayed due to his insisting of more and more. As of today, I am not denying any delivery to him but I am not sure I will get paid, and I have taken other clients' work due to him being greedy. So I have suggested him to deliver things later, to which he doesn't agree.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Despite my delivery of features he is citing bugs and threatening to sue me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is lawsuit possible &amp; feasible given that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I and him being in different country?&#xD;&#xA; - The total amount involved is $6K (total paid, hence max disputed)&#xD;&#xA; - I do not operate as a company but he does. I am self employed freelancer.&#xD;&#xA; - We do not have any written spec to start with except the wireframes were all provided by him. He didn't spell out the details. I asked as much as I could on skype chat but later on he became too much wanting, so I stopped. He kept thinking that it's my job to derive specs.&#xD;&#xA; - We neither had any signed contract except for NDA and itemized list of features to deliver (not descriptive list). All other communication has happened through email only.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are my options here?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7278" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2619" RevisionGUID="728e21b1-132a-4ef9-aee7-612a43e8f726" CreationDate="2014-11-12T22:38:40.277" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/532663796825739264" />
  <row Id="7279" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2620" RevisionGUID="0852493d-04cd-4724-b541-0c53b57febd2" CreationDate="2014-11-13T18:33:33.063" UserId="1818" Text="First of all, you should contact a lawyer in your country who has experience dealing with US law.  We are not lawyers and should not be depended on for legal advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As to your bullet points:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - law doesn't stop at country boundaries, you may have to meet the laws&#xD;&#xA;   of the country your are doing business in and your country.&#xD;&#xA; - The dollar amount may change where the suit is tried, but it doesn't block the possibility of a lawsuit&#xD;&#xA; - In the US, you are still liable if you lose.  In this case you may be more at risk because at least in the US your personal assets can now be brought into play.&#xD;&#xA; - Lack of a spec makes the potential lawsuit more confusing and harder for you to defend.&#xD;&#xA; - EMail records and the fact that the he has paid you money clearly establishes a business relationship, no contract just makes it more messy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to work with a lawyer to get all of the specific details, but I don't see anything here that would block a lawsuit in the US.  Whether or not it is worthwhile for either side is a totally different matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may want to consider this a lesson learned and be better prepared with contracts and statements of work for your next client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7280" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2621" RevisionGUID="5d8c1966-e340-45e4-abcb-0e9511bb51eb" CreationDate="2014-11-14T00:17:57.733" UserId="4088" Text="I am working with a number of small clients that often request small changes, once every 2-4 months at least, and the constant task-switching of working 1 hour for this client and 2 hours for that client is not ideal. Invoicing and sometimes needing to follow up on late payments doesn't help either. There's more time wasted than I care for, and the late payments are especially infuriating.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To combat this, I am thinking of moving away from hourly work and offering mainly prepaid packages of hours. It could be a 5 hour, a 10 hour, and a 20 hour package plan. By buying in bulk, there would be a small discount, and bigger discount with more hours. When a package is paid for, it could be valid for let's say 3 months. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would sell this new way by mentioning the discount, higher quality of work, and priority service. I would also raise my hourly rate at the same time, making the packages seem a better deal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After a package has been bought, I would keep the client updated on how many hours have been worked after each task.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If these small clients had more work to do, I would definitely try offering a day rate, but that may be too much for these clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anyone done this or is doing this? Any advice or potential issues that could come up? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS: I've been lurking here, but first post. All feedback welcome." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7281" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2621" RevisionGUID="5d8c1966-e340-45e4-abcb-0e9511bb51eb" CreationDate="2014-11-14T00:17:57.733" UserId="4088" Text="Away from hourly work to a prepaid package of hours" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7282" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2621" RevisionGUID="5d8c1966-e340-45e4-abcb-0e9511bb51eb" CreationDate="2014-11-14T00:17:57.733" UserId="4088" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|pay-rate|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7283" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2622" RevisionGUID="5dfc9663-57d0-4223-bd42-4dbd5f5cd982" CreationDate="2014-11-14T01:02:57.790" UserId="1706" Text="Several BIG mistakes:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. No written contract (biggest mistake)&#xD;&#xA; 2. No statement-of-work specifying deliverables (i.e. I don't think you probably *agreed*, before starting work, to be responsible for builds done by third parties on the customer's behalf, but somehow you are tangled up in try to explain why they're not working)&#xD;&#xA; 3. You put ALL the work in one big $6000 chunk, which means that the client remains in a position to not pay you EVEN for parts of the work that don't have any reported problems).  You should have done 'milestones' and collected portions of your money along the way.&#xD;&#xA; 4. For a project of this amount of money, you really should have considered an escrow service.  $6000 is a *lot* of hours.&#xD;&#xA; 5. You let the client bully you into telling you how to run your business.  Ugh.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*** ---  I am not an attorney. --- ***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you haven't been paid, then the client COULD sue for damages but the client would be hard-pressed to constitute damages since the client doesn't seem to have lost anything tangible as a direct result of your actions.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there WAS any way of getting money out of you, the client would probably have to sue you in your country.  That would mean the client would either&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - (a) take it up in a small-claims venue, if there is one, by making a personal appearance -- $$$airfare and lodging$$$ are not free, and the client would have to eat the cost of those, or &#xD;&#xA; - (b) hire an attorney in your country which means some money would have to change hands before there could even be a case against you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd urge some payment from the client if I were you, but truly at this point your chances of getting paid are very small!!!  The client is probably blowing a lot of harmless smoke your way but if you really want to gauge your position, contact a local attorney for a consultation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7284" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2619" RevisionGUID="07ea5518-7d20-4811-b8c3-964c4bdef5b4" CreationDate="2014-11-14T05:50:17.673" UserId="5346" Comment="added 203 characters in body" Text="I agreed to work for a remote client (USA). He had almost no specs defined. Up to a point I kept asking questions to him to derive features but later he grew greedy and kept asking for more and more features.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We had set milestones during the project against which he paid me though. However his expectations grew too high for the amounts agreed later on, and that's the point the question of refunds emerged.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We exchanged very long emails wherein I tried to explain that I was already stretching myself to meet my ends, and I could only provide certain features  - agreed before the costs were finalized. Unless he revises the cost, I would be unable to deliver more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this whole process I lost trust that whatever features I am doing work for, I will not get paid for as well. Before 100% payment goal, I have committed all code and shared with him a month before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yet he is not well with it - despite code he is trying to find faults with it. As for bugs, he holds final say because I don't own as many hardware as him, and even if I fix things, it's up to him to spell out success / failure. I do not always get his feedback also, yet he keep disapproving my fixes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I provided him with testable builds but he says code pushed doesn't compile by someone whom he has hired locally!!! I built everything from scratch for him, yet I am supposed to provide support to his team.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is citing one of my very earlier emails wherein I had promised to deliver features on earlier date (not bug free off course but fully integrated) - the timelines delayed due to his insisting of more and more. As of today, I am not denying any delivery to him but I am not sure I will get paid, and I have taken other clients' work due to him being greedy. So I have suggested him to deliver things later, to which he doesn't agree.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Despite my delivery of features he is citing bugs and threatening to sue me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is lawsuit possible &amp; feasible given that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I and him being in different country?&#xD;&#xA; - The total amount involved is $6K (total paid, hence max disputed)&#xD;&#xA; - I do not operate as a company but he does. I am self employed freelancer.&#xD;&#xA; - We do not have any written spec to start with except the wireframes were all provided by him. He didn't spell out the details. I asked as much as I could on skype chat but later on he became too much wanting, so I stopped. He kept thinking that it's my job to derive specs.&#xD;&#xA; - We neither had any signed contract except for NDA and itemized list of features to deliver (not descriptive list). All other communication has happened through email only.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are my options here?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7285" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2623" RevisionGUID="ab36ec2d-bbff-4bf3-94fc-31d5ddfe62e3" CreationDate="2014-11-14T08:28:24.290" UserId="5026" Text="I mostly agree with @codenoire. It is really the good answer.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;However, there is one more thing I would do to extinguish this kind of fire. I would also meet few companies (or at least one) that does the same kind of job you did/do for the customer. I would ask companies to evaluate the process you were gone throw with the client. As the final result you will get the opinion-valuation from that company telling that &quot;the job you did would be worth xxx human hours at our office&quot;. If xxx hours is more than hours of yours already spent then you have not so much to worry about. Talk with few companies and see what they say.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Ask companies to sign the valuation.&#xD;&#xA; - Contact few local and USA companies for valuation.&#xD;&#xA; - Such contact with companies will be good for you anyway, because one of two may happen: 1) you will see that you need to struggle for more competence (and you will see where to) or 2) you will show your competence for the companies doing the same as you do (it means you could be considered as option for outsource at latter times).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I may be wrong, but the only thing the customer could be worry about is your competence. Prove the competence of yours, get those professionals whose trust on you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7286" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2624" RevisionGUID="f3d428bf-2c74-4d4f-b50c-23901b428f14" CreationDate="2014-11-14T12:48:29.863" UserId="127" Text="I used to do something similar for one of my clients. They paid in advance for a package of hours. I liked it because I wasn't invoicing for such small dollar amounts all the time, and they received a small discount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Eventually however, I moved completely away from hourly billing. Now instead I offer flat rate monthly support. This support includes answering questions and troubleshooting (via email) and bug fixes. There is no hourly limit on the time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The advantage to the customer is they know how much they are paying every month, and they get priority over my other work. The advantage to me is I know how much money is coming in every month, and I get paid whether or not they use the service. Many of my customers don't use it every month, but they feel comforted by the fact that when they do need it, it is available.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One of my customer also purchased a package that included &quot;small changes&quot;. These were minor cosmetic items that didn't involve database changes. They used it occasionally, but it is often hard for a customer to know if something is &quot;small&quot; or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will not work for all situations. My customers trust me and I trust them, so no one is worried about getting &quot;ripped off&quot;. Also, I have a pretty good handle on how likely it is that my customers will have bug reports or need changes because I wrote the code and I've been working with the clients for a while. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7287" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2621" RevisionGUID="dffc52a6-4bf9-45cf-a492-f5903282692c" CreationDate="2014-11-14T13:38:44.017" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/533252693037305857" />
  <row Id="7288" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2625" RevisionGUID="d8413972-d7b7-4bd4-9ebe-073094cd8e9b" CreationDate="2014-11-14T16:34:47.573" UserId="517" Text="As Avonelle pointed out, you are moving to a monthly support fee which has to be paid monthly, each month. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, in my case, small clients usually don't like the idea of paying if they will not use me. So for me, hour packages work fine. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first thing I did is **removed small packages** so my minimum is 20 hours. 5 or 10 are quickly depleted and then we are again in the same problems. So if your client cannot get you work of minimum 20 hours for let's day 6 months or less, why do you work for him?! I avoid such clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, be sure to properly monitor each project and packages. It may take months, before you work again on it, and make sure that you are 500% sure how many hours remained. For this, I use a simple project on Assembla. As of recently, Assembla is no longer suitable for this as they now charge all things I need, so I recently moved to BitBucket (you can too if you're a programmer as well). I open a Git project with Wiki, where I keep track of packages he bought and time I spent from them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other way is to use some time tracking service, but I think most of good ones are not free for such a long period of time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, always make sure that packages DO HAVE expiry date. Let it me 1 Jan since you start you tax year. If they find that they cannot spend 20 hours till 1 Jan, they can come back on 2 Jan and buy the smallest package. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To return to Avonelle again, aim to switch to monthly support package. You can still offer 1-month, 3-month, 6-month, 1-year packages with a discount in each of them. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7289" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2626" RevisionGUID="51511024-824a-4a40-88a0-3e94e1cee156" CreationDate="2014-11-14T19:44:12.673" UserId="5346" Text="I just had a project that was like bad dream - finally we settled for a refund amount. Along with the same, client also allowed me to have complete control over my code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is, above agreement happened over skype.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To put things into perspective, I emailed summary of our agreement from my email to his official email ID. And asked him for his bank details so that I could process refund for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In response, he provided the needed info over skype, again, instead of choosing to respond to my email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am worried:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I announced my obligation to pay him his refund amount, via email, but he didn't respond to it.&#xD;&#xA;- He rather chose skype to provide the bank details for the refund amount&#xD;&#xA;- In the process, he completely ignored the code ownership part that we had agreed upon over skype (and refund was settled based on the same)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;His company is registered in USA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does not replying mean agreement in USA?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or should I wait till he nods his (email) confirmation to my summary in the email, before I pay him the refund?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7290" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2626" RevisionGUID="51511024-824a-4a40-88a0-3e94e1cee156" CreationDate="2014-11-14T19:44:12.673" UserId="5346" Text="Client non-responding on official email but talks only on skype" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7291" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2626" RevisionGUID="51511024-824a-4a40-88a0-3e94e1cee156" CreationDate="2014-11-14T19:44:12.673" UserId="5346" Text="|contracts|communication|difficult-client|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7292" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2627" RevisionGUID="abb68bb1-071f-4e03-8964-2b03c4f91434" CreationDate="2014-11-14T21:09:05.653" UserId="708" Text="There is **nothing** wrong with explaining to a client that Skype (or phone calls) are not sufficient and you need to have **written** approval of something either via email, fax, or postal mail.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would wait until you have a clear, written, approval of terms." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7293" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2611" RevisionGUID="d4dc8d37-c101-49ce-99f9-422f574074ae" CreationDate="2014-11-15T01:44:04.673" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/533435232368611328" />
  <row Id="7297" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2626" RevisionGUID="a6881988-5b32-44aa-bb73-d80d5f9f7e45" CreationDate="2014-11-15T19:44:05.577" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/533707026933624832" />
  <row Id="7312" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2633" RevisionGUID="2b4f79dd-02e5-44bc-adf8-240304e9d1d7" CreationDate="2014-11-17T07:19:57.193" UserId="5373" Text="Please help me in this/&#xD;&#xA;i am currently working for MNC from 2+ years as software tester (2012-till date). prior to that i was clubbed with startup company and worked as full time free lancer for 1 year(from 2011-2012). now i am planning to switch to some other IT company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should i include free lancing period as well in my resume ? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;if yes, how about my salary slips ? (i used to get salary by hand)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(i have only exp letter, joining/releaving letter). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And this doesn't have office now. what about address proofs and other stuffs ??&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please suggest... " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7313" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2633" RevisionGUID="2b4f79dd-02e5-44bc-adf8-240304e9d1d7" CreationDate="2014-11-17T07:19:57.193" UserId="5373" Text="Worked as free-lancer before 2 years.. would this be removed from my current resume ? please go through my question" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7314" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2633" RevisionGUID="2b4f79dd-02e5-44bc-adf8-240304e9d1d7" CreationDate="2014-11-17T07:19:57.193" UserId="5373" Text="|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7315" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2634" RevisionGUID="2091c887-a868-4d32-911f-0c8a593c052c" CreationDate="2014-11-17T12:51:46.843" UserId="517" Text="Yes, you should include it. It was your work, but remote one. So do the same as in other work positions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding pay slips, if you have absolutely 0 proof from PayPal or bank, then either mention that your services were paid by hand. If possible, get official letter from that company stating that you worked from them. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7317" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2633" RevisionGUID="38dc75ce-b952-4c8b-8419-1825f0cd0777" CreationDate="2014-11-17T20:18:24.303" UserId="75" Comment="Major Grammer changes" Text="I am currently working for MNC for 2+ years as software tester (2012-Present). Prior to that, I was with a start-up company and worked as full time freelancer for 1 year (from 2011-2012). Now, I am planning to switch to some other IT company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Should I include the freelancing period in my resume?** If yes, What do I do about my salary slips, since I used to get salary by hand? I have only an experience letter, joining, and relieving letter. And this job does not have an office anymore. What about address proofs and other items to show proof of my employment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7318" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2633" RevisionGUID="38dc75ce-b952-4c8b-8419-1825f0cd0777" CreationDate="2014-11-17T20:18:24.303" UserId="75" Comment="Major Grammer changes" Text="Do I include Freelance experience on a resume?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7319" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2633" RevisionGUID="684396d4-8c27-4e7c-894c-adddb2fcc5e1" CreationDate="2014-11-17T21:04:53.123" UserId="75" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[2393,601],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:19,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Camil Staps&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:1706,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;codenoire&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Stacey&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="7320" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2595" RevisionGUID="2c5caaad-72f9-4560-98ef-8497d86143d5" CreationDate="2014-11-18T16:51:29.430" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/534750753269641217" />
  <row Id="7324" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2586" RevisionGUID="766fa22a-8903-4bbc-a093-4ae84daa537c" CreationDate="2014-11-19T10:51:29.907" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/535022545632632833" />
  <row Id="7330" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2637" RevisionGUID="4d40b6ce-248d-424b-b139-05f1003c8da2" CreationDate="2014-11-20T01:31:31.967" UserId="5392" Text="Always remember - it was you who has proposed the fixed $2500 thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless the client is a scope freak, if I was you then I would just finnish the work, take this project as a lesson in project management and do not charge the client for extra hours this time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you simply quit or ask for extra money to continue - do not think about hearing from this client again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can always cover your loss by charging him more next time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7331" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2638" RevisionGUID="512569c8-c927-4d52-8141-5f0829be531a" CreationDate="2014-11-20T02:32:22.897" UserId="5392" Text="Freelancing and being an employee are two different worlds. **You are right that no one will contact you and contract you.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice speaking from personal experience:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. There are larger IT/software house/web/digital/marketing companies (contractors) who are looking for independent subcontractors because they have too much work or lack of talent and want to outsource. You should contact them and only them. Your 15 years of experience does matter to them. Do some work as a sole proprietor and ask for legal rights to include this work on your public portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. At this point do not waste your time trying to contract non-IT clients directly offering your freelance software development services. To these non-computer savvy people you are a joke. A desperate guy looking for work. Being in mid 30s doubles that image. The non-IT clients do not usually hire freelance software developers. If they do, probably it is because they have extremely low budgets and are not worth attention.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. When you finally have a portfolio to show - INCORPORATE, hire an accountant. Everyone will take you 500%  more seriously. Now you can start offering services to regular folks because you have become a proper business with some cred (the portfolio). Do not burn bridges with IT-companies you have been subcontracted by in the past. Now, as you are incorporated, they will love you even more, just promise them that you will not run away with they clients  form partnerships instead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Specialize in your services. If you are company of one, do not offer to build skyscrapers because no one will take you seriously.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Avoid bidding sites, &quot;contests&quot;, free work and such. because after 15 years you probably do not need to &quot;prove yourself&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7332" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2638" RevisionGUID="c0e56d3d-758f-42e0-94d4-15ef1395b822" CreationDate="2014-11-20T02:37:25.003" UserId="5392" Comment="added 106 characters in body" Text="Freelancing and being an employee are two different worlds. **You are right that no one will contact you and contract you.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice speaking from personal experience:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. There are larger IT/software house/web/digital/marketing companies (contractors) who are looking for independent subcontractors because they have too much work or lack of talent and want to outsource. You should contact them and only them. Your 15 years of experience does matter to them. Do some work as a sole proprietor and ask for legal rights to include this work on your public portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. At this point do not waste your time trying to contract non-IT clients directly offering your freelance software development services. To these non-computer savvy people you are a joke. A desperate guy looking for work. Being in mid 30s doubles that image. The non-IT clients do not usually hire freelance software developers. If they do, probably it is because they have extremely low budgets and are not worth attention.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. When you finally have a portfolio to show - INCORPORATE, hire an accountant. Everyone will take you 500%  more seriously. Now you can start offering services to regular folks because you have become a proper business with some cred (the portfolio). Do not burn bridges with IT-companies you have been subcontracted by in the past. Now, as you are incorporated, they will love you even more, just promise them that you will not run away with they clients. Form partnerships with other businesses instead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Be specific in your services, know exactly want you want to do and pass over anything else to your partners. If you are a company of one - do not offer to build skyscrapers because no one will take you seriously. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Avoid bidding sites, &quot;contests&quot;, free work and such. because after 15 years you probably do not need to &quot;prove yourself&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7333" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2592" RevisionGUID="66421829-b2db-44ab-8d6d-6ded16233f85" CreationDate="2014-11-21T01:51:45.397" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/535611491693895680" />
  <row Id="7335" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2639" RevisionGUID="5ae297e1-77ef-4da8-9b08-3ec7a2636e4b" CreationDate="2014-11-21T14:41:58.863" UserId="4985" Text="A client hired me to research and recommend workstation setups for a group of employees, each of whom had unique needs.  They had already purchased some equipment and needed to make sure  everything else was compatible.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client ordered some equipment counter to my recommendations.  I then spent time researching what they ordered to make sure it would be compatible before I went on site.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I spent nearly as much time on research and communication as I did on site.  I'm looking at my log now and wondering why it took me 30 minutes to draft that email.  Per our agreement, all this time is billable and the client will not be surprised, but I really am embarrassed now at how long it took." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7336" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2639" RevisionGUID="5ae297e1-77ef-4da8-9b08-3ec7a2636e4b" CreationDate="2014-11-21T14:41:58.863" UserId="4985" Text="Billing Hourly - Include Client Specific Research and Communication?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7337" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2639" RevisionGUID="5ae297e1-77ef-4da8-9b08-3ec7a2636e4b" CreationDate="2014-11-21T14:41:58.863" UserId="4985" Text="|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7338" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2640" RevisionGUID="9453b21e-7693-48a7-9644-5805ad37513c" CreationDate="2014-11-21T15:43:22.353" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="That's how long these things take. Just for documentation write-up, my minimum estimate is an hour a page, excluding research and drawing of figures or graphs. Easily longer for high density pages. I'm not surprised at an email taking half an hour. Especially since it is also necessary to check grammar, spelling and punctuation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are correct to charge for research and communication time. Communication with the client is a deliverable - you are giving them your expertise. Just because its in the form of an email doesn't mean it's cheap. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7339" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2641" RevisionGUID="02dfe597-63db-41fc-9859-565f0c21540a" CreationDate="2014-11-22T02:52:50.147" UserId="5411" Text="Okay so here is the deal,&#xD;&#xA;I'm a 20 year old student of Computer Science @ University of Zagreb. But I have been active in the programming industry and I have 9 months of employment experience in a software company using C# and JavaScript for web and WinForms for a desktop application. I have also made several Android applications using Xamarin.Android and have made a few websites. None of them are currently hosted on GitHub but I would put them up as proof of my work. I was wondering what type of hourly rate should I ask for when applying for freelance jobs? Since I have &lt;1 years of experience in the industry and sources vary greatly I would appreciate if any information about the expected rates. &#xD;&#xA;Note: I would be willing to work full-time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7340" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2641" RevisionGUID="02dfe597-63db-41fc-9859-565f0c21540a" CreationDate="2014-11-22T02:52:50.147" UserId="5411" Text="Hourly rates for a novice C# developer from Europe?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7341" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2641" RevisionGUID="02dfe597-63db-41fc-9859-565f0c21540a" CreationDate="2014-11-22T02:52:50.147" UserId="5411" Text="|pay-rate|hourly|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7344" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2639" RevisionGUID="9c1b5198-0064-4b5c-b9af-ec586ddf40b1" CreationDate="2014-11-22T22:52:53.997" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/536291256587272193" />
  <row Id="7345" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2642" RevisionGUID="c07868e1-02aa-496f-a76c-6882e658107a" CreationDate="2014-11-23T01:14:02.353" UserId="5418" Text="I am a Master's student and started my freelance design company six months ago. What I have designed in the past years is fine, but I believe my skills now are a degree better. I just haven't had the chance to use them yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am unsure if I should showcase what I got or don't do it to avoid getting as an amateur." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7346" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2642" RevisionGUID="c07868e1-02aa-496f-a76c-6882e658107a" CreationDate="2014-11-23T01:14:02.353" UserId="5418" Text="I believe my skills are better than what I have produced so far - should I avoid making a portfolio or just show off what I have so far?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7347" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2642" RevisionGUID="c07868e1-02aa-496f-a76c-6882e658107a" CreationDate="2014-11-23T01:14:02.353" UserId="5418" Text="|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7348" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2643" RevisionGUID="4921a336-7493-42c5-a3fe-d6ef42cbc773" CreationDate="2014-11-23T13:42:50.630" UserId="5321" Text="Speaking from experience, I'd always say it's better to show a few key projects than nothing at all. &#xA;&#xA;From a clients point of view they need at least a little bit of proof that you can design. Why would they risk hiring somebody who seems to have no track record of working on any projects?&#xA;&#xA;Your number one goal at the minute seems to be getting some more projects. Sure, if your portfolio isn't high quality you're probably not going to attract high quality clients, but if you view every project you get as THE project - you can turn a low budget, crappy brief into a fantastic case study that'll set the bar for future projects! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7349" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2644" RevisionGUID="558841b3-46ab-4dc5-a72a-5032d1559442" CreationDate="2014-11-23T19:38:50.293" UserId="2964" Text="I am currently working on two websites for separate clients and both projects ended up at the same point, a road block being some client input/information is needed regarding content, and I am wondering what others have done to either avoid this event or how they have handled it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, I am doing what I can on the projects that don't require their input but this is holding me up. I am interested in hearing what strategies people have used to overcome this, aside from patience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cheers!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7350" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2644" RevisionGUID="558841b3-46ab-4dc5-a72a-5032d1559442" CreationDate="2014-11-23T19:38:50.293" UserId="2964" Text="Web Design Content Issue" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7351" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2644" RevisionGUID="558841b3-46ab-4dc5-a72a-5032d1559442" CreationDate="2014-11-23T19:38:50.293" UserId="2964" Text="|difficult-client|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7352" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2645" RevisionGUID="6028fb14-6df3-44fe-8991-fe43ac08eaf5" CreationDate="2014-11-23T23:32:01.493" UserId="5321" Text="Well unfortunately there isn't much you can do at this stage, most of the tactics come with good preparation.&#xA;&#xA;Client hold ups are one of the biggest struggles with freelancing and is still something myself and a lot of other freelancers struggle with. &#xA;&#xA;The reason clients take their time with feedback or getting content together stems from the fact that they are paying you to provide a service. So they see the project as being on their terms, not yours. &#xA;&#xA;What you need to do is position yourself as a busy person. Never start a project right away, even if you can, because you need clients to understand that the project needs to work to your timescales not theirs. So tell them when you can fit them in, if they want to work with you, they'll wait.&#xA;&#xA;What you can also do at the start of each project is give them a project timeline. So send them over an exported calendar with key dates on where you will be providing comps to them but more importantly when they will need to feedback to you by.&#xA;&#xA;So for example you can say the first draft will be with them by x-date, they will then have 3 days to review and provide you with feedback. So make it clear that they have deadlines as well as you. &#xA;&#xA;How you enforce this is up to you. You can change for any hold ups on their part at the end but I've never needed to do this. Just talk to them (preferably by phone or Skype) as generally they don't even realise what a hold up on their end can do to the project. &#xA;&#xA;Hope this helps in some way. In terms of right now, maybe you can use this time to do a personal project :) or just take some time out for yourself - ah the joys of freelance! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7353" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2646" RevisionGUID="c7b03c45-0b3e-4f05-93ae-265f70d05be8" CreationDate="2014-11-24T03:50:03.787" UserId="1018" Text="There are a few strategies I use to minimise this problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some of these need to be put in place before the start of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**1. Up Front Deposit**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging a 50% (or similar) up front fee at the start of the project makes clients take a stake in the project and they are more likely to work towards the conclusion of the project in a timely manner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2. Contract / Terms and Conditions** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Include in the contract or terms and conditions a clause that allows you to invoice for the work completed even if there is a delay in the supply of the content.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With this approach, you get paid on time and can let the client worry about whether the project is completed or not. If and when the content materialises, you can schedule the completion of the project to fit in with any other work you may have at the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**3. Put Responsibility Back on the Client** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where the client is unreasonably delaying supply of the agreed content, and assuming the client has appropriate access and skill to do so, or suitable instructions can be supplied, it may be reasonable for you to invoice the balance and leave the client to upload and publish the content and complete the project themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**4. Project Variation**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients often don't realise how long it takes and how hard it is to write good content. There may be an opportunity for you to write the content for them or outsource this work for an additional fee.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7354" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2646" RevisionGUID="60e5cd60-3804-4d7c-8bc6-e3d3d83edc1b" CreationDate="2014-11-24T04:03:14.377" UserId="1018" Comment="Add additional strategy." Text="There are a few strategies I use to minimise this problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some of these need to be put in place before the start of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**1. Up Front Deposit**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging a 50% (or similar) up front fee at the start of the project makes clients take a stake in the project and they are more likely to work towards the conclusion of the project in a timely manner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2. Contract / Terms and Conditions** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Include in the contract or terms and conditions a clause that allows you to invoice for the work completed even if there is a delay in the supply of the content.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With this approach, you get paid on time and can let the client worry about whether the project is completed or not. If and when the content materialises, you can schedule the completion of the project to fit in with any other work you may have at the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**3. Put Responsibility Back on the Client** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where the client is unreasonably delaying supply of the agreed content, and assuming the client has appropriate access and skill to do so, or suitable instructions can be supplied, it may be reasonable for you to invoice the balance and leave the client to upload and publish the content and complete the project themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**4. Project Variation**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients often don't realise how long it takes and how hard it is to write good content. There may be an opportunity for you to write the content for them or outsource this work for an additional fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**5. Charge an Additional Fee if Agreed Content Deadline Exceeded**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unavailability of the content by the agreed deadline may mean extra work for you. If this is the case, you can probably justify charging an additional fee. You could explain to the client that you need the content by a certain date, or an additional fee will be incurred.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7355" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2646" RevisionGUID="b7a505f2-9676-401b-a435-61a6edc0466e" CreationDate="2014-11-24T09:04:42.313" UserId="1018" Comment="Minor tweak." Text="There are a few strategies I use to minimise this problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some of these need to be put in place before the start of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**1. Up Front Deposit**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging a 50% (or similar) up front fee at the start of the project makes clients take a stake in the project and they are more likely to work towards the conclusion of the project in a timely manner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2. Contract / Terms and Conditions** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Include in the contract or terms and conditions a clause that allows you to invoice for the work completed even if there is a delay in the supply of the content.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With this approach, you get paid on time and can let the client worry about whether the project is completed or not. If and when the content materialises, you can schedule the completion of the project to fit in with any other work you may have at the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**3. Put Responsibility Back on the Client** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where the client is unreasonably delaying the agreed supply of the content, and assuming the client has appropriate access and skill to do so, or suitable instructions can be supplied, it may be reasonable for you to invoice the balance and leave the client to upload and publish the content and complete the project themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**4. Project Variation**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients often don't realise how long it takes and how hard it is to write good content. There may be an opportunity for you to write the content for them or outsource this work for an additional fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**5. Charge an Additional Fee if Agreed Content Deadline Exceeded**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unavailability of the content by the agreed deadline may mean extra work for you. If this is the case, you can probably justify charging an additional fee. You could explain to the client that you need the content by a certain date, or an additional fee will be incurred.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7356" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2646" RevisionGUID="d02e796f-fcdf-46db-8963-9a361712cdff" CreationDate="2014-11-24T09:16:31.613" UserId="1018" Comment="Additional strategy." Text="There are a few strategies I use to minimise this problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some of these need to be put in place before the start of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**1. Up Front Deposit**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging a 50% (or similar) up front fee at the start of the project makes clients take a stake in the project and they are more likely to work towards the conclusion of the project in a timely manner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2. Contract / Terms and Conditions** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Include in the contract or terms and conditions a clause that allows you to invoice for the work completed even if there is a delay in the supply of the content.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With this approach, you get paid on time and can let the client worry about whether the project is completed or not. If and when the content materialises, you can schedule the completion of the project to fit in with any other work you may have at the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**3. Put Responsibility Back on the Client** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where the client is unreasonably delaying the agreed supply of the content, and assuming the client has appropriate access and skill to do so, or suitable instructions can be supplied, it may be reasonable for you to invoice the balance and leave the client to upload and publish the content and complete the project themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**4. Project Variation**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients often don't realise how long it takes and how hard it is to write good content. There may be an opportunity for you to write the content for them or outsource this work for an additional fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**5. Charge an Additional Fee if Agreed Content Deadline Exceeded**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unavailability of the content by the agreed deadline may mean extra work for you. If this is the case, you can probably justify charging an additional fee. You could explain to the client that you need the content by a certain date, or an additional fee will be incurred.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**6. Restrict Your Availability**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assuming you have other work, you can impose a deadline and let the client know you may not be available for a while after the close of the deadline. For example, it might be reasonable to explain to the client that you have other commitments next month and that they need to supply all the required content within the next two weeks (or similar) if they want the project to be completed this month, otherwise there may be an additional delay.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7357" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2647" RevisionGUID="939d7165-6981-4b5c-98b5-29c735cd2e58" CreationDate="2014-11-24T11:40:10.547" UserId="517" Text="Since we are coming from the same region, I may be able to reply as I am familiar with economic circumstances in the region.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As Stacey said, there is no magic number. You can put $50 per hour if you think you are so good. But with 9 months of experience, you are still a Junior. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you bid via freelancing websites, I would go with $10 per hour and increase it with experience. Or start smaller jobs of a few weeks for &lt;$500. Don't do large project for small money as you will never finish it and will only get a bad review. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7358" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2517" RevisionGUID="73caf5ea-bab8-4993-acde-24f196d261df" CreationDate="2014-11-24T11:43:32.630" UserDisplayName="user19" Comment="fixed tags, english" Text="I have a new client that I met online for whom I have been doing some photo editing. We will be using paypal for payment. Should I give the finished work to client before or after they paid me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7359" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2517" RevisionGUID="73caf5ea-bab8-4993-acde-24f196d261df" CreationDate="2014-11-24T11:43:32.630" UserDisplayName="user19" Comment="fixed tags, english" Text="Should I give the finished work to a client before or after they paid me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7360" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2517" RevisionGUID="73caf5ea-bab8-4993-acde-24f196d261df" CreationDate="2014-11-24T11:43:32.630" UserDisplayName="user19" Comment="fixed tags, english" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7361" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2517" RevisionGUID="73caf5ea-bab8-4993-acde-24f196d261df" CreationDate="2014-11-24T11:43:32.630" Comment="Proposed by 19 approved by 1018, 517 edit id of 377" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7362" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="2517" RevisionGUID="014b15ea-1e27-4c0b-b0e6-2cae37d46b5f" CreationDate="2014-11-24T16:53:59.487" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Stacey&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:19,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Camil Staps&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="7363" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2641" RevisionGUID="1953063b-4836-480a-8b2c-1fcdd2e151ac" CreationDate="2014-11-24T16:54:24.443" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Stacey&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:19,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Camil Staps&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="7364" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2648" RevisionGUID="7a4eacdc-5635-4810-96c8-798bf8ae88cf" CreationDate="2014-11-24T18:08:39.287" UserId="5426" Text="after almost every project, i have learned so much that if i were to do that same project again i could do it better. in that sense, by the time any piece is done i am already better than it so the problem you are describing is just the name of the game. show what you have. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7365" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2649" RevisionGUID="37e844af-0365-440f-922a-9746c4ed8be1" CreationDate="2014-11-24T18:28:26.553" UserId="5427" Text="You should give the work to the client based on any conditions you agreed to beforehand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From this point onwards you might want to specify that you give the final product to a client after the final payment. But, your current situation could be something completely different depending on what you agreed to with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are plenty of standard contracts out there for the future that will help you specify exactly what you want to happen for new clients though. It would be a good idea to find one that works for your preferences and make clients sign that before you agree to work with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7366" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2648" RevisionGUID="a93f2e22-0432-4903-ac07-61398d4b1d1e" CreationDate="2014-11-24T18:54:27.993" UserId="517" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="After almost every project, I have learned so much that if I were to do that same project again, I could do it better. In that sense, by the time any piece is done, I am already better than it, so the problem you are describing is just the name of the game. Show what you have. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7367" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2650" RevisionGUID="3dec92a6-cc22-4f8c-9efd-08d67639a407" CreationDate="2014-11-24T20:01:40.263" UserId="5321" Text="Always after. You've got to protect yourself.&#xA;&#xA;The way I'd recommend structuring a project - and make sure you explain this beforehand - is to request a 50% upfront deposit (or whatever amount suits your project). You can say that you need the deposit to secure the project in your timetable which is a great way to get people to pay quickly.&#xA;&#xA;Then you make sure they know that the remaining amount will be required on sign off of the project, but before any open artwork is released. &#xA;&#xA;Again, a great way to get your invoices paid quickly.  If you give the work before receiving payment I guarantee most clients will take their sweet time paying :) &#xA;&#xA;In your case I'd suggest sending watermarked images for sign off and releasing the high resolution ones as soon as payment has hit your PayPal account.&#xA;&#xA;Hope this helps!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7368" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2647" RevisionGUID="cab4a6cf-e8e1-46b7-b816-6a91c903967d" CreationDate="2014-11-25T11:27:57.977" UserId="517" Comment="added 10 characters in body" Text="Since we are coming from the same region, I may be able to reply as I am familiar with economic circumstances in the region.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As Stacey said, there is no magic number. You can put $50 per hour if you think you are so good. But with 9 months of experience, you are still a Junior. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you bid via freelancing websites, I would go with $10 per hour and increase it with experience. Or start smaller jobs of a few weeks for  less than $500. Don't do large project for small money as you will never finish it and will only get a bad review. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7369" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2651" RevisionGUID="755565a4-8570-4ddc-bfd6-b1f229193eeb" CreationDate="2014-11-25T12:15:24.347" UserId="5439" Text="Don't work like this way. If your client is highly trusted, then you can work and receive payment using paypal. &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;I recomment you to sign up with elance.com , then find clients and start working after the client fund the escrow. you are always secure with the elance escrow system." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7373" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2644" RevisionGUID="f9a13ecb-1a8c-4db9-af6e-88be12af4793" CreationDate="2014-11-25T13:59:27.370" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/537244175868366848" />
  <row Id="7374" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2653" RevisionGUID="0deb8f1b-7200-4a86-a84f-fbd22419f479" CreationDate="2014-11-25T14:02:18.210" UserId="672" Text="**Structure your payment in two stages**&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; * Upfront payment (this amount should at least cover your cost/min hourly rate)&#xD;&#xA; * Rest of the payment (Your profit)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; So if for example you are doing a project/job for $100 and you need to spend at-least 4  hours on it...And if you minimum hourly rate is like $15 then you should at-least take $60 upfront&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It will save you a lot.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7376" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2651" RevisionGUID="f27079cc-0145-42e5-bac5-ab8f498ca1f6" CreationDate="2014-11-25T17:56:15.680" UserId="75" Comment="added 5 characters in body" Text="Don't work like this way. If your client is highly trusted, then you can work and receive payment using PayPal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recommend you to sign up with elance.com, then find clients and start working after the client funds the escrow account. You are always secure with the elance escrow system." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7378" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2642" RevisionGUID="aa758e8a-7c88-4f93-ad42-c88efed32035" CreationDate="2014-11-26T10:59:28.303" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/537561268367163393" />
  <row Id="7383" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2651" RevisionGUID="502c048a-5e7e-4084-97c1-9b73e8be4f9a" CreationDate="2014-11-26T20:50:18.743" UserId="5439" Comment="added 697 characters in body" Text="Don't work like this way. If your client is highly trusted, then you can work and receive payment using PayPal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recommend you to sign up with elance.com, then find clients and start working after the client funds the escrow account. You are always secure with the elance escrow system.Elance escrow system is secure for both the client and the freelancer. The client will release the escrow fund on accept of the work. The freelancer will be paid immediately after the client release the escrow fund. If the client doesn't release the escrow manually, it will release automatically after 20 days n the freelancer will be paid. If the client don't agree to pay the freelancer, then the freelancer can open a dispute file and a dispute team will come to solve the problem. So, both parties are secured. But, all freelancer must have to be sure that the client funds the escrow before starting work. If the client doesn't fund escrow, the freelancer will not get the escrow facilities." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7384" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2655" RevisionGUID="0c80ed00-b0bb-4f71-b987-2c270c8fb280" CreationDate="2014-11-26T21:05:51.547" UserId="5392" Text="I am in this situation where people inquire about my web development services asking for a meeting. The problem is they are not giving giving any details on work needed and their budget. I receive vague emails in the lines like &quot;I need a web developer who is able to develop an e-commerce website for me, I see you are based in city X, can we meet up to discuss this?&quot;. If I simply reply explaining that they should start by sending me a short document explaining the work to be done, most of them just do not contact me again. The others would tell that is too difficult for them to put their ideas on a paper or the ideas are too sophisticated for emailing and require an eye-to-eye type of discussion (like their Google cum Facebook + Twitter network idea).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In past, when I was in my first years a freelancer and desperate for new work, I would go to talk to every one of them. My experience was that these people&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;a) would have a tiny or absolutely no budget and were trying to con me into free work (&quot;this will look good in your portfolio&quot; or &quot;we will pay you a lot if this project turns out well, however we think a legal agreement is not necessary&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;b) were looking for a free consultant explaining basic internet business things to them, so they can teach themselves before finding a cheaper vendor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of my work comes from larger agencies or referrals, therefore I will not starve ignoring these inquires. However I don't want to miss a single oppurtunity since some of them might turn out to be people with deep pockets which I love.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to ask how do you effectively handle these potential clients in your freelance business ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7385" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2655" RevisionGUID="0c80ed00-b0bb-4f71-b987-2c270c8fb280" CreationDate="2014-11-26T21:05:51.547" UserId="5392" Text="How to handle prospective clients asking for a meet up?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7386" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2655" RevisionGUID="0c80ed00-b0bb-4f71-b987-2c270c8fb280" CreationDate="2014-11-26T21:05:51.547" UserId="5392" Text="|contracts|attracting-clients|evaluating-clients|sales|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7387" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2655" RevisionGUID="ea4d2183-43e9-4b67-9eaa-3fd07807d54a" CreationDate="2014-11-26T21:14:04.563" UserId="5392" Comment="added 290 characters in body" Text="I am in this situation where people inquire about my web development services asking for a meeting. The problem is they are not giving giving any details on work needed and their budget. I receive vague emails in the lines like &quot;I need a web developer who is able to develop an e-commerce website for me, I see you are based in city X, can we meet up to discuss this?&quot;. If I simply reply explaining that they should start by sending me a short document explaining the work to be done, most of them just do not contact me again. The others would tell that is too difficult for them to put their ideas on a paper or the ideas are too sophisticated for emailing and require an eye-to-eye type of discussion (like their Google cum Facebook + Twitter network idea).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In past, when I was in my first years a freelancer and desperate for new work, I would go to talk to every one of them. My experience was that these people&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;a) would have a tiny or absolutely no budget and were trying to con me into free work (&quot;this will look good in your portfolio&quot; or &quot;we will pay you a lot if this project turns out well, however we think a legal agreement is not necessary&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;b) were looking for a free consultant explaining basic internet business things to them, so they can teach themselves before finding a cheaper vendor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of my work comes from larger agencies or referrals, therefore I will not starve ignoring these inquires. However I don't want to miss a single oppurtunity since some of them may turn out to be people with great ambitions with a budget to match them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't see myself as a sales representative. If people agree to work on my terms from the very beginning, like making a short spec before going into a live discussion, most of the time the whole thing turns out well and everybody is happy in the end. However, clients like that are rare.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to ask how do you effectively handle these potential clients in your freelance business ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7388" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="452" RevisionGUID="48b91493-dc4d-4f5d-8497-01494cabdb71" CreationDate="2014-11-26T22:46:43.370" UserId="75" Comment="Moderator edits article" Text="&lt;p&gt;Freelancing Stack Exchange is for questions relating to &lt;b&gt;self-employed and freelance workers.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;**If your question covers...**&#xA;&#xA;* Agency work while freelancing&#xA;* Selling services to different employers without a long-term contract with any of them&#xA;* Client responsibilities to freelancers&#xA;* Cross-border requirements and laws for freelancing&#xA; &#xA;**and isn't about...**&#xA; &#xA;* Working in a part-time of full-time setting for a company&#xA;* How to use features of a Freelancing website for finding work&#xA;* Asking for life experiences or opinions on freelancing&#xA; &#xA;...then you’re in the right place to ask your question!&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;/search&quot;&gt;look around&lt;/a&gt; to see if your question has been asked before. It’s also OK to &lt;a href=&quot;/helpcenter/self-answer&quot;&gt;ask and answer your own question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If your question is not specifically on-topic for $SiteName, it may be on topic for another Stack Exchange site. If no site currently exists that will accept your question, you may &lt;a href=&quot;http://area51.stackexchange.com/faq&quot;&gt;commit to&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/76974/how-can-i-propose-a-new-site&quot;&gt;propose&lt;/a&gt; a new site at &lt;a href=&quot;http://area51.stackexchange.com/&quot;&gt;Area51&lt;/a&gt;, the place where new Stack Exchange communities are democratically created.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more help, see &lt;a href=&quot;/help/dont-ask&quot;&gt;&quot;What types of questions should I avoid asking?&quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;##How should I answer?&#xA;&#xA;Your answer should provide enough context to help the asker determine if the answer is right for them. Answers based on facts, references, and specific expertise are preferable.&#xA;&#xA;If the question has the [legal](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/legal) tag, you should include references or citations to back up your answer. &#xA;&#xA;In general, your answer should always include material to support or explain why your answer is correct. Answers that don't meet these guidelines may be removed. For more information, see [the back it up rule](http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/55/should-this-site-have-a-back-it-up-rule)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7389" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2651" RevisionGUID="fcb0416d-d079-4759-916a-99f1e1dd4438" CreationDate="2014-11-26T22:50:03.610" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 23 characters in body" Text="Don't work like this way. If your client is highly trusted, then you can work and receive payment using PayPal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recommend you to sign up with elance.com, then find clients and start working after the client funds the escrow account. You are always secure with the elance escrow system,  for both the client and the freelancer. The client will release the escrow fund on accept of the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The freelancer will be paid immediately after the client release the escrow fund. If the client doesn't release the escrow manually, it will release automatically after 20 days, and the freelancer will be paid. If the client doesn't agree to pay the freelancer, then the freelancer can open a dispute file and a dispute team will come to solve the problem. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, both parties are secured. But, the freelancer has to be sure that the client funds the escrow before starting work. If the client doesn't fund escrow, the freelancer will not get the escrow facilities." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7390" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2656" RevisionGUID="b0dfa2cd-064a-4ed7-9026-a8746e474565" CreationDate="2014-11-26T23:10:36.390" UserId="5454" Text="I am currently facing the following situation:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I have a lot of projects going on freelancer.com / elance&#xD;&#xA;- I do payments to freelancer thru these sites&#xD;&#xA;- these sites in turn take the money from my paypal / creditcard or bank account, so these sites appear also on creditcard slips / bank transaction protocols&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As my tax is due now, I am unsure, who is the actual invoicer in terms of tax.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Each site is charging fees, which occur on the creditcard slips, as well as the costs for the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, the question is, what would I need to satisfy the tax (am based in Germany).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have experience with that?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7391" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2656" RevisionGUID="b0dfa2cd-064a-4ed7-9026-a8746e474565" CreationDate="2014-11-26T23:10:36.390" UserId="5454" Text="Elance / freelancer.com or the client - who is important for tax reasons?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7392" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2656" RevisionGUID="b0dfa2cd-064a-4ed7-9026-a8746e474565" CreationDate="2014-11-26T23:10:36.390" UserId="5454" Text="|freelance-websites|taxes|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7393" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2656" RevisionGUID="0a698c4d-bfbb-4dee-ba6f-c2b7e3660f52" CreationDate="2014-11-27T01:59:28.327" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/537787760447586305" />
  <row Id="7395" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2657" RevisionGUID="e7278b48-0866-408c-bc9d-baa3bc4d4ce8" CreationDate="2014-11-27T04:51:45.480" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="In my experience, it's **absolutely reasonable to expect that the client should be able to put down on paper what they need.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A client who is unable to communicate clearly to you over email/phone/carrier pidgen/any method is sending a big red flag. No matter how good their idea is, you cannot execute it if they can't communicate it clearly to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A client who only insists on meeting you face to face is saying:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) They don't respect you as a professional. If you ask for a spec on paper beforehand, they should respect that this is the way you operate and comply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) They don't have the idea solid enough idea in their head. You can't read minds. They will need to get their idea on paper at some point in order to quite them. You want a client who knows what they want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) They don't have respect for your time. By withholding their idea, they're taking away your ability to decide if you want to spend time on their project. That's your choice, now theirs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if the client has the best idea and budget to match, this is setting up a precedent for bad client behaviour in the future, because you are allowing them to disrespect your time and letting them determine how you operate. You are the professional, you call the shots. If they don't want to do things your way, then they're not worth your time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stand your ground and stick by your requirements. If you need a spec before meeting, then they need to deal with it or find someone else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7396" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2657" RevisionGUID="4cf4a228-19e1-4f80-bbaf-f84d293b0ca7" CreationDate="2014-11-27T04:57:17.943" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="edited body" Text="In my experience, it's **absolutely reasonable to expect that the client should be able to put down on paper what they need.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A client who is unable to communicate clearly to you over email/phone/carrier pidgen/any method is sending a big red flag. No matter how good their idea is, you cannot execute it if they can't communicate it clearly to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A client who only insists on meeting you face to face is saying:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) They don't respect you as a professional. If you ask for a spec on paper beforehand, they should respect that this is the way you operate and comply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) They don't have the idea solid enough idea in their head. You can't read minds. They will need to get their idea on paper at some point in order to quote them. You want a client who knows what they want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) They don't have respect for your time. By withholding their idea, they're taking away your ability to decide if you want to spend time on their project. That's your choice, now theirs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if the client has the best idea and budget to match, this is setting up a precedent for bad client behaviour in the future, because you are allowing them to disrespect your time and letting them determine how you operate. You are the professional, you call the shots. If they don't want to do things your way, then they're not worth your time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stand your ground and stick by your requirements. If you need a spec before meeting, then they need to deal with it or find someone else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7397" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2658" RevisionGUID="825942ca-9ad1-419c-892f-6c03a611a4f2" CreationDate="2014-11-27T05:23:20.347" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="I have dealt with this by setting a weekly meeting time once a week. If the client doesn't pitch up, they will be charged and will have to wait until the same time next week before I'm available to meet with them again. I won't organise a meeting outside of this time because inevitably they will forget and won't pitch up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This has worked quite well, it has established a routine which means that the meeting is not forgotten as easily, and there is a premium on my time now, since the chance to meet with me is only once a week. The rest of my schedule is no longer inconvenienced by last minute meeting time changes.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7398" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2655" RevisionGUID="a0bdac58-7d2b-4111-be3e-ec7cd3cee682" CreationDate="2014-11-27T10:59:28.393" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/537923656203395072" />
  <row Id="7399" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2655" RevisionGUID="eaf5b8cd-6d4a-4fe1-a15b-da802a58418f" CreationDate="2014-11-27T15:32:11.157" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 3 characters in body" Text="I am in this situation where people inquire about my web development services asking for a meeting. The problem is they are not giving giving any details on work needed and their budget. I receive vague emails in the lines like &quot;I need a web developer who is able to develop an e-commerce website for me, I see you are based in city X, can we meet up to discuss this?&quot;. If I simply reply explaining that they should start by sending me a short document explaining the work to be done, most of them just do not contact me again. The others would tell that is too difficult for them to put their ideas on a paper or the ideas are too sophisticated for emailing and require an eye-to-eye type of discussion (like their Google, Facebook + Twitter network idea).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In past, when I was in my first years a freelancer and desperate for new work, I would go to talk to every one of them. My experience was that these people&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;a) would have a tiny or absolutely no budget and were trying to con me into free work (&quot;this will look good in your portfolio&quot; or &quot;we will pay you a lot if this project turns out well, however we think a legal agreement is not necessary&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;b) were looking for a free consultant explaining basic internet business things to them, so they can teach themselves before finding a cheaper vendor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of my work comes from larger agencies or referrals, therefore I will not starve ignoring these inquires. However I don't want to miss a single oppurtunity since some of them may turn out to be people with great ambitions with a budget to match them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't see myself as a sales representative. If people agree to work on my terms from the very beginning, like making a short spec before going into a live discussion, most of the time the whole thing turns out well and everybody is happy in the end. However, clients like that are rare.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to ask how do you effectively handle these potential clients in your freelance business ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7400" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2659" RevisionGUID="1f363ef6-0e86-4980-88a4-04c1813db7cc" CreationDate="2014-11-27T17:50:33.420" UserId="517" Text="OK, so telling them to send specs does not work in your thoughts because you think there are good clients who do not know what the specs are or how to write them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, if you are sure that you do not want to meet each of them or they come to your office, why not try to see if a phone call will work. So instead of meeting with them, ask them for their phone number and call them via Skype. So if the client is not willing to provide a phone number, then there is something very fishy with him (low budget client, wants free advisory, not serious, etc.). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think Skype call will quickly reveal good from bad clients. Later on you will have enough experience to filter them even more (but I cannot think of any good suggestion right now). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7401" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2660" RevisionGUID="c50adfcc-1995-44a8-ac58-ba1fdbc5e50f" CreationDate="2014-11-27T22:56:55.547" UserId="1018" Text="Some good answers here already!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could prepare a one or two page project brief form for clients to complete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Email them the form asking them to complete it before you schedule a meeting. You can tell your prospective client that this will enable you to do some homework before the meeting and so that you can be better prepared.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the project brief, you can ask what the approximate budget is for the project and any other information you might need to decide whether this project is suitable for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending on the completed information in the project brief, you can either schedule a meeting or let the client know you do not wish to proceed further.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a prospective client can't complete a one or two page form in preparation for a meeting, then this is probably a red flag as **Stacey** points out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A possible exception might be for clients with reading or writing challenges but you could still run through the questions on the phone." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7408" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2530" RevisionGUID="dddc9401-0a65-4949-a55f-73729e3a7ed7" CreationDate="2014-11-29T23:02:47.173" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/538830460206718976" />
  <row Id="7409" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2517" RevisionGUID="5ef634e7-510e-4f4f-8bb0-7a7406659cba" CreationDate="2014-11-30T20:06:26.290" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/539148467671924738" />
  <row Id="7410" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2662" RevisionGUID="379e0efc-5714-4085-a369-daa7c9150e4e" CreationDate="2014-12-01T23:06:31.707" UserId="1706" Text="The intake form, as described, or a Skype/phone consultation should do the trick.  Face to face is fine, but make that client come to you if the client insists.  Phone calls are cheap; fuel, road tolls, and parking costs are not and it's foolish to make these expenditures for a client that might not commit, UNLESS the pay makes it really, really worth it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't expect a complete spec from the client as the type of specs you need aren't necessarily the client's sort of expertise.  DO make sure to include time to generate specs into your estimation, and the sign-off of specs as a milestone before you start implementation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some clients are indeed fishing for quick answers instead of fishing for a vendor (and then they &quot;mysteriously&quot; change their minds about working with you!!!).  Some will ask, &quot;Exactly how would you solve this problem?&quot; during your intake interview.  Sidestep a direct answer.  Go with something to the tune of, *&quot;Once our engagement begins, I can provide you with a tentative plan.&quot;*  You really must stick to your guns here as some people will do all they can to get free information out of you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7411" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2663" RevisionGUID="2f115fd4-176e-400f-8c54-eb6a1b52986b" CreationDate="2014-12-02T12:56:21.290" UserId="4354" Text="I am new to the freelancing and need some pointers about how to search for new business or clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My area of expertise are in Web Application Development both Client and server side which includes CMS and e-commerce. I have over 10 years of Dev/Project Management experience under my belt so I am pretty confident about project dev and delivery etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have try to look for new projects on freelance sites such as oDesk and freelance but it looks like there are lots of stiff competitions from Countries like India , China etc who can work for 5th of the price. (I am based in UK).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am currently working on my personal website and looking to start a blog on which I can connect to people but to be honest I am not sure that the website and blog alone will bring any business!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any pointers?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7412" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2663" RevisionGUID="2f115fd4-176e-400f-8c54-eb6a1b52986b" CreationDate="2014-12-02T12:56:21.290" UserId="4354" Text="How to look for new business / clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7413" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2663" RevisionGUID="2f115fd4-176e-400f-8c54-eb6a1b52986b" CreationDate="2014-12-02T12:56:21.290" UserId="4354" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|marketing|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7414" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2664" RevisionGUID="6cc813d2-de6e-413d-9481-d80d908cf5ee" CreationDate="2014-12-02T14:16:07.010" UserId="127" Text="The key to finding clients is understanding your best target market, and then going where they are most likely to find you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I first started freelance programming, I really struggled with this. I was so anxious to just find ANY clients that I didn't consider who I really wanted to work with. But that won't help you, because different customers will find development resources different ways, and randomly throwing crap on the wall to see what sticks isn't very effective.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So instead: think about all your experience, and consider what kind of clients you really want to work with. For example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Large or small companies?&#xD;&#xA;* Established or startups?&#xD;&#xA;* Do they understand development, or are you their &quot;expert&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;* What does the team you will work on look like? Are you a worker-bee on a large team? Are you the leader of the large team? Are you on your own working directly with the business person?&#xD;&#xA;* Do you work at their site or someplace else?&#xD;&#xA;* Specific industry?&#xD;&#xA;* Specific technology?&#xD;&#xA;* Local only?&#xD;&#xA;* etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't limit yourself to these questions - try to narrow it as much as possible, and come up with your list of best client attributes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now you have a description of your &quot;best client&quot;. The next step is to figure out: where are they and how do they hire for services like the one you provide? For example, I work only with small, local companies (under 50 employees). I work directly with the owner, because they control the money. The owners I work with have previous experience in technology - most are former developers which means I don't have to educate them on how development works.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do they find developers? My clients found me via word of mouth referrals and via Google searches. I've paid for occasional Google Adwords campaigns, and I've let all my contacts know when I'm looking for new clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other clients may look for developers differently. For example: Larger companies may work through their HR department, and may have preferred vendors you can subcontract through. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you intend to find business via sites like oDesk you will find plenty of price pressure. I don't use those services, so I can't say if the pressure is too much. But I will say that you can always respond to price pressure by providing better service and local access to clients. And honestly, you don't want clients who will select you based solely on price anyway. They are never worth it in the end. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7418" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2666" RevisionGUID="e46beffd-b8f8-4a51-8cf9-9e281193d81c" CreationDate="2014-12-04T13:06:12.270" UserId="5513" Text="Is it really possible to getting or dealing project by online bidding?&#xD;&#xA;Someone said me if you want to get or deal any project by online biding then it is necessary to showing previous bidding records..you must had to deal at least 2 to 3 project. So, it would be happen same thing like fresher candidate who are applying for job and every company told them &quot;We not Hire Fresher, Only Experience Candidates Required&quot;????? &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7419" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2666" RevisionGUID="e46beffd-b8f8-4a51-8cf9-9e281193d81c" CreationDate="2014-12-04T13:06:12.270" UserId="5513" Text="SO MANY CONFUSIONS.!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7420" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2666" RevisionGUID="e46beffd-b8f8-4a51-8cf9-9e281193d81c" CreationDate="2014-12-04T13:06:12.270" UserId="5513" Text="|project-bidding|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7421" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2667" RevisionGUID="ffe6c0fa-b57b-4def-af02-567e6824b3ca" CreationDate="2014-12-04T15:48:08.787" UserId="517" Text="Don't listen to people who have no clue what they are talking about! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, everyone and each of us started as a new guy, either in some field or on some freelance service. As everyone, you will also start by working day by day, step by step. First projects will be small money and with experience you will get more money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if you expect $10k the first month, I will tell you that it's impossible. If you expect to earn $10k a month after 1 year, then I would say it's possible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Start with a service you are expert in, be honest and hard working, treat the client like the most beautiful girl and success will come in time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. You have try to learn Internet ethics firstly. Like capital letters mean shouting. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7422" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2666" RevisionGUID="5e6c001c-b7a3-4821-ace2-70a8bb8d0719" CreationDate="2014-12-04T15:54:44.390" UserId="4354" Comment="grammer, no need to shout with capital letters" Text="'So much confusion' - online freelance websites" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7423" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2666" RevisionGUID="5e6c001c-b7a3-4821-ace2-70a8bb8d0719" CreationDate="2014-12-04T15:54:44.390" Comment="Proposed by 4354 approved by 517, -1 edit id of 379" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7424" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2666" RevisionGUID="914cca97-ddb8-4edc-8b43-dd83a9c27f76" CreationDate="2014-12-04T15:54:44.390" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, wording" Text="Someone told me that if I want to get or deal with projects by online bidding, it would be necessary to show previous bidding records. For example, you must have dealt with at least 2-3 projects before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me, it seems akin to new candidates applying for jobs and each company saying that they don't hire new candidates; come back once you've gained experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it _really_ possible to get or deal projects via online bidding?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7425" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2666" RevisionGUID="914cca97-ddb8-4edc-8b43-dd83a9c27f76" CreationDate="2014-12-04T15:54:44.390" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, wording" Text="Can online bidding for projects work without prior record?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7426" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2666" RevisionGUID="914cca97-ddb8-4edc-8b43-dd83a9c27f76" CreationDate="2014-12-04T15:54:44.390" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, wording" Text="|freelance-websites|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7427" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2668" RevisionGUID="a33bad84-395e-44ec-a9c4-85f04e20c95e" CreationDate="2014-12-04T16:00:25.293" UserId="5516" Text="I like the way Scott answers defines what wireframes are in simple terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, it might still have very little meaning to the customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like many new things, because if you never show an example, the customer might understand/interpret it &quot;his own way&quot;. For instance, when presenting the wireframe to the customer, this person will think it is &quot;the design&quot; (whatever it means for the customer).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hence, I feel that the best way to explain is to simply show a past project (or fake project) going through all the steps: from ideas/brainstorming, to specs, to wireframes, to more specs, to updated wireframes, to photoshop, to code implementation.&#xD;&#xA;Each of the steps should be illustrated by the relevant documents (screenshots).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also like to emphasize something like &quot;Keep in mind that the mockup phase is as important as the coding phase, if not more, as it sets the foundations for all the rest of the project.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As mentioned by Scott, this should also be part of the contract with statement such as &quot;changes requested at a later date which deviate from this backbone may incur additional costs and time to complete (if going over the agreed maximum number of revisions)&quot;. You can kindly remind the client of this statement, explaining that it protects both parties from deviations in the project (for the client: unexpected/unjustified overtime hence bill. for you: change of spec in complete contradiction with vague UX/UI requirements). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7428" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2669" RevisionGUID="045d6284-86dc-4917-88b4-3cf98eac5ce9" CreationDate="2014-12-04T16:10:13.440" UserId="517" Text="It's been 4 years these days that my colleagues and myself have been working as full-time freelancers. When we  started doing this, we hoped that with our quality and expertize in 4-year time we will have found a client who will open a branch of his company in our country hiring us full time and providing us with the work he finds in his own country. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far, we have worked with literally more than 70 clients ranging from a individuals to companies of 40-100 employees. Do I have to say that none of them has ever offered or asked anyone of us if we are willing to work for them solely and taking care on their projects and hiring additional help. So we gathered and asked ourselves, what the problem may be. I know, if I live in the UK or USA and have access to multitude of clients, I would have a great time overseas. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have experience with this? Is there anyone here who started as a freelancer and ended as CEO/CTO of the company who opened branch in his country letting him take care of all those boring things (project management, staffing, etc. )?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it realistic to find such client via services like odesk/elance/freelancer/guru and similar large websites? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should we do on our site to recognize such clients? Shall we ask each client about his vision to open a remote company and letting him know that we seek such clients? Should we do this after the first project ended? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should we advertise our intention that we are willing to become someone's branch? If yes, what services shall we use?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To shorten up, I need a good advise on how to approach to the problem I described here. Ideally, someone with experience will reply and we can even continue discussion in chat. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7429" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2669" RevisionGUID="045d6284-86dc-4917-88b4-3cf98eac5ce9" CreationDate="2014-12-04T16:10:13.440" UserId="517" Text="Steps to persuade a client to open his branch office in your country hiring you and your team fulltime?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7430" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2669" RevisionGUID="045d6284-86dc-4917-88b4-3cf98eac5ce9" CreationDate="2014-12-04T16:10:13.440" UserId="517" Text="|attracting-clients|branch-office|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7431" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2670" RevisionGUID="6ed78f5f-f809-4331-8d91-0c55f2e59816" CreationDate="2014-12-04T16:11:19.850" UserId="517" Text="A location, other than the main office, where business is conducted. Most branch offices are comprised of smaller divisions of different aspects of the company such as human resources, marketing, accounting, etc. A branch office will typically have a branch manager who will report directly to, and take orders from, a management member of the main office. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Branch offices are useful in that it allows the administrative aspect of the business to be conducted in locations around the globe. For example, Starbucks has branch offices so as to be able to meet closely with the stores district managers in a more cost effective manner, as well as cater to, and be more informed in, the needs of specific locations. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7432" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2671" RevisionGUID="05f5c614-31e7-4b9a-aeaa-f3045c8cd8a2" CreationDate="2014-12-04T16:11:19.850" UserId="517" Text="A location, other than the main office, where business is conducted. Most branch offices are comprised of smaller divisions of different aspects of the company such as human resources, marketing, accounting, etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7434" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2672" RevisionGUID="c14f8078-f30a-4ba0-a04b-decc7ab4ec7e" CreationDate="2014-12-05T03:16:57.913" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/43117/how-to-charge-for-design-work" />
  <row Id="7435" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2672" RevisionGUID="866aa8cc-d753-4470-ae40-8c18043b2e63" CreationDate="2014-12-04T23:03:54.613" UserDisplayName="Derek" Text="i have a client who wants a design job for a product launch&gt; This is a new client for me and a new line of work. I have a freelancer who will do the work, but how do I charge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;it is easy if the client likes the work, but do you charge for your time if they don't like the work or at least they say they don't?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you ask for them to pay for something they are not even certain they are going to like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this makes sense.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7436" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2672" RevisionGUID="866aa8cc-d753-4470-ae40-8c18043b2e63" CreationDate="2014-12-04T23:03:54.613" UserDisplayName="Derek" Text="how to charge for design work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7437" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2672" RevisionGUID="866aa8cc-d753-4470-ae40-8c18043b2e63" CreationDate="2014-12-04T23:03:54.613" UserDisplayName="Derek" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7438" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2673" RevisionGUID="b007912a-6d61-40e6-a1d6-6d1a06df94b8" CreationDate="2014-12-05T08:29:47.747" UserId="5321" Text="Ah, the freelance conundrum!&#xA;&#xA;It's obviously impossible to know if somebody will like or dislike something as subjective as design. However there are a few things you can do to minimise the risk: &#xA;&#xA;First, get as much information pre-project as possible. Put together a questionnaire that answers questions about their target audience, competitors and how they want to position themselves in the market. &#xA;&#xA;This will give you clues on how your designs need to look. Remember, you're probably not designing for just one persons taste, you're designing to solve some sort of problem and appeal to a group of people. &#xA;&#xA;If you can justify your design choices using the information gathered in your questionnaire you should be fine. &#xA;&#xA;The second thing you can do is add another stage to the project where you put together a few style moodboards. This is handy for you but you can also send over to the client to check your visions align. Don't be shy to ask them to contribute - make it a collaboration.&#xA;&#xA;The third thing is very important and covers you if after all that they still don't like what you've produced (and worst of all but very rare - refuse to pay!)&#xA;&#xA;You need to clearly state in your quote (not in teeny writing at the bottom mind!) that this project comes with x- sets of amends. I usually find 2 is plenty. &#xA;&#xA;You must also request a deposit (50% is always good) before any work begins so of the client does a runner at least you have half.&#xA;&#xA;If you follow the above steps, and sorry for the lack of formatting - I can't seem to do that on my phone, you are minimising the risk of a. Client not liking your work and b. Not getting paid.&#xA;&#xA;Best of luck! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7441" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2674" RevisionGUID="1bf98995-f0fb-4e47-a8cd-012dc480bc47" CreationDate="2014-12-06T00:19:15.933" UserId="5526" Text="Bit late to the party, but:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  freelance only 2-3 hours weekly, you don't have to pay health insurance for that&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially yes: If you pay compulsory health insurance on your main job, that also covers a side job. This is even true if you freelance besides being househusband while covered by the family insurance.  &#xD;&#xA;Ask your health insurance about the exact limits, but IIRC 20 h/wk (15 h/wk if officially unemployed) is one. Below 400 EUR/month you'd anyways be like a mini jobber which can be done as side line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  work too little, it is considered a hobby and you cannot deduce expenses&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That refers to income tax. I believe (but also rumours only) that this happens if you have prolonged times where you claim a net loss by deducing expenses which leads to lower total income. Which would mean that it is less a matter of how much you work than on how credible this is for earning money/how obviously you try to deduct stuff you really use for everyday life.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The tax office will cancel your freelancer status automatically, if you did not do anything and declare 0 income 0 gain for a couple of years (not sure how many exactly - but then it doesn't matter anyways, and just saves you hassle. Restarting the freelancing is easy: just fill out the form again, and in case you're not of a catalogue profession mention that this was considered freelancing before). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that as a freelancing engineer with a main job, e.g. professional books could either be deduced via the freelancing or via your &quot;Werbungskosten&quot;. My guess would also be that there isn't that much discussion about software that can solely be used for engineering. Everyday software, and your computer that has &quot;game&quot; in its name will more probably cause trouble.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; freelance more than 19.5 hours, it is full-time and you pay social taxes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not sure what you mean with social taxes: as a freelancer you're decidedly *not* an employee, and besides the volountary obligatory health insurance (freiwillige Pflichtversicherung) you're yourself responsible for your social &quot;insurance&quot;.  &#xD;&#xA;But yes, 20 h/wk is one limit that decides whether it is main or side business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that it is not that easy to reach the 20 h/wk within the labour laws while having a 40 h/wk full-time job. If you get outside those, your main employer can assume that your work there is negatively affected by the side-business and that looses you your right to doing a side-job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; earn more money than in your full-time job and something happens&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Difficult to answer without a claim what happens. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; you can earn a million working just one hour and you don't pay taxes&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Definitively not legally: the very first thing in order to start freelancing is to go to the tax office and fill in the start a business form saying &quot;freelancer&quot;. They'll then approve of you belonging to one of the free professions, send you your new tax number and tell you that from now on you'll have to hand in compulsory tax declarations. And that's where you declare the million - and pay your tax for. The form does *not* ask how many hours you worked, it is exclusively concerned in the gain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; your third party insurance counts for freelancing too&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My private third party liability insurance doesn't. A professional third party liability insurance does (should be for the correct profession!).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7446" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2676" RevisionGUID="0a2fd9a6-9ac4-4b01-9a06-8f964b1d866e" CreationDate="2014-12-06T13:49:12.243" UserDisplayName="user5221" Text="I intend to freelance with a client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is a one-to-one (person-to-person) contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What all should we mention in the contract to prove that I'm earning money legally by freelancing (and effectively not money laundering or anything)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Will an agreement letter that tells how much I'm getting paid every hour, my full name, the client's full name suffice?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7447" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2676" RevisionGUID="0a2fd9a6-9ac4-4b01-9a06-8f964b1d866e" CreationDate="2014-12-06T13:49:12.243" UserDisplayName="user5221" Text="What should a contract contain to prove source of income?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7448" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2676" RevisionGUID="0a2fd9a6-9ac4-4b01-9a06-8f964b1d866e" CreationDate="2014-12-06T13:49:12.243" UserDisplayName="user5221" Text="|contracts|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7449" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2677" RevisionGUID="e83fe028-e217-4783-bca0-db768d803fec" CreationDate="2014-12-06T18:03:39.543" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="Usually a contract is not used to establish proof of the legality of income. Instead, invoicing is used.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the case of the sale of services or a product, it is necessary to provide an invoice to the client for the amount of time you spent on a project and how much they are due to pay. This invoice serves as proof of income for you and as proof of the expense for them. Here's an example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;![enter image description here][1]&#xD;&#xA;[Source][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The important things are that the client's and your name and address are present, the invoice is dated and has a unique number, and the amount due is clear. Invoice description doesn't really matter too much. You can be as detailed as you like in the item description. If you're VAT registered, your registration number and the VAT amount should be in too. Invoicing can occur on a monthly basis or on a project-to-project basis depending on what works for you and the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The invoice is used as proof of income for your taxes and if you get audited, that's what you need to produce with your books.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/RjYLJ.jpg&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.ipixel.com.sg/blog/web-design/save-40-on-the-freelance-starter-kit-for-a-limited-time/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7450" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2677" RevisionGUID="ef8c870a-a365-4c3f-a937-4f6b81099d2b" CreationDate="2014-12-06T18:40:49.007" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added list" Text="Usually a contract is not used to establish proof of the legality of income. Instead, invoicing is used.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the case of the sale of services or a product, it is necessary to provide an invoice to the client for the amount of time you spent on a project and how much they are due to pay. This invoice serves as proof of income for you and as proof of the expense for them. Here's an example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;![enter image description here][1]&#xD;&#xA;[Source][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The important things are that need to be on the invoice are as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 1. Your business name and address details&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 2. The name and address of the company you are invoicing (and the contact name if you have one)&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 3. A unique invoice reference / number that will relate to this invoice only.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 4. A date for the invoice (which will generally be the date on which the invoice is created - or in accounting parlance, &quot;raised&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 5. A list of the products and / or services that you have provided, line by line, and the cost of each of these.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 6. A total amount for the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 7. The payment terms for the invoice (i.e. how long the customer has to pay)&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; In addition to this information the following is useful to also&#xD;&#xA;&gt; include on the invoice:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 8. Telephone / Fax contact numbers.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 9. Company email address.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 10. Customer Purchase Order Number - so they know which purchase order the invoice relates to if they are using an order management system.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 11. Details on how to pay, including bank account details for BACs / online payments.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you are VAT regsitered you must also include:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 12. The amount of VAT on each line of the invoice and the VAT Rate charged OR The total amount of VAT charged on the invoice, and the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; rate, if VAT applies to all items on the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 13. Your VAT Registration Number&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Finally, if you are a registered Limited company, you must include:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 14. Your Company Number&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 15. Your full registered company address.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above list was taken from [here][3].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The invoice is used as proof of income for your taxes and if you get audited, that's what you need to produce with your books.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/RjYLJ.jpg&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.ipixel.com.sg/blog/web-design/save-40-on-the-freelance-starter-kit-for-a-limited-time/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.itzbits.co.uk/business-articles/64/What-information-do-I-need-to-include-on-an-invoice.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7451" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2677" RevisionGUID="254a63b0-66bd-4999-a284-9cb7899267b3" CreationDate="2014-12-06T18:48:56.563" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 35 characters in body" Text="Usually a contract is not used to establish proof of the legality of income. Instead, invoicing is used to create the necessary papertrail.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the case of the sale of services or a product, it is necessary to provide an invoice to the client for the amount of time you spent on a project and how much they are due to pay. This invoice serves as proof of income for you and as proof of the expense for them. Here's an example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;![enter image description here][1]&#xD;&#xA;[Source][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The important things are that need to be on the invoice are as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 1. Your business name and address details&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 2. The name and address of the company you are invoicing (and the contact name if you have one)&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 3. A unique invoice reference / number that will relate to this invoice only.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 4. A date for the invoice (which will generally be the date on which the invoice is created - or in accounting parlance, &quot;raised&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 5. A list of the products and / or services that you have provided, line by line, and the cost of each of these.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 6. A total amount for the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 7. The payment terms for the invoice (i.e. how long the customer has to pay)&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; In addition to this information the following is useful to also&#xD;&#xA;&gt; include on the invoice:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 8. Telephone / Fax contact numbers.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 9. Company email address.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 10. Customer Purchase Order Number - so they know which purchase order the invoice relates to if they are using an order management system.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 11. Details on how to pay, including bank account details for BACs / online payments.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you are VAT regsitered you must also include:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 12. The amount of VAT on each line of the invoice and the VAT Rate charged OR The total amount of VAT charged on the invoice, and the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; rate, if VAT applies to all items on the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 13. Your VAT Registration Number&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Finally, if you are a registered Limited company, you must include:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 14. Your Company Number&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 15. Your full registered company address.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above list was taken from [here][3].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The invoice is used as proof of income for your taxes and if you get audited, that's what you need to produce with your books.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/RjYLJ.jpg&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.ipixel.com.sg/blog/web-design/save-40-on-the-freelance-starter-kit-for-a-limited-time/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.itzbits.co.uk/business-articles/64/What-information-do-I-need-to-include-on-an-invoice.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7452" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2676" RevisionGUID="ab0fe638-0c14-4535-8c30-3c5b073c9bf1" CreationDate="2014-12-07T02:40:39.043" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/541422002624819200" />
  <row Id="7454" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2663" RevisionGUID="38a8c348-e361-4897-8ba8-59e75162790d" CreationDate="2014-12-07T04:19:49.820" UserId="75" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[101],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Stacey&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="7458" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2678" RevisionGUID="c3e6719d-6ad3-4887-8942-04190b60d513" CreationDate="2014-12-07T07:01:56.210" UserId="5533" Text="I have been working on my drawing skills for over a year now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yesterday, I received an email from a chap who saw an illustration I did and loved it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He asked if I wanted to design a tattoo design for him on similar lines. I would love to, and I'm lost over how to bring up the dreaded money talk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I know whether he's even willing to pay?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Help? :(" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7459" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2678" RevisionGUID="c3e6719d-6ad3-4887-8942-04190b60d513" CreationDate="2014-12-07T07:01:56.210" UserId="5533" Text="How do I bring up me charging for work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7460" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2678" RevisionGUID="c3e6719d-6ad3-4887-8942-04190b60d513" CreationDate="2014-12-07T07:01:56.210" UserId="5533" Text="|communication|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7461" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2679" RevisionGUID="d5089d00-1b65-4f58-b728-6aee5ececf33" CreationDate="2014-12-07T08:07:45.873" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="The money talk shouldn't be a 'dreaded' thing at all. It is absolutely fine for you to expect payment for your time and services, and as such is a important part of any business transaction. Any professional would charge for their time. Even if you don't consider yourself a professional - pretend. Conduct yourself as a professional.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's a reply that demonstrates this in a professional tone. Just assume that he's willing to pay and tell him how much it will cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Dear *his name*&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Thank you for showing interest in my services. I do offer tatoo&#xD;&#xA;&gt; designs, and this particular one would cost *amount*. Usually I charge&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *percent* up front and the rest when the final design is delivered. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Kind Regards,  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; *your name*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can add in whatever terms you want to use. Consider how many revisions the price includes - things like that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't know enough about the design he wants, then you can ask him for more detail before giving him a quote. If he is unhappy with the amount, you can negotiate a price in the middle that you are both happy with. If you're just starting out, you can charge less if you want - whatever you feel like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But don't work for free. You want the client to value you and value your work. What you charge for your work is the value you put on yourself and your time. Giving your work away is saying to the client that your time is worth nothing, and they'll treat you as such. You want them to treat you as a professional and respect you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7462" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2680" RevisionGUID="104244c2-35e6-4cdd-a5f5-98eb5dbc9c0e" CreationDate="2014-12-07T19:44:35.720" UserId="5537" Text="I managing several projects, sometimes do some work, ex. frontend or ux. I have great clients, they are listen and trust me. At same time I feel, that can relax and do not work day or more. It makes troubles with quality and deadlines, but I say client &quot;Sorry for delay, it is my fault and etc.&quot; and client trust me again. I think that I can make this again and again. I don't worry about money, I have enough for living, but I worry that it is small to make big expenses, like buy house or car. If it gets worse, of course I will begin to work better, but I do not want to wait for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How I can motivate myself to make more money and increase quality of my services?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7463" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2680" RevisionGUID="104244c2-35e6-4cdd-a5f5-98eb5dbc9c0e" CreationDate="2014-12-07T19:44:35.720" UserId="5537" Text="How motivate yourself earn more money?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7464" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2680" RevisionGUID="104244c2-35e6-4cdd-a5f5-98eb5dbc9c0e" CreationDate="2014-12-07T19:44:35.720" UserId="5537" Text="|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7465" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2681" RevisionGUID="b2f3f5b7-f33e-4674-82b2-298ef6fc8eed" CreationDate="2014-12-07T20:22:13.480" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="One thing to consider is that you aren't charging enough. If there is so much work that you can easily replace one client with a new one if they become unhappy,  you should be charging more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would you treat the client the same way if they were paying you double or triple the your current rate is now? You are are not being paid what you think you are worth, so you are not performing your best.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you charge more, you will work harder for the client because (1) finding a replacement is more difficult (2) they expect a higher standard for more money* and (3) more income is nice to have and good motivation to work hard.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;\* Theoretically.  May not always be true in practice. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7469" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2492" RevisionGUID="e2b8891e-24d0-41c2-9303-b8298c255319" CreationDate="2014-12-08T02:40:54.370" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/541784454336094208" />
  <row Id="7471" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2684" RevisionGUID="92b9f088-8b59-4f90-bd58-13ac1ef6ae47" CreationDate="2014-12-08T07:43:56.063" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="Consulting and programming services are not subject to sales tax in Pennsylvania as far as I understand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;According to the [Pennsylvania Department of Revenue website][1], tangible goods and specific services require sales tax.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Extract from [How do I know which items or services are subject to Pennsylvania Sales Tax?][2] &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Sales and Use tax is imposed on the retail sale, consumption, rental&#xD;&#xA;&gt; or use of tangible personal property in Pennsylvania (unless purchaser&#xD;&#xA;&gt; is exempt). The tax is also imposed on certain services relating to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; such property and on specific business services.  Please review&#xD;&#xA;&gt; publication REV-717, Retailer's Information Guide, for more&#xD;&#xA;&gt; information.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Generally, the purchase of an item by the ultimate consumer is subject&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to sales tax. Likewise, services performed on taxable items are&#xD;&#xA;&gt; subject to sales tax, along with some specifically designated services&#xD;&#xA;&gt; set forth in the law.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The list of specifically designated services are mentioned on the page [Is there a list of services subject to PA sales tax?][3]:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Following is a list of taxable services in Pennsylvania.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 1. Printing or imprinting of tangible personal property of another.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 2. Washing, cleaning, waxing, polishing or lubricating of motor vehicles.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 3. Inspecting motor vehicles as required by law.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 4. Repairing, altering, mending, pressing, fitting, dyeing, laundering, dry-cleaning or cleaning tangible personal property other than wearing apparel or shoes.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 5. Applying or installing tangible personal property as a repair or replacement part of other tangible personal property.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 6. Lobbying services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 7. Adjustment services, collection services or credit reporting services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 8. Secretarial or editing services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 9. Disinfecting or pest control services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 10. Building maintenance or cleaning services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 11. Employment agency services or help supply services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 12. Lawn care services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 13. Self-storage services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 14. Mobile telecommunications services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 15. Premium cable and video programming services including streaming of videos.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 16. Non-residential electric, steam, and gas services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 17. Intrastate and interstate telecommunications services billed to PA service addresses except subscriber line charges and basic local residential phone service for residential use and payphone service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://revenue-pa.custhelp.com&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://revenue-pa.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/203/~/how-do-i-know-which-items-or-services-are-subject-to-pennsylvania-sales-tax%3F&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://revenue-pa.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2825/~/is-there-a-list-of-services-subject-to-pa-sales-tax%3F" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7472" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2684" RevisionGUID="7d74223d-c42d-4106-9063-08ca181cade9" CreationDate="2014-12-08T07:49:07.893" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="deleted 80 characters in body" Text="Consulting and programming services are not subject to sales tax in Pennsylvania as far as I understand,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;According to the [Pennsylvania Department of Revenue website][1], tangible goods and specific services require sales tax.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Extract from [How do I know which items or services are subject to Pennsylvania Sales Tax?][2] (emplasis mine)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Generally, the purchase of an item by the ultimate consumer is subject&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to sales tax. Likewise, services performed on taxable items are&#xD;&#xA;&gt; subject to sales tax, along with some *specifically designated services*&#xD;&#xA;&gt; set forth in the law.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The list of specifically designated services are mentioned on the page [Is there a list of services subject to PA sales tax?][3]:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Following is a list of taxable services in Pennsylvania.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 1. Printing or imprinting of tangible personal property of another.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 2. Washing, cleaning, waxing, polishing or lubricating of motor vehicles.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 3. Inspecting motor vehicles as required by law.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 4. Repairing, altering, mending, pressing, fitting, dyeing, laundering, dry-cleaning or cleaning tangible personal property other than wearing apparel or shoes.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 5. Applying or installing tangible personal property as a repair or replacement part of other tangible personal property.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 6. Lobbying services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 7. Adjustment services, collection services or credit reporting services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 8. Secretarial or editing services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 9. Disinfecting or pest control services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 10. Building maintenance or cleaning services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 11. Employment agency services or help supply services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 12. Lawn care services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 13. Self-storage services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 14. Mobile telecommunications services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 15. Premium cable and video programming services including streaming of videos.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 16. Non-residential electric, steam, and gas services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 17. Intrastate and interstate telecommunications services billed to PA service addresses except subscriber line charges and basic local residential phone service for residential use and payphone service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since consulting and programming aren't on this list, my understanding is that you're in the clear, however I don't have a complete understanding of the services you offer. You're in a better position to judge if your business falls into one of the above categories.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://revenue-pa.custhelp.com&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://revenue-pa.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/203/~/how-do-i-know-which-items-or-services-are-subject-to-pennsylvania-sales-tax%3F&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://revenue-pa.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2825/~/is-there-a-list-of-services-subject-to-pa-sales-tax%3F" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7473" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2684" RevisionGUID="8fd9bd2a-a155-4b37-a43d-6d86f866c6d7" CreationDate="2014-12-08T07:56:56.850" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 60 characters in body" Text="**Consulting and programming services are not subject to sales tax in Pennsylvania as far as I understand, however you're in a better position to judge than I am.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;According to the [Pennsylvania Department of Revenue website][1], tangible goods, services on those goods, and specific other services require sales tax.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Extract from [How do I know which items or services are subject to Pennsylvania Sales Tax?][2] (emplasis mine)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Generally, the purchase of an item by the ultimate consumer is subject&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to sales tax. Likewise, services performed on taxable items are&#xD;&#xA;&gt; subject to sales tax, along with some *specifically designated services*&#xD;&#xA;&gt; set forth in the law.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The list of specifically designated services are mentioned on the page [Is there a list of services subject to PA sales tax?][3]:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Following is a list of taxable services in Pennsylvania.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 1. Printing or imprinting of tangible personal property of another.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 2. Washing, cleaning, waxing, polishing or lubricating of motor vehicles.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 3. Inspecting motor vehicles as required by law.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 4. Repairing, altering, mending, pressing, fitting, dyeing, laundering, dry-cleaning or cleaning tangible personal property other than wearing apparel or shoes.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 5. Applying or installing tangible personal property as a repair or replacement part of other tangible personal property.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 6. Lobbying services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 7. Adjustment services, collection services or credit reporting services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 8. Secretarial or editing services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 9. Disinfecting or pest control services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 10. Building maintenance or cleaning services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 11. Employment agency services or help supply services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 12. Lawn care services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 13. Self-storage services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 14. Mobile telecommunications services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 15. Premium cable and video programming services including streaming of videos.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 16. Non-residential electric, steam, and gas services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 17. Intrastate and interstate telecommunications services billed to PA service addresses except subscriber line charges and basic local residential phone service for residential use and payphone service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since consulting and programming aren't on this list, my understanding is that you're in the clear, however I don't have a complete understanding of the services you offer. You're in a better position to judge if your business falls into one of the above categories.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://revenue-pa.custhelp.com&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://revenue-pa.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/203/~/how-do-i-know-which-items-or-services-are-subject-to-pennsylvania-sales-tax%3F&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://revenue-pa.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2825/~/is-there-a-list-of-services-subject-to-pa-sales-tax%3F" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7474" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2685" RevisionGUID="91fe6826-afbd-4ecd-9c34-240a6bf82b75" CreationDate="2014-12-08T11:26:52.813" UserId="517" Text="Unlike Stacey's reply, maybe you are like me and you charge enough, but have periods when you simply cannot sit and do tasks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is the case, then **the only thing that works in my case** is to set some aim, estimate its cost and then do as much as you can to achieve it as soon as possible. For example, your wife wants a new car and if you sell her current car you are in lack of $5000. Set your aim to earn that money in 2 months or less, and you will probably succeed in it. Just be careful to find something you really need in the next month or two, otherwise if you set a goal like &quot;buy a new car in 1 year&quot;, it will not motivate you enough. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other solution, or additional one, is to set your monthly minimum. Like $1000 and no matter what, you have to earn that. If you earn more, OK. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If found these 2 solution to work in my case, while the first one being better that the second one. I also found a good way to have:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. work time each day at the same time&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. work room (don't do anything else in it but work&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. work music (I found a good relaxation music, but later found out that I have to find out a new one with each new project&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. work computer. if this is not possible, work desktop is mandatory.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7475" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2676" RevisionGUID="7e2e4364-613d-4db6-8c2c-215f102bd12c" CreationDate="2014-12-08T11:28:38.027" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="clarified title" Text="How do I prove my source of income?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7476" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2676" RevisionGUID="7e2e4364-613d-4db6-8c2c-215f102bd12c" CreationDate="2014-12-08T11:28:38.027" Comment="Proposed by 152 approved by 1018, 517 edit id of 380" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7479" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1348" RevisionGUID="a38edbbc-f6d9-4860-89ca-938eefe05e6a" CreationDate="2014-12-08T19:38:35.500" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="edited title" Text="Do I charge sales tax on consulting and programming in PA, USA?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7480" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1348" RevisionGUID="a38edbbc-f6d9-4860-89ca-938eefe05e6a" CreationDate="2014-12-08T19:38:35.500" Comment="Proposed by 152 approved by 517, -1 edit id of 383" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7481" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1348" RevisionGUID="1dafdbe7-a33d-4c66-b321-9fa43e17852e" CreationDate="2014-12-08T19:38:35.500" UserId="1943" Comment="edited title" Text="Do I Charge SalesTax on Consulting and Programming in PA, USA?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7483" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2541" RevisionGUID="e0c7a9e1-8f0f-44b7-a58f-1f50e843b222" CreationDate="2014-12-08T23:52:07.633" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="edited title" Text="How much should I charge for graphic design and how?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7484" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2541" RevisionGUID="e0c7a9e1-8f0f-44b7-a58f-1f50e843b222" CreationDate="2014-12-08T23:52:07.633" Comment="Proposed by 152 approved by 517, 1018 edit id of 382" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7485" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2672" RevisionGUID="22478fcf-03bb-403e-bdb1-e2310ab2a83b" CreationDate="2014-12-08T23:52:25.700" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="edited title" Text="Do you charge for a client for your time if they don't like the work or at least they say they don't?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7486" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2672" RevisionGUID="22478fcf-03bb-403e-bdb1-e2310ab2a83b" CreationDate="2014-12-08T23:52:25.700" Comment="Proposed by 152 approved by 517, 1018 edit id of 381" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7487" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2678" RevisionGUID="42fdaafc-03f3-44fe-9728-6f5392986af4" CreationDate="2014-12-09T05:43:04.073" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/542192684652572672" />
  <row Id="7488" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1800" RevisionGUID="66a27e4d-c518-419a-b286-242a174541b8" CreationDate="2014-12-09T06:37:35.847" UserId="2766" Comment="Oh wow, freaky coincidence: I JUST checked my biz license today b/c I registered in Dec 2y ago, and discovered it's 4 not 2.  And then got upvoted on this old answer out of the blue." Text="Absolutely.  The technical term for doing so is called being a &quot;sole proprietor&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Sole proprietorship&quot; refers to how your business is &quot;organized&quot; as per the IRS.  A sole proprietor may use their own name for conducting business, or may register a business name with their municipality if they want. (My town registers business names for &lt;strike&gt;two&lt;/strike&gt; four years for $60.  With the resulting document, you can get a bank account in your business' name.)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7489" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1699" RevisionGUID="c60bec96-bdac-4e9d-93fd-b055049a141f" CreationDate="2014-12-09T07:24:48.727" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="Added proof." Text="The [USA Small Business Administration website][1] talks about the various possible business types, one being the Sole Proprietor. Here's an extract of the definition of the Sole Proprietor, from [here][2] (emphasis mine):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A sole proprietorship is the simplest and most common structure chosen&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to start a business. It is an unincorporated business owned and run by&#xD;&#xA;&gt; one individual with no distinction between the business and you, the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; owner. You are entitled to all profits and are responsible for all&#xD;&#xA;&gt; your business’s debts, losses and liabilities.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; *You do not have to take any formal action to form a sole&#xD;&#xA;&gt; proprietorship.* As long as you are the only owner, this status&#xD;&#xA;&gt; automatically comes from your business activities. In fact, you may&#xD;&#xA;&gt; already own one without knowing it. If you are a freelance writer, for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; example, you are a sole proprietor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are automatically a Sole Proprietor in the USA. As a result, you are free to invoice clients as necessary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are reasons to register as a business. Some people register a company so that they may sell shares to potential investors. Some people register a company because of the limited liability benefits that come along with. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Neither of those are necessary, though. If you're just starting out, there is no problem delaying business registration until you have reason to. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.sba.gov/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.sba.gov/content/sole-proprietorship-0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7490" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2668" RevisionGUID="800b8532-9bcf-4a7f-b7c4-d5baf0237da1" CreationDate="2014-12-09T13:01:36.197" UserId="5516" Comment="add amazon example" Text="I like the way Scott answers defines what wireframes are in simple terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, it might still have very little meaning to the customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like many new things, because if you never show an example, the customer might understand/interpret it &quot;his own way&quot;. For instance, when presenting the wireframe to the customer, this person will think it is &quot;the design&quot; (whatever it means for the customer).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hence, I feel that the best way to explain is to simply show a past project (or fake project) going through all the steps: from ideas/brainstorming, to specs, to wireframes, to more specs, to updated wireframes, to photoshop, to code implementation.&#xD;&#xA;Each of the steps should be illustrated by the relevant documents (screenshots).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also like to emphasize something like &quot;Keep in mind that the mockup phase is as important as the coding phase, if not more, as it sets the foundations for all the rest of the project.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As mentioned by Scott, this should also be part of the contract with statement such as &quot;changes requested at a later date which deviate from this backbone may incur additional costs and time to complete (if going over the agreed maximum number of revisions)&quot;. You can kindly remind the client of this statement, explaining that it protects both parties from deviations in the project (for the client: unexpected/unjustified overtime hence bill. for you: change of spec in complete contradiction with vague UX/UI requirements).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;### Here is an example for Amazon's product details page&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Mockup&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;![Mockup: Amazon - product details page][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Design&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;![Design: Amazon - product details page][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/QFzwk.png&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/2yRyh.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7491" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2680" RevisionGUID="557f848e-2e65-4f0a-93c7-efa67d1033f8" CreationDate="2014-12-09T14:43:04.137" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/542328580420943872" />
  <row Id="7492" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2499" RevisionGUID="bb1a0508-3305-476b-80b9-d0363c9affdd" CreationDate="2014-12-09T17:43:04.410" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/542373880317620224" />
  <row Id="7493" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2686" RevisionGUID="c41a9216-9f15-4cc4-9368-c13d6f7184fe" CreationDate="2014-12-09T18:57:19.257" UserId="5552" Text="I'm a freelance web developer who works with foreign clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have worked with multiple clients , you can say me newbie to this, not in web development field but in this freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm working with a client for a long time and never missed any deadlines nor made any mistakes on any project. he was nice at start and it is getting worse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nowadays, after each project completion , he wants to add things in his project which developed by my for free. I usually provide a month free bug fixing and support via email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, i'm looking for some advice to what to do in this situation and how other freelancers handles it. just needs some advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7494" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2686" RevisionGUID="c41a9216-9f15-4cc4-9368-c13d6f7184fe" CreationDate="2014-12-09T18:57:19.257" UserId="5552" Text="Client Wants Free things for project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7495" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2686" RevisionGUID="c41a9216-9f15-4cc4-9368-c13d6f7184fe" CreationDate="2014-12-09T18:57:19.257" UserId="5552" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7496" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2687" RevisionGUID="d3074ddd-94ab-4b42-9edc-c200aaeff443" CreationDate="2014-12-09T22:51:35.960" UserId="5427" Text="The first best thing you can do is make the client agree to a straightforward and clear contract. Specify what services are included and what ones will be additional charges.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do this, from now on you can politely, but firmly, say something like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;I'm sorry to hear about that, I would be happy to fix it. As a reminder my included support window expired last week so any addition support will be charged at $___/hour&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no reason you should be working for free!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7497" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2688" RevisionGUID="fc8a7e61-559a-4c4a-90e4-eb3e4548f15c" CreationDate="2014-12-10T04:49:39.710" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/37317/handling-online-transactions-for-services-rendered" />
  <row Id="7498" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2689" RevisionGUID="65c1028f-4e92-4fee-808b-43098f3108d7" CreationDate="2014-12-10T04:49:39.710" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/37317/handling-online-transactions-for-services-rendered/37322#37322" />
  <row Id="7499" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2689" RevisionGUID="a30717e6-e262-4c6c-9777-37015f5c2cd2" CreationDate="2014-12-09T20:09:47.163" UserDisplayName="HLGEM" Text="Depending on the country you and the client are in, it is possible that you could take them to small claims court. You generally don't need a lawyer there and the individual amounts look small enough. I would take the paperwork you described above, a printout of whatever informed you the payment was disputed and a screenshot of the active website (and a way if possible to pull up the active website). Make sure you note what fees if any you are being charged by PayPal for the disputed amounts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of concern to me is that suddenly you have multiple clients doing this. Have you checked to see if their sites are actually working? Perhaps something has changed and they all broke." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7500" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2688" RevisionGUID="26f402a5-9fab-47ad-8ae1-63c312c046c3" CreationDate="2014-12-09T19:43:30.857" UserDisplayName="ICJ" Text="In the past i have had little to no issues with receiving pay through paypal for my web design or development services. For some reason i have had close to 10 recent transactions involving a service ( design or development ) and each one of them are now within disputes. I have not had any bad interactions with these individuals. They have contacted me, purchased a pre-created site, or design. I assisted with everything from getting the site online to small bug fixes ( usually server plugins etc. ) then i wake up and the Paypal payment is disputed and the client removes and blocks me from Skype, and will not take any of my emails. To top it off apparently Paypal does not cover service related transactions ( I should have read their terms ) now i am left with $4,250 worth of disputes. I always make it a point to withdraw the funds from Paypal once i receive them so my Paypal balance is currently in a negative state. My questions are as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anyone else experienced something similar? What was the solution? I have Contracts from each of the client they are signed via Adobe Echosign. I also have the backups of the final deliverables for each client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a recommended payment platform to avoid all of this? I am considering bank transfers as long as it is secure. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What options do i have to have this cleared and force responsibility of payment onto my clients. It would be a nightmare to have to pay for legal fees, Paypal and the other fees that come into play.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7501" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2688" RevisionGUID="26f402a5-9fab-47ad-8ae1-63c312c046c3" CreationDate="2014-12-09T19:43:30.857" UserDisplayName="ICJ" Text="Handling Online Transactions for Services Rendered" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7502" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2688" RevisionGUID="26f402a5-9fab-47ad-8ae1-63c312c046c3" CreationDate="2014-12-09T19:43:30.857" UserDisplayName="ICJ" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7503" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2688" RevisionGUID="6924b86e-8b24-4a1d-b2a3-07af44980475" CreationDate="2014-12-10T04:54:15.570" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 128 characters in body; edited tags" Text="In the past I have had little to no issues with receiving payments through PayPal for my web design or development services. For some reason, I have had close to 10 recent transactions involving a service (design or development), and each one of them are now within disputes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have not had any bad interactions with these individuals. They have contacted me, purchased a pre-created site, or design. I assisted with everything from getting the site online to small bug fixes (usually server plugins, etc.), then I wake up and the `PayPal payment is disputed` message, and the client removes and blocks me from Skype and emails.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To top it off apparently PayPal does not cover service related transactions - I should have read their terms. I am now left with $4,250 worth of disputes. I always make it a point to withdraw the funds from PayPal once I receive them, so my PayPal balance is currently in a negative state. My questions are as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anyone else experienced something similar? What was the solution? I have Contracts from each of the client they are signed via Adobe Echosign. I also have the backups of the final deliverables for each client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What options do I have to have this cleared and force responsibility of payment onto my clients. It would be a nightmare to have to pay for legal fees, PayPal and the other fees that come into play." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7504" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2688" RevisionGUID="6924b86e-8b24-4a1d-b2a3-07af44980475" CreationDate="2014-12-10T04:54:15.570" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 128 characters in body; edited tags" Text="|payment-terms|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7505" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2690" RevisionGUID="2a76fe0b-9d9b-4b1c-af88-0b49e398d1bc" CreationDate="2014-12-10T14:05:54.733" UserId="5555" Text="I'm in Amsterdam. I currently have a QA engineer employment zith a company that I like, but that I think they could pay me more.&#xD;&#xA;I've been contacted for a freelancer QA engineer by a headhunter, for a new company, also in Amsterdam.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've read about &quot;disguised employment&quot; and heard about risks and big costs. The salary offered for the freelance job is 425 euros per day, which should be around 8500 per month. That is **3 times** the gross salary that I have at the moment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like some advices about the risks and taxes. Is it really worth it, or will I take a path full of problems and ambushes?&#xD;&#xA;I would consider my engineer skills to be somewhere between junior and intermediate, and I have roughly 70% of the knowledge they are asking in the job description, but they see very interested in me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once I will have deduced all the costs (taxes, insurances, etc.) from the 8500 euros, will I have really more money that I currently earn?&#xD;&#xA;The same company also offers me a standard 1 year employment contract at about the same salary that I have now, so this huge gross freelancer salary seems suspicious to me. Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7506" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2690" RevisionGUID="2a76fe0b-9d9b-4b1c-af88-0b49e398d1bc" CreationDate="2014-12-10T14:05:54.733" UserId="5555" Text="Normal employee vs freelance employer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7507" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2690" RevisionGUID="2a76fe0b-9d9b-4b1c-af88-0b49e398d1bc" CreationDate="2014-12-10T14:05:54.733" UserId="5555" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7508" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2690" RevisionGUID="1a031bd7-d46d-4e26-99f1-5bf7247a8980" CreationDate="2014-12-10T16:12:31.250" UserId="517" Comment="edited body" Text="I'm in Amsterdam. I currently have a QA engineer employment with a company that I like, but that I think they could pay me more.&#xD;&#xA;I've been contacted for a freelancer QA engineer by a headhunter, for a new company, also in Amsterdam.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've read about &quot;disguised employment&quot; and heard about risks and big costs. The salary offered for the freelance job is 425 euros per day, which should be around 8500 per month. That is **3 times** the gross salary that I have at the moment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like some advices about the risks and taxes. Is it really worth it, or will I take a path full of problems and ambushes?&#xD;&#xA;I would consider my engineer skills to be somewhere between junior and intermediate, and I have roughly 70% of the knowledge they are asking in the job description, but they see very interested in me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once I will have deduced all the costs (taxes, insurances, etc.) from the 8500 euros, will I have really more money that I currently earn?&#xD;&#xA;The same company also offers me a standard 1 year employment contract at about the same salary that I have now, so this huge gross freelancer salary seems suspicious to me. Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7509" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2687" RevisionGUID="8719bd13-a37f-48e1-9a05-2825a339dffe" CreationDate="2014-12-10T18:17:47.470" UserId="5427" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="The first best thing you can do is make the client agree to a straightforward and clear contract. Specify what services are included and what ones will be additional charges.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do this, from now on you can politely, but firmly, say something like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;I'm sorry to hear about that, I would be happy to fix it. As a reminder my included support window expired last week so any additional support will be charged at $___/hour&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no reason you should be working for free!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7510" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2691" RevisionGUID="5f7787b5-4b45-4501-9915-4c93dc7bcef1" CreationDate="2014-12-10T18:59:29.497" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="If you're at all unsure about the relationship between yourself and a client, you can ask the Netherlands Tax Service for a Declaration of Independent Contractor Status (*Verklaring arbeidsrelatie*, or VAR). This is a clarification from the Tax Service which tells you what they consider your relationship with the client to be. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a Fictitious Employment (*Fictieve dienstbetrekking*), which is where there is no formal employment agreement/contract but the relationship still behaves as in a way similar to an employment one. This is mentioned [here][1] and is quoted below in English (google translate) and Dutch&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If there is no real employment, the employment relationship is between&#xD;&#xA;&gt; client and contractor (and even the helpers of the contractor) are&#xD;&#xA;&gt; fictitious employment. That means that you treat the employment&#xD;&#xA;&gt; relationship as a true employment relationship and that you are the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; deductions from wages must apply the same rules as real employments.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Als er geen sprake is van een echte dienstbetrekking, kan de&#xD;&#xA;&gt; arbeidsrelatie tussen opdrachtgever en opdrachtnemer (en zelfs de&#xD;&#xA;&gt; hulpen van de opdrachtnemer) een fictieve dienstbetrekking zijn.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This means that even if there is no formal agreement, your client may still be required to deduct your taxes if the government considers this to be fictitious employment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best way of knowing what the relationship will be is to ask. You can apply for a VAR on the Tax Service website [here][2] (in Dutch). This is the only way to know 100% what the relationship is. The VAR is also given to the client to show that they are obligated to take off taxes for you. The VAR will also tell you more about what your tax responsibility is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is more info on the VAR [here][3]. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.belastingdienst.nl/bibliotheek/handboeken/html/boeken/HL/stappenplan-stap_1_nagaan_of_er_een_dienstbetrekking_is.html#HL-01.1.2&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/bldcontentnl/themaoverstijgend/programmas_en_formulieren/aanvraag_verklaring_arbeidsrelatie_online_formulier&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.belastingdienst.nl/bibliotheek/handboeken/html/boeken/HL/stappenplan-stap_1_nagaan_of_er_een_dienstbetrekking_is.html#HL-01.1.6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7511" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2691" RevisionGUID="a736a069-a53c-4aa8-9075-c5d15de3eeda" CreationDate="2014-12-10T19:05:53.823" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 17 characters in body" Text="If you're at all unsure about the relationship between yourself and a client, you can ask the Netherlands Tax Service for a Declaration of Independent Contractor Status (*Verklaring arbeidsrelatie*, or VAR). This is a clarification from the Tax Service which tells you what they consider your relationship with the client to be. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a Fictitious Employment (*Fictieve dienstbetrekking*), which is where there is no formal employment agreement/contract but the relationship still behaves as in a way similar to an employment one. This is mentioned [here][1] and is quoted below in English (google translate) and Dutch&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If there is no real employment, the employment relationship is between&#xD;&#xA;&gt; client and contractor (and even the helpers of the contractor) are&#xD;&#xA;&gt; fictitious employment. That means that you treat the employment&#xD;&#xA;&gt; relationship as a true employment relationship and that you are the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; deductions from wages must apply the same rules as real employments.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Als er geen sprake is van een echte dienstbetrekking, kan de&#xD;&#xA;&gt; arbeidsrelatie tussen opdrachtgever en opdrachtnemer (en zelfs de&#xD;&#xA;&gt; hulpen van de opdrachtnemer) een fictieve dienstbetrekking zijn.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My understanding of this is that even if there is no formal agreement, your client may still be required to deduct your taxes if the government considers this to be fictitious employment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best way of knowing what the relationship will be is to ask. You can apply for a VAR on the Tax Service website [here][2] (in Dutch). This is the only way to know 100% what the relationship is. The VAR can be given to the client to show that they are obligated to take off taxes for you. The VAR will also tell you more about what your tax responsibility is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is more info on the VAR [here][3]. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.belastingdienst.nl/bibliotheek/handboeken/html/boeken/HL/stappenplan-stap_1_nagaan_of_er_een_dienstbetrekking_is.html#HL-01.1.2&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/bldcontentnl/themaoverstijgend/programmas_en_formulieren/aanvraag_verklaring_arbeidsrelatie_online_formulier&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.belastingdienst.nl/bibliotheek/handboeken/html/boeken/HL/stappenplan-stap_1_nagaan_of_er_een_dienstbetrekking_is.html#HL-01.1.6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7512" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2557" RevisionGUID="3119ef5e-9ab2-48e5-ae3b-4b15a51024c1" CreationDate="2014-12-10T19:41:05.847" UserDisplayName="user5221" Comment="deleted 10 characters in body" Text="If I were to sign a freelancing contract with a person (client) from another country,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;which country's jurisdiction should we agree upon?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I **don't** want to agree upon his country's law and he doesn't want to agree upon my country's law. Is there a neutral law that can be used here?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- What should we put under the &quot;law goverance&quot; section?&#xD;&#xA;- What happens if we leave that section out altogether?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7513" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2692" RevisionGUID="314123ac-8f0c-4f83-9a9a-95fafb14b123" CreationDate="2014-12-11T12:05:03.013" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/6332/buying-a-software-tool-should-i-buy-myself-or-should-the-client-do-so" />
  <row Id="7514" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2692" RevisionGUID="4b778f1b-1eac-42c4-aa47-99a8938717f7" CreationDate="2014-12-11T11:59:33.527" UserId="5570" UserDisplayName="vbncmx" Text="I'm working on a project as a freelancer. The project is already mature enough and the client wants to localize. I found a software tool on the web that will speed up localization greatly, but it costs money. I have never faced such question before. What is the right thing to do - buy the tool myself or ask my client to do so?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7515" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2692" RevisionGUID="4b778f1b-1eac-42c4-aa47-99a8938717f7" CreationDate="2014-12-11T11:59:33.527" UserId="5570" UserDisplayName="vbncmx" Text="Buying a software tool - should I buy myself or should the client do so" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7516" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2692" RevisionGUID="4b778f1b-1eac-42c4-aa47-99a8938717f7" CreationDate="2014-12-11T11:59:33.527" UserId="5570" UserDisplayName="vbncmx" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7517" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2693" RevisionGUID="2bad54f1-b18f-4e32-a113-b5906eca6599" CreationDate="2014-12-11T13:10:20.753" UserId="5560" Text="Since this is my first time developing iOS application for client, so I don't know how much should I charge from them. And how long should I give them a free maintenance?&#xD;&#xA;Here's a features of the app:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;+Client site application&#xD;&#xA;-Support all iOS Devices&#xD;&#xA;-Show all products of the shop&#xD;&#xA;-Show location with map direction between current location and each store&#xD;&#xA;-User Login and Registration for online ordering + SMS Verification ($0.013/sms)&#xD;&#xA;-Online ordering: &#xD;&#xA; - Select the topping of each product (drinking), size, sugar level....&#xD;&#xA; - Add to Cart&#xD;&#xA; - Checkout&#xD;&#xA; - After done, admin will receive real time message that new order has been added.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;+Admin site application(iOS)&#xD;&#xA;-Add,edit,delete information of everything in the app.&#xD;&#xA;-Receive real time notification and message from client for every new ordering&#xD;&#xA;-Pushing notification to users&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And they give me 1.5 month for developing and 0.5 months for testing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope I can get any advice from you guys. I do appreciate your answers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7518" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2693" RevisionGUID="2bad54f1-b18f-4e32-a113-b5906eca6599" CreationDate="2014-12-11T13:10:20.753" UserId="5560" Text="How much should I charge for iOS Application?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7519" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2693" RevisionGUID="2bad54f1-b18f-4e32-a113-b5906eca6599" CreationDate="2014-12-11T13:10:20.753" UserId="5560" Text="|contracts|software|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7520" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2693" RevisionGUID="69fd1de0-2972-4023-864b-17bb8f1bbd1a" CreationDate="2014-12-11T13:20:09.810" UserId="5560" Comment="Improved formatting" Text="Since this is my first time developing iOS application for client, so I don't know how much should I charge from them. And how long should I give them a free maintenance? (Salary Rate as iOS App Programmer in Cambodia 500$-$1000+)&#xD;&#xA;Here's a features of the app:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;+Client site application&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-Support all iOS Devices&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-Show all products of the shop&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-Show location with map direction between current location and each store&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-User Login and Registration for online ordering + SMS Verification ($0.013/sms)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-Online ordering: &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;- Select the topping of each product (drinking), size, sugar level....&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;- Add to Cart&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;- Checkout&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;- After done, admin will receive real time message that new order has been added.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;+Admin site application(iOS)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-Add,edit,delete information of everything in the app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-Receive real time notification and message from client for every new ordering&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-Pushing notification to users&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And they give me 1.5 month for developing and 0.5 months for testing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope I can get any advice from you guys. I do appreciate your answers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7521" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2693" RevisionGUID="69fd1de0-2972-4023-864b-17bb8f1bbd1a" CreationDate="2014-12-11T13:20:09.810" UserId="5560" Comment="Improved formatting" Text="|contracts|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7522" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2694" RevisionGUID="acc5ebb8-1034-4f98-bd93-6440db5f439a" CreationDate="2014-12-11T17:53:25.167" UserId="1818" Text="While the situation you describe provides a desirable outcome for you, you need to look at it from the client's perspective.  What would be advantageous for them in converting your team into employees as part of a branch office?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they were to open a branch office in a new country, they immediately need to develop expertise in corporate, tax and employment law in your country.  Even if you would try to take care of those details, the corporation is still ultimately responsible and must have the expertise.  If they don't have a formal business presence in your country already, this can be a significant hurdle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you expect there to be some financial benefit too your team becoming a branch office for them?  Would their total cost: salary, benefits, facilities, etc., be cheaper than what you are charging now?  Otherwise, they are better off just continuing to pay your invoices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, if you want this to happen, you need to look at it from their perspective and figure out how to address those concerns to make this an attractive option for them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7523" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2695" RevisionGUID="d0dbbeb9-3644-4787-99aa-de80d9a3adbf" CreationDate="2014-12-11T20:02:24.607" UserId="5564" Text="Firstly congrats on the project. In terms of quoting a figure, there is the reality that you will be doing more than just the app if it gets adopted by the company so the opportunity could also be in the long term (updates, admin, trouble shooting, new versions). It also depends if they are providing you with the marketing &amp; artworks, that tends to be an opportunity or a pitfall depending on how you manage expectations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would say estimate how many hours you think you will need to finish the project, add 30% time and then put your hour rate. That would be an ideal starting point, from there you can build in the longer term opportunities like documentation and user manuals, support, updates etc. If the app gets used, you will get a call :p&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope I haven't complicated it ;)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7524" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2696" RevisionGUID="7d6f1976-f4af-4a71-bd69-df13f9ba03b9" CreationDate="2014-12-11T20:08:04.133" UserId="5564" Text="How big a difference is the return? Lets say tool costs $2,000 and the project is billed at $1,000 then client should cover cost as it is specific to his project, definitely so if its a one off task.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If on the other hand you think the tool can bee used again with other projects and the such then I would say cover the costs so you avoid using a clients tool for another clients project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7525" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2693" RevisionGUID="3c6e4995-c4a0-4e2d-963e-3bb60cb2c701" CreationDate="2014-12-11T20:17:17.007" UserId="75" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[1036],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Stacey&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="7526" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2697" RevisionGUID="70255e4d-7665-409a-9a6d-eedfe7131c86" CreationDate="2014-12-12T01:18:06.813" UserId="4104" Text="The two answers above both include good suggestions. It has also been helpful for me to be more realistic about my productivity. As levelnis discusses in an answer to the question at the url below, I find it difficult to bill more than 6 hours day a day when I'm doing intense coding. On the other hand, if I have a day full of simpler tasks I can be productive for 8-10 hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2042/how-many-hours-a-man-day-really-is-programming &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for me it's been a combination of good habits and monthly income goals, as Peter MV describes in his answer, being realistic about my productivity, and increasing my rate for coding, as outlined in Stacey's answer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7527" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2698" RevisionGUID="618bcbb9-f125-4d37-9064-050939ce1dee" CreationDate="2014-12-12T13:39:05.000" UserId="1018" Text="I am not an accountant and I am not familiar with tax law in Germany but:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as freelancer.com / elance.com properly account for any VAT that is being charged on the invoices, then their invoices can likely be used.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, elance.com does seem to have this capability for some countries including Germany but you may need to set this up in your account. For details see: http://help.elance.com/hc/en-us/articles/203735283-How-do-I-use-VAT-on-Elance-&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7528" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2698" RevisionGUID="d82234e8-e832-4dce-a15e-70b2560cf55c" CreationDate="2014-12-12T13:44:52.277" UserId="1018" Comment="added 191 characters in body" Text="I am not an accountant and I am not familiar with tax law in Germany but:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as freelancer.com / elance.com properly account for any VAT that is being charged on the invoices, then their invoices can likely be used.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, elance.com does seem to have this capability for some countries including Germany but you may need to set this up in your account. For details see: http://help.elance.com/hc/en-us/articles/203735283-How-do-I-use-VAT-on-Elance-&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As with any tax or legal question, you should really be checking with someone who is professionally qualified to answer and who is familiar with the tax and legal system in your local area." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7529" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2699" RevisionGUID="d6fb1f80-1e00-4efb-af1d-fcefeae1d48e" CreationDate="2014-12-12T15:53:27.043" UserId="-1" Comment="from https://freelancing.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/218/freelancer-turned-into-an-agency" />
  <row Id="7530" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2699" RevisionGUID="ba7f4ea8-57f5-4458-8d94-64056c0966a7" CreationDate="2014-12-12T15:18:22.833" UserId="5568" Text="I have a start-up project and I found a freelancer on oDesk.com. The freelancer agreed to my terms and conditions that she would work on commission base. All communication went well and when I requested that she can start making sales of my product she sent me an email saying that she is an agency and she can get me right candidates or team for my project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone has any experience with this? Is there any risk to use an agency instead of a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7531" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2699" RevisionGUID="ba7f4ea8-57f5-4458-8d94-64056c0966a7" CreationDate="2014-12-12T15:18:22.833" UserId="5568" Text="Freelancer turned into an agency" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7532" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2699" RevisionGUID="ba7f4ea8-57f5-4458-8d94-64056c0966a7" CreationDate="2014-12-12T15:18:22.833" UserId="5568" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7533" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2700" RevisionGUID="0ce304fa-23c8-4474-8892-c88ae39ba454" CreationDate="2014-12-12T16:07:32.720" UserId="517" Text="I personally avoid agencies for multiple reasons:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You work with 3rd party person&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. you never know how experienced person will be given your project&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. They state one price, and then say higher price for senior worker&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. I had bad experiences with them and like one-on-one approach&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, there are other people who do not mind agencies so I suggest you ask for a direct contact with this person who will work on your project (skype, phone, etc.). This will speed up communication. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In case you do not like that person, IMMEDIATELY ask for another person. Don't wait too long. Agency has dozens of workers on disposal, and you should get the best one for your money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think odesk offers you to see agency members so simply find the guy with the best rating and most experience, and ask agency &quot;how much for this guy&quot;. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7534" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2701" RevisionGUID="c01b7c06-3ba7-4514-b352-6fa0769a483e" CreationDate="2014-12-12T17:14:38.490" UserId="1818" Text="I have not had this specific experience, but I think there is an even broader question here.  In my view, this person misrepresented themselves in the initial posting/selection process.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you really want to do business with someone who operates that way?  Can you trust them on any other important issues?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7535" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2701" RevisionGUID="1a6c0811-3ad4-4b74-9f8e-78633f23b6f6" CreationDate="2014-12-12T17:33:43.883" UserId="1818" Comment="added 142 characters in body" Text="I have not had this specific experience, but I think there is an even broader question here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When the freelancer &quot;sent me an email saying that she is an agency&quot;, was that the first indication you had that she was an agency ?  If so, in my view, this person misrepresented themselves in the initial posting/selection process.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you really want to do business with someone who operates that way?  Can you trust them on any other important issues?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7536" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2699" RevisionGUID="ab908a56-318c-424d-8a07-97520e7ed984" CreationDate="2014-12-12T17:53:26.840" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="edited tags" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7537" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2702" RevisionGUID="ccb14012-0fe4-4c24-a69c-302f7b978863" CreationDate="2014-12-12T20:27:57.467" UserId="5564" Text="It really would depend on the agency and their ability. You could find that the agency would be a match given the nature of start-ups and how quickly things can scale.You may feel comfortable working with one person for control, but ultimately they will need to cope with a varying workload. If it goes your way, it could prove too much for one freelancer anyhow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although its clear some people have had bad experiences, it usually is a case of managing expectations. A 1on1 with the team you will be working with will give you a better feel and ultimately it would depend on how you see your requirements in the future - an agency to grow with can be a God send, especially as a start-up and the network it can expose you too on the marketing side." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7539" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2704" RevisionGUID="1af2fb8b-5d2b-455f-ac53-475b806fb9fc" CreationDate="2014-12-12T21:13:39.867" UserId="5574" Text="I'm a freelancer and I recently got an iOS development job. This is the first time I've developed an iOS app, and I remembered that Apple charges $99 a year for publishing for the App Store.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, should I have quoted them for that in the original price? Should I tell them they'll have to pay for that, or should I deduct it from my own pay and create the account for myself?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7540" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2704" RevisionGUID="1af2fb8b-5d2b-455f-ac53-475b806fb9fc" CreationDate="2014-12-12T21:13:39.867" UserId="5574" Text="Who should pay for iOS Developer Program?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7541" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2704" RevisionGUID="1af2fb8b-5d2b-455f-ac53-475b806fb9fc" CreationDate="2014-12-12T21:13:39.867" UserId="5574" Text="|payment-terms|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7542" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2705" RevisionGUID="9351d854-a65f-447a-a81f-c5adda7ebc3d" CreationDate="2014-12-12T21:24:58.733" UserId="5573" Text="Apologies if this is not the right question for this forum.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have actually been looking for information on how to do consulting work (software development) as a small business. In this case I would be the sole owner of a company (or a sole proprietor).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is a bit of a mystery for me are the formal processes in getting from an initial quote (that a potential customer may request from me) to a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there many different documents that a consulting company should be prepared to send to a potential client, before a contract is signed? If so, what are these and what could be good ways to find samples of (or templates for) such documents?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7543" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2705" RevisionGUID="9351d854-a65f-447a-a81f-c5adda7ebc3d" CreationDate="2014-12-12T21:24:58.733" UserId="5573" Text="Formalities in getting from an initial quote to a contract, and templates for these" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7544" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2705" RevisionGUID="9351d854-a65f-447a-a81f-c5adda7ebc3d" CreationDate="2014-12-12T21:24:58.733" UserId="5573" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7545" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2705" RevisionGUID="c8141d8e-03e6-4d3c-87ed-13d1480ef9da" CreationDate="2014-12-12T21:31:47.847" UserId="5573" Comment="clarified question" Text="Apologies if this is not the right question for this forum.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have actually been looking for information on how to do consulting work (software development) as a small business. In this case I would be the sole owner of a company (or a sole proprietor).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is a bit of a mystery for me are the formal processes in getting from an initial quote (that a potential customer may request from me) to a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there many different documents that a consulting company should be prepared to send to a potential client, before a contract is signed? Is there a &quot;typical&quot; set of steps taken when negotiating with a customer from initial contact to a contract?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If so, what are the steps and the documents used during these steps? What could be good ways to find samples of (or templates for) such documents?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7546" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2705" RevisionGUID="c8141d8e-03e6-4d3c-87ed-13d1480ef9da" CreationDate="2014-12-12T21:31:47.847" UserId="5573" Comment="clarified question" Text="Formalities and steps when getting from an initial contact to a contract (and templates of documents used during these steps)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7547" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2705" RevisionGUID="f926b01b-52ce-4e2a-94fd-0d47a7dac828" CreationDate="2014-12-12T21:44:45.607" UserId="5573" Comment="added 279 characters in body" Text="Apologies if this is not the right question for this forum.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have actually been looking for information on how to do consulting work (software development) as a small business. In this case I would be the sole owner of a company (or a sole proprietor).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is a bit of a mystery for me are the formal processes in getting from an initial quote (that a potential customer may request from me) to a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there many different documents that a consulting company should be prepared to send to a potential client, before a contract is signed? Is there a &quot;typical&quot; set of steps taken when negotiating with a customer from initial contact to a contract?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If so, what are the steps and the documents used during these steps? Are there any formal documents (excluding documents that are not part of the deliverable, such as Release Documents, and documents that are specific to the laws of the country) that a business should be prepared to provide to customer ***after*** a contract has been signed? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What could be good ways to find samples of (or templates for) such documents?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7548" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2706" RevisionGUID="14a9787e-aca3-4c38-b5de-33dc93defd1b" CreationDate="2014-12-13T01:43:33.720" UserId="5578" Text="If client is the one who will be distributing the application then he/she must pay for it, because he will be the one getting money for the application. &#xD;&#xA;Client can add you as developer to his team, so you'll just need a developer account(without subscription)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7549" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2707" RevisionGUID="a53e3534-7c13-43d8-9433-15b1e9d1a869" CreationDate="2014-12-13T01:52:30.477" UserId="5578" Text="Having full load with hourly job and using odesk/elance tracker or something similar, how many hours do you bill in average per week? per day?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7550" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2707" RevisionGUID="a53e3534-7c13-43d8-9433-15b1e9d1a869" CreationDate="2014-12-13T01:52:30.477" UserId="5578" Text="What's the average billable hour do you get per week?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7551" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2707" RevisionGUID="a53e3534-7c13-43d8-9433-15b1e9d1a869" CreationDate="2014-12-13T01:52:30.477" UserId="5578" Text="|freelance-websites|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7552" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2707" RevisionGUID="3cd71979-05ac-45e6-9c4a-278c659120eb" CreationDate="2014-12-13T03:38:55.143" UserId="5578" Comment="edited title" Text="How many hours do you bill per week? per day?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7554" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2707" RevisionGUID="971bcafa-ac9f-4d54-a440-b70d69cb751b" CreationDate="2014-12-14T05:25:26.597" UserId="5578" Comment="added 171 characters in body" Text="I'm trying to figure out equivalent hourly rate for freelancer job comparing to office job.&#xD;&#xA;As freelancer you usually bill only real working hours(without breaks).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So having full load with hourly job and using odesk/elance tracker or something similar, how many hours do you bill in average per week? per day?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7557" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2705" RevisionGUID="c3c5b45c-378c-4936-9017-e1ac6d9497bd" CreationDate="2014-12-14T07:32:38.730" UserId="58" Comment="remove preamble" Text="I have actually been looking for information on how to do consulting work (software development) as a small business. In this case I would be the sole owner of a company (or a sole proprietor).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is a bit of a mystery for me are the formal processes in getting from an initial quote (that a potential customer may request from me) to a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there many different documents that a consulting company should be prepared to send to a potential client, before a contract is signed? Is there a &quot;typical&quot; set of steps taken when negotiating with a customer from initial contact to a contract?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If so, what are the steps and the documents used during these steps? Are there any formal documents (excluding documents that are not part of the deliverable, such as Release Documents, and documents that are specific to the laws of the country) that a business should be prepared to provide to customer ***after*** a contract has been signed? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What could be good ways to find samples of (or templates for) such documents?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7558" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2699" RevisionGUID="000a1678-8868-462a-a722-59058688f0da" CreationDate="2014-12-14T15:06:25.870" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/544146399261372416" />
  <row Id="7561" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2705" RevisionGUID="1a2194a6-6ecb-4298-8e9f-d3e0443599cd" CreationDate="2014-12-15T03:06:28.657" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/544327605336690688" />
  <row Id="7562" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2688" RevisionGUID="f16953ee-a7db-4aad-8e4c-da2fe16b498d" CreationDate="2014-12-15T06:06:25.857" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/544372891274739713" />
  <row Id="7563" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2709" RevisionGUID="c0c8b919-9914-44fe-8a28-185aa9c7bb1c" CreationDate="2014-12-15T10:40:53.717" UserId="517" Text="We usually use trackers of all kinds to track actual work we spent on some project. And we report those hours. I also like to give clients insight to the tracker so he can see that I am reporting time properly. My clients rarely check that, but I give them access anyway. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you will report time you actually spent on some project/task. Now, if you are in the estimation phase and the client wants you to work full-time on some project, then I would not estimate more than 6 productive hours a day. If I try to work 8 productive hours a day, it will take like 11 hours of real time. So just calculate 6 per day, 30/36 per week. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In case of fixed tasks, I do not report how much time I spent. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7564" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2710" RevisionGUID="7ef0c21b-4289-44cb-bf59-4312d8d8765f" CreationDate="2014-12-15T14:01:50.243" UserId="5595" Text="The worst possible thing you can do as a freelance is to price yourself on an hourly basis. Doing so forces you to itemize innumerable items on invoices, and it requires that you track time spent on 5 minute phone calls and what have you. The inevitable outcome is getting micro-managed into oblivion by fussy clients -- clients which, by the way, you simply do not want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Successful freelances think in terms of value, and price themselves accordingly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They charge per day, per week, per feature, or even -- when things are well-scoped and obviously not going to turn into a rabbit hole of changes and add-ons and what have you -- per project. Anything works, as long as it's not hourly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Identify what upside your prospect is going to have by hiring you to do the job. Then get a sense of how much your prospect is willing to pay to get this upside. Convince him that you will deliver this upside. And start the negotiation from there, with the full understanding that you're not here to bill by the hour -- you're here to deliver this upside, and this upside is reachable with X days or weeks of efforts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you're charging for is being focused on this one particular client. And as a freelance, it is a given for all (good) clients that you've administrative overhead: you need to worry about your pipeline, you need to answer emergency calls and emails from other clients, and so forth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once this ticks, it doesn't matter if you're actually working 6 hour days when charging daily, or 4 days per week when charging weekly. It doesn't matter because you're not delivering time; you're delivering *value*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7565" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2707" RevisionGUID="896464c0-f49c-41ef-95f3-919e61f479c1" CreationDate="2014-12-15T17:54:58.590" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="7566" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2690" RevisionGUID="dae7f4a4-f26d-4e36-8ac2-4d3f1d7b5e60" CreationDate="2014-12-15T18:06:27.547" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/544554092727894016" />
  <row Id="7567" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2711" RevisionGUID="bc9745d7-4c7f-4c9c-bda1-63e50d2f931f" CreationDate="2014-12-15T23:23:44.810" UserId="5088" Text="I'm having some trouble during last few weeks, and it's happening along a freelance project I took before. Moreover, it's not me who has problem but my daughter. After the last visit to doctor we're both obliged to stay at home for at least two extra weeks. The project is on fire, the deadline is coming. I informed my client about what is going to happen and already got Terms and Conditions edited and accepted. What should I do now to not look like a slacker or a person who is incapable of time management?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7568" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2711" RevisionGUID="bc9745d7-4c7f-4c9c-bda1-63e50d2f931f" CreationDate="2014-12-15T23:23:44.810" UserId="5088" Text="How should I inform a client about increased uncertainty in case of health issues?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7569" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2711" RevisionGUID="bc9745d7-4c7f-4c9c-bda1-63e50d2f931f" CreationDate="2014-12-15T23:23:44.810" UserId="5088" Text="|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7570" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2712" RevisionGUID="f532f47c-925f-4f9e-89e4-5c55d18161dd" CreationDate="2014-12-16T00:39:56.293" UserId="75" Text="First off, communication is key; you state you already told them about it, just re-affirm with them. When you do, have your exit plan ready.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm sorry I can't continue with the project as scheduled; given the events leading up this this, I can't work on it as much as promised. I can recommend Mr X of Super Y Agency to help you accomplish the remaining goals, and I will email you all the work I have so far.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Something short and simple, but giving the client an actionable item will help. You are offering your alternative solution, so they are now responsible for getting the project done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are thinking of continuing with the project, you need to decide if it's worthwhile, given whatever the situation is. I assume medical - this can take a large toll on a family. If it's a short hiccup, you may be safe just simply delaying the project for the couple weeks. However, you still need to be prepared to get out *just in case* you need to, and you don't want your client to feel like you're just running away and burning the bridges." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7571" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2713" RevisionGUID="11d2bfd9-5d7d-4dff-a4fa-9bba405fcca0" CreationDate="2014-12-16T15:49:44.033" UserId="5605" Text="I know it is very common problem that client doesn't pay for the work done. &#xD;&#xA;But in my case Client is not a company, he is an individual. I gave him support for his work. I already told him that he has to give advance payment but he didn't pay anything still I worked because it was my first project so I didn't want to loose it (I know i did mistake here itself). now, after completion of work, also he is not paying anything and giving silly excuses like, this month I don't have money etc etc. This guy is working in some US company on L1 visa. Is there anyway to get my money legally or just threaten him? or how can I handle him. I have tried everything, asked him a date on which he will transfer the money or discussing his problems, whatever I could do.But he is not even bothering." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7572" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2713" RevisionGUID="11d2bfd9-5d7d-4dff-a4fa-9bba405fcca0" CreationDate="2014-12-16T15:49:44.033" UserId="5605" Text="Client is not paying for my work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7573" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2713" RevisionGUID="11d2bfd9-5d7d-4dff-a4fa-9bba405fcca0" CreationDate="2014-12-16T15:49:44.033" UserId="5605" Text="|legal|payment-terms|difficult-client|client-support|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7574" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2714" RevisionGUID="16ab24a1-f23f-4300-b225-be6e6c97a7e4" CreationDate="2014-12-16T16:10:28.067" UserId="517" Text="Do you use any webservice like odesk or elance? If he did not load a milestone, you cannot do anything. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are you in the same country and have signed the contract? If not in both cases, then you cannot do anything?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Did you send him your work? If you did, you made a mistake. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, we can say that this was a lesson for you. Never, never and never start work with the client who didn't either load a milestone or paid you an advance. Never think that this will be your only project and that you have to work it in spite of everything. You have to be patient and smart and good at what you do, and clients will start appearing like mushrooms after the rain :). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7576" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2716" RevisionGUID="086008e4-95b6-4215-af69-d1dbcf970077" CreationDate="2014-12-16T18:41:15.547" UserId="5608" Text="If I lost an old invoice or had mistakenly put wrong information in that invoice (like a missing field or wrong address), is it ok to generate a new one with the same amount, send it to the client and use it for tax and legal records?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7577" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2716" RevisionGUID="086008e4-95b6-4215-af69-d1dbcf970077" CreationDate="2014-12-16T18:41:15.547" UserId="5608" Text="Is it ok to make a new invoice if an old one is lost?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7578" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2716" RevisionGUID="086008e4-95b6-4215-af69-d1dbcf970077" CreationDate="2014-12-16T18:41:15.547" UserId="5608" Text="|taxes|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7579" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2716" RevisionGUID="8473f95e-1ed1-421b-ac16-6409a5fe4df4" CreationDate="2014-12-16T19:12:12.610" UserId="5608" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|taxes|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7580" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2716" RevisionGUID="65ce2d12-bd1f-41ab-92c5-bca297195d2d" CreationDate="2014-12-16T19:51:12.027" UserId="5608" Comment="added 28 characters in body" Text="If I lost an old invoice or had mistakenly put wrong information in that invoice (like a missing field or wrong address), is it ok to generate a new one with the same amount, send it to the client and use it for tax and legal records?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Invoices have been given. I have already been paid. Invoices are all emails so digital. No other documents exist." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7582" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2716" RevisionGUID="5d9355cf-238c-4128-a5e2-7fe585ea3eaa" CreationDate="2014-12-16T20:36:27.233" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|taxes|invoices|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7583" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2717" RevisionGUID="e6ddb9b0-5d1a-4826-953a-83cfd38ac1a1" CreationDate="2014-12-16T23:48:39.687" UserId="5609" Text="I can't admit that I prefer agencies over freelancers but not so long time ago I was having trouble with freelancers till I found an agency. It was a smart girl that has helped me with the projects brief, asked good questions, then recommended me an excellent developer. The developer was solid as rock but wasn't as good at selling himself. I guess I wouldn't hire him if it was one-on-one approach. The girl was always close to my project, have a bird eye view and monitored the quality of work and if I am satisfied. Same happened for the next 3 projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Probably hiring someone from agency can't guarantee that you will be out of trouble but at least the quality of work will be above the line. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7584" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2707" RevisionGUID="594d060a-1272-4bca-b576-51fa0bee9a3f" CreationDate="2014-12-17T00:13:28.567" UserId="5578" Comment="added 249 characters in body" Text="I'm trying to figure out equivalent hourly rate for freelancer job comparing to office job.&#xD;&#xA;As freelancer you usually bill only real working hours(without breaks).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So having full load with hourly job and using odesk/elance tracker or something similar, how many hours do you bill in average per week? per day?&#xD;&#xA;Update:&#xD;&#xA;I'm trying to figure out hourly rate equivalent for a long term freelance job. &#xD;&#xA;For instance if I get Xk$ per month for 40h/week, then what should be freelance hourly rate for this job, considering that in freelance breaks are not paid. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7588" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2719" RevisionGUID="c87044ea-42a9-49dd-a92a-d07154f336fc" CreationDate="2014-12-17T18:10:17.660" UserId="5615" Text="I currently provide technical support for a very niche product sold by a relatively big-name company (at least within this particular industry).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, they are planning on ending support in a few years, and there will be dozens of clients (each themselves a company) who still use this product because changing to something else will either be prohibitively expensive, or just not technically feasible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is this: would it be legal for me to provide support, documentation, and software (all written 100% by me, with nothing copyrighted by my employer) to these former clients at a small fee, as long as I do it &quot;off the clock&quot; with my current employer (the same employer who originally provided support for the product)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The customers are aware of the end of official support, so it would be clear to them that I am offering my services on the side, and not as a representative of my employer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My chief concerns are whether this would get me fired if my employer found out, and whether I could face legal action.  I signed a non-compete agreement when I was hired, but I don't know if this counts as competition if I'm providing a service which the company explicitly no longer provides.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand it might be difficult to give accurate advice without knowing more about the product/employer, but I'm not comfortable naming anything here.  I appreciate any advice that can be offered in spite of that.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7589" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2719" RevisionGUID="c87044ea-42a9-49dd-a92a-d07154f336fc" CreationDate="2014-12-17T18:10:17.660" UserId="5615" Text="Legality of providing freelance support for a product which my current employer previously supported" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7590" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2719" RevisionGUID="c87044ea-42a9-49dd-a92a-d07154f336fc" CreationDate="2014-12-17T18:10:17.660" UserId="5615" Text="|contracts|legal|client-support|copyright|information-technology|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7591" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2719" RevisionGUID="46603789-4e44-44d4-9e3d-530eaf0f18f9" CreationDate="2014-12-17T18:55:45.123" UserId="5615" Comment="Adding clarification based on the first two questions I received in the comments." Text="I currently provide technical support for a very niche product sold by a relatively big-name company (at least within this particular industry).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, they are planning on ending support in a few years, and there will be dozens of clients (each themselves a company) who still use this product because changing to something else will either be prohibitively expensive, or just not technically feasible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is this: would it be legal for me to provide support, documentation, and software (all written 100% by me, with nothing copyrighted by my employer) to these former clients at a small fee, as long as I do it &quot;off the clock&quot; with my current employer (the same employer who originally provided support for the product)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The customers are aware of the end of official support, so it would be clear to them that I am offering my services on the side, and not as a representative of my employer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My chief concerns are whether this would get me fired if my employer found out, and whether I could face legal action.  I signed a non-compete agreement when I was hired, but I don't know if this counts as competition if I'm providing a service which the company explicitly no longer provides.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand it might be difficult to give accurate advice without knowing more about the product/employer, but I'm not comfortable naming anything here.  I appreciate any advice that can be offered in spite of that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Update 1: For clarification, my current employer is the large company which created and previously supported the product.  They are discontinuing support because the product is about a decade old, and no longer has enough clients with enough problems for the project to remain profitable.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7592" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2720" RevisionGUID="93cab895-94e4-47d0-8e39-c3df06e3d030" CreationDate="2014-12-18T12:16:00.523" UserId="1018" Text="It would likely depend on your current contract of employment. Your contract (assuming you have one) may restrict the amount of work you do outside your main employment, for example.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your employer is abandoning a product, the non-compete clause may not apply as they are no longer in that particular business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As **Canadian Luke** says in the comments, you should really discuss this openly with your employer. As you will be dealing with existing clients of your current employer, it's not something you can really expect to do without your current employer finding out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may be in both your interests for you to continue supporting these clients. For example, your employer may not want to upset existing clients and it may be financially beneficial for you to keep supporting them. If this can be done without interfering with your main job, then it could be a win-win.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recommend creating a list of possible concerns your employer might have and coming up with some reasonable solutions to these before you initiate a discussion. For example, your employer might not want you to accept calls or read emails for this outside work during your normal working hours. A solution for this particular concern might be for you to have a different phone and email address for the outside work and that you only answer these outside of your main working hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will need to be realistic about how many hours this outside work will take and whether it can reasonably coexist with your main job. If the outside work is more than 10 or 20 hours a week one option might be to re-negotiate your main job to a permanent part time job (e.g. 30 hours a week) instead of a full time job assuming the outside work is financially worthwhile." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7593" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2721" RevisionGUID="e80223ee-963e-4374-bdad-5d671e5be2f4" CreationDate="2014-12-18T12:45:02.913" UserId="1018" Text="Reissuing an invoice should be fine as long as it is clear why the invoice has been reissued. This could be done by annotating the new invoice appropriately such as, &quot;Invoice [number] reissued with amended address&quot; or similar. For obvious reasons it is especially important to be clear about whether the invoice amount has changed or not and whether it needs to be reprocessed or not. It should also be clear if this is an adjustment to an existing invoice or if this replaces an old invoice and ideally whether payment has already been received or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once it is received, and assuming the explanation is clear, it can then be appropriately processed including any financial adjustment if needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Similarly at your end, you need to make sure you are not duplicating the same transaction by processing the original and the replacement invoice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7603" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2719" RevisionGUID="66c5d0ad-8ed7-49ab-8aa1-08326ef4d4e0" CreationDate="2014-12-19T12:20:14.133" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/545916513862307840" />
  <row Id="7605" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2725" RevisionGUID="e261cb61-9479-4830-81dc-b4962cf419ad" CreationDate="2014-12-19T15:08:47.563" UserId="5633" Text="I hope this is on topic, if it isn't, please let me know and I will delete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a CS student and I love to make useful and fun software. I was in the process of putting together a website to use as a portfolio, when I realized I don't want to make a portfolio. I want to make a *store* (that could serve as a portfolio to those who are interested).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have many different software ideas, some are big and those would obviously not be free. However, some are smaller. I have a few that would be useful to regular users but could also be viably sold to web development companies and turned into an actual product. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyways, I am not sure on how to price my products. My specific question is if it is possible to give software out for free and still make money, perhaps by asking for donations at the time of download initiation or through advertisements. If so, how viable of an option is this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is mainly for software that is not application specific. (i.e. it couldn't be sold through the chrome store or anything like that)&#xD;&#xA;     " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7606" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2725" RevisionGUID="e261cb61-9479-4830-81dc-b4962cf419ad" CreationDate="2014-12-19T15:08:47.563" UserId="5633" Text="Is it possible to make money while giving software away for free?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7607" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2725" RevisionGUID="e261cb61-9479-4830-81dc-b4962cf419ad" CreationDate="2014-12-19T15:08:47.563" UserId="5633" Text="|software|working-from-home|advertising|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7615" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2727" RevisionGUID="06ecaa3a-a1e0-4a5e-82f0-4cfa7289ba64" CreationDate="2014-12-20T08:35:28.463" UserId="5635" Text="I am a newly established UK freelance graphic designer living in Thailand for 6 months. I have several UK based clients who I am doing work for whilst here in Thailand. When it comes to declaring my earnings at the end of the tax year would I be taxed on the earnings I made whilst in Thailand? Or is there a form with the HMRC I need to fill out? I am currently sifting through their website but would appreciate some immediate feedback." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7616" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2727" RevisionGUID="06ecaa3a-a1e0-4a5e-82f0-4cfa7289ba64" CreationDate="2014-12-20T08:35:28.463" UserId="5635" Text="UK freelancer living in Thailand working for UK based clients...tax?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7617" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2727" RevisionGUID="06ecaa3a-a1e0-4a5e-82f0-4cfa7289ba64" CreationDate="2014-12-20T08:35:28.463" UserId="5635" Text="|uk|hmrc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7618" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2728" RevisionGUID="aa1ff31f-b1b8-404f-9282-0b3f22e43922" CreationDate="2014-12-20T16:51:59.333" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="According to the [UK government website][1], a residency test determines if foreign income is taxable in the UK. This test is described [here][2] and summarised as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You’re resident if:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; * you spent 183 or more days in the UK in the tax year &#xD;&#xA;&gt; * your only home was in the UK - you must have owned, rented or lived in it for at least 91 days in total - and you spent at least 30 days there in the  tax year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You’re automatically non-resident if:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; * you spent less than 16 days in the UK (or 46 days if you haven’t been      classed as UK resident for the 3 previous tax years) &#xD;&#xA;&gt; * you work abroad full-time (averaging at least 35 hours a week) and spent less than 91 days in the UK, of which less than 31 days were spent working&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assuming the UK tax year starts on the 1st of April, being in Thailand for Nov - March (150 days) does not meet the &gt;183 day requirement. Neither does April-May 2015. As such, this is not enough for you to be considered a non-resident. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're unsure about residency, the [HMRC tax residence indicator][3] tool can help for more complicated situations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're considered a resident, it is necessary to pay tax on foreign income. The [UK governement website][4] elaborates:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Filling in your tax return**&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Use the ‘foreign’ section of the tax return to record your overseas income or gains.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Include income that’s already been taxed abroad to get Foreign Tax Credit Relief, [if you’re eligible][5].&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has guidance on how to report your foreign income or gains in your tax return in ‘[Foreign notes (2014)][6]’.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gov.uk&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income/residence&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://tools.hmrc.gov.uk/rift/screen/SRT+-+Combined/en-GB/summary?user=guest&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income/paying-tax&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income/taxed-twice&#xD;&#xA;  [6]: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/self-assessment-foreign-sa106" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7619" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2711" RevisionGUID="b93516f4-d133-4771-8015-f33f6c2c620b" CreationDate="2014-12-20T21:21:18.613" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/546415066946748416" />
  <row Id="7620" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="2705" RevisionGUID="429c03c1-d444-4158-8d9a-edea9fc49222" CreationDate="2014-12-21T01:21:49.600" UserId="5642" Comment="30" />
  <row Id="7621" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2729" RevisionGUID="9226da5f-6e0a-41ba-b847-71fb0f5f96ef" CreationDate="2014-12-21T05:12:56.710" UserId="127" Text="I've worked as a software consultant for more than 20 years, both as an independent and for a &quot;firm&quot;, in the United States. To the best of my knowledge, there are no &quot;typical&quot; set of steps - things differ greatly depending on the project involved, the requirements of the customer, and the disposition of the consulting firm.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;More importantly, your question implies that there would be a lot of effort involved before the contract is signed. In my experience, this is a flawed approach. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Programmers often think that we need to fully define the software to be built before the contact can be established. But this is not necessarily true. The approach I use is to discuss the project with the client, and then draw up a contract for a project that would define and document the software. So there isn't any &quot;document&quot; or &quot;step&quot; in between the initial conversation and the contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This first project then involves me identifying the &quot;requirements&quot; of the system. This work product is a document that establishes enough detail about the project that I would feel comfortable bidding on it. It also helps define the scope - things that aren't mentioned in the document are considered out of scope. Also, I am getting paid for my effort. This type of work shouldn't be done for free, as it will take a significant amount of time and effort, and the risk of not getting any reward for it is high. (Meaning: you could put all that effort in, and then the project never happens.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This process is also advantageous to the client. They can use this document to request bids from other developers if they want. (I use this as a selling point, but no one ever actually takes me up on it.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not sure what you are getting at on the last part of your question - formal documents&#xD;&#xA;to be provided to the client after the contract has been signed. There are no formal documents that I provide afterward, except documents as identified as deliverables. So - a requirements document, or system documentation, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Occasionally I have considered creating a &quot;project completion questionnaire&quot; for gathering feedback about how I could improve my service, but that wouldn't be anything &quot;formal&quot; at any rate." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7626" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2731" RevisionGUID="3799839d-0f72-4261-a963-2bc510f0f2dc" CreationDate="2014-12-21T18:42:33.617" UserId="4837" Text="I have an agreement signed that I can charge 1.5% for each month the client has not paid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Say I sent out an invoice Jan 1 for $1000 and they haven't paid.  Payment is due Feb 1.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On Feb 2, I want to send another statement saying that they now owe me $1015. (Is Feb 2 the right day?  Could I do it evening on the 1st, or should I give a small grace period in case the check was post-marked the 1st or something?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How do I account for adding interest in my books?**  (I am using Xero if that's relevant.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As easy as it would be to edit the first invoice and resend it, that doesn't sound &quot;right&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I instead credit the first invoice to the client's account and create a new invoice for the original amount + interest ($1015)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the appropriate way to handle this situation following standard business accounting procedures?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7627" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2731" RevisionGUID="3799839d-0f72-4261-a963-2bc510f0f2dc" CreationDate="2014-12-21T18:42:33.617" UserId="4837" Text="How do I account for adding interest to an unpaid invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7628" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2731" RevisionGUID="3799839d-0f72-4261-a963-2bc510f0f2dc" CreationDate="2014-12-21T18:42:33.617" UserId="4837" Text="|invoices|late-payment|accounting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7632" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2692" RevisionGUID="182c3c23-f5bc-4142-8a3c-0e6c7d40a999" CreationDate="2014-12-21T21:29:27.637" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/546779507076911104" />
  <row Id="7633" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2733" RevisionGUID="7dc58708-3d76-4b29-9eec-2a262745ae30" CreationDate="2014-12-22T13:11:07.413" UserId="4822" Text="How can client protect his business interest, prevent developer to sell software to his existing customers, when make a contract with an IT freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My precious contract contained that I will not allowed to make any profit on the field where client work with one year time frame. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it common that they require to keep secret all information, code what you made for them, without any time limit?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7634" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2733" RevisionGUID="7dc58708-3d76-4b29-9eec-2a262745ae30" CreationDate="2014-12-22T13:11:07.413" UserId="4822" Text="In IT agreement client wants me to keep in secret all information code without any time limit" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7635" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2733" RevisionGUID="7dc58708-3d76-4b29-9eec-2a262745ae30" CreationDate="2014-12-22T13:11:07.413" UserId="4822" Text="|contracts|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7636" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2733" RevisionGUID="b1b53a38-a7b7-41ee-a66a-afc767d79102" CreationDate="2014-12-22T13:19:04.530" UserId="4822" Comment="edited title" Text="How can intellectual property protected in an software developer agreement?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7637" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2733" RevisionGUID="b1b53a38-a7b7-41ee-a66a-afc767d79102" CreationDate="2014-12-22T13:19:04.530" UserId="4822" Comment="edited title" Text="How can client protect his business interest, prevent developer to sell software to client's existing patterers? How is it incorporated in a software developer agreement?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My precious contract included the following statement:* the Employee is ineligible during 1 year after the retirement date to begin, take employment with, or directly or indirectly interested in any business wholly or partially competes with the business which the company operates at the employee's resignation.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think this is fair, but in my recently contract client want me to keep secret all information, code what I made for them, without any time limit&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you think it is fair, risky, common nowadays?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7638" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2733" RevisionGUID="3abc348c-9191-48ca-af6c-54cebe61b8ff" CreationDate="2014-12-22T16:33:01.680" UserId="4822" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="How can client protect his business interest, prevent developer to sell software to client's existing partners? How is it incorporated in a software developer agreement?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My precious contract included the following statement: *the Employee is ineligible during 1 year after the retirement date to begin, take employment with, or directly or indirectly interested in any business wholly or partially competes with the business which the company operates at the employee's resignation.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think this is fair, but in my recently contract client want me to keep secret all information, code what I made for them, without any time limit&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you think it is fair, risky, common nowadays?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7639" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2734" RevisionGUID="91bc88e5-72a7-4501-a661-ba2e844073f0" CreationDate="2014-12-22T18:17:19.777" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="In the case of a code deliverable (the client receives the source code), it is common for the sole ownership of the code IP to belong to the client. Since it may contain trade secrets and algorithms that are part of the client's IP, it is understandable that the client will want to protect the code and ensure it is secure. Online work platforms have often got this built into their terms of service by default (see [this answer][1]).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a contract says that the code belongs to the client, this means that:  &#xD;&#xA;(1) You are obligated to delete all of your copies of the code if the client asks you to.  &#xD;&#xA;(2) You can't use the code at all anywhere else for any other projects (personal or otherwise) unless the client gives you permission. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1619/what-to-do-with-code-after-odesk-job-completion" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7640" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2735" RevisionGUID="266f50ed-07d7-4810-8998-e2c2baf6f328" CreationDate="2014-12-22T18:41:57.487" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="There is a very vague &quot;typical&quot; set of steps that takes place, but this vague framework varies quite significantly in duration depending on how long negotiations take place. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The basics are as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client requests a proposal. This request may be made (1) publicly, or (2) to a group of companies or (3) to one company in particular. A company in this context also may be an individual person offering a service. This request will consist of a description of the job to be performed and varies wildly in length, from a few sentences to pages.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The company responds by submitting a proposal describing how the job will be done. The company may ask questions about specific details of the project if they need more information. It may be necessary for the contractor to sign a Non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in order to get the information they need. There may be a back and forth for a while between the client and contractor. This stage allows for the client to asses the contractor and for the contractor to asses the client. The proposal may contain a cost estimate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, it's a good idea to establish a scope for the project, which is a definition of exactly what the final deliverable consists of (and what it does not consist of!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client may or may not ask for a quote if they like the contractor and want to move ahead. If they do, the contractor sends through a formal quote, detailing exact amounts to be paid and when.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client decides if they're okay with the quote. Once again, negotiation may occur over the price of various services and milestones. The scope may be revised to make things cheaper (and re-quoted).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once the client is happy with the quote, they pay the first instalment (if milestones) and the work goes ahead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, the documentation supplied is dependant on the scope and what documentation was agreed upon as a deliverable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is a vague summary of the business transaction process. Since there is a lot of negotiation about price and scope and NDAs, it can vary in duration from hours to weeks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In summary:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(1) Request for proposal: Description of job from client.  &#xD;&#xA;(2) Proposal: Description of how the job will be done from contractor.  &#xD;&#xA;(3) NDA: Non-disclosure agreement ensuring contractor doesn't give client's IP away.   &#xD;&#xA;(4) Scope: Description of work to be done (and what's not being done).   &#xD;&#xA;(5) Quote: Actual amount to be paid and terms of payment.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7641" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2735" RevisionGUID="3a8cb17a-814a-4f6a-9501-80f812a32c69" CreationDate="2014-12-22T18:49:24.600" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 301 characters in body" Text="There is a very vague &quot;typical&quot; set of steps that takes place, but this vague framework varies quite significantly in duration depending on how long negotiations take place. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The basics are as follows:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client requests a proposal. This request may be made (1) publicly, or (2) to a group of companies or (3) to one company in particular. A company in this context also may be an individual person offering a service. This request will consist of a description of the job to be performed and varies wildly in length, from a few sentences to pages.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The company (aka contractor) responds by submitting a proposal describing how the job will be done. The company may ask questions about specific details of the project if they need more information. It may be necessary for the contractor to sign a Non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in order to get the information they need. There may be a back and forth for a while between the client and contractor. This stage allows for the client to asses the contractor and for the contractor to asses the client. The proposal may contain a cost estimate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, it's a good idea to establish a scope for the project, which is a definition of exactly what the final deliverable consists of (and what it does not consist of!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client may or may not ask for a quote if they like the contractor and want to move ahead. If they do, the contractor sends through a formal quote, detailing exact amounts to be paid and when.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client decides if they're okay with the quote. Once again, negotiation may occur over the price of various services and milestones. The scope may be revised to make things cheaper (and re-quoted). If they're okay, the contractor issues an invoice for the first installment. This invoice is what the client needs to pay for the work to start&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once the client pays the invoice, the contractor issues a receipt to the client, confirming the receipt of payment. The work begins.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, the documentation supplied is dependant on the scope and what documentation was agreed upon as a deliverable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is a vague summary of the business transaction process. Since there is a lot of negotiation about price and scope and NDAs, it can vary in duration from hours to weeks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**TL;DR:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(1) Request for proposal: Description of job from client.  &#xD;&#xA;(2) Proposal: Description of how the job will be done from contractor.  &#xD;&#xA;(3) NDA: Non-disclosure agreement ensuring contractor doesn't give client's IP away.   &#xD;&#xA;(4) Scope: Description of work to be done (and what's not being done).   &#xD;&#xA;(5) Quote: Actual amount to be paid at each stage and terms of payment.  &#xD;&#xA;(6) Invoice: Current amount to be paid to the contractor.  &#xD;&#xA;(7) Receipt: Confirms that payment was received for a particular invoice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7643" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2735" RevisionGUID="b44f5f2f-dfb7-43c4-9f4b-b6ddabde01b7" CreationDate="2014-12-22T18:56:34.583" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 301 characters in body" Text="There is a &quot;typical&quot; set of steps that takes place, but this vague framework varies quite significantly in duration and content depending on project complexity, scale and negotiation duration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The basics are as follows:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client requests a proposal. This request may be made (1) publicly, or (2) to a group of companies or (3) to one company in particular. A company in this context also may be an individual person offering a service. This request will consist of a description of the job to be performed and varies wildly in length, from a few sentences to pages.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The company (aka contractor) responds by submitting a proposal describing how the job will be done. The company may ask questions about specific details of the project if they need more information. It may be necessary for the contractor to sign a Non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in order to get the information they need. There may be a back and forth for a while between the client and contractor. This stage allows for the client to asses the contractor and for the contractor to asses the client. The proposal may contain a cost estimate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, it's a good idea to establish a scope for the project, which is a definition of exactly what the final deliverable consists of (and what it does not consist of!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client may or may not ask for a quote if they like the contractor and want to move ahead. If they do, the contractor sends through a formal quote, detailing exact amounts to be paid and when.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client decides if they're okay with the quote. Once again, negotiation may occur over the price of various services and milestones. The scope may be revised to make things cheaper (and re-quoted). If they're okay, the contractor issues an invoice for the first installment. This invoice is what the client needs to pay for the work to start&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once the client pays the invoice, the contractor issues a receipt to the client, confirming the receipt of payment. The work begins.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, the documentation supplied is dependant on the scope and what documentation was agreed upon as a deliverable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is a vague summary of the business transaction process. Since there is a lot of negotiation about price and scope and NDAs, it can vary in duration from hours to weeks. It may be as simple as a client emailing a contractor about a small website change or as complex as a government municipality subcontracting the design and construction of a new stadium.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**TL;DR:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(1) Request for proposal: Description of job from client.  &#xD;&#xA;(2) Proposal: Description of how the job will be done from contractor.  &#xD;&#xA;(3) Estimate: Estimate project cost.  &#xD;&#xA;(4) NDA: Non-disclosure agreement ensuring contractor doesn't give client's IP away.   &#xD;&#xA;(5) Scope: Description of work to be done (and what's not being done).   &#xD;&#xA;(6) Quote: Actual amount to be paid at each stage and terms of payment.  &#xD;&#xA;(7) Invoice: Current amount to be paid to the contractor.  &#xD;&#xA;(8) Receipt: Confirms that payment was received for a particular invoice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7644" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2736" RevisionGUID="1bc5c3b8-e8d2-41ff-9290-47a5b3c5cfb5" CreationDate="2014-12-22T18:56:57.487" UserId="75" Text="I don't know that program, but what I do on my invoices:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Create a new invoice to the customer. As a memo, mention how much was owed previously, and its due date. I then add another line for `LATE FEE (2%/month)`, and enter in however much the late fee is. I give 2 weeks grace after the initial 30 days for my customers, where I just send a copy of the original invoice (so they should have two exact copies). If I still haven't received the payment, then I send over the new invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This has worked well, and allows me to account for the late payment without **recreating** an invoice and wondering why the books are out." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7645" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2735" RevisionGUID="dcc47e90-ffad-4648-97a6-f707e93c013e" CreationDate="2014-12-22T19:01:57.917" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 301 characters in body" Text="There is a &quot;typical&quot; set of steps that takes place, but this vague framework varies quite significantly in duration and content depending on project complexity, scale and negotiation duration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The basics are as follows:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client requests a proposal. This request may be made (1) publicly, or (2) to a group of companies or (3) to one company in particular. A company in this context also may be an individual person offering a service. This request will consist of a description of the job to be performed and varies wildly in length, from a few sentences to pages.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The company (aka contractor) responds by submitting a proposal describing how the job will be done. The company may ask questions about specific details of the project if they need more information. It may be necessary for the contractor to sign a Non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in order to get the information they need. There may be a back and forth for a while between the client and contractor. This stage allows for the client to asses the contractor and for the contractor to asses the client. The proposal may contain a cost estimate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, it's a good idea to establish a scope for the project, which is a definition of exactly what the final deliverable consists of (and what it does not consist of!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client may or may not ask for a quote if they like the contractor and want to move ahead. If they do, the contractor sends through a formal quote, detailing exact amounts to be paid and when.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client decides if they're okay with the quote. Once again, negotiation may occur over the price of various services and milestones. The scope may be revised to make things cheaper (and re-quoted). If they're okay, the contractor issues an invoice for the first installment. This invoice is what the client needs to pay for the work to start&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client may send through a contract to the contractor detailing the legal responsibilities of each party. This in turn may consist of several stages of negotiation in order to reach an agreement over the contents of the contract. Both parties sign.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once the client pays the invoice, the contractor issues a receipt to the client, confirming the receipt of payment. The work begins.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, the documentation supplied is dependant on the scope and what documentation was agreed upon as a deliverable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is a vague summary of the business transaction process. Since there is a lot of negotiation about price and scope and NDAs, it can vary in duration from hours to weeks. It may be as simple as a client emailing a contractor about a small website change or as complex as a government municipality subcontracting the design and construction of a new stadium.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**TL;DR:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(1) Request for proposal: Description of job from client.  &#xD;&#xA;(2) Proposal: Description of how the job will be done from contractor.  &#xD;&#xA;(3) Estimate: Estimate project cost.  &#xD;&#xA;(4) NDA: Non-disclosure agreement ensuring contractor doesn't give client's IP away.   &#xD;&#xA;(5) Scope: Description of work to be done (and what's not being done).   &#xD;&#xA;(6) Quote: Actual amount to be paid at each stage and terms of payment.  &#xD;&#xA;(7) Contract: Legal document detailing responsibilities of each party.  &#xD;&#xA;(8) Invoice: Current amount to be paid to the contractor.  &#xD;&#xA;(9) Receipt: Confirms that payment was received for a particular invoice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7646" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2735" RevisionGUID="03827fde-ba97-48b5-83a8-73e5156a8df5" CreationDate="2014-12-23T04:37:02.737" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="deleted 10 characters in body" Text="There is a &quot;typical&quot; set of steps that takes place, but this vague framework varies quite significantly in duration and content depending on project complexity, scale and negotiation duration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The basics are as follows:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client requests a proposal. This request may be made (1) publicly, or (2) to a group of companies or (3) to one company in particular. A company in this context also may be an individual person offering a service. This request will consist of a description of the job to be performed and varies wildly in length, from a few sentences to pages.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The company (aka contractor) responds by submitting a proposal describing how the job will be done. The company may ask questions about specific details of the project if they need more information. It may be necessary for the contractor to sign a Non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in order to get the information they need. There may be a back and forth for a while between the client and contractor. This stage allows for the client to asses the contractor and for the contractor to asses the client. The proposal may contain a cost estimate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, it's a good idea to establish a scope for the project, which is a definition of exactly what the final deliverable consists of (and what it does not consist of!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client will ask for a quote if they like the contractor and want to move ahead. If they do, the contractor sends through a formal quote, detailing exact amounts to be paid and when.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client decides if they're okay with the quote. Once again, negotiation may occur over the price of various services and milestones. The scope may be revised to make things cheaper (and re-quoted). If they're okay, the contractor issues an invoice for the first installment. This invoice is what the client needs to pay for the work to start&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client may send through a contract to the contractor detailing the legal responsibilities of each party. This in turn may consist of several stages of negotiation in order to reach an agreement over the contents of the contract. Both parties sign.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once the client pays the invoice, the contractor issues a receipt to the client, confirming the receipt of payment. The work begins.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, the documentation supplied is dependant on the scope and what documentation was agreed upon as a deliverable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is a vague summary of the business transaction process. Since there is a lot of negotiation about price and scope and NDAs, it can vary in duration from hours to weeks. It may be as simple as a client emailing a contractor about a small website change or as complex as a government municipality subcontracting the design and construction of a new stadium.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**TL;DR:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(1) Request for proposal: Description of job from client.  &#xD;&#xA;(2) Proposal: Description of how the job will be done from contractor.  &#xD;&#xA;(3) Estimate: Estimate project cost.  &#xD;&#xA;(4) NDA: Non-disclosure agreement ensuring contractor doesn't give client's IP away.   &#xD;&#xA;(5) Scope: Description of work to be done (and what's not being done).   &#xD;&#xA;(6) Quote: Actual amount to be paid at each stage and terms of payment.  &#xD;&#xA;(7) Contract: Legal document detailing responsibilities of each party.  &#xD;&#xA;(8) Invoice: Current amount to be paid to the contractor.  &#xD;&#xA;(9) Receipt: Confirms that payment was received for a particular invoice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7647" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2737" RevisionGUID="9553a43e-7214-4184-83e9-fc5e08af9b89" CreationDate="2014-12-23T12:46:58.370" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="I can only really supply anecdotal evidence because public online advertising numbers are hard to nail down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It depends on which platform your software is (and where you want to advertise). My experience is mostly in android and web advertising.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An android app that I developed makes about $1/day per 10k app downloads. This app remains open mostly for the time the user is using it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've setup ads for ads couple of friends and family members, one in particular had about 1000 unique views a day and the income was in the order of USD cents. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The online advertising revenue stream is saturated because over the past few years more and more people have cottoned on to advertising income. Software advertising isn't as common which means it's (1) less predictable &amp; established and (2) not as familiar to users. People are used to seeing ads on free android apps. The same may not be said about pc software. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any case, it's going to be necessary to generate a significant number of ad views in order to generate reasonable income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless you have a sure way of generating these kinds of numbers,  it's going to be difficult to achieve significant income from advertising. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is going to be used as a portfolio,  I'd recommend releasing a 'lite' version to show what the app consists of and then a paid version with full features.  This allows for a potential client to try your software without paying anything. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7648" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2738" RevisionGUID="38ed8601-9908-4c2d-b7a8-907e0b4fd0f1" CreationDate="2014-12-23T13:04:31.253" UserId="5664" Text="Well, you're sounding like you want to go down the ***entrepreneurial path***. Good luck with that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I used to have similar questions when I started out as an internet entrepreneur.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Yes**, you can make money while giving away your software for free. Take WordPress for example. Among all the CMS softwares, it has the highest market share. The software is open-source, and so, anyone can download and customize it as they see fit. That is **WordPress.org**. On the other hand, **WordPress.com** provides services which use the same software and the user doesn't need to worry about the code and security of his/her website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That was just one single example. As a friendly advice, I would say that you need to talk to someone who has done similar work, or at least knows what you're talking about. :P&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7649" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2738" RevisionGUID="2cd0124b-cdb2-4f4d-8e38-4c1d669ffe13" CreationDate="2014-12-23T15:09:09.597" UserId="5664" Comment="improved it." Text="Well, you're sounding like you want to go down the ***entrepreneurial path***. Good luck with that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I used to have similar questions when I started out as an internet entrepreneur.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Yes**, you can make money while giving away your software for free. Take WordPress for example. Among all the CMS softwares, it has the highest market share. The software is open-source, and so, anyone can download and customize it as they see fit. That is **WordPress.org**. On the other hand, **WordPress.com** provides services which use the same software and the user doesn't need to worry about the code and security of his/her website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That was just one example. The revenue method would vary depending on the product. But yes, **it is possible** to earn money even after open-sourcing your software. You may also choose to ask for donations via a website for your software. Mostly, open-source softwares have a positive side - **a loyal community**. As a friendly advice, I would say that you need to talk to someone who has done similar work, or at least knows what you're talking about. :P&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7650" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2737" RevisionGUID="33550dd4-7111-40d3-95a9-1073fb6234d8" CreationDate="2014-12-23T17:18:10.990" UserId="75" Comment="Grammar... Spelling was right, but wrong word used" Text="I can only really supply anecdotal evidence because public online advertising numbers are hard to nail down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It depends on which platform your software is (and where you want to advertise). My experience is mostly in android and web advertising.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An android app that I developed makes about $1/day per 10k app downloads. This app remains open mostly for the time the user is using it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've setup ads for a couple of friends and family members, one in particular had about 1000 unique views a day and the income was in the order of USD cents. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The online advertising revenue stream is saturated because over the past few years more and more people have cottoned on to advertising income. Software advertising isn't as common which means it's (1) less predictable &amp; established and (2) not as familiar to users. People are used to seeing ads on free android apps. The same may not be said about PC software. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any case, it's going to be necessary to generate a significant number of ad views in order to generate reasonable income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless you have a sure way of generating these kinds of numbers,  it's going to be difficult to achieve significant income from advertising. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is going to be used as a portfolio,  I'd recommend releasing a 'lite' version to show what the app consists of and then a paid version with full features.  This allows for a potential client to try your software without paying anything. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7651" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2733" RevisionGUID="566a6ba5-2146-48ed-8611-ae245e96fdf0" CreationDate="2014-12-24T18:40:49.570" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/547824231468498945" />
  <row Id="7652" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2739" RevisionGUID="702c162d-e960-447b-b02a-36066097c8de" CreationDate="2014-12-25T01:56:34.630" UserId="1018" Text="&gt; What is a bit of a mystery for me are the formal processes in getting from an initial quote (that a potential customer may request from me) to a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally keep the steps as simple as possible to minimise the overhead and concentrate on what you do best. Instead of going from an initial quote to a contract, the quote and contract can all be rolled into a proposal. The following documents should be sufficient for most projects:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. a standard project brief form to gather key information sufficient for you to write a proposal&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. a proposal template including standard terms and conditions for the type of work you do&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. initial invoice (assuming an up-front fee is required to start the project)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For simple or well defined projects, the project brief form may not be required at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Terms and conditions should probably include payment terms. Terms and conditions can be adjusted if and when there are any special circumstances.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For standard terms and conditions, you can find examples on http://docracy.com or similar websites although you should probably hire a legal professional to check suitability for your particular circumstances.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Are there any formal documents (excluding documents that are not part of the deliverable, such as Release Documents, and documents that are specific to the laws of the country) that a business should be prepared to provide to customer **after** a contract has been signed?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apart from the final invoice and maybe a receipt, software licences, login credentials and maybe some documentation, I'm not aware of anything else that would usually be needed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7653" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2739" RevisionGUID="cedb2f94-3572-436a-bff0-fa8d0ef1fa5b" CreationDate="2014-12-25T02:02:12.720" UserId="1018" Comment="refine answer" Text="&gt; What is a bit of a mystery for me are the formal processes in getting from an initial quote (that a potential customer may request from me) to a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally keep the steps as simple as possible to minimise the overhead and concentrate on what you do best. Instead of going from an initial quote to a contract, the quote and contract can all be rolled into a proposal. The following documents should be sufficient for most projects:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. a standard project brief form to gather key information sufficient for you to write a proposal&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. a proposal template including standard terms and conditions for the type of work you do&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. initial invoice (assuming an up-front fee is required to start the project), final invoice&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For simple or well defined projects, the project brief form may not be required at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Terms and conditions should probably include payment terms. Terms and conditions can be adjusted if and when there are any special circumstances.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Examples of standard terms and conditions for consulting work can be found on http://docracy.com or similar websites although you should probably hire a legal professional to check suitability for your particular circumstances.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Are there any formal documents (excluding documents that are not part of the deliverable, such as Release Documents, and documents that are specific to the laws of the country) that a business should be prepared to provide to customer **after** a contract has been signed?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apart from the final invoice and maybe a receipt, software licences, login credentials and maybe some documentation, I'm not aware of anything else that would usually be needed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7654" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2731" RevisionGUID="c6e0f668-4896-4f5e-96d0-81dbd493b2c7" CreationDate="2014-12-25T03:42:33.433" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/547960562924396544" />
  <row Id="7655" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1698" RevisionGUID="23eccbed-8e3c-4a3e-9bec-580e93116dcd" CreationDate="2014-12-26T12:49:29.010" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/548460588964511744" />
  <row Id="7664" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2742" RevisionGUID="67783f55-6cca-494f-8b72-f074c31f2ce6" CreationDate="2014-12-27T21:32:21.380" UserId="1348" Text="I'd like to expand from freelancing writing for my local clients to establishing relationships with clients based in other countries. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please advise on legal restrictions e.g. Would I require a work visa for each country? Should I need to visit the offices of the country? Am I allowed to attend meetings / work in their offices? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any other information from your experiences and knowledge is greatly appreciated! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7665" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2742" RevisionGUID="67783f55-6cca-494f-8b72-f074c31f2ce6" CreationDate="2014-12-27T21:32:21.380" UserId="1348" Text="Freelancing internationally, how do I abide my international laws?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7666" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2742" RevisionGUID="67783f55-6cca-494f-8b72-f074c31f2ce6" CreationDate="2014-12-27T21:32:21.380" UserId="1348" Text="|attracting-clients|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7667" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2742" RevisionGUID="2c785db6-2f20-47e9-90ca-853fe5aeae2b" CreationDate="2014-12-27T21:52:02.440" UserId="1348" Comment="edited title" Text="Freelancing internationally, how do I abide by international laws?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7669" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2744" RevisionGUID="ae1a5f7f-0e41-446f-a1f4-dfb1ca62e228" CreationDate="2014-12-28T13:34:53.427" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="International trade, which isn't just the trade of goods across borders but also the trade of services, is generally seen as a good thing and encouraged. This is because [a large proportion][1] of a country's GDP (in most cases) is dependant on the export of goods and services. This means that you are effectively improving the economy of your country by offering services internationally. There are limitations in regards to which country can trade with which other country (an embargo is the prohibition of trade with another country). For example, [here's][2] a list of all the countries with which the USA has an embargo.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You would need to check that it's okay for you to trade with the country your client is in. (As an aside, this is why sometimes some countries can't sell goods to other countries online)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In most cases the relationship is a client-contractor one (as opposed to an employer-employee relationship). This means that, in essence, the client treats you as an expense instead of an employee. By doing this, the client is buying your writing services as a product (per page or time unit), in a similar way to how someone would buy a gift from an American online store even if they're in South Africa. So, you could offer your services to clients online and never visit them in real life or go to their offices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A visa is a document that allows you to enter a country physically. So if you offered writing services to someone online, you wouldn't need one, since you wouldn't have to visit them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you wanted to go to visit the client in their country on a short term business trip, you could do that. Countries usually offer visas for short term business trips (a month or three at most), and you would usually be required to tell the embassy who the client is. [UK Business Visa][3], for example.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a longer period of time it gets sticky, because once you're in your client's country for more than 6 months you may need to pay tax, and the government will want to make sure you're not an employee, and you're not going to hang around and get too comfortable without their permission.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above is a general guide, because I don't know the specific details of your situation. If you're unsure or live in a country where there could be an embargo, I'd recommend you check with someone who is local to your home to clarify the details.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_trade#Largest_countries_by_total_international_trade&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_embargoes&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.gov.uk/business-visitor-visa/overview" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7670" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="2744" RevisionGUID="de4e568b-7e60-4624-8d35-d1a072940f3a" CreationDate="2014-12-28T13:48:14.700" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Stacey&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="7671" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="2744" RevisionGUID="04a6ac3a-a15b-47a4-a55d-8d0328710ccf" CreationDate="2014-12-28T13:48:34.703" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Stacey&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="7673" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2381" RevisionGUID="0dcf46ec-54a6-45fb-bb0b-06bed12fc0d3" CreationDate="2014-12-28T22:07:00.577" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/549325671118667777" />
  <row Id="7674" PostHistoryTypeId="34" PostId="2705" RevisionGUID="5207e704-07bd-4afe-bd53-97074bbe6b28" CreationDate="2014-12-29T03:19:18.333" UserId="-1" Comment="30" />
  <row Id="7687" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="2022" RevisionGUID="1b823a6b-5af6-4c6c-9448-cbd9a9c28931" CreationDate="2014-12-30T18:09:17.617" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="7689" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2749" RevisionGUID="4d14ba13-7294-4263-8353-66014457ad47" CreationDate="2015-01-01T09:05:03.353" UserId="5724" Text="I did create for customer webcrawler application. It's running fine on my local server, although customer asking me to debug application on his server, because there is exception thrown on product server. Should I do it? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7690" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2749" RevisionGUID="4d14ba13-7294-4263-8353-66014457ad47" CreationDate="2015-01-01T09:05:03.353" UserId="5724" Text="Should I debug application on customer server?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7691" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2749" RevisionGUID="4d14ba13-7294-4263-8353-66014457ad47" CreationDate="2015-01-01T09:05:03.353" UserId="5724" Text="|communication|difficult-client|client-support|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7692" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2749" RevisionGUID="cfb95ae9-58bf-45b9-adce-4f5d92377e12" CreationDate="2015-01-01T15:28:00.497" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="Clarified question" Text="I did create for customer webcrawler application. It's running fine on my local server, although customer asking me to debug application on his server, because there is exception thrown on product server.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a fixed price job and the point was not discussed previously. Should I do it? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7693" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2749" RevisionGUID="cfb95ae9-58bf-45b9-adce-4f5d92377e12" CreationDate="2015-01-01T15:28:00.497" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="Clarified question" Text="Should I debug application on customer server if it wasn't previously discussed as part of the job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7694" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2750" RevisionGUID="63c6f691-246a-4836-8123-0ee1b04274e3" CreationDate="2015-01-01T16:55:28.600" UserId="70" Text="I would have to say that this is an opinion based question and there is no right or wrong answer. My answer is based on my desire to do the right thing for my clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would say yes, but to a point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps this is a bug that was in your application? Whether the project was fixed bid or hourly, it is your responsibility to deliver a working application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you didn't account for issues and the resolution of those issues in your quote  then chalk this up to a learning experience and factor those items into your next project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, once you investigate the issue you will learn if this is a bug with the application that you provided or if the client has done something to affect it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it was a bug, then fix it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it was something caused by the client, then quote them a price to fix it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7695" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2751" RevisionGUID="02453041-4570-4b26-8b7a-08aacd056bd8" CreationDate="2015-01-02T04:34:47.987" UserId="5731" Text="Yes, you should debug your application, it is an essential part of making software. You don't get paid extra for it, but debugging is just to make sure it works and fix potential problems. If the client demands anything more, than you should consider charging them. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7696" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2752" RevisionGUID="d80eb2b2-e53d-4962-a409-0f362672c6c7" CreationDate="2015-01-02T06:23:55.670" UserId="4561" Text="The client is paying you to develop software for them that they expect to just work.  They are probably not sophisticated enough to understand that their environment might be an issue, and they probably assumed you - the professional programmer - considered the circumstances before you gave a price.  If you ask for more money to debug it they are going to feel like you deliberately tricked them with your pricing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would debug it on their system.  If it turns out there is something on their system that shouldn't be that is causing the problem that will cost you a lot of hours then you might say &quot;This is extra because ____&quot; but only if it takes a lot of time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use this as a learning experience and next time you bid on a project be sure to include minimum system requirements that the software will work on, and maybe give a price for the main project plus an optional extra item for more $ to &quot;debugging on your system&quot;.  Then if they don't take that you are covered.  (I'd keep the price separate in case you're bidding against people who don't include debugging and come in with a lower price.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you bid on more and more projects you will start to learn the things you need to protect yourself from.  Some things I cover in my proposal are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- The environment, when I have clients with multiple computers I say it's guaranteed to run on ONE system setup (their firm standard).  IF it doesn't work on another computer, I'll trouble shoot but charge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- System changes - once I have it running on their system, if they change anything, (new OS, computers, new software that interferes, etc. that will be extra to troubleshoot.  I can't control how their system might change!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Limited time for them to test.  If they find a bug 2 years from now, even if it's due to my mistake, it's not reasonable for them to expect me to drop everything and fix it for free. (I will if I have time, but there are some people will not use the software for the longest time then start finding little things.  You can't become their programming slave!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- limited liability - if they think my software damaged something they can't get more $ from me than they paid for the software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I offer an annual maintenance agreement, and if they turn it down, then they need to pay T&amp;M for any fixes/updates, and I have a minimum X-hours for that type of work.  Ironically, The type of people who turn down the maintenance agreement are usually the needy ones and you have to make them pay or they will suck you dry with requests/changes.  But that is after you delivered a working product for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have to eat some hours on this, just know you've learned for next time.  I think most of us have probably eaten a LOT of hours in the early days, not realizing all that would be involved.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7697" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2753" RevisionGUID="b9cf5457-ec19-4af9-b660-ff656a179401" CreationDate="2015-01-02T17:44:06.497" UserId="1818" Text="As freelancers, we operate in a different world than large software houses or contract development firms.  It's all fine and good for them to say &quot;Read the EULA&quot; or &quot;You need to check section 3.1.4 paragraph 2 of our universal development contract.&quot;  We need to be more responsible to our clients to keep our businesses going.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When a client engages you, they are expecting you to deliver a solution that works for them in their environment.  They are probably not sophisticated enough to understand all of the nuances of development, test and production environments, and frankly they shouldn't have to be.  That is the value that we are supposed to provide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you start a project, it is your responsibility to understand the environment that your solution will eventually run in.  If the solution runs on your machine(s) and not theirs, then you haven't really solved the problem you were engaged to solve.  Obviously,  there are reasonable limitations based on too many different environments or the customer changing the environment.  These should be covered in your contract.  But if there are problems right out of the gate running in their environment, your job is not done yet until it runs correctly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7698" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2754" RevisionGUID="3e29cf9a-6f81-4c17-b978-9ff89cd8815d" CreationDate="2015-01-02T22:54:43.783" UserId="4837" Text="Here's an alternative viewpoint to David's response:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You can start charging when you won't be embarrassed about somebody coming in behind you and reviewing your work.**  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let me elaborate a little.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While learning to program, we do what we can to &quot;get the job done&quot;.  We also tend to be very creative while getting the job done and we might not know about a certain method that would've saved us 20 lines of code.  Or patterns.  Or best practices with security. Etc. (See more: [When should you call yourself a senior developer?][1] or [What's the difference between Junior and Senior Developers?][2])&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All this comes back to building a maintainable product.  Remember that *it's harder to read code than it is to write it.*  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider what will happen when your client wants enhancements in a year.  Either you or somebody else will be stuck figuring out what you wrote and why.  Will you be able to justify to that person all (or at least most) of your decisions?  Will that person even be able to follow what you're written with minimal ramp-up time?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're uncertain about the quality of your code and produce a lot &quot;hacks&quot; to get things done -- irregardless of whether it works or not -- then maybe setting yourself up as a freelancer may not be ideal when your reputation is on the line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/25564/when-should-you-call-yourself-a-senior-developer?rq=1 &quot;When should you call yourself a senior developer&quot;&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/14914/whats-the-difference-between-entry-level-jr-sr-developers?lq=1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7699" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2754" RevisionGUID="d5987004-fa46-471c-b723-5919507da939" CreationDate="2015-01-02T23:14:49.557" UserId="4837" Comment="changing 'charging' to 'freelancing' " Text="Here's an alternative viewpoint to the other responses:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You can start freelancing when you won't be embarrassed about somebody coming in behind you and reviewing your work.**  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let me elaborate a little.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While learning to program, we do what we can to &quot;get the job done&quot;.  We also tend to be very creative while getting the job done and we might not know about a certain method that would've saved us 20 lines of code.  Or patterns.  Or best practices with security. Etc. (See more: [When should you call yourself a senior developer?][1] or [What's the difference between Junior and Senior Developers?][2])&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All this comes back to building a maintainable product.  Remember that *it's harder to read code than it is to write it.*  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider what will happen when your client wants enhancements in a year.  Either you or somebody else will be stuck figuring out what you wrote and why.  Will you be able to justify to that person all (or at least most) of your decisions?  Will that person even be able to follow what you're written with minimal ramp-up time?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're uncertain about the quality of your code and produce a lot &quot;hacks&quot; to get things done -- irregardless of whether it works or not -- then maybe setting yourself up as a freelancer may not be ideal when your reputation is on the line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/25564/when-should-you-call-yourself-a-senior-developer?rq=1 &quot;When should you call yourself a senior developer&quot;&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/14914/whats-the-difference-between-entry-level-jr-sr-developers?lq=1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7701" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2749" RevisionGUID="df531cba-a7e5-4cc4-ab75-f4b47cd8b61c" CreationDate="2015-01-03T07:18:23.703" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/551276371264405504" />
  <row Id="7702" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2755" RevisionGUID="ad003695-a2bd-4f97-bfb5-ad063dc657d6" CreationDate="2015-01-03T20:05:42.290" UserId="5740" Text="Short Answer would be... **NEVER....**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can never charge your clients with your mentioned approach and thinking....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let me elaborate it, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We belong to the era of technology...and things changes each second..None of us can be a competent to that level that...You include `JS` work in your profile (even when you are not sure what jobs are gonna come to you)...But when you start doing the things, you always do it, what matters is how fast you understand the issue, how fast you learn the required technology and overcome your shortcoming.. and how perfectly you can handle your clients...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest you to trust yourself if you have learnt enough (as you say, 4 months), Make a guess of amount of money that work should cost to client and do the work.. if you are stuck somewhere due to lack of knowledge, Fix that thing, get the job completed and don't charge the client with extra money...simple... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;that's what I mostly do when I fall to jobs which becomes hard to me due to lack of experience or knowledge..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7703" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2756" RevisionGUID="46837a1e-00c4-41dd-8bcc-e4fc89e92a5a" CreationDate="2015-01-04T04:36:38.740" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/267972/freelance-programmer-tax-write-offs" />
  <row Id="7704" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2756" RevisionGUID="4f4e3b4a-a8ac-44bf-ac14-5f7242c5b3b8" CreationDate="2015-01-03T22:51:37.413" UserId="6082" UserDisplayName="dtj" Text="I'm a freelance web programmer and I work from home in my apartment. I'm wondering what I'm eligible for as far as write offs?  I had generally heard that you need to prove exclusive work-related use of certain items / services to write them off, but had recently spoken to folks who write off their internet connection and even part of their apartment rent. &#xA;&#xA;I'm filing taxes in New York City.&#xA;&#xA;Does Anyone have any resources for this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7705" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2756" RevisionGUID="4f4e3b4a-a8ac-44bf-ac14-5f7242c5b3b8" CreationDate="2015-01-03T22:51:37.413" UserId="6082" UserDisplayName="dtj" Text="Freelance Programmer - Tax Write offs" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7706" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2756" RevisionGUID="4f4e3b4a-a8ac-44bf-ac14-5f7242c5b3b8" CreationDate="2015-01-03T22:51:37.413" UserId="6082" UserDisplayName="dtj" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7707" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2756" RevisionGUID="fd84a2b5-6fc7-4e74-85da-cbc42c09511f" CreationDate="2015-01-04T08:09:53.187" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="tagged, titled and grammar" Text="I'm a freelance web programmer and I work from home in my apartment. I'm wondering what I'm eligible for as far as write offs?  I had generally heard that you need to prove exclusive work-related use of certain items / services to write them off, but had recently spoken to folks who write off their internet connection and even part of their apartment rent. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm filing taxes in New York City.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have any resources for this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7708" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2756" RevisionGUID="fd84a2b5-6fc7-4e74-85da-cbc42c09511f" CreationDate="2015-01-04T08:09:53.187" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="tagged, titled and grammar" Text="Freelance Programmer - Tax Write Offs in New York City" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7709" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2756" RevisionGUID="fd84a2b5-6fc7-4e74-85da-cbc42c09511f" CreationDate="2015-01-04T08:09:53.187" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="tagged, titled and grammar" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7710" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2757" RevisionGUID="bff9c1e5-67b0-4aa0-9f98-5d17935bcc73" CreationDate="2015-01-04T08:48:21.370" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="If you're only working for yourself at home, then you're a sole proprietor. There are a couple of resources available. Firstly, [here's][1] the New York State Tax Guide for New Businesses. It details which form you're supposed to be filling in:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Sole proprietorships&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; A sole proprietorship is a business owned and operated by one person&#xD;&#xA;&gt; (a  sole proprietor). This is the simplest and most common form of&#xD;&#xA;&gt; small  business organization. Sole proprietors must report their&#xD;&#xA;&gt; business profits or  losses on their federal and New York State&#xD;&#xA;&gt; personal income tax returns. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; • If you are a full-year New York State resident, use Form IT-201,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Resident Income Tax Return. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; • If you are a nonresident or part-year resident of New York State who&#xD;&#xA;&gt; has income from New York sources, use Form IT-203, Nonresident  and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Part-Year Resident Income Tax Return. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; • If you expect to owe New York State, New York City, or Yonkers&#xD;&#xA;&gt; income  tax when you file your personal income tax return, you may be&#xD;&#xA;&gt; required to  make estimated tax payments during the year. For more&#xD;&#xA;&gt; information, see the  Tax Department Web site, Form IT-2105, Estimated&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Income Tax Payment  Voucher for Individuals, and the instructions for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Form IT-2105.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It also details important info about tax year dates, how to need to keep your books, how long to keep your records for, and other information that you may need to read. I definitely recommend familiarising yourself with this document.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as deductions are concerned, usually every year a document is released as a tax guide for the year. For example, [this][2] is the 2013 IRS guide for Business Use of Your Home.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It details how to determine if you qualify for deductions, here's a handy flowchart from page 5:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;![page 5 flowchart][3]&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;And also mentions which deductions are allowed. Here's a table from page 7 breaking down expense types and if they qualify:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;![page 7 flowchart][4]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The document also contains details of deduction limits, how to calculate partial deductions and other important information too detailed to describe here. It is absolutely necessary to read this document to ensure that the law is complied with. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Doing your taxes for your business by yourself can be a hairy experience in the beginning and does require a significant amount of reading and digging through government websites, but it can be done. US taxpayers can call the free hotline numbers detailed [here][5] for help. I've copied the most useful three line details below:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 800-829-1040 : IRS Tax Help Line for Individuals   &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 800-829-4933 : Business and Specialty Tax Line (new)     &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 800-829-3676 : Forms and Publications&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/publications/multi/pub20.pdf&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p587.pdf&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/WP0mD.png&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/V82XW.png&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://www.irs.gov/uac/IRS-Offers-New-Toll-Free-Numbers-to-Assist-Taxpayers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7711" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2758" RevisionGUID="091bf790-49de-410f-812a-1c0ce9bfa8c8" CreationDate="2015-01-04T14:33:38.583" UserId="5743" Text="The question is a tad old, but hasn't been answered properly and I got linked here through the first page.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Compensation method**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A solid option is a fixed (monthly) rate for a fixed (minimum) amount of posts. This will provide you with a steady source of content and will also be a reliably source of income for the blogger.&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Per word and per article give a chance to bloat your blog. When working with a professional it probably is better, but a pure financial trigger to write something not as good is a tricky thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Either way, a trial period would be a great thing. Then you can see if the system works for both parties and then continue or adjust based on that. It would also be a good way to see whether you're getting value for your money.&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Downside with either way is that you might get forced writing, which might lead to a lower content quality. It depends on the prime motivator of the blogger. Anyhow, the quality of the content is their responsibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Effectiveness compensation**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's bad to compensate on a reception basis, as sometimes the weirdest articles get a good rating. The best way (*subjective*) is to assign a bonus based on certain tiers of effectiveness. Combine this with a steady income and you'll have another incentive to create better posts.&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;This might be slow in the beginning, because you're not starting on an established blog (if I understood it right) and then it relies more on social media than blog content." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7712" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2759" RevisionGUID="21994b01-e0e8-47b1-925b-1d7016aebe0d" CreationDate="2015-01-05T12:24:06.847" UserId="5750" Text="To clarify: for many projects I'll take an instalment upfront, a second payment at a project milestone and then a final payment 30 days after completion. To date I've been supplying an invoice for the *total amount*, with follow up statements for each payment. If we take 'correct' to loosely mean &quot;I'm not going to end up with a convoluted tax return at the end of the year&quot; **is this the 'correct' way, or should I be issuing a separate invoice for each payment?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Follow up questions: Is there a suggested format for handling these types of payments? Where do you specify the schedule of payments? In the original invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7713" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2759" RevisionGUID="21994b01-e0e8-47b1-925b-1d7016aebe0d" CreationDate="2015-01-05T12:24:06.847" UserId="5750" Text="What is the correct way to handle progressive billing, especially in the UK?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7714" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2759" RevisionGUID="21994b01-e0e8-47b1-925b-1d7016aebe0d" CreationDate="2015-01-05T12:24:06.847" UserId="5750" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7715" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2760" RevisionGUID="6cfccf7c-3be3-4db7-bbea-ab8ee78de2a7" CreationDate="2015-01-05T12:47:39.047" UserId="5334" Text="I'm using a client-provided laptop to carry out work on a day-to-day basis. However, another contractor is using a personal one for IR35 reasons (ie, using his own demonstrates that he's not an employee). He's also refused a work phone to keep his business and the client separated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We deal with a lot of sensitive and personal financial information so I figured it'd be best to use the client laptop for security reasons. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, am I okay to use a client-provided laptop and work phone or does it contradict IR35? I've searched online for an answer but can't find a solid 'yes' or 'no'." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7716" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2760" RevisionGUID="6cfccf7c-3be3-4db7-bbea-ab8ee78de2a7" CreationDate="2015-01-05T12:47:39.047" UserId="5334" Text="Am I okay to use a client-provided laptop and work phone with IR35?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7717" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2760" RevisionGUID="6cfccf7c-3be3-4db7-bbea-ab8ee78de2a7" CreationDate="2015-01-05T12:47:39.047" UserId="5334" Text="|contracts|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7718" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2761" RevisionGUID="b5b4f09c-b7f9-43de-8f9c-2c06bb1a809f" CreationDate="2015-01-05T15:09:43.183" UserId="5755" Text="How do taxes work if I'm a US citizen doing contract/freelance work for a company in Singapore?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7719" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2761" RevisionGUID="b5b4f09c-b7f9-43de-8f9c-2c06bb1a809f" CreationDate="2015-01-05T15:09:43.183" UserId="5755" Text="US citizen contracting for Singapore company - taxes?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7720" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2761" RevisionGUID="b5b4f09c-b7f9-43de-8f9c-2c06bb1a809f" CreationDate="2015-01-05T15:09:43.183" UserId="5755" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7721" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2762" RevisionGUID="77161e75-54e9-48e3-8712-c3a47a3753d1" CreationDate="2015-01-05T17:20:07.073" UserId="9" Text="_(Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, nor am I innately familiar with IR35 and UK contract law)_&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Kate Cottrell][1] had this to say on the matter:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ...providing your own kit is a pointer away from IR35 but if you are unable to make such a provision then it becomes a neutral point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Lesley Furber][2] also mentions in an article:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Freelancers and Contractors often find that they are required to use the client’s equipment, possibly for safety and security reasons. This is generally not an issue that would make a contract fail IR35 if there is a sound business reason for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on these, I'd say that your use of client-provided equipment (laptop, phone), while not ideal, is still fine, given the fact that there is a great deal of sensitive information in play.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: http://www.contractoruk.com/ir35/contractors_questions_does_using_client_kit_affect_4793.html&#xD;&#xA;[2]: http://www.crunch.co.uk/contractor-advice/2011/07/22/how-to-make-your-contracts-ir35-proof/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7722" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2756" RevisionGUID="b4f3293e-e471-4ed3-bd26-340b5668ff37" CreationDate="2015-01-05T18:56:57.133" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|taxes|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7723" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2759" RevisionGUID="4814677f-db46-4db7-86b9-4b131e7c481d" CreationDate="2015-01-05T18:58:46.057" UserId="75" Comment="Removed opinion based query, spelling; edited tags" Text="To clarify: for many projects I'll take an installment upfront, a second payment at a project milestone and then a final payment 30 days after completion. To date I've been supplying an invoice for the *total amount*, with follow up statements for each payment. If we take 'correct' to loosely mean &quot;I'm not going to end up with a convoluted tax return at the end of the year&quot;, **is this the 'correct' way, or should I be issuing a separate invoice for each payment?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Follow up questions: what is the proper format for handling these types of payments? Where do you specify the schedule of payments? In the original invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7724" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2759" RevisionGUID="4814677f-db46-4db7-86b9-4b131e7c481d" CreationDate="2015-01-05T18:58:46.057" UserId="75" Comment="Removed opinion based query, spelling; edited tags" Text="|invoices|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7725" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2763" RevisionGUID="84623bef-4f1d-43e2-9aa0-bc1181b9dc61" CreationDate="2015-01-05T19:05:53.913" UserId="75" Text="I'll give my advice, but I cannot say for sure if it's accurate tax wise for the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I have a project, and all my objectives in a row, I bill the full amount, then send out invoices with just a &quot;memo&quot; field on them. This way, my invoice program does not think I should be bringing in much more money, and I still have a record of what I have taken in and what is still left owing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. **Generate the Master Invoice**. This invoice should have the final cost, including any and all parts, expected to be used and billed. This is the master amount you need to keep track of, on *this specific invoice*. In the memo field, include information about when you expect payments (i.e. *25% due January 15th, 2015; 25% due February 15th; remainder due March 15th; late fee of 2% per month for outstanding balances*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; This will create the single reference, and ensure that the customer understand when/what he's being billed. You send this out, and save a paper copy for yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. **Send out the next notice**. This will be an invoice, but you will not have any chargeable items (except possibly the late fee). It will contain a memo field that states how much is owing, and how much has been paid already. It would be awesome if your program also allows you to apply previous payments into an invoice; each program is different though. The point is, you do not want to add new billings (unless required) to the original invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. **Track payments on the Master Invoice**. Remember how I said print it out for yourself as well? Use a pen, and write in any payments made towards that invoice, including the new balance owing. Mark when you send out a new invoice with the new total, then write a single line through each note about payments, so you always have a fresh copy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Once the invoice is paid in full, **you are done**. Ensure the customer's account is at a $0 balance, and send a final thank you invoice/notice, explaining everything has been paid up." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7726" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2761" RevisionGUID="78e0398e-bf02-494e-81d7-3e23a3dc4860" CreationDate="2015-01-05T19:19:35.710" UserId="5755" Comment="clarified location" Text="How do taxes work if I'm a US citizen doing remote contract/freelance work for a company in Singapore? (I'll be in the US.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7727" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2764" RevisionGUID="ce5d05f9-1fbd-4f1d-ac93-fc7db06ff528" CreationDate="2015-01-05T22:53:07.223" UserId="5761" Text="Do you get paid on a 1099 or a W-2 basis?  If they cut you a straight check it is 1099.&#xD;&#xA;If on a W-2 basis are they taking out taxes or expecting you to do it for yourself?  a Foriegn corporation may be taking out taxes for that foriegn country and you will have to take out taxes for the US yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would sugget a conversation with an accountant, set aside 25% percent of your income if you are not sure until the accountant tells you otherwise.  You may need to hire a Singaporean Accountant as well for yourself.   Ouch!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And remember the US is the only country in the world where they double-tax their citizens for income recieved overseas.  You get taxed by the country your work is located in and by the United States.  Most other countries do not tax overseas income." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7728" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1733" RevisionGUID="e11bd178-ef21-4ba3-8300-66158d9c7ded" CreationDate="2015-01-06T14:31:51.147" UserId="2546" Comment="I meanwhile I myself made some adjustments so, here I am with an improved answer" Text="You should start by learning the basics of PHP and MySQL. For all available resources go on [Google: the basics of php](https://www.google.com/search?q=the+basics+of+php&amp;hl=en&amp;output=search).  &#xD;&#xA;It is about learning the basics. What PHP and MySQL are, how they work, a bit of history.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;_What else you shoold keep an eye on is Git and Composer (are two essential tools you should know about later on)._  &#xD;&#xA;Both BitBucket.org and GitHum.com offer good user manuals and learning resources.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, you need to understand what **Unit testing**,  [MVC](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93view%E2%80%93controller) and a [PHP Framework](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_application_frameworks#PHP) is.  Unit testing is a complicated subject so, if you don't get it, leave it for later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In meanwhile you should strengthen your MySQL skills.  &#xD;&#xA;Here, consider both PhPMyAdmin and Doctrine. I recommend you to learn Doctrine as fast as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you are familiar with both of them, try CodeIgniter (is the easiest PHP Framework to learn). After that, jump directly to Laravel (it is very easy to learn) or, if you think you can, Symfony. I will not recommend other PHP Frameworks then this three (especially the last two) because of various reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As today, I find Laracasts.com to be a very good learning source.  &#xD;&#xA;Beside the fact that is for learning Laravel, the good thing with Laracasts is that will also teach you about good practices, solit PHP OOP and will introduce you to concepts and trends that are new and used by the best developers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't recommend using CMS's like Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress. Not if you wanna become a PHP Cutting-Edge Master.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What tools you should use?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- NetBeans is a good IDE (I bought PHP-Storm but I still use NetBeans).&#xD;&#xA;- Git is a must ([Here](http://git-scm.com/book) you can find a very good book).&#xD;&#xA;- Don't forget Composer.&#xD;&#xA;- Some text editor.&#xD;&#xA;- A local server (XAMPP is a very good idea).&#xD;&#xA;- PHPMyAdmin (included with XAMPP).&#xD;&#xA;- MySQL Workbench (but I recommend you to stick with Doctrine).&#xD;&#xA;- A terminal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Starting from scratch is not easy. You will need patience and hard work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice to you is to stick with the manual. The [PHP Documentation](http://www.php.net/manual/en/), Symfony cookbook, &amp; manual, Doctrine instructions manual. Then, be consistent and keep yourself up-to-date with current technologies as PHP and PHP Frameworks are continuously evolving.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.sitepoint.com/store/php-mysql-novice-to-ninja/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.sitepoint.com/store/php-master-write-cutting-edge-code/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8730" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2765" RevisionGUID="806d930d-6434-4b05-910c-5f0884e47aa3" CreationDate="2015-01-07T06:43:54.857" UserDisplayName="user5768" Text="I am a young web designer (20 years old) from Slovenia, i love design and i am passionate about it.I have been designing since I was 14 years old. My boss is happy with my work. I also see that collegues from college like my designs and frequently reach out to me and or ask me questions. I wouldnt consider myself excellent, but I believe that currently my skill is moderate( i still have/want much to learn and discover). :) I am currently employed and studying part time. I also do freelance work for my collegues and friends of friends and anyone that reaches out to me basically. On top of that I have a girlfriend; I truly love her; we have been together for 3 years- to this day I am still deeply in love with this woman.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But there is a problem; I am not happy with the job; i have a really hard time working for someone else, I have no problem freelancing, because at the end of the day I am working on my own brand. Also I should mention that currently i work in a a trading/merchant company. So therefore everything moves really fast, boss demands really tight deadlines which are almost impossible to do. Overall it is the best job I have ever had but certainly not perfect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I really want to do in life is create my own little bussiness, maybe grow in time, and surround myself with a passionate team. I see so many opportunities, I have ideas what I could be making and trying out different advertising but I lack the time to work on these projects mostly because of the job.. It eats up 8 hours a day plus once a month i have to work on saturday too. If i could just get enough freelance jobs for 5hours a day i would be easily making same or more as i earn at current job plus would then be able to spend couple of hours on my own project or rather further development of my company. I already have a base of clients who reach out to me every now and then, but not nearly enough yet to really have a steady income as i currently have to put things in perspective I am currently earning less then 20%(not enough to pay the bills) of monthly income from freelancing, but I am not looking for more work I only do the work when people reach out to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also currently i have a great opportunity to try going freelance, because I have enough money to pay the bills for months to come even without any income. After consulting with my girlfriend, she said she thinks it will be tough at first but if this is really the place where my heart lays then i should do it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for reading!! please leave any suggestions, thoughts, opinions or comments I will be happy and grateful if you do! Please help me :(" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8731" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2765" RevisionGUID="806d930d-6434-4b05-910c-5f0884e47aa3" CreationDate="2015-01-07T06:43:54.857" UserDisplayName="user5768" Text="I am lost in between freelance and a steady job" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8732" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2765" RevisionGUID="806d930d-6434-4b05-910c-5f0884e47aa3" CreationDate="2015-01-07T06:43:54.857" UserDisplayName="user5768" Text="|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8733" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2766" RevisionGUID="36370265-2188-448d-bf7d-d946563100d9" CreationDate="2015-01-07T08:25:18.363" UserId="517" Text="What do you need help with? Asking us should you quit your job? We cannot answer that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few advises. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you plan to quit your job and do freelance, take this into consideration:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Do you have enough money to pay bills for 1 year? Yes, 1 year. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Write down all your clients and count how many hours of work they all can bring in 1 month. Be realistic and lead by your current amount of work with them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Think about how many clients you can surely attract in 1 year. Think about sources you will attract them from. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. If you start freelancing, you may have to raise your price. Are your client ready to pay that price? You may lose more than half of them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. Write a note to your clients saying that you plan to do freelance full time and ask them to predict how much work they can give you monthly. You may be surprised. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The 1st year will be tough. Design is usually less paid in freelance world that programming. Thinking &quot;if  work 5 hours a day, I can make the same money&quot; is wrong. Can you make 25 hours of work weekly? Each week in a year? We freelancers always think in a way &quot;if I work 40 hours at this rate, I would be rich&quot;, but it's hard to find full week of work every week. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also think of all expenses you may have working freelance: extra office, extra costs on bills, etc. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8743" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2769" RevisionGUID="9e7301f5-64a9-46e2-b773-01100f71a72b" CreationDate="2015-01-08T01:19:39.633" UserId="5778" Text="I'm looking for a very simple online tool to manage a small Web site project. I'm currently using a Google doc to keep track of everything, but there has to be the equivalent of a project Extranet - but much smaller. I would say Basecamp, but modeled more towards actual Web projects - so something styled towards the 'define, design, develop and deploy' workflow of building sites/apps that doesn't cost a lot. I'm not a huge fan of Basecamp, so I'm interested to find out what people use with clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;More details/requirements:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- to do list: calendar is less of a priority, but that to do list is a big part of what I'm looking for, and the ability to have categories and dependencies without getting into a Gantt chart or schedule&#xD;&#xA;- cost: ideally free or low cost (less than $20/month) - part of the reason why I'm not going to use Basecamp is that I can't justify the cost for such a small project for a small client&#xD;&#xA;- hosted: don't want to download anything and self-host, and don't need a specific app - a SaaS Web based solution is fine&#xD;&#xA;- collaborative: could be shared with another person (the client) privately&#xD;&#xA;- mood board: some sort of ability to have a visual repository of inspirations or links. This is a minor thing - I can just use Pinterest for that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, I'm not tackling the development part, but if there were checklists of things to start thinking about, that would be helpful too to have built in, although I know that's not likely to be prepopulated. I like something like the Business Model Canvas (http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com) that forces you to think about the things you need for a successful product, but again, I probably won't find that in a project management tool. I've tried Trello and Evernote, but they aren't Extranets. I love Central Desktop and various wikis, but again, I'm looking for classic Extranet tools - task lists, places to upload a document, have folders for drafts, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for your help!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8744" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2769" RevisionGUID="9e7301f5-64a9-46e2-b773-01100f71a72b" CreationDate="2015-01-08T01:19:39.633" UserId="5778" Text="Simple Extranet/collaborative space for small projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8745" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2769" RevisionGUID="9e7301f5-64a9-46e2-b773-01100f71a72b" CreationDate="2015-01-08T01:19:39.633" UserId="5778" Text="|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8750" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2771" RevisionGUID="5a2c9c08-2f80-47c4-a67e-c4b5eb4ef40e" CreationDate="2015-01-08T21:10:21.163" UserId="5568" Text="There isn't a course that will make you an expert. Even if you would take the best course in the world it will not define you to be an expert in programming php. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try to make some application and you will see how much you will learn. So only by experience you can get the proficiency you need. There is tons of options. Create plugins for open-source cms and offer it for free or even sell them. This is the only way to get better in php!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't have time like you said, start making something simple..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8756" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2774" RevisionGUID="46654d62-72db-4d29-b3d0-ba60b98f3d9d" CreationDate="2015-01-11T06:27:03.873" UserId="5798" Text="I recently finished a Wordpress project for a client, and the client wants me to continue providing support, update, and develop the site for $20 per hour. The client says the tasks will be small (eg, move an image from a page to another, photoshop images and uploading them onto the site, add some more content to pages, add more pages, etc.), and I should probably only bill them 10-20 minutes each time they contact me, which will not be frequent either (possibly a few times a month, if that). I don't see the point of billing for half an hour ($10) a month, especially considering I may spend much more time on non-billable tasks such as replying to their emails, providing support that doesn't involve changing the website, sending them an invoice each month, and reminding them to pay me. So I am considering proposing a retainer agreement. But I noticed all of the retainer agreements I found online were only for maintenance tasks, not for development. Is there a particular reason why that is? And is there a better, alternative system for billing for my current situation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8757" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2774" RevisionGUID="46654d62-72db-4d29-b3d0-ba60b98f3d9d" CreationDate="2015-01-11T06:27:03.873" UserId="5798" Text="Retainer for Development Tasks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8758" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2774" RevisionGUID="46654d62-72db-4d29-b3d0-ba60b98f3d9d" CreationDate="2015-01-11T06:27:03.873" UserId="5798" Text="|retainer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8759" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2775" RevisionGUID="51f97fdd-db5c-4434-8dc0-48898f465a56" CreationDate="2015-01-11T06:58:02.207" UserId="1191" Text="What client suggest is not good for both of you because:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- it has too much overhead&#xD;&#xA;- value you are giving to client might vanish&#xD;&#xA;- relationship when value vanish gets worse&#xD;&#xA;- relationship gets worse, you can't continue working together&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And you need to convince client that a retainer with you is the best option:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- you developed site and and are familiar with it, a new freelancer will need time to get familiar&#xD;&#xA;- hire someone each time client needs something is too uncomfortable, select people, handle accounting, know another person way of work, etc.&#xD;&#xA;- a retainer, on the other side frees, both of you of a lot of administrative, human resources work, and uncertainty.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Take into account that when doing a retainer you need to keep client informed of what did s/he got for what s/he is paying. This is essential to keep relationship flowing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have seen retainers for development in serious companies, so it is not weird to me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8769" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2775" RevisionGUID="50b0b66f-511b-4a23-9ded-88177747874a" CreationDate="2015-01-13T03:19:02.227" UserId="1191" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="What client suggest is not good for both of you because:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- it has too much overhead&#xD;&#xA;- value you are giving to client might vanish&#xD;&#xA;- relationship when value vanish gets worse&#xD;&#xA;- relationship gets worse, you can't continue working together&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And you need to convince client that a retainer with you is the best option:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- you developed site and and are familiar with it, a new freelancer will need time to get familiar&#xD;&#xA;- hire someone each time client needs something is too uncomfortable, select people, handle accounting, know another person way of work, etc.&#xD;&#xA;- a retainer, on the other side frees both of you of a lot of administrative, human resources work, and uncertainty.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Take into account that when doing a retainer you need to keep client informed of what did s/he got for what s/he is paying. This is essential to keep relationship flowing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have seen retainers for development in serious companies, so it is not weird to me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8770" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2774" RevisionGUID="1d940fde-4a3b-4d5f-b050-22030264ba68" CreationDate="2015-01-13T06:58:42.303" UserId="5798" Comment="deleted 148 characters in body" Text="I recently finished a Wordpress project for a client, and the client wants me to continue providing support, update, and develop the site for $20 per hour. The client says the tasks will be small, and I should probably only bill them 10-20 minutes each time they contact me, which will not be frequent either (possibly a few times a month, if that). I don't see the point of billing for half an hour ($10) a month, especially considering I may spend much more time on non-billable tasks such as replying to their emails, providing support that doesn't involve changing the website, sending them an invoice each month, and reminding them to pay me. So I am considering proposing a retainer agreement. But I noticed all of the retainer agreements I found online were only for maintenance tasks, not for development. Is there a particular reason why that is? And is there a better, alternative system for billing for my current situation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8771" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2774" RevisionGUID="a5d7a084-1071-42a6-afab-ad259b24dcca" CreationDate="2015-01-13T17:47:01.143" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 22 characters in body" Text="I recently finished a Wordpress project for a client, and the client wants me to continue providing support, update, and develop the site for $20 per hour. The client says the tasks will be small, and I should probably only bill them 10-20 minutes each time they contact me, which will not be frequent either (possibly a few times a month, if that). I don't see the point of billing for half an hour ($10) a month, especially considering I may spend much more time on non-billable tasks such as replying to their emails, providing support that doesn't involve changing the website, sending them an invoice each month, and reminding them to pay me. So I am considering proposing a retainer agreement. But I noticed all of the retainer agreements I found online were only for maintenance tasks, not for development. Is there a particular reason why that is? And is there a better, alternative system for billing for my current situation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8775" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2778" RevisionGUID="c9fdc0eb-b47f-4922-8dcd-92e18afbfb36" CreationDate="2015-01-14T07:50:14.887" UserId="5785" Text="It's my first time to freelance for a web development project in general and I was thinking of offering insurance if ever the website crashes for any non-self-inflicted reason. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are the advantages and disadvantages of offering insurance services? What should I keep in mind? What are the common mistakes in offering website insurances?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8776" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2778" RevisionGUID="c9fdc0eb-b47f-4922-8dcd-92e18afbfb36" CreationDate="2015-01-14T07:50:14.887" UserId="5785" Text="Should I sell insurance services for web development projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8777" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2778" RevisionGUID="c9fdc0eb-b47f-4922-8dcd-92e18afbfb36" CreationDate="2015-01-14T07:50:14.887" UserId="5785" Text="|freelance-websites|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8778" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2779" RevisionGUID="c327affd-da13-4b1b-a3ef-6b2dc5528da6" CreationDate="2015-01-14T08:27:08.333" UserId="5821" Text="Good Day,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My colleague and I were hired as freelancers by a small company to make their standard company website.  The website included the following pages: Home, About, Products, Services, and Contact.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When they asked us about the overall cost,  we told them that the overall cost would include the following: **Cost of Personnel (based on man hours spent and our hourly rate)** and **Cost of Materials (Adobe Photoshop CS5, Personal Laptop Usage, Research/Training related to Web Development)**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They completely agreed with the **Cost of Personnel.**  Unfortunately, they had an issue with the **Cost of Materials.**  They weren't convinced that the **Cost of Materials** should be included in the overall cost because we are freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is our client correct in stating that the **Cost of Materials** should not be included in the overall cost? Any help would be much appreciated.  We are new to freelancing.  Thanks!!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8779" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2779" RevisionGUID="c327affd-da13-4b1b-a3ef-6b2dc5528da6" CreationDate="2015-01-14T08:27:08.333" UserId="5821" Text="Cost of a Standard Company Website" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8780" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2779" RevisionGUID="c327affd-da13-4b1b-a3ef-6b2dc5528da6" CreationDate="2015-01-14T08:27:08.333" UserId="5821" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|payment-terms|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8781" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2780" RevisionGUID="d5588ace-34ab-4b64-8c0e-447d1c70f7b7" CreationDate="2015-01-14T12:26:18.727" UserId="5334" Text="Neither of you are correct really. There's no standard way of doing it and each client is different. Some are happy for you to bill them for cost of materials, others (like yours) not so much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I used to charge cost of materials (hardware, software licences, etc.) but have hidden them since a similar discussion. Unless they're specific to the project then it's hard to argue. They think that because the tools you use are standard for your business, it shouldn't impact the client... which I guess is true. Because you've already discussed this with your current client, you might just have to take one for the team and only charge the cost of personnel this time round.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In future, **try removing the cost of materials but increase your day rate** or cost of personnel. This will cover the cost of materials then and not cause any grief from your clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8782" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2781" RevisionGUID="ee8fa8a6-9be7-4c5f-ab85-6fbfda4cdb2d" CreationDate="2015-01-14T12:28:28.540" UserId="517" Text="Do you host the website on your hardware? If not, then don't offer the insurance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you want to insure the client against? Maybe you better sign some agreement where you two will set your reaction time if something bad happens, and the client will pay monthly fee." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8783" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2780" RevisionGUID="fe87f437-5ef6-4ede-be33-6754b0ef539d" CreationDate="2015-01-14T13:27:48.390" UserId="5334" Comment="adding some clarification" Text="Neither of you are correct really. There's no standard way of doing it and each client is different. Some are happy for you to bill them for cost of materials, others (like yours) not so much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I used to charge cost of materials separately (hardware, software licences, etc.) but have hidden them since a similar discussion. Unless they're specific to the project then it's hard to argue. They think that because the tools you use are standard for your business, it shouldn't impact the client... which I guess is true. Because you've already discussed this with your current client, you might just have to take one for the team and only charge the cost of personnel this time round.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In future, **try removing the cost of materials but increase your day rate** or cost of personnel. This will cover the cost of materials then and not cause any grief from your clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8784" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2782" RevisionGUID="5de959d9-a0e7-43ca-ab09-2633e7cf28bc" CreationDate="2015-01-14T15:31:42.670" UserId="708" Text="I do not know what's standard for your particular business niché.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, your &quot;cost of materials&quot; seems exceptionally out of line to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging for software, hardware, and training which you will use for **every client you ever have** seems ludicrous to me. Detailing that in a quote/bid for me, would *instantly* mean I wanted to anger my clients. Operating expenses **are not** part of a bid/quote. Operating expenses are built into hourly rates as your **overhead** and customarily *not* treated as items every client is directly invoiced for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of it this way, if your car breaks down and you take it to a mechanic, does the mechanic charge you for his wrench? The lift? the air tools? The garage? That's essentially what you are telling your clients. Even though you would use these tools for **every conceivable client you ever have** you want *this* client to pay directly for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me, you are simply calculating costs incorrectly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Hourly rate = (((overhead / billable hours in the year) / weeks in year) / hrs in day) + profit margin**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Overhead =**&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly electricity cost + &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly water cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly heat cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly travel expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly phone cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly training expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly software cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly hardware maintenance expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for example, I calculate that I will work **5 days a week** for **40 weeks** of the year at **6 hrs per day** (1,200 billable hours per year). And I know it costs me **$2,400 a year for Overhead**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(((Yearly Overhead x billable hrs per year) / weeks of work) / hrs in a day) + profit margin = Hourly Rate &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;or&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;((($2400 / 1200) / 40) / 6) + 20%) = $120 per hr.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So Labor costs =  $120 x total hours to complete project&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Material costs should be reserved for materials **directly needed for ONLY this project**. So, if this particular project requires a license for a third party software package, or this client is requesting the use of a particular typeface which carries a cost with it, *then* those would be added as materials costs. Material costs should *never* include anything you require to run operations *every day you're in business* that is overhead, not materials." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8785" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2782" RevisionGUID="feb07cc1-0383-4526-a031-7db237efcf93" CreationDate="2015-01-14T15:36:49.717" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 31 characters in body" Text="I do not know what's standard for your particular business niché.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, your &quot;cost of materials&quot; seems exceptionally out of line to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging for software, hardware, and training which you will use for **every client you ever have** seems ludicrous to me. Detailing that in a quote/bid for me, would *instantly* mean I wanted to anger my clients. Operating expenses **are not** part of a bid/quote. Operating expenses are built into hourly rates as your **overhead** and customarily *not* treated as items every client is directly invoiced for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of it this way, if your car breaks down and you take it to a mechanic, does the mechanic charge you for his wrench? The lift? the air tools? The garage? That's essentially what you are telling your clients. Even though you would use these tools for **every conceivable client you ever have** you want *this* client to pay directly for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me, you are simply calculating costs incorrectly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Hourly rate = ((yearly overhead / weeks in year) / hrs in day) + profit margin**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Overhead =**&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly electricity cost + &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly water cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly heat cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly travel expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly phone cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly training expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly software cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly hardware maintenance expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for example, I calculate that I will work **5 days a week** for **40 weeks** of the year at **6 hrs per day** (1,200 billable hours per year). And I know it costs me **$2,400 a year for Overhead**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(((Yearly Overhead / weeks of work) / hrs in a day) + profit margin = Hourly Rate &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;or&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;(($2400 / 40) / 6) + 20%) = $12 per hr.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So Labor costs =  $12 x total hours to complete project&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Material costs should be reserved for materials **directly needed for ONLY this project**. So, if this particular project requires a license for a third party software package, or this client is requesting the use of a particular typeface which carries a cost with it, *then* those would be added as materials costs. Material costs should *never* include anything you require to run operations *every day you're in business* that is overhead, not materials." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8786" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2782" RevisionGUID="e8179c42-0a5e-48c8-aad2-ca92a0a716eb" CreationDate="2015-01-14T15:42:33.090" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 31 characters in body" Text="I do not know what's standard for your particular business niché.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, your &quot;cost of materials&quot; seems exceptionally out of line to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging for software, hardware, and training which you will use for **every client you ever have** seems ludicrous to me. Detailing that in a quote/bid for me, would *instantly* mean I wanted to anger my clients. Operating expenses **are not** part of a bid/quote. Operating expenses are built into hourly rates as your **overhead** and customarily *not* treated as items every client is directly invoiced for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of it this way, if your car breaks down and you take it to a mechanic, does the mechanic charge you for his wrench? The lift? the air tools? The garage? That's essentially what you are telling your clients. Even though you would use these tools for **every conceivable client you ever have** you want *this* client to pay directly for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me, you are simply calculating costs incorrectly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Hourly rate = ((yearly overhead / weeks per year) / hrs per day) + profit margin**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Overhead =**&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly electricity cost + &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly water cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly heat cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly rent/mortgage fees +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly travel expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly phone cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly training expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly software cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly hardware maintenance expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for example, I calculate that I will work **5 days a week** for **40 weeks** of the year at **6 hrs per day** (1,200 billable hours per year). And I know it costs me **$15,200 a year for Overhead**. Divide that by the 1200 billable hours and I know it costs me $12.66/hr to operate. So a minimum hourly rate is $13 (I'd round up.) Then add your profit margin to calculate hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This builds your operating costs (overhead) into your hourly rate. If you aren't doing this.. where are you getting your hourly rate from???? Are you just guessing at it??&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Material costs should be reserved for materials **directly needed for ONLY this project**. So, if this particular project requires a license for a third party software package, or this client is requesting the use of a particular typeface which carries a cost with it, *then* those would be added as materials costs. Material costs should *never* include anything you require to run operations *every day you're in business* that is overhead, not materials." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8787" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2782" RevisionGUID="0cd0561e-54b8-4e28-9a52-6201f185b998" CreationDate="2015-01-14T15:48:36.220" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 31 characters in body" Text="I do not know what's standard for your particular business niché.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, your &quot;cost of materials&quot; seems exceptionally out of line to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging for software, hardware, and training which you will use for **every client you ever have** seems ludicrous to me. Detailing that in a quote/bid for me, would *instantly* mean I wanted to anger my clients. Operating expenses **are not** part of a bid/quote. Operating expenses are built into hourly rates as your **overhead** and customarily *not* treated as items every client is directly invoiced for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of it this way, if your car breaks down and you take it to a mechanic, does the mechanic charge you for his wrench? The lift? the air tools? The garage? That's essentially what you are telling your clients. Even though you would use these tools for **every conceivable client you ever have** you want *this* client to pay directly for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me, you are simply calculating costs incorrectly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Hourly rate = ((yearly overhead / billable hours per year) + profit margin**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Overhead =**&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly electricity cost + &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly water cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly heat cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly rent/mortgage fees +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly travel expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly phone cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly training expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly software cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly hardware maintenance expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for example, I calculate that I will work **5 days a week** for **40 weeks** of the year at **6 hrs per day** (1,200 billable hours per year). And I know it costs me **$25,200 a year for Overhead**. Divide that by the 1200 billable hours and I know it costs me $20.83/hr to operate. So a minimum hourly rate is $21 (I'd round up.) Then add your profit margin to calculate hourly rate. Commonly 20% is used for profit. You don't *have* to use 20% this is just an example. So, let's say 20% ($4.20) for profit. Rounding up, the hourly rate would be $26/hr.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This builds your operating costs (overhead) into your hourly rate. If you aren't doing this.. where are you getting your hourly rate from???? Are you just guessing at it??&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Material costs should be reserved for materials **directly needed for ONLY this project**. So, if this particular project requires a license for a third party software package, or this client is requesting the use of a particular typeface which carries a cost with it, *then* those would be added as materials costs. Material costs should *never* include anything you require to run operations *every day you're in business* that is overhead, not materials." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8788" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2783" RevisionGUID="23d60e91-39ee-4e78-a2f0-c4eb78afaec1" CreationDate="2015-01-14T15:54:29.643" UserId="2819" Text="There is no &quot;Standard Company Website&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Time &amp; Materials (and overhead) is just one way to price a project. It also happens to be one of the worst, because it traps you in a weird cycle. As you get better, you get faster, which means fewer billable hours and...less money. Hooray, progress! Then you have to up your hourly rate and prospective clients start freaking out about your massively inflated hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The better path is to price based on the value the client will get from your work. If I'm a business owner, I don't care how much time something takes you or what tools it takes to make something happen. All I care about is what's important to me (usually more sales or leads).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lets say I'm a mental health counselor. My average client pays $80 per week to meet with me, and they typically see me for 2 years. That client is worth roughly $2000 to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you pitch me a total website solution that will bring me just ONE extra client per month, that equals an extra $24,000 per year in revenue for my company. You could easily charge $24,000 for that website because the client will continue to use it for years to come, and what happens if you start getting them 5 or 10 extra clients per month? There's a huge upside and very little risk assuming you have the track record to prove your success &amp; skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And maybe that site only took you 40 hours to build using free tools like GIMP, Notepad, and WordPress, so your effective hourly rate is $600/hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: these ideas aren't mine. I learned everything from Brennan Dunn's book, Double Your Freelancing Rate. It should be required reading for all freelancers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8789" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2782" RevisionGUID="26306997-9060-48b0-90e3-b0c83b2854c3" CreationDate="2015-01-14T15:55:13.267" UserId="708" Comment="added 354 characters in body" Text="I do not know what's standard for your particular business niché.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, your &quot;cost of materials&quot; seems exceptionally out of line to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging for software, hardware, and training which you will use for **every client you ever have** seems ludicrous to me. Detailing that in a quote/bid for me, would *instantly* mean I wanted to anger my clients. Operating expenses **are not** part of a bid/quote. Operating expenses are built into hourly rates as your **overhead** and customarily *not* treated as items every client is directly invoiced for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of it this way, if your car breaks down and you take it to a mechanic, does the mechanic charge you for his wrench? The lift? the air tools? The garage? That's essentially what you are telling your clients. Even though you would use these tools for **every conceivable client you ever have** you want *this* client to pay directly for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me, you are simply calculating costs incorrectly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Hourly rate = ((yearly overhead / billable hours per year) + profit margin**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Overhead =**&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly electricity cost + &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly water cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly heat cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly rent/mortgage fees +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly travel expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly phone cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly training expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly software cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly hardware maintenance expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for example, I calculate that I will work **5 days a week** for **40 weeks** of the year at **6 hrs per day** (1,200 billable hours per year). And I know it costs me **$25,200 a year for Overhead**. Divide that by the 1200 billable hours and I know it costs me $20.83/hr to operate. So a minimum hourly rate is $21 (I'd round up.) Then add your profit margin to calculate hourly rate. Commonly 20% is used for profit. You don't *have* to use 20% this is just an example. So, let's say 20% ($4.20) for profit. Rounding up, the hourly rate would be $26/hr.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This builds your operating costs (overhead) into your hourly rate. If you aren't doing this.. where are you getting your hourly rate from???? Are you just guessing at it??&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you want to use a much larger profit margin you should still *calculate your overhead*. Without knowing your overhead how do you know what is too low of a bid? How do you know when you are *losing* money on a project? What if you bid a project for $20/hr and your overhead is actually $25/hr? You'd be losing money with every hour you worked.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Material costs should be reserved for materials **directly needed for ONLY this project**. So, if this particular project requires a license for a third party software package, or this client is requesting the use of a particular typeface which carries a cost with it, *then* those would be added as materials costs. Material costs should *never* include anything you require to run operations *every day you're in business* that is overhead, not materials." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8790" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2782" RevisionGUID="80630bc0-5a9c-42bf-ae44-41665c9e7223" CreationDate="2015-01-14T16:14:20.150" UserId="708" Comment="added 28 characters in body" Text="I do not know what's standard for your particular business niché.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, your &quot;cost of materials&quot; seems exceptionally out of line to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging for software, hardware, and training which you will use for **every client you ever have** seems ludicrous to me. Detailing that in a quote/bid for me, would *instantly* mean I wanted to anger my clients. Operating expenses **are not** part of a bid/quote. Operating expenses are built into hourly rates as your **overhead** and customarily *not* treated as items every client is directly invoiced for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of it this way, if your car breaks down and you take it to a mechanic, does the mechanic charge you for his wrench? The lift? the air tools? The garage? That's essentially what you are telling your clients. Even though you would use these tools for **every conceivable client you ever have** you want *this* client to pay directly for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me, you are simply calculating costs incorrectly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Hourly rate = ((yearly overhead / billable hours per year) + profit margin**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Overhead =**&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly electricity cost + &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly water cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly heat cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly rent/mortgage fees +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly travel expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly phone cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly training expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly software cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly hardware maintenance expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for example, I calculate that I will work **5 days a week** for **40 weeks** of the year at **6 hrs per day** (6 hrs x 5 days x 40 weeks = 1,200 billable hours per year). And I know it costs me **$25,200 a year for Overhead**. Divide that by the 1200 billable hours and I know it costs me $20.83/hr to operate. So a minimum hourly rate is $21 (I'd round up.) Then add your profit margin to calculate hourly rate. Commonly 20% is used for profit. You don't *have* to use 20% this is just an example. So, let's say 20% ($4.20) for profit. Rounding up, the hourly rate would be $26/hr.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This builds your operating costs (overhead) into your hourly rate. If you aren't doing this.. where are you getting your hourly rate from???? Are you just guessing at it??&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you want to use a much larger profit margin you should still *calculate your overhead*. Without knowing your overhead how do you know what is too low of a bid? How do you know when you are *losing* money on a project? What if you bid a project for $20/hr and your overhead is actually $25/hr? You'd be losing money with every hour you worked.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Material costs should be reserved for materials **directly needed for ONLY this project**. So, if this particular project requires a license for a third party software package, or this client is requesting the use of a particular typeface which carries a cost with it, *then* those would be added as materials costs. Material costs should *never* include anything you require to run operations *every day you're in business* that is overhead, not materials." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8791" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2782" RevisionGUID="7a0dfbfd-8073-4ac6-805e-2249e68c5b59" CreationDate="2015-01-14T16:21:37.263" UserId="708" Comment="added 28 characters in body" Text="I do not know what's standard for your particular business niché.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, your &quot;cost of materials&quot; seems exceptionally out of line to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging for software, hardware, and training which you will use for **every client you ever have** seems ludicrous to me. Detailing that in a quote/bid for me, would *instantly* mean I wanted to anger my clients. Operating expenses **are not** part of a bid/quote. Operating expenses are built into hourly rates as your **overhead** and customarily *not* treated as items every client is directly invoiced for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of it this way, if your car breaks down and you take it to a mechanic, does the mechanic charge you for his wrench? The lift? the air tools? The garage? That's essentially what you are telling your clients. Even though you would use these tools for **every conceivable client you ever have** you want *this* client to pay directly for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me, you are simply calculating costs incorrectly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Hourly rate = ((yearly overhead / billable hours per year) + profit margin**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Overhead =**&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly electricity cost + &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly water cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly heat cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly rent/mortgage fees +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly travel expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly phone cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly training expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly software cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly hardware maintenance expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for example, I calculate that I will work **5 days a week** for **40 weeks** of the year at **6 hrs per day** (6 hrs x 5 days x 40 weeks = 1,200 billable hours per year). And I know it costs me **$25,200 a year for Overhead**. Divide that by the 1200 billable hours and I know it costs me $20.83/hr to operate. So a minimum hourly rate is $21 (I'd round up.) Then add your profit margin to calculate hourly rate. Commonly 20% is used for profit. You don't *have* to use 20% this is just an example. So, let's say 20% ($4.20) for profit. Rounding up, the hourly rate would be $26/hr.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This builds your operating costs (overhead) into your hourly rate. If you aren't doing this.. where are you getting your hourly rate from???? Are you just guessing at it??&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you want to use a much larger profit margin you should still *calculate your overhead*. Without knowing your overhead how do you know what is too low of a bid? How do you know when you are *losing* money on a project? What if you bid a project for $20/hr and your overhead is actually $25/hr? You'd be losing money with every hour you worked.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Material costs should be reserved for materials **directly needed for ONLY this project**. So, if this particular project requires a license for a third party software package, or this client is requesting the use of a particular typeface which carries a cost with it, *then* those would be added as materials costs. Material costs should *never* include anything you require to run operations *every day you're in business* that is overhead, not materials.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, for this client, you may have shot yourself in the face. If your proposed hourly rate was lower than your operating expenses (overhead) it is not going to look favorably if you you return with lower &quot;material&quot; costs and a higher hourly rate. The client will most likely figure out you are adding to the hourly rate to increase return on the project and, even if it is to legitimately cover expenses, it will still look simply like number shuffling. If you keep your proposed hourly rate the same and remove the &quot;material&quot; costs, the client may feel you were trying to take advantage of them with the first quote/bid. I'm just speculating based on my own experience, but this particular client may be a loss due to the misstep when bidding." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8792" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2782" RevisionGUID="787d04ae-d057-49e0-b57a-62220eb84a28" CreationDate="2015-01-14T16:32:06.577" UserId="708" Comment="added 85 characters in body" Text="I do not know what's standard for your particular business niché.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, your &quot;cost of materials&quot; seems exceptionally out of line to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging for software, hardware, and training which you will use for **every client you ever have** seems ludicrous to me. Detailing that in a quote/bid for me, would *instantly* mean I wanted to anger my clients. Operating expenses **are not** part of a bid/quote. Operating expenses are built into hourly rates as your **overhead** and customarily *not* treated as items every client is directly invoiced for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of it this way, if your car breaks down and you take it to a mechanic, does the mechanic charge you for his wrench? The lift? the air tools? The garage? That's essentially what you are telling your clients. Even though you would use these tools for **every conceivable client you ever have** you want *this* client to pay directly for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me, you are simply calculating costs incorrectly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Hourly rate = ((yearly overhead / billable hours per year) + profit margin**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Overhead =**&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly electricity cost + &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly water cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly heat cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly rent/mortgage fees +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly travel expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly phone cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly training expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly software cost +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;yearly hardware maintenance expenses +&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for example, I calculate that I will work **5 days a week** for **40 weeks** of the year at **6 hrs per day** (6 hrs x 5 days x 40 weeks = 1,200 billable hours per year). And I know it costs me **$25,200 a year for Overhead**. Divide that by the 1200 billable hours and I know it costs me $20.83/hr to operate. So a minimum hourly rate is $21 (I'd round up.) Then add your profit margin to calculate hourly rate. Commonly 20% is used for profit.  So, let's say 20% ($4.20) for profit. Rounding up, the hourly rate would be $26/hr. You don't *have* to use 20% this is just an example. In some markets, you could easily use 50%, 100%, or even 200% and still gain work. The point is you *should know your minimum hourly rate needed for overhead.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This builds your operating costs (overhead) into your hourly rate. If you aren't doing this.. where are you getting your hourly rate from???? Are you just guessing at it??&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you want to use a much larger profit margin you should still *calculate your overhead*. Without knowing your overhead how do you know what is too low of a bid? How do you know when you are *losing* money on a project? What if you bid a project for $20/hr and your overhead is actually $25/hr? You'd be losing money with every hour you worked.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Material costs should be reserved for materials **directly needed for ONLY this project**. So, if this particular project requires a license for a third party software package, or this client is requesting the use of a particular typeface which carries a cost with it, *then* those would be added as materials costs. Material costs should *never* include anything you require to run operations *every day you're in business* that is overhead, not materials.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, for this client, you may have shot yourself in the face. If your proposed hourly rate was lower than your operating expenses (overhead) it is not going to look favorably if you you return with lower &quot;material&quot; costs and a higher hourly rate. The client will most likely figure out you are adding to the hourly rate to increase return on the project and, even if it is to legitimately cover expenses, it will still look simply like number shuffling. If you keep your proposed hourly rate the same and remove the &quot;material&quot; costs, the client may feel you were trying to take advantage of them with the first quote/bid. I'm just speculating based on my own experience, but this particular client may be a loss due to the misstep when bidding." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8793" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2778" RevisionGUID="572d1850-25d7-4b62-8251-57726b25c52e" CreationDate="2015-01-14T16:46:41.520" UserId="5785" Comment="added 258 characters in body" Text="It's my first time to freelance for a web development project in general and I was thinking of offering insurance if ever the website crashes for any non-self-inflicted reason. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are the advantages and disadvantages of offering insurance services? What should I keep in mind? What are the common mistakes in offering website insurances?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;ATM, here's a very general idea of what the insurance would cover :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If your website crashes for any non self-inflicted reason, this&#xD;&#xA;&gt; insurance will cover the manpower needed to attempt to troubleshoot&#xD;&#xA;&gt; and fix the ongoing issue with your website" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8795" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2783" RevisionGUID="963afa7a-87ca-4879-9145-f0ce09f01c95" CreationDate="2015-01-14T20:37:12.530" UserId="2819" Comment="Basic math is hard" Text="There is no &quot;Standard Company Website&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Time &amp; Materials (and overhead) is just one way to price a project. It also happens to be one of the worst, because it traps you in a weird cycle. As you get better, you get faster, which means fewer billable hours and...less money. Hooray, progress! Then you have to up your hourly rate and prospective clients start freaking out about your massively inflated hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The better path is to price based on the value the client will get from your work. If I'm a business owner, I don't care how much time something takes you or what tools it takes to make something happen. All I care about is what's important to me (usually more sales or leads).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lets say I'm a mental health counselor. My average client pays $80 per week to meet with me, and they typically see me for 2 years. That client is worth roughly $8000 to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you pitch me a total website solution that will bring me just ONE extra client per month, that equals an extra $96,000 per year in revenue for my company. You could easily charge tens of thousands of dollars for that website because the client will continue to use it for years to come, and what happens if you start getting them 5 or 10 extra clients per month? There's a huge upside and very little risk assuming you have the track record to prove your success &amp; skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And maybe that site only took you 40 hours to build using free tools like GIMP, Notepad, and WordPress, so your effective hourly rate is much higher than you'd ever be able to justify otherwise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: these ideas aren't mine. I learned everything from Brennan Dunn's book, Double Your Freelancing Rate. It should be required reading for all freelancers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8796" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2725" RevisionGUID="887daf4d-37c3-4e8b-990e-6170de9d5ea7" CreationDate="2015-01-15T01:41:59.213" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/555540364736860161" />
  <row Id="8797" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2779" RevisionGUID="c05077d4-bb64-4a1b-898c-75b78ef784cd" CreationDate="2015-01-15T03:06:10.103" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [freelance-websites], reworked title to relate to question, grammar, tightened wording" Text="My colleague and I were hired as freelancers by a small company to build their company website. The website included Home, About, Products, Services, and Contact pages.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When our client asked us about the overall cost, we said that our cost would include&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **Cost of Personnel** (man-hours spent, hourly rate), and&#xD;&#xA;* **Cost of Materials** (Photoshop, personal laptop usage, web development research/training) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They found the personnel cost acceptable, but they balked at our inclusion of the material cost. Their argument was that the cost of materials shouldn't be included in the overall cost because we are freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is our client correct in that the cost of materials should not be included in the cost? We are new to freelancing, so any help is appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8798" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2779" RevisionGUID="c05077d4-bb64-4a1b-898c-75b78ef784cd" CreationDate="2015-01-15T03:06:10.103" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [freelance-websites], reworked title to relate to question, grammar, tightened wording" Text="Including cost of materials in quote" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8799" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2779" RevisionGUID="c05077d4-bb64-4a1b-898c-75b78ef784cd" CreationDate="2015-01-15T03:06:10.103" UserId="9" Comment="Removed [freelance-websites], reworked title to relate to question, grammar, tightened wording" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8802" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2785" RevisionGUID="5de34da5-095e-4b6a-81df-119713282a22" CreationDate="2015-01-16T00:00:09.297" UserId="1706" Text=" 1. You cannot label this as &quot;insurance&quot; without the possibility of headaches.  Be **very** careful&#xD;&#xA; 2. How would you PROVE that the situation is or is not &quot;self-inflicted&quot;????&#xD;&#xA; 3. What if the issue is that the server is turned off or disabled?  If you are offering to absolutely fix it no matter what, this could backfire.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8808" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2787" RevisionGUID="bca2cd05-6bc1-4a33-9bb6-7ac2a770131c" CreationDate="2015-01-16T16:23:53.993" UserId="5844" Text="I am starting my freelancing career as a web developer/web designer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a few test runs, the client posts a link to a website and says they would like that style.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would you approach that problem?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I do is write HTML/CSS and try to make an exact copy of the website?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I then go back and compare my sample to the original.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not sure if that's what you are supposed to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help is greatly recommended." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8809" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2787" RevisionGUID="bca2cd05-6bc1-4a33-9bb6-7ac2a770131c" CreationDate="2015-01-16T16:23:53.993" UserId="5844" Text="Technique to designing a website based on a sample?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8810" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2787" RevisionGUID="bca2cd05-6bc1-4a33-9bb6-7ac2a770131c" CreationDate="2015-01-16T16:23:53.993" UserId="5844" Text="|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8811" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2788" RevisionGUID="17960201-f1ed-4db2-948f-09b3ad706d7b" CreationDate="2015-01-16T19:23:52.417" UserId="517" Text="Firstly, you will need to talk to the client a lot. Whatever you feel you should ask, then ask. NEVER presume that he wants something. Ask, ask and ask. If you realize that you are boring to the client, there are 90% chances that this is the bad client and you will get into trouble eventually working with such clients. Good clients who want to make success out of their project will always have time for his project. He will never say you are asking stupid question (unless it's really stupid) and he will even repeat things you asked before. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So when he says he wants a website like XY, then he wants such look, UX and impression on users. It's up to you now and your expertize to ask him right questions. Such as: Do you need a backend? Do you have hosting? Do you want linux-based or windows-based website (so you can choose technology and language)? and so on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You then make a list of all features which will become project specifications. Whatever is not clear, you ask the client. If he says I don't know, you can recommend things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always be honest and realistic about deadline. If you followed all these steps and the client leaves you, then you are lucky - you discovered the bad client on time and you did not lose any money, except a few hours of your time. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8817" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2790" RevisionGUID="0a415184-c5af-47dc-9b7f-7e9fc08cbeec" CreationDate="2015-01-17T21:52:30.787" UserId="5851" Text="The best and safest way is to start freelancing in free time, while keeping the day job.&#xD;&#xA;Once you gain enough experience/clients/jobs and (if) you make enough to buy things you need and make you happy, you can quit your day job and go full time freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are many benefits of being freelancer, but note there are many studies concluding that Freelancers often earn less than their employed counterparts. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8819" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2791" RevisionGUID="5d8213db-c58d-465d-8b0d-2a1813e6ba17" CreationDate="2015-01-18T23:17:45.160" UserId="5821" Text="I am also a freelancer.  Here is a tool that I use to collaborate with my clients (local and international)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Koding (https://koding.com/)** - This tool is helpful for the following reasons&#xD;&#xA;     &#xD;&#xA;     **Rapid prototyping**  I simply give my clients a URL where they can view the website prototype.  This greatly sped up the client feedback process. You don't have to do any training&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     **Code Repository**  Since it is a virtual machine, you can store your code here and access it anywhere.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Marker (https://insync.io/marker)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     **Collaboration/Feedback**  This one is also a useful tool for communicating via screenshots.  You can edit the screenshots (highlight certain areas, write text/comments, etc) via browser&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8820" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2792" RevisionGUID="cdbe1ab8-bfa7-4d44-9e17-8bbd40e6fd27" CreationDate="2015-01-19T07:53:06.977" UserId="5863" Text="If I understand well what you're proposing, you want to charge a monthly fee to give your costumer the commitment that you will fix some kinds of problems he might have, i.e. &quot;crashes for any non self-inflicted reason&quot;. That is basically a specific kind of support contract, widely adopted in the field, and there's nothing wrong with the idea, I just don't see why call it &quot;insurance&quot;. As long as what you want to cover in your support contract is clear, all should be fine and you should definitely sell it. If you already have a support contract that covers other problems, you can just offer an extension of the support for extra cases. I would advise you to hire an IT lawyer to help polish the details, if you foresee having many costumers that you could offer this &quot;support extension&quot; to.&#xD;&#xA;Good Luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8821" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2792" RevisionGUID="b95c88ee-b5e2-4947-8ac2-f4acd0110af1" CreationDate="2015-01-19T08:09:38.680" UserId="5863" Comment="expanded part that I had forgotten to say" Text="If I understand well what you're proposing, you want to charge a monthly fee to give your costumer the commitment that you will fix some kinds of problems he might have, i.e. &quot;crashes for any non self-inflicted reason&quot;. That is basically a specific kind of support contract, widely adopted in the field, and there's nothing wrong with the idea, I just don't see why call it &quot;insurance&quot;. As long as what you want to cover in your support contract is clear, all should be fine and you should definitely sell it. If you already have a support contract that covers other problems, you can just offer an extension of the support for extra cases, at an additional cost, that the costumer can choose to hire or not. I would advise you to hire an IT lawyer to help polish the details, if you foresee having many costumers that you could offer this &quot;support extension&quot; to.&#xD;&#xA;Good Luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8823" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2793" RevisionGUID="acdd087e-9af3-4144-909a-8e9725c48ccb" CreationDate="2015-01-19T14:25:55.500" UserId="2958" Text="I just stumbled upon a company called ZIP-Task. That company claims to realize online outsourcing projects in a different way than I have seen before. In conventional online outsourcing companies (e.g. oDesk, eLance, etc.) developers are more or less on their own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;ZIP-Task says the organise projects in a more systematical way (especially by first installing a project manager) but still select team members from an open freelancer pool on demand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That special company seems a bit weird. For potential freelancers they even do not provide an explicit way of contacting them (e.g. by e-mail) other then applying for their pool. That creeps me out a little. Also they do not provide any detailed information for potential freelancers. At least I could not find anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Still the idea is interesting from a possible freelancer's point of view since I made *very* bad experiences with oDesk and similar sites (from a customer point of view). I think the ZIP task way may be a good idea. However I could not find any other companies that provide similar services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does someone have experiences with that special company?&#xD;&#xA;Are there any other companies that realize a similar online outsourcing concept?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8824" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2793" RevisionGUID="acdd087e-9af3-4144-909a-8e9725c48ccb" CreationDate="2015-01-19T14:25:55.500" UserId="2958" Text="Managed online outsourcing companies" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8825" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2793" RevisionGUID="acdd087e-9af3-4144-909a-8e9725c48ccb" CreationDate="2015-01-19T14:25:55.500" UserId="2958" Text="|freelance-websites|remote|outsourcing|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8826" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2793" RevisionGUID="df36d408-b580-48df-bc86-c2c49646fe1f" CreationDate="2015-01-19T14:44:57.720" UserId="2958" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="I just stumbled upon a company called ZIP-Task. That company claims to realize online outsourcing projects in a different way than I have seen before. In conventional online outsourcing companies (e.g. oDesk, eLance, etc.) developers are more or less on their own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;ZIP-Task says the organise projects in a more systematical way (especially by first installing a project manager) but still selecting team members from an open freelancer pool on demand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That special company seems a bit weird. For potential freelancers they even do not provide an explicit way of contacting them (e.g. by e-mail) other then applying for their pool. That creeps me out a little. Also they do not provide any detailed information for potential freelancers. At least I could not find anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Still the idea is interesting from a possible freelancer's point of view since I made *very* bad experiences with oDesk and similar sites (from a customer point of view). I think the ZIP task way may be a good idea. However I could not find any other companies that provide similar services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does someone have experiences with that special company?&#xD;&#xA;Are there any other companies that realize a similar online outsourcing concept?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8827" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2794" RevisionGUID="10315587-c503-4f91-bcfb-ccb49ace5717" CreationDate="2015-01-19T18:44:25.973" UserId="5867" Text="Does a business have to have the disclosure on the invoice regarding late fees or finance charges in order to charge for late payment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8828" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2794" RevisionGUID="10315587-c503-4f91-bcfb-ccb49ace5717" CreationDate="2015-01-19T18:44:25.973" UserId="5867" Text="Late Fees or Finance Charges" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8829" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2794" RevisionGUID="10315587-c503-4f91-bcfb-ccb49ace5717" CreationDate="2015-01-19T18:44:25.973" UserId="5867" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8830" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1858" RevisionGUID="0a610997-81e0-4440-a893-2e4782b192f3" CreationDate="2015-01-20T01:21:51.200" UserId="4556" Comment="Clarifying that VAT registration for companies with turnover of £81,00+ is not optional." Text="After having carried out further research since posting this question, I have learned the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - a company/person must be VAT registered in order to charge VAT;&#xD;&#xA; - a company/person must register for VAT if turnover reaches a certain threshold (currently £81,000)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At present, my work will not amount to that much which in turn answers my question with a simple &quot;no&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you to all who took the time to consider this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8831" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1858" RevisionGUID="0a610997-81e0-4440-a893-2e4782b192f3" CreationDate="2015-01-20T01:21:51.200" Comment="Proposed by 4556 approved by 152, 708 edit id of 384" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8841" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2799" RevisionGUID="a5354037-df86-4253-a9d2-acd9b12e683d" CreationDate="2015-01-20T16:33:23.590" UserId="5876" Text="Over the last year or so, I have had a side gig that has been awesome at every step of the way. I love the work I am doing for them, I enjoy it more that I do my full time gig. Recently, They have been ramping up what they need done. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been thinking a lot lately that this is the kind of work I want to fill my day with. I am consistently guilty that I am not giving my current full time job my whole heart. I was planning to have a better exit strategy in place (budget, business plan, etc) and quit around May. But, emotions got the best of me and I put in my notice here a few days ago. Sometimes you gotta leap, and the timing with the additional work from the side gig just fit. I hope.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have not yet told the side gig that I am preparing to work on their stuff full time. I don't want to put them in an awkward situation. You know, like telling a girl you've been interested in that you left your current girlfriend for her. I don't want the side gig to think that I am now relying on them for income. But I also want them to know that I am committing to moving their project forward full speed instead of part speed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For reference, I am a mechanical engineer by training (MSME). I am employed as a systems engineer at a medical device company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The side work is programming. I built a data management system for this company*. They want more features and also a work order management system.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* If you know where to point me to learn the vocabulary for what I actually built them (for referenceing ti to future clients), I would be grateful. The system gathers data from field-deployed units, organizes it, saves it to a relational database, pushes SMS and email notifications given alarm conditions, and provides a web portal for monitoring the current state of the field, and generates monthly reports for a given month on demand.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8842" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2799" RevisionGUID="a5354037-df86-4253-a9d2-acd9b12e683d" CreationDate="2015-01-20T16:33:23.590" UserId="5876" Text="How should I tell my side job that I quit my full-time job to work on their project full time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8843" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2799" RevisionGUID="a5354037-df86-4253-a9d2-acd9b12e683d" CreationDate="2015-01-20T16:33:23.590" UserId="5876" Text="|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8844" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2800" RevisionGUID="0d767b47-0ba2-42f7-b76f-8c910b538b21" CreationDate="2015-01-20T17:12:05.577" UserId="517" Text="Well I definitely advise you to TELL them about your plans. It's not like with girls. It's business. You have to tell them your plans and how you like their job so that they can see if they have work for you full time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What if they plan to freeze the project in 1 month? you have to know that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What if they don't like your work and plan to fire you? You have to know that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What if your current boss plans to give you raise? you have to know that as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if I were you I would first check with the side job if they have work for me full time and for how many months/years. Then I would tell my current boss that I am leaving it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whatever you do on your current job, we say &quot;do not close the door with your a*s&quot;. It means that you should stay in good relations with your current boss. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8845" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2801" RevisionGUID="0e2d5cb9-783f-41c7-a7d3-8ac2a0d4aac7" CreationDate="2015-01-20T22:41:23.820" UserId="5879" Text="Do you think it is best to submit CVs in Word or PDF format (or something else)? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've used Word for the last 15 years. I have to crank up an old XP virtual machine to run it, as I don't even own a more up-to-date copy of Windows any more, being a heavily Unix focused developer. Is it time to give up Word and use PDF? I only use Word because it seemed to be necessary to keep recruitment agencies and HR departments happy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8846" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2801" RevisionGUID="0e2d5cb9-783f-41c7-a7d3-8ac2a0d4aac7" CreationDate="2015-01-20T22:41:23.820" UserId="5879" Text="Should CVs (for software development jobs) be in Word or PDF format?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8847" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2801" RevisionGUID="0e2d5cb9-783f-41c7-a7d3-8ac2a0d4aac7" CreationDate="2015-01-20T22:41:23.820" UserId="5879" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8848" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2802" RevisionGUID="57041826-fa55-44a2-8cd2-145689f4dbe1" CreationDate="2015-01-21T04:25:04.910" UserId="188" Text="The *Portable Document Format* is actually the best format to submit any documentation. It guarantees the document will be received with the exact formatting. Word documents will render diferently depending on the application the receiver uses (ie, MS Word vs LibreOffice)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8852" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2801" RevisionGUID="e3c9bfd3-2cba-4932-82b7-9d2ee6313f4a" CreationDate="2015-01-21T08:23:13.627" UserId="5879" Comment="edited title" Text="Should CVs (for software freelance jobs) be in Word or PDF format?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8853" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2804" RevisionGUID="1451b339-8148-4cf2-99aa-6318b0be5f1f" CreationDate="2015-01-21T08:29:00.460" UserId="5883" Text="&gt; There's no freelancer market here in Brazil&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Yeah, it is one of the biggest advantsges of freelancers' job - you can register on some websites for freelancers and get customers from all over the world.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Where do I start? How do I find my first customer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is true, just use the Google to search for freelancers platforms you need. Try several ones and in some time after you work for them you will choose the main 1-2 websites you mostly work with. When I started me freelancer career I tried so many platform and now I mostly use just several ones, for example, Freelancer Careers that is good for writers. All you need is search and analyze who fits your interests and opportunities best.&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8854" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2802" RevisionGUID="57032e67-0f2f-4ae2-8321-77261ba85f35" CreationDate="2015-01-21T12:52:23.740" UserId="188" Comment="note" Text="The *Portable Document Format* is actually the best format to submit any documentation. It guarantees the document will be received with the exact formatting. Word documents will render diferently depending on the application the receiver uses (ie, MS Word vs LibreOffice).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT**: As noted by Peter on comments, it also guarantees it will be exactly as you planed to be if receiver prints the document" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8855" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2805" RevisionGUID="8f60dd50-a5f9-4dcc-8198-f9152a528868" CreationDate="2015-01-21T15:55:08.907" UserId="708" Text="Since the door to the full-time gig is closed.. forget that aspect. It's done, no turning back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for how to relay the additional open hours to the side job... I'd simply let then know my availability has increased and I'd be interested in assisting further if possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Something along the lines of....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi X,&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;I just wanted to drop you a line and let you know due to personal circumstances, I'm now available [additional hours, 5 days a week, 6 hours daily] if needed. I loved working on XXXXXX, and would enjoy the opportunity to assist in any way I can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't want to really state anything more than &quot;I'm available more.&quot; This avoids putting them on the spot and any implication that they are responsible for your income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; You *could* even go so far as to elude to a new business venture and imply that you're in demand more......&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi X,&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you again for the opportunity to assist with XXXXXX. Due to demand, I've decided to dedicate more time to these types of projects and have began freelancing full time. This means my schedule has opened up a great deal. I'm anticipating faster turnaround due to this. While I already have many existing commitments, I've enjoyed the projects from XXXXX and would always welcome any project which you feel suits my skills. &#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This lets them know you are now reliant on freelance income, but also eludes to other commitments. It's a subtle &quot;I'm in demand.&quot; note which can be helpful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just my 2¢." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8860" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="2765" RevisionGUID="3abbd494-58c0-4eeb-aa79-65cc8879ad0c" CreationDate="2015-01-21T17:47:57.413" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="8861" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2793" RevisionGUID="8c5155dc-8fd5-4775-8510-c5f7f2d67e4c" CreationDate="2015-01-21T18:21:40.007" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Stacey&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="8862" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1858" RevisionGUID="0fea075e-8686-462b-ba73-b3aec9b25977" CreationDate="2015-01-21T18:22:51.933" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 56 characters in body" Text="After having carried out further research since posting this question, I have learned the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - a company/person must be VAT registered in order to charge VAT;&#xD;&#xA; - a company/person must register for VAT if turnover reaches a certain threshold (currently £81,000)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At present, my work will not amount to that much which in turn answers my question with a simple &quot;no&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8863" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2806" RevisionGUID="4ce39c87-6d0e-41b4-a8b1-7f1657681cb0" CreationDate="2015-01-21T18:22:57.253" UserId="5892" Text="The ideal answer is PDF, however in my experience most agents want you to send a word file anyway. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I do is I create my CV in Word and then save it out in both formats. I send Word files to agents and PDFs to direct clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8867" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2801" RevisionGUID="61f2c483-444d-4bfe-94ba-d770f13c20ce" CreationDate="2015-01-21T18:46:31.110" UserId="9" Comment="Replaced [contracts] with [portfolio, resume], moved questions to bottom, grammar" Text="I've used Word for the last 15 years. I have to crank up a Windows XP virtual machine to run it, as I don't own a more up-to-date copy of Windows, since I focus heavily on Unix development. I only use Word because it seemed to be necessary to keep recruitment agencies and HR departments happy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you think it is best to submit CVs in Word, PDF, or something else? Is it time for me to give up Word and solely use PDF?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8868" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2801" RevisionGUID="61f2c483-444d-4bfe-94ba-d770f13c20ce" CreationDate="2015-01-21T18:46:31.110" UserId="9" Comment="Replaced [contracts] with [portfolio, resume], moved questions to bottom, grammar" Text="File format for CVs for software freelance jobs" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8869" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2801" RevisionGUID="61f2c483-444d-4bfe-94ba-d770f13c20ce" CreationDate="2015-01-21T18:46:31.110" UserId="9" Comment="Replaced [contracts] with [portfolio, resume], moved questions to bottom, grammar" Text="|portfolio|resume|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8870" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2794" RevisionGUID="f90dcbbf-cca0-4f63-a5f9-5dd5addd6125" CreationDate="2015-01-21T18:47:41.597" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, added [legal]" Text="Is a business required to disclose late fees or finance charges on an invoice in order to legally add charges for late payments?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8871" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2794" RevisionGUID="f90dcbbf-cca0-4f63-a5f9-5dd5addd6125" CreationDate="2015-01-21T18:47:41.597" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, added [legal]" Text="|legal|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8872" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2807" RevisionGUID="edeb2c7c-aab1-4164-88fd-d2c94b632735" CreationDate="2015-01-21T22:15:12.897" UserId="5893" Text="Late fees are part of my contract that I use before I begin work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My invoices include the payment terms (i.e. Net 30 or whatever has been agreed to, and a note at the bottom with a restatement of the contracted late fee terms)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8873" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2808" RevisionGUID="9f49afbd-3f38-4b19-b3d7-25e7da275b88" CreationDate="2015-01-21T22:21:26.860" UserId="5893" Text="If you and he are located in different countries, your legal remedies are few and expensive. If this is your first freelance project, consider it a &quot;learning experience&quot; - &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. NEVER start work before a deposit is made up front with people you don't know.  (Especially people you &quot;meet&quot; on line.)&#xD;&#xA; 2. NEVER give the final product before receiving full payment&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client doesn't agree with those terms, try using a third party system where your money is kept in escrow until the work is completed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8874" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2809" RevisionGUID="c993013b-df54-4a88-bad5-1d19c49850e4" CreationDate="2015-01-21T22:40:03.797" UserId="5893" Text="This is how I've priced jobs:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is your overall bid price for the project. It is a fixed number. That number is based on the detailed Scope of Work (in this case, the kind of site, how many pages, etc) and an estimate of the amount of time it will take to complete it. So, for example $5,000 and two weeks turnaround.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your &quot;material costs&quot; should be folded into what you have in your head for an hourly rate. The hourly rate should take into consideration what your costs are (equipment, software, office space, internet access, utilities, etc) and what you want your annual income to be divided by the number of billable hours you can put in over the course of a year. Factor in vacation time, holidays, sick days, time spent getting work: writing proposals, negotiating, meeting with potential clients. I've seen estimates of 800 to 1360 billable hours per year; not the 2000 hours a fulltime employee can possibly work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is your hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.consultingsuccess.com/consulting-fees-calculator" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8876" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2807" RevisionGUID="3649bcd6-fadd-430e-99a5-711e2725d8d8" CreationDate="2015-01-22T03:46:15.440" UserId="5893" Comment="edited to include sample language from actual contract, and to answer the actual question." Text="I believe it's better business practice to discuss late fees or finance charges at the front end of a project. You may have difficulty from a legal standpoint trying to enforce something that's not in your contract. (and you should have a **written** contract for all work you perform for others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Late fees are part of my contract that I use before I begin work. (the following is from my contract in the &quot;Terms&quot; section)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 1. Time for Payment&#xD;&#xA;&gt;All invoices are payable within 30 days of receipt. A 1 1/2% monthly service charge is payable on all overdue balances. The grant of any license or right of copyright is conditioned on receipt of full payment.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;2. Default in Payment&#xD;&#xA;&gt;The Client shall assume responsibility for all collection of legal fees necessitated by default in payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My invoices include the payment terms (i.e. Net 30 or whatever has been agreed to, and a note at the bottom with a restatement of the contracted late fee terms)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8877" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2801" RevisionGUID="14865c52-5022-4422-bd99-365dedb861ec" CreationDate="2015-01-22T10:40:58.863" UserId="5879" Comment="Improved grammer (as, since)" Text="I've used Word for the last 15 years. I have to crank up a Windows XP virtual machine to run it. I don't own a more up-to-date copy of Windows, since I focus heavily on Unix development. I only use Word because it seemed to be necessary to keep recruitment agencies and HR departments happy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you think it is best to submit CVs in Word, PDF, or something else? Is it time for me to give up Word and solely use PDF?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8883" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2811" RevisionGUID="6ae065cb-aab6-4da6-9a02-5e16f7d0e2e6" CreationDate="2015-01-22T20:50:44.197" UserId="5876" Text="Hopefully the title is worded accurately, here goes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have built a data management framework for my client. Gather data, organize, save to database, provide web portal so they can monitor the field, and notification system. The client is looking to add workorder management to the system. Automated workorder generation  would be triggered by unit shutdown (alarm condition) and the preventative maintenance schedule. The system would also include inventory management. Workorders would be manually added as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client sent out the work scope last week. They had mentioned that the spouse of one of their employees could contribute to this project. We all met this morning and the spouse spoke of her idea of how to implement the system. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Her system would involve building a java application that would be installed on each user's machine. Other option is a web interface written in java.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The existing application is a web-based interface built with Python &amp; Flask. MySQL is the database backend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My concern is that we would both be working in completely different technological ecosystems, thereby providing the client essentially two completely disparate systems that logically should exist as one entity. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to provide the WO management as a section of our existing web application. For various reasons, it is intimately tied to the underlying database. Some refactoring of the schema is in order, but extending the existing application to provide this functionality seems like the best choice for a few reasons*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, I am trying to approach this pragmatically. I don't want to give the impression that I am pushing my offerings selfishly. I really don't want them to deal with two systems that perform the work of one. I see that as the source of headaches, costs, delays, more headaches.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The spouse already has a full time employment commitment. I have already told the client that I am available to devote primary effort to this project. I don't think that this is a case of &quot;lets throw some work to X as a favor&quot;. I see the client as choosing what is best for their needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;ADVANTAGES OF 1 vs 2 SYSTEMS: 1) The system is one system instead of two. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) It is an extension of the existing application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) consistency on the UI&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) web application does not require install. The user login system on the website is already in place. HTML5's WebStorage allows offline functionality to be incorporated. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5) current system already interacts with the database.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6) Listing a site's current workorders would be easier, not requiring back and forth communication.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**TL;DR**&#xD;&#xA;How to pragmatically show that incorporating a layer of isolated technology to solve a problem that could be solved by an extension of the client's existing technology is not ideal?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My plan is to formalize my proposal from a tech perspective and share it with all parties involved, and hope that it speaks for itself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you think?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8884" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2811" RevisionGUID="6ae065cb-aab6-4da6-9a02-5e16f7d0e2e6" CreationDate="2015-01-22T20:50:44.197" UserId="5876" Text="Competing offer from outside consultant" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8885" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2811" RevisionGUID="6ae065cb-aab6-4da6-9a02-5e16f7d0e2e6" CreationDate="2015-01-22T20:50:44.197" UserId="5876" Text="|project-bidding|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8886" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2812" RevisionGUID="e14e8028-ef85-46ac-b76c-4aa19927d316" CreationDate="2015-01-22T23:50:39.130" UserId="2060" Text="As a freelancer, how do I determine how much federal withholding I should pay? I've been paying estimated taxes for 2014, but that did not include **income tax** so now I'm facing a hefty bill. I would like to avoid this situation for next year. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8887" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2812" RevisionGUID="e14e8028-ef85-46ac-b76c-4aa19927d316" CreationDate="2015-01-22T23:50:39.130" UserId="2060" Text="Determine income tax" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8888" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2812" RevisionGUID="e14e8028-ef85-46ac-b76c-4aa19927d316" CreationDate="2015-01-22T23:50:39.130" UserId="2060" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8890" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2814" RevisionGUID="93cb2ede-2f49-4171-92e8-ed49584c92c5" CreationDate="2015-01-23T12:50:19.590" UserId="517" Text="So you're asking if you will be a bitch and ditch the competition or be a fair player and risk to end up in a mess?!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I formulate like this, obviously you will say that you have to be a bitch player. But will the client appreciate it? If I want to give some work to my friend's wife and some contractor starts slandering her, I would ditch that contractor. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, firstly you have to think if her approach can he of real help. Then see if she can finish her part in a reasonable time (the client has to approve time). Then have answer to &quot;how she can help to the project in another way&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would then be open with the client and her on the same meeting. Simply explain why would it be bad to use her approach and how you will get stuck. Be nice. The client has to see that his project may be jeopardized and not to see that you are slandering her. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then say that you appreciate her help and another help. Propose how she can help doing something else. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8891" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1478" RevisionGUID="02a76dcf-a16f-48e9-a2cf-9663bd6c6476" CreationDate="2015-01-23T12:51:17.047" UserId="9" Comment="Added clarification about when not to use this tag" Text="This tag should be used for questions about freelancing problems that involve freelancing websites like oDesk, eLance, etc. For software support questions, see that vendor's customer support page. **Do NOT use this tag for questions relating to developing websites for customers**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8892" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1478" RevisionGUID="02a76dcf-a16f-48e9-a2cf-9663bd6c6476" CreationDate="2015-01-23T12:51:17.047" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by -1 edit id of 386" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8893" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1478" RevisionGUID="52f177b8-5d83-4337-8504-f6b09d60161e" CreationDate="2015-01-23T12:51:17.047" UserId="517" Comment="Added clarification about when not to use this tag" Text="This tag should be used for questions about freelancing problems that involve freelancing websites like oDesk, eLance, etc. For software support questions, see that vendor's customer support page. Do NOT use this tag for questions relating to developing websites for customers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8894" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2815" RevisionGUID="b7cb94d0-0162-49eb-b4bc-1d19c70ef510" CreationDate="2015-01-23T14:59:48.093" UserId="1818" Text="Run, don't walk, to a local certified accountant.  You need advice from a professional in this area.  Time is running out on your 2014 taxes.  The financial penalties can be significant if you have mis-estimated your tax liability." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8896" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2812" RevisionGUID="028349f9-97ff-4371-801f-590fa56ad807" CreationDate="2015-01-23T19:06:21.547" UserId="2060" Comment="edited tags" Text="|taxes|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8897" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2816" RevisionGUID="e20d8ac2-efa0-48e0-aea2-16a77f2225cd" CreationDate="2015-01-23T20:58:02.137" UserId="5851" Text="Every start is difficult, but if you are persistent enough and accept lower paying jobs in the beginning (to build resume and references) you can start earning decent amounts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are many freelance platforms (where you can get jobs). The most popular ones are:&#xD;&#xA;Elance/oDesk and Freelancer &#xD;&#xA;You should also consider:&#xD;&#xA;getacoder, guru and peopleperhour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8898" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2817" RevisionGUID="d51d1857-3047-42fb-b68c-8306985777a5" CreationDate="2015-01-23T22:00:43.600" UserId="708" Text="If it were me, I'd ignore the outside contractor entirely unless *specifically* asked. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would not intentionally note *anything* the outside contractor is suggesting and I wouldn't &quot;build in&quot; counter arguments to my bid. I would detail what I feel is the proper way to proceed and *why*. Giving a solid argument on your own merits rather than bouncing them off of other methods which you may or may not feel are inferior.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stating anything about why ContractorX's methods are &quot;not as good&quot; just makes things look petty and personal. Reserve any opinion about other bids/workers unless you are *asked* about them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically.... Don't. Just pretend the other contractor doesn't exist and provide a detailed, solid outline in your bid with explanations as to why this method is the best in your opinion." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8900" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2818" RevisionGUID="83c73895-03a1-4e1b-99e6-d95536f72572" CreationDate="2015-01-24T07:39:51.527" UserId="5911" Text="i am a freelance web developer and i have worked with a couple of clients who are not running a business themselves but they are individuals who get projects from the &quot;**real**&quot; clients and outsource it to me. So essentialy they are standing in between me and the real clients. So my question is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. What do you call such a person? or what is their designation? Is it correct to refer to them as contractors?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. How do they get their projects?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8901" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2818" RevisionGUID="83c73895-03a1-4e1b-99e6-d95536f72572" CreationDate="2015-01-24T07:39:51.527" UserId="5911" Text="how intermediaries in freelancing work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8902" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2818" RevisionGUID="83c73895-03a1-4e1b-99e6-d95536f72572" CreationDate="2015-01-24T07:39:51.527" UserId="5911" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8903" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2819" RevisionGUID="8950c622-307b-4c04-95cc-a0a70421b5ac" CreationDate="2015-01-24T07:54:59.440" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="They're called recruitment agencies. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A recruitment agency is a company that acts as a middle man between the client and the contractor.  Their services are mostly recruitment but some may offer project management too. They get their projects in the same way contractors do, by applying for projects online or by advertising their services as an agency. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually an agency will have a pool of skilled contractors at their disposal and will take a percentage cut of the payment. The quality of the agency is very important,  some specialise in very skilled contractors and are very efficient and good managers, others can offer low quality service and generally aren't worth the effort. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually a client will hire an agency when they don't have the time to manage the recruitment process but just want the job done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8904" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2819" RevisionGUID="0024c798-701f-4b39-86f8-5b7abd704efe" CreationDate="2015-01-24T08:04:04.997" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 13 characters in body" Text="They're called recruitment agencies. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A recruitment agency is a company that acts as a middle man between the client and the contractor.  Their services are mostly recruitment but some may offer project management too. They get their projects in the same way contractors do, by applying for projects online or by advertising their services as an agency. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually an agency will have a pool of skilled contractors at their disposal and will take a percentage cut of the payment. The quality of the agency is very important,  some specialise in very skilled contractors and are very efficient and good managers, others can offer low quality service and generally aren't worth the effort. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually a client will hire an agency when they don't have the time or knowledge to manage the recruitment process but just want the job done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8905" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="2817" RevisionGUID="7eb2af1a-6252-45ea-8215-b48ac0d62e23" CreationDate="2015-01-24T08:25:08.330" UserId="708" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="8906" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2817" RevisionGUID="aaa1ab2f-0e54-4861-bb86-0c41f9818f21" CreationDate="2015-01-24T08:26:25.773" UserId="708" Comment="added 154 characters in body" Text="If it were me, I'd ignore the outside contractor entirely unless *specifically* asked. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would not intentionally note *anything* the outside contractor is suggesting and I wouldn't &quot;build in&quot; counter arguments to my bid. I would detail what I feel is the proper way to proceed and *why*. Giving a solid argument on your own merits rather than bouncing them off of other methods which you may or may not feel are inferior.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stating anything about why ContractorX's methods are &quot;not as good&quot; just makes things look petty and personal. Reserve any opinion about other bids/workers unless you are *asked* about them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically.... Don't. Just pretend the other contractor doesn't exist and provide a detailed, solid outline in your bid with explanations as to why this method is the best in your opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Deleted**&#xD;&#xA;-----&#xD;&#xA;**...because if this answer needs this much discussion... it's either a poor answer or I did not get my intent across very well.** And ultimately, it makes little difference to me if the user posing the question gets help. Since Peter just seems to want to ARGUE with my answer rather than read it, vote (or not vote) and move on.... I'd rather just end the conversation. Too much trouble for an answer... which seems to be VERY common in this beta." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8907" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2820" RevisionGUID="4b069cd6-5dce-4dae-81d9-48cffac012e3" CreationDate="2015-01-24T20:27:22.733" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/40645/how-am-i-supposed-to-bill-the-company" />
  <row Id="8908" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2821" RevisionGUID="5479c5a7-1023-4202-ac5c-667fe51fe404" CreationDate="2015-01-24T20:27:22.733" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/40645/how-am-i-supposed-to-bill-the-company/40646#40646" />
  <row Id="8909" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2822" RevisionGUID="15b237ee-e303-4a0e-b2d0-42b2c891bf10" CreationDate="2015-01-24T20:27:22.733" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/40645/how-am-i-supposed-to-bill-the-company/40650#40650" />
  <row Id="8910" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2823" RevisionGUID="b0a5e125-30aa-47be-a2a6-eacdf77e7316" CreationDate="2015-01-24T20:27:22.733" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/40645/how-am-i-supposed-to-bill-the-company/40651#40651" />
  <row Id="8911" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2824" RevisionGUID="7742e583-59e6-408f-986f-d40236fc11d5" CreationDate="2015-01-24T20:27:22.733" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/40645/how-am-i-supposed-to-bill-the-company/40652#40652" />
  <row Id="8912" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2825" RevisionGUID="dc6c3d92-988c-46d5-8e58-15d01a4f40e2" CreationDate="2015-01-24T20:27:22.733" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/40645/how-am-i-supposed-to-bill-the-company/40653#40653" />
  <row Id="8913" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2826" RevisionGUID="ab5a9b8d-f3b7-4b12-9cc0-e555d1895e59" CreationDate="2015-01-24T20:27:22.733" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/40645/how-am-i-supposed-to-bill-the-company/40654#40654" />
  <row Id="8914" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2827" RevisionGUID="71422755-e56f-4541-b6d4-347f13248c5c" CreationDate="2015-01-24T20:27:22.733" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/40645/how-am-i-supposed-to-bill-the-company/40672#40672" />
  <row Id="8915" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2828" RevisionGUID="c27031cb-ad56-4f82-a713-a5b77f2f7f58" CreationDate="2015-01-24T20:27:22.733" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/40645/how-am-i-supposed-to-bill-the-company/40686#40686" />
  <row Id="8916" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2821" RevisionGUID="a6dda2df-21fb-4735-a6a2-3237582b9eec" CreationDate="2015-01-22T16:05:01.113" UserId="15929" UserDisplayName="Chris Lively" Text="We can't answer this as the details of contract positions vary quite a bit from one person/company to another.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you need to do is contact the manager at the company and clear up whether they are they only paying for actual time worked or if they are also paying for time spent waiting for work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are only paying for actual time worked then you need to decide if the small number of hours is worth continuing or not.  If not, then you should let them know that you can no longer work like that and if they would like to pay a straight 40 hours that you would be willing to continue.  Let them decide if keeping you on staff even if they have to pay for you to be sitting is worth it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8917" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2822" RevisionGUID="82c53c3b-68af-4789-985f-2d6012e19c61" CreationDate="2015-01-22T17:41:00.617" UserId="5191" Text="&gt; We do not have any kind of official contract&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's a problem because this type of question is typically answered within the contract that the two parties agreed upon. We can't possibly answer your question with any certainty as we don't know what the agreement is between you and your client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You and your client need to talk and agree as to whether or not they want to pay for you to be available for all hours, or just pay you for the time it takes to complete assigned tasks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The former is likely in the best interest of both parties. They get dedicated time from you, and you get a dedicated pay check. If the latter is the case, though, then you need to point out to them that you won't be available for 40 hours a week as you will be taking on other external projects to fill up your time on those slow days. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8918" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2823" RevisionGUID="bc57005e-c438-4d52-8d29-348971355cd1" CreationDate="2015-01-22T17:41:47.353" UserDisplayName="KHeaney" Text="Just to add a bit to @ChrisLively answer, this is why most consultants in your position include minimum serviceable hours in their contracts. If Chris' answer does not work for you then maybe you should consider negotiating something like this with your employer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The idea would be to say to your employer that you will be on call but they would be required to pay for X hours a week or month even if they had no work for you over that period. Note though that X is usually much less than the normal time you hope to work. Something like 4 hours a week or 16 hours a month." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8919" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2824" RevisionGUID="27cdbb66-43d0-4a6d-b5f3-edbca5a04a1d" CreationDate="2015-01-22T18:57:29.717" UserDisplayName="gnasher729" Text="When you work as a contractor, the idea is that you are responsible for all your taxes, health insurance and so on, that you don't have a safe job and usually don't have twelve months of work in a year, and that you don't get paid for holiday. On the other hand, this is compensated for by a much higher payment per day worked or per hour worked, so that you usually should get more than compensated for your work. After working a year, paying all your taxes and other costs, you should be left with more money than if you had a full time job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't get enough money, then you should be first looking for other contracting jobs. If you find something that works out better for you then you switch - after all, you have no contract, so you can switch to another job at any time without any bad conscience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also try to negotiate an agreement where you are guaranteed a certain payment per week, say 20 hours per week. (From their point of view, if they have to pay for it, I'm sure they are going to find work for you). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8920" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2825" RevisionGUID="0c4651ea-4832-42fc-ac73-320a57cd0ad8" CreationDate="2015-01-22T19:11:03.160" UserId="5929" UserDisplayName="Steve Jessop" Text="Generally speaking you wouldn't expect to be paid to do nothing, and they wouldn't expect to pay you to do nothing. The reason you're paid hourly instead of salaried monthly is precisely so that they save money when there's less than a full month's work to do in the month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if they genuinely need you to be sitting there ready to deal with issues at a moment's notice, then you're not doing nothing. You're not doing *much*, but it's their Euro, so if that's what they want then they get it. Bill them the hours. While you're billing them, do the most useful thing for them that you can find, even if it's not very useful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because this is unusual, though, you must make sure they know what's happening and that it's really what they want. For one day they might not care, but likely they'd prefer to release you for the rest of the day once it's clear there's nothing more to do. It means your hours aren't reliable, and as a freelancer it's up to you to try to juggle multiple sources of income, to earn what you need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, ask them if there are any so-called &quot;background tasks&quot; that you could get on with while waiting for something higher-priority to come along. This brings you close to having reliable hours. You could combine this with the idea of &quot;minimum hours&quot;, for example perhaps they'd agree that if there's nothing else to do then you'll work half the day on background tasks (so you have some guaranteed income and they have you available every morning) and then clock off for the afternoon. This doesn't help with scheduling appointments since you don't know in advance when you'll be free, but you're no worse off in that respect than if you were full time. Just agree with them how much notice you should give that you'll be away for appointments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately it's also possible that they expect you to be &quot;on-call&quot; all day for free, and get paid only if work arises. Professions like programming *normally* don't agree to this -- if you're on call you should be paid something even if not your full hourly rate, to compensate you for the fact that you can't get on with living your life in that time. So if they suggest it you should be prepared to just say that it isn't what you want. If they still demand it anyway then you have to decide whether you're willing to tolerate it. This might depend whether you can find other freelance work that's flexible enough for you to do it in the gaps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, you can agree what &quot;on-call&quot; means. If it means you check email at the start of the day, and if nothing needs doing then you'll let someone know and then remain contactable by phone, and get back to work within an agreed time (one hour?) if called, then it's not so bad as having to sit at your computer all day. You can go out to do your chores, but you won't leave them without support.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not a bad idea *at all* to get some of this down in a contract, especially if there are certain hours that they expect you to be available regardless of whether you're working. Otherwise you end up asking the internet what you can and can't do, instead of checking the terms of your agreement with them. They don't want that any more than you do ;-)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8921" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2827" RevisionGUID="9e325909-0f4e-4a6b-ac1d-20aaeadd0ff0" CreationDate="2015-01-23T08:15:04.937" UserDisplayName="rath" Text="I'll keep it short and simple: `Sitting in front of them computer being available for them` sounds like billable work to me. Your time is tied up and dedicated to them, and they likewise expect you to be there if something comes up. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They probably know that you have slow days, and that on those days you are basically waiting for things to break. Do let them know though, just in case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As others have mentioned, a better contract arrangement may be possible, but it could be undesirable for your employer if they are looking to cut costs. Do some research on how much a Swedish programmer would cost them to verify that theory; perhaps when you find out how much they save, you won't feel as bad about charging them for time spent sipping tea and waiting." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8922" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2826" RevisionGUID="21797340-cef6-418f-befc-25589cb63e82" CreationDate="2015-01-22T20:36:32.253" UserId="5920" UserDisplayName="Neolisk" Text="There are two feasible options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Find work. Do some research and find where you can be useful to the company. If you are lucky, you will find yourself some real work, and the company would want to keep you, even potentially let you come over and take you full time. At minimum, you will get valuable experience, that should help you find another opportunity, if required. **My preferred choice.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Do nothing. If the company did not bother with the contract, it's not your problem. What can happen is if they find you not efficient enough, you will lose your job. Be prepared for this, if you choose to go with this option.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did not list an option to ask for more work, because in most cases nagging your employer will get you fired even faster. In many companies having no work is a normal condition and both full time and contractors are often paid in this case. You may be evaluated &quot;average&quot; on your performance review, if you are okay with this, but there is definitely nothing &quot;wrong&quot; with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If nothing else works, try to be fair. If you are being paid 250$/hr, you probably should mention if you have no work and not bill them for 8 hours a day, if you only worked one. In most cases for wages like this you would have a contract anyway, clearly stating your obligations, so this won't be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, 10$/hr is not a lot, so it may be okay to accept pay for working 1 out of 8 hours on certain days. Think about it this way, would you pay yourself 80$ for the stuff you did? Maybe. 2000$? Probably not." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8923" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2828" RevisionGUID="2d1c2424-9c1f-4833-83a6-6f4bd1bad3c9" CreationDate="2015-01-23T15:54:07.500" UserDisplayName="Ivan Krivyakov" Text="Kuray, you seem to be a very honest person. Unfortunately, in this world the truth is often irrelevant. You may achieve better end result by acting in your own best interest and ignoring the minor details. Furthermore, the other party may actually **expect** you to behave this way, and would be annoyed if you don't and start asking inconvenient questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would bill the slow days. Since they insist that you be &quot;available&quot; and prevent you from doing other work, you are working for them, whether you actually do something or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you write in the bill is another story. I would come up with something vague like &quot;testing&quot;. Most likely they would be much happier to pay you than to deal with the head-ache of creating a contract and answering difficult questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If, **and only if** they express dissatisfaction with such billing practice, I would require clarification and possibly a contract. If they become really nasty about it, I would start looking for another job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8924" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2820" RevisionGUID="29c28433-23ee-4827-aeca-b10da1f4da3b" CreationDate="2015-01-22T15:58:29.033" UserDisplayName="Koray Tugay" Text="I am working from home(Turkey) and the company I am working is based in Switzerland. I am not an employee of this company. I think this is called free-lance working, I am not sure. We do not have any kind of official contract and they do not provide me anything besides the hourly wage I make, however we talked that I should be able to work 40 hours a week at least, which means I can not just find a full time job here and work in the evenings for 3 - 4 hours a day. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The work goes like this:&#xD;&#xA;I work for an amount of hours everyday. I do the tasks assigned to me, as well as because I am responsible of quality and testing of the software product(s) they have, I have a constant responsibility which is to make sure the product is working well at all times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But sometimes things will slow down, no development will be done there so the product will be in &quot;stable&quot; position, where testing the same thing over and over again will yield nothing and will be kind of frustrating and a &quot;waste of effort&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However my income solely depends on this work and even if there is not much to do, I sit in front of the computer every morning at 8:00 a.m. and sit at least for 6 - 8 hours and &quot;be available&quot; for them, even if I do not &quot;really&quot; do some work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the end of the month I am supposed to report how many hours I have &quot;worked&quot; and what I have worked on, and depending on the hours they pay me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, today I did not have much to do. All I did was to reply to 3 - 4 emails, test 2 issues that were fixed and fix 2 export templates that some customer uses. (Minor fixes in the layout etc..) I did some my usual, routine testing on the software as well but did not find any bugs or etc.. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What am I supposed to do if this goes on for like a week or two?** Do I still bill them for 6 hours a day? On one hand I think it is not fair to bill them because I am home and not really doing anything. However, on the other hand, I am not doing anything because there is really nothing to do. And I do not just go do my personal stuff like taking the car to the shop or going to the bank or going to doctors appointments etc. I am home 'available' for them, sitting right in front of the computer. I am testing the same things over and over again but I sometimes already know nothing is broken. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or is this the nature of this way of working, and should I just think like &quot;well today was a bad day, no work to do&quot; and not bill them at all, and if keeps going like this find a new job? I know they are happy with the work I am doing, when there is something to do so I am not sure if quitting is a solution for either for the sides.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not if this makes any difference I can say that the hourly wage I am getting is an amount that the company would pay an unqualified employee in Switzerland, but it is still a good amount for my country because of the Euro / Turkish Lira rate. So if they would hire someone to do the same job in Switzerland, they would probably be required to pay double what they were paying me. They do not provide me an office space, any food, any insurance or taxes etc, so having a remote employee is a win for them, and it is a win for me because I get to work from home and get paid well considering my countries situation, *as long as there is work to do(?)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So do I bill the slow days or not?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8925" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2820" RevisionGUID="29c28433-23ee-4827-aeca-b10da1f4da3b" CreationDate="2015-01-22T15:58:29.033" UserDisplayName="Koray Tugay" Text="How am I supposed to bill the company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8926" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2820" RevisionGUID="29c28433-23ee-4827-aeca-b10da1f4da3b" CreationDate="2015-01-22T15:58:29.033" UserDisplayName="Koray Tugay" Text="|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8927" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2829" RevisionGUID="bddeb8a4-b197-47c7-833f-f82f0e31316b" CreationDate="2015-01-24T21:49:24.603" UserId="5893" Text="I would say to document your methodology in your technical proposal, and couch your objections to the other design as potential &quot;risks&quot;. Discuss the pros and cons in a completely neutral tone and only on technical merits. The client is the one to make the final decision and they are the ones who are going to have to live with the result, whatever that may be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might consider adding a clause in future contracts about giving you &quot;right of first refusal&quot; for additional work or alterations that are based on the current work that you are contracting to do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8928" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2830" RevisionGUID="9edac9be-fd0d-4c68-9803-ed4ac3cd631e" CreationDate="2015-01-24T23:54:54.653" UserId="1191" Text="The first thing is that is not easy to understand what you are writing. If your client is not technical, s/he will be even more lost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The advantages you mention are written in a technical way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Schema&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would try to write in a schema like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Everything in business terms&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Problem&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     1. a summary&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     1. details&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Solution&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     1. a summary&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     1. details&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Business Terms&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are some business terms to consider(some of them overlaps with technological side):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Features&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Automated steps&#xD;&#xA; 1. Ease of use&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Potential, ease for:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. getting new developers&#xD;&#xA; 1. getting components to solve future business problem&#xD;&#xA; 1. reduce future integration efforts&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Cost, client budget&#xD;&#xA;1. Time, deadline&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you know how your client is driven by each one, what is the one that client is more likely to decide upon? Focus on that before others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And use terms related with client world: employee time, conversions, income. See below.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Rewriting the advantages&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will rewrite one for now:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. consistency on the UI -&gt; Users will not waste time learning two different graphical designs, this means better user productivity, up to x hours saved per week, that will allow better product quality and/or more conversions up to y%, this means more income, about $z more per year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The more you can know about x hours, y% more conversions, and $z more income, the more you will be in client mind.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Others will be pending:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. The system is one system instead of two. -&gt; &#xD;&#xA;2. It is an extension of the existing application. -&gt; &#xD;&#xA;4. web application does not require install. The user login system on the website is already in place. HTML5's WebStorage allows offline functionality to be incorporated. -&gt;&#xD;&#xA;5. current system already interacts with the database. -&gt;&#xD;&#xA;6. Listing a site's current workorders would be easier, not requiring back and forth communication. -&gt;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8929" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2831" RevisionGUID="90c32027-b8f4-4af4-a8d5-143d296ae0aa" CreationDate="2015-01-25T06:31:03.633" UserId="1191" Text="I pasted the last template I use in my proposals here http://pastebin.com/qm5B1iLg.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I cover many points and try to figure out the complete problem. Also I mention my previous experience, what can I bring to project and group each thing in short and long versions to client can read in an easier way what I write.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any flaw in the way I am doing my proposal?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8930" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2831" RevisionGUID="90c32027-b8f4-4af4-a8d5-143d296ae0aa" CreationDate="2015-01-25T06:31:03.633" UserId="1191" Text="Has this proposal any flaws?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8931" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2831" RevisionGUID="90c32027-b8f4-4af4-a8d5-143d296ae0aa" CreationDate="2015-01-25T06:31:03.633" UserId="1191" Text="|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8932" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2831" RevisionGUID="ea15ef9e-20ca-4539-ae3a-2879a35d983d" CreationDate="2015-01-25T16:49:55.283" UserId="1191" Comment="deleted 8 characters in body" Text="This is the template I use in my proposals http://goo.gl/9EKwqa.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I cover many points and try to figure out the client problem. Also I mention my previous experience, what can I bring to project and group each thing in short and long versions to client can read in an easier way what I write.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you see any thing I can improve in the way I am doing my proposals?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8933" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2832" RevisionGUID="895d39a0-ea74-4ecb-95a1-82ca08ef2e91" CreationDate="2015-01-25T19:43:44.277" UserId="517" Text="I found nothing bad in this bid. Maybe some stylistic things in English language which made me not understand what you said immediately, but other than that the bid is OK. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, what you will realize that winning bid does not exist. As simple as this. Sometimes clients want long bid, sometimes short, sometimes they don't even read cause they had bad experience with guys from your region, etc. We as bidders don't know this background so the best is to create original bid (not copy/paste) and try to guess what this client wants in this bid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have won projects with 2-page long bids, but also with bids like &quot;I made similar project. Check it: URL. Let me know if you're interested&quot;. Even more, I have won dozens of projects like this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few days ago I read that winning the project on sites like odesk/elance means that you have to send dozens of bids to win a few of them. Of course, this does not mean spam bids or begging bids, but quality ones. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8934" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2820" RevisionGUID="2a682282-b2da-43ab-9d97-b92c80189f56" CreationDate="2015-01-25T23:18:30.987" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/559490526052118528" />
  <row Id="8936" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2833" RevisionGUID="e8465618-699b-476e-b334-34c30138edee" CreationDate="2015-01-26T12:00:08.390" UserId="1353" Text="The way I do it is as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Ask client for a number of sites (or design ideas) that they like (Note: ask the client not to dwell on sites offering the same service that they're offering).&#xD;&#xA; 2. I then sit down and look at their list and think.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Once I have some ideas I create a number of (original) designs in Photoshop, maybe 2-3. I also try to include a 'fresh' design that has little to do with their ideas.&#xD;&#xA; 4. I send these (as jpgs or pdfs) to the customer who considers them.&#xD;&#xA; 5. The customer (generally) picks one design which we then develop further. Quite often they say something like &quot;I like design one but, put the menu from design 2 in instead&quot;.&#xD;&#xA; 6. After a few iterations of steps 4-5 you are left with a final design that everyone is happy with.&#xD;&#xA; 7. You then get the design &quot;signed off&quot; or completely agreed upon by the customer.&#xD;&#xA; 8. Start writing the HTML, CSS, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you combine this with a 'techinical specification' at the same time then your work will be much easier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Tech spec : what it does, Design Spec : what it looks like).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once everything is agreed and you've built the site, if the customer then wants 'additions' or 'changes' you can argue that this isn't what was agreed upon and therefore add some additional charges. This is a really good way of avoiding 'design creep'." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8937" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2834" RevisionGUID="eb8e83b6-5ee7-4331-8386-5f023a4f411a" CreationDate="2015-01-26T16:57:51.223" UserDisplayName="anon" Text="I recently &quot;fixed&quot; a Wordpress site for a client. He told me the site's host had &quot;malware problems&quot; and he needed the site restored from a backup. I did that, and didn't change anything else about the site. I noticed many plugins and Wordpress itself were pretty out of date but this is typical for this guy and he did say it was the host's fault...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fast forward a week and now he forwards me a message from the host, presumably very much like the first one he got earlier (which he neglected to send me then), which explains his site was infected again through a vulnerable plugin. The email lists the file and line number that contains the exploit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In case it's not obvious, this was frustrating to me because I have better (and better-paying - he's an old client on a &quot;legacy&quot; rate) things to do than deal with this guy's failure to communicate/understand the problems he creates for himself, again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to make this situation better for both of us by changing the nature of our relationship (at least for this site if not more) from hourly on-demand work to a monthly fee where I spend some time on a regular basis to prevent these kinds of problems before they happen by keeping things up to date, changing passwords, etc. This would ensure I get paid more regularly (and I can keep myself from wasting more hours by working intelligently to start with, rather than fixing stuff for him after he breaks it), and it would ensure his site doesn't keep getting screwed due to negligence/ignorance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not sure how to bring this up however, and I feel like it's hard for him to take me seriously as a potential service (compared to a developer-on-demand like he sees me now). I said once already in an email that he needs to keep things up to date or problems will continue, and I could take care of that if he wanted. He did not acknowledge this statement but instead focused on the problem at hand and just asked how long it will take to fix. I am trying to come up with a more compelling way of explaining I no longer want to waste both of our time doing this hourly work fixing problems that should never exist in the first place if he had me handling things on an ongoing basis. I am asking for advice and examples of this kind of transition communication-wise." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8938" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2834" RevisionGUID="eb8e83b6-5ee7-4331-8386-5f023a4f411a" CreationDate="2015-01-26T16:57:51.223" UserDisplayName="anon" Text="How do I communicate to a client that he's wasting time and money by using my services hourly vs. paying a monthly fee?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8939" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2834" RevisionGUID="eb8e83b6-5ee7-4331-8386-5f023a4f411a" CreationDate="2015-01-26T16:57:51.223" UserDisplayName="anon" Text="|communication|retainer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8940" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2834" RevisionGUID="a0abfbbe-2d65-4537-b382-e9182f331b99" CreationDate="2015-01-26T17:05:08.147" UserDisplayName="anon" Comment="deleted 29 characters in body" Text="I recently &quot;fixed&quot; a Wordpress site for a client. He told me the site's host had &quot;malware problems&quot; and he needed the site restored from a backup. I did that, and didn't change anything else about the site. I noticed many plugins and Wordpress itself were pretty out of date but this is typical for this guy and he did say it was the host's fault...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fast forward a week and now he forwards me a message from the host, presumably very much like the first one he got earlier (which he neglected to send me then), which explains his site was infected again through a vulnerable plugin. The email lists the file and line number that contains the exploit. This was frustrating to me because I have better (and better-paying - he's an old client on a &quot;legacy&quot; rate) things to do than deal with this guy's failure to communicate/understand the problems he creates for himself, again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to make this situation better for both of us by changing the nature of our relationship (at least for this site if not more) from hourly on-demand work to a monthly fee where I spend some time on a regular basis to prevent these kinds of problems before they happen by keeping things up to date, changing passwords, etc. This would ensure I get paid more regularly (and I can keep myself from wasting more hours by working intelligently to start with, rather than fixing stuff for him after he breaks it), and it would ensure his site doesn't keep getting screwed due to negligence/ignorance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not sure how to bring this up however, and I feel like it's hard for him to take me seriously as a potential service (compared to a developer-on-demand like he sees me now). I said once already in an email that he needs to keep things up to date or problems will continue, and I could take care of that if he wanted. He did not acknowledge this statement but instead focused on the problem at hand and just asked how long it will take to fix. I am trying to come up with a more compelling way of explaining I no longer want to waste both of our time doing this hourly work fixing problems that should never exist in the first place if he had me handling things on an ongoing basis. I am asking for advice and examples of this kind of transition communication-wise." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8941" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2835" RevisionGUID="e51fe68d-d454-4f08-95da-4625e2d28a3a" CreationDate="2015-01-26T17:15:23.527" UserId="127" Text="One approach I've used in the past is to simply tell customers that I no longer provide this service at an hourly rate, but that I could provide ongoing support on a flat rate monthly basis. Then I explained what this new service includes. In my case, I offered a guaranteed response time of X days, bug fixes, and priority service whereby I drop other non-emergency work to take care of their emergencies. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd suggest doing something similar here. Something like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Starting in XXX month, I will no longer be providing hourly support for websites. Quite simply, I've found it is bad for my clients because they tend to focus on just the immediate need instead of thinking more strategically about how to protect their sites going forward. While this is good for me monetarily, I'd rather not profit from my customer's pain. Instead, I will be providing a flat rate monthly support package to clients. This will include the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Keeping your plug-ins updated to keep your site working properly and protect it from malware.&#xD;&#xA;* Regular site backups.&#xD;&#xA;* Guaranteed response time for problems of X days.&#xD;&#xA;* (etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on your site's size and other needs, the rate I would charge you is: $XXX/month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, you will want to adjust the benefits as necessary. And you might not be comfortable with removing the hourly option. I can only tell you in my case, this was successful." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8942" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="2817" RevisionGUID="cb2c2fdc-dc18-4589-b25f-b540c14c944f" CreationDate="2015-01-26T17:39:10.683" UserId="75" Comment="Rollback to [d51d1857-3047-42fb-b68c-8306985777a5]" Text="If it were me, I'd ignore the outside contractor entirely unless *specifically* asked. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would not intentionally note *anything* the outside contractor is suggesting and I wouldn't &quot;build in&quot; counter arguments to my bid. I would detail what I feel is the proper way to proceed and *why*. Giving a solid argument on your own merits rather than bouncing them off of other methods which you may or may not feel are inferior.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stating anything about why ContractorX's methods are &quot;not as good&quot; just makes things look petty and personal. Reserve any opinion about other bids/workers unless you are *asked* about them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically.... Don't. Just pretend the other contractor doesn't exist and provide a detailed, solid outline in your bid with explanations as to why this method is the best in your opinion." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8943" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="2817" RevisionGUID="b805e2c4-d35b-4851-bbbc-4692893fe57a" CreationDate="2015-01-26T17:39:17.433" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="8944" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2814" RevisionGUID="a0893f3a-12d5-4956-b0d7-4b5c56005f6e" CreationDate="2015-01-26T18:31:07.260" UserId="517" Comment="make it friendlier " Text="So you're asking if you will ditch the competition or be a fair player and risk to end up in a mess?!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I formulate like this, it's obvious that you will ditch the competition and disregards everything she says (pretend like she does not exist). But will the client appreciate it? He introduced you to this project, she did not come aside and start meddling. If I am a client and want to give some work to my friend's wife and some contractor starts slandering her, I would ditch that contractor. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, firstly you have to think if her approach can be of real help. Then see if she can finish her part in a reasonable time (the client has to approve time). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would then arrange a meeting with both of them and be open to the both. Simply explain why would it be bad to use her approach and how you will get stuck. Be nice. The client has to see that his project may be jeopardized and not to see that you are slandering her. If you think she can help, offer how she can help. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If nothing works and the client keeps insisting she be a part of the project, then you can either continue hoping everything will turn better or cancel the project.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8945" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2836" RevisionGUID="29ac343a-34f5-4b73-bc8b-6c63a6607088" CreationDate="2015-01-26T21:52:22.783" UserId="5932" Text="I recently did an analysis after couple years of my uncle pestering me to make him an ecommerce site. I really wanted to, but considered having to stay on top of security updates for the various open source components(even with automatic updates for the OS/stack from a cloud host). I couldn't provide that level of service affordably, consistently, and reliably given other commitments. I ultimately recommended one of the full CMS/catalog/ecommerce services available that are fully managed/hosted. Those services are usually manage and maintain the various customer portals in a very unified/automated way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regardless, somewhere down the line someone has to stay on top of these things, and it is a regular process.  Even the companies that have this maintenance process down to an automated science still make you pay a reasonable monthly fee for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You could compare your monthly &quot;servicing&quot; to what he would otherwise pay for other fully managed hosting.**  He might make the distinction that he's already paying for wordpress hosting, but I would explain his hosting platform manages the wordpress deployment, but not the deployment/updating of his plugins or specific configuration of his site to meet his needs and keep the site secure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just as you want to always be on the current most up to date version of your OS, wordpress platform, etc.  He needs to ensure he stays up to date on plugins.  The evidence justifying this is pretty glaring given the experience he has had so far.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**One question that should really make this evident to him: Who is periodically checking to make sure your site remains secure by checking that all plugins are up to date?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think including your &quot;win/win for both of us&quot; explanation is excellent as well. Add that you aren't trying to take advantage of his misfortune with vulnerable plugins, but have his interests in mind." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8946" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2837" RevisionGUID="651a0642-9857-4639-9240-ae5f3c85e236" CreationDate="2015-01-26T22:31:22.943" UserId="5934" Text="Tell him exactly what you just said here. Another way to look at it is you are taking a risk, but if you have better paying clients, you don't stand to loose anything. Best thing to do is don't waste your time dealing with this guy. It will be easier to spend once a month fixing these issues than to spend a long time arguing with him. Your prices have changed. Your hourly rate is now higher and you offer plan x. If he wants a discount, he must negotiate. You might also find that he is willing to pay your higher rate in exchange for doing things his way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8947" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2838" RevisionGUID="2ca8d9f5-8b09-44d0-b0f2-be2be48ba741" CreationDate="2015-01-26T23:11:26.070" UserId="5935" Text="This is actually an opportunity. I know, it sounds a bit crazy but it isn't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without the request to fix the bug:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is unfortunate, but at this point and for all intents-and-purposes, your relationship with the client is over. In my experience, there is no recovery from &quot;I can't pay you&quot; - even when it is predictable and notice is given.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is so much wrapped up in the client's judgement of de-prioritizing your work - or maybe he is flat broke. Either way, if you come back to the client when he is ready to start up the project again, he will know that at any time he can put you on hold again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With the request to fix the bug:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the opportunity to re-establish your priority. It isn't pleasant to say, but a client must fear losing you in order for the relationship to continue. So with this request, you can answer that you will fix this bug for free while also letting him know that his project is now low-priority and that any more work will have to wait until you have the capacity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client may balk at this, but he'd be gone anyways." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8948" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2837" RevisionGUID="d1eb0006-1954-4f62-8d3f-cfb1dc751060" CreationDate="2015-01-26T23:45:22.937" UserId="5934" Comment="added 26 characters in body" Text="Tell him exactly what you just said here. Another way to look at it is you are taking a risk, but if you have better paying clients, you don't stand to loose anything. Best thing to do is don't waste your time dealing with this guy. It will be easier to spend once a month fixing these issues than to spend a long time arguing with him. Your prices have changed. Your hourly rate is now higher and you offer plan x. If he wants a discount, he must negotiate. You might also find that he is willing to pay your higher rate in exchange for doing things his way. Say it nicely, of course." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8949" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2837" RevisionGUID="1104110a-76ae-40c4-9f72-ee7513c465f0" CreationDate="2015-01-26T23:51:11.810" UserId="5934" Comment="added 26 characters in body" Text="Tell him exactly what you just said here. Another way to look at it is you are taking a risk, but if you have better paying clients, you don't stand to loose anything. Best thing to do is don't waste your time dealing with this guy. It will be easier to spend once a month fixing these issues than to spend a long time arguing with him. Your prices have changed. Your hourly rate is now higher and you offer plan x. If he wants a discount, he must negotiate. You might also find that he is willing to pay your higher rate in exchange for doing things his way. When faced with the higher rate, it will make more sense to him. Say it all nicely, though, and shorter is better because the more you tell him, the more he will get confused. The more that you elaborate, trying to be polite, the more you will be wasting his time trying to understand what you are talking about and why/how that is really good for him. He doesn't know anything and doesn't understand anything, so he has no way to judge. He pays you to think for him. New rates. Here, look. Same for everybody. option A, option B, do option A.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should think though, whether it is more for you or for him. If it is for him, he may really just want to do things that way. If it is for you, just adjust your rates and give him some options." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8950" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2837" RevisionGUID="e8da237c-8dc1-4131-8001-3a310fd15ff6" CreationDate="2015-01-26T23:59:30.850" UserId="5934" Comment="added 102 characters in body" Text="Tell him exactly what you just said here. Another way to look at it is you are taking a risk, but if you have better paying clients, you don't stand to loose anything. Best thing to do is don't waste your time dealing with this guy. It will be easier to spend once a month fixing these issues than to spend a long time arguing with him. Your prices have changed. Your hourly rate is now higher and you offer plan x. If he wants a discount, he must negotiate. You might also find that he is willing to pay your higher rate in exchange for doing things his way. When faced with the higher rate, it will make more sense to him. Say it all nicely, though, and shorter is better because the more you tell him, the more he will get confused. The more that you elaborate, trying to be polite, the more you will be wasting his time trying to understand what you are talking about and why/how that is really good for him. He doesn't know anything and doesn't understand anything, so he has no way to judge. He pays you to think for him. New rates. Here, look. Same for everybody. option A, option B, do option A. You can't eliminate option B, since you are always going to be around to fix his issues in an emergency.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should think though, whether it is more for you or for him. If it is for him, he may really just want to do things that way. If it is for you, just adjust your rates and give him some options." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8951" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2837" RevisionGUID="7a3a26bc-f94f-4f53-8f7c-3f2835513221" CreationDate="2015-01-27T03:16:51.957" UserId="5934" Comment="deleted 554 characters in body" Text="Give him one hourly rate (higher than normal) for emergency services and another (your legacy rate) for, say fix this in 1-2 weeks when it is convenient for you. Then tell him the choice of a flat monthly service. Both situations will be convenient for you, whatever he chooses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can understand why he might not go for the idea. The reason being that you are basically asking to be paid something for the months in which you do little or no work on the site. The fact that he has, lets say $100 to pay you for 5 hours of work, does not mean that he wants to pay you that in monthly installments so that it will be easier for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I actually think it is much better for him to keep on at the hourly rate, even a high one. He will be more comfortable, and who cares about updates anyway? The Russians don't really hack your average wordpress bog and this guy obviously doesn't care." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8952" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2839" RevisionGUID="fd06f042-fde6-4215-b475-c70d243da5bd" CreationDate="2015-01-27T03:36:15.353" UserId="5938" Text="Whereas &quot;freelancing&quot; only applies to writing, performing, and programming (by definition), is there some equivalent job title for an electronics designer/engineer who is self employed?&#xD;&#xA; Such a person may design and test circuitry for tech startups, and possibly act as a sort of outsourced quality-control for electronics manufacturers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To perhaps clarify the question, I have extensive knowledge and unprofessional experience in electronics design, electronic test equipment, and all the necessary mathematics. The only problem is that I never went to college, and have no degree to to speak of. Because It is hard to find a decent job in the engineering field without a diploma, I am trying to go into business for myself; you could say I am in the &quot;brainstorming&quot; phase of making a company. I simply want to know what to call myself when I advertise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All suggestions appreciated. Thanks " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8953" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2839" RevisionGUID="fd06f042-fde6-4215-b475-c70d243da5bd" CreationDate="2015-01-27T03:36:15.353" UserId="5938" Text="Equivalent of &quot;freelancing&quot; in electronics design?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8954" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2839" RevisionGUID="fd06f042-fde6-4215-b475-c70d243da5bd" CreationDate="2015-01-27T03:36:15.353" UserId="5938" Text="|attracting-clients|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8955" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2840" RevisionGUID="e6258fae-2f28-43fa-87db-c382dde78628" CreationDate="2015-01-27T04:06:46.437" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="An Independent contractor, according to Wikipedia, is  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; An independent contractor is a natural person, business, or corporation that provides goods or services to another entity under terms specified in a contract or within a verbal agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a more formal, more industry broad version of freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an aside, the word freelancer is also supposed to be industry broad (&quot; a term commonly used for a person who is self-employed and is not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term&quot;), however depending on the culture of the region on which it's used, it may imply inclusion in a specific group of, usually creative, fields.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a freelance Electrical Engineer and I generally tend to describe myself as a freelancer in an informal setting (between friends) and independent contractor in a business/tax setting (talking to an accounting firm) because independent contractor is how I am seen in a business and tax context but feels too formal for general use.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8956" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2840" RevisionGUID="a12ce9e3-ecdd-4288-b201-6a53254e171e" CreationDate="2015-01-27T04:12:03.523" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="An Independent contractor, according to Wikipedia, is  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; An independent contractor is a natural person, business, or corporation that provides goods or services to another entity under terms specified in a contract or within a verbal agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a more formal, more industry broad version of freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an aside, the word freelancer is also supposed to be industry broad (&quot; a term commonly used for a person who is self-employed and is not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term&quot;), however depending on the culture of the region on which it's used, it may imply inclusion in a specific group of, usually creative, fields.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a freelance Electrical Engineer and I generally tend to describe myself as a freelancer in an informal setting (between friends) and independent contractor in a business/tax setting (talking to an accounting firm) because independent contractor is how I am seen in a business and tax context but it feels too formal for general use.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8960" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2837" RevisionGUID="5c8904f0-fd27-4fb3-aacb-b3f1d6db7f84" CreationDate="2015-01-27T15:11:48.253" UserId="5934" Comment="added 497 characters in body" Text="Give him one hourly rate (higher than normal) for emergency services and another (your legacy rate) for, say fix this in 1-2 weeks when it is convenient for you. Then tell him the choice of a flat monthly service. Both situations will be convenient for you, whatever he chooses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can almost assure you, if he hasn't already responded to your offer, that he is not interested. You have helped him twice in two weeks, but it could be another 2 years before he has another problem. So inform him of your new rates and expected response times and when the time comes, you will at least get paid. Moreover, there are quite a few threads on SO about the problem of customers needing short little things. The bottom line: do the math correctly and make them pay for it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can understand why he might not go for the service idea. The reason being that you are basically asking to be paid something for the months in which you do little or no work on the site. The fact that he has, lets say $100 to pay you for 5 hours of work, does not mean that he wants to pay you that in monthly installments so that it will be easier for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I actually think it is much better for him to keep on at the hourly rate, even a high one (though that depends entirely on the prices). He will be more comfortable, and who cares about updates anyway? Who needs the latest wordpress anyway? The Russians don't really hack your average wordpress bog and this guy obviously doesn't care." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8961" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2837" RevisionGUID="3ab7c815-c47f-4211-ae51-0ffc43949891" CreationDate="2015-01-27T15:24:54.193" UserId="5934" Comment="added 144 characters in body" Text="Give him one hourly rate (higher than normal) for emergency services and another (your legacy rate) for, say fix this in 1-2 weeks when it is convenient for you. Then tell him the choice of a flat monthly service. Both situations will be convenient for you, whatever he chooses. You will be wasting your time persuading him and philosophizing about what is best for who, adding to yourself the same stress you were trying to avoid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can almost assure you, if he hasn't already responded to your offer, that he is not interested. You have helped him twice in two weeks, but it could be another 2 years before he has another problem. So inform him of your new rates and expected response times and when the time comes, you will at least get paid. Moreover, there are quite a few threads on SO about the problem of customers needing short little things. The bottom line: do the math correctly and make them pay for it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can understand why he might not go for the service idea. The reason being that you are basically asking to be paid something for the months in which you do little or no work on the site. The fact that he has, lets say $100 to pay you for 5 hours of work, does not mean that he wants to pay you that in monthly installments so that it will be easier for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I actually think it is much better for him to keep on at the hourly rate, even a high one (though that depends entirely on the prices). He will be more comfortable, and who cares about updates anyway? Who needs the latest wordpress anyway? The Russians don't really hack your average wordpress bog and this guy obviously doesn't care.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*For the future:* If you handle and pay for hosting services, you can charge a monthly premium as a package deal, and it will appear normal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8962" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2817" RevisionGUID="24ff8578-1b51-49a3-9cfa-ea45e24db56c" CreationDate="2015-01-27T20:49:18.443" UserId="708" Comment="added 245 characters in body" Text="If it were me, I'd ignore the outside contractor entirely unless *specifically* asked. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would not intentionally note *anything* the outside contractor is suggesting and I wouldn't &quot;build in&quot; counter arguments to my bid. I would detail what I feel is the proper way to proceed and *why*. Giving a solid argument on your own merits rather than bouncing them off of other methods which you may or may not feel are inferior.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stating anything about why ContractorX's methods are &quot;not as good&quot; just makes things look petty and personal. Reserve any opinion about other bids/workers unless you are *asked* about them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically.... Don't. Just pretend the other contractor doesn't exist and provide a detailed, solid outline in your bid with explanations as to why this method is the best in your opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once your proposal is viewed, *then* you can explain the areas where the friend/spouse-of-the-boss may be of assistance. I would not allow the presence of some other relationship sway how you would traditionally propose the work and proceed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8966" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2834" RevisionGUID="27f150b7-d918-4135-8127-6afe1a82acf7" CreationDate="2015-01-28T14:32:29.060" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/560445306090057728" />
  <row Id="8980" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2843" RevisionGUID="5da69a35-91f8-415a-9879-85a0cb61d118" CreationDate="2015-01-30T04:29:11.610" UserId="5785" Text="I know for a fact that my client doesn't have a large budget, and I'm afraid pricing myself based on what I think the service should be priced may put off the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, as this is just a side project and this is not something I'm doing to sustain myself, I'm willing to have a slightly lower paying project than no project at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any tips?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S. If you might have noticed, yes, I am a newbie freelancer. This is just my 3rd project so far and the first two ones are pretty small. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8981" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2843" RevisionGUID="5da69a35-91f8-415a-9879-85a0cb61d118" CreationDate="2015-01-30T04:29:11.610" UserId="5785" Text="Should I adjust my pricing based on my client's budget?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8982" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2843" RevisionGUID="5da69a35-91f8-415a-9879-85a0cb61d118" CreationDate="2015-01-30T04:29:11.610" UserId="5785" Text="|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8983" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2844" RevisionGUID="f358e27b-ffb0-484e-9631-0f2648a6c5ea" CreationDate="2015-01-30T07:38:36.620" UserId="5969" Text="I have been doing the web design and development business for the last 8 years and One of my biggest learning &amp; mistake is, reducing the cost to get projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should never &amp; never do that. If you do it, this is going to be your first step towards failure. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8984" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2844" RevisionGUID="cfa6e250-b6b8-49af-9009-cacf013eed54" CreationDate="2015-01-30T11:55:27.633" UserId="5969" Comment="added 471 characters in body" Text="I have been doing the web design and development business for the last 8 years and One of my biggest learning &amp; mistake is, reducing the cost to get projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should never &amp; never do that. If you do it, this is going to be your first step towards failure. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    When you take projects for lower cost, Why is it first step towards your failure ? &#xD;&#xA;    1. Low Cost leads to low quality. (You can not really provide best service for lower price, It does not work out)&#xD;&#xA;    2. Low quality ==&gt; bad customer satisfaction&#xD;&#xA;    3. bad customer satisfaction ==&gt; bad publicity &#xD;&#xA;    4. Low budget ==&gt; Low Income ==&gt; bad case flow ==&gt; mess ==&gt; do something to survive ==&gt; failure&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;sorry to keep it brief, later will explain in detail." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8985" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2845" RevisionGUID="9ea3d1e0-953d-40d9-b533-92b3e96eff33" CreationDate="2015-01-30T15:35:05.823" UserId="127" Text="Pricing can be set based on a variety of factors, and desire to do the work is certainly one of those factors. I will bid slightly lower if a project is particularly attractive to me due to the technology or other factors, and will bid higher if the project is less interesting to me or if the client is annoying to work with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, you shouldn't significantly discount because it devalues your work. But &quot;slightly&quot; should be fine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your slightly discounted bid is still too high for this client, they may need to reduce their expectations. You could propose a modified project within their budget but with a more limited scope." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8986" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2846" RevisionGUID="ebb31834-509d-4cd2-a8d9-f6ddcf3d1d2c" CreationDate="2015-01-30T16:24:18.030" UserId="5893" Text="Instead of lowering your rates, offer the potential client a reduced feature set or smaller scope of work for the the amount of money he ***can*** afford.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tell the client &quot;I charge $X for A, but I can do B (which is a Subset of A) for $Y&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That way, you are still getting what you deserve to get paid. If the client is happy with the smaller project, he can certainly save up and pay for the entire thing later on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's a web project, offer a site with fewer pages, or a standard template that doesn't require customization, or something like that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8987" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2847" RevisionGUID="08450ba2-e11c-432e-a224-8ea22b520344" CreationDate="2015-01-30T16:41:09.863" UserId="5893" Text="Taxes work like they would if the contracting company were located in the US. Your taxes are based on where YOU perform the work, not the hiring company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Foreign-Earned-Income-Exclusion&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;To claim the foreign earned income exclusion, the foreign housing exclusion, or the foreign housing deduction, you must have foreign earned income, your tax home must be in a foreign country, and you must be one of the following:&#xD;&#xA;A U.S. citizen who is a bona fide resident of a foreign country or countries for an uninterrupted period that includes an entire tax year,&#xD;&#xA;A U.S. resident alien who is a citizen or national of a country with which the United States has an income tax treaty in effect and who is a bona fide resident of a foreign country or countries for an uninterrupted period that includes an entire tax year, or&#xD;&#xA;A U.S. citizen or a U.S. resident alien who is physically present in a foreign country or countries for at least 330 full days during any period of 12 consecutive months.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8988" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2844" RevisionGUID="7a55605e-1568-48e0-b922-8db16d77a578" CreationDate="2015-01-30T17:16:07.500" UserId="517" Comment="formatting" Text="I have been doing the web design and development business for the last 8 years and One of my biggest learning &amp; mistake is, reducing the cost to get projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should never &amp; never do that. If you do it, this is going to be your first step towards failure. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you take projects for lower cost, Why is it first step towards your failure ? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Low Cost leads to low quality. (You can not really provide best service for lower price, It does not work out)&#xD;&#xA;2. Low quality ==&gt; bad customer satisfaction&#xD;&#xA;3. bad customer satisfaction ==&gt; bad publicity &#xD;&#xA;4. Low budget ==&gt; Low Income ==&gt; bad case flow ==&gt; mess ==&gt; do something to survive ==&gt; failure&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;sorry to keep it brief, later will explain in detail." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8989" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1317" RevisionGUID="d0cf3c58-d40a-4228-8ab2-bda746aba929" CreationDate="2015-01-30T18:11:28.357" UserId="708" Comment="added 392 characters in body" Text="I always cringe a bit when I hear a freelancer ask a perspective client &quot;What's your budget?&quot; Isn't that the same as asking &quot;How much can I get away with charging you?&quot; Or &quot;Can I charge you *more* than I normally would without you realizing it?&quot; For me, there is absolutely *no reason* I need to know the client's budget. I need to know the breadth, scope, and complexity of the project, that's all. It's for me to determine if it's a $500 or $50,000 job, then they can determine if they wish to pay for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *rarely* get a budget from any any client (but I don't use online services either). If I do get a budget it is *after* my quote in an effort to possibly lower my costs to meet a lower budget (or as a negotiating tactic on their end).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I price all work according to what I need to earn**. Isn't that how everyone should be pricing? I've calculated my hourly rate, then bear in mind current market rate trends, and ensure I'm **never** at a loss for any project. Is there a possibility that I could charge another 20% and retain the work, maybe. But is it worth finding out? Most often not. As long as I'm earning what I've determined I want to earn why chase after unicorns and rainbows? You know, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush and all that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I calculate, based on the project scope, I need to charge $5000 to complete it. Then that's what I need to earn and that's what I quote. It makes **no difference** if the client has an $8000 budget. I price based on my rates, *not* what the client has in their pockets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine this... you go into a store and want to buy a stick of gum. You walk up to the cashier and she looks at you, and then says &quot;Well, we would have priced that gum at $1, but since you have $20 in your pocket, how about we charge you $19.99 for it?&quot; -- *This is what you are trying to do* by pricing based on the client budget. It's ethically questionable and ultimately will do you more harm with clients than good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Determine your rates and then calculate project costs based on that. The client's budget should make no difference** to you at all. Unless they express their budget is lower than your quote/bid and then it's up to you to determine if you wish to lower your pricing to meet a lower budget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Knowing the budget **only** really makes sense when their are *physical material costs*. For example, remodeling your kitchen. A budget is needed then to purchase appliances, type of lumber, type of tile, etc. and know what is available to spend. But in the digital realm, where any material costs are pretty much known *up front* (if there are any at all), knowing a budget is pointless." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8990" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2848" RevisionGUID="c58e15c3-deb2-43fa-9b2a-da2892c5a01b" CreationDate="2015-01-30T19:02:37.523" UserId="517" Text="This is what a friend asked me and I directed him to the similar question http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/96/517 here. Then we started discussing the issue and I realize that this question is nothing like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Find the first client&#xD;&#xA;2. How to get the first job&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and other similar questions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that I decided to post this question here as I was without an answer. If you still find it as a duplicate, I will delete it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The situation is like this. There is an experienced contractor who has been living using sites like Elance, odesk, Freelancer, etc. He has good reputation, dozens of clients and 50+ projects. He decided not to rely on these sites anymore and pay them provision and decided to work outside of them. His another main reason is that his account was locked for the 5th time for 10 days just because he was hired by a suspicious client and these Services needed time to investigate if he's guilty or not. In the meantime he lost a couple of potential clients (who would work for the contractor with a locked account). So main reason with him is locking of account for any silly reason (others who read this may simply don't want to pay service fees any more). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But he lives in a poor region and that is why he chose to use these websites on the first place. Yet again, all his clients are individuals or small companies who do not have enough work so he can make the living from them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what choices does he have now? Is it impossible for him (and other like him) to live without large services like those I mentioned above? Does he have to return to his ex company to have small salary and earn small extra part-time?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there anyone around who started working using these services and left them and made living possible without them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope you now realize why I was without a good answer to this question. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8991" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2848" RevisionGUID="c58e15c3-deb2-43fa-9b2a-da2892c5a01b" CreationDate="2015-01-30T19:02:37.523" UserId="517" Text="How can experienced contractor survive outside Elance/oDesk/Freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8992" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2848" RevisionGUID="c58e15c3-deb2-43fa-9b2a-da2892c5a01b" CreationDate="2015-01-30T19:02:37.523" UserId="517" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8993" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2849" RevisionGUID="6eba963a-fb0a-49eb-b678-3f2eb88c3ee6" CreationDate="2015-01-30T21:48:53.170" UserId="708" Text="I have *never* used any online freelance service to acquire work. Ever. Not even for one project. Without any direct experience as a worker, they *all* seemed like a less-than-ideal business venture for me to make market-level money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *have hired* workers from guru.com and have ultimately *never* been impressed. The hoops one has to jump through make the entire process highly non-customer-friendly. My personal *opinion* is that good clients aren't using these services and good workers are impossible to discern from the herd of hobbyists. And I *know* there are good workers using these sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been freelancing for over a decade successfully. While my field (design) is different than programming or development, I have several friends who are developers and pretty much work the way I do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key to a good freelance business without online middlemen is *relationships*.&#xD;&#xA;------------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't seek, and rarely accept, the small &quot;one-off&quot; clients. If they want something quick and easy and then they are done, they aren't the clients I *want*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want clients that have **ongoing** needs. Clients that are **continually** exploring marketing avenues and different ways of pulling customers or clients and **continually** update, and improve their products or services. I want clients as invested in *maintaining* their brand and products as they are in making money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Actual location means *nothing* in the digital age, especially for certain types of work. I live in a fairly small town and I constantly have enough work. If I had to actually survive on the local market here, I don't think I could. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted, the local market can be a goldmine for **connections**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key to this is learning to *network* without the online services.&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm doing a simple project and need support from a developer, I contact those I know. In many cases this leads that developer to retaining the client I initially needed support for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm in need of marketing and list management services, I contact those I know who do that. And again, often this results in that marketer retaining the client I needed assistance with. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do this whenever needed and in turn, when *they* have a client in need of *my services* they contact me. This often results in *my* retaining *their* client for the services I provide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**TL;DR**: In short, you need to expand your circle. Look for those tangent services that would be used to support your work. If you are a developer, look for designers that need development help. If you are an app builder look for designers or developers who are in need of apps or look for marketing professionals who coordinate all this. Those are the relationships you want. They will lead to better clients who are *repeat* customers. And repeat clients are how you can effectively sustain a freelance business without the stress of constantly looking for work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8994" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2844" RevisionGUID="fc40c6c4-f261-4605-8208-356f1f1122e9" CreationDate="2015-01-31T03:55:53.513" UserId="5969" Comment="added 225 characters in body" Text="I have been doing the web design and development business for the last 8 years and One of my biggest learning &amp; mistake is, reducing the cost to get projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should never &amp; never do that. If you do it, this is going to be your first step towards failure. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you take projects for lower cost, Why is it first step towards your failure ? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Low Cost leads to low quality. (You can not really provide best service for lower price, It does not work out)&#xD;&#xA;2. Low quality ==&gt; bad customer satisfaction&#xD;&#xA;3. bad customer satisfaction ==&gt; bad publicity &#xD;&#xA;4. Low budget ==&gt; Low Income ==&gt; bad case flow ==&gt; mess ==&gt; do something to survive ==&gt; failure&#xD;&#xA;5. From my experience, the low budget clients are always troublesome. The high budget client's will not trouble you much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my experience (i.e from my mistake in doing business), It is always better to deal with a client who pays $10,000 than a 20 clients paying $500 each. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8995" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2849" RevisionGUID="3d93db7b-1163-4673-910e-17547f200168" CreationDate="2015-01-31T18:03:27.010" UserId="708" Comment="added 3283 characters in body" Text="I have *never* used any online freelance service to acquire work. Ever. Not even for one project. Without any direct experience as a worker, they *all* seemed like a less-than-ideal business venture for me to make market-level money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *have hired* workers from guru.com and have ultimately *never* been impressed. The hoops one has to jump through make the entire process highly non-customer-friendly. My personal *opinion* is that good clients aren't using these services and good workers are impossible to discern from the herd of hobbyists. And I *know* there are good workers using these sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been freelancing for over a decade successfully. While my field (design) is different than programming or development, I have several friends who are developers and pretty much work the way I do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key to a good freelance business without online middlemen is *relationships*.&#xD;&#xA;------------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't seek, and rarely accept, the small &quot;one-off&quot; clients. If they want something quick and easy and then they are done, they aren't the clients I *want*. That is not to say I don't do these types of project. I will. But I'm fully aware I'm doing this project just so I can earn an extra $XXX quickly to pay for xxxxx. I consider these type of projects as &quot;bonus&quot; projects. I never go looking for them and most often turn them down. But if I need a bit of extra cash I may do one here or there. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I *really* want is long-standing, good client relationships. I want clients that have **ongoing** needs. Clients that will *repeatedly* return to me for more work. Clients that are **continually** exploring marketing avenues and different ways of pulling customers or clients and **continually** update, and improve their products or services. I want clients as invested in *maintaining* their brand and products as they are in making money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Actual location means *nothing* in the digital age, especially for certain types of work. I live in a fairly small town and I constantly have enough work. If I had to actually survive on the local market here, I don't think I could. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted, the local market can be a goldmine for **connections**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key to this is learning to *network* without the online services.&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm doing a simple project and need support from a developer, I contact those I know. In many cases this leads that developer to retaining the client I initially needed support for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm in need of marketing and list management services, I contact those I know who do that. And again, often this results in that marketer retaining the client I needed assistance with. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do this whenever needed and in turn, when *they* have a client in need of *my services* they contact me. This often results in *my* retaining *their* client for the services I provide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't know anyone in tangent fields, start looking. I'm in the US, so obviously this answer is biased in that way. I have no knowledge of foreign markets and what may or may not work in them. All I can post is what's worked for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Meetups or conferences.&#xD;&#xA; - These are a *fantastic* way to meet people in your general area of work but who specialize in other areas. If you attend something like a &quot;developer conference&quot; you will most likely meet a ton of individuals that work in areas you don't. These are the connections you want. I realize travel may be involved. These may take more planning and be more rare. However, when possible, GO!&#xD;&#xA;- Local organizations&#xD;&#xA; - The Chamber of Commerce or local business groups can offer a wealth of business in need of services without *any idea* who or where to look. These are *business* in the same position you are. If they don't have any connections they ultimately may try online services (and be disappointed and grow gun shy of those services). Connecting face to face with these people and business can turn things around very quickly.&#xD;&#xA;- Old connections&#xD;&#xA; - When I started out I got a great deal of work from people I used to work with in a company. I knew developers and marketers because they were in different departments within that same company. Provided this is an option, touching base with these people can yield work as well. Perhaps not for that company but if they are venturing on their own as well. Realize that many professionals also work &quot;on the side&quot; for other things. Letting them know that you would be happy to entertain things which use your services can open a few doors there. Although this does, admittedly, rely heavily on what those other people are doing with their careers.&#xD;&#xA;- Specialize&#xD;&#xA; - Build one great &quot;plumbing&quot; web site and other plumbers will notice. Or implement some UI design that gets great reviews/feedback and others will want it. Too often a freelancer can try and be all things to all clients. This isn't *always* a great idea. The more expertise and specialization you have the more in-demand you may be. Think of it as an artist with a style. If you have your style which works very, very well. Others will want that style.  This makes you a commodity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Online services reduce you to a username, not a person. I know almost no one that feels any sense of obligation, loyalty, or even cognitive remembrance of a user name. Even reading this answer, you may remember the content of this post but a month from now you probably won't remember who posted it. This is where online services **kill** your business. You want people to remember **you**, your name, your work. Not that they &quot;hired some guy on freelancer.com&quot;. Only direct, face-to-face interactions or specialized services tend to lead to this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**TL;DR**: In short, you need to expand your circle. Look for those tangent services that would be used to support your work. If you are a developer, look for designers that need development help. If you are an app builder look for designers or developers who are in need of apps or look for marketing professionals who coordinate all this. Those are the relationships you want. They will lead to better clients who are *repeat* customers. And repeat clients are how you can effectively sustain a freelance business without the stress of constantly looking for work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8996" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2849" RevisionGUID="675dbf74-b466-476b-bce4-af28ede90eb0" CreationDate="2015-01-31T18:13:50.437" UserId="708" Comment="added 769 characters in body" Text="I have *never* used any online freelance service to acquire work. Ever. Not even for one project. Without any direct experience as a worker, they *all* seemed like a less-than-ideal business venture for me to make market-level money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *have hired* workers from guru.com and have ultimately *never* been impressed. The hoops one has to jump through make the entire process highly non-customer-friendly. My personal *opinion* is that good clients aren't using these services and good workers are impossible to discern from the herd of hobbyists. And I *know* there are good workers using these sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been freelancing for over a decade successfully. While my field (design) is different than programming or development, I have several friends who are developers and pretty much work the way I do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key to a good freelance business without online middlemen is *relationships*.&#xD;&#xA;------------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't seek, and rarely accept, the small &quot;one-off&quot; clients. If they want something quick and easy and then they are done, they aren't the clients I *want*. That is not to say I don't do these types of project. I will. But I'm fully aware I'm doing this project just so I can earn an extra $XXX quickly to pay for xxxxx. I consider these type of projects as &quot;bonus&quot; projects. I never go looking for them and most often turn them down. But if I need a bit of extra cash I may do one here or there. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I *really* want is long-standing, good client relationships. I want clients that have **ongoing** needs. Clients that will *repeatedly* return to me for more work. Clients that are **continually** exploring marketing avenues and different ways of pulling customers or clients and **continually** update, and improve their products or services. I want clients as invested in *maintaining* their brand and products as they are in making money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Actual location means *nothing* in the digital age, especially for certain types of work. I live in a fairly small town and I constantly have enough work. If I had to actually survive on the local market here, I don't think I could. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted, the local market can be a goldmine for **connections**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key to this is learning to *network* without the online services.&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm doing a simple project and need support from a developer, I contact those I know. In many cases this leads that developer to retaining the client I initially needed support for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm in need of marketing and list management services, I contact those I know who do that. And again, often this results in that marketer retaining the client I needed assistance with. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do this whenever needed and in turn, when *they* have a client in need of *my services* they contact me. This often results in *my* retaining *their* client for the services I provide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't know anyone in tangent fields, start looking. I'm in the US, so obviously this answer is biased in that way. I have no knowledge of foreign markets and what may or may not work in them. All I can post is what's worked for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Meetups or conferences.&#xD;&#xA; - These are a *fantastic* way to meet people in your general area of work but who specialize in other areas. If you attend something like a &quot;developer conference&quot; you will most likely meet a ton of individuals that work in areas you don't. These are the connections you want. I realize travel may be involved. These may take more planning and be more rare. However, when possible, GO!&#xD;&#xA;- Local organizations&#xD;&#xA; - The Chamber of Commerce or local business groups can offer a wealth of business in need of services without *any idea* who or where to look. These are *business* in the same position you are. If they don't have any connections they ultimately may try online services (and be disappointed and grow gun shy of those services). Connecting face to face with these people and business can turn things around very quickly.&#xD;&#xA;- Old connections&#xD;&#xA; - When I started out I got a great deal of work from people I used to work with in a company. I knew developers and marketers because they were in different departments within that same company. Provided this is an option, touching base with these people can yield work as well. Perhaps not for that company but if they are venturing on their own as well. Realize that many professionals also work &quot;on the side&quot; for other things. Letting them know that you would be happy to entertain things which use your services can open a few doors there. Although this does, admittedly, rely heavily on what those other people are doing with their careers.&#xD;&#xA;- Specialize&#xD;&#xA; - Build one great &quot;plumbing&quot; web site and other plumbers will notice. Or implement some UI design that gets great reviews/feedback and others will want it. Too often a freelancer can try and be all things to all clients. This isn't *always* a great idea. The more expertise and specialization you have the more in-demand you may be. Think of it as an artist with a style. If you have your style which works very, very well. Others will want that style.  This makes you a commodity.&#xD;&#xA;- Stop &quot;rolling steel&quot; a.k.a Don't have one train of thought&#xD;&#xA; - In college the other students and I used the term &quot;rolling steel.&quot; What this meant is if someone spends 12 hours a day at a steel mill, sweating, aching, and just hating their work, the *last thing* they want to do when they get off work is to go talk about &quot;rolling steel&quot;. So you need to stop as well. If your only real venue is online, don't spend your time online hanging out in &quot;developer&quot; forums if you are a developer. No one there is *ever* going to need your services. Instead expand your circle. Hang out in small business forums, or in design forums -- places with other individuals that *may actually need* your work. This will lend to online connections that are *not* competitors for you. I'm a designer but one of the last places you'll find me is on a design discussion forum. Why? Because none of the people there will ultimately lead to anything beneficial to my business. If I'm interested in my field I can read blogs or articles I don't need to &quot;discuss&quot; business with people I compete against. (side note: this is why I like the Q&amp;A of Stack sites... it's not discussion, it's not opinion.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Online services reduce you to a username, not a person. I know almost no one that feels any sense of obligation, loyalty, or even cognitive remembrance of a user name. Even reading this answer, you may remember the content of this post but a month from now you probably won't remember who posted it. This is where online services **kill** your business. You want people to remember **you**, your name, your work. Not that they &quot;hired some guy on freelancer.com&quot;. Only direct, face-to-face interactions or specialized services tend to lead to this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**TL;DR**: In short, you need to expand your circle. Look for those tangent services that would be used to support your work. If you are a developer, look for designers that need development help. If you are an app builder look for designers or developers who are in need of apps or look for marketing professionals who coordinate all this. Those are the relationships you want. They will lead to better clients who are *repeat* customers. And repeat clients are how you can effectively sustain a freelance business without the stress of constantly looking for work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8997" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2849" RevisionGUID="26f98332-9fb7-44b0-b1e1-320c90985994" CreationDate="2015-01-31T18:32:14.370" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 261 characters in body" Text="I have *never* used any online freelance service to acquire work. Ever. Not even for one project. Without any direct experience as a worker, they *all* seemed like a less-than-ideal business venture for me to make market-level money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *have hired* workers from guru.com and have ultimately *never* been impressed. The hoops one has to jump through make the entire process highly non-customer-friendly. My personal *opinion* is that good clients aren't using these services and good workers are impossible to discern from the herd of hobbyists. And I *know* there are good workers using these sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been freelancing for over a decade successfully. While my field (design) is different than programming or development, I have several friends who are developers and pretty much work the way I do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key to a good freelance business without online middlemen is *relationships*.&#xD;&#xA;------------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't seek, and rarely accept, the small &quot;one-off&quot; clients. If they want something quick and easy and then they are done, they aren't the clients I *want*. That is not to say I don't do these types of project. I will. But I'm fully aware I'm doing this project just so I can earn an extra $XXX quickly to pay for xxxxx. I consider these type of projects as &quot;bonus&quot; projects. I never go looking for them and most often turn them down. But if I need a bit of extra cash I may do one here or there. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I *really* want is long-standing, good client relationships. I want clients that have **ongoing** needs. Clients that will *repeatedly* return to me for more work. Clients that are **continually** exploring marketing avenues and different ways of pulling customers or clients and **continually** update, and improve their products or services. I want clients as invested in *maintaining* their brand and products as they are in making money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Actual location means *nothing* in the digital age, especially for certain types of work. I live in a fairly small town and I constantly have enough work. If I had to actually survive on the local market here, I don't think I could. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted, the local market can be a goldmine for **connections**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key to this is learning to *network* without the online services.&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm doing a simple project and need support from a developer, I contact those I know. In many cases this leads that developer to retaining the client I initially needed support for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm in need of marketing and list management services, I contact those I know who do that. And again, often this results in that marketer retaining the client I needed assistance with. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do this whenever needed and in turn, when *they* have a client in need of *my services* they contact me. This often results in *my* retaining *their* client for the services I provide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't know anyone in tangent fields, start looking. I'm in the US, so obviously this answer is biased in that way. I have no knowledge of foreign markets and what may or may not work in them. All I can post is what's worked for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Meetups or conferences.&#xD;&#xA; - These are a *fantastic* way to meet people in your general area of work but who specialize in other areas. If you attend something like a &quot;developer conference&quot; you will most likely meet a ton of individuals that work in areas you don't. These are the connections you want. I realize travel may be involved. These may take more planning and be more rare. However, when possible, GO!&#xD;&#xA;- Local organizations&#xD;&#xA; - The Chamber of Commerce or local business groups can offer a wealth of business in need of services without *any idea* who or where to look. These are *business* in the same position you are. If they don't have any connections they ultimately may try online services (and be disappointed and grow gun shy of those services). Connecting face to face with these people and business can turn things around very quickly.&#xD;&#xA;- Old connections&#xD;&#xA; - When I started out I got a great deal of work from people I used to work with in a company. I knew developers and marketers because they were in different departments within that same company. Provided this is an option, touching base with these people can yield work as well. Perhaps not for that company but if they are venturing on their own as well. Realize that many professionals also work &quot;on the side&quot; for other things. Letting them know that you would be happy to entertain things which use your services can open a few doors there. Although this does, admittedly, rely heavily on what those other people are doing with their careers.&#xD;&#xA;- Specialize&#xD;&#xA; - Build one great &quot;plumbing&quot; web site and other plumbers will notice. Or implement some UI design that gets great reviews/feedback and others will want it. Too often a freelancer can try and be all things to all clients. This isn't *always* a great idea. The more expertise and specialization you have the more in-demand you may be. Think of it as an artist with a style. If you have your style which works very, very well. Others will want that style.  This makes you a commodity.&#xD;&#xA;- Stop &quot;rolling steel&quot; a.k.a Don't have one train of thought&#xD;&#xA; - In college the other students and I used the term &quot;rolling steel.&quot; What this meant is if someone spends 12 hours a day at a steel mill, sweating, aching, and just hating their work, the *last thing* they want to do when they get off work is to go talk about &quot;rolling steel&quot;. So you need to stop as well. If your only real venue is online, don't spend your time online hanging out in &quot;developer&quot; forums if you are a developer. No one there is *ever* going to need your services. Instead expand your circle. Hang out in small business forums, or in design forums -- places with other individuals that *may actually need* your work. This will lend to online connections that are *not* competitors for you. Put yourself in situations where others would possibly *need* your services rather than surrounding yourself with those that offer similar services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Online services reduce you to a username, not a person. I know almost no one that feels any sense of obligation, loyalty, or even cognitive remembrance of a user name. Even reading this answer, you may remember the content of this post but a month from now you probably won't remember who posted it. This is where online services **kill** your business. You want people to remember **you**, your name, your work. Not that they &quot;hired some guy on freelancer.com&quot;. Only direct, face-to-face interactions or specialized services tend to lead to this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**TL;DR**: In short, you need to expand your circle. Look for those tangent services that would be used to support your work. If you are a developer, look for designers that need development help. If you are an app builder look for designers or developers who are in need of apps or look for marketing professionals who coordinate all this. Those are the relationships you want. They will lead to better clients who are *repeat* customers. And repeat clients are how you can effectively sustain a freelance business without the stress of constantly looking for work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8998" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1317" RevisionGUID="bf90317a-ea16-4163-9ef4-4dfa0c98e877" CreationDate="2015-01-31T18:43:20.623" UserId="708" Comment="added 553 characters in body" Text="I always cringe a bit when I hear a freelancer ask a perspective client &quot;What's your budget?&quot; Isn't that the same as asking &quot;How much can I get away with charging you?&quot; Or &quot;Can I charge you *more* than I normally would without you realizing it?&quot; For me, there is absolutely *no reason* I need to know the client's budget. I need to know the breadth, scope, and complexity of the project, that's all. It's for me to determine if it's a $500 or $50,000 job, then they can determine if they wish to pay for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *rarely* get a budget from any any client (but I don't use online services either). If I do get a budget it is *after* my quote in an effort to possibly lower my costs to meet a lower budget (or as a negotiating tactic on their end).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I price all work according to what I need to earn**. Isn't that how everyone should be pricing? I've calculated my hourly rate, then bear in mind current market rate trends, and ensure I'm **never** at a loss for any project. Is there a possibility that I could charge another 20% and retain the work, maybe. But is it worth finding out? Most often not. As long as I'm earning what I've determined I want to earn why chase after unicorns and rainbows? You know, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush and all that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I calculate, based on the project scope, I need to charge $5000 to complete it. Then that's what I need to earn and that's what I quote. It makes **no difference** if the client has an $8000 budget. I price based on my rates, *not* what the client has in their pockets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine this... you go into a store and want to buy a stick of gum. You walk up to the cashier and she looks at you, and then says &quot;Well, we would have priced that gum at $1, but since you have $20 in your pocket, how about we charge you $19.99 for it?&quot; -- *This is what you are trying to do* by pricing based on the client budget. It's ethically questionable and ultimately will do you more harm with clients than good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Determine your rates and then calculate project costs based on that. The client's budget should make no difference** to you at all. Unless they express their budget is lower than your quote/bid and then it's up to you to determine if you wish to lower your pricing to meet a lower budget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Knowing the budget **only** really makes sense when their are *physical material costs*. For example, remodeling your kitchen. A budget is needed then to purchase appliances, type of lumber, type of tile, etc. and know what is available to spend. But in the digital realm, where any material costs are pretty much known *up front* (if there are any at all), knowing a budget is pointless. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The notion that anyone creating digital content needs to know a budget up front is a myth. We all know what web hosting costs, we all know what domain registration costs, we all know what that third party scripting package costs. These can all **easily** be factored into any bid/quote. Pretending that a client's budget does *anything* other than alter how much one *thinks* they can change is bogus. All you need is a thorough and detailed description of project scope to calculate pricing. Beyond that, it's a matter of negotiation, not budget. If you price a project at $100k and the client states they have a $10k budget... it's negotiation as to what you'll *not* do or the client will *not* require to reduce pricing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8999" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2850" RevisionGUID="70cc70bd-ba38-4d9c-b23c-69766307fc6c" CreationDate="2015-01-31T19:11:18.737" UserId="708" Text="**Global view** not narrow scope.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When any client provides you a link to a site they like you need to step back and look at it with *untrained* eyes. Ask yourself:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Why might they like it?&#xD;&#xA;- What sort of colors is the site using?&#xD;&#xA;- How is navigation viewed&#xD;&#xA;- How does navigation operate for the reader?&#xD;&#xA;- How is content formatted?&#xD;&#xA;- What sort of typefaces are used?&#xD;&#xA;- Are there UI effects visible?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Do not** ever look at these sites as a designer or developer to start. You need to view the site as a user would. Don't worry about how something is implemented. Look for general *concepts* used in the site. For example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- It's a one-page site. Client may like one page designs&#xD;&#xA;- It's using a muted, pastel color palette. Client may not be in favor of bright, loud, color schemes.&#xD;&#xA;- Navigation is a drop down across the top. Client may not like sidebar navigation.&#xD;&#xA;- Navigation has simply underline hover effects and drop downs require a click. Client may not like &quot;button&quot; style navigation or elaborate hover effects.&#xD;&#xA;- Content is in three columns with a hero image. Client may be in favor of columns and want the hero graphic.&#xD;&#xA;- Sans Serif type is used for the bulk of the site however some script headlines are used in various places. Client may not like serif typefaces.&#xD;&#xA;- Content is click and it slides out. There are animated images. There's an in-page modal window. Client may want more client-side interactivity as a whole.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, you need to merely get a sense of the overall layout and *never* actually dive into the code of the site specifically. The point is to get a feeling for what intrigues the client when the client has little or no idea how things *actually* work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From here, you start asking about the specifics: Were you envisioning a one-page style site? Do you want a more pastel color theme? How do you see the content interaction with users? etc.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Reference links are just used for *reference* you shouldn't be copying any code from them at all and in most cases you don't even need to look at the code." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9000" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2849" RevisionGUID="c1c6838f-ae8a-4e05-86cc-0342e5e22b76" CreationDate="2015-01-31T19:31:03.480" UserId="708" Comment="added 828 characters in body" Text="I have *never* used any online freelance service to acquire work. Ever. Not even for one project. Without any direct experience as a worker, they *all* seemed like a less-than-ideal business venture for me to make market-level money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *have hired* workers from guru.com and have ultimately *never* been impressed. The hoops one has to jump through make the entire process highly non-customer-friendly. My personal *opinion* is that good clients aren't using these services and good workers are impossible to discern from the herd of hobbyists. And I *know* there are good workers using these sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been freelancing for over a decade successfully. While my field (design) is different than programming or development, I have several friends who are developers and pretty much work the way I do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key to a good freelance business without online middlemen is *relationships*.&#xD;&#xA;------------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't seek, and rarely accept, the small &quot;one-off&quot; clients. If they want something quick and easy and then they are done, they aren't the clients I *want*. That is not to say I don't do these types of project. I will. But I'm fully aware I'm doing this project just so I can earn an extra $XXX quickly to pay for xxxxx. I consider these type of projects as &quot;bonus&quot; projects. I never go looking for them and most often turn them down. But if I need a bit of extra cash I may do one here or there. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I *really* want is long-standing, good client relationships. I want clients that have **ongoing** needs. Clients that will *repeatedly* return to me for more work. Clients that are **continually** exploring marketing avenues and different ways of pulling customers or clients and **continually** update, and improve their products or services. I want clients as invested in *maintaining* their brand and products as they are in making money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Actual location means *nothing* in the digital age, especially for certain types of work. I live in a fairly small town and I constantly have enough work. If I had to actually survive on the local market here, I don't think I could. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted, the local market can be a goldmine for **connections**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key to this is learning to *network* without the online services.&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm doing a simple project and need support from a developer, I contact those I know. In many cases this leads that developer to retaining the client I initially needed support for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm in need of marketing and list management services, I contact those I know who do that. And again, often this results in that marketer retaining the client I needed assistance with. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do this whenever needed and in turn, when *they* have a client in need of *my services* they contact me. This often results in *my* retaining *their* client for the services I provide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note** I'm *not* referring to sub-contracting the work. I *refer* the client to these people for the work. I make *nothing* for the referral except &quot;good will&quot;. I could choose to sub-contract these sort of things. However, if doing so I then become a project manager and am responsible for the work of others. I'm then dependent upon my ability to translate what the client wants into terms the sub-contractor can use and understand. It's *much* easier to step away and let the client deal with the service provider directly. I may be forgoing some income in doing this. However, I gain *a lot* of return referrals. Those referral *greatly* surpass any possible income I'd generate via sub-contracted labor. These referrals are *not* competing for my services, they are services which are needed *in addition* to my work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't know anyone in tangent fields, start looking. I'm in the US, so obviously this answer is biased in that way. I have no knowledge of foreign markets and what may or may not work in them. All I can post is what's worked for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Meetups or conferences.&#xD;&#xA; - These are a *fantastic* way to meet people in your general area of work but who specialize in other areas. If you attend something like a &quot;developer conference&quot; you will most likely meet a ton of individuals that work in areas you don't. These are the connections you want. I realize travel may be involved. These may take more planning and be more rare. However, when possible, GO!&#xD;&#xA;- Local organizations&#xD;&#xA; - The Chamber of Commerce or local business groups can offer a wealth of business in need of services without *any idea* who or where to look. These are *business* in the same position you are. If they don't have any connections they ultimately may try online services (and be disappointed and grow gun shy of those services). Connecting face to face with these people and business can turn things around very quickly.&#xD;&#xA;- Old connections&#xD;&#xA; - When I started out I got a great deal of work from people I used to work with in a company. I knew developers and marketers because they were in different departments within that same company. Provided this is an option, touching base with these people can yield work as well. Perhaps not for that company but if they are venturing on their own as well. Realize that many professionals also work &quot;on the side&quot; for other things. Letting them know that you would be happy to entertain things which use your services can open a few doors there. Although this does, admittedly, rely heavily on what those other people are doing with their careers.&#xD;&#xA;- Specialize&#xD;&#xA; - Build one great &quot;plumbing&quot; web site and other plumbers will notice. Or implement some UI design that gets great reviews/feedback and others will want it. Too often a freelancer can try and be all things to all clients. This isn't *always* a great idea. The more expertise and specialization you have the more in-demand you may be. Think of it as an artist with a style. If you have your style which works very, very well. Others will want that style.  This makes you a commodity.&#xD;&#xA;- Stop &quot;rolling steel&quot; a.k.a Don't have one train of thought&#xD;&#xA; - In college the other students and I used the term &quot;rolling steel.&quot; What this meant is if someone spends 12 hours a day at a steel mill, sweating, aching, and just hating their work, the *last thing* they want to do when they get off work is to go talk about &quot;rolling steel&quot;. So you need to stop as well. If your only real venue is online, don't spend your time online hanging out in &quot;developer&quot; forums if you are a developer. No one there is *ever* going to need your services. Instead expand your circle. Hang out in small business forums, or in design forums -- places with other individuals that *may actually need* your work. This will lend to online connections that are *not* competitors for you. Put yourself in situations where others would possibly *need* your services rather than surrounding yourself with those that offer similar services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Online services reduce you to a username, not a person. I know almost no one that feels any sense of obligation, loyalty, or even cognitive remembrance of a user name. Even reading this answer, you may remember the content of this post but a month from now you probably won't remember who posted it. This is where online services **kill** your business. You want people to remember **you**, your name, your work. Not that they &quot;hired some guy on freelancer.com&quot;. Only direct, face-to-face interactions or specialized services tend to lead to this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**TL;DR**: In short, you need to expand your circle. Look for those tangent services that would be used to support your work. If you are a developer, look for designers that need development help. If you are an app builder look for designers or developers who are in need of apps or look for marketing professionals who coordinate all this. Those are the relationships you want. They will lead to better clients who are *repeat* customers. And repeat clients are how you can effectively sustain a freelance business without the stress of constantly looking for work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9001" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2851" RevisionGUID="423689df-d413-43b6-ba90-43317d896057" CreationDate="2015-02-01T02:06:41.143" UserId="5979" Text="Because I'm not signed up for online filing and doing so requires waiting for HMRC to post me a security code, I was about to download and fill in an offline CT600 (Short) for my small UK-registered company and send it to HMRC in the post, but I noticed on the text of the download page it states this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Please check if you are required to submit this form online before&#xD;&#xA;&gt; downloading and sending it in the post.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Find out more about who must submit an online Company Tax Return&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, the &quot;find out more&quot; link goes to a page that doesn't specify whether I have to do it online, but just has instructions for how to do it online.  I've been wandering around the gov.uk web site and googling various terms for the last half hour, but have yet to find any definitive description of who has to file online and who is allowed to use the offline form.  Can anyone give me a summary of what the rules are?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9002" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2851" RevisionGUID="423689df-d413-43b6-ba90-43317d896057" CreationDate="2015-02-01T02:06:41.143" UserId="5979" Text="Filing UK corporation tax - who must file online?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9003" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2851" RevisionGUID="423689df-d413-43b6-ba90-43317d896057" CreationDate="2015-02-01T02:06:41.143" UserId="5979" Text="|legal|taxes|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9005" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2852" RevisionGUID="6eb1f392-e8d4-4a61-8102-876175da9a17" CreationDate="2015-02-01T20:16:47.190" UserId="5986" Text="I'm interested to know if I can use this tax mode as a software consultancy company - essentially doing a custom software development in a form of licensing it (instead of selling development hours) to clients. Most of the sources I read state that this also applies software, but there are no specifics.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm specifically interested in Luxembourg, Netherlands,  Liechtenstein and Malta.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is some info (page 8): http://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp13070.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9006" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2852" RevisionGUID="6eb1f392-e8d4-4a61-8102-876175da9a17" CreationDate="2015-02-01T20:16:47.190" UserId="5986" Text="IP/patent tax box - applicable to software consultancy?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9007" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2852" RevisionGUID="6eb1f392-e8d4-4a61-8102-876175da9a17" CreationDate="2015-02-01T20:16:47.190" UserId="5986" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9008" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2852" RevisionGUID="be3e6ed2-976e-4c77-868c-85bddf4fcdea" CreationDate="2015-02-01T20:26:19.280" UserId="5986" Comment="edited tags" Text="|taxes|accounting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9009" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2853" RevisionGUID="882a3aad-1bee-4b17-bfd1-72df1dd9f1d4" CreationDate="2015-02-02T02:24:57.060" UserId="4561" Text="I would consider slightly discounting my price:&#xD;&#xA;1) If I don't have enough clients and am trying to build up a business.&#xD;&#xA;2) As a favor to someone if I have the time to help them and I want to (as a hobby).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But be very careful when doing this.  #5 that Mani said is VERY TRUE.  The smaller clients who ask for discounts and say they have small budgets are almost always the most difficult, time consuming, and needy clients.  They have no clue what a huge favor you are doing them with your discount, they have no idea how long things take, will see an ordinary bug or error as evidence of your incompetence (and may see your willingness to discount as evidence that you are not good quality) and they will suck the life out of you if you let them.  And after all that?  They'll dump you in a heartbeat for someone $5 cheaper.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes it's deliberate - they are using their &quot;small budget&quot; to guilt/manipulate you into a discount, but often it's just the nature of their small size.  They don't have an internal IT staff that understands these projects and what's involved and knows what to communicate and expects to install and trouble shoot things on their end.  So they need you to explain things again and again and hold their hand every step of the way.  Since they have no idea what's involved they don't understand how much they are asking.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You start out thinking you are doing them some great favor that they will appreciate with your discount but you may end up totally resenting them, ready to pay them to go away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is not all small clients!  **I have some absolutely wonderful ones and when the economy is down and the big clients have all projects on hold, the small clients sustain me**.  But after 20 years in business, I've learned ***it is a huge red flag when a small client initiates the project by asking for a discount or keeps bringing up the budget***.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have also learned that they usually ***can*** afford regular rates.  When someone asks for a discount up front, I go in full price ready to happily walk away if they can find someone cheaper.  I have gotten almost all of those projects and my inflexibility on price bought me peace with them while I saw other vendors pulling their hair out trying to appease them.  Ironically, the clients who do not ask for discounts and otherwise try to suck the life out of me - I end up giving them a lot of freebies and discounts where I can and they understand what they're getting, appreciate it, and are loyal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At a marketing seminar I once heard the speaker say:&#xD;&#xA;People who shop based on price alone cannot spell the word loyalty." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9010" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2854" RevisionGUID="2fb6e526-950b-45cc-877a-aea9e5015125" CreationDate="2015-02-02T08:00:08.837" UserId="5969" Text="{first of all, I am active member of multiple stackexchange website, I went in detail http://stackexchange.com/sites to find out where to ask this question). I think, this is the best site to ask this question as I find others of less relevant. }&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am running a small website design and development company, We have done a project for one of the USA based client. I always feel &amp; based on my experience, more than 95% of the clients are good, But at least you will get 1% or 2% of the client who comes to you to screw your happiness and your business. I have got one such a client about 2 years back. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He(client) paid X amount of money, But day by day his expectation keeps increasing  to X+X+X+X+X...., I tried my level best to accommodate his changes. But it seems like a never ending story. He started abusing my staff and threatening us with blackmailing &amp; online bad reputation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, He started a website with my company + &quot;cheat&quot;, and started adding all information to the website. Now, When I or anyone search online in google for my &quot;my company name&quot; , his website mycompanyname&quot;cheat&quot; is coming in second place which affects my business badly and i am loosing all my clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I approached the client many times, Even I offered complete refund whatever he has paid to me, But i am not getting any reply from him. I have only his Email ID &amp; domain name &amp; Address, He lives in USA and I am from India.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a small company, I don't have a budget to hire a lawyer in California and fight the case with him ? I am planning to file a defamation case and sue him &amp; ask for huge money as a compensation. May be I can spend up to $2,000 in this case  related. Under this circumstances what is the best possible way for me to tackle this situation ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9011" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2854" RevisionGUID="2fb6e526-950b-45cc-877a-aea9e5015125" CreationDate="2015-02-02T08:00:08.837" UserId="5969" Text="What Should I do in this case, (My Client is damaging my business &amp; reputation)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9012" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2854" RevisionGUID="2fb6e526-950b-45cc-877a-aea9e5015125" CreationDate="2015-02-02T08:00:08.837" UserId="5969" Text="|legal|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9013" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2855" RevisionGUID="97498649-cefb-439d-8293-35a708dbc6ba" CreationDate="2015-02-02T08:02:42.767" UserId="5969" Text="Looks like, you are from India. The best way to handle this situation is to file a complaint against him in police station and Keep a copy of an FIR. Believe me, this is not a tough task, this will be helpful to you even if does anything against you in future. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9014" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1477" RevisionGUID="05ba2c55-e9af-4d6d-81b4-50ba2ef47e5e" CreationDate="2015-02-02T10:14:01.267" UserId="9" Comment="Added clarification about when not to use this tag" Text="A freelance website is a site which links freelancers to clients and (more specifically) client projects, often through a bidding process. Examples include oDesk, eLance, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This tag is not intended to be for questions regarding the development of websites for customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##Example questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While this question, http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1244/how-to-get-work-on-freelancer-com-as-an-existing-contractor-but-new-to-freelance, primarly targets non-experts, it's a good example of when to use this tag. The question is more of a marketing question.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9015" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1477" RevisionGUID="05ba2c55-e9af-4d6d-81b4-50ba2ef47e5e" CreationDate="2015-02-02T10:14:01.267" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 708 edit id of 385" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9016" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2856" RevisionGUID="7ec8d03c-8814-4fdc-baaf-71f8bf28c71e" CreationDate="2015-02-02T13:06:41.807" UserId="5990" Text="This sound absolutely terrible Mani.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I regards to how to restore your reputation ie: via Google, you will need to hire an **Online Reputation Management** consultant or an agency who performs this service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As your located in India, there are plenty of SEO firms there that would take you as a client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basic goal of an online reputation management campaign is primarily to create content to rank for your business name and ensure these pieces of content dominate page one of Google SERPS. The other aspect is removal of the defaming content however you have obviously pursued this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For suing for defamation, talking to a lawyer (in particular, a technology specialised one) would be the solution to see what your options are. Understanding what the original deliverables were in your contract, what the change request were and evidence of your efforts in trying to mediate conflict (i.e. you offering a refund) are crucial.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realistically your solutions are to remove his website from the front page of your website, else change your business name if the damages to your reputation are too high to counter. I am not one to advocate _Negtive SEO_* however given this circumstance if it were to happen to me I would legitimately consider it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * Negative SEO refers to the term of intentionally building spammy backlinks to a website in order for it to get penalised. It is absolutely unethical and only treat this as a 'nuclear' option, if at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9017" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2857" RevisionGUID="a7791efc-eb18-4c3d-949c-f656c0ef054c" CreationDate="2015-02-02T15:20:06.927" UserId="5992" Text="I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction. I've spoken to no fewer than 3 accounting firms - one huge international one here in Sweden and they say they're not allowed to advise on international tax laws, and two in the US who never bothered to reply to me after an initial back-and-forth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am resident in, and a citizen of Sweden. My primary source of income is freelance work - the vast majority of which is with US clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All I want to know is if I'm supposed to be paying tax in the US on my US-earned income (all my income is earned remotely, from Sweden - I've never set foot in the US). I just can't find a definitive answer to this. Some places say I should, and that any US declaration is deductible on my Swedish tax return due to a relief from double taxation clause in a SWE/US tax treaty.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other places say that my obligation ends by simply providing a W8-BEN form to the US entity who hired me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All I want to do is pay what I'm supposed to, to the right place but why does it have to be so damn complex? Would really appreciate any pointers in the right direction!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9018" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2857" RevisionGUID="a7791efc-eb18-4c3d-949c-f656c0ef054c" CreationDate="2015-02-02T15:20:06.927" UserId="5992" Text="Non-US citizen freelancing in the US remotely" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9019" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2857" RevisionGUID="a7791efc-eb18-4c3d-949c-f656c0ef054c" CreationDate="2015-02-02T15:20:06.927" UserId="5992" Text="|taxes|accounting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9020" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2856" RevisionGUID="302b0b52-c7a4-48b0-88c7-c5c546e3fbf8" CreationDate="2015-02-02T18:01:03.643" UserId="75" Comment="added 14 characters in body" Text="This sound absolutely terrible Mani.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I regards to how to restore your reputation ie: via Google, you will need to hire an **Online Reputation Management** consultant or an agency who performs this service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you are located in India, there are plenty of SEO firms there that would take you as a client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basic goal of an online reputation management campaign is primarily to create content to rank for your business name and ensure these pieces of content dominate page one of Google SERPS. The other aspect is removal of the defaming content however you have obviously pursued this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For suing for defamation, talking to a lawyer (in particular, a technology specialized one) would be the solution to see what your options are. Understanding what the original deliverables were in your contract, what the change request were and evidence of your efforts in trying to mediate conflict (i.e. you offering a refund) are crucial.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realistically your solutions are to remove his website from the front page of your website, else change your business name if the damages to your reputation are too high to counter. I am not one to advocate _Negtive SEO_* however given this circumstance if it were to happen to me I would legitimately consider it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &lt;sub&gt;* Negative SEO refers to the term of intentionally building spammy backlinks to a website in order for it to get penalised. It is absolutely unethical and only treat this as a 'nuclear' option, if at all.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9021" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2854" RevisionGUID="5ff6d898-438e-4df2-87f9-3c6edd8457f3" CreationDate="2015-02-02T18:06:16.173" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 247 characters in body" Text="I am running a small website design and development company, We have done a project for one of the USA based client. I always feel &amp; based on my experience, more than 95% of the clients are good, But at least you will get 1% or 2% of the client who comes to you to screw your happiness and your business. I have got one such a client about 2 years back. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client paid X amount of money, but day by day, his expectation keeps increasing  to X+X+X+X+X.... I tried my level best to accommodate his changes, but it seems like a never ending story. He started abusing my staff and threatening us with blackmail &amp; creating bad reputation online. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, the client started a website with my company + &quot;cheat&quot;, and started adding information to the website. Now, when I or anyone search online in Google for my &quot;my company name&quot; , his website &quot;mycompanynamecheat&quot; is coming in second place, which affects my business badly and I am loosing all my clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I approached the client many times. I even offered a complete refund for whatever he has paid to me, but I am not getting any replies from him. I have only his Email ID, domain name &amp; Address. He lives in USA and I am from India.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a small company, I don't have a budget to hire a lawyer in California and fight the case with him? I am planning to file a defamation case and sue him, asking for money as a compensation. Maybe I can spend up to $2,000 in this case. Under this circumstances what is the best possible way for me to tackle this situation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9022" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2858" RevisionGUID="26040427-111f-4802-a166-af1af14854de" CreationDate="2015-02-02T19:37:29.143" UserId="5893" Text="From poking around the IRS website (http://www.irs.gov) it *appears* as if you will not owe income tax in the United States. I am not a lawyer or a tax professional, so I can't definitively answer this for you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of the information is about nonresident aliens working in the US or having a US spouse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, you may find something applicable in this publication from the US Internal REvenue Service. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p54.pdf   *Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad* because there is a section discussing tax treaties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may have to write (email) the IRS directly with your question. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But from where I sit, it seems to me that the US company hiring you is treating you as a business entity (i.e. a Sole Proprietorship), so it would be handled as a company doing business with a US company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your hiring company does not send you a tax form showing your US income, you are very likely in the clear.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9023" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2858" RevisionGUID="b3510963-1f79-448a-bfbd-7fbe4e525c71" CreationDate="2015-02-02T19:43:50.690" UserId="5893" Comment="added 647 characters in body" Text="From poking around the IRS website (http://www.irs.gov) it *appears* as if you will not owe income tax in the United States. I am not a lawyer or a tax professional, so I can't definitively answer this for you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of the information is about nonresident aliens working in the US or having a US spouse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, you may find something applicable in this publication from the US Internal REvenue Service. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p54.pdf   *Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad* because there is a section discussing tax treaties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may have to write (email) the IRS directly with your question. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But from where I sit, it seems to me that the US company hiring you is treating you as a business entity (i.e. a Sole Proprietorship), so it would be handled as a company doing business with a US company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your hiring company does not send you a tax form showing your US income, you are very likely in the clear.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**edited to add** I discovered this paragraph in the publication noted above (on page 16). I think you are NOT obligated to file or pay taxes in the US (emphasis mine): &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The source of your earned income is the place&#xD;&#xA;where you perform the services for which you&#xD;&#xA;received the income. Foreign earned income is&#xD;&#xA;income you receive for working in a foreign&#xD;&#xA;country. **Where or how you are paid has no effect&#xD;&#xA;on the source of the income.** For example,&#xD;&#xA;income you receive for work done in Austria is&#xD;&#xA;income from a foreign source even if the income&#xD;&#xA;is paid directly to your bank account in&#xD;&#xA;the United States and your employer is located&#xD;&#xA;in New York City.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9024" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2843" RevisionGUID="3748ab03-61d4-45dd-9929-a54539528c78" CreationDate="2015-02-03T02:46:48.580" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/562442047555391488" />
  <row Id="9025" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2666" RevisionGUID="ef6a4bd1-0dfd-4f57-b9c9-35d380b35388" CreationDate="2015-02-03T10:13:28.817" UserId="-1" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[101],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Stacey&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:1018,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Neil Robertson&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="9028" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2761" RevisionGUID="021f66a2-9fe1-4bc9-98ce-946e82d61673" CreationDate="2015-02-03T10:14:11.260" UserId="-1" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[1041],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Stacey&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="9029" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2859" RevisionGUID="2386d56e-20eb-46b2-860d-a86c19b9d578" CreationDate="2015-02-03T11:44:03.097" UserId="1353" Text="I can't give you an answer, only some advice...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ring them up !&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The HMRC website isn't particularly good plus, it's been/being redesigned so finding exactly what you want will be painful. In addition, they will only give out 'common' examples on the website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best time to phone HMRC is usually early evening as they seem quieter then. Even so, be prepared for a wait but, when you do get through to a person, you'll find they are really helpful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Phone&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Telephone: 0300 200 3600&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Textphone: 0300 200 3603&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Outside UK: +44 161 930 8445&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Opening times:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 8am to 4pm Saturday&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Closed Sundays, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9030" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2860" RevisionGUID="809a3a49-eff5-4e92-abcf-c692648b3dc4" CreationDate="2015-02-04T05:38:35.597" UserId="4827" Text="firends I am New freelancing. i am make new account today and bid one IOS social media integration. I have good knowledge of social media integration. I also keep description when Bid. But Nothing got. and how to know who is selected for the project.&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9031" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2860" RevisionGUID="809a3a49-eff5-4e92-abcf-c692648b3dc4" CreationDate="2015-02-04T05:38:35.597" UserId="4827" Text="Bid on project but not got any response?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9032" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2860" RevisionGUID="809a3a49-eff5-4e92-abcf-c692648b3dc4" CreationDate="2015-02-04T05:38:35.597" UserId="4827" Text="|freelance-websites|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9033" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2857" RevisionGUID="18886671-4028-4b93-ab3d-6dce5b9d9c72" CreationDate="2015-02-04T11:48:10.390" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/562940674249850880" />
  <row Id="9034" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2860" RevisionGUID="8dd91f6c-4c0a-418d-aa7e-8bbf204499cd" CreationDate="2015-02-04T17:50:35.613" UserId="9" Comment="Heavy grammar and spelling fixes, moved question from title to content, replaced [group-freelancing] with [project-bidding]" Text="I am new to freelancing. I joined a freelance site today and made a bid on a project relating to iOS social media integration (since I have good knowledge on the subject). I also based my bid on the description, but I haven't gotten a response.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I know who is selected for a project, and would I get a response (even if I don't get the bid)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9035" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2860" RevisionGUID="8dd91f6c-4c0a-418d-aa7e-8bbf204499cd" CreationDate="2015-02-04T17:50:35.613" UserId="9" Comment="Heavy grammar and spelling fixes, moved question from title to content, replaced [group-freelancing] with [project-bidding]" Text="No response after project bid" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9036" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2860" RevisionGUID="8dd91f6c-4c0a-418d-aa7e-8bbf204499cd" CreationDate="2015-02-04T17:50:35.613" UserId="9" Comment="Heavy grammar and spelling fixes, moved question from title to content, replaced [group-freelancing] with [project-bidding]" Text="|freelance-websites|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9037" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2861" RevisionGUID="0c784d0d-268b-4554-99b9-7d5327352ad1" CreationDate="2015-02-04T18:12:42.213" UserId="5893" Text="Depends on the freelance site. It's quite common for buyers not to communicate with all bidders, especially for bids that they don't intend to use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also common for buyers to NEVER select a bidder (one reason I stopped using eLance as a source for work).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I believe most freelance sites will have a status indicating if the project was awarded and indicate which bidder won the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A day is too soon to expect a response (unless there is a time-critical element to the bid)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9042" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2863" RevisionGUID="7de22afd-c49f-451b-a410-e6fbbf7a8e0a" CreationDate="2015-02-05T16:33:10.940" UserId="4737" Text="am a consultant living in Uk using my own limited company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I accept a contract to work in another european country, can I expense the rent I will have there?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9043" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2863" RevisionGUID="7de22afd-c49f-451b-a410-e6fbbf7a8e0a" CreationDate="2015-02-05T16:33:10.940" UserId="4737" Text="Can I expense the rent for a three month contract abroad" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9044" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2863" RevisionGUID="7de22afd-c49f-451b-a410-e6fbbf7a8e0a" CreationDate="2015-02-05T16:33:10.940" UserId="4737" Text="|uk|expenses|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9048" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2863" RevisionGUID="1792ae08-e9a3-464b-8b89-faab63ac8e7e" CreationDate="2015-02-05T19:11:00.403" UserId="75" Comment="added 19 characters in body" Text="I am a consultant living in the United Kingdom, using my own limited company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I accept a contract to work in another European country, can I expense the rent I will have there?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9049" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2848" RevisionGUID="ba183945-6f72-414b-9758-f3435949a682" CreationDate="2015-02-06T17:52:38.430" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/563757170697990145" />
  <row Id="9050" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2864" RevisionGUID="5eee0dd0-9f83-404d-b8b2-a49c1d4d9153" CreationDate="2015-02-06T20:21:58.653" UserId="4561" Text="You may not get a response if you are not selected.  Depending on the site, there may be a way for you to see who, if anyone, is selected.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I use eLance to hire people sometimes and it used to be set up so that you could click to turn down people, and it gave you reasons to pick from (Like too expensive, preferred another method, did not address issue, etc.)  But now I notice there is no way to contact the bidders unless you go into each one and send them a private message.  I feel bad just ignoring people but I figure that's the way it is set up now and the people bidding understand that.  That is eLance.  I don't know about other freelance sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regardless, I would not expect a response within a day." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9056" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2867" RevisionGUID="87a5d779-98e6-4a03-9756-4a69299b8b46" CreationDate="2015-02-07T09:03:16.310" UserId="6035" Text="Most of my clients located in USA, however I have ability to open business in Europe, Asia or USA. Which country is the best in terms of taxation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks," ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9057" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2867" RevisionGUID="87a5d779-98e6-4a03-9756-4a69299b8b46" CreationDate="2015-02-07T09:03:16.310" UserId="6035" Text="Which country is the best to incorporate business for a freelance developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9058" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2867" RevisionGUID="87a5d779-98e6-4a03-9756-4a69299b8b46" CreationDate="2015-02-07T09:03:16.310" UserId="6035" Text="|taxes|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9059" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2868" RevisionGUID="a4be308e-ac72-4ccc-b71f-b4d60a940419" CreationDate="2015-02-07T09:46:47.123" UserId="517" Text="I heard from many people that Gibraltar has good taxation. You should check it out. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Others opened a company in Germany as it has a great refunds and benefits for companies. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The third group opened a company in South America (I think Chile) as it gives great benefits to any foreigner who wants to open a company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would be great that you come back here with the result of your investigation and let us know which one was really the best. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9063" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2869" RevisionGUID="c029b706-5723-4985-a5bc-801f97802580" CreationDate="2015-02-09T20:45:51.260" UserId="6054" Text="I create free software plugins which people can install on their website. This software allows them to integrate PayPal into their website so they can sell products.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was recently watching an older episode of Shark Tank and was interested in the pitch from honeyfund.com. During the pitch the company says that they worked out a deal with PayPal so that their customers pay the standard transaction fee of 2.9% + .30, but they get a small percent of that because of their high volume.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They mentioned a few numbers and doing the math it works out to PayPal paying them 1.495% of all transactions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not sure what PayPal's definition of high volume is, but my plugins are installed on thousands of website. If I could make a small percent of all the transactions that occur, that would be amazing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can anyone please explain how I can work out this type of relationship with PayPal.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9064" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2869" RevisionGUID="c029b706-5723-4985-a5bc-801f97802580" CreationDate="2015-02-09T20:45:51.260" UserId="6054" Text="Taking part of the PayPal transaction fee" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9065" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2869" RevisionGUID="c029b706-5723-4985-a5bc-801f97802580" CreationDate="2015-02-09T20:45:51.260" UserId="6054" Text="|payments|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9074" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2873" RevisionGUID="ba8977a1-9c1a-481a-8099-ff6391a4fba3" CreationDate="2015-02-10T06:08:52.880" UserId="5984" Text="I guess for $2000 you can work on SEO. Also, you can get catchy article written and post it on high PR websites and ask them to point link to you company website, increasing your PR. Why to waste your time and energy for that purpose. Move on and use $2000 for either adWords/SEO or some other marketing strategy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you spend time on dominating your client, you will loose your energy, time, money and EOD business. Even others will stop believing you. I would suggest, act smartly. Concentrate more on getting more new clients and expanding team with money you are ready to spend." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9075" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2874" RevisionGUID="dfa4a43e-d203-423c-b204-64a090039368" CreationDate="2015-02-10T16:10:12.563" UserId="6067" Text="How do I phrase an email requesting more money when I've already accepted a specific budget? The client is asking for more time than I would have expected to spend asking for revisions upon revisions and well past the initial deadline. It's a new client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9076" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2874" RevisionGUID="dfa4a43e-d203-423c-b204-64a090039368" CreationDate="2015-02-10T16:10:12.563" UserId="6067" Text="When it becomes working for free" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9077" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2874" RevisionGUID="dfa4a43e-d203-423c-b204-64a090039368" CreationDate="2015-02-10T16:10:12.563" UserId="6067" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9083" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2867" RevisionGUID="91c71902-17a0-46f5-a101-b6c07fda6c8a" CreationDate="2015-02-10T21:13:37.810" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/565257303268814849" />
  <row Id="9084" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2875" RevisionGUID="65f262b0-4999-427f-a851-34d253e70653" CreationDate="2015-02-11T10:55:07.623" UserId="5969" Text="I am planning to sell my company, We have around 85 people working in various technologies. Mainly we have strong expertise on php/mysql, joomla, wordpress, magento and opencart. (We are one of the leading expert in Web Technology)&#xD;&#xA;Where can I find suitable buyers to my company. I am not able to find suitable buyers for my company." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9085" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2875" RevisionGUID="65f262b0-4999-427f-a851-34d253e70653" CreationDate="2015-02-11T10:55:07.623" UserId="5969" Text="Where Can I Find Suitable Buyers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9086" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2875" RevisionGUID="65f262b0-4999-427f-a851-34d253e70653" CreationDate="2015-02-11T10:55:07.623" UserId="5969" Text="|uk|usa|outsourcing|software|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9087" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2876" RevisionGUID="df75b205-ae5c-4d21-b3c5-f69427a69d52" CreationDate="2015-02-11T12:05:44.940" UserId="5990" Text="If you don't have a network of people who regularly buy or sell businesses  then you may require a broker to help set up a deal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A broker usually has the expertise and contacts to find suitable suitors for your business as well as offer insights on the valuation of your company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might want to find a specialist business broker in technology as they will have more suitable domain knowledge of all the legal requirements and technical challenges of transferring ownership of a large business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9088" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2877" RevisionGUID="7baa4ea3-5508-4d95-813a-0a785055fa19" CreationDate="2015-02-11T13:50:00.643" UserId="5334" Text="Paypal offer special rates for partners, but it's worth looking at their [merchant rates][1] first. I think you have to exceed £55k monthly for them to consider you for a partnership... but even then, their merchant rates are pretty fair.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You'll definitely have to get in touch with them sooner or later but it's well worth a shot... the worst they can do is say no. Although if you are successful then it's more ultimately more money for them!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, (not directly related to your question but it's nice to know there are other options available)t might be worth considering some Paypal alternatives such as [Stripe][2] or [Braintree][3]. In the long run, their rates are fairly similar but you might end up saving some money somewhere along the line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - Stripe charge 2.4% + 20p per transaction and their partner rates start around £20k. &#xD;&#xA;  - Braintree is a subsidiary of Paypal but, like Stripe, also charge 2.4% + 20p per transaction. However, the first £30k you make is free. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Oh, and I don't work for any of these companies, but have done research into payment gateways in the past for some product ideas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps!&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.paypal.com/uk/merchantrate&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://stripe.com&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.braintreepayments.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9089" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2875" RevisionGUID="1e8571e4-553a-4ac2-98ca-a9ae899d29b4" CreationDate="2015-02-11T17:27:02.610" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|company-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9090" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2878" RevisionGUID="f0c25e74-c88d-4068-9387-3d9308fc7cdc" CreationDate="2015-02-11T20:43:07.513" UserId="1583" Text="If you have yet to agree that extra work is billable then learn for your next contract. &quot;One round of revisions and two weeks post delivery bug fixes for work agreed at the outset. All other out of scope changes shall be billed at my hourly rate of x ...&quot;&#xA;&#xA;You could try the tactic for now of I will take these revisions listed and deliver next Friday. After that any changes are new work. &#xA;That way you are swallowing it allowing good grace but being firm. It's hard some times. Esp when clients start thinking of you as coworkers and just drift reply to you. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9091" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2879" RevisionGUID="c0c4d8b8-473b-4c3e-b4d2-081750b72299" CreationDate="2015-02-12T09:52:18.073" UserId="5334" Text="I believe you can. I used to work for a consultancy firm that, when travelling abroad, would allow us to expense all travel costs (flights, hotels, meals, etc.) against the company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So in a similar way, and as an employee, you could expense your costs against your limited company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's loads of information on [www.gov.uk][1] about what you can or can't expense - it might be worth a look! But if it doesn't answer your question then definitely speak to your accountant.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, you're paying for it either way... it's just a question about being able to claim your tax back!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gov.uk/expenses-if-youre-self-employed/travel" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9092" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2877" RevisionGUID="7fe4b924-cdb9-4b31-a634-c0965a32aecb" CreationDate="2015-02-12T10:08:49.820" UserId="5334" Comment="edited a typo" Text="Paypal offer special rates for partners, but it's worth looking at their [merchant rates][1] first. I think you have to exceed £55k monthly for them to consider you for a partnership... but even then, their merchant rates are pretty fair.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You'll definitely have to get in touch with them sooner or later but it's well worth a shot... the worst they can do is say no. Although if you are successful then it's more ultimately more money for them!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, (not directly related to your question but it's nice to know there are other options available) it might be worth considering some Paypal alternatives such as [Stripe][2] or [Braintree][3]. In the long run, their rates are fairly similar but you might end up saving some money somewhere along the line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - Stripe charge 2.4% + 20p per transaction and their partner rates start around £20k. &#xD;&#xA;  - Braintree is a subsidiary of Paypal but, like Stripe, also charge 2.4% + 20p per transaction. However, the first £30k you make is free. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Oh, and I don't work for any of these companies, but have done research into payment gateways in the past for some product ideas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps!&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.paypal.com/uk/merchantrate&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://stripe.com&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.braintreepayments.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9093" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2880" RevisionGUID="ed6f14a9-9459-4aa0-b969-5ded5103f7ac" CreationDate="2015-02-12T18:43:39.477" UserId="6083" Text="I'm am going to start Freelancing in Java. Getting the first project is really hard and low on profit margin. So I'm looking to strengthen my bid with a link to my blog about Java. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question is should I write Java tutorials or should I blog about some complex Java projects I have done in the past? which one would be better for showing to potential clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9094" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2880" RevisionGUID="ed6f14a9-9459-4aa0-b969-5ded5103f7ac" CreationDate="2015-02-12T18:43:39.477" UserId="6083" Text="Should I blog about my projects or write a series of tutorials to impress my potential clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9095" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2880" RevisionGUID="ed6f14a9-9459-4aa0-b969-5ded5103f7ac" CreationDate="2015-02-12T18:43:39.477" UserId="6083" Text="|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9096" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2881" RevisionGUID="b6d2cfaf-669e-4fb9-a3b9-d5d037f566eb" CreationDate="2015-02-12T19:52:32.577" UserId="6081" Text="I'd think a portfolio of past project work showing the following things would be beneficial:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Short description of the problem that existed before you performed the work.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Special restraints or dependencies needed to solve the problem.&#xD;&#xA; 3. A brief overview of your contribution to the solution.&#xD;&#xA; 4. The end result.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could then theoretically expound on #3 with some tutorial stuff to prove you know what you are talking about if you need to prove it. In most cases, people just want proof that you've got some experience in doing something similar to what they need done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9097" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2882" RevisionGUID="8cb83a5f-e8fa-4350-b94d-bc1c0af55146" CreationDate="2015-02-12T23:29:59.070" UserId="6087" Text="I am super confused about taxes and freelancing. I tried to do some research but just got more confused.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First off, I use sites like elance, odesk, and working through email. I have a paypal account. I don't charge much per given project. (I am a graphic designer). On average I probably make only $350 - 400 a month. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I go about reporting these small jobs to the IRS, or do I even have to report my income if I use elance?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I do have to report them, how much will I have to pay back, and how much should I save?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance, it's really bugging me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9098" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2882" RevisionGUID="8cb83a5f-e8fa-4350-b94d-bc1c0af55146" CreationDate="2015-02-12T23:29:59.070" UserId="6087" Text="Do I have to report income for small jobs?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9099" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2882" RevisionGUID="8cb83a5f-e8fa-4350-b94d-bc1c0af55146" CreationDate="2015-02-12T23:29:59.070" UserId="6087" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9100" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2883" RevisionGUID="cbdf64e4-248a-40a7-a09f-eea2bbf07cc1" CreationDate="2015-02-13T01:22:30.503" UserId="5893" Text="You are supposed to report all income earned from all sources. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your tax liability will depend on many other factors. I am not a lawyer or an accountant. It will be best to discuss with a tax professional about this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would probably be best to set up a sole proprietorship company (again, talk to a tax professional, accountant or lawyer about how to do this, and if it's the right thing to do). Your company is how you channel the payments, and then you have tax advantages of owning a business - in other words, you can write off expenses against your freelancing income to minimize your tax liability." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9101" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2884" RevisionGUID="8df6e6de-4c45-4089-901e-361ebb4df8ee" CreationDate="2015-02-13T01:25:26.083" UserId="5893" Text="Blogging about how you understand your client's needs and how you meet them would be better than &quot;how-to&quot; articles, unless your potential clients are also coders.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also you could write a case study or a white paper about a problem you solved for a client (and getting the client to write you a brief testimonial will also be a good thing to include on your website)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9102" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2881" RevisionGUID="626946c9-35a8-4131-bd0d-e9758ce785d0" CreationDate="2015-02-13T02:22:23.320" UserId="6081" Comment="being more specific." Text="I'd think an online portfolio of past project work showing the following things would be beneficial:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Short description of the problem that existed before you performed the work.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Special restraints or dependencies needed to solve the problem.&#xD;&#xA; 3. A brief overview of your contribution to the solution.&#xD;&#xA; 4. The end result.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could then theoretically expound on #3 with some tutorial stuff to prove you know what you are talking about if you need to prove it. In most cases, people just want proof that you've got some experience in doing something similar to what they need done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9103" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2885" RevisionGUID="6784a169-9323-4319-949b-39fa4189d274" CreationDate="2015-02-13T02:28:39.610" UserId="6090" Text="Although I am not aware of off the shelf software that will allow you to track prepaid blocks of time on retainer, a custom software solution built with FileMaker could certainly make this happen. For example, we use our product fmIgnite built on FileMaker to do this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9105" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2886" RevisionGUID="6eaee988-6eaf-4285-9bd8-b34a5e265e77" CreationDate="2015-02-13T04:50:52.490" UserId="6091" Text="I am also not a lawyer nor accountant, but it's my understanding that if income from a single source is under $500 it doesn't need to be reported. But that's not to say you should report nothing if ALL your tickets for the year are under $500 but all from different clients, I think you have an opportunity to report it still somewhere in the process. FWIW. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might check out this site : https://www.freelancersunion.org They seem to have a pretty active community of freelancers with lots of experience." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9109" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2886" RevisionGUID="bc90a557-2db2-47ed-a513-4f6dadd54fb3" CreationDate="2015-02-13T14:08:12.377" UserId="6091" Comment="added reference and corrected opinion" Text="I am also not a lawyer nor accountant, but it's my understanding that if income from a single source is under $500 it doesn't need to be reported. But that's not to say you should report nothing if ALL your tickets for the year are under $500 but all from different clients, I think you have an opportunity to report it still somewhere in the process. FWIW. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might check out this site : https://www.freelancersunion.org They seem to have a pretty active community of freelancers with lots of experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[UPDATE]&#xD;&#xA;wow ok I was wrong. The IRS website calls it a &quot;common misconception&quot;. It says all side income no matter how small is taxable. reference :&#xD;&#xA;http://www.irs.gov/uac/Reporting-Miscellaneous-Income&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks Stacy :) " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9110" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2888" RevisionGUID="69f38298-924c-4f06-9ea3-38248d065980" CreationDate="2015-02-13T14:09:30.520" UserId="1191" Text="You can use https://zapier.com/zapbook/google-calendar/paypal/.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Its free plan allows to automatically create Google calendar events when you receive a payment. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9111" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2886" RevisionGUID="e0be97db-746f-4b8e-977f-b007d4b75134" CreationDate="2015-02-13T15:34:09.340" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 10 characters in body" Text="I am also not a lawyer nor accountant, but it's my understanding that if income from a single source is under $500, it doesn't need to be reported. But that's not to say you should report nothing if ALL your tickets for the year are under $500 but all from different clients, I think you have an opportunity to report it still somewhere in the process. FWIW. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might check out the [Freelancers Union](https://www.freelancersunion.org). They seem to have a pretty active community of freelancers with lots of experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[UPDATE]&#xD;&#xA; I was wrong. The IRS website calls it a &quot;common misconception&quot;. It says all side income no matter how small is taxable. reference :&#xD;&#xA;http://www.irs.gov/uac/Reporting-Miscellaneous-Income&#xD;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9112" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2889" RevisionGUID="452d5896-397d-4088-a088-a898a4ce41e1" CreationDate="2015-02-13T16:48:56.907" UserId="6099" Text="I picked up a side job.  Terms were agreed on.  Payment up front and percentage of profits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No money has been paid up front.  Communication has been tenuous.  I received a text message stating &quot;I am beginning to get concerned about you, I'm going to have to track you down through your job&quot;.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only attempts at communication from their end has been during my normal work hours (I don't answer the phone at work).  And no answer when I try to contact them back.  No response to my emails.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ethically I feel I accepted this job I should see it through.  But a part of me doesn't respond well to threats and says I should tell them to kick rocks.  Any outside input?  Anyone have to deal with a situation like this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like I said, I have received no compensation yet, so part of me feels like I owe the client nothing more than to fire them.  I'm big on communication and shooting someone straight, and I feel like I deserve the same accommodations." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9113" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2889" RevisionGUID="452d5896-397d-4088-a088-a898a4ce41e1" CreationDate="2015-02-13T16:48:56.907" UserId="6099" Text="Client Threatening to Contact Permanent Employer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9114" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2889" RevisionGUID="452d5896-397d-4088-a088-a898a4ce41e1" CreationDate="2015-02-13T16:48:56.907" UserId="6099" Text="|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9115" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2890" RevisionGUID="ceb5c983-83d8-43fb-bc3a-558b58a88f0a" CreationDate="2015-02-13T17:08:25.133" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="I would drop them asap. Their behavior is not magically going to change in the future as the contract goes on. Their threats are not an acceptable way to conduct business at all and if they threaten you now even when no money has exchanged hands, how much more so will they when there is money on the line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would walk away and not conduct business with them further." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9117" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2886" RevisionGUID="084c5168-69df-413a-bec0-797318ee33b8" CreationDate="2015-02-13T17:44:38.980" UserId="6091" Comment="removed irrelevant link" Text="I am also not a lawyer nor accountant, but it's my understanding that if income from a single source is under $500, it doesn't need to be reported. But that's not to say you should report nothing if ALL your tickets for the year are under $500 but all from different clients, I think you have an opportunity to report it still somewhere in the process. FWIW. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[UPDATE]&#xD;&#xA; I was wrong. The IRS website calls it a &quot;common misconception&quot;. It says all side income no matter how small is taxable. reference :&#xD;&#xA;http://www.irs.gov/uac/Reporting-Miscellaneous-Income&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9118" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2891" RevisionGUID="33c2e10b-6a24-4afb-b8e4-0d94813ffff5" CreationDate="2015-02-13T17:58:41.723" UserId="517" Text="There are zillions blogs about both. If you ask me, I would cover something in Java which is either new or has little tutorials. I am sure you can always find something like that. I think that tutorials are more visited than general programming blog (at least in my case). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can always make another page in the blog About Me where you will tell something about projects you did." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9119" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2892" RevisionGUID="3cd763af-b51a-4310-b6ec-62d59b52f305" CreationDate="2015-02-13T21:46:56.297" UserId="5566" Text="I would take a look at different websites such as [The Sovereign Man][1] and other sites as they have done research in this area.&#xA;&#xA;Also I have  found [this][2] article to be quite helpful as it breaks down the top three to four countries to Incorporate or to make an LLC. &#xA;&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.sovereignman.com&#xA;  [2]: http://flagtheory.com/the-best-place-for-an-internet-entrepreneur-to-incorporate/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9120" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2893" RevisionGUID="ccdb3ebd-fd80-48a6-b9e1-c89c2a514c3c" CreationDate="2015-02-13T22:21:10.260" UserId="6101" Text="I'd send them an email with something along the lines of:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can reach me by email at X, or by phone between the hours of Y and Z.   If this is not satisfactory, then I will not be able to do business with you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And possibly add that section on acceptable communication methods/times to any future contracts you do on the side.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9121" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2894" RevisionGUID="76939cf8-f59c-491a-be4c-3d014e6647bb" CreationDate="2015-02-14T04:08:54.523" UserId="6103" Text="I'm currently in the process of learning Android app development, web design, and web development.  I haven't quite gotten enough experience to the point where I would be able to sale myself as a true professional who is confident in his work just yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have any suggestions as far as me gaining some good experience?  Personally I wouldn't mind trying to build a website for free just to get the experience but where do I get the ideas from?  I can' think of anything in particular on my own that'll get me realistic experience.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any suggestions on where to start?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9122" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2894" RevisionGUID="76939cf8-f59c-491a-be4c-3d014e6647bb" CreationDate="2015-02-14T04:08:54.523" UserId="6103" Text="Most effective freelancing for beginners?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9123" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2894" RevisionGUID="76939cf8-f59c-491a-be4c-3d014e6647bb" CreationDate="2015-02-14T04:08:54.523" UserId="6103" Text="|freelance-websites|design|programmer|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9124" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2895" RevisionGUID="c63b0eba-b766-4563-86ab-d77d0a5caf6f" CreationDate="2015-02-14T07:24:49.700" UserId="517" Text="Build something for you. Build your own CMS and design it and support it with Android app. This would be excellent for the portfolio. The con is that it may take a long to finalize it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Quicker solution may be to take existing CMS like Wordpress or Joomla (or any similar) and add your design and your plugins to it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, making something free could not be bad. The accent is not on the &quot;free&quot;, but on getting real requests from real clients. Something you will meet every day. The client does not have to be some client wanting free work, it can be a church, a home for abandoned children, even something cool for your own town or community. Making something for yourself will deprive you of real-life situations and requests. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9125" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2896" RevisionGUID="ea90e459-8000-4c03-8e04-8ff38661ef5d" CreationDate="2015-02-14T16:30:32.890" UserId="5990" Text="You always could try subcontracting off an experienced Android Developer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Go to your local Android Development Meetups and talk with experienced people. &#xD;&#xA;Tell them that you learning Android development and ask if it would be possible to subcontract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way not only do you get steady work, but you can also be mentored by people more experienced than your are in the field.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another added benefit is that this can also be part of your networking, so you get your name out there in the industry." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9126" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2889" RevisionGUID="00060004-023c-4952-b757-e2cbb329af37" CreationDate="2015-02-15T03:24:02.200" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/566800070780399616" />
  <row Id="9127" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2897" RevisionGUID="e4b7a1f0-6812-46da-87d3-9a47515bf0f1" CreationDate="2015-02-15T06:24:20.563" UserId="6079" Text="Look at the jobs that are available on sites like oDesk and eLance and just get to work. These are real life examples of what people want built so building what they want is close to real life experience. Better yet, apply for the job. Demonstrate interest in their product or website by proposing improvements to their strategy. Just say you're busy and that's why it will take longer than other devs even though it's actually because you're learning every library as you use it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could mention that you are a new freelancer but that might make it harder to get work. You offset that with your price, strong interest in their product and strong skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as you know you can achieve the clients goals, go for it. Worst comes to worse, make a new account." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9128" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2896" RevisionGUID="61d2d625-ac08-4036-ae78-6d3a9098a739" CreationDate="2015-02-15T07:47:32.723" UserId="5990" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="You always could try subcontracting off an experienced Android Developer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Go to your local Android Development Meetups and talk with experienced people. &#xD;&#xA;Tell them that you learning Android development and ask if it would be possible to subcontract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way not only do you get steady work, but you can also be mentored by people more experienced than you are in the field.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another added benefit is that this can also be part of your networking, so you get your name out there in the industry." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9136" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2882" RevisionGUID="ba59f3fd-e9c5-41ca-a591-498b13a4ae15" CreationDate="2015-02-16T21:12:59.417" UserId="100" Comment="added tags, removed fluff" Text="I am super confused about taxes and freelancing. I tried to do some research but just got more confused.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First off, I use sites like Elance, oDesk, and working through email. I have a PayPal account. I don't charge much per given project (I am a graphic designer). On average I probably make only $350 - 400 a month. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I go about reporting these small jobs to the IRS, or do I even have to report my income if I use Elance?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I do have to report them, how much will I have to pay back, and how much should I save?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9137" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2882" RevisionGUID="ba59f3fd-e9c5-41ca-a591-498b13a4ae15" CreationDate="2015-02-16T21:12:59.417" UserId="100" Comment="added tags, removed fluff" Text="|freelance-websites|taxes|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9138" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2882" RevisionGUID="ba59f3fd-e9c5-41ca-a591-498b13a4ae15" CreationDate="2015-02-16T21:12:59.417" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 9, 85 edit id of 387" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9139" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2883" RevisionGUID="7a709ae9-b963-4294-92a4-85ff74fcff1f" CreationDate="2015-02-16T22:17:02.980" UserId="5893" Comment="added 416 characters in body" Text="You are supposed to report all income earned from all sources. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your tax liability will depend on many other factors. I am not a lawyer or an accountant. It will be best to discuss with a tax professional about this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would probably be best to set up a sole proprietorship company (again, talk to a tax professional, accountant or lawyer about how to do this, and if it's the right thing to do). Your company is how you channel the payments, and then you have tax advantages of owning a business - in other words, you can write off expenses against your freelancing income to minimize your tax liability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT based on the edit of the OP. How you report the income will depend on what tax form you file. If you are filing a Schedule C (Sole proprietorship), for example, there is a line for gross earnings and you don't have to specify the source(s) of the income, just the total amount.  I believe the 1040 form also has a line for &quot;other income&quot; and you may have to add an additional sheet to enter all the sources." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9140" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2900" RevisionGUID="31d8b8b8-d7fd-46bb-9914-7be267f1054e" CreationDate="2015-02-16T23:50:12.543" UserId="1191" Text="I am in the middle of a interview but it has prolonged for about 4 days, not entire days, but the client is getting free value from a lot of sources.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Comments come comments gone, each nugget of wisdom is leveraged by him, and I am not sure how to tell him to make a decision, maybe I need to detect his triggers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. How do I detect his triggers? what questions should I ask? or what gestures should I look for?&#xD;&#xA;2. How do I tell him, please make a decision, since I need to know if I will be working with you?&#xD;&#xA;3. How could I calculate how much time and value should I dedicate to each lead? what metrics do you use?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9141" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2900" RevisionGUID="31d8b8b8-d7fd-46bb-9914-7be267f1054e" CreationDate="2015-02-16T23:50:12.543" UserId="1191" Text="When to stop working for free?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9142" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2900" RevisionGUID="31d8b8b8-d7fd-46bb-9914-7be267f1054e" CreationDate="2015-02-16T23:50:12.543" UserId="1191" Text="|attracting-clients|project-bidding|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9143" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2901" RevisionGUID="fe838321-e792-4a43-8684-deb9660e1af1" CreationDate="2015-02-17T02:08:16.687" UserId="6123" Text="It's never easy to detect when a client/employer is genuinely gather information to make a buying/employing decision or are they making use of the opportunity to 'fish' for more ideas and proposals so that when they eventually choose the vendor/employee, they can use all the consolidated thoughts/ideas/proposals to get the selected candidate to work on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's always good to maintain a high level of integrity and professionalism. Always give the best you can at any point of item. Trigger questions to ask him to make a decision will be like, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - &quot;Would you like me to start working this xx project that we have been discussion any time soon/next month?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - &quot;It's great to hear that you appreciate the thoughts/ideas/proposals I have came up with. I'm certain we can work well together. I'm ready&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to start work in 2 weeks time. How would you like me to link up with&#xD;&#xA;&gt; your HR?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;always go in with a tactful semi-direct question to get an answer. Never be confrontative!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9144" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2902" RevisionGUID="273e05d8-4b2f-438d-881a-2963fe34285d" CreationDate="2015-02-17T02:18:02.083" UserId="6123" Text="If you are new, it's likely that you do not have any &quot;Reputation&quot;, &quot;Ratings&quot;, &quot;Reviews&quot; or &quot;Portfolio&quot; to show. As such, many buyers won't even consider selecting you... Even if your bid $ is very attractive. Reason being many buyers have came across 'cheats' or 'incompetent' project bidders who simply don't deliver the work requested. It's a total waste of the buyers' time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest that you build up your &quot;Reputation&quot;, &quot;Ratings&quot;, &quot;Reviews&quot; or &quot;Portfolio&quot; along the way while you are bidding for projects. Drop the buyers note that you are new to freelancing but not new in your industry and have xx years of experience and is willing to take their project at a lower than usual bid so as to build your portfolio. And ask for their chance for you to proof yourself as a worthy freelancer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9145" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2903" RevisionGUID="d5275011-d239-4361-b73f-f75f26f7edd5" CreationDate="2015-02-17T10:25:17.033" UserId="5992" Text="For what it's worth, I thought I'd give some follow-up to this. I was finally able to get in touch with a US-based international accountant, and she let me know that in my particular situation I was not liable to taxation in the United States. There can be some edge cases, so of course if in doubt, you should always try and seek professional assistance, but in a nut-shell, if you're not based in the US, and you have no offices, staff, or presence in any way (including advertising) in the US then you are likely to not be tax-liable there (but again - seek professional opinions)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9146" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2882" RevisionGUID="346317dd-c6df-4cdc-ab8a-f19b7e1d52c8" CreationDate="2015-02-17T23:02:59.533" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/567821540524560384" />
  <row Id="9147" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2904" RevisionGUID="fb3da392-cf41-4c92-bc0d-6f9ffdd2b0ec" CreationDate="2015-02-18T04:41:46.197" UserId="7130" Text="Mostly freelancing sites like elance not allowed users to make multiple accounts it is violation of their agreement but here is some case different which i want to discuss with you. I have good reputed elance profile all things were working great one day my friend come to my office he logged in elance from my computer using firefox and i was signin with chrome my friend posted a new job elance and also invite me. I respond him from my account to submit a proposal but i after few days i got a elance review notification according to that &quot;see you may have signed up for more than one Elance account which is a violation of Elance policy. This policy is just one way to help ensure clients and freelancers know exactly who they are working with and it encourages trust in the marketplace.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;After that i am unable to bid on jobs unable to see job description, elance is asking about the connection between two accounts so please let me know what should I reply to them is this violation of their agreement?&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9148" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2904" RevisionGUID="fb3da392-cf41-4c92-bc0d-6f9ffdd2b0ec" CreationDate="2015-02-18T04:41:46.197" UserId="7130" Text="Signed in from multiple account is violation" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9149" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2904" RevisionGUID="fb3da392-cf41-4c92-bc0d-6f9ffdd2b0ec" CreationDate="2015-02-18T04:41:46.197" UserId="7130" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9150" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2905" RevisionGUID="d7b0b400-52e4-4770-a821-3dce5781e665" CreationDate="2015-02-18T05:04:20.877" UserId="1754" Text="This question is the second trickest question that need to be answered. When you get a job invite on oDesk or elance, what is the right way to reply so the job is yours? I typically reply as&#xA;&#xA;&gt; Thank you for the invite, I have read your invitation and interested in it. My Skype is abc, I hope to talk to you there and take the hiring further.&#xA;&#xA;Is there a better format to write me reply? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9151" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2905" RevisionGUID="d7b0b400-52e4-4770-a821-3dce5781e665" CreationDate="2015-02-18T05:04:20.877" UserId="1754" Text="How to reply a job interview while accepting it" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9152" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2905" RevisionGUID="d7b0b400-52e4-4770-a821-3dce5781e665" CreationDate="2015-02-18T05:04:20.877" UserId="1754" Text="|attracting-clients|communication|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9153" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2906" RevisionGUID="e5fcb318-9d50-4eb2-b85d-b0e7321d2578" CreationDate="2015-02-18T06:04:07.803" UserId="5649" Text="I'm looking for freelancing/remote work opportunities for software developers that speak German.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the best way to find German speaking customers that would require me to use my German skills?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any opinions and suggestions are appreciated!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9154" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2906" RevisionGUID="e5fcb318-9d50-4eb2-b85d-b0e7321d2578" CreationDate="2015-02-18T06:04:07.803" UserId="5649" Text="freelancing/remote work for German speaking countries" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9155" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2906" RevisionGUID="e5fcb318-9d50-4eb2-b85d-b0e7321d2578" CreationDate="2015-02-18T06:04:07.803" UserId="5649" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9156" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2907" RevisionGUID="7108c79e-ff79-49d0-8fc6-a60e3cb90539" CreationDate="2015-02-18T06:18:26.173" UserId="7131" Text="I am a freelance web developer that is looking for a service/software to keep track of work I need to do for clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have quite a few clients, and most of them usually only need an hour or two of work here and there. This means I get a lot of emails from different clients everyday.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What I currently do**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Currently, to keep track of what tasks I still need to, I read the email and instructions, and then if I need to put it off til the end of the day or later in the week, I will mark the email as unread. This keeps the email at the top of my Gmail so I do not forget about it, and it's always in front of me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The issue**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes however, I forget to mark the email as unread. You can see where this is a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, sometimes I read the email, mark it as unread, and sometimes I forget to reply to the email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What I am looking for**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am wondering if there is a service or software I can hook into my Gmail (or similar) that allows me to mark tasks as complete, and possibly if I have replied or not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess what I am looking for is a good client/project management software for developers, preferably one that can send notifications even to my mobile phone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does such a thing exist, or is there any software recommended I should check out?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9157" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2907" RevisionGUID="7108c79e-ff79-49d0-8fc6-a60e3cb90539" CreationDate="2015-02-18T06:18:26.173" UserId="7131" Text="Keeping up with client work and emails" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9158" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2907" RevisionGUID="7108c79e-ff79-49d0-8fc6-a60e3cb90539" CreationDate="2015-02-18T06:18:26.173" UserId="7131" Text="|freelance-websites|communication|software|webmasters|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9163" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2910" RevisionGUID="c012ee77-7239-4c00-98b1-de40318cbbea" CreationDate="2015-02-18T12:52:53.043" UserId="517" Text="Elance is very strict in preventing double accounts and fake jobs. Reply to them honestly and do ID verification if you haven't so far (they will ask you later on). Also ask your friend to do ID verification. I am sure that he was warned by Elance as well. Once they prove both identities, the account will freeze. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You cannot bid or view project because your account has been in suspended mode.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next time be smarter and try to learn something about IP addresses and cookies. And in case more of you log to Elance from the same external IP (office LAN), immediately inform Elance about this before they suspend the account for review process. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9164" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2910" RevisionGUID="1ba02eff-7c03-4b00-bdd2-3b19a8730c71" CreationDate="2015-02-18T16:31:56.010" UserId="517" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="Elance is very strict in preventing double accounts and fake jobs. Reply to them honestly and do ID verification if you haven't so far (they will ask you later on). Also ask your friend to do ID verification. I am sure that he was warned by Elance as well. Once they prove both identities, the account will unfreeze. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You cannot bid or view project because your account has been in suspended mode.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next time be smarter and try to learn something about IP addresses and cookies. And in case more of you log to Elance from the same external IP (office LAN), immediately inform Elance about this before they suspend the account for review process. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9165" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2911" RevisionGUID="e166bb76-a5a9-47bc-8f5c-3be2eb2e1d65" CreationDate="2015-02-18T16:51:38.617" UserId="6082" Text="I do web programming for various people on 1099s.  Over the last two years, I've been working for one company fairly consistently.  They are on the west coast, and I'm on the east.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was recently asked by said employer to purchase my own workers compensation insurance.  The reason being, his company (originally a one man shop) has now expanded to a full LLC with a few W2 employees, and a couple contractors (like me).  He has workers compensation for his employees that are local to the business location (which he provides), but it doesn't apply to me, who is on the other side of the country.  He's concerned that he'll be fined for not having workers compensation for me, in the event something were to happen to me while doing my work remotely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not really sure what to make of this, as I've never had dto o similar things in other contracting positions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm in New York and the company is in Oregon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have advice on this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9166" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2911" RevisionGUID="e166bb76-a5a9-47bc-8f5c-3be2eb2e1d65" CreationDate="2015-02-18T16:51:38.617" UserId="6082" Text="Freelance Programmer - Workers Compensation Insurance" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9167" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2911" RevisionGUID="e166bb76-a5a9-47bc-8f5c-3be2eb2e1d65" CreationDate="2015-02-18T16:51:38.617" UserId="6082" Text="|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9168" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2911" RevisionGUID="bb82f6b6-3c9c-4de6-a949-dc692e7cdf21" CreationDate="2015-02-18T17:48:15.590" UserId="6082" Comment="edited body" Text="I do web programming for various people on 1099s.  Over the last two years, I've been working for one company fairly consistently.  They are on the west coast, and I'm on the east.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was recently asked by said employer to purchase my own workers compensation insurance.  The reason being, his company (originally a one man shop) has now expanded to a full LLC with a few W2 employees, and a couple contractors (like me).  He has workers compensation for his employees that are local to the business location (which he provides), but it doesn't apply to me, who is on the other side of the country.  He's concerned that he'll be fined for not having workers compensation for me, in the event something were to happen to me while doing my work remotely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not really sure what to make of this, as I've never had to do similar things in other contracting positions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm in New York and the company is in Oregon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have advice on this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9169" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2912" RevisionGUID="7bf2a5e4-058e-4446-b269-0d58e9f3780b" CreationDate="2015-02-19T13:10:22.260" UserId="5893" Text="My husband was required to do this when he was an independent TV installation contractor for Sears. Considering what your job entails, the insurance will not be terribly expensive (because you aren't doing any physical activity that is prone to on-the-job accidents). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have also (as a tech writer contractor) had a liability insurance requirement when working for a very large corporation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may want to ask this client to speak to his lawyer (or ask if YOU can speak to his lawyer) to find out if the CA regulations apply to you as a VENDOR. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may have to set yourself up as a business entity (if you have not already done so) so your relationship with this client is a vendor and not a &quot;contract employee&quot; one. And you may want to consult a lawyer yourself." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9170" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2913" RevisionGUID="de726862-8ed5-4324-9a25-6e4d840dba6c" CreationDate="2015-02-19T16:46:18.873" UserId="517" Text="The &quot;must&quot; you have to do is to thank for the invitation. If I am not mistaken, this can be done either &quot;Thank you for the invitation&quot; or &quot;Thanks for the invitation&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that you do like in other bids: ask about project details, ask about project specs, deadline, and everything else you usually ask. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As Stacey says, there are no magic words. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9171" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2914" RevisionGUID="589c6bd8-c695-48fc-b5bf-f341e8bfc595" CreationDate="2015-02-19T19:10:16.873" UserId="708" Text="I use email but specifically POP3 email, not IMAP email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will *not* use Gmail or some other online service. I use POP3 accounts and a **local** email client. This allows me to download emails and file them *locally* as well as **back up** everything. I simply can not bring myself to rely on some other server out there to be as dedicated and complete with backups and retention of information. (all this in addition to the Gmail data mining).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know IMAP (Gmail, Hotmail, etc) is the form everyone *thinks* is best. But it's not always. While IMAP is great for accessing the *same* email from several clients, IMAP is *not* the best in terms of utilizing email for work procedures for me. POP3 allows me to access mail from *any* client, I merely have to set up the client properly. In addition POP3 allows me to delete things locally and leave a copy on the server for a given time if needed. I can delete a POP3 email and then go retrieve that deleted message from the server days later if the deletion was a mistake.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my *local* email client I have folders for each client then some general folders for other email items:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - inbox&#xD;&#xA; - outbox&#xD;&#xA; - personal items&#xD;&#xA; - Work&#xD;&#xA;  - client 1&#xD;&#xA;     - Project A&#xD;&#xA;     - Project B&#xD;&#xA;     - Project C&#xD;&#xA;  - client 2&#xD;&#xA;     - Project A&#xD;&#xA;     - Project B&#xD;&#xA;  - client 3&#xD;&#xA; - Outstanding Invoices&#xD;&#xA; - Paid Invoices&#xD;&#xA; - Spam&#xD;&#xA; - Trash&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I keep all &quot;to do&quot; items in the inbox - read or unread. If it's in my inbox it needs attention. When an email is read and the tasks are completed, I file the email in the correct folder. So, I don't have any issue with things being red or unread. If something is unread.. it just means it's unread and I don't know what it entails. If I've replied to an email, there's a little arrow next to it indicating I've replied. All attachements are downloaded so I have those, and they are backed up as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I use filters for outgoing mail to automatically file things as needed. A filter for @client1.com will file all outgoing mail into Client 1's folder. A subject line with the word &quot;Invoice:&quot; in it files the outgoing email into &quot;Outstanding Invoices&quot;. And so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My &quot;mail&quot; folder is backed up nightly and if there *should* ever be an issue I can simply set the client to &quot;re-download messages from server&quot; which will go grab everything still sitting on the mail server. I leave all messages on the server for 14 days, even if they are deleted locally.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've tried to use services like [Trello][1] but I found I spent *way* too much time transferring data from emails to the service needlessly. All the information I need is in the emails. It's a waste of time for me to use any other service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, I've found *nothing* as workable as a POP3 email client has been.. and I've been using email this way going on 20 years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://trello.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9177" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2917" RevisionGUID="56ffd57b-00c9-47ab-a8d9-093a7b734820" CreationDate="2015-02-20T11:00:19.217" UserId="7150" Text="I am a fairly new UI/UX designer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes during interview process a client would ask me to complete a test mockup.&#xD;&#xA;Since I'm eager to prove myself and get more work, I spend a considerable amount of time and effort on this one task.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client does not hire me, am I allowed to put the resulting mockup in my portfolio?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What if there was an NDA signed, but the mockup does not reveal any sensitive information?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9178" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2917" RevisionGUID="56ffd57b-00c9-47ab-a8d9-093a7b734820" CreationDate="2015-02-20T11:00:19.217" UserId="7150" Text="Can I put rejected test tasks in my portfolio?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9179" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2917" RevisionGUID="56ffd57b-00c9-47ab-a8d9-093a7b734820" CreationDate="2015-02-20T11:00:19.217" UserId="7150" Text="|portfolio|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9180" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2918" RevisionGUID="ab121801-163c-40ff-bb52-4a74aeb586d9" CreationDate="2015-02-20T11:56:03.737" UserId="7152" Text="Where in the middle east? Cairo and Beirut are not the same, for example. Beirut is one of the most expensive cities in the world.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I used to live in Beirut. I would charge between $20 and $30 if I was there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I you're in other countries, maybe less.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if you're working from India, and your regular rates are around $7/hour, then why quadruple them. Just double them and you will be comfortable with them while still having very competitive rates. Now you can drive people like me out of the market." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9182" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2920" RevisionGUID="b4f829d5-5be8-4b8f-a806-7b9ee12c26b7" CreationDate="2015-02-20T12:39:52.570" UserId="7153" Text="First i though about Elance and Odesk. I've already hired there for other little jobs and i was satisfied. Now i need someone for a 4 months job. On these platforms I found some great developers from all over the world with low hourly cost (10$-20$), high rating (most of them between 4.7 and 5.0 over 5) and high earnings (over 100K$).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Therefore i thought &quot;wow, that's awesome!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But...after some research i found out most of them are scammers or incompetent. They deliver the job unfinished, full of bugs and out of schedule and the reviews are fake. The web is full of complaints for most of them, especially from India.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hence i realized it's impossible to distinguish between honest and scammers on these platforms. I've got a project to finish within  4 months, and i really don't know where to find competent people and avoid scams.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9183" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2920" RevisionGUID="b4f829d5-5be8-4b8f-a806-7b9ee12c26b7" CreationDate="2015-02-20T12:39:52.570" UserId="7153" Text="Where to find good online web developers and avoid scams?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9184" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2920" RevisionGUID="b4f829d5-5be8-4b8f-a806-7b9ee12c26b7" CreationDate="2015-02-20T12:39:52.570" UserId="7153" Text="|freelance-websites|webmasters|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9185" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2921" RevisionGUID="cbb9057a-4a0d-45ef-a0b8-31fc684e56f1" CreationDate="2015-02-20T14:29:59.340" UserId="5893" Text="If you need someone for a long-term contract job, you *could* go through a temporary agency. Agencies have a roster of workers (usually considered employees of the agency) that have been previously vetted. You will be paying a premium for them, however.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have personal connections with programmers, you can ask them to recommend someone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Both of these methods remove the uncertainty inherent in contacting a random stranger.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, you say that you've used programmers from Odesk and Elance before with satisfactory results - have you considered contacting people you've worked with before to see if they are interested in this long-term assignment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9186" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2922" RevisionGUID="f7467171-a9ef-4b35-a3d2-3ec6625ae08c" CreationDate="2015-02-20T14:40:33.353" UserId="517" Text="I think you can make it. The client never paid you for the work, so you still keep the rights on the work. To me this looks like you made your own versions of Coca Cola logo showing what you can do and put that work online. You do not threat Coca Cola in any way nor you mean to compete against them, you are simply showing your skills. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I am mistaken, I will delete or update this reply. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9187" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2923" RevisionGUID="485133b3-d8eb-4df8-a5e8-7a1e0708c6d9" CreationDate="2015-02-20T14:51:38.003" UserId="517" Text="You forgot the most important part of your question - for good money e.g. cheap. You will find those guys nowhere. I have tried dozens of times (I am developer and I outsources a few projects) and each time I faced the same issues like you. It's regardless if you tried on odesk/elance or Linkedin or Craglist or XYZ. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cheap guys are not cheap for no reason. They are either incompetent or they charge low so they don't mess with debugging. I charge high because I spend more time polishing the application then in the core coding. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, those cheap guys took me more money than if I hired 3 times more expensive guy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But be careful, if a guy charges $50 or more per hour, it does not mean that he is good. So if I were you, I would stick to odesk/elance and trying to find a guy who charges the fair price (not low, not high). The one who stands behind his work. Try getting the local price and then pick the one who will save you 20% or 30%. Stories like &quot;I found a guy who can build new Facebook for $10 per hour is a bed story for your babies&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other than these services, you can try real networking like [Scott explained][1] or you can try Linkedin or similar services. But from all Internet services, odesk/elance and similar sites proved to be the best as you have some kind of insight into contractor's work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or you can try to find someone via Stackoverflow by picking him via his reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/2849/517" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9189" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2924" RevisionGUID="07ff05f3-fa1e-4696-98b8-4d3175fbbedf" CreationDate="2015-02-22T04:14:43.970" UserId="5893" Text="You are allowed to put your work in your portfolio, even if the client DID pay you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9190" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2925" RevisionGUID="6b34c995-b650-41e4-abc0-5a40647d1d30" CreationDate="2015-02-22T19:37:18.973" UserId="2839" Text="I'm a programmer and I developed an ERP. I wondering if giving training for free to my customers can be seen as an added value or they can think it is of little value (or less professional) since it is free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I usually see companies making moneys, after the first year of free support, giving tens of hours of training at customer site (with added and exaggerated hotel and travel costs, for example) to teach all the difficulties and huge menus of their &quot;easy-to-use&quot; softwares.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I thought to differentiate me from competition telling my customers the training is only a few hours long and I can give them for free (included in annual support subscription). I think this can be perceived as an added value since their employees will be productive in a shorter time, with little effort and less work left in stand-by while attending the training.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you do usually? Should I give them expensive training as every company out there seems doing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you very much for your help." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9191" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2925" RevisionGUID="6b34c995-b650-41e4-abc0-5a40647d1d30" CreationDate="2015-02-22T19:37:18.973" UserId="2839" Text="Is advisable to give training for an ERP of mine for free as an added value?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9192" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2925" RevisionGUID="6b34c995-b650-41e4-abc0-5a40647d1d30" CreationDate="2015-02-22T19:37:18.973" UserId="2839" Text="|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9193" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2926" RevisionGUID="75721b44-72f7-493a-bb4d-e4b680c72b3f" CreationDate="2015-02-23T02:07:31.100" UserId="7168" Text="I've been asked this one before many times and , i have been burned by this one before on a few occasions .  ( in my case I had a 30% share of said company, spent an inordinate amount of time &quot;making changes&quot; to the product. 300 hours later was a single sale made ??? Nope , requirements kept changing )!&#xA;&#xA;I would say that in simple terms if they want to offer you a percentage then ask for 80% of the companies shares with a clause of limited liability ( companies like this require special registration for tax purposes ) &#xA;&#xA;On top of this also ask for a minimum yearly dividend ( let's say $20k ) &#xA;&#xA;They will nope the fuck out of there so fast..... " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9194" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2927" RevisionGUID="201f6475-c501-4f95-8f16-756507e4bea0" CreationDate="2015-02-23T02:11:43.353" UserId="7168" Text="While you are at it also grab some professional indemnity insurance .. &#xA;&#xA;As a contractor you get paid more, but on the flip side of the coin you have to pay for the costs of running your own business. &#xA;&#xA;And as for workers comp it's cheap for us it people and the day that the ceiling collapses for whatever reason you are covered " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9196" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2928" RevisionGUID="e0f33983-0022-4891-907e-7004d78d6056" CreationDate="2015-02-23T10:36:53.213" UserId="7173" Text="I have a company in EU and I am selling electronic services to all countries. Since I am located in EU, the following rules applies:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - When selling to customer from my country, I need to charge my country&#xD;&#xA;   tax&#xD;&#xA; - When selling to EU customer with valid VAT id, I don't charge vat and&#xD;&#xA;   write on invoice: &quot;Reverse Charge - VAT exempt under Article 44&#xD;&#xA;   Direktive 2006/112/ES&quot;&#xD;&#xA; - When selling to EU customer without valid VAT id, I charge tax from&#xD;&#xA;   his/her country.&#xD;&#xA; - When selling outside EU, no tax.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question:&#xD;&#xA;If I sell outside EU, do I need to put &quot;Reverse Charge...&quot; clause on invoice or not?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9197" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2928" RevisionGUID="e0f33983-0022-4891-907e-7004d78d6056" CreationDate="2015-02-23T10:36:53.213" UserId="7173" Text="EU vat direktive and Article 44 - selling services outside EU" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9198" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2928" RevisionGUID="e0f33983-0022-4891-907e-7004d78d6056" CreationDate="2015-02-23T10:36:53.213" UserId="7173" Text="|taxes|invoices|eu|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9199" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2922" RevisionGUID="585809ae-eeb6-4f1f-9d81-ce982a0c27af" CreationDate="2015-02-23T11:06:38.383" UserId="517" Comment="added 311 characters in body" Text="I think you can make it. The client never paid you for the work, so you still keep the rights on the work. To me this looks like you made your own versions of Coca Cola logo showing what you can do and put that work online. You do not threat Coca Cola in any way nor you mean to compete against them, you are simply showing your skills. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I am mistaken, I will delete or update this reply. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Read also what @Damian Nikodem said. In the light of new events, I would then separate work you made for large companies from work you did for individuals. Then all work which could make you headache, I would not keep public. If you have a lot of such work, I advise you get a legal advise on this. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9200" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2925" RevisionGUID="80d96f43-d573-4986-989b-10e810d42708" CreationDate="2015-02-23T11:55:35.697" UserId="2839" Comment="Explained &quot;ERP&quot; acronim" Text="I'm a programmer and I developed an ERP (invoice/accounting software). I wondering if giving training for free to my customers can be seen as an added value or they can think it is of little value (or less professional) since it is free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I usually see companies making moneys, after the first year of free support, giving tens of hours of training at customer site (with added and exaggerated hotel and travel costs, for example) to teach all the difficulties and huge menus of their &quot;easy-to-use&quot; softwares.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I thought to differentiate me from competition telling my customers the training is only a few hours long and I can give them for free (included in annual support subscription). I think this can be perceived as an added value since their employees will be productive in a shorter time, with little effort and less work left in stand-by while attending the training.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you do usually? Should I give them expensive training as every company out there seems doing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you very much for your help." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9201" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2925" RevisionGUID="80d96f43-d573-4986-989b-10e810d42708" CreationDate="2015-02-23T11:55:35.697" UserId="2839" Comment="Explained &quot;ERP&quot; acronim" Text="Is advisable to give training for a software of mine for free as an added value?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9202" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2929" RevisionGUID="4a535d5f-7663-42e1-899e-ecae2f40577e" CreationDate="2015-02-23T13:01:39.853" UserId="5893" Text="Of course, you can always do what you want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps you can offer your customers 3-tiered pricing: the cheapest is just the software with a very limited number of hours of &quot;virtual&quot; support (i.e. email/phone calls). The mid-range pricing would include a certain number of hours of support (on-site if there is no overnight travel, etc). And the top tier would include on-site training. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might be surprised at how many people will go for the mid-level pricing and how many will be happy to pay for the top-tier offer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9203" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2930" RevisionGUID="c7265d62-0024-4f1a-96d4-1019d9cbe250" CreationDate="2015-02-23T13:12:41.637" UserId="5893" Text="Anything retaliatory you do to your business partner (that's the person who's withholding payment) is going to affect your *client* (the person who ultimately &quot;owns&quot; the app). Depending on the contract your partner has with the client, you could be exposing yourself to all sorts of trouble - the client could sue **you** directly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I really hope you have some sort of contract with your &quot;business partner&quot; because you really need to take care of this in the courts. Sometimes a threatening letter from a lawyer is enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You *may* have some leverage through the client, if you have some way to get in contact with them. Because your partner never paid you, you still own all the code. You can let the clients know this (through your lawyer) and have them put pressure on your partner to pay you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But your first step is: **talk to a lawyer**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9204" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2931" RevisionGUID="c74a1f6a-20bb-48b5-8eff-872e09b95022" CreationDate="2015-02-24T00:56:41.160" UserId="4561" Text="Does anyone know what the payment receipt requirements are for a USA client hiring freelancers from other countries?  I know I don't need to do a 1099 for them as a foreign freelancer would not need pay US Income taxes.  But are there any records I need so I can deduct the payment from my income, beyond a PayPal or  credit card receipt that shows I paid them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have hired people through sites like eLance and oDesk knowing those sites handle the record keeping for me, but I have someone I'd like to hire directly and I want to make sure the IRS can't come back and deny my deduction of the money I pay him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks - and I hope this question is appropriate for this forum." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9205" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2931" RevisionGUID="c74a1f6a-20bb-48b5-8eff-872e09b95022" CreationDate="2015-02-24T00:56:41.160" UserId="4561" Text="USA record keeping requirements when hiring overseas freelancers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9206" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2931" RevisionGUID="c74a1f6a-20bb-48b5-8eff-872e09b95022" CreationDate="2015-02-24T00:56:41.160" UserId="4561" Text="|taxes|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9207" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2932" RevisionGUID="2212dd65-6fba-46d0-826c-209aa06594d2" CreationDate="2015-02-24T01:07:58.830" UserId="4561" Text="You may find there is a reason why companies are charging so much for training.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I like Voxwoman's idea of selling the different tiered plans.  Giving training is not a bad idea.  In addition to clients seeing it as something of value, it can also help retain clients if they know how to use the software and feel some attachment to you because they met you (in person or by web meeting). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be VERY careful to limit your offer.  1) If you get a lot of clients, it won't be so easy to train them all, and 2) You can stumble into HIGH MAINTENANCE clients that will suck you dry.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I sell a software product I developed and I provide training.  I offer tech support with my software and recently ran into such a client.  This one person occupied hours of my time, for basically no money, because they support was &quot;included.&quot;  And she was so demanding I was beside myself.  Sending me 2 - 3 emails a day that she needed training &quot;RIGHT NOW&quot; and &quot;THIS CANNOT WAIT.&quot;  She was a blessing in disguise though because now I am reviewing what I charge and how much &quot;support&quot; I will include for what price." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9208" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="2906" RevisionGUID="02fbac78-f28b-4172-a95f-bfbf76d71b69" CreationDate="2015-02-24T07:56:31.810" UserId="5649" Comment="31" />
  <row Id="9209" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2906" RevisionGUID="cb3b8472-7296-4c0c-bc9b-4693edd0cf83" CreationDate="2015-02-24T07:58:16.547" UserId="5649" Comment="added germany tag" Text="|freelance-websites|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9211" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2934" RevisionGUID="db79f0a3-9528-4c2d-a7f6-7112f1e8a343" CreationDate="2015-02-24T19:36:07.720" UserId="763" Text="* Over the last few months I have developed and put into production a software system for a client.&#xD;&#xA;* Development was paid by the hour.&#xD;&#xA;* Now the system is more or less finished, and the client wants to put together a maintenance contract.&#xD;&#xA;* The maintenance work will be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * fixing bugs&#xD;&#xA; * user support&#xD;&#xA; * handling minor enhancement requests&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have tips on how to price maintenance work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9212" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2934" RevisionGUID="db79f0a3-9528-4c2d-a7f6-7112f1e8a343" CreationDate="2015-02-24T19:36:07.720" UserId="763" Text="What is a good way to determine pricing for a maintenance contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9213" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2934" RevisionGUID="db79f0a3-9528-4c2d-a7f6-7112f1e8a343" CreationDate="2015-02-24T19:36:07.720" UserId="763" Text="|contracts|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9214" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2935" RevisionGUID="a7a48b2a-03a5-4f1a-8392-5996820ec095" CreationDate="2015-02-24T19:51:01.070" UserId="1752" Text="There are typically two major ways to accomplish this&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Fixed monthly fee&#xD;&#xA; - Floating monthly fee&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For fixed monthly fee, your client always pays the same amount and you fix as many issues as come up. This is a good option as long as you are firm about scope creep, i.e. keep the enhancements *minor!* If the maintenance contract is long enough, you can expect to do less work over time to recoup your actual time costs, i.e., the *long tail model.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For floating monthly fee, you can either have a bare minimum or no minimum monthly fee, but basically continue on an hourly basis, as bugs come up, you fix them and record your time.  This may cost less or more for the client, but is better for you if the maintenance contract is short term. You have to decide if you want to discount the rate, raise the rate, or keep the rate the same.  I would just keep it the same in this case." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9215" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2936" RevisionGUID="48bc21d4-29b7-4fee-b884-641d837adb0d" CreationDate="2015-02-24T19:54:48.157" UserId="5893" Text="You would need to give your best guess as to how many hours those items will take you during the term of the maintenance contract, and multiply that times the rate you want. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You also probably want to put a limit to the total number of hours of &quot;user support&quot; (and define **clearly** what user support means in concrete terms, and how that will be handled (i.e. emails, phone calls, site visit) with an escalation process in place. Also list your minimum response time to varying levels of support (unless you want to be woken up at 3AM with a frantic phone call).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also have a clause in the agreement that defines the difference between &quot;maintenance&quot; and &quot;new feature&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9216" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2937" RevisionGUID="43a372cf-e0fb-44df-8409-a2d4122fc6d2" CreationDate="2015-02-24T21:15:31.053" UserId="4628" Text="I recently went through a situation like, where a &quot;client&quot; had me do and re-do proposals and contracts, and even drive 100 miles to his place of business, basically to pump me for my SEO information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He dangled a $1500 job in front of me, and then tried to disappear after me putting in approx. $500 of time and effort and knowledge transfer into the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He even went so far as to delete his email so my mails started bouncing...real scumbag stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, with this event fresh in my mind, I would be very careful to keep giving and giving and not putting your foot down about getting a signed deal in place." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9217" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2937" RevisionGUID="4e8ee5b2-d71b-423f-9d9b-afc471d916e1" CreationDate="2015-02-24T22:22:34.457" UserId="4628" Comment="deleted 3 characters in body" Text="I recently went through a situation like, where a &quot;client&quot; had me do and re-do proposals and contracts, and even drive 100 miles to his place of business, basically to pump me for my SEO information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He dangled a $1500 job in front of me, and then tried to disappear after O put in approx. $500 of time, effort and knowledge transfer into the situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He even went so far as to delete his email so my mails started bouncing...real scumbag stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, with this event fresh in my mind, I would be very careful to keep giving and giving and not putting your foot down about getting a signed deal in place." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9218" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2938" RevisionGUID="2ac99177-dee3-469a-9330-66b109bfdd76" CreationDate="2015-02-24T22:43:10.433" UserId="7180" Text="I am quite new to freelancing. I was recently hired for a fixed price job. After majority of work was finished, the client said he want to cancel the project because of some technical problems and my work is of no use to him. He has not received any work yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should be the ideal thing to do in such case? I am planning to charging for the work that is already done. Is it appropriate or should I not charge him anything?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9219" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2938" RevisionGUID="2ac99177-dee3-469a-9330-66b109bfdd76" CreationDate="2015-02-24T22:43:10.433" UserId="7180" Text="What should be done regarding payment if client cancels the project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9220" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2938" RevisionGUID="2ac99177-dee3-469a-9330-66b109bfdd76" CreationDate="2015-02-24T22:43:10.433" UserId="7180" Text="|freelance-websites|payment-terms|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9221" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2939" RevisionGUID="58e54287-47bb-40a8-93d5-d044a5eca644" CreationDate="2015-02-25T01:58:24.883" UserId="5893" Text="Situations such as these are frequently written into contracts. Colloquially, this is known as a &quot;kill fee&quot; (or a &quot;cancellation fee&quot;) and it's actually standard industry practice (in the graphic design field, for example) to include such, especially for work that you can't use for anyone else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may have difficulty convincing your client of this, however.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the future, you should always have a written contract and there should be a clause in there for obligations of both parties in the event of cancellation of the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9222" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2937" RevisionGUID="67d81a7e-3cf8-40cb-b9d9-acbb46aafe33" CreationDate="2015-02-25T02:22:09.153" UserId="1191" Comment="O replaced by I" Text="I recently went through a situation like, where a &quot;client&quot; had me do and re-do proposals and contracts, and even drive 100 miles to his place of business, basically to pump me for my SEO information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He dangled a $1500 job in front of me, and then tried to disappear after I put in approximately $500 of time, effort and knowledge transfer into the situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He even went so far as to delete his email so my mails started bouncing...real scumbag stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, with this event fresh in my mind, I would be very careful to keep giving and giving and not putting your foot down about getting a signed deal in place." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9223" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2937" RevisionGUID="67d81a7e-3cf8-40cb-b9d9-acbb46aafe33" CreationDate="2015-02-25T02:22:09.153" Comment="Proposed by 1191 approved by -1 edit id of 388" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9224" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2937" RevisionGUID="99b50ded-8302-45bb-886e-72c743df6b8a" CreationDate="2015-02-25T02:22:09.153" UserId="4628" Comment="O replaced by I" Text="I recently went through a situation like this, where a &quot;client&quot; had me do and re-do proposals and contracts, and even drive 100 miles to his place of business, basically to just pump me for my SEO information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He dangled a $1500 job in front of me, and then tried to disappear after I put in approximately $500 of time, effort and knowledge transfer into the situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He even went so far as to delete his email so my mails started bouncing...real scumbag stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, with this event fresh in my mind, I would be very careful to keep giving and giving and not putting your foot down about getting a signed deal in place." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9225" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2940" RevisionGUID="2ae04d8d-9568-44f2-9e12-c795020237f7" CreationDate="2015-02-25T14:46:19.623" UserId="517" Text="If you are using some freelancing platform with money loaded into escrow, then you can get most of the money. I would ask the client about covering your costs as you should not be blamed for his decision on cancellation. Be polite and see what he means. Do not be rigid as he may leave you bad feedback. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the money is not loaded into escrow, then you still have to ask the same question. If he's a nice client, he will offer to pay you for your work. If he is a bad client, you will not get any money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are not using any freelancing platform, then you can refer to Voxwoman's reply and find the answer in your contract. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9226" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2941" RevisionGUID="d4d00d12-00f0-475a-8fe1-59f001d555fd" CreationDate="2015-02-25T18:33:56.270" UserId="5011" Text="First, there should be a clear distinction between maintenance/support and warranty.  In your example, you should have a reasonable warranty that outlines your feature does X, Y, and Z.  If it does not do these things, it should be in the warranty that you can (and should) fix it.  The warranty should have clear terms of turnaround, response time, and indemnification.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maintenance and support are separate from warranty in as such that if the user wants an enhancement, compatibility upgrades, etc. they should pay for said enhancement through a maintenance and support contract.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have found it good practice to set minimum purchase amounts as far as hours go for maintenance and support.  This way, someone doesn't buy 30 mins or 1.5 hours from you.  Your time is your inventory, and you should sell it as such.  Set minimums to reasonable amounts, such as 10 or 20 hours, depending on your client.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When someone comes to you for maintenance and support, they can buy these hours in chunks and do with them as see fit, (within the scope you've defined of course).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is also good to set an expiration on these hours.  This allows you to raise rates accordingly as your skill and demand advances.  You don't want someone milking the 100 hours they purchased from you 3 years ago at 1/3 of your current rate.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, maintenance and support should be paid in advance.  Since it's support and not necessarily a deliverable, the client essentially &quot;reserves&quot; their spot on your calendar.  Otherwise, they should be made aware that if they don't reserve a spot, you might not be available when they need you.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9227" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2942" RevisionGUID="a4295ba3-0ce0-4124-8d5e-044d5ede8e16" CreationDate="2015-02-25T18:51:32.277" UserId="5011" Text="I know this isn't the best answer, but you should essentially never &quot;start&quot; working for free.  I know the saying goes &quot;hardest part of freelance is the 'free'&quot;.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be professional, but also understand that this is business.  When they ask for a &quot;nugget&quot; as you put it, simply state something professional.  For example: &quot;*I will be happy to give you this information.  Let's set up a time to go over my contract and I can get started as soon as it is signed.*&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Interviews should not be about giving away free information.  They should also not be about &quot;proving&quot; yourself.  There are other means of getting this information.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can offer risk free trials at a discounted rate or even a 1 hour free consultation.  This way, you are in control and not the client.   " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9228" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2943" RevisionGUID="3b643125-45f8-45b2-baf2-879889497464" CreationDate="2015-02-25T19:03:11.553" UserId="5011" Text="A ticketing system that leverages emails for tickets would be your best bet here.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A client or prospect sends an email to a predetermined email account requesting support.  A ticket is opened in the ticketing system.  They can still use email to communicate and you can use the ticketing system for responses. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can now mark items as open/closed/follow up/etc.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A system such as [Zendesk](http://www.zendesk.com/) handles email ticketing, as well as voice, social media, and chat.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also go more robust with CRM systems such as self hosted ORO, Tiger and Sugar, or SaaS solutions such as SalesForce. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9229" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2944" RevisionGUID="d6b80c9f-94a0-4b2f-8e2b-b02d1ee26986" CreationDate="2015-02-26T02:42:38.073" UserId="4561" Text="Since you say IRS I assume you're in the US.  YES, by law you are supposed to claim all income.  I think there will be an &quot;other income&quot; are somewhere on your tax forms when you are supposed to put it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the amount is under $600 for the year from any one client, that client is not required to do a 1099 tax form for you so the IRS does not get sent notification that they paid you.  So if you do not claim the income they many never know, but it is the law that you claim it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this day and age with technology I assume it won't be long until the IRS is tapped into things like PayPal and aware of these transactions regardless of the 1099's, if not already in some cases.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9230" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1041" RevisionGUID="7699c13c-e635-451f-8a8a-47f719bad3e2" CreationDate="2015-02-26T07:49:41.260" UserId="1323" Comment="&quot;outside their own where&quot; -&gt; &quot;outside their own country where&quot; (to make sense)" Text="Does anyone have experience freelancing for a company located outside their own country where they are legally authorised to work? What is the best way to handle taxes in this circumstance? For e.g., a freelancer located in India works for a company located in the United States. The worker must pay taxes in the country where they work, in this case India. But do they also have to pay taxes in the US? The worker does not have a US work permit and works out of their home office in India. Is it sufficient to file a Form-W-8BEN with the US-based employer? It is my understanding that freelancing marketplaces such as Odesk follow this method. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there similar workarounds for EU-based employers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9231" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1041" RevisionGUID="7699c13c-e635-451f-8a8a-47f719bad3e2" CreationDate="2015-02-26T07:49:41.260" Comment="Proposed by 1323 approved by 535 edit id of 389" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9232" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2945" RevisionGUID="edba0a07-7f16-436a-9560-3b8a61eb87c8" CreationDate="2015-02-26T13:25:45.993" UserId="5893" Text="A good writer (of any gender who is knowledgeable about the subject) will have samples of writing for you to read - hopefully on other blogs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to be willing to pay a decent wage to the right writer. If you are only paying a pittance to someone, you aren't going to get anyone good. If your blog is in English, hiring a native speaker is going to give you better results, and wages in English-speaking countries are generally at the higher end of the global wage pool.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to try someone out, and have them write an article for you, be willing to pay them for it, and not expect them to do it &quot;on spec&quot; (Like &quot;I'll hire you if I like your custom sample that you wrote specifically for me on a subject of my choosing&quot;). That is the ethical way to conduct business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9233" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2946" RevisionGUID="2832a8b0-f4d6-4eb8-94a3-de73643e44ef" CreationDate="2015-02-26T13:31:01.430" UserId="5893" Text="I have not done this, but it seems to me that a record of your payment (through a CC transaction or bank record) should be sufficient. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It will depend on how you are filing - if this is a corporate tax return or a schedule C for your company, you would **not** put the amount under wages paid to others, you would put the payment in the line item associated with that kind of expenditure, as if you were purchasing a product from another company. This person is a vendor (or consultant) and you are paying their business entity." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9234" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2947" RevisionGUID="bdc0c607-1818-40d3-ba78-7686a875133a" CreationDate="2015-02-26T15:14:34.643" UserId="5887" Text="I'm not sure if it's the same for every EU country, but in Belgium: Yes, you have to include a clause on your invoice that explains why you are not charging VAT.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It used to be that you had to point to the exact article in the (Belgian) VAT law. Similar to your second example. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Belgium, at least, this has been simplified last year and you can just put a simpler clause on your invoice that comes down to &quot;Reverse charge - VAT exempt&quot;. No need to point to the exact article.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Check in your local law book or with a local accountant to be sure." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9235" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2948" RevisionGUID="3235d198-9fd8-4319-aa72-a752100ce8de" CreationDate="2015-02-26T16:53:06.363" UserId="7192" Text="I am going to be working on a software product and I want to use overseas developers to help build, however I am not sure how/if I can make a real agreement with them with regards to protecting IP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been outsourcing for years now, however I've usually done the work locally in the US when it came to IP protection, if clients were very concerned about it.  However, in reality when you're dealing internationally much of this is still based on the honor system.  So for a more serious project, how would one protect IP with developers from Asia when you really don't have any method of monitoring or enforcing it?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9236" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2948" RevisionGUID="3235d198-9fd8-4319-aa72-a752100ce8de" CreationDate="2015-02-26T16:53:06.363" UserId="7192" Text="Intellectual Property/Contract Protection for Overseas Developers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9237" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2948" RevisionGUID="3235d198-9fd8-4319-aa72-a752100ce8de" CreationDate="2015-02-26T16:53:06.363" UserId="7192" Text="|contracts|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9238" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2949" RevisionGUID="cc82187d-a6c0-44d0-a344-7df527091132" CreationDate="2015-02-26T17:24:18.633" UserId="7193" Text="I'm going to start as a freelance web designer in Spain. My concerns are that I don't know how much, what or when to charge my clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would a Wordpress website be more expensive because of its self manageability?&#xD;&#xA;Should I charge half the price in advance just in case the client cancels the project when it is half done?&#xD;&#xA;Should I pay the hostings or should the client do that? Same with premium Gmail accounts.&#xD;&#xA;What about maintenance? Included on the website price or charged periodically?&#xD;&#xA;What things are maintenance and what are redesigns?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks and sorry for my english.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9239" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2949" RevisionGUID="cc82187d-a6c0-44d0-a344-7df527091132" CreationDate="2015-02-26T17:24:18.633" UserId="7193" Text="What should I do as a starting freelance web designer/developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9240" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2949" RevisionGUID="cc82187d-a6c0-44d0-a344-7df527091132" CreationDate="2015-02-26T17:24:18.633" UserId="7193" Text="|price|webmasters|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9241" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2950" RevisionGUID="360f9385-9c17-4e7f-bd5a-2d2df978124e" CreationDate="2015-02-26T18:54:47.063" UserId="7192" Text="From what I've been doing there are no real requirements/laws. You should just document all the payments you make for tax purposes and keep copies of any agreements you have with them.  They are independent contractors." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9242" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2951" RevisionGUID="5b22b9b0-1bd0-4a8f-9d10-e648900cf5a0" CreationDate="2015-02-26T20:28:27.397" UserId="4568" Text="I've recently completed a job that I would like to show in my resume or website, mostly because as testament to my skills and of course self-promotion. My data contains private information that, if found published, may arise a dispute with my client. I don't want to sour our relationship over something like that but I need to promote myself. &#xD;&#xA;I was thinking of just changing the names of the different features and of course the clients name and change the private data (I've thought some montecarlo simulations or such) but it's such a sensible subject (mining industry) it may be falsely interpreted by any common onlooker. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any suggestions are well received.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;TLDR: How to publish a website to serve my business ends without compromising my clients trust by publishing sensible data?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9243" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2951" RevisionGUID="5b22b9b0-1bd0-4a8f-9d10-e648900cf5a0" CreationDate="2015-02-26T20:28:27.397" UserId="4568" Text="How to present a product as mine when it contains private/sensible information?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9244" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2951" RevisionGUID="5b22b9b0-1bd0-4a8f-9d10-e648900cf5a0" CreationDate="2015-02-26T20:28:27.397" UserId="4568" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9245" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2952" RevisionGUID="cb5072a4-85e9-4345-87a7-b1e0937420e3" CreationDate="2015-02-27T03:52:14.423" UserId="5893" Text="I think a contest such as this is a bad idea in general, because no-one, not even students should be subjected to spec work. http://www.nospec.com/ explains this very succinctly, but it's geared more to graphic design than coding, but the principle is the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9246" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2953" RevisionGUID="9102bfd2-7545-4bca-a38f-42484756dfd0" CreationDate="2015-02-27T07:15:55.767" UserId="7196" Text="being a German freelance developer myself I know about your problem. The idea of freelancing has not yet gotten into many heads in Germany. People are very used and happy with dependent work at companies because a typical German is very fond of reliability. &#xD;&#xA;There is not yet a really good German website for freelance projects, you might try &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.etengo.de/&#xD;&#xA;https://www.freelancer.de/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However I would suggest you to post on a big international platform a job offer like oDesk in German language. Some Germans are there." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9247" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2954" RevisionGUID="e74cfd50-69d4-41bf-883e-4c412ad47851" CreationDate="2015-02-27T11:41:30.143" UserId="7201" Text="Cost estimation is the most complicated part of any project so developer/entrepreneur should do a lot of research on requirement and other aspects related to cost and come up with some flexibility because the exact cost can not be decide on prior basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The most important suggestion here is before start working on a project take care that 30% amount is paid as advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9248" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2955" RevisionGUID="449fa122-1195-4e58-b256-efb87aa56734" CreationDate="2015-02-27T13:36:50.840" UserId="1818" Text="Were the technical problems part of your responsibilities for the project?  If you have some culpability here, even to the point of not pointing out the components that you know wouldn't work, that will significantly limit what it would be reasonable to charge for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fixed-price does not have to mean a single payment at completion of the project.  Ideally in these cases, your contract or statement of work would break out milestone deliverables and an associated payment schedule for them.  This helps protect you from this exact situation and can actually help your client with financial planning and spreading the payments out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client has received nothing from you and your contract does not cover this situation,  you could talk to them to see if you could get a partial payment but I don't have a high expectation of success. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9253" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2958" RevisionGUID="cd4d9281-483b-462d-acb3-2a71d9056146" CreationDate="2015-02-27T18:08:26.670" UserId="5893" Text="Let's say you've had an email exchange with someone who seemed interested in hiring you for a freelance gig that went on for a few weeks and then tapered off. This isn't a &quot;cold call&quot; or a stranger, but a former colleague, so there is some history.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I email them to inquire how they are and if they are still interested in having me work for them after 3-4 weeks of no communication, would that be considered annoying? Is there something I can add to the email to encourage them to take action (like &quot;my calendar is starting to fill up and I wanted to make sure I can be available if you need me&quot;)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9254" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2958" RevisionGUID="cd4d9281-483b-462d-acb3-2a71d9056146" CreationDate="2015-02-27T18:08:26.670" UserId="5893" Text="How frequently should someone check in with a potential client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9255" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2958" RevisionGUID="cd4d9281-483b-462d-acb3-2a71d9056146" CreationDate="2015-02-27T18:08:26.670" UserId="5893" Text="|attracting-clients|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9256" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2934" RevisionGUID="8758e74f-0f54-4f1d-92bf-fe1471b0cc08" CreationDate="2015-02-27T20:49:36.790" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/571411853374595072" />
  <row Id="9257" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2959" RevisionGUID="9b1a20ab-13bd-4b14-88b1-8093584129c6" CreationDate="2015-02-28T13:34:42.040" UserId="7214" Text="This is a question I am asking to get help from the community here, I want to be able to work as a freelance SharePoint Developer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's been few years for me now getting into the development world, I began with C#, but all my knowledge about it is just simple stuff, like define a class, handling button event to insert data into table, get data from table display it in grid. All my work is related to SharePoint so I don't have to deal so much with C#.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now am at a point where I am having some projects (small projects) from people around me and through my linked in, and they require me to do it, whenever I start with a technology like SharePoint, I find out some stuff depends on something else, so when I go to study that other thing, I find out that it depends on something else, I feel I am not that good developer, and my work in SharePoint requires GREAT understanding of JavaScript, C#, MVC, SharePoint itself, and Windows Azure so I can handle these opportunities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am currently working in a company, and am doing only SharePoint with them, I don't know if I can become a guru in all the technologies I have previously mentioned, should I study a book about each? Should I watch videos? Should I quit from the company and stay for few months learning all these technologies as I find working in my current company is just a waste of time as most of the stuff am doing are like &quot;donkey work&quot;. How do you manage to learn new things and be super @ them so you can do your own work.? I haven't known any friend who's good with these ones, so I don't have someone to advice me on how to study, how to become too good in a short time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you community. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9258" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2959" RevisionGUID="9b1a20ab-13bd-4b14-88b1-8093584129c6" CreationDate="2015-02-28T13:34:42.040" UserId="7214" Text="Advice me - getting started with programming" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9259" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2959" RevisionGUID="9b1a20ab-13bd-4b14-88b1-8093584129c6" CreationDate="2015-02-28T13:34:42.040" UserId="7214" Text="|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9260" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2960" RevisionGUID="ce887c23-e993-41b2-a57f-f53c73c2186a" CreationDate="2015-02-28T13:57:10.127" UserId="517" Text="The broader you go, the weaker you shall be!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Narrow the field and try to be good at it, the best one. Try to see if there is a demand for your field. That's the only way to succeed as a freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another idea is to try to collaborate with a good programmer so he does the programming part and you do SharePoint part. The con of this is that you'd have to share profit. Pro of this is that you don't have to learn programming." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9264" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2962" RevisionGUID="cd94c740-d703-4f50-9896-7a4e09b342e3" CreationDate="2015-02-28T17:16:08.400" UserId="7218" Text="I run a web design company in Phuket Thailand, initally you costs need to be reflective of you area (geographical) at home (UK) id charge £400+ for a wordpress site buy here im lucky to get £250 - £300&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;wordpress sites are less costly as they take less time to develop from your end as all you really doing is taking a template and customising it as opposed to sitting in a room for hours typing out endless streams of HTML&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work on a 35% down to cover theme costs setup charges as i help with domain name purchases - hosting purchases i pretty much take care of everything for the client, this is a good and bad thing in some way as i have complete control over the project and its online presence - however i would not advise taking a contract for less than 35% down&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maintenance is better done as a monthly but to show good faith i usually say if anything goes wrong in the first moth ill take care of it, but i do provide a pdf on how to use the wordpress backend to limit the amount of times im called upon - i have 15 clients that i work with and i get a ton of referral work mainly due to the support and costs i operate on&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maintenance is general upkeep of the site (monthly) redesigns are one off payments and generally cover the entire of the site or at least and good proportion of them &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this helps&#xD;&#xA;Gareth" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9265" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2963" RevisionGUID="df03445b-0cea-4f7e-b105-f9814ba85de9" CreationDate="2015-02-28T17:20:52.173" UserId="7218" Text="Id agree and say you'd need to develop some sort of ticketing system whether that's through email folders / calendars or a massive whiteboard (what i use)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;software to do this for you can be useful but ultimately its counter productive when all you need to do is find a system that you can utalise - i tie my google accounts calender up to my phone then i get notification everyday of whats left to do when the work is done i delete the event&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;automated ticketing systems are some what costly are are mainly used in call centres and support desks if you have that many clients maybe you need an extra person&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;hope this helps" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9267" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2960" RevisionGUID="8307d9e1-a826-4dce-9339-3146e5f11853" CreationDate="2015-02-28T19:18:47.517" UserId="517" Comment="added 941 characters in body" Text="The broader you go, the weaker you shall be!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Narrow the field and try to be good at it, the best one. Try to see if there is a demand for your field. That's the only way to succeed as a freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another idea is to try to collaborate with a good programmer so he does the programming part and you do SharePoint part. The con of this is that you'd have to share profit. Pro of this is that you don't have to learn programming.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To add on your enquiry on resigning the job and sources of learning. You should NOT quit your job unless you are 110% sure there is a market for your expertise and you have funds to support your living and learning for the next 12 months (!). Yes, 12 months. I would suggest you try learning along your regular job as you can always quit it, but cannot always return to it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding the source of learning, books are the best but the slowest method. I prefer books thou I know a bunch of people who learned from YouTube videos. Regardless of the source of learning, you should not just learn it like you're learning a text for school drama. Think of a project and start developing it. Since you have experience with SharePoint, I am sure you will think of a good project. Once you have finished the project, you will not only have concrete knowledge, but you will also have something to put in your portfolio. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9268" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2965" RevisionGUID="7720956a-f0e3-4946-8bad-63721d983f9f" CreationDate="2015-02-28T22:09:48.683" UserId="7219" Text="I am assuming from your question that you have not filed any entity formation documents so you are automatically a Sole Proprietorship. This income should be reported on schedule C this year for federal taxes, along with any expenses that you might have incurred when earning this income. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for the taxation of that income you have a few options. If you also have W-2 income, you can have more withhold, or you can pay [quarterly estimated payment.][1] The easiest way to do this is your net income for the quarter times your tax rate. Or just wait till the end of the year and pay up, the downside is you are going to owe some interest and penalties if you are under paid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040es.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9269" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2966" RevisionGUID="a9b7e8f3-50cb-4088-81fd-bfc91bed58b6" CreationDate="2015-03-01T03:00:56.113" UserId="1191" Text="Is anyone in the company pushing you to learn faster than you can?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is happening. Relax and tell them that you are doing your best work. Also, propose that company hires an expert for training if this knowledge is urgent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If sponsored training is not an option. See videos to learn the basics. Ask and answer questions actively in SharePoint communities. Try several communities and find the most helpful and active ones. Also you can ask SharePoint developers for they preferred communities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Here][1] are some links that might be helpful. Notice there is a Stack Exchange community too. Also, do not forget to participate in each content you see, for example on Youtube.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If community is not answering fast enough you can hire an expert for a short session or by retainer basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should not be worried about your job. And about nothing. Try to follow your natural speed. Learn new things as you want it. And be sure that you will do fine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.collaboris.com/blogs/collaboris-blog/mark-jones/2013/02/07/a-list-of-the-best-sharepoint-discussion-forums-and-groups#.VPJ_6upGh5Q" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9270" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2830" RevisionGUID="6ffcdebd-396c-41a1-ba8d-3482cb100186" CreationDate="2015-03-01T03:17:05.723" UserId="1191" Comment="added 99 characters in body" Text="The first thing is that is not easy to understand what you are writing. If your client is not technical, s/he will be even more lost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The advantages you mention are written in a technical way. Write them using a  business approach.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Schema&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Write each problem and solutions in a schema like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Problem&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     1. a summary&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     1. details&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Solution&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     1. a summary&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     1. details&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But always focusing on client business. Do not focus on technology aspects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Business Terms&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some business terms to consider(some of them might overlap with technological side):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Features&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Automated steps&#xD;&#xA; 1. Ease of use&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Potential for:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. getting new developers onboard&#xD;&#xA; 1. getting components to solve future business problem&#xD;&#xA; 1. reduce future integration efforts&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Cost, client budget&#xD;&#xA;1. Time, deadline&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you know how your client is driven by each term, what is the one that client is more likely to decide upon? Focus on that before others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And use terms related with client world: employee time, conversions, income. See below.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Rewriting the advantages&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will rewrite one for now:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. consistency on the UI -&gt; Users will not waste time learning two different graphical designs, this means better user productivity, up to x hours saved per week, that will allow better product quality and/or more conversions up to y%, this means more income, about $z more per year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The more you can know about x hours, y% more conversions, and $z more income, the more you will be in client mind.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Others will be pending:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. The system is one system instead of two. -&gt; &#xD;&#xA;2. It is an extension of the existing application. -&gt; &#xD;&#xA;4. web application does not require install. The user login system on the website is already in place. HTML5's WebStorage allows offline functionality to be incorporated. -&gt;&#xD;&#xA;5. current system already interacts with the database. -&gt;&#xD;&#xA;6. Listing a site's current workorders would be easier, not requiring back and forth communication. -&gt;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9271" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2830" RevisionGUID="e3e0735d-17eb-45d0-b4eb-13b879a424d5" CreationDate="2015-03-02T00:45:00.473" UserId="1191" Comment="added 105 characters in body" Text="You can't do to much about the other consultant, but what you can do is to improve yours. Here's how.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first thing is that is not easy to understand what you are writing. If your client is not technical, s/he will be even more lost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The advantages you mention are written in a technical way. Write them using a  business approach.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Schema&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Write each problem and solutions in a schema like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Problem&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     1. a summary&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     1. details&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Solution&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     1. a summary&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     1. details&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But always focusing on client business. Do not focus on technology aspects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Business Terms&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some business terms to consider(some of them might overlap with technological side):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Features&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Automated steps&#xD;&#xA; 1. Ease of use&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Potential for:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. getting new developers onboard&#xD;&#xA; 1. getting components to solve future business problem&#xD;&#xA; 1. reduce future integration efforts&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Cost, client budget&#xD;&#xA;1. Time, deadline&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you know how your client is driven by each term, what is the one that client is more likely to decide upon? Focus on that before others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And use terms related with client world: employee time, conversions, income. See below.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Rewriting the advantages&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will rewrite one for now:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. consistency on the UI -&gt; Users will not waste time learning two different graphical designs, this means better user productivity, up to x hours saved per week, that will allow better product quality and/or more conversions up to y%, this means more income, about $z more per year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The more you can know about x hours, y% more conversions, and $z more income, the more you will be in client mind.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Others will be pending:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. The system is one system instead of two. -&gt; &#xD;&#xA;2. It is an extension of the existing application. -&gt; &#xD;&#xA;4. web application does not require install. The user login system on the website is already in place. HTML5's WebStorage allows offline functionality to be incorporated. -&gt;&#xD;&#xA;5. current system already interacts with the database. -&gt;&#xD;&#xA;6. Listing a site's current workorders would be easier, not requiring back and forth communication. -&gt;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9272" PostHistoryTypeId="34" PostId="2906" RevisionGUID="bc0e2006-3dc8-480e-9b43-f13bc8781b2f" CreationDate="2015-03-02T11:05:00.547" UserId="5649" Comment="31" />
  <row Id="9276" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2967" RevisionGUID="2fd62187-933c-4409-aedb-0fae39901a90" CreationDate="2015-03-02T17:40:35.090" UserId="7230" Text="I'm in a bit of a dilemma, and I'd like some third party opinion on this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My freelance rate is USD, my client is not US based (so he has to exchange USD in order to pay me), I'm also not in the US, so in the end I have to exchange USD to my local currency.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lately the exchange rates were very favorable for me (USD -&gt; local) and bad for he (his local -&gt; USD), so the end result is that I get a free ~11-12% raise. And he wants to adjust  my rate to essentially match the exchange rates when we last agreed on the rate (a few months ago)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know what to think about this... on one hand I like the gig and would like to continue on. but on the other hand it doesn't seem quite fair. So I'd like to know some impartial opinions on this situation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9277" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2967" RevisionGUID="2fd62187-933c-4409-aedb-0fae39901a90" CreationDate="2015-03-02T17:40:35.090" UserId="7230" Text="Hourly Rate exchange rate variation" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9278" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2967" RevisionGUID="2fd62187-933c-4409-aedb-0fae39901a90" CreationDate="2015-03-02T17:40:35.090" UserId="7230" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9279" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2968" RevisionGUID="987c47b8-2c5c-4be6-a8fb-64f2a16c58d3" CreationDate="2015-03-02T19:50:29.933" UserId="75" Text="Honestly, ignore the exchange rate. If you lower your price by 12-12%, you're sending the message that you are not worth that extra bit. For this particular client, I would keep the same rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where exactly are you located? Are you able to use another big currency (by big, I mean widely known/accepted, such as the Euro, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, etc), or is it a lesser-known currency? Personally, I charge everything out in CAD. My PayPal knows I'm expecting that type of payment, and does the conversions *for the customer* before I see the money. Going forward, if it's a smaller currency, I'd suggest changing to a more well-known currency." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9281" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2949" RevisionGUID="09a455d6-d12a-4d98-8ff2-529f8f40ec88" CreationDate="2015-03-02T19:54:12.737" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Stacey&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="9286" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2934" RevisionGUID="bee0120e-f2f3-4944-99da-bea02e74c276" CreationDate="2015-03-03T10:16:11.517" UserId="100" Comment="formatted (removed list markup)" Text="Over the last few months I have developed and put into production a software system for a client. Development was paid by the hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the system is more or less finished, and the client wants to put together a maintenance contract. The maintenance work will be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* fixing bugs&#xD;&#xA;* user support&#xD;&#xA;* handling minor enhancement requests&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have tips on how to price maintenance work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9287" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2934" RevisionGUID="bee0120e-f2f3-4944-99da-bea02e74c276" CreationDate="2015-03-03T10:16:11.517" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 152, 763 edit id of 390" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9288" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2970" RevisionGUID="cb82e1df-5b3b-46ce-bc9a-996a61b22b78" CreationDate="2015-03-03T11:43:36.107" UserId="7240" Text="Upon completion of a website or web app, how can the client and contractor exchange payment and deliverables securely? If the developer sends the final product over to the client, how can they be sure that they will receive payment. Lawsuits to collect payments would not be worth the money on smaller projects. This also goes for the inverse, if the developer sends payment, how can he guarantee he will receive the product?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9289" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2970" RevisionGUID="cb82e1df-5b3b-46ce-bc9a-996a61b22b78" CreationDate="2015-03-03T11:43:36.107" UserId="7240" Text="How to deliver final product to the client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9290" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2970" RevisionGUID="cb82e1df-5b3b-46ce-bc9a-996a61b22b78" CreationDate="2015-03-03T11:43:36.107" UserId="7240" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9291" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2971" RevisionGUID="f7dd1948-0b5c-46fc-bb41-a0c937cdc4c7" CreationDate="2015-03-03T12:59:06.447" UserId="5893" Text="The safest way is to conduct the transaction via a 3rd party trusted by both the client and the service provider (which is the reason places like eLance and Odesk exist). If you've conducted business outside such matching websites, you can use a payment platform like Paypal where they buyer has certain recourse for getting a refund if the purchased item is not up to their expectations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In all these cases they buyer pays first, then the final product is shipped. (And if you think about it, that's the same process that all online sales are handled for products from &quot;big box&quot; stores - eBay, Amazon, etc - they don't ship until the buyer pays!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client is reticent about making the final payment before you ship, you should find out what his/her objections to paying you are." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9292" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2972" RevisionGUID="db3fe92d-8fe1-408b-a5ad-4de4f0d9ccda" CreationDate="2015-03-04T09:25:07.200" UserId="7248" Text="I'm working on a project for my client. I need to communicate daily with them on many different aspects of the application. At the beginning, e-mail was enough, but after a month there are few hundreds e-mails exchanged, all of them tackling few different topics, which is starting to cause a lot of confiusion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can you recomend a tool designed for such an occasion? An **on-line developer-client communication system** with ability to discuss different topics, disable already finished ones, easy file upload, some scheduling, maybe integrated chat and so on." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9293" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2972" RevisionGUID="db3fe92d-8fe1-408b-a5ad-4de4f0d9ccda" CreationDate="2015-03-04T09:25:07.200" UserId="7248" Text="A tool to communicate with a client that's better than e-mail" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9294" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2972" RevisionGUID="db3fe92d-8fe1-408b-a5ad-4de4f0d9ccda" CreationDate="2015-03-04T09:25:07.200" UserId="7248" Text="|communication|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9298" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2974" RevisionGUID="f8bcc42c-8103-4182-ba43-059502565fc3" CreationDate="2015-03-04T13:44:55.660" UserId="5334" Text="I'd totally recommend [Slack][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The different topics you talk about can be divided into channels, it allows for any type of file upload,  integrated (group and private) chat, 3rd party application integration, and so on. Plus, they have iOS and Android apps if you have the need to go mobile.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Oh, and it's free. You can pay for the premium version which allows as many integrated services as you like and stores all your history forever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Disclaimer**: I don't work for Slack, nor am I on any form of commission, but it's really awesome and am pitching this to my current client as I've found it better than email! I also use it for my sideline project which keeps me and my two dev's communicating daily.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://slack.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9299" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2975" RevisionGUID="f5fa9d48-bd09-4591-8d1a-f91a59d6fd88" CreationDate="2015-03-04T14:25:52.503" UserId="39" Text="I built a timekeeping/workflow system for my consulting work. Each client has one or many projects; each project one or many tasks. I record time and enter notes at the task level.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I give my customer access to this system so they 1) can track my progress and 2) enter user-acceptance testing notes as needed. Naturally, I have to keep my notes &quot;PG&quot;, and the customer does not have permissions to edit my notes or time entries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The system generates an invoice with all these hours/notes, organized by one project per tab." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9313" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2979" RevisionGUID="7596d508-b140-4a9e-9811-45134e0de8d1" CreationDate="2015-03-05T17:59:36.893" UserId="7261" Text="This is my first post here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to know from experts on building a team of freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have started my freelancing jobs and I would like to have my own team.I would like to have persons who can cover every requests of my users like designers, developers and testers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is getting my friends to my team is the only option or are there any other alternatives" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9314" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2979" RevisionGUID="7596d508-b140-4a9e-9811-45134e0de8d1" CreationDate="2015-03-05T17:59:36.893" UserId="7261" Text="Building a team of Freelancers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9315" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2979" RevisionGUID="7596d508-b140-4a9e-9811-45134e0de8d1" CreationDate="2015-03-05T17:59:36.893" UserId="7261" Text="|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9319" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2981" RevisionGUID="3227076b-1d9c-4b25-b4ea-941309cdb75e" CreationDate="2015-03-05T19:31:25.363" UserId="5893" Text="If you are going to be subcontracting work out to other freelancers, you are going to need a high level of **trust** in their abilities to do the work to the standards you require in the time frame allotted. Any deficiencies in these area will reflect on you and your reputation, since you are the client contact.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These people don't necessarily have to be your friends, but you should know them and respect their work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9321" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2982" RevisionGUID="45250821-d923-4067-870c-ff17d5bd79d4" CreationDate="2015-03-06T06:05:51.657" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/275427/client-changes-contractor-halfway-through-project" />
  <row Id="9322" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="2983" RevisionGUID="ccc1d564-fe10-4146-a9e2-de385873a716" CreationDate="2015-03-06T06:05:51.657" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/275427/client-changes-contractor-halfway-through-project/275430#275430" />
  <row Id="9323" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2983" RevisionGUID="e34d96a7-1587-444c-bb31-f9a95cc5aae2" CreationDate="2015-03-06T05:59:27.080" UserId="7264" UserDisplayName="Nelson" Text="Since he is changing the condition of the contract, you will have to re-negotiate what your current work is worth and go from there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Request payment for what you have done so far since you've been waiting longer than the fair duration (months).  It is to keep the good faith that the work will be paid for.  If there is resistance then there is most likely a desire to &quot;bail&quot; on you, take all you got, and pay you nothing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they refuse, realize that most companies do not release products until the payment has been made (i.e.: everywhere else).  Exceptions can be made for clients with good standing but you already gave your fair share (waiting on them for months).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Honestly if someone delayed giving you content for months, they don't really care about you and I really sense they just want to rip you off by giving all your content to the new developer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9324" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2982" RevisionGUID="d7a9bc4b-ceed-4667-89e8-c19cfcf6a7fa" CreationDate="2015-03-06T05:39:02.160" UserDisplayName="jack" Text="I have a client who I've been developing a site for. I've spent about a week on the job; it's a small project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After 1 or 2 iterations the client settled on a design he liked, and so the work began. The site is now finished to requirements, minus the content. The client has been promising me for months that he would give me the content (text and images) necessary to complete the job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Suddenly, today, I get the email that he has now got a new developer, and he wants me to work with the new developer to move all the domains which I know manage to him, as well as hosting. Basically, he is abandoning all the work I've done for him on the site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since I did not ever state I would charge in hours for the project, but only a fixed cost on &quot;project completion&quot;, can I still charge for the project by hours spent? Am I allowed to charge the entire original fixed cost? How have you dealt with with similar issues in the past?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9325" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2982" RevisionGUID="d7a9bc4b-ceed-4667-89e8-c19cfcf6a7fa" CreationDate="2015-03-06T05:39:02.160" UserDisplayName="jack" Text="Client changes contractor halfway through project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9326" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2982" RevisionGUID="d7a9bc4b-ceed-4667-89e8-c19cfcf6a7fa" CreationDate="2015-03-06T05:39:02.160" UserDisplayName="jack" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9329" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2984" RevisionGUID="9c7ea9ce-e6c9-4198-89ea-ce2296fb44c7" CreationDate="2015-03-06T15:05:35.780" UserId="7267" Text="I have doubts regarding the process of collecting customer expectations and turning then into a functional document that we both can follow up to measure if the project reaches expectations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a rough idea in this regard - such as:&#xD;&#xA;1 - The document should specify the different pages and their content&#xD;&#xA;2 - The document should specify what actions the user can do in them&#xD;&#xA;3 - The document should specify what sort of behavior the project should have when facing errors&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I am not sure about this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help, tutorials, videos, books or whatever related will be very appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9330" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2984" RevisionGUID="9c7ea9ce-e6c9-4198-89ea-ce2296fb44c7" CreationDate="2015-03-06T15:05:35.780" UserId="7267" Text="How to elaborate functional documents (or samples)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9331" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2984" RevisionGUID="9c7ea9ce-e6c9-4198-89ea-ce2296fb44c7" CreationDate="2015-03-06T15:05:35.780" UserId="7267" Text="|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9332" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2985" RevisionGUID="845c751e-1045-4014-810b-6f3e2447a9aa" CreationDate="2015-03-06T15:06:15.840" UserId="5893" Text="Nelson's answer is spot on. I would add the following advice:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Always have all terms in writing** (I don't know that you didn't but that is paramount in any business dealing)&#xD;&#xA; - If you are pricing per project rather than hourly, you need a clause that handles partial payments if the project is cancelled by the client after work has been performed. The payments can be anything from a small percentage to full payment, depending on where the project is at cancellation. In the graphic design field, this is known as a &quot;kill fee&quot; and is standard practice.&#xD;&#xA; - Project-based pricing might also have payments due at certain milestones, such as a **deposit** at contract signing so work can begin (especially for new clients with whom you have no history so the trust level is low), and after initial wireframes/drafts, etc.&#xD;&#xA; - You should also have a clause in your contract saying that **you own the rights** to your code/design/thing you're making, and that you either grant the client a perpetual license to the thing, or if you are deciding it's a &quot;work for hire&quot; the rights do not transfer to the client until after full payment has been received.&#xD;&#xA; - Your contract should also spell out the methods of communication and other details delineating expectations from the client and what you are providing (in as much detail as possible) with clauses for additional fees for scope creep, changes, etc., and a way for *you* to terminate the relationship if it becomes burdensome." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9333" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2982" RevisionGUID="2d7d8737-4f04-4da8-92bb-f418be81161e" CreationDate="2015-03-06T18:40:16.733" UserId="5893" Comment="added tags" Text="|consulting|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9334" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2982" RevisionGUID="2d7d8737-4f04-4da8-92bb-f418be81161e" CreationDate="2015-03-06T18:40:16.733" Comment="Proposed by 5893 approved by 9, 75 edit id of 392" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9335" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2984" RevisionGUID="5e2e6ea1-e7bb-4d06-af93-477584ad0f77" CreationDate="2015-03-06T20:08:25.383" UserId="7267" Comment="added 781 characters in body" Text="I have doubts regarding the process of collecting customer expectations and turning then into a functional document that we both can follow up to measure if the project reaches expectations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a rough idea in this regard - such as:&#xD;&#xA;1 - The document should specify the different pages and their content&#xD;&#xA;2 - The document should specify what actions the user can do in them&#xD;&#xA;3 - The document should specify what sort of behavior the project should have when facing errors&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I am not sure about this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help, tutorials, videos, books or whatever related will be very appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Update**&#xD;&#xA;My client asked for a website and sent a PDF with a design of what he wants. &#xD;&#xA;The design showed some parameters from where I could extract the database requirements and the approximate logic I would have to build.&#xD;&#xA;There are even pages that do not appear in such document, like the admin section which they obviously need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is about a document, I believe it's called functional document, that would be build before starting to create the software. &#xD;&#xA;In that document there should be specifications regarding:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. - Database entities&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2.1. - How they relate to each other&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2.2. - Parameter validation (min length, max length, Names without non-alphabetic characters, etc)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. - Application pages&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2.1 - Content&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2.2 - Actions&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9336" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2951" RevisionGUID="ce83110d-96ed-4f59-ba59-aa44f05f6767" CreationDate="2015-03-06T20:24:52.237" UserDisplayName="user7238" Comment="corrected spelling" Text="I've recently completed a job that I would like to show in my resume or website, mostly as a testament to my skills and of course self-promotion. My data contains private information that, if found published, may create a dispute with my client. I don't want to sour our relationship over something like this but I need to promote myself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was thinking of just changing the names of the different features and of course the client's name and change the private data (I've thought some montecarlo simulations or such) but it's such a sensitive subject (mining industry) it may be falsely interpreted by any common onlooker. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any suggestions are well received.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;TLDR: How to publish a website to serve my business ends without compromising my clients trust by publishing sensitive data?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9337" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2951" RevisionGUID="ce83110d-96ed-4f59-ba59-aa44f05f6767" CreationDate="2015-03-06T20:24:52.237" UserDisplayName="user7238" Comment="corrected spelling" Text="How to present a product as mine when it contains private/sensitive information?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9338" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2951" RevisionGUID="ce83110d-96ed-4f59-ba59-aa44f05f6767" CreationDate="2015-03-06T20:24:52.237" Comment="Proposed by 7238 approved by 517, 9 edit id of 391" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9339" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2986" RevisionGUID="92523633-7aab-4734-9f98-8313b971d538" CreationDate="2015-03-06T20:44:45.037" UserId="5893" Text="If you signed any sort of NDA (non-disclosure agreement), you are prohibited from publishing company-sensitive data.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If static screenshots with sensitive data redacted won't help you with your portfolio, you need to discuss with someone in authority in the company to give you permission to display some minimal amount of data so you can present what you need to present without exposing your client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have an inherent right to display your work in your portfolio (at least under United States copyright laws)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9340" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2987" RevisionGUID="16bf73b2-4cfc-45cc-8b3b-4eb5951c1bf7" CreationDate="2015-03-06T23:41:02.213" UserId="7190" Text="I live in London, and prices vary from £300 up to £500+. Can anybody tell me what are the rates in New York?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9341" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2987" RevisionGUID="16bf73b2-4cfc-45cc-8b3b-4eb5951c1bf7" CreationDate="2015-03-06T23:41:02.213" UserId="7190" Text="What is a ballpark daily rate for a senior freelance front-end developer in NY?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9342" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2987" RevisionGUID="16bf73b2-4cfc-45cc-8b3b-4eb5951c1bf7" CreationDate="2015-03-06T23:41:02.213" UserId="7190" Text="|contracts|price|usa|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9343" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2988" RevisionGUID="5a4ae8bf-8486-4227-8394-68ae8a850dfd" CreationDate="2015-03-07T08:14:39.637" UserId="517" Text="Firstly I don't live in New York. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what I read on forums and around here, hourly rate for individual freelancers starts from $50 per hour (junior) up to $100 or $120 per hour for experienced person. I heard people often saying &quot;I gave him discount to $80 per hour&quot; so I'd say the hourly price is between $80 and $100. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;New York has the same living costs as London so I think you can also convert London hourly price to USD. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another solution is to find the latest results on living costs in New York and London, compare them and then using math calculate what should New York fee be compared to London's fee. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9344" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2989" RevisionGUID="edb2755f-4834-480b-b967-327a5906fb5a" CreationDate="2015-03-07T16:31:18.530" UserId="5893" Text="I would not tend to go into a lot of detail before a contract was signed. What you are describing is a lot of work, and you should get paid for that. Your client could easily take a detailed functional spec and give it to someone else to develop into a product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are working on a RFP, keep the specifications high-level and general. Save the details for after the work's been awarded to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These types of documents have many names: Functional Specification, Software Design Document, System Requirements Specification... and the content is similar.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the system you seem to be developing, there might be two documents (or even 3):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - the front-end specification (UI Specification), which would specify each individual screen, what functionality each screen contains and how the user interacts with the functions. This may also include workflows.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - the &quot;back-end&quot; specification - which contains what you're talking about - the database schema, data processing, and any software that links the front and back ends together. If there are a lot of subroutines or subsystems, each of these might require their own specification document.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, this all is fluid and depends on the processes you or your client's company use to develop software." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9345" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2990" RevisionGUID="85e99fa6-b924-4f51-a34b-8bcb706c7439" CreationDate="2015-03-08T05:46:12.047" UserId="7273" Text="So what host service you normally use to start the website design ( using wordpress)and being able to show your client online?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once site is done and approved then client gets its own hosting and domain and I have to pass the website, what hosting service should i use? is there any that could make this easier?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;finally, almost all my clients know of go daddy or bought their domain names there so if i recommend that hosting they will go for it, is this a good option? should i then just get a go daddy hosting for myself and host the sample sites there?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please help, how do freelancers start on this hosting issues?&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!!!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9346" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2990" RevisionGUID="85e99fa6-b924-4f51-a34b-8bcb706c7439" CreationDate="2015-03-08T05:46:12.047" UserId="7273" Text="How to manage hosting? How to show design and then migrate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9347" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2990" RevisionGUID="85e99fa6-b924-4f51-a34b-8bcb706c7439" CreationDate="2015-03-08T05:46:12.047" UserId="7273" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9348" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2991" RevisionGUID="113c9496-0a88-43cf-bfcb-7464d5ab7757" CreationDate="2015-03-09T07:00:54.927" UserId="4561" Text="I would definitely bill them.  But if you do not have a contract, they may or may not pay.  In your shoes right now I would say &quot;no problem, as soon as I receive payment on this invoice for the work I did, I'll move the domains.&quot;  I would not do anything else unless/until he pays you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IN THE FUTURE:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always make sure you have a contract, and always get a deposit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have this statement in the terms of my contracts.  (Note, I am not a lawyer, I probably found this language in someone else's contract.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*&quot;In the event of cancellation of a software development project approved by [Client Name], [Client Name] will pay for work already completed at the current LOS hourly billing rate.&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;ALSO - I ask for a 50% deposit on the proposed final price before I start work.  People who are serious and take you seriously expect to make a deposit and pay this right away.  This is how I word that (more stuff I made up, others may have better wording...)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*&quot;A deposit of 50% of the development fee is required to commence programming.  The balance is due within 30 days of the final invoice which will be submitted after [Client Name] has had 15 days to test and approve the Software.  I know many do milestones like Voxwoman suggests.&quot;*  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's very tempting to just launch into the work on small projects because proposals and estimates can be so tedious.  If you haven't already I would make a standard contract/estimate type document you can get clients to sign off on before starting any work, and wait for that deposit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been on the other end, where I hired someone then didn't want to stick with their design.  I still expected I'd have to pay them for what they'd done so far." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9349" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2991" RevisionGUID="6ab1e042-0933-4d22-994f-ceb4c7a43b5d" CreationDate="2015-03-09T19:43:11.580" UserId="4561" Comment="added 16 characters in body" Text="I would definitely bill them.  But if you do not have a contract, they may or may not pay.  In your shoes right now I would say &quot;no problem, as soon as I receive payment on this invoice for the work I did, I'll move the domains.&quot;  I would not do anything else unless/until he pays you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IN THE FUTURE:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always make sure you have a contract, and always get a deposit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have this statement in the terms of my contracts.  (Note, I am not a lawyer, I probably found this language in someone else's contract.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*&quot;In the event of cancellation of a software development project approved by [Client Name], [Client Name] will pay for work already completed at the current [Freelancer Name] hourly billing rate.&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;ALSO - I ask for a 50% deposit on the proposed final price before I start work.  People who are serious and take you seriously expect to make a deposit and pay this right away.  This is how I word that (more stuff I made up, others may have better wording...)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*&quot;A deposit of 50% of the development fee is required to commence programming.  The balance is due within 30 days of the final invoice which will be submitted after [Client Name] has had 15 days to test and approve the Software.&quot;*  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know many do milestones like Voxwoman suggests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's very tempting to just launch into the work on small projects because proposals and estimates can be so tedious.  If you haven't already I would make a standard contract/estimate type document you can get clients to sign off on before starting any work, and wait for that deposit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been on the other end, where I hired someone then didn't want to stick with their design.  I still expected I'd have to pay them for what they'd done so far." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9350" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2992" RevisionGUID="e6229a3e-e21e-4793-9758-244935451af3" CreationDate="2015-03-09T20:20:07.070" UserId="7262" Text="I'm new to freelancing and I'm wondering what, if any, would be a polite way to tell a client that I've got clients ahead of them and that I can't start their project till a certain date?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9351" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2992" RevisionGUID="e6229a3e-e21e-4793-9758-244935451af3" CreationDate="2015-03-09T20:20:07.070" UserId="7262" Text="Polite way to schedule future work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9352" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2992" RevisionGUID="e6229a3e-e21e-4793-9758-244935451af3" CreationDate="2015-03-09T20:20:07.070" UserId="7262" Text="|communication|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9353" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2993" RevisionGUID="178821c9-ab22-4e34-a0f2-1d2e9d2666c8" CreationDate="2015-03-10T01:15:35.120" UserId="5893" Text="&gt; I'm currently booked solid until $Date. I hope that works with your time frame.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client will hopefully be OK with that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you write your contract (you should be using written contracts for ALL your work), you can put a start date (or tentative start date) and estimated completion date (and milestone dates, if applicable) so it's not a surprise for the client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9355" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2967" RevisionGUID="069d2ca4-ee57-4979-b101-946c4a5e5f82" CreationDate="2015-03-10T09:17:04.940" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/575223837719203840" />
  <row Id="9356" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2995" RevisionGUID="81d09e3e-848c-4c30-a417-7458fe4d73ca" CreationDate="2015-03-10T18:05:57.793" UserId="1323" Text="Consider a **save-the-date clause** in your contract.  From slides 107-109 of [Dan Mall's presentation, &quot;Prototyping Your Business&quot;][1]:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;I'll be honest: my time is in demand.  To reserve a specific&#xD;&#xA;&gt; timeframe for your project, you can opt into an additional retainer&#xD;&#xA;&gt; that guarantees that your project is my first priority starting $Date.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; This retainer is non-refundable.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then, there's a checkbox: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;I choose to immediately reserve this timeframe for my project and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; will send $____ along with the signed contract.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This assumes that the client really wants to work with you, and that your services are in demand enough that you need to do this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.slideshare.net/fitc_slideshare/prototyping-your-business-with-dan-mall" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9364" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2997" RevisionGUID="d25152d9-1336-4cdc-b6db-edca174862b6" CreationDate="2015-03-11T06:15:19.557" UserId="4561" Text="In my experience the 3 - 4 weeks of no communication is not uncommon as people get busy and shove projects aside.  I have often had good results shooting them an email that says something like your idea:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;I want to check in regarding this XYZ project because my calendar is starting to fill up and I want to be sure I have time clear for you assuming you're moving forward.&quot; or &quot;I'm trying to juggle a few things on my schedule, when are you hoping to do ___...&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the project is over and you just want them to remember you, I would not contact them ***every*** 3 to 4 weeks, but occasionally should not hurt.  &quot;Just checking in to see if I can help you with anything.&quot;  Just don't overdo it because I think there is a psychology to it where if you appear to have a lot of free time, they don't want you as much, even if just subconsciously. (It's like dating...)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the &quot;I'm super booked but don't want you to think you're not one of my priorities.&quot; approach is best, assuming it's true.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or &quot;I have a few people sniffing around, but May and June are usually my slower months, so if you'd like to get on the calendar...&quot;  You could even offer a discount, but I'd say it's due to business being cyclical so it doesn't look like you're not in demand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also sometimes send links to articles on a topic of interest as a way to remind people of my existence without bugging them asking for work. People forget - I've had more than one client that I haven't worked with for a couple years call to ask if I know anyone who can do exactly what I do.  Hello?  The remembered me but not well enough to remember that's exactly what I do.  Sigh. (I'm actually terrible with follow up - do as I say, not as I do.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BTW, on the opposite end of the spectrum, when you get so busy you can't handle all the client requests a great way to buy time is to send clients some questions about the project that they need to answer before you can do anything.  That's usually good for a week to a couple months of breathing room...&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9365" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2998" RevisionGUID="b526a96e-547b-410e-b8b7-a04de88f98ce" CreationDate="2015-03-11T16:21:34.287" UserId="7298" Text="Just recently I had an incident with ODesk where they rejected and permanently banned me from freelancing. This blog post will highlight the support interactions I had with them in great detail:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://rantscrimination.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/odesk-rejects-me-from-freelancing-just.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This thread just shows that they limited my financial transactions. However in a more recent thread (a new support case) they told me that I was permanently banned because of IP location irregularities. I will upload another blog post with those details. I am not sure how the irregularities came from but IP addresses cannot be solely used to ban a user from freelancing. They even told me not to contact them in the future. Do you guys think this is justified? How can I possibly recover my account? I even provided legitimate documents to prove my identity. Frankly I think they should have a better way to verify ODesk freelancers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9366" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="2998" RevisionGUID="b526a96e-547b-410e-b8b7-a04de88f98ce" CreationDate="2015-03-11T16:21:34.287" UserId="7298" Text="ODesk rejects for IP irregularities. Is that fair?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9367" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="2998" RevisionGUID="b526a96e-547b-410e-b8b7-a04de88f98ce" CreationDate="2015-03-11T16:21:34.287" UserId="7298" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9368" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="2999" RevisionGUID="49713542-c50e-4914-9ba7-338e81093391" CreationDate="2015-03-11T16:47:43.260" UserId="5893" Text="from ODesk TOS:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You agree that you are not: (a) a citizen or resident of a geographic area in which access or use of the Site is prohibited by applicable law, decree, regulation, treaty, or administrative act; (b) a citizen or resident of, or located in, a geographic area that is subject to U.S. or other sovereign country sanctions or embargoes; or (c) an individual, or an individual employed by or associated with an entity, identified on the U.S. Department of Commerce's Denied Persons or Entity List, the U.S. Department of Treasury's Specially Designated Nationals or Blocked Persons Lists, or the Department of State's Debarred Parties List or otherwise ineligible to receive items subject to U.S. export control laws and regulations or other economic sanction rules of any sovereign nation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately Bangladesh is on a U.S. Embargo list: http://www.sanctionswiki.org/Category:FinCen_Embargoed_Countries&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since ODesk operates in the United States and must comply with U.S. law, they cannot keep you as a freelancer there." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9370" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3000" RevisionGUID="587f7901-33bf-4ea8-bfcd-44fa5041791a" CreationDate="2015-03-12T14:05:52.003" UserDisplayName="user7302" Text="I work currently as an IT contractor through a placement agency in Massachusetts, as a sole proprietor. I do not have any sort of liability insurance, or &quot;workers comp&quot; insurance for that matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently applied for a consulting position with a company in Connecticut, and when they asked if I was looking for a permanent (salaried) position or contract position, I told them that I would like to work as a contractor. They told me that for that I would need to make sure that I have various insurances besides just workers comp:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - One million dollars ($1,000,000.00) in comprehensive general liability insurance (each occurrence) and a minimum of three million dollars ($3,000,000.00) in comprehensive general liability insurance (aggregate)&#xD;&#xA; - Five million dollars ($5,000,000.00) professional liability/errors and omissions insurance&#xD;&#xA; - One million dollars ($1,000,000.00) automobile liability insurance covering bodily injury and property damage liability&#xD;&#xA; - One million dollars ($1,000,000.00) third party bond or employee dishonesty coverage indemnifying them for losses caused by dishonest acts committed by Vendor’s personnel.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the questions I wanted to ask are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; A. Are these insurance requirements because my contract role with this new company would be more direct (as opposed to being through a placement agency)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; B. Is it common in USA to have to get insurances like this, or are there some states where insurances are not required? (some roles that I have applied for have been in places like Texas and Arizona).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; C. Do US companies require insurances also from off shore companies (in other countries, like India) they hire to work remotely?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9371" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3000" RevisionGUID="587f7901-33bf-4ea8-bfcd-44fa5041791a" CreationDate="2015-03-12T14:05:52.003" UserDisplayName="user7302" Text="What kind of liability insurances should IT consultants prepare to have in USA?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9372" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3000" RevisionGUID="587f7901-33bf-4ea8-bfcd-44fa5041791a" CreationDate="2015-03-12T14:05:52.003" UserDisplayName="user7302" Text="|usa|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9373" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3001" RevisionGUID="7b6369b0-8464-4873-bb00-da83e8742b41" CreationDate="2015-03-12T14:21:55.280" UserDisplayName="user7302" Text="Are there any guidelines on (e.g. a percentage rate) how to calculate between a hourly rate for working under W-2 vs. corp-to-corp/1099?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason for my question is that I recently applied for an IT consultant role and initially told the company I would like to work under corp-to-corp. I later received from them an email detailing the liability insurances they want me to have if I want to work under corp-to-corp.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since the insurances are potentially expensive, they offered me to work for them under W-2 instead and asked what would my W-2 rate be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here I would like to understand if there are common expectations on how large (or small) the differences between the corp-to-corp and W-2 rates would be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there guidelines on how to set ones W-2 rate vs. corp-to-corp/1099 rate on the IT-market? I mean, is it typical to set corp-to-corp rate X percent higher than W-2 rate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9374" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3001" RevisionGUID="7b6369b0-8464-4873-bb00-da83e8742b41" CreationDate="2015-03-12T14:21:55.280" UserDisplayName="user7302" Text="Guidelines for calculating between a W-2 and a corp-to-corp rate in USA?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9375" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3001" RevisionGUID="7b6369b0-8464-4873-bb00-da83e8742b41" CreationDate="2015-03-12T14:21:55.280" UserDisplayName="user7302" Text="|price|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9376" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3000" RevisionGUID="1c11fe3c-6f85-476f-bc25-44f5f680cd01" CreationDate="2015-03-12T14:25:12.943" UserDisplayName="user7302" Comment="added 148 characters in body" Text="I work currently as an IT contractor through a placement agency in Massachusetts, as a sole proprietor. I do not have any sort of liability insurance, or &quot;workers comp&quot; insurance for that matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently applied for a consulting position with a company in Connecticut, and when they asked if I was looking for a permanent (salaried) position or contract position, I told them that I would like to work as a contractor. They told me that for that I would need to make sure that I have various insurances besides just workers comp:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - One million dollars ($1,000,000.00) in comprehensive general liability insurance (each occurrence) and a minimum of three million dollars ($3,000,000.00) in comprehensive general liability insurance (aggregate)&#xD;&#xA; - Five million dollars ($5,000,000.00) professional liability/errors and omissions insurance&#xD;&#xA; - One million dollars ($1,000,000.00) automobile liability insurance covering bodily injury and property damage liability&#xD;&#xA; - One million dollars ($1,000,000.00) third party bond or employee dishonesty coverage indemnifying them for losses caused by dishonest acts committed by Vendor’s personnel.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the questions I wanted to ask are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; A. Are these insurance requirements because my contract role with this new company would be more direct (as opposed to being through a placement agency)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; B. Is it common in USA to have to get insurances like this, or are there some states where insurances are not required? (some roles that I have applied for have been in places like Texas and Arizona).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; C. Do US companies require insurances also from off shore companies (in other countries, like India) they hire to work remotely? (In my case here some of these insurances are probably because I am expected to work on-site, but some of them could apply to remote work as well.)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9377" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3002" RevisionGUID="6aaae069-ff70-4795-b10c-371ebe027d39" CreationDate="2015-03-13T02:28:59.443" UserId="5893" Text="I don't think there are &quot;industry guidelines&quot; in these cases. When I worked for a contract house under a 1099 (corp-to-corp), they were taking 23%* of the rate they were getting from the client company. W-2 &quot;employee contractors&quot; will typically only receive 60% of the rate (the contract house takes 40% or sometimes more).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It all depends on the contract house and their overhead, and how much you (as the contractor) are aware of these practices and how well you can negotiate with the recruiter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*This information was not disclosed to me on purpose. I happened to see an invoice from the contract house and noted the rate I was being billed out at. These sorts of things are rarely discussed openly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9378" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3003" RevisionGUID="e4fd3f7b-a1da-4d22-a218-e1c24407207f" CreationDate="2015-03-13T06:07:13.450" UserId="7307" Text="I have seen lots of ads for outsource.com on facebook. I signed up, input my skillset (php, wordpress, front end technologies), and now I am getting lots of emails about new job offerings that fit my skillset. Seems fantastic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, every job requires a certain amount of &quot;credits&quot; that you must spend to make a bid, and presumably the lowest bidder gets the job. To get credits, you must purchase them, and then I think you might also earn them from being active on the site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anyone used this site (or a site like it) with any success? I am very new to freelance; I have a 9-5 job but I am looking to pick up side work during my off hours. However, I don't want to end up buying a bunch of credits, and not getting any jobs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have googled the site, and looked it up on quora (http://www.quora.com/Outsource-com), but have not found any information. There is a generic &quot;this site is great&quot; review, and then a very negative review claiming its a scam, however, the long-winded negative review just seems to say &quot;they asked me to buy credits, it must be a scam&quot; so it was not very informative.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this doesn't end up sounding open ended or opinion based, but, **have you used this site to get a job? Or is this site (and others like it) just a scam to get you to buy credits?** All of the offers that show up in my inbox (hundreds since I registered a few months ago) just seem too good to be true.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And finally,&#xD;&#xA;**What site would you reccommend?**&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9379" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3003" RevisionGUID="e4fd3f7b-a1da-4d22-a218-e1c24407207f" CreationDate="2015-03-13T06:07:13.450" UserId="7307" Text="Is outsource.com a good place to find a job, or is it a scam?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9380" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3003" RevisionGUID="e4fd3f7b-a1da-4d22-a218-e1c24407207f" CreationDate="2015-03-13T06:07:13.450" UserId="7307" Text="|outsourcing|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9381" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3004" RevisionGUID="fa11bc18-e1b3-49fc-a39d-6b5190aaed70" CreationDate="2015-03-13T15:11:11.533" UserId="5893" Text="I have not used Outsource.com, either, but I don't care for their blanket statement regarding IP rights assignments. I prefer to negotiate these rights separately myself. For graphic design/illustration/visual design work, **standard industry practice** is that the **freelance artist retains the rights** and grants a license of some kind to the client, depending on what the work is. Sometimes it's exclusive, sometimes it's not. And sometimes there is a time limit. (emphasis on the following passage mine)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Proprietary Rights in Work Product shall be owned by Freelancer until payment has been made by Client, at which time Freelancer will be deemed to have assigned all Proprietary Rights in the Work Product to Client. For Hourly-Rate Contracts, Client must pay for all hours. For Fixed-Price Contracts, Client has complete and sole discretion whether and how much to pay; however, if Client does not pay in full, Freelancer may terminate the Service Contract by refunding any partial payment, and Freelancer will retain Proprietary Rights in Work Product. To the extent that under applicable law, Proprietary Rights cannot be assigned, Freelancer hereby irrevocably agrees to grant, and hereby grants, to Client an exclusive (excluding also Freelancer), perpetual, irrevocable, unlimited, worldwide, fully paid, and unconditional license to use and commercialize Work Product in any manner now known or in the future discovered. To the extent such license grant is not fully valid, effective or enforceable under applicable law, **Freelancer hereby irrevocably agrees to grant, and hereby grants, to Client, such rights as Client reasonably requests in order to acquire, as close as possible, all rights equivalent to full legal ownership.** In order to ensure that Client will be able to acquire, perfect and use such Proprietary Rights, Freelancer will: (i) transfer possession, ownership, and title to media, models, and other tangible objects containing Work Product to Client, including delivery of a complete copy of the source code for any software, documented in sufficient detail to enable a reasonably skilled programmer to correct, integrate and modify it; (ii) sign any documents at Client's request to assist Client in the documentation, perfection and enforcement of its rights; and (iii) provide Client with support and reasonable access to information for recording, perfecting, securing, defending, and enforcing such Proprietary Rights in any and all countries. In the case that under applicable law, Freelancer retains any rights of paternity, integrity, disclosure and withdrawal and any other rights that may be known as or referred to as &quot;moral rights&quot; (collectively &quot;Moral Rights&quot;) or other inalienable rights to Work Product or Confidential Information under this Agreement, Freelancer irrevocably agrees to waive, and hereby waives, all such rights, or, to the extent Freelancer cannot waive such rights, Freelancer agrees not to exercise such rights, until Freelancer has provided prior written notice to Client and then only in accordance with any reasonable instructions that Client issues in the interest of protecting its rights. Freelancer's obligations under this Section 6.3 will continue even after Freelancer deregisters from or ceases use of the Outsource.com Platform. Freelancer appoints Client as Freelancer's attorney-in-fact to execute documents on Freelancer's behalf for the purposes set forth in this Section 6.3." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9382" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3003" RevisionGUID="0202edb5-b18f-404b-bbb0-ca939838cc32" CreationDate="2015-03-13T20:08:02.293" UserId="75" Comment="Removed polling question at end to keep on topic" Text="I have seen lots of ads for outsource.com on facebook. I signed up, input my skillset (php, wordpress, front end technologies), and now I am getting lots of emails about new job offerings that fit my skillset. Seems fantastic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, every job requires a certain amount of &quot;credits&quot; that you must spend to make a bid, and presumably the lowest bidder gets the job. To get credits, you must purchase them, and then I think you might also earn them from being active on the site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anyone used this site (or a site like it) with any success? I am very new to freelance; I have a 9-5 job but I am looking to pick up side work during my off hours. However, I don't want to end up buying a bunch of credits, and not getting any jobs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have Googled the site, and looked it up on [Quora](http://www.quora.com/Outsource-com), but have not found any information. There is a generic &quot;this site is great&quot; review, and then a very negative review claiming its a scam, however, the long-winded negative review just seems to say &quot;they asked me to buy credits, it must be a scam&quot; so it was not very informative.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this doesn't end up sounding open ended or opinion based, but **have you used this site to get a job? Or is this site (and others like it) just a scam to get you to buy credits?** All of the offers that show up in my inbox (hundreds since I registered a few months ago) just seem too good to be true." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9387" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3007" RevisionGUID="6d814e55-2585-4666-8f02-69298af2f0a3" CreationDate="2015-03-14T15:25:21.577" UserId="5893" Text="Your 60/40 share ratio sounds about right. I used to be resentful of such ratios (this was for long-term multi-year contract job placements - after 3 years with no renegotiation of payment), until I discovered how time-consuming and exhausting it is to find freelance work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can easily justify the ratio by letting the subcontractor understand how many (*unbillable*) hours you spend on &quot;business development&quot;, and also point out that you are providing **project management services** to the client (which you should be charging the client for, by the way)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you find good developers, keep them on your roster any way you can. When you expand your company by subcontracting, you are ultimately responsible for the quality of the work your subs do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9389" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3008" RevisionGUID="f3231081-e54b-4e1e-894b-67ec45f788c8" CreationDate="2015-03-15T03:32:28.297" UserId="1752" Text="This is quite a strange request honestly. It is even stranger if you have a proper corporation/LLC that you have established.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a 1099 (sole proprietor) contractor, some of this could be attempting to force you to have the same insurance as the employer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a few things that I can think of as to why they require this level of insurance : &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* They have been burned in the past and want to make sure that if they sue you they can receive some compensation (this is what the general liability and professional liability covers).&#xD;&#xA;* They are operating in a regulated industry (think aircraft, other government contracts, bridge building, etc.) and require all contractors to meet the regulated standards.&#xD;&#xA;* They are attempting to use this as a negotiating tool (but this would be strange).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The one that I find odd is the auto insurance requirement. Are you going to be driving a vehicle owned by them? Are you going to be be wearing a uniform provided by them? As a contractor, you are typically responsible for any liability from things like automobile accidents while on the job, so this requirement is *particularly strange.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The answers to your questions&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A. Are these insurance requirements because my contract role with this&#xD;&#xA;&gt; new company would be more direct (as opposed to being through a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; placement agency)?&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; B. Is it common in USA to have to get insurances like this, or are&#xD;&#xA;&gt; there some states where insurances are not required? (some roles that&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I have applied for have been in places like Texas and Arizona).&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; C. Do US companies require insurances also from off shore companies&#xD;&#xA;&gt; (in other countries, like India) they hire to work remotely? (In my&#xD;&#xA;&gt; case here some of these insurances are probably because I am expected&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to work on-site, but some of them could apply to remote work as well.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* I don't know, if you are acting as an actual *employee* they may be using it to try to make it look like you are really a contractor to the IRS.&#xD;&#xA;* It is common for consultants, contractors, and small businesses to have general liability insurance, but the complete requirements and the coverage amounts are somewhat strange. In many states the insurances aren't required, however, *as a sole proprietor* **you have no legal shield between your personal assets and your company** which can result you losing all of your personal assets if successfully sued.&#xD;&#xA;* No, depending on the size of the foreign company etc.  This is all over the map, some large Indian companies have a US based corporation, which can be sued, and likely has liability insurance.  Some guy off of oDesk, probably not...&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9390" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3008" RevisionGUID="ab53123e-7535-466a-a99b-e2a06fa6e21e" CreationDate="2015-03-15T05:52:11.743" UserId="1752" Comment="deleted 4 characters in body" Text="This is quite a strange request honestly. It is even stranger if you have a proper corporation/LLC that you have established.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a 1099 (sole proprietor) contractor, some of this could be attempting to force you to have the same insurance as the employer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a few things that I can think of as to why they require this level of insurance : &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* They have been burned in the past and want to make sure that if they sue you they can receive some compensation (this is what the general liability and professional liability covers).&#xD;&#xA;* They are operating in a regulated industry (think aircraft, other government contracts, bridge building, etc.) and require all contractors to meet the regulated standards.&#xD;&#xA;* They are attempting to use this as a negotiating tool (but this would be strange).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The one that I find odd is the auto insurance requirement. Are you going to be driving a vehicle owned by them? Are you going to be be wearing a uniform provided by them? As a contractor, you are typically responsible for any liability from things like automobile accidents while on the job, so this requirement is *particularly strange.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The answers to your questions&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A. Are these insurance requirements because my contract role with this&#xD;&#xA;&gt; new company would be more direct (as opposed to being through a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; placement agency)?&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; B. Is it common in USA to have to get insurances like this, or are&#xD;&#xA;&gt; there some states where insurances are not required? (some roles that&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I have applied for have been in places like Texas and Arizona).&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; C. Do US companies require insurances also from off shore companies&#xD;&#xA;&gt; (in other countries, like India) they hire to work remotely? (In my&#xD;&#xA;&gt; case here some of these insurances are probably because I am expected&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to work on-site, but some of them could apply to remote work as well.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* I don't know, if you are acting as an actual *employee* they may be using it to try to make it look like you are really a contractor to the IRS.&#xD;&#xA;* It is common for consultants, contractors, and small businesses to have general liability insurance, but the complete requirements and the coverage amounts are somewhat strange. In many states the insurances aren't required, however, *as a sole proprietor* **you have no legal shield between your personal assets and your company** which can result you losing all of your personal assets if successfully sued.&#xD;&#xA;* No, depending on the size of the foreign company etc.  This is all over the map, some large Indian companies have a US based corporation, which can be sued, and likely have liability insurance.  Some guy on oDesk, probably not...&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9391" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3009" RevisionGUID="a153b60a-a988-4fe3-bdd4-650aafe1a231" CreationDate="2015-03-15T08:44:19.283" UserId="7315" Text="I got a freelance project to add few features to an existing website. This is my first independent project and I'm confused about how much to charge. There are four features to add. &#xA;1. Allow the site admin to add tutor profiles to the site and the users should be able to filter those profiles and request for that particular tutor. &#xA;2. Allow the admin to post jobs on the site and the users will filter the jobs and apply for the jobs directly from the site. &#xA;3. A custom calendar for users to plan their studies and also collaborate and share with other users' time table. &#xA;4. Let users post questions for us or for other users to be answered. More of a forum.&#xA;&#xA;I need to give them a quote and need an overall idea of how much to charge on this. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9392" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3009" RevisionGUID="a153b60a-a988-4fe3-bdd4-650aafe1a231" CreationDate="2015-03-15T08:44:19.283" UserId="7315" Text="How much to charge for adding features to website" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9393" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3009" RevisionGUID="a153b60a-a988-4fe3-bdd4-650aafe1a231" CreationDate="2015-03-15T08:44:19.283" UserId="7315" Text="|freelance-websites|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9394" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3010" RevisionGUID="3d9828f0-ce54-4ace-9efe-44ef749d6e39" CreationDate="2015-03-15T10:21:44.997" UserId="7311" Text="You can use reseller option that many hosting providers offer. For example, hostgator offer such an option. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9396" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3012" RevisionGUID="f7ed373c-4098-4828-b86b-6260c13f661e" CreationDate="2015-03-15T23:46:50.907" UserId="7319" Text="I have been studying Web Development for about three and a half years now. I believe I have the skills to build decent websites using both front end and back end technologies. I would like to become a freelance web developer, more preferably only a front end developer. I am faced with a major problem though. When I was a teenager I got brain damage, this has given me major memory problems, and difficulties in learning. My question is, how can I get clients, keep clients and take down requirements, with these kinds of problems? I understand this may be a little vauge, as there is not much details about my problems. I can build websites and if I have all the information I need, then I shouldn't have any problems with the implementation. It's just personal contact with clients that I feel I am going to fail at. I'm looking for strategies round these barriers. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated, thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9397" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3012" RevisionGUID="f7ed373c-4098-4828-b86b-6260c13f661e" CreationDate="2015-03-15T23:46:50.907" UserId="7319" Text="Finding clients and taking requirements with learning difficulties" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9398" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3012" RevisionGUID="f7ed373c-4098-4828-b86b-6260c13f661e" CreationDate="2015-03-15T23:46:50.907" UserId="7319" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9399" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3013" RevisionGUID="cf02d3c3-8c9e-46c9-9380-c5c6e3ed80c0" CreationDate="2015-03-16T00:00:27.063" UserId="7320" Text="I am UK contractor, a couple of years ago I looked into contracting in the Netherlands, and if my memory serves my correctly you could claim the cost of the working week (i.e. Monday-Friday).  As you have you ltd company, you should of course double check this with your accountant." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9400" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3014" RevisionGUID="86a9fa3f-8a14-44aa-87ff-8bc64ce0d902" CreationDate="2015-03-16T02:27:53.123" UserId="5893" Text="You have to use your best guess as to how long you think the project will take, including any revisions, and multiply it by your desired hourly rate. You may also want to add in some &quot;overhead&quot; to cover the time you spent bidding on the project and the possibility of more back-and-forth with the client than you expected.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or you can bill out the actual time you spend on the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9407" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3009" RevisionGUID="3c6f2a2a-ee98-4208-846f-22194849ae3d" CreationDate="2015-03-16T18:11:57.833" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="9410" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3001" RevisionGUID="db7d1e28-e7d6-4b19-85a2-5fed4e802d0b" CreationDate="2015-03-16T20:55:12.733" UserId="-1" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[57],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;,&quot;BindingReason&quot;:{&quot;DuplicateApprovedByAsker&quot;:&quot;&quot;}}]}" />
  <row Id="9411" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3010" RevisionGUID="96e6b0d7-f050-4c6e-94ef-6db2e6612f52" CreationDate="2015-03-17T13:21:44.207" UserId="7311" Comment="added 167 characters in body" Text="You can use Reseller web hosting option that many hosting providers offer. &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Some of reseller programs:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - [Hostgator reseller program][2]&#xD;&#xA; - [Bluehost reseller program][3]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.hostgator.com/resellers&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.bluehost.com/reseller" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9412" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3016" RevisionGUID="f3738cfe-80f8-49b4-95d2-83bc3471880d" CreationDate="2015-03-17T18:54:06.633" UserId="517" Text="What does it mean learning difficulties? Are you slow at performing tasks? If yes, this may be a major downer. 90% of time clients want a software which has to be done &quot;yesterday&quot; so be prepared to get a lot of rejections. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there any parts of programming that you can do as quickly as other programmers? If yes, do those things. Simply do things you can do as same as others and at the same speed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, why don't you make a software or a website that can help others like you? It may be a small niche, but the success may come over night because others like you may not have quality services at disposal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most times, when programmer want to make some money aside and they cannot commit full-time to freelancing, they start making their own product which they can develop at their own pace. I am confident you could do the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: A friend of mine has a wife who is deaf. Everything else is OK. He opened her a profile on oDesk because he is very successful there. It's been almost 10 months now and dozens of applications, but she could not find job (she openly stated on her profile that she is deaf). Clients simply ignore her because of her deafness, although she applies for email support. It seems that clients and people we see on the TV and all those talk about giving a chance to impaired persons, does not work on services like oDesk. That is why I suspected that you may face the same destiny. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9413" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3017" RevisionGUID="ce341067-b850-4f90-930e-6c3c0853d950" CreationDate="2015-03-17T22:17:49.777" UserId="1583" Text="You could offer your services to creative and web agencies in your area as a freelance or junior and have them get the work and clients and pass it on to you to work on. &#xA;&#xA;Or partner with a sales or project management person?&#xA;&#xA;On the client side if you do do it, just try and see and tell the client. You could also try recording all conversations on audio format so you could listen back. &#xA;You could also just in a professional way ask them to. Could you email me that. This can be good for all clients as often when they write it down they change their mind or give more detail. &#xA;&#xA;Good luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9414" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3018" RevisionGUID="58de03fd-719b-4d0a-9675-c97ab8688f82" CreationDate="2015-03-18T05:52:18.640" UserId="4588" Text="I know very little about the freelancing world. But I have always been curious about it, as it seems like a nice alternative career option.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to know, what are the kind of projects available in MATLAB? What industry basically uses MATLAB, and what kind of expertise one should have in order to bag these projects?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, is it financially viable to start off as a MATLAB freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9415" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3018" RevisionGUID="58de03fd-719b-4d0a-9675-c97ab8688f82" CreationDate="2015-03-18T05:52:18.640" UserId="4588" Text="What is the scope of freelancing in MATLAB programming?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9416" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3018" RevisionGUID="58de03fd-719b-4d0a-9675-c97ab8688f82" CreationDate="2015-03-18T05:52:18.640" UserId="4588" Text="|freelance-websites|programmer|growth|scope-of-work|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9428" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="3010" RevisionGUID="8edc178a-e544-4d6a-8630-ec4c3cf4a623" CreationDate="2015-03-18T17:40:38.223" UserId="75" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="9440" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3025" RevisionGUID="9495c276-2855-4a71-a3e2-8cb887292423" CreationDate="2015-03-19T13:31:29.790" UserId="7351" Text="I've recently moved to the UK and plan to form a limited company so that I can seek contract-work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However I already need to invoice one of my (overseas) clients as I already have a contract with them (which soon ends). The contract references me (as a freelancer rather than a company) so I have _assumed_ that I'll have to initially register as a sole trader (at least for the duration of the contract), invoice my client and pay the relevant self assessment tax / NI contributions before (or besides) forming a limited company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this correct?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And furthermore, is it be possible to register both as a sole trader and as an ltd director or do I have to 'cease' being a sole trader before forming an ltd? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9441" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3025" RevisionGUID="9495c276-2855-4a71-a3e2-8cb887292423" CreationDate="2015-03-19T13:31:29.790" UserId="7351" Text="Starting as sole trader / limited company in the UK" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9442" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3025" RevisionGUID="9495c276-2855-4a71-a3e2-8cb887292423" CreationDate="2015-03-19T13:31:29.790" UserId="7351" Text="|contracts|invoices|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9443" PostHistoryTypeId="16" PostId="1496" RevisionGUID="c9ccdd00-cace-4590-bc8b-bc2288559859" CreationDate="2015-03-19T15:26:31.353" UserId="1323" />
  <row Id="9444" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1496" RevisionGUID="c9ccdd00-cace-4590-bc8b-bc2288559859" CreationDate="2015-03-19T15:26:31.353" UserId="1323" Comment="added 136 characters in body" Text="Admittedly, I haven't really been in any situations as a freelancer that required me to be on call 24 hours a day.  But one thing that may help you communicate with international clients is **working a split shift**, if possible.  This is an idea I got from my college days, working in retail.  While our store was doing inventory, they would have me work the morning to set the sales floor and then come back in the evening to do inventory.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my previous corporate job, I was officially supposed to work 40 hours per week, roughly 9am - 5:30pm (I wasn't paid for lunch breaks).  However, I would usually get tired  around 2-3pm and accomplish very little in that period - even after I started taking short exercise breaks in the afternoon.  I ended up frequently working late because of this.  At this workplace, we also had an offshore contractor who had almost a 12-hour time difference from us.  One or two days a week, their team would stay late and we would come in early to do a phone call with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So since I've been freelancing, I've rarely worked an entire afternoon.  Instead, *I take about 3 hours off every afternoon* to exercise. Then, I work well into the evening when I don't have to go somewhere else.  I'll usually work a schedule like this: 8 - 8:30 am, 9:30am - ~2:30pm, 5:30pm - 7pm, 7:45pm - (anywhere between 9pm and midnight).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How a split shift schedule would impact interfacing with clients:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Since I have an &quot;about 10 hours out of about 14&quot; workday, I'm more available to clients without working a great deal of hours myself.  And I tend to get more done because I'm working at my peak times.&#xD;&#xA; - In proposals, I list my core hours as 10am-2pm.  I say that communication from me can generally be expected between 8am and 10pm.&#xD;&#xA; - I try to respond to emails within 24 hours (aside from weekends).  For improved productivity, I only open my email client about 3 times a day most days.&#xD;&#xA; - I send status emails at least once a week. Frequency varies based on project needs and the stage of the project.&#xD;&#xA; - Although I haven't had to do this as a freelancer yet, I would recommend scheduling status meetings at a mutually agreeable time at least once a week. (Edit: One of my current clients and I mutually agree on times for status meetings.  These generally take place during my core hours.) &#xD;&#xA; - I'm more responsive on the phone or if somebody tags me in a Facebook&#xD;&#xA;   work group post.&#xD;&#xA; - Some freelancers, such as the 1WD.tv founders, recommend charging a higher hourly rate for a certain number of support hours per month.  I am considering implementing this sort of policy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9445" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3026" RevisionGUID="19088ceb-8606-442c-8498-9f7d9ec8fffd" CreationDate="2015-03-19T16:47:04.407" UserId="7354" Text="Here's what I would do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Contribute to Open Source projects.** Some open source projects have a lot of visibility. Do great work. Companies who's looking to hire/outsource would want to bring someone with experiences on board.&#xD;&#xA; 2. **Talk to local business/SME.** The local SME community are largely under served. Start small. Provide excellent support. They will almost certainly go back to you again.&#xD;&#xA; 3. **Let your friends &amp; relatives know.** The bigger network or reach the more likely people are going to give you a chance.&#xD;&#xA; 4. **Give away some of your best work for FREE**. When people see the excellent works that you do, they are far more comfortable to give you the opportunity. Almost always try to create an unfair advantage. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9448" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3027" RevisionGUID="fd31aeaa-082a-4224-a3cb-a63ab1b91b84" CreationDate="2015-03-19T23:46:28.803" UserId="7356" Text="I've been a freelancer on Outsource.com for a few months and have actually had some success.  I've been hired twice so far.  It's a different setup from other sites... you pay a subscription fee to get quotes and message clients, but there aren't any service fees so it's up to you to do a good job marketing yourself.  Since they are new, there aren't swarms of freelancers to compete with and because of the subscription fee, you don't see people quoting unreasonably low.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not sure what the site will be like once they get a lot more freelancers on, but right now I'm going to keep at it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9450" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3028" RevisionGUID="ce236d19-f86b-4f60-8373-83292873ad1a" CreationDate="2015-03-20T04:46:19.937" UserId="5642" Text="This is about USA where health insurance is mandatory for most people (with the exception of some groups) due to the Affordable Care Act and Patient Care and Coverage Act (aka Obamacare).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This question applies only to those States where people have to pay income taxes to the State and where the States enforce a penalty on a lack of health insurance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some States, such as Massachusetts, had mandatory health insurance already before Obamacare made the requirement nationwide. People who opted not to get health insurance in MA have had to pay a penalty to the State with the income tax.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because of this, is it possible that a freelancer without health insurance could (at least in MA) end up having to pay a lack-of-insurance penalty separately to both IRS and to the State they file their taxes in?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9451" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3028" RevisionGUID="ce236d19-f86b-4f60-8373-83292873ad1a" CreationDate="2015-03-20T04:46:19.937" UserId="5642" Text="Can a freelancer without health insurance end up paying tax penalty separately to both IRS and the local state?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9452" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3028" RevisionGUID="ce236d19-f86b-4f60-8373-83292873ad1a" CreationDate="2015-03-20T04:46:19.937" UserId="5642" Text="|taxes|usa|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9456" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3010" RevisionGUID="98c73bcd-e9ec-4824-b333-0c9ad83d30b9" CreationDate="2015-03-20T23:18:10.417" UserId="7311" Comment="added workflow how to add new client via whm in hostgator reseller programm, how to show to client development copy of the website and how to install wordpress via cpanel in a second. Added images also" Text="You can use Reseller web hosting option that many hosting providers offer. &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Some of reseller programs:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - [Hostgator reseller program][1]&#xD;&#xA; - [Bluehost reseller program][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Last year we used hostgator reseller program. You will get access to WebHost manager console via, for example, www.yourdomain.com:2087.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. WHM login![WHM login][3]&#xD;&#xA; 2. After that you will see you WebHost manager console with sidebar where you can see &quot;List accounts&quot; and &quot;Account Functions&quot;. This two menus i used to create and manage clients websites. ![List accounts][4]&#xD;&#xA; 3. Via &quot;Account Functions »Create a New Account&quot; you will add new client. If your client does not have any domain name yet then yours client development copy of the website will be available via url: your website's IP + /~ +client's username in WHM &quot;Home »Account Information »List Accounts&quot;. For example, our website ip is 192.168.500.500 and you created new client with username &quot;foo&quot;. Your development copy will be available at 192.168.500.500/~foo ![website ip][5]![development copy of the website][6]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that u can press Cpanel icon near you newly created client account ![acces to Cpanel][7] and using QuickInstall ![QuickInstall][8] install Wordpress in a second ![installing wordpress][9]&#xD;&#xA;Hope i helped you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.hostgator.com/resellers&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.bluehost.com/reseller&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/FjDvq.png&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/TTX7i.png&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/RJ5Z3.png&#xD;&#xA;  [6]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/VTI1v.png&#xD;&#xA;  [7]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/TTX7i.png&#xD;&#xA;  [8]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/AHdc0.png&#xD;&#xA;  [9]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/NIpB0.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9458" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3030" RevisionGUID="bd1d7095-2262-42e6-ba5d-ce795f38853c" CreationDate="2015-03-21T07:08:31.107" UserId="7363" Text="I got a gig from one of the company via email &amp; interviews and they made me a good offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They want me to start this collaboration via `Elance` and when I looked at the fees/charges on Elance I found `8.75%` of the project fees to be on a higher side. I had a discussion with the company folks and they said they are open to other alternatives as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, are there any other alternatives to Elance which are safe &amp; has low charges." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9459" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3030" RevisionGUID="bd1d7095-2262-42e6-ba5d-ce795f38853c" CreationDate="2015-03-21T07:08:31.107" UserId="7363" Text="Freelance site with lowest commission fees?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9460" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3030" RevisionGUID="bd1d7095-2262-42e6-ba5d-ce795f38853c" CreationDate="2015-03-21T07:08:31.107" UserId="7363" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9461" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3030" RevisionGUID="98b1b5ea-fe38-4056-b361-57ece29f34af" CreationDate="2015-03-21T07:25:13.023" UserId="7363" Comment="added 99 characters in body" Text="I got a gig from one of the company via email &amp; interviews and they made me a good offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They want me to start this collaboration via `Elance` and when I looked at the fees/charges on Elance I found `8.75%` of the project fees to be on a higher side. I had a discussion with the company folks and they said they are open to other alternatives as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, are there any other alternatives for this type of collaboration without involving any freelance websites and if not any alternative to Elance which are safe &amp; has low charges." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9462" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3031" RevisionGUID="ab13cc71-53cc-4c5a-b1ba-e6d996454ae4" CreationDate="2015-03-21T11:46:10.510" UserId="517" Text="Among top ones, Elance is the cheapest indeed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if you do not build profile, you do not need Elance. You can easily buy Basecamp account for $25 monthly and use PayPal (I think they take approx 4%).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or even cheaper, you can use Bitbucket. For files, you can use their repositories. In their free account you have tickets and wiki for free. So use tickets for milestones and tasks. Once they pay a milestone, you simply push changes to the repo. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To save money on payment, you can use direct payments to your bank account. This is usually one-time fee and for larger amounts, it can be a bargain." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9463" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3032" RevisionGUID="71892273-6a0d-4134-8f37-ecefee5d230e" CreationDate="2015-03-21T16:49:43.023" UserId="663" Text="**Option 1** is to build the site on your own web host, perhaps as a subdomain (e.g. client.mysite.com). You can provide links for your client to view the work, and then transfer everything to their hosting service when you're done. I did that when I was first starting out, and you can make it work, but I think there are better ways.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Option 2** is to handle the hosting for your clients. I would recommend this for a couple reasons:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You can deploy their site with way less hassle. Trying to transfer code, database, and files between servers is always going to be more work than deploying a site on the same server/host it was built on.&#xD;&#xA;2. You can make extra money using a reseller account. For example, [GreenGeeks](http://www.greengeeks.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=spencerbrooks&amp;campaign=stackexchange) has a number of options, and lets you invoice your clients free of charge for hosting services. Even if you only have 1 client on the reseller account, you're basically getting your personal web hosting for free!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9464" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3033" RevisionGUID="cc482a8c-0123-481c-8796-5e2c8503dead" CreationDate="2015-03-21T17:49:11.027" UserId="1148" Text="Yes. I started as a Sole Trader and after a couple of years, registered as a limited company as my company grew.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will still act as a company, but a sole trader is a lot easier and cheaper to set up. Once you have a healthy turnover, you can then look at registering as a Limited company.&#xD;&#xA;https://www.gov.uk/set-up-sole-trader/overview&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Last question: No. You can only be one or the other. A director of a limited company can not also be a sole trader. So yes, you will cease the Sole Trader, and become a director." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9465" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3034" RevisionGUID="37738870-5534-42f1-a666-8252d506c55c" CreationDate="2015-03-21T18:06:04.810" UserId="7368" Text="I'm currently working on a mobile game as an independent freelancer and I recently got in touch with a talented designer for eventual partnership.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm willing to pay the designer for his collaboration (we'll probably use oDesk for that), but I'm also offering him partnership (we'll share any potential revenue the game might generate once released) for a couple reasons: &#xD;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I want the designer to consider the project as his own and give his best&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The budget I'm assigning to graphic design is relatively tight&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is that the designer and I did not know each other before this arose, we live in different countries, and we obviously cannot trust each other on simple promise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any kind of contract or legal procedure that I can follow to prove to my eventual partner that I'm serious about the deal and that I'm willing to share revenue with him in the future?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm an independent iOS developer at the moment, and I intend to release an android version at a later stage." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9466" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3034" RevisionGUID="37738870-5534-42f1-a666-8252d506c55c" CreationDate="2015-03-21T18:06:04.810" UserId="7368" Text="Legal procedure for freelancers partnership" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9467" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3034" RevisionGUID="37738870-5534-42f1-a666-8252d506c55c" CreationDate="2015-03-21T18:06:04.810" UserId="7368" Text="|legal|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9468" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3035" RevisionGUID="e743e44f-307c-4b0f-9e7c-c493313b5b45" CreationDate="2015-03-21T20:42:04.040" UserId="663" Text="I would sign a [partnership agreement](https://www.rocketlawyer.com/form/partnership-agreement.rl) if you want to prove you're serious. Optionally, you could form an LLC together if you want to have better liability protection." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9470" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3037" RevisionGUID="65686314-0b5f-443b-b22e-23e0f955d118" CreationDate="2015-03-23T14:42:39.537" UserId="7375" Text="i started a project but they have not been paid in 2-3 months, i want to cancel the contract. do i have full rights to cancel the contract and void a signed NDA? a company i have been working with have not paid me for outstanding invoices so i want to cancel the contract as i am fed up waiting for them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9471" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3037" RevisionGUID="65686314-0b5f-443b-b22e-23e0f955d118" CreationDate="2015-03-23T14:42:39.537" UserId="7375" Text="what happens if you are not paid on time can i cancel a contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9472" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3037" RevisionGUID="65686314-0b5f-443b-b22e-23e0f955d118" CreationDate="2015-03-23T14:42:39.537" UserId="7375" Text="|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9473" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3037" RevisionGUID="291366f3-86fe-4f2e-acaa-1b1d4c0662c7" CreationDate="2015-03-23T14:53:09.087" UserId="7375" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|payment-terms|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9474" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="3010" RevisionGUID="f4c37855-5be8-462f-8460-e98d353dfd59" CreationDate="2015-03-23T16:09:34.030" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="9475" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3032" RevisionGUID="8391a927-4702-485f-84d1-2d33bbcb8b11" CreationDate="2015-03-23T16:13:23.750" UserId="75" Comment="Please do not put affiliate links in your posts; save that for your profile" Text="**Option 1** is to build the site on your own web host, perhaps as a subdomain (e.g. client.mysite.com). You can provide links for your client to view the work, and then transfer everything to their hosting service when you're done. I did that when I was first starting out, and you can make it work, but I think there are better ways.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Option 2** is to handle the hosting for your clients. I would recommend this for a couple reasons:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You can deploy their site with way less hassle. Trying to transfer code, database, and files between servers is always going to be more work than deploying a site on the same server/host it was built on.&#xD;&#xA;2. You can make extra money using a reseller account. For example, [GreenGeeks](http://www.greengeeks.com) has a number of options, and lets you invoice your clients free of charge for hosting services. Even if you only have 1 client on the reseller account, you're basically getting your personal web hosting for free!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9478" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3037" RevisionGUID="d6999cc1-4341-4dbd-b055-447da7bb8141" CreationDate="2015-03-23T18:16:45.980" UserId="7375" Comment="updated" Text="I started a project with a fairly new client, i have been working with them for 6 months now. Up until now they have been paying me without delays. Unfortunately my latest invoice has not been paid which is now overdue coming up to the 3months mark.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Firstly as a freelancer I cant wait 3 months+ for payments (for work carried out). The usual payment terms are either instant payment or a maximum 30days no more. I have explicitly told the client that i cant wait around for them to pay, they keep saying they will pay but never do.. its now dragged on 3months already i have kept emailing them but they have not paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not want to work for a client that does not pay on time as a freelance contractor i cant work like this. I want to cancel the contract. I would like to know do I have full rights to cancel the contract and void a signed NDA?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have physical assets of the client i have told them that if they do not pay i will have no option discard / or sell these items to make up for the outstanding invoices. They have said if i do this they will bill me for the amount of the assets. They also said i would need to forward all work completed as Per the non disclosure agreement and the companies Terms and conditions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to know what my rights/options are with a non-paying client that i have signed a NDA / Contract? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9479" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3037" RevisionGUID="5379232b-23a3-4226-8d0c-65544433816e" CreationDate="2015-03-23T19:02:38.410" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, title" Text="I had started a project with a fairly new client about six months ago. Up until three months ago, they had been paying me without delay, but unfortunately, my latest invoice is currently unpaid and reaching the three-month mark of non-payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My usual payment terms are either immediate payment or a maximum term of 30 days. I've told the client explicitly that I cannot wait around for them to pay. They've responded that they will pay, but they haven't. This has been ongoing for three months; I've kept emailing them, but they have not paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I currently hold physical assets from the client; I have told them that if they do not promptly pay, I will have no option but to discard or sell these items to help make up for the outstanding invoices. However, they've said that if I take these actions, they will bill me for the total amount of the assets. They've also said that I would need to forward all completed work as per the NDA and the company's Terms and Conditions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelance contractor, I do not want to work for a client who cannot pay on time, so I want to cancel the contract. Would I have full rights to cancel the contract and void a signed NDA? What options do I have with a non-paying client such as this one?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9480" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3037" RevisionGUID="5379232b-23a3-4226-8d0c-65544433816e" CreationDate="2015-03-23T19:02:38.410" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, title" Text="Can I cancel a contract if I'm not paid on-time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9484" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3039" RevisionGUID="704cd3fd-0b09-4318-9621-727932afc086" CreationDate="2015-03-25T00:35:17.717" UserId="5893" Text="You have an NDA with the client. Do you have a written contract regarding assignment of rights, payment terms, cancellation fees, late payments (and interest/surchages/late fees)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they have not paid on the contract terms, they are in breach of contract (if you have a contract). However, you don't want to breach the contract as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Small claims court is a recourse. You should consult with a lawyer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9488" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2998" RevisionGUID="49987664-0706-4379-adf5-f1742e355503" CreationDate="2015-03-25T09:47:14.190" UserId="58" Comment="103" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="9489" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3041" RevisionGUID="c96ab721-fd49-4139-90cd-b705deb959f4" CreationDate="2015-03-25T22:42:19.773" UserId="4591" Text="I'm using FogBugz, it's a good place to keep all mails, as well as cases, related to the project or client. Highly recommended. It's free for up to 2 persons." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9490" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3042" RevisionGUID="fc70d1b7-10c4-47fd-aff6-f78f4f865cef" CreationDate="2015-03-26T01:14:51.210" UserId="7391" Text="I am both a night-owl at times and also work in different time zones. My main goal is to be responsive to my main clients in a timely manner and to not have my different hours cause a problem for their work flow. This sometimes means that I'll be up on a call at 4am in Europe with a client in New York who is working late on a deadline at 10pm. But I see this as the price I pay for being able to travel freely, work from different countries, and keep the schedule I want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also recommend what was said above about being proactive with your communication with clients: check in with them before they have to check in with you.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9497" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3045" RevisionGUID="38df3390-96cd-4cce-935e-68e6bbaf2d38" CreationDate="2015-03-26T16:46:31.730" UserId="1752" Text="Matlab is good for fleshing out system performance and designing system mockups prior to prototyping. It is *NOT* viable for production systems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Matlab is really good for the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Imaging problems/systems&#xD;&#xA;* Control systems and design (simulink)&#xD;&#xA;* DSP, filters, and linear systems&#xD;&#xA;* Physical optics and light propagation&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Matlab is ok for:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Machine learning/classification problems&#xD;&#xA;* GUI &#xD;&#xA;* Regression problems&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many companies use Matlab, especially for optical system/image processing mockups and control systems. I personally used it a for a contract with a large orange grower for a fruit defect grading prototype (in addition to C++ and other optical modeling design software like FRED, ZEMAX).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your biggest issue will be finding clients, but Matlab is particularly prevalent in the **aerospace, defense, electrical engineering, applied mathematics, and optical engineering** communities." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9500" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3046" RevisionGUID="2c126cbb-b138-4899-b640-fb2599a9fb18" CreationDate="2015-03-26T20:40:20.257" UserId="7401" Text="I'm a new web design freelancer and don't really have a portfolio to show my potential clients, therefore I've been having a tough time in getting them to visualize what exactly it is that I'll be making for them. To solve this, I made a web page on my site's &quot;Samples&quot; page with a bunch of screenshots of other websites for my prospective clients to look at to help them get an idea of what kind of work I want to do for them. A lot of the screenshots are of home pages, I have cropped the images and scaled them down to smaller sizes. Does this sound like something that would be covered by the Fair Use law?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is a link to my samples page:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.liquidworlddesign.com/Samples.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9501" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3046" RevisionGUID="2c126cbb-b138-4899-b640-fb2599a9fb18" CreationDate="2015-03-26T20:40:20.257" UserId="7401" Text="Is it okay to use screenshots of other websites on my websites &quot;sales&quot; page?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9502" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3046" RevisionGUID="2c126cbb-b138-4899-b640-fb2599a9fb18" CreationDate="2015-03-26T20:40:20.257" UserId="7401" Text="|legal|attracting-clients|portfolio|copyright|ownership|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9503" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3047" RevisionGUID="5521e01e-8330-4586-a650-36a0b2e7ac82" CreationDate="2015-03-26T23:03:55.000" UserId="9" Text="TL;DR: I don't think that this would be OK. The best course of action would be to make your own designs (even if they're for example sites) and use those for your &quot;samples&quot;. Your clients would get a great feel for how _you_ design, which is what you want to showcase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's examine what Fair Use entails:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 17 U.S.C. § 106 and 17 U.S.C. § 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * the nature of the copyrighted work;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.[5]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Below is how I'd analyze these in your case. A common contract clause  states that the design copyright is held by the _designer_ and that the design is perpetually licensed to the company for their use. If this is the case, the copyright holder of the design is not the company, but the designer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **Purpose and character of the use**: Since you would be doing this to promote yourself, this would likely fall as &quot;commercial nature&quot; and fall against fair use.&#xD;&#xA;* **Nature of copyrighted work**: The original work is creative in nature (as opposed to factual). This doesn't favor a fair use argument.&#xD;&#xA;* **Amount and substantiality of the portion used**: Since you're only using a portion of one of the pages, this will probably weigh as fair use. However, I could see an argument that the design _is_ the main selling point, and showing the design, even though it's only on one page, counts as replicating enough of the design.&#xD;&#xA;* **The effect on the market or value**: While it would increase the market, it wouldn't do so substantially. Furthermore, it wouldn't devalue the copyright holder's work. This is probably in favor of fair use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Overall, I think your proposed use case would not fall under fair use. In addition, frankly, if I were to come across a website that claimed my design as their own, I would strongly consider legal action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Honestly, the best thing to do would be to create your own designs and showcase those. It'll take longer, but it'll be more worth it in the end. Your clients would see _your_ work, what _you're_ capable of." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9504" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3048" RevisionGUID="ff126a8c-edcf-43ed-beba-a2176aa59b00" CreationDate="2015-03-27T00:46:43.293" UserId="663" Text="I use a combination of [Mailbox](http://www.mailboxapp.com/) for keeping on top of my inbox as well as a task management/ticketing system like others have mentioned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The general idea is based around getting to [inbox zero](http://mashable.com/2013/10/10/inbox-zero/), or at least close to it. In the past, I managed my workload similar to what you described: I would use the star or unread system to keep track of what I hadn't completed. But as new emails came in, it became really difficult to manage and things would slip through the cracks or I wouldn't reply to an email for weeks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The big improvement came when I started using Mailbox, which gave me a workflow to process my email. The idea is when you no longer actively need an email, you archive it. You can do that with Mailbox, or manually in Gmail. That saves the email later in case you need to reference it, but gets it out of your inbox. What's left is what you need to take action on - your to-do list.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I get a request from a client that I'm saving for later, I do three things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I reply letting them know I got their request, and a rough idea of when I plan to get it done.&#xD;&#xA;2. I copy that email and all the details into a task management system like [Asana](https://asana.com/) or [Trello](https://trello.com/) and add a due date to keep track of when I promised the work would be done.&#xD;&#xA;3. I archive the request from the client, to get it out of my inbox. If I need to reply to it later, I can always dig it out of my archives.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way, what's left in your inbox is only the things you need to take action on. For example, my inbox has 6 items right now. 2 are emails from clients that I need to reply to, 2 are emails from contractors with work I need to review, and 2 are automated notifications that I need to act on in one way or another. Everything else I've archived and/or copied into a separate software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, I also color-code each email by client so I can easily focus on a particular client's work without having to scan the subject line or who it's from to determine if I should act on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Using this method, an email or task never slips through the cracks, and I know exactly what I have on my plate at all times." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9505" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3049" RevisionGUID="22c80b59-ce9e-4fc5-a60d-00b38eaefc95" CreationDate="2015-03-27T01:01:37.670" UserId="1018" Text="Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and this probably isn't the best place to ask for legal advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As currently shown on your website, it is clear you are not claiming this work as your own, but only as examples of what can be done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This seems perfectly reasonable to me and not that much different to showing screen captures in a template review article or similar.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a courtesy, you could always ask permission from the site owners and/or find alternative examples if there are any objections.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I imagine that many site owners would be flattered and would appreciate the free advertising. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9509" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3051" RevisionGUID="efb4b1af-df49-4366-b328-a462f98aed5c" CreationDate="2015-03-27T11:56:17.717" UserId="5893" Text="**No it is *not* OK**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you need to show samples of things you can do, but have not yet procured any clients, you should design your own static wireframe mockups (or live sample sites) to show people what you can do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your clients will send you to other sites they like as part of the specification process, because you will ask them &quot;what site designs on the internet do you like?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you are currently proposing is **plagiarism**." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9510" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3052" RevisionGUID="ae0e2407-fde2-414f-842d-d07fd40d9304" CreationDate="2015-03-27T14:32:08.050" UserId="1706" Text="I don't even understand what all the fuss is about.  Here in CA, small claims cost $50 to file.  What are you waiting for, a kick in the behind?  Being in business is not about being &quot;nice&quot; -- your client should be your prime example of that.  File a small claim, and get your money.  Hopefully your deliverables are severable, or you're working hourly -- and if so, give them their stuff back and move on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9513" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3045" RevisionGUID="4575ab34-a5c2-469c-a612-cbf00cd241a8" CreationDate="2015-03-27T17:34:37.313" UserId="1752" Comment="answered OPs additional question" Text="Matlab is good for fleshing out system performance and designing system mockups prior to prototyping. It is *NOT* viable for production systems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Matlab is really good for the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Imaging problems/systems&#xD;&#xA;* Control systems and design (simulink)&#xD;&#xA;* DSP, filters, and linear systems&#xD;&#xA;* Physical optics and light propagation&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Matlab is ok for:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Machine learning/classification problems&#xD;&#xA;* GUI &#xD;&#xA;* Regression problems&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many companies use Matlab, especially for optical system/image processing mockups and control systems. I personally used it a for a contract with a large orange grower for a fruit defect grading prototype (in addition to C++ and other optical modeling design software like FRED, ZEMAX).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your biggest issue will be finding clients, but Matlab is particularly prevalent in the **aerospace, defense, electrical engineering, applied mathematics, and optical engineering** communities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that, if you are not a US citizen, then contracting with US aerospace and defense companies will be quite difficult.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your second question was about the financial part. Really this heavily depends on your overall expertise, not just your Matlab knowledge. For instance, I have already written entire packages in Matlab for light propagation, and for light polarization modeling. Now that these are finished, I can use them for all clients and charge them accordingly. If you wanted to charge a single client to build something like that, it would be very costly. Also I have a lot of experience using Matlab on optical and optical systems problems. Given this background, I can charge very good rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The answer to the financial question is maybe.** What other expertise do you bring to the table? What kinds of custom software do you have in *your own toolkit?* You will need to use yourself as an entire package to determine a rate, then decide if it is viable. Please also take a look at my [answer here][1] for general advice about freelancing rates vs employment salaries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/57/how-do-i-calculate-pay-rate-if-ive-never-freelanced-before/2230#2230" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9514" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3053" RevisionGUID="22de6268-3501-44c7-b0e9-f07d4b56a023" CreationDate="2015-03-28T00:46:21.233" UserId="7409" Text="I would like to know your thoughts about Slack.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a small outsourcing team and I have heard good things about this software. Just now I am using Gmail, Google Drive, Dropbox, Skype and Private messages in forums so it is a complete mess.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know if this is the appropriate software for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My team is formed like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Writer&#xD;&#xA;- Writer&#xD;&#xA;- Programmer&#xD;&#xA;- General VA&#xD;&#xA;- Project Manager&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there any other softwares similar to this one out there?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9515" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3053" RevisionGUID="22de6268-3501-44c7-b0e9-f07d4b56a023" CreationDate="2015-03-28T00:46:21.233" UserId="7409" Text="Is Slack the best program to manage small teams?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9516" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3053" RevisionGUID="22de6268-3501-44c7-b0e9-f07d4b56a023" CreationDate="2015-03-28T00:46:21.233" UserId="7409" Text="|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9521" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3055" RevisionGUID="76671ab1-9071-487e-b5a9-2a9da3886c90" CreationDate="2015-03-28T18:46:09.427" UserId="7409" Text="I always have the doubt about how to charge clients. I offer internet marketing services (SEO services mainly) to small and medium business that make at least 1 million € in sales over a year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The average client of these types of business pays them around 10.000€ per year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the question is...is it fair to charge them based on the amount of money they can make with one client or it would be better to charge them based on my hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I mean, if they make 10.000€ (not revenue of course) with one client and I help them get 2 more clients per month, should my services be worth based on how much could they make or based on my normal rate per hour?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9522" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3055" RevisionGUID="76671ab1-9071-487e-b5a9-2a9da3886c90" CreationDate="2015-03-28T18:46:09.427" UserId="7409" Text="How to charge clients [the right way]?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9523" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3055" RevisionGUID="76671ab1-9071-487e-b5a9-2a9da3886c90" CreationDate="2015-03-28T18:46:09.427" UserId="7409" Text="|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9524" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3046" RevisionGUID="641e427f-e0d9-474c-add7-a31c49a6a56f" CreationDate="2015-03-28T18:55:25.700" UserId="7401" Comment="added 127 characters in body" Text="I'm a new web design freelancer and don't really have a portfolio to show my potential clients, therefore I've been having a tough time in getting them to visualize what exactly it is that I'll be making for them. To solve this, I made a web page on my site's &quot;Samples&quot; page with a bunch of screenshots of other websites for my prospective clients to look at to help them get an idea of what kind of work I want to do for them. A lot of the screenshots are of home pages, I have cropped the images and scaled them down to smaller sizes. Does this sound like something that would be covered by the Fair Use law?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Update: I've deleted the link to my samples page which was here for two days and have decided to pull all the screenshots which were posted there and replace them with text links to the sites I was referencing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9525" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3056" RevisionGUID="d6c11752-d735-455d-9be2-49d78f2431c1" CreationDate="2015-03-28T20:23:32.703" UserId="5893" Text="In this type of business, it's my feeling that charging by the hour is not the way to go, as it does not reflect the **value of your services**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; if they make 10.000€ (not revenue of course) with one client and I help them get 2 more clients per month&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your example, you are adding 20K value per month for your client. What is that kind of return worth to them? The amount of time you spend doing that should be irrelevant. If you can do it in 4 hours or 40 hours, the value to the client is the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you charge for the service itself rather than for the number of hours, you are not being penalized for efficiency, as you get more experience and are performing the actual tasks more quickly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I call this **project-based pricing** rather than hourly pricing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9527" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3057" RevisionGUID="0098b3d5-0ef9-46c5-8f9c-71fb088aff74" CreationDate="2015-03-30T08:19:29.440" UserId="7425" Text="I want to start freelancing online but only have a bank account from a bank that isn't international. Is there any solution besides changing bank or getting a credit card(what is also a requirement for a PayPal account)? &#xA;&#xA;Thanks in advance. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9528" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3057" RevisionGUID="0098b3d5-0ef9-46c5-8f9c-71fb088aff74" CreationDate="2015-03-30T08:19:29.440" UserId="7425" Text="Freelance websites that doesn't require credit card?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9529" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3057" RevisionGUID="0098b3d5-0ef9-46c5-8f9c-71fb088aff74" CreationDate="2015-03-30T08:19:29.440" UserId="7425" Text="|payment-terms|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9530" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2990" RevisionGUID="8ebfdca6-9ac1-4cf8-ab1c-321d65ba29de" CreationDate="2015-03-30T16:16:41.327" UserId="9" Comment="freelancer-websites to [webmasters design], grammar" Text="Which hosting service do you normally use to start a website's design (using WordPress) and show the client online?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once the site is done and approved, the client gets their own hosting service and domain name. I then transfer the website to their hosting. Which hosting service should I use, and is there a tool to improve this process?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, almost all of my clients know of GoDaddy or bought their domain names there. If I recommend their hosting services, they will likely go for it. Is this a good option? Should I just get a GoDaddy hosting account for myself and host the sample sites there?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please help, how do freelancers start on this hosting issues? Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9531" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2990" RevisionGUID="8ebfdca6-9ac1-4cf8-ab1c-321d65ba29de" CreationDate="2015-03-30T16:16:41.327" UserId="9" Comment="freelancer-websites to [webmasters design], grammar" Text="|design|webmasters|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9535" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2990" RevisionGUID="ff31eab2-4d6d-429d-81e7-e56d8642e5a1" CreationDate="2015-03-30T18:01:02.360" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 22 characters in body" Text="Which hosting service do you normally use to start a website's design (using WordPress) and show the client online?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once the site is done and approved, the client gets their own hosting service and domain name. I then transfer the website to their hosting. Which hosting service should I use, and is there a tool to improve this process?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, almost all of my clients know of GoDaddy or bought their domain names there. If I recommend their hosting services, they will likely go for it. Is this a good option? Should I just get a GoDaddy hosting account for myself and host the sample sites there?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do freelancers start on this hosting issue?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9537" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3059" RevisionGUID="21dfdd9a-a979-4e0e-9d76-d58ebaee9ee3" CreationDate="2015-03-30T18:32:48.443" UserId="7435" Text="I guess it's all a matter of perspective. If you agree on a price of USD then it's up to them to pay it.&#xD;&#xA;If you want to keep on the job and is willing to open the concession at least change something since the project was originally worth X. For example if it was 1000 USD and because of USD flutuations the client is found on a situation that he think he can only pay 900 USD, you should change the scope, or the date of delivery or some paying condition so the project doesn't lose value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One big important factor is that you can't base your project on a frozen exchange rate. If the USD value skyrocket you will actually lose money if you agree to the exchange rate of a few months ago.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So wraping up:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Change some factor if you are going to change the price;&#xD;&#xA; - Don't take the risk of the exchange rate" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9539" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2906" RevisionGUID="519ff3c2-8981-44a4-8ffd-d29187a84260" CreationDate="2015-03-31T04:43:14.957" UserId="5649" Comment="deleted 88 characters in body" Text="What's the best way to find German speaking customers that would require me to use German language proficiency?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any opinions and suggestions are appreciated!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9540" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3060" RevisionGUID="8dd715d7-ff9d-488c-8c7f-fd3c1f90cc77" CreationDate="2015-03-31T08:33:10.877" UserId="5334" Text="There are a few alternatives (like the Atlassian products that Dexterity pointed out, or have a look at this [list from alternativeto.net][1]) - but I've found Slack to be mega useful for small teams. We still use some Atlassian products (like JIRA, Bitbucket and Confluence) in conjunction with Slack - but Slack's not designed to replace the Atlassian products.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the major benefit of Slack, for us, is that it's free and puts everything into one place. There's a fee if you want infinite integrations and to store your message history forever, whereas the free version limits these. You can also split your workstreams into separate #channels, which we have ~20 of to keep tasks separate between PM's, BA's, Design, Dev, and QA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It already integrates with Dropbox and Google Drive, and has its own functionality for private messages. For now, you'd still have to use Skype and Gmail separately - though Slack's recently [bought out Screenhero][2], so that'll negate the need for Skype as well soon. Though just out of interest, why are you using Dropbox and Google Drive? For collaboration purposes, I'm assuming?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, I guess this is more personal experience rather than an answer... but you can't really go wrong with Slack. It's removed the need for constant emails, and has really improved communication for us.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe check out the [Slack Tour][3] quickly and sign-up if it sounds like it'd fit your requirements? I don't work for Slack but can't recommend it enough. Plus, with it being free, you've got nothing to lose by trying it out at least.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://alternativeto.net/software/slack/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.wired.com/2015/01/slacks-new-acquisition-adds-voice-chat-collaboration-tools/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://slack.com/is/team-communication" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9541" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3061" RevisionGUID="f3d77a53-2a3e-4a93-95fc-c88a74ac84f1" CreationDate="2015-04-01T06:11:55.623" UserId="7446" Text="I use FrontAccounting (which is Web based, but on my own server, not in the cloud).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My handling of retainer-based client probably also works with some other packages.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's say a customer buys 100 hours at $90/hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are two separate aspects to this: billing, and tracking the hours used. They may or may not be linked. I handle them completely separately.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Billing is easy: I invoice the customer for 100 hours @ $90 (or make it monthly installments, or whatever applies).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To track the hours, I then set up a sales order for 100 hours @ $0. As I perform the work, I enter deliveries against this sales order. This lets me track the number of hours actually used.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9542" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3062" RevisionGUID="62ea7f82-12a2-4e40-81e5-cb312a309a24" CreationDate="2015-04-01T06:39:47.643" UserId="7446" Text="You don't say which country you are in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless your bank is subject to an embargo, all banks worldwide are linked through the SWIFT system and can handle international transactions. Do be aware of potentially high fees - sometimes for that reason, it is worth getting a bank account in another country.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For Web sites that want a credit card, you can usually use either a debit card linked to your bank account. Since you don't want a credit card, you probably also don't want a debit card.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In that case, you can get a prepaid credit card." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9543" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3063" RevisionGUID="d11617a0-bd08-4471-9c37-1845e94a5eb4" CreationDate="2015-04-01T06:55:56.857" UserId="7446" Text="I am not a tax professional but do have a bit of experience with transatlantic issues. I also know a CPA who has experience with international tax matters.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally speaking, the rule is that you must file US income tax returns if either:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* You are a US person (anybody physically in the US, or a US citizen or US permanent resident regardless of where they are in the world). In that case, your whole income is subject to US taxation.&#xD;&#xA;* Part of your income derives from the USA. In that case, only the income that came from the USA is subject to US taxation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may not have to pay any extra taxes based on the treaty, but you would still have to file a US income tax return.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The big question is whether your income qualifies as originating from the USA. My guess - and that's all it is - is that if you are incorporated, the corporation's income counts as US income, and your own income would simply be a Swedish salary.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9549" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3057" RevisionGUID="f11abf2a-ef7a-43c2-9d31-9b3fab588279" CreationDate="2015-04-01T16:03:39.027" UserId="75" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:1706,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;codenoire&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="9550" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3065" RevisionGUID="fd502ed4-3640-409d-ad15-bc8953978e89" CreationDate="2015-04-02T00:07:23.857" UserId="7453" Text="I have written a web app for a client. In our contract we have it explicity written that we retain rights to all of the code within the app. Is it legal to repurpose that code for a similar app that we would change and then sell to future customers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9551" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3065" RevisionGUID="fd502ed4-3640-409d-ad15-bc8953978e89" CreationDate="2015-04-02T00:07:23.857" UserId="7453" Text="Is it legal to use code written for a customer's app for a personal business app?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9552" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3065" RevisionGUID="fd502ed4-3640-409d-ad15-bc8953978e89" CreationDate="2015-04-02T00:07:23.857" UserId="7453" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9553" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3066" RevisionGUID="3b00627d-123d-40b1-b303-777741afcc22" CreationDate="2015-04-02T13:26:54.153" UserId="7457" Text="I am a EU citizen living in the UK. I need to invoice an US client via pay pal, during 6 months. Do I need to include VAT in my invoice? What are my legal obligations in the UK towards taxes and NI as a freelancer? Thank you " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9554" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3066" RevisionGUID="3b00627d-123d-40b1-b303-777741afcc22" CreationDate="2015-04-02T13:26:54.153" UserId="7457" Text="Legal obligations freelancer - Taxes and NI" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9555" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3066" RevisionGUID="3b00627d-123d-40b1-b303-777741afcc22" CreationDate="2015-04-02T13:26:54.153" UserId="7457" Text="|legal|taxes|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9556" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3067" RevisionGUID="5637f4a4-55e8-4d8c-ac20-6ab7f59c696f" CreationDate="2015-04-02T14:11:45.790" UserId="5893" Text="Your contract explicitly states that you retain rights to all code, but what kind of **license** did you provide your client? If it's an **exclusive** license, I don't think you can reuse the code until the license expires, unless you didn't grant worldwide rights under the license and the new use is in a region not covered by the license." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9561" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3070" RevisionGUID="df0fa17d-87ff-454e-8685-75f4eb1acb34" CreationDate="2015-04-03T06:39:15.113" UserId="5100" Text="I take one project, and did not take any advance , i completed the project and when the day comes to give the project to client , he said he don't have that requirement now, he don't want that project, in this case what should i do against my client , because he did not pay a penny to me , and all my work over his project proves waste for me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9562" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3070" RevisionGUID="df0fa17d-87ff-454e-8685-75f4eb1acb34" CreationDate="2015-04-03T06:39:15.113" UserId="5100" Text="Client Refusing to accept the project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9563" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3070" RevisionGUID="df0fa17d-87ff-454e-8685-75f4eb1acb34" CreationDate="2015-04-03T06:39:15.113" UserId="5100" Text="|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9564" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3070" RevisionGUID="2578be69-77fe-4f20-bee8-6d7c160c1937" CreationDate="2015-04-03T13:34:38.040" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, changed tags to be more relevant" Text="I took on a project for a client, not taking any advance payment. I completed the project, but when the time came to deliver the project to the client, they said that they don't have that requirement any more, and they do not want the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this case, what can I do? My client didn't pay me a single penny, and the time spent working on this project is a waste." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9565" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3070" RevisionGUID="2578be69-77fe-4f20-bee8-6d7c160c1937" CreationDate="2015-04-03T13:34:38.040" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, changed tags to be more relevant" Text="Client refuses to accept project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9566" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3070" RevisionGUID="2578be69-77fe-4f20-bee8-6d7c160c1937" CreationDate="2015-04-03T13:34:38.040" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, changed tags to be more relevant" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9569" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3071" RevisionGUID="55dd1f71-9a0c-47ba-8d59-f338e65ddb2e" CreationDate="2015-04-04T09:53:51.847" UserId="9" Text="Unfortunately, this is _exactly_ you should require a contract and upfront deposit of some percentage of the final bill (usually 40-50%). You probably don't have much recourse legally unless you can prove that an email chain at the beginning of the project is detailed enough to constitute a contract.&#xA;&#xA;Another thing that you can do is to take the client's new requirement and redo that part of the project. If you and the client were in constant communication throughout and they sprung the no-longer-a-requirement card, that's one thing. However, from the post, it sounds like the communication had been limited. Requirements do change, and sometimes you have to keep in constant contact with your client to make sure the project is still going in the right direction. &#xA;&#xA;Frankly, your best bet is to chalk it up to a life lesson, spend some time to create a contract boilerplate (Contract Killer 3 is a sample starting point), and use it with your next project and next client. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9573" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3073" RevisionGUID="94edb9b2-7a19-43fc-b345-c225b93f7713" CreationDate="2015-04-05T06:25:57.677" UserId="7476" Text="I am an experienced developer and I get enough work for my self. I get more work then I can handle my self. So I am planning to hire junior developers under me, start an agency and assign work to them. Now the question is, most of the clients would want me only to work on the project. How to approach clients and convince them that it's okay to let my junior developers work and I will keep eye on their quality of code and ensure that they deliver as promised, and i would charge less for the junior developers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9574" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3073" RevisionGUID="94edb9b2-7a19-43fc-b345-c225b93f7713" CreationDate="2015-04-05T06:25:57.677" UserId="7476" Text="How to hire junior developers under me and convince clients to let them work on project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9575" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3073" RevisionGUID="94edb9b2-7a19-43fc-b345-c225b93f7713" CreationDate="2015-04-05T06:25:57.677" UserId="7476" Text="|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9576" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3074" RevisionGUID="d365f262-7699-4134-b457-8293e74b0069" CreationDate="2015-04-05T09:33:19.413" UserId="7477" Text="I'm a freelancer but don't yet own a business as the work is too sporadic and accounting expenses and paperwork are too much of an overhead for now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I made some services for someone in Norway and they requested an organisation number on the invoice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are my options, are there any intermediaries that can help? For example will selling the services as a downloadable (on ebay or some other service) suffice for their accounting?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9577" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3074" RevisionGUID="d365f262-7699-4134-b457-8293e74b0069" CreationDate="2015-04-05T09:33:19.413" UserId="7477" Text="Freelancing intermediary for business invoice" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9578" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3074" RevisionGUID="d365f262-7699-4134-b457-8293e74b0069" CreationDate="2015-04-05T09:33:19.413" UserId="7477" Text="|legal|taxes|invoices|accounting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9579" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3074" RevisionGUID="26cac492-8ea1-4971-b56d-82da9877f734" CreationDate="2015-04-05T09:48:16.137" UserId="7477" Comment="added 165 characters in body" Text="I'm a part time freelancer but don't yet own a business as the work is too sporadic and accounting expenses and paperwork are too much of an overhead for now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've done some services for someone in Norway and they requested an organisation number on the invoice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are my options, are there any intermediaries that can help? For example will selling the services as a downloadable (on ebay or some other service) suffice for their accounting?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Business wise he knows my situation so not doing this in a professional matter won't be a problem, but of course I wouldn't mind learning of an other way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9580" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3074" RevisionGUID="6ae9cb6d-f2e3-4ac8-82b0-f7aa391e60bf" CreationDate="2015-04-05T09:53:38.027" UserId="7477" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="I'm a part time freelancer but don't yet own a business as the work is too sporadic and accounting expenses and paperwork are too much of an overhead for now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've provided services for someone in Norway and they requested an organisation number on the invoice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are my options, are there any intermediaries that can help? For example will selling the services as a downloadable (on ebay or some other service) suffice for their accounting?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Business wise he knows my situation so not doing this in a professional matter won't be a problem, but of course I wouldn't mind learning of an other way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9581" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3074" RevisionGUID="ec41bca2-47fb-4362-ba71-d607af2eaf6e" CreationDate="2015-04-05T20:11:37.007" UserId="7477" Comment="added 81 characters in body" Text="I'm a part time freelancer but don't yet own a business as the work is too sporadic and accounting expenses and paperwork are too much of an overhead for now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've provided services for someone in Norway and they requested an organisation number on the invoice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are my options, are there any intermediaries that can help? For example will selling the services as a downloadable (on ebay or some other service) suffice for their accounting? Or should we creeate accounts on oDesk.com or elance.com and pay their comission ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Business wise he knows my situation so not doing this in a professional matter won't be a problem, but of course I wouldn't mind learning of an other way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;Update 1&#xD;&#xA;========&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Legally in my country I don't need anything other than a end-of-the-year declaration to state my income and that's it, so don't need a company for that, or any paperwork, I'm just interested in getting the other part sorted." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9582" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3075" RevisionGUID="09596348-ee65-432b-9bb2-f89bee112c88" CreationDate="2015-04-06T04:30:15.613" UserId="7481" Text="You need to know the back story before I ask the question. Back in December my friend was starting to make a website for her parents coffee shop. She is a graphic design major and has taken a few web design classes. She was only s little ways in we she ran into a road block of she didn't know PHP to make any forms work or incorporate ecommerce. Thats when I steped in, i completely made a new site from scratch, as there was no way I was going to go in a redo her beginner coding techniques/make a non responsive site responsive. I worked on it alot trough the end of the year and then stoped in January only touching once in a while, the start of my semster was a little rough. About early February once I had a handle on my course work I picked up the site I built my own basic CMS for their blog, event management, and online store products. I the encorparted paypal and a few other things on the back end a few contact forms, and maping. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now that you know the back end of my story my question. When I came onto do this I never had a contract/agremnet for me being paid. This is a local coffeshop with multiple locations and high income so they can afford to pay. Only problem is should I just let it go and use it as a portfolio boster or should I bring up the topic of ccompensation?  I've spent at least a good 25 hours of my time on it for the past 6-7 weeks and in december I was spend most of my free time on it. I spent most of my spring break finishing it(nobody from my home town had spring break when i did so i had alot of free time...).  i really don't want to sell my self short or lose a friend because of this. So what do you suggest? The site is a full blown website in the eyes of one of my old php instructors its a site he would have billed a couple thousand for.....but he has a 10 years expreicne i have 2...so he can bill that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9583" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3075" RevisionGUID="09596348-ee65-432b-9bb2-f89bee112c88" CreationDate="2015-04-06T04:30:15.613" UserId="7481" Text="Web Design - First Major Project Never Talked About Compensation" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9584" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3075" RevisionGUID="09596348-ee65-432b-9bb2-f89bee112c88" CreationDate="2015-04-06T04:30:15.613" UserId="7481" Text="|freelance-websites|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9585" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3076" RevisionGUID="20386b6d-869a-46b5-a33d-e0d5a43bf4e4" CreationDate="2015-04-06T09:56:10.153" UserId="517" Text="Agency is like a company right? Would you monitor juniors? If yes, then you have better chance of clients trusting you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Firstly, be open with clients. Secondly, do offer lower price. Don't expect that juniors can work for the price of a senior. Lastly, DO monitor their work as they work under your name. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be prepared that juniors will leave you and that you will have to finalize the project yourself. So always spare some time for monitoring which you can use for finalizing project if things go wrong. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, be prepared that you will have to do hard parts of the projects as juniors are either not capable or will do it wrongly. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9586" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3077" RevisionGUID="5676aca5-c80a-4a32-bc95-ef347bbca5b4" CreationDate="2015-04-06T10:04:21.023" UserId="517" Text="Firstly, it's your fault for not making it look like you will do it for free. Now, let's see what you can do. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this a good friend or just a friend? If she's a good friend, then she will ask you how much she owes you. I know I would do it for my good friends. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If she's just a friend, then you can talk about compensation. Make a time sheet of all the work and ask her about compensation. Since YOU did not talk about money on the first place, either give her some hours for free and charge the rest OR charge all under privileged hourly rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure you tell her that remaining work will be charged per your usual hourly rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also call her for a coffee and ask her of impression of finished web site, what her parents say. When she compliments the work, said how much time you spent on it like it was your own project, blah blah. This should be a good trigger for her to ask how much she owns you. If not, then continue discussion about compensation. Of course, have your time sheet with you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the future, either talk about ALL aspect of project management or be ready to swallow the loss. This is a very awkward situation as she could be thinking you're doing it for free for who knows why. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9587" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3078" RevisionGUID="b5cc9d58-64b2-4901-97c3-026bf1c18fe7" CreationDate="2015-04-06T12:35:46.557" UserId="7486" Text="I manage about 30 company websites with Joomla 1.5, 2.5, 3.4.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason why I did not migrate 1.5 and 2.5 to 3.4 is because the owners didn't want to invest in rebuilding their websites from scratch due to high code customization or unaivailability of the components, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now on the 21th april Google will strongly downrank all the non mobile friedly website. See for example this [article][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that the website owners will notice a loss on the page views and anyway I want to be correct and inform them about that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also know that it will be a nightmare to make 1.5 and 2.5 version responsive also considering the components like ecommerce or flash flipping books.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being a freelance and working alone, I feel I'll not be able to change all the sites for the 21th april, and I really don't have a strategy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you think will be the best practice to face that change? Should I ignore Google and carry on or start developing responsive templates even if I don't know if I will succeed? (Think about a Joomla 1.5 website with Virtuemart ecommerce and many other obsolete components that are NOT responsive ready). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The main problem is that site owners never want to invest on their sites, they want to spend less possible and they never seem to understand the effort that takes even if I try to explain at best that I can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I already know since now that the proposal to invest in rebuilding the website to a new modern performing version will be unacceptable to some client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for any suggestion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.it/2015/02/finding-more-mobile-friendly-search.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9588" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3078" RevisionGUID="b5cc9d58-64b2-4901-97c3-026bf1c18fe7" CreationDate="2015-04-06T12:35:46.557" UserId="7486" Text="Web development: how to convince clients to invest in upgrading their sites" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9589" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3078" RevisionGUID="b5cc9d58-64b2-4901-97c3-026bf1c18fe7" CreationDate="2015-04-06T12:35:46.557" UserId="7486" Text="|freelance-websites|difficult-client|webmasters|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9590" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3079" RevisionGUID="19ceb4d5-c7e3-4994-804a-507d3e9ce251" CreationDate="2015-04-06T21:36:35.017" UserId="5893" Text="It's not your friend, it's your friend's *parents*.  They're not a non-profit, and even though you're a student, you should get *something* for your trouble.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know what your future plans are, but I am completely sure the coffee shop will need regular updates and maintenance on their website, so you can approach them with &quot;you can pay me $XXX which includes Y months of maintenance and updates&quot; and hope they are ethical people and pay you what you ask for. You can also point out if they hired &quot;experienced&quot; web developers, what they could expect to pay for what you did for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also get your friend on your side - she's a graphic designer, right? How would her parents feel if she did a week's worth of work for strangers who then don't pay her? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can use it as a portfolio booster even if they pay you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can't get any money out of them, use this as an expensive lesson in **always use a written contract for freelance work** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If payment isn't an option, send them an invoice for what you *should* have been paid, and put a line in for &quot;friend discount&quot; with that amount taken off, so these people know what kind of deal they're getting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And really, they can write off the cost of this, so it's going to reduce their tax liability." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9591" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3080" RevisionGUID="8610e225-932c-45cb-ac7d-16d83c68c4a6" CreationDate="2015-04-06T21:40:35.550" UserId="5893" Text="Owners may not want to invest in their sites, but they also don't want to lose business even more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you make your proposal in terms of &quot;do this to prevent lost revenue from bad search ranking&quot; some of them will sign on right away. Others will come around after they've seen their business drop off and they try to get it back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Going forward, having a responsive template you can implement for your clients will be really useful, so it's probably not a bad idea to go ahead and develop it. If not for your current clients, for the new ones you get." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9592" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3081" RevisionGUID="6d16e1c1-3f97-4b09-af69-bcb63b19d4ee" CreationDate="2015-04-07T00:08:38.237" UserId="7364" Text="I'm in an unfortunate situation where a client I'm currently working for is threatening to provide bad rating and feedback to my profile on a popular freelance outsourcing site (not sure if I can mention sites or not here, so hence the vagueness) if I don't help him with some other work that are not part of the initial project agreement and it's monetary value.&#xA;&#xA;In simple terms, he want me to work more than what we agreed to FOR FREE to which if I don't agree, he will destroy my online freelance reputation that I've build for quite a long time with false allegations of incompetent work and bad quality rating and feedback.&#xA;&#xA;Since most of the discussions I had with him is mainly via Skype calls, I can't provide any solid evidence of contract-breach to the freelance site support either so I'm kind of in a fix as I really value the rating percentile I have managed to maintain on the site.&#xA;&#xA;What would be the best approach to get out of this predicament as reasoning with him doesn't seem to be working at all." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9593" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3081" RevisionGUID="6d16e1c1-3f97-4b09-af69-bcb63b19d4ee" CreationDate="2015-04-07T00:08:38.237" UserId="7364" Text="How to deal with clients trying to blackmail you?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9594" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3081" RevisionGUID="6d16e1c1-3f97-4b09-af69-bcb63b19d4ee" CreationDate="2015-04-07T00:08:38.237" UserId="7364" Text="|freelance-websites|communication|difficult-client|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9595" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3082" RevisionGUID="c0db0b9f-829f-4d05-8080-fd7dc3da5182" CreationDate="2015-04-07T03:23:50.920" UserId="4561" Text="Have you contacted the site's support about this?  I would start there.  I think they have ways of dealing with these types of situations and can probably remove any negative reviews.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, If it's Elance, unless the job is marked complete (by both of you, I think) they cannot leave feedback.  I don't know how other sites operate but they may be the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Worst case scenario, if they are able to leave a bad rating you should be able to dispute it.  This may not make you feel much better but I know that when I am looking at a person's rating and they have a lot of good marks then just one bad mark, if they have commented explaining, I usually disregard the bad rating and assume the client is a nut-job." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9597" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3083" RevisionGUID="fb6c680f-dddb-4e1c-9cc5-0ac5c556370c" CreationDate="2015-04-07T09:03:39.570" UserId="708" Text="**Tl;DR:** You would be nuts to request compensation if you weren't asked to complete the work. Businesses do NOT pay for services just because someone &quot;feels&quot; like doing them. And you run the risk of losing your &quot;friend&quot; and gaining a bad word-of-mouth reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of it this way.... you get a flat tire and take it to the local tire shop to get it repaired. While the are fixing the tire, they decide on their own to rebuild the engine too. Would you expect to see an invoice for a few hundred or thousand dollars to cover the engine rebuild? Would you be happy seeing that invoice?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm merely basing this on what *you* posted. I wasn't part of the conversations and clearly there may be details you've left out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is unclear.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;*&quot;I stepped in&quot;...* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Okay how??? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Did she ask you to fix the form and then you did more because you felt you wanted to build it better? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Were you ever asked by the company to continue work or was it just something you felt like doing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based upon what you posted here you would be a bit crazy to think you should be compensated. If no one ever asked you to, as you put it, &quot;rebuild&quot; things then it was your choice to do so and you can't hold *anyone* financially responsible because you *chose* to do more than was asked. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Financial obligations have to be at least discussed before you have *any* footing. At the very least a *specific* request to do the work is required. In the end, without a written agreement or even a discussion you are simply out of steam.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being posted, sure you *can* ask for compensation. It'll take some internal fortitude. You just need to be prepared for possible outcomes:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. They agree and pay you want you ask (yeah.. good luck with this.&#xD;&#xA;    It's a long shot.)&#xD;&#xA; 2. They agree but want to negotiate as to how much they will pay. However, be prepared for low-ball pricing since they never requested the work. Would you be okay with a couple hundred dollars? Or even $50.00? Are you going to try and talk them higher. What if that leads to items 3, 4, or 5 below?&#xD;&#xA; 3. They disagree with any obligation, but understand why you feel it may be deserved. However, without their request to complete the work they won't pay you anything. They are happy to use the site and relay your name to anyone who asks, but they aren't going to pay. So, they are fine with things, will you be? Will there be some resentment on your part if they refuse to pay anything? Are you going to lose your &quot;friend&quot; over this? &#xD;&#xA; 4. They disagree with any obligation and don't want the site. They won't pay you anything, find it funny you even ask, and have no intention of using the site. They may even dislike the site. They are offended you took it upon yourself to rework something they didn't request. And while they don't feel you are trying to take advantage of them, they do feel insulted. This *may* lead to less-than-favorable word of mouth and it may cause some stress with your &quot;friend&quot;. Will you be okay with that? Doing all the work and they won't use it or pay for it? If you would be okay with that... why even bother asking for compensation?&#xD;&#xA; 5. They disagree with any obligation and they are flat-out insulted and feel like you are trying to steal from them or otherwise rip them off. This creates a business who, when asked, may not have great things to say about your work. Are you okay with that? Will you lose your &quot;friend&quot; over this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be aware, in my experience the *most likely* outcomes are 3, 4, and 5 above. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Number 2 above *is* possible but it's very rare to find *any* business willing to pay for something they didn't request. That's not how business survive. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they agree to #1 above, hold onto them as a client as best you can, because I've *never* heard of that happening. It's like finding a unicorn or catching a rainbow." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9598" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3084" RevisionGUID="f1ccc787-4783-44df-bb25-5961c8597bc6" CreationDate="2015-04-07T10:27:56.983" UserId="7486" Text="What the client is doing is really a crime, something that he can be convicted for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe he is acting like that just to scare you to work more than what agreed and possibly he will not do for real what he told you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I would do is not be passive to this at all, I will clearly tell him that what he is doing is actually a crime and people go to jail for that, I think that he will think about that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would also tell him (as a &quot;scare tactic&quot;) that I recorded our last conversations (even if you actually didn't record them) and you are ready to show them to the police or to the admin websites if there will be the need for it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So in the end he will never risk to be convicted of a crime even if you don't have any evidence." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9599" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3085" RevisionGUID="cb7a7089-ae5b-4cdd-b074-92be6131efe4" CreationDate="2015-04-07T11:17:31.440" UserId="517" Text="This happens often. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Collect all your Skype conversation and format it properly indicating his threats. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Contact customer support of the website you use (probably odesk or elance) and explain your case and ask for opinion. Ask if they can prevent him blackmailing you over feedback. The client will not be aware of these actions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Act quickly!!!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9600" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3086" RevisionGUID="d21d0796-31e2-4345-8018-9211431eca8e" CreationDate="2015-04-07T11:27:39.643" UserId="517" Text="A friend of mine is trying to make remote freelancing career. He cannot find job in his expertise for years because his job requires direct contact to the client (agriculture) and a remote advisory is not suitable in his case. Most people of his expertise are jobless in his wider area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I advised his to try working remote jobs out of his field of expertise. He is eager learner and can quickly learn. But (!) his English is at the medium level (approx 2.5 of 5) and his knowledge of PC is around 2 of 5. He uses a regular office tools, but never tried using any advanced software like Photoshop. That's why I rate him 2, not because he's unable to learn and move to 3 or more. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What kind of jobs he can work in your opinion using websites like odesk or elance?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I first thought he could do horticulture (designing the look of gardens), but I could not find such jobs on these websites. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He cannot do email support as his English level is not yet at that level. I am also not sure about data entering or re-writing as he does not type as fast as a programmer (which is a good basis for re-writing skills). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please do not disregard him as I am sure there are jobs for these types of people. I just cannot think of any as I do not have experience with such jobs (I am a developer).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. He tried learning programming, but he does not like it so it's not realistic that he can do any programming task. Also he does not have artistic abilities to become a designer. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9601" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3086" RevisionGUID="d21d0796-31e2-4345-8018-9211431eca8e" CreationDate="2015-04-07T11:27:39.643" UserId="517" Text="What remote job can do a person with medium English level and lower medium knowledge of PC?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9602" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3086" RevisionGUID="d21d0796-31e2-4345-8018-9211431eca8e" CreationDate="2015-04-07T11:27:39.643" UserId="517" Text="|remote|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9603" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3087" RevisionGUID="36dc2a55-5e8c-44c9-93bd-dd5ce6da6ecc" CreationDate="2015-04-07T13:29:04.063" UserId="5893" Text="In general, one piece of bad feedback will not &quot;destroy your online reputation,&quot; especially if you have a long history and a lot of other feedback from other clients. Unethical people do this on a lot of sites where customer/client feedback is used (it happens all the time on Etsy, for example. People threaten bad feedback if they don't receive a discount/refund/free item for something they purchased.).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know about the site you're using, but eLance (at least when I was active there, several years ago) lets the service provider respond to feedback in their profile, so you can explain your side of the story.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, are you also not able to leave feedback for your client? You can warn other service providers not to contract with this guy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the future, insist on interactions in writing with all clients that you are working with remotely." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9604" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3088" RevisionGUID="2e3b067f-1daf-43e1-93b9-89db4b5204fe" CreationDate="2015-04-07T14:36:48.440" UserId="70" Text="I like some of the answers above, but I would not even bring up compensation for past work. From your question it appears that a personal friend asked for some assistance, and you were happy to help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It doesn't matter if it was a close friend or just an acquaintance. It doesn't matter if she was getting paid or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many of us have been in a similar situation and time can certainly slip away. We may have intended to spend 60 minutes helping a friend and spend the better part of a week instead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would chalk it up to being a friend and gaining experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, as a caveat, I would also suggest a nice talk with your friend. Something along the lines of, &quot;Hey I have enjoyed helping out over the past few months but it is taking a bit too much time. I would like to help more, so let's discuss the best arrangement for me to continue. Do you mind if I propose this to your parents?&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9605" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3086" RevisionGUID="6549fcc7-ea8f-41d4-8241-adff01795738" CreationDate="2015-04-07T16:43:26.807" UserId="517" Comment="edited title" Text="What job on freelancing websites can do a person with medium English level and lower medium knowledge of PC?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9607" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3089" RevisionGUID="6b94bc73-9be9-4f76-b65e-2ea8b588b7a2" CreationDate="2015-04-07T17:27:54.383" UserId="75" Text="I assume you've been warning them constantly of potential dangers of running out of date software - viruses, malware, blacklisting, lower SE rankings, more upkeep, etc. If you haven't been warning them constantly (not every day, but at least once every few months, MINIMUM), then I don't feel you're doing your absolute best.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it may be too late for the &quot;preemptive strike&quot; of upgrades, always offer it, now and forever. You can do this as a monthly invoice (i.e. *every month/semi monthly, I will log in and run any pending updates on your website's frameworks to keep you safe, and your website running with the latests standards*), and stick to it. Minor updates are easier than larger ones, as you know, so a little maintenance every month will save more in the long run. If they deny the service after you show them the potential downfalls and costs of waiting, then the decision has been made.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they fail to see the ratification, with all the warning you've given them, it's all on them. Remember, they run a business to do something completely different than you or I do, and their decisions has something to do with that. You need to sell yourself as a maintainer as well, not as a &quot;set it and forget it&quot; kind of person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While I don't use Joomla, I know that Wordpress is extremely easy to update, even if they're hosted on the same server. Is there a way to automate the minor upgrades, and get emailed about the major upgrades? This would free up more time to keep developing and designing for more clients, and allow you to manually intervene for large upgrades." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9608" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3090" RevisionGUID="4cbeaf56-f4a8-4ab9-a230-14535f51d6de" CreationDate="2015-04-07T22:18:31.437" UserId="7334" Text="Sharepoint is one of the most distinguished technologies that a lot of professionals ( developers, designers, Admins...) Don't like to deal with or don't choose to work. And that's for many reasons. I worked with SP for few years. Both as a technology I wanted to learn at the time and professional for an organization. The first advice I will give you: SP is more than one thing and very few people in the world really &quot;master&quot; everything connected to it. It requires more skills than technicals. The main aspect of SP. Is to manage and share data and that's beyond one technology to cover. Most importantly : client don't know what SP is and what is it good for or how to get the best out of it. &#xA;Let's talk about SP itself from a practical standpoint:&#xA;_ do you want to be a SP site admin ? &#xA;_ do you want to develop apps on top of it?&#xA;_ are you willing to spend a lot of time gathering requirements from your client ( very important)&#xA;_ are you willing to provide training for staff on how to use their team sites or shared space, wiki's...?&#xA; If you can answer those question then you can start thinking about learning technologies to implement around SP." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9609" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2195" RevisionGUID="5f206a96-75d4-401a-a371-642dae89bffc" CreationDate="2015-04-08T02:39:38.310" UserId="4546" Comment="added 52 characters in body" Text="As Entrepreneur I cannot see the value to pay per hour. &#xD;&#xA;It is exactly the opposite metric - I am interested in the work done with **minimum** hours spent. And freelancer paid by hours is incentivised naturally to **increase** the number of hours. I just feel it is wrong base for collaboration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Shouldn't we be looking instead to **align** our goals? Care about **quality, working atmosphere**? Compliment and reward each other?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As Employer, I look for quality work, competent, fast (within reason). Also I look to be impressed. A greater attention to details, a new angle I haven't thought about - you name it! The more I am impressed, the more I am willing to pay. Even better, I will offer this myself! So that this great impressive freelancer keeps up quality work, and I keep up rewarding her the best I can. Now our incentives are aligned!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now from the question I get the impression that neither client nor freelancer know exactly what work is involved, so fixing both price and time upfront is simply counter-productive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As freelancer, I would have an honest discussion outlining what possible work can be done with what outcomes. That is, **tangible outcomes** that client can **appreciate**. Assuming, they don't have a long relationship as of yet, and have to see how things move, picking a **small job** leading to a **fast valuable outcome** for the client would be the best thing to do. That way the freelancer knows it won't take too long, will possibly see a way to impress the client, and will know that client will appreciate the job and will gladly pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then, once both sides are happy after the first job is done, it is much easier to agree for the next. And so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So in conclusion, the **newer** your relationship is, the **smaller job** you should take at a time. That is the only way I see to keep both sides happy and working towards the same goal, not the opposite ones." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9610" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3091" RevisionGUID="d7eb6f23-3457-4e9a-a34f-24ad8c6b7311" CreationDate="2015-04-08T02:58:13.153" UserId="4546" Text="If you don't know well your client, your first goal is to build **relationship of trust**. In my view, the best way is to fix price a **small job** first, that is easy to estimate and deliver on time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will give you great opportunity to understand how the client works and how **enjoyable** and **productive** the work for both sides.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that information, it will be much easier for you to estimate the time and cost for your next piece of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if your relationship won't go as expected, you can easier quit after the small work done, with no bad feelings for both sides.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See also [my other answer here][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/2195/4546" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9612" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3092" RevisionGUID="55a88114-0110-4f88-a7dc-d9e22491db3f" CreationDate="2015-04-08T03:04:23.763" UserId="4546" Text="Here is my Entrepreneur/Employer's perspective:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't know well your client, your first goal is to build **relationship of trust**. In my view, the best way is to fix price a **small job** first, that is easy to estimate and deliver on time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will give you great opportunity to understand how the client works and how **enjoyable** and **productive** the work for both sides.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that information, it will be much easier for you to estimate the time and cost for your next piece of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if your relationship won't go as expected, you can easier quit after the small work done, with no bad feelings for both sides.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See also [my other answer here][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/2195/4546" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9613" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3093" RevisionGUID="01e65962-3b34-42f2-ae51-d91c7bac69d9" CreationDate="2015-04-08T09:43:25.390" UserId="7486" Text="Lately I was asked to realize a few slides for an ecommerce site. The work was to go in the company, shoot many photos of sold objects, back to office, clip the images and put them in many backgrounds (I had to make a research of stock images).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The ideas of the final result was sent to me by email, the client took photos from the web of high quality professional advertise and wanted &quot;something like that spending less possible&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I made my best to fulfill his needs and made many tests based on his requests, in the end I sent him something like 30 different images of products in different backgrounds and colors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client accepted only 2 images. Now he is complaining that I charge too much for &quot;just two images&quot;, when he asked me to work for many hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I usually charge him a cost per hour and he knows that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to deal with situations like that?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9614" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3093" RevisionGUID="01e65962-3b34-42f2-ae51-d91c7bac69d9" CreationDate="2015-04-08T09:43:25.390" UserId="7486" Text="Client not aware of the background work for what he asks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9615" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3093" RevisionGUID="01e65962-3b34-42f2-ae51-d91c7bac69d9" CreationDate="2015-04-08T09:43:25.390" UserId="7486" Text="|difficult-client|billable-hours|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9616" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3094" RevisionGUID="2718d3f6-1a72-4ae8-bb2d-fe99aac68704" CreationDate="2015-04-08T14:57:22.017" UserId="70" Text="It is never easy to negotiate after the fact.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When doing any type of project it is important to set the expectations ahead of time. In your case, you could have estimated that your effort would be in the X-Y hour range or if the client would be paying for accepted images rather than time and materials. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some of the benefits to this approach are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - The client gets a general idea of how much of an investment they will make for the project.&#xD;&#xA; - You are able to more easily communicate challenges that you face that may affect the original estimate. For example, &quot;I know I estimated X-Y hours, but due to these factors...it looks like we are looking at Z hours. Would you like me to proceed?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And to answer the &quot;how to deal with these situations&quot; question, there are two options that I would consider:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Have an honest communication with the client and mention that just like previous projects, you have been working on an hourly basis and not per deliverable.&#xD;&#xA; - Or, chalk it up to an education cost and be more clear on future projects/contracts, even for existing clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9617" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3095" RevisionGUID="1e2d5417-eccc-4297-80ff-79689c91436b" CreationDate="2015-04-08T14:58:42.650" UserId="517" Text="Right now, a dollar is very close to euro, almost 1:1. I did not drop my hourly rate as I did not expect that a dollar will remain high for so long. But it's been months now and it is still growing staidly. Consequently, I am earning more for the same amount of work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should we change our hourly rate as dollar grows or falls? I don't mean to change it every week, but let's say every 3 months. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that non-US clients see this difference as they are charged in the own currency. Does the dollar growth affect US clients as well or no matter of the dollar-euro ration, US clients always pay the same amount of dollars?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9618" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3095" RevisionGUID="1e2d5417-eccc-4297-80ff-79689c91436b" CreationDate="2015-04-08T14:58:42.650" UserId="517" Text="Should we fix our rates as a dollar goes up or down?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9619" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3095" RevisionGUID="1e2d5417-eccc-4297-80ff-79689c91436b" CreationDate="2015-04-08T14:58:42.650" UserId="517" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9620" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3096" RevisionGUID="2b6b9992-16d9-4b52-8f08-c2c3dd919d14" CreationDate="2015-04-08T20:48:06.860" UserId="7510" Text="When working on projects that will require a lot of revisions, I sometimes charge a piece rate (based on the time I estimate it will take) and send an explicit email that outlines the number of revisions/research/etc. that the price includes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once the client has agreed to a clear list of items, it makes it easier to negotiate again if they want more work to be done. Then you can pull out the hourly rate and explain how much more time you'll likely add to the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately I've experienced that some clients can't comprehend the amount of time that creative work takes, and an hourly rate becomes a hurdle with those clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes you end up having to eat the cost of the extra time. If that's the case, I recommend communicating tactfully that you're sorry for any misunderstanding and will discount your services for lack of clear communication (even if you think you were clear). Hopefully this makes the client feel at ease and also makes them aware that you cost more than what they're being charged." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9621" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="259" RevisionGUID="94706b5d-5540-48e0-8bca-dcc3270cc5a4" CreationDate="2015-04-09T11:33:27.273" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/586129793474764800" />
  <row Id="9622" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3097" RevisionGUID="14015d67-ddae-44b1-8528-ecf149e2010c" CreationDate="2015-04-09T12:45:05.287" UserId="5893" Text="Your cost of living and expenses are fixed to your location. As the power of the dollar rises and falls, does it cost you more/less to live? Your rates should be set to the market *in your location*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your overseas clients are complaining that it's costing them &quot;too much&quot; now that the dollar is doing well against the euro, you can offer them a temporary discount if you want, but I think it's a bad precedent to set.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I live in one of the most expensive areas in the country and my rates reflect that because that's what people doing the work I do in this are are getting. People living 100 miles south of me are offered significantly less per hour than what is offered here because the cost of living is lower. Should I lower my rates to work for someone 2 counties over?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are freelancing in an international marketplace, you are competing against people who can feed a family of 4 for a month on $150USD. Should you lower your rates to be competitive with them? People hire you because *you are worth what you are charging* - you provide value to them that is commensurate with your rates. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You are not a &quot;commodity&quot;. Don't bill yourself out like one.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9628" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3099" RevisionGUID="4ae66287-ff2e-487c-a4a3-17d2229fda8c" CreationDate="2015-04-11T00:13:10.333" UserId="4561" Text="Can you tell if you are losing projects due to your price?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are getting as much work now as you were when the dollar was weaker, then I would not lower your rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you are losing projects to competitors who are about $20 an hour cheaper than you, it may be a sign that you are too expensive and I would lower your rates to see if business picks up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I would never feel &quot;guilty&quot; for charging more!  You are taking all the risk to be in business for yourself and those who purchase your services get the benefit of your talent without having to support you as an employee.  People won't pay more than they think something is worth.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The people who hire you can decide what they are willing to pay based on their budget, your value to them, and whether or not they can get something as good as they need for less money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a concept called &quot;maximum rate of return&quot; -- As you raise prices, at some point the sales will drop.  But since each sale is worth more, your ***income*** increases (more money for less work) - *up to a point*.  As you lower prices, the number of ***sales*** will increase, but each sale is worth less so you may make more that way - up to a point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The goal is to find that sweet spot where you are getting the most money for the least amount of work (or an amount of work you can handle).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think you will also find when freelancing, the clients who pay more are actually less needy, better educated on what they want, easier to satisfy, and pay faster." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9629" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3100" RevisionGUID="c42c8e8c-f7d0-4502-a442-b624582fdda1" CreationDate="2015-04-11T02:35:43.633" UserId="7529" Text="I currently work full time but want to freelance full time one day. I am worried that if I disclose this to my employer, they will think I'm going to leave one day. My employer's policy is that I am allowed to freelance so long as I am not doing work for a competitor. Also, I am required to disclose the activity to them and have to fill out a business activity form every year describing all of the clients I work with and how much I'm making, etc. Again, I am worried about giving my employer all of this info. If they ever caught me without me letting them know upfront then I could be fired or possibly be in a lawsuit. If my freelancing work involved clients around the world (on sites such as ODesk or Elance), then how would they ever find out anyway if I'm not doing work in the same field? I just don't see how that could happen. Has anyone been in this situation and what did you do? This may not matter, but I am a software developer looking to do freelancing programming. Thanks!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9630" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3100" RevisionGUID="c42c8e8c-f7d0-4502-a442-b624582fdda1" CreationDate="2015-04-11T02:35:43.633" UserId="7529" Text="Should I disclose that I am freelancing to my employer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9631" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3100" RevisionGUID="c42c8e8c-f7d0-4502-a442-b624582fdda1" CreationDate="2015-04-11T02:35:43.633" UserId="7529" Text="|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9633" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3101" RevisionGUID="9c14b6e2-2152-42de-8bcb-061b45f93b8f" CreationDate="2015-04-11T08:42:51.730" UserId="517" Text="Are you living in a country with good legal protection of the worker? If yes, then I strongly say DO disclose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I am worried that if I disclose this to my employer, they will think I'm going to leave one day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is good! He should know that his employee is so good that other clients pays him for his skills. He will respect you more. Why would your employee pay you if no one else wants to pay you? I'd say this will make you better. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have 2 part-time workers helping our team. They work in a large company who has the same rules. They asked for permission to work for me, the company said OK. They are now more respected since others heard that they are so good in their field that someone else (our team) is paying them for their services. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I am required to disclose the activity to them and have to fill out a business activity form every year describing all of the clients I work with and how much I'm making, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, this is in your favor. Let your boss see how many clients you had and how good you earn. This is an excellent proof to ask more money from your boss or ask for better position. If I saw my contractor was involved in some large projects which turned our well, I would not think much to give him a promotion in my own company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But follow these rules:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Ask the boss should you ask about every new job at odesk or you simply have to ask permission once&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Under any circumstances DO NOT let your boss think that freelancing is more important or that you are under-achieving at work because of the freelancer. Your full-time job must me no.1. If you have hard private project, then cut from your sleep or your friends time e.g. your private time. At your work, you must always be good, rest and concentrated. Even if you are not (can happen sometimes), let no one notice. Many people pretend being exhausted cause they work too much, but this should not happen in your case. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Do not take sick leave so you can finish private projects. This can be tracked easily. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Do not complain how little you work at your own place. You should earn &quot;little&quot; because your boss is paying you full time, not your productive time. Freelancing pays for your productive time. If you think you work too little, leave that company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, no matter how good and lucrative freelancing may sound, I advise you to stay at this company for 1 year at least. You will soon see bad sides of freelancing, and you do not need to be without income when they happen (yes &quot;when&quot;, not &quot;if&quot;, as they will happen eventually).  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9639" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3103" RevisionGUID="d355fb2f-653b-4d5c-b82c-4698c1bb42f4" CreationDate="2015-04-11T17:21:57.313" UserId="7486" Text="I would be trasparent and act within the rules.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here we say: &quot;Don't harm anyone, don't fear anything&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Work at best you can without hiding anything and I think you will be rewarded for being correct and functional. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9640" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3099" RevisionGUID="c1a8e66e-a387-4e5a-9cfd-e342ff297368" CreationDate="2015-04-11T19:16:20.713" UserId="4561" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="Can you tell if you are losing projects due to your price?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are getting as much work now as you were when the dollar was weaker, then I would not lower your rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you are losing projects to competitors who are about $20 an hour cheaper than you, it may be a sign that you are too expensive and I would lower your rates to see if business picks up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I would never feel &quot;guilty&quot; for charging more!  You are taking all the risk to be in business for yourself and those who purchase your services get the benefit of your talent without having to support you as an employee.  People won't pay more than they think something is worth.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The people who hire you can decide what they are willing to pay based on their budget, your value to them, and whether or not they can get something as good as they need for less money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a concept called &quot;marginal rate of return&quot; -- As you raise prices, at some point the sales will drop.  But since each sale is worth more, your ***income*** increases (more money for less work) - *up to a point*.  As you lower prices, the number of ***sales*** will increase, but each sale is worth less so you may make more that way - up to a point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The goal is to find that sweet spot where you are getting the most money for the least amount of work (or an amount of work you can handle).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think you will also find when freelancing, the clients who pay more are actually less needy, better educated on what they want, easier to satisfy, and pay faster." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9641" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3104" RevisionGUID="2c456f07-e21d-4452-8170-aefc28de07e1" CreationDate="2015-04-11T19:19:07.110" UserId="7533" Text="I did a project for a client (it was around 3000$). It was monthly support project and as per agreement he has to pay monthly 1200$. But for 3 months, he didn't pay anything.&#xD;&#xA;First time, he literally cried over the call, he has financial problem he can't pay this month...but he will get his salary very soon then he will pay. So I trusted him (here I did mistake) and I continued his work. But After 3 months also he just paid only 600$ and again he started crying. This time I stopped my work and started asking for rest of  the amount. I sent him unlimited mails with reminder but he never responded. If I call him he always pick up my call and says this time he will definitely transfer my money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My client was an employee in a reputed company and I was doing his job after taking his half salary. (I don't know how did he get that job even).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I screw him up legally? I have just our communication mails." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9642" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3104" RevisionGUID="2c456f07-e21d-4452-8170-aefc28de07e1" CreationDate="2015-04-11T19:19:07.110" UserId="7533" Text="Client is not paying for my work - legal actions" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9643" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3104" RevisionGUID="2c456f07-e21d-4452-8170-aefc28de07e1" CreationDate="2015-04-11T19:19:07.110" UserId="7533" Text="|legal|payment-terms|difficult-client|payments|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9644" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3105" RevisionGUID="222504e5-521e-457d-9542-a89c88225ba4" CreationDate="2015-04-11T20:11:39.123" UserId="4561" Text="If the rules are that you disclose, then I think you should.  It sounds like you value your job and don't want to lose it over freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I would give as few details as they will accept.  There may be positives from telling them but I'm not quite as optimistic as the others who answered.  I have a freelancer who works for me and his company knew and said he should do more work beyond his full time job that they hired him for since he had time to freelance.  Even though his freelance work was done on his free time and his full time job was not suffering (as far as I know).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can understand a company saying that you can't freelance for their competitors assuming you might be using their trade secrets in that work.  But it seems unreasonable to ask for the kind of details they want.  What business is it of theirs exactly how much money you earn?  And who every single client of yours is?  Does your company tell employees they can't disclose their salary to each other but then expect you to disclose exactly what you're earning elsewhere to them?  Sorry, I'm getting off topic here, it just sounds unreasonable to me, but I have not been an employee for many years so I may just not recognize common employer practices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regardless, if you agreed to this when you were hired, I think you should honor it.  At the very least consider the risk you are taking if you don't tell them and they do find out.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Optimistically, maybe they will pay you more to keep you happy knowing you are not 100% dependent on them.  And maybe you can point out the new, valuable to them, skills you're acquiring through freelancing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9645" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3106" RevisionGUID="934ee77c-3e11-4c74-89c9-e4b4d222da94" CreationDate="2015-04-12T13:15:56.837" UserId="7536" Text="I'm in a very similar situation. Currently I run my own Website Design Business: Tim Collins Web Design and am also a student. Anyway I found this out and it was quite helpful:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;*You must register for VAT with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) if it goes over the current registration threshold in a rolling 12-month period. This isn’t a fixed period like the tax year or the calendar year - it could be any period, eg the start of June to the end of May.&#xD;&#xA;The current threshold is £82,000. It usually goes up on 1 April each year. There are different thresholds for buying and selling from other EU countries.*&quot; - Gov.uk&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend looking at the Gov.uk Website on VAT registration as it does pretty much answer all your questions (and it is official).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Gov.uk VAT Website Link][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration/calculate-turnover" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9646" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3107" RevisionGUID="01c089cb-cbe1-4d38-9c76-331392efe84d" CreationDate="2015-04-12T13:22:37.240" UserId="5893" Text="Your options are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - small claims court&#xD;&#xA; - collection agency" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9648" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3109" RevisionGUID="ad5aa6f6-0d71-46cc-9dcb-0bdbc91cf7d0" CreationDate="2015-04-12T13:30:01.847" UserId="5893" Text="I am in the fixed price camp for most things. However, in order to determine a correct bid, the project requirements must be very detailed and most importantly, *complete*. They are delineated in the contract that is executed prior to any work being performed, and the client understands that any changes to the specifications or requirements may incur additional charges." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9649" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3110" RevisionGUID="ec9e2498-fda6-48b6-b048-fac447cc64d1" CreationDate="2015-04-12T15:06:50.957" UserId="7538" Text="Your best bet is to report him to his employer and show proofs of the contract and what payment is due to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By the way, are you both in the same country?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9651" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3111" RevisionGUID="1aa4d347-2895-4908-90fb-0d61905aaf71" CreationDate="2015-04-13T07:58:57.163" UserId="7542" Text="I would suggest to do any administrative tasks or be a remote personal assistant. First thing he should do is to improve his computer skills. There are so many people in need of a helping hand so he can be very useful to them and they don't need any very good English skills, average could do the work for them as long as he can understand and vice versa." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9652" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3112" RevisionGUID="f76f8c9d-8605-4e2a-8ae4-a2abf021f14a" CreationDate="2015-04-13T08:38:14.663" UserId="7542" Text="I have been doing freelancing as a developer for last 6 years. Initially I started while I was on job but now I am doing full time freelancing. There was a time when I was getting more work than I could handle. So I started to build my own team. But its hard to find enough good paying projects since their are lots of cheaper options available so it was difficult to earn enough to pay a good team as well. I tried cheaper resources as well but they are not reliable and their work is not upto the standards. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I'm at a stage where I cannot do freelancing for a long time and I have to do something to move ahead otherwise I've already started to feel I'm lagging behind. Freelancing was a great option once but now I have a family and have to grow somehow to support my family. I also don't have funds to establish a company so I'm bit confused how to grow now." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9653" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3112" RevisionGUID="f76f8c9d-8605-4e2a-8ae4-a2abf021f14a" CreationDate="2015-04-13T08:38:14.663" UserId="7542" Text="Next level of freelancing and growth" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9654" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3112" RevisionGUID="f76f8c9d-8605-4e2a-8ae4-a2abf021f14a" CreationDate="2015-04-13T08:38:14.663" UserId="7542" Text="|business-plan|growth|information-technology|company-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9655" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3113" RevisionGUID="790eb62a-d78b-4a5b-a34c-a120e76021f9" CreationDate="2015-04-13T13:12:08.800" UserId="517" Text="Why can't you work any more? I have 3 kids and I can still work full-time freelancing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, you want to work less and earn the same or more as before. The only answer is to make a company. Or maybe an agency and take a percentage for each project. The cheaper option is to have your own men, but you must have projects each month. The less to earn is to have an agency, but there is not risk as you do not pay them salary. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No matter which option you choose, you will still have to be a manager and find jobs. Stick to quality and do not lower the price. One good project can sustain your company better than 10 small ones. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few years ago, I tried doing this way and my &quot;company&quot; was broke after 3 months. Guys could not bring quality I expect and I could not control them as I was searching jobs and negotiating it. So this did not prove good for myself. I returned to my own team and again I started earn good money, but I still had to earn each dollar. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now, I outsource tasks (!), not projects, to my good friends who can get quality I need. I earn from 0% to 10% on their tasks, but I get quality and we finish projects. For my case, I can only work this way as I am 110% sure they deliver quality. So consider these things I spoke about. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9660" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3106" RevisionGUID="2bf8f048-fd82-458e-b13b-729d324d23b1" CreationDate="2015-04-13T18:55:43.527" UserId="9" Comment="Removed possible self-promotion and &quot;similar situation&quot;; it makes it sound like it's asking a question as an answer. Used quote formatting. Grammar" Text="From [GOV.UK][1]:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You must register for VAT with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) if it goes over the current registration threshold in a rolling 12-month period. This isn’t a fixed period like the tax year or the calendar year - it could be any period, eg the start of June to the end of May.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The current threshold is £82,000. It usually goes up on 1 April each year. There are different thresholds for buying and selling from other EU countries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd recommend using the [GOV.UK][1] website for VAT registration since it's an official resource and pretty much answers all your questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration/calculate-turnover" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9662" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3107" RevisionGUID="ba628264-6c6a-4a8b-9d30-f7e2e19976ae" CreationDate="2015-04-13T19:38:58.770" UserId="5893" Comment="added 639 characters in body" Text="Your options are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Sue the client in **small claims court**, which is a legal remedy for claims less than some statutory amount. It's a somewhat common thing in the US, and there are many TV reality shows about small claims cases (*Judge Judy* being the first and possibly the most popular). I don't know about the existence of such courts outside the US. &#xD;&#xA; - Sell the debt to a **collection agency** or hire a collection agent to attempt to collect the money owed. You will not get the full amount in either case, but you might get something and collection agents are very good at bothering people to pay up money owed to third parties. Again, these entities are subject to local laws/ordinances." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9663" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3115" RevisionGUID="b8ad7d73-8dc2-495a-8ab7-248478950038" CreationDate="2015-04-13T22:36:10.760" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9664" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3116" RevisionGUID="1a995e60-c263-4f3b-be92-19ee51d31f8f" CreationDate="2015-04-13T22:36:10.760" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9669" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3118" RevisionGUID="4f6f8710-7e92-4a92-aa7b-0b32effbdc52" CreationDate="2015-04-14T20:22:52.123" UserId="4804" Text="I receive job offers from here and from there, introduce myself to potential clients on jobs sites, via email and so on. I can keep 1-3 potential clients in my head at a moment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I receive, say, 10 requests a week, I easily lose control of their status. To which of potential clients I replied, to which I didn't? What did I promise Mr. Bateman and what did I send to Mr. Payne as an example of my work? What makes the process of getting the project slow? Is that because Mr. Brown said designs weren't ready yet and we should wait until they are done before discussing development stage with me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question is - how do you keep these things under control? If you have 5-10 potential clients in the row, how do you make sure you keep them all updated as soon as possible and that the process goes as it should go, so that you are not the weakest part of if, but a strong one?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Computer tools, notebook and a pen, iPhone apps? Please share your advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9670" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3118" RevisionGUID="4f6f8710-7e92-4a92-aa7b-0b32effbdc52" CreationDate="2015-04-14T20:22:52.123" UserId="4804" Text="How to control the clients sales funnel?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9671" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3118" RevisionGUID="4f6f8710-7e92-4a92-aa7b-0b32effbdc52" CreationDate="2015-04-14T20:22:52.123" UserId="4804" Text="|communication|client-support|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9672" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3119" RevisionGUID="bc14a2b8-d5e4-44f6-b2ec-9905d7f03f92" CreationDate="2015-04-15T03:04:18.743" UserId="7553" Text="Personally, I am a cluster of confusion. But recently, I have taken a liking to organizing notes and correspondences with Trello. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9673" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3120" RevisionGUID="eec5e10c-c6a1-4b8d-88aa-522c6e11c8e0" CreationDate="2015-04-15T03:33:54.277" UserId="7554" Text="I am a android developer around 2yr exp. I want hunt android project from online, i have no idea. I don't know how to get cilent? anyone people pls give me the idea." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9674" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3120" RevisionGUID="eec5e10c-c6a1-4b8d-88aa-522c6e11c8e0" CreationDate="2015-04-15T03:33:54.277" UserId="7554" Text="I want to get project in online" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9675" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3120" RevisionGUID="eec5e10c-c6a1-4b8d-88aa-522c6e11c8e0" CreationDate="2015-04-15T03:33:54.277" UserId="7554" Text="|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9676" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3120" RevisionGUID="8c3472d7-494b-4424-8226-3a8a85cc327e" CreationDate="2015-04-15T12:25:20.787" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar changes, changed [project] (not descriptive in this context) to [freelance-websites] and [attracting-clients]" Text="I'm an Android developer with about two years experience. I want to get Android projects from the Internet, but I don't know how to get clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would I get clients online?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9677" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3120" RevisionGUID="8c3472d7-494b-4424-8226-3a8a85cc327e" CreationDate="2015-04-15T12:25:20.787" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar changes, changed [project] (not descriptive in this context) to [freelance-websites] and [attracting-clients]" Text="Getting projects from the Internet" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9678" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3120" RevisionGUID="8c3472d7-494b-4424-8226-3a8a85cc327e" CreationDate="2015-04-15T12:25:20.787" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar changes, changed [project] (not descriptive in this context) to [freelance-websites] and [attracting-clients]" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9679" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3121" RevisionGUID="01cf8221-a1c9-4cc5-acc5-53946d6f1a00" CreationDate="2015-04-15T14:00:06.933" UserId="7555" Text="Android forums would be your best bet. There are always people searching for android developers in these areas. I am also searching for one. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9680" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3122" RevisionGUID="03924cf7-9662-4339-97ae-b8c34854190a" CreationDate="2015-04-15T16:27:28.130" UserId="517" Text="Why not Google docs e.g. Spreadsheet?! You can access it from anywhere and any device. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or Trello like Dwayne suggested. Although for this specific case, I think that Trello would not suffice as you need both rows and columns. I thus give preference to Google Spreadsheet (which is Excel in the cloud). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9681" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3095" RevisionGUID="b3ef22c2-314e-4158-8244-06677e431f9d" CreationDate="2015-04-15T16:28:04.370" UserId="91" Comment="spelling and grammar improvements" Text="Right now, the dollar is very close to the euro, almost 1:1. I did not drop my hourly rate as I did not expect that a dollar will remain high for so long. But it's been months now and it is still growing steadily. Consequently, I am earning more for the same amount of work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I change my hourly rate as dollar grows or falls? I don't mean to change it every week, but let's say every 3 months. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that non-US clients see this difference as they are charged in the own currency. Does the dollar growth affect US clients as well or no matter of the dollar-euro ration, US clients always pay the same amount of dollars?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9682" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3095" RevisionGUID="b3ef22c2-314e-4158-8244-06677e431f9d" CreationDate="2015-04-15T16:28:04.370" Comment="Proposed by 91 approved by 9, 517 edit id of 394" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9684" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3120" RevisionGUID="85449363-aab3-44e6-a820-9ffc0776352b" CreationDate="2015-04-15T19:28:20.867" UserId="75" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[707],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="9686" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3101" RevisionGUID="c0cac80b-4083-48f5-9464-f7377bebbfda" CreationDate="2015-04-16T12:25:38.223" UserId="5088" Comment="fixed some typos" Text="Are you living in a country with good legal protection of the worker? If yes, then I strongly say DO disclose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I am worried that if I disclose this to my employer, they will think I'm going to leave one day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is good! He should know that his employee is so good that other clients pays him for his skills. He will respect you more. Why would your employer pay you if no one else wants to pay you? I'd say this will make you better. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have 2 part-time workers helping our team. They work in a large company which has the same rules. They asked for permission to work for me, the company said OK. They are now more respected since others heard that they are so good in their field that someone else (our team) is paying them for their services. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I am required to disclose the activity to them and have to fill out a business activity form every year describing all of the clients I work with and how much I'm making, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, this is in your favor. Let your boss see how many clients you had and how good you earn. This is an excellent proof to ask more money from your boss or ask for better position. If I saw my contractor involved in some large projects which turned our well, I would not think much to give him a promotion in my own company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But follow these rules:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Ask the boss should you ask about every new job at odesk or you simply have to ask permission once&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Under any circumstances DO NOT let your boss think that freelancing is more important or that you are under-achieving at work because of the freelancing. Your full-time job must be no.1. If you have hard private project, then cut from your sleep or your friends time e.g. your private time. At your work, you must always be good, rest and concentrated. Even if you are not (can happen sometimes), let no one notice. Many people pretend being exhausted because they work too much, but this should not happen in your case. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Do not take sick leave so you can finish private projects. This can be tracked easily. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Do not complain how little you work at your own place. You should earn &quot;little&quot; because your boss is paying you full time, not your productive time. Freelancing pays for your productive time. If you think you work too little, leave that company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, no matter how good and lucrative freelancing may sound, I advise you to stay at this company for 1 year at least. You will soon see bad sides of freelancing, and you do not need to be without income when they happen (yes &quot;when&quot;, not &quot;if&quot;, as they will happen eventually).  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9687" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3101" RevisionGUID="c0cac80b-4083-48f5-9464-f7377bebbfda" CreationDate="2015-04-16T12:25:38.223" Comment="Proposed by 5088 approved by 9, 517 edit id of 395" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9688" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3123" RevisionGUID="e9be24b4-4659-48ee-8535-ecbe3859a93a" CreationDate="2015-04-16T12:43:52.673" UserId="7561" Text="I'm a freelance graphic designer and a client asked me for an invoice. Not sure how to move correctly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm from italy and the company from netherlands.&#xD;&#xA;They want an invoice and then make a 30% deposit to start and 70% after work has been completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am currently a student with no registered business. &#xD;&#xA;My questions are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I need to add tax sales to invoice?&#xD;&#xA;I need to pay tax in italy for this invoice?&#xD;&#xA;Something else i need to add?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9689" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3123" RevisionGUID="e9be24b4-4659-48ee-8535-ecbe3859a93a" CreationDate="2015-04-16T12:43:52.673" UserId="7561" Text="Invoice Questions" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9690" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3123" RevisionGUID="e9be24b4-4659-48ee-8535-ecbe3859a93a" CreationDate="2015-04-16T12:43:52.673" UserId="7561" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9691" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3124" RevisionGUID="6d39362f-bc0f-49de-aef1-e2d49f7d8e5d" CreationDate="2015-04-16T16:11:11.503" UserId="7563" Text="I've been contacted by someone who found my posting on job search website.&#xD;&#xA;They claim to be &quot;overseas&quot; (meaning EU/USA) company hiring people. &#xD;&#xA;For my region, pay is very good (actually, it is extremely high). They claim to offer remote fulltime jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The thing is... their website is one page (decent-looking, though) with &quot;login&quot;/register buttons, some short ads, cool design and nothing else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And I can't find anything on them with google. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suspect that this is a scam of sorts, but I'd like to know what are normal steps to &quot;verify&quot; company. &quot;Verify&quot; meaning &quot;does it even exist&quot;, &quot;is it a scam&quot;, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been only working with individuals before so I'm not sure how to proceed (I did reply to their representative, though)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9692" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3124" RevisionGUID="6d39362f-bc0f-49de-aef1-e2d49f7d8e5d" CreationDate="2015-04-16T16:11:11.503" UserId="7563" Text="&quot;Verifying&quot; employer's company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9693" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3124" RevisionGUID="6d39362f-bc0f-49de-aef1-e2d49f7d8e5d" CreationDate="2015-04-16T16:11:11.503" UserId="7563" Text="|contracts|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9694" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3125" RevisionGUID="2ed6be23-d393-487a-bb83-0d0778bdd13b" CreationDate="2015-04-16T17:03:16.810" UserId="517" Text="Do they have any contact details on the website? If yes, Google them. Navigate to the address via Google Maps and see if it's some house or a building. If it's a house, it could be a bad sign if you cannot also find anything about them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are recruiting company, they will disclose their name and send you a contract before they hire you. Such agencies are very professional. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Google their name as I said, ask them to tell you more about agency (if they disclose little info - bad sign) and lean to your common sense. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also them to conduct a Skype video chat and record it. If they decline video chat - bad sign.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not see any way to harm you unless they ask for free work. In the later case, you know what to say, right?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9695" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3126" RevisionGUID="1404329f-d6ca-4f2f-8768-a57965677db0" CreationDate="2015-04-16T21:55:01.733" UserId="9" Text="There are a few things that you can do to sanity-check this. Among these:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Look at the WHOIS information about their website. If you're lucky, the Registrant, Admin or Tech sections may have important information. If you're not lucky, they purchased privacy and their hosting provider hides the above information.&#xD;&#xA;* Google &quot;company name scam&quot; or &quot;company name reviews&quot;. Figure out what their business is. If it's not easily discernible (or if the first Google search term I suggested comes up with many results), then give it a pass.&#xD;&#xA;* If you have a company name or an address, you can look up their state's government site and use that to determine if such a company is registered with them.&#xD;&#xA;* Follow your gut. If it's too good to be true, it probably is. If they had found your posting on a job search website, then they know that you're looking for a job and may be in desperation-mode. **I'm not a bad person**, but if I were, I would focus my efforts on people who may not be thinking clearly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9696" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3095" RevisionGUID="460ebf6e-a43e-4fa9-8936-ffbee5eb880e" CreationDate="2015-04-16T23:54:18.453" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/588852948467318784" />
  <row Id="9703" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3123" RevisionGUID="1fa11c88-bd21-473c-ba1e-a87f6f4b623d" CreationDate="2015-04-17T10:09:39.040" UserId="58" Comment="Clarify heavily; change title for searches." Text="I'm a freelance graphic designer and a client asked me for an invoice; I'm not sure how to move forward correctly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm from Italy and the company is from the Netherlands.&#xD;&#xA;They want an invoice and then make a 30% deposit to start and 70% after work has been completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am currently a student with no registered business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My questions are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I need to add sales tax to the invoice?&#xD;&#xA;- I need to pay tax in Italy for this invoice?&#xD;&#xA;- What else do I need to add to my invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9704" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3123" RevisionGUID="1fa11c88-bd21-473c-ba1e-a87f6f4b623d" CreationDate="2015-04-17T10:09:39.040" UserId="58" Comment="Clarify heavily; change title for searches." Text="Do I need to pay/add tax on remote work as a sole trader?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9705" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3123" RevisionGUID="1fa11c88-bd21-473c-ba1e-a87f6f4b623d" CreationDate="2015-04-17T10:09:39.040" UserId="58" Comment="Clarify heavily; change title for searches." Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9706" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3128" RevisionGUID="1a43bf84-4e91-4507-8be9-35bd88e07c63" CreationDate="2015-04-17T10:18:12.927" UserId="5969" Text="I am running a monthly subscription based business, When renewal is due, We call customers and they make the payment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any way, I can charge my customers automatically like the subscription in paypal ?  (As paypal cant be used in India, When both the buyers &amp; sellers are from India)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can you please suggest some way to achieve the automatic charging ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9707" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3128" RevisionGUID="1a43bf84-4e91-4507-8be9-35bd88e07c63" CreationDate="2015-04-17T10:18:12.927" UserId="5969" Text="Any payment gateway in India which can auto charge customer on renewals?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9708" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3128" RevisionGUID="1a43bf84-4e91-4507-8be9-35bd88e07c63" CreationDate="2015-04-17T10:18:12.927" UserId="5969" Text="|invoices|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9710" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3123" RevisionGUID="4e5df88e-fc70-4808-93f4-94c295f92f6c" CreationDate="2015-04-17T14:57:54.700" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/589080349872914432" />
  <row Id="9711" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3123" RevisionGUID="15e594c0-6503-4f6a-a89b-cbc974c12947" CreationDate="2015-04-17T15:17:41.997" UserId="7561" Comment="edited tags" Text="|taxes|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9712" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3129" RevisionGUID="6f9179ab-2b8c-4234-9fbb-6d0d02f1a32f" CreationDate="2015-04-17T16:38:04.673" UserId="7486" Text="I'm from Italy too and I had the chance to work for foreign companies (in Europe).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as I know you can't produce a regular invoice to a foreign company in Europe unless you have a VAT ID (&quot;Partita IVA&quot; in Italy).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, the invoice should be without the 22% of taxes, then the foreign company will pay that in its own country, but that can change depending on special factors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have certain features of age, no employment, etc (I don't know all of them) you can &quot;sell&quot; up to a certain amount of money (maybe around €3000) without paying taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But let me tell you that the rules changes a lot and fast (also depending on age and other factors) so the best thing that you can do is to have an expert advice at an accountant to know exactly what you can do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9713" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3100" RevisionGUID="0bb02e8f-feea-4a5c-9560-7d20df738b55" CreationDate="2015-04-18T06:01:44.263" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/589307805175275520" />
  <row Id="9717" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3131" RevisionGUID="5772ff19-ecd2-474b-a79e-4940895eaeb8" CreationDate="2015-04-18T07:20:41.613" UserId="7486" Text="In addition to all the good advices that others told you, you can go on and start to work for that company with the condition to receive a full or partial prepayment for your project, as first time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will then know if they are serious, also receiving the payment you will acquire more good information about the company and who is behind. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can justify your request saying that the prepayment is for coverings you expenses to start their project. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9718" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3132" RevisionGUID="c785b13b-4745-4d0e-8a7e-a6436717d4cf" CreationDate="2015-04-18T07:59:59.470" UserId="7486" Text="I am freelancing since 12 years and previously I owned a company for 4 years with other 3 business partner and 2 employees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let me tell you that the company experience for me was really awful in all the aspects. I used to work endlessly and have no money because we had to pay rent, employees, etc etc, also we had conflicts on important matters. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I decided to leave the company and start freelancing on my own, it was hard for the first years, then I built my reputation and people I worked for started to recommend me to others and so on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm happy with that because I never have big expenses, I have a small but functional office, simple accounting, and every work hour that I do is just for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now since a few years I started to get more projects than what I can handle but I give tasks to do to other colleagues and friends that I trust. They help me with building all the parts that I easily put together. Sometimes I work just a few hours for a project and earn enough over the outsourcing tasks to be satisfied. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also work for them when needed, we are a sort of freelancers team, we support and help each others when needed because we trust each others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9725" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3135" RevisionGUID="9e2b8344-e191-4803-8060-d991b1434a4c" CreationDate="2015-04-18T22:52:33.207" UserId="514" Text="See my answer to the question [Do you fix hourly estimation or accept your mistake and do for free?][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;tl;dr:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The point of a fixed price is to protect the client's budget; I take the risk, but charge for it in my bid. The point of billing time and expenses is to allow the client flexibility in the scope and direction of the project, protecting me against changes and unknowns, for which the client takes the risk. If you contract fixed price, make sure your have a scope-of-work statement, and stick to it, or charge for extras.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/514/do-you-fix-hourly-estimation-or-accept-your-mistake-and-do-for-free/527#527" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9726" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3136" RevisionGUID="bcad3792-e33c-447e-bc44-0c97a2983f95" CreationDate="2015-04-19T10:46:24.877" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="I am thinking of appointing a freelance salesperson, only paid by a commission on his sales of my product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this an acceptable scheme ? What would a reasonable commission rate be ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9727" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3136" RevisionGUID="bcad3792-e33c-447e-bc44-0c97a2983f95" CreationDate="2015-04-19T10:46:24.877" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Salesman commission" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9728" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3136" RevisionGUID="bcad3792-e33c-447e-bc44-0c97a2983f95" CreationDate="2015-04-19T10:46:24.877" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="|pay-rate|sales|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9733" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3136" RevisionGUID="335a3277-a75f-4e6e-9af2-c5e6815a31d5" CreationDate="2015-04-19T21:11:42.357" UserId="9" Comment="Some grammar changes, gender-neutral language" Text="I'm thinking about hiring a freelance salesperson with their pay being completely based on sales commission.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this an acceptable scheme? What would be a reasonable commission rate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9734" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3136" RevisionGUID="335a3277-a75f-4e6e-9af2-c5e6815a31d5" CreationDate="2015-04-19T21:11:42.357" UserId="9" Comment="Some grammar changes, gender-neutral language" Text="Determining sales commission rate" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9738" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3138" RevisionGUID="e3ace687-07be-4991-936f-cdbb020ec21c" CreationDate="2015-04-20T03:26:21.683" UserId="5893" Text="How much is this worth to you? Right now, I spend more time getting work than I do *doing* the work. Anything from 15-50%, depending on the work and what it takes to get the job. Your agent should get you jobs that will pay both of you acceptable rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9739" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3136" RevisionGUID="90b80b24-be11-4b7f-9110-8b632cf8c0b3" CreationDate="2015-04-20T07:04:57.980" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="added 205 characters in body" Text="I'm thinking about hiring a freelance salesperson with their pay being completely based on sales commission.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this an acceptable scheme? What would be a reasonable commission rate?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;UPDATE:&#xD;&#xA;In my business (industry related), projects often take a long time (months) to materialize, from the first customer contact to final delivery. Will that be a major obstacle to finding people ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9741" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="3140" RevisionGUID="9a8076a6-83ed-4ce8-a329-a703bbb2ae59" CreationDate="2015-04-20T12:36:35.643" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://lifehacks.stackexchange.com/questions/6662/where-other-than-home-can-freelancers-do-their-work" />
  <row Id="9742" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3140" RevisionGUID="1713d3bd-67de-4d7d-85c5-91fcbaecfa5c" CreationDate="2015-04-20T08:38:50.043" UserDisplayName="Slick" Text="When working on a solo project, sitting at home on your own can get a bit depressing after a while.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can go to Starbucks, but feel a bit awkward sitting in Starbucks after an hour or so (even if I am buying plenty of coffee).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When all I need is space for a laptop and some wifi, what other sorts of places are good to go to, where I can experience a nice environment and be around other people?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9743" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3140" RevisionGUID="1713d3bd-67de-4d7d-85c5-91fcbaecfa5c" CreationDate="2015-04-20T08:38:50.043" UserDisplayName="Slick" Text="Where, other than home, can freelancers do their work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9744" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3140" RevisionGUID="1713d3bd-67de-4d7d-85c5-91fcbaecfa5c" CreationDate="2015-04-20T08:38:50.043" UserDisplayName="Slick" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9745" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3141" RevisionGUID="2b836321-9032-4209-ab98-79c938c9f293" CreationDate="2015-04-20T13:32:21.230" UserId="7486" Text="As a freelance, sometimes I work also at my clients's company offices, when I do a project for that specific client, if they have a free office or desk usually I can stay with them from a few hours up to a few days days. &#xD;&#xA;While I work there I have people around, and the client is happy because we can interact more efficiently as I develop their project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course I do that only with clients that I get along very well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other places where you can work being with others is the city or university library, parks when is summert, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wouldn't stay at Starbucks or places like that, I would feel very uncomfortable and is not a stimulating place." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9746" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3081" RevisionGUID="03790648-664f-432a-bd9a-1c5648e9f48c" CreationDate="2015-04-20T15:04:19.173" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/590169126091501568" />
  <row Id="9747" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3141" RevisionGUID="91caa9d5-9e6e-4d49-99d7-006deb32866a" CreationDate="2015-04-20T16:34:54.990" UserId="7486" Comment="deleted 5 characters in body" Text="As a freelance, sometimes I work also at my clients's company offices, when I do a project for that specific client, if they have a free office or desk usually I can stay with them from a few hours up to a few days. &#xD;&#xA;While I work there I have people around, and the client is happy because we can interact more efficiently as I develop their project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course I do that only with clients that I get along very well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other places where you can work being with others is the city or university library, parks when is summer, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wouldn't stay at Starbucks or places like that, I would feel very uncomfortable and is not a stimulating place." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9748" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3142" RevisionGUID="8209d309-b690-4da6-9096-a88cf99a93d4" CreationDate="2015-04-20T17:08:18.863" UserId="7557" Text="Trying not to sound like a plug for any particular place, but there are shared/collabrative workspaces popping up all over the place.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The one I am most familiar with is [Gangplank][1]  It is a location you can just drop into an do your work.  There are no fees and you don't have to share anything.  However the idea is basically that while you are sitting there doing your work, you have a casual conversation with someone else doing their work and you both discover and untapped opportunity and come together to fulfill it and make more $$$.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My local group provides basic desk/tables, free internet and free printing, and a free conference room - all designed to lure unsuspecting people into their midst in order to foster new business opportunities! These facilities have been donated by people/businesses with no expectation that you have to repay other than by being open to talking to and/or helping other people. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For more general ideas, google collaborative works spaces in your area and see what pops up.  Also check up on any business incubator groups that may also have workspaces.  There are also some subscription based groups doing the same thing, and I would also check into any maker groups in your area as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://gangplankhq.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9749" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3143" RevisionGUID="bc0f71ff-6e39-4948-a3e2-ef8889660cc9" CreationDate="2015-04-20T19:57:28.550" UserId="7590" Text="I'm working as an android developer in a company for full-time but I'm never worked as a freelance per project, and now someone wants to hire me to make an app, and I have to decide how much does it costs but I don't have any idea how.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;when searching for such issue I came across [this question][1] and it gave me an overview but didn't gave me a standard for this and the most of answers were directed to the specific app the op asked about, and to give you an overview of my app, it such a reminder app which allows you to open the camera and take a picture to the thing you wanna to remind and assign specific time for it then close the app which will work as a background service and when this time came it will give a ring with displaying the name and the photo of the thing that is reminded.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1215/how-do-i-estimate-the-cost-of-building-an-android-app" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9750" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3143" RevisionGUID="bc0f71ff-6e39-4948-a3e2-ef8889660cc9" CreationDate="2015-04-20T19:57:28.550" UserId="7590" Text="How much my Android app costs?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9751" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3143" RevisionGUID="bc0f71ff-6e39-4948-a3e2-ef8889660cc9" CreationDate="2015-04-20T19:57:28.550" UserId="7590" Text="|contracts|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9752" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3144" RevisionGUID="d87aa4e1-212a-4aec-a2fd-447fe3777843" CreationDate="2015-04-20T21:44:08.517" UserId="1021" Text="**The Problem:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm faced with the dilemma of how I should advertise myself in terms of the roles I fulfill for my freelancing business. I'm experienced in:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Graphic Design for Web &amp; Print:**&#xD;&#xA;   - Social Media Posts, Online Campaign Banners, Advertisements, Logos, Business Cards, Packaging, Vinyls, Flyers, Brochures, Magazines, etc.&#xD;&#xA; - **Front-End Design:**&#xD;&#xA;   - Website Design, Mobile Application Design, Prototyping, etc.&#xD;&#xA; - **Front-End Web Development:**&#xD;&#xA;   - HTML, CSS, Sass, JavaScript, jQuery, etc.&#xD;&#xA; - **Back-End Web Development:**&#xD;&#xA;   - PHP, MySQL, CodeIgniter, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Previous Research:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The closest I got to an answer is Multimedia Designer or Designer &amp; Developer. The safest bet to me is to go with Designer &amp; Developer but I feel it will cause some confusion down the road and I'm sure there's something that better describes what I do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Previous Titles:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My previous job titles in my days of employment were:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Web Designer &amp; Developer&#xD;&#xA; - Web Administrator&#xD;&#xA; - Graphics Designer&#xD;&#xA; - Web Application Developer&#xD;&#xA; - Web &amp; Graphics Designer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The Question:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want my clients to know that I'm as handy with code as I'm with design for multiple mediums. Is there a position that incorporates all that in a simple and descriptive manner without ending up being too long?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9753" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3144" RevisionGUID="d87aa4e1-212a-4aec-a2fd-447fe3777843" CreationDate="2015-04-20T21:44:08.517" UserId="1021" Text="What's the ideal job title for a single person handling Web, Print, and UI Design as well as Front &amp; Back-End Web Development?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9754" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3144" RevisionGUID="d87aa4e1-212a-4aec-a2fd-447fe3777843" CreationDate="2015-04-20T21:44:08.517" UserId="1021" Text="|attracting-clients|communication|marketing|design|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9756" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3145" RevisionGUID="f8b0aa8d-a59e-413a-9194-3976d935cd2f" CreationDate="2015-04-20T22:22:04.900" UserId="7486" Text="That depends on what type of sales person you are looking for. For example if you want for a single-firm sales person (works only for you) with the perpective to be payd after many months and only based on sales, I think you will have to pay a big commission or a basic salary plus a good commission.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is different if you hire a multi-firm sales person, your product is being sold along with other products of other firms and the person gain over multiple clients, this way you can negotiate more good conditions for you but who sells will not concentrate 100% on you but sell what is best for his income. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9757" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3146" RevisionGUID="21ccd9fe-17a2-4063-845f-e43a2635fb01" CreationDate="2015-04-20T22:26:47.353" UserId="1021" Text="I'll start with an example of how I calculate the pricing for my freelancing projects which perhaps would give you an idea on how it's done, and then I'll add a few points of advice I learned along the way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How much will this project cost me as a developer?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whenever I get hired to build a website or design something, I have to consider my expenses for the project first such as hosting, domain names, plugins, translation services, stock graphics/images, hired help, safety margin, etc. I calculate that amount and set it aside. Let's say that these expenses will come out at around $500.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What is my labor worth?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This depends on many factors such as your skills and experience, your quality of work, etc. One way I did it was to set a benchmark. Ideally, I wanted to be paid $150 per 4 hours of labor a day which gives me about $37.5 per hour of labor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How long do I need to work on this project?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it a day? A week? A month? Whatever the timeline is, you have to consider how much your labor is worth. Let's say that my labor is worth $300 per day and I need 3 days of labor to finish this project. Therefore, I need about $900 for my labor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Conclusion:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the **example** above, my expenses are $500, and my labor is $900. Therefore, I need to charge about $1,400. That's one way of doing it. It's worked well for me so far. Feel free to experiment and see what works for you. Keep in mind that this is only an example and not the actual amount. Every project is different.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Advice:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - This is your first freelance project, you'll make mistakes, that's&#xD;&#xA;   okay, but be aware that the client will probably ask for a refund if&#xD;&#xA;   the mistakes can't be corrected in time. To minimize risk, I would charge a little below average so I wouldn't have a difficult time in case I really need to refund the client.&#xD;&#xA; - Do NOT start working until you get a down payment. I charge the full&#xD;&#xA;   amount for the agreed expenses plus 25 to 50% of my labor charges depending on the project. No down payment, no work!&#xD;&#xA; - I make it clear to the client that I will not refund his or her money if they decide to cancel the project in the middle in the form of a signed contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck with your project and happy freelancing!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9758" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3145" RevisionGUID="4858ec95-b9a9-42d4-8125-633aa4bd5bd3" CreationDate="2015-04-21T05:57:24.043" UserId="7486" Comment="deleted 4 characters in body" Text="That depends on what type of sales person you are looking for. For example if you want a single-firm sales person (works only for you) with the perpective to be payd after many months and only based on sales, I think you will have to pay a big commission or a basic salary plus a good commission.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is different if you hire a multi-firm sales person, your product is being sold along with other products of other firms and the person gain over multiple clients, this way you can negotiate more good conditions for you but who sells will not concentrate 100% on you but sell what is best for his income. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9759" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3147" RevisionGUID="d9a36ef4-6a80-49e6-b4ec-cff6e593f85f" CreationDate="2015-04-21T12:25:23.087" UserId="7609" Text="I just finished HTML, CSS, and jQuery on Codecademy + HTML5 course on Udemy called &quot;Learn HTML5 Programming From Scratch&quot; and I have some experience with Photoshop.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I do now to gain experience to be able to work on real projects as a freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm aiming to be a Web Designer/Front-end Developer at the moment and maybe in the future I'll aim to be a Full-Stack Web Developer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I start designing my portfolio (it'll be empty of course)? Or should I wait till I gain some experience to make it actually look good and to have some projects to put there?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm really lost and open to suggestions." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9760" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3147" RevisionGUID="d9a36ef4-6a80-49e6-b4ec-cff6e593f85f" CreationDate="2015-04-21T12:25:23.087" UserId="7609" Text="Learned HTML, CSS, and jQuery. Now what?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9761" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3147" RevisionGUID="d9a36ef4-6a80-49e6-b4ec-cff6e593f85f" CreationDate="2015-04-21T12:25:23.087" UserId="7609" Text="|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9762" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3145" RevisionGUID="081e11ce-e68e-47b7-8f04-f56ff2c12a25" CreationDate="2015-04-21T12:43:02.100" UserId="7486" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="That depends on what type of sales person you are looking for. For example if you want a single-firm sales person (works only for you) with the perspective to be payd after many months and only based on sales, I think you will have to pay a big commission or a basic salary plus a good commission.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is different if you hire a multi-firm sales person, your product is being sold along with other products of other firms and the person gain over multiple clients, this way you can negotiate more good conditions for you but who sells will not concentrate 100% on you but sell what is best for his income. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9763" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3140" RevisionGUID="00c4b6c2-74e8-4c20-a897-d38bae769a8d" CreationDate="2015-04-21T13:11:35.737" UserId="9" Comment="tagged" Text="|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9764" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3148" RevisionGUID="c70fe37f-1cff-4122-85db-04b5ea0eeda6" CreationDate="2015-04-21T13:53:12.110" UserId="7486" Text="The best school is the real work life, you will never stop to learn in this field and you will never really start to learn seriously until you will start to work on client's projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's good that you have solid basis but my suggestion is to start to work on projects and problem solving (in your career you will be asked of things that you could never have imagined), start with small or even non-profit work for organizations, and go on with bigger and more complex projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The portfolio has short life, whan you do now will be old and obsolete in a matter of a couple of years or less, the important thing is your reputation as a serious, transparent and inteligent person, and maybe the clients you work for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best wishes for your career." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9765" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3148" RevisionGUID="a2cbf7d8-6253-4869-b066-9356b4570b62" CreationDate="2015-04-21T17:04:54.577" UserId="7486" Comment="edited body" Text="The best school is the real work life, you will never stop to learn in this field and you will never really start to learn seriously until you will start to work on client's projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's good that you have solid basis but my suggestion is to start to work on projects and problem solving (in your career you will be asked of things that you could never have imagined), start with small or even non-profit work for organizations, and go on with bigger and more complex projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The portfolio has short life, what you do now will be old and obsolete in a matter of a couple of years or less, the important thing is your reputation as a serious, transparent and inteligent person, and maybe the clients you work for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best wishes for your career." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9774" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3144" RevisionGUID="cd8e9de6-2a75-498b-ade4-2f9f7c8170f7" CreationDate="2015-04-22T05:37:09.437" UserId="1021" Comment="Changed the title to eliminate some of the guess work." Text="Is Multimedia Designer &amp; Web Developer a suitable job title for a single person handling Web, Print, and UI Design + Front &amp; Back-End Web Development?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9775" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3151" RevisionGUID="385bdee6-7c71-4356-87eb-121f3acf5d9d" CreationDate="2015-04-22T11:52:34.633" UserId="9" Text="Since you describe it as your freelancing business, I'd choose something like the following for your title:&#xA;&#xA;* Proprietor&#xA;* President&#xA;* CEO&#xA;* Consultant&#xA;&#xA;Let the business itself describe what you do (graphic design, Web Development, Web application development) and keep your title simple." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9777" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3152" RevisionGUID="9bb7a0e4-913f-49cb-a5d1-10424f062f0e" CreationDate="2015-04-22T20:10:56.567" UserId="7624" Text="I've been freelancing for a while and would like to step up my game a little. As my client base grows, I find myself employing the help of close associates and enjoy consistently working with them and the creativity and experience they bring to each project so, I'm thinking of creating a little entity to make it more official and position myself as more of an agency than one guy doing all the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is, what are the pros and cons of sticking to the project-to-project, contract-basis work versus creating a 2- or 3-person partnership?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9778" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3152" RevisionGUID="9bb7a0e4-913f-49cb-a5d1-10424f062f0e" CreationDate="2015-04-22T20:10:56.567" UserId="7624" Text="Partnership vs. Contract Work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9779" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3152" RevisionGUID="9bb7a0e4-913f-49cb-a5d1-10424f062f0e" CreationDate="2015-04-22T20:10:56.567" UserId="7624" Text="|contracts|legal|partner|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9782" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3152" RevisionGUID="d4de670b-52d3-40ce-9f57-7c4b7d97f457" CreationDate="2015-04-23T04:35:28.910" UserId="7624" Comment="Restructured question to yield clearer responses. " Text="I've been freelancing for a while and would like to step up my game a little. As my client base grows, I find myself employing the help of close associates and enjoy consistently working with them and the creativity and experience they bring to each project so, I'm thinking of creating a little entity to make it more official and position myself as more of an agency than one guy doing all the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is, am I better off sticking with project-to-project contracts with my associates, or are there greater benefits from creating a 2- or 3-person partnership?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9784" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3154" RevisionGUID="e2e14e46-abc7-4dce-9242-cb1c13f56807" CreationDate="2015-04-23T13:27:15.000" UserId="7486" Text="This is a very interestin question because I am in the same position as yours, I have 20 years of experience and during the years I obtained many different skills that cover programming in different languages, graphic development in all the Adobe softwares (digital and print), photography and video making.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The good part is that I am never without projects to realize because I can apply my knowledge to different areas, when there is no graphic work to do I can do php scripting, products photography, etc. (I know a guy who is specialized ONLY in Flash Actionscript and now he is jobless!).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But the problem is that our society is used to give labels to people and sometimes I don't know how to present myself to others in terms of work specialization. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my career I was called: technician, programmer, webmaster, photographer, etc, but this is very limiting because happened to me several times that I was called for web development while the client payd another for products photography and vice-versa.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I thought (many years ago) to make a web site and put there a large portfolio with the best of my works in all the areas, after some times and all the effort, I realized that almost all my clients never saw my website! They knew me by reference or suggestion of other clients, we had meetings and works done, they never saw my presentation, they just rush and want things well done and fast with no time to read or get interested in knowing me better (even if I used to give cards or personalized gadgets and pens to make people go to my site).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is an unsolved problem to me, but lately I started to not define me with a word or label, but with short description of what I do, for example if someone would ask me, I'd say something like &quot;I am a graphic designer and programmer with 20 years or experience, I can follow the client from logo design to web development, photography and multimedia productions&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the best definition that I could find until now! But I an aware that this tells all and nothing..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9785" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3155" RevisionGUID="18019387-9769-43fb-a3f9-9a7e22c1dcb4" CreationDate="2015-04-23T17:32:31.367" UserId="5893" Text="It depends on how you want to &quot;step up your game&quot; - there are a lot of considerations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are you looking to grow your business? Do you have enough work to keep you and your partners busy? If the answers to both of these are &quot;yes&quot; then changing the business entity (solo practice to partnership) is warranted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There will be more paperwork in a multi-person company, and what that entails will be decided on what kind of entity you will be forming. General or limited partnerships or corporations - you will need to consult with an accountant (for changes in your tax requirements) and a lawyer. General partnerships (in the US) give each partner more &quot;rights&quot; than your spouse has in a marriage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9786" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3156" RevisionGUID="cd84b82a-e73f-4773-b5cb-beaeec905e01" CreationDate="2015-04-23T20:02:12.510" UserId="7629" Text="I've been thinking about the same question. I used Google trends explore tool to compare one job title or service to another and see which people search for most often. Here's the comparison for the two job titles you were considrering:&#xD;&#xA;https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=Multimedia%20Designer%2C%20Designer%20%26%20Developer&amp;cmpt=q&amp;tz=&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, most of my jobs come from personal referrals, rather than website traffic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wonder if ChrisForrence is on to something, we could describe ourselves more generally and label the business's offerings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck! Would you post what you decide to do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9787" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3157" RevisionGUID="65801477-dc1a-4973-b989-c7602327569a" CreationDate="2015-04-24T00:56:04.360" UserId="7632" Text="You are off to a good start with those skills.   It can be challenging at first.  Get good at research by using google to find answers to questions.   Use SO and ask questions if necessary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also learn some backend scripting languages, like PHP, Python, Ruby, Node.js, etc... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you just get the basics down, it will make you far more effective in the field.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are looking for decent client base online try elance.com.   It's not great, but it's the best I've found so far to get high paying clients (up to $80/hr personally) who actually act like professionals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't think of anything else off hand.  I've been doing this for 10 years after quitting a 9-5 as PHP programmer / Unix SysAdmin so there is just so much.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't let people manipulate you either.  There are all kinds of different tricks people will use and you will learn to spot different personalities.  I swear I'm going to write a book about this one day.   I have wasted hundreds of hours on people who are just taking advantage of me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The strange thing is, when it's online, people who are normally decent good people somehow feel justified in burning you.   I would recommend getting in at least a voice call with your clients at some point during the project and if possible skype or facetime or w/e at least once a week to show them that you are a real person.  It really helps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also learn how to spot these guys:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stroker:  This client will continually bombard you with new projects that are &quot;about to start&quot;.  He will waste your time getting free information and quotes from you just so he has a guide to go on when he hires someone much cheaper.  He will also use any information, research, documents, specification, etc... to help guide his project with another cheaper developer, and in turn get his project that much cheaper.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pumper:  This client pumps you for information constantly.  He may throw some work your way to keep you happy, he may even pay you for some of that work.  But he will waste hours and hours of your time in the long run.  If you get a client who is constantly wanting to 'ask one quick question' that is not relevant to the scope of the project you are working on with him, then that is a red flag.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Burner:  This client just straight burns your ass.  Usually one of two scenario.  A very charismatic, friendly person who chats you up and strokes your ego and tells you how great your doing the whole time.   They get you to feel really comfortable with them and you let your guard down.  Then when that check never comes rolling in (or paypal or whatever), your kind of like... OK, well I'm sure he's just busy I'll give him some time.  And your boy is long gone.   Sites like Elance who put your money in escrow &quot;sometimes&quot; will offer partial protection against getting scammed like this, but even with payments through paypal, you are not protected.   More on that in a minute.   The second type of burner will be someone who communicates very little, seems standoffish,  maybe a little anti-social.  You went get much communication but he'll give you enough to keep you working.  Then when it comes time to pay, he's MIA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;creeper:  I would say the creeper is worse than the burner.  At least the burner just takes your work and gets out of your hair.  But the creeper will cling onto you like a parasite and drag you and your entire operation down to hell and your bank account with him.   The creeper appears to be a legit client and is sometimes hard to spot.  The red flags are always SCOPE CREEP.   One of the hardest things to learn is how to properly address a client who is requesting work outside the scope of your original contract.  On the one hand you don't want to offend a legit client, but on the other hand, you don't want to get taken for a ride by a creeper.  This is one of the harder aspects of freelancing and too much to get into, but just remember,  never do ANY work that you have not agreed to specifically with the client on compensation unless you plan on that work being done for free.  Because the client sure as heck loves that.&#xD;&#xA;If you let a creeper run amok you may find yourself two months deep into a project that was only supposed 'to take an hour' according to the client and getting paid like it too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;knower:  This client knows so much about programming, he probably knows more than you.  NOT!  But he will sure act like he does.   He will try to tell you that he knows this should only take a couple hours and he used to do what you do and program xyz language that you program in, but that was a long time ago and now he's doing much more important things than your dumb job.  Too bad when he said he was programming in xyz language it hadn't even been invented yet.  And you already could tell just by talking to him that he never touched a piece of code in his life.   Never work with a client who tries to tell YOU how long something should take.  Or who asks you 'why is it taking so long' in a way that they are implying you are not being honest or that you are maybe not skilled.  These are manipulation tactics to weaken your bargaining position when they try to burn you on payment.   Never let a client tell you how much your time is worth.   I tell them  &quot;I'm the one with the talent, skill, knowledge and experience in this field, so I prefer to be the one who decides how much I charge for my time.&quot;   That usually sets the record straight.   And if they don't like it, they can move on.   That's another lesson,  no client is too important to sacrifices your policies and ideals.  No client.  None.   Always stick to your guns, that is how to make it in this biz.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;chummer:  This guy is your best buddy in the whole world.  He will ask you all about your life, your friends, your family, hows grandma doin, hows the dog,  did your mailmans sisters cat have those kittens?  He'll compliment you all day on how smart you are and how amazed he is and what a GREAT job your doing etc etc etc...  If you fall for that,  you are going to be in a weakened position because you will feel there is something external to the relationship besides the business at hand.  Trust me, there is not.  This is the clients tactic to lower your bargaining power and save themselves money as well as allow them to insert scope creep into your project more easily.   I will friendly and polite with clients, but if someone goes over the top I will pull back to indicate they have crossed a line.   If they continue to line step,  I will not work with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, that's just a few i could think of.  I don't know you can message people on here, but would be happy to give advice etc...   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just sign up for a freelancing site and build your profile on there for now.  You can work on a website portfolio in your spare time.  Take tests on those sites...(like elance.com) and it shows up on your profile/portfolio.  On elance they have groups,  so try to join a group (such as jQuery, or HTML5)  and it will tell you that you need to pass this test or that.  Take the tests.  Do really good.  If you pass you get the badge on your profile so client instantly sees it and goes, oh this guys good at &quot;xyz technology&quot; .   If you score within top 10% or whatever on elance, you also get that listed in your profile instead of jsut &quot;passed&quot;.   Keep re-taking the tests every 2 weeks until you get a few like that.    The tests are really just important to get you some kind of credibility on there so someone will hire you.   Once you have a decent profile and a few tests passed, go apply for jobs like crazy.  Bid them low, and do a great job.   The first 5 or so projects, you should not expect to make any money on.  DO NOT take on something huge.  We are talking $100 or less and less than 1 day to complete.   These are just to find some clients willing to take a chance on you and hopefully give you 5 star reviewe when you are done.   The reviews are basically the only thing that matters on elance.    I ask all my clients if they will please decline to review if they feel I have not performed 5 star worthy.   About half of them do not review me and that is fine.  I have a 5 star profile.  And some jerk gave me 2 stars the other day and it didn't put a dent in my profile, that's how deep i roll in stars. haha.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, get a few good reviews,  then bump your rate up.   Don't wuss out and put some crummy rate.   Your a freelancer.  You get to set your own pay rate.  So figure out how much you need to pay your bills, buy equipment, etc.. and then double or triple that. haha :)  j/k.   But don't sell yourself short.  In the beginning you might have to work for 10 or 20 bucks an hour, but after about 6 months to a year, you should be makiing more like 35 - 50+&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And always quote what you think it's going to take  and multiply by like 150% - 300%  depending on how bad your esitmation is, because it ALWAYS takes longer than you think.   Same with your deadline estimates.  Triple them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;haha.. Anyway ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good Luck and remember, always stay true to what yourself,  don't bend for anyone.  It's a shark tank out there and blood is in the water.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Oh and check out Shopify,  its super easy and you get affiliate sign up bonuses and can create themes and apps to sell in their store.   " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9789" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3159" RevisionGUID="f2df47ba-a172-49d3-aea2-e2b471b2e8eb" CreationDate="2015-04-24T01:21:25.397" UserId="7632" Text="I guess my question is, and this is for people who know Shopify,  sorry but I didn't know where else to post this...  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is really,  how are these 3rd party development companies offering apps for free on shopify?   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How are they monetizing that ?   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does Shopify subsidize your bottom line?   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there advertising involved?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I haven't seen any.  I don't get it.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to put my App on Shopify store but there is already a free one that does the same thing almost.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do these people really just develop Apps for free for the fun of it ?   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyone know the answer to this ? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9790" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3159" RevisionGUID="f2df47ba-a172-49d3-aea2-e2b471b2e8eb" CreationDate="2015-04-24T01:21:25.397" UserId="7632" Text="Building Shopify App. How to compete with Free Apps?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9791" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3159" RevisionGUID="f2df47ba-a172-49d3-aea2-e2b471b2e8eb" CreationDate="2015-04-24T01:21:25.397" UserId="7632" Text="|software|finance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9794" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3161" RevisionGUID="ef14e4da-3ab4-4b3a-8372-dcdf87d7cc09" CreationDate="2015-04-24T09:57:47.773" UserId="5026" Text="How about &quot;Front-end developer&quot;? It seems that you are more about that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would also say that it does not really matter what kind of roles you were playing years ago. The thing that really matters now is what you have done in the past and what you wish to continue doing today. You may pick doing a lot for today, but this kind of choice means you are not able to dig into details of the each of technology.. You are more generalist than specialist then.&#xD;&#xA;For example, it takes many years of reading, practicing and etc. to get deep knowledge of PHP. One or even five years isn`t the amount of time I am talking about. I am talking about more. For example, if you learn C language by browsing the source code of PHP and you use your current C knowledge mainly for contributing to PHP source then you cannot call yourself C developer.. Of course, you could but this would be out of the context of your interest... The context would be PHP, not C.. So you would call yourself then something like &quot;PHP professional&quot;, not &quot;C professional&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, the name of your position is made mainly for two reasons: 1) for you; 2) for others. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Calling yourself &quot;Front-end developer&quot; would maybe say something in the places where professionals meet up (e.g. job interview, conferences on the IT, etc.). However, &quot;Front-end developer&quot; could be hard to understand for business (not IT business) people... Then you have to come up with another label for yourself. For example &quot;Internet business professional&quot; or something close to that would be better then.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And one more thing to mention. I would avoid picking &quot;Internet business professional&quot; as it would bring me ton of business people that would want me to do a creepy job for them. As a rule, such small business people would usually avoid paying some taxes, would call me at Sundays, etc. I would better pick the title like &quot;Internet business professional for long-term projects&quot;. The last title could be to long, but I think you get the idea - the label brings you NEW people, so choosing the label would filter some of those NEW people. Labels are for filtering the traffic, not for getting the traffic. :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9795" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3161" RevisionGUID="3dc37e85-8ac4-44ee-871d-fc193310e5a6" CreationDate="2015-04-24T10:04:21.517" UserId="5026" Comment="logical mistake, probably" Text="How about &quot;Front-end developer&quot;? It seems that you are more about that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would also say that it does not really matter what kind of roles you were playing years ago. The thing that really matters now is what you have done in the past and what you wish to continue doing today. You may pick doing a lot for today, but this kind of choice means you are not able to dig into details of the each of technology.. You are more generalist than specialist then.&#xD;&#xA;For example, it takes many years of reading, practicing and etc. to get deep knowledge of PHP. One or even five years isn`t the amount of time I am talking about. I am talking about more. For example, if you learn C language by browsing the source code of PHP and you use your current C knowledge mainly for contributing to PHP source then you cannot call yourself C developer.. Of course, you could but this would be out of the context of your interest... The context would be PHP, not C.. So you would call yourself then something like &quot;PHP professional&quot;, not &quot;C professional&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, the name of your position is made mainly for two reasons: 1) for you; 2) for others. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Calling yourself &quot;Front-end developer&quot; would maybe say something in the places where professionals meet up (e.g. job interview, conferences on the IT, etc.). However, &quot;Front-end developer&quot; could be hard to understand for business (not IT business) people... Then you have to come up with another label for yourself. For example &quot;Internet business professional&quot; or something close to that would be better then.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And one more thing to mention. I would avoid picking &quot;Internet business professional&quot; as it would bring me ton of business people that would want me to do a creepy job for them. As a rule, such small business people would usually avoid paying some taxes, would call me at Sundays, etc. I would better pick the title like &quot;Internet business professional for long-term projects&quot;. The last title could be to long, but I think you get the idea - choosing the label would filter some of NEW people. Labels are for filtering the traffic, not for getting the traffic. :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9796" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3162" RevisionGUID="6d93b83d-dee5-4b46-a9ea-d4b30e0dc7e4" CreationDate="2015-04-24T10:56:17.713" UserId="5026" Text="The company must be registered in some kind of registry to be recognized as legal. For example, Registry of Legal entities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just ask the company to share public details of the company (company code, VAT code if exists, company address (registration or post), name and surname of the person you are now communicating with, contact phone or email, the registry where the company is registered, the country of such registry) so you could validate the company in that registry. If those details are not presented then I see no reason to go into deeper relations as hiding public data would mean they are hiding something that should be available for all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After validating the company in the registry you should validate the registry itself. Some registries could be the same type of fake as some companies are. I do not know much about registry validation, but browsing google must be enough, I think - should be many many results..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That should be enough to validate the company. However, legal company does not mean you will be paid as expected. Even legal companies sometimes does bad things. :) You could search for creditability information of the company in the registries developed exactly for this. Such information could cost you some money, but it will usually provide a lot of useful information: number of employes, debt to government institutions (e.g. debt in taxes), income rate, etc. The deep and accuracy of the information depends on the registry. I am doing such creditability information on each job change (full-time job, I mean). I am from Lithuania (EU country) so I check such info at the registry of Credit Reform company: http://cr.lt/en/ &lt;br&gt;I see they have some activity in Bulgaria, China, Germany, Estonia, UK, Italy, Croatia, Latvia, Luxemburg, Maldawien, Austria, Poland, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Turkey, Ukraine, Hungary. I know nothing about their activities in other countries than Lithuania, so you should check it by yourself." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9802" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3159" RevisionGUID="922fedf2-fe74-4406-ada7-4b9e0639a4ac" CreationDate="2015-04-24T16:08:47.153" UserId="9" Comment="Tightened how question reads (condensed questions), added in the underlying theme as a question (how to compete with free)" Text="I'm working on building an app for a Shopify store. I'm planning for it to be available for a cost (not free), but there is a free one already that almost does the same thing. They doesn't appear to be monetizing their application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does Shopify subsidize the bottom line for free apps, or is there advertising involved? What would be the best way to compete with &quot;free&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9803" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3159" RevisionGUID="922fedf2-fe74-4406-ada7-4b9e0639a4ac" CreationDate="2015-04-24T16:08:47.153" UserId="9" Comment="Tightened how question reads (condensed questions), added in the underlying theme as a question (how to compete with free)" Text="How to compete with free apps?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9804" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3159" RevisionGUID="922fedf2-fe74-4406-ada7-4b9e0639a4ac" CreationDate="2015-04-24T16:08:47.153" UserId="9" Comment="Tightened how question reads (condensed questions), added in the underlying theme as a question (how to compete with free)" Text="|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9805" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3157" RevisionGUID="8ef86825-e1b0-43ee-a78a-b62fc9766397" CreationDate="2015-04-24T16:33:31.483" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 226 characters in body" Text="You are off to a good start with those skills.   It can be challenging at first.  Get good at research by using Google to find answers to questions.   Use Stack Overflow and ask questions if necessary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also learn some back-end scripting languages, like PHP, Python, Ruby, Node.js, etc... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you just get the basics down, it will make you far more effective in the field.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are looking for decent client base online try elance.com.   It's not great, but it's the best I've found so far to get high paying clients (up to $80/hr personally) who actually act like professionals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't think of anything else off hand.  I've been doing this for 10 years after quitting a 9-5 as PHP programmer / Unix SysAdmin so there is just so much.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't let people manipulate you either.  There are all kinds of different tricks people will use and you will learn to spot different personalities.  I swear I'm going to write a book about this one day.   I have wasted hundreds of hours on people who are just taking advantage of me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The strange thing is, when it's online, people who are normally decent good people somehow feel justified in burning you.   I would recommend getting in at least a voice call with your clients at some point during the project and if possible Skype or Facetime or whatever at least once a week to show them that you are a real person.  It really helps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also learn how to spot these guys:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Stroker:  This client will continually bombard you with new projects that are &quot;about to start&quot;.  He will waste your time getting free information and quotes from you just so he has a guide to go on when he hires someone much cheaper.  He will also use any information, research, documents, specification, etc... to help guide his project with another cheaper developer, and in turn get his project that much cheaper.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Pumper:  This client pumps you for information constantly.  He may throw some work your way to keep you happy, he may even pay you for some of that work.  But he will waste hours and hours of your time in the long run.  If you get a client who is constantly wanting to 'ask one quick question' that is not relevant to the scope of the project you are working on with him, then that is a red flag.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Burner:  This client just straight burns your ass.  Usually one of two scenario.  A very charismatic, friendly person who chats you up and strokes your ego and tells you how great your doing the whole time.   They get you to feel really comfortable with them and you let your guard down.  Then when that check never comes rolling in (or PayPal or whatever), you are kind of like... OK, well I'm sure he's just busy I'll give him some time.  And your boy is long gone.   Sites like Elance who put your money in escrow &quot;sometimes&quot; will offer partial protection against getting scammed like this, but even with payments through PayPal, you are not protected.   More on that in a minute.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   The second type of burner will be someone who communicates very little, seems standoffish,  maybe a little anti-social.  You went get much communication but he'll give you enough to keep you working.  Then when it comes time to pay, he's MIA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Creeper:  I would say the creeper is worse than the burner.  At least the burner just takes your work and gets out of your hair.  But the creeper will cling onto you like a parasite and drag you and your entire operation down to hell and your bank account with him.   The creeper appears to be a legit client and is sometimes hard to spot.  The red flags are always SCOPE CREEP.   One of the hardest things to learn is how to properly address a client who is requesting work outside the scope of your original contract.  On the one hand you don't want to offend a legit client, but on the other hand, you don't want to get taken for a ride by a creeper.  This is one of the harder aspects of freelancing and too much to get into, but just remember,  never do ANY work that you have not agreed to specifically with the client on compensation unless you plan on that work being done for free.  Because the client sure as heck loves that.&#xD;&#xA;If you let a creeper run amok you may find yourself two months deep into a project that was only supposed 'to take an hour' according to the client and getting paid like it too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Knower:  This client knows so much about programming, he probably knows more than you.  NOT!  But he will sure act like he does.   He will try to tell you that he knows this should only take a couple hours and he used to do what you do and program *xyz language* that you program in, but that was a long time ago and now he's doing much more important things than your dumb job.  Too bad when he said he was programming in *xyz language* it hadn't even been invented yet.  And you already could tell just by talking to him that he never touched a piece of code in his life.   Never work with a client who tries to tell YOU how long something should take.  Or who asks you 'why is it taking so long' in a way that they are implying you are not being honest or that you are maybe not skilled.  These are manipulation tactics to weaken your bargaining position when they try to burn you on payment.   Never let a client tell you how much your time is worth.   I tell them  &quot;I'm the one with the talent, skill, knowledge and experience in this field, so I prefer to be the one who decides how much I charge for my time.&quot;   That usually sets the record straight.   And if they don't like it, they can move on.   That's another lesson,  *no client is too important to sacrifices your policies and ideals*.  No client.  None.   Always stick to your guns, that is how to make it in this biz.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Chummer:  This guy is your best buddy in the whole world.  He will ask you all about your life, your friends, your family, how's Grandma doing, how's the dog,  did your mailman's sister's cat have those kittens?  He'll compliment you all day on how smart you are and how amazed he is and what a GREAT job your doing etc etc etc...  If you fall for that,  you are going to be in a weakened position because you will feel there is something external to the relationship besides the business at hand.  Trust me, there is not.  This is the clients tactic to lower your bargaining power and save themselves money as well as allow them to insert scope creep into your project more easily.   I will friendly and polite with clients, but if someone goes over the top I will pull back to indicate they have crossed a line.   If they continue to line step,  I will not work with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, that's just a few I could think of. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just sign up for a freelancing site and build your profile on there for now.  You can work on a website portfolio in your spare time.  Take tests on those sites, like elance. It shows up on your profile/portfolio.  On elance they have groups,  so try to join a group (such as jQuery, or HTML5)  and it will tell you that you need to pass this test or that.  Take the tests.  Do really good.  If you pass you get the badge on your profile so client instantly sees it and goes, oh this guys good at &quot;xyz technology&quot; .   If you score within top 10% or whatever on elance, you also get that listed in your profile instead of just &quot;passed&quot;.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep re-taking the tests every 2 weeks until you get a few like that.    The tests are really just important to get you some kind of credibility on there so someone will hire you.   Once you have a decent profile and a few tests passed, go apply for jobs like crazy.  Bid them low, and do a great job.   The first 5 or so projects, you should not expect to make any money on.  DO NOT take on something huge.  We are talking $100 or less and less than 1 day to complete.   These are just to find some clients willing to take a chance on you and hopefully give you 5 star review when you are done.   The reviews are basically the only thing that matters on elance.    I ask all my clients if they will please decline to review if they feel I have not performed 5 star worthy.   About half of them do not review me and that is fine.  I have a 5 star profile.  And some jerk gave me 2 stars the other day and it didn't put a dent in my profile, that's how deep I roll in stars.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, get a few good reviews,  then bump your rate up.   Don't wuss out and put some crummy rate.   You're a freelancer.  You get to set your own pay rate.  So figure out how much you need to pay your bills, buy equipment, etc., and then double or triple that.   But don't sell yourself short.  In the beginning you might have to work for 10 or 20 bucks an hour, but after about 6 months to a year, you should be making more like $35 - $50+.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And always quote what you think it's going to take  and multiply by like 150% - 300%  depending on how bad your estimation is, because it ALWAYS takes longer than you think.   Same with your deadline estimates.  Triple them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good Luck and remember, always stay true to what yourself,  don't bend for anyone.  It's a shark tank out there and blood is in the water." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9807" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3159" RevisionGUID="a97d43b4-385e-4a2f-a1a4-117ca06b661c" CreationDate="2015-04-24T16:46:34.440" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 96 characters in body" Text="I'm working on building an app for a store. I'm planning for it to be available for a cost (not free), but there is a free one already that almost does the same thing. They doesn't appear to be monetizing their application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be the best way to compete with &quot;free&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9808" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3164" RevisionGUID="c9cfb42b-7859-4b35-bf91-6c8b7c53bea3" CreationDate="2015-04-24T18:32:04.230" UserId="7557" Text="My wife has the possibility to do some regular freelancing work (writing and editing) with a local company which would be paid as a 1099 on an hourly basis.  Several years ago when she did something similar she had her own LLC company, however she shut that down a long time ago.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am guessing that there might be potential tax benefits to restarting her LLC and doing the work through it.  So can anyone make an argument for or against restarting her LLC?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that where we are the LLC registration cost and local business license cost with run to no more than $US150 - which is well less than a days work at her billing rate. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9809" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3164" RevisionGUID="c9cfb42b-7859-4b35-bf91-6c8b7c53bea3" CreationDate="2015-04-24T18:32:04.230" UserId="7557" Text="Work 1099 without company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9810" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3164" RevisionGUID="c9cfb42b-7859-4b35-bf91-6c8b7c53bea3" CreationDate="2015-04-24T18:32:04.230" UserId="7557" Text="|taxes|usa|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9811" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3165" RevisionGUID="79d71846-f420-4136-bdc4-2e39c509f46d" CreationDate="2015-04-24T18:35:26.917" UserId="9" Text="Since you're looking to provide a paid app, it's certainly hard to compete price-wise with a free app (but oddly enough, not impossible; I'll explain later). In that case, you need to compete in a different arena: _quality_.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you're developing your app, take care to make sure that everything looks fantastic. Make sure it works, make sure it's well-documented, make sure that it's a polished product, make sure it's well-supported, and you'll have a strong case for yourself. Customers would then have a choice: free or good? You'd be surprised how many people would choose good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why is it not impossible to compete price-wise? People are funny beings; price is often associated with quality. Therefore, paid products can be seen as higher in quality than free products (although it certainly isn't always the case)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9819" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3159" RevisionGUID="0d9dd301-cb32-489a-b650-a7c7e9124651" CreationDate="2015-04-25T09:43:52.250" UserId="7632" Comment="deleted 97 characters in body; edited title" Text="Well I took the time to ask this.  Then someone edited it by basically erasing my entire question and adding their own. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Mod please delete this ,  it wont let me&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9820" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3159" RevisionGUID="0d9dd301-cb32-489a-b650-a7c7e9124651" CreationDate="2015-04-25T09:43:52.250" UserId="7632" Comment="deleted 97 characters in body; edited title" Text="Throw this in the trash" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9821" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3168" RevisionGUID="394309f0-5cd0-4616-b009-00d943232f47" CreationDate="2015-04-25T13:02:50.997" UserId="1021" Text="**PROBLEM:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A client of mine has asked me to prepare a quote for a rather large project that will take several months to complete. I've worked with this client on multiple projects in the past, and I know for a fact that this upcoming project, will not be completed on time due to the endless change requests. Sometimes deliverables that were confirmed as done were often revisited for more changes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I don't want to fire this client (I've considered it with a smile) since he brings a lot of work my way and I've always been paid on time, though never without a good hour or so of bargaining...after the projects were completed! In any case, I'm willing to give them one last chance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**IDEA:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was wondering if it would be wiser to agree on a monthly fee for the duration of the project, from start to end, rather than the usual 50% before and 50% after deal. Honestly, I've never tried this type payment arrangement before I'm curious as to what to expect. If I charge a flat rate, there's a very good chance the project will outweigh it's worth in time and effort." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9822" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3168" RevisionGUID="394309f0-5cd0-4616-b009-00d943232f47" CreationDate="2015-04-25T13:02:50.997" UserId="1021" Text="Monthly Fee vs. One-Time Payment for a Large Project with Difficult Client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9823" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3168" RevisionGUID="394309f0-5cd0-4616-b009-00d943232f47" CreationDate="2015-04-25T13:02:50.997" UserId="1021" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|difficult-client|negotiation|scope-creep|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9824" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3169" RevisionGUID="46b41b95-ee17-44c4-85f1-8a96f6796399" CreationDate="2015-04-25T13:53:57.973" UserId="7486" Text="For large projects I always do monthly billings to the client plus a prepayment before starting the project to pay initial costs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is perfectly ok to do like that, it is a mutual responsability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you ask a single payment only at the end you will give a &quot;weapon&quot; that will make the client blackmail you if you don't do all his changes and requests, just because you want to get payd.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can even enstablish &quot;milestones&quot; of the project when you will get payd for that specific part when it's done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9825" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="3159" RevisionGUID="06d6950b-7afe-4e73-8c36-453d3b7d0abf" CreationDate="2015-04-25T17:06:58.183" UserId="708" Comment="Rollback to [a97d43b4-385e-4a2f-a1a4-117ca06b661c]" Text="I'm working on building an app for a store. I'm planning for it to be available for a cost (not free), but there is a free one already that almost does the same thing. They doesn't appear to be monetizing their application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be the best way to compete with &quot;free&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9826" PostHistoryTypeId="7" PostId="3159" RevisionGUID="06d6950b-7afe-4e73-8c36-453d3b7d0abf" CreationDate="2015-04-25T17:06:58.183" UserId="708" Comment="Rollback to [a97d43b4-385e-4a2f-a1a4-117ca06b661c]" Text="How to compete with free apps?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9827" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3170" RevisionGUID="61b5f3b8-31be-4fe7-a88c-2fb413963aab" CreationDate="2015-04-25T18:29:06.640" UserId="7651" Text="There's a service called [DevPort][1] that will automatically take screenshots of your websites and throw them into a portfolio. It also supports GitHub for your non visual stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://devport.co" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9828" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3171" RevisionGUID="a513fee7-94e4-48b9-8c09-20a668b304e3" CreationDate="2015-04-26T15:39:54.170" UserId="7529" Text="This may not be 100% ideal, but one idea would be that you could take up some contracting work for a while in your local area. Have a recruiter (or search yourself) hook you up with one of those 3 month, 6 month, or 1 year long contracts for a company. It won't necessarily be freelancing since you would be sitting at some office most likely, but it's a compromise between dealing with those sites and still not being fully married to one office. I have had similar concerns like you about those sites. I've been spending a lot of time researching the possibility of quitting my full time job to do freelance programming work. I hear mixed experiences about sites like ODesk. It seems like overall if you're good at what you do and know how to foster and maintain relationships with people, then I don't see how you would have too much trouble on those sites. May not be ideal money-wise (at least for a while), but I can see someone earning a living if they are good enough at what they do. I am scared about the possibility of things like the account being locked or your Internet going down while trying to work, etc. lol. Ugh, what a nightmare that would be!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9830" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3173" RevisionGUID="0416db10-e84b-4797-b06f-559eb375aa9b" CreationDate="2015-04-26T16:08:24.620" UserId="7529" Text="I currently work full time for a company. I am unable to show screenshots of all the work I do there since it is sensitive/proprietary info. After doing some research for a while, it seems like the skills I currently have won't land me enough work to survive as a freelancer. So I am learning some new technologies in order to expand my skill set (I am learning Objective-C/iOS programming). I can leverage my existing skills (C++) with this new technology. So what I'm thinking about doing is working on my own project (I am creating a simple game program) that won't actually be delivered to any client and won't be paid for it. The purpose of doing the project would be a) to have fun while learning the new technologies and b) to prove to clients that I have these new skills in order to break into these new technologies. Is this a good idea? Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9831" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3173" RevisionGUID="0416db10-e84b-4797-b06f-559eb375aa9b" CreationDate="2015-04-26T16:08:24.620" UserId="7529" Text="Creating a demo project to show in my portfolio in order to break into new technologies?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9832" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3173" RevisionGUID="0416db10-e84b-4797-b06f-559eb375aa9b" CreationDate="2015-04-26T16:08:24.620" UserId="7529" Text="|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9833" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3174" RevisionGUID="dec97020-f9b3-4cab-a7ac-4133afa3704d" CreationDate="2015-04-26T17:50:23.993" UserId="7486" Text="In my opinion it is definitely a good thing because when I started many years ago I actually did the same, I did not have much examples of my work so I developed some non-profit projects and also a simple but fun arcade game. This way I could show my skills at first clients and I had chance to learn and improve.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best wishes for your freelance career." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9834" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3175" RevisionGUID="44c206a1-132b-48f4-b884-3025986b68f1" CreationDate="2015-04-26T19:32:29.987" UserId="7529" Text="I've been looking at projects on ODesk for a while and from time to time I will see a Matlab project posted. Usually, the project is about converting Matlab code to C++ code or some other language. Not to say that I've also seen projects where it is mostly just about Matlab itself. I don't think there are anywhere near as many of those projects as say web development, app development, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My personal opinion is that it would be a mistake to assume that you can survive as a freelancer just doing Matlab projects exclusively. I think it would be a great start if you have a lot of experience with it, but you'll need to broaden your skills a little more so that you can bid on more projects. Don't broaden them too much though. You should focus more on trying to be specialized in one area of expertise. For example, &quot;Developer for scientific applications&quot; or something like that (just an example, probably not a good one!). For me, I am a C++ programmer with some financial experience so my title would be something like &quot;C++ developer for low-latency trading systems&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9835" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3176" RevisionGUID="b56a0feb-0045-4950-b859-7920f5b7e8b5" CreationDate="2015-04-26T21:31:52.483" UserId="798" Text="That is a perfect idea since you are accomplish both of your purposes: you will have fun while you learn and you will prove you have some skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Actually I cannot see why did you think (for a second) it could be a bad idea? I don't see anything wrong about it, even if you were not thinking about your portfolio it is an awesome idea because you are learning something." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9836" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3177" RevisionGUID="b4173bca-c830-46ef-82d0-e6aedd277f00" CreationDate="2015-04-27T02:46:00.413" UserId="7665" Text="Pivot.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you find a competitor that is much bigger than you (Google), or doing what you are doing better or for free (open source)- a very good option is to pivot.   Perform a deep analysis of the competitive landscape and understand all the products in your space.  Each product will have strengths and weaknesses.  You want to find a niche where you can deliver value that has no or few competitors. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then do **one thing** very very well.   Be so good at your one thing that the other players could not hope to compete.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But trying to go head to head with a free product is tough unless there is something really important that you offer that they don't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most startups pivot and there is usually a force or learning that forces them to do so.  Learning about a free product in your space is reason enough." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9837" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3178" RevisionGUID="0b776c91-a515-4dc1-9b25-ab3f6752e1e6" CreationDate="2015-04-27T11:00:38.050" UserId="7669" Text="I faced a similar situation. I developed a test data generator while  there is a lot of such product out there. Some are free others are paid.&#xA;&#xA;It was 8 years ago and me and my product are still there and most of my competitors as well.&#xA;&#xA;I think that people looking for free stuff will never pay - whatever the reason why they don't want to pay. Let them be users since they can talk about you and you product. Being free is a strong value for community and viral communication. Build a free offer for your product&#xA;&#xA;Those who a ready to pay will not pay for the product. They will pay for a solution. That means you have to build domain segment specialization of your product. For example, provide a free generic version of your app and paid customizations for banking? Retail etc&#xA;&#xA;Think of service + product as a bundle. If your ae not big enough to be credible with services then get partner and give them the service part.&#xA;&#xA;These are few ideas, but remember not to believe all advices. Make you own path, experiment, best advices  ever are those of your customers and users.&#xA;&#xA;Regards " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9838" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3169" RevisionGUID="576b3a46-4bc9-4334-80f4-c6015c8e445b" CreationDate="2015-04-27T16:11:51.657" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="For large projects I always do monthly billings to the client plus a prepayment before starting the project to pay initial costs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is perfectly OK to do like that, it is a mutual responsibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you ask a single payment only at the end you will give a &quot;weapon&quot; that will make the client blackmail you if you don't do all his changes and requests, just because you want to get paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can even establish &quot;milestones&quot; of the project when you will get paid for that specific part when it's done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9840" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3179" RevisionGUID="e07a6da5-ce7f-44f1-888d-bc4612b54d06" CreationDate="2015-04-27T16:17:13.420" UserId="7234" Text="Step 1 is to protect yourself with a clear scope of work.  Write up a clear, concise scope of the work you are performing.  Include not only the work being performed by also what is NOT being performed.  These are called exclusions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You scope should also include the price of the project, that billings will be done monthly on the XX day of the month and are due Net 30.  Net 30 is a typical payment cycle that just about any company should be fine with.  You should spell out how you will arrive at what you are billing monthly.  For example, I use the percentage of completion method with billings on the 20th of the month.  This means on the 20th of the month, I project ahead to the end of the month how far the project will be complete.  If that is 50%, then I bill the client 50% of the project, less any previous billings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This allows you to get your billing out earlier while still accounting for your expenses through the end of the month and therefore be paid earlier.  You should always be ready to justify your bill.  I strongly suggest a followup 10 days after sending your progress bill.  It should be a very friendly, &quot;I just wanted to make sure you received my progress bill and if you had any questions&quot;.  This helps remove obstacles to getting paid on time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also consider putting the time the project is to be completed and document any delays on the part of the company you are working for.  Delays in work being performed that are not of your making cost you &quot;opportunity costs&quot;; the income for work you did not get to do for other clients or that you turned down because your time was reserved for their project that did not happen as per the schedule agreed to.  However, this is a two way street so think it through.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, your scope letter also needs to spell out how you will handle changes to the project (a change order), whether additive and deductive.  The best way to protect yourself is to have language that says all change orders must be approved in writing before work commences.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then whenever a change occurs you need to be proactive with presenting the change in scope (the change order) and the amount the change will increase/decrease the original dollars.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is always hard to walk that razor's edge between losing work and protecting the work you are doing, but some opening friendly language on your scope letter about how the document exists to outline your mutually beneficial agreement, etc. can help the client see your professionalism.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any professional company should understand the protection afforded for both parties by a clearly defined project through a scope letter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may want to get in the habit of having your bids also be the scope letter to save a step.  In this manner the client just needs to sign off on your bid and you are ready to move forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9841" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3180" RevisionGUID="8708e1a0-8286-4d3f-aa6a-f88f54da6b3e" CreationDate="2015-04-27T16:26:13.497" UserId="75" Text="It seems like a good idea, but please take care of a few important things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. **Are you allowed to do it?**&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;  Many companies will make you sign agreements when you start coding for them to not program for other people, or for your own individual projects. Many of the bigger companies won't care, and even encourage it, but be careful of breaking any agreements you have with your employer before you start using *their* equipment or programming libraries for your own use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. **Post as much as you can to Open Source projects**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Got a Github account? Good! Use it! Find a favourite project to participate in, and do what you can to help - bug fixes, code cleanup, translations, anything! Show that you commit to other projects, and you can start including those as well in your portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. **Never use actual data on your portfolio programs**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  As stated above, use fake data. Fill user content with Lorem Ipsum data. Most people will care about your skill, and not about posting real people's information online. Highlight certain data, showing how everyone else makes 12 function calls to produce the data, but you have it *effectively* producing the data with only 8 function calls.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As always, have fun doing it as well. No sense being a freelancer in something that is mundane and boring; why do it if you don't love it? You'll be a better programmer if you enjoy it, and your clients will see that in you as well!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9842" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3181" RevisionGUID="f68af3e8-2cc0-4160-be47-742260b1acc1" CreationDate="2015-04-27T18:41:34.423" UserId="7674" Text="I charge upfront for support services like this (changing a phone number) and charge in 15 minute units. If a client needs a phone number changed I can make the change immediately, there is no extra paperwork, and I get paid a fair amount for the disruption of my time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9843" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3173" RevisionGUID="f9f97465-aa76-4920-83d1-4c586bb48468" CreationDate="2015-04-27T19:13:45.947" UserId="9" Comment="Broke into paragraphs, clarity/grammar" Text="I currently work full time for a company. I am unable to show screenshots of all the work I do there since the work is sensitive/proprietary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After doing some research, it seems like the skills I currently have won't land me enough work to survive as a freelancer. Therefore, to expand my skill set, I am learning Objective-C and iOS programming. To my advantage, I can leverage my existing C++ skills to help me learn.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm thinking about working on my own little project; it won't be delivered to a client, and I won't expect payment for it. The purpose of doing the project would be to have fun while learning the new technologies and show clients that I have these new skills in order to break into these new technologies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this a good plan? Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9844" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3173" RevisionGUID="f9f97465-aa76-4920-83d1-4c586bb48468" CreationDate="2015-04-27T19:13:45.947" UserId="9" Comment="Broke into paragraphs, clarity/grammar" Text="Should I create a demo project to learn new technologies and to expand my portfolio?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9845" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2185" RevisionGUID="20abac4d-777c-48e9-8c8f-82addaa76061" CreationDate="2015-04-28T07:22:37.197" UserId="58" Comment="Minor cleanup on aisle three" Text="I have a client that wants me to post a competition for a large group of student freelancers to build an iOS app for an alumni group. The problem is that I have looked at the basic spec and it really doesn't fit an app. It fits a good mobile website. His prize is also a trip to the iOS developer conference and a 3-year personal iOS developer license.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is in three parts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. If there is no actual device hardware interaction, wouldn't a mobile-optimized website inside an appframe be the best option, not a dedicated app?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. How do I politely convince a non-technical client that he is requesting something that is somewhat bad practice?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. I don't think the prize is really going to convince many college students to put serious effort into this. How should I get this across to the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9846" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2185" RevisionGUID="20abac4d-777c-48e9-8c8f-82addaa76061" CreationDate="2015-04-28T07:22:37.197" UserId="58" Comment="Minor cleanup on aisle three" Text="Convincing a non-technical client that a product/service is a bad idea" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9847" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2185" RevisionGUID="20abac4d-777c-48e9-8c8f-82addaa76061" CreationDate="2015-04-28T07:22:37.197" UserId="58" Comment="Minor cleanup on aisle three" Text="|communication|evaluating-clients|information-technology|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9848" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3182" RevisionGUID="de274f4a-11fd-4e14-9cb8-9495427062aa" CreationDate="2015-04-28T07:33:26.200" UserId="58" Text="It's usually impossible to tell a client who is set on a project and is unwilling to listen to other viewpoints that something is A Bad Idea&amp;trade;. In that case, you can either go with a client's insanity (but if they're being unethical, you should usually just get out of there fast)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this case, however, I'd argue that your client's idea is actually decent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Firstly, it's an excuse for student developers to spend their day learning/working on iOS projects (they're both students *and* developers; if they're not enjoying programming at this point they made a *very* bad career choice). That alone is a decent enough incentive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The prize itself is actually fairly nice for an iOS developer, too; a WWDC ticket is usually for media and big tech companies' employees, and students (especially when I was a student) would give limbs for a ticket there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Student competitions can also be a very good way to find new ways for *anything*. Just ask Microsoft Students UK; they run events every few months and give away a ton of freebies to students, with bigger prizes for winners &lt;sub&gt;(disclaimer: I've participated in these competitions)&lt;/sub&gt;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The whole point of this is while that the concept itself may seem like bad technical practice, it could actually be a way of finding decent potential iOS developers from a group of students, and encouraging them to become better at what they do. The spec is essentially meaningless - if it's that bad, help the client improve on it!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9849" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3183" RevisionGUID="bf6a2e93-f2a7-4f6b-a6e6-bbbd2fb7547e" CreationDate="2015-04-28T14:31:09.323" UserId="70" Text="Seems like most of the answers are geared toward &quot;who would want to do that?&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But there other [question][1]s asking about ways to gain experience. So, I would think there would be at least one person interested.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To answer your parts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Mobile-optimized website vs. dedicated app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It all depends on the goal of the client. Perhaps he just wants an app listed in the app store. Seems legit enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Convince him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your opinion it is bad practice, but that doesn't make it so. Your opinion may be correct and valuable to him and you could share it with him. If he opts to disregard your opinion, then you may choose to pass on the project. I have done many things in my professional career that in my opinion were not the best option, but I did them anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Prize as incentive&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, this is your opinion because YOU would not participate. There are many different interest out in the world. I don't have interest in working on public open source projects, but there are MANY folks that love it. I, like you, would not spend time working on a project for a prize, but someone else may love the idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, share your opinion and then either do or do not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3173/should-i-create-a-demo-project-to-learn-new-technologies-and-to-expand-my-portfo" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9850" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3181" RevisionGUID="14656939-9382-4c97-8fc7-cee95a329078" CreationDate="2015-04-28T17:50:14.143" UserId="7674" Comment="rewriting to promote billing in advance, and explain reasoning for 15 minute units (convenience)" Text="I find it convenient to charge ahead of time for support services like this. That way I can make the change immediately, and there is no extra paperwork burden on my end. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My units have evolved from converting hours and minutes to fractions of hours. 15 minutes is the smallest fraction that is easy to math: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    5 minutes  = 0.08 hours&#xD;&#xA;    10 minutes = 0.16 hours&#xD;&#xA;    15 minutes = 0.25 hours&#xD;&#xA;    30 minutes = 0.50 hours&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless I move to 6 minute units: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    6  minutes = 0.1 hours&#xD;&#xA;    12 minutes = 0.2 hours&#xD;&#xA;    18 minutes = 0.3 hours&#xD;&#xA;    24 minutes = 0.4 hours&#xD;&#xA;    30 minutes = 0.5 hours&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I agree that 15 minutes is a sensible minimum unit to charge for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9860" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3186" RevisionGUID="60279e91-4d8b-4307-bd87-bed0cdbf2bbb" CreationDate="2015-04-29T19:57:41.027" UserId="708" Text="**I am not an accountant or attorney. NOTHING I post should be see as direct tax or legal advice. This answer is solely based upon my personal experience.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I own/operate a single member LLC in the US. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key word in LLC is *Liability*, As a US based, single-member, LLC there's not a great deal of *tax* benefits. You can still file individually and it doesn't change the tax rates. Now, I'm not married so there may be further considerations due to that which I'm unaware of. Only an accountant could answer that effectively.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only reason to use an LLC if it's a single-member LLC is to protect personal assets against business claims. Even with that in mind *how* you manage the personal and LLC finances plays a large role.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my personal opinion, if there's no worry about legal claims against the business, there's no need for a single-member LLC. A sole-proprietorship will offer pretty much the same tax status and merely removes any liability protection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Again, I am not an accountant or attorney. Nothing in this answer should be seen as legal advice.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9861" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3186" RevisionGUID="2c7f8321-d989-4538-a3be-b851c507dd0b" CreationDate="2015-04-29T22:43:13.773" UserId="708" Comment="added 297 characters in body" Text="**I am not an accountant or attorney. NOTHING I post should be see as direct tax or legal advice. This answer is solely based upon my personal experience.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I own/operate a single member LLC in the US. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key word in LLC is *Liability*, As a US based, single-member, LLC there's not a great deal of *tax* benefits. You can still file individually and it doesn't change the tax rates. Now, I'm not married so there may be further considerations due to that which I'm unaware of. Only an accountant could answer that effectively.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only reason to use an LLC if it's a single-member LLC is to protect personal assets against business claims. Even with that in mind *how* you manage the personal and LLC finances plays a large role -- the need for separate bank accounts, tracking *how* you spend any money from the LLC account, tracking how and when you take dividends from the LLC. If you fail to manage money correctly, it's my understanding that a single member LLC can *easily* be dissolved by a judge should an issue arise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my personal opinion, if there's no worry about legal claims against the business, there's no need for a single-member LLC. A sole-proprietorship will offer pretty much the same tax status and merely removes any liability protection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Again, I am not an accountant or attorney. Nothing in this answer should be seen as legal advice.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9863" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3168" RevisionGUID="1882eaea-c556-4449-a58a-bb97a3aa923d" CreationDate="2015-04-30T00:44:05.537" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/593576521488605184" />
  <row Id="9864" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3159" RevisionGUID="b4d58d8f-0947-4998-a185-b73e7efb52d9" CreationDate="2015-04-30T00:56:39.507" UserId="7632" Comment="grammar error" Text="I'm working on building an app for a store. I'm planning for it to be available for a cost (not free), but there is a free one already that almost does the same thing. They don't appear to be monetizing their application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be the best way to compete with &quot;free&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9865" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3187" RevisionGUID="d3ad0b60-0d4b-4417-8eb3-2ec980152340" CreationDate="2015-04-30T00:58:58.460" UserId="7632" Text="I've been developing Apps and see companies/developers offering free apps without any advertising either.   Does anyone know if they are monetizing this some other way?   How do you monetize a &quot;free&quot; App without advertising?   (Specifically interested in Shopify).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for any help." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9866" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3187" RevisionGUID="d3ad0b60-0d4b-4417-8eb3-2ec980152340" CreationDate="2015-04-30T00:58:58.460" UserId="7632" Text="How to monetize a &quot;Free&quot; App without advertising" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9867" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3187" RevisionGUID="d3ad0b60-0d4b-4417-8eb3-2ec980152340" CreationDate="2015-04-30T00:58:58.460" UserId="7632" Text="|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9876" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3190" RevisionGUID="9ec86845-1e63-4f5d-ad4f-0c69f56477ff" CreationDate="2015-04-30T10:25:26.080" UserId="7486" Text="If you release a good free app with no advertise, actually who is being advertised is its own creator. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do a really good useful app and give for free putting your name on it, then you will have a return in terms of company (or developer) prestige. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The return of money will be that the company name will be spread and known and will acquire more clients that probably will buy other payd services." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9879" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3191" RevisionGUID="2eab7c8a-032e-4e82-8637-68a5ef77d82e" CreationDate="2015-05-01T03:34:21.247" UserId="7696" Text="From my experience, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Coffee shops** - I try all the coffee places in the area. There are some good small restaurants I discover too. I love it when I get to check out places other than Starbucks. Try it. You will be surprised at the places you'll find in there that are good for work.&#xD;&#xA; - **Co-working spaces** - you can pay for co-working spaces in your area so you can also meet other freelancers and get to chat with them. &#xD;&#xA; - **A friend's house** - Yes. This works. If you are really feeling lonely, go to a close friend's house. Just make sure you are not a burden at the moment. :) Let them know why you chose his/her place for work. Not only will this make you feel less lonely, you'd get to reconnect with them too. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9880" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3192" RevisionGUID="cea26266-46cf-4f2d-b25c-b274aacd5607" CreationDate="2015-05-01T10:41:42.417" UserId="517" Text="OK, I may have overly complicated the title. But here is my issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I sometimes work alone, sometimes as a team of 3. Either way, I have to keep track of all time that has already been booked and time that is available for new tasks. Right now, I am keeping it all in my head (and each of us do the same). So when the client asks me for something urgent or when we can start work, I usually take a day to calculate and then come back and update him. But most time this does not prove to be accurate as the schedule changes (delays, unpredicted events, etc.) and when the client comes to me I have to tell him that I cannot work today but in X days. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far, I did not have any negative consequences e.g. client left me in angry, but this is far from professional conduct. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I need quality, easy to use (not zillion steps and features) and most important easy to visualize (all my plan for 1 or more months on 1 screen for example, not 10 steps) online tool where I can track my work and available time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will say it's easy to reply, right?! For the last year, I have been using all kinds of tools proposed by this community or Internet, and each was not satisfactory. Either too many options or too complicated to enter schedule, or... and in the end I always keep my schedule in my head. I've tried tools like Google Calendar, Trello, Excel sheets, planner tools from MS Office pack, the real board on my wall, stickers, and even dozen online tools which names I cannot recall now. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So is there any such tool around or I have to create one (kidding on the later)? What tools to do you? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: 70% or more guys mention google calendar which IMHO is very uneasy to visualize. Maybe I am using it wrongly (being a developer I usually over-complicate things). If you think that Calendar is the right tool for me, then please show me some quality tutorial which will tell me how to use if effectively without complicating things." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9881" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3192" RevisionGUID="cea26266-46cf-4f2d-b25c-b274aacd5607" CreationDate="2015-05-01T10:41:42.417" UserId="517" Text="Quality online tool to visualize my availbility in the simplest manner?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9882" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3192" RevisionGUID="cea26266-46cf-4f2d-b25c-b274aacd5607" CreationDate="2015-05-01T10:41:42.417" UserId="517" Text="|client-support|time-management|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9887" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3194" RevisionGUID="eb70eab4-e378-42dd-9ea7-3a6fd47b304f" CreationDate="2015-05-03T22:01:21.933" UserId="7715" Text="Is there any provision in the US visa system for foreigners working short contracts for American companies?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a web developer working in London, I'm a UK resident but have a French passport. As is standard practice in the UK, I have my own limited company through which I work for various agencies and corporate clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd quite like to see what it's like to work for an American company for a bit. However I wouldn't expect a company to go through the full H1-B process for the sake of a few months.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to me that a B-1 visa wouldn't be applicable in this case but I've heard people say that if you're providing your services via your own company then it's different. Am I missing something?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9888" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3194" RevisionGUID="eb70eab4-e378-42dd-9ea7-3a6fd47b304f" CreationDate="2015-05-03T22:01:21.933" UserId="7715" Text="Contracting in USA through personal company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9889" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3194" RevisionGUID="eb70eab4-e378-42dd-9ea7-3a6fd47b304f" CreationDate="2015-05-03T22:01:21.933" UserId="7715" Text="|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9892" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3195" RevisionGUID="eee9f7a6-01f8-4f1f-815b-6441de431b24" CreationDate="2015-05-04T04:39:00.670" UserId="7717" Text="1. https://xkcd.com/1174/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. See #1. Also, a good way to talk a non-technical client out of anything is through budget and headaches. Explain that it will be more expensive and frustrating in the long-run to make a mobile app instead of a website, as you will be slave to Apple's policies, paying $99 a year for a developer license, forced to update to keep up with human interface guidelines for the latest version of iOS, forced to update to satisfy new constraints on the binary file, etc. You are pitching freedom on the open seas of the net, vs. tyranny under the oppressive Apple navy and their harsh laws and tariffs. He'll see reason.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Three free years of the developer license isn't a good prize, but the developer conference might be exciting. A better approach is explaining that qualified and self-respecting developers won't waste their time on a contest, and the best results he'll get are from unqualified amateurs who will give him an unmaintainable app." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9893" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3196" RevisionGUID="e650bed4-77f7-4a49-9838-a89889eba19c" CreationDate="2015-05-04T04:52:53.213" UserId="7717" Text="I have been freelancing from home for about a year now. On the work side, things have been going very well; I am making good money and having a blast. On the personal side, however, things are getting strained with my girlfriend, who shares an apartment with me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She knows that I am working and tries to take it seriously, but she seems to have trouble understanding why I need to stay focused on work for a full 8 hours, and can't wrap up the day early or frequently stop to see things she wants to show me, or ask for my opinion on an email she's working on. (She is not currently employed or in school, although she is working on rectifying those issues). I don't think she realizes how often she interrupts me, and she gets very upset when I start refusing to take a short break to do *x*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes I'll be working on a complex piece of code, or stuck on a difficult paragraph in an email to a client, and get very angry when I'm interrupted 3 or 4 times before I finish the task. Other times, she starts yelling when I underestimate how long it will take to finish up the last thing I'm doing (often an email summary of my work for the day) before I clock out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm hoping to get advice from other freelancers who have gone through similar struggles at home. What is a good way to sit down and discuss this with her, and help her understand the importance of working with minimal distractions? Are there any good articles or resources I could encourage her to read? What can *I* do better to make her happy and not feel neglected or like she's always waiting for me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9894" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3196" RevisionGUID="e650bed4-77f7-4a49-9838-a89889eba19c" CreationDate="2015-05-04T04:52:53.213" UserId="7717" Text="Working from home while dealing with significant other" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9895" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3196" RevisionGUID="e650bed4-77f7-4a49-9838-a89889eba19c" CreationDate="2015-05-04T04:52:53.213" UserId="7717" Text="|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9896" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3197" RevisionGUID="de6a228f-9b42-4524-96fb-87adbf34820a" CreationDate="2015-05-04T08:36:14.830" UserId="7486" Text="I have gone through the same situation something like 10 years ago, the girl could not understand that even if I was working from home I had a work schedule and hours, the fact that I was not in an external office, or inside a company, in her eyes was like it was not a real work but something that I used to do to earn some money while you stay in a endless holyday. She was not working or studyng and at the same time she was very demanding and pretending to go shopping or doing sport for hours in the middle of a work day. We used to argue about that and for this (and other reasons) I quitted with her and sent her home.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The good news is that now I am still freelancing from my home office and I am happily married with my wife, we get along very well because (among other things) we respect each other work spaces and times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What to do to make you situation better? I would explain to her that even if you work from home, is it like if you open a shop open to the public, you just need to be there at your shop and you can't just close for 30 minutes or go away from time to time, and you can't get distracted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have separated office you can print your working hours and put it on the door, explaining to your girlfriend that in these hours you are not available unless for emergencies because it is your work place and schedule, exactly as you would stay at an external office, because you need to be available to your clients in any moment and be in time with deadlines.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But at the same time you have to be respectful to her, if you togheter decide that you stop the work day at 18:00, then do that, it could be 5 or 10 minutes more but don't postpone for 2 hours more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to negotiate togheter work time and free time and do both your best to respect your agreements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best wishes for your career and life.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9897" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3197" RevisionGUID="40be2202-1797-4e03-a9e4-5d5cf4d5b58e" CreationDate="2015-05-04T17:32:53.033" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 46 characters in body" Text="I have gone through the same situation something like 10 years ago, the girl could not understand that even if I was working from home I had a work schedule and hours, the fact that I was not in an external office, or inside a company, in her eyes was like it was not a real work but something that I used to do to earn some money while you stay in a endless holiday. She was not working or studying and at the same time she was very demanding and pretending to go shopping or doing sports for hours in the middle of a work day. We used to argue about that and for this (and other reasons) I quit with her and sent her home.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The good news is that now I am still freelancing from my home office and I am happily married with my wife, we get along very well because (among other things) we respect each other work spaces and times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What to do to make you situation better? I would explain to her that even if you work from home, is it like if you open a shop open to the public, you just need to be there at your shop and you can't just close for 30 minutes or go away from time to time, and you can't get distracted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have separated office you can print your working hours and put it on the door, explaining to your girlfriend that in these hours you are not available unless for emergencies because it is your work place and schedule, exactly as you would stay at an external office, because you need to be available to your clients in any moment and be in time with deadlines.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But at the same time you have to be respectful to her, if you together decide that you stop the work day at 18:00, then do that, it could be 5 or 10 minutes more but don't postpone for 2 hours more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to negotiate together work time and free time and do both your best to respect your agreements." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9898" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3140" RevisionGUID="25f3eb90-87c6-47b2-b5c0-d7da07d478bc" CreationDate="2015-05-04T18:59:08.320" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/595301650610397184" />
  <row Id="9899" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3198" RevisionGUID="7c3a8152-86be-456c-a758-1eefdf654253" CreationDate="2015-05-04T20:21:29.890" UserId="514" Text="Your agreement should specify the currency in which you will be billing, as well as the bill-rate, which I assume it already does. Then that is the bill rate. If your agreed rate $50 US / hour, then that is what your client should expect to be billed and to pay. If it is 4000 &lt;some other unit&gt; / hour, then that should be the expectation. Exchange should not enter into it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But of course the exchange rate does matter to you or your client when they have to purchase another currency to pay you and that rate changes significantly. By asking to roll back the agreed exchange rate to a prior date, your client is really asking you to accept payment in his currency instead of in yours, effectively lowering your bill rate. Would he do you the same favor if the difference were reversed?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In future contracts, or in this one if you're willing to renegotiate to keep the client happy, you might specify a referene exchange rate - perhaps its 2-year average - and agree to split the differences during the life of the contract by billing and accepting at a rate 1/2 way between that originally specified rate and the rate on the billing date. It may feel fairer to your client that you'd be willing to take 1/2 the risk (if you would be). Setting the reference rate amounts to exchange speculation which involves risks and I assume is not related in any way to the contracted work. One of you could still take a real loss, so you might want to set some exchange-rate limits around the reference rate that you both agree you won't exceed without stopping to renegotiate." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9900" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3197" RevisionGUID="5120429e-1c97-4bd5-940b-f715fd7db67b" CreationDate="2015-05-04T22:01:10.030" UserId="7486" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="I have gone through the same situation something like 10 years ago, the girl could not understand that even if I was working from home I had a work schedule and hours, the fact that I was not in an external office, or inside a company, in her eyes was like it was not a real work but something that I used to do to earn some money while you stay in a endless holiday. She was not working or studying and at the same time she was very demanding and pretending to go shopping or doing sports for hours in the middle of a work day. We used to argue about that and for this (and other reasons) I quit with her and sent her home.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The good news is that now I am still freelancing from my home office and I am happily married with my wife, we get along very well because (among other things) we respect each other work spaces and times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What to do to make your situation better? I would explain to her that even if you work from home, it is like if you own a shop open to the public, you just need to be there at your shop and you can't just close for 30 minutes or go away from time to time, and you can't get distracted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have separated office you can print your working hours and put it on the door, explaining to your girlfriend that in these hours you are not available unless for emergencies because it is your work place and schedule, exactly as you would stay at an external office, because you need to be available to your clients in any moment and be in time with deadlines.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But at the same time you have to be respectful to her, if you together decide that you stop the work day at 18:00, then do that, it could be 5 or 10 minutes more but don't postpone for 2 hours more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to negotiate together work time and free time and do both your best to respect your agreements." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9901" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3199" RevisionGUID="507dee5a-e535-4c3a-ab75-a5d7effce970" CreationDate="2015-05-04T22:19:21.783" UserId="7486" Text="Personally I use only Google Calendar since many years, I have it in synch with desktop pc, laptop, tablet and smartphone, I can visualize the calendar by day, week or month and update it in any moment in 10 seconds by any means. It is very easy and versatile to schedule my work, meetings, renewals, anniversaries and whatsoever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't think that you need a tutorial, just keep it simple and funcional, no need to add 1000 details, use it as a paper calendar where you put notes with pencil or post-it. I hardly edit an event in the calendar, I only use add and delete with very simple 2-3 words labels." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9902" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3196" RevisionGUID="d6a4123a-81aa-442c-88c1-2640d1d9cb13" CreationDate="2015-05-05T04:50:07.920" UserId="7717" Comment="added 806 characters in body" Text="I have been freelancing from home for about a year now. On the work side, things have been going very well; I am making good money and having a blast. On the personal side, however, things are getting strained with my girlfriend, who shares an apartment with me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She knows that I am working and tries to take it seriously, but she seems to have trouble understanding why I need to stay focused on work for a full 8 hours, and can't wrap up the day early or frequently stop to see things she wants to show me, or ask for my opinion on an email she's working on. (She is not currently employed or in school, although she is working on rectifying those issues). I don't think she realizes how often she interrupts me, and she gets very upset when I start refusing to take a short break to do *x*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes I'll be working on a complex piece of code, or stuck on a difficult paragraph in an email to a client, and get very angry when I'm interrupted 3 or 4 times before I finish the task. Other times, she starts yelling when I underestimate how long it will take to finish up the last thing I'm doing (often an email summary of my work for the day) before I clock out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm hoping to get advice from other freelancers who have gone through similar struggles at home. What is a good way to sit down and discuss this with her, and help her understand the importance of working with minimal distractions? Are there any good articles or resources I could encourage her to read? What can *I* do better to make her happy and not feel neglected or like she's always waiting for me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some of the things I've tried:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Telling her to think of it the same way as if I am at an office (doesn't work for her because I'm *not* at an office and I &quot;made that&#xD;&#xA;   choice&quot;)&#xD;&#xA; - Telling her this is how I make my income and if I work less, I get paid less&#xD;&#xA; -  Explain in detail how I get very frustrated and even angry when constantly interrupted while I'm working&#xD;&#xA; - Putting a Japanese divider between us (the cat mauled it in very short order; there goes a hundred bucks...)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We are living in a smallish apartment and there is no practical way for me to have a dedicated office space. I have one computer desk and it's where I do all of my business and non-business activities that require a computer. Her desk is right next to mine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've tried all the common sense but this is a particularly difficult case..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9906" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3201" RevisionGUID="5230e286-4339-4267-bee4-a8a7b8bce6cd" CreationDate="2015-05-05T15:22:50.667" UserId="7727" Text="I am new to freelancing world and now try to find some projects to work with.&#xD;&#xA;I am not a native English speaker, so I just wonder is it possible to &quot;talk&quot; with client about project details only through mail?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9907" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3201" RevisionGUID="5230e286-4339-4267-bee4-a8a7b8bce6cd" CreationDate="2015-05-05T15:22:50.667" UserId="7727" Text="Is it ok to communicate with client only through email?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9908" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3201" RevisionGUID="5230e286-4339-4267-bee4-a8a7b8bce6cd" CreationDate="2015-05-05T15:22:50.667" UserId="7727" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9910" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3202" RevisionGUID="e1378ca4-e731-473c-9ddb-8ca195d38a75" CreationDate="2015-05-05T16:50:37.783" UserId="75" Text="Absolutely! It's written communication, and does not require you to &quot;speak&quot; to the client with your voice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The greatest thing about written communication is that you have a paper trail of what was said, and there's no going back on someone's word. Hopefully, you are talking to local clients who will follow the same laws as you, making collecting payment easier." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9911" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3203" RevisionGUID="b547bcf6-49e6-43f2-9c7c-377c36f3f788" CreationDate="2015-05-05T17:50:30.060" UserId="708" Text="Simply put, you have to train her. I know that doesn't *sound* pleasant, but it's the reality. Any inability to understand that you *must* work when you are working kind of shows a lack of maturity to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your girlfriend kept using your razor to shave the cat.... wouldn't you explain to her why that is unacceptable? It takes the same amount of determined explanation to some in order for them to understand that work is work and it makes no difference if you are sitting 5 feet away or across town. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been in your situation, where interruptions, although not malicious, become overly costly in terms of focus, concentration, and work. In some cases, all it takes is a good explanation that working from home does **not** mean you are free to do anything. In other cases, it can end a relationship. After all, if you had a girlfriend showing up at a job or calling you every 30 minutes to ask you're opinion on something, it become destructive and if you value the job, you'd eliminate the issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You probably just need to thoroughly explain to her that *your work* **requires** periods of **focused** concentration and ANY interruption can set you back. She may not be considering that you're in the middle of 5000 lines of code and the moment you look away it takes you 20 minutes to get back to where you were.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If none of this works.... I'd start looking for a new girlfriend. If she doesn't respect your wishes when it comes to supporting yourself (and probably her a bit) then she's clearly detrimental to your success. That's not what a girlfriend should be." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9912" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3204" RevisionGUID="cf015774-9c5c-42af-96de-c9b61c023946" CreationDate="2015-05-05T17:56:32.100" UserId="708" Text="Okay? That's 80-90% of my client communication. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's perfectly fine to communicate through email. But I do have a few suggestions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Spell properly - poor spelling in emails reflects poorly upon you&#xD;&#xA;- Use proper grammar as much as possible. - No one is perfect, but at least make an effort.&#xD;&#xA;- **NEVER** use &quot;txt&quot; abbreviations - U, R U, BRB, etc are all very bad in emails.&#xD;&#xA;- Use line feeds and space paragraphs properly. A single chunk of 500 words in an email is VERY difficult to read. Break it up.&#xD;&#xA;- Realize people read email a lot like they do web pages - they skim. So use lists and single sentences to create some emphasis in areas.&#xD;&#xA;- **Do not** use HTML email. Many email clients will display plain text emails. If not by default, because that's how they have been set. Send your emails as organized plain text. There's *absolutely* no need for html in client communications.&#xD;&#xA;- Keep it as brief as possible. If you can't write a short, brief email, then calling would be better, or a face to face." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9913" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3204" RevisionGUID="16a8f270-a314-4dc8-829f-cee44ea17f4b" CreationDate="2015-05-05T18:03:43.223" UserId="708" Comment="added 12 characters in body" Text="Okay? That's 80-90% of my client communication. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's perfectly fine to communicate through email. But I do have a few suggestions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Spell properly - poor spelling in emails reflects poorly upon you&#xD;&#xA;- Use proper grammar as much as possible. - No one is perfect, but at least make an effort.&#xD;&#xA;- **NEVER** use &quot;txt&quot; abbreviations - U, R U, BRB, AFAIK, IMO, etc are all very bad in emails.&#xD;&#xA;- Use line feeds and space paragraphs properly. A single chunk of 500 words in an email is VERY difficult to read. Break it up.&#xD;&#xA;- Realize people read email a lot like they do web pages - they skim. So use lists and single sentences to create some emphasis in areas.&#xD;&#xA;- **Do not** use HTML email. Many email clients will display plain text emails. If not by default, because that's how they have been set. Send your emails as organized plain text. There's *absolutely* no need for html in client communications.&#xD;&#xA;- Keep it as brief as possible. If you can't write a short, brief email, then calling would be better, or a face to face." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9914" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3205" RevisionGUID="4cfaa69c-417b-43af-9986-f06bc238ca71" CreationDate="2015-05-05T18:35:28.947" UserId="7717" Text="Normally this is okay, but it depends on the client! No one can say &quot;it's always okay to only communicate via email&quot; because some clients will insist on phone calls and won't hire someone who can't communicate via phone. Only a quarter of my clients have had this attitude but it's something to be aware of. Make sure you are honest about not being able to take calls before they hire you, and you should be fine. If you don't feel comfortable saying you don't speak English, tell them you only communicate via email so that you have a written record of all of your correspondence." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9915" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3206" RevisionGUID="36fe3293-c063-4b96-b55c-32451c3132ee" CreationDate="2015-05-05T18:45:33.710" UserId="7717" Text="I would go beyond a monthly fee and bill it hourly, that is the only way to be happy when working with clients who can't stop pestering you with changes. Another alternative is to break things down into milestones and be paid for each milestone. Never put all of a multi-month project into a single lump-sum payment or a half up-front, half on-delivery split." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9916" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3207" RevisionGUID="170f964c-b27d-4261-a460-9cc3a282abc8" CreationDate="2015-05-05T19:02:56.690" UserId="7717" Text="No one mentioned that blackmailing freelancers for extra work out of scope is explicitly forbidden in the terms of service for most of these sites. Read the terms of service. Elance, for example, says clients may not threaten a bad review to extort free work from the freelancer. If you contact support with proof, the client is busted, they will get in big trouble and won't be allowed to leave a review, and generally funds in escrow will be released to you. They have a vested interest in this because they get less money when the client gets free work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't trust a client or they're trying to screw you, make sure you only communicate via written word (email or Skype) so you have records. Say your phone is broken if you have to." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9917" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3170" RevisionGUID="1c35ee71-12d4-4ab4-88d8-f02f97772ebb" CreationDate="2015-05-06T06:29:27.907" UserId="7651" Comment="added walkthrough" Text="Screenshots are a great way to preserve your work. You can never guarantee the future of your work once you hand it off to a client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[DevPort][1] is a tool that will take screenshots and add them to an online portfolio in one go.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See the GIF below for how you would take a screenshot of a webpage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;![DevPort website import][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It also scrapes the name, url, description, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can add multiple website screenshots to the same project by clicking &quot;Import.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;![import projects][3]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All the webpages are displayed in a portfolio. You can mask the fact you used a website builder by uploading your own html/css/static assets and binding your own domain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;![example portfolio][4]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://devport.co&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/dx3FF.gif&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/V6rAC.png&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/4svpR.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9918" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3170" RevisionGUID="7dc41c42-b707-4966-96cf-3953fe2a4d4a" CreationDate="2015-05-06T06:37:01.810" UserId="7651" Comment="added walkthrough" Text="You are correct, your goal should be first to take screenshots if you can, and always provide as much information as possible about your project. If your project is private, still include a logo, mockup, public facing site, anything you can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I build a tool called [DevPort][1] that scrapes as much information as possible out of GitHub repositories, web pages, and apps and puts them into a portfolio for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, it will take a photo of a GitHub Readme, scrape the repo name, description, and the readme for any additional images. This way you at least have *something* to show.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See the GIF below for how you would take a screenshot of a webpage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;![DevPort website import][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It also scrapes the name, url, description, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can add multiple website screenshots to the same project by clicking &quot;Import.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;![import projects][3]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All the webpages are displayed in a portfolio. You can mask the fact you used a website builder by uploading your own html/css/static assets and binding your own domain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;![example portfolio][4]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://devport.co&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/dx3FF.gif&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/V6rAC.png&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/4svpR.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9924" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3209" RevisionGUID="3cf6f588-030c-4f20-98f2-7fea9fa823e2" CreationDate="2015-05-06T20:13:17.463" UserId="7593" Text="I've basically put in $300 of my own money to Incorporate, purchase initial equipment, etc. Now I have my EIN and a Bank account and bookkeeping software - how do I ensure my owner's equity is appropriately reflected and I'm not actually in the hole? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9925" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3209" RevisionGUID="3cf6f588-030c-4f20-98f2-7fea9fa823e2" CreationDate="2015-05-06T20:13:17.463" UserId="7593" Text="How do I account for money contributed before bank account opened?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9926" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3209" RevisionGUID="3cf6f588-030c-4f20-98f2-7fea9fa823e2" CreationDate="2015-05-06T20:13:17.463" UserId="7593" Text="|accounting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9927" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3210" RevisionGUID="7358edee-98bb-48a7-b5b3-23febeb6b7b6" CreationDate="2015-05-06T23:29:43.733" UserId="7745" Text="Most bookkeeping software should allow you to reconcile your account. Account reconciliation is what you do in order for you to have matching balances between your paper statements and electronic statements. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9934" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3212" RevisionGUID="9e072c17-d353-4455-8380-1cb309c19411" CreationDate="2015-05-07T20:33:25.413" UserId="7529" Text="As I start looking into the possibility of freelancing more and more, I've run into a problem (as someone had warned me before on here). I am afraid of dealing with scammers online (or even offline). I am generally computer-savvy enough to spot these kind of things usually but recently I almost fell for a scam online. I am usually cautious but wasn't as cautious for this one instance. Going through the experience discouraged me from exploring the freelancing route more. I am afraid of the possibility of getting involved with a client who is doing illegal stuff or trying to scam me in some way. I've read a lot of posts on ODesk (now called UpWork) where people get scammed by clients online or find out later on that whatever work they are doing for the client is illegal. What do you do as a freelancer to protect yourself from these kinds of situations but at the same time still find new clients to work with?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9935" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3212" RevisionGUID="9e072c17-d353-4455-8380-1cb309c19411" CreationDate="2015-05-07T20:33:25.413" UserId="7529" Text="How to protect yourself from clients who are scammers or involved in illegal activity?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9936" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3212" RevisionGUID="9e072c17-d353-4455-8380-1cb309c19411" CreationDate="2015-05-07T20:33:25.413" UserId="7529" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9937" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3213" RevisionGUID="92336923-86a6-4009-9e1f-a33ab510bbe1" CreationDate="2015-05-07T23:21:47.323" UserId="7753" Text="Totally agree with ChrisForrence, Jean-Lin PACHERIE and DigitalVinci. Just a little more advice to you.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You can make a free version of the App, gather the review and comment from the version and add more valuable function to the paid version of the same App&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;If someone want to use your App for free, they can download the free version. Having a mass amount of free user is good, since they can help you to test and give you feedback about the App.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can continue improve both version: The free version with baseline function, more value is added to the &quot;Pro&quot; version, so that when people want more and willing to pay, they got a choice.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9938" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3214" RevisionGUID="cc382cfa-ca1c-43f2-880f-03cdbb8bcbe8" CreationDate="2015-05-07T23:35:46.393" UserId="7717" Text="I have a client on the other side of the country who has repeatedly expressed interest in flying me to meetings and demonstrations related to our project. They have indicated they would pay all my travel expenses - airfare, room and board, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I am concerned about loss of income during such trips. I will probably be unable to do any regular work while away from home, which amounts to losses of several hundred dollars per day, something I can't comfortably afford right now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the customary approach to loss of income in a scenario like this? I can think of a few different approaches but I'm not sure which one is &quot;correct&quot;:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Bill them my normal daily rate as part of travel expenses to cover loss of income&#xD;&#xA; - Bill them only for time spent actively working with them (e.g. demos, meetings) but at a higher hourly rate than normal&#xD;&#xA; - Take the hit on my income since they are already paying for the travel and board" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9939" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3214" RevisionGUID="cc382cfa-ca1c-43f2-880f-03cdbb8bcbe8" CreationDate="2015-05-07T23:35:46.393" UserId="7717" Text="Travel expenses and loss of income" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9940" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3214" RevisionGUID="cc382cfa-ca1c-43f2-880f-03cdbb8bcbe8" CreationDate="2015-05-07T23:35:46.393" UserId="7717" Text="|expenses|travel|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9941" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3215" RevisionGUID="8c28f090-9d51-41d2-948f-79bd24e22137" CreationDate="2015-05-07T23:51:53.237" UserId="7632" Text="I've been freelancing full time for the last 10 years.  My clients do not even have my phone number.   If they do get it,  I don't answer when they call.  It is very rare that I take a call, and I have been doing fine.   If someone insists on a call, I just don't do business with them.   I turn down about 25% to 50% of leads due to unwillingness to talk on the phone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I first started freelancing I did not have this policy and not only wasted hours and hours on phone calls chit chatting about unrelated things.  (because some clients like to do that), but also every phone call client ended up being a huge time waster.   So I only talk to existing established clients of many years and many thousands in invoices paid.   I have established client levels and some of them get better treatment than others. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom line is if I never talked to anyone except on email,  I'd not really see any change in my business, but expect to turn away 25% - 50% of clients because you won't be able to use the phone for an initial call.  (some people tend to like that.. it makes them feel better about doing business with you.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would encourage you to work on your phone skills so one day you can talk with them and increase your market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is another question I answered with some tips for freelancers starting out..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3147/learned-html-css-and-jquery-now-what/3157#3157][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3147/learned-html-css-and-jquery-now-what/3157#3157" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9942" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3216" RevisionGUID="fbbd2ced-e690-4088-8e97-96dab59256cc" CreationDate="2015-05-08T00:24:13.607" UserId="7632" Text="*This question might belong under law or insurance.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you knowingly commit a crime, you have no recourse, you are guilty.  However, if you were unwittingly hired to produce a solution resulting in criminal charges being filed, you would be in a bit of hot water for sure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The ways to protect yourself are many, and consulting with a good lawyer to draw up a contract might not be a bad idea.   You want your software contract to include a liability and indemnity clause.   This will partially protect you.   Also, disclaimer, waiver, whatever elses your lawyer tells you to do.   Here is a partial example...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Indemnity As a result of the client’s instructions, the developer led&#xD;&#xA;&gt; unwittingly to infringe the intellectual property rights of a third&#xD;&#xA;&gt; party. – The developer provides a system which infringes such rights&#xD;&#xA;&gt; through carelessness or dishonesty, e.g. using proprietary software as&#xD;&#xA;&gt; a component of the system delivered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***For this reason, it is advisable to&#xD;&#xA;include a clause under which each party indemnifies the other for&#xD;&#xA;liability arising from its own faults in this respect.***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might also want to talk to an insurance agent or financial adviser about a liability or umbrella policy for additional coverage.   Trust me, having funds available for legal services when you need them is extremely important in the outcome of your case if you are charged.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps a little bit, and good luck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9943" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3216" RevisionGUID="2ea70e43-0e52-4768-84ba-693bfdd28429" CreationDate="2015-05-08T00:32:56.570" UserId="7632" Comment="added 24 characters in body" Text="*This question might belong under law or insurance.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you knowingly commit a crime, you have no recourse, you are guilty.  However, if you were unwittingly hired to produce a solution resulting in criminal charges being filed, you would be in a bit of hot water for sure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The ways to protect yourself are many, and consulting with a good lawyer to draw up a contract might not be a bad idea.   You want your software contract to include a liability and indemnity clause.   This will partially protect you.   Also, disclaimer, waiver, whatever elses your lawyer tells you to do.   Here is a partial example...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;   Indemnity &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  - As a result of the client’s instructions, the developer led&#xD;&#xA;&gt;    unwittingly to infringe the intellectual property rights of a third&#xD;&#xA;&gt;    party. &#xD;&#xA;&gt;  - The developer provides a system which infringes such rights&#xD;&#xA;&gt; through carelessness or dishonesty, e.g. using proprietary software as&#xD;&#xA;&gt; a component of the system delivered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***For this reason, it is advisable to&#xD;&#xA;include a clause under which each party indemnifies the other for&#xD;&#xA;liability arising from its own faults in this respect.***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might also want to talk to an insurance agent or financial adviser about a liability or umbrella policy for additional coverage.   Trust me, having funds available for legal services when you need them is extremely important in the outcome of your case if you are charged.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps a little bit, and good luck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9944" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3216" RevisionGUID="6cc7b850-9fd4-455e-aa4c-b4d4d9ba161d" CreationDate="2015-05-08T00:41:51.783" UserId="7632" Comment="added 255 characters in body" Text="*This question might belong under law or insurance.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you knowingly commit a crime, you have no recourse, you are guilty.  However, if you were unwittingly hired to produce a solution resulting in criminal charges being filed, you would be in a bit of hot water for sure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The ways to protect yourself are many, and consulting with a good lawyer to draw up a contract might not be a bad idea.   You want your software contract to include a liability and indemnity clause.   This will partially protect you.   Also, disclaimer, waiver, whatever elses your lawyer tells you to do.   Here is a partial example...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;   Indemnity &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  - As a result of the client’s instructions, the developer led&#xD;&#xA;&gt;    unwittingly to infringe the intellectual property rights of a third&#xD;&#xA;&gt;    party. &#xD;&#xA;&gt;  - The developer provides a system which infringes such rights&#xD;&#xA;&gt; through carelessness or dishonesty, e.g. using proprietary software as&#xD;&#xA;&gt; a component of the system delivered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***For this reason, it is advisable to&#xD;&#xA;include a clause under which each party indemnifies the other for&#xD;&#xA;liability arising from its own faults in this respect.***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might also want to talk to an insurance agent or financial adviser about a liability or umbrella policy for additional coverage.   Trust me, having funds available for legal services when you need them is extremely important in the outcome of your case if you are charged.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm pretty sure you can create/view/print one business contract here for free, I would say just to get an example of a good contract and maybe play around with it a bit.    &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; [Contract Link][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps a little bit, and good luck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.rocketlawyer.com/sem/business-contract.rl" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9945" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3217" RevisionGUID="148ce0c8-3cd4-4f28-b799-b5c8799397ae" CreationDate="2015-05-08T01:13:33.043" UserId="7632" Text="This is something that is appropriate to negotiate with the employer if you feel it is necessary.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I would figure out a fixed amount I needed to do the job **NOT** including travel expenses like airfare, meals, etc.. that should all be paid for by them anyway.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they do not offer a per diem, I **WOULD** include that in my fixed price estimate.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would then take that number to the employer with a fixed price contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they have a problem with the fixed price arrangement, or if they feel the rate is too high, at that point you have an entrance to negotiate the terms.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Just remember that you should choose a bottom line number and stick to it.*  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't want to go into the job resentful that your not being fairly compensated.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they can't pay you what you need to be payed, then there are other jobs out there.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During negotiations you can explain how you came up with your figures including such things as **income loss**, etc...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps a little.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9946" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3215" RevisionGUID="cc2ea6e1-ddc0-46c2-9ad6-1b502b623795" CreationDate="2015-05-08T02:17:55.770" UserId="708" Comment="Removed irrelevant link" Text="I've been freelancing full time for the last 10 years.  My clients do not even have my phone number.   If they do get it,  I don't answer when they call.  It is very rare that I take a call, and I have been doing fine.   If someone insists on a call, I just don't do business with them.   I turn down about 25% to 50% of leads due to unwillingness to talk on the phone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I first started freelancing I did not have this policy and not only wasted hours and hours on phone calls chit chatting about unrelated things.  (because some clients like to do that), but also every phone call client ended up being a huge time waster.   So I only talk to existing established clients of many years and many thousands in invoices paid.   I have established client levels and some of them get better treatment than others. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom line is if I never talked to anyone except on email,  I'd not really see any change in my business, but expect to turn away 25% - 50% of clients because you won't be able to use the phone for an initial call.  (some people tend to like that.. it makes them feel better about doing business with you.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would encourage you to work on your phone skills so one day you can talk with them and increase your market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9947" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="3215" RevisionGUID="4c837e2b-1ead-48d0-b32c-2cfc18ef56b7" CreationDate="2015-05-08T03:26:05.407" UserId="7632" Comment="Rollback to [8c28f090-9d51-41d2-948f-79bd24e22137]" Text="I've been freelancing full time for the last 10 years.  My clients do not even have my phone number.   If they do get it,  I don't answer when they call.  It is very rare that I take a call, and I have been doing fine.   If someone insists on a call, I just don't do business with them.   I turn down about 25% to 50% of leads due to unwillingness to talk on the phone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I first started freelancing I did not have this policy and not only wasted hours and hours on phone calls chit chatting about unrelated things.  (because some clients like to do that), but also every phone call client ended up being a huge time waster.   So I only talk to existing established clients of many years and many thousands in invoices paid.   I have established client levels and some of them get better treatment than others. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom line is if I never talked to anyone except on email,  I'd not really see any change in my business, but expect to turn away 25% - 50% of clients because you won't be able to use the phone for an initial call.  (some people tend to like that.. it makes them feel better about doing business with you.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would encourage you to work on your phone skills so one day you can talk with them and increase your market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is another question I answered with some tips for freelancers starting out..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3147/learned-html-css-and-jquery-now-what/3157#3157][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3147/learned-html-css-and-jquery-now-what/3157#3157" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9948" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3215" RevisionGUID="a6344b50-454f-4cf9-b71a-36cef6266756" CreationDate="2015-05-08T03:27:46.380" UserId="7632" Comment="added 71 characters in body" Text="I've been freelancing full time for the last 10 years.  My clients do not even have my phone number.   If they do get it,  I don't answer when they call.  It is very rare that I take a call, and I have been doing fine.   If someone insists on a call, I just don't do business with them.   I turn down about 25% to 50% of leads due to unwillingness to talk on the phone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I first started freelancing I did not have this policy and not only wasted hours and hours on phone calls chit chatting about unrelated things.  (because some clients like to do that), but also every phone call client ended up being a huge time waster.   So I only talk to existing established clients of many years and many thousands in invoices paid.   I have established client levels and some of them get better treatment than others. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom line is if I never talked to anyone except on email,  I'd not really see any change in my business, but expect to turn away 25% - 50% of clients because you won't be able to use the phone for an initial call.  (some people tend to like that.. it makes them feel better about doing business with you.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would encourage you to work on your phone skills so one day you can talk with them and increase your market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is another question I answered with some tips for freelancers starting out..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***NOTE!  DEAR COMPULSIVE EDITORS.  THIS LINK IS NOT IRRELEVANT*** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3147/learned-html-css-and-jquery-now-what/3157#3157][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3147/learned-html-css-and-jquery-now-what/3157#3157" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9949" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3159" RevisionGUID="8da65a14-1aff-430f-b2e6-ce2d8cb4eeac" CreationDate="2015-05-08T04:16:09.153" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/596528990942269440" />
  <row Id="9950" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3218" RevisionGUID="648505df-aa6a-482a-90b7-e06aabb15a5d" CreationDate="2015-05-08T05:38:49.703" UserId="7717" Text=" - Use common sense&#xD;&#xA; - Use escrow&#xD;&#xA; - Go with your gut feeling (if you have good intuition)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assuming you are looking at contracts on oDesk/Elance, etc:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - Start by **looking at the way the job posting is written**. Does the client use proper English, or do they rite in txt msg spk or have a poor grasp of the English language? I will usually only consider clients who have well-written job postings; in my experience those who write sloppy job postings are usually being shady, while working with someone with a language barrier is rarely worth the hassle even if they *aren't* trying to scam you.&#xD;&#xA;  - **Evaluate the project goals**. Are they asking for someone to copy or reverse engineer someone else's software? That's already getting into a legal grey area. If it sounds like they want you to steal someone else's work, or edit something they stole, just keep walking&#xD;&#xA;  - **Carefully study the payment terms**. If they are only willing to do a single payment after the entire project is completed, you are at a much higher risk of being scammed. Never take jobs where the client says payment depends on quality of the final deliverables, because that leaves them too much room to say they aren't satisfied with your work, pay you nothing, and then use your work anyway. ***Only*** take fixed-price jobs that have escrow; oDesk doesn't have escrow right now, so if you prefer fixed price, you should be looking on Elance or elsewhere&#xD;&#xA;  - **Make sure deliverables are explicitly specified in the contract terms**. Don't leave any room for &quot;When I *said* A, I meant A, B, C, D, and E&quot;&#xD;&#xA;  - **Only use written forms of communication** that you can use as evidence if the client tries to cheat or extort you.&#xD;&#xA;  - **Consider only taking clients with extensive payment history** - this can close a lot of doors for you, but if they have completed and paid 20 projects with good responses from the freelancers, you can feel fairly confident they aren't in it to scam you. That said, I have had good success with many first-time clients as well&#xD;&#xA;  -  **Know the rules of your service** - carefully review all of the terms of service for the freelancing service you are finding work through. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are talking with a client, and their general attitude seems at all shady or makes you feel uncomfortable, just walk away. It's not worth the risk and hassle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One other tip - be very weary of jobs where the posting is in excellent English but the client seems to have a very poor grasp of the language. They probably got hired for a job they aren't qualified for and are trying to farm out the work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9951" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="3215" RevisionGUID="79c14059-7c7f-4a79-943c-62f61381a3e9" CreationDate="2015-05-08T12:43:15.027" UserId="58" Comment="Rollback to [cc2ea6e1-ddc0-46c2-9ad6-1b502b623795]" Text="I've been freelancing full time for the last 10 years.  My clients do not even have my phone number.   If they do get it,  I don't answer when they call.  It is very rare that I take a call, and I have been doing fine.   If someone insists on a call, I just don't do business with them.   I turn down about 25% to 50% of leads due to unwillingness to talk on the phone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I first started freelancing I did not have this policy and not only wasted hours and hours on phone calls chit chatting about unrelated things.  (because some clients like to do that), but also every phone call client ended up being a huge time waster.   So I only talk to existing established clients of many years and many thousands in invoices paid.   I have established client levels and some of them get better treatment than others. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom line is if I never talked to anyone except on email,  I'd not really see any change in my business, but expect to turn away 25% - 50% of clients because you won't be able to use the phone for an initial call.  (some people tend to like that.. it makes them feel better about doing business with you.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would encourage you to work on your phone skills so one day you can talk with them and increase your market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9952" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3219" RevisionGUID="8fe63557-e0b0-43fe-87fe-6f44a9f887ac" CreationDate="2015-05-08T16:04:56.310" UserId="517" Text="What do you consider illegal? I mean what is your area of expertise? Looks like a PA, right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been a developer myself and I have never been involved in anything illegal. I think a few times client told me if I am ready to do coding of the porn content. But as you can see, they asked me in advance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The &quot;scam&quot; that odesk-ers face come from doing work and either not being paid or asked to work extra tasks without change in price. All scams I saw were those. But with a common sense and not accepting any client, you can pretty much guess if some client is a good or a bad guy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is he telling you details about work? Is he listening what you have to say? Is he rushing you accept the job? Is he telling you to accept the job and all of that will be discussed later? Doesn't this sound odd or warning to you?!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even being hungry for a month (have not been so far), I would not accept a job which I am not confident I can do, a job which specifics are unknown to me or a client who is not aware of the budget. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let me know if I missed my point so maybe I can add more to this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9953" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3220" RevisionGUID="d77df995-23b6-445e-93cb-f0957fe30ce9" CreationDate="2015-05-08T21:04:32.360" UserId="531" Text="It sounds like you need a mix of project management and scheduling tools. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps you need something like [PivotalTracker](http://www.pivotaltracker.com/), that gives you a place to input time &amp; effort estimates. Or perhaps you need something like [Plan](http://www.getplan.co/login) to help you assign tasks to time slots on a calendar. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9955" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1725" RevisionGUID="7399c2f8-8f17-4a7f-942e-1bf2b4f4d8de" CreationDate="2015-05-09T14:22:36.373" UserId="2517" Comment="deleted 231 characters in body; edited title" Text="I've done about 2.5 years of certification course from Aptech. And now I want to be a good freelancer for freelancing sites like Odesk and Elance. I've made my profile on that but the actual problem is that that I've only basic understanding of web development and on these sites there are lot of competition with more experience and low price bid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I'm in a fix, how can I make a good reputation on these sites to make my future in this industry?&#xD;&#xA;I want to work from home as a web developer. But I've no professional experience on making a big projects. I've made small projects during my course. And my interest is in Asp.net web development.&#xD;&#xA;Any suggestions and ideas will be greatly appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9956" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1725" RevisionGUID="7399c2f8-8f17-4a7f-942e-1bf2b4f4d8de" CreationDate="2015-05-09T14:22:36.373" UserId="2517" Comment="deleted 231 characters in body; edited title" Text="How I can be good Asp.Net Developer Freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9957" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3212" RevisionGUID="6413c750-e4c6-4048-9bb7-6fcb29d12711" CreationDate="2015-05-09T19:17:00.860" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/597118088086192130" />
  <row Id="9962" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3222" RevisionGUID="1cb7b3a2-ed0b-4d66-b6c3-1426fa4ff4f4" CreationDate="2015-05-11T00:17:47.133" UserDisplayName="user7770" Text="I'm a web developer (Ruby on Rails) and I got an inquiry about the bug-support contract for a limited time (2 months). I'm very well familiar with the project so doing the actual work is not a problem and I can provide good value to the customer here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The setup is: if there's a bug in the web app, I should start working on in the next business day.&#xD;&#xA;The thing that kinda worries me: the number of bugs could be really low (like 1,2 or even 0 per week) but I'm still committed to the contract and basically &quot;on hold&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the best way to form the pricing for this? How do I charge for the commitment to this contract and still not overcharge? Are there any heuristics for these kinds of contracts?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I usually work full time (30+ hours a week) and charge hourly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's some ideas I have (I'm not sure if the below numbers are too much or too little or just ok):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- charge fixed cost of `25% x full time monthly price`, and then charge regular hourly rate if there's any actual work or&#xD;&#xA;- charge `1.5 x hourly rate` with 10hrs/week minimum or&#xD;&#xA;- charge `2 x hourly rate` with 5hrs/week minimum" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9963" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3222" RevisionGUID="1cb7b3a2-ed0b-4d66-b6c3-1426fa4ff4f4" CreationDate="2015-05-11T00:17:47.133" UserDisplayName="user7770" Text="How to determine pricing for bug-support only contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9964" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3222" RevisionGUID="1cb7b3a2-ed0b-4d66-b6c3-1426fa4ff4f4" CreationDate="2015-05-11T00:17:47.133" UserDisplayName="user7770" Text="|price|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9965" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3223" RevisionGUID="8e145009-6969-4770-92ad-6dd597cbb8ef" CreationDate="2015-05-11T12:59:11.647" UserId="7772" Text="I have logged into my Self Assessment Portal for HMRC but for the life of me can not see where to print off the SA302 from . I have already spent 45 min on the phone to HMRC and they are sending me them out in the post - but I needed them ASAP for a Mortgage Application could someone point me in the right direction ?  I have Googled this a fair bit but a lot of the how-toos online are for the old style layout of the site every time I go in it is in the new beta format....all  very frustrating. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9966" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3223" RevisionGUID="8e145009-6969-4770-92ad-6dd597cbb8ef" CreationDate="2015-05-11T12:59:11.647" UserId="7772" Text="priniting SA302 online" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9967" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3223" RevisionGUID="8e145009-6969-4770-92ad-6dd597cbb8ef" CreationDate="2015-05-11T12:59:11.647" UserId="7772" Text="|taxes|hmrc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9968" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3196" RevisionGUID="841b2c35-aae7-43ad-929f-8af17da425da" CreationDate="2015-05-11T13:17:54.520" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/597752491560730624" />
  <row Id="9973" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3223" RevisionGUID="a789d692-dc72-4896-bd0f-3d6efabb295d" CreationDate="2015-05-11T14:45:42.577" UserId="58" Comment="Clarified question (grammar and spelling)" Text="I have logged into my Self Assessment Portal for HMRC but can't seem to find where to print off an SA302 from.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have already spent 45 min on the phone to HMRC and they are sending me them out in the post, but I need them as soon as possible for a mortgage application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Could someone point me in the right direction?  I have Googled this a fair bit, but a lot of the guides online are for the old style layout of the site, and every time I go in it is in the new gov.uk beta format. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9974" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3223" RevisionGUID="a789d692-dc72-4896-bd0f-3d6efabb295d" CreationDate="2015-05-11T14:45:42.577" UserId="58" Comment="Clarified question (grammar and spelling)" Text="Where can I find an SA302 form online?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9976" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3225" RevisionGUID="b917aa55-56f7-46d3-afe0-951079a6f78c" CreationDate="2015-05-11T16:27:37.463" UserId="75" Text="You're getting the right idea, never offer your &quot;on-hold&quot; status for free, especially if you're expected to work on bugs within one business day of being contacts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although I only did one of these agreements once before (for a server setup, on a year-long contract), it was easy to choose a percentage of my total working time for the month, and charge that no matter what. This would keep me on my toes, at least. I used 15%, as I was not expecting many issues once I got in there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once I started the actual *work*, I would round the cost of the hours work up to my regular work wage. Essentially, the &quot;on call&quot; part was free money to be available *during my business hours*. Do not allow them to call you at 3 in the morning to start working on a bug fix the next day. Set the hours in your contract of *how* and *when* you are to be contacts for bugs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, once the contract is signed, make sure you collect the first month's payment in advance, and every month after that. This way, if clients get cold feet, you at least have the money from that month. You'll need to track your hours, and the client will need to acknowledge that you need paid for your time working, and not working.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client chooses not to pay while you are working, then remind them they are paying for the *service* of you being available within a business day to address their issue. If they are still not wanting to pay you to be on hold, then you'll need to estimate, for yourself, how much time you'll likely spend on the project. Always add a buffer, as you can always plan better that way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9977" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3226" RevisionGUID="31c193be-384f-457a-86b5-9c29d3184a18" CreationDate="2015-05-11T16:48:37.387" UserId="1975" Text="I've got a project based contract to build a software app.  The planned contract initially stated an aggressive 8 week release plan, and it was stated that the designs and API were at or near completion.  Payment was 25% up front, 25% at milestone, and 50% on release.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the first 4-5 weeks this was the plan except that designs and API were delayed.   Not a big deal.  At week 5 we were about 80% complete, and the client came back with drastically reduced business requirements that required redoing the product.  New designs were issued.  Work was started to implement this, reusing some of the previous work but still redoing design requirements. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We're now at week 12, and newer revised documents are issued with further changes.  We hope to get them finalized in 2 weeks, but the target release is not for 4 weeks still.  The original 6 weeks of work are now discarded at this point, as things evolve.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you can see, it is a project that has taken longer than expected.  The client's budget was pretty fixed and reasonable, but it has taken a longer duration of my time than expected.  Some of this is normal software iterative process, however redoing 3 times and constantly changing release plans is difficult. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm wondering how this can be avoided in future contract specification, if at all? Is there a way fairly handle excessive re-iterations of work and timeline expansions, and when does this turn from normal project-lifecycle into excessive client expectations?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9978" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3226" RevisionGUID="31c193be-384f-457a-86b5-9c29d3184a18" CreationDate="2015-05-11T16:48:37.387" UserId="1975" Text="Project based freelance project requiring multiple unexpected &quot;redos&quot; from client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9979" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3226" RevisionGUID="31c193be-384f-457a-86b5-9c29d3184a18" CreationDate="2015-05-11T16:48:37.387" UserId="1975" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9980" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3227" RevisionGUID="45c5ccc4-61ea-4313-a45a-db350826a6e9" CreationDate="2015-05-11T17:41:10.313" UserId="7774" Text="My 2 cents :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Standby price : 10% of Monthly Full time&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bugs : High priority : 2 x hourly price&#xD;&#xA;     : Normal priority : 1 x hourly price&#xD;&#xA;     : Low priority : .75 x hourly price" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9981" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3228" RevisionGUID="6fb7998b-3448-4594-824a-a562727512d4" CreationDate="2015-05-11T18:36:19.337" UserId="7759" Text="At the bottom of all my quotes I have this wording:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We are here to provide an excellent customer experience. Because of this, we encourage input from the Client during the entire process. However, any major or significant changes requested during development, will carry along with them a renegotiated fee based on the new scope of the changes. We understand and encourage you as the client to voice your opinion and request to make any and all changes that you feel is in the best interest of your project. However, you as the client must also understand that in doing so, this may mean a considerable amount of work for us to make any major changes to the layout and design of your project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; To recap, please note that our agreement does not include a provision&#xD;&#xA;&gt; for “significant project scope modification” after the Client has&#xD;&#xA;&gt; signed off on his/her chosen design. Some examples of significant&#xD;&#xA;&gt; project modification at the request of the Client include: developing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; a new structure to accommodate a substantial redesign at the Client's&#xD;&#xA;&gt; request, recreating or significantly modifying the company graphic at&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the Client's request, replacing more than 75% of the text at the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Client's request, creating a new navigation structure or changing the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; link graphics at the Client's request, or significantly reconfiguring&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the Client's shopping cart with new product, shipping, or discount&#xD;&#xA;&gt; calculation if an e-commerce enabled site has been selected by the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then the challenge is to recognize when a major scope change is happening, and stop to renegotiate. If you're like me...you're just focusing on your work and suddenly you realize you just did a bunch of work for free and you're like &quot;Face Palm!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I use a project manager on large projects to help with this. :) " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9982" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3227" RevisionGUID="c691edae-d291-4cfc-9fad-115adf590fcb" CreationDate="2015-05-12T05:25:06.217" UserId="7774" Comment="sharing some of the things I learnt being freelancer" Text="My 2 cents :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Standby price : 10% of Monthly Full time&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bugs : High priority : 2 x hourly price&#xD;&#xA;     : Normal priority : 1 x hourly price&#xD;&#xA;     : Low priority : .75 x hourly price&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Reason why I use this model - because I too am tech freelancer and it is common for clients to expect support during after office hours ( And it gets worst with off-shore clients). I set their expectations on deliverables/services so they fit in to my schedule snuggly (Since I had lost a many clients due to non-availability or sometimes I was working on &quot;high priority -low cost&quot; project which would mean I would lose other important regular clients).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had learnt it hard way - Better to manage my time - fix appropriate costs when needed +  being available and consistent was very important.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9983" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3199" RevisionGUID="0d71db39-2a41-4ef6-8426-aa9efaf48a0d" CreationDate="2015-05-12T09:23:02.850" UserId="58" Comment="Grammar cleanup~" Text="Personally I've only used Google Calendar for many years; I have it in sync with my desktop PC, laptop, tablet and smartphone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can visualize the calendar by day, week or month and update it at any moment in around 10 seconds by any means. It is very easy and versatile to schedule my work, meetings, renewals, anniversaries, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't think that you need a tutorial; just keep it simple and functional. No need to add 1000+ details; use it like a paper calendar you'd put post-it notes (or written notes) on. I hardly edit an event in the calendar; I only use the add and delete functions with very simple 2-3 word labels." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9984" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3116" RevisionGUID="42a0476f-48a9-4b7b-ac5e-c645eda3556b" CreationDate="2015-05-12T09:24:20.503" UserId="9" Comment="added 83 characters in body" Text="Consulting is the practice of providing expert/professional advice on a given topic" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9985" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3116" RevisionGUID="42a0476f-48a9-4b7b-ac5e-c645eda3556b" CreationDate="2015-05-12T09:24:20.503" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 58 edit id of 393" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9986" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3227" RevisionGUID="2ce59760-72e2-46f4-839c-610d7250995d" CreationDate="2015-05-12T09:30:19.403" UserId="58" Comment="Grammar cleanup" Text="My 2 cents:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Standby price: 10% of Monthly Full time&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Bugs:&#xD;&#xA;  - High priority: 2 x hourly price&#xD;&#xA;  - Normal priority : 1 x hourly price&#xD;&#xA;  - Low priority : 0.75 x hourly price&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason I use this model is because I'm a tech freelancer, and it is common for clients to expect support during after office hours (It's worse with overseas clients). I set their expectations on deliverables/services so they fit in to my schedule snuggly (since I've lost many clients due to non-availability, or sometimes I was working on a &quot;high priority - low cost&quot; project which would mean I would lose other important regular clients).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've learn the hard way that better management of my time, fixing appropriate costs where needed, and being available and consistent is very important.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9987" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3190" RevisionGUID="0022cdc7-d6ce-4c32-8120-3203c38a0f1e" CreationDate="2015-05-12T09:33:09.087" UserId="58" Comment="Grammar cleanup, tried to keep the meaning of &quot;money return&quot; somewhat intact." Text="If you release a good free app with no advertisements, the person/service that is actually being advertised is the app's creator. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do a really good/useful app and give it away for free (putting your name on it), then you will have a return in terms of company (or developer) prestige. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The monetary incentive of this will be that the company name will be spread and known and the company/developer can acquire more clients that probably will buy other paid services." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9993" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3230" RevisionGUID="146d41da-3e95-4dda-9c23-02560e582228" CreationDate="2015-05-12T15:26:37.973" UserId="5334" Text="I don't think you can get one from HMRC's website. [According to this website][1], you need to ask either your accountant (assuming you have one), or get on the phone to HMRC... like you have done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.cliffordtowers.com/what-is-a-form-sa302-and-how-do-you-get-one-from-hmrc/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9994" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3226" RevisionGUID="dc6419eb-cd7e-402b-8653-abe2c64152eb" CreationDate="2015-05-12T16:19:24.643" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/598160556592340992" />
  <row Id="9997" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3232" RevisionGUID="c2ba5118-4af6-4ecb-8a3d-16a394624838" CreationDate="2015-05-12T21:19:15.593" UserId="7786" Text="The way my accountant had me handle this was to create a liability account in QuickBooks called &quot;Loan from Kyle&quot;. I had a few times where I had to deposit money into my business checking account, and I categorized the deposit as this account. Then, on the balance sheet, it's properly displayed as a liability, and it's recorded that the money came from me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I eventually wanted to repay myself, I just wrote myself a check and categorized it as &quot;Loan from Kyle&quot;, and that liability went away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9999" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3233" RevisionGUID="1cbaa879-2709-455a-8fc1-08036c206ffd" CreationDate="2015-05-13T07:18:08.240" UserId="7792" Text="I want to pursue a career as a freelancer. I have an experience using SharePoint (on-premise). For those who are not familiar with the on-premise, it means that when I will deploy my solution/work, I will be deploying the solution (.wsp) to the server.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the freelancing world, how will this work? will I just send the .wsp to the client? should I also include the source code, even documentations etc.? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10000" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3233" RevisionGUID="1cbaa879-2709-455a-8fc1-08036c206ffd" CreationDate="2015-05-13T07:18:08.240" UserId="7792" Text="How to work as a freelancer using SharePoint on-premise" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10001" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3233" RevisionGUID="1cbaa879-2709-455a-8fc1-08036c206ffd" CreationDate="2015-05-13T07:18:08.240" UserId="7792" Text="|remote|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10002" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3234" RevisionGUID="30005645-f46d-447e-8a6c-7dd2b5ff7c98" CreationDate="2015-05-13T13:16:47.257" UserId="5479" Text="I created Elance ID around three years ago but never used. Now I want to start biding on Elance, Should I go with new ID or using Old one will be better?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10003" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3234" RevisionGUID="30005645-f46d-447e-8a6c-7dd2b5ff7c98" CreationDate="2015-05-13T13:16:47.257" UserId="5479" Text="New Elance ID vs Old one" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10004" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3234" RevisionGUID="30005645-f46d-447e-8a6c-7dd2b5ff7c98" CreationDate="2015-05-13T13:16:47.257" UserId="5479" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10005" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3235" RevisionGUID="50741000-5f05-473f-a6b6-f205c7966e8a" CreationDate="2015-05-13T15:02:14.303" UserId="7759" Text="As a person who hires freelancers on eLance often, I can tell you that the reviews and ratings you get are what will be looked at. I don't think I've ever considered someone who has no history/reviews, regardless of how long they've been on eLance. I look at the number of jobs completed with the subsequent reviews/rating. One job with a 5-star rating is not as attractive as 45 jobs with a 4-star rating.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that said, a new eLance profile might be slightly better, in that people may be willing to give you a chance since you're new (thus explaining why you have no history)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10006" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3236" RevisionGUID="ceb4ef76-f9c0-4c75-bea1-508ef68bc94e" CreationDate="2015-05-13T16:07:41.410" UserId="7795" Text="I'm a 15 year veteran of web design and front end development, with a couple years of Rails experience under my belt.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Currently I am focusing on forming my own development company, and have landed quite a few clients of small to small-medium size.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently I was invited to consult with a local NPO on a project to replace an aging 10 year old software application for order and client management. To date, it will be the single largest project (if I win the bid) that I'll have won, so it's incredibly new territory for me, and a little daunting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My questions are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. How does NPO pricing typically work? I understand most NPO's receive a discount on services, which is then tax deductible (I'm in Canada).&#xD;&#xA;Without knowing more about the full scope of the project, what is the general market rate for such a project with an estimated lifespan of 10 or so years (it sounds like they make major investments and then stick with it for as long as they can).&#xD;&#xA;2. I've been told that they would also want maintenance and ongoing support of the application tied into the contract, what value is fair to place on that?&#xD;&#xA;3. Given past experience, my assumption is as follows: There will be a data migration from whatever database/datasource the existing application makes use of, which might include a complete overhaul of the data model.&#xD;&#xA;4. There would also be back end engineering and front end UI/UX work as well as graphic design elements, and documentation would also need to be drafted (system documentation and user guide documentation) as well as training on how to use the new system.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have my meeting with them this coming Saturday, so I want to be as prepared as possible should they have any questions or want to begin negotiations immediately (it sounds like there is significant urgency to needing this new solution).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Gabrial" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10007" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3236" RevisionGUID="ceb4ef76-f9c0-4c75-bea1-508ef68bc94e" CreationDate="2015-05-13T16:07:41.410" UserId="7795" Text="New to billing and estimation of medium to large sized projects for NPO" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10008" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3236" RevisionGUID="ceb4ef76-f9c0-4c75-bea1-508ef68bc94e" CreationDate="2015-05-13T16:07:41.410" UserId="7795" Text="|design|estimation|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10009" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3237" RevisionGUID="670f6b67-d49e-45a1-b587-7c8d3b019c68" CreationDate="2015-05-13T16:59:53.760" UserId="7486" Text="I would not make difference if the project is for Non Profit Organization or not, even if they have discounts on services or taxes, I don't think that you will have too, so you can go with a normal project pricing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would make (for my own better understanding) a very detailed estimations for  all the costs of the project development including work hours, support, training, monthly maintenance, etc, and then you can make a price for each &quot;item&quot; of your list, and each item specify if is a &quot;one time&quot; task, monthly, yearly, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can prepare a long term contract (lets say 5 years renewable) and span the whole price along these years in this way, considering the first year with all the migration, development setup and put the whole thing working correctly, and the rest with annual fee for maintenance, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It will be like the first year you will work a lot and have a proper income, then as the more time pass your commitment will be less and you will get the annual fees, probably you will work very little on the project once it will be stable and going." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10010" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3238" RevisionGUID="687b8fad-14da-4d64-a4f4-20a5f32ddc60" CreationDate="2015-05-13T17:52:17.307" UserId="75" Text="Welcome to the fabulous/evil world of Freelancing, being your own boss&lt;super&gt;*&lt;/super&gt;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;`* Kinda.... Not really`&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First off, do you have a portfolio? If not, create one, ASAP. Your clients need to see what you're capable of. If you did work for companies already, ask their permission to show case your work from their sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, you need to think like the person who'd be hiring you - what would you want? If you are starting a new company that sells XYZ Widgets, and you want a Sharepoint site, what are you looking to get out of the deal? Probably not just a nice looking JPEG image, you want the whole site! I don't know Sharepoint very well, but I know if I hired you, I'd want all the files you worked on that we need - source code extra if it's a compiled program. Include documentation whenever possible, or else you'll get inundated with phone calls asking how to do simple things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, what does your contract say? If you don't have contracts, be aware that you are opening yourself up to horrible things - Scope creep, getting sued, getting ripped off, lost time, stress, cranky customers, and more. Get a contract and a Scope of Work made up that clearly defines every term. There are many questions on this site about what should be included in both.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10011" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3239" RevisionGUID="268ef47f-4382-4b38-aac5-14d79dadea0d" CreationDate="2015-05-14T00:17:05.033" UserId="4738" Text="I'm a WordPress Developer living in the Middle East, I have a strong portfolio and experience. I want to expand my clients base to the US. Because I'm living far from USA, I can't have personal meetings with them. I tried Freelancing websites, I got few jobs, but it's not financially feasible." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10012" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3239" RevisionGUID="268ef47f-4382-4b38-aac5-14d79dadea0d" CreationDate="2015-05-14T00:17:05.033" UserId="4738" Text="How can I approach US clients with Web Development work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10013" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3239" RevisionGUID="268ef47f-4382-4b38-aac5-14d79dadea0d" CreationDate="2015-05-14T00:17:05.033" UserId="4738" Text="|attracting-clients|usa|marketing|foreign-markets|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10014" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3240" RevisionGUID="01bf410d-6446-4815-86d1-54517defc11d" CreationDate="2015-05-14T10:04:48.613" UserId="7696" Text="I've dealt with a similar situation here at home although not with my girlfriend. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is tough and I understand your frustration. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I did was I had to strategically create time blocks of my work. This means I had to carefully plan what I need to do during the day. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I need 3 hours of uninterrupted work based on my schedule, I will find a place outside of the house (usually some decent coffee shop) where no one else can just distract me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will only do casual / light work inside the house (e.g. check emails, review stuff). That way even if the people could be quite distracting, I can still be productively doing stuff." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10015" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3234" RevisionGUID="36556903-88fb-4128-bba7-1dd1346580f3" CreationDate="2015-05-14T12:15:57.073" UserId="58" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10016" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3241" RevisionGUID="13e1406c-111e-454c-bd15-7630328103c9" CreationDate="2015-05-14T12:16:13.753" UserId="5172" Text="1. You MUST price as if it was a commercial organisation, in full detail as above answer. To a self employed person 'every client' is a commercial organisation. Discounts to NPOs are only given as a reduction in full fees where an organisation has spare capacity to live outside these margins. They like any customer ask for a discount but you are 'selling yourself to a customer' your rates must be real.  I advise as a former treasurer of a NPO, while I might push a big utility (say electric company) to try to get a discount, we never did so to small traders. A workman should be paid his living wage.  You need to argue that with the customer. Be wary of NPO internal politics, (especially chage with time) sometime committees like to push their own known folk, rather than the 'best ' who should be hired." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10017" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3242" RevisionGUID="dbf64246-febd-4dd6-89ed-84c0807ab5ee" CreationDate="2015-05-14T12:28:03.540" UserId="5172" Text="1 You must also include in your quotes and in any contract wording to effect:&#xD;&#xA;&quot;We (&lt;name of your company or organisation&gt; reserve the right to stop work or 'hold work'and immediately bill for all work done to date  which is immediately payable, where a major change is requested to allow for full and considered effect of the requested changes and only after full commercial impact of both price, duration and delivery schedule to the 'adjusted scope of work' is agreed between our organisations is the hold released and work completed under the revised scope and payment conditions.&#xD;&#xA; No unreasonable minor change is effected, but major changes to scope, duration, complexity of original project nulifies our original mutual agreement and purpose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2 This is effectively a 'negotiate and agree to extras' or we terminate and bill  clause. It does mean you need to walk away from that client, if no agreement possible , but at least you get paid or can bill up to date I find it usefull. Many variations on this  wording are in most of my contracts." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10018" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3243" RevisionGUID="95943e4b-a612-4fa8-8dbd-d51f31af30ed" CreationDate="2015-05-14T12:38:27.177" UserId="5172" Text="1 You need two rates to give them.&#xD;&#xA; 1. We work with for out of office work on two per diem rates:&#xD;&#xA; 2. a) Working days at  XXX per day&#xD;&#xA; 3. b) Travel days (all days from base  to base  excluding working days) at YYY per day.&#xD;&#xA; 4. This &quot;b&quot;  rate above covers our costs or minimum income but also most importantly covers weekends away from base, where we have say a Thursday , Friday Monday Tuesday work days and charge non-working on outward Wednesday , the Saturday  Sunday at customer's base town therefore available for work and unable to do 'normal' job) and for Wednesday return to base , so bill would have 4 working days at XXX and four non working days at YYY. This is labour only charge. All hotels , travel costs and meals etc are billed at cost to client or settled directly by them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10019" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3244" RevisionGUID="9fe9f5dd-4c61-46b7-ab7b-0b92283634f2" CreationDate="2015-05-14T12:41:50.967" UserId="5172" Text="It is very important to clasify the loan as a &quot;loan by XX to company&quot; to distinguish it from a 'loan by company to XX&quot;. Owner's or director's loans from company can get into hot tax water, while a 'loan to company' (for startup cash) is easilly sorted out by repayment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10020" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3245" RevisionGUID="fbff8b28-c0ba-4c0d-b2ca-785301e0cb4d" CreationDate="2015-05-14T12:55:03.553" UserId="5172" Text="I do 90% plus of business by email, but I follow courteous letter writing format in email composition (in pure text, no HTML!), use a formal salutation normal for area and language, add a date/time inside the email message, so you have a time stamp outside the message headers (as in a formal letter) and use a closing formal salutation. This helps cosiderably if you ever have to go to court or dispute to resolve payments or such like. 'Informal use such as &quot;hi, price is XXX  joe&quot; does not go well in resolving disputes. Also the style is professional , which is what you want." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10021" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3246" RevisionGUID="b68b682b-e85f-431d-9cdd-2d069bc3fb77" CreationDate="2015-05-14T13:04:50.877" UserId="517" Text="Welcome to the real world! This was the reason why odesk and similar sites were made and are so successful. You will eventually find good clients on those websites, but it usually takes years. Only few I heard of managed to do it within 1 year or less.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have other choices like social media Facebook and Linkedin, maintaining some open source project, making your own plugins, etc. Check out one of my latest questions on &quot;how to survive outside of odesk, elance and similar websites&quot; - there is a good reply there. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10024" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3241" RevisionGUID="ad82aa82-6af0-420b-9687-f4c5de88fe8f" CreationDate="2015-05-14T17:07:56.840" UserId="75" Comment="edited body" Text="You MUST price as if it was a commercial organization, in full detail as above answer. To a self employed person 'every client' is a commercial organization. Discounts to NPOs are only given as a reduction in full fees where an organization has spare capacity to live outside these margins. They like any customer ask for a discount but you are 'selling yourself to a customer' your rates must be real.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I advise as a former treasurer of a NPO, while I might push a big utility (say electric company) to try to get a discount, we never did so to small traders. A workman should be paid his living wage.  You need to argue that with the customer. Be wary of NPO internal politics, (especially charge with time) sometime committees like to push their own known folk, rather than the 'best ' who should be hired." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10028" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3201" RevisionGUID="090ec790-be6a-4293-a119-03b26bf8ada5" CreationDate="2015-05-15T01:23:11.023" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/599022178395398145" />
  <row Id="10037" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3251" RevisionGUID="78a70520-3634-404d-a248-2bef5a1acc52" CreationDate="2015-05-15T18:53:46.853" UserId="7822" Text="Apps and services like dropbox are not actually free but freemium: free Apps designed to fall short as soon as you start to use them seriously, forcing you to upgrade to the paid version.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The free plan of Shopify is free but charges you a percentage of your sales.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And finally, apps like TripAdvisor or Facebook are free for common users, but they have paid services for professional users (promotion of your business, access to user demographics...)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always rememember that if a service is free for you, usually it is because you are the one being sold." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10040" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3254" RevisionGUID="8a49748e-a1ca-448c-9bb2-2bc879f1aa45" CreationDate="2015-05-16T01:02:30.810" UserId="5893" Text="There are CRM (customer relations management) software packages out there, but I don't think they're cheap. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think you can leverage many different productivity apps to do what you need. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since I'm not at the point where I can afford a personal assistant or CRM software, I use Excel spreadsheets, my calendar app, and reminders. I think it all depends on what kind of person you are. I'm &quot;visual&quot; (apparently, according to the woman who came to organize my office), so I need to see everything to remember it exists.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your processes are the same for all (or most) of your clients, you might do well with a customized form or checklist (this can be implemented in a spreadsheet or database). After you create your master process, you make individual ones for each client and you can track where you are in the process with each one, and you'll know what needs to be done next.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10042" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3255" RevisionGUID="2a3df02a-057b-4b1c-8737-732a7424cc06" CreationDate="2015-05-16T01:45:55.603" UserId="5893" Text="This is a common problem with everyone who works from home, and has been since the dawn of time. My mother was an author and she had to teach her friends and the rest of the family not to bother her during her writing time (and this was way before the Internet and telecommuting was a thing).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know you said you have a small apartment. I am hoping that you and your girlfriend share a space that can be closed off in some way? If so, I strongly recommend that you relocate *her* work area as far away from yours as possible (ideally, in another room, where your space can be closed off with a door).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If that is impractical, my second recommendation would be to **invest in a pair of noise-cancelling headphones and make a playlist of &quot;Music to Code By.&quot;** Tell her that when the headphones are on, you can not be disturbed unless the apartment is on fire.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, you need to cut your girlfriend some slack (and cut yourself some slack, too). Do you think for a minute that if you were in an office, which if you are a programmer would most likely be a cube farm or part of an &quot;open design&quot; space that you wouldn't be *constantly* interrupted by co-workers and managers? I know when I was in an office (just 5 months ago!) - and it was a single office *with a door* - I would &quot;waste&quot; 2 or 3 hours a day with non-work-related conversations and interruptions by my co-workers and managers with stupid tasks (literally: &quot;can you cut this piece of paper for me?&quot; - yes, that happened for real) or really basic questions about Microsoft Word or some other thing that wasn't directly related to my impending deadlines. I've always been much more productive at home (the best is when everyone in the house has other places to be)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10043" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3256" RevisionGUID="c205b780-8347-4764-b3e6-be7a27adf90e" CreationDate="2015-05-16T01:49:32.140" UserId="512" Text="I had a similar (although obviously not nearly as disruptive) issue with my Dad visiting during my work hours, because he knew I was home anyway. Hey, I could take an afternoon off to help help replace his broken printer, couldn't I? Things like that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He started to get the point when I started sending him invoices for my time. Yeah, he never paid them, and I never expected him to of course, but it got the point across and he respects my work hour boundaries now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you stopped admonishing her, but at then end of the week gave her a detailed invoice, would it demonstrate the disruption of her interruptions on your working life, or would it just piss her off? (Granted, it will probably do the latter in any event, but if it achieves the former as well without too many nights on the couch it may be worthwhile.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10049" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3258" RevisionGUID="1f4e5ce0-cfa6-4b25-9879-571ab5275475" CreationDate="2015-05-16T07:46:00.477" UserId="7717" Text="I don't know if this is standard, but the Barnes &amp; Noble near us is open until 11pm and has free Wi-Fi. I like the atmosphere a lot better than Starbucks, and you'll have plenty to read on your break." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10050" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3259" RevisionGUID="35663b7a-16f6-4e03-8f55-03dce881c160" CreationDate="2015-05-16T08:37:01.883" UserId="7753" Text="I am in the totally same situation. Instead of 8 hours I need to focus for 15+ hours a day recently in order to improve my skill in short period. Got complained? Yes for sure.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;But finally I made some effort to set up a communication mechanism with my girlfriend. I share what I did and hope it helps.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I made a daily tasks checklist and let her know all tasks I have to complete by today. Instead of keep telling my girlfriends I need to focus on my &quot;stuff&quot; (In her perspective, just stick to the computer like a nerd). When she understand how many work I need to accomplish and the progress (when she come to interrupt me), I can explain to her that I love her, but I still need to work hard for those 3 tasks. Sometimes you need to have a break, I will happily tell my girlfriend that lets go for coffee when this task is finished just in 15 mins. She think everything is under her control and willing to wait without anxiety.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Keep a good quality headphone. Let my girlfriend get used to my focus status. She knows little noise will not distract me, but when she need my help, she can talk to me loudly. I can focus on my work since we both keep in mind that its not that easy to make chat.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Pay attention to your girlfriend for several minutes in every one or two hours (You also need to relax your body btw). Ask her how is it going, give her a hug or chat a little, let she know you miss her.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Share your dream with her, let her participate to your dream too. I don't think I can achieve my dream alone, all of what I did is supported by everyone around me. Let her know how important she mean to you and let's walk to your dream with smile.&#xD;&#xA; 5. The last one is to keep your promises. Whatever you promised to her, try your best to make it real. I put all my attention to her when dating, share my life with her in my heart." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10051" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3214" RevisionGUID="355b9e78-4ea1-4449-a8a4-4f32e8062b1e" CreationDate="2015-05-17T01:33:22.630" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/599749517722943488" />
  <row Id="10052" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3260" RevisionGUID="daad6f40-306a-49d4-b6e2-5fb18cb168a1" CreationDate="2015-05-18T11:58:56.740" UserId="7758" Text="What's common for me as a freelancer is to contract at different companies for typically between 1-6 months. Currently, I have 8 positions under work experience on my LinkedIn, 6 of which are within this time frame. I'm very specific in their descriptions that I was contracted for this time period so that people don't get the impression I can't hold a position but I'm wondering if it can be too much to list all these positions. I think the work I have done at all these places is very relevant and I want to get it across but I can't help but feel it might be overbearing. Of course, I wouldn't want my work history to seem bare (as it would be if I only listed the salary positions I held).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, what would be the best practice for listing this experience on a CV?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10053" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3260" RevisionGUID="daad6f40-306a-49d4-b6e2-5fb18cb168a1" CreationDate="2015-05-18T11:58:56.740" UserId="7758" Text="Should I list every short-term contract on my CV/LinkedIn?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10054" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3260" RevisionGUID="daad6f40-306a-49d4-b6e2-5fb18cb168a1" CreationDate="2015-05-18T11:58:56.740" UserId="7758" Text="|marketing|resume|linkedin|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10055" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3261" RevisionGUID="d4c4301d-e962-40b5-854f-506934360e88" CreationDate="2015-05-18T12:13:17.387" UserId="517" Text="Well, Yes and No. Will listing those project make you look unserious? Then not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If those project were regular ones you've got and finalized, then why not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line is that &quot;the more the better&quot; is not always true. If you have a good portfolio with multiple long-term projects, then I would list them as the first one. Besides them, I would mention that I worked on multiple short-term projects, such as XX, YY, ZZ,... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10056" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3262" RevisionGUID="de3f3f91-e071-46fa-ba63-c144c09359fa" CreationDate="2015-05-18T16:39:23.107" UserId="7847" Text="I am consulting a company on a software subject. I am doing a presentation to explain the basic stuff so the company can decide what they should get and what not. I might become the one to deliver this software. When calculating my costs I assumed to need about 3 days for preparing this presentation and this is the price they pay me. So far I have been working more than 6 days on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Should I be open about the time I spent for this presentation or should I keep it a secret?** I am not going to demand more money. It's just about the impression I leave." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10057" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3262" RevisionGUID="de3f3f91-e071-46fa-ba63-c144c09359fa" CreationDate="2015-05-18T16:39:23.107" UserId="7847" Text="Should I be honest about increased time expenditure?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10058" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3262" RevisionGUID="de3f3f91-e071-46fa-ba63-c144c09359fa" CreationDate="2015-05-18T16:39:23.107" UserId="7847" Text="|overtime|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10059" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3263" RevisionGUID="5e7a5136-096d-42a8-97ed-56fcae0bd2de" CreationDate="2015-05-18T16:51:31.440" UserId="517" Text="Did you set the price ahead? If yes, it's your fault then. You can tell them that you've actually spent double time in preparation and they may offer to pay for that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you hadn't set the price ahead, then you should have told them after 3 days that you had spent 3 days already. It's not too late. Tell them now that you spent 6 days already and you need their advise on whether you will continue the work or not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Estimation is a piece of art and only after a lot of mistakes, you will be able to properly calculate time and buffer. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10060" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3264" RevisionGUID="7483a002-bd70-4651-b779-07091eeb43b8" CreationDate="2015-05-18T18:13:13.190" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="I would not tell them if you do not need the money. If you do tell them, they don't get a good impression because:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- As you mention, they will think you can't estimate correctly.&#xD;&#xA;- They may think you will be willing to work for free and take advantage later.&#xD;&#xA;- They won't respect you and your time and take you seriously. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a result, you may come accross as unprofessional. You want to be professional and the client must respect your time and your opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is a long standing client, there is nothing wrong with giving them a few extra free hours if they are giving you lots of work and you have a good relationship with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, you are running a business and telling them about this unnecessarily undervalues your ability and professionalism in their eyes. Mis-estimating is a very damaging business practice in the long term and tells the client that you don't know what you're doing. Even if that's true, and it's true for everyone starting out, pretend like you do and you'll get there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While working hard is a good quality in anyone, it is something people look for in employees more than constractors. For the most part, the client only cares if the work is done on time and the right price. How hard you work to get there is irrelevant. As a result, it's in your interest to work smart. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10061" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3264" RevisionGUID="bfdd5f89-50a0-41ff-9992-9e7e83155a2e" CreationDate="2015-05-18T18:18:51.113" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="I would not tell them if you do not need the money. If you do tell them, they don't get a good impression because:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- As you mention, they will think you can't estimate correctly.&#xD;&#xA;- They may think you will be willing to work for free and take advantage later.&#xD;&#xA;- They won't respect you and your time and take you seriously. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a result, you may come accross as unprofessional. You want to be professional and the client must respect your time and your opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is a long standing client, there is nothing wrong with giving them a few extra free hours if they are giving you lots of work and you have a good relationship with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, you are running a business and telling them about this unnecessarily undervalues your ability and professionalism in their eyes. Mis-estimating is a very damaging business practice in the long term and tells the client that you don't know what you're doing. Even if that's true, and it's true for everyone starting out, pretend like you do and you'll get there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While working hard is a good quality in anyone, it is something people look for in employees more than contractors. For the most part, the client only cares if the work is done on time and the right price. How hard you work to get there is irrelevant. As a result, it's in your interest to work smart. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10062" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3265" RevisionGUID="b9c3f522-8c16-4d99-b396-d426522ce10a" CreationDate="2015-05-18T20:01:57.263" UserId="7852" Text="I was bamboozled by Outsource.com — bought credits, bid on jobs and was actually &quot;hired&quot; by a client who still has not paid. She said she loved my design but was expecting me to provide copywriting when I am clearly a graphic designer. Total waste of time and money. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10066" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3267" RevisionGUID="f66ff223-787c-4302-bf76-0a4d68443f97" CreationDate="2015-05-19T05:54:55.223" UserId="7857" Text="I bought six months credits on Outsource.com but wanted to cancel my subscription after the first month.  When I emailed them, they told me that I paid for six months and they would not refund me the rest of the money.  Being unemployed, $130 something is a LOT for me right now.  They told me if I don't get any jobs in the first 6 months, they will give me another 6 months free.  It's a complete waste and I felt totally scammed, because the prices were listed by the month, it seemed that I could pay for just one month at a time.  Suddenly after it's purchased, it shows as the cost for 6 months instead of one.  I felt cheated.  I've tried to make the most of it, but being new to freelance, I don't have a portfolio to show off.  So, of course, I haven't gotten any jobs yet." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10067" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3212" RevisionGUID="3e3d4268-0ecf-484d-ac9a-4ffd50e3c3ad" CreationDate="2015-05-19T06:07:47.663" UserId="64" Comment="use paragraphs to make your post easier to read" Text="As I start looking into the possibility of freelancing more and more, I've run into a problem (as someone had warned me before on here). I am afraid of dealing with scammers online (or even offline). I am generally computer-savvy enough to spot these kind of things usually, but recently I almost fell for a scam online. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am usually cautious, but wasn't as cautious for this one instance. Going through the experience discouraged me from exploring the freelancing route more. I am afraid of the possibility of getting involved with a client who is doing illegal stuff or trying to scam me in some way. I've read a lot of posts on oDesk (now called UpWork) where people get scammed by clients online or find out later on that whatever work they are doing for the client is illegal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you do as a freelancer to protect yourself from these kinds of situations but at the same time still find new clients to work with?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10075" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3259" RevisionGUID="206e789f-e32a-45dc-a56f-33191f506b42" CreationDate="2015-05-19T16:03:34.953" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 10 characters in body" Text="I am in the totally same situation. Instead of 8 hours I need to focus for 15+ hours a day recently in order to improve my skill in short period. Got complained? Yes for sure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But finally I made some effort to set up a communication mechanism with my girlfriend. I share what I did and hope it helps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I made a daily tasks checklist and let her know all tasks I have to complete by today. Instead of keep telling my girlfriends I need to focus on my &quot;stuff&quot; (In her perspective, just stick to the computer like a nerd). When she understand how many work I need to accomplish and the progress (when she come to interrupt me), I can explain to her that I love her, but I still need to work hard for those 3 tasks. Sometimes you need to have a break, I will happily tell my girlfriend that lets go for coffee when this task is finished just in 15 minutes. She think everything is under her control and willing to wait without anxiety.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Keep a good quality headphone. Let my girlfriend get used to my focus status. She knows little noise will not distract me, but when she need my help, she can talk to me loudly. I can focus on my work since we both keep in mind that it's not that easy to make conversation.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Pay attention to your girlfriend for several minutes in every one or two hours (You also need to relax your body). Ask her how is it going, give her a hug or chat a little, let she know you miss her.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Share your dream with her, let her participate to your dream too. I don't think I can achieve my dream alone, all of what I did is supported by everyone around me. Let her know how important she mean to you and let's walk to your dream with smile.&#xD;&#xA; 5. The last one is to keep your promises. Whatever you promised to her, try your best to make it real. I put all my attention to her when dating, share my life with her in my heart." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10076" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3269" RevisionGUID="aca354ae-83be-4908-9eae-d913c37262c5" CreationDate="2015-05-19T17:40:07.727" UserId="4996" Text="Finding out who will want to use your skills is the hardest part of freelancing.  For Matlab projects, in addition to what daaxix posted, I would also add academia and any sector that collects data...biology, genetics, anything with machines that log data.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually, once you land a decent gig, you will find that more work comes and your eyes become opened to new areas that you can target.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For marketability, I would suggest honing your skills on something cutting edge and buzz-wordish...like CUDA+Matlab simulations or something.  Or, take an old project that you did with matlab and replicate it using R or Python to broaden your base...it may help land the first few gigs after which you can be more Matlab-selective.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is the case that many times if a company is looking for &quot;xyz developer&quot; to solve a particular problem, is just means they may have a bit of xyz in-house understanding.  If you understand the problem and suggest to them that a Matlab strategy could be effective, they would change their minds. (depending on downstream requirements, of course)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10078" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3271" RevisionGUID="31fbdc98-2257-433b-b507-efd90b94d8fd" CreationDate="2015-05-20T19:53:49.980" UserId="7874" Text="IMHO the answer is not that simple, mainly because the mentioned website is about selling goods not services. The main problem in such situation is usually internet marketing. If you get commission you would like to see higher sale, obviously. BUT, online shop performance depends on many factors, where price is probably the most important but not the only one. If you know how to increase sale conversion AND can get legal paperwork protection for your commission (this is about business not about friendship) - commission could be probably better option. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To cut it short - if you are able to take over the marketing stuff (and you know it), it would make sense to choose commission. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, I found, that usually customers have nightmare-like taste for layout, and sick vision about how marketing should look like (they assume that competitors don't exist for instance etc). So much depends how much you could control the marketing part of the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10079" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="3003" RevisionGUID="bcf752ab-2595-4a3d-b61f-5b43f7b97294" CreationDate="2015-05-20T20:41:15.463" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10090" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2765" RevisionGUID="9dd19bc6-c7da-43f4-b3d7-90f577af4463" CreationDate="2015-05-22T21:04:53.550" UserDisplayName="user5768" Comment="deleted 144 characters in body" Text="I am a young web designer (20 years old) from Slovenia, i love design and i am passionate about it.I have been designing since I was 14 years old. My boss is happy with my work. I also see that collegues from college like my designs and frequently reach out to me and or ask me questions. I wouldnt consider myself excellent, but I believe that currently my skill is moderate( i still have/want much to learn and discover). :) I am currently employed and studying part time. I also do freelance work for my collegues and friends of friends and anyone that reaches out to me basically.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But there is a problem; I am not happy with the job; i have a really hard time working for someone else, I have no problem freelancing, because at the end of the day I am working on my own brand. Also I should mention that currently i work in a a trading/merchant company. So therefore everything moves really fast, boss demands really tight deadlines which are almost impossible to do. Overall it is the best job I have ever had but certainly not perfect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I really want to do in life is create my own little bussiness, maybe grow in time, and surround myself with a passionate team. I see so many opportunities, I have ideas what I could be making and trying out different advertising but I lack the time to work on these projects mostly because of the job.. It eats up 8 hours a day plus once a month i have to work on saturday too. If i could just get enough freelance jobs for 5hours a day i would be easily making same or more as i earn at current job plus would then be able to spend couple of hours on my own project or rather further development of my company. I already have a base of clients who reach out to me every now and then, but not nearly enough yet to really have a steady income as i currently have to put things in perspective I am currently earning less then 20%(not enough to pay the bills) of monthly income from freelancing, but I am not looking for more work I only do the work when people reach out to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also currently i have a great opportunity to try going freelance, because I have enough money to pay the bills for months to come even without any income. After consulting with my girlfriend, she said she thinks it will be tough at first but if this is really the place where my heart lays then i should do it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for reading!! please leave any suggestions, thoughts, opinions or comments I will be happy and grateful if you do! Please help me :(" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10091" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3273" RevisionGUID="32903e2d-941f-429e-880c-3a482f4bad6a" CreationDate="2015-05-23T08:55:59.497" UserId="7900" Text="I recently started freelance graphic design. I am from the US, I read that if you are self-employed, earning $400 a year, on etsy, anything you have to report this income to the IRS. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What does this mean when it comes to working with foreign clients, or foreign online websites? I read that you don't necessarily have to report this information to the IRs because the foreign client doesn't report to them..any helpful info?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10092" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3273" RevisionGUID="32903e2d-941f-429e-880c-3a482f4bad6a" CreationDate="2015-05-23T08:55:59.497" UserId="7900" Text="reporting tax to irs when working for foreign clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10093" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3273" RevisionGUID="32903e2d-941f-429e-880c-3a482f4bad6a" CreationDate="2015-05-23T08:55:59.497" UserId="7900" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10094" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3273" RevisionGUID="81fd8021-b0bf-4e0b-8a95-9edd08c7d68b" CreationDate="2015-05-23T13:19:32.180" UserId="9" Comment="grammar" Text="I recently started freelance graphic design in the US. I read that if you are self-employed, earning $400 a year, on etsy, anything you have to report this income to the IRS. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What does this mean when it comes to working with foreign clients, or foreign online websites? I read that you don't necessarily have to report this information to the IRS because the foreign client doesn't report to them.&#xA;&#xA;Is that correct? Do you have any helpful info about this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10095" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3273" RevisionGUID="81fd8021-b0bf-4e0b-8a95-9edd08c7d68b" CreationDate="2015-05-23T13:19:32.180" UserId="9" Comment="grammar" Text="Reporting tax to IRS when working for foreign clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10096" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3274" RevisionGUID="97aa8856-9867-4d5b-a4b8-e9f860049e3e" CreationDate="2015-05-23T20:43:55.633" UserId="5893" Text="I am not a tax lawyer or an accountant (and they would have the answer), but I believe it depends on *where* the work is done, not the nationality of the person paying you. So if you perform the work in the US (even for foreign clients), the IRS expects you to report the income." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10097" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3275" RevisionGUID="72e319b4-6c6b-4717-ab6b-8bcafd914d94" CreationDate="2015-05-24T05:38:26.127" UserId="7401" Text="I'm an independent web developer and graphic designer who mainly prospects small local businesses and independent artists found online. When I'm out doing cold calls in person, I look for buildings that fit this profile, but notice that I pass up a lot of business opportunities by not pitching to large commercial establishments like: McDonalds, Starbucks, Firestone, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How does a freelancer get into doing huge sites for huge corporations and are there any mandatory prerequisites required, like being incorporated or having other specific documentation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10098" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3275" RevisionGUID="72e319b4-6c6b-4717-ab6b-8bcafd914d94" CreationDate="2015-05-24T05:38:26.127" UserId="7401" Text="How would an independent web developer land a large commercial job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10099" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3275" RevisionGUID="72e319b4-6c6b-4717-ab6b-8bcafd914d94" CreationDate="2015-05-24T05:38:26.127" UserId="7401" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|communication|sales|incorporation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10100" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3276" RevisionGUID="b03bd058-2f9a-4045-8b94-fc24693ce531" CreationDate="2015-05-24T06:19:57.987" UserId="7401" Text="You'd think dropping them would be the best bet, but I'd tell them that unless they had a handle on JavaScript, there is no way their going to integrate that shinny image gallery they've had their eye on, or to get that shopping plugin in their WordPress to look right and function the way they need it to without knowing PHP and HTML.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hell, maybe they want a page that updates automatically without a full reload, how are they going to program all that AJAX unless they are expert? I'll tell you, they won't!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom line: once you get deep enough into programming and you're processing a massive quantity of complex variables a split second at a time, you'll enter the cash zone and simultaneously lop off a majority of your competition by their ankles. But until you claw your way into this wavelength, you'll always be competing with little babies, your clients included!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10102" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3278" RevisionGUID="9e68694e-af56-4712-863c-0964cce3cf76" CreationDate="2015-05-24T23:14:06.850" UserId="7911" Text="I am non-eu resident doing a paid internship(praktikum) in software engineering in Germany. I have received an offer from an outside company to work on a project for some hours on my spare time. Thus, I am wondering if I am allowed to do so in Germany considering that I have a Residence Permit (+health insurance and tax number etc...) due to my full-time internship (40 hours per week) at the company. I was told to either ask at the finanzamt or gewerbeamt but I would really like to know if there is even a way to do this legally.&#xD;&#xA;If anyone was in a similar situation (is in Germany for a reason + wants to do part time freelancing) I would really appreciate the input.&#xD;&#xA;Thank you very much in advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10103" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3278" RevisionGUID="9e68694e-af56-4712-863c-0964cce3cf76" CreationDate="2015-05-24T23:14:06.850" UserId="7911" Text="Freelancing in Germany" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10104" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3278" RevisionGUID="9e68694e-af56-4712-863c-0964cce3cf76" CreationDate="2015-05-24T23:14:06.850" UserId="7911" Text="|legal|invoices|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10110" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3280" RevisionGUID="d52c4e85-e098-4ca5-9b9e-51267b8ef570" CreationDate="2015-05-26T03:03:44.987" UserId="7717" Text="Working as an individual, you won't have the resources to build a website for a major corporation. No matter how good you are, you can only work so fast by yourself, and they don't want to wait years for you to deliver a website that takes 10,000 man-hours or more. Additionally, you are trying to climb a mile-high cliff with a stepstool. You can't jump straight from local indie freelancer to serving McDonalds.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to some day be self-employed and working for the big boys, you'll need to be running your own *team*. You have two paths to choose from:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The &quot;slow, always work for myself&quot; path&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA; 1. Assemble a local team&#xD;&#xA; 2. Start from the bottom and work your way up. Approach local businesses and get contracts to build their websites. Every few jobs, go a little bigger and a little further. If you can show each potential client that you just did a project for a *slightly* smaller company, they'll feel more confident in you&#xD;&#xA; 3. Start branding your team. Offer to shave a few percent off of a contract if you can stick your company logo at the bottom of each page, with a link to your website. Spread the word about your services and build a reputation&#xD;&#xA; 4. Start landing large contracts with businesses that aren't local. Keep looking for bigger projects, but never tackle more than your team can handle - one major failure can undo all of the work you've done and leave your reputation in the gutter&#xD;&#xA; 5. One day, you'll notice you no longer have to look for work, because big businesses are coming to you. Pick and choose who you work for&#xD;&#xA; 6. *Maybe*, one day after many years of excellence, you'll get that email from McD's.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The &quot;faster, temporarily work for others&quot; path&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA; 1. Send out job applications and get hired at a team that is at step 4 of the above list&#xD;&#xA; 2. Work with that team until *they* hit step 5 of the first path, *or* get enough experience and then join another team that's already at step 5&#xD;&#xA; 3. When ready, leave and form your own team. If you have enough experience and build a suitable team, you can skip straight to step 3 or 4 of the first path for your own team&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can get there faster by joining a team that already has the momentum, but either approach is going to take years. As I commented above, you don't go straight from the bottom to the top." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10111" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3281" RevisionGUID="4b06e7ca-b108-439a-8a69-18795b5451f0" CreationDate="2015-05-26T04:39:09.330" UserId="7918" Text="I honestly do not know how to ask this question. I am a Graphic Designer for one of my clients, however I am more than capable of building websites. The client I am working with specifically has gotten a website built from one of his clients (not me), and he is getting it hosted by the same person. After the website was built, however, he told me he hated it and wanted me to build a new website. I asked him how he wanted to host it, and he said that because of his website developer offering very cheap hosting rates, He wanted to host with this person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I see this as potentially being an issue; Is it not very rude to have someone build a website for you and host it for you, then go to someone else to have a new website built, but expect it to be hosted by the original developer? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've tried to bring this up with my client however he is confident that it will not be an issue. How can I explain to him that it may be an issue, if it is, and possibly steer him away from doing this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10112" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3281" RevisionGUID="4b06e7ca-b108-439a-8a69-18795b5451f0" CreationDate="2015-05-26T04:39:09.330" UserId="7918" Text="Hosting a website with a client's client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10113" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3281" RevisionGUID="4b06e7ca-b108-439a-8a69-18795b5451f0" CreationDate="2015-05-26T04:39:09.330" UserId="7918" Text="|difficult-client|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10114" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3278" RevisionGUID="26ac8a99-4f82-4d40-8aa7-460f7a433aec" CreationDate="2015-05-26T07:11:17.837" UserId="100" Comment="not about invoices, more detailed title" Text="I am non-EU resident doing a paid internship (Praktikum) in software engineering in Germany. I have received an offer from an outside company to work on a project for some hours on my spare time. Thus, I am wondering if I am allowed to do so in Germany considering that I have a Residence Permit (+ health insurance and tax number etc.) due to my full-time internship (40 hours per week) at the company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was told to either ask at the Finanzamt or Gewerbeamt but I would really like to know if there is even a way to do this legally.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If anyone was in a similar situation (is in Germany for a reason + wants to do part time freelancing) I would really appreciate the input." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10115" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3278" RevisionGUID="26ac8a99-4f82-4d40-8aa7-460f7a433aec" CreationDate="2015-05-26T07:11:17.837" UserId="100" Comment="not about invoices, more detailed title" Text="Freelancing in Germany as non-EU resident" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10116" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3278" RevisionGUID="26ac8a99-4f82-4d40-8aa7-460f7a433aec" CreationDate="2015-05-26T07:11:17.837" UserId="100" Comment="not about invoices, more detailed title" Text="|legal|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10117" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3278" RevisionGUID="26ac8a99-4f82-4d40-8aa7-460f7a433aec" CreationDate="2015-05-26T07:11:17.837" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 7911 edit id of 397" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10118" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3282" RevisionGUID="fb0ebf47-b4af-4ee9-8832-c4e149ed1fde" CreationDate="2015-05-26T17:21:00.827" UserId="7486" Text="That happened to me a few times. All you need to do is keep contact with your client, is not your worry if he wants to keep the old hosting as long as he gives you the proper access, ftp, etc. You go on and develop the work and put it online, you don't have to deal with the web hoster.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem comes if you are afraid that the third person will somehow steal your software, because he will have access to that stuff, script and solutions that he can resell or use for his own projects without paying you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can still use your web hosting and tell to the other person to put your DNS in his configuration so you will not have this problem and your client will keep staying in the same hosting." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10119" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3283" RevisionGUID="5ee848d4-1ea5-45ec-b981-42385aaa39bf" CreationDate="2015-05-26T21:30:52.827" UserId="75" Text="I would iron it out in detail with a Scope of Work and a proper contract. Define that it will **NOT** be released onto his friend's server until you are paid up 100% of the cost. I wrote a blog entry (link in my profile) about making a &quot;dev&quot; server for this type of use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, create a separate area of a server only **you** control. Upload all your work-in-progress there, and invite the client to connect to your server until he's satisfied, and has paid you. Upon receiving the **FULL** payment for your work, it will live on your server, in your control. Once you've been paid, offer to migrate it for free to his choice of a hosting provider.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, do **NOT** put it on someone else's server until you are paid **IN FULL**. I hope I stressed that enough for you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10120" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3282" RevisionGUID="47d59423-2a22-4832-a4c8-ba3e3301da3a" CreationDate="2015-05-27T08:00:18.957" UserId="7486" Comment="added 137 characters in body" Text="That happened to me a few times. All you need to do is keep contact with your client, is not your worry if he wants to keep the old hosting as long as he gives you the proper access, ftp, etc. You go on and develop the work and put it online, you don't have to deal with the web hoster.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem comes if you are afraid that the third person will somehow steal your software, because he will have access to that stuff, script and solutions that he can resell or use for his own projects without paying you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can still use your web hosting and tell to the other person to put your DNS in his configuration so you will not have this problem and your client will keep staying in the same hosting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also I take for granted that you will protect yourself with a contract and with proper pre-payments before publishing the final work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10125" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3275" RevisionGUID="7a2b4bd7-bb3d-4369-a28e-c746bbef1dc8" CreationDate="2015-05-27T23:22:42.083" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/603702897625440256" />
  <row Id="10126" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3285" RevisionGUID="30fb608a-68b7-451b-a3ed-c99a3a5df963" CreationDate="2015-05-28T06:53:37.530" UserId="7935" Text="I live in the United States. i have used dozens of bidding websites to try and win contracts. However, I keep losing out to foreigners charging vastly less. I currently price using data from Dpt. of Labor on national averages, and going below those averages. Also using assessment tests that I've taken from companies like Modis. However, the end result is always no contract. I don't want to give up on software development, given I enjoy it, but it's almost to the point that I'd make more at McDonalds than trying to outbid. As for my choice in freelancing: my area is dead in terms of technology and the areas that are hiring want criteria that I do not meet. (i.e. Sr. Level)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can I do to convince clients to hire me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10127" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3285" RevisionGUID="30fb608a-68b7-451b-a3ed-c99a3a5df963" CreationDate="2015-05-28T06:53:37.530" UserId="7935" Text="Finding contracts; Losing out to foreign bids" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10128" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3285" RevisionGUID="30fb608a-68b7-451b-a3ed-c99a3a5df963" CreationDate="2015-05-28T06:53:37.530" UserId="7935" Text="|contracts|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10129" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3286" RevisionGUID="ec000136-0a2d-4bdc-b9cf-34d0099b61cf" CreationDate="2015-05-28T14:43:41.847" UserId="7938" Text="I often come across local websites that just suck.&#xD;&#xA;With just a day or 2 of work I could easily provide them with a better solution.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Aproaching them with an offer most of the time won't make it because they don't care about their websites (That's why they suck).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how about presenting them the full rebuilt website? That way they would be sure they won't be scammed and the result could be up and running in a few hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes I have enough time to start doing this, but I have no idea of how local owners would take it. Any light on this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10130" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3286" RevisionGUID="ec000136-0a2d-4bdc-b9cf-34d0099b61cf" CreationDate="2015-05-28T14:43:41.847" UserId="7938" Text="The worst idea ever?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10131" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3286" RevisionGUID="ec000136-0a2d-4bdc-b9cf-34d0099b61cf" CreationDate="2015-05-28T14:43:41.847" UserId="7938" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10132" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3287" RevisionGUID="2f986c9a-bad8-435f-887d-1964a9679529" CreationDate="2015-05-28T15:33:08.270" UserId="7486" Text="You can't compete in term of price with freelances in India, Vietnam or similar areas, the cost of life is vastly less expensive than in USA or Europe, so in my opinion is not a good idea to search work in those sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should look for local clients, offer yourself for consultancy and development in small/medium companies and then if you have too much work to do you can even hire yourself foreign developers at lower rates that will develop for you at cost of 1 when you will sell the work for 10.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10133" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3287" RevisionGUID="064255a9-979c-44c9-86a8-e5bd0cd4ac6d" CreationDate="2015-05-28T16:38:26.857" UserId="7486" Comment="added 11 characters in body" Text="You can't compete in term of price with freelancers in India, Vietnam or similar areas, the cost of life is vastly less expensive than in how is USA or Europe, so in my opinion is not a good idea to look for jobs in these sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should look for local clients, offer yourself for consultancy and development for small/medium companies and then if you have too much work to do you can even hire yourself foreign developers at lower rates that will develop for you at cost of 1 when you will sell the work for 10.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10134" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3288" RevisionGUID="e1780f68-8ea1-46e6-a5ec-f0988360c6ca" CreationDate="2015-05-28T17:23:32.643" UserId="75" Text="As Mario states in his [comment](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3286/the-worst-idea-ever#comment6124_3286), there is a lot of risk of no payment, with lots of work. I wouldn't take this gamble.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I would do though is show off your abilities, and offer your portfolio to the potential clients. It's easy to make a portfolio in a few days or a couple weeks, essentially screen shots of what you can create for them. Once it's made, you update it when you have new designs or new techniques available; otherwise, it's what you show to every potential client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For web sites, I'd recommend 5-10 different designs, and get them screen shotted. Then, print them out on high-quality, high-gloss paper that looks amazing - you will spend money on this. Even better, posterboard! But, be aware it may get awkward to carry around. Then, go in with this, and your laptop. Have your portfolio on your computer (or the Internet, if you know there will be free Wifi), and let the customer look at what you have available. Give them the 60-second sell; most bosses/managers make their decisions rather quickly, so show your best works early in the meeting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they say no, it's perfectly acceptable to ask why, but *do not probe repeatedly if they don't tell you why*. After that, thank them for their valuable time, and politely ask if you can come around again in 3 months, 6 months, or a year, to get an update on how their business is doing. If they say yes, then you can start talking more about what you can do *for them*, and how *inexpensive* it would be, compared to the *monetary returns* they would be getting. What I mean is, if you are going to charge $1,500 for a website, you need to show how the customer is going to make $10,000 back." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10135" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3289" RevisionGUID="a994221a-85a8-42bf-9c4c-cd806c386d5f" CreationDate="2015-05-28T17:48:32.433" UserId="7717" Text="Sending them unsolicited work is not only going to irritate your desired client, but could have legal implications. Honestly it sounds like a very aggressive, bullying kind of tactic, and what if they take your rebuilt site and rip it off or publish it without paying you because you used their name/logo/information/etc without their permission?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are really desperate for work, try freelancing sites such as Elance, Upwork, etc. You can even try Craigslist.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the problem is just that you feel OCD about seeing cruddy websites, politely suggest a Wordpress theme they could use and leave it to them to decide whether to pursue that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10136" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3290" RevisionGUID="77ada9d0-493a-4eec-99e0-8eff3c710ea5" CreationDate="2015-05-28T18:04:57.230" UserId="7717" Text="I'm in the US, started on Elance and oDesk and am happily making excellent pay on both sites now, with steady work to keep me busy full time. I charge much more than overseas freelancers, so how do I regularly land contracts?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The answer is simple - you have to sell yourself as *better than the competition*. I land contracts regularly because I am&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- faster&#xD;&#xA;- more honest&#xD;&#xA;- more reliable&#xD;&#xA;- better at communicating&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and I know how to convey this to clients. I am not trying to brag, but merely to demonstrate that it's possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your target market is not every client on the site. **Your primary target market is U.S. based clients who have been burned by outsourced freelancers in the past and are looking to get the job done properly and domestically**. In fact, many of the projects I've been hired on have been to fix or rebuild programs that were botched by overseas freelancers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to explain why you are better and why you're worth the higher rate. You need to actually *be* better, or you'll get bad feedback on your first few projects and never land any additional work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charge much lower than you want to for your first few projects. When you have zero feedback history, it's better to get the contracts than to make big bucks. You don't need to go as cheap as the overseas guys, but don't try to start at $40/hr.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One final tip: if a client interviews you, but hires an overseas freelancer instead, wait a few weeks and then send them a polite message asking how their project is going. *Three times* this has gotten me a job that I was originally turned down for, because the freelancer they originally hired didn't deliver." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10137" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3291" RevisionGUID="7d531ab2-777a-418c-9994-fc803127c216" CreationDate="2015-05-28T18:20:55.937" UserId="7717" Text="I have a particular client who hired me a few months ago to take over a very large project. He had a huge amount of work for me at first, and I made plenty of money in the first few weeks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once we had completed all of the outstanding bug fixes and other basic improvements, he put things on hold while he planned new features and gathered assets for them. He acted like this would only take a few days, but it took several weeks, during which he didn't communicate with me unless I asked him what was happening.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During this waiting period, his account (on the freelancing site he found me on) was suspended because some of his information went out of date. This is fixable, but he has not fixed it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally after a few weeks, he got back to me that the assets were ready. It's been several more weeks and he has never actually sent me the assets or fixed his account. He told me a while back that he was spending some time with his girlfriend; since then he hasn't said anything or responded to reminders that he needs to fix his account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not sure I want to keep working for him if he isn't going to be professional. I have plenty of work with my other clients. At what point is it better to just close out a project and move on? Should I just cancel the contract through the freelancing website?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10138" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3291" RevisionGUID="7d531ab2-777a-418c-9994-fc803127c216" CreationDate="2015-05-28T18:20:55.937" UserId="7717" Text="How and when to abandon a client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10139" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3291" RevisionGUID="7d531ab2-777a-418c-9994-fc803127c216" CreationDate="2015-05-28T18:20:55.937" UserId="7717" Text="|difficult-client|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10140" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3292" RevisionGUID="828ac891-27d3-4c6f-84b5-d5f57b742e52" CreationDate="2015-05-28T19:47:24.090" UserId="517" Text="No, don't ditch him yet, he does not cost you anything. He may actually have some other plans, but it does not look too bad. Unless (!) he owes you money. Does he? Since you said that his account was locked and he was too lazy to open it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he owes you money, then of course, you will stick to him. If he does not, I would stick to him. Do your other work as you do not owe him anything. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would also send him a polite and friendly message saying something like &quot;Hi XYZ, I have seen that there is no activity in this project so I cannot reserve any more of my free time for it. I have taken other assignments as I have to make a profit. Once you decide how you want to proceed with this project, please contact me so that I can estimate the scope of the work and can make an execution plan&quot;. You've got the point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My rule is that I cannot be a cry baby in business. If the client's laziness does not hurt my business, I do not ditch him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you mentioned you're using a freelancing website (odesk I suspect), you can ask him to close the project and rate you. And then again, he can reopen project. This however has bad side as once he closes the project, he may forget about you (unless you two contact by other means). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10141" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3222" RevisionGUID="f878f37e-ea55-412b-b899-e8cfb1f67170" CreationDate="2015-05-28T20:25:26.227" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/604020676358488066" />
  <row Id="10142" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3293" RevisionGUID="4c36b606-e8b8-47f8-ade9-893ad74dde9a" CreationDate="2015-05-28T23:50:39.893" UserId="5893" Text="Before wasting your time redoing websites unasked, it would be much better to send them a properly-worded, *personal* email soliciting work. This email should offer them something - a bit of information that helps **them**, like &quot;Having a responsive website increases foot traffic to a store by XX%&quot; and explain that in a short teaser article with a link to *your* website, where you will impress them with a white paper going into more detail and your portfolio. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or if these are local businesses in your neighborhood, you could go in and talk to them in person." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10143" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3294" RevisionGUID="6b28f722-50f4-44c7-9f67-2c37db2ce65a" CreationDate="2015-05-29T00:26:49.060" UserId="7742" Text="I have made an [about me page](https://chipperyman.com) that contains basic information (basically my best websites and a link to their respective githubs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was thinking of including a few badges, like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;![enter image description here][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;on the website. Should I include them, and if so what badges should I include?&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/MC6tU.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10144" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3294" RevisionGUID="6b28f722-50f4-44c7-9f67-2c37db2ce65a" CreationDate="2015-05-29T00:26:49.060" UserId="7742" Text="What badges should I include on my website, if any?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10145" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3294" RevisionGUID="6b28f722-50f4-44c7-9f67-2c37db2ce65a" CreationDate="2015-05-29T00:26:49.060" UserId="7742" Text="|resume|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10148" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3295" RevisionGUID="9f1497e0-406c-40a6-96eb-131a8782ec0d" CreationDate="2015-05-29T04:42:56.143" UserId="7940" Text="I started a software project with a client a couple months back.  It is accompanying a hardware product that will be released soon.  I was told the schedule and was overly optimistic about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;About halfway through the project timeline I was already behind but I told the client that we could probably catch up by my taking on some help.  The client was ok with that but didn't want to have to deal with another person so I was to handle that behind the scenes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The person (an acquaintance) I asked to help pushed things along for a bit but then they lost interest.  Now I'm a week away from the deadline and the project is only about half done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client doesn't communicate much.  His emails are usually one or two sentences every couple of weeks.  His latest one says &quot;We are a few days away from the target date.  What is it going to take to kick this into high gear?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no way this project is being finished in a week.  I honestly don't know how to respond and I feel cornered.  How can I handle this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I can get this tension resolved I wouldn't mind finishing the project, but right now I just want to run and hide.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10149" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3295" RevisionGUID="9f1497e0-406c-40a6-96eb-131a8782ec0d" CreationDate="2015-05-29T04:42:56.143" UserId="7940" Text="Gracefully letting a client down" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10150" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3295" RevisionGUID="9f1497e0-406c-40a6-96eb-131a8782ec0d" CreationDate="2015-05-29T04:42:56.143" UserId="7940" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10151" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3296" RevisionGUID="519c6ac1-cc66-4927-a0eb-9ffa23a4edef" CreationDate="2015-05-29T05:44:10.977" UserId="7753" Text="Face the problem and be honest to your client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think it would be better to do some serious schedule estimation on how the schedule can be shift to finish the project. Then talk to your client, explain the delay situation and the cause of it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let them choose whether they want to keep going with the new schedule (you may promise to finish the project on new schedule)  or stop this project (money back). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Project delay always happen in IT industry, face the problem, discuss with your client and try to get the resource you need. You will find the way to solve the problem." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10152" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3297" RevisionGUID="67184740-89ef-440b-80ae-99bf76fc5430" CreationDate="2015-05-29T07:53:21.467" UserId="7941" Text="Estimation of any kind of mobile app is very tough task as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;if you are doing estimation of small project let suppose any website so firstly you have to do the adding of features like category of website and as per the requirement you to add the per hr and basic feature cost .&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's a lengthy and tough task you have to do research about it before doing cost estimation of any project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;May be it's useful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10153" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3298" RevisionGUID="2e4145b4-58cc-4f52-aed1-ade27e6051c4" CreationDate="2015-05-29T07:54:27.700" UserId="7486" Text="In addition to Zeal Lin's answer, I suggest that you constantly keep up to date the client for good and not good updates, such as difficulty to be on time with the schedule of the work, or the fact that all is going good. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't wait until the last moment to tell the client that you have a problem or it will look like you were hiding the problems and the client instead is convinced that everything is going good. This is not very professional to the client's eyes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can you do now? Be honest with the client and at same time propose a plausible solution, meanwhile you can ask for help to collegues to finish the job as fast as possible.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10154" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3299" RevisionGUID="4fa3f102-ce6f-4001-8881-b9a5a97cc7ab" CreationDate="2015-05-29T09:14:28.270" UserId="504" Text="US$660 corresponds to around £431.5 according to all major currency converters online including Google.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PayPal takes 3.4%, so $660 becomes $637.56, corresponding to £417.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yet PayPal gives me £399.5, so they took extra £18 (extra 0.04%).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I conclude that they don't take 3.4% as advertised, but really 3.8%? Are they just lying to everybody's face?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10155" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3299" RevisionGUID="4fa3f102-ce6f-4001-8881-b9a5a97cc7ab" CreationDate="2015-05-29T09:14:28.270" UserId="504" Text="Getting paid through PayPal" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10156" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3299" RevisionGUID="4fa3f102-ce6f-4001-8881-b9a5a97cc7ab" CreationDate="2015-05-29T09:14:28.270" UserId="504" Text="|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10157" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3300" RevisionGUID="c7e1ca1a-7333-4cfb-b8d1-080906b9d59a" CreationDate="2015-05-29T11:05:47.437" UserId="7942" Text="PayPal's exchange rates, just like those of most banks, are not the same as the official rates and always work in the bank's favour.&#xD;&#xA;At the time of this writing, Google converted US$637.56 into £417.59, while PayPal gave £405.80.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your PayPal profile, go to &quot;Manage Currencies&quot; to find the currency converter." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10158" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3301" RevisionGUID="bfc709bd-8169-4d94-ae9c-258d25a72647" CreationDate="2015-05-29T13:30:29.083" UserId="7943" Text="I think the badges you should include are the ones that are most relative to you.  if your an android developer and I was potential client looking for an android development I am more likely to select you over someone similar because you have evidence that you can help the community using android. (That is going by the fact I understand Stack Exchanges sites) if I was someone who didn't understand the Stack Exchange site the pretty picture would be good enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;p.s nice badges!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10159" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3302" RevisionGUID="37e3f299-ea32-4269-8e07-75b959b7b927" CreationDate="2015-05-29T15:37:43.143" UserId="7938" Text="Always try to be as communicative and as transparent as possible, bad news included. You might think that would injure your reputation with the client, but most clients have seen respect when bad news were shared.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now, estimate a realistic date. Don't try to rush the new date. make sure you can reach it by giving yourself some slack. worse than a timeline not bieng satisfied is two timelines goe wrong. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My approach. Email the client with the new timeline, ask to meet with him so you can show the progress, (that will show the client you haven't been lazy) and offer two choices, carry on with the project, or full refund him (or refund the very most part of it if you can't fulfill it).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do it fast. even only a week before is much better than telling him on Day D." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10160" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3303" RevisionGUID="f7be9f4b-eec9-4d1b-b718-0fc04c2fc7d9" CreationDate="2015-05-29T16:45:56.867" UserId="245" Text="I've had several long-time clients (three years or more) where my only communication has been email.  I've never talked with them on the phone or used Skype, and have never met them in person.  It's never been a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although I use email, I never send text messages to a client.  For some reason, that seems unprofessional.  Perhaps the association with kids sending texts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Email is great because you have something you can go back and review if needed.  Even if one were to record their telephone conversations, you can't do a search." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10161" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3299" RevisionGUID="d840488c-2d6b-49aa-a0c9-b465c4c067f6" CreationDate="2015-05-29T18:11:55.127" UserId="75" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10163" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3304" RevisionGUID="96d30bfc-5f1f-47eb-8a79-4504f359279a" CreationDate="2015-05-30T02:40:21.030" UserId="7391" Text="From my perspective, I most like email because as others have noted, there's a paper trail. But! I have found that for my clients it works better if I'm available to discuss things by phone and in fact that sometimes seems to be the only way to actually solve certain problems. I stayed away from phone communication as long as I could, but I now find that for my business, it's much better to offer that when issues get complicated or confusing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10164" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3305" RevisionGUID="87611be6-4095-4b7f-9883-607aadbe16c7" CreationDate="2015-05-30T05:17:10.387" UserId="7946" Text="I'm a graphic designer and in the course of my work I often come across a situation when clients ask for free tests before hiring me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the budget is sufficient and the tests seem reasonable I usually don't mind them, but sometimes it happens that the client asks to do a test that's as big as the final job itself and states &quot;if you'll be selected for the final job then we pay you for the test&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't accept these requests as there's no way to check if the client is looking for free work or is just very thorough in his/her selection. And I have a rather extensive portfolio presented, so it's not a situation where I bid with an empty profile.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But once in a while comes a project that I'm really interested in in terms of the work itself and the budget is in no way enough to cover both the work and the test. I know I can try to negotiate a smaller test, but often even that would be too much for the proposed terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So the question: How do I politely inform the client that for this budget I'm not doing the test and that my portfolio should be sufficient for them to make a choice?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Note: I'm ok with losing 90% of these kinds of projects as most look like scams anyway, but I still want to try my luck with those 10% where the client just doesn't know how much time and effort the test demands.*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10165" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3305" RevisionGUID="87611be6-4095-4b7f-9883-607aadbe16c7" CreationDate="2015-05-30T05:17:10.387" UserId="7946" Text="How to politely turn down a client's request for a free test job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10166" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3305" RevisionGUID="87611be6-4095-4b7f-9883-607aadbe16c7" CreationDate="2015-05-30T05:17:10.387" UserId="7946" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|payment-terms|negotiation|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10167" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3306" RevisionGUID="d87dd80f-17ec-4e03-9e39-8daa59f3cbc7" CreationDate="2015-05-30T06:36:44.157" UserId="7486" Text="About myself, I start to work only after the contract is signed and I got a % as prepayment (unless it is a long term trusted client). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I work for the client is not a divine concession that he gives to me but a job is a mutual commitment that involves professional respect on both sides.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We freelancers are not a bunch of monkeys that jumps all together when you throw them a banana! We are indeed professionist as any other respectable job position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I think that is highly unrespectful for the client to say &quot;do the job then I will decide if I'll pay you or not&quot;. You have a good portfolio and that is enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would tell the client that if he wants a test he must prepay you the work hours the he will receive the test. That's it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10168" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3306" RevisionGUID="6c1b5647-f1e4-4bcc-ac26-3a40b184b8eb" CreationDate="2015-05-30T06:51:57.330" UserId="7486" Comment="added 226 characters in body" Text="About myself, I start to work only after the contract is signed and I got a % as prepayment (unless it is a long term trusted client). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I work for the client is not a divine concession that he gives to me but a job is a mutual commitment that involves professional respect on both sides.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We freelancers are not a bunch of monkeys that jumps all together when you throw them a banana! We are indeed professionist as any other respectable job position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I think that is highly unrespectful for the client to say &quot;do the job then I will decide if I'll pay you or not&quot;. You have a good portfolio and that is enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would just be cool and tell the client that if he wants a test he must prepay you the work hours then he will receive the test. That's it. This also will make you look more prestigious compared to the others who &quot;works for free&quot;. Did you ever see an important professionist who works for free then the client decide if he will pay of not? No way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10169" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3307" RevisionGUID="c5e929f4-a3e2-495c-a0c5-08bd45d7d41a" CreationDate="2015-05-30T07:06:29.593" UserId="708" Text="I've been a designer for over 25 years, there has **never** been *any* reason for me to *ever* work for free at the request of someone I didn't know. Ever.  &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;Yes I've worked for free for family or friends, but never random clients.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- *Would your plumber install a new sink as a &quot;test&quot; to see if you like their work?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- *Would an electrician wire a new outlet for you as a &quot;test&quot; to see if you liked their work?* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- *Would your mechanic give your car a tune-up as a &quot;test&quot; to see if you liked their work?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Anyone* asking you to do *anything* for free for whatever reason is only trying to take advantage of you. And more often than not, they are *fully aware* of what they are doing. If they tell you there's a budget afterwards, 99.5% will be lying about that as well. Just as much as they lie when they say stuff like, &quot;We have a lot of work, if we like this we'll be sending a great deal your way.&quot; It's all lies and signs of **horrible** clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to turn it down, which you *always* should, it's pretty simple:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Sorry, I don't work on speculation of payment. Please review my portfolio and feel free to ask me any questions regarding my work. I would really love to discuss how my skills may help you move forward. However, I will not begin any work without a customary contract in place and an initial deposit. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;There's a question over at GraphicDesign.StackExchange.com which isn't directly related. However reading my answer and specifically the addendum may be enlightening.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[**SEE HERE**](http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/25712/what-should-i-do-if-a-potential-client-claims-my-pricing-is-too-high/25713#25713)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, requests for free work only paint a big red X on that client's forehead as a **bad client**. You really **shouldn't *want*** to work for people making those types of requests." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10170" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3307" RevisionGUID="e5a62ba7-9887-44bf-aa72-4f3f2af9708e" CreationDate="2015-05-30T07:11:48.557" UserId="708" Comment="added 225 characters in body" Text="I've been a designer for over 25 years, there has **never** been *any* reason for me to *ever* work for free at the request of someone I didn't know. Ever.  &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;Yes I've worked for free for family or friends, but never random clients.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- *Would your plumber install a new sink as a &quot;test&quot; to see if you like their work?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- *Would an electrician wire a new outlet for you as a &quot;test&quot; to see if you liked their work?* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- *Would your mechanic give your car a tune-up as a &quot;test&quot; to see if you liked their work?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Anyone* asking you to do *anything* for free for whatever reason is only trying to take advantage of you. And more often than not, they are *fully aware* of what they are doing. If they tell you there's a budget afterwards, 99.5% will be lying about that as well. Just as much as they lie when they say stuff like, &quot;We have a lot of work, if we like this we'll be sending a great deal your way.&quot; It's all lies and signs of **horrible** clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to turn it down, which you *always* should, it's pretty simple:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Sorry, I don't work on speculation of payment. Please review my portfolio and feel free to ask me any questions regarding my work. I would really love to discuss how my skills may help you move forward. However, I will not begin any work without a customary contract in place and an initial deposit. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;There's a question over at GraphicDesign.StackExchange.com which isn't directly related. However reading my answer and specifically the addendum may be enlightening.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[**SEE HERE**](http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/25712/what-should-i-do-if-a-potential-client-claims-my-pricing-is-too-high/25713#25713)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, requests for free work only paint a big red X on that client's forehead as a **bad client**. You really **shouldn't *want*** to work for people making those types of requests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every minute you spend on some &quot;test&quot; project in preparation for your getting ripped off, you could be spending on a *paying client's* project. Why would you waste your time when you could be making money? It's pointless." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10171" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3305" RevisionGUID="64d50dba-9272-4665-8178-8df1e6d52c4b" CreationDate="2015-05-30T07:12:22.507" UserId="708" Comment="cleaned up tags removing a couple unrelated ones" Text="|payment-terms|negotiation|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10172" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3286" RevisionGUID="c2d2b262-b7f8-4d71-a32e-df79b17ea52f" CreationDate="2015-05-30T07:49:34.500" UserId="708" Comment="More Descriptive title and tags" Text="Is presenting possible clients with reworks of their existing content a good idea?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10173" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3286" RevisionGUID="c2d2b262-b7f8-4d71-a32e-df79b17ea52f" CreationDate="2015-05-30T07:49:34.500" UserId="708" Comment="More Descriptive title and tags" Text="|attracting-clients|web-design|web-development|client-relations|business|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10175" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3291" RevisionGUID="7c88ebbc-e708-4b73-b410-dfa101efdcd2" CreationDate="2015-06-02T02:34:33.007" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/605563118421454849" />
  <row Id="10177" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3309" RevisionGUID="6764ae4d-bbf1-4639-9492-43cc1ccd0822" CreationDate="2015-06-03T09:39:30.083" UserId="7969" Text="i am facing difficulties in getting hired on Odesk here is my profile &#xD;&#xA;[My profile][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;please help me if i have any thing need to improve on my profile ??&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;here is cover latter![cover latter][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.upwork.com/users/~0189cdd1bafb9b2f60&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/bqXqP.png&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;i have all these skills listed, passed 2 test (HTML/CSS) with top 30%, my profile is 100% completed, added payment method of Master card&#xD;&#xA;please help why i am not getting hired after all this" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10178" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3309" RevisionGUID="6764ae4d-bbf1-4639-9492-43cc1ccd0822" CreationDate="2015-06-03T09:39:30.083" UserId="7969" Text="why i am not getting hired on Odesk?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10179" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3309" RevisionGUID="6764ae4d-bbf1-4639-9492-43cc1ccd0822" CreationDate="2015-06-03T09:39:30.083" UserId="7969" Text="|freelance-websites|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10181" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3311" RevisionGUID="fa6e1d07-7bf9-4477-a335-7617831958e3" CreationDate="2015-06-03T10:47:31.553" UserId="517" Text="Where do I start? Why I almost didn't read this question? Why most of guys on this group probably skipped reading your question?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why I would not hire you based on this bid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Bad English&#xD;&#xA;2. You addressed the client as &quot;freelancer&quot;&#xD;&#xA;3. you said nothing about the project and how you would approach to it&#xD;&#xA;4. bad formatting - no extra space&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients have 3s to like or dislike your bid. I spent more than 3s reading it and there is no way I would contact you or read your full application. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Go to Stats on odesk. What does it say about the ratio your bid was opened/read? Below the average?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where should you improve?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Do more tests and try to get into 10%&#xD;&#xA;2. Learn business English and its phrases&#xD;&#xA;3. Learn how to format a bid in a business matter&#xD;&#xA;4. check how your hourly price compare to others&#xD;&#xA;5. rather bid 1 quality bid then 10 mediocre&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Read tutorials on how to attract clients. There are zillions of tutorials on the net. Learn how to be neat and pay attention to details. You showed neither of this in both your question and your bid. Portfolio was not bad thou. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. Do you have another picture for your profile? more professional one, not like you're ready to go out. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10191" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3313" RevisionGUID="ec7cf3ad-c267-415d-8ac7-fd7cc661531f" CreationDate="2015-06-03T19:58:21.357" UserId="2391" Text="I'd hang onto him, just don't overstretch yourself trying to fit him in when he does come up with the goods. Juggling various open contracts is certainly one of the challenges of using the on-line freelancing sites. I put aside three days to commit to jobs, one day that I use for overflow or whatever comes up that week and one day for my 20% time. So I'd hold onto him and when he's got something for you slot him in if you can or tell him you'll give him a time-scale once you've got the space. Who I let have my spare day depends on who's the best customer and is paying the best." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10193" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3309" RevisionGUID="5fd152f4-724f-46f4-9d19-737243490e6e" CreationDate="2015-06-04T07:50:43.027" UserId="58" Comment="Please do not use images to convey text on stack exchange. We prefer that in the question body." Text="I'm having difficulties getting hired on oDesk (UpWork) when bidding on projects, and it could be to do with the covering letters I send.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's an example of a covering letter I've sent:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Dear Freelancer, I'm a Web Designer + Developer, and I'm very&#xD;&#xA;&gt; interested in your this job I am working in a software company for 3&#xD;&#xA;&gt; years. I have worked many times for US Companies and Clients My core&#xD;&#xA;&gt; skills are as Follows.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; * **CSS/CSS3**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * **HTML/HTML5**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * **Bootstrap**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * **Adobe Photoshop**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * **Wordpress**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * **Javascript/Jquery**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * **Foundation Framework**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * **Front-End and responsive design.**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I have also listed my most expensive and tough projects on portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Please check the tests that I have passed related to Web Design with&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the high score (top 30%).I believge my skills would be perfect for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; your project. I am available to chat my IM, email or Skype, and would&#xD;&#xA;&gt; be happy to set up a convenient time to discuss the issues. I hope you&#xD;&#xA;&gt; would find Quality in my work.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Here are a few my projects:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; * &amp;lt;example 1&amp;gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * ...&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have all the skills listed above, I've passed 2 tests (HTML/CSS) in the top 30%, my profile is 100% completed, and I've added my credit card.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What am I doing wrong?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10194" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3309" RevisionGUID="5fd152f4-724f-46f4-9d19-737243490e6e" CreationDate="2015-06-04T07:50:43.027" UserId="58" Comment="Please do not use images to convey text on stack exchange. We prefer that in the question body." Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10195" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3309" RevisionGUID="551106cb-0f6c-47ac-b9a6-b1d42fdfde1b" CreationDate="2015-06-04T11:04:05.673" UserId="7969" Comment="edited title" Text="why i am not getting hired on Odesk (UpWork)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10200" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3315" RevisionGUID="01fda751-8375-46c9-8625-93961db8e813" CreationDate="2015-06-04T23:35:10.150" UserId="7987" Text="Last August I took on re-doing an e-commerce website. At first she only wanted a re-design, but it ended up being completely redone. Since I'm a student, I didn't charge her a whole lot for it, but we've been going back and forth on this major project for almost a year now. Small fix here, big fix here, it's exhausting! She's very demanding, and I recently got a full-time internship for the summer, so I can't answer her every beckon call. I also have a family, so it's difficult to find time to work out the kinks. I have someone else lined up that can help her, and she still owes me for the work I've done. But should I refund her any money because I'm quitting? What should I do? The website is functional and she's been selling products, there are just a few bugs here and there that pop up." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10201" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3315" RevisionGUID="01fda751-8375-46c9-8625-93961db8e813" CreationDate="2015-06-04T23:35:10.150" UserId="7987" Text="How to back out of a freelance project that has gotten too big?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10202" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3315" RevisionGUID="01fda751-8375-46c9-8625-93961db8e813" CreationDate="2015-06-04T23:35:10.150" UserId="7987" Text="|contracts|communication|difficult-client|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10203" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3316" RevisionGUID="402c7af3-cc8e-41db-8d1d-cd967f9fa424" CreationDate="2015-06-05T00:01:27.307" UserId="708" Text="**No one** just &quot;starts freelancing&quot;. **No one**. I've never come across a single successful freelancer who just learned something, then started surviving freelancing on that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You start the *same way* everyone starts. You learn the skills. Then you get a job using those skills preferably. If not, then any job. While you work that job you market and seek out those in need of the skills you want to use. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You start with small, inconsequential clients and projects that don't make a lot of money and don't give you a great deal to show afterwords. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You continue this until you have a portfolio of decent projects which you can show off to gain better projects. You work on those better projects. All while still working that job, whatever it is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Wash, rinse, repeat. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You do this as long as it takes to build a stable of good clients that seem to always have work for you. And while doing this you *save money*. You save enough so that you can live, without income for at least 6 months or a year. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then, and only then, do you take the leap to working freelance full time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no shortcut or miraculous formula to working on a freelance basis. You *have* to prove your skills first and build a stable of clients. Otherwise you will just be spending more time *looking* for work than actually *earning* an income. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10204" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3316" RevisionGUID="2e4d3c24-426c-4d99-9abc-a763b45b27a9" CreationDate="2015-06-05T00:07:49.297" UserId="708" Comment="added 833 characters in body" Text="The biggest misconception most have is that you can just decide you *want* to freelance and then do it successfully. That's most often **not** the case. Unless the skills you provide are something tangible like auto-repair or landscaping. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Conceptual services such as web dev and design require a track record of success and a proven ability to complete projects. There's just *way* too much competition to just jump in and be successful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No one** just &quot;starts freelancing&quot;. **No one**. I've never come across a single successful freelancer who just learned something, then started surviving freelancing on that full time. *Everyone* works a regular job while building freelancing ventures to a point where they can survive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You start the *same way* everyone starts. You learn the skills. Then you get a job using those skills preferably. If not, then any job. While you work that job you market and seek out those in need of the skills you want to use. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've *never* used any &quot;freelance websites&quot; and preferred to make actual business connections. I worked my local market, finding businesses or individuals that needed my services. I networked with small business that didn't provide my services, but had a client based that could use them... so I could be a referral for them if someone asked them to do something they didn't do, but I did. There may be no &quot;freelance market&quot; where you are, but I'd wager that there *are* business or individuals who could use your services if they knew how to contact you. Face it, in today's world almost *every* successful business needs web dev or design. Every one. (well, I've never been to Brazil so maybe it's different there.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You start with small, inconsequential, clients and projects that don't make a lot of money and don't give you a great deal to show afterwords. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You continue this until you have a portfolio of decent projects which you can show off to gain better projects. You work on those better projects. All while still working that job, whatever it is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Wash, rinse, repeat. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You do this as long as it takes to build a stable of good clients that seem to always have work for you. And while doing this you *save money*. You save enough so that you can live, without income for at least 6 months or a year. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then, and only then, do you take the leap to working freelance full time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no shortcut or miraculous formula to working on a freelance basis. You *have* to prove your skills first and build a stable of clients. Otherwise you will just be spending more time *looking* for work than actually *earning* an income. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10205" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1517" RevisionGUID="b2844e86-4895-492e-a528-dd2d35647307" CreationDate="2015-06-05T05:42:24.217" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/606697556987379712" />
  <row Id="10206" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3317" RevisionGUID="17ae4526-b818-48c2-a954-4b80b605ad0c" CreationDate="2015-06-05T08:49:24.843" UserId="7774" Text="I might have done following (I do it till date as well):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I maintain a Google Sheet for all Tasks + share it with Client - Update it at slightest change (Remember google has Document/Sheet versioning) so any change/work gets recorded - and versioning stands as proof of that we did and keeps track of all changes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In that google sheet - Have following columns:&#xD;&#xA;1. Work (Create a Seperate sheet in same document and have client approve it before you work)&#xD;&#xA;2. status&#xD;&#xA;3. Hours needed (Create a seperate sheet and link it here for every hour worked)&#xD;&#xA;4. Comments&#xD;&#xA;5. Client Notes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But apparently you are past through that stage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For now key is communication and setting expectations right - Tell her truth - It may/ might hurt both parties(You and that female) - But eventually if she considers you worth the bang - she will retain you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Further - If bugs pop up because of your work - you might be responsible for them - If not - Tell her upfront what it may cost to fix things in long run.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;wish you peace :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10207" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3318" RevisionGUID="23c776cf-f1fe-4c50-b2b4-c2997e7b0abe" CreationDate="2015-06-05T09:35:54.283" UserId="7942" Text="I would like to complement others' answers by adding the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Establish and maintain contacts in the developer community. Get involved in open source, attend meetups and conferences, and stay in touch with people you've worked with in the past, locally and globally. Doing so can often make work come to you. To illustrate: I am not a professional developer and have only been doing web development about half as long as you. However, I've already been introduced to 3 clients by people I've collaborated with on volunteer projects for non-profits. Two of those clients have hired me despite my relatively short experience, which I think also goes to show that clients put a lot of stock in referrals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. When creating your freelancer profiles, don't ignore any experience you may have that is not directly related to your skills. Previous jobs, hobbies, community involvement, leadership experience etc. can tilt the balance in your favour in ways you may not foresee. Again, to illustrate with a personal example: My profile on one of the freelancer boards clearly describes that I am an experienced molecular biologist looking to transition to professional web development. A client found me thanks exclusively to this info because he had a project that required both web dev skills and an understanding of the life science laboratory environment. Only 3 people were invited to interview for the project, and two were hired - myself, and another person with a science background and graphic design experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In summary, don't just focus on the basic process of becoming a freelancer but make a few lateral moves to make yourself stand out from the crowd." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10208" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="635" RevisionGUID="50cae847-b204-41a1-aea8-51240bdac675" CreationDate="2015-06-05T14:08:07.377" UserId="7993" Comment="corrected spelling" Text="I asked the same question myself 4-5 years ago when I started freelancing. I will tell you what I did and how can you NOT make the same mistakes as myself. Since I will not do marketing for any freelancing site, I will not mention a specific names (and recommending would also be against the rules of this group). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I first used Google to see which freelancing sites are on the top based on my search terms. It turned out that Google does not tell you which sites are the best for a contractor or a client, but it simply tells you which website is better ranked in their indexes (and we all know what SEO experts can do). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So after I got results, I tried all of them or to be precise top 5-6 freelancing sites of today. I created accounts, filled all the requirements and after that I was able to find out the credibility by following these rules. You will see that credibility is largely based on your own experience with the website and the number of ways you can pull money from the website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. **The general look and ability to navigate yourself on the website**.  &#xD;&#xA;In my case, it turned out that those website whose UI is easy to navigate, not confusing and offers the minimum of learning curve, turned out to be better than confusing ones. Obviously, those websites paid more money for UI experts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. **Number of ways you can pull money out of the website**. At the time I started, PayPal was not available in my country and getting hold of the earned money was a pain. Those websites who offered more ways to withdraw money, turned out to be more reputable. More ways means that their contractors come from 3rd countries and the reason US, UK, Canadian and Australian clients visit these sites is to hire affordable contractors. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. **The quality of contractors' profile pages**. This accounts if you are a contractor. The more you are about to learn of the contractor, the better the freelancing website is. They live from the clients (who bring money) so if you are confused of how to find the right contractor or how to see his profile, leave that website immediately. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. **Number of bids on projects**. High number of bids (over 50) on most of projects usually means that the bidding policy is bad. If you're a client, you will easily be spammed. If you're a contractor, it would be harder for you to get the first job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. **Statistics**. A good and reputable websites nowadays have statistic page where you can see what kind of projects they offer, average prices, etc. I see this trending in the last year or a bit longer, and I would not trust a website which does not have this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. **Do they rip contractors?** Some websites take money from the contractor as soon as the project is accepted. This is a rip IMHO and as a contractor I would never work on such sites. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;7. **Number of 3rd party tools they offer.** Again, the more 3rd party tools a website offers (SVN connection, multimedia capabilities, connecting popular services which can help your work, etc.) the more reputable they are. All these tools cost money and it means that they can afford them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;8. **Support service**. The more support channels they offer (tickets, live, forum, email, etc.) and the quicker they reply, means the website is reputable. In my experience, this mean that money I invest there as a client or I earn as a contractor is pretty safe. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;9. **Resolution policy**. Very important for both clients and contractors. The more ways they offer in resolving problems, the more reputable they are. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;10. **Internal forums**. Reputable websites will have their own forums. Take a few days reading posts and you will face the main issues other people using that website have. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, don't trust forums too much. Authors of those articles are sometimes paid by competitors. Also someone's bad experience usually means that he was careless, not necessarily that the website is bad. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, no matter what I tell you here, your experience with some websites is the most important. The rule of thumb is: &quot;Start with small projects until you find out if everything is as shiny as they promised&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10209" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="635" RevisionGUID="50cae847-b204-41a1-aea8-51240bdac675" CreationDate="2015-06-05T14:08:07.377" Comment="Proposed by 7993 approved by 517 edit id of 398" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10210" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3309" RevisionGUID="b68d577f-6fc6-4e71-826e-c7c603243909" CreationDate="2015-06-05T17:16:31.173" UserId="9" Comment="Corrected grammar in question, removed parentheses from title, matched up quote formatting with actual image" Text="I'm having difficulties getting hired on oDesk (UpWork) when bidding on projects, and I think it has to do with my cover letters.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's an example of one of my cover letters that I've sent:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Dear Freelancer,  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm a Web Designer + Developer, and I'm very interested in your this job  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I am working in a software company for 3 years. I have worked many times for US Companies and Clients .  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; My core skills are as Follows.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; * **CSS/CSS3.**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * &amp;nbsp;**HTML/HTML5**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * **Bootstrap**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * &amp;nbsp;**Adobe Photoshop.**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * &amp;nbsp;**Wordpress.**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * &amp;nbsp;**Javascript/Jquery**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * &amp;nbsp;**Foundation Framework**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * &amp;nbsp;**Front-End and responsive design.**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I have also listed my most expensive and tough projects on portfolio. Please check the tests that I have passed related to Web Design with the high score of (top 30%).I believe my skills would be perfect for your project. I am available to chat my IM, email or Skype, and would be happy to set up a convenient time to discuss the issues. I hope you would find Quality in my work&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Here are my Few projects&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; * (PSD TO Bootstrap): ...&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * (PSD TO WORDPRESS): ...&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * (WORDPRESS): ...&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have all the skills listed above, I've passed 2 tests (HTML/CSS) and achieved the top 30%, my profile is 100% complete, and I've added my credit card.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What am I doing wrong?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10211" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3309" RevisionGUID="b68d577f-6fc6-4e71-826e-c7c603243909" CreationDate="2015-06-05T17:16:31.173" UserId="9" Comment="Corrected grammar in question, removed parentheses from title, matched up quote formatting with actual image" Text="Why am I not getting hired on UpWork/oDesk?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10212" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3309" RevisionGUID="b68d577f-6fc6-4e71-826e-c7c603243909" CreationDate="2015-06-05T17:16:31.173" UserId="9" Comment="Corrected grammar in question, removed parentheses from title, matched up quote formatting with actual image" Text="|freelance-websites|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10219" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3286" RevisionGUID="7e5194d4-7108-43cf-a035-72afbe92d180" CreationDate="2015-06-05T20:04:21.110" UserId="9" Comment="Worked on wording, removed many tags that were more one-off." Text="I often come across local websites that are sub-par. With just a day or two of work, I could easily provide them with a better solution. However, when I approach the website owners with an offer to re-work their websites, most of the time, they refuse due to not caring about their website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on that, I'm thinking of presenting a fully-rebuilt website to the owners. That way, the owners would be assured that I'm not trying to scam them, and the result could be up and running in a matter of hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have enough time to start doing this, but I have no idea of how local owners would take it. Any light on this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10220" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3286" RevisionGUID="7e5194d4-7108-43cf-a035-72afbe92d180" CreationDate="2015-06-05T20:04:21.110" UserId="9" Comment="Worked on wording, removed many tags that were more one-off." Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10226" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3286" RevisionGUID="cc9a7588-1452-41fb-be36-100ae0c83426" CreationDate="2015-06-06T18:23:20.407" UserId="708" Comment="edited tags" Text="|attracting-clients|client-realtions|business|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10235" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3323" RevisionGUID="f30407e6-1335-42b6-8b2c-796db9d49ec2" CreationDate="2015-06-09T01:54:26.617" UserId="7529" Text="I am a C++ software developer. What are the best places to find a contract job (one where I am working on a fixed-length project and not working full time)? I have tried Dice, Careerbuilder, Indeed, and StackOverflow. I see a few I might be qualified for but wondering if I'm searching at the right places to begin with. I know there is also ODesk.com but I am asking more about contract jobs in the local area. Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10236" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3323" RevisionGUID="f30407e6-1335-42b6-8b2c-796db9d49ec2" CreationDate="2015-06-09T01:54:26.617" UserId="7529" Text="Where to find contract jobs?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10237" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3323" RevisionGUID="f30407e6-1335-42b6-8b2c-796db9d49ec2" CreationDate="2015-06-09T01:54:26.617" UserId="7529" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10238" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3323" RevisionGUID="0160c06f-d548-4f56-b946-2988100afabb" CreationDate="2015-06-09T02:05:09.240" UserId="7529" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="I am a C++ software developer. What are the best places to find a contract job (one where I am working on a fixed-length project and not working full time)? I have tried Dice, Careerbuilder, Indeed, and StackOverflow. I see a few I might be qualified for but wondering if I'm searching at the right places to begin with. I know there is also UpWork.com but I am asking more about contract jobs in the local area. Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10239" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3324" RevisionGUID="e2d569a7-20e1-4c0b-83fb-e0addfe24ce7" CreationDate="2015-06-09T04:47:38.130" UserId="7717" Text="&gt; she still owes me for the work I've done&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How long has she owed you and how much? If she's past due on a payment, or owes you thousands, that could be enough reason to stop right there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; But should I refund her any money because I'm quitting?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not unless you had a formal agreement to do work that you haven't already done, or she paid you for work you haven't done yet. If you aren't leaving her in an extremely bad position, probably don't worry about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; What should I do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tell her you appreciate working with her and are glad you were able to help her build her site while growing in your own experience, but now you are moving on to bigger things and unfortunately don't have time for this side project. If she knew you were a student she should have been expecting you to eventually leave for a real job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She sounds like the type who loves to exploit college students and she'll probably try to pressure you into doing more work for her at the same rate. Just say no. It will be very easy after you get your first paycheck from your internship!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10243" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3323" RevisionGUID="aff52195-0320-4feb-b436-b2fb11194552" CreationDate="2015-06-09T17:46:40.440" UserId="75" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[1173],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10244" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="1348" RevisionGUID="ac63f673-558d-48af-aea1-2da774472d11" CreationDate="2015-06-09T17:47:07.857" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10245" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3325" RevisionGUID="4b7ec3f5-69c6-4e6f-aa0c-317a252d52a5" CreationDate="2015-06-09T21:50:43.233" UserId="8032" Text="The Job Description can usually tell you many things about the client. Its style, tone, demands and rates they promise. I work in Writing, though, but even there we have &quot;clients&quot; who come up with &quot;URGENT&quot;, PLZ&quot; and similar &quot;shoutings&quot; often in Caps. Behind such words there is most likely simeone with very low rates and beyond-realistic demands they usually have to have excuses not to pay you once you finish work. &#xD;&#xA;I see you mention that horrible and ridiculous word &quot;turnaround&quot;. Yoy work in a creative industy and you should NEVER allow anyone to treat you as you're an assembly lane worker. Asking how many words or graphic images you can do per hour is basically the same as asking how much capacitors you can attach to a board or how many square meters of wall you can paint in an hour. With all respects to factory workers and painters you need to tell yourself you are NOT that kind of provider. &#xD;&#xA;And regarding escrow, I agree most clients are hesotant to fund it prior work. However, this can help you tell a good client by reading job descriptions:&#xD;&#xA;Detailed job description explaining WHAT they actually want and WHY do they need it.&#xD;&#xA;Use of paragraph, ortography (caps only where needed, also punctuation).&#xD;&#xA;Good grammar (they may not be natives, but if serious they will manage to have job proposal written fluently).&#xD;&#xA;Guidelines for your job proposal (what would they want to know about you, your experience, abilities, skillsthat matter).&#xD;&#xA;Previous good track on Elance (a considerable sum od money spent on Elance work). &#xD;&#xA;Elements of a formal letter, and the client's representative person name.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10246" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3326" RevisionGUID="f7a38350-847d-4c03-9f39-0162cc90a906" CreationDate="2015-06-10T12:01:23.407" UserDisplayName="user8037" Text="I've been working for a client on several programming projects in the last few months. The client always paid regularly and left positive feedback for me on the platform I'm using to find work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;About one month ago the client proposed that I work for their company on a more regular basis and asked about my availability and hourly fees. I answered specifying an hourly fee that is consistent with market prices (albeit on the lower end). At that point I had realized that I had been working way below my minimum acceptable rate, not earning even enought to cover my business expenses (because I thought I had no other choice, because this is how it goes if one wants to get work on these international internet platforms, because I thought I would need the reputation, etc.).&#xD;&#xA;After my hourly fee disclosure I didn't hear from the client anymore and so I thought &quot;oh well, they found someone else&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But now the client surprisingly contacted me again proposing that I work on some new projects. Exactly the same projects as before. The cooperation &quot;on a more regular basis&quot; wasn't mentioned anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now my question is: how can I charge more for exactly the same tasks that I performed a few months ago at a lower price? Note that on the platform I had always been paid per project and not per hour, so now having disclosed my hourly fees puts me in a weird position. The only strategy I've been able to come up with up to now is to tell the client I'm busy with something else and that I cannot take up any new projects. But that's not true--I need new contracts and I need the income. So what? Give up or negotiate (but I have no idea how)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10247" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3326" RevisionGUID="f7a38350-847d-4c03-9f39-0162cc90a906" CreationDate="2015-06-10T12:01:23.407" UserDisplayName="user8037" Text="How to get paid more" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10248" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3326" RevisionGUID="f7a38350-847d-4c03-9f39-0162cc90a906" CreationDate="2015-06-10T12:01:23.407" UserDisplayName="user8037" Text="|negotiation|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10249" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2684" RevisionGUID="fe936d58-8133-4079-8a91-ae80dca6b575" CreationDate="2015-06-10T12:41:06.080" UserId="58" Comment="Fixed a typo" Text="**Consulting and programming services are not subject to sales tax in Pennsylvania as far as I understand, however you're in a better position to judge than I am.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;According to the [Pennsylvania Department of Revenue website][1], tangible goods, services on those goods, and specific other services require sales tax.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Extract from [How do I know which items or services are subject to Pennsylvania Sales Tax?][2] (emphasis mine)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Generally, the purchase of an item by the ultimate consumer is subject&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to sales tax. Likewise, services performed on taxable items are&#xD;&#xA;&gt; subject to sales tax, along with some *specifically designated services*&#xD;&#xA;&gt; set forth in the law.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The list of specifically designated services are mentioned on the page [Is there a list of services subject to PA sales tax?][3]:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Following is a list of taxable services in Pennsylvania.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 1. Printing or imprinting of tangible personal property of another.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 2. Washing, cleaning, waxing, polishing or lubricating of motor vehicles.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 3. Inspecting motor vehicles as required by law.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 4. Repairing, altering, mending, pressing, fitting, dyeing, laundering, dry-cleaning or cleaning tangible personal property other than wearing apparel or shoes.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 5. Applying or installing tangible personal property as a repair or replacement part of other tangible personal property.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 6. Lobbying services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 7. Adjustment services, collection services or credit reporting services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 8. Secretarial or editing services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 9. Disinfecting or pest control services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 10. Building maintenance or cleaning services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 11. Employment agency services or help supply services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 12. Lawn care services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 13. Self-storage services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 14. Mobile telecommunications services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 15. Premium cable and video programming services including streaming of videos.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 16. Non-residential electric, steam, and gas services.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 17. Intrastate and interstate telecommunications services billed to PA service addresses except subscriber line charges and basic local residential phone service for residential use and payphone service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since consulting and programming aren't on this list, my understanding is that you're in the clear, however I don't have a complete understanding of the services you offer. You're in a better position to judge if your business falls into one of the above categories.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://revenue-pa.custhelp.com&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://revenue-pa.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/203/~/how-do-i-know-which-items-or-services-are-subject-to-pennsylvania-sales-tax%3F&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://revenue-pa.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2825/~/is-there-a-list-of-services-subject-to-pa-sales-tax%3F" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10250" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3327" RevisionGUID="0d5f44b2-9a12-47f4-9733-64aaa532012f" CreationDate="2015-06-10T14:06:53.587" UserId="517" Text="So you'd rather lose a job than tell the client your hourly rate is higher now? You see how this looks silly when you read it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, if only 1 year had passed since your last work, you could then tell that your hourly rate is higher due to being more experienced.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since only a few months has passed and you probably had a few projects after his project, there is not other way but to be honest. The worst that can happen is that he finds someone else, which was one of your options anyway. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would tell him that based on your experience on the last project, working on that hourly rate did not bring you any profit. Because of that, this project you can work for XYZ dollars per hour. You can also elaborate that you realized quickly that you had made a mistake with the previous hourly rate, but you never wanted to tell him that as you are a professional and you decided to finish the project without changing hourly price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client may not like it, but he should appreciate your honesty. If he liked your work (and not your price!!!), he will calculate if he can hire you under your new price. If not, you are still a winner because you acted professionally. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let us know about the outcome so other people reading this topic can see if this advice worked or not. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10251" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3325" RevisionGUID="25aa3f04-08fb-4694-8adf-7ee6e5fdd4a3" CreationDate="2015-06-10T15:49:37.987" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar and spelling fixes, made list of points into a proper list, removed parentheses in favor of bolding the main point of what the parenthesized clause was describing" Text="The job description can usually tell you many things about the client, especially its style, tone, demands, and promised rates. I work in writing, though, but even there we have &quot;clients&quot; who come up with &quot;URGENT&quot;, PLZ&quot; and similar &quot;shoutings&quot; often in all-caps. Behind such words, there is most likely someone with embarrassingly-low rates and beyond-realistic demands; in addition, they usually have excuses not to pay you once you finish work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I see you mention that horrible and ridiculous word &quot;turnaround&quot;. You work in a creative industy and you should **never** allow anyone to treat you as an assembly lane worker. Asking how many words or graphic images you can do per hour is basically the same as asking how much capacitors you can attach to a board or how many square meters of wall you can paint in an hour. With all respects to factory workers and painters, you need to tell yourself you are **not** that kind of provider.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agree that most clients are hesitant to fund an escrow account prior to the work completing. However, this can help you tell a good client by reading job descriptions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Detailed job description explaining _what_ they actually want and _why_ they need it.&#xD;&#xA;* **Use of paragraph, orthography**: This includes using proper capitalization and punctuation.&#xD;&#xA;* **Good grammar**: They may not be natives, but if they're serious, they will manage to have the job proposal written fluently.&#xD;&#xA;* **Guidelines for your job proposal**: What would they want to know about you, your experience, abilities, skills that matter, etc.&#xD;&#xA;* **Good track record on Elance**: A considerable sum of money has been spent on previous Elance work.&#xD;&#xA;* **Formality**: These include elements of a formal letter and the client's representative's name." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10252" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3326" RevisionGUID="ae0d6f5c-3506-48c0-a5a6-ae3e8132dfba" CreationDate="2015-06-10T15:56:41.243" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 10 characters in body" Text="I've been working for a client on several programming projects in the last few months. The client always paid regularly and left positive feedback for me on the platform I'm using to find work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;About one month ago the client proposed that I work for their company on a more regular basis and asked about my availability and hourly fees. I answered specifying an hourly fee that is consistent with market prices (albeit on the lower end). At that point I had realized that I had been working way below my minimum acceptable rate, not earning even enough to cover my business expenses (because I thought I had no other choice, because this is how it goes if one wants to get work on these international internet platforms, because I thought I would need the reputation, etc.).&#xD;&#xA;After my hourly fee disclosure I didn't hear from the client anymore and so I thought &quot;oh well, they found someone else&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But now the client surprisingly contacted me again proposing that I work on some new projects. Exactly the same projects as before. The cooperation &quot;on a more regular basis&quot; wasn't mentioned anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now my question is: how can I charge more for exactly the same tasks that I performed a few months ago at a lower price? Note that on the platform I had always been paid per project and not per hour, so now having disclosed my hourly fees puts me in a weird position. The only strategy I've been able to come up with up to now is to tell the client I'm busy with something else and that I cannot take up any new projects. But that's not true; I need new contracts and I need the income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what should I do? Give up or negotiate (but I have no idea how)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10253" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1348" RevisionGUID="ce756ea9-64ac-4eed-8790-d46822b6082e" CreationDate="2015-06-11T02:00:06.667" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar fixes, expanded PA to Pennsylvania, moved question in middle of question to end of question" Text="I live in Pennsylvania (in the United States), and I am not sure if I should be collecting sales tax for my part-time consulting and web development business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm registered as a Sole Proprietorship with the state and have applied for and received my federal EIN from the IRS.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've tried reading the state.pa.us site for our state IRS rules, but there was a lot there, I'm not a lawyer, and it was overwhelming.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've heard that services are not taxable unless you provide tangible goods, but the PA IRS site makes this confusing and really doesn't just come right out and say what I need to understand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there tax on my web development but not on my consulting? Neither? Both? &#xD;&#xA;Would it be acceptable to take the easy way out and place the verbiage &quot;Please pay all applicable Use Tax for services provided&quot; at the bottom of my invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10254" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1348" RevisionGUID="ce756ea9-64ac-4eed-8790-d46822b6082e" CreationDate="2015-06-11T02:00:06.667" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar fixes, expanded PA to Pennsylvania, moved question in middle of question to end of question" Text="Do I charge sales tax on consulting and programming in Pennsylvania, USA?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10255" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1348" RevisionGUID="ce756ea9-64ac-4eed-8790-d46822b6082e" CreationDate="2015-06-11T02:00:06.667" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar fixes, expanded PA to Pennsylvania, moved question in middle of question to end of question" Text="|taxes|usa|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10256" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3326" RevisionGUID="687edb45-4f0d-42cb-8615-24068e3b3e57" CreationDate="2015-06-11T15:36:11.780" UserId="58" Comment="Edited title for clarity + searches" Text="How can I get paid more despite disclosing my hourly rate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10257" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3328" RevisionGUID="fa263d06-3d29-4be1-bf7b-929c9809f0ee" CreationDate="2015-06-12T06:57:10.360" UserId="8046" Text="Usually, you should get this number by filling a form at the government business registration center for your self-employed work. They will give you the business number the buyer requires.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Technically, they don't need that number but some clients may require it. It won't help to go through Elance or any other freelancer website." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10258" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3329" RevisionGUID="534f8e17-d69f-4993-9de2-9da2dbf53e8b" CreationDate="2015-06-12T07:13:34.113" UserId="8046" Text="I think the response is: You can't. This is an issue even the biggest corporations have difficulty with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what I know, what makes it hard to protect your IP in foreign country is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) The value of your work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) The capacity to sue if there is any infringement&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) The relationship of your country and the country where the infringement is done&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why I say you can't is because in some case, the value of the copied work needs to be above $10,000 and then it's a question of country vs country applicable laws. And then, even if the other country has a treaty with yours about intellectual property, you can easily imagine the fees you'd need to pay to hire a lawyer or a team of lawyers to sue the company/person who has stolen your IP. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're working on a very exclusive product, your best protection is to market it and make it a #1 before outsourcing the work in other countries or to simply pay more and hire people in your own country." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10262" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3331" RevisionGUID="1ed54e52-c9bc-4608-88b6-6a79db1778d0" CreationDate="2015-06-12T13:30:58.657" UserId="7486" Text="I heard about a &quot;trick&quot; that some software company use to protect ideas or IP when they outsource. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is about giving small tasks to do so that this task alone is not representing anything recognizable of the whole idea behind it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example you can split the work in many small tasks (if possible), then give task #1 to a company and instruct them about the input that they will have and the desired output, and the technology to use. Then go on with all the rest and when ready you will put all togheter in the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10263" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3332" RevisionGUID="a773c61f-088b-4ac1-9206-cc8c1d400509" CreationDate="2015-06-12T16:20:52.153" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10264" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3333" RevisionGUID="fff30091-5e25-411c-b844-7a85416cbcac" CreationDate="2015-06-12T16:20:52.153" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10267" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3334" RevisionGUID="dc85eb67-910a-45e8-ad9f-90f0d90fbe61" CreationDate="2015-06-13T00:31:11.313" UserId="1583" Text="I find it depends on what sort of schedule I feel I can keep and also what they are likely to work to as a client. Some clients have specific rules they set up in advance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I build websites and clients are happy with me giving them 14 day terms. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I bill them 20-30% up front most often, then try and break down the remainder to one or more % invoice after 2-4 weeks and keep going leaving at least 30% invoiced at sign off. The last point is a little vague and so usually around going live or when I push them to say all work is done. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I then give them some free time for fixes after launch but waiting 30 days after the finish seems unneeded. As I do all my taxes and billing through FreeAgent website I send my invoices from there as its so easy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I dont think there is a correct way, but most I have seen invoice in small parts, though I like Luke answer of pre dated main one." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10268" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3335" RevisionGUID="f19ffa79-e0c7-4567-9205-419698005d96" CreationDate="2015-06-13T02:17:02.417" UserId="7717" Text="I'm going to assume you live in a 'first-world' country where cost of living is high and hourly rates are higher.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tell your client you started with a low rate because you didn't have significant feedback history, but you need to work at a rate that supports the cost of living in your location. *Tell them* you aren't even covering your expenses. They should know that freelancers in [your country] typically charge higher rates, but that these higher rates come with greater skills and experience. If your client is focused on quality and willing to spend more for you to provide that quality, you still have the client. If all they care about is getting the lowest hourly rate, you don't really have the option of keeping them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have to charge more than the overseas guys, the key to making a living is *being worth the cost*. You are better educated, more reliable, more timely, more communicative, easier to work with. You have to meet these criteria to justify the higher cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work in the US and charge substantially higher rates on these platforms than the overseas guys, but I have steady work just because I do a better job. It's certainly doable, and you don't have to tie yourself down to one client. Apply for other jobs and see what happens.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10270" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3337" RevisionGUID="6be3ec11-8816-4b29-8f8e-a083e24bd0f8" CreationDate="2015-06-13T05:06:33.600" UserId="8046" Text="What I do with my clients and all the firms I've worked with is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) You need to first get a plan approved. This is what you did and it's the scope of the project. It must be separated in different steps (ex. design of template, final texts, script behavior and goal, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) At every step of your project, you should make your client officially approve that step with a signature. You require this in order to be able to start the next step. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) In your contract, you should specify that once a  step has been approved, any changes will be charged at X amount (usually hourly rate). These charges should be paid as they are done or even pre-paid, otherwise you will have some issues at the end of the project and it will also mess up the payment agreement for the rest of the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't forget that in the end, you're the one who has the power to stop the work until you get paid for this since it's not included in the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This should make your client think twice before moving back and making changes. The way to make them understand it's a fair process (and it is) is to explain exactly what you just explained here; each time the client comes back and make changes, you need to re-do work that has already be planned, calculated, and done. There is also more margin for errors when you need to quickly go back and re-work your files since your plan was not made with these data in mind.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the beginning of a project, you can also include some specific type of revisions that you will do without any charge and give clear examples (ex. typos.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All this is very efficient and might even make you enjoy the revisions as you will make extra money on this! It's also less frustrating. Some clients don't mind paying the revisions, they want the product done as they wish and want a freelancer to simply do what they ask for. Some clients are not very organized... So that's why you need to have some strategy like this for for the ones who don't mind paying and the ones who need an incentive to be more organized! What I also noticed is that some will try to get some free revisions because they're used to get what they want from others and not meeting any resistance from freelancers; but usually when you start mentioning the extra charge with a smile, they either compromise on the changes or they accept to pay for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't be afraid to act more &quot;business-like&quot; and set your terms. They will respect you for this and will also appreciate to know what to expect if the projects requires some adjustments. It's not always easy for them either to know all the details about the work required for a project and the best way to have a good relationship with your client is to always make sure everything is clear." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10276" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3340" RevisionGUID="879bcc65-7fd6-4c0a-a935-a14987b76b54" CreationDate="2015-06-14T08:50:32.227" UserId="8059" Text="If 100% security is a myth then at what level of proficiency should a responsible developer choose to make his services available?  How can clients expect small teams and individuals to be liable for a security breach when corporations and government with much bigger ITSec budgets get hacked?  We're web developers not security experts.  Why should a blogger expect to have the same kind of defenses as a financial institution?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Really when can I actually start working?  70% of websites have significant vulnerabilities so the people that built those sites obviously aren't waiting around.  There's no industry-wide standard that comprehensively covers web dev to use as a guide so who determines what's adequate and what's not?  My plan was to learn to develop using OWASP's guide but their new release isn't out and they're old was is from 2005.  If I had access to the new one I would be able to learn those standards and say what specific level of protection I can provide and then include a disclaimer in my contract saying, 'I am not a security company and can't be held liable for losses incurred due to breach.'  Ideally that would protect me.    &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people say if you're contracted to maintain the site after it's finished then you should be held liable.  I think this is only the case if the breach happened because you failed to install software updates/security patches in a timely matter.  You can't be expected to code for every single exploit.  What if you have to hire a third-party security firm to come in?  Who's footing the bill?  What if you outsource security before the breach even happens (test the site)?  Will they be liable when the site fails, or you because you built it?  What about multiple people working on the site (front end, backend)?  Are they responsible for only their section of code?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously contracts between all parties (front, back, security, client) is paramount here but seems even careful legalese may not protect you.  I'd like to know in detail how you guys word your contracts to protect yourself from these and other security issues, and also how you protect yourself outside of the contract, whether it be getting insurance for when you're sued or becoming an LLC.&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10277" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3340" RevisionGUID="879bcc65-7fd6-4c0a-a935-a14987b76b54" CreationDate="2015-06-14T08:50:32.227" UserId="8059" Text="How do freelance web developers approach security and liability?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10278" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3340" RevisionGUID="879bcc65-7fd6-4c0a-a935-a14987b76b54" CreationDate="2015-06-14T08:50:32.227" UserId="8059" Text="|contracts|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10279" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3341" RevisionGUID="a1533ce3-cd59-40ef-adca-d30b5192dd93" CreationDate="2015-06-14T10:41:10.433" UserId="7486" Text="As you stated, individual freelancers or small teams can't provide the same security levels reached by big corporations, but we can do all is that is possible to reach a reasonable level of security, considering also the fact that (usually) big corporations has big attacks and tons of data to loose while a small business has lower number of attacks (this is not a law but in general is like that).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;About security in office and workplaces, in EU we have a complex and specific law that regulates how you should keep and protect data (physical and digital) and keep safer as possible the computer with various protocols. If you stay within this law you are legally ok no one can say anything. Personally I paid for a consultancy to a professional that prepared all the papers and instructed me on the protocols to keep (since also I have no time to do that myself).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;About web site security, the most secure way (but let's say the less unsecure) to develop a web site is to adopt a reasonably stable platform and components and keep them updated as soon as they has upgrades available, and use also a quality hosting provider. That is what I am able to do as a single or small team driven project. And since now I never had big problems so far.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;About the contracts, in short words, I write in it that the client is aware that despite all the efforts that are done to secure a website, there is no guarantee that noone will hack it and steal the data or create any kind of problem. In this case I can't be considered fully or partially guilty of that or be asked for any kind of refund.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10280" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3342" RevisionGUID="443e2efa-abeb-48de-b980-0791addb763a" CreationDate="2015-06-14T12:15:31.407" UserId="8046" Text="Yes, indeed... no free tests. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BUT when you're starting your freelance career or do it part time, you often don't have a lot of clients and constant work. That's when you're building your reputation and portfolio. Clients who ask for free tests are usually from freelance websites such as Elance. So the goal for any freelancer is to ideally be able to get away from freelance websites and have their own &quot;client bank&quot;. That's why sometimes, compromising can pay off and I totally see why Xaigo still want to try his/her luck with the 10% who might be long term clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unlike plumbers or mechanics, freelance design often mainly involves a time investment and no parts, transport or extra costs other profession need to pay for. So you can compare yourself as a lawyer who would accept to give a free 15 minutes consultation by phone instead, and act like one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to simply refuse free tests on freelance sites like Elance, you can mention that it's against the rules and you don't want to get your account banned. As simple as that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**There's 2 reasons why clients ask for tests:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**1)** They've been mislead in the past by bad and dishonest designers (fake portfolio, keeping files in &quot;hostage&quot;, no skills, bad management, work not done in-house, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2)** They're cheap and are trying to get free work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can investigate and not be afraid to ask why they ask for free tests. Honest clients will tell you about their past misfortune with freelancers; make them talk to know what's up with the free tests. The bad ones will say &quot;we want to try you to see if you're a good fit&quot;. Discard those without any regret, they'll drain you anyway and are usually a real waste of time with no potential.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ...but I still want to try my luck with those 10% where the client&#xD;&#xA;&gt; just doesn't know how much time and effort the test demands.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're the one accepting to be generous on your own terms and you can make this clear; if you want to try giving &quot;free&quot; tests to that 10%, you need to have the attitude of an entrepreneur and take your time before accepting to do the tests. Don't beg for work; make it clear that your time is important and it's a privilege you're giving them if you offer a test. If you have the right business attitude and show you're not all about money (or desperate), you will be surprised how many clients will get back to you after a few days and decide to simply pay for the whole project without any test.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of the time, the clients will ask you for test jobs that would be useful for them. So the way you can &quot;win this game&quot;, is by offering them to do a partial test for X amount and if they aren't satisfied, you will refund them. You can also offer them to start with the first drafts of a real project in exchange of 25% of the project's value; if they're not happy with the result, the project is cancelled. In any way, you should never lose anything and you can remind them they're not risking much either. A business owner shouldn't be upset in losing a $25-$100 for a set of drafts for a simple project. They even get a deductible on their taxes for these things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This usually work well with the 10% you're talking about because their issue is not about payment, it's about meeting the right designer who can deliver the service as promised and who makes their life easy. They will be fair with you. If you put that kind of condition in the terms, they will feel reassured about your honesty and might also be impressed by your self confidence. If you're a good designer, they will fall in love with your design and your personality. The &quot;client psychology&quot; is that when they see something they like and need, they'll really want it; serious people in business don't have time to waste. So make that happen!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You cannot fail with this since you get paid anyway, and if they're not satisfied, they don't really get anything free from you but a few hours of your time (no files, only useless watermarked proofs). If you got skills, you will never have to refund anyone and that's what's funny about this. You're not really taking any risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, none of these test proofs should be usable; you must add watermarks and make sure they cannot extract any design from it (ex. no PDF, give JPG proofs.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You mentioned that the tests are often requiring a lot of time;** you can decide to offer them a very small test such as a web banner or something that is very easy and quick for you to do. And you can give them options but not necessarily stuff they ask/need. That is your choice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they don't want any of these option, that's when you can come back with starting a real project instead, with a down payment but no obligation for them to continue the project if they're not happy with your first drafts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can even tell them you just want to get started and these tests are a waste of your time and their time (and money). Have the attitude &quot;let's just get things done, I'm the best, trust me!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are confident in your skills, you know they will want to work with you anyway after &quot;trying you&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**But if you try this on clients and they simply don't want to compromise at all**, then it might not be worth giving them tests unless you want to keep these designs later for your portfolio or if you want to do the test because it's fun. The good clients will always treat you with respect and accept some compromise; I never had a good client not accepting some kind of deal, but I can guarantee you the bad ones will try hard to not pay anything. Discard them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this helps! I'm not saying you should always give tests, but this is a very efficient way to get your way in and show your personality during the negotiation process. In freelance, skills are important but so is attitude and the best way to connect with good clients is to show you're a business person as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10281" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3343" RevisionGUID="24e8cab7-2d43-4aa2-9040-4dd1b911afc0" CreationDate="2015-06-14T14:06:08.440" UserId="8046" Text="Depending on how much the client owes you, sometimes it's worth just getting out of a project and forgetting about the money if you're already spending more time than it's worth, and if it takes away better opportunities from you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No, you don't refund the money, you worked for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But try to get paid. There are some options, some &quot;nice&quot; and some more &quot;assertive&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Your options:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**1) You simply ask to be paid and you can include all the hours you've worked on the project and send you client an invoice.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you do this, make sure to make it clear that you want to keep helping her but that it's time for the client to fill her part of the deal. Tell her in order to finalize the projects, she needs to pay what she owes you. In your message, don't forget to nicely and respectfully (no passive-aggressive) remind her how the site has been successful and generating nice sales and how things are going well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't need to tell her you want to get out of the project but you can tell her that you are strongly considering quitting because you don't feel she's appreciating your work and the fact she doesn't pay **is making you feel very uncomfortable, anxious, and confuse about where this is heading.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2) You tell her you quit and keep this experience as something to remember for the next projects.** And go enjoy life and your freedom again!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**3) Remove your files hosted on her account.** &#xD;&#xA;Technically, if you haven't been paid, this is your intellectual property. You should keep all this work in backup because she will probably want to have it back. Make sure to not touch what's belong to her (ex. paid plugins, theme). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't do this if she paid a big part of the project already.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, this is a very rude way to get things done but any business would do the same. If she would bring her fur coat to the local cleaner and not pay for the storage/cleaning, the owner there would certainly not let her leave the building with the fur coat and wait for her to pay &quot;when she feels like it&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I strongly suggest you to try #1 first and then #2 OR #3.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's why your first message needs to not be rude or desperate or complaining. You should first write to her to see if she has any intention of paying you or not. That's also why you need to mention the situation makes you uncomfortable and anxious. If that doesn't get her to have a professional response and attitude, you can decide if it's better to get out or take back your code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Only you knows what she owes you and what is the best option for you. One thing for sure, if you want to get out of a project and don't care about the money, just make it clear and say goodbye. You don't need to tell excuses or feel like justifying your choice. The simple fact you are not paid is already a very reasonable reason. Don't argue, don't send a 3 pages email, don't respond to the following emails if she harasses you. Block her if you need to. Don't be scared to hurt her feelings, it's just business and you're both adults.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I'm more the type of person to do #1 and #2 but I never really faced a situation like yours. I always had the luck to be able to finish the projects and simply stop working for the undesirable clients who are slow to pay. But I have seen many websites with a big JPG as homepage instead of a working ecommerce, some even had a &quot;pay your invoice&quot; on it. So if you do this, you wouldn't be the first for sure ;)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10283" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3315" RevisionGUID="326d1a32-7148-43bd-aea0-59ff8dbed53b" CreationDate="2015-06-15T03:23:19.090" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/610286433862066177" />
  <row Id="10290" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3346" RevisionGUID="f8c26e62-168f-485c-8984-7c63f7fe07e7" CreationDate="2015-06-17T00:46:38.007" UserId="8046" Text="**Skype**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It doesn't matter if you can't have personal meetings with them, clients love to be able to do Skype meetings if you don't mind using it. You simply need to make it very clear that you're opened to chat with them about their projects. If you don't like being on video mode, they're usually alright with a voice chat as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Currency Value**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is another thing that could make you a good candidate for them: the value of the currency of your country. Instead of adjusting your prices all in US dollars, you should really calculate what is good value for you in your own currency and offer it this way to your client, with the US dollar value at the same time. When you adjust your prices already in US dollars, and at the same value as the other american developers, there's absolutely no advantages for them to select you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Targeting the right market**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to attract more american clients, you need to show them what they want to buy. If your portfolio contains too much &quot;regional&quot; designs and not enough &quot;international&quot; designs, they might not be as attracted because clients often think what you show them is all you can do! For this reason, it's good to show them some work with more &quot;americanized&quot; flavor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Go where clients are**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't wait for them to find you, go where they hang. There's Facebook groups, forums, LinkedIn, and even reach them directly when you see a company is in need of a nice website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Blog + Website**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be active online. Have a decent blog, show that you know what you're talking about, share useful tricks with THEM, not with the community of coders/dev! You need to target your content for your target market, not only what you know technically. Be opened to share the knowledge that could be useful for them as buyers. You know they won't build their own websites, but they might want tricks on how to find a good dev, what hosting to choose, what should they expect as process for the creation of a website, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you develop Wordpress websites, you should have a nice elegant Wordpress website yourself (which I guess you have already.) Remember that the style you'll use for your own design will also influence which kind of clientele you'll attract. So on this, it's not a question of ego and showing your personality; it's a question of showing you can do nice business and corporative design.... and most of the time, less is better! So keep it simple. You will show your personality in your about page, your posts, your interaction with them, and that's enough for them to judge your character.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Freelance website... (arghh...)**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yeah, very hard to be respected as a skilled professional and get good work there, but with the tricks above, this might increase your chances on being selected or at least invited for some projects. Don't be too greedy, if you're just starting, or don't have a big portfolio, you might benefit from doing a few jobs that pay less but that can be used as reference for future work. The truth is that as designers and dev, we're &quot;practicing&quot; our skills all the time with the projects of our clients ;) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, if you're not very pro-active and if you don't have much initiative, you will have hard time finding freelance work out of freelance websites. It's often a starting point for a lot of freelancers but that doesn't mean you'll get your work there for the rest of your life!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Be honest**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always be honest when selling your services. It's hard for oversea buyers to fully trust services coming from countries where they cannot legally have any reach. So you need to always be an honest service provider, and negotiate clearly. Communication is very important, don't make them waste time. If you can also have a contract to show your terms clearly, it's a good thing. It will show them you have some method and how they can expect the projects to be managed by you. And respect the deadline and timeframe. One client who appreciates working with you will refer you to his friend, accountant, boss, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of the time, clients will prefer to work with someone who is crystal clear when communicating, who doesn't let them confused or anxious, doesn't make them wait than working with a difficult provider with more skills! You need to make their life easier, not harder. They'll really appreciate this!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you're targeting americans... you need to get used to their &quot;straight to the point&quot; and very direct approach! They might not exchange a lot of emails before asking you what they want and how much they're willing to pay! If you are not responding well to this or try to make the negotiation process too long, that might not work well for you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10291" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3340" RevisionGUID="d4138aec-0f7e-4f1f-9fec-f5832766468a" CreationDate="2015-06-17T09:23:35.067" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/611101873530126336" />
  <row Id="10292" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3347" RevisionGUID="3ac7c5fb-06b9-4990-b4ca-68f725529bc7" CreationDate="2015-06-17T09:51:45.800" UserId="58" Text="I'm a freelance web developer and security researcher, so my experience may be a little biased.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, web development is a pretty insecure mess. More experienced developers are generally seen as more security-focussed programmers; you first learn to program, then you learn to program well, then you learn to program securely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, if your client is focussed on security, recommend they have an independent security audit as part of the signing-off process. This will be a team or individual who will do analysis of code, general penetration testing, and so on, and you'll be given a report of things to fix before final sign off. this should be worked out beforehand with your client, and you should be *sure* to include an indemnity clause in your contract for what you have created.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not a lawyer, but this is from my contract:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ### Legal Stuff&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I can’t guarantee that my work will be error-free and so can’t be liable to you or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if you’ve advised myself of them. Finally, if any provision of this contract shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this contract and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a web developer, your responsibility is to plug any obvious holes. This can be found on [OWASP][owasp] (the Open Web Application Security Project), in their top 10 vulnerabilities, but for brevity, you need to mitigate the following things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* SQL Injection (Or any injection!)&#xD;&#xA;* Broken Auth/Session Management (Impersonating other users)&#xD;&#xA;* Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)&#xD;&#xA;* Security Configuration&#xD;&#xA;* Exposing Sensitive Data&#xD;&#xA;* Cross-site Request Forgery (CSRF/XSRF)&#xD;&#xA;* Reflected Redirects (blindly doing `redirect($_GET['redirect'])`, for example)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, regardless of where you are in the world and what data privacy laws are, make sure you adhere to the most strict privacy laws in the world (most EU states) if your application collects sensitive data. Separation of Concerns in all aspects of your app should be adhered to; just following most privacy laws lead to reduced data leaks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[owasp]: https://www.owasp.org" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10293" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3347" RevisionGUID="1f597eba-0e09-47a1-864c-bdeac3d49274" CreationDate="2015-06-17T09:59:11.897" UserId="58" Comment="Added contract citation" Text="I'm a freelance web developer and security researcher, so my experience may be a little biased.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, web development is a pretty insecure mess. More experienced developers are generally seen as more security-focussed programmers; you first learn to program, then you learn to program well, then you learn to program securely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, if your client is focussed on security, recommend they have an independent security audit as part of the signing-off process. This will be a team or individual who will do analysis of code, general penetration testing, and so on, and you'll be given a report of things to fix before final sign off. this should be worked out beforehand with your client, and you should be *sure* to include an indemnity clause in your contract for what you have created.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not a lawyer, but this is from my contract:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ### Legal Stuff&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I can’t guarantee that my work will be error-free and so can’t be liable to you or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if you’ve advised myself of them. Finally, if any provision of this contract shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this contract and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &lt;sub&gt;[Original Source - Contract Killer 3][contract]&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a web developer, your responsibility is to plug any obvious holes. This can be found on [OWASP][owasp] (the Open Web Application Security Project), in their top 10 vulnerabilities, but for brevity, you need to mitigate the following things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* SQL Injection (Or any injection!)&#xD;&#xA;* Broken Auth/Session Management (Impersonating other users)&#xD;&#xA;* Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)&#xD;&#xA;* Security Configuration&#xD;&#xA;* Exposing Sensitive Data&#xD;&#xA;* Cross-site Request Forgery (CSRF/XSRF)&#xD;&#xA;* Reflected Redirects (blindly doing `redirect($_GET['redirect'])`, for example)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, regardless of where you are in the world and what data privacy laws are, make sure you adhere to the most strict privacy laws in the world (most EU states) if your application collects sensitive data. Separation of Concerns in all aspects of your app should be adhered to; just following most privacy laws lead to reduced data leaks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[owasp]: https://www.owasp.org&#xD;&#xA;[contract]: https://gist.github.com/malarkey/4031110" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10294" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3347" RevisionGUID="37529823-6248-4aec-87d7-e74d49354592" CreationDate="2015-06-17T10:10:03.290" UserId="7650" Comment="I fixed the typo in &quot;focused&quot;." Text="I'm a freelance web developer and security researcher, so my experience may be a little biased.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, web development is a pretty insecure mess. More experienced developers are generally seen as more security-focused programmers; you first learn to program, then you learn to program well, then you learn to program securely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, if your client is focused on security, recommend that they have an independent security audit as part of the signing-off process. This will be a team or individual who will do analysis of code, general penetration testing, and so on, and you'll be given a report of things to fix before final sign off. this should be worked out beforehand with your client, and you should be *sure* to include an indemnity clause in your contract for what you have created.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not a lawyer, but this is from my contract:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ### Legal Stuff&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I can’t guarantee that my work will be error-free and so can’t be liable to you or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if you’ve advised myself of them. Finally, if any provision of this contract shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this contract and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &lt;sub&gt;[Original Source - Contract Killer 3][contract]&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a web developer, your responsibility is to plug any obvious holes. This can be found on [OWASP][owasp] (the Open Web Application Security Project), in their top 10 vulnerabilities, but for brevity, you need to mitigate the following things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* SQL Injection (Or any injection!)&#xD;&#xA;* Broken Auth/Session Management (Impersonating other users)&#xD;&#xA;* Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)&#xD;&#xA;* Security Configuration&#xD;&#xA;* Exposing Sensitive Data&#xD;&#xA;* Cross-site Request Forgery (CSRF/XSRF)&#xD;&#xA;* Reflected Redirects (blindly doing `redirect($_GET['redirect'])`, for example)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, regardless of where you are in the world and what data privacy laws are, make sure you adhere to the most strict privacy laws in the world (most EU states) if your application collects sensitive data. Separation of Concerns in all aspects of your app should be adhered to; just following most privacy laws lead to reduced data leaks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[owasp]: https://www.owasp.org&#xD;&#xA;[contract]: https://gist.github.com/malarkey/4031110" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10295" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3347" RevisionGUID="37529823-6248-4aec-87d7-e74d49354592" CreationDate="2015-06-17T10:10:03.290" Comment="Proposed by 7650 approved by 58 edit id of 401" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10296" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3348" RevisionGUID="1cbdfd67-ff82-4e31-8f58-d5f31004b669" CreationDate="2015-06-17T11:57:33.403" UserId="8086" Text="I joined freelancer Last month and i found a job immediently! My employer was very happy and satisfied with it so he hired me again for Many other projects , Sadly tho. His account had an issue and he had to close it for whatever reason.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He gave me 2 rating on 2 projects that i worked on 5 Stars , but i can't really find anyone who's interested in hiring me... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I need some help from you guys to get past the 2 projects wall. i really want to continue working.." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10297" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3348" RevisionGUID="1cbdfd67-ff82-4e31-8f58-d5f31004b669" CreationDate="2015-06-17T11:57:33.403" UserId="8086" Text="How can i get past the 2 projects wall?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10298" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3348" RevisionGUID="1cbdfd67-ff82-4e31-8f58-d5f31004b669" CreationDate="2015-06-17T11:57:33.403" UserId="8086" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10299" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3340" RevisionGUID="cfb46b67-dddf-4098-8e1e-b62cf601f5d9" CreationDate="2015-06-17T12:01:42.797" UserId="8059" Comment="added 174 characters in body" Text="If 100% security is a myth then at what level of proficiency should a responsible developer choose to make his services available?  How can clients expect small teams and individuals to be liable for a security breach when corporations and government with much bigger ITSec budgets get hacked?  We're web developers not security experts.  Why should a blogger expect to have the same kind of defenses as a financial institution?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Really when can I actually start working?  70% of websites have significant vulnerabilities so the people that built those sites obviously aren't waiting around.  There's no industry-wide standard that comprehensively covers web dev to use as a guide so who determines what's adequate and what's not?  My plan was to learn to develop using OWASP's guide but their new release isn't out and they're old was is from 2005.  If I had access to the new one I would be able to learn those standards and say what specific level of protection I can provide and then include a disclaimer in my contract saying, 'I am not a security company and can't be held liable for losses incurred due to breach.'  Ideally that would protect me.    &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people say if you're contracted to maintain the site after it's finished then you should be held liable.  I think this is only the case if the breach happened because you failed to install software updates/security patches on time.  You can't be expected to code for every single exploit.  What if you have to hire a third-party security firm to come in?  Who's footing the bill?  What if you outsource security before the breach even happens (test the site)?  Will they be liable when the site fails, or you because you built it?  What about multiple people working on the site (front end, backend)?  Are they responsible for only their section of code?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would really be helpful to me is to get examples of how other freelancers protect themselves from these and other security issues.  Specific wording of their personal contracts would be great but also any addtitional measures taken outside of those because apparently legalese, like security, isn't a bullet-proof defense.  Are things like insurance for lawsuits/becoming an LLC a consideration?  I welcome any information even if you don't freelance yourslef, and nothing offered here will be taken as strict legal advice so please don't hesitate put in your two cents. &#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10300" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="3348" RevisionGUID="0225584f-9969-41f2-913a-7a5cb8ac3d36" CreationDate="2015-06-17T12:37:57.060" UserId="58" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10301" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="3348" RevisionGUID="e0c7f881-7b47-4589-b6e1-59398a4c4530" CreationDate="2015-06-17T12:38:17.070" UserId="58" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10302" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3348" RevisionGUID="7bbf7e60-4006-4653-bee2-2ce0e5348236" CreationDate="2015-06-17T12:38:42.383" UserId="58" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10303" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3340" RevisionGUID="2021d696-1985-4b57-b4e2-1e0a8d4d3f10" CreationDate="2015-06-17T13:20:52.287" UserId="8059" Comment="Readability" Text="Edited, couldn't find a way to add spaces between paragraphs but hopefully it's easier to read/understand&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Liability&#xD;&#xA;---------&#xD;&#xA;How can clients expect small teams and individuals to be liable for a security breach when the news is filled with corporations and governments with much bigger ITSec budgets getting hacked?  And we're just web developers, not security experts.  Are bloggers expecting to have a level of security beyond that of say a financial institution's?  There's no industry-wide standard that comprehensively covers all of web development so who determines what's adequate and what's not?  &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;When Can I Start Working?&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;If 100% security is a myth then at what level of proficiency can a responsible developer expect to make his services available?  70% of websites have significant vulnerabilities so the people that built those obviously weren't waiting around.  Learning to develop using OWASP's guide would be nice if their update was available.  At least then I'd have a respected standard to follow and I could say exactly what vulnerabilities my services protect against.  Hopefully then a disclaimer in my contract stating somewhere along the mines that 'I am not a security company' and 'I can't be held liable for losses incurred due to breach' would protect me from a lawsuit.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Developemnt Contracts That Include Maintenance&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;Some people say if you're contracted to maintain the site after it's finished then you should be held liable after a breach.  I think this should only be true if the breach happened due to a vulnerability being present after you failed to install software updates/security patches on time.  Any other attack vector and it's ridiculous because it doesn't seem reasonable to be expected to code for every exploit that might be out there.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3rd Parties&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Seems like outsourcing the security for maintenance (monitoring, updates, recovery, etc.) and before release (testing) would be a good way to avoid liability.  Would I have to explicitly state something in the contract to shift responsibility to the 3rd party?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to get confusing when you outsource other parts of the project like he front-end.  Are sub-contractors responsible for vulnerabilities on their side are does the whole project fall under you as a whole.  How do you coordinate contracts between all parties (client, security, front-end designer, etc.) appropiately in terms of legal issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I Need&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;What would really be helpful to me is to get examples of how other freelancers protect themselves from these and other legal issues pertaining to security.  Specific wording of personal contracts would be great but also any addtitional measures taken outside of those because apparently legalese, like security, isn't a bullet-proof defense.  Should things like insurance for lawsuits/becoming an LLC a consideration?  I welcome any information even if you don't freelance yourself and nothing provided here will be taken as legal advice so please feel free to put in your two cents. &#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10304" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3340" RevisionGUID="637dee33-a5b7-4319-a5c0-e67efa65c8c5" CreationDate="2015-06-17T13:31:14.740" UserId="8059" Comment="deleted 95 characters in body" Text="Liability&#xD;&#xA;---------&#xD;&#xA;How can clients expect small teams and individuals to be liable for a security breach when the news is filled with corporations and governments with much bigger ITSec budgets getting hacked?  And we're just web developers, not security experts.  Are bloggers expecting to have a level of security beyond that of say a financial institution's?  There's no industry-wide standard that comprehensively covers all of web development so who determines what's adequate and what's not?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;When Can I Start Working?&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;If 100% security is a myth then at what level of proficiency can a responsible developer expect to make his services available?  70% of websites have significant vulnerabilities so the people that built those obviously weren't waiting around.  Learning to develop using OWASP's guide would be nice if their update was available.  At least then I'd have a respected standard to follow and I could say exactly what vulnerabilities my services protect against.  Hopefully then a disclaimer in my contract stating somewhere along the mines that 'I am not a security company' and 'I can't be held liable for losses incurred due to breach' would protect me from a lawsuit.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Developemnt Contracts That Include Maintenance&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;Some people say if you're contracted to maintain the site after it's finished then you should be held liable after a breach.  I think this should only be true if the breach happened due to a vulnerability being present after you failed to install software updates/security patches on time.  Any other attack vector and it's ridiculous because it doesn't seem reasonable to be expected to code for every exploit that might be out there.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;3rd Parties&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Seems like outsourcing the security for maintenance (monitoring, updates, recovery, etc.) and before release (testing) would be a good way to avoid liability.  Would I have to explicitly state something in the contract to shift responsibility to the 3rd party?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to get confusing when you outsource other parts of the project like he front-end.  Are sub-contractors responsible for vulnerabilities on their side are does the whole project fall under you as a whole.  How do you coordinate contracts between all parties (client, security, front-end designer, etc.) appropiately in terms of legal issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Helpful Information&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;What would really be helpful to me is to get examples of how other freelancers protect themselves from these and other legal issues pertaining to security.  Specific wording of personal contracts would be great but also any addtitional measures taken outside of those because apparently legalese, like security, isn't a bullet-proof defense.  Should things like insurance for lawsuits/becoming an LLC a consideration?  I welcome any information even if you don't freelance yourself and nothing provided here will be taken as legal advice so please feel free to put in your two cents. &#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10305" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3340" RevisionGUID="f9b6469b-db40-407d-93bd-aeaefc1c8f08" CreationDate="2015-06-17T13:36:50.040" UserId="8059" Comment="deleted 95 characters in body" Text="*Note: I edited this to try to make it easier to read/understand.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Liability&#xD;&#xA;---------&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;How can clients expect small teams and individuals to be liable for a security breach when the news is filled with corporations and governments with much bigger ITSec budgets getting hacked?  And we're just web developers, not security experts.  Are bloggers expecting to have a level of security beyond that of say a financial institution's?  There's no industry-wide standard that comprehensively covers all of web development so who determines what's adequate and what's not?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;When Can I Start Working?&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;If 100% security is a myth then at what level of proficiency can a responsible developer expect to make his services available?  70% of websites have significant vulnerabilities so the people that built those obviously weren't waiting around.  Learning to develop using OWASP's guide would be nice if their update was available.  At least then I'd have a respected standard to follow and I could say exactly what vulnerabilities my services protect against.  Hopefully then a disclaimer in my contract stating somewhere along the mines that 'I am not a security company' and 'I can't be held liable for losses incurred due to breach' would protect me from a lawsuit.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Developemnt Contracts That Include Maintenance&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;Some people say if you're contracted to maintain the site after it's finished then you should be held liable after a breach.  I think this should only be true if the breach happened due to a vulnerability being present after you failed to install software updates/security patches on time.  Any other attack vector and it's ridiculous because it doesn't seem reasonable to be expected to code for every exploit that might be out there.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;3rd Parties&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Seems like outsourcing the security for maintenance (monitoring, updates, recovery, etc.) and before release (testing) would be a good way to avoid liability.  Would I have to explicitly state something in the contract to shift responsibility to the 3rd party?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to get confusing when you outsource other parts of the project like he front-end.  Are sub-contractors responsible for vulnerabilities on their side are does the whole project fall under you as a whole.  How do you coordinate contracts between all parties (client, security, front-end designer, etc.) appropiately in terms of legal issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Helpful Information&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;What would really be helpful to me is to get examples of how other freelancers protect themselves from these and other legal issues pertaining to security.  Specific wording of personal contracts would be great but also any addtitional measures taken outside of those because apparently legalese, like security, isn't a bullet-proof defense.  Should things like insurance for lawsuits/becoming an LLC a consideration?  I welcome any information even if you don't freelance yourself and nothing provided here will be taken as legal advice so please feel free to put in your two cents. &#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10306" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3340" RevisionGUID="a3ab2c8e-4f43-4019-beef-1a40b7c43421" CreationDate="2015-06-17T13:42:08.727" UserId="8059" Comment="deleted 95 characters in body" Text="*Note: I edited this to try to make it easier to read/understand.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Liability&#xD;&#xA;---------&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;How can clients expect small teams and individuals to be liable for a security breach when the news is filled with corporations and governments with much bigger ITSec budgets getting hacked?  And we're just web developers, not security experts.  Are bloggers expecting to have a level of security beyond that of say a financial institution's?  There's no industry-wide standard that comprehensively covers all of web development so who determines what's adequate and what's not?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;When Can I Start Working?&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;If 100% security is a myth then at what level of proficiency can a responsible developer expect to make his services available?  70% of websites have significant vulnerabilities so the people that built those obviously weren't waiting around.  Learning to develop using OWASP's guide would be nice if their update was available.  At least then I'd have a respected standard to follow and I could say exactly what vulnerabilities my services protect against.  Hopefully then a disclaimer in my contract stating somewhere along the mines that 'I am not a security company' and 'I can't be held liable for losses incurred due to breach' would protect me from a lawsuit.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Developemnt Contracts That Include Maintenance&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Some people say if you're contracted to maintain the site after it's finished then you should be held liable after a breach.  I think this should only be true if the breach happened due to a vulnerability being present after you failed to install software updates/security patches on time.  Any other attack vector and it's ridiculous because it doesn't seem reasonable to be expected to code for every exploit that might be out there.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;3rd Parties&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Seems like outsourcing the security for maintenance (monitoring, updates, recovery, etc.) and before release (testing) would be a good way to avoid liability.  Would I have to explicitly state something in the contract to shift responsibility to the 3rd party?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to get confusing when you outsource other parts of the project like he front-end.  Are sub-contractors responsible for vulnerabilities on their side are does the whole project fall under you as a whole.  How do you coordinate contracts between all parties (client, security, front-end designer, etc.) appropiately in terms of legal issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Helpful Information&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;What would really be helpful to me is to get examples of how other freelancers protect themselves from these and other legal issues pertaining to security.  Specific wording of personal contracts would be great but also any addtitional measures taken outside of those because apparently legalese, like security, isn't a bullet-proof defense.  Should things like insurance for lawsuits/becoming an LLC a consideration?  I welcome any information even if you don't freelance yourself and nothing provided here will be taken as legal advice so please feel free to put in your two cents. &#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10307" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3340" RevisionGUID="bfa1ddc2-27aa-47c5-801e-ddb177876070" CreationDate="2015-06-17T14:08:57.517" UserId="8059" Comment="edited body" Text="*Note: I edited this to try to make it easier to read/understand.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Liability&#xD;&#xA;---------&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;How can clients expect small teams and individuals to be liable for a security breach when the news is filled with corporations and governments with much bigger ITSec budgets getting hacked?  And we're just web developers, not security experts.  Are bloggers expecting to have a level of security beyond that of say a financial institution's?  There's no industry-wide standard that comprehensively covers all of web development so who determines what's adequate and what's not?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;When Can I Start Working?&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;If 100% security is a myth then at what level of proficiency can a responsible developer expect to make his services available?  70% of websites have significant vulnerabilities so the people that built those obviously weren't waiting around.  Learning to develop using OWASP's guide would be nice if their update was available.  At least then I'd have a respected standard to follow and I could say exactly what vulnerabilities my services protect against.  Hopefully then a disclaimer in my contract stating somewhere along the lines that &quot;I am not a security company&quot; and &quot;I can't be held liable for losses incurred due to breach&quot; would protect me from a lawsuit.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Developemnt Contracts That Include Maintenance&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Some people say if you're contracted to maintain the site after it's finished then you should be held liable after a breach.  I think this should only be true if the breach happened due to a vulnerability being present after you failed to install software updates/security patches on time.  Any other attack vector and it's ridiculous because it doesn't seem reasonable to be expected to code for every exploit that might be out there.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;3rd Parties&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Seems like outsourcing the security for maintenance (monitoring, updates, recovery, etc.) and before release (testing) would be a good way to avoid liability.  Would I have to explicitly state something in the contract to shift responsibility to the 3rd party?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to get confusing when you outsource other parts of the project like the front-end.  Are sub-contractors responsible for vulnerabilities on their side are does the whole project fall under you?  How do you coordinate contracts between all parties (client, security, front-end designer, etc.) appropiately in terms of legal issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Helpful Information&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;What would really be helpful to me is to get examples of how other freelancers protect themselves from these and other legal issues pertaining to security.  Specific wording used in their own contracts would be great as well as any addtitional measures taken outside of that because apparently legalese, like security, isn't a bullet-proof defense.  Should things like insurance for lawsuits/becoming an LLC be a consideration?  I welcome any information even if you don't freelance yourself and nothing provided here will be taken as legal advice so please feel free to put in your two cents. &#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10308" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3340" RevisionGUID="e5fd23db-5014-4330-b2cf-d1a9cdd1b56f" CreationDate="2015-06-17T14:31:06.823" UserId="8059" Comment="deleted 24 characters in body" Text="*Note: I edited this to try to make it easier to read/understand.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Liability&#xD;&#xA;---------&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;How can clients expect small teams and individuals to be liable for a security breach when the news is filled with corporations and governments with much bigger ITSec budgets getting hacked?  And we're just web developers, not security experts.  Are bloggers expecting to have an un-breachable prodect, something even financial institutions don't have?  There's no industry-wide standard that comprehensively covers all of web development so who determines what's adequate and what's not?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;When Can I Start Working?&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;If 100% security is a myth then at what level of proficiency can a responsible developer expect to make his services available?  70% of websites have significant vulnerabilities so the people that built those obviously weren't waiting around.  Learning to develop using OWASP's guide would be nice if their update was available.  At least then I'd have a respected standard to follow and I could say exactly what vulnerabilities my services protect against.  Hopefully then a disclaimer in my contract stating somewhere along the lines that &quot;I am not a security company&quot; and &quot;I can't be held liable for losses incurred due to breach&quot; would protect me from a lawsuit.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Developemnt Contracts That Include Maintenance&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Some people say if you're contracted to maintain the site after it's finished then you should be held liable for a hack.  I think this should only be true if the breach happened due to a vulnerability being present because you failed to install software updates/security patches quickly.  Any other attack vector and it's ridiculous because it doesn't seem reasonable to be expected to code for every exploit that might be out there.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;3rd Parties&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Seems like outsourcing the security for maintenance (monitoring, updates, recovery, etc.) and before release (testing) would be a good way to avoid liability.  Would I have to explicitly state something in the contract to shift responsibility to the 3rd party?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to get confusing when you outsource other parts of the project like the front-end.  Are sub-contractors responsible for vulnerabilities on their side are does the whole project fall under you?  How do you coordinate contracts between all parties (client, security, front-end designer, etc.) appropiately in terms of legal issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Helpful Information&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;What would really be helpful to me is to get examples of how other freelancers protect themselves from these and other legal issues regarding to security.  Specific wording used in their own contracts would be great as well as any addtitional measures taken outside of that (because apparently legalese like security isn't a bullet-proof defense).  Should things like insurance for lawsuits/becoming an LLC be a consideration?  All information is welcomed even if you don't freelance yourself.  Nothing here will be taken as legal advice so please feel free to comment. &#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10309" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3340" RevisionGUID="8793e876-6f53-47e9-a7b8-cf0311ffa5e9" CreationDate="2015-06-17T14:37:32.203" UserId="8059" Comment="added 11 characters in body" Text="*Note: I edited this to try to make it easier to read/understand.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Liability&#xD;&#xA;---------&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;How can clients expect small teams and individuals to be liable for a security breach when the news is filled with corporations and governments with much bigger ITSec budgets getting hacked?  And we're just web developers, not security experts.  Are bloggers expecting to have an un-breachable prodect, something even financial institutions don't have?  There's no industry-wide standard that comprehensively covers all of web development so who determines what's adequate and what's not?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;When Can I Start Working?&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;If 100% security is a myth then at what level of proficiency can a responsible developer expect to make his services available?  70% of websites have significant vulnerabilities so the people that built those obviously weren't waiting around.  Learning to develop using OWASP's guide would be nice if their update was available.  At least then I'd have a respected standard to follow and I could say exactly what vulnerabilities my services protect against.  Hopefully then a disclaimer in my contract stating somewhere along the lines that &quot;I am not a security company&quot; and &quot;I can't be held liable for losses incurred due to breach&quot; would protect me from a lawsuit.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Developemnt Contracts That Include Maintenance&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Some people say if you're contracted to maintain the site after it's finished then you should be held liable for a hack.  I think this should only be true if the breach happened due to a vulnerability being present because you failed to install software updates/security patches quickly.  Any other attack vector and it's ridiculous because it doesn't seem reasonable for someone to expect you to code for every exploit that might be out there.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;3rd Parties&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Seems like outsourcing the security for maintenance (monitoring, updates, recovery, etc.) and before release (testing) would be a good way to avoid liability.  Would I have to explicitly state something in the contract to shift responsibility to the 3rd party?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to get confusing when you outsource other parts of the project like the front-end.  Are sub-contractors responsible for vulnerabilities on their side are does the whole project fall under you?  How do you coordinate contracts between all parties (client, security, front-end designer, etc.) appropiately in terms of legal issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Helpful Information&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;What would really be helpful to me is to get examples of how other freelancers protect themselves from these and other legal issues regarding to security.  Specific wording used in their own contracts would be great as well as any addtitional measures taken outside of that (because apparently legalese like security isn't a bullet-proof defense).  Should things like insurance for lawsuits/becoming an LLC be a consideration?  All information is welcomed even if you don't freelance yourself.  Nothing here will be taken as legal advice so please feel free to comment. &#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10310" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3348" RevisionGUID="18f5c967-f63f-4262-9539-d4ca82699ca5" CreationDate="2015-06-17T15:49:48.527" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar fixes, modified title, added freelance-websites tag" Text="Last month, I had joined a freelance website and found a job immediately. My client was highly satisfied with my work, so he hired me for other projects. Unfortunately, his account had an issue, and he was forced to close the account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He had given me two ratings on the projects, and while both of the ratings were five stars, I've been having trouble finding anyone else interested in hiring me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to continue working; how can I get past this two-project wall that I'm facing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10311" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3348" RevisionGUID="18f5c967-f63f-4262-9539-d4ca82699ca5" CreationDate="2015-06-17T15:49:48.527" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar fixes, modified title, added freelance-websites tag" Text="How can I attract more clients when I only have two projects under my belt on this freelance site?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10312" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3348" RevisionGUID="18f5c967-f63f-4262-9539-d4ca82699ca5" CreationDate="2015-06-17T15:49:48.527" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar fixes, modified title, added freelance-websites tag" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10313" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="3348" RevisionGUID="0c02ad93-9bee-4d0e-b40c-910ebc7beef9" CreationDate="2015-06-17T16:09:20.417" UserId="58" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10314" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3349" RevisionGUID="a0e8b1d4-18c7-4f26-ad79-b746e3835023" CreationDate="2015-06-17T16:20:39.667" UserId="8089" Text="I am a US-based freelancer and need to invoice a UK client in Pound Sterling for freelance work conducted in the US. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I used to live in the UK and have a UK-current account where the payment can be made into. This would make things a lot easier for everyone if possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does it matter where the money is paid in as long as I pay tax on it in the US? Or would I have to have the UK client pay this money into a US-based account? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would be great to hear from anyone who's had any experience with invoicing with a foreign currency, when freelancing from the US. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many thanks&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10315" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3349" RevisionGUID="a0e8b1d4-18c7-4f26-ad79-b746e3835023" CreationDate="2015-06-17T16:20:39.667" UserId="8089" Text="US-based freelancer invoicing in foreign currency, can I have my UK client pay pound sterling into a UK-based current account?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10316" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3349" RevisionGUID="a0e8b1d4-18c7-4f26-ad79-b746e3835023" CreationDate="2015-06-17T16:20:39.667" UserId="8089" Text="|usa|uk|foreign-markets|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10317" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3340" RevisionGUID="577e65a6-b781-4e81-91a8-f02cbc108a7a" CreationDate="2015-06-17T16:44:45.487" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 104 characters in body" Text="Liability&#xD;&#xA;---------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can clients expect small teams and individuals to be liable for a security breach when the news is filled with corporations and governments with much bigger ITSec budgets getting hacked?  And we're just web developers, not security experts.  Are bloggers expecting to have an un-breachable prodect, something even financial institutions don't have?  There's no industry-wide standard that comprehensively covers all of web development so who determines what's adequate and what's not?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;When Can I Start Working?&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If 100% security is a myth then at what level of proficiency can a responsible developer expect to make his services available?  70% of websites have significant vulnerabilities so the people that built those obviously weren't waiting around.  Learning to develop using OWASP's guide would be nice if their update was available.  At least then I'd have a respected standard to follow and I could say exactly what vulnerabilities my services protect against.  Hopefully then a disclaimer in my contract stating somewhere along the lines that &quot;I am not a security company&quot; and &quot;I can't be held liable for losses incurred due to breach&quot; would protect me from a lawsuit.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Development Contracts That Include Maintenance&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people say if you're contracted to maintain the site after it's finished then you should be held liable for a hack.  I think this should only be true if the breach happened due to a vulnerability being present because you failed to install software updates/security patches quickly.  Any other attack vector and it's ridiculous because it doesn't seem reasonable for someone to expect you to code for every exploit that might be out there.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;3rd Parties&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seems like outsourcing the security for maintenance (monitoring, updates, recovery, etc.) and before release (testing) would be a good way to avoid liability.  Would I have to explicitly state something in the contract to shift responsibility to the 3rd party?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to get confusing when you outsource other parts of the project like the front-end.  Are sub-contractors responsible for vulnerabilities on their side are does the whole project fall under you?  How do you coordinate contracts between all parties (client, security, front-end designer, etc.) appropriately in terms of legal issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Helpful Information&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would really be helpful to me is to get examples of how other freelancers protect themselves from these and other legal issues regarding to security.  Specific wording used in their own contracts would be great as well as any additional measures taken outside of that (because apparently legalese like security isn't a bullet-proof defense).  Should things like insurance for lawsuits/becoming an LLC be a consideration?  All information is welcomed even if you don't freelance yourself.  Nothing here will be taken as legal advice so please feel free to comment. &#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10318" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3350" RevisionGUID="78c24ffe-7d12-4539-a2ed-8946f7327b48" CreationDate="2015-06-17T21:11:04.220" UserId="7717" Text="Offer a discounted rate because you are relatively new to the site, and keep trying. Each additional project under your belt makes things easier. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't write overly long or short proposals. Make sure your proposal is tailored to the contract; don't copy and paste the same generic message for every client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a very general question and there are countless online resources with tips about getting hired on these sites. Try researching articles on the subject." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10320" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3351" RevisionGUID="f9b5e6c3-5e55-42c7-b9ef-624b43890994" CreationDate="2015-06-18T08:34:05.897" UserId="8095" Text="I've recently signed up for Freelancer.com and when bidding on projects you are asked to break down your proposal into milestones. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why would I want to do that?&#xD;&#xA;If I enter just a single milestone and label it as 'upon project completion'?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've read that milestone payments are made in advance; would this mean, in this case of a single milestone that the client should pay all the sum in advance to Freelancer.com which will release the funds to me upon the project's completion? If that is so, doesn't that advanced payment option have a negative impact on the client's side?&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;In general should I opt for multiple milestones or just a single one?&#xD;&#xA;What are some good examples of breaking your project down into milestones?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;milestone 1 : start of project $40 &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;milestone 2 :..............&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10321" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3351" RevisionGUID="f9b5e6c3-5e55-42c7-b9ef-624b43890994" CreationDate="2015-06-18T08:34:05.897" UserId="8095" Text="Freelancer.com Milestones/Escrow" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10322" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3351" RevisionGUID="f9b5e6c3-5e55-42c7-b9ef-624b43890994" CreationDate="2015-06-18T08:34:05.897" UserId="8095" Text="|freelance-websites|remote|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10323" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3352" RevisionGUID="b29af47c-0ab1-4def-a8f5-6824e3dd2f04" CreationDate="2015-06-18T10:59:00.123" UserId="8046" Text="The important is that you declare your revenues in the country you're operating the business. **And as the url below suggests, you might also need to declare this UK bank account to the IRS**. So yes, you can invoice your client in Pound Sterling and have it deposit in the UK bank account. That's a good solution if you actually have a need for the Pound Sterling somehow (eg. shopping online in the UK) and don't want to pay for the exchange rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://london.usembassy.gov/irs/bankaccts.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if you have an account to receive online payment such as Paypal, you can simply invoice in Pound Sterling and then convert the currency to USD, and get it transferred into your US bank account. The only downside is the exchange rate that you'll need to pay (usually around 2%-2.5% + value of currency) and the currency value on Paypal is not always exactly following the market, but it's usually close enough, and worth the &quot;trouble&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It might be an easier and safer solution than having a deposit in the UK, and there's other online payment method you can use other than Paypal (eg. [Stripe][1], [WePay][2].) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your client can either use his own Paypal account, credit card and even bank transfer in some cases. From Paypal for example, your client can deposit money from their bank account to their Paypal account, and then send you a payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://support.stripe.com/questions/which-currencies-does-stripe-support&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://support.wepay.com/hc/en-us" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10324" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3353" RevisionGUID="9adee7c1-4421-45f6-b6e6-28bb1ed321c9" CreationDate="2015-06-18T11:12:13.240" UserId="504" Text="My client was surprised that some images of the site I built for him weren't manageable from WordPress admin dashboard. He thinks everything should be manageable by default.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you guys charge extra for making all content manageable? (I'm not talking about posts or pages, but unique pieces of content that cannot easily be managed from main text editor)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10325" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3353" RevisionGUID="9adee7c1-4421-45f6-b6e6-28bb1ed321c9" CreationDate="2015-06-18T11:12:13.240" UserId="504" Text="Charging extra for manageable content" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10326" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3353" RevisionGUID="9adee7c1-4421-45f6-b6e6-28bb1ed321c9" CreationDate="2015-06-18T11:12:13.240" UserId="504" Text="|charging|extra|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10327" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3354" RevisionGUID="4a3956e4-8f5f-4ceb-a4a5-a3345f69d8f6" CreationDate="2015-06-18T12:18:58.830" UserId="8046" Text="**Yes, you should charge for this since:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) It gives your client more control on his own content and therefore less work for you or any other designer/dev... so he's saving money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) It will require you some time to adjust your layout to make that content editable, and it's not always easy!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) By default on Wordpress, the posts, pages and the features of the control panel are things he can usually change. Parts of the theme are not expected to be editable unless he specifically wants this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) If he doesn't want to pay for this extra, you can simply offer him a &quot;monthly maintenance contract&quot; and make the changes he needs for him. Anyway someone will need to update that wonderful Wordpress and its plugins! That can be part of the maintenance contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10328" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3355" RevisionGUID="3b0a8ede-8d89-46e3-9ddb-646e9739d67b" CreationDate="2015-06-18T12:40:03.223" UserId="8046" Text="**If you create many milestones, you'll avoid a few issues:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Client will find it harder to go back and require some revisions on the work that was done. Milestone is a bit like making your client sign and approve the work that's indicated on the milestone. If there are revisions after this, it's way easier to negotiate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Helps to keep the project going by creating a schedule for payments and project's steps. It's also a good guideline that can show the client what he can expect and when.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) It's safer for you to get paid and frankly more motivating&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) Good clients often prefer it for the same reason you do&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: I never used Freelancer.com but I guess you can set a certain amount to be paid per milestone (if so, you should). In this case, everybody wins. When a milestone is approved and done, the money should be released to you. The main issue with having only one milestone on project's completion is that you can end up working for weeks or month on a project and feel obligated to do revisions simply because that unique milestone keep you in the project as an &quot;hostage&quot;. It's really hard to negotiate extra milestones if you only have one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is supposed to have the fund for a project, no matter if the project is on a freelance website or not. It's their responsibility to make a budget for what they need prior to ordering services. So in this matter, they are never penalized. They're only penalized if you do a bad job or if they don't receive what they paid for!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So yes, you should use milestone,** it's very convenient. You can break down the milestone in logical ones as you indicated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10329" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3356" RevisionGUID="8325c582-140d-462d-bd71-fc6f27d3f8b1" CreationDate="2015-06-18T12:42:54.710" UserId="517" Text="I think that Freelancer does not have money protection which means that you can do work and client can ask you (or threat with a bad feedback) to send him work/sources, and he then leave without paying you. Other sites like odesk or elance allow the client to load money into the escrow, and when you are done with work, money is released to you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So milestones are your protection. They also help clients not to pay large sum of money all at once, but this is another story. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if a Freelancer does not have the protection, and even if it does, it a great habit to protect your self. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is how all my milestones look like, no matter whether I work with a 1st-time client or long-term one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Milestone 1 - upfront 20% (clients may complaint for this, in that case I do some work for some percentage of the total sum, and ask to be paid for that)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Milestone 2 - first set of features&#xD;&#xA;...&#xD;&#xA;Milestone N - last set of features BEFORE sending sources&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After milestone N, I sent the sources.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So after each milestone, I send a demo and ask to be paid for that milestone. So the worst can happen is that I lose 1 milestone of money. Even more, in the last year or so, I have been asking advance money for each milestone and I start work only when money for that milestone has been paid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way, your work is protected. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10330" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3355" RevisionGUID="958b1c79-32cf-4ed7-a4f6-0002b30ed0d9" CreationDate="2015-06-18T12:55:18.090" UserId="8046" Comment="added milestones example, formatting" Text="**If you create many milestones, you'll avoid a few issues:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Client will find it harder to go back and require some revisions on the work that was done. Milestone is a bit like making your client sign and approve the work that's indicated on the milestone. If there are revisions after this, it's way easier to negotiate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Helps to keep the project going by creating a schedule for payments and project's steps. It's also a good guideline that can show the client what he can expect and when.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) It's safer for you to get paid and frankly more motivating&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) Good clients often prefer it for the same reason you do&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: I never used Freelancer.com but I guess you can set a certain amount to be paid per milestone (if so, you should). In this case, everybody wins. When a milestone is approved and done, the money should be released to you. The main issue with having only one milestone on project's completion is that you can end up working for weeks or months on a project and feel forced to do revisions simply because that unique milestone keeps you in the project as an &quot;hostage&quot;. It's really hard to negotiate extra milestones if you only have one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is supposed to have the fund for a project, no matter if the project is on a freelance website or not. It's their responsibility to make a budget for what they need prior to ordering services. So in this matter, they are never penalized. They're only penalized if you do a bad job or if they don't receive what they paid for!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So yes, you should use milestone,** it's very convenient. You can break down the milestone in logical ones as you indicated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Example of milestones:   &#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;     1. Plan of website and content approval (final text &amp; pictures&#xD;&#xA;        required) - $50&#xD;&#xA;     2. First drafts of projects (3 drafts and 3 revisions) - $200&#xD;&#xA;     3. HTML and CSS first drafts - $600&#xD;&#xA;     4. Content and pictures - $300&#xD;&#xA;     5. Revisions and finalizing website (up to 4 minor revisions) - $150&#xD;&#xA;     6. Project Completion, help guide and final files - $300&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know in what field you work in but you get the idea. This is really just an example and frankly there might be better ways to split your milestones. Don't put too many milestone though, it can be very annoying for you and the client (eg. no need to put 1st drafts, 2nd drafts, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can add details or descriptions to the milestone (eg. terms), you should." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10331" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3357" RevisionGUID="bc906293-5a08-4da6-bac6-4d8f5c432f1a" CreationDate="2015-06-18T13:21:27.807" UserId="8046" Text="If you don't have a lot of feedback and not many items in your portfolio, you can work on personal projects or find people in your entourage who might need something, and show them as samples.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there are skill tests that you can do, try to do a few to show your skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Buyers on these websites are aware that if you're just starting, it's normal you won't have many feedback; they won't always judge you on this only. At least you got good feedback.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure you make it clear that you offer a constant communication, the revisions you offer, how many drafts, etc. If you're too general, they might not have time to personally ask you how you proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the same reason, your profile should contain your terms and your work process, guarantee, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can get credentials somehow, it can help. Sometimes you need to pay to get them approved but they don't need to be from previous clients on that freelance site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can get your identity verified, that's another good thing to do and it usually takes 20 seconds!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can offer wholesale prices, free revisions (but be careful with that one!), urgent 24-48hr service, 1-2-3 months of free maintenance if you work on Wordpress websites, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't mind it, offer Skype or phone meetings. Some clients prefer to tell their instructions this way and have hard time explaining what they want, or simply prefer that &quot;human touch&quot;. Make sure you note down their instructions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try to personalize your profile to not look too much like a lifeless robot.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use good keywords if there is a section for it on the freelance site you're on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Respond quickly to any communication and have some initiative when possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Observe the profiles and the way the &quot;winners&quot; approach the buyers and try to see what they do right.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes, if your prices are too low, buyers will think you do not offer a high quality service. Be observant of what they need and if you still want to bid low, make sure to explain that you do it because you need to build a reputation and that the price are temporary" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10332" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3354" RevisionGUID="2aa3187e-bfc3-491a-8f8a-00349e4dfd42" CreationDate="2015-06-18T13:25:23.900" UserId="8046" Comment="typos" Text="**Yes, you should charge for this since:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) It gives your client more control on his own content and therefore less work for you in the future or any other designer/dev... so he's saving money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) It will require you some time to adjust your layout to make that content editable, and it's not always easy!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) By default on Wordpress, the posts, pages and the features of the control panel are things he can usually change. Parts of the theme are not expected to be editable unless he specifically wants this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) If he doesn't want to pay for this extra, you can simply offer him a &quot;monthly maintenance contract&quot; and make the changes he needs for him. Anyway someone will need to update that wonderful Wordpress and its plugins! That can be part of the maintenance contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10333" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3358" RevisionGUID="abbf6123-e145-4032-a937-20605f16eebc" CreationDate="2015-06-18T14:00:10.253" UserId="8046" Text="Yes you need to report your revenues to the IRS and just to mention this, usually websites such as Etsy should mail you a report of your annual sales for your tax report.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lot of websites now require you to prove your identity and fill a W-9 tax form as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10334" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3353" RevisionGUID="15d36d2a-5c2f-4437-b696-e4e3c7da2d8d" CreationDate="2015-06-18T17:30:59.533" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|webmasters|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10335" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3359" RevisionGUID="fe2efb3e-5a8b-45c7-acfa-3699eb1b57b5" CreationDate="2015-06-18T20:52:40.373" UserId="8100" Text="I mean in my country, which is Venezuela it is someway complex to get money from outside, so one of the best options is Amazon and its gift cards.. But is everyone there willing to pay me in that format?&#xD;&#xA;thanks in advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10336" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3359" RevisionGUID="fe2efb3e-5a8b-45c7-acfa-3699eb1b57b5" CreationDate="2015-06-18T20:52:40.373" UserId="8100" Text="Is it convenient for me as a freelancer to ask for Amazon gift cards as payments?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10337" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3359" RevisionGUID="fe2efb3e-5a8b-45c7-acfa-3699eb1b57b5" CreationDate="2015-06-18T20:52:40.373" UserId="8100" Text="|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10338" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3360" RevisionGUID="66547654-b33b-444b-af45-60bd70f9b964" CreationDate="2015-06-19T01:23:23.123" UserId="8046" Text="Yes, you can ask for this. Maybe some will find it a bit unusual but it could work. A lot of companies buy these cards to give as corporate gifts and have piles of them. I think these cards are also easily available in stores and groceries or online.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The issues I could see with this is:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) You get sent cards that were already used on Amazon. But you can always verify this when you get them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) It's a bit like being paid in cheque/money order... so ideally you would need to wait until you get the cards before sending your final files (if there are final files in your field of work.) As you guess this could make some clients a bit impatient/worried. You'll need to think of a system to not end up working for free and to also make the client trust you; they might not all understand the reason why you ask for this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;_____&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess you already explored you other options but I'll add this in case you didn't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Money order? That could be safe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Western Union should work but the fees are usually quite high.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apparently it's possible to use Paypal but the administrative process from your country can take a few months and the amount you can get on the account is limited. But maybe you could combine this method and other methods.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's Visa gift cards that are like prepaid credit cards and can be activated safely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Something to read here about all this][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140717014939-65520575-five-alternative-ways-to-get-paid-from-venezuela" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10339" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3361" RevisionGUID="3fd169c9-2d1b-4cc6-958b-e984ed099459" CreationDate="2015-06-19T06:44:44.957" UserId="8095" Text="I've recently signed up for Freelancer.com and I'm trying to get how the system works. This is not about Freelancer.com per se but applies to all similar web sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's say I won a job and successfully complete it. Then,how does the invoicing procedure work? Is Freelancer.com issuing an invoice on behalf of me automatically ? if that is so what kind of information would the invoice contain? Will it  appear as being issued by Freelancer itself, thus the invoice would contain Freelancer's.com business details, or will it appear as being issued by me , thus it would contain my details ? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or do I somehow have to issue an invoice manually myself?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10340" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3361" RevisionGUID="3fd169c9-2d1b-4cc6-958b-e984ed099459" CreationDate="2015-06-19T06:44:44.957" UserId="8095" Text="Freelancer.com and Invoices" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10341" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3361" RevisionGUID="3fd169c9-2d1b-4cc6-958b-e984ed099459" CreationDate="2015-06-19T06:44:44.957" UserId="8095" Text="|freelance-websites|remote|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10342" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3337" RevisionGUID="870ad5ef-f0a1-4519-ad5c-dacfd4fa97f7" CreationDate="2015-06-19T17:05:57.713" UserId="8046" Comment="formatting bold" Text="**What I do with my clients and all the firms I've worked with is:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**1) You need to first get a plan approved**. This is what you did and it's the scope of the project. It must be separated in different steps (ex. design of template, final texts, script behavior and goal, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2) At every step of your project, you should make your client officially approve that step with a signature.**  You require this in order to be able to start the next step.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**3) In your contract, you should specify that once a step has been approved, any changes will be charged at X amount (usually hourly rate).** These charges should be paid as they are done or even pre-paid, otherwise you will have some issues at the end of the project and it will also mess up the payment agreement for the rest of the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't forget that in the end, you're the one who has the power to stop the work until you get paid for this since it's not included in the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**This should make your client think twice before moving back and making changes.** The way to make them understand it's a fair process (and it is) is to explain exactly what you just explained here; each time the client comes back and make changes, you need to re-do work that has already be planned, calculated, and done. There is also more margin for errors when you need to quickly go back and re-work your files since your plan was not made with these data in mind.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the beginning of a project, you can also include some specific type of revisions that you will do without any charge and give clear examples (ex. typos.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**All this is very efficient and might even make you enjoy the revisions as you will make extra money on this!** It's also less frustrating. Some clients don't mind paying the revisions, they want the product done as they wish and want a freelancer to simply do what they ask for. Some clients are not very organized... So that's why you need to have some strategy like this for for the ones who don't mind paying and the ones who need an incentive to be more organized! What I also noticed is that some will try to get some free revisions because they're used to get what they want from others and not meeting any resistance from freelancers; but usually when you start mentioning the extra charge with a smile, they either compromise on the changes or they accept to pay for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Don't be afraid to act more &quot;business-like&quot; and set your terms.** They will respect you for this and will also appreciate to know what to expect if the projects requires some adjustments. It's not always easy for them either to know all the details about the work required for a project and the best way to have a good relationship with your client is to always make sure everything is clear." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10343" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3361" RevisionGUID="0ea61768-a5c5-4c79-8690-9d12b88ab902" CreationDate="2015-06-19T17:23:21.740" UserId="75" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10344" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3362" RevisionGUID="77b9ed89-765b-44ba-9ec9-c7a8704a65c9" CreationDate="2015-06-19T17:50:38.253" UserId="8046" Text="You can post online or local ads, but if you prefer to work with someone in your country, you can specify it. It's also very different to &quot;partner&quot; with someone or to hire that person as a contractor; you cannot either expect the same kind of loyalty from a contractor you will get from a partner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**There are a few things you need to consider and that can give you some clues on where you should look for freelancing partners:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **You need to make sure they sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)&#xD;&#xA;    with you before the &quot;interview.&quot;** Trust is very important but the law&#xD;&#xA;    is what will protect you in these cases. That's why you also benefit from hiring someone in the same country as you. It's also very important to&#xD;&#xA;    add clauses that forbid the contractor or candidate to contact your&#xD;&#xA;    clients. I suggest to be transparent with your clients if you use a&#xD;&#xA;    contractor but this is your personal decision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. **You might want to hire someone first and then offer a partnership agreement after testing her/his skills.** This gives you more&#xD;&#xA;    control on the information you're expected to share with them and&#xD;&#xA;    what you prefer to keep for yourself. This is a good investment for you.&#xD;&#xA; 3. **If possible, find a partner that is a full-time freelancer as well.**&#xD;&#xA;    The reason is that many freelancers do it as a side job and they&#xD;&#xA;    will always prioritize their full-time job first. It's important to&#xD;&#xA;    find someone who has the same goals as you and understands your&#xD;&#xA;    priorities. They're also usually more reliable than part-time workers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 4. **If you have a potential candidate in mind, go have a look at their&#xD;&#xA;    social media profiles and do a good search online** with any of the&#xD;&#xA;    email addresses you have that belongs to this person, pseudonym,&#xD;&#xA;    interests, etc.  This way you'll learn a lot about the candidate&#xD;&#xA;    his/her level of maturity, understanding of privacy and&#xD;&#xA;    professionalism. That will also help to add important details in&#xD;&#xA;    your contract that could save you a lot of troubles later (eg.&#xD;&#xA;    people posting drunk pictures or saying negative comments about&#xD;&#xA;    their clients online or people with a &quot;Steam&quot; gamer profile with 30hr a week of gaming!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 5. **Ask for a Skype interviews, phone conversations and meetings.** Lot of&#xD;&#xA;    things can be read through body language and the voice tone (eg.&#xD;&#xA;    hesitation)!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 6. **If you ever, EVER have a little red light or weird feeling about a&#xD;&#xA;    candidate, listen to your guts instinct and try to not compromise.**&#xD;&#xA;    If you aren't sure of something, do your investigation, don't feel&#xD;&#xA;    uncomfortable to ask questions For example, if the candidate says&#xD;&#xA;    things like &quot;*My wife will help if I can't do all the work...*&quot; This&#xD;&#xA;    is a big NO; you don't want to be stuck with a third party that&#xD;&#xA;    isn't fully part of your NDA and contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 7. **And of course, ask for references if possible but most of all,&#xD;&#xA;    examples of previous projects.** Do a research such as reverse image&#xD;&#xA;    search or looking in the source code to see if the work is really&#xD;&#xA;    his/hers. Sometimes a nice Wordpress theme might look very good &#xD;&#xA;    but it's still not really about coding but small code customization. That&#xD;&#xA;    might not be what you need or can't do yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 8. **Make sure the terms, payments, mode of payments, number of weekly hours and conditions are agreed on, and&#xD;&#xA;    understood.** As contractors, they should understand that you cannot&#xD;&#xA;    give them 100% of the payment you get yourself simply because of&#xD;&#xA;    your work managing the projects and also the cost of transactions. A&#xD;&#xA;    good number, is to keep at least 30% for yourself and adjust this&#xD;&#xA;    accordingly. If you ever get into partnership with someone else, then that number can change but so is the share of the expenses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 9. **You should tell your contractor or future partner about the kind of&#xD;&#xA;    contract and clients you target.** Some people might not be&#xD;&#xA;    comfortable working on some topics for different reasons (eg. moral&#xD;&#xA;    principles, religious beliefs, previous agreement with their own&#xD;&#xA;    clients, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 10. **You can find freelancers pretty much anywhere and don't limit&#xD;&#xA;     yourself to freelance websites.** In fact you might find a better fit&#xD;&#xA;     in business online groups (eg. LinkedIn), associations, by&#xD;&#xA;     referral, local employment center or by browsing the web. On&#xD;&#xA;     freelancers's sites, a lot of freelancers have their own business&#xD;&#xA;     and enjoy the &quot;freedom&quot; they get there, OR have very rigid terms&#xD;&#xA;     that may not be a good fit for collaboration OR are part-time&#xD;&#xA;     freelancers and not fully invested in their freelance career. A lot of very talented and hard working freelancers are not always &quot;hawking&quot; loud about their skills because... they're busy working or they simply more introvert! You can find these people sometimes by being observant on social media or following their blogs; they could be a friend of a friend for example. Have initiative and take the attitude of a talent seeker.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;______&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, it's the same as hiring an employee and you have all rights and the tools to make sure you hire someone you'll enjoy working with. You can totally act in the same way as any employer, you can set your requirements as you want. You can start by hiring them as contractors and then offer partnership that should give you more freedom if you change your mind along the way or discover things you don't like about the contractor (eg. bad attitude, late projects, bad quality.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10345" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3363" RevisionGUID="7392fe9b-4cf0-4eb3-82ea-5a28ab86ac1a" CreationDate="2015-06-19T20:09:35.237" UserId="2669" Text="If you are asking about companies in the United States of America some may have issues with sending gift cards for fear of possible IRS ramifications. I had once asked a similar question and that was the response I had received.&#xA;&#xA;It completely depends on the size of the company you work for. You are more likely to get paid in gift cards if the business is sole proprietor and smaller. &#xA;&#xA;Although still in its infancy, and depending on its legal status in your country, Bitcoin may be an option. Imho, nothing compares to the ease and quickness which it can transfer wealth.&#xA;&#xA;Either way It doesn't (shouldn't) hurt to ask. Unless of course it may be perceived as a tax dodge of some sort.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10346" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3363" RevisionGUID="79319d62-da0b-4362-8074-98a633cf044a" CreationDate="2015-06-19T20:15:41.833" UserId="2669" Comment="added 20 characters in body; deleted 1 character in body; added 26 characters in body; added 3 characters in body" Text="If you are asking about the convenience for companies in the United States of America some may have issues with sending gift cards for fear of possible IRS ramifications. I had once asked a similar question and that was the response I had received.&#xA;&#xA;It would also depend on the size of the company you work for. You are more likely to get paid in gift cards if the business is sole proprietor or small group. &#xA;&#xA;Although still in its infancy, and depending on its legal status in your country, Bitcoin or other digital currency may be an option. Imho, nothing compares to the ease and quickness which it can transfer wealth.&#xA;&#xA;Either way It doesn't (shouldn't) hurt to ask. Unless of course it may be perceived as a tax dodge of some sort.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10347" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3364" RevisionGUID="d6363bbd-474b-42f1-9911-a588665cf030" CreationDate="2015-06-20T04:17:34.040" UserId="4561" Text="In my web developers contract to me they specified that they would submit X number of designs for me to choose from, and do X number of revisions to that design.  I knew that if I went beyond that with change requests, it would cost me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do computer programming and in my proposal I say x number of free revision hours (usually 5 or 10) are included.  I know it's very typical that people submit flawed samples of what they want to me initially and I think this puts the client's mind at ease but also puts them on notice that if they are changing their request, at some point it is a change in scope.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they start to get out of hand with wanting changes or start coming up with ideas for new features that aren't part of the original scope, I say &quot;sure, I can do that but it's going to take some programming hours.&quot;  Then I send them an estimate.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where I get in trouble is when they catch me off guard in person - I am in &quot;nice&quot; mode and want to make them happy and start offering to do all kinds of things for them.  I've learned to say &quot;let me get back to you&quot; so I can answer later in email when I've thought about it (and I'm stronger by email).  I always screw myself when I give an estimate off the top of my head in person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BTW, I take a 50% deposit on development, then bill for 25% when I deliver and the final 25% a couple months later when they've had time to work with it.  No one has balked at the 50% deposit so far.  I also do a project price, but say in my contract that if they cancel the project they owe me for any time worked so far based on an hourly rate.  So far that's not come up though." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10348" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3365" RevisionGUID="b9246b3d-45e1-407d-b021-8990b8d93da6" CreationDate="2015-06-20T04:34:48.590" UserId="4561" Text="I sell a B2B software that I developed which is customized for each client.  I offer a maintenance agreement with the software that covers technical support, updates, etc.  Most of my clients take the technical support but I have a couple who did not.  So in theory, I would bill them hourly for anything they have me do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One particularly cost conscious client has me submimt estimates that their CFO must approve before they have me do any little thing.  Right now I am working on an upgrade for them which has a flat fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So a few times, their in-house support staff has called me with questions.  Sometimes they are reporting bugs in my programming.  But sometimes the conversation turns to where I am giving them training and helping them troubleshoot things other than my software on their system.  Today I spent over an hour on the phone with them and 75% of that time was dedicated to fixing their mistakes/questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I am in a quandary.  Do I bill for this time?  I don't want to get the help desk people in trouble for using my services without getting it cleared in advance.  But I also don't feel it's fair to all my clients who happily spring for the maintenance agreement that I'm giving free support to a company that won't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When people email me for stuff I always say &quot;that will be $x&quot; if it comes with a price.  But when I am on the phone with them, I felt too awkward to say &quot;By the way, I will bill for this time.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I have new clients I do say in my agreement that I'll bill for this type of thing but I am aware that the people picking the phone up and calling me are not necessarily in communication with the people signing my agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do any of you face this type of thing?  Do you assume they just assume you'll bill for your time?    Is it normal business to say &quot;by the way I'm billing for this&quot; or is that bad business etiquette?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10349" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3365" RevisionGUID="b9246b3d-45e1-407d-b021-8990b8d93da6" CreationDate="2015-06-20T04:34:48.590" UserId="4561" Text="Handling client extras on the fly" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10350" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3365" RevisionGUID="b9246b3d-45e1-407d-b021-8990b8d93da6" CreationDate="2015-06-20T04:34:48.590" UserId="4561" Text="|communication|payments|scope-creep|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10351" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3366" RevisionGUID="1d2f7949-411d-4db5-9510-a59720072eb7" CreationDate="2015-06-20T09:32:21.860" UserId="7486" Text="Personally, when I have a contractual agreement with a company, signed from the legal representative of the whole company as a single entity, I assume that every request coming from it is regulated in the contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for every call and request that comes from any company office I assume that the caller asked to the boss or the supervisor for permission since I'm going to bill each request that takes more than 15 minutes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have the flat rate for the support it's ok, otherwise put in the contract that each request is going to be billed with an hourly rate Of $x.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes happened to me that in some complicated case, I agreed with the company to have a single person reference and I could discuss and get requests only from this authorised person." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10352" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3367" RevisionGUID="675fe928-a5cc-433d-a9c2-a4f73c7a2e38" CreationDate="2015-06-20T14:56:33.457" UserId="6052" Text="Working on a (tiny) fixed price, art based job. The initial design was fine, but have been a number of iterations of the design since. That number is getting... well, ridiculous for the amount of work done. I'm well aware of &quot;feature creep&quot; &amp; &quot;scope creep&quot;, but this, for want of a better phrase is &quot;aesthetics creep&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How you approach a client politely on the subject that: (deep breath) it may have escaped their notice that you've lost weekends, small hours and afternoons over something that really doesn't warrant that amount of time, effort or attention, and should have been finished weeks ago, yet still isn't and remains in the permanent state of unfinished limbo because they're not happy with any of the results so far, and no matter how many more different iterations of the design are created it may continue remain that way till all the earth is dust and giant scarab beetles have enslaved the remains of the human race?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10353" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3367" RevisionGUID="675fe928-a5cc-433d-a9c2-a4f73c7a2e38" CreationDate="2015-06-20T14:56:33.457" UserId="6052" Text="How to deal with client who makes constant changes to work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10354" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3367" RevisionGUID="675fe928-a5cc-433d-a9c2-a4f73c7a2e38" CreationDate="2015-06-20T14:56:33.457" UserId="6052" Text="|scope-creep|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10355" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3368" RevisionGUID="9fbf9bc6-07cc-49eb-861b-6165e77ae062" CreationDate="2015-06-20T15:58:12.237" UserId="517" Text="In the design work working on a fixed-price basis, always, always, always set how many iterations are included in the price. it could be 3 or 5 or 55 as long as the client is aware of it. Along with this rule, you should advise him that he should send changes in a bunch instead one by one so that he does not use all iterations in vain. With this advise, you may have more work, but the client will not feel tricked. After those iterations, all extra work is paid one. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So this is the rule for your next assignments. For this one, you do not have a lot of choices. If you are working over some freelancing service where the client rates you after the work is done, then you have no other option but to make them happy and get your 5 stars. At the same time, this will be a good lesson for the future. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are not afraid of the rating, then simply tell him in a polite and professional (!!!) manner that they have overused your policy and that you cannot do any more changes for free. You can continue on the paid basis or you can deliver the result and let him find another person to purify the design. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10356" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3359" RevisionGUID="518302e9-c448-40f5-a1e7-8cc57fc3f5c3" CreationDate="2015-06-20T19:09:46.880" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="Fixed grammar" Text="In my country, which is Venezuela, it is somewhat complex to get money from outside, so one of the best options is Amazon and its gift cards. Is it feasible for me to ask for payment in that format instead?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10357" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3369" RevisionGUID="45f3d4d0-dd29-4d41-a978-abad435bac72" CreationDate="2015-06-21T03:15:24.823" UserId="708" Text="I know it's pretty much standard to set a limit to the number of revisions a client can have.. however.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm rare... I don't place a limitation on changes/iterations on *most* of the work I do. I allow my clients to not be concerned that &quot;uh-oh, we've already made 3 changes. Now we have to pay for more or deal with a piece we don't like.&quot; My client *love* this aspect of my business. And I'm almost never &quot;bitten&quot; by it. But then, my clients are not the one-off, get'r'done, type of clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only time I do place a limit on iterations is for projects of a more &quot;art&quot; nature - illustrations, logos, etc. Since redrawing over and over is not something I can do repeated at no cost. But for general layout and  design... I don't limit things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead, what I do is include a clause in the contract which states something along the lines of:&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;There are no limitations on the number of revisions you may request. You are allowed as many revisions as are necessary to complete a piece of which you can be proud to display. In my experience, this generally should take no more than 3 to 5 exchanges. However, a couple more or less is never a problem. Although there is no limit to the number of change requests you can make, I ask that you keep in mind that every change requires time and effort, no matter how small it may appear. Any request for changes should be reasonable and delivered in a &quot;bulk&quot; fashion. In other words, please take your time when reviewing proofs, collect your thoughts, and return with a list of desired changes rather than detailing individual changes one at a time. Please be be considerate of my time and not abuse it by requesting an unreasonable amount changes. If at any time I feel the number of change requests is becoming a concern, I will open a dialog to discuss this and hopefully we can come to an amicable solution which may or may not include additional fees to accommodate unreasonable change requests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This goes over pretty well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client then starts hitting my limit, which is generally more than 10 requests, or even more than 3 requests if they are &quot;sweeping&quot; in nature. I open a dialog with them:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi Client! Thanks for sending the changes. I'm becoming a bit concerned that changes keep coming in and I'm having difficulty determining when or even if this project will be completed. Please realize my original project quote considered a *reasonable* amount of changes, roughly under 10 on average. If you feel we're close to the finalizing with this last change request, then there's no worry. However, if you feel the pies still has a way to go to be final, please let me know. I worry that my original quote will be swallowed up by the unexpected time the change requests are taking. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients tend to respond well to that. They will stop monkeying around and finalize the piece in one or maybe two rounds after that. Or, they are open to the discussion that they realize they are making a lot of change requests and are willing to either pay a bit more or at a minimum switch to the quote+hourly for changes. This way the amount they spend is in direct correlation to the amount of changes they request." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10358" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3369" RevisionGUID="70ed774a-cce1-4227-9cf5-03fae5aef50e" CreationDate="2015-06-21T03:22:34.890" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 105 characters in body" Text="I know it's pretty much standard to set a limit to the number of revisions a client can have.. however.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm rare... I don't place a limitation on changes/iterations on *most* of the work I do. I allow my clients to not be concerned that &quot;uh-oh, we've already made 3 changes. Now we have to pay for more or deal with a piece we don't like.&quot; My client *love* this aspect of my business. And I'm almost never &quot;bitten&quot; by it. But then, my clients are not the one-off, get'r'done, type of clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only time I do place a limit on iterations is for projects of a more &quot;art&quot; nature - illustrations, logos, etc. Since redrawing over and over is not something I can do repeated at no cost. But for general layout and  design... I don't limit things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead, what I do is include a clause in the contract which states something along the lines of:&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;There are no limitations on the number of revisions you may request. You are allowed as many revisions as are necessary to complete a piece of which you can be proud to display. In my experience, this generally should take no more than 3 to 5 exchanges. However, a couple more or less is never a problem. Although there is no limit to the number of change requests you can make, I ask that you keep in mind that every change requires time and effort, no matter how small it may appear. Any request for changes should be reasonable and delivered in a &quot;bulk&quot; fashion. In other words, please take your time when reviewing proofs, collect your thoughts, and return with a list of desired changes rather than detailing individual changes one at a time. Please be be considerate of my time and not abuse it by requesting an unreasonable amount changes. If at any time I feel the number of change requests is becoming a concern, I will open a dialog to discuss this and hopefully we can come to an amicable solution which may or may not include additional fees to accommodate unreasonable change requests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This goes over pretty well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client then starts hitting my limit, which is generally more than 10 requests, or even more than 3 requests if they are &quot;sweeping&quot; in nature. I open a dialog with them:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi Client! Thanks for sending the changes. I'm becoming a bit concerned that changes keep coming in and I'm having difficulty determining when or even if this project will be completed. Please realize my original project quote considered a *reasonable* amount of changes, roughly under 10 on average. If you feel we're close to the finalizing with this last change request, then there's no worry. However, if you feel the piece still has a ways to go to be final, please let me know. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients tend to respond well to that. They will stop monkeying around and finalize the piece in one or maybe two rounds after that. Or, they are open to the discussion that they realize they are making a lot of change requests and are willing to either pay a bit more or at a minimum switch to the quote+hourly for changes. This way the amount they spend is in direct correlation to the amount of changes they request." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10359" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3369" RevisionGUID="bbcc53e6-279f-4b53-9e00-987fa3b97cbf" CreationDate="2015-06-21T03:38:34.143" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 105 characters in body" Text="I know it's pretty much standard to set a limit to the number of revisions a client can have.. however.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm rare... I don't place a limitation on changes/iterations on *most* of the work I do. I allow my clients to not be concerned that &quot;uh-oh, we've already made 3 changes. Now we have to pay for more or deal with a piece we don't like.&quot; My client *love* this aspect of my business. And I'm almost never &quot;bitten&quot; by it. But then, my clients are not the one-off, get'r'done, type of clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only time I do place a limit on iterations is for projects of a more &quot;art&quot; nature - illustrations, logos, etc. Since redrawing over and over is not something I can do repeated at no cost. But for general layout and  design... I don't limit things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead, what I do is include a clause in the contract which states something along the lines of:&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;There are no limitations on the number of revisions you may request. You are allowed as many revisions as are necessary to complete a piece of which you can be proud to display. In my experience, this generally should take no more than 3 to 5 exchanges. However, a couple more is never a problem. Technical issues such as typographic errors, misspellings, bad alignment, should all be corrected after the second proof. &#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Although there is no limit to the number of change requests you can make, I ask that you keep in mind that every change requires time and effort, no matter how small it may appear. Any request for changes should be reasonable and delivered in a &quot;bulk&quot; fashion. In other words, please take your time when reviewing proofs, collect your thoughts, and return with a list of desired changes rather than detailing individual changes one at a time.  Please be be considerate of my time and not abuse it by requesting an unreasonable amount changes. If at any time I feel the number of change requests is becoming a concern, I will open a dialog to discuss this and hopefully we can come to an amicable solution. In some cases additional fees may be used to offset an unreasonable amount of change requests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This goes over pretty well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client then starts hitting my limit, which is generally more than 10 requests, or even more than 3 requests if they are &quot;sweeping&quot; in nature. I open a dialog with them:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi Client! Thanks for sending the changes. I'm becoming a bit concerned that changes keep coming in and I'm having difficulty determining when or even if this project will be completed. Please realize my original project quote considered a *reasonable* amount of changes, roughly under 7 on average. This project is now hitting X rounds of changes. If you feel we're close to the finalizing with this last change request, then there's no worry. However, if you feel the piece still has a ways to go to be final, please let me know. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients tend to respond well to that. They will stop monkeying around and finalize the piece in one or maybe two rounds after that. Or, they are open to the discussion that they realize they are making a lot of change requests and are willing to either pay a bit more or at a minimum switch to the quote+hourly for changes. This way the amount they spend is in direct correlation to the amount of changes they request.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I try my best to **never** be accusatory in my dealings with the client. I always want to come off as if &quot;Hey, (smile, smile) did you happen to realize....&quot; Really my goal is to just remind them that my time matters. Most of the clients I've dealt with are very open to this and even if they are against any additional fees, then do reluctantly admit that they are kind of going above and beyond and they need to stop. And most do. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10360" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3367" RevisionGUID="49fbe381-bc2b-4e20-a020-33380ac8ccfe" CreationDate="2015-06-21T11:37:27.003" UserId="6052" Comment="minor addition" Text="Working on a (tiny) fixed price, art based job. The initial design was fine, but have been a number of iterations of the design since. That number is getting... well, ridiculous for the amount of work done. I'm well aware of &quot;feature creep&quot; &amp; &quot;scope creep&quot;, but this, for want of a better phrase is &quot;aesthetics creep&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How you approach a client politely and professionally on the subject that: (deep breath) it may have escaped their notice that you've lost weekends, small hours and afternoons over something that really doesn't warrant that amount of time, effort or attention, and should have been finished weeks ago, yet still isn't and remains in the permanent state of unfinished limbo because they're not happy with any of the results so far, and no matter how many more different iterations of the design are created it may continue remain that way till all the earth is dust and giant scarab beetles have enslaved the remains of the human race?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10361" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3370" RevisionGUID="56caf75e-ec1d-4d2f-a4be-dafc41882ab3" CreationDate="2015-06-22T00:17:10.280" UserId="8100" Text="I'm relatively new to online jobs and stuff, I have already started to make accounts on the freelance websites I know about, like LinkedIn, Sourceforge Jobs, and some local sites.&#xD;&#xA;And in my field of interest which is graphic design I've got Behance, graphicriver. as a way to show online portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;My question is, what are the best websites for freelance jobs? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10362" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3370" RevisionGUID="56caf75e-ec1d-4d2f-a4be-dafc41882ab3" CreationDate="2015-06-22T00:17:10.280" UserId="8100" Text="What are the best websites for freelance jobs?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10363" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3370" RevisionGUID="56caf75e-ec1d-4d2f-a4be-dafc41882ab3" CreationDate="2015-06-22T00:17:10.280" UserId="8100" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10364" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3371" RevisionGUID="98b3a9ec-dc40-4be2-8c02-3151f2344985" CreationDate="2015-06-22T11:05:08.663" UserId="7204" Text="I'm learning programming(c# and asp.net).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When i see projects available on freelancer.com and odesk/upwork for asp.net, they just make my head spin. i have no clue how on earth would I be able to take and work on solutions of these projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My goal is to become a asp.net freelancer. How do I accomplish it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10365" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3371" RevisionGUID="98b3a9ec-dc40-4be2-8c02-3151f2344985" CreationDate="2015-06-22T11:05:08.663" UserId="7204" Text="How to become proficient enough to be able to take freelance projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10366" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3371" RevisionGUID="98b3a9ec-dc40-4be2-8c02-3151f2344985" CreationDate="2015-06-22T11:05:08.663" UserId="7204" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10367" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3372" RevisionGUID="26e99efd-be56-4355-a109-ef86f5bfc107" CreationDate="2015-06-22T12:53:21.150" UserId="517" Text="Firstly, go thru a good book on ASP.NET and pass it along with all tests in it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then either:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Think of your own ASP.NET project and make it&#xD;&#xA;2. Look at the sites like odesk.com for projects that client's request and make such project for yourself. If you change data, you can even put it inside the portfolio. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try to have a few projects in portfolio (when I started mobile development, I made approx 10 small apps), because your experience will grow with each project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that, start bidding the simple projects first. In time you will be able to take debugging projects and larger ones. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But remember, start with small and grow in time. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10368" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3373" RevisionGUID="e45af6a2-fc38-4839-92db-841d7a82b410" CreationDate="2015-06-22T16:16:09.760" UserId="8130" Text="To start off with I'm 16 years old, and I do know these languages sufficiently enough to produce a finished product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've made a few community based websites in the past, and they were fairly popular (~1k members, 10 - 50 online at one time) and I like those kinds of sites but they don't seem to last long, either because I stop pumping out new content of the users find something else to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I do have experience working with a community, but I want to make something bigger that will open up more opportunities for me in the future. Trouble is there are too many internet giants out there, so any direction I go there will always be a bigger and better site out there right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have any suggestions at all, in terms of a web project, I'd be very grateful." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10369" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3373" RevisionGUID="e45af6a2-fc38-4839-92db-841d7a82b410" CreationDate="2015-06-22T16:16:09.760" UserId="8130" Text="I'm an able web developer with advanced knowledge of PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and (My)SQL.. where to go from here?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10370" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3373" RevisionGUID="e45af6a2-fc38-4839-92db-841d7a82b410" CreationDate="2015-06-22T16:16:09.760" UserId="8130" Text="|design|portfolio|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10374" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3370" RevisionGUID="b4822968-8b25-4d13-9478-a97eb8afc30a" CreationDate="2015-06-22T18:16:18.357" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10375" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3371" RevisionGUID="94ecb202-e0c1-4353-a1db-bd3f2456ab73" CreationDate="2015-06-22T18:18:35.590" UserId="75" Comment="added 14 characters in body; edited tags" Text="I'm learning programming in C# and ASP.net.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I see projects available on freelancer.com and odesk/upwork for ASP.net, they just make my head spin. I have no clue how on earth would I be able to take and work on solutions of these projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My goal is to become a ASP.net freelance programmer. How do I accomplish this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10376" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3371" RevisionGUID="94ecb202-e0c1-4353-a1db-bd3f2456ab73" CreationDate="2015-06-22T18:18:35.590" UserId="75" Comment="added 14 characters in body; edited tags" Text="|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10377" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3373" RevisionGUID="365c7b23-9ada-4b92-9914-dc7c926400a4" CreationDate="2015-06-22T18:20:46.020" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10379" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3370" RevisionGUID="297db7c8-3c95-432d-bafa-0ce56bc9688f" CreationDate="2015-06-24T01:09:58.473" UserId="8100" Comment="added 10 characters in body" Text="I'm relatively new to online jobs and stuff, I have already started to make accounts on the freelance websites I know about, like LinkedIn, Sourceforge Jobs, and some local sites.&#xD;&#xA;And in my field of interest which is graphic design I've got Behance, graphicriver. as a way to show online portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;My question is, what are the most reputable websites for freelance jobs? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10383" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3376" RevisionGUID="a9006948-2b1e-41c3-b4cd-772428cde47a" CreationDate="2015-06-24T08:25:01.693" UserId="708" Text="I once had a client that I did a great deal of smaller items for. I primarily dealt with 2 or 3 individuals at the company and they were organized and thorough in their requests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As the their company grew, more people were hired on and then delegated to do various tasks. It was clear to me that at some point someone said &quot;Contact this guy.. he handles that for us.&quot; Without much further explanation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Change requests for small, piecemeal items started filtering in from a couple new people, no big deal. Client is in good standing, they work for the client, someone clearly provided them with my contact information. It's only natural to assume I'd be paid. I completed the work and invoiced for the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Invoice went unpaid and was hitting the 30 day limit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It just so happens that around that time I got another call asking for something small again. During that call I asked the person if there was an issue paying for the previous changes they had requested since the invoice is approaching 30 days past due. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The response was *&quot;Oh, you charge us for this stuff?&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, it's *not my fault* that the our business relationship was not fully explained to this employee. It's *not my fault* if they are calling me and requesting work be done without the proper approval. All I know is I get a call from someone at an existing client's company asking for work to be completed. It's perfectly natural to assume the client is going to pay for work they are requesting from me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I literally had to state:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;You should assume when you call with a request for me to complete something that it is billable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I then called the original person I dealt with at the company and explained voicing concern that employees were contacting me to complete work, I have a current outstanding invoice, and I just had a conversation with XXXX who seemed unaware that I bill for my work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Things were sorted quickly, I was paid, the &quot;piecemeal&quot; calls stopped coming in and I only get requests for more substantial projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice, when someone new contacts you from company X that you've never dealt with before, and they are requesting something you traditionally bill for, state it up front.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm happy to do XXXX for you. I just want to verify with you that you are aware that this is billable time, correct?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's simple, to the point, and avoids any confusion. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**There's *no harm* in being clear and up front on the phone.** Some people just don't realize there is a cost for the company involved. While they *should* have approval before incurring any costs, they don't always realize they need it. Reminding them to &quot;check with the boss first&quot; only saves *them* from that reprimand later when your invoice arrives and the client has to track down who incurred your costs. So really, you're doing *them* a favor by pointing it out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My direct advice would be to call your primary contact and have a conversation with them.** If necessary, get a list of approved employees that you can work with while any others are not permitted to incur any costs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10384" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3377" RevisionGUID="bdc455e4-9d2d-423c-b260-61720827776a" CreationDate="2015-06-24T13:44:06.337" UserId="8143" Text="I'm starting to ride their own little project, but I would do it with someone else who could like him.  Now I would be doing myself Frontend/ Backend and design, but in many of these things I'm a mess, especially in design.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wish I could share experience and work, of course being the whole project partners, adventure and future profits (if they got them).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I searched online forum or a place to meet a friend or partner for this, but I have not found any page dedicated to this. Somebody knows?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for all!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10385" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3377" RevisionGUID="bdc455e4-9d2d-423c-b260-61720827776a" CreationDate="2015-06-24T13:44:06.337" UserId="8143" Text="Are there platforms to find partners for a startup project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10386" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3377" RevisionGUID="bdc455e4-9d2d-423c-b260-61720827776a" CreationDate="2015-06-24T13:44:06.337" UserId="8143" Text="|freelance-websites|working-from-home|project-management|programmer|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10389" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3377" RevisionGUID="edf72acc-2a4e-48ef-b9c2-bee3e4d3bc6d" CreationDate="2015-06-24T15:44:10.353" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10391" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3379" RevisionGUID="384fc661-4f7e-4393-b621-955eed9177e4" CreationDate="2015-06-25T00:07:24.373" UserDisplayName="user710" Text="Lets say I finished an app recently - was hired to develop it. By the end the client tested features, paid me and the development was over.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question: what to do with the bugs which can appear further? Should I fix my bugs for free in the future, or it is common practice to have a separate maintenance contract?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These are my bugs and if I won't make them I would not have to fix them, from the other hand, bugs are inevitable in pretty much any more or less complex project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10392" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3379" RevisionGUID="384fc661-4f7e-4393-b621-955eed9177e4" CreationDate="2015-06-25T00:07:24.373" UserDisplayName="user710" Text="Should bug fixing of a finished project be free?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10393" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3379" RevisionGUID="384fc661-4f7e-4393-b621-955eed9177e4" CreationDate="2015-06-25T00:07:24.373" UserDisplayName="user710" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10394" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3380" RevisionGUID="9ba9e2b6-ec5d-4d91-812a-ddc9e70d3331" CreationDate="2015-06-25T05:32:54.603" UserId="8046" Text="For projects with big budgets, fixing the bugs and the maintenance can be included in the price since you can add more time for you and your team for the &quot;testing phase.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But often you can get stuck doing smaller budget projects, or get rushed finishing the project, or the client asked for so many revisions that there is actually no time left for this; that testing phase cannot be done properly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing that can be done when this happens (or before in fact) is to give that responsibility to your client; if you are rushed to finish a project or cannot be paid to put the time required to test your code properly, he should do the tests, and then tell you what's wrong. You can give your client a certain period of time to do this; then everything after this period will be charged at hourly rate. Of course if it's a minor bug or something created by obvious negligence, you should probably simply fix it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's a fair option you can offer to your client and you can offer this when signing the contract. Think of it as an extended guarantee; as you said software often have bugs but they are also built over a long period of time before being released, and with a team reviewing each others' work. There's also many version of it; your client bought a 1.1 version in a way if he had a small budget or little time to give you to develop the app. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: I'm not a dev, but I do projects management and that's how I deal with that kind of issue. Maybe you will get better answers from entrepreneurs working directly in software or website development." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10395" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3380" RevisionGUID="5ee1bec1-a8d7-43a1-b04d-b3a2e9b6d282" CreationDate="2015-06-25T05:48:04.827" UserId="8046" Comment="precision extra rate" Text="For projects with big budgets, fixing the bugs and the maintenance can be included in the price since you can add more time for you and your team for the &quot;testing phase.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But often you can get stuck doing smaller budget projects, or get rushed finishing the project, or the client asked for so many revisions that there is actually no time left for this; that testing phase cannot be done properly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing that can be done when this happens (or before in fact) is to give that responsibility to your client; if you are rushed to finish a project or cannot be paid to put the time required to test your code properly, he should do the tests, and then tell you what's wrong. You can give your client a certain period of time to do this; then everything after this period will be charged at hourly rate. Of course if it's a minor bug or something created by obvious negligence, you should probably simply fix it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's a fair option you can offer to your client and you can offer this when signing the contract. Think of it as an extended guarantee; as you said software often have bugs but they are also built over a long period of time before being released, and with a team reviewing each others' work. There's also many version of it; your client bought a 1.1 version in a way if he had a small budget or little time to give you to develop the app. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can include some maintenance for an extra fee, and there's probably other benefits or extra services you can add to that maintenance other than fixing bugs. Another option is to guarantee them a lower hourly rate for 6-12 months to fix bugs or for maintenance if they decide to simply go with the &quot;1.1&quot; version low budget option. This way they won't be scared to be stuck with an app that doesn't work properly and will probably prefer to test it themselves to save a few dollars. The way you can also present it is to tell them &quot;if they ever want to tweak something or add new features, it will be at a lower rate.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The benefit for you: by doing this, you already introduced honestly the option of fixing bugs and gave them the freedom to choose, you offered maintenance and you also welcomed the client to come back to you for more work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With these info, you can think of a system that could work for you and that lets you client freely choose what he wants. Next time &quot;bugs&quot; will happen, it will be less difficult for you to decide what to do. And you'll always get paid one way or another.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: I'm not a dev, but I do projects management and that's how I deal with that kind of issue. Maybe you will get better answers from entrepreneurs working directly in software or website development." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10396" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3380" RevisionGUID="12de9c33-3f69-4bdf-bd6b-0dbe04c2c62f" CreationDate="2015-06-25T05:54:10.770" UserId="8046" Comment="precision extra rate" Text="For projects with big budgets, fixing the bugs and the maintenance can be included in the price since you can add more time for you and your team for the &quot;testing phase.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But often you can get stuck doing smaller budget projects, or get rushed finishing the project, or the client asked for so many revisions that there is actually no time left for this; that testing phase cannot be done properly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing that can be done when this happens (or before in fact) is to give that responsibility to your client; if you are rushed to finish a project or cannot be paid to put the time required to test your code properly, he should do the tests, and then tell you what's wrong. You can give your client a certain period of time to do this; then everything after this period will be charged at hourly rate. Of course if it's a minor bug or something created by obvious negligence, you should probably simply fix it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's a fair option you can offer to your client and you can offer this when signing the contract. Think of it as an extended guarantee; as you said software often have bugs but they are also built over a long period of time before being released, and with a team reviewing each others' work. There's also many version of it; your client bought a 1.1 version in a way if he had a small budget or little time to give you to develop the app. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can include some maintenance for an extra fee, and there's probably other benefits or extra services you can add to that maintenance other than fixing bugs. Another option is to guarantee them a lower hourly rate for 6-12 months to fix bugs or for maintenance if they decide to simply go with the &quot;1.1&quot; version low budget option. This way they won't be scared to be stuck with an app that doesn't work properly and will probably prefer to test it themselves to save a few dollars. The way you can also present it is to tell them &quot;if they ever want to tweak something or add new features, it will be at a lower rate.&quot; Otherwise, you can offer as second option a certain amount of hours included in the price for these things and lower that hourly rate a little bit. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Eg. Your first option *without maintenance* should have a hourly rate a bit higher than the second option with the *maintenance included*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The benefit for you: by doing this, you already introduced honestly the option of fixing bugs and gave them the freedom to choose, you offered maintenance and you also welcomed the client to come back to you for more work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With these info, you can think of a system that could work for you and that lets you client freely choose what he wants. Next time &quot;bugs&quot; will happen, it will be less difficult for you to decide what to do; you'll also know what's fair for YOU and for your client too. And you'll always get paid one way or another.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: I'm not a dev, but I do projects management and that's how I deal with that kind of issue. Maybe you will get better answers from entrepreneurs working directly in software or website development." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10397" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3381" RevisionGUID="de3c5fb4-5611-4675-93b3-6ee199190f30" CreationDate="2015-06-25T06:12:14.410" UserId="8046" Text="**It shouldn't be free and in fact, it's probably the client who encouraged the employees to contact you. And your expertise also has a value.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most companies that offer a maintenance service will charge for this and it can be used however the client wants it; in this case, to train his employees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can tell the client upfront about the billable communication but you can also simply add this time to the invoice under the label &quot;communication&quot; or something. Next time they'll receive the invoice, they'll probably ask you about it and then you can mention that &quot;your timer&quot; for this starts after xx minutes. You will let the client deal with the responsibility to tell his own employees about this. It's not your job to manage them and put yourself in that delicate position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you ever used the services of a lawyer, that's exactly how they do it and you usually realize this after getting the invoice!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10398" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3381" RevisionGUID="4229e1d8-3acc-4442-a81e-99e747170cce" CreationDate="2015-06-25T06:22:24.607" UserId="8046" Comment="precision phone call" Text="**It shouldn't be free and in fact, it's probably the client who encouraged the employees to contact you. And your expertise also has a value.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most companies that offer a maintenance service will charge for this and it can be used however the client wants it; in this case, to train his employees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can tell the client upfront about the billable communication but you can also simply add this time to the invoice under the label &quot;communication&quot; or something. Next time they'll receive the invoice, they'll probably ask you about it and then you can mention that &quot;your timer&quot; for this starts after xx minutes. You will let the client deal with the responsibility to tell his own employees about this. It's not your job to manage them and put yourself in that delicate position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you ever used the services of a lawyer, that's exactly how they do it and you usually realize this after getting the invoice!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding the phone conversation and feeling uncomfortable with telling them it will be chargeable, you can still simply bill for that time OR you can simply tell them that you will get back to them; then you can write to them or the client by email instead if it's easier for you. That can also give you the opportunity to contact the client and ask if he wouldn't be interested in some maintenance upgrade since you got some calls from his employees. If you're not sure what mindset you should have when doing this, imagine yourself and your client as 2 adult parents, and his employees are his kids; you don't discipline others' kids but you can have a word with their parents though ;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I request to deal only with one person, the client knows this before starting a project and I explain the reasons why (eg. lot more communication, lot more management for me, etc.) But if the whole team contacts me, I'm alright with this, I start my timer and I take care of their requests! Usually the client ends up taking the decision to manage these communications himself and I don't need to &quot;discipline&quot; anyone." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10399" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3381" RevisionGUID="a3af2b78-ea63-4588-88ef-dd068e5f3aeb" CreationDate="2015-06-25T06:42:03.750" UserId="8046" Comment="added 641 characters in body" Text="**It shouldn't be free and in fact, it's probably the client who encouraged the employees to contact you. And your expertise also has a value.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most companies that offer a maintenance service will charge for this and it can be used however the client wants it; in this case, to train his employees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can tell the client upfront about the billable communication but you can also simply add this time to the invoice under the label &quot;communication&quot; or something. Next time they'll receive the invoice, they'll probably ask you about it and then you can mention that &quot;your timer&quot; for this starts after xx minutes. You will let the client deal with the responsibility to tell his own employees about this. It's not your job to manage them and put yourself in that delicate position. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you ever used the services of a lawyer, that's exactly how they do it and you usually realize this after getting the invoice!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding the phone conversation and feeling uncomfortable with telling them it will be chargeable, you can still simply bill for that time OR you can simply tell them that you will get back to them; then you can write to them or the client by email instead if it's easier for you. That can also give you the opportunity to contact the client and ask if he wouldn't be interested in some maintenance upgrade since you got some calls from his employees. If you're not sure what mindset you should have when doing this, imagine yourself and your client as 2 adult parents, and his employees are his kids; you don't discipline others' kids but you can have a word with their parents though ;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you're doing the project for a flat fee, you can simply send an invoice with that time at the end of the week; they'll ask you about it and you will have the opportunity to offer them a maintenance agreement. They will probably resist paying it, and that's alright; for you it's just a way to make sure things are clear without feeling like justifying yourself. As a response, you don't need to force them to pay it, that invoice is a warning in fact, and you can simply tell the client &quot;It's alright for this time, I'll give you these hours for free.&quot; After this, they'll either buy your maintenance service or they'll stop calling you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I request to deal only with one person, the client knows this before starting a project and I explain the reasons why (eg. lot more communication, lot more management for me, etc.) But if the whole team contacts me, I'm alright with this, I start my timer and I take care of their requests! Usually the client ends up taking the decision to manage these communications himself and I don't need to &quot;discipline&quot; anyone." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10400" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3367" RevisionGUID="397cacd0-51ce-4f9b-9a5b-d6ae32f815c8" CreationDate="2015-06-25T09:46:18.317" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/614006694541135872" />
  <row Id="10401" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3382" RevisionGUID="c1cd277b-bc58-45e1-bc74-58309ceb86c2" CreationDate="2015-06-25T15:09:25.323" UserId="517" Text="It depends on your contract, you warranty period and your own professional conduct. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's my mistake and I should fix it? We all make mistakes. The development process is not only the coding. It's coding + testing (QA) + bugfixing. This is what your hourly rate or fixed price is consisted of. So when you said $1k for the project, it included all 3 phases. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Did you skip any phase and took the money anyway? If yes, fix it for free if you want. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I usually NOT charge bugfix if it consists of 1-2 hours and I knew they would appear. If this is a larger work with more work hours, then I do charge it. Why? Because I implemented all 3 steps mentioned above and bugs still appeared. Since I think that I do not code spaghetti code, I find these bugs as additional work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let me explain more in my own expertise - mobile apps. If a client returns an app to me that has ugly fonts on tablets or misaligned images on the mobile device, I fix this for free. Why? Because I should have seen that in 3 steps I mentioned. This is my oversight. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client returning the app for crashing on a specific device with a bug that I could not test, then I charge it because this is an extra work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All of this counts if you two do not have contract. If you have, see what it says. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the warranty period, I fix all bugs inside it because I charged client for my availability during the warranty period. Yes, warranty period is counted in my price and I treat it like a Retainer agreement between myself and the client for X months. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is also an option that you two worked via freelancing sites like odesk and he did not rate you. In such case, test him to see if he is willing to pay more. If not, do it for free as you have no other option if you want 5-star rating. And be smarter in the future by disclosing your rules before the projects starts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is also a case when this is your old and good client and for such clients, I would fix it for free unless the work would take more than 10 hours. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10402" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3379" RevisionGUID="8daad4ff-7a34-4049-862b-3acaa60ef7ed" CreationDate="2015-06-25T15:46:17.550" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/614097288009502720" />
  <row Id="10403" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3383" RevisionGUID="d0503639-509c-427a-9dc9-cae4fcca1d48" CreationDate="2015-06-25T16:16:32.293" UserDisplayName="user8159" Text="I'm doing a small bit of work for a client. I sent a written estimate and a written contract for both parties to sign; both were agreed to verbally, but I haven't received a signed copy of my contract yet. I later learned that I would be subcontracting to a company that has a retainer with this client, as they can't perform the fix; as such, I sent my contract and estimate to the company, who approved it (verbally).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As the work was fairly trivial, I've completed it. However, I haven't yet received a signed contract; I expected that this would be sent to me before now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it unreasonable to deny delivery of the work until the contract is signed? I'm being asked for an ETA for completion, but I don't want to deliver without a contract. What's the best way to deal with this situation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10404" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3383" RevisionGUID="d0503639-509c-427a-9dc9-cae4fcca1d48" CreationDate="2015-06-25T16:16:32.293" UserDisplayName="user8159" Text="Is it unreasonable to withhold completed work if a contract hasn't been signed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10405" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3383" RevisionGUID="d0503639-509c-427a-9dc9-cae4fcca1d48" CreationDate="2015-06-25T16:16:32.293" UserDisplayName="user8159" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10406" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3384" RevisionGUID="5152bdad-9c05-4d41-b8f4-53f305ac69ee" CreationDate="2015-06-25T16:34:41.203" UserId="8160" Text="It is reasonable to expect a contract to be in place before the work is delivered.  Personally, I would expect the contract to be in place before work begins.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My guess is they consider their verbal recognition of the contract sufficient, and you don't.  A polite clarification that you require a formal recognition of the contract shouldn't cause any hard feelings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Re: Project Completion ETA&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hello `[client]`, the project is finished and ready for delivery.  I&#xD;&#xA;&gt; will submit the deliverable to you as soon as I receive a signed copy&#xD;&#xA;&gt; of the contract I submitted to you on `[date]`.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; -Jedd" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10407" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3385" RevisionGUID="00e709bf-7038-4636-a8a7-02d4190a62b5" CreationDate="2015-06-25T19:35:38.957" UserId="7774" Text="I believe communication is best key here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to let them know what you expect and prepare for worst.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they value you they will understand and either be corrected or correct you(if you missed out).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think expectations need to be clearly defined hence contract.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10409" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3386" RevisionGUID="00f87d4b-d203-48a8-9c11-b15950643cc7" CreationDate="2015-06-26T05:05:21.553" UserId="8046" Text="**It's not unreasonable at all.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can simply mention that you only need the contract signed and the files will be sent as soon as it's done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The way to ask for this is (reword it better though): &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Files are ready to be sent! Please let me know when you can sign the contract and send it back in order to complete the process, then I'll be able to upload the files to XYZ within the next hour.  Also, let me know if there any issue or question regarding the contract and how to add the digital signature on it.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you tell them to have a good day, and you sign your name.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And you attach the contract to the email. And you wait!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10410" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3386" RevisionGUID="257d60c4-bd78-46fc-bffa-6f9317b901a7" CreationDate="2015-06-26T05:28:44.093" UserId="8046" Comment="formating" Text="**It's not unreasonable at all.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can simply mention that you only need the contract signed and the files will be sent as soon as it's done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The way to ask for this is (reword it better though): &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Files are ready to be sent! Please let me know when you can sign the contract and send it back in order to complete the process, then I'll be able to upload the files to XYZ within the next hour.  Also, let me know if there any issue or question regarding the contract and how to add the digital signature on it.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you tell them to have a good day, and you sign your name.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**And you attach the contract to the email.** And you wait!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10411" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3387" RevisionGUID="056ed252-0ebe-4c06-93ce-1ec668a9c466" CreationDate="2015-06-26T07:01:38.487" UserId="8046" Text="**About the unpaid hours they may owe you payment for**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's an easy way to ask to get paid and not go back and forth; you can simply tell your client that your accountant needs to do the paperwork (or you're doing it) of the month, and you're sending your invoice before &quot;closing&quot; the month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**About completing the project**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't like working with that client because it's draining you, just don't. If your contract clearly has a clause about this then respect it and end your misery there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can simply send them the invoice for the 50%, and mention the files will be sent after this is paid. You shouldn't get in any legal trouble if you respect your contract but you should expect some drama and frustration though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;OR &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they're really a lot of trouble to deal with and you can easily find work with your new energy, just send them the files and mention that you no longer want to work with them, that the contract is dissolved in good faith. You don't need to justify anything, just make sure to clearly mention and have proofs that the files were delivered. For example, you can use Hightail and get a receipt when the files are downloaded.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Future projects**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's never too late to &quot;update&quot; your terms, and change the way you offer your services for your next projects. If you want to change the terms for the next projects, you can do it on your NEW contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client asks you why it's different, you can simply explain that due to the workload you got lately due to your extreme popularity and referrals, you have no other choice but to change the terms. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also set a hourly rate higher. It can be very VERY high if you don't want to work with the client anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By updating your terms on the new contract and adding a higher hourly rate, your client might simply decide to wait before going further with this. You can [read this][1], maybe it will help you getting paid more easily for the multiple revisions, and [this answer][2] to get some tricks about how to deal with clients or teams who send you a lot of emails or call you too often.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**One suggestion for your time tracking**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freshbooks is a very good invoicing and time tracking system. You can install a timer on your computer and track down the time spent on each project, when, what, etc. Then you can use this to invoice your client. A real time saver and not messy as Basecamp. It's not for project management but you might not need Basecamp if you use Freshbooks and your email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want some ways to easily track the number of proofs you sent and the revisions, you can have a look at my answer on this [question][3].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3226/project-based-freelance-project-requiring-multiple-unexpected-redos-from-clien/3337#3337&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3365/handling-client-extras-on-the-fly/3381#3381&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/55629/what-is-your-file-naming-convention-do-you-use-for-version-control/55645#55645" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10412" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3349" RevisionGUID="f0757f6e-5af6-4837-b3f9-1f17e50515f2" CreationDate="2015-06-26T09:46:17.430" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/614369078287990784" />
  <row Id="10413" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3388" RevisionGUID="f5488fa8-40d0-4d29-aa23-fe6c30eea285" CreationDate="2015-06-27T05:05:55.067" UserId="8178" Text="I have this idea to listen to what Linux community needs and to create some simple applications for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So basically I would start of with one of the most popular Linux distros at the moment (I don't want to share which one right now) and create a couple of simple apps that seems to be highly wanted in the community of that Linux distro. Once I created the software, I would release it for free to the community and allow them to continue their development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then, I would create a website where I would share a couple of ideas I have in my mind and allow the community to vote for which ideas should I focus on first and listen to the feedback. I would consider both donations and free votes. Donations would have a higher impact on me of course, so community could compete with each other to select which idea is needed the most.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Later on, I would expand to other distros and desktop environments and possibly even hire a small team to help me out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once I receive my first donations , I would upgrade my equipment (buy a new laptop, upgrade my Internet connection, make some small changes to my work environment) and then I would try to receive monthly donations so I could work full time on those ideas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would regularly blog about my ideas, share my progress (possibly even record videos or livestream as I code) and be constantly in contact with my donators.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I crazy for thinking that something like this could theoretically work? Am I missing something? If this project fails and I decide to do something else, would this look good on my resume? I mean, I would not really be employed in any company and I would not really consider this as a startup. It's just a quick way to make money and start my career as a software developer. I *think* that this could be considered more valuable to the potential job recruiters than a normal internship would, but I wanted to hear opinions from more experienced software developers.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10414" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3388" RevisionGUID="f5488fa8-40d0-4d29-aa23-fe6c30eea285" CreationDate="2015-06-27T05:05:55.067" UserId="8178" Text="Could I theoretically make money by creating software Linux distro needs?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10415" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3388" RevisionGUID="f5488fa8-40d0-4d29-aa23-fe6c30eea285" CreationDate="2015-06-27T05:05:55.067" UserId="8178" Text="|working-from-home|programmer|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10416" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3365" RevisionGUID="440e4163-8097-41d4-a570-2163daa39dc1" CreationDate="2015-06-28T06:48:49.720" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/615049194341027840" />
  <row Id="10427" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3393" RevisionGUID="0ad461af-b031-43a9-9bf2-0eec61bb8f32" CreationDate="2015-06-29T09:05:26.907" UserId="8191" Text="Did you know most hosting companies do not take backups of your website? What will you do if your site is hacked?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10428" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3393" RevisionGUID="0ad461af-b031-43a9-9bf2-0eec61bb8f32" CreationDate="2015-06-29T09:05:26.907" UserId="8191" Text="What will you do if your site is hacked?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10429" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3393" RevisionGUID="0ad461af-b031-43a9-9bf2-0eec61bb8f32" CreationDate="2015-06-29T09:05:26.907" UserId="8191" Text="|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10432" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3394" RevisionGUID="5520ca28-da15-4081-83b6-3cf9890a6140" CreationDate="2015-06-29T18:25:07.820" UserId="75" Text="First off, remember that Linux is marketed as very robust, open source, and free (with a few exceptions). Can you keep that philosophy?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason distributions become popular are for different reasons. Ubuntu became popular because someone was able to make all the decisions, and choose where development happened. Debian is build to be rock solid, but doesn't always have the latest packages in the `stable` build. Red Hat (and CentOS) are built for businesses, and offer lots of other cool tools.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, where would your system come in at, and how would it compete for market share (which you'd need first)? Are you going to build off of Debian so you can claim it's rock solid? Are you going to build off of Ubuntu because you want newer packages running? You need to get people to *want* to use your new distribution before even *thinking* of getting money out of them, even in donations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a large number of &quot;developers&quot; who contribute source code to the Linux Project, and you could even help there. You can also pick a distribution and just make your app. Let's start with this, and see where it could take us.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have you heard of the [FOG Project](https://www.fogproject.org)? They're a &quot;Free Open Source Ghost&quot; program, with a DNS and DHCP server built in as well. It has many great features, and many, many companies are using it over the Windows Distribution Services (which costs money). It does one main thing, and it does it quite well: allow an IT person to image many machines, quickly and easily.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, how do they make money? They don't have large 500+ member teams working on the stuff, they have a few core developers. They accept donations for the few people working on it, and they seem happy with that. You know what else they do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During the installation, new versions ask if they can use part of your CPU time to essentially mine bit coins in their name. They **give you the option** of supporting them, without actually paying them. They started doing that after getting a good customer base going. It doesn't cost my organization any money to contribute that way, and we have 40+ FOG servers deployed (over 40 physical sites, so there's one server at each site). That's like them having access to 40 BC mining machines, without all the extra costs of running one (extra hardware, extra power, etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a customer, I feel this is a great way to keep the project going. I don't program like they do, but I want to see it grow. You will want customers that want to see your product grow. Once people are using your product on an everyday basis, then you can start looking at *non-intrusive* methods of monetizing. Don't start big, start small, **with one well-made, much-sought-after product**, and build from there." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10436" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="707" RevisionGUID="28827fe2-cb94-4992-ac2b-99f71c23356b" CreationDate="2015-06-29T18:26:03.190" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10455" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3400" RevisionGUID="9f21641f-72ac-4b8a-8c06-9cf5c27774e2" CreationDate="2015-07-01T10:55:09.783" UserId="8212" Text="I am a EU citizen (German).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will be signing up as a freelance contractor in the UK (where I currently live) to work for UK-based and other companies&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bbut will be temporarily living in the US under a J2 visa (spouse of J1).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will be approximately 4 months in the US and my visa has already been issued.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can anybody advise me whether I need to declare taxes in the US? or is it sufficient for me to pay taxes in the UK? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/411900/usa-consolidated.pdf&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would appreciate any help you can give me&#xD;&#xA;Dani&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10456" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3400" RevisionGUID="9f21641f-72ac-4b8a-8c06-9cf5c27774e2" CreationDate="2015-07-01T10:55:09.783" UserId="8212" Text="Working on UK freelance contract for a UK company but living in the US" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10457" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3400" RevisionGUID="9f21641f-72ac-4b8a-8c06-9cf5c27774e2" CreationDate="2015-07-01T10:55:09.783" UserId="8212" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10461" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3401" RevisionGUID="98932fb5-f289-4e1c-8455-9b60bb25593d" CreationDate="2015-07-01T14:59:24.440" UserId="708" Text="**None**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No one cares about Stack badges except stack users. If your clients have never heard of Stack Exchange, as with most people, then the badges only serve to confuse and distract. They offer no added value. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, having a &quot;badge&quot; doesn't make you automatically an authority on the subject. Badges only reflect your interaction on Stack sites, not your overall knowledge and expertise. It is entirely possible to be hugely knowledgeable on a subject but not have a SE rep which reflects your knowledge. Just as it's possible to have a good deal of SE rep, while still not actually being an expert on the topic. SE badges only matter on SE sites, clients really don't care about them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Leave them all off." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10462" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3402" RevisionGUID="52b5feb8-0c2a-4ce4-a598-87d0e6161741" CreationDate="2015-07-01T20:00:58.157" UserId="6052" Text="I've noticed on a couple of freelancing sites (especially Elance) where the majority projects get allocated either to yourself (if you're lucky), or to another (lucky them) or they get cancelled (unlucky for everyone).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, there are quite a few projects that just seem to &quot;hang&quot; there, not being allocated to anyone. Which could be for a number of reasons. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would it be safe to assume that any project after a month after it's initial announcement is unlikely to do anything than just sit and stagnate, in a state of limbo (incorrectly flagged as &quot;hiring open&quot; or &quot;selecting candidate&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there any other freelancers that keep tabs on these sort of statistics?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10463" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3402" RevisionGUID="52b5feb8-0c2a-4ce4-a598-87d0e6161741" CreationDate="2015-07-01T20:00:58.157" UserId="6052" Text="Unallocated projects" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10464" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3402" RevisionGUID="52b5feb8-0c2a-4ce4-a598-87d0e6161741" CreationDate="2015-07-01T20:00:58.157" UserId="6052" Text="|project-bidding|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10465" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3403" RevisionGUID="47159fa0-6a6b-4581-9b9a-af421b1555f1" CreationDate="2015-07-01T20:28:53.687" UserId="517" Text="Being a client on those services give you a chance to open the project even if you are not sure that you need someone to work on it. So those are the ones that are left hanging because clients are not sure what to do, could not find anyone to match their budget, or simply found contractor via another source and were too lazy to close it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;oDesk took a twist and started to treat clients the same as contractors dividing them to good or bad. For example, my job award ration on odesk is 50%, which is IMHO pretty good, but they still emailed me telling me that I should open a project only if I plan to actually hire someone. Otherwise they will close my account. So they are doing their best as of recently to shut down clients like those (or like me) who spend bids and time of other contractors. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10466" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3294" RevisionGUID="e74733ef-5827-4dad-9a76-60f6dc6d2e78" CreationDate="2015-07-01T20:29:50.120" UserId="517" Comment="deleted 27 characters in body" Text="I have made an about me page that contains basic information (basically my best websites and a link to their respective githubs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was thinking of including a few badges, like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;![enter image description here][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;on the website. Should I include them, and if so what badges should I include?&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/MC6tU.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10467" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3383" RevisionGUID="b7e53e65-d30f-4b67-abb9-8479d8ed7d1b" CreationDate="2015-07-02T04:06:34.053" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/616457911905202181" />
  <row Id="10468" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3404" RevisionGUID="a2df6a5f-1e0a-4477-b2aa-e68e6a657035" CreationDate="2015-07-02T23:39:44.323" UserId="8046" Text="I’m in a situation where I wanted to hire 2 freelancers, and they’re a couple. After a few interviews and investigations, I realized the husband totally lied on his resume and experience; all he did was working as a salesman. The wife seems to be an awesome individual, and she’s going back full time to university. She has a degree already in the field I need freelancer for (linguistic). Offering her some freelance projects would really help her since she cannot have a full time job anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where I’m stuck: I don’t know how to deal with the husband situation and with the last interactions we had, I’m also worried about my clients’ privacy and integrity; for example, just minutes after I introduced the first project to the wife (a project for her only), he sent me a private message about it and made fun about something regarding my client. I was a bit shocked because I don’t do this myself, and I don’t know if she shared the details with him or if he looked at our conversations. When I mentioned privacy, he kept coming back with all the &quot;but why why?&quot; and frankly it annoyed me to even have to explain this to him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I’d like to deal with the wife as an individual** and not have to worry about her unprofessional husband. I don’t know if I should be honest and tell her about this (my worries) or simply not hire her at all. It seems like hiring her could bring me issues because of her husband but I find it a bit unfair to her to not tell her. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Any suggestions on how I should manage this situation?** Should I simply forget about them both and find someone else? I’d like to hear how people deal with this, both on the side of being freelancers and business owners.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, these freelancers live in another country; legally it would be hard to sue them if they wouldn't respect the NDA and contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10469" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3404" RevisionGUID="a2df6a5f-1e0a-4477-b2aa-e68e6a657035" CreationDate="2015-07-02T23:39:44.323" UserId="8046" Text="Hiring freelancers who are a couple?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10470" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3404" RevisionGUID="a2df6a5f-1e0a-4477-b2aa-e68e6a657035" CreationDate="2015-07-02T23:39:44.323" UserId="8046" Text="|working-from-home|group-freelancing|subcontracting|resume|interview|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10471" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3405" RevisionGUID="35cb7c64-1d5e-4a57-ba57-447905b1a583" CreationDate="2015-07-03T05:47:58.243" UserId="7632" Text="I have worked on elance for years (and odesk too, now they have both merged and elance is already starting to withhold contractor payments for a minimum of 3-5 days, I've heard reports of up to 3 weeks to get paid now),   and like you said there are several reasons.    Some people just post job ads to see what they will get back,  some of the people posting are contractors looking to see what other contractors are bidding,  some are people writing blog articles about it, or others are just scammers looking to pump people for information then try to do the project themselves, or have their in-house team do it once they have some info on a solution/approach.   I've had many many clients waste my time getting detailed specs,  solutions, etc.. and then never hire me or anyone else for the job.   I'm talking insisting on a &quot;phone interview&quot; then keeping me on the phone for hours asking every little detail about the project and how i would handle it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've learned to not give out so much information, so it's better now, but I'm getting off track.    Your other question was, can you assume after 30 days that the job is dead.    Simple answer, NO!   I've had people hit me up 3, 6, even a year after I bid the job and end up hiring me and making some good money out of it.   However, it is RARE, and maybe only happens once or twice a year to me.  And I bid a lot of jobs.   A lot.    &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a policy (stated in my profile under payment terms or whatever),  that my quotes are only good for 30 days and after that time, a new quote must be obtained before hire.    This is because if someone comes back 6 months later and I was short on cash at the time of the bid and only bid at like 30/hr, then 6 months later I'm doing better clocking 6k a week,  I'm not interested in chincy 30/hr work anymore, so I point them to the clause in my payment terms to handle that situation.   They usually bail, sometimes they are willing to pay more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IMO,  if a job has not contacted you within 1 or 2 weeks, forget about it.  I usually withdraw my application.    If someone is going to waste my time and not even bother to respond, then I don't want a response,  move on to better clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Elance does not charge the client a dime.   They can post as many free jobs as they want and there is no penalty for not hiring.    Another thing that happens is a lot of these guys will try to get you on skype and move off the platform.  Something that I'm sure happens a lot on there.   I don't do it because there is only one reason someone wants you to move off platform,  so they can burn you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone pays you through paypal,  even if its like 20,000 dollars over the course of a year,  at any time, they can call their bank and reverse the charges and paypal does not protect you.   You will have a -20,000 balance on paypal.  It's happened to me more than once, not for that much, but basically any money you get through paypal is not really yours,  ever.   They can always take it back, this is what I've been told by paypal account specialist.  So I'd rather have elance do the transaction, as they have never ripped me off (for a payment, they rip me off constantly on fees and other redic stuff).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, the two have merged now and neither is worth working for.  The overseas contractors really threw salt in that game,  so for anyone looking for decent wages,  it's back to the old 9-5.  Though I have been thinking of trying fivverr now that they upped their limit from 5 dollars to 500 dollars a job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, kind of all over the place on this...  I hope I sort of answered your question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Check out my answer here for more info on how to survive as a freelancer in this dog eat dog industry.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3147/learned-html-css-and-jquery-now-what/3157#3157" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10472" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3406" RevisionGUID="edb28894-d4fd-43ec-b697-5ff138741255" CreationDate="2015-07-03T06:26:47.003" UserId="7632" Text="A lot of ins, a lot of outs, a lot of what-have-you's involved with this.  See [www.irs.gov][1] for more info, or IRS [Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens][2].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The basic rule for nonimmigrant visa holders is if you spend more than 31 days of the current year AND have spent a total of 183 or more days in the US in the last 3 years, you are considered a &quot;tax resident&quot; and are required to pay taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, the 183 days isn't really 183 days.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You count 1/3 of the days you were present in the first year before the current year, and 1/6 of the days you were present in the second year before the current year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if you spent 50 days in 2013,  25 days in 2014, and 120 days in 2015.. your total days would be 50/6 + 25/3 + 120 = 8.33 + 8.33 + 120 = 136 days,  plenty of time to spare.   So really unless you have spent a lot of time in the US in the last couple years, the only year you really have to worry about is the current one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are considered in the US if you spend any amount of time in a day in the US.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  ***Excluding:***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - days you regularly commute to work in the Untied States from Canada or Mexico&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - days you are in the United States for less than 24 hours while travelling&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - days you are unable to leave the United States because of a medical condition that develops while you are in the country&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **days you are an exempt individual--for example, you're a student temporarily present in the United States under an &quot;F, &quot; &quot;J, &quot; &quot;M, &quot; or &quot;Q &quot; visa; a teacher or trainee temporarily present under a &quot;J &quot; or &quot;Q &quot; visa; or a diplomat, foreign government employee, or someone otherwise related to a foreign government.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you exclude days of presence in the United States because you fall into a special category, you must file a fully completed IRS [Form 8843, Statement for Exempt Individuals and Individuals with a Medical Condition][3].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, if you meet ALL of the following conditions, you are exempt from paying taxes in the US while on a nonimmigrant visa...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - are present in the United States for less than 183 days during the current year&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - have not applied for a green card&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - have a closer connection with a foreign country than with the U.S., and&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - maintain a tax home in this foreign country during the year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *You will be considered to have a closer connection to a foreign country than the United States if you or the IRS establishes that you&#xD;&#xA;&gt; have maintained more significant contacts with the foreign country&#xD;&#xA;&gt; than with the United States.*&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; *There are other exceptions to these tax rules based on tax treaties between the U.S. and your home country.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To avoid double taxation, tax residents may claim a foreign tax credit for income tax paid or owed to a foreign country on foreign source income. To claim the credit, you must file [Form 1116, Foreign Tax Credit (Individual, Estate, or Trust)][4], with your Form 1040. For more information, get [Publication 514, Foreign Tax Credit for Individuals][5].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Even if you are not a U.S. citizen, you may be required to pay taxes&#xD;&#xA;&gt; in the United States. Whether or not you must file a U.S. tax return&#xD;&#xA;&gt; depends upon whether the U.S. government considers you a &quot;tax&#xD;&#xA;&gt; resident.&quot; All permanent residents (green card holders) are tax&#xD;&#xA;&gt; residents, but only some holders of nonimmigrant visas are tax&#xD;&#xA;&gt; residents. Still, filing a tax return can be a good thing if you've&#xD;&#xA;&gt; been working for an employer who's been withholding taxes from your&#xD;&#xA;&gt; paycheck -- you may get a refund!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tax residents must report their entire worldwide income to the [U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS)][6]. It doesn't matter if a portion or all of that income was earned from investments or business activities carried on outside the United States; a tax resident must report it all. But becoming a tax resident does not necessarily mean that the U.S. government will tax all of your worldwide income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These rules are complicated and subject to a number of confusing exceptions. If you are unsure of your situation, consult a tax accountant or lawyer. Also see IRS [Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens][7], available at [www.irs.gov][8].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you have a nonimmigrant visa, failure to follow U.S. tax laws can lead to criminal punishment, revocation of your visa, and deportation. Failure to comply with U.S. tax laws can also make it more difficult for you to obtain permanent residency (a &quot;green card&quot;) should you ever want it.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.irs.gov&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Publication-519,-U.S.-Tax-Guide-for-Aliens-1&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Form-8843,-Statement-for-Exempt-Individuals-and-Individuals-With-a-Medical-Condition-1&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Form-1116,-Foreign-Tax-Credit&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Publication-514,-Foreign-Tax-Credit-for-Individuals-2&#xD;&#xA;  [6]: http://www.nolo.com/dictionary/internal-revenue-service-(irs)-term.html&#xD;&#xA;  [7]: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Publication-519,-U.S.-Tax-Guide-for-Aliens-1&#xD;&#xA;  [8]: http://www.irs.gov" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10473" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3406" RevisionGUID="b4a4cf41-d828-47b4-b98f-1e80e022622a" CreationDate="2015-07-03T06:32:59.733" UserId="7632" Comment="added 75 characters in body" Text="A lot of ins, a lot of outs, a lot of what-have-you's involved with this.  See [www.irs.gov][1] for more info, or IRS [Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens][2].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The basic rule for nonimmigrant visa holders is if you spend more than 31 days of the current year AND have spent a total of 183 or more days in the US in the last 3 years, you are considered a &quot;tax resident&quot; and are required to pay taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, the 183 days isn't really 183 days.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You count 1/3 of the days you were present in the first year before the current year, and 1/6 of the days you were present in the second year before the current year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if you spent 50 days in 2013,  25 days in 2014, and 120 days in 2015.. your total days would be 50/6 + 25/3 + 120 = 8.33 + 8.33 + 120 = 136 days,  plenty of time to spare.   So really unless you have spent a lot of time in the US in the last couple years, the only year you really have to worry about is the current one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are considered in the US if you spend any amount of time in a day in the US.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  ***Excluding:***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - days you regularly commute to work in the Untied States from Canada or Mexico&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - days you are in the United States for less than 24 hours while travelling&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - days you are unable to leave the United States because of a medical condition that develops while you are in the country&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **days you are an exempt individual--for example, you're a student temporarily present in the United States under an &quot;F, &quot; &quot;J, &quot; &quot;M, &quot; or &quot;Q &quot; visa; a teacher or trainee temporarily present under a &quot;J &quot; or &quot;Q &quot; visa; or a diplomat, foreign government employee, or someone otherwise related to a foreign government.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you exclude days of presence in the United States because you fall into a special category, you must file a fully completed IRS [Form 8843, Statement for Exempt Individuals and Individuals with a Medical Condition][3].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, if you meet ALL of the following conditions, you are exempt from paying taxes in the US while on a nonimmigrant visa...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - are present in the United States for less than 183 days during the current year&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - have not applied for a green card&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - have a closer connection with a foreign country than with the U.S., and&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - maintain a tax home in this foreign country during the year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *You will be considered to have a closer connection to a foreign country than the United States if you or the IRS establishes that you&#xD;&#xA;&gt; have maintained more significant contacts with the foreign country&#xD;&#xA;&gt; than with the United States.*&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; *There are other exceptions to these tax rules based on tax treaties between the U.S. and your home country.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To avoid double taxation, tax residents may claim a foreign tax credit for income tax paid or owed to a foreign country on foreign source income. To claim the credit, you must file [Form 1116, Foreign Tax Credit (Individual, Estate, or Trust)][4], with your Form 1040. For more information, get [Publication 514, Foreign Tax Credit for Individuals][5].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Even if you are not a U.S. citizen, you may be required to pay taxes&#xD;&#xA;&gt; in the United States. Whether or not you must file a U.S. tax return&#xD;&#xA;&gt; depends upon whether the U.S. government considers you a &quot;tax&#xD;&#xA;&gt; resident.&quot; All permanent residents (green card holders) are tax&#xD;&#xA;&gt; residents, but only some holders of nonimmigrant visas are tax&#xD;&#xA;&gt; residents. Still, filing a tax return can be a good thing if you've&#xD;&#xA;&gt; been working for an employer who's been withholding taxes from your&#xD;&#xA;&gt; paycheck -- you may get a refund!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- - -&#xD;&#xA;Remote Work Abroad while living on Visa in US&#xD;&#xA;--&#xD;&#xA;- - -&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Tax residents must report their entire worldwide income to the [U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS)][6]. It doesn't matter if a portion or all of that income was earned from investments or business activities carried on outside the United States; a tax resident must report it all. But becoming a tax resident does not necessarily mean that the U.S. government will tax all of your worldwide income.***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These rules are complicated and subject to a number of confusing exceptions. If you are unsure of your situation, consult a tax accountant or lawyer. Also see IRS [Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens][7], available at [www.irs.gov][8].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you have a nonimmigrant visa, failure to follow U.S. tax laws can lead to criminal punishment, revocation of your visa, and deportation. Failure to comply with U.S. tax laws can also make it more difficult for you to obtain permanent residency (a &quot;green card&quot;) should you ever want it.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.irs.gov&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Publication-519,-U.S.-Tax-Guide-for-Aliens-1&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Form-8843,-Statement-for-Exempt-Individuals-and-Individuals-With-a-Medical-Condition-1&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Form-1116,-Foreign-Tax-Credit&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Publication-514,-Foreign-Tax-Credit-for-Individuals-2&#xD;&#xA;  [6]: http://www.nolo.com/dictionary/internal-revenue-service-(irs)-term.html&#xD;&#xA;  [7]: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Publication-519,-U.S.-Tax-Guide-for-Aliens-1&#xD;&#xA;  [8]: http://www.irs.gov" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10474" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3406" RevisionGUID="1bf6b247-f9cf-4111-b8fc-fa1640fc1673" CreationDate="2015-07-03T06:38:36.037" UserId="7632" Comment="added 75 characters in body" Text="A lot of ins, a lot of outs, a lot of what-have-you's involved with this.  See [www.irs.gov][1] for more info, or IRS [Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens][2].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Even if you are not a U.S. citizen, you may be required to pay taxes&#xD;&#xA;&gt; in the United States. Whether or not you must file a U.S. tax return&#xD;&#xA;&gt; depends upon whether the U.S. government considers you a &quot;tax&#xD;&#xA;&gt; resident.&quot; All permanent residents (green card holders) are tax&#xD;&#xA;&gt; residents, but only some holders of nonimmigrant visas are tax&#xD;&#xA;&gt; residents. Still, filing a tax return can be a good thing if you've&#xD;&#xA;&gt; been working for an employer who's been withholding taxes from your&#xD;&#xA;&gt; paycheck -- you may get a refund!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The basic rule for nonimmigrant visa holders is if you spend more than 31 days of the current year AND have spent a total of 183 or more days in the US in the last 3 years, you are considered a &quot;tax resident&quot; and are required to pay taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, the 183 days isn't really 183 days.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You count 1/3 of the days you were present in the first year before the current year, and 1/6 of the days you were present in the second year before the current year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if you spent 50 days in 2013,  25 days in 2014, and 120 days in 2015.. your total days would be 50/6 + 25/3 + 120 = 8.33 + 8.33 + 120 = 136 days,  plenty of time to spare.   So really unless you have spent a lot of time in the US in the last couple years, the only year you really have to worry about is the current one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are considered in the US if you spend any amount of time in a day in the US.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  ***Excluding:***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - days you regularly commute to work in the Untied States from Canada or Mexico&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - days you are in the United States for less than 24 hours while travelling&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - days you are unable to leave the United States because of a medical condition that develops while you are in the country&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **days you are an exempt individual--for example, you're a student temporarily present in the United States under an &quot;F, &quot; &quot;J, &quot; &quot;M, &quot; or &quot;Q &quot; visa; a teacher or trainee temporarily present under a &quot;J &quot; or &quot;Q &quot; visa; or a diplomat, foreign government employee, or someone otherwise related to a foreign government.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you exclude days of presence in the United States because you fall into a special category, you must file a fully completed IRS [Form 8843, Statement for Exempt Individuals and Individuals with a Medical Condition][3].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, if you meet ***ALL*** of the following conditions, you are exempt from paying taxes in the US while on a nonimmigrant visa...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - are present in the United States for less than 183 days during the current year&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - have not applied for a green card&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - have a closer connection with a foreign country than with the U.S., and&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - maintain a tax home in this foreign country during the year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *You will be considered to have a closer connection to a foreign country than the United States if you or the IRS establishes that you&#xD;&#xA;&gt; have maintained more significant contacts with the foreign country&#xD;&#xA;&gt; than with the United States.*&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; *There are other exceptions to these tax rules based on tax treaties between the U.S. and your home country.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**To avoid double taxation, tax residents may claim a foreign tax credit for income tax paid or owed to a foreign country on foreign source income. To claim the credit, you must file [Form 1116, Foreign Tax Credit (Individual, Estate, or Trust)][4], with your Form 1040. For more information, get [Publication 514, Foreign Tax Credit for Individuals][5].**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- - -&#xD;&#xA;Remote Work Abroad while living on Visa in US&#xD;&#xA;--&#xD;&#xA;- - -&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Tax residents must report their entire worldwide income to the [U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS)][6]. It doesn't matter if a portion or all of that income was earned from investments or business activities carried on outside the United States; a tax resident must report it all. But becoming a tax resident does not necessarily mean that the U.S. government will tax all of your worldwide income.***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These rules are complicated and subject to a number of confusing exceptions. If you are unsure of your situation, consult a tax accountant or lawyer. Also see IRS [Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens][7], available at [www.irs.gov][8].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you have a nonimmigrant visa, failure to follow U.S. tax laws can lead to criminal punishment, revocation of your visa, and deportation. Failure to comply with U.S. tax laws can also make it more difficult for you to obtain permanent residency (a &quot;green card&quot;) should you ever want it.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.irs.gov&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Publication-519,-U.S.-Tax-Guide-for-Aliens-1&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Form-8843,-Statement-for-Exempt-Individuals-and-Individuals-With-a-Medical-Condition-1&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Form-1116,-Foreign-Tax-Credit&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Publication-514,-Foreign-Tax-Credit-for-Individuals-2&#xD;&#xA;  [6]: http://www.nolo.com/dictionary/internal-revenue-service-(irs)-term.html&#xD;&#xA;  [7]: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Publication-519,-U.S.-Tax-Guide-for-Aliens-1&#xD;&#xA;  [8]: http://www.irs.gov" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10475" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3407" RevisionGUID="ac03ffb6-4c89-4da3-9450-1bad8d80c5fe" CreationDate="2015-07-03T07:16:05.943" UserId="7632" Text="First off, MS is dying, closed source is dying,  you are jumping on a sinking ship.  IMO ASP.Net, Windows, basically anything MS makes, is all junk.  Hugely bloated, overly complicated, non-intuitive, and they want tons of money for all of it.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would highly recommend you look into the future at working on a LAMP stack.  Open source is the new trend,  free software,  non-proprietary,  and the greatest thing is,  all this software makes sense,  it works.    When you go from MS environment to linux you are like, whoah, this is how computers were meant to be used.  This actually makes sense.  I don't have to memorize a bunch of arbitrary, long, cryptic commands to do things.   If you ever check it out, you'll know what I'm talking about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being said, I can't stop you from wasting your life on garbage created by trash,  it's your perogative.   As for your question,  YOU DONT NEED TO KNOW ANYTHING.   Fake it til you make it is the key phrase here.   Actually, works for all of life.   But trust me,   no matter how terrible you are,   someone just hired a company in India or China to do a job and they are going to do 10x worse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;just start bidding jobs and lie through your teeth about how great you are and all the experience you have with this and that and how that's kind of outdated but you can still work with it, etc..  Basically Fake it til you make it.  You will need to learn the gift of gab if you want to be successful at this.  If you can't work people, then you need to hire a face man to handle your clients.  Pay him 10% or less, never more.   Also, if you screw up a job then just quit,  don't accept payment, and you won't get a bad mark on your profile for it except that you cancelled the job.   As long as the client doesn't have to pay and can hire someone else, they never complain.  I've cancelled tons of jobs for various reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, Most of my work comes from fixing the broken horrible code others have passed off as legit work.   My consensus is that less than 1% of the entire freelance pool has any idea what they are doing, and most likely code drunk and blindfolded.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no way you could do a worse job because it's not possible to do a worse job.    Just google google google, because for the first few years that's going to be your life anyway.   I've been at it 10 years and I still google things every day.    I hate google, but without them, I'd be lost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stack Overflow (and sister sites like super user, security, programming, etc.) are GREAT.  Go on there and look for questions you can answer.  If you don't know the answer off-hand, google it and try to find the answer and answer it.  Don't worry about rep or if someone else gets in there before you.  Think of this as something you are doing for yourself.   Answering questions, believe it or not, is invaluable in building your knowledge, experience, and confidence.  The community will help you realize when you have made an error or not used the best practice.  Take this criticism as little nuggets of gold.   I am 10X better programmer for being on SO and answering questions.   It is invaluable.   Not only that but sometimes you meet people who want to hire you.   Then again, I will spend 8 hours fixing someones problem for them if need be, I refuse to give up.   Several people have contacted me and hired me because of answers I've posted on SO.   So do your best and to give great answers and don't worry about rep or all those haters that will give you a hard time.   Just do your best and the rewards will come (along with a Stack Careers invite).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stack Careers is one of the best job sites I have ever been on.   Get on there immediately if they send you an invite.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Read Joel Spolsky's blog on software management.  It's from the employer point of view mostly, but it gives you priceless insight into the industry, especially as a newcomer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other than that,  just bid on jobs, lie a lot at first and pretend you know everything.   (Everyone else does this too so don't feel bad).  Build up your profile on whatever freelance sites you are getting leads on by taking tests, adding to your portfolio, etc.. while you are working and bidding jobs.  Don't spend a bunch of time getting ready, just jump right in and start making money, that's the most important thing.   Be super nice and do a great job so you'll get high ratings and good feedback from your clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every job you complete, save it somewhere,  put it on GITHUB,  save it to a webserver,  put it somewhere safe and start creating a portfolio of all your projects.  Even if its just some small widget or some minor thing,  put it in there.  It doesn't have to be some big deal or huge project to be in your port, you just need content, as much as you can get at first so you don't look like a noob.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, as your coding, your going to have snippets of code you re-use.  There are lots of different options, but in over 10 years, my favorite by far is GIST on GITHUB.  The perfect solution for storing snippets.   Use it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, if you build a framework or any type of application, put it on GITHUB.  Put as many projects as you can on there.   Show potential employers your GITHUB page.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Create your own website, blog about technology,  create useful programs and tools for people to use.   Set up some services if you can think of a need or niche.  Set up paypal or some kind of payment processor so you can start accepting payments from clients through your own website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just keep plugging away, building up your website, your blog, your portfolio,  your profiles on various freelance sites,  profile on any sites where you keep content like GITHUB or Behance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And remember to raise your rate as you get better.   I made the mistake at sticking at 20/hr for way too long.   Then one day it occurred to me,  wait a minute, I'm the boss, if I want a raise, I'll just give myself one and bumped it up to 50.   I started landing way higher quality clients and making way more money eventually landing at around 80/hr.   That's the highest I will go, but I move it down and back up again depending on how much work I have, how bad I need money,  how chincy the freelance site I'm on is,  how chincy the client seems, etc...   But it sure is great to make like 1200 bucks in a day or two.   :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, to summarize...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Dump ASP and move to open source &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Fake it til you make it &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Quit any jobs you screw up on immediately &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Go on SO and answer questions every day &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Read Joel on Software&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Bid and land jobs while building up your profile &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Increase your rate as you get better (about every 3 - 6 months go up 5/hr) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Save all your successful projects in a portfolio for future clients &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Create your own website, blog about technology,  add useful tools &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Create projects on sites like GITHUB, also put your snippets into GISTS &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Sign up for Stack Careers if you get invited, lots of remote jobs &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Just keep improving your skills, your online presence, etc.. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You'll be making 6 figures before you know it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;:)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10476" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3408" RevisionGUID="14b6cf2e-4a38-4206-a0d6-6ca72e3932ab" CreationDate="2015-07-03T08:28:05.360" UserId="7632" Text="As Canadian Cool Hand Luke said, you won't make much money through sales and unless you become very popular, your donations won't be that much either, I'm sorry to say.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do admire your ambition, your creativity, and your motivation.  Keep up that kind of attitude and you will succeed at whatever you end up doing.  Maybe not the first time, but as they say, try try again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your best bet would be to come up with a product/application you think people will be interested in,  then create some mock-ups, maybe a prototype to demo.   Create a video explaining it and your vision/mission.   Then put it on a crowdfunding site like indiegogo or whatever is popular this minute.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also,  watch CF campaigns that get good donations,  try to figure out the formula.   Also,  keep track of where the project ends up.   A lot of times, the project will stall out and be abandoned months (years) down the line and you can just pick up the ball they dropped and run with it.   I'm doing this with an app that I watched over 100k go into and 2 or 3 successful CF campaigns and then it just died.   Spoke w the head idea man/CEO/Whatever and he said he was done with it, take it and run with it if I want.   This idea has already been valuated at over 1 billion by an independent firm.   Also,  The Woz has expressed interest in this as well and possible meet pending for that.   If he gets behind it,  it's a done deal,  I'm livin laid in the shade, getting paid.  So keep up that ambitious drive you have, and think outside the box,  grab at every opportunity you can.   I think your selling yourself short with the donation thing.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Go for the GOLD!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10478" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3410" RevisionGUID="ca236e88-9733-499d-a656-edaf4a55fc90" CreationDate="2015-07-03T10:03:00.890" UserId="5321" Text="I hate to say it but I don't think you should hire her at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you hire her it seems you have only 2 options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Talk to her about her husband and your concerns.** By the sounds of it the husband would not take to this kindly. I don't think he would gracefully back down and imagine he would keep causing problems in your work. You also don't want to be responsible for causing a rift between a married couple - who wants to be in the middle of that?&#xD;&#xA; 2. **Hire them both anyway and don't mention your concerns.** It almost goes without saying that this is a *big fat red flag*. Listen to your gut, you don't want somebody involved who is going to taunt you and your clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Therefore your only real option is to walk away and find someone else. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10479" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3411" RevisionGUID="7dd18904-ce05-4c10-b3b0-5ec981eba8d0" CreationDate="2015-07-03T13:37:36.193" UserId="7774" Text=" 1. I dont think this couple comes as &quot;package deal&quot;. &#xD;&#xA; 2. Further you are free to choose wife over husband&#xD;&#xA; 3. I dont think you need to look at relationship aspect of this at all. But you could drop a brief hint at what you think. You are paying for work and need to be focused on work part then on relation/psychological part thaqt goes with it&#xD;&#xA; 4. If this couple is professional - they will understand and will accomodate you since you might not be the only one who doesnt wants &quot;package deal&quot;. If they push for &quot;package&quot; you know they are not pro's and you know what do next - decline them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10481" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3412" RevisionGUID="facfcb14-ca14-40ef-af93-9e2eaa757f37" CreationDate="2015-07-03T14:53:02.337" UserId="4137" Text="I've actually had this happen before with a personal site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My host was nice enough to actually give me a chance to get my data off the site, before I wiped it &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The very first thing *they* did was cut off access *from* the server out, so it wouldn't affect anyone else. Pretty good idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're lucky, you might have a host like mine, and actually be able to get your data out. If not... you're out of luck   &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;I did have a backup plan, and I did put it into effect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lesson 0: Backups are like shoelaces. Left undone, you will trip and break your face, and its too important to leave to other people. I managed to recover the site from my last known good backups, so all was good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lesson 0.0: Build your site with security in mind to start with&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lesson 1: If you can, keep a copy of the site contents for threat analysis.&#xD;&#xA;In my case, someone brute forced my root password &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lesson 2: Learn from lesson 1. When you rebuild your site, make sure you don't make the same mistakes again. My new server has key based auth, I considered building it without a root account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd also add, shared hosting can be a pain, and I tend to run a VPS or a dedicated server these days." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10482" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3413" RevisionGUID="67a59889-afec-4a02-9f4b-7bf241fac2ab" CreationDate="2015-07-03T15:00:48.003" UserId="8225" Text="I've recently gotten a contract for me to integrate an API with an AngularJS frontend, I'm quite new to freelancing and I've only got roughly two projects under my belt, all be it larger than normal, one taking six months and the other is at around 5 currently.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However this new gig that i've got, i've just been sent the code, I just got sent a zip file with the code in it and I'm not trying to be arrogant or anything but the code is, in my eyes bad. I feel like I would have to do a lot of extra ground to get anywhere with implementing the API, does anyone have any advice on how I should proceed? Should I try and coax a redesign or should I just hand him back the code and leave it at that? Any advice would be appreciated" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10483" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3413" RevisionGUID="67a59889-afec-4a02-9f4b-7bf241fac2ab" CreationDate="2015-07-03T15:00:48.003" UserId="8225" Text="Got a contract, but the code isn't the best, how do I proceed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10484" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3413" RevisionGUID="67a59889-afec-4a02-9f4b-7bf241fac2ab" CreationDate="2015-07-03T15:00:48.003" UserId="8225" Text="|contracts|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10485" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3414" RevisionGUID="2e56babe-c47e-45cf-bca7-e6c3f3b21f4c" CreationDate="2015-07-03T15:15:02.580" UserId="517" Text="You took a programming job without reviewing the code? Your mistake I may say. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, clients prefer that you are honest with them. Tell them that you reviewed the code and it's bad because of A to N points.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can offer to do it all from scratch or to continue working on it but new features will probably include other fixes and refactoring. So the client should now that implementing feature A takes 5 hours, but in this case it may take 8 or 10 or X hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your elaboration, try to explain all bad sides of continuing working on such code. This is important because at some point the bad code will start taking its toll, and you should not be blamed for that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's unclear how the client will continue. Depends on this budget and time frame. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my past, clients sometimes chose to start from scratch, but at least 70% or 80% time, they will tell you to continue coding and patch it in the progress. Most of those apps now work well, thou unpredicted bugs happen all the time. Neither of my client blamed me for them or refused to pay me for fixed. Honesty is the key, aside to expertise and professionalism. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10486" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3415" RevisionGUID="714f620f-8ed2-44ca-9f12-f5dbe8319180" CreationDate="2015-07-03T15:25:57.443" UserId="7774" Text="I think there will always be scope for improving things. The best you could do was to tell them your view and tell them consequences of bad coding done so far. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far client may have invested quite some time and money and may have gone in to process subtlities which may not be that apparent - so you may need more time before you suggest more. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also management always leads technology - you may just want to deliver what Client have asked and resist temptation of improving code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;purely my 2 cents" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10494" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3418" RevisionGUID="dfc334ea-99ef-419a-8bab-bd44fbfb0328" CreationDate="2015-07-05T03:12:02.977" UserId="8236" Text="I have recently began developing websites on my own. It is going well but I have run into a problem with a project I am pursuing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A family member would like me to create a website for the company he works for. However he is concerned that this could be seen as a conflict of interest. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I really want this project, I'd even do it for free to add to my portfolio. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anyone dealt with a situation like this? How would you suggest I proceed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10495" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3418" RevisionGUID="dfc334ea-99ef-419a-8bab-bd44fbfb0328" CreationDate="2015-07-05T03:12:02.977" UserId="8236" Text="How to resolve a potential conflict of interest" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10496" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3418" RevisionGUID="dfc334ea-99ef-419a-8bab-bd44fbfb0328" CreationDate="2015-07-05T03:12:02.977" UserId="8236" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10497" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3388" RevisionGUID="f9764d6e-f174-409e-84f4-6a8c85f864ab" CreationDate="2015-07-05T07:17:17.737" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/617593074156470272" />
  <row Id="10500" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3419" RevisionGUID="2b17af84-d87a-44d0-8b32-1c9547eb43a9" CreationDate="2015-07-05T19:52:48.140" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="You're right, there is a conflict of interest. No matter how fair your family member claims to be, there will always be a doubt that you really received the contract based on your merit alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This can effect the way others in the company work with you, their attitude when dealing with you. They may not respect your abilities and may feel like you're getting a free ride.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a result, the best way of dealing with the situation is for the family member to completely remove himself from the decision making process.  He has no say. The decision is handed over to people who have no reason to be biased toward you and if you receive the job, it is based on your merit alone.  Ideally, they should not even know you have a family member in the company. This way, if someone questions how you got the job, you can be 100% confident it was based on your merit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your family member can't remove themself from the decision making process,  I would seriously reconsider taking the job or appling at all, since others in the company may not respect you or take your skills seriously. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10501" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3418" RevisionGUID="7a084221-6f7f-49d0-b90f-3a3604a2e04c" CreationDate="2015-07-05T19:59:15.097" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10502" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3393" RevisionGUID="5cacd0a1-65d9-461d-8027-251ca137c502" CreationDate="2015-07-06T08:36:25.163" UserId="58" Comment="103" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10503" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3420" RevisionGUID="ec24dada-1d94-45d8-b434-ed2915d431c2" CreationDate="2015-07-07T03:04:44.880" UserId="6082" Text="I live in New York and do freelance web programming.  I work consistently for one company, but also do freelance projects and am currently developing an iphone app on the side.  I also work as musician in the evenings...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For all these different projects, I unfortunately use my small NYC apartment as the workspace.  And after several years of this, it is wearing on me a bit, being in the same room all day / evening...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;SO, I'm curious about Co-Working spaces.  I'm reluctant to 'pay to work', but I feel that a scenery change may boost my productivity, help my mental health, and free up my apartment for just being the place I live :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was wondering what others experience are like with Co-Working spaces?  How did did it effect your workflow?  What did you expect and what was different?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also for any New Yorkers, I'd be curious about your thoughts on specific spaces.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10504" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3420" RevisionGUID="ec24dada-1d94-45d8-b434-ed2915d431c2" CreationDate="2015-07-07T03:04:44.880" UserId="6082" Text="Remote Working - Co-working Spaces?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10505" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3420" RevisionGUID="ec24dada-1d94-45d8-b434-ed2915d431c2" CreationDate="2015-07-07T03:04:44.880" UserId="6082" Text="|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10506" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3421" RevisionGUID="c05c9447-af6b-4e97-9324-627e607ca884" CreationDate="2015-07-07T13:10:24.143" UserId="2665" Text="Doing it for free wouldn’t help your matter. That would _definitely_ be seen as a conflict of interest, and seen as doing a favour for your relative. Instead, approach it exactly the same as you would any other project. Proposal, contracts, deposits—whatever you do normally, do that for this project, and show that relatives have no affect on your approach to business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10510" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3423" RevisionGUID="a5370b1f-7bbe-45ed-ace2-c888a524a559" CreationDate="2015-07-08T06:57:31.633" UserId="5088" Text="I'm sure my case is quite generic, and details are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I got a project lead on Upwork (formerly oDesk).&#xD;&#xA;1. Fixed budget.&#xD;&#xA;2. The project is as simple as ≤4 hours of work, plus ≤2 hours communications.&#xD;&#xA;3. The budget small and will only cover my expenses on communications. In return, I expect to get some valuable experience and gain reputation from that overtime.&#xD;&#xA;4. The client asks me to sign several documents, one of them is a NDA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I haven't had any similar experience yet but, from what I've learned from other freelancers, the rule of thumb is that one sets a minimum project duration for themselves before even talking about signing a NDA. Say, let it be 1,000 hours; and for any project that is below that mark, if asked to sign a NDA, just reject it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any more specific parameters to apply them to projects that will help filter out risky stuff, in case of being asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10511" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3423" RevisionGUID="a5370b1f-7bbe-45ed-ace2-c888a524a559" CreationDate="2015-07-08T06:57:31.633" UserId="5088" Text="Being asked to sign a NDA for a very short-term project with tiny scope, should I?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10512" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3423" RevisionGUID="a5370b1f-7bbe-45ed-ace2-c888a524a559" CreationDate="2015-07-08T06:57:31.633" UserId="5088" Text="|freelance-websites|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10513" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3424" RevisionGUID="3a701210-61fb-4bd0-8001-288ff1817727" CreationDate="2015-07-08T07:16:25.777" UserId="708" Text="I don't understand why you would even hesitate to sign an NDA unless you didn't intend to keep the IP secret. If someone needs 5 minutes of work done and they want to ensure their IP is protected, an NDA does that. The amount of work you are being asked to complete has absolutely **nothing** to do with the signing of an NDA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All the NDA states is that you *will not* share any information. The NDA has *nothing* to do with actual project scope or cost. Read it first, of course, but there should be *nothing* in the NDA which refers to any financial arrangements or work obligations - only penalties if you share the information." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10515" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3424" RevisionGUID="fc31b85f-410d-457b-8856-32c0c24bffda" CreationDate="2015-07-08T08:38:10.327" UserId="708" Comment="added 95 characters in body" Text="I don't understand why you would even hesitate to sign an NDA unless you didn't intend to keep the IP secret. If someone needs 5 minutes of work done and they want to ensure their IP is protected, an NDA does that. The amount of work you are being asked to complete has absolutely **nothing** to do with the signing of an NDA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All the NDA states is that you *will not* share any information. The NDA has *nothing* to do with actual project scope or cost. Read it first, of course, but there should be *nothing* in the NDA which refers to any financial arrangements or work obligations - only penalties if you share the information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You'll need to explain further what &quot;risky stuff&quot; could possibly be associated with an NDA. The *only* risk I could foresee is a possible conflict of interest with other projects/NDAs you currently have. If that's the case, after signing the NDA and getting the information on the project, the ethical thing to do would be to decline the work, but still honor the NDA." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10516" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3425" RevisionGUID="d6736c75-8cd3-4c4f-816b-406a226749d3" CreationDate="2015-07-08T14:02:41.560" UserId="8225" Text="I've recently acquired a client from one of the more well known freelancing websites that has an Escrow service, inside that Escrow service is currently a deposit for my time, equal to one hour of my standard rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm quite new to freelancing so i'm wondering if anyone has any advice on what to do next, when I accepted the contract and received the deposit I had given the client an estimate of time that it would take to complete the project, I work hourly so I also gave them a total of what that would cost, however once I got into the project I actually realised that due to a lot of the previous code from other developers having errors/bugs in it, it increased the time to deliver and thus my hourly rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point I stopped working on the project and took my newly calculated estimate to the client, they have told me the new estimate is out with their budget. I have then explained that I'm not willing to reduce my hourly rate or give a discount on my services, it just isn't worth it financially. After I explained all this, the client started asking me to give them another estimate, but with a different figure? I don't know if they're trying coax me into being within their budget or what they're trying to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I be suspicious that they could promise me my new estimate and not deliver all/any of it? considering they told me that it wasn't within their budget, i.e they don't have it to give.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During the first part, when I noticed that the project had bad code that I would need to fix, I spent the whole day documenting and looking into what parts I would change, I explained to the client that I wouldn't charge for those hours because I hadn't checked the code before I took on the project and thus it was my responsibility. The client then asked that I send them a detailed breakdown of everything they need to change on their site to optimise it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Should I charge to create the optimisation checklist? &#xD;&#xA;- Should I take the deposit as pay for the optimisation checklist? &#xD;&#xA;- Should I take the deposit and charge for the optimisation checklist?&#xD;&#xA;- Should I give the client the deposit back and an optimisation checklist for free?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10517" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3425" RevisionGUID="d6736c75-8cd3-4c4f-816b-406a226749d3" CreationDate="2015-07-08T14:02:41.560" UserId="8225" Text="He doesn't have the budget, do I return the deposit?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10518" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3425" RevisionGUID="d6736c75-8cd3-4c4f-816b-406a226749d3" CreationDate="2015-07-08T14:02:41.560" UserId="8225" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10519" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3426" RevisionGUID="1802bd97-8190-4591-b8b0-0e30b57aeefe" CreationDate="2015-07-08T14:13:00.960" UserId="8225" Text="I've recently made the jump from a commercial full stack developer to a freelance full stack developer, I notice a lot of stigma attached to job sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm using these job sites quite frequently considering i'm new to freelancing however my main questions are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. How do you make the shift from starting on job sites, to no longer requiring them and getting clients from other means/having a pool of clients?&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; 2. Is there ever a need to get off of job sites?&#xD;&#xA; 3. Anyone who has used both, would you say there are differences? i.e one type of work having better quality contracts than the other, or possibly working being easier to find with one than the other&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10520" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3426" RevisionGUID="1802bd97-8190-4591-b8b0-0e30b57aeefe" CreationDate="2015-07-08T14:13:00.960" UserId="8225" Text="Freelance job sites? Good or bad?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10521" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3426" RevisionGUID="1802bd97-8190-4591-b8b0-0e30b57aeefe" CreationDate="2015-07-08T14:13:00.960" UserId="8225" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10522" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3427" RevisionGUID="e8c48ad1-b163-4157-afc1-772de7774087" CreationDate="2015-07-08T14:52:19.143" UserId="517" Text="As far as I understood, Retainer Contract is signed only when a client does not need you any more, but he wants to reserve a portion of your monthly time. so he pays for the reservation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a contract which my existing client and I can sign so that he pays me that I take his new project in work immediately? If yes, what is its name and what are the rules there? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am asking as it makes no sense (looking from client's perspective) to pay me 80 hours a month via Retainer just so that I can work on his project immediately if he sends it in 4 months. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10523" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3427" RevisionGUID="e8c48ad1-b163-4157-afc1-772de7774087" CreationDate="2015-07-08T14:52:19.143" UserId="517" Text="Contract that stipulates &quot;take new project from me any time I send it&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10524" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3427" RevisionGUID="e8c48ad1-b163-4157-afc1-772de7774087" CreationDate="2015-07-08T14:52:19.143" UserId="517" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10525" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3428" RevisionGUID="7bc72cbb-294d-4a85-8da0-21c01cdc88fb" CreationDate="2015-07-08T15:05:04.947" UserId="517" Text="I have to admit, out of all Retainers I signed, not even once I managed to initiate its signing. Each time it was the clients who offered a Retainer. Out of approx 70 clients of mine, only a few offered a Retainer which is less than 10%, closer to 5%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my eyes, this is bad as most of them return to me asking for fixing or implementation of new features (programming). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have tried to approach to a client with idea to sign a Retainer so he can reserve my time, but each time I got a reply &quot;it's not important to me, I can wait&quot;. Then he sends me a task list, I tell him that I will take it in work once I am done with all other tasks, but after 10 days or so, I either get scared that I will lose this client for waiting me too long or I feel sorry for him and I take the project in work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So shall I be a b**ch and act like &quot;we don't have a Retainer, wait till I am in mood to do your project&quot; and stop caring if I lose such clients, or I have to change my strategy on how to make them realize that Retainer is good thing for them? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How about I tell him that I am making a plan for the next 6 months and offer him to buy a portion of that time - if not, whenever he sends me the task(s), he will wait 6 months? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you can see, I am trying to find out how to persuade (or force) a client to sign a Retainer so that I can have a more concrete schedule for at least 6 months ahead (if not the whole year). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. Shall I ditch a client whose app cannot earn so much money that he can reserve my time? A few of them are companies of 50+ employees which actually have money. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10526" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3428" RevisionGUID="7bc72cbb-294d-4a85-8da0-21c01cdc88fb" CreationDate="2015-07-08T15:05:04.947" UserId="517" Text="How to persuade the client to sign a Retainer Agreement with me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10527" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3428" RevisionGUID="7bc72cbb-294d-4a85-8da0-21c01cdc88fb" CreationDate="2015-07-08T15:05:04.947" UserId="517" Text="|retainer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10528" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3429" RevisionGUID="845841ec-7b72-4716-9a62-ec96af0cb778" CreationDate="2015-07-08T15:09:25.577" UserId="517" Text="Shall I treat project estimations as urgent as calls or chats on new projects? I take later as urgent unplanned events and talk to clients today or tomorrow. I never let them wait longer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, estimations take time. It can take the full day of my time to properly research and make an estimation on complex projects. All other tasks are waiting while I make estimation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not sure if this is a proper approach as approx 50% of estimation are never realized. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10529" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3429" RevisionGUID="845841ec-7b72-4716-9a62-ec96af0cb778" CreationDate="2015-07-08T15:09:25.577" UserId="517" Text="How quickly do you write project estimations (if you busy on other tasks)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10530" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3429" RevisionGUID="845841ec-7b72-4716-9a62-ec96af0cb778" CreationDate="2015-07-08T15:09:25.577" UserId="517" Text="|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10531" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3430" RevisionGUID="f25efd02-1e76-4415-8b2a-5d3b9478a047" CreationDate="2015-07-08T16:11:35.993" UserId="7696" Text="Most of the people I know who made this jump started with freelancing and gathered many connections while doing such. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That means you are on the right track. Build your connections as you continue to freelance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you become comfortable with the people you know and already have built a good portfolio, that is when you start marketing yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is the time to get out of the freelance job sites and start building your name as a brand." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10532" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3431" RevisionGUID="c3e5cf96-ccb9-4d97-b95a-f182408e742b" CreationDate="2015-07-08T17:55:17.143" UserId="8251" Text="I take a different view on this than a few of the current answers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I spot a general solution that can be enhanced and modified to implement a custom feature for a client I'll create (or enhance) a general solution on my own time and not bill for it. Maybe I'll throw it in a private Github repository. Generally, people don't have a problem if you include privately developed code (assuming you grant full usage rights, etc). You'd want to touch base on this concept early on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I find myself in the position of owning yet another general productivity enhancing library snippet/tool that I can reuse in any project where it proves useful. Obviously, I'd only spend my own unpaid time developing this private library code if I thought it would provide value to me over time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is also possible to create the generalized library worthy solution after the project is finished by refining and rebuilding something not customer specific. The path chosen may depend on the scope of the effort involved.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While I consider the client paying for a solution I do not see them paying me to enhance my library at their expense. My library provides them an advantage in terms of development time and and in use of previously tested code that can be quickly integrated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10534" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3433" RevisionGUID="bed85e8d-e1f3-44cb-b177-4b675af872e0" CreationDate="2015-07-08T21:41:04.917" UserId="2463" Text="How would you apply the value pricing model to an NGO or non-profit? In other words, how would you calculate the value of services based on expected impact on revenue and/or cost, risk, and annualization? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With a for-profit, I would start by looking at my impact on gross margin. I'm at a loss with a NGO." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10535" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3433" RevisionGUID="bed85e8d-e1f3-44cb-b177-4b675af872e0" CreationDate="2015-07-08T21:41:04.917" UserId="2463" Text="Applying value pricing to consulting services for NGO" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10536" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3433" RevisionGUID="bed85e8d-e1f3-44cb-b177-4b675af872e0" CreationDate="2015-07-08T21:41:04.917" UserId="2463" Text="|price|consulting|fixed-price|nonprofit|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10539" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3434" RevisionGUID="ab764718-83a7-479c-8657-2a36530236a2" CreationDate="2015-07-09T02:23:41.373" UserId="4561" Text="This is tough because if you take too long, you may lose some projects to clients who think you have lost interest or that you will be slow to do actual work.  But like you said, you have real work to do, this is not a guarantee, and they can be very time consuming.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The main thing is, you don't want to leave them wondering.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I do is either ask: &quot;How soon do you need this?&quot; or if I know I can't get it out very fast, I will say &quot;Based on my current schedule, I believe I can have this to you by ____.&quot;  Usually they assume it will take some time and say &quot;Oh, that's fine!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This also gives you an opportunity to start training them that you are taking their important project seriously but your services are in demand by others too and it is not going to happen in the snap of your fingers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10541" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3435" RevisionGUID="d80b7406-e34e-4c59-ad15-30a23244d85a" CreationDate="2015-07-09T06:39:56.613" UserId="517" Text="This looks to me that this client is not worth of your time. You may eventually get a few work hours from him and get a bad rating. This is what usually happens.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would stick to my new estimation and if they cannot pay me, I would leave. Don't ask for the payment of 1 hour as you risk getting a bad feedback for the petty money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I understood, the money is in escrow. Simply close the job and the escrow money will be returned to him. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10542" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3429" RevisionGUID="2630d47e-a80b-4f16-956f-2c01293f5648" CreationDate="2015-07-09T06:41:40.080" UserId="517" Comment="edited title" Text="How quickly do you write project estimations (if busy with other tasks)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10543" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3436" RevisionGUID="37a4426c-facf-4885-b7b9-113924619909" CreationDate="2015-07-09T11:02:47.493" UserId="8225" Text="I've recently been asked to make a website for an escort service,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was wondering if anyone personally has any rules involving any websites or freelance work involved in the adult industry.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm trying to get a feel for wether or not having a project like this in my portfolio would damage it more than help it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I personally have no issue with this type of work the industry is what it is, i'm more thinking about future clients who look at my portfolio" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10544" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3436" RevisionGUID="37a4426c-facf-4885-b7b9-113924619909" CreationDate="2015-07-09T11:02:47.493" UserId="8225" Text="Contracts involving the adult industry" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10545" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3436" RevisionGUID="37a4426c-facf-4885-b7b9-113924619909" CreationDate="2015-07-09T11:02:47.493" UserId="8225" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10546" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3436" RevisionGUID="6b9b4bd7-d032-490f-b456-aced2179b40b" CreationDate="2015-07-09T12:24:43.957" UserId="8225" Comment="modified title to try and get more clicks on the question" Text="Contracts involving clients in the adult industry" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10547" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3437" RevisionGUID="67584598-67ea-492b-add6-69472976bf6e" CreationDate="2015-07-09T13:26:34.913" UserId="5893" Text="I guess what you need to consider is &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(a) Is business legal? (aside from any moral stance: are you opening yourself up to the possibility of prosecution from participating in, for example, human trafficking?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(b) Is this the &quot;niche&quot; you really want to be in? Having adult sites in your portfolio may tend to bring more adults-only work (happy clients will refer their colleagues to you, so you'll get more clients like this one)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can answer &quot;yes&quot; to both questions, then go for it.  There may be future clients who are turned off by seeing an &quot;adult industry&quot; project in your portfolio, but maybe you don't want to work for those people anyway." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10552" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3440" RevisionGUID="61d4233f-550c-4206-ad49-7acf963485c7" CreationDate="2015-07-09T22:58:26.367" UserId="7717" Text="Of course it makes no sense to take an 80 hour a month retainer with no work coming up. If your client doesn't even know when he will have new work for you, you might want to try a 5-hour-a-week retainer. You can increase the retainer if more work comes up, and of course if you work more than 5 hours a week you just bill them for the extra time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10553" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3441" RevisionGUID="adc761db-f684-4a14-990d-263951f4fb89" CreationDate="2015-07-09T23:14:53.503" UserId="7717" Text="1. Primarily word of mouth. Note that your existing clients that you found through these sites, and possibly you, will have to pay astronomical penalties if you bypass the job sites and work for them directly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Not a need, but an incentive. If they are taking 10% of your pay, you're making 10% less money. Now if you are getting 20% more work, losing that 10% is probably worthwhile, but that's a decision only you can make. Also, keep in mind that any time you find a client through these sites, you are typically stuck working through that site for several years, in case that affects your decision&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Which is easier depends on your reputation and personal connections. I started with job sites because I didn't know anyone who needed freelancers in my field, and had no opportunity to make connections.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; In contrast, my brother is a designer (and very outgoing); he started out making posters for his friends' bands in high school. Soon their labels were hiring him to design posters and websites, and then they were referring him to other people, and he ended up with so much work *he dropped out of college because there was no reason for him to keep going.* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Do your best to make connections outside of the job sites, and politely suggest that your clients refer friends to you directly rather than through the job sites. Depending on your trade and your personality, you may find that works better or worse than the job sites." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10554" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3442" RevisionGUID="da6b1c5f-a2b7-47f1-bae4-be1b0a335529" CreationDate="2015-07-10T01:04:06.793" UserId="2884" Text="One way I've dealt with this is to give people a rough estimate, and setup a contract where I'm paid hourly for the time worked. If they are interested in a fixed-price contract, then I will have a first milestone (that they pay me for) where I deliver a fixed-price proposal, and they can choose to continue it or not. I ended up having to do this after being asked to scope the work for several large projects, and then having the clients not take the contract because the price was too high. I have not run into a lot of pushback from this, in fact, it's generally reduced it, because it provides visibility for the customer, and keeps me from rushing the bidding phase." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10555" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3443" RevisionGUID="4266a53e-87bf-4b81-881f-f8f765054057" CreationDate="2015-07-10T03:24:16.207" UserId="5893" Text="I set aside a portion of each day for &quot;business development.&quot; I also have some standard packages priced already so I can turn rough estimates around quickly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having standard boilerplate you can paste into an email is also helpful and saves time in the initial project negotiations." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10557" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1473" RevisionGUID="0fb62fda-457b-476c-a88a-b176e7e047cd" CreationDate="2015-07-10T13:13:49.653" UserId="8006" Comment="distinguish from the working from home tag (see meta /q/231)" Text="Use this tag for questions about working on contracts remotely. This could be from a coworking space, or another country. For home office questions, see the &quot;working from home&quot; tag." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10558" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1473" RevisionGUID="0fb62fda-457b-476c-a88a-b176e7e047cd" CreationDate="2015-07-10T13:13:49.653" Comment="Proposed by 8006 approved by 152, -1 edit id of 399" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10559" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1473" RevisionGUID="1911e9b2-a21b-458e-b3e0-00ec3e1038f9" CreationDate="2015-07-10T13:13:49.653" UserId="58" Comment="distinguish from the working from home tag (see meta /q/231); deleted 6 characters in body" Text="Use this tag for questions about working on contracts remotely. This could be from a co-working space, or another country. For home office questions, see the working-from-home tag." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10560" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3444" RevisionGUID="2e0ba467-548c-4676-9b17-1f4af2f28ec6" CreationDate="2015-07-10T17:25:49.147" UserId="708" Text="Adult content **will** offend some people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any decision to include the work in your portfolio should consider the fact that you may *instantly* lose a prospective client because you've offended them by showing the *type* of projects you'll work on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realize this isn't much different than if you created a web site for the Republican Party and a client is a Democrat. You can offend prospective clients that way as well. So it's not so much that it's &quot;adult&quot; oriented, it's that it's a divisive topic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, if you are willing to do the work it doesn't offend you. There's no rule which states you *must* include these types of projects in a portfolio. You could do the work, then just not use it as a portfolio piece.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be aware, there *is* a stigma much of the time... do one adult project, make it known, and you'll have a much harder time getting other projects. I'm not saying it &quot;right&quot; or &quot;fair&quot; but often that one topic can do more to work against you than any other topic you may work on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what I understand (without any direct experience), you can still make a decent living by just working on adult-oriented projects. But much like being an adult performer, I here it's very difficult to make the transition back to regular work after a period of adult-themed projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For my business, I do my best to remain autonomous. I don't what to do *any* work which is overly opinionated and divisive. I'd really dislike it if I was negotiating with a $50k client and they stumbled upon some $1k web site I did 5 years ago that offends them enough to disregard me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10561" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3444" RevisionGUID="efddbfb6-802b-466f-99f6-30fc4bcf3c04" CreationDate="2015-07-10T17:35:15.587" UserId="708" Comment="added 142 characters in body" Text="Adult content **will** offend some people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any decision to include the work in your portfolio should consider the fact that you may *instantly* lose a prospective client because you've offended them by showing the *type* of projects you'll work on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realize this isn't much different than if you created a web site for the Republican Party and a client is a Democrat. You can offend prospective clients that way as well. So it's not so much that it's &quot;adult&quot; oriented, it's that it's a divisive topic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, if you are willing to do the work it doesn't offend you. There's no rule which states you *must* include these types of projects in a portfolio. You could do the work, then just not use it as a portfolio piece.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be aware, there *is* a stigma much of the time... do one adult project, make it known, and you'll have a much harder time getting other projects. But you may find it easier to get *more* adult-themed projects. I'm not saying it's &quot;right&quot; or &quot;fair&quot; but often that one topic can do more to work against you than any other topic you may work on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what I understand (without any direct experience), you can still make a decent living by just working on adult-oriented projects. But much like being an adult performer, I hear it's very difficult to make the transition back to regular work after a period of adult-themed projects. Again, no direct experience with this, just what I've garnered from others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For my business, I do my best to remain autonomous. I don't what to do *any* work which is overly opinionated and divisive. I'd really dislike it if I was negotiating with a $50k client and they stumbled upon some $1k web site I did 5 years ago that offends them enough to disregard me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10562" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3445" RevisionGUID="cca914af-4038-4c9b-8891-9f58a33bbe4c" CreationDate="2015-07-10T17:37:44.203" UserId="708" Text="Estimates/quote take **top priority** here. *Any* delay in returning a bid/quote can instantly result in losing the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have yet to find a day where I could spend time writing up an estimate, even it it took a couple days, I can work in in with what is currently ongoing. It's often very valuable to put in a few hours of overtime to finish a bid/quote. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are lacking on delivering a quote, clients see that as a *direct* correlation to how you work on their project. If you're slow to quote, they assume you are slow to respond when working." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10563" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3444" RevisionGUID="c7ec977e-067d-4c32-aa24-923473efd5cc" CreationDate="2015-07-10T17:46:22.700" UserId="708" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="Adult content **will** offend some people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any decision to include the work in your portfolio should consider the fact that you may *instantly* lose a prospective client because you've offended them by showing the *type* of projects you'll work on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realize this isn't much different than if you created a web site for the Republican Party and a client is a Democrat. You can offend prospective clients that way as well. So it's not so much that it's &quot;adult&quot; oriented, it's that it's a divisive topic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, if you are willing to do the work it doesn't offend you. There's no rule which states you *must* include these types of projects in a portfolio. You could do the work, then just not use it as a portfolio piece.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be aware, there *is* a stigma much of the time... do one adult project, make it known, and you'll have a much harder time getting other projects. But you may find it easier to get *more* adult-themed projects. I'm not saying it's &quot;right&quot; or &quot;fair&quot; but often that one topic can do more to work against you than any other topic you may work on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what I understand (without any direct experience), you can still make a decent living by just working on adult-oriented projects. But much like being an adult performer, I hear it's very difficult to make the transition back to regular work after a period of adult-themed projects. Again, no direct experience with this, just what I've garnered from others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For my business, I do my best to remain autonomous. I don't *want* to do *any* work which is overly opinionated and divisive. I'd really dislike it if I was negotiating with a $50k client and they stumbled upon some $1k web site I did 5 years ago that offends them enough to disregard me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10564" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3446" RevisionGUID="a23d0b87-a0f4-4254-85c2-e77aae086121" CreationDate="2015-07-10T18:19:08.803" UserId="708" Text="Pass on them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realize any bond the wife has will be much *stronger* for her husband than *any* client, including you. If he's involved now in an undesired fashion, he will be later as well. Even after you speak with her. After all it's her husband, she lives with him, you're just some random client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She won't keep the work private. She will discuss issue with him. She will vent to him when frustrated. She will share with him when she's happy. Whether or not she can prevent him from *visibly* making himself known to you is a different matter, but he *will* be involved." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10565" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3447" RevisionGUID="f0c704f2-3194-4b71-a90b-33dabfad5b08" CreationDate="2015-07-10T18:28:17.873" UserId="7717" Text="Most clients don't need a retainer and aren't going to accept one. To be honest it sounds like you are trying to secure extra free income for yourself by trying to convince all of your clients to pay you on retainer, which isn't a good approach. Never try to strong-arm a client into such an agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;So shall I be a b**ch and act like &quot;we don't have a Retainer, wait till I am in mood to do your project&quot; and stop caring if I lose such clients, or I have to change my strategy on how to make them realize that Retainer is good thing for them? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*What?* You can be a reasonable person without being a bitch. Here's what you say:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Once the main portion of the project is completed, I will be moving on to new projects and will have limited availability for updates or other additional work. If you plan on implementing new features after delivery, we should discuss arrangements now. If you already have specific updates in mind, we can extend this contract or start a new one. If you do not have specific changes in mind at this time but would like to ensure my availability for updates on short notice, we can discuss setting up a retainer fee. Otherwise, I will be taking new projects from other clients and cannot guarantee steady availability after the contract is completed.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's very reasonable and straightforward. If they have any common sense at all, they understand you have to work to make money and can't spend unpaid hours sitting around waiting for them. It doesn't make you a bitch. It has nothing to do with your mood. You need to keep a full schedule of work so your income is steady. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; PS. Shall I ditch a client whose app cannot earn so much money that he can reserve my time? A few of them are companies of 50+ employees which actually have money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***NO***. It really sounds like your goal is to get paid for sitting around doing nothing. You need to change your mindset. If your client can't afford or isn't interested in a retainer, just take another client after the main project is completed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10566" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3448" RevisionGUID="e8bba01a-3f73-4117-88b8-75fc8b8c0798" CreationDate="2015-07-10T18:37:12.243" UserId="7717" Text="&gt; Would it be safe to assume that any project after a month after it's initial announcement is unlikely to do anything than just sit and stagnate, in a state of limbo (incorrectly flagged as &quot;hiring open&quot; or &quot;selecting candidate&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Yes.** I've been using Elance for over a year, and I've observed (from reviewing the history of all jobs that I've bidded on) that **over 90% of posted contracts never make a hire.** Many of the contracts sit in the &quot;selecting candidate&quot; phase for eternity after they are abandoned by the client. This will vary depending on the type of work the contract is for, but don't expect a stagnating contract to ever get started." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10575" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3445" RevisionGUID="4a8eb9fd-1470-4464-b4d2-e5effd245dd0" CreationDate="2015-07-10T19:35:37.383" UserId="708" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="Estimates/quote take **top priority** here. *Any* delay in returning a bid/quote can instantly result in losing the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have yet to find a day where I could not spend time writing up an estimate. Even it it took a couple days, I can work it in with what is currently ongoing. It's often very valuable to put in a few hours of overtime to finish a bid/quote. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are lacking on delivering a quote, clients see that as a *direct* correlation to how you work on their project. If you're slow to quote, they assume you are slow to respond when working." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10576" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3445" RevisionGUID="6bce0da2-8db3-4725-a4b9-3aceced26549" CreationDate="2015-07-10T19:37:14.630" UserId="75" Comment="added 6 characters in body" Text="Estimates/quote take **top priority** here. *Any* delay in returning a bid/quote can instantly result in losing the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have yet to find a day where I could not spend time writing up an estimate. Even if it took a couple days, I can work it in with what is currently ongoing. It's often very valuable to put in a few hours of overtime to finish a bid/quote. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are lacking on delivering a quote, clients see that as a *direct* correlation to how you work on their project. If you are slow to quote, they will assume you are slow to respond when working." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10577" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3451" RevisionGUID="07b74326-3fd4-46d2-8960-e6d674085cd5" CreationDate="2015-07-11T01:22:37.750" UserId="5893" Text="Maybe don't call it a retainer, because what you are really offering is a **maintenance contract** -- which you should attempt to include in your initial development contract. The client can accept the monthly maintenance fees (which would guarantee them a certain number of hours per month - and offer a discount to sweeten the deal)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10582" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3445" RevisionGUID="9242bfe0-b258-44e4-a891-3da72f4616d0" CreationDate="2015-07-11T07:33:26.657" UserId="708" Comment="added 57 characters in body" Text="Estimates/quotes take **top priority** here. *Any* delay in returning a bid/quote can instantly result in losing the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have yet to find a day where I could not spend some time writing up an estimate. Even if it took a couple days, I can work it in with what I currently have ongoing. Face it, no one schedules every day wall to wall. It's often very valuable to put in a few hours of overtime to finish a bid/quote. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are slow on delivering a quote, clients see that as a *direct* correlation to how you work on their project. If you are slow to quote, they will assume you are slow to respond when working." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10583" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3453" RevisionGUID="e09facdf-cfac-49c3-9d52-165320e08a05" CreationDate="2015-07-11T14:04:08.993" UserId="5893" Text="This is what I do. I have a 6-month, renewable contract for a set amount of work (in this case, it's per finished item, but it could easily be hourly, as an hourly rate is also included). In the contract, it stipulates a 10-working day turnaround from notification, because the client could NOT provide even a tentative work schedule.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I left enough &quot;wiggle room&quot; to finish any hot project on my plate and get to this client's (and finish it) within my 10-day window.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your open-ended coding retainer has the possibility of requiring work that could take more than 10 days to finish, your contract can stipulate that you will start the project no later than XX number of hours after notification (48 72, etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This client is also paying a premium on my hourly rate to get moved to the top of the pile. (this is another way to handle it)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10587" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3455" RevisionGUID="ed9eff0a-0d5b-470b-988b-6b57c4c9cf93" CreationDate="2015-07-12T10:47:45.737" UserId="708" Text="Why not just generate a blanket agreement?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can create a contract without any specific dates or timeframes. It would simply state both parties agree to adhere to [these] terms whenever work is assigned and completed. Then add an addendum that specific project scope, details, and fees will be written via email and replies in the affirmative will be seen as binding arrangements for *that* project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that point, you have a contract stating &quot;if we say yes in email, we agree to pay and be bound by all other terms.&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All you need do then is to be certain you receive project specs via email, and ensure you send costs and get a &quot;yes&quot; via email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the US emails *can* be used to show a &quot;meeting of the minds&quot; and an agreement. If you have a contract on top of that which states emails are to be used, you are just covering yourself further.  I can't directly speak for other countries though. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Ultimately, this is a good question for a contract attorney.** Which I am **not**." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10589" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3404" RevisionGUID="96b83ba2-98cb-4707-8ad0-ede1d32d9e8f" CreationDate="2015-07-12T19:40:37.877" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/620316854351962112" />
  <row Id="10590" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3429" RevisionGUID="a1645faa-2e0e-4824-811c-8cdcdf8cdfc2" CreationDate="2015-07-14T01:44:52.117" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/620770905686450176" />
  <row Id="10591" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3456" RevisionGUID="2b01afc4-2a29-4562-9ae6-97e7e00dca6b" CreationDate="2015-07-14T12:27:10.667" UserId="8311" Text="I've started work as freelance photographer since 6 months. I've been doing photography since 2 years but just recently after gaining much knowledge I prepared a good portfolio for architecture/interior, product, fashion photography.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been sending e-mails to clients with my portfolio attached. However the chances are that 1 out 10 actually reply. That's the scenario around here. E-mails aren't always the way to go.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of the clients I will visit are architecture firms. I'm targeting the small to medium sized firms to gain confidence in my work and set a base. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I listed down the clients whom I would pitch my work to and I want to know if its okay to visit them to discuss about my service without taking an appointment?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I think is -&#xD;&#xA;If I have to wait for the decision maker for long period of time I'd obviously schedule an appointment for later. That way at least I have an appointment. Without visiting I wouldn't have the chance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please suggest" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10592" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3456" RevisionGUID="2b01afc4-2a29-4562-9ae6-97e7e00dca6b" CreationDate="2015-07-14T12:27:10.667" UserId="8311" Text="Should a new freelance photographer visit businesses without appointments" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10593" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3456" RevisionGUID="2b01afc4-2a29-4562-9ae6-97e7e00dca6b" CreationDate="2015-07-14T12:27:10.667" UserId="8311" Text="|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10594" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1390" RevisionGUID="4c006c90-7ac5-4976-898b-32075e8147e3" CreationDate="2015-07-14T15:28:54.587" UserId="1836" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="So I have secured a project worth 6 figures for an employee management system that will manage his employees for 4 of his companies. This employee management system will integrate a biometric hardware solution on computer stations that communicate with iPads (for the managers/receptionist of each company) all connected to a cloud based server. The project will last around 3 months, and the customer is entitled to as many small intricate software changes as they like in the first year after which the service costs £8,000 a year to maintain the solution I'm about to implement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Problem:&#xD;&#xA;Thats all great, but I'm having a hard time trying to explain I will be charging them 8k a year to keep things running after the first free year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are my reasons for charging that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Main two reasons**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I Blaaaady worked so hard in that first free year implementing all the feature changes that they suddenly realise they require new quick to implement, small feature upgrades sometimes big in the current software implementation that I feel I need to make my money back on the second and third year because of the extra hours put in after project completion.&#xD;&#xA;- Apple no matter what will have Yearly iOS operating system upgrades for all devices, and so will the MAC OS X. So these applications will have to be updated regardless yearly anyway.&#xD;&#xA;- Back ups of the server, and databases. &lt;- this sounds really silly when I tell the client this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Small extra reasons but that don't necessarily weigh significantly on the SLA cost**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I provide the client direct access to me, 24/7 telephone service as opposed to emails or any other communication method or having to go through my receptionist, I save that for the smaller projects. My client loves this and sure does use it whenever possible by dropping me many texts whenever a new feature is required, or when he needs something to change in the back end.&#xD;&#xA;- Server costs, this is such a nominal amount that I could just pay this out of my own pocket since it only costs about £40 a month, not that I would take up the cost ;) &#xD;&#xA;- Flexibility - we provide a no problem service attitude.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everything is run on my side, if I wanted to, I just have to redirect the server elsewhere and all applications will cease to exist for the other projects I've worked on with this client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But as far this goes, that's it. My client is asking me what will happen after the first free year if no updates are required in the second year, will he still need t pay the 8k? It's a good question, but that's not the point, I've told him these are the running costs for managing the service that I am providing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Could someone please help me on outlining other important things that I am possibly missing from this SLA agreement that could help justify the cost? I find the app development aspect of it is more than enough to justify that cost, since some companies charge £25-30k in upgrades and app revisions where as he is able to come to me at any time of the year and send me a new list of features required with no hassle.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10595" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3457" RevisionGUID="22906586-86c5-437a-96a1-7c39d2f58251" CreationDate="2015-07-14T16:22:52.633" UserId="75" Text="Sounds like you are trying to do some cold calling... How bout spending a bit more time in the office one day a week, and get ready for warm calling?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, get a list of clients in your area you want to do work for. Make a contact card for each one, including their business name, address, phone number, email, hours, types of projects, managers, people with the buying decisions, etc. Keep these in a box on your desk or in your drawer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Monday morning, get a small handful, and call each one. Ask to talk to someone responsible for *&lt;insert role here&gt;* that would be able to give you a yes or no. Once you get that person (and write it down!), give a quick 5 second introduction, and see if they're even open to the idea of using a photographer for their projects. If not, you just saved gas money and time! You can still offer to be available if needed, and follow up a few months later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On your contact card, write down any dates you promised to call people back, or visit them, and then transfer them to your calendar. Ensure you visit the people you promised you would, but don't feel bad about walking into some of their neighbouring offices and offer the same services (I mean to other companies around them). When you do visit a client, be very polite, and mention you were talking with *&lt;insert name here&gt;* on the phone earlier, and wanted to give him more information. Offer your portfolio at this time, and get some face time with your potential clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As well, if you get a business card, that usually means they're quite busy, and don't want to tell you no to your face. Let them know you'll call back at a more convenient time, and keep their card. When you call back, do **NOT** apologize for disturbing them at work - they gave you their card so you can actually *call* them, so don't say sorry for bugging them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10596" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3458" RevisionGUID="f0c3110b-6b44-4278-92ea-4fb8bb69661c" CreationDate="2015-07-14T19:38:22.330" UserId="8313" Text="You should start here:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration/when-to-register][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your income as a freelancer does not exceed the threshold of £82,000 a year you don't need to worry about VAT at all. You usually only charge VAT within the EU and you must register first.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration/when-to-register" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10597" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="928" RevisionGUID="6250b829-e03f-4035-9af0-620d4f7ce338" CreationDate="2015-07-14T23:53:54.710" UserId="1434" Comment="force re-render to fix broken markdown (see original post: &quot;a*****e&quot; rendered as &quot;a***e&quot;); also cleanup" Text="Since guys told you the things which matter most, I can only add a small thing to their reply without repeating their words. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When someone tells you &quot;make a website and I will give you a percentage of earned money&quot;, 99% of us would think they earned something when they get their first $100 or $1000. WRONG!!!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Once you have made a website and it's ready for publishing, you do not start from $0, but from a -$(timeInvestedInProject × yourHourlyPriceInDollars).**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So before you earn the money you invested into the project, you are basically not earning anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, the easiest thing is to say &quot;I won't do it&quot;. And later when the website makes $1M in 2 months you will cry a river. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So these are the steps you should go through:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Evaluate the idea and see its earning potential. You are not a side figure; you **are an investor into this project investing your knowledge**.&#xD;&#xA;2. Ask yourself &quot;can I really make a quality website which will earn money?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;3. If you see potential and you can do it, then set up **2 types of profit shares**.&#xD;&#xA;  - The first type of share would be the higher one, like 50% until you get back the money you invested into the project.&#xD;&#xA;  - The second type is the percentage you will get after you are at real $0.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your father's friend rejects this idea, then just drop me a thanks note. I saved you from an mischievous a*****e. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10598" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="928" RevisionGUID="6250b829-e03f-4035-9af0-620d4f7ce338" CreationDate="2015-07-14T23:53:54.710" Comment="Proposed by 1434 approved by -1 edit id of 406" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10599" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="928" RevisionGUID="60a963ff-14f0-4748-b32c-efc3b0e4ea55" CreationDate="2015-07-14T23:53:54.710" UserId="9" Comment="Clarity, removed masked word, grammar" Text="Since other answers have already told you the things which matter most, I can only add small things to their reply without repeating their words. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When someone tells you &quot;make a website and I will give you a percentage of earned money&quot;, 99% of us would think they earned something when they get their first $100 or $1000. This is **wrong**. Once you have made a website and it's ready for publishing, you do not start from $0, but from `-$(timeInvestedInProject × yourHourlyPriceInDollars)`. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is, you don't start &quot;earning&quot; money from the project until your initial investment of time is paid off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, the easiest thing is to say that you won't do it. And later, when the website makes $1M in two months, you will cry a river. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So these are the steps you should go through:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Evaluate the idea and see its earning potential. You are not a side figure; you are an investor into this project, investing your knowledge.&#xD;&#xA;2. Ask yourself &quot;Can I really make a quality website which will earn money?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;3. If you see potential and you can do it, then set up two types of profit shares:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - The first type of share would be the higher one (e.g. 50%) until you get back the money you invested into the project.&#xD;&#xA;  - The second type is the percentage you will get after you have made back your initial investment, when you're at a real $0.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your father's friend rejects this idea, then just drop me a thank-you note; I saved you from a bad client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10600" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1334" RevisionGUID="bd17014a-b2a5-44a3-8ad2-7022e0bc2886" CreationDate="2015-07-15T00:06:11.570" UserId="1434" Comment="force re-render to fix broken markdown (see original post: &quot;1st Year&quot; not bolded correctly); cleanup" Text="This really depends on the percentage and workload. Get paid in percentage is overall more risky then paid by hour - if you want more profit, you must assume greater risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A bigger company** will give you the option for percentage either to reduce their risk and their variable costs or **most likely** as the percentage model (%-model) would just **cost less**. &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;**A smaller company** or, for example, entrepreneurs which don't have much capital, mostly have to use things like participating interests models (including a %-model) as it reduces costs if f.e. the product doesn't sell as anticipated. However if the product sells well, there is a good chance of making a lot of profit and much more compared to if you would have been paid per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another factor to consider is the overall **workload**. If you would have to do a lot of work at the beginning and would have less to do over the product cycle, lifetime percentage is always a good choice. See this simple example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Product:** Couch | **Return/h**:25$ | **Return/%:** 10%  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Workload:** **1st Year:** 500h / **2ndY**: 400h / **3rdY:** 100h  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Eearnings Company:**  **1st Year:** 30.000$ / **2ndY**: 150.000$ / **3rdY:** 100.000$  / **4rdY:** 50.000$ / **5rdY:** 50.000$  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; **HOURLY RETURN:** (500+400+100)*25 = [[[**25.000$**]]]  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; **% RETURN:** (30000*0,1)+(150.000*0,1)+(100.000*0,1) [....] = [[[**38.000$**]]]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you would end up with 13.000$. But this is just a simple example. I just wanted to point out if you have less workload and higher earnings later (espc. long term) where you don't have work anymore, it's definitely worth taking the risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**In conclusion**, the %-model gives you the *opportunity to earn more money or even less* compared to the hourly model. Especially long term earnings where you receive a percentage of it is worth going for if you know the business and its risks. As you said you're working at the design so this could be a good opportunity. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to charge upfront as a basis its totally up to you and your business partner. It's nothing unusual (at least in Germany). &#xD;&#xA;As a personal tip, **take care of the legal part**! Most business partners try to pull you out as soon they see that their %-model cost them too much. Do long-term contracts, not based on years. I've seen this dozens of times." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10601" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1334" RevisionGUID="bd17014a-b2a5-44a3-8ad2-7022e0bc2886" CreationDate="2015-07-15T00:06:11.570" Comment="Proposed by 1434 approved by -1 edit id of 407" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10602" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1334" RevisionGUID="2e7219aa-9a58-4a3a-ab62-9ad9efcc4696" CreationDate="2015-07-15T00:06:11.570" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar and clarity, opting for using code formatting to better show formatting" Text="This really depends on the percentage and workload. Getting paid in percentage is overall more risky then paid by hour - if you want more profit, you must assume greater risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A bigger company** will give you the option for percentage either to reduce their risk and their variable costs or **most likely** as the percentage model (%-model) would just **cost less**. &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;**A smaller company** or, for example, entrepreneurs which don't have much capital, mostly have to use things like participating interests models (including a %-model) as it reduces costs if f.e. the product doesn't sell as anticipated. However if the product sells well, there is a good chance of making a lot of profit and much more compared to if you would have been paid per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another factor to consider is the overall **workload**. If you would have to do a lot of work at the beginning and would have less to do over the product cycle, lifetime percentage is always a good choice. See this simple example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Product: Couch&#xD;&#xA;    Hourly Rate: $25/hr&#xD;&#xA;    Percentage Rate: 10% on earnings&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    |                  |    Y1 |    Y2 |    Y3 |    Y4 |    Y5 |&#xD;&#xA;    ------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;    |         Workload |  500h |  400h |  100h |       |       |&#xD;&#xA;    | Company Earnings |  $30k | $150k | $100k |  $50k |  $50k |&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Hourly Return:&#xD;&#xA;      = (500 + 400 + 100) * 25&#xD;&#xA;      = $25,000&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Percentage Return:&#xD;&#xA;      = (30000 * 0.1) + (150000 * 0.1) + (100000 * 0.1) + ...&#xD;&#xA;      = $38,000&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given this simple example, you would end up with an additional $13,000. However, the main purpose of this exercise is to show that if you have a smaller workload and higher earnings later (especially long term) where you don't have work anymore, it's definitely worth taking the risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In conclusion, the %-model gives you the *opportunity* to earn more money compared to an hourly model, but it also has the potential to earn less instead. If you understand the business and its risks, it'd be worth opting for the %-model. As you said, you're working at the design, so this could be a good opportunity. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to charge upfront as a basis, its totally up to you and your business partner. In Germany, it's not an unusual proposition. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a personal tip, do take care of the legal part! Most business partners try to pull you out as soon they see that their %-model plan costs them too much. Do long-term contracts, not based on years. I've seen this dozens of times." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10603" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1331" RevisionGUID="6f9bd857-b8d9-46ea-a3ae-2b47c3c9eca5" CreationDate="2015-07-15T00:09:57.147" UserId="9" Comment="Markdown formatting" Text="I work with an inventor who creates product lines and I do the design work for him.  He's an engineer who is picky and wants it exactly his way so usually the projects take a while due to him not explaining what he wants clearly.  In the past I have charged an hourly rate which has been great since, like I said, it takes him a while to figure out what exactly he wants.  Recently he asked me to become an employee as opposed to a freelancer, and instead of charging hourly, I would get a percentage.  We have not discussed a percent yet but currently I charge him $25/hr.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are my main questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Would this transition be worth it?&#xD;&#xA;* What percent would I charge?&#xD;&#xA;* Would it be OK to ask for a small, upfront fee, then collect the percentage as sales begin?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any other information about this subject would be great.  Unfortunately I cannot really give out a lot of information due to the fact that the product has not been released yet.  From the people I have talked to and the products of his in the past, I think that this product line will do well if he markets it right.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for all the help in advance" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10609" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3460" RevisionGUID="82b58002-81f1-47d6-b42a-c8350da08f26" CreationDate="2015-07-15T09:23:34.363" UserId="517" Text="I am volunteering at that center for [Down syndrome][1] and one of our projects is to research it there is any remote job for persons with Down syndrome. It will not only boost their self-confidence, but also will help them make living once their parent are gone (they are usually placed in the special institutions). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My idea is to open a profile on Odesk and Elance for each of them so they can start looking for potential clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I need your brainstorming. What jobs can be done by Down syndrome persons remotely? Does anyone know someone who does the same to ask him for the suggestion?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those who do not know, they are physically perfectly fine, but slow in thinking. So they can play chess better than me, but it takes time for them to think of the next move. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_syndrome" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10610" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3460" RevisionGUID="82b58002-81f1-47d6-b42a-c8350da08f26" CreationDate="2015-07-15T09:23:34.363" UserId="517" Text="Any remote work suitable for Down syndrome persons?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10611" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3460" RevisionGUID="82b58002-81f1-47d6-b42a-c8350da08f26" CreationDate="2015-07-15T09:23:34.363" UserId="517" Text="|remote|volunteering|disability|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10612" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3461" RevisionGUID="8cf8c027-1934-4c00-8db0-fc1065f693c9" CreationDate="2015-07-15T09:24:10.710" UserId="517" Text="Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity and is intended to promote goodness or improve human quality of life. In return, this activity can produce a feeling of self-worth and respect. There is no financial gain involved for the individual. Volunteering is also renowned for skill development, socialization, and fun. Volunteering may have positive benefits for the volunteer as well as for the person or community served.[1] It is also intended to make contacts for possible employment. It is helping, assisting, or serving another person or persons without pay. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve on an as-needed basis, such as in response to a natural disaster." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10613" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3462" RevisionGUID="f5a0d1e4-33a5-41c7-b090-a6dfc1dc7b75" CreationDate="2015-07-15T09:24:10.710" UserId="517" Text="Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity and is intended to promote goodness or improve human quality of life." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10614" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3463" RevisionGUID="66fd21d8-1728-48f2-b40b-fb0119a099bd" CreationDate="2015-07-15T09:25:48.650" UserId="517" Comment="deleted 15 characters in body" Text="Disability is the consequence of an impairment that may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental, or some combination of these. A disability may be present from birth, or occur during a person's lifetime.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. An impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations. Thus, disability is a complex phenomenon, reflecting an interaction between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which he or she lives.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An individual may also qualify as disabled if they have had an impairment in the past or is seen as disabled based on a personal or group standard or norm. Such impairments may include physical, sensory, and cognitive or developmental disabilities. Mental disorders (also known as psychiatric or psychosocial disability) and various types of chronic disease may also qualify as disabilities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some advocates object to describing certain conditions (notably deafness and autism) as &quot;disabilities&quot;, arguing that it is more appropriate to consider them developmental differences that have been unfairly stigmatized by society. Furthermore, other advocates argue that disability is a result of exclusion from mainstream society and not any inherent impairment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10615" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3464" RevisionGUID="c9572a89-9faf-48c4-a212-26e3cfa2bf9a" CreationDate="2015-07-15T09:25:48.650" UserId="517" Text="Disability is the consequence of an impairment that may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental, or some combination of these. A disability may be present from birth, or occur during a person's lifetime." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10616" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3465" RevisionGUID="5508db2b-f025-425a-87c5-48452a52e825" CreationDate="2015-07-15T10:59:55.927" UserId="58" Text="Any job that can be done remotely is doable by someone with a mental disability, unless that disability is so severe that they cannot function adequately enough for the job*, or where they'd put someone else at risk of harm (that decision is up to their doctor).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the UK, it's a requirement of the Equality Act and Disability Act that businesses accommodate for people with disabilities (by way of special equipment, and so on). I've done quite a bit of work with mental healthcare specialists both in regular work and while freelancing for private mental healthcare institutions contracted out by the NHS, and the vast majority of businesses don't actually adequately provide for someone with a mental illness of any description.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Introverts and those who are slower have the potential to benefit extremely well from remote working, as they don't have people pushing them to do stuff *right this second*, avoiding situations that usually put them into panic mode.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From personal experience, though, unless that person has constant contact with other people, it can end up seriously damaging them. If anyone with a mental illness wants to remote work, *seriously consider having a schedule you/they stick to that involves going outside and doing other activities*. I have been there before. It's not good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Provided they have **adequate** care, remote working shouldn't be an issue. Just make sure they are well-supported in doing so; UpWork and so on are very unforgiving places for those less experienced, and I would strongly recommend remote working for a company as an employee, not a contractor, due to the protection offered by law for disabled persons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;* Yes, I am aware this is dodging the question slightly and is extremely subjective.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10617" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3460" RevisionGUID="3c8f0d94-86c4-4c01-b490-cbaf01fe2795" CreationDate="2015-07-15T11:03:38.177" UserId="58" Comment="Clarified your question a bit; try adding any extra detail if you can." Text="I am volunteering at a center for those with [Down syndrome][1],and one of our projects is to research if there's any remote jobs for people with the condition.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It will not only boost their self-confidence, but also will help them make a living once their parents/carers are gone (they are usually placed in a special institution if they lack a carer). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My idea is to open a profile on UpWork for each of them so they can start looking for potential clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I need some ideas. What jobs can be done remotely by people with Down syndrome?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For those who do not know about the condition, they are physically perfectly fine, but slower in thinking, as it's a mild intellectual disability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, they can play chess better than me, but it takes more time for them to think of the next move. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_syndrome" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10618" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3465" RevisionGUID="bc384059-b55e-4dcd-91cc-e6b504541beb" CreationDate="2015-07-15T11:05:23.767" UserId="58" Comment="added 66 characters in body" Text="Premise&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Any job that can be done remotely is doable by someone with a mental disability, unless that disability is so severe that they cannot function adequately enough for the job*, or where they'd put someone else at risk of harm (that decision is up to their doctor).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Ideal Situation&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the UK, it's a requirement of the Equality Act and Disability Act that businesses accommodate for people with disabilities (by way of special equipment, and so on). I've done quite a bit of work with mental healthcare specialists both in regular work and while freelancing for private mental healthcare institutions contracted out by the NHS, and the vast majority of businesses don't actually adequately provide for someone with a mental illness of any description.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Introverts and those who are slower have the potential to benefit extremely well from remote working, as they don't have people pushing them to do stuff *right this second*, avoiding situations that usually put them into panic mode.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Reality&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From personal experience, though, unless that person has constant contact with other people, it can end up seriously damaging them. If anyone with a mental illness wants to remote work, *seriously consider having a schedule you/they stick to that involves going outside and doing other activities*. I have been there before. It's not good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Provided they have **adequate** care, remote working shouldn't be an issue. Just make sure they are well-supported in doing so; UpWork and so on are very unforgiving places for those less experienced, and I would strongly recommend remote working for a company as an employee, not a contractor, due to the protection offered by law for disabled persons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;* Yes, I am aware this is dodging the question slightly and is extremely subjective.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10619" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3460" RevisionGUID="3c8f0d94-86c4-4c01-b490-cbaf01fe2795" CreationDate="2015-07-15T11:03:38.177" UserId="58" Comment="Clarified your question a bit; try adding any extra detail if you can." Text="Is remote work suitable for those with a mental disability?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10620" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3460" RevisionGUID="3c8f0d94-86c4-4c01-b490-cbaf01fe2795" CreationDate="2015-07-15T11:03:38.177" UserId="58" Comment="Clarified your question a bit; try adding any extra detail if you can." Text="|remote|disability|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10621" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3367" RevisionGUID="f9af02c1-fdbf-406a-a320-c22eea5e7e21" CreationDate="2015-07-15T11:19:39.910" UserId="58" Comment="Minor changes to sentences, added a few missing words." Text="Working on a (tiny) fixed price, art based job. The initial design was fine, but have been a number of iterations of the design since. That number is getting... well, ridiculous for the amount of work done. I'm well aware of &quot;feature creep&quot; &amp; &quot;scope creep&quot;, but this, for want of a better phrase is &quot;aesthetics creep&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you approach a client politely and professionally on the subject that it may have escaped their notice that you've lost weekends, small hours and afternoons over something that really doesn't warrant that amount of time, effort or attention, and should have been finished weeks ago, yet still isn't and remains in the permanent state of unfinished limbo because they're not happy with any of the results so far, and no matter how many more different iterations of the design are created it may continue to remain that way till all the earth is dust and giant scarab beetles have enslaved the remains of the human race?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10622" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3367" RevisionGUID="f9af02c1-fdbf-406a-a320-c22eea5e7e21" CreationDate="2015-07-15T11:19:39.910" UserId="58" Comment="Minor changes to sentences, added a few missing words." Text="|difficult-client|scope-creep|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10623" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1062" RevisionGUID="ba636d2f-a974-4a52-b1bf-9644662fa34a" CreationDate="2015-07-15T11:22:06.793" UserId="58" Comment="added 311 characters in body" Text="Clients are sometimes hard to work with, don't understand the technologies they are working with, or aren't very punctual with paying the freelancers they employ.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use this tag for dealings with clients that are less than beneficial, or when asking about how to deal with a particular case involving a client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10624" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="128" RevisionGUID="85bd7cc5-5f16-4b48-b7f5-311d147455d8" CreationDate="2015-07-15T11:23:35.877" UserId="58" Comment="added 70 characters in body" Text="Scope creep is the process of adding constant changes to a project, until the number of changes gets out of hand and the project may no longer resemble what it originally was." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10625" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3333" RevisionGUID="b737a5a0-a7f6-4884-bb7e-41838d37f75b" CreationDate="2015-07-15T11:25:17.973" UserId="8006" Comment="added 232 characters in body" Text="Use this tag for situations where the regular base of operations is at the worker's home, and the related issues (logistics with family, home office tax write-offs, etc.) For non-home remote work questions, see the &quot;remote&quot; tag.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10626" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3333" RevisionGUID="b737a5a0-a7f6-4884-bb7e-41838d37f75b" CreationDate="2015-07-15T11:25:17.973" Comment="Proposed by 8006 approved by 152, -1 edit id of 400" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10627" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3333" RevisionGUID="f7d1aa6d-b164-48cb-b8c5-e92a554495f3" CreationDate="2015-07-15T11:25:17.973" UserId="58" Comment="added 23 characters in body" Text="Use this tag for situations where the regular base of operations is at the worker's home, and the related issues (logistics with family, home office tax write-offs, etc). For remote work questions that aren't about a home office, see the &quot;remote&quot; tag.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10628" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3347" RevisionGUID="a8919a79-3b28-4724-9c55-e2c7774981a9" CreationDate="2015-07-15T11:29:04.650" UserId="58" Comment="Blast it, typo." Text="I'm a freelance web developer and security researcher, so my experience may be a little biased.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, web development is a pretty insecure mess. More experienced developers are generally seen as more security-focused programmers; you first learn to program, then you learn to program well, then you learn to program securely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, if your client is focused on security, recommend that they have an independent security audit as part of the signing-off process. This will be a team or individual who will do analysis of code, general penetration testing, and so on, and you'll be given a report of things to fix before final sign off. this should be worked out beforehand with your client, and you should be *sure* to include an indemnity clause in your contract for what you have created.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not a lawyer, but this is from my contract:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ### Legal Stuff&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I can’t guarantee that my work will be error-free and so can’t be liable to you or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if you’ve advised myself of them. Finally, if any provision of this contract shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this contract and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &lt;sub&gt;[Original Source - Contract Killer 3][contract]&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a web developer, your responsibility is to plug any obvious holes. This can be found on [OWASP][owasp] (the Open Web Application Security Project), in their top 10 vulnerabilities, but for brevity, you need to mitigate the following things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* SQL Injection (Or any injection!)&#xD;&#xA;* Broken Auth/Session Management (Impersonating other users)&#xD;&#xA;* Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)&#xD;&#xA;* Security Configuration&#xD;&#xA;* Exposing Sensitive Data&#xD;&#xA;* Cross-site Request Forgery (CSRF/XSRF)&#xD;&#xA;* Reflected Redirects (blindly doing `redirect($_GET['redirect'])`, for example)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, regardless of where you are in the world and what data privacy laws are, make sure you adhere to the most strict privacy laws in the world (most EU states) if your application collects sensitive data. Separation of Concerns in all aspects of your app should be adhered to; just following most privacy laws leads to reduced data leaks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[owasp]: https://www.owasp.org&#xD;&#xA;[contract]: https://gist.github.com/malarkey/4031110" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10630" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3466" RevisionGUID="dd5b5b5c-61ca-40cc-b0fb-360c235384fb" CreationDate="2015-07-15T14:54:20.603" UserId="8319" Text="Check [Nomadlist][1]. This site provides an overview with everything you need to know about working in a certain city. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://nomadlist.com/new-york-city-ny-united-states/places-to-work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10632" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1331" RevisionGUID="458a715e-1541-4719-8ecc-3464c94cb3f4" CreationDate="2015-07-15T15:35:37.900" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 38 characters in body" Text="I work with an inventor who creates product lines and I do the design work for him.  He's an engineer who is picky and wants it exactly his way so usually the projects take a while due to him not explaining what he wants clearly.  In the past I have charged an hourly rate which has been great since, like I said, it takes him a while to figure out what exactly he wants.  Recently he asked me to become an employee as opposed to a freelancer, and instead of charging hourly, I would get a percentage.  We have not discussed a percent yet but currently I charge him $25/hr.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are my main questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Would this transition be worth it?&#xD;&#xA;* What percent would I charge?&#xD;&#xA;* Would it be OK to ask for a small, upfront fee, then collect the percentage as sales begin?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any other information about this subject would be great.  Unfortunately I cannot really give out a lot of information due to the fact that the product has not been released yet.  From the people I have talked to and the products of his in the past, I think that this product line will do well if he markets it right." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10633" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3467" RevisionGUID="ed2b5302-4b79-4f25-b68e-fb7d1a86225b" CreationDate="2015-07-15T17:37:40.813" UserId="8320" Text="Most software projects don't really need your physical presence if you think about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example a web developer just need an FTP access to start working.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It wouldn't matter if the person behind the screen is disable or not as long as they can get the job done. And Clients don't necessary need to know that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10634" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3468" RevisionGUID="9cd3724b-ac13-4266-9fa2-b06412fafc3b" CreationDate="2015-07-15T17:55:21.363" UserId="8320" Text="#DO NOT HIRE THEM&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This looks like business and personal got mixed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The husband lied, **he's out**.&#xD;&#xA; 2. The wife leaked information to her husband, **she's out**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are out because the **core foundation of business is trust.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10635" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3340" RevisionGUID="1a67bdf7-a4d5-4424-b664-52494b5a918c" CreationDate="2015-07-15T18:26:41.703" UserId="8059" Comment="Added a thought" Text="Liability&#xD;&#xA;---------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can clients expect small teams and individuals to be liable for a security breach when the news is filled with corporations and governments with much bigger ITSec budgets getting hacked?  And we're just web developers, not security experts.  Are bloggers expecting to have an un-breachable prodect, something even financial institutions don't have?  There's no industry-wide standard that comprehensively covers all of web development so who determines what's adequate and what's not?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;When Can I Start Working?&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If 100% security is a myth then at what level of proficiency can a responsible developer expect to make his services available?  70% of websites have significant vulnerabilities so the people that built those obviously weren't waiting around.  Learning to develop using OWASP's guide would be nice if their update was available.  At least then I'd have a respected standard to follow and I could say exactly what vulnerabilities my services protect against.  Hopefully then a disclaimer in my contract stating somewhere along the lines that &quot;I am not a security company&quot; and &quot;I can't be held liable for losses incurred due to breach&quot; would protect me from a lawsuit.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Development Contracts That Include Maintenance&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people say if you're contracted to maintain the site after it's finished then you should be held liable for a hack.  I think this should only be true if the breach happened due to a vulnerability being present because you failed to install software updates/security patches quickly.  Any other attack vector and it's ridiculous because it doesn't seem reasonable for someone to expect you to code for every exploit that might be out there.  I feel it'd be more prudent to assume the average developer is ill-equipped to deal with the aftermath of a breach (in a comprehensive manner) given they market themselves as developers rather than security specialists.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;3rd Parties&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seems like outsourcing the security for maintenance (monitoring, updates, recovery, etc.) and before release (testing) would be a good way to avoid liability.  Would I have to explicitly state something in the contract to shift responsibility to the 3rd party?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to get confusing when you outsource other parts of the project like the front-end.  Are sub-contractors responsible for vulnerabilities on their side are does the whole project fall under you?  How do you coordinate contracts between all parties (client, security, front-end designer, etc.) appropriately in terms of legal issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Helpful Information&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would really be helpful to me is to get examples of how other freelancers protect themselves from these and other legal issues regarding to security.  Specific wording used in their own contracts would be great as well as any additional measures taken outside of that (because apparently legalese like security isn't a bullet-proof defense).  Should things like insurance for lawsuits/becoming an LLC be a consideration?  All information is welcomed even if you don't freelance yourself.  Nothing here will be taken as legal advice so please feel free to comment. &#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10636" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3469" RevisionGUID="72978dce-1879-4ff8-b14e-9ff914ec0e5a" CreationDate="2015-07-15T18:37:51.703" UserId="8319" Text="Check [Stripe][1]. If you don't want to program, you can use [Typeform][2] since they have an integration. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://stripe.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.typeform.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10638" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3470" RevisionGUID="d6caae49-fad2-4f13-a44d-bd22491a7070" CreationDate="2015-07-16T07:09:20.413" UserId="8327" Text="I wish to manage some of my client fb campaigns, and google ads campaigns as well. However, I wish not to have the responsability of having to manage that by using their own accounts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On google, I'm thinking to:&#xD;&#xA;create an email for them, and use that email to create a campaign, and the problem is solved. The email is always for them, so, if they change to someone else, they can take the email with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, what about facebook ads?&#xD;&#xA;What should I create?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you deal with this?&#xD;&#xA;I will not ask the client for their personnal facebook account! Right? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10639" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3470" RevisionGUID="d6caae49-fad2-4f13-a44d-bd22491a7070" CreationDate="2015-07-16T07:09:20.413" UserId="8327" Text="How to manage my clients fb ads?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10640" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3470" RevisionGUID="d6caae49-fad2-4f13-a44d-bd22491a7070" CreationDate="2015-07-16T07:09:20.413" UserId="8327" Text="|contracts|marketing|client-realtions|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10649" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3473" RevisionGUID="1225dfa9-c643-49ec-a1f8-9cd2c68c9959" CreationDate="2015-07-16T12:41:14.523" UserId="8331" Text="This is probably the most awkward question asked. What to do when a freelancer refuses to be paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's provide more details. I requested anyone with a video camera to record an event. I write the contract and send it to him. Days went by and he never signs the contract. Asked him so far about 10 times. The day of the event happens, and he records it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I ask him to sign the contract and for his PayPal to pay for the service. Turns out he used no tripod so the video is all shakey. You can hear this constant mouning as if he has breathing problems, maybe asthma. 100% of all comments online about the video is about the sickening moan.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On top of that, he didn't have a video camera. He was using a photographic camera with video recording capability. So all the videos have a shutter sound because he decided to take photos while recording video.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He messed up big time and I let him know. Now he doesn't want to get paid. However, he sent me 2/4 of the videos. I already have some online. Alright, he made a terrible job, but the videos are online and he doesn't want to be paid nor sign the contract. By me, I'm fine if he refuses to be paid, but then there is the concern that I am not the owner of the videos or photos, because I have no contract and no payment receipts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I definitely learned a sour lesson here:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Search for a freelancer with plenty of time ahead of the event.&#xD;&#xA;2. If the person doesn't sign the contract within a prudent time, to search for another freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;3. Make sure the freelancer has a real video camera or cam, and not a photo camera. I really hate to deal with .MOV files too." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10650" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3473" RevisionGUID="1225dfa9-c643-49ec-a1f8-9cd2c68c9959" CreationDate="2015-07-16T12:41:14.523" UserId="8331" Text="Freelancer refuses to be paid. What to do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10651" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3473" RevisionGUID="1225dfa9-c643-49ec-a1f8-9cd2c68c9959" CreationDate="2015-07-16T12:41:14.523" UserId="8331" Text="|contracts|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10652" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3474" RevisionGUID="4e046219-4d61-49eb-a601-0d627cedbd13" CreationDate="2015-07-16T14:05:06.687" UserId="7774" Text="If Freelancer refuses to be paid - I guess at this point - its his choice hence his decision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for copyright - You can always sight the contract offered + Communique Emails + recorded Video's shared as evidence as you being the owner (For Freelancer never had intention to record/use thos video's)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Further since contract was never explicit - no things were agreed upon deliverables - you might be at fault here. But you may have learnt things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Feel free to discuss things telling him of your expectations (as if it really helps at this point) But key point is to get communication going and being honest and fair with your part of deal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10657" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3477" RevisionGUID="b1f78947-5be3-4912-b017-fdac86740d6c" CreationDate="2015-07-16T16:35:01.007" UserId="708" Text="Sounds like you didn't really do your due diligence. You didn't check any references, look at past work.. nothing. So, really, this is kind of your fault.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the freelancer refuses payment, what's the problem? He send you the videos. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're concerned about who owns the work, just get him to state in an email that he relinquishes all rights to the work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10658" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3478" RevisionGUID="b8874646-03a3-4c64-9e76-d2b036d50175" CreationDate="2015-07-16T20:10:43.457" UserId="8333" Text="Being the chief technology officer and web developer along with doing cad/cam design for multiple firms, and also working with very large companies such as Remington, Winchester, howa, savage, AR, Barrett and more I would suggest always making an appointment. I personally have always sort of resented when representatives showed up and wanted to leave a portfolio or take up some of my time without calling and scheduling an appointment first. I run my business on the premise that I always want to look for new people with new ideas to keep my company with fresh &amp; strong. Especially since  freelancers bring a lot of new ideas to the table and I'm always willing to schedule appointments and meet with people, so maybe the business that you're dealing with and the managers that were supposed to get back to you to make the appointments just aren't very good at doing their job in my opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS- I use LinkedIn to network and find my freelance workers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sincerely, &#xD;&#xA;Kory Huske MCSE MCP ACE &#xD;&#xA;Pacific Tool and Gauge, Inc &amp; Cabin Fever Sports &#xD;&#xA;675 Antelope Rd &#xD;&#xA;White City, OR 97503" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10659" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3479" RevisionGUID="1258a2cb-1801-4724-a103-97e8c6141275" CreationDate="2015-07-16T20:40:03.363" UserId="8322" Text="I want to work as a remote full stack junior developer . But is there anyone who can give me some advice in which way I should prepare my self . Or what is the best way to get it ." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10660" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3479" RevisionGUID="1258a2cb-1801-4724-a103-97e8c6141275" CreationDate="2015-07-16T20:40:03.363" UserId="8322" Text="Looking for junior full stack developer job" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10661" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3479" RevisionGUID="1258a2cb-1801-4724-a103-97e8c6141275" CreationDate="2015-07-16T20:40:03.363" UserId="8322" Text="|remote|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10662" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3478" RevisionGUID="bb515f8d-6ada-4ed0-a557-7d97e5cfa4af" CreationDate="2015-07-16T21:03:20.727" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 129 characters in body" Text="Being the chief technology officer and web developer along with doing cad/cam design for multiple firms, and also working with very large companies such as Remington, Winchester, howa, savage, AR, Barrett and more I would suggest always making an appointment. I personally have always sort of resented when representatives showed up and wanted to leave a portfolio or take up some of my time without calling and scheduling an appointment first.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I run my business on the premise that I always want to look for new people with new ideas to keep my company with fresh &amp; strong. Especially since  freelancers bring a lot of new ideas to the table and I'm always willing to schedule appointments and meet with people, so maybe the business that you're dealing with and the managers that were supposed to get back to you to make the appointments just aren't very good at doing their job in my opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS- I use LinkedIn to network and find my freelance workers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10663" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3418" RevisionGUID="4a809eee-c6b7-4842-b594-6c915884b36f" CreationDate="2015-07-16T22:57:36.663" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/621815977571917824" />
  <row Id="10664" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3480" RevisionGUID="1d7b7af3-a84f-4edd-823b-2f8ecfdff6cf" CreationDate="2015-07-17T00:20:25.640" UserId="2669" Text="As with all humans, everyone has varying degrees of intellect and abilities and you would need to evaluate based on an individuals circumstances.  &#xA;&#xA;I don't think it would be necessary to hide the fact that an applicant has a disability if they can prove they have experience in the field they choose to pursue.&#xA;&#xA;If you are working with a group of people you could evaluate individual abilities, see if there are similar skills and empower them to work together at something. &#xA;&#xA;With the right backing and leadership they could probably start their own business that caters to the skills and needs of those with disabilities.&#xA;&#xA;If there are limitations such as extra time needed listed with full disclosure it would invite friendly business and weed out those that may have an issue under poor circumstances.&#xA;&#xA;Potential workers also need to value their time to match the level of skills.&#xA;If they decrease the price of a project to reflect the extra time needed for a project it may attract the attention of a bargain hunter.&#xA;&#xA;But again it totally depends on the skill set of the people you are involved with. &#xA;&#xA;If they make and sell handmade items why not set up a website and promote business that way?  Expecially if someone in your group has that skill set or the ability to learn Joomla or an open source store front like PrestaShop.&#xA;I believe etsy or Ebay could even be an option." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10665" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3481" RevisionGUID="ae1f4f25-0c15-4d97-9c5a-5f1f80002384" CreationDate="2015-07-17T03:05:27.013" UserId="7717" Text="So he's embarrassed because he shot a crappy video, but most of the criticism is about the audio. Tell him you want to use the *footage* and will replace the audio." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10667" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3483" RevisionGUID="37cccde4-523c-4d75-a97c-464819781377" CreationDate="2015-07-17T05:54:50.467" UserId="8308" Text="I'm planning to start a web/app development business - I want to operate as an LLC for the limited liability, but don't plan on taking on any other members or employees. I will really need to build up my portfolio if I want to succeed, and the plan was to work on freelance sites for cheap initially, then once I have a reputation and a good portfolio hopefully I will be able to move on from those sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if I work under my personal name on those sites, can I put the work that I did under my name into my LLC's portfolio (and vice versa)? It would make sense since I will be the only member of the LLC so anything that the LLC produces is developed by me, but on the other hand a LLC is considered a separate entity from myself, so I'm not sure how that would work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know I can work on some freelance sites like elance as a LLC, thus eliminating the problem, but other sites like upwork (and some local freelance sites) only allow individuals and not companies as freelancers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another thing: from what I understand, it's the norm for freelancers to sign over their app or website's IP to the client upon payment. Question is, is there a commonly-acceptable way to prove that you developed it? Perhaps in a website I could leave a small note in the footer saying 'Developed by ___', but what about in an app?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10668" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3483" RevisionGUID="37cccde4-523c-4d75-a97c-464819781377" CreationDate="2015-07-17T05:54:50.467" UserId="8308" Text="Freelancing &amp; establishing a limited liability company - portfolio ethics" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10669" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3483" RevisionGUID="37cccde4-523c-4d75-a97c-464819781377" CreationDate="2015-07-17T05:54:50.467" UserId="8308" Text="|freelance-websites|portfolio|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10672" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3484" RevisionGUID="85f4f08a-2989-4be8-a21d-6376a03c2645" CreationDate="2015-07-17T13:28:59.590" UserId="8320" Text="This does not sound like a big issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Simply ask him kindly that for your records you need to have like a receipt/ purchase document.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; If he does not want to get pay then thank him and he put down `$0.00` for the amount paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way you're covered, most important you learn from this experience.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10673" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3485" RevisionGUID="b6630157-1e1f-44be-a848-4c3b2ac40b7e" CreationDate="2015-07-17T18:04:41.110" UserId="8344" Text="[1.] A simple **solution**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Create a fake FB account (a personal one)&#xD;&#xA; 2. Like the contractor's page&#xD;&#xA; 3. Send him your FB email / password&#xD;&#xA; 4. Ask to be assigned as Editor (not an admin) in the Admin Roles of Facebook&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[2.] When the account needs **funding** for the ad campaigns:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Your contractor changes the account password&#xD;&#xA;2. Logs into the account&#xD;&#xA;3. Deposits the funds&#xD;&#xA;4. [Removes his payment method][1]&#xD;&#xA;5. Changes back the old password&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[3.] As a **result**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. You don't share any private data&#xD;&#xA; 2. You don't go over-budget&#xD;&#xA; 3. You can't &quot;overtake&quot; the FB page (you are an Editor, not an Admin)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope that helps. &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.google.bg/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=3&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0CC0QFjACahUKEwj4lLr23uLGAhWGDiwKHS0oBfI&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fhelp%2F132073386867900&amp;ei=OkKpVfiPFIadsAGt0JSQDw&amp;usg=AFQjCNFP2yveO7K7mHGypjBB5bYl0yAvAw&amp;sig2=-QCRxuLH4__5v4nBVR1Qlg" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10674" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3485" RevisionGUID="dfc00fa8-2d7b-447a-b03a-6b152cd10ae3" CreationDate="2015-07-17T18:15:55.123" UserId="9" Comment="Moved line items into quote formatting, fixed formatting for the top-level numbered lines, fixed link to direct link instead of Google redirect" Text="I hope this workflow helps:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 1. A simple **solution**:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;     1. Create a fake FB account (a personal one)&#xD;&#xA;&gt;     2. Like the contractor's page&#xD;&#xA;&gt;     3. Send him your FB email / password&#xD;&#xA;&gt;     4. Ask to be assigned as Editor (not an admin) in the Admin Roles of Facebook&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 2. When the account needs **funding** for the ad campaigns:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;     1. Your contractor changes the account password&#xD;&#xA;&gt;     2. Logs into the account&#xD;&#xA;&gt;     3. Deposits the funds&#xD;&#xA;&gt;     4. [Removes his payment method][1]&#xD;&#xA;&gt;     5. Changes back the old password&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 3. As a **result**:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt;     1. You don't share any private data&#xD;&#xA;&gt;     2. You don't go over-budget&#xD;&#xA;&gt;     3. You can't &quot;overtake&quot; the FB page (you are an Editor, not an Admin)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.facebook.com/help/132073386867900" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10675" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3470" RevisionGUID="c141e844-cdb6-42cd-a0eb-5ef7ca90a319" CreationDate="2015-07-17T18:20:04.530" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, expanded &quot;fb&quot; to &quot;Facebook&quot;, removed client-relations and contracts tags (since they aren't as relevant to the question at hand)" Text="I wish to manage some of my client's Facebook campaigns and Google Ads campaigns. However, I don't want the responsibility of needing to manage those using their own accounts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On Google, I'm planning on creating an email account for their use and using that email to create a campaign (which solves the problem. Their email is theirs, so if they choose to change to someone else, they can take the email address with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I'm not sure how this would work with Facebook ads.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I set this up? How do you normally deal with this? Am I right in not requesting access to the client's personal Facebook account?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10676" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3470" RevisionGUID="c141e844-cdb6-42cd-a0eb-5ef7ca90a319" CreationDate="2015-07-17T18:20:04.530" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, expanded &quot;fb&quot; to &quot;Facebook&quot;, removed client-relations and contracts tags (since they aren't as relevant to the question at hand)" Text="How to manage my client's Facebook ads?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10677" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3470" RevisionGUID="c141e844-cdb6-42cd-a0eb-5ef7ca90a319" CreationDate="2015-07-17T18:20:04.530" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, expanded &quot;fb&quot; to &quot;Facebook&quot;, removed client-relations and contracts tags (since they aren't as relevant to the question at hand)" Text="|marketing|advertising|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10678" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3286" RevisionGUID="3dda2842-3c8a-4e6a-b00f-e8b1bbdecdcb" CreationDate="2015-07-17T18:21:31.680" UserId="9" Comment="Removing client-relations tag" Text="|attracting-clients|web-development|business|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10679" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3286" RevisionGUID="e440caae-a362-4428-96d4-06355b2887c0" CreationDate="2015-07-17T18:45:45.780" UserId="9" Comment="Retagged business as local-business" Text="|attracting-clients|web-development|local-business|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10680" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3486" RevisionGUID="f62deb58-affe-4719-8208-20b0c0681e3b" CreationDate="2015-07-17T18:52:13.050" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10681" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3487" RevisionGUID="67ef72df-9c36-4dfc-b188-231a0842b55a" CreationDate="2015-07-17T18:52:13.050" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10682" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3488" RevisionGUID="0f164c3a-3217-4eea-b755-3bfbf83c2d66" CreationDate="2015-07-17T20:23:12.447" UserId="8344" Text="Since you can't get data from the inside (NGOs don't operate within the for-profit financial model), you'll have to gather data from outside, in order to validate your proposition. This could be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- statistics&#xD;&#xA;- research data&#xD;&#xA;- case studies&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For such, your criteria might be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- numbers / fact sheets&#xD;&#xA;- relevancy&#xD;&#xA;- credibility&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, your approach would be much more subjective, but you might consider that even the most traditional financial modelling is highly subjective." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10683" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3489" RevisionGUID="64c79df6-b812-4571-b1f8-faa9a7bff9de" CreationDate="2015-07-17T22:44:26.843" UserId="7717" Text="What on earth would be wrong with using your personal portfolio for your LLC when your LLC is just you? I hope there is not a human alive that would take issue to that. Look at it from a different angle - would you discard your entire portfolio if you legally changed your name just because those items were developed &quot;under a different name&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to get the client's approval before putting a &quot;site design by&quot; type message in the footer. Depending on the client, you may need to offer a discount or other incentive. I'm not sure it needs to be a &quot;heavy&quot; discount if it's subtle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a mobile app, if the client is opposed to a credits page (it is bizarre to me that almost no apps have credits), you can ask the client if you can include an easter egg that people wouldn't activate on accident (e.g. long hold on the title graphic for 7 seconds to make your name appear). Keep in mind that if it's an iOS app, Apple demands to be notified of any and all easter eggs in an application." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10685" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3490" RevisionGUID="b268016f-077c-4ce0-a2ae-fa2040221900" CreationDate="2015-07-18T03:50:39.953" UserId="8346" Text="I have a small consulting business that specializes in digital image processing, remote sensing, and workflow automation (using mainly Python, Matlab, R). I have an hourly rate that takes into account wage and overhead such as office space and software licensing. However, I have not figured out the most appropriate way to charge clients for computer processing time. For example, I may bill 12 hours for developing a script to process imagery in some way, but then I often have to tie up a computer for a week while the program is processing the imagery. Granted, I do not have to actively work while the program is working in the background, yet this is tying up resources that could be used for other projects. How should I take into account computer processing time when billing a client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10686" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3490" RevisionGUID="b268016f-077c-4ce0-a2ae-fa2040221900" CreationDate="2015-07-18T03:50:39.953" UserId="8346" Text="How to handle computer processing time when billing client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10687" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3490" RevisionGUID="b268016f-077c-4ce0-a2ae-fa2040221900" CreationDate="2015-07-18T03:50:39.953" UserId="8346" Text="|software|billing|billable-hours|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10688" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3491" RevisionGUID="e5e2d584-6f41-44fa-bfd7-7be6ddf0bdaf" CreationDate="2015-07-18T06:53:23.873" UserId="8344" Text="A way to do it, is to estimate the value of the CPU processing time against your [gross margin][1] on a regular (monthly/yearly) basis. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Example:*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;You make $10.000 a month. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;You have  10 CPUs. 5 of them account for 125 hours of CPU processing time/month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;The CPUs processing time contribute to your monthly profit with  $5.000&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;$10.000 (total profit) - $5.000 (profit from your CPUs) = $5.000&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; $5000 / 125 (hours of CPU processing time) = $40/hour&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You bill your clients with additional $40  for every hour of CPU processing time&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gross_profit_margin.asp" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10689" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3491" RevisionGUID="17632c75-15ae-4b05-922f-1d8506879176" CreationDate="2015-07-18T07:00:11.697" UserId="8344" Comment="Improved logic." Text="A way to do it, is to estimate the value of the CPU processing time against your [gross margin][1] on a regular (monthly/yearly) basis, versus a previous period (month/year). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Example:*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Last month you've made $10.000. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;You have  10 CPUs. 5 of them account for 125 hours of CPU processing time/month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;The CPUs processing time contribute to your monthly profit with  $5.000&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;$10.000 (total profit) - $5.000 (profit from your CPUs) = $5.000&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; $5000 / 125 (hours of CPU processing time) = $40/hour&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You bill your clients with additional $40  for every hour of CPU processing time&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gross_profit_margin.asp" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10690" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="3491" RevisionGUID="4700f7bd-ffd6-4cbc-931c-2473d35ce0ef" CreationDate="2015-07-18T07:02:15.963" UserId="8344" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:8344,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Sulitzer&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10691" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="3491" RevisionGUID="4632aaec-bce1-4676-8859-ebd62d996bfa" CreationDate="2015-07-18T07:02:27.733" UserId="8344" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:8344,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Sulitzer&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10692" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3491" RevisionGUID="d2d92ae2-61b7-468e-8a6e-bcdae303f83e" CreationDate="2015-07-18T07:05:57.027" UserId="8344" Comment="clarification" Text="A way to do it, is to estimate the value of the CPU processing time against your [gross margin][1] on a regular (monthly/yearly) basis, versus a previous period (month/year). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Example:*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Last month you've made $10.000. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;You have  10 CPUs. 5 of them account for 125 hours of CPU processing time/month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;You've estimated that the CPUs processing time contribute to your monthly profit with  $5.000&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;$10.000 (total profit) - $5.000 (profit from your CPUs) = $5.000&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; $5000 / 125 (hours of CPU processing time) = $40/hour&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You bill your clients with additional $40  for every hour of CPU processing time&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gross_profit_margin.asp" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10693" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3351" RevisionGUID="f1eddf4d-72a7-46a0-877f-ff366f986bef" CreationDate="2015-07-18T08:00:40.513" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/622315031963795456" />
  <row Id="10694" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3340" RevisionGUID="62806055-dc65-4995-b0a8-e3937d91ff1a" CreationDate="2015-07-18T15:01:52.857" UserId="8059" Comment="Edited question about 3rd parites to make it more clear" Text="Liability&#xD;&#xA;---------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can clients expect small teams and individuals to be liable for a security breach when the news is filled with corporations and governments with much bigger ITSec budgets getting hacked?  And we're just web developers, not security experts.  Are bloggers expecting to have an un-breachable prodect, something even financial institutions don't have?  There's no industry-wide standard that comprehensively covers all of web development so who determines what's adequate and what's not?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;When Can I Start Working?&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If 100% security is a myth then at what level of proficiency can a responsible developer expect to make his services available?  70% of websites have significant vulnerabilities so the people that built those obviously weren't waiting around.  Learning to develop using OWASP's guide would be nice if their update was available.  At least then I'd have a respected standard to follow and I could say exactly what vulnerabilities my services protect against.  Hopefully then a disclaimer in my contract stating somewhere along the lines that &quot;I am not a security company&quot; and &quot;I can't be held liable for losses incurred due to breach&quot; would protect me from a lawsuit.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Development Contracts That Include Maintenance&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people say if you're contracted to maintain the site after it's finished then you should be held liable for a hack.  I think this should only be true if the breach happened due to a vulnerability being present because you failed to install software updates/security patches quickly.  Any other attack vector and it's ridiculous because it doesn't seem reasonable for someone to expect you to code for every exploit that might be out there.  I feel it'd be more prudent to assume the average developer is ill-equipped to deal with the aftermath of a breach (in a comprehensive manner) given they market themselves as developers rather than security specialists.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;3rd Parties&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seems like outsourcing the security for maintenance (monitoring, updates, recovery, etc.) and before release (testing) would be a good way to avoid liability.  Would I have to explicitly state something in the contract to shift responsibility to the 3rd party?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to get even more confusing when you outsource other parts of the project like  front-end development.  Are sub-contractors you hire responsible for vulnerabilities on their side of the project are does the whole thing fall under you?  How do you coordinate contracts between all parties (client, security, front-end designer, etc.) appropriately in terms of security/legal issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Helpful Information&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would really be helpful to me is to get examples of how other freelancers protect themselves from these and other legal issues regarding security.  Specific wording used in their own contracts would be great as well as any additional measures taken outside of that (because apparently legalese like security isn't a bullet-proof defense).  Should things like insurance for lawsuits/becoming an LLC be a consideration?  Any knowledge/experience is welcome from non-freelancers and freelancers alike.  I won't take anything posted as explicit legal advice so please feel free to have input. &#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10695" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3492" RevisionGUID="dabe1257-e769-408d-8601-db0a0fd9941b" CreationDate="2015-07-20T03:11:09.760" UserId="8351" Text="I'm looking to start freelancing as a web developer in NZ and have been prodding about the internet for tips and advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One article I found (Link forgotten, was on NZ Herald newspaper's website) suggested that it was good practice to present a client with the total estimated quote and charge 50% before work began.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any new or cut features/pages would have an effect on the total quote but obviously unless the client cut so much that the total was less than half of the original the client probably wouldn't get any money back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is, as a freelancer trying to get a good reputation in a country not known for it's exploding web-design scene... is this a good idea or should I charge after the work is done and risk non-payment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10696" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3492" RevisionGUID="dabe1257-e769-408d-8601-db0a0fd9941b" CreationDate="2015-07-20T03:11:09.760" UserId="8351" Text="Good practice to charge half the quote up front?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10697" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3492" RevisionGUID="dabe1257-e769-408d-8601-db0a0fd9941b" CreationDate="2015-07-20T03:11:09.760" UserId="8351" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10698" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3493" RevisionGUID="e20bf0eb-715a-4a69-98a0-83d1dbe5ba51" CreationDate="2015-07-20T06:17:57.510" UserId="8354" Text="I have Startup Outsourcing company and i got my Client through a Friend Refrence .&#xD;&#xA;My Client has Hired three Developers in my company so he is paying me for his three Projects .&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He has Hired our company for long term lets say 5 Years .&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is transferring Monthly Invoice into my bank account Directly .&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now my Question is  ::&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Should i ask my Client to put Project on UpWork.com so that i can Bid and he gives this Project to my company  ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Reason is :: I can build my UpWork/Elance Profile and Hours , Projects shows up there . This Profile will help me in Getting more Projects and this will show to World that Yes this company is existing from long and has worked with this Client for last 5 Years .Also Hours i worked will be shown .&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Invoice payment :: If i use Step 1 and start Hourly Payment on UpWork they will deduct 10% of my Invoice as client will not pay this 10% extra to me .&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IS THIS BENEFICIAL THAT I PAY 10% TO UPWORK TO BUILD MY PROFILE WHICH WILL SHOW HOURS , PROJECT MY COMPANY IS DOING ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;MY Main issue is :: If i am working for this Client for next 5 years and after 5 years i have no Profile anywhere (Upwork/Elance) then how will i prove that i am working from last 5 years .... ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help is really Appreciated :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10699" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3493" RevisionGUID="e20bf0eb-715a-4a69-98a0-83d1dbe5ba51" CreationDate="2015-07-20T06:17:57.510" UserId="8354" Text="Should i use UpWork.com for payments so that i can build Profile on Upwork/Elance as it will show Hours i worked etc" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10700" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3493" RevisionGUID="e20bf0eb-715a-4a69-98a0-83d1dbe5ba51" CreationDate="2015-07-20T06:17:57.510" UserId="8354" Text="|freelance-websites|payment-terms|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10701" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3347" RevisionGUID="066c415c-8188-4b73-8400-d782d558f3ec" CreationDate="2015-07-20T08:14:19.963" UserId="58" Comment="edited body" Text="I'm a freelance web developer and security researcher, so my experience may be a little biased.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, web development is a pretty insecure mess. More experienced developers are generally seen as more security-focused programmers; you first learn to program, then you learn to program well, then you learn to program securely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, if your client is focused on security, recommend that they have an independent security audit as part of the signing-off process. This will be a team or individual who will do analysis of code, general penetration testing, and so on, and you'll be given a report of things to fix before final sign off. This should be worked out beforehand with your client, and you should be *sure* to include an indemnity clause in your contract for what you have created.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not a lawyer, but this is from my contract:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ### Legal Stuff&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I can’t guarantee that my work will be error-free and so can’t be liable to you or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if you’ve advised myself of them. Finally, if any provision of this contract shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this contract and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &lt;sub&gt;[Original Source - Contract Killer 3][contract]&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a web developer, your responsibility is to plug any obvious holes. This can be found on [OWASP][owasp] (the Open Web Application Security Project), in their top 10 vulnerabilities, but for brevity, you need to mitigate the following things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* SQL Injection (Or any injection!)&#xD;&#xA;* Broken Auth/Session Management (Impersonating other users)&#xD;&#xA;* Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)&#xD;&#xA;* Security Configuration&#xD;&#xA;* Exposing Sensitive Data&#xD;&#xA;* Cross-site Request Forgery (CSRF/XSRF)&#xD;&#xA;* Reflected Redirects (blindly doing `redirect($_GET['redirect'])`, for example)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, regardless of where you are in the world and what data privacy laws are, make sure you adhere to the most strict privacy laws in the world (most EU states) if your application collects sensitive data. Separation of Concerns in all aspects of your app should be adhered to; just following most privacy laws leads to reduced data leaks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[owasp]: https://www.owasp.org&#xD;&#xA;[contract]: https://gist.github.com/malarkey/4031110" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10702" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3494" RevisionGUID="1477b766-aae6-45a0-a6a0-be1225cc324c" CreationDate="2015-07-20T19:55:13.240" UserId="1818" Text="&gt; It would make sense since I will be the only member of the LLC so anything that the LLC produces is developed by me, but on the other hand a LLC is considered a separate entity from myself, so I'm not sure how that would work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IANAL and IANAA, but this is the crux of the protection you gain from the LLC.  Every case is different, but you should be very careful of blurring the lines between you and your LLC.  If you don't treat them as separate, the courts and the IRS may treate you as one also.  Something like ownership of work is part of the definition of &quot;separate entity&quot;.  I would recommend you talk to a small-business lawyer or accountant just to make sure.  Better safe than sorry." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10703" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3495" RevisionGUID="0e9484f8-3a38-4463-b817-213083d3f041" CreationDate="2015-07-20T20:33:36.743" UserId="1818" Text="Do not post negative comments about your client on the website you created for them or your own business website.  You could very easily scare off future clients who will now be afraid that if they miss by a day you might post bad comments about them.  Whether you take down the service or not, be positive or say nothing at all, but do not be negative in a public space." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10704" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3496" RevisionGUID="1d4281c4-1982-4118-a992-f2572286fcb6" CreationDate="2015-07-20T20:42:00.467" UserId="1818" Text="It is critical that as part of your contract you have specific payment milestones, and you should not just wait until the end for a single payment.  Look at the project and break it into good logical milestones negotiated between yourself and the client, with payment due at the milestones.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While getting a deposit is reasonable, I would not go for 50%.  A portion startup costs are reasonable if you incur legitimate cost (equipment, licensing) otherwise you are asking them to trust you at the same time you seem to be showing little trust in them.  How many of your suppliers (services or products) do you pay 50% to before receiving anything from them?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10705" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3497" RevisionGUID="3e5ba190-0792-4878-8073-008a8b6f5fd5" CreationDate="2015-07-21T04:03:57.510" UserId="8363" Text="How can I sue freelancer.com and get my money out of there? I did a project and sent the files to the other user, paid my upfront fees and everything. The guy released the milestone but I cant withdraw because they claim there is an account issue related to the other guy and suggested me to contact him. His account has been suspended so unless they do something about I wont get my money. It's incredible because in the end of the day I paid, spent my time, used my knowledge and took quite sometime and both the Client and Freelancer.com got either the money or the service they hired. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10706" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3497" RevisionGUID="3e5ba190-0792-4878-8073-008a8b6f5fd5" CreationDate="2015-07-21T04:03:57.510" UserId="8363" Text="Freelancer.com took my money" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10707" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3497" RevisionGUID="3e5ba190-0792-4878-8073-008a8b6f5fd5" CreationDate="2015-07-21T04:03:57.510" UserId="8363" Text="|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10708" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3497" RevisionGUID="79e319ca-9352-4dbb-ad3e-4afc54b3d4c7" CreationDate="2015-07-21T07:55:22.997" UserId="58" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10709" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3498" RevisionGUID="e9db4f87-5631-4eed-afc9-228943aa7fc2" CreationDate="2015-07-21T10:34:06.603" UserId="7486" Text="Lately, since a couple of years, I noticed that few of my clients with small &quot;brochure-type&quot; web sites, moved indipendently (and without even notify me) to well known ready-to-use web platforms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They own the domain name so they requested the transfer etc (it's their right).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That fact did not disturb me too much, they were not very important client, but today I found out that a bigger company, that was my client since 2008, from a day to another moved to a well known platform with an important website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These web platforms offers nice, neat, responsive, full-featured templates for blogs, website, e-commerce, at a low monthly or yearly price, and you build the site with drag &amp; drop and filling some text areas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have worked inside this company and the people there are not web experts but still were able to open an account at this platform, build the site and request the domain transfer when ready.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wonder if on the middle-long term, this means that web developers are going to be with no work to do. Since 20 years ago only highly specialized experts could do web development, then with time, things became easier and easier and now everyone with a small practice (and with tutorials offered in the platforms) is able to build a web site or an e-commerce easily as you open a blog account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you deal with clients moving to these platforms? It could be an idea to &quot;tie&quot; them with a long term contract (like 5 years etc, even that is not resolutive because after 5 years the cliet still can go away)? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You just let them go since it is their own right to move the domain and hosting where they like most?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is web development going to die or be limited to the big tailored projects or only to big agencies? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10710" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3498" RevisionGUID="e9db4f87-5631-4eed-afc9-228943aa7fc2" CreationDate="2015-07-21T10:34:06.603" UserId="7486" Text="How to deal with clients moving to ready-to-use web platforms" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10711" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3498" RevisionGUID="e9db4f87-5631-4eed-afc9-228943aa7fc2" CreationDate="2015-07-21T10:34:06.603" UserId="7486" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10712" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3499" RevisionGUID="4a32d88c-6a11-49cf-baaf-ef7508472d63" CreationDate="2015-07-21T12:56:03.237" UserId="7774" Text="I think it will be unfair to &quot;chain&quot; them to technology which may have better replacements - as is apparent in given case. Best you could do was to keep your skills updated on new technlogies and map customer requirements to newer ones and help them with migration etc - in the process updating your skills with current technology/ies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately it is management which will have upper say in using a technology which has lower investment and is scalable for foreseen future.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10713" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3500" RevisionGUID="38cec4d2-aca6-4fe9-b889-b914a8747578" CreationDate="2015-07-21T14:12:23.843" UserId="8366" Text="To give some context, I worked 6 month for this company as a copywriter, writing the content for the pages of their website. I got paid 800 euro per month with no taxes, since there was no contract, spending 8 hours a day in their office 5 days a week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end they offered me to keep working for them as a freelancer from my place, getting paid per word, but they weren't even able to make me an offer, even if I asked for it, so they just told me to mail them in the next days. I guess this means I should make an offer. The problem is that I don't know anything about this job, these 6 months were my first experience with it, so I have no idea how much is an average pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't ask much, since the company is ultra-cheap and very very bad on so many levels and I also lack qualifications. Anyways, even if I can't ask the money a professional copywriter could pretend, I must say that I'm probably not that bad, since everyone says I'm good with words (not in english, of course), the people from the company said they really like my work and I'm obsessive when it comes to writing, so I spend much more time than what it's needed even on a little article.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, what about asking 0.05 € per word? Is that too high or too low? Please don't laugh in any of the two cases... &#xD;&#xA;I could start asking for 0.06 € and don't accept anything for less than 0.04 € per word. I would start higher but I don't know how high is too high to be taken seriously.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To give more context, the company is german, but very mediterranean in the spirit (in the blood too) and they always outsource to desperate foreigners, and I'm going to write in italian.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for reading until this line!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;p.s. I can't, since I'm new here, but maybe someone should add tags like &quot;price-per-word&quot; and &quot;copywriting&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10714" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3500" RevisionGUID="38cec4d2-aca6-4fe9-b889-b914a8747578" CreationDate="2015-07-21T14:12:23.843" UserId="8366" Text="How many money per word should I ask as a freelance copywriter?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10715" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3500" RevisionGUID="38cec4d2-aca6-4fe9-b889-b914a8747578" CreationDate="2015-07-21T14:12:23.843" UserId="8366" Text="|pay-rate|negotiation|working-from-home|advertising|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10716" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3501" RevisionGUID="5299ab91-4c4d-4def-a0ad-eda84c5b8af2" CreationDate="2015-07-21T14:30:13.810" UserId="8368" Text="I have been lurking here for a while but have not posted, the last few days have been really stressful so it would be nice to get opinions from other freelancers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do design and web development i took on a project for way less then i should of that involved logo design , multiple site creation, seo and video creation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I went above and beyond hiring people to do testimonial videos for the company creating really nice animated ex plainer videos and creating a small content network. But everything started like most projects do with the logo.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On this particular project i was desperate for money and knew the people pretty good so i did not push a contract on them and instead started working ASAP i sent 3 logo mockups got an approval on one and made some slights changes and started hitting the rest of the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project was finished in 4 month's and now its 3 months passed the project being done and me being paid out and i got a text saying the logo was misspelled and they just noticed on their business cards. I jump into my files and notice the original logo i sent was misspelled so all print materials / social media and websites had the miss spell on it. They are demanding i give them money back or give them a lot of extra hours free. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I corrected all the issues re did all print materials and website content within 15 hours. I feel really bad but they signed off on the logo and the business cards and the site and should of noticed. I know im partly responsible but i feel that they are more so due to giving me approval on all these items. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anyone had a problem like this what did you say to the customer ? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10717" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3501" RevisionGUID="5299ab91-4c4d-4def-a0ad-eda84c5b8af2" CreationDate="2015-07-21T14:30:13.810" UserId="8368" Text="Old Project Typo Now Client Wants Money Back" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10718" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3501" RevisionGUID="5299ab91-4c4d-4def-a0ad-eda84c5b8af2" CreationDate="2015-07-21T14:30:13.810" UserId="8368" Text="|difficult-client|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10719" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3502" RevisionGUID="e618467d-994e-4d2f-99b0-e0798bb74fdc" CreationDate="2015-07-21T14:57:28.367" UserId="517" Text="These are the reasons why I always demand a client's confirmation (!) that they reviewed and tested the final product before they declare it final.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In case they ever return to me (had not after I introduced this rule), no one ever returned to me complaining. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now there are &quot;overly busy&quot; clients who tell me that they will test product later and still want to finalize the project. I accept but write them good 10 or more sentences why they should test and why they should not put the product in the &quot;release mode&quot;. So if they ever return, I can tell them &quot;I told you&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now in this case both of you are wrong. However, I am not sure if they can sue you or something on the basis of oral agreement (I think it's valid somewhere). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10720" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3503" RevisionGUID="e15da14a-7e87-4e95-95e6-68cddc6486dd" CreationDate="2015-07-21T19:37:39.420" UserId="8369" Text="As far as I would be concerned your customer saw what they were paying for, and still paid for it. All I would do is apologize, mention that you had gotten approval on the logo before releasing it, and offer to fix it. I would not refund them at all. They need to realize that your time spent is worth money, and if they mismanaged the project you are working on then that problem floats to the top. Like Peter suggested, you should set up an approval process with your clients. I'm a developer, so it may be a bit different, but most of my clients I provide a product, they asses it and either approve or deny it. If they approve something with an issue, I fix it at a charge. Human error is expected, and its known(especially in software) that there will be minor flukes which need to be ironed out. I charge all of my clients for any time spent on their projects, except initial consultation. If the company doesn't like it, they can find someone who's willing to eat mac and cheese for dinner every night.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Though I'm self employed, I am not a company. I am a person, and if my client purposes that I do something that I know will effect my financial stability I will blatantly tell them that is not the terms on which I work. They will be charged for any time spent on the project, and if they don't like it they can hire someone less competent to deliver a product on-par with their ability to work with a third-party(poor).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far a lawsuit is concerned, I personally wouldn't worry. Its likely not enough money to get a lawyer involved. And as far as I'm concerned there is no clear specification of what's expected from your service. If you have corrected the problem, then they have even less footing for a lawsuit." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10721" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3503" RevisionGUID="ce7fdbcf-769a-47c1-a42a-1610d018e214" CreationDate="2015-07-21T19:43:58.080" UserId="8369" Comment="added 593 characters in body" Text="As far as I would be concerned your customer saw what they were paying for, and still paid for it. All I would do is apologize, mention that you had gotten approval on the logo before releasing it, and offer to fix it. I would not refund them at all. They need to realize that your time spent is worth money, and if they mismanaged the project you are working on then that problem floats to the top. Like Peter suggested, you should set up an approval process with your clients. I'm a developer, so it may be a bit different, but most of my clients I provide a product, they asses it and either approve or deny it. If they approve something with an issue, I fix it at a charge. Human error is expected, and its known(especially in software) that there will be minor flukes which need to be ironed out. I charge all of my clients for any time spent on their projects, except initial consultation. If the company doesn't like it, they can find someone who's willing to eat mac and cheese for dinner every night.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Though I'm self employed, I am not a full blown company. I am a person, and if my client purposes that I do something that I know will effect my financial stability I will blatantly tell them that is not the terms on which I work. They will be charged for any time spent on the project, and if they don't like it they can hire someone less competent to deliver a product on-par with their ability to work with a third-party(poor).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far a lawsuit is concerned, I personally wouldn't worry. Its likely not enough money to get a lawyer involved. And as far as I'm concerned there is no clear specification of what's expected from your service. If you have corrected the problem, then they have even less footing for a lawsuit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps in this case I would fix the problem for free or at a reduced rate, but I would not, under any circumstance give a refund for something unless it was clearly defined from the beginning. I would also not work for free. I would firmly assert(politely) that they had approval, and that the concern is there own. It is simply insulting that they suggest that you refund them or work for free. Fix the problem for free or at a reduced rate, but anything beyond that charged them full price. They could very well be trying to exploit the fact that you are not a &quot;business man&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10722" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3504" RevisionGUID="47170607-c5cf-47ec-bc27-ac5d011f2f78" CreationDate="2015-07-21T19:49:48.130" UserId="8320" Text="&gt; i was desperate for money and knew the people pretty good so i **did not&#xD;&#xA;&gt; push a contract** on them and instead started working ASAP&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is your big mistake, business is business, even with friends it's still business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A freelancer without contract is very vulnerable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In all my contract I make sure I put a clause where I details that there is no refund policy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because this is not a tangible item, it makes no sense to refund hard working hours, all  you can do now is learn from your mistake and make it right the next time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10723" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3505" RevisionGUID="7a95795d-1034-4bc3-9e3a-849b65121d2e" CreationDate="2015-07-21T20:05:34.367" UserId="8370" Text="I'm a web application developer in the UK and am looking to start out in freelancing. I'm in the progress of writing up a Terms of Engagement (ToE) and am making some decisions about how best to structure project payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I plan to request a Requirements Analysis from clients, either writing it with them or asking them to produce one and then reviewing it together. My intention is that this will form the part of a written agreement, together with a pro-forma contract for the protection of both parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As part of the ToE I'd like to set out a payment approach and I am finding conflicting advice about the fairest way to do this. I like the idea of [milestone payments](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/2353) since I imagine it will develop increasing trust as milestones are completed. Also, in the unlikely event something goes wrong in the relationship, the client will have taken X fraction of a project for X fraction of the cost, which seems fair. However, other folks [suggest 30 day terms are common](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/3179), which would put an unnecessary and lengthy delay in project progress.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have experience with balancing these things? I should imagine smaller clients will just get on and pay so that a deliverable can be handed over, but is this a problem with larger clients? Is it wise for freelancers to insist on milestone payments, even if larger clients have a Finance Department policy of paying 30 days after invoice?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10724" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3505" RevisionGUID="7a95795d-1034-4bc3-9e3a-849b65121d2e" CreationDate="2015-07-21T20:05:34.367" UserId="8370" Text="How to balance milestone payments with 30-day terms?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10725" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3505" RevisionGUID="7a95795d-1034-4bc3-9e3a-849b65121d2e" CreationDate="2015-07-21T20:05:34.367" UserId="8370" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10726" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3359" RevisionGUID="ab7e4f11-044f-4886-8572-225f7cc9d301" CreationDate="2015-07-21T20:09:46.140" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/623585678270574592" />
  <row Id="10727" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3506" RevisionGUID="3c22a4e8-639c-45f2-9213-ecb8eb642963" CreationDate="2015-07-21T20:12:11.070" UserId="8369" Text="I do not agree with the comments. I've been working remotely for the past 3 years doing multiple lines of work ranging from full-stack developer to project management to devops. Certifications are often overlooked, same goes for schooling. There is one, and only one thing that will get you anywhere, experience. Experience can be validated in 2 forms, a portfolio or a customer testimonials/reviews. Many online market places Upwork(formerly oDesk), freelancer, elance, etc. have a review system for customers to provide feedback. This has been a great source of work for me alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may need some initial small projects to find a client. For this I recommend making a blog or personal website, contributing to open source, and creating an online presence. Things people actually look at are you profile on the freelance market, linkedin, and if you're being hired by a company that often hires developers they sometimes look at your github. If you have github contributions its best to provide a detailed description of those contributions, because many people don't know what github is or how to use it. Once you have a portfolio then try bidding on some small, short-term, fixed-budget projects. From there your portfolio will expand as your work, and you're customers will build trust for future clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't expect to land a comfortable job working from home right away, and don't expect it to be easy working from home. The first year was hell for me. It's hard to get in the routine of working your own hours. Working from home isn't as great as many people describe it, nor is working for yourself. You will end up paying more in taxes, and your taxes will not be taken out of your paychecks like when you're employed. You will either need to pay state and federal taxes out of what you earn either quarterly or yearly. And you will end up paying more in taxes than you normally would because the taxes become entirely your responsibility rather than the company you work for paying a portion of your taxes. Its only for some people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as certifications they are only worth it if your doing so to learn something. As far as increasing your ability to find work, they are useless. Same applies for schooling. The key is to keep learning every single day in which ever way works best for you, and the only way a potential client will trust your abilities is experience. A certificate doesn't mean your proficient, it just means you learned something, and in my opinion its part of the job title to be constantly learning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Following this ideology has led me to be a top rated freelancer on Upwork." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10728" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3506" RevisionGUID="725a549d-5a4d-4837-8502-96cd1b3a74bb" CreationDate="2015-07-21T20:20:07.997" UserId="8369" Comment="added 88 characters in body" Text="I do not agree with the comments. I've been working remotely for the past 3 years doing multiple lines of work ranging from full-stack developer to project management to devops. Certifications are often overlooked, same goes for schooling. There is one, and only one thing that will get you anywhere, experience. Experience can be validated in 2 forms, a portfolio or a customer testimonials/reviews. Many online market places Upwork(formerly oDesk), freelancer, elance, etc. have a review system for customers to provide feedback. This has been a great source of work for me alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may need some initial small projects to find a client. For this I recommend making a blog or personal website, contributing to open source, and creating an online presence. Things people actually look at are you profile on the freelance market, linkedin, and if you're being hired by a company that often hires developers they sometimes look at your github. If you have github contributions its best to provide a detailed description of those contributions, because many people don't know what github is or how to use it. Once you have a portfolio then try bidding on some small, short-term, fixed-budget projects. From there your portfolio will expand as your work, and you're customers will build trust for future clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't expect to land a comfortable job working from home right away, and don't expect it to be easy working from home. The first year was hell for me. It's hard to get in the routine of working your own hours. Working from home isn't as great as many people describe it, nor is working for yourself. You will end up paying more in taxes, and your taxes will not be taken out of your paychecks like when you're employed. You will either need to pay state and federal taxes out of what you earn either quarterly or yearly. And you will end up paying more in taxes than you normally would because the taxes become entirely your responsibility rather than the company you work for paying a portion of your taxes. Given this only applies to the US(talk to an accountant for more specific information). Its only for some people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as certifications they are only worth it if your doing so to learn something. As far as increasing your ability to find work, they are useless. Same applies for schooling. The key is to keep learning every single day in which ever way works best for you, and the only way a potential client will trust your abilities is experience. A certificate doesn't mean your proficient, it just means you learned something, and in my opinion its part of the job title to be constantly learning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Following this ideology has led me to be a top rated freelancer on Upwork." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10729" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3498" RevisionGUID="e9d51055-99e9-42e3-8e2b-d0b70ed79284" CreationDate="2015-07-21T20:44:40.553" UserId="7486" Comment="added 291 characters in body" Text="Lately, since a couple of years, I noticed that few of my clients with small &quot;brochure-type&quot; web sites, moved indipendently (and without even notify me) to well known ready-to-use web platforms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They own the domain name so they requested the transfer etc (it's their right).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That fact did not disturb me too much, they were not very important client, but today I found out that a bigger company, that was my client since 2008, from a day to another moved to a well known platform with an important website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These web platforms offers nice, neat, responsive, full-featured templates for blogs, website, e-commerce, at a low monthly or yearly price, and you build the site with drag &amp; drop and filling some text areas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have worked inside this company and the people there are not web experts but still were able to open an account at this platform, build the site and request the domain transfer when ready.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wonder if on the middle-long term, this means that web developers are going to be with no work to do. Since 20 years ago only highly specialized experts could do web development, then with time, things became easier and easier and now everyone with a small practice (and with tutorials offered in the platforms) is able to build a web site or an e-commerce easily as you open a blog account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you deal with clients moving to these platforms? It could be an idea to &quot;tie&quot; them with a long term contract (like 5 years etc, even that is not resolutive because after 5 years the cliet still can go away)? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You just let them go since it is their own right to move the domain and hosting where they like most?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is web development going to die or be limited to the big tailored projects or only to big agencies? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Update:** I'm 100% able and experienced in the latest technologies in web development, responsivity, etc etc. The problem is not about not being up to date but I think the clients prefer to pay lower prices (impossible for freelancers) to have a full featured platform and 100% of control." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10733" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3508" RevisionGUID="204a9d6b-6aa8-4f4e-bf42-e7ce23334563" CreationDate="2015-07-21T21:41:26.610" UserId="8370" Text="Paying for a co-working space as a sole trader is just like a business renting an office - it is quite normal. The social environment (either as a result of co-working or using a traditional workplace) can have a positive effect on productivity, but as one might expect with the human condition, no-one can say for sure how it will work _for you_. You may find that the increased productivity will fund your co-working expenses, but again it's not possible to say.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here in the UK we have not embraced co-working as much as we should have - I believe it is much more popular in mainland Europe. However, we do have a number of such spaces, and it is quite normal to be able to get a guided tour of the facilities. I would recommend visiting as many spaces near you as you can. You may even find, as we have here, that some co-working spaces will give you a few days free of charge, to &quot;try before you buy&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an alternative, consider finding a set of coffee shops and working from these, perhaps in rotation. I've done that for some years, mixing it up with a co-working space, and the change of scenery in the early afternoon can be useful, especially if one is concentrating for long periods of time. That said, the economics of buying coffee-shop coffee and lunch can get rather expensive: here it's easy to spend 10GBP/day, which is 200/GBP a month, and yet a co-working membership can sometimes cost as little as half that (outside of London, of course).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are cost-conscious, some co-working places will do a part-time ticket, and you could split the time between working from home and the office. This is sometimes sufficient to boost your productivity, even though you're still working in your apartment some of the time.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10734" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3500" RevisionGUID="ccaa6837-8afa-46af-84d5-b331271fae31" CreationDate="2015-07-21T22:04:29.997" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10735" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3509" RevisionGUID="8ec79018-0032-4072-84f3-17c68459e4ca" CreationDate="2015-07-21T23:35:18.060" UserId="7717" Text="Here's the problem with ready-to-use platforms. They are often designed so that all of *your* cards are on *their* table. They set you up with their proprietary tech in a way that could make it difficult to export your content to a different site. Things seem great at first until you realize how difficult it will be to move.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From here, these services often go one of two ways. Either they keep hiking up their rates, banking on the fact that it will be too much effort for you to rebuild elsewhere, or they can't get enough customers so they go under and you lose your host. Sometimes they raise their rates quite high and *then* they go under.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Not every ready-to-use platform has this problem. Some are big and stable, but they are still often more restrictive than a custom solution)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a result, you will see an endless cycle. A company selects some ready-to-use platform. Eventually the platform gets too expensive/collapses, they feel burned, and they decide not to use a ready-to-use platform in the future. Some new ready-to-use platform appears, and some new companies go with this new platform until they get burned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &gt;How do you deal with clients moving to these platforms? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Point out the flaws in these platforms - overly restrictive rules, the possibility of price hikes, or the difficulty in leaving later. Beyond that, find new clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; It could be an idea to &quot;tie&quot; them with a long term contract (like 5 years etc, even that is not resolutive because after 5 years the cliet still can go away)? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might have trouble getting a 5-year contract to happen. At that point, you now share the biggest flaw that the ready-to-use platforms have - tying the client down unfairly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Losing clients and finding new clients is a normal part of freelancing. You shouldn't get worked up about it, and you shouldn't be trying to chain down your clients. If you are terrified of losing clients or trying to find new ones, freelancing might not be the right career for you. Or you may just want to hire some marketing staff." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10736" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3500" RevisionGUID="5d226a00-9bf6-425d-b29e-60f9f711734b" CreationDate="2015-07-22T00:31:47.347" UserId="8366" Comment="Changed title" Text="How much does a (beginner) freelance copywriter charge per word on average?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10737" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3510" RevisionGUID="0a5783af-682d-4bfd-8c01-49001681831f" CreationDate="2015-07-22T00:36:11.810" UserId="8370" Text="My question is a sort of inverse of [this one](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/2597/8370), where the OP asks whether a client may expect software tests as automatic deliverable in a software project. To me, that would imply a knowledgeable customer who knows that tests represent a percentage development cost that can help insulate against the surprise costs of regressions later on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm looking to get started as a freelance developer, and I foresee the opposite problem. I think writing good software (unit/functional/etc) tests takes time, and since this is a substantial fraction of time spent it must be billed for. If we say that it takes 20% of a project's billable hours, clients may see this as an avoidable expense and ask for it to be removed from the schedule of work. For the freelance engineer, this may result in a loss of quality and a lower level of deployment confidence (neither of which are great if the freelancer is hired as a maintainer over the long term).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[This answer](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/1474/8370) suggests that the day rate should be high enough to effectively throw writing tests in for free. However, this may make estimates look uncompetitive, and I'd rather have the client know exactly what they're getting for their money. Thus, is it worth persuading clients of the value of this deliverable?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10738" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3510" RevisionGUID="0a5783af-682d-4bfd-8c01-49001681831f" CreationDate="2015-07-22T00:36:11.810" UserId="8370" Text="How do freelance coders persuade clients of the value of software tests?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10739" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3510" RevisionGUID="0a5783af-682d-4bfd-8c01-49001681831f" CreationDate="2015-07-22T00:36:11.810" UserId="8370" Text="|payments|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10741" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3511" RevisionGUID="cb1c637e-eae4-4a9b-a0e6-a4a3506d958f" CreationDate="2015-07-22T05:45:26.453" UserId="58" Text="Unless your client is high-profile and *huge*, or the software is mission-critical, you're going to have a hard time justifying the extra time taken for tests to clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most clients tend to think that writing tests just takes longer (your average time taken to do something is at least 50% more), and clients don't value the return on investment given by unit/functional/behavioral tests, because &quot;Why do you need to write more code while I'm paying you?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since tests benefit both of you (not having to rewrite something is always a plus), try and show that you can directly test that your deliverables do exactly what the client asked for, and attack it from that angle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try not to have tests as a separate billable, but keep them part of the time/effort estimate for the project. If you separate them out, clients can and almost certainly will see that billable item as optional and try to eliminate it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When billing hourly, use experience you have writing tests and factor in how long that will take. A good rule of thumb when starting out is estimate how long you think it would take, then triple that. As you gain experience, and you know your capabilities, you can start estimating more precisely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If billing per-project, factor the time taken to test into the costs of the project, and make it non-negotiable and part of the software deliverables." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10742" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3493" RevisionGUID="cb211876-d2f4-44d0-9657-aff789cc86e2" CreationDate="2015-07-22T09:13:55.417" UserId="8370" Comment="Fix casing, fix punctuation issues" Text="I have a startup outsourcing company and I got my client through a friend reference. My client has hired three developers in my company so he is paying me for his three projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He has hired our company for long term, let's say five years. He is transferring monthly invoice into my bank account directly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now my question is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Should I ask my client to put project on UpWork.com so that I can Bid and he gives this project to my company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Reason is I can build my UpWork/Elance profile and hours , Projects shows up there . This Profile will help me in Getting more Projects and this will show to World that Yes this company is existing from long and has worked with this Client for last 5 Years. Also hours I worked will be shown.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Invoice payment: If I use Step 1 and start Hourly Payment on UpWork they will deduct 10% of my Invoice as client will not pay this 10% extra to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IS THIS BENEFICIAL THAT I PAY 10% TO UPWORK TO BUILD MY PROFILE WHICH WILL SHOW HOURS, PROJECT MY COMPANY IS DOING ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;MY Main issue is: If I am working for this Client for next 5 years and after 5 years I have no Profile anywhere (Upwork/Elance) then how will I prove that I am working from last 5 years?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10743" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3493" RevisionGUID="cb211876-d2f4-44d0-9657-aff789cc86e2" CreationDate="2015-07-22T09:13:55.417" UserId="8370" Comment="Fix casing, fix punctuation issues" Text="Should I use UpWork.com for payments so that I can build profile on Upwork/Elance as it will show hours I worked?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10744" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3493" RevisionGUID="cb211876-d2f4-44d0-9657-aff789cc86e2" CreationDate="2015-07-22T09:13:55.417" Comment="Proposed by 8370 approved by 8354 edit id of 410" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10749" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2926" RevisionGUID="78a8cbec-642e-4a00-8b73-2ff7068c3e2b" CreationDate="2015-07-22T09:34:07.127" UserId="8370" Comment="Fix unprofessional language, tidy punctuation" Text="I've been asked this one before many times and I have been burned by this one before on a few occasions. (In my case I had a 30% share of said company, spent an inordinate amount of time &quot;making changes&quot; to the product. 300 hours later was a single sale made? Nope, requirements kept changing)!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would say that in simple terms if they want to offer you a percentage then ask for 80% of the companies shares with a clause of limited liability (companies like this require special registration for tax purposes).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On top of this also ask for a minimum yearly dividend (let's say $20k). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They will turn this offer down so fast..... &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10750" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2926" RevisionGUID="78a8cbec-642e-4a00-8b73-2ff7068c3e2b" CreationDate="2015-07-22T09:34:07.127" Comment="Proposed by 8370 approved by -1 edit id of 412" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10751" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2926" RevisionGUID="cf11f97d-d859-47e6-a405-c52696164694" CreationDate="2015-07-22T09:34:07.127" UserId="58" Comment="Fix unprofessional language, tidy punctuation" Text="I've been asked this one before many times and I have been burned by this one before on a few occasions. (In my case I had a 30% share of said company, spent an inordinate amount of time &quot;making changes&quot; to the product. 300 hours later was a single sale made? Nope, requirements kept changing)!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would say that in simple terms if they want to offer you a percentage then ask for 80% of the companies shares with a clause of limited liability (companies like this require special registration for tax purposes).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On top of this also ask for a minimum yearly dividend (let's say $20k). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They will turn this offer down fast...&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10752" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3487" RevisionGUID="4a2ba1f4-6d07-4760-bf6d-e85cc207571e" CreationDate="2015-07-22T09:34:21.903" UserId="9" Comment="added 179 characters in body" Text="This tag pertains to questions about working with businesses near the freelancer's location. This should not be used for remote-working questions or to describe your own business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10753" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3487" RevisionGUID="4a2ba1f4-6d07-4760-bf6d-e85cc207571e" CreationDate="2015-07-22T09:34:21.903" Comment="Proposed by 9 approved by 517, 58 edit id of 408" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10757" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3420" RevisionGUID="d1c184be-d690-42d0-a06f-4a7c4eb9240c" CreationDate="2015-07-22T11:11:25.910" UserId="8370" Comment="Improve title, tidy, remove excessively localised sub-question" Text="I live in New York and do freelance web programming.  I work consistently for one company, but also do freelance projects and am currently developing an iPhone app on the side.  I also work as musician in the evenings...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For all these different projects, I unfortunately use my small NYC apartment as the workspace.  And after several years of this, it is wearing on me a bit, being in the same room all day / evening...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;SO, I'm curious about co-working spaces.  I'm reluctant to 'pay to work', but I feel that a scenery change may boost my productivity, help my mental health, and free up my apartment for just being the place I live :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was wondering what others experience are like with co-working spaces?  How did did it affect your workflow?  What did you expect and what was different?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10758" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3420" RevisionGUID="d1c184be-d690-42d0-a06f-4a7c4eb9240c" CreationDate="2015-07-22T11:11:25.910" UserId="8370" Comment="Improve title, tidy, remove excessively localised sub-question" Text="Are co-working spaces worth paying for?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10759" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3420" RevisionGUID="d1c184be-d690-42d0-a06f-4a7c4eb9240c" CreationDate="2015-07-22T11:11:25.910" Comment="Proposed by 8370 approved by -1 edit id of 413" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10760" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3420" RevisionGUID="707f5143-3f40-4663-b400-44cc4612fe7f" CreationDate="2015-07-22T11:11:25.910" UserId="58" Comment="Improve title, tidy, remove excessively localised sub-question" Text="I live in New York and do freelance web programming.  I work consistently for one company, but also do freelance projects and am currently developing an iPhone app on the side.  I also work as musician in the evenings...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For all these different projects, I unfortunately use my small NYC apartment as the workspace.  And after several years of this, it is wearing on me a bit, being in the same room all day/evening.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm curious about co-working spaces. I'm reluctant to 'pay to work', but I feel that a scenery change may boost my productivity, help my mental health, and free up my apartment to just be the place I live :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was wondering what others' experiences are like with co-working spaces.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How did did it affect your workflow? What did you expect, and what was different?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10761" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3479" RevisionGUID="cc38a0f3-1aee-42da-a3bc-afa38712bc36" CreationDate="2015-07-22T11:12:02.367" UserId="58" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:7717,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;user45623&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10762" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3501" RevisionGUID="c7189b70-2ab2-4ea1-90bc-80abdd1a0bdd" CreationDate="2015-07-22T11:17:33.157" UserId="58" Comment="deleted 184 characters in body; edited title" Text="I do design and web development and I took on a project for way less then I should have that involved logo design, multiple site creation, SEO and video creation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I went above and beyond, hiring people to do testimonial videos for the company, creating really nice animated explanation videos and creating a small content network. But everything started like most projects do with the logo.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On this particular project, I was desperate for money and knew the people pretty well so I didn't push a contract on them and instead started working ASAP. I sent 3 logo mockups and got an approval on one, then made some slight changes and started on the rest of the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project was finished in 4 months, and 3 months later (after payment), I got a message saying that the logo was misspelled and they'd just noticed the typo on their business cards. I jumped into my files and noticed that the original logo I sent was misspelled, so all print materials/social media and websites had the typo. They are demanding that I give them money back or fix everything for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I corrected all the issues, re-did all print materials and website content within 15 hours. I feel really bad but they signed off on the logo and the business cards and the site and should have noticed. I know I'm partly responsible, but I feel that they are more so due to giving me approval on all these items. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anyone had a problem like this, and what did you say to the customer? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10763" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3501" RevisionGUID="c7189b70-2ab2-4ea1-90bc-80abdd1a0bdd" CreationDate="2015-07-22T11:17:33.157" UserId="58" Comment="deleted 184 characters in body; edited title" Text="Errors in a signed-off publication: should I return money paid?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10768" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3513" RevisionGUID="eabd89e3-ac6d-4aac-9b6d-92f22164c0b8" CreationDate="2015-07-22T22:18:14.237" UserId="8385" Text="A client from EU is asking me about: ***- &quot;Will you invoice them including VAT or local equivalent (sales tax)? If so, what will be the rate?&quot;***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I tell them to prepare a IRS form?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you know if there is a sales tax that I should ad to my invoice?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am doing a website design.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Gaby" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10769" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3513" RevisionGUID="eabd89e3-ac6d-4aac-9b6d-92f22164c0b8" CreationDate="2015-07-22T22:18:14.237" UserId="8385" Text="Working as a self employed in US for a EU client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10770" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3513" RevisionGUID="eabd89e3-ac6d-4aac-9b6d-92f22164c0b8" CreationDate="2015-07-22T22:18:14.237" UserId="8385" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10779" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3388" RevisionGUID="d79bef50-9c9b-406b-a35d-84413520322f" CreationDate="2015-07-23T08:42:22.547" UserId="58" Comment="deleted 69 characters in body" Text="I have an idea to listen to what the Linux community needs and to create some simple applications for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, I would start off with one of the most popular Linux distros at the moment, and create a couple of simple apps that seem to be highly wanted by the community. Once I'd created the software, I would release it for free to the community and allow them to continue their development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then, I would create a website where I would share a couple of ideas I have and allow the community to vote for which ideas should I focus on first, and listen to the feedback. I would consider both donations and free votes. Donations would have a higher impact on me of course, so the community could compete with each other to select which idea is needed the most.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Later on, I would expand to other distros and desktop environments and possibly even hire a small team to help me out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once I receive my first donations, I would upgrade my equipment (buy a new laptop, upgrade my Internet connection, make some small changes to my work environment) and then I would try to receive monthly donations so I could work full time on those ideas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would regularly blog about my ideas, share my progress (possibly even record videos or livestream as I code) and be constantly in contact with my donators.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I crazy for thinking that something like this could theoretically work? Am I missing something? If this project fails and I decide to do something else, would this look good on my resume? I mean, I would not really be employed in any company and I would not really consider this as a startup. It's just a quick way to make money and start my career as a software developer. I *think* that this could be considered more valuable to the potential job recruiters than a normal internship would, but I wanted to hear opinions from more experienced software developers.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10780" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3388" RevisionGUID="10de3e02-edbb-46f3-bee2-ee1d7f3b752b" CreationDate="2015-07-23T08:44:13.320" UserId="58" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10784" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3511" RevisionGUID="514a5b76-0c08-46bb-9029-98b36d906bd7" CreationDate="2015-07-23T12:00:08.533" UserId="58" Comment="added 259 characters in body" Text="Unless your client is high-profile and *huge*, or the software is mission-critical, you're going to have a hard time justifying the extra time taken for tests to clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most clients tend to think that writing tests just takes longer (your average time taken to do something is at least 50% more), and clients don't value the return on investment given by unit/functional/behavioral tests, because &quot;Why do you need to write more code while I'm paying you?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since tests benefit both of you (not having to rewrite something is always a plus), try and show that you can directly test that your deliverables do exactly what the client asked for, and attack it from that angle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try not to have tests as a separate billable, but keep them part of the time/effort estimate for the project. If you separate them out, clients can and almost certainly will see that billable item as optional and try to eliminate it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When billing hourly, use experience you have writing tests and factor in how long that will take. A good rule of thumb when starting out is estimate how long you think it would take, then triple that. As you gain experience, and you know your capabilities, you can start estimating more precisely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If billing per-project, factor the time taken to test into the costs of the project, and make it non-negotiable and part of the software deliverables.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you really need to itemise things, only itemise the *acceptance* tests (that is, behavioral tests; BDD). All other testing is a core part of software development (as in, test-driven development) and you should not give the client any choice about this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10787" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3513" RevisionGUID="a2ae1292-4b06-414f-b67a-4d93a7747df8" CreationDate="2015-07-23T16:28:48.260" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|taxes|usa|eu|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10788" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3513" RevisionGUID="a2ae1292-4b06-414f-b67a-4d93a7747df8" CreationDate="2015-07-23T16:28:48.260" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="A client from EU is asking me, ***&quot;Will you invoice them including VAT or local equivalent (sales tax)? If so, what will be the rate?&quot;***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I tell them to prepare a IRS form?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you know if there is a sales tax that I should ad to my invoice?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am doing a website design." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10789" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3517" RevisionGUID="a2054443-394b-4d59-90f8-2ea384170197" CreationDate="2015-07-23T16:35:47.133" UserId="8399" Text="From EU perspective it works like this:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If you buy goods for the purposes of your business from a supplier based outside the EU, you must generally pay VAT at the point of import (and may deduct this in your next VAT return if you make taxed sales).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://europa.eu/youreurope/business/vat-customs/cross-border/index_en.htm&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know anything about the US though." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10790" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3518" RevisionGUID="2bc270e0-f7c8-4cba-b130-1625ec0b67f6" CreationDate="2015-07-23T19:31:48.470" UserId="7717" Text="I typically work on small-to-medium scale projects with clients that have zero-to-moderate experience in having software developed. In nearly every project I've ever worked on, we've almost immediately settled into a flow where I send the client regular prototype builds, and they report back with their opinions as well as any bugs they have spotted. This lets me focus on features and often cuts down on costs. I've gotten so used to this that I don't even think to address the subject of testing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most small clients, even those new to the industry, understand that bugs are a fact of development and don't mind helping track them down. Additionally, a client with a limited timeframe or budget is likely going to be more than willing to take on some of the testing to speed things up or reduce expenses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even though it's how I've ended up operating, I wouldn't recommend jumping into a project without discussing the subject with clients. You might just ask whether they'd prefer to do some of the testing themselves to save time/costs or to have you set up more expensive unit tests to be more thorough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, you need to use common sense depending on the project and the client. An enterprise-level client is probably going to expect you to do through testing. Any time you're doing critical calculations (e.g. scientific, financial, etc) where mistakes might not be obvious, unit tests are key." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10791" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3519" RevisionGUID="495ecc71-8b16-4f65-8116-8fc1f817dd53" CreationDate="2015-07-23T21:51:07.850" UserId="8405" Text="I got to talk to a client who wants to have an app for his restaurants. The app should include a ordering process as well, for take aways. But I am not sure what will be my to-do list in that kind of project. So I can estimate what to charge. Does anyone know where to find a general checklist for a freelance job? Then I can better estimate the price and explain what is behind it for the customer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10792" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3519" RevisionGUID="495ecc71-8b16-4f65-8116-8fc1f817dd53" CreationDate="2015-07-23T21:51:07.850" UserId="8405" Text="Is there a checklist for a freelance app job" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10793" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3519" RevisionGUID="495ecc71-8b16-4f65-8116-8fc1f817dd53" CreationDate="2015-07-23T21:51:07.850" UserId="8405" Text="|price|communication|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10794" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3520" RevisionGUID="5e9b25a3-c523-4939-add1-e4b5b2878ab3" CreationDate="2015-07-23T23:50:50.137" UserId="8408" Text="This question is regarding working in the USA. For the past year and a half I've just worked as a contract (1099, a [1099 contract worker][1] is someone who is self-employed and works for another company) c# programmer for a local company. I have another company wanting me to do some programming for them. Do I need to get Errors and Omissions Insurance as well as Liability insurance? I'm concerned with getting sued if I make a mistake that costs the company revenue or if the project I'm building for them gets hacked. Also having insurance could be a bonus selling feature to future clients and a competitive advantage over other programmers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.irs.gov/Help-&amp;-Resources/Tools-&amp;-FAQs/FAQs-for-Individuals/Frequently-Asked-Tax-Questions-&amp;-Answers/Small-Business,-Self-Employed,-Other-Business/Form-1099-MISC-&amp;-Independent-Contractors/Form-1099-MISC-&amp;-Independent-Contractors-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10795" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3520" RevisionGUID="5e9b25a3-c523-4939-add1-e4b5b2878ab3" CreationDate="2015-07-23T23:50:50.137" UserId="8408" Text="Do I need errors and omissions insurance as a freelance (1099) programmer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10796" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3520" RevisionGUID="5e9b25a3-c523-4939-add1-e4b5b2878ab3" CreationDate="2015-07-23T23:50:50.137" UserId="8408" Text="|programmer|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10797" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3520" RevisionGUID="6851d363-24fe-4ced-a912-4c484a138b9f" CreationDate="2015-07-23T23:56:52.373" UserId="8408" Comment="edited tags" Text="|consulting|programmer|insurance|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10798" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3521" RevisionGUID="99fffe93-8899-4c25-9ae6-c6beb2f50bc0" CreationDate="2015-07-24T08:45:10.780" UserId="8412" Text="I'm developing a system for Company A, the code for this system is split in to two parts. Part 1 is a general use framework that I've created and licensed to Company A without charge, Part 2 is code specific to their system, and this code belongs to them. These terms have been established in a contract. I've been happy not to charge for the use of Part 1 because I get income from their development costs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The owner of Company A has now said &quot;Hey we now want to set up Company B, and alter the existing code base and manage it ourselves. We will still be running Company A, which you can continue to develop for&quot;. Company B is a completely separate limited company to Company A so as it stands I do not yet have a contract with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I see it, I have no direct personal gain from allowing them to use Part 1 of the code for Company B as I envisage no development income for the project. I would like to charge some sort of license fee to Company B for Part 1 of the code. Does that seem reasonable?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not think this is a case of anyone trying to get one over on me, I just think it hasn't been fully considered yet. So to the question...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have any tips on approaching the licensing issue with Company B? My work with Company A is still important to me so I do not want to rock the boat too hard, I just want to make sure I am compensated for the reuse of my licensed code." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10799" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3521" RevisionGUID="99fffe93-8899-4c25-9ae6-c6beb2f50bc0" CreationDate="2015-07-24T08:45:10.780" UserId="8412" Text="Relicensing work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10800" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3521" RevisionGUID="99fffe93-8899-4c25-9ae6-c6beb2f50bc0" CreationDate="2015-07-24T08:45:10.780" UserId="8412" Text="|contracts|licensing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10801" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3522" RevisionGUID="ac10eee2-9e2e-4a06-b103-7da0839efd2e" CreationDate="2015-07-24T09:28:41.727" UserId="8412" Text="It's an unfortunate situation so I feel for both you AND the client, however, to answer your question, no, you should not return the money paid. First off yes, you made a mistake, but subsequent mistakes followed and it is their responsibility to make sure you've provided them with the product they want. In this instance (and probably for the last time) they have not put the time and/or effort into actually inspecting what has been provided.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only real loss I can see here to the customer (other than of pride) is the printed materials are now worthless. You did not send this logo out to be printed, they did, it is their fault regardless of what mistakes were made before hand. The web/social assets can be changed and you've worked hard to get everything fixed as soon as possible. As a good will gesture you might want to offer a reduced rate for this additional work, but I personally would not want to do it for free because you were NOT solely responsible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've had a similar situation before, where a misunderstanding of responsibility left me having to respond to &quot;I'll put it this way, if you don't take on responsibility of X/Y/Z, we will unfortunately have to look elsewhere&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tossed and turned for a week with this question but in the end said &quot;I understand&quot; and allowed them to give notice on the contract. I provided them with the option of coming up with a new contract, but they were not interested and were quite blunt about it as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I felt awful about it for a couple of weeks because I felt I had done myself out of work because of pride, but with time I learnt that I did the right thing and one of the most important parts of freelancing/contract work is not selling yourself short.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They did actually come back to me a couple of months later but I had found other work and was no longer available. This was a defining moment in how I felt about the whole thing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10802" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3523" RevisionGUID="7adb8a10-13a1-46ad-a18e-b2a8e914c0d4" CreationDate="2015-07-24T11:12:50.783" UserId="8046" Text="You only charge the taxes to people in your state/country. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't need to charge the taxes to people living in other country than yours if you're in USA. Simply do your invoice without the taxes. There's no special form to fill for your client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10803" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3405" RevisionGUID="c0546163-6831-4a3a-b005-89cd1323c9c4" CreationDate="2015-07-24T13:12:18.407" UserId="8370" Comment="Fix rivers of white, fix casing, remove unrelated link" Text="I have worked on elance for years (and odesk too, now they have both merged and elance is already starting to withhold contractor payments for a minimum of 3-5 days, I've heard reports of up to 3 weeks to get paid now), and like you said there are several reasons. Some people just post job ads to see what they will get back,  some of the people posting are contractors looking to see what other contractors are bidding,  some are people writing blog articles about it, or others are just scammers looking to pump people for information then try to do the project themselves, or have their in-house team do it once they have some info on a solution/approach.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've had many many clients waste my time getting detailed specs,  solutions, etc.. and then never hire me or anyone else for the job.   I'm talking insisting on a &quot;phone interview&quot; then keeping me on the phone for hours asking every little detail about the project and how I would handle it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've learned to not give out so much information, so it's better now, but I'm getting off track. Your other question was, can you assume after 30 days that the job is dead. Simple answer, NO! I've had people hit me up 3, 6, even a year after I bid the job and end up hiring me and making some good money out of it. However, it is RARE, and maybe only happens once or twice a year to me.  And I bid a lot of jobs. A lot.    &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a policy (stated in my profile under payment terms or whatever),  that my quotes are only good for 30 days and after that time, a new quote must be obtained before hire. This is because if someone comes back 6 months later and I was short on cash at the time of the bid and only bid at like 30/hr, then 6 months later I'm doing better clocking 6k a week,  I'm not interested in chincy 30/hr work anymore, so I point them to the clause in my payment terms to handle that situation.   They usually bail, sometimes they are willing to pay more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IMO,  if a job has not contacted you within 1 or 2 weeks, forget about it.  I usually withdraw my application. If someone is going to waste my time and not even bother to respond, then I don't want a response,  move on to better clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Elance does not charge the client a dime. They can post as many free jobs as they want and there is no penalty for not hiring. Another thing that happens is a lot of these guys will try to get you on Skype and move off the platform.  Something that I'm sure happens a lot on there. I don't do it because there is only one reason someone wants you to move off platform,  so they can burn you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone pays you through Paypal, even if its like 20,000 dollars over the course of a year,  at any time, they can call their bank and reverse the charges and Paypal does not protect you. You will have a -20,000 balance on Paypal.  It's happened to me more than once, not for that much, but basically any money you get through Paypal is not really yours,  ever.   They can always take it back, this is what I've been told by Paypal account specialist.  So I'd rather have elance do the transaction, as they have never ripped me off (for a payment, they rip me off constantly on fees and other redic stuff).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, the two have merged now and neither is worth working for.  The overseas contractors really threw salt in that game,  so for anyone looking for decent wages,  it's back to the old 9-5.  Though I have been thinking of trying fivverr now that they upped their limit from 5 dollars to 500 dollars a job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, kind of all over the place on this...  I hope I sort of answered your question.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10804" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3405" RevisionGUID="c0546163-6831-4a3a-b005-89cd1323c9c4" CreationDate="2015-07-24T13:12:18.407" Comment="Proposed by 8370 approved by 7632 edit id of 414" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10806" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3524" RevisionGUID="62923131-85ea-480d-8bf4-ee177e1a0507" CreationDate="2015-07-25T08:16:16.237" UserId="8420" Text="Getting hired on Upwork is easy and hard at the same time. Most of the freelancers have everything perfect from the 100% profiles, good in their field (Skills are there) etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what I have come across, most freelancers either have no portfolio/ samples to back their cover letter, clients are looking for freelancers with work history and or the competition out there is better than you are. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend writing cover letters with your client in mind / their job as the priority. Do not write too much about yourself but try and convince the client how your skills will make their project a success.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Feel free to see some more reasons as to why you are not getting hired and how to change. &#xD;&#xA;http://www.freelancerinsights.com/reasons-why-you-are-not-getting-hired-on-odesk/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10808" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3501" RevisionGUID="f3838f2b-a601-4f57-86b7-a587ffb12a3c" CreationDate="2015-07-25T23:36:59.783" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/625087380802936832" />
  <row Id="10810" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3490" RevisionGUID="58714093-e93f-4b77-a1a6-f70d640b3c70" CreationDate="2015-07-26T11:37:03.847" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/625268591504564224" />
  <row Id="10811" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3309" RevisionGUID="5d5a86d7-3228-4149-a3a1-439d07c5a173" CreationDate="2015-07-27T02:37:01.183" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/625495073191534592" />
  <row Id="10815" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="3309" RevisionGUID="f0a6ccec-5550-4b3c-894c-dacaff850913" CreationDate="2015-07-27T09:34:00.280" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10816" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3527" RevisionGUID="ccdb142b-c9e5-467f-80a8-d6df55bba92e" CreationDate="2015-07-28T03:40:33.163" UserId="8444" Text="as the question stated I am a minor, and I would like to start a business doing freelance web development. I know nothing about freelance work, so naturally I have a ton of questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - What do I need to make my business legal? (business license, etc.)&#xD;&#xA; - How much should I charge? I have skills in all the regular things - HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, SQL&#xD;&#xA; - How should I make a customer aware that I am a minor? Do I even need to?&#xD;&#xA; - What do I need to pay taxes on?&#xD;&#xA; - What are the typical freelance... Well, I can't think of the word for it, but like the things that most freelance people do, like how to manage payment from the customer, contracts, legal stuff, etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am based in the United States - Colorado, specifically&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have already done research, but I'm having a hard time finding information. Go easy on me :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd really appreciate the help!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10817" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3527" RevisionGUID="ccdb142b-c9e5-467f-80a8-d6df55bba92e" CreationDate="2015-07-28T03:40:33.163" UserId="8444" Text="Minor wanting to start a web development business - what do I need?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10818" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3527" RevisionGUID="ccdb142b-c9e5-467f-80a8-d6df55bba92e" CreationDate="2015-07-28T03:40:33.163" UserId="8444" Text="|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10822" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3531" RevisionGUID="fc566025-11e8-49ff-afc2-1a97f1b39565" CreationDate="2015-07-28T14:48:47.537" UserId="8366" Text="From what I see, my impression is that today Google favours websites that are more &quot;compact&quot; than the others, focusing on one or a couple of high value pages instead of coming up with a low value page for every possible keyword. Take this with a grain of salt, since I will never be able to know (I don't work for Google) if this is the real reason of their success. In other words, Google doesn't like watered down websites, that seem to be divided in a lot of useless pages full of content written just to trick their algorithms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or maybe what you are worrying about is keyword cannibalism. If you are doing SEO you are supposed to have one main keyword in mind for every page of your website, if there is overlapping, more than one page with the same or similar keywords, or pages with stretched keywords difficult to optimize, which in the end get indexed under the main keyword already used for the main page, the SEO juice of your website is gonna get divided between the different pages, not doubled or multiplied.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, keyword placing still matters, but it's possible that the websites you talk about are ranking that good thanks to social media PR and backlinks, as vortex said, tools that I think are more effective than keywords placing nowadays.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not a SEO expert though, maybe you already knew all this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10823" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3531" RevisionGUID="e0831ab6-ac50-40ab-834e-74968a3b2d42" CreationDate="2015-07-28T14:54:37.600" UserId="8366" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="From what I see, my impression is that today Google favours websites that are more &quot;compact&quot; than the others, focusing on one or a couple of high value pages instead of coming up with a low value page for every possible keyword. Take this with a grain of salt, since I will never be able to know (I don't work for Google) if this is the real reason of their success. In other words, Google doesn't like watered down websites, that seem to be divided in a lot of useless pages full of content written just to trick their algorithms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or maybe what you are worrying about is keyword cannibalism. If you are doing SEO you are supposed to have one main keyword in mind for every page of your website, if there is overlapping (more than one page with the same or similar keywords, or pages with stretched keywords difficult to optimize, which in the end get indexed under the main keyword already used for the main page) the SEO juice of your website is gonna get divided between the different pages, not doubled or multiplied.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, keyword placing still matters, but it's possible that the websites you talk about are ranking that good thanks to social media PR and backlinks, as vortex said, tools that I think are more effective than keywords placing nowadays.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not a SEO expert though, maybe you already knew all of this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10824" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3531" RevisionGUID="14af6ae7-4400-412d-aa29-2eec5122d700" CreationDate="2015-07-28T15:21:08.563" UserId="8366" Comment="deleted 17 characters in body" Text="My impression is that today Google favours websites that are more &quot;compact&quot; than the others, focusing on one or a couple of high value pages instead of coming up with a low value page for every possible keyword. In other words, Google doesn't like watered down websites, that seem to be divided in a lot of useless pages full of content written just to trick their algorithms. Take this with a grain of salt, since I will never be able to know (I don't work for Google) if this is the real reason of their success.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or maybe what you are worrying about is keyword cannibalism. If you are doing SEO you are supposed to have one main keyword in mind for every page of your website, if there is overlapping (more than one page with the same or similar keywords, or pages with stretched keywords difficult to optimize, which in the end get indexed under the main keyword already used for the main page) the SEO juice of your website is gonna get divided between the different pages, not doubled or multiplied.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, keyword placing still matters, but it's possible that the websites you talk about are ranking that good thanks to social media PR and backlinks, as vortex said, tools that I think are more effective than keywords placing nowadays.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not a SEO expert though, maybe you already knew all of this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10831" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3527" RevisionGUID="ec235a87-e1bd-4f25-b4a1-4a9cbfcc57e6" CreationDate="2015-07-28T16:26:16.243" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|usa|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10832" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3527" RevisionGUID="ec235a87-e1bd-4f25-b4a1-4a9cbfcc57e6" CreationDate="2015-07-28T16:26:16.243" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="I am a minor, and I would like to start a business doing freelance web development. I know nothing about freelance work, so naturally I have a ton of questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - What do I need to make my business legal? (business license, etc.)&#xD;&#xA; - How much should I charge? I have skills in all the regular things - HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, SQL&#xD;&#xA; - How should I make a customer aware that I am a minor? Do I even need to?&#xD;&#xA; - What do I need to pay taxes on?&#xD;&#xA; - What are the typical freelance... Well, I can't think of the word for it, but like the things that most freelance people do, like how to manage payment from the customer, contracts, legal stuff, etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am based in the United States - Colorado, specifically&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have already done research, but I'm having a hard time finding information." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10833" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3527" RevisionGUID="ec235a87-e1bd-4f25-b4a1-4a9cbfcc57e6" CreationDate="2015-07-28T16:26:16.243" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="Minor wanting to start a web development business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10834" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3527" RevisionGUID="f87d2708-391d-45c7-a688-2c7df7c364de" CreationDate="2015-07-28T16:32:27.987" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10835" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3500" RevisionGUID="5f12e3ee-c15a-4e42-a0b8-6a9edd712d54" CreationDate="2015-07-28T17:03:32.613" UserId="8366" Comment="deleted 1058 characters in body; edited title" Text="I worked 6 month for a german company, writing the content for their italian website. Aside for this experience, I'm an absolute beginner with no qualification at all. The only reason I was offered to keep working for them as a freelancer from my place, is that they liked my work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I was working in the office, I was doing 8 hour a day, from monday to friday, for 800 euro a month. This time they want me to propose a price-per-word, but they didn't tell me how much work I will have to do. For what I know, they could ask me to write 1000 words one day, and then wait the next month to give me work again. Most of the time though, they'll probably tell me to write about a certain topic, without specifying how many words I should use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how would go about setting a rate as a novice in this field?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10836" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3500" RevisionGUID="5f12e3ee-c15a-4e42-a0b8-6a9edd712d54" CreationDate="2015-07-28T17:03:32.613" UserId="8366" Comment="deleted 1058 characters in body; edited title" Text="How does a freelance copywriter determine the right price-per-word to charge?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10837" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="3500" RevisionGUID="f4e0bdd4-859a-4958-b188-3d214e11048e" CreationDate="2015-07-28T17:22:21.320" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10838" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3348" RevisionGUID="6df19b3c-08d2-4641-81c5-10f69a23cf21" CreationDate="2015-07-28T23:38:44.740" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/626174984654843904" />
  <row Id="10839" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2854" RevisionGUID="bd6d584d-bacb-4c0b-8a83-aaeafd112148" CreationDate="2015-07-29T09:22:38.353" UserId="8370" Comment="Improve title, spelling, case, trim" Text="I am running a small website design and development company, We have done a project for one of the USA based client. Based on my experience, more than 95% of the clients are good, but at least you will get 1% or 2% of clients who comes to you to screw your happiness and your business. I have got one such a client about two years back. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client paid X amount of money, but day by day, his expectation keeps increasing  to X+X+X+X+X.... I tried my level best to accommodate his changes, but it seems like a never-ending story. He started abusing my staff and threatening us with blackmail and creating bad reputation online. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, the client started a website with my company + &quot;cheat&quot;, and started adding information to the website. Now, when I or anyone search online in Google for my &quot;my company name&quot; , his website &quot;mycompanynamecheat&quot; is coming in second place, which affects my business badly and I am losing all my clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I approached the client many times. I even offered a complete refund for whatever he has paid to me, but I am not getting any replies from him. I have only his Email ID, domain name and address. He lives in USA and I am from India.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a small company, I don't have a budget to hire a lawyer in California and fight the case with him? I am planning to file a defamation case and sue him, asking for money as a compensation. Maybe I can spend up to $2,000 in this case. What is the best possible way for me to tackle this situation?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10840" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2854" RevisionGUID="bd6d584d-bacb-4c0b-8a83-aaeafd112148" CreationDate="2015-07-29T09:22:38.353" UserId="8370" Comment="Improve title, spelling, case, trim" Text="How to handle a disgruntled client who tries to ruin your reputation online?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10841" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2854" RevisionGUID="bd6d584d-bacb-4c0b-8a83-aaeafd112148" CreationDate="2015-07-29T09:22:38.353" UserId="8370" Comment="Improve title, spelling, case, trim" Text="|legal|difficult-client|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10842" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2854" RevisionGUID="bd6d584d-bacb-4c0b-8a83-aaeafd112148" CreationDate="2015-07-29T09:22:38.353" Comment="Proposed by 8370 approved by 9, 58 edit id of 417" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10853" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3524" RevisionGUID="5fb3e2c7-4893-414c-815e-269f601f70c3" CreationDate="2015-07-30T15:45:08.817" UserId="8420" Comment="added 40 characters in body" Text="Getting hired on Upwork is easy and hard at the same time. Most of the freelancers have everything perfect from the 100% profiles, good in their field (Skills are there) etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what I have come across, most freelancers either have no portfolio/ samples to back their cover letter, clients are looking for freelancers with work history and or the competition out there is better than you are. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend writing cover letters with your client in mind / their job as the priority. Do not write too much about yourself but try and convince the client how your skills will make their project a success.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Feel free to see some more reasons as to why you are not getting hired and how to improve your chances on a blogpost from my blog.&#xD;&#xA;http://www.freelancerinsights.com/reasons-why-you-are-not-getting-hired-on-odesk/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10860" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3536" RevisionGUID="8316b4d6-ca65-4468-b9e5-8626143cfecd" CreationDate="2015-07-31T04:36:33.833" UserId="7696" Text="I have been reading articles on digital nomad-ing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are some of them:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Being a digital nomad in Bali][1] &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[This guy built his business by the beach][2] &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Joel Gascoigne of Buffer (11 cities in 3 months)][3]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a remote worker myself. My 'office' is my laptop. But, I have never really tried living the life of a digital nomad where I stay and live in a different place for extended periods of time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is anyone here a digital nomad? How do you make it work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://biz30.timedoctor.com/my-experience-using-time-doctor-to-be-a-digital-nomad-in-bali/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://yongfook.com/1-year-as-a-digital-nomad-how-to-build-a-business-by-the-beach.html&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://joel.is/11-cities-in-3-months-the-highs-and-lows-of-digital-nomad-lifestyle/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10861" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3536" RevisionGUID="8316b4d6-ca65-4468-b9e5-8626143cfecd" CreationDate="2015-07-31T04:36:33.833" UserId="7696" Text="Is anyone here a full digital nomad?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10862" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3536" RevisionGUID="8316b4d6-ca65-4468-b9e5-8626143cfecd" CreationDate="2015-07-31T04:36:33.833" UserId="7696" Text="|remote|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10864" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3537" RevisionGUID="af6e66e4-3bdf-4da8-a94a-74ccd9489b5d" CreationDate="2015-07-31T06:22:33.083" UserId="5516" Text="Not yet a digital nomad myself, but been investigating this for a few months now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are some resources to get you started:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - http://flagtheory.com/digital-nomad/&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io&#xD;&#xA; - http://digitalnomadhub.net&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad&#xD;&#xA; - https://www.facebook.com/nomadlist&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.dnxglobal.com&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.dnxcamp.com&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadjobs.io&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.toptal.com&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler&#xD;&#xA; - When must you pay income taxes? http://www.liferemotely.com/work-while-traveling/managing-a-business/65-paying-taxes-in-your-home-country-when-you-arent-living-there&#xD;&#xA; - http://passports.io&#xD;&#xA; - https://freedomsurfer.com/offshore-jurisdictions&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/where-should-i-register-my-company-as-a-digital-nomad-singapore-hong-kong/520/4&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/is-panama-a-good-destination-for-tax-residency-for-digital-nomads/2588/14&#xD;&#xA; - https://boldanddetermined.com/hong-kong-business-guide/&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com - tech tips&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadlist.com/guides - books&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com/hammocks-hard-drives/ - books&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10865" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3536" RevisionGUID="644a0ff6-5516-4855-836b-b33b58a1c3c3" CreationDate="2015-07-31T06:58:44.820" UserId="64" Comment="Eliminated polling language" Text="I have been reading articles on digital nomad-ing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are some of them:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Being a digital nomad in Bali][1] &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[This guy built his business by the beach][2] &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Joel Gascoigne of Buffer (11 cities in 3 months)][3]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a remote worker myself. My 'office' is my laptop. But, I have never really tried living the life of a digital nomad where I stay and live in a different place for extended periods of time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I be successful as a digital nomad?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://biz30.timedoctor.com/my-experience-using-time-doctor-to-be-a-digital-nomad-in-bali/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://yongfook.com/1-year-as-a-digital-nomad-how-to-build-a-business-by-the-beach.html&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://joel.is/11-cities-in-3-months-the-highs-and-lows-of-digital-nomad-lifestyle/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10873" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3537" RevisionGUID="805d3961-d4f4-4c4c-9764-7f6893a84c4b" CreationDate="2015-07-31T07:41:46.360" UserId="5516" Comment="add points to sort out" Text="Not yet a digital nomad myself, but been investigating this for a few months now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You must sort out a few things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - how you can earn you money. Ideally, you want several income streams.&#xD;&#xA; - your legal status: you want to make sure this is sorted out as without that you probably will have trouble charging anyone for your services&#xD;&#xA; - the gear: you must make sure you have the right tool for the job, once you are away it can be difficult to buy it&#xD;&#xA; - health insurance: you **must** have a good international health insurance, you'd easily find yourself in big trouble if you have any health issue. see http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get&#xD;&#xA; - belongings insurance: you want to insure your belongings, it won't save your work but at least it'll reduce the financial impact of getting something stolen.&#xD;&#xA; - work place: you may make your life easy &amp; start by moving to a location that is known for welcoming digital nomads, it'll save you tone of time &amp; you'll be able to learn from others&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are some resources to get you started:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - http://flagtheory.com/digital-nomad/&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io&#xD;&#xA; - http://digitalnomadhub.net&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad&#xD;&#xA; - https://www.facebook.com/nomadlist&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.dnxglobal.com&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.dnxcamp.com&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadjobs.io&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.toptal.com&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler&#xD;&#xA; - When must you pay income taxes? http://www.liferemotely.com/work-while-traveling/managing-a-business/65-paying-taxes-in-your-home-country-when-you-arent-living-there&#xD;&#xA; - http://passports.io&#xD;&#xA; - https://freedomsurfer.com/offshore-jurisdictions&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/where-should-i-register-my-company-as-a-digital-nomad-singapore-hong-kong/520/4&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/is-panama-a-good-destination-for-tax-residency-for-digital-nomads/2588/14&#xD;&#xA; - https://boldanddetermined.com/hong-kong-business-guide/&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com - tech tips&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadlist.com/guides - books&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com/hammocks-hard-drives/ - books&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get/46751#46751&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - https://nomadforum.io/t/does-international-health-insurance-for-digital-nomads-exist/378&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10874" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3537" RevisionGUID="69a1ec29-4ae7-4fed-9491-a5db5ec683cb" CreationDate="2015-07-31T07:49:16.303" UserId="5516" Comment="added 385 characters in body" Text="Not yet a digital nomad myself, but been investigating this for a few months now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###You must sort out a few things&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - how you can earn you money. Ideally, you want several income streams.&#xD;&#xA; - your legal status: you want to make sure this is sorted out as without that you probably will have trouble charging anyone for your services&#xD;&#xA; - the gear: you must make sure you have the right tool for the job, once you are away it can be difficult to buy it&#xD;&#xA; - health insurance: you **must** have a good international health insurance, you'd easily find yourself in big trouble if you have any health issue. see http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get&#xD;&#xA; - belongings insurance: you want to insure your belongings, it won't save your work but at least it'll reduce the financial impact of getting something stolen.&#xD;&#xA; - digital backups: you will probably want to have digital backups of your work. You want a strategy that works smoothly so that if you loose your work (ie. lose your computer in a sailing accident), you can not only access all the lost work but also setup the new gear as the original one in a minimum amount of time.&#xD;&#xA; - work place: you might want to make your life easy &amp; start by moving to a location that is known for welcoming digital nomads, it'll save you tone of time &amp; you'll be able to learn from others&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###Further resources to get started on being a digital nomad&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/digital-nomad-101-how-to-become-a-digital-nomad/465&#xD;&#xA; - http://flagtheory.com/digital-nomad/&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io&#xD;&#xA; - http://digitalnomadhub.net&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad&#xD;&#xA; - https://www.facebook.com/nomadlist&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.dnxglobal.com&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.dnxcamp.com&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadjobs.io&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.toptal.com&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler&#xD;&#xA; - When must you pay income taxes? http://www.liferemotely.com/work-while-traveling/managing-a-business/65-paying-taxes-in-your-home-country-when-you-arent-living-there&#xD;&#xA; - http://passports.io&#xD;&#xA; - https://freedomsurfer.com/offshore-jurisdictions&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/where-should-i-register-my-company-as-a-digital-nomad-singapore-hong-kong/520/4&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/is-panama-a-good-destination-for-tax-residency-for-digital-nomads/2588/14&#xD;&#xA; - https://boldanddetermined.com/hong-kong-business-guide/&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com - tech tips&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadlist.com/guides - books&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com/hammocks-hard-drives/ - books&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get/46751#46751&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - https://nomadforum.io/t/does-international-health-insurance-for-digital-nomads-exist/378&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10876" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3340" RevisionGUID="0e334c0d-5153-4ad0-aea9-78bda4fbb771" CreationDate="2015-07-31T21:05:53.200" UserId="8059" Comment="added 48 characters in body" Text="Liability&#xD;&#xA;---------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can clients expect small teams and individuals to be liable for a security breach when the news is filled with corporations and governments with much bigger ITSec budgets getting hacked?  And we're just web developers, not security experts.  Are bloggers expecting to have an un-breachable prodect, something even financial institutions don't have?  There's no industry-wide standard that comprehensively covers all of web development so who determines what's adequate and what's not?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;When Can I Start Working?&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If 100% security is a myth then at what level of proficiency can a responsible developer expect to make his services available?  70% of websites have significant vulnerabilities so the people that built those obviously weren't waiting around.  Learning to develop using OWASP's guide would be nice if their update was available.  At least then I could explicitly state the extent of protection my sevices provide while matching that against a respected standard.  Assuming that were the case, would a disclaimer somewhere along the lines of &quot;I am not a security company&quot; and &quot;I can not be held liable for losses incurred due to a breach,&quot; be enough?   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Developer-Client Agreements That Include Maintenance&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people say you should be held liable for a hack if you were contracted to maintain the site after it was finished.  I think this should only be the case if the breach occured due to a failure on your part to install security patches and updates in a timely manner.  To be blamed for any other 'attack vector' and I think you're being unreasonably expected to guard against every potential exploit out there (bringing us back to that 100% security myth).  And as far as responding to the breach, and depending on the scope of the problem, I think it makes less sense to assume that the average developer should be competent to handle it.  Seems even the security professionals are divided as to what proper protocol is, and their specialists.&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;3rd Parties&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looks like outsourcing the security for maintenance (monitoring, updates, recovery, etc.) and pre-release (testing) might be a good way to avoid liability.  Would I have to explicitly state something in the contract to shift responsibility to the 3rd party?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to get even more confusing when you outsource other parts of the project, like  front-end development.  Are sub-contractors you hire responsible for vulnerabilities on their end or will the whole project fall under you?  Depending on the answer how might one coordinate contracts between the client, 3rd party security, designer, and more in a comprehensive manner that addresses both security and liability?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Information That Would Be Helpful To Me&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be helpful to me would be to get working examples of how other freelancers deal with these security/liability issues.  The specific wording of personal contracts along with any additional measures would be great.  Seems legalese is just about as bullet-proof as security so I'm wondering if I should become an LLC or take out &quot;lawsuit insurance for developers&quot; (just found out that was a thing).  Any knowledge or experience direct or indirect is more than welcome.  Nothing provided here will be  taken as legal advice. &#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10877" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3340" RevisionGUID="63ff1c74-e607-4808-b5a2-c9257e9eacad" CreationDate="2015-07-31T21:11:59.010" UserId="8059" Comment="deleted 8 characters in body" Text="Liability&#xD;&#xA;---------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can clients expect small teams and individuals to be liable for a security breach when the news is filled with corporations and governments with much bigger ITSec budgets getting hacked?  And we're just web developers, not security experts.  Are bloggers expecting to have an un-breachable prodect, something even financial institutions don't have?  There's no industry-wide standard that comprehensively covers all of web development so who determines what's adequate and what's not?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;When Can I Start Working?&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If 100% security is a myth then at what level of proficiency can a responsible developer expect to make his services available?  70% of websites have significant vulnerabilities so the people that built those obviously weren't waiting around.  Learning to develop using OWASP's guide would be nice if their update was available.  At least then I could explicitly state the extent of protection my sevices provide while matching that against a respected standard.  Assuming that were the case, would a disclaimer somewhere along the lines of &quot;I am not a security company&quot; and &quot;I can not be held liable for losses incurred due to a breach,&quot; be enough?   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Developer-Client Agreements That Include Maintenance&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people say you should be held liable for a hack if you were contracted to maintain the site after it was finished.  I think this should only be the case if the breach occured due to a failure on your part to install security patches and updates in a timely manner.  To be blamed for any other 'attack vector' and I think you're being unreasonably expected to guard against every potential exploit out there (bringing us back to that 100% security myth).  And as far as responding to the breach, and depending on the scope of the problem, I think it makes less sense to assume that the average developer should be competent to handle it.  Seems even the security professionals are divided as to what proper protocol is, and their specialists.&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;3rd Parties&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looks like outsourcing the security for maintenance (monitoring, updates, recovery, etc.) and pre-release (testing) might be a good way to avoid liability.  Would I have to explicitly state something in the contract to shift responsibility to the 3rd party?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to get even more confusing when you outsource other parts of the project, like  the front-end.  Are sub-contractors you hire responsible for vulnerabilities on their end or will the whole project fall under you?  Depending on the answer how might one coordinate contracts between the client, 3rd party security, designer, and more in a comprehensive manner that addresses both security and liability?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Information That Would Be Helpful To Me&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be helpful to me would be to get working examples of how other freelancers deal with these security/liability issues.  The specific wording of personal contracts along with any additional measures would be great.  Seems legalese is just about as bullet-proof as security so I'm wondering if I should become an LLC or take out &quot;lawsuit insurance for developers&quot; (just found out that was a thing).  Any knowledge or experience direct or indirect is more than welcome.  Nothing provided here will be  taken as legal advice. &#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10878" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3340" RevisionGUID="38e1f40d-074c-40ff-b86f-c940e83fe8ce" CreationDate="2015-07-31T21:29:27.057" UserId="8059" Comment="deleted 8 characters in body" Text="Liability&#xD;&#xA;---------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can clients expect small teams and individuals to be liable for a security breach when the news is filled with governments/corporations with huge ITSec budgets getting hacked?  We're just web developers not security experts, are bloggers expecting to do better than financial institutions and nab an &quot;unbreachable&quot; product?  On top of that here's no industry-wide standard to comprehensively cover all of web development so who gets to determine what's adequate and what's not?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;When Can I Start Working?&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If 100% security is a myth (and it is), at what level of proficiency can a responsible developer make his services available?  70% of websites have significant vulnerabilities so the people that built those obviously weren't waiting around.  Learning to develop using OWASP's guide would be nice if their update was available.  At least then I could explicitly state the extent of protection my sevices offer while having a respected standard to vet against.  Assuming that was the case, would a disclaimer somewhere along the lines of &quot;I am not a security company&quot; and &quot;I can not be held liable for losses incurred due to a breach,&quot; be enough?   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Developer-Client Agreements That Include Maintenance&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people say you should be held liable for a hack if you were contracted to maintain the site after it was finished.  I think this should only be the case if the breach occured due to a failure on your part to install security patches and updates in a timely manner.  To be blamed for any other 'attack vector' and I think you're being unreasonably expected to guard against every potential exploit out there (bringing us back to that 100% security myth).  And as far as responding to the breach, depending upon the scope of the problem, I think it makes less sense to assume that the average developer should be competent to handle it.  Seems even the security professionals are divided as to what proper protocol is.  And they're specialists.&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;3rd Parties&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looks like outsourcing the security for maintenance (monitoring, updates, recovery, etc.) and pre-release (testing) might be a good way to avoid liability.  Would I have to explicitly state something in the contract to shift responsibility?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to get confusing when you talk about outsourcing other parts of the project, like the front-end.  Are sub-contractors you hire responsible for vulnerabilities on their end or will the whole project fall under you?  Depending on the answer how might one coordinate contracts between the client, 3rd party security, designer, and more in a comprehensive manner that addresses both security and liability?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;Information That Would Be Helpful To Me&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be helpful to me would be to get working examples of how other freelancers deal with these security/liability issues.  The specific wording of personal contracts along with any additional measures would be great.  Seems legalese is just about as bullet-proof as security so should I become an LLC or take out &quot;lawsuit insurance for developers&quot; (just found out that was a thing)?  Any knowledge or experience direct or indirect is appreciated and I'd be much obliged.  Nothing provided will be taken as legal advice. &#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10883" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3539" RevisionGUID="67ef1ba4-b146-4278-9ce2-c38967c2bf09" CreationDate="2015-08-01T22:30:03.433" UserId="4561" Text="I occasionally get asked this and depending on my mood, I either just say &quot;No.&quot; or I say &quot;I never discount XYZ because I always propose my best price from the start.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe someone on here can think of a better way to word it, but what I want to convey without being rude is that while I understand it's their right to ask for a discount, I don't think it's right for me to give one to the 5% who ask when 95% of my clients pay full fee without complaint.  What does it say about my ethics if I give a discount?  If I lower the price at their request, then obviously I was trying to gouge them initially.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, I wouldn't want to explain this to the client, but most of my clients know each other, and if I charge less to some than others, I believe word will get around.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I would never tell a client that I am just charging enough to get by because to me, that sounds like I I'm apologizing for wanting to be financially successful.  They aren't working for free or apologizing for being in business, why should I?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will, however, give clients discounts on things that don't cost me but that are valuable to them.  For example, I recently developed some software for client A (I own the intellectual property).  Client B asked for something very similar but much more sophisticated.  So I offered to &quot;give&quot; them the work I'd already done and just charge for the work I do to improve that software.  They're fantastic clients who never ASK for discounts and I'll make good money off the new work.  I may offer the improved software to the original client at no charge or deeply discounted.  That will build more good will with them and cost me nothing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So keep in mind, that often you can sweeten the pot for a client without costing yourself.  Software you've already developed, an accelerated time frame, free documentation (that you've already written and might have given them regardless, X number of free support calls (that again you would have given regardless).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I always put 5 or 10 hours of free modifications in a big contract.  My initial price covers this so I don't feel abused, and the client, who may not wholly understand what they're getting yet, feels reassured.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure they're aware of the benefits they get from doing business with YOU.  And ask a lot of intelligent questions about how will they be handling XYZ moving forward so they realize you know this process and are competent.  That will help you stand out compared to a cheaper person.  They probably all have some scars from when they went cheap in the past and got what they paid for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;LASTLY:&#xD;&#xA;When someone asks for a discount, that's fine.  But when you say no and they push -- Be afraid.  Be very afraid.  With one exception, every single client who asked  for a reduction in rate where I said &quot;yes&quot; (in my early, more hungry years) turned out to be a LOT of work, MAJOR PAINS, and some even tried to screw me out of the little that I was charging them.  Saying NO to discounts helps weed that type out.  People who hire you based on price alone, have ZERO loyalty.  None, nada, zip.  They will leave you for someone who is $1 an hour cheaper without a thought.  And never realize how much harder they make their own lives by doing this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10885" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3536" RevisionGUID="f0bc5934-60de-498c-926e-3e3e1ec0233d" CreationDate="2015-08-03T06:25:23.710" UserId="7696" Comment="Changed the title" Text="How can I be successful as a digital nomad?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10886" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3540" RevisionGUID="9d310431-33f4-4fa9-8ed0-7faec0dfbc52" CreationDate="2015-08-04T01:00:12.777" UserId="8503" Text="One of the people who works with me has complained that a lot of clients are sharing documents with her in different &quot;cloud&quot; storage systems (e.g. OneDrive, DropBox, Google Docs). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because there are a lot of smaller projects she feels she wastes a lot of time checking for new files, or trying to track down files for a particular client when she returns to their projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've looked into setting up a search engine that could look through these differnt system, but it would be a fair amount of effort. Is this a common problem / is there a recommended solution? If a product we're looking for something that's ideally &lt;$20/mo." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10887" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3540" RevisionGUID="9d310431-33f4-4fa9-8ed0-7faec0dfbc52" CreationDate="2015-08-04T01:00:12.777" UserId="8503" Text="Searching document shared by clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10888" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3540" RevisionGUID="9d310431-33f4-4fa9-8ed0-7faec0dfbc52" CreationDate="2015-08-04T01:00:12.777" UserId="8503" Text="|client-support|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10889" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3541" RevisionGUID="45105360-23b1-43b0-bf96-b4c862009264" CreationDate="2015-08-04T01:04:08.080" UserId="4561" Text="There are two things that would make me hesitant to hire you.  The good news is that the one that is probably easiest for you to change is the one that would be the biggest problem to me.  Those two issues are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Poor English skills (little problem).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Cover letter says &quot;I think I am perfect for your job&quot; but it does not sound like it is tailored to an actual job. (Bigger problem)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am just a small independent contractor myself, but I do hire some freelancers.  There are four things I look for:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Can I afford them?&#xD;&#xA;2. Do they seem competent/have good rating or portfolio?&#xD;&#xA;3. Can we communicate with each other?&#xD;&#xA;4. Do them seem pleasant, like someone I would enjoy working with?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I post a job I always ask a few questions in the posting.  Anyone who does not answer my specific questions, I do not even consider.  It does not matter how good or how cheap they are if they are not going to pay attention to what I am asking.  **How do I know that they understand what I am asking for if they don't show me in their response that they understand what I want?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, your cover letter includes grammatical errors.  But as long as I was able to understand you, I would overlook those if the content of what you said indicated you were truly responding to my request and thinking about my situation.  I would understand that English is a second language for you.  The important thing is do you understand what I am asking for, and if I need to ask for changes or to have you explain something you did, will I be able to understand you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I hire freelancers I always get a lot of proposals that I can tell are generic, like they post that cover letter to every project they see.  In the past I have hired people who insisted they really wanted the job and then they never did the job.  I don't know why they bid on my job and tried so hard to get it, but it has made me very careful of who I hire.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;MY ADVICE:&#xD;&#xA;Any time you bid on a project be sure to make comments in your cover letter about that specific project.  Give some ideas on how you would do it so they know you understand what they are trying to do.  Ask some questions like &quot;how do you want this part done?&quot; or &quot;Have you thought of doing this or that for your project?&quot;  Those questions show them you are paying attention, know what you are doing, and can communicate with them.  Also, every time they answer you they get a tiny bit attached to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10890" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3542" RevisionGUID="b994d6d6-7469-4910-b5e7-3e344664c780" CreationDate="2015-08-04T01:19:05.023" UserId="4561" Text="So are they sharing a folder with her but not telling her when they update it?  I use DropBox with many clients and some Google Drive, but I have never added files and expected them to just &quot;know&quot; that - or vice versa.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are probably programs you can write to monitor the folders, and there are online project management programs like Assembla, BaseCamp, etc. where you get notifications when changes are made.  But those usually cost, so I would tell the clients:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Please email me any time you update the files and want me to do something with them.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do proposals for new clients I would include a section on how your organization manages projects that lists this expectation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, for Dropbox at least, see this:&#xD;&#xA;http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9633410/get-notified-when-a-file-changes-on-dropbox&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and this:&#xD;&#xA;https://ifttt.com/connect/dropbox/ios_notifications&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10897" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3545" RevisionGUID="d310e604-9bc2-4728-9046-d6890861d1b7" CreationDate="2015-08-04T21:32:21.200" UserId="8514" Text="I would like to supplement the existing answers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The services you offer have a business value. For example, if your work may double their sales revenue but it only takes you 20 hours to do the work, you may want to charge more than 6000 rupees. You can make a proposal that sells these results rather than focusing solely on hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the difference between business value and your going rate. I just had a client who needed some changes done which had a really low business value; their website had a bug that was just a minor inconvenience for them. The work cost a lot of time for me to fix, though, so they didn't think it was reasonable to spend so much time and money fixing such a seemingly small issue. I had to explain the lengthy process through email, and since they were a long-standing client they decided to move forward anyway. If I hadn't done a lot of work for them already I am sure they would've rejected my proposal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You really have to balance your rate with a client's expectations. This is why sales is difficult to freelancers, especially in a global market where clients expect a lower, competitive price. You will find clients that focus solely on price. However, some people will understand what you offer: a partner that's willing to solve their issues and communicate effectively.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To answer your question more directly: price will be an issue to some. Since they are outsourcing their work, they may be shopping around. Research the market prices, but make sure at the very minimum that you price fairly for yourself (so that you can eat and live). Be confident in your proposal. If they object to your price despite your best proposal, you may also want to offer alternatives, like less work at a lower price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10898" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3546" RevisionGUID="399b9c8b-c8db-4837-befe-d1f4b9454032" CreationDate="2015-08-05T07:58:27.200" UserId="8520" Text="Previously asked on Stackoverflow but moved to here...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been asked to develop some apps for people and I was wondering what the common procedure is in relation so ownership of source.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally, I'd like to retain ownership of the source so I can reuse bits and bobs, but give them the app. I thought that maybe I could package the parts I want to retain as libraries and licence them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the best way to handle this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10899" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3546" RevisionGUID="399b9c8b-c8db-4837-befe-d1f4b9454032" CreationDate="2015-08-05T07:58:27.200" UserId="8520" Text="Developing an app for someone but retaining ownership of source?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10900" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3546" RevisionGUID="399b9c8b-c8db-4837-befe-d1f4b9454032" CreationDate="2015-08-05T07:58:27.200" UserId="8520" Text="|contracts|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10901" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3547" RevisionGUID="97fc9bd2-01ad-4c03-b3a1-f82771990e29" CreationDate="2015-08-05T08:03:29.547" UserId="8521" Text="I'm a web developer. I'm 19 years old. I've been working for a year as a contractor doing full-stack development for...$12. Yes. $12 an hour. I decided to take my destiny into my own hands and start a business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I immediately started building an amazing dynamic single page application for my portfolio with Angular, made my own logo, custom graphics, business cards, car magnets. I got my business license, all that jazz. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will say that I have had an interview for a job doing AngularJS development for 60k a year. It was at a large company, and I applied after my dad (a Flex/JS developer there) told me about the opening. I heard horror stories from my dad who was part of the interview process. I got an interview, prepared and prepared. When the day came, I blew the technical and administrative interviews out of the water. Solved problems presented to me in more than one way instead of just one, and sometimes in ways that stumped my interviewers. After being told frankly by the office manager that I was the best interview they had had, I was sent home. Why? I don't have a degree and the HR department couldn't justify hiring me anyway because my dad worked there. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That was a long story, but I think it pertains to my issue. I'm not the best developer in the world, but I'm also a far cry from a terrible one. If I can out-interview college graduates, I think I have adequate coding skills to get started. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before even completing my portfolio, I had a client. It was a friend's friend who needed TWO websites for each of his businesses. I panicked a little. I was in a new situation when he asked how much. In my head, I thought about my empty portfolio, and blurted out $250 for both. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm beating myself up inside right around now. These are TWO sites. Both of which need to be single page applications with scratch-built appointment-scheduling systems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I made around $2,000 gross a month at the contracting job. Although I feel I'm a good developer, I can't bring myself to ask $100/hour. Because I've already quit my day job, I'm kind of at a loss here. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm quite experienced with PHP, HTML, CSS, Vanilla JavaScript, and AngularJS. I'm moderate with SQL, and jQuery. (I could do both of those things, but I would have to look at the documentation a little more than the other languages.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm familiar with, and can build dynamic single page applications with Angular, I'm at home with JSON and HTTP requests. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, these two sites I'm working on now are the only two things I can claim as mine, and they're not even finished yet. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would you charge?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10902" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3547" RevisionGUID="97fc9bd2-01ad-4c03-b3a1-f82771990e29" CreationDate="2015-08-05T08:03:29.547" UserId="8521" Text="A specific case of not knowing how much I'm worth?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10903" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3547" RevisionGUID="97fc9bd2-01ad-4c03-b3a1-f82771990e29" CreationDate="2015-08-05T08:03:29.547" UserId="8521" Text="|payment-terms|price-per-hour|portfolio|business-plan|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10904" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3548" RevisionGUID="a0a0b80b-09d4-4aef-b295-10cc32ff74d7" CreationDate="2015-08-05T10:47:06.250" UserId="8105" Text="So I have that client who prefers to call me to check for status updates for his project even if I'm giving him access my project management tool. We use slack for communication.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It bothers me so much since the amount of money we agreed on is *consumed*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And fact is that each time I should re-write this into slack and Asana (that I use for project management) to keep track for the phone calls. When I implicitly ask him to reformulate what he said in slack he just says &quot;It's easy. you just have to do this and this&quot;. And it actually takes some time that I'm not paid for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you suggest to me to do to make him just communicate over slack? &#xD;&#xA;He can't assign tasks in Asana because this is a fixed price project. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10905" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3548" RevisionGUID="a0a0b80b-09d4-4aef-b295-10cc32ff74d7" CreationDate="2015-08-05T10:47:06.250" UserId="8105" Text="How to deal with a client who calls a lot?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10906" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3548" RevisionGUID="a0a0b80b-09d4-4aef-b295-10cc32ff74d7" CreationDate="2015-08-05T10:47:06.250" UserId="8105" Text="|communication|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10907" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3549" RevisionGUID="12f4e623-5590-4bcf-9d1b-89d6c8a0e2ab" CreationDate="2015-08-05T11:03:36.260" UserId="517" Text="I hate and decline all project instructions over call as well. I simply tell them something like &quot;In a call, we can discuss plans and ideas at the very high level. However, if you need to explain any feature or your request or you need to clarify something, I prefer in writing so I don't have to retype everything we talked about.&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be determined with this and any other client. If he's too lazy to type, either he pays for someone to type his words or you ditch him. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10908" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3550" RevisionGUID="f0b356db-68c8-4ecf-afa2-f3372448e9e1" CreationDate="2015-08-05T11:08:45.537" UserId="8523" Text="I bean asked in freelancing website to tell (for an android project)  &#xD;&#xA;&gt;brief description of HOW I would go about implementing the project  &#xD;&#xA;and outline of how you would approach the project&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What am i supposed to tell?  &#xD;&#xA;technical details of project?  &#xD;&#xA;software development life cycle?  &#xD;&#xA;any suggestions please&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10909" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3550" RevisionGUID="f0b356db-68c8-4ecf-afa2-f3372448e9e1" CreationDate="2015-08-05T11:08:45.537" UserId="8523" Text="How to tell approach to project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10910" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3550" RevisionGUID="f0b356db-68c8-4ecf-afa2-f3372448e9e1" CreationDate="2015-08-05T11:08:45.537" UserId="8523" Text="|attracting-clients|client-support|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10911" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3551" RevisionGUID="27ae3c17-af1e-4a83-8852-4e840642062f" CreationDate="2015-08-05T11:52:38.130" UserId="517" Text="This is one of those &quot;stupid&quot; questions clients ask trying to determine if you are a good fit for them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As such, there is no proper answer to this. You can either find a good text on project management and paste it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or do as I do - simply describe all steps you undertake from the moment you get the project to its finalization. This will be your approach to project management. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10912" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3552" RevisionGUID="743ee7b6-93b8-4836-b111-a66a57e2a39e" CreationDate="2015-08-05T11:53:46.913" UserId="8524" Text="If you're looking for a simple answer, I would charge $16 an hour for online projects, $20-26 an hour for projects that provide bulk hours and benefits, and $40 an hour for random as-I-come-across-it projects. Here's my rationale and advice to you:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Get a degree of some kind. At this stage you still have forty years of technical work ahead of you and you will find that many of the most interesting projects have minimum educational requirements. You can persist as a non-traditionally educated programmer for sure, but being this young the return on that investment is going to be tremendous, especially if you can complete a master's degree in computer science (plus you can always do degrees for less time and money abroad and have a great time living in another part of the world, even part-time while you continue working if you feel like it).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for pricing psychology, the online space is more competitive and at $16 an hour for full-stack development you're going to get more exciting projects and an excellent reputation early-on. You can cash in those good reviews by raising your rates at $1/month for new projects until you start to see a drop-off. But I would be chasing the fun stuff rather than the money and taking the opportunity to grow. Anybody's going to take a chance on a 19-year old at $16 an hour. Just avoid people who don't seem to know what they're looking for, cause they might blame you for it later on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Earning $20-26 an hour for in-person projects puts you at a great pay rate that won't offend adults whose children are older than you and still in college. The professional jealousy will be less disruptive for developing your career and you'll come out with a solid resume for those $40/hr jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Did a brief stint filling in to hire tech nerds for elite employers.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10913" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3553" RevisionGUID="26e68095-7786-4498-875b-b4c08a74f954" CreationDate="2015-08-05T12:07:45.037" UserId="8524" Text="Tamlyn, if you are indeed working for your own company then you should be able to avoid the whole complication of the H1-B as long as you meet one of two of the [B-1 criteria][1]:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Consulting with business associates&#xD;&#xA; - Negotiating a contract&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Therefore you might consider establishing a contract that allows you to work remotely with a &quot;short-term on-site consultation period not to exceed six months,&quot; even better if the language states that you &quot;will explore and negotiate terms for an extension of work being completed through remote correspondence.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-visitors-business/b-1-temporary-business-visitor" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10914" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3554" RevisionGUID="8fd99593-3dcf-4e4e-8b74-0053c1bd2a8d" CreationDate="2015-08-05T12:14:52.373" UserId="8524" Text="It sounds like you'd be best served by establishing a corporate entity in your home country or elsewhere (i.e. British Virgin Islands), partnering with someone who already owns an LLC that would allow you to work independently, or simply using a freelance website online to receive payment even if the contacts are established locally. This would allow you to make sure you're not a local on-site employee, and continue those relationships after you leave Germany." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10915" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3555" RevisionGUID="9c9aba23-b681-469b-959d-98826d7fdb4e" CreationDate="2015-08-05T12:34:06.720" UserId="8524" Text="Hah, funny to see Peter's take on this. I always ask these three basic questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. What general approach will you take to this project?&#xD;&#xA; 2. When do you expect to have it completed?&#xD;&#xA; 3. Is there anything that I can clarify?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The basic reason for #1 is that it gives me a quick overview of how well several contractors understand my needs (about 70% of the time there's a fundamental misunderstanding which avoids a lot of hassle later on). Here's what I look for:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;**From what I understand of the requirements,** you're looking for a application that returns the user's proximity to a database of craft breweries that accept MasterCard based on your API data. **This sounds pretty straightforward.** First, I'll evaluate the API protocol to connect it with data storage in your application. Then, I'll use geolocation data from the phone to create an array of distance within 100 kilometers and display up to 20 of the lowest available entries. From there, I'll post the searches to the search history. **Let me know if that sounds good to you, or if you have other ideas for how we could make this happen. I'm open to different approaches. I would advise you to consider one small suggestion though -** detecting whether GPS is turned on at the point of search and prompting the user to turn it on.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That demonstrates both know-how and flexibility." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10916" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3556" RevisionGUID="c20a005e-c055-421f-984c-679f9fec61d8" CreationDate="2015-08-05T12:48:32.880" UserId="8459" Text="This depends on the contract you're working under (you're using a contract, right?), but generally with a work-for-hire gig, the source code you produce is also part of what you're selling. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, you can't sell 'experience', so in six months when you come across a similar problem, you can say &quot;Oh, I solved this *this* way a while ago,&quot; and write a new piece of code that looks awfully similar --but isn't copy-and-paste identical to the code you sold.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edited to add [a presentation][1] that I find universally topical for freelance work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://vimeo.com/22053820" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10917" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3557" RevisionGUID="46d59e63-2550-4cf5-8ad4-b730ea248758" CreationDate="2015-08-05T16:35:43.620" UserId="8459" Text="Okay, you kinda hosed yourself on this first project. Fine, hammer them out, make them nice, and make it clear that you were doing these to build their trust, so they knew you were worth what you're *going* to ask for next time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, for every other client:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You charge what the client can afford, and you do the job that the client can afford.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I mean is, you'll do the best job you can for whatever the clients budget is. A $50k project is not going to look like a $5k project is not going to look like a $500 project. Your job as a designer/developer is to help them figure out what their project is going to look like on the budget they have. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd recommend (as I have to others) that you watch [this presentation][1]  and consider reading the presenter's book. It's definitely taught me a lot about dealing with clients and projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://vimeo.com/22053820" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10918" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3547" RevisionGUID="0bbbe778-4e26-4311-a056-9ba62efe6830" CreationDate="2015-08-05T17:25:45.113" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:517,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Peter MV&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10919" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3558" RevisionGUID="083f7f3f-4f35-4e37-a655-9ac1d271a8ca" CreationDate="2015-08-05T18:00:40.637" UserId="8190" Text="I'm living in Germany and registered as a *Freiberufler* and working for a couple of companies in here. Now I got an offer for a contract with a UK based company, do I need any extra paperwork?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10920" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3558" RevisionGUID="083f7f3f-4f35-4e37-a655-9ac1d271a8ca" CreationDate="2015-08-05T18:00:40.637" UserId="8190" Text="German freelancer working for a UK company, what is needed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10921" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3558" RevisionGUID="083f7f3f-4f35-4e37-a655-9ac1d271a8ca" CreationDate="2015-08-05T18:00:40.637" UserId="8190" Text="|legal|uk|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10922" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3559" RevisionGUID="13ae81ce-5e91-4809-9ed1-e6c97d7fb26c" CreationDate="2015-08-06T01:45:12.633" UserId="8528" Text="I have done a small amount of research on the internet about freelance writing. Almost all of the articles I have read relate to freelancers that write articles about a specific topic or a range of topics that the writer has a specialty in. My passion and specialty is in creative writing and poetry. I have just now started my blog, but have some writing that has just been sitting around that has not been posted too. How do creative writers get into freelancing? Is there somewhere else I should be looking? I see some post for ghost writers and that sort of thing, but is there a different term that I should be using? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10923" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3559" RevisionGUID="13ae81ce-5e91-4809-9ed1-e6c97d7fb26c" CreationDate="2015-08-06T01:45:12.633" UserId="8528" Text="How to be a freelance creative writer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10924" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3559" RevisionGUID="13ae81ce-5e91-4809-9ed1-e6c97d7fb26c" CreationDate="2015-08-06T01:45:12.633" UserId="8528" Text="|freelance-websites|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10925" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3560" RevisionGUID="328d933e-eb9a-4f3d-b385-ca0cfacdf678" CreationDate="2015-08-06T13:48:39.383" UserId="2067" Text="I have hired writers from many places. I look for writers on Craigslist, Facebook groups and freelancer websites. Employers like me are looking for quality and turn around.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've hired freelancers for small projects and have many times ran into issues with reliability. My agency has hard deadlines for projects and I need the content to get started right away on some aspects of the marketing campaign my agency is handling for my clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With creative writing are you looking to create sales pages and web copy? There are places like Fiverr you could also get started out and make a name for yourself if you do a great job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is your blog?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10926" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3561" RevisionGUID="19e07fb2-7eba-4d87-a313-eeb426910f89" CreationDate="2015-08-06T13:51:59.147" UserId="2067" Text="When you're quoting projects you should add these hours into your quote for your client. Expect a few hours for communication. This way when you do have over excessive communication going on you have been paid for it. You could also stipulate something in the contract they sign off on if they abuse this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10927" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3075" RevisionGUID="b959b42d-6631-45e9-ac10-6827e9c0184b" CreationDate="2015-08-07T06:07:01.343" UserId="8370" Comment="Break down paras, spelling, trim chat, improve title" Text="Back in December my friend was starting to make a website for her parents' coffee shop. She is a graphic design major and has taken a few web design classes. She was only a little way in when she ran into a road block: she didn't know how to make any forms work or incorporate e-commerce. That's when I stepped in, I completely made a new site from scratch, as there was no way I was going to improve her beginner coding techniques.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I worked on it a lot through the end of the year and then stopped in January only touching once in a while (I was busy). About early February once I had a handle on my course work I picked up the site I built my own basic CMS for their blog, event management, and online store products. I then incorporated Paypal and a few other things on the back end a few contact forms, and mapping. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I came onto do this I never had a contract/agreement for me being paid. This is a local coffee-shop with multiple locations and high income so they can afford to pay. Only problem is should I just let it go and use it as a portfolio booster or should I bring up the topic of compensation?  I've spent at least a good 25 hours of my time on it for the past 6-7 weeks and in December I was spend most of my free time on it. I spent most of my holiday finishing it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I really don't want to sell myself short or lose a friend because of this. So what do you suggest? The site is a full blown website in the eyes of one of my old PHP instructors its a site he would have billed a couple thousand for, but he has a 10 years experience and I have two.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10928" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3075" RevisionGUID="b959b42d-6631-45e9-ac10-6827e9c0184b" CreationDate="2015-08-07T06:07:01.343" UserId="8370" Comment="Break down paras, spelling, trim chat, improve title" Text="How to negotiate a price after an item of work is done?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10929" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3075" RevisionGUID="b959b42d-6631-45e9-ac10-6827e9c0184b" CreationDate="2015-08-07T06:07:01.343" Comment="Proposed by 8370 approved by 9, 85 edit id of 415" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10930" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1170" RevisionGUID="d6346a56-7d6a-45b3-9f65-470209d2342d" CreationDate="2015-08-07T06:07:17.983" UserId="8431" Comment="Removed irrelevant info" Text="Your hourly rate would totally depend on your own skills. If your client is a technical guy, it will take him, say, one hour of Skype calling to understand how good you are.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I run a startup web development company.&#xD;&#xA;My hourly rates as per my skills and expertise (for all clients, irrespective of the geographic location) are somewhat like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* PHP - $12 - $18&#xD;&#xA;* Ruby on Rails - $20 - $30&#xD;&#xA;* Java - $20 - $30&#xD;&#xA;* PSD to HTML &amp; Javascript - $13 - $18.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to define a standard for yourself according to the services you have to offer.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10931" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1170" RevisionGUID="d6346a56-7d6a-45b3-9f65-470209d2342d" CreationDate="2015-08-07T06:07:17.983" Comment="Proposed by 8431 approved by 517, 85 edit id of 416" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10932" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3546" RevisionGUID="254efcd2-ab13-4b1a-9316-e0d21c4bf4cd" CreationDate="2015-08-07T06:09:47.513" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/629534885099741184" />
  <row Id="10933" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3562" RevisionGUID="6f936aa5-ec4d-4161-a3d4-7160c1249e86" CreationDate="2015-08-07T06:15:56.423" UserId="85" Text="The answer depends on many things...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - are you working in the UK or Germany?&#xD;&#xA; - are you working directly for the client or via an agency&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are working via an Agency, then the picture gets very cloudy, as most will not deal with an overseas company.  But as you do not mention an agency, I'm assuming this doesn't apply?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are working directly for the UK client, from your location in Germany, then all that is necessary is for your company to invoice the client... and no UK tax or employment regulations apply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are working directly for the UK client, from a UK location, then (in effect) your German company is establishing a UK branch, and is [potentially subject to UK tax][1] and also you would be subject to UK employment legislation (in particular the [infamous IR35 may be applicable][2]).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recommend proper professional advice, as taking the wrong option could be expensive in the long run!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/ctmanual/ctm93250.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.gov.uk/ir35-find-out-if-it-applies" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10934" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3548" RevisionGUID="9fdc1832-c83d-4220-a8ef-d2a611e0af71" CreationDate="2015-08-07T06:21:07.083" UserId="85" Comment="Remove unnecessary opening &quot;So&quot;" Text="I have that client who prefers to call me to check for status updates for his project even if I'm giving him access my project management tool. We use slack for communication.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It bothers me so much since the amount of money we agreed on is *consumed*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And fact is that each time I should re-write this into slack and Asana (that I use for project management) to keep track for the phone calls. When I implicitly ask him to reformulate what he said in slack he just says &quot;It's easy. you just have to do this and this&quot;. And it actually takes some time that I'm not paid for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you suggest to me to do to make him just communicate over slack?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He can't assign tasks in Asana because this is a fixed price project. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10935" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="92" RevisionGUID="bca96c80-75d8-4fe5-994b-f28791441500" CreationDate="2015-08-07T06:39:42.853" UserId="85" Comment="Clarity of layout of question" Text="Normally, if you work in single EU country as contractor, you are treated like its tax resident and you are required to register company there. (This at least apply to Germany in Poland, where you are tax resident, if you spend over a half of year each year on their territory).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But say, I'd work as contractor 4 months in Germany, 4 months in Poland and 4 months in Czech Republic.  In none of that countries I'd spend more than the half of that year, so in neither of them I'm tax resident.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Does it mean, that I'm then free to choose in which EU country I'd&#xD;&#xA;   register my company?&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - For example, can I register in country, where the tax regulations are&#xD;&#xA;   the most attractive for me, say, in Luxembourg?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10936" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3558" RevisionGUID="5649cefa-a411-497e-8849-1e955bc6d6f6" CreationDate="2015-08-07T10:57:20.593" UserId="85" Comment="Clarify direct status" Text="I'm living in Germany and registered as a *Freiberufler* and working (directly) for a couple of companies in here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I got an offer for a contract with a UK based company, do I need any extra paperwork?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10937" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3563" RevisionGUID="4348dbcb-3e34-43b0-aea7-b39d2d240c36" CreationDate="2015-08-07T11:13:04.777" UserId="85" Text="You state that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; He can't assign tasks in Asana because this is a fixed price project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We use slack for communication.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The very simple answer is to invoice him for the time spent calls, as these calls appear to be outside the agreed scope of the supply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to reinforce that you have agreed a fixed-price contract for a fixed supply - and any changes (or other time spent) becomes chargeable." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10938" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3536" RevisionGUID="596dceab-5f01-4e90-aab2-ec0f4132bccb" CreationDate="2015-08-07T12:13:50.103" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/629626499834978304" />
  <row Id="10943" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="92" RevisionGUID="baf8b2bb-6c2c-4a10-a8ff-7b8873a56bb4" CreationDate="2015-08-07T18:13:53.680" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/629717111699542016" />
  <row Id="10944" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3565" RevisionGUID="2a636cc4-535a-493a-bfcc-a20e82b10ff0" CreationDate="2015-08-08T10:55:46.900" UserId="8544" Text="I am a EU citizen so I am not sure about you situation. For freelancing you need to go to Gewerbeampt and &quot;sign in&quot; (anmelden) as developer. Then go to finanzampt and ask for a steuernummer. If you want to freelance outside of Germany ask for a Umsatzsteuernummer also. I hope this helped. If you have more questions inform me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10945" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3566" RevisionGUID="74d2a4dc-415d-46aa-970f-e3f91c89880b" CreationDate="2015-08-08T22:33:24.437" UserId="2964" Text="I think Joe just asked a great question: what is your blog?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should start blogging on some sites like medium.com or on relevant sites that are related to the topics you enjoy. Create a blog today if you don't have one or get a website that you can display some of your work and even testimonials from people you have written for in the past.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are sites like freelancer.com and more that have contract/job postings and you can set your rates on these websites. However, these websites have many users and it can be easy to get drowned out. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, people need to know you are out there and need to be able to read samples of your work to get an idea. Use social media to your advantage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cheers!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10948" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3567" RevisionGUID="ef290077-04cc-4f87-96df-9180d61076ff" CreationDate="2015-08-09T18:21:42.700" UserId="8548" Text="I am a Belgian citizen residing in Spain where I already have a full time job and would like to do some freelance work after hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I need to register in Spain?&#xD;&#xA;What are my possibilities concerning income and social security taxes?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I heard of this possibility of becoming a freelancer on &quot;European level&quot; which would mean I wouldn't pay social security taxes in Spain.&#xD;&#xA;Could you please tell me more about this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you in advance&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10949" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3567" RevisionGUID="ef290077-04cc-4f87-96df-9180d61076ff" CreationDate="2015-08-09T18:21:42.700" UserId="8548" Text="How to register as a part time freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10950" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3567" RevisionGUID="ef290077-04cc-4f87-96df-9180d61076ff" CreationDate="2015-08-09T18:21:42.700" UserId="8548" Text="|taxes|registration|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10953" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3567" RevisionGUID="e911c358-4139-4382-964d-f8cf2093622f" CreationDate="2015-08-10T17:10:06.853" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|taxes|registration|spain|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10954" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3567" RevisionGUID="e911c358-4139-4382-964d-f8cf2093622f" CreationDate="2015-08-10T17:10:06.853" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="I am a Belgian citizen residing in Spain where I already have a full time job and would like to do some freelance work after hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Do I need to register in Spain?&#xD;&#xA;- What are my possibilities concerning income and social security taxes?&#xD;&#xA;- I heard of this possibility of becoming a freelancer on &quot;European level&quot; which would mean I wouldn't pay social security taxes in Spain. Could you please tell me more about this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10955" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3565" RevisionGUID="edb98247-0110-47e7-89f0-7f11026133d7" CreationDate="2015-08-10T17:14:07.483" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 58 characters in body" Text="I am a EU citizen so I am not sure about you situation. For freelancing you need to go to Gewerbeampt and &quot;sign in&quot; (anmelden) as developer. Then go to finanzampt and ask for a steuernummer. If you want to freelance outside of Germany ask for a Umsatzsteuernummer also." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10956" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3568" RevisionGUID="5dafd0a8-13f7-4c4e-9292-451dc16bfff6" CreationDate="2015-08-10T19:03:06.403" UserId="5893" Text="Creative writing and poetry are typically not the kinds of writing that people looking for &quot;freelance writers&quot; want. If you want to earn income from that kind of writing, you need to write the story/novel/poem(s) first and then look for an agent or publisher, or self-publish through Amazon or other outlets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also make some decent money doing business writing - writing copy for advertisements, brochures, direct mail pieces, etc. In order to make a name for yourself in this category, you need to meet your deadlines and have impeccable spelling and grammar." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10957" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3569" RevisionGUID="b3d3ed3c-5320-449b-93c4-ab6105ec6cc3" CreationDate="2015-08-11T01:28:24.620" UserId="8568" Text="**Question**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What law in USA permits companies like Elance to employ freelancers from foreign countries? `Normally one needs a special type of visa to work for a company in USA`" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10958" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3569" RevisionGUID="b3d3ed3c-5320-449b-93c4-ab6105ec6cc3" CreationDate="2015-08-11T01:28:24.620" UserId="8568" Text="Elance business model that allows workers from any country" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10959" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3569" RevisionGUID="b3d3ed3c-5320-449b-93c4-ab6105ec6cc3" CreationDate="2015-08-11T01:28:24.620" UserId="8568" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10962" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="2904" RevisionGUID="f1cc02bd-fd0d-4025-9a77-7d17a558cf11" CreationDate="2015-08-11T09:51:12.183" UserId="58" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="10967" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3572" RevisionGUID="34318341-0470-44ed-a0c9-0d1d9e5513b4" CreationDate="2015-08-12T02:49:59.443" UserId="820" Text="Don't answer the phone, then ping him on slack and explain that you can't talk right now, but are free to chat via slack." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10968" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3569" RevisionGUID="eaef36f7-67ae-46ed-9783-548fc2e80321" CreationDate="2015-08-12T05:37:09.390" UserId="8568" Comment="re-worded my question" Text="**Question**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What permits companies like Elance to employ freelancers from foreign countries? `Normally one needs a special type of visa to work for a company in USA`" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10969" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3573" RevisionGUID="790b2d21-0ebd-46a7-9361-fc8d5ea33884" CreationDate="2015-08-12T10:38:32.580" UserId="8046" Text="**What permits people to hire the services of contractors oversea without a visa?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically for the same reasons why they don't pay taxes or vote in other countries. It's also something that's very hard to control with internet now and most countries simply freely allow this service trade with selected &quot;friendly&quot; countries. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no real visa, but there's still a common set of rules they share and that act as a &quot;worldwide visa&quot; in a way; with the &quot;non-friendly&quot; countries, that freedom is not given so easily as the governments will monitor transactions and communication (or make all this impossible.) For example, I doubt there's any North Korean freelancers on Elance. The agreement of friendly countries is something like &quot;manage your people, I'll manage mines and let's keep in touch.&quot; That's the easiest and cheapest way to manage international trade when there's no central power.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A visa is like a permission and also a guarantee that the person to who it's granted will get some protection but will also need to follow the laws and regulations of the country. It's like a temporary contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Technically, the reason why they don't need a real visa when doing freelance oversea is because the freelancer doesn't gain/require any benefits from the country of the buyer and doesn't have any extra right/protection in it either; the only protection of a freelancer in this case is the laws and regulations the buyers must submit to in his/her own country. The freelancer doesn't cost anything to the buyer's country if he follows the basic international rules (eg. no electronic fraud or money laundering or illegal trade.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In theory, the freelancer doesn't have any obligation towards this country either, besides the special treaties and accords his/her own country has with the country his/her employer is located. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not a lawyer but I guess that's the simplest way to explain why it's legal and doesn't require a real visa.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10970" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3574" RevisionGUID="24e6a308-097f-4523-a695-549abf5d94bc" CreationDate="2015-08-12T11:04:11.350" UserId="8046" Text="When your client calls, you can let the phone ring sometimes, and then politely contact him through Slack a few minutes later and ask how you can help. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Take charge and redirect the communication where you want it.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they call many times a day, take one call every three call, or always get back to them on your preferred method.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You also have the best reason in the world to require this and redirect the communication in a written way; you need to keep tracks! For practical reasons and legal ones.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When they call, you can also say &quot;alright&quot;, listen to them but then ask them: &quot;*Can you send me all this through Slack or email to make sure I'm not forgetting anything? Thanks!*&quot; After a while, they'll see it's more efficient to write than repeat twice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Give updates;** a lot of clients will ask for them because they were not told WHEN they can expect their projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the easiest is to tell them as you reply to their questions, an estimate when you'll deliver the revisions or proofs or whatever. If you take charge on this too, you'll see they'll simply take the habit of waiting for you to keep them updated. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's normal some of them will verify how the project is going; they're managers! They're used to do this and in fact they usually need to do this with their other employees. **So be ahead of this and give updates before they ask!**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Charge!** Very efficient way even if you don't feel comfortable with this. Add it to your invoice, don't mention it and wait until they ask you why you charge them for this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can explain that you can offer freelance rates because you don't need to hire people or virtual assistant to help you with the calls. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;THEN you tell them that for this time, *it's alright*, you can remove the charge and let that one pass. You do this once though! Then you charge for real. But give them at least a chance to understand how you prefer to proceed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10971" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3574" RevisionGUID="4c5f8936-fb0a-4f4d-a225-d4613f8f6011" CreationDate="2015-08-12T11:09:16.323" UserId="8046" Comment="added 420 characters in body" Text="When your client calls, you can let the phone ring sometimes, and then politely contact him through Slack a few minutes later and ask how you can help. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Take charge and redirect the communication where you want it.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they call many times a day, take one call every three call, or always get back to them on your preferred method.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You also have the best reason in the world to require this and redirect the communication in a written way; you need to keep tracks! For practical reasons and legal ones.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When they call, you can also say &quot;alright&quot;, listen to them but then ask them: &quot;*Can you send me all this through Slack or email to make sure I'm not forgetting anything? Thanks!*&quot; After a while, they'll see it's more efficient to write than repeat twice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Give updates;** a lot of clients will ask for them because they were not told WHEN they can expect their projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the easiest is to tell them as you reply to their questions, an estimate when you'll deliver the revisions or proofs or whatever. If you take charge on this too, you'll see they'll simply take the habit of waiting for you to keep them updated. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's normal some of them will verify how the project is going; they're managers! They're used to do this and in fact they usually need to do this with their other employees. **So be ahead of this and give updates before they ask!**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For example** in the morning, contact the client who often call and tell them something like: &quot;*I'm working on XYZ, I expect to finish this by the end or the day or early tomorrow morning. I'll keep you updated on how it's going. Have a good day!*&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No need to be ultra precise unless you're working on a super urgent project! You don't want to make your clients anxious or they'll call to verify how it's going!&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Charge!** Very efficient way even if you don't feel comfortable with this. Add it to your invoice, don't mention it and wait until they ask you why you charge them for this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can explain that you can offer freelance rates because you don't need to hire people or virtual assistant to help you with the calls. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;THEN you tell them that for this time, *it's alright*, you can remove the charge and let that one pass. You do this once though! Then you charge for real. But give them at least a chance to understand how you prefer to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an extra, you can mention that Slack or email communications are usually included in your projects' fees though!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10972" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3574" RevisionGUID="0af5eb07-4f46-4e55-b828-30506ad5ab21" CreationDate="2015-08-12T11:15:58.347" UserId="8046" Comment="added 420 characters in body" Text="When your client calls, you can let the phone ring sometimes, and then politely contact him through Slack a few minutes later and ask how you can help. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Take charge and redirect the communication where you want it.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they call many times a day, take one call every three call, or always get back to them on your preferred method.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You also have the best reason in the world to require this and redirect the communication in a written way; you need to keep tracks! For practical reasons and legal ones.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When they call, you can also say &quot;alright&quot;, listen to them but then ask them: &quot;*Can you send me all this through Slack or email to make sure I'm not forgetting anything? Thanks!*&quot; After a while, they'll see it's more efficient to write than repeat twice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Give updates;** a lot of clients will ask for them because they were not told WHEN they can expect their projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the easiest is to tell them as you reply to their questions, an estimate when you'll deliver the revisions or proofs or whatever. If you take charge on this too, you'll see they'll simply take the habit of waiting for you to keep them updated. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's normal some of them will verify how the project is going; they're managers! They're used to do this and in fact they usually need to do this with their other employees. **So be ahead of this and give updates before they ask!**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For example** in the morning, contact the client who often call and tell them something like: &quot;*I'm working on XYZ, I expect to finish this by the end or the day or early tomorrow morning. I'll keep you updated on how it's going. Have a good day!*&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No need to be ultra precise unless you're working on a super urgent project! You don't want to make your clients anxious or they'll call to verify how it's going!&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Charge!** Very efficient way even if you don't feel comfortable with this. Add it to your invoice, don't mention it and wait until they ask you why you charge them for this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can explain that you can offer freelance rates because you don't need to hire people or virtual assistant to help you with the calls. Personally, I don't hire virtual assistant for this and explain to my clients that no one could answer their questions on the phone as well as I do, that I'd rather not make them waste their time explaining stuff to someone else who has no clue about their projects and the job. The easiest to communicate with me by phone or Skype is by appointment... until I can clone myself. If you work with other people in your team, you do the same for them; filter the calls and suggest an appointment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After sending that first charge for communication and after they asked about it, THEN you tell them that for this time, *it's alright*, you can remove the charge and let that one pass. You do this once though! Then you charge for real. But give them at least a chance to understand how you prefer to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an extra, you can mention that Slack or email communications are usually included in your projects' fees though!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10973" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3574" RevisionGUID="806521fa-6a54-43bf-b3de-eadaa53f8ca0" CreationDate="2015-08-12T11:22:17.753" UserId="8046" Comment="added 420 characters in body" Text="If you charge fixed rates, then you need another strategy than simply demanding to be paid for this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The strategy should be to make your client find it easier to use Slack or emails instead.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When your client calls, you can let the phone ring sometimes, and then politely contact him through Slack a few minutes later and ask how you can help. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Take charge and redirect the communication where you want it.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they call many times a day, take one call every three call, or always get back to them on your preferred method.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You also have the best reason in the world to require this and redirect the communication in a written way; you need to keep tracks! For practical reasons and legal ones.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When they call, you can also say &quot;alright&quot;, listen to them but then ask them: &quot;*Can you send me all this through Slack or email to make sure I'm not forgetting anything? Thanks!*&quot; After a while, they'll see it's more efficient to write than repeat twice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Give updates;** a lot of clients will ask for them because they were not told WHEN they can expect their projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the easiest is to tell them as you reply to their questions, an estimate when you'll deliver the revisions or proofs or whatever. If you take charge on this too, you'll see they'll simply take the habit of waiting for you to keep them updated. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's normal some of them will verify how the project is going; they're managers! They're used to do this and in fact they usually need to do this with their other employees. **So be ahead of this and give updates before they ask!**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For example** in the morning, contact the client who often call and tell them something like: &quot;*I'm working on XYZ, I expect to finish this by the end or the day or early tomorrow morning. I'll keep you updated on how it's going. Have a good day!*&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No need to be ultra precise unless you're working on a super urgent project! You don't want to make your clients anxious or they'll call to verify how it's going!&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Charge!** Very efficient way even if you don't feel comfortable with this. Add it to your invoice, don't mention it and wait until they ask you why you charge them for this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can explain that you can offer freelance rates because you don't need to hire people or virtual assistant to help you with the calls. Personally, I don't hire virtual assistant for this and explain to my clients that no one could answer their questions on the phone as well as I do, that I'd rather not make them waste their time explaining stuff to someone else who has no clue about their projects and the job. The easiest to communicate with me by phone or Skype is by appointment... until I can clone myself. If you work with other people in your team, you do the same for them; filter the calls and suggest an appointment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After sending that first charge for communication and after they asked about it, THEN you tell them that for this time, *it's alright*, you can remove the charge and let that one pass. You do this once though! Then you charge for real. But give them at least a chance to understand how you prefer to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an extra, you can mention that Slack or email communications are usually included in your projects' fees though!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10974" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3574" RevisionGUID="688cb4eb-e414-42e0-bdbe-03a98eb9d67d" CreationDate="2015-08-12T11:27:18.303" UserId="8046" Comment="added 420 characters in body" Text="If you charge fixed rates, then you need another strategy than simply demanding to be paid for this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The strategy should be to make your client find it easier to use Slack or emails instead.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't always demand to the client to do XYZ, you can't act as a spoiled dev or someone who adds more anxiety to his day than he already has. He's paying you. No, you don't ditch a client because &quot;he's lazy&quot;, there's still lazy people who pay very well or offer great opportunities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lazy people are lazy because it works for them. So make it harder to be lazy, that's simple. Or appeal to their laziness, even better! Frankly I don't consider it lazy if a client asks for updates, he's being responsible in fact. I prefer this to being called on friday night for a job for monday morning &quot;they forgot&quot; to assign me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When your client calls, you can let the phone ring sometimes, and then politely contact him through Slack or email a few minutes later and ask how you can help. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Take charge and redirect the communication where you want it.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they call many times a day, take one call every three call, or always get back to them on your preferred method.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You also have the best reason in the world to require this and redirect the communication in a written way; you need to keep tracks! For practical reasons and legal ones.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When they call, you can also say &quot;alright&quot;, listen to them but then ask them: &quot;*Can you send me all this through Slack or email to make sure I'm not forgetting anything? Thanks!*&quot; After a while, they'll see it's more efficient to write than repeat twice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Give updates;** a lot of clients will ask for them because they were not told WHEN they can expect their projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the easiest is to tell them as you reply to their questions, an estimate when you'll deliver the revisions or proofs or whatever. If you take charge on this too, you'll see they'll simply take the habit of waiting for you to keep them updated. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's normal some of them will verify how the project is going; they're managers! They're used to do this and in fact they usually need to do this with their other employees. **So be ahead of this and give updates before they ask!**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For example** in the morning, contact the client who often call and tell them something like: &quot;*I'm working on XYZ, I expect to finish this by the end or the day or early tomorrow morning. I'll keep you updated on how it's going. Have a good day!*&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No need to be ultra precise unless you're working on a super urgent project! You don't want to make your clients anxious or they'll call to verify how it's going!&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Charge!** Very efficient way even if you don't feel comfortable with this. Add it to your invoice, don't mention it and wait until they ask you why you charge them for this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can explain that you can offer freelance rates because you don't need to hire people or virtual assistant to help you with the calls. Personally, I don't hire virtual assistant for this and explain to my clients that no one could answer their questions on the phone as well as I do, that I'd rather not make them waste their time explaining stuff to someone else who has no clue about their projects and the job. The easiest to communicate with me by phone or Skype is by appointment... until I can clone myself. If you work with other people in your team, you do the same for them; filter the calls and suggest an appointment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After sending that first charge for communication and after they asked about it, THEN you tell them that for this time, *it's alright*, you can remove the charge and let that one pass. You do this once though! Then you charge for real. But give them at least a chance to understand how you prefer to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an extra, you can mention that Slack or email communications are usually included in your projects' fees though!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10975" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3574" RevisionGUID="06006584-a6b2-42e1-8dd6-d3e29bbade43" CreationDate="2015-08-12T11:34:35.530" UserId="8046" Comment="added 420 characters in body" Text="If you charge fixed rates, then you need another strategy than simply demanding to be paid for this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The strategy should be to make your client find it easier to use Slack or emails instead.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't always demand to the client to do XYZ, you can't act as a spoiled dev or someone who adds more anxiety to his day than he already has. He's paying you. No, you don't ditch a client because &quot;he's lazy&quot;, there's still lazy people who pay very well or offer great opportunities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lazy people are lazy because it works for them. So make it harder to be lazy, that's simple. Or appeal to their laziness, even better! Frankly I don't consider it lazy if a client asks for updates, he's being responsible in fact. I prefer this to being called on friday night for a job for monday morning &quot;they forgot&quot; to assign me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When your client calls, you can let the phone ring sometimes, and then politely contact him through Slack or email a few minutes later and ask how you can help. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Take charge and redirect the communication where you want it.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they call many times a day, take one call every three call, or always get back to them on your preferred method.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You also have the best reason in the world to require this and redirect the communication in a written way; you need to keep tracks! For practical reasons and legal ones.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When they call, you can also say &quot;alright&quot;, listen to them but then ask them: &quot;*Can you send me all this through Slack or email to make sure I'm not forgetting anything? Thanks!*&quot; After a while, they'll see it's more efficient to write than repeat twice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, they'll say the &quot;it's easy, do this and that&quot;, but keep your ground and tell them it will accelerate the process, that they might get the files done quicker this way. Tell them it really helps you if they send you an email that you can refer to. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If they keep wanting to tell you instructions by phone,** then when you answer, tell them you can't take their call at the moment, you will call them back in 2-4 hours but they can write to you in Slack or email if they want to save time and get things done faster. Show you're a busy professional and make them choose to use Slack or email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Give updates;** a lot of clients will ask for them because they were not told WHEN they can expect their projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the easiest is to tell them as you reply to their questions, an estimate when you'll deliver the revisions or proofs or whatever. If you take charge on this too, you'll see they'll simply take the habit of waiting for you to keep them updated. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's normal some of them will verify how the project is going; they're managers! They're used to do this and in fact they usually need to do this with their other employees. **So be ahead of this and give updates before they ask!**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For example** in the morning, contact the client who often call and tell them something like: &quot;*I'm working on XYZ, I expect to finish this by the end or the day or early tomorrow morning. I'll keep you updated on how it's going. Have a good day!*&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No need to be ultra precise unless you're working on a super urgent project! You don't want to make your clients anxious or they'll call to verify how it's going!&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Charge!** Very efficient way even if you don't feel comfortable with this. Add it to your invoice, don't mention it and wait until they ask you why you charge them for this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can explain that you can offer freelance rates because you don't need to hire people or virtual assistant to help you with the calls. Personally, I don't hire virtual assistant for this and explain to my clients that no one could answer their questions on the phone as well as I do, that I'd rather not make them waste their time explaining stuff to someone else who has no clue about their projects and the job. The easiest to communicate with me by phone or Skype is by appointment... until I can clone myself. If you work with other people in your team, you do the same for them; filter the calls and suggest an appointment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After sending that first charge for communication and after they asked about it, THEN you tell them that for this time, *it's alright*, you can remove the charge and let that one pass. You do this once though! Then you charge for real. But give them at least a chance to understand how you prefer to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an extra, you can mention that Slack or email communications are usually included in your projects' fees though! **In fact you should specify this in your contracts since you charge flat rates**, and mention that Skype and phone calls are limited to X minutes and only if something is hard to explain, or at the beginning of the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10976" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3574" RevisionGUID="02ba4442-d5bf-4150-98d9-481bfe231eae" CreationDate="2015-08-12T11:44:48.747" UserId="8046" Comment="added 217 characters in body" Text="If you charge fixed rates, then you need another strategy than simply demanding to be paid for this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The strategy should be to make your client find it easier to use Slack or emails instead.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't always demand to the client to do XYZ, you can't act as a spoiled dev or someone who adds more anxiety to his day than he already has. He's paying you. No, you don't ditch a client because &quot;he's lazy&quot;, there's still lazy people who pay very well or offer great opportunities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lazy people are lazy because it works for them. So make it harder to be lazy, that's simple. Or appeal to their laziness, even better! Frankly I don't consider it lazy if a client asks for updates, he's being responsible in fact. I prefer this to being called on friday night for a job for monday morning &quot;they forgot&quot; to assign me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When your client calls, you can let the phone ring sometimes, and then politely contact him through Slack or email a few minutes later and ask how you can help. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Take charge and redirect the communication where you want it.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they call many times a day, take one call every three call, or always get back to them on your preferred method.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You also have the best reason in the world to require this and redirect the communication in a written way; you need to keep tracks! For practical reasons and legal ones.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When they call, you can also say &quot;alright&quot;, listen to them but then ask them: &quot;*Can you send me all this through Slack or email to make sure I'm not forgetting anything? Thanks!*&quot; After a while, they'll see it's more efficient to write than repeat twice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, they'll say the &quot;it's easy, do this and that&quot;, but keep your ground and tell them it will accelerate the process, that they might get the files done quicker this way. Tell them it really helps you if they send you an email that you can refer to. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If they keep wanting to tell you instructions by phone,** then when you answer, tell them you can't take their call at the moment, you will call them back in 2-4 hours but they can write to you in Slack or email if they want to save time and get things done faster. Show you're a busy professional and make them choose to use Slack or email. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The less they'll cooperate, the more time you should add between the moment you answered the phone and said you will call back, and when you'll actually call back.** Start with 2-4 hours, then 3-5, then 4-6, etc. It gives them more time to gather their instructions and get prepared (and write them), and they will also discover you're faster when you get emails or written communication.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Give updates;** a lot of clients will ask for them because they were not told WHEN they can expect their projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the easiest is to tell them as you reply to their questions, an estimate when you'll deliver the revisions or proofs or whatever. If you take charge on this too, you'll see they'll simply take the habit of waiting for you to keep them updated. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's normal some of them will verify how the project is going; they're managers! They're used to do this and in fact they usually need to do this with their other employees. **So be ahead of this and give updates before they ask!**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For example** in the morning, contact the client who often call and tell them something like: &quot;*I'm working on XYZ, I expect to finish this by the end or the day or early tomorrow morning. I'll keep you updated on how it's going. Have a good day!*&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No need to be ultra precise unless you're working on a super urgent project! You don't want to make your clients anxious or they'll call to verify how it's going!&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Charge!** Very efficient way even if you don't feel comfortable with this. Add it to your invoice, don't mention it and wait until they ask you why you charge them for this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can explain that you can offer freelance rates because you don't need to hire people or virtual assistant to help you with the calls. Personally, I don't hire virtual assistant for this and explain to my clients that no one could answer their questions on the phone as well as I do, that I'd rather not make them waste their time explaining stuff to someone else who has no clue about their projects and the job. The easiest to communicate with me by phone or Skype is by appointment... until I can clone myself. If you work with other people in your team, you do the same for them; filter the calls and suggest an appointment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After sending that first charge for communication and after they asked about it, THEN you tell them that for this time, *it's alright*, you can remove the charge and let that one pass. You do this once though! Then you charge for real. But give them at least a chance to understand how you prefer to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an extra, you can mention that Slack or email communications are usually included in your projects' fees though! **In fact you should specify this in your contracts since you charge flat rates**, and mention that Skype and phone calls are limited to X minutes and only if something is hard to explain, or at the beginning of the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10977" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3574" RevisionGUID="8d8c04da-f8be-4523-a1f6-bbfac14c4104" CreationDate="2015-08-12T12:00:14.690" UserId="8046" Comment="added 311 characters in body" Text="If you charge fixed rates, then you need another strategy than simply demanding to be paid for this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The strategy should be to make your client find it easier to use Slack or emails instead.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't always demand to the client to do XYZ, you can't act as a spoiled dev or someone who adds more anxiety to his day than he already has. He's paying you. No, you don't ditch a client because &quot;he's lazy&quot;, there's still lazy people who pay very well or offer great opportunities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**There's also people who-really-don't-care-about-being charged-more** for the privilege of calling you or having you writing their instructions. There's people you work with whose time are worth 5-10 dev/per hour; they don't care paying you if you save them time. Make sure this is clear with your clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lazy people are lazy because it works for them. So make it harder to be lazy, that's simple. Or appeal to their laziness, even better! Frankly I don't consider it lazy if a client asks for updates, he's being responsible in fact. I prefer this to being called on friday night for a job for monday morning &quot;they forgot&quot; to assign me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When your client calls, you can let the phone ring sometimes, and then politely contact him through Slack or email a few minutes later and ask how you can help. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Take charge and redirect the communication where you want it.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they call many times a day, take one call every three call, or always get back to them on your preferred method.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You also have the best reason in the world to require this and redirect the communication in a written way; you need to keep tracks! For practical reasons and legal ones.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When they call, you can also say &quot;alright&quot;, listen to them but then ask them: &quot;*Can you send me all this through Slack or email to make sure I'm not forgetting anything? Thanks!*&quot; After a while, they'll see it's more efficient to write than repeat twice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, they'll say the &quot;it's easy, do this and that&quot;, but keep your ground and tell them it will accelerate the process, that they might get the files done quicker this way. Tell them it really helps you if they send you an email that you can refer to. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If they keep wanting to tell you instructions by phone,** then when you answer, tell them you can't take their call at the moment, you will call them back in 2-4 hours but they can write to you in Slack or email if they want to save time and get things done faster. Show you're a busy professional and make them choose to use Slack or email. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The less they'll cooperate, the more time you should add between the moment you answered the phone and said you will call back, and when you'll actually call back.** Start with 2-4 hours, then 3-5, then 4-6, etc. It gives them more time to gather their instructions and get prepared (and write them), and they will also discover you're faster when you get emails or written communication.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Give updates;** a lot of clients will ask for them because they were not told WHEN they can expect their projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the easiest is to tell them as you reply to their questions, an estimate when you'll deliver the revisions or proofs or whatever. If you take charge on this too, you'll see they'll simply take the habit of waiting for you to keep them updated. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's normal some of them will verify how the project is going; they're managers! They're used to do this and in fact they usually need to do this with their other employees. **So be ahead of this and give updates before they ask!**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For example** in the morning, contact the client who often call and tell them something like: &quot;*I'm working on XYZ, I expect to finish this by the end or the day or early tomorrow morning. I'll keep you updated on how it's going. Have a good day!*&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No need to be ultra precise unless you're working on a super urgent project! You don't want to make your clients anxious or they'll call to verify how it's going!&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Charge!** Very efficient way even if you don't feel comfortable with this. Add it to your invoice, don't mention it and wait until they ask you why you charge them for this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can explain that you can offer freelance rates because you don't need to hire people or virtual assistant to help you with the calls. Personally, I don't hire virtual assistant for this and explain to my clients that no one could answer their questions on the phone as well as I do, that I'd rather not make them waste their time explaining stuff to someone else who has no clue about their projects and the job. The easiest to communicate with me by phone or Skype is by appointment... until I can clone myself. If you work with other people in your team, you do the same for them; filter the calls and suggest an appointment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After sending that first charge for communication and after they asked about it, THEN you tell them that for this time, *it's alright*, you can remove the charge and let that one pass. You do this once though! Then you charge for real. But give them at least a chance to understand how you prefer to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an extra, you can mention that Slack or email communications are usually included in your projects' fees though! **In fact you should specify this in your contracts since you charge flat rates**, and mention that Skype and phone calls are limited to X minutes and only if something is hard to explain, or at the beginning of the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10984" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3574" RevisionGUID="43ac3c8a-6eb1-452d-8295-6ea573b970fc" CreationDate="2015-08-12T16:26:31.573" UserId="75" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="If you charge fixed rates, then you need another strategy than simply demanding to be paid for this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The strategy should be to make your client find it easier to use Slack or emails instead.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't always demand to the client to do XYZ, you can't act as a spoiled dev or someone who adds more anxiety to his day than he already has. He's paying you. No, you don't ditch a client because &quot;he's lazy&quot;, there's still lazy people who pay very well or offer great opportunities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**There's also people who-really-don't-care-about-being-charged-more** for the privilege of calling you or having you writing their instructions. There's people you work with whose time are worth 5-10 developers per hour; they don't care paying you if you save them time. Make sure this is clear with your clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lazy people are lazy because it works for them. So make it harder to be lazy, that's simple. Or appeal to their laziness, even better! Frankly I don't consider it lazy if a client asks for updates, he's being responsible in fact. I prefer this to being called on Friday night for a job for Monday morning &quot;they forgot&quot; to assign me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When your client calls, you can let the phone ring sometimes, and then politely contact him through Slack or email a few minutes later and ask how you can help. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Take charge and redirect the communication where you want it.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they call many times a day, take one call every three call, or always get back to them on your preferred method.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You also have the best reason in the world to require this and redirect the communication in a written way; you need to keep tracks! For practical reasons and legal ones.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When they call, you can also say &quot;alright&quot;, listen to them but then ask them: &quot;*Can you send me all this through Slack or email to make sure I'm not forgetting anything? Thanks!*&quot; After a while, they'll see it's more efficient to write than repeat twice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, they'll say the &quot;it's easy, do this and that&quot;, but keep your ground and tell them it will accelerate the process, that they might get the files done quicker this way. Tell them it really helps you if they send you an email that you can refer to. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If they keep wanting to tell you instructions by phone,** then when you answer, tell them you can't take their call at the moment, you will call them back in 2-4 hours but they can write to you in Slack or email if they want to save time and get things done faster. Show you're a busy professional and make them choose to use Slack or email. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The less they'll cooperate, the more time you should add between the moment you answered the phone and said you will call back, and when you'll actually call back.** Start with 2-4 hours, then 3-5, then 4-6, etc. It gives them more time to gather their instructions and get prepared (and write them), and they will also discover you're faster when you get emails or written communication.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Give updates;** a lot of clients will ask for them because they were not told WHEN they can expect their projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the easiest is to tell them as you reply to their questions, an estimate when you'll deliver the revisions or proofs or whatever. If you take charge on this too, you'll see they'll simply take the habit of waiting for you to keep them updated. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's normal some of them will verify how the project is going; they're managers! They're used to this and they usually need to do this with their other employees. **So be ahead of this and give updates before they ask!**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For example**, in the morning, contact the client who often call and tell them something like: &quot;*I'm working on XYZ, I expect to finish this by the end of the day or early tomorrow morning. I'll keep you updated on how it's going. Have a good day!*&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No need to be ultra precise unless you're working on a super urgent project! You don't want to make your clients anxious or they'll call to verify how it's going!&#xD;&#xA;___&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Charge!** Very efficient way even if you don't feel comfortable with this. Add it to your invoice, don't mention it and wait until they ask you why you charge them for this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can explain that you can offer freelance rates because you don't need to hire people or virtual assistant to help you with the calls. Personally, I don't hire virtual assistants for this and explain to my clients that no one could answer their questions on the phone as well as I do, and that I'd rather not make them waste their time explaining stuff to someone else who has no clue about their projects and the job. The easiest to communicate with me by phone or Skype is by appointment... until I can clone myself. If you work with other people in your team, you do the same for them; filter the calls and suggest an appointment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After sending that first charge for communication and after they asked about it, THEN you tell them that for this time, *it's alright*, you can remove the charge and let that one pass. You do this once though! Then you charge for real. But give them at least a chance to understand how you prefer to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an extra, you can mention that Slack or email communications are usually included in your projects' fees though! **In fact you should specify this in your contracts since you charge flat rates**, and mention that Skype and phone calls are limited to X minutes and only if something is hard to explain, or at the beginning of the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10985" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3569" RevisionGUID="c5f775f5-6cb8-407d-b841-f18c98ccdf63" CreationDate="2015-08-12T16:52:08.110" UserId="8568" Comment="Made the question more specific" Text="What permits companies like Elance to employ freelancers from foreign countries without a visa requirement? Normally one needs a special type of visa to work for a company in USA.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10986" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3569" RevisionGUID="c5f775f5-6cb8-407d-b841-f18c98ccdf63" CreationDate="2015-08-12T16:52:08.110" UserId="8568" Comment="Made the question more specific" Text="What is the Elance business model that allows workers from any country to work for firms based in the USA?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10987" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3577" RevisionGUID="918eec22-e28c-44ed-b088-c1abb0c433d8" CreationDate="2015-08-13T05:29:40.210" UserId="85" Text="&gt; What permits companies like Elance to employ freelancers from foreign&#xD;&#xA;&gt; countries without a visa requirement?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The TL;DR; answer is: Because (in the example you ask) the freelancer is not working IN the USA - they are supplying a service or delivering goods TO, or perhaps working FOR, a company based in the USA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Visas permit the movement of people, and restrict what they do in a country.  You do not need a visa to work in your own country... just as you do not need a visa to post to any StackExchange website" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10988" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3578" RevisionGUID="c09fccde-de2d-4d7c-828e-67870371df2e" CreationDate="2015-08-13T08:40:36.313" UserId="7911" Text="I have the following inquiry:&#xD;&#xA;In Germany, if you are a non-EU student, no independent job is allowed and hence it is not possible for non-EU students to do freelancing. However, as a student you are allowed to work certain hours per week and thus I am wondering if an actual freelancer in Germany can hire a non-EU student to work part-time for him?&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10989" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3578" RevisionGUID="c09fccde-de2d-4d7c-828e-67870371df2e" CreationDate="2015-08-13T08:40:36.313" UserId="7911" Text="Part time Freelancing in Germany for inon-eu students" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10990" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3578" RevisionGUID="c09fccde-de2d-4d7c-828e-67870371df2e" CreationDate="2015-08-13T08:40:36.313" UserId="7911" Text="|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10991" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3578" RevisionGUID="ce9ca444-9b33-4812-912b-fe5a4f6dfc34" CreationDate="2015-08-13T10:42:50.673" UserId="58" Comment="Edited title, question and tags to be more appropriate" Text="In Germany, if you are a non-EU student, you are not allowed a paid job, and so it's not really possible for a non-EU student to freelance in Germany.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, as a *student* you are allowed to work certain hours per week and so I'm wondering: can an actual freelancer based in Germany hire a non-EU student to work part-time for them?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10992" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3578" RevisionGUID="ce9ca444-9b33-4812-912b-fe5a4f6dfc34" CreationDate="2015-08-13T10:42:50.673" UserId="58" Comment="Edited title, question and tags to be more appropriate" Text="Subcontracting freelance work in Germany to non-EU students" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10993" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3578" RevisionGUID="ce9ca444-9b33-4812-912b-fe5a4f6dfc34" CreationDate="2015-08-13T10:42:50.673" UserId="58" Comment="Edited title, question and tags to be more appropriate" Text="|subcontracting|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10994" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3546" RevisionGUID="20779a54-2e1b-4bf7-ad87-28156b256d8e" CreationDate="2015-08-13T11:29:02.563" UserId="100" Comment="removed fluff, added tag" Text="I've been asked to develop some apps for people and I was wondering what the common procedure is in relation to ownership of source.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally, I'd like to retain ownership of the source so I can reuse bits and bobs, but give them the app. I thought that maybe I could package the parts I want to retain as libraries and licence them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the best way to handle this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10995" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3546" RevisionGUID="20779a54-2e1b-4bf7-ad87-28156b256d8e" CreationDate="2015-08-13T11:29:02.563" UserId="100" Comment="removed fluff, added tag" Text="|contracts|programmer|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10996" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3546" RevisionGUID="20779a54-2e1b-4bf7-ad87-28156b256d8e" CreationDate="2015-08-13T11:29:02.563" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 85, 58 edit id of 419" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10997" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3579" RevisionGUID="0978e947-7420-42c6-b479-f1f3abe059ad" CreationDate="2015-08-13T11:47:24.800" UserId="7950" Text="Echoing previous responses, unless otherwise specified, work like this (where a client pays a contractor for work) is considered work made for hire under the US Copyright Act. In accordance with this, all intellectual property (such as source code) would transfer to the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A solid FAQ on copyright and works made for hire is at: http://copyright.gov/circs/circ09.pdf.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**That said, you could craft the agreement where the client licenses code from you for either a one-time flat fee or ongoing subscription-based payments (which you would position as support and access to upgrades).** If the client is deploying the application within their own infrastructure, include language in the agreement to protect against unauthorized dissemination of the code to unauthorized third-parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client will also (likely) request a clause that states they assume ownership of the code in the event you go out of business or communicate that you are no longer committed to product upkeep. Do a few searches for &quot;source-code escrow&quot; for some ideas." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10998" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3548" RevisionGUID="ae3cd5e5-fe38-4b8f-8581-ae1a002dd531" CreationDate="2015-08-14T06:42:07.877" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/632079738371182592" />
  <row Id="11012" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3537" RevisionGUID="67d0525f-42f5-481d-9dc9-0844f9db1d1f" CreationDate="2015-08-18T04:32:03.533" UserId="5516" Comment="update my status as a DN" Text="I am currently in the process of becoming a digital nomad myself. I have been investigating this for a few months now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###You must sort out a few things&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - how you can earn you money. Ideally, you want several income streams.&#xD;&#xA; - your legal status: you want to make sure this is sorted out as without that you probably will have trouble charging anyone for your services&#xD;&#xA; - the gear: you must make sure you have the right tool for the job, once you are away it can be difficult to buy it&#xD;&#xA; - health insurance: you **must** have a good international health insurance, you'd easily find yourself in big trouble if you have any health issue. see http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get&#xD;&#xA; - belongings insurance: you want to insure your belongings, it won't save your work but at least it'll reduce the financial impact of getting something stolen.&#xD;&#xA; - digital backups: you will probably want to have digital backups of your work. You want a strategy that works smoothly so that if you loose your work (ie. lose your computer in a sailing accident), you can not only access all the lost work but also setup the new gear as the original one in a minimum amount of time.&#xD;&#xA; - work place: you might want to make your life easy &amp; start by moving to a location that is known for welcoming digital nomads, it'll save you tone of time &amp; you'll be able to learn from others&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###Further resources to get started on being a digital nomad&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/digital-nomad-101-how-to-become-a-digital-nomad/465&#xD;&#xA; - http://flagtheory.com/digital-nomad/&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io&#xD;&#xA; - http://digitalnomadhub.net&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad&#xD;&#xA; - https://www.facebook.com/nomadlist&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.dnxglobal.com&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.dnxcamp.com&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadjobs.io&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.toptal.com&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler&#xD;&#xA; - When must you pay income taxes? http://www.liferemotely.com/work-while-traveling/managing-a-business/65-paying-taxes-in-your-home-country-when-you-arent-living-there&#xD;&#xA; - http://passports.io&#xD;&#xA; - https://freedomsurfer.com/offshore-jurisdictions&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/where-should-i-register-my-company-as-a-digital-nomad-singapore-hong-kong/520/4&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/is-panama-a-good-destination-for-tax-residency-for-digital-nomads/2588/14&#xD;&#xA; - https://boldanddetermined.com/hong-kong-business-guide/&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com - tech tips&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadlist.com/guides - books&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com/hammocks-hard-drives/ - books&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get/46751#46751&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - https://nomadforum.io/t/does-international-health-insurance-for-digital-nomads-exist/378&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11013" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3583" RevisionGUID="4f659c3d-cb5c-4415-aa97-f7c6104438e2" CreationDate="2015-08-18T14:13:26.653" UserId="8642" Text="I'm a web developer for about 6 years. All the work I have done, design specs / code development was for clients. ( Never contributed to any open source project )&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lot of freelance / remote jobs I’ve came across lately require to look at your GitHub profile.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Mine is basically empty. I have my own code tracking setup, plus, all the projects that I've worked on that were hosted on Github are private, so nothing will ever show on my profile page.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can I showcase on my profile in these conditions ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS: I have a portfolio website where I list some of my projects, but there are only screen shots, links and descriptions of the projects, no code, for obvious reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11014" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3583" RevisionGUID="4f659c3d-cb5c-4415-aa97-f7c6104438e2" CreationDate="2015-08-18T14:13:26.653" UserId="8642" Text="How can i list project in my Github profile, while only doing work for clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11015" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3583" RevisionGUID="4f659c3d-cb5c-4415-aa97-f7c6104438e2" CreationDate="2015-08-18T14:13:26.653" UserId="8642" Text="|portfolio|resume|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11016" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3583" RevisionGUID="f276a153-fd95-4440-8dd8-39b03f35d0a3" CreationDate="2015-08-18T17:45:27.510" UserId="75" Comment="edited body; edited tags" Text="I have been a web developer for about 6 years. All the work I have done, design specs and code development was for clients. I have never contributed to any open source project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lot of freelance / remote jobs I have came across lately require a look at your GitHub profile.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Mine is basically empty. I have my own code tracking setup, plus all the projects that I have worked on that were hosted on Github are private, so nothing will ever show on my profile page.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can I showcase on my profile in these conditions?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a portfolio website where I list some of my projects, but there are only screen shots, links and descriptions of the projects, no code, for obvious reasons." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11017" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3583" RevisionGUID="f276a153-fd95-4440-8dd8-39b03f35d0a3" CreationDate="2015-08-18T17:45:27.510" UserId="75" Comment="edited body; edited tags" Text="|portfolio|resume|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11018" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3583" RevisionGUID="f276a153-fd95-4440-8dd8-39b03f35d0a3" CreationDate="2015-08-18T17:45:27.510" UserId="75" Comment="edited body; edited tags" Text="How can I list project in my Github profile, while only doing work for clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11019" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3584" RevisionGUID="fc7b0e94-0566-4db4-910e-63880e547872" CreationDate="2015-08-18T17:51:11.867" UserId="75" Text="I have found that people who want access to GitHub work you have done want access for a few different reasons:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. How is your **coding style**? Do you follow industry standards for your code? Do you do **tests** on your code? Do you fix bugs that come up?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Do you **help with other projects you don't own**, or do other people help with yours? This can show you work together with people on a team, and makes you a more valuable member of any other team you may be part of.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Do you have a **secret algorithm** that they need access to, possibly without paying you for the work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, they want to see what you can do. If you are showing off that you are a great designer, then offer them your portfolio, just like you have. If they are wanting a full stack developer or someone to do hard coding with, they want to see your GitHub. Are you applying for the right position? I hope so...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As well, if you have lots of active projects listed, it shows you are dedicated to your projects, and maybe even your hobbies are in here as well. It helps them learn the kind of person you are, as weird as it may sound...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With point 2, it could be that they want you on a team, and they already have people ready to go. They need to make sure everyone could read everyone else's code just fine. They need to make sure you are a team player, and having lots of people contributing could be the biggest indicator to them that you are.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, the last reason, is because they know you've solved a problem no one else could, and they want that power for themselves! I doubt this last point is why, but it's still a possibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My suggestion is to offer your portfolio, and explain that you have a private GitHub that you don't hand out to clients. If they keep prying, it may be time to look for another job." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11020" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3585" RevisionGUID="633714cc-eec2-4e23-9fdb-327da0e440df" CreationDate="2015-08-19T07:15:33.587" UserId="8645" Text="I want to start freelancing in Germany, and my first client is a UK based company. What confuses me is that I don't know if I should charge VAT or not.&#xD;&#xA;Since it's my start, I had no freelance income before, so I'm not whether the 17,500 rule applies to me. The client says that I don't need to charge VAT." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11021" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3585" RevisionGUID="633714cc-eec2-4e23-9fdb-327da0e440df" CreationDate="2015-08-19T07:15:33.587" UserId="8645" Text="Freelancing in Germany for a UK client, should I charge VAT?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11022" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3585" RevisionGUID="633714cc-eec2-4e23-9fdb-327da0e440df" CreationDate="2015-08-19T07:15:33.587" UserId="8645" Text="|taxes|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11023" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3586" RevisionGUID="789b6dfd-4445-472a-b8c4-ed2d312ea46f" CreationDate="2015-08-19T09:00:41.733" UserId="8370" Text="I am considering starting out in IT freelancing by taking some day-rate contracts via recruiters. As I understand it, the recruiter is paid an additional fee for the duration of the contract, on an ongoing basis, based on the day rate. However there is no employment relationship and I would still be self-employed (probably as a limited company).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most advertisements for work that I see specify a contract length in months, and they're usually 3, 6 or 12, sometimes with the possibility of extension. My understanding is that this is just a rough indication, and the client may terminate the relationship with no notice, since they are paying a higher rate for this flexibility (this could be because a project was cancelled, they've hired a permanent employee, or they are not satisfied with the work provided, or for whatever other reason).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am interested in whether there are generally any legal barriers for the contractor to terminate the relationship in a similar way? Or, if this is not explicitly contractually prohibited, is it generally seen by recruiters as a breach of trust that might discourage them from working with such a contractor in the future?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm based in the UK, in case answers might vary from one country to another.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11024" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3586" RevisionGUID="789b6dfd-4445-472a-b8c4-ed2d312ea46f" CreationDate="2015-08-19T09:00:41.733" UserId="8370" Text="Can a contractor generally terminate a day-rate contract with no consequences?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11025" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3586" RevisionGUID="789b6dfd-4445-472a-b8c4-ed2d312ea46f" CreationDate="2015-08-19T09:00:41.733" UserId="8370" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11026" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3586" RevisionGUID="1ed15e89-670a-4e20-81f4-2e8abdfefe04" CreationDate="2015-08-19T09:05:58.410" UserId="8370" Comment="Note on recruiter losses" Text="I am considering starting out in IT freelancing by taking some day-rate contracts via recruiters. As I understand it, the recruiter is paid an additional fee for the duration of the contract, on an ongoing basis, based on the day rate. However there is no employment relationship and I would still be self-employed (probably as a limited company).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most advertisements for work that I see specify a contract length in months, and they're usually 3, 6 or 12, sometimes with the possibility of extension. My understanding is that this is just a rough indication, and the client may terminate the relationship with no notice, since they are paying a higher rate for this flexibility (this could be because a project was cancelled, they've hired a permanent employee, or they are not satisfied with the work provided, or for whatever other reason).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am interested in whether there are generally any legal barriers for the contractor to terminate the relationship in a similar way? Or, if this is not explicitly contractually prohibited, is it generally seen by recruiters as a breach of trust that might discourage them from working with such a contractor in the future? I expect that for long contracts, a recruiter stands to lose substantial sums if the contractor pulls out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm based in the UK, in case answers might vary from one country to another.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11027" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3586" RevisionGUID="e15a2f72-8eaa-434b-8d67-fac555780058" CreationDate="2015-08-19T09:22:30.533" UserId="8370" Comment="Clarify" Text="I am considering starting out in IT freelancing by taking some day-rate contracts via recruiters. As I understand it, the recruiter is paid an additional fee for the duration of the contract, on an ongoing basis, based on the day rate. However there is no employment relationship and I would still be self-employed (probably as a limited company).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most advertisements for work that I see specify a contract length in months, and they're usually 3, 6 or 12, sometimes with the possibility of extension. My understanding is that this is just a rough indication, and the client may terminate the relationship with no notice, since they are paying a higher rate for this flexibility (this could be because a project was cancelled, they've hired a permanent employee, or they are not satisfied with the work provided, or for whatever other reason).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am interested in whether there are generally any legal barriers for the contractor to terminate the relationship in a similar way? Or, if this is not explicitly contractually prohibited, is it generally seen by recruiters as a breach of trust that might discourage them from working with such a contractor in the future? I expect that for long contracts, a recruiter stands to lose substantial sums of predicted future revenue if the contractor pulls out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm based in the UK, in case answers might vary from one country to another.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11028" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3587" RevisionGUID="547b4568-d193-42eb-90db-f59086473e94" CreationDate="2015-08-19T13:45:36.640" UserId="8646" Text="as the money comes INTO Germany, you have to charge VAT. He probably doesn't want to pay VAT. &#xD;&#xA;I made a logo for a UK based company and I had to charge VAT too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps.&#xD;&#xA;Cheers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11029" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3588" RevisionGUID="66436a2e-42cb-4c6a-896d-ad425969b84e" CreationDate="2015-08-19T16:43:14.790" UserId="8370" Text="I'm looking at IT contracting roles at present, based on a day rate, for a set duration, usually between 3 to 12 months. At least here in the UK, these roles are only available through recruitment agencies, and it seems sensible for me to understand the pricing model they use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My understanding is that a recruiter will take a percentage of the day rate, calculated on the same frequency as the contractor, which is usually weekly. The client pays the recruiter, and the recruiter pays the contractor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been told that since I have not contracted before, it is sensible to reduce my target day rate for reasons of 'competitiveness' (there are allegedly several agencies handling the same role). However, I am minded to think that the recruiter will not pass the savings onto the client unless I can check they have done so. I have asked one recruiter contact how this works, and he was rather non-specific and said that it's not his business area. I asked if the client was aware of the contractor day rate - I would rather they were - and he &quot;didn't know&quot; this either.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do experienced contractors have an approach to check that they are not being exploited by a recruitment company, or is the best (and least satisfying) approach to decide my value and not worry further about it? Is it generally considered acceptable to discuss these figures with the client, given they would not be happy with recruiters inflating their cut either?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11030" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3588" RevisionGUID="66436a2e-42cb-4c6a-896d-ad425969b84e" CreationDate="2015-08-19T16:43:14.790" UserId="8370" Text="Do contract role recruiters generally work on an open percentage basis?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11031" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3588" RevisionGUID="66436a2e-42cb-4c6a-896d-ad425969b84e" CreationDate="2015-08-19T16:43:14.790" UserId="8370" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11033" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3590" RevisionGUID="ea42cc4f-013b-4f0a-ad73-0af9f9adb7d6" CreationDate="2015-08-19T17:17:35.517" UserId="75" Text="First off, only sign contracts if you **agree and understand them entirely**. If you don't see a clause you want, don't sign it. If you need a clause that allows you out in the same way as the client, explain you want that clause in there. Why can't you? No reason at all, make the request.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do realize they may see you as a flight risk in this event. Is there a particular reason why you would want to leave with no notice? I've seen many contracts requiring 1-week or 2-week notice periods (one that required 1 month!), but every contract will allow you to get out... Right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Point is, read the contract, and don't sign if you don't agree. There should be no reason why you can't leave with ample notice; I would give 2 weeks notice if I didn't have any clauses that said I needed longer periods. If I don't like a project, I can also claim that I'm just on the probation period (in the first 90 days), so I can leave for whatever reason in that time, just like the employer could let me go in that time for whatever reason. It's a double-edged sword, in that regard.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, I've been offered 3 and 12 month contracts, with the option of becoming a full time employee after the contract has expired. I have not taken these deals, due to the companies offering crap to me as a contractor, but they always promise green fields and rays of sunshine if I stay on. Do what makes you comfortable, and you'll feel much better." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11034" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3591" RevisionGUID="c236f79e-3200-49c5-ad24-2e571162f0a1" CreationDate="2015-08-19T17:57:47.120" UserId="75" Text="To be honest, I started out much lower than my going rate... Started at $14/hr for contracting work, even though I charged my own clients $20 to start. The recruiter wants the best people for the least amount of money **as quickly as possible** for their client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that because I lowered my rate for this one company, I also got more work out of them. I ended my term with the company as a site lead for IMAC projects, and was at just over $30/hr, which is still higher than I was charging normal clients at that time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After a few years of this, I am now able to charge $60/hour for most work, and $120/hr for my premium services (night work). I don't work with a recruiter anymore, but they helped me get a foot in the door to other job opportunities (mainly, experience), and get used to different invoicing practices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember, everything you do is experience, but only if you learn from it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said all that, **every** contract the recruiter has had me sign includes clauses about not talking directly to the client about how much we are making, and not to solicit the clients we do work for with that recruiter for at least a year. So, given that, **do not discuss with the client what you are getting paid**." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11037" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="3426" RevisionGUID="ac8b734f-527b-4fb2-a320-27f67d3cfd42" CreationDate="2015-08-19T17:58:15.660" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="11038" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3592" RevisionGUID="0c8b7592-3daa-4bd5-84ff-518074c457d1" CreationDate="2015-08-19T20:32:46.760" UserId="8370" Text="I am presently looking for IT contracting roles, and since I am in the UK, this means I am obliged to make use of a recruiter. I am not particularly price-sensitive when it comes to a daily rate, and tend to value location (commutability) and industry (cultural fit) relatively highly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This means that I am keen to find out who the client is, and where their offices are located, at the soonest possible opportunity. I am aware that recruiters are worried that I will use this information to cut them out of the deal, though I have no plans to do so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Today a recruiter asked me to send him an email agreeing that I would let his firm &quot;exclusively represent me in connection with the role&quot;, and I did so, with the proviso that I agreed in connection with this round of hiring only:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; As per your request, I am happy to put in writing that your firm can exclusively represent me in connection with this round of hiring for the [title] role.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I used this wording (&quot;with this round of hiring&quot;) so that if I encounter the role naturally through another recruiter in a few months time, I shall have no legal or moral problems using the new recruiter. (Broadly speaking, I do not care who represents me).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Was I correct to acquiesce to this demand? Do experienced contractors refuse to make these sorts of legalistic promises, and have I been naive in agreeing to it?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11039" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3592" RevisionGUID="0c8b7592-3daa-4bd5-84ff-518074c457d1" CreationDate="2015-08-19T20:32:46.760" UserId="8370" Text="Is it wise for a contractor to agree to a recruiter's request that the recruiter may exclusively represent them for a specific role?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11040" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3592" RevisionGUID="0c8b7592-3daa-4bd5-84ff-518074c457d1" CreationDate="2015-08-19T20:32:46.760" UserId="8370" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11041" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3592" RevisionGUID="258487ef-657f-4c4f-a74e-da1addd43f70" CreationDate="2015-08-19T20:37:50.460" UserId="8370" Comment="edited title" Text="Is it wise for a contractor to agree in writing to a recruiter's request that the recruiter may exclusively represent them for a specific role?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11042" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3593" RevisionGUID="956fc418-d296-43ac-9f2b-e5f160b6edb1" CreationDate="2015-08-19T20:51:05.533" UserId="8649" Text="I think it's almost standard in every recruiters contracts to have an exclusivity clause this avoids them from competition with other recruiters for the same role where you would bid each recruiter against each other and lower their profit margin" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11043" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3594" RevisionGUID="270278c3-bb55-4bb0-b053-c1e29cc9795f" CreationDate="2015-08-19T23:13:21.833" UserId="8650" Text="I have a contract with a local, small town that calls for 1/2 down and payment on completion after inspection. The inspection was done 2 months ago and I have still not been paid for the first mural I completed for them. I am working on a second mural and have received my 1/2 down for it,(although they took their sweet time). the contract,( which they had drawn up),  clearly called for down payment on the contract day which was june 6th. I was not paid until july 10th after I had already begun wall prep. further there is/was a stip that the work be done this year. Is it right for me to consider the contract voided for these late payments? I am considering work stoppage. I would send them a letter stating that they have voided the contract, that I will not consider commencing work again until I am paid in full for both jobs in advance and.....I would like a 10% gratuity for the extra work I have done that was not in the original contract with them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11044" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3594" RevisionGUID="270278c3-bb55-4bb0-b053-c1e29cc9795f" CreationDate="2015-08-19T23:13:21.833" UserId="8650" Text="slow pay municipality" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11045" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3594" RevisionGUID="270278c3-bb55-4bb0-b053-c1e29cc9795f" CreationDate="2015-08-19T23:13:21.833" UserId="8650" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11046" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3537" RevisionGUID="04f8fd43-e723-4d58-ae0f-0bbb359fdc71" CreationDate="2015-08-20T03:53:22.153" UserId="5516" Comment="add more info" Text="I am currently in the process of becoming a digital nomad myself. I have been investigating this for a few months now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###You must sort out a few things&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Earn money**: Ideally, you want several income streams to reduce risks.&#xD;&#xA; - **Legal status**: you want to make sure this is sorted out as without that you probably will have trouble charging anyone for your services.&#xD;&#xA; - **Legal address**: you will still have mails coming from organizations &amp; you will need a good system to make this work. Either get a friend or relative to help you, or get a professional service (i.e. in Switzerland the post can scan your mails &amp; email them to you).&#xD;&#xA; - **Banking**: you must have an excellent bank providing cutting edge online services. Forget about old fashion banks &amp; switch to something reliable at anytime from anywhere.&#xD;&#xA; - **Health insurance**: you **must** have a good international health insurance, you'd easily find yourself in big trouble if you have any health issue. see http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get&#xD;&#xA; - **Gear**: you must make sure you have the right tool for the job, once you are away it can be difficult to buy it&#xD;&#xA; - **Insure your gear**: you want to insure your belongings, it won't save your work but at least it'll reduce the financial impact of getting something stolen.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your gear**: uglify your gear so it's less likely to get stolen &amp; buy appropriate housing (shockproof, waterproof, &amp; so on) to prevent physical damage.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your data: encrypt sensitive files**: use tools such as Truecrypt or BitLocker to only allow yourself to access your sensitive data.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your data: digital backups**: you will probably want to have digital backups of your work. You want a strategy that works smoothly so that if you loose your work (ie. lose your computer in a sailing accident), you can not only access all the lost work but also setup the new gear as the original one in a minimum amount of time.&#xD;&#xA; - **Work place**: you might want to make your life easy &amp; start by moving to a location that is known for welcoming digital nomads, it'll save you tone of time &amp; you'll be able to learn from others&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###Further resources to get started on being a digital nomad&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/digital-nomad-101-how-to-become-a-digital-nomad/465&#xD;&#xA; - http://flagtheory.com/digital-nomad/&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io&#xD;&#xA; - http://digitalnomadhub.net&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad&#xD;&#xA; - https://www.facebook.com/nomadlist&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.dnxglobal.com&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.dnxcamp.com&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadjobs.io&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.toptal.com&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler&#xD;&#xA; - When must you pay income taxes? http://www.liferemotely.com/work-while-traveling/managing-a-business/65-paying-taxes-in-your-home-country-when-you-arent-living-there&#xD;&#xA; - http://passports.io&#xD;&#xA; - https://freedomsurfer.com/offshore-jurisdictions&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/where-should-i-register-my-company-as-a-digital-nomad-singapore-hong-kong/520/4&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/is-panama-a-good-destination-for-tax-residency-for-digital-nomads/2588/14&#xD;&#xA; - https://boldanddetermined.com/hong-kong-business-guide/&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com - tech tips&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadlist.com/guides - books&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com/hammocks-hard-drives/ - books&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get/46751#46751&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - https://nomadforum.io/t/does-international-health-insurance-for-digital-nomads-exist/378&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/09/top-10-tactics-for-protecting-your-stuff/&#xD;&#xA; - https://truecrypt.ch&#xD;&#xA; - https://medium.com/nomad-gate/the-world-s-best-bank-accounts-for-international-travelers-and-nomads-3257e6839cff&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11047" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3595" RevisionGUID="ae07fc4d-a74e-4cdb-8e17-cbd190b9d9b7" CreationDate="2015-08-20T11:34:36.000" UserId="8654" Text="I am a student in the UK who is doing some social marketing for a local company and have been told to make a monthly invoice. How do I pay taxes on the money I receive? I don't want to do anything illegal but I have absolutely no idea how to pay taxes on money that is going to be direct debited into my account." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11048" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3595" RevisionGUID="ae07fc4d-a74e-4cdb-8e17-cbd190b9d9b7" CreationDate="2015-08-20T11:34:36.000" UserId="8654" Text="Pay tax on paid invoice" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11049" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3595" RevisionGUID="ae07fc4d-a74e-4cdb-8e17-cbd190b9d9b7" CreationDate="2015-08-20T11:34:36.000" UserId="8654" Text="|freelance-websites|taxes|invoices|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11050" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3594" RevisionGUID="c7239e55-6c77-454b-96b5-4632598bd1ce" CreationDate="2015-08-20T12:43:58.163" UserId="58" Comment="Fixed title, tags and grammar/spelling/clarity; broke your question up a bit" Text="I have a contract with a local, small town that calls for a 50% payment in advance and full payment on completion after inspection. The inspection was done 2 months ago and I have still not been paid for the first piece of work I completed for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am working on a second project and have received my advance for it (although they took a while to get around to it). The contract, which they had drawn up, clearly called for down payment on the contract day which was June 6th. I was not paid until July 10th after I had already begun preparation work; furthermore, there is/was an agreement that the work be done this year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it right for me to consider the contract voided for these late payments? I am considering stopping work and sending them a letter stating that they have voided the contract, and that I will not consider commencing work again until I am paid in full for both jobs in advance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would also like a 10% gratuity for the extra work I have done that was not in the original contract with them. How should I approach this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11051" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3594" RevisionGUID="c7239e55-6c77-454b-96b5-4632598bd1ce" CreationDate="2015-08-20T12:43:58.163" UserId="58" Comment="Fixed title, tags and grammar/spelling/clarity; broke your question up a bit" Text="Client is being extremely slow with final payments" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11052" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3594" RevisionGUID="c7239e55-6c77-454b-96b5-4632598bd1ce" CreationDate="2015-08-20T12:43:58.163" UserId="58" Comment="Fixed title, tags and grammar/spelling/clarity; broke your question up a bit" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11053" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3595" RevisionGUID="3a11818e-a822-40cc-afb9-56e8c6e9a440" CreationDate="2015-08-20T12:46:31.383" UserId="58" Comment="Changed your title to match what people in your situation might be searching for" Text="Registering as self-employed in the UK" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11054" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3596" RevisionGUID="ea3017d1-8bf2-4011-9e67-eb51732f85e3" CreationDate="2015-08-20T12:53:33.803" UserId="58" Text="## Preface&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Firstly, keep a record of *everything* that has happened, finance-wise. This is absolutely critical and you could end up being audited and potentially fined very hefty amounts of money for bad accounting practices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, go to https://www.gov.uk/topic/personal-tax/self-assessment and register as self-employed, to allow you to fill in a self-assessment tax return. This process could take quite some time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless you are trading outside of the UK or earning more than around £90k/year, you don't need to charge VAT on invoices. If you do, you will need to register for VATMOSS via gov.uk's portal where you can do your tax return.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Actually filing your tax return&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You do not need to fill in your tax return for the year until the year has actually ended. The date that the financial year in the UK ends is April 5th.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep every invoice you've ever gotten, and use these to total up your earnings. If possible, keep a list of expenses, and also have to hand your payslips, P45 or P60 for the year. The site will guide you through the rest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, gov.uk is revamping the self-assessment returns process, so next financial year may actually be easier than normal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11055" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3597" RevisionGUID="37f16503-371e-40f2-acec-fae780538401" CreationDate="2015-08-20T13:08:56.623" UserId="517" Text="If you need this work, then continue work and bore them to pay you the 2nd half. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you however, do not have to work this job, and have other clients as well, then I would inform them that you would like them to pay you by X-Date at the latest. After that date, you will stop work on the 2nd mural. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you see, it all depends on your position and how you can behave. The established person would do the 2nd step, while new guy would do 1st approach. After all, you have signed contract and you can always sue them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11056" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3597" RevisionGUID="95b8cf8f-d304-493c-b8dc-43f78c50015c" CreationDate="2015-08-20T13:23:32.030" UserId="58" Comment="added 57 characters in body" Text="If you need this work, then continue working and bug them to pay you the second half. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If, however, you don't need the work, then you do not have to work this job, and you have other clients. I would inform them that you would like them to pay you by a given date at the latest. After that date, you will stop work on the 2nd mural. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you can see, it all depends upon your position and how you can behave. The established person would do the second step, while a new guy would go for the first approach. After all, you have a signed contract, and you can always sue them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11057" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3598" RevisionGUID="aa990d96-fafd-49b1-8de8-c5627d86910f" CreationDate="2015-08-20T19:03:13.983" UserId="8320" Text="I have been in this position before, what you need to learn from this is you should always enforce a due date for payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your contract you should mention that when payment is not receive on time client will be charged a late payment fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then at this point you will be able to consider the contract voided.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always be precise in your contracts." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11062" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3601" RevisionGUID="58cf799e-35f3-4e4d-b28d-92fa95750fd8" CreationDate="2015-08-21T08:41:13.493" UserId="5026" Text="Almost the same situation with me. Some years ago I have decided to go on a full-time position instead of freelancing. I was working full day in a government institution and I thought I had not so much energy to join open source projects at the end of any day. Now I have quite a big gap in my portfolio...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do I do since I recognized I have that gap:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I am going to some certification programs (Zend PHP Engineer, Microsoft Professional, CompTIA, etc.) ,- this shows I know what`s important at the level technology companies (like Zend Technologies, Microsoft, etc.) thinks is important to know today.&#xD;&#xA;- I am doing my own projects (I have many plans on that..) and make it publicly available on github. Even day long projects counts sometime as you could introduce the comfortable solution to the really big problem. This matters.&#xD;&#xA;- I am joining some other open projects and help there as much as I can, for example by mentioning the bug or by fixing something.. Anything is better than nothing here.&#xD;&#xA;- Write reviews to books you read (for example, on amazon.com, blogs, etc.).&#xD;&#xA;- Few days ago I have made my Linked-in profile also. As I understand, there (Linked-in) you could list your skills and others (people you worked with) approves you are good with that skill. If the skill of yours is approved by active and competent Linked-in user then this really means something. Especially if the one who is looking at your profile knows the person who says you are good at specific skill. Clients, partners, others of your past projects are able participate.&#xD;&#xA;- Going to technology events as a guest (or better - as a presenter) is also valuable. You got new knowledge, you share your knowledge, you show up to others, you learn from mistakes of other people, people are sometimes mentioning your strengths and weaknesses, etc. Giving a good question on the event could result to something interesting. Some events are going to be in uploaded to YouTube or similar site. There your input will be recognized aslo. &#xD;&#xA;- Make your own youtube channel, share the experience with the world. Sharing your knowledge via YouTube, Facebook, personal blog, whatever.. is also good way to go.&#xD;&#xA;- Participation in stackoverflow and similar webs (communities) helps also. Sometimes giving a simple answer to a difficult question is really important.&#xD;&#xA;- Be part of technology organization(s). For example, IEEE (I like IEEE, you may choose other organization) membership means something. Usually, membership costs money, requires participation in events, learning, having specific entry knowledge, etc. Who wants to throw hundreds of $ away? By paying fee to such organization you claim you have value back (and you understand that as a value), you support the technology in global meaning (you help with moving the technology forward).&#xD;&#xA;- ...and some more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I never tried Linked-in before, but I try it now. I am really excited with what I got there. Making the Linked-in portfolio really helps to understand what is THE PORTFOLIO. In my own opinion (especially, after updating Linked-in), the portfolio is about showing what you are able to do today, not what you did yesterday. It is also about what kind of result you got at the end of the job, not what kind of job you have done. Saying is not enough, you have to have someone that stays on the back of yours while you say. Be it certification, award, friend, co-worker, organization, community, something valuable and recognized to/by the target. :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;p.s. Sorry for the language. English is not my native language. Trying to do my best to know it better. :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11065" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3587" RevisionGUID="5a8ee82e-04e7-432b-af23-1aa9db38bd7f" CreationDate="2015-08-22T16:51:56.867" UserId="8646" Comment="added 514 characters in body" Text="as the money comes INTO Germany, you have to charge VAT. He probably doesn't want to pay VAT. &#xD;&#xA;I made a logo for a UK based company and I had to charge VAT too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here ya go pal https://www.gulp.de/knowledge-base/recht-und-steuern/der-freiberufler-das-ausland-und-die-umsatzsteuer.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Das deutsche Steuerrecht kennt das so genannte „Welteinkünfteprinzip“. Demnach sind sämtliche (weltweiten) Einkünfte eines deutschen Staatsbürgers mit Wohnsitz oder gewöhnlichem Aufenthalt im Inland einkommensteuerpflichtig. &quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Which means that you have to charge VATs as you want to pay VATs to the state. As long as you live in Germany and the German VAT laws count everywhere.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps.&#xD;&#xA;Cheers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11066" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3587" RevisionGUID="9e96158c-ddb3-49f3-a48d-17f5ddd8da81" CreationDate="2015-08-22T23:41:21.240" UserId="58" Comment="Structure updates" Text="As the money comes *into* Germany, you have to charge VAT. He probably doesn't want to pay VAT. &#xD;&#xA;I made a logo for a UK based company and I had to charge VAT too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Das deutsche Steuerrecht kennt das so genannte „Welteinkünfteprinzip“. Demnach sind sämtliche (weltweiten) Einkünfte eines deutschen Staatsbürgers mit Wohnsitz oder gewöhnlichem Aufenthalt im Inland einkommensteuerpflichtig.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &lt;sub&gt;— https://www.gulp.de/knowledge-base/recht-und-steuern/der-freiberufler-das-ausland-und-die-umsatzsteuer.html&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This means that you have to charge VAT as you want to pay VAT to the state. As long as you live in Germany, all income is taxable as though it were from Germany&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;1: Welteinkünfte Prinzip, &quot;World income principle&quot;.&lt;/sub&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11075" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3585" RevisionGUID="7d0f13c1-203d-4952-a2d8-80314d73f3c1" CreationDate="2015-08-23T10:59:55.833" UserId="8645" Comment="writing correction" Text="I want to start freelancing in Germany, and my first client is a UK based company. What confuses me is that I don't know if I should charge VAT or not.&#xD;&#xA;Since it's my start, I had no freelance income before, so I'm not sure whether the 17,500 rule applies to me. The client says that I don't need to charge VAT." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11076" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3603" RevisionGUID="df3d06f2-857f-4981-b438-c3c38127965d" CreationDate="2015-08-23T11:04:57.410" UserId="8645" Text="I did some research and found the following from [German-British Chamber of Commerce][1]:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Intra-EC supplies of goods are exempt from VAT in Germany when they&#xD;&#xA;&gt; are made to a taxable person in another EU member state, who will&#xD;&#xA;&gt; account for the VAT on acquisition. Suppliers must show their German&#xD;&#xA;&gt; VAT identification number (this starts with the abbreviation DE and is&#xD;&#xA;&gt; followed by 9 digits) and the valid VAT identification number of the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; customer (this starts with the abbreviation of the country of&#xD;&#xA;&gt; destination) on their sales invoice. Furthermore, suppliers should&#xD;&#xA;&gt; inform their customers of the intra-EC supply and the exemption from&#xD;&#xA;&gt; German VAT&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://grossbritannien.ahk.de/fileadmin/ahk_grossbritannien/Dokumente/Formulare/Tax/C1_Leaflet_VAT_invoices_in_Germany.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11077" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3604" RevisionGUID="72e14291-cdf8-4441-8637-6688f47b082a" CreationDate="2015-08-23T11:19:56.640" UserId="8645" Text="I'm going to visit Berlin Pankow Finanzamt to apply for Tax ID as a Freelancer, so at the moment I'm filling the form &quot;Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are two important lines asking for &quot;**Ausgeübter Beruf**&quot; and the other &quot;**Art der Tätigkeit (genaue Bezeichnung des Gewerbezweiges)**&quot;,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I did lots of research and it seems that IT Consultant will count as&#xD;&#xA;   a trader and not a freelancer. Is that so?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The specific positions which I have worked so far, and will freelance will be &quot;*[Senior]* Network *[Security]* Engineer&quot; and &quot;*[Senior]* Network *[Security]* Consultant&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - What do you suggest to fill in these field?&#xD;&#xA; - And how should I be careful when invoicing my customer in terms of&#xD;&#xA;   Service Descriptions?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11078" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3604" RevisionGUID="72e14291-cdf8-4441-8637-6688f47b082a" CreationDate="2015-08-23T11:19:56.640" UserId="8645" Text="Freelance categorisation in Germany" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11079" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3604" RevisionGUID="72e14291-cdf8-4441-8637-6688f47b082a" CreationDate="2015-08-23T11:19:56.640" UserId="8645" Text="|taxes|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11088" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3607" RevisionGUID="214a786f-b438-4f86-b4aa-b4304cc6b54c" CreationDate="2015-08-24T18:10:23.840" UserId="8695" Text="I have done a lot of projects, both government and private, over the last 30 years and here is an axiomatic way of looking at things.  Government contracts are slow pay, but sure pay.  Private contracts are quick pay, but not necessarily sure pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There have been State contracts I have had that have paid 90 days after they were due.  They ALWAYS have paid, though, without exception. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Contrast that with private contracts.  Some have stiffed me altogether, and others have &quot;shorted&quot; my final pay.  Most have paid as agreed, though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice with any contract is to develop the relationship, and once they are used to seeing you around and feel a connection to you, they are far less likely to delay payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is also nothing wrong with being pleasantly persistent about getting paid.  (Keep bugging them!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As to the &quot;gratuity&quot;, you are probably not going to get that, unless it is in the contract.  In this industry, you HAVE to make a contract detailing exactly what you are going to do.  If they want more, then they have to authorize a VPO to authorize the other work.  If you do not get them to sign off on a VPO, then the extra work is being done for free.  This can actually be a good approach for later negotiations.   By the way, the client wanting you to do extra work for the same amount of money is nothing new, and it is called &quot;Scope Creep&quot;.  You really have to proactively defend against this and get a policy in place." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11089" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3601" RevisionGUID="6c34b7c9-5149-4f6d-a426-65f9ee30fdcb" CreationDate="2015-08-24T21:30:05.540" UserId="8370" Comment="Trim chat, fix case, remove some ellipsis dots" Text="Almost the same situation with me. Some years ago I have decided to go on a full-time position instead of freelancing. I was working full day in a government institution and I thought I had not so much energy to join open source projects at the end of any day. Now I have quite a big gap in my portfolio...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do I do since I recognized I have that gap:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I am going to some certification programs (Zend PHP Engineer, Microsoft Professional, CompTIA, etc.) ,- this shows I know what`s important at the level technology companies (like Zend Technologies, Microsoft, etc.) thinks is important to know today.&#xD;&#xA;- I am doing my own projects and make it publicly available on GitHub. Even day long projects counts sometime as you could introduce the comfortable solution to the really big problem. This matters.&#xD;&#xA;- I am joining some other open projects and help there as much as I can, for example by mentioning the bug or by fixing something. Anything is better than nothing here.&#xD;&#xA;- Write reviews to books you read (for example, on Amazon, blogs, etc.).&#xD;&#xA;- Few days ago I have made my LinkedIn profile also. As I understand, there you could list your skills and others (people you worked with) approves you are good with that skill. If the skill of yours is approved by active and competent LinkedIn user then this really means something. Especially if the one who is looking at your profile knows the person who says you are good at specific skill. Clients, partners, others of your past projects are able participate.&#xD;&#xA;- Going to technology events as a guest (or better - as a presenter) is also valuable. You got new knowledge, you share your knowledge, you show up to others, you learn from mistakes of other people, people are sometimes mentioning your strengths and weaknesses, etc. Giving a good question on the event could result to something interesting. Some events are going to be in uploaded to YouTube or similar site. There your input will be recognized aslo. &#xD;&#xA;- Make your own YouTube channel, share the experience with the world. Sharing your knowledge via YouTube, Facebook, personal blog, whatever.. is also good way to go.&#xD;&#xA;- Participation in Stack Overflow and similar webs (communities) helps also. Sometimes giving a simple answer to a difficult question is really important.&#xD;&#xA;- Be part of technology organization(s). For example, IEEE (I like IEEE, you may choose other organization) membership means something. Usually, membership costs money, requires participation in events, learning, having specific entry knowledge, etc. Who wants to throw hundreds of $ away? By paying fee to such organization you claim you have value back (and you understand that as a value), you support the technology in global meaning (you help with moving the technology forward).&#xD;&#xA;- ...and some more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I never tried LinkedIn before, but I try it now. I am really excited with what I got there. Making the Linked-in portfolio really helps to understand what is the portfolio. In my own opinion (especially, after updating LinkedIn), the portfolio is about showing what you are able to do today, not what you did yesterday. It is also about what kind of result you got at the end of the job, not what kind of job you have done. Saying is not enough, you have to have someone that stays on the back of yours while you say. Be it certification, award, friend, co-worker, organization, community, something valuable and recognized to/by the target.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11090" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3601" RevisionGUID="6c34b7c9-5149-4f6d-a426-65f9ee30fdcb" CreationDate="2015-08-24T21:30:05.540" Comment="Proposed by 8370 approved by 5026 edit id of 425" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11091" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3607" RevisionGUID="7524e7bf-59db-48e1-a8e2-0666e93a31cb" CreationDate="2015-08-24T23:02:42.460" UserId="8695" Comment="added 206 characters in body" Text="I have done a lot of projects, both government and private, over the last 30 years and here is an axiomatic way of looking at things.  Government contracts are slow pay, but sure pay.  Private contracts are quick pay, but not necessarily sure pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There have been State contracts I have had that have paid 90 days after they were due.  They ALWAYS have paid, though, without exception. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Contrast that with private contracts.  Some have stiffed me altogether, and others have &quot;shorted&quot; my final pay.  Most have paid as agreed, though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice with any contract is to develop the relationship, and once they are used to seeing you around and feel a connection to you, they are far less likely to delay payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is also nothing wrong with being pleasantly persistent about getting paid.  (Keep bugging them!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As to the &quot;gratuity&quot;, you are probably not going to get that, unless it is in the contract.  In this industry, you HAVE to make a contract detailing exactly what you are going to do.  If they want more, then they have to authorize a VPO to authorize the other work.  If you do not get them to sign off on a VPO, then the extra work is being done for free.  This can actually be a good approach for later negotiations.   By the way, the client wanting you to do extra work for the same amount of money is nothing new, and it is called &quot;Scope Creep&quot;.  You really have to proactively defend against this and get a policy in place.&#xA;&#xA;EDIT:  VPO stands for Variance Purchase Order.  All it means is that the client has asked you to do something that was not part of the original agreement, and is agreeing to pay you $x for the extra work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11092" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3608" RevisionGUID="08f28355-5916-4e5a-a14c-8a6370ff3f7a" CreationDate="2015-08-25T02:34:26.653" UserId="4561" Text="I'm a little confused about exactly what you're signing.  Are you saying you won't perform that job for that company except through this recruiter?    &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;I have done contract software training, where a company pursues a large training project, and if they get the project they fill it with sub-contractors.  They have finished competing with other training companies and won the project by the time they hire sub-contractors, so their concern is not whether or not we sub-contractors represent other training companies, but that they don't want us to go to work directly for the end client - as in &quot;Pssst! Mr. Manager, you could hire me directly for 75% of what you're paying the company that sent me, and I'll be making more.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So it is standard in that line of work to sign a contract that you won't do business directly for that client, usually for a period of 2 years after any work they sent you there to do is complete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But it would not be normal to say you won't represent other recruiting companies.  If they aren't keeping you busy full time, how can they ask that of you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is normal for the recruiter to charge a lot more for you than they are paying you.  The &quot;value&quot; they bring to you is landing the business (they are your sales team) and the &quot;value&quot; they bring to the end client is being able to staff large projects and having access to several reliable people so they can fill a position  at anytime, whereas the individual contractor is only available when he has no other work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I did this type of work I was disgusted to learn they were charging 3x what they paid me.  But since I've seen a lot of the recruiting companies go out of business and I'm still here, maybe it was not so excessive.  I may not have understood their overhead." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11094" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3593" RevisionGUID="dbdb1d46-71a8-4f19-9dbc-2be9d25d7806" CreationDate="2015-08-25T15:30:42.940" UserId="8370" Comment="Word choice, punctuation" Text="I think it's almost standard in every recruiter's contracts to have an exclusivity clause. This insulates them from competition with other recruiters for the same role, where a candidate could bid each recruiter against each other, and lower their profit margin.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11095" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3593" RevisionGUID="dbdb1d46-71a8-4f19-9dbc-2be9d25d7806" CreationDate="2015-08-25T15:30:42.940" Comment="Proposed by 8370 approved by 58 edit id of 424" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11099" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3583" RevisionGUID="50e2b58d-dd82-42e7-a384-448385e9ed07" CreationDate="2015-08-25T17:02:19.073" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/636222079776464896" />
  <row Id="11106" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3203" RevisionGUID="5174cda8-e682-40f5-9f7e-a9b62435ce00" CreationDate="2015-08-26T05:55:50.703" UserId="708" Comment="added 8 characters in body" Text="Simply put, you have to train any partner. I know that doesn't *sound* pleasant, but it's the reality. Any inability to understand that you *must* work when you are working kind of shows a lack of maturity to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your girlfriend kept using your razor to shave the cat.... wouldn't you explain to her why that is unacceptable? It takes the same amount of determined explanation to some in order for them to understand that work is work and it makes no difference if you are sitting 5 feet away or across town. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been in your situation, where interruptions, although not malicious, become overly costly in terms of focus, concentration, and work. In some cases, all it takes is a good explanation that working from home does **not** mean you are free to do anything. In other cases, it can end a relationship. After all, if you had a girlfriend showing up at a job or calling you every 30 minutes to ask you're opinion on something, it become destructive and if you value the job, you'd eliminate the issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You probably just need to thoroughly explain to her that *your work* **requires** periods of **focused** concentration and ANY interruption can set you back. She may not be considering that you're in the middle of 5000 lines of code and the moment you look away it takes you 20 minutes to get back to where you were.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If none of this works.... I'd start looking for a new girlfriend. If she doesn't respect your wishes when it comes to supporting yourself (and probably her a bit) then she's clearly detrimental to your success. That's not what a girlfriend should be." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11107" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1237" RevisionGUID="16b5c875-8322-4154-8e12-e1c15820e7b9" CreationDate="2015-08-26T11:58:00.547" UserId="8370" Comment="Remove sig and promotional link" Text="I would say that you started on the right track. Asking questions on discussion boards gets you acquainted with peers in the freelancing world that could give you suggestions and possible project referrals - which you can make intelligent choices from. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you've never started on any freelance project before, the challenge lies on what you could possibly show your potential client to have enough confidence in you to do the work. Yes, your skills maybe impeccable and you could commit yourself to an excellent output. However, you're going to have to show something to your prospects to prove it. Your communication and interpersonal skills [during an interview or a meeting] would come in handy. If you cannot impress them with the skills in your profile, then get their trust with how you present yourself in a discussion. Clients would love to hear more about what you can do in details.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The suggestion to start building your reputation on a freelancing platform can help, too. Create a profile on popular freelancing channels and bid on a job advert you believe you could make wonders at. A lot of clients in those platforms are willing to give &quot;entry-level&quot; freelancers a chance. I'm sure you've told to be careful about bidding on projects though. Yes, usually, clients will have a brief background of what they are about on their job adverts. Platforms like Elance and oDesk also show how far they are within the site: how many contractors they have hired, how much they paid, and how trusted their are as described in their feedback comments and scores. You'll pretty much have an idea who you want to work with. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And as you said, you already have your website up and running (optimised and all), a little more perseverance is strongly suggested. You can't just be all over the World Wide Web as it's way too big for you. Discover where your kind of expertise hangs around and stay with them for a while until you get prospects. Listen to what your peers talk about by saving a few links to blogs, social media profile, and discussion boards. This will not only help you find prospects but will also update what you think you already know. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11108" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1237" RevisionGUID="16b5c875-8322-4154-8e12-e1c15820e7b9" CreationDate="2015-08-26T11:58:00.547" Comment="Proposed by 8370 approved by 1018, 9 edit id of 422" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11113" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3611" RevisionGUID="6d28887c-6d2c-4ae3-b8bc-1ca4f47735e3" CreationDate="2015-08-26T16:45:58.040" UserId="8723" Text="I have completed some translation work for a language agency in Spain. I am registered as self-employed in the UK. I invoiced the agency, only for them to request an 'intracomunitary number'. I sent my UTR number along with a Certificate of UK Tax Residence which I requested from HMRC. I have explained to the client that I am self-employed and well below the VAT threshold. The client is not accepting this. My guess is they want a VAT number. Is it worth registering for VAT in the UK at this stage? My income as a freelancer is minimal and I am at my wits' end. Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11114" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3611" RevisionGUID="6d28887c-6d2c-4ae3-b8bc-1ca4f47735e3" CreationDate="2015-08-26T16:45:58.040" UserId="8723" Text="Client in Spain is not paying me as I am not VAT registered in UK" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11115" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3611" RevisionGUID="6d28887c-6d2c-4ae3-b8bc-1ca4f47735e3" CreationDate="2015-08-26T16:45:58.040" UserId="8723" Text="|taxes|spain|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11116" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1256" RevisionGUID="bde0f521-5390-4195-a1f8-91f76cbf9b7f" CreationDate="2015-08-26T16:57:49.047" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 165 characters in body" Text="I would agree with Teresa here about how you expect to use your portfolio. Before you get busy with the SEO techniques, you need to set a clear definition of your portfolio site's purpose. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Do you expect an audience to find you through various search engines and get in touch with you for inquiries and possible projects?** If yes, then you should get to work. The challenge of being &quot;found&quot; though lies mainly in your situation where what you offer does not seem very &quot;searchable&quot;. In this case you may need to brainstorm about very similar words to use - words that people use to search for the kind of services  that you do. Then use it to your advantage. Try to see your competition's site and find out the keywords they are using for your content optimization. And then listen to what your industry talks about by getting updated on discussion boards, blogs, Social Media and other Internet channel. This should give you a good grasp on how you can structure your optimization.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Do you merely just want a site to direct the people you have already contacted to show your completed projects and offer them services?** If yes, then maybe there's not much need for you to be at the very top of Search Engine Results Pages. If you've already got a list of prospects and you're not over the moon about writing down your portfolio over and over again (or even maybe creating a template too long for them to read in your proposals), getting in touch with them and providing them a link where they could thoroughly review your qualifications and your completed projects will be very useful. SEO-wise, you may just need to skip that bit, as you've already gathered everyone you want to show yourself to. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although I believe that every person online who wants to increase their audience should engage in SEO by being searchable through various engines, on-page optimization is just one factor of the strategy. There are other ways in which you could promote your site, build a reputation for yourself and have &quot;crawling &amp; indexing&quot; merits for it, and eventually be at the top ranks of Search Engine Results Pages. And it definitely does not stop at &quot;dressing up&quot; your portfolio site with the SEO components like meta-tags, keyword-rich content, meta-heads, and what have yous. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Rome wasn't built in  a day. It will be wise not to expect your portfolio site to be searchable right away. Optimizing is a work in progress and SEO is dynamic. The Google process itself changes from time to time - giving and taking away merits to various SEO factors. The SEO technique you might apply today may not have much bearing to Google's process tomorrow.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11117" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3612" RevisionGUID="85303b85-7bec-4068-844b-f1140669dfbd" CreationDate="2015-08-26T17:28:01.827" UserId="7807" Text="I'm freelancing on the side individually, and I want to buy a used computer for it off of Craigslist. Can I write this off as an expense and how would I get a receipt for it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11118" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3612" RevisionGUID="85303b85-7bec-4068-844b-f1140669dfbd" CreationDate="2015-08-26T17:28:01.827" UserId="7807" Text="Can I expense a purchase of a used computer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11119" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3612" RevisionGUID="85303b85-7bec-4068-844b-f1140669dfbd" CreationDate="2015-08-26T17:28:01.827" UserId="7807" Text="|taxes|expenses|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11120" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3613" RevisionGUID="341a633a-9e60-4ddf-bea2-2157733c2081" CreationDate="2015-08-26T18:50:14.090" UserId="8724" Text="I'm working as a freelancer for a long term client on a complex project. In fact, this project is so complex that I cannot do it all on my own and as such a third party (an established company) was brought in to the game to speed things up and do the project management.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Initially that worked fine, although the company has been making a lot of demands on their behalf regarding my freelance working style. There are few things that bother me the most:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I am not allowed to work remotely and have to be physically present in their office (6000 miles from home)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I have not been getting any project management from them, but they do demand to review my work to &quot;assure **they** can deliver quality&quot; to our mutual client based on my work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Questions that I have asked their expert employees that are in on the project were billed to our mutual client for their time spent answering&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally I don't mind having my work reviewed if that was done on a &quot;Hey if you need some help with anything let us know&quot; kind of basis but they make it feel like a Spanish inquisition. (They one time I had some question marks on quality of work done on their end I virtually got the contract shoved in my face with the remark that it adheres to the contract.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the beginning I have mentioned to them a few things that I have difficulties with but the only strict answer I got is that they as a company protect their own interests and literally &quot;as an external I am a risk and they should have appropriate risk management&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Currently I am on a visa run. It's my second day out and I conveniently &quot;forgot&quot; to hand in my work for their review while I am away. At the moment I have messages about the review in three different social media outlets (one of them being a private account) while the deal was that I would have a certain amount of work finished on my return next week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All in all I am not sure being able to work with them any longer. Because by now I **dread** going to their office and a project that I used to really love has now become a burden to me. It affects me so much that only now I am away from them I realise how much it stresses me out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have also discussed this with the client and although he feels my frustration, he also cannot back out of the deal (which I wouldn't want him to either) for financial and contractual reasons of course. My backing out would also put the client and myself in a difficult financial position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not so sure if this is a good question or too vague and ambiguous but despair is very near and any help or guidance is appreciated at this point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11121" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3613" RevisionGUID="341a633a-9e60-4ddf-bea2-2157733c2081" CreationDate="2015-08-26T18:50:14.090" UserId="8724" Text="How to deal with controlling external company that my client wants me to work together with" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11122" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3613" RevisionGUID="341a633a-9e60-4ddf-bea2-2157733c2081" CreationDate="2015-08-26T18:50:14.090" UserId="8724" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11123" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3613" RevisionGUID="ef33f019-6ad1-4547-a868-a3791c6ef92f" CreationDate="2015-08-26T19:00:32.097" UserId="8724" Comment="typo fix" Text="I'm working as a freelancer for a long term client on a complex project. In fact, this project is so complex that I cannot do it all on my own and as such a third party (an established company) was brought in to the game to speed things up and do the project management.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Initially that worked fine, although the company has been making a lot of demands on their behalf regarding my freelance working style. There are few things that bother me the most:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I am not allowed to work remotely and have to be physically present in their office (6000 miles from home)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I have not been getting any project management from them, but they do demand to review my work to &quot;assure **they** can deliver quality&quot; to our mutual client based on my work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Questions that I have asked their expert employees that are in on the project were billed to our mutual client for their time spent answering&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally I don't mind having my work reviewed if that was done on a &quot;Hey if you need some help with anything let us know&quot; kind of basis but they make it feel like a Spanish inquisition. (The one time I had some question marks on quality of work done on their end I virtually got the contract shoved in my face with the remark that it adheres to the contract.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the beginning I have mentioned to them a few things that I have difficulties with but the only strict answer I got is that they as a company protect their own interests and literally &quot;as an external I am a risk and they should have appropriate risk management&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Currently I am on a visa run. It's my second day out and I conveniently &quot;forgot&quot; to hand in my work for their review while I am away. At the moment I have messages about the review in three different social media outlets (one of them being a private account) while the deal was that I would have a certain amount of work finished on my return next week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All in all I am not sure being able to work with them any longer. Because by now I **dread** going to their office and a project that I used to really love has now become a burden to me. It affects me so much that only now I am away from them I realise how much it stresses me out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have also discussed this with the client and although he feels my frustration, he also cannot back out of the deal (which I wouldn't want him to either) for financial and contractual reasons of course. My backing out would also put the client and myself in a difficult financial position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not so sure if this is a good question or too vague and ambiguous but despair is very near and any help or guidance is appreciated at this point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11124" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3614" RevisionGUID="5d8f35a2-92d0-44ec-afa3-72ffff869eb7" CreationDate="2015-08-27T01:03:56.403" UserId="4561" Text="Since no one else has answered yet, I'm going to take a stab at it, but I've never encountered this exact situation before, so please consider that when considering my advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I gather that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. The company you normally work for directly shifted you UNDER this other company for this project.  Is this other company paying your invoices?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Your original client knows you are not happy with the demands, and understands, but tells you there is nothing they can do about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. If you were to beg out of this project it would put your original client in a bind, which you don't want to do to them and it could hurt your future prospects with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;OK...  Some questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Are you sure your original client really wants you on this project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Does your original client care whether or not you work remotely or give these daily reports?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. Can/would this new contractor fire you? IOW, if your original company doesn't want you to leave this project, then wouldn't they also be ticked if the new contractor fired you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 4. Is it possible your original client really does want all these demands met but they don't have the courage to tell you that so they are pretending to be sympathetic?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 5. Have you told the control-freak-contractor that these things are a problem for you and not how you do your best work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I ask because: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't even want to be on this project that bad any more and you really are doing it mostly as a favor to your original client at this point, you may have a lot more leverage than you think with the new contractor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless you are afraid it will lose you a great long term client, you might just passively resist their demands.  Simply don't do daily reports. OH WELL.  Find a &quot;real&quot; reason from your life why you are simply unable to travel 6,000 miles - back spasm, a family member that needs support, other commitments you made prior to these new project requirements, health issues (the travel is stressing you out...), etc.  Don't lie, find something real, but make it non-negotiable:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;I simply cannot make the trip, but I am very committed to this project, and I am will absolutely work remotely to help you out.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For things like their stupid daily updates, if you're getting paid for your time I would just do it, but I would never do a second of it on my own time/dime.  And if they charge your client for that, I understand you want to protect them, but they made their bed by signing onto this.  But I would never engage them on social media, and when you're off the clock, or you agreed to an update on Friday and it's only Monday, I would 100% ignore all attempts at communication from them.  Simply do not respond.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if they gripe at you later, just politely explain your working hours to them and that you do not check work email during those hours or when you're traveling.  Do not be apologetic.  Just be perplexed that they are wigging out over it when you clearly were not on the clock.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And when you do extra things like having your work checked, make sure they and your original client understand that you are not getting as much work done because you're spending so much time with emails, meetings, overviews, whatever...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as you're willing to possibly lose the job over it, and you've been upfront that you don't work well with these conditions, I would just decide what your boundaries are and don't allow (or just ignore) all their attempts to breach them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your original client really wants you the contractor may be afraid to fire you  for fear of ticking off their new client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do decide to just passively resist their demands tell yourself that you are only doing XYZ from now on so that you do not get stressed out when they keep emailing and calling you.  It's their problem.  They can freak out if they want, but you're done with that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;ON the other hand if getting fired from this projet is a big concern to you, then I would suck it up.  But the 6,000 miles of travel in this day of remote technology is probably unnecessary and if you give a reason why you CANNOT do it anymore, they will probably discover it's workable for you to do at least most of it remotely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11125" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3615" RevisionGUID="56c0b877-947e-4200-87b1-d45b81a2253f" CreationDate="2015-08-27T01:34:51.843" UserId="4561" Text="I mostly just want to say &quot;I feel your pain&quot; working from home with a spouse who is also home.  He does not interrupt me ***too*** much - but I have a separate office which helps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**One suggestion I do have** is when she asks you what time you will wrap up, or how much longer, always say much longer than you really think.  That way if a miracle happens and you're done early it's a great surprise for her, and when the usual happens and it takes 5 times longer than you thought, you won't be as late as usual.  You could even sell it a little if you get done early and say &quot;I've got more to do but I'm going to stop because it's really important to me to spend some time with you today.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The noise canceling headset idea someone mentioned is good too until you can at least get a wall.  I suspect your girlfriend is bored and wants your attention and just seeing you there is way too much of a temptation for her.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My biggest issue is relatives thinking that because I work from home I have unlimited time to vacation with them, or entertain them if they come to visit.  Some get really resentful, but if I had a regular job I know they would not assume I could just stop work in the middle of the day to play tour guide or go visit for days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, understand that when we are focused on the computer we are in &quot;task&quot; mode and it's natural to feel very irritated when interrupted.  It's not okay for her to keep this up, but the natural instinct to show how exasperating it is may also be disproportionate to the crime.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is so @&amp;^%$^&amp;* frustrating though to be interrupted right when you're in the middle of concentrating." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11130" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="719" RevisionGUID="556db9fe-93fd-4526-a304-1b902c21ca60" CreationDate="2015-08-27T09:14:38.880" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="11131" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="719" RevisionGUID="8d9a7c08-eff8-4d30-8d72-9b0cce821e2a" CreationDate="2015-08-27T10:32:18.897" UserId="58" Comment="edited tags" Text="|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11132" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3617" RevisionGUID="ffb2112d-9c79-4af3-87fc-b93e15be03fe" CreationDate="2015-08-27T15:25:29.580" UserId="8735" Text="So I started working with a new client on a web application starting this summer. Verbal agreements, nothing on paper. Did a few pages for them until they started asking for things outside of scope. Put it on ice for a while, and now we're talking about signing a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's my version: &#xD;&#xA;https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-JXSoj1Z5zoupfwpdsoVcX3bCPA9XxZT7HpnDQUVL1Y/edit&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's their version: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wIdH_yOrzInjKaAu_AJyZ225UUXEQjr9zzmztwbt220/edit&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm new in the freelance world. I have done a couple projects before and got paid for them, but I have never signed a contract. I feel more comfortable with my own contract because it only contains what I think it should need to contain. I have read their contract also and there don't seem to be any obvious issues with it, but the guy who drafted it is a lawyer and I don't like lawyers giving me papers to sign.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11133" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3617" RevisionGUID="ffb2112d-9c79-4af3-87fc-b93e15be03fe" CreationDate="2015-08-27T15:25:29.580" UserId="8735" Text="Consulting Contracts" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11134" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3617" RevisionGUID="ffb2112d-9c79-4af3-87fc-b93e15be03fe" CreationDate="2015-08-27T15:25:29.580" UserId="8735" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11139" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3620" RevisionGUID="db7fdc62-2e21-4512-9d5c-a87170bf1c5a" CreationDate="2015-08-27T19:18:04.410" UserId="4561" Text="IAMAL, but I read their contract over with a consultant's perspective.  It is pretty standard and if you sign it *most likely* everything will go just fine...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I personally would not sign it as written.  Below are my concerns, if you don't read all my ramblings, at least skip to the bottom where I mention some stuff that SHOULD be in the contract to protect you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Know that people push back on contracts like this so don't be afraid to politely raise concerns in writing and ask for clarification/rewording.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FROM THEIR CONTRACT:&#xD;&#xA;2.1 - how often is reasonable for reports?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.3 Access to consultant - what if you want to hire a sub contractor for something simple you don’t have time for, or something complex you need expert advice on?  Why do they care as long as you keep their information confidential?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.4 (ii) - make sure this doesn’t mean you can’t use code you developed on other projects and keep in your personal library.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.3 Expenses - have you agreed to what are “reasonable” - mileage? Per Diem (how much?) if you travel? Travel time? Transportation? Lodging?&#xD;&#xA;Note: With travel, I always request a Per Diem instead of actual expenses ‘cause it’s such a pain to keep a receipt and log every meal and cup of coffee…&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Speaking of expenses - what happens if you need to travel and you get sick or there is a delay (flight delay) beyond your control?  I don’t have an answer for this, just something to think about - I got food poisoning on a business trip once.  Wasn’t pretty…&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5.3 and 5.4 - Termination - if they terminate you, make sure they are obligated to pay for whatever work you have done but not yet invoiced for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Proprietary Rights&#xD;&#xA;Here is my biggest area of concern.  I know it is common to do “work made for hire” and assign all rights to the client so I think what they are asking is standard, but it concerns me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Read their definitions and understand anything and everything you do they own, can resell, patent, copyright etc.  OK.  That’s probably why they are hiring you.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, assuming this project involves programming -- if you come up with a procedure you  can use in other, totally unrelated projects, it sounds like you’re just not allowed to do that.  It sounds like they are asking to “unknow” any personal knowledge advancements you make on this project.    &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What about all the code you’ve already written for other projects that can be used on this one?  Do they expect you to recreate that from scratch and bill for all that time, or are they looking forward to the advantage that you are experienced and have a lot of stuff already written that you can repurpose for their project to save time and money?  Can they reasonably expect you to wipe your memory and code library clean of anything related to this project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What if you’re doing documentation and some steps you must document are the same for another project you do?  Are you expected to find some way to reword them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6.3 Non Competition - this is very restrictive.  Their definition of “business” is any business they do, not just what you are working on for them.  So you are prevented from doing any business with anyone who develops any product or service that competes or someday may compete with them.  How are you to know what/who that might be?  What are you to do for a living in the 2 years after this contract? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand they don’t want to train their competition.  But I would insist they limit the restriction to doing work on a product or service that directly specifically competes with what you are working on for them.  And not third parties they hire that you meet and work with through this project.  How are you to know every contractor this company works with between now and 2 years after the contract ends?  And why shouldn’t you be able to work with them if you meet them independent of this project and aren’t helping them build a product or service that competes with what you worked on for this client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They have a whole paragraph after the restrictions having you agree to how “reasonable” they are.  But I personally do not think they are reasonable.  I notice it also has you agree they are enforceable.  I know courts in some states, like California where I am, have refused to enforce such non-compete clauses.  This may be why they are asking you to agree to this and say it’s reasonable.  They are probably just trying to protect their interests so you don’t take what you learn on this project and help their competition, but if they were to enforce it as it is written it sounds to me like you would basically be out of work for 2 years after this project.  Will they pay you two years salary as they “compensation” they say they are giving that makes it reasonable to ask this of you?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;YOUR CONTRACT&#xD;&#xA;You did a good job with the scope.  Make sure that is in the contract you sign so they can’t go nuts with features they “assume” are part of a “reservation system” etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;OTHER CONSIDERATIONS&#xD;&#xA;You want a warranty that no matter what goes wrong - say your website takes down their network… - they can’t sue you for any more than what they have paid you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;ARBITRATION&#xD;&#xA;Do you want arbitration if they decide to sue you?  Are you local to where they are?  If now, where would this take place&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;SUPPORT&#xD;&#xA;What happens when it takes them a year to even use a part of this website and they discover something?  Are you obligated to fix/tweak things forever?  I’d have some cut off/sign off they do, or say the payment is their consent that the work is done.  This is also an opportunity for you to pick up a little more money by offering them a “support agreement” for an annual amount, where you will fix things or do more work at a discount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11140" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3621" RevisionGUID="dcb0cdbe-d281-487b-9f7b-808d51800608" CreationDate="2015-08-27T19:28:13.443" UserId="8737" Text="I am currently unemployed and have a family to support. I have been looking for some freelance work that includes content writing and social media marketing.&#xA;I have been searching Internet and came across few websites that conduct online surveys that pay you for participating. But in order to withdraw the money, a paypal accowis needed. I live in a country where there is no concept of paypal. &#xA;What should I know? I am in real need." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11141" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3621" RevisionGUID="dcb0cdbe-d281-487b-9f7b-808d51800608" CreationDate="2015-08-27T19:28:13.443" UserId="8737" Text="Paypal account is a barrier" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11142" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3621" RevisionGUID="dcb0cdbe-d281-487b-9f7b-808d51800608" CreationDate="2015-08-27T19:28:13.443" UserId="8737" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11143" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3621" RevisionGUID="3a06a61d-edb0-4b0e-aa24-d914acef4396" CreationDate="2015-08-27T19:44:24.847" UserId="8737" Comment="edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|payment-terms|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11144" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3622" RevisionGUID="980e5330-0891-4e63-83ef-456dbb8d10e3" CreationDate="2015-08-27T20:48:42.233" UserId="75" Text="Find another job, or ask if they can pay you via another method. There's a reason they are wanting to user PayPal, and if you can't use it, you can't come to an arrangement around that. Change the terms, and ask if they can pay you by cheque or money order or Western Union or bank draft or cash or BitCoins, or... or... or..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11145" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3623" RevisionGUID="0ab32e3a-539d-4dbc-b9ba-b31934db55b5" CreationDate="2015-08-28T09:14:43.590" UserId="4271" Text="It may depend on you're contract, do they mention you need to be a Ltd company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This could be a simple miscommunication issue, try explaining to them that you are self employed not a Ltd company therefore unable to register for VAT" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11146" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3624" RevisionGUID="fefd877b-845d-4c90-9780-9cd56941ef35" CreationDate="2015-08-28T11:30:01.700" UserId="8679" Text="You can use [skrill][1] , it is almost available for every country. You just have to make your account on it with your banking info. And ask client to pay you on skrill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.skrill.com/en/home/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11147" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3623" RevisionGUID="2f4e2be6-c47d-43d2-b4b7-d6a825edf2ac" CreationDate="2015-08-28T11:36:31.843" UserId="4271" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body" Text="It may depend on your contract, do they mention you need to be a Ltd company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This could be a simple miscommunication issue, try explaining to them that you are self employed not a Ltd company therefore unable to register for VAT" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11148" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3625" RevisionGUID="e2280b16-fdd8-4616-8329-c4f21ddcca2e" CreationDate="2015-08-28T12:22:33.827" UserId="8745" Text="Saying &quot;No&quot; is completely acceptable you shouldn't worry about offending the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are two points not brought up in the current awnsers that are worth mentioning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Point 1:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I remember that feeling when starting out around 15 years ago. I would send a new client a proposal and anxiously waiting to see if they will balk at the rate or project price.  Here is what I learned along the way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Never decrease your hourly rate for a client.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's helpful to have standards to screen all potential new clients.   You want to see that they willing spend money if it is beneficial to the company.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you walk into an office and find employees using OpenOffice because they aren't willing to pay for Microsoft Office.  Runaway!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you exclude clients that are cheap and like to nickel and dime everyone (normally because they have no option).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I actually enjoy hearing them ask:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Is your rate is non-negotiable?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember a discount from $100/hour to $90/hour upfront can save the company $1,000s in an ongoing relationship.  When they do this across the board with all new vendors they can see a sizable savings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My favorite line is getting emailed: &quot;Is this rate for your preferred clients?&quot;  Often times when I tell them &quot;Yes it is&quot; they reply with &quot;Had to had!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The takeaway is that you will find that many expertised busines owners will haggle with young freelancers and get pleasure out.  but actually would have no problem with the rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Point 2:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My goal since day one was to provide the client with what they need even if they don't realize it upfront.  This and items I propose can be an unexpected exspenes for them and not be budgeted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When detected that a doesn't want to pay the full amount. it's been my policy to offer them the option to pay the bill in 2 or 3 monthly installments.  That tends be a solution when a client has sticker shock.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;they&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also have a schedule that you follow for rate increases.  Every year in Demcember  my hourly increased by $10.   This is very important if you have long lasting relationship with clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;The cost seems a bit high...&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Is your rate is non-negotiable?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;projects for clients t&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;completed&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;over that time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;proposals&#xD;&#xA; clients   handling of has past since then &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; over everyone awnsers &#xD;&#xA;&quot;Is your rate is non-negotiable?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;you've &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;LELooking over " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11149" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3625" RevisionGUID="1138e3c1-1422-44f2-a6f7-15761199ecf2" CreationDate="2015-08-28T12:49:41.843" UserId="8745" Comment="Removed garbage text " Text="Saying &quot;No&quot; is completely acceptable you shouldn't worry about offending the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are two points not brought up in the current awnsers that are worth mentioning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Point 1:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I remember that feeling when starting out around 15 years ago. I would send a new client a proposal and anxiously waiting to see if they will balk at the rate or project price.  Here is what I learned along the way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Never decrease your hourly rate for a client.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's helpful to have standards to screen all potential new clients.   You want to see that they willing spend money if it is beneficial to the company.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you walk into an office and find employees using OpenOffice because they aren't willing to pay for Microsoft Office.  Runaway!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you exclude clients that are cheap and like to nickel and dime everyone (normally because they have no option).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I actually enjoy hearing them ask:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Is your rate is non-negotiable?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember a discount from $100/hour to $90/hour upfront can save the company $1,000s in an ongoing relationship.  When they do this across the board with all new vendors they can see a sizable savings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My favorite line is getting emailed: &quot;Is this rate for your preferred clients?&quot;  Often times when I tell them &quot;Yes it is&quot; they reply with &quot;Had to had!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The takeaway is that you will find that many expertised busines owners will haggle with young freelancers and get pleasure out.  but actually would have no problem with the rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Point 2:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My goal since day one was to provide the client with what they need even if they don't realize it upfront.  This and items I propose can be an unexpected exspenes for them and not be budgeted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When detected that a doesn't want to pay the full amount. it's been my policy to offer them the option to pay the bill in 2 or 3 monthly installments.  That tends be a solution when a client has sticker shock.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11150" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3625" RevisionGUID="cb53e5b4-d07a-43e6-a24f-fa3d02656852" CreationDate="2015-08-28T16:47:49.033" UserId="75" Comment="added 95 characters in body" Text="Saying &quot;No&quot; is completely acceptable, and you shouldn't worry about offending the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are two points not brought up in the current answers that are worth mentioning:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I remember that feeling when starting out around 15 years ago. I would send a new client a proposal and anxiously waiting to see if they will balk at the rate or project price.  Here is what I learned along the way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Never decrease your hourly rate for a client.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  It's helpful to have standards to screen all potential new clients.   You want to see that they willing spend money if it is beneficial to the company.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  For example if you walk into an office and find employees using OpenOffice because they aren't willing to pay for Microsoft Office,  run away!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  If you exclude clients that are cheap and like to nickel and dime everyone (normally because they have no option), you'll feel better and make more money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  I actually enjoy hearing them ask: **&quot;Is your rate is non-negotiable?&quot;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Remember, a discount from $100/hour to $90/hour upfront can save the company $1,000s in an ongoing relationship.  When they do this across the board with all new vendors, they can see a sizable savings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  My favorite line is getting emailed: **&quot;Is this rate for your preferred clients?&quot;**  Often times when I tell them **&quot;Yes it is&quot;**, to which they reply with **&quot;Had to ask!&quot;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  The takeaway is that you will find that many experienced business owners will haggle with young freelancers and get pleasure out of it, but actually would have no problem with the rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. My goal since day one was to provide the client with what they need even if they don't realize it upfront.  This and items I propose can be an unexpected expenses for them and not be budgeted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  When detected that a client doesn't want to pay the full amount, it's been my policy to offer them the option to pay the bill in 2 or 3 monthly installments.  That tends be a solution when a client has sticker shock.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11151" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3620" RevisionGUID="9b65ace8-12dc-48c4-8f6c-1c9551676578" CreationDate="2015-08-28T18:00:51.413" UserId="4561" Comment="Fixed typos/clarification" Text="I am not a lawyer, but I read their contract over with a consultant's perspective.  It is pretty standard and if you sign it *most likely* everything will go just fine...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I personally would not sign it as written.  Below are my concerns, if you don't read all my ramblings, at least skip to the bottom where I mention some stuff that SHOULD be in the contract to protect you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Know that people push back on contracts like this so don't be afraid to politely raise concerns in writing and ask for clarification/rewording.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FROM THEIR CONTRACT:&#xD;&#xA;2.1 - how often is reasonable for reports?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.3 Access to consultant - what if you want to hire a sub contractor for something simple you don’t have time for, or something complex you need expert advice on?  Why do they care as long as you keep their information confidential?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.4 (ii) - make sure this doesn’t mean you can’t use code you developed on other projects and keep in your personal library.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.3 Expenses - have you agreed to what are “reasonable” - mileage? Per Diem (how much?) if you travel? Travel time? Transportation? Lodging?&#xD;&#xA;Note: With travel, I always request a Per Diem instead of actual expenses ‘cause it’s such a pain to keep a receipt and log every meal and cup of coffee…&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Speaking of expenses - what happens if you need to travel and you get sick or there is a delay (flight delay) beyond your control?  I don’t have an answer for this, just something to think about - I got food poisoning on a business trip once.  Wasn’t pretty…&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5.3 and 5.4 - Termination - if they terminate you, make sure they are obligated to pay for whatever work you have done but not yet invoiced for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Proprietary Rights&#xD;&#xA;Here is my biggest area of concern.  I know it is common to do “work made for hire” and assign all rights to the client so I think what they are asking is standard, but it concerns me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Read their definitions and understand anything and everything you do they own, can resell, patent, copyright etc.  OK.  That’s probably why they are hiring you.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, assuming this project involves programming -- if you come up with a procedure you  can use in other, totally unrelated projects, it sounds like you’re just not allowed to do that.  It sounds like they are asking to “unknow” any personal knowledge advancements you make on this project.    &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What about all the code you’ve already written for other projects that can be used on this one?  Do they expect you to recreate that from scratch and bill for all that time, or are they looking forward to the advantage that you are experienced and have a lot of stuff already written that you can repurpose for their project to save time and money?  Can they reasonably expect you to wipe your memory and code library clean of anything related to this project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What if you’re doing documentation and some steps you must document are the same for another project you do?  Are you expected to find some way to reword them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6.3 Non Competition - this is very restrictive.  Their definition of “business” is any business they do, not just what you are working on for them.  So you are prevented from doing any business with anyone who develops any product or service that competes or someday may compete with them.  How are you to know what/who that might be?  What are you to do for a living in the 2 years after this contract? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand they don’t want to train their competition.  But I would insist they limit the restriction to doing work on a product or service that directly specifically competes with what you are working on for them.  And not third parties they hire that you meet and work with through this project.  How are you to know every contractor this company works with between now and 2 years after the contract ends?  And why shouldn’t you be able to work with them if you meet them independent of this project and aren’t helping them build a product or service that competes with what you worked on for this client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They have a whole paragraph after the restrictions having you agree to how “reasonable” they are.  But I personally do not think they are reasonable.  I notice it also has you agree they are enforceable.  I know courts in some states, like California where I am, have refused to enforce such non-compete clauses.  This may be why they are asking you to agree to this and say it’s reasonable.  They are probably just trying to protect their interests so you don’t take what you learn on this project and help their competition, but if they were to enforce it as it is written it sounds to me like you would basically be out of work for 2 years after this project.  Will they pay you two years salary as they “compensation” they say they are giving that makes it reasonable to ask this of you?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;YOUR CONTRACT&#xD;&#xA;You did a good job with the scope.  Make sure that is in the contract you sign so they can’t go nuts with features they “assume” are part of a “reservation system” etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;OTHER CONSIDERATIONS&#xD;&#xA;You want a warranty that no matter what goes wrong - say your website takes down their network… - they can’t sue you for any more than what they have paid you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;ARBITRATION&#xD;&#xA;Do you want arbitration if they decide to sue you?  Are you local to where they are?  If now, where would this take place&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;SUPPORT&#xD;&#xA;What happens when it takes them a year to even use a part of this website and they discover something?  Are you obligated to fix/tweak things forever?  I’d have some cut off/sign off they do, or say the payment is their consent that the work is done.  This is also an opportunity for you to pick up a little more money by offering them a “support agreement” for an annual amount, where you will fix things or do more work at a discount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11152" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3626" RevisionGUID="228b003e-c55a-49d2-b330-7f92a9392c73" CreationDate="2015-08-28T21:20:02.113" UserId="514" Text="One issue is physical space and that's not changeable (much) in the short term. You've tried ways of dividing it into social and work areas and that is probably worth continuing to pursue (but in some way that isn't vulnerable to the cat). It might be as simple as an agreement between you that:&#xD;&#xA; &quot;When I'm wearing the headphones / the red hat / some other visual cue, I don't want to be interrupted unless it's about fire or blood.&quot; Then don't overuse it. Remember, if you worked in a cubicle farm, you'd get social drop ins, conversations right outside your doorway, get called away to meetings, fire drills, and pan-handled for a co-worker's birthday / baby present / the holiday pool / whatever. If the interruptions at home are that bad, you may need to work at a work-space, coffee-shop, library, or elsewhere outside the apartment. But I bet they are a whole lot fewer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other issue is social. You've discussed why you need to work, that your work IS work even if you choose to do it at home, and that you get angry at interruptions. Does she do something, techie or otherwise, she also needs focused time for? If not, she may not get that software developers mentally juggle lots of concepts at once, and that starting up that juggling sequence can take us _15 or 20 minutes, each time we are interrupted!_ &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My wife's and my agreement is that she'll say &quot;When you get a minute...&quot;; nothing more, and won't expect more than a nod or a waved finger in reply, and she knows I'll break off when I can do it with less consequence than if I answered right at that moment. Or if dinner time is approaching, she won't ask &quot;When can you break for dinner?&quot; but just say &quot;Dinner's ready in 5...&quot; which I can process without losing my train of thought but now I know that I need to wind it up shortly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11153" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3627" RevisionGUID="f62e15f5-e419-45f4-b1c1-e67eebfad2a4" CreationDate="2015-08-28T21:44:30.860" UserId="8754" Text="I have done freelance work for a local company in Reno, NV. I managed and created content to post on the company's facebook page. The marketing lady processes my invoices for payment but the company owner writes the checks. When I quit this job, I sent an invoice to reflect the number of days in the month that I had managed the page before quitting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The marketing lady stated in email, &quot;I would prefer that you to submit to me a flash drive with a comprehensive library of photos, graphics and testimonials inclusive of all images that have appeared on Facebook, and all images that have been provided to you by me. Upon receipt of that material, I will process your invoice for payment.&quot; I emailed back the marketing lady that the flash drive is ready. She replied that she will review flash drive and let me know about a check for this last month. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I obligated to give a flash drive to get payment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11154" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3627" RevisionGUID="f62e15f5-e419-45f4-b1c1-e67eebfad2a4" CreationDate="2015-08-28T21:44:30.860" UserId="8754" Text="Required to give digital graphics to client so they will pay me for previous work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11155" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3627" RevisionGUID="f62e15f5-e419-45f4-b1c1-e67eebfad2a4" CreationDate="2015-08-28T21:44:30.860" UserId="8754" Text="|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11156" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3628" RevisionGUID="74ba7d0f-2c14-4f79-a16a-6d1060eea77f" CreationDate="2015-08-29T01:37:42.453" UserId="7717" Text="Your question is far too vague. I'm going to assume you're living in the US and operating under U.S. tax law and your question about &quot;writing it off&quot; is in reference to your federal taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can either write the purchase value off as a business expense, or write off depreciation over several years. If you use the computer for any purposes other than work, you should log how many hours a day you spend working on the computer vs personal time, and deduct a corresponding percentage. For example, if 50% of the time spent using that computer is for business purposes and 50% for personal purposes, you can only deduct 50% of the cost. See https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Tax-Deductions-and-Credits/Mobile-Phones--Internet-and-Other-Easy-Tax-Deductions/INF17751.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; how would I get a receipt for it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask for a receipt." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11157" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3629" RevisionGUID="7891f40f-61c3-436a-b235-bb063f2a2561" CreationDate="2015-08-29T01:42:01.853" UserId="7717" Text="I'm working on an hourly contract and Windows 10 decides now is a great time to start installing some updates and lock up completely. It takes me 10 minutes to reboot my system, re-open the software I was using, and get back to where I was before the computer froze. Do I include those 10 minutes in my hours worked for the day when billing the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11158" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3629" RevisionGUID="7891f40f-61c3-436a-b235-bb063f2a2561" CreationDate="2015-08-29T01:42:01.853" UserId="7717" Text="How to deal with technical problems on hourly contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11159" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3629" RevisionGUID="7891f40f-61c3-436a-b235-bb063f2a2561" CreationDate="2015-08-29T01:42:01.853" UserId="7717" Text="|hourly|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11160" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3630" RevisionGUID="41ac7c30-b441-4f66-a31e-5ac8f76f82a1" CreationDate="2015-08-29T02:25:45.203" UserId="514" Text="I've always written or negotiated reciprocal notice agreements in my contracts. What is fair for one is fair for the other. If the client wants to retain the right to zero notice, I ask for the same right.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In practice, If I give early notice, I give it based on my completion and wrap-up of a definable quantity of work - an upcoming release; the projects I've already started and begun billing for; the completion (agreed by both parties) of an orderly hand-off to someone of the client choosing, or another definable event that makes sense in that particular situation, _at the client's option_. I also assure them that, should they accept my offer to complete those remaining tasks, I will do them to the same standards to which I have done their previous work and to which they have a right to expect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is not something I write into my contracts; for fairness I will have negotiated a symmetrical contract with respect to giving notice. But for my professional reputation, personal ethics and self-respect, if it is my choice to bail out, I'll try to take the high road and minimize the adverse impact to my client. They of course then have the option to decline my offer, dismiss me immediately, paying me in lieu of any negotiated notice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11161" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3586" RevisionGUID="4bfb1520-d653-40c7-b61d-7b22b5f48458" CreationDate="2015-08-29T08:47:23.683" UserId="8370" Comment="Suggest a reason for contract termination" Text="I am considering starting out in IT freelancing by taking some day-rate contracts via recruiters. As I understand it, the recruiter is paid an additional fee for the duration of the contract, on an ongoing basis, based on the day rate. However there is no employment relationship and I would still be self-employed (probably as a limited company).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most advertisements for work that I see specify a contract length in months, and they're usually 3, 6 or 12, sometimes with the possibility of extension. My understanding is that this is just a rough indication, and the client may terminate the relationship with no notice, since they are paying a higher rate for this flexibility (this could be because a project was cancelled, they've hired a permanent employee, or they are not satisfied with the work provided, or for whatever other reason).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am interested in whether there are generally any legal barriers for the contractor to terminate the relationship in a similar way? Or, if this is not explicitly contractually prohibited, is it generally seen by recruiters as a breach of trust that might discourage them from working with such a contractor in the future? I expect that for long contracts, a recruiter stands to lose substantial sums of predicted future revenue if the contractor pulls out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are many reasons why a contractor may wish to terminate the work early - for example, as a remote worker, I am thinking that committing oneself to an onerous commute may turn out to be more exhausting than originally thought!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm based in the UK, in case answers might vary from one country to another.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11166" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3633" RevisionGUID="42e86d70-a962-493d-af49-8ddbd0808807" CreationDate="2015-08-29T16:20:55.350" UserId="517" Text="Absolutely not if the update was not crucial for this project! As always, we should not do updates during the productive phase. I personally always do updates on my non-productive machine first. But even then, I have been &quot;out of business&quot; for a few days because Google messed up something with its updates. Could I really charge 24 work hours to my client during those 3 days?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Simply inform the client what happened (only if it will take more time to fix it, like a few days) and fix the issue asap. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11167" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3634" RevisionGUID="7de9b75a-b312-459a-b48d-999a0a9bf9cb" CreationDate="2015-08-29T18:25:04.343" UserId="4561" Text="Were you working from your own system where you allowed the update?  Then No.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Were you on the client's system and they had it set up to update automatically?  Then yes.  For 10 minutes I would.  I would also inform the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If something happened that was taking a lot longer I would try to let the client know what was going on as soon as it started happening.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a tricky area because you don't want the client to be blindsided by the time/price, but if it's their system that they configured that is the problem, they can't expect you to sit there for free watching it reboot and freeze.  If you have a service agreement you sign with clients, I would consider including something up front in that agreement explaining that you will bill for your time if things on their system that are beyond your control prevent you from completing the task, or take up time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And/Or you can use this to your experience and next time you work on anyone else's system, check the windows update settings (and other things that you learn might slow you down) in advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11168" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3635" RevisionGUID="e49d3931-891b-4277-91a1-00a94d782d8e" CreationDate="2015-08-29T18:35:00.903" UserId="4561" Text="Some web developers on here may know better than me, but I don't think you are legally obligated to send them anything.  And I don't think you should until you get paid and the check clears.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They may be doing this because they are nervous, but once you give them that data you have nothing else they want and her saying &quot;we will review it then SEE about your check,&quot; would make me nervous.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you don't have a  contract, and this is a request you never agreed to in advance, I would find a very polite way to say something like: &quot;It is my policy to hang onto my intellectual property until I have been paid, but I am assuring you, in writing, that I will definitely send all files once payment has cleared.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, to help them feel comfortable about what you're sending, I would send screen shots of the directory/files on the data key." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11169" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2303" RevisionGUID="1c5eca91-fbe3-4906-8adf-d413345322b7" CreationDate="2015-08-29T18:40:19.847" UserId="4561" Comment="typos" Text="Yes, &quot;hydroponic supplies&quot; is the *expression*.  He wants that string of text to appear at least 5 times in the article.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My guess is that this article is for web content and he wants search engines to find this article when people search for &quot;hydroponic supplies.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, as they used to say to us in English class when we learned new words  - use it in a sentence.  (In this case, at least five times.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11170" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3612" RevisionGUID="c31bf95c-1478-442c-ab64-3b9c427b4ff5" CreationDate="2015-08-29T20:02:34.920" UserId="7807" Comment="added 19 characters in body" Text="I'm freelancing on the side individually, and I want to buy a used computer for it off of Craigslist. Can I write this off as an expense and how would I get a receipt for it?&#xA;&#xA;I'm in the U.S.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11171" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3629" RevisionGUID="15306872-80bf-4eb1-b411-087a1684b04f" CreationDate="2015-08-29T20:58:15.303" UserId="7717" Comment="added 215 characters in body" Text="I'm working on an hourly contract and Windows 10 decides now is a great time to start installing some updates and lock up completely. It takes me 10 minutes to reboot my system, re-open the software I was using, and get back to where I was before the computer froze. Do I include those 10 minutes in my hours worked for the day when billing the client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;edit: For those unfamiliar with Windows 10, you don't have control over when it downloads or begins to install updates. You only have control over when it reboots to finish installing updates that need a reboot. In this case the system froze while starting the install process, which forced me to reboot." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11172" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3636" RevisionGUID="0831d911-db18-4b5e-b033-1b9b7cace947" CreationDate="2015-08-29T21:11:24.350" UserId="7717" Text="If you can't get them to be reasonable, come up with a contract agreed upon by both parties that stipulates what will happen now. Either you give them the assets and then they pay you, or they pay you and then you give them the assets - the order doesn't really matter as long as you both get what you want. That way, either of you can pursue the other for breach of contract if you don't get what's owed to you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11175" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3637" RevisionGUID="6e2e0ac4-3d09-4403-947b-f66f64ebe348" CreationDate="2015-08-30T09:56:54.387" UserId="7727" Text="I read lots of posts here that suggest participating in open source project, I just wonder how does this help to improve freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11176" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3637" RevisionGUID="6e2e0ac4-3d09-4403-947b-f66f64ebe348" CreationDate="2015-08-30T09:56:54.387" UserId="7727" Text="Why participating in open source helps freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11177" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3637" RevisionGUID="6e2e0ac4-3d09-4403-947b-f66f64ebe348" CreationDate="2015-08-30T09:56:54.387" UserId="7727" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11178" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3630" RevisionGUID="0da8d0c0-f667-4f77-9305-b428a6daf290" CreationDate="2015-08-30T12:34:59.060" UserId="514" Comment="Fixed grammar. Added more direct answers to OP's questions." Text="I've always written or negotiated reciprocal notice agreements in my contracts. What is fair for one is fair for the other. If the client wants to retain the right to zero notice, I ask for the same right.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In practice, If I give early notice, I base it on my completion and wrap-up of a definable quantity of work - an upcoming release; the projects I've already started and begun billing for; the completion (agreed by both parties) of an orderly hand-off to someone of the client choosing, or another definable event that makes sense in that particular situation, _at the client's option_. I also assure them that, should they accept my offer to complete those remaining tasks, I will do them to the same standards to which I have done their previous work and to which they have a right to expect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is not something I write into my contracts; for fairness I will have negotiated a symmetrical contract with respect to giving notice. But for my professional reputation, personal ethics and self-respect, if it is my choice to bail out, I'll try to take the high road and minimize the adverse impact to my client. They of course have the option to decline my offer, dismiss me immediately, and pay me in lieu of any negotiated notice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Update (direct answers to your questions):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Specific legal barriers: It depends on the jurisdiction. In the US I believe it is all in the wording of the contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - How will it be seen by recruiters?: It will depend on the recruiter. A reasonable person understands that everyone's personal circumstances change or a good employment fit can go sour. S/he will look at how you handled the termination and how that affected their relationship with their client. Is this _your_ recruiter? And the next recruiter reviewing your CV? You won't know til you get there...`&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11182" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3639" RevisionGUID="99aac0e6-3310-4809-8b81-b957ba91f9d4" CreationDate="2015-08-31T05:08:53.777" UserId="8125" Text="There are lot of another methods available if paypal is not accessible for you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can use any of following :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1 - [Skrill][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2 - Western Union if client is ready to pay directly into your bank account&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3 - PayU Money [For India Only]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.skrill.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11185" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3640" RevisionGUID="fb94e56c-ace0-4553-bc81-b8deeeca8e61" CreationDate="2015-08-31T16:38:13.113" UserId="75" Text="Assuming you're a programmer...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. It shows you have hobbies or interests you are willing to work on in your &quot;down time&quot;. People with hobbies tend to be really excited when they get to also get *paid* for doing what they love. If you show you love programming *for free* (or to improve the world through software you love using...), then you'll *love* whatever project the client may throw at you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. It shows your coding styles. Not everyone follows the same convention, even though everyone tries. I have my own style that works for me, and it's a mish-mash of many coding standards. I never grew up learning coding styles, so I invented my own. If the client wants to see your work, it's easy to see if it's what they are expecting, or if there will be a large learning curve for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. It shows you work well with a team. If you have 2 contributors (yourself included), that is not quite as impressive of a feat as working with 300 contributors. If you can work with others, that's a great feature if the client is looking for either a team, or to pass code on from programmer to programmer to programmer during the program's life.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those are my top three reasons to contribute to Open-Source Software Projects on my portfolio; I don't have any contributors except myself, but that's because programming is far, far, FAR down my list of what I want to do for Freelance work right now." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11187" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3641" RevisionGUID="648b1798-d690-4b17-a724-2d3f24d3d531" CreationDate="2015-09-01T19:13:55.487" UserId="8780" Text="I'm a freelancer and deal mostly with web, a client of mine has hired me to deal with a monthly newsletter: improve the deliverability and the message itself, I signed up for a popular online service (don't know if I can say the name) made a template for them to use with it, imported the mailing list they had and showed them how to use the service, deliveries and opens skyrocketed and the cost lowered over 50%, the client was so happy with the results we signed a contract with a monthly fee to manage this service and do other jobs related to web development and consulting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All fine and good until this one guy who works at this company, I believe he was the one who hired the previous service, began complaining about not receiving the mails. So I logged into the management software and there it was - the guy had reported the message as SPAM, the first time I removed his email from the spam list - resend and when I asked him if the message were getting through he told me it went into the spam folder, ok... the second time , again he complained about the message, but this time he opened the message just to send it to spam again, I hate to assume the worst of people, but now I'm sure he's doing it on purpose, because the software uses the images in the email to register when a user opens the message.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's obvious that he's lying, but I don't want to create a conflict inside the client - he appears to be a good accountant , what is the best way to gracefully deal with such a situation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11188" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3641" RevisionGUID="648b1798-d690-4b17-a724-2d3f24d3d531" CreationDate="2015-09-01T19:13:55.487" UserId="8780" Text="How to deal with a lying customer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11189" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3641" RevisionGUID="648b1798-d690-4b17-a724-2d3f24d3d531" CreationDate="2015-09-01T19:13:55.487" UserId="8780" Text="|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11190" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3642" RevisionGUID="db130b58-0250-45f5-9b98-878a726929f2" CreationDate="2015-09-01T21:00:03.617" UserId="8451" Text="I'm fairly new to freelancing but want more experience doing different projects and more money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am very well prepared to put in the hours and have asked my current employer who even wants to know my hourly rate so that they can offer some work in my evenings and weekends.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are some good tricks to balancing freelance time whilst working full-time 9am - 5pm? Is it worth it or would it be too difficult to keep up?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11191" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3642" RevisionGUID="db130b58-0250-45f5-9b98-878a726929f2" CreationDate="2015-09-01T21:00:03.617" UserId="8451" Text="How to factor in freelancing alongside full-time work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11192" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3642" RevisionGUID="db130b58-0250-45f5-9b98-878a726929f2" CreationDate="2015-09-01T21:00:03.617" UserId="8451" Text="|time-management|programmer|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11193" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3643" RevisionGUID="7b0f4a47-680e-438b-936e-7cd7124d5373" CreationDate="2015-09-01T21:32:07.603" UserId="75" Text="This depends on where you are in your life. When I was in my early 20's, I had my main day job, and 4 side jobs - one was my own Freelancing. It gave me little time with my friends, but I was making money and learning new experiences.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're lucky you have a manager who wants to encourage you to go out on your own as well. I've never ran into one who was excited about me working for myself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I would suggest is to try it out on a part time basis first - maybe 3 hours every second day after dinner (you still need your basic 3 meals per day). If you can handle more, slowly increase your workload. Once you feel you've had enough, scale back slightly, and keep that limit. You will need to re-adjust as you go on, but that's part of the challenge and responsibility as a new company owner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Heed my warning though - working 18 hour days starts to wear on people quickly. As soon as you know you'll have lots of steady work with a steady income, I'd drop my day job and work only as a Freelancer, and not stay with the one company. You don't need the stress of your day job on top of stress of being a new entrepreneur as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11194" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3644" RevisionGUID="4825fec7-aacb-4119-8de9-cdeec5183a49" CreationDate="2015-09-01T21:36:09.950" UserId="8781" Text="I would suggest by using [Payoneer][1]. Register, they will send you a Mastercard and then you can take money in any ATM.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.payoneer.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11195" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3645" RevisionGUID="c5fbd47f-678b-4a09-809d-b24c75d9d1b3" CreationDate="2015-09-02T06:57:23.397" UserId="8782" Text="i am a new lancer user . I didn't know how work in freelancing. i need help to enter or working in freelancing. please help me to knowing details how to start in freelancing. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11196" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3645" RevisionGUID="c5fbd47f-678b-4a09-809d-b24c75d9d1b3" CreationDate="2015-09-02T06:57:23.397" UserId="8782" Text="how to start work in freelancing in online" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11197" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3645" RevisionGUID="c5fbd47f-678b-4a09-809d-b24c75d9d1b3" CreationDate="2015-09-02T06:57:23.397" UserId="8782" Text="|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11198" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3645" RevisionGUID="91c6f70e-3f38-4321-8126-97e0a4100969" CreationDate="2015-09-02T07:53:08.413" UserId="58" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[707],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="11199" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3646" RevisionGUID="18abaaea-3be2-4abe-bc93-142191a645ca" CreationDate="2015-09-02T07:58:52.270" UserId="8783" Text="I've worked for two days as a freelancer for a company in UK.&#xD;&#xA;They asked me the invoice, but I see on the internet that in UK invoices is required the VAT number that I don't have, because since I moved to London I always worked as a permanent employee.&#xD;&#xA;Can I prepare the invoice without that number, considering that this job can be considered as an incidental / once only service?&#xD;&#xA;Or should I register with an umbrella company?&#xD;&#xA;Thanks&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;G." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11200" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3646" RevisionGUID="18abaaea-3be2-4abe-bc93-142191a645ca" CreationDate="2015-09-02T07:58:52.270" UserId="8783" Text="Should I add the VAT in the invoice for 2 days freelancing work (in UK)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11201" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3646" RevisionGUID="18abaaea-3be2-4abe-bc93-142191a645ca" CreationDate="2015-09-02T07:58:52.270" UserId="8783" Text="|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11202" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3647" RevisionGUID="ab43ea39-8172-4cb3-a895-a5b61e9495bc" CreationDate="2015-09-02T08:17:06.557" UserId="58" Text="In the UK, domestic work is VAT-exempt if you don't meet the income threshold for VAT (currently £82,000).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they ask for your VAT number for tax purposes, simply state that you are not registered for VAT and do not charge VAT. If they complain, they have a mediocre accounting department as this is the very first section on VAT:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You can only charge VAT if your business is registered for VAT.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; — https://www.gov.uk/vat-businesses/how-vat-works&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So no, you must not add VAT on your domestic UK invoices to businesses unless you have a VAT number. On the invoice, state &quot;VAT Not Applicable&quot; or something to that effect." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11203" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3646" RevisionGUID="72b27039-bf19-4cd0-9e00-b007caaa0cb6" CreationDate="2015-09-02T08:20:15.377" UserId="58" Comment="Updated tags + title and neatened up the question" Text="I've worked for two days as a freelancer for a company in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They've asked me for the invoice, but I see on the internet that UK invoices require a VAT number. I don't have a VAT number as I'm unregistered and I've always worked for a company as an employee prior to freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I prepare the invoice without that number, as this job can be considered as an incidental/once-only service? Or should I register with an umbrella company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11204" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3646" RevisionGUID="72b27039-bf19-4cd0-9e00-b007caaa0cb6" CreationDate="2015-09-02T08:20:15.377" UserId="58" Comment="Updated tags + title and neatened up the question" Text="Should I add VAT to an invoice for 2 days freelance work in the UK?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11205" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3646" RevisionGUID="72b27039-bf19-4cd0-9e00-b007caaa0cb6" CreationDate="2015-09-02T08:20:15.377" UserId="58" Comment="Updated tags + title and neatened up the question" Text="|taxes|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11206" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3647" RevisionGUID="1b8e1ca0-f429-45ef-b473-0af2f88f391e" CreationDate="2015-09-02T08:22:08.243" UserId="58" Comment="added 200 characters in body" Text="In the UK, domestic work is VAT-exempt if you don't meet the income threshold for VAT (currently £82,000).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they ask for your VAT number for tax purposes, simply state that you are not registered for VAT and do not charge VAT. If they complain, they have a mediocre accounting department as this is the very first section on VAT in almost all documents describing it:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You can only charge VAT if your business is registered for VAT.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; — https://www.gov.uk/vat-businesses/how-vat-works&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So no, you must not add VAT on your domestic UK invoices to businesses unless you have a VAT number. On the invoice, state &quot;VAT Not Applicable&quot; or something to that effect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is also no need to register with an umbrella company (agency) for this purpose, either, unless you would like to use their insurance, company name, etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11207" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3646" RevisionGUID="2ddc4202-7686-4265-96b3-ecac4e8de0f0" CreationDate="2015-09-02T13:29:11.527" UserId="58" Comment="Typo" Text="I've worked for two days as a freelancer for a company in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They've asked me for the invoice, but I see on the internet that UK invoices require a VAT number. I don't have a VAT number as I'm unregistered and I've always worked for a company as an employee prior to freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I prepare the invoice without that number, as this job can be considered an incidental/once-only service? Or should I register with an umbrella company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11208" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3648" RevisionGUID="a852106b-0e1c-4dd5-9d3b-7a143a5fd709" CreationDate="2015-09-02T14:15:53.567" UserId="8788" Text="As recruiters, we're instructed to seek exclusivity in all things. Be it recruiting contractors for a client or sending candidates to a position. The idea is, we don't want candidates getting placed at a company by anybody but us. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There shouldn't be any harm in this to you as long as you can get in writing that they will submit you for a role. Some recruiters will tell you they need exclusivity to submit you, then not submit you and submit 3 candidates they feel are a better fit. This is essentially to increase their chances of getting a placement. You can protect yourself by getting written confirmation of submission, which especially in the UK will give you grounds for action if you discover you weren't submitted. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In regards to markup, yes, the agency will be making a percentage on top of your salary. This is charged to the company and shouldn't be coming out of your rate. Give the recruiter exclusivity and then if another agent calls you for the same position, inquire as to the sort of rate you can expect for the position. Tell them you'll think on it, then go to your original recruiter and inform them you've been contacted by another agency and have been offered a better rate. The original recruiter will likely be willing to sacrifice some of the markup in order to retain a good candidate (or prevent you, at least, from ending up on another agency's P/L). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't recommend giving full exclusivity (you'll look at all roles through one recruiter) as no agency, especially in the UK, has access to every single vacancy. Role to role, loyalty to an agency will pay dividends, as I can attest firsthand the pressure management puts on recruiters to place &quot;key&quot; contractors. You may get to the point where operations managers or regional directors are placing calls to presidents/VPs to get you placement. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11214" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3650" RevisionGUID="75eed931-72c0-40ef-b82f-dc01dd728602" CreationDate="2015-09-02T19:35:23.093" UserId="8790" Text="For me, as a freelance, an important thing is to build a network, working on open source project helps you build your network. on top of what Canadian Luke has said, I'd add :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - working on project you will &quot;meet&quot; people (not physically), they will contact you to add a feature on the project or they have a bug. Knowing thos people can help you get job at their company specially if they have interest in the project you're working on.&#xD;&#xA; - If by chance you get to work on open source project that gets hype, the project might already be used by potential clients, it might help you as contributor of the project to get a deal with those companies" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11215" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3651" RevisionGUID="54e258de-233b-4537-9795-77b10b65115b" CreationDate="2015-09-02T20:27:21.417" UserId="8791" Text="This question is two-fold:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Is it okay to expect a client to pay any bank transfer related charges when paying for services?&#xD;&#xA;2. Assuming 1., how would be a polite way of stating this on the invoice. I have currently come up with &quot;Please check that any transfer related charges are paid on your end.&quot; but am not quite satisfied with it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11216" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3651" RevisionGUID="54e258de-233b-4537-9795-77b10b65115b" CreationDate="2015-09-02T20:27:21.417" UserId="8791" Text="Asking client to pay bank transfer charges" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11217" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3651" RevisionGUID="54e258de-233b-4537-9795-77b10b65115b" CreationDate="2015-09-02T20:27:21.417" UserId="8791" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11218" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3652" RevisionGUID="039e9782-e57c-4920-a2ec-2877f012baca" CreationDate="2015-09-02T21:32:20.430" UserId="517" Text="1. No. Client pays an invoice. It's up to you to calculate all costs in the invoice or pay part of them yourself. For example, I always pay PayPal's 4%, never ask the client to pay it nor I increase my price for 4%. I treat it as my running costs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Read point 1 :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11219" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3653" RevisionGUID="39fc5f3a-9818-468e-a888-0386a4009cb2" CreationDate="2015-09-02T23:44:49.577" UserId="8603" Text="Being a freelance developer, participating in open source projects (or FLOSS projects) can provide a pretty good reputation for yourself:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Your software abilities are well-known&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Open Source projects generally have the source code available to anyone, and many hosting services, such as GitHub, have the ability to show the quality and amount of contributions you make to projects. This means that people have the ability to see what you contribute: be it entire revisions to source files, or simple patches to nasty bugs. This has the added benefit in that it directly shows what you know, your abilities and competences as well. If you can program in multiple languages, it shows. If you can find a nasty bug, it shows. If you can rewrite an entire script, *it shows.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. You show that you can collaborate&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Collaboration isn't just talking with Friends together in a cafe. People all over the world contribute, and maintain open source projects. Since you're online, you've got to act professional, and you need to be nice. Taking GitHub again as an example, you need to show that you are able to raise issues, feature requests, and notices while coming across as respectful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; If you are the maintainer/owner of a project, there comes an added bonus. As you would be responsible for accepting pull requests, it is important that you accept and reject calmly, and most notably with messages that specifically describe why you follow such an action. As you make the decisions for your projects future, it's important that you discuss with end users and show that you care.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. You show that you've got an interest&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Open Source development is best when you don't have much experience *working* on a job. Entry-level programmers that don't normally have much work experience, and those who are unemployed and self-employed, often participate in open source projects to show that they are still committed. No one likes looking at a CV (Resume) to show large periods of inactivity. Participating means that you still retain skills, whether they be programming related or not. I'm not a professional programmer myself: I'm still a 15 year old person in school. But I still make projects, post it on GitHub, and place good licenses on them: to show that I have an interest, and in a bid to further develop the skills that I already have.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These are just a few points. Obviously, you'd want to let prospective people know what you do, so make sure that you make known your contributions to the software community as well. Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11225" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3655" RevisionGUID="b8b991ed-0387-4079-bda8-4b61bfc1d327" CreationDate="2015-09-03T06:25:17.120" UserId="1793" Text="A little background my employer has a client and this client is pretty big and they are using the system for many users and I'm the only resource person who knows the source code and everything in it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I've been working for an employer for so many months now but they keep on delaying salary and currently 2 months delayed. I already have deployed the project in the development sites and there are items that still need fixing. Should I keep on working with this employer or should I tell them that I need to get paid first to proceed before I resume work? I'm not the kind of person who does this by demanding clients/employers of my terms but this time I'm concerned about the salaries I'm missing. Also what should be my tone? Inquiring? Demanding? I don't like to put bad impressions on clients/employers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelance ain't free." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11226" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3655" RevisionGUID="b8b991ed-0387-4079-bda8-4b61bfc1d327" CreationDate="2015-09-03T06:25:17.120" UserId="1793" Text="An employer hasn't paid me for months already. Should I keep working with him?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11227" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3655" RevisionGUID="b8b991ed-0387-4079-bda8-4b61bfc1d327" CreationDate="2015-09-03T06:25:17.120" UserId="1793" Text="|legal|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11228" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3655" RevisionGUID="5a19d1ff-bba0-436e-a526-66cdb3988145" CreationDate="2015-09-03T07:16:06.990" UserId="1793" Comment="edited title" Text="An employer hasn't paid me for months already. Should I keep working with them?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11229" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3655" RevisionGUID="fb49efaa-c2b8-48a1-bf39-259b0d6a16da" CreationDate="2015-09-03T07:26:50.090" UserId="1793" Comment="added 244 characters in body" Text="A little background my employer has a client and this client is pretty big and they are using the system for many users and I'm the only resource person who knows the source code and everything in it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I've been working for an employer for so many months now but they keep on delaying salary and currently 2 months delayed. I already have deployed the project in the development sites and there are items that still need fixing. Should I keep on working with this employer or should I tell them that I need to get paid first to proceed before I resume work? I'm not the kind of person who does this by demandingly. So what should be my tone of voice? Inquiring? Demanding? I don't like to put bad impressions on clients/employers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm thinking they might lose this client because of me not proceeding but I need to get paid first. This was worked by a different developer and I just took over and my employer just got hold of the codes which they don't have idea how to so I'm the one managing it and has the power to do anything with the source code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelance ain't free." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11230" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3655" RevisionGUID="54c72ade-e0ef-4709-95a7-bde36bdb0e06" CreationDate="2015-09-03T11:23:35.090" UserId="1793" Comment="added 230 characters in body" Text="A little background my employer has a client and this client is pretty big and they are using the system for many users and I'm the only resource person who knows the source code and everything in it. The first few months was fine and I receive my salary on time. They told me that they were having problems with the finance recently but I'm hesitant because they hired another contractual developer to do other work for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I've been working for this employer for more than a year now but they keep on delaying salary and currently 2 months delayed. I already have deployed the project in the development sites and there are items that still need fixing. Should I keep on working with this employer or should I tell them that I need to get paid first to proceed before I resume work? I'm not the kind of person who does this by demandingly. So what should be my tone of voice? Inquiring? Demanding? I don't like to put bad impressions on clients/employers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm thinking they might lose this client because of me not proceeding but I need to get paid first. This was worked by a different developer and I just took over and my employer just got hold of the codes which they don't have idea how to so I'm the one managing it and has the power to do anything with the source code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelance ain't free." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11231" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3655" RevisionGUID="29d62346-ca95-463a-a678-f5b635eeea22" CreationDate="2015-09-03T12:44:51.797" UserId="1793" Comment="added 14 characters in body" Text="A little background: my employer has a client and this client is pretty big and they are using the system for many users and I'm the only resource person who knows the source code and everything in it. The first few months was fine and I receive my salary on time. They told me that they were having problems with the finance recently but I'm skeptic because they hired another contractual developer to do other work for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I've been working for this employer for more than a year now but they keep on delaying salary and currently 2 months delayed. I already have deployed the project in the development sites for testing purposes and there are items that still need fixing and other features to be added along the way. My question is, should I keep on working with this employer or should I tell them that I need to get paid first before I resume work? I'm not the kind of person who does things demandingly. So what should be my tone of voice? Inquiring? Demanding? I don't like to put bad impressions on clients/employers and burn bridges.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also I'm thinking my employer might lose this client because of me not proceeding but I need to get paid first, I have a family to feed. By the way, the system was worked by a different developer primarily and I just took over and my employer just got hold of the codes with which they don't have idea how to so I'm the one managing it at the moment and currently under my Git account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelance ain't free." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11232" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3655" RevisionGUID="d3e5a9c7-7f21-4b60-bc7c-d07ff6786160" CreationDate="2015-09-03T13:32:54.560" UserId="1793" Comment="deleted 25 characters in body" Text="A little background: my employer has a client and this client is pretty big and they are using the system for many users and I'm the only resource person who knows the source code and everything in it. The first few months was fine and I receive my salary on time. They told me that they were having problems with the finance recently but I'm skeptic because they hired another contractual developer to do other work for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I've been working for this employer for more than a year now but they keep on delaying salary and currently 2 months delayed. I already have deployed the project in the development sites for testing purposes and there are items that still need fixing and other features to be added along the way. My question is, should I keep on working with this employer or should I tell them that I need to get paid first before I resume work? I'm not the kind of person who does things demandingly. So what should be my tone of voice? Inquiring? Demanding? I don't like to put bad impressions on clients/employers and burn bridges.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also I'm thinking my employer might lose this client because of me not proceeding but I need to get paid first, I have a family to feed. By the way, the system was worked by a different developer primarily and I just took over and my employer just got hold of the codes with which they don't have idea how to so I'm the one managing it at the moment and currently under my Git account." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11233" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3650" RevisionGUID="a9ff188d-227d-4547-936f-f389e4ec46f4" CreationDate="2015-09-03T15:14:03.347" UserId="8790" Comment="added 227 characters in body" Text="For me, as a freelance, an important thing is to build a network, working on open source project helps you build your network. on top of what Canadian Luke has said, I'd add :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - working on project you will &quot;meet&quot; people (not physically), they will contact you to add a feature on the project or they have a bug. Knowing thos people can help you get job at their company specially if they have interest in the project you're working on.&#xD;&#xA; - If by chance you get to work on open source project that gets hype, the project might already be used by potential clients, it might help you as contributor of the project to get a deal with those companies&#xD;&#xA; - you learn a lot and you learn from others. if your project gets some visibility, others will see and you might receive pull request, you'll end up working on things you did not know before and you improve your skills a lot" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11234" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3656" RevisionGUID="50101f60-988e-4fa0-8099-1e02771f779a" CreationDate="2015-09-03T16:10:58.953" UserId="4271" Text="Do you have a contract with this company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In most cases it shouldn't be your issue if the end client isn't paying your 'employer'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are you working in a freelance sense or though your own company? UK/USA?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assuming you invoice this company do you have a payment date on it? eg 'Within 30 days'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I have had late payments from companies I usually send them a reminder email with the original invoice. My process is usually like so:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - 7 days late - reminder email.&#xD;&#xA; - 10 days late - polite phone call.&#xD;&#xA; - 14 days late - Signed for letter with original invoice attached politely&#xD;&#xA;   informing the client that they may incur additional charges owing to&#xD;&#xA;   their original non-payment. &#xD;&#xA; - 21 days late - Final Demand (never got past this stage)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pretty much of what is written here (UK based)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.contractoruk.com/limited_companies/contractor_late_payment_letters_-_free_templates.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't be scared of putting your foot down, as you said yourself you have a family to feed" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11236" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3658" RevisionGUID="4efcb446-8cc8-44e6-90f0-f575b35c63ff" CreationDate="2015-09-03T21:18:41.563" UserId="4601" Text="As I write this I note that the topic is over a year old, so this may be a useless answer.  &#xD;&#xA;However, one thing to consider is that the client does not realize what they are requesting.  They are asking for work that they may not be able to do themselves, because it's outside their area of knowledge, much less expertise.  You might consider discussing, politely but frankly, the fact that the initial &quot;do two pages&quot; is very different from the &quot;duplicate this complicated site&quot;.  Part of the discussion should try to get at what they actually need and want.  They may want just the two pages, which they incidentally saw on a complicated site.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11238" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3659" RevisionGUID="5a59bbfb-ac32-4633-82d5-e101cf3a7ca9" CreationDate="2015-09-04T05:27:53.067" UserId="9807" Text="I'm an engineer looking to future-proof my earning potential and open up some freelancing opportunities. My degree is in electrical engineering, but most of my professional experience involves working with fpgas. I've done a little board design, and some c.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm concerned fpgas are an increasingly niche device that will eventually get pushed out. I had identified heterogenous computing (opencl, cuda, etc...) as an interesting area on the rise that I'd like to get involved with. Also, I want to learn more about low level computing, things like kernel programming and device drivers. They seem like natural progressions given my work history and I'm also personally interested in developing these skills. But my question is - are they good business decisions? Have I overlooked something else? I have only my perspective and greatly welcome others. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11239" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3659" RevisionGUID="5a59bbfb-ac32-4633-82d5-e101cf3a7ca9" CreationDate="2015-09-04T05:27:53.067" UserId="9807" Text="Next skills to learn?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11240" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3659" RevisionGUID="5a59bbfb-ac32-4633-82d5-e101cf3a7ca9" CreationDate="2015-09-04T05:27:53.067" UserId="9807" Text="|attracting-clients|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11241" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3655" RevisionGUID="1035b6f1-15fb-491f-8a3b-56e49a9c3b17" CreationDate="2015-09-04T09:25:24.947" UserId="1793" Comment="added 23 characters in body" Text="A little background: my employer has a client and this client is pretty big and they are using the system for many users and I'm the only resource person who knows the source code and everything in it. The first few months was fine and I receive my salary on time. They told me that they were having problems with the finance recently but I'm skeptic because they hired another contractual developer to do other work for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I've been working for this employer for more than a year now but they keep on delaying salary and currently 2 months delayed. I already have deployed the project in the development sites for testing purposes and there are items that still need fixing and other features to be added along the way. My question is, should I keep on working with this employer or should I tell them that I need to get paid first before I resume work? I'm not the kind of person who does things demandingly.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Key Question**&#xD;&#xA;So what should be my tone of voice? Inquiring? Demanding? I don't like to put bad impressions on clients/employers and burn bridges.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also I'm thinking my employer might lose this client because of me not proceeding but I need to get paid first, I have a family to feed. By the way, the system was worked by a different developer primarily and I just took over and my employer just got hold of the codes with which they don't have idea how to so I'm the one managing it at the moment and currently under my Git account." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11242" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3660" RevisionGUID="fd202acd-b257-4406-be48-851a9b9ee6cb" CreationDate="2015-09-04T11:58:51.430" UserId="8125" Text="Sometime [In rare case]it happens that employer has situation and can not pay you regular. But if you have been working for that employer since very long time and paid regular since many months then you should not demand but just request them that please do not delay payment. Also you should know that how that employer reputation is in market. That will help you a lot to make quick decision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have been working since very short time then you can warn and demand for pending payment. but here you must have written proof of work you have done or any other contract which is done between you and employer. You can stop work if they do not pay." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11243" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3661" RevisionGUID="a272500b-1d18-47a5-8c7e-cb24fbbbf98a" CreationDate="2015-09-04T13:39:43.763" UserId="517" Text="Well this is pretty opinion-based question, but here are a few directions to investigate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You first have to decide what will be your area for freelancing like: programming, design,... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After this, try a few tools or technologies to see how you like them. Or if are passionate about a specific technology, learn more about it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you learn create sample projects which you will later put in your portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be persistent, offer good quality and be very professional. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many of us here did the same way I described, and most of us succeeded. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. IMHO low-level programming does not have future on services like Odesk or Elance. You need to be close to a hardware you program. I have not seen much, if any, projects where clients ask for such services. Please note that this is my opinion and experience, and reality may be totally opposite. If I were you, I would research your niche to see if there is any work available. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11244" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3655" RevisionGUID="799be4d9-666f-480c-addb-c62d4946d4c9" CreationDate="2015-09-04T16:15:56.093" UserId="1793" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="A little background: my employer has a client and this client is pretty big and they are using the system for many users and I'm the only resource person who knows the source code and everything in it. The first few months was fine and I receive my salary on time. They told me that they were having problems with the finance recently but I'm skeptic because they hired another contractual developer to do other work for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I've been working for this employer for more than a year now but they keep on delaying salary and currently 2 months delayed. I already have deployed the project in the development sites for testing purposes and there are items that still need fixing and other features to be added along the way. My question is, should I keep on working with this employer or should I tell them that I need to get paid first before I resume work? I'm not the kind of person who does things demandingly.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Key Question**  &#xD;&#xA;So what should be my tone of voice? Inquiring? Demanding? I don't like to put bad impressions on clients/employers and burn bridges.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also I'm thinking my employer might lose this client because of me not proceeding but I need to get paid first, I have a family to feed. By the way, the system was worked by a different developer primarily and I just took over and my employer just got hold of the codes with which they don't have idea how to so I'm the one managing it at the moment and currently under my Git account." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11245" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3650" RevisionGUID="4a3baad6-62cd-4272-aafb-ab0007064a45" CreationDate="2015-09-04T16:37:21.400" UserId="75" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="For me, as a freelance, an important thing is to build a network, working on open source project helps you build your network. on top of what Canadian Luke has said, I'd add :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Working on project you will &quot;meet&quot; people (not physically), they will contact you to add a feature on the project or they have a bug. Knowing those people can help you get job at their company specially if they have interest in the project you're working on.&#xD;&#xA; - If by chance you get to work on open source project that gets hype, the project might already be used by potential clients, it might help you as contributor of the project to get a deal with those companies&#xD;&#xA; - You learn a lot and you learn from others. if your project gets some visibility, others will see and you might receive pull request, you'll end up working on things you did not know before and you improve your skills a lot" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11246" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3662" RevisionGUID="01a7eb37-02c1-4150-a7c2-f5d2a088f8b8" CreationDate="2015-09-04T20:00:37.850" UserId="8795" Text="Consider this: the time you spend, continuing to work for this client in the hope of eventually getting paid, can more profitably be invested finding a **new** client who doesn't have money problems. The sooner you find that new client, the sooner you can pay your own debts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember, you are not a charity. You are a business. You have obligations to your own suppliers (such as your ISP), yourself, and your family.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Over a 40 year career, I've spent almost half of it freelancing. It's a hard lesson to learn, but in my experience the day the client misses the first payment is the day you stop work. Often, simply telling your contact that you are going home, and will return when their check clears, can be a marvelous motivator. With back-to-back contracts, it can also cause the end client to put pressure on the middleman to pay up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But note this, if a client misses the first payment there's a very good chance they will miss the next one as well - or the one after that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One vitally important thing to always know is the limit for a small-claims action in your area. If you let the arrears get beyond that limit, you are facing legal costs if you ever hope to get the money back. I have worked on direct contract, and through agencies - and have sent the bailiffs in with both types.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you file a lawsuit, the client will fight it - ratcheting up the legal fees and potentially damaging your reputation. It will consume huge amounts of your time - time which could be billed to the next customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With a small-claims case, the costs are usually minimal and can be added to the claim. Even the time commitment can be minimal. Also, a client with money troubles will often fail to respond to a small claim (worrying more about the people who are threatening to sue for large amounts) allowing you to get a default judgement. That makes you a registered creditor if it really goes pear-shaped.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another consideration here, reading your explanations of the arrangement in various comments. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your 'employer' who pays by paypal is in breach of contract. Depending on your country, even without a written contract, you can show a history of payment and probably establish an [implied contract](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implied-in-fact_contract).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suspect it isn't your employer's client who isn't paying up - but instead the middle-man. In that case, you should be able to talk directly to the client. Either get them to put pressure on your employer, or contract directly with the end client. There's even a possibility that the end-client is still paying your employer, and it's just not trickling down to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do the latter, be sure to negotiate for the hourly rate your employer was charging them - not what they were paying you. You'll need to cover the costs your employer was shielding you from - and smooth out your own cash flow. If you were (once upon a time) being paid weekly by your employer, you can bet the end client was paying monthly and will expect the same terms." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11247" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3663" RevisionGUID="254470f0-bdb7-4e80-b6de-6ef7f53c2de7" CreationDate="2015-09-04T20:08:47.283" UserId="8795" Text="If you didn't get this specified in the original contract (you **do** have a contract, don't you?) then you can't reasonably add it to the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you did specify it, or had an 'expenses' clause, then there's no reason to worry about politeness. Just add a line item that says something like&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     Bank Transfer Charges per contract clause x.y  $10.00&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you feel that's cheeky, then you can always add a rider which says something like &quot;Bank charges waived for payment within 7 days&quot; which shows good will and helps with the cash flow :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But realistically, which service you choose to use to receive payments is your choice - not the customer's. Just as if you choose to use a more expensive paper to print your invoices on.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11248" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3664" RevisionGUID="1a1ee710-4803-49b0-aa4e-abaebd5afcc7" CreationDate="2015-09-04T20:12:36.800" UserId="8795" Text="Freelancing is a business, not a hobby. If you can get your client's needs to match what you want to learn about, that's a bonus.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Otherwise, you need to research the market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Which skills are in high demand?&#xD;&#xA;* Which of those skills are in short supply?&#xD;&#xA;* Which of **those** skills can you quickly get up to speed on?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's how you pick the next skill to learn. Go where the money is.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11251" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3665" RevisionGUID="0187d3bc-1519-4963-ad9d-0ddbfa2747d0" CreationDate="2015-09-05T04:03:13.537" UserId="4561" Text="It sounds like your employer is having financial problems, possibly the end client not paying them, but the fact that they hired another contractor for something else, indicates they have money, you are probably just one of their last priorities.  And once they pay you late once, it's just easier to sit on your next paycheck than someone else's.  Also, how many employees do they have?  Have you heard any of them grumbling about not getting paid on time? I doubt it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The squeaky wheel gets the grease - and you need to start squeaking a lot louder!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would stay VERY pleasant with them at this point.  You don't want to burn bridges or have them bad mouth you to others if things fall apart.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, you are running a business not a charity, and now your own financial standing is being affected by their financial problems.  I would tell them they are a favorite and important client to you, consequently, you have turned down other work because you know how important this project and the end client is to their business, you love working on the project, but you simply cannot afford to wait any longer for payment.  You need to be paid what is overdue immediately, otherwise you regrettably cannot do any more work for them because you need to spend your time trying to get back some of the business you turned away to work on this project so much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would not turn over any more work until they are caught up on their payments to you and I would tell them you understand about cash flow issues, but you need to be paid on time in general, and know in advance any time they are going to be late paying you so you can make decisions for your own financial future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11252" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3646" RevisionGUID="b31c3502-f272-460e-b3ff-c71a0d6c6b03" CreationDate="2015-09-06T02:30:52.133" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/640351427383177217" />
  <row Id="11254" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3666" RevisionGUID="94308ec8-0058-4406-adfd-ad7a9bd2b8fc" CreationDate="2015-09-08T16:24:32.313" UserId="2964" Text="After having completed a few projects I am searching for an alternative approach to the final process. I develop and design websites, and at the end of each project, I have a meeting with my clients to show them how to use their websites and give them a PDF instruction manual. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Creating the manual eats up some of my time and I am looking to minimize this as much as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any suggestions?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Matt Frey" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11255" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3666" RevisionGUID="94308ec8-0058-4406-adfd-ad7a9bd2b8fc" CreationDate="2015-09-08T16:24:32.313" UserId="2964" Text="End of Project process" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11256" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3666" RevisionGUID="94308ec8-0058-4406-adfd-ad7a9bd2b8fc" CreationDate="2015-09-08T16:24:32.313" UserId="2964" Text="|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11257" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3667" RevisionGUID="1307d391-3231-4bb6-b7c4-7e99abd56a35" CreationDate="2015-09-08T17:11:36.110" UserId="9834" Text="&#xD;&#xA;I am coming from the other side: I am an employer.  I am looking for a site that screens developers for me.  yes, I actually have some jobs.  freelancer.com seems, for the most part, have turned into a scamming site.  what are good recommended sites with filtering of projects and developers?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can document the problem with freelancer.com .  I recently posted a job description for a wordpress/php development on freelancer.com .  Within a day I had about 50 bids.  Exciting.  Alas, reading the responses made me somewhat suspicious.  For one, I asked everyone who bid to try out an existing website I owned---and I can see how many actually tried it out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I decided to post another job:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    **Project Description**&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    most proposals I have received on my real proposal request seems&#xD;&#xA;    to have been quasi-automated spam.  so, to check who is just&#xD;&#xA;    responding without information, here is another request:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;       replicate the entire google infrastructure in wordpress and php.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     should be easy in php and wordpress, right? if you respond to this&#xD;&#xA;     one with a bid, obviously you must be reading my RFPs in great detail.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     Project ID: 8424001&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To my surprise, I received 80(!) bidders, most claiming to have carefully read my requirements and being confident to satisfy them.  Some added a few pretense questions.  (on my blog, I name the responders, too.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel like a male in the ashley madison data base (see [Gizmodo][1]).  alas, this still leaves me with a dilemma.  I need a freelance-hiring site that has the quality that stackexchange has!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://gizmodo.com/almost-none-of-the-women-in-the-ashley-madison-database-1725558944" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11258" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3667" RevisionGUID="1307d391-3231-4bb6-b7c4-7e99abd56a35" CreationDate="2015-09-08T17:11:36.110" UserId="9834" Text="non-scamming job-matching sites" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11259" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3667" RevisionGUID="1307d391-3231-4bb6-b7c4-7e99abd56a35" CreationDate="2015-09-08T17:11:36.110" UserId="9834" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11260" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3666" RevisionGUID="abca8362-cd4b-4ce6-8cd6-2ca80ed750d7" CreationDate="2015-09-08T21:25:38.893" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 22 characters in body" Text="After having completed a few projects I am searching for an alternative approach to the final process. I develop and design websites, and at the end of each project, I have a meeting with my clients to show them how to use their websites and give them a PDF instruction manual. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Creating the manual eats up some of my time and I am looking to minimize this as much as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any suggestions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11261" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3668" RevisionGUID="1ef11b2f-1698-47ed-9ce1-e3c73d0e836e" CreationDate="2015-09-08T21:31:03.800" UserId="9835" Text="Have you tried a video alternative? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the PDF manual is that important so that the client can use their website in ways they wouldn't be able to without it - then I would suggest creating a video showcasing all of the topics that would be in the PDF. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The video could cut down the time it would require you to write out a PDF and will give better visuals than flat images on a PDF. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All you would need to do is use a screen recording software which can also record your voice - or you can do a voice over. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11262" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="3669" RevisionGUID="99dc0d54-c276-43ae-ac6f-22e56b71fd80" CreationDate="2015-09-08T23:36:18.967" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/60288/tax-regarding-freelancer-hiring-freelancer" />
  <row Id="11263" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3669" RevisionGUID="250f8505-9e28-490f-8fd6-5847e063db78" CreationDate="2015-09-08T21:27:29.640" UserDisplayName="James" Text="If I'm a freelancer but I need to hire another freelancer to help me on something, do I need to send the other person tax documents (W9) and report 1099 later on?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11264" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3669" RevisionGUID="250f8505-9e28-490f-8fd6-5847e063db78" CreationDate="2015-09-08T21:27:29.640" UserDisplayName="James" Text="Tax regarding freelancer hiring freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11265" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3669" RevisionGUID="250f8505-9e28-490f-8fd6-5847e063db78" CreationDate="2015-09-08T21:27:29.640" UserDisplayName="James" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11266" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3670" RevisionGUID="b5316b21-d14b-466b-80ad-d54979dfb994" CreationDate="2015-09-09T00:02:59.153" UserId="8795" Text="IANAL. However according to the [IRS](http://www.irs.gov/uac/About-Form-1099MISC) you need to file a 1099-MISC if you made any of the following payments&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; File this form for each person to whom you have paid during the year:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; * at least $10 in royalties or broker payments in lieu of dividends or tax-exempt interest;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * at least $600 in rents, services (including parts and materials), prizes and awards, other income payments, medical and health care&#xD;&#xA;&gt; payments, crop insurance proceeds, cash payments for fish (or other&#xD;&#xA;&gt; aquatic life) you purchase from anyone engaged in the trade or&#xD;&#xA;&gt; business of catching fish, or, generally, the cash paid from a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; notional principal contract to an individual, partnership, or estate;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * any fishing boat proceeds,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * gross proceeds of $600, or more paid to an attorney during the year, or&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * withheld any federal income tax under the backup withholding rules regardless of the amount of the payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case, the operative one would be the $600 &quot;cash paid from a notional principal contract to an individual&quot; (second point above).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that this is cumulative, not per-payment. If you made 4 $200 payments to this person during a single tax year you would have to file.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Exemptions can be found [here](http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&amp;-Self-Employed/Am-I-Required-to-File-a-Form-1099-or-Other-Information-Return)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * You are not engaged in a trade or business.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * You are engaged in a trade or business and&#xD;&#xA;&gt;     * the payment was made to another business that is incorporated, or&#xD;&#xA;&gt;     * the sum of all payments made to the person or unincorporated business is less than $600 in one tax year (unless the recipient is an&#xD;&#xA;&gt; attorney or law form, see specific instructions for 1099-MISC for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; further details).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my personal opinion, if I was using Quickbooks or something similar, I'd just fill out the form anyway and send it off (with a copy to your supplier). They can decide whether or not to declare the income - but at least you are covered.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11267" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3669" RevisionGUID="c2361fc4-2511-446e-bae0-bcaaaf32ce70" CreationDate="2015-09-09T01:20:42.383" UserId="8795" Comment="Made question title and tags specific to USA and 1099" Text="Is a 1099 required when one freelancer hires another?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11268" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3669" RevisionGUID="c2361fc4-2511-446e-bae0-bcaaaf32ce70" CreationDate="2015-09-09T01:20:42.383" UserId="8795" Comment="Made question title and tags specific to USA and 1099" Text="|legal|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11269" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3669" RevisionGUID="c2361fc4-2511-446e-bae0-bcaaaf32ce70" CreationDate="2015-09-09T01:20:42.383" Comment="Proposed by 8795 approved by 75 edit id of 427" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11277" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3673" RevisionGUID="402c6570-c5e2-4343-84cb-850a36849215" CreationDate="2015-09-09T22:35:14.287" UserId="4561" Text="Yes, if you and they are in the US and you pay them $600 or more in one year.&#xD;&#xA;You will need to file a summary report by a certain date and get the 1099 to them by a certain date. (I think January 30th)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Doing the form yourself is a MAJOR pain because, last I read, it has to be on a certain type of paper with a specific font in a certain way because a machine reads it (you couldn't just print it, I had to buy the forms at office depot then find a typewriter, that was at least 10 years ago so maybe that has changed.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyhow - what I do now is use an online tax filing service, it's less than $5 to have them done and they file the summary for you plus send them to the freelancers.  The only thing I don't like about it is typing people's tax info into the Internet, but, what else are you gonna do?!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11278" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3674" RevisionGUID="e8475f34-32da-4865-a94d-cae9c44aadcf" CreationDate="2015-09-09T23:06:53.920" UserId="708" Text="#No. Never add processing fees to accept payments. Just don't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is really in similar to Peter's answer I realize. However...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An important factor is that *some* merchant accounts **severely** frown upon raising rates to cover *their* processing charges. In fact, some outright **hate** it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It devalues *their* name in the eyes of *your* clients. Think about that.... You add 4% because a client wants to pay using PayPal, they then are not happy that using PayPal costs them more so they will avoid using PayPal if possible. This *directly* impacts PayPal's business, not yours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some cases, a payment processor discovering you are increasing costs for only payments using their service may take unfavorable action towards you, such as refusing to accept payments for you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For credit cards, there are what is referred to as &quot;convenience fees&quot; which may only acceptable under certain circumstances: http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/credit-card-convenience-fees-cost-surcharges-1280.php&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All this has also been a long-standing legal battle between merchants and payment processors: https://usbneblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/the-reality-of-surcharging-fees-in-the-us/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You should really *never* ask any client to pay *your* processing fees.** Paying the processing fee is merely the cost of doing business, as Peter answered. If you can't afford that 2-4% then your rates are just *too low* to begin with.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11279" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3674" RevisionGUID="768bd86a-3a18-4138-bf56-f5197ce6d7e7" CreationDate="2015-09-09T23:12:07.197" UserId="708" Comment="added 8 characters in body" Text="#No. Never add processing fees to accept payments. Just don't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is really in similar to Peter's answer I realize. However...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An important factor is that *some* merchant accounts **severely** frown upon raising rates to cover *their* processing charges. In fact, some outright **hate** it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It devalues *their* name in the eyes of *your* clients. Think about that.... You add 4% because a client wants to pay using PayPal, they then are not happy that using PayPal costs them more so they will avoid using PayPal if possible. This *directly* impacts PayPal's business, not yours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some cases, a payment processor discovering you are increasing costs for only payments using their service may take unfavorable action towards you, such as refusing to accept payments for you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For credit cards, there are surcharges, referred to as &quot;convenience fees&quot;, which may be only acceptable under certain circumstances: http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/credit-card-convenience-fees-cost-surcharges-1280.php&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All this has also been a long-standing legal battle between merchants and payment processors: https://usbneblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/the-reality-of-surcharging-fees-in-the-us/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You should really *never* ask any client to pay *your* processing fees.** Paying the processing fee is merely the cost of doing business, as Peter answered. If you can't afford that 2-4% then your rates are just *too low* to begin with.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11281" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3675" RevisionGUID="9241bde2-b784-49c9-8e78-9c2159607d6c" CreationDate="2015-09-10T17:28:38.727" UserId="9856" Text="I was asked for a price by a client to layout a PSD that is very similar to this template:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://the8guild.com/themes/html/kedavra/v2.1/2015/index.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The layout would be built from scratch. Of course this should be responsive for smartphones and tablets, and includes some dynamic jquery widgets like sliders and masonry grids that should be customized.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Initially I asked around 2000€ (about 120 hours of work) using bootstrap for this. When I sent my price to the client, he quickly answered my email claiming that he can do this job in-house in just 8 hours, and suggested that I should reevaluate my estimation proccesses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I might admit that my initial estimation could be slightly over the top. But I can't even imagine how could you have this done in not only 8 hours, but less than a week (I mean, having this working perfectly on every device and all major browsers). Maybe I am missing something that may save me a lot of time? Any thoughts will be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11282" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3675" RevisionGUID="9241bde2-b784-49c9-8e78-9c2159607d6c" CreationDate="2015-09-10T17:28:38.727" UserId="9856" Text="How much would you charge for the css layout of a site like this" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11283" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3675" RevisionGUID="9241bde2-b784-49c9-8e78-9c2159607d6c" CreationDate="2015-09-10T17:28:38.727" UserId="9856" Text="|freelance-websites|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11284" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3676" RevisionGUID="39ef292a-b1a8-48fc-a634-bd4385a66824" CreationDate="2015-09-10T18:43:54.163" UserId="7717" Text="Whenever you run across an issue like this, you frame it like an accident. &quot;Well, it looks like you accidentally opened the email and then flagged it as spam. I know you probably go through a lot of emails every day and it's easy to accidentally miscategorize something, but you might try to pay extra care not to flag this newsletter&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also go to his supervisor/manager/whatever, same concept: &quot;I just wanted to let you know that I looked into the issue that Joe reported, and it looks like he accidentally flagged the email as spam a couple of times.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way you directly address the problem without placing any blame of intention. If he's doing it on purpose, he'll probably stop now that attention has been drawn to it. If it was honestly an accident, he'll probably pay more attention." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11285" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3677" RevisionGUID="4f6c1fc6-564f-4456-94e2-73095b7cf8df" CreationDate="2015-09-10T18:46:04.043" UserId="7717" Text="Include the time for creating the manual in your cost, so you're getting paid to do it. Work on the manual as you develop so that it isn't a big chore to go back and do the whole thing from scratch after the development is done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11286" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3678" RevisionGUID="bb440f33-fa07-4340-92ea-234eb1f5d31d" CreationDate="2015-09-10T19:04:45.687" UserId="7629" Text="I had a good experience with the simple development job (for a microsite) that I posted on Upwork.com. I received a reasonable number of bids (20 or so), then communicated with several developers. In some cases, I sensed the responder was unlikely to be the person working on my project, and I avoided those bids. When I found a good match, I requested a Skype chat at the beginning of the job as assurance that the developer was knowledgeable (and human). Overall everything went smoothly. Upwork facilitated good communication between us during the job. &#xD;&#xA;Best wishes for finding just the right people." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11290" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3680" RevisionGUID="4cb7058c-e008-4c89-a170-1960ce47ebfc" CreationDate="2015-09-10T21:22:53.387" UserId="9858" Text="Let me start by saying that i'm not a web designer but a web developer, so i dont have that much experience building pretty frontends like these.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With my limited knowledge i ,taking into account my ignorance and lack of experience, would not claim to be able to do it in less than 40 hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;120 does not sound crazy, maybe if i sat down and started building the site i would find all kinds of problems and would take a lot more than my initial and naive 40 hour estimation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would tell him to reevaluate his estimation process, don't lower your price outside of your confort zone, keep the offer open to him in the off chance that his in-house development fails horribly and he needs to call you to make it from scratch again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;dont ever let the client decide how much your time is worth." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11292" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3682" RevisionGUID="7eed113c-891d-44f7-acf2-4e7ab33dba2c" CreationDate="2015-09-11T04:49:27.567" UserId="4561" Text="I'm not a web developer, so I can't offer a time estimate.  But I do proposals.  &#xD;&#xA;I definitely would not back off of my original estimate.  If you do, it will look like you were dishonest in your original estimate, just seeing what you could get from them.  Their comment sounds to me like a tactic to try to manipulate you into lowering your price.  (If they really could do it in house in 8 hours why are they even shopping it out?)  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And one good tactic deserves another... people will often want something when they see it slipping away from them.  So take yourself away and hopefully they will panic and try to keep you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would (very politely) say something like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Wow, eight hours is fantastic.  If you can do it in-house in that amount of time then you definitely should do that.  If you have any problems at all, or just decide you don't want the hassle, please don't hesitate to contact me.  Your project looks interesting and I'd love to be involved. But as far as my estimation process is concerned, I have a lot of experience doing this type of development.  I'm aware of the myriad important details that are required that take time.  I was very careful analyzing your project and considered all the ways I could save time in my estimate.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(The &quot;or just decide you don't want the hassle&quot; part is to help them save face if they try it in house or hire someone cheap who doesn't work out and want to come crawling back to you.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you really do think you over-estimated and want to lower your price to get the project I would not lower the price without taking anything away, because again, it will make you look like you were just trying to gouge them and they won't trust you.  But you could take away something that's non critical or that you weren't going to do anyhow.  For example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Wow, 8 hours is amazing.  There is no way I can compete with that, but if you really don't want to do it yourself and my estimate is over your budget, there are some non-essential parts of the project you may be able to do without.  The documentation for maintaining your custom site was 15 hours. We could use XYZ frames instead of the super cool ABC ones and save 10 hours. Rather than CSS we could do BSS.  It won't be such a BFD but that will save you 20 hours...  (I know nothing about web design so I made all that up, but I'm sure you can come up with some items to &quot;take away&quot; from your estimate if you want to lower the price.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do lower the price - be very careful.  The type of client that tries to get you from 120 hours down to 8 is likely the type of client who will become a major nightmare if you let them.  The more you give, the more they expect/want.  And the cheaper they are, the needier they are with very unrealistic expectations.  They want to get something for nothing from you.  They are probably not the kind of client that wants a long term, win-win business relationship.  &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11296" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3683" RevisionGUID="ff6a4ad6-aba9-4ab7-9908-9e5c710b94dc" CreationDate="2015-09-11T10:09:47.203" UserId="9865" Text="I am currently working for a client i like and i would like to maintain, but at the same time, being a freelancer, i would like to work for other clients in order to have a more diverse professional growth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a programmer and i am trying to stick to working hours which leave space for a personal life, at least on the contracts. This means 7 net hours per day, times 5 days per week. If i would have to divide this among two clients, leaving one day per week for learning, networking and other work-related activities, the hours per week would be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- 14 hours first client&#xD;&#xA;- 14 hours second client&#xD;&#xA;- 7 hours for other work related activities&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If seven hours per day seems too few to you, consider that those are 7 *logged* hours, excluding everything but work, even picking calls or going to the toilet. In my experience and in the experience of some colleagues of mine, collecting up to even 7 net hours every day is not very common.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, the problem is that 14 hours per week seem too few to me and i am afraid that i would not be able to be helpful for my clients, but if i go above this it becomes hard to have more than one client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you think that is it possible to work professionally also with such an amount of hours per week? Does everyone change client every few months, or is there a way to actually divide week hours among different clients without giving up on your personal life? I saw at least one designer popping in and out from a company just some days, so i guess that someone manages to split the time effectively" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11297" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3683" RevisionGUID="ff6a4ad6-aba9-4ab7-9908-9e5c710b94dc" CreationDate="2015-09-11T10:09:47.203" UserId="9865" Text="Working simultaneously for multiple clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11298" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3683" RevisionGUID="ff6a4ad6-aba9-4ab7-9908-9e5c710b94dc" CreationDate="2015-09-11T10:09:47.203" UserId="9865" Text="|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11299" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3684" RevisionGUID="ce7cae32-3889-4177-ab07-9b028317460b" CreationDate="2015-09-11T10:55:01.580" UserId="820" Text="**Is it possible?** Yes, I've done that - work for multiple clients at the same time - for most of my time as a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How is it possible?** For most clients (at least in my case) some weeks there's a lot of work (say building a new feature), some weeks there's little (them testing that feature). That's part of the skill-set of a contractor, balancing client needs when those clients don't even know about each other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**When is it not possible?** Well, if the kind of freelancing you're doing doesn't have something similar to the ebb and flow I describe (something where the work load is consistent all the time) then you may have issues being able to only dedicate part of the time. But at that point, it seems like it may not be the right kind of job for a freelancer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11300" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3684" RevisionGUID="a03535e1-9d2c-438d-b3c0-ddedc18bd18a" CreationDate="2015-09-11T11:28:55.117" UserId="820" Comment="Added some relevant links." Text="**Is it possible?** Yes, I've done that - work for multiple clients at the same time - for [most of my time as a freelancer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aL4ii_Z3EI&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;t=266).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How is it possible?** For most clients (at least in my case) some weeks there's a lot of work (say building a new feature), some weeks there's little (them testing that feature). That's part of the skill-set of a contractor, balancing client needs when those clients don't even know about each other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**When is it not possible?** If some of your clients do not understand the difference between an employee and a freelancer. I go [into that a bit here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aL4ii_Z3EI&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;t=1324). Or if the kind of freelancing you're doing doesn't have something similar to the ebb and flow I describe (something where the work load is consistent all the time) then you may have issues being able to only dedicate part of the time. But at that point, it seems like it may not be the right kind of job for a freelancer, it's more of a 'traditional' [contractor vs employee](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aL4ii_Z3EI&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;t=178) concept." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11301" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3684" RevisionGUID="f9fec129-7766-4b7a-8646-132056feb69c" CreationDate="2015-09-11T11:45:37.463" UserId="820" Comment="Answered billing, expanded on how it's possible." Text="**Is it possible?** Yes, I've done that - work for multiple clients at the same time - for [most of my time as a freelancer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aL4ii_Z3EI&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;t=266).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How is it possible?** For most clients (at least in my case) some weeks there's a lot of work (say building a new feature), some weeks there's little (them testing that feature, and responding to questions). That's part of the skill-set of a freelancer, balancing client needs when those clients don't even know about each other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also about balancing your time, knowing when there will be a lull in one project, and making sure things are lined up to start a 'when you have the time' request from another client. But that means you'll need to be flexible yourself. Those target hours may be a good guideline, but you'll need to be willing to work a long few days because a few projects collided (and then perhaps take a few days off the net week).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**When is it not possible?** If some of your clients do not understand the difference between an employee and a freelancer. I go [into that a bit here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aL4ii_Z3EI&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;t=1324). Or if the kind of freelancing you're doing doesn't have something similar to the ebb and flow I describe (something where the work load is consistent all the time) then you may have issues being able to only dedicate part of the time. But at that point, it seems like it may not be the right kind of job for a freelancer, it's more of a 'traditional' [contractor vs employee](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aL4ii_Z3EI&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;t=178) concept.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**About billing:** As I've answered in a [few other questions](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/search?q=user%3A820+odesk), I've had success simplifying the invoicing process with oDesk (now UpWork). Letting them track the time and invoice the clients weekly means I get to avoid extra time spent on timelogs, and get paid every week." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11303" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3675" RevisionGUID="6dd93f58-3c15-4f8b-8460-0c8f417e1889" CreationDate="2015-09-11T16:34:23.057" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:7717,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;user45623&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="11306" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3685" RevisionGUID="bde1dd66-040a-4613-8548-20321488959e" CreationDate="2015-09-13T03:12:09.890" UserId="9882" Text="I recently started a project for my fiance, who told his company about it and wants to pay me for it (great). Here is the catch they want me to give them a cost, but have expressed they don't want to pay an arm and a leg, usually when I do freelance price is negotiated prior to the start of work. But as I mentioned originally this was just for my fiance to help manage the work load for him only so payment was not even required.&#xD;&#xA;This is a complete project management system, CRM, Payroll (time sheet entry, management only), and billing system. This system is written from the ground up in .NET WEB fully customized to fit this companies needs due to the nature of their business a typical &quot;can&quot; program would not work with out a lot of modifications. They are paying for the server hosting, and because this is a web based system there will need to be updates over time to account for Browser updates and code compliance, and added features (which they agreed to pay me for). So far I have about 150 hours of coding into this system with about another 20 hours prior to being finished. And talking with the owner of the company they already want to add more features into this system. So here is my question to the community what would you charge for a system like this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11307" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3685" RevisionGUID="bde1dd66-040a-4613-8548-20321488959e" CreationDate="2015-09-13T03:12:09.890" UserId="9882" Text="What to charge for Free Lance Project using .NET" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11308" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3685" RevisionGUID="bde1dd66-040a-4613-8548-20321488959e" CreationDate="2015-09-13T03:12:09.890" UserId="9882" Text="|freelance-websites|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11309" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3683" RevisionGUID="bea6a42a-fd41-4ee5-9138-aea41923780a" CreationDate="2015-09-14T00:11:26.903" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/643215443931590656" />
  <row Id="11311" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3642" RevisionGUID="a374ca8c-70b8-4edc-90af-d8d93d178262" CreationDate="2015-09-14T12:12:14.777" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/643396838851276800" />
  <row Id="11312" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3685" RevisionGUID="0d68ac0a-14a3-43cf-949c-55276ef6dba4" CreationDate="2015-09-14T15:54:07.307" UserId="75" Comment="added 69 characters in body; edited title" Text="I recently started a project for my fiance, who told his company about it and wants to pay me for it (great). However, they want me to give them a cost, but have expressed they don't want to pay an arm and a leg.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually when I do freelance work, the price is negotiated prior to the start of work. But as I mentioned, originally this was just for my fiance to help manage the work load for him only so payment was not even required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a complete project management system, CRM, Payroll (time sheet entry, management only), and billing system. This system is written from the ground up in .NET WEB, fully customized to fit this companies needs. Due to the nature of their business, a typical canned program would not work with out a lot of modifications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The company is paying for the server hosting, and because this is a web based system there will need to be updates over time to account for Browser updates and code compliance, and added features (which they agreed to pay me for). So far I have about 150 hours of coding into this system with about another 20 hours prior to being finished. After talking with the owner of the company, they already want to add more features into this system.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can I charge for a system that originally was going to be free (to my fiance), but now the company wants to buy it from me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11313" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3685" RevisionGUID="0d68ac0a-14a3-43cf-949c-55276ef6dba4" CreationDate="2015-09-14T15:54:07.307" UserId="75" Comment="added 69 characters in body; edited title" Text="What to charge for Freelance Project for fiance's company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11314" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3686" RevisionGUID="e4c1a3e9-5b74-48e1-9548-8c19644e6a8d" CreationDate="2015-09-14T15:59:06.167" UserId="75" Text="When you freelance, doing this type of work, how much do you charge? The reason I'm asking is, it shouldn't matter that he's your fiance; the company now wants your product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may be hard at first, but it's a business deal and nothing more; your fiance simply acted as the referral to introduce the fact there's a problem, and you are able to solve it with your expertise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you normally charge $40/hr, and this is going to take 170 hours, it's simple multiplication to come out to $6,800. Again, rough estimate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Treat it like a business transaction, that's the best advice we can give. Asking for the **exact** cost per hour or per project would make the question close as too opinion based. So, ignore the fact your fiance would benefit, and focus on the company, who wants to pay the bill." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11315" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3687" RevisionGUID="7bd0aa68-b4f9-4421-9abb-b22704fd356e" CreationDate="2015-09-14T22:48:04.317" UserId="4561" Text="I would first see if you can find out what they consider an arm and a leg.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd initially float &quot;full price&quot; by them though -- they may not even blink, then if charging what you normally would is a lot more than they expect, consider giving them a discount on the original programming (make sure they know you're discounting it for them).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But let them know upkeep and any changes they request will be charged at your normal rate which is X and you estimate changes A, B, and C that they have requested will run about $Y.  They can expect upkeep to be $Z.  And don't be shy about your normal rate.  They are a business, they understand your time is valuable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way you protect yourself from getting sucked into a scope-creep/support nightmare as your reward for having done something nice!  You also make some money and gain future business off something you ***were*** doing for free and make them happy that they got such a great deal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, when they say they want to &quot;buy it&quot; -- unless you're getting your usual full price I would not turn over any of the code/intellectual property to them.  I would let them know it is only licensed to them for internal use.  There may be an opportunity here for you to sell it to some of their competitors who need the same thing.  I'd freak if I sold a company software at a discount and they turned around and started reselling it and making a profit.  (Probably not their intention, but I'd want to be sure they understood what rights they were &quot;buying.&quot;)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11316" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3688" RevisionGUID="3fbd6c57-cd4b-41d9-8fdc-07c268866f56" CreationDate="2015-09-15T13:53:10.120" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="The fact that it was initially intended to your fiancé doesn't change the value of the project for this company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They seem to like it, charge them your normal fee. What you'll ask them will probably be a finger and a toe." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11317" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3689" RevisionGUID="6b7365e9-6de1-4802-b2ad-d0f777e9fc82" CreationDate="2015-09-15T20:49:09.887" UserId="9910" Text="I've been talking with a company about some improvements on their website and an app, but they don't have budget, instead they told me:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We have no budget. Simply none. We have future profits we can share.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; That’s it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would love to know from other similar experiences, the legal vinculations that we could have (I live in Spain and the company is from UK), how to calculate my future income and if there are any services to manage a project like that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11318" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3689" RevisionGUID="6b7365e9-6de1-4802-b2ad-d0f777e9fc82" CreationDate="2015-09-15T20:49:09.887" UserId="9910" Text="Legal document/vinculation for being paid with future profits" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11319" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3689" RevisionGUID="6b7365e9-6de1-4802-b2ad-d0f777e9fc82" CreationDate="2015-09-15T20:49:09.887" UserId="9910" Text="|legal|uk|spain|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11320" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3690" RevisionGUID="82e3e7bc-0721-4fdb-ae71-d6475228a428" CreationDate="2015-09-15T21:07:36.133" UserId="75" Text="Step 1 - Run away.  &#xD;&#xA;Step 2 - Refer to step one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I say this because this is how many freelancers get stuck doing work for free, or much less than they should be. Future profits mean nothing when you're waiting a year or two to see a penny for your work!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they don't have a budget, you can stay in contact, but do not do any work for them. You will have very little to gain, and a lot to lose! There are many questions about this subject all over the site; I recommend checking some of them out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it sounds great in the future (5% of all web site sales will go to you, for example), but it can take years for that to pay for the work you've done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11325" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3692" RevisionGUID="d2c79bfc-bc4e-4f7e-95ca-a208bd929e27" CreationDate="2015-09-16T04:21:30.193" UserId="4561" Text="You probably should do what Luke (and every other freelancer I've ever heard talk about this) says and run.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The web design and Ap would not be a lot of work on your part and you'd like to do them anyhow for the experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's probably a form of mental illness on my part, but I'm very entrepreneurial and always very tempted by sharing profits.  In fact, I prefer that idea to being paid hourly for something I create.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't mind rolling the dice you might go for it, but understand you ARE rolling the dice and you probably will lose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have no ideas how the legal side of this works.  How do you know what their profits are?  I have an agreement with a company that wants to resell some of my software for a percentage that says they can see my books if they want.  How else would they know if I am being honest?  I also have software on my website (FastSpring) that will automatically redirect a percentage of sales to others.  But even that I could change on them if I wanted, so there has to be trust and legal paperwork that makes you a partner and gives you the right to audit their books.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also - if they have NO budget, they are either:&#xD;&#xA;1. Not good business people &#xD;&#xA;2. brand new with no track record - you have no way of knowing if they'll ever sell a single thing. Most new businesses fail. OR&#xD;&#xA;3. They do have money but are not confident enough in this website and app to risk their own money on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, Many of my most profitable business ventures came from saying YES! to an opportunity from a near stranger where really I was mostly helping them out, but it led over time to greater things.  So you don't want to be too closed off to opportunity.  But don't get stars in your eyes and think this company with no budget and no track record is going to make you a lot of money.  If you go for it, be emotionally prepared to waste your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hopefully someone else can tell you how you could legally assure they're honest regarding profits.  And profits should be a percentage of the sale price of the app, not a percentage of their actual &quot;profit&quot; 'cause they could make a bundle and spend it on other expenses and have no &quot;profit&quot; to speak of." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11326" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3693" RevisionGUID="4d60b7fe-18c7-4318-b748-e2d2d885da29" CreationDate="2015-09-16T14:41:34.020" UserId="9916" Text="I would give them a hard date you will stop showing up unless they are paid in full. File a small claim immediately after that if they don't pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would absolutely NOT confiscate any property they have. Return it and get somebody to sign off that you returned it. If you keep it they will bring this up in court and you will likely loose your judgement. Or you'll get counter-sued for the equipment you kept. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11327" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3693" RevisionGUID="109a6ce6-e973-4eec-a9e2-887eaf73097f" CreationDate="2015-09-16T14:46:40.693" UserId="9916" Comment="added 23 characters in body" Text="I would give them a hard date (less than a week IMO) you will stop showing up unless they are paid in full. File a small claim immediately after that if they don't pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would absolutely NOT confiscate any property they have. Return it and get somebody to sign off that you returned it. If you keep it they will bring this up in court and you will likely loose your judgement. Or you'll get counter-sued for the equipment you kept. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11328" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3694" RevisionGUID="7fe70182-bb78-4451-87fa-f775a0d8884b" CreationDate="2015-09-16T17:08:03.613" UserId="9918" Text="I am drafting a contract with a potential client (French university) for a yearlong remote consulting job. When I wrote my own name and my personal bank account info on the contract, the admin from the financial/accounting office told me: &quot;We can’t directly pay on your personal bank account. We have to sign a contract with a company.&quot;&#xA;&#xA;I have never had this requirement before. I am reluctant to register a company and business bank account because of the time, paperwork, and travel required (my current country is not ideal for registering a business due to language and legal barriers).&#xA;&#xA;So, I am wondering:&#xA;&#xA;1. Is this a common requirement for freelancers? I want to make sure that me or the admin are not misinterpreting something.&#xA;&#xA;2. Is there some simpler solution? I have heard about intermediary companies like MBO Partners; wondering about any other kind of shortcut so that I can satisfy the business requirement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11329" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3694" RevisionGUID="7fe70182-bb78-4451-87fa-f775a0d8884b" CreationDate="2015-09-16T17:08:03.613" UserId="9918" Text="Client requires that I register as a business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11330" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3694" RevisionGUID="7fe70182-bb78-4451-87fa-f775a0d8884b" CreationDate="2015-09-16T17:08:03.613" UserId="9918" Text="|contracts|remote|incorporation|foreign-incorporation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11339" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3698" RevisionGUID="45923849-9643-4afd-827d-610ec66a8433" CreationDate="2015-09-17T08:51:43.480" UserId="8046" Text="As Canadian Luke suggests, it's usually a very bad sign if a company has no budget and promises future profits as payment. **That means they are not even willing to get any loan (or can't) for their own project**, which gives you a very big clue about how much hope they have to succeed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another big issue is the legal side of all this. No matter the contract you could sign with them, it's not a guarantee of getting paid even if you ever win in court and had a solid contract. And then there's the country-to-country issues and the limits of protection you get from the legal system when working for people outside your country.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**BUT** if you are *really* interested in the project for some reason and want to test the client before running away, you can always offer him to collect 100% of the money directly from the sales and once the full payment of your services will be completed, you can give him back the power to keep all the profits. You should also keep all the rights on what you've worked on and the admin privileges until full payment. It's a bit like a Joint Venture or a service loan, and you need to get some assets as a guarantee. Of course, that can work for an online business but that's about it and it has some risks too. And by collecting the money I mean you collect it yourself, not the client giving it back to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients will most likely refuse that kind of deal unless they truly believe in their business and really respect you as an entrepreneur. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's 2 types of clients who ask for favors such as free work: 1) The spoiled ones who are used in asking favors and gambling with others' resources and time, and 2) the ones who truly have no access to credit. Run from #1 and see if there's potential for you with #2. For example,lot of very smart students don't have any budget and cannot get any loan because they don't have any credit history but they can still build businesses with a lot of potential. Maybe you should investigate why the client cannot even get a loan; simply ask, it's not worse than him asking you to work for free and it's fair.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; But in general, people with no budget and who don't want to take risks for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; their own business usually don't even believe in its future success&#xD;&#xA;&gt; themselves. And maybe you shouldn't either." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11340" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3699" RevisionGUID="44c216f2-064e-4404-b85f-5fe9dad299f6" CreationDate="2015-09-17T09:08:58.250" UserId="8046" Text="As mentioned in the other answers, you should include the fees in your project's price. It should not be charged as extra.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if the client requests a special payment method that is not part of your standard payment methods then yes you can ask for an extra. For example, you have a merchant account but the client still wants to use Paypal or Western Union, you can specify there will be additional charges. That is often seen on many websites of big corporations, especially with Paypal payments. One benefit of doing this is the client might decide to use your favorite payment method instead of the one with the extra charges.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if you offer only one payment method, then no, you don't ask for transfer fees or any other fee related to this; that's part of your responsibilities to include this in your project's cost and price." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11345" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3699" RevisionGUID="746c2da9-3f53-44d9-9ac1-0d127388f0d7" CreationDate="2015-09-18T05:59:10.620" UserId="8046" Comment="added 893 characters in body" Text="As mentioned in the other answers, you should include the fees in your project's price. It should not be charged as extra.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if the client requests a special payment method that is not part of your standard payment methods then yes you can ask for an extra. For example, you have a merchant account but the client still wants to use Paypal or Western Union, you can specify there will be additional charges. That is often seen on many websites of big corporations, especially with Paypal payments. One benefit of doing this is the client might decide to use your favorite payment method instead of the one with the extra charges.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if you offer only one payment method, then no, you don't ask for transfer fees or any other fee related to this; that's part of your responsibilities to include this in your project's cost and price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As to how to ask for the extra charges, I think this should be done during a communication before sending the invoice. You don't ask clients to calculate their own fees; you do it. Best way to do this is by asking by email &quot;what method of payment they prefer to use&quot; and then offer them your choices and explain the fees without extra justifications. Then prepare the invoice accordingly. This can be asked while they ask you for a quote too, before you start the project; it's fair.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you use an online way of collecting the payments and it can be done by adding buttons (for example), then simply do as any other corporation do and add a note below the Paypal button saying something like &quot;10% extra transfer fee applies.&quot; It doesn't matter how you say it, people are used to this and it doesn't require any justifications when there's more than one option to make a payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11346" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3700" RevisionGUID="058b1a42-9450-47e4-9c28-1527f59f9ef4" CreationDate="2015-09-18T07:29:01.310" UserId="9932" Text="I don't know about your state legislation, but here in russia we have something called &quot;Индивидуальный предприниматель&quot; (Individual Enterpreneur). You just have to find an existing one registered for the services similar to what you would provide and drive the money through him/her. It's not legal here ofc but it saves you registering as an enterpreneur or a company." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11347" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3701" RevisionGUID="8163075f-26ea-4a71-8715-e8b53c332a8f" CreationDate="2015-09-18T17:40:36.307" UserId="7717" Text="I am working on a huge, multifaceted application/service for a client which never seems to stop growing in size. For various reasons the client has decided they don't want anyone else to work on the project; so although I was originally hired only to develop a portion of the entire system, I am now stuck doing everything by myself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Getting paid isn't an issue because I am billing the client hourly and they seem happy with the flexibility this gives them. However, they are adding new features to the requirements on a weekly basis, much faster than I can develop them, and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight. I have done my best to lock down the requirements but the client keeps thinking of new features they want as they develop the content that will go on the service. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Months ago they mentioned several times that budget was an issue when considering hiring a second freelancer, but it hasn't come up since. We've already spent much more money than I assumed they had left, so I have no idea whether there is a danger that they'll run out of funding before everything is ready to go live.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My main concern is that the service will never get finished, or that by the time it gets finished it will be ready to blow over in the slightest breeze like a skyscraper of cards. I am finding myself increasingly unable to keep up with the scope - accidentally breaking features or even duplicating existing code that I forgot I wrote months ago.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently the client has been asking for endless analytics and views for their content. I can't imagine they will ever find any practical use for some of the data they are requesting or sorting features they want implemented. They've been changing the requirements for the content management interface so much I haven't been able to *implement* any of it, so it's not like they're using an existing system and realizing they need features that aren't there. They're just tacking on new features they *think* will be useful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I've tried recommending they wait until the service is live and has a good deal of users before worrying about in-depth analytics (gently suggesting that all of the analytics in world are useless if the service isn't popular).&#xD;&#xA; - I've told them I do not specialize in some of the work they are having me do and am not the best person to do all of it; I've even told them this project is much too large for one person and they should hire a firm (they may not have the budget for a firm). &#xD;&#xA; - I've suggested we hold off on some less-important features until the service goes live so we get something out the door faster&#xD;&#xA; - I've told them that if budget is a concern, it might be a good idea to prune some less-important features entirely&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is very friendly and likes me a good deal; they normally take what I have to say seriously, but I can't seem to get them to ease off on new features. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11348" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3701" RevisionGUID="8163075f-26ea-4a71-8715-e8b53c332a8f" CreationDate="2015-09-18T17:40:36.307" UserId="7717" Text="How to tell client to stop adding new features?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11349" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3701" RevisionGUID="8163075f-26ea-4a71-8715-e8b53c332a8f" CreationDate="2015-09-18T17:40:36.307" UserId="7717" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11350" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3701" RevisionGUID="678298df-12d5-419e-8e05-dbfd44df2b53" CreationDate="2015-09-18T18:51:32.443" UserId="7717" Comment="edited tags" Text="|difficult-client|scope-creep|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11351" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3702" RevisionGUID="eeb941f4-9ab9-49a1-a02b-26458752e006" CreationDate="2015-09-18T22:37:18.310" UserId="9939" Text="i have been working with the same client as a writer for the last 2 years. Had a byline etc, but got paid only £50 per 600-700 word article all that time. It was for a national paper. About 3 weeks ago, when one of their in-house assistants started asking me to do more work in terms of strategy and development, I asked for a raise in my fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After 3 weeks of negotiation, they didn't budge. I also asked them to consider me as editor for the small column, since My articles were singlehandedly propping up the column and they were asking for strategy and development. They told me there was no money, and no promotion because they didn't know what was happening.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; I put in a notice of 4 more articles and said I would stop contributing after that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then today I found out they hired a new editor 2 weeks ago and are getting ready to hire more writers. So, clearly there is money! Though they keep telling me they love my work, and that they would like me to continue, my disappointment at the poor fee and no promotion is untenable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would you end this? What do you say? How much notice do you give?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would you handle this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11352" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3702" RevisionGUID="eeb941f4-9ab9-49a1-a02b-26458752e006" CreationDate="2015-09-18T22:37:18.310" UserId="9939" Text="Advice please on to continue use with client or not" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11353" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3702" RevisionGUID="eeb941f4-9ab9-49a1-a02b-26458752e006" CreationDate="2015-09-18T22:37:18.310" UserId="9939" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11354" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3703" RevisionGUID="0c505a0d-1dc2-448f-a33e-e7c19e55159f" CreationDate="2015-09-19T01:28:01.320" UserId="2669" Text="It seems you have done everything expected from an honest Freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client has been informed of the limitations regarding this project and still ignores your professional advice you can either...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try harder to comply by prioritizing the project and, as you mentioned, at least complete the original scope as directed from the beginning, then redefine anything above those main functions an extra. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are unable to complete portions of the project hire a subcontractor to assist **You**. &#xD;&#xA;Although your **client** may not like the idea of hiring someone else you should have no issues with hiring / outsourcing those parts you are unfamiliar with (unless you signed an NDA). &#xD;&#xA;This may cut into your personal earnings unless you are able to negotiate payment terms with the client (with or without their knowledge of the assistance you hired)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Otherwise politely apologize for having to leave the project.&#xD;&#xA;If you are able, get the original scope finished and providing you are paid in full refuse to do additional work unless you receive the necessary &quot;tools&quot; to do the job expected of your company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is important from the beginning of all projects that you and the client document the scope and estimated costs of the project before starting. &#xD;&#xA;If the project has already started without a contract you should definitely consider documenting and finishing the original scope setting an end point, then renegotiate part two of the project adding the bells and whistles.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend drawing up a detailed document listing the attainable goals as well as those you are not able to currently accomplish with the resources given.&#xD;&#xA;Do offer suggestions however on how to accomplish those goals that are out of reach. (IE hiring specialists, or other methods achieve a desired effect).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Naturally you want to keep good relations with your client but they must understand that they hired you on to do a specific job and once that job is complete they can hire you for further growth if the application is successful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If after all the warnings your client still insists you continue to work on the unnecessary functions and growing scope, Keep on keeping on, so long as they are paying, you should have nothing bad on your conscience if the project is successful or not. (providing your not in breech of a legal contract)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11355" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3704" RevisionGUID="83fc0270-8c70-4bf8-9e3e-74130065488c" CreationDate="2015-09-19T14:35:30.730" UserId="517" Text="Well obviously the resentment in your grows and being unhappy and also humiliated, I would probably quit working for that client as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I am not sure if you have some other income besides this job to consider before quitting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you quit, respect the golden rule: &quot;quit job professionally, not like a spoiled child&quot;. It means that you should inform them that you are quitting because of small fee and if their budget increases any time in the future, they can contact you again. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But even before quitting, maybe you can do what most of us do for small-fee clients. Do them after you do all other well-paid tasks. For example, if a client A pays me 30% less then others, I tell him that due to poor rate I cannot put his work in priority but I will work on his tasks when I am free of all other better paid jobs. So I work on other tasks for 2 weeks, and when I have 1 day without any work, I take their tasks in work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few clients rejected this offer and left me, but I still have a lot of them who like my work and are ready to wait instead to pay more. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One more thing occurred to me. If they accept this way of work, you can tell them that if they have an important and urgent article, you can prioritize it, but they have to pay you your increased rate. This way, they will pay you less 9 non-urgent articles, but will pay more for 1 urgent one. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11356" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3705" RevisionGUID="c4b5c2db-fe9d-4e80-a14b-ae9eea4ec3ad" CreationDate="2015-09-19T14:39:34.760" UserId="517" Text="You can't, you shouldn't and you don't have right to tell him that. He's paying your work hourly and he can add zillion features if he likes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, you probably got angry at me thinking that I want to turn you into mindless slave. Not at all. As I see, you probably do not have proper project management. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if you run project per Sprint Agile, you would have all features on one pile and the client would pick those which will appear in the next sprint. And once you close the sprint and make it active, no additional features can be added to it. If they add new features, simply place them on features pile (backlog). This way, you will work on your sprint without interruptions and be happy, and the client will be able to add zillions of features into his app. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11357" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3706" RevisionGUID="22a2535a-fa25-400d-a5fc-1511a3e146ee" CreationDate="2015-09-20T20:53:43.447" UserId="9940" Text="I don't completely agree with one of the answers. SAP/ABAP is a field where many clients are searching able people in Germany. There are also several recruitment companies around that specialize on SAP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*But* must of them are bigger companies and they are very reluctant to let the people work remotely. That also has to do with the fact, that you will work on systems which are central to their business. Without their SAP systems or when data will got lost, those companies would suffer enormously.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, many German companies are very traditional. So they want to have the freelancer in their rooms. Some companies will trust you after a while and you might be allowed to work part-time remote. Very seldom, they will allow for full-remote access after a few months of orientation and trust building." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11358" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3702" RevisionGUID="9345e2b1-a2e6-42a4-9793-0637555a6794" CreationDate="2015-09-21T07:51:56.570" UserId="58" Comment="deleted 18 characters in body; edited title" Text="I have been working with the same client as a writer for the last 2 years.&#xD;&#xA;I had a byline etc, but I only got paid £50 per 600-700 word article in that time.&#xD;&#xA;It was for a national paper. About 3 weeks ago, when one of their in-house assistants started asking me to do more work in terms of strategy and development, I asked for a raise in my fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After 3 weeks of negotiation, they didn't budge. I also asked them to consider me as editor for the small column, since my articles were singlehandedly propping up the column and they were asking for strategy and development. They told me there was no money, and no promotion because they didn't know what was happening.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I put in a notice of 4 more articles and said I would stop contributing after that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then today, I found out they hired a new editor 2 weeks ago and are getting ready to hire more writers. So, clearly there is money! Though they keep telling me they love my work, and that they would like me to continue, my disappointment at the poor fee and no promotion is untenable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would you end this; what do you say? How much notice do you give?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I handle this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11359" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3702" RevisionGUID="9345e2b1-a2e6-42a4-9793-0637555a6794" CreationDate="2015-09-21T07:51:56.570" UserId="58" Comment="deleted 18 characters in body; edited title" Text="Should I continue with a problem client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11361" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3706" RevisionGUID="ef659680-6b33-48f9-983a-c9a25e32ad00" CreationDate="2015-09-21T13:21:19.320" UserId="9940" Comment="typo" Text="I don't completely agree with one of the answers. SAP/ABAP is a field where many clients are searching able people in Germany. There are also several recruitment companies around that specialize on SAP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*But* most of them are bigger companies and they are very reluctant to let the people work remotely. That also has to do with the fact, that you will work on systems which are central to their business. Without their SAP systems or when data will got lost, those companies would suffer enormously.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, many German companies are very traditional. So they want to have the freelancer in their rooms. Some companies will trust you after a while and you might be allowed to work part-time remote. Very seldom, they will allow for full-remote access after a few months of orientation and trust building." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11362" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3706" RevisionGUID="552e1004-b9cd-4533-8f91-87c2c538d5cd" CreationDate="2015-09-21T13:30:48.793" UserId="9940" Comment="added info" Text="I don't completely agree with one of the answers. SAP/ABAP is a field where many clients are searching able people in Germany. There are also several recruitment companies around that specialize on SAP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*But* most of them are bigger companies and they are very reluctant to let the people work remotely. That also has to do with the fact, that you will work on systems which are central to their business. Without their SAP systems or when data will got lost, those companies would suffer enormously.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, many German companies are very traditional. So they want to have the freelancer in their rooms. Some companies will trust you after a while and you might be allowed to work part-time remote. Very seldom, they will allow for full-remote access after a few months of orientation and trust building.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I explicitly asked an experienced SAP freelancer about the topic because I was thinking about doing some ABAP freelancing myself and he  confirmed that is nearly impossible to get a full remote freelancing job in this area in Germany. Also I am looking for job offers and when SAP is involved, the maximum you will normally get are 1-2 days of remote work a week, after they got to know you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There might be some jobs with 100% remote after on-site training, but they are pretty rare." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11363" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3706" RevisionGUID="2eaa4046-f6ff-45e7-9997-a0bbccb94264" CreationDate="2015-09-21T13:37:07.027" UserId="9940" Comment="added info" Text="I don't completely agree with one of the answers. SAP/ABAP is a field where many clients are searching able people in Germany. There are also several recruitment companies around that specialize on SAP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*But* most of them are bigger companies and they are very reluctant to let the people work remotely. That also has to do with the fact, that you will work on systems which are central to their business. Without their SAP systems or when data will got lost, those companies would suffer enormously.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, many German companies are very traditional. So they want to have the freelancer in their rooms. Some companies will trust you after a while and you might be allowed to work part-time remote. Very seldom, they will allow for full-remote access after a few months of orientation and trust building.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I explicitly asked an experienced SAP freelancer about the topic because I was thinking about doing some ABAP freelancing myself and he  confirmed that is nearly impossible to get a full remote freelancing job in this area in Germany. Also I am looking for job offers and when SAP is involved, the maximum you will normally get are 1-2 days of remote work a week, after they got to know you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There might be some jobs with 100% remote after on-site training, but they are pretty rare.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thought about &quot;SAPing&quot; and programming:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, &quot;SAPing&quot; is very often about configuration, because many companies just use the standard system and configure it. But there are also many big corporations that also do programming. The culprit is that those are the biggest SAP users. So those are really big corporations and they do not just hire some freelancer -- but they often have their preferred consulting companies. Those companies of course first use their own programmers and only when those are overworked, they may hire you as sub-contractor. But than again, the big players want you in their own halls. Only with very special knowledge, you might have a chance to get extra treatment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11364" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3708" RevisionGUID="e89dc852-70ac-499c-928a-fc5c2c54c114" CreationDate="2015-09-21T18:23:33.450" UserId="9953" Text="I cannot answer question 1, I guess they have some obligation from the Labour law, which is complicated in France.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For question 2, in France, there are some intermediary companies for consultants (search for &quot;portage salarial&quot;): you charge the client as if you were a company, the client pays to your intermediary company, and you get a salary from the intermediary company. After the taxes, you get more or less half of what you charged to the client, so be aware of that to fix the price for the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This could be a good solution, but I have doubts given you are outside of France. You can try to contact one such intermediary company and ask if they accept to sign with you. Ask the intermediary company about your status as a foreigner and specifically if some of the taxes can be avoided (unless, for instance, if you want to contribute for a retirement in the French system :)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11366" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3709" RevisionGUID="c3b923d8-7b3d-43e7-97b8-442060a22af8" CreationDate="2015-09-22T10:16:59.673" UserId="5750" Text="**Background**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Very small project, mostly adding content to a CMS site.&#xD;&#xA; - Client happy with work, but now can't pay due to lack of funds.&#xD;&#xA; - After several months I informed the client that I would take the work down (leaving the site in the same state as prior to the work being commenced) until such time that I have been paid.&#xD;&#xA; - Client now believes that since I've 'taken the work back' that I shouldn't require payment and that the matter is closed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Specifically, **can anyone point to any UK legislation regarding payments that might cover this scenario?** Much of what I've found covers the right for a company to reclaim products/items, and I'm not having much luck finding out my rights with regards to claiming payment for a service. I *know* I can point to the contract etc; what I'm looking for is a 'such and such act of 1988' that says I can still expect to be paid even if website is taken down/changed. Nothing like pointing at an objective specific law to shut down a line of argument!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11367" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3709" RevisionGUID="c3b923d8-7b3d-43e7-97b8-442060a22af8" CreationDate="2015-09-22T10:16:59.673" UserId="5750" Text="Claiming outstanding fees on a website that has since been taken down/altered" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11368" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3709" RevisionGUID="c3b923d8-7b3d-43e7-97b8-442060a22af8" CreationDate="2015-09-22T10:16:59.673" UserId="5750" Text="|legal|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11369" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3513" RevisionGUID="a6dc4e86-49ea-4605-9b82-bfd50bb9b33c" CreationDate="2015-09-22T15:47:42.533" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/646350164475645953" />
  <row Id="11370" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3710" RevisionGUID="d8e65a92-fe0b-4edf-b4be-ef9541c31c2e" CreationDate="2015-09-22T18:50:57.063" UserId="4561" Text="Can you tell them you would be happy to do that, but they are the only ones ever to ask for it and it will cost you X amount in time and expenses, so you need to revise your proposal to include an administration fee of roughly that amount?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You also might ask if they can hire you for a year as a part-time employee instead.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know nothing of France but I have also heard their labor laws are very complicated (and consequently discourage hiring...)  I do know that here in the USA you don't have to register to do business, but I had one client ask me to get a DBA (fictitious business name) because our tax laws are such that the government likes to declare you are an employee, not a freelancer, and therefore the company hiring you gets in trouble and has to pay more taxes on your behalf.  Having a business name doesn't technically change anything but it &quot;looks better&quot; to the government, it is more obvious that you consider yourself a contractor not an employee.  Of course here it's pretty easy and inexpensive to get a fictitious business name." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11371" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3711" RevisionGUID="449f927d-4256-428a-897c-3c1af7919816" CreationDate="2015-09-22T20:10:08.120" UserId="8795" Text="Having freelanced in a number of countries, this is actually a fairly common requirement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you interpret 'freelance' as &quot;running a business&quot;, it's even understandable. Compare the realities of a business and an employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* A business gets to deduct most of its expenses **before** calculating its taxes, whereas an individual pays their expenses from post-tax monies. For example, if I have a company and travel to a client's premises that is (usually) a deductible business expense. As an employee, my travel to the office is a personal expense.&#xD;&#xA;* Businesses often pay taxes at lower rates than individuals, and have options to structure their payouts in the most favorable manner (small salaries, HUGE dividends for example).&#xD;&#xA;* Businesses can limit legal liability in ways that an individual can not.&#xD;&#xA;* Employers are required to provide many benefits (read &quot;expensive&quot;) for their employees which they do not need to give to their suppliers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the first two reasons, most countries pay close attention to **who** qualifies to be called a &quot;business&quot;. It's simultaneously about maximizing their tax revenues and protecting people who would otherwise be employees from abuse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes they try to limit this by requiring a minimum number of employees, or limiting how long you can work exclusively for one client, or measuring the actual financial risk you take in each transaction. The upshot is that tax agencies will look very closely to see if there is an effective employment between a company and an individual. If they (retroactively) decide that a relationship was actually one of employment, the company (in this case your University) can find themselves liable not only for large fines, but also back-taxes and benefits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By requiring you to form a company, and to contract on a company to company basis, the University is trying to minimize the chances of your relationship being deemed employment at a later date. Again, it's not unknown for a tax agency to 'lift the corporate veil' and ignore your company - but it places a hurdle in the way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thus, in the UK (When last I contracted there) it was common for contracts to be written 'back to back' and include a middle man:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* The contractor was the sole employee of a Limited Company&#xD;&#xA;* The contractor's company had a contract with an agency to provide their employee's services at an hourly rate at a specific time for a specified period.&#xD;&#xA;* The Agency had a contract with the client to provide a person at a (higher) hourly rate, for the same time and period. This also gave them the option to replace you should you quit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In others words there were two legal entities between the contractor and the client, and the tax man had a lot more work to prove actual employment. However, there were trip clauses (for example, you would rarely get a contract which lasted more than 12 months without a break of some kind).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have successfully bypassed all this and gone direct with clients as an Independent Contractor with a bullet-proof tax-situation. In one case, it took the client's legal department about 5 minutes to declare it as fine (and I knew those people: they could take 2 weeks to agree on a single sentence in a contract). But it meant the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* I offered a fixed-price quote (took significant financial risk)&#xD;&#xA;* I provided all my own tools (scopes, computers, compilers, etc)&#xD;&#xA;* They said **what** they wanted, set budgets etc: **I** decided on how it would be developed (limited how much control they had).&#xD;&#xA;* I worked mainly from my own premises, going onsite only for delivery/meetings/acceptance testing etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That was here in the US, where simply 'owning' a company has significant costs (both financial and time). In the UK, I would set up a company in a heartbeat - or even one per contract. From memory, I could get a limited company completely setup in about an hour for around 100 pounds - 24 hours if I cared what it was called." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11376" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3713" RevisionGUID="55f2a2b2-f5e8-4483-b2a4-f9f7c7cbe558" CreationDate="2015-09-23T07:32:01.390" UserId="4352" Text="So I freelance along side my day-to-day job, and I have a couple of regular clients who are very slow at paying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On my invoicing system I have set 30 days for payment, but payment usually arrived more like 30-60 days after invoice was delivered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Invoices are only delivered once the job has been completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Knowing how these clients are slow, should I change the payment terms and chase earlier?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I want to go full time freelance, obviously I don't want to be damaging my relationships with clients. However on the other hand, if I do go freelance full time I need to know when money is coming into the bank.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I handle these sort of clients? Or should I concentrate/prioritize more reliable clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11377" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3713" RevisionGUID="55f2a2b2-f5e8-4483-b2a4-f9f7c7cbe558" CreationDate="2015-09-23T07:32:01.390" UserId="4352" Text="How long should I leave an overdue payment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11378" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3713" RevisionGUID="55f2a2b2-f5e8-4483-b2a4-f9f7c7cbe558" CreationDate="2015-09-23T07:32:01.390" UserId="4352" Text="|payment-terms|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11382" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3715" RevisionGUID="6cac2c2e-1f17-48e3-9b1d-7ac6ac732436" CreationDate="2015-09-23T07:50:43.127" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="You must state explicitly what the penalties are in your sales conditions, including the delay after which the invoice is deemed overdue, what the fee is (usually an interest rate on the amount - there exist &quot;legal&quot; rates - with a minimum) and other relevant details of the procedure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course if those conditions are new, you must inform the customer, preferably before the next deal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My own policy is to give my customer a first warning on expiry, wait for 2 weeks, give a second warning with threat of a charge, and confirm that I will apply the rule after another 2 weeks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the good customers I don't want to hurt, I drop the fine &quot;as a commercial gesture&quot; but tell them it's the last time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should see this approach as rather soft, arrogant companies don't hesitate to fine you on the first day. In any case, act immediately and make yourself respected, you'll never be penalized for that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11383" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3715" RevisionGUID="7e9b622a-1162-4acd-91a1-9cfda9b832ba" CreationDate="2015-09-23T08:00:56.273" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="added 91 characters in body" Text="You must state explicitly what the penalties are in your sales conditions, including the delay after which the invoice is deemed overdue, what the fee is (usually an interest rate on the amount - there exist &quot;legal&quot; rates - with a minimum) and other relevant details of the procedure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course if those conditions are new, you must inform the customer, preferably before the next deal. If they react negatively, you can still negotiate payment conditions that suit you better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My own policy is to give my customer a first warning on expiry, wait for 2 weeks, give a second warning with threat of a charge, and after another 2 weeks confirm that I am applying the rule .&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the good customers I don't want to hurt, I drop the fine &quot;as a commercial gesture&quot; but tell them it's the last time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should see this approach as rather soft, arrogant companies don't hesitate to fine you on the first day. In any case, act immediately and make yourself respected, you'll never be penalized for that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11384" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3716" RevisionGUID="c3937327-1fd0-486f-8d9a-567a3c59951b" CreationDate="2015-09-23T08:14:31.873" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Raising this question probably means that you are in a position to leave.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Write down for yourself your minimum requirement in terms of cash and visibility (or any other element that you value, considering tradeoffs), regardless what they say/said.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can attempt a final negotiation and if you can't reach that goal (stay firm), leave and don't look back. (Respecting PeterMV's advice: professionally.)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11385" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3716" RevisionGUID="cbb46a3d-9e98-47ff-86d3-0d627f702155" CreationDate="2015-09-23T08:24:56.933" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="added 182 characters in body" Text="Raising this question probably means that you are in a position to leave.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Write down for yourself your minimum requirement in terms of cash and visibility (or any other element that you value, considering tradeoffs), regardless what they say/said.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can attempt a final negotiation and if you can't reach that goal (stay firm), leave and don't look back. (Respecting PeterMV's advice: professionally.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;The information you collected about their hiring of resources is there to help you argue during the negotiation. It is not there to make you lessen your requirements." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11386" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3717" RevisionGUID="dbfd56d3-4bf8-4e78-8737-a5f50b1cb886" CreationDate="2015-09-23T08:47:20.520" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Don't make justice yourself. Don't keep the assets (except those you possibly need for the project). Respect the NDA (you can't void it). Deliver any outstanding work package that has been paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then suspend any work, demand payment and claim damages by registered post (preceded by a mail notice).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This should not prevent you from amicably asking for explanations and negotiating other exit solutions than the legal one, but you need to show your firm intents." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11387" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3718" RevisionGUID="090d7808-51fd-4884-aefa-3e291b8b614a" CreationDate="2015-09-23T09:47:49.910" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Yes you do bill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a ten minutes delay, it is unreasonable to expect that you can switch to another activity." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11389" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3719" RevisionGUID="bd8296dd-20d3-4ae0-83c0-4da03c5ff08c" CreationDate="2015-09-23T19:08:08.523" UserId="9972" Text="[In canada] A small company recently asked me over email if I could do some work related wordpress blog posting for one of their clients. I never signed anything, just said it would be about $200. We never set a timetable, and the work was defined as, upload some blog posts, install and configure some plugins, change the navigation menu. All through email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did the majority of the work and then was asked to wait until their client finished creating their content. I waited and forgot about the project. Two months later I receive the content and was asked to put it up on the site. They also asked to me write a document on how to post content. I threw that in and asked if the project was considered complete.  They said yes. Before I could create an invoice, they came back asking questions about search engine analytics and if I could look at that account. I looked at it for them and they asked if I could add it to the site. I said yes and did. No additional fee's or monetary reimbursement was discussed for this update.The original bill has still never been produced.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is possible that the  code injection was bungled. It looks like the script was accidentally placed inside another script - invalidating the data collection. I did test the analytics after, and it was working, but I don't know if this is an error that takes time to propagate. I also have no history of knowing who else was potentially editing files.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was asked about the error rather bluntly, and because of previous stress related to communication with the project, I said if it was my fault I am sorry and I will forfeit the original bill and we can not work together again. I also said I would fix the error no matter their decision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I haven't heard a response and I am really stressing that I made a fundamental error here and opened myself up to a lawsuit I can't afford. I am not even a freelancer, I was just referred from my employer to help these guys as they were looking to cut costs on the project... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like I said, I am stressed, any advice on how to deal with this? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11390" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3719" RevisionGUID="bd8296dd-20d3-4ae0-83c0-4da03c5ff08c" CreationDate="2015-09-23T19:08:08.523" UserId="9972" Text="Yet another question on potentially being sued" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11391" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3719" RevisionGUID="bd8296dd-20d3-4ae0-83c0-4da03c5ff08c" CreationDate="2015-09-23T19:08:08.523" UserId="9972" Text="|contracts|small-projects|referral|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11392" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3720" RevisionGUID="ccbbdd69-933a-4f37-ba14-31c5c0dd772d" CreationDate="2015-09-23T19:28:28.127" UserId="8459" Text="You're fine. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not from Canada (Maine, USA checking in), but if nobody signed a contract, you didn't assume liability. You have proof that you were asked to do work on the site (emails) and that means you were legally accessing their system. Without a contract, the only thing they could go after you for would be unlawful access, AFAIK. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also? If they're looking to cut costs down to $200 that they still haven't paid you? They can't afford a lawyer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11393" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3721" RevisionGUID="09475a3f-9ed6-4055-8872-f88e51c0d56c" CreationDate="2015-09-23T23:14:01.777" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="I wouldn't be so affirmative about &quot;you didn't assume liability&quot; on the grounds that nobody signed a contract. There has been pre-contractual discussions and work was performed based on these discussions, under mutual agreement, so technically speaking the commercial agreement was established, and &quot;by default&quot; rules will hold.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, being sued for such a small stake is **completely unrealistic** and will not happen.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you should do&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. relax,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. repair any harm done, for free, and&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. invoice them all the work performed, on a constant hourly rate. Clearly list the work package that you estimated $200, and the additional work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. keep good relations with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;Think for a second: these guys want their website to function, at a moderate cost, which is exactly what you offer. They have no need for a stupid trial that will cost them 20 times as much, last for a year and not help with the site." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11394" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3721" RevisionGUID="7b08e25d-4b2e-432a-9092-d2922b0e35a5" CreationDate="2015-09-23T23:21:03.067" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="added 103 characters in body" Text="I wouldn't be so affirmative about &quot;you didn't assume liability&quot; on the grounds that nobody signed a contract. There has been pre-contractual discussions and work was performed based on these discussions, under mutual agreement, so technically speaking the commercial agreement was established, and &quot;by default&quot; rules will hold.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, being sued for such a small stake is **completely unrealistic** and will not happen.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you should do&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. relax,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. rewind the statement &quot;I will forfeit the original bill and we can not work together again&quot;,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. repair any harm done, for free, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. invoice them all the work performed, on a constant hourly rate. Clearly list the work package that you estimated $200, and the additional work,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. continue the good relations with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;Think for a second: these guys want their website to function, at a moderate cost, which is exactly what you offer. They have no need for a stupid trial that will cost them 20 times as much, last for a year and not help with the site." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11395" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3722" RevisionGUID="84f0f337-705c-45f0-914e-dc49263fc344" CreationDate="2015-09-24T08:29:44.873" UserId="9939" Text="Thank you for all your answers, perspectives and advice.  I really appreciate it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My resentment was already growing, and I realise that I couldn't do any writing for them at the rate, plus all the politics.  I let the main person know, and laid out the reasons for deciding to discontinue.  I remained professional at all times though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do have other back up plans, income, and contacts so I'm not stuck with them by any means.  It's just that it was a very high profile client, but oh well.  Who knows.  They might just return with better rates and conditions.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did kind of leave a door open, but not very wide.  In my own mind, I needed to move on.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11396" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2928" RevisionGUID="f4cc2dbd-0ea3-4565-9473-bfd85d3a9548" CreationDate="2015-09-24T12:39:49.370" UserId="1697" Comment="spellingspelling" Text="I have a company in EU and I am selling electronic services to all countries. Since I am located in the EU, the following rules applies:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - When selling to customer from my country, I need to charge my country&#xD;&#xA;   tax&#xD;&#xA; - When selling to EU customer with valid VAT id, I don't charge vat and&#xD;&#xA;   write on invoice: &quot;Reverse Charge - VAT exempt under Article 44&#xD;&#xA;   Direktive 2006/112/ES&quot;&#xD;&#xA; - When selling to EU customer without valid VAT id, I charge tax from&#xD;&#xA;   his/her country.&#xD;&#xA; - When selling outside EU, no tax.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question:&#xD;&#xA;If I sell outside EU, do I need to put &quot;Reverse Charge...&quot; clause on invoice or not?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11397" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2928" RevisionGUID="f4cc2dbd-0ea3-4565-9473-bfd85d3a9548" CreationDate="2015-09-24T12:39:49.370" UserId="1697" Comment="spellingspelling" Text="EU vat directive and Article 44 - selling services outside EU" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11398" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2928" RevisionGUID="f4cc2dbd-0ea3-4565-9473-bfd85d3a9548" CreationDate="2015-09-24T12:39:49.370" Comment="Proposed by 1697 approved by -1 edit id of 429" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11399" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2928" RevisionGUID="037fe6f7-cf6f-40bc-a9e1-b31f7f15326f" CreationDate="2015-09-24T12:39:49.370" UserId="9" Comment="Minor grammar improvements" Text="I have a company in the European Union (EU) and I am selling electronic services to all countries. Since I am located in the EU, the following rules apply:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* When selling to a customer from my country, I need to charge my country tax&#xD;&#xA;* When selling to an EU customer _with_ a valid VAT ID, I need to write &quot;Reverse Charge - VAT exempt under Article 44 Directive 2006/112/ES&quot; on the invoice and not charge the VAT tax.&#xD;&#xA;* When selling to an EU customer _without_ a valid VAT ID, I charge tax from their country.&#xD;&#xA;* When selling outside the EU, no tax.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I sell outside the EU, do I need to put the &quot;Reverse Charge...&quot; clause on the invoice or not?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11400" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2928" RevisionGUID="037fe6f7-cf6f-40bc-a9e1-b31f7f15326f" CreationDate="2015-09-24T12:39:49.370" UserId="9" Comment="Minor grammar improvements" Text="VAT Directive and Article 44 - Selling services outside EU" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11405" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3724" RevisionGUID="703cf92d-51e0-4124-b502-6140d713c107" CreationDate="2015-09-24T16:50:44.283" UserId="9845" Text="Facebook actually allows you to set up a Business Manager account for the express purpose of managing pages and ads for yourself and for clients without needing personal page access. I just discovered this myself recently. [This page explains how it works][1], and to access your account directly (once it's setup), simply visit https://business.facebook.com instead of the main Facebook log-in page. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will need to request permission to manage pages that you do not own, so definitely notify your clients ahead of time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.facebook.com/business/news/Business-Manager" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11406" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3725" RevisionGUID="17c7ddc5-10a1-4a05-a066-b33bf020b49d" CreationDate="2015-09-24T17:20:33.577" UserId="9845" Text="I find myself with the enviable problem of having more work than time, and as such, I'm attempting to steamline tasks and increase efficiency, along with raising my rates. One issue that has cropped up more and more frequently is client communication. I have about two dozen clients currently, with between 10-20 who are active in any given month (with billable hours) and a few who I only hear from once or twice a year for a quick fix or update. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been at this a dozen years, and personal emails have always sufficed to communicate information effectively prior to now. However, there are times when  a mass email would be much more time-efficient than firing off two dozen similar emails, such as:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Letting clients know I'll be on vacation/unavailable&#xD;&#xA; 2. Informing them of big software updates, tech industry changes (mobilegeddon, etc), and new features available&#xD;&#xA; 3. Giving a heads-up on rate hikes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I currently have an almost-empty MailChimp list that I started because I felt like I should have one, and I've considered moving my client list there so I can communicate with them en masse. I can even personalize the emails by integrating it with my invoicing software to include their account information. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, is that too impersonal? Is moving to something like a CRM a better option for communicating with current clients? If you have a decent number of clients, how do you handle group communications? What I don't want to do is send out an email and BCC everyone. That's not my style and I personally dislike getting BCCed on emails, so I won't do it to anyone else. On the other hand, I also don't want to copy &amp; paste two dozen emails, either, and recognize that there must be a happy medium." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11407" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3725" RevisionGUID="17c7ddc5-10a1-4a05-a066-b33bf020b49d" CreationDate="2015-09-24T17:20:33.577" UserId="9845" Text="How do I increase efficiency in client communications without seeming impersonal?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11408" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3725" RevisionGUID="17c7ddc5-10a1-4a05-a066-b33bf020b49d" CreationDate="2015-09-24T17:20:33.577" UserId="9845" Text="|communication|client-support|company-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11409" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3726" RevisionGUID="058fc1fa-364a-4ddb-9215-5bfbbf1f2fdf" CreationDate="2015-09-24T18:18:55.770" UserId="7717" Text="1. There's nothing wrong with a mass-email about a vacation or other unavailability. That seems like the best way to handle it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. News on software updates and industry trends is a little more iffy. I would ask the client if they want to &quot;subscribe&quot; and don't mass-email those who aren't interested. You could also consider having a blog.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Rate hikes are never good news, and with that in mind a personal touch is probably better than a mass email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should absolutely BCC everyone. If you include every client's email address in a mass email, you are breaching their confidentiality. Whether or not you have an NDA, that's bad form. I would be very upset if my email address was visible in a work-related mass email that went out to other businesses." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11410" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3727" RevisionGUID="e34ef43e-3519-4e4a-9550-e7ce86873fb8" CreationDate="2015-09-24T18:48:02.573" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Distribute it in the form of a newsletter, which is openly mass-emailed. That will show that your business is healthy as you feel the need to address a larger audience at a time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if you add a pinch of personalization like quoting the people's name (not much is needed), this will give a professional look and show effort for quality communication.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11413" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3719" RevisionGUID="685656b7-b061-4ee4-a0a6-496ab940c4c8" CreationDate="2015-09-24T19:12:33.820" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|canada|small-projects|referral|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11415" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3728" RevisionGUID="aa237a68-3ed2-4cda-91a1-f044653a7941" CreationDate="2015-09-24T22:19:07.193" UserId="9981" Text="So I've been working as a front-end webdeveloper for over 6,5 years, of which almost a year of freelancing. Most of my work has been for quite big clients. Mostly corporate sites as well. And I feel like I'm done with them. They are often dull and most often not something I feel proud telling others, even though the brands have very recognisable names. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would love to do work for things in the music industrie, e.g. festivals, bands, etc where they do a lot more experimental kind of work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Besides googling and finding what companies are working in these area's, how would one enter such an industry? I'm pretty sure networking is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle. How can I effectively find the right ones and reach out to these people? What else am I missing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11416" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3728" RevisionGUID="aa237a68-3ed2-4cda-91a1-f044653a7941" CreationDate="2015-09-24T22:19:07.193" UserId="9981" Text="how to change industries (e.g. music industrie)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11417" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3728" RevisionGUID="aa237a68-3ed2-4cda-91a1-f044653a7941" CreationDate="2015-09-24T22:19:07.193" UserId="9981" Text="|attracting-clients|changes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11418" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3729" RevisionGUID="8c4b1553-6897-40a7-b60c-22c4e9738cd5" CreationDate="2015-09-25T02:30:49.303" UserId="4561" Text="If you want to send individual emails from MS Outlook, you can do a Word mail merge to email.  Just be careful because some ISP's watch the number of emails that go out in an hour for SPAM concerns.  24 emails is probably OK.  I know my ISP will shut me down at 50 in a certain period.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a client, I would not be off put at all by receiving an &quot;obviously&quot; mass email (mail chimp) to give general news about your business, like you're going on vacation.  As long as you are responsive to their individual emails, I doubt they will feel slighted.  And it's a nice subtle way to let them know you are busy and have many other clients.  It may help prepare them emotionally for the personal note they receive about your rate hike.:-) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With services like Mail Chimp, people are supposed to opt in to receive the email, so even though they are already your clients who you email, you may want to send them a personal email first with a link to opt in.  Let them know you'll use the account to notify them of XYZ type things and to please white list you if they want to receive these notifications." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11421" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3731" RevisionGUID="d43d3881-0775-42d8-9535-e7ab4dca30c2" CreationDate="2015-09-25T10:18:06.797" UserId="9983" Text="When I'm developing a website, the contract with my customer specifies that if I do something wrong, I'll fix it for free. That's the warranty for my work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, nothing is really free. If I'm working, I deserve to be paid. The warranty is just something to protect the customer from being over charged and that's fine. But, errors happens and if there is just a few errors, I want to put this risk in my final cost. How can I achieve that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, let's say that I have to do a task and I estimate that I need 10 hours to complete it and I have set an hourly of $ 100. My costumers want a breakdown of my estimative and I have created one first just for myself:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Task1: understanding the problem - 2h&#xD;&#xA; - Task2: creating the solution - 6h &#xD;&#xA; - Task3: documentation - 1h &#xD;&#xA; - Task4: delivering the solution - 1h&#xD;&#xA; - Total: 10h&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if I do something wrong, for example, I may need to work 4 hours for free to fix it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I would like to charge for this work at least 12h to be fair with my customer and avoid working many hours for free. The question is: how can I show this to my customer if my contract says that I must disclose my estimates?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Option 1: add a taks for &quot;risk&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Task1: understanding the problem - 2h&#xD;&#xA; - Task2: creating the solution - 6h &#xD;&#xA; - Task3: documentation - 1h &#xD;&#xA; - Task4: delivering the solution - 1h&#xD;&#xA; - Task5: 20% of risk - 2h&#xD;&#xA; - Total: 12h&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Problem:** my customer don't want to pay for risk. He says that my hourly rate is too high and he is already paying for it. However, I never said that my hourly rate considers the risks of the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Option 2: raise my hourly rate in 20%&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if I charge $ 100, I need to charge $ 120. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Problem**: increasing the hourly rate is dangerous and I don't want to loose costumers for freelancers that charges a lower hourly rate but have charges much more hours than needed to complete a task.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Option 3: increase the estimates of each task to add a hidden risk&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Task1: understanding the problem - 2h&#xD;&#xA; - Task2: creating the solution - 8h &#xD;&#xA; - Task3: documentation - 1h &#xD;&#xA; - Task4: delivering the solution - 1h&#xD;&#xA; - Total: 12h&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Problem**: raising the estimates of tasks have a downside: the customer will think that I have a low performance. I'm currently using this strategy, but my customer keeps complaining that I'm overly charging him saying that I need much more hours than I need to complete a task.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Question: which option is better? How do you charge warranty?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11422" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3731" RevisionGUID="d43d3881-0775-42d8-9535-e7ab4dca30c2" CreationDate="2015-09-25T10:18:06.797" UserId="9983" Text="How do I charge for warranty if I have an hourly rate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11423" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3731" RevisionGUID="d43d3881-0775-42d8-9535-e7ab4dca30c2" CreationDate="2015-09-25T10:18:06.797" UserId="9983" Text="|price|price-per-hour|estimation|billable-hours|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11426" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3709" RevisionGUID="d23c0cb6-e0ea-4234-856c-e4cf86cc9f09" CreationDate="2015-09-25T15:00:02.073" UserId="5750" Comment="added 54 characters in body" Text="**Background**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Very small project, mostly adding content to a CMS site.&#xD;&#xA; - Client happy with work, but now can't pay due to lack of funds.&#xD;&#xA; - After several months I informed the client that I would take the work down (leaving the site in the same state as prior to the work being commenced) until such time that I have been paid.&#xD;&#xA; - Client now believes that since I've 'taken the work back' that I shouldn't require payment and that the matter is closed.&#xD;&#xA; - The site is hosted in the UK, but **not** by me; I believe they are registered to a third-party. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Specifically, **can anyone point to any UK legislation regarding payments that might cover this scenario?** Much of what I've found covers the right for a company to reclaim products/items, and I'm not having much luck finding out my rights with regards to claiming payment for a service. I *know* I can point to the contract etc; what I'm looking for is a 'such and such act of 1988' that says I can still expect to be paid even if website is taken down/changed. Nothing like pointing at an objective specific law to shut down a line of argument!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11428" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3734" RevisionGUID="4229dda8-fe39-4209-b36d-fb22ad8b1a1e" CreationDate="2015-09-25T16:01:46.243" UserId="75" Text="Estimate more, charge less in the end. The customer will thank you and think you're amazing!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First off, why do you need to break it down so much? That to me is a sign of a customer not trusting you... Which can turn it into a toxic relationship. Do your estimate yourself, and deliver a final price, based on projects that size and magnitude. Do not let the customer dictate how long **you** take to do **your** work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are going to quote 10 hours, you better be done in 10 hours or less. Otherwise, the customer is going to feel you're not very good at your job. Do not quote too high, or they will think there's more to it, and look for cheaper alternatives. Your 20% is very conservative, and it's great if you can deliver it in 11.5 hours. At 12.5 hours, you don't seem as competent as the person putting in a quote for lower.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, those are your two choices: raise the rates, keep the hours low, or keep your rates, increase the hours. Either way, **do not break down every cost**, unless they are paying for certain parts of the projects in milestones. Small projects that take 1-2 days, simply say &quot;The total will be $xxxx for the project, I estimate it will take around yyy hours.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11447" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3738" RevisionGUID="3844fe09-5d54-47b2-b461-87b7d5a8f7ae" CreationDate="2015-09-28T21:26:11.727" UserId="10018" Text="You may be able to deduct this loss from your gross income on your taxes, but since you don't have a contract you can enforce, this may unfortunately be your only remedy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11452" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3740" RevisionGUID="20c07bbd-9952-4936-89dc-85717a77bcb0" CreationDate="2015-09-30T03:39:56.310" UserId="7717" Text="I've had a client approach me to develop an application that would interface with an existing web API. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Normally my perspective is that the freelancer shouldn't bill the client for any time spent learning common tools. However, the existing web API the client wants to access is a specialty API and is only useful in specialty applications. I don't expect I would ever need the API again, and I am highly doubtful that the client will find another freelancer that is already familiar with the API.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the normal thing to do in such a situation? Do I include the time spent learning specialty tools in my proposal for the project, silently bump up the rate, or something else?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11453" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3740" RevisionGUID="20c07bbd-9952-4936-89dc-85717a77bcb0" CreationDate="2015-09-30T03:39:56.310" UserId="7717" Text="Billing time for learning specialty API?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11454" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3740" RevisionGUID="20c07bbd-9952-4936-89dc-85717a77bcb0" CreationDate="2015-09-30T03:39:56.310" UserId="7717" Text="|price|billable-hours|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11455" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3741" RevisionGUID="9383896f-6e37-4f7e-b6ac-104424f68367" CreationDate="2015-09-30T11:32:39.830" UserId="10038" Text="If you were a carpenter and your client wanted you to build unique chair which to your understanding would not be required by any other client. Would you charge him for the new tools you require to build his chair only?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is often difficult when you do not have an absolute relation where you could say an apple cost x $ so should the other apple. In development, time is your tool and if used to gain expertise or build an application, it should be charge accordingly. However charging it as &quot;learning&quot; would not be the best practice so I would suggest you add the time in the development period." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11462" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3744" RevisionGUID="46001a3d-193e-4791-992f-e954df186c1d" CreationDate="2015-09-30T16:04:55.027" UserId="75" Text="I would say that if it's a special API that is very restrictive in who has access, and the client is dead-set on using it, they need to pay for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Notice I included a few rules for that... The **CLIENT** needs to say they need to use it, and that no other common API would meet their needs. If this is the case, then absolutely, you should charge for that time. But how?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just tell them. Explain that if it's a custom API with limited access to documentation, that it takes extra time away from other clients you may have to learn it, or get something working. The client then has two choices, either hire you for a potentially higher cost (learning time shouldn't be free in this case), or get another freelancer, and hope they don't know they have to learn it for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not a fan of giving away large blocks of time or expertise for free. If they want you to learn the API, and build and support other products for them, suggest they put you on a retainer as well. This guarantees they will use you, and make the cost of learning the API less and less with each project. So, are they in it for the long haul, or just for this single program?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11469" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3746" RevisionGUID="ff8c9e9c-8e94-4e26-a2c1-92adb552ec44" CreationDate="2015-10-01T13:50:51.057" UserId="10047" Text="I would leave this matter behind, and never deal with this client again. &#xD;&#xA;Make sure you've got the contract straight with the next client, and omit this client from your life :-)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11471" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3747" RevisionGUID="c7b08c77-f355-4537-a8ee-4e007a2c51df" CreationDate="2015-10-01T21:19:20.390" UserId="10053" Text="Also working (as software developer) for a company in UK for about 10 months now. Taxes are &quot;reverse charged&quot; so you need both tax ids (from you and your client) on your invoice, and they are responsible to pay any taxes.&#xA;&#xA;Only applies for services!&#xA;&#xA;&gt; The supply of services between businesses(B2B services) is in principle taxed at the customer's place of establishment, [...]&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;[Source][1]&#xA;&#xA;To be sure if this applies to your case talk to your tax accountant! &#xA; &#xA;&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/vat/how_vat_works/vat_on_services/index_en.htm" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11475" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3713" RevisionGUID="caa1c52c-55b3-4b94-895c-da9131a0abbd" CreationDate="2015-10-01T22:33:59.697" Comment="http://twitter.com/#!/StackFreelance/status/649713900934549504" />
  <row Id="11478" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3749" RevisionGUID="20c83d4f-8497-4579-90f5-5748180a2d12" CreationDate="2015-10-02T08:50:13.760" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="I would simply list these hours and charge them, as they belong to the scope of the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11479" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3750" RevisionGUID="02d33e1b-01b8-4778-ac66-1caab50abb36" CreationDate="2015-10-02T10:53:53.770" UserId="2265" Text="Keep in mind there is a difference in Intracommunity VAT for services and goods, and between B2B and B2C. In this case I assume it's a service and B2B.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For services, assuming you are not established in UK nor do you have a UK VAT number, you put both your VAT numbers on the invoice but DO NOT charge VAT. The customer will need to pay VAT himself in the UK. This is known as the reverse charge mechanism.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/vat/how_vat_works/vat_on_services/index_en.htm&#xD;&#xA;(example 19 in the list should apply to you)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11480" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3751" RevisionGUID="13cad310-0376-44d7-96e9-97231da9e683" CreationDate="2015-10-02T16:34:57.333" UserId="2964" Text="I agree with Canadian Luke regarding breaking down exact times for your fixes or work. As suggested from the question I asked earlier in the year about [End of Project Process][1], User45623 advised charging/accounting for these types of situations in advance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My suggestion is add extra hours for completing the project if you're using a technology or developing a custom aspect that may bring up issues later. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My other suggestion is to stipulate in your contract that after the website is complete and bug free, all other revisions, maintenance and additions are charged hourly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3666/end-of-project-process &quot;End of Project Process&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11481" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3752" RevisionGUID="945c2c89-84a8-47f1-bf88-100eed09c88c" CreationDate="2015-10-03T00:50:09.210" UserId="8795" Text="First the bad news: you are not, and probably never will be, &quot;done&quot; with the dull boring big name clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are in business, not indulging in a hobby. Those dull clients are the ones who will probably provide the income which makes it possible for you to experiment and branch out into other areas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those bleeding edge people in other industries will nonetheless be impressed to know that big name corporations have enough confidence in you to use you for their own websites. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you don't want to point to specific pieces of work you've done, it's well worth being able to say that &quot;ABC Inc&quot; and &quot;XYZ Ltd&quot; are major clients of yours. Though be sure to check with those clients before citing them as references.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As to breaking into new industries ... you need a reputation as someone who can deliver on-time and on-budget. Small bands etc will have limited funds. Then you need to have a portfolio of 'sample' sites you can show them. These should be sites which implement themes etc close to some of the more experimental ones you've already seen.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can come up with new, creative, types of site as well, that's great for a showcase. Just be sure to lock down the look-and-feel, CSS, and JavaScript etc with suitable licenses and copyrights so they don't get stolen. Perhaps an AWS server which you can bring up on demand in a meeting to showcase your portfolio, then take it down again after the meeting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And yes, networking is going to be the real key to breaking into a new industry. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You  need to trawl business sites (NOT Facebook et al) like linkedin for potential contacts, then use those sites to gain introductions. Perhaps pay for a premium account to get better search capabilities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Go to trade shows (not sure what there is, but there's bound to be something). Have a business card printed up, and leave it whenever you get the chance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But through all this, keep doing the dull, boring work for the recurring customers who are paying the mortgage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an example, I was a freelance/contractor for 15 years and rarely worked in the same industry twice. I've done everything from heavy industrial, through defence, and on into consumer products. When I was flush, I played with the startups or did some proprietary work - but I ensured I had a backlog of 'regular work' to fall back on at any time.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11484" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3725" RevisionGUID="1307dcb8-aa91-4b4a-8ce9-ca1a4a2ba643" CreationDate="2015-10-03T07:43:38.980" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/650214613615816704" />
  <row Id="11485" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3754" RevisionGUID="5116db1d-81c5-425f-94d0-494a2259a9e9" CreationDate="2015-10-03T13:55:42.020" UserId="10061" Text="I would recommend using Payoneer.com as @The1stLeo suggested as well as the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Open a Paypal account: Make sure to register as if you were living in the United States.&#xD;&#xA;- Open a Payoneer account (you can do it through Elance/Upwork), and wait until they send you the Mastercard debit card.&#xD;&#xA;- Once you have the card, link it to your Paypal account (you will need to confirm the card through a small 1 dollar charge they will make you).&#xD;&#xA;- Once you receive funds through Paypal, you can use the &quot;Withdraw funds&quot; option and send them to your Payoneer card.&#xD;&#xA;- Use the Payoneer card to withdraw from the ATMs in your country.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11491" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3757" RevisionGUID="6ec694b8-0ea1-4621-8bdd-8238839969f4" CreationDate="2015-10-05T02:11:06.947" UserId="708" Text="Seems to me this should just be part of a standard work routine and automation is not something which is really necessary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;...... every morning she spends 15 minutes checking OneDrive, DropBox, and Google drive for new files. This would *by far* be the most economical and best organized method.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Asking users to send an email when new files are added can help, but they will probably forget from time to time. So, ultimately, a few minutes every morning could easily solve the issue entirely." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11493" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3757" RevisionGUID="ef748368-2de2-450b-b87a-c9a89a965f21" CreationDate="2015-10-05T03:18:11.593" UserId="708" Comment="added 210 characters in body" Text="Seems to me this should just be part of a standard work routine and automation is not something which is really necessary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;...... every morning she spends 15 minutes checking OneDrive, DropBox, and Google drive for new files. This would *by far* be the most economical and best organized method.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Asking users to send an email when new files are added can help, but they will probably forget from time to time. So, ultimately, a few minutes every morning could easily solve the issue entirely. It's similar to .. every day she has to turn on the lights, launch an application, check emails, etc. Some things are just daily tasks which have to be done. Waiting for a notification is entirely inefficient." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11496" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3758" RevisionGUID="44c03306-700e-44f8-ac7e-cdc239d0b591" CreationDate="2015-10-05T19:33:35.100" UserId="10075" Text="I'm considering doing handyman jobs on canal boats, as a self employed trader. But some boaters don't have a fixed address. Do I absolutely have to put an address for them on the invoice?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems a bit insensitive to ask someone who lives on a boat for an address: their home is a boat, it doesn't have an address." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11497" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3758" RevisionGUID="44c03306-700e-44f8-ac7e-cdc239d0b591" CreationDate="2015-10-05T19:33:35.100" UserId="10075" Text="Invoice a client without an address?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11498" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3758" RevisionGUID="44c03306-700e-44f8-ac7e-cdc239d0b591" CreationDate="2015-10-05T19:33:35.100" UserId="10075" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11500" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3759" RevisionGUID="d7ad8a52-c792-4b7e-ab36-4e298802c9a4" CreationDate="2015-10-06T00:56:54.257" UserId="4561" Text="I don't think it's necessary.  I have invoiced without an address before.  I just emailed the person and put their email address and phone number in the area where I normally put an address.  But that was just a $25 invoice...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the real benefit of having an address is it will make it much easier to go after someone in court if they don't pay you.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would just ask &quot;what do you use as your address.&quot;  It doesn't seem insensitive to me at all, but maybe I'm clueless.  But - if they do banking, go to the Dr., Drive a car, receive mail of any kind, they must have an address.  Maybe it's a PO box or a friend's house.  I would think it would be the address where their boat is, slip number X. (Unless maybe they're traveling around the world in their boat)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I would either hand deliver or email the invoice, especially if you sense they don't check mail much." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11501" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3760" RevisionGUID="c292b617-f6c5-4276-87de-44f5eae909d9" CreationDate="2015-10-07T00:32:50.313" UserId="7717" Text="On fixed-price projects I've generally worked for 50% up-front, which I believe is more or less standard for software development-related freelancing. I'll sometimes ask for less than 50% if the budget is high. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is up-front payment still a standard when escrow is available, or does escrow entirely replace the up-front system?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11502" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3760" RevisionGUID="c292b617-f6c5-4276-87de-44f5eae909d9" CreationDate="2015-10-07T00:32:50.313" UserId="7717" Text="Upfront payments and escrow" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11503" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3760" RevisionGUID="c292b617-f6c5-4276-87de-44f5eae909d9" CreationDate="2015-10-07T00:32:50.313" UserId="7717" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11504" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3761" RevisionGUID="8da87f0e-70d0-4061-8082-d4fcffe15fd6" CreationDate="2015-10-07T07:43:04.287" UserId="517" Text="Yes, it's OK. I ask from 20% to 50% depending on the budget. If the project has large budget, you will have hard time convincing client to pay 50% upfront. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In large project, I also request milestone payments. We plan the project, set milestones from 2 weeks to 1 month, and when it's finished, they pay for it. This way, I don't wait for money a lot, and they pay smaller chunks. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11507" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3763" RevisionGUID="0601ecaf-4ddd-45cd-8639-eedf4ab86437" CreationDate="2015-10-07T16:12:52.537" UserId="10089" Text="I was hired by a UK based company last Sept 6, 2015 with no contracts, NDA whatsoever.  I was onboard after a day of orientation and started with my tasks assigned everyday.  After a month working I demand for my monthly pay of $400.00 dollars, however, he keeps on promising that it will be due to my paypal account on the 6th of October, 2015.  Payroll due is month end.  Several follow ups were made until, we had unpleasant conversations.  After that unpleasant conversations, he sent payment to my paypal account the sum of $300.00 short of $100 and never I asked him again for the balance.  Just recently, he was threatening me that he will file charges against me for taking information from the server he gave me access.  Those informations was sent as one of my tasks to incorporate in the server.  No NDA agreement was pre signed prior to hiring.  But, then even no NDA, I am professional to adhere with the secrecy of those informations which  was handed to me by his staff in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He was accusing me also of spreading lies that salaries were always delayed.  I know that from his staff in the UK directly from his Team Manager.  Most of the newly hired staff like me are talking about asking questions if we can get our salary.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is that possible for him to file a case against me?  Please send me your advises.  Thank you everyone." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11508" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3763" RevisionGUID="0601ecaf-4ddd-45cd-8639-eedf4ab86437" CreationDate="2015-10-07T16:12:52.537" UserId="10089" Text="Philippine based freelancer hired by UK based company - threatens me to file a case" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11509" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3763" RevisionGUID="0601ecaf-4ddd-45cd-8639-eedf4ab86437" CreationDate="2015-10-07T16:12:52.537" UserId="10089" Text="|legal|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11510" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3764" RevisionGUID="65e38038-0096-4629-8f5d-46edf7cd295b" CreationDate="2015-10-07T17:36:25.823" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="He is just trying to scare you. Demand the missing $100 he owes you, by registered mail.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11511" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3763" RevisionGUID="9de9a520-8605-4688-b9c4-9163cc515181" CreationDate="2015-10-07T21:52:37.863" UserId="8603" Comment="Remove thank you chatter at the end." Text="I was hired by a UK based company last Sept 6, 2015 with no contracts, NDA whatsoever.  I was onboard after a day of orientation and started with my tasks assigned everyday.  After a month working I demand for my monthly pay of $400.00 dollars, however, he keeps on promising that it will be due to my paypal account on the 6th of October, 2015.  Payroll due is month end.  Several follow ups were made until, we had unpleasant conversations.  After that unpleasant conversations, he sent payment to my paypal account the sum of $300.00 short of $100 and never I asked him again for the balance.  Just recently, he was threatening me that he will file charges against me for taking information from the server he gave me access.  Those informations was sent as one of my tasks to incorporate in the server.  No NDA agreement was pre signed prior to hiring.  But, then even no NDA, I am professional to adhere with the secrecy of those informations which  was handed to me by his staff in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He was accusing me also of spreading lies that salaries were always delayed. I know that from his staff in the UK directly from his Team Manager.  Most of the newly hired staff like me are talking about asking questions if we can get our salary.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is that possible for him to file a case against me?  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11512" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3763" RevisionGUID="9de9a520-8605-4688-b9c4-9163cc515181" CreationDate="2015-10-07T21:52:37.863" Comment="Proposed by 8603 approved by -1 edit id of 430" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11513" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3763" RevisionGUID="b3800352-fde8-42e7-9e00-cbb4aaa76e78" CreationDate="2015-10-07T21:52:37.863" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, wording, clarity" Text="I am a freelancer based in the Philippines, and was hired by a UK-based company towards the beginning of September. While I was hired, I neither signed a contract nor signed an NDA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After a month of working, I demanded my monthly salary of $400, and the client promised that it would be added into my PayPal account on October 6th (even though the payroll was due at the month's end). After several follow-up emails and several unpleasant conversations, the client sent only $300 to my account, and I never asked him for the balance again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently, the client threatened that he will be filing charges against me for taking information from a server that he granted me access (information that had been sent to me as a task to incorporate to the server). In addition, the client also accused me of spreading lies that salaries were always delayed (which I heard about from his UK staff's team manager). However, most of the newly-hired staff had also been talking about salary delays.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it possible for him to file a case against me? Do I have anything to worry about?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11514" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3763" RevisionGUID="b3800352-fde8-42e7-9e00-cbb4aaa76e78" CreationDate="2015-10-07T21:52:37.863" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, wording, clarity" Text="UK company hired me, threatened to file charges against me" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11515" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3765" RevisionGUID="8703c7a4-8aa7-4ade-a5ca-07796d19cc23" CreationDate="2015-10-07T23:23:15.720" UserId="1706" Text="It's a bluff.  If he sues, he has to do it where you live or work.  That's not happening over $100!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11518" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3766" RevisionGUID="ec1a54d4-748b-4d40-b857-b092c0b0f330" CreationDate="2015-10-08T10:02:30.843" UserId="10096" Text="What are the ways of protecting your salary while working as a freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I worked for a company day and night and my services were rendered for 4 months, day and night.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They were suppose to pay the fees of 4 months together when everything was finished from the group up. ofcourse i took care of every single on their website, tv commercial, graphics, seo and social media. and you are sure how long does it take to single to take care of final touches.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now here is the moment of truth after 4 months when i sent an invoice of $4000  they locked me out of the ftp, cpanel and client portal and stopped to respond back to my emails.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't have any other way to generate my revenue. i am married , i have a family to run and all have been effected by that. i am under so much of stress now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So i have rendered by services and didn't even get a single penny.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ofcourse we didn't signup for a physical contract, company is from Arizona USA and i reside in Pakistan. this company was came to me through my old very good contact.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can i do here to defend myself and get my funds from them? i know i can always hurt their company reputation through google, reviews and launch website against them but what i am looking for its the funds which i worked for.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11519" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3766" RevisionGUID="ec1a54d4-748b-4d40-b857-b092c0b0f330" CreationDate="2015-10-08T10:02:30.843" UserId="10096" Text="service was rendered but client doesn't pay" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11520" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3766" RevisionGUID="ec1a54d4-748b-4d40-b857-b092c0b0f330" CreationDate="2015-10-08T10:02:30.843" UserId="10096" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11521" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3766" RevisionGUID="89268cad-12db-44b7-b2da-23c35717a6c1" CreationDate="2015-10-08T10:23:30.147" UserId="10096" Comment="edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11522" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3767" RevisionGUID="e6edb47b-aea2-46d0-94bf-9169044c5a7c" CreationDate="2015-10-08T10:38:40.097" UserId="10098" Text="First, get all your paperwork ready. Hours worked, written statements that show you worked for them, etc. Find an employment lawyer in the company's jurisdiction, that agrees to take on your case on a contingency fee.  Meaning, the lawyer gets only paid at successful result.  Sometimes the lawyer just writes a letter to the company and they already get scared and pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, DEFINITELY put the company out on the world wide web because there will be and maybe already are people like you being used by crooks like that company you worked for." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11523" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3766" RevisionGUID="aace581b-0305-47e7-bd81-c8e2cf4acd1e" CreationDate="2015-10-08T10:48:46.450" UserId="10096" Comment="corrected spelling mistakes" Text="What are the ways of protecting your salary while working as a freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I worked for a company day and night and my services were rendered for 4 months, day and night.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They were suppose to pay the fees of 4 months together when everything was finished from the ground up. ofcourse i took care of every single detail on their website, tv commercial, graphics, seo and social media. and ofcourse you know know how long does it take care of final touches.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now here is the moment of truth after 4 months when i sent an invoice of $4000  they locked me out of the ftp, cpanel and client portal and stopped to respond back to my emails.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't have any other way to generate my revenue. i am married , i have a family to support and all have been effected by that. i am under so much of stress now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So i have rendered by services and didn't even get a single penny.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ofcourse we didn't signup for a physical contract, company is from Arizona USA and i reside in Pakistan. this company was came to me through my old very good contact.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can i do here to defend myself and get my funds from them? i know i can always hurt their company reputation through google, reviews and launch website against them but what i am looking for its the funds which i worked for.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11524" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3767" RevisionGUID="3f6d9270-62b2-498d-b8b5-fc860f0ed511" CreationDate="2015-10-08T10:49:31.963" UserId="10098" Comment="added 329 characters in body" Text="First, get all your paperwork ready. Hours worked, written statements that show you worked for them, etc. Find an employment lawyer in the company's jurisdiction, that agrees to take on your case on a contingency fee.  Meaning, the lawyer gets only paid at successful result.  Sometimes the lawyer just writes a letter to the company and they already get scared and pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, DEFINITELY put the company out on the world wide web because there will be and maybe already are people like you being used by crooks like that company you worked for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, it is a warning sign if you do not get paid for 2 weeks or most a month, you should have made that an issue.  Never wait that long.  Some will tell you that they will pay at contract end, that usually is a warning sign.  They should pay you something showing good will.  Otherwise, get ready for the loss of funds. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11526" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3768" RevisionGUID="fa3e64e5-16bc-42d0-a0b4-2e847e1b7197" CreationDate="2015-10-08T16:03:54.483" UserId="1706" Text="Friend, you have screwed yourself on this one, unfortunately.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best you're going to be able to do to mitigate this situation is hiring an attorney in Arizona to represent you.  You will have to show that there was a written agreement made constituting an offer and an acceptance; that there was work performed per that agreement; and that the payment wasn't made.  ***Moreover*** you have to identify a responsible party (a person or a business entity) to name in the suit.  You *may* get a judgment in your favor from a court in Arizona, but that doesn't guarantee that you will ever collect a cent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The attorney's fees may easily make this not even worthwhile.  (easily $100-$250 USD/hr)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In summary:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't ever want to do work in this fashion again, where you lump a lot of valuable work into a final invoice for a client that you can't force a payment out of easily.  You'd be better getting paid for milestones throughout the duration of the project, so you don't end up in this position again.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally, you don't release all project deliverables until you've been paid ***something***!  Host them on your own servers.  But don't go into any other situation trusting that everyone is going to play 'nice'.  Your family depends on you, so don't make this mistake again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, posting bad reviews is a waste of time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11527" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3769" RevisionGUID="4185ac27-2e86-4bc0-aa51-8896611339f7" CreationDate="2015-10-08T17:51:05.687" UserId="10099" Text="I found these three articles which are part of a series to be extremely helpful in determining how to bill for my work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fixed:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.sitepoint.com/charge-websites-fixed-price-projects/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hourly:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www .sitepoint.com/charge-websites-pay-per-hour-projects/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Agile:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.sitepoint.com/charge-websites-agile-way/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found them all to be very well detailed and was even exposed to this new model, Agile billing, which is interesting because it mirrors the Agile development cycle but for freelancer looking to balance their time and value in a billing model.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason I posted all three is so you can clearly go to and read the one that might work for you. It was also not immediately clear at first that there were three articles, I read the hourly(#2) article first for example." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11529" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3767" RevisionGUID="46c0875e-571b-4114-b02f-e7fd23e445db" CreationDate="2015-10-09T08:02:30.353" UserId="10098" Comment="added 385 characters in body" Text="First, get all your paperwork ready. Hours worked, written statements that show you worked for them, etc. Find an employment lawyer in the company's jurisdiction, that agrees to take on your case on a _contingency fee_.  Meaning, the lawyer gets only paid at successful result.  Sometimes the lawyer **just writes a letter** to the company and they already get scared and pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, DEFINITELY put the company out on the world wide web because there will be and maybe already are people like you being used by crooks like that company you worked for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, it is a warning sign if you do not get paid for 2 weeks or most a month, you should have made that an issue.  Never wait that long.  Some will tell you that they will pay at contract end, that usually is a warning sign.  They should pay you something showing good will.  Otherwise, get ready for the loss of funds. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT&#xD;&#xA;This is to clarify that when I wrote to **expose** a company who withholds funds from their employee/ worker/ work rendered by contract or mutual agreement, it is fair statement to say that this type of ill intended establishment should be mentioned on the www for others to be cautioned about.  NOT in a form of _campaign_ but in an altruistic intention as warning for others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11531" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3767" RevisionGUID="ab31f7c8-8ff4-42d8-be63-50203c2775ce" CreationDate="2015-10-09T08:16:16.230" UserId="10098" Comment="added 385 characters in body" Text="First, get all your paperwork ready. Hours worked, written statements that show you worked for them, etc. Find an employment lawyer in the company's jurisdiction, that agrees to take on your case on a **contingency fee**.  Meaning, the lawyer gets only paid at successful result.  Sometimes the lawyer **just writes a letter** to the company and they already get scared and pay. Clearly, the lawyer cost would not go beyond a threshold that would not benefit both, petioner and lawyer.  Otherwise, it would defeat the purpose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, DEFINITELY put the company out on the world wide web because there will be and maybe already are people like you being used by crooks like that company you worked for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, it is a warning sign if you do not get paid for 2 weeks or most a month, you should have made that an issue.  Never wait that long.  Some will tell you that they will pay at contract end, that usually is a warning sign.  They should pay you something showing good will.  Otherwise, get ready for the loss of funds. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT&#xD;&#xA;This is to clarify that when I wrote to **expose** a company who withholds funds from their employee/ worker/ work rendered by contract or mutual agreement, it is fair statement to say that this type of ill intended establishment should be mentioned on the www for others to be cautioned about.  NOT in a form of _campaign_ but in an altruistic intention as warning for others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11532" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3771" RevisionGUID="d1d5ea8f-1c6b-48de-a166-d17101cc1f3a" CreationDate="2015-10-09T09:19:38.077" UserId="10106" Text="Hi I'm Matteo from Italy, i'm in the second year of math college and doing well in it. I have great programming skills and I work in my free time ( few ) as a freelance fullstack web developer, but I know also many non-web programming languages. I'm passionate about technology and in particular artificial intelligence and machine learning. The problem right now is that I don't see the value of studying maths no more. I'm asking myself why I'm using the great part of my time and energies in college, while I see a great potential and a great amount of things I would like to learn and things I would like to try around me. And I simply doesn't have time for them. Websites like Udacity or Coursera are full of great courses also specific ones about AI. If I drop out I'll also be able to work both as a freelancer and on my ideas and get a lot more practical experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a really hard choice, I hope that some of you can help me decide, Thank You :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11533" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3771" RevisionGUID="d1d5ea8f-1c6b-48de-a166-d17101cc1f3a" CreationDate="2015-10-09T09:19:38.077" UserId="10106" Text="Continue college or learn online while freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11534" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3771" RevisionGUID="d1d5ea8f-1c6b-48de-a166-d17101cc1f3a" CreationDate="2015-10-09T09:19:38.077" UserId="10106" Text="|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11535" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3772" RevisionGUID="bc3de060-1af9-45f6-a3ed-b3fdd8e786a1" CreationDate="2015-10-09T10:03:01.377" UserId="8046" Text="Why don't you simply go from math to coding or engineering/robotic in school? Frankly, these domains are very related.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You learn very important things in school that you won't learn on your own: **the most important one is methodology.** There's a huge difference between the &quot;self-made&quot; freelancers and the ones who got some training.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may be a quick learner but don't forget the benefit of learning from mentors, which will probably be your teachers first. Online courses don't offer this, you won't learn the little tricks colleagues or teachers can teach you. That's why it's not a bad idea to at least get some introduction course on the new domain you want to work in or try to get a job in that domain; then try freelance, read tutorials and keep learning! Maybe the job you have at the moment is already teaching great things and maybe you got some great mentoring there already.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agree that you might not need to study a long time in your domain but it's not a bad idea to think for the future; in AI for example, you might need a laboratory, access to resources and test equipment that are expensive and that you won't be able to afford on your own. And you might realize that you need to work for a company or with a team. That company will probably compare you with other good candidates who completed their courses. By not having any diploma at all in your domain, you might lock yourself for a long time in the low end of freelancing; you will need money to experiment and develop your own ideas since you won't gain any during the time you work on these. I also think a lot of successful freelancers first worked for a company where they did their experimentation and learning, and then got into freelance. At least, I'm tempted to think it's way easier and that's also the road I took. One great thing about school is having access to equipment and technology, that has a huge value especially since you seem to be someone who wants to create.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't discourage you to not go into freelance, but I really suggest you to try to get some introduction course or good mentors. But quitting school to go straight into freelance is a bit risky and it's actually wise to have some hesitation about it. One thing for sure, freelance is awesome when you know what you're doing and when you'll be ready, go and enjoy that new life! If you don't enjoy the course you're studying in, change for one you like. It's totally normal to discover new passion after seeing the whole picture of what you're into right now, and if you love working on other stuff than pure mathematics, that's where you need to put your energy indeed. There's almost no chance of failure if you love what you're doing. What you've learn so far will be useful anyway for what you want to do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11536" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3773" RevisionGUID="ec79c2df-6bef-40cf-a429-99dc7545abf4" CreationDate="2015-10-09T10:37:29.170" UserId="8046" Text="It's very expensive to hire a lawyer for this, and it's not an easy task either for the company to prove what they claim you did. It's also one thing to sue someone and win a case, and totally another to get paid. All this costs a lot of time and energy, and I doubt you did (if you did) enough damage to be worth all these procedures. As mentioned in the other answers, it's probably bluff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe this contains enough information to reassure you, I doubt they will really sue you: http://findlaw.co.uk/law/dispute_resolution/litigation/basics/500437.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing about the fact they accuse you of accessing their server: YOU can turn these accusations against them and should in fact mention how you find it terribly hurtful to your reputation to be accused of what are serious criminal offenses. Technically, you were given access to these. No one can call someone else a liar or a thief without strong evidences because this can easily be turned against the accuser. So instead of being scared, you should in fact have the mindset of anyone respectable who is accused wrongly. You could remind them that these are serious accusations and from what I understand, that person is also sharing this with other people. If you were living in the same country as this person, it would be very easy for you to start some legal procedures.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for the money they still owe you, you could simply keep asking for what is due and you can always send an official letter. Don't be rude with the company, keep a door opened, they might actually beg you in a few weeks or month for your help and that's when you'll have the opportunity to get back what they owe you. You don't seem to be too worried about this $100 though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But as for the company in UK, you also have little hopes that the law will help you for such a small amount. If you can't get paid, you should probably consider moving on and keep your energy to find new projects instead. For your next projects, do not deliver any final files before getting the final payment and never work for weeks or months on projects without being paid at least every 1-2 weeks. Some regular clients can be trusted, and you can always offer rebates on your project by offering them to pre-pay the full amount for a project. Even if you have a contract, it's not a guarantee you'll get paid; the real guarantee is actually receiving the money as you ask for it :) This way, if the company resists in paying you, you can always simply stop working on their project and invest your time in a project worth your skills! **Usually when you put a project on stand-by because you are waiting for a payment, and mention it, the payment comes in verrry quickly!** Don't be afraid to pause some projects until you get paid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11537" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3774" RevisionGUID="c4501539-7af7-49ed-b101-51b96340cbb0" CreationDate="2015-10-09T13:06:39.390" UserId="10111" Text="I am working as full time freelancer since 2013 as mobile app developer.&#xD;&#xA;I mostly work on Upwork,Elance and couple of other sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently Elance closes my account even though i have 5 star ratings on all projects.&#xD;&#xA;Most of my projects are long term so taking much time to complete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I talked to the support but they always mentioned my low client satisfaction but how its a low client satisfaction if i have 5 star ratings on all projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also i am not able to withdraw my account balance as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the email i received earlier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![enter image description here][1]][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should i do now ? Thanks&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/92Vz8.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11538" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3774" RevisionGUID="c4501539-7af7-49ed-b101-51b96340cbb0" CreationDate="2015-10-09T13:06:39.390" UserId="10111" Text="Elance closes my account" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11539" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3774" RevisionGUID="c4501539-7af7-49ed-b101-51b96340cbb0" CreationDate="2015-10-09T13:06:39.390" UserId="10111" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11540" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3775" RevisionGUID="c588a1a5-f09d-4bec-bc73-8a8257787143" CreationDate="2015-10-09T13:48:28.677" UserId="8046" Text="Elance &quot;cleaned up&quot; their database the lazy way. Lot of people got wiped from Elance for apparently no reason at all, it has nothing to do with your rating, verified or not, so don't worry; but there's nothing you can do about it, it moved to Upwork for good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For your issue with the customer support and getting your balance back, you might need to try contacting them by posting on their Facebook page if emails don't work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**One thing that might work even better is to simply fill a complaint at the BBB** (http://www.bbb.org/losangelessiliconvalley/business-reviews/internet-services/upwork-in-mountain-view-ca-213440). Elance/Upwork is located in USA and usually things get fixed quickly when you can go through the Better Business Bureau. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure to fill your complain with the details and proofs that there was a balance left if possible. I'm quite sure you'll get quicker responses to your issue using the BBB than trying to contact Elance through their customer support.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11541" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3776" RevisionGUID="1f5b19da-e51b-46ed-90aa-fbea118e2381" CreationDate="2015-10-09T13:59:51.667" UserId="10113" Text="I'm a freelance graphic designer that is hiring freelance help to get some of my overflow projects done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm trying to figure out how much to pay them. This may be a dumb question... but will I still need to pay taxes on the income I generate from their work--and then turn around and pay to them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I charge $75/hr and was thinking of paying my freelancer $50/hr. But I'm worried that I'm actually going to lose money after taxes are considered (Roughly 40% of my income goes to taxes) I know there is a tax write-off for money spent on hired help... but, not sure if that would mean I don't pay taxes on what I pay them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyone have any insight? I'm in Michigan, and freelancing without an LLC (at the moment... just started). I also need an accountant. I know. :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11542" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3776" RevisionGUID="1f5b19da-e51b-46ed-90aa-fbea118e2381" CreationDate="2015-10-09T13:59:51.667" UserId="10113" Text="I'm a freelancer that needs to hire another freelancer for help" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11543" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3776" RevisionGUID="1f5b19da-e51b-46ed-90aa-fbea118e2381" CreationDate="2015-10-09T13:59:51.667" UserId="10113" Text="|taxes|design|friends-services|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11544" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3777" RevisionGUID="a8fc5452-cee8-4d46-b3e7-6e7b975ed458" CreationDate="2015-10-09T14:18:00.297" UserId="8046" Text="You can keep a minimum of 30% of the amount you charge for yourself, ideally on the net profit. That's a safe number that should cover some extra expenses or revisions you haven't planned, and your time for managing the projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The other thing to consider...** Start a bit lower than $50/hr if you are paid $75/hr and raise the freelancer based on performance and how much energy they require you to manage them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people need to be micro-managed and this means more work for you. Some people will work slower than you,some won't finish the projects or will require you to review their work because they're negligent or not attentive to details or let you down, etc. AND the time you'll spend finding your candidate will also cost you your own time; youmight end up re-doing whole projects that were already paid! You'll probably (certainly) try a few freelancers before finding a pearl and one you can count on. Working with another freelancer is unfortunately not as efficient as if you could simply clone yourself, and you need to calculate that loss in the percentage you'll decide to give them; count this as a global loss.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your accountant won't really help you on this (eg.profit) but if you can find someone who manages employees, you could get good advice from that person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Look at the market and average hourly rate, create a table of hourly rates based on experience and skills. Not all freelancers are worth the same and you can't pay a freshly out of school designer the high price since they will cost you a lot of money while you train them! A junior should get less than a senior, and if they have other useful skills(eg. web dev, prepress, SEO, marketing, editing, etc.) then that can be rewarded too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the taxes, you usually get a tax credit but you still need to count this as an expense when calculating what you should give to the freelancer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11545" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3778" RevisionGUID="6df29efc-22be-4b73-802b-d0333d9ba548" CreationDate="2015-10-09T17:31:30.323" UserId="2559" Text="One other point.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've worked at a few very large companies, where a degree was essentially required for entry.  That's not a reflection of your skill set and capabilities, only that its a big company, with a huge variety of talent and a Human Relations department who thinks every skill set is exactly alike (and requires a college degree...)   Having a degree opens to front door to these places.  And some of them pay quite well, etc..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11546" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3774" RevisionGUID="603fdb52-a9b7-4e49-84a6-3f627de9e22e" CreationDate="2015-10-09T17:34:53.963" UserId="75" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:1706,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;codenoire&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="11547" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3779" RevisionGUID="6eac8849-15fb-42b0-ac9d-263ab61db1ab" CreationDate="2015-10-09T17:44:13.850" UserId="2559" Text="What city in Arizona?  I'd seriously consider using the small claims court system in Arizona.  You can do most of the stuff via mail and internet.  Small claims courts are established so people can represent themselves, without the expense of a lawyer.  They are established with a cap on how much you can sue for.  The maximum you can claim in Arizona small claims courts is $3500.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;ref: http://www.azcourts.gov/selfservicecenter/Self-Service-Forms#SmallClaims&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd certainly start this process before I contacted a lawyer.  Many companies down't want their reputation tarnished by a visit to court, so they have an incentive to settle up before hand.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11548" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3780" RevisionGUID="5ad31df6-cc3d-4580-aa8e-22b60efbac48" CreationDate="2015-10-09T18:38:39.913" UserId="2559" Text="Hmmm.. I'm thinking out loud here, but what about adding a line item for &quot;Warranty Policy&quot; that contains 2 hours worth of $$? When the customer says &quot;what is this, I'm not paying for any insurance policy?&quot; you reply, awesome, then you simply remove the warranty from the agreement, per the customer's guidance. (obviously they are not going to accept that.. so the answer is.. here's my quote with detailed breakdowns per your request.  Have a nice day.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will say, I've seen some pretty aggressive businesses drive down price with continual requests for cost breakdowns, and then argue over every penny. It can get way out of hand.  (Been there, done that.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, the real issue is: What's the fair market price for those services, when there is a capacity of freelance developers available (often at a lower rate than yours?)  &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11549" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3781" RevisionGUID="8f9490b6-e651-4de7-8a4a-0a4dd98d228b" CreationDate="2015-10-09T19:54:01.133" UserId="1706" Text="You shouldn't be offering a warranty with work billed hourly.  That makes no sense.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The whole point of working on an hourly basis is to allow the customer to make changes in scope without you ending up working for nothing.  If the customer wants changes, the customer just pays for more time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your warranty scenario, you are giving the customer the option to tell you to do &quot;A&quot;, have you do the work (using YOUR time) and then later say that it's incorrect and that you should have done &quot;B&quot; -- so your time spent doing &quot;A&quot; is not billable!  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What if you get to the end of the project, and your customer decides it's ALL wrong?  If you've put this warranty language in the contract, you're going to make a real idiot out of yourself in the process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11552" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3766" RevisionGUID="1c531f80-7b61-4a2b-a5c3-48c23b9211e5" CreationDate="2015-10-10T11:01:02.837" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/652801005239844864" />
  <row Id="11553" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3782" RevisionGUID="70e5234b-0d2c-4896-b8db-e587e1a31866" CreationDate="2015-10-10T12:47:12.350" UserId="7727" Text="I just wonder that if I got too many jobs which I can not handle at the same time, can I transfer some of them to my friend? if so, should I notify the client? of course I will make sure the finally output have the same quality " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11554" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3782" RevisionGUID="70e5234b-0d2c-4896-b8db-e587e1a31866" CreationDate="2015-10-10T12:47:12.350" UserId="7727" Text="If I transfer the work to my friend without notify the client, is it ok?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11555" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3782" RevisionGUID="70e5234b-0d2c-4896-b8db-e587e1a31866" CreationDate="2015-10-10T12:47:12.350" UserId="7727" Text="|contracts|legal|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11556" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3783" RevisionGUID="ef21912b-e626-4e67-879d-ba417e528328" CreationDate="2015-10-10T13:08:11.493" UserId="517" Text="Is it moral and professional? No!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do people do this (including large companies)? Yes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't say I never done it without client's knowledge, but each time I get into trouble as I have to act as a middle man and cannot connect client and my friend directly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So after few such experiences, I started hiring people for project-wide contract. I pay them salary or percentage and I can easily tell client that a colleague from my office will take care the project as I cannot put enough work hours in it. This way they communicate using our company's tools and I act merely as a project manager and lead developer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you tell the client about this, you should be ready to lose this client. Most of them will insist that you do the project since they talked to you, but you have to tell them that you cannot and only your office colleague can. I usually lose 2-3 out of 10 clients working this way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11557" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3784" RevisionGUID="c9d5510a-8e18-4d33-b593-adc50bd8026c" CreationDate="2015-10-10T14:37:14.247" UserId="8046" Text="The concept of morality in business is questionable. And what's ethical is simply to offer the quality services you were paid for and respect your clients. Everything in between is part of a strategy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the main problem is the word FREELANCER. It implies that you work alone at all time while in fact the words BUSINESS or COMPANY are the ones that should be used when you refer to your services. Already by not sticking to freelance, you probably realize that you already know the answer to your question. No one questions the morality or ethic of a business that hires employees; the manager is the one who takes the responsibility for what's going on inside the company and how the work is managed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So your real concern shouldn't be about morality but liability.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know your age and experience, maybe these advice don't apply to you and your friend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#Should you tell your client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's up to you. But I think you should for the simple fact that even though you want to work with your friend and will supervise his/her work, you can't control 100% what that friend will post online, share with other friends, and all the tiny mistakes that could happen. You can't control if that friend will communicate one day directly with the client or some close to the client. You don't know if that friend will always be your friend. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for these reasons, you should simply mention to your client that you will share the workload with your new team/colleague/partner and will supervise everything. Don't use the word friend, that's very immature and unprofessional (and scary for a client.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's ways to say this and be clear that you are still in full control of the quality of the project. Clients are rarely resistant to this, what they want is a guarantee of quality and get the service they paid for on time. They might asked to be reassured but in the end if they trust your judgement and you can deliver the services, you won't have issue with this. It's exactly the same as giving the design work to a designer and you being the one coding the website OR paying an editor to write the content.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#Should you transfer some work to your friend?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's where I think your real issue could come from.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be aware that doing business with friends and family can be tricky. As PeterMV mentioned, you'll be the middle man and friendship mixed with money can lead to delicate situations. You need to make sure it's clear between you and your friend that you're doing business and the client will come first, the same way as if you hired a stranger. It's usually easy to say when there's no issues but when problems arise, that's when the friendship will be tested. Some friends or family members will expect you to put your client as #2 for multiple reasons and by using various clichés that don't belong to the business world (eg. family first, bff, etc.) For some people, it's hard to accept that while they work for you, you are the client and the boss. Not to mention that if your friend disappoints you with the quality of his/her work, it might be hard for you to deal with this; even worse if you decide one day that person isn't a good fit to work with you. All this depends a lot on your personality and the personality of your friend (and ego.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other problem is that being too friendly with &quot;employees&quot; will lead you to reveal a lot of private information about your clients, share files, access, etc. Friends can also get very &quot;comfortable&quot; too, sometimes they do not respect your clients as much as you do. If things ever go bad between you and your friend, you could get caught in uncomfortable situations. And even if it doesn't go bad, it could happen. Only you know how professional and mature is your friend. For example, imagine your friend stored passwords and login access of your clients in a negligent way, and these information get shared; when you work with other people, you need to make sure they use exactly the same methods as you do and the same discipline. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you work with a friend, you should also have him/her sign a NDA. If there's any question or resistance about this,or anything such as &quot;but I'm your friend, you don't trust me?&quot; then don't work with that person. Make it clear that when you work with that person, there's a time for fun and there's a time for business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As PeterMV suggests, it's often better to simply hire a stranger and keep your leadership role in all this, without mixing it with too much friendship. If you work with a friend, make sure everything is clear and require the same things you would if you hired a stranger." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11558" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3785" RevisionGUID="c1d2ddb3-4d22-43c1-b64f-7684c11ac2cf" CreationDate="2015-10-10T15:42:02.590" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="You should make an explicit mention of this possibility in your general sales conditions. If the customer disagrees, he will tell you. (Or if he does not tell you, he is at fault.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11559" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3786" RevisionGUID="35332aea-79b4-4984-9e4b-f9fc9626691f" CreationDate="2015-10-10T16:09:07.797" UserId="10126" Text="I'm doing a freelance gig for a doughnut shop that has 3 locations and is about to open up a 4th making an android and iOS app. They want me to show all locations, have the app link to the nearest location based on your location, set up per-orders through square,  show the menu and other information about the business and offer coopons as well as a few more things. But this is my first freelance job for apps, and I'm not sure how much I should charge for this. Can anyone give me a quote?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11560" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3786" RevisionGUID="35332aea-79b4-4984-9e4b-f9fc9626691f" CreationDate="2015-10-10T16:09:07.797" UserId="10126" Text="How much do I charge?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11561" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3786" RevisionGUID="35332aea-79b4-4984-9e4b-f9fc9626691f" CreationDate="2015-10-10T16:09:07.797" UserId="10126" Text="|pay-rate|price|negotiation|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11562" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3776" RevisionGUID="d45d6150-9cf2-4d9f-a349-0cd989050b68" CreationDate="2015-10-10T17:01:33.793" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/652891732389023746" />
  <row Id="11563" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3787" RevisionGUID="fa583aba-428b-4dee-a212-aa4222ec3d67" CreationDate="2015-10-10T20:32:00.313" UserId="2456" Text="If you are charging per the hour (or day) clearly you can’t pass the job onto someone else without the client’s agreement, as they are paying what they consider your time to be worth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the job is on a fixed price, then the question come down to if the outcome will be 100% the same then if you had done it yourself.   For example a graphic designer should not pass on design work without the client’s express agreement, but could get someone else to drive to the printer’s to pick up the samples.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I pay a bricklayer to build me a garden wall, I expect him/she to lay all the bricks as that effects how the wall looks.   I don’t care if someone else is employed to move the bricks.   The mixing of the mortar is harder to decide, as it does not take great skill, but must be done with the correct amount to give the strength and colour that is required.      However if the bricklayer ever claims that it is not his/her fault that someone is not done right, as they got their labour to do it, they are off the job, very likely without getting paid!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11564" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3788" RevisionGUID="51c20126-b19c-4b0c-b38a-b28fccc6dc8b" CreationDate="2015-10-10T21:10:14.113" UserId="10129" Text="It depends on several factors, not least is the contract that you have with your client. If you don't have a contract, probably the client is under the impression that they have hired YOU specifically.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the contract expressly names you as the worker, even if you have a company, then you are essentially breaking the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your contract is with your company, and indicates that work might be done by subcontractors or other workers, then you are within the contract to transfer the work (but professionalism requires that you at least notify the client, supply contact information, etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In practice, transferring the work, particularly without notifying the client often results in a pissed-off client at best and a lawsuit at worst. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Friends often aren't as committed to the client and the quality of work, and you might find that you are still on the hook for the final deliverables after the friend bails.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if things go well, why would the client come back to you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11567" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2119" RevisionGUID="6f8f5202-a624-43ea-9b63-57563f426a5c" CreationDate="2015-10-11T11:33:47.047" UserId="1998" Comment="English. &lt;n &gt;s" Text="Customers always want  a quotation of the amount of time it will take to write a certain feature (printing a new report, adding a new form, importing/exporting data, etc). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Suppose I estimated the correct amount of time needed (**seldom** happens), then I can get an accurate quotation simply using `hours` &amp;times; `hourly rate`. Wonderful!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But things seldom go as planned, and customers actually wanted the feature a little different with respect to what I had implemented. So I would need to change this little thing, maybe the font, 'blue' color in 'dark blue', dash line into dotted line, ... all easy '5 minutes' task, delivered one at a time to let the customer to verify the result... and each little task needs a little test time, a little commit time, more time to compile and upload the upgrade to the customer... so I added extra work (adjustments) for free. Maybe the estimate was 2 days but in the end I actually worked 3 days for the same amount of money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because the price quotation is fixed I cannot ask for more money. The little changes are to fulfill the 'correct desired result', for customer&amp;mdash;programmer misunderstandings or things unsaid (think about the [tree-swing comic][1] ;-) ).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In other cases, I think the hourly rate is not applicable since my quotation would be too high with respect to market price. There are little tasks that are a bit tricky and require a lot of time to make things work yet no one will spend hundreds of dollars for it (at the moment I cannot find an example). &#xD;&#xA;So I feel I'm forced to write as a quotation something similar to the 'market price' (pretending I will resell this feature to someone, sometime in the future).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In both cases I ended up doing a certain amount of work, for a very low hourly rate. As you may imagine I feel frustrated at times since I don't even get the 'hourly rate', &lt;!-- no idea what's the original: --&gt; the though to 'gain something' seems an impossible dream. &lt;!----&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you manage these cases? Where am I wrong?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://blog.thingsdesigner.com/?/archives/354-The-infamous-software-designdevelopment-process-tree-swing-comic.html &quot;tree-swing comic&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11568" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2119" RevisionGUID="6f8f5202-a624-43ea-9b63-57563f426a5c" CreationDate="2015-10-11T11:33:47.047" Comment="Proposed by 1998 approved by 2839 edit id of 431" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11572" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3790" RevisionGUID="82d3cc58-2e5a-4d2b-9098-e1cc8e7895a3" CreationDate="2015-10-12T02:08:23.750" UserId="10119" Text="Unfortunately, you are in a bad position.  When it comes to &quot;collections&quot; i.e. collecting on debts owed the key concept is 'leverage' and you have very little leverage, if any.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, you are not an employee.  You are an independent contractor so the suggestion earlier about hiring an 'employment lawyer' isn't going to work for you.  In the eyes of US law, you and your client are two business entities.  So you would need to hire a lawyer who specializes in contracts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, what do I mean by leverage?  Well, assuming you win your case how do you collect your winnings?  Will the sky open up and deliver your award to you?  No.  You have to use force.  In this case, force takes the form of a court order which is delivered to a Sheriff who can then go to your clients bank and seize the award on your behalf.  (The bank will comply with a court order but in the bizarre instance where it refused, the Sheriff could literally use force to seize your funds.) If there is no bank account, no funds or no information about that account you could place a lien against some other company asset but you might not get a recovery from that for years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have no idea what Pakistani law is like but if it is anything like US/English law, unless your client has assets in your country your courts won't be able to do anything for you.  Thus, you will need to find an attorney who is licensed to practice in the state of Arizona or, perhaps, one licensed to practice before the federal courts in that area.  These are questions of &quot;jurisdiction.&quot;  Since you are from outside the US, you may be able to sue in federal court.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, you have the right to represent yourself.  It would be foolish to do so, however.  Unless you are fully educated in US legal practice your client's lawyers will run circles around you and run up your legal bills.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your legal costs could get quite high and they might eat up or exceed to the amount you could recover.  US laws usually require each side to pay their own costs.  Only in special cases will the judge require the loser to pay the winner's legal fees.  (This is the opposite of the English rule).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should at least try to contact a lawyer and find out for certain what your chances of recovery are.  It may be that your client is small and the mere threat of a lawsuit may make them pay up.  Or it may be that they are large and it will cost them less to pay you than fight you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end these have to be BUSINESS decisions for you.  Don't get caught up in &quot;justice&quot; over a business contract.  That kind of thinking can cost you a lot of money and stress.  Calculate the risk and return on investment based on getting advice from a licensed professional.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;=======&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, you may have lost a large amount of money but if you can weather it and continue contracting in this way there are things you can do to protect yourself in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Get a written contract.  Make sure YOU have an attorney who can make sure your contract is solid.  You are dealing in international trade.  &quot;Gentlemen's agreements&quot; are a great way to end up homeless.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Payment up front.  You can do this in a couple of different ways. You can get a retainer for part of the work and renew the return for each phase.  OR you can have the value of the entire contract placed in escrow which is held by a neutral party for payment when the contract is finished.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) Break up the work.  Never commit to a long duration/large amount of money.  Work in monthly increments.  Set milestones and bills every two weeks or monthly at the longest.  If the client refuses to pay or gets difficult, stop work.  If you do this then yo minimize the amount you can lose on a contract and you can find other work to mitigate your losses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However you choose to operate the key to success is preventing risks like this.  Trying to collect after you've taken a big risk is usually a losing strategy.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11573" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3766" RevisionGUID="290db17f-e509-49e2-8956-768b449bd068" CreationDate="2015-10-12T03:12:14.330" UserId="10096" Comment="added 21 characters in body" Text="What are the ways of protecting your salary while working as a freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I worked for a company day and night and my services were rendered for 4 months, day and night.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They were suppose to pay the fees of 4 months together when everything was finished from the ground up. ofcourse i took care of every single detail on their website, tv commercial, graphics, seo and social media. and ofcourse you know know how long does it take care of final touches.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now here is the moment of truth after 4 months when i sent an invoice of $4000  they locked me out of the ftp, cpanel and client portal and stopped to respond back to my emails.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't have any other way to generate my revenue. i am married , i have a family to support and all have been effected by that. i am under so much of stress now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So i have rendered by services and didn't even get a single penny.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ofcourse we didn't signup for a physical contract but spoken agreement, company is from Arizona USA and i reside in Pakistan. this company was came to me through my old very good contact.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can i do here to defend myself and get my funds from them? i know i can always hurt their company reputation through google, reviews and launch website against them but what i am looking for its the funds which i worked for.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11575" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3766" RevisionGUID="a22f7a45-4ef0-47d9-b028-46af3113a825" CreationDate="2015-10-12T09:49:48.183" UserId="58" Comment="Holy smokes batman, a copy-edit! Also SEO-ified the title a bit." Text="What are the ways of protecting your income while working as a freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did contract work for a company day and night for 4 months, full-time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They were supposed to pay those 4 months of fees when everything was finished.&#xD;&#xA;I took care of every single detail on their website, a TV commercial, designing, SEO and social media. And it takes a while to do the final touches.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After 4 months, when I sent an invoice for $4000, they responded by locking me out of their FTP, cPanel and client portal and stopped responding to my emails.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't have any other way to generate my revenue. I am married, I have a family to support, and so on. I am under a great of stress.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We didn't sign a physical contract, but instead worked under spoken agreement; the company is from Arizona, USA and I reside in Pakistan. This company was introduced to me through an established contact.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can I do here to defend myself, and get my funds from them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know I can always hurt their company reputation through google, reviews and probably launch a website against them but what I'm looking for are the funds which I worked for.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11576" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3766" RevisionGUID="a22f7a45-4ef0-47d9-b028-46af3113a825" CreationDate="2015-10-12T09:49:48.183" UserId="58" Comment="Holy smokes batman, a copy-edit! Also SEO-ified the title a bit." Text="Handling a client that doesn't pay after services are delivered" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11580" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3760" RevisionGUID="b527d7fb-4f01-4293-80f8-6818941f9983" CreationDate="2015-10-13T01:49:06.033" UserId="7717" Comment="clarified" Text="On fixed-price projects I've generally worked for 50% up-front, which I believe is more or less standard for software development-related freelancing. I'll sometimes ask for less than 50% if the budget is high. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Is up-front payment still a standard when escrow is available, or does escrow entirely replace the up-front system?** Please note I am not asking whether up-front payment is standard in general or what percentage to charge, just whether it's *still* a standard when escrow is used for the payments." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11582" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3792" RevisionGUID="28e618c8-63b1-4f8e-8bd5-8d98623fdff5" CreationDate="2015-10-13T08:12:35.363" UserId="8087" Text="I have the same story as [this][1], but I do have time logs in google docs like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![enter image description here][2]][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;an NDA signed by me (don't have a copy signed by the other party, though) + email correspondence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We had the project back in 2013, so it's 2.5 years. The customer is of Finnish origin, but resides in Canada. At least the NDA had been signed between us and a Canadian entity from Vancouver, BC. Two unpaid paypal invoices for $2775 + $2499. Is there any chances/ways to get it? What are they? I'm willing to sell it to collections or anyone else with a significant discount, but would anyone be interested or there is no chances at all after 2.5 yrs?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3766/handling-a-client-that-doesnt-pay-after-services-are-delivered&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/hQ1WY.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11583" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3792" RevisionGUID="28e618c8-63b1-4f8e-8bd5-8d98623fdff5" CreationDate="2015-10-13T08:12:35.363" UserId="8087" Text="Handling a client that doesn't pay v2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11584" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3792" RevisionGUID="28e618c8-63b1-4f8e-8bd5-8d98623fdff5" CreationDate="2015-10-13T08:12:35.363" UserId="8087" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11593" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3796" RevisionGUID="757e8511-2233-4a6c-9092-f0d2a29fcdcf" CreationDate="2015-10-15T03:27:32.260" UserId="4561" Text="Hyper Plan is a new software that feels a bit like Trello to me but it has rows and columns and you can organize/label them any way you see fit.&#xD;&#xA;http://www.hyperplan.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I appreciate the availability of Trello from anywhere, but with that said, I really hate the experience of a web app compared to a desktop app, though Trello is a fantastic program.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With all that said, I'm like Dwayne - a cluster of confusion - except I'm not visual.  You could put my to-do list on my desk and light it on fire in front of me and I probably wouldn't notice it.  So all tools suck for me in that they're only valuable if I'm willing to look at them.  And once I get overwhelmed with work...I'm afraid to look at them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I add reminders to emails in Outlook. (Then close the window without looking at it...) and I have tried using Hyper Plan, Trello, and Toodledo -- the latter two both have free versions that do a lot.  And Hyper Plan is a one time purchase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lately though, due to my struggle against my own nature to seldom get things logged and then rarely look at them when I do ... I've made a simple checklist in Evernote with check boxes of my important things.  Sometimes I look at it and check them off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know this is horrible, but honestly, my main strategy is to try to always throw the ball back in my client's court with a question or info I need, knowing they will contact me when they're ready.  When that's not an option, I sometimes do forget about them but I know they'll email me and ask &quot;what's up!&quot; if I don't respond soon enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also rely on my subconscious to wake me in the middle of the night with that &quot;oh no!&quot; feeling regarding a client I forgot when it's urgent enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I'd love to hear what other's do too.  My method only works well if you have too many clients and don't care if you lose a few..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11594" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3797" RevisionGUID="d9fca81f-3f4c-4709-b189-5ae95db88714" CreationDate="2015-10-15T06:03:14.750" UserId="10169" Text="# Welcome to the world of when The Coder becomes a Product Manager&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've found myself in the exact same situations several times and on different sides of the stick. I've learned the hard way (as is all the things in my life -- thank god lol) .. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having been buried in code and always concerning the business side of things hand in hand.. *I can definitely empathize so I took some time to get a bit detailed.* If you're not/have never been in the &quot;corporate&quot; culture, give http://scrummethodology.com/scrum-product-owner/ a read. You will see how things progress from being developer to managing the business end of things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Disclaimer: This is my opinion driven by experience, I build things, not litigate... though I'm sure an Intellectual Property Attorney makes far more!* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Offering compensation plus ownership for services provided (I'm assuming here that he/she is to deliver beforehand) can invite some unforeseen, or unwanted, risks:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##You'll need a contract (or to simplify, an &quot;agreement&quot;) covering at-least the:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Cost of things.. net cost (total $ to get up and running) and the worth of the initial (version 1? iteration 1?).&#xD;&#xA;2. Once costs have been figured out you could *simply* create a share-to-cost ratio. (i.e.: ACME LLC has 1000 shares, each worth $10 making the company worth a mediocre $10,000 -- due to some hardware investment perhaps.)&#xD;&#xA;3. **Ownership of the materials rendered/produced** -- I can't stress this one enough. Copyright law is (and rightfully so) by default in favor of the content creator. You can, and should if nothing else, declare that you/your entity owns any and all works produced since date of employment/contract inception.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##Providing compensation for works provided &amp; to be created:&#xD;&#xA;1. You can pay hard cold cash *(in case you formed an entity already, you should be able to bring it on as material debt so you can write it off)*.&#xD;&#xA;2. You can pay in straight up issuance of shares of your entity (The outcome of #2 in the section above-^).&#xD;&#xA;3. You can use a strategy called &quot;vesting equity&quot; wherein you create an agreement that he/she is to meet a.b.c. expectations by xyz date and __must__ remain an active participant (employee, board member, or whatever title you want) **until** a date set in the future where the share issuance will be finalized.&#xD;&#xA;4. Both cash AND equity -- just mix it up with the above points in mind.&#xD;&#xA;5. Just pay cash and make sure you get sole copyright (can be as simple as him stating it in an email, receipt, etc..)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, going the &quot;let me give you some cash now so you can buy monsters &amp; red bulls and we do a vesting equity agreement ... work some get paid some, and so forth&quot;. The caveat is that it will cost you some $$$ to have an entity formed that has the capacity for stock issuance (S-Corp, C-corp) .. on the low side I remember paying right around $600~ a few years ago. LegalZoom will save you a lot vs a local laywer if you keep things simple, check out http://www.legalzoom.com/business/business-types/compare-business-structures.html. This of course gives you some tax advantages (pass-through vs. not) rather than being a simple Sole Proprietership or LLC.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the end of the day, I think you can knock this out with a simple contract that identifies the parities, sets the precedence of expectations, covers your copyright ownership part and overall covers your butt in the event you need to collect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will be more than happy to send you a complete contract for you to just find &amp; replace your infos and you will be ready to fire it off (just pm me -- or anyone else that could use it .. I'll get it on a blog post soon).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope that helps &amp; keep us posted!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11596" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3799" RevisionGUID="f5a3905d-b5ee-44af-8471-d29c7e7f2931" CreationDate="2015-10-15T06:28:35.677" UserId="10169" Text="Just for reference, identifying and expressing intent could be something as simple as this blurb:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;6.	Assignment of Project&#xD;&#xA;JOHN DOE DBA ACME SOFTWARE, INC. reserves the right to assign subcontractors to this project to insure the right fit for the job as well as on-time completion. JOHN DOE DBA ACME SOFTWAREP, INC. will be solely responsible for all contributions, management and conduct of any subcontractor(s).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11597" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3800" RevisionGUID="9b573328-ec30-4082-b380-38c38845b0e0" CreationDate="2015-10-15T11:53:08.353" UserId="8125" Text="I have been doing part time freelancing for that last 3 years. I generally work 2-4 hours daily as freelancer. I have another full time job in professional company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now some time I feel that I should leave full time job and should concentrate full time on freelancing because I am getting more money than my full time job salary by part time freelancing. Also I achieved TOP RATED FREELANCER badge in freelancing site. I also always having interest in freelancing, learn something new, work with different clients etc.I never get bored or tired when do work for clients. So should I take decision to leave full time job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11598" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3800" RevisionGUID="9b573328-ec30-4082-b380-38c38845b0e0" CreationDate="2015-10-15T11:53:08.353" UserId="8125" Text="Is it reasonable to leave full time job and do freelancing instead?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11599" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3800" RevisionGUID="9b573328-ec30-4082-b380-38c38845b0e0" CreationDate="2015-10-15T11:53:08.353" UserId="8125" Text="|growth|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11600" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3800" RevisionGUID="e8da3716-a0e2-4362-a215-00f41a4e45fd" CreationDate="2015-10-15T13:11:33.327" UserId="8125" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|attracting-clients|project-management|outsourcing|growth|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11601" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3801" RevisionGUID="78bfe136-4652-4e0d-9dc7-76742b2a5dc1" CreationDate="2015-10-15T15:40:42.677" UserId="10175" Text="In the UK a solicitors action letter is quite cheap, it may be so in Europe too.&#xD;&#xA;OR Use the UK one for this case - worth asking.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11602" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3802" RevisionGUID="402dc08e-1c4d-4e59-861c-fd49ea0f872d" CreationDate="2015-10-15T16:02:43.397" UserId="10177" Text="I've got a job offer from the company in Ireland to work as an independent software engineer contractor (not an employee). The Agreement contains clauses that I indemnify the company from lots of (obvious) things, like this: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;You will indemnify %Company%, its officers, directors, and employees against all claims, actions, liabilities, losses, damages and expenses (including legal expenses) suffered or incurred by %Company% as a result of or arising out of any third party allegation that the Services or any Deliverables infringe or misappropriate any third party Intellectual Property Rights. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But it doesn't contain anything in reply. I expected an Assignment to contain something like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;In no event will You be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, in any way for any loss or damage of any kind incurred by %Company% as a result of, or in connection with, the Services provided by You to %Company%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But it does not, and the company refused to add such a clause.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, at least it doesn't contain the opposite, so I'm still thinking of signing the Assignment. Is it a good idea? Do contracts generally contain clauses like the one I want?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11603" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3802" RevisionGUID="402dc08e-1c4d-4e59-861c-fd49ea0f872d" CreationDate="2015-10-15T16:02:43.397" UserId="10177" Text="Should an assignment with software engineer contractor include a clause that the engineer is not liable of any company's losses?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11604" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3802" RevisionGUID="402dc08e-1c4d-4e59-861c-fd49ea0f872d" CreationDate="2015-10-15T16:02:43.397" UserId="10177" Text="|contracts|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11606" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3803" RevisionGUID="cd6710f0-8f79-49fb-8aa6-ad65ac1d3b6e" CreationDate="2015-10-15T22:11:38.347" UserId="10179" Text="You absolutely should go freelance! It sounds like you have been successful as a part-time freelancer, and have tested out whether you would like it or not. If you currently have 1 or 2 clients that are consistently giving you work, I would say go for it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11607" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3804" RevisionGUID="885afe56-ac77-44b7-b4a6-85d406aa3f9f" CreationDate="2015-10-16T00:30:36.083" UserId="10141" Text="If the money you're making from your **current** clients will support you financially, and you're confident that they'll continue to consistently provide you with work, then it's reasonable to quit your day job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your freelance business simply cannot grow because you have absolutely no time left during to day to take on more freelance work, and you're confident that you'll be able to attract substantial new business after freeing yourself from your day job, then it's reasonable to quit your day job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're fully aware of and comfortable with the worst case scenario, then is it **reasonable** to quit your job. I'm not sure where in the world you are, so it may be simply looking at the financials. But if your full time job provides any sort of social benefits, that's something to consider too. (Paid family leave, health/medical, life insurance, retirement matching etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being said&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him... The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself... All progress depends on the unreasonable man.&quot;  ~George Bernard Shaw" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11608" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3805" RevisionGUID="a9c8cdfc-0b90-46dd-92ff-68b19880f4e5" CreationDate="2015-10-16T00:53:34.670" UserId="10141" Text="The email chain can be used as proof of agreement as long as it's clear that an offer is being made, and the other party accepted the offer. So for example if you sent a price quote along with a detailed list of what you'd be doing, and the customer responded back clearly agreeing to the terms - that's likely a binding contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's nuances and arguments to be made for both sides, in both Canadian and EU law - but contract law is pretty standardized in general (in western/magna carta/rule-of-law type countries).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For this case, sell it to a debt collection agency/lawfirm for a loss and move on with business. And for future cases, always minimize your downside risk. Up front payments should required for new relationships... make your clients establish a credit rating with you before loan them a bunch of your money. \#timeismoney" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11609" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3806" RevisionGUID="22cc1d73-5755-4e7c-8539-2f30d4e143c8" CreationDate="2015-10-16T02:59:11.553" UserId="708" Text="Your options seem clear to me...... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Forget it&#xD;&#xA;- Pester the client hoping they'll grow weary and eventually pay&#xD;&#xA;- Hire a collection agency&#xD;&#xA;- Sue the client&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Only you* can determine the course which is correct for you.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11613" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3808" RevisionGUID="d5b3ac7f-3d98-497c-ab9c-c5b7c37d113e" CreationDate="2015-10-16T11:52:20.320" UserId="5026" Text="I was in the situation like you few years ago. I dropped out, chosen the work (interesting, practice, money) instead of studies (not so interesting, theory, debt?).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some years have passed. Now I see I became interested in so many deeper things of IT that I have to remember the math from the university anyway... And physics too... And more... Because practical tasks started to caught theory in few years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Few things to mention:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- IEEE Standard 754 for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic&#xD;&#xA;- Partial response maximum likelihood (PRML)&#xD;&#xA;- ...and much much more topics where you have to know the math to understand the whole working system.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;...this would say you have to study.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, most of IT certification programs available today (Microsoft, CompTia, others) will not issue the certificate for life time. The certificate you earned will be valid for about 2 years. There are many reasons for that... &#xD;&#xA;And some of certificates will not be issued for you if you do not have the required hands-on experience (for example, PMI).&#xD;&#xA;The hands-on requirement to entrance and expiration to quite ensures you are moving forward all the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;University studies usually takes about 3-4 years to complete. Call me the way you like, but I would say that universities are sort of kingdoms nowadays. We have some countries with Kings and Queens living in, but does the system of that kingdom works the way it worked centuries ago? Not really.&#xD;&#xA;The first book was printed at about 400 years ago.&#xD;&#xA;The internet was invented at about 40 years ago.&#xD;&#xA;The smartphone was invented at about 20 years ago.&#xD;&#xA;Then the cloud connecting all...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Universities were established for the purpose of better education. So the strongest part of that were:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Better connections within circle of old/new smart people (hold that: google is invented at 1996, facebook - at 2003, github - at 2007, - does that changed the quality/speed of connecting?)&#xD;&#xA;- Better availability of materials as there was only few books to learn from (hold that: PDF, DOCX, XML, Khan Academy, Lynda, Coursera, notebooks, mobile phones and even decent printers printing 20 pages per minute, - does that changed the availability of materials?)&#xD;&#xA;- Sharing resources (hold that: cloud computing, crowd funding platforms like gofundme or kickstarter, the whole model of sharing/access economy, - does that change the situation?)&#xD;&#xA;- And much more good progress has been made.. I would even say that majority of universities teaching IT cannot adapt to that progress so fast as needed... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To conclude everything, I would say that there is balancing between theory and practice always. And do not mix practice with working to the company (as you can freelance, volunteer, do your own open projects or join already existing open projects). And do not mix theory with institution (as you can buy any book the student or even lecturer use in university, you can be at the class by browsing youtube or participating in webinars)...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And of course, the human thing (talking, meeting face to face, etc.) is always available as the ticket to and back does not cost millions... You could find tickets to cross the ocean and back for much less than you earn per month if you work for both continents.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But. If you would like to work in a kingdom (in a kingdom literally, or in a local government institution, or in a university) then you need to have that paper saying you are good (diploma), because kingdom do not understand you can learn from on-line societies (github, stackexchange, webinars, etc.), fly to there and there weekly and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;p.s. Sorry for my grammar." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11624" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3815" RevisionGUID="52c68bcc-4ef6-4491-96b2-c99414986b25" CreationDate="2015-10-17T16:43:52.573" UserId="10141" Text="I haven't personally worked as a freelance copywriter, but have hired a few and I have a friend who did article writing for a while. As a buyer, I prefer a fixed rate per piece, disregarding word count, because quality is more important than quantity for my projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, for the pseudo-seo, kinda-spammy-but-technically-not-but-actually-it-sort-of-is-spammy article generation industry, price per word is common. Probably more common is price per article with a fixed word length requirement - which boils down to price per word anyways.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So let's break down your full time job. You worked 40 hours per week and there's 4.34524 weeks in a month. So you worked about 174 hours each month. You mentioned the company you worked for was focused more on quantity, not quality, so I'm estimating you'd do a 300-word article per hour. (I'd love to know what your exact quotas were, if any.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Using those numbers:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    pricePerWord = EUR800 / (174 * 300) = EUR800 / 52200words = EUR0.0153 per word.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for a 300 word article you were getting paid about EUR4.59, which lines up pretty well with the average rates you find on volume focused services like iWriter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I imagine the trick to making this type of work profitable for the freelancer is in cutting down the time it takes to write an article while keeping the quality at an acceptable level to the client. If I get paid $5 per article and it takes me an hour to write it, that sucks. But if I get paid $5 per article and I can write 5 or six in an hour, that doesn't suck. Like I said I've never worked in the field, but I'd experiment with a combination of format templates for different article types that can fit any topic, and speech-to-text/voice recognition." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11625" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3816" RevisionGUID="7907131f-2b06-453e-a322-48766f761cf8" CreationDate="2015-10-17T19:53:41.113" UserId="10199" Text="For the past few months I've been doing a lot of freelancing projects for people for little to no money. I figure it looks better on my portfolio if I make stuff FOR other people, rather than just making random websites and applications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I don't want to seem like a downer here. But let me just say this so you know where I'm coming from: NEVER EVER WORK FOR FREE. But you probably already know that; you're probably smarter than me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lot of people seem to think you can just ask a charity or small business if they need help with a website, you start from scratch, and build the perfect site for them. But it hardly ever works that way. In my experience, 99% of the time they already have a website using a do-it-yourself tool like Squarespace or Wix. Now, my job is not about coding, it's about explaining to them why those files can't be modified, why they have to pay for a different host, and why I need their secure information so I can set up their paypal on the new site I create.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I guess my question is, how do I explain these things to my clients? And in a polite manner? I feel like I've really backed myself into a corner here." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11626" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3816" RevisionGUID="7907131f-2b06-453e-a322-48766f761cf8" CreationDate="2015-10-17T19:53:41.113" UserId="10199" Text="My newbie mistakes and how to communicate with clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11627" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3816" RevisionGUID="7907131f-2b06-453e-a322-48766f761cf8" CreationDate="2015-10-17T19:53:41.113" UserId="10199" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|communication|design|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11628" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3817" RevisionGUID="0e699b1b-bbfa-49cc-b1c2-437806cf0448" CreationDate="2015-10-18T03:37:50.613" UserId="708" Text="This is **really** just an opinion-based answer. But the question is also really just purely opinion-based as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd send something similar to....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi [client],&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;[service x] is a *closed* environment. [service x] makes their revenue by locking out certain editing capabilities and serving the same overall structure to every customer. While some visual, or front-end, alterations are permitted to allow a sense of customization, most, if not all, back-end or development editing is either restricted or hobbled a great deal or simply not permitted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;In order to achieve what you wish to accomplish, I must be allowed to edit both the front-end and back-end portions of the web site. Unfortunately, because [service X] is a closed environment it will no longer meet your needs if you wish to implement x, x, x or x. So, to facilitate your desired changes, a standard web hosting account is needed. Standard web hosting accounts freely offer the ability to edit both front-end and back-end content unrestricted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here you can insert a paragraph explaining the size of an account which will be needed, perhaps bandwidth limitations, etc. - but be careful **not** to be too technical, clients don't generally care if the server supports PHP5 or is a *nix server, etc.. Then explain your hosting rates or recommend a service. Related: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2022/how-to-setup-client-ownership-of-domain-name-and-hosting/2026#2026&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Once a hosting account is established, I need to be able to access the services to implement your desired features. It's common practice to provide the web designer/developer with log in information for technical aspects which are needed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Please feel free to let me know what areas regarding the above you are uncomfortable with. I'm happy to discuss things in greater detail. It is not ever my goal to request or implement anything which I don't feel is warranted to facilitate your needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Thank you!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11629" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3818" RevisionGUID="a8e42738-e3b3-458a-81c8-3db72542d787" CreationDate="2015-10-18T03:53:06.467" UserId="10191" Text="I would suggest you solve three different things each on its own proper way. I believe it's the best way you can carefully respect your duties as a freelance they'll later trust on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Position yourself where the client is&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;Goal 1: be seen and engage potential clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Solution 1: LinkedIn profile (you can direct others to it, too). Position yourself as a problem-solving person where potential clients are, by describing what kind of work you do and specialize at. Describe in detail each job you've done. In text. What was the problem(s) you solved and succintly how you did it. The goal here is to position yourself as a candidate to solve what your next client needs to be solved. Not yet how.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value 1: you position yourself in front of clients, decision-making people, with keywords related to the problem they are facing. They just see here whether you would qualify for their current needs or not, and know the basics of how you address problems like theirs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Private code and clients' ownership&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;Goal 2: show your future clients you respect clients' ownership.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Solution 2: keep your GitHub free of code you don't own, as you are doing. One alternative is to replicate the project with a public version, same folder structure, and just empty each file contents with &quot;code kept private&quot;. Or replace actual code by a short explanation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value 2: if you attract clients that pay for ownership, next ones will probably also value that you fully understand and guarantee that. In keeping clients' code private you're protecting their competitive advantage. That's a lot.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Show your expertise&#xD;&#xA;-------------------&#xD;&#xA;Goal 3: show how you code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Solution 3: make a video showing your work standards, from architecturing the solution to coding style to testing and also creating and maintaining a GitHub repository. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would do this short and quick, like a fast-forward-ed video. Or even a powerpoint. The goal is not to understand what you did (it's still private), nor teach them how to do it, but to show what processes you follow and what kind of decisions you are used to make.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value 3: if clients have already seen you've solved problems similar to theirs, they can assume you may be able to do the job, but still need to see whether you'll adapt to their processes, which is also important. When you show them how you code, all that's left is asking you about their specific problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11630" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3818" RevisionGUID="fddd9e9e-cf16-4cc9-9ce5-fab8d79aea22" CreationDate="2015-10-18T04:34:05.100" UserId="10191" Comment="added 558 characters in body" Text="TL;DR version&#xD;&#xA;=============&#xD;&#xA;LinkedIn: position yourself where the client is (or you can invite to) and qualify for their needs. Describe who you are in regards to expertise and problems you solve.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;GitHub: keep private projects private; show you respect and value your clients' competitive advantage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Show with a video (or a powerpoint, or any other tool you fancy) how you code; show the processes you follow (just that, short and quick, start and result) so they see you will work smoothly with theirs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Non TL;DR version&#xD;&#xA;=================&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest you solve three different things each on its own proper way. I believe it's the best way you can carefully respect your duties as a freelance they'll later trust on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Position yourself where the client is&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;Goal 1: be seen and engage potential clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Solution 1: LinkedIn profile (you can direct others to it, too). Position yourself as a problem-solving person where potential clients are, by describing what kind of work you do and specialize at. Describe in detail each job you've done. In text. What was the problem(s) you solved and succintly how you did it. The goal here is to position yourself as a candidate to solve what your next client needs to be solved. Not yet how.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value 1: you position yourself in front of clients, decision-making people, with keywords related to the problem they are facing. They just see here whether you would qualify for their current needs or not, and know the basics of how you address problems like theirs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Private code and clients' ownership&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;Goal 2: show your future clients you respect clients' ownership.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Solution 2: keep your GitHub free of code you don't own, as you are doing. One alternative is to replicate the project with a public version, same folder structure, and just empty each file contents with &quot;code kept private&quot;. Or replace actual code by a short explanation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value 2: if you attract clients that pay for ownership, next ones will probably also value that you fully understand and guarantee that. In keeping clients' code private you're protecting their competitive advantage. That's a lot.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Show your expertise&#xD;&#xA;-------------------&#xD;&#xA;Goal 3: show how you code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Solution 3: make a video showing your work standards, from architecturing the solution to coding style to testing and also creating and maintaining a GitHub repository. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would do this short and quick, like a fast-forward-ed video. Or even a powerpoint. The goal is not to understand what you did (it's still private), nor teach them how to do it, but to show what processes you follow and what kind of decisions you are used to make.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value 3: if clients have already seen you've solved problems similar to theirs, they can assume you may be able to do the job, but still need to see whether you'll adapt to their processes, which is also important. When you show them how you code, all that's left is asking you about their specific problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11631" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3818" RevisionGUID="ff257f62-80d1-479f-88ab-aeabb89c71b2" CreationDate="2015-10-18T04:45:33.633" UserId="10191" Comment="added 558 characters in body" Text="TL;DR version&#xD;&#xA;=============&#xD;&#xA;LinkedIn: position yourself where the client is (or you can invite to) and qualify for their needs. Describe who you are in regards to expertise and problems you solve. Describe from human to human, in text, projects you work on, main problems you face and kind-quality of solutions you deliver.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;GitHub: keep private projects private; show that you respect and value your clients' competitive advantage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Show with a video (or a powerpoint, or any other tool you fancy) how you code; show the processes you follow (just that, short and quick, start and result) so they can see you will work smoothly with theirs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Questions on their specific project can more properly be discussed in detail on email communications or a 1on1 meeting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Non TL;DR version&#xD;&#xA;=================&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest you solve three different things each on its own proper way. I believe it's the best way you can carefully respect your duties as a freelance they'll later trust on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Position yourself where the client is&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;Goal 1: be seen and engage potential clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Solution 1: LinkedIn profile (you can direct others to it, too). Position yourself as a problem-solving person where potential clients are, by describing what kind of work you do and specialize at. Describe in detail each job you've done. In text. What was the problem(s) you solved and succintly how you did it. The goal here is to position yourself as a candidate to solve what your next client needs to be solved. Not yet how.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value 1: you position yourself in front of clients, decision-making people, with keywords related to the problem they are facing. They just see here whether you would qualify for their current needs or not, and know the basics of how you address problems like theirs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Private code and clients' ownership&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;Goal 2: show your future clients you respect clients' ownership.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Solution 2: keep your GitHub free of code you don't own, as you are doing. One alternative is to replicate the project with a public version, same folder structure, and just empty each file contents with &quot;code kept private&quot;. Or replace actual code by a short explanation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value 2: if you attract clients that pay for ownership, next ones will probably also value that you fully understand and guarantee that. In keeping clients' code private you're protecting their competitive advantage. That's a lot.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Show your expertise&#xD;&#xA;-------------------&#xD;&#xA;Goal 3: show how you code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Solution 3: make a video showing your work standards, from architecturing the solution to coding style to testing and also creating and maintaining a GitHub repository. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would do this short and quick, like a fast-forward-ed video. Or even a powerpoint. The goal is not to understand what you did (it's still private), nor teach them how to do it, but to show what processes you follow and what kind of decisions you are used to make.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value 3: if clients have already seen you've solved problems similar to theirs, they can assume you may be able to do the job, but still need to see whether you'll adapt to their processes, which is also important. When you show them how you code, all that's left is asking you about their specific problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11647" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3823" RevisionGUID="55b07193-50a3-4615-a6b7-5f1b0b9e4606" CreationDate="2015-10-19T17:59:03.523" UserId="1706" Text="I don't think you're taking the right approach at all.  Let's draw an allegory to flush this out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Say you were skilled at baking, and wanted to be a professional baker.  What you're doing now is the equivalent of approaching restaurants that might sample and later purchase your baked goods, and allowing them to convince you to spend time learning to make soup instead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client has no need for YOUR services, move on!  You can't be an expert at everything.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11648" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3818" RevisionGUID="f7135ef6-dd78-44b8-af73-42800b88354e" CreationDate="2015-10-19T18:14:19.433" UserId="1706" Comment="Fixed grammar.. phew." Text="Short version&#xD;&#xA;=============&#xD;&#xA;LinkedIn: position yourself where the client is (or you can invite to) and qualify for their needs. Describe who you are in regard to expertise and problems you solve.  Provide detailed information on projects you've worked on, issues you've been challenged with, and the caliber of solutions you deliver.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;GitHub: keep private projects private; show that you respect and value your clients' competitive advantage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use a presentation tool to demonstrate how you code, and your process, so they can see you will work smoothly with theirs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Questions on their specific project can more properly be discussed in detail on email communications or a one-on-one meeting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Long version&#xD;&#xA;=================&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest you solve three different things each on its own proper way. I believe it's the best way you can carefully respect your duties as a freelance they'll later trust on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Position yourself where the client is&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;Goal 1: be seen and engage potential clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Solution 1: LinkedIn profile (you can direct others to it, too). Position yourself as a problem-solving person where potential clients are, by describing what kind of work you do and specialize at. Describe in detail each job you've done. In text. What was the problem(s) you solved and succinctly how you did it. The goal here is to position yourself as a candidate to solve your next client's problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value 1: position yourself in front of the client's decision-maker, with some language on the problem they are facing.  They just see here whether you would qualify for their current needs or not, and know the basics of how you address problems like theirs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Private code and clients' ownership&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;Goal 2: show your future clients you respect clients' ownership.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Solution 2: keep your GitHub free of code you don't own. One alternative is to replicate the project with a public version, same folder structure, and just empty each file contents with &quot;code kept private&quot;. Or replace actual code by a short explanation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value 2: if you attract clients that pay for ownership, next ones will probably also value that you fully understand and guarantee that. In keeping clients' code private you're protecting their competitive advantage. That's a lot.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Show your expertise&#xD;&#xA;-------------------&#xD;&#xA;Goal 3: show how you code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Solution 3: make a video showing your work standards, including constructing solutions, coding style, testing, and maintaining a GitHub repository. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make this a short presentation. The goal is not to understand what you did (it's still private), nor teach them how to do it, but to show what processes you follow and what kind of decisions you are used to make.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value 3: if clients have already seen you've solved problems similar to theirs, they can assume you may be able to do the job, but still need to see whether you'll adapt to their processes. When you show them how you code, all that's left is to ask you about their specific problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11654" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3797" RevisionGUID="9d2e4f24-e51c-46df-9f54-b84d7886d5fa" CreationDate="2015-10-19T18:48:57.827" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 317 characters in body" Text="# Welcome to the world of when The Coder becomes a Product Manager&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've found myself in the exact same situations several times and on different sides of the stick. I've learned the hard way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having been buried in code and always concerning the business side of things hand in hand.. *I can definitely empathize so I took some time to get a bit detailed.* If you're not/have never been in the &quot;corporate&quot; culture, give http://scrummethodology.com/scrum-product-owner/ a read. You will see how things progress from being developer to managing the business end of things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Disclaimer: This is my opinion driven by experience, I build things, not litigate... though I'm sure an Intellectual Property Attorney makes far more!* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Offering compensation plus ownership for services provided (I'm assuming here that he/she is to deliver beforehand) can invite some unforeseen, or unwanted, risks:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##You'll need a contract (or to simplify, an &quot;agreement&quot;) covering at-least the:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Cost of things.. net cost (total $ to get up and running) and the worth of the initial (version 1? iteration 1?).&#xD;&#xA;2. Once costs have been figured out you could *simply* create a share-to-cost ratio. (i.e.: ACME LLC has 1000 shares, each worth $10 making the company worth a mediocre $10,000 -- due to some hardware investment perhaps.)&#xD;&#xA;3. **Ownership of the materials rendered/produced** -- I can't stress this one enough. Copyright law is (and rightfully so) by default in favor of the content creator. You can, and should if nothing else, declare that you/your entity owns any and all works produced since date of employment/contract inception.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##Providing compensation for works provided &amp; to be created:&#xD;&#xA;1. You can pay hard cold cash *(in case you formed an entity already, you should be able to bring it on as material debt so you can write it off)*.&#xD;&#xA;2. You can pay in straight up issuance of shares of your entity (The outcome of #2 in the section above-^).&#xD;&#xA;3. You can use a strategy called &quot;vesting equity&quot; wherein you create an agreement that he/she is to meet a.b.c. expectations by xyz date and __must__ remain an active participant (employee, board member, or whatever title you want) **until** a date set in the future where the share issuance will be finalized.&#xD;&#xA;4. Both cash AND equity -- just mix it up with the above points in mind.&#xD;&#xA;5. Just pay cash and make sure you get sole copyright (can be as simple as him stating it in an email, receipt, etc..)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, going the &quot;let me give you some cash now so you can buy monsters &amp; red bulls and we do a vesting equity agreement ... work some get paid some, and so forth&quot;. The caveat is that it will cost you some money to have an entity formed that has the capacity for stock issuance (S-Corp, C-corp). On the low side I remember paying right around $600~ a few years ago. LegalZoom will save you a lot vs a local lawyer if you keep things simple, check out http://www.legalzoom.com/business/business-types/compare-business-structures.html. This of course gives you some tax advantages (pass-through vs. not) rather than being a simple Sole Proprietorship or LLC.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the end of the day, I think you can knock this out with a simple contract that identifies the parties, sets the precedence of expectations, covers your copyright ownership part and overall covers your butt in the event you need to collect." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11662" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3824" RevisionGUID="b3bf164d-d60b-440d-9800-e6f6c72188fb" CreationDate="2015-10-19T21:15:06.780" UserId="4133" Text="The application and source code is yours (assuming you wrote it) unless your contract specifically states this is &quot;a work for hire&quot;. If you have no contract, the application and source code is yours. The U.S. copyright law has been this way since 1978, further clarified in early 1980s. Prior to 1978, the US copyright law was as described in answers posted before mine. See IRS link provided in @Tom Griffin's answer. Licensing the app and limited licensing of the source, retaining source to your &quot;background technology&quot; and only releasing object or dll with the limited license for this app's source, is the way I do it. Depending on several factors (did I give them a good deal on price because I knew I could do it quickly/easily since I had already done similar, is this a long-time client I've been supporting for years, is this a small one-off or charity project) is whether and how much I charge for the app source code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, I know this question already has an accepted answer, but there seems to be a lot of confusion about source code and corp-to-corp or independent contractor (not employee, then it's usually owned by the employer). I've been writing custom software solutions for a long time; I speak from experience (including lots of periodic research). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11663" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3825" RevisionGUID="4782d04d-b635-4ad5-90d6-e487148e6cbf" CreationDate="2015-10-20T07:57:27.400" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="I am always using a clause saying that I keep the right to reuse the source code in other contexts (excluding unfair competition). If the customer refuses that clause, then the fee is higher as it becomes a case of exclusiveness. Exclusiveness can be partial, i.e. relate to the direct competitors of the customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This said you keep other options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- deliver binaries only,&#xD;&#xA;- deliver the sources of the application and binary libraires,&#xD;&#xA;- deliver the source code but for the sole purpose of compiling the application (no reuse elsewhere, no modification allowed),&#xD;&#xA;- ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is a matter of mutual agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any case, being the author, you keep the copyright." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11664" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3731" RevisionGUID="c59967a5-c8e0-4592-9946-11c6db68a29b" CreationDate="2015-10-20T11:53:38.227" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/656438118879510528" />
  <row Id="11665" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3826" RevisionGUID="acc89647-7413-465b-b966-ed1d612c3f5c" CreationDate="2015-10-20T17:45:00.097" UserId="10191" Text="It may be a bit late, but I've just found a piece of info about this. The info is from the APTIC: &quot;Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters of Catalonia&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is their [FAQ on VAT and translations, from APTIC][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It states that there are some translations exempt of VAT and some not. &#xD;&#xA;Ensure you change your language to English.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing to consider: Although Catalonia and Spain have some differences, I believe this text abides to Spanish law, so wherever your client was from, I guess it applies to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS: Excuse my awful English : )&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###Added:###&#xD;&#xA;Read also [FAQ#15][2], in particular this: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;A client can require this certificate from its suppliers if two&#xD;&#xA;&gt; conditions occur:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; · The invoiced item must constitute provision of services (not goods).&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; · The relationship between the client and supplier must be necessary;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; this means that the professional provides a service related to the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; client's main economic activity. For example, a translation agency or&#xD;&#xA;&gt; publishing house can require this certificate from its translators,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; but a company that manufactures shoes and has requested a one-off&#xD;&#xA;&gt; translation cannot do so.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.aptic.cat/pmf#PMF14&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.aptic.cat/pmf#PMF15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11666" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3826" RevisionGUID="5f40a4a6-46e5-45a6-bb7a-82c520036266" CreationDate="2015-10-20T17:51:12.100" UserId="10191" Comment="added 24 characters in body" Text="It may be a bit late, but I've just found a piece of info about this. The info is from the APTIC: &quot;Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters of Catalonia&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is their [FAQ on VAT and translations, from APTIC][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It states that there are some translations exempt of VAT and some not. &#xD;&#xA;Ensure you change your language to English.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing to consider: Although Catalonia and Spain have some differences, I believe this text abides to Spanish law, so wherever your client was from, I guess it applies to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS: Excuse my awful English : )&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###Added:###&#xD;&#xA;Read also [FAQ#15][2], in particular this: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;A client can require this certificate (Suppliers Certificate) from its suppliers if two&#xD;&#xA;&gt; conditions occur:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; · The invoiced item must constitute provision of services (not goods).&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; · The relationship between the client and supplier must be necessary;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; this means that the professional provides a service related to the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; client's main economic activity. For example, a translation agency or&#xD;&#xA;&gt; publishing house can require this certificate from its translators,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; but a company that manufactures shoes and has requested a one-off&#xD;&#xA;&gt; translation cannot do so.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.aptic.cat/pmf#PMF14&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.aptic.cat/pmf#PMF15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11667" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3827" RevisionGUID="c45c44a4-d493-4194-9112-ac81b0436711" CreationDate="2015-10-20T18:52:16.090" UserId="10231" Text="So let me tell my backstory. After graduating college, a few months after, I found a work-from-home job through Craigslist. It was my first ever job. It paid $15/hr and I was supposed to get about 20 hours a week. Things went well for the first year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In that time I was able to find another job that was basically the same (working from home) but they were paying me $20/hr. Fast forward and the &quot;manager&quot; from the first company leaves because the owner can't really afford him anymore. After he left things started going downhill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Around my 1-year mark I asked for a raise and even told him I had another job that paid $20/hr. He was pretty miffed by it but raised my pay to $18/hr but pretty much told me I wouldn't get a raise for a long time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Over the last year though I have gotten barely any hours, maybe 1 or 2 a week. He also NEVER pays me on time, which has always been twice a month on two certain days. I'm usually left begging for my pay and continually emailing. Several times I have waited a month for my paycheck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Company B that does pay $20/hr is ran by a much nicer owner who does pay me on time, but the hours are horrible too and I can barely make $60 in a month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a freelance web designer and since my first job, things have been picking up for myself client-wise. For 2016 I'm rebranding myself and really focusing on my business. My rate with my clients is $40/hr but I really don't have enough clients to completely quit the company jobs, but I feel like I'm not being respected by the owner and not getting enough hours to even care.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm basically asking for advice. Do I quit those jobs and keep my pride? Or perhaps tell them that my business model has changed and my rate is $40/hr and is not negotiable? It's not like I'm working 20 hours a week anymore so if I were making $40/hr it would at least make those 1 or 2 hours worth it for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also have a contract with Company A (the bad guy) but it was signed by the manager who left. It also states I will be paid twice a month, and that hasn't been met all the time, so the contract is null?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sorry for the long post! I've been dealing with this for a while and wanted an outside perspective." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11668" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3827" RevisionGUID="c45c44a4-d493-4194-9112-ac81b0436711" CreationDate="2015-10-20T18:52:16.090" UserId="10231" Text="Companies VS Clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11669" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3827" RevisionGUID="c45c44a4-d493-4194-9112-ac81b0436711" CreationDate="2015-10-20T18:52:16.090" UserId="10231" Text="|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11670" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3828" RevisionGUID="4573f386-f59b-4b51-8bb2-7ae12188a64a" CreationDate="2015-10-20T19:11:11.287" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Your relation with company A depends on the content of the contract. You cannot deem it void just because of late payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can stand losing those hours, inform the guys about your new fee and the new payment conditions, including penalties for late payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't wan't to, just warn about the penalties." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11671" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3829" RevisionGUID="a4373105-d7c1-4c6a-94c0-1ff498b0aa8f" CreationDate="2015-10-20T21:17:41.583" UserId="10234" Text="A client has approached me with a rather unusual request.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead of hiring my services as a freelance web developer, they already got a small team working on their first product, they have decided to hire me as their project coordinator.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since the client doesn't have the necessary knowledge to analyse the work being created by the small team in question, they have asked me to act as their project coordinator, meaning, my role would be to supervise this team's activity and make sure everything goes according to plan and that the team is creating a good product _(in terms of code and style)_, and additionally, not being liable for any delay from the part of the small team.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think this would be a good opportunity to learn a lot from a different perspective and ways to work and dealing with a team, and, since this would be my first time on this role, I would like to ask if any you fellow designers/developers would have any tips about it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The point I am really struggling to get to a conclusion, is about the rate that should be charged in for performing such role.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should it be less or more than my rate as a freelance web developer? — due to its responsibilities and managing more people than only myself?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice would be highly appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11672" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3829" RevisionGUID="a4373105-d7c1-4c6a-94c0-1ff498b0aa8f" CreationDate="2015-10-20T21:17:41.583" UserId="10234" Text="How to act and charge as a project coordinator?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11673" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3829" RevisionGUID="a4373105-d7c1-4c6a-94c0-1ff498b0aa8f" CreationDate="2015-10-20T21:17:41.583" UserId="10234" Text="|pay-rate|project-management|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11674" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3830" RevisionGUID="2842e3b7-900a-48d8-aaa5-7177bcf1df5c" CreationDate="2015-10-20T23:07:05.770" UserId="75" Text="Absolutely, you will need to charge more than normal, if you are taking on more responsibilities!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Congratulations on being trusted enough to lead everyone, and welcome to the world of being in charge - kind of. Now, the baby-sitting part...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will need to know, clearly, what the goals and objectives are, as well as how to get it done. If you're the boss, you should be the only one the company goes to, before talking to your team. You will need to get the authority to make decisions that affect your areas of responsibility. This is what you need from your client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From your team, you will need to be able to trust them, and help remove roadblocks in their way. One issue many new managers make is to **micro-manage**; do your best not to. Give a clear picture of what the outcome you are looking for is (actually, what the customer wants), and let them get it done. Explain that you are there for helping them get their jobs done, and that you need the communication lines open for anyone to ask for you. If you spend your time micromanaging, and telling them how to do their job, then either they are not the right person, or you are not the right person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do not be afraid of giving gentle guidance, and keep it light. If you start doing it too much, they will feel micro managed. If you do it just right, you are just showing you care about the quality, and know they are working hard. If the team needs changing, you should be able to make the call, or at least make recommendations with the people who can do so." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11675" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3831" RevisionGUID="dd42ff98-cf7d-43b6-b415-e39def054712" CreationDate="2015-10-21T06:40:16.100" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="It is likely that this client has two goals:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - ensure the quality of the work (as you say in terms of code and style),&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - ensure that the team communicates when necessary to avoid misunderstandings and inefficiencies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Achieving these goals requires that you be in sufficiently close contact with the team, exchange with them frequently, and get their trust. They should see you as adding value to the team and helping them in their daily work rather than as a spy/punisher (don't get me wrong, you're no going to do the work in their place, you will help them by having a more global view of what is going on).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For better &quot;comfort&quot; you will need to understand where you are landing: is this a healthy project that is growing and where the customer anticipates that more structure becomes necessary, or are they busy switching to emergency mode because the house is on fire ? Truth must be somewhere in-between.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other remark: &quot;not being liable for any delay&quot;: don't take that for granted." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11676" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3832" RevisionGUID="0245d6d4-8e88-4608-bc5e-98c11f1ec2ad" CreationDate="2015-10-21T12:26:11.300" UserId="10237" Text="Is there a way when setting up a Ltd company in the UK (as a director) to avoid one's personal address being made public?&#xA;&#xA;I'm not after doing anything dodgy - just concerned about personal privacy in specific circumstances. Specific people I'd rather not be &quot;searchable&quot; by (not the customers!)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11677" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3832" RevisionGUID="0245d6d4-8e88-4608-bc5e-98c11f1ec2ad" CreationDate="2015-10-21T12:26:11.300" UserId="10237" Text="UK Ltd company - keeping address private?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11678" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3832" RevisionGUID="0245d6d4-8e88-4608-bc5e-98c11f1ec2ad" CreationDate="2015-10-21T12:26:11.300" UserId="10237" Text="|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11679" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3833" RevisionGUID="664e0896-7f8e-4e53-99f3-2ab14f6569b2" CreationDate="2015-10-21T17:29:44.400" UserId="8795" Text="Each company needs to have a registered address, which could at a pinch be your Accountant's offices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, UK Ltd reporting requirements also include the need to inform Companies House of the officer's details including:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; name, service address, usual residential address, country of residence, nationality, and business occupation&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So no, unless you are not an Officer of the company (director, secretary, etc) you can't avoid reporting it, and the Companies House records are open to the public.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From the [Companies House website](https://www.gov.uk/limited-company-formation/appoint-directors-and-company-secretaries)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Directors’ names and addresses are publicly available from Companies House. You can stop your address from appearing on the register if you or your family are at risk of abuse or harm because of your company’s work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I doubt you would qualify for the exemption." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11680" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3833" RevisionGUID="f5fdfded-afd2-489f-b8cd-ac5a183ff03a" CreationDate="2015-10-21T21:01:31.260" UserId="8795" Comment="added 640 characters in body" Text="Each company needs to have a registered address. The company's address does not need to be one where it does business - just one where official mail and court papers etc can be delivered. It would not be unusual for a small company to use the address, say, of their accountant's offices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, UK Ltd reporting requirements also include the need to inform Companies House of the officer's details including:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; name, service address, usual residential address, country of residence, nationality, and business occupation&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So no, unless you are not an Officer of the company (director, secretary, etc) you can't avoid reporting it, and the Companies House records are open to the public.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From the [Companies House website](https://www.gov.uk/limited-company-formation/appoint-directors-and-company-secretaries)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Directors’ names and addresses are publicly available from Companies House. You can stop your address from appearing on the register if you or your family are at risk of abuse or harm because of your company’s work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I doubt you would qualify for the exemption.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tracking you down would not be difficult. If someone even suspected you were operating a company they can go to http://directors.findthecompany.co.uk/ and enter your name. It will pull up all the company information, including the company's registered address. That provides more than enough information for them to go to Companies House and get your home address.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tried it and it pulled up information from a company I dissolved 20 years ago.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11684" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3835" RevisionGUID="2d97e800-8e3c-4c0f-9c76-7de6513ffc9e" CreationDate="2015-10-21T21:19:52.780" UserId="10245" Text="What are the easiest ways to collect payment online and i prefer a way to get the cheapest rates online as well, so i get to keep most of my hard earned money!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11685" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3835" RevisionGUID="2d97e800-8e3c-4c0f-9c76-7de6513ffc9e" CreationDate="2015-10-21T21:19:52.780" UserId="10245" Text="How do you collect credit card payments online from your customers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11686" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3835" RevisionGUID="2d97e800-8e3c-4c0f-9c76-7de6513ffc9e" CreationDate="2015-10-21T21:19:52.780" UserId="10245" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11689" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3832" RevisionGUID="77633942-ae24-4c92-9012-b031f26c50f5" CreationDate="2015-10-22T14:26:25.973" UserId="9" Comment="Reworded question to put background at top, question on bottom. Changed title to reflect personal address (not just address in general)" Text="I'm looking to set up a Ltd company within the UK, but I'm concerned about my personal privacy in specific circumstances. It's not for dodgy reasons, I'd just rather not be &quot;searchable&quot; by specific people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a way when setting up a Ltd company in the UK (as a director) to avoid one's personal address being made public?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11690" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3832" RevisionGUID="77633942-ae24-4c92-9012-b031f26c50f5" CreationDate="2015-10-22T14:26:25.973" UserId="9" Comment="Reworded question to put background at top, question on bottom. Changed title to reflect personal address (not just address in general)" Text="Can I keep my personal address private when setting up a UK Ltd company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11691" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3837" RevisionGUID="b3ff4ea0-d49c-40b4-884d-7bd6a8523438" CreationDate="2015-10-22T14:45:51.967" UserId="10248" Text="Collecting payment via a credit card is convenient for you and your customers, but it definitely comes at a cost, so it's better to not think about 'cheap', think about 'added convenience factor' and charge accordingly. Plan on it costing you 3-4% of every transaction, then don't worry about the cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that out of the way, there are lots of ways to accomplish the task. If your business qualifies, a traditional merchant account can offer both standard swipe services and access to features for online payments. For 'less-traditional' businesses, you may have a hard time finding a service company willing to set you up. In that case, look at services like Square or PayPal Here (there are others -- I think Intuit has one that integrates directly to Quickbooks). These services typically cost more per transaction, but sometimes lack the monthly fees and qualification issues that make it hard to obtain or justify a standard merchant account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Know that some businesses are simply *not desired* by card service providers: online subscriptions, selling firearms, etc. **Read the fine print** on any service agreement before you start using it. *If your business violates any of the articles, you may find that they can close your account, seize your funds, and even pull funds from your back account for past transactions.*&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11692" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3837" RevisionGUID="4ccdef74-362f-41ce-93c1-022a59417d9f" CreationDate="2015-10-22T14:52:56.037" UserId="10248" Comment="grammar" Text="Collecting payment via a credit card is convenient for you and your customers, but it definitely comes at a cost, so it's better to not think about 'cheap', think about 'added convenience factor' and charge accordingly. Plan on it costing you 3-4% of every transaction, then don't worry about the cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that out of the way, there are lots of ways to accomplish the task. If your business qualifies, a traditional merchant account can offer both standard swipe services and access to features for online payments. Merchant service companies usually have deals with ISO's (independent service organizations) to push their services. An ISO makes a commission off your credit card volume. I've become an ISO myself when I did some work setting up a client's online store and I now collect a small monthly check from all their CC business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For 'less-traditional' businesses, you may have a hard time finding a service company willing to set you up. In that case, look at services like Square or PayPal Here (there are others -- I think Intuit has one that integrates directly to Quickbooks). These services typically cost more per transaction, but sometimes lack the monthly fees and qualification issues that make it hard to obtain or justify a standard merchant account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Know that some businesses are simply *not desired* by card service providers: online subscriptions, selling firearms, etc. **Read the fine print** on any service agreement before you start using it. *If your business violates any of the articles, you may find that they can close your account, seize your funds, and even pull funds from your back account for past transactions.*&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11693" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3838" RevisionGUID="23230be8-e61c-4c0c-a89f-7e3643a8cc81" CreationDate="2015-10-22T15:07:49.230" UserId="10248" Text="I've been doing freelance development since long before WWW entered our vocabulary and have been approached with this countless times. On a few occasions I fell for the presentation and became an equity partner. Each time I learned a lot about how to take a business _to the next level_, and each time I also learned new ways that ideas can cost you while failing to deliver on the hype. I don't regret the experiences, but even the best plans with megabucks backing them can flop.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key is to examine the proposal and ask yourself, &quot;If I had come up with this idea on my own, would I be willing to put my resources into it, and are these people [the proposers] the folks that I would choose to help me make this a reality.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A plumbing contractor once gave me some awesome advice... he said, &quot;I didn't get into into this business to be busy, I got into it to make money.&quot; Being clear on that will help you whenever people want your time, or when they want to negotiate your rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11695" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3835" RevisionGUID="9d6708ed-e344-4f33-bcca-cabde4c200b8" CreationDate="2015-10-22T17:33:03.957" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="11696" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3835" RevisionGUID="f26dfc07-33cc-45e8-a288-d486c4c0a39a" CreationDate="2015-10-22T20:02:09.133" UserId="10245" Comment="added 127 characters in body" Text="What are the easiest ways to collect payment online and i prefer a way to get the cheapest rates online as well, so i get to keep most of my hard earned money!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit for more context - i am starting a service, for which i would like to collect online payment, target market is the US." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11697" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3839" RevisionGUID="8a93c01d-f018-435c-947b-d1d58ba73221" CreationDate="2015-10-22T20:18:54.300" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Ask them a business plan. A true business plan with figures on a spreadsheet. Strategy, market, activities, costs and revenues year 1, year 2 and year 3. No vague claims like &quot;I keep it secret&quot;, &quot;huge market&quot;, &quot;don't worry it's the killer app&quot;. That usually suffices to cut the relation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11698" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3840" RevisionGUID="cb3389ff-7660-4b58-a0a4-d15d86e29b0a" CreationDate="2015-10-23T03:45:34.143" UserId="10129" Text="First off, charge by the hour. Without knowing a great many details about your expectations for payment, level of skill, customer expectations, graphics, whatever, it's impossible to come up with an accurate estimate that is going to make you happy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's the deal though...you are in the same position. Fixed price gigs almost always (in my 30 years of freelance experience) have hidden expectations associated with them. When you charge a fixed price, you are essentially charging for a product that the client assumes will match what is in his or her head. You are estimating based on what is in your head and most of the time you end up spending more time with fussy details or surprise requirements that you aren't being paid for but essentially agreed to do when you took on the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At some point, you will have to have the conversation with the client where you both decide when you are done, or where to draw the line between work that is part of the fixed price estimate and work that is over and above. Those aren't usually fun meetings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you charge by the hour, then it really doesn't matter as much...the client can keep generating requests and you keep building. They'll stop generating requests when development reaches their budget limit. Be sure to negotiate a regular invoicing and payment schedule while you are at it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11706" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3843" RevisionGUID="3b2b3a37-6e2e-4040-97f9-ecf2bfe8b26d" CreationDate="2015-10-23T21:15:30.203" UserId="8361" Text="I have a California-based LLC through which I provide design services.&#xD;&#xA;If a company in France wanted to pay me for these services, would that be possible?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And what would be a good way to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*-Bill them*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*-Collect the fees after job is done*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*-Making sure they can process the invoice in their accounting*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(in case this would be any different from handling business with a European client)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11707" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3843" RevisionGUID="3b2b3a37-6e2e-4040-97f9-ecf2bfe8b26d" CreationDate="2015-10-23T21:15:30.203" UserId="8361" Text="Having clients abroad as a LLC" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11708" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3843" RevisionGUID="3b2b3a37-6e2e-4040-97f9-ecf2bfe8b26d" CreationDate="2015-10-23T21:15:30.203" UserId="8361" Text="|billing|foreign-markets|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11712" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3844" RevisionGUID="7cff8eab-92a3-4df8-a77c-dd1998686050" CreationDate="2015-10-24T13:06:38.843" UserDisplayName="user8159" Text="When I offer services, I generally use a contract template that I've used for all of my dealings. This handles payment terms (hourly rate or project rate, payment net 30, etc), deliverable terms, and any legal issues that I'm aware of (such as code ownership, etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've only used this contract in the context of local business (in America).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What considerations do I need to take if I'm writing a contract for someone who is in, say, Australia?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11713" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3844" RevisionGUID="7cff8eab-92a3-4df8-a77c-dd1998686050" CreationDate="2015-10-24T13:06:38.843" UserDisplayName="user8159" Text="Contract for a client in a different country" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11714" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3844" RevisionGUID="7cff8eab-92a3-4df8-a77c-dd1998686050" CreationDate="2015-10-24T13:06:38.843" UserDisplayName="user8159" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11715" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3845" RevisionGUID="4e1dea79-85e7-4e16-8b9b-011585baa8c0" CreationDate="2015-10-25T05:09:53.360" UserId="10129" Text="Probably the best thing would be to negotiate a rate in Euros. As far as their accounting is concerned, it wouldn't be much different from using a local freelancer. They can send you a check in Euros and you can have it deposited to a US bank, although you'll have a poor exchange rate and some risk from currency fluctuations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've never worked with a French company, but I do know that for English companies, you need to be represented by a UK-based proxy (because a lot of consultants moved their official locations to tax-free countries).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might want to get some form of payment up front. Not only does this force them to iron out any kinks in the payment process, you are at lower risk from getting stiffed at the end. Really, there's almost no easy way to get a foreign company to pay you if they decide to skip out on the bill." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11716" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3832" RevisionGUID="dc468224-feb7-4b04-87c0-a4dd7e2fd6ee" CreationDate="2015-10-26T00:06:30.210" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/658434489010540545" />
  <row Id="11719" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3846" RevisionGUID="25e38f26-50a8-4e47-996a-f682ea5da1f7" CreationDate="2015-10-26T12:14:18.753" UserId="1018" Text="I am based in Australia and I use the same terms and conditions for local clients and overseas clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One minor difference is that I don't show the goods and services tax on overseas client invoices as the tax only applies to local clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do still charge overseas clients the full amount (as if the tax had been added) as this helps cover the commission on receiving international payments (via PayPal etc)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11720" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3847" RevisionGUID="a9b53465-e6f8-40ac-8c36-3c303588503b" CreationDate="2015-10-26T18:02:39.567" UserId="10189" Text="The most important aspects AFAIK:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - the law of the contract and jurisdiction in case of disputes&#xD;&#xA; - tax aspects (e.g. handling VAT especially if you would deliver to EU)&#xD;&#xA; - transfer of intellectual property (different countries have different copyright laws)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11722" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3848" RevisionGUID="a7e713d6-e503-498a-bec5-a85c4f0a1078" CreationDate="2015-10-26T19:24:08.620" UserId="10287" Text="I was offered a contract to build a hybrid mobile app, but I've only ever done native development. Essentially, my question is this: Is it ethical to accept a contract if you will need to essentially learn every required framework/technology on the job? Is it reasonable to include time spent learning in the quote?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11723" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3848" RevisionGUID="a7e713d6-e503-498a-bec5-a85c4f0a1078" CreationDate="2015-10-26T19:24:08.620" UserId="10287" Text="Accepting a job outside of expertise" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11724" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3848" RevisionGUID="a7e713d6-e503-498a-bec5-a85c4f0a1078" CreationDate="2015-10-26T19:24:08.620" UserId="10287" Text="|contracts|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11725" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3849" RevisionGUID="dafe365c-126d-493d-a220-f1aafafb86b4" CreationDate="2015-10-26T20:08:22.063" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="If you make an offer, nothing unethical can arise: you propose your pricing and it's up to them to accept or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your offer can explicitly list hours for learning or silently absorb them in other items, your choice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The situation would be a little different for a task charged by the hour, where they might expect shorter time, then it would be fair to warn them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11726" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3850" RevisionGUID="fe1f36b7-51e5-4fbf-9fb0-b05aada0e7c9" CreationDate="2015-10-26T20:20:39.177" UserId="10288" Text="I had that problem some times and I accepted, but didn't include all the learning time - I tried to account the amount of time I'd needed if I already had that knowledge. But I guess that's more ethics most professionals would consider ..., some even call it unprofessional to spend time on projects without being paid. &#xD;&#xA;However you account, accept the contract - what you will learn might bring you many opportunities in the future!&#xD;&#xA;My vote: It's ethical to accept the contract, but not to include all the time spent learning (as long as it's more than just a few percent).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;btw: Nice Queation in a world where headlines like &quot;50 ways to make money from ...&quot; are ubiquitous ;) 1up" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11728" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3852" RevisionGUID="9a0774af-5812-4181-ae98-7791687713fa" CreationDate="2015-10-27T06:27:26.037" UserId="1563" Text="Actually, there are a few factors involved here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Case 1**: The client is a person whom you share a rapport with. And you be honest and tell him that the project is not within your skillsets.&#xD;&#xA;But, you are eager to learn that technology and are willing to do it at a lower rate than your existing one. The client, who trusts you, agrees to it and shares a flexible timeline and costing with you.&#xD;&#xA;In the end, you get to learn a new technology and the client gets the project delivered. There might be ups and downs on the timeline. But as long as there is honest feedback and communication between the two, it is not a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Case 2**: This is the case where you reject the project. The client has a fixed timeline and budget and he expects quality. You, being a newbie in that technology, cannot deliver the project. Therefore, you tell this upfront to the client and decline the project in a nice way, without giving any wrong vibes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11729" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3853" RevisionGUID="925859a5-27ac-4526-aa13-1eb55448a6d2" CreationDate="2015-10-27T06:32:47.460" UserId="1563" Text="There might be instances where the client may need an hourly based contract or a fixed-price one. I would suggest going by the hourly method.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order to quote for the project, you need to make the timeline sheet on your side first. Include all the features and modules and list down the number of hours it will take you to get them done.&#xD;&#xA;Be sure to include buffer time in it as well. Otherwise, it will come back and bite you later, if you get any of the modules delayed. It is a safe practice to have buffer time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After you do this, share the doc/sheet with the client and get their approval. Make sure they checked the whole doc and made sure nothing was missing or was extra.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once that is done, you are good to go.You have the estimated timeframe in front of you and you have to do whatever it takes to stick to it and give the best quality delivery possible." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11730" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3854" RevisionGUID="b00aec11-2b11-48d3-9b76-0a1048f2cdd4" CreationDate="2015-10-27T06:37:21.150" UserId="1563" Text="First of all, the decision completely rests upon you on which path to take.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest that you look for opportunities that utilise all the hours you have allocated to work. There are sites online as well like Upwork and PPH where you can bid for projects and work from home after being awarded with a project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The rates you charge completely depend on your skillsets and the way in which you handle clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Communication is the key.&#xD;&#xA;Therefore, if you want to still keep working with the companies and still have a lot of time, you should give it a thought." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11732" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3850" RevisionGUID="8003469c-3c9b-4506-a5e2-a31f813ae6ec" CreationDate="2015-10-27T18:06:35.800" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 105 characters in body" Text="I had that problem some times and I accepted, but didn't include all the learning time - I tried to account the amount of time I'd needed if I already had that knowledge. But I guess that's more ethics most professionals would consider ..., some even call it unprofessional to spend time on projects without being paid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However you account, accept the contract - what you will learn might bring you many opportunities in the future!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My vote: It's ethical to accept the contract, but not to include all the time spent learning (as long as it's more than just a few percent)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11733" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3855" RevisionGUID="2f942d93-c716-446d-a76a-e1c803c1c10d" CreationDate="2015-10-27T19:57:45.677" UserId="1706" Text="Your number one consideration when taking on ANY client should be the risk of not getting paid.  You want to make sure that your work product is turned over in very small milestones that need to coincide with the frequency of payments made to you.  Don't ever do more work than you can afford to lose if the client doesn't pay you -- a retainer (prepaid) situation is best for you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11734" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3855" RevisionGUID="dc33250c-4e1e-49f0-8aac-cf6f5c85a1a8" CreationDate="2015-10-27T21:45:05.633" UserId="1706" Comment="added 92 characters in body" Text="Your number one consideration when taking on ANY client should be the risk of not getting paid.  You want to make sure that your work product is turned over in very small milestones that need to coincide with the frequency of payments made to you.  Don't ever do more work than you can afford to lose if the client doesn't pay you -- a retainer (prepaid) situation is best for you.  Working with someone outside your own venue is very, very risky from a revenue standpoint." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11740" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3858" RevisionGUID="4f465bcf-08c7-4bc9-9534-0a65cc9056ae" CreationDate="2015-10-28T23:17:09.410" UserId="10295" Text="The customer/client is asking for someone with experience, so I would say it is not ethical to accept the contract unless the client knows first. If it were something simple to learn by reading a page or two on the internet, okay, otherwise stay away. It would not look good to falter during the contract and then have to reneg." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11741" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3859" RevisionGUID="c6f60df4-d9f7-4a68-b1c6-ca954ed09afc" CreationDate="2015-10-28T23:25:37.903" UserId="10295" Text="It depends on what your full-time job is. Can you support yourself with just freelancing? Freelancing is an up and down business, what happens when there is a dead week or two? I have been freelancing for a couple of months and have only gotten about 10 jobs. I created a website of my own, business facebook page and paid for advertising. I specialize in resume writing and actually contacted every college and university in my state and did get a little feedback. It's only been a couple of days but I did get some positive feedback. I have to freelance now because I am medically disabled but I would not do it unless you SPECIFICALLY work for a freelance company that will always supply work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11755" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3865" RevisionGUID="4564740a-9a69-4907-963a-ba54ab6d004c" CreationDate="2015-10-29T15:27:01.930" UserId="10317" Text="If I was in your situation, I would make the leap and get office space. Working from home sucks for all the reasons that you just mentioned. Find something that is 15 minutes away and reasonably priced. If the business is going well, there isn't any reason not to." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11756" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3866" RevisionGUID="4c3807cc-4c67-4402-baae-c12a5b29e3da" CreationDate="2015-10-29T15:32:46.843" UserId="10317" Text="I think it is unethical to bill for time that you are learning something new. Take your effective hourly rate, figure out what it would cost you if you were doing a native app (or something else that you already know how to do well and then bid it based on those hours). The first time you do work on something you haven't done before the actual hours that you spend on the project will make your real hourly rate suck, but I have always considered it getting paid to learn. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think about it. Lots of people pay to go to school and learn new skills. In your situation, you are learning something new, getting paid to learn it, and you have a firm deadline forcing you to learn the material by a certain date.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had been wanting to learn NodeJS but didn't have any reason to learn it. I took on a Node project, bid it out at cost of what it would take if I knew what I was doing going into it and struggled and stressed over not getting the project done in time, but guess what?  I got it done, the client was happy and now if I have the ability to profitably spend my time on a whole new technology." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11757" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3867" RevisionGUID="faad44c9-4f8c-45e7-8842-75a6631c93ac" CreationDate="2015-10-29T15:45:05.723" UserId="10317" Text="This really depends on how successful you are. If you don't make any money, you really don't need any bookkeeping skills. Any money you spent trying to get the business started could be written off as a non-reimbursed job expense. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are mildy successful it is just a matter of keeping track of how much money you make minus the amount that you spend. The one mistake that I made was starting consulting work before I setup a separate business bank account. It was a complete pain remembering which expenses and income were from the business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once things got going a little I setup an S corp. I did this based on the advice that I got from a buddy who ran his own business. When you have a S corp not all the money get passed through and taxed as income unlike an LLC which is just a pass-through entity. I paid myself a reasonable salary and took the rest as a owner's draw which meant it got taxed as a capital gain. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The one thing to know about the US is: the people making their money through income are getting jacked. You end up having to pay a much higher percentage of your income than if you are making that money as an investment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you start dealing with S corps you are solidly in CPA territory. I did do my own taxes last year but I wouldn't recommend it for the average reader. I value learning new things above all else and will spend hours and hours learning something new when I could be relaxing or doing something fun. There is also the chance that I didn't do it right but I haven't gotten any notifications from the IRS yet. I had a CPA that I really liked and he wasn't going to be doing personal tax work anymore so I had to find someone new but I kept procrastinating it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For people who don't need the full double-bookkeeping [accounting software][1] (still more comparable to FreshBooks) I have been working on a project called ZipBooks. Would be interested to see what people think. For me the big issue was I was using Google Sheets to create invoices and I didn't have a good system to keep them all in one place, track revenue, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://zipbooks.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11758" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3868" RevisionGUID="dd2afb34-7043-4668-90ac-6826efe2f5aa" CreationDate="2015-10-29T15:55:37.837" UserId="10317" Text="As a freelancer, FreshBooks has traditionally been the 800-pound gorilla but waht other programs are people using the track jobs and revenue (assuming that you are small enough still that you aren't using something like QuickBooks.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been working on a [free FreshBooks alternative][1] and I want to make sure I am covering all my bases in terms of the features that people need to have. For example, Wave is free but doesn't have autobilling. FreshBooks has a great autobilling feature but doesn't do time tracking, etc. Seems pretty fragmented to me and would be interesting in putting all the features in one place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://zipbooks.com/free-freshbooks-alternative/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11759" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3868" RevisionGUID="dd2afb34-7043-4668-90ac-6826efe2f5aa" CreationDate="2015-10-29T15:55:37.837" UserId="10317" Text="What are the top alternatives to FreshBooks?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11760" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3868" RevisionGUID="dd2afb34-7043-4668-90ac-6826efe2f5aa" CreationDate="2015-10-29T15:55:37.837" UserId="10317" Text="|invoices|estimation|time-tracking|accounting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11761" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3869" RevisionGUID="31413935-8c31-4459-8d40-9e10431dcaff" CreationDate="2015-10-29T16:01:26.350" UserId="10317" Text="If you are sending invoices, I would register a business name. In the USA is costs about $50 to register a LLC. I am not sure about other countries but usually there are some kind of tax benefits from having a registered company. Here is what I would say are the necessary items on an invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Your contact information&#xD;&#xA;2. The contact information of the company that you are billing&#xD;&#xA;3. Invoice number&#xD;&#xA;4. A itemized explanation of the charges&#xD;&#xA;5. Sub-total&#xD;&#xA;6. Any tax required by law&#xD;&#xA;7. Amount due&#xD;&#xA;8. Credit terms (when do they need to pay)&#xD;&#xA;9. Information on where to send the payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope that helps. There are a lot of great invoice templates out there. Here is one I can recommend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freeonlineinvoicer.com/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It allows you to send an invoice and customize the email message that gets sent. It is based on the [ZipBooks API][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://developer.zipbooks.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11763" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3871" RevisionGUID="f207e4d8-08e8-494b-8125-4287ad4e96ef" CreationDate="2015-10-29T16:08:52.480" UserId="10317" Text="This is a really tough call. I was a freelancer for a long time on the side and it was really hard for me to make the jump to full-time because I am really risk adverse. Every year I would look at my taxes and see all the consulting revenue that I had made and then think &quot;well that is great but it isn't a sure thing&quot;. I kept looking at that number rise year over year and I mean at some point you have to say to yourself that if it keeps going up, it will probably keep going up if you keep doing what you are doing. Now I am off on my own project and I really like being in startup mode and the freedom to work the hours I want. I mean I think at the end of the day you are working more but you are working for yourself and you get to set your own hours so it feels less like &quot;work&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11767" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3868" RevisionGUID="6927d12d-903c-4fbd-8a96-027faee71fc4" CreationDate="2015-10-29T17:31:58.120" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="11768" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3869" RevisionGUID="ebf26fd7-3825-4b1a-843b-fcd914c29a25" CreationDate="2015-10-29T17:33:40.350" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 304 characters in body" Text="If you are sending invoices, I would register a business name. In the USA is costs about $50 to register a LLC. I am not sure about other countries but usually there are some kind of tax benefits from having a registered company. Here is what I would say are the necessary items on an invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Your contact information&#xD;&#xA;2. The contact information of the company that you are billing&#xD;&#xA;3. Invoice number&#xD;&#xA;4. A itemized explanation of the charges&#xD;&#xA;5. Sub-total&#xD;&#xA;6. Any tax required by law&#xD;&#xA;7. Amount due&#xD;&#xA;8. Credit terms (when do they need to pay)&#xD;&#xA;9. Information on where to send the payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11773" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3868" RevisionGUID="22dced54-bcd2-4e3b-9086-06695c45ebbf" CreationDate="2015-10-29T18:16:03.170" UserId="10317" Comment="added 639 characters in body" Text="As a freelancer, FreshBooks has traditionally been the 800-pound gorilla but waht other programs are people using the track jobs and revenue (assuming that you are small enough still that you aren't using something like QuickBooks.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been working on a [free FreshBooks alternative][1] and I want to make sure I am covering all my bases in terms of the features that people need to have. For example, Wave is free but doesn't have autobilling. FreshBooks has a great autobilling feature but doesn't do time tracking, etc. Seems pretty fragmented to me and would be interesting in putting all the features in one place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are the software programs I have tried:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Wave Accounting: is very good option as it has double-entry bookkeeping for your more stringent accounting and has payroll integration. It is missing time tracking and autobilling.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FreshBooks: doesn't have time tracking but does do autobilling. They recently removed their free option so I am not sure how to compare them to free options.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;NutCache: is free and a good option but no autobilling. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Invoiceto.me : free invoicing but it a one-off deal where you  aren't saving any of the information that you put into the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am wondering is autobilling not a necessary feature because consulting is mostly one-off jobs and there isn't a need to process the same charge to the same customer month after month?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://zipbooks.com/free-freshbooks-alternative/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11774" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3868" RevisionGUID="86074d06-ff7c-4c7c-bfa8-2158072117f8" CreationDate="2015-10-29T18:24:45.947" UserId="10317" Comment="change question to make it more of a software recommendation" Text="What free software works best for bookkeeping?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11775" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3872" RevisionGUID="a6e0d949-4209-4f55-9bbf-8a3badbd58bd" CreationDate="2015-10-30T07:05:07.643" UserId="10317" Text="Bridge that shiz! Here is what a bridge is. You don't raise anyone's rate but all the new business you charge at the higher rate. Honestly you could probably charge more than 40/hr but that is besides the point. Keep adding new work until you can't take on any more work. At that point you are at 100%. The next job opportunity you get, you go back to the 18/hr job and tell him you can't do work for him anymore. You quit. Don't make it awkward by asking him to match. You already know he won't. Now you will be back down to having lots of time to take on new work at a higher rate. Keep taking on new work until you are back to 100%. Now the next job opportunity you go to the 20/hr job and tell him you really like him but he needs to start paying 40/hr or you will have to stop. Meanwhile keep building your skills and charging more. If your rate goes up, keep bridging that old work! Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11777" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="326" RevisionGUID="6f03cdb6-5743-49f3-b7ae-205c35cc155f" CreationDate="2015-10-30T07:08:03.747" UserId="10320" Comment="corrected spellings and grammer, added related tags" Text="I'm starting as a freelancer in the web development sector. I'm constantly searching for new projects on (Dutch equivalents of) websites like oDesk. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many clients add both an e-mail and a telephone number to their vacancies. Up to now, I always reply by e-mail or send a text via the system. Often, I don't get a response. I'm considering calling more often to actually get to speak someone, so that I can attract more clients. This would also give me some implicit feedback on my selling skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would it be a good idea to call more often? Is it, in some way, expected that I call? Would it be considered annoying if I call instead of just leaving a message?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11778" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="326" RevisionGUID="6f03cdb6-5743-49f3-b7ae-205c35cc155f" CreationDate="2015-10-30T07:08:03.747" UserId="10320" Comment="corrected spellings and grammer, added related tags" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|communication|marketing|sales|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11779" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="326" RevisionGUID="6f03cdb6-5743-49f3-b7ae-205c35cc155f" CreationDate="2015-10-30T07:08:03.747" Comment="Proposed by 10320 approved by 19 edit id of 433" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11780" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3874" RevisionGUID="4065a35f-2a3f-4078-94aa-7020e14bff7f" CreationDate="2015-10-30T08:23:47.463" UserId="58" Text="Under no circumstances should you allow yourself to have unlimited liability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The phrase used in contracts to prevent this is usually of the form:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 'You shall indemnify and hold the Developer harmless for all losses or damage resulting directly or indirectly from the Software'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, my contract is just an extended version of [Contract Killer 3](https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/projects/contract-killer/) (also on [github](https://gist.github.com/malarkey/4031110)), and uses the following paragraph for this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ##Legal Stuff&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We can’t guarantee that our work will be error-free and so we can’t be liable to you or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if you’ve advised us of them. Finally, if any provision of this contract shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this contract and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Phew.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &lt;sub&gt;– source: [Contract Killer 3](https://gist.github.com/malarkey/4031110#legal-stuff) by [Stuff and Nonsense](https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/)&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Really, if a company is insisting that you must have unlimited liability to work with them, then they probably have a legal department who will sue you at the slightest provocation. Ensure that you have indemnity, or steer well clear of this client. You're not big enough to take them on in court.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's like having a car dealer sell you a car on condition that you remove the seatbelts. Sure, you might be fine until something goes wrong, but when it does, it goes catastrophically wrong." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11781" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3802" RevisionGUID="b7d51a30-6dfd-4887-8cd7-550495490aae" CreationDate="2015-10-30T13:55:40.200" UserId="10177" Comment="edited title" Text="Should an agreement with software engineer contractor include a clause that the engineer is not liable of any company's losses?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11785" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3802" RevisionGUID="4562546d-97b4-4d81-addd-b86a394688b0" CreationDate="2015-10-30T21:15:55.960" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/660203503101546499" />
  <row Id="11788" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3876" RevisionGUID="8ea738b1-d5a6-4be1-a331-7d7c16a85188" CreationDate="2015-10-31T01:07:44.643" UserId="10328" Text="The clause you referred to is a typical IP indemnity clause. Basically the company wants to seek protection in case the contractor it hired violates the IP of third parties and exposes it to the risks of third party IP claims.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The clause seems overbroad to me, but unfortunately sometimes contractors do not have a lot of bargaining powers to completely remove such a clause. You may have to walk away from such a contract if you don't accept the indemnity clause.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But there are ways for you to negotiate and limit the amount and types of potential damages:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) You can ask to put in a &quot;Limitation of Damages&quot; clause. The limitation of liability clause does what it says: it limits the liability of the parties to each other to the value of the contract. This would be fair to you because at least you are not exposed to unknown, uncapped, and unlimited liability. Software vendors typically try to limit their liability to a prorated monentary refund. I don't see why you shouldn't do the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) You should also ask to put in remedial measures before any monetary penalty kicks in. For instance, if you can resolve an IP dispute by modifying the code so that it no longer infringes upon the third party’s IP, the company suffers no damages and you should not be asked to issue any refund.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lot of boiler plate contract clauses are legally unenforceable because they are vague, ambiguous, and way overboard. Just because a contract is written in a way that dumps all liabilities to you doesn't mean it is actually enforceable against you. But you should negotiate a limitation of damages clause for the peace of your mind!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11789" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3876" RevisionGUID="7adde8fd-0cf6-433a-9a03-120a1441089d" CreationDate="2015-10-31T01:18:57.327" UserId="10328" Comment="added 485 characters in body" Text="The clause you referred to is a typical IP indemnity clause. Basically the company wants to seek protection in case the contractor it hired violates the IP of third parties and exposes it to the risks of third party IP claims.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The clause seems overbroad to me, but unfortunately sometimes contractors do not have a lot of bargaining powers to completely remove such a clause. You may have to walk away from such a contract if you don't accept the indemnity clause.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But there are ways for you to negotiate and limit the amount and types of potential damages:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) You can ask to put in a &quot;Limitation of Damages&quot; clause. The limitation of liability clause does what it says: it limits the liability of the parties to each other to the monetary value of the contract. This would be fair to you because at least you are not exposed to unknown, uncapped, and unlimited liability. Software vendors typically try to limit their liability to a prorated monentary refund. I don't see why you shouldn't do the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) You should also ask to put in remedial measures before any monetary penalty kicks in. For instance, if you can resolve an IP dispute by modifying the code so that it no longer infringes upon the third party’s IP, the company suffers no damages and you should not be asked to issue any refund.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lot of boiler plate contract clauses are legally unenforceable because they are vague, ambiguous, and way overboard. Just because a contract is written in a way that dumps all liabilities to you doesn't mean it is actually enforceable against you. But you should negotiate a limitation of damages clause for the peace of your mind!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S. An indemnity clause would be nice -- if you can persuade the company to put it in. The problem, however, is that a company that wants you to be on the hook for third-party IP infringement will NOT indemnify you. As a contractor, you may not get the perfect, slam-dunk terms you think you deserve. If you still want this contract, the practical solution is to limit your damages. And the worst that can happen to you is that you lose out on the payment from the company." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11790" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3868" RevisionGUID="27aefea8-f38c-49c8-9991-6a893894c078" CreationDate="2015-11-01T07:02:06.143" UserId="10317" Comment="edited title" Text="What free software are you using for bookkeeping? Why?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11791" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3877" RevisionGUID="9131a916-b821-4b1a-8c18-be798a779e11" CreationDate="2015-11-01T23:37:27.487" UserId="10346" Text="I truly believe that the best way to attract your clients would be to give them a call ...Speaking for my self it's better to hear a voice than  to email that is how you build trust and loyalty also understanding .I know it sometimes take me weeks before I look at an e-mail but if you call then you would be able to explain whatever questions needed to be answered by your clients, buyer, or agency .." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11798" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3881" RevisionGUID="82b7b4d0-14fb-4ce2-aad7-a3ccddc6fe5c" CreationDate="2015-11-02T05:13:34.923" UserId="10349" Text="I'm a full time software developer in a US company with H1 visa in Texas, USA. A few  weeks ago I developed a small software (for around $6,000) for a  European company as a side work (freelance work). Now, they want to get an invoice to pay my money. I  don't want to do anything illegal. I want to report it to IRS and pay the tax of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Can I send a hand made invoice with my name and address? Is it legal  or should I setup a company or get a DBA status? As I said I want to  report it to IRS as an additional income but I don't know how to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- How can I get my money? Should I give them my bank account or should I  accept the payment from PayPal or other methods of payment?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Do I need to pay any tax to European Union in addition to USA?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- As far as I can know, there is no VAT in Texas, is there any applicable tax for EU? In other words, for $6,000 service agreement,  should I add any VAT amount to invoice?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11799" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3881" RevisionGUID="82b7b4d0-14fb-4ce2-aad7-a3ccddc6fe5c" CreationDate="2015-11-02T05:13:34.923" UserId="10349" Text="How should I send an invoice to a European country as a freelance developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11800" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3881" RevisionGUID="82b7b4d0-14fb-4ce2-aad7-a3ccddc6fe5c" CreationDate="2015-11-02T05:13:34.923" UserId="10349" Text="|taxes|invoices|usa|accounting|eu|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11805" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3883" RevisionGUID="ec42a919-3080-494c-99d3-2a3aa86b6217" CreationDate="2015-11-02T15:31:31.760" UserId="1706" Text="You don't have to set up a company.  But you don't seem so bright at not having worked this out BEFORE you started work on this contract.  $6,000???  I wouldn't be surprised if you never got paid on this one, because you really didn't do this very well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Payment terms and methods are something you should **never** be working out after-the-fact.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can send a Paypal invoice, but note that the Paypal fees are going to cost *you* about $150.00 when the payment's made.  The company in Europe could do a wire transfer to you, but that's also going to cost (I'm guessing $30 USD).  They could also send you a check drawn on a bank in their location, but your local US bank may have challenges in cashing it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is stuff you should have worked out much sooner.  You also should have done this in milestones, because if the company decides to not pay you, you've lost a LOT of money, and getting your money may be near impossible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11811" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3884" RevisionGUID="1b7fd175-ba5f-43a9-8edd-46fef7a392a6" CreationDate="2015-11-02T23:32:07.483" UserId="8795" Text="I think your H1 status (H1-B?) is likely to be your biggest pitfall here (see later comments). Technically, the H1-B visa names the (single) company for which you are allowed to work in the US. Of course, your client is *not* in the USA so you may be in a grey area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other issues:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Yes, just prepare a typed invoice, with your name and address, and send it to the client. Be sure to declare it on your next 1040. You don't need to set up a DBA or company.&#xD;&#xA;* As far as payment goes:&#xD;&#xA;    * do not give them your bank account details. That's just basic security. &#xD;&#xA;    * Instead, agree an exchange rate from a reputable source, and ask them to send you a cheque drawn on a US bank for the amount in US$, then just bank it.&#xD;&#xA;* You do not (in fact, legally, **can not**) charge them VAT. You need to be registered with the relevant country's Customs and Excise department to do that.&#xD;&#xA;* Similarly, you do not charge US/TX sales tax, unless you are registered as a taxable supplier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As another poster said, you *should* have sorted this out beforehand, and had a contract to work to. If you have protected yourself with a time-limited demo, then your chances of getting paid are good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point you are on the horns of a dilemna ... if you collect the money, you can't risk not declaring it on your tax return. And if you declare it on the tax return, and your visa precludes such work, you could be packing up to go home real soon now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I really suggest you do some research into the H1-B status thing. An hour or two with an immigration lawyer may cost you $500 -- but compare that to having your visa revoked. If the lawyer says &quot;you can't do this&quot; ... you may just have to forego the $6,000 and decide whether you deliver the product pro bono.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11812" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3884" RevisionGUID="a8fd1bb2-02df-4867-a797-cff1d8f2522f" CreationDate="2015-11-02T23:39:03.783" UserId="8795" Comment="added 360 characters in body" Text="I think your H1 status (H1-B?) is likely to be your biggest pitfall here (see later comments). Technically, the H1-B visa names the (single) company for which you are allowed to work in the US. Of course, your client is *not* in the USA so you may be in a grey area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other issues:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Yes, just prepare a typed invoice, with your name and address, and send it to the client. Be sure to declare it on your next 1040. You don't need to set up a DBA or company.&#xD;&#xA;* As far as payment goes:&#xD;&#xA;    * do not give them your bank account details. That's just basic security. &#xD;&#xA;    * Instead, agree an exchange rate from a reputable source, and ask them to send you a cheque drawn on a US bank for the amount in US$, then just bank it.&#xD;&#xA;* You do not (in fact, legally, **can not**) charge them VAT. You need to be registered with the relevant country's Customs and Excise department to do that.&#xD;&#xA;* Similarly, you do not charge US/TX sales tax, unless you are registered as a taxable supplier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As another poster said, you *should* have sorted this out beforehand, and had a contract to work to. If you have protected yourself with a time-limited demo, then your chances of getting paid are good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point you are on the horns of a dilemna ... if you collect the money, you can't risk not declaring it on your tax return. And if you declare it on the tax return, and your visa precludes such work, you could be packing up to go home real soon now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I really suggest you do some research into the H1-B status thing. An hour or two with an immigration lawyer may cost you $500 -- but compare that to having your visa revoked. If the lawyer says &quot;you can't do this&quot; ... you may just have to forego the $6,000 and decide whether you deliver the product pro bono.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;UPDATE:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've done a bit of googling and found statements (from self-identified immigration attorneys) that doing work for companies OUTSIDE the USA does not affect your H1-B status. You may still want to confirm this for yourself, but it makes things easier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other consideration is ... what does your sponsoring company in the USA think about this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11827" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3888" RevisionGUID="c5a3a571-4acb-46a0-b182-9125ba4fc20e" CreationDate="2015-11-03T19:49:03.063" UserId="10370" Text="I am French and have lived in the UK for the past 4 years. I have just left my job and my house to travel in Europe and Australia and have no fixed address in the UK. As a matter of fact, I don't know at this point if I will come back to the UK at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am wondering if I can use any address in the UK (e.g. a friend's) to register as self-employed? Will it cause them any issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for your help!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11828" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3888" RevisionGUID="c5a3a571-4acb-46a0-b182-9125ba4fc20e" CreationDate="2015-11-03T19:49:03.063" UserId="10370" Text="Can I register as a freelancer in the UK when living abroad?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11829" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3888" RevisionGUID="c5a3a571-4acb-46a0-b182-9125ba4fc20e" CreationDate="2015-11-03T19:49:03.063" UserId="10370" Text="|uk|registration|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11835" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3890" RevisionGUID="8d01b1c9-1eac-4efe-8a00-abc13985261e" CreationDate="2015-11-04T08:06:19.497" UserId="10374" Text="Last time I was interested to work with an address in London (I am a French living in France) I found there are some companies which provide you a complete professional physical address even from abroad. It was not expensive and some could even forward your mail and give a phone number with an assistant. &#xA;Even if it is simpler by using a friend I think It will be a more &quot;professional&quot; think and so you don't bother friends for that.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11837" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3891" RevisionGUID="e9b117d0-874e-43fa-a761-ec74174b0763" CreationDate="2015-11-04T18:50:06.807" UserId="1793" Text="Are there times that you've given a quote to a client and underestimated it? And also took you 1.5 more than the hours you have estimated? If you are in the situation do bill the client of the time? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it sounds like you are inefficient if you tell them that you have underestimated the project. But that is why it is called an `estimate` in the first place right?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11838" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3891" RevisionGUID="e9b117d0-874e-43fa-a761-ec74174b0763" CreationDate="2015-11-04T18:50:06.807" UserId="1793" Text="Underestimated project: Do you charge the excess time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11839" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3891" RevisionGUID="e9b117d0-874e-43fa-a761-ec74174b0763" CreationDate="2015-11-04T18:50:06.807" UserId="1793" Text="|estimation|billing|billable-hours|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11840" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3892" RevisionGUID="cffd87e3-2b79-4683-9d66-039e09bb6d15" CreationDate="2015-11-04T20:01:17.973" UserId="708" Text="Well, if it was indeed **clearly** understood by the client that you provided an **estimate**, then yes, it's okay to *open a discussion* with the client about additional time. **Ideally**, you should do this as soon as you are getting close to the original estimate. You can then negotiate with the client as to what may be needed to cover the additional time required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have worked past the original estimate *already*, you need to talk to the client and explain that your estimate failed to calculate for X, Y, and Z and there were be an additional (x) hours needed for a total cost of $X. From that point it's going to be a negotiation. You may have to sacrifice some of your time to keep the client happy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You shouldn't continue working, well past the estimate, then just invoice for the additional time. This is one certain way to gain unhappy clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client was *not* clear that you were providing an *estimate* rather than a **quote**, you may be stuck. If the client regarded your *estimate* as a hard, solid, *quote* then they won't be happy with even $1 more. You can broach the subject with them though. In some cases, depending upon the project, quality of work, and their overall understanding of your skills, they may be open to pricing revisions. However, you should be prepared to eat the additional time in some instances.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is one reason my estimates and quotes *look* different and have a paragraph of text explaining that it's either an estimate (best guess) or quote (solid price)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11843" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3893" RevisionGUID="c38a213a-2366-4e69-a0a8-b54f7d871569" CreationDate="2015-11-05T10:01:35.050" UserId="10388" Text="Im a c++ programmer for more than 2years and resigned my work. Now I want to be a freelancer which I will focus on web development using php. What is the proper way to put it on a cover letter? My idea is &quot;Recently quit my job and currently self studying and training to be a web developer. With 2years of experience is c++ programming.&quot; but I think it is not convincing to be hired. Is there a way to make it more competitive and convincing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11844" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3893" RevisionGUID="c38a213a-2366-4e69-a0a8-b54f7d871569" CreationDate="2015-11-05T10:01:35.050" UserId="10388" Text="Cover Letter even without experience on a particular language" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11845" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3893" RevisionGUID="c38a213a-2366-4e69-a0a8-b54f7d871569" CreationDate="2015-11-05T10:01:35.050" UserId="10388" Text="|resume|growth|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11846" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3894" RevisionGUID="d81b89cc-741c-4764-8bff-3689e9eebcd0" CreationDate="2015-11-05T15:28:29.200" UserId="1793" Text="I'm in a dilemma if I should charge a client or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First off, I was hired by a client to fix their site. I have very limited access on their site and their server hosting is very poorly managed by a systems administrator. So instead of fixing it myself I had to walkthrough with the client to fix the issues via screen share and tried to fix it from there. However when I needed more access to their files I can't get in and told them that they need to contact their system admin to give me access. Unfortunately that admin can't figure out the problem and the client thought they'd transfer hosting instead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long story short the System Admin decided to fix the problem himself because he doesn't want the client to move from their hosting. So the problem is fixed by them and not me. I've spent a couple of hours communicating with the client and back and forth emails. I'd say the price I quoted them has already exceeded the time I alloted for them. Do you think it's still proper to charge this client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11847" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3894" RevisionGUID="d81b89cc-741c-4764-8bff-3689e9eebcd0" CreationDate="2015-11-05T15:28:29.200" UserId="1793" Text="Hired for work but problem was fixed by the client's system administrator" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11848" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3894" RevisionGUID="d81b89cc-741c-4764-8bff-3689e9eebcd0" CreationDate="2015-11-05T15:28:29.200" UserId="1793" Text="|client-support|billable-hours|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11849" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3894" RevisionGUID="0818406f-3997-4f16-b6dc-a40928716cca" CreationDate="2015-11-05T15:56:36.187" UserId="1793" Comment="added 7 characters in body; edited title" Text="I'm in a dilemma if I should charge a client or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First off, I was hired by a client to fix their site. I have very limited access on their site and their hosting is very poorly managed by a systems administrator. So instead of fixing it myself I had to walkthrough with the client to fix the issues via screen share and tried to fix it from there. However when I needed more access to their files I can't get in and told them that they need to contact their system admin to give me access. Unfortunately that admin can't figure out the problem and the client thought they'd transfer hosting instead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long story short their hosting decided to fix the problem themselves because they don't want the client to move to another hosting because of it. So the problem is fixed by them and not me. I've spent a couple of hours communicating with the client and back and forth emails. I'd say the price I quoted them has already exceeded the time I alloted for them. Do you think it's still proper to charge this client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11850" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3894" RevisionGUID="0818406f-3997-4f16-b6dc-a40928716cca" CreationDate="2015-11-05T15:56:36.187" UserId="1793" Comment="added 7 characters in body; edited title" Text="Hired for work but problem was fixed by the client's hosting" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11854" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3896" RevisionGUID="0180d7e4-8ad1-4b83-b72a-e6703377e847" CreationDate="2015-11-05T19:50:10.050" UserId="75" Text="Absolutely! If you did the work you were expected to do, *and there was an agreement in place beforehand* (even verbal), then I'd expect you to send them a bill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This client may decide not to pay it, given that &quot;you didn't fix it yourself&quot;, but you  still need to show that your time is valuable! Hopefully, lesson learned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a previous job, when I was working for a tech shop, we would have people trying to come in for free advice all the time! I'd offer one or two sentences for a solution that people in the know would understand, and if they were asking for more details, I'd explain our hourly rate. Some people wouldn't bat an eye at the cost, others would get defensive and try to work around it. Stand your ground, and stick to your guns - you didn't learn all your skills for free, just to give it out for free to everyone who asks, right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the future, I would explain with the quote that you expect X Y and Z conditions to be met, in order to facilitate you completing your job as close to what the quote says, as possible. If you need to overhaul a web site, explain you will need Admin access to the hosting service to do your job. You are free to explain *why*, but you need to know what you need to get the job done, as the professional.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I do web site consulting, I know my limits, and I ensure the client understands this (i.e. I don't do any design work *at all* - check my blog, it's just the default theme). I can do all the server back-end stuff, and run quite a few sites this way, and tell the client they need to hire a professional to do certain things that I can't, and I encourage them to have the professional contact me. I allow them supervised access, or I ask for the files to be FTP'd to me directly, then I'll post it. As the Server Admin, it allows me to do backups and cover my ass *in case the other professional messes something up*, in particular.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are doing lots of free work, the client is going to expect you to keep doing free work, even outside the scope of what you can handle. Stick to your guns, charge after a certain amount of time, or else explain why you can't continue as previously planned." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11856" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3897" RevisionGUID="1b58c6d9-d827-4b1d-8cd2-38775895ccb5" CreationDate="2015-11-05T21:44:13.180" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="&quot;Junior developer with 2 years experience in C++. Actively improving my PHP skills. Highly motivated to tackle Web projects.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cite one or more achievements you are proud of." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11857" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3898" RevisionGUID="9f689592-7708-4b4b-825d-fe64d58b4c0c" CreationDate="2015-11-05T22:02:40.377" UserId="10398" Text="I'm a huge value of value-based pricing. This pricing model looks past the technical work being done (number of words being written, number of pages being designed, or even number of hours being worked) and looks at the value being provided to the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, that is what the client is looking for (even though he/she may not even know it). You clients wants you to produce a result that helps their business, not bean-count the number of hours you've billed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An amazing benefit of this pricing model is that you'll position yourself an an **investment**, not a cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Still need an answer for how much to charge?&#xD;&#xA;Look at the scope of the entire project, not the word count and look at your past experience to see how much time and effort it took, and price based one that with an added 10% in there as a contingency.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if you came you're hired to create a headline, and a similar headline in the past took you 5 hours to come up with and your rate is $50/hour, you should charge $275 ($50 * 5 = $250 + 10% = $275).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11858" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3899" RevisionGUID="967672f2-3d0c-4706-8e07-6eef18f81f02" CreationDate="2015-11-05T22:20:02.803" UserId="10398" Text="Here's what I would do when reaching out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Send a short and sweet email with no more than 50 words**. This makes sure your email is to the point, which makes it more likely for them to read it. &#xD;&#xA; 2. **Make sure to include a Next Step in the Email.** In marketing, thi is called a Call to Action. This is where you tell your prospect to take a next step towards becoming a client. A good example could be asking to set up a Skype session to go over ideas you had for their project.&#xD;&#xA; 3. **Have a Scheduled Call/Skype Session.** This is infinitely better than cold-calling because they'll be expecting it and be more open to how you can help them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, clients often don't reply to unsolciited emails, or even after they're presented with a proposal. What do you do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The Best Solution I've found is [The Magic Email][1]**.&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, this is an emila to send to prospect that have gone &quot;cold&quot;. The email stats &quot;Since I haven't heard back for your regarding this, I'm going to assume you've gone a different direction or your priorities have changed&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://themagicemail.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11860" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3900" RevisionGUID="c5c85e28-2bbc-475e-b356-dfcea9d3aa70" CreationDate="2015-11-06T05:11:59.823" UserId="9835" Text="I just started working with a new client who is overseas (as many of my clients are) and I'll be doing work on their website (SEO work if that matters). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They gave me their login information along with their FTP information so that I can access their server via my Mac. Normally I only have server access when working on-site so connecting to someones FTP is something I've never done with my personal computer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is - If I connect to their server will they be able to see any of my files, use any of my files, or have any access to my computer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this question but as a freelancer I thought I'd try this forum. Please let me know if this need to be migrated. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11861" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3900" RevisionGUID="c5c85e28-2bbc-475e-b356-dfcea9d3aa70" CreationDate="2015-11-06T05:11:59.823" UserId="9835" Text="Connecting to clients server - Safe?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11862" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3900" RevisionGUID="c5c85e28-2bbc-475e-b356-dfcea9d3aa70" CreationDate="2015-11-06T05:11:59.823" UserId="9835" Text="|webmasters|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11863" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3901" RevisionGUID="10cb8833-26d9-4625-9470-edd6909cae27" CreationDate="2015-11-06T05:55:29.123" UserId="8125" Text="&gt; My question is - If I connect to their server will they be able to see&#xD;&#xA;&gt; any of my files, use any of my files, or have any access to my&#xD;&#xA;&gt; computer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Answer is No** , Either you connect client FTP from your personal computer or you access client PC remotely using software like Team viwer , Client will not have any access to you pc. This will be something line 1 way communication not 2 way. So feel free to work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11864" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3902" RevisionGUID="e41b7f18-c4cb-4667-874d-3a7d569718eb" CreationDate="2015-11-06T07:28:14.937" UserId="708" Text="Cover letter for freelancing?? Never heard of such a thing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need marketing materials - a brochure, a web site, a flier, an email campaign -  but it's nowhere near the same as applying for an employment position. I've never needed a &quot;cover letter&quot; for any freelance work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd also point out that &quot;self studying and training&quot; has no place in freelance marketing materials. Clients aren't interested in what you *want to do* they are interested in *how you can currently help them*. Marketing materials aren't about where you are going, they are about solid, tangible things you've accomplished and how your skills/experience can directly assist a client with a problem they are currently having." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11865" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3902" RevisionGUID="7a660e8d-8f14-4ddd-8f8c-5a5213141fcd" CreationDate="2015-11-06T07:36:51.387" UserId="708" Comment="added 15 characters in body" Text="Cover letter for freelancing?? Never heard of such a thing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need marketing materials - a sales pitch, a brochure, a web site, a flier, an email campaign -  but it's nowhere near the same as applying for an employment position. I've never needed a &quot;cover letter&quot; for any freelance work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd also point out that &quot;self studying and training&quot; has no place in freelance marketing materials. Clients aren't interested in what you *want to do* they are interested in *how you can currently help them*. Marketing materials aren't about where you are going, they are about solid, tangible things you've accomplished and how your skills/experience can directly assist a client with a problem they are currently having." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11866" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3900" RevisionGUID="ffd9c93b-21e0-4c40-9050-fcde3b597c7d" CreationDate="2015-11-06T16:55:12.820" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 188 characters in body" Text="I just started working with a new client who is overseas (as many of my clients are) and I'll be doing work on their website. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They gave me their login information along with their FTP information so that I can access their server via my Mac. Normally I only have server access when working on-site, so connecting to someones FTP is something I've never done with my personal computer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is - If I connect to their server, will they be able to see any of my files, use any of my files, or have any access to my computer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11876" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3904" RevisionGUID="525f56d0-f675-4a63-83fd-08821674d268" CreationDate="2015-11-08T22:47:40.803" UserId="10420" Text="Whilst I have experience in app design and development, I'm somewhat new to the business side of freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm creating a web-based app for a client that will be used to manage his customer records.  I'm charging a one off fee to build this web based application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client has emailed me today to say that he would like to allow other business owners (in the same field) to use this same app for a small fee each month (therefore generating extra income for my client).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I charge more for the integration of this functionality, negotiate a commission agreement (i get x% of the income he receives from the app I've built) or do I simply finish the project without requesting higher payment?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would this Scenario typically go?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advanced guys." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11877" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3904" RevisionGUID="525f56d0-f675-4a63-83fd-08821674d268" CreationDate="2015-11-08T22:47:40.803" UserId="10420" Text="Should I charge more to develop an app that my client will be leasing out to others?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11878" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3904" RevisionGUID="525f56d0-f675-4a63-83fd-08821674d268" CreationDate="2015-11-08T22:47:40.803" UserId="10420" Text="|freelance-websites|pay-rate|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11879" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3771" RevisionGUID="53fdb02f-ad10-45d3-9fb0-31b0fc440aea" CreationDate="2015-11-09T04:06:16.420" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/663568260407914496" />
  <row Id="11880" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3905" RevisionGUID="486ffe6b-6690-49b4-978e-c76e94efed58" CreationDate="2015-11-09T08:35:14.213" UserId="8125" Text="Very interesting scenario. This is something like client gets commission per reference.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally I also doing work in same way , Me and My client shares 70%-30% when I get reference from client I pay commission 30% of total amount to client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case , Yes you can add extra amount to project cost for those references ,But make sure that it should not be too high and should come under budget of that person for whom you are going to develop app.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because in future if that person like your work then he/she can give you more reference so this will be good chain and income by references. So decide reasonable price to get more benefits." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11882" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3907" RevisionGUID="cf9767bc-308d-41db-97b3-b7b0221268d8" CreationDate="2015-11-09T16:33:06.643" UserId="1706" Text="***No, no, no!***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You started the project as a work-for-hire, not a work-for-commission.  You can't change how you're getting paid in the middle of the work.  In every legal venue I've ever heard of in the western world, what you're suggesting validates the basic principle of contracts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This would be like you renting an apartment from someone for $500/mo, and then the landlord coming back the next day after you've signed a rental agreement and telling you she/he wants the rent to be based on a percentage of your income.  Really?  Let's be sensible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is asking for new features, that's a different case.  But it sounds like you're just getting greedy.  Commission agreements are for *business partners*, not *clients*.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11885" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3908" RevisionGUID="033f9406-ab04-425f-9a09-bbaf03f36a73" CreationDate="2015-11-09T17:15:30.183" UserId="8796" Text="Firstly, are you providing the App as a one-time fee or is there an associated maintenance contract (updates/bugfixing/etc)?  Adding access for extra accounts within the system will/could increase the burden of maintenance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest working up two costs for the added work, if they seem reluctant for the first then you can offer the second as an alternative:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Change request from original specs.  Figure out how much extra work it would be and charge appropriately.  Chances are they'll go for this choice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  If charging for maintenance that fee will have to go up as well&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Offer the option of adding the features in but with your monthly commission agreement to support the cost of the added maintenance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  You're losing out on potential customers by allowing him to lease out the product rather than creating a copy for each of those business owners.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately you're adding for the extra cost of work as well as any extra maintenance burden.   How you phrase it depends on how you think they will take the additional cost." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11886" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3901" RevisionGUID="64356f00-a380-4a5a-b0f8-61cc2c8dd6d7" CreationDate="2015-11-10T03:57:00.950" UserId="8125" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="&gt; My question is - If I connect to their server will they be able to see&#xD;&#xA;&gt; any of my files, use any of my files, or have any access to my&#xD;&#xA;&gt; computer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Answer is No** , Either you connect client FTP from your personal computer or you access client PC remotely using software like Team viwer , Client will not have any access to your pc. This will be something like 1 way communication not 2 way. So feel free to work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11887" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3909" RevisionGUID="938276d7-0a06-458b-a82f-61fb3640f3ee" CreationDate="2015-11-10T11:15:14.960" UserId="10434" Text="This question is specific to Florida, US.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An LLC was formed in Aug of 2014. It failed to file an annual report. I just realized this and found that the LLC had become *inactive*. The state website, [sunbiz.org][1], allowed to it to be reinstated for just $100 more than the report fee. Elsewhere the site states that there is a $400 fee for filing late. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Will that $400.00 still be charged?&#xD;&#xA; 2. Does the owner lose the liability protection for business conducted during the *inactive* period? (My understanding is &quot;yes&quot;)&#xD;&#xA; 3. Is there anything else specific to this situation, besides avoiding a repeat, that should be considered?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://sunbiz.org" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11888" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3909" RevisionGUID="938276d7-0a06-458b-a82f-61fb3640f3ee" CreationDate="2015-11-10T11:15:14.960" UserId="10434" Text="What are the consequences of letting your LLC become inactive?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11889" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3909" RevisionGUID="938276d7-0a06-458b-a82f-61fb3640f3ee" CreationDate="2015-11-10T11:15:14.960" UserId="10434" Text="|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11890" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3909" RevisionGUID="a4ba208c-bce3-4741-8012-ce35955dc0cd" CreationDate="2015-11-10T18:00:26.190" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|usa|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11891" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3901" RevisionGUID="f454a4d0-ad0c-45d1-bbdf-907d97e1a545" CreationDate="2015-11-10T18:02:49.710" UserId="75" Comment="added 47 characters in body" Text="&gt; My question is - If I connect to their server will they be able to see&#xD;&#xA;&gt; any of my files, use any of my files, or have any access to my&#xD;&#xA;&gt; computer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Answer is No**. Either you connect to the client's FTP server from your personal computer, or you access client PC remotely using software like TeamViewer. The client will not have any access to your computer. This will be just like having 1-way communication, not 2-way. So feel free to work from your computer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11892" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3910" RevisionGUID="52606b16-4eab-4d1a-95f9-36a68865c95e" CreationDate="2015-11-11T00:00:33.527" UserId="8408" Text="I'm involved with a situation where I am getting close to finishing a project and the client is irate because not everything he wants is in the project. We have a signed proposal listing all the features of the project and how they will work. Now the client is saying that they want things to work differently and they want more features included. Originally we had to create 6 different revisions to the proposal because the client kept adding things. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a clause in the proposal that says:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;We know from experience that fixed-price contracts are rarely beneficial to you, as they often limit you&#xD;&#xA;to your earliest ideas. We don’t want to limit your ability to change your mind. The price at the&#xD;&#xA;beginning of this contract is based on the length of time we estimate we’ll need to accomplish&#xD;&#xA;everything you’ve told us you want to achieve, but we’re happy to be flexible. If you want to change&#xD;&#xA;your mind or add anything new, that won’t be a problem as we’ll provide a separate estimate for that.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The way I have dealt with my client when he asks for things that he says were included in the proposal but that are not in the text of the proposal is by letting him know that the thing he is requesting is not in the proposal and that we will need to write up a separate quote for more development work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this the best way to deal with this issue? Am I being a bad guy here? I have already provided some extra free features but he wants 50 to 100 hours of more work for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm trying very hard to remain professional but the client is very upsetting to talk to. I've talked with other vendors and some even refuse to talk to them on the phone and will only deal with them via email. They are also starting to bad mouth me to other people that we mutually know." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11893" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3910" RevisionGUID="52606b16-4eab-4d1a-95f9-36a68865c95e" CreationDate="2015-11-11T00:00:33.527" UserId="8408" Text="Dealing with an Irate Client that wants Free Work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11894" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3910" RevisionGUID="52606b16-4eab-4d1a-95f9-36a68865c95e" CreationDate="2015-11-11T00:00:33.527" UserId="8408" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11895" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3910" RevisionGUID="d8280403-2fc7-459b-8c19-ab8e174dadbc" CreationDate="2015-11-11T00:56:04.867" UserId="8408" Comment="added 5 characters in body" Text="I'm involved with a situation where I am getting close to finishing a project and the client is irate because not everything he wants is in the project. We have a signed proposal listing all the features of the project and how they will work. Now the client is saying that they want things to work differently and they want more features included. Originally we had to create 6 different revisions to the proposal because the client kept adding things. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a clause in the proposal that says:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;We know from experience that fixed-price contracts are rarely beneficial to you, as they often limit you&#xD;&#xA;to your earliest ideas. We don’t want to limit your ability to change your mind. The price at the&#xD;&#xA;beginning of this contract is based on the length of time we estimate we’ll need to accomplish&#xD;&#xA;everything you’ve told us you want to achieve, but we’re happy to be flexible. If you want to change&#xD;&#xA;your mind or add anything new, that won’t be a problem as we’ll provide a separate estimate for that.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The way I have dealt with my client when he asks for things that he says were included in the proposal but that are not in the text of the proposal is by letting him know that the thing he is requesting is not in the proposal and that we will need to write up a separate quote for more development work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this the best way to deal with this issue? Am I being a bad guy here? I have already provided some extra free features but he wants 50 to 100 hours of more work for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm trying very hard to remain professional but the client is very upsetting to talk to. I've talked with other vendors and some even refuse to talk to them on the phone and will only deal with them via email. The client is also starting to bad mouth me to other people that we mutually know." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11896" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3911" RevisionGUID="cf8fe0e5-e12b-47cf-9d68-5760518b18cc" CreationDate="2015-11-11T05:22:54.627" UserId="8046" Text="It's easy: Stop falling for the guilt trip and simply do as any professional would do in similar case. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is, **say yes** and **show a price list at the same time**. And stick to this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client sill comes back that XYZ should be included, you simply cut that short and say &quot;let me know when you'll have the budget for the extra features and I'll be happy to help you with this!&quot; And if it keeps going, you can use another formula such as &quot;let me know if you have questions about the last proposal/pricelist I sent you about the extra features.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is way more efficient than arguing about what was included and isn't, and going back and forth about the content of the first proposal. You will force the dialog to be about money and budget. The first proposal is matter of the past, and what the client is asking for is a new proposal, that's simple. You don't have to feel bad for this, it's just business. If that client keeps harassing you, stick to the budget formula, ask for down payment and always redirect the conversation to this. Don't waste your time with excuses and long emails about the &quot;whys&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any case, you do not owe any explanation and should avoid going into the &quot;I need money to survive&quot; or &quot;I can't afford to work for free because XYZ&quot;. That's lowering yourself in giving excuses no entrepreneurs should ever have to give in business and you know your client is aware of this anyway. You're the one wasting your time in the end because you'll either be underpaid or not paid at all. Your client is simply gambling using &quot;emotional talk&quot;; these people do this because it works for them and they get lot of free work this way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Don't worry about the badmouthing for now. People who know you and the client are probably used to see that person badmouth everybody.** On the other hand, if you have proofs about the badmouthing, you can always mention in 1-2 sentences that you will not tolerate any bad words affecting your reputation as a professional and might get your lawyer involved if this doesn't stop. And of course, you should stop negotiating with that client because that's what you seem to be doing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11903" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3915" RevisionGUID="6f788eeb-943d-4e02-b502-24f94b78885c" CreationDate="2015-11-11T20:25:21.950" UserId="8796" Text="Your method is an industry standard method (at least on the corporate level).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. He submits a request for changes&#xD;&#xA;2. You provide a [Change Order](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_order)&#xD;&#xA;3. Once they approve the change order the work can proceed&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  (Depending on the working relationship the work can proceed before approval of the additional fee, but if they are pressuring for more work without adjusting the payment for it then best to ensure they've agreed to the ammended contract)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also best to provide the change orders early and often.  Don't wait to lump multiple changes into one single order, especially if you do the work before submitting it, with the work in hand there's little incentive to increase payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11904" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3916" RevisionGUID="4ae192c6-9042-4483-b328-93659bef47f3" CreationDate="2015-11-11T22:01:57.137" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11905" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3917" RevisionGUID="d72895e7-d13f-4d1f-bef5-ac5ecfc293f7" CreationDate="2015-11-11T22:01:57.137" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11910" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3910" RevisionGUID="8aefac6a-f17e-48de-8d73-b81b0e0c1f3f" CreationDate="2015-11-12T07:17:24.957" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/664703526556315648" />
  <row Id="11914" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3921" RevisionGUID="fe2f47de-fa15-4188-8d4c-88ec817f88ca" CreationDate="2015-11-12T08:47:29.920" UserId="9910" Text="I'm facing the problem of how do I represent myself? As an individual freelance who does something or as a service for people who are looking for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that both are related but if your business is online, the domain name, presentation and marketing strategy are completely different. So I would like to know your experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everyday I'm specializing more and more in Web Design + WordPress Development for eCommerce, but still offering services until my name." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11915" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3921" RevisionGUID="fe2f47de-fa15-4188-8d4c-88ec817f88ca" CreationDate="2015-11-12T08:47:29.920" UserId="9910" Text="Personal Branding or Service Oriented Freelance Business?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11916" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3921" RevisionGUID="fe2f47de-fa15-4188-8d4c-88ec817f88ca" CreationDate="2015-11-12T08:47:29.920" UserId="9910" Text="|branding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11917" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3922" RevisionGUID="f010241f-fefc-48da-b745-ad8123fc304a" CreationDate="2015-11-12T21:26:16.373" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="People are looking for solutions to their problems in the first place. They are not looking for &quot;someone&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11918" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3923" RevisionGUID="36b9642d-ef5c-400f-a8ae-9d4bed059f66" CreationDate="2015-11-12T22:10:43.843" UserId="10453" Text="I am a designer who has been doing front-end development for a year or two now but I don't offer the service very often for freelance, So I wanted to see if I could get some advice on a freelance situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I developed a one pager website—they gave me a desktop view of the design and an example of how they wanted the nav to work—that is it. I created the the website, fully responsive, everything working fully. They wanted to add a new section to the page that was not apart of the original design they gave me. Now they want the intro type to fade away as the user scrolls in order to stop the overlapping of the sticky nav (this was not part of the original ask) and finally they are wanting me to animate the hamburger icon to an &quot;x&quot; a certain way when the mobile nav opens on a phone. I feel like they just keep tacking things on that I was not originally told about—is this part of the freelance development process, continually adding new behaviors and more and more jquery? or Should I be telling them this stuff will cost more because it was not apart of the original plan?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or do Developers build a cushion in the budget (let's say an extra $500) to allow for this type of stuff?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you for help!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11919" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3923" RevisionGUID="36b9642d-ef5c-400f-a8ae-9d4bed059f66" CreationDate="2015-11-12T22:10:43.843" UserId="10453" Text="Development project going array, is this part of the development process or should I be charging more?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11920" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3923" RevisionGUID="36b9642d-ef5c-400f-a8ae-9d4bed059f66" CreationDate="2015-11-12T22:10:43.843" UserId="10453" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11921" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3924" RevisionGUID="ba06b075-57ee-4e6a-99c7-ce1c3ae9293d" CreationDate="2015-11-12T22:39:39.150" UserId="10454" Text="I have a question regarding how much I should charge per computer repaired or maintained. Basically, I applied for a job doing basic work on PCs and the employer wants to know what I'd charge as a service fee per unit. I have never had to come up with numbers for that before, as I am payed hourly at my job now. So what would be a modest price per unit for fixes such as hdd formatting, installation of windows 8 (*sigh*), some software installs, and basic hardware diagnostics?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT: If it means anything, there are 13 PCs that need to be done as far as I know." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11922" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3924" RevisionGUID="ba06b075-57ee-4e6a-99c7-ce1c3ae9293d" CreationDate="2015-11-12T22:39:39.150" UserId="10454" Text="Service charge per unit for basic computer repair/maintenance" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11923" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3924" RevisionGUID="ba06b075-57ee-4e6a-99c7-ce1c3ae9293d" CreationDate="2015-11-12T22:39:39.150" UserId="10454" Text="|pay-rate|price|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11925" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3066" RevisionGUID="957c0a8b-832b-4c69-947b-35a54b02364e" CreationDate="2015-11-13T02:40:04.520" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|taxes|invoices|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11931" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3921" RevisionGUID="e2b74eb2-0eb9-422a-a888-6c7728d0aba9" CreationDate="2015-11-13T02:42:02.157" UserId="75" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[1011],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="11934" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3921" RevisionGUID="90832eaf-de48-4542-b5f8-d5e87420d3b0" CreationDate="2015-11-13T08:21:00.820" UserId="9910" Comment="Explain why is not a duplicate" Text="I'm facing the problem of how do I represent myself? As an individual freelance who does something or as a service for people who are looking for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that both are related but if your business is online, the domain name, presentation and marketing strategy are completely different. So I would like to know your experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everyday I'm specializing more and more in Web Design + WordPress Development for eCommerce, but still offering services until my name.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not asking how to brand myself, just what is the best strategy (between two) to offer a service as a freelance, and why. I would like to know real examples." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11935" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3921" RevisionGUID="5c14a7af-2cb4-4b82-aad2-6f6ab6965ab5" CreationDate="2015-11-13T08:48:54.723" UserId="9910" Comment="added 142 characters in body" Text="I'm facing the problem of how do I represent myself? As an individual freelance who does something or as a service for people who are looking for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that both are related but if your business is online, the domain name, presentation and marketing strategy are completely different. So I would like to know your experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everyday I'm specializing more and more in Web Design + WordPress Development for eCommerce, but still offering services until my name.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not asking how to brand myself, just what is the best strategy (between two) to offer a service as a freelance or just the service, and why. I don't want to become a brand and I think that what you choose changes completely the strategy that you will follow, so, I would like to know real examples." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11936" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="165" RevisionGUID="f5f1c2c3-3156-4403-a7ff-bd75b925f956" CreationDate="2015-11-13T09:22:56.577" UserId="58" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="Location-specific questions about freelance business in the European Union" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11937" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3925" RevisionGUID="c25efed2-e26b-4011-9943-7d7592207c84" CreationDate="2015-11-13T17:36:17.297" UserId="10464" Text="&gt; Will that $400.00 still be charged?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No. You probably paid during the very brief grace period.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Does the owner lose the liability protection for business conducted during the inactive period?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No. See &quot;an LLC is not subject to loss of limited liability as a result of an inadvertent administrative failure&quot; in https://www.floridabar.org/divcom/jn/jnjournal01.nsf/Author/EC23884F95FAA0CE85256DF30071A3E6&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Is there anything else specific to this situation, besides avoiding a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; repeat, that should be considered?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Florida annual filings are due May 1st. Tattoo it on your arm if you have to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11938" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3926" RevisionGUID="6676ae9d-8cdf-4910-9cd2-fddd08d267e3" CreationDate="2015-11-13T18:13:45.277" UserId="10464" Text="One tactic I found to work was to give an hour of time to the girlfriend, and to especially cuddle/be near her as she fell asleep. Then it was back to work. Hard for them to complain when they are asleep.  But keep in mind that if SHE happened to need to work long hours she would think it's silly for you to complain even once.  People act very differently when the roles are reversed, I think you'll find this to be true in life. So always measure your priorities and the value of things." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11943" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3928" RevisionGUID="fc99db24-7b5e-4d7a-8bf9-1bc82b5850a2" CreationDate="2015-11-14T00:34:51.487" UserId="10464" Text="&gt; Does anyone have any tips on approaching the licensing issue with&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Company B? My work with Company A is still important to me so I do not&#xD;&#xA;&gt; want to rock the boat too hard, **I just want to make sure I am&#xD;&#xA;&gt; compensated for the reuse of my licensed code**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask yourself how long it would take a developer **with your level of experience/ability** to duplicate what you provide from scratch. Think about the full time salaried cost of such a person working in a 1st world nation. Your client has those numbers in mind too which is why he won't just hire someone to duplicate what you provide. Not only does he have the price in mind but the time. He probably doesn't want to have to wait 3-6 months or whatever.  What you can do is offer the client 2-3 options from high price to lower price... but with lower price have more restrictive licensing than you think the client wants in a best case scenario.  They may go for the lower price in the short term but longer term want to switch to the higher option. You can also make the prices say 10-20% higher than you really want to charge but offer a 10% discount to them for being long term clients. People love deals &amp; I'm sure you love to get paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I do not think this is a case of anyone trying to get one over on me&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, he may not be trying to get over on you but his priorities are different than yours. He wants to buy another mansion, sports car, put his kids in private school, go on 8 vacations a year, etc. Every $1 you give up thinking he's your friend and you can't rock the boat will go into him doing those things. Your choice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11949" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3894" RevisionGUID="7e6ed6f1-4ccf-4976-9f9d-927298c86dac" CreationDate="2015-11-15T13:36:14.943" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/665886026431373312" />
  <row Id="11953" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3930" RevisionGUID="9bc8f4ce-7be1-4ff0-9dfd-17fbfc317bfa" CreationDate="2015-11-15T13:45:23.163" UserId="1706" Text="Dump this client!  At this juncture, the client is already using psychological pressure on you to induce you to get work started, by any means.  ***Don't*** expect that the client is going to be happy or thrilled to get your invoices paid once you've turned over your deliverables -- since there are excuses beforehand, expect that there will be excuses afterward.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I predict that the client will say, &quot;well, I know we *agreed* on price X, but now that I have the work done, I'm deciding that I'm only willing to pay Y.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11961" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3933" RevisionGUID="b298b3b4-a9b2-4b61-a312-04bfe4607cbf" CreationDate="2015-11-16T12:51:35.440" UserId="504" Text="I just completed the first milestone of a project, but before the client provides feedback and requests possible revisions, she decided to put the project on hold and pay me only half of first milestone fee under the pretext that no revision took place yet and source files weren't requested yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However I did spend all the time assigned to this first milestone and the work is pretty complete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should her excuse be rejected or does it indeed justify to not pay the fee in full?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11962" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3933" RevisionGUID="b298b3b4-a9b2-4b61-a312-04bfe4607cbf" CreationDate="2015-11-16T12:51:35.440" UserId="504" Text="Can a project milestone be considered complete before revisions took place?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11963" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3933" RevisionGUID="b298b3b4-a9b2-4b61-a312-04bfe4607cbf" CreationDate="2015-11-16T12:51:35.440" UserId="504" Text="|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11964" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3934" RevisionGUID="cb5a1fdc-ad4c-41a8-be15-be83e6c875eb" CreationDate="2015-11-16T13:42:17.587" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="I guess she is wrong. Unless there is some provision about premature interruption in the contract, they did order the works and have to pay their duty, in the terms agreed upon.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11965" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3934" RevisionGUID="e2960924-f322-4e83-966c-b2891419c457" CreationDate="2015-11-16T13:48:01.923" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="added 314 characters in body" Text="I guess she is wrong. Unless there is some provision about premature interruption in the contract, they did order the works and have to pay their duty, in the terms agreed upon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In case they do not want the milestone to be performed at all, you are in a position to claim damages. I assume that if you can prove that you performed all the work (and couldn't expect a termination), the damages can cover 100% of the agreed price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Of course this all depends on the exact contract content and circumstances; as well as on the kind of relations you want to keep with them in the future.]" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11969" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3936" RevisionGUID="a4067663-c3ee-4a67-a1f1-e9fcdbf87c35" CreationDate="2015-11-16T21:29:54.670" UserId="1706" Text="No, that's total B.S.!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This sounds like a case of buyer's remorse.  You contracted to get paid if you completed the work -- it's that simple.  She is in breach of contract.  As a matter of fact, it's a &quot;constructive&quot; breach because she's already told you that she's not going to hold up her end of the agreement.  Technically, that's enough to get a civil lawsuit going.  (I am not an attorney)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had to share my understanding of this *little* fact with one of my clients who tried the same thing.  I sent an email with the below definition, and said I'd give their office 24 hours to reconsider.  That was at 9 am.  By 4 pm, I got another call and was told there was a check in the mail.  It was delivered the next day!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://dictionary.thelaw.com/constructive-breach/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11970" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3937" RevisionGUID="e1cd7afa-a3b2-4e1c-b58f-66d4c335a820" CreationDate="2015-11-17T00:30:44.693" UserId="4776" Text="I presume you're doing this as a freelancer rather than being employed? Are you thinking of starting up your own PC Support business where you react to client calls?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If so, you need to get a clear idea of your costs - including the 'dead time' of travel to &amp; from site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wouldn't try &amp; do too much that's menu based, it only confuses users - they just want their machine to start working again!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Decide your hourly rate &amp; then your experience will tell you how long the job will take. Some will go over, some will be done ahead of time but you'll average out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try Googling the hourly rate of similar local PC repair businesses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FWIW, I used to charge £45/hr about 5 years back for onsite &amp; £35 for anything thatcame into the workshop. The only fixed price I did was for virus'd machines at £75 including a general Wndows cleanup.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client wants a monthly service contract then that's another thing entirely - budget around £20-£35/seat for PCs but only once you've got them to a good standard and of course servers are orders of magnitude more expensive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;HTH" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11972" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3578" RevisionGUID="64ef16be-31d5-457a-bf44-ea447e2d30f3" CreationDate="2015-11-18T16:27:22.917" UserId="10422" Comment="Minor edit for style" Text="In Germany, if you are a non-EU student, you are not allowed a paid job, and so it's not possible for a non-EU student to freelance in Germany.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, as a *student* you are allowed to work certain hours per week and so I'm wondering: can an actual freelancer based in Germany hire a non-EU student to work part-time for them?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11973" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3578" RevisionGUID="64ef16be-31d5-457a-bf44-ea447e2d30f3" CreationDate="2015-11-18T16:27:22.917" Comment="Proposed by 10422 approved by 1706, 85 edit id of 434" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11974" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3938" RevisionGUID="3a00db9b-5677-46f8-b688-3d322001cf1c" CreationDate="2015-11-18T20:25:14.573" UserId="10514" Text="outsource.com - anyone believe this isn't a scam? outsource.com charges candidates to apply for jobs, then forces them to under-bid each other. I would welcome anyone who can provide the names of other Websites like this. outsource.com - anyone believe this isn't a scam?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11975" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3938" RevisionGUID="3a00db9b-5677-46f8-b688-3d322001cf1c" CreationDate="2015-11-18T20:25:14.573" UserId="10514" Text="outsource.com - anyone believe this isn't a scam?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11976" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3938" RevisionGUID="3a00db9b-5677-46f8-b688-3d322001cf1c" CreationDate="2015-11-18T20:25:14.573" UserId="10514" Text="|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11981" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3940" RevisionGUID="a62dbb73-bc4e-46eb-8bb5-56ed41baa2c6" CreationDate="2015-11-19T18:56:48.900" UserId="10526" Text="I found this article with some sites that might help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245953&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The outsouce.com jobs sound interesting, but yes I agree  the model skews towards clients and outsource.com rather than the freelancers. I just got off the phone with them to confirm that if I signed up, I was on the hook for 12 months... not ready to make that commitment without a test-drive of at least one or two months. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was told to go check reviews and see how great they were, and I came across this site and there seems to be many people who are concerned and wary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they had an option to try it for two months, I would do that. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11982" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3938" RevisionGUID="3738d1ab-c28d-416d-bf33-449af51823bd" CreationDate="2015-11-19T20:32:50.247" UserId="75" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[3003],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="11987" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3942" RevisionGUID="d2af5cb5-b9a0-403c-b421-85d7d03a45d1" CreationDate="2015-11-20T08:57:57.133" UserId="8313" Text="I'm using my own accounting software use it for tracking time and create invoices as well. I have clients through Upwork and privately without an agent. For the clients in Upwork I do track time in both my system and Upwork (so that I have everything in my system too). If I'm registered in the UK as sole trader, how do I create invoices for my clients from Upwork?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. If Upwork already handles all the invoicing, charging and paying process for me, do I invoice Upwork as if Upwork was my client? or &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. do I invoice every client as I do for private contracts and only expect Upwork to be as a payment tool like paypal? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and 3. Either way, do I need full name and address details of my Clients for the invoices, or will it suffice to use Upwork's name and address? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and 4. Are these transactions done as business to business although I'm not registered for VAT?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm asking this because according to the HMRC website you need to provide full details of you and your customer in the invoice as stated here:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers/overview][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers/overview" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11988" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3942" RevisionGUID="d2af5cb5-b9a0-403c-b421-85d7d03a45d1" CreationDate="2015-11-20T08:57:57.133" UserId="8313" Text="Invoicing Upwork clients for UK registered sole trader" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11989" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3942" RevisionGUID="d2af5cb5-b9a0-403c-b421-85d7d03a45d1" CreationDate="2015-11-20T08:57:57.133" UserId="8313" Text="|taxes|invoices|foreign-markets|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11993" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3942" RevisionGUID="426906de-e350-4cbb-965f-bd2754d4fb08" CreationDate="2015-11-20T15:16:46.197" UserId="8313" Comment="edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|taxes|invoices|foreign-markets|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11995" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3944" RevisionGUID="66e77bbb-4462-4401-b3e3-f77e0d192e18" CreationDate="2015-11-20T18:06:17.270" UserId="75" Text="As long as you can produce invoices for every job you are taking money in for, you should be golden. It's definitely nice to have everything in one system, right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I would do (I don't use Freelance sites) is create an invoice in their site for the client, using their tools, just for those clients. Once they are done, export the invoice (showing it's been paid, etc) into my main program. This solves the issue of having two locations to report income from, *as long as you are constant at updating your system*. You would still say the client's full name, address and other business information, but you would show on YOUR invoice system that the client has paid however much they have.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There should be no reason to use Upwork's name and address on your invoices. What you *can* and *should* do though, is mention in a comment on the invoice in *your* system that the work was completed through Upwork. As far as I remember, Upwork charges a commission on work performed through them; if that is true (or still true), then you can also create Upwork as a supplier in your accounting program, and &quot;charge&quot; the commissions through there, showing again where all your business moneys are going." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11997" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3945" RevisionGUID="596c1586-2f65-45f6-9566-1d07da76db61" CreationDate="2015-11-21T16:32:50.857" UserId="10540" Text="I am a German citizen but have been an employee in the UK for the last 10 years now. I am currently considering to become a freelancer and to move to Thailand, continuing to (mainly) work for my current UK employer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, what sounded like an easy procedure turns out to be not quite so easy when it comes to paying taxes. Here is my main question:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Living in Thailand is relatively easy (VISA wise) but I will not be in a position to get a work permit in Thailand. Hence, I will NOT be able to declare my income to the tax authorities in Thailand since earning money here would be in breach of the VISA regulations. But what I can I do then? I will no longer be a UK resident so paying tax to HMRC doesn´t seem possible. I won´t live/work in Germany, so that´s not an option either. But how do I avoid dodging tax? If and when I come back to the UK or Germany, I don´t want to run the risk of being confronted with legal issues resulting from my x years in Thailand. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any idea how to do it &quot;correctly&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;DUS&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11998" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3945" RevisionGUID="596c1586-2f65-45f6-9566-1d07da76db61" CreationDate="2015-11-21T16:32:50.857" UserId="10540" Text="Freelancer working in Asia for EU/UK companies" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11999" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3945" RevisionGUID="596c1586-2f65-45f6-9566-1d07da76db61" CreationDate="2015-11-21T16:32:50.857" UserId="10540" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12007" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="3337" RevisionGUID="cb1357a7-dd98-49d0-8606-eb6fadb5afab" CreationDate="2015-11-23T00:36:16.043" UserId="8046" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:8046,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;go-junta&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="12029" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3951" RevisionGUID="d9a88272-3cc7-4735-8330-a2424690eb03" CreationDate="2015-11-23T22:08:53.957" UserId="10565" Text="The client is asking for a Variation To Order, or VTO.  VTOs are generally where a supplier makes the highest margins on a fixed price contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key point is being able to point to documentation that defines the original agreed scope.  If it's in the original documented scope, it's included in the original price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's outside the original documented scope, then it's an extra to contract.  And therefore it will require extra funding by the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The woollier the original documentation of the scope is, the more contentious it all gets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the key point is: any time the price for the work is fixed, makes sure both parties agree to what is included in the scope of the work covered by the fixed price, and what is excluded from the scope.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But so far, that's a &quot;Oh, well if you're going there, I wouldn't start from here&quot; answer.  So.  Have a critical look at the specifications for the work that go along with the fixed price.  Check for clarity and ambiguity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Look at any interim deliverables. It's not unusual for the final shape of the completed work to come into sharper detail as the project progresses. Did the client sign the interim documents and deliverables off as correctly reflecting the scope and specification from when the contract was signed?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are the latest requests of the type &quot;You have not provided feature X that is in the contract.  Give me what is specified in the contract&quot; ?  Or are they &quot;You gave me something that handles X Y and Z.  Just like the contract said to.  But it needs to handle A and B, too&quot; ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12030" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3952" RevisionGUID="f5b3e154-38c0-42da-8059-95d1e1979415" CreationDate="2015-11-23T22:20:09.403" UserId="10565" Text="Another way of thinking of value-pricing is as &quot;fixed price contracting, with the price based on benefit and ability to pay&quot; rather than &quot;fixed price contracting, with the price based on my input costs&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's simply a switch from pricing based against your own costs, to pricing based on their resources and how valuable, i.e. how useful, your deliverables are to the client organisation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A client's profits are an easy way to denote value to a client.  But it's not the only way.  What you need to be able to do is relate their revenue to their own deliverables.  And then relate your deliverables to their ability to deliver.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another key point to note: profits are leveraged from revenue - a small change in revenue can make a huge change in profits, if there is no change in the cost base.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no equivalent leveraging effect in play in an NGO.  So you are probably going to have to look at the effect of your work on their cost-base.  e.g. Can they double their work-output in a particular area, while only increasing their costs in that area by 5%?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally, you are looking for ways that they can increase their productivity, their production efficiency, in a particular area, while *lowering* the costs in that area.  Then you can attempt to model how much money they might save, and then put in for X% of that saving.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12034" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3954" RevisionGUID="ead7d85b-a35b-4d36-9090-48ad42f4880b" CreationDate="2015-11-24T11:55:23.090" UserId="7696" Text="Some good answers were given already. So, I will just answer your first question in general. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; What are the ways of protecting your income while working as a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are some tips that every freelancer (or consultant) should consider to make sure they always get paid: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Do some detective work.&#xD;&#xA;2. Get it in writing. &#xD;&#xA;3. Bill up front (at least a downpayment).&#xD;&#xA;4. Use a professional invoicing software. &#xD;&#xA;5. Make it easy for your clients to pay you (e.g. Paypal). &#xD;&#xA;6. If conditions change, outline it in the contract.&#xD;&#xA;7. Know when to stop.&#xD;&#xA;8. Trust your instincts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All these tips are discussed in detail in this article: &#xD;&#xA;[How to Make Sure You Always Get Paid as a Freelancer or Consultant][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this helps freelancers reading this answer. And here's to hoping that this incident would never happen again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://biz30.timedoctor.com/how-to-make-sure-you-always-get-paid/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12035" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3942" RevisionGUID="3d144d27-aaab-4f17-919d-82d59c65b64b" CreationDate="2015-11-24T14:00:24.660" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar changes" Text="I'm using my own accounting software use it for tracking time and create invoices as well. I have clients through Upwork and privately without an agent. For the clients in Upwork, I track time in both my system and Upwork (so that I have everything in my system too). If I'm registered in the UK as a sole trader, how do I create invoices for my clients from Upwork?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. If Upwork already handles all the invoicing, charging and paying process for me, do I invoice Upwork as if Upwork was my client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Do I invoice every client as I do for private contracts and only expect Upwork to be as a payment tool like Paypal? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Do I need my clients' full name and address details for the invoices, or will it suffice to use Upwork's name and address? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Are these transactions done as business to business even though I am not registered for VAT?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm asking this because, [according to the HMRC website][1], you need to provide full details of yourself and your customer in the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers/overview" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12036" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3955" RevisionGUID="63df514c-235c-4be7-9819-7e38c02f9f73" CreationDate="2015-11-24T15:17:30.377" UserId="8408" Text="One of the best suggestions I've heard is to charge according to how busy you want to be. You book yourself full, then you raise your rates. A few clients will leave, but then you book yourself full again and then raise your rates again. Then just keep repeating this process." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12037" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3956" RevisionGUID="b86fe735-4b6b-4e67-8bf2-39e616404881" CreationDate="2015-11-24T16:16:45.703" UserId="10578" Text="This is a hypothetical question. Generally bids on platform like Upwork revolves around the client budget. Suppose I got the job offer and during the job, I realized client is roughly paying me twice than the job is worth. So what should be done in such cases? Keep the whole money or offer to refund. I am interested esp. in case where client is a mid-sized profitable organization.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My argument against refunding are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. In cases when I felt, I've under-bid than the job is worth, no client is going to give me extra money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Client is rich, so it won't affect him much." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12038" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3956" RevisionGUID="b86fe735-4b6b-4e67-8bf2-39e616404881" CreationDate="2015-11-24T16:16:45.703" UserId="10578" Text="What if I feel client is over-charged" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12039" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3956" RevisionGUID="b86fe735-4b6b-4e67-8bf2-39e616404881" CreationDate="2015-11-24T16:16:45.703" UserId="10578" Text="|freelance-websites|negotiation|budget|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12042" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3957" RevisionGUID="ec8a3976-a17a-49f5-9009-6be055cc6a86" CreationDate="2015-11-24T18:54:17.607" UserId="10565" Text="Each time they ask for additional work, quote them the additional fee they would have to pay to get it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are being difficult about paying the original fee for the original scope of work, they are unlikely to provide the additional fees any more easily.   " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12043" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3958" RevisionGUID="0ba794a9-95c5-401a-863a-f494165c6391" CreationDate="2015-11-24T18:59:45.707" UserId="1706" Text="This has been answered several times.  In a nutshell, if the requirements aren't fixed, then the price can't be either.  Do the original work and consider doing the rest on an hourly basis." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12044" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3957" RevisionGUID="84158a22-7023-4250-b5ac-178690171f0d" CreationDate="2015-11-24T19:00:31.860" UserId="10565" Comment="added 480 characters in body" Text="Each time they tack on additional things to what you were told about and calculated the price for - a new section to the page; a fade for the intro type as the user scrolls; animating the hamburger icon to an &quot;x&quot; a certain way on certain devices - you inform them of the additional fee which will be required for the extra work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are being difficult about paying the original fee for the original scope of work, they are unlikely to provide the additional fees any more easily.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is a question about dealing with a difficult client in this situation.  &#xD;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3910/dealing-with-an-irate-client-that-wants-free-work/3951#3951&quot;&gt;Dealing with a difficult client that wants free work&lt;/a&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12048" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3960" RevisionGUID="2cb80e7b-e4c9-481d-9b45-dd7b5e797f55" CreationDate="2015-11-24T19:25:07.130" UserId="10565" Text="What you are experiencing is the difference between value-to-the-client billing, and cost-of-supplier-inputs billing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do not refund.  There is a set scope of work, and an agreed set fee.   " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12049" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3961" RevisionGUID="54536924-7995-4d48-b836-4874a4dd57d4" CreationDate="2015-11-24T19:29:32.700" UserId="10565" Text="There is no conflict between milestone payments, and delayed payment terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some contracts with milestones will have immediate payment.  Some contracts with no milestone partial-payments will be payable immediately.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some projects will have 30-day payment terms with no milestones.  Some will have 30-day payment terms on interim milestone payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In an ideal world, you get payment for interim deliverables, **and** immediate payment terms. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12050" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3962" RevisionGUID="538f1309-0b96-47ac-8dbb-93daf49035df" CreationDate="2015-11-24T20:47:48.473" UserId="10392" Text="Pricing is relative of many factors. And of course overpricing is also relative. In my opinion there is not a problem until the client has a clear contract and knows exactly for what is charged. The problem begins when you start overpricing your product after the agreement with the client. We live in a free market environment and we be judged every day , sellers and buyers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12052" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3923" RevisionGUID="9f8dfa42-4fcc-48f7-acf2-d2c5fc10256b" CreationDate="2015-11-24T22:31:10.220" UserId="10565" Comment="spelling, grammar, clarity" Text="I am a designer with a a year or two of doing front-end development. I don't offer the service very often as a freelance, so I wanted to get some advice on a freelance situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I developed a one pager website.  The client gave me a desktop view of the design and an example of how they wanted the nav to work—that is it. I created the the website, fully responsive, everything working fully. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They wanted to add a new section to the page that was not a part of the original design they gave me. Now they want the intro type to fade away as the user scrolls in order to stop the overlapping of the sticky nav (this was not part of the original ask) and finally they are wanting me to animate the hamburger icon to an &quot;x&quot; a certain way when the mobile nav opens on a phone. I feel like they just keep tacking on things that I was not originally told about.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this part of the freelance development process, continually adding new behaviors and more and more jquery? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I be telling them this stuff will cost more because it was not a part of the original plan?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do Developers build a cushion in the budget (let's say an extra $500) to allow for this type of stuff?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you for help!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12053" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3923" RevisionGUID="9f8dfa42-4fcc-48f7-acf2-d2c5fc10256b" CreationDate="2015-11-24T22:31:10.220" UserId="10565" Comment="spelling, grammar, clarity" Text="Development project going awry. Is this part of the development process or should I be charging more?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12054" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3923" RevisionGUID="9f8dfa42-4fcc-48f7-acf2-d2c5fc10256b" CreationDate="2015-11-24T22:31:10.220" Comment="Proposed by 10565 approved by -1 edit id of 438" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12055" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3923" RevisionGUID="7a964125-131c-4809-8405-9d607d08a459" CreationDate="2015-11-24T22:31:10.220" UserId="9" Comment="Improved grammar, removed repeated words" Text="I am a designer with a 1-2 years experience with front-end development. I don't offer that service very often as a freelancer, so I wanted to get some advice on a freelance situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I developed a one-page website for a client. The client gave me a desktop view of the design and an example of how they wanted the navigation to work; that was it. I created the fully-responsive website, everything working fully.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They wanted to add a new section to the page that was not a part of the original design they gave me. Now they want the intro type to fade away as the user scrolls in order to stop the overlapping of the sticky navigation (this was not part of the original ask) and finally they are wanting me to animate the hamburger icon to an &quot;x&quot; a certain way when the mobile navigation opens on a phone. I feel like they just keep tacking on things that I was not originally told about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this part of the freelance development process, continually adding new behaviors and more and more jQuery?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I be telling them this stuff will cost more because it was not a part of the original plan? Do developers build a cushion in the budget (let's say an extra $500) to allow for this type of stuff?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you for help!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12057" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3963" RevisionGUID="610d0654-cc7b-4516-ad34-08e0d532505b" CreationDate="2015-11-25T08:24:05.790" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="This belongs to the daily life of service providers. The customers often can't evaluate their needs and only discover them after hands-on practice. (This is why a prototyping approach can be useful - but this is another matter.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As regards myself, I try to anticipate those extras and silently leave some safety margin in the budget. Then the contract states what I will do and not do, and I give an hourly cost for additional work. I also leave the option of doing a separate offer on request.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12058" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3964" RevisionGUID="250b6d5d-6b2e-4655-8b4f-cab4cbcebfec" CreationDate="2015-11-25T09:01:36.190" UserId="8125" Text="Once you and client agreed then you should not change charges. Because think that now if you change price then what client will think. Sometime there will be positive impact and sometime it can put negative impact on client mind.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for now do work on agreed changes , from next time you should take care while decide project task charge." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12059" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3962" RevisionGUID="0780ac1c-42f4-49b1-afb5-4c70b7090cf3" CreationDate="2015-11-25T15:16:24.750" UserId="1706" Comment="More concise." Text="Pricing is subjective. And of course, overpricing is also subjective. In my opinion, there is not a problem if the client knows exactly what's being paid for. The problem begins when you start overpricing your product after the agreement with the client.  We live in a free market environment and we are judged every day, as both sellers and buyers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12060" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3965" RevisionGUID="ab1dfdc5-59d0-4a5d-9415-a5677924f191" CreationDate="2015-11-25T15:25:32.513" UserId="1706" Text="If you're working freelance, 30-day payment terms with ANY client is just a terrible idea, IMHO.  Don't be fooled into listening to some jerk manager who tells you, &quot;well, that's our company policy&quot; and settling for that answer.  You're the captain of your own ship, and if you want to continue being the captain, you are not going to be stupid and allow *any* passenger to steer your ship into the rocks *for* you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I always look at it from this frame of mind.  I've worked in corporate situations where there's the occasional company party, with caterers.  And I always note that the caterers get paid **right away** and aren't subjected to that 30-day terms crap.  So that means money is available!  You have to be willing to stand your ground on terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Net 15 is much more reasonable if you are working hourly.  If you are working milestones, net-on-receipt is best.  You've done your hard work and there's no reason to be stressing over getting a check while ALSO trying to work the next milestone." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12063" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3967" RevisionGUID="3f7cf9e2-279b-443c-91d3-535b1d7866c4" CreationDate="2015-11-25T19:15:42.857" UserId="10589" Text="I am going to live in the U.S. for 1 year as a student with an F1 visa. I currently work remotely for a U.S. company as a freelancer/contractor which pays me via PayPal. Once I move to the U.S. I want to open a bank account and save this money legally, what are my options?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12064" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3967" RevisionGUID="3f7cf9e2-279b-443c-91d3-535b1d7866c4" CreationDate="2015-11-25T19:15:42.857" UserId="10589" Text="I am Mexican, going to live to the US for 1 year as a student. Is there a legal way I can make money by freelancing remotely?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12065" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3967" RevisionGUID="3f7cf9e2-279b-443c-91d3-535b1d7866c4" CreationDate="2015-11-25T19:15:42.857" UserId="10589" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12066" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3961" RevisionGUID="7f9ae114-63cb-44be-806d-05a2e795812a" CreationDate="2015-11-25T23:01:19.667" UserId="10565" Comment="Updated the answer with key comments." Text="There is no conflict between milestone payments, and delayed payment terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some contracts with milestones will have immediate payment.  Some contracts with no milestone partial-payments will be payable immediately.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some projects will have 30-day payment terms with no milestones.  Some will have 30-day payment terms on interim milestone payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In an ideal world, you get payment for interim deliverables, **and** immediate payment terms. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Euan's 6 recommendation's**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Only work for clients that you reasonably expect to actually fork out the payments which are correctly invoiced. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Trust, but verify.  &#xD;&#xA;Give them an opportunity to demonstrate their payment behaviour, early in the business relationship. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) **Have as short a payment period after presentation of invoice as you can successfully negotiate**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) Continue working between presentation of invoice and the due payment date.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5) Retain any deliverables until payment has cleared.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6) Make sure the wording of the contract supports point 5)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12067" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3961" RevisionGUID="67ce31f7-4582-428b-8f34-b1a0643cf3db" CreationDate="2015-11-25T23:09:54.497" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="There is no conflict between milestone payments, and delayed payment terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some contracts with milestones will have immediate payment.  Some contracts with no milestone partial-payments will be payable immediately.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some projects will have 30-day payment terms with no milestones.  Some will have 30-day payment terms on interim milestone payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In an ideal world, you get payment for interim deliverables, **and** immediate payment terms. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Euan's 6 recommendation's**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Only work for clients that you reasonably expect to actually fork out the payments which are correctly invoiced. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Trust, but verify.  &#xD;&#xA;Give them an opportunity to demonstrate their payment behaviour, early in the business relationship. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. **Have as short a payment period after presentation of invoice as you can successfully negotiate**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Continue working between presentation of invoice and the due payment date.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. Retain any deliverables until payment has cleared.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Make sure the wording of the contract supports point 5." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12068" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3968" RevisionGUID="80d60083-78da-4d33-b1d2-70887ee35292" CreationDate="2015-11-25T23:12:19.513" UserId="10288" Text="Yes, that's right, freelancer in the meaning of Freiberufler is reserved for some special jobs like journalists, artists, nurses, dentists and some others. Well, it includes business consultants, so you should at least ask your local tax authority - IT's part of the business ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You find the corresponding law in EStG § 18 Abs. 1:&#xD;&#xA;http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/estg/__18.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12069" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3969" RevisionGUID="2f55efc8-9f6e-4ab8-b91f-79eed2f23ded" CreationDate="2015-11-25T23:16:23.327" UserId="10565" Text="&gt;I know for a fact that this upcoming project, will not be completed on time due to the endless change requests. Sometimes deliverables that were confirmed as done were often revisited for more changes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In cases like these, there are three issues at play:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Being paid for the original contracted works.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) stopping change requests from affecting 1)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) Getting paid for the changes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So.  Deliver the original scope.  If they want changes, these are additional works.  They need to be specified, just like the original work.  They need to be invoiced for.  Just like the original work.  They need to be paid for.  Just like the original work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is bad at documenting the extras - say you are informed of them in chats, or one-line emails - write them up in a Variation To Order or Extra To Contract form, add your quoted price, and ask for written agreement to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It might easily be that the client says &quot;Oh, but it's quicker and easier just to do it while you're doing that part of the original work&quot;.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In which case, give two quotes:  &#xD;&#xA;the first as an extra, assuming the original work in that area has been carried out;  &#xD;&#xA;the second as the cost of the hassle of dealing with the extra, plus any increase in total effort on the task itself.  Put an expiry date on the second part - i.e. if written agreement to proceed is not given before that date (the date you will be starting work on that screen or module) then it will be the higher price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This has 2 effects:  &#xD;&#xA;1) being changeable starts to cost the client time and effort.  This may act as a brake on spur-of-the-moment changes.  &#xD;&#xA;2) You have a whole series of mini-contracts to invoice against." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12070" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3961" RevisionGUID="9edad1fe-0d74-4ead-a837-b1e529e470b5" CreationDate="2015-11-25T23:18:06.427" UserId="10565" Comment="punctuation" Text="There is no conflict between milestone payments, and delayed payment terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some contracts with milestones will have immediate payment.  Some contracts with no milestone partial-payments will be payable immediately.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some projects will have 30-day payment terms with no milestones.  Some will have 30-day payment terms on interim milestone payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In an ideal world, you get payment for interim deliverables, **and** immediate payment terms. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Euan's 6 recommendations**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Only work for clients that you reasonably expect to actually fork out the payments which are correctly invoiced. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Trust, but verify.  &#xD;&#xA;Give them an opportunity to demonstrate their payment behaviour, early in the business relationship. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. **Have as short a payment period after presentation of invoice as you can successfully negotiate**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Continue working between presentation of invoice and the due payment date.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. Retain any deliverables until payment has cleared.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Make sure the wording of the contract supports point 5." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12071" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3970" RevisionGUID="84fbc160-4650-4bb5-9f20-240778fa9cdd" CreationDate="2015-11-26T02:15:59.147" UserId="10565" Text="Why not have a spreadsheet or a little app that records the client's name with their on-line storage option?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Better than &quot;manual&quot; remembering.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It sounds like each client uses a specific on-line storage provider.  And the difficult is because of the number of clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A google spreadsheet with a list of client names in one column and the list of their specific Dropbox (etc) urls in the next column would work.  That way the list is available wherever she is, and one click opens up a browser window." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12074" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3967" RevisionGUID="ddd12abc-4573-43c9-b2c8-d915a4a492cc" CreationDate="2015-11-27T08:30:02.443" UserId="58" Comment="Edited title, tags and cleared up body." Text="I am Mexican, and about to live in the US for 1 year as a student with an F1 visa.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I currently work remotely for a US company as a freelancer/contractor which pays me via PayPal. Once I move to the US, I want to open a bank account and save this money legally.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are my options here?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12075" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3967" RevisionGUID="ddd12abc-4573-43c9-b2c8-d915a4a492cc" CreationDate="2015-11-27T08:30:02.443" UserId="58" Comment="Edited title, tags and cleared up body." Text="Can I remote work while in the US as a Mexican student?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12076" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3967" RevisionGUID="ddd12abc-4573-43c9-b2c8-d915a4a492cc" CreationDate="2015-11-27T08:30:02.443" UserId="58" Comment="Edited title, tags and cleared up body." Text="|legal|usa|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12077" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3909" RevisionGUID="9e0ea3cf-4501-4b74-8e00-156d05850801" CreationDate="2015-11-27T14:50:14.833" UserId="10434" Comment="fix typo" Text="This question is specific to Florida, US.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An LLC was formed in Aug of 2014. It failed to file an annual report. I just realized this and found that the LLC had become *inactive*. The state website, [sunbiz.org][1], allowed it to be reinstated for just $100 more than the report fee. Elsewhere the site states that there is a $400 fee for filing late. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Will that $400.00 still be charged?&#xD;&#xA; 2. Does the owner lose the liability protection for business conducted during the *inactive* period? (My understanding is &quot;yes&quot;)&#xD;&#xA; 3. Is there anything else specific to this situation, besides avoiding a repeat, that should be considered?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://sunbiz.org" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12080" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3971" RevisionGUID="d46aa4c4-26c3-403c-8cda-10aa878de171" CreationDate="2015-11-29T19:21:20.900" UserId="8046" Text="What I find a bit risky with monthly payments is that it can represents a lot of money for you; if something goes wrong, that could be a big loss.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So here's a suggestion:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Offer 2 options to that clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**1 - Offer a payment every 2 weeks and ask for a down payment at the beginning of the project.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That 2-weeks payment will be charged at full rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you'll wait for each payment, the project will be put on hold until you get paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2 - Offer a pre-paid monthly payment that includes a small rebate**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will also count as some kind of down payment for the work and it's a bit like a subscription. You will be paid for the month to come.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also point out to the client that there will be no interruption of work in-between payments since it's pre-paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For you, it will be less of a risk no matter which option the client choose. And ideally, he'll go for the pre-paid 1-month payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12081" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3923" RevisionGUID="299855be-5976-401e-aec2-453b416e4c3b" CreationDate="2015-11-29T21:02:13.307" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/671071688927387654" />
  <row Id="12087" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3904" RevisionGUID="330fba58-9200-4724-aa2d-b2a3a94281f3" CreationDate="2015-11-30T15:02:58.070" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/671343666703835137" />
  <row Id="12088" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3881" RevisionGUID="581d7c96-4912-45cd-bc57-8271c77213b8" CreationDate="2015-11-30T21:03:42.467" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/671434451012988928" />
  <row Id="12089" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3973" RevisionGUID="577262e0-7b9c-473b-bcfb-93ebd93509eb" CreationDate="2015-11-30T21:57:42.397" UserId="708" Text="It would seem, that what I found would suggest you must wait nine months to a year before working off-campus. I **am not** an immigration specialist or officer but I imagine freelance employment constitutes &quot;off-campus&quot; employment.  **You would be better off contacting an immigration agent or your school directly.** In any case, you'll need to contact one of them to acquire the &quot;[special] authorization&quot; which is suggested.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Off-Campus Employment&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;F1 students may seek off-campus employment if they meet certain requirements. There are several options for off-campus employment, but these general rules apply:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;- You must be in legal status to apply for off-campus employment;&#xD;&#xA;- **You have been enrolled on a full-time basis for one academic year (generally nine months);**&#xD;&#xA;- **You must apply for and be granted specially authorization;**&#xD;&#xA;- If you are still enrolled in a full course of study, your combined on- and off-campus employment may not exceed 20 hours per week when school is in session;&#xD;&#xA;- You still remain in F-1 status even if you are working full-time for an employer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pulled from : http://immigrationroad.com/visa/f1-student/f1-student-visa-employment-options.php&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think this question is *far more* about immigration and an F1 visa than it is about freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12091" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3973" RevisionGUID="4cce649f-c0df-4f91-9569-4ddc32221103" CreationDate="2015-12-01T09:10:00.710" UserId="708" Comment="added 287 characters in body" Text="It would seem, that what I found would suggest you must wait nine months to a year before working off-campus. I **am not** an immigration specialist or officer but I imagine freelance employment constitutes &quot;off-campus&quot; employment.  **You would be better off contacting an immigration agent or your school directly.** In any case, you'll need to contact one of them to acquire the &quot;[special] authorization&quot; which is suggested.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Off-Campus Employment&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;F1 students may seek off-campus employment if they meet certain requirements. There are several options for off-campus employment, but these general rules apply:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;- You must be in legal status to apply for off-campus employment;&#xD;&#xA;- **You have been enrolled on a full-time basis for one academic year (generally nine months);**&#xD;&#xA;- **You must apply for and be granted specially authorization;**&#xD;&#xA;- If you are still enrolled in a full course of study, your combined on- and off-campus employment may not exceed 20 hours per week when school is in session;&#xD;&#xA;- You still remain in F-1 status even if you are working full-time for an employer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pulled from : http://immigrationroad.com/visa/f1-student/f1-student-visa-employment-options.php&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that the last two bullet items conflict with themselves. Full time employment is 40 hours per week... well above the previously mentioned 20 hour limitation. With that in mind, in addition to the clear grammatical error, you should seek further advice from an accredited source.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think this question is *far more* about immigration and an F1 visa than it is about freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12092" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3974" RevisionGUID="1047b478-e34a-4b2a-bac6-6af98a1d049c" CreationDate="2015-12-01T13:15:10.067" UserId="10627" Text="**So basically my cover goes like this:&#xD;&#xA;Hello Sir or Madam,&#xD;&#xA;I am writing in response to your advertisement for someone who can organize and transfer data's. After carefully reviewing the experience requirements of the job description, I feel that I am a suitable match for the job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I’ve held several data entry positions that entail inputting customer requests, inquire, and tracking codes of products I also perform administrative duties including answering telephones, transferring data, web research and reports to immediate supervisor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel that I can add professionalism and accuracy to your current team of professionals. With extensive experience supporting all levels of a department and working directly with external vendors, I take direction well and can complete a heavy workload and complete projects under minimal supervision. If you feel there is a mutual interest, I&#xD;&#xA;would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to learn more about your company, the requirements of the position,and how my qualifications would be a good fit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would be my pleasure to work with you in the earliest time possible!&#xD;&#xA;Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.&#xD;&#xA;I look forward to Hiring from you soon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Devoughn M. Querubin&#xD;&#xA;Skype:Devquerubin&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;E-mail:Devoughn34@gmail.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Plus I dont have any job experience, but I am really willing to work! like any job I will take it (but mostly I apply for data entry job)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am so frustrated already!  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And in my profile I dont have any job experiences (I only have 40% completeness of profile). Should I fake it so that my profile will be 100% complete?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have 3 above average test done!&#xD;&#xA;plss do comment your opinions! &#xD;&#xA;and plss adive me for anything that can improve my upwork account!**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12093" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3974" RevisionGUID="1047b478-e34a-4b2a-bac6-6af98a1d049c" CreationDate="2015-12-01T13:15:10.067" UserId="10627" Text="Why am I not hired at upwork? Check my cover letter! I need your opinions!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12094" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3974" RevisionGUID="1047b478-e34a-4b2a-bac6-6af98a1d049c" CreationDate="2015-12-01T13:15:10.067" UserId="10627" Text="|working-from-home|advertising|ownership|contract-to-hire|scope-of-work|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12095" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3974" RevisionGUID="c2c79492-b452-4b17-ae34-39320e33a1d7" CreationDate="2015-12-01T13:56:30.417" UserId="9" Comment="Heavy grammar fixes, quote formatting of cover letter (did not edit cover letter content/grammar since it pertains to question), retagged for more appropriate tags" Text="So basically my cover goes like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hello Sir or Madam,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I am writing in response to your advertisement for someone who can organize and transfer data's. After carefully reviewing the experience requirements of the job description, I feel that I am a suitable match for the job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I’ve held several data entry positions that entail inputting customer requests, inquire, and tracking codes of products I also perform administrative duties including answering telephones, transferring data, web research and reports to immediate supervisor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I feel that I can add professionalism and accuracy to your current team of professionals. With extensive experience supporting all levels of a department and working directly with external vendors, I take direction well and can complete a heavy workload and complete projects under minimal supervision. If you feel there is a mutual interest, I would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to learn more about your company, the requirements of the position,and how my qualifications would be a good fit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; It would be my pleasure to work with you in the earliest time possible!  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I look forward to Hiring from you soon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Devoughn M. Querubin  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Skype:Devquerubin&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; E-mail:Devoughn34@gmail.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't have job experience, but I'm really willing to work! I'm willing to take any job at this point (although I am currently applying for data entry jobs), and I've completed three tests with an above-average score. I am so frustrated already!  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I improve my Upwork account?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally, in my profile, I don't have any job experiences (I only have 40% completeness of profile). Should I fake job experiences into my profile so that my profile will be 100% complete?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12096" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3974" RevisionGUID="c2c79492-b452-4b17-ae34-39320e33a1d7" CreationDate="2015-12-01T13:56:30.417" UserId="9" Comment="Heavy grammar fixes, quote formatting of cover letter (did not edit cover letter content/grammar since it pertains to question), retagged for more appropriate tags" Text="Having trouble getting hired on Upwork, how can I get hired?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12097" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3974" RevisionGUID="c2c79492-b452-4b17-ae34-39320e33a1d7" CreationDate="2015-12-01T13:56:30.417" UserId="9" Comment="Heavy grammar fixes, quote formatting of cover letter (did not edit cover letter content/grammar since it pertains to question), retagged for more appropriate tags" Text="|freelance-websites|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12098" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1611" RevisionGUID="f0d8462b-c048-405f-b811-ffda98777bc2" CreationDate="2015-12-01T14:07:04.150" UserId="9" Comment="Changed code formatting to quote formatting to make it easier to read" Text="My source of income has been coming from freelance sites, such as oDesk. Things have been slow for me since the start of this year. As I mentioned in my other post about slowing down, I got a response that things pick up in March because people have spend a lot on Christmas. They have picked up for me!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, now I am having almost 800 hours, and a 4.90 feedback score. I think my [profile][1] is good. I update it as I get my projects completed. Typically, I get job invites, but it has been cold turkey for me, and I am worried. I do apply, but it's like the client never open my letter. I never get response. I get that I am not a native English person, but this is how I write my cover letter:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hello,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I have 3+ years of experience in wordpress. I have created more than 50 websites in wordpress. I am listed in top 10 wordpress developers. I have full control of HTML, CSS, Plugin creation, jQuery, Javascript thus making a child theme or converting PSD to WP. I have a great feedback. Following are my few sites&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; www.abc.com.au  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; www.abc.com  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; www.abc.net&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I have many other sites, that i have worked on. I am also looking for long term working opportunity. I hope you like my work and would consider hiring me.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I am always available on email and skype.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Regards,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is my general format, with good feedback. I believe I do work great, but I don't understand why then I don't get the client inviting me to job or accepting my letter. I understand there are many potential candidates besides me. However, I totally feel I am failing miserably. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apart from that, I see those tests in oDesk or any other site to be obsolete, questions which aren't asked. Why do they have such questions?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't raise my per hour rate because I don't want miss out on clients, but I am not getting clients anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I ensure that I'm doing what I need to do in my cover letter to get more clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.odesk.com/users/~01e96a9471b01d213f" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12099" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3179" RevisionGUID="7fd22f6a-6357-4b20-ad7b-b910cb634e1e" CreationDate="2015-12-01T17:18:12.677" UserId="7234" Comment="Fixed Grammar and spelling" Text="Step 1 is to protect yourself with a clear scope of work.  Write up a clear, concise scope of the work you are performing.  Include not only the work being performed by also what is NOT being performed.  These are called exclusions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your scope should also include the price of the project, that billings will be done monthly on the XX day of the month and are due Net 30.  Net 30 is a typical payment cycle that just about any company should be fine with.  You should spell out how you will arrive at what you are billing monthly.  For example, I use the percentage of completion method with billings on the 20th of the month.  This means on the 20th of the month, I project ahead to the end of the month how far the project will be complete.  If that is 50%, then I bill the client 50% of the project, less any previous billings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This allows you to get your billing out earlier while still accounting for your expenses through the end of the month and therefore be paid earlier.  You should always be ready to justify your bill.  I strongly suggest a followup 10 days after sending your progress bill.  It should be a very friendly, &quot;I just wanted to make sure you received my progress bill and if you had any questions&quot;.  This helps remove obstacles to getting paid on time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also consider putting the time the project is to be completed and document any delays on the part of the company you are working for.  Delays in work being performed that are not of your making cost you &quot;opportunity costs&quot;; the income for work you did not get to do for other clients or that you turned down because your time was reserved for their project that did not happen as per the schedule agreed to.  However, this is a two way street so think it through.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, your scope letter also needs to spell out how you will handle changes to the project (a change order), whether additive and deductive.  The best way to protect yourself is to have language that says all change orders must be approved in writing before work commences.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then whenever a change occurs you need to be proactive with presenting the change in scope (the change order) and the amount the change will increase/decrease the original dollars.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is always hard to walk that razor's edge between losing work and protecting the work you are doing, but some opening friendly language on your scope letter about how the document exists to outline your mutually beneficial agreement, etc. can help the client see your professionalism.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any professional company should understand the protection afforded for both parties by a clearly defined project through a scope letter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may want to get in the habit of having your bids also be the scope letter to save a step.  In this manner the client just needs to sign off on your bid and you are ready to move forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12100" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3975" RevisionGUID="7b1edfc4-5923-4ede-a17a-5ef9949fb3bf" CreationDate="2015-12-01T18:48:48.847" UserId="75" Text="I'm going to address the BIG issue on this question first: **NEVER EVER** fake job experience. Why?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. No one trusts people who lie&#xD;&#xA;2. People will eventually find out, then question everything you do&#xD;&#xA;3. Misrepresentation can get you sued (depending on what you said/claimed)&#xD;&#xA;4. No trust - no work!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for improving your account, you obviously need jobs. Do not put all your eggs in one basket (ie - don't just rely on Upwork for jobs). Look for community organizations you care about, and offer services at a reduce rate, in exchange for them giving you a testimonial or adding the project to your portfolio. This part breaks down to just getting yourself out there." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12101" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3976" RevisionGUID="d5037436-d8c7-4420-a788-ef7eef634279" CreationDate="2015-12-02T04:35:10.403" UserId="8125" Text="In Upwork , It seems you are missing many other information to fill up because job experience and portfolio adds 20% to profile completeness , so if you fill other all information then your profile completeness should be at least 70%-80%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I would like to give you some suggestion to improve profile:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Complete your profile with all true/real details&#xD;&#xA; 2. I hope you successfully pass upwork readiness test , if not then pass it first.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Make sure you have uploaded profile photo as per upwork rules.&#xD;&#xA; 4.  Do not add extra skills to you profile , Select only those skills in which you are confident to complete work. &#xD;&#xA; 5. In your summary/about section , write descriptive about you and what you can do professionally. &#xD;&#xA; 6. Add portfolio if you have otherwise at start level it is fine.&#xD;&#xA; 7. In future , update your skills when you learn something new.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Suggestions to get project :**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Find jobs for which you are confident to complete successfully.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Write always unique and job related cover letter&#xD;&#xA; 3. Never do copy/paste cover letter for all jobs you are going to apply.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Your cover letter should be 100% job specific.&#xD;&#xA; 5. If possible then write in cover letter that how you will complete that job , estimated hours you will take etc.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Never give over hours estimation , Be honest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope above things will help you to get projects on upwork." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12102" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3976" RevisionGUID="30952d03-a110-4114-8cd2-a0dae703699c" CreationDate="2015-12-02T04:56:32.263" UserId="8125" Comment="added 83 characters in body" Text="&gt; Fake experience will never lead you to success , Forget it&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Upwork , It seems you are missing many other information to fill up because job experience and portfolio adds 20% to profile completeness , so if you fill other all information then your profile completeness should be at least 70%-80%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I would like to give you some suggestion to improve profile:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Complete your profile with all true/real details&#xD;&#xA; 2. I hope you successfully pass upwork readiness test , if not then pass it first.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Make sure you have uploaded profile photo as per upwork rules.&#xD;&#xA; 4.  Do not add extra skills to you profile , Select only those skills in which you are confident to complete work. &#xD;&#xA; 5. In your summary/about section , write descriptive about you and what you can do professionally. &#xD;&#xA; 6. Add portfolio if you have otherwise at start level it is fine.&#xD;&#xA; 7. In future , update your skills when you learn something new.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Suggestions to get project :**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Find jobs for which you are confident to complete successfully.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Write always unique and job related cover letter&#xD;&#xA; 3. Never do copy/paste cover letter for all jobs you are going to apply.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Your cover letter should be 100% job specific.&#xD;&#xA; 5. If possible then write in cover letter that how you will complete that job , estimated hours you will take etc.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Never give over hours estimation , Be honest.&#xD;&#xA; 7. Do not share your email/skype with cover letter until and unless client asks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope above things will help you to get projects on upwork." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12108" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3505" RevisionGUID="198454a6-53a9-48a8-92fd-30b198bafcb5" CreationDate="2015-12-02T18:03:52.887" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/672113971353141249" />
  <row Id="12109" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3978" RevisionGUID="3dd2c79b-fad4-4e35-93e6-c9fad2b04092" CreationDate="2015-12-03T00:14:06.870" UserId="10646" Text="A person I know -- I could call him client or business associate, depending on the project --, who has more seniority than I do, was approached by a big institution looking for a consultatn-programmer for a 6 months contract. He told them he knew a guy (me) who could very well do the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was rather surprised when he told me that he'd negociate for me and keep a cut on my hourly rate, amounting to about 10%. Overall, he'd make more or less 5000$ with that deal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am all but comfortable with this and would rather give him a finder's fee, but I'm not really sure what would be a reasonable amount for it. Somewhere between 500 and 1000 would seem more than fair, but I'm open to other people's experiences and perspectives.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that it is reasonable to assume that even without him, I could have ended up in the candidates, since one of the recruitment agencies with which they deal have me in their database. Moreover, I recently worked for that same big institution through that agency, and had excellent evaluations." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12110" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3978" RevisionGUID="3dd2c79b-fad4-4e35-93e6-c9fad2b04092" CreationDate="2015-12-03T00:14:06.870" UserId="10646" Text="Finder's fee (or percentage) for a 6 months contract" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12111" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3978" RevisionGUID="3dd2c79b-fad4-4e35-93e6-c9fad2b04092" CreationDate="2015-12-03T00:14:06.870" UserId="10646" Text="|contracts|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12112" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3979" RevisionGUID="0022a45b-008c-45d6-b65b-738c00c070d1" CreationDate="2015-12-03T02:43:07.117" UserId="10647" Text="Sounds to me like your recruiter is not making much on this deal.  I'm a programmer as well with over a decade of experience in the industry.  My past experience has been that at *least* 20% is typically the norm for their cut.  One place I worked, I actually saw the check that was being paid to the recruiter for his (one-time) finder's fee of $10,000.  If it were me, I wouldn't be worried about someone else making $5K, as long as I'm happy with the rate I'm getting; if the rate weren't competitive, I wouldn't recommend taking the job." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12116" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3976" RevisionGUID="9c6cb43d-c08b-46ce-9f31-f0b6372a4c67" CreationDate="2015-12-03T05:19:19.603" UserId="8125" Comment="deleted 12 characters in body" Text="&gt; Fake experience will never lead you to success&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Upwork , It seems you are missing many other information to fill up because job experience and portfolio adds 20% to profile completeness , so if you fill other all information then your profile completeness should be at least 70%-80%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I would like to give you some suggestion to improve profile:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Complete your profile with all true/real details&#xD;&#xA; 2. I hope you successfully pass upwork readiness test , if not then pass it first.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Make sure you have uploaded profile photo as per upwork rules.&#xD;&#xA; 4.  Do not add extra skills to you profile , Select only those skills in which you are confident to complete work. &#xD;&#xA; 5. In your summary/about section , write descriptive about you and what you can do professionally. &#xD;&#xA; 6. Add portfolio if you have otherwise at start level it is fine.&#xD;&#xA; 7. In future , update your skills when you learn something new.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Suggestions to get project :**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Find jobs for which you are confident to complete successfully.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Write always unique and job related cover letter&#xD;&#xA; 3. Never do copy/paste cover letter for all jobs you are going to apply.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Your cover letter should be 100% job specific.&#xD;&#xA; 5. If possible then write in cover letter that how you will complete that job , estimated hours you will take etc.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Never give over hours estimation , Be honest.&#xD;&#xA; 7. Do not share your email/skype with cover letter until and unless client asks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope above things will help you to get projects on upwork." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12117" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3980" RevisionGUID="db4a4710-bbb3-4d62-bd48-93c5bbecd453" CreationDate="2015-12-03T08:07:37.967" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="I'd go for the 10% fee, if the remaining 90% fits into your standard. This is not unusual nor excessive. I'd call it the &quot;market price&quot;. After all, this is what UpWork takes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe someday you'll be on the other side. :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12118" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3981" RevisionGUID="282c174f-c656-47d8-a8a9-cac3e39fd190" CreationDate="2015-12-03T16:53:57.963" UserId="1323" Text="## Background ##&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a designer with a previous background in software development, and I'm currently working on projects for two clients as well as side projects.  Both of the client projects are hourly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One of the projects has a variable number of hours per week.  Some weeks, I will be close to full-time on this project and working evenings on the other one.  Other weeks, I will have just a few hours per week of work on this project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Both the client and I have a background in development, and we are using a Scrum-like process - where we hold regular stand-up meetings (although we're not co-located) and answer the standard 3 questions: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - &quot;What did you work on yesterday?&quot;&#xD;&#xA; - &quot;What are you working on today?&quot;, and&#xD;&#xA; - &quot;Are you blocked on anything?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm wondering about what to do about charging while I'm **blocked and unable to do the next task**.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*(For those unfamiliar with Scrum, imagine that you need direction from a client about what to do next.  You ask them a question and need to wait until you have heard back from them before you can resume work on the project.  This could take a few minutes, an hour, a day, or longer.)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## What I usually do while blocked on a task ##&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a regular job with relatively the same number of work hours every week, I would continue to use the time to study technical skills.  (Some of my co-workers would have used this time for idle conversations or surfing the web.)  But now that I work independently, I also work on side projects to help the future of my business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since my other client's project needs to be done at certain (and different) times of the day, I could use this other time to study or to work on my side projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I believe it's unethical to charge clients while I work on side projects.  The value I generate from side projects would ultimately go to me rather than them, although my side projects were instrumental in helping me land one of these two clients.&#xD;&#xA; - Study time is more of a gray area, especially if it's for skills that I can use in their project.  But I'm not sure how to handle this when the project's hours per week are variable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there an established best practice among freelancers for whether or not to charge for this blocked time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12119" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3981" RevisionGUID="282c174f-c656-47d8-a8a9-cac3e39fd190" CreationDate="2015-12-03T16:53:57.963" UserId="1323" Text="If I am working on an hourly project with variable hours per week and I am blocked on a task, should I bill for the time spent blocked?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12120" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3981" RevisionGUID="282c174f-c656-47d8-a8a9-cac3e39fd190" CreationDate="2015-12-03T16:53:57.963" UserId="1323" Text="|consulting|billing|billable-hours|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12121" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3982" RevisionGUID="8f22e711-1f7e-40b9-93f3-7a52751ee943" CreationDate="2015-12-03T17:01:41.443" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="In many of the freelancer's sites, they ask you a quotation for a bid that you need to provide just to &quot;enter the pipeline&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But at the same time, you get little or no details on the task at hand, making it highly risky.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you manage that ? How binding is the initial quotation ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12122" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3982" RevisionGUID="8f22e711-1f7e-40b9-93f3-7a52751ee943" CreationDate="2015-12-03T17:01:41.443" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Making quotations out of thin air" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12123" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3982" RevisionGUID="8f22e711-1f7e-40b9-93f3-7a52751ee943" CreationDate="2015-12-03T17:01:41.443" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="|freelance-websites|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12124" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3983" RevisionGUID="7b6c04af-51ef-48ae-a800-0f91c3452553" CreationDate="2015-12-03T18:53:04.037" UserId="708" Text="It is customary to **not** charge for time waiting on client responses. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where it gets tricky is if time constraints make delayed client responses difficult on you. In those instances I find it often best to notify the client that without a response you can not move forward and the closer to any deadline, if present, things get the possibility of rush fees may enter the picture.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I treat clients like I prefer to be treated. I'd be very unhappy if I had a contractor call me, leave a message, and I was unable to get back to them for a day only to find out I had been charged for 24 hours while they awaited my return call. Doesn't that sound a bit silly (and ethically questionable) to you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The nature of freelance, in my experience, is feast or famine. There are times where you're full bore, all out, busy and don't have a moment to spare. Then there are times where you are waiting for several clients to get back to you on something and there's nothing pressing you need to accomplish. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the down times, that's where some of the joy of freelancing comes in. I've got time to spend with friends or family. I've got time to work on something for myself. I've got time to do some self-promotion marketing and find more clients. I've got time to paint a bedroom..... whatever. But you certainly never bill a client for that time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12129" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3985" RevisionGUID="90fd327d-c245-4b2b-834d-c1a8baac53c2" CreationDate="2015-12-03T19:42:43.140" UserId="75" Text="DISCLAIMER: I don't use Freelance Websites to find work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should know your skill, and what you can easily do, and what might take you longer. Quote on this, giving a range. If you *know* that a project takes a minimum of 2 hours, you quote that as the *lowest possible*. Then, figure out how long a project with vague details can take, and use that as a ball park figure (i.e. 8 hours, possibly more if there are significant issues).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I give quotes in person, the client will get a ball-park figure, and that's what we work on. Once I have more information, I let them know I can give them a much better estimate. If they demand a price right now, and they want a final figure, **walk away**. This client will likely do lots of [tag:scope-creep] on the project, which will annoy you and make you hate your job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regular projects will have hiccups; the best projects have only minor hiccups. I have yet to have a single project (when I was a sub-contractor, when I was a freelancer, when I was an employee, and even when I hired people) where there were no hiccups whatsoever. They aren't usually show-stoppers, but they may add a bit of time from what the &quot;quoter&quot; thought it would be. Almost always it was within range of the quote anyways.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you go through the quote process, if you run into anything that could delay the project, or cost the client more money to fix, then you need to communicate that as soon as humanly possible to the client, so they are prepared. Regardless of if you think you're the boss, you're not the one paying for the project (hopefully), so approval is required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In essence (I see I'm drifting), give a range, with the disclaimer that it could be more, it could be less, but that you need more information. Before you talk to the client, ensure you have a *written list* of questions to ask, and take notes." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12138" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3987" RevisionGUID="355be910-1738-46ce-a804-d1200c7c45d1" CreationDate="2015-12-04T08:46:22.160" UserId="517" Text="In short, you can't! In reality, you have to as the client is requesting it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how to cross the gap and give them the range? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they ask for &quot;some app&quot; and &quot;how much it costs&quot;, just skip those jobs. The price can vary from $50 to $5M. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they state &quot;I want app similar to XYZ app and how much it will cost&quot;, then you have some grounds to make an estimation. Review that app and try to figure our the minimum price and full price. Then you can tell them &quot;for minimum features including A, B, C,... the project should cost around $$$ and it will take XXX days. For complete clone of that app, costs should be around $$$ and it will take XXX days&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't forget to tell them that you will need to provide more detailed and final estimation, but you will need to talk to the client to disclose more details.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And don't forget a golden rule: The more time a client spends on describing a project, the more serious he is. Don't bid for projects with lost or lazy clients. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12139" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3982" RevisionGUID="2340ee7b-4d29-40da-9601-0596e185b9ea" CreationDate="2015-12-04T08:52:22.713" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="added 121 characters in body" Text="In many of the freelancer's sites, they ask you a quotation for a bid that you need to provide just to &quot;enter the pipeline&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But at the same time, you get little or no details on the task at hand, making it highly risky.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you manage that ? How binding is the initial quotation ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;**Update**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Typical project description: &quot;we have an OCR application that we need solved urgently&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12140" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3988" RevisionGUID="8a2504e8-7e6b-4833-be8d-1def628869a7" CreationDate="2015-12-04T09:08:14.290" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="No, you don't charge your idle time, even less with a hourly fee. Your flexibility must be built into your rate. That's a major reason why employers resort to freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, if you want to, you can negotiate a clause in the contract about it; it is probably better to present it in the form of a bonus granted in case of work continuity." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12141" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3989" RevisionGUID="5c22fcc8-b1a7-4d37-a34c-451070058a86" CreationDate="2015-12-04T15:31:30.760" UserId="10627" Text="I had never been hired at upwork, i dont know why.&#xD;&#xA;I am willing ti work for experience!&#xD;&#xA;Just simple data entry jobs, just for my experience.&#xD;&#xA;Because I think I need experience to be hired by an actual job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a way to do that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Comments and Advice me please! THANK YOU!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12142" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3989" RevisionGUID="5c22fcc8-b1a7-4d37-a34c-451070058a86" CreationDate="2015-12-04T15:31:30.760" UserId="10627" Text="Is there a way to work free for experience?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12143" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3989" RevisionGUID="5c22fcc8-b1a7-4d37-a34c-451070058a86" CreationDate="2015-12-04T15:31:30.760" UserId="10627" Text="|freelance-websites|difficult-client|working-from-home|project|contract-to-hire|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12144" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3990" RevisionGUID="b1e77335-4e72-40d1-b61b-a02dc0215ab2" CreationDate="2015-12-04T16:13:10.573" UserId="6103" Text="You can go to a website like www.freelancer.com and offer your service for free or a very small price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancer.com allows you to interact with people who need projects to be done and some of the projects are simple and some are very complex.  There is a way to only see projects with the skills that you possess.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to do it for free, what you would do is find a project that you feel that you can do.  From there you could bid on that project and set the amount to $0 or if it doesn't allow you to do it for $0 then you could put it as low as it will allow you to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to really get something quickly then I would look for the ones that are listed as urgent.  I've done a couple of those and was surprised to see that a few of them responded to my bid almost immediately." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12145" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="923" RevisionGUID="0540736a-f47b-48b0-8a7f-16edf0b3ec50" CreationDate="2015-12-04T18:47:51.147" UserId="708" Comment="added 149 characters in body" Text="Don't do it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there were actually a prospect of the site making any *real money* (thus commissions being worthwhile) the guy wouldn't be offering to pay you in commissions. He's offering this payment structure because he knows the return on commissions will be far less than any standard fees you may want. In general, those offering this type of structure ***don't have enough faith in their own business model to pay for your services up front.*** If they did, they'd realize in an instant that paying any fees you have directly would be more cost effective than giving up commissions. TO be fair, many would-be entrepreneurs may also see the commission structure as &quot;Hey! I won't have to pay him/her *anything* until I start making money.&quot; It may not be a malicious offer, however it's generally not a good offer unless the site/project is *already* making money and there are *already* figures for what your commissions would be in place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he insists upon a commission structure you need to alter it to ensure you get paid enough to compensate you at least a little. A flat fee per month plus commissions. But even then only do that if you *really want* to do the project. It may be better to lower the initial project fees and supplement that with commissions. For example... standard project fee minus 30%, then 5% royalty on all sales.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working solely on commission creates an unstable client relationship in my experience. **If the site makes no money, you make no money.** What if the client wants you to spend 60 hours changing the site in order to increase sales? You'll be doing all that for free. What if the site merely trickles in sales and your commissions are less than $50 a month? Are you going to feel it's worth spending time to improve the design in order to increase your commissions? Realize that this may be a &quot;hobby&quot; for the owner, a simple secondary income venture, while in most cases it may be your **primary** job or source of income. So your needs may be much greater than your clients. He may be okay if the site goes 6 months without making a dime. Would you be?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you really want to get into commission-based payments for a business site you should be **treating the site as any investor would**. Because, make no mistake, he's asking you to be an investor in the business. Not in terms of venture capital or direct money input, but investment in terms of your time and work. However, that's still an investment position. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the business plan? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What's the anticipated user base? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What's the cost of user acquisition? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What are the monitization methods? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What's the rate of user decay? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What are the projected sales for the first month? quarter? year?  &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What type of products is the site selling?  &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;What's the current market demand for those products? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;How are sales for the current (ebay) system? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;How much time, each month, is anticipated to be needed on your part? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;How long can you expect to wait before you recover your costs? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Do you like the business? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Is it something you want to be involved in? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Are you willing to work without payment in order to try and improve your returns? &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most web designers/developers get approached with &quot;partnership&quot; or commission structures regularly. These ventures do **not** pay well 99.9% of the time. If you think you've got the something in that .1 percentile, go for it. But be aware the odds of you getting paid even your base rates are stacked against you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for &quot;knowing he's paying you the right amount&quot;.... as an investor (because that's what you would be) you should have the right to view sales for any given period and those amounts. Put that in a contract. If he's unwilling to do that, then don't walk, **run** away from his offer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12146" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3991" RevisionGUID="9561c015-902e-4e34-9129-aab8c8f362d3" CreationDate="2015-12-04T19:05:39.280" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Give him a choice:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- full one-time charge, or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- reduced charge (70% ?) plus percentage on the earnings, for a total limited to 200% of the one-time charge.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12149" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3992" RevisionGUID="5ec4c035-cc7b-4dff-b232-6814ff546121" CreationDate="2015-12-05T00:45:33.730" UserId="2056" Text="Specifically with regard to your cover letter, it talks extensively about you and how you are a good fit. Sorry, but this is a no-no. Nobody cares. We've all heard the advice to tell your story and provide evidence that you are up to the task. But as someone who has hired off ODesk/Elance (prior to Upwork), that's all secondary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First and foremost, I have a problem. That's why I'm looking for someone to hire. My goal is not hire the most experienced person or the person with most certification. My goal is to solve my problem, within the problem and time constraints I have. Experience and past roles are evidence that you are lower risk, but they do not indicate that you understand the problem I have, how to solve it, or that you have any interest in it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Kill two birds with one stone: 1) write a better cover letter that 2) doesn't lie. Address the problem, ask questions about it, and explain how you're going to help the hiring manager solve their problem." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12160" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1635" RevisionGUID="051c7197-6f55-4f19-91dd-f301e73014d6" CreationDate="2015-12-06T06:17:52.737" UserId="820" Comment="fixed typo" Text="*[Bit of background, I've done contract work exclusively through oDesk since 2006.]*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as I see it, the single most important thing you can do in your cover letter is **tell them how you'll solve their problem**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's really what (in most cases) they're looking for. They only care about your past work, your experience, or how well you're rated in terms of how it relates to their specific project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So don't make them do the work of relating those things - show them how your experience makes you a good match for *their* project by laying out what you'll do for *them*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they're looking for a WordPress developer to write a custom plugin, take their description and give them an idea of how it would work, Maybe it would be best implemented as a short code, maybe best as something else. Give them a comparison and recommendation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By just listing your experience and portfolio of sites, you're leaving it up to them to determine if you're a good fit for their specific project. Don't do that, show them they can be certain you're able to complete their project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you do this, **you'll become how they measure other contractors**. Using the above example, did anyone else explain that there are roughly two ways to implement what they want in WordPress? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now you're the leader by default.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another way to look at this: pretend they're already selected you as the contractor. **What are the first set of questions you'd ask them as a client? Ask those questions in the cover letter.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12161" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3997" RevisionGUID="f97344a2-694e-45f9-bd1e-4fa918647477" CreationDate="2015-12-06T06:37:33.790" UserId="10686" Text="First I would like to tell you a little bit about my experience/knowladge:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been making website as a hoby since the late 90´s, I have been working as a front-end dev between 2013 to 2014. I have finished a 1 year program at University in the Subject Web-Development. I am currently on my first year on a 3 year program at University on the subject Full-Stack Developer. I also have some experience from smaller freelancing-job in the past (around 3-5).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I am done with my stuides I would like to freelance as a Web Developer, or would like... I NEED to work as freelancer since there is no work as a Web Developer where I live. After by studies I would need to charge atleast 50$/h (50% goes to taxes as a self-employed in Sweden).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since I already have alot of experience I only need to spend around 2-3h per day on my studies. I also have all the money I need for my living as long as Im at University. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I think I have a great opertunity to start my Freelancing Career now, since I both have the money I need for my linving and around 8hours free-time for the next 2,5 years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I alreade have one client (rate 50$/h) at UpWork who keeps comming back to me every now and then.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, now I want to start freelancing, but not for the reason to make money, but for the reason to build up clients that keeps comming back, so once I finish at Uni. I will be able to &quot;just start freelance&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I see it there is two ways to do this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A. Start trying to fill my schedule with 10$/h work, and once it is filled higher the rate with 5$ and keep doing so until I reach 50$/h. So I at the same time build alot of refferences and &quot;reviews&quot; at sites like UpWork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;B. Start trying to fill my schedule with 50$/h work from the start, even if it not fill up my schedule at the beginning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I really want to invest the time I have in the best way possible, So I dont dont want to go for the wrong one (A or B). And there for my question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Wich way would be best trying to build up clients, and future work? Or is there a better way that I havent been thinking of?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12162" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="3997" RevisionGUID="f97344a2-694e-45f9-bd1e-4fa918647477" CreationDate="2015-12-06T06:37:33.790" UserId="10686" Text="How to build up long-term clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12163" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="3997" RevisionGUID="f97344a2-694e-45f9-bd1e-4fa918647477" CreationDate="2015-12-06T06:37:33.790" UserId="10686" Text="|attracting-clients|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12164" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3998" RevisionGUID="6afb8ad3-9fb6-4e16-94c2-99f1828a2393" CreationDate="2015-12-07T04:43:19.583" UserId="8125" Text="When there is starting , I would prefer your way **A**. Start work at basic rate and increase when you confident and have good relation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; How to build up long-term clients&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Be honest always with client&#xD;&#xA; 2. Suggest them technical things which save their money and time &#xD;&#xA; 3. Provide work delivery on time, Do not miss deadlines&#xD;&#xA; 4. Never do over bill when you are working on hour base project&#xD;&#xA; 5. Always work with reasonable price&#xD;&#xA; 6. Ask them always about your work. For ex : how you are doing , Any improvement needed?&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this will help you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12165" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="3999" RevisionGUID="914aada1-8e69-45eb-9f36-9515fe565cec" CreationDate="2015-12-07T04:54:04.047" UserId="8125" Text="You can tell to client that give me test task for **1-2 hours** which you will do in free or with very basic rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To work in free will never guarantee you that you will have strong feedback from client. Also As far as I know according to rule of upwork , If you do project of less than **$5** then it will not show client feedback on your public profile. So no meaning to work for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everything is your public profile on upwork , That is one way to attract and impress client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12166" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3999" RevisionGUID="39beca65-61c5-40e2-b2a3-23a6395d74ba" CreationDate="2015-12-07T05:23:12.593" UserId="10691" Comment="grammar corrections" Text="You can tell the client to give you a test task for **1-2 hours** which you will do free of charge or at a very basic rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working for free will never guarantee receiving strong feedback from clients. Also, As far as I know according to the rule of upwork, If you do a project of less than **$5** then it will not show client feedback on your public profile. So no! There's no point in working for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everything is your public profile on upwork. That is one way to attract and impress clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12167" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3999" RevisionGUID="39beca65-61c5-40e2-b2a3-23a6395d74ba" CreationDate="2015-12-07T05:23:12.593" Comment="Proposed by 10691 approved by 8125 edit id of 442" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12168" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4000" RevisionGUID="54510b19-8b81-4f06-96aa-9a4c711756df" CreationDate="2015-12-07T11:29:11.777" UserId="4338" Text="I have a situation which is generally opposite case in most projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am working on a client project, which I estimated would complete in 2 months max. But even after 5-6 months, the project is still not complete. Client is desperate is getting things done ASAP. And from my end, I am doing my best to get it done at the earliest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client is very understanding for the efforts that went into this project. Therefore he is insisting me to take more money for this project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my end, I am not accepting this for two reasons:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Once I gave a quote to the client, it not fit business ethics (as per me) if I charge more to him. Obviously, its not his fault if the work estimated turns out to be more. &#xD;&#xA;2. Also, the project is being delivered late than the agreed date. So client is already suffering because of this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it right to accept more money from client (I did not demand, client is offering)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously I am making a loss in this project as the work turned out more. But I do not want to put that responsibility on the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would you do if you were in my position?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12169" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4000" RevisionGUID="54510b19-8b81-4f06-96aa-9a4c711756df" CreationDate="2015-12-07T11:29:11.777" UserId="4338" Text="Client willing to pay more...but I am refusing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12170" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4000" RevisionGUID="54510b19-8b81-4f06-96aa-9a4c711756df" CreationDate="2015-12-07T11:29:11.777" UserId="4338" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|payments|fixed-price|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12172" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4002" RevisionGUID="1cd7aea9-ce22-48ff-92ba-9d61db24d646" CreationDate="2015-12-07T12:56:56.497" UserDisplayName="user8036" Text="&gt; Is it right to accept more money from client (I did not demand, client&#xD;&#xA;&gt; is offering)? What would **you do** if you were in my position?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you are seeking personal views for the answer. Let me share my opinions on this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, indeed that is a sign of an understanding client, who respects you as a person and your work more than the deadline or money. There is a higher chance that he will come back for your services even though you delayed as he has already got a good understanding of your work. He may also promote you to his friends, relatives etc. I would do whatever I can from my side to please and retain this client. So in this case, I would just put all my effort to finish the work and **not accept the money**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In fact, if the mistake was from my(developer) side for accepting the project without prior experience in that domain, I would refund some part of the amount. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12173" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4003" RevisionGUID="fbbafc71-0faf-4e03-90f2-20fe94dbb5e4" CreationDate="2015-12-07T17:10:46.523" UserId="1706" Text="Accept the money and ***keep this client***.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client may recognize that at the beginning, he asked for 10 requirements, but over time he realized that he was really asking for 100.  Accordingly, he's trying to pay you what you're worth.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**YOU**, on the other hand, seem to be very inexperienced.  Not so much in your technical expertise but in your limited understanding that your client can't pay you money for a Volkswagen, and expect you to deliver a Rolls Royce.  You are not acknowledging your own worth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Take that money, and thank the client for understanding and teaching you something." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12175" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3989" RevisionGUID="bed47319-37dc-41da-b1e1-9aacb5a01c48" CreationDate="2015-12-07T18:50:58.310" UserId="8125" Comment="corrected spellings" Text="I had never been hired at upwork, I don't know reason.&#xD;&#xA;I am willing ti work for experience!&#xD;&#xA;Just simple data entry jobs, just for my experience.&#xD;&#xA;Because I think I need experience to be hired by an actual job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a way to do that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Comments and Advice me please! THANK YOU!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12176" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3989" RevisionGUID="bed47319-37dc-41da-b1e1-9aacb5a01c48" CreationDate="2015-12-07T18:50:58.310" Comment="Proposed by 8125 approved by -1 edit id of 441" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12177" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3989" RevisionGUID="5a35e01b-6cdc-4d7c-99f3-7cfad9817adc" CreationDate="2015-12-07T18:50:58.310" UserId="820" Comment="corrected spellings" Text="I had never been hired at upwork, I don't know why.&#xD;&#xA;I am willing to work for experience!&#xD;&#xA;Just simple data entry jobs, just for my experience.&#xD;&#xA;Because I think I need experience to be hired by an actual job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a way to do that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Comments and advice please! THANK YOU!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12178" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4005" RevisionGUID="5808500c-f783-4f91-9fc6-462dc45e03b4" CreationDate="2015-12-08T07:26:58.857" UserId="4901" Text="A client I made a website for last year, which was must appreciated on her part, contacted me in this October to tell me about a possible new project (an organization she is a member of needs a new website). She didn't make any promises or anything like that, she just asked what I would charge for it. I gave her my price, to which she replied with a positive tone and said she would talk with her organization's board and email me again in November.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's December now and I haven't heard from her. I can only assume the board didn't like the idea, or they found someone else that charged less than I.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think it would be a good idea to contact her and ask what decision the board made, and let her know I'm ready to help her in the future if a new project arises.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this a good idea? Is there something specific I should include when I contact her? Or is it to &quot;pushy&quot; to contact her?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12179" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4005" RevisionGUID="5808500c-f783-4f91-9fc6-462dc45e03b4" CreationDate="2015-12-08T07:26:58.857" UserId="4901" Text="Client said she would email me in x weeks, but didn't, do I contact her?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12180" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4005" RevisionGUID="5808500c-f783-4f91-9fc6-462dc45e03b4" CreationDate="2015-12-08T07:26:58.857" UserId="4901" Text="|freelance-websites|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12181" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4006" RevisionGUID="702df02a-e980-4ff8-b983-ee9b65777f5b" CreationDate="2015-12-08T08:18:30.570" UserId="517" Text="Why not, if you were told that you will be contacted? You are a professional and you probably reserved some of your time for this client. I would contact her telling that I am making work plans for this month (or next) and if she could update me if I shall still keep some time reserved for her. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will be professional and also pushy in a good way. The client will feel obligated to respond so you can either keep some time for her or release it this month. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just be professional." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12182" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4007" RevisionGUID="bcebb393-4b69-4eee-bf46-34bda55dd1c0" CreationDate="2015-12-08T08:21:22.813" UserId="517" Text="If I were you, I would NOT accept it in case I charged him my regular hourly rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are multiple reasons for this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If I take more money, the client will expect better output. If I am doing my best already, a client will not be happy to pay more, but gets the same. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If I am already charging my regular rate, it means that I am earning as planned so no need to extra charge the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I had not planned this project properly and we are late (regardless of whose fault is it) so I would not feel comfortable to get more money since the part of blame is on me as well" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12183" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4008" RevisionGUID="38822ebf-e8e7-4ef1-8549-c85187c89b42" CreationDate="2015-12-08T09:57:57.270" UserId="10698" Text="I always work under an IT manager so I did not know how to interact with end user, now i facing a problem someone ask me to develop a program, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;current condition :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. he have limited time to discuss.&#xD;&#xA; 2. he is not IT person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;how do i get information i need about program that i want to build?, and what approach(questionnaire,interview,observation) i should do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;thanks^^&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12184" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4008" RevisionGUID="38822ebf-e8e7-4ef1-8549-c85187c89b42" CreationDate="2015-12-08T09:57:57.270" UserId="10698" Text="how to get information about our project to non IT people?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12185" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4008" RevisionGUID="38822ebf-e8e7-4ef1-8549-c85187c89b42" CreationDate="2015-12-08T09:57:57.270" UserId="10698" Text="|freelance-websites|working-from-home|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12188" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4009" RevisionGUID="8005407e-e4c3-46b0-9262-8a79cc4f15e1" CreationDate="2015-12-08T12:20:51.887" UserId="8125" Text="First get information what ever that person(client) has. Then you think technically and after a day or two call back to that person to confirm that **this is what you wanted?**. By this way you will be able to get full requirements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without understand 100% requirement there is no mean to develop things. If client do not have time at once then you take initiative to expand actual requirements from their short note. Once you start counter questions politely , you will get whole requirements easily. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Better you ask them for reference website or something that can help you. I have worked with many client who give just one line requirement like **I want my website like X website**." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12190" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4011" RevisionGUID="432dbd76-959c-496b-b205-cf53665b6bd3" CreationDate="2015-12-08T15:13:12.533" UserId="10288" Text="Since I'm not yet allowed to comment ... Helping Hands answer is a good starting point, especially asking for a reference. Further, let him outpoint the main features in written form - and don't bother him with technical stuff. Managers typically don't care how anything is done as long as the result is working, and good looking: Depending on the kind of work, a mock-up can be very useful to be sure you're heading in the right direction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a nutshell: Concentrate on the final results, not the way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12192" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4013" RevisionGUID="bb349b36-d646-4db2-a52a-94f34cac5ed2" CreationDate="2015-12-08T16:13:40.423" UserId="10703" Text="I'm living in a third world country where either you own a business, you get paid on dollars, or you are at god's mercy (I get paid nearly 15$/monthly here, and minimum wage is at ~8$, again monthly). I'm studying computer engineering and have some experience working at web and mobile app developing, and I'm taking online classes of web design. After learning of the importance of a online identity, I decided that doing probono work first would be a good idea. This raised a couple of questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Should I do pro bono locally (charities, new artist, etc)? Will my online identity be affected if most of my portfolio is filled with Spanish websites and such?&#xD;&#xA; - Should I try to find pro bono work online? How viable is it? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been told to stay away from pages like 99desings, but I don't really know where o how can I get a work, even if its a low paying one (If I make 100$ in a month here, I can live VERY comfortable, but doing it in our currency is almost impossible) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How else can I build a decent portfolio under my current circumstance?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12193" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4013" RevisionGUID="bb349b36-d646-4db2-a52a-94f34cac5ed2" CreationDate="2015-12-08T16:13:40.423" UserId="10703" Text="How viable is to work probono on a third world country for my portfolio?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12194" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4013" RevisionGUID="bb349b36-d646-4db2-a52a-94f34cac5ed2" CreationDate="2015-12-08T16:13:40.423" UserId="10703" Text="|working-from-home|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12195" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4008" RevisionGUID="ca721195-ac87-4b9e-8158-34ca74288aa3" CreationDate="2015-12-08T17:00:04.787" UserId="1706" Comment="added 27 characters in body" Text="I've always worked under an IT manager, so I don't know how to interact with end users.  I have a problem now, because someone has asked me to develop a program.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My situation:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. He has limited time to discuss requirements.&#xD;&#xA; 2. He is not an IT person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I collect the requirements I need about the program that I want to build?  What approach (questionnaire, interview, observation) I should take?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12196" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4014" RevisionGUID="67b75ab2-39d5-4177-b0ba-c68d13094157" CreationDate="2015-12-08T17:05:17.713" UserId="1706" Text="A closed mouth won't get fed.  You're assuming a lot, but the only way you can know for sure is to reach out to your customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your chances are always better with past clients as opposed to trying to get repeat business.  Go for it!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12197" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4008" RevisionGUID="3360c86b-31ca-4819-9756-35350524ce29" CreationDate="2015-12-08T17:05:56.387" UserId="1706" Comment="edited title" Text="How do I gather requirements about our project from non IT people?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12200" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3989" RevisionGUID="c6975a3c-08ce-4705-b673-2e8e0edaafe9" CreationDate="2015-12-08T18:22:24.537" UserId="75" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:1706,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;codenoire&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="12203" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3997" RevisionGUID="31039a8a-8dad-4c64-a456-013a454d5087" CreationDate="2015-12-08T18:40:34.397" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 87 characters in body" Text="I have been making website as a hobby since the late 90´s, I have been working as a front-end developer between 2013 to 2014. I have finished a 1 year program at University in the subject of Web Development. I am currently on my first year on a 3 year program at University on the subject of becoming a Full-Stack Developer. I also have some experience from smaller freelancing job in the past.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I am done with my studies I would like to freelance as a Web Developer. I need to work as freelancer since there is no work as a Web Developer where I live. After my studies I would need to charge at least $50/h (50% goes to taxes as a self-employed person in Sweden).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since I already have a lot of experience, I only need to spend around 2-3 hours per day on my studies. I also have all the money I need for my living expenses as long as I'm at University. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I think I have a great opportunity to start my Freelancing Career now, since I both have the money I need for my living and around 8 hours free-time for the next 2.5 years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I already have one client (rate $50/h) at UpWork who keeps coming back to me every now and then.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, now I want to start freelancing, but not for the reason to make money,  for the reason to build up clients that keeps coming back. Once I finish at University, I will be able to &quot;just start freelancing&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I see it there is two ways to do this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Start trying to fill my schedule with 10$/h work, and once it is filled higher the rate with 5$ and keep doing so until I reach 50$/h. So I at the same time build a lot of references and &quot;reviews&quot; at sites like UpWork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Start trying to fill my schedule with $50/h work from the start, even if it does not fill up my schedule at the beginning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I really want to invest the time I have in the best way possible, So I don't want to go for the wrong one (1 or 2).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Which way would be best trying to build up clients, and future work? Or is there a better way that I haven't been thinking of?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12205" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4015" RevisionGUID="5bcde620-6468-47f8-9513-ff62c06ecd69" CreationDate="2015-12-09T02:52:37.370" UserId="708" Text="- **Good** clients are generally *not* the clients looking for the *cheapest* workers they can find. They are customarily more vested in abilities than actual price points. &#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients *know* that quality workers demand more than a bare minimum rate.&#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients customarily find *good* workers and continue to return to those workers in order to maintain a level of quality.&#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients respect the worker and understand that a business transaction must be beneficial *both* ways.&#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients openly discuss issues to *solve* them rather than focusing on blame.&#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients understand rates may increase over a period of time - they understand inflation, cost of living, and other business principles such as this as a &quot;whole&quot; rather than focusing *only* on what they must pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--- &#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients will always shop for the *cheapest* worker they can find.&#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients will be slow to pay.&#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients generally have issues with scope creep.&#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients will only return to hire you again if they feel they got the &quot;better end&quot; of the deal. &#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients *never* accept an issue may be on *their* end and almost *always* assume if there's a problem it's the worker's fault.&#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients *always* want the same price, or a *better* price -  **if** they happen to return to you. They always argue for discounts, want a &quot;deal&quot;, or complain your rates are too high (even if they are remarkably low). They focus on what they are paying, not what they are receiving, your skills, abilities or other things you offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These are **generalizations**. However, in the $10/hr range you are setting yourself to build a stable of bad, demanding, problematic clients. In all my years of experience, I have **never** run into a **single** client looking for the &quot;cheapest rates&quot; that was anything other than a problem. Now, that is *my* experience. perhaps yours is different. And I *do not* know your region or specific fields. So, things could be different.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order to build **stable, repeat, long-standing, clients** you need one thing from them -- *loyalty*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you need to ask yourself who is more likely to value *your services* and feel more loyal over a period of time - the client paying you $10/hr or the client paying $50/hr?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or look at it this way... which do you take better care of and value more - the $20 pair of sunglasses you got at the grocery store or the $300 pair of Oakleys sunglasses?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then ask yourself where you want to be positioned in the market. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Gaining a quality stable of good, return, clients may take some time. However, **I have yet to *ever* see a bad client turn into a good client.** Things just do **not** happen that way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyone bargain shopping and hiring you for $10/hr is going to be a one-off, get it and be done, client. If they *happen* to return to you it will be out of necessity (or cheapness) on their part, not due to any loyalty towards you. And the moment you raise your rates, they will start looking for someone else at $10/hr rather than pay a higher rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can **never** start cheap with a client and expect them to be a long-standing, quality, client. They will customarily balk at each and every rate increase and as soon as they find someone cheaper, they'll drop you like a hot potato.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, I don't know your region or current rate trends for *your* specific skill set. But it seems to me, pricing yourself low is *never* a valid business decision unless you *know* you just want *any* work you can get, no matter how *bad* that work or client may be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, there's some general thought to the industry you are in. If everyone in your specific field is charging $30-$80/hr and you price yourself at $10/hr, you kind of do a disservice to *everyone* in the industry by conveying to the word that the work isn't worth much money. Granted this is a minor, secondary, thought. But if you *ever* want to be making *really good* money, you should keep the industry as a whole in mind and seek to elevate it, not lower it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12206" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4015" RevisionGUID="d510368e-3e91-4fc7-8b3e-a01e7115053d" CreationDate="2015-12-09T02:59:57.393" UserId="708" Comment="added 297 characters in body" Text="- **Good** clients are generally *not* the clients looking for the *cheapest* workers they can find. They are customarily more vested in abilities than actual price points. &#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients *know* that quality workers demand more than a bare minimum rate.&#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients customarily find *good* workers and continue to return to those workers in order to maintain a level of quality.&#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients respect the worker and understand that a business transaction must be beneficial *both* ways.&#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients openly discuss issues to *solve* them rather than focusing on blame.&#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients understand rates may increase over a period of time - they understand inflation, cost of living, and other business principles such as this as a &quot;whole&quot; rather than focusing *only* on what they must pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--- &#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients will always shop for the *cheapest* worker they can find.&#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients will be slow to pay.&#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients generally have issues with scope creep.&#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients will only return to hire you again if they feel they got the &quot;better end&quot; of the deal. &#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients *never* accept an issue may be on *their* end and almost *always* assume if there's a problem it's the worker's fault.&#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients *always* want the same price, or a *better* price -  **if** they happen to return to you. They always argue for discounts, want a &quot;deal&quot;, or complain your rates are too high (even if they are remarkably low). They focus on what they are paying, not what they are receiving, your skills, abilities or other things you offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These are **generalizations**. However, in the $10/hr range you are setting yourself to build a stable of bad, demanding, problematic clients. In all my years of experience, I have **never** run into a **single** client looking for the &quot;cheapest rates&quot; that was anything other than a problem. Now, that is *my* experience. perhaps yours is different. And I *do not* know your region or specific fields. So, things could be different.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order to build **stable, repeat, long-standing, clients** you need one thing from them -- *loyalty*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you need to ask yourself who is more likely to value *your services* and feel more loyal over a period of time - the client paying you $10/hr or the client paying $50/hr?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or look at it this way... which do you take better care of and value more - the $20 pair of sunglasses you got at the grocery store or the $300 pair of Oakleys sunglasses?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then ask yourself where you want to be positioned in the market. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Gaining a quality stable of good, return, clients may take some time. However, **I have yet to *ever* see a bad client turn into a good client.** Things just do **not** happen that way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyone bargain shopping and hiring you for $10/hr is going to be a one-off, get it and be done, client. If they *happen* to return to you it will be out of necessity (or cheapness) on their part, not due to any loyalty towards you. And the moment you raise your rates, they will start looking for someone else at $10/hr rather than pay a higher rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can **never** start cheap with a client and expect them to be a long-standing, quality, client. They will customarily balk at each and every rate increase and as soon as they find someone cheaper, they'll drop you like a hot potato.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, I don't know your region or current rate trends for *your* specific skill set. But it seems to me, pricing yourself low is *never* a valid business decision unless you *know* you just want *any* work you can get, no matter how *bad* that work or client may be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, there's some general thought to the industry you are in. If everyone in your specific field is charging $30-$80/hr and you price yourself at $10/hr, you kind of do a disservice to *everyone* in the industry by conveying to the word that the work isn't worth much money. Granted this is a minor, secondary, thought. But if you *ever* want to be making *really good* money, you should keep the industry as a whole in mind and seek to elevate it, not lower it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also be aware.. I don't use online services like &quot;upwork&quot; because that's where a lot of bad clients find workers. There are better ways to find quality clients. http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2848/how-can-experienced-contractor-survive-outside-elance-odesk-freelancer/2849#2849" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12207" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4016" RevisionGUID="4efdb142-136f-47a2-9174-6460be9af214" CreationDate="2015-12-09T06:10:24.400" UserId="10710" Text="I'm living in the U.S. I've found a great coder (who happens to live in Iraq / Kurdistan) to do some programming work on a website of mine. He's a computer science student there. He hasn't done anything for me yet, and is waiting for instructions from me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My concern is that if I pay him via PayPal or BitCoin (or some such), it will trigger a flag in some database (because it's a troubled region of the world filled with terrorism), and if some of that money finds its way into some terrorist network (via him, whether intentionally or not), I can get in trouble (providing material support to enemies / terrorists, or some such).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I just forget about dealing with this person and find someone else in a more peaceful part of the world? Or should I go ahead and give this person work. If the latter, then how should I pay him so that I can stay above reproach? Any and all advice appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12208" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4016" RevisionGUID="4efdb142-136f-47a2-9174-6460be9af214" CreationDate="2015-12-09T06:10:24.400" UserId="10710" Text="Risks of paying freelancer / subcontractor in Iraq / Kurdistan?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12209" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4016" RevisionGUID="4efdb142-136f-47a2-9174-6460be9af214" CreationDate="2015-12-09T06:10:24.400" UserId="10710" Text="|legal|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12210" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4017" RevisionGUID="f3ed5381-a0d3-4d5d-9c95-73cbb389381b" CreationDate="2015-12-09T10:39:17.650" UserId="58" Text="First, kick the notion that people in a part of the world are all linked to terrorism, somehow. It's completely baseless, racist, and xenophobic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're getting legitimate business/services from a person in another part of the world. However you pay them is up to your business terms, and your contract (make sure you have a contract, especially if you are dealing with someone in another country).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, something of note is that Iraq used to be subjected to complete and total trade sanctions by the US; this was lifted in 2003 and no longer applies, except for the arms embargo.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, continue on, business as usual. The fact that you'll be in frequent communication with a part of the world that is the target of various military/intelligence operations may mean that you have a small chance of being questioned, but that's why you have a contract for work, invoices, and a complete paper trail." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12211" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4017" RevisionGUID="6b62ca84-d9aa-48eb-ad21-0aba8e49725d" CreationDate="2015-12-09T11:28:55.203" UserId="58" Comment="added 106 characters in body" Text="First, kick the notion that people in a part of the world are all linked to terrorism, somehow. It's completely baseless, racist, and xenophobic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're getting legitimate business/services from a person in another part of the world. However you pay them is up to your business terms, and your contract (make sure you have a contract, especially if you are dealing with someone in another country).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, something of note is that Iraq used to be subjected to complete and total trade sanctions by the US; this was lifted in 2003 and no longer applies, except for the arms embargo. Nothing is preventing you from hiring out Iraqi citizens for freelance work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, continue on, business as usual. The fact that you'll be in frequent communication with a part of the world that is the target of various military/intelligence operations may mean that you have a small chance of being questioned, but that's why you have a contract for work, invoices, and a complete paper trail (the same as any other work)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12212" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4011" RevisionGUID="2766de2d-233f-46a4-afad-cb0e979192fa" CreationDate="2015-12-09T11:32:31.613" UserId="58" Comment="Minor corrections for grammar/readability" Text="Helping Hands' answer is a good starting point, especially asking for a reference. Let your client outline the main features in written form - and don't bother them with technical stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Managers typically don't care how anything is done as long as the result is working, and good looking; depending on the kind of work, a mock-up can be very useful to be sure you're heading in the right direction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a nutshell, concentrate on the final results, and not the way towards them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12213" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4000" RevisionGUID="9779db16-b81f-4aa2-a4b8-92913a4da9f5" CreationDate="2015-12-09T12:40:23.490" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/674569278092349440" />
  <row Id="12214" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4016" RevisionGUID="280e3a56-a56b-4d83-bb80-f17b377c8643" CreationDate="2015-12-09T18:51:12.950" UserId="10710" Comment="added 24 characters in body" Text="I'm living in the U.S. I've found a great coder (who happens to live in Iraq / Kurdistan) to do some programming work on a website of mine. He's a computer science student there. He hasn't done anything for me yet, and is waiting for instructions from me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My concern is that if I pay him via PayPal or BitCoin (or some such), it will trigger a flag in some database (because it's a troubled region of the world filled with terrorism), and if some of that money finds its way into some terrorist network (via him, whether intentionally or not), I can get in trouble (providing material support to enemies / terrorists, or some such).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I just forget about dealing with this person and find someone else in a more peaceful part of the world? Or should I go ahead and give this person work. If the latter, then how should I pay him (PayPal, BitCoin, etc.) so that I can stay above reproach? Any and all advice appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12215" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4018" RevisionGUID="a4c34474-1b61-4e8e-97ba-e58604a2ea9b" CreationDate="2015-12-10T05:17:34.660" UserId="10722" Text="One thing I have found to hold true - and not just in freelance work but in multiple aspects of my life - is *it never hurts to ask.*&#xD;&#xA;By this I mean that you'll never know unless you reach out and inquire. It's good to know if you are charging higher than others because you can adjust your pricing. It's also good to know if your ideas were turned down and, if so, why. You can take this feedback to help with your future projects so you become a better and better freelance worker.&#xD;&#xA;I don't feel like it is too soon or that you are being 'pushy'. Just word it in a way showing that you are still interested in helping your client in the future and would like to know how you can better adjust to fit their needs. It's always good to put it in a positive light by saying &quot;What can I do to better suit your needs&quot; rather than &quot;What did I do wrong?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;I wish you the best of luck with this!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12216" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4019" RevisionGUID="108bcbc6-a68e-4249-baa3-3bb08d6a2a34" CreationDate="2015-12-10T10:37:44.663" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Be aware that non IT people are unable to formulate their needs in the precise terms that you need (not that they lack the skills, but they aren't used to that). One option is to formalize for them after an interview and submit them your written requirements document, written in &quot;easy&quot; terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I believe that a much better approach is to let them play early with a preview/prototype and get feedback.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also notice that a contractor with &quot;limited time&quot; will get &quot;little satisfaction&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12217" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4020" RevisionGUID="812397e4-7ec1-4ba3-b8b6-beed648c6ea9" CreationDate="2015-12-10T10:49:00.083" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="There is no reason to involve the customers in your own history. Ask them a rate corresponding to the value of your work today. Not more, not less.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will attract and retain customers by understanding their needs, delivering the desired quality and being flexible." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12218" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4021" RevisionGUID="0d3a6728-9a42-4c74-888e-640ede092fd9" CreationDate="2015-12-10T17:10:31.977" UserId="1369" Text="My freelance field is journalism. I work in quite a specialised field where, while there are a lot of different outlets, they're all covering the same sorts of stories.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Up until recently, the editors I was working with were all asking me for quite distinct things and I never had any occasions where there were different people effectively asking me to do the same job. Recently, however, and perhaps unwisely, I've been picking up tasks from three different publications which all cover similar areas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That worked out okay for me at first, but I've just had to turn down no less than three requests from my longest-running client on the basis that one of their competitors had got their first. I felt I had to work it on a first-come, first-served basis have already promised relevant articles to different editors. In all cases the editors had contacted *me* about the stories rather than the other way round.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I felt terrible about this, especially since I've been working with them for so long. They were very nice about it, but I can't help feel that my standing with them has gone down a notch or two and that it's something that'll be remembered next time there's freelance work going. I've also lost out on some work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I presume anyone doing any sort of freelance work in a crowded field must deal with these sorts of issues from time to time. Is there any way these sorts of clashes can be handled better?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12219" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4021" RevisionGUID="0d3a6728-9a42-4c74-888e-640ede092fd9" CreationDate="2015-12-10T17:10:31.977" UserId="1369" Text="How to best handle conflicting requests from clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12220" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4021" RevisionGUID="0d3a6728-9a42-4c74-888e-640ede092fd9" CreationDate="2015-12-10T17:10:31.977" UserId="1369" Text="|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12221" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4016" RevisionGUID="5f35e780-ea3e-480b-9f78-4c1ff3057401" CreationDate="2015-12-10T17:18:37.397" UserId="10710" Comment="added 124 characters in body" Text="I'm living in the U.S. I've found a great coder (who happens to live in Iraq / Kurdistan) to do some programming work on a website of mine. He's a computer science student there. He hasn't done anything for me yet, and is waiting for instructions from me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My concern is that if I pay him via PayPal or BitCoin (or some such), it will trigger a flag in some database (because it's a troubled region of the world filled with terrorism), and if some of that money finds its way into some terrorist network (via him, whether intentionally or not), I can get in trouble (providing material support to enemies / terrorists, or some such). To add to the potential complications, I'm a permanent resident of the U.S. who intends to apply for citizenship next year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I just forget about dealing with this person and find someone else in a more peaceful part of the world? Or should I go ahead and give this person work. If the latter, then how should I pay him (PayPal, BitCoin, etc.) so that I can stay above reproach? Any and all advice appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12222" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4022" RevisionGUID="0f26bbfb-6485-44b3-b4fb-340805bf1a5b" CreationDate="2015-12-10T17:50:58.420" UserId="708" Text="In my experience, no one cares what the **subject** of the content is (as long as it's not offensive), they want to see how you handle the content - even if it's fabricated from scratch. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is your *execution* that is displayed in the portfolio. It doesn't matter if its for well-known companies, a mom &amp; pop outfit, a charity, a homeless guy down the street, or something you've completely dreamed up. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While overall time, budget, and resources may be a factor, I doubt anyone will either sway one way or another because the content happens to have a subject regarding a third-world charity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Portfolio pieces don't *have* to be for real, legitimate, companies. It can help potential employers if they know you worked within a budget, dealt with client-driven demands, and things of that nature. But the actual focus of the content is fairly irrelevant in most cases.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sidebar about &quot;contest&quot; sites. Yes, they are horrible. Not because of the projects, but because crowd sourcing sites that run the &quot;if we like it we'll pay you&quot; type of projects are just bad for professionals in the industry. They devolve the industry and it's workers into nothing more than &quot;slave labor&quot;. http://www.no-spec.com &quot;Spec work&quot; or &quot;work on the speculation of possible payment&quot; is just bad for anyone doing the work, no matter who you are. Showing work completed for these types of sites often carries a connotation that you are *not*  &quot;serious&quot; about the profession. I'm not stating that is true, merely that many may feel that way. People actually earning a living through professional services generally aren't those participating in crowd sourcing sites." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12224" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4023" RevisionGUID="d787e53e-573c-4820-8399-10371564bf69" CreationDate="2015-12-11T05:04:06.390" UserId="8125" Text="I have been doing freelancing since last 2 years. When I started My hourly rate was $5 , After 6 months I have increased to $10. Now 2 years completed and I have successfully completed 60 projects , 1700+ hours and have TOP RATED badge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So Should I increase my hourly rate to $15/$20? I would like to know what is base which help to decide hourly rate up down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have fear that high hourly rate could reduce work/project consistency." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12225" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4023" RevisionGUID="d787e53e-573c-4820-8399-10371564bf69" CreationDate="2015-12-11T05:04:06.390" UserId="8125" Text="What is correct time for freelancer to increase hourly rate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12226" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4023" RevisionGUID="d787e53e-573c-4820-8399-10371564bf69" CreationDate="2015-12-11T05:04:06.390" UserId="8125" Text="|freelance-websites|price-per-hour|hourly|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12227" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4024" RevisionGUID="7d78248e-d548-4e45-a70f-c6acec177d8d" CreationDate="2015-12-11T08:49:14.510" UserId="517" Text="It's up to you and there is no concrete answer to this question. Yes, you may be working for cheap money for months, but it could also be that $10 per hour is the top for your quality/expertise. You will never know if you don't try to increase. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Put all calcs on the paper. Would you earn more money working for one rate or another? If you will earn equally working 30% less time (and you can find clients for such rate), then go for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Increasing rate does not always mean that you want to earn more money. It also means that you want to earn the SAME but to work LESS." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12228" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4025" RevisionGUID="5ce5cf8a-663e-489a-a523-58283e6889cb" CreationDate="2015-12-11T12:29:55.923" UserId="2839" Text="I'm an unselfish, reliable, loyal, polite, clever, honest, resolute, shy man. Theese are remarkable characteristics for a programmer but they seams to be great disadvantages for customer/commercial relationships.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I end up giving too much to clients: I believe their stories, I lower my prices, I try to do anything possible to meet (and surpass) their expectations and to help them to achieve their goals, to make them happy. I believe computers can make life easier and I Know I have the knowledge to let it happens (I have two degrees in computer science). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems I should gain a lot, instead I'm in loss, earning in a year less then an employee's monthly paycheck... and I have to pay taxes, accountant, gas, adsl, as every other programmer... fortunately I live with my parents who help me buying clothes, pizzas with friends, ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently I begin to think I need someone to help me with customer/commercial relationships. Someone who can prevent me to make all the mistakes probably I'm not aware of and that bring me to give too much to clients.&#xD;&#xA;I think I need the help of a manager, but before searching on-line, I'd like to know what percentage I have to expect to pay him/her (just to avoid another cheater) or if there's a better way to solve my problem. Even with an high percentage I think I could start to earn something. He/she should search customers, give me advise for advertising on my website and how much charge clients for what I do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I could learn how to be a good seller/marketer, but I'm afraid it takes too much time and I prefer to write programs. Even after all my efforts, reaping legal problems, working even 11 month for free, obtaining losses in 7 years (since I start my job as a freelancer), I can't force myself to aim to become a seller/marketer. Maybe I simply can't do everything on my own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you for your help." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12229" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4025" RevisionGUID="5ce5cf8a-663e-489a-a523-58283e6889cb" CreationDate="2015-12-11T12:29:55.923" UserId="2839" Text="How to find someone to handle customer/commercial relationships on my behalf? (I'm a programmer)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12230" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4025" RevisionGUID="5ce5cf8a-663e-489a-a523-58283e6889cb" CreationDate="2015-12-11T12:29:55.923" UserId="2839" Text="|difficult-client|marketing|partner|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12231" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4025" RevisionGUID="58a08dc9-e228-4aea-975c-6e0f55d9e26d" CreationDate="2015-12-11T14:07:32.573" UserId="2839" Comment="edited tags" Text="|difficult-client|marketing|programmer|partner|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12232" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4026" RevisionGUID="a103b3d7-7931-4d70-b59e-387ee93f9460" CreationDate="2015-12-11T17:46:46.710" UserId="75" Text="So much to address here... First off, NO. You don't need a PR person on full-time to help you. You need to deal with your own situation before you bring more people in. Freelancing should make you more money than being a regular full-time employee, punching in and out everyday.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. What are your rates at? Obviously, too low. Read the other questions on here about finding your good going rate.&#xD;&#xA;2. Are you selling yourself, or the things you can do? You need to master BOTH.&#xD;&#xA;3. Don't offer discounts if it means you have to keep living at your parents place forever. It will give you no motivation to succeed, and that means one less freelancer on this site... I mean, out there...&#xD;&#xA;4. Practice with family or a friend, as if you were testing the waters with a new client. Your goal should be to convince them that they are making or saving more money by using your services than NOT using you or your services. The minute you're a cost factor, the manager will look for cheaper alternatives. Show them you can save them $xxxx per month by paying you $xxx for what YOU are an expert in.&#xD;&#xA;5. Do you have a portfolio? No? START ONE! Use famous services like GitHub for your code repositories, and start a simple, single-page web site - most are free or inexpensive. Hosting can be less than $5/mo for your own .com or many other TLDs. Print out business cards through a professional printer so they look good, and hand them out with your email and porfolio site on them. When I order business cards, they are less than $45 for 1000, on thick card stock, with a couple basic colours, and my contact info. On the back list some of my services.&#xD;&#xA;6. If you have down time and it's not the end of the work day, work on yourself. Training videos, updating personal projects, working on your portfolio, learning about new trends in your field, etc. Stay active, and keep your mind in the game.&#xD;&#xA;7. If you're working too hard with too many clients, raise your rates a little where you can (usually for hourly projects) for new clients to help balance out the load. It's great to make time for new clients, but if you have too many to get your basic jobs done, you have too many." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12233" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4027" RevisionGUID="40e6e41a-3e56-418d-96d2-83326d0a2465" CreationDate="2015-12-11T18:08:53.400" UserId="10748" Text="So I have a client that I built a site for a few months ago, it's an online leather goods store and they're launching ten new products over the next ten days for christmas that they want me to add to the site - anyone have ideas for what would be the best way to go about charging for this? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are really difficult clients that I very nearly fired due to their constant nagging for out of scope work at inappropriate times (weekends etc, that they never paid extra for) and now they have given me one days notice for these additions and asked for them as a 'favour'... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it wrong of me to simply give them an hourly rate and do the work under that regard?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12234" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4027" RevisionGUID="40e6e41a-3e56-418d-96d2-83326d0a2465" CreationDate="2015-12-11T18:08:53.400" UserId="10748" Text="Charging for additions to a client's website?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12235" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4027" RevisionGUID="40e6e41a-3e56-418d-96d2-83326d0a2465" CreationDate="2015-12-11T18:08:53.400" UserId="10748" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12236" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4026" RevisionGUID="ed12329d-f409-495a-8650-b59d161fedf4" CreationDate="2015-12-11T20:24:30.103" UserId="708" Comment="altered #3 a bit to be more anti-discount." Text="So much to address here... First off, NO. You don't need a PR person on full-time to help you. You need to deal with your own situation before you bring more people in. Freelancing should make you more money than being a regular full-time employee, punching in and out everyday.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. What are your rates at? Obviously, too low. Read the other questions on here about finding your good going rate.&#xD;&#xA;2. Are you selling yourself, or the things you can do? You need to master BOTH.&#xD;&#xA;3. Don't offer discounts. There is never a viable reason a discount needs to be given. *Most* professional services do *not* offer discounts merely for the asking. You have (hopefully) calculated your rates and know what you *need* to make. Dropping below your set rates will only mean you have to keep living at your parents place forever. It will give you no motivation to succeed, and that means one less freelancer on this site... I mean, out there...&#xD;&#xA;4. Practice with family or a friend, as if you were testing the waters with a new client. Your goal should be to convince them that they are making or saving more money by using your services than NOT using you or your services. The minute you're a cost factor, the manager will look for cheaper alternatives. Show them you can save them $xxxx per month by paying you $xxx for what YOU are an expert in.&#xD;&#xA;5. Do you have a portfolio? No? START ONE! Use famous services like GitHub for your code repositories, and start a simple, single-page web site - most are free or inexpensive. Hosting can be less than $5/mo for your own .com or many other TLDs. Print out business cards through a professional printer so they look good, and hand them out with your email and porfolio site on them. When I order business cards, they are less than $45 for 1000, on thick card stock, with a couple basic colours, and my contact info. On the back list some of my services.&#xD;&#xA;6. If you have down time and it's not the end of the work day, work on yourself. Training videos, updating personal projects, working on your portfolio, learning about new trends in your field, etc. Stay active, and keep your mind in the game.&#xD;&#xA;7. If you're working too hard with too many clients, raise your rates a little where you can (usually for hourly projects) for new clients to help balance out the load. It's great to make time for new clients, but if you have too many to get your basic jobs done, you have too many." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12245" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4029" RevisionGUID="25c9d707-72a3-4fb0-b4d0-d97bf951006d" CreationDate="2015-12-12T18:11:24.947" UserId="10759" Text="To take a quote from a video game player I have spent some time with, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; HTFU.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As bad as that sounds I agree that there is no reason to offer a discount on a service you have spent way too much time and money learning to give it away.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been recently offered similar advice from another close friend who has seen me doing the exact same thing as you, selling myself and my skills for less than the going rate.  There is a lot of competition from worldwide sources but if someone is asking you to build something for less than cost you should ask them which features are optional to get them to that cost value rather than slashing the rates.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few months ago another good friend came to me and explained how his company does it (they make lots of money and are in the fortune 500). They offer a base level low cost to hook the customer and the investment, and tie a maintenance contract to the service. As time goes on and software is tested for hooking additional services to the original service they then add that functionality, with an on and off switch of course.  For an additional fee the client can upgrade their service.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This allows the person selling the software to build a relationship and maintain something for the client that they like and can change but also grows with time.  Not only the customer program but the client customer relationship.  It also allows the cheapos to try, before they buy into the full package, some smaller less expensive packages that may fill the need they see without breaking their bank." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12246" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4030" RevisionGUID="4bfabf6f-f466-4262-aea2-ae8bce183b1b" CreationDate="2015-12-12T18:15:50.143" UserId="10758" Text="While I can easily understand your position, it is also clear for me why the customer wants to pay you more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not because (or not only because) he is so kind. He is in need of you to finish the project. And therefore he does not want you to be in need of money and take other projects, so becoming less focused on his project. Don't think of those money as of 'extra'. Think of those as of payment for making his project higher priority.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if you still feel uncomfortable taking those money now, you can suggest the customer to pay that amount as bonus once the project will be completed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12247" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2032" RevisionGUID="6f72a09c-8600-4bcc-bf21-358402a6f625" CreationDate="2015-12-12T18:19:26.247" UserId="708" Comment="added 68 characters in body" Text="Bill the full amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Accept the discount as payment terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, you bill $500. Client offers $100 in services discounts + $400 cash. Accept that payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The invoice should not reflect *how* the client is paying. However, the receipt for payment may. Similar to how you'd bill $X amount but offer a 10% discount for cash... the payment receipt would show the discount, not the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't customarily create receipts, do so for situations such as this so the client can show they've paid and you have a record of what was accepted as payment (should they fail to provide the discount).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In situations where the discount is for a personal item or service unrelated to your business, I believe they should be separate. The same way your business can't pay for your groceries directly - you can't accept a *personal* discount on behalf of the business. Therefore your business has nothing to do with the discount they are offering. It would equate to a &quot;kickback&quot;. Imagine if you had an employee in the same position... what would you advise? Would your business lower an invoice so an employee could get a *personal* discount somewhere? Most likely no.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Pay for the discounted service they are offering out of your pocket.... leave the business out of it, would be my advice.&#xD;&#xA;	&#xD;&#xA;2. The other option, is your business accepts the discounted service and pays for it... then you pay your business for the service. You essentially buy the discount from your business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, if it's a personal item/service you should personally be paying for the service/item. If the business merely acts as a middleman, I believe that's fine. But be aware, I ***am not an accountant or tax attorney.***" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12249" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4031" RevisionGUID="96ecd8c4-90bf-4aa2-aa3e-5a5a6c8e5ba8" CreationDate="2015-12-13T01:58:37.157" UserId="1018" Text="A reasonable course of action would be to quote the estimated number of hours required to complete the task, your hourly rate and your availability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider quoting a premium rate for work outside of your normal working hours and you will soon find out how much of an emergency this is for your client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client may accept or decline your proposal or come back to you with a counter proposal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can then work out if what they are prepared to pay is worth the grief or not." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12250" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4032" RevisionGUID="bbf6cfc5-3dc2-42e6-97a1-a00b1429826c" CreationDate="2015-12-13T03:55:14.510" UserId="10757" Text="The best way to handle this situation is to go into an hourly contract. Then you can anytime provide them any extra support and bill them the hours you spend extra. You just need to come up with a reasonable hourly rate which suits both you and your client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12251" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4025" RevisionGUID="144667a5-b3c8-4444-b83b-5c3226d7f447" CreationDate="2015-12-13T13:52:09.993" UserId="4896" Comment="Copy edits." Text="I'm an unselfish, reliable, loyal, polite, clever, honest, resolute, shy man. These are remarkable characteristics for a programmer but they seem to be a great disadvantage for customer/commercial relationships.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I end up giving too much to clients: I believe their stories, I lower my prices, I try to do anything possible to meet (and surpass) their expectations and to help them to achieve their goals, to make them happy. I believe computers can make life easier and I know I have the knowledge to let it happens (I have two degrees in computer science). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems I should gain a lot, instead I'm in loss, earning in a year less then an employee's monthly paycheck. And I have to pay taxes, accountant, gas, ADSL, as every other programmer. Fortunately I live with my parents who help me buying clothes, pizza with friends.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently I begin to think I need someone to help me with customer/commercial relationships. Someone who can prevent me to make all the mistakes probably I'm not aware of and that bring me to give too much to clients.&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think I need the help of a manager, but before searching on-line, I'd like to know what percentage I have to expect to pay him/her (just to avoid another cheater) or if there's a better way to solve my problem. Even with an high percentage I think I could start to earn something. He/she should search customers, give me advise for advertising on my website and how much charge clients for what I do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I could learn how to be a good seller/marketer, but I'm afraid it takes too much time and I prefer to write programs. Even after all my efforts, reaping legal problems, working even 11 month for free, obtaining losses in 7 years (since I start my job as a freelancer), I can't force myself to aim to become a seller/marketer. Maybe I simply can't do everything on my own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you for your help." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12252" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4025" RevisionGUID="144667a5-b3c8-4444-b83b-5c3226d7f447" CreationDate="2015-12-13T13:52:09.993" Comment="Proposed by 4896 approved by 2839 edit id of 443" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12253" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4033" RevisionGUID="0747be9c-74b9-47f2-a4cc-b4f00e0c8413" CreationDate="2015-12-13T16:45:37.013" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Hourly rate or fixed-price offer or any other provisions are possible. What matters is to obtain a **written agreement** on the fee **before** you perform any work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12254" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4033" RevisionGUID="4dc5a846-a436-410c-81ba-442fa83b5a02" CreationDate="2015-12-13T16:50:40.603" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="added 86 characters in body" Text="Hourly rate or fixed-price offer or any other provisions are possible. What matters is to obtain a **written agreement** on the fee **before** you perform any work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That customer probably doesn't deserve a favor anymore. Feel free to explain them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12259" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4025" RevisionGUID="3cd7e56f-a124-49a4-9be2-820fc062e9a2" CreationDate="2015-12-14T16:03:07.333" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/676432235801796608" />
  <row Id="12260" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4035" RevisionGUID="5d4eff99-0890-4ba5-b1f2-396376b3afa2" CreationDate="2015-12-14T17:46:56.383" UserId="8795" Text="Firstly, this is a new work order, so yes you should definitely charge them for it .. and unless they can be tied down to very specific requirements I would quote hourly rates with an estimate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, the description of the change &quot;add ten new items to the inventory&quot; suggests that the underlying design of the site is somewhat fixed. Surely, the client has the ability to change their inventory without coming to you each time? If not, you may want to consider proposing (and quoting for) the development of a more flexible/customizable site implementation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If, on the other hand, what they are wanting is some new means to highlight &quot;Special Offers&quot; or &quot;New Products&quot; etc, then we come back to it being a completely new feature of the site which needs to be spec'd out properly and implemented.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And I suspect the &quot;emergency&quot; nature of the request is that it's the holiday shopping season and they want to get lots of exposure for new products ... in which case, you have some leverage for charging a premium as they have an immovable deadline." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12261" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4036" RevisionGUID="434d1baf-6a60-44da-94ec-aa4bd71ddb3c" CreationDate="2015-12-14T19:24:46.873" UserId="10783" Text="So, I've worked as a freelance copywriter for almost a year for different agencies, corporations and  friends/family.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am having health issues and bad luck, so I am considering doing some freelance work to quit bouncing around for a while.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unlike most people on these sites, I am American and have experience with national brands. I feel this gives me an edge. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any site recommendations? I have never done this before and know my rate will be higher than a lot of people on these sites. At a regular non-remote job, I ask for 18/hr. Is this too high freelance-wise?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12262" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4036" RevisionGUID="434d1baf-6a60-44da-94ec-aa4bd71ddb3c" CreationDate="2015-12-14T19:24:46.873" UserId="10783" Text="Best freelance site to use as a writer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12263" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4036" RevisionGUID="434d1baf-6a60-44da-94ec-aa4bd71ddb3c" CreationDate="2015-12-14T19:24:46.873" UserId="10783" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12264" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="4036" RevisionGUID="759515c3-dcb0-46c1-b7f5-d0b93071545b" CreationDate="2015-12-15T00:06:47.587" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;SOIA&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="12265" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4037" RevisionGUID="b367d799-ec38-488f-8379-08a65cd87334" CreationDate="2015-12-15T15:47:03.310" UserId="820" Text="First, there is certainly no universal answer to this. There are many factors, and a fair amount of them have little to do with your work itself, and more to do with your goals, tolerance to risk, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I have fear that high hourly rate could reduce work/project consistency.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think in your case, that's your answer. Since you're billing hourly ([which is what I do](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1588/which-is-the-most-honest-or-ethical-way-to-bill-hourly-or-fixed-price/1600#1600)), you can look at it as supply / demand. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When should you increase your price? When there is **more demand than supply**. Which is to say, when you **turn down or delay new work because your schedule is full**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that point your rate becomes a way to reduce demand until it matches the available supply. So if you're currently working at capacity, this method would have you increasing your rate incrementally until you reach a point of equilibrium. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, freelancing is a bit volatile by nature, so 'equilibrium' won't really mean you never have to delay a new project or have some downtime between projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But **supply / demand isn't a perfect model** (at all) when it comes to **your time**. As [Peter points out](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/4024/820) you could benefit from increasing your rate to a point that you have more time (supply) than work (demand) yet be making the same or more. I touch on this briefly during the ['I Don't Scale' section of my 'Adventures' talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aL4ii_Z3EI&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;t=800).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another factor to consider when it comes to hourly rates is that some clients won't be interested in you because of your rate. But that cuts both ways. It's not just clients that can't (or won't) afford higher rates, there are also clients that won't be interested in low rates **because of what a low rate communicates to them**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can raise rates without surplus demand as long as the value of your time has increased. Or, to state it another way, as long as you understand clients will have a different expectation when paying $50/hr than they do when paying $10/hr. (*At least good, competent clients will.*)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  I would like to know what is base which help to decide hourly rate up down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not the only list that could be put together, but a **tl;dr; of the above**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Are you working at capacity? Increase incrementally until demand matches supply.&#xD;&#xA;- Are you tired of working at capacity? Experiment with increases that keep your income the same, but reduce your time.&#xD;&#xA;- Has your skill or ability increased significantly? Increase to reflect the value, understanding that client expectations will change as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12266" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4038" RevisionGUID="3d7beca7-238e-47dd-a570-f474e9ac066b" CreationDate="2015-12-15T20:14:18.880" UserId="10792" Text="I finally committed to becoming a full stack web developer about a year ago.  I have progressed very well, but am not an expert by any stretch.  But I am happy with my progress.  It is time now to build up my portfolio so I can sell myself in the market place.  I have three sites in it now, all three are live.  But they are, with the exception of one that uses some AJAX, static sites.  My question is aimed primarily at you clients/employers.  I have read many of your frustrations and every time I do I want to scream through the monitor &quot;Here I am!  Hire me!&quot;  Anyhow, please let me know what you are looking for in a portfolio so I have a good idea of how to do it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12267" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4038" RevisionGUID="3d7beca7-238e-47dd-a570-f474e9ac066b" CreationDate="2015-12-15T20:14:18.880" UserId="10792" Text="How many completed projects is good for a portfolio for a new freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12268" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4038" RevisionGUID="3d7beca7-238e-47dd-a570-f474e9ac066b" CreationDate="2015-12-15T20:14:18.880" UserId="10792" Text="|freelance-websites|portfolio|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12269" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4039" RevisionGUID="2cf49f36-1807-4d35-b907-18b9cd210c2b" CreationDate="2015-12-15T21:36:41.677" UserId="10793" Text="I am invoicing my work hours and travel expenses to customers in USD. My invoices have a part about worked hours using an hourly rate in USD, however my travel expenses can be in any other currencies depending on the visited country.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order to have the total amount due on the invoice in USD, I have to choose an exchange rate from other currencies to the USD. Do you have any advice on what reference to use (XE, OANDA or others)? Should I use the bid or ask rate?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any other tips to avoid loosing on exchange rate are welcome! At least I want to get paid on all my pocket paid expenses without loosing a cent :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks a lot!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12270" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4039" RevisionGUID="2cf49f36-1807-4d35-b907-18b9cd210c2b" CreationDate="2015-12-15T21:36:41.677" UserId="10793" Text="What exchange rate to use when invoicing customers abroad?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12271" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4039" RevisionGUID="2cf49f36-1807-4d35-b907-18b9cd210c2b" CreationDate="2015-12-15T21:36:41.677" UserId="10793" Text="|price|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12272" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4040" RevisionGUID="e280212d-d56b-45ae-bdfa-1955d0464d78" CreationDate="2015-12-16T07:19:32.853" UserId="8125" Text="Just covert all your expenses in USD because you will get paid in USD currency. You can consider current/past exchange rate from [Exchange rate history][1]. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Choose exchange rate as per time of your expenses. Suppose if you have paid XXX amount in last month then check exchange rate of last month , convert to USD then add that count to invoice. I think this is good way to prepare invoice. So you will get all cost which you paid and client will no get over billed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.x-rates.com/historical/?from=USD" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12273" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4041" RevisionGUID="82a4c78a-8fc8-48a0-af08-207d0953a1c7" CreationDate="2015-12-16T07:41:15.110" UserId="8125" Text="Question seems little bit off topic but title says something on topic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Portfolio is a thing which increase by experience and course of time. For freelance Portfolio quality is important rather than quantity. Because many freelancer have worked on long term projects like for 2/3 years continue so they have it might possible that they have 2 or 3 projects only to show as portfolio but thing is how those project are strong , what important role freelancer play in those projects and what skills freelancer used.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have experienced that most of client not interested that what you have in portfolio and what you did , They have more interest in **Did you developed similar product which match my current requirement.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So concentrate on strong portfolio which will help you to shine as freelancer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12277" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4043" RevisionGUID="417f56e7-0c26-43f6-a6b0-3dd562cb9e60" CreationDate="2015-12-16T14:53:38.630" UserId="7207" Text="In my experience, in South Carolina, when I made below a certain amount. I did not get penalized. So the best course of action would be to talk to a tax professional. Best of luck to you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12278" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4044" RevisionGUID="8f25e07d-3487-4c63-b1a8-62330db1b8a7" CreationDate="2015-12-16T15:00:40.627" UserId="7207" Text="When I am building a new site. I use my local web server that I build the site on. This is not live that people can see. Once I am ready for the client to see what's there, I upload it to my freelance company's website as a folder or a sub-domain. client.business.com This way they can see it live." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12279" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4045" RevisionGUID="1daa3eca-fab8-4c4f-b3be-d1590eadf81a" CreationDate="2015-12-16T15:07:12.113" UserId="7207" Text="When it comes to portfolios, this is a delicate situation. It all depends on a few factors;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. What position are you looking for?&#xD;&#xA;2. What is the company you are applying to looking for?&#xD;&#xA;3. What are your strengths?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, it's smart to show resent stuff that you did. I would not show something that you did 5+ years ago. Three years is a decent amount of time. Some people may say that's to old. Now if you have done three to five projects this year, I would stop there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you are building your portfolio, you need to show your strong projects. Also, make sure that you have variety as well. Do not show them the same shopping cart five times with just new paint on each one. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, depending on what the company you are applying to wants will determine what to add to your portfolio, just like your resume. Also, check the company's career website to see if they have any requirements for submitted portfolios. I hope this adds some insight to your question." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12280" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4046" RevisionGUID="6e9fd44c-05d5-4028-ae66-f924a6d03980" CreationDate="2015-12-16T15:07:49.660" UserId="10396" Text="Personally, I would recommend OANDA. This site is used by major corporations and may make you seem more professional (my opinion).  They also have a good app.  &#xA;&#xA;To get the most of your US money back, you will need to use the rate for each day you made a billable charge.  This gets a little tedious if you make a lot of purchases.  You could also use the weekly or monthly exchange rate average, but this won't be as accurate.  Whichever you choose, be sure your client is in documented agreement.  Also, ask the client about billing your credit card exchange fee back to them.  &#xA;&#xA;Regarding your buy/sell question, OANDA says...&#xA;&#xA;&gt; At OANDA, we default to the Bid price for our applications, as it more accurately mimics the rate that you would be charged if you were exchanging money&#xA;&#xA;I would also suggest reading the following OANDA site that explains how they calculate their exchange rates as an average throughout 24 hours, not just the hours trading is open.  They seem to use as many currency points as reputable firms release.  It's quite impressive, check it out and see what you think...&#xA;&#xA;http://www.oanda.com/help/how-to-read-currency-conversion-results&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12286" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4048" RevisionGUID="8dc46257-8bdd-4636-94c9-562fad78232f" CreationDate="2015-12-16T22:53:26.877" UserId="4561" Text="I have not had a &quot;company&quot; ask me anything about my insurance before.  But every time I've proposed work for a government agency (A city or county in California) they have required insurance.  Sometimes they will waive it. Sometimes not.  But it's not as high as what this company wants of you.  (Are you driving a truck for them? The high automobile insurance requirements seem odd to me.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think it is common in the US for contractors to have general liability and errors &amp; omissions insurance. But it's also common not to.  I don't ***think*** it is ***required*** by ***law***.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One reason a company might want you to get it is because if you damage something while on their property (accidentally burn the building down) General Liability would cover it.  If you make a big mistake (accidentally wipe out all their data and backup.) I think Error and Omissions would cover it.  I don't know if they are legally liable for your actions during your commute to/from the premises.  Not sure how your auto liability would protect them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I dealt with the cities that required the insurance they were very used to independent contractors not having insurance.  One waived the requirement and the other let me raise my rate to cover the cost since I had to get it just for them.  You might ask them if they will consider waiving it.  If they won't, you might find out the cost then add an &quot;administrative fee&quot; to your proposal that covers it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12287" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4049" RevisionGUID="155c47b3-5f88-4217-bd0a-8e98812393dc" CreationDate="2015-12-16T23:09:19.327" UserId="4561" Text="What Canadian Luke said!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Plus, I would add:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Never*** give a price or time estimate when speaking with the client.  Just like me, you are too weak for this right now!  Rather, practice this on family and friends and in the mirror until it feels natural:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pause and give a thoughtful look.  Then say &quot;I'm going to have to think this through. Let me get back to you.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And then you think about it and send them an estimate in writing (by email) where you will be much stronger than you are in person.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sure, you want to be nice to them but they are not being nice to you if they are working you for discounts and here you are an educated, hard working expert whose having to rely on his parents to make ends meet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, as a kind, thoughtful, honest person, ask yourself this: Isn't it awfully unfair to your clients who pay your full fee no questions asked when you give a discount to other clients? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your rate is your rate and you devalue yourself in their eyes every time you lower it.  If you want to &quot;help&quot; someone, say something like this:  &quot;Well, this is a significant amount of work, but we could probably leave out XYZ features if this is over budget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BTW, you may lose some clients but you will be liberated and you will find some clients actually seem happier when they are paying more and those clients are also usually much more low maintenance than the cheap ones.  They are the clients you want to find.  You need to make room for them by weeding out the ones who suck the life out of you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12294" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4051" RevisionGUID="2731ec66-7d48-49ad-bc82-1c421fd4dba1" CreationDate="2015-12-17T16:45:52.367" UserId="10815" Text="I worked for a small / local web development company whose owner retired about 2 years ago. The previous business offered hosting services (which, set up years ago was done in a shared hosting environment) which I just carried on (I pay the host company for the shared hosting account and then I bill the clients yearly via Quickbook/invoices). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Along the way there have been several issues with this set up and I'm considering either going to a reseller account (where clients have their own cPanels and billing via WHM) OR getting out of hosting all together.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One of my issues is most of my clients are... not really computer literate.  They would easily sign their domain names over to DOA or similar hinky practices. Many of them liked the 'small town, small business' approach my previous employer had (which did work 10+ years ago...but... things and times change).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another issue along with this are website owner's who don't (for various reasons) keep their website scripts up to date and a website gets compromised (violated, hacked). It seems the consensus is that it must be 'my fault' since I am the hosting provider.  Currently my / the actual hosting company doesn't feel the same way (which leaves me holding the blame).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A third issue is that when I bill a client for their domain renewal or their hosting renewal they seem to be of the mindset that they can pay ME late and I won't disrupt their service. If I do, they get very agitated. They don't seem to understand that GoDaddy and the like will cut their service for non-payment up front too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And my fourth issue, I really don't DESIRE to learn every detail about email and web servers (my last place of employment had a dedicated ColdFusion server and it was just... a life and soul sucking experience).  I want to spend my brain power being a better website developer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I'm trying to restructure what I do so that I can try to avoid the above mentioned drama, and more time actually doing web development work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One of my 'shared' hosting accounts expires in January (with the ability to renew monthly while I sort this out).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In comes the reseller hosting packages. I was specifically thinking of either InMotion or HostGator (I'm already with them now). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Part of me would love to be out of the hosting game, so that things like a hack (or misuse of WordPress) or general hosting service issues comes about I can charge for my time spent inquiring about the problem (just as if you take your computer into the computer shop).  Part of me wants to stay in because I am making about $3K a year on hosting, and for the most part it hasn't been bad (with the exception of a reason hack to one WP site that took down the others on the account - which I would assume would not be as easy in a reseller account where everyone has their own cPanel).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd love to hear some first hand experience with them.  :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12295" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4051" RevisionGUID="2731ec66-7d48-49ad-bc82-1c421fd4dba1" CreationDate="2015-12-17T16:45:52.367" UserId="10815" Text="I'm a 'freelance' web developer / considering hosting client websites as reseller (or not) - opinons wanted on reseller accounts" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12296" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4051" RevisionGUID="2731ec66-7d48-49ad-bc82-1c421fd4dba1" CreationDate="2015-12-17T16:45:52.367" UserId="10815" Text="|client-support|billable-hours|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12297" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4038" RevisionGUID="1e6e10d2-d31e-4b14-9d7b-2bcccc125dd1" CreationDate="2015-12-17T16:49:21.733" UserId="10792" Comment="Edited to bring question more on topic." Text="I finally committed to becoming a full stack web developer about a year ago.  I have progressed very well, but am not an expert by any stretch.  But I am happy with my progress.  It is time now to build up my portfolio so I can sell myself in the market place.  I have three sites in it now, all three are live.  But they are, with the exception of one that uses some AJAX, static sites.  As a new freelancer, how many projects is good for a new portfolio?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12298" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4052" RevisionGUID="1136575c-a56a-48af-9b36-b8f1441ef31b" CreationDate="2015-12-17T18:43:26.343" UserId="75" Text="I'm going to assume you either were a partner, or your bought the old business, correct? Is the old owner around and able to help you out with this part?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I only ask, because it seems like that is the only thing you don't want to deal with. Do I blame you? Absolutely not! I just had a meeting yesterday with an old manager of mine who wants to keep hosting their email and website off their file server, with no dedicated or on-call IT staff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was able to explain to him how data centers make sense, especially for non-computer savvy people, because they have the infrastructure to make it work. They have security, redundancy, speed, and reliability. He ran the numbers, and saw it was cheaper, so he agreed. I'll manage his file server remotely from my office, but he'll also have the tools to do the basics himself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Point being, I am not a savvy mail administrator. If my customers want a mail server, I can hack together one in Linux, using only free, open source software, but I explain it would be much cheaper and more reliable to get someone (or a company) who specializes in it, to keep it up and running reliably.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are freelancing, you need to do what makes you happy, and what you're good at. Hopefully, those two are the same. If there is one part you don't like, you have a couple options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Hire someone good at it to deal with that part of your business. This costs money (in terms of a salary, most likely), and in parts (you need to ensure they have access to the servers, right?)&#xD;&#xA;2. Offer to help transfer their domain to a new hosting provider, and explain what your roll is (web designer). For people that do not understand how the magic of the Internet works, this may not work too well.&#xD;&#xA;3. Keep doing the reseller account, but offer a package where you go in once a week, take a full backup, and update any plugins for them. This gives you extra money every month, or extra money every year, depending how you bill them. Ensure they understand what you WILL cover, and what you WON'T cover.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope that helps, but you need to decide for yourself what you want to do. Web hosting is not going away (as an industry), but if you can help the customer, and have the host charge them directly, it sounds like you'd be happy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did 2 and 3, and 3 is what I typically do. I develop (I don't design, not my thing) the product, host it on my server temporarily so the customer can make changes as needed before it goes live. Once they are happy, the new contract is signed, I walk them through the signup process, and move the site over for them. This kept them happy, in the loop, and I ensured they understood what the extra maintenance fee was for. I also don't need to deal with paying another company constantly, and waiting for a client to send me the money. They know if they don't pay, I just stop working on their site, and the host takes the site down if they don't pay the host." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12299" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4053" RevisionGUID="4512af52-da1a-4c4f-a5fa-787f3d698860" CreationDate="2015-12-17T21:53:55.227" UserId="4601" Text="I generally agree that discounting on request can be a dead end and not desireable.  I'm in a different business, but sometimes face the same issues.  An approach that I use, and with which I am comfortable  is this for hourly work: &#xD;&#xA;&quot;Here's my standard hourly rate:  x $/h&quot;, it applies to corporate and business clients, for single homeowners (who are also in my client base) I immediately (not after negotiation) offer a &quot;discounted rate from my corporate rate for homeowners of 80% of x&quot;.  It makes both them and me feel good and it's upfront and I think it helps close the smaller jobs.  For large jobs, and you have to define that for yourself, I have offered discounts on &quot;additional&quot; work.  Using &gt;1 week as large, for example, I would offer x$/h for the first week and .8x $/h for the succeeding weeks, provided a full additional week is charged.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12310" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4056" RevisionGUID="4e543647-3ad3-41fa-8f4e-34817bc484cc" CreationDate="2015-12-18T13:14:17.777" UserId="10823" Text="I've been considering consulting in my field - I have a graduate degree and four years in the field.  My experience has been accelerated due to the nature of my career position.  I've been approached by a company I have worked with via contract with my employer to do work - my current employer has no problem with this.&#xA;&#xA;They stated they would take me as a consultant or an an employee in a &quot;part time on call&quot; capacity.  I'm considering the latter as I'm busy with work and family, and this seemed an easy way to enter the freelancing world.&#xA;&#xA;Many websites discuss rates for consultants but this would be somewhere in between.  Let's pick a number for my current pay at $50/hr, would should I propose this side work should pay?  Their overhead should obviously be lower, I imagine that I won't receive ( and don't need) sick &amp; vacation pay nor medical insurance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12311" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4056" RevisionGUID="4e543647-3ad3-41fa-8f4e-34817bc484cc" CreationDate="2015-12-18T13:14:17.777" UserId="10823" Text="Part Time On Call rate" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12312" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4056" RevisionGUID="4e543647-3ad3-41fa-8f4e-34817bc484cc" CreationDate="2015-12-18T13:14:17.777" UserId="10823" Text="|pay-rate|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12313" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4057" RevisionGUID="4b31d2ab-a5d9-4e74-80cc-ceb679ccb66c" CreationDate="2015-12-18T18:20:23.257" UserId="708" Text="This is a bit tricky and really impossible for anyone to answer definitively. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Truth is, any position should/could pay whatever someone is willing to pay for it. There are no solid figures that can be provided. Every person, position, and company is different.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My *suggestion* would be consulting rates at about two-thirds your full working rate. So, if your full rate is $50/hr then consulting rates would be $35/hr or around that. It's customarily that consulting fees for *some* positions are less than actual working rates. However, some individuals *only* consult, so their rates are just their rates and there's no reduction for consulting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately it comes down to what you are comfortable with and what the company is willing to pay. It's *always* a bit of a guessing game." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12314" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4057" RevisionGUID="9289855f-7bf6-4044-aac0-e61adf05888f" CreationDate="2015-12-18T19:24:54.890" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body" Text="This is a bit tricky and really impossible for anyone to answer definitively. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Truth is, any position should/could pay whatever someone is willing to pay for it. There are no solid figures that can be provided. Every person, position, and company is different.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My *suggestion* would be consulting rates at about two-thirds your full working rate. So, if your full rate is $50/hr then consulting rates would be $35/hr or around that. It's customary that consulting fees for *some* positions are less than actual working rates. However, some individuals *only* consult, so their rates are just their rates and there's no reduction for consulting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately it comes down to what you are comfortable with and what the company is willing to pay. It's *always* a bit of a guessing game." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12315" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4058" RevisionGUID="340b6e6a-75ec-4cf8-ad69-d1648690ee6f" CreationDate="2015-12-18T19:40:12.117" UserId="4561" Text="I would ask them for an offer and see what they are thinking.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assuming you only get paid when they use you, I would charge significantly more for consulting than I would for an employee type position.  Roughly double because:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A consultant picks up all their own overhead (insurance, retirement, etc.). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An consultant that only gets paid when needed has zero guarantee of income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are &quot;on call&quot; and have to respond quickly when called, then you're free time is not truly free time as you must remain &quot;ready&quot; at that time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The company saves by not having to pay the employee overhead (which can be huge).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The company gets the benefit of having your known/reliable services when they need them, but only having to pay when they use you.  If they had to keep an employee or had to go scout out a new consultant every time they needed work done, it would cost them a lot more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom line, companies pay consultants more per hour than employees because consultants are taking all the financial risks and need to stay in business when times are slow to be available to companies when those companies want/need them.  The hourly rate is more but it costs the employer much less to use consultants for sporadic work.  Everyone wins.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is more like a part time job with a guaranteed amount of work, then I would probably charge 25% more than I would as an employee.  They're still getting the benefit of not having to pay overhead and the fact that you don't &quot;need&quot; the insurance does not mean your hour is not worth that amount of money.  It just means you must maintain a full time position in order to be able to offer them the services they want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One caveat - if you really want to break into consulting and you think this will help you and they won't pay the rate you want, you might lower the rate to get your foot in the door.  But only if you see this position actually helping you get other consulting clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12318" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3578" RevisionGUID="cfe7139e-2d3b-48fd-96e7-478f0167cc92" CreationDate="2015-12-19T13:38:52.410" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/678207873890058240" />
  <row Id="12319" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4056" RevisionGUID="d0a91619-cc12-48b2-96bc-1c18b108fb21" CreationDate="2015-12-20T04:49:51.937" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/678437133296771072" />
  <row Id="12320" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3000" RevisionGUID="d983bd43-7aef-40e3-a03f-745258bda832" CreationDate="2015-12-20T10:49:52.643" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/678527732947533824" />
  <row Id="12321" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4059" RevisionGUID="0139f77c-0e92-49e1-8a16-cbb538b087bf" CreationDate="2015-12-20T20:57:34.590" UserId="10847" Text="I will often open up a project, [such as the this one][1], and see an extremely vague description. However, people are giving bids for the project, so that means that they approximately imagine what it entails. Is there any place to ask questions about a project, or to find out further information about it. In fact, how do I find out more information about the project that I linked, other than the title text and the seven word description containing &quot;payment gateway, chat window and messaging integration.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]:https://www.freelancer.com/projects/php/Write-some-Software-9161999/ " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12322" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4059" RevisionGUID="0139f77c-0e92-49e1-8a16-cbb538b087bf" CreationDate="2015-12-20T20:57:34.590" UserId="10847" Text="How does one find project details on Freelancer.com?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12323" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4059" RevisionGUID="0139f77c-0e92-49e1-8a16-cbb538b087bf" CreationDate="2015-12-20T20:57:34.590" UserId="10847" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12324" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="4059" RevisionGUID="2c5c4703-b3a0-4508-9852-ac37546cb451" CreationDate="2015-12-20T21:01:40.923" UserId="10847" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:10847,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;FabulousGlobe&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="12325" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="4059" RevisionGUID="b9e087a2-cecd-4384-88e7-0e5744d3b40b" CreationDate="2015-12-20T21:03:01.180" UserId="10847" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:10847,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;FabulousGlobe&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="12326" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4060" RevisionGUID="f1d9b4c9-89b2-4d48-a5c5-d9d00db886c8" CreationDate="2015-12-21T03:49:29.370" UserId="8125" Text="Sometime it happens that employer post project/job and wanted to share more details about project with some shortlisted candidates only. So in this case you can ask for more details while sending proposal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can start proposal like :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Can you please share more details about your requirements/Project? I would&#xD;&#xA;&gt; like to know detail requirements which will help me to decide project development&#xD;&#xA;&gt; time estimation and cost estimation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Above is example to ask for detail requirements with proposal. You can change it depends on project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12327" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4061" RevisionGUID="28616e7c-fa3e-4411-a082-5f7677e9e01f" CreationDate="2015-12-21T06:47:25.773" UserId="10852" Text="Give project details in your CV. Do not just put freelancing etc.&#xD;&#xA;Also write what have you exactly done for those projects. Or you can create your own website and put your resume there, like this - [http://shirsendu.com/resumedas.pdf][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://shirsendu.com/resumedas.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12328" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4062" RevisionGUID="a5bf2dc0-8632-46aa-89c8-88d18f1c7ba6" CreationDate="2015-12-21T11:32:44.173" UserId="8046" Text="You can convert all your other currencies into USD using the exact day when you created those expenses in that currency. [Xe.com][1] is a good reference for this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**One thing to be careful about... the currency exchange and the exchange rate are 2 different things.** You need to calculate that currency exchange cost as well and most online currency converter will not show you this info.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whenever you convert money into a different currency, part of this conversion will include a certain rate for this operation and this can vary depending on your financial institution or payment method. This is a little extra fee you pay for getting that currency conversion service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually, it's safe to add at least 2-3% (ideally 3%) to your conversion to make sure you're not actually paying for it when you'll get your expenses refunded. This is some kind of hidden markup, and when you convert your money, it might not appear as a separate fee on the cost of conversion and will be shown as the exchange rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You mentioned in a comment that the currency value changes all day; indeed you're right, you can't be 100% precise with this. With the currency conversion rate, that's where you can add an extra 0.1-0.5% (or what you want) to your conversion to compensate for the fluctuations that could get you in the negative. In a way, you also need to get a compensation for the administration of that currency exchange and the extra paperwork it gives you; that's why it's fair to add a little extra percentage just for this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Read this for details:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/090314/how-calculate-exchange-rate.asp&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.xe.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12329" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4062" RevisionGUID="89e7b687-a085-4878-8c7a-063bc82ba69a" CreationDate="2015-12-21T11:41:25.797" UserId="8046" Comment="added 29 characters in body" Text="You can convert all your other currencies into USD using the exact day when you created those expenses in that currency. [Xe.com][1] is a good reference for this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**One thing to be careful about... the currency exchange and the exchange rate are 2 different things.** You need to calculate that currency exchange cost as well and most online currency converter will not show you this info.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whenever you convert money into a different currency, part of this conversion will include a certain rate for this operation and this can vary depending on your financial institution or payment method. This is a little extra fee you pay for getting that currency conversion service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually, it's safe to add at least 2-5% (usually 2.5% in most banks/credit cards) to your conversion to make sure you're not actually paying for it when you'll get your expenses refunded. This is some kind of hidden markup, and when you convert your money, it might not appear as a separate fee on the cost of conversion and will be shown as the exchange rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You mentioned in a comment that the currency value changes all day; indeed you're right, you can't be 100% precise with this. With the currency conversion rate, that's where you can add an extra 0.1-0.5% (or what you want) to your conversion to compensate for the fluctuations that could get you in the negative. In a way, you also need to get a compensation for the administration of that currency exchange and the extra paperwork it gives you; that's why it's fair to add a little extra percentage just for this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Read this for details:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/090314/how-calculate-exchange-rate.asp&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.xe.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12330" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4063" RevisionGUID="3faadfa0-eb58-4f67-a756-0bfac1dacad0" CreationDate="2015-12-21T11:58:00.263" UserId="8046" Text="If your client is offering more money because your project is late and he/she wants it finished as soon as possible, **that client is simply begging you to hire people to help you or put priority on his/her project.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's usually why a client will offer you an extra in this situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead of making a big moral dilemma out of this, see if that extra money could help you push aside other projects for a while or hire some people to help you. Or pay for some tools to make you increase your productivity. Some freelancers and entrepreneurs are hesitant in investing in the right tools or adding expenses that would actually make them save a lot of time because they only see the &quot;money out&quot; and not the time they waste that could be used somewhere else. This is a big mistake, maybe it's not something that applies to your workflow though. A good example is when designers or web developer spend hours drawing each icons for their website instead of buying a vector set of icons at $25.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are already 100% focused on this single project and do not want to hire people to work with you or you do not want to work overnight/weekends on this, then yes, simply refuse the money and mention the reasons why to your client. That client will probably find this response very unprofessional and also might feel trapped with you, especially if he/she has the means to pay for a faster service. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your ethical decision has to benefit your client as much as you and in this case, it might be totally ethical to accept more money and get the client what he/she asked for... ASAP!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12331" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4064" RevisionGUID="c5889355-b4ab-42e9-8288-126db958996b" CreationDate="2015-12-21T18:57:37.787" UserId="10861" Text="I have an issue that im sure most other web development people have which is trying to answer vague emails about website or email issues. Trying to get details such as an exact page URL or a scenario where the error occurs is like pulling teeth out.  Does anyone have a really good all-encompassing email template they use for situations like this? Something that covers browser details, scenario, page URLs etc ? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would love suggestions on things to say to get this information and that clearly explain to the client that with so many variables we need clarification. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12332" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4064" RevisionGUID="c5889355-b4ab-42e9-8288-126db958996b" CreationDate="2015-12-21T18:57:37.787" UserId="10861" Text="Web Troubleshooting Email Template?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12333" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4064" RevisionGUID="c5889355-b4ab-42e9-8288-126db958996b" CreationDate="2015-12-21T18:57:37.787" UserId="10861" Text="|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12334" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4023" RevisionGUID="0ccf4271-35b4-4f07-a8bb-efb8c8d047d5" CreationDate="2015-12-22T11:15:45.063" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/679259020155310080" />
  <row Id="12335" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4065" RevisionGUID="bb7f8e36-b7f8-4a9f-b93d-dbc0afb2b223" CreationDate="2015-12-22T16:58:49.103" UserId="58" Text="There isn't really an all-encompassing template for things like this; not everything is easy to convey in a form, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Really, if you run a web service for a client, you should have some kind of automated bug/error reporting already in place ([Bugsnag](https://bugsnag.com/), [Sentry](https://getsentry.com), are some examples) that would alert you to something being wrong way before a client gets to you; I can typically fix a bug around 3-4 minutes after being alerted to it for simple errors. Involve a client in that, and you're talking an hour or three just to get to the bottom of something and figure out what to fix.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for design bugs, and stuff that *you should have already agreed on well in advance with a contract*, point to your contract, or prepare invoice templates for this kind of thing, depending on the agreement you have with a client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12336" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4066" RevisionGUID="ccef0774-9f8c-408b-8377-00cdd54660a7" CreationDate="2015-12-23T03:37:31.227" UserId="10876" Text="I am currently working in a company and I want to do freelance web development next to that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I will have customers from another country. Should I pay tax for the income from another country which will be paid to my bank account in US or through Paypal?&#xD;&#xA; 2. What are the steps I need to take to do the freelance web development legally in Texas?&#xD;&#xA; 3. Should I register a company? If yes which type of company structure is the most suitable for a freelancer?&#xD;&#xA; 4. Should I get a work permit?&#xD;&#xA; 5. Is there any specific formula for calculation of freelancers income tax?&#xD;&#xA; 6. Finally, is it possible that I don't register a company and don't get any permit and just pay the tax for my income from the freelance tasks?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12337" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4066" RevisionGUID="ccef0774-9f8c-408b-8377-00cdd54660a7" CreationDate="2015-12-23T03:37:31.227" UserId="10876" Text="Questions regarding starting freelance job in TEXAS" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12338" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4066" RevisionGUID="ccef0774-9f8c-408b-8377-00cdd54660a7" CreationDate="2015-12-23T03:37:31.227" UserId="10876" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12339" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4067" RevisionGUID="e07f7c66-a839-4380-902b-ec2d46be5e1f" CreationDate="2015-12-25T11:54:08.750" UserId="10895" Text="1. Since you are US citizen, no other tax authorities than IRS can collect your income taxes. Only exception is i) when you have a dual citizenship(US &amp; a country of Schengen area) or valid residence permit of a country of Schengen area(for instance) or ii) when you work and generate substantial income in Italy legally(it requires work permit or visa) or illegally while you are there as a tourist.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  However, there’s one huge downside to sending invoices from different countries and receiving payment in different currencies: the fees that eat into your profits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  So how can you stop paying a ton of fees for international payments?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  **The best payment methods for overseas transactions**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  When you’re being paid online for international services, you have to understand that you’re going to pay extra fees, in comparison to working with a local client. With that being said, there are still ways to keep more of your hard-earned money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  **PayPal**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  If you’re in the U.S. and being paid through an online service like PayPal, you’re likely to pay 3-4% of the total transaction. If you live outside the U.S. the fees vary according to your country, with a fee of 0.5-4% based on the type of payment method used. Invoices paid with a bank account or PayPal balance have a much smaller fee, versus payments made with credit or debit cards.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  If you're unsure, be sure to consult your local tax authorities.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. The first step to claiming a freelancer's tax deductions is to officially establish your business. This usually involves registering your business name with local authorities -- depending on where you live, this might mean your state, city, county, and/or province. (Beyond tax reasons, this will protect you from someone else trying to start a local business using the same name.)   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Check with your secretary of state or department of labor for information on how to sign up your business. States are getting pretty helpful with this, and for the most part you should be able to do everything online. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. When you are registering, it's worth taking the time to think about what business structure you want to use. Most one-person businesses register as sole proprietors, in part because it is the easiest and cheapest business type to register. But know that as a sole proprietor, your personal assets are vulnerable if you're sued by a client or subcontractor in your business.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   In the future, you can do re-registering as an LLC, or Limited Liability Corporation. Reforms have made it possible for one-person businesses to use this form of incorporation, which shields your personal assets from business lawsuits.     &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  or you could join other type of company structure (mostly 5-10 small team) and they could be helpful as you just started your career.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. I suggest you to register as a sole proprietary.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Finally, is it possible that I don't register a company and don't get any permit and just pay the tax for my income from the freelance tasks?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can. just politely ask your clients if you may pay the tax for the income. I have done it, but it depends on the client.  If the client wants to be official, you may not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. [Read][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://thebillfold.com/here-s-a-surefire-tax-estimating-process-for-freelancers-ebd4c480a517#.lfg196j3m&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Disclaimer**&#xD;&#xA;You should always seek independent financial advice and thoroughly read terms and conditions relating to any insurance, tax, legal, or financial issue, service, or product. I answered as a guide only." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12340" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4067" RevisionGUID="95a69c36-88e8-4839-b1ce-dcedd87653e2" CreationDate="2015-12-25T12:00:53.713" UserId="10895" Comment="added 384 characters in body" Text="1. Since you are US citizen, no other tax authorities than IRS can collect your income taxes. Only exception is i) when you have a dual citizenship(US &amp; a country of Schengen area) or valid residence permit of a country of Schengen area(for instance) or ii) when you work and generate substantial income in Italy legally(it requires work permit or visa) or illegally while you are there as a tourist.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  However, there’s one huge downside to sending invoices from different countries and receiving payment in different currencies: the fees that eat into your profits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  So how can you stop paying a ton of fees for international payments?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  **The best payment methods for overseas transactions**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  When you’re being paid online for international services, you have to understand that you’re going to pay extra fees, in comparison to working with a local client. With that being said, there are still ways to keep more of your hard-earned money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  **PayPal**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  If you’re in the U.S. and being paid through an online service like PayPal, you’re likely to pay 3-4% of the total transaction. If you live outside the U.S. the fees vary according to your country, with a fee of 0.5-4% based on the type of payment method used. Invoices paid with a bank account or PayPal balance have a much smaller fee, versus payments made with credit or debit cards.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  If you're unsure, be sure to consult your local tax authorities.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. The first step to claiming a freelancer's tax deductions is to officially establish your business. This usually involves registering your business name with local authorities -- depending on where you live, this might mean your state, city, county, and/or province. (Beyond tax reasons, this will protect you from someone else trying to start a local business using the same name.)   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Check with your secretary of state or department of labor for information on how to sign up your business. States are getting pretty helpful with this, and for the most part you should be able to do everything online. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. When you are registering, it's worth taking the time to think about what business structure you want to use. Most one-person businesses register as sole proprietors, in part because it is the easiest and cheapest business type to register. But know that as a sole proprietor, your personal assets are vulnerable if you're sued by a client or subcontractor in your business.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   In the future, you can do re-registering as an LLC, or Limited Liability Corporation. Reforms have made it possible for one-person businesses to use this form of incorporation, which shields your personal assets from business lawsuits.     &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  or you could join other type of company structure (mostly 5-10 small team) and they could be helpful as you just started your career.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. I suggest you to register as a sole proprietary.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Finally, is it possible that I don't register a company and don't get any permit and just pay the tax for my income from the freelance tasks?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  You can. just politely ask your clients if you may pay the tax for the income. I have done it, but it depends on the client.  If the client wants to be official, you may not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Generally when you are working remotely and the company is in a different country than you are, from a legal standpoint, you are not an employee, but you provide your services as an entity and you provide invoices to the company and get paid. The legal way to provide invoices is to have a company. Depending on where you live, it should be easy to build and register a sole-proprietorship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   Keep all the income and expenses in an excel file and you won't need an accountant in the beginning. Just get the wheel rolling, after that, you hire an accountant for about 10-20$.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. [Read][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://thebillfold.com/here-s-a-surefire-tax-estimating-process-for-freelancers-ebd4c480a517#.lfg196j3m&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Tip**  &#xD;&#xA;*The best currency for your invoices*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  The best currency to invoice your clients in is the one you discussed with them prior to starting work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   That being said, the most widely accepted currency is U.S. dollars. Most, if not all businesses use U.S. dollars for international transactions, so it’s best to stick with invoicing clients in this currency.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Disclaimer**   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You should always seek independent financial advice and thoroughly&#xD;&#xA;&gt; read terms and conditions relating to any insurance, tax, legal, or&#xD;&#xA;&gt; financial issue, service, or product. I answered as a guide only." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12348" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4069" RevisionGUID="e4f62208-9952-4eee-a8af-7349d14d15f8" CreationDate="2015-12-26T21:54:32.593" UserId="2839" Text="I've developed a software (it manage invoicing, products, customers, sells, ...). Its price of the license is 3.500$ and can be used by 3 users. After the first year one have to pay 30% yearly (a ratio that everybody use) for bug fixes and mail support (actually it costs 750$).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I'm rewriting the software and it will be hosted on the cloud. I know I can't ask 3.500$ for license so I asking a price per user per month. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My reasoning is to have an annual revenue while the clients keep using my software: since there are (nearly) no bugs, I don't like the idea clients continue to use forever only paying the initial 3.500$. Instead competitors with similar software with lower quality (with bugs to be fixed) have client forced to pay the yearly support.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any ratio that I can apply to determine the price per user per month? If they pay bug fixes, same support, with all the advantages of a cloud service (eg. automatic backup, nothing to install, automatic update, possibility to use the service on tablet, smartphone and every computer, ecc.), it could be fair to set the price at 20$/month x user? (that is 750/3 users/12 month)? should it be a lot less?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The cloud costs me 25$/month. I think I can add some clients on the same server before the performance goes down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank for any advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12349" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4069" RevisionGUID="e4f62208-9952-4eee-a8af-7349d14d15f8" CreationDate="2015-12-26T21:54:32.593" UserId="2839" Text="I'm converting a desktop software as a cloud service. Is there any ratio between their prices?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12350" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4069" RevisionGUID="e4f62208-9952-4eee-a8af-7349d14d15f8" CreationDate="2015-12-26T21:54:32.593" UserId="2839" Text="|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12351" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4021" RevisionGUID="8afff9e1-5ae5-405c-afe5-f47532640c06" CreationDate="2015-12-27T00:04:51.310" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/680902122888650752" />
  <row Id="12353" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4069" RevisionGUID="29949098-f69c-4d13-9524-d0dd7c0d2d26" CreationDate="2015-12-27T19:39:26.440" UserId="2839" Comment="Some fix + details about operating systems in desktop and cloud versions" Text="I've developed a software (it manage invoicing, products, customers, sells, ...). The price of the license is 3.500$ and can be used by 3 users only on Microsoft Windows operating system. After the first year one must pay 30% yearly (a ratio that everybody use) for bug fixes and mail support (actually it costs 750$).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I'm rewriting the software and it will be hosted on the cloud. I know I can't ask 3.500$ for license so I'm going to ask a price per user per month. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My reasoning is to have an annual revenue while the clients keep using my software: since there are (nearly) no bugs, I don't like the idea clients continue to use forever only paying the initial 3.500$. Instead competitors with similar software with lower quality (with bugs to be fixed) have client forced to pay the yearly support.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any ratio that I can apply to determine the price per user per month? If they pay bug fixes, same support, with all the advantages of a cloud service (eg. automatic backup, nothing to install, automatic update, possibility to use the service on tablet, smartphone and every computer/operating systems (not only Microsoft Windows), ecc.), it could be fair to set the price at 20$/month x user? (that is 750/3 users/12 month)? should it be a lot less?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The cloud costs me 25$/month. I think I can add some clients on the same server before the performance goes down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank for any advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12355" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4071" RevisionGUID="3062cbaa-d553-4280-b6f9-a45fc97eb733" CreationDate="2015-12-28T05:17:30.553" UserId="7633" Text="I totally disagree with &quot;Helping Hands&quot; above.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't waste your time trying to get more information.&#xD;&#xA;Just run away from projects like that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a former client on Freelancer.com (no longer).&#xD;&#xA;Surprising to see the level of cheating and scamming by some clients against freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;Vague descriptions &quot;pull&quot; responses from hungry and desperate freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;And vague descriptions allow nasty clients to claim later on, &quot;You didn't fulfill all my requirements, so I won't pay you,&quot; while they get some free coding anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client can not, or will not, be clear and specific, you don't want to do any work for them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12356" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4072" RevisionGUID="8664a7d3-268f-4900-a915-c66ba421393e" CreationDate="2015-12-28T05:24:57.237" UserId="7633" Text="I have hired dozens of freelancers on Elance and oDesk.&#xD;&#xA;For some of my projects, I'll consider **NO PORTFOLIO** at all. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For most projects, I don't even look at freelancers portfolio, because I don't care what he did for someone else; only what he can do for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone sends me a clear and helpful proposal, with creative ideas that show understanding of my objective, no portfolio is needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(And, here again, I disagree with the suggestions of &quot;Helping Hands&quot;.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12357" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4073" RevisionGUID="b87223bd-5444-4974-b32a-40d312325b76" CreationDate="2015-12-28T20:08:24.443" UserId="1706" Text="The safest bet for you is to not give the client a publicly available URL.  Show demos by way of GotoMeeting or similar.  There are lots of VERY shady clients out there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second best option is to use your own hosting and share that with the client, and transfer to the client's hosting after you've completed the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Never, never, never put anything on a client's hosting until the end of the project and you've been paid most of your money, or there's a chance you won't get paid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12358" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="4059" RevisionGUID="dacef8f0-6f5e-4a89-bf98-f7db7b9baeca" CreationDate="2015-12-29T01:39:11.903" UserId="75" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;SOIA&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:1018,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Neil Robertson&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:1706,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;codenoire&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="12359" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4072" RevisionGUID="81167d3f-deba-4e74-83e5-99276e004c84" CreationDate="2015-12-29T01:41:36.973" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 82 characters in body" Text="I have hired dozens of freelancers on Elance and oDesk.&#xD;&#xA;For some of my projects, I'll consider **NO PORTFOLIO** at all. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For most projects, I don't even look at freelancers portfolio, because I don't care what he did for someone else; only what he can do for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone sends me a clear and helpful proposal, with creative ideas that show understanding of my objective, no portfolio is needed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12360" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4074" RevisionGUID="bb33097a-ee43-44dc-8ac4-285f9b9204a6" CreationDate="2015-12-29T04:39:33.710" UserId="10924" Text="If you are looking forward to work as a freelancer developer, I can say 3 portfolio items are convincing enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With these three items, you can apply for similar type of projects, so that you can be firm and say &quot;I have done similar projects in the past&quot;. It requires high number of portfolio items and reputation to get a big project for which you haven't worked in the past." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12365" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4076" RevisionGUID="7079f621-24e6-4fb6-919f-938909ce617d" CreationDate="2015-12-30T01:22:03.300" UserId="10932" Text="I'm new to freelancing and need to create a website to showcase my work for prospective clients.  I've read that it's easy to create your own website with Wordpress.  Are other platforms better? What are the pros and cons of creating your own? I don't want it to look too amateurish.   I have reasonable computer skills and can follow directions but don't know html.  (This is the first question I've posted, so apologies in advance if I've done it incorrectly.) Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12366" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4076" RevisionGUID="7079f621-24e6-4fb6-919f-938909ce617d" CreationDate="2015-12-30T01:22:03.300" UserId="10932" Text="Advice on creating a simple, do-it-yourself website?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12367" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4076" RevisionGUID="7079f621-24e6-4fb6-919f-938909ce617d" CreationDate="2015-12-30T01:22:03.300" UserId="10932" Text="|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12368" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4077" RevisionGUID="b162bae1-dbce-45d7-a31a-f2359ae3a10f" CreationDate="2015-12-30T08:40:59.537" UserId="8125" Text="Yes you can use wordpress to create your website. You will get 1k+ ready made free themes on internet for your website. It is fine if you don't know HTML at initial level but learn it in future so it will help you to customize your wordpress site layout, colors etc in easy way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Wordpress is easy to CMS to manage website and at initial level you can use wordpress to create your own website. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12369" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4078" RevisionGUID="0bd3aa98-a465-49da-9a16-67e685aaf571" CreationDate="2015-12-30T18:34:33.540" UserId="708" Text="Depending upon the nature of your freelancing, your targeted financial goals, and your client base -- the **proper thing to do would be to hire someone** that can create what you need if you have no experience with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being posted you *can* do it yourself, by all means. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My point is, if freelancing in whatever field is your business... treat it like a business. While you *can* remodel your own kitchen, a professional will *always* do a better job. And if this web site is going to be designed to promote your business, you want to put your best foot forward. Saving a little money on a web site up front could cost you hundreds or thousands in lost revenue due to amateur mistakes which a professional would not make.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many responses here are from those in the tech industry so they understand web sites and all that goes with them, so yes Wordpress is an easy go-to. But if the nature of your freelancing is... something non-technical like.. oh house painting... you just won't have the aptitude and skill to create an effective *business* website." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12370" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4078" RevisionGUID="e633e7c0-1236-41fe-9f74-d4ac14b51268" CreationDate="2015-12-30T18:41:43.883" UserId="708" Comment="added 56 characters in body" Text="Depending upon the nature of your freelancing, your targeted financial goals, and your client base -- the **proper thing to do would be to hire someone** that can create what you need if you have no experience with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being posted you *can* do it yourself, by all means. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My point is, if freelancing in whatever field is your business... treat it like a business. While you *can* remodel your own kitchen, a professional will *always* do a better job. And if this web site is going to be designed to promote your business, you want to put your best foot forward. Saving a little money on a web site up front could cost you hundreds or thousands in lost revenue due to amateur mistakes which a professional would not make.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many responses here are from those in the tech industry so they understand web sites and all that goes with them, so yes Wordpress is an easy go-to. But if the nature of your freelancing is... something non-technical like.. oh house painting... you just won't have the aptitude and skill to create an effective *business* website. I suspect you *know* this, which is why you are asking." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12371" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4079" RevisionGUID="0ea61c7a-139b-4fe4-90bf-f145a4f22c43" CreationDate="2015-12-31T14:05:15.697" UserId="1018" Text="**Open Source Content Management System**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Free and open source content management systems like WordPress, Joomla or similar are good options especially if the content needs to be updated frequently.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are plenty of free and paid themes/templates and it's not especially difficult to set up if you are willing to learn.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;WordPress and Joomla work well on shared hosting and a &quot;one click&quot; install is often provided in the hosting control panel.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally, find some trustworthy resources to help steer you in the right direction with key decisions like choosing a suitable web hosting company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember that with most content management systems, you need to regularly apply updates to the CMS itself and to any third party plugins/extensions to keep the website safe from hackers. You should also be running regular backups and copying the backup files off-site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**HTML Template**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option, especially if the website will be fairly static, is to use a free or paid HTML template. Some of these look very professional but only offer basic functionality such as text and image content and maybe galleries and a contact form etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;HTML websites run on simple shared hosting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regular updates are not usually required so maintenance is less than for a content management system although you should probably still be taking occasional backups and copying these off-site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will need to learn a little HTML to be able to set up and maintain the website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**SAAS Content Management System**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The third option is to use an online service (that is hosted for you for a fee) such as Wix, Weebly, SquareSpace or similar.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Wix and Weebly might be the easiest to set up but you have far less control over how you want your website to look. Other disadvantages are that you are usually locked in to a monthly or annual fee and moving to another platform in future usually means you have to rebuild the website from scratch.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually, there is no easy way for you to run a backup of these types of websites so you are pinning the future of your business on the future of another business over which you have no control. This isn't something I recommend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Do It Yourself vs Hired Help**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As others have said, the most expedient solution is probably to hire someone to help you with your website but you can certainly give it a try yourself for minimal outlay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is something you enjoy doing, learning this skill will be useful in future so you can maintain your website yourself without external help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may reach a stage where you need help but by this stage you will likely have solidified your ideas about what you want your website to do and how you want it to look so the time is not wasted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a friend or colleague that is willing to help then it may be worth asking them to point you in the right direction at the start so you choose a platform that they can help you with." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12372" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4079" RevisionGUID="ec7a5f77-a613-4e3b-b324-fa7ac1150051" CreationDate="2015-12-31T14:13:03.877" UserId="1018" Comment="Small addition." Text="**Open Source Content Management System**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Free and open source content management systems like WordPress, Joomla or similar are good options especially if the content needs to be updated frequently.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are plenty of free and paid themes/templates and it's not especially difficult to set up if you are willing to learn.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;WordPress and Joomla work well on shared hosting and a &quot;one click&quot; install is often provided in the hosting control panel.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally, find some trustworthy resources to help steer you in the right direction with key decisions like choosing a suitable web hosting company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember that with most content management systems, you need to regularly apply updates to the CMS itself and to any third party plugins/extensions to keep the website safe from hackers. You should also be running regular backups and copying the backup files off-site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**HTML Template**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option, especially if the website will be fairly static, is to use a free or paid HTML template. Some of these look very professional but only offer basic functionality such as text and image content and maybe galleries and a contact form etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;HTML websites run on simple shared hosting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regular updates are not usually required so maintenance is less than for a content management system although you should probably still be taking occasional backups and copying these off-site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will need to learn a little HTML to be able to set up and maintain the website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**SAAS Content Management System**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The third option is to use an online service (that is hosted for you for a fee) such as Wix, Weebly, SquareSpace or similar.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Wix and Weebly might be the easiest to set up but you have far less control over how you want your website to look. Other disadvantages are that you are usually locked in to a monthly or annual fee and moving to another platform in future usually means you have to rebuild the website from scratch.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually, there is no easy way for you to run a backup of these types of websites so you are pinning the future of your business on the future of another business over which you have no control. This isn't something I would recommend for anyone who is serious about their business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Do It Yourself vs Hired Help**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As others have said, the most expedient solution is probably to hire someone to help you with your website but you can certainly give it a try yourself for minimal outlay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is something you enjoy doing, learning this skill will be useful in future so you can maintain your website yourself without external help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may reach a stage where you need help but by this stage you will likely have solidified your ideas about what you want your website to do and how you want it to look so the time is not wasted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a friend or colleague that is willing to help then it may be worth asking them to point you in the right direction at the start so you choose a platform that they can help you with." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12373" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4080" RevisionGUID="f3195b2c-48d7-4197-88eb-9e089b33b5d3" CreationDate="2016-01-01T15:17:51.950" UserId="7629" Text="Congratulations on your new freelance career. For visual people I recommend SquareSpace. &#xD;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You can build a site with no coding&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Their templates are all carefully designed and tested&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Portfolio, slideshow, search, and video support are part of the template, --not separate plug ins that need to be researched, added and tested one by one&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;Phone and text chat support&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;All themes look good on phones and tablets&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;Images are automatically optimized for each device on upload&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;An online store is included, but not required&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;Site visitor statistics are available, sites can be added to Google Analytics&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You can automatically &quot;push&quot; blog post or images to instagram or facebook, and link to other social media&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sites can be exported to WordPress if you change your mind&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If you decide to learn CSS &amp; HTML, you can customize your site&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The limitations of Squarespace: there are fewer templates than available for WordPress; and sites get slower after 400 pages. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck whatever you chose." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12374" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4081" RevisionGUID="b3d26423-84c7-4e23-97fd-cfb5930ea036" CreationDate="2016-01-01T19:50:21.650" UserId="10422" Text="The fact that this situation is occurring more frequently means that your value to those organizations has improved. It's a flag that you might be undercharging for your work. Make periodic incremental increases to your rates until your average income levels off. Also expect a shift in the scope and quality of the assignments you receive during this period." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12375" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4082" RevisionGUID="53e972eb-2dd7-4cf7-a603-e973e598d63e" CreationDate="2016-01-02T21:44:10.550" UserId="10978" Text="A reasonable rate is 15 percent. But remember facetime with both party's alone with price keep you working on to the next client.  Quality of work ,materials pricing responsiveness to the client's needs and your overall ability to work well with others ultimately be the key factors in your next job assignment and the rate of pay .you can charge for the next job . There's no such thing as just a finder. Staying activly involved with the present project will get you more leads to better jobs , hence expanding your contact and communication " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12376" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4083" RevisionGUID="6a332f96-6735-4ab2-8b80-312da8486e1b" CreationDate="2016-01-02T21:50:51.640" UserId="10978" Text="I've been in the industry 22 years and I can tell you from experience there's only one sure fire way to get around that and that is a mandatory either AM or PM meeting daily on where you're at and where you're going" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12378" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4085" RevisionGUID="e4356b67-1e08-4025-a564-0ad3897b296b" CreationDate="2016-01-03T00:23:48.910" UserId="10422" Text="I doubt there is a standard ratio. Unless your product is unique, its pricing and licensing structure should be designed to compete with similar products *and* any alternatives to using those products. After researching and developing a pricing structure, **ask** a few of your existing customers what they think about your proposal and whether they would subscribe to the cloud service. Tweak the pricing model until you think you've gotten the best reception. Then roll the &quot;beta&quot; version of the pricing out to a pilot group. After making further refinements, release the new pricing model. Iterate, be transparent, reward existing and pilot customers who helped you. For more information, search for books about &quot;Disciplined Entrepreneurship&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12379" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4069" RevisionGUID="6633788f-51ba-4fd4-b0c5-436ed5edb198" CreationDate="2016-01-03T12:13:42.770" UserId="10422" Comment="Edited grammar and style." Text="I've developed software that manages invoices, products, customers, and sales. The price of the license is 3.500$ and can be used by three users only on Microsoft Windows operating system. After the first year, one must pay 30% yearly (a ratio that everybody use) for bug fixes and mail support (actually it costs 750$).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I'm rewriting the software, and will host it on the cloud. I know I can't ask 3.500$ for a license, so I'm going to ask a price per user per month. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My reasoning is to have an annual revenue while the clients keep using my software: since there are (nearly) no bugs, I don't like the idea that clients continue to use it forever after only paying the initial 3.500$. Competitors with similar, but buggy, software charge their clients for yearly support.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any ratio that I can apply to determine the price per user per month? If they get bug fixes, the same level of support, and all the advantages of a cloud service*, would it be fair to set the price at 20$/month x user? For example 750/3 users/12 month)? Should it be a lot less?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(* Cloud services offer automatic backup, nothing to install, automatic updates, access from mobile devices and any operating system) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The cloud costs me 25$/month. I think I can add some clients on the same server before the performance goes down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank for any advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12380" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4069" RevisionGUID="6633788f-51ba-4fd4-b0c5-436ed5edb198" CreationDate="2016-01-03T12:13:42.770" UserId="10422" Comment="Edited grammar and style." Text="|price|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12381" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4069" RevisionGUID="6633788f-51ba-4fd4-b0c5-436ed5edb198" CreationDate="2016-01-03T12:13:42.770" Comment="Proposed by 10422 approved by 1018, 2839 edit id of 447" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12382" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4086" RevisionGUID="be6c1f0a-0d16-44b0-8730-fa1dd9bf51cd" CreationDate="2016-01-04T01:52:26.157" UserId="10422" Text="To do it correctly, consult an international tax lawyer. (I'm not one.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on the following tax treaty, you *might* be to do what you want without breaking any laws. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have a look at the following sections of the [UK/THAILAND DOUBLE TAXATION CONVENTION, SIGNED 18 FEBRUARY 1981][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Article 4: **Fiscal Domicile**&#xD;&#xA; - Article 5: Permanent Establishment, section 5.a&#xD;&#xA; - Article 15: **Independent Personal Services**&#xD;&#xA; - Article 18: Artistes and Athletes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/412193/uk-thailand-dtc180281.pdf&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please don't move to Thailand based on your personal interpretation of this treaty. Again, consult an international tax lawyer. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12383" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3945" RevisionGUID="a58476e0-bd64-49bf-a13f-8a37a244a543" CreationDate="2016-01-04T03:36:34.400" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/683854506455642112" />
  <row Id="12384" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3945" RevisionGUID="740621cc-53ae-46f5-8372-37cc18ee8237" CreationDate="2016-01-04T13:50:04.713" UserId="10422" Comment="Edited for grammar, style, and punctuation." Text="I am a German citizen who has been working in the UK for the last ten years. I am considering moving to Thailand and freelancing, with my current UK employer as my primary client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, what sounded like an easy procedure turns out to be not quite so easy when it comes to paying taxes. Here is my main question:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Getting a visa to live in Thailand is relatively easy, but I will not be able to get a work permit there. I will NOT be able to declare my income to the tax authorities in Thailand since earning money there would be in breach of the VISA regulations. But what I can I do then? I will no longer be a UK resident, so paying tax to HMRC doesn´t seem possible. I won´t live/work in Germany, so that´s not an option either. But how do I avoid dodging tax? If and when I come back to the UK or Germany, I don´t want to risk being confronted with legal issues from my x years in Thailand. Any idea how to do it &quot;correctly&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;DUS&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12385" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3945" RevisionGUID="740621cc-53ae-46f5-8372-37cc18ee8237" CreationDate="2016-01-04T13:50:04.713" Comment="Proposed by 10422 approved by -1 edit id of 448" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12386" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3945" RevisionGUID="7a30b566-30c3-42f1-a905-a403a24a2fda" CreationDate="2016-01-04T13:50:04.713" UserId="58" Comment="Edited for grammar, style, and punctuation." Text="I am a German citizen who has been working in the UK for the last ten years. I am considering moving to Thailand and freelancing, with my current UK employer as my primary client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, what sounded like an easy procedure turns out to be not quite so easy when it comes to paying taxes. Here is my main question:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Getting a visa to live in Thailand is relatively easy, but I will not be able to get a work permit there. I will NOT be able to declare my income to the tax authorities in Thailand since earning money there would be in breach of the VISA regulations. But what I can I do then? I will no longer be a UK resident, so paying tax to HMRC doesn´t seem possible. I won´t live/work in Germany, so that´s not an option either. But how do I avoid dodging tax? If and when I come back to the UK or Germany, I don´t want to risk being confronted with legal issues from my x years in Thailand. Any idea how to do it &quot;correctly&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12387" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4087" RevisionGUID="55a13a94-54c1-4198-a535-1dbb5cfbc853" CreationDate="2016-01-04T15:11:37.247" UserId="10991" Text="Personally, I have devoted my time to Bootstrap as it has allowed me to produce the results that I have wanted. It all depends on the time you have allowed yourself to complete this task. I am 33 and have basically devoted the past 6 months to learning how to create sites on my own and once you get over the first hill, its very rewarding.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As mentioned, Squarespace or outsourcing for this first site may be a good idea to get the professional look you are after, especially if you are short on time. However, you will always be restricted one way or another using those methods. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the meantime, sites like Lynda.com offer great structured training for a reasonable monthly fee, and Stack Overflow has also been great in answering the questions I have whenever there is an effect that I want to create. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12389" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3728" RevisionGUID="6b2c09bd-0b36-4a24-bc94-9cf9f8c3fdbe" CreationDate="2016-01-05T08:38:45.917" UserId="10422" Comment="Edited the text for grammar, punctuation, and style." Text="I've been working as a front-end web developer for over six years. Of that time, I've spent a year freelancing. Most of my work has been for big clients and corporate sites. But, I feel like I'm done with them. Often, the sites are bland.  Even when they're for well-known brands, I don't feel proud telling others about them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would love to do work for the music and entertainment industry, such as festivals and bands, that are open to more experimental work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Besides googling and finding what companies are working in these area's, how would one enter such an industry? I'm pretty sure networking is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle. How can I effectively find the right ones and reach out to these people? What else am I missing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12390" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3728" RevisionGUID="6b2c09bd-0b36-4a24-bc94-9cf9f8c3fdbe" CreationDate="2016-01-05T08:38:45.917" UserId="10422" Comment="Edited the text for grammar, punctuation, and style." Text="How to get web development clients in the music and entertainment business?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12391" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3728" RevisionGUID="6b2c09bd-0b36-4a24-bc94-9cf9f8c3fdbe" CreationDate="2016-01-05T08:38:45.917" Comment="Proposed by 10422 approved by 9, -1 edit id of 450" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12392" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3728" RevisionGUID="84c8d420-b46c-4561-b12d-2e3b25cacf52" CreationDate="2016-01-05T08:38:45.917" UserId="58" Comment="Edited the text for grammar, punctuation, and style." Text="I've been working as a front-end web developer for over six years. Of that time, I've spent a year freelancing. Most of my work has been for big clients and corporate sites. But, I feel like I'm done with them. Often, the sites are bland.  Even when they're for well-known brands, I don't feel proud telling others about them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would love to do work for the music and entertainment industry, such as festivals and bands, that are open to more experimental work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Besides googling and finding what companies are working in these areas, how would one enter such an industry? I'm pretty sure networking is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle. How can I effectively find the right people, and reach out to them? What else am I missing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12393" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3728" RevisionGUID="84c8d420-b46c-4561-b12d-2e3b25cacf52" CreationDate="2016-01-05T08:38:45.917" UserId="58" Comment="Edited the text for grammar, punctuation, and style." Text="How can I get web development clients in the music and entertainment business?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12394" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3728" RevisionGUID="84c8d420-b46c-4561-b12d-2e3b25cacf52" CreationDate="2016-01-05T08:38:45.917" UserId="58" Comment="Edited the text for grammar, punctuation, and style." Text="|attracting-clients|web-development|changes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12395" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4076" RevisionGUID="93b521fc-535e-4f1e-9cae-a363d51a9b70" CreationDate="2016-01-05T11:07:47.390" UserId="100" Comment="removed fluff" Text="I'm new to freelancing and need to create a website to showcase my work for prospective clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've read that it's easy to create your own website with WordPress. Are other platforms better? What are the pros and cons of creating your own? I don't want it to look too amateurish. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have reasonable computer skills and can follow directions but don't know HTML." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12396" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4076" RevisionGUID="93b521fc-535e-4f1e-9cae-a363d51a9b70" CreationDate="2016-01-05T11:07:47.390" UserId="100" Comment="removed fluff" Text="|portfolio|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12397" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4076" RevisionGUID="93b521fc-535e-4f1e-9cae-a363d51a9b70" CreationDate="2016-01-05T11:07:47.390" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 9, 1018 edit id of 449" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12398" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4088" RevisionGUID="451eb6ee-1ee2-41d8-a2bb-b34a58314226" CreationDate="2016-01-05T12:07:01.827" UserId="11004" Text="When you go to the bakery, does the baker tell you that 2 cents in the price of the bread is to pay the hourly rate he spends on looking for the sack of wheat which was supposed to be on room A, but he actually forgot that it was on room B?&#xA;&#xA;Does he tell you that 1 cent of it is due to the time he spent watching the little bird flying around his window?&#xA;&#xA;Does he tell you that 0.5 cents is due to the time he was on toillet?&#xA;&#xA;Does McDonalds inform you that 5 cents on the cheeseburger price is used to pay for the holidays of its executives?&#xA;&#xA;Of course not.&#xA;&#xA;Everytime you release such information, you open an opportunity for the client to create excuses to take money out of you.&#xA;&#xA;Dont be so detailed in the information you provide. In any work you do, there will be always items that require knowledge you use routinely, and knowledge you have to develop on the fly. It might take 10 minutes to develop it, or 3 days, or 3 months, and it is part of ANY job in the world. Including the baker next corner.&#xA;&#xA;Just as the baker doesnt inform you of every micro knowledge gap he faces and dont give you the chance to make a money bleed out of it, you should not actively seek for opportunities to launch such money-war discussions with your costumer.&#xA;&#xA;It is like remembering your wife of the small wrinkles around her eyes. Yes, it is correct information, but no, it is not productive for your relationship.&#xA;&#xA;On the more extreme case that you can foresee a huge need for research before starting work, you can deal about this beforehand with your costumer, but not as you go. The best strategy would be in fact to decide beforehand which skill gap you want to disclose with your costumer, and which not, in order to stop raising false alarms to the client.&#xA;&#xA;If you charge per hour, you are probably going to have bad feelings about this (am I wasting my costumer hours?), so if it helps you, you can charge partly by hour and partly by delivery, so that you can remember yourself (and probably the costumer) that those extra hours closing the gap are not being paid for in the &quot;by delivery&quot; part of the bill." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12399" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4088" RevisionGUID="ba324468-63b5-478d-8eb4-e33448793490" CreationDate="2016-01-05T12:14:17.277" UserId="11004" Comment="added 275 characters in body; added 47 characters in body" Text="When you go to the bakery, does the baker tell you that 2 cents in the price of the bread is to pay the hourly rate he spends on looking for the sack of wheat which was supposed to be on room A, but he actually forgot that it was on room B?&#xA;&#xA;Does he tell you that 1 cent of it is due to the time he spent watching the little bird flying around his window?&#xA;&#xA;Does he tell you that 0.5 cents is due to the time he was on toillet?&#xA;&#xA;Does McDonalds inform you that 5 cents on the cheeseburger price is used to pay for the holidays of its executives?&#xA;&#xA;Of course not.&#xA;&#xA;Everytime you release such information, you open an opportunity for the client to create excuses to take money out of you.&#xA;&#xA;Dont be so detailed in the information you provide. In any work you do, there will be always items that require knowledge you use routinely, and knowledge you have to develop on the fly. It might take 10 minutes to develop it, or 3 days, or 3 months, and it is part of ANY job in the world. Including the baker next corner.&#xA;&#xA;Just as the baker doesnt inform you of every micro knowledge gap he faces and dont give you the chance to make a money bleed out of it, you should not foster opportunities to launch this discussion in which you naively put yourself in a position where your costumer starts wanting to micro manage you and your time and taking money out of your pocket just because you wanted to provide excessive information.&#xA;&#xA;Of course, if your costumer is a sound person, this should not be a problem, but for some costumers it will be the perfect chance to start a price war.&#xA;&#xA;It is like remembering your wife of the small wrinkles around her eyes. Yes, it is correct information, but no, it is not productive for your relationship.&#xA;&#xA;On the more extreme case that you can foresee a huge need for research before starting work, you can deal about this beforehand with your costumer, but not as you go. The best strategy would be in fact to decide beforehand which skill gap you want to disclose with your costumer, and which not, in order to stop raising false alarms to the client.&#xA;&#xA;If you charge per hour, you are probably going to have bad feelings about this (am I wasting my costumer hours?), so if it helps you, you can charge partly by hour and partly by delivery, so that you can remember yourself (and probably the costumer) that those extra hours closing the gap are not being paid for in the &quot;by delivery&quot; part of the bill." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12400" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4089" RevisionGUID="7ce170e3-1e2c-4dca-ae06-9146d7c415fe" CreationDate="2016-01-05T12:35:32.607" UserId="11004" Text="Charge the highest price you can think of. I will explain it with my personal story below:&#xA;&#xA;I once had to sell clothes on a fleamarket for a friend while he was out. He didnt tell me how  much the clothes cost him or for how much I should sell it. It could have cost him 50 cents and I would sell it for 5 euros, or it could have cost him 10 euros while I was selling for 2. &#xA;&#xA;I had no idea, so I just said the first reasonable price to my first costumer...&#xA;And the costumer immediattely took it!&#xA;&#xA;At this time I saw my mistake: I didnt properly use all of the willingness of the costumer to pay. I just wasted it!&#xA;&#xA;I decided that next time I would use all of the costumers readiness to pay by watching his emotional resistance to the prices I was offering. If he immediatelly accepted (no resistance), then of course I was too low. If he immediatelly left the selling site, it was too high and I would improve my estimate on my next costumer. This worked quite well! And it means that if the readiness to pay is lower than your cost to produce, you should: either quit trading this good, or&#xA;-find a market which is willing to pay more for it.&#xA;&#xA;Some years ago I was looking for a new job and when they asked which sallary I wanted, I gave a value and they accepted immediately. When I saw how silly I was, I asked them to change it, but no chance. They gave me all the excuses they could think of!&#xA;&#xA;Luckly life surprised me in a way that I was not allowed to take the job, and some months later I had another chance to get another job and I applied the technique of probing for the highest price someone is willing to pay for, and it worked!!!&#xA;&#xA;Now I have my life long increased pay just because I applied this technique in the second they asked me for my bid ;)&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12401" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4088" RevisionGUID="5317d19d-6bd4-48bb-9bdd-5b7c815723c8" CreationDate="2016-01-05T16:55:42.063" UserId="1706" Comment="Fixed grammar and used more common English terms." Text="When you go to your neighborhood bakery:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - does the baker tell you that two cents of the price of the bread is to pay for the time he spends on looking for the sack of wheat which was supposed to be on room A, but he actually forgot that it was on room B?&#xD;&#xA; - does he tell you that one cent of it is due to the time he spent watching the little bird flying around his window?&#xD;&#xA; - does he tell you that half a cent is due to the time he was on the toilet?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does McDonald's inform you that five cents of the cheeseburger price is used to pay for the holidays of its executives?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every time you release such information, you open an opportunity for the client to create excuses to argue your price down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't be so detailed in the information you provide. In any work you do, there will be always items that require knowledge you use routinely, and knowledge you have to develop on the fly. This might span ten minutes, three days, or three months, and it happens with anyone running any kind of business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just as the corner baker doesn't inform you of every lapse in understanding or judgment he has, you should not foster opportunities to launch discussions in which you naively put yourself in a position where your customer starts wanting to micro manage you and your time because you've shared too much.  For some customers you'll be creating a perfect chance to start haggling over price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the more extreme case when you can foresee a huge need for research before starting work, you can discuss this beforehand with your customer, but not as- you-go.   A good strategy would be to decide beforehand which skill gap you want to disclose with your customer, and which not, in order to stop raising false alarms to the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you charge per hour, you may feel conflicted about this (&quot;am I wasting my customer's time?&quot;).  If it helps you, you could split your billing between both time and deliverables, so that you can remind yourself that those extra hours closing the gap are not being paid for in the part of the bill comprising the deliverables." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12402" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4082" RevisionGUID="f31e0b85-5b9b-4245-84e5-3fab075f047c" CreationDate="2016-01-05T16:58:58.627" UserId="1706" Comment="deleted 7 characters in body" Text="A reasonable rate is 15 percent. But remember face-to-face time with both parties,  along with a good price, will keep you working on to the next client.  Quality of work, materials, pricing, responsiveness to the client's needs. and your overall ability to work well with others will ultimately be the key factors in your next job assignment and the rate of pay.  You can charge for the next job.  Staying actively involved with the present project will get you more leads to better jobs, hence expanding your contact and communication." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12403" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4089" RevisionGUID="7a220887-cbfb-45a4-9944-4d546307964d" CreationDate="2016-01-05T18:28:36.077" UserId="75" Comment="added 7 characters in body" Text="Charge the highest price you can think of. I will explain it with my personal story below:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I once had to sell clothes on a flea market for a friend while he was out. He didn't tell me how  much the clothes cost him or for how much I should sell it. It could have cost him 50 cents and I would sell it for 5 euros, or it could have cost him 10 euros while I was selling for 2. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had no idea, so I just said the first reasonable price to my first costumer...&#xD;&#xA;And the costumer immediately took it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this time I saw my mistake: I didn't properly use all of the willingness of the costumer to pay. I just wasted it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I decided that next time I would use all of the costumers readiness to pay by watching his emotional resistance to the prices I was offering. If he immediately accepted (no resistance), then of course I was too low. If he immediately left the selling site, it was too high and I would improve my estimate on my next costumer. This worked quite well! And it means that if the readiness to pay is lower than your cost to produce, you should: either quit trading this good, or find a market which is willing to pay more for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some years ago I was looking for a new job and when they asked which salary I wanted, I gave a value and they accepted immediately. When I saw how silly I was, I asked them to change it, but no chance. They gave me all the excuses they could think of!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Luckily life surprised me in a way that I was not allowed to take the job, and some months later I had another chance to get another job. I applied the technique of probing for the highest price someone is willing to pay for, and it worked!!!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I have my life long increased pay just because I applied this technique in the second they asked me for my bid" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12404" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4090" RevisionGUID="48838d72-0404-4de0-bfdc-a107e416b593" CreationDate="2016-01-06T06:04:16.400" UserId="11013" Text="You can use https://sites.google.com for hosting and showcasing your profile. for help https://www.google.com/sites/help/intl/en_GB/overview.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But this may need little html coding knowledge for complex web page creation, for that you could use tools like Dreamweaver etc...  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ravi Kumar" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12405" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4091" RevisionGUID="f8af2639-ae61-4694-a07b-23b35b93a433" CreationDate="2016-01-06T06:05:10.903" UserId="11014" Text="i got in touch with a person last year regarding one of his projects, and he wanted me to start working after we sign the NDA, and so i did as he seemed very assuring about the project and all. but we never started and i now have a similar kind of client who is ready to pay me and the idea is as general as e-commerce. should i be bound with that persons NDA, i have mailed him clearly mentioning that NDA is void due to no work or any kind of co-relation what so ever.&#xD;&#xA;can a person use the signed NDA as suicide note for my business. i am skeptical about these things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;regards &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12406" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4091" RevisionGUID="f8af2639-ae61-4694-a07b-23b35b93a433" CreationDate="2016-01-06T06:05:10.903" UserId="11014" Text="is NDA valid just because you signed it and had no further work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12407" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4091" RevisionGUID="f8af2639-ae61-4694-a07b-23b35b93a433" CreationDate="2016-01-06T06:05:10.903" UserId="11014" Text="|legal|payment-terms|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12411" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4093" RevisionGUID="91b7a43d-799d-4cba-8096-1e304d4945c4" CreationDate="2016-01-06T13:22:23.547" UserId="1018" Text="I am not a lawyer but the contract you have agreed to likely still applies whether the project proceeds or not. You'd need to show the contract to a legal professional to receive a reliable answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your situation is one of the reasons to avoid signing non-disclosure agreements to keep future opportunities open (not that this helps now).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may be able to renegotiate your agreement if the original project is not planned to proceed or at least seek approval of your new role with the other party to the NDA before starting." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12412" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4094" RevisionGUID="241643ea-d1ee-4606-9655-4e2b95f46bd7" CreationDate="2016-01-06T14:55:06.853" UserId="11016" Text="I've been a freelancer for 12 years, and this has come up several times for me. The short-answer from my attorney was that yes, you are bound to a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) after you sign it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, most NDAs are limited in scope. For example, the ones I've signed do not prohibit you from using knowledge you had prior to entering into the NDA, and there is usually a confined definition of what the NDA covers (e.g., only protected information gained in discussions between the two parties after the NDA was signed).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have never seen an NDA that would prohibit you from doing work on a similar project for a different client. I would certainly consult an attorney to validate (only an attorney can give you legal advice). But my understanding is if the terms of the NDA are too broad and prohibit you from using knowledge that is publicly available or that you possessed before you entered into the agreement, the NDA is invalid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12413" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4094" RevisionGUID="b32fa0a3-b1d8-48b2-a6a9-2a0a1b132c83" CreationDate="2016-01-06T15:05:17.010" UserId="11016" Comment="added 6 characters in body" Text="I've been a freelancer for 12 years, and this has come up several times for me. The short-answer from my attorney was that yes, you are bound to a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) after you sign it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, most NDAs are limited in scope. For example, the ones I've signed do not prohibit you from using knowledge you had prior to entering into the NDA, and there is usually a confined definition of what the NDA covers (e.g., only protected information gained in discussions between the two parties after the NDA was signed).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have never seen an NDA that would prohibit you from doing work on a similar project for a different client. I would certainly consult an attorney to validate (only an attorney can give you legal advice). But my understanding is an NDA is not enforceable if the terms of the NDA are too broad and prohibit you from using knowledge that is publicly available or that you possessed before you entered into the agreement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12415" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4095" RevisionGUID="624ac691-c826-4838-8b59-b51a16534b97" CreationDate="2016-01-06T16:58:33.690" UserId="11018" Text="I recently interviewed for a freelance job, that sounded like it would last about 4 weeks longer than I expected, and really didn't sound like a good fit for me. However, I'm currently unemployed and would prefer full-time work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I'm trying to think about is whether or not it makes sense to not take this knowing that I may not like it, except for getting paid, because I would still be searching for full-time offers and I wouldn't want to put off a good FT offer for this job. My thought is if I got a full-time offer, I would give 2 weeks notice like I would do for any company." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12416" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4095" RevisionGUID="624ac691-c826-4838-8b59-b51a16534b97" CreationDate="2016-01-06T16:58:33.690" UserId="11018" Text="Quitting a freelance gig early?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12417" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4095" RevisionGUID="624ac691-c826-4838-8b59-b51a16534b97" CreationDate="2016-01-06T16:58:33.690" UserId="11018" Text="|interview|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12429" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4099" RevisionGUID="e15ff44c-cbe1-4bc6-9caf-b53b776a20dd" CreationDate="2016-01-07T21:20:35.033" UserId="11030" Text="I work full time at a company but on the side I also do freelance web design. This year I helped a friend, who lives in Australia, with his website. We never did a formal 1099 but he did send me payment for work done via two bank transfers from Australia to me in the US. Do I need to pay taxes, in either country, for this work done? All communication and work was done via internet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12430" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4099" RevisionGUID="e15ff44c-cbe1-4bc6-9caf-b53b776a20dd" CreationDate="2016-01-07T21:20:35.033" UserId="11030" Text="Paying Taxes on Work Done Via Internet" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12431" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4099" RevisionGUID="e15ff44c-cbe1-4bc6-9caf-b53b776a20dd" CreationDate="2016-01-07T21:20:35.033" UserId="11030" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12432" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4100" RevisionGUID="1e1865c1-6227-47a0-b46e-295d3f9730f4" CreationDate="2016-01-07T21:34:27.630" UserId="4561" Text="What exactly does it say that makes you think you would not be able to work for someone else in the same area?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It sounds like you're talking more about a ***non compete*** agreement than a ***non disclosure*** agreement.  A lot of companies will have employees sign them saying they won't work in the same industry for X amount of time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you never did any work for this employer, I don't imagine you have any of their &quot;trade secrets&quot; to disclose to anyone else.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not a lawyer, but I doubt it is enforceable even if you did sign something saying you would not work for others in the same industry.  My understanding is that in order to have a valid contract, both sides must have consideration (something of value).  Since you did not do the work, I don't think they can enforce a contract for you not to work for others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the future, I would read things carefully before signing them and don't be afraid to push back.  Many companies have boilerplate contracts that don't appreciate the concerns a freelancer has compared to an employee.  I've been handed contracts that would basically have put me out of business had I signed them.  Things like &quot;You won't do business with anyone we have a relationship with.&quot;  That is not only not reasonable, but how would I know who they &quot;have a relationship with&quot; in the first place?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far I have never lost business for questioning a contract or saying I'm unable to agree with certain things in it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12433" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4101" RevisionGUID="c92ccb18-4c4d-4da5-9a32-660b93e927c6" CreationDate="2016-01-07T22:15:05.580" UserId="708" Text="Yes. If you earn **$400 or more** you need to claim it on your US taxes whether or not you get a 1099 and regardless of the communication used. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.freelancetaxation.com/the-minimum-freelancers-need-to-earn-in-order-to-have-to-file-income-taxes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If you are a freelancer, the minimum you need to file a tax return is none of the above. The amount of money you need to earn and to file a tax return is $400. Yes. That is not a misprint. It is $400.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;To be clear, this is not true of the group of people who call themselves freelancers and who are paid on W-2’s. It is true for the freelancers who get paid for the whole amount they earn, do not have any taxes withheld, and have or should have their income declared on a 1099.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Why is the number $400? While you may not owe any income taxes, as a freelancer, you must pay self-employment taxes in addition to regular income taxes. Self-employment taxes start if you earn $400 or more. Therefore you must file a tax return if you gross $400 or more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If you have business expenses that should be taken into account, do not expect the IRS to know that. You must file a Schedule C or Schedule C-EZ that indicate your expenses. That way it may be that you don’t owe any self-employment taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;For example, you earned $5600 as a freelancer but you had $5300 of expenses. Your net is $300. As a result, you wouldn’t owe any taxes, either income taxes or self-employment taxes. You must, however, file your returns because you grossed $400 or more. If you don’t, you could well get a letter from the IRS with a bill and a request for an explanation for why you shouldn’t owe this money. I believe it’s better to file the return and avoid the correspondence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If you earned $5600 and had $4600 of expenses, your net is $1000. You wouldn’t owe any income taxes but you would owe self-employment taxes and would have to file a tax return.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't need to file anything in AU if you live in the US (you pay taxes where you live, not where the client lives). But you definitely are expected to report any income over $400 in the US." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12434" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4101" RevisionGUID="c133fe52-83f3-4fce-a834-c7268cc29241" CreationDate="2016-01-07T22:20:08.547" UserId="708" Comment="added 5 characters in body" Text="Yes. If you earn **$400 or more** you need to claim it on your US taxes whether or not you get a 1099 and regardless of the communication used. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realize that in today's world &quot;Work done via the internet&quot; means *nothing* to the IRS. It is still earned income. The *only* reason &quot;via the internet&quot; may matter is on a Schedule-C and your deductions because you'd clearly not be claiming travel expenses, but you may be claiming ISP expenses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't need to file anything in AU if you live in the US (you pay taxes where you live, not where the client lives). But you definitely are expected to report any income over $400 in the US.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;http://www.freelancetaxation.com/the-minimum-freelancers-need-to-earn-in-order-to-have-to-file-income-taxes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If you are a freelancer, the minimum you need to file a tax return is none of the above. The amount of money you need to earn and to file a tax return is $400. Yes. That is not a misprint. It is $400.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;To be clear, this is not true of the group of people who call themselves freelancers and who are paid on W-2’s. It is true for the freelancers who get paid for the whole amount they earn, do not have any taxes withheld, and have or should have their income declared on a 1099.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Why is the number $400? While you may not owe any income taxes, as a freelancer, you must pay self-employment taxes in addition to regular income taxes. Self-employment taxes start if you earn $400 or more. Therefore you must file a tax return if you gross $400 or more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If you have business expenses that should be taken into account, do not expect the IRS to know that. You must file a Schedule C or Schedule C-EZ that indicate your expenses. That way it may be that you don’t owe any self-employment taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;For example, you earned $5600 as a freelancer but you had $5300 of expenses. Your net is $300. As a result, you wouldn’t owe any taxes, either income taxes or self-employment taxes. You must, however, file your returns because you grossed $400 or more. If you don’t, you could well get a letter from the IRS with a bill and a request for an explanation for why you shouldn’t owe this money. I believe it’s better to file the return and avoid the correspondence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If you earned $5600 and had $4600 of expenses, your net is $1000. You wouldn’t owe any income taxes but you would owe self-employment taxes and would have to file a tax return.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12436" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4102" RevisionGUID="723480fe-316f-4be8-a886-f566dfe6aa24" CreationDate="2016-01-08T05:34:26.407" UserId="11033" Text="This pertains to the learning aspect of your question.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Certainly watch videos, google google google any questions or tutorials. Best way to get started.  Once I've gone through a few online resources and I've decided I need to get more in depth information, I will then get a nice big book on the subject, (just purchased Java the Complete Reference 9th Edition by Oracle).  I am learning on the side, (AWS lambda and the Amazon echo, programming in Java) while working as an installer programmer for custom home/small business networks and control systems.  I barely have any free time!  But don't forget to make some for others like family and friends.  It's not good for your health to be a shut in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You sound like you've got at least a solid fundamental understanding of C#, which is more than most can say.  That's your foot hold.  Yes a lot of things depend on other things as with any applications but take it a piece at a time.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are you the only one on this share point project?  Maybe you could master a piece or two and let others master the other pieces, come together and use teamwork to reach the end result.  It's impossible to be 100% efficient at everything. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My two cents.  Hope you learn what you need and use it to get what you want." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12437" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4101" RevisionGUID="16d19ff8-92e5-446a-98b9-958ed348f768" CreationDate="2016-01-08T11:08:25.867" UserId="1018" Comment="Suggested improvement." Text="Yes. If you earn **$400 or more** you need to declare it in your US income whether or not you get a 1099 and regardless of the communication used. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realize that in today's world &quot;Work done via the internet&quot; means *nothing* to the IRS. It is still earned income. The *only* reason &quot;via the internet&quot; may matter is on a Schedule-C and your deductions because you'd clearly not be claiming travel expenses, but you may be claiming ISP expenses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't need to file anything in AU if you live in the US (you pay taxes where you live, not where the client lives). But you definitely are expected to report any income over $400 in the US.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;http://www.freelancetaxation.com/the-minimum-freelancers-need-to-earn-in-order-to-have-to-file-income-taxes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If you are a freelancer, the minimum you need to file a tax return is none of the above. The amount of money you need to earn and to file a tax return is $400. Yes. That is not a misprint. It is $400.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;To be clear, this is not true of the group of people who call themselves freelancers and who are paid on W-2’s. It is true for the freelancers who get paid for the whole amount they earn, do not have any taxes withheld, and have or should have their income declared on a 1099.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Why is the number $400? While you may not owe any income taxes, as a freelancer, you must pay self-employment taxes in addition to regular income taxes. Self-employment taxes start if you earn $400 or more. Therefore you must file a tax return if you gross $400 or more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If you have business expenses that should be taken into account, do not expect the IRS to know that. You must file a Schedule C or Schedule C-EZ that indicate your expenses. That way it may be that you don’t owe any self-employment taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;For example, you earned $5600 as a freelancer but you had $5300 of expenses. Your net is $300. As a result, you wouldn’t owe any taxes, either income taxes or self-employment taxes. You must, however, file your returns because you grossed $400 or more. If you don’t, you could well get a letter from the IRS with a bill and a request for an explanation for why you shouldn’t owe this money. I believe it’s better to file the return and avoid the correspondence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If you earned $5600 and had $4600 of expenses, your net is $1000. You wouldn’t owe any income taxes but you would owe self-employment taxes and would have to file a tax return.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12438" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4103" RevisionGUID="c9f6b6cb-7b53-4dec-8503-22a142ef5a33" CreationDate="2016-01-08T11:24:32.143" UserId="11038" Text="i'm a germand I freelancer for 3.5 yrs now and this stems from the discussion with my tax consultant (steuerberater) at the time:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;in GER it depends on several factors if you may qualify as a &quot;freiberufler&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. u need to have an academic degree, i.e. Dipl./Ing. or such&#xD;&#xA; 2. the job u  are doing must be in that line and be of consulting or engineering quality &#xD;&#xA; 3. u cannot trade goods, i.e. buy and sell with the intent to make gain&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;however, even if all of these are met, ur safest bet is that ur local tax office (finanzamt) that will do ur taxes approves that u qualify as freelance b/c point 2. has some flexibility especially if u are a foreigner and cond. 1. is not met with a german degree. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;so i advise to contact a german tax consultant (close to where u will work that can easily contact the tax office) and discuss the matter with him||her.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12439" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4104" RevisionGUID="0d481cfa-c8a0-40e9-810d-84d965c5a7b8" CreationDate="2016-01-08T18:31:09.013" UserId="10904" Text="Assume someone is employed as a software developer, working approx. 32 to 36 hours a week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If that person would want to take on some freelance software development project for, say, about 4 hours a week -- to make some extra money and gain more experience -- are there even any projects available that could be completed in a reasonable amount of time, considering he/she can put in only a couple of hours per week?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(It is implied that the person won't pick any projects that would conflict with the interests of the employer, of course. Just to clarify that this is not part of the question.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12440" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4104" RevisionGUID="0d481cfa-c8a0-40e9-810d-84d965c5a7b8" CreationDate="2016-01-08T18:31:09.013" UserId="10904" Text="Are there any small software development projects available for freelancers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12441" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4104" RevisionGUID="0d481cfa-c8a0-40e9-810d-84d965c5a7b8" CreationDate="2016-01-08T18:31:09.013" UserId="10904" Text="|software|small-projects|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12442" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4101" RevisionGUID="5b4e748c-3b48-47af-a829-1f77e79dea4d" CreationDate="2016-01-08T18:43:12.460" UserId="708" Comment="added 23 characters in body" Text="Yes. If you earn **$400 or more** you need to declare it as part of your income on your US taxes, whether or not you get a 1099 and regardless of the communication used. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realize that in today's world &quot;Work done via the internet&quot; means *nothing* to the IRS. It is still earned income. The *only* reason &quot;via the internet&quot; may matter is on a Schedule-C and your deductions because you'd clearly not be claiming travel expenses, but you may be claiming ISP expenses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't need to file anything in AU if you live in the US (you pay taxes where you live, not where the client lives). But you definitely are expected to report any income over $400 in the US.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;http://www.freelancetaxation.com/the-minimum-freelancers-need-to-earn-in-order-to-have-to-file-income-taxes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If you are a freelancer, the minimum you need to file a tax return is none of the above. The amount of money you need to earn and to file a tax return is $400. Yes. That is not a misprint. It is $400.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;To be clear, this is not true of the group of people who call themselves freelancers and who are paid on W-2’s. It is true for the freelancers who get paid for the whole amount they earn, do not have any taxes withheld, and have or should have their income declared on a 1099.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Why is the number $400? While you may not owe any income taxes, as a freelancer, you must pay self-employment taxes in addition to regular income taxes. Self-employment taxes start if you earn $400 or more. Therefore you must file a tax return if you gross $400 or more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If you have business expenses that should be taken into account, do not expect the IRS to know that. You must file a Schedule C or Schedule C-EZ that indicate your expenses. That way it may be that you don’t owe any self-employment taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;For example, you earned $5600 as a freelancer but you had $5300 of expenses. Your net is $300. As a result, you wouldn’t owe any taxes, either income taxes or self-employment taxes. You must, however, file your returns because you grossed $400 or more. If you don’t, you could well get a letter from the IRS with a bill and a request for an explanation for why you shouldn’t owe this money. I believe it’s better to file the return and avoid the correspondence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If you earned $5600 and had $4600 of expenses, your net is $1000. You wouldn’t owe any income taxes but you would owe self-employment taxes and would have to file a tax return.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12443" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4105" RevisionGUID="c98af944-f10e-456a-ad03-343b0d8a21fc" CreationDate="2016-01-09T11:57:22.150" UserId="517" Text="Not for complete projects, but only for some tasks. Some clients need bugfix which may take 5-10 hrs a week. There are other clients who request a few hours of work a week. However, such clients are rare! and such tasks are usually ones for experts! I suggest you start your own project and gain experience in it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Elaboration&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understood that you are hoping to work 5hrs a week on some smaller tasks to earn something extra, but also to gain experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In reality, 5hrs a week is very low output for most clients. You will be able to find clients (1 out of 30 maybe) who have such demands but don't expect to have constant work. Put yourself on the client's side: what kind of work is 5hrs a week on a software that has LOT of users who discover new bugs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I'd say you will be able to find the client who needs urgent work on a bug that only you know how to solve it. How realistic is this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And yes, you can find those on the freelancing sites. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead of this, if you want to gain experience working when you can and how many hours you can, then start making your own software. You will gain experience for sure and you can work when you can. You will not earn money doing this, but you can also monitor freelancing sites to see if any clients has posted a small task that &quot;only you can complete&quot;. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12446" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4106" RevisionGUID="0ce51a79-73cc-4eff-a71f-530c64c6c636" CreationDate="2016-01-11T16:11:45.750" UserId="7557" Text="(Note that this is a US specific question)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a single person LLC (not C or S corp) and last year I contracted with a staffing firm to perform work for a 3rd party on a 1099 basis (rather than W-2), and did file a W-9 with them. IE I billed the staffing company a flat rate but performed the work directly for the 3rd party, for a total value that well and truly exceed the 1099 threshold.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This week I asked my handler at the staffing company about when the 1099-MISC would be sent out and the reply came back from their a HR today as:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We do not send 1099’s out.  Being a corporation you need to keep track&#xD;&#xA;&gt; of your accounting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This confused me a bit as other companies I have contracted with in the past on a 1099 basis **have** issued 1099-MISC forms to me.  However in doing a quick scan of the interwebs and reading from [Time to Send Out 1099s: What to Know][1] and [Instructions for Form 1099-MISC][2] it is possible that they are not required to send me one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The parts that seem to conflict can be seen in the IRS instructions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Specific Instructions**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 2. services performed by someone who is not your employee (including parts and materials), box 7;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Exceptions**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Generally, payments to a corporation (including a limited liability&#xD;&#xA;&gt; company (LLC) that is treated as a C or S Corporation). But see&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Reportable payments to corporations, later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can anyone confirm or disabuse me of my expectation of receiving a 1099?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230851&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1099msc.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12447" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4106" RevisionGUID="0ce51a79-73cc-4eff-a71f-530c64c6c636" CreationDate="2016-01-11T16:11:45.750" UserId="7557" Text="Should I expect a 1099" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12448" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4106" RevisionGUID="0ce51a79-73cc-4eff-a71f-530c64c6c636" CreationDate="2016-01-11T16:11:45.750" UserId="7557" Text="|taxes|usa|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12449" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4107" RevisionGUID="0bd7883d-124a-4311-8fb8-8b5a07408da0" CreationDate="2016-01-11T17:49:02.890" UserId="708" Text="Whether or not a company issues a 1099 is their choice. If they do not wish to comply with that requirement, that is their business. In 2011 the IRS made filing 1099s more easily tracked. They added a question to the tax forms, &quot;Did you make any payments in 2011 that would require you to file Form(s) 1099?&quot; and there are only &quot;Yes&quot; and &quot;no&quot; answers. So clearly, if the company ticks &quot;yes&quot; but does not file any 1099s that will raise an eyebrow for *their* company with the IRS. But again, that's their option. Also be aware any payments totaling less than $600 do not *require* a 1099 be filed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For you, the 1099 is not mandatory. Yes, receiving 1099s can make your filing a bit easier but you shouldn't *really* need them. What *is* required is that you claim your income. You should have records detailed enough to state that Company X paid you $X during the previous tax year, and Company Y paid you $X, and so on. That is all you need for *your* taxes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, I wait until February 1 before I start tax proceedings for my business. All 1099s *must* be issues by January 31. So if you don't have a 1099 by the first week of February, you probably aren't going to to get one from that company. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12450" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4108" RevisionGUID="0ff545ac-af73-4544-b764-b99f5827d601" CreationDate="2016-01-12T05:04:23.043" UserId="11071" Text="This was my first job on freelancer site. The project was to add some 'feature' to the C# application. Budget was 10 - 30$. My bid of 20$ was accepted and then it turned out that I was supposed to add 26 forms in 24 hours. I replayed  with the message that I won't do this for 20$. Then we agreed on 100$. I wanted to do this job more because of that was my first job there. So I accepted the invitation and changed milestone to 100$.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was working all day and night long and managed to co!mplete it in time. But there was no income milestones. Just my requested milestone. I sent all files to him and he was happy with it. He also requested some changes and everything was commited on time and client said it was good. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now he is not answering messages. I see him online sometimes and write 10 messages but he doesn't reply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can I do in this scenario? I don't want money. I wanted a good feedback rather than money. But I don't have money nor feedback. I just have a project that was not completed in time as site states.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And now I want to leave a feedback for that client. But how can I do this? What should I do in this scenario?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12451" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4108" RevisionGUID="0ff545ac-af73-4544-b764-b99f5827d601" CreationDate="2016-01-12T05:04:23.043" UserId="11071" Text="Employer doesn't answer and doesn'close the project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12452" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4108" RevisionGUID="0ff545ac-af73-4544-b764-b99f5827d601" CreationDate="2016-01-12T05:04:23.043" UserId="11071" Text="|freelance-websites|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12453" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4108" RevisionGUID="9c5be544-5117-4e36-8371-d5c2ca11645d" CreationDate="2016-01-12T06:23:38.507" UserId="11071" Comment="added 9 characters in body; edited title" Text="This was my first job on freelancer site. The project was to add some 'feature' to the C# application. Budget was 10 - 30$. My bid of 20$ was accepted and then it turned out that I was supposed to add 26 forms in 24 hours. I replied  with the message that I won't do this for 20$. Then we agreed on 100$. I wanted to do this job more because of that was my first job there. So I accepted the invitation and changed milestone to 100$.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was working all day and night long and managed to complete it in time. But there was no income milestones. Just my requested milestone. I sent all files to him and he was happy with it. He also requested some changes and everything was committed on time and client said it was good. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now he is not answering to my messages. I see him online sometimes and I wrote 10 messages, but he doesn't reply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can I do in this scenario? I don't want money. I wanted a good feedback rather than money. But I don't have money nor feedback. I just have a project that was not completed in time, as site states.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And now I want to leave a feedback for that client. But how can I do this? What should I do in this scenario?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12454" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4108" RevisionGUID="9c5be544-5117-4e36-8371-d5c2ca11645d" CreationDate="2016-01-12T06:23:38.507" UserId="11071" Comment="added 9 characters in body; edited title" Text="Employer doesn't answer and doesn't close the project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12455" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4109" RevisionGUID="08e2fe21-a4d2-4b76-9867-343267c86b9a" CreationDate="2016-01-12T11:03:45.380" UserId="517" Text="I am afraid that you were conned. You will neither get your money or your feedback. To post the feedback, the clients needs to pay you at least some money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the future, don't do any work without a milestone being LOADED. Your request means nothing. Loaded milestone means that the money is on the freelancer site (in escrow) and that you can safely do your work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try contacting client that you will work for $10 and great feedback. However, since you send him files, I am afraid that you will not get even those $10. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. report the client to the customer service. He should be flagged and possibly banned. I think odesk has made great efforts to ban both bad contractors and clients. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12456" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4110" RevisionGUID="5b67bafe-f645-4f9c-b0f2-e0484bb4f49d" CreationDate="2016-01-12T13:41:27.050" UserId="11077" Text="I'm looking for a good time reporting app that possibly could be combined with &#xD;&#xA;several external partners.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Say I have project A I want to report on. Now I want my client to see all time invested in project A, even &quot;spare time&quot; as lunch, or time of.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would configure time as work or free and connect it with a project. This project I can invite external partners to which can read all my reports on that project. So client A can read all reports from project A. Client B can read all reports from project B.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would also be nice if you could make up a plan so they know what to expect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me this seem so basic, but I can not find any that suites my needs. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12457" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4110" RevisionGUID="5b67bafe-f645-4f9c-b0f2-e0484bb4f49d" CreationDate="2016-01-12T13:41:27.050" UserId="11077" Text="Time reporting app" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12458" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4110" RevisionGUID="5b67bafe-f645-4f9c-b0f2-e0484bb4f49d" CreationDate="2016-01-12T13:41:27.050" UserId="11077" Text="|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12459" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4111" RevisionGUID="126353a9-b5d5-49c2-8c53-81ddfe654fa2" CreationDate="2016-01-12T19:44:52.617" UserId="11080" Text="I do some work for a client. Recently they asked me to fix something on their site. It took me about 1-2 hours to locate the problem but the fix was pretty simple. They sent me an email asking me to send an invoice but I feel like saying that the fix was simple so there is no need for me to bill them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a reason against me not billing them? Is this purely opinion-based or is there any real reason why I shouldn't do work for free? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12460" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4111" RevisionGUID="126353a9-b5d5-49c2-8c53-81ddfe654fa2" CreationDate="2016-01-12T19:44:52.617" UserId="11080" Text="Is there a reason against not billing someone when asked for an invoice for work completed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12461" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4111" RevisionGUID="126353a9-b5d5-49c2-8c53-81ddfe654fa2" CreationDate="2016-01-12T19:44:52.617" UserId="11080" Text="|price|communication|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12462" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4112" RevisionGUID="6b20fad4-579e-4b78-805a-cdc67ecec3f0" CreationDate="2016-01-12T22:46:22.477" UserId="708" Text="Well this is really opinion-based. But there are some aspects to be aware of.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Some clients will see your failure to invoice as an &quot;ok&quot; to send you more changes then act shocked when you want to be paid. For this reason you need to be a bit careful with free services. Clients like this just try and roll over you and then start becoming very difficult when you *do* want to invoice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Some clients will see the offer to not invoice as a great thing and it will merely *improve* your standing in their eyes. Clients such as these understand that whether or not to invoice is *your choice* and they *never* expect free services. So the occasional &quot;That was a simple thing, no charge&quot; will go a long way towards great customer service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then of course there's a range of clients in between these two types. Each leaning slightly one way or the other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether or not completing something for free is a &quot;good&quot; or &quot;bad&quot; thing is *highly* dependent upon the actual client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I often complete small, minor, inconsequential things fee of charge for my clients that are *very* good clients and *never* expect anything for free. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, I have clients that any minor thing is invoiced for because if I fail to do that, they'll start sending repeated requests for &quot;minor&quot; things and these start to pile up taking more and more of my time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**However**, I'm not referring to &quot;1-2 hours&quot; of work. I'm referring to 10-15 *minutes* of work. If it takes me 1-2 hours to do something, it's invoiced for in all instances. And hour spent completing that &quot;minor&quot; change is an hour I could have spent on another, paying, project. My time is a commodity. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I look at it this way... Imagine I charge $100/hr. So 15 minutes is worth $25.00. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It takes me 15 minutes to fill out and send an invoice. So really I make $0 if I invoice for 15 minutes. Actually factor in dealing with the check/online payment etc, I probably *lose* money if I invoice for 15 minutes. Therefore its not *really* financially worth my time to invoice for 15 minutes. It may be worth it to invoice just to send a message to the client that &quot;everything&quot; is billable. But if a client already understands that, the message isn't needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I make $75 if I invoice for 1 hour. If I were walking down the street and saw $75 lying on the ground, would I ignore it?? Uhm.. no. So why would I fail to ignore money owed to me. If I stand to gain financially from *any* invoice, the invoice is sent." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12463" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4112" RevisionGUID="a44e3229-c3d5-4e72-b7b5-41970331a613" CreationDate="2016-01-12T23:04:14.037" UserId="708" Comment="added 1090 characters in body" Text="Well this is really opinion-based. But there are some aspects to be aware of.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Some clients will see your failure to invoice as an &quot;ok&quot; to send you more changes then act shocked when you want to be paid. For this reason you need to be a bit careful with free services. Clients like this just try and roll over you and then start becoming very difficult when you *do* want to invoice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Some clients will see the offer to not invoice as a great thing and it will merely *improve* your standing in their eyes. Clients such as these understand that whether or not to invoice is *your choice* and they *never* expect free services. So the occasional &quot;That was a simple thing, no charge&quot; will go a long way towards great customer service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then of course there's a range of clients in between these two types. Each leaning slightly one way or the other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether or not completing something for free is a &quot;good&quot; or &quot;bad&quot; thing is *highly* dependent upon the actual client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I often complete small, minor, inconsequential things fee of charge for my clients that are *very* good clients and *never* expect anything for free. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, I have clients that any minor thing is invoiced for because if I fail to do that, they'll start sending repeated requests for &quot;minor&quot; things and these start to pile up taking more and more of my time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**However**, I'm not referring to &quot;1-2 hours&quot; of work. I'm referring to 10-15 *minutes* of work. If it takes me 1-2 hours to do something, it's invoiced for in all instances. An hour spent completing that &quot;minor&quot; change is an hour I could have spent on another, paying, project. My time is a commodity. **Do not** sell yourself short. That 1-2 hours to &quot;find the problem&quot; is a direct result of your knowledge and experience and it **is** billable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Theres a story that relates to this well....** &#xD;&#xA;&gt;A man takes his car to a mechanic because it's making a funny noise and running really rough.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;The mechanic opens the hood, looks around for 5-10 minutes, pulls out a screwdriver and turns a screw. The noise stops and the car starts running as smooth as the day it was purchased.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;The man is thrilled and says, &quot;Fantastic. Thank you. What do I owe you?&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;The mechanic goes over and fills out an invoice and hands it to the man.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;He looks at the invoice and gasps, &quot;**$100!!** How can you charge me $100 when it only took you 10 minutes??!!&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;The mechanic replied, &quot;Oh, sorry. Here let me itemize that for you.&quot; He then takes the invoice from the man scribbles something on it hand hands it back.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The invoice now reads....&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Turning Screw ...................$5&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Knowing which screw to turn.....$95&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------------------------&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Total Due ......................$100.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Do not** sell your knowledge and experience short.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I look at it this way... Imagine I charge $100/hr. So 15 minutes is worth $25.00. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It takes me 15 minutes to fill out and send an invoice. So really I make $0 if I invoice for 15 minutes. Actually factor in dealing with the check/online payment etc, I probably *lose* money if I invoice for 15 minutes. Therefore its not *really* financially worth my time to invoice for 15 minutes. It may be worth it to invoice just to send a message to the client that &quot;everything&quot; is billable. But if a client already understands that, the message isn't needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I make $75 if I invoice for 1 hour. If I were walking down the street and saw $75 lying on the ground, would I ignore it?? Uhm.. no. So why would I fail to ignore money owed to me. If I stand to gain financially from *any* invoice, the invoice is sent." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12464" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4112" RevisionGUID="4d60a907-dd3b-44a3-98bd-1a75cbc41e12" CreationDate="2016-01-12T23:09:22.480" UserId="708" Comment="added 1090 characters in body" Text="Well this is really opinion-based. But there are some aspects to be aware of.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Some clients will see your failure to invoice as an &quot;ok&quot; to send you more changes then act shocked when you want to be paid. For this reason you need to be a bit careful with free services. Clients like this just try and roll over you and then start becoming very difficult when you *do* want to invoice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Some clients will see the offer to not invoice as a great thing and it will merely *improve* your standing in their eyes. Clients such as these understand that whether or not to invoice is *your choice* and they *never* expect free services. So the occasional &quot;That was a simple thing, no charge&quot; will go a long way towards great customer service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then of course there's a range of clients in between these two types. Each leaning slightly one way or the other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether or not completing something for free is a &quot;good&quot; or &quot;bad&quot; thing is *highly* dependent upon the actual client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I often complete small, minor, inconsequential things fee of charge for my clients that are *very* good clients and *never* expect anything for free. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, I have clients that any minor thing is invoiced for because if I fail to do that, they'll start sending repeated requests for &quot;minor&quot; things and these start to pile up taking more and more of my time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**However**, I'm not referring to &quot;1-2 hours&quot; of work. I'm referring to 10-15 *minutes* of work. If it takes me 1-2 hours to do something, it's invoiced for in all instances. An hour spent completing that &quot;minor&quot; change is an hour I could have spent on another, paying, project. My time is a commodity. **Do not** sell yourself short. That 1-2 hours to &quot;find the problem&quot; is a direct result of your knowledge and experience and it **is** billable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Theres a story that relates to this well....** &#xD;&#xA;&gt;A man takes his car to a mechanic because it's making a funny noise and running really rough.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;The mechanic opens the hood, looks around for 5-10 minutes, pulls out a screwdriver and turns a screw. The noise stops and the car starts running as smooth as the day it was purchased.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;The man is thrilled and says, &quot;Fantastic. Thank you. What do I owe you?&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;The mechanic goes over and fills out an invoice and hands it to the man.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;He looks at the invoice and gasps, &quot;**$100!!** How can you charge me $100 when it only took you 10 minutes??!!&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;The mechanic replied, &quot;Oh, sorry. Here let me itemize that for you.&quot; He then takes the invoice from the man scribbles something on it and hands it back tohim.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The invoice now reads....&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Turning Screw ...................$5&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Knowing which screw to turn.....$95&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------------------------&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Total Due ......................$100.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Do not** sell your knowledge and experience short.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I look at it this way... Imagine I charge $100/hr. So 15 minutes is worth $25.00. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It takes me 15 minutes to fill out and send an invoice. So really I make $0 if I invoice for 15 minutes. Actually factor in dealing with the check/online payment etc, I probably *lose* money if I invoice for 15 minutes. Therefore its not *really* financially worth my time to invoice for 15 minutes. It may be worth it to invoice just to send a message to the client that &quot;everything&quot; is billable. But if a client already understands that, the message isn't needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I make $75 if I invoice for 1 hour. If I were walking down the street and saw $75 lying on the ground, would I ignore it?? Uhm.. no. So why would I fail to ignore money owed to me. If I stand to gain financially from *any* invoice, the invoice is sent." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12465" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4107" RevisionGUID="c0f9942e-258e-456b-b115-de497d330635" CreationDate="2016-01-12T23:45:39.853" UserId="708" Comment="added 198 characters in body" Text="Whether or not a company issues a 1099 is their choice. If they do not wish to comply with that requirement, that is their business. In 2011 the IRS made filing 1099s more easily tracked. They added a question to the tax forms, &quot;Did you make any payments in 2011 that would require you to file Form(s) 1099?&quot; and there are only &quot;Yes&quot; and &quot;no&quot; answers. So clearly, if the company ticks &quot;yes&quot; but does not file any 1099s that will raise an eyebrow for *their* company with the IRS. But again, that's their option. Also be aware any payments totaling less than $600 do not *require* a 1099 be filed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For you, the 1099 is not mandatory. Yes, receiving 1099s can make your filing a bit easier but you shouldn't *really* need them. What *is* required is that you claim your income. You should have records detailed enough to state that Company X paid you $X during the previous tax year, and Company Y paid you $X, and so on. That is all you need for *your* taxes. To clarify, *your taxes* are not required to include any 1099s from other companies. The only 1099s *you* are required to include are those you *issued* to others due to payouts from *your* company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, I wait until February 1 before I start tax proceedings for my business. All 1099s *must* be issues by January 31. So if you don't have a 1099 by the first week of February, you probably aren't going to to get one from that company. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12466" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4113" RevisionGUID="5a5340c4-3c3f-4dcb-9561-b5710ab56874" CreationDate="2016-01-13T01:42:38.603" UserId="11081" Text="I'm looking into a contract in IT (specifically software development), and the work would be done out of my home in Canada for a company based in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My questions are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Is this arrangement possible?&#xD;&#xA; - Would I charge any taxes, such as GST or VAT, to the UK company?&#xD;&#xA; - Does it matter what currency I'm paid in?&#xD;&#xA; - Can you recommend any tax experts based in Canada who may be able to assist?  (I've only found Canada-US experts so far...)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any other experiences or things to be aware of (e.g. hidden costs) are welcome.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you for your input.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12467" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4113" RevisionGUID="5a5340c4-3c3f-4dcb-9561-b5710ab56874" CreationDate="2016-01-13T01:42:38.603" UserId="11081" Text="Can a Canadian contractor work for a UK based company? Tips / input are welcome" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12468" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4113" RevisionGUID="5a5340c4-3c3f-4dcb-9561-b5710ab56874" CreationDate="2016-01-13T01:42:38.603" UserId="11081" Text="|contracts|uk|remote|canada|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12469" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4114" RevisionGUID="71fea789-0388-4992-b446-421d9a92d8d2" CreationDate="2016-01-13T03:05:05.997" UserId="4561" Text="It's definitely up to you but I think the argument against it is that while clients may (or may not) appreciate it, you devalue yourself in their eyes when you don't bill for your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have also read to never say &quot;this is simple&quot; about anything you do. (Which I have since stopped doing) because it plants the idea in their mind that it's not worth much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just because it's &quot;simple&quot; for you, doesn't mean it's simple.  It probably means you have an expertise in that area and are valuable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do decide not to bill for something like that, I would be sure they understand that you are doing that for them, how much time you spent on it, and tell them you are doing it to show your appreciation for their continued business, their being such great clients, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I would never not bill for something that took 2 hours to troubleshoot unless it was the result of a bug or error on my part.  Or ignorance (it took me 2 hours to find because I didn't know what I was doing yet, but next time it will take me 2 minutes.)  I don't charge my clients for my education unless they're asking me to figure something out for them where they know I am not yet experienced.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that said, when I invoice I often list a something as &quot;complimentary&quot; and not charge for it, or discount it with &quot;preferred client discount&quot; (Or give another reason.)  Sometimes I will add some bells and whistles they did not specifically request but that I know they will love and say the feature is complimentary because I felt they simply had to have it!  Clients seem to notice and appreciate that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if you literally just say &quot;No charge 'cause that was simple&quot; not only did you just work 1 - 2 hours for free, but your client has no idea what a great thing you did for them because they think it was simple.  And it may give them the impression things take a lot less time than they actually do, so in the future they may be shocked by invoices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, if you you just don't invoice, don't assume they'll even realize it if you don't say something.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12470" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2848" RevisionGUID="0b5da286-7f3f-4cec-905b-9b49f6ca279b" CreationDate="2016-01-13T03:13:52.613" UserId="10963" Comment="spelling corrections" Text="This is what a friend asked me and I directed him to the similar question http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/96/517 here. Then we started discussing the issue and I realize that this question is nothing like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Find the first client&#xD;&#xA;2. How to get the first job&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and other similar questions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that I decided to post this question here as I was without an answer. If you still find it as a duplicate, I will delete it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The situation is like this:There is an experienced contractor who has been living using sites like Elance, odesk, Freelancer, etc. He has good reputation, dozens of clients and 50+ projects. He decided not to rely on these sites any more and pay them provision and decided to work outside of them. His other main reason is that his account was locked for the 5th time for 10 days just because he was hired by a suspicious client and these Services needed time to investigate if he's guilty or not. In the meantime he lost a couple of potential clients (who would work for the contractor with a locked account). So main reason with him is locking of account for any silly reason (others who read this may simply don't want to pay service fees any more). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But he lives in a poor region and that is why he chose to use these websites on the first place. Yet again, all his clients are individuals or small companies who do not have enough work so he can make the living from them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what choices does he have now? Is it impossible for him (and other like him) to live without large services like those I mentioned above? Does he have to return to his ex company to have small salary and earn small extra part-time?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there anyone around who started working using these services and left them and made living possible without them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope you now realize why I was without a good answer to this question. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12471" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2848" RevisionGUID="0b5da286-7f3f-4cec-905b-9b49f6ca279b" CreationDate="2016-01-13T03:13:52.613" Comment="Proposed by 10963 approved by 1018, -1 edit id of 446" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12472" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2848" RevisionGUID="c60500ed-852f-4413-84fa-8ad4ad0905d6" CreationDate="2016-01-13T03:13:52.613" UserId="4561" Comment="grammar corrections and rewording for better clarity." Text="This is what a friend asked me and I directed him to the similar question http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/96/517 here. Then we started discussing the issue and I realize that this question is nothing like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Find the first client&#xD;&#xA;2. How to get the first job&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and other similar questions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that I decided to post this question here as I was without an answer. If you still find it as a duplicate, I will delete it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The situation is like this:There is an experienced contractor who has been living using sites like Elance, odesk, Freelancer, etc. He has a good reputation, dozens of clients and 50+ projects. He decided not to rely on these sites any more and pay them a percentage and decided to work outside of them instead. His other main reason is that his account was locked for the 5th time for 10 days just because he was hired by a suspicious client and these Services needed time to investigate if he's guilty or not. In the meantime he lost a couple of potential clients. (Who would work for the contractor with a locked account?) So his main reason is the locking of his account for any silly reason (others who read this may simply not want to pay service fees any more). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But he lives in a poor region and that is why he chose to use these websites in the first place. Yet again, all his clients are individuals or small companies who do not have enough work for him to make a living from them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what choices does he have now? Is it impossible for him (and other like him) to live without large services like those I mentioned above? Does he have to return to his ex company to have small salary and earn small extra part-time?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there anyone around who started working using these services and left them and made a living without them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope you now realize why I was without a good answer to this question. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12473" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4115" RevisionGUID="ffdb93fa-a71f-4a37-83ef-4811e6f35586" CreationDate="2016-01-13T03:32:56.470" UserId="4561" Text="I would definitely report the income so you are covered if you get audited, but don't worry about whether they decide to send you a 1099.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Different companies seem to handle this different ways but in my experience MOST do the 1099.  Their *tone* seems a little irritated, but maybe that's just how accountants talk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I used to be a sole proprietor and 90% of my clients issues 1099's if I did over $600, but I had at least 1 that never did.  I changed to an LLC about a year ago and the same clients kept issuing 1099's.  A couple new clients did not but I don't know why. (I was so late with my taxes I didn't have time to ask them...)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know the exact law.  I had one client that I actually paid money last year who was an LLC and I asked them and they said it &quot;was a good idea&quot; for me to do the 1099 for them.  Other times (like when I had a website built) it never occurred to me to do a 1099 and they never said anything about it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12474" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4116" RevisionGUID="49d67d02-d7b5-4464-8bba-1c56a6c5fe8b" CreationDate="2016-01-13T03:47:01.717" UserId="8046" Text="It's not an app only, it's an online service that offers apps for different platforms: Have a look at [Freshbooks][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It will let you add clients and as many projects as you want for each clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients and collaborators can get access to your online time sheets and other reports.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For you own team, it's possible to download apps with timers that are linked to each clients and projects; you can use the apps with specific tasks and the online time sheet will get updated automatically. You can also add a note within the timer app about what you're working on and the note will be added to the time sheet as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also possible to have different price for each task or project. Prices can be flat per/project or per/hour or per/task.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also add/upload expenses related to a project. Clients will be able to see these expenses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's a simple &quot;ticket/dispute&quot; system as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, when a project is completed, you can use Freshbooks to invoice your client; it will let you calculate and prepare automatically a detailed invoice with all the time and task entries, and calculate the total for you. Clients will be able to pay online and you can use different payment gateway (WePay, Paypal, Stripe, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Their customer support is also amazing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;PS: I use it for many years, it's certainly one of the biggest time saver to manage projects.&lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.freshbooks.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12475" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4116" RevisionGUID="8548b1e6-64d8-4bda-b4af-7f7abb8deef2" CreationDate="2016-01-13T03:52:43.863" UserId="8046" Comment="added 81 characters in body" Text="It's not an app only, it's an online service that offers apps for different platforms: Have a look at [Freshbooks][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It will let you add clients and as many projects as you want for each clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients and collaborators can get access to your online time sheets and other reports. Member areas are private. You can also see who logged in and a feed of activity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For you own team, it's possible to download apps with timers that are linked to each clients and projects; you can use the apps with specific tasks and the online time sheet will get updated automatically. You can also add a note within the timer app about what you're working on and the note will be added to the time sheet as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also possible to have different price for each task or project. Prices can be flat per/project or per/hour or per/task.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also add/upload expenses related to a project. Clients will be able to see these expenses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's a simple &quot;ticket/dispute&quot; system as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, when a project is completed, you can use Freshbooks to invoice your client; it will let you calculate and prepare automatically a detailed invoice with all the time and task entries, and calculate the total for you. Clients will be able to pay online and you can use different payment gateway (WePay, Paypal, Stripe, etc.) It creates an invoice in PDF file and clients can see all their previous invoices online in their member areas. You can send the invoice by email or snail mail; Freshbooks will mail for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Their customer support is also amazing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;PS: I use it for many years, it's certainly one of the biggest time saver to manage projects. I've tried a few timers and this one has always been the easiest to use for both clients and my team, and the timer app is great.&lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.freshbooks.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12476" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4116" RevisionGUID="0f24aedb-07d7-4f18-bf18-c46938c3b324" CreationDate="2016-01-13T04:07:00.760" UserId="8046" Comment="added 526 characters in body" Text="It's not an app only, it's an online service that offers apps for different platforms: Have a look at [Freshbooks][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It will let you add clients and as many projects as you want for each clients. You can choose different currency for each client and also have many logins for one single client (eg. for members of their own team).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients and collaborators can get access to your online time sheets and other reports. Member areas are private. You can also see who logged in and a feed of activity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For you own team, it's possible to download apps with timers that are linked to each clients and projects; you can use the apps with specific tasks and the online time sheet will get updated automatically. You can also add a note within the timer app about what you're working on and the note will be added to the time sheet as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's some free versions for the time tracking app but you can also  purchase other apps at low cost. Or build your own. The default one works perfectly fine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also possible to have different price for each task or project. Prices can be flat per/project or per/hour or per/task.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also add/upload expenses related to a project. Clients will be able to see these expenses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's a simple &quot;ticket/dispute&quot; system as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, when a project is completed, you can use Freshbooks to invoice your client; it will let you calculate and prepare automatically a detailed invoice with all the time and task entries, and calculate the total for you. Clients will be able to pay online and you can use different payment gateway (WePay, Paypal, Stripe, etc.) It creates an invoice in PDF file and clients can see all their previous invoices online in their member areas. You can send the invoice by email or snail mail; Freshbooks will mail for you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Their customer support is also amazing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Time Tracking details:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.freshbooks.com/timesheets-and-time-tracking&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Reports:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.freshbooks.com/financial-reporting&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Add-ons:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.freshbooks.com/addons&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;____&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;PS: I use it for many years, it's certainly one of the biggest time saver to manage projects. I've tried a few timers and this one has always been the easiest to use for both clients and my team, and the timer app is great.&lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.freshbooks.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12477" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4117" RevisionGUID="8eeae971-b853-4b8f-b681-1fbc1db562ad" CreationDate="2016-01-13T16:00:03.757" UserId="11088" Text="I'm a Canadian and I've freelanced (in the advertising field) for a UK-based company.  They had a Toronto office that I dealt with for the project and cheques were issued locally so that simplified things.  And because this company had an office on the ground in Canada, yes, I had to charge HST.  However, you do not charge GST/HST if the company has no Canadian presence. In that case you need to get the client to sign a form entitled something like &quot;Satisfactory Evidence as Proof of Non-Residence and Non-Registration for GST/HST Purposes.&quot; (Google it for examples.) You get it signed and file it away in case CRA should ask for it. I prefer getting paid in Canadian dollars because I can deposit cheques at an ATM while foreign currency cheques require me to get in line.  And I might be wrong but I believe that the exchange rate used by the bank includes a hidden fee.  Also a lot of companies take 60+ days to pay and the way the CAD is trending who know how much you could lose if you're paid in pounds.  I prefer wire transfers and request payment in CAD.  But you may be dinged a few dollars for the privilege.  I'm not sure you need a tax expert.  Just report your income to CRA in CAD. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12478" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4118" RevisionGUID="0cee3916-90b6-4c35-a0bd-7dd8ec62f9e6" CreationDate="2016-01-14T02:48:00.627" UserId="1018" Text="**Managing Client Expectations**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a task took you more than an hour and the client expects an invoice then I would tend to invoice them as requested.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not invoicing them sets the wrong expectation for the future where they may expect similar requests to be done for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are inclined to do a small task for free for a good client, make sure that the free time is included in the next invoice (e.g. as a line item with zero cost) to show the client that they have been rewarded with a discount. This shows that you value your relationship with your client but also highlights:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. you have done something for free that you normally charge for&#xD;&#xA; 2. they shouldn't assume that this will always be free in future&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Sharing the Cost Between Multiple Clients**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you spent 2 hours troubleshooting an issue and the solution applies to multiple clients, it may be reasonable to apportion the research time between multiple clients. For example, you might bill three clients 1 hour each which covers your time and also gives each client a discount (a win - win).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Invoice Efficiency**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Billing clients for less than an hour may be inefficient for you and your client in terms of the time and cost of raising the invoice, chasing payment and paying the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tend to track all time expended on client work (in 15 minute increments), and invoice monthly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client has not accumulated a full hour at the end of the month, then the amount owed is carried forward to subsequent month(s) until at least one hour has been expended and an invoice can be raised.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12479" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4119" RevisionGUID="47626b27-589d-4816-ac03-769d0ebf98a3" CreationDate="2016-01-14T07:49:09.343" UserId="10754" Text="A US based company, who wants to purchase a large quantity of license for one of my software products through my reseller wrote me that a IRS W-9 needs to be filled out. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As the purchase will be from my re-seller (who handles all payment and tax processing parts of the transactions) and not from me, should they contact the payment processing company for filling out the W-9 form?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have read also that the W-9 typically is used for independent contractory / freelancers. So I am not sure if they mistake me for a freelancer. I am not living in the US, so I am not sure it they need the W-9 form at all." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12480" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4119" RevisionGUID="47626b27-589d-4816-ac03-769d0ebf98a3" CreationDate="2016-01-14T07:49:09.343" UserId="10754" Text="IRS W-9 for customer who will purchase my products from my re-seller" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12481" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4119" RevisionGUID="47626b27-589d-4816-ac03-769d0ebf98a3" CreationDate="2016-01-14T07:49:09.343" UserId="10754" Text="|difficult-client|usa|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12482" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4119" RevisionGUID="bb123c11-49c5-442a-b791-84c8ed1c6454" CreationDate="2016-01-14T07:54:50.907" UserId="10754" Comment="deleted 39 characters in body" Text="A U.S. based company, who wants to purchase my software products through my reseller wrote me that a IRS W-9 needs to be filled out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They will buy the product license from my re-seller (who handles all payment and tax processing parts of the transactions), should they contact the payment processing company for filling out the W-9 form?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have read also that the W-9 typically is used for independent contractory / freelancers. So I am not sure if they mistake me for a freelancer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12483" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4111" RevisionGUID="eac4d19d-467a-4eba-b426-0a8e04ad6a65" CreationDate="2016-01-14T10:50:36.813" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/687587614573113344" />
  <row Id="12484" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4120" RevisionGUID="4d1a3fa0-f33d-45e3-aafc-2699e4c94604" CreationDate="2016-01-14T14:52:16.550" UserId="11093" Text="This probably varies from state to state.  Does anybody who does IT contracting work in Maryland understand the best way to legally put a late payment clause in their contract?  Net 15 / Net 30 ? .. charging how much interest per month / year?  Flat fee?  How is this worded in the contract?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How does this change if I am doing business with a company outside of Maryland?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Related side question:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am using a standard Maryland consulting agreement that I downloaded from lawdepot.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I want to do business with a company in another state, do I need to use a consulting agreement from that state or will the Maryland one I have suffice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12485" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4120" RevisionGUID="4d1a3fa0-f33d-45e3-aafc-2699e4c94604" CreationDate="2016-01-14T14:52:16.550" UserId="11093" Text="Charging interest or penalties for late payments in the state of Maryland" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12486" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4120" RevisionGUID="4d1a3fa0-f33d-45e3-aafc-2699e4c94604" CreationDate="2016-01-14T14:52:16.550" UserId="11093" Text="|contracts|consulting|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12487" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4110" RevisionGUID="180c705b-8c83-4fde-894d-35fbefb9742b" CreationDate="2016-01-15T07:50:38.497" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/687904711635263488" />
  <row Id="12490" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4121" RevisionGUID="a9627c7d-73be-43e9-8334-86617808c204" CreationDate="2016-01-16T08:03:02.860" UserId="8313" Text="If I receive most of my freelancing income through online agents (like Upwork, Freelancer, Elance, etc), and have commission on this income that is automatically deducted through the account I hold with them, (1) How do I record this in my accounting software? (2) How will this be recorded when there's a transaction of payment from that account to &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm assuming that I need to create a bank account (In my accounting system) for each online agent I use, and feed it with each transaction I have in the agent (be it commission paid or income received). And then conciliate the client invoices I generate in my accounting system against the payments on that 'bank account', but does this sound right? I mean, an online agent is not an 'official bank account', they are just agents holding money for you until they deposit it in to your proper local bank account.&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12491" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4121" RevisionGUID="a9627c7d-73be-43e9-8334-86617808c204" CreationDate="2016-01-16T08:03:02.860" UserId="8313" Text="How should I record/track my freelancing income through an Agent in my Accounting system" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12492" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4121" RevisionGUID="a9627c7d-73be-43e9-8334-86617808c204" CreationDate="2016-01-16T08:03:02.860" UserId="8313" Text="|taxes|payments|accounting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12493" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4122" RevisionGUID="86135976-9155-4088-bdba-082d206e0bd1" CreationDate="2016-01-16T15:09:55.230" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="If the customer wants to pay, a healthy reaction is just to please him and accept with a big smile. Don't forget you spent 1-2 hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you refuse, be sure to explain him why you do so. Avoid an explanation like &quot;it wasn't worth it&quot;, prefer to say &quot;I am offering it to you because...&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12496" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4119" RevisionGUID="452b71a0-3cf4-4d3a-b6fa-adc6dda07226" CreationDate="2016-01-17T07:41:25.837" UserId="10754" Comment="added 247 characters in body" Text="A U.S. based company, who wants to purchase my software products through my reseller wrote me that a IRS W-9 needs to be filled out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They will buy the product license from my re-seller (who handles all payment and tax processing parts of the transactions), should they contact the payment processing company for filling out the W-9 form?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have read also that the W-9 typically is used for independent contractory / freelancers. So I am not sure if they mistake me for a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I asked the reseller and their U.S. branch sent me a W-9 as PDF, filled out and signed. Can I safely assume that this is a normal business practice? As I do not give any personal information with this form, I not see a 'scam'. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12497" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4119" RevisionGUID="a01b3e53-e0db-4398-bea4-492507110052" CreationDate="2016-01-17T07:53:16.983" UserId="10754" Comment="added 247 characters in body" Text="A U.S. based company, who wants to purchase my software products through my reseller wrote me that a IRS W-9 needs to be filled out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They will buy the product license from my re-seller (who handles all payment and tax processing parts of the transactions), should they contact the payment processing company for filling out the W-9 form?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have read also that the W-9 typically is used for independent contractory / freelancers. So I am not sure if they mistake me for a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I asked the reseller and their U.S. branch sent me a W-9 as PDF, filled out and signed. Can I safely assume that this is a normal business practice? As I do not give any personal information with this form, I not see a 'scam'.&#xD;&#xA;But from the comment&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; In no instance should anyone require a W9 if they are purchasing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; products.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;requesting a W-9 seems unusual. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to avoid any misinformation, which I could pass unknowingly to the potential customer by forwarding the W-9. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My business has a contract / business relationship with the local branch here in Europe only, and as they are responsible for tax payment, I assumed that they transfer it directly without involving the U.S. branch. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I guess it is safer to let the customer contact the payment processing company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12498" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="4119" RevisionGUID="50ea268f-05fe-442c-ba32-1ff917f721fd" CreationDate="2016-01-17T07:53:47.940" UserId="10754" Comment="32" />
  <row Id="12499" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4123" RevisionGUID="39070e45-0a08-48d1-963d-caa4362a2b9c" CreationDate="2016-01-17T07:55:18.233" UserId="11121" Text="I want to start freelancing with Rails on Upwork, but I don't have any completed production level projects in that field yet. I've been working with PHP for a few years now and have a decent portfolio, but it won't help much for Rails projects. My plan is to make a few websites using Rails in my spare time for someone for a low payment or even for free, so I can get more experience in the field and add them to my portfolio, then I would be able to find an actual job. Any advice for searching something like this? Are there platforms specifically designed for entry level coders?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12500" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4123" RevisionGUID="39070e45-0a08-48d1-963d-caa4362a2b9c" CreationDate="2016-01-17T07:55:18.233" UserId="11121" Text="Best way to find projects in a new field" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12501" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4123" RevisionGUID="39070e45-0a08-48d1-963d-caa4362a2b9c" CreationDate="2016-01-17T07:55:18.233" UserId="11121" Text="|freelance-websites|programmer|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12502" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4119" RevisionGUID="cae773af-3456-44f8-82b4-c7ced324dd28" CreationDate="2016-01-17T08:06:03.513" UserId="10754" Comment="added 247 characters in body" Text="A U.S. based company, who wants to purchase my software products through my reseller wrote me that a IRS W-9 needs to be filled out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They will buy the product license from my re-seller (who handles all payment and tax processing parts of the transactions), should they contact the payment processing company for filling out the W-9 form?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have read also that the W-9 typically is used for independent contractory / freelancers. So I am not sure if they mistake me for a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I asked the reseller and their U.S. branch sent me a W-9 as PDF, filled out and signed. Can I safely assume that this is a normal business practice? As I do not give any personal information with this form, I not see a 'scam'.&#xD;&#xA;But from the comment&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; In no instance should anyone require a W9 if they are purchasing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; products.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;requesting a W-9 seems unusual. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to avoid any misinformation, which I could pass unknowingly to the potential customer by forwarding the W-9. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My business has a contract / business relationship with the local branch here in Europe only, and as they are responsible for tax payment, I assumed that they transfer it directly without involving the U.S. branch. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I guess it is safer to let the customer contact the payment processing company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question basically has two parts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. is a W-9 required for a software license sale from a non-U.S. corporation to a corporation in the U.S.?&#xD;&#xA; 2. if the W-9 is not required, are there good (rational) reasons to ask for it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12503" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4124" RevisionGUID="e637dcf3-269c-4d11-bab8-8008ac76e39a" CreationDate="2016-01-17T12:19:45.460" UserId="11122" Text="I am new to work as a freelancer online. Recently I found a website freelancer.co.in. I want to work as a freelancer on it. But it is asking my credit card number here https://www.freelancer.in/payments/verify.php. I am afraid to give the details of my credit card. I am afraid that they could deduct money from my account. I am thinking to make first nill balance in the account. I want to earn money not to spend. Getting it straight forward, I want to ask,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;- Would any money be deducted from my bank account if I give my credit card number to that website?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12504" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4124" RevisionGUID="e637dcf3-269c-4d11-bab8-8008ac76e39a" CreationDate="2016-01-17T12:19:45.460" UserId="11122" Text="Is giving Credit card number to freelancer.com secure?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12505" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4124" RevisionGUID="e637dcf3-269c-4d11-bab8-8008ac76e39a" CreationDate="2016-01-17T12:19:45.460" UserId="11122" Text="|freelance-websites|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12506" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4125" RevisionGUID="c43577a3-a93d-4929-83f3-da016f26f0c0" CreationDate="2016-01-17T22:46:58.267" UserId="11127" Text="I want to hire an 'outsourced' freelancer for my project - this is: a freelancer from an underdeveloped country who can work for much lower rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course I see many websites for finding such freelancers. However they never offer me the option to directly contact them - all payments and time tracking must be done through those websites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd be more inclined to set my own tracking methodology, and to pay directly to the freelancer. The reason is that I'm a software developer looking for another software developer, so I would know how to track progress accurately (unlike the average outsourcing user - typically non-technical folks).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would that be a good idea?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Are outsourced freelancers typically willing to work directly with the client?&#xD;&#xA;* What do I risk by paying directly to the freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;* Any other possible risks / drawbacks...?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12507" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4125" RevisionGUID="c43577a3-a93d-4929-83f3-da016f26f0c0" CreationDate="2016-01-17T22:46:58.267" UserId="11127" Text="Is it a good idea to hire an outsourced freelancer directly?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12508" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4125" RevisionGUID="c43577a3-a93d-4929-83f3-da016f26f0c0" CreationDate="2016-01-17T22:46:58.267" UserId="11127" Text="|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12509" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4126" RevisionGUID="d8a3de83-2fcf-4364-8447-5b2a38966fd7" CreationDate="2016-01-18T07:25:08.967" UserId="11130" Text="Many times these type situation arise on freelancing marketplace. Try to convince the client. For fix cost project. Always try to get some upfront." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12514" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4128" RevisionGUID="86e71636-9163-4380-8fa4-7b6876167e60" CreationDate="2016-01-18T08:44:37.007" UserId="517" Text="Is it a good idea? Yes. Are there cons in working directly? Yes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you work over freelancer websites, you can see what other clients said about the contractor, the money you load is guaranteed e.g. you can complain and get your money back if a contractor is not doing the job. Even contractors are more serious as they know that you can ruin their rating if they do bad job. And you pay the fee for that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you work directly, you pay much less, but most clients complain that a contractor either did a bad job or he left the project. Contractors complain that client did not pay them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I once tried getting help via Linkedin from India trying to get &quot;better expertise for less money&quot;, however the guy I interviewed appeared to be more expensive. IMHO I would always opt for freelancer website. If the guy you hire is so good (Hint: 1 of 20 or 30 will be &quot;so good&quot;), you can always offer him salary or some arrangement to work off those websites. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. I have asked such help 30+ times, and I still use freelancer websites. Can you guess why? ;)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12515" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4129" RevisionGUID="7c6f90d8-647c-4f2d-8118-9d9fda11e9a1" CreationDate="2016-01-18T08:46:41.897" UserId="517" Text="It's usually safe unless they are hacked. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I would rather get a new card with limited withdraw money (or virtual credit card as someone pointed out), and use that card, instead of my real card. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Others use gift cards for the same purpose." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12516" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4130" RevisionGUID="f29ab200-f47e-4007-a01d-94555a395ecf" CreationDate="2016-01-18T08:48:48.750" UserId="517" Text="Freelancer websites are usually for guys experienced in some field. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, you can make you profile stating that you are junior developer giving affordable rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While waiting for clients, practice RoR and attach such project in portfolio. Once you get good in RoR, I am sure that clients will start hiring you. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12517" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4131" RevisionGUID="d410ead3-65e5-4e53-a2ff-3da77fb8bdaf" CreationDate="2016-01-18T13:18:44.407" UserId="4133" Text="The IRS site ( https://www.irs.gov/uac/About-Form-W9 ) has info on the W-9 form. It is used for *a US person* to determine whether a 1099 is required for payments made to &quot;freelance workers&quot; or &quot;independent contractors&quot;, among other things. The referenced web site has a link to a PDF of the W-9 Form. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Quoted from the W-9 form:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Definition of a U.S. person. For federal tax purposes, you are considered a U.S. person if you are: &#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - An individual who is a U.S. citizen or U.S. resident alien; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; - A partnership, corporation, company, or association created or organized in the United States or under the laws of the United States; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; - An estate (other than a foreign estate); or &#xD;&#xA;&gt; - A domestic trust (as defined in Regulations section 301.7701-7).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a non-US corporate entity, do you even have a US taxpayer ID? I don't think a non-US entity is bound by IRS rules anyway, are they? Your customer may just be concerned and want back-up justification for the expense they're going to claim for the purchase of your product license. They should be able to get that from your re-seller's web site, or your web site. That's how we internally justify expenses for &quot;foreign&quot; software or licenses we purchase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Years ago, a US client requested a W-9 from us (we're a US sub-s corporation) to clarify they did not need to issue a 1099 to us. We provided our corporate tax ID on the form, and have had no issues. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may want to complete the form for the customer's file, but I can't see how you're required to. The W-9 form is not submitted to the IRS, only the 1099 is. Or maybe just an e-mail stating you're a &quot;foreign&quot; corporation with your business address, or point them to that portion of your own or your re-seller's web site? Or just ignore the request, but the potential customer may not buy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12518" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4121" RevisionGUID="2fa18faa-99a7-4aaa-98c9-a0be9c9d2333" CreationDate="2016-01-18T15:48:23.893" UserId="8313" Comment="added 20 characters in body" Text="If I receive most of my freelancing income through online agents (like Upwork, Freelancer, Elance, etc), and have commission on this income that is automatically deducted through the account I hold with them, (1) How do I record this in my accounting software? (2) How will this be recorded when there's a transaction of payment from that account to a real bank account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm assuming that I need to create a bank account (In my accounting system) for each online agent I use, and feed it with each transaction I have in the agent (be it commission paid or income received). And then conciliate the client invoices I generate in my accounting system against the payments on that 'bank account', but does this sound right? I mean, an online agent is not an 'official bank account', they are just agents holding money for you until they deposit it in to your proper local bank account.&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12519" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4015" RevisionGUID="1b5358a9-8ae1-40c8-9098-2569ff22f261" CreationDate="2016-01-18T21:52:35.060" UserId="708" Comment="added 319 characters in body" Text="- **Good** clients are generally *not* the clients looking for the *cheapest* workers they can find. They are customarily more vested in abilities than actual price points. &#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients *know* that quality workers demand more than a bare minimum rate.&#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients customarily find *good* workers and continue to return to those workers in order to maintain a level of quality.&#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients respect the worker and understand that a business transaction must be beneficial *both* ways.&#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients openly discuss issues to *solve* them rather than focusing on blame.&#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients understand rates may increase over a period of time - they understand inflation, cost of living, and other business principles such as this as a &quot;whole&quot; rather than focusing *only* on what they must pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--- &#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients will always shop for the *cheapest* worker they can find.&#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients will be slow to pay.&#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients generally have issues with scope creep.&#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients will only return to hire you again if they feel they got the &quot;better end&quot; of the deal. &#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients *never* accept an issue may be on *their* end and almost *always* assume if there's a problem it's the worker's fault.&#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients *always* want the same price, or a *better* price -  **if** they happen to return to you. They always argue for discounts, want a &quot;deal&quot;, or complain your rates are too high (even if they are remarkably low). They focus on what they are paying, not what they are receiving, your skills, abilities or other things you offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These are **generalizations**. However, in the $10/hr range you are setting yourself to build a stable of bad, demanding, problematic clients. In all my years of experience, I have **never** run into a **single** client looking for the &quot;cheapest rates&quot; that was anything other than a problem. Now, that is *my* experience. perhaps yours is different. And I *do not* know your region or specific fields. So, things could be different.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order to build **stable, repeat, long-standing, clients** you need one thing from them -- *loyalty*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you need to ask yourself who is more likely to value *your services* and feel more loyal over a period of time - the client paying you $10/hr or the client paying $50/hr?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or look at it this way... which do you take better care of and value more - the $20 pair of sunglasses you got at the grocery store or the $300 pair of Oakleys sunglasses?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then ask yourself where you want to be positioned in the market. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Gaining a quality stable of good, return, clients may take some time. However, **I have yet to *ever* see a bad client turn into a good client.** Things just do **not** happen that way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyone bargain shopping and hiring you for $10/hr is going to be a one-off, get it and be done, client. If they *happen* to return to you it will be out of necessity (or cheapness) on their part, not due to any loyalty towards you. And the moment you raise your rates, they will start looking for someone else at $10/hr rather than pay a higher rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can **never** start cheap with a client and expect them to be a long-standing, quality, client. They will customarily balk at each and every rate increase and as soon as they find someone cheaper, they'll drop you like a hot potato.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, I don't know your region or current rate trends for *your* specific skill set. But it seems to me, pricing yourself low is *never* a valid business decision unless you *know* you just want *any* work you can get, no matter how *bad* that work or client may be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, there's some general thought to the industry you are in. If everyone in your specific field is charging $30-$80/hr and you price yourself at $10/hr, you kind of do a disservice to *everyone* in the industry by conveying to the word that the work isn't worth much money. Granted this is a minor, secondary, thought. But if you *ever* want to be making *really good* money, you should keep the industry as a whole in mind and seek to elevate it, not lower it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also be aware.. I don't use online services like &quot;upwork&quot; because that's where a lot of bad clients find workers. There are better ways to find quality clients. http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2848/how-can-experienced-contractor-survive-outside-elance-odesk-freelancer/2849#2849&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Edit for additional note: I do not know where you are located... but here, the U.S. state minimum wage is currently just above $9/hr -- so at $10/hr your basically saying you essentially have no more skill or experience than **any** random person off the street. Be aware of the message you send with your pricing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12520" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4132" RevisionGUID="b9d13e59-017d-48e2-b219-5fdb5203fde1" CreationDate="2016-01-18T22:03:23.993" UserId="708" Text="I'm not in Maryland, and I do no do IT contract work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, the Maryland state usury laws state 8% interest is the maximum:&#xD;&#xA;http://www.lendingkarma.com/content/state-usury-laws-legal-interest-rates/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some rudimentary searching shows that apparently Maryland has really convoluted interest rate and usury laws:&#xD;&#xA;http://www.usurylaw.com/state/maryland.php&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may be better off **speaking directly with a local accountant** to sort this out, since clearly a concise answer can't be gained by anyone who is *not* well versed in Maryland interest rate restrictions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me, I do Net 15 days, but don't apply interest until Net 30. So there's a 15 day grace period build in. To calculate interest I take my states max per year, divid that by 12 and that's my monthly rate. But *my state* provides that if a contract is signed with a higher than state max interest rate (within reason) that rate may be honored by a court. So I boost my rate to 12% (just slightly higher than state yearly max) and charge 1% monthly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for locale -- in most instances you abide by the state your business is in, not the location of your client. Again, this may vary state to state and discussing these items with an **accountant** may be helpful." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12521" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4133" RevisionGUID="296f2e54-432d-45af-9d30-e3f4732013c1" CreationDate="2016-01-18T22:39:01.580" UserId="708" Text="You **have** to build it before they'll come. :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*No one* is going to hire you if they can't see what you are capable of. In general, experience doesn't hold as much weight as ability. If you are a superstar in your abilities, then having little or no experience won't be *that* large of a hurdle. But if you can't show *any* abilities directly, you better have  a mountain of (provable) experience before you are taken seriously.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, like any creative field, you need to build projects. You won't get hired if you can't show what you are capable of. But I think you know that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for what sites to build.... I'd *strongly* suggest you *not* take on client-based projects for free, **ever**. If you need to build RoR sites to show off, then rework the PHP sites you've previously built. For me, that would be a big sales point --- &quot;Here's the site build with PHP, and here's the same site with RoR.&quot; --- giving a clear indicator that you can do either. Otherwise I'd just find projects on my own, a hideous site I stumbled upon... and rebuild it purposefully showing off the skills I want to sell. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Focusing on crowd-sourcing sites in order to get work where you have no experience or projects to show is going to be a massive uphill battle. Build the portfolio, then you'll at least have some chance of gaining client work in that area." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12523" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4134" RevisionGUID="d142a70f-912a-4fff-b901-a9dc4f9d2504" CreationDate="2016-01-18T23:51:11.343" UserId="8795" Text="This is really decided by a combination of your incorporation status (Sole Prop, Ltd Co, etc) and your country of residence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you live in the UK, then how your business is set up is a major factor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are a Limited Company, then Companies House needs a set of professionally prepared accounts each year. That means you should have an accountant, and they can best advise you. If you are working as a sole proprietor (which I suspect), then it's down to what you want to be able to track.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would classify the online agent in Accounts Receivable (they owe you money until it's in your bank account), and their commission as an Account Payable . Whenever I completed work, or hit a milestone, I'd increase AR by the gross amount and increase AP by the commission due. When they actually paid me, you want to end up with cash increased by the actual amount you received, AR decreased by the total invoice, and AP decreased by the difference.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, you want to be able to track &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Amount invoiced&#xD;&#xA;* Amount received&#xD;&#xA;* Commission paid (as an expense)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;such that Received = Invoiced - Commission&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However ... this is also impacted by whether you are electing to use cash-accounting (income realised when you bak the cheque) or accrual accounting (income realised - and hence taxable - when you do the work).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The difference is critical to your cashflow. Accrual accounting is what &quot;real&quot; companies (and most accountants) use - but it can catch you out. If, for example, your tax year were Jan-Dec (less common in the UK) and you did work in December 2016, but were paid in February 2017, it would count as revenue during your 2016 tax year. Under cash accounting, it would form part of your 2017 revenue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, I'd splash out on an hour with an accountant.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But also take a look [here](http://www.accountingtools.com/commission-expense-accounting)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12527" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4136" RevisionGUID="933d189d-9034-4fef-89ba-b75a6214ce1f" CreationDate="2016-01-19T09:15:09.947" UserId="11150" Text="*I have 4 years experience in PHP , MySQL ,wordpress and I am pretty good with JQuery-UI and JQuery* .&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; can Any body tell me if there's demand for **freelancers** having a experience in ***JQuery and JQuery-UI*** specially ??" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12528" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4136" RevisionGUID="933d189d-9034-4fef-89ba-b75a6214ce1f" CreationDate="2016-01-19T09:15:09.947" UserId="11150" Text="Is there demand for jquery and jquery-UI developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12529" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4136" RevisionGUID="933d189d-9034-4fef-89ba-b75a6214ce1f" CreationDate="2016-01-19T09:15:09.947" UserId="11150" Text="|consulting|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12533" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4136" RevisionGUID="ff236239-7cea-474b-9ab0-6e0f46b9c0ac" CreationDate="2016-01-19T11:42:50.993" UserId="11150" Comment="edited title" Text="Is there demand for jquery and jquery-UI developer as a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12534" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4138" RevisionGUID="bfc6f839-41d7-4fd1-93d7-6287ff62f280" CreationDate="2016-01-19T12:33:08.353" UserId="5026" Text="Few months ago I was participating in the IEC (International Experience Canada) contest in the category of WH (Working Holiday). I got the opportunity to visit Canada at the end. However, the contest is about my job permit and 1-year visa only.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question is: &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Can I work as a web developer in Canada? &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;I care about two cases: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Working as a freelancer while being in Canada;&#xD;&#xA; 2. A company hires me for a full-time job in Canada.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am about to search for my job in Canada, but I am not so sure if there is a point of doing that. My education level (my university degree isn`t finished, I dropped out) and the job I would like to do (I am web developer: PHP, MySQL, sometimes HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.) seems to mismatch in requirements of Government of Canada ( http://www.cic.gc.ca ).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are usually no problems with job entry papers if I show my [Zend PHP Engineer certificate][1] or [Microsoft Professional][2] in Europe. However, Canada seems to be different because of my findings...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My findings:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I find out that &quot;Web developer&quot; falls under the category of &quot;Skill Level A&quot;. This is what I found about &quot;Skill level A&quot; education requirements:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; These occupations **require** a university degree (bachelor’s, master’s or&#xD;&#xA;&gt; doctorate). For example, such occupations would include physicians,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; nurses, pharmacists, engineers, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Source: [http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?q=661&amp;t=6][3]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Another place states this: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Skill Level A — professional jobs. People **usually need** a degree from a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; university for these jobs. examples: doctors, dentists, architects&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Source: [http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/noc.asp][4]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. And after all:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Employment **requirements**: &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A bachelor's degree, usually in computer science, communications or business &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; or Completion of a college program in computer science, graphic arts, Web design or business is required.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Experience as a computer programmer or graphic designer is usually&#xD;&#xA;&gt; required.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Source: [http://www5.hrsdc.gc.ca/NOC/English/NOC/2011/ProfileQuickSearch.aspx?val=2&amp;val1=2175&amp;val65=*][5]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.zend.com/en/services/certification/php-5-certification&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/microsoft-certified-professional.aspx&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?q=661&amp;t=6&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/noc.asp&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://www5.hrsdc.gc.ca/NOC/English/NOC/2011/ProfileQuickSearch.aspx?val=2&amp;val1=2175&amp;val65=*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12535" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4138" RevisionGUID="bfc6f839-41d7-4fd1-93d7-6287ff62f280" CreationDate="2016-01-19T12:33:08.353" UserId="5026" Text="Can I work as a web developer in Canada without a degree from college/university?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12536" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4138" RevisionGUID="bfc6f839-41d7-4fd1-93d7-6287ff62f280" CreationDate="2016-01-19T12:33:08.353" UserId="5026" Text="|web-development|canada|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12537" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4139" RevisionGUID="ef87f480-5a95-4264-8174-72b6ac5ea426" CreationDate="2016-01-19T18:16:06.500" UserId="11159" Text="I have worked on freelancing websites like odesk now upwork and elance for 10 years. I am a PHP Developer. I have seen JQuery projects with equivalent and higher wages quite often.For every say 5 PHP programmers there is 1 Programmer who knows both PHP and JQuery **well** and is obviously paid higher. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;JQuery UI work is much more elegant and easy to use. It is definitely in. Check same of the best selling scripts at codecanyon.net (Envato Goup website) they are based on JQuery UI." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12538" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4140" RevisionGUID="151f7514-69aa-4ad3-b27b-64e4c78c3b1f" CreationDate="2016-01-19T21:45:13.963" UserId="4133" Text="Even though there's already an accepted answer to this, I felt I must comment/answer. I agree that talking to an accountant or CPA is a good idea. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usury laws in most states, including Maryland, are designed to protect *consumer* loans from extreme interest rates. Maryland specifically has a &quot;Corporate Exception&quot; to its usury laws. Alabama apparently says &quot;Usury limit for individuals is 12%, there is no limit for corporations&quot;, and &quot;Some states do not restrict the interest rates that corporations can be charged under the assumption that corporations have sufficient bargaining power and business sense to negotiate a fair rate independently&quot; from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/usury .&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do a quick Google or other search engine for &quot;usury laws for corporations&quot;. Those above are on the first results page.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am in Maryland and my business does IT contracting work. Our contract states &quot;Any payment not received by due date may cause a work stoppage and extend delivery date. Late payments are subject to 1.5% late fee per month or part of each month the payment is late.&quot;, or similar words (I'm not looking at one of our contracts right now). All our invoices also have a notice on them about 1.5% of payment due as late fee per month or any part of month. Fortunately, we've never had to apply the late fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract can set out whatever equal parties agree to. Two or more corporations are considered equal parties (with some exceptions, as is the case with all laws. An interesting NY case turned up on the search results http://www.metrocorpcounsel.com/articles/11263/lenders-and-counsel-beware-usury-pitfalls). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12541" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4142" RevisionGUID="f2103bab-587a-40d9-adf5-1569da03f36b" CreationDate="2016-01-20T10:08:03.890" UserId="11159" Text="timedoctor and worksnaps are good for time tracking. which can then connect with apps like freshbooks that are for project management and bookkeeping." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12543" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4121" RevisionGUID="1ba8f38d-db6b-4e39-affb-63c9e12adddb" CreationDate="2016-01-20T20:07:10.100" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/689902003527532546" />
  <row Id="12544" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4144" RevisionGUID="1f20ca32-0b7c-4046-8bb9-f7df6697ec55" CreationDate="2016-01-20T21:07:33.793" UserId="9845" Text="I've been freelancing for over a dozen years, and have received maybe three 1099s in all of that time. I have over two dozen clients, all US-based, of varying size and makeup, most of whom pay me several thousand $$ each year. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as you are keeping track of your income and who it's from, you really don't need any 1099s. As was previously answered, it is not required for you to file your taxes, and even if it is required for them (if they pay you more than $600 as a non-employee), their neglect doesn't cause you any problems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In fact one year I got a 1099 very, very late, after I'd already filed taxes. It was unexpected because that particular client had never sent me one before (and hasn't since). I put the 1099 away and didn't think about it until today, and the IRS has yet to chase me down. I wouldn't stress." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12546" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4145" RevisionGUID="2d6fae20-f4a7-471c-98e7-8f3cd9036752" CreationDate="2016-01-21T22:29:05.427" UserId="11182" Text="I know this is old, but I would do it as long as I liked the concept and felt confident that the site would generate revenue. I'd use a template to cut down on the time and definitely would prioritize cash projects. As long as you're willing to be invested in the growth of this business, I'd say go for it. Your success is entirely based on the site's success, so make it awesome if you're going to do it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12547" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4146" RevisionGUID="27341560-49d6-4233-8b03-ce467fdfd504" CreationDate="2016-01-22T02:06:17.730" UserId="4133" Text="You contracted as your LLC, not as yourself individually, correct? As an LLC, they are not required to send a 1099 to you, unless it's for one of the &quot;exceptions&quot; you mentioned. The exceptions are quoted from https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1099msc/ar02.html#d0e92 as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;**Reportable payments to corporations.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;The following payments made to corporations generally must be reported on Form 1099-MISC. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  &gt; - Medical and health care payments reported in box 6.&#xD;&#xA;  &gt; - Fish purchases for cash reported in box 7.&#xD;&#xA;  &gt; - Attorneys' fees reported in box 7.&#xD;&#xA;  &gt; - Gross proceeds paid to an attorney reported in box 14.&#xD;&#xA;  &gt; - Substitute payments in lieu of dividends or tax-exempt interest reported in box 8.&#xD;&#xA;  &gt; - Payments by a federal executive agency for services (vendors) reported in box 7.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above referenced IRS site also contains Instructions for Form 1099-MISC - Main Contents.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a business organization, you need to keep your own record of income and expenses, improvements and depreciation. Depending on how you organized your business, you may need to file a corporate return, as well as your personal return.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From https://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&amp;-Self-Employed/Single-Member-Limited-Liability-Companies:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;...an LLC with only one member is treated as an entity disregarded as separate from its owner for income tax purposes (but as a separate entity for purposes of employment tax and certain excise taxes), unless it files Form 8832 and affirmatively elects to be treated as a corporation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Either way, a 1099 is not required to be (but could be) sent to you. We've received 2 in the last 23 years (we're a sub-s corporation).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12552" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4142" RevisionGUID="6edfc7d6-9789-4f8b-a0d1-a458adb653fc" CreationDate="2016-01-22T10:19:55.760" UserId="11159" Comment="added 420 characters in body" Text="[timedoctor.com][1] and [worksnaps.net][2] are good for time tracking. Both give a desktop time tracker to be installed on desktop for the people who work on a project with screenshot taking capability so that each hour worked is each hour paid. They are similar to [odesk.com][3] now [upwork.om][4] time tracker works has to track projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However the responsibility to evaluate the the performance still is yours when your employees or contractors do the work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These time trackers can then connect with apps like [freshbooks.com][5] that are for project management and bookkeeping.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.timedoctor.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.worksnaps.net/www/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://odesk.com&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://upwork.com&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://freshbooks.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12553" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4148" RevisionGUID="5c854ff3-a078-4ea6-b593-4211f1ff8328" CreationDate="2016-01-22T12:17:22.293" UserId="11189" Text="If you are newbie and need something to build your portfolio, do it for free. Make it fast, 1-2 days and quit. Take screenshot and put it into your pocket, forget him and move on, look for another good client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A website can not generate profit from itself. It needs a lot of hard work from the owner." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12556" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4142" RevisionGUID="3558b688-17a2-4997-812d-5e443b07ccfe" CreationDate="2016-01-24T08:08:16.137" UserId="11159" Comment="deleted 28 characters in body" Text="[timedoctor.com][1] and [worksnaps.net][2] are good for time tracking. Both give a desktop time tracker to be installed on desktop for the people who work on a project with screenshot taking capability so that each hour worked is each hour paid. They are similar to [odesk.com][3] now [upwork.om][4] time tracker.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However the responsibility to evaluate the the performance still is yours when your employees or contractors do the work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These time trackers can then connect with apps like [freshbooks.com][5] that are for project management and bookkeeping.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.timedoctor.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.worksnaps.net/www/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://odesk.com&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://upwork.com&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://freshbooks.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12557" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4149" RevisionGUID="f230f528-53eb-4740-9c97-f3dc9cb4cc28" CreationDate="2016-01-24T22:06:22.253" UserId="5893" Text="the trust works both ways. Freelancers prefer to use the sites because they have some kind of recourse if the client doesn't pay. For example, client payments are escrowed up front so the service provider knows the money is there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally, if you are working across international borders, there might be hiccups with you paying directly. From my own experience, I live in the US and I was working for someone in Canada. They paid me via bank check and I could not find a local bank that would take the check! (we resolved the issue with Paypal, but the process took months)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12558" PostHistoryTypeId="34" PostId="4119" RevisionGUID="e211cb17-d673-437c-b37d-81bedd0a5c01" CreationDate="2016-01-25T09:52:41.303" UserId="-1" Comment="32" />
  <row Id="12559" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4150" RevisionGUID="1dcb3463-600f-4fad-b0fb-a67bbf1584c3" CreationDate="2016-01-25T16:57:02.020" UserId="11216" Text="Me and my brother have an idea of the brand new product that would solve one widespread problem among the smartphone users. But due to the fact that we don’t have required resources and opportunities to make that idea come to life, I’ve contacted the company that might be interested in my idea and would be able to realize that project. I described them the problem and explained how my product would be able to solve it and have provided its advantages over devices that perform the same function. The COO of the company has replied me and wants to discuss that idea together and ensured me that it would be under NDA. Since I don’t have any prototype of my device but only the pictures of its appearance and full explanation of the mechanism, what can I ask in exchange of my idea to them? I don’t have experience in such things. As a graduate I want to offer them my idea in exchange for a chance for me and my brother to work for their company and some percentage from the sales in case they decide to produce it. Does it sound possible? Should I include my conditions in the NDA? And what type of NDA should I use then? I don’t know what steps should I make now? I can’t afford attorney to help me with my occasion, but I hope that I will be able to get advice from you guys.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you in advance!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12560" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4150" RevisionGUID="1dcb3463-600f-4fad-b0fb-a67bbf1584c3" CreationDate="2016-01-25T16:57:02.020" UserId="11216" Text="Can I sell my business idea in exchange for a job at the company that might be interested in it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12561" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4150" RevisionGUID="1dcb3463-600f-4fad-b0fb-a67bbf1584c3" CreationDate="2016-01-25T16:57:02.020" UserId="11216" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12564" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4152" RevisionGUID="754843b8-a1c4-460c-bd05-523edd6197de" CreationDate="2016-01-26T13:42:45.363" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Beware that you cannot claim ownership of a mere idea. Intellectual property can be protected when sufficient effort has been developed around it. Make sure to clearly state in writing what specific concepts/ideas you think you are bringing and are subjected to the NDA (but obviously you deliver them *after* the NDA has been signed).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be conscious that with no resources you have about no chance of protecting your findings, other than by relying on trust.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your baby seduces this COO, then it makes sense to set a price, which may include hiring you. The NDA isn't the place for such a negotiation. You'll do that later in the frame of a contractual commercial agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Last piece of advice: whatever it is, don't believe that you found the idea of the century." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12571" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4155" RevisionGUID="2d59a8f1-af6f-49bf-a6d6-f250318d182d" CreationDate="2016-01-27T11:08:13.917" UserId="11233" Text="I use [Toggl][1]. I think it might suit most of your needs.&#xA;&#xA; - there is a free tier so you can check if it works for you&#xA; - it's $5 per month for the pro account&#xA; - it works on all major platforms (iOS, Android, OS X, Windows, web)&#xA; - it's very simple to start a project and add time entries&#xA; - you can have multiple clients and projects&#xA; - it has straightforward report create and export capability &#xA; - the pro version lets you set various client rates&#xA; - the pro version lets you share an auto updated report to your client&#xA;&#xA;I used it as a freelancer and in a team of 5 on a bigger project. As long as you get the team to track time, reporting to the client is simple as a single click.&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: https://toggl.com/pricing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12572" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="4150" RevisionGUID="3ff69fc7-0334-4033-a25e-7941b00d9aea" CreationDate="2016-01-27T11:57:54.167" UserId="58" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;SOIA&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="12574" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4156" RevisionGUID="38df1aa4-4a98-4bef-a3c0-7e378b94e35a" CreationDate="2016-01-27T18:33:20.753" UserId="11241" Text="I think it's valuable to add to the other answers that you must be able to prove that your LLC is acting as a business entity in order to have the protection specified.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally speaking you do this by running it as a real business and not as a shield. &lt;br&gt;(Meaning that, in most cases, you can not simply have an LLC but give it no capital, keep no books, etc... and expect any protection.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The following seems to be a good rundown on a lot of specific things you can do to make it legally clear that your LLC is actually a business: [http://www.elizabethpottsweinstein.com/llc-protect/][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope that helps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.elizabethpottsweinstein.com/llc-protect/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12589" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4161" RevisionGUID="350bde06-1e37-4fa4-ad98-02deb11c8eed" CreationDate="2016-01-29T04:23:14.517" UserId="7717" Text="First off, if you meet the freelancer on one of those sites, you are probably obligated to work with them through that site. For example, if you meet an overseas developer through Upwork, you have to hire and pay him through Upwork, or pay a huge penalty that is by definition higher than the cut they take from the payments you give him. Obviously they don't let you contact the freelancer directly without going through them, otherwise how would they make their money?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'd be more inclined to set my own tracking methodology, and to pay&#xD;&#xA;&gt; directly to the freelancer. The reason is that I'm a software&#xD;&#xA;&gt; developer looking for another software developer, so I would know how&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to track progress accurately (unlike the average outsourcing user -&#xD;&#xA;&gt; typically non-technical folks).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This makes *absolutely no sense*. First off, you think there aren't any technical people working at these freelancing sites that get tons of business from software development? For one thing, who is building and maintaining their system then?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the freelancing website has hourly tracking, they will either allow the freelancer to enter their hours manually, offer an automatic tracking/screen recording utility, or both. For example, Upwork has an application named the &quot;Tracker&quot; that logs time while it is active and screenshots your desktop at random intervals to &quot;prove you are working&quot;. It also tracks the frequency of mouse and keyboard clicks. There are no &quot;non-technical&quot; folks having any kind of say in those hours. Nobody has the ability to say how many hours the freelancer worked except the freelancer (and the tracking utility, if used).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're trying to come up with your own &quot;tracking methodology&quot;, it sounds a lot like you want a fixed-price contract, which is also completely possible on most of these sites. Otherwise, you don't get to declare how many hours the freelancer worked. You can say &quot;you're taking too long, you're fired&quot; and you can reject manual hours, but if you want to say &quot;I'm a developer and I know that the work you did should have taken 7 hours&quot;, then do fixed price and pay them for 7 hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tracker software like that used at Upwork and formerly at Elance is about the best you can ask for. It's not going to stop someone from cheating you if they want to cheat you, but neither will any other solution short of installing some Big Brother cameras throughout their household so you can make sure they aren't watching porn on the TV while pretending to work on whatever computer they installed the tracker on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do have some spyware that you rolled up to keep an eye on exactly what your freelancer is doing on their computer and you think they are too unintelligent to just goof off on a different computer (or phone or tablet or console), I don't think any of the freelancing websites will care if you come up with your own system for tracking as long as the freelancer agrees to use it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; What do I risk by paying directly to the freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Losing your money and/or never seeing the product. If you pay them first, they can walk away with your money, and you can't go to anyone for help or leave them a bad review. If you don't pay them until they're done, they make excuses for 6 months and finally disappear completely, and you can't go to anyone for help or leave them a bad review.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That doesn't mean that you can't get cheated at a freelancing site, but at least there you can see the freelancer's prior work history, there are services like escrow protection, and the site can sometimes return your money to you in case of fraud." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12590" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4161" RevisionGUID="8b50b8de-981b-45a3-9dd0-bbf17be2f12f" CreationDate="2016-01-29T04:28:43.607" UserId="7717" Comment="added 33 characters in body" Text="First off, if you meet the freelancer on one of those sites, you are probably obligated to work with them through that site. For example, if you meet an overseas developer through Upwork, you have to hire and pay him through Upwork, or pay a huge penalty that is by definition higher than the cut they take from the payments you give him. Obviously they don't let you contact the freelancer directly without going through them, otherwise how would they make their money?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'd be more inclined to set my own tracking methodology, and to pay&#xD;&#xA;&gt; directly to the freelancer. The reason is that I'm a software&#xD;&#xA;&gt; developer looking for another software developer, so I would know how&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to track progress accurately (unlike the average outsourcing user -&#xD;&#xA;&gt; typically non-technical folks).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This makes *absolutely no sense*. First off, you think there aren't any technical people working at these freelancing sites that get tons of business from software development? For one thing, who is building and maintaining their system then?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the freelancing website has hourly tracking, they will either allow the freelancer to enter their hours manually, offer an automatic tracking/screen recording utility, or both. For example, Upwork has an application named the &quot;Tracker&quot; that logs time while it is active and screenshots your desktop at random intervals to &quot;prove you are working&quot;. It also tracks the frequency of mouse and keyboard clicks. This is completely automated and there are no &quot;non-technical&quot; folks having any kind of say in those hours. Nobody has the ability to say how many hours the freelancer worked except the freelancer (and the tracking utility, if used).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're trying to come up with your own &quot;tracking methodology&quot;, it sounds a lot like you want a fixed-price contract, which is also completely possible on most of these sites. Otherwise, you don't get to declare how many hours the freelancer worked. You can say &quot;you're taking too long, you're fired&quot; and you can reject manual hours, but if you want to say &quot;I'm a developer and I know that the work you did should have taken 7 hours&quot;, then do fixed price and pay them for 7 hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tracker software like that used at Upwork and formerly at Elance is about the best you can ask for. It's not going to stop someone from cheating you if they want to cheat you, but neither will any other solution short of installing some Big Brother cameras throughout their household so you can make sure they aren't watching porn on the TV while pretending to work on whatever computer they installed the tracker on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do have some spyware that you rolled up to keep an eye on exactly what your freelancer is doing on their computer and you think they are too unintelligent to just goof off on a different computer (or phone or tablet or console), I don't think any of the freelancing websites will care if you come up with your own system for tracking as long as the freelancer agrees to use it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you just want to pay them based on their repository commits, which is completely reasonable in many situations, just set milestones and make milestone payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; What do I risk by paying directly to the freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Losing your money and/or never seeing the product. If you pay them first, they can walk away with your money, and you can't go to anyone for help or leave them a bad review. If you don't pay them until they're done, they make excuses for 6 months and finally disappear completely, and you can't go to anyone for help or leave them a bad review.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That doesn't mean that you can't get cheated at a freelancing site, but at least there you can see the freelancer's prior work history, there are services like escrow protection, and the site can sometimes return your money to you in case of fraud." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12591" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4162" RevisionGUID="fb8be5cc-6300-45bc-bb7d-74ee32e271bb" CreationDate="2016-01-29T04:45:22.620" UserId="7717" Text="Ask the website for assistance. They can often assist you in getting your money if you prove that you did the work and that the client was satisfied. They have a vested interest in you getting paid, because if you don't get paid then neither do they. Just contact their support team." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12592" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4124" RevisionGUID="f5a3b962-cd34-4a08-a8cf-9c96d3992aa4" CreationDate="2016-01-29T07:25:09.570" UserId="11122" Comment="deleted 25 characters in body; edited title" Text="I am new to work as a freelancer online. Recently I found a website freelancer.co.in. I want to work as a freelancer on it. But it is asking my Debit card number. I am afraid to give the details of my credit card. I am afraid that they could deduct money from my account. I am thinking to make first nill balance in the account. I want to earn money not to spend. Getting it straight forward, I want to ask,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;- Would any money be deducted from my bank account if I give my Debit card number or internet banking details to that website?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12593" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4124" RevisionGUID="f5a3b962-cd34-4a08-a8cf-9c96d3992aa4" CreationDate="2016-01-29T07:25:09.570" UserId="11122" Comment="deleted 25 characters in body; edited title" Text="Is giving Debit card number to freelancer.com secure?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12594" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4163" RevisionGUID="fe4fb6e3-4e14-47be-a328-5b070f2c6cd7" CreationDate="2016-01-29T08:37:27.863" UserId="11258" Text="&lt;h3&gt;You should not refuse a contract based on subjective views.&lt;/h3&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; really didn't sound like a good fit for me&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes, technically it's not really interesting but wait:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **It could evolve:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the job you done is ok, the client can ask for more and maybe offers you interesting job to do then.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **You could always learn new things**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try to do it the most professional way while trying to learn something new is a great way of thinking and it's motivational.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **You build your reputation up or down with each job**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if your client has no other job for you, he could recommend you to his contacts or if you just quit with a job not complete, then he could also warn his contacts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **You could meet new persons and make new contacts.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my personal experience, I've met great people while working on not so fantastic jobs - technically speaking. Your network contact is almost as important as your skills (if not more).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The objective questions you should ask yourself are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Could I do it in time ?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Is the price I'm paid is ok ?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Is there another task I'm involved I should do instead because it's more &lt;replace by what adjective fit best you&gt; ?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Time can be converted to money but not the other way around. Try to not waste it by refusing something to finally do nothing instead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And as [SOIA][1] commented, you need carefully review your contract before accepting it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/users/708/soia" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12596" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4165" RevisionGUID="0c9b5b22-9272-4006-9636-88c2abfa9a67" CreationDate="2016-01-29T15:40:12.283" UserId="11262" Text="I'm a client and a digital agency (in the UK, I'm in Germany) will do some graphic designs for me. Which kind of contract is usually used for this? Who makes the contract? Which laws do apply for payment, accountability, VAT etc?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12597" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4165" RevisionGUID="0c9b5b22-9272-4006-9636-88c2abfa9a67" CreationDate="2016-01-29T15:40:12.283" UserId="11262" Text="Contract with agency" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12598" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4165" RevisionGUID="0c9b5b22-9272-4006-9636-88c2abfa9a67" CreationDate="2016-01-29T15:40:12.283" UserId="11262" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12603" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4165" RevisionGUID="c945f727-e6d1-4609-bbc1-b072e50dd402" CreationDate="2016-01-29T18:30:26.163" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|uk|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12604" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="4124" RevisionGUID="b98e94e6-ea0f-4c12-8451-0dffe5285d56" CreationDate="2016-01-29T18:31:30.303" UserId="75" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;SOIA&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:1706,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;codenoire&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="12605" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4165" RevisionGUID="177a11af-61a3-4fa7-bb7b-67744e609e94" CreationDate="2016-01-29T19:22:05.033" UserId="11262" Comment="deleted 10 characters in body" Text="I'm a client and a digital agency (in the UK, I'm in Germany) will do some graphic designs for me. Which kind of contract is usually used for this? Who makes it? Which laws do apply for payment, accountability, VAT etc? I don't need a lawyer answer, just some orientation, or links, because I have no idea at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12606" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4167" RevisionGUID="4ae23972-b54e-42e8-bcb1-b2302aa5ee03" CreationDate="2016-01-29T20:06:44.983" UserId="11266" Text="You will be charge VAT if the company that is developing your deliverables is VAT registered... (Not all companies are, and they do not have to be under certain conditions). If you are charged VAT, ensure that you receive a VAT receipt, this will allow you to claim back the VAT if you're company is also VAT registered. If you're not VAT registered, you will not be eligible to claim back VAT.&#xA;&#xA;Laws regarding payment is wholly dependent on the contract that you agree on with the company that is developing your work. If you agree to 50% now, 50% upon completion, and have it in writing then that is what will be expected. You also need to define and agree on what &quot;completed&quot; means and have a contract drawn up from that, eSignatures are valid and legally binding and if you hate reading terms and conditions, this is probably the one time you wont want to skip on reading it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12607" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4167" RevisionGUID="905f6919-5926-4a0d-be7b-0a69f4871711" CreationDate="2016-01-29T20:41:14.807" UserId="11266" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="You will be charged VAT if the company that is developing your deliverables is VAT registered... (Not all companies are, and they do not have to be under certain conditions). If you are charged VAT, ensure that you receive a VAT receipt, this will allow you to claim back the VAT if your company is also VAT registered. If you're not VAT registered, you will not be eligible to claim back VAT.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Laws regarding payment is wholly dependent on the contract that you agree on with the company that is developing your work. If you agree to 50% now, 50% upon completion and have it in writing then that is what will be expected. You also need to define and agree on what &quot;completed&quot; means and have a contract drawn up from that, eSignatures are valid and legally binding and if you hate reading terms and conditions, this is probably the one time you won't want to skip on reading it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12612" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4161" RevisionGUID="83fa5d07-b4ea-44d6-abd1-2b1dd1dd5d2c" CreationDate="2016-01-30T10:22:08.473" UserId="7717" Comment="or was it Elance that called it the &quot;Tracker&quot;? Whatever" Text="First off, if you meet the freelancer on one of those sites, you are probably obligated to work with them through that site. For example, if you meet an overseas developer through Upwork, you have to hire and pay him through Upwork, or pay a huge penalty that is by definition higher than the cut they take from the payments you give him. Obviously they don't let you contact the freelancer directly without going through them, otherwise how would they make their money?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'd be more inclined to set my own tracking methodology, and to pay&#xD;&#xA;&gt; directly to the freelancer. The reason is that I'm a software&#xD;&#xA;&gt; developer looking for another software developer, so I would know how&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to track progress accurately (unlike the average outsourcing user -&#xD;&#xA;&gt; typically non-technical folks).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This makes *absolutely no sense*. First off, you think there aren't any technical people working at these freelancing sites that get tons of business from software development? For one thing, who is building and maintaining their system then?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the freelancing website has hourly tracking, they will either allow the freelancer to enter their hours manually, offer an automatic tracking/screen recording utility, or both. For example, Upwork a desktop application that logs time while it is active and screenshots your desktop at random intervals to &quot;prove you are working&quot;. It also tracks the frequency of mouse and keyboard clicks. This is completely automated and there are no &quot;non-technical&quot; folks having any kind of say in those hours. Nobody has the ability to say how many hours the freelancer worked except the freelancer (and the tracking utility, if used).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're trying to come up with your own &quot;tracking methodology&quot;, it sounds a lot like you want a fixed-price contract, which is also completely possible on most of these sites. Otherwise, you don't get to declare how many hours the freelancer worked. You can say &quot;you're taking too long, you're fired&quot; and you can reject manual hours, but if you want to say &quot;I'm a developer and I know that the work you did should have taken 7 hours&quot;, then do fixed price and pay them for 7 hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tracker software like that used at Upwork and formerly at Elance is about the best you can ask for. It's not going to stop someone from cheating you if they want to cheat you, but neither will any other solution short of installing some Big Brother cameras throughout their household so you can make sure they aren't watching porn on the TV while pretending to work on whatever computer they installed the tracker on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do have some spyware that you rolled up to keep an eye on exactly what your freelancer is doing on their computer and you think they are too unintelligent to just goof off on a different computer (or phone or tablet or console), I don't think any of the freelancing websites will care if you come up with your own system for tracking as long as the freelancer agrees to use it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you just want to pay them based on their repository commits, which is completely reasonable in many situations, just set milestones and make milestone payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; What do I risk by paying directly to the freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Losing your money and/or never seeing the product. If you pay them first, they can walk away with your money, and you can't go to anyone for help or leave them a bad review. If you don't pay them until they're done, they make excuses for 6 months and finally disappear completely, and you can't go to anyone for help or leave them a bad review.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That doesn't mean that you can't get cheated at a freelancing site, but at least there you can see the freelancer's prior work history, there are services like escrow protection, and the site can sometimes return your money to you in case of fraud." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12613" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4169" RevisionGUID="af123c0a-5c23-4dbb-9692-295ae7f4526e" CreationDate="2016-01-30T13:46:01.280" UserId="11271" Text="If I'm already in Self Assessment, and become &quot;self employed&quot; (alongside a job - e.g. selling things on eBay) do I need to specifically register as self employed? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12614" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4169" RevisionGUID="af123c0a-5c23-4dbb-9692-295ae7f4526e" CreationDate="2016-01-30T13:46:01.280" UserId="11271" Text="UK (HMRC) Do I need to register as &quot;self employed&quot; if already under Self Assessment" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12615" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4169" RevisionGUID="af123c0a-5c23-4dbb-9692-295ae7f4526e" CreationDate="2016-01-30T13:46:01.280" UserId="11271" Text="|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12616" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4169" RevisionGUID="fdd769ac-0256-4b70-adc3-4c14ed226b02" CreationDate="2016-01-30T13:51:27.903" UserId="11271" Comment="added 120 characters in body" Text="If I'm already in Self Assessment, and become &quot;self employed&quot; (alongside a job - e.g. selling things on eBay) do I need to specifically register as self employed?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edited to add: the reason I'm in SA already is due to &quot;complicated&quot; tax affairs, not being self employed previously. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12617" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4170" RevisionGUID="a7babbe0-6f7d-4235-858a-4027be943a02" CreationDate="2016-01-30T21:42:48.787" UserId="10398" Text="While legally you may be able to charge interest or late fees on your invoice, from a business standpoint, you're essentially saying &quot;F* you&quot; to the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An alternative method I recommend is 1) getting a deposit on all your projects, and 2) making sure you **communicate** with your clients over the phone when your invoices are due.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This has generally left me with happy clients that always pay on time" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12624" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4172" RevisionGUID="048bd479-8e8f-4072-b001-be7c275388c9" CreationDate="2016-01-31T16:54:42.443" UserId="11286" Text="Take a look at [Hubstaff][1] &#xD;&#xA;I found them to be very reasonable for it's price and customer support quite satisfactory too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Following are some of it's key features:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Accurate time tracking against multiple organizations, projects and tasks.&#xD;&#xA; - Multi-platform support for Web, mobile (iPhone app), Windows, Mac &amp; Linux.&#xD;&#xA; - Integrates with over 30 other task/project management tools (and growing) including Trello, Asana, QuickBooks and Basecamp.&#xD;&#xA; - Simple and quick invoicing with accessible timesheets.&#xD;&#xA; - Online dashboard and reports.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can try their free [iPhone app][2].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://hubstaff.com&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apple-store/id971894122?pt=2184201&amp;ct=se1&amp;mt=8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12625" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4173" RevisionGUID="9d7d74ad-3dfa-47a3-becd-cb0ebef684d2" CreationDate="2016-01-31T17:39:46.997" UserId="11288" Text="I am currently a trainee web developer and hope to go freelance once I have learnt the ropes and am confident enough in most areas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One problem I have noticed is my speed with working and coding. I don't touch type or have that zip that surrounding developers seem to have. Previous sites I have done prior to my training always too a while too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the plus side, I am really keen at learning the new technologies hitting the market and there is passion here. I have always been heavy into automation too, so once I know how a certain language works. Scripts and automation could be a good substitute.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Will this just result in me earning less money or in employment always being on the edge of getting the sack for being &quot;just not quick enough&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12626" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4173" RevisionGUID="9d7d74ad-3dfa-47a3-becd-cb0ebef684d2" CreationDate="2016-01-31T17:39:46.997" UserId="11288" Text="Can a slow developer really succeed in the web developer business?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12627" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4173" RevisionGUID="9d7d74ad-3dfa-47a3-becd-cb0ebef684d2" CreationDate="2016-01-31T17:39:46.997" UserId="11288" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12631" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4175" RevisionGUID="a573d0e4-e0d9-4528-b0bf-a9ecd2268c23" CreationDate="2016-01-31T19:06:09.443" UserId="11159" Text="Speed also comes with writing modules ( ex. login module, pagination module, database module) or using ready to use modules written by others. You can also  use existing frameworks to work fast. For ex if you are a php developer you might want to us [Laravel][1] or [codeigniter][2] framework to be quick. Codeigniter is simplest to start with for beginners. If you find these complex at the start you can write your own modules. Its easy to understand your own code than to understand code written by others. New coders do seem to be slow to employers at times :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have the courage, simply do your homework. If have are able to code you have the possibility to succeed if you work hard.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://laravel.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.codeigniter.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12638" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4177" RevisionGUID="fdd2dcf9-d5b3-420e-ae6d-e228a0d3d21e" CreationDate="2016-02-01T10:11:42.377" UserId="7717" Text="&gt; hope to go freelance once I have learnt the ropes and am confident&#xD;&#xA;&gt; enough in most areas.&#xD;&#xA;[...]&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Will this just result in me earning less money or in employment always being on the edge of getting the sack for being &quot;just not quick enough&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you take fixed-price projects it will likely result in you earning less money, because it will take you longer to complete projects and you'll be able to take fewer projects as a result. You might try to offset the reduced number of projects by charging more, but that can backfire and cause your clients to complain if you charge a lot and work slow. You can also lose income or clients if you miss deadlines.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you work hourly, clients will be more attentive to how slow you work and may ask you to reduce your hourly rate or even fire you if you take more hours than most people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Real answer:&#xD;&#xA;You can't be a developer and not know how to touch type. That's just inexcusable. Would you hire a contractor who didn't know how to use power tools to build you a house? **Learn how to touch type**, and you'll be fine. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12639" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4178" RevisionGUID="235bfcab-39ac-485a-b630-0b2b51bb016d" CreationDate="2016-02-02T01:30:01.700" UserId="4561" Text="You can do this - or try to do it - but one big advantage of the freelancing sites is that you can put your project out there and get several competing bids, plus an opportunity to interview people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have had great results a couple superb programmers this way.  But sometimes you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince.  Especially when you are bargain hunting and dealing with language barriers and different cultures/work ethics.  So in that regard, I find it's worth the cut the networking sites take to be put in contact with so many freelancers and have the protections they provide to both sides.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you find a contractor through one of these sites, there is nothing to stop you from communicating with them directly.  I'm sure it's &quot;against the rules&quot; but it would be possible to develop a relationship with someone and do a future project with them off site.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not tempted to do that though because the networking sites handle all the paperwork so that when I pay my taxes, I don't worry about the government questioning my deduction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, You don't have to use their work tracking software.  I don't require if of the freelancers I've worked with for a long time because I'm happy with their productivity and I know it would irritate me to have something &quot;tracking&quot; me while I work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12648" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4136" RevisionGUID="aed39a9a-ab56-4e7a-81d2-2a456c43a1c0" CreationDate="2016-02-02T20:44:29.373" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, stripped out much of the formatting (distracted from content)" Text="I have the following experience:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Four years experience in PHP, MySQL and WordPress&#xD;&#xA;* Proficiency in jQuery and jQuery UI&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there demand for freelancers with experience in jQuery and jQuery UI?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12649" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4136" RevisionGUID="aed39a9a-ab56-4e7a-81d2-2a456c43a1c0" CreationDate="2016-02-02T20:44:29.373" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, stripped out much of the formatting (distracted from content)" Text="Demand for jQuery or jQuery UI freelancers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12650" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="4136" RevisionGUID="c9715034-d94d-428e-aa53-2ac42bc40d27" CreationDate="2016-02-02T21:26:40.863" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:7717,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;user45623&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:1018,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Neil Robertson&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;SOIA&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:9,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;ChrisForrence&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="12651" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4181" RevisionGUID="818cca46-f6db-4819-88e1-f76b2b772f72" CreationDate="2016-02-03T05:15:10.787" UserId="4338" Text="Assuming it has not been exclusively spelled out in the client contract, do the software developer own the rights to the code that he has written for the client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can he reuse the code in other projects?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please let me know." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12652" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4181" RevisionGUID="818cca46-f6db-4819-88e1-f76b2b772f72" CreationDate="2016-02-03T05:15:10.787" UserId="4338" Text="Who own the &quot;copyright&quot; or intellectual property for the code you have written?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12653" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4181" RevisionGUID="818cca46-f6db-4819-88e1-f76b2b772f72" CreationDate="2016-02-03T05:15:10.787" UserId="4338" Text="|contracts|legal|programmer|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12654" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4182" RevisionGUID="711c9391-f142-4c92-9fa5-1aa61916501e" CreationDate="2016-02-03T05:25:49.637" UserId="4338" Text="Ok. Client's project (an app) was suppose to get over in 2 months time. We continued to send him builds. BUT, everytime we send him the build, he will take 2 months to give feedback to that build. And that too he will just check one portion of the app. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, because of all these delays, the project has been dragged 1 and half years. My development costs are not fully paid by him and has by all means exceeded the final project cost. I am staring at a loss on a project which is not fully paid up and not sure how long will it drag. And I don't want to work anymore on that project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In such situation, to recover my cost, can I reskin the app and sell it to someone? Is that legal? There was no contract with the client about he owing the copyright of the code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12655" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4182" RevisionGUID="711c9391-f142-4c92-9fa5-1aa61916501e" CreationDate="2016-02-03T05:25:49.637" UserId="4338" Text="Typical client situation - Needs advice" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12656" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4182" RevisionGUID="711c9391-f142-4c92-9fa5-1aa61916501e" CreationDate="2016-02-03T05:25:49.637" UserId="4338" Text="|legal|payment-terms|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12657" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4183" RevisionGUID="d1d097b1-a4f3-4b8d-93eb-e48ab6e75c72" CreationDate="2016-02-03T05:32:35.173" UserId="75" Text="No contract? Sounds to me like it's yours still.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Too short of an answer? I agree.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lessons to be had:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Use a contract and Scope of Work. Everytime. Especially for project work (instead of hourly, I mean).&#xD;&#xA;2. Document your interactions. If you have a conversation on the phone or in person, make sure you document it. A great way to do this is to email them, saying you just wanted to confirm we talked about Topic A and B, and deadline C today.&#xD;&#xA;3. Collect milestones before doing additional work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, this situation. Have you talked to them about how this is impacting the project? If the client does not take the project seriously, it's going to be hard to take your invoices seriously when they eventually come. Explain how the **project** is going to suffer if you do not get the feedback you require, and let him decide. Give him a hard deadline to respond by, and hold to it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he doesn't respond or doesn't have a good reason for not responding? Absolutely! Add the project to your portfolio, and allow it to be used for other companies. This is assuming you are correct, in that **no contracts were used** for this project, including a Non-Disclosure Agreement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12658" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2467" RevisionGUID="750d987a-3d8c-4c03-90aa-194c7b65388e" CreationDate="2016-02-03T08:44:24.780" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/694803612212580352" />
  <row Id="12659" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4184" RevisionGUID="46c87c5f-c8a7-43bd-b542-7a3f86aa8cf5" CreationDate="2016-02-03T13:48:51.463" UserId="10964" Text="I had to leave a client's work in the middle due to health issue. He was angry and left me a bad remark. Now currently i am not getting any projects and i think it is because of the bad remark. &#xD;&#xA;Should i close the upwork account and open new ? What is the way out of this ? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12660" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4184" RevisionGUID="46c87c5f-c8a7-43bd-b542-7a3f86aa8cf5" CreationDate="2016-02-03T13:48:51.463" UserId="10964" Text="How to get out of this trouble?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12661" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4184" RevisionGUID="46c87c5f-c8a7-43bd-b542-7a3f86aa8cf5" CreationDate="2016-02-03T13:48:51.463" UserId="10964" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12662" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4185" RevisionGUID="fbe6638c-6238-40aa-915a-9a78e59ce9d9" CreationDate="2016-02-03T16:04:29.483" UserId="11262" Text="An agency from the UK sent me an agreement as PDF with a signature in it. I wonder, is this legally enough? My field is of course still blank also.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I remember a while ago somebody sent me a contract (in which case I was providing the service) they told me to use some online service specialised in digital signatures where I had to sign. It verified my identity etc. That client was in the USA. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other side I have sent some documents to companies here in Germany (e.g. health insurance) where I only had to scan the document with my signature and email it, which is equivalent to this PDF.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So not sure if the difference is because the law concerning digital signatures is different in Germany and USA? In this case, this contract is in England/under England law (I'm still in Germany). Is this PDF enough?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12663" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4185" RevisionGUID="fbe6638c-6238-40aa-915a-9a78e59ce9d9" CreationDate="2016-02-03T16:04:29.483" UserId="11262" Text="Validity of an informal digital signature" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12664" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4185" RevisionGUID="fbe6638c-6238-40aa-915a-9a78e59ce9d9" CreationDate="2016-02-03T16:04:29.483" UserId="11262" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12665" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4185" RevisionGUID="1e52af3e-1ad7-462c-91ad-95da7c8e120e" CreationDate="2016-02-03T16:36:34.350" UserId="11262" Comment="edited title" Text="Validity of a signed PDF (England)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12666" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4185" RevisionGUID="1e52af3e-1ad7-462c-91ad-95da7c8e120e" CreationDate="2016-02-03T16:36:34.350" UserId="11262" Comment="edited title" Text="|contracts|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12667" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4186" RevisionGUID="79ef7b7a-7df7-400e-a4c8-054c59b1f432" CreationDate="2016-02-03T17:31:16.470" UserId="11336" Text="Your situation is not uncommon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The fact of the matter is, you are both in a contractual situation. You as contractor and the other party as the client. By ceasing to perform your obligations under your contract, you are in breach - regardless of the reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Failing force majeure clauses and the like, you don't have any legal standing in this situation. The client can in fact enforce damages upon you. But considering it's upwork and the contractual sum is not large (I assume), they chose to take their damages in terms of leaving you a bad review.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best option for you is to contact the client and be transparent about your situation. If they choose to understand and retract their bad review, case solved. If not, you are left with a 'black mark' against your reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Signing up for a new account does release you from their bad feedback - so no bad reputation. But the downside of a 'clean slate' is that you don't have a good reputation either.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm assuming that you may not have a strong reputation with a lot of work under your belt. If so, yes, start a new account. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A word of warning though, I'm pretty sure upwork will have a condition in their freelancer agreement that states no individual and/or company is allowed to hold more than one account AND that no individual and/or company is allowed to open more than one account within a certain period.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Easy solution, use your a spouse or a friend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12668" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4184" RevisionGUID="b00e2916-d333-4dc8-a0ca-0aa114ce68ee" CreationDate="2016-02-03T18:18:11.287" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, added [freelance-websites]" Text="I had been working on a client's project through UpWork, but due to a health issue, I had to stop working on the project. The client got angry and left bad feedback.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To the present day, I have not been getting any projects recently, and I think that the bad review is the cause.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would it be better to close the account and open a fresh account? What would be the best way to overcome this issue?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12669" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4184" RevisionGUID="b00e2916-d333-4dc8-a0ca-0aa114ce68ee" CreationDate="2016-02-03T18:18:11.287" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, added [freelance-websites]" Text="Had gotten bad review; should I close my account to start getting projects again?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12670" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4184" RevisionGUID="b00e2916-d333-4dc8-a0ca-0aa114ce68ee" CreationDate="2016-02-03T18:18:11.287" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, added [freelance-websites]" Text="|freelance-websites|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12674" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4188" RevisionGUID="036aeea9-7db6-4272-bd20-18fc7e7bd91e" CreationDate="2016-02-03T21:15:17.180" UserId="708" Text="I don't know about overseas, I'm in the US.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, a signature is a signature - whether it's in a PDF or scanned as jpg, or a digital signature - they all indicate an agreement to terms. What is imperative is *some indicator* that terms were seen and agreed upon. That can be done in many forms. No one form is better than another inherently.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Often you'll find companies asking you to sign and return (or scan) because they are either unfamiliar with digital signatures, don't trust them (without reason), or have a document not set up for digital signatures. Most digital signatures are valid today. The technology for these has made it clear that you have to be who you say you are to embed the digital signature. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've had forms returned after someone signed and took a photo with their phone -- which is fine as long as the document and signature is recognizable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reality is, often an actual signature isn't required. An email simply stating that the terms are agreed upon *can* be enough. You don't *really* need the custom handwriting as proof. You merely need something that shows both parties agreed to terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, I'm in the US... no clue about European laws." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12677" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4191" RevisionGUID="24c54715-c99a-4f9f-8f58-846d6c03de76" CreationDate="2016-02-04T19:34:29.930" UserId="7717" Text="How many projects have you completed? How is your overall project history? If you've had 20 good projects and 1 bad project, it shouldn't be a big deal. Just keep trying until you nail some new projects and make sure you good job on them. If you've had 2 good projects and 1 bad project, you're off to a bad start and need to consider whether you really have the commitment to being a good freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I once interviewed a freelancer on Elance who had a half-dozen or so completed projects with good feedback and one project with terrible feedback and the client saying he was totally unresponsive and useless. I asked the freelancer about it and he said he had been experiencing medical problems that interfered with his work at the time and that it wouldn't happen again. He was convincing enough, so we ended up hiring him. He turned out to be unreliable and totally incompetent, and wasted three weeks of our time without accomplishing anything. That was someone who I think didn't have the drive that you need to be a good freelancer - some people get into freelancing because they want it to be a posh job where you do 3 hours of lazy work per day while lying down on the couch, but that's not how it goes in the real world." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12681" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4193" RevisionGUID="c9d4444e-715f-44f2-aff2-62faf2ec3a44" CreationDate="2016-02-05T11:07:04.577" UserId="517" Text="As others pointed out, 10% is not a lot. Yes, $5k is a lot of money and it hurts, but would you get 90% without him?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can always ditch the guy and approach to the company directly. You will earn those 10% (maybe!!!), but you will lose recommendation point. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me, I never ever (!) ask how much someone earned for recommending me. I have my own rate which I don't change. If he can earn 3 times more on me, let him be. I know that one day, I can only benefit from the fact that someone sold me for 3 times my rate. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12687" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="1680" RevisionGUID="357d9a95-7543-4016-b180-dc1d86ef43ac" CreationDate="2016-02-06T19:54:16.597" UserId="708" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;SOIA&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="12690" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4197" RevisionGUID="3229592f-68b8-4686-be33-517bd65da2c9" CreationDate="2016-02-07T07:24:18.530" UserId="10463" Text="Your hourly rate doesn't matter what you do generally should depend on following factors:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Your Experience&#xD;&#xA; 2. Client's Budget&#xD;&#xA; 3. Difficulty Level&#xD;&#xA; 4. Your Availability / Deadline of the Project.&#xD;&#xA; 5. What others are charging for the same work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These points should be sufficient to answer your question.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12695" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4198" RevisionGUID="109e5f2e-1ad5-4978-ac7b-48015fd0a406" CreationDate="2016-02-08T06:49:41.787" UserId="10398" Text="While you can market yourself by following the advice on some great answers in this thread (e.g. establishing your presence in your local area). I suggest to take a step back and if you really want to limit yourself your city.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I say this because unless you live in a metropolitan area with a big tech sector, the majority of work you should be getting won't be in your own city.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Luckily, this is 2016 and you can easily market yourself to clients in other states or even countries. I confidently say this because over 60% of my income last year came from out-of-state clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There short-term and long-term methods to get clients that aren't in your immediate area:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Short Term:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Watching Job boards that have openings for freelancers smashingmagazine.com, github.com, and even stackexchange.com all have amazing job boards that often have listings for freelance or contract positions.&#xD;&#xA;* Making a List of companies you want to get hired by, researching the employees there and finding the person who can make the decision to hire you as a consultant or contractor, and reaching out to him/her.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Long Term:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Using the jobs you've been getting form the methods above to obtain **amazing** testimonials and case studies and leveraging them to even better jobs&#xD;&#xA;* Encouraging referrals through your current clients. Remember to ask them to recommend you to others at every step of your transaction with them.&#xD;&#xA;* Determine a good online marketing campaign by experimenting with: PPC ads, email marketing, and retargeting campaigns to acquire a steady stream of leads and clients through paid means.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this was helpful! Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12696" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4198" RevisionGUID="7fbb0379-cc3a-4f36-92fa-e7eed712905c" CreationDate="2016-02-08T08:42:26.410" UserId="58" Comment="Formatting + Grammar edits" Text="While you can market yourself by following the advice on some great answers in this thread (e.g. establishing your presence in your local area). I suggest to take a step back and if you really want to limit yourself your city.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I say this because unless you live in a metropolitan area with a big tech sector, the majority of work you should be getting won't be in your own city.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Luckily, this is 2016 and you can easily market yourself to clients in other states or even countries. I confidently say this because over 60% of my income last year came from out-of-state clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There short-term and long-term methods to get clients that aren't in your immediate area:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;### Short Term&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Watching Job boards that have openings for freelancers smashingmagazine.com, github.com, and even stackexchange.com all have amazing job boards that often have listings for freelance or contract positions.&#xD;&#xA;* Making a List of companies you want to get hired by, researching the employees there and finding the person who can make the decision to hire you as a consultant or contractor, and reaching out to him/her.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;### Long Term&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Using the jobs you've been getting from the methods above to obtain **amazing** testimonials and case studies and leveraging them to even better jobs&#xD;&#xA;* Encouraging referrals through your current clients. Remember to ask them to recommend you to others at every step of your transaction with them.&#xD;&#xA;* Determine a good online marketing campaign by experimenting with: PPC ads, email marketing, and retargeting campaigns to acquire a steady stream of leads and clients through paid means.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12698" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4139" RevisionGUID="94c3e9a5-a90d-4dd4-88ab-a61997182f84" CreationDate="2016-02-08T08:47:11.880" UserId="58" Comment="Remove a slightly dubious link, as it doesn't really contribute much to the answer." Text="I have worked on freelancing websites like oDesk and elance (now UpWork) for 10 years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a PHP developer, and I have seen jQuery projects with equivalent and higher wages quite often.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For every say 5 PHP programmers there is 1 programmer who knows both PHP and jQuery **well** and is obviously paid higher. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;jQuery UI work is much more elegant and easy to use. It is definitely in. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12704" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4199" RevisionGUID="3c694373-84bd-4b9e-be8a-8cf68790efd4" CreationDate="2016-02-09T09:07:17.947" UserId="11384" Text="Sorry in advance for the long read.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm 22 years old and just finished university for graphic design. I was approached by a small business which wanted me to design them a logo, stationary and a website. I was only charging them $20/h NZD because it was under the table and my first client. Anyway I've finished everything, they're happy with the logo and stationary but not the website. They think the whole website needs re-designing. They only told me this a month after I finished, (once her husband started to get more involved with the deal). So I came up with another concept and sent them the wireframes for it, told them it would take roughly 50-60 hours. He sent a long email filled with analogies about flooring and how he wouldn't want his floor tiled twice, etc (it was an entertaining email). He left me with an ultimatum, do the re-design of the site for free or return the deposit he paid and walk away (after the hours already gone into it). I would LOVE to hear from other freelancers and hear what they would do in this situation as I'm new to this and can't tell if I'm in the wrong or not. An important piece of information to note is that I didn't send them the wireframes of the site in the beginning (which was a mistake I now know) but does this mistake really have this much of a repercussion? And yes from now on I will use a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you read to here I would love your input, cheers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12705" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4199" RevisionGUID="3c694373-84bd-4b9e-be8a-8cf68790efd4" CreationDate="2016-02-09T09:07:17.947" UserId="11384" Text="Need help with moral dilemma of first client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12706" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4199" RevisionGUID="3c694373-84bd-4b9e-be8a-8cf68790efd4" CreationDate="2016-02-09T09:07:17.947" UserId="11384" Text="|freelance-websites|payment-terms|difficult-client|design|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12708" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4200" RevisionGUID="42e547e8-fe30-4244-ac2b-f38967c1afac" CreationDate="2016-02-09T17:39:03.357" UserId="708" Text="A Couple things to ask yourself....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Do you have a contract?**&#xD;&#xA; - If you do, that should detail revisions, changes, and fees. Refer to the contract.&#xD;&#xA; - If you do not, they things get stickier. Learn to *always* have a written agreement covering things like approval, revisions, cancellation, etc. Continue...&#xD;&#xA; 2. **Do you have documentation with approval of the design?** Email **is** documentation. &#xD;&#xA; - If the design was approved by the client. Even if not by &quot;the husband&quot; was the the original design okay'd before you fleshed it out?&#xD;&#xA; - Realize it is *not* your responsibility to ensure the client allows everyone *they want* to weight in. If they failed to get &quot;the husband's&quot; approval before telling you to &quot;go ahead&quot;, that's not your problem. If they wanted &quot;the husband's&quot; approval, they should have waited before telling you the design was approved.&#xD;&#xA; 3. **Is the client just being unreasonable and asking more than any business would be willing to accomodate?** Be aware, as a student or recent graduate, many businesses will &quot;target&quot; you either&#xD;&#xA;    consciously or subconsciously, because they *know* you don't have a&#xD;&#xA;    lot of experience.&#xD;&#xA; - There are business owners out there that are *fully* aware they are *using* inexperienced workers because they feel they can push them around or take advantage of them. These types of clients often *know* what they are asking would be immediately unacceptable by larger, more established, firms/studios. (a contract will generally scare off these types of businesses and *protect you* to some degree)&#xD;&#xA; - In all fairness however, there are inexperienced business owners out there that honestly don't understand what they are asking is above and beyond what could be considered normal (again... a contract detailing expectations would eliminate this problem.)&#xD;&#xA; 4. The client is always right... unless they are wrong. **Is the client wrong here?**&#xD;&#xA; - Your business is *your* business. It is *always* your choice to deal with something or walk away. No other business or client has the right to dictate *how* you choose to deal with any given situation. In most cases, especially without a contract, your only risking bad word of mouth.&#xD;&#xA; - When clients become unreasonable to you, speak up, but do it politely. There are times when a client, especially an inexperienced client, may be asking for way too much and they are just unaware. Politely indicating what you disagree with or what you feel is &quot;too much&quot; may often open a dialog to an easy, pleasant solution.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your situation, I'd refer back to emails I have, searching *specifically* for the email telling me the web design was approved and I should move forward. I would map out, to myself, solutions I'm *willing* to accommodate. Then I'd then respond with something along the lines of....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi [client b],&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm a bit concerned. On (Month 00), [client a] approved the design of the web site. I was told I should proceed with the design and build it out. Based upon this approval, XX hours of work were completed to get the web site ready. These hours would have never been accumulated were it not for the direct approval to proceed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm sorry to hear [client a] didn't get your approval before telling me to move forward. However, I was unaware that [client a] did not have final authority to give me the go ahead. After all [client a] had approved [project a], [project b], and [project c] without issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I absolutely want you to be pleased with the web site design. Redesigning the site will require an additional 50-60 hours. That is not something I'm willing to complete without compensation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&lt;sup&gt;(I threw this part in based upon your question))&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Referring to your floor tiling analogy, if a contractor is hired to tile your floor and [Client a] picks a tile, approves it and gives the go ahead to install. It gets installed. Then, once it is installed, you state your don't like it and want a different tile. Would you, honestly, expect the contractor to just throw away the tile that was used and complete all that labor again without incurring any additional costs?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm sorry but approval was given. I can't rework everything free of charge. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;There are two options available: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;- 1.) Accept the site as it has been designed and approved. I'm absolutely willing to make any minor design changes or &quot;tweak&quot; things in the existing design to hopefully accommodate some of your desires. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;- Or 2.) Scrap the existing design and rework everything from scratch, understanding that an additional 50-60 hours of billable labor will be incurred. I will invoice for the labor which was approved thus far. Once that invoice is paid, we can start the new design.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Please let me know how you would like to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given the above, I **hope** you've gotten paid, at least some. Because, from my experience, I can tell you if you've got a client that wants a *complete* redesign *after* something has already been approved, and they want it for free, chances are you'll never see any payment from this client. Or if you do, it'll be short.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My best advice at this stage is to be willing to cut your losses and walk away. If you have approval (especially written approval) of the designs, what the client is asking is above and beyond normal business practices. If they are adamant about them, you won't get around it and they'll **never** be happy. Worse case scenario is *this* client leaves with an unfavorable opinion of your services. That is something you have to learn to accept. You are going to run into clients you just can not make happy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is often *better* to walk away leaving an unreasonable client unhappy than it is to put in weeks of work you will never be paid for. Remember, you're a *business* and you should treat interactions *like a business*. No business I know gives me free services just because I *want* them to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Be aware, most of this answer just amounts to my ***opinion*** based upon my experience. None of it should be seen as &quot;written in stone&quot; and I'm certain other freelancers may have a different take on things." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12709" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4200" RevisionGUID="89d3d89f-dbaf-4c93-92a3-d2b0ae91491a" CreationDate="2016-02-09T17:55:13.367" UserId="708" Comment="added 643 characters in body" Text="First off, if you **failed to get approval** of the design before building the design, well, the onus falls on you. To keep a happy client **always** get approval at milestones before moving forward. If you fail to get approval, then you open yourself up to working and working for free if the end result isn't what the client wants. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without the initial approval of the design, I think I'd be in a position to **make the changes being requested** and eat all the previous work. If it's my fault no one approved anything, then it's **my error** not the clients. Chalk it up to a &quot;learning experience&quot; and move on, striving to make the client happy.... with approvals along the way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any event, for my business, deposits are non-refundable and would *never* be returned. But you really should state that before the deposit is ever paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some situations though.... if they **did** approve things....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a few things to ask yourself....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Do you have a contract?**&#xD;&#xA; - If you do, that should detail revisions, changes, and fees. Refer to the contract.&#xD;&#xA; - If you do not, they things get stickier. Learn to *always* have a written agreement covering things like approval, revisions, cancellation, etc. Continue...&#xD;&#xA; 2. **Do you have documentation with approval of the design?** Email **is** documentation. &#xD;&#xA; - If the design was approved by the client. Even if not by &quot;the husband&quot; was the the original design okay'd before you fleshed it out?&#xD;&#xA; - Realize it is *not* your responsibility to ensure the client allows everyone *they want* to weight in. If they failed to get &quot;the husband's&quot; approval before telling you to &quot;go ahead&quot;, that's not your problem. If they wanted &quot;the husband's&quot; approval, they should have waited before telling you the design was approved.&#xD;&#xA; 3. **Is the client just being unreasonable and asking more than any business would be willing to accomodate?** Be aware, as a student or recent graduate, many businesses will &quot;target&quot; you either&#xD;&#xA;    consciously or subconsciously, because they *know* you don't have a&#xD;&#xA;    lot of experience.&#xD;&#xA; - There are business owners out there that are *fully* aware they are *using* inexperienced workers because they feel they can push them around or take advantage of them. These types of clients often *know* what they are asking would be immediately unacceptable by larger, more established, firms/studios. (a contract will generally scare off these types of businesses and *protect you* to some degree)&#xD;&#xA; - In all fairness however, there are inexperienced business owners out there that honestly don't understand what they are asking is above and beyond what could be considered normal (again... a contract detailing expectations would eliminate this problem.)&#xD;&#xA; 4. The client is always right... unless they are wrong. **Is the client wrong here?**&#xD;&#xA; - Your business is *your* business. It is *always* your choice to deal with something or walk away. No other business or client has the right to dictate *how* you choose to deal with any given situation. In most cases, especially without a contract, your only risking bad word of mouth.&#xD;&#xA; - When clients become unreasonable to you, speak up, but do it politely. There are times when a client, especially an inexperienced client, may be asking for way too much and they are just unaware. Politely indicating what you disagree with or what you feel is &quot;too much&quot; may often open a dialog to an easy, pleasant solution.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your situation, I'd refer back to emails I have, searching *specifically* for the email telling me the web design was approved and I should move forward. I would map out, to myself, solutions I'm *willing* to accommodate. Then I'd then respond with something along the lines of....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi [client b],&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm a bit concerned. On (Month 00), [client a] approved the design of the web site. I was told I should proceed with the design and build it out. Based upon this approval, XX hours of work were completed to get the web site ready. These hours would have never been accumulated were it not for the direct approval to proceed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm sorry to hear [client a] didn't get your approval before telling me to move forward. However, I was unaware that [client a] did not have final authority to give me the go ahead. After all [client a] had approved [project a], [project b], and [project c] without issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I absolutely want you to be pleased with the web site design. Redesigning the site will require an additional 50-60 hours. That is not something I'm willing to complete without compensation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&lt;sup&gt;(I threw this part in based upon your question))&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Referring to your floor tiling analogy, if a contractor is hired to tile your floor and [Client a] picks a tile, approves it and gives the go ahead to install. It gets installed. Then, once it is installed, you state your don't like it and want a different tile. Would you, honestly, expect the contractor to just throw away the tile that was used and complete all that labor again without incurring any additional costs?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm sorry but approval was given. I can't rework everything free of charge. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;There are two options available: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;- 1.) Accept the site as it has been designed and approved. I'm absolutely willing to make any minor design changes or &quot;tweak&quot; things in the existing design to hopefully accommodate some of your desires. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;- Or 2.) Scrap the existing design and rework everything from scratch, understanding that an additional 50-60 hours of billable labor will be incurred. I will invoice for the labor which was approved thus far. Once that invoice is paid, we can start the new design.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Please let me know how you would like to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given the above, I **hope** you've gotten paid, at least some. Because, from my experience, I can tell you if you've got a client that wants a *complete* redesign *after* something has already been approved, and they want it for free, chances are you'll never see any payment from this client. Or if you do, it'll be short.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My best advice at this stage is to be willing to cut your losses and walk away. If you have approval (especially written approval) of the designs, what the client is asking is above and beyond normal business practices. If they are adamant about them, you won't get around it and they'll **never** be happy. Worse case scenario is *this* client leaves with an unfavorable opinion of your services. That is something you have to learn to accept. You are going to run into clients you just can not make happy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is often *better* to walk away leaving an unreasonable client unhappy than it is to put in weeks of work you will never be paid for. Remember, you're a *business* and you should treat interactions *like a business*. No business I know gives me free services just because I *want* them to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Be aware, most of this answer just amounts to my ***opinion*** based upon my experience. None of it should be seen as &quot;written in stone&quot; and I'm certain other freelancers may have a different take on things." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12710" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4200" RevisionGUID="ffcc7989-7859-446a-886d-6971bb6c944f" CreationDate="2016-02-09T18:10:18.777" UserId="708" Comment="added 310 characters in body" Text="First off, if you **failed to get approval** of the design before building the design, well, the onus falls on you. To keep a happy client **always** get approval at milestones before moving forward. If you fail to get approval, then you open yourself up to working and working for free if the end result isn't what the client wants. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without the initial approval of the design, I think I'd be in a position to **make the changes being requested** and eat all the previous work. If it's my fault no one approved anything, then it's **my error** not the clients. Chalk it up to a &quot;learning experience&quot; and move on, striving to make the client happy.... with approvals along the way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any event, for my business, deposits are non-refundable and would *never* be returned. But you really should state that before the deposit is ever paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some situations though.... if they **did** approve things....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a few things to ask yourself....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Do you have a contract?**&#xD;&#xA; - If you do, that should detail revisions, changes, and fees. Refer to the contract.&#xD;&#xA; - If you do not, they things get stickier. Learn to *always* have a written agreement covering things like approval, revisions, cancellation, etc. Contracts do **not** have to be long-winded, legalese documents. A simple one page PDF (or even an email) detailing what is to be done, when it's to be done, how revisions are to be handled, what happens when one party wants to cancel, who owns the rights to what, and what compensation is to be provided is often enough.&#xD;&#xA; 2. **Do you have documentation with approval of the design?** Email **is** documentation. &#xD;&#xA; - If the design was approved by the client. Even if not by &quot;the husband&quot; was the the original design okay'd before you fleshed it out?&#xD;&#xA; - Realize it is *not* your responsibility to ensure the client allows everyone *they want* to weight in. If they failed to get &quot;the husband's&quot; approval before telling you to &quot;go ahead&quot;, that's not your problem. If they wanted &quot;the husband's&quot; approval, they should have waited before telling you the design was approved.&#xD;&#xA; 3. **Is the client just being unreasonable and asking more than any business would be willing to accomodate?** Be aware, as a student or recent graduate, many businesses will &quot;target&quot; you either&#xD;&#xA;    consciously or subconsciously, because they *know* you don't have a&#xD;&#xA;    lot of experience.&#xD;&#xA; - There are business owners out there that are *fully* aware they are *using* inexperienced workers because they feel they can push them around or take advantage of them. These types of clients often *know* what they are asking would be immediately unacceptable by larger, more established, firms/studios. (a contract will generally scare off these types of businesses and *protect you* to some degree)&#xD;&#xA; - In all fairness however, there are inexperienced business owners out there that honestly don't understand what they are asking is above and beyond what could be considered normal (again... a contract detailing expectations would eliminate this problem.)&#xD;&#xA; 4. The client is always right... unless they are wrong. **Is the client wrong here?**&#xD;&#xA; - Your business is *your* business. It is *always* your choice to deal with something or walk away. No other business or client has the right to dictate *how* you choose to deal with any given situation. In most cases, especially without a contract, your only risking bad word of mouth.&#xD;&#xA; - When clients become unreasonable to you, speak up, but do it politely. There are times when a client, especially an inexperienced client, may be asking for way too much and they are just unaware. Politely indicating what you disagree with or what you feel is &quot;too much&quot; may often open a dialog to an easy, pleasant solution.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your situation, I'd refer back to emails I have, searching *specifically* for the email telling me the web design was approved and I should move forward. I would map out, to myself, solutions I'm *willing* to accommodate. Then I'd then respond with something along the lines of....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi [client b],&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm a bit concerned. On (Month 00), [client a] approved the design of the web site. I was told I should proceed with the design and build it out. Based upon this approval, XX hours of work were completed to get the web site ready. These hours would have never been accumulated were it not for the direct approval to proceed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm sorry to hear [client a] didn't get your approval before telling me to move forward. However, I was unaware that [client a] did not have final authority to give me the go ahead. After all [client a] had approved [project a], [project b], and [project c] without issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I absolutely want you to be pleased with the web site design. Redesigning the site will require an additional 50-60 hours. That is not something I'm willing to complete without compensation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&lt;sup&gt;(I threw this part in based upon your question))&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Referring to your floor tiling analogy, if a contractor is hired to tile your floor and [Client a] picks a tile, approves it and gives the go ahead to install. It gets installed. Then, once it is installed, you state your don't like it and want a different tile. Would you, honestly, expect the contractor to just throw away the tile that was used and complete all that labor again without incurring any additional costs?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm sorry but approval was given. I can't rework everything free of charge. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;There are two options available: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;- 1.) Accept the site as it has been designed and approved. I'm absolutely willing to make any minor design changes or &quot;tweak&quot; things in the existing design to hopefully accommodate some of your desires. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;- Or 2.) Scrap the existing design and rework everything from scratch, understanding that an additional 50-60 hours of billable labor will be incurred. I will invoice for the labor which was approved thus far. Once that invoice is paid, we can start the new design.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Please let me know how you would like to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given the above, I **hope** you've gotten paid, at least some. Because, from my experience, I can tell you if you've got a client that wants a *complete* redesign *after* something has already been approved, and they want it for free, chances are you'll never see any payment from this client. Or if you do, it'll be short.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My best advice at this stage is to be willing to cut your losses and walk away. If you have approval (especially written approval) of the designs, what the client is asking is above and beyond normal business practices. If they are adamant about them, you won't get around it and they'll **never** be happy. Worse case scenario is *this* client leaves with an unfavorable opinion of your services. That is something you have to learn to accept. You are going to run into clients you just can not make happy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is often *better* to walk away leaving an unreasonable client unhappy than it is to put in weeks of work you will never be paid for. Remember, you're a *business* and you should treat interactions *like a business*. No business I know gives me free services just because I *want* them to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Be aware, most of this answer just amounts to my ***opinion*** based upon my experience. None of it should be seen as &quot;written in stone&quot; and I'm certain other freelancers may have a different take on things." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12711" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4200" RevisionGUID="ca0fec5a-b744-4b81-80f1-12ee416bbc1b" CreationDate="2016-02-09T20:07:35.720" UserId="75" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="First off, if you **failed to get approval** of the design before building the design, well, the onus falls on you. To keep a happy client **always** get approval at milestones before moving forward. If you fail to get approval, then you open yourself up to working and working for free if the end result isn't what the client wants. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without the initial approval of the design, I think I'd be in a position to **make the changes being requested** and eat all the previous work. If it's my fault no one approved anything, then it's **my error** not the clients. Chalk it up to a &quot;learning experience&quot; and move on, striving to make the client happy.... with approvals along the way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any event, for my business, deposits are non-refundable and would *never* be returned. But you really should state that before the deposit is ever paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some situations though.... if they **did** approve things....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a few things to ask yourself....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Do you have a contract?**&#xD;&#xA; - If you do, that should detail revisions, changes, and fees. Refer to the contract.&#xD;&#xA; - If you do not, they things get stickier. Learn to *always* have a written agreement covering things like approval, revisions, cancellation, etc. Contracts do **not** have to be long-winded, legalese documents. A simple one page PDF (or even an email) detailing what is to be done, when it's to be done, how revisions are to be handled, what happens when one party wants to cancel, who owns the rights to what, and what compensation is to be provided is often enough.&#xD;&#xA; 2. **Do you have documentation with approval of the design?** Email **is** documentation. &#xD;&#xA; - If the design was approved by the client. Even if not by &quot;the husband&quot; was the the original design okay'd before you fleshed it out?&#xD;&#xA; - Realize it is *not* your responsibility to ensure the client allows everyone *they want* to weight in. If they failed to get &quot;the husband's&quot; approval before telling you to &quot;go ahead&quot;, that's not your problem. If they wanted &quot;the husband's&quot; approval, they should have waited before telling you the design was approved.&#xD;&#xA; 3. **Is the client just being unreasonable and asking more than any business would be willing to accommodate?** Be aware, as a student or recent graduate, many businesses will &quot;target&quot; you either&#xD;&#xA;    consciously or subconsciously, because they *know* you don't have a&#xD;&#xA;    lot of experience.&#xD;&#xA; - There are business owners out there that are *fully* aware they are *using* inexperienced workers because they feel they can push them around or take advantage of them. These types of clients often *know* what they are asking would be immediately unacceptable by larger, more established, firms/studios. (a contract will generally scare off these types of businesses and *protect you* to some degree)&#xD;&#xA; - In all fairness however, there are inexperienced business owners out there that honestly don't understand what they are asking is above and beyond what could be considered normal (again... a contract detailing expectations would eliminate this problem.)&#xD;&#xA; 4. The client is always right... unless they are wrong. **Is the client wrong here?**&#xD;&#xA; - Your business is *your* business. It is *always* your choice to deal with something or walk away. No other business or client has the right to dictate *how* you choose to deal with any given situation. In most cases, especially without a contract, you're only risking bad word of mouth.&#xD;&#xA; - When clients become unreasonable to you, speak up, but do it politely. There are times when a client, especially an inexperienced client, may be asking for way too much and they are just unaware. Politely indicating what you disagree with or what you feel is &quot;too much&quot; may often open a dialog to an easy, pleasant solution.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your situation, I'd refer back to emails I have, searching *specifically* for the email telling me the web design was approved and I should move forward. I would map out, to myself, solutions I'm *willing* to accommodate. Then I'd then respond with something along the lines of....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi [client b],&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm a bit concerned. On (Month 00), [client a] approved the design of the web site. I was told I should proceed with the design and build it out. Based upon this approval, XX hours of work were completed to get the web site ready. These hours would have never been accumulated were it not for the direct approval to proceed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm sorry to hear [client a] didn't get your approval before telling me to move forward. However, I was unaware that [client a] did not have final authority to give me the go ahead. After all [client a] had approved [project a], [project b], and [project c] without issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I absolutely want you to be pleased with the web site design. Redesigning the site will require an additional 50-60 hours. That is not something I'm willing to complete without compensation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&lt;sup&gt;(I threw this part in based upon your question))&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Referring to your floor tiling analogy, if a contractor is hired to tile your floor and [Client a] picks a tile, approves it and gives the go ahead to install. It gets installed. Then, once it is installed, you state your don't like it and want a different tile. Would you, honestly, expect the contractor to just throw away the tile that was used and complete all that labor again without incurring any additional costs?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm sorry but approval was given. I can't rework everything free of charge. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;There are two options available: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;- 1.) Accept the site as it has been designed and approved. I'm absolutely willing to make any minor design changes or &quot;tweak&quot; things in the existing design to hopefully accommodate some of your desires. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;- Or 2.) Scrap the existing design and rework everything from scratch, understanding that an additional 50-60 hours of billable labor will be incurred. I will invoice for the labor which was approved thus far. Once that invoice is paid, we can start the new design.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Please let me know how you would like to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given the above, I **hope** you've gotten paid, at least some. Because, from my experience, I can tell you if you've got a client that wants a *complete* redesign *after* something has already been approved, and they want it for free, chances are you'll never see any payment from this client. Or if you do, it'll be short.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My best advice at this stage is to be willing to cut your losses and walk away. If you have approval (especially written approval) of the designs, what the client is asking is above and beyond normal business practices. If they are adamant about them, you won't get around it and they'll **never** be happy. Worse case scenario is *this* client leaves with an unfavorable opinion of your services. That is something you have to learn to accept. You are going to run into clients you just can not make happy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is often *better* to walk away leaving an unreasonable client unhappy than it is to put in weeks of work you will never be paid for. Remember, you're a *business* and you should treat interactions *like a business*. No business I know gives me free services just because I *want* them to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Be aware, most of this answer just amounts to my ***opinion*** based upon my experience. None of it should be seen as &quot;written in stone&quot; and I'm certain other freelancers may have a different take on things." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12712" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4201" RevisionGUID="d020849a-6323-43bc-b1d9-d45c8ec063cc" CreationDate="2016-02-09T20:53:15.567" UserId="10129" Text="I've been consulting for about 25 years on a wide variety of projects both large and small, from device drivers to mobile apps. In all of that time, the only clients I've seen who have such low average weekly requirements are website maintenance projects, and specifically those clients who have an older ASP.VB or PHP site that has a medium amount of dynamic content.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, even these clients have peaks and valleys and you can expect weeks with minimal changes and weeks where they might ask for 20 hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To break it down a bit further: You are looking for clients with older sites that aren't simple to maintain (pre-WYSIWYG), and possibly have been through a number of different developers, are perhaps a bit cluttered and probably somewhat ugly, but also aren't worth the cost of rewriting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To be totally honest, you won't get the most valuable development experience from these kind of projects, you will get experience working as a consultant, and the extra money." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12713" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4200" RevisionGUID="6ad42a6b-01d1-4378-b775-aeda0aa2d8a7" CreationDate="2016-02-09T21:55:39.920" UserId="708" Comment="added 372 characters in body" Text="First off, if you **failed to get approval** of the design before building the design, well, the onus falls on you. To keep a happy client **always** get approval at milestones before moving forward. If you fail to get approval, then you open yourself up to working and working for free if the end result isn't what the client wants. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without the initial approval of the design, I think I'd be in a position to **make the changes being requested** and eat all the previous work. If it's my fault no one approved anything, then it's **my error** not the clients. Chalk it up to a &quot;learning experience&quot; and move on, striving to make the client happy.... with approvals along the way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any event, for my business, deposits are non-refundable and would *never* be returned. But you really should state that before the deposit is ever paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some situations though.... if they **did** approve things....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a few things to ask yourself....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Do you have a contract?**&#xD;&#xA; - If you do, that should detail revisions, changes, and fees. Refer to the contract.&#xD;&#xA; - If you do not, they things get stickier. Learn to *always* have a written agreement covering things like approval, revisions, cancellation, etc. Contracts do **not** have to be long-winded, legalese documents. A simple one page PDF (or even an email) detailing what is to be done, when it's to be done, how revisions are to be handled, what happens when one party wants to cancel, who owns the rights to what, and what compensation is to be provided is often enough.&#xD;&#xA; 2. **Do you have documentation with approval of the design?** Email **is** documentation. &#xD;&#xA; - If the design was approved by the client, even if not by &quot;the husband&quot;, were you unfounded in preceding? Probably not. Who exactly has the authority to approve things? If you got approval from one of those individuals, you've done nothing abnormal.&#xD;&#xA; - Realize it is *not* your responsibility to ensure the client allows everyone *they want* to weight in. If they failed to get &quot;the husband's&quot; approval before telling you to &quot;go ahead&quot;, that's not your problem. If they wanted &quot;the husband's&quot; approval, they should have waited before telling you the design was approved.&#xD;&#xA; 3. **Is the client just being unreasonable and asking more than any business would be willing to accommodate?** Be aware, as a student or recent graduate, many business owners may &quot;target&quot; you either&#xD;&#xA;    consciously or subconsciously, because they *know* you don't have a&#xD;&#xA;    lot of experience.&#xD;&#xA; - There are business owners out there that are *fully* aware they are *using* inexperienced workers because they feel they can push them around or take advantage of them. These types of clients often *know* what they are asking would be immediately unacceptable by larger, more established, firms/studios. (a contract will generally scare off these types of businesses and *protect you* to some degree)&#xD;&#xA; - In all fairness however, there are inexperienced business owners that honestly don't understand what they are asking is above and beyond what could be considered normal (again... a contract detailing expectations would eliminate this problem.) Sometimes all it takes is an explanation and things get back on track.&#xD;&#xA; 4. The client is always right... unless they are wrong. **Is the client wrong here?**&#xD;&#xA; - Your business is *your* business. It is *always* your choice to deal with something or walk away. No other business or client has the right to dictate *how* you choose to deal with any given situation. In most cases, especially without a contract, you're only risking bad word of mouth.&#xD;&#xA; - When clients become unreasonable to you, speak up, but do it politely. There are times when a client, especially an inexperienced client, may be asking for way too much and they are just unaware. Politely indicating what you disagree with or what you feel is &quot;too much&quot; may often open a dialog to an easy, pleasant solution. My first reaction to *anything* is *always* from a friendly, &quot;oh you just don't understand&quot;, perspective. Then, if they make it clear they *do* understand, I switch to a more stern approach.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your situation, I'd refer back to emails I have, searching *specifically* for the email telling me the web design was approved and I should move forward. I would map out, to myself, solutions I'm *willing* to accommodate. Then I'd then respond with something along the lines of....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi [client b],&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm a bit concerned. On (Month 00), [client a] approved the design of the web site. I was told I should proceed with the design and build it out. Based upon this approval, XX hours of work were completed to get the web site ready. These hours would have never been accumulated were it not for the direct approval to proceed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm sorry to hear [client a] didn't get your input before telling me to move forward. However, I was unaware that [client a] did not have final authority to give me the go ahead. After all [client a] had approved [project a], [project b], and [project c] without issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I absolutely want you to be pleased with the web site design. Redesigning the site will require an additional 50-60 hours. That is not something I'm willing to complete without compensation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&lt;sup&gt;(I threw this part in based upon your question))&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Referring to your floor tiling analogy, if a contractor is hired to tile your floor and [Client a] picks a tile, approves it and gives the go ahead to install. It gets installed. Then, once it is installed, you state your don't like it and want a different tile. Would you, honestly, expect the contractor to just throw away the tile that was used and complete all that labor again without incurring any additional costs?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm sorry but approval was given. I can't rework everything free of charge. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;There are two options available: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;- 1.) Accept the site as it has been designed and approved. I'm absolutely willing to make any minor design changes or &quot;tweak&quot; things in the existing design to hopefully accommodate some of your desires. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;- Or 2.) Scrap the existing design and rework everything from scratch, understanding that an additional 50-60 hours of billable labor will be incurred. I will invoice for the labor which was approved thus far. Once that invoice is paid, we can start the new design.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Please let me know how you would like to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given the above, I **hope** you've gotten paid, at least some. Because, from my experience, I can tell you if you've got a client that wants a *complete* redesign *after* something has already been approved, and they want it for free, chances are you'll never see any payment from this client. Or if you do, it'll be short.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My best advice at this stage is to be willing to cut your losses and walk away. If you have approval (especially written approval) of the designs, what the client is asking is above and beyond normal business practices. If they are adamant about them, you won't get around it and they'll **never** be happy. Worse case scenario is *this* client leaves with an unfavorable opinion of your services. That is something you have to learn to accept. You are going to run into clients you just can not make happy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is often *better* to walk away leaving an unreasonable client unhappy than it is to put in weeks of work you will never be paid for. Remember, you're a *business* and you should treat interactions *like a business*. No business I know gives me free services just because I *want* them to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Be aware, most of this answer just amounts to my ***opinion*** based upon my experience. None of it should be seen as &quot;written in stone&quot; and I'm certain other freelancers may have a different take on things." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12714" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="4199" RevisionGUID="150cfffc-4f34-415d-bf37-db7260128e2a" CreationDate="2016-02-10T00:59:51.523" UserId="75" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="12715" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4202" RevisionGUID="f37d3e46-56a6-4eb1-bae5-3b07dc66b1f6" CreationDate="2016-02-10T01:24:24.910" UserId="9835" Text="I've been working with a group of freelancers for a few years now as we all work in the same industry (web development) so we've been helping small businesses on CL a lot. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We decided that we want to own our own website to market our services but by doing so (as our services would be branded as our web domain) do we need to register as a business?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All of our communication with clients and services would be virtual and we are splitting profits equally  from our clients but none of us live in the same state (one of us is international) so setting up a business as partners seems odd as you typically register within your state. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If we did have to register as a business but choose someone to be an owner what information would they need about legal? There technically wouldn't be any employees as the pay is per contact. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just don't want to get in trouble through the IRS or Legal matters. If it's possible to not have to register a business as we are all just freelancers working together, that would make it a lot easier. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12716" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4202" RevisionGUID="f37d3e46-56a6-4eb1-bae5-3b07dc66b1f6" CreationDate="2016-02-10T01:24:24.910" UserId="9835" Text="Do freelancers working together need to register a company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12717" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4202" RevisionGUID="f37d3e46-56a6-4eb1-bae5-3b07dc66b1f6" CreationDate="2016-02-10T01:24:24.910" UserId="9835" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12718" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4203" RevisionGUID="174f38d4-11f9-4309-8be6-5ca743f198bb" CreationDate="2016-02-10T01:44:29.043" UserId="10398" Text="This is a great problem to have!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While many freelancers struggle to keep there pipelines full, you've got your hands full, so firstly congratulate yourself on being so reliable and great at your job that you're literally overflowing with work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Now onto your question**, finding a way to successfully outsource your work all while making sure that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.  it is both up to your standards (which is what to you to the number of projects you're getting at a time, so keep up the great quality of work!)&#xD;&#xA;2. and that the person you outsource it to won't go MIA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###To better answer your question, I'll break down what you can do to improvement your outsourcing in three categories:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note:** The following advice will take some time to implement, but will be well worth it in the long run.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Get a Well-Documented Process&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;If you're planning on replacing yourself, **you need to document everything you do for a client project**, so even if your contractor does go MIA, you can have someone else jump in, read your docs, and continue on the project. Doing this not only is a great way to ease growing pains, but it also helps preemptively prevent contractor-related problems. I cannot stress how important this is for a freelancer to small-business transition. Even if you want to remain just a freelancer (1-man shop), I highly recommend you document your process so you can objectively take a look at it later on and make some improvements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some helpful items/tasks to document are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Client on-boarding process&#xD;&#xA;- Design workflow and Management (e.g. File naming, backup systems, software plugins, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;- Design Process&#xD;&#xA;- Project management.&#xD;&#xA;- Deliverable handoff&#xD;&#xA;- Revision process&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##Finding Great Talent&#xD;&#xA;Assuming from your username, you most likely live in Canada. You have the option of both finding freelancers in metropolitan areas like Vancouver of Toronto as well as stretching your dollars much further by going to UpWork or freelancer and finding freelancers in the Philippines or India.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you've probably thought of, there are pros and cons of hiring both local freelancers/consultants, as well as hiring people across the world.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###Hiring Locally:&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;**Pros:** you can meet them in person. Understand the western culture a lot more. Better communication. You can trust them to communicate with your clients. Laws apply to them. Much better chance of finding an replacement for yourself. Same time-zone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Cons:** Relatively pricy as a &quot;extensions of yourself&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###Hiring Across The World:&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;**Pros:** The first things is you can hire pretty competent freelancers at a substantially cheaper than hiring someone at a first-world country. Rates between $5-$20/hour are quite common, and I suggested you hire someone in the $15-$20/hour range for quality control reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Cons:** Communication. Work Culture. Over promising. not what you want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Contractor Management&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it's great that you've done some introspection, and from reading your answer, I suggest you do the following: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **Be more hands-on (even if they're not employees)**. Its literally your job to make sure the work your contractors are delivering meets your standards.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **Make upfront expectations.** Communication is the biggest factor here. (as you've learned from dealing with clients yourself). Make sure you're both on the same page from the start. I cannot stress enough how important strong communication is. you've stated that you don't get in touch with your contractors until the time of the due date. Can you see the margin of error in your current method? Make sure there's constant and open communication between both parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **Take an objective look at what you're paying your contractors to outsource your work.** Is it worth your high standards and the multiple rounds of revisions you ask of them? As I stated before your high standard of work is great, and a big reason of why you have so many incoming projects in the first place. But you to have to pay for the talent and skill that will be essentially replacing you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **Make sure your'e not losing more time than doing it yourself.** Instead of individually training every contractor you hire, I suggest investing a lot of time upfront by creating documentation of your process, and even doing screencasts of yourself working on some projects and keeping them in a private folder. You can then share this folder with new contractors and pay them ~$100 to go through the entire thing. This is a tiny investment compared to how much you will benefit in the long-run.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Manage Delegation&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As others in this thread have suggested, handle your favorite part of the project yourself, and delegate the rest. This way, you'll be able to do what you love without getting burned out. You can even hire a part-time project manager to take care of some of the business stuff so you can take care of the design/development role yourself. But that's only doable if you thoroughly document your process..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;##Conclusion&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you're planning on staying as a 1-man operation, start thinking of yourself as a business and adjust your growth accordingly. Make the changes as you would if you would if you were a CEO of a small company." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12722" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4205" RevisionGUID="55d4c86d-e7b2-48ea-a320-85e98e3fb8a8" CreationDate="2016-02-10T04:33:54.980" UserId="11399" Text="Yes. Legally you need to have company under the name of your colleagues and yourself. Later on it will help you for your banking and personal accounting to claim taxes back. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12723" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4205" RevisionGUID="e9c04670-c741-4b93-834b-651be255aed1" CreationDate="2016-02-10T04:44:20.443" UserId="11399" Comment="added 99 characters in body" Text="Yes. Legally you need to have company under the name of your colleagues and yourself. Later on it will help you for your banking and personal accounting to claim taxes back. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless one of your colleague decides to work as a contracter you don't need to register him/her&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12725" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4206" RevisionGUID="b4068135-e228-4066-ace7-15e982e6ebee" CreationDate="2016-02-10T09:40:02.623" UserId="11405" Text="Well that's basically it. I'd say I've learned my way throughout the years in HTML, CSS, Javascript, Jquery, Bootstrap, Ruby and others. I can customize or upgrade a website to a user's preference, but I lack the imagination (or experience) to generate a layout from complete scratch. Is it acceptable to jumpstart a freelance career by selling modified/adapted templates?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12726" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4206" RevisionGUID="b4068135-e228-4066-ace7-15e982e6ebee" CreationDate="2016-02-10T09:40:02.623" UserId="11405" Text="As a freelance web developer, is it ethical/acceptable to use freely available templates and just modify them?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12727" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4206" RevisionGUID="b4068135-e228-4066-ace7-15e982e6ebee" CreationDate="2016-02-10T09:40:02.623" UserId="11405" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12728" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4207" RevisionGUID="e23256b6-8709-433e-ae40-98b63800807d" CreationDate="2016-02-10T18:17:29.620" UserId="11412" Text="Good question. I have always informed people that I am using a template, because one way or the other, they will find out. It benefits everyone to keep the use of these kinds of tools transparent so that people can see the difference between the tools, the talent, and the required skills. Some clients might not want to pay for anything too fancy, just the fundamentals and if you can provide that, then you've done your job. Templates like Foundation or Bootstrap make it easy to meet that criteria. I think web ethics (like any technology) will continue to go back to the balance of respecting client knowledge and providing the desired level of service which they need and which you can offer :)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12729" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4208" RevisionGUID="6fcd85f6-2c1e-4e76-b3c3-aa5671ba4787" CreationDate="2016-02-10T18:26:41.673" UserId="9845" Text="Your question and the explanation ask two different questions that have two different answers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your question asks if it's ethical/acceptable to USE templates for clients. The answer is yes. Most developers without design experience do exactly that. As long as you're offering some transparency about it to your clients, this should not be an issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, modifying and selling free templates (on their own, and not part of a web development package/service) may not be legal, much less ethical. It depends on the template's license. Most template authors do not allow their products to be resold commercially, though you are usually free to modify the template for an individual client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See the difference?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For reference, check out the GNU GPL information: https://opensource.org/licenses/GPL-3.0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12730" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4209" RevisionGUID="a8933682-4bf9-4c50-8cde-8d0e58744dad" CreationDate="2016-02-10T21:35:28.613" UserId="708" Text="You can not operate as a collective under one name unless you form some sort of legal entity. Who and how many individuals are part of that entity is up to you. It could be a single person with a DBA (doing business as) who then pays out to everyone else. If that person wants that responsibility of issuing 1099s, keep records, filing taxes, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know about foreign markets, but in the US there are only 2 ways to *legally* do business... as yourself, using your own name (sole-proprietor), or under a legal entity (LLC/LLP, S-Corp, etc) using a different name. Only sole-proprietors don't have to &quot;form&quot; anything. The moment you want to operate under something other than your own name you need to file things with the state/city/county/etc so they can track who is the responsible party behind &quot;your business name&quot;. Even a sole-proprietor can not operate under another name without filing at least a DBA." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12736" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4211" RevisionGUID="926665ae-024b-4da1-b6d8-d72ff6543d75" CreationDate="2016-02-12T07:03:08.260" UserId="10398" Text="With any type of relationship (husband/wife, client/consultant, friend/friend, etc.), communication is one of the most important aspects of your relations pip --&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First of all, look at it through her eyes: assuming your'e in a happy loving happy relationship, she see's that you're at home now instead of an office, you probably wants to spend more time with you. And if she's asking you o do more chores around the house, again, she sees that you're home everyday and she has to go to an office for 40 hours a week to her job. How unfair is that for her?? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, don't send her articles. She's not your blog reader, she's your wife. talk to her. Make her a cup of tea and sit her down, not in a serious, you're in trouble kind of way, but just level with her.&#xD;&#xA;For the sake of your relationship and happiness, happily pick up a couple of extra chores, not a whole laundry-list )no pun intended) of stuff you have to do instead of your work. Even an hour everyday (what you probably saved form not having a commute anymore), will get a great deal done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sit her down tell her that if just because the physical location of where you work is different doesn't mean that its any different.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, one of the main reasons that you're freelancing is that you'll be able to spend more time with your family. Because at the end of the day, why are you doing all this anyway? to LIVE LIFE! For this reason, embrace the distractions at a certain point and make sure you communicate with your wife." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12737" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4211" RevisionGUID="5779cbd0-e57f-461c-b7e5-da3cb7bccad3" CreationDate="2016-02-12T23:09:38.250" UserId="75" Comment="added 13 characters in body" Text="With any type of relationship (husband/wife, client/consultant, friend/friend, etc.), communication is one of the most important aspects of your relations pip --&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First of all, look at it through her eyes: assuming you're in a happy loving happy relationship, she sees that you're at home now instead of an office, you probably wants to spend more time with you. And if she's asking you to do more chores around the house, again, she sees that you're home everyday and she has to go to an office for 40 hours a week to her job. How unfair is that for her?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, don't send her articles. She's not your blog reader, she's your wife. talk to her. Make her a cup of tea and sit her down, not in a serious, you're-in-trouble kind of way, but just level with her.&#xD;&#xA;For the sake of your relationship and happiness, happily pick up a couple of extra chores, not a whole laundry-list (no pun intended) of stuff you have to do instead of your work. Even an hour everyday (what you probably saved from not having a commute anymore), will get a great deal done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sit her down tell her that if just because the physical location of where you work is different doesn't mean that the situation is any different.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, one of the main reasons that you're freelancing is that you'll be able to spend more time with your family. Because at the end of the day, why are you doing all this anyway? To *live life*! For this reason, embrace the distractions at a certain point and make sure you communicate with your wife." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12741" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4212" RevisionGUID="1ab9c7dc-b54d-4364-8d52-8d2299917e7c" CreationDate="2016-02-14T00:11:02.503" UserId="10398" Text="As a freelancer or consultant, you should **always** charge at least a percent of your total project free upfront. This has two immediate advantages:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. **It makes your client put some skin in the game.** Paying a deposit makes your client take you and the project more seriously, and they're much less likely to not go through the project.&#xD;&#xA;2. **A deposit let's you safely put time aside for the client** instead of having to continue to look for work to sustain yourself in the meantime. You're no longer looking for a light at the end of the tunnel of the most-likely multiple month long engagement. This method also helps you lock in engagements in the future if you're too busy right now and it almost guarantees that you'll have work in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a rule of thumb, I estimate the time needed for my projects ahead of time, and create a payment schedule accordingly. This means the length of the project affects how often and how much the client pays me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, If I scope out a project for a client which is going to cost over $10k, I know that while working on other projects as well ( I usually do around 3 projects at a time), it will take me at least a couple of months from the kickoff meeting to the delivering the fully-developed website. Since I don't want to /can't wait to be paid after 2 or 3 months, I have a payment schedule based on specific milestones.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Here's my payment schedule for projects over $10k:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Deposit upon proposal approval / project kickoff: 25% &#xD;&#xA;2. Wireframe Approval: 25%&#xD;&#xA;3. Design Approval: 25%&#xD;&#xA;4. Development Approval/ Site Upload: 25%&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The projects I usually get are under $10k, and typically take under a month to complete. This means I can get paid in bigger chunks, so the payment schedule is typically something like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Deposit/ Project Kickoff: 50%&#xD;&#xA;2. Project Completion: 50%&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, while I only bill them twice through the whole project process, I always keep the clients updated on the specific milestones as above. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, for any projects under $1,000 I always charge 100% upfront because it usually takes me less than a week to finish.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While these examples pertain to my web design and development consulting, **this payment schedule works beautifully for any service that includes a multi-step process**. For example, if you're a logo designer, you could have one of your milestones be a hand-drawn sketch and a color palette, then a mockup of your logo, then a mockup, then different marketing materials designed using that logo and color palette.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While I've only been consulting for a little less than 4 years, I've used this payment schedule from day 1 and have never had a client call complain about or question this schedule. This is because it helps them spread their risk too. If they think thats the project isn't working out, they cancel it without having to spend the entire project budget on a freelancer who wasn't a good fit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another hidden advantage of this is that during our initial meeting, the split payment schedule helps address pricing objections because most of the time, when they're not sure whether to pay so much for a project, they're really thinking about whether or not the the money will be an investment they can see a return on, or whether it will be money that's going down the drain. Splitting up payments helps them mitigate the risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, another method I've seen other consultants do is charge 100% upfront but include a 10% discount in the price. I don't typically recommend this as its very risk averse for the client, and it devalues your work, as you had no reason to charge the extra 10% other than having a higher risk of not getting paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you're starting out I highly recommend you charge 50% upfront regardless of you bill per project or pre-hour** (in which case, estimate how many hours the project will take, then divide that by 2) **and 50% once you've shown the deliverable and before you actually deliver it.**&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12742" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4213" RevisionGUID="71f08b00-1a62-4284-999f-62286278dd53" CreationDate="2016-02-14T00:24:20.953" UserId="10398" Text="I was curious; how much money (in terms of months of expenses) should someone save up before quitting their day job and freelancing full-time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12743" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4213" RevisionGUID="71f08b00-1a62-4284-999f-62286278dd53" CreationDate="2016-02-14T00:24:20.953" UserId="10398" Text="How much money should one save up before freelancing full-time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12744" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4213" RevisionGUID="71f08b00-1a62-4284-999f-62286278dd53" CreationDate="2016-02-14T00:24:20.953" UserId="10398" Text="|working-from-home|finance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12745" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4214" RevisionGUID="8e80d6c2-a591-4f7e-ba7e-94e59d56ce89" CreationDate="2016-02-15T05:52:13.683" UserId="10398" Text="If you're starting out, [Bonzai][1] is a helpful tool that instantly generates a simple contract based on the information you've entered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.hellobonsai.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12747" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4215" RevisionGUID="d329481f-bc06-49f0-86d6-3abf35986ab7" CreationDate="2016-02-15T20:06:09.877" UserId="5893" Text="If this is your only source of income, I recommend 6 months worth of living expenses. I came up with this number based on my spouse's home theater installation business (which he had for 15 years). There were slow months and busy months, and a pattern emerged after 2-3 years. Having a 6-month cash reserve gives you enough to handle most emergency expenditures, and not needing to panic the first time you hit a slow period, or if you need to wait 30, 45 or 60 days for a client to pay your invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you've been in business for 2-3 years, you'll know if your niche also has slow months." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12748" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4214" RevisionGUID="a1e90c3b-37a7-4ff8-b62c-7f2fd4b9c4c8" CreationDate="2016-02-15T20:08:29.813" UserId="75" Comment="edited body" Text="If you're starting out, [Bonsai][1] is a helpful tool that instantly generates a simple contract based on the information you've entered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.hellobonsai.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12749" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4216" RevisionGUID="003998df-dbee-4da7-a195-041275cca171" CreationDate="2016-02-16T14:00:02.483" UserId="11472" Text="that is not a bad idea.if u want to hires a freelancer from outsourced , u must be  known freelancer works skill and others important details about him.      " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12753" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="4216" RevisionGUID="6eeca73b-bd04-499e-9259-528c9a206619" CreationDate="2016-02-16T16:53:06.950" UserId="58" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="12754" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4216" RevisionGUID="7b8c8214-12ed-4b58-b177-eab2272a4424" CreationDate="2016-02-16T16:55:19.237" UserId="58" Comment="Editing for grammar + spelling." Text="It's not a bad idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to hire a freelancer from outsourced, should be probably know the freelancer's skills and other important details about them.      " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12755" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="4216" RevisionGUID="4b7a0306-1ad2-4963-b85c-eb024ccf20ae" CreationDate="2016-02-16T16:55:22.490" UserId="58" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="12761" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4219" RevisionGUID="73b07104-7821-4df8-96e4-100919c0dc96" CreationDate="2016-02-17T01:37:36.300" UserId="11479" Text="I want to work as freelancer. In order to do this, IT IS useful to have PROFESSIONAL portfolio.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Here is my situation: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am doing professional programming since 10 years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before this i was programming too.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;THE BIG PROBLEM building portfolio is that i don't have too many evidence of my work. I don't have 99% of my apps/websites. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have fortunately couple of screenshots of some websites/apps. &#xD;&#xA;The problem is that i wasn't doing archives of things. For example, during classes i did puzzle game and music editor. Later i bought new computer or disc broke - there were no backups. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another example - i did research and research work for big corporation. I get grade &quot;passed&quot; about this work - it was half year working. I get note to my index and that's all. With other even more curious projects, that i could show now - i don't have nor source code nor compiled apps. There is one screenshot of headline in newspaper and my picture that i am the author, but that's all... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, it's sad, currently if i realised that a few people will choose me because they actually WANT to see jobs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Later, i was working for around 10 companies in average half year on various terms. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I sent to all companies letter in which i am pleasing to send some confirmation of my works. Only one company sent me this. It seems that i  have bad relations with these companies. I had terms that my work belongs to company. I made an iOS app - i don't know even in which name is published. I made an Android game - the same, don't know name and don't have source code. Even don't have iphone to create a new one app. Company gives hardware, then company takes. It's so sad now, because i did it all and i have experience, but people want to see working software, which belongs to company and they made my long nose. Another project i was working for 9 months as Architect and programmer. Actually boss said that he thanks me ( i was probably too expensive ) and in one day they disconnected me from repository, nor i can't show project to noone, because they sell it somewhere which is top secret. The same with other projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, here is my question. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can i build my portfolio. Do i have to drive personally to each company and beg them to give my example of my work?All i have is couple screenshots, knowledge about project in my mind and for all projects i have papers with deals - terms and agreement. &#xD;&#xA;Can i scan these deals and show on portfolio - it's all evidence i have?&#xD;&#xA;Is scanning deals and publishing to internet legal? I have two shelves of them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12762" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4219" RevisionGUID="73b07104-7821-4df8-96e4-100919c0dc96" CreationDate="2016-02-17T01:37:36.300" UserId="11479" Text="building portfolio having only deals from my works." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12763" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4219" RevisionGUID="73b07104-7821-4df8-96e4-100919c0dc96" CreationDate="2016-02-17T01:37:36.300" UserId="11479" Text="|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12764" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4220" RevisionGUID="4033cafd-5cf1-42e6-ad70-1e51c2aff62e" CreationDate="2016-02-17T08:57:00.330" UserId="517" Text="About building a portfolio, you can see other topics here. Many of us described the way to build a portfolio. Let's not repeat that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And about the lack of the real samples that clients can see: do not be worried about it too much. The most important is how you write a proposal when bidding for some project and if a client can see your expertise in the proposal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do these 2 things with quality of 10-year-programmer guy, then the client will not ask for anything more. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if I were you, I would attach screenshots of the projects I worked on, as many as I have, and put my effort to make quality proposals. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12765" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4221" RevisionGUID="273ca7af-2426-4e5a-bb57-77b947f6b3dd" CreationDate="2016-02-17T09:42:37.427" UserId="7717" Text="Ideally you should start freelancing in your spare time while still maintaining your day job - either after you get home from work, or on the weekend - and not transition into full-time freelancing until your side work is going steadily enough for the transition to be safe. This will help you gain clients, and get an idea of what to expect from freelancing full time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12766" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4222" RevisionGUID="6a4eeae9-9970-4604-8064-36138d975518" CreationDate="2016-02-17T23:38:30.683" UserId="11491" Text="Recently I have created a personal website to help me in my effort to find more clients. The website already appears to attract clients (I have been contacted once through the contact form), but something odd is happening with it on Upwork. Since I started including a link to it in my cover letters, I'm getting fewer responses. That's not subjective - after about two weeks I have checked my stats on Upwork, and the stats for being viewed and interviewed have dropped severely. I don't think I have changed anything in my approach except the addition of an online resume, so I think it may be the cause. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's a typical cover letter:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hello,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I can help you with your app. I have over 4 years of programming&#xD;&#xA;&gt; experience. Most of it is web development experience, with PHP, MySQL&#xD;&#xA;&gt; and JavaScript.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; In my work, I always put the business interests at heart. The work I&#xD;&#xA;&gt; produce is of high quality, I take special care to minimize the number&#xD;&#xA;&gt; of bugs and polish the product to perfection. And I'm always trying to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; be responsive and cooperative and to write code that the others will&#xD;&#xA;&gt; find easy to maintain.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; You can find my expanded resume at http://igor-novikov.me&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you are interested, let's have an interview, e.g. on Skype. I'd be&#xD;&#xA;&gt; happy to work with you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only thing that is different from my usual cover letters is the addition of a line with the link. So, could it be that the link to an online resume discourages the client? Why could it be so?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Judging by [an answer in the Upwork community](https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Personal-Website/m-p/113339/highlight/true#M57725), including a link in such a way is permitted.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12767" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4222" RevisionGUID="6a4eeae9-9970-4604-8064-36138d975518" CreationDate="2016-02-17T23:38:30.683" UserId="11491" Text="Upwork - including a link to online resume in the cover letter" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12768" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4222" RevisionGUID="6a4eeae9-9970-4604-8064-36138d975518" CreationDate="2016-02-17T23:38:30.683" UserId="11491" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|resume|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12769" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4222" RevisionGUID="a601c77f-547d-40ad-a71c-a823543588b1" CreationDate="2016-02-18T00:15:33.257" UserId="11491" Comment="Redacted the link" Text="Recently I have created a personal website to help me in my effort to find more clients. The website already appears to attract clients (I have been contacted once through the contact form), but something odd is happening with it on Upwork. Since I started including a link to it in my cover letters, I'm getting fewer responses. That's not subjective - after about two weeks I have checked my stats on Upwork, and the stats for being viewed and interviewed have dropped severely. I don't think I have changed anything in my approach except the addition of an online resume, so I think it may be the cause. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's a typical cover letter:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hello,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I can help you with your app. I have over 4 years of programming&#xD;&#xA;&gt; experience. Most of it is web development experience, with PHP, MySQL&#xD;&#xA;&gt; and JavaScript.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; In my work, I always put the business interests at heart. The work I&#xD;&#xA;&gt; produce is of high quality, I take special care to minimize the number&#xD;&#xA;&gt; of bugs and polish the product to perfection. And I'm always trying to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; be responsive and cooperative and to write code that the others will&#xD;&#xA;&gt; find easy to maintain.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; You can find my expanded resume at (link redacted)&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you are interested, let's have an interview, e.g. on Skype. I'd be&#xD;&#xA;&gt; happy to work with you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only thing that is different from my usual cover letters is the addition of a line with the link. So, could it be that the link to an online resume discourages the client? Why could it be so?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Judging by [an answer in the Upwork community](https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Personal-Website/m-p/113339/highlight/true#M57725), including a link in such a way is permitted.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12770" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4223" RevisionGUID="b7b8d8a8-c7c7-4d04-87d5-94b7acc15f0e" CreationDate="2016-02-18T02:00:15.967" UserId="7717" Text="You aren't allowed to include links to external sites that include a way to contact you in your profile; Elance also wouldn't let you include such links in your cover letter/proposal, but I can't find a clear answer on whether Upwork allows them. Thoughts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You may be scaring off clients who think you are violating the rules by including contact information or a link to your external portfolio&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. It may be that your portfolio is not very strong and is scaring clients away&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. The sample cover letter you have included in your question is sort of bland; if that's what you're sending potential clients, you might be losing them before they look at your profile or portfolio. Try to come up with a more *compelling* intro for yourself, and of course tailor it to the job posting whenever possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After looking at my stats, my profile views have dropped dramatically in the last few weeks, so it may also be a market trend (perhaps a flood of freelancers displaced from Elance has saturated the market) and nothing to do with you specifically." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12774" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4224" RevisionGUID="6261ad4a-9eba-4536-83c8-0e9942ce02d9" CreationDate="2016-02-18T04:43:30.807" UserId="10398" Text="As other's have mentioned, batching helps immensely. And since my field of work (UI Design and front-end development) hardly requires immediate responses, I'll set aside a time each day for every client (e.g. every day from 1:30-2pm is dedicated to client B) and charge them for that time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I charge per project 99% of the time and only time-track for internal reasons. This forces me to stick to a workflow where I have scheduled calls/Google Hangouts w/ my clients and have them updated via Basecamp/Trello. This really cuts down on a lot of the back-and-forth that email communication can cause. Another plus side is that clients don't get irritated that I charged them X hours this week just for reading their emails.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I like to think about it long-term. Without the client having the though that they're being charged per hour in the back of their head while they're emailing me about a project, they can really focus on their needs and what they're trying to achieve. As a result, I can deliver a much better project and have a much happier client. This also comes back 10-fold in terms of referrals and a much better portfolio." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12775" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4225" RevisionGUID="ce17d996-67e7-4b24-b3ea-25d83dabe240" CreationDate="2016-02-18T06:55:41.183" UserId="10398" Text="The main reason why anyone should be asking this question is if it might affect his/er ability to get hired. While I personally haven't had a big enough project where it might affect the livelihood of my loved ones should I get hit by a bus, it definitely did cause some early clients to pass on to other agencies to give their projects to. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You see, design/development/illustration/etc. is an investment to your clients, and investments have risks as well as rewards. It's in your clients' best interest to mitigate their risk as much as possible. When they're looking for someone to help redesign their website for $15k (or what it is that you offer your clients), they want to make sure the project will be completed as promised.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With $15k on the plate, a sole freelancer who works form home looks a lot more risky than a 5-person agency that has a track record of completing projects just like this one and has even received an award for one of those sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, what you can do to blow away their objections is address their concerns in your marketing:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Show your workflow on your site. This shows that you're more than just a great designer. Your'e a great project manager who can take care of their project. Make sure your workflow includes small deliverables throughout the scope of the project instead of just one huge deliverable at the end, if possible.&#xD;&#xA;- Show past projects complete with testimonials form clients that state how much they felt they were taken care of, how professional you were, and how you delivered serious results (make sure this is a REAL testimonial).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12779" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="1159" RevisionGUID="2cb38a02-9e79-4271-9d6c-4f05705996f6" CreationDate="2016-02-18T23:21:56.163" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="12780" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4227" RevisionGUID="02c80b48-4caf-4797-b6b1-c92afe76a0ba" CreationDate="2016-02-19T03:30:44.523" UserId="8795" Text="As others have said .. all answers are opinions to some degree. For myself, I have dipped in and out of contract/freelance work over a 40 year career. I've built up about 15 years of freelancing in that time, so I can add practical experience to my opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My rule of thumb is 1 year's net income kept in cash as an emergency fund. That sounds a lot, but it has served me well. I had the good fortune to adopt this policy at a point when I was working in a country with much lower salaries (in terms of number) so it was a smaller target to aim for. But, as I've moved around, and as my full-time salary has vastly increased, I've maintained this cushion - regardless of whether or not I'm in full time or contract mode.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does it work? I've weathered at least 4 major recessions this way. The most recent was the 2008 meltdown which saw me laid off and out of permanent work for nearly 3 years. Many of the householders around us in our estate lost their homes to repossession. Our cushion gave me time to start picking up direct contract work which - while nowhere near my normal income level - combine with our savings to let me retrain, keep paying the mortgage, keep the children enrolled in private schools, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But it takes discipline. When I finally landed a permanent job again we piled every spare penny into rebuilding the savings - no vacations, no unnecessary expenses (stick with that 20 year old car) and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Oh, and live on a cash-only economy. If you don't have the cash to buy a new car outright, look for a used car you can afford. If you can't find one .. you can't afford to own one (insurance, maintenance, fuel, etc) so take the bus. The *only* loan we've ever taken was our mortgage - and we make that our number one priority when there's no money coming in." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12781" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4228" RevisionGUID="3e68aec4-83c9-40bd-ba25-74751f34e58c" CreationDate="2016-02-19T05:49:37.540" UserId="9835" Text="I'm a USA business owner. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to hire a freelancer that I know from Malaysia and have the contract through Upwork as it makes payments easier on my end. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that Upwork requires the freelancers that are non-USA to fill out a W8 but do I need that W8 for tax purposes and do I need to send the international freelancer a form such as a 1099? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12782" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4228" RevisionGUID="3e68aec4-83c9-40bd-ba25-74751f34e58c" CreationDate="2016-02-19T05:49:37.540" UserId="9835" Text="Hiring a non-USA freelancer through Upwork" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12783" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4228" RevisionGUID="3e68aec4-83c9-40bd-ba25-74751f34e58c" CreationDate="2016-02-19T05:49:37.540" UserId="9835" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12784" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4229" RevisionGUID="f07b4947-de52-4511-b8a0-6b5322b46029" CreationDate="2016-02-20T04:58:23.710" UserId="156" Text="As part of a signup as an advisor, Guidepoint Global asks for the hourly rate (`Consulting Rate (per hour)`), but nowhere is it specified what the minimum billing period is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Google reveals that most of these interviews last for 30 minutes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be the appropriate way to set a good rate with them?  Do they round it up to an hour?  In other words, should one 4x or 8x the normal rate to achieve the standard 4-hour minimum, or is there an altogether different approach that should be employed at setting up the rate with this firm?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12785" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4229" RevisionGUID="f07b4947-de52-4511-b8a0-6b5322b46029" CreationDate="2016-02-20T04:58:23.710" UserId="156" Text="What's the minimum billing period for Guidepoint Global?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12786" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4229" RevisionGUID="f07b4947-de52-4511-b8a0-6b5322b46029" CreationDate="2016-02-20T04:58:23.710" UserId="156" Text="|consulting|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12787" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4230" RevisionGUID="bdc4c3de-2370-48bc-b88f-467849239616" CreationDate="2016-02-20T11:28:34.620" UserId="11513" Text="I'm setting up my freelancing business and need a way to store my client data securily which includes:&#xD;&#xA;Password&#xD;&#xA;Notes&#xD;&#xA;Invoices&#xD;&#xA;Projects &#xD;&#xA;Etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the Best Way to Do that?&#xD;&#xA;Access Database or any web based app?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12788" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4230" RevisionGUID="bdc4c3de-2370-48bc-b88f-467849239616" CreationDate="2016-02-20T11:28:34.620" UserId="11513" Text="How to store Client Information?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12789" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4230" RevisionGUID="bdc4c3de-2370-48bc-b88f-467849239616" CreationDate="2016-02-20T11:28:34.620" UserId="11513" Text="|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12790" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4231" RevisionGUID="87092244-388f-4cfa-8864-030536e05a00" CreationDate="2016-02-20T15:00:55.070" UserId="11512" Text="As a freelancer, do you have to learn multiple frameworks, programming techniques and other skills?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although, I think this seems to add more distraction and decreases efficiency. However, when I started to working on some freelancing websites like [Freelancer.com][1], I found that it was very difficult to find projects to work on when only focusing to work on one framework (in my case `Yii 2`).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Despite earning money, I really love programming. I don't know how this may seem&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancer.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12791" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4231" RevisionGUID="87092244-388f-4cfa-8864-030536e05a00" CreationDate="2016-02-20T15:00:55.070" UserId="11512" Text="Learn multiple frameworks to work as a Web Developer, Freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12792" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4231" RevisionGUID="87092244-388f-4cfa-8864-030536e05a00" CreationDate="2016-02-20T15:00:55.070" UserId="11512" Text="|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12793" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4232" RevisionGUID="7f93be2b-7bbb-4b57-9b3f-b773f1d8b93e" CreationDate="2016-02-21T04:38:36.530" UserId="11518" Text="To be honest alot of freelancer.com projects are based off of html. Go to freelancer and look at the categorys that they have. It will tell you the amount of jobs available for each subject and you can make your decision based of that. Obviously you would want to learn about the subjects that are in demand. Go take a look. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12794" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4233" RevisionGUID="46ef7190-e112-4af3-bdef-0025cdd08ba9" CreationDate="2016-02-21T05:23:38.280" UserId="10398" Text="Take a look at the needs of your clients. Are they small mom-and-pop shop owners who need a brochure site? A simple php site will do.&#xD;&#xA;Are they agencies who need a developer with a specific skill-set to augment their in-house team? Then learn that skill. It really is one of those &quot;it depends&quot; scenarios." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12795" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4234" RevisionGUID="20578f44-9d11-405f-84f8-320e80887e92" CreationDate="2016-02-21T09:54:31.053" UserId="11520" Text="If you are planning to open a new business, then never forget to use any CRM + Accounting software that would help you in the longer run. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12796" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4235" RevisionGUID="cf7b5571-09b3-47f8-912e-9c737d71ad38" CreationDate="2016-02-21T11:50:26.667" UserId="11521" Text="I use Zoho Invoice platform for creating/storing/sending invoices/proposals, tracking expenses, getting statistics and managing all my clients business information as well keeping private notes for them. It is offered for free with limitations on the number of records which is good since you can try before you buy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It can be also bridged with more platforms from Zoho like CRM, Projects Management, Campaigns Managements and many other features including API, all or individually for a very low price per month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is very easy to manage it even if you are new to all these and it is pretty comfortable since you do not have to install anything to your computer as it runs online (SaaS)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12797" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4236" RevisionGUID="d06b645f-31ed-4526-93ff-410859bd04d4" CreationDate="2016-02-21T15:59:57.743" UserId="11522" Text="No - You do not need to fill W8 because its for freelancer who will be getting payment(directly in her account) via Upwork. Because She will be earning here Its her source of Income not yours." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12803" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4240" RevisionGUID="834bfc69-a22c-4f4a-a4f8-b7e73a159faa" CreationDate="2016-02-21T22:35:13.653" UserId="10398" Text="While you are starting out and have less than 5 clients under your belt, I recommend using Google Drive or DropBox as make-shift CRM by having a folder for every client and having an excel file with their client info in it. Make sure to keep is uniformly formatted so its easy to jump between different clients and not get lost. This also makes it easy to upgrade your CRM in the future to something like ZOHO or BaseCamp (my favorite).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, you can either keep all your related documents in the clients folder, or in separate folders for every project you do. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, my folder structure is something like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Web-Design-Projects &gt; 20160226-Starbucks-Menu-Design&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12805" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4241" RevisionGUID="57c20679-b6f3-4cc5-8992-c554d4feb13c" CreationDate="2016-02-22T18:57:20.733" UserId="75" Text="Wow, I cannot say NO enough to some of the answers here!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need a password manager for your passwords! KeePass is a good free one, as is LastPass. Check out their websites for a comparison between them. Do NOT store customer passwords in plain text, as it opens you up to a liability claim if the client discovers it! **DO NOT USE PLAIN TEXT!!!**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additional benefits of a dedicated password manager? You don't suffer from having to remember them all, and you don't have the horrible security issue of using the same password everywhere! Plus, they allow you to store your SSH keys, if you need to SSH into a Linux/Mac server. Keep your master password safe!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for other customer information, you need to find a system that works for you. I created an Access database many years ago that would let me invoice the customer, create the work orders, and fill them in while on site (I used to have a Windows server I could Remote Desktop to with my phone). Times have passed, and I've moved on to Linux. I really liked SugarCRM (free, or paid version), as it allowed workflows to be made on the projects, and integrated well with Microsoft Office (assuming you're using that).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;SugarCRM runs on Apache with MySQL for the backend, and I can access it anywhere, even on my phone. Highly recommended, even if it's just the free version.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Last note, just to be clear...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**DO NOT STORE PASSWORDS IN PLAIN TEXT EVER!!!!**&#xD;&#xA;========" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12807" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4234" RevisionGUID="ad416001-c931-49a2-a077-f5538e7cb2a8" CreationDate="2016-02-23T06:10:40.293" UserId="11520" Comment="added 399 characters in body" Text="There are many CRM + accounting software that will help you store the entire business chain suchlike:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Microsoft Small Business suite - Dynamics&#xD;&#xA;2. Intuit Small Business Products (includes Quickbooks)&#xD;&#xA;3. Zoho &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, Microsoft Small business application suite - Microsoft Dynamics. This includes CRM to handle customer relationship, ERP to track from the purchase order to delivery and can handle multiple currencies, and could collaborate with various other Microsoft Office (MS Word, MS Excel, etc) suite of application. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12809" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4242" RevisionGUID="9f204468-948f-41be-844b-4b8f13bea08c" CreationDate="2016-02-25T11:23:11.607" UserId="11553" Text="I work on a project for a client . the project supposed to be delivered in 3 months for a fixed price . It's  a year since we have started the project and it is not finished yet . the responsibility  for this delay is on both of us , They were asking for a lot of changes and i sometimes was delaying delivering some work . &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;but i am sick of this project and it grows with time and i don't really want to work on it anymore even if they doubled the price we are agreed on .&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to fire the client in this situation ? since i have a part of responsibility in delaying some aspects of the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;note : i don't have a contract.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12810" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4242" RevisionGUID="9f204468-948f-41be-844b-4b8f13bea08c" CreationDate="2016-02-25T11:23:11.607" UserId="11553" Text="Fire a client when you have a part of responsibility for delaying project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12811" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4242" RevisionGUID="9f204468-948f-41be-844b-4b8f13bea08c" CreationDate="2016-02-25T11:23:11.607" UserId="11553" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12812" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4236" RevisionGUID="52de924c-9b0a-4e00-8fb4-fa9d30fc9004" CreationDate="2016-02-25T12:15:00.507" UserId="11554" Comment="updated sentence" Text="No - You do not need to fill W8 because its for freelancer who will be getting payment(directly in her account) via Upwork. Because He/She will be earning here Its his/her source of Income not yours." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12813" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4236" RevisionGUID="52de924c-9b0a-4e00-8fb4-fa9d30fc9004" CreationDate="2016-02-25T12:15:00.507" Comment="Proposed by 11554 approved by 11522 edit id of 452" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12814" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4236" RevisionGUID="09939c13-a0dd-401b-9504-7b9566064194" CreationDate="2016-02-25T21:55:33.533" UserId="75" Comment="added 21 characters in body" Text="No - You do not need to fill out a W8 because it is for the Freelancer who will be getting payment (directly in his/her account) via Upwork. Because he/she will be earning there, it's his/her source of income, not yours." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12817" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4243" RevisionGUID="de35b3b8-0ff5-4c13-9516-cc2a274841d0" CreationDate="2016-02-26T03:23:21.173" UserId="11565" Text="I'll add an Australian point of view to this as a company is not the be all and end all.&#xA;&#xA;There's a number of ways you could go about it. Firstly as already suggested, one member of the collective could hold the business name and the other(s) could contract through the by issuing an invoice for the work performed or the agreed value of the work.&#xA;&#xA;Secondly both or all members of the collective could register a partnership and would have a predetermined distribution of funds and equity in the business.&#xA;&#xA;Finally you could go down the company route however it costs a bit more than the other methods and theres a fair bit more mucking around to do. Then members would take a wage or salary for the work performed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12818" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4244" RevisionGUID="9293a12e-0b5b-4e1f-934f-0876335aa244" CreationDate="2016-02-26T15:24:53.817" UserId="11573" Text="A client recently cancelled a web development job I was completing for them. Upon beginning the work, I was paid a deposit of approximately 40% of the total cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is, am I now obliged to hand over the project in its current, incomplete state? (around 70% complete). My preference of course would be not to hand over any work as I have effectively wasted time on (around 30% of) this job for no pay, but would this leave me in the wrong?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12819" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4244" RevisionGUID="9293a12e-0b5b-4e1f-934f-0876335aa244" CreationDate="2016-02-26T15:24:53.817" UserId="11573" Text="Client cancelled a job after paying me a deposit. Do I have to hand over the incomplete work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12820" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4244" RevisionGUID="9293a12e-0b5b-4e1f-934f-0876335aa244" CreationDate="2016-02-26T15:24:53.817" UserId="11573" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12821" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4245" RevisionGUID="39abdec1-9c22-4c8b-8d97-62d8a2b2d3cd" CreationDate="2016-02-26T19:38:25.713" UserId="11579" Text="I agree with @SOIA (conditions should be per contract, verbal agreements are difficult and expensive to enforce so they are not likely to chase). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been freelancing since 1994 and only once did I turn up on site without a contract. I got paid, but I learned an important lesson never to do something like that again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Never start a contract without something in writing. It covers you, and them in terms of expectations and liability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client has asked for a refund, talk with them - Why did the project get cancelled? Anything to do with you, or was it an issue internally to them.  If you had no influence on the project cancellation, avoid rocking the boat and future relationship/work with them, explain to them that you have had costs that you cannot write off so easily. Find a middle ground." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12822" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4246" RevisionGUID="54b148ba-5bbe-46e9-aae5-08bffe1eda2f" CreationDate="2016-02-26T19:47:39.970" UserId="11579" Text="You fire an employee, you cancel/terminate/close a contract (verbal or written).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Avoid rocking the boat with the client - talk it thru with them, plan your exit strategy - they might well accept/understand and you never know, they too might be thinking fresh eyes might be the best way forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What country? I ask only because I am surprised that you could start a project without a contract - technically, you could walk away from it, your work could negatively impact their business, and they would have a tough fight to sue you for negligence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12823" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4247" RevisionGUID="cb71d51a-5fc5-4633-a251-3a04bece8859" CreationDate="2016-02-26T19:55:40.100" UserId="11579" Text="If the templates were acquired legally, and if you are permitted to sell them on as part of a service, then ethics has nothing to do with it. You are providing your client with a cost effective solution.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A client wants someone to be responsible for implementing a solution &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They have a choice&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Pay you to re-invent the wheel.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Pay you to get a ready made wheel.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So long as you don't steal or use someone else's work without their permission, you have not broken any ethics.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think if your customer needed a database - would you ask the same question? Would you be asking if you should develop a new database from scratch, or use MySQL or something similar?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12824" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4248" RevisionGUID="025f9117-a142-42cb-b15e-3fbbcbd4ec80" CreationDate="2016-02-26T20:01:24.363" UserId="11579" Text="I have been freelancing since 1994 across Europe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much money to start? How long is a piece of string.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Will your client pay you within 30days? 60days? Don't assume big rich clients will pay soon - it does not always work out that way. I had one client who took seven months to pay 10 weeks worth of invoices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Figure out your expenses - will you work locally or have to travel long distance? Will you need hotel, train/plane expenses? Will you eat out alot? Gas money?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have had contracts 30minutes from home, and in another country - The one nearest obviously cost me less (I walked to work), whereas the others abroad cost me a couple of grand a month minimum.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I strongly suggest you get liability insurance - In all my contracts it demands I have it though nobody has requested to see it - its not expensive, but without it, if your service negatively impacts your clients business, they'll knock on your door and your credit rating!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12830" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4251" RevisionGUID="9293091b-4c8c-4ffb-8a65-3ff9f53d5c97" CreationDate="2016-02-29T12:59:57.030" UserId="7696" Text="Looking at your worklfow, I think a time tracking app like [Time Doctor][1] would work well for you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand why people would say you need to focus on one task/project at a time for maximum productivity. But, for freelancers who take projects left and right bouncing on different tasks for different clients is a common issue. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I use Time Doctor to monitor my work done for different tasks per project. So, even if that is just a 5 minute email response it is accurately recorded and added to the total time spent per client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.timedoctor.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12831" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4252" RevisionGUID="8acacbfe-38b3-469e-800e-a30bb7e2da84" CreationDate="2016-02-29T13:08:07.577" UserId="7696" Text="&gt; I am really keen at learning the new technologies hitting the market&#xD;&#xA;&gt; and there is passion here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think this is the most essential quality you have right now. Everyone started small. But, if you never stop learning you will go far. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't be discouraged. Success comes from hard work after all. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12835" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4253" RevisionGUID="47bfd5d7-7977-4970-abcd-c8c38421480e" CreationDate="2016-03-01T07:49:32.567" UserId="11617" Text="I used to have a client who pays me $3000 every year to maintain her small office's computer, network, email and static website. There was no written agreement for this since she was recommended to me by a mutual friend. The payment was usually credited to my account towards end of the year or first week of the year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;About a year ago, I tried calling her to remind her of the pending payment. She ignored my call, email and Whatsapp message. There was no formal written or verbal from her stating that she no longer require any of my service. I stopped contacting her since and neither did I render any service. She of course, did not contact me as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Today she texted me via mobile asking for password to a certain application. How do I remind her outstanding payment that was due a year ago without sounding like I am extorting her for it. I still have in possession, passwords, media and documentation which I intend to handover to her once she release the outstanding payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12836" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4253" RevisionGUID="47bfd5d7-7977-4970-abcd-c8c38421480e" CreationDate="2016-03-01T07:49:32.567" UserId="11617" Text="A client who ignored me for a year decided to contact me again. How do I ask for outstanding payment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12837" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4253" RevisionGUID="47bfd5d7-7977-4970-abcd-c8c38421480e" CreationDate="2016-03-01T07:49:32.567" UserId="11617" Text="|payments|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12838" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4254" RevisionGUID="640c2e76-f146-4c17-8ed1-e295df548fd9" CreationDate="2016-03-01T08:46:48.340" UserId="7858" Text="You are being too nice. Being payed what is owed is never extorting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I had similar problems, the only solution was to demand full payment before proceeding, as it is the only means of pressure you have. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there - after payment - still is some trust left, I would formalize the relationship with at least a small one-page agreement, as I have never had problems with clients who have signed a piece of paper.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there really is no trust left, I would demand payment in advance for what essentially will be your final work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You were probably looking for a 'nicer' way forward, but it is difficult to see what that could be without you screwing yourself. You have a better hand than the client; I suggest you play it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12839" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4255" RevisionGUID="c44f854e-fce4-4199-95a1-841e66f9fb1a" CreationDate="2016-03-01T09:22:55.183" UserId="7858" Text="Why not tell the client as it is?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That you are seeking full-time contracts and therefore can only accept the contract if you are allowed to leave with a week's notice or finish it evenings/weekends? Depending on the work, that may or may not be possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they ask you directly whether anything is in the pipeline or you have been at any interviews, you should answer truthfully. It will probably make a huge difference to the client whether you are waiting for a response to an interview or are still awaiting first contact." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12840" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4256" RevisionGUID="bde6586f-7ac6-429e-abdf-67309ce56237" CreationDate="2016-03-01T09:58:03.437" UserId="11618" Text="The best way to handle this situation is to go into an hourly contract. Then you can anytime provide them any extra support them the hours you spend extra." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12841" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4257" RevisionGUID="134023fd-bb6b-4e04-901e-a01b9d4fbf58" CreationDate="2016-03-01T12:42:54.500" UserId="11579" Text="Their time is valuable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So is yours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am also assuming they are not a charity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Get a purchase order that makes clear that they will pay you within 30 days (or whatever) and ensure the PO has a work schedule on the agreed work. Over estimate the time required by about 40%. Offer a 20% discount if they pay in full within 60days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work on the principle that if working with someone brings added value (fun team, or possibility to pick up new skills) I get cheaper. If someone is going to be a pain in the ass, they'll pay for my discomfort. I very rarely turn down work unless there is risk to my person, or if I get two contracts that run in parallel and can only serve one. But don't be shy in charging them for their co-operation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Capitalism rules when you are a contractor - Money talks - there is nothing bad about it. The client can always go elsewhere.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just try meet in the middle - Whatever uncomfortable past you two have had obviously has not put them off reaching out to you again. It's either that or nobody else will put up with them, which can work to your advantage if you want the money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12842" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4258" RevisionGUID="24a9de3e-1978-4447-8c73-63438d6e55fb" CreationDate="2016-03-01T17:55:25.887" UserId="663" Text="Here's the thing: a client doesn't really know (or care) whether you're slow or not compared to other developers. All they really care about is whether you're delivering the positive benefits they hoped you would achieve when they hired you, for a price that justifies their investment, in the time frame they expected.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While you will get faster in time, here's what you should focus on if you want to succeed (*hint: it has nothing to do with your speed*):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Set the client's expectations appropriately**: If you have a project to work on, don't just say &quot;great, I'll start ASAP and let you know when I'm done.&quot; If you think it will take about 2 weeks, pad that number a bit and tell them &quot;great, I'll start ASAP - it should be done in about 3 weeks.&quot; Then when you finish in 2 weeks, you look really fast. And if it takes longer than expected, you still deliver on time.&#xD;&#xA; - **Send consistent updates**: Give your client regular, **unsolicited** updates on their project. For example, send them a quick status report every Friday with what you accomplished and how it ties in to their business goals. If you hit a roadblock, let them know early that their project will be delayed. It's much better to tell the client about delays early in the project than tell yourself &quot;maybe I can make up the lost time later in the project.&quot; It rarely happens (trust me) and then you break the client's trust when you miss your deadline. If you proactively communicate timeline changes, you actually build your client's trust, which seems counter-intuitive. But speaking from experience, this is the way to go.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you focus on providing the client great service and keeping your promises to them, it doesn't matter whether you're 500% slower than everyone else. The client most likely won't know the difference, and even if they do, they may just assume you're juggling a lot of other projects. And if the project delivers the positive benefits they were hoping for, you will probably get recommended over many other &quot;faster&quot; developers. In the end, clients don't hire you to write code fast, they hire you to solve problems for them and deliver those results in a professional way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12843" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4259" RevisionGUID="c215d217-493a-400e-b19a-372331a03291" CreationDate="2016-03-01T17:58:41.247" UserId="5172" Text="Biggest problem is the cash flow of payments into your account as noted above 30 days/ 60 days /90 days plus, you have to be able to keep going while at least waiting for first invoices to be paid.&#xD;&#xA;I used a 3 month amount, but found that to little, now I keep 6 months cash in 'float' but that is after 10 years of freelancing and knowing which customers pay on time and which do not." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12844" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4260" RevisionGUID="cdefc28d-a6a8-487f-948e-6b7b9613073a" CreationDate="2016-03-01T18:02:31.357" UserId="5172" Text="Absence of a 'written contract' is NOT absence of a contract. Verbal contracts and 'custom of use' between parties establishes a contract, just more difficult to prove. You should send a reminder invoice (detailing period for whichitwas due) and remind her work can only be completed after payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12845" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4261" RevisionGUID="e3de0c41-bd30-411f-9b49-1bfafae0516f" CreationDate="2016-03-01T18:07:01.177" UserId="5172" Text="Always in a contract draft a termination clause or cost due % of  final cost if terminated after xx weeks , (it can be a table of xxs at weeks yy) as that at least gives you a base figure, and note that initial payment is non refundable if contract terminaned after zz weeks. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12846" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4262" RevisionGUID="74762060-cb74-4f70-a802-17fcbb4c987d" CreationDate="2016-03-02T07:54:22.603" UserId="11627" Text="I'm a student i love coding as a hobby and am confident in python and some of its common ad dons, i have also learnt and can program some C++ and have begun learning basic i am familiar with using both IDE's and full blown engines. I can use unity do a degree and although its probably not very relevant to freelancing can build, upgrade, diagnose hardware.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am only 15 am studying in grade 11 in Australia. Money is not a worry it's a hobby so its mostly for the love! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Can i become a freelancer (Doing very simple low pay work)?&#xD;&#xA;2. Will it be realistic and manageable?&#xD;&#xA;3. Do I need to learn much more and if so what is it?&#xD;&#xA;4. Where to start?&#xD;&#xA;5. Am i in over my head (I probably am :( )?&#xD;&#xA;6. If i cant be a real freelancer is there anywhere i could offer my help for free?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you for your help&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12847" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4262" RevisionGUID="74762060-cb74-4f70-a802-17fcbb4c987d" CreationDate="2016-03-02T07:54:22.603" UserId="11627" Text="Can I Become A Freelancer And What I Need Too Know" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12848" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4262" RevisionGUID="74762060-cb74-4f70-a802-17fcbb4c987d" CreationDate="2016-03-02T07:54:22.603" UserId="11627" Text="|freelance-websites|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12849" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4263" RevisionGUID="9bc42040-b29b-4f26-8d31-71a57297fdea" CreationDate="2016-03-02T08:04:20.067" UserId="11627" Text="Be Formal, Upfront and direct. Use official term, no abbreviations or slang.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is a great website explaining how and when to send payment requests for overdue accounts and outstanding payments:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://scoreoc.org/2015/07/08/5-email-scripts-to-properly-ask-for-late-invoice-payments/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are some great templates for collecting money:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.ezypay.com/cash-flow-2/collecting-outstanding-customer-payments/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And the people you are dealing with are clients don't treat them as friends or you will complicate things, be firm but not threatening." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12850" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4264" RevisionGUID="d78d785f-bdb9-487f-ab41-1e65567d7096" CreationDate="2016-03-02T18:01:38.193" UserId="5248" Text="I'm from the US, so I'm not sure how the Australian laws work (as far as a minor working goes), but I'll try my best in answering this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. This depends on the laws based on the client and your country, especially since you're considered a minor. I won't say no, but I also can't say yes either. Reason being, is that most places would need a bank account and if you make up to a certain amount (like it is here in the US), you have to report it on your taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. There are people that make a full-time living with freelancing. Just know that you have to keep yourself disciplined to accomplish that. Also, keeping up with your pay is another thing. Some clients aren't as trustworthy (sadly), and it's always great to establish pay terms before even starting on the assignment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Do I need to learn much more and if so what is it? When it comes to programming, you'll always be learning. There are so many languages out there, just find one that you like, learn it, and dabble with it. Ruby and Python are two that are trending right now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Where to start? Establish at profile at Github.com to place your projects there. You can also look at http://www.upwork.com.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. You're not. It's actually great that you know what you like doing early on. I was 13 when I knew the path I wanted to take.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Check out this site: http://www.freecodecamp.com (they even have a GitHub section incase you're confused on it). If you're well-versed in the topics displayed within that site, then just create a profile on Github and get started." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12851" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4265" RevisionGUID="07884593-d687-43b1-a796-6464a5a8fe04" CreationDate="2016-03-02T22:14:15.030" UserId="11635" Text="1. Yes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Um, yes? If freelancing weren't manageable, I guess people wouldn't be doing it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. I think what you need to learn is how to find clients, and then learn what those clients want. For better or worse, I think web development is probably more in-demand than those other things you listed. If you want to be a successful freelancer, I would ask &quot;What work do people want done, and how can I learn to deliver that work?&quot; rather than &quot;I can do programming in X. Do people want that?&quot; Oh, and do you need to &quot;learn much more&quot;? Yes, there's more to learn about business (freelancing = business) than you could learn in your whole life. You need to start learning as fast as you can and never stop.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. I'd say start by finding your first client. Read the books Get Clients Now! by C.J. Hayden and Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port. I'd also highly recommend Double Your Freelancing Rate by Brennan Dunn. You can also check out my site, businessnetworkingforfreelanceprogrammers.com, although there's not much there yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. Maybe yes, maybe no, but who cares? Just fake it til you make it. You're in a GREAT position in that you don't *need* the money. When I started freelancing I had a wife and six-month-old baby to support. I had to do some things out of desperation that were not only unpleasant to do but also slowed my growth as a freelancer. If you don't need the money, you can say F you to bad clients, which is a wonderful thing to be able to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Alan Weiss says you should only ever do free work for non-profits. I think that's probably good advice. I would also add that you can work on your own projects for fun for free, and that can help. This post might be relevant: [http://www.jasonswett.net/how-to-get-a-job-using-a-technology-you-dont-know/](http://www.jasonswett.net/how-to-get-a-job-using-a-technology-you-dont-know/)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice in a few bullet points:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Realize that freelancing is a **business**&#xD;&#xA;- Put equal focus on *sales* and *delivery* (i.e. programming). Don't focus too much on the code. You need clients in order to be able to get to be a coder.&#xD;&#xA;- Once you get a &quot;real job&quot;, it's easy to get stuck there forever and have a mediocre life. I would give almost anything to be in your shoes. Be very wary of getting yourself stuck in a real job.&#xD;&#xA;- I wouldn't advise going to college for the degree. I would only do it for the social experiences.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want any more help/advice, feel free to email me at jason@benfranklinlabs.com." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12852" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4266" RevisionGUID="fee7a7e3-b350-4b21-9af2-963e7072cb30" CreationDate="2016-03-02T23:46:30.137" UserId="11640" Text="I have a client who is constantly threatening legal action against me even though I don't think I have done much wrong and have done EVERYTHING I possibly can to keep the client happy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, we started the project nearly 2 years ago and had a contract drew up which had a stope of work. The key point here is that at this point the app was very simple. The contract stated that we ESTIMATED the project to take 6-8 months. It also stated that all timeframes are estimates and timing is not of the essence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since then the scope has changed DRAMATICALLY. I mean it is pretty much a different animal now. For some part I have charged for these changes but I must have done 100+ hours in free work just changing things to avoid confrontation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The changes that have been made and because they were made half way through a project have meant the whole process is backwards. Its a complicated project now and without being able to properly plan it has caused logic issues that have appeared. There are things neither me nor the client had thought about that have come up, yet we fix anyways.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have said a few times that we expect to have a deliverable on a certain date, and have missed this a few times by a few days or so. This has been because one of these unforeseen issues. I still persist and get it fixed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There have been times when the client went completely missing. 1 was 2 months and certain other times in 1 or 2 week blocks. During which times I have had no choice but to move on to other work as he is not there to answer important questions allowing me to continue development. I have to feed my family after all and can't do that waiting for him to come back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He constantly asks for changes on the application and when I say no he will argue and argue and argue until eventually I normally just give in and do it to keep things calm. Before so he will constantly threaten legal action though, saying if we are still in dispute he will get a solicitor. I don't think  he has any grounds in my head but it is never nice to be in that conversation with a client. Sometimes tempers flare and I suggest he just go ahead and do it. He never does. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I send builds of the application, he sends a feedbag document. When I finish on fixing any items he comes back with a completely new document with completely new items (a lot of the time further changes) and then later blames me for late delivery. I don't understand it. In my head I am thinking why don't you first check against the list I just said was fixed. If another bug has appeared I will fix it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The threats are coming thick and fast, and almost every week. He is still to this day trying to get us to change things and sending items that we 'apparently' agreed months and months ago on the phone. I don't recall ever agreeing to this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In recent months I have told him everything has to be in writing, as I was not being accused of lying after every phone call. It is the only way I can guarantee that can't happen.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do people think I should do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advise would be greatly appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12853" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4266" RevisionGUID="fee7a7e3-b350-4b21-9af2-963e7072cb30" CreationDate="2016-03-02T23:46:30.137" UserId="11640" Text="Client threatening legal action constantly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12854" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4266" RevisionGUID="fee7a7e3-b350-4b21-9af2-963e7072cb30" CreationDate="2016-03-02T23:46:30.137" UserId="11640" Text="|contracts|legal|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12855" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4266" RevisionGUID="7bd473bb-9c0a-456c-9a55-7c19cd0b296b" CreationDate="2016-03-02T23:59:48.830" UserId="11640" Comment="added 640 characters in body; edited title" Text="I have a client who is constantly threatening legal action against me even though I don't think I have done much wrong. I have done EVERYTHING I possibly can to keep the client happy, but it is never enough. He blames me for late delivery even though the goal posts change all the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, we started the project nearly 2 years ago and had a contract drew up which had a scope of work included. The key point here is that at this point the app was very simple. The contract stated that we ESTIMATED the project to take 6-8 months. It also stated that all timeframes are estimates and timing is not of the essence. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since then the scope has changed DRAMATICALLY. I mean it is pretty much a different animal now. For some parts I have charged for these changes, but I must have done 100+ hours in free work just changing things to avoid confrontation. I feel he is just taking advantage now and getting anything he can, and is using threats to do it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The changes that have been made and because they were made half way through a project have meant the whole process is backwards. Its a complicated project now and without being able to properly plan it has caused logic issues that have appeared. There are things neither me nor the client had thought about that have come up, yet we fix anyways.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have said a few times that we expect to have a deliverable on a certain date, and have missed this a few times by a few days or so. This has been because one of these unforeseen issues. I still persist and get it fixed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There have been times when the client went completely missing. 1 was 2 months! Others have included 1 or 2 week blocks. During which times I have had no choice but to move on to other work as he is not there to answer important questions allowing me to continue development. I have to feed my family after all and can't do that waiting weeks for him to come back to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He constantly asks for changes on the application and when I say no he will argue and argue and argue until eventually I normally just give in and do it to keep things calm. Before so, he will constantly threaten legal action, saying if we are still in dispute he will get a solicitor and they will deal with it. I don't think  he has any grounds but it is never nice to be in that conversation with a client. Sometimes tempers flare and I suggest he just go ahead and do it. He never does and just says he will do it at the end should we still be in dispute. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I send builds of the application, he sends a feedbag document. When I finish fixing the items on the list he comes back with a completely new document with completely new items (a lot of the time further changes), and then later blames me for late delivery. Naturally I am stunned. I don't understand it. In my head I am thinking 'why don't you first check against the list I just said was fixed. If another bug has appeared I will then fix it.' It makes the whole process drag on and on. I do my own testing but I can't catch everything of course.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The threats are coming thick and fast, and almost every week. He is still to this day trying to get us to change things and sending items that we 'apparently' agreed months and months ago on the phone. I don't recall ever agreeing to these things and there is no written evidence. Everything I have ever charged for is all in writing and documented. Even items I have done for free are all written. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In recent months I have told him everything has to be in writing, as I was not being accused of lying after every phone call. It is the only way I can guarantee that can't happen. Simply don't talk to him on the phone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do people think I should do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advise would be greatly appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12856" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4266" RevisionGUID="7bd473bb-9c0a-456c-9a55-7c19cd0b296b" CreationDate="2016-03-02T23:59:48.830" UserId="11640" Comment="added 640 characters in body; edited title" Text="Client threatening legal action constantly" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12858" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4268" RevisionGUID="6ec85847-aaeb-44d9-ace0-f844349ac3a6" CreationDate="2016-03-03T00:45:51.490" UserId="708" Text="Life's too short.. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have 2 choices....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Invoice for the work you've completed. Wait until that invoice is paid. Then tell him you're done.&#xD;&#xA;    You'll package everything and prepare to deliver things in their&#xD;&#xA;    current state and he will be free to find another developer to&#xD;&#xA;    finish the project.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Be quiet, sit back, and realize your only option is to deal with the&#xD;&#xA;    client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Barring these two choices, I don't know what else you *can* do. Certainly trying to &quot;change&quot; the client or alter his work habits or how he interacts with you will *never* be fruitful. Getting everything in writing is a good idea, but that should have been done from day 1.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Hopefully your files are a nightmare for another developer. But even if they are... well, if it's not part of your contract to deliver complete documentation, then... well...)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12860" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4269" RevisionGUID="93396639-33fd-4427-bf5b-f956915a5847" CreationDate="2016-03-03T00:55:40.757" UserId="708" Text="This is kind of like posting....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;I can play guitar. I know several songs by The Beatles and Eric Clapton. I know all the major and minor scales. I can tune my guitar 5 different ways and know songs for each tuning. I want to be rock star. Can I be a rock star?&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, yes you certainly *can*. However, being successful isn't really in the &quot;what I know&quot; category. There's drive, determination, work ethic,  communication, personal interaction, organization, along with a hundred other non-educational factors that go into being a successful freelancer in *any* field. After all anyone can take courses or learn the educational aspect of any job or career. Being good in that career goes beyond simply knowing the technical aspects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And there's also **luck**. Some freelancers will not own up to this one because they want you to think everything is hard work. It is work, but the truth of the matter is there is some luck involved. It's lucky that you get that one job that leads to another that leads to the best client you've ever had. It's lucky that some random person saw the work you did last year and wants to hire you for a job today. It's lucky that your clients continually have more projects for you and like working with you (not all of them will). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So **yes** anyone *can* be a freelancer..... but not everyone is successful at it. Without knowing you personally it's just the flip of a coin as to whether *you* would be a good freelancer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12861" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4269" RevisionGUID="8d433508-8132-493b-810d-7e22433d99b3" CreationDate="2016-03-03T01:06:49.070" UserId="708" Comment="added 453 characters in body" Text="No one can tell you if you can be a successful freelancer or what you need to do in order to be successful. Being successful is *as much* about **who** you are as it is about **what you can do**. They are not mutually exclusive. For starters.. aiming for &quot;low pay work&quot; is a sure way to NOT be successful. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is kind of like posting....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;I can play guitar. I know several songs by The Beatles and Eric Clapton. I know all the major and minor scales. I can tune my guitar 5 different ways and know songs for each tuning. I want to be rock star. Can I be a rock star?&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, yes you certainly *can*. However, being successful isn't really in the &quot;what I know&quot; category. There's drive, determination, work ethic,  communication, personal interaction, organization, along with a hundred other non-educational factors that go into being a successful freelancer in *any* field. After all anyone can take courses or learn the educational aspect of any job or career. Being good in that career goes beyond simply knowing the technical aspects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And there's also **luck**. Some freelancers will not own up to this one because they want you to think everything is hard work. It is work, but the truth of the matter is there is some luck involved. It's lucky that you get that one job that leads to another that leads to the best client you've ever had. It's lucky that some random person saw the work you did last year and wants to hire you for a job today. It's lucky that your clients continually have more projects for you and like working with you (not all of them will). There's luck in meeting the right people at the right time. There's luck in having the particular skills someone needs at a particular moment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So **yes** anyone *can* be a freelancer..... but not everyone is successful at it. Without knowing you personally it's just the flip of a coin as to whether *you* would be a good freelancer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12862" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4270" RevisionGUID="b940eff7-a60e-439a-9967-c7c1fca02431" CreationDate="2016-03-03T02:34:28.370" UserId="11627" Text="After all this i tried a random freelancing site (https://www.freelancer.com) and within 60 seconds of creating my account i scored a job paying $15 - $32 with the terribly stated title (I want someone to do a simple pygame). It had eight days remaining so i quoted two days at $15, i was instantly contacted and given a VERY bad description of the task and a zip folder with a small game inside. After 35 minutes of trying to work out what i actually had to do i was given 2 hours to debug some lazy guys uni assignment which i did however there was an add compilation problem (A dialog popped up on compile saying incorrect indentation) so i had to say i couldn't do it. I don't think freelancing is for me because i'm not a people person (IQ - 126 but very low EQ so no social skills) and its too much trouble. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think i will go back to hobby game development and just post them on the internet as code examples. If i could have a reference to another site to do volunteer code work i would appreciate it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for all your help :) you all deserve a +1 and to be ticked as the correct answer but iv'e only got 3 reputation points so i cant vote sorry." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12863" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4271" RevisionGUID="bec58405-bd54-49f3-95bf-f229812d683b" CreationDate="2016-03-03T02:43:06.183" UserId="8046" Text="If you already have a contract, he can threatened to sue you all he wants, there's still an agreement that was made between you and the client initially. Keep track of all the communication (you do now) and also when he calls you a liar. You shouldn't be too worry about the legal actions as this can also become an expensive process for your client and it's not always advantageous. Since it seems to work on you, it's possible the client noticed he can simply use these threats to coerce you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this was my client, I would request a new update to the contract in order to continue the project. In that new contract, you should add new terms/conditions (that he's unlikely to accept) **and also charge a very high prepaid hourly rate and base price** since he doesn't seem to respect the scope. Add a lot of details about the communication, the delay caused by you having to wait for feedback, revisions cost, etc. Give yourself some room for all the issues you now know might happen again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client refuses to sign that new contract, simply give him his files and move on even if you suffer of some losses. For one terrible client, you'll get 10 new ones who will be worth your time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also possible to simply cancel the contract but expect some resistance and more threats as this can be even more frustrating for the client than being given a &quot;non option&quot;!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason why you might want to give your client the option to update the contract rather than simply saying &quot;I'm done&quot; is that you let him the choice to continue to work with you with precise conditions or to stop working with you. You also take back some control on the whole situation and put your client back on the track. If he ever accept to sign it, you'll still deal with the bad attitude of your client but at least you'll get paid very well for the headaches and stress. It's normal to update a contract when the scope of a project changes a lot since the timeframe changes as well and the estimate for the cost of the project has to be updated too. You'll be able to start over with a plan to follow and can even suggest to your client to take a few weeks to think about all this and come back to you when he has a clear idea about what he wants. It's also a good way to get back some respect from the client and show you will not get coerced anymore. That's what any respectable business would do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, if the project gets cancelled, refer to your cancellation agreement in your contract. If you provided already everything you agreed to, then you do NOT refund anything and you simply give the files to the client. The only thing you should refund (and only partially usually) is what was prepaid or any down payment on the work that hasn't been done already.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is starting to call you a liar, make him understand this is a serious allegation that makes you feel terribly uncomfortable and that you might need to discuss with your own lawyer (It doesn't matter if you don't have a lawyer.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One last comment that might help you: Don't think of yourself as a freelancer. Start calling your services **a business**. That should help you get the mindset you should have when dealing with clients and know what is acceptable or not from them. Right now you seem to have the mindset of the &quot;small freelancer&quot; vs the &quot;Goliath business&quot; but in reality, you should expect a business to business relationship (and the level of respect that goes with this)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12864" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4271" RevisionGUID="e7d52eef-a946-4f32-84e5-e3cb960be28d" CreationDate="2016-03-03T02:50:14.310" UserId="8046" Comment="added 376 characters in body" Text="If you already have a contract, he can threatened to sue you all he wants, there's still an agreement that was made between you and the client initially. Keep track of all the communication (you do now) and also when he calls you a liar. You shouldn't be too worry about the legal actions as this can also become an expensive process for your client and it's not always advantageous. Since it seems to work on you, it's possible the client noticed he can simply use these threats to coerce you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this was my client, I would request a new update to the contract in order to continue the project. In that new contract, you should add new terms/conditions (that he's unlikely to accept) **and also charge a very high prepaid hourly rate and base price** since he doesn't seem to respect the scope. Add a lot of details about the communication, the delay caused by you having to wait for feedback, revisions cost, etc. Give yourself some room for all the issues you now know might happen again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client refuses to sign that new contract, simply give him his files and move on even if you suffer of some losses. For one terrible client, you'll get 10 new ones who will be worth your time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also possible to simply cancel the contract but expect some resistance and more threats as this can be even more frustrating for the client than being given a &quot;non option&quot;!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason why you might want to give your client the option to update the contract rather than simply saying &quot;I'm done&quot; is that you let him the choice to continue to work with you with precise conditions or to stop working with you. You also take back some control on the whole situation and put your client back on the track. If he ever accept to sign it, you'll still deal with the bad attitude of your client but at least you'll get paid very well for the headaches and stress. It's normal to update a contract when the scope of a project changes a lot since the timeframe changes as well and the estimate for the cost of the project has to be updated too. You'll be able to start over with a plan to follow and can even suggest to your client to take a few weeks to think about all this and come back to you when he has a clear idea about what he wants. It's also a good way to get back some respect from the client and show you will not get coerced anymore. That's what any respectable business would do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, if the project gets cancelled, refer to your cancellation agreement in your contract. If you provided already everything you agreed to, then you do NOT refund anything and you simply give the files to the client. The only thing you should refund (and only partially usually) is what was prepaid or any down payment on the work that hasn't been done already. You could &quot;freeze&quot; the amount he gave you last month and make him agree to your new contract first. Then do the revisions based on your new fees. That money will be used for the new hourly rate you'll charge for the next revisions. This might actually help you accelerate the process; he'll probably try to limit the revisions to fit that budget and be done with the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is starting to call you a liar, make him understand this is a serious allegation that makes you feel terribly uncomfortable and that you might need to discuss with your own lawyer (It doesn't matter if you don't have a lawyer.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One last comment that might help you: Don't think of yourself as a freelancer. Start calling your services **a business**. That should help you get the mindset you should have when dealing with clients and know what is acceptable or not from them. Right now you seem to have the mindset of the &quot;small freelancer&quot; vs the &quot;Goliath business&quot; but in reality, you should expect a business to business relationship (and the level of respect that goes with this)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12866" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="3337" RevisionGUID="5445742e-ad36-49a2-8c9a-4eacfdafd9ed" CreationDate="2016-03-03T03:36:26.710" UserId="8046" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:8046,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;go-junta&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="12867" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4271" RevisionGUID="86730a02-3383-4c66-963a-364d580acd02" CreationDate="2016-03-03T03:37:44.150" UserId="8046" Comment="added 163 characters in body" Text="If you already have a contract, he can threatened to sue you all he wants, there's still an agreement that was made between you and the client initially. Keep track of all the communication (you do now) and also when he calls you a liar. You shouldn't be too worry about the legal actions as this can also become an expensive process for your client and it's not always advantageous. Since it seems to work on you, it's possible the client noticed he can simply use these threats to coerce you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this was my client, I would request a new update to the contract in order to continue the project. In that new contract, you should add new terms/conditions (that he's unlikely to accept) **and also charge a very high prepaid hourly rate and base price** since he doesn't seem to respect the scope. Add a lot of details about the communication, the delay caused by you having to wait for feedback, revisions cost, etc. Give yourself some room for all the issues you now know might happen again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client refuses to sign that new contract, simply give him his files and move on even if you suffer of some losses. For one terrible client, you'll get 10 new ones who will be worth your time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also possible to simply cancel the contract but expect some resistance and more threats as this can be even more frustrating for the client than being given a &quot;non option&quot;!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason why you might want to give your client the option to update the contract rather than simply saying &quot;I'm done&quot; is that you let him the choice to continue to work with you with precise conditions or to stop working with you. You also take back some control on the whole situation and put your client back on the track. If he ever accept to sign it, you'll still deal with the bad attitude of your client but at least you'll get paid very well for the headaches and stress. It's normal to update a contract when the scope of a project changes a lot since the timeframe changes as well and the estimate for the cost of the project has to be updated too. You'll be able to start over with a plan to follow and can even suggest to your client to take a few weeks to think about all this and come back to you when he has a clear idea about what he wants. It's also a good way to get back some respect from the client and show you will not get coerced anymore. That's what any respectable business would do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, if the project gets cancelled, refer to your cancellation agreement in your contract. If you provided already everything you agreed to, then you do NOT refund anything and you simply give the files to the client. The only thing you should refund (and only partially usually) is what was prepaid or any down payment on the work that hasn't been done already. You could &quot;freeze&quot; the amount he gave you last month and make him agree to your new contract first. Then do the revisions based on your new fees. That money will be used for the new hourly rate you'll charge for the next revisions. This might actually help you accelerate the process; he'll probably try to limit the revisions to fit that budget and be done with the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is starting to call you a liar, make him understand this is a serious allegation that makes you feel terribly uncomfortable and that you might need to discuss with your own lawyer (It doesn't matter if you don't have a lawyer.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One last comment that might help you: Don't think of yourself as a freelancer. Start calling your services **a business**. That should help you get the mindset you should have when dealing with clients and know what is acceptable or not from them. Right now you seem to have the mindset of the &quot;small freelancer&quot; vs the &quot;Goliath business&quot; but in reality, you should expect a business to business relationship (and the level of respect that goes with this).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Related:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3226/project-based-freelance-project-requiring-multiple-unexpected-redos-from-clien/3337#3337" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12868" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4272" RevisionGUID="a5b72f91-4451-49b1-9275-4eafa907f05d" CreationDate="2016-03-03T07:50:43.660" UserId="1563" Text="I would not call that as &quot;extortion&quot; in any way. Since there is no legal binding here, the importance is given to the work/professional ethics.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I do not know what the actual scenario is i.e why she stopped responding to you a year back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, considering the case it was a fault on her side, I would suggest you remind her about the outstanding payment she owes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, present her a proposal that you will hand over all the details over to her after the payment is cleared.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;OR&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;try dividing the outstanding payment in 2 modules : Half outstanding payment for half the details. This could be a good way of getting to work back together as well. Safe for both the parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best case would be that you get a deal in writing: Outstanding payment in exchange for the details you have." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12869" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4273" RevisionGUID="608f9446-0917-428a-953d-f62f2ffc826d" CreationDate="2016-03-03T07:54:41.803" UserId="1563" Text="There are different meanings to the word &quot;slow&quot;. Your speed might seem slow to some people and faster to some other people. Basically, the intellect of other people around you could make you feel that way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is up to you. If you feel you are slow in programming, you can think of ways to speed up your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try using reusable code, making custom libraries from previous projects which you feel might be useful for some other project down the line etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Things like these help a lot to overcome that barrier you have. It is more of a mental one, I feel.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12870" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4274" RevisionGUID="20717fbe-c7fb-4629-abcf-a42d3beedea1" CreationDate="2016-03-03T09:49:59.403" UserId="7858" Text="It seems you have tolerated massive scope creep for a long time - and your psychopath client has picked up on that and is basically extorting you for free work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since the client has payed up, he really has no other weapon than 'social pressure' - which it seems he is using with considerable success.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems you have done everything right - having a contract, documenting requests and progress - so you need to call his solicitor-bluff and terminate your involvement in an objectively reasonable way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I would fix any current bug or request you deem reasonable  - and then turn in the source code, stating that your involvement is now over.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any further work (if unavoidable) - documentation, knowledge transfer - I would put under a new contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12871" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4275" RevisionGUID="17fee4a5-9c86-4122-afe1-463b00d9a77f" CreationDate="2016-03-03T10:52:01.263" UserId="7858" Text="Assuming your goal is getting payed for the 30%, negotiation is your only option.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client has no intention of ever using your work, it seems there is very little you can do, unless you have some social bond to the client and are willing to use it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client has merely cancelled further work on the project, you actually have some options - assuming you have not already delivered the 70%. If you have the code and only you can turn the unfinished work into an actual deliverable, discover what he client actually needs and negotiate a short term contract which might allow you to recoup some (or perhaps all) of the money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And - in the future - always have a contract. I have never involved lawyers - as I have found that a simple one-page agreement actually works and signals to both parties that any changes need to be in writing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12872" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4276" RevisionGUID="31a22178-c61f-4e8d-9e3d-d46b311a488d" CreationDate="2016-03-03T15:51:43.573" UserId="11654" Text="I am a contractor in UK with my own LTD company. After 4 years contracting I have been contacted by an Agent for a role. Apart of the usual stuff he has requested me two uncommon things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - My NIN number (Not sure why but maybe is related)&#xD;&#xA; - To include this &quot;opt-out&quot; in the email where I accept $AGENCY to represent me:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  I consent for **$AGENCY** to represent me for the role of *******&#xD;&#xA;&gt; working for **$BIGCOMPANY** and please accept this as confirmation that I am&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **opting out** of **EAA Regulations**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question is **What are the consequences of opting out?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Any benefit for me? &#xD;&#xA;* Who do you think this is coming from? From $AGENCY or from $BIGCOMPANY? (Agent claims is a requirement from $BIGCOMPANY)&#xD;&#xA;* What reason (benefit) has $AGENCY or $BIGCOMPANY to ask me this opt-out?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Honestly there are many roles and I am tempted of just saying no but maybe I am overreacting..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12873" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4276" RevisionGUID="31a22178-c61f-4e8d-9e3d-d46b311a488d" CreationDate="2016-03-03T15:51:43.573" UserId="11654" Text="What are the consequences of opting out of EAA Regulations in UK?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12874" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4276" RevisionGUID="31a22178-c61f-4e8d-9e3d-d46b311a488d" CreationDate="2016-03-03T15:51:43.573" UserId="11654" Text="|contracts|uk|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12875" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4277" RevisionGUID="36e0d15a-83e6-4a26-898e-6c9edf5d62b3" CreationDate="2016-03-03T17:24:48.293" UserId="11656" Text="I have a client for almost a year now , she is a nice person but the problem is she never settled down on what she needs , every time she ask for a task ,we agree on a fee and I start working after I finished she send me a minimum of 3 pages of modifications (actually start from scratch ) more than 8 emails a day asking for explanations and help she can get if she googled it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;when I send her Instruction files , she reply with many questions before she even open the file and read it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I explained to her many time that she have to be sure about the text and images she sent me before I start working but she never followed the advice and she can't afford extra charges every time she change her mind about one of her website pages.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just tried to leave her project then she begged me to continue , how I handle that situation without wast many hours working for free." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12876" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4277" RevisionGUID="36e0d15a-83e6-4a26-898e-6c9edf5d62b3" CreationDate="2016-03-03T17:24:48.293" UserId="11656" Text="How to handle endless modifcations on fixes fees projects" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12877" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4277" RevisionGUID="36e0d15a-83e6-4a26-898e-6c9edf5d62b3" CreationDate="2016-03-03T17:24:48.293" UserId="11656" Text="|difficult-client|communication|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12881" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4277" RevisionGUID="c02d76f9-911b-4ca4-ad0e-d27980d7aec6" CreationDate="2016-03-04T03:29:53.883" UserId="11662" Comment="Corrected Grammar, Punctuation" Text="I have had a client for almost a year now. She is a nice person but the problem is she never settled down on what she needs; every time she asks for something, we agree on a fee and I start working. After I finish she sends me a minimum of 3 pages of modifications (actually started from scratch), and more than 8 emails a day asking for explanations and help she could get by googling it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I send her instruction files, she replies with many questions before she even opens the file and reads it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have explained to her many times that she has to be sure about the text and images she sent me before I start working but she never followed the advice and she can't afford extra charges every time she changes her mind about one of her website pages.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just tried to leave her project then she begged me to continue. How can I handle that situation without wasting many hours working for free?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12882" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4277" RevisionGUID="c02d76f9-911b-4ca4-ad0e-d27980d7aec6" CreationDate="2016-03-04T03:29:53.883" UserId="11662" Comment="Corrected Grammar, Punctuation" Text="How to handle endless modifications on fixed-fee projects" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12883" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4277" RevisionGUID="c02d76f9-911b-4ca4-ad0e-d27980d7aec6" CreationDate="2016-03-04T03:29:53.883" Comment="Proposed by 11662 approved by 75 edit id of 453" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12884" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4266" RevisionGUID="5e223be2-b55a-4ef5-9eaa-efcfa432ff63" CreationDate="2016-03-04T03:30:34.637" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|legal|difficult-client|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12885" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4266" RevisionGUID="5e223be2-b55a-4ef5-9eaa-efcfa432ff63" CreationDate="2016-03-04T03:30:34.637" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="I have a client who is constantly threatening legal action against me even though I don't think I have done much wrong. I have done EVERYTHING I possibly can to keep the client happy, but it is never enough. He blames me for late delivery even though the goal posts change all the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, we started the project nearly 2 years ago and had a contract drew up which had a scope of work included. The key point here is that at this point the app was very simple. The contract stated that we ESTIMATED the project to take 6-8 months. It also stated that all time frames are estimates and timing is not of the essence. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since then the scope has changed DRAMATICALLY. I mean it is pretty much a different animal now. For some parts I have charged for these changes, but I must have done 100+ hours in free work just changing things to avoid confrontation. I feel he is just taking advantage now and getting anything he can, and is using threats to do it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The changes that have been made and because they were made half way through a project have meant the whole process is backwards. Its a complicated project now and without being able to properly plan it has caused logic issues that have appeared. There are things neither me nor the client had thought about that have come up, yet we fix anyways.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have said a few times that we expect to have a deliverable on a certain date, and have missed this a few times by a few days or so. This has been because one of these unforeseen issues. I still persist and get it fixed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There have been times when the client went completely missing. 1 was 2 months! Others have included 1 or 2 week blocks. During which times I have had no choice but to move on to other work as he is not there to answer important questions allowing me to continue development. I have to feed my family after all and can't do that waiting weeks for him to come back to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He constantly asks for changes on the application and when I say no he will argue and argue and argue until eventually I normally just give in and do it to keep things calm. Before so, he will constantly threaten legal action, saying if we are still in dispute he will get a solicitor and they will deal with it. I don't think  he has any grounds but it is never nice to be in that conversation with a client. Sometimes tempers flare and I suggest he just go ahead and do it. He never does and just says he will do it at the end should we still be in dispute. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I send builds of the application, he sends a feedbag document. When I finish fixing the items on the list he comes back with a completely new document with completely new items (a lot of the time further changes), and then later blames me for late delivery. Naturally I am stunned. I don't understand it. In my head I am thinking 'why don't you first check against the list I just said was fixed. If another bug has appeared I will then fix it.' It makes the whole process drag on and on. I do my own testing but I can't catch everything of course.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The threats are coming thick and fast, and almost every week. He is still to this day trying to get us to change things and sending items that we 'apparently' agreed months and months ago on the phone. I don't recall ever agreeing to these things and there is no written evidence. Everything I have ever charged for is all in writing and documented. Even items I have done for free are all written. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In recent months I have told him everything has to be in writing, as I was not being accused of lying after every phone call. It is the only way I can guarantee that can't happen. Simply don't talk to him on the phone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do people think I should do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12887" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4279" RevisionGUID="731c447d-b116-45a6-b384-a6ed20b4627e" CreationDate="2016-03-04T05:47:55.750" UserId="11663" Text="I've recently got back into doing freelancing jobs because I needed to get activity on a payment method in order to get private loads reactivated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am using freelancer.com and even when I made about 1k in the last 30 days, I find it a little hard (or time consuming) to fing good jobs to bid on. I usually go to `work &gt; project with my skills` and search keyword from project I most enjoy working on, for example, PHP, JQuery, Chrome Extension, Wordpress Plugin, Web Scraping, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My problem is that it's quite hard to find a good project I am intereted in (have in mind I always try to provide a demo even before the project is awarded to me). But most of the project I find are things like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Create a PHP script (with no extra details).&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - Please visit this site and click top ad to see why it's not working&#xD;&#xA;   as it should (indians trying to get people to click on a spammy&#xD;&#xA;   website ads).&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - Send XXX to skrill and I send you YYY here (scam).&#xD;&#xA; - Same project posted twice once with bids from 10-30USD, another with &#xD;&#xA;   bids 30-250USD.&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - I need a copy of google.com for 30USD.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I need to do this impossible task and only pay 10USD for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Build a website. I need to build a website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Work from home.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Need this (1584 bids)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you find good projects to bid on on freelancing site without spending so much time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12888" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4279" RevisionGUID="731c447d-b116-45a6-b384-a6ed20b4627e" CreationDate="2016-03-04T05:47:55.750" UserId="11663" Text="How to find good jobs on freelancing sites" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12889" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4279" RevisionGUID="731c447d-b116-45a6-b384-a6ed20b4627e" CreationDate="2016-03-04T05:47:55.750" UserId="11663" Text="|freelance-websites|project-bidding|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12890" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4280" RevisionGUID="f2e62afc-526f-4bef-99b0-7974b81979e0" CreationDate="2016-03-04T10:09:05.347" UserId="7858" Text="Since you've had the client for a year, the way you interact is unlikely to change. Especially when you directly enable it by accepting to do free work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to decide whether working for this client in the manner you describe would be OK if you were payed for 100% of your time. I'm assuming it would be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems you are working on a never-ending sequence of smaller fixed-price projects. This obviously needs to stop, as fixed-price only works if the target is not constantly moving. You'll have to change the general terms from fixed-price to an hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Initially, the client will be skeptical or downright refuse - to which your counterargument should be that due to the continuous scope-creep, any fixed price estimate from now on will include considerable 'financial padding' to minimize your risk. Insist on setting an hourly rate or massively increasing the fixed-price estimates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition to getting payed, a fixed hourly rate could perhaps modify the client's approach to a more structured one - to the benefit of both parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And - if you don't already have it - get your general terms down on paper. No need to involve lawyers - but set the expectations of both parties on a single page." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12891" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4280" RevisionGUID="ac5c2119-62c0-4373-8ab2-eeb3a2d64150" CreationDate="2016-03-04T14:43:35.453" UserId="7858" Comment="Added elaboration on contracts" Text="Since you've had the client for a year, the way you interact is unlikely to change. Especially when you directly enable it by accepting to do free work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to decide whether working for this client in the manner you describe would be OK if you were payed for 100% of your time. I'm assuming it would be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems you are working on a never-ending sequence of smaller fixed-price projects. This obviously needs to stop, as fixed-price only works if the target is not constantly moving. You'll have to change the general terms from fixed-price to an hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Initially, the client will be skeptical or downright refuse - to which your counterargument should be that due to the continuous scope-creep, any fixed price estimate from now on will include considerable 'financial padding' to minimize your risk. Insist on setting an hourly rate or massively increasing the fixed-price estimates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition to getting payed, a fixed hourly rate could perhaps modify the client's approach to a more structured one - to the benefit of both parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And - if you don't already have it - get your general terms down on paper. No need to involve lawyers - but set the expectations of both parties on a single page. My experience is that clients tend to take documents they have signed more seriously - regardless of whether they are legally binding or not." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12892" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4281" RevisionGUID="3e068274-dc86-4057-830c-ffd178a0a3e4" CreationDate="2016-03-04T15:18:48.413" UserId="11664" Text="Estimating cost for an app is a tricky task as it has multiple factors attributing to its cost. The design, development, testing, security, updates, support these all aspects add price to it. Again you want to get it developed in-house or outsourced or freelance, it will have impact on pricing. &#xD;&#xA;However, in all cases, the effort or time required to develop the app will be roughly the same assuming it is being done by experienced and competent engineers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Requirement Planning&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Mature apps like Facebook, Whatsapp, Skype, Tinder etc have numerous features that you probably do not need on day one. Features that take hundreds of engineers to develop and maintain. It is important to figure out what features and actions your app will allow users to do on day one, and focus on making the best possible user experience for that set of features. Example of features you may not use on day 1 could be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a social app – Extensive privacy controls in a social app,&#xD;&#xA;For an e-commerce app – several types of coupons – discount, 2-for-1, freebie, discount on bundles, user-specific code, general code, product specific codes .. the list is endless.&#xD;&#xA;For a messaging app – delivery reports, export archive&#xD;&#xA;For all the above – building for scale too early. It is tempting to build your app for several million users on day 1 so you are ready when you hit that scale. However, a lot of that investment will sit idle for a while and, in any case, the market will compel you to make numerous changes to your product very soon. The second or third pass at the architecture is probably a better time to make the big investments in scale.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be ruthless about cutting down the features that you need in your app until you can’t reduce anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To this, you will need to add back a few items.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Analytics – to track how users are using the app&#xD;&#xA;Marketing Automation – to keep engaging users with relevant push notifications&#xD;&#xA;Referral System – to maximise referrals of the app to other users and reward users for doing so&#xD;&#xA;Once you have done this, you have a working list of what you need to get built. This list is bound to evolve even as you develop your app, and unfortunately, in most cases it will expand!&#xD;&#xA;We have written a detailed article explaining the same. You may check here on how to [estimate the cost of a mobile app development][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.riktamtech.com/blog/estimate-cost-app-development-ios-android/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12893" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4266" RevisionGUID="6ec975c5-3696-4fb2-b091-d4bf02082702" CreationDate="2016-03-04T17:09:53.087" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/705802454722547712" />
  <row Id="12901" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4285" RevisionGUID="2e8b1c7c-f434-43d1-8468-abbaae4c2b97" CreationDate="2016-03-06T21:08:05.383" UserId="11579" Text="You two need sit together, draw up a project specification and agree on price/rate. You both need to sign/accept it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any changes, explain there is a charge so she needs weigh up if its important to have these changes now or to compile them to a features list to be done at an agreed later time/date/rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Her time is expensive. So is yours. When she realises that changes cost, she'll learn to be more clear with her initial expectations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Explain to her the headaches that you go thru - make clear that while you welcome the work, much time is wasted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If she won't pay for modifications, then increase your rate based on the amount of time you think will be required to meet her expectations, revisions etc etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Never say no to a customer - instead, just get more expensive. Let them decline your services, or let them pay for the stress/discomfort you must go thru to meet their requests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12902" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4286" RevisionGUID="7fbb6319-1f85-48bc-acba-7b5ecbdf4fff" CreationDate="2016-03-06T21:21:29.530" UserId="11579" Text="It is good the customer has paid you. Unless contracted to provide services to them for the rest of your life, consider it ample opportunity to reconsider your relationship. I would avoid a customer who is a little quick to threaten the law. Customer/Supplier relationships are unlikely ever to improve.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*If they are serious in legal action against you, then ask yourself 1) if their arguements are valid and 2) will they really pay a lawyer money to sue you? Are they that sure of winning? I suspect its hot air.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Scope change to any project should be charged.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need have a UAT (User Acceptance Test) for future projects. Basically, within five days of you handing the project over, they must test. If no faults are raised within those five days, then project is deemed a success. If any faults are discovered, those faults, and only those faults are corrected. Any faults that were not included in the original project specification are in effect, new projects and should be priced accordingly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, since you fear being sued I am guessing you do not have liability insurance - It's not expensive - for me it cost less than $500 and it covers me worldwide for up to $5million per incident on any job that does not involve physical labour (thus I cannot lift a computer, but I can program it). In addition, work under an LLC so if there is a customer who sue's, the credit of the LLC is tarnished, not you, your home/mortgage/family/etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12903" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4287" RevisionGUID="c4a7ba7a-5279-4314-abb4-d9638b62df63" CreationDate="2016-03-06T21:22:01.193" UserDisplayName="user11679" Text="Suppose I am self-employed. I join forces with another self-employed person. I can provide a service that he can't and vice versa. We produce and sell a single product. Suppose we agree to split profits from sales 50/50, and that all income comes to my bank accounts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Suppose we make £10,000 gross income from the product in a given tax year. I owe my partner £5,000 by agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If my partner invoices me for £5,000, I then pay him as a service charged to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I then pay tax and NI on my profits. He then pays tax &amp; NI on his profits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My question:** Is this legal, or is there another way to achieve this legally? I am trying to avoid employing this person.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12904" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4287" RevisionGUID="c4a7ba7a-5279-4314-abb4-d9638b62df63" CreationDate="2016-03-06T21:22:01.193" UserDisplayName="user11679" Text="Paying another self employed person if we work together (UK)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12905" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4287" RevisionGUID="c4a7ba7a-5279-4314-abb4-d9638b62df63" CreationDate="2016-03-06T21:22:01.193" UserDisplayName="user11679" Text="|payments|uk|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12906" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4287" RevisionGUID="53ea8ab3-a694-437d-a6ae-c07fd7e76d42" CreationDate="2016-03-06T21:41:10.877" UserDisplayName="user11679" Comment="added 255 characters in body" Text="Suppose I am self-employed. I join forces with another self-employed person. I can provide a service that he can't and vice versa. We produce and sell a single product. Suppose we agree to split profits from sales 50/50, and that all income comes to my bank accounts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Suppose we make £10,000 gross income from the product in a given tax year. I owe my partner £5,000 by agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If my partner invoices me for £5,000, I then pay him as a service charged to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I then pay tax and NI on my profits. He then pays tax &amp; NI on his profits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My question:** Is this legal, or is there another way to achieve this legally? I am trying to avoid employing this person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Edit:** Assuming the above is illegal, then I think a Limited Partnership, or a Limited Liability Partnership may be the answer. Having said that, I'd rather stay as a sole trader, so would still be interested to know if the above is allowed or not..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12907" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4288" RevisionGUID="0d2e2b0c-adbf-4d37-90ca-ce9b960f276f" CreationDate="2016-03-06T22:09:18.923" UserId="11579" Text="(Long answer but I recommend you reading in full to avoid risk of pain later)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have contracted under my UK Company since 1994... I have signed (and thus always opted out)...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Employee/Employer Relationships are complicated! The client AND the agency both want protection. There is no one test to determine if employee/employer relationship exists - instead, the score of multiple questions helps build an argument and the rest is open to interpretation* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If sufficient safe guards are not in place, client or agency risk being held responsible for your pension, national insurance contributions, sick/holiday pay, taxes and there are other possible insurance liabilities involved.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The agency use this letter to contribute towards arguments proving you are a service provider, not an employee. Service providers are responsible for their own taxes, insurances, sick pay etc. You work for your Ltd, and your Ltd is contracted to provide a service to the agency, who subcontracts you to a client. Never loose sight of that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Besides taxes/insurances, the opt-out helps protect agency if the client holds you responsible for malpractice. If you read your contract in full, you'll notice it demands you have liability insurance - few contractors get the insurance, few even know the clause/requirement is there (many I have worked with just sign the contract without reading).  I recommend the insurance, its not expensive, under $500 (about 350GBP) per year for me/my UK company per year. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are several different tests that the IR (Inland Revenue) use to determine if your relationship qualifies as employee/employer or not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Does client provide you with a cell phone/car/fuel for personal use?&#xD;&#xA; - Is it Project related work? (thus it has a clear start/end) or are&#xD;&#xA;   you working as a temporary employee (working shifts at helpdesk for&#xD;&#xA;   example).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The difference between temporary employee and a contractor is, a temporary employee is temporary replacing a full time function - a contractor is bringing in a temporary needed skill that is not available at that time for a defined period of time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The opt-out was required because a number of temporary workers within Europe were abused by some companies. I know of two big tech companies who would purposely end relationship between employee/employer every 23months as EU law said that a temp for 2 years or more win's the same rights as a full timer. The laws were changed again, to protect the employee from this sort of abuse and basically, re-employing the same person within six months of their departure could imply a continuation of service (meaning their prior 23months of service counts towards any additional time they spend with the company, if they got back in within six months).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another court case related to several hundred temps, under contract for 9years. They managed to sue successfully for unpaid holiday/sick pay and benefits like pension as it was proven that despite only working 20+ hours a week, they performed tasks just like a full time employee would.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So... if you ever do not get invited to team events with a client, its not just that they are being tight with cash - it is also because legally, you could use that invite as one of your arguments to insist that an employee/employer relationship existed and that you qualify for unpaid benefits and/or that you are also entitled to redundancy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also indirectly related... Contracting in the UK has changed tremendously since the last budget. When IR35 (Inland Revenue rule 35) was created about ten years ago, there was a storm of protest saying the rule was open to wide interpretation that could make a contractor more liable to higher taxes (basically, the IR35 meant your invoice was your salary, and thus, taxed accordingly).  The Inland Revenue did not change the law but basically played down many of the fears that were raised in part because the law impacted contractors from IT to builders to electricians to plumbers. Depending on how the law was read, it meant that the toolkit/hardhat/boots/overalls for a contracting builder/carpenter/plumber was either a personal expense (and thus, not vat reclaimable) or a business expense (vat reclaimable). Replace toolkit with your laptop or hotel or travel expenses and ask yourself how much of a vat refund you had last year and you'll see how loud the alarm bells rang. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For ten years, the taxman failed to chase anyone based on the worst case reading of IR35.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then Osbourne got in and hell broke loose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically Osbourne asked the tax man to review the past ten years and expenses are getting a second look. One friend of mine had the past five years reviewed and has been asked to cough up 125,000GBP because some of his expenditure was deemed personal, not business related. A recent law change says that any disputes can be handled in court, but the tax payer must pay first, argue later. Fair or unfair, thats the law.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What has this to do with your EEA opt-out? If Osbourne failed to collect the money from the contractor, he could chase the agency or the client saying they were the employer and thus they should cough up the unpaid tax. Belgium and Holland have &quot;chain&quot; laws for example, so that if you avoid paying their taxes, they can (based on their law) chase the agency or the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thus - your contract, the work schedule, the letter you are asked to sign are different levels of protection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope that helps!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12908" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4262" RevisionGUID="592a5db6-cbdf-4311-b766-39612693fd0a" CreationDate="2016-03-06T22:16:53.077" UserId="11675" Comment="some capiptal letters I instead of lowercase" Text="I'm a student I love coding as a hobby and am confident in python and some of its common addons, I have also learnt and can program some C++ and have begun learning basic. I am familiar with using both IDE's and full blown engines. I can use unity do a degree and although its probably not very relevant to freelancing can build, upgrade, diagnose hardware.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am only 15 am studying in grade 11 in Australia. Money is not a worry it's a hobby so its mostly for the love! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Can I become a freelancer (Doing very simple low pay work)?&#xD;&#xA;2. Will it be realistic and manageable?&#xD;&#xA;3. Do I need to learn much more and if so what is it?&#xD;&#xA;4. Where to start?&#xD;&#xA;5. Am I in over my head (I probably am :( )?&#xD;&#xA;6. If I cant be a real freelancer is there anywhere I could offer my help for free?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you for your help&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12909" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4262" RevisionGUID="592a5db6-cbdf-4311-b766-39612693fd0a" CreationDate="2016-03-06T22:16:53.077" Comment="Proposed by 11675 approved by 11627 edit id of 456" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12914" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4291" RevisionGUID="6c8348d6-00a3-4b20-b58f-63707442680a" CreationDate="2016-03-07T23:11:58.120" UserId="11696" Text="I recently had a major client terminate their Service Level Agreement (SLA) with my company in Canada, and I'm trying to assess what rights as a contractor I have since my fixed term SLA has what appear to be contradictory conditions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My SLA contract with them, which lasted just for under a year, specifies it's a fixed term contract:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; This contract will be in effect ***until the end of the current financial year, February 31, 2016.*** It is anticipated that this contract will be renewed on an annual basis subject to agreement by both parties. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, this fixed term contract also has a provision that says:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Contract Commencement, Revision &amp; Termination*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The term of this contract commences upon signing by both parties. ***Regardless of the contract end date, at any time either party has the right to give notice to end this contract 90 days from the date of notice.*** During the notice period xxx will be expected to deliver IT services and will continue to be paid as per the terms of this contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was served notice to stop working on the project on February 8th, just weeks before the contract's expiry.  I was told they would pay me out for all of February (the last month of the contract), and that in addition to this, they would also pay me for an extra month if I agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, because the notice period makes mention of the 90 days of notice, I feel that I should be entitled to at least 3 months of notice payout for the contract termination.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on the wording of this fixed term contract, do you think I have legal right to demand 90 days of notice pay, even though my contract's termination is happening at the end its fixed term?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12915" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4291" RevisionGUID="6c8348d6-00a3-4b20-b58f-63707442680a" CreationDate="2016-03-07T23:11:58.120" UserId="11696" Text="Termination of a fixed term Service Level Agreement, can I get paid for the notice period?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12916" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4291" RevisionGUID="6c8348d6-00a3-4b20-b58f-63707442680a" CreationDate="2016-03-07T23:11:58.120" UserId="11696" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|difficult-client|consulting|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12917" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4280" RevisionGUID="7c1526a2-34e1-4d03-ac60-4f089b968956" CreationDate="2016-03-07T23:15:28.257" UserId="1630" Comment="payed -&gt; paid" Text="Since you've had the client for a year, the way you interact is unlikely to change. Especially when you directly enable it by accepting to do free work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to decide whether working for this client in the manner you describe would be OK if you were paid for 100% of your time. I'm assuming it would be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems you are working on a never-ending sequence of smaller fixed-price projects. This obviously needs to stop, as fixed-price only works if the target is not constantly moving. You'll have to change the general terms from fixed-price to an hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Initially, the client will be skeptical or downright refuse - to which your counterargument should be that due to the continuous scope-creep, any fixed price estimate from now on will include considerable 'financial padding' to minimize your risk. Insist on setting an hourly rate or massively increasing the fixed-price estimates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition to getting paid, a fixed hourly rate could perhaps modify the client's approach to a more structured one - to the benefit of both parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And - if you don't already have it - get your general terms down on paper. No need to involve lawyers - but set the expectations of both parties on a single page. My experience is that clients tend to take documents they have signed more seriously - regardless of whether they are legally binding or not." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12918" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4280" RevisionGUID="7c1526a2-34e1-4d03-ac60-4f089b968956" CreationDate="2016-03-07T23:15:28.257" Comment="Proposed by 1630 approved by 9, 4561 edit id of 455" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12919" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4291" RevisionGUID="d07bab71-0753-497b-8c36-810d026f82c3" CreationDate="2016-03-08T01:06:09.253" UserId="11696" Comment="edited title" Text="Can I get paid for notice if my fixed term SLA (Service Level Agreement) is not renewed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12920" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4291" RevisionGUID="52a3d945-d1f4-4c88-a234-612198e6193f" CreationDate="2016-03-08T04:32:58.290" UserId="11696" Comment="edited title" Text="Can I get paid for notice if my fixed term contract is not renewed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12921" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4292" RevisionGUID="64c34056-0a58-4b45-bd03-f282965cd5f6" CreationDate="2016-03-08T07:40:31.590" UserId="7858" Text="Ignoring the non-existent expiry date, it seems they have no obligations after February 2016. The renewal was anticipated but not guaranteed - and since there apparently have been no talks regarding extension, the contract simply expires.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would expect the 90 day period is for premature termination of the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, I would expect the contract to state the the anticipated extension should take place 1 or 2 months prior to expiry.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Compared to contract terminations I have experienced during my freelancing (in Denmark/Sweden), I actually find their payment offer quite generous as it even goes beyond their obligations." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12922" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4293" RevisionGUID="9501a5dc-52f4-428d-9e43-9c9cfd138400" CreationDate="2016-03-08T07:47:12.790" UserId="7858" Text="Why would it be illegal?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems you are buying a service (that you cannot provide) from your partner. Nothing wrong with that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether your company structure is optimal, is another matter that very much depends on your jurisdiction." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12923" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4293" RevisionGUID="6c86af80-f916-4dfd-919f-c4edae4c9891" CreationDate="2016-03-08T08:43:37.723" UserId="7858" Comment="Added 'de facto employee'" Text="Why would it be illegal?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems you are buying a service (that you cannot provide) from your partner. Nothing wrong with that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether your company structure is optimal, is another matter that very much depends on your jurisdiction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Addendum:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assuming self-employment is somewhat comparable between the UK and Denmark, the main concern for the (tax) authorities is whether both of you are business owners independently of each other; i.e. that none of you are obligated to find work for each other, as that would be deemed being a 'de facto employee'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I started out, one of my first assignments was a collaboration with 3 other freelancers. We even got business cards in the company that maintained the client contact - even though we were in no way employees. It is perfectly legal for a group of freelancers to join forces in a 'collaborative partnership'." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12924" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4294" RevisionGUID="370b2374-86ac-413b-8235-d84bd7c995e4" CreationDate="2016-03-08T09:23:10.893" UserId="11579" Text="In short - nothing illegal or wrong. You are buying/selling a service. Make sure you keep receipts - a tax man can be understanding about mistakes (meaning you pay what you owe with little/no fine) but if the taxman thinks you were being evasive or negligent, they can be very very unforgiving. Tax efficiency is legal, tax avoidance is not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A question on startups stackexchange was raised which I answered. I am UK based, the OP was US based, but the Q&amp;A would be a useful read for you to reduce your risks. If you don't want to read everything, then just consider points 1,2 and 3&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12925" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4294" RevisionGUID="63901874-627c-47d7-b718-e1c961b156d2" CreationDate="2016-03-08T09:37:49.473" UserId="11579" Comment="Added comment two self employed living at one address might raise tax questions..." Text="In short - nothing illegal or wrong. You are buying/selling a service. Make sure you keep receipts - a tax man can be understanding about mistakes (meaning you pay what you owe with little/no fine) but if the taxman thinks you were being evasive or negligent, they can be very very unforgiving. Tax efficiency is legal, tax avoidance is not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*(EDITED)* There is a slight exception to the above that you should be aware off. If you and the other self employed person share a home together, or you are married - the tax man might find cause for concern - hence the importance of having a chat with an accountant.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A question on startups stackexchange was raised which I answered. I am UK based, the OP was US based, but the Q&amp;A would be a useful read for you to reduce your risks. If you don't want to read everything, then just consider points 1,2 and 3&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12926" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4295" RevisionGUID="c783675b-5e63-4ec0-8a2e-701bcfe2eda8" CreationDate="2016-03-08T14:54:08.467" UserId="11704" Text="If they are from the `European Union`, you might check their validity on the official European Commission website. You need their **VAT Number**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/?locale=en&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's where I check my potential clients. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12930" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4297" RevisionGUID="107ba33e-78c5-48d4-9731-86370a45881f" CreationDate="2016-03-08T19:14:23.820" UserId="7717" Text="&quot;The right to give notice&quot; is not the same as &quot;required to give notice&quot;. The second clause you have quoted is about terminating the contract *early*." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12932" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4291" RevisionGUID="1d94f9d4-4825-40de-a468-87cce2ca7405" CreationDate="2016-03-08T21:35:01.903" UserId="11696" Comment="change date to february 29" Text="I recently had a major client terminate their Service Level Agreement (SLA) with my company in Canada, and I'm trying to assess what rights as a contractor I have since my fixed term SLA has what appear to be contradictory conditions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My SLA contract with them, which lasted just for under a year, specifies it's a fixed term contract:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; This contract will be in effect ***until the end of the current financial year, February 29, 2016.*** It is anticipated that this contract will be renewed on an annual basis subject to agreement by both parties. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, this fixed term contract also has a provision that says:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Contract Commencement, Revision &amp; Termination*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The term of this contract commences upon signing by both parties. ***Regardless of the contract end date, at any time either party has the right to give notice to end this contract 90 days from the date of notice.*** During the notice period xxx will be expected to deliver IT services and will continue to be paid as per the terms of this contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was served notice to stop working on the project on February 8th, just weeks before the contract's expiry.  I was told they would pay me out for all of February (the last month of the contract), and that in addition to this, they would also pay me for an extra month if I agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, because the notice period makes mention of the 90 days of notice, I feel that I should be entitled to at least 3 months of notice payout for the contract termination.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on the wording of this fixed term contract, do you think I have legal right to demand 90 days of notice pay, even though my contract's termination is happening at the end its fixed term?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12933" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4291" RevisionGUID="4dcb7290-49a9-4ec1-952a-157b2e56e1d0" CreationDate="2016-03-08T23:56:22.487" UserId="11696" Comment="add more detail about contract mentioning a review, plus a few edits for readabiity" Text="I recently had a major client terminate their Service Level Agreement (SLA) with my company in Canada, and I'm trying to assess what rights as a contractor I have since my fixed term SLA has what appear to be contradictory conditions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My SLA contract with them, which lasted just for under a year, specifies it's a fixed term contract:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; This contract will be in effect ***until the end of the current financial year, February 29, 2016.*** It is anticipated that this contract will be renewed on an annual basis subject to agreement by both parties. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Key considerations will be delivery of satisfactory performance by&#xD;&#xA;&gt; XXX [me] and agreement with regards to compensation terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;In preparation for signing a new contract YYY's Executive Director [the client] will meet with xxx's principal [me] to review the previous year’s performance and to discuss future compensation terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, this fixed term contract also has a provision that says:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Contract Commencement, Revision &amp; Termination*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The term of this contract commences upon signing by both parties. ***Regardless of the contract end date, at any time either party has the right to give notice to end this contract 90 days from the date of notice.*** During the notice period XXX will be expected to deliver IT services and will continue to be paid as per the terms of this contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was served notice to stop working on the project on February 8th, just weeks before the contract's expiry.  I was told they would pay me out for all of February (the last month of the contract), and that in addition to this, they would also pay me for an extra month if I agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement and cooperate with a technical transition.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did not receive a performance review, though I did receive promises to discuss negotiating a new contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, because the notice period makes mention of the 90 days of notice, I sense that I should be entitled to at least 3 months of notice payout for the contract termination.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on the wording of this fixed term contract, do I have a legal right to demand 90 days of notice pay, even though my contract's termination is happening at the end its fixed term?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12934" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4291" RevisionGUID="37ab2be9-35c0-40d7-ada3-08b75528c6e8" CreationDate="2016-03-09T02:41:07.047" UserId="11696" Comment="add note about non-solicitation agreement" Text="I recently had a major client terminate their Service Level Agreement (SLA) with my company in Canada, and I'm trying to assess what rights as a contractor I have since my fixed term SLA has what appear to be contradictory conditions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My SLA contract with them, which lasted just for under a year, specifies it's a fixed term contract:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; This contract will be in effect ***until the end of the current financial year, February 29, 2016.*** It is anticipated that this contract will be renewed on an annual basis subject to agreement by both parties. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Key considerations will be delivery of satisfactory performance by&#xD;&#xA;&gt; XXX [me] and agreement with regards to compensation terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;In preparation for signing a new contract YYY's Executive Director [the client] will meet with xxx's principal [me] to review the previous year’s performance and to discuss future compensation terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, this fixed term contract also has a provision that says:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Contract Commencement, Revision &amp; Termination*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The term of this contract commences upon signing by both parties. ***Regardless of the contract end date, at any time either party has the right to give notice to end this contract 90 days from the date of notice.*** During the notice period XXX will be expected to deliver IT services and will continue to be paid as per the terms of this contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was served notice to stop working on the project on February 8th, just weeks before the contract's expiry.  I was told they would pay me out for all of February (the last month of the contract), and that in addition to this, they would also pay me for an extra month if I agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement and cooperate with a technical transition.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did not receive a performance review, though I did receive promises to discuss negotiating a new contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, because the notice period makes mention of the 90 days of notice, I sense that I should be entitled to at least 3 months of notice payout for the contract termination.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on the wording of this fixed term contract, do I have a legal right to demand 90 days of notice pay, even though my contract's termination is happening at the end its fixed term?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;UPDATE:  Turns out they want me to sign a non-solicitation agreement, so I think the extra month of compensation pay is being offered because in Canada [non-solicitation agreements are not enforceable unless something of value is provided in exchange for signing one.](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/can-my-employer-force-me-to-sign-a-non-compete-clause/article533688/)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12935" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4298" RevisionGUID="ab99507b-75be-470f-bc83-7bf1092c85f4" CreationDate="2016-03-09T11:59:25.653" UserId="11579" Text="**My gut tells me to avoid these folk like the plague.** *Remember, the content of your CV is generous for a social hack. Your name, address, date of birth, phone number, social insurance or other 'secret' references sometimes - they might ask your for bank details.* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been contracting since 1994 and there are many fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants operators out there who are more prepared then the people who approached you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you still curious to proceed further then&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Get their full address, their company registration number and VAT&#xD;&#xA; 2. @Petre suggestion is terrific - If they are EU based, check their VAT number matches the company 100%.&#xD;&#xA; 3. If they don't have VAT, then their trading is below 70,000 a year&#xD;&#xA; 4. Search on their telephone number. Try the search with country code, without country code and if the last digit is not a zero, search the phone number with the last three digits removed.&#xD;&#xA; 5. Find out how they found you - they could be pumping you up with nice words without actually knowing anything about you. In 20+ years, I have had a handful of calls from folk who think I'm great, tell me they have the perfect job for me, client is keen to meet me, and then, amazingly, ask me for my CV and remind them exactly what I do again. Don't be shy to ask them for references." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12938" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4301" RevisionGUID="3860d53e-daeb-4fc1-86ea-84e75d7b656e" CreationDate="2016-03-10T10:56:52.403" UserId="1793" Text="So here's my situation. A client hired me for a part time job and we signed under my contract. Now they want me to go and find someone who can work full time on the same job I do. However I'm not sure as to how they want to proceed regarding the rate. I'm very careful discussing the rate because I don't want to show the client that I'm most concerned with the pay than their project. Also I'm not sure as how to approach this situation as this is my first time doing this kind of arrangement.&#xA;&#xA;It is also worth mentioning that the client and I are from different countries, they are from SFO and I'm from the other side of the world. Also since they are the once asking for a full time worker under my company it is understandably a transparent transaction. Meaning they are aware that I'm not using anyone to do work under my name.&#xA;&#xA;I've already asked how they want the relationship would; hire a full time employee under my company but the rate is still a big question mark. I haven't discussed this with them yet until I clearly know the entire responsibility of the job: work hours, if timezone would be flexible, etc.&#xA;&#xA;So now here are my questions:&#xA;&#xA; 1. What rate should I offer them? The job is fairly easy and can be done by anyone who is computer savvy. Is it fair to me and the client that I stick with the same price per hour? I'm afraid that I would lose them if I do stick with the same rate.&#xA;&#xA;2. Should I let my employee communicate with the client directly? I'm afraid that they might remove me from the equation since I won't be doing much of the work and only supervise." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12939" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4301" RevisionGUID="3860d53e-daeb-4fc1-86ea-84e75d7b656e" CreationDate="2016-03-10T10:56:52.403" UserId="1793" Text="Client wants to hire a full time employee under my company/contract" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12940" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4301" RevisionGUID="3860d53e-daeb-4fc1-86ea-84e75d7b656e" CreationDate="2016-03-10T10:56:52.403" UserId="1793" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12941" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4301" RevisionGUID="aef3266e-bcc7-4a63-a496-ec38e12e0198" CreationDate="2016-03-10T11:07:10.140" UserId="1793" Comment="added 92 characters in body" Text="So here's my situation. A client hired me for a part time job and we signed under my contract. Now they want me to go and find someone who can work full time on the same job I do. However I'm not sure as to how they want to proceed regarding the rate. I'm very careful discussing the rate because I don't want to show the client that I'm most concerned with the pay than their project. Also I'm not sure as how to approach this situation as this is my first time doing this kind of arrangement.&#xA;&#xA;It is also worth mentioning that the client and I are from different countries, they are from SFO and I'm from the other side of the world. Also since they are the once asking for a full time worker under my company it is understandably a transparent transaction. Meaning they are aware that I'm not using anyone to do work under my name.&#xA;&#xA;I've already asked how they want the relationship would; hire a full time employee under my company but the rate is still a big question mark. I haven't discussed this with them yet until I clearly know the entire responsibility of the job: work hours, if timezone would be flexible, etc.&#xA;&#xA;So now here are my questions:&#xA;&#xA; 1. What rate should I offer them? The job is fairly easy and can be done by anyone who is computer savvy. Is it fair to me and the client that I stick with the same price per hour? I'm afraid that I would lose them if I do stick with the same rate.&#xA;&#xA;Or should I just use my rate and just give a percentage of it to the employee I'm hiring? &#xA;&#xA;2. Should I let my employee communicate with the client directly? I'm afraid that they might remove me from the equation since I won't be doing much of the work and only supervise." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12943" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4302" RevisionGUID="33f8a303-8b1e-45a5-aa02-71a54fe89771" CreationDate="2016-03-10T11:22:56.673" UserId="7858" Text="A correct approach depends on several aspects:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Will this person be employed by you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If yes, you should be compensated for the bureaucracy that follows having employees. If not, will you bill the client and have the full-timer bill you a bit less?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Do you wish to maintain an ongoing relationship with the client - or will your time effectively be over?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is your exit, you could consider a one-time payment for locating the full-timer. The payout should reflect whether you now are 100% gone - or still have some sort of 'transitional responsibility' regarding the new hire." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12944" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4301" RevisionGUID="ed1eb4ec-de18-4b6d-a4cd-46bd41579351" CreationDate="2016-03-10T12:15:32.287" UserId="1793" Comment="added 20 characters in body" Text="So here's my situation. A client hired me for a part time job and we signed under my contract. Now they want me to go and find someone who can work full time on the same job I do. However I'm not sure as to how they want to proceed regarding the rate. I'm very careful discussing the rate because I don't want to show the client that I'm most concerned with the pay than their project. Also I'm not sure as how to approach this situation as this is my first time doing this kind of arrangement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is also worth mentioning that the client and I are from different countries, they are from SFO and I'm from the other side of the world. Also since they are the once asking for a full time worker under my company it is understandably a transparent transaction. Meaning they are aware that I'm not using anyone to do work under my name.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've already asked how they want the relationship would; hire a full time employee under my company but the rate is still a big question mark. I haven't discussed this with them yet until I clearly know the entire responsibility of the job: work hours, if timezone would be flexible, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So now here are my questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. What rate should I offer them? The job is fairly easy and can be done by anyone who is computer savvy. Is it fair to me and the client that I stick with the same price per hour? I'm afraid that I would lose them if I do stick with the same rate.  &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;  Or should I just use my rate and just give a percentage of it to the employee I'm hiring?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Should I let my employee communicate with the client directly? I'm afraid that they might remove me from the equation since I won't be doing much of the work and only supervise.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12945" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4302" RevisionGUID="0f62920a-02a9-4fb3-a3b3-1f3149ebf75e" CreationDate="2016-03-10T12:24:36.863" UserId="7858" Comment="Added more points" Text="A correct approach depends on several aspects:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Will this person be employed by you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If yes, you should be compensated for the bureaucracy that follows having employees. If not, will you bill the client and have the full-timer bill you a bit less?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Do you wish to maintain an ongoing relationship with the client - or will your time effectively be over?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is your exit, you could consider a one-time payment for locating the full-timer. The payout should reflect whether you now are 100% gone - or still have some sort of 'transitional responsibility' regarding the new hire.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) If needed, do you have experience managing others?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me it sounds like you will still be involved - even after the full-timer starts. You at least need to address this in your agreement with the client. The client could become impatient with the (lack of) progress displayed by the new hire and thus seek to involve you more than both parties had initially expected.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) Do you need the money?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you already have or can easily find other sources of income, you can simply quote a price which makes sense for you. Again - this depends on whether you want an ongoing relationship or not." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12946" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4301" RevisionGUID="9d20067e-1838-4d69-b172-d3ebf201bea4" CreationDate="2016-03-10T12:35:11.773" UserId="1793" Comment="added 20 characters in body" Text="So here's my situation. A client hired me for a part time job and we signed under my contract. Now they want me to go and find someone who can work full time on the same job I do. However I'm not sure as to how they want to proceed regarding the rate. I'm very careful discussing the rate because I don't want to show the client that I'm most concerned with the pay than the work at hand. Also I'm not sure as how to approach this situation as this is my first time doing this kind of arrangement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is also worth mentioning that the client and I are from different countries, they are from US and I'm from the other side of the world. Also since they are the ones asking for a full time worker under my company it is understandably a transparent transaction, meaning they are aware that I'm not using anyone to do work under my name, they are well aware the someone is doing full time work for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT**  &#xD;&#xA;They specifically asked &quot;how much would it cost to hire a full time person under my company&quot;. Sounds to me that they want a different rate for that person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So now here are my questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. What rate should I offer them? The job is fairly easy and can be done by anyone who is computer savvy. Is it fair to me and the client that I stick with the same price per hour? I'm afraid that I would lose them if I do stick with the same rate.  &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;  Or should I just use my rate and just give a percentage of it to the person I'm hiring?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Should I let my employee communicate with the client directly? I'm afraid that they might remove me from the equation since I won't be doing much of the work and only supervise. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. Do you guys think I should modify the contract between me and the client and create another one for the person I'm going to hire?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 4. Lastly, is it rude to ask about the rate we're going to use, either my rate or the newbie's rate? Or is it fine to be straight-forward with people from US?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12947" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4301" RevisionGUID="9d20067e-1838-4d69-b172-d3ebf201bea4" CreationDate="2016-03-10T12:35:11.773" UserId="1793" Comment="added 20 characters in body" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|remote|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12949" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4302" RevisionGUID="327c2abb-2ae9-4be1-b3d4-7487ff07bf6f" CreationDate="2016-03-10T12:57:13.753" UserId="7858" Comment="Elaboration after comment" Text="A correct approach depends on several aspects:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Will this person be employed by you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If yes, you should be compensated for the bureaucracy that follows having employees. If not, will you bill the client and have the full-timer bill you a bit less?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bear in mind, having an employee means you are responsible for finding work for this person when this project ends. In your situation, I would prefer someone who is already a freelancer and have them bill you - and then you bill the client a bit more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could also take a one-time payment for findng the full-timer and have them bill the client directly - but that could remove you from the equation altogether.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Maintaining an ongoing relationship with the client:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Two scenarios: If the project scope is well-defined, you could go for a fixed-price contract. If it isn't, you should negotiate two hourly rates: One for the full-timer and one for whatever hours you are needed managing or delivering; he latter rate being higher than the former.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12953" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4305" RevisionGUID="8973ccc3-1ca0-4725-ac04-7e3e9d9999a0" CreationDate="2016-03-10T14:47:10.627" UserId="7696" Text="Politely ask for it by bringing up the topic/request before you hand over the password. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it was an email, it would be somewhere along these words:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Sure, I do have the password. I managed to keep all the details&#xD;&#xA;&gt; securely. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Oh but before that, do you by any chance remember that we still have&#xD;&#xA;&gt; an outstanding balance from the previous project?&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; It's something I've been meaning to ask you about. I was hoping I&#xD;&#xA;&gt; could get the amount in full this time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12954" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4306" RevisionGUID="6077172e-f8d9-4b10-9955-1650a96cf04d" CreationDate="2016-03-10T17:00:09.397" UserId="11698" Text="A client wants me to work on their existing (half-baked) e-commerce solution for their family business. It is a **Shopify** application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have never used Shopify before but I have build apps using wordpress and I understand the concept. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would you approach pricing the client? What would you base your pricing model on? Are there any metrics? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far I have read : 	http://benrmatthews.com/freelance-consultant-rates-how-to-work-out-your-hour-day-or-project-rate/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;but I have not reached any conclusion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some additional information:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I shall not be charging them to learn the concepts&#xD;&#xA;- This is my first time setting a price for my services&#xD;&#xA;- They do not want to be charged hourly&#xD;&#xA;- I am thinking about charging them a rate for simple front-end changes per page, however I have no clue how to charge them when it is about implementing a new feature that is quite backend involved. (Also, different tasks may involve different amounts of effort. So should I charge a different rate for every new feature?)&#xD;&#xA;- When would be acceptable to be paid? Immediately after the deliverable or after they agree upon the quality of the service?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help would be greatly appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12955" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4306" RevisionGUID="6077172e-f8d9-4b10-9955-1650a96cf04d" CreationDate="2016-03-10T17:00:09.397" UserId="11698" Text="Pricing For a Shopify Application" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12956" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4306" RevisionGUID="6077172e-f8d9-4b10-9955-1650a96cf04d" CreationDate="2016-03-10T17:00:09.397" UserId="11698" Text="|payment-terms|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12958" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="325" RevisionGUID="53e6745a-bbd3-4636-8624-1961b2d442e7" CreationDate="2016-03-10T18:49:24.123" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="12960" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4307" RevisionGUID="1b632131-ea16-4538-b7d1-e6b2af58ca63" CreationDate="2016-03-10T22:14:43.607" UserId="11726" Text="So I have numerous app and tech ideas that I really want to pursue. I have knowledge in python and some in Swift and know a lot about entrepreneurship and efficiency. How do I go about getting a group of members together for no pay, but a share of the profit if we receive any. I've failed with trying to draw people in because the sound of &quot;no pay&quot; puts a lot of people off that they don't want to hear the idea. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Colin" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12961" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4307" RevisionGUID="1b632131-ea16-4538-b7d1-e6b2af58ca63" CreationDate="2016-03-10T22:14:43.607" UserId="11726" Text="Creating a startup" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12962" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4307" RevisionGUID="1b632131-ea16-4538-b7d1-e6b2af58ca63" CreationDate="2016-03-10T22:14:43.607" UserId="11726" Text="|programmer|project-management|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12963" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4308" RevisionGUID="fe06338e-5fdd-4238-b521-aa9f5bfa76ca" CreationDate="2016-03-10T23:33:52.560" UserId="11728" Text="I had used freelance.com some time ago, but recently I had joined UpWork (upwork.com). It is better than Freelance.com, you can have a feed delivered on feedly, for example, with your personalized search.&#xD;&#xA;There is another site that I've joined called Workana (workana.com).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12964" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4309" RevisionGUID="3499193c-0e92-466a-8489-2864db54efc4" CreationDate="2016-03-11T01:01:46.090" UserId="7717" Text="&gt; How do I go about getting a group of members together for no pay, but&#xD;&#xA;&gt; a share of the profit if we receive any.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realistically, you either &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - bring along a bunch of close friends who are experts in the field and passionate enough about the idea to take a huge financial risk on it, &#xD;&#xA; - &quot;hire&quot; some naïve and incompetent college students and string them along until the whole thing falls apart&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless it's a close personal friend, nobody with real skills and experience is going to accept a job solely on the possibility of maybe getting some profit share some day if you actually make any profit. People with the skills and experience you need to get your start-up off the ground are going to expect to be paid for education and experience they bring to the team. Asking them to work for free is disrespectful of their skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The business model you are proposing is the *number one red flag* to look out for when interviewing with a client. It shows that the client is&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Too inexperienced to be running a business (or otherwise trying to exploit freelancers)&#xD;&#xA; - Not confident in the success of their idea (if they were, they'd want all of the profit!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're the one starting the business, you're supposed to be the one taking the risk. If your idea is so great, then you **take a business loan and use that to pay your employees or freelancers**. If you can't get a business loan, it indicates that your idea isn't that great, or that you don't have the experience you need to be running the business in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12965" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4295" RevisionGUID="62f7cf87-c197-4dcb-8217-bc876a22774d" CreationDate="2016-03-11T09:00:01.610" UserId="11704" Comment="added 407 characters in body" Text="If they are from the `European Union`, you might check their validity on the official European Commission website. You need their **VAT Number**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/?locale=en&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's where I check my potential clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**UPDATE:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the EU (at least in some countries), it is mandatory that the company has a VAT number if they trade anything with an entity from another country, even if they make little or no money. Indeed, while trading with a company from their own country (if they don't make more than € 65.000 / year) they are not required to use the VAT number, but they **must** have it for international use." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12972" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4312" RevisionGUID="851e84c9-7b2d-4119-a7d4-2060493e0bf5" CreationDate="2016-03-11T14:18:51.693" UserId="11738" Text="This one's easy. Say&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Before we proceed, I am going to need you to pay the outstanding fees for the work I did on xx/xx - xx/xx (date).&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may also write up an invoice / bill if you don't have one already. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't be rude. If there was no record of agreement (written or verbal), you probably can't get them legally, but if they don't at least agree to pay you what you are owed, you should end your relationship with them. Simple as that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always be kind and understanding, but never let yourself get stiffed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12973" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4313" RevisionGUID="5062106f-c9f2-4230-a1f5-607ce6e9d276" CreationDate="2016-03-11T17:16:21.980" UserId="11741" Text="First, I would let him vent, and encourage him to continue to vent. Keep him talking. Listen for what is frustrating him, not what is wrong with the project. Agree with him wherever possible! This is vital. Eat your pride. Don't commit to things, but agree with how he feels whenever you can. &quot;Wow! I certainly hear your frustration. If I were in your shoes, I'd be upset too. I want to fix this. What is it that you need this to do? Not the software, what part of your job is this supposed to help you with, and how?&quot; What this will do for you is give you insights that will allow you to spot potential issues during design/requirements discussions. It might also get him to &quot;like&quot; you, which will help a lot.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, I would look for commonalities in what he is asking you to do. Is he asking for changes in reporting? Does he keep asking for changes in the UI and he's focused on the look and feel? Does he want to change how his employees are managed? What about his work in progress? Try to discern what he is wanting to accomplish, not just what he wants the software to do. What are ***his*** problems? Gain insight into that, and you'll figure out why he's asking for changes. Then, focus on what would give him the most value first. He'll always tell you &quot;it's all important and urgent.&quot; However, if you understand what he's trying to accomplish, you'll know what to focus on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third, is he the one using the code, or is it for his staff? He may not truly understand what they want, and when they tell him it doesn't work, all he knows is that his staff doesn't like it, and he's spent $X getting a software package that isn't doing what they need it to do. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fourth, prepare for your legal case. Sometimes, things don't go right. Document EVERYTHING! Your phone calls, start times, end times, content. Write summaries of your understanding of all communications with him, and provide him copies of this understanding. If you email it, set it up to receive a notice when he opens it. Then you've documented that he's received it and you have a nice paper trail. He'll also know that you're documenting things, and I'm sure he realizes that in a legal case, whoever has the best documentation usually wins. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With these points, I bet he either starts behaving himself, or at least will be willing to consider a strategy for parting ways without leaving him with an unusable product." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12974" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4312" RevisionGUID="7b56f859-1dfa-4c95-b172-3f6615a6bf6b" CreationDate="2016-03-11T17:20:18.490" UserId="11738" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="This one's easy. Say&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Before we proceed, I am going to need you to pay the outstanding fees for the work I did on xx/xx - xx/xx (date).&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may also write up an invoice / bill if you don't have one already. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't be rude. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there is no record of agreement (written or verbal), you probably can't get them legally, but if they don't at least agree to pay you what you are owed, you should end your relationship with them. Simple as that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always be kind and understanding, but never let yourself get stiffed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12978" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4268" RevisionGUID="8832847e-e601-4dd2-83cd-98bdda685701" CreationDate="2016-03-12T00:14:13.913" UserId="708" Comment="oops.. let out &quot;not&quot;" Text="Life's too short.. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have 2 choices....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Invoice for the work you've completed. Wait until that invoice is paid. Then tell him you're done.&#xD;&#xA;    You'll package everything and prepare to deliver things in their&#xD;&#xA;    current state and he will be free to find another developer to&#xD;&#xA;    finish the project.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Be quiet, sit back, and realize your only option is to deal with the&#xD;&#xA;    client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Barring these two choices, I don't know what else you *can* do. Certainly trying to &quot;change&quot; the client or alter his work habits or how he interacts with you will *never* be fruitful. Getting everything in writing is a good idea, but that should have been done from day 1.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Hopefully your files are *not* a nightmare for another developer. But even if they are... well, if it's not part of your contract to deliver complete documentation, then... well...)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12982" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4316" RevisionGUID="0c35599d-c304-4c6f-a78c-be3dc11d5096" CreationDate="2016-03-13T04:07:18.933" UserId="11751" Text="I would try looking on multiple sites if you are having trouble with Freelance.com. Opening yourself up to a larger pool of jobs will help you land the ones right for you that get you the most money, and you may even find that on other sites, people are willing to pay more or offer more work for a more consistent salary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12983" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4264" RevisionGUID="b2add36c-ce95-48c6-8911-5ab0b81f83df" CreationDate="2016-03-13T08:07:13.990" UserId="5248" Comment="spelling errors." Text="I'm from the US, so I'm not sure how the Australian laws work (as far as a minor working goes), but I'll try my best in answering this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. This depends on the laws based on the client and your country, especially since you're considered a minor. I won't say no, but I also can't say yes either. Reason being, is that most places would need a bank account and if you make up to a certain amount (like it is here in the US), you have to report it on your taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. There are people that make a full-time living with freelancing. Just know that you have to keep yourself disciplined to accomplish that. Also, keeping up with your pay is another thing. Some clients aren't as trustworthy (sadly), and it's always great to establish pay terms before even starting on the assignment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Do I need to learn much more and if so what is it? When it comes to programming, you'll always be learning. There are so many languages out there, just find one that you like, learn it, and dabble with it. Ruby and Python are two that are trending right now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Where to start? Establish a profile at Github.com to place your projects there. You can also look at http://www.upwork.com.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. You're not. It's actually great that you know what you like doing early on. I was 13 when I knew the path I wanted to take.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Check out this site: http://www.freecodecamp.com (they even have a GitHub section incase you're confused on it). If you're well-versed in the topics displayed within that site, then just create a profile on Github and get started." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12984" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4317" RevisionGUID="a40cece8-752c-455b-a20f-4607c3ae5714" CreationDate="2016-03-13T18:48:54.977" UserId="11760" Text="If it's not in the contract, the software developer owns the code.  By US law, anything that has been created by a person automatically own rights to it, unless otherwise stated. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12988" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4265" RevisionGUID="5da2365d-6e85-4d57-bf2c-d210d8c53640" CreationDate="2016-03-14T18:51:41.683" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 91 characters in body" Text="1. Yes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Um, yes? If freelancing weren't manageable, I guess people wouldn't be doing it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. I think what you need to learn is how to find clients, and then learn what those clients want. For better or worse, I think web development is probably more in-demand than those other things you listed. If you want to be a successful freelancer, I would ask &quot;What work do people want done, and how can I learn to deliver that work?&quot; rather than &quot;I can do programming in X. Do people want that?&quot; Oh, and do you need to &quot;learn much more&quot;? Yes, there's more to learn about business (freelancing = business) than you could learn in your whole life. You need to start learning as fast as you can and never stop.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. I'd say start by finding your first client. Read the books Get Clients Now! by C.J. Hayden and Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port. I'd also highly recommend Double Your Freelancing Rate by Brennan Dunn. You can also check out my site, businessnetworkingforfreelanceprogrammers.com, although there's not much there yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. Maybe yes, maybe no, but who cares? Just fake it til you make it. You're in a GREAT position in that you don't *need* the money. When I started freelancing I had a wife and six-month-old baby to support. I had to do some things out of desperation that were not only unpleasant to do but also slowed my growth as a freelancer. If you don't need the money, you can say F you to bad clients, which is a wonderful thing to be able to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Alan Weiss says you should only ever do free work for non-profits. I think that's probably good advice. I would also add that you can work on your own projects for fun for free, and that can help. This post might be relevant: [http://www.jasonswett.net/how-to-get-a-job-using-a-technology-you-dont-know/](http://www.jasonswett.net/how-to-get-a-job-using-a-technology-you-dont-know/)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice in a few bullet points:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Realize that freelancing is a **business**&#xD;&#xA;- Put equal focus on *sales* and *delivery* (i.e. programming). Don't focus too much on the code. You need clients in order to be able to get to be a coder.&#xD;&#xA;- Once you get a &quot;real job&quot;, it's easy to get stuck there forever and have a mediocre life. I would give almost anything to be in your shoes. Be very wary of getting yourself stuck in a real job.&#xD;&#xA;- I wouldn't advise going to college for the degree. I would only do it for the social experiences." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12989" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4319" RevisionGUID="0516b977-c070-41b3-b05f-b693190af437" CreationDate="2016-03-15T09:28:30.010" UserId="11738" Text="Sounds like you have a client on a power trip. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know this is a short answer, and one that has been repeated over and over on this question, but here it is: **End the relationship, and go find a better client.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients are a lot like personal relationships: If you're in an abusive one, GET OUT. It's that simple. Do the work required, find another client, and politely end the contract. If you're smart, your contract already contains a clause that states that the client releases you from ALL liability to the maximum legally applicable extent. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To avoid this in the future - in every contract, you should make it *clear* that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(a.) The client is *not to pay* until the current milestone / project is complete to his satisfaction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(b.) **Once the payment is made, *that's it*.** No threats of legal action, no lawyers, no third parties may become involved. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(c.) Lack of communication is not acceptable (i.e. the contract becomes null and void or is put on hold after a certain period of attempted communication without any response, except for any outstanding balance)  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(d.) Either party can end the contract at ANY time without penalty or liability. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that the above is not legal advice - it's common sense. **Ask an attorney for additional advice and assistance in wording your contract terms properly.** - I am not qualified to write legal documents, but this is definitely the  idea you're going for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition to this, ideally, *you should not accept any payment until the work is complete*, and you should be reasonable about making revisions / editions to your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Alternatively, you can take every contract to a third-party site like UpWork, which will take a certain percentage of your income to act as an escrow service for you. You create a profile, they create a profile, verify, enter payment info, etc - then just do all the work through their platform. This is probably the easiest way. It is often against the terms and conditions to take work found on a freelance site outside of their platform, BUT it is not against the rules to search for clients on the outside and guide them to create a profile and use the platform. These sites protect both you and the client, and they eliminate a great deal of anxiety surrounding contracts, fraud, and legal issues. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is disheartening to hear that another freelancer is going through this. I hope you can find a reasonable solution to the situation. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12999" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4322" RevisionGUID="0b7cdeaa-6769-4e89-bb19-189b9ad09f02" CreationDate="2016-03-15T18:19:03.537" UserId="1706" Text="It's owned by whoever's paying for the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13000" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4323" RevisionGUID="c1e722bf-4b2c-4e2e-afd4-fa83d9252120" CreationDate="2016-03-15T18:25:51.257" UserId="1706" Text="If your client wants a relationship where she can feel free to call you whenever and make changes at-will, then your contract CANNOT be fixed price.  You're going to have to go to hourly or you're going to shoot yourself in the foot because the scope isn't fixed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13001" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4324" RevisionGUID="1c302c12-c364-4fca-9960-7cfd4231eca4" CreationDate="2016-03-15T18:30:16.867" UserId="1706" Text="Technically, if your fixed-price project isn't broken into DOCUMENTED milestones, then the client owes you the complete unpaid balance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client has had a case of &quot;buyer's remorse&quot;, and just because the client is no longer interested in the work it doesn't remove the client's obligation to meet his/her side of the contract.  A contract isn't dissolved just because one side doesn't like it anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hand over all the completed work, and send an invoice for the balance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13002" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4325" RevisionGUID="d9d72249-9d71-49d2-aec8-d907bfb35f1b" CreationDate="2016-03-16T00:13:16.423" UserId="514" Text="As you have no contract, this may not apply to this situation: But at least in the US most good contracts state that your work is a &quot;Work made for hire&quot;. Again in the US, those are &quot;magic words&quot; that mean &quot;you hired me to make it; you own it immediately I create it; and you are obligated to pay for it.&quot; If you withhold the work, you not only have no basis for demanding payment, but you are seizing property that doesn't belong to you. Work made for hire agreements exist for that reason." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13003" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4253" RevisionGUID="7a65e8ce-bf8f-4abf-bb54-9edb5f3223a2" CreationDate="2016-03-16T15:05:57.810" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/710119923754917888" />
  <row Id="13004" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4326" RevisionGUID="42621e42-59ff-4510-952d-716093c82104" CreationDate="2016-03-17T02:04:40.547" UserId="11789" Text="Firstly, you mentioned your CV.  That is an academic term and has specific meanings.  But if what you are really asking about is a resume, then just make sure your resume reflects why you are the right person or company for the job.  In other words, write your resume specifically to be that nice juicy worm with the hook inside.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If by freelancing you mean long-term projects then you can just put them in as normal employment during the period.  They are not going to do an IRS audit on you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for your description of bouncing around from project to project during your typical day, any future employer is likely to think you will not give her project adequate attention.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, feel free to list yourself as a DBA...  Say that for four years you have worked for AwesomeTech and have done ..what?  List projects that might seem relevant to your prospective employer.  Use your company name as an indicator that you are available for the next project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cheers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13006" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4181" RevisionGUID="46ac4d32-f4a5-4d74-a2d9-dba5602cd171" CreationDate="2016-03-17T12:15:43.060" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/710439467232968704" />
  <row Id="13008" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="917" RevisionGUID="4f32e6e1-d7b5-4ec4-a71f-3d93a34fdc02" CreationDate="2016-03-17T13:47:12.963" UserId="58" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="13009" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4328" RevisionGUID="5e553679-a58b-44b5-8058-618faddc2bfd" CreationDate="2016-03-17T20:55:05.063" UserId="11802" Text="I'm currently a web developer, generally with the Python Django framework. What I do could be called full stack development. And, I'm looking to go freelance!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I'm interested in learning about is people's experience with freelance development as opposed to design. I can rock Javascript, Bootstrap, and the rest as well as anybody but I am NOT a graphic designer. I can spin up web servers, databases, the like and I'm very interested in front-end development. Meaning I can make a website look nice, but I'm never going to be tweaking the curves in your logo.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my limited samples I've seen a lot more requests for design than development jobs. My value is clear to me and, I may be biased here, I believe often more valuable than a straight-up designer but its seems to be a lot harder to sell even if only because its less visual.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone else have experience selling their value as a developer? What sort of clients are most looking for dev work? Any other pointers?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13010" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4328" RevisionGUID="5e553679-a58b-44b5-8058-618faddc2bfd" CreationDate="2016-03-17T20:55:05.063" UserId="11802" Text="Attracting clients who want web developer not designer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13011" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4328" RevisionGUID="5e553679-a58b-44b5-8058-618faddc2bfd" CreationDate="2016-03-17T20:55:05.063" UserId="11802" Text="|attracting-clients|communication|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13012" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4329" RevisionGUID="0455f2b9-83f6-4ee3-b9f0-f2f4cd48f3f1" CreationDate="2016-03-18T01:43:48.633" UserId="7717" Text="I have a client who is having me produce a promotional video. I bill this client hourly for work I perform for them. As the video nears completion, it's getting to the point where it takes 15 minutes to render out the full sequence in HD.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I bill the client while my computer is rendering? At first I was thinking of charging them a reduced rate, since once the render starts I can just throw on the TV for 15 minutes. However, since I can't perform any other work for any client while my system resources are committed to rendering, I'm starting to think it makes more sense just to bill at my normal rate. Is there a standard practice for this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(I am not trying to fleece the client; I typically only do a full render once per full day of work - that's 15 minutes out of 8 hours spent rendering.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13013" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4329" RevisionGUID="0455f2b9-83f6-4ee3-b9f0-f2f4cd48f3f1" CreationDate="2016-03-18T01:43:48.633" UserId="7717" Text="How to bill client for rendering time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13014" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4329" RevisionGUID="0455f2b9-83f6-4ee3-b9f0-f2f4cd48f3f1" CreationDate="2016-03-18T01:43:48.633" UserId="7717" Text="|billing|hourly|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13015" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4330" RevisionGUID="81df40f7-f63c-4313-b7c9-abde283e2e15" CreationDate="2016-03-18T06:36:12.910" UserId="7858" Text="Charge your normal rate - because, as you say, it prevents you from doing other work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients generally accept they're buying your time - so having varying rates could potentially open up a whole new can of worms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keeping it simple with one rate for your time seems the best option for both parties as it enables more smooth collaboration." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13016" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4331" RevisionGUID="da465466-06f5-4855-a827-cc9d3a1029cd" CreationDate="2016-03-18T07:23:59.393" UserId="11786" Text="I personally don't have experience selling this, but I know some cases: you want to target small companies that need servers, forms... and they may be not expert on creating this. For example, look for local businesses in the following sectors: property/housing local companies, private doctors/dentist, hairdresses... even tatto artist. Think about those small businesses that need to attract client by collecting their emails or offering clients the possibility to request quotations or event to create their profile in the website to being able to see their medical records and make appointments.&#xD;&#xA;You may need to look for them in your city, or search in Google to see if they already have social media.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, as a freelancer, you may want to have a look to https://www.fiverr.com/ and https://www.upwork.com/ and see what your competitors offer and maybe create your own profile.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this helps.   " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13017" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="4331" RevisionGUID="4980661e-1262-4f99-90fb-59cbb44fbe6e" CreationDate="2016-03-18T07:36:09.550" UserId="11786" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:11786,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Behind The Sciences&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="13018" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="4331" RevisionGUID="a0661fdf-a2c9-41b1-93c2-597161df881b" CreationDate="2016-03-18T07:42:16.880" UserId="11786" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:11786,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Behind The Sciences&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="13019" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4332" RevisionGUID="5fd00f0c-1ce6-4b05-925f-fd4aa9a2c0ea" CreationDate="2016-03-18T07:55:26.553" UserId="8046" Text="Just to add something that I don't think has been addressed and that you should verify with your accountant:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Suppose we make £10,000 gross income from the product in a given tax year. I owe my partner £5,000 by agreement. [...] **I then pay tax and NI on my profits**. He then pays tax &amp; NI on his profits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you need to be careful about is: when you receive the full amount and then pay your partner (who is not really a partner but another independent entrepreneur), you need to make sure to include the full amount you received as gross income. What the other freelancer cost you is considered as an expense.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending where you are and the regulations there, some countries would require you to declare the full amount you got even if you shared it. Your partner's payment is considered an expense and the full amount you got is your revenue. The profit is the (10k - 5k). Your partner will not have any trouble but you could if you ever get audited. Talk to your accountant about this to make sure there won't be any issue and how you should proceed!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13020" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4332" RevisionGUID="a0178c1c-3cf8-4264-9060-0bb2a00b885e" CreationDate="2016-03-18T08:01:47.133" UserId="8046" Comment="added 8 characters in body" Text="Just to add something that I don't think has been addressed and that you should verify with your accountant:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Suppose we make £10,000 gross income from the product in a given tax year. I owe my partner £5,000 by agreement. [...] **I then pay tax and NI on my profits**. He then pays tax &amp; NI on his profits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you need to be careful about is: when you receive the full amount and then pay your partner (who is not really a partner but another independent entrepreneur), you need to make sure to include the full amount you received as gross income. What the other freelancer cost you is usually considered as an expense. So in a way, you need to see it as you are both hiring each others to work on projects. The one who receives the full payment is like a client and when you need to pay your partner, he needs to send you an invoice for his work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending where you are and the regulations there, some countries would require you to declare the full amount you got even if you shared it. Your partner's payment is considered an expense and the full amount you got is your revenue. The profit is the (10k - 5k). Your partner will not have any trouble but you could if you ever get audited. Talk to your accountant about this to make sure there won't be any issue and how you should proceed! *I can't say if it can be an issue in the UK but it's the way to proceed where I live.*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13021" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4333" RevisionGUID="9ab5166a-c190-464b-8b56-fe4b170eb9ca" CreationDate="2016-03-18T16:10:39.507" UserId="11579" Text="You have not referenced location but I am thinking a similar question on startups exchange that I answered is likely to help you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that rates are higher when you travel and work on a clients site, as opposed to working from home. I've been a freelancer as you call it since 1994 - Working from home brings problems of miscommunication with the customer and can lead to headaches. See another question I answered http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4266/client-threatening-legal-action-constantly/4286#4286&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not suggesting you do or do not work from home, but I'm just pointing out that the work can be rich but money is not free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Europe, most of my contracts have come from jobserve.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13022" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4334" RevisionGUID="8d12c411-124d-47d8-b0b1-195975bb0068" CreationDate="2016-03-18T16:20:35.340" UserId="11812" Text="Following the [@BehindTheSciences][1] answer, you can also can have a look to the facebook pages of local companies and see if they have website. If not, you can contact them (if they are local, in person) and present them a &quot;business plan&quot; explaining why you think their company will improve by having a website like the want you have in mind. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally, you could do this remotely with non-local companies, and contact them by email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck :) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://@BehindTheSciences" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13026" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4336" RevisionGUID="42c7a496-7fdf-48d3-bd3a-682f0c70b390" CreationDate="2016-03-18T18:03:32.663" UserId="7486" Text="When someone needs a website, in most of the cases, they have no idea that there is a designer and a developer, or someone who can do both things, they just look for &quot;someone who builds my good looking and functional website&quot;, without making much difference between web design or web development. They are completely unaware of your skills, they don't even know what is Python, Javascript, or an HTML form, they want the result.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if you want to concentrate only on the development part you can still present yourself as &quot;someone who is able to build a site&quot;, enstablish a collaboration with one or more freelance designer and then if someone will contact you asking for &quot;web design job&quot; (meaning the full development of the site from design to coding) you can talk and understand what the client needs, then you can communicate with your freelance designers, make them take care about the graphics and layout, and then when the design is approved you will start your part of the job, and the client will be happy, he will have what he needs, you will work on what you like to do and your designers will do the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this way you will also be able to get development jobs from your freelance designers, if they want to concentrate on the graphic part they will use your skills for the coding, and vice versa.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also contact web agencies and offer yourself as a developer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13027" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4337" RevisionGUID="2ea3fb3d-1e60-48bd-b91b-9fd859b74e26" CreationDate="2016-03-19T05:38:24.600" UserId="11819" Text="This is a complicated area and the answers vary from state to state in the US also the contracting firm paying you on the 1099 might have there own idiosyncrasies based on the state where they are incorporated, or the municipality where the contract client is located, or just stuff that happened to them in the past.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know much about Connecticut I can only talk about my experience. I live in NJ and took my first 1099 contract position in the spring of 2015. The position was with a large foreign owned investment bank with offices in NYC and it paid a very good rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contractor firm insisted I have general liability coverage for 1M and Workman's compensation coverage. I had to show proof of both insurances before I could collect my first paycheck. The GL coverage cost around 500 and the WC is about 700 per year, since I obtained IRS s-corp status I am able to expense all this insurance cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It turns out that the contracting firm I am dealing with is trying to make as much money as possible while doing as little as possible. Since they don't want to pay for workman's comp insurance, or worse yet have someone actually make a claim against said insurance, they simply push this requirement to each 1099 contractor. It's perfectly legal and it saves them a lot of headaches.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the idea of software developers having workman's comp claims might seem funny to some people, but I can tell you that NY State takes this very seriously. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I found out the hard way after letting my coverage lapse. I received a threatening letter from NYS Workman's Compensation Board telling me that I could be fined up to $1000 per week for  every week I operate without Workmen's Comp Insurance. After receiving letter I immediately got a new policy and notified them of the new coverage. I am still waiting to find out if there will be a fine, but my insurance agent thinks I can easily appeal since I am an SLLC (single member owner). I would suspect Connecticut has a similar bureaucracy that will hound you if you drop/decline the required coverage.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for the GL coverage I think this is about the contracting firm covering it's ass in the litigious sense as others has said. In my case the LLC protects my personal assets so any lawsuit recovery would be limited to the cash in my business account that I don't already owe to the government, so I guess the GL policy helps them sleep at night, that and the big pile of cash I earned them!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13036" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3124" RevisionGUID="43ffba15-9a31-4372-8491-1627597882c2" CreationDate="2016-03-19T15:26:15.727" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/711212194969600000" />
  <row Id="13040" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4331" RevisionGUID="39532fe9-fd60-4105-ba5f-4366117f8832" CreationDate="2016-03-20T01:53:31.527" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 203 characters in body" Text="I personally don't have experience selling this, but I know some cases: you want to target small companies that need servers, forms... and they may be not expert on creating this. For example, look for local businesses in the following sectors: property/housing local companies, private doctors/dentist, hairdressers... even tattoo artist. Think about those small businesses that need to attract client by collecting their emails or offering clients the possibility to request quotations or event to create their profile in the website to being able to see their medical records and make appointments.&#xD;&#xA;You may need to look for them in your city, or search in Google to see if they already have social media." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13046" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4344" RevisionGUID="aaa5fdf3-1368-43c2-810f-148e518f24fc" CreationDate="2016-03-20T20:52:30.330" UserId="11757" Text="I cannot use Photoshop, cannot create images, don't have any knowledge of backend languages.&#xD;&#xA;Can I freelance with the available skills? How do I start?what should be my wage given that I'm a beginer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13047" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4344" RevisionGUID="aaa5fdf3-1368-43c2-810f-148e518f24fc" CreationDate="2016-03-20T20:52:30.330" UserId="11757" Text="Can I freelance if I know only HTML,CSS and Javascript?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13048" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4344" RevisionGUID="aaa5fdf3-1368-43c2-810f-148e518f24fc" CreationDate="2016-03-20T20:52:30.330" UserId="11757" Text="|freelance-websites|working-from-home|price-per-hour|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13050" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4345" RevisionGUID="d4385343-d356-4abb-8206-133808d05023" CreationDate="2016-03-21T03:15:31.683" UserId="1563" Text="You can surely freelance using those skills. But, given the condition,I cannot foresee a clientbase with pretty nice cash inflow towards your side.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally, with these skills, you will be getting clients who need portfolio/static websites. That too, depends on how you bag these clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Getting more knowledge on Wordpress and other CMSes will help you to gain some stability on this domain. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to start by reaching out to people online/offline who need a website made.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your wage depends on you. What is the bare minimum amount for you (per hour or fixed), depending on the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your top priority should be to get this amount at any cost. Above that, whatever your charge the client is totally your talent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13051" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4329" RevisionGUID="2a7bdbfe-e95c-4d39-a9d6-8718a86131b8" CreationDate="2016-03-21T03:36:27.260" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/711758342247620610" />
  <row Id="13053" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4291" RevisionGUID="6bfdf845-f725-48aa-b69a-872d45aedd1a" CreationDate="2016-03-21T22:33:49.040" UserId="11696" Comment="clarify non-solicitation agreement" Text="I recently had a major client terminate their Service Level Agreement (SLA) with my company in Canada, and I'm trying to assess what rights as a contractor I have since my fixed term SLA has what appear to be contradictory conditions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My SLA contract with them, which lasted just for under a year, specifies it's a fixed term contract:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; This contract will be in effect ***until the end of the current financial year, February 29, 2016.*** It is anticipated that this contract will be renewed on an annual basis subject to agreement by both parties. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Key considerations will be delivery of satisfactory performance by&#xD;&#xA;&gt; XXX [me] and agreement with regards to compensation terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;In preparation for signing a new contract YYY's Executive Director [the client] will meet with xxx's principal [me] to review the previous year’s performance and to discuss future compensation terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, this fixed term contract also has a provision that says:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Contract Commencement, Revision &amp; Termination*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The term of this contract commences upon signing by both parties. ***Regardless of the contract end date, at any time either party has the right to give notice to end this contract 90 days from the date of notice.*** During the notice period XXX will be expected to deliver IT services and will continue to be paid as per the terms of this contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was served notice to stop working on the project on February 8th, just weeks before the contract's expiry.  I was told they would pay me out for all of February (the last month of the contract), and that in addition to this, they would also pay me for an extra month if I agree to sign a two year non-solicitation agreement, a non-disclosure agreement and cooperate with a technical transition.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did not receive a performance review, though I did receive promises to discuss negotiating a new contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, because the notice period makes mention of the 90 days of notice, I sense that I should be entitled to at least 3 months of notice payout for the contract termination.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on the wording of this fixed term contract, do I have a legal right to demand 90 days of notice pay, even though my contract's termination is happening at the end its fixed term?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;UPDATE:  Turns out they want me to sign a non-solicitation agreement, so I think the extra month of compensation pay is being offered because in Canada [non-solicitation agreements are not enforceable unless something of value is provided in exchange for signing one.](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/can-my-employer-force-me-to-sign-a-non-compete-clause/article533688/)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13054" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4346" RevisionGUID="da6c6260-6abd-40cd-bbbb-5c3b78199836" CreationDate="2016-03-22T21:20:58.970" UserId="11857" Text="I actually work in an almost identical situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't have to register a [Limited Partnership](https://www.gov.uk/set-up-and-run-limited-partnership) or a [Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)](https://www.gov.uk/set-up-and-run-limited-liability-partnership)—you can register as an ordinary business [Partnership](https://www.gov.uk/set-up-business-partnership/setting-up)—which is very similar to being a sole trader and you are still technically self-employed. Similarly to being a sole trader, you are still personally responsible for all losses, bills, debts etc. But all partners are responsible for their share of the business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you register as a partnership, one partner will be the nominated partner—who is responsible for submitting the partnership tax returns and keeping business records.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can both take your share of profits, pay your own NI contributions and any tax due on your share of the profits etc, essentially exactly the same as being a sole trader. The only difference is that you have to submit a separate tax return for the partnership.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can even do—as you said—have all the income come in to your bank account, pay your partners share to him and account for it as business income and your respective shares of the profit, without the need for invoicing each other etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Relevant Documents &amp; Reading (GOV.UK):**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - [Choose a legal structure for your business](https://www.gov.uk/business-legal-structures/business-partnership)&#xD;&#xA; - [Running a business partnership](https://www.gov.uk/set-up-business-partnership/setting-up)&#xD;&#xA; - [Self Assessment: register a partnership for Self Assessment (SA400)](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/self-assessment-register-a-partnership-for-self-assessment-sa400)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13056" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4348" RevisionGUID="b8453a32-5f76-4ab8-846c-77fb7045d5e2" CreationDate="2016-03-23T13:30:34.340" UserId="11865" Text="Let say employer has awarded you a project on Freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Employer has not created any milestone for this project and didn't have verified their payment etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you will accept this project then you have to pay to Freelancer according to their rule.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's you have completed project and given to employer. What's the possibility the employer will pay? This will lead to loss of Freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question is &quot;is it a good idea to start working on such projects?&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13057" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4348" RevisionGUID="b8453a32-5f76-4ab8-846c-77fb7045d5e2" CreationDate="2016-03-23T13:30:34.340" UserId="11865" Text="Is it a good idea to start working on project without any milestone?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13058" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4348" RevisionGUID="b8453a32-5f76-4ab8-846c-77fb7045d5e2" CreationDate="2016-03-23T13:30:34.340" UserId="11865" Text="|freelance-websites|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13059" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4348" RevisionGUID="6d78dfe2-b04e-4ee2-b906-c249c583088a" CreationDate="2016-03-23T13:37:11.200" UserId="11865" Comment="deleted 7 characters in body; edited title" Text="Let say employer has awarded you a project on Freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Employer has not created any milestone for this project and didn't have verified their payment etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you will accept this project then you have to pay to Freelancer according to their rule.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's you have completed project and given to employer. What's the possibility the employer will pay? This will lead to loss of Freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question is &quot;is it safe to start working on such projects?&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13060" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4348" RevisionGUID="6d78dfe2-b04e-4ee2-b906-c249c583088a" CreationDate="2016-03-23T13:37:11.200" UserId="11865" Comment="deleted 7 characters in body; edited title" Text="Is it safe to start working on project without any milestone?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13061" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4349" RevisionGUID="9478f71b-d083-494e-9777-346c6baa0f7c" CreationDate="2016-03-23T17:26:05.877" UserId="708" Text="In sweepingly broad, general terms, it is merely *bad business* to incur costs directly related to *any* project if you do not already have some form of reimbursement agreement in place. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Incurring costs up front, merely means you may be stuck paying those costs yourself without any recourse. Do this too often, and you can tank any business quickly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13062" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4350" RevisionGUID="4382f8b4-dcc0-4c3d-b64e-e75e939a2027" CreationDate="2016-03-23T20:12:45.573" UserId="11579" Text="You need a contract. I've been doing business since 1994 under what some folk refer to as a freelancer (I call it contracting consultant).  Without agreed project deliveables, you will carry the risk of a customer who is never happy, constant changes being asked from you and your expectations of your costs being covered, and your customers interpretation of you correcting without cost what they perceive to mistakes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, depending on what country you are in, without a contract and without clear deliverables, you could be considered an employee. Europe (especially the UK) would see it this way. It leaves the employer open to taxes, paying you sick pay, pension, other benefits (if other employees get car, paid cell phone or health insurance, then you would also qualify).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When in business, the agreement is never between two people (buyer of services and provider of services). There is also laws, and tax laws. Regardless of you or your employers general understanding, the law of the land applies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So even if you don't care about the taxman - think about your relationship with the customer. Break your project down to the most basic goal, agree on that, then once you deliver that, agree the next step... Do that and you two will have a long lasting happy relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A previous Q&amp;A that I did should interest you - even if you are from a different country, you should at least read and consider the points http://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13065" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4287" RevisionGUID="f6b37ade-3d18-464f-aa21-5300249e03d1" CreationDate="2016-03-23T22:03:33.093" UserDisplayName="user11679" Comment="deleted 257 characters in body" Text="Suppose I am self-employed. I join forces with another self-employed person. I can provide a service that he can't and vice versa. We produce and sell a single product. Suppose we agree to split profits from sales 50/50, and that all income comes to my bank accounts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Suppose we make £10,000 gross income from the product in a given tax year. I owe my partner £5,000 by agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If my partner invoices me for £5,000, I then pay him as a service charged to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I then pay tax and NI on my profits. He then pays tax &amp; NI on his profits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My question:** Is this legal, or is there another way to achieve this legally? I am trying to avoid employing this person." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13068" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4351" RevisionGUID="7d37263d-1ac4-4293-9dec-d848311d3402" CreationDate="2016-03-24T07:53:06.213" UserId="11806" Text="I'm not sure if your position is the freelancer or the employer's one but from both points of view, always better to have a word about the expectations, including payments, before starting a work. A contract is needed so everyone can check if what was expected at the beginning of the project is met.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - The freelancer would be more motivated to do his/her best&#xD;&#xA;  - The employer will feel save because he is protected by the contract&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, as mentioned in the previous answer, each country establishes laws and regulations that I would check to make sure nothing illegal is happening.    " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13069" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4348" RevisionGUID="669595de-56b7-4937-a4fe-9f66e1ecbe3c" CreationDate="2016-03-24T08:32:20.760" UserId="11865" Comment="added 9 characters in body" Text="Let say employer has awarded you a project on Freelancer  Website. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Employer has not created any milestone for this project and didn't have verified their payment etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you will accept this project then you have to pay to Freelancer according to their rule.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's you have completed project and given to employer. What's the possibility the employer will pay? This will lead to loss of Freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question is &quot;is it safe to start working on such projects?&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13082" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4355" RevisionGUID="5802e531-9778-4a3d-81b3-61811b695976" CreationDate="2016-03-27T18:09:44.660" UserId="11579" Text="Your location and your personality /confidence is as much if not more important than what you know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A freelancer is sometimes called a consultant or a contractor. All are service providers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A company will expect a service provider to undertake a responsibility for a task or project. They are not interested in giving you experience or a test and paying you to learn. If you are too cheap, well, if something is too good to be true, it usually is and many companies will avoid you. If you too expensive they will move on to. Your charge rate depends on location. Because your skills have alit to do with design most clients would want you onsite. Working from remote leaves huge area for what you believe the client wants and what they expect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A prior q&amp;a I answered should help http://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13083" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4356" RevisionGUID="3a12b787-f16e-4845-b85a-ffd6e8cbd565" CreationDate="2016-03-27T23:41:14.003" UserId="11899" Text="The idea is to create a bank account having the residence in a different country from the one the bank is based on. So international clients accepted in this bank would be the right thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've heard about one placed in **Sweden** but I cannot find it anywhere. They make very easy to manage international payments and taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have some information about?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13084" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4356" RevisionGUID="3a12b787-f16e-4845-b85a-ffd6e8cbd565" CreationDate="2016-03-27T23:41:14.003" UserId="11899" Text="Is there Bank account good for freelancers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13085" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4356" RevisionGUID="3a12b787-f16e-4845-b85a-ffd6e8cbd565" CreationDate="2016-03-27T23:41:14.003" UserId="11899" Text="|taxes|accounting|foreign-markets|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13086" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4357" RevisionGUID="b5cf75fd-3cac-4a6d-8c5b-91149670fd9a" CreationDate="2016-03-28T02:09:54.573" UserId="116" Text="I am looking to quote for a gig to troubleshoot and possibly repair some circuit boards, and this got me thinking: what if I can't find the problem, or the problem isn't there, how should I be compensated for my time? What's the consensus here?&#xA;&#xA;I have no problem splitting my time up between troubleshooting and repair, as it may not even be possible to repair what's damaged, but I at least did the troubleshooting work, but what if I spend hours troubleshooting and can't find the problem, or worse yet: There is no problem, is it just a gamble?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13087" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4357" RevisionGUID="b5cf75fd-3cac-4a6d-8c5b-91149670fd9a" CreationDate="2016-03-28T02:09:54.573" UserId="116" Text="Should one still be paid for troubleshooting when nothing was found?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13088" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4357" RevisionGUID="b5cf75fd-3cac-4a6d-8c5b-91149670fd9a" CreationDate="2016-03-28T02:09:54.573" UserId="116" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13089" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4358" RevisionGUID="cde6edcc-703d-4d3b-a74c-944ac4669c49" CreationDate="2016-03-28T16:15:46.593" UserId="820" Text="Tough question. Seems like the real issue here is **what are you being compensated for**? And **what value are you providing**? I find it best when those two are aligned closely. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**tl;dr:** _I think your best bet is to bill hourly regardless of outcome, but clearly define how much of your time they're willing to pay for per board._&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a [huge advocate for hourly billing](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1588/which-is-the-most-honest-or-ethical-way-to-bill-hourly-or-fixed-price/1600#1600), because with that the first question is easy to answer - you're being compensated for your time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, in your case it may be very advantageous to be compensated for the quantity of boards you process. Then an increase of productivity means increased profits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the client side of things, it seems like the value to them is known working boards. It's better for them if the count of those boards is high (start with 100 boards, have 95 known to be working at the end).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[_I'm inferring a few things here. Since you seem confident that some boards won't have any issues, some will be repairable, and some won't, I'm guessing that the company has a set of boards where the quality is in question. From that, the value to them is - even if it's a smaller group in the end - knowing the quality of each board._]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I believe you'll see the best outcome when what you're selling (charging for) matches the value the client gets - in this case it seems like a per board kind of model *might* work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, you **have value concerns about that**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; but what if I spend hours troubleshooting and can't find the problem, or worse yet: There is no problem&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the troubleshooting / repair is a very repeatable and consistent process, then you could charge per board. But if not, that's a huge risk to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You could modify the per board** pricing a bit, and charge for 'good' boards - that would allow you to skip any boards that look to be too time consuming (based on the per board charge). But that doesn't align well with what the client seems to be looking for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You could charge per board**, and be very clear that you'll spend some maximum of time per board before moving on to the next one (translates into what the client is willing to pay to salvage a board). So the client will know that there are potentially `repairable` boards in the `bad` set. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you're done with your first pass, any leftover time could be used on the most likely repairable boards: `(max_time * total_boards) - time_spent`&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You could just charge for you time**, which is _probabbly_ what I'd do. The client wants to know the boards are either good (possibly repaired) or bad. That takes time - and based on your question, potentially a large variance in that time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key is translating the value for your client into time. You can still have a maximum time per board (so the client isn't concerned about an invoice for far more than the value of a working board), and still use the leftover time after a first pass. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But since you've mapped a relationship between the value and the compensation, you can better invoice the client in those decisions. If 90% of the boards are working after the first pass, and you've taken 50% of the time they're willing to pay for - do they *really* want to spend (potentially) the other 50% of the budget on that last 10%? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course in this case - as with most - transparent communication is critical. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13090" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4359" RevisionGUID="4327fb88-882b-4b45-8bb8-87d19072d0f3" CreationDate="2016-03-28T22:32:58.950" UserId="11912" Text="Not sure if I understood you correctly, but I've heard good things about the the [Estonian e-residency][1] in regards to e-businesses and banks.&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://e-estonia.com/e-residents/about/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13094" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4360" RevisionGUID="3af24280-fc15-4cdf-9903-ef9469e2f1f5" CreationDate="2016-03-29T06:48:31.413" UserId="11786" Text=" [Verksamt.se][1] offers an excellent guide to what Swedish bankers, investors and authorities look for in a business plan. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.verksamt.se/en/web/international/starting/planning-your-start" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13096" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4361" RevisionGUID="74596c5f-00c1-4512-a4d8-10214ccf2c7a" CreationDate="2016-03-29T10:24:27.913" UserId="1018" Text="**Charge an Inspection Fee**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It takes time to determine whether an item can be repaired and if it is economically viable to repair it and it's reasonable for you to charge an inspection fee if the item can't be repaired.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, clients need to be aware of this beforehand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As the inspection fee or the cost of repair approaches the cost of replacement (which in these days of mass production is often the case), then the item becomes a &quot;consumable&quot; and clients will most likely prefer to replace it than trying to have it repaired." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13097" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4361" RevisionGUID="c702b4c2-310a-40aa-b538-fd3d3606351c" CreationDate="2016-03-29T10:31:17.057" UserId="1018" Comment="Known cost vs hourly rate." Text="**Charge an Inspection Fee**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It takes time to determine whether an item can be repaired and how much it will cost to repair the item and it's reasonable for you to charge an inspection fee whether the item can be repaired or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once inspected, you can quote on the cost of repair and the client can decide whether they wish to proceed or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients will likely be more comfortable with this approach compared to an hourly rate as there is a known cost before proceeding.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As the inspection fee or the cost of repair approaches the cost of replacement (which in these days of mass production is often the case), then the item becomes a &quot;consumable&quot; and clients will most likely prefer to replace it than trying to have it repaired." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13101" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4363" RevisionGUID="691650fd-b0bf-4f9a-bf19-85c276ca80a0" CreationDate="2016-03-29T19:08:39.390" UserId="11922" Text="I've recently started freelancing full time, and sometimes I need to employ other people on a freelance basis to help, either when the workload is too high or when I can't do something. Those freelancers give me an invoice which I pay. Can I deduct their fee from my income when calculating my tax return?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13102" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4363" RevisionGUID="691650fd-b0bf-4f9a-bf19-85c276ca80a0" CreationDate="2016-03-29T19:08:39.390" UserId="11922" Text="UK Freelancer employing freelancers - does it lower my tax return?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13103" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4363" RevisionGUID="691650fd-b0bf-4f9a-bf19-85c276ca80a0" CreationDate="2016-03-29T19:08:39.390" UserId="11922" Text="|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13104" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4364" RevisionGUID="78b8b91b-4ce5-450d-9e92-0e9521d2c3d8" CreationDate="2016-03-30T06:05:03.190" UserId="11806" Text="You may write a report of everything you did and explaining a bit what you checked is working properly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, you need to specify the time spent in each task&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is useful for the client in case he/she wants to hire someone else after and the new person can check and maybe look for the error in a place that you didn't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may have a lower rate in the case you didn't find/solve the problem and this should be stated at the beginning of your work. You may charge this as a deposit." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13106" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4365" RevisionGUID="766e2488-173e-44cc-98a4-67a9be4856ac" CreationDate="2016-03-30T11:05:38.060" UserId="11757" Text="For example,&#xD;&#xA;who pays for the domain and hosting services?client or freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;Do I send a payment link to him or the client reimburses me later?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13107" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4365" RevisionGUID="766e2488-173e-44cc-98a4-67a9be4856ac" CreationDate="2016-03-30T11:05:38.060" UserId="11757" Text="How does wordpress development work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13108" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4365" RevisionGUID="766e2488-173e-44cc-98a4-67a9be4856ac" CreationDate="2016-03-30T11:05:38.060" UserId="11757" Text="|freelance-websites|working-from-home|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13109" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3917" RevisionGUID="d8c81b44-ee8b-4cfb-aee4-99638e5cc87f" CreationDate="2016-03-30T11:10:24.717" UserId="10441" Comment="added 174 characters in body" Text="Use this tag for questions regarding selling licenses to use your copyrighted material to others or buying licenses from others to use their copyrighted copyrighted material." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13110" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3917" RevisionGUID="d8c81b44-ee8b-4cfb-aee4-99638e5cc87f" CreationDate="2016-03-30T11:10:24.717" Comment="Proposed by 10441 approved by 708, 61 edit id of 435" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13112" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4366" RevisionGUID="5fcd7450-4f57-4680-9150-4a236c9d62b8" CreationDate="2016-03-30T11:25:58.670" UserId="7858" Text="It depends on the sort of business relationship you want with the client and whether the client is knowledgeable enough to manage things by themselves or basically needs someone to do everything for them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes it makes sense to merely create and deliver the website, get paid and move on. If the client experiences problems or wants enhancements, they may or may not contact you again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want longer relationships with clients, it could make sense that you - for a fee - provide hosting in a kind of 'all inclusive' package. The benefits would be a constant stream of money and a tighter binding to the client who would probably consider you a preferred partner. The downsides could be that you will be blamed for hosting problems that are out of your control." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13114" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4357" RevisionGUID="405395b7-3154-4d1d-9190-481ceb3dce09" CreationDate="2016-03-30T13:30:15.403" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/715169267205939200" />
  <row Id="13115" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4367" RevisionGUID="4ff1830b-1cad-4d98-9b8d-fef010254422" CreationDate="2016-03-30T13:35:08.987" UserId="7858" Text="In Denmark, it would be considered a business expense which lowers your company's income and thus the taxes it must pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only issue would be that the other freelancers are not 'de facto' employees, meaning they expect you to continuously provide work for them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13116" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4368" RevisionGUID="ebd58e69-fac1-44dd-a51f-a512311d8a95" CreationDate="2016-03-30T14:13:12.213" UserId="820" Text="That's completely up to **you**, and what risks you're willing to take. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a [huge advocate for hourly billing](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1588/which-is-the-most-honest-or-ethical-way-to-bill-hourly-or-fixed-price/1600#1600) and that (along with a few other key concepts) defines more [than just what I charge for](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aL4ii_Z3EI).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because my freelancing philosophy is that I **consider myself the product** I have no reason to sell anything else (hosting, domains, other freelancers' time).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead, I'll *manage* all those resources for a client, but [bill the way I always do](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aL4ii_Z3EI&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;t=915): charging for my time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just realize that if you *do* sell those things to clients (reselling a hosting provider's services) you inherit the responsibility the client would otherwise associate with the hosting company. Since you're the one they're paying, you're the one they'll contact for support. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While hosting companies have entire departments dedicated to this, you probably don't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; or the client reimburses me later&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's perhaps the worst situation, where you're not even making a profit on reselling a service. In this case the client *might not* hold you responsible for any problems (but could, since they're still paying you); however, you're on the hook for the payment should they not reimburse you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That'd be a situation to avoid completely. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case I'd help the client setup the hosting they need (charging for your time to do that). Then if they have you on a longer term contract, make sure you're CC'd on all account emails, and manage as much of that for them as possible, but keep the business relationship between your client and the hosting provider." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13117" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4369" RevisionGUID="2472da24-9e35-4d1d-822a-657a7cabb1fd" CreationDate="2016-03-30T16:47:48.373" UserId="11579" Text="Because you do not have a contract in place, I suspect there are too many variables for anyone here to give you a precise answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Possible answers are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Code belongs to the you within countries who respect India law.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Code belongs to the client within countries that respect the law of their country.&#xD;&#xA; 3. A combination of the above (it could be that India and the client country have an agreement in place for this situation).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some countries respect verbal agreements - thus even though you have not signed anything, they have asked and paid for work - what you hand to them belongs to them once you have been remunerated unless otherwise agreed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would never recommend working without a contract - there are too many things that can go wrong - not just ownership issues, but if your code was to negatively impact the client, its not clear if its your problem or there problem. In my contracts, and contracts that I have seen, there is a UAT (User Acceptance Test) whereby client agree's to test something within 5 days (for example) and anything that is found broken within those five days is listed as a defect and fixed for free. Anything that is found broken after five days is a fault that the client cannot sue for and fixes are chargeable. The project scope should make clear what is in, and not in scope - Scope usually changes and thus changes can be charged accordingly (priced as a separate project/software release version).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!&#xD;&#xA;Contracts will also help you get paid if the business takes your code without paying (I know of this happening)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13118" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4370" RevisionGUID="5039138e-5c07-4cda-b9aa-1fa0138c414f" CreationDate="2016-03-30T16:55:11.673" UserId="11579" Text="In short, I believe the answer is yes - at least for me in Germany, and the UK. The costs would be viewed no more different than your internet connection or other business related expense.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have touched on this subject (and offer additional advice) in a prior question in the startups exchange&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recommend you speak with an accountant as you could find there are additional expenses that you can write off against your taxes. In addition I recommend liability insurance as you are now exposed to greater risk of things going wrong (from those who pay you, and from those you pay). The insurance will be tax deductible also.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What @morsor says below is also correct - A number of conditions exist whereby a person can be considered an employee. Make sure you and the other freelancers you pay have a contract between you or you could be held liable if they don't pay their taxes (the law could determine you were an employer, thus holding you responsible). If the law determines they are employee's, then their health, sick pay, holiday pay etc could catch you in an uncomfortable position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13119" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4371" RevisionGUID="f3439e45-bf29-4138-9b19-f7948f718b88" CreationDate="2016-03-30T17:13:55.250" UserId="11579" Text="Based on my experience (from 2003 or 2004)...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 1. Working as a freelancer while being in Canada;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the point system that you refer to. The languages you speak, your skills being from a recognised educational establishment, your age, your health, and any infractions with the law you might have had in any country you have lived all add up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 2. A company hires me for a full-time job in Canada.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A Canadian employer only need prove they have advertised for and failed to find a Canadian candidate. They must offer market wage. (As reference: I left school at 18 without any third level education and they approved my work permit - they approved my permit based on application/paperwork, without an interview too). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly...&#xD;&#xA;What @Scott says in the comments section of your OP is very valid - Go ask the source - Canadian Immigration are very approachable. They are not out to &quot;trap you&quot;. If you screw up and work for someone illegally, saying you asked on an online forum, or that you talked to your employer or even that you talked to a lawyer is NOT an acceptable excuse. *The only valid answer is one from Immigration.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13120" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4372" RevisionGUID="1c70df86-7de2-43f3-83d5-d4319f3d21b3" CreationDate="2016-03-31T01:13:10.783" UserId="11936" Text="I'm just curious what other forms you need to deal with in the United States (Oregon for me) besides 1099's as a freelancer. Thanks " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13121" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4372" RevisionGUID="1c70df86-7de2-43f3-83d5-d4319f3d21b3" CreationDate="2016-03-31T01:13:10.783" UserId="11936" Text="Besides 1099's, what other tax forms will I deal with as a freelancer (in the US)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13122" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4372" RevisionGUID="1c70df86-7de2-43f3-83d5-d4319f3d21b3" CreationDate="2016-03-31T01:13:10.783" UserId="11936" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13123" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4373" RevisionGUID="158019e0-e4c7-477d-bea8-173e2f957dcc" CreationDate="2016-03-31T02:18:03.053" UserId="708" Text="It depends on how your freelance is configured.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It could be merely the 1099s, a 1040, and a schedule C (deductions/expenses) for a sole proprietor or single-member LLC. In addition to quarterly payments based upon these forms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may be more for an S-Corp or other formation )articles of declaration, etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This question is rather broad considering an actual freelance business can be created in many different forms." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13124" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4372" RevisionGUID="d246d1fa-30ee-48b2-84bf-3a6cfb350786" CreationDate="2016-03-31T02:18:52.440" UserId="11936" Comment="added 18 characters in body" Text="I'm just curious what other forms you need to deal with in the United States (Oregon for me) besides 1099's as a freelancer (sole proprietor). Thanks " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13126" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4373" RevisionGUID="97cc9827-908e-48b3-a4ae-afde8ed51c4e" CreationDate="2016-03-31T05:55:25.730" UserId="708" Comment="edited body" Text="It depends on how your freelance is configured.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It could be merely the 1099s, a 1040, and a schedule C (deductions/expenses) for a sole proprietor or single-member LLC. In addition to quarterly payments based upon these forms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may be more for an S-Corp or other formation (articles of declaration, etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This question is rather broad considering an actual freelance business can be created in many different forms." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13127" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4328" RevisionGUID="d663ba66-b56d-4dff-9ad9-9fda3ecca386" CreationDate="2016-03-31T07:31:14.517" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/715441306479276032" />
  <row Id="13128" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4374" RevisionGUID="45f9803b-1829-4991-ac23-a952725bb41f" CreationDate="2016-03-31T10:32:58.460" UserId="11579" Text="Isn't there a saying in English that says something like not to cut off your nose to spite your face? You have not said either if you have been offered the contract so you might well be counting your chickens before they have hatched.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I fell into freelancing in 1994 - I was out of work - a recruiter called and suggested I express an interest in a project that went for 9months. It paid well, it was near three hours from home and brought on unexpected new (and enjoyable experience). It's 2016 and I'm still freelancing/contracting, 23 clients and five countries later!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My experience is it's easier to get a job when you are in a job. It keeps your skills current, it gets you into routine (getting up and out in the morning), it pays the bills and creates new relationships. There is more to doing the job, than doing the job. Few folk are lucky to do a job they really enjoy - you just need to adjust your mindset. I have learned if I think I will be unhappy, I get expensive. If I think I might be happy, I become less expensive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apply for all work - contract or fulltime - I would not tell an employer that you could cut the contract short by leaving to go elsewhere as interviewing candidates can be exhaustive, and if you tell a prospective employer you would jump ship if you got a better offer, they are likely to be offended, and unlikely to seriously consider you for anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do get offered an ideal job while in the middle of a contract, then tell your future employer that you have a one or two month exit clause before you can start. Tell them you could just cut and run - and you will if need be - but you would prefer not to rock boats. Your future employer will respect your honesty and your ethics and if they are sensible it will also show them you are responsible and unlikely to jump ship and leave them if you get an even better offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And... who knows... the contract you think you'll enjoy less could be the most interesting! I know of a few cases where this has proved true.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13129" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4373" RevisionGUID="433f8359-2f2b-4301-bf56-6dd9da2d19cf" CreationDate="2016-03-31T16:26:12.507" UserId="708" Comment="added 18 characters in body" Text="It depends on how your freelance is configured.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It could be merely the 1099s, a 1040, and a schedule C (deductions/expenses) for a sole proprietor or single-member LLC. In addition to quarterly payments based upon these forms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may be more for an S-Corp or other formation (articles of organization, meeting minutes, etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This question is rather broad considering an actual freelance business can be created in many different forms." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13130" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4375" RevisionGUID="a982bdb3-65fa-4a75-ab83-87aae112797e" CreationDate="2016-03-31T16:57:45.820" UserId="11945" Text="You could consider a reseller package from your go-to host but from my own experience it's best to let the client contract the domain/hosting company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you *do* want to resell, you have to take in account the responsibilities you'll have towards to both the hostingcompany for payment aswell as your client for downtime. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're not getting paid for this responsibilty/risk you could straighten it out with other costs, but why not skip this burden and show your honesty by pointing them to the best host while asking no commission over that sale?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only case you should do it, is when specifically asked by the client and you both agree on a sum which comes with your calculated risk." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13132" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4377" RevisionGUID="e6efe89b-2c92-4994-a8f2-91115a79cf97" CreationDate="2016-03-31T19:06:58.807" UserId="5566" Text="Try [Uphold][1]. You can transfer between Uphold accounts for free and there are free currency conversions while in your Uphold account. You can find out more about the services [here][2].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://uphold.com&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://uphold.com/en/what-we-do/individuals" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13133" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4378" RevisionGUID="1055db95-978d-47b0-b16c-e74c9552e8d1" CreationDate="2016-03-31T19:23:40.617" UserId="11798" Text="I've done freelancing work for a little over a year and by and large have been paid very reliably, with one notable exception. I've set up payment in stages with one of my clients, and the project is on hiatus while the client figures out what they wants next. I'm happy to put the project on hold, but I'm awaiting final payment, and I have been for several months. I've sent the client several emails. They responded to the first email with a vague promise of payment but have not responded to the next few emails, politely reminding him about the outstanding payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To complicate matters slightly, the client is the son of a family friend. I want to remain in good standing with him, but I also do wish to get paid in a timely fashion. I'm not sure how to push this issue without coming across as rude or abrasive. How can I confront him about the outstanding payment while remaining professional (and preferably, allowing him to save face)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13134" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4378" RevisionGUID="1055db95-978d-47b0-b16c-e74c9552e8d1" CreationDate="2016-03-31T19:23:40.617" UserId="11798" Text="Final payment from client oustanding" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13135" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4378" RevisionGUID="1055db95-978d-47b0-b16c-e74c9552e8d1" CreationDate="2016-03-31T19:23:40.617" UserId="11798" Text="|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13136" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4373" RevisionGUID="073bbb67-4ac0-478c-8ff1-751e68603565" CreationDate="2016-03-31T21:24:57.367" UserId="708" Comment="added 47 characters in body" Text="It depends on how your freelance is configured.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a sole proprietor taxes customarily involve:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - 1099s (If received, [but not required][1])&#xD;&#xA; - 1040 (not 1040EZ)&#xD;&#xA; - schedule C (deductions/expenses) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And taxes are paid in quarterly payments based upon these forms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There may be more forms required for an S-Corp or other formal organization formation (articles of organization, meeting minutes, etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An actual freelance business can be created in many different forms. Each will have it's unique requirements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4106/should-i-expect-a-1099" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13137" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4379" RevisionGUID="8a4f2fbb-c781-4d00-a6d0-1815d6fb6780" CreationDate="2016-04-01T10:16:23.247" UserId="11579" Text="Business is business and friends are friends. Granted, you might not have won the project had it not been because of your friendship, but you should keep the two as far apart as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Send an invoice in the post - forget email which is fine for regular invoicing and regular payments, but if your emails are not getting the desired response then sending more is unlikely to prove any more successful. Avoid threatening letters - Send the invoice to your direct contact, via the post, stick a post-it on it, and ask &quot;Can we do lunch and discuss this?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few days later, follow it up with a phone call and ask for a meeting. Tell them you value the relationship and you don't want to rock the boat, but silence leaves you in an difficult position. Ask them if there is an issue with the last invoice. If they can't or won't pay you 100%, then seek a middle ground. 50% of something, and a luke warm relationship is better than 100% of nothing and a cold relationship. If no compromise, then you need decide if the money you are owed is worth a fight or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been in a roughly similar position in 2014 - a client that has always been both generous with work and money all of a sudden stopped paying. Their accounts department would not acknowledge any of my requests for an update. We're talking about 25% or more of my entire yearly revenue was outstanding and after seven months it got paid. I met with my direct contact more than once for lunch during those seven months - I knew he could influence progress but was not in direct control. I still consider them friends and don't know how to avoid a repeat of similar situation. It is, I suppose, part of doing business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13140" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4380" RevisionGUID="dcf4f4e0-f121-432b-9e8e-63ca44213caf" CreationDate="2016-04-01T11:53:41.597" UserId="7858" Text="I'm assuming the project merely is on hold and will restart once the client gathers requirements and possibly budget - and that it would cost them a substantial amount if they decide to move forward with another freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the above is somewhat accurate, you do seem to have some leverage as you can insist on bills being paid before further work commences. Problem (usually) solved.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If not, your leverage vanishes and you will have to move into the discomfort zone. In similar situations, I have found it important to **escalate** every single time. Not by huge amounts - but clearly increase the pressure noticeably, increasingly using neutral rather than 'nice' language.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An email reminder is fine for starters and could be followed up by another more 'professionally worded' email, possibly cc:ed if relevant. After that, I would move on to a letter with the same level of language - and after that a final letter mentioning you will have no choice but send your claim to a debt collector of some sort.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Part of escalating is also keeping a tight but reasonable time schedule - so no more than 1-2 weeks between the notices. If the client recognizes your claim as legitimate and your communication is professional, there is no reason the client and you cannot continue doing business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13141" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4380" RevisionGUID="97f9a643-17d1-4bba-9ee0-9605e3fd8e40" CreationDate="2016-04-01T11:59:19.270" UserId="7858" Comment="Added internal section" Text="I'm assuming the project merely is on hold and will restart once the client gathers requirements and possibly budget - and that it would cost them a substantial amount if they decide to move forward with another freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the above is somewhat accurate, you do seem to have some leverage as you can insist on bills being paid before further work commences. Problem (usually) solved.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If not, your leverage vanishes and you will have to move into the discomfort zone. In similar situations, I have found it important to **escalate** every single time. Not by huge amounts - but clearly increase the pressure noticeably, increasingly using neutral rather than 'nice' language.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An email reminder is fine for starters and could be followed up by another more 'professionally worded' email, possibly cc:ed if relevant. After that, I would move on to a letter with the same level of language - and after that a final letter mentioning you will have no choice but send your claim to a debt collector of some sort.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Part of escalating is also keeping a tight but reasonable time schedule - so no more than 1-2 weeks between the notices. If the client recognizes your claim as legitimate and your communication is professional, there is no reason the client and you cannot continue doing business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, if the client company consists of several departments with very different agendas, it may work to your advantage. If you actually work for Dept A, but Dept X has a hand in whether you get paid and basically don't care what the effect is on Dept A - you might be able to get Dept A to apply pressure internally. This sort of scenario is always way better than standing alone outside the company." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13142" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4381" RevisionGUID="dca8547f-0b68-473c-9676-002e64ff0604" CreationDate="2016-04-01T15:45:59.537" UserId="5359" Text="I think you need to came up with the minimum rate ($/H) that you are good to work for and are acceptable for that certain client and then discuss all these moments directly with client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if client do not want to be charged hourly, then you should charge per amount of work done. That means, that tasks should be scoped and after you did it - you got paid. The total value you should estimate will depend on how much implementing will take and you rate, that you will decide. Then give that price to the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; When would be acceptable to be paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think you need to negotiate it with client, usually after work done if you are charging not per hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  or after they agree upon the quality of the service?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are not sure, if they would like the quality, then it's better to propose some minor tasks to be done first as trial and then continue if they are good with quality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think Shopify application is same as every another domains and client should be charged depending on complexity of the tasks and how much effort you made, time spend. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13143" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4382" RevisionGUID="97dcea44-f738-41fe-9131-0b8c6721fa47" CreationDate="2016-04-01T17:06:00.407" UserId="1706" Text="&quot;Saving face&quot; isn't helping you at all when your bills are in the mailbox and collection agencies are calling you.  What kind of so-called friend doesn't meet his or her obligations?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try small claims court, if that's an appropriate venue." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13144" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4383" RevisionGUID="bf52b8bd-c718-4d3d-9f98-8bf6e1c4e691" CreationDate="2016-04-01T17:08:12.707" UserId="11958" Text="I'm a software engineer doing some freelance work for a large organization. The process that they have in place, if I were to work for them as an individual, is that I'm expected to be put on their payroll.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I've also recently organized an LLC for software I plan to release in the near future. This work seems to fall under the umbrella of the kind of work I'd do in relation with my LLC, so it's at least plausible that I could instead act as a vendor and have the LLC &quot;do the work&quot;, with myself on the payroll of the LLC. It's being taxed as a pass-through, so I won't get hit with any extra taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Are there any non-obvious benefits or pitfalls to either option?** It seems like getting on their payroll will be about as much of a pain as becoming a vendor for them, so I'm not factoring in that particular difference when deciding." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13145" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4383" RevisionGUID="bf52b8bd-c718-4d3d-9f98-8bf6e1c4e691" CreationDate="2016-04-01T17:08:12.707" UserId="11958" Text="Better to go on payroll or act as a vendor?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13146" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4383" RevisionGUID="bf52b8bd-c718-4d3d-9f98-8bf6e1c4e691" CreationDate="2016-04-01T17:08:12.707" UserId="11958" Text="|payment-terms|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13149" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4384" RevisionGUID="57c47a89-7c34-4e5b-aeaf-ce57864468f3" CreationDate="2016-04-01T18:17:12.783" UserId="11579" Text="I've been a freelancer since 1994 - We call it a contractor or consultant in Europe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an employee, you get health benefits, possibly a pension, car, cell phone etc as part of the job. A sick day and your holidays won't effect your pay check. After a couple of years or more, depending on laws where you live, you could get a redundancy check if they were ever to let you go without cause.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a contractor/freelancer, you don't get any of the above. Paperwork is heavier - I answered a question on the startups exchange a while back which should give you more food for your thoughts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I fell into contracting - I was out of work, someone offered me a short contract which ended up lasting 9months - others followed, as well as homes in five EU countries, many new friends, but I also lost out on important family get togethers...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have enjoyed it though I'm tired of it now. It depends on your personality - if you are happy with 9-5, if interviews once or twice a year bother you, if you are hopeless at paperwork... It can be very rich work (10-20k a month is regular for me and I take two to three months vacation a year too), but I do not recommend jumping into it for money alone. My brother tried and hated the irregularity of it all - you really need to be flexible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope something above helps. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13150" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4385" RevisionGUID="c677896c-daaa-48e0-812f-58ea35d6dab7" CreationDate="2016-04-01T18:43:04.587" UserId="11956" Text="I am a Canadian resident and citizen. I am planning to take a 4-6 month trip to the USA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The REASON for my visit is pleasure, but I still intend to work on my existing freelance projects, and other projects set up online (Upwork, etc.).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this legal? What do I say during border crossings? Is there a &quot;freelancer's visa&quot;? Since my work is location agnostic, how do I even approach this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Trying to find the relevant sections on various government websites, understand if they apply to me, and then figure out what &quot;most people just do&quot; has lead me to asking this question here." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13151" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4385" RevisionGUID="c677896c-daaa-48e0-812f-58ea35d6dab7" CreationDate="2016-04-01T18:43:04.587" UserId="11956" Text="Working while traveling out of country" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13152" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4385" RevisionGUID="c677896c-daaa-48e0-812f-58ea35d6dab7" CreationDate="2016-04-01T18:43:04.587" UserId="11956" Text="|legal|taxes|usa|canada|travel|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13153" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4386" RevisionGUID="3fd697ba-3d9f-44d6-99fa-e21de6be6bbd" CreationDate="2016-04-01T18:44:32.380" UserId="1706" Text="Payroll plusses:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Benefits&#xD;&#xA; - Downtime is expected, whereas downtime means &quot;go home&quot; as a contractor sometimes.&#xD;&#xA; - Payment on time is required by law&#xD;&#xA; - Possibly, the company will invest money in training you&#xD;&#xA; - Workers comp in case you hurt yourself&#xD;&#xA; - When you leave for the day, no need to worry about business taxes, marketing, advertising, etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Payroll minuses:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - You're more deeply embroiled in the politics&#xD;&#xA; - If you're salaried, it's a real danger to work for a workaholic boss because overtime can become a burden&#xD;&#xA; - Less flexibility in where your earnings go&#xD;&#xA; - You won't get the full experience of doing your own thing.&#xD;&#xA; - You can't hire somebody to delegate work to&#xD;&#xA; - Far less flexibility to work remotely or on your own terms&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a good start.  Hope this helps" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13154" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4387" RevisionGUID="946ccbfe-4c08-4eaf-87df-1f193879ab2b" CreationDate="2016-04-01T18:45:58.257" UserId="1706" Text="Get paid on a time-and-materials basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are being asked to support a complex system where you don't know the caveats ahead of time.  If you do it fixed price, you're going to shoot yourself in the foot." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13156" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="4388" RevisionGUID="1c9f85a1-238a-46be-b8c3-6e3a953ecbf9" CreationDate="2016-04-01T23:03:48.593" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/64607/worked-while-contract-expired-am-i-liabile-for-lost-profites" />
  <row Id="13157" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4388" RevisionGUID="d3321632-27ce-4c79-ad9e-3185bd0b4643" CreationDate="2016-04-01T16:51:57.437" UserDisplayName="Jim Jamerson" Text="I was working for a client under a contract with limited liability where I can not be held for any damages or profit lost. I mistakenly continued to work for the project when the contract expired and sent an invoice after the date. The work was late after the contract expired. Can i be held liable for any lost profit for the late work? We had no contract during that time. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13158" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4388" RevisionGUID="d3321632-27ce-4c79-ad9e-3185bd0b4643" CreationDate="2016-04-01T16:51:57.437" UserDisplayName="Jim Jamerson" Text="Worked while contract expired am I Liabile for lost profites?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13159" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4388" RevisionGUID="d3321632-27ce-4c79-ad9e-3185bd0b4643" CreationDate="2016-04-01T16:51:57.437" UserDisplayName="Jim Jamerson" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13165" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4287" RevisionGUID="6f4cc0d6-8a9c-4ca2-861f-3cdb159d7046" CreationDate="2016-04-02T10:41:22.607" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/716213931094761472" />
  <row Id="13168" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4388" RevisionGUID="cf3836e8-dbb6-411f-8221-d38158ee471c" CreationDate="2016-04-02T14:22:28.930" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, spelling, clarity" Text="I had been working for a client with a contract in place, and the contract stipulated that I could not be held liable for damages or lost profit. After the contract had expired, I mistakenly continued to work on the project, even sending an invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After the contract was expired, the work was, of course, considered late. Considering the client and I had no active contract during that time, can I be held liable for any lost profit for the late work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13169" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4388" RevisionGUID="cf3836e8-dbb6-411f-8221-d38158ee471c" CreationDate="2016-04-02T14:22:28.930" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, spelling, clarity" Text="Worked while contract expired; am I liable for lost profits?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13171" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4391" RevisionGUID="1a26850b-203b-4bdc-9345-8803c5bef914" CreationDate="2016-04-03T00:47:50.457" UserId="1706" Text="If you are on a time-and-materials basis, then work done after any expiration date is *implicitly* assumed to be done under the same terms as any work performed before the expiration date.  If that's the case, the work done was lawful, the invoice was lawful, and the expectation of payment is lawful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the contract is for time-and-materials, then a due-date for delivering work product is invalid if the client has had any ability to modify the requirements during the contract term.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All this would be different under a fixed-price agreement, but you didn't state." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13173" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4393" RevisionGUID="6eeb6a15-21ee-435f-aefd-23f6f173d584" CreationDate="2016-04-03T03:06:19.857" UserId="11964" Text="Of Course the Client Or do You want to pay for the Client because Domains are payed in yearly Fees You Should Register the webspace on the Client and you manage it for him against your hourly rate for the maintanance etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13176" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4395" RevisionGUID="e9d44e53-ed5b-47aa-b558-fd155987f509" CreationDate="2016-04-03T15:28:32.487" UserId="11579" Text="What does your original contract say?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Terms in your original contract *might* apply - I have conditions in my contracts that state along these terms (roughly saying that unless otherwise agreed the terms of the contract continue for six months after end of contract or until both sides agree in writing).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your client is more likely at fault than you are - Your expired contract explictly said you are not held responsible for losses so they would face an up hill struggle to think those conditions changed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are they sueing you? Are they refusing payment? See if you can find compromise, if not, seek advice from a lawyer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(and consider editing your OP and stating what part of the world you are in).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13179" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4396" RevisionGUID="dc9e026e-0aaa-425e-91c4-177eaea29ab9" CreationDate="2016-04-03T18:15:09.000" UserId="11806" Text="I guess if you plan to get paid during that time, you may have some problems if you open an account there. You should check with your bank the options. Also, if you use paypal, there are some restrictions about receiving money in different countries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, this could also be seen as working remotely. For instance, if you work from home and your client is another country: wouldn't be the same case?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, have a look to [this post][1], it can give you some ideas :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://managewp.com/travel-world-freelancing-as-a-wordpress-developer-internet-marketer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13180" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4397" RevisionGUID="1ba42c0b-72ed-4bab-a435-dd01fc216f63" CreationDate="2016-04-03T18:44:58.263" UserId="1706" Text="If you are BUILDING the site, put it on your own servers first unless the client is paying up front.  There are too many freelancers who are on this site complaining about how they've been burned because they did work on the client's servers and &quot;hoped&quot; for payment at the end.  Stupid!  Don't be one of these people.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13181" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4365" RevisionGUID="60e8c1ea-e401-479e-bd4a-5c0adf3472cc" CreationDate="2016-04-03T19:02:35.003" UserId="1706" Comment="deleted 55 characters in body; edited title" Text="Client or freelancer?  Do I send a payment link to him or does the client reimburse me later?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13182" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4365" RevisionGUID="60e8c1ea-e401-479e-bd4a-5c0adf3472cc" CreationDate="2016-04-03T19:02:35.003" UserId="1706" Comment="deleted 55 characters in body; edited title" Text="On a web site gig, who pays for the domain and hosting services?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13183" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4398" RevisionGUID="9e459887-3d17-4c77-a065-edccef400167" CreationDate="2016-04-03T20:25:17.060" UserId="11976" Text="I am 17 and will hopefully be going to university in a year and a half.&#xD;&#xA;I know basic syntax for quite a few languages but the only languages that I&#xD;&#xA;would say I know (that I can build an application in) are (in order of &#xD;&#xA;proficiency) Java, html5-javascript and python and enough php to work with&#xD;&#xA;wordpress. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have made a wordpress site for my school's&#xD;&#xA;maths club which allows people to post articles and made sure that it was&#xD;&#xA;responsive. And as for dektop programs, I have made a few things that I&#xD;&#xA;occasionally user for myself but most of the time I just open python idle&#xD;&#xA;to do something quickly and not save it. In terms of gui I have made a few&#xD;&#xA;simple games (as in not 3d) for the web and desktop. I have made a basic gui &#xD;&#xA;code obfucator and code deobfuscator- it is not perfect because I made it &#xD;&#xA;only work to the java way of indentation. I have also made a tool that allows &#xD;&#xA;a user to select a colour in an image and make it transparent- a feature not &#xD;&#xA;available in ms paint.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was considering becoming a freelance web developer but am reconsidering &#xD;&#xA;since most people can (or think they can) make do with a free custom online &#xD;&#xA;website builder and I think that few would need what a freelance web developer &#xD;&#xA;can offer- or at least what one with my experience can offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is freelance web developing not in demand anymore? If I am not very convinced&#xD;&#xA;then I doubt potential clients would be either. I would like reasons so if&#xD;&#xA;someone asks why they would need one, I can tell them the truth - whether it&#xD;&#xA;is unsuitable for them or they need it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I become, a freelance web developer or a freelance software &#xD;&#xA;developer? Ideally I want to take any opportunity (within reason) but what&#xD;&#xA;should I market myself as?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, is it realistic for me to be able to make an income freelancing&#xD;&#xA;while at uni considering my age and limited experience. How would I become &#xD;&#xA;either of them and is it realistic to think that I can make an income from &#xD;&#xA;it while at university and maybe even pay my student loans? I live in the uk &#xD;&#xA;where the minimum university fees are £9000 a year." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13184" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4398" RevisionGUID="9e459887-3d17-4c77-a065-edccef400167" CreationDate="2016-04-03T20:25:17.060" UserId="11976" Text="Should I become a freelance web developer or a freelance software developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13185" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4398" RevisionGUID="9e459887-3d17-4c77-a065-edccef400167" CreationDate="2016-04-03T20:25:17.060" UserId="11976" Text="|freelance-websites|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13186" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4399" RevisionGUID="1825807d-fc01-4c77-8c5a-703b39c84525" CreationDate="2016-04-04T00:27:58.927" UserId="11971" Text="I think you should shoot high.  The sky is the limit for you. You already have a lot of skills for your age.  I think it is totally possible to make some money with freelance web development to pay for some of your classes, however, I think there are a few things you need to consider when making this decision.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before choosing a route, I would consider what you like to do the most; web development or software.  For choosing what you will be doing for the long haul, I would suggest to always go where your passion lies, in my opinion. The short term is a whole other story. Even if you wanted to go the software route for the long haul, software projects normally take longer to complete and thus longer to see the rewards for your work, whereas you could use the monetary rewards that come with web development to give you a jump start and get you on your feet. It will still be experience under your belt, and you could definitely use it to build up a reputation in the industry. You could also merge the two by working with wordpress, possibly building or configuring websites for people for money while writing code, a plugin perhaps that could kill two birds with one stone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think another thing to consider about freelance web development, is that it may be harder to find clients if you are lacking in the design arena. I think it's much easier to sell something when you can package it all pretty. Otherwise you might run the risk of not being able to find enough clients that truly understand the value of what you do. Software development can take many years, with many people working on one project to get it done, whereas with web development you can find customers that have problems with there website and need a developer to go in and get things working again.  This might be a good angle to market yourself from, rather than the building of websites from scratch, (unless you know design or or a designer you can work with), as you have said earlier, your pretty confident people are doing ok with using web builders on their own. But even the most resourceful business owner will hit a snag and at some point need to seek out professional help from someone who has the technical skills they just don't.  Thats where you could come in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Either way, I think there is definitely a market for you.  It's just a matter of going and getting what it is you want.  If you are confident and market yourself to someones current need, I don't see you having a problem getting work at all.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is daunting a bit when you first start off but whatever you set your mind to, you can accomplish.  Just start small, and work your way up to bigger and bigger projects.  Expand your services as your experience expands.  Decide where your passion lies and then come up with a working plan that encompasses your short term monetary goals, and a step by step plan on how to use those short term goals as steps to your long term goals.  There is no reason why you can't make a few bucks and dabble in whatever software projects you fancy that might come up along the way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13191" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4401" RevisionGUID="4ce9601f-ba27-4403-b773-b812032e872c" CreationDate="2016-04-04T04:35:44.053" UserId="11977" Text="&#xD;&#xA;* Context: web development for a bigcorp via an intermediary sole proprietor, specifically:&#xD;&#xA;* I have performed contract work for a Client (A), who was doing the sales &amp; PM, and sold it to bigcorp (B)&#xD;&#xA;* I've secured &amp; been providing the hosting for the resulting sites; we have an agreement with A, that we will bill this to client (B) on a regular basis&#xD;&#xA;* Despite my explicit requests, he haven't secured a written contract for hosting these&#xD;&#xA;* Client (A) goes silent for a year&#xD;&#xA;* As a result, there's now an outstanding 12 months of web hosting bills&#xD;&#xA;* I've tried: sending invoice (no response), have called him (elusive reply)&#xD;&#xA;* Site is serving ~300K requests per day; hosting costs are ~$3K per year; outstanding bill is ~$8K&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What worries me here greatly, is that I have no contractual obligation (other than verbal agreement), nor current financial incentive to host these (and the bills keep coming). OTOH there is a 30% probability, that keeping this relationship might bring in additional revenue, which might include hosting costs for the above.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I (and only me) have full root access to the server; and also have email correspondence evidencing the above; options I have considered:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Getting a legal advisor, escalating collection from A via payment request, going down the small court route&#xD;&#xA;* Informing bigcorp(B) of outstanding payment; and if fails, pulling the plug.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other than &quot;getting a contract in writing before doing anything else for clients&quot;, what, specifically, would you recommend doing about this case?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13192" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4401" RevisionGUID="4ce9601f-ba27-4403-b773-b812032e872c" CreationDate="2016-04-04T04:35:44.053" UserId="11977" Text="Client non-payment for client's client hosting (UK)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13193" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4401" RevisionGUID="4ce9601f-ba27-4403-b773-b812032e872c" CreationDate="2016-04-04T04:35:44.053" UserId="11977" Text="|uk|payments|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13194" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4402" RevisionGUID="cc79b4a4-12de-48e2-8972-98f250753784" CreationDate="2016-04-04T06:10:23.320" UserId="1018" Text="As a freelancer, you may be the only person in your business and likely still need to be checking and responding to emails and maybe doing other tasks while you travel.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not qualified to provide specific visa advice but I doubt this will be an issue during short stays (e.g. a few weeks) on a tourist visa in any country you visit as long as you are working remotely looking after your existing clients and not actively seeking new clients face to face in the country you are visiting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On a longer stay (e.g. longer than 90 days), and if you intend to meet existing or prospective clients face to face, you should probably check with the relevant government authority whether a working visa is more appropriate. For example, a [Temporary Business Visitor][1] visa would allow you to &quot;conduct activities of a commercial or professional nature. For example, consult with business associates, negotiate a contract, or attend a business conference&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-visitors-business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13195" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4403" RevisionGUID="bacaf191-fcb1-4bdf-8e77-06e0aaf78eac" CreationDate="2016-04-04T06:47:32.930" UserId="7858" Text="I you have not yet threatened to pull the plug, you must do so. It is the only leverage you seem to have.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Send a harshly worded letter stating they have one week to pay and secure a contract for further services. If they do not comply, the plug will be pulled at a stated time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since there are no contractual obligations, it seems you need not involve lawyers. My only reservation would be legal action from them, as pulling the plug seemingly will cost them money. In addition, you have perhaps accepted the situation for so long, that the client could claim that the provided hosting was part of the payment they already had made.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do pull he plug, prepare yourself for potential nastiness. Good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13196" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4404" RevisionGUID="892db89b-216d-494f-9c7e-6517313b6509" CreationDate="2016-04-04T12:05:25.003" UserId="1706" Text="Your approach is 100% wrong.  You've been way too nice.  $8,000?  I wouldn't wait a single day more before pulling the plug.  If your client (A) wanted to get your invoice paid, it'd be paid by now.  Bigcorp (B) probably has no clue.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wouldn't rule out the chance that someone with client (A) has taken a nice holiday worth about $8,000, and has been on the beach someplace with a mai tai (and a little umbrella in it!) laughing about your invoices.  You've been running your business like a charity -- or actually, you've let your client run your business because by waiting this long, you've *trained* the client to know that your priority isn't to be financially solvent, but instead to be a *nice guy*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't vouch for the UK, but here in the US, verbal agreements are legally enforceable.  You might research this to clarify but I'd guess there is some similar legal remedy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would disable the web server (temporarily) and wait for the telephone to ring -- it will!  Demand payment within 7-15 calendar days, and if you don't get paid, cancel the hosting account as (1) you are not legally bound to bigcorp and (2) client is in breach.  If you do get paid, get your money and leave this client ALONE.  Hand over the responsibility for the hosting, and get on with your life.  It's not worth the headache." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13197" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1623" RevisionGUID="5708a088-4c09-4b74-865e-4f13befa44a2" CreationDate="2016-04-04T14:08:00.780" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="updated url" Text="There is a written contract between yourself and the client, you signed it when you accepted the oDesk Terms Of Service (TOS). I also work on oDesk and so am familiar with their TOS:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking [here][1] under section 8.6:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Proprietary Rights in Work Product shall be owned by Freelancer until payment has been made by Client, at which time Freelancer will be deemed to have assigned all Proprietary Rights in the Work Product to Client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This means that once the client has paid you for the work you did, they own the code that you wrote. The intellectual property rights belong to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is up to the client to decide what you do with that code. I usually store all the code I write in a private repository, so that if the client needs me to do more work or modify the code I wrote, I can easily access it. If the client requires I delete all the code (which is rare, but possible), then I am contractually obligated to do so. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Making that code public is not up to you, it's up to the client to decide what they will do with the code. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Side note: Usually most people don't read the TOS for websites, but there are some cases, like this one, where it is incredibly important to read the TOS and know what's in there, otherwise there can be serious legal consequences.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.upwork.com/legal/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13203" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4405" RevisionGUID="05dfd82f-9342-4d37-87a4-df02c292d926" CreationDate="2016-04-05T12:16:22.810" UserId="11858" Text="The place where you are working from does not impact your current projects, the only problem you should have in mind is if you prospect new clients in the US, you need to warn them that you are Canadian, and you will provide the recipe from Canada, not from US. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, if you are in the country for pleasure, try to keep it that way, only work in your current projects, probably there isn't any law that enforces that you as freelancer cannot prospect new projects using tourist visa, but that is definitely not what this visa is for." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13204" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4406" RevisionGUID="df726734-0504-4c82-a6ac-288f54fa9b87" CreationDate="2016-04-05T12:49:05.087" UserId="11858" Text="Just would like to add to Jessica Termini outstanding answer:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a lot of hassle when you start working that is not related to development, marketing yourself, creating your own brand, defining products, price, scope, deadlines, finding clients, keeping clients, understanding clients' specifications and much more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not saying that to discourage you, on the opposite, as Jessica stated, you have much more knowledge than anyone I meet at your age, however sometimes is better for you to find an internship, trainee or even a full time job in some company, even if a smaller one (the pros and cons of smaller/big companies is out of the scope of this discussion), with that you can understand the business flow and get some contacts, show your work and learn with different people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Moreover do not be discouraged about finding jobs, there are many websites required web developers and software developers every day, for example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Get A Coder: http://getacoder.com/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or even Craigslist" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13208" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4406" RevisionGUID="92426196-8f56-4213-85a3-3e07cadbbfe1" CreationDate="2016-04-05T17:17:37.360" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 108 characters in body" Text="Just would like to add to Jessica Termini outstanding answer:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a lot of hassle when you start working that is not related to development, marketing yourself, creating your own brand, defining products, price, scope, deadlines, finding clients, keeping clients, understanding clients' specifications and much more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not saying that to discourage you, on the opposite, as Jessica stated, you have much more knowledge than anyone I meet at your age, however sometimes is better for you to find an internship, trainee or even a full time job in some company, even if a smaller one (the pros and cons of smaller/big companies is out of the scope of this discussion), with that you can understand the business flow and get some contacts, show your work and learn with different people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Moreover do not be discouraged about finding jobs, there are many websites required web developers and software developers every day." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13209" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="2548" RevisionGUID="9a3290f4-5048-4b7c-9b50-8687d0a7fee3" CreationDate="2016-04-05T17:19:23.283" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="13210" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4405" RevisionGUID="36d066dc-5828-419c-9f5c-357f4c816134" CreationDate="2016-04-05T17:20:11.720" UserId="75" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="The place where you are working from does not impact your current projects, the only problem you should have in mind is if you prospect new clients in the US, you need to warn them that you are Canadian, and you will provide the receipt from Canada, not from US. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, if you are in the country for pleasure, try to keep it that way, only work in your current projects, probably there isn't any law that enforces that you as freelancer cannot prospect new projects using tourist visa, but that is definitely not what this visa is for." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13211" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4408" RevisionGUID="07f1414e-f0ed-48eb-9695-731934b1c4bd" CreationDate="2016-04-05T21:12:08.610" UserId="12000" Text="My client hired me to build an iPhone app. The contract states that the app has to work on all iPhones that can run iOS8 or higher. He just sent me an email asking why he cannot install it on his iPad. I think he didn't really understand that iPhone doesn't include iPad, when he signed the contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I tell him politely, that he will have to pay more for adding iPad support to the app? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may be important to know that he hasn't paid the full amount yet." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13212" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4408" RevisionGUID="07f1414e-f0ed-48eb-9695-731934b1c4bd" CreationDate="2016-04-05T21:12:08.610" UserId="12000" Text="Client thinks a certain feature is included in the price, but it isn't" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13213" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4408" RevisionGUID="07f1414e-f0ed-48eb-9695-731934b1c4bd" CreationDate="2016-04-05T21:12:08.610" UserId="12000" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13214" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4409" RevisionGUID="7a4877f5-f727-41e6-8c69-15a786bd89da" CreationDate="2016-04-05T21:38:47.190" UserId="11843" Text="It sounds like the old &quot;Feature X is not in scope&quot; may be called for. Explain that there is an additional effort in making an app iPhone AND iPad compatible." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13215" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4410" RevisionGUID="b906a911-b7e0-48f2-9021-1f8225369130" CreationDate="2016-04-05T22:09:04.420" UserId="754" Text="Assuming you're interested in the additional work, I would cite the original agreement and state that you're willing to create a new contract for this additional work (including a few examples of where things need to be adapted for iPads). I'd also ask to schedule a phone call to talk through the issue, to make sure he understands the distinction and issues, but also that you're willing to work toward getting the app working on iPads, too. (If he's already frustrated/confused by this scenario, an actual phone or in person chat can prevent him misreading your tone in an email.) Make sure you have a ballpark figure in mind (in terms of compensation and/or hours) before getting on the phone, though, as I would expect that to be one of his first questions." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13216" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4411" RevisionGUID="095fa720-3af0-43ce-883c-79f5c740f86f" CreationDate="2016-04-05T23:38:44.857" UserId="11971" Text="Are you on LinkedIn? I ask because I have been contacted many times by recruiters looking for freelancers for their clients long term projects. Maybe that is a good place to start. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13221" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4413" RevisionGUID="9d6409f5-a16e-469b-8447-25f8a3c54c0d" CreationDate="2016-04-06T10:03:39.710" UserId="11579" Text="What impact is there for you to compile the app for ipad? If its not so much effort, I would do it with the understanding that its on best effort basis support.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, for future contracts, you need to ensure there is an &quot;in scope&quot; and an &quot;out of scope&quot; section to ensure clarity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Find a compomise to enhance your chance of getting paid without problems and also the chance of winning future work/changes to the existing product." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13223" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4414" RevisionGUID="55ee23bc-f185-4c77-924f-7cc29fb70d5a" CreationDate="2016-04-06T13:24:12.467" UserId="7696" Text="Did you put all of these in writing? I hope you did so you can take legal actions as a next step. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tell it formally that it's just business and nothing personal considering they are a family friend. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may also already be doing these things but you may want to follow these guidelines for your next client: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Do some detective work&#xD;&#xA; - Get it in writing (contracts are always good to protect both parties)&#xD;&#xA; - Bill up front (down payments establish trust in the transaction)&#xD;&#xA; - Track your time accurately and know what you're worth&#xD;&#xA; - Use a professional invoicing software&#xD;&#xA; - Make it easy for clients to pay you&#xD;&#xA; - If conditions change, outline it in the contract.&#xD;&#xA; - Know when to stop&#xD;&#xA; - Trust your instincts&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All these tips are outlined in this article: [How to Make Sure You Always Get Paid as a Freelancer or Consultant][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope those tips help!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://biz30.timedoctor.com/how-to-make-sure-you-always-get-paid/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13224" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4363" RevisionGUID="405a66f1-8f6b-457c-845d-cb08a818935f" CreationDate="2016-04-06T17:11:05.250" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/717761556432478208" />
  <row Id="13225" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4415" RevisionGUID="e7f3cb93-a9f7-4d12-8ebc-8adfb664a5a7" CreationDate="2016-04-06T18:53:36.260" UserId="12013" Text="Like many of the other answers here there are pros and cons to weigh:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Payroll Pros:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Regular consistent predicable payment (i.e. no need to way out net   &#xD;&#xA;   payment terms) &#xD;&#xA; - Automatic tax withholding&#xD;&#xA; - Easy process as tax time (just get a W-2) &#xD;&#xA; - Sometimes access to benefits (thoughthey are likely mediocre on a temp- W2)     &#xD;&#xA; - You are covered under the employer's professional liability policy (i.e. general liability, errors and omissions, worker's comp etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Payroll Cons:&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA;- Unable reduce your taxable income through operating expense deductions and other tax deferral vehicles like a SEP/IRA.&#xD;&#xA;- You are unable to build business history to your LLC (something you will likely need if you want to become an approved vendor in the&#xD;&#xA;   future).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me, it comes down to cash flow. If you have the cash to wait out the payment terms and spring for the liability insurance, you are better off taking advantage of the tax perks of self-employment. If cash flow is an issue, payroll is always the way to go.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Full disclosure, I work for a company named &quot;MBO Partners&quot; who provides tools to self-employed individuals. You may find some of their tools useful or you may not, either way this answer should help you may you decision. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13226" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4416" RevisionGUID="18f6f954-be4c-4c58-b034-6f1005757cbe" CreationDate="2016-04-06T20:02:57.553" UserId="11579" Text="When you say freelancing, are you talking about working part time from home, or working for a period of weeks or months possibly on the clients site?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been a contractor/consultant since 1994 and based on my experience, more money and more work is available if you are prepared to work on a clients site. It will also pay considerably more. I've been in management for about ten years - my last development contract was PHP,Javascript and a little MySQL back in 2004 or 2005 and doing a 40hour week my invoice was around 10,000 to 12000 GBP a month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where to look? I see jobs on stackoverflow, linkedin and jobserve. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think you are US based and I wrote an answer to a question that might interest you here:&#xD;&#xA;http://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have grand ambitions, you could provide solutions at a price which includes support payments (so you are on-call but collect money long after the project has finished) http://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8613/process-for-implementing-support-contracts/8615#8615&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13227" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4417" RevisionGUID="57692cd2-ee4c-45e9-a0bd-2569a09c8837" CreationDate="2016-04-06T21:42:38.563" UserId="1706" Text="Like the others have mentioned, the iPad was out of scope.  You can communicate that fact, and if you are able, make modifications as such.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BUT.... get your money for the current work BEFORE you do anything that's out of scope.  You're less likely to get burned." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13229" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4418" RevisionGUID="4942795e-3d15-42aa-abb2-ab8fb06e4af8" CreationDate="2016-04-07T06:31:52.180" UserId="11786" Text="Just tell explain him that just because the two products belongs to the same brand doesn't mean your app will have to work in both and you developed it for the iPhone, as stated it in the contract. However, if he/she needs it working in the iPad, tell him/her that you will charge an **extra amount**. I would charge an extra amount and not the same prize (or more) this time, because of two reasons: first, I'm not an expert, but I guess you can use the main part of your existing code for the iPad app development and second, this teaches you to ask for better specifications in the future, specially when the client hasn't got a technical background." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13230" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="4378" RevisionGUID="693ec6ee-75cb-46b6-8935-466e4f072803" CreationDate="2016-04-07T19:03:38.853" UserId="-1" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[842],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:1018,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Neil Robertson&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;,&quot;BindingReason&quot;:{&quot;DuplicateApprovedByAsker&quot;:&quot;&quot;}}]}" />
  <row Id="13238" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4420" RevisionGUID="2c5eadc7-d0f2-4272-911c-8b9db1e34a36" CreationDate="2016-04-08T14:32:19.880" UserId="12032" Text="I am a web developer and a sales guy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am confused about asking a lead/prospect of the current status of the project. If it is awarded to someone else or it's dumped because of the budget.What is the polite way to ask a lead/prospect about it. Generally, I do the following, which I am not sure if its polite or not &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Greetings!&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    I just wanted to know if you have any update on your project as our team is eagerly waiting to finalize the things and start this project asap." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13239" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4420" RevisionGUID="2c5eadc7-d0f2-4272-911c-8b9db1e34a36" CreationDate="2016-04-08T14:32:19.880" UserId="12032" Text="Email to Leads/Prospects" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13240" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4420" RevisionGUID="2c5eadc7-d0f2-4272-911c-8b9db1e34a36" CreationDate="2016-04-08T14:32:19.880" UserId="12032" Text="|contracts|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13241" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4421" RevisionGUID="e0ee6909-b786-4ae9-8bcd-c68c740bda9c" CreationDate="2016-04-08T15:18:14.247" UserId="12033" Text="I have a company who needs my help giving technical phone interviews and live coding tests to potential hires. I'm not sure what to quote for this scenario since the &quot;work&quot; is relatively easy - I'm not writing any code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much should I charge? How much would YOU charge?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13242" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4421" RevisionGUID="e0ee6909-b786-4ae9-8bcd-c68c740bda9c" CreationDate="2016-04-08T15:18:14.247" UserId="12033" Text="How much should you charge for technical interviews?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13243" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4421" RevisionGUID="e0ee6909-b786-4ae9-8bcd-c68c740bda9c" CreationDate="2016-04-08T15:18:14.247" UserId="12033" Text="|pay-rate|interview|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13244" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="4421" RevisionGUID="1bdc2239-a040-4c04-afa5-8ffdd9b4d7b3" CreationDate="2016-04-08T17:03:03.237" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="13245" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4420" RevisionGUID="6c281058-e8f8-4b51-8204-7272861ed8ab" CreationDate="2016-04-08T17:03:49.237" UserId="75" Comment="edited body" Text="I am a web developer and a sales guy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am confused about asking a lead/prospect of the current status of the project. If it is awarded to someone else or it's dumped because of the budget.What is the polite way to ask a lead/prospect about it. Generally, I do the following, which I am not sure if its polite or not &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Greetings!&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I just wanted to know if you have any update on your project as our&#xD;&#xA;&gt; team is eagerly waiting to finalize the things and start this project&#xD;&#xA;&gt; asap." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13246" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4421" RevisionGUID="ca4e519a-f9cb-434f-9298-a19a6ee50989" CreationDate="2016-04-08T17:14:29.033" UserId="12033" Comment="Updated the question to be less vague" Text="I have a company who needs my help giving technical phone interviews and live coding tests to potential hires. I'm not sure what to quote for this scenario since the &quot;work&quot; is relatively easy - I'm not writing any code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To give more details/context - the technical interviews I've done in the past typically last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. And the area of expertise I'd be screening for is front-end web development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is a reasonable rate that I should be charging per hour for this service? Typically my freelance rate (when working on projects) is $75/hr." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13247" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4385" RevisionGUID="7a029faf-944d-4f43-a9cb-72905ad60c8c" CreationDate="2016-04-08T17:33:46.230" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/718492040619802625" />
  <row Id="13248" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4422" RevisionGUID="e6ac420b-faf4-4622-9cea-b1240bc60d1d" CreationDate="2016-04-08T18:01:26.727" UserId="11579" Text="In short - yes - nothing wrong with the words you have used.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A respectable client will not be offended and appreciate your interest even if they don't award you the contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are offended, then the issue is their side, not yours and you're probably lucky not to cross commercial paths.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Work on your confidence when approaching a client - your lack of confidence can hurt you almost as much as your over confidence. Find a balance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13249" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4423" RevisionGUID="02dfa67e-fd68-4a3d-a51e-ea36dac19691" CreationDate="2016-04-08T22:43:36.493" UserId="12039" Text="So I have been working on a few projects as a, I suppose more Front-End oriented, Web Developer, customising Wordpress pages and the like. Now I would like to get some meatier projects going in the direction of Software Development / Web App / Back-end development. However I am struggling to get projects in this domain. I've been doing online courses, but I could continue doing those for ever and not get a project to pay the bills. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my questions:&#xD;&#xA;What kind of knowledge would I need to reposition myself as a Back-End Developer? &#xD;&#xA;And what would be the best way to market myself as such?&#xD;&#xA;How would I get the necessary experience to do the switch? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13250" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4423" RevisionGUID="02dfa67e-fd68-4a3d-a51e-ea36dac19691" CreationDate="2016-04-08T22:43:36.493" UserId="12039" Text="How can I reposition myself as Back-end Developer coming from Front-end Web dev?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13251" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4423" RevisionGUID="02dfa67e-fd68-4a3d-a51e-ea36dac19691" CreationDate="2016-04-08T22:43:36.493" UserId="12039" Text="|attracting-clients|marketing|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13255" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="583" RevisionGUID="e7b0c28b-0d27-43e8-a736-76803c66b59b" CreationDate="2016-04-09T16:13:02.890" UserId="85" Comment="added 119 characters in body" Text="Since you specifically state the UK, I'll start with a disclaimer: *I am not an authorised person within the terms of the Financial Services and Markets Act, and I am not authorised to give advice.*  As such, this is *Personal Opinion* only!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are many options available, depending on your attitude to risk, when you want to access the funds, and depending on how your self-employed activity is structured (self-employed as a sole-trader or partnership, or as an owner/director of a limited company etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You use the term &quot;Pension provision&quot; but there are many ways of providing for your retirement, than just pensions!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An important point to remember though, is do not let the tax tail wag the returns dog.  Do not be blinded by tax relief, if it ties you in long term to poorer performing investments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Specifically for a limited company, you have the choice of making payments from the company, or personally. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Company Funded**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Payments made by the company have to fall into one of two categories&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Payments to an approved pension scheme&#xD;&#xA; - Investments made by the company (and remaining the property of the company)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anything else will (most likely) be considered as either a payment in lieu of salary, a dividend (if appropriately declared) or a benefit in kind - each with tax considerations!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Company funded pension contributions (even into a personal pension) are made gross (so no income tax to reclaim) but they are deductible for corporation tax. But the main benefit is the saving of two lots of National Insurance (so approx 25%).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Optionally, the company can (if its articles allow) make investments in shares, property etc in its own name - profits will be subject to corporation tax - but I suggest taking appropriate advice before following this route.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Personally Funded**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, this way, you have to pay-out the moneyt, via either salary or dividends.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But once the money is in your hands, it can be invested as you see fit... options to &quot;traditional&quot; pension schemes include EIS/SEIS approved investments, ISAs etc - all of which offer tax relief in some form.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personal Opinion: As recent changes to pensions have shown, I do not trust Governments to resist the temptation to tax accrued funds further.  As such, I certainly do not have all my eggs in a Pension basket.  My various employment pensions are now all accumulated into a Self-Invested Personal Pension.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also maintain a broad ISA portfolio (which is, in effect, my main Retirement Provision) as this allows me to access the capital if/when I need it - or the Government fundamentally change the structure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also have a wide (higher risk) portfolio of unlisted shares (EIS, SEIS and VCT types) which offer higher returns, but with some risk!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whatever route you take, keep a broad portfolio, and keep as much control over it as you can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-- AUTHOR's EDIT --&#xD;&#xA;The above answer needs reviewing in light of the Pensions &quot;freedoms&quot; now being rolled-out..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13256" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4398" RevisionGUID="8ce0ca65-c4aa-4edb-891c-6d8fafba5183" CreationDate="2016-04-09T18:22:32.880" UserId="12049" Comment="Fixed some spelling and tyop issues...  I've never heard of an &quot;obfucator&quot; before" Text="I am 17 and will hopefully be going to university in a year and a half.&#xD;&#xA;I know basic syntax for quite a few languages but the only languages that I&#xD;&#xA;would say I know (that I can build an application in) are (in order of &#xD;&#xA;proficiency) Java, html5-javascript and python and enough php to work with&#xD;&#xA;wordpress. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have made a wordpress site for my school's&#xD;&#xA;maths club which allows people to post articles and made sure that it was&#xD;&#xA;responsive. And as for dektop programs, I have made a few things that I&#xD;&#xA;occasionally use for myself but most of the time I just open python idle&#xD;&#xA;to do something quickly and not save it. In terms of GUI I have made a few&#xD;&#xA;simple (as in not 3d) games for both web and desktop. I have made a basic GUI code obfuscator and code deobfuscator- it is not perfect because I made it only work to the java way of indentation. I have also made a tool that allows a user to select a colour in an image and make it transparent- a feature not available in ms paint.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was considering becoming a freelance web developer but am reconsidering &#xD;&#xA;since most people can (or think they can) make do with a free custom online &#xD;&#xA;website builder and I think that few would need what a freelance web developer can offer- or at least what one with my experience can offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is freelance web developing not in demand anymore? If I am not very convinced&#xD;&#xA;then I doubt potential clients would be either. I would like reasons so if&#xD;&#xA;someone asks why they would need one, I can tell them the truth - whether it&#xD;&#xA;is unsuitable for them or they need it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I become, a freelance web developer or a freelance software &#xD;&#xA;developer? Ideally I want to take any opportunity (within reason) but what&#xD;&#xA;should I market myself as?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, is it realistic for me to be able to make an income freelancing&#xD;&#xA;while at uni considering my age and limited experience? How would I become &#xD;&#xA;either of them and is it realistic to think that I can make an income from &#xD;&#xA;it while at university and maybe even pay my student loans? I live in the UK &#xD;&#xA;where the minimum university fees are £9000 a year." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13257" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4398" RevisionGUID="8ce0ca65-c4aa-4edb-891c-6d8fafba5183" CreationDate="2016-04-09T18:22:32.880" Comment="Proposed by 12049 approved by 11976 edit id of 459" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13258" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4418" RevisionGUID="7c2c89b0-b990-484b-a066-75f007b7d550" CreationDate="2016-04-09T18:58:34.703" UserId="11806" Comment="there were a mistake &quot;tell explain&quot; thing" Text="Explain him that just because the two products belongs to the same brand doesn't mean your app will have to work in both of them and you developed it for the iPhone, as stated it in the contract. However, if he/she needs it working in the iPad, tell him/her that you will charge an **extra amount**. I would charge an extra amount and not the same prize (or more) this time, because of two reasons: first, I'm not an expert, but I guess you can use the main part of your existing code for the iPad app development and second, this teaches you to ask for better specifications in the future, specially when the client hasn't got a technical background." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13259" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4418" RevisionGUID="7c2c89b0-b990-484b-a066-75f007b7d550" CreationDate="2016-04-09T18:58:34.703" Comment="Proposed by 11806 approved by 85, 11786 edit id of 457" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13260" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4425" RevisionGUID="361d1c03-095b-4638-b47e-a0d327a32d72" CreationDate="2016-04-10T03:03:29.513" UserId="12052" Text="Being a freelancer is realy harder than finding a job XD&#xD;&#xA;Im a webdeveloper and im looking / trying to have a job (via the internet)&#xD;&#xA;(Not Complicated stuff! just websites like  a small store  etc )&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;can any one tell me how can i get started?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13261" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4425" RevisionGUID="361d1c03-095b-4638-b47e-a0d327a32d72" CreationDate="2016-04-10T03:03:29.513" UserId="12052" Text="Being a freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13262" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4425" RevisionGUID="361d1c03-095b-4638-b47e-a0d327a32d72" CreationDate="2016-04-10T03:03:29.513" UserId="12052" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13263" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4426" RevisionGUID="7f7e0f00-40f9-4d9a-bd36-3ef6f28498d6" CreationDate="2016-04-10T09:07:24.663" UserId="12054" Text="Well, one of the best sites to start freelancing is [Freelancer][1]. I am on this site, and it is awesome. I get a lot of work from here. Be sure to check it out :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancer.com/ &quot;Freelancer&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13264" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2026" RevisionGUID="91d6af8f-aff6-40b0-92cb-c7569a6c1f0a" CreationDate="2016-04-10T17:50:10.830" UserId="708" Comment="added 465 characters in body" Text="Most often what I do is send the client a link....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hi Client,&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Here is a link to the hosting package you'll need:&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;(insert link here)&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Please follow the steps to sign up, including paying for the hosting. You can register your domain at the same time, so it should be a simple one-time processes.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;This hosting provider is one of the best I've found. You get unlimited email and FTP accounts, a control panel .. (etc. etc. etc.. about the account - this is done to combat the &quot;but I heard GoDaddy is good&quot; arguments)&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;By having you do this rather than myself, it ensures you get the notices about renewal or issues with the account rather than relying on me to act as a middleman to relay such information. This also ensures that you are in control of the accounts and you don't have to be concerned about unauthorized access due to users you aren't aware of.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Once you are done signing up, you'll receive a &quot;Welcome&quot; email from (company). Please forward that email to me. It will contain passwords and log in information I need in order to upload files and set up the web site.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that, I wait for the &quot;welcome&quot; email. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While developing the site, I host the dev site on **my** servers until everything has been paid. Once payment is received, I upload everything to their hosting account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd recommend *not* providing hosting yourself unless you don't mind being the IT person for the client and dealing with the off-hour phone calls about email not working or some other random web issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Moved comment to answer:*&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Once you start reselling hosting for clients you become IT support for them. **You get calls for email problems, calls for *any* downtime*, calls for every little hosting issue**. If that **is** your business model and you **WANT** to deal with that stuff, fine. But if you do not want to deal with all the IT support associated with hosting... simply don't have *anything* to do with hosting other than recommending a service." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13265" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4427" RevisionGUID="7cd51d94-7647-4878-ad7e-2e73e95a6504" CreationDate="2016-04-10T19:51:21.207" UserId="12056" Text="There are several options out there. But I would recommend you ELANCE (Upwork), I have got many jobs there. &#xA;&#xA;Consider to have a nice portfolio, so the clients can see how good you are." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13266" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4428" RevisionGUID="336e8b19-52d5-4dd6-85ff-e30af860133c" CreationDate="2016-04-10T20:56:49.087" UserId="12057" Text="I've read a lot about some of the general skills needed for web development like HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, and MySql. But what I have not been able to find is what are some specific skills a developer would need. For example, how to position divs in HTML or run For-Loops in Javascript. Could anyone share their opinion about what they feel is crucial to know prior to setting out in web development?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13267" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4428" RevisionGUID="336e8b19-52d5-4dd6-85ff-e30af860133c" CreationDate="2016-04-10T20:56:49.087" UserId="12057" Text="What should I know before freelancing as a web developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13268" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4428" RevisionGUID="336e8b19-52d5-4dd6-85ff-e30af860133c" CreationDate="2016-04-10T20:56:49.087" UserId="12057" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13270" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="4425" RevisionGUID="dd4a7b24-2347-4a59-ac37-bbcc0bea4474" CreationDate="2016-04-11T10:36:28.593" UserId="58" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="13271" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4429" RevisionGUID="98adcd7f-265d-4398-8c41-80ad84f87c15" CreationDate="2016-04-11T12:21:19.443" UserId="11579" Text="As @Scott says, divs and loops are all part of knowing the technologies. When you freelance, nobody expects you to be a know-it-all, but the client expects you to undertake responsibility. The client is unlikely to know divs, for loops or anything else so you saying &quot;I can do this, that and the other, but I cannot do for-loops&quot; means you expect the client to find an alternative resource to work with you, to complete the project. So now the client needs two resources, and if they don't know each other, who will manage the communication and task allocation between them? A third person? Who pays for all this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Going with half a toolbox might help you do a few tricks, but if we compare it to car mechanics, your ability to change a fuse or a light bulb, but without knowledge to change the oil or a wheel will leave few if any opportunities to be open to you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best you not just learn more, but gain experience. Both will help your confidence. Work within other web dev circles so you can knowledge share. There is no shame in this - we have all been there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also - keep an eye on stackoverflow - a huge wealth of information to be found there that will help put the wind in your sail.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13272" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="695" RevisionGUID="24023974-1795-4491-92fb-2d854ca387e3" CreationDate="2016-04-11T16:21:45.807" UserId="765" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="I'm from Brazil, I have more than 5 years of experience with ASP.NET, and was recently certified as MCSD Web Development. There's no freelancer market here in Brazil, only full time boring jobs without career opportunities. I would like to start as a freelancer and maybe work full time at home, doing what I'm good, web apps. I am good at reading and writing, and I am medium as a speaker in English.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where do I start? How do I find my first customer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also have a blog about ASP.NET written in PT-BR. Should I do some kind of portfolio to show my expertise?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13273" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4420" RevisionGUID="cafed35f-392a-47d6-afb4-198caa538dcc" CreationDate="2016-04-11T16:46:10.213" UserId="1706" Comment="added 13 characters in body; edited title" Text="I am a web developer and a sales guy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am confused about how to ask a potential client about moving forward on a project we've discussed, such as if it's been awarded to someone else or it's dumped because of the budget.  What is the polite way to do this?  Generally, I do the following, but I am not sure if it's polite or not:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Greetings!&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I just wanted to know if you have any update on your project as our&#xD;&#xA;&gt; team is eagerly waiting to finalize the things and start this project&#xD;&#xA;&gt; asap." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13274" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4420" RevisionGUID="cafed35f-392a-47d6-afb4-198caa538dcc" CreationDate="2016-04-11T16:46:10.213" UserId="1706" Comment="added 13 characters in body; edited title" Text="What's the best way to follow up on potential work from a client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13275" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4421" RevisionGUID="e905e7ed-0b02-46ec-bc6b-a9abeb4dea19" CreationDate="2016-04-11T16:47:17.043" UserId="11579" Comment="Simplified the question " Text="I have a company who needs my help giving technical phone interviews and live coding tests to potential hires. I'm not sure what to quote for this scenario since the &quot;work&quot; is relatively easy - I'm not writing any code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To give more details/context - the technical interviews I've done in the past typically last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. And the area of expertise I'd be screening for is front-end web development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I discount my rate or apply normal rate to the client for this work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13276" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4421" RevisionGUID="e905e7ed-0b02-46ec-bc6b-a9abeb4dea19" CreationDate="2016-04-11T16:47:17.043" Comment="Proposed by 11579 approved by 85, 1706 edit id of 458" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13277" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="4421" RevisionGUID="d6451ec8-b28d-40d9-a757-e7dfbb08f82c" CreationDate="2016-04-11T16:49:16.123" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:1706,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;codenoire&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="13278" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4428" RevisionGUID="599ffeb0-02bb-4aae-8e97-b6d2519b3546" CreationDate="2016-04-11T16:52:40.637" UserId="75" Comment="Removed request for opinions." Text="I've read a lot about some of the general skills needed for web development like HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, and MySql. But what I have not been able to find is what are some specific skills a developer would need. For example, how to position `div`s in HTML or run `for`-`loop`s in Javascript.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Could anyone tell me what is crucial to know prior to setting out in web development?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13279" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4423" RevisionGUID="a7b6aaf0-0df4-4d54-a64e-3b1acaac02ba" CreationDate="2016-04-11T20:19:25.827" UserId="12039" Comment="I changed the question to be more precise as requested in the comments. " Text="So I have been working on a few projects as a, I suppose more Front-End oriented, Web Developer, customising Wordpress themes, styling plugins and the like. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to get some meatier projects going in the direction of Back-end development. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However I am struggling to get projects in this domain. I've been doing online courses in Javascript, jQuery, and a SQL refresher, but I could continue doing those for ever and not get a project to pay the bills. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My view of what back-end development means would be mainly handling databases and managing server config. Please correct me if I'm wrong, that would mean a back-end developer would mainly write interface code to retrieve and store data? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question:&#xD;&#xA;What kind of software does a full on 'back-end' developer write? And what technologies / skills are required for doing so?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**edit:** I changed the question to be more precise as requested in the comments. :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13280" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4423" RevisionGUID="a7b6aaf0-0df4-4d54-a64e-3b1acaac02ba" CreationDate="2016-04-11T20:19:25.827" UserId="12039" Comment="I changed the question to be more precise as requested in the comments. " Text="|attracting-clients|marketing|software|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13281" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4430" RevisionGUID="57da775b-b7ee-42da-a523-2c8bc6ee1d34" CreationDate="2016-04-12T02:30:02.967" UserId="708" Text="Being a freelance web designer/developer is about deductive reasoning. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd hazard a guess that **no one** knows absolutely everything about every possible development language. That's like saying someone knows every possible word in the English dictionary -- it's merely unrealistic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you learn are *concepts*. You learn the *concept* of a for/while/foreach loop... then you adjust that *concept* for the language requirements you are working in. You learn the *concept* of CSS positioning and then you adjust based upon given HTML and desires.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you should focus on in terms of specific languages/mark up are the basics. You should understand, in general, what overall function and benefits each language offers over others and when a particular language is best used. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example (these are very general):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - PHP is server-side scripting, it won't alter anything already present in a browser window. So, it's not appropriate for show/hiding contents on a click but it's perfect for pulling data from a database when a page is loaded.&#xD;&#xA; - ASP, Perl, .Net  et al are similar in usage to PHP with their own specific language structures. **If you were baking a cake... server-side scripting would be the flour, eggs, and yeast -- the basis for any type of cake.**&#xD;&#xA; - Javascript doesn't lend itself easily to layouts and positioning and it doesn't connect to a database directly. However, javascript is *perfect* for in-browser alterations/animations based on a user's actions such as showing/hiding content on clicks, form validation, etc. And it *can* be used *with* php to create ajax functions that will assist in speeding the display of content based upon user interactions. **Sticking with the cake analogy... javascript would be the specific ingredients... what makes the chocolate cake chocolate.**&#xD;&#xA; - HTML is merely the *content* it doesn't connect to any database and doesn't offer any direct user integration beyond the click, submit, and button elements. **For the cake.. HTML is the pan you bake in which determines the shape of the cake. It's the basic structure which forces your ingredients to a specific shape.**&#xD;&#xA; - Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) controls how HTMl *looks* and allows for some in-browser animation/interaction. **For the cake, CSS is the frosting.. the decoration.. the visual experience of the cake.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A freelancer explores each aspect of design/development, then uses that knowledge to determine what may be needed given project specifications. You may not need to know *how* to create a something *specific* ... but you should be able to determine what may be needed, and based upon the interaction what the best language to use may be ..... then you go learn how to make that if you don't already know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After a while your experience and knowledge grows so you do less and less project-based learning and can build faster. But, at that point technology has changed and you need to learn new methods. Web design/development is a *never ending* learning processes. Start where you are... and start learning.... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The primary difference with freelancing here is that you need to be **self-motivated and driven** because no one is going to tell you what you need to learn because only you know your projects. You have to be able to determine what is needed and how to learn that on your own." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13283" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4431" RevisionGUID="4085712d-6a42-4ab9-a6a5-2889a286e9c0" CreationDate="2016-04-12T16:15:16.490" UserId="12072" Text="I recently wrote an article for a regional magazine which was published towards the end of 2015. I've followed up with the company several times and they keep promising to get the check out as soon as possible.  I'd like to continue to work for them in the future, so I don't want to be too aggressive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm wondering what my next steps would be without threatening the company with any legal action (which wouldn't be worth it in this case)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13284" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4431" RevisionGUID="4085712d-6a42-4ab9-a6a5-2889a286e9c0" CreationDate="2016-04-12T16:15:16.490" UserId="12072" Text="Following up on payment" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13285" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4431" RevisionGUID="4085712d-6a42-4ab9-a6a5-2889a286e9c0" CreationDate="2016-04-12T16:15:16.490" UserId="12072" Text="|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13286" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4432" RevisionGUID="eb6896c3-4b0f-4849-9125-91518328ddab" CreationDate="2016-04-12T18:03:59.397" UserId="820" Text="**I would never discount my rate.** Using 'rate' seems to indicate hourly billing (which I'm [a huge advocate for](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1588/which-is-the-most-honest-or-ethical-way-to-bill-hourly-or-fixed-price/1600#1600), at least in the type of work I've done). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're billing hourly, the thing you're charging for is your time not the task. So it doesn't matter if the task requires less of your skill, or seems 'easier' (talking to someone may feel easier than writing code) - the client is paying for the same thing, [your time](https://youtu.be/6aL4ii_Z3EI?t=619).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I'd never discount the rate, in fact, because you're billing a small block of time, I might **charge a minimum of 2 hours (as it interrupts other work)**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That all said, this looks like **a great opportunity to take a stab at value based billing**. While it's just an hour or so of your time, the money you may be saving the company is significant (hiring costs are high, bad hiring even more so).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead of discounting your rate, you could try to get an idea of what savings / value you interviewing a prospective developer gives the company, and charge them in light of that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13287" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="345" RevisionGUID="675a2582-74cc-45ea-a359-9d51a151f9c4" CreationDate="2016-04-13T02:43:39.490" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/720079975181889536" />
  <row Id="13288" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4433" RevisionGUID="03eb6be0-1c18-4f61-beae-55a61dea9c94" CreationDate="2016-04-13T04:40:04.487" UserId="12080" Text="I've been working in London (UK) as a freelancer for 4 years and just recently decided to try a more &quot;location independent&quot; way of life, travelling around the world while working remotely. I started this last June, so this has been my situation for most of the last fiscal year (more than 9 out of the last 12 months) &#xD;&#xA;Although I've been moving around and living in different countries, I haven't stopped working (and invoicing) as a UK freelance for different UK based companies during all this time, so my questions would be... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does that affect my taxes in any way? Do I still have to pay taxes in UK? Does my &quot;non-resident&quot; status change something?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there some special box that I should tick in the tax return? Anything I should have in mind?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance for your help! &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13289" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4433" RevisionGUID="03eb6be0-1c18-4f61-beae-55a61dea9c94" CreationDate="2016-04-13T04:40:04.487" UserId="12080" Text="How does working remotely (outside UK) for most of the year affect my tax return?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13290" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4433" RevisionGUID="03eb6be0-1c18-4f61-beae-55a61dea9c94" CreationDate="2016-04-13T04:40:04.487" UserId="12080" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13291" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4434" RevisionGUID="7b935794-093b-4360-9b59-6b5b890a2187" CreationDate="2016-04-13T05:43:18.833" UserId="7858" Text="In similar situations, I have found it helpful to 'escalate' the reminder each time. Start with a friendly email, then one with a more 'professional' one - after which you'll need to get a human on the phone, preferably your contact a the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client has multiple departments, it could be that your client department is also annoyed that 'accounts' is stalling. If this is the case, your best bet is to get your client department to deal with the company-internal stuff, as that has a much higher success rate than you arbitrarily phoning people in the company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, it seems your only possible leverage is if they want further work done. If that happens, you must insist on prior payment in full. If you let them talk you out of it, they might actually be using you for free work. Whether you should also insist on payment up front or in stages depends on whether you believe in a long-term relationship with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Collecting debt varies depending on your jurisdiction. In Denmark and Sweden, I would be able to hand a claim such as yours over to debt-collectors because he client has acknowledged receiving the invoice and has therefore accepted the charge." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13292" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1209" RevisionGUID="1efca38c-7b35-4714-b84c-01b17b910953" CreationDate="2016-04-13T16:33:02.777" UserId="148" Comment="spelling" Text="I have a little bit of sympathy for the client because you told him that you expected the work to take a certain amount of time (and thus a certain cost) and it took longer and cost more. To help see things in perspective and avoid conflict, put yourself in his shoes and then imagine how you would feel. Then use that experience as you discuss the problem with him. It is a good way to increase understanding and avoid conflict.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is important to develop the skill of good estimation in freelance work. If you look at it from his point of view, he was told certain things regarding duration and cost that turned out to be wrong. that can be frustrating. He is not the expert here, you are, and for these things he must rely on your expertise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*However*, the time for disputing should have been at the moment you told him it would take more time. He may have had a case at that point according to the rules of the website to ask for a refund or at least to walk away with the work done up to that point (I don't know the rules of those sites) but from the moment he agreed to more time he lost his right to dispute the cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The learning experience: For you, it is important to gain more experience, and perhaps be more careful in how you estimate the time it will take to finish projects. You should always factor in some &quot;slippage&quot; time which usually means, in many projects, this will be at least double the amount of time you expect the project to last. This might be difficult in competitive sites like eLance or similar where you compete for a contract with others who may be saying they can do it in a much shorter time frame but, in the long run, by proving yourself to be more reliable and accurate than the others (or by finishing earlier your estimate) you will gain a good reputation, more satisfied clients and thus more work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We all have made these sorts of mistakes early in our careers (and even later) but hopefully, this answer and your experience will be helpful to you for future work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13293" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4435" RevisionGUID="58da195c-b06e-4052-a307-3af173268cfd" CreationDate="2016-04-13T18:24:38.173" UserId="1706" Text="What were the payment terms that you specified?  Since you didn't mention, I'm assuming you didn't make any.  If you're going to freelance, you'd better get hip, and fast.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Excerpt: &quot;Accounting payment terms are the payment rules imposed by suppliers on their customers. Payment terms are imposed to ensure that payments are received by suppliers within a reasonable period of time.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.accountingtools.com/accounting-payment-terms&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't specify -- in writing -- you end up where you're at now." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13294" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4431" RevisionGUID="97d93338-eb73-4aed-9bd1-d9874a397e22" CreationDate="2016-04-13T18:25:25.360" UserId="1706" Comment="edited title" Text="How do I persuade a client to make good on a &quot;late&quot; payment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13295" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4435" RevisionGUID="5df4746c-62e1-4b6c-bec5-c75bd685968b" CreationDate="2016-04-13T18:48:30.057" UserId="1706" Comment="added 34 characters in body" Text="What were the payment terms that you specified?  Since you didn't mention, I'm assuming you didn't make any.  If you're going to freelance, you'd better get hip, and fast.  As-is, there is no &quot;due&quot; date!!!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Excerpt: &quot;Accounting payment terms are the payment rules imposed by suppliers on their customers. Payment terms are imposed to ensure that payments are received by suppliers within a reasonable period of time.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.accountingtools.com/accounting-payment-terms&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't specify -- in writing -- you end up where you're at now." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13296" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4432" RevisionGUID="f626fc0c-1cd0-4994-a5d3-f91d077a7211" CreationDate="2016-04-13T20:46:37.217" UserId="820" Comment="make value = fixed clearer" Text="**I would never discount my rate.** Using 'rate' seems to indicate hourly billing (which I'm [a huge advocate for](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1588/which-is-the-most-honest-or-ethical-way-to-bill-hourly-or-fixed-price/1600#1600), at least in the type of work I've done). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're billing hourly, the thing you're charging for is your time not the task. So it doesn't matter if the task requires less of your skill, or seems 'easier' (talking to someone may feel easier than writing code) - the client is paying for the same thing, [your time](https://youtu.be/6aL4ii_Z3EI?t=619).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I'd never discount the rate, in fact, because you're billing a small block of time, I might **charge a minimum of 2 hours (as it interrupts other work)**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That all said, this looks like **a great opportunity to take a stab at value based billing**. While it's just an hour or so of your time, the money you may be saving the company is significant (hiring costs are high, bad hiring even more so).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead of discounting your rate, you could try to get an idea of what savings / value you interviewing a prospective developer gives the company, and charge them a fixed fee derived from that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13299" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4436" RevisionGUID="5a09df8c-ec5d-49b5-af91-9ffee8182ec3" CreationDate="2016-04-14T06:18:52.443" UserId="11806" Text="Lots of engineering students would pay you if you help them with their assignments. However, this can't be very ethical...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A better option can be, if you are able to build a system simulator in your area of expertise, lots of companies would pay you to use it. [This is][1] an example of big system simulator, but this is open source. I don't know what your area of expertise is but let's say instead of telecommunications, it's aerospace: if you are able to model any plane complex system, I guess universities and companies will be very interested. You may need to do a bit of research first and then create a product and try to sell it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.nt.tuwien.ac.at/research/mobile-communications/vienna-lte-a-simulators/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13300" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4437" RevisionGUID="2ea3fefa-3ecd-4f51-a3b7-694ec1b7d0d4" CreationDate="2016-04-14T17:36:38.020" UserId="5100" Text="1. You Should Asked for 30% or 40% Payment as Deposit before initiating work.    That's how freelancing business goes. &#xD;&#xA;2. Once decided you should not raise the amount , whatever the situation is.&#xD;&#xA;3. Do some research about final cost estimation before giving the estimate to client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13301" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4438" RevisionGUID="09b85661-3dbf-4e30-834a-0fb130ac6c4e" CreationDate="2016-04-14T18:42:30.420" UserId="11786" Text="If there is a contract, contact them and tell them that you would like to keep working with them but it's not going to be possible if the situation doesn't change. Also say that you have contacted them many times and there is a contract and you are legally protected by it. You need to tell them this, that's not offensive as you are saying the reasons why you are right and they aren't. Also, you are being positive by telling them that you want to work in the future. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, I wouldn't work again for a company like that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13302" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4439" RevisionGUID="814d0146-a300-4412-88fc-f0ceaa24f597" CreationDate="2016-04-14T20:16:12.647" UserId="11760" Text="If that freelancer website is the one that *handles payments*, then it is **not safe** for you to start working on a project if that client has not paid yet. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most freelance platforms require clients to *pay first* before contractors start the job. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13303" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4440" RevisionGUID="cc4c3d88-7119-4775-8214-a3f7673e32d2" CreationDate="2016-04-14T20:24:16.743" UserId="11760" Text="You should check the UK Taxes website(whatever that may be). They should give you instructions on how taxes work when you are self-employed. I would assume that you would still pay taxes in the UK since that is where you have been working and invoicing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm sorry, I don't know what the UK tax form looks like. I live in the US so I only know what the US tax forms look like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would have to say that this is a question that should be asked in the UK tax officials." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13304" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4436" RevisionGUID="f3d56f5b-fe25-4b93-ad35-eb8ceac68f20" CreationDate="2016-04-15T02:48:10.537" UserId="1706" Comment="Remove &quot;dribble&quot;" Text="If you are able to build a system simulator in your area of expertise, lots of companies would pay you to use it. [This is][1] an example of big system simulator, but this is open source. I don't know what your area of expertise is but let's say instead of telecommunications, it's aerospace: if you are able to model any plane complex system, I guess universities and companies will be very interested. You may need to do a bit of research first and then create a product and try to sell it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.nt.tuwien.ac.at/research/mobile-communications/vienna-lte-a-simulators/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13305" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4421" RevisionGUID="121b10b4-39b5-4c2e-9b51-23e815eb1217" CreationDate="2016-04-15T12:05:33.673" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/720946158575689728" />
  <row Id="13313" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4442" RevisionGUID="17a3974f-07a2-4915-8b74-32f50519e5a9" CreationDate="2016-04-16T20:04:39.290" UserId="9835" Text="I was hired to do work for a Canadian author recently. I will be making over the $600 minimum to require a 1099. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since this client does not own a business is he required to send me a 1099 at the start of the next year?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally, would this differ based on the country of the client? This case if for a US worker and a CA client but what about cases of:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;US client who doesn't own business -&gt; US freelancer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;UK client who doesn't own business -&gt; US freelancer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't expect an answer from every countries perspective but the US, UK, and CA are where most of my clients/leads contact me from. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13314" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4442" RevisionGUID="17a3974f-07a2-4915-8b74-32f50519e5a9" CreationDate="2016-04-16T20:04:39.290" UserId="9835" Text="Do individuals hiring a US freelancer have to send a 1099?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13315" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4442" RevisionGUID="17a3974f-07a2-4915-8b74-32f50519e5a9" CreationDate="2016-04-16T20:04:39.290" UserId="9835" Text="|taxes|canada|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13324" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4445" RevisionGUID="0ca5fd40-fada-46f2-a9ea-54b7a92c568e" CreationDate="2016-04-19T13:40:45.583" UserId="11579" Text="WRITE to the tax office for advice so you get an answer in writing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You cannot outsource your tax responsibility so even if you get the best accountant that does your books, an audit could contradict their efforts leaving you responsible to pay more tax.  An IT contractor friend of mine got audited late last year - the tax man reviewed five previous years and sent him a bill for 125,000GBP. The taxman has decided to interpret IR35 more harshly now than during the past ten years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suggest you write (as opposed to call) the tax office because laws are based on intent and if you were to face some audit in the future, if you have advice in writing, it will help support that you sought and followed advice and had no ill intent. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your tax liability varies depending on the amount of time you have spent in the UK and different laws apply based on the amount of time you spend in the UK within a single year, and on average over four consecutive years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your liability will also differ if you travel for pleasure or business trips (thus working remote at a clients international ofice for extended periods).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I spent years working under my UK Limited Company but living/working in various European countries outside of the UK - I believe I 'won' a lower tax liability, but I eventually left the UK (no longer resident).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13328" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4447" RevisionGUID="70dda2f4-93e9-440f-bd01-ec1b8e07837b" CreationDate="2016-04-21T00:40:24.517" UserId="12167" Text="There's a lot of answers about how to be a high-quality Upwork freelancer. But with a limited number of Connects each month, how best to choose projects to bid on?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In case the answers depend on the type of project: I do Excel development, VBA programming, technical writing, copy editing, and proofreading." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13329" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4447" RevisionGUID="70dda2f4-93e9-440f-bd01-ec1b8e07837b" CreationDate="2016-04-21T00:40:24.517" UserId="12167" Text="How to choose what Upwork projects to bid on?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13330" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4447" RevisionGUID="70dda2f4-93e9-440f-bd01-ec1b8e07837b" CreationDate="2016-04-21T00:40:24.517" UserId="12167" Text="|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13332" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4448" RevisionGUID="27871e94-1b76-47ef-8432-64287df6c2d2" CreationDate="2016-04-21T10:20:08.423" UserId="517" Text="Of course it's a lot of projects because there are 100k+ contractors. So it's up to you to find the one that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. you can finish&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. you can do it properly and with quality&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. meet the deadline&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. earn money for time you spent on it, but also for the time you're looking for other projects&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. work with the client you like or that seems like a good client&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you narrow down projects that meet, you will have just a few projects daily to bid on. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13333" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4447" RevisionGUID="65179323-b875-4029-ab8a-123e9bb819d8" CreationDate="2016-04-21T20:11:12.583" UserId="12167" Comment="My question was unclear: I want to know how to choose high-value projects" Text="There's a lot of answers about how to be a high-quality Upwork freelancer. But with a limited number of Connects each month, how best to high-value *projects* to bid on?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Upwork forums (which I don't think I can link to here) have an excellent post about avoiding fraudulent and unethical projects. I'm still worried about the legitimate ones that aren't likely to pick me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - If a project has too many proposals already, should I not bother? How many is &quot;too many&quot;?&#xD;&#xA; - If the project already has &quot;hires&quot;, should I not bother?&#xD;&#xA; - If the project is still open after a week, and has no recent activity, should I assume the client has moved on and never gotten around to closing it out?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In case the answers depend on the type of project: I do Excel development, VBA programming, technical writing, copy editing, and proofreading." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13334" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4449" RevisionGUID="cc2fab50-5562-4101-8b13-941a237f2b86" CreationDate="2016-04-21T23:50:55.543" UserId="12183" Text="The broader the field you work in, the more acceptable it is to bill for time researched.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An example:&#xD;&#xA;If you hire a intellectual property lawyer (patent attorney), you should not expect them to bill you for time learning how to search for prior art or learning the process of filing claims with the patent office.  You expect when hiring them that they know those basic skills, their &quot;art.&quot;  However, I will tell you from experience they *absolutely* will charge you for time researching your specific invention and how it fits in.  They cannot be expected to be intimate with *specifics* because that is too broad.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Similarly, I consult in electronic design and while I have mastered the essentials (design, debug, etc.), there are so many specifics and the field is so broad that you often need to spend time learning to meet your client's needs.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What others have said is definitely true -- if you can reuse the work you are learning about, even better, and you might consider not billing in those cases." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13335" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4450" RevisionGUID="0893d7bb-8da3-444f-9fb9-c9826867f611" CreationDate="2016-04-22T16:49:26.817" UserId="12188" Text="**Context**&#xD;&#xA;I just started in the freelancing industry and decided to go with something rather *easy*: translation reviews and testing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My client, an indie video game developer, already went through a publisher to translate its game from Chinese to English. the publisher then recruited freelancer editors around the world to do the translations from English to other languages (Japanese, French, German,etc) and put them directly in contact with the development team.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I finally got in touch with the development team to do ingame testing and review, and fix mistakes that I may find.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, after reviewing a big chunk of the dialogs (in my main language), I noticed that the person who did the editing job really didn't know what they were doing. Verb tenses are wrong nearly everytime, sentences have the same layout as the original (weird syntax) and a lot of words look like they were translated using Google Translate (which change the whole meaning of the line).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since it was intended to be a small reviewing and testing job at first, I negociated with the project manager that the pay would be something else than money (mainly promotional stuff and some special rights ingame).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seeing that mess, I went ahead and corrected a whole scene (around 25 dialog boxes or 60 sentences). Using a spreadsheet, I left comments for the project manager so he could see what kind of mess it was.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He came back to me, saying he's most likely not gonna hire that editor anymore and instead asked me if I could fix everything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question**&#xD;&#xA;Should I charge the same amount for reviewing/testing as someone else did for editing? In that particular case, would the reviewing be counted as editing, since I'm editing 80% of the initial work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know freelancer editors charge with a price by word model, but I'm not quite sure how it would apply here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm being asked for a quote, but there aren't really much information out there regarding reviews over a botched job done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13336" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4450" RevisionGUID="0893d7bb-8da3-444f-9fb9-c9826867f611" CreationDate="2016-04-22T16:49:26.817" UserId="12188" Text="Should I charge the same amount for reviewing/testing as someone else did for editing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13337" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4450" RevisionGUID="0893d7bb-8da3-444f-9fb9-c9826867f611" CreationDate="2016-04-22T16:49:26.817" UserId="12188" Text="|pay-rate|translations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13338" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4451" RevisionGUID="fd60131e-6069-43bb-8143-e9153a36a37d" CreationDate="2016-04-22T17:00:10.687" UserId="12190" Text="I am a freelancer who works in a variety of different fields doing odd jobs for multiple people, usually weekly. Right now I make about $50 a week, however, I have been considering contacting more people so that I can work more. I was wondering what is the best way for me to make sure that all of the work I am doing is legal, and that I am not evading taxes or anything like that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are a few things you should know:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I am only sixteen years old.&#xD;&#xA; - I plan to make over $1,000 a month. ($12,000 a year.)&#xD;&#xA; - I have a job working at an ad agency doing similar work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My plan was to get a business license in California, register a domain, run a website, etc. Is there anything I should know? Even if it doesn't apply specifically to my situation I would love to hear it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13339" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4451" RevisionGUID="fd60131e-6069-43bb-8143-e9153a36a37d" CreationDate="2016-04-22T17:00:10.687" UserId="12190" Text="What do I have to do as a freelancer to make sure my work is legal?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13340" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4451" RevisionGUID="fd60131e-6069-43bb-8143-e9153a36a37d" CreationDate="2016-04-22T17:00:10.687" UserId="12190" Text="|taxes|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13341" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="4451" RevisionGUID="b8bf80e0-ebec-4a08-801b-44579d37cb8b" CreationDate="2016-04-22T17:54:38.800" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="13342" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4450" RevisionGUID="daf5839d-4d94-47e0-a93c-faadb04990c5" CreationDate="2016-04-22T17:57:37.317" UserId="75" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="**Context**&#xD;&#xA;I just started in the freelancing industry and decided to go with something rather *easy*: translation reviews and testing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My client, an indie video game developer, already went through a publisher to translate its game from Chinese to English. the publisher then recruited freelancer editors around the world to do the translations from English to other languages (Japanese, French, German,etc) and put them directly in contact with the development team.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I finally got in touch with the development team to do in-game testing and review, and fix mistakes that I may find.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, after reviewing a big chunk of the dialogs (in my main language), I noticed that the person who did the editing job really didn't know what they were doing. Verb tenses are wrong nearly every time, sentences have the same layout as the original (weird syntax) and a lot of words look like they were translated using Google Translate (which change the whole meaning of the line).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since it was intended to be a small reviewing and testing job at first, I negotiated with the project manager that the pay would be something else than money (mainly promotional stuff and some special rights in-game).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seeing that mess, I went ahead and corrected a whole scene (around 25 dialog boxes or 60 sentences). Using a spreadsheet, I left comments for the project manager so he could see what kind of mess it was.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He came back to me, saying he's most likely not gonna hire that editor anymore and instead asked me if I could fix everything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question**: Should I charge the same amount for reviewing/testing as someone else did for editing? In that particular case, would the reviewing be counted as editing, since I'm editing 80% of the initial work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know freelancer editors charge with a price by word model, but I'm not quite sure how it would apply here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm being asked for a quote, but there aren't really much information out there regarding reviews over a botched job done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13344" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4450" RevisionGUID="eafd4d86-8077-493a-b0d3-4263e461540c" CreationDate="2016-04-22T18:09:31.223" UserId="12188" Comment="added 83 characters in body" Text="**Context**&#xD;&#xA;I just started in the freelancing industry and decided to go with something rather *easy*: translation reviews and testing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My client, an indie video game developer, already went through a publisher to translate its game from Chinese to English. the publisher then recruited freelancer editors around the world to do the translations from English to other languages (Japanese, French, German,etc) and put them directly in contact with the development team.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I finally got in touch with the development team to do in-game testing and review, and fix mistakes that I may find.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, after reviewing a big chunk of the dialogs (in my main language), I noticed that the person who did the editing job really didn't know what they were doing. Verb tenses are wrong nearly every time, sentences have the same layout as the original (weird syntax) and a lot of words look like they were translated using Google Translate (which change the whole meaning of the line).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since it was intended to be a small reviewing and testing job at first, I negotiated with the project manager that the pay would be something else than money (mainly promotional stuff and some special rights in-game).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seeing that mess, I went ahead and corrected a whole scene (around 25 dialog boxes or 60 sentences) and it took me around 4 hours to complete (there are about 150 scenes in the game). Using a spreadsheet, I left comments for the project manager so he could see what kind of mess it was.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He came back to me, saying he's most likely not gonna hire that editor anymore and instead asked me if I could fix everything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question**: Should I charge the same amount for reviewing/testing as someone else did for editing? In that particular case, would the reviewing be counted as editing, since I'm editing 80% of the initial work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know freelancer editors charge with a price by word model, but I'm not quite sure how it would apply here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm being asked for a quote, but there aren't really much information out there regarding reviews over a botched job done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13347" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4452" RevisionGUID="1b214a12-09d5-4f49-a577-6e008ec4b4b0" CreationDate="2016-04-23T09:32:29.493" UserId="7858" Text="Is might be problematic that you initially agreed to not receive actual money - but that will have to change now. The client also seems to understand this - as I read it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pricing is always difficult - but you seem to have a good case for charging more than the former editors - and being able to perform at a higher level, you should not be bound by their payment model either.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me, your role sounds like translation and Quality Assurance - and if possible, you should charge by the hour. If that is not possible, because they prefer a fixed price for the entire project, try to negotiate splitting your work into separate scenes so you (and the client) get a better idea of the actual work load. When you both feel comfortable estimating the rest, do a fixed price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally, I would only recommend fixed price when the work load is reasonably predictable - which may not be the case here." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13348" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4453" RevisionGUID="f47ebe00-eb35-408a-a35f-035ff6458c21" CreationDate="2016-04-23T13:46:03.583" UserId="820" Text="First, as more of a philosophical angle, it's better to look for high value _client_, not high value _projects_. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[_Quick note, I've not really used UpWork since the departure from oDesk, and I'm not at all a fan of the upcharges just to get better access to data._]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**First, your specific questions**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If a project has too many proposals already, should I not bother? How many is &quot;too many&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I was bidding on projects, my rate would always be near the top (if not the highest). I wasn't concerned with how many proposals there were, what I looked at was the average rate vrs the average interview rate. If the interview rate was at least a little higher, it told me the client's primary interest was not the lowest hourly rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It now looks like UpWork charges for access to those kind of stats.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If the project already has &quot;hires&quot;, should I not bother?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This depends on the type of work you're doing. If I had to choose between two jobs, and one already had a hire, I'd probably pick the other. But this could also be a useful indicator about the client. If it's a job where more than a single contractor are obviously needed, can you identify the hire? If so, what does that tell you about the client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If the project is still open after a week, and has no recent activity, should I assume the client has moved on and never gotten around to closing it out?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Time itself isn't necessarily an indicator of that. Have they moved anyone to interview (if so, perhaps they've just not found anyone yet)? What do the average bids tell you (lots of low bids may mean they're waiting for someone with what the consider 'reasonable' pricing)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Some general tips:**&#xD;&#xA;I'd always use bidding on projects to **expand my area of expertise**. As a contract developer doing API integrations, if there was an API I wanted to play with, or wanted to become an 'expert' in, I'd focus my bidding on those jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Think about your reputation** when you bid - specifically, does this job seem like it will end successfully with the client leaving positive feedback. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This may no longer be true, but oDesk used to match you in search results to not only your profile, but the keyworks in the jobs you bid / won. Keep that in mind, because what terms your profile matches will **affect the job invites you get**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And on that topic, your profile may be the thing you can improve the most. Right now you're asking how to validate that a job is worth using one of your available bids. Wouldn't it be **better to just filter inbound requests**? How valuable is a good profile? Valuable enough that [mine has been copied multiple times](http://gist.io/3762281).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(_Which was an interesting story, I found out about that interviewing another contractor for a client, and thought some of their profile sounded familiar. Turns out it was mine._)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I touch on some other tip in this [rather dated guest post on the oDesk blog](https://www.upwork.com/blog/2009/10/provider-voice-bidding-for-work-its-not-about-price/), parts are still relevant." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13352" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3655" RevisionGUID="e2ab6a2f-6805-4373-8566-e57ee6f21c00" CreationDate="2016-04-24T23:36:41.860" UserId="1793" Comment="added 493 characters in body" Text="A little background: my employer has a client and this client is pretty big and they are using the system for many users and I'm the only resource person who knows the source code and everything in it. The first few months was fine and I receive my salary on time. They told me that they were having problems with the finance recently but I'm skeptic because they hired another contractual developer to do other work for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I've been working for this employer for more than a year now but they keep on delaying salary and currently 2 months delayed. I already have deployed the project in the development sites for testing purposes and there are items that still need fixing and other features to be added along the way. My question is, should I keep on working with this employer or should I tell them that I need to get paid first before I resume work? I'm not the kind of person who does things demandingly.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Key Question**  &#xD;&#xA;So what should be my tone of voice? Inquiring? Demanding? I don't like to put bad impressions on clients/employers and burn bridges.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also I'm thinking my employer might lose this client because of me not proceeding but I need to get paid first, I have a family to feed. By the way, the system was worked by a different developer primarily and I just took over and my employer just got hold of the codes with which they don't have idea how to so I'm the one managing it at the moment and currently under my Git account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#Update&#xD;&#xA;So my employer paid me already but it took more time than I have expected. It just takes patience and lots of it and had to remind them a couple of times. So lesson learned, make sure you are getting paid (at most) every fortnightly so if in case your employer won't be able to pay you at least the damage will be manageable to a minimum. Nevertheless, just be honest as much as possible with your dealings regardless if your boss is not. In the end it's not your loss but theirs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13353" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3655" RevisionGUID="f77bab56-6adb-4fb2-a8d1-f87f49422c76" CreationDate="2016-04-25T00:53:15.597" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/724400847359229953" />
  <row Id="13354" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4450" RevisionGUID="abd2bf16-9cf6-4208-a403-e4ce5da6fa95" CreationDate="2016-04-25T01:33:55.920" UserId="12188" Comment="added 33 characters in body" Text="**Context**&#xD;&#xA;I just started in the freelancing industry and decided to go with something rather *easy*: translation reviews and testing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;\*EDIT\* Q/A and Proofreading&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My client, an indie video game developer, already went through a publisher to translate its game from Chinese to English. the publisher then recruited freelancer editors around the world to do the translations from English to other languages (Japanese, French, German,etc) and put them directly in contact with the development team.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I finally got in touch with the development team to do in-game testing and review, and fix mistakes that I may find.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, after reviewing a big chunk of the dialogs (in my main language), I noticed that the person who did the editing job really didn't know what they were doing. Verb tenses are wrong nearly every time, sentences have the same layout as the original (weird syntax) and a lot of words look like they were translated using Google Translate (which change the whole meaning of the line).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since it was intended to be a small reviewing and testing job at first, I negotiated with the project manager that the pay would be something else than money (mainly promotional stuff and some special rights in-game).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seeing that mess, I went ahead and corrected a whole scene (around 25 dialog boxes or 60 sentences) and it took me around 4 hours to complete (there are about 150 scenes in the game). Using a spreadsheet, I left comments for the project manager so he could see what kind of mess it was.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He came back to me, saying he's most likely not gonna hire that editor anymore and instead asked me if I could fix everything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question**: Should I charge the same amount for reviewing/testing as someone else did for editing? In that particular case, would the reviewing be counted as editing, since I'm editing 80% of the initial work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know freelancer editors charge with a price by word model, but I'm not quite sure how it would apply here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm being asked for a quote, but there aren't really much information out there regarding reviews over a botched job done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13356" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4455" RevisionGUID="a26f1282-9de3-48c7-bcfa-851573e283d9" CreationDate="2016-04-26T01:54:30.960" UserId="12221" Text="I was hired to build a website for someone for $2500 - So I got a $1250 deposit and after 2 or 3 weeks things fell apart as they were rude and refused to corroborate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now he threatened to sue, seemed like he was just trying to scare me but idk for sure. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We never signed a contract but i did send him a brief with deliverables via email just to show him what he was getting and the price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So i guess we agreed via email, however i finished the site and he ripped it apart and basically said that it wasn't good enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I get sued?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13357" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4455" RevisionGUID="a26f1282-9de3-48c7-bcfa-851573e283d9" CreationDate="2016-04-26T01:54:30.960" UserId="12221" Text="Can I get sued if we didn't sign a contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13358" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4455" RevisionGUID="a26f1282-9de3-48c7-bcfa-851573e283d9" CreationDate="2016-04-26T01:54:30.960" UserId="12221" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13359" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4456" RevisionGUID="93f3256d-a892-436e-a680-141541740063" CreationDate="2016-04-26T08:25:52.410" UserId="1018" Text="Short answer: **Yes**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Longer Answer:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not a lawyer but your client could reasonably believe that the brief you sent and the deposit you received constitute an offer and acceptance or in other words, &quot;a contract&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is probably best to find out what the client wants you to do before making any decisions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, your client may want to hold you to the contract (&quot;specific performance&quot;) and continue with the project until they are satisfied. This could be a long and arduous road that ends up with you being out of pocket.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They might agree to terminating the contract with you keeping the deposit or they may expect the deposit to be returned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, if you believe that you have delivered what was asked, you might be inclined to stand your ground, invoice the final 50% and initiate a legal action of your own if they refuse to pay." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13360" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4457" RevisionGUID="19dc0a1a-1789-477a-a6cb-d594ad20ec73" CreationDate="2016-04-26T16:21:47.513" UserId="1706" Text="In most US venues, $2500 is a small claim, so no attorneys will be involved.  All courts recognize oral contracts, though written ones are obviously better.  You could get sued, but the client has to sue in a court that has jurisdiction in the place where you live or work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You finished the work.  I'm going to assume you didn't get the other half of the money.  You might be in just as good a position to sue as is your angry client, but the same conditions would apply to you.  (a) No attorneys, because it's a small claim.  (b) You have to sue in a court of competent jurisdiction where your client lives or works.  (c) You might get a judgment, but never be able to collect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not an attorney.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13364" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4459" RevisionGUID="a45ee844-957c-4ffe-bc11-834c0a104901" CreationDate="2016-04-26T21:23:37.017" UserId="12228" Text="Well, in some cases there´s not much you can do but wait. My opinion is that it all depends on the situation the employer and its industry is in. In some cases you might want to put some pressure, in others you might want to wait (more than we want to). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The important thing is NEVER loose your temper. **It's better to get paid late than to never get paid at all.** And of course, get to know your employer so you can have more information about how to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If we can't handle not being paid for a while then that's something that we have to manage either by cutting costs or getting funded. Easier said than done of course." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13372" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4461" RevisionGUID="bd9af45c-5b99-49b0-984a-21b4489ab60a" CreationDate="2016-04-28T09:45:54.047" UserId="12243" Text="As i understood, you are trying to reuse a code you developed inside your society in other projects, but it's not mentioned in the contract that you can't do that.&#xD;&#xA;Well i think that is forbidden anyway, because the machine you used , the internet and everything belongs to your society, even though they did nothing to help you developing that code." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13373" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4462" RevisionGUID="06e5b413-00b6-43dc-85ab-ce2d32297f8a" CreationDate="2016-04-28T11:42:51.083" UserId="12247" Text="I've been really interested in data scraping and headless browsing and was ready to put some samples in my portfolio for future clients ... after doing some research on this topic I found that there's tons of lawsuit against scrappers (the most famous one is [Facebook lawsuit against Power.com][1]  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;my question is : as a freelancer developer should I be worried about the legality of every code I provide ? Should I demand signing some kind of contract whenever I sell the simplest code ? Is it enough stating that I'm not responsible for the usage of this code by the client ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook,_Inc._v._Power_Ventures,_Inc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13374" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4462" RevisionGUID="06e5b413-00b6-43dc-85ab-ce2d32297f8a" CreationDate="2016-04-28T11:42:51.083" UserId="12247" Text="Are you responsible for the legality of the code you provide to every client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13375" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4462" RevisionGUID="06e5b413-00b6-43dc-85ab-ce2d32297f8a" CreationDate="2016-04-28T11:42:51.083" UserId="12247" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13376" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4463" RevisionGUID="fcb5fbd8-7c1b-4680-97b0-1292c7d630b9" CreationDate="2016-04-28T15:52:30.793" UserId="5568" Text="I'd like to know if it's legal to start under somebodies else business without their consent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know one store and asked multiple times if they have an e-commerce/online shopping site where I can purchase their products. They only have a facebook page and they post sometimes some updates. They do however ship if someone makes an order. It just seems to me that they aren't interested in having an online store or they don't have energy/money investing in it even though they all have ready for the purchases.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since I'm a developer, I was thinking to make a site and list their products. The URL will be the name of their store. Anytime someone makes a purchase I will contact them through email if they could send the products to them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to use the URL with their name since they are already indexed by google and they are mentioned in many blogs and many people know them under this name. Any legal obstacles?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13377" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4463" RevisionGUID="fcb5fbd8-7c1b-4680-97b0-1292c7d630b9" CreationDate="2016-04-28T15:52:30.793" UserId="5568" Text="Starting an eCommerce site of an other business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13378" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4463" RevisionGUID="fcb5fbd8-7c1b-4680-97b0-1292c7d630b9" CreationDate="2016-04-28T15:52:30.793" UserId="5568" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13380" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4464" RevisionGUID="5415779a-d0bf-41e3-8038-2f2e6abb6552" CreationDate="2016-04-29T00:00:04.153" UserId="7717" Text="The reason a client is supposed to send you a copy of the 1099-MISC form is so that you have a formal record of the money they paid you to make it easier to do your own taxes. *You are required to report the income to the IRS whether or not you received a 1099-MISC for it.* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Only one of the dozens of clients I have worked with has ever bothered to send me a 1099-MISC. You should ask for it directly if it's something you want, but consider yourself lucky if you ever receive one." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13381" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4464" RevisionGUID="1685760c-cf93-4647-a389-e9825c6abfbc" CreationDate="2016-04-29T00:05:08.983" UserId="7717" Comment="added 222 characters in body" Text="The client is supposed to fill out the 1099-MISC to report the spending to the IRS. The reason a client is supposed to send *you* a *copy* of the 1099-MISC form is so that you have a formal record of the money they paid you to make it easier to do your own taxes. *You are required to report the income to the IRS whether or not you received a 1099-MISC for it.* I don't know whether someone outside of the US would be required to send the IRS a 1099-MISC if they hired a contractor inside the US.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Only one of the dozens of clients I have worked with has ever bothered to send me a 1099-MISC. You should ask for it directly if it's something you want, but consider yourself lucky if you ever receive one." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13383" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4465" RevisionGUID="57198219-7f09-4ff7-9c31-40276e035fd9" CreationDate="2016-04-29T07:09:25.193" UserId="7858" Text="This is basically a legal question and therefore ultimately depends on jurisdiction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However - since it seems you will be 'impersonating' an existing business to a degree where customers could actually be led to believe that they are actually dealing with the impersonated store, I would suspect this is illegal most places.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you create the webshop without impersonating the original store, you are in less trouble legally; perhaps even in the clear and the store could probably not object.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether this is a good business idea, is another matter. You'll probably still need to handle sales tax and I presume you would not merely sell on the products at the same price. If the store is not the original supplier of the products, perhaps sourcing them from the original supplier would make this business viable." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13384" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4466" RevisionGUID="68a2670a-afa2-47c1-ad53-d5fd9b90837f" CreationDate="2016-04-29T07:17:24.287" UserId="7858" Text="Actually, contracts most often work the other way around: The client insisting that you ensure the code is legal and lives up to standard industry practices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, you often deal with clients with very little knowledge or interest in IT.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Contractually, you could have them assume the legal risks. Personally, I always view myself as the client's advisor and would therefore assume this risk myself as I - and not the client - should have the expertise in this area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want a long term relationship with clients, getting them to assume a risk they hardly understand, is not the way forward." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13385" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4462" RevisionGUID="831aac74-7e86-4c7d-95e9-29ee892f597b" CreationDate="2016-04-29T08:52:53.390" UserId="1018" Comment="Add &quot;legal&quot; tag" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13386" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4467" RevisionGUID="7758d211-3952-480a-915c-d54e5dd310a6" CreationDate="2016-04-29T09:13:28.337" UserId="1018" Text="I am not a lawyer but the person or organisation that runs your code would be more likely to be subject to legal scrutiny than you as the author of the code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I can freely download ethical hacking / penetration testing tools to test the security of my own website or server etc and it's unlikely anyone would have any legal concerns. If I were to use the tool to hack into a competitor website or server, this would no doubt be a different story.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's reasonable to assume that a data scraper could be used ethically so I don't see how you could be sued for writing or selling this type of software. For example, I might use a data scraping tool to collect data from commercial websites for statistical analysis. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the Facebook vs Power Ventures example you link to, the complaint was about copyright violation because the scraped data was republished without permission." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13388" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4468" RevisionGUID="a27e790f-88ff-4a48-a2cb-58ab86c77e4a" CreationDate="2016-04-29T13:50:41.393" UserId="12262" Text="I along with my wife run an animation studio for promotional and explainer videos, so far we've been selling on fiverr and upwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We want to start selling directly to clients so I built a landing page on instapages and will run an adwords campaing for it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can find it here: growanimationstudios.instapage.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope to get a cost per conversion lower than $35, which is close to what I pay to Upwork for every minute we sell.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How did you manage to start gathering clients directly? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can adwords be effective for B2B services?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13389" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4468" RevisionGUID="a27e790f-88ff-4a48-a2cb-58ab86c77e4a" CreationDate="2016-04-29T13:50:41.393" UserId="12262" Text="Cutting out the middle man and selling to clients directly" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13390" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4468" RevisionGUID="a27e790f-88ff-4a48-a2cb-58ab86c77e4a" CreationDate="2016-04-29T13:50:41.393" UserId="12262" Text="|contracts|attracting-clients|price|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13391" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4468" RevisionGUID="2ca325a9-886b-4cfc-90d8-136be7cf803b" CreationDate="2016-04-29T16:30:10.233" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 66 characters in body; edited tags" Text="I along with my wife run an animation studio for promotional and explain videos, so far we've been selling on Fiverr and Upwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We want to start selling directly to clients so I built a landing page on Instapages and will run an AdWords campaign for it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope to get a cost per conversion lower than $35, which is close to what I pay to Upwork for every minute we sell.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How did you manage to start gathering clients directly? Can AdWords be effective for B2B services?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13392" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4468" RevisionGUID="2ca325a9-886b-4cfc-90d8-136be7cf803b" CreationDate="2016-04-29T16:30:10.233" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 66 characters in body; edited tags" Text="|attracting-clients|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13393" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4469" RevisionGUID="0020be87-7cb2-4a39-b256-9ce513b338e5" CreationDate="2016-04-30T04:20:11.920" UserId="9835" Text="As a SEO - take caution when you start an Adwords campaign. If you're unsure as to what you're doing and do not optimize your campaign you can easily waste your money. I would hire a cost-effective PPC specialist with a proven track record if you have no prior PPC experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I digress. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To sell directly, you need to do a lot of self-marketing to gain a reputation aside from Upwork and Fivver. Cold-call, email, or walk into businesses that can benefit from your services and try to sell to them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Become an authority within your niche. Find related blogs where you can write content for them as well as include a link back to your site. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can advertise your services on Craigslist as well as find great promotional opportunities. Writers, bloggers, and podcasters (depending on your area) are always looking for guests and stories. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also define where you want to sell your services and run SEO campaigns to increase your search engine presence. Not too many people hiring a company (or team) without Googling them or searching for the service to find companies in the first place. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Running promotions is also a great way to bring people in (who doesn't like a deal?). I personally run a promotion that gives clients 1 free month of SEO work (anywhere from $300-$1,000 in free work depending on their site) if they refer someone to me that purchases my services - no matter how much they spend. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a win-win for me (may not work for you) as I'm able to gain new clients who I can upsell to later on as well as regain trust in clients if that free month of work provides good results they will usually want more. I've had clients send me 4-5 new clients in a year as well as choosing to purchase additional services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Adword **can be** very effective for B2B or B2C advertising. There's more that goes into PPC conversions than one may think. Not everyone that clicks on your ad may click intentionally when the user is on your site you need to SELL. The page that they land on needs to be optimized to convert and you need to have a sales funnel. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not every user is ready to buy so you need them to come back so they don't forget about you. Having an email list that appears on all pages is great - but a custom prompt for your PPC landing page(s) is even better. &quot;We don't expect you to hire the first animation studio you find. Let's keep in touch&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13394" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4469" RevisionGUID="3694b1ad-0bf9-4bf8-a221-cdd27336415c" CreationDate="2016-04-30T04:25:48.093" UserId="9835" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="As a SEO - take caution when you start an Adwords campaign. If you're unsure as to what you're doing and do not optimize your campaign you can easily waste your money. I would hire a cost-effective PPC specialist with a proven track record if you have no prior PPC experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I digress. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To sell directly, you need to do a lot of self-marketing to gain a reputation aside from Upwork and Fivver. Cold-call, email, or walk into businesses that can benefit from your services and try to sell to them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Become an authority within your niche. Find related blogs where you can write content for them as well as include a link back to your site. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can advertise your services on Craigslist as well as find great promotional opportunities. Writers, bloggers, and podcasters (depending on your area) are always looking for guests and stories. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also define where you want to sell your services and run SEO campaigns to increase your search engine presence. Not too many people hiring a company (or team) without Googling them or searching for the service to find companies in the first place. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Running promotions is also a great way to bring people in (who doesn't like a deal?). I personally run a promotion that gives clients 1 free month of SEO work (anywhere from $300-$1,000 in free work depending on their site) if they refer someone to me that purchases my services - no matter how much they spend. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a win-win for me (may not work for you) as I'm able to gain new clients who I can upsell to later on as well as regain trust in clients if that free month of work provides good results they will usually want more. I've had clients send me 4-5 new clients in a year as well as choosing to purchase additional services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Adword **can be** very effective for B2B or B2C advertising. There's more that goes into PPC conversions than one may think. Not everyone that clicks on your ad may click intentionally, when the user is on your site you need to SELL, and the page that they land on needs to be optimized to convert. You need to have a sales funnel. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not every user is ready to buy so you need them to come back so they don't forget about you. Having an email list that appears on all pages is great - but a custom prompt for your PPC landing page(s) is even better. &quot;We don't expect you to hire the first animation studio you find. Let's keep in touch&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13395" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4455" RevisionGUID="f70a6962-a6fa-4b46-a8a1-43365b6a0915" CreationDate="2016-04-30T10:24:38.827" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/726356581395390464" />
  <row Id="13400" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4450" RevisionGUID="801a94ed-c811-4434-91b3-56d660044a6a" CreationDate="2016-05-01T04:32:23.793" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/726630322591399936" />
  <row Id="13401" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4471" RevisionGUID="9df11677-d485-4f03-a4d0-dbd79484d1c6" CreationDate="2016-05-02T01:22:01.733" UserId="12280" Text="My son is a beginner voice actor. He is 14, a dependent child. When he starts to make money, when and how does he file taxes? Does he file separately or with us(parents). I have read that minors begin to pay tax after the income is $6,300, but self employed people pay after $400. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How does this pertain to him? At what threshold does he begin? Does he file with the parents or separately? Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13402" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4471" RevisionGUID="9df11677-d485-4f03-a4d0-dbd79484d1c6" CreationDate="2016-05-02T01:22:01.733" UserId="12280" Text="Self employed minor's tax?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13403" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4471" RevisionGUID="9df11677-d485-4f03-a4d0-dbd79484d1c6" CreationDate="2016-05-02T01:22:01.733" UserId="12280" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13405" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4471" RevisionGUID="576da40c-2504-47f5-99bc-4af743c4d378" CreationDate="2016-05-02T17:40:19.947" UserId="12280" Comment="added 77 characters in body" Text="My son is a beginner voice actor. He is 14, a dependent child. When he starts to make money, when and how does he file taxes? Does he file separately or with us(parents). I have read that minors begin to pay tax after the income is $6,300, but self employed people pay after $400. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How does this pertain to him? At what threshold does he begin? Does he file with the parents or separately? Thanks!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT: We are in Mississippi, I have not done any state specific research." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13406" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4471" RevisionGUID="b31a2fec-153d-4bf5-9f25-e29f07328b61" CreationDate="2016-05-02T18:02:31.490" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|taxes|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13407" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4471" RevisionGUID="b31a2fec-153d-4bf5-9f25-e29f07328b61" CreationDate="2016-05-02T18:02:31.490" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="My son is a beginner voice actor. He is 14, a dependent child. When he starts to make money, when and how does he file taxes? Does he file separately or with us(parents). I have read that minors begin to pay tax after the income is $6,300, but self employed people pay after $400. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How does this pertain to him? At what threshold does he begin? Does he file with the parents or separately? Thanks!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We are in Mississippi, I have not done any state specific research." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13408" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4472" RevisionGUID="ccc6411d-8afb-4818-a8a5-db0543159201" CreationDate="2016-05-02T18:53:00.247" UserId="4837" Text="Here's what I ended up doing based on the advice of an accountant I trust highly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Make a new Invoice for just the interest amount -- description can be something like &quot;Interest on balance of $1000 @ 1.5%&quot;.  Apply this to Account &quot;Interest Income&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Run a Statement for the client going as far back as necessary.  I like running an Activity Statement so they can see what they were charged, what they've paid, and what's due.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) Send both the Invoice and Statement together." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13409" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4473" RevisionGUID="1d54a9e2-b8fe-4a05-84a0-9dac6b84c6dd" CreationDate="2016-05-02T18:55:13.973" UserId="11579" Text="I am no tax expert, nor am I an American but...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suspect the $6,300 figure you quote for minors relates to income derived from non-employment (cash gifts or income from savings trusts). In most (all?) western countries, minimum age age for working is 16 years old, and the number of hours that can be worked at a young age is also limited. Anything else would be a breach of employment laws, possible child cruelty. I would call your local tax office and ask them for advice. The risk/penalty for getting this wrong could lead to child services getting involved despite your best intentions." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13410" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4474" RevisionGUID="30c838f5-ca6d-4732-97f1-901ed71cc1ad" CreationDate="2016-05-02T19:02:29.053" UserId="11579" Text="While @Memj offers good advice, an alternative approach would be to reach out to marketing companies and try partner with them. Send samples of your work - don't do anything for free (they might ask you to do one or two jobs for free so they can test you out - if your samples are not good enough for them to decide then whatever other work you produce is more likely fort their profit, and unlikely to win you future business).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would also &quot;think up&quot; a few clients who might be interested in your work, create a few samples and send them for their consideration. Its a numbers game - if you succeed more than one in ten tries you have a talent that should not be wasted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13411" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4475" RevisionGUID="5c574ac5-28a5-499e-9244-b13e3d0ec971" CreationDate="2016-05-03T02:23:13.980" UserId="9835" Text="I started freelancing when I was 16 and I'm in NH, USA. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the end of my first year (which was 4-6 months) I payed taxes on my own and not on my parents return. I believe I made around $5,000 in those few months. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The IRS has a system to [determine if you need to file taxes][1]. I have not tried this but I'm sure it's useful. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.irs.gov/uac/Do-I-Need-to-File-a-Tax-Return%3F" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13412" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4476" RevisionGUID="fbd5a91c-6c4e-428f-8d25-250b135eb771" CreationDate="2016-05-03T14:30:07.363" UserId="12295" Text="Anyone know of a calculator that helps people see the tax implications between W2 employment and Self Employment. For example say I make $100k/year as a contractor/self-employed vs $80k/year as a W2 salaried employee. It would be great to have a calculator that could show how much tax I would have to pay as a contractor vs as a W2.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't need anything that compares benefits like health insurance, life insurance, etc ... Really just looking to compare salaries and tax implications. Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13413" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4476" RevisionGUID="fbd5a91c-6c4e-428f-8d25-250b135eb771" CreationDate="2016-05-03T14:30:07.363" UserId="12295" Text="Calculator for self employed vs W2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13414" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4476" RevisionGUID="fbd5a91c-6c4e-428f-8d25-250b135eb771" CreationDate="2016-05-03T14:30:07.363" UserId="12295" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13415" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4477" RevisionGUID="b2d61de1-05c9-497e-bfc2-eae3c8565f0e" CreationDate="2016-05-03T19:35:46.463" UserId="12297" Text="I am worried that I have taken on a major project (three months scheduled, tens of thousands of dollars, but it's already late) that I will be unable to complete.  I am trying to figure out the best solution.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By way of backstory, the client is lobbying for a particular piece of legislation, and they need strong research to back up their point of view.  I accepted the contract to provide the economic analysis that demonstrates that the client's position is correct.  But there are two major problems that potentially make the project impossible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) In order to make a sufficiently strong case, detailed local economic data is needed.  But that data is not readily available, and I do not have the resources or capability to gather that data.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) The client wants the study done with a particular methodology.  Over the course of my research, I have come to strongly suspect that the methodology is not valid and should not be used.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, I know that this mess is largely my fault.  I should have not taken on the contract without being confident that I could deliver.  It's a complicated story.  But what really matters now is what to do about it.  I see several options.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Make a heroic effort to overcome the data quality issues.  I've tried, it's already a month late, and I'm getting pretty desperate.  But maybe there is an unturned stone somewhere.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Go to the client and frankly explain the problems.  I have questioned the methodology in the past and have been told that I am the one who fails to understand, which I think is possible but unlikely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) Deliver a report with poor data and a questionable methodology.  Yes, I know this happens all the time in public policy, and it's one of the reasons that politics is so dysfunctional.  I can't bear the thought of delivering a product I don't believe in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anyone been in a situation like this, and how did you (or wish you did) deal with it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13416" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4477" RevisionGUID="b2d61de1-05c9-497e-bfc2-eae3c8565f0e" CreationDate="2016-05-03T19:35:46.463" UserId="12297" Text="Potentially unable to complete a project; what to do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13417" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4477" RevisionGUID="b2d61de1-05c9-497e-bfc2-eae3c8565f0e" CreationDate="2016-05-03T19:35:46.463" UserId="12297" Text="|payment-terms|communication|scope-of-work|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13421" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4479" RevisionGUID="fa1aef18-53c2-4425-a88e-828d28e9c4b7" CreationDate="2016-05-04T05:12:23.477" UserId="12141" Text="I live in South America, I am working as Linux / Unix sys admin since 2005, still in the same path but I would like to do it as a freelance now, offering service locally and outside my country too - remote working :-) It would be nice to read some experiences or advices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have experience with Linux, Free BSD, Sun Solaris 9 and 10 wich of them has the better market for freelance jobs ? and which way is more effective for seeking this kinds of jobs / offering this service ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13422" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4479" RevisionGUID="fa1aef18-53c2-4425-a88e-828d28e9c4b7" CreationDate="2016-05-04T05:12:23.477" UserId="12141" Text="Freelancing sysadmin" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13423" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4479" RevisionGUID="fa1aef18-53c2-4425-a88e-828d28e9c4b7" CreationDate="2016-05-04T05:12:23.477" UserId="12141" Text="|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13424" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4480" RevisionGUID="50ce532f-13c3-4d57-89e8-d4d46186a7a7" CreationDate="2016-05-04T06:11:40.917" UserId="7858" Text="I would always go for option 2.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When one undertakes month-long projects involving products or methods not used before in the given context or company, situations like this are bound to happen. So the problem is not that unexpected things happened, but perhaps that you have not managed the client's expectations as well as you could have.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The right course of action depends on whether you have been paid at all by the client. If you have done lots of work and will only be paid on completion, you are basically at their mercy - unless the project is under a strict deadline and they therefore must proceed with you. However, if they already have paid a significant amount, you have a much better platform from which to negotiate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And negotiate you must. Never just give up or massively under-deliver. Have a serious (and uncomfortable) sit-down with the client and explain that you want to deliver, but there are problems that need to be addressed. Be prepared to take a pay-cut for the project as a whole - but come up with a plan you both believe works and follow up regularly so the project does not derail again." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13425" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4481" RevisionGUID="1d570d39-f122-4dd6-b93b-0b26a3c437e9" CreationDate="2016-05-04T06:50:34.373" UserId="11806" Text="I wouldn't produce anything illegal, but the responsible would be the owner and the owner (your client) would blame the author as he/she may not know what you did, so yes, you are responsible of what you do and even if you provide a false ID, it's not difficult to identify you, so I would avoid those kind of issues." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13426" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4482" RevisionGUID="0f795084-b192-448b-aea8-9afb1adf718c" CreationDate="2016-05-04T08:30:18.113" UserId="12305" Text="Elance is dead. It has merged with oDesk and formed Upwork which really is bad. On top of it they have increased their charges to massive 20% and started levying another 2.75% on clients as well. So overall the charges come to 22.75% now excluding the payment processing charges. Not to mention that they take commissions on currency exchange rates as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13427" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4480" RevisionGUID="0e737b2e-e6bb-4ff2-bc26-aa71df135f8d" CreationDate="2016-05-04T08:55:19.187" UserId="7858" Comment="Added partial delivery" Text="I would always go for option 2.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When one undertakes month-long projects involving products or methods not used before in the given context or company, situations like this are bound to happen. So the problem is not that unexpected things happened, but perhaps that you have not managed the client's expectations as well as you could have.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The right course of action depends on whether you have been paid at all by the client. If you have done lots of work and will only be paid on completion, you are basically at their mercy - unless the project is under a strict deadline and they therefore must proceed with you. However, if they already have paid a significant amount, you have a much better platform from which to negotiate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And negotiate you must. Never just give up or massively under-deliver. Have a serious (and uncomfortable) sit-down with the client and explain that you want to deliver, but there are problems that need to be addressed. Be prepared to take a pay-cut for the project as a whole - but come up with a plan you both believe works and follow up regularly so the project does not derail again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-- EDIT --&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If **partial delivery** makes sense at all, perhaps that could be a tolerable exit for the client and you. But you will still need to sit down and talk to the client - and you are the one that needs to suggest a new plan from which negotiation will take place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no easy fix - but most new freelancers have been where you are now. This is not a situation unique to you, but a perfectly normal experience that you should solve and learn from.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And it is a potentially great learning experience, not just technically but also the underrated 'softer' skills of client (and expectation) management.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as the client is still talking to you, it means they want **you** to do the job. Regardless of how embarrassed and in-over-your-head you may feel.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tackle the problem head-on. Most often, these 'confrontations' are nowhere near as unpleasant as the scenarios you are imagining." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13428" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4401" RevisionGUID="1e5acd07-fd5a-4222-8b94-8d46fc6d7e74" CreationDate="2016-05-04T12:19:33.880" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="13429" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4483" RevisionGUID="f810a66f-69fc-4621-8235-1783b055d8f9" CreationDate="2016-05-04T14:37:28.367" UserId="12307" Text="I have been a web developer for quite a few years now, all my clients being acquaintances or similar. I now have a more formal client that I have recently created a website for. They are interested in a maintenance contract and would like me to create a service level agreement for them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am confident that I will be able to create an SLA, I have downloaded various templates that I can tweak to suit my business and their needs. I am planning to offer clients the chance to buy 'credits' at a set amount per credit. Once their credits run out, they can purchase.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;They have asked me the following questions, which I'd like some help with if at all possible;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - How would the support usage be measured?&#xD;&#xA; - How would email support be measured?&#xD;&#xA; - What kind of response times would we have?&#xD;&#xA; - Are there holiday exceptions where support would not be available?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My initial answers to the questions would be;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; *- I will provide an estimate of credit usage before commencing any work*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; *- Free email support if response is under 15 minutes*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; *- A 3 day business response time. Resolution times will vary*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; *- Support will not be available when I am on annual leave (1 week per year)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do these sound like reasonable answers?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The email question has me particularly stuck. Sometimes I will receive an email that I can quickly respond to and takes no more than 2 - 3 minutes for a reply. However other email queries rely on me sending instructions and screenshots etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bear in mind I do this work in my spare time as I also have a full time job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice would be greatly appreciated. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13430" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4483" RevisionGUID="f810a66f-69fc-4621-8235-1783b055d8f9" CreationDate="2016-05-04T14:37:28.367" UserId="12307" Text="Advice writing my first SLA" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13431" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4483" RevisionGUID="f810a66f-69fc-4621-8235-1783b055d8f9" CreationDate="2016-05-04T14:37:28.367" UserId="12307" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13432" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4484" RevisionGUID="a1f50967-d882-4321-bb40-b645e7e90b03" CreationDate="2016-05-04T14:38:20.993" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="**Taking on freelance work is risky**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whenever a job is taken on like this, there is some degree of risk taken on by both parties. Who takes the most risk is dependant on the terms of the agreement, but basically:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) The client takes the risk that you're going to deliver.  &#xD;&#xA;2) You take the risk that the client will pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These risks are mitigated by very open communication with the client about progress and a payment schedule that is reguler (milesone/weekly).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Don't underestimate yourself**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I should have not taken on the contract without being confident that&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I could deliver.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To some extent you should be confident when taking on a job, but even the most confident and prepared person has unforseen issues. Unless you're a serious veteran in the industry with copious amounts of experience, it's pretty understandable that you're not going to see some issues coming. No one knows the future. Don't underestimate yourself!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, the client considered and chose you when taking this job. If you accurately represented your skills and he hired you, it means that he judged you to be good enough to do the job too. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I wouldn't be quick to put the blame on yourself completely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now for what to do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Offer solutions**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend communicating your concerns to your client (#2) as suggested, however I would also make solution recommendations for the issues too. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's a more detailled example adressing your concerns in particular:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Addressing issue #1:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; But that data is not readily available, and I do not have the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; resources or capability to gather that data.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Say exactly that - the data is not readily available - but then also make a recommendation. Is there a place you could get the data? What would that cost or require? Perhaps the client would pay the fee or has connections of some kind. What about other data sources? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If these things would take a long time or a lot or work to find out, perhaps tell them what you know, or do a bit of research, and then say something like &quot;Researching the options would take some time. I can look into x further if you're interested&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Addressing issue #2:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The client wants the study done with a particular methodology. Over&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the course of my research, I have come to strongly suspect that the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; methodology is not valid and should not be used.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would be careful how I approach this. I would stick to the facts and details precicely what's *wrong* with the method or why it wouldn't work. I wouldn't say that it's &quot;wrong&quot; or &quot;invalid&quot; directly. Just mention issues you see. &quot;How is the method going to deal with x?&quot;. If this is something the client thought up, they may be attached to it and you need to be sensitive to that. Bring up your concerns in a respectful way and be open to learning more or being wrong.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here too, make suggestions regarding your concerns. &quot;I'm not sure how the method is going to handle x, what about doing y instead?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can show your concerns about the method and suggest an alternative in a respectful way, then that's probably the best thing to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**There is not such thing as too many questions**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I have questioned the methodology in the past and have been told that&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I am the one who fails to understand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have certainly been there before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are two possibilities here. Either (1) the method is flawed or (2) it isn't and you misunderstand it. Asking a questiong about the potential flaw (&quot;How will the method handle x?&quot;) will facilitate establishing which case this is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep asking questions about the method until the above is resolved. Do not worry about looking stupid because you've asked (what feels like) the same question for the nth time. If you and the client have differing ideas on what this method is, deal with that ASAP. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since everyone thinks differently, it's inevitable that there are going to be some differences in communication styles. I think in pictures, but one of my clients prefers communicating with speech. It took a while for us to figure out a way of communicating complex ideas in an efficient way. It's not that either of us are stupid (and I doubt either you or your client are too), just that people communicate very differently and it's necessary to work around that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You're on the same side**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that it's easy to see the client as the person who's paying and there's no vested interest there, but you both want this to work. It becomes a lot easier when you think about the client as someone who you're in a mutual relationship with, both working toward the goal of making this project suceed. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13433" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4484" RevisionGUID="782e49a1-8e62-43f8-8ff8-f274f1bea655" CreationDate="2016-05-04T14:44:15.820" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="deleted 55 characters in body" Text="**Taking on freelance work is risky**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whenever a job is taken on like this, there is some degree of risk taken on by both parties. Who takes the most risk is dependant on the terms of the agreement, but basically:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) The client takes the risk that you're going to deliver.  &#xD;&#xA;2) You take the risk that the client will pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These risks are mitigated by very open communication with the client about progress and a payment schedule that is reguler (milesone/weekly).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Don't underestimate yourself**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I should have not taken on the contract without being confident that&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I could deliver.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To some extent you should be confident when taking on a job, but even the most confident and prepared person has unforseen issues. Unless you're a serious veteran in the industry with copious amounts of experience, it's pretty understandable that you're not going to see some issues coming. No one knows the future. Don't underestimate yourself!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, the client considered and chose you when taking this job. If you accurately represented your skills and he hired you, it means that he judged you to be good enough to do the job too. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I wouldn't be quick to put the blame on yourself completely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now for what to do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Offer solutions**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend communicating your concerns to your client (#2) as suggested, however I would also make solution recommendations for the issues too. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's a more detailled example adressing your concerns in particular:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Addressing issue #1:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; But that data is not readily available, and I do not have the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; resources or capability to gather that data.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Say exactly that - the data is not readily available - but then also make a recommendation. Is there a place you could get the data? What would that cost or require? Perhaps the client would pay the fee or has connections of some kind. What about other data sources? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If these things would take a long time or a lot or work to find out, perhaps tell them what you know, or do a bit of research, and then ask which avenues he would like you to persue further, if any.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Addressing issue #2:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The client wants the study done with a particular methodology. Over&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the course of my research, I have come to strongly suspect that the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; methodology is not valid and should not be used.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would be careful how I approach this. I would stick to the facts and detail precicely which part isn't adequate or why it wouldn't work. I wouldn't say that the entire thing is wrong or invalid directly. Just mention issues you see. &quot;How is the method going to deal with x?&quot;. If this is something the client thought up, they may be attached to it and you need to be sensitive to that. Bring up your concerns in a respectful way and be open to learning more or being wrong.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here too, make suggestions regarding your concerns. &quot;I'm not sure how the method is going to handle x, what about doing y instead?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can show your concerns about the method and suggest an alternative in a respectful way, then that's the best thing to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**There is not such thing as too many questions**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I have questioned the methodology in the past and have been told that&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I am the one who fails to understand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have certainly been there before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are two possibilities here. Either (1) the method is flawed or (2) it isn't and you misunderstand it. Asking a questiong about the potential flaw (&quot;How will the method handle x?&quot;) will facilitate establishing which case this is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep asking questions about the method until the above is resolved. Do not worry about looking stupid because you've asked (what feels like) the same question for the nth time. If you and the client have differing ideas on what this method is, deal with that ASAP. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since everyone thinks differently, it's inevitable that there are going to be some differences in communication styles. I think in pictures, but one of my clients prefers communicating with speech. It took a while for us to figure out a way of communicating complex ideas in an efficient way. It's not that either of us are stupid (and I doubt either you or your client are too), just that people communicate very differently and it's necessary to work around that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You're on the same side**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that it's easy to see the client as the person who's paying and there's no vested interest there, but you both want this to work. It becomes a lot easier when you think about the client as someone who you're in a mutual relationship with, both working toward the goal of making this project suceed. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13434" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4483" RevisionGUID="d72fa039-d56b-436d-8003-de0922aef701" CreationDate="2016-05-04T14:44:36.540" UserId="12307" Comment="added tags" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|client-support|time-management|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13435" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4485" RevisionGUID="42ddf891-9e28-4ba1-bd72-009483ae6c26" CreationDate="2016-05-04T16:35:45.417" UserId="12308" Text="I'm a web developer from Dublin and a web development agency whom I used to work with as a normal employee has asked me to quote a day rate to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, they've asked for a discount as they want to hire me on retainer for two fixed days per week were I cannot work for anyone else &amp; be 100% available to them.  But they're guaranteeing to pay me for those two days even if they have no work for me.  And they said they could increase the amount of days when I have them available.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm eager to work with them again as I like there work processes and they often have new &amp; interesting projects.  It will also be convenient for me as I'm moving abroad and can work for them from home.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the moment I charge €450 per day. How much would be normal to discount a retainer contract like this?  Also I know they pay €200 a day to an eastern european developers on a similar arrangement.  They know that with my move abroad that my cost of living will be less so they may expect a similar rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have one client who regularly pays me €450 rate but is unhappy I'm moving abroad as he regularly requests me to come into his office and work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm considering offering them €350 per day but this is such a huge drop, it seems like I may be selling myself short.  But then it would be nice to get such regular work with a company I like." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13436" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4485" RevisionGUID="42ddf891-9e28-4ba1-bd72-009483ae6c26" CreationDate="2016-05-04T16:35:45.417" UserId="12308" Text="What Discount to Give for A Retainer Contract" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13437" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4485" RevisionGUID="42ddf891-9e28-4ba1-bd72-009483ae6c26" CreationDate="2016-05-04T16:35:45.417" UserId="12308" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|retainer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13438" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4486" RevisionGUID="4624955e-04af-42c3-9593-4a0b9540bafa" CreationDate="2016-05-04T16:55:07.713" UserId="75" Text="It sounds to me like the company wants a part time employee, without paying the extra costs. Don't fall for their trap - you are worth your time, and it does not matter where you live. If you decide to move somewhere expensive, that's on you - if you decide to move somewhere cheaper, that's on you. The company should not care if they do not need you *physically located* at their site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can offer a small discount, simply because you *know* you will be getting paid for two full days, but I would only do it if they are a good client for you, and constantly bring you work. So, I would say 450 Euro (Canadian, don't have the Euro symbol on my keyboard) per day, with the promise you'll be available for them, as requested.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ensure that when you make up the contract, you include a lunch break or coffee break, whether paid or unpaid, where you can be undisturbed for non-emergency work. There's nothing like having to work straight 8 hours days for a couple weeks with no break until you're off. Include the hours that you will be available, and ensure they understand that completely (i.e. have them initial that paragraph on your contract or SoW).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you drop your price for them, you are selling yourself short. They should be paying you your rate because **YOU** are the expert in your field. Your rate should increase as time goes on and you get more experience, depending on the market, but that's a story for another time. Having said this, ensure you **ARE** the expert, and be fair." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13439" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4487" RevisionGUID="e49831ff-b13c-4e8c-a4db-8067bfe5118d" CreationDate="2016-05-04T17:01:59.567" UserId="75" Text="If you have a full time job, I'd make it clear that prompt support is only available during, for example, 5:00pm and 10:00pm (depending on your availability). Prompt support will mean a response (even if it's just an acknowledgement) within 15 minutes. That is the first step, as there is nothing quite like having a client calling when I'm in a meeting with my day-job's boss.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Credits are a system I haven't used, but Microsoft does. Have the client purchase the credits ahead of time, *set an expiry period on unused credits*, and use the credits for support incidents. I can understand why the client wants this, but you need to be sure about it - if a credit is per incident, that can be a 15 minute fix, or a 2 week fix! If it's time slots, then I'm wondering why credits and not an hourly charge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be aware of free email support if quick - Yes, a simple yes or no should be free. Screenshots or walkthroughs or creating extra work for yourself needs to be billed. Use your credits or hourly charge for this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, it's hard to take a break, unless you have coverage. Until you do, ensure that you give the client as much lead time as possible before you take vacation so they can plan accordingly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13440" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="3030" RevisionGUID="e5a815c1-ec5f-42b1-95a0-752529613932" CreationDate="2016-05-04T17:17:29.527" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="13441" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4488" RevisionGUID="81e6280d-830e-49d1-b178-62625c02978f" CreationDate="2016-05-04T19:59:55.173" UserId="1706" Text="Offer a discount only if they will PREPAY.  You'll be in a crappy mess to offer discount, tie up two days a week, and then have to fight to get payment when it's time to invoice.  You can't get the time back.  Turn the request for a discount into an advantage for yourself, and not just an advantage for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep the same standard rate.  Maybe discount 10%, 5% if prepaid.  Don't worry about the guys overseas." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13443" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4408" RevisionGUID="b61ecd1f-8d18-4bcf-9cd6-872d14273e53" CreationDate="2016-05-05T04:45:09.053" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/728083083614822402" />
  <row Id="13444" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4489" RevisionGUID="da960c9e-b3fe-4c50-b1ed-73cc2bcb096a" CreationDate="2016-05-05T10:08:57.253" UserId="12316" Text="&#xD;&#xA;I am long time Upwork (oDesk) user that wants to move to freelancer.com due to the latest shifts in the Upwork pricing policy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However the pricing system on freelancer.com seems even more complicated. I am reading their [Fees and Charges page][1], and I see that they have multiple fees that apply on different level:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Under the &quot;For Employers&quot; section you state that the fee is &quot;3% or $3.00 USD (whichever is greater)&quot;&#xD;&#xA;* Under the &quot;For Freelancer&quot; section you state that the fee is &quot;10% or $5.00 USD, whichever is greater&quot;&#xD;&#xA;* Under the &quot;Transaction Fees&quot; section you state that there is an additional fee of &quot;$0.30 USD + 2.3%&quot; for using Credit Card, PayPal or Skrill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client wants to spend $1000 in total with all possible fees included, how much of those would I receive on my freelancer.com profile (without calculating my own withdrawal and bank fees)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My guess is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    1000 - 0.3 = 999.7 -- transaction fee&#xD;&#xA;    999.7 - (999.7*0.023) = 976.7 -- transaction fee&#xD;&#xA;    976.7 - (976.7*0.03) = 947.4 -- employer fee&#xD;&#xA;    947.4 - (947.4*0.1) = 852.66 -- freelancer fee&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is my math correct? If a client pays $1000, I will receive a $852?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a calculator tool that can help me with this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.freelancer.com/feesandcharges/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13445" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4489" RevisionGUID="da960c9e-b3fe-4c50-b1ed-73cc2bcb096a" CreationDate="2016-05-05T10:08:57.253" UserId="12316" Text="Calculating fees on freelancer.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13446" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4489" RevisionGUID="da960c9e-b3fe-4c50-b1ed-73cc2bcb096a" CreationDate="2016-05-05T10:08:57.253" UserId="12316" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13447" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4490" RevisionGUID="cc771f97-342d-4a47-9883-45e0bf981b9b" CreationDate="2016-05-05T11:26:10.677" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="Freelancer&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client starts by putting $1000 into freelancer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fixed transaction:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    1000 - 0.3 = 999.7&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Percentage transaction:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    999.7*100/102.3 = 977.224&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;977.224 is the bid amount + 13% of fees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    977.224*100/113 = 864.8 is the project bid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if the client and you decide on $864.80:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Project Fees:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;      $864.80:  what you get&#xD;&#xA;    +  $86.48:  freelance fee (10%)&#xD;&#xA;    +  $25.944: client fee (3%)&#xD;&#xA;    --------------------------&#xD;&#xA;    = $977.224&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Withdrawl fees&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    + $22.476: percentage (2.3%)&#xD;&#xA;    + $0.3: fixed&#xD;&#xA;    = $1000&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So you get $864.80 at the end of the day.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Odesk&#xD;&#xA;-----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a comparison, with odesk's new system (purely for my own interest, since I also use them)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.75% client payment fee&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    $1000 * 0.027 = $973&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;freelancer fees:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    20% on first $500 = $100&#xD;&#xA;    10% on rest       = $ 47.3&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    total             = $147.30&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    $973-147.30 = $825.70&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So you get $825.70 at the end of the day.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom line:&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Freelancer =&gt; $864.80  (86.4% of initial amount)&#xD;&#xA;    Odesk      =&gt; $825.70  (82.5% of initial amount)&#xD;&#xA;    Difference =&gt; $ 39.10  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bonus points, because I like these kinds of calculations:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When does odesk become cheaper?&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As the project size goes up with odesk, the difference decreases until eventually odesk surpasses freelancer. At what point will odesk be cheaper than freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If we ignore transaction fees for simplicity:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancer's total percentage is 13%. At what point does odesk's scale hit 13%?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first part of the scale is always $500 =&gt; 20%. Let x be the amount above the first $500 of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    0.13 = (0.1x + 100) / (x + 500)&#xD;&#xA;    rearranging....&#xD;&#xA;    x = $1166.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Bid = $1166 + $500 = $1666&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For projects above $1666 (including fees), odesk is cheaper than freelancer. For repeat clients, odesk is always cheaper, since the 20% rule doesn't apply.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13448" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4489" RevisionGUID="e5ed9901-43de-4fee-bf9d-4c19aa865179" CreationDate="2016-05-05T11:31:48.800" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body; edited title" Text="I am long time Upwork (oDesk) user that wants to move to freelancer.com due to the latest shifts in the Upwork pricing policy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However the pricing system on freelancer.com seems even more complicated. I am reading their [Fees and Charges page][1], and I see that they have multiple fees that apply on different level:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Under the &quot;For Employers&quot; section you state that the fee is &quot;3% or $3.00 USD (whichever is greater)&quot;&#xD;&#xA;* Under the &quot;For Freelancer&quot; section you state that the fee is &quot;10% or $5.00 USD, whichever is greater&quot;&#xD;&#xA;* Under the &quot;Transaction Fees&quot; section you state that there is an additional fee of &quot;$0.30 USD + 2.3%&quot; for using Credit Card, PayPal or Skrill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client wants to spend $1000 in total with all possible fees included, how much of those would I receive on my freelancer.com profile (without calculating my own withdrawal and bank fees)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My guess is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    1000 - 0.3 = 999.7 -- transaction fee&#xD;&#xA;    999.7 - (999.7*0.023) = 976.7 -- transaction fee&#xD;&#xA;    976.7 - (976.7*0.03) = 947.4 -- employer fee&#xD;&#xA;    947.4 - (947.4*0.1) = 852.66 -- freelancer fee&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is my math correct? If a client pays $1000, I will receive a $852?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a calculator tool that can help me with this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.freelancer.com/feesandcharges/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13449" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4489" RevisionGUID="e5ed9901-43de-4fee-bf9d-4c19aa865179" CreationDate="2016-05-05T11:31:48.800" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body; edited title" Text="Which payment scheme is cheaper?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13450" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4490" RevisionGUID="52cfd748-eff7-48a7-94c3-b353b55acd2e" CreationDate="2016-05-05T11:32:45.037" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="Freelancer&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client starts by putting $1000 into freelancer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fixed transaction:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    1000 - 0.3 = 999.7&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Percentage transaction:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    999.7*100/102.3 = 977.224&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;977.224 is the bid amount + 13% of fees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    977.224*100/113 = 864.8 is the project bid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if the client and you decide on $864.80:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Project Fees:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;      $864.80:  what you get&#xD;&#xA;    +  $86.48:  freelance fee (10%)&#xD;&#xA;    +  $25.944: client fee (3%)&#xD;&#xA;    --------------------------&#xD;&#xA;    = $977.224&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Transaction fees&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    + $22.476: percentage (2.3%)&#xD;&#xA;    + $0.3: fixed&#xD;&#xA;    = $1000&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So you get $864.80 at the end of the day.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Odesk&#xD;&#xA;-----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a comparison, with odesk's new system (purely for my own interest, since I also use them)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.75% client payment fee&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    $1000 * 0.027 = $973&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;freelancer fees:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    20% on first $500 = $100&#xD;&#xA;    10% on rest       = $ 47.3&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    total             = $147.30&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    $973-147.30 = $825.70&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So you get $825.70 at the end of the day.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom line:&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Freelancer =&gt; $864.80  (86.4% of initial amount)&#xD;&#xA;    Odesk      =&gt; $825.70  (82.5% of initial amount)&#xD;&#xA;    Difference =&gt; $ 39.10  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bonus points, because I like these kinds of calculations:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When does odesk become cheaper?&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As the project size goes up with odesk, the difference decreases until eventually odesk surpasses freelancer. At what point will odesk be cheaper than freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If we ignore transaction fees for simplicity:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancer's total percentage is 13%. At what point does odesk's scale hit 13%?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first part of the scale is always $500 =&gt; 20%. Let x be the amount above the first $500 of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    0.13 = (0.1x + 100) / (x + 500)&#xD;&#xA;    rearranging....&#xD;&#xA;    x = $1166.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Bid = $1166 + $500 = $1666&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For projects above $1666 (including fees), odesk is cheaper than freelancer. For repeat clients, odesk is always cheaper, since the 20% rule doesn't apply.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13451" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4490" RevisionGUID="3919b88a-ace5-4eb0-8b1f-05c8dffc745e" CreationDate="2016-05-05T16:56:05.460" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="fixed odesk transaction fee" Text="Freelancer&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client starts by putting $1000 into freelancer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fixed transaction:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    1000 - 0.3 = 999.7&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Percentage transaction:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    999.7*100/102.3 = 977.224&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;977.224 is the bid amount + 13% of fees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    977.224*100/113 = 864.8 is the project bid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if the client and you decide on $864.80:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Project Fees:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;      $864.80:  what you get&#xD;&#xA;    +  $86.48:  freelance fee (10%)&#xD;&#xA;    +  $25.944: client fee (3%)&#xD;&#xA;    --------------------------&#xD;&#xA;    = $977.224&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Transaction fees&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    + $22.476: percentage (2.3%)&#xD;&#xA;    + $0.3: fixed&#xD;&#xA;    = $1000&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So you get $864.80 at the end of the day.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Odesk&#xD;&#xA;-----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a comparison, with odesk's new system (purely for my own interest, since I also use them)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.75% client payment fee&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    $1000*100/102.7 = $973.71&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;freelancer fees:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    20% on first $500 = $100&#xD;&#xA;    10% on rest       = $ 47.37&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    total             = $147.37&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    $973-147.37 = $825.63&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So you get $825.63 at the end of the day.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom line:&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Freelancer =&gt; $864.80  (86.4% of initial amount)&#xD;&#xA;    Odesk      =&gt; $825.70  (82.5% of initial amount)&#xD;&#xA;    Difference =&gt; $ 39.10  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bonus points, because I like these kinds of calculations:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When does odesk become cheaper?&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As the project size goes up with odesk, the difference decreases until eventually odesk surpasses freelancer. At what point will odesk be cheaper than freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If we ignore transaction fees for simplicity:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancer's total percentage is 13%. At what point does odesk's scale hit 13%?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first part of the scale is always $500 =&gt; 20%. Let x be the amount above the first $500 of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    0.13 = (0.1x + 100) / (x + 500)&#xD;&#xA;    rearranging....&#xD;&#xA;    x = $1166.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Bid = $1166 + $500 = $1666&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For projects above $1666 (including fees), odesk is cheaper than freelancer. For repeat clients, odesk is always cheaper, since the 20% rule doesn't apply.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13452" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4491" RevisionGUID="3a688d71-9c08-4b13-9187-e88fe72c8c87" CreationDate="2016-05-05T20:26:55.430" UserId="8370" Text="Having now dipped my toe into the waters of contracting, I thought it would be beneficial to provide an answer to my younger self! as well as for future readers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what I can tell, IT contracting in the UK tends to operate very much through recruiters, and I've heard anecdotal stories of contract seekers finding a position directly via LinkedIn and then being assigned a recruiter! I hear this is often to simplify the processes of payment, as well perhaps as to insulate the client from being an employer, possibly for reasons of tax liability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have experience of a couple of recruiters. One operates on a very standard advertise-and-place model, and charges an open-book percentage of 15% to the client. Where a rate increase is secured, they stick to their original cut i.e. 15% of the old rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another recruiter I have dealt with use a consultative model: they scout for talent in a particular skill and then keep in touch with the top 100 contractors for that skill in specific geographic areas. By determining when their preferred contractors are due to finish a contract, they hope to match them with roles becoming available. This firm charges 30% on top to the client; I sense it is rather slower, which explains the increased price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found the existence of open-book recruiters a pleasant surprise: in a telephone interview I was asked about my day rate, and I was initially reticent because of the reasons Canadian Luke gives in his answer. However I was assured it was above board: open-book makes life easier for everyone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a related aside, I imagined that in contractor roles, contractors would be forever discussing their rate with each other, in order to equip themselves with the best information to negotiate with. However in my current experience - at least in the UK where we're somewhat bashful when it comes to money - this does not seem to happen at all. I wonder if we're balancing out the desire to negotiate with not wanting to set up a competitive hierarchy that could damage professional relationships.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13453" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4491" RevisionGUID="839c883b-07f9-4b96-a678-ccdf15b2288e" CreationDate="2016-05-06T07:37:39.517" UserId="8370" Comment="Add more detail" Text="Having now dipped my toe into the waters of contracting, I thought it would be beneficial to provide an answer to my younger self! as well as for future readers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what I can tell, IT contracting in the UK tends to operate very much through recruiters, and I've heard anecdotal stories of contract seekers finding a position directly via LinkedIn and then being assigned a recruiter! I hear this is often to simplify the processes of payment, as well perhaps as to insulate the client from being an employer, possibly for reasons of tax liability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have experience of a couple of recruiters. One operates on a very standard advertise-and-place model, and charges an open-book percentage of 15% to the client. Where a rate increase is secured, they stick to their original cut i.e. 15% of the old rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another recruiter I have dealt with use a consultative model: they scout for talent in a particular skill and then keep in touch with the top 100 contractors for that skill in specific geographic areas. By determining when their preferred contractors are due to finish a contract, they hope to match them with roles becoming available. This firm charges 30% on top to the client. I sense it is rather slower, which explains the increased price, but it is much less sales-oriented, and as a contractor I prefer it (even if clients won't!).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found the existence of open-book recruiters a pleasant surprise: in a telephone interview I was asked about my day rate, and I was initially reticent because of the reasons Canadian Luke gives in his answer. However I was assured it was above board: open-book makes life easier for everyone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a related aside, I imagined that in contractor roles, contractors would be forever discussing their rate with each other, in order to equip themselves with the best information to negotiate with. However in my current experience - at least in the UK where we're somewhat bashful when it comes to money - this does not seem to happen at all. I wonder if we're balancing out the desire to negotiate with not wanting to set up a competitive hierarchy that could damage professional relationships.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13454" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3588" RevisionGUID="f61f9d99-d994-47f5-8654-85dbf16ee20b" CreationDate="2016-05-06T10:53:29.023" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/728538165720559617" />
  <row Id="13458" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4493" RevisionGUID="26993d93-274c-46b0-843a-0f3eb47421b5" CreationDate="2016-05-06T15:07:19.527" UserId="12332" Text="Recently I've been doing some banking paperwork in which i had to submit my proof of income. I work as a freelance graphic designer on Fiverr Freelance Marketplace and Istockphoto, so i wonder How to request Fiverr to send me Certificate of Earning or Proof of Income letter so that i can show it to the bank." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13459" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4493" RevisionGUID="26993d93-274c-46b0-843a-0f3eb47421b5" CreationDate="2016-05-06T15:07:19.527" UserId="12332" Text="How do I prove my source of income? - Freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13460" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4493" RevisionGUID="26993d93-274c-46b0-843a-0f3eb47421b5" CreationDate="2016-05-06T15:07:19.527" UserId="12332" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|payments|invoices|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13461" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4494" RevisionGUID="73a85817-7f17-4fa1-a6d4-bf03cc83e9b6" CreationDate="2016-05-06T15:50:34.483" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="There are a couple of options, depending on what the bank will accept.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Invoices&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Download (if the website makes this available) or create your own invoices which detail who the client is, what the job was for, the date and the amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Example (from http://www.wordmstemplates.com):&#xD;&#xA;[![http://www.wordmstemplates.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/invoice-template-135.png][1]][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Business Accounts&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your business has a set of accounts for the last year(and if you're freelancing, then you have a business, even if it's just you), then you can use those as proof of income. Usually you'll need a set of (basic) accounts to do your taxes, even if it's just a list of `incomes - expenses`. Sometimes banks will need your accounts to be signed off by a registered accountant, depending on what they need the proof for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I prepare my own accounts (not a registered accountant) and I have found that banks are usually okay with them. The only case where they wanted them signed off was when I was applying for a particularly large loan.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Getting your accounts signed is easily enough. I approached an accounting firm and they signed mine off for a small fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have used both of the above (Invoices and Accounts) as proof before, and they were accepted both by my local revenue office and bank without any issues. However, if you have issues:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Letter from the website&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some websites offer a certificate of earnings, like [upwork][2], it would be a matter of contacting the freelancer support and asking them if they do too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/azMvb.png&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211063928-Certificate-of-Earnings" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13463" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4495" RevisionGUID="d2ea5ebb-ba34-445d-9c72-6738a02a4dea" CreationDate="2016-05-06T20:22:18.853" UserId="708" Text="Tax returns. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Neither Fiverr nor istockphoto are your *employers* so they aren't obligated to track your earnings or send you records. It's up to **you** to maintain income records. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since these sites are *not* your employers no bank should need *anything* from them. The bank is treating you like a &quot;employee&quot; of these sites, which you are not. You are self-employed even if you use sites like fiverr and istockphoto to sell your merchandise/services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What the bank wants to see is a record of earned income... this is customarily done via tax returns for the last few years. You can also take your records *from the bank* and highlight deposits from these companies to further verify your income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've never used fiverr. So, I'm not 100% sure about their payout method. But I do know istock simply deposits funds into your account when you ask for them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13465" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3604" RevisionGUID="5232d76f-510a-4857-adbb-b412412352ce" CreationDate="2016-05-07T13:10:13.153" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="13470" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4103" RevisionGUID="c2004ef0-8d06-40ff-97d2-4bffbf9ba639" CreationDate="2016-05-08T15:47:10.383" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="spelling, grammar, all those 'u's" Text="I've been a German freelancer for 3.5 years now and this stems from the discussion with my tax consultant (steuerberater) at the time:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Germany, qualifying as a &quot;freiberuflerit&quot; depends on several factors:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. You need to have an academic degree, i.e. Dipl./Ing. or such.&#xD;&#xA; 2. The job you  are doing must be in that line and be of consulting or engineering quality.&#xD;&#xA; 3. You cannot trade goods, i.e. buy and sell with the intent to make profit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, even if all of these are met, your safest bet is that your local tax office (finanzamt) that will do your taxes approves that you qualify as a freelancer. Point 2. has some flexibility, especially if you are a foreigner and point 1. is not met with a German degree.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I advise to contact a German tax consultant (close to where you will work that can easily contact the tax office) and discuss the matter with them.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13471" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4497" RevisionGUID="9c004542-46ad-4e5a-9793-140c46fca585" CreationDate="2016-05-08T23:00:19.050" UserId="2731" Text="I am a freelance application developer. I currently have a client who I began working with in January. A contract was signed stating the project was to be completed in March and that mockups and full requirements would be coming. I did not complete the project in time, partly because I was still receiving requirements and mockups up through April.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Scope creep has gotten worse as the days go on, and yesterday the client informed me that they do not intend to pay my final payment due to the project being late (and they take no responsibility for it). At this point, I am no longer interested in finishing the project, and I want to fire the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Problem #1: There is no termination clause in the contract  &#xD;&#xA;Problem #2: The application is not complete. The client has threatened to sue for breach of contract if I do not finish what I signed off for originally.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far the client has paid me 75% of the total payment; the remaining 25% is the final payment that I have not (and apparently will not) receive. It's my understanding that this isn't a Material Breach because the client will still be getting a fully functional application that is just missing a few of their requirements. I have every intention of giving them every line of code I have written.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FWIW, this is a small claims case. The total payment amount for the project is supposed to total only $4000. I have received $3000 so far. However I am worried that they will try to seek damages for lost revenue for the project being late.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All in all, how do I fire this client without a lengthy and potentially expensive lawsuit afterward? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S. I am *not* interested in finishing the project and fighting for the final payment when completed. Despite there only being a few original requirements left, the client will continue to add new requirements and blame me for it being late. This isn't worth $1000. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13472" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4497" RevisionGUID="9c004542-46ad-4e5a-9793-140c46fca585" CreationDate="2016-05-08T23:00:19.050" UserId="2731" Text="Can I fire my client without being liable for legal fees down the road?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13473" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4497" RevisionGUID="9c004542-46ad-4e5a-9793-140c46fca585" CreationDate="2016-05-08T23:00:19.050" UserId="2731" Text="|contracts|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13480" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4499" RevisionGUID="ca48a9af-9d71-4ff1-a2f9-8226a86f4672" CreationDate="2016-05-09T20:53:25.293" UserId="7334" Text="I am using services such as AWS and MS Azure to host websites for my clients. Is it OK / Legal to use those companies logos on my websites as a partner or this is considered infringement?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13481" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4499" RevisionGUID="ca48a9af-9d71-4ff1-a2f9-8226a86f4672" CreationDate="2016-05-09T20:53:25.293" UserId="7334" Text="Partners logos - legal obligation" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13482" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4499" RevisionGUID="ca48a9af-9d71-4ff1-a2f9-8226a86f4672" CreationDate="2016-05-09T20:53:25.293" UserId="7334" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13484" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4500" RevisionGUID="a858b6d3-46ed-4aa8-9b6b-c00c3a666baa" CreationDate="2016-05-10T11:18:07.810" UserId="7858" Text="Since the contract says nothing about you terminating it or the client withholding payment, you will need to sit down and negotiate a solution. It seems there are two options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) You leave now giving them all code - and no one owes anyone anything&#xD;&#xA;2) A new contract is negotiated which deals with scope creep, late delivery and so on&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems you have considerable leverage as you have received 75% and basically just want out - whereas they have paid partially for an unfinished product." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13490" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4502" RevisionGUID="7d66b510-0220-4d86-86d4-dfb1f3b00281" CreationDate="2016-05-11T10:29:28.133" UserId="11579" Text="Using logos is permitted so long as you are not trying to imply something false, like a relationship. Thus, news articles get to use logo's since they are writing about a company, and if there is a relationship they typically will make some disclosure somewhere in the article.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Partner has special meaning in many jurisdictions. Just because you are their customer, it does not make you their partner. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why would you want to use someone else's logo? If you are trying to let their fame rub off on you, this is exactly what most providers don't want you doing - if you were somehow to become unstuck (prosecuted for fraud for example) it would be to their cost/detriment for their name to be associated with you or your business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some companies have rules that permit you to use their logos as they it as free marketing/promotion, others have rules that strictly prevent usage. You will need read the small print of your contract. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13491" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4503" RevisionGUID="df0fbdad-79b8-4aea-bb01-3332ea662879" CreationDate="2016-05-11T10:45:20.210" UserId="11579" Text="I've been contracting/consulting/freelancing since 1994 (and like you, also Irish). I apply discounts when the relationship is long term, and I can get more expensive when it is short term. It's no different if you go to cash and carry to buy beer, discounts are applied to bulk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are they offering you any contract?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might have heard of the zero hours contracts in the UK? Basically you sit by the phone for your bar/restaurant to call you to come in to work. You are not permitted to work for others either. Legally, its considered that you are employed even though you might get less than 16hours a months work, or they might ask you to come in two hours a week. Your client appears to be offering you a zero hours contract whereby you must be available to them at a moments notice, and they don't have to pay for this facility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suggest they create a purchase order for 26 days, on provision that they will require you two days per week for the next 13 weeks (6 months). Define the work day clearly (8hour day for example, monday to friday). They pay in advance, and the credits they pay for expire if not used when the six months period completes. If you appreciate this type of working relationship, then consider a discount (10%, certainly not more - your 25% is too generous). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are in business - they have expenses. So have you. Both of you are in this for profit, not charity. If you do not value your time, don't expect them to. What they are asking is entirely to their benefit, and it costs you (you sit by the phone and they may or may not call you, which could cost you work with others). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Find a compromise - you are obviously good at what you do otherwise they would willingly near shore the work to someone else. You might value your relationship with them, but do not under estimate your value to them!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13492" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4504" RevisionGUID="5492c984-8a9d-49ac-bc60-951fd9c6d2aa" CreationDate="2016-05-11T11:58:24.463" UserId="12381" Text="As a partner, no. This implies two-way traffic. I mean, it might be legal depending on where you are and which companies, but it's confusing enough that I'd consider it unethical.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, listing them without words should be fine, as is listing them as &quot;tools we use&quot; or similar. For example, my current webhost shows these logos:&#xD;&#xA;[![enter image description here][1]][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But it's very clear they are simply tools to use and/or service providers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/6aQXB.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13494" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4505" RevisionGUID="2dc949d7-087f-4f77-a5a0-9c220027b078" CreationDate="2016-05-12T00:50:37.323" UserId="12388" Text="A company asked me to send them a quote for a project, and very specifically asked for a fixed or flat fee.  I specified the deliverables, broken down by category and provided a project cost, which they signed.  8 days into the contract, they decided that they wanted to cancel and asked that I send them an invoice for work completed.  I did about 10-15 more hours of work on deliverables other than the ones that I sent them.  Some of this was research to figure out how to support their (very) frugal spending limits.  I feel that since they cancelled the flat fee contract, they should pay me for my research work.  There was no cancellation language in the signed contract.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13495" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4505" RevisionGUID="2dc949d7-087f-4f77-a5a0-9c220027b078" CreationDate="2016-05-12T00:50:37.323" UserId="12388" Text="Contract was fixed fee, now they want to cancel and are asking that I send them an invoice for hourly work completed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13496" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4505" RevisionGUID="2dc949d7-087f-4f77-a5a0-9c220027b078" CreationDate="2016-05-12T00:50:37.323" UserId="12388" Text="|contracts|invoices|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13502" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4493" RevisionGUID="125abbf0-bb4f-4a39-b221-6d401c674053" CreationDate="2016-05-12T10:17:19.013" UserId="58" Comment="edited title" Text="How do I prove my source of income as a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13503" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4507" RevisionGUID="27069912-8aca-4ffa-b66f-97f870c9f42c" CreationDate="2016-05-12T11:17:53.423" UserId="7858" Text="Send an invoice based on an hourly rate you find reasonable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they balk at the figure, both parties will have to negotiate a settlement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps any future contracts should make provisions for similar situations. Personally, I prefer keeping smaller contracts simple and negotiate changes if needed, rather than attempting to cover all possible situations in a long 'legalese' contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13504" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4508" RevisionGUID="7fc18460-a677-4dd7-b037-f0ded6154048" CreationDate="2016-05-12T15:19:29.663" UserId="1706" Text="Wrong approach!  The fixed-price contract was signed.  You started work, in reliance.  Maybe they don't need your work any more, or had buyer's remorse -- but you are owed the FULL price.  Don't accept anything less.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you were hourly, then it would make sense to break it down into hours (units) of work.  Your customer is trying to get over on you.  Unless you put milestones into the contract, it's not severable (divisible)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13506" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4493" RevisionGUID="816d5a9d-a917-4669-b8db-521be3c13761" CreationDate="2016-05-12T23:12:20.223" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/730898431045193728" />
  <row Id="13507" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4509" RevisionGUID="f9371e5f-b71e-4ae4-b542-c81c68750cd9" CreationDate="2016-05-13T12:48:44.733" UserId="12381" Text="I wouldn't directly pull the plug.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd contact BigCorp about the situation, inform them that Intermediary failed to pay and that you will have to pull the plug. BigCorp likely pays more than 8000 on a yearly basis to the intermediary and has much more leverage. And based on the character you sketch, Intermediary probably hasn't informed them about the due payments, and they are unaware of the situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're lucky, they might even drop the intermediary and directly do business with you in the future because you informed them of their problem even though it's not technically your obligation. If you can save them from their (potential) crisis they'll appreciate it, and they'll be reconsidering the Intermediary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, don't wait another 12 months! Give BigCorp a day or two to respond and a week or so to handle the situation from their end (either paying directly or pressuring the Intermediary). For you, the difference between 51 and 52 isn't that much, but for them the difference is literally no time, or a week to solve a big problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*edit: I wouldn't (initially) mention the time to BigCorp. If they ask, don't lie, but if they don't exactly know your current fee for the hosting, you might be able to strike a slightly better deal if they choose to trade directly with you.*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13508" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4510" RevisionGUID="3bb7ce68-6994-42fb-94c4-54de1e34c3b2" CreationDate="2016-05-13T15:18:21.673" UserId="12413" Text="I am recently hired as a freelancer for a software dev company, which will potentially lead to a FT position. Question: Should I bill for the hours spent consulting with the client facing portion? I.E. I am brought on board to design a system for their client and I have spent few hours on a conference call with them, going over the needs and vision...Are those hours billable or I should only charge for the actual design and development hours I use?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13509" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4510" RevisionGUID="3bb7ce68-6994-42fb-94c4-54de1e34c3b2" CreationDate="2016-05-13T15:18:21.673" UserId="12413" Text="Charging for meetings/conference calls with a client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13510" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4510" RevisionGUID="3bb7ce68-6994-42fb-94c4-54de1e34c3b2" CreationDate="2016-05-13T15:18:21.673" UserId="12413" Text="|contracts|price|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13511" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4511" RevisionGUID="bd0e6fbe-b693-4275-af7d-94091fb01b14" CreationDate="2016-05-13T17:06:50.663" UserId="708" Text="Traditionally as a freelancer it is **your time** and skill that is hired. So **yes** you bill for conference/meeting times. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is customary to build in a few hours for discussion with every bid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some freelancers use a reduced rate for &quot;consultation&quot; but really that is your choice. For me.... an hour of my time is an hour of my time, whether that's  and hour on the phone or an hour building something it's the same block of time so I charge the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An easy way yo decide stuff like this is to imagine you needed to hire an attorney for something.... what would you expect for free and what would you expect to have to pay for? Do you think an attorney would speak with you for an hour and not charge you for that hour??" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13512" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4511" RevisionGUID="4e0e3910-779f-4d8a-b021-d30f9da37af9" CreationDate="2016-05-14T00:02:38.610" UserId="708" Comment="edited body" Text="Traditionally as a freelancer it is **your time** and skill that is hired. So **yes** you bill for conference/meeting times. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is customary to build in a few hours for discussion with every bid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some freelancers use a reduced rate for &quot;consultation&quot; but really that is your choice. For me.... an hour of my time is an hour of my time, whether that's  and hour on the phone or an hour building something it's the same block of time so I charge the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An easy way to decide stuff like this is to imagine you needed to hire an attorney for something.... what would you expect for free and what would you expect to have to pay for? Do you think an attorney would speak with you for an hour and not charge you for that hour??" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13514" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4512" RevisionGUID="4de27643-d4e8-4bcf-8b63-a3829aefba85" CreationDate="2016-05-14T05:35:09.087" UserId="12420" Text="Researching the List of minimum wages by Country, I took India for example: &quot;A worker in India is entitled, by federal law standards, to a minimum pay of $0.28 per hour. This leaves Indian workers earnings between $2 and $3 a day, and less than $700\year.&quot; Let's be generous and say $4\day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the US, the minimum wage varies between States so let's just say it's $9\hour which would be $72\day. So Americans earns 1,700 percent more than the Indians.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now let's crunch some numbers... Researching various &quot;Freelance-For-Hire&quot; sites, I chose &quot;Graphic Designer&quot; for my research. You will find that the Indian worker will charge between $7-$20 per hour. Let's round this up and say he earns the same as the American worker - $9\hr, which will bring in $72 per day. This would mean that he is earning 1,700 percent more than his neighbor. In other words, this would have the equivalent of someone in the US earning $1296 per day. Roughly, it would be like he's earning just shy of a ONE YEAR salary in India - in just ONE WEEK! Or like an American who makes $20,000 per year, making $360,000 per year!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If my numbers are correct, this individual freelancer from India should be living the lifestyle of a millionaire in no time... but as I researched, they don't seem to be any different than any average hard-working Indian which begs the question... the numbers just don't add up. Yes, I understand that not all freelancer's have full time employment but I think you get the relevancy of my question." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13515" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4512" RevisionGUID="4de27643-d4e8-4bcf-8b63-a3829aefba85" CreationDate="2016-05-14T05:35:09.087" UserId="12420" Text="Abroad freelancer's wage doesn't add up - suggestions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13516" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4512" RevisionGUID="4de27643-d4e8-4bcf-8b63-a3829aefba85" CreationDate="2016-05-14T05:35:09.087" UserId="12420" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13517" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4513" RevisionGUID="a5346368-fe70-4a7f-bb13-43203b32ef2c" CreationDate="2016-05-14T11:02:06.223" UserId="12381" Text="Just because a country has a certain minimum wage doesn't mean that's a survivable wage. And wage isn't the same as cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A McDonalds meal costs 200 rupees, roughly 3 dollars. It costs $7.00 in the states. The Indian minimum wage means working 10 hours for a meal, U.S. minimum means working an hour for a meal. The [cost of living][1] in India is 1/3rd of that in America, and rent is 1/5th of that in America, but minimum wage is 1/30th of what it is in the States. Living on minimum wage there is like living on $1 per hour in America. Is that a decent minimum? I don't think so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And then there are taxes, company insurance, mediator fees, exchange rates and so on. All those things take your $7~$20 down by a lot. On top of that - how many American freelancers do you know that work for minimum wage? The [average hourly rate][2] for a (professional, not a student) designer is about $70.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Plus, cost for a freelancer is more than just hourly wage. For every hour they work, they also spend time finding clients, doing bookkeeping and such. And as a freelancer, you also need to provide your own equipment, software, and space.&#xD;&#xA;Minimum *wage* is excluding company overhead costs. Freelance fees include that overhead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, to recap:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   - **minimum wage is that low, but cost of living isn't.**&#xD;&#xA;   - **an employee costs more than just their wage**&#xD;&#xA;   - **a freelancer/company has additional costs besides wage**&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=India&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.howdesign.com/design-business/pricing/hourly-rates/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13518" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4513" RevisionGUID="8ec2d1ff-709d-4e50-a82d-e65457ca463a" CreationDate="2016-05-14T11:19:17.880" UserId="12381" Comment="added 310 characters in body" Text="Just because a country has a certain minimum wage doesn't mean that's a survivable wage. And wage isn't the same as cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A McDonalds meal costs 200 rupees, roughly 3 dollars. It costs $7.00 in the states. The Indian minimum wage means working 10 hours for a meal, U.S. minimum means working an hour for a meal. The [cost of living][1] in India is 1/3rd of that in America, and rent is 1/5th of that in America, but minimum wage is 1/30th of what it is in the States. Living on minimum wage there is like living on $1 per hour in America. Is that a decent minimum? I don't think so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And then there are taxes, company insurance, mediator fees, exchange rates and so on. All those things take your $7~$20 down by a lot. On top of that - how many American freelancers do you know that work for minimum wage? The [average hourly rate][2] for a (professional, not a student) designer is about $70.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Plus, cost for a freelancer is more than just hourly wage. For every hour they work, they also spend time finding clients, doing bookkeeping and such. In a company you'd have specific people (either internal or external) for that, which all get a wage. And as a freelancer, you also need to provide your own equipment, software, and space.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And while cost of living is lower, prices of computers aren't, due to scarcity and import cost. Adobe software is cheaper, but only about 20% and a macbook actually costs more there than in America.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Minimum wage doesn't include company overhead costs. Freelance fees do include that overhead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, to recap:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   - **minimum wage is that low, but cost of living isn't.**&#xD;&#xA;   - **an employee costs more than just their wage**&#xD;&#xA;   - **a freelancer/company has additional costs besides wage**&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=India&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.howdesign.com/design-business/pricing/hourly-rates/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13519" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="4512" RevisionGUID="f83d1fe7-4bcf-4822-9934-9a701c249533" CreationDate="2016-05-14T17:25:07.057" UserId="75" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="13520" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3028" RevisionGUID="9b33a619-1044-400f-b298-9827a0fe9969" CreationDate="2016-05-14T17:58:11.900" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="13521" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4431" RevisionGUID="46a9d271-2b06-42b2-ad56-23aa2926c577" CreationDate="2016-05-14T18:58:27.320" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="13522" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3018" RevisionGUID="b05cc8bc-52b4-4569-988c-7040601422c0" CreationDate="2016-05-15T03:01:57.053" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="13523" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="4442" RevisionGUID="02418ef7-48bb-4381-98ec-ab24491092e1" CreationDate="2016-05-15T12:50:05.997" UserId="-1" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[4106],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:1706,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;codenoire&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:1018,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Neil Robertson&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;stacey&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="13527" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4515" RevisionGUID="9538c3ac-9d98-40ce-ac7e-fa5104d2bc3f" CreationDate="2016-05-16T18:18:00.490" UserId="12437" Text="(I'm not sure whether this is the right place to ask, but I wanted to give it a shot:)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am offering this service &quot;B&quot;, nothing extraordinary, but apparently I'm quite good at it, and my close social environment knows this and regularly asks me for help. However, I am offering it for a very long time now and my spendings have risen, so that the &quot;friendly discounts&quot; I once granted have become too much of a compromise. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For some reason, the market has evolved in a way such that some of my long time customers came to *completely* depend on me, but I really cannot offer &quot;B&quot; for the same price anymore. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I raise the price without it looking like I'm exploiting my/their position?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13528" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4515" RevisionGUID="9538c3ac-9d98-40ce-ac7e-fa5104d2bc3f" CreationDate="2016-05-16T18:18:00.490" UserId="12437" Text="How to raise the price for friends" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13529" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4515" RevisionGUID="9538c3ac-9d98-40ce-ac7e-fa5104d2bc3f" CreationDate="2016-05-16T18:18:00.490" UserId="12437" Text="|price|friends-services|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13530" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4516" RevisionGUID="43b5dc35-ba41-4882-9e86-dd951fbff9a4" CreationDate="2016-05-16T18:58:25.330" UserId="75" Text="Simple, explain that it is costing you more in { time | resources | parts | tools } to continue operating the way you have been. Inflation happens, period.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I did for my pricing model is that my F&amp;F rate (Friends and Family) is always $20/hr less than what I charge regular clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Option two if you do not feel like raising your prices is offer to put them in the queue for your work, but it only comes after the regular paying customers get their work completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your friends do not like one of these two choices that both a) respect your time, and b) respect your income, then I would not consider them friends, and ask them to take their business elsewhere. You don't need negativity in your life with people not willing to pay you what you're worth." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13531" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4517" RevisionGUID="b453c965-75fc-48b7-91fc-38274ff7d241" CreationDate="2016-05-17T09:18:26.970" UserId="7858" Text="Explain it like it is: Your doing favors has unexpectedly turned into an actual business, meaning the pricing must change.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I was hit by a similar problem, I gave current clients the choice of either being 'converted' to an actual, real client (no friends and family pricing or prioritization) or I negotiated and performed an exit, which they could live with and enabled them to take their business elsewhere.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Initially, I attempted to deliver lower pricing in exchange for being able to queue their requests - but this did not work out, due to client dissatisfaction with the longer delivery times and my displeasure at being longer at delivering inferior work for lower pay." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13532" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4518" RevisionGUID="401c4e15-bacc-4e98-8ca5-4bf09778a1cc" CreationDate="2016-05-17T13:35:46.593" UserId="1706" Text="You've got it backwards.  The market hasn't evolved.  These people are coming to you because you are *cheap* -- maybe you're actually undercutting what you could be *actually* making because you're too afraid to speak up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you need to raise prices, RAISE PRICES.  But you must change your mindset.  Some of your acquaintances will have a problem with it.  DON'T apologize -- let them go elsewhere, and maybe they'll come back.  DON'T try to control them by lowering your prices again, because you're teaching them that you can be manipulated by a little whining.  You want to position yourself as someone who does quality work, and not just CHEAP work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13533" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4519" RevisionGUID="43924b97-dcd7-4648-a0a5-f7046f9ef24a" CreationDate="2016-05-17T22:28:36.247" UserId="708" Text="Most people I deal with in this situation understand that they get the &quot;friends and family&quot; rate. **Whatever that rate may be.** And they also understand that the rate will and *does* change based upon their request and my current rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I generally do is:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **JobPrice = (cost + (rate- 20%)) + understanding that priority is low** (to be done after other clients' work is complete or during downtime while waiting on proofs, etc.). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they want top priority service, they pay my full rates. And I **always** provide pricing **before** any work is begun. That way if they think the price is too high, they can tell me not to bother.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With this basic structure, there's no need for me to keep track of any actual dollar figures I charge &quot;friends and family&quot;. I merely run my current rate, whatever it is, through the formula.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With all this being said... **true** friends and family get **free** services from me. Chances are 99% of what is needed are *not* major projects and are often simple 1 hour (or less) projects for me. And because... well... they are important people to me and once you start introducing money, you start chipping away at those relationships. Just watch a few episodes of The People's Court to see relatives fighting over money. There's no need for me to charge anything for most of the stuff my family needs. I only charge when a *business* associated with a relative/friend wants my *business* services. I'd honestly rather *turn down* work for family than get into money squabbles with them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13534" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4520" RevisionGUID="fb7ced26-b95a-4f61-9124-4581d0c6b1a7" CreationDate="2016-05-18T00:16:30.940" UserId="11760" Text="I'm an online freelancer that has established a reputation in my niche. Because of this, I have received and participated in Beta testing opportunities. &#xA;I'm trying to figure out how I can showcase this to my clients. &#xA;&#xA;Would it be acceptable to put their logos in my portfolio and say that they were my clients? &#xA;&#xA;By the way, The only thing I am not allowed to do is to discuss which products I have Beta tested. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13535" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4520" RevisionGUID="fb7ced26-b95a-4f61-9124-4581d0c6b1a7" CreationDate="2016-05-18T00:16:30.940" UserId="11760" Text="Beta testing experience in portfolio" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13536" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4520" RevisionGUID="fb7ced26-b95a-4f61-9124-4581d0c6b1a7" CreationDate="2016-05-18T00:16:30.940" UserId="11760" Text="|legal|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13537" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4521" RevisionGUID="a14c2478-07ac-43a4-b9a1-5a1411105138" CreationDate="2016-05-18T00:37:29.200" UserId="708" Text="Most beta tests for software have a non-disclosure agreement which often prohibits even stating one was part of any beta testing. If your agreements permit disclosure of the testing, then merely listing the software titles under beta testing would be sufficient.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't really know how much of a favorable impression it will relay, if any. Agreeing to run software and document problems with it is often *not* a job skill anyone is seeking. At least not for any kind of direct compensation. All software everywhere has beta testers... most often they work for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it were me, I'd not bother with any type of formal disclosure. I may casually mention it if the topic were to come up in conversation, but I certainly wouldn't do anything like adding it to a resume, bid, pitch letter, or web site." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13538" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="4499" RevisionGUID="c9b37976-8920-4e92-bf79-ce92aa5eae0d" CreationDate="2016-05-18T08:30:34.073" UserId="-1" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;stacey&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:1706,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;codenoire&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:85,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Andrew&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:1018,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Neil Robertson&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="13539" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4522" RevisionGUID="7820be08-df7d-4564-a2f2-188847663582" CreationDate="2016-05-18T08:54:53.043" UserId="2391" Text="Depending on how big and interesting the job is I'll give a potential client as much free time upfront as I need to secure it. Once I've landed the job I'll charge my hourly rate for all time spent on it, be that dev, consultation, travel or whatever." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13541" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4523" RevisionGUID="c42d5f71-0179-4cba-8f68-26806b21a5aa" CreationDate="2016-05-19T11:27:15.947" UserId="10560" Text="I would suggest to complete the project. But before resuming work on that, Send him tasks with mockup and flow of tasks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can send him all flow and mention clearly your intension that you will complete these tasks (because they are in scope) and want to close the project. There will be no further tasks except this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it doesn't fit to him then you can say to terminate the project. Please reminder that you already took $3000 from him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; It would always suggest a BEST approach to say HONESTLY and this works most of the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13542" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4524" RevisionGUID="ea0cbc09-1680-4e62-98a4-2d6665089164" CreationDate="2016-05-19T14:23:01.030" UserId="12459" Text="I am a web developer who often gets asked by prospective clients to be available on-call to handle tasks which I consider to be content management.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My aim is always to code myself out of the picture by building sites that are very easy to manage by anyone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To my mind the term &quot;developer&quot; implies developing something ie. building something, not repetitious webmaster / maintenance / content management - type tasks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a role or job description that implies a more basic level of website management, somewhere above content manager because it probably requires at least HTML skills?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My aim would be to direct these prospective clients to search for that term instead." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13543" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4524" RevisionGUID="ea0cbc09-1680-4e62-98a4-2d6665089164" CreationDate="2016-05-19T14:23:01.030" UserId="12459" Text="Is there a job description or role that fits in between web developer and content manager or webmaster?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13544" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4524" RevisionGUID="ea0cbc09-1680-4e62-98a4-2d6665089164" CreationDate="2016-05-19T14:23:01.030" UserId="12459" Text="|web-development|webmasters|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13545" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4525" RevisionGUID="289c7470-9b3c-426d-9958-7f740f9d6604" CreationDate="2016-05-19T15:36:45.250" UserId="1706" Text="Content editor, or specialist, might be an appropriate term" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13546" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4524" RevisionGUID="c7bece40-d2fc-47a9-bd34-cf0c08723ba9" CreationDate="2016-05-19T16:09:09.797" UserId="12459" Comment="Additional task requests added." Text="I am a web developer who often gets asked by prospective clients to be available on-call to handle tasks which I consider to be content management.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My aim is always to code myself out of the picture by building sites that are very easy to manage by anyone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To my mind the term &quot;developer&quot; implies developing something ie. building something, not repetitious webmaster / maintenance / content management - type tasks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a role or job description that implies a more basic level of website management, somewhere above content manager because it probably requires at least HTML skills?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some additional task requests that go along with this role: adding menu tabs, content images, slider images, shop products, audio and YouTube clips and pdfs. Basic page layout using WordPress with or without a page builder, setting up regular emailers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My aim would be to direct these prospective clients to search for that term instead." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13547" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4526" RevisionGUID="dca12d26-1273-4497-b8b8-d260db455c87" CreationDate="2016-05-19T20:48:23.107" UserId="4601" Text="You've been hired for your expertise and ability to do a specific job.  Certainly sitting &quot;alone&quot; and working on it, whether it's coding, design, or something completely different is expected time on the job.  Knowing what is needed is a necessary prerequisite to that and the way to satisfy the prerequisite in your case is talking to the client.  In that exchange, your expertise guides the discussion, gets the appropriate questions asked and the necessary answers supplied.  That is absolutely part of why you were hired.  It is clearly billable.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13549" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4510" RevisionGUID="6e808c1c-4b0e-4f3e-991e-bdfd3ba4daf8" CreationDate="2016-05-21T08:31:25.917" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/733938235001425920" />
  <row Id="13553" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4521" RevisionGUID="229b7134-2996-4ab0-bba6-f03ebba75066" CreationDate="2016-05-21T20:38:04.673" UserId="708" Comment="added 541 characters in body" Text="Most beta tests for software have a non-disclosure agreement which often prohibits even stating one was part of any beta testing. If your agreements permit disclosure of the testing, then merely listing the software titles under beta testing would be sufficient.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't really know how much of a favorable impression it will relay, if any. Agreeing to run software and document problems with it is often *not* a job skill anyone is seeking. At least not for any kind of direct compensation. All software everywhere has beta testers... most often they work for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not like there are tests, requirements, or qualifications to be a beta tester. The *only* requirement is to be willing to document problems with the software. A beta testers proficiency level with the software can range from complete novice to seasoned experienced professional. Simply being a beta tester does *not* offer *any* credibility in most instances. Even if you were a beta tester for well-known, high-end, software, it just means you've used the software... but there's no telling how well you actually know the software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it were me, I'd not bother with any type of formal disclosure. I may casually mention it if the topic were to come up in conversation, but I certainly wouldn't do anything like adding it to a resume, bid, pitch letter, or web site." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13554" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4528" RevisionGUID="8a495b90-1ebf-4754-ba35-83a76f57157d" CreationDate="2016-05-21T23:22:37.650" UserId="12482" Text="There are a lot of web sites out there that have these types of calculators.  TaxAct and TubroTax both have online calculators.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The calculators don't explain in detail what is happening behind the scenes.  If you play around with their online tax filing software enough you can create virtual scenarios that help one learn the ropes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sole proprietors and LLCs that file as a sole proprietor will pay 15.3% in self employment tax, in addition to the normal tax that is on their taxable income.  Not to forget filing jointly combines ones taxable income with their spouses." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13556" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4529" RevisionGUID="9e01f49f-53f5-47fe-b9dc-d326464b68be" CreationDate="2016-05-22T14:02:02.230" UserId="12482" Text="There are laws under your State that provide protection for business liabilities such as yours.  Generally speaking, a business would lien the property from the last date where the work was done.  Often times, a Notice to Lien will suffice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;$1000 or $100 is not the issue, but it's the principle.  You provided services, and as such, unforeseen events kept you from fulfilling them on a timely manner. I think the client is just looking for an excuse not to pay. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, lessons to remember for future projects.  Make it clear in your Terms that such unforeseen events will only *extend* your project salary, not decrease it!&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13557" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4529" RevisionGUID="761e33b2-6c74-4134-b95f-b0c5b458d5f5" CreationDate="2016-05-22T16:55:58.003" UserId="12482" Comment="deleted 227 characters in body" Text="It's an unfortunate reality that State laws do not have strict requirements and licensing for computer developers/engineers.  If they did, your business structure would have legal rights offered under State statutes.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider this a loss and a lesson to remember for future projects.  Make it clear in your Terms that such unforeseen events will only *extend* your project wages, not decrease them.&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13569" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4533" RevisionGUID="0f5bb9d2-d9f0-48c8-b173-ff7bb8173b0d" CreationDate="2016-05-25T16:08:42.537" UserId="7868" Text="So I am currently switching jobs and the small company I work at might need me to do a little consulting/freelancing for them while they find someone to replace me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not really scared of them trying to sue me since I know them all on a personal level but I would still like to cover my back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there some type of legal document I could have them sign saying basically if I write bad code they can't sue me? I am based in the USA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would rather not get insurance since this would be something that is temporary and would only be like 20 hours of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13570" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4533" RevisionGUID="0f5bb9d2-d9f0-48c8-b173-ff7bb8173b0d" CreationDate="2016-05-25T16:08:42.537" UserId="7868" Text="A way out of getting liability insurance for temporary freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13571" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4533" RevisionGUID="0f5bb9d2-d9f0-48c8-b173-ff7bb8173b0d" CreationDate="2016-05-25T16:08:42.537" UserId="7868" Text="|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13572" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4534" RevisionGUID="e22f2f3f-fe85-4f44-b576-2c2db7370e60" CreationDate="2016-05-25T16:20:40.513" UserId="11318" Text="There is a person I know that needed a logo for a game server, we talked and he found out that I have experience and have skills in Photoshop to make a decent logo, so he asked me to make a logo that he would pay for afterwards, then apparently it appears to be that he has asked a few other people to make a logo for him as well (about 3 more), so then when everyone is done he will pay to the best one. My question is: Is that what happens in freelancing business? So others don't receive anything for spending their precious time and working hard creating a logo image?? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm just not very experience in the freelancing field, so I have no idea how it works.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13573" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4534" RevisionGUID="e22f2f3f-fe85-4f44-b576-2c2db7370e60" CreationDate="2016-05-25T16:20:40.513" UserId="11318" Text="Am I supposed to be paid even though my work isn't used?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13574" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4534" RevisionGUID="e22f2f3f-fe85-4f44-b576-2c2db7370e60" CreationDate="2016-05-25T16:20:40.513" UserId="11318" Text="|payment-terms|payments|information-technology|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13575" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4535" RevisionGUID="4631ecc8-c45c-4522-a6fb-64e565064e65" CreationDate="2016-05-25T16:25:09.677" UserId="9845" Text="One of my clients recently referred to me as their Web Administrator. While I built their website and hadn't planned on being their web admin, I charge the same amount per hour to write code as to close an event registration or post a new blog post. In my opinion, a Web Administrator title would cover the tasks that you list, and infer that some technical knowledge is needed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I offer Maintenance and Technical Support agreements to clients when I'm done building their sites, since that gives me ongoing income streams, but that's not really a title but rather a service. It is something to suggest to your clients, though, since I've seen &quot;CMS Maintenance&quot; as a service offered on many freelancer websites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For one of the open source projects that I use, they refer to the non-developers with more knowledge than end-users as Implementers, so that's another possibility." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13576" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4536" RevisionGUID="d7170b06-fd06-4ac7-85fe-808a71656d21" CreationDate="2016-05-25T18:41:33.357" UserId="708" Text="There are some *contest* sites that operate under similar terms -- everyone sees the design description/brief, everyone works and submits designs, only the chosen design (winner) gets paid. So yes, in some cases things operate how you've described. These sites are customarily (but not exclusively) populated by hobbyists or non-freelance workers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In terms of a freelance **business**, NO. That's **not** how freelance **business** operates. In the business of freelance design, an artist is hired, a contract is signed which details payment and work to be performed, and *then* the work performed. Customarily the artist is paid regardless of whether the final artwork is used or not. In addition, many contracts have a &quot;kill fee&quot; or cancelation clause that compensates the artist for their time should the client cancel the project before completion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most professional freelancers avoid the &quot;contest&quot; scheme completely. It is **never** beneficial for a professional to work on the speculation of *possible* payment/return. Professionals customarily don't work for free. See http://www.no-spec.com or merely Google for &quot;[are design contests worth it?][1]&quot; to understand just how **bad** the &quot;contest&quot; model is for artists.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, this &quot;person you know&quot; is taking advantage of everyone and has all the upside and none of the downside. All the artists are being ripped off. Chances are even the chosen design won't be paid adequately without a contract in place **before** work begins.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&amp;ion=1&amp;espv=2&amp;ie=UTF-8#q=are%20design%20contests%20worth%20it" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13577" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4537" RevisionGUID="bf94a747-c136-4d49-bb35-9161b7822b7d" CreationDate="2016-05-25T20:53:54.520" UserId="1706" Text="Consult with an attorney.  We're not attorneys here." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13580" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4538" RevisionGUID="5d9aa1d2-9396-4533-880b-86b468a8882a" CreationDate="2016-05-25T21:39:21.333" UserId="12522" Text="More than half of the applications I make for clients require a server setup with apache and mysql.&#xD;&#xA;What is the easiest way of shipping a server so that the billing of the server goes to them or so that they can set the server up locally/ in their own server if they want to?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13581" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4538" RevisionGUID="5d9aa1d2-9396-4533-880b-86b468a8882a" CreationDate="2016-05-25T21:39:21.333" UserId="12522" Text="Shipping applications in servers to clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13582" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4538" RevisionGUID="5d9aa1d2-9396-4533-880b-86b468a8882a" CreationDate="2016-05-25T21:39:21.333" UserId="12522" Text="|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13585" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4539" RevisionGUID="ebaa37c5-9e82-4450-a26e-13d314b70dab" CreationDate="2016-05-26T07:04:44.330" UserId="8700" Text="### VPS ###&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are various solutions to this (*&quot;shipping a server with the setup&quot;*). The one I predominantly use is a VPS solution where:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I set up the VPS server through a host. Usually with the following:&#xD;&#xA;    - Ubuntu/CentOS (or another flavour of *nix), maybe even Windows if required&#xD;&#xA;    - Apache/Nginx (Web Server)&#xD;&#xA;    - PHP &amp; SQL&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With the particular host I use, I was allowed to take a snapshot of a base server that allows me to simply deploy a server with selected resources - harnessing that setup (Exactly what you want as a server setup). From here, I simply bill the client appropriately. Keeping in mind the potential maintenance that you may need to carry out on the server could also/should also carry a surcharge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;### Recommending Hosting ###&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Alternatively - you could recommend hosting to a customer, listen out the pros &amp; cons between them will also help keep the customer satisfied. From here - let them purchase the hosting - guiding them through the process is a **must**! Ensuring everything they select/input is correct and adequate enough to run the applications you design.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Research for this isn't necessarily required, but can go a long way in the clients eyes. There is no shortage of hosts, so the choice is yours! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ### Note ###&#xD;&#xA;&gt; One thing to note; Shared hosting isn't always the best solution. Users are thrown onto overcrowded boxes which is highly evident in performance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is usually why I sway customers from shared hosting to VPS hosting where we are in complete control. Along with a comparable pricing model." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13586" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4540" RevisionGUID="8e02cb98-a725-4b8e-a135-41a0fc7b7bea" CreationDate="2016-05-26T12:58:26.653" UserId="12529" Text="We recently hired a consultant to help develop some new features for our website. He did a fantastic job, but we ran into a little issue. One of the features he built out for us only half worked. Incorrect information was showing in the wrong spot (date showing under the time slot) and there was a missing button field...so essentially we couldn't even use the feature he built out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Due to a time constraint and the fact the feature wasn't being used at the time, the issue wasn't caught at launch. However, a few weeks later when we started using it we noticed the issue. I had contacted him explaining the situation and specifically asked if this will be billable or something that he would just fix for us (I have to approve all expenses by my boss first). He did not respond, but went ahead and did the work. I assumed (stupidly) that since he just went ahead and did the work, he was fixing it for free because he didn't deliver what we had originally asked for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Flash forward, I received a bill for the hours he used to fix this issue and my boss is going ballistic, refusing to pay to fix something that turned out to be broken. I can understand that maybe the time lapse was out of range for fixes, but at the same time I specifically asked about hours before he started work. Is this something we need to pay for and how would you suggest I approach the situation? I understand his time was spent on the project, but the project was never technically approved. We enjoy working with him and don't want to ruin the relationship, as we have a second large project coming up soon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for the help!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13587" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4540" RevisionGUID="8e02cb98-a725-4b8e-a135-41a0fc7b7bea" CreationDate="2016-05-26T12:58:26.653" UserId="12529" Text="Is it right to charge for work done incorrectly?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13588" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4540" RevisionGUID="8e02cb98-a725-4b8e-a135-41a0fc7b7bea" CreationDate="2016-05-26T12:58:26.653" UserId="12529" Text="|consulting|billable-hours|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13589" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4541" RevisionGUID="61247216-d386-481f-8413-1cb969365b8e" CreationDate="2016-05-26T15:01:34.783" UserId="12000" Text="As stacey points out in the comment, it depends on how he was paid during the project. &#xD;&#xA;If you did agree to a fixed sum, it is very unusual to charge extra for bugfixes. However, if you paid him hourly, it would be perfectly normal to charge you for every hour he spent working on the project.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13597" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4544" RevisionGUID="78468d54-6142-4ec4-b209-42c6b2324c72" CreationDate="2016-05-26T19:37:08.153" UserId="10589" Text="I had a client come in the other day and he presented his app idea. It is kind of a &quot;Doordash&quot; app where people choose a  store, they buy things, and get notified of when they can pick it up. As you can see, all they need is the app... no staff, no employees. I was asked to do the development of this three things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Client facing application (iOS/Android Hybrid)&#xD;&#xA;* Store facing application (Web)&#xD;&#xA;* Admin facing application (Web)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've never had a client that uses one of the applications I develop for direct profits. I am used to charging a fixed price for each project, but now that this person is using only my tool to make bank, I feel confused on what to charge. What I am saying is.. I could do this app for myself, put it online, and get some stores onboard.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was thinking if (besides a fixed development price) I should charge him a % of the sales that are done through the app. Second option would be, charging him as an outsourced project for a fixed *monthly* price, or finally, Just charge the development and that's it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What pricing model would you choose and why?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Kind Regards,&#xD;&#xA;Alex." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13598" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4544" RevisionGUID="78468d54-6142-4ec4-b209-42c6b2324c72" CreationDate="2016-05-26T19:37:08.153" UserId="10589" Text="A client asked me for a &quot;Doordash&quot; kind of app, I feel like I am making the whole business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13599" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4544" RevisionGUID="78468d54-6142-4ec4-b209-42c6b2324c72" CreationDate="2016-05-26T19:37:08.153" UserId="10589" Text="|estimation|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13601" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4545" RevisionGUID="e702f038-98d5-46de-9792-dc016c899362" CreationDate="2016-05-27T07:01:35.933" UserId="8703" Text="In my opinion, you are not calculating the risk of failure if the 'DoorDash' like app doesn't work out.&#xD;&#xA;If some one else is ready to take it up, then it's better to find other ways of getting money than to spend months creating it, taking the hard decisions and running it. You can't be a freelancer and let business failure take over you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Give credit to the person who came up with this idea first. It's more of his intellectual property and it doesn't sound good to steal and implement it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are the other ways to earn through the project:  &#xD;&#xA;1. Like you have mentioned, post launch of the business, demand certain percentage in sales.  &#xD;&#xA;2. Reduce your free maintenance support period (If any).  &#xD;&#xA;3. Offer to deliver the project to the actual market price for development but demand a constant maintenance payout every month post free maintenance period. This is exclusive of the money you get as sales commission and major maintenance charges; if any. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you ask me, as a freelancer, constant pay every month for a project I worked on 6 months before is the most satisfying thing. It also makes you financially stable.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13602" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4546" RevisionGUID="8b71e0a6-97c5-49ce-ba84-0dc610b0e1f9" CreationDate="2016-05-27T09:00:17.480" UserId="12537" Text="I just had just started my android developing course. As soon as I complete my course how much I will be paid monthly as a freelencer.? Hoping to get reply soon. THANKS&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13603" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4546" RevisionGUID="8b71e0a6-97c5-49ce-ba84-0dc610b0e1f9" CreationDate="2016-05-27T09:00:17.480" UserId="12537" Text="salary of android developer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13604" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4546" RevisionGUID="8b71e0a6-97c5-49ce-ba84-0dc610b0e1f9" CreationDate="2016-05-27T09:00:17.480" UserId="12537" Text="|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13605" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4505" RevisionGUID="615238b6-b718-40c1-9aeb-b6cae1ba4596" CreationDate="2016-05-27T09:04:57.307" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/736120998123175936" />
  <row Id="13606" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4547" RevisionGUID="30729d90-2c62-4409-8d68-a9492dc97d18" CreationDate="2016-05-27T12:36:49.350" UserId="7858" Text="There is no clear cut right or wrong; it all comes down to your working relationship and which processes the two parties agree on contractually and during the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you seem to want to continue the relationship, I suggest you pay the bill and keep this episode in mind when negotiating the next project. Turning what I believe is a misunderstanding into a stand-off on principles, could very well jeopardize the working relationship. And good commercial partners are not always easily found.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The situation you describe is notoriously difficult: When is a project considered 'delivered'; what are the acceptance criteria? What constitutes a bug which needs fixing for free and what constitutes a change request? You'll need to discuss these issues and come up with a mutually acceptable agreement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13607" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4548" RevisionGUID="056e0f13-53b9-495a-a7ac-d82313af520a" CreationDate="2016-05-27T12:38:33.127" UserId="7858" Text="As a freelancer you must negotiate your own pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will depend on your skill level, customer needs and financial constraints in the market you are targeting." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13608" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4549" RevisionGUID="2d92e1ac-6ace-4df5-856e-5ff936422357" CreationDate="2016-05-27T15:10:42.837" UserId="12381" Text="Are you going out to stores and recruiting them? Are you investing your own money in servers, advertisement, brand design?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If no, then you are not &quot;making the whole business&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, it's perfectly reasonable to ask for royalties in such a case. But the reason they're probably coming to you is because you might offer a fixed price. Similar platforms likely operate on a SAAS basis, and it sounds like his company will work that way too. And they think it's worth the investment upfront to not have to pay the monthly fees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suggest having a talk with the client and asking what the future plans are, how they're planning to do support, if they have a hosting solution. That'll give you some insight in to what their businessplan is, and it may give you the chance to offer an all-in maintenance package, so you have a longer income tail." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13613" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4552" RevisionGUID="79926201-8559-4bf4-bc85-bafaada62e83" CreationDate="2016-05-27T19:04:03.303" UserId="12544" Text="I currently have a UK based consulting business but I have just moved to the US. I have retained some of my UK clients so I've been looking for the most tax efficient way to manage clients in the US and UK going forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It looks like it won't make sense to keep a business of this size open in both countries as it will be complicated and expensive. I have decided to incorporate in the US and close the company in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One question I haven't been able to find a good answer to is how I'm going to charge my UK clients in future. I obviously wouldn't want to just stick my new US bank details on the invoice and expect them to deal with transfer fees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I've looked into leaving the UK bank account open and still receiving payments into it but it looks like I have to close this account as part of the Ltd closing company process. Is this correct?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Would I be able to open a new bank account in the UK linked to the US company? Would the UK then expect me to file some kind of return for this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Are there any online payment providers (transferwise for e.g) that would allow my clients to pay by bank transfer to my account and I can then transfer that to my US bank account myself? Most of my clients wouldn't want to pay by card online so still want to offer bank transfer method of payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Any other ideas?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I realise that there would be a small group of people who have experience with this situation but any advice that anyone may have would be most appreciated!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13614" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4552" RevisionGUID="79926201-8559-4bf4-bc85-bafaada62e83" CreationDate="2016-05-27T19:04:03.303" UserId="12544" Text="Easiest ways for a US LLC to receive payments from UK clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13615" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4552" RevisionGUID="79926201-8559-4bf4-bc85-bafaada62e83" CreationDate="2016-05-27T19:04:03.303" UserId="12544" Text="|payments|invoices|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13616" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4552" RevisionGUID="203ccd13-684c-4448-a667-8945a7e47538" CreationDate="2016-05-28T02:14:28.663" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 325 characters in body; edited tags" Text="I currently have a UK based consulting business but I have just moved to the US. I have retained some of my UK clients so I've been looking for the most tax efficient way to manage clients in the US and UK going forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It looks like it won't make sense to keep a business of this size open in both countries as it will be complicated and expensive. I have decided to incorporate in the US and close the company in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One question I haven't been able to find a good answer to is how I'm going to charge my UK clients in future. I obviously wouldn't want to just stick my new US bank details on the invoice and expect them to deal with transfer fees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I've looked into leaving the UK bank account open and still receiving payments into it but it looks like I have to close this account as part of the Ltd closing company process. Is this correct?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Would I be able to open a new bank account in the UK linked to the US company? Would the UK then expect me to file some kind of return for this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I realize that there would be a small group of people who have experience with this situation but any advice that anyone may have would be most appreciated!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13617" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4552" RevisionGUID="203ccd13-684c-4448-a667-8945a7e47538" CreationDate="2016-05-28T02:14:28.663" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 325 characters in body; edited tags" Text="|payments|invoices|uk|usa|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13620" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="742" RevisionGUID="51c4faa2-df43-4881-a3db-bea0dec37c90" CreationDate="2016-05-28T02:15:44.377" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="13621" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="4546" RevisionGUID="897fe1ca-4780-43ad-ae56-e6cc52907041" CreationDate="2016-05-28T02:16:48.390" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;stacey&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="13623" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4524" RevisionGUID="d61307e1-e2dc-4292-bc0b-7b9553067f91" CreationDate="2016-05-28T09:11:21.793" UserId="12459" Comment="Define &quot;content manager&quot;" Text="I am a web developer who often gets asked by prospective clients to be available on-call to handle tasks which I consider to be content management.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My aim is always to code myself out of the picture by building sites that are very easy to manage by anyone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To my mind the term &quot;developer&quot; implies developing something ie. building something, not repetitious webmaster / maintenance / content management - type tasks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a role or job description that implies a more basic level of website content management, somewhere above &quot;Content Manager&quot; because it probably requires at least HTML skills, which &quot;Content Manager&quot; alone doesn't explicitly require?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some additional task requests that go along with this role: adding menu tabs, content images, slider images, shop products, audio and YouTube clips and pdfs. Basic page layout using WordPress with or without a page builder, setting up regular emailers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My aim would be to direct these prospective clients to search for that term instead." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13624" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4515" RevisionGUID="c6958b8b-3259-4d06-bbae-0f834d177a2a" CreationDate="2016-05-28T09:19:30.713" UserId="100" Comment="it is the right place" Text="I am offering this service &quot;B&quot;, nothing extraordinary, but apparently I'm quite good at it, and my close social environment knows this and regularly asks me for help. However, I am offering it for a very long time now and my spendings have risen, so that the &quot;friendly discounts&quot; I once granted have become too much of a compromise. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For some reason, the market has evolved in a way such that some of my long time customers came to *completely* depend on me, but I really cannot offer &quot;B&quot; for the same price anymore. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I raise the price without it looking like I'm exploiting my/their position?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13625" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4515" RevisionGUID="c6958b8b-3259-4d06-bbae-0f834d177a2a" CreationDate="2016-05-28T09:19:30.713" UserId="100" Comment="it is the right place" Text="How to raise the price for friends?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13626" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4515" RevisionGUID="c6958b8b-3259-4d06-bbae-0f834d177a2a" CreationDate="2016-05-28T09:19:30.713" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 12437 edit id of 462" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13633" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4554" RevisionGUID="a5345bd4-c88c-469d-8652-987fc8030ecf" CreationDate="2016-05-29T03:12:40.540" UserId="12552" Text="Yes, Whatever it is after all you spare your time and completed the work, So you can charge. All though you can give them discount or adjust the payment in future services as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13634" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4555" RevisionGUID="75e6cf5d-df2d-43fa-9c23-4de7fc4f7bc2" CreationDate="2016-05-30T03:18:31.093" UserId="12568" Text="I have been working on java for around 4yrs. and have been doing full time freelancing for about 2yrs. now&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far I have been using java for all my web applications, but in freelancing you would hardly get any enterprise level projects. Most of the projects would be small to medium sized ones. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since java being costly to host and slow to develop upon, I would want to switch to some other web framework(MEAN stack to be more precise) to be able to attract more clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would be a very big decision but I am not sure how do I make the switch?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The challenges which I see are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. My profile has almost all projects on java so how do I present myself to prospect clients with MEAN stack projects?&#xD;&#xA; 2. Is it at all possible to gain expertise on MEAN stack(or other technology) after just getting started while doing projects?(Rather than take months to master the framework and start making money with it)&#xD;&#xA; 3. On java if my hourly rate is x then what percent of x should I charge on MEAN stack projects?&#xD;&#xA; 4. How long usually it takes for getting well established (or atleast stable) with MEAN stack projects in particular and making such switches in particular. (This may well be opinion based.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I would request tips on the same." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13635" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4555" RevisionGUID="75e6cf5d-df2d-43fa-9c23-4de7fc4f7bc2" CreationDate="2016-05-30T03:18:31.093" UserId="12568" Text="How to switch to another framework in freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13636" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4555" RevisionGUID="75e6cf5d-df2d-43fa-9c23-4de7fc4f7bc2" CreationDate="2016-05-30T03:18:31.093" UserId="12568" Text="|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13637" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4556" RevisionGUID="42921218-e5d2-4b30-92c2-56dba0b49d6e" CreationDate="2016-05-30T15:45:26.270" UserId="11704" Text="I was going through that a few months ago (work experience in Java, starting to learn and use the MEAN stack), so I'll give you my own opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I would create a small project using the MEAN stack (that's a good way to learn as well). The MEAN stack is quite new, so there are not so many experienced programmers out there. I think you can still present your Java Web projects, at the end of the day there are many similar things, even if the programming languages are different (i.e. there are the same web protocols).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. This is how I started, watching a few tutorials and then jump into a project. I have to say that's a bit stressful, and it will take you a bit more to develop than it will take if you were using something you already know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. I would go for a smaller rate for the first few months until I gain experience and confidence. For example I consider myself a Junior in MEAN, so I charge accordingly. But that's going to change soon and I let my clients know about it from the beginning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. It depends on your previous experience. If you already know HTML, CSS and a bit of Javascript that's going to help. Also your Java web experience will help more than you think. There are a lot of similar concepts, for example you have EJS in MEAN which in kind of JSP in JEE. Mongo DB is very easy to use, data is document-based saved as JSON, so easy to manipulate. Express can be learnt along the way. Node server is very easy to set up and use. The only trick in Angular JS I would say, but once you grasp it you'll love it. At least that has happened to me (even if I was quite skeptical about Javascript at the beginning).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope that helps, but remember, it is just an opinion. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13638" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4557" RevisionGUID="52e4d914-6ea9-45ae-b74c-a33833725872" CreationDate="2016-05-30T21:46:02.077" UserId="10398" Text="Continue doing the projects you're getting to pay the bills, but start asking your current client for the types of projects you'd like to take on. You'd be surprised to find you can get what you want by simply asking for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as marketing to new clients goes, transition your online presence towards being a more back-end developer. This doesn't just mean change it on your twitter bio and resume, it means start blogging about backend stuff and make sure that everything you put out in the world is backend related. Become the go-to guy in your niche for backend development." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13639" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4558" RevisionGUID="b1df80f1-ffe7-4d84-afe8-5bcdb9dbf2d5" CreationDate="2016-05-31T00:21:50.813" UserId="11069" Text="No project ever  is completed in perfection. Just look at the updates from your own operating systems. Expecting that is unrealistic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If money in closed projects is an issue,create a separation between project work and maintenance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is for ongoing projects, you pay a higher rate and for delivered projects, you negotiate a maintenance contract with a fixed amount of money per month with a certain threshold of hours bellow which no extra is charged, or it is charged at a lower rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The arrangement might be interesting both for your consultant and for you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13640" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4540" RevisionGUID="fdc12d85-3aa1-4796-9b34-d12b970427e5" CreationDate="2016-05-31T12:10:14.500" UserId="58" Comment="Remove 'thanks', small grammar change." Text="We recently hired a consultant to help develop some new features for our website. He did a fantastic job, but we ran into a little issue. One of the features he built out for us only half worked. Incorrect information was showing in the wrong spot (date showing under the time slot) and there was a missing button field... so essentially, we couldn't even use the feature he built out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Due to a time constraint and the fact the feature wasn't being used at the time, the issue wasn't caught at launch. However, a few weeks later when we started using it we noticed the issue. I had contacted him explaining the situation and specifically asked if this will be billable or something that he would just fix for us (I have to approve all expenses by my boss first). He did not respond, but went ahead and did the work. I assumed (stupidly) that since he just went ahead and did the work, he was fixing it for free because he didn't deliver what we had originally asked for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Flash forward, I received a bill for the hours he used to fix this issue and my boss is going ballistic, refusing to pay to fix something that turned out to be broken. I can understand that maybe the time lapse was out of range for fixes, but at the same time I specifically asked about hours before he started work. Is this something we need to pay for and how would you suggest I approach the situation? I understand his time was spent on the project, but the project was never technically approved. We enjoy working with him and don't want to ruin the relationship, as we have a second large project coming up soon." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13641" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4306" RevisionGUID="93b5fda9-292e-4689-85d2-d74c4c20cfc6" CreationDate="2016-05-31T20:02:46.693" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="13645" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4560" RevisionGUID="4b69d3d4-fe47-43f6-9a7f-32c64c52628c" CreationDate="2016-06-01T09:31:20.927" UserId="12552" Text="I have six of experience in portfolio management n currently working for one of best Bank on the same project. I'm ready to train people on portfolio management n quants. But I m not getting any leads... I registered myself self on several pay sites as well. Kindly help how I can grow my freelancing business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13646" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4560" RevisionGUID="4b69d3d4-fe47-43f6-9a7f-32c64c52628c" CreationDate="2016-06-01T09:31:20.927" UserId="12552" Text="6yrs of experience in Portfolio Management" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13647" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4560" RevisionGUID="4b69d3d4-fe47-43f6-9a7f-32c64c52628c" CreationDate="2016-06-01T09:31:20.927" UserId="12552" Text="|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13649" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4562" RevisionGUID="c33d6497-9116-47b0-945c-4aeebbebf8f2" CreationDate="2016-06-01T12:00:31.617" UserId="7858" Text="To get clients, you must go where the clients are - or at least where they are looking for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems reasonable to assume that (investment) banks do not seek training of the sort you wish to offer on internet portals. They probably get these services from consultancies that also cover many other of their business needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are not already working as a trainer, you could perhaps approach your current job/client and propose this service. A rejection would probably not sour the relationship from their part - so that seems risk-free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are already a freelance trainer, but finding it difficult to find new clients, you could perhaps contact companies which deliver external consultants to banks. Big companies tend not to hire individual freelancers - unless they are already known." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13651" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4513" RevisionGUID="355a454c-dcc1-4692-821f-05698dc8c635" CreationDate="2016-06-01T13:59:46.577" UserId="12381" Comment="added 12 characters in body" Text="Just because a country has a certain minimum wage doesn't mean that's a survivable wage. And wage isn't the same as cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A McDonalds meal costs 200 rupees, roughly 3 dollars. It costs $7.00 in the states. The Indian minimum wage means working 10 hours for a meal, while U.S. minimum means working an hour for a meal. The [cost of living][1] in India is 1/3rd of that in America, and rent is 1/5th of that in America, but minimum wage is 1/30th of what it is in the States. Living on minimum wage there is like living on $1 per hour in America. Is that a decent minimum wage? I don't think so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And then there are taxes, company insurance, mediator fees, exchange rates and so on. All those things take your $7~$20 down by a lot. On top of that - how many American freelancers do you know that work for minimum wage? The [average hourly rate][2] for a (professional, not a student) designer is about $70.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Plus, cost for a freelancer is more than just hourly wage. For every hour they work, they also spend time finding clients, doing bookkeeping and such. In a company you'd have specific people (either internal or external) for that, which all get a wage. And as a freelancer, you also need to provide your own equipment, software, and space.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And while cost of living is lower, prices of computers aren't, due to scarcity and import cost. Adobe software is cheaper, but only about 20% and a macbook actually costs more there than in America.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Minimum wage doesn't include company overhead costs. Freelance fees do include that overhead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, to recap:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   - **minimum wage is that low, but cost of living isn't.**&#xD;&#xA;   - **an employee costs more than just their wage**&#xD;&#xA;   - **a freelancer/company has additional costs besides wages**&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=India&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.howdesign.com/design-business/pricing/hourly-rates/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13652" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4563" RevisionGUID="6d518ab2-5947-4500-b657-3a50515e797a" CreationDate="2016-06-02T01:59:44.763" UserId="12599" Text="There are a few things back end developers do. You are on the ball but let me state everything just to be clear.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Back end developers are responsible for the management, manipulation and sometimes even the obtainment of data from the user on client side (front-end is known as client side and back-end is known as server side). Some skills and technology needed to be known are/can be .NET framework, Node.js, React.Js, Angular.js and of course much more. Essentially, a client makes a request on a page and it is the back-end developers responsibility to decide how the webpage will respond. An example would be a webpage obtaining data from the user. When the user selects 'save', the back-end needs to determine what to do with that data. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is not all. Back-end developers are also responsible for the set-up and deployment of the website. A website is essentially a group of files located in a folder located on some server with a DNS pointed at it (all set up by the back-end guy). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recommend looking into the above frameworks and languages above as a start. The .NET framework might be the best start as it is easy to complete full-stack projects (front and back end). Also, IIS manager would be another thing to look into when it comes to the configuration and deployment of a webpage on a server. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13653" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4564" RevisionGUID="c7a9fc8a-577c-4256-a416-ac9dd1eb5e83" CreationDate="2016-06-02T03:34:49.107" UserId="9835" Text="Firstly, I apologize for the title of this question. I pondered it awhile and couldn't come up with an informative title. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is my situation:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a freelancer who offers digital marketing services. I recently established an LLC under a DBA name. From what I understand there is no difference between me &amp; the LLC and that we are the same entity as I'm a single LLC owner (i have no employees). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With my existing clients am I able to claim that income at the end of the year as LLC profit (only claiming it once of course) given that I invoice companies under my name and not my LLC's name?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When it comes to clients (Did A/B testing):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Small - medium sized clients are more likely to hire me when I brand myself as just me rather than a company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Large sized clients prefer hiring a company over an individual (even if that company is only 1 person). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13654" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4564" RevisionGUID="c7a9fc8a-577c-4256-a416-ac9dd1eb5e83" CreationDate="2016-06-02T03:34:49.107" UserId="9835" Text="LLC income from personal freelance job" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13655" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4564" RevisionGUID="c7a9fc8a-577c-4256-a416-ac9dd1eb5e83" CreationDate="2016-06-02T03:34:49.107" UserId="9835" Text="|taxes|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13656" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4565" RevisionGUID="cf2761d1-5687-45c1-938f-d7f4a5e702ff" CreationDate="2016-06-02T04:07:13.350" UserId="708" Text="Even as a single member LLC you **must** keep finances separate. You *must* have a bank account for the LLC which is **not** your personal bank account. Then you can pay yourself (or take dividends) from the LLC funds. But you **can not** deposit the LLC money into a personal bank account. Well, you aren't *supposed* to. I guess a bank *may* allow you to, but legally you *really **want*** separate accounts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There **is** a legal difference between you and the LLC. You need to financially operate as if you are **not** the LLC and the LLC is **not** you. And you need to present the business as an LLC not as you personally. It's fine if you present the business as an LLC owned and operated by yourself. But you should **never** get payments from clients under your personal name. They should **all** be paying the LLC, not you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should *never* be paying for personal items (groceries, dates, entertainment, etc) from the LLC account. The LLC account should *only* be paying *business expenses*. It is also wise to *not* pay yourself a regular, steady paycheck from the LLC. You can take dividends whenever you want, but not adhering to a set schedule is beneficial (at least that's what I was advised by my attorney). So take some this week/month, then don't take anything a couple weeks/month, then take a different amount the following week/month ... that sort of thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The *entire point* of an LLC is to **&quot;Limit&quot;** your **&quot;Liability&quot;**. If you fail to keep finances separate, and appear to be &quot;living&quot; off the LLC, a judge can *immediately* dissolve a single member LLC and hold you *personally* responsible for any judgement/settlement (heaven forbid) rather than the LLC, thus removing all liability limits. As a single member LLC, only by rigidly keeping finances separate can you try to combat such an occurrence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted..... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Yes**, the IRS permits you to file taxes as an &quot;individual with a single-member LLC&quot; rather than filing twice. You won't be taxed twice. I run a single-member LLC and merely file a 1040 and schedule C every year under my name, not my LLC. The income is added to your taxes as 1099 income or &quot;general&quot; income along with any W2 income. You **do not** file taxes for the LLC... you file your **personal** taxes claiming the money earned through the LLC. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;(Yes, basically the IRS treats the LLC as if you are the LLC ... but a judge doesn't want you to to that if you wish to actually limit any liability. That's government for you.)&lt;/sub&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13657" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4565" RevisionGUID="bdb8c89d-3b4a-4d50-8c88-81b76949f8c7" CreationDate="2016-06-02T04:13:48.337" UserId="708" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="Even as a single member LLC you **must** keep finances separate. You *must* have a bank account for the LLC which is **not** your personal bank account. Then you can pay yourself (or take dividends) from the LLC funds. But you **can not** deposit the LLC money into a personal bank account. Well, you aren't *supposed* to. I guess a bank *may* allow you to, but legally you *really **want*** separate accounts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There **is** a legal difference between you and the LLC. You need to financially operate as if you are **not** the LLC and the LLC is **not** you. And you need to **present the business as an LLC not as you personally**. It's fine if you present the business as an LLC owned and operated by yourself. But you should **never** get payments from clients under your personal name. They should **all** be paying the LLC, not you. (To be frank, any client worried about this is probably not worth the gas it takes to drive to the bank to deposit their check. I've never, in over a decade, run into a single client that had a problem making a check payable to my LLC rather than to me.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should *never* be paying for personal items (groceries, dates, entertainment, etc) from the LLC account. The LLC account should *only* be paying *business expenses*. It is also wise to *not* pay yourself a regular, steady paycheck from the LLC. You can take dividends whenever you want, but not adhering to a set schedule is beneficial (at least that's what I was advised by my attorney). So take some this week/month, then don't take anything a couple weeks/month, then take a different amount the following week/month ... that sort of thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The *entire point* of an LLC is to **&quot;Limit&quot;** your **&quot;Liability&quot;**. If you fail to keep finances separate, and appear to be &quot;living&quot; off the LLC, a judge can *immediately* dissolve a single member LLC and hold you *personally* responsible for any judgement/settlement (heaven forbid) rather than the LLC, thus removing all liability limits. As a single member LLC, only by rigidly keeping finances separate can you try to combat such an occurrence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted..... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Yes**, the IRS permits you to file taxes as an &quot;individual with a single-member LLC&quot; rather than filing twice. You won't be taxed twice. I run a single-member LLC and merely file a 1040 and schedule C every year under my name, not my LLC. The income is added to your taxes as 1099 income or &quot;general&quot; income along with any W2 income. You **do not** file taxes for the LLC... you file your **personal** taxes claiming the money earned through the LLC. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;(Yes, basically the IRS treats the LLC as if you are the LLC ... but a judge doesn't want you to to that if you wish to actually limit any liability. That's government for you.)&lt;/sub&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13661" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4567" RevisionGUID="2a4ec91d-1d36-468d-be76-60ab3e597d19" CreationDate="2016-06-02T07:02:02.037" UserId="1261" Text="As the other answer suggests, you can do a small project using the MEAN stack and then see how you can fare with an actual freelance project. The thing about technology is that you need to have a firm grasp over it in order to be able to successfully compete in the freelance markets. Besides, node is quite new in the ecosystem. You may also want to consider a shift towards python or php ecosystems as those too have lucrative markets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, it depends on you which skills you find easier to master and where your interests like. [Here](https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-biggest-websites-built-with-Node-js-on-the-server-sidehttps://www.quora.com/What-are-the-biggest-websites-built-with-Node-js-on-the-server-side) you can find some of the biggest sites built using node that can give you some inspiration. The list includes Ebay, PayPal, Walmart and even Linkedin!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13665" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4569" RevisionGUID="9fd2b286-3f7c-43ae-875d-fa154b4276c8" CreationDate="2016-06-02T14:59:06.963" UserId="1261" Text="&gt; However, a few weeks later when we started using it we noticed the issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here comes the importance of *Unit testing*. You see, freelance hiring is quite different from hiring in the corporate world. In the latter, you are just wearing the shoes of a recruiter, you just pass/fail a candidate without a worry, because you have a whole lot of QA/QC guys working day in and out to ensure the quality of software before it gets into production use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelance employer or hirer, you are wearing multiple hats. You are not just a recruiter who just hired a freelancer, but also have to oversee every now and then how the work is turning out. As I mentioned *Unit testing* is a very critical part of software development. Ideally, you should ask in the first stage of hiring itself about whether and how the freelancer tests their developed software. In a large and complex software project, there is *Integration testing* too apart from *Unit testing*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a large company, the developer and tester are usually never the same guys (that's how you actually catch bugs in the software!). With freelance hiring, you get the same work done in a fraction of the cost, but the downside is that you should be able to handle these nuances too!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Flash forward, I received a bill for the hours he used to fix this issue and my boss is going ballistic&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here comes the importance of a proper contract or agreement before venturing onto a project. If you had gone through a hiring platform like Upwork, you could have avoided this issue altogether. Firstly, for hourly contracts, you have the Upwork's escrow. With the escrow in place, you could have paid only the initial budgeted amount upfront. Once work is done, that amount is paid to freelancer by Upwork and there is no scope for any additional ad-hoc billing by freelancer, as happened in your case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't hire through a platform like Upwork, you have to carefully draft the contract agreement and make these things clear at the time of hiring. Again, don't assume anything, keep communicating with the freelancer always through email/skype or whatever your preferred medium. This is another needed skill in freelance hiring! Whilst it is the professional responsibility of the freelancer too to be proactive in communication, some turn out to be like this dude of yours who just developed and billed it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, freelance hiring isn't a very easy job (one of the reasons freelance economy is much smaller compared to the usual employment, but that's changing slowly). There are multiple pitfalls to look at and some prior research to be done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13666" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4388" RevisionGUID="638334e4-c0b1-4e66-bfd0-e43685d5fc78" CreationDate="2016-06-02T16:41:57.397" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="13667" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4540" RevisionGUID="63b154cf-bfa0-49b0-95ea-2e3d395fe0da" CreationDate="2016-06-03T01:06:46.543" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/738537375979175936" />
  <row Id="13671" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4570" RevisionGUID="8d7e7805-b2e1-4997-9d43-1f0d46dfd9f3" CreationDate="2016-06-04T08:29:42.040" UserId="10211" Text="I have created an app that I want to sell on the Google play store. I have created free apps before but for selling one you need a merchant account, and for that I need to register as a sole trader.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not planning on making a large amount of money off the app, probably less than £500 a year (I work full time and planning on doing this and a bit of freelancing on the side). I understand I must pay tax on all my profits, however as my income from freelancing will be less than the National Insurance Class 2 threshold of £5,965 will I have to pay national insurance on it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance, Sam" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13672" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4570" RevisionGUID="8d7e7805-b2e1-4997-9d43-1f0d46dfd9f3" CreationDate="2016-06-04T08:29:42.040" UserId="10211" Text="Freelancing on the side - national insurance" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13673" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4570" RevisionGUID="8d7e7805-b2e1-4997-9d43-1f0d46dfd9f3" CreationDate="2016-06-04T08:29:42.040" UserId="10211" Text="|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13674" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4571" RevisionGUID="462eea86-b894-47b9-86de-0ba180615a88" CreationDate="2016-06-04T09:34:34.013" UserId="12623" Text="1., When You close Your company, its bank account must be closed too.&#xD;&#xA;2., A US company can open an account in a UK Bank. Please note, that most times it requires an authorized representative to personnaly travel to the UK to sign the contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13675" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4570" RevisionGUID="8b8bbb63-d99e-4667-9d37-41034e9b238d" CreationDate="2016-06-04T11:57:16.243" UserId="10211" Comment="added 26 characters in body" Text="I have created an app that I want to sell on the Google play store. I have created free apps before but for selling one you need a merchant account, and for that I need to register as a sole trader.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not planning on making a large amount of money off the app, probably less than £500 a year (I work full time and planning on doing this and a bit of freelancing on the side). I understand I must pay tax on all my profits, however as my income from freelancing will be less than the National Insurance Class 2 threshold of £5,965 will I have to pay national insurance on it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance, Sam&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT: I live in the UK" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13676" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4572" RevisionGUID="fd0ee0d8-9541-44ae-804c-ff8679d723fe" CreationDate="2016-06-04T15:11:05.053" UserId="9835" Text="You can use an invoicing service such as [Zoho Invoices][1]. I use this services myself for domestic and foreign clients. It handles all conversion rates and you'll be able to charge your clients in their native currency. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This system will send an invoice but the transaction is handled by [Stripe][2]. From Stripe you can connect your back account and deposit your funds from there (similar to PayPal). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This allows you to keep a US bank account but still allow for transactions to occur overseas in a simple yet secure way. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.zoho.com/us/invoice/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://stripe.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13677" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4570" RevisionGUID="a743d365-2d13-4e10-927d-74d72268397b" CreationDate="2016-06-04T19:07:48.460" UserId="58" Comment="deleted 59 characters in body; edited tags; edited title" Text="I have created an app that I want to sell on the Google play store. I have created free apps before, but for selling one you need a merchant account; for that I need to register as a sole trader.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not planning on making a large amount of money off the app, probably less than £500 a year (I work full time and plan on doing this and a bit of freelancing on the side). I understand I must pay tax on all my profits, however as my income from freelancing will be less than the National Insurance Class 2 threshold of £5,965 will I have to pay national insurance on it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13678" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4570" RevisionGUID="a743d365-2d13-4e10-927d-74d72268397b" CreationDate="2016-06-04T19:07:48.460" UserId="58" Comment="deleted 59 characters in body; edited tags; edited title" Text="National Insurance while freelancing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13679" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4570" RevisionGUID="a743d365-2d13-4e10-927d-74d72268397b" CreationDate="2016-06-04T19:07:48.460" UserId="58" Comment="deleted 59 characters in body; edited tags; edited title" Text="|taxes|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13680" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4515" RevisionGUID="322dbd5d-4a00-4301-98bf-1181c2a6e839" CreationDate="2016-06-04T19:12:20.187" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/739172954337071109" />
  <row Id="13684" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="4570" RevisionGUID="67336dcd-7105-4607-81da-fe8765b20a83" CreationDate="2016-06-06T11:55:50.810" UserId="10211" Comment="35" />
  <row Id="13685" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4570" RevisionGUID="4430c3d7-5ae0-418a-afd2-fe269c265f03" CreationDate="2016-06-06T13:15:10.153" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/739807845919657984" />
  <row Id="13686" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4571" RevisionGUID="dfef5c4d-2b94-475a-8f3f-69bbee2b08ca" CreationDate="2016-06-06T17:19:15.107" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body" Text="1. When You close Your company, its bank account must be closed too.&#xD;&#xA;2. A US company can open an account in a UK Bank. Please note, that most times it requires an authorized representative to personally travel to the UK to sign the contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13693" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4574" RevisionGUID="bb146e95-94d1-4652-bc29-08295c25bab3" CreationDate="2016-06-07T12:58:15.997" UserId="4271" Text="**Disclaimer, I am not an accountant** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes you will have to. The reason for this is that your self assessment will also take into account your wages from your full time position. I have found this website&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.brighton-accountants.com/blog/tax-self-employment-still-employed/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Your tax-free Personal Allowance usually gets allocated to your employment, so the tax on your self-employment will be at your own highest tax rate. If your total income is below £41,865, the tax on your self-employed income will be 20%, but any income over £41,865 will be taxed at the higher rate of 40% (income above £150,000 may be taxed at 45%).&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13694" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4575" RevisionGUID="2bd23826-225e-48c6-bd29-1390f6bd6032" CreationDate="2016-06-07T14:59:16.917" UserId="12482" Text="In addition to Scott's excellent answer, a sole proprietor DBA is different than an LLCs. &#xA;&#xA;With an LLC, the proper way have a DBA is to register it with the State and then it is *under* the LLC.  The LLC functions as an umbrella company to the DBA.  So in other words, the Doing Business As *your custom name* is under the LLC which offers the liability coverage.  &#xA;&#xA;Unfortunately, a sole proprietor DBA cannot be registered twice.  That is, the EIN won't be any use to the LLC.  You may want to slowly dissolve it too as you let the LLC be the primary entity." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13695" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4575" RevisionGUID="d8ef2909-ed01-4155-93e9-24e121c42e29" CreationDate="2016-06-07T15:10:45.330" UserId="12482" Comment="deleted 11 characters in body" Text="In addition to Scott's excellent answer, a sole proprietor DBA is different than an LLCs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With an LLC, the proper way have a DBA is to register it with the State *under* the LLC.  The LLC functions as an umbrella company to the DBA.  So in other words, the Doing Business As *your custom name* is under the LLC which offers the liability coverage.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, a sole proprietor DBA cannot be registered twice.  That is, the EIN won't be any use to the LLC.  You may want to slowly dissolve it too as you let the LLC be the primary entity." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13696" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3604" RevisionGUID="e1ab25ec-1016-4b4b-9165-fcd4460be7a1" CreationDate="2016-06-07T16:00:33.763" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="13697" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4576" RevisionGUID="56d6e6cb-e1c0-4015-bbe1-f32a8d425c57" CreationDate="2016-06-07T20:28:01.900" UserId="12642" Text="We paid him most of the payment total and have found out that most of the code isn't functioning as we had expected. We're learning from our mistake but I'm trying to see how I can get some money back. We paid him $2,000 out of the $2,500 total. He has stopped responding completely, via text, phone, and email. He actually lives in my town and I have the address. Any suggestions on approaching him personally, sending a physical letter, or going straight to small claims court? I've tried warning him of a court case if we don't hear back and nothing has helped." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13698" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4576" RevisionGUID="56d6e6cb-e1c0-4015-bbe1-f32a8d425c57" CreationDate="2016-06-07T20:28:01.900" UserId="12642" Text="My freelancer stopped responding and we paid him more than he's completed, how to handle?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13699" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4576" RevisionGUID="56d6e6cb-e1c0-4015-bbe1-f32a8d425c57" CreationDate="2016-06-07T20:28:01.900" UserId="12642" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13700" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4577" RevisionGUID="607c4822-13c6-4f9e-bcf5-b0c8d1b39c9d" CreationDate="2016-06-07T22:02:38.077" UserId="12643" Text="I'm currently looking at new W2 positions that make around $80,000. According to http://www.rate-calculators.com/ -- I should be making $50/hr as a 1099. What's the best way to tell the recruiter this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I say, &quot;I would need a minimum of $50/hr?&quot; or do I give them more of a loose &quot;I am looking for around $55/hr&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm used to giving numbers for annual W2 salaries, but I've never done this before. Just wondering what the recruiter would be expecting to hear from a contractor, if that makes sense. Do they want a hard number? Or do I give a loose range?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13701" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4577" RevisionGUID="607c4822-13c6-4f9e-bcf5-b0c8d1b39c9d" CreationDate="2016-06-07T22:02:38.077" UserId="12643" Text="Never freelanced before. What's the proper way to ask the recruiter for a certain hourly rate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13702" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4577" RevisionGUID="607c4822-13c6-4f9e-bcf5-b0c8d1b39c9d" CreationDate="2016-06-07T22:02:38.077" UserId="12643" Text="|pay-rate|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13703" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4578" RevisionGUID="fc43aab9-766f-4a99-9168-69b7940e95b0" CreationDate="2016-06-08T04:19:46.253" UserId="12647" Text="I'm a year 11 student (Victoria, Australia) who typically excells at mathematics, science, etc. and have been asked to tutor a younger student in mathematics who is around average performance (C's), and get him up to a higher level (B's and A's).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've only every tutored another student once before - two years ago, and was paid $20 per session for two half-hour sessions per week (amounting to $40.00 per hour). This seems like a lot, and I'm not really sure if I should _ask_ for that much (the last time it was offered).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have another two casual jobs, which both pay reasonably well, but take up a lot of my time - so it has to be worth my while to actually take on the student, however as mentioned I don't want to seem rude by asking for _too much_.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I want to know is **what are the things that I should consider when coming up with a reasonable price for this type of tuition?**." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13704" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4578" RevisionGUID="fc43aab9-766f-4a99-9168-69b7940e95b0" CreationDate="2016-06-08T04:19:46.253" UserId="12647" Text="How do I decide how much to charge for low-level (year 7) maths tuition?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13705" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4578" RevisionGUID="fc43aab9-766f-4a99-9168-69b7940e95b0" CreationDate="2016-06-08T04:19:46.253" UserId="12647" Text="|negotiation|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13706" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4579" RevisionGUID="d3ee4002-ac42-4627-9702-5f31bf63c24e" CreationDate="2016-06-08T07:06:03.083" UserId="7858" Text="I'm assuming you are not looking to extend the business relationship, but to end it. In addition, I'll assume it's more important getting the website done than getting perhaps $500 back after a lengthy process?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As it is, the only leverage you have is somehow appealing to his professional conscience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the unfinished work is in a state where it could be finished by another freelancer - and you have another freelancer in mind, you could approach the non-responding freelancer and propose that the business relationship ends.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Continuing to badger a non-responding freelancer with 'when is it done' will not bring him out from hiding. He is probably embarrassed and is 'handling' it in a humanly understandable, but quite unprofessional way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You clearly need to do something different - so this time I would send a letter signalling that you have given up on the business relationship and you now merely want the unfinished work transferred to another provider. Best case scenario: He realizes he will lose business and might actually step up. Or perhaps he'll see it as a way out and finally respond.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line: You should not focus on getting money back when the amount is in the order of $500-1000. You should focus on your long term business goal and write this off as a business expense, both financially and experience-wise." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13707" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4580" RevisionGUID="3e5cef0e-079f-4a18-889f-fa70308ccc03" CreationDate="2016-06-08T07:16:26.387" UserId="7858" Text="It seems you feel $40/hour is too much - even though you actually have been paid that? If your previous tutoring results were good, then surely the price is fine?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the other casual jobs pay better, perhaps $40/hour is too little - especially if you actually have a good (albeit short) track record.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other things to consider:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would you rather be doing? The other casual jobs or the tutoring?&#xD;&#xA;Could the tutoring lead to more work - or is it really a one-off? &#xD;&#xA;Does the tutoring make you better at in school?&#xD;&#xA;Are the tutoring hours flexible - or must they always be Wednesday evening?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13709" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4580" RevisionGUID="952a6721-8c24-4cc2-b38e-950e364f8063" CreationDate="2016-06-08T08:03:04.163" UserId="7858" Comment="Added comments" Text="It seems you feel $40/hour is too much - even though you actually have been paid that? If your previous tutoring results were good, then surely the price is fine?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the other casual jobs pay better, perhaps $40/hour is too little - especially if you actually have a good (albeit short) track record.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other things to consider:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would you rather be doing? The other casual jobs or the tutoring?&#xD;&#xA;Could the tutoring lead to more work - or is it really a one-off? &#xD;&#xA;Does the tutoring make you better at in school?&#xD;&#xA;Are the tutoring hours flexible - or must they always be Wednesday evening?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-- edit from comments --&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An hourly rate often depends on the number of hours; the less hours - the higher the rate. In addition, if you need to negotiate - never just lower your price; you need to get something back - even if it's just symbolic, like flexible hours or more hours or perhaps bonus after a measurable result" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13710" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4582" RevisionGUID="8eb91046-ba19-4166-a390-d8147c6772ef" CreationDate="2016-06-08T12:58:59.220" UserId="7858" Text="I always provide a hard number and never a range - but that comes down to my weakness as a haggler. Instead I prefer more or less stating a price as an ultimatum. When I quote a range, I feel I seem less confident and therefore vulnerable to being bullied. So I try to do the 'bullying' myself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally, I try to postpone giving a price quote as much as possible. If the initial contact and meetings go well, the client may be willing to pay more than they initially would. Clients hire a freelancer's skill-set, but the personality and other softer skills are often what ultimately makes or breaks a deal - so if your soft skills are an asset, postponing pricing until you have demonstrated them will only be in your favor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When it comes to how I tell them the price, I simply state 'my price is $XXX/hour'; not 'I'm looking for...' or 'my target is ...'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When/if potential clients are a bit taken aback at the price, I simply state that this is what other satisfied customers have paid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13711" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4577" RevisionGUID="290d8093-8d49-49b3-866b-840c16f22716" CreationDate="2016-06-08T13:29:46.193" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="cleaned up title and thanks at end" Text="I'm currently looking at new W2 positions that make around $80,000. According to http://www.rate-calculators.com/ -- I should be making $50/hr as a 1099. What's the best way to tell the recruiter this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I say, &quot;I would need a minimum of $50/hr?&quot; or do I give them more of a loose &quot;I am looking for around $55/hr&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm used to giving numbers for annual W2 salaries, but I've never done this before. Just wondering what the recruiter would be expecting to hear from a contractor, if that makes sense. Do they want a hard number? Or do I give a loose range?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13712" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4577" RevisionGUID="290d8093-8d49-49b3-866b-840c16f22716" CreationDate="2016-06-08T13:29:46.193" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="cleaned up title and thanks at end" Text="What's the proper way to ask the recruiter for a certain hourly rate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13713" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4583" RevisionGUID="e6e6d7e2-9367-442d-848b-4a762afa06d5" CreationDate="2016-06-08T14:18:58.017" UserId="12652" Text="I am currently developing a web-application for a client in the US (I'm from Switzerland). The client's application will handle sensitive data which falls under the &quot;HIPAA Security Rule&quot; (patients information).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that I have to implement the requirements, and I will do that as good as I can. But what happens if I deploy the application, and it runs well but lets say after 6 months a hacker is able to access data.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I be held responsible for that? &#xD;&#xA;What consequences would I have to face?&#xD;&#xA;Would it maybe even be required for me to show up physically in a court/investigative office?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd be really grateful if someone could answer me this question, I wasn't able to any information on that topic (maybe because it's really hard to understand legal texts in a foreign language...)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13714" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4583" RevisionGUID="e6e6d7e2-9367-442d-848b-4a762afa06d5" CreationDate="2016-06-08T14:18:58.017" UserId="12652" Text="Can I be held responsible for HIPAA violation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13715" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4583" RevisionGUID="e6e6d7e2-9367-442d-848b-4a762afa06d5" CreationDate="2016-06-08T14:18:58.017" UserId="12652" Text="|legal|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13717" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4585" RevisionGUID="25ba019b-34f3-4b2d-bfaa-ff4e48b04595" CreationDate="2016-06-09T06:31:40.827" UserId="12664" Text="I suggest that since he's in your city , take a time to visit him personally (in a friendly way , as nothing happened) , and try to understand why he didn't reply .. after all maybe he had some troubles and wasn't available .Anyway,I'd rather say that in your position, you should really play the role of the wise man in this conflict and don't escalate unless he does , after all you paid him and he can deny everything so chances of refunds are really small..but you can maybe convience him by being a friendly person , presenting the damage that he would be causing to you and your colleauges etc.." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13725" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4576" RevisionGUID="074d23e7-0d98-407f-ac77-398378a33240" CreationDate="2016-06-10T03:43:38.873" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13726" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4564" RevisionGUID="07d9c2d3-f6c7-41d9-bd0e-b04a25641542" CreationDate="2016-06-10T03:54:05.733" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|taxes|usa|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13728" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4587" RevisionGUID="1e4f2bcc-d06d-4738-b34c-8ff57b1d6e8e" CreationDate="2016-06-10T13:21:12.670" UserId="12684" Text="Client gives you a 10 minute task. Do you charge your client half hour or full hour. Client is not retaining you full time, pays you as 1099 contractor, and offers no benefits." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13729" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4587" RevisionGUID="1e4f2bcc-d06d-4738-b34c-8ff57b1d6e8e" CreationDate="2016-06-10T13:21:12.670" UserId="12684" Text="Do you charge full hour or 30 minutes for a task?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13730" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4587" RevisionGUID="1e4f2bcc-d06d-4738-b34c-8ff57b1d6e8e" CreationDate="2016-06-10T13:21:12.670" UserId="12684" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13731" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4588" RevisionGUID="b720e547-3ec4-4d6f-b6df-733b67be0ae9" CreationDate="2016-06-10T13:44:45.647" UserId="9835" Text="This is a semi-open-ended question as it's really up to you how you charge for your time but - &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does it make sense to charge for an hour after 10 minutes of your time? No. If I hire a freelancer because I have an issue that I can't figure out how to solve and they charge $100/hour I'm not going to ever want to work with them again if after a 10 minute fix/training I receive a bill for $100, I wouldn't even be happy with a $50 bill for something so trivial as 10 minutes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, this should be defined within a contract as to how you charge. I do have a payment model much like the above for video consultations. I give those clients a 1 hour monthly consultation about digital marketing or web development and my contract states that I will charge them the full 1 hour if the call lasts more than 30 minutes and I'll charge 55% for a call under 30 minutes. This is signed and agreed upon. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without a contract it's up to you but keep in mind they can contest a payment if they expect to recieve a bill for (let's say) $10 and you send them one for $100. Do you plan on working with them in the future? Do you want to risk a contested payment?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, If I wasn't using a time tracker through their project management system I would charge within 1/4 hour rates if there's no contract. For 10 minutes of my time I'll charge for 1/4 of an hour. That makes it easier on myself so I'm not charging dollars and pennies for things like 8 minutes, 13 minutes, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is why having a contract is important so that both parties understand payment terms. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13732" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4497" RevisionGUID="ac5835e4-712d-437e-a1a8-179da2a58dbf" CreationDate="2016-06-10T18:20:00.150" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/741334111541985280" />
  <row Id="13733" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4589" RevisionGUID="271e72e3-f8e2-449a-b73b-75ddd9436bcb" CreationDate="2016-06-11T18:26:45.360" UserId="708" Text="There's no hard and fast rule about this in my experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some freelancers like to play it loose and ambiguous with dollar amounts. My opinion is this is often done for three reasons: A) They want to be able to &quot;feel&quot; the client out in case they can get more money from them or B) they aren't confident enough and are too scared of losing a job due to pricing and C) they feel it may convey an attitude of willingness to compromise or an overall lax attitude. -- Again, just my opinion. And I'm not stating these are all *wrong*, they just aren't the way I do business. I've seen many the freelancer state things like &quot;Just pay me what you think it's worth.&quot; That's all well and good if you aren't really concerned with how much money you are earning or don't feel your time is of value. But to me.... I really *need* to be paid if I'm spending my time and experience to assist a client in making money for themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working this way **greatly** escalates the chances of you not being paid, or being underpaid. Sure you may be seen as a &quot;nice guy/gal&quot; but which is more important - earning a living or being seen as &quot;nice&quot;? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;This is like working at Taco Bell and not worrying about getting a paycheck. Taco Bell makes money either way -- if they don't have to pay you, they'll be more than happy to take your free or reduce wage services. Why would you ***not*** want to be paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#I provide hard, solid, numbers when asked what my hourly rate is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I'm asked what my hourly rate is, I provide my hourly rate. Period. I don't waffle. I'm not ambiguous about how much I expect the client to pay me. I want **no** misunderstanding. The client needs to be *fully aware* that if they want me to do X, they are expected to pay $X. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On top of that, I do **not** alter my pricing just because a client feels my pricing is unjustified (to them). Clients have **no idea** what my overhead is and what my expenses are. Therefore a *client* is **never** in a position to tell me what I should earn. Ever. I don't care what they've paid in the past. I don't care what they *think* is acceptable. I've set my rates. Pay them or move on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Related questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/25712/what-should-i-do-if-a-potential-client-claims-my-pricing-is-too-high/25713#25713&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1304/whose-responsibility-is-to-give-budget-for-job-freelancer-or-client/1317#1317&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2541/how-much-should-i-charge-for-graphic-design-and-how/2544#2544&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2383/as-a-freelancer-how-do-you-quote-charge-for-a-project/2385#2385&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/917/client-wants-to-pay-a-percentage-of-revenue-generated-by-website/923#923&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3891/underestimated-project-do-you-charge-the-excess-time/3892#3892&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3305/how-to-politely-turn-down-a-clients-request-for-a-free-test-job/3307#3307&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3075/how-to-negotiate-a-price-after-an-item-of-work-is-done/3083#3083&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a ton of questions here regarding pricing and client relations. It may help to just search and review other questions/answers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding the &quot;recruiter&quot; -- be careful. Just my experience, but if this person is looking to use you and be essentially your &quot;agent&quot; -- as in they go out get work, you complete the work then you pay them for finding the work -- you need to **seriously negotiate** compensation and how payments are structured. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've seen several instances where a &quot;recruiter&quot; would refer a client to me, then expect *me* to write them a check for a percentage of the project - a &quot;[kickback][1]&quot; essentially. This is done *all the time* but it is ethically questionable. In addition, when you start writing checks for this type of thing it can have a detrimental effect on how you *feel* about freelancing. It's no fun shelling out money for completing your work. It just *feels* backwards (because it is).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, there are &quot;recruiters&quot; that go out, find the work, come to you to complete the work, then *they* bill the client and *they* write *you* a check for the services -- you don't get payment directly from the client. You get payment from the &quot;recruiter&quot;. Essentially you become and &quot;invisible&quot; resource for them. This is very common and generally not a problem. In fact, I've worked this way with some clients for years. However, you need to ensure (via a contract) that if the &quot;recruiter's&quot; client doesn't pay the &quot;recruiter&quot; then you still get paid. Don't allow your payment to be dependent upon the recruiter's payment. Get a contract in place that states **every** project the recruiter asks you to complete, the **recruiter** is responsible to pay for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kickback" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13734" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4589" RevisionGUID="d5f90c68-8d8e-4ddf-9a4a-b83e234019ed" CreationDate="2016-06-11T18:33:30.580" UserId="708" Comment="added 305 characters in body" Text="There's no hard and fast rule about this in my experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some freelancers like to play it loose and ambiguous with dollar amounts. My opinion is this is often done for three reasons: A) They want to be able to &quot;feel&quot; the client out in case they can get more money from them or B) they aren't confident enough and are too scared of losing a job due to pricing and C) they feel it may convey an attitude of willingness to compromise or an overall lax attitude. -- Again, just my opinion. And I'm not stating these are all *wrong*, they just aren't the way I do business. I've seen many the freelancer state things like &quot;Just pay me what you think it's worth.&quot; That's all well and good if you aren't really concerned with how much money you are earning or don't feel your time is of value. But to me.... I really *need* to be paid if I'm spending my time and experience to assist a client in making money for themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working this way **greatly** escalates the chances of you not being paid, or being underpaid. Sure you may be seen as a &quot;nice guy/gal&quot; but which is more important - earning a living or being seen as &quot;nice&quot;? If there's no solid, agreed upon figure, there **will** be arguments and disagreements about what you are worth. If you can afford to just walk away from any job without payment, or file lawsuits to get your payment, then okay. Most don't have the time, patience or resources to actually survive this way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;This is like working at Taco Bell and not worrying about getting a paycheck. Taco Bell makes money either way -- if they don't have to pay you, they'll be more than happy to take your free or reduce wage services. Why would you ***not*** want to be paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#I provide hard, solid, numbers when asked what my hourly rate is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I'm asked what my hourly rate is, I provide my hourly rate. Period. I don't waffle. I'm not ambiguous about how much I expect the client to pay me. I want **no** misunderstanding. The client needs to be *fully aware* that if they want me to do X, they are expected to pay $X. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On top of that, I do **not** alter my pricing just because a client feels my pricing is unjustified (to them). Clients have **no idea** what my overhead is and what my expenses are. Therefore a *client* is **never** in a position to tell me what I should earn. Ever. I don't care what they've paid in the past. I don't care what they *think* is acceptable. I've set my rates. Pay them or move on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Related questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/25712/what-should-i-do-if-a-potential-client-claims-my-pricing-is-too-high/25713#25713&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1304/whose-responsibility-is-to-give-budget-for-job-freelancer-or-client/1317#1317&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2541/how-much-should-i-charge-for-graphic-design-and-how/2544#2544&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2383/as-a-freelancer-how-do-you-quote-charge-for-a-project/2385#2385&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/917/client-wants-to-pay-a-percentage-of-revenue-generated-by-website/923#923&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3891/underestimated-project-do-you-charge-the-excess-time/3892#3892&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3305/how-to-politely-turn-down-a-clients-request-for-a-free-test-job/3307#3307&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3075/how-to-negotiate-a-price-after-an-item-of-work-is-done/3083#3083&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a ton of questions here regarding pricing and client relations. It may help to just search and review other questions/answers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding the &quot;recruiter&quot; -- be careful. Just my experience, but if this person is looking to use you and be essentially your &quot;agent&quot; -- as in they go out get work, you complete the work then you pay them for finding the work -- you need to **seriously negotiate** compensation and how payments are structured. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've seen several instances where a &quot;recruiter&quot; would refer a client to me, then expect *me* to write them a check for a percentage of the project - a &quot;[kickback][1]&quot; essentially. This is done *all the time* but it is ethically questionable. In addition, when you start writing checks for this type of thing it can have a detrimental effect on how you *feel* about freelancing. It's no fun shelling out money for completing your work. It just *feels* backwards (because it is).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, there are &quot;recruiters&quot; that go out, find the work, come to you to complete the work, then *they* bill the client and *they* write *you* a check for the services -- you don't get payment directly from the client. You get payment from the &quot;recruiter&quot;. Essentially you become and &quot;invisible&quot; resource for them. This is very common and generally not a problem. In fact, I've worked this way with some clients for years. However, you need to ensure (via a contract) that if the &quot;recruiter's&quot; client doesn't pay the &quot;recruiter&quot; then you still get paid. Don't allow your payment to be dependent upon the recruiter's payment. Get a contract in place that states **every** project the recruiter asks you to complete, the **recruiter** is responsible to pay for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kickback" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13735" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4589" RevisionGUID="ac98ced0-d69d-470f-b475-232251fba8fe" CreationDate="2016-06-11T18:38:40.520" UserId="708" Comment="added 305 characters in body" Text="There's no hard and fast rule about this in my experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some freelancers like to play it loose and ambiguous with dollar amounts. My opinion is this is often done for three reasons: A) They want to be able to &quot;feel&quot; the client out in case they can get more money from them or B) they aren't confident enough and are too scared of losing a job due to pricing and C) they feel it may convey an attitude of willingness to compromise or an overall lax attitude. -- Again, just my opinion. And I'm not stating these are all *wrong*, they just aren't the way I do business. I've seen many the freelancer state things like &quot;Just pay me what you think it's worth.&quot; That's all well and good if you aren't really concerned with how much money you are earning or don't feel your time is of value. But to me.... I really *need* to be paid if I'm spending my time and experience to assist a client in making money for themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working this way **greatly** escalates the chances of you not being paid, or being underpaid. Sure you may be seen as a &quot;nice guy/gal&quot; but which is more important - earning a living or being seen as &quot;nice&quot;? If there's no solid, agreed upon figure, there **will** be arguments and disagreements about what you are worth. If you can afford to just walk away from any job without payment, or file lawsuits to get your payment, then okay. Most don't have the time, patience or resources to actually survive this way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;This is like working at Taco Bell and not worrying about getting a paycheck. Taco Bell makes money either way -- if they don't have to pay you, they'll be more than happy to take your free or reduce wage services. Why would you ***not*** want to be paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#I provide hard, solid, numbers when asked what my hourly rate is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I'm asked what my hourly rate is, I provide my hourly rate. Period. I don't waffle. I'm not ambiguous about how much I expect the client to pay me. I want **no** misunderstanding. The client needs to be *fully aware* that if they want me to do X, they are expected to pay $X. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On top of that, I do **not** alter my pricing just because a client feels my pricing is unjustified (to them). Clients have **no idea** what my overhead is and what my expenses are. Therefore a *client* is **never** in a position to tell me what I should earn. Ever. I don't care what they've paid in the past. I don't care what they *think* is acceptable. I've set my rates. Pay them or move on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Related questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/25712/what-should-i-do-if-a-potential-client-claims-my-pricing-is-too-high/25713#25713&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1304/whose-responsibility-is-to-give-budget-for-job-freelancer-or-client/1317#1317&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2541/how-much-should-i-charge-for-graphic-design-and-how/2544#2544&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2383/as-a-freelancer-how-do-you-quote-charge-for-a-project/2385#2385&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/917/client-wants-to-pay-a-percentage-of-revenue-generated-by-website/923#923&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3891/underestimated-project-do-you-charge-the-excess-time/3892#3892&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3305/how-to-politely-turn-down-a-clients-request-for-a-free-test-job/3307#3307&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3075/how-to-negotiate-a-price-after-an-item-of-work-is-done/3083#3083&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a ton of questions here regarding pricing and client relations. It may help to just search and review other questions/answers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding the &quot;recruiter&quot; -- be careful. Just my experience, but if this person is looking to use you and be essentially your &quot;agent&quot; -- as in they go out get work, you complete the work then you pay them for finding the work -- you need to **seriously negotiate** compensation and how payments are structured. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've seen several instances where a &quot;recruiter&quot; would refer a client to me, then expect *me* to write them a check for a percentage of the project - a &quot;[kickback][1]&quot; essentially. This is done *all the time* but it is often ethically questionable because it is so easy to raise rates to clients in order to compensate for the kickback -- and often that is the case. In addition, when you start writing checks for this type of thing it can have a detrimental effect on how you *feel* about freelancing. It's no fun shelling out money for completing your work. It just *feels* backwards (because it is).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, there are &quot;recruiters&quot; that go out, find the work, come to you to complete the work, then *they* bill the client and *they* write *you* a check for the services -- you don't get payment directly from the client. You get payment from the &quot;recruiter&quot;. Essentially you become and &quot;invisible&quot; resource for them. This is very common and generally not a problem. In fact, I've worked this way with some clients for years. However, you need to ensure (via a contract) that if the &quot;recruiter's&quot; client doesn't pay the &quot;recruiter&quot; then you still get paid. Don't allow your payment to be dependent upon the recruiter's payment. Get a contract in place that states **every** project the recruiter asks you to complete, the **recruiter** is responsible to pay for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kickback" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13736" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4589" RevisionGUID="f4daf27f-6c3b-4555-9013-73f3587d0cd8" CreationDate="2016-06-11T19:36:35.763" UserId="708" Comment="added 84 characters in body" Text="There's no hard and fast rule about this in my experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some freelancers like to play it loose and ambiguous with dollar amounts. My opinion is this is often done for three reasons: A) They want to be able to &quot;feel&quot; the client out in case they can get more money from them or B) they aren't confident enough and are too scared of losing a job due to pricing and C) they feel it may convey an attitude of willingness to compromise or an overall lax attitude. -- Again, just my opinion. And I'm not stating these are all *wrong*, they just aren't the way I do business. I've seen many the freelancer state things like &quot;Just pay me what you think it's worth.&quot; That's all well and good if you aren't really concerned with how much money you are earning or don't feel your time is of value. But to me.... I really *need* to be paid if I'm spending my time and experience to assist a client in making money for themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working this way **greatly** escalates the chances of you not being paid, or being underpaid. Sure you may be seen as a &quot;nice guy/gal&quot; but which is more important - earning a living or being seen as &quot;nice&quot;? If there's no solid, agreed upon figure, there **will** be arguments and disagreements about what you are worth. If you can afford to just walk away from any job without payment, or file lawsuits to get your payment, then okay. Most don't have the time, patience or resources to actually survive this way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;This is like working at Taco Bell and not worrying about getting a paycheck. Taco Bell makes money either way -- if they don't have to pay you, they'll be more than happy to take your free or reduce wage services. Why would you ***not*** want to be paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#I provide hard, solid, numbers when asked what my hourly rate is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I'm asked what my hourly rate is, I provide my hourly rate. Period. I don't waffle. I'm not ambiguous about how much I expect the client to pay me. I want **no** misunderstanding. The client needs to be *fully aware* that if they want me to do X, they are expected to pay $X. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On top of that, I do **not** alter my pricing just because a client feels my pricing is unjustified (to them). Clients have **no idea** what my overhead is and what my expenses are. Therefore a *client* is **never** in a position to tell me what I should earn. Ever. I don't care what they've paid in the past. I don't care what they *think* is acceptable. I've set my rates. Pay them or move on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Related questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/25712/what-should-i-do-if-a-potential-client-claims-my-pricing-is-too-high/25713#25713&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1304/whose-responsibility-is-to-give-budget-for-job-freelancer-or-client/1317#1317&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2541/how-much-should-i-charge-for-graphic-design-and-how/2544#2544&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2383/as-a-freelancer-how-do-you-quote-charge-for-a-project/2385#2385&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/917/client-wants-to-pay-a-percentage-of-revenue-generated-by-website/923#923&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3891/underestimated-project-do-you-charge-the-excess-time/3892#3892&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3305/how-to-politely-turn-down-a-clients-request-for-a-free-test-job/3307#3307&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3075/how-to-negotiate-a-price-after-an-item-of-work-is-done/3083#3083&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a ton of questions here regarding pricing and client relations. It may help to just search and review other questions/answers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Below is only added because you used the word &quot;recruiter&quot; rather than &quot;client&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding the &quot;recruiter&quot; -- be careful. Just my experience, but if this person is looking to use you and be essentially your &quot;agent&quot; -- as in they go out get work, you complete the work then you pay them for finding the work -- you need to **seriously negotiate** compensation and how payments are structured. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've seen several instances where a &quot;recruiter&quot; would refer a client to me, then expect *me* to write them a check for a percentage of the project - a &quot;[kickback][1]&quot; essentially. This is done *all the time* but it is often ethically questionable because it is so easy to raise rates to clients in order to compensate for the kickback -- and often that is the case. In addition, when you start writing checks for this type of thing it can have a detrimental effect on how you *feel* about freelancing. It's no fun shelling out money for completing your work. It just *feels* backwards (because it is).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, there are &quot;recruiters&quot; that go out, find the work, come to you to complete the work, then *they* bill the client and *they* write *you* a check for the services -- you don't get payment directly from the client. You get payment from the &quot;recruiter&quot;. Essentially you become and &quot;invisible&quot; resource for them. This is very common and generally not a problem. In fact, I've worked this way with some clients for years. However, you need to ensure (via a contract) that if the &quot;recruiter's&quot; client doesn't pay the &quot;recruiter&quot; then you still get paid. Don't allow your payment to be dependent upon the recruiter's payment. Get a contract in place that states **every** project the recruiter asks you to complete, the **recruiter** is responsible to pay for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kickback" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13737" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4589" RevisionGUID="4b648a40-88bb-4de4-a40b-77a36740c169" CreationDate="2016-06-11T19:44:03.333" UserId="708" Comment="added 84 characters in body" Text="There's no hard and fast rule about this in my experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some freelancers like to play it loose and ambiguous with dollar amounts. My opinion is this is often done for three reasons: A) They want to be able to &quot;feel&quot; the client out in case they can get more money from them or B) they aren't confident enough and are too scared of losing a job due to pricing and C) they feel it may convey an attitude of willingness to compromise or an overall lax attitude. -- Again, just my opinion. And I'm not stating these are all *wrong*, they just aren't the way I do business. I've seen many the freelancer state things like &quot;Just pay me what you think it's worth.&quot; That's all well and good if you aren't really concerned with how much money you are earning or don't feel your time is of value. But to me.... I really *need* to be paid if I'm spending my time and experience to assist a client in making money for themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working this way **greatly** escalates the chances of you not being paid, or being underpaid. Sure you may be seen as a &quot;nice guy/gal&quot; but which is more important - earning a living or being seen as &quot;nice&quot;? If there's no solid, agreed upon figure, there **will** be arguments and disagreements about what you are worth. If you can afford to just walk away from any job without payment, or file lawsuits to get your payment, then okay. Most don't have the time, patience or resources to actually survive this way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;This is like working at Taco Bell and not worrying about getting a paycheck. Taco Bell makes money either way -- if they don't have to pay you, they'll be more than happy to take your free or reduce wage services. Why would you ***not*** want to be paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#I provide hard, solid, numbers when asked what my hourly rate is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I'm asked what my hourly rate is, I provide my hourly rate. Period. I don't waffle. I'm not ambiguous about how much I expect the client to pay me. I want **no** misunderstanding. The client needs to be *fully aware* that if they want me to do X, they are expected to pay $X. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On top of that, I do **not** alter my pricing just because a client feels my pricing is unjustified (to them). Clients have **no idea** what my overhead is and what my expenses are. Therefore a *client* is **never** in a position to tell me what I should earn. Ever. I don't care what they've paid in the past. I don't care what they *think* is acceptable. I've set my rates. Pay them or move on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Related questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/25712/what-should-i-do-if-a-potential-client-claims-my-pricing-is-too-high/25713#25713&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1304/whose-responsibility-is-to-give-budget-for-job-freelancer-or-client/1317#1317&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2541/how-much-should-i-charge-for-graphic-design-and-how/2544#2544&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2383/as-a-freelancer-how-do-you-quote-charge-for-a-project/2385#2385&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/917/client-wants-to-pay-a-percentage-of-revenue-generated-by-website/923#923&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3891/underestimated-project-do-you-charge-the-excess-time/3892#3892&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3305/how-to-politely-turn-down-a-clients-request-for-a-free-test-job/3307#3307&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3075/how-to-negotiate-a-price-after-an-item-of-work-is-done/3083#3083&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a ton of questions here regarding pricing and client relations. It may help to just search and review other questions/answers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Below is only added because you used the word &quot;recruiter&quot; rather than &quot;client&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding the &quot;recruiter&quot; -- be careful. Just my experience, but if this person is looking to use you and be essentially your &quot;agent&quot; -- as in they go out get work, you complete the work then you pay them for finding the work -- you need to **seriously negotiate** compensation and how payments are structured. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've seen several instances where a &quot;recruiter&quot; would refer a client to me, then expect *me* to write them a check for a percentage of the project - a &quot;[kickback][1]&quot; essentially. This is done *all the time* but it is often ethically questionable because it is so easy to raise rates to clients in order to compensate for the kickback -- and often that is the case. In addition, when you start writing checks for this type of thing it can have a detrimental effect on how you *feel* about freelancing. It's no fun shelling out money for completing your work. It just *feels* backwards (because it is).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, there are &quot;recruiters&quot; that go out, find the work, come to you to complete the work, then *they* bill the client and *they* write *you* a check for the services -- you don't get payment directly from the client. You get payment from the &quot;recruiter&quot;. Essentially you become and &quot;invisible&quot; resource for them. This is very common and generally not a problem. In fact, I've worked this way with some clients for years. However, you need to ensure (via a contract) that if the &quot;recruiter's&quot; client doesn't pay the &quot;recruiter&quot; then you still get paid. Don't allow your payment to be dependent upon the recruiter's payment. Get a contract in place that states **every** project the recruiter asks you to complete, the **recruiter** is responsible to pay for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Note according to the rate calculator you linked to, I'd be a baz-illionaire by now - those figures seem exceptionally unconventional to me. Without *any* explanation as to *how* the values are being calculated, I would not put *any* stock in what that link states.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;According to that link, Based on my last W2 position (more than 10 years ago) I should be charging more than 4 times what I currently charge... I'd starve because no one would hire me as a freelancer at that rate. If I were to go back to W2 employment, based on my current earnings... well.. I'd *never* find *any* position paying that much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kickback" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13738" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4590" RevisionGUID="103f6acb-32cc-4615-8b4a-22901b2c6f77" CreationDate="2016-06-12T00:24:10.813" UserId="9835" Text="I would suggest asking for a contract to be made, or you make one and ask it to be signed. The purpose of a contract is to protect both parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can simply state (the contract should be more in depth than the following &quot;In the unforeseen event that there is a breach in data I cannot be held responsible for any HIPPA violations&quot;. I would include that you are developing it to be as secure as you can make it within your ability and time allowance and that once you hand the product off you are not responsible for any misuse of the product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I used to work for a pharmacy and HIPPA violations are VERY serious in the US and am honestly surprised that they did not make you sign a non-disclosure agreement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, within this contract you:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Should not be responsible for the product once it's no longer in your hands&#xD;&#xA; - Should not be responsible for misuse of the product by the company, it's clients or individuals with malicious intent&#xD;&#xA; - Should not be sued by a client of the company due to any reason about the product and it's use. If a client of the company wants to create a suit, they should go after the company who is the owner of the product. &#xD;&#xA; - Should have an agreement as to how you can reflect the work you've done on this project. Can you have your name on the product as the developer? Can you put this project on your resume? Can you reuse the code in the future? Can you develop a similar product for a competing company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The company:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Should receive the developed product that is as secure as your ability allows. &#xD;&#xA; - Should take full responsibility as to how the product is used internally and externally. &#xD;&#xA; - Should outline situations in which you may be requested to work on this project again. Is this a one and done deal? Do they expect you to update the product for them in the future? If a new developer can't understand your code can they talk to you? If the product does get hacked are you required to **try** to patch the security hole?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would also talk to the company about consulting with a lawyer to create the contract and the company should be the one to pay for the lawyer if that route is taken." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13739" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4591" RevisionGUID="c99bde32-4833-496f-8e8d-38d06ae37718" CreationDate="2016-06-12T00:58:17.250" UserId="9835" Text="&gt; If I am working for this Client for next 5 years and after 5 years I have no Profile anywhere (Upwork/Elance) then how will I prove that I am working from last 5 years?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use your clients as references. Not every company or freelancer uses sites like Upwork. There are a few ways to validate work completed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Put your clients on your website. You can have a testimonials section, a &quot;people we work with&quot; section, etc. &#xD;&#xA; - Ask your clients if you can use them as a referral to future clients&#xD;&#xA; - Have your clients recommend you on LinkedIn&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of your resume. You can say you worked for company X for 5 years but you don't have to supply your timesheets to prove you worked there. The hiring manager can call the company, cross reference your social media accounts, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like @peterMV said, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;It's good idea if you plan to gather clients over Upwork. If not, you are paying them for nothing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on your reply, you do seem determined to use Upwork in the future so yes it's a good idea to start building your profile on Upwork. The best way to do so, from experience, is to take on some small projects and start generating some reviews. Note that Upworks fees have changed since this post&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - 20% will be taken from the freelancer until a project makes $500&#xD;&#xA; - 10% up to $10,000&#xD;&#xA; - 5% for $10,000+&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is for each project. Fees have also been added for clients meaning it will now cost them more to hire you via Upwork. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;References:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[New freelancer fees][1] | [New client fees][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Should I ask my client to put project on UpWork.com so that I can Bid and he gives this project to my company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Upwork allows for clients to &quot;Bring their own freelancer&quot; or hire a company/freelancer directly without having to post a job ad to the public. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Reason is I can build my UpWork/Elance profile and hours , Projects shows up there . This Profile will help me in Getting more Projects and this will show to World that Yes this company is existing from long and has worked with this Client for last 5 Years. Also hours I worked will be shown.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is true as long as Upwork is still relevant. What is your plan if Upwork ends up going under and you no longer have access to your profile? I suggest also having a website &amp; social media in which you can connect to your current/past clients. The longevity of your business shouldn't rely on the longevity of a 3rd party (Upwork). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.upwork.com/i/pricing/freelancers/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.upwork.com/i/pricing/clients/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13740" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4462" RevisionGUID="215190d7-ddd7-4d0f-bec3-25f0434d07dc" CreationDate="2016-06-13T03:31:38.330" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/742197710762184704" />
  <row Id="13741" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4592" RevisionGUID="c9f8514a-de1b-4a0c-b9e9-e8fa656ad5e4" CreationDate="2016-06-13T08:53:10.697" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="**No, it's not worth the extra 10% to put all of your work on upwork.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;10% of your income for 3 developers over 5 years is a significant amount of money. It's not worth it for an experienced profile. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Say, for example, you have 3 developers working $10/hour (this is low, but the numbers work out nicely for $10 and it scales well)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    $30/hour x 40hours/week x 52 weeks/year x 5 years = $312 000&#xD;&#xA;    So 10% of that is $31 200 &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, is a profile with experience worth 31k? No way!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My recommendation: use it for what it's intended**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Upwork is specifically there to *help find new work*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is your company going to be 100% busy for the entire 5 years? Probably not. Why not look for a couple of small jobs on upwork on the side? It'll widen your client base (not good to put all your eggs in one basket), bring you a bit of extra income, and a number of smaller jobs over 5 years or so will absolutely build you a very decent profile. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way, you can keep the majority of your income outside of upwork, but still build a bit of a profile on the side. It'll take some time to get the first few jobs, but that's fine considering you already have work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**And finally: No client should care where all your time goes**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A client isn't going to wonder what you're doing for the rest of your week. There is no need to substantiate all your working hours on upwork. If they ask, say that you are busy with clients that aren't on upwork. This is a really good thing to be able to say because it indicates that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. you're in demand and &#xD;&#xA;2. that you're working on this business full time (so it's  not just a hobby on the side). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is possible to put these projects manually on upwork (Under the portfolio section) which will allow you to indicate what your experience is off upwork and substantiate where your time is going if you want to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13742" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4592" RevisionGUID="af1068ba-9baf-443c-acf3-c4b773d19ec9" CreationDate="2016-06-13T09:09:40.940" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 232 characters in body" Text="**No, it's not worth the extra 10% to put all of your work on upwork.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;10% of your income for 3 developers over 5 years is a significant amount of money. It's not worth it for an experienced profile. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Say, for example, you have 3 developers working $10/hour (this is low, but the numbers work out nicely for $10 and it scales well)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    $30/hour x 40hours/week x 52 weeks/year x 5 years = $312 000&#xD;&#xA;    So 10% of that is $31 200 &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, is a profile with experience worth 31k? No way! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So what is it worth?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to work out how much the profile would cost for various configurations, it's as follows, more or less:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    $200 * developer hourly rate * developers * years on odesk = profile cost.&#xD;&#xA;    $200 * 10 * 3 * 5 = 30k&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even 1 developer for 6 months:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    $200 * 10 * 1 * 0.5 = 1k&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's up to you to decide how much a profile is worth. 1k even?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My recommendation: use it for what it's intended**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Upwork is specifically there to *help find new work*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is your company going to be 100% busy for the entire 5 years? Probably not. Why not look for a couple of small jobs on upwork on the side? It'll widen your client base (not good to put all your eggs in one basket), bring you a bit of extra income, and a number of smaller jobs over 5 years or so will absolutely build you a very decent profile. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way, you can keep the majority of your income outside of upwork, but still build a bit of a profile on the side. It'll take some time to get the first few jobs, but that's fine considering you already have work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**And finally: No client should care where all your time goes**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A client isn't going to wonder what you're doing for the rest of your week. There is no need to substantiate all your working hours on upwork. If they ask, say that you are busy with clients that aren't on upwork. This is a really good thing to be able to say because it indicates that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. you're in demand and &#xD;&#xA;2. that you're working on this business full time (so it's  not just a hobby on the side). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is possible to put these projects manually on upwork (Under the portfolio section) which will allow you to indicate what your experience is off upwork and substantiate where your time is going if you want to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13743" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4570" RevisionGUID="a4379b9a-134f-4760-8674-8f407da0f285" CreationDate="2016-06-13T11:17:08.787" UserId="10211" Comment="edited tags; edited title" Text="Part Time Freelancing - National Insurance Exemption" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13744" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4570" RevisionGUID="a4379b9a-134f-4760-8674-8f407da0f285" CreationDate="2016-06-13T11:17:08.787" UserId="10211" Comment="edited tags; edited title" Text="|uk|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13745" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4468" RevisionGUID="09da9adf-852f-4d3d-8fb8-eda09357c69c" CreationDate="2016-06-13T12:38:50.350" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/742335418306285568" />
  <row Id="13747" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3028" RevisionGUID="0d34654c-17f6-47ac-842e-4a515dd59ae0" CreationDate="2016-06-13T18:15:31.573" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="13748" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4565" RevisionGUID="8f556d00-3bce-4564-92d5-234fce01182f" CreationDate="2016-06-14T00:50:29.157" UserId="708" Comment="added 273 characters in body" Text="Even as a single member LLC you **must** keep finances separate. You *must* have a bank account for the LLC which is **not** your personal bank account. Then you can pay yourself (or take dividends) from the LLC funds. But you **can not** deposit the LLC money into a personal bank account. Well, you aren't *supposed* to. I guess a bank *may* allow you to, but legally you *really **want*** separate accounts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There **is** a legal difference between you and the LLC. You need to financially operate as if you are **not** the LLC and the LLC is **not** you. And you need to **present the business as an LLC not as you personally**. It's fine if you present the business as an LLC owned and operated by yourself. But you should **never** get payments from clients under your personal name. They should **all** be paying the LLC, not you. (To be frank, any client worried about this is probably not worth the gas it takes to drive to the bank to deposit their check. I've never, in over a decade, run into a single client that had a problem making a check payable to my LLC rather than to me.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should *never* be paying for personal items (groceries, dates, entertainment, etc) from the LLC account. The LLC account should *only* be paying *business expenses*. It is also wise to *not* pay yourself a regular, steady paycheck from the LLC. You can take dividends whenever you want, but not adhering to a set schedule is beneficial (at least that's what I was advised by my attorney). So take some this week/month, then don't take anything a couple weeks/month, then take a different amount the following week/month ... that sort of thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The *entire point* of an LLC is to **&quot;Limit&quot;** your **&quot;Liability&quot;**. If you fail to keep finances separate, and appear to be &quot;living&quot; off the LLC, a judge can *immediately* dissolve a single member LLC and hold you *personally* responsible for any judgement/settlement (heaven forbid) rather than the LLC, thus removing all liability limits. As a single member LLC, only by rigidly keeping finances separate can you try to combat such an occurrence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted..... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Yes**, the IRS permits you to file taxes as an &quot;individual with a single-member LLC&quot; rather than filing twice. You won't be taxed twice. I run a single-member LLC and merely file a 1040 and schedule C every year under my name, not my LLC. The income is added to your taxes as 1099 income or &quot;general&quot; income along with any W2 income. You **do not** file taxes for the LLC... you file your **personal** taxes claiming the money earned through the LLC. This option of filing taxes on you own, personal taxes is *only permitted* by single-member LLCs or sole proprietorships. As soon as you have another member in the LLC.... *then* the LLC will need to file its own taxes. And at that point I'd suggest you hire an accountant if you haven't done so already, because then you get into tax issues with payouts to members (dividends), etc. and things are no long &quot;easy&quot; at that point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;(Yes, basically the IRS treats the LLC as if you are the LLC ... but a judge doesn't want you to to that if you wish to actually limit any liability. That's government for you.)&lt;/sub&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13750" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4583" RevisionGUID="16a7f0bb-e388-4baf-ae51-6f5746250165" CreationDate="2016-06-14T09:40:32.633" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/742652936262651904" />
  <row Id="13751" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4593" RevisionGUID="1fcd7062-db45-455a-b19d-c8e86694915c" CreationDate="2016-06-14T11:45:55.443" UserId="12734" Text="Yes and no as the answer above states of you were hired and did sign a contract stating you are going to recieve  payment for each logo then yes you should be paid.  Now in the case that you listed it sounds like there was no type of agreement so to answer no.  The main thing I would say in a situation like yours is to find out the fine print of the job or task and what you are going or not going to recieve.  I see this as being an artist, of any kind.  The artist is asked to make a certain painting if the painting doesn't sell then there is no payment.  I've done free lance design for tattoos and I never was paid unless the client chose my design, with that being said I knew going in that my work my not get me the money for the hours I put in.  Now I have also been asked to do other jobs involving art and I've set a dollar amount before the job.  So learn from this situation and get some kind of understanding about how the situation will unfold.  i.e. Get a contract negotiate a price before you put any time into the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13752" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4594" RevisionGUID="1271ee46-c595-45b8-8d77-7ad44b3f0b1d" CreationDate="2016-06-14T13:03:27.490" UserId="4506" Text="I am working in one good company as a senior iOS developer and have some good experience in it. I have some free time in personal and I want to earn more money by doing freelance work online And I need to work for personal reasons. I want to join freelancing site. But my confusion is that &quot;Should I join this site with my original Identity?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As per my thinking I may easily caught by marketing team of my current company or my future working environment. I don't want to spoil my current position as I am fixed salaried employee and I want to continue it for some years. I heard that most of the companies don't allow freelance work to their employees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So Please give me suggestion about&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Identity on freelancing site will affect to my current working life?&#xD;&#xA; - Is there any other option for me to work safe and good?&#xD;&#xA; - Should I use fake identity? And is it Valid? (I think it is bad one.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;I am ready to manage my time for it, and want to improve my life standard and working knowledge.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13753" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4594" RevisionGUID="1271ee46-c595-45b8-8d77-7ad44b3f0b1d" CreationDate="2016-06-14T13:03:27.490" UserId="4506" Text="How I can be hidden from my current working company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13754" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4594" RevisionGUID="1271ee46-c595-45b8-8d77-7ad44b3f0b1d" CreationDate="2016-06-14T13:03:27.490" UserId="4506" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|working-from-home|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13755" PostHistoryTypeId="34" PostId="4570" RevisionGUID="24ae730a-9c52-4952-b896-64661d156172" CreationDate="2016-06-14T13:37:43.647" UserId="-1" Comment="35" />
  <row Id="13756" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4595" RevisionGUID="8bd015b7-4539-4c15-a08d-fb38a1f321f3" CreationDate="2016-06-14T14:53:05.060" UserId="517" Text="You have multiple options. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Go incognito with fake name. Create your iOS identity as &quot;John&quot; and be known as John without telling anyone your real name. Some clients may not like this and the morality of this step is questionable. also it may be almost impossible to be accepted to freelancer websites as all the good ones will request you submit your ID when creating a new profile. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Freelancer sites like Upwork usually offer private profile. It means that you will be hidden from searches and anyone directly accessing your profile, EXCEPT those clients you previously worked for and those clients whose jobs you have applied to. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, how good or bad this is, it's really questionable. Many freelancers do this. The reasons are either honest or dishonest. I guess if you are good in what you do, I don't have to know you're Max since John has done pretty good job. I may be angry or suspicious if I want to hire you full-time and I see that you sent ID as Max. &#xD;&#xA;In my case, if your incognito reasons are sound, I would not mind you being incognito. After all, I never hire Max or John, but the &quot;guy whose iOS skills are superb&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, it's all up to you. For every 10 people that question incognito step, you will find 10 honest people who have their own justified reasons to be incognito. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13758" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4596" RevisionGUID="cbf925ea-67e9-4b40-99bb-62a41513e70f" CreationDate="2016-06-14T19:55:24.290" UserId="9835" Text="&gt; Identity on freelancing site will affect to my current working life?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had a full-time marketing job working in my companies corporate division and the entire time I worked for them I also freelanced. **DISCLAIMER:** Just becuase I had a positive experience does not mean you will too. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My freelance work helped me in the corporate setting as I didn't have as much freedom to try new things for a multi-million dollar company compared to smaller companies that I worked with. I was able to use that knowledge and experience to improve my performance in the office and they were happy about it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At a different position I had (different company as well) when they found out I was freelancing they offered me a raise (this isn't always going to happen). They believed I was freelancing becuase I couldn't afford to live off of what they were paying me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know where you are located but I work in the US and the marketing team and dev team I work with mostly have contracts with other companies as well as being full-time for this company. This has helped the company grow substantially in the past few years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Really, it all depends on how your company views this. I personally can't imagine any company thinking poorly of an employee that also freelanced on the side unless you're working for competitors or using company assets (such as code) to fulfill those contracts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Should I use fake identity? And is it Valid? (I think it is bad one.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can work under a fake name as @PeterMV mentioned but you'll need to create a life around that person. Even using sites like Upwork &amp; freelancer my LinkedIn profile gets checked before I get hired for most of my high-paying contracts. Companies want to hire someone who is real and is going to deliver quality work. Having a name with no background to it is kinda sketchy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some sites will have you verify your identity but as to the process that all sites have to do such a thing, I'm not 100% sure. Some sites do let you register as a company instead as an individual. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Is there any other option for me to work safe and good?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may want to just work under your real name and if your company does have an issue with it (if they find out) then you should explain why you're freelancing. As a developer there's so much out there for you to learn and that alone is a great reason. Maybe your company only uses Swift but you want to explore possible advantages of using Objective-C, or building iOS apps without Xcode, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the end of the day, it's up to you whether you want to use a real or fake name and each has it's disadvantages. There are good reasons as to why you'd want to use a fake name I'm also not sure you own anything you write if the developer is a fake name and there's no solid proof that you're that person (I would look into your local and federal laws). &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13762" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3198" RevisionGUID="7fedcbbd-3ff8-49eb-b72f-66d504dd6e15" CreationDate="2016-06-14T22:04:39.593" UserId="514" Comment="Fixes some broken html" Text="Your agreement should specify the currency in which you will be billing, as well as the bill-rate, which I assume it already does. Then that is the bill rate. If your agreed rate $50 US / hour, then that is what your client should expect to be billed and to pay. If it is 4000 &amp;lt;some other unit&amp;gt; / hour, then that should be the expectation. Exchange should not enter into it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But of course the exchange rate does matter to you or your client when they have to purchase another currency to pay you and that rate changes significantly. By asking to roll back the agreed exchange rate to a prior date, your client is really asking you to accept payment in his currency instead of in yours, effectively lowering your bill rate. Would he do you the same favor if the difference were reversed?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In future contracts, or in this one if you're willing to renegotiate to keep the client happy, you might specify a referene exchange rate - perhaps its 2-year average - and agree to split the differences during the life of the contract by billing and accepting at a rate 1/2 way between that originally specified rate and the rate on the billing date. It may feel fairer to your client that you'd be willing to take 1/2 the risk (if you would be). Setting the reference rate amounts to exchange speculation which involves risks and I assume is not related in any way to the contracted work. One of you could still take a real loss, so you might want to set some exchange-rate limits around the reference rate that you both agree you won't exceed without stopping to renegotiate." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13766" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4564" RevisionGUID="dbfbcd70-0b34-4d6e-af2f-7205d63d0186" CreationDate="2016-06-15T09:54:04.230" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/743018728644874240" />
  <row Id="13770" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4388" RevisionGUID="ad90a8a5-d526-4c04-826d-5a0ea179196d" CreationDate="2016-06-15T15:54:04.253" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/743109325992951808" />
  <row Id="13773" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4600" RevisionGUID="b1e785e5-e396-4f01-85c4-c2b34dab9053" CreationDate="2016-06-15T19:11:54.360" UserId="12381" Text="Does it matter if you convert X -&gt; $ -&gt; Y or if you directly convert X -&gt; Y?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because if you have to exchange twice, it means twice the volatility, too. In theory one volatility should counterbalance the other, but there are times when you'll be off good/bad in both exchanges.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many currencies are pegged to fluctuation of USD, or at least very close to it, so it won't make much of a difference. But perhaps if you're using small currencies it might make a difference. You'd have to calculate that, though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it doesn't make a difference, keep your current rate in USD. Like Robert mentioned, if the tables were turned, the client probably wouldn't go and pay more USD because you are in a bad spot." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13774" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4601" RevisionGUID="87de3461-9f6c-452d-8845-2a8f9775b29a" CreationDate="2016-06-16T04:33:11.177" UserId="12750" Text="For precaution, I always set the deadline longer than the time it actually takes; e.g. for a 30-days work I promise the client it will be finished in 45-days. So in case something bad happened, I have the time make it up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However sometimes pretty big shit just happens: like heavy illness or accident, where I won't be able to even put my finger on the computer for 2 weeks, even a month. This actually happened once and I almost unable to finish the project in the set deadline.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, how to handle such problem? Is accident/illness really a pardonable reason to extend the deadline--would it make you look unprofessional? Or should I set longer deadline?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13775" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4601" RevisionGUID="87de3461-9f6c-452d-8845-2a8f9775b29a" CreationDate="2016-06-16T04:33:11.177" UserId="12750" Text="How to handle the deal with client in case of heavy illness, accident, etc?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13776" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4601" RevisionGUID="87de3461-9f6c-452d-8845-2a8f9775b29a" CreationDate="2016-06-16T04:33:11.177" UserId="12750" Text="|contracts|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13777" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4602" RevisionGUID="16c14cd1-2ee0-4d04-89d5-db081093a527" CreationDate="2016-06-16T08:22:21.427" UserId="12755" Text="I think you not look unprofessional at this case.&#xD;&#xA;You must sign to contract with your client and to provide this risks in the contract.&#xD;&#xA;Good tone will be i you can prevent your client about happened accident and try to find exit from this situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I you can, you may give this project to your colleague or friend, if it's exist.&#xD;&#xA;Or you can cancel from project and return money to client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We all people and it's just happened with everyone." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13778" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4603" RevisionGUID="195c7bbf-e359-4156-bdc9-0f8e4f92675c" CreationDate="2016-06-16T10:34:47.017" UserId="7858" Text="Surprising things happening is just life; handling twists and turns in a timely manner is never unprofessional. However, just going silent or telling the client on deadline day that delivery will not be made due to circumstances you have long been aware of is quite unprofessional.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember, the client's circumstances may also change; they could be bought or close departments or fire the people who are your contacts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It all comes down to what sort of relationship you have with the client. Generally, it seems the larger the client, the longer the contract. Regardless of the length and language of a contract, a situation not covered by the contract may arise - and when that happens, you deal with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my personal view, attempting to cover all possible situations in a contract doesn't lead to the sort of client-relationship I prefer, whereas keeping contracts short and all dealings transparent and timely does. And when a client relationship is good, I find change management a lot simpler." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13779" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4604" RevisionGUID="85e0e7e8-f955-4416-b1cb-ef5155ff46d8" CreationDate="2016-06-16T11:49:58.793" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="This is a risk that that client should be aware of also. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**It depends a lot on the situation.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're part of a team, it's a critical part of resource management to ensure that there are multiple people familiar with a project and can continue with it or take/over if necessary. It's not good to have only one single person working on a project or knowing exactly where everything is and how it all works. Even if there isn't some big issue, what if someone on the team takes two weeks of holiday? There should be redundancy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This becomes more difficult if only one person is hired to work on something. Nonetheless, these things can't be helped and the client should be aware of this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You're taking a risk too**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another thing to point out is that the risk works two ways. What about if something happens to your client and they are in an accident? Then they won't be in any capacity to pay you for your work done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What to do?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the contractor:&#xD;&#xA;It would be better for your to spread out your time between multiple clients so that if something happens to one it doesn't have such a big impact on your income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the client:&#xD;&#xA;If the work can be spread out between multiple people, then that would help mitigate the impact of one of them suddently becoming unavailable. If this can't be done, being prepared with additional options (other companies/freelancers) in the case of an emergency would help to quickly handle the sitiuation. Additionally, ensure that you've stored somewhere what they've delivered so far to hand over to the backup company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Just being aware is often enough**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In either case, it's important to remember that these things can't be avoided, and that the best thing to do is have a backup plan in place if something does happen. The plan will be different depending on the situation and type of work, but thinking about the consequences beforehand will difinitely help. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13780" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4605" RevisionGUID="a93d4979-bcd2-435a-b689-390eb08e5e99" CreationDate="2016-06-16T12:30:01.287" UserId="12758" Text="I'm doing an software for a client and the project had a delay of about a week. &#xD;&#xA;I warned the client about the delay (that happens because i made a course and he now about it). But now he wants to meet me for a day (whole) for us to sit and work in person. He says that he wants me and his design team to work together and our agreement didnt was for design (he would provide the flow and images) only for programming.&#xD;&#xA;He said that if that meeting does not happen he will hire some other company." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13781" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4605" RevisionGUID="a93d4979-bcd2-435a-b689-390eb08e5e99" CreationDate="2016-06-16T12:30:01.287" UserId="12758" Text="How to handle client that insists in meaningless long meetings (in person)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13782" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4605" RevisionGUID="a93d4979-bcd2-435a-b689-390eb08e5e99" CreationDate="2016-06-16T12:30:01.287" UserId="12758" Text="|difficult-client|programmer|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13783" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4605" RevisionGUID="2ba07e9a-8b15-43cf-9c5c-9caebe925457" CreationDate="2016-06-16T12:35:32.827" UserId="12758" Comment="edited tags" Text="|difficult-client|communication|programmer|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13786" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4607" RevisionGUID="b9f1dee0-9f16-4bec-9762-d730b578ec49" CreationDate="2016-06-16T17:11:42.903" UserId="75" Text="What does your agreement say? I'd stick to that, and offer a new contract if he wants to renegotiate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do deal with the company? Simple - either agree or don't. If you agree, you better be charging your hourly rate during that time - remember, if you're working hourly, you are NOT working for other clients during that time, right? The agreement is a two-way street where BOTH of you need to agree to it and stick to it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should this be included in your per-project cost? Not a chance! Per-Project has the unspoken rule about being the project done in your own time, meaning you can work on other things at the same time if you are able to. Per-Hour billing is for when you are taken away from working for other clients, and should be one of your higher rates. So if you want to do it, I'd tell the client &quot;*Sure I can! My hourly rate is $xxx. When do you want me to start?*&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13787" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4605" RevisionGUID="740ab97d-75f6-4bc0-ac3f-06fb0a701aac" CreationDate="2016-06-16T18:59:30.507" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="cleaned up a bit and clarified from the comments" Text="I'm doing an software for a client and the project had a delay of about a week. &#xD;&#xA;I warned the client about the delay (that happens because i made a course and he knew about it). But now he wants to meet me for a day (whole) for us to sit and work in person. He says that he wants me and his design team to work together and our agreement was only for programming, not for design (he would provide the flow and images). He said that if that meeting does not happen he will hire some other company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The agreement is per-project. He wants to do some &quot;supervised work&quot; in his words. Do I include this as an extra cost?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13788" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4605" RevisionGUID="740ab97d-75f6-4bc0-ac3f-06fb0a701aac" CreationDate="2016-06-16T18:59:30.507" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="cleaned up a bit and clarified from the comments" Text="Should I charge the client for long meetings in person when he pays me on a per-project basis?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13789" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4608" RevisionGUID="2d098f09-57e9-49bb-973b-734a84fa5dcd" CreationDate="2016-06-17T04:02:04.343" UserId="5936" Text="I am in a situation: I applied for iOS developer, but then the employee sent me an email says: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Thanks for apply for PHP position. Do you have time  for an&#xD;&#xA;&gt; interview...blah.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I response in this situation? Are they testing me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13790" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4608" RevisionGUID="2d098f09-57e9-49bb-973b-734a84fa5dcd" CreationDate="2016-06-17T04:02:04.343" UserId="5936" Text="Applied for position A, the employee replied for position B? How to deal with the situtation" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13791" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4608" RevisionGUID="2d098f09-57e9-49bb-973b-734a84fa5dcd" CreationDate="2016-06-17T04:02:04.343" UserId="5936" Text="|contracts|communication|interview|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13792" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4609" RevisionGUID="ea67fc3b-f4a2-4d58-b0e4-2a6f58216d27" CreationDate="2016-06-17T06:41:52.787" UserId="7858" Text="It's probably just a honest mistake - so tell them you applied for the iOS position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You really have no alternative; if you don't tell them, do you plan attempting to successfully handle a PHP interview?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regardless of what happens, they WILL find out that a mistake was made - and it will reflect badly on you not correcting it as soon as possible." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13793" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4610" RevisionGUID="69514c9c-d71a-4024-9f17-1ed364f4bb6e" CreationDate="2016-06-17T12:10:44.197" UserId="11579" Text="&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *He says that he wants me and his design team to work together and our agreement was only for programming, not for design (he would provide&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the flow and images).*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This implies a change of project scope. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he is talking about a single day, then I suggest you consider a separate invoice for your time - apply a discount since some of your time is paid under the existing contract. Present the customer with the quote, explain to him the additional costs help cover your travel time, and your hours of work which were previously flexible are less flexible. Perhaps not charge first time, but explain to him that any other onsite visits will be chargable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working with customers, like any relationship, can be tricky. You don't want them to waste your time, nor do you want to under sell yourself. Consider a rate for offsite work, and consider a rate for onsite work, and share that with the client. Explain that you have expenses to cover just like they do and the flexible working practices (like location/time) help you to offer a cost affordable service. When your working practice becomes less flexible, you have to adjust the cost accordingly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the customer balks and walks, examine your contract and find the exit clause. My contracts stipulate that my contract can be cancelled immediately if the project is cancelled. If your contract is the same, their walk should cost them some money (and cost you the chance of any further work from them for the next year).&#xD;&#xA;Best thing though is to avoid rocking the boat - find compromise - especially if you think there is the possibility of additional work to follow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you talk with the customer - smile - be pleasant - your body language helps just as much as the words you use. Your customer did not wake up one morning deciding to make your day bad - their requirements changed so work with them to help them deliver the goals and you will profit along the way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, for your next contract, include an hourly rate for onsite visits. Perhaps budget that 20% of your time will be onsite. If/when the customer asks you to be onsite, then go, but advise them that after x number of hours/days onsite, your time becomes chargable. I never say no to a customer - I just become more expensive, it gives them something to think about before they ask me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13794" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4611" RevisionGUID="1fc07d90-30f2-4444-ab50-509678bd8c2e" CreationDate="2016-06-17T18:02:34.590" UserId="708" Text="I'm not sure what &quot;applying&quot; and &quot;interviews&quot; have to do with freelancing.... but....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realize that *most* people in charge of the first round of hiring choices (Human relations officers/HR) have *no idea* what the actual skills for a position are. They are merely reading off of a piece of paper or email. The HR department weeds out the completely undesirable candidates, *then* the interviews involve someone that *knows* the skills you'll need. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd just reply back...&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi X,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I was seeking the position of an iOS developer. I was not applying for a PHP development position. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I would love an opportunity to interview. However, I'd hate to waste your time if I've mistakenly applied for the incorrect position. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm happy to schedule an interview if you are seeking an iOS developer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or something along those lines. Don't interview for a position you aren't qualified for, or you don't even want. Clarify the mistake first. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13795" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4521" RevisionGUID="9c21ef6c-90cb-42fb-84fe-4f1df73a4827" CreationDate="2016-06-17T21:25:26.323" UserId="708" Comment="added 63 characters in body" Text="Most beta tests for software have a non-disclosure agreement which often prohibits even stating one was part of any beta testing. If your agreements permit disclosure of the testing, then merely listing the software titles under beta testing would be sufficient.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't really know how much of a favorable impression it will relay, if any. Agreeing to run software and document problems with it is often *not* a job skill anyone is seeking. At least not for any kind of direct compensation. All software everywhere has beta testers... most often they work for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not like there are tests, requirements, or qualifications to be a beta tester. The *only* requirement is to be willing to document problems with the software. A beta testers proficiency level with the software can range from complete novice to seasoned experienced professional. Simply being a beta tester does *not* offer *any* credibility in most instances. Even if you were a beta tester for well-known, high-end, software, it just means you've used the software... but there's no telling how well you actually know the software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it were me, I'd not bother with any type of formal disclosure. I may casually mention it if the topic were to come up in conversation, but I certainly wouldn't do anything like adding it to a resume, bid, pitch letter, or web site. And yes, I could add such items myself, if I were so inclined." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13800" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4605" RevisionGUID="5a025f3e-da77-4ff0-a5b0-95f77d43d998" CreationDate="2016-06-19T01:21:49.330" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/744339368903581696" />
  <row Id="13801" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4608" RevisionGUID="1b81f46d-e134-4fa9-93f5-ff1e38174eaf" CreationDate="2016-06-19T03:22:22.297" UserId="5936" Comment="edited body" Text="I am in a situation: I applied for iOS developer, but then the employer sent me an email says: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Thanks for apply for PHP position. Do you have time  for an&#xD;&#xA;&gt; interview...blah.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I response in this situation? Are they testing me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13802" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4613" RevisionGUID="4e24b731-0e91-411b-b54a-2bef68f8cf6a" CreationDate="2016-06-19T04:20:32.460" UserId="9835" Text="I agree with @halfer's comment about this question being broad and may not be up to community guidelines but I think this is a question worth having an answer to that can be helpful for all industries.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Know your work**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're being hired because you're the specialist/expert in your field, not them. 9 times out of 10, then client has no idea what they really want or the scope of what it will take for you to complete a certain task. If during the interview you're asked &quot;How much would you charge for x&quot; you need to at least be able to give a ballpark answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Based on previous work I can estimate this will take x time and my hourly rate is y/and I would charge z for the project&quot; but don't set this in stone. You should get a detailed list of what the client expects - no two projects are the same. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Feature A is a complex task that will add an additional X to the cost&quot;. This is particularly important for software. Based on what the client wants you can research how difficult getting results will be and the time commitment it takes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no reason there should be a &quot;general checklist&quot; for how to do your job, if you need one then you're not ready to freelance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To conclude, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're the expert and you need to be ontop of your work. You should have a general idea about how difficult tasks are and the time commitment they can take. Use this knowledge to give a ballpark estimate and then do research in order to give a hard cost estimate **AND** time estimate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS: if it will take 3 months to complete, tell them it will take 4. This way if things take more time you're safe and if things go according to plan you'll be done a month early. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13804" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4594" RevisionGUID="0b6e755a-0164-432d-a71c-7550f7e14559" CreationDate="2016-06-19T07:21:49.257" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/744429965383446528" />
  <row Id="13805" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4614" RevisionGUID="8e489bc8-47b9-40e1-9c79-2502d3c1256a" CreationDate="2016-06-19T09:28:50.557" UserId="4561" Text="Will this &quot;supervised work&quot; slow you down so that you're having to put more hours into the project than anticipated when you gave him the project price?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, if this is design and your part of the project does not include design, then this is out of scope.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would say something like &quot;That sounds great.  But let me get you a quote for this change order.  I never want a client to be surprised when the invoice arrives.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he says &quot;This is not a change! It's part of the project!&quot; say: &quot;Our agreement is for programming only so I didn't include my daily on-site rate or travel expenses in the quote.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The thing is, it sounds like this client is nervous that you are not up to the task.  So ask yourself how much do you want/need this particular client/project?  If this could become a great long term client, I would try to make him happy.  Maybe say &quot;I can do this one time but for future meetings, once I begin a project, my on site fee is ___ per day.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have found that clients like this often turn out to be more trouble than they are worth.  If he expects you to spend a whole day at his office without extra compensation, he is probably going to become a huge pain if you humor him.  You might be best off telling him &quot;It will cost $X for me to come on site&quot; and if he says &quot;Then I'll find someone else.&quot;  Say &quot;I'm sorry to hear that.  If things don't work out, please contact me.&quot; and just walk away.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, do you have a contract with him?  Can he just &quot;decide to go with someone else&quot; at this point?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't have a contract, these are all things to think about for your next project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clearly&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- detailed scope of project Fee for meetings/on-site visits (daily rateor minimum billing per visit since you can't go see other clients if they booked you and you don't know how long it will last.)   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Cancellation fee if they decide to go with someone else after hiring you&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Travel expenses if they want you to come on site (mileage, parking, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Get a deposit before beginning project (so they will think twice before canceling on you at the last minute)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13806" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4615" RevisionGUID="386a3046-4d92-4dd1-b9bd-ad4f374e7fce" CreationDate="2016-06-19T12:33:11.080" UserId="514" Text="* As early as you can, let the client know that you're unable to work for a while and what impact you expect it to have on the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* If you know a colleague you are comfortable to recommend to work in your stead, who you've already contacted to find out their availability and willingness to step in, also offer to your client the option to have the colleague take over the project (entirely, or for the duration of your downtime).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes bad stuff happens. Most clients will appreciate your giving them an early heads-up and the fact that you've considered options for them. Maybe they can afford to wait and maybe they can't will need to hire your colleague or someone else they know. But they will appreciate and remember your professional approach to handling the changes." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13807" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3524" RevisionGUID="a22f6dd2-97ef-4fe3-a332-3a57e22816e7" CreationDate="2016-06-19T15:10:57.677" UserId="8420" Comment="edited body" Text="Getting hired on Upwork is easy and hard at the same time. Most of the freelancers have everything perfect from the 100% profiles, good in their field (Skills are there) etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what I have come across, most freelancers either have no portfolio/ samples to back their cover letter, clients are looking for freelancers with work history and or the competition out there is better than you are. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend writing cover letters with your client in mind / their job as the priority. Do not write too much about yourself but try and convince the client how your skills will make their project a success.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Feel free to see some more reasons as to why you are not getting hired and how to improve your chances on a blogpost from my blog. http://www.freelancerinsights.com/reasons-why-you-are-not-getting-hired-on-upwork/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13808" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4616" RevisionGUID="611bad16-ec37-491e-8409-00e03f4f3776" CreationDate="2016-06-19T17:25:34.553" UserId="9835" Text="I'm going to assume that you're asking because you're new to either Upwork or freelancing altogether. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are many reasons as to why you might not be hired often. Personally, I used to get hired on 90% of jobs I applied for. Now I don't use Upwork too often as I personally feel as though the quality of freelancers and clients has dropped significantly. I digress. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're competing with other freelancers and you need to prove that you're better than the other options and are affordable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Rates matter&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the average project bid (let's just say it's a fixed-price job) is $500 and you come in with a bid of $1,500 the client likely won't look at your profile you're too expensive (caveat is what the client sets as their budget). If you come in with a bid of $100 then common sense says this may not be a quality freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. How you carry yourself matters&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Issue number one is you addressing the client as 'freelancer'. If I saw this, instant reject. This shows you didn't proof read your bid and if you're not willing to put in that much effort, why would you put in more for my project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You only talk about yourself. You need to tell me how you're going to help ME. Yes, you know HTML &amp; CSS but so does every other freelancer that I'm going to give the time of day to. How are you going to help me and provide a better service to me than the other freelancers'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your selling point should come after you list your skill set but before you call an action. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Please check the tests that I have passed related to Web Design with the high score of (top 30%).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why should I check your profile? There's a dozen other freelancer's who have told me how they can make my project a success and you want me to go out of my way. Unless I'm already interested in you - I'm not looking at your profile. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is some poor English here which is understandable if it's not your native tongue but spending a few bucks on a proofreader or running it through [Grammarly][1] can't hurt. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I have also listed my most expensive and tough projects on portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is poorly framed. Frankly, no client cares what the most expensive project you've done is. You can talk about complex projects due to scale or difficult features you've implemented. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I believe my skills would be perfect for your project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What skills? Yes, you listed off that you know HTML, CSS, JS, etc but there's no indication on every project that the client knows what these are. I want to know that my website will look original, that it will be mobile-responsive, etc. I don't know the benefit of you knowing JS, PHP, .NET, SQL, etc. I just know that I need a website. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I hope you would find Quality in my work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I shouldn't need to find quality in your work. It should be apparent. However, this could be a language barrier thing. A better phrasing is &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;You can see some of my quality work below&quot; - proceed to list of projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Here are my Few projects&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;(PSD TO Bootstrap): ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;(PSD TO WORDPRESS): ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;(WORDPRESS): ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not too much insight here, which is fine, but what you put here is very important. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure that you're showcasing sites (link) as well as explaining what you did for this project. What amazing feat did you accomplish? Think outside of development as well. Did a site you built increase onsite conversions by 50%? Include that - if it's true. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Was the website horribly outdated and you updated it? Include a link to the [archive of the site][2] before you worked on it and after. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's a good general format for bids and I suggest you do some A/B testing on different formats and content. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Greeting&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; - Brief introduction &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;   - Core skills&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   - Experience &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;   - Selling point (&quot;I have a masters in x&quot;, &quot;I've worked on similar projects before&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Skills you have that are relevant to the project &amp; that may be additionally useful (project calls for a website redesign and you have content writing skills? Mention it.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - How you're going to help the client. This is the most important part. How will you complete all the requests the client has. How are you going to do a better job than everyone else? What is your game plan?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Sales pitch. This is where you mention the tests you've passed, ask the client to view your profile, LinkedIn, etc. As well as elaborating on what makes you special. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Projects. This is where you list, in detail, the projects you've worked on and what feats you overcame to complete these projects. The more relevant they are to the project you're bidding on, the better. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, please create your own method and test what works for you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://app.grammarly.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://archive.org/web/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13809" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4617" RevisionGUID="f6a633a9-6263-4682-a359-193e21b7b41c" CreationDate="2016-06-19T18:37:20.593" UserId="156" Text="By default, Guidepoint Global appears to utilise a per-minute based billing, but does allow the consultant to round up consultations on a 5-minute basis.  There are no minimums on the platform.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, as a special case, they do let you set up your profile for a 1-hour-based billing, although that does appear to require a manual pre-approval, and might also limit your consulting opportunities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, as far as the rates are concerned, it appears that it's mostly used by the medical professionals (partly owing to their origin as pharma-investment consulting), for whom 15-minute-based interruptions are more of a norm, and thus, it appears that as a Software Engineer consultant, getting our industry's standard of 4&amp;times; the regular hourly rate, together with the hourly-based billing, is not an accepted a practice at Guidepoint.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It appears that most sources suggest that the hourly rates the consultants get from the platform is 200&amp;mdash;400 USD / hour (billed in 5-minute increments, with no minimum, and most consultations being under an hour), which does seem to be on the lower end of the Software Engineer consultants, which ordinarily charge 100&amp;mdash;200 USD/hour with a 4-hour minimum." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13810" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4618" RevisionGUID="77274ef1-cc83-4beb-a565-5f0f660e00f0" CreationDate="2016-06-19T19:42:11.977" UserId="12781" Text="Hi I have been trying to seek for a specific answer, I hope anyone can help.I am a Filipino Citizen and will visit in Australia this September 2016-April 2017 for the 2nd time. My boyfriend will sponsor me. I just got hired as a virtual assistant,my job is only email response!My clients are Australian but Singapore based. My payment is sent to my Philippines bank account in Philippines currency.During the 6 months I will be in Australia my salary will be sent my Philippines account. I wont even bring my bank card with me when I travel. Can I still work? Please help.I will migrate to Australia in September 2017.Thank you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13811" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4618" RevisionGUID="77274ef1-cc83-4beb-a565-5f0f660e00f0" CreationDate="2016-06-19T19:42:11.977" UserId="12781" Text="Freelance on tourist visa in Australia" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13812" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4618" RevisionGUID="77274ef1-cc83-4beb-a565-5f0f660e00f0" CreationDate="2016-06-19T19:42:11.977" UserId="12781" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13813" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4619" RevisionGUID="34d0f83b-13f5-4e8c-9436-0dbd73fcbff6" CreationDate="2016-06-19T21:19:00.067" UserId="12783" Text="I am a 20 year old Computer Science student from the UK who has decided to do some freelance web development for a local company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A description of the system would be an online website and reservation system. The intention is for the user to browse their online store and reserve items for collection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The system has been developed using Java complimented by the Spring Framework and MySQL database. &#xD;&#xA;The content of the site is split across 7 pages that are available to the public. In addition to an Admin Panel/CMS which i've implemented so that the business can manage the site by them selves. This admin section consists of another 6-7 pages.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have worked around 6-8 hours a day for a duration of about 4-6 weeks.&#xD;&#xA;I calculated a price of around £900-1100 for the hours that i have worked at minimum wage around £5/hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to know if this is a reasonable price for a system such as this one, or for the work that I have put into it. As this is my first, I am unsure whether this is over or under charging. Thanks  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13814" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4619" RevisionGUID="34d0f83b-13f5-4e8c-9436-0dbd73fcbff6" CreationDate="2016-06-19T21:19:00.067" UserId="12783" Text="Struggling to come up with an estimation of the value of my work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13815" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4619" RevisionGUID="34d0f83b-13f5-4e8c-9436-0dbd73fcbff6" CreationDate="2016-06-19T21:19:00.067" UserId="12783" Text="|price|estimation|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13816" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4605" RevisionGUID="051575c0-21a8-4edf-8062-0f199e710163" CreationDate="2016-06-19T23:16:38.270" UserId="9835" Comment="Grammar changes &amp; removed programmer tag as this situation can effect any industry" Text="I'm developing a software for a client and the project had a delay of about a week. &#xD;&#xA;I warned the client about the delay (this happened because I made a course and he knew about it). But now he wants to meet me for an entire day for us to sit and work in person. He says that he wants me and his design team to work together and our agreement was only for programming, not for design (he would provide the flow and images). He said that if that meeting does not happen he will hire some other company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The agreement is per-project. He wants to do some &quot;supervised work&quot; in his words. Do I include this as an extra cost?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13817" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4605" RevisionGUID="051575c0-21a8-4edf-8062-0f199e710163" CreationDate="2016-06-19T23:16:38.270" UserId="9835" Comment="Grammar changes &amp; removed programmer tag as this situation can effect any industry" Text="|difficult-client|communication|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13818" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4605" RevisionGUID="051575c0-21a8-4edf-8062-0f199e710163" CreationDate="2016-06-19T23:16:38.270" Comment="Proposed by 9835 approved by 12758 edit id of 464" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13819" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4620" RevisionGUID="a14e692a-cda7-4607-be48-d10f1fa22d86" CreationDate="2016-06-19T23:20:00.203" UserId="9835" Text="That is selling yourself short, big time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer you get to decide what your rate is and if you're only worth minimum wage then you're not worth any company as a dev. That sounds a lot more rude than it is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're saying &quot;My work is worth £5/hour&quot; (about $7.25/hour). The average Jr Dev in London makes around [£22,451/year][1] if that's 40 hours a week that's about £431.75 a week or £10.79/hour. Keep in mind that's for Jr dev's and that's not solid research but it is comparable to averages I know of here in the states. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're getting paid less than half of what a Jr dev employee would make.Personally, my dev skills are about what a Jr dev is worth (my focus is SEO) and I successfully charge $30/hour (about £20.71). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me, it seems like they're looking to save costs and pay you less than what you're really worth. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are the key take away points&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Minimum wage is not what freelancers should me making. Freelancers have special skills that not everyone can do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - You need to do research. Find other freelancers and see what they charge compared to your skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Consider what the project is worth to you. Are you doing work that's worth more than £5/hour? I know you might not yet be clear on this so, research. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.payscale.com/research/UK/Job=Junior_Software_Engineer/Salary" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13820" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4620" RevisionGUID="b4001247-c31c-4e9d-a43b-ba1829eebff4" CreationDate="2016-06-19T23:27:48.297" UserId="9835" Comment="added 21 characters in body" Text="That is selling yourself short, big time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer you get to decide what your rate is and if you're only worth minimum wage then you're not worth any company as a dev. That sounds a lot more rude than it is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're saying &quot;My work is worth £5/hour&quot; (about $7.25/hour). The average Jr Dev in London makes around [£22,451/year][1] if that's 40 hours a week that's about £431.75 a week or £10.79/hour. Keep in mind that's for Jr dev's and that's not solid research but it is comparable to averages I know of here in the states. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're getting paid less than half of what a Jr dev employee would make.Personally, my dev skills are about what a Jr dev is worth (my focus is SEO) and I successfully charge $30/hour (about £20.71) for development work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me, it seems like they're looking to save costs and pay you less than what you're really worth. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are the key take away points&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Minimum wage is not what freelancers should me making. Freelancers have special skills that not everyone can do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - You need to do research. Find other freelancers and see what they charge compared to your skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Consider what the project is worth to you. Are you doing work that's worth more than £5/hour? I know you might not yet be clear on this so, research. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.payscale.com/research/UK/Job=Junior_Software_Engineer/Salary" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13821" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4621" RevisionGUID="7cb89e16-8573-4d62-9eb1-116b02ebd2e8" CreationDate="2016-06-20T04:11:09.247" UserId="708" Text="I'm in teh US.. so I thin in US wage terms...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;£5/hr is roughly $7.30/hr US &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By **law** in the US, no one can be paid less than $7.25/hr. Most states actually set the minimum wage higher. For example in my state it's over $9/hr **minimum**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're basically working for bare, minimum wage. If you feel what you are doing *anyone* off the street could do with absolutely *zero* special education or knowledge, then okay. And I mean *anyone*. If they could poke their head out the door and grab the next person walking by to do your job... then *maybe* its a minimum wage job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you think your work requires **any** special skills or knowledge, you are **greatly** under paying yourself." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13822" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4621" RevisionGUID="4e79ab83-412f-4ad8-8bcc-c8aea70c14af" CreationDate="2016-06-20T04:16:27.977" UserId="708" Comment="added 366 characters in body" Text="I'm in the US.. so I thin in US wage terms...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;£5/hr is roughly $7.30/hr US &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By **law** in the US, no one can be paid less than $7.25/hr. Most states actually set the minimum wage higher. For example in my state it's over $9/hr **minimum**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're basically working for bare, minimum wage. If you feel what you are doing *anyone* off the street could do with absolutely *zero* special education or knowledge, then okay. And I mean *anyone*. If they could poke their head out the door and grab the next person walking by to do your job... then *maybe* its a minimum wage job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you think your work requires **any** special skills or knowledge, you are **greatly** under paying yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1851/from-agency-to-freelance-what-should-i-charge&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1673/how-to-determine-what-to-charge-for-a-first-time-student-applying-to-be-a-gamifi&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3685/what-to-charge-for-freelance-project-for-fiances-company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13823" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4621" RevisionGUID="4ee9a6bd-a9e4-420d-952f-606b39ca2940" CreationDate="2016-06-20T04:28:22.310" UserId="708" Comment="added 629 characters in body" Text="I'm in the US.. so I thin in US wage terms...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;£5/hr is roughly $7.30/hr US &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By **law** in the US, no one can be paid less than $7.25/hr. Most states actually set the minimum wage higher. For example in my state it's over $9/hr **minimum**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're basically working for bare, minimum wage. If you feel what you are doing *anyone* off the street could do with absolutely *zero* special education or knowledge, then okay. And I mean *anyone*. If they could poke their head out the door and grab the next person walking by to do your job... then *maybe* its a minimum wage job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember an *employer* also generally covers things like paid leave/sick days and holidays, electric bills, price of equipment and it's maintenance... *none* of that is covered if you are a freelancer. You must cover of all that as well (In the US it would include healthcare, but I know that's not an issue in the UK). So, even IF you feel the *work* is only worth minimum wage.. what about all teh additional expenses you have that are required in order fro you to do *any* work, let alone *this* client's work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you think your work requires **any** special skills or knowledge, you are **greatly** under paying yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1851/from-agency-to-freelance-what-should-i-charge&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1673/how-to-determine-what-to-charge-for-a-first-time-student-applying-to-be-a-gamifi&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3685/what-to-charge-for-freelance-project-for-fiances-company&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2383/as-a-freelancer-how-do-you-quote-charge-for-a-project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13824" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4621" RevisionGUID="b5bb8eaa-3a38-469d-82e3-36a99bd85ca8" CreationDate="2016-06-20T05:02:52.270" UserId="708" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="I'm in the US.. so I think in US wage terms...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;£5/hr is roughly $7.30/hr US &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By **law** in the US, no one can be paid less than $7.25/hr. Most states actually set the minimum wage higher. For example in my state it's over $9/hr **minimum**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're basically working for bare, minimum wage. If you feel what you are doing *anyone* off the street could do with absolutely *zero* special education or knowledge, then okay. And I mean *anyone*. If they could poke their head out the door and grab the next person walking by to do your job... then *maybe* its a minimum wage job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember an *employer* also generally covers things like paid leave/sick days and holidays, electric bills, price of equipment and it's maintenance... *none* of that is covered if you are a freelancer. You must cover of all that as well (In the US it would include healthcare, but I know that's not an issue in the UK). So, even IF you feel the *work* is only worth minimum wage.. what about all the additional expenses you have that are required in order for you to do *any* work, let alone *this* client's work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you think your work requires **any** special skills or knowledge, you are **greatly** under paying yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1851/from-agency-to-freelance-what-should-i-charge&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1673/how-to-determine-what-to-charge-for-a-first-time-student-applying-to-be-a-gamifi&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3685/what-to-charge-for-freelance-project-for-fiances-company&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2383/as-a-freelancer-how-do-you-quote-charge-for-a-project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13826" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4623" RevisionGUID="e2426ba8-7202-425d-99d2-d0f1bdad51de" CreationDate="2016-06-20T12:59:40.593" UserId="12794" Text="I'm currently working as a freelancer and came across an interesting job advertisement that perfectly matched my profile. Since I do not intend to quit as a freelancer, one could argue that it makes no sense to &quot;apply&quot;. However, I came to think that I may be worth a try to offer them my services as a freelancer, mainly because they may not be aware that there are freelancers with the expected skills available and did not even evaluate the option to hire one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, you can make up many reasons, why this will not work in general or why it might work in some cases, depending on the industry, the job market situation etc. That's not what I'm interested in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead, my questions are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Is the approach considered unprofessional and will it ruin my reputation (e.g. like staffing agencies spamming LinkedIn)? Will I be (mis)judged to be needy, arrogant, rude or even aggressive?&#xD;&#xA; - Is there anyone who uses this approach as part of their regular &quot;sales stragety&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13827" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4623" RevisionGUID="e2426ba8-7202-425d-99d2-d0f1bdad51de" CreationDate="2016-06-20T12:59:40.593" UserId="12794" Text="Is it advisable to contact a company and offer your services based on job advertisements?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13828" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4623" RevisionGUID="e2426ba8-7202-425d-99d2-d0f1bdad51de" CreationDate="2016-06-20T12:59:40.593" UserId="12794" Text="|attracting-clients|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13830" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4624" RevisionGUID="6281275a-eb8b-4ec0-8c49-44d71a07267f" CreationDate="2016-06-20T15:07:02.273" UserId="9835" Text="I've used a similar strategy and have found success. On my LinkedIn I note that I am a freelancer and it's clear that I have been so for quite a few years. I get contacted by at least 2-3 recruiters (either internal or external) a month offering me an in-house full-time W2 position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I make sure to always follow-up and note an interest (if there is one) in the position but that I am a freelancer and intend to stay as such. I then give a sales pitch (brief) about my skills &amp; experience. I inform them that if they don't want to hire a freelancer for this position I understand but that I also offer consultation services so that I can teach their team my skills and industry insights. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consulting is usually when they're interested in me because I can train 5-10 people at once to do what I do so their whole team is worth more than they were before. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the industry really plays a major role here as I work for 2 but it only works with 1. I'll explain:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I get contacted it's usually for SEO work. Good SEO's usually freelance or work for a marketing agency. It's recommended you [don't hire an in-house SEO][1] for your company or bring someone in and have them learn SEO to work on your companies website. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, for development work, it's a different story. Many companies have their own in-house dev team (they take on other roles as well if there's not a ton of work to do). Rarely will I hear back from a recruiter if they're looking for a dev employee and I mention I'll work as a freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, you're talking about responding to a job ad itself. If you 'apply' to this job via a form then I think your chances are about 1% as jobs who get a lot of applicants only skim an application for certain things and don't really read it. &quot;Will work as a freelancer&quot; tossing it, not what we're looking for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recommend email, or better yet, calling the company and talking with someone directly. **avoid HR at ALL costs** these people have no idea how to hire people for a position in a department other than their own and are a major roadblock for anyone trying to get a job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Look the company up on LinkedIn and find the department manager/team leader. They may not be able to say yes or no for hiring a freelancer but they're more likely to give you the time of day than HR, company recruiters, or an operations manager. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Is the approach considered unprofessional and will it ruin my reputation (e.g. like staffing agencies spamming LinkedIn)? Will I be (mis)judged to be needy, arrogant, rude or even aggressive?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If anything, it shows you have dedication, and you have a real interest in the position. You're applying for a job because you believe you can complete it and you can do a better job than others. Now's the time to prove why you're better. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Is there anyone who uses this approach as part of their regular &quot;sales strategy&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wouldn't make this a 'regular' thing. I say you'll get 7 no's for every 1 consideration but your outreach strategy shouldn't focus on this tactic. There are people looking for freelancers specifically. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/12-reasons-might-never-ever-want-hire-house-seo/141837/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13835" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4590" RevisionGUID="69cf2068-7e99-47fe-9122-d58313e52b27" CreationDate="2016-06-20T23:03:18.020" UserId="9835" Comment="added comment to answer " Text="I would suggest asking for a contract to be made, or you make one and ask it to be signed. The purpose of a contract is to protect both parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can simply state (the contract should be more in depth than the following &quot;In the unforeseen event that there is a breach in data I cannot be held responsible for any HIPPA violations&quot;. I would include that you are developing it to be as secure as you can make it within your ability and time allowance and that once you hand the product off you are not responsible for any misuse of the product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I used to work for a pharmacy and HIPPA violations are VERY serious in the US and am honestly surprised that they did not make you sign a non-disclosure agreement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, within this contract you:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Should not be responsible for the product once it's no longer in your hands&#xD;&#xA; - Should not be responsible for misuse of the product by the company, it's clients or individuals with malicious intent&#xD;&#xA; - Should not be sued by a client of the company due to any reason about the product and it's use. If a client of the company wants to create a suit, they should go after the company who is the owner of the product. &#xD;&#xA; - Should have an agreement as to how you can reflect the work you've done on this project. Can you have your name on the product as the developer? Can you put this project on your resume? Can you reuse the code in the future? Can you develop a similar product for a competing company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The company:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Should receive the developed product that is as secure as your ability allows. &#xD;&#xA; - Should take full responsibility as to how the product is used internally and externally. &#xD;&#xA; - Should outline situations in which you may be requested to work on this project again. Is this a one and done deal? Do they expect you to update the product for them in the future? If a new developer can't understand your code can they talk to you? If the product does get hacked are you required to **try** to patch the security hole?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would also talk to the company about consulting with a lawyer to create the contract and the company should be the one to pay for the lawyer if that route is taken.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;EDIT 1:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Based** on a comment by @cdkMoose&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also look into getting professional liability insurance. You can not entirely contract away your responsibility. If your work fails in some way that should have been caught and creates a security hole you could still be responsible. Contracts won't protect you from something that could be considered professionally negligent." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13840" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4628" RevisionGUID="1bf4567f-990c-4090-bc97-c4080d010383" CreationDate="2016-06-21T13:14:01.943" UserId="9994" Text="Yes, the tests are very helpful, especially when you are new to the portal and don't have any portfolio, reviews or rating on your profile. In this scenario the Tests act as a proof of your skills and education and helps client to gain confidence in your skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In-fact for established profiles also clients consider this as a factor, including other factors like your Portfolio, Rating, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, only publish your scores if you are among the top candidates, average scope or tests in which you failed can create a bad impression." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13841" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4629" RevisionGUID="f040294e-82a4-41d9-8f0a-de67b2213192" CreationDate="2016-06-21T13:14:14.180" UserId="517" Text="I have been in situations like this on several occasions and I would like to hear how the community behaves in such situations. Also if you have handled this situation via the contract, I would appreciate you show me its excerpt that handles this legally. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The situation is like this: There is Client A and Client B, each with his own project. Client A came first and you estimate project will last 1 month (work + buffer) max. You tell client B you will take his project in 1 month (obviously everyone is in rush and you have to take project in work asap). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, Client A is slow on replying to your messages or other member of his company slowly resolves issues that are preventing you to work on the project and A's project took 2 months, instead of 1. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a consequence, you cannot start B's project full time as you have to finish A's project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you handle situations like this? When it's 100% not your fault, but client is slow on taking actions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you start B's project after 1 month? If yes, what do you say to A?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you delay B's project and give him some discount, but also issue penalties invoice to client A? It's his fault that you are losing money in B's project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you resolve situation like this without impacting B's project (who should not suffer for A's actions), but also finalize A's project in a way that he realizes his actions caused delays and without A breaking business relations with you?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13842" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4629" RevisionGUID="f040294e-82a4-41d9-8f0a-de67b2213192" CreationDate="2016-06-21T13:14:14.180" UserId="517" Text="Can we charge &quot;being late&quot; penalties to the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13843" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4629" RevisionGUID="f040294e-82a4-41d9-8f0a-de67b2213192" CreationDate="2016-06-21T13:14:14.180" UserId="517" Text="|difficult-client|penalties|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13844" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4623" RevisionGUID="565a68db-fbba-4d65-98b3-2270842b6ba0" CreationDate="2016-06-21T13:33:43.897" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/745248335355846656" />
  <row Id="13845" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4630" RevisionGUID="b420280d-fe8a-4262-a249-6bee6532869d" CreationDate="2016-06-21T13:46:28.053" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="I solve this by never giving 100% of my time to one client at once. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Say, for example, client A comes to me with a project. I quote that project on how long it'll take at 10/20 hours a week (25-50% of my time). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then, when client B comes along, I allocate to them another proportion of my time (25-50%, depending on when they want it done), and start on it immediately.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No client *ever* gets more than 50%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the moment, I have multiple clients ranging from 5-50%. In total, they add up to 125% (or 50 hours). However, I almost never work that much because very often clients will be slow. I usually find I work 40 hours a week on average this way. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another advantage is that my rate goes up as I get busier. Hours 0-5% are much cheaper than hours 100-125%.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13846" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4631" RevisionGUID="e0b22de1-5bad-407e-a837-008ba959f81b" CreationDate="2016-06-21T13:47:55.900" UserId="12758" Text="It seems that **Client A** can wait. He is not in a hurry for the project to be completed. &#xD;&#xA;It means two things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - He is not envolved with the project or its not a project that will impact his business enough to be worried about it&#xD;&#xA; - He is not aware of what his employee (responsible to solve the issues) is doing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this afirmatives are true, so its pretty difficult to change. Even if you could show to your client what his employee is doing, there are clients that dont want to see the true.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;You will have to explain to **Client A** that you have other other projects to work and if this project takes too long you will have to change the project scope. This means, start to charge for extra hours worked on the project including (emails, time to fixes, etc..).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my experience, when a client is not envolved with project he is not a good client. Sometimes this brings more trouble than benefits.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13847" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4631" RevisionGUID="ac15edbd-32ab-495a-a5fc-ce3ae460f161" CreationDate="2016-06-21T14:42:04.213" UserId="75" Comment="added 10 characters in body" Text="It seems that **Client A** can wait. He is not in a hurry for the project to be completed. &#xD;&#xA;It means two things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - He is not envolved with the project or it's not a project that will impact his business enough to be worried about it&#xD;&#xA; - He is not aware of what his employee (responsible for solving the issues) is doing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If these affirmatives are true, it's pretty difficult to change. Even if you could show to your client what his employee is doing, there are clients that don't want to see the truth.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;You will have to explain to **Client A** that you have other other projects to work and if this project takes too long you will have to change the project scope. This means, start to charge for extra hours worked on the project including (emails, time to fixes, etc..).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my experience, when a client is not involved with the project he is not a good client. Sometimes this brings more trouble than benefits.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13848" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4632" RevisionGUID="5eef6332-70ae-42bc-8950-7a5ec82790b8" CreationDate="2016-06-21T14:58:10.973" UserId="12677" Text="What does your contract say?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't already have one then you need to get this into a contract, all written down, black and white. Decide what each party's responsibilities are and have penalties if they are not meeting their end of the bargain (and obviously there may well be penalties the other way round too).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's contracts that will keep both parties safe if anything like this happens, they should be aware that delays on their part are going to have a negative impact on their delivery date. You're a business, so are they, they'll understand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Watch Mike Monterio's talk below, he discusses how his Design business has had to deal with various scenarios and what is now built into their contracts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVkLVRt6c1U" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13849" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4633" RevisionGUID="46922d5d-c6db-429e-a490-fc77e7c525b0" CreationDate="2016-06-21T16:17:10.333" UserId="708" Text="To be honest, I work on everything simultaneously. But that may just be because my work allows that far more than yours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If Client A is slow, I start Client B's project when scheduled, then I'll just split my time. When Client A gets back to me, I'll spend a day or so updating their project and a day or two on Client B's project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I essentially get things alternating. So Client A is proofing while I work on Client Bs project. Client B is proofing while I work on Client As project. I generally have at least 4 things juggling at the same time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And I plan on all this for delivery dates. You're right that *all* clients *claim* their project is urgent. But if you give them a delivery date, 95% of them accept the fact that .. okay, that's the best that's going to happen. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't schedule my time wall-to-wall. If I think a project will take 1 month, I plan on at least 6 weeks. And I *always* assume a client will take a minimum of *several days* to get back to me at best.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also give soft deadlines when sending proofs.... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;Hi ClientX, Here's a proof for [project]. Please get back to me with any revisions or corrections as soon as feasible. I'd love to be able to move forward on this by [date I want proof back] in order to meet the scheduled delivery date.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way, if the client *doesn't* get back to me by the date I've given, there's a written (email) record of it. So, if the client later complains about delays.... well I've got ammo.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my work, there's no such thing as a &quot;urgent project&quot; that takes more than a few days to complete. Its not a problem for me to occasionally shove everything else aside for a couple days to accommodate an &quot;urgent&quot; project -- but again, may be more to to with the nature of my work compared to yours. And I'm not always opposed to scheduling a 60-80hr week if there's *that* much work to be had (feast or famine). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13850" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4633" RevisionGUID="529d9228-fc74-4c20-add9-c4b4512e1590" CreationDate="2016-06-21T16:23:47.007" UserId="708" Comment="added 358 characters in body" Text="To be honest, I work on everything simultaneously. But that may just be because my work allows that far more than yours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If Client A is slow, I start Client B's project when scheduled, then I'll just split my time. When Client A gets back to me, I'll spend a day or so updating their project and a day or two on Client B's project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I essentially get things alternating. So Client A is proofing while I work on Client Bs project. Client B is proofing while I work on Client As project. I generally have at least 4 things juggling at the same time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And I plan on all this for delivery dates. You're right that *all* clients *claim* their project is urgent. But if you give them a delivery date, 95% of them accept the fact that .. okay, that's the best that's going to happen. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't schedule my time wall-to-wall. If I think a project will take 1 month, I plan on at least 6 weeks. And I *always* assume a client will take a minimum of *several days* to get back to me at best.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also give soft deadlines when sending proofs.... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;Hi ClientX, Here's a proof for [project]. Please get back to me with any revisions or corrections as soon as feasible. I'd love to be able to move forward on this by [date I want proof back] in order to meet the scheduled delivery date.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way, if the client *doesn't* get back to me by the date I've given, there's a written (email) record of it. So, if the client later complains about delays.... well I've got ammo.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my work, there's no such thing as a &quot;urgent project&quot; that takes more than a few days to complete. Its not a problem for me to occasionally shove everything else aside for a couple days to accommodate an &quot;urgent&quot; project -- but again, may be more to to with the nature of my work compared to yours. And I'm not always opposed to scheduling a 60-80hr week if there's *that* much work to be had (feast or famine). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To answer the question specifically... **no** I do not penalize clients for slow responses. I'm here to cater to them.. not the other way around. They can take all the time in the world since it's *their* project and they are paying me. It's up to me to work around their schedule. They aren't expected to work around mine (other than common courtesy)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13851" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4634" RevisionGUID="17fe3d88-8c25-4319-ac04-3ca9fa07dd67" CreationDate="2016-06-21T16:31:00.710" UserId="12809" Text="Of course it is possible. You can simply use services like [blockonomics][1] to create invoice using your own bitcoin address. You can HODL the bitcoin received or convert some to fiat using a local exchange. An advantage of bitcoin is you can receive small amounts like 5-10USD which would otherwise require lots of fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.blockonomics.co" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13853" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4635" RevisionGUID="03d8a10d-6291-43e9-a815-d7203697b395" CreationDate="2016-06-21T19:20:02.807" UserId="9835" Text="The tests vary based on industry. I've taken tests for marketing, development, and English skills. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I make sure to take the English tests so potential clients know that when I say I'm native they know it's true. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for other tests, some sites have outdated tests that go against industry best practices or don't realize how the industry works. For example, I do very well on SEO tests because I do onsite, offsite, social media, email, content, and technical SEO work. 75-85% of the SEO's I work with have very little technical knowledge so they would receive poor scores in those areas of a test but still be at the top of their field. There are also people who specialize within a specialty. For example, I work with an SEO who specializes in offsite SEO and she doesn't know much about technical or onsite SEO but she's better than most people I know who do SEO when it comes to offsite work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's the obvious caveat:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The clients don't know what goes into those tests or how up to date they are. They just see a x% or x/X on your profile.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I didn't have any tests but English tests for about 8 months on Upwork and was still successful. After taking tests I did notice that I got interviewed more often because I could say &quot;I'm in the top 10% for X&quot; but I don't think it had any effect on my interview-to-hire ratio. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suggest taking language ones and maybe take a test a month to see if it impacts your overall success. There's no need to go crazy and spend 12 hours taking tests. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are the value of these tests for freelancers?Next to Nothing. Often out of date or you can tell the person who made the test has never done extensive industry work. The answers for almost all online tests are online already and what's better a test from some website that is a collection of freelancers or a certificate from an online program such as various [Hubspot certificates][1]. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value for the client? If they're new to hiring freelancers or don't know much about your industry then they'll likely find a skill test valuable to some degree. Especially if someone can say &quot;I'm in the top 5%&quot; and no one else can. Though as the client gets more experience being a client they'll notice that even freelancers who have high marks on tests aren't always skilled in the field.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://academy.hubspot.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13856" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4629" RevisionGUID="b58b0cc5-675f-4b0d-8ade-b0a9e4cdc403" CreationDate="2016-06-22T16:45:28.973" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/745658979058130944" />
  <row Id="13857" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4636" RevisionGUID="fd7556c1-6d3c-45cd-b69a-6f0f909929a1" CreationDate="2016-06-23T01:02:39.060" UserId="12842" Text="I am negotiating a software development contract with a client in the UK and I am US-based. I would be working for them part time and they would not be filing a 1099 for me with the IRS.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I still responsible to declare that income as a self employed person, which would then levy me a 15% self employment tax, before all other federal and state taxes?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13858" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4636" RevisionGUID="fd7556c1-6d3c-45cd-b69a-6f0f909929a1" CreationDate="2016-06-23T01:02:39.060" UserId="12842" Text="U.S. self employment tax when working for offshore client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13859" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4636" RevisionGUID="fd7556c1-6d3c-45cd-b69a-6f0f909929a1" CreationDate="2016-06-23T01:02:39.060" UserId="12842" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13860" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4637" RevisionGUID="ef325eb8-6bf1-4560-ba4f-a5ac33e1b09f" CreationDate="2016-06-23T02:58:51.060" UserId="12482" Text="All income that is not from an employer is considered self employment, regardless where or who pays who, as long as it is US currency.&#xA;&#xA;As a sole proprietor you'd report the income, pay income tax, plus self employment taxes and should also pay estimated taxes.&#xA;&#xA;It's not as bad as it sounds.  Online tax software really helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13861" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4638" RevisionGUID="7d93ed78-db82-43a1-b7c8-f70ae4e978bf" CreationDate="2016-06-23T06:11:55.263" UserId="7858" Text="Unless you are an absolute rock star freelancer or the business sector you operate in generally fines late delivery, I would advise against it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working in IT (programming), I suspect that even if fines were stipulated in the contract, actually enforcing them would sour the relationship considerably. In addition, I would expect a lot of frustrating back-and-forth discussion on whether they actually are late or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As others have stated, having more than one simultaneous client is typically the way to deal with this. The only way one can 'discipline' a client who is always late, but expects immediate service when they suddenly re-appear, is to have other clients and professionally inform them that they have to wait their turn, as you explained X weeks ago." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13870" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4641" RevisionGUID="a2c02574-630b-429c-b0b9-45f9eb8e5ac1" CreationDate="2016-06-23T17:35:48.200" UserId="12842" Text="I am in a position where I am negotiating the terms of a contract with a client overseas. They agreed to biweekly invoicing and payment via direct deposit into my account here in the States. However, should they ever refuse to pay me, I would be in the hole for two weeks worth of work or even more should I decide to continue working for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Considering that risk, I asked that they pay me a biweekly retainer/deposit, which can then be either returned to them at the end or used for the last two weeks of the project. They do not feel good about it as they want all service payments to be &quot;in arrears&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am just curious whether this demand is common or not. In my reasoning, it is similar to taking a deposit from a renter in the amount of one month's rent or a deposit a plumber would take to absorb any materials (equivalent to which would be my time spent working on the project).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any suggested middle ground between what I am requesting and their position?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13871" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4641" RevisionGUID="a2c02574-630b-429c-b0b9-45f9eb8e5ac1" CreationDate="2016-06-23T17:35:48.200" UserId="12842" Text="Is it common to demand deposit/retainer to avoid payment disputes?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13872" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4641" RevisionGUID="a2c02574-630b-429c-b0b9-45f9eb8e5ac1" CreationDate="2016-06-23T17:35:48.200" UserId="12842" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13873" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4642" RevisionGUID="8126f966-0f48-45aa-bb9c-db53f9495bd0" CreationDate="2016-06-23T18:56:35.257" UserId="75" Text="First off, good on you for trying to come up with a solution! I'd love to take your approach for many benefits, but the client obviously feels he would lose out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you make a contract or work agreement, both parties need to agree. This is why you must be specific in making the contract/agreement in advance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My suggestion would be to use an Escrow service, and withdraw from there. It costs *the client* money (I wouldn't absorb those costs as the Freelancer!), but it also makes the money feel more secure to both parties - you get money when the client agrees, the client gets money when you agree. Great safety net, but check some other questions out about escrow." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13874" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4643" RevisionGUID="61f6bbdc-6cfb-4c8b-a9fa-195b0ce7c2ca" CreationDate="2016-06-23T20:25:22.823" UserId="9835" Text="It's completely reasonable to want to protect yourself in the event a client 'disappears' or refuses to pay for work completed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's a common practice in some industry's (development &amp; design) to ask for 50% upfront so that time is not spent working without pay. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this case, I would, personally, ask for 25% of the bi-weekly total to be paid upfront and the other 75% to be paid during the normal invoicing period. This could also be 50% of 1 weeks pay paid each week but that makes things a little more complicated in my opinion. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There needs to be a level of trust between a client and contractor but there also needs to be a contract in case there is a breach in that trust. That's what this 25% upfront is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's to keep you protected if you do work for up to 2 weeks without being paid. You deserve to be paid for your work. This 25% protects you in the event a client walks away without paying their balance to you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're trusting the client to pay you the remaining 75% bi-weekly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Contracts often talk about what happens if you tell trade secrets, don't deliver work, use company resource elsewhere, etc, etc. But they rarely protect you. Hence the down payment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't sign anything that protects the other party but not you. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13875" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4644" RevisionGUID="8f22db14-700d-414c-8980-8f523f8e87e6" CreationDate="2016-06-23T21:04:20.707" UserId="708" Text="For many clients I ask for a non-refundable 50% deposit. I just can't be in a position to trust *absolutely everyone* when it comes to my income. However, those are more singular projects. Not ongoing agreements. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In most of my ongoing agreements, there's a balloon payment up front to cover initial configuration/set up, the smaller reoccurring payments. The initial balloon payment is requested as 50% in advance, then the remaining 50% is the first invoice the client receives. And regular invoices will follow. This essentially puts payment slightly ahead of the work. And face it, you'll know if payment is an issue after 3 or 4 invoices so you can slow work to match (with an explanation).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your situation, I would understand the client's position that an ongoing relationship with regular payments is a recipe for *someone* to get the short end of the stick, as it were. Even if that stick arises through no fault on any party. Face it, *they* run the risk of paying you then you disappearing, just as *you* run the risk of working and them disappearing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I'm unclear about is the term &quot;biweekly&quot; -- so 2 payments a week? That seems excessive. Or did you mean &quot;bimonthly&quot; -- 2 payments a *month* (every 2 weeks or so)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you did indeed mean bimonthly, I'd negotiate a half payment in advance. You get one week's pay in advance and they get the final week of work *without* the need for payment. This way you *both* take on 50% of the risk involved in the relationship.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you did in fact mean biweekly, then I'd do the sam and split the first payment... but one or two days seems exceptionally minor." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13876" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4641" RevisionGUID="d34994ea-858d-4a2a-9c01-e797060d9930" CreationDate="2016-06-23T21:06:24.997" UserId="12842" Comment="added 33 characters in body" Text="I am in a position where I am negotiating the terms of a contract with a client overseas. They agreed to biweekly (every two weeks, twice a month) invoicing and payment via direct deposit into my account here in the States. However, should they ever refuse to pay me, I would be in the hole for two weeks worth of work or even more should I decide to continue working for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Considering that risk, I asked that they pay me a biweekly retainer/deposit, which can then be either returned to them at the end or used for the last two weeks of the project. They do not feel good about it as they want all service payments to be &quot;in arrears&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am just curious whether this demand is common or not. In my reasoning, it is similar to taking a deposit from a renter in the amount of one month's rent or a deposit a plumber would take to absorb any materials (equivalent to which would be my time spent working on the project).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any suggested middle ground between what I am requesting and their position?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13877" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4644" RevisionGUID="86fc8ac7-719f-4aa3-b6c8-e2d577865813" CreationDate="2016-06-23T21:08:42.700" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 38 characters in body" Text="For many clients I ask for a non-refundable 50% deposit. I just can't be in a position to trust *absolutely everyone* when it comes to my income. However, those are more singular projects. Not ongoing agreements. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In most of my ongoing agreements, there's a balloon payment up front to cover initial configuration/set up, the smaller reoccurring payments. The initial balloon payment is requested as 50% in advance, then the remaining 50% is the first invoice the client receives. And regular invoices will follow. This essentially puts payment slightly ahead of the work. And face it, you'll know if payment is an issue after 3 or 4 invoices so you can slow work to match (with an explanation).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your situation, I would understand the client's position that an ongoing relationship with regular payments is a recipe for *someone* to get the short end of the stick, as it were. Even if that stick arises through no fault on any party. Face it, *they* run the risk of paying you then you getting &quot;hit by a bus&quot;, just as *you* run the risk of working and they get &quot;hit by a bus&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;To clarify, the term &quot;biweekly&quot; can mean either twice a week or every 2 weeks. I tend to use &quot;bimonthly&quot; when referring to every 2 weeks and I use &quot;biweekly&quot; when referring to twice a week. Essentially I use them as [&quot;bi-the period I want to split&quot;]. So.... I'm going to assume you mean every 2 weeks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I'd negotiate a half payment in advance. You get one week's pay in advance and they get the final week of work *without* the need for payment. This way you *both* take on 50% of the risk involved in the relationship.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13879" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4645" RevisionGUID="2e87d972-47d0-4469-9ea2-d2e7f64e6852" CreationDate="2016-06-23T22:14:33.803" UserId="12852" Text="I've recently started doing some freelance web design work and just finished a complete revamp of a local business website. The previous design was done by another seemingly small scale/self-employed designer, I know this as the previous footer has a &quot;designed by..&quot; linking to his website. The website linked to is a business portfolio for the designer showing off his work and ways to contact him for new work. The problem is he is still linking to the this local business as his work even though it is now my work.&#xD;&#xA;Now surely he is not aware of this as I have just recently finished, but I am not sure how long if ever it will be until he checks all his links and makes sure they're still valid. So I'm not sure how or if to inform him that he should no longer use this site in his portfolio. I could email him, but I don't want to come off as rude by essentially saying &quot;I just overrode all your previous hard work and now I need to not point to it anymore&quot; or potentially cause bad blood between him and the business for not choosing to work with him again. I could also ask the local business to inform him but I feel it is not really their duty. I could also just ignore it, but of course I don't really want others claiming my hard work, as well as I believe it could cause problems for him if he shows up at an interview and opens up a link to a site he's never seen.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I proceed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13880" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4645" RevisionGUID="2e87d972-47d0-4469-9ea2-d2e7f64e6852" CreationDate="2016-06-23T22:14:33.803" UserId="12852" Text="Previous design links to my work in their portfolio" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13881" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4645" RevisionGUID="2e87d972-47d0-4469-9ea2-d2e7f64e6852" CreationDate="2016-06-23T22:14:33.803" UserId="12852" Text="|freelance-websites|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13882" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4645" RevisionGUID="27bd2127-447c-4e3b-9d03-8bdca6f13992" CreationDate="2016-06-23T22:22:20.917" UserId="708" Comment="paragraph breaks so humans can read it for heaven's sake." Text="I've recently started doing some freelance web design work and just finished a complete revamp of a local business website. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The previous design was done by another designer. I know this as the previous footer has a &quot;designed by..&quot; linking to his website. The website linked to is a business portfolio for the designer showing off his work and ways to contact him for new work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is he is still linking to the this local business as his work even though it is now my work. Surely he is not aware of that a new design has recently been completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not sure how long if ever it will be until he checks all his links and makes sure they're still valid. So I'm not sure how, or if, to inform him to no longer use this site in his portfolio. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I could email him, but I don't want to come off as rude by essentially saying &quot;I just overrode all your previous hard work and now I need to not point to it anymore&quot; or potentially cause bad blood between him and the business for not choosing to work with him again. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I could also ask the local business to inform him but I feel it is not really their duty. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I could also just ignore it, but of course I don't really want others claiming my hard work, as well as I believe it could cause problems for him if he shows up at an interview and opens up a link to a site he's never seen.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How should I proceed?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13883" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4646" RevisionGUID="0a64868e-7e97-4ffa-837f-52be8becc66d" CreationDate="2016-06-23T22:30:49.317" UserId="708" Text="First, ask the client if the byline is **part of a contract** with the previous designer. If it is, you need to discuss this with the client. Leaving their byline on your work would be completely unacceptable to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, realize that many of these type of bylines are done *without* client approval. But they don't really raise client disapproval either. Many designers will add the byline without any discussion... the client sees it and simply does not object to it so they say nothing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Provided the byline is *not* part of any contract, remove it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third, if you're interested in using your *own byline* and the client is okay with it, then do so. If he's/she's linking to the site... and the byline is *not* hers/his it will merely reflect poorly upon him/her. Not your problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Forth, do you *know for a fact* this previous designer is *linking* to the live site? Many web designers know better than to link to live sites because they can easily change and not provide the impression one wishes to convey. I *never* link to live sites. I use images/screenshots. There's a valid reason you honestly rarely see live links in any portfolio. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13884" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4646" RevisionGUID="35e04ffb-ccea-4fc6-9220-e251bc648f53" CreationDate="2016-06-23T22:36:12.763" UserId="708" Comment="added 665 characters in body" Text="First, ask the client if the byline is **part of a contract** with the previous designer. If it is, you need to discuss this with the client. Leaving their byline on your work would be completely unacceptable to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, realize that many of these type of bylines are done *without* client approval. But they don't really raise client disapproval either. Many designers will add the byline without any discussion... the client sees it and simply does not object to it so they say nothing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Provided the byline is *not* part of any contract, remove it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third, if you're interested in using your *own byline* and the client is okay with it, then do so. If he's/she's linking to the site... and the byline is *not* hers/his it will merely reflect poorly upon him/her. Not your problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fourth, do you *know for a fact* this previous designer is *linking* to the live site? Many web designers know better than to link to live sites because they can easily change and not provide the impression one wishes to convey. I *never* link to live sites. I use images/screenshots. There's a valid reason you honestly rarely see live links in any portfolio. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, if you don't want to implement your own byline, but you want to remove theirs. Then remove it and send a polite email. Something like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hello, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;The web site for XXXXX has been redesigned and any portfolio links you may be using are no longer valid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Thank you&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no further need to respond to *anything* they may reply with. And his/her relationship with your client is, again, not your problem. You were hired to do a job. Sending the email is merely a courtesy. Of course, this doesn't mean they *won't* use the link still... but there's really next to nothing you can do about that. Any ethical designer will stop using any links." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13885" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4646" RevisionGUID="d9b1bd90-f633-4b04-87c6-7d7450b33d25" CreationDate="2016-06-23T22:41:33.493" UserId="708" Comment="added 665 characters in body" Text="First, ask the client if the byline is **part of a contract** with the previous designer. If it is, you need to discuss this with the client. Leaving their byline on your work would be completely unacceptable to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, realize that many of these type of bylines are done *without* client approval. But they don't really raise client disapproval either. Many designers will add the byline without any discussion... the client sees it and simply does not object to it so they say nothing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Provided the byline is *not* part of any contract, remove it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third, if you're interested in using your *own byline* and the client is okay with it, then do so. If he's/she's linking to the site... and the byline is *not* hers/his it will merely reflect poorly upon him/her. Not your problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fourth, do you *know for a fact* this previous designer is *linking* to the live site? Many web designers know better than to link to live sites because they can easily change and not provide the impression one wishes to convey.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's a quick lesson to learn when you discover that the beautiful, awe-inspiring, web site you designed has been reworked by the client last week, because they just started learning HTML, and you've linked to it as your work. [Oh, the horror stories that many could tell.]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *never* link to live sites. I use images/screenshots. There's a valid reason you honestly rarely see live links in any portfolio. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, if you don't want to implement your own byline, but you want to remove theirs. Then remove it and send a polite email. Something like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hello, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;The web site for XXXXX has been redesigned and any portfolio links you may be using are no longer valid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Thank you&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no further need to respond to *anything* they may reply with. And his/her relationship with your client is, again, not your problem. You were hired to do a job. Sending the email is merely a courtesy. Of course, this doesn't mean they *won't* use the link still... but there's really next to nothing you can do about that. Any ethical designer will stop using any links." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13886" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4647" RevisionGUID="2ac059bc-677c-49bf-a856-5f37cb421bcd" CreationDate="2016-06-24T00:50:39.977" UserId="12854" Text="could you experienced freelancers help me here?&#xD;&#xA;I'm a freelancer working from Brasil, and I will spend 3 months in Europe. Do I have to pay any extra taxes for my projects (upwork)? What about my payment, can it still be done by paypal?&#xD;&#xA;Thank you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13887" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4647" RevisionGUID="2ac059bc-677c-49bf-a856-5f37cb421bcd" CreationDate="2016-06-24T00:50:39.977" UserId="12854" Text="Working remotely from another country" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13888" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4647" RevisionGUID="2ac059bc-677c-49bf-a856-5f37cb421bcd" CreationDate="2016-06-24T00:50:39.977" UserId="12854" Text="|freelance-websites|taxes|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13889" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4648" RevisionGUID="eb7e1ff8-54ce-470e-9203-f5914cd32b83" CreationDate="2016-06-24T03:12:28.327" UserId="9835" Text="There shouldn't be a problem. Upwork delivers payment to your PayPal account. It doesn't matter where you are. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only way this would be an issue is if the country you're visiting doesn't allow you to use PayPal for spending money (with the PayPal card) you will still be receiving your normal funds through your payment regardless. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Upwork takes a flat % (20, 10, or 5 depending on contract worth) and you pay income tax based on where you are a citizen of. You're not an EU citizen so you don't owe a foreign government part of your income. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13890" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4608" RevisionGUID="057adca2-c26b-454c-9fd9-e9171ce7c567" CreationDate="2016-06-24T07:57:45.423" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/746250948473925632" />
  <row Id="13891" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4649" RevisionGUID="092feb12-8697-4bb3-82b3-b62e7f52ddfe" CreationDate="2016-06-24T11:11:44.170" UserId="4601" Text="One approach to consider is to offer services as a freelance that can start NOW and has the skills necessary.  No training required.  No long term commitment with its implied issues of being careful to not hire someone unsuitable and having to then let them go.  This has the potential for the company to look at you as a bridge resource until they can identify someone that they want to hire on a more permanent and multi project basis.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13892" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4650" RevisionGUID="3eb4e353-42c3-4faf-9b01-42fcdeb740dd" CreationDate="2016-06-24T14:28:46.387" UserId="517" Text="A client of mine is thinking to hire me full-time for a 1-year project and told me to let him know about the costs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, we all know that I cannot calculate my price as &quot;my freelancer hourly price&quot; * 8 * &quot;work days in a year&quot;, because freelancer hourly price includes risk period costs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, although he accepts my hourly price for the regular tasks, I don't think that he will accept it if I multiply it with `8` and `numWorkDaysInYear`. So I have to think of a discount to my hourly rate for the first phase of 6 months. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, it's been yeeeears since I worked on 1-year projects and I don't have my rate for such projects. And trying to remember what my rate was at that time will not work as well, as obviously I became a better expert since then. Thus I would like to see what you do in situations like this so maybe I can guess the right figure ;). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anyone been in the situation like this? If your price is $X/hour, what is the discount you give for 1-year contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13893" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4650" RevisionGUID="3eb4e353-42c3-4faf-9b01-42fcdeb740dd" CreationDate="2016-06-24T14:28:46.387" UserId="517" Text="Discount for 1-year full-time contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13894" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4650" RevisionGUID="3eb4e353-42c3-4faf-9b01-42fcdeb740dd" CreationDate="2016-06-24T14:28:46.387" UserId="517" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|long-term|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13895" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4651" RevisionGUID="307f0abd-04bd-4d9f-a8d8-612575542e39" CreationDate="2016-06-24T16:11:56.237" UserId="708" Text="Realize that if you are tied up, full time, for a year, you'll most likely **lose** all your other clients. So, if that's okay you need to make it worth your while.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are financially in good shape as things are with several clients, then putting all your eggs in one basket, as it were, can be **very** risky.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Due to the damage, yes *damage*, such a position will do to your freelancing **I would *not* be inclined to offer *any* discount.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only possible reason I *may* consider some sort of discount is if the client was going to take on additional items. Such as paying for equipment/maintenance, paying for electricity, paying for healthcare (if necessary), paying for all your business overhead essentially. Because unless the client is covering some of that as well, there's really little benefit to you killing off your freelance business for this one client.  Face it, your expenses are *not* going to change just because you have a lengthy contract. Your overhead will stay the *same* unless you are working on-site for them. And if you are indeed working on-site, then why not a traditional full-time employment position with all the benefits that are associated with that? (I know why... because it's cheaper for the client if you aren't actually an employee.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've had many a client that dangled the &quot;we'll be looking for full time help soon&quot; carrot in front of me. As if it were an incentive to work more or cheaper for them. The truth is, if your freelance business is doing well and you aren't struggling there's **really little reason** to drown it intentionally by focusing on one client full time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted, I *might* offer something like a 20% discount based on a lengthy contract with steady payments. I'd offer the same discount I do to *any* client that has a great deal of work for me. I reward clients for repeatedly returning to me. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13896" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4651" RevisionGUID="6c160cf3-972a-494c-b153-3f7df11c9e6b" CreationDate="2016-06-24T16:18:19.267" UserId="708" Comment="added 365 characters in body" Text="Realize that if you are tied up, full time, for a year, you'll most likely **lose** all your other clients. So, if that's okay you need to make it worth your while.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are financially in good shape as things are with several clients, then putting all your eggs in one basket, as it were, can be **very** risky.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Due to the damage, yes *damage*, such a position will do to your freelancing **I would *not* be inclined to offer *any* discount.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only possible reason I *may* consider some sort of discount is if the client was going to take on additional items. Such as paying for equipment/maintenance, paying for electricity, paying for healthcare (if necessary), paying for all your business overhead essentially. Because unless the client is covering some of that as well, there's really little benefit to you killing off your freelance business for this one client.  Face it, your expenses are *not* going to change just because you have a lengthy contract. Your overhead will stay the *same* unless you are working on-site for them. And if you are indeed working on-site, then why not a traditional full-time employment position with all the benefits that are associated with that? (I know why... because it's cheaper for the client if you aren't actually an employee.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've had many a client that dangled the &quot;we'll be looking for full time help soon&quot; carrot in front of me. As if it were an incentive to work more or cheaper for them. The truth is, if your freelance business is doing well and you aren't struggling there's **really little reason** to drown it intentionally by focusing on one client full time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted, I *might* offer something like a 20% discount based on a lengthy contract with steady payments. I'd offer the same discount I do to *any* client that has a great deal of work for me. I reward clients for repeatedly returning to me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were *forced*... I'd average my yearly income over my freelancing career (or the past 3-5 years) and then use *that* number as the figure to negotiate to. So if I've averaged $130k (random figure) over the past three years, the client would need to pay me $130k *minimum*. Truth is I'd probably add another 20-40% to that in order to cover the loss of existing clientele. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13897" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4652" RevisionGUID="25b06a1f-f19e-4128-9aa3-e5573fb2a8ed" CreationDate="2016-06-24T16:20:57.640" UserId="9835" Text="The only time I've ever offered a discount for a long term (12+ months guaranteed) contract is if bonuses are worked into the rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My rate is $30/hour not because that's the number I chose out of a hat, but because that's what I'm worth. If I lower my rate I'm lowering what I'm saying I'm worth. With that said:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do have a contract in which I make $24/hour but I get a bonus every 6 months based on the results I've gotten. This equates to an average of $28/hour. So, yes there is a discount from charging $30 to $28/hour  but this is mostly because it's an international client and conversion rates are worked into things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were to give any discount, I wouldn't give more than a 10%. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13898" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4651" RevisionGUID="64c78619-b2ce-4599-b373-50ea21b10927" CreationDate="2016-06-24T16:34:58.473" UserId="708" Comment="added 347 characters in body" Text="Realize that if you are tied up, full time, for a year, you'll most likely **lose** all your other clients. So, if that's okay you need to make it worth your while.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are financially in good shape as things are with several clients, then putting all your eggs in one basket, as it were, can be **very** risky.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Due to the damage, yes *damage*, such a position will do to your freelancing **I would *not* be inclined to offer *any* discount.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only possible reason I *may* consider some sort of discount is if the client was going to take on additional items. Such as paying for equipment/maintenance, paying for electricity, paying for healthcare (if necessary), paying for all your business overhead essentially. Because unless the client is covering some of that as well, there's really little benefit to you killing off your freelance business for this one client.  Face it, your expenses are *not* going to change just because you have a lengthy contract. Your overhead will stay the *same* unless you are working on-site for them. And if you are indeed working on-site, then why not a traditional full-time employment position with all the benefits that are associated with that? (I know why... because it's cheaper for the client if you aren't actually an employee.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've had many a client that dangled the &quot;we'll be looking for full time help soon&quot; carrot in front of me. As if it were an incentive to work more or cheaper for them. The truth is, if your freelance business is doing well and you aren't struggling there's **really little reason** to drown it intentionally by focusing on one client full time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted, I *might* offer something like a 20% discount based on a lengthy contract with steady payments. I'd offer the same discount I do to *any* client that has a great deal of work for me. I reward clients for repeatedly returning to me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were *forced*... I'd average my yearly income over my freelancing career (or the past 3-5 years) and then use *that* number as the figure to negotiate to. So if I've averaged $130k (random figure) over the past three years, the client would need to pay me $130k *minimum*. Truth is I'd probably add another 20-40% to that in order to cover the loss of existing clientele and the *risk* associated with that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, rather than trying to calculate hourly, I'd work backwards from annual income: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - `(average annual income + 30%) / yearly work hours = hourly rate` &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;or &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - `(130,000 + 39,000) / 1,800 = $94/hour` (rounding up to nearest dollar.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether or not that matches or comes close to your existing hourly rate is a different matter :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13899" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4651" RevisionGUID="6e9affcd-b7ef-47ca-b3dd-f6cfae6a1b04" CreationDate="2016-06-24T16:42:20.227" UserId="708" Comment="added 347 characters in body" Text="Realize that if you are tied up, full time, for a year, you'll most likely **lose** all your other clients. So, if that's okay you need to make it worth your while.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are financially in good shape as things are with several clients, then putting all your eggs in one basket, as it were, can be **very** risky.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Due to the damage, yes *damage*, such a position will do to your freelancing **I would *not* be inclined to offer *any* discount.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only possible reason I *may* consider some sort of discount is if the client was going to take on additional items. Such as paying for equipment/maintenance, paying for electricity, paying for healthcare (if necessary), paying for all your business overhead essentially. Because unless the client is covering some of that as well, there's really little benefit to you killing off your freelance business for this one client.  Face it, your expenses are *not* going to change just because you have a lengthy contract. Your overhead will stay the *same* unless you are working on-site for them. And if you are indeed working on-site, then why not a traditional full-time employment position with all the benefits that are associated with that? (I know why... because it's cheaper for the client if you aren't actually an employee.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've had many a client that dangled the &quot;we'll be looking for full time help soon&quot; carrot in front of me. As if it were an incentive to work more or cheaper for them. The truth is, if your freelance business is doing well and you aren't struggling there's **really little reason** to drown it intentionally by focusing on one client full time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted, I *might* offer something like a 20% discount based on a lengthy contract with steady payments. I'd offer the same discount I do to *any* client that has a great deal of work for me. I reward clients for repeatedly returning to me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were *forced*... I'd average my yearly income over my freelancing career (or the past 3-5 years) and then use *that* number as the figure to negotiate to. So if I've averaged $130k (random figure) over the past three years, the client would need to pay me $130k *minimum*. Truth is I'd probably add another 20-40% to that in order to cover the loss of existing clientele and the *risk* associated with that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, rather than trying to calculate hourly, I'd work backwards from annual income: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - `(average annual income + 30%) / yearly work hours = hourly rate` &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;or &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - `(130,000 + 39,000) / 1,800 = $94/hour` (rounding up to nearest dollar.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether or not that matches or comes close to your existing hourly rate is a different matter :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client balks at that figure, you can easily explain or back it up with the fact that you are *already* averaging that amount annually and that there's little or no upside for you if you aren't at least making the same average income you already pocket." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13900" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4651" RevisionGUID="42f78e66-fcc0-4fbf-90a8-d4a5562db490" CreationDate="2016-06-24T16:48:10.943" UserId="708" Comment="added 347 characters in body" Text="Realize that if you are tied up, full time, for a year, you'll most likely **lose** all your other clients. So, if that's okay you need to make it worth your while.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are financially in good shape as things are with several clients, then putting all your eggs in one basket, as it were, can be **very** risky.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Due to the damage, yes *damage*, such a position will do to your freelancing **I would *not* be inclined to offer *any* discount.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only possible reason I *may* consider some sort of discount is if the client was going to take on additional items. Such as paying for equipment/maintenance, paying for electricity, paying for healthcare (if necessary), paying for all your business overhead essentially. Because unless the client is covering some of that as well, there's really little benefit to you killing off your freelance business for this one client.  Face it, your expenses are *not* going to change just because you have a lengthy contract. Your overhead will stay the *same* unless you are working on-site for them. And if you are indeed working on-site, then why not a traditional full-time employment position with all the benefits that are associated with that? (I know why... because it's cheaper for the client if you aren't actually an employee.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've had many a client that dangled the &quot;we'll be looking for full time help soon&quot; carrot in front of me. As if it were an incentive to work more or cheaper for them. The truth is, if your freelance business is doing well and you aren't struggling there's **really little reason** to drown it intentionally by focusing on one client full time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted, I *might* offer something like a 20% discount based on a lengthy contract with steady payments. I'd offer the same discount I do to *any* client that has a great deal of work for me. I reward clients for repeatedly returning to me. But... I wouldn't build this into pricing. I'd reward it along the way... every 90 days I'd just give a discount without warning as a &quot;reward&quot; for steady, on-time, payments. This figure would *not* be mentioned to the client during fee negotiation and it would *not* be built into my calculations for the figures I need to negotiate. It's a &quot;gift&quot;, a &quot;reward&quot; not a &quot;discount&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were *forced*... I'd average my yearly income over my freelancing career (or the past 3-5 years) and then use *that* number as the figure to negotiate to. So if I've averaged $130k (random figure) over the past three years, the client would need to pay me $130k *minimum*. Truth is I'd probably add another 20-40% to that in order to cover the loss of existing clientele and the *risk* associated with that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, rather than trying to calculate hourly, I'd work backwards from annual income. The reason being that although we set hourly rates, most freelancers aren't working full 40 hour work weeks. We work more or less most weeks. So by using the annual income average you base figures on what you've *pocketed*, not just what you are *asking* for currently. Imagine a full 40 hour week for me at my current rate may amount to $4,000. But really I only worked 27 hours this week ($2700), 32 last week ($3200), 65 the week before ($6500), etc. So my hourly rate is not an entirely accurate indicator of my *actual* income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - `(average annual income + 30%) / yearly work hours = hourly rate` &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;or &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - `(130,000 + 39,000) / 1,800 = $94/hour` (rounding up to nearest dollar.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether or not that matches or comes close to your existing hourly rate is a different matter :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client balks at that figure, you can easily explain or back it up with the fact that you are *already* averaging that amount annually and that there's little or no upside for you if you aren't at least making the same average income you already pocket." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13904" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4651" RevisionGUID="b9941a35-59a7-4022-9fb5-226a828a7908" CreationDate="2016-06-24T16:53:51.453" UserId="708" Comment="added 90 characters in body" Text="Realize that if you are tied up, full time, for a year, you'll most likely **lose** all your other clients. So, if that's okay you need to make it worth your while.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are financially in good shape as things are with several clients, then putting all your eggs in one basket, as it were, can be **very** risky.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Due to the damage, yes *damage*, such a position will do to your freelancing **I would *not* be inclined to offer *any* discount.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only possible reason I *may* consider some sort of discount is if the client was going to take on additional items. Such as paying for equipment/maintenance, paying for electricity, paying for healthcare (if necessary), paying for all your business overhead essentially. Because unless the client is covering some of that as well, there's really little benefit to you killing off your freelance business for this one client.  Face it, your expenses are *not* going to change just because you have a lengthy contract. Your overhead will stay the *same* unless you are working on-site for them. And if you are indeed working on-site, then why not a traditional full-time employment position with all the benefits that are associated with that? (I know why... because it's cheaper for the client if you aren't actually an employee.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've had many a client that dangled the &quot;we'll be looking for full time help soon&quot; carrot in front of me. As if it were an incentive to work more or cheaper for them. The truth is, if your freelance business is doing well and you aren't struggling there's **really little reason** to drown it intentionally by focusing on one client full time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted, I *might* offer something like a 20% discount based on a lengthy contract with steady payments. I'd offer the same discount I do to *any* client that has a great deal of work for me. I reward clients for repeatedly returning to me. But... I wouldn't build this into pricing. I'd reward it along the way... every 90 days I'd just give a discount without warning as a &quot;reward&quot; for steady, on-time, payments. This figure would *not* be mentioned to the client during fee negotiation and it would *not* be built into my calculations for the figures I need to negotiate. It's a &quot;gift&quot;, a &quot;reward&quot; not a &quot;discount&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were *forced*... I'd average my yearly income over my freelancing career (or the past 3-5 years) and then use *that* number as the figure to negotiate to. So if I've averaged $130k (random figure) over the past three years, the client would need to pay me $130k *minimum*. Truth is I'd probably add another 20-40% to that in order to cover the loss of existing clientele and the *risk* associated with that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, rather than trying to calculate hourly, I'd work backwards from annual income. The reason being that although we set hourly rates, most freelancers aren't working full 40 hour work weeks. We work more or less most weeks. So by using the annual income average you base figures on what you've *pocketed*, not just what you are *asking* for currently. Imagine a full 40 hour week for me at my current rate may amount to $4,000/week. But really I only worked 27 hours this week ($2700), 32 last week ($3200), 65 the week before ($6500), etc. So my hourly rate is not an entirely accurate indicator of my *actual* income. Averaging annual income over a few years *is* an accurate indicator of my current income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - `(average annual income + 30%) / yearly work hours = hourly rate` &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;or &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - `(130,000 + 39,000) / 1,800 = $94/hour` (rounding up to nearest dollar.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether or not that matches or comes close to your existing hourly rate is a different matter :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client balks at that figure, you can easily explain or back it up with the fact that you are *already* averaging that amount annually and that there's little or no upside for you if you aren't at least making the same average income you already pocket." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13905" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4654" RevisionGUID="5786042a-3948-4dcf-a4ad-1cab52412750" CreationDate="2016-06-24T17:07:40.463" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="In my opinion a client should be paying you *more* if they want you full time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are working for someone full time, it means there *is no competition* on your time for anyone else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, your time is bought by the highest bidder. If they buy out your time, they're buying you off the market. They should be paying you more than your normal rate, not less.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Last time a client did this, I asked them for 20% more hourly than my usual rate because that's how much I was expecting my rate to go up in the next year, had they been in competition with other clients. The client agreed to the deal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13906" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4655" RevisionGUID="8f680396-ad95-45e9-b5d1-0ac129eca191" CreationDate="2016-06-24T17:21:56.467" UserId="12862" Text="My 2 cents..I had worked for a medical project and gained **some** knowledge on HIPPA. As a developer you can not guarantee HIPPA implementation at all. HIPPA is a set of rules and procedures where everyone (including developer, server admin, hosting company, product owner and lawyer) need to work jointly in order to establish a secure storage and communication of medical data. Also the compliance will be provided by an attorney and not by a developer. In case anything goes wrong the first responsible person could be client, second the attorney, third the hosting company and then the list can move ahead!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an another note, the customer must try to understand the cost of servers that provides HIPPA compliance service. Its way beyond one can think of. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13911" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4657" RevisionGUID="96b05579-c2dd-4fff-9a9f-9cac7999caef" CreationDate="2016-06-25T00:38:57.537" UserId="280" Text="While @Scott is right that you can't expect to maintain business relationships with the numerous small clients you (presumably) are currently working for if you do a full time contract for a year with a single customer; it is possible to make a living contracting larger jobs serially.  It will however be a rather different way of living that the former.  (And not just that you're probably going to end up spending a lot of time in places where you're expected to wear a tie instead of a tshirt.)  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A former acquaintance of mine's done it for a number of years; generally working for larger businesses that will hire a team of contractors to either build an application from the ground up or when an in house team is in trouble and needs bailed out.  I've lost touch with him (or I'd ask him to answer here directly); but he did explain how he priced various length contracts and I can pass that on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key item is that - because you will generally be out of work for a period of time between contracts - you need to price that time into the hourly rate you charge.  As a simplified example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you need $50/hour to cover your business and living expenses, and need an average of three months to find a new large contract after your previous one completes, for a 3 month contract you'd want a rate of $100/hour.  If it was a 12 month job you could lower your rate to $62.50.  Going the other way, you can see why enterprise consultants on very short term contracts charge what seem like eye wateringly high rates to the salaried people at the sites where they're working for a few days or weeks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13913" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4650" RevisionGUID="1b9a37cd-fa93-4f26-a476-9bf8b8e0ce11" CreationDate="2016-06-25T05:02:02.007" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/746569113611403264" />
  <row Id="13914" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4538" RevisionGUID="5bc5f526-a32f-4d0d-9ee0-8f2e98089df0" CreationDate="2016-06-25T07:54:14.410" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="13915" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4658" RevisionGUID="a82a3cfc-b7c6-41f8-a7f4-d9e5f6f0d071" CreationDate="2016-06-26T00:13:06.743" UserId="9835" Text="Before doing anything (as mentioned by @Scott)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;ask the client if the byline is part of a contract with the previous designer. If it is, you need to discuss this with the client. Leaving their byline on your work would be completely unacceptable to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you edit the signature (I call the designer link the 'signature' as it's like an artist signing their artwork) and there are contract rules about when it can or cannot be edited/ if the original designer needs to be given advanced notice before the change then the client could be held responsible for your change (they should really be aware of their own existing contracts, though)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I don't really want others claiming my hard work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I could make a portfolio website right now and link to all of your projects claiming they're mine. Nothing is stopping me from doing that but I won't have the clients backing or the footer link (developer/designer signature) indicating that it was actually my work. It's traditional to place a link on websites you've made and most clients are also aware. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I could also ask the local business to inform him but I feel it is not really their duty.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's no way the clients obligation, nor is it yours (unless it's stated in a contract). If anything, you'd do this off of courtesy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you decide to contact the original designer you could also send along a link from the [WayBack Machine][1] of the design they made. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The message could be as simple as &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Dear X&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;My name is Y and I am now working for one of your previous clients, Z. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I will be changing the footer link on the website to represent the most recent version of the website. I noticed that you're linking to Y on your website and wanted to give you an advanced notice so that you can take action. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I grabbed this link off of the WayBack Machine from the version of the clients website that you designed so that you can still use this great design as a reference for your future clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Best Regards, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://archive.org/web/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13916" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4520" RevisionGUID="272b5cde-adea-44a3-a450-1105567a9fe6" CreationDate="2016-06-26T20:05:31.923" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/747158874516500480" />
  <row Id="13920" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4660" RevisionGUID="a8ef6733-aa6b-4abc-bfd7-9257f10e4746" CreationDate="2016-06-27T05:35:30.357" UserId="7858" Text="Like most others I try to avoid discounts - but if giving a discount seems unavoidable, I would need some guarantees added to the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many things can happen in 12 months. Companies may be bought or collapse, people may move on or priorities may change.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can they fire you at all during the 12 months? If so, what if you're fired after 3 months? As a bare minimum, I would insist the contract state that the client must re-pay the given discount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, even with such a rather unusual clause, actually getting the 'severance payment' may prove tricky as you have no leverage apart from taking them to court.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13924" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4662" RevisionGUID="e047dfec-43c4-4ee4-940c-5212e214c096" CreationDate="2016-06-27T21:11:59.553" UserId="12890" Text="I am a US web designer currently negotiating a project with a Chilean company that would pay in equity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have never worked with anyone outside of the US, nor have I worked for equity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I be looking for in the agreement?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13925" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4662" RevisionGUID="e047dfec-43c4-4ee4-940c-5212e214c096" CreationDate="2016-06-27T21:11:59.553" UserId="12890" Text="What to look for in an overseas equity agreement" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13926" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4662" RevisionGUID="e047dfec-43c4-4ee4-940c-5212e214c096" CreationDate="2016-06-27T21:11:59.553" UserId="12890" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13927" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4663" RevisionGUID="f035a826-60e9-49c4-b1d3-b76a190d9076" CreationDate="2016-06-28T04:02:09.603" UserId="12892" Text="i am fresher on upwork ,so i don'thave ratings on my profile. I tried a lot to get any project/job even at lowest prices but my all proposals are getting rejected . Please suggest me some advice so that I can get projects on upwork ." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13928" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4663" RevisionGUID="f035a826-60e9-49c4-b1d3-b76a190d9076" CreationDate="2016-06-28T04:02:09.603" UserId="12892" Text="Not getting job/projects" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13929" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4663" RevisionGUID="f035a826-60e9-49c4-b1d3-b76a190d9076" CreationDate="2016-06-28T04:02:09.603" UserId="12892" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13930" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4664" RevisionGUID="60e8b280-a32a-4093-ab36-72b20207e475" CreationDate="2016-06-28T04:35:45.953" UserId="9835" Text="**Adventurer Beware!**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Equity deals can be tricky things and I've never had great experiences with them but I have had two, and with those, I've learned a lot. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first thing you need to know (and you should - but you didn't put this in the question so...) is this an established, profitable business?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Often, equity deals going to non-investors are because the business is brand new (less than 2 years old) or is not (very) profitable. This can be a lot of risk you're taking on depending on how many hours you'll put into this gig a year. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the business can't show you that they're profitable and you're not emotionally invested with their service/product's success: don't take an equity deal...or at least not a straight equity deal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tried, semi-successfully, to profit off of hourly &amp; equity. Let's do some math. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Say you charge, to make it simple, $10/hour. You'll put 10 hours a week for 52 weeks for a total of 520 hours a year, grossing you $5,200 annually. You negotiate to work at a discount as well as equity so that in the event the business is not (very) profitable it won't be a total loss to you. Let's say you give a 50% discount so you charge $5/hour. That's $2,600 annually and $2,600 you need to make in equity to break even. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They offer you 10% equity. That means the business needs to profit $26,000 annually for you to make your $2,600. This is where data really helps. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What did they make last year? What are this years realistic projections?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Did they net more than $26,000? Did they net a lot less?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will help you get an estimate as to how much you're potentially going to make or lose initially. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the numbers don't add up and you're going to make less than your expected $5,200 a year - that's not always a bad thing. Businesses need time to grow. It's up to you to determine how much under your yearly estimate you're willing to go as well as how much potential you believe the business has for growth. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Let's talk straight equity**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They may not be too keen on a discounted hourly rate as well as equity or it may be more profitable for you to take a straight equity deal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As mentioned above&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If the business can't show you that they're profitable and you're not emotionally invested with their service/product's success: don't take an equity deal&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to be your own judge in this. They're many businesses no one thought would succeed and that were not profitable at one point, but are now some of the most successful businesses. If the business isn't profitable but you think they have something special going on then you may want to put in the blood, tears, and sweat for the long-term investment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What to look for in the deal**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You decided to take the equity offer into consideration, good for you! How do you know it's the right one?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*What [type of equity][1] are you getting?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This determines things like taxes and not all types of equity are equal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Look for red flags*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they don't explain exactly what holding equity in their business means for you, how they do it (each business does equity packages a little differently, and if they can't answer a question they need to be willing to research and follow-up. Equity isn't as simple as &quot;Here's 10% of our quarterly profits&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Can you afford to work for equity?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe they offer you 50% hourly and x% equity. If that equity amounts to $0, are you financially stable enough to brush it off? Do you have more sources of income to make up for the loss?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I usher you to be careful and plan accordingly. Do as much research as you can and make sure you have a thorough discussion with the business. If this is a new business and the upper managements first business - chances are, they don't even know what fully goes into an equity deal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;DISCLAIMER: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not expert in equity deals and I can't guarantee that any venture will be a success. I do have a limited amount of experience working for equity as well as a degree in business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.accountingtools.com/questions-and-answers/types-of-equity.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13931" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4645" RevisionGUID="e2d2b7aa-42ba-4960-ae58-e71b3ab9e38d" CreationDate="2016-06-28T08:13:04.457" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/747704354405244929" />
  <row Id="13932" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4665" RevisionGUID="84316256-611e-4750-82c7-ba3c5276c2e1" CreationDate="2016-06-28T10:37:43.193" UserId="11903" Text="you have to do one thing &quot; be patient &quot; and never give-up. you will surely get a job. but the problem most of the clients will want to give their jobs to a experienced freelancer and who has a good record. there you are most likely not to get the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - But you will get job from client who are searching for cheaper&#xD;&#xA;   freelancer.&#xD;&#xA; - If client is having a small job and searching for a cheaper freelancer.&#xD;&#xA; - You should always write a attractive proposal so that clients will be impressed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line is if the client has a small project and willing to take some risk on the project they will go for new freelancer. and you should be cheaper. you should give excellent service to get more and more job further." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13933" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4666" RevisionGUID="d0d2c841-b40b-48cd-a189-2dcb2d888d63" CreationDate="2016-06-28T15:40:45.477" UserId="12052" Text="Recently i found my first freelancing project on [freelancer.com][1]&#xD;&#xA;its a simple task consists in editing a joomla website...etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;anyway after i git the login credentials and taskl number 1 from the employer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;i've never heard from him again, he was not online for 3 days (project duration 7 days and today is the last day)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;the employer have good reputation on the website to be honest while i don't have any.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should someone do in such a case? &#xD;&#xA;does this mean that i'm not going to get paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancer.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13934" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4666" RevisionGUID="d0d2c841-b40b-48cd-a189-2dcb2d888d63" CreationDate="2016-06-28T15:40:45.477" UserId="12052" Text="Freelancer what should i do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13935" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4666" RevisionGUID="d0d2c841-b40b-48cd-a189-2dcb2d888d63" CreationDate="2016-06-28T15:40:45.477" UserId="12052" Text="|freelance-websites|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13936" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4662" RevisionGUID="fb05a5dc-d3e1-4bf8-aad1-962eb1349528" CreationDate="2016-06-28T18:47:11.537" UserId="12890" Comment="added 71 characters in body" Text="I am a US web designer currently negotiating a project with a Chilean company that would pay in equity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have never worked with anyone outside of the US, nor have I worked for equity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I be looking for in the agreement with regard to equity? With regard to working with an overseas company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13937" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4662" RevisionGUID="366b32aa-8e3b-4f3c-b950-9a1761954e24" CreationDate="2016-06-28T19:03:24.717" UserId="12890" Comment="added 42 characters in body" Text="I am a US web designer currently negotiating a project with a Chilean company that would pay in equity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have never worked with anyone outside of the US, nor have I worked for equity.&#xD;&#xA;So, my question is twofold:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. What should I be looking for in an equity agreement?&#xD;&#xA;2. What are some important caveats for overseas agreements?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13938" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4662" RevisionGUID="ae31467f-3806-4f05-8f87-f7dc51813976" CreationDate="2016-06-28T19:08:38.093" UserId="12890" Comment="deleted 5 characters in body" Text="I am a US web designer currently negotiating a project with a Chilean company that would pay in equity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have never worked with anyone outside of the US, nor have I worked for equity.&#xD;&#xA;So, my question is twofold:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. What should I be looking for in an equity agreement?&#xD;&#xA;2. What are important caveats for overseas agreements?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13939" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4662" RevisionGUID="01e603c6-a3d0-4ead-98f4-9638ce64dedf" CreationDate="2016-06-28T19:16:13.577" UserId="12890" Comment="grammar edits" Text="I am a US web designer currently negotiating a project with a Chilean company that would pay in equity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have never worked with anyone outside of the US, nor have I worked for equity, so my question is twofold:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. What should I be looking for in an equity agreement?&#xD;&#xA;2. Caveats on overseas agreements?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13940" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4666" RevisionGUID="2bbd3dcf-ea99-44fc-8ca2-2663fda6554b" CreationDate="2016-06-29T01:24:28.087" UserId="9835" Comment="Grammar &amp; Spelling fixes" Text="Recently I found my first freelancing project on [freelancer.com][1]&#xD;&#xA;it's a simple task that consists of editing a Joomla website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, after I got the login credentials and task number 1 from the employer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Communication stopped. He was not online for 3 days (project duration 7 days and today is the last day)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The employer has a good reputation on the website while I don't have any.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should someone do in such a case? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;does this mean that I'm not going to get paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancer.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13941" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4666" RevisionGUID="2bbd3dcf-ea99-44fc-8ca2-2663fda6554b" CreationDate="2016-06-29T01:24:28.087" Comment="Proposed by 9835 approved by -1 edit id of 465" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13942" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4666" RevisionGUID="1966ba61-55e7-48da-b837-93b329647842" CreationDate="2016-06-29T01:24:28.087" UserId="9" Comment="Combined sentences into paragraphs" Text="I recently found my first freelancing project on [freelancer.com][1]. After I got the login credentials to edit a Joomla site and the first task from the employer, communication completely ceased. He was not online for three days, the project duration was only seven days, and today is the last day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The employer has a good reputation on the website, but I don't have any reputation yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I do in such a case? Does this mean that I'm not going to get paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancer.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13943" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4666" RevisionGUID="1966ba61-55e7-48da-b837-93b329647842" CreationDate="2016-06-29T01:24:28.087" UserId="9" Comment="Combined sentences into paragraphs" Text="Client didn't communicate for majority of project timeline" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13947" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4668" RevisionGUID="a37627e9-f018-4999-8c65-ec1e25b0d760" CreationDate="2016-06-29T07:30:52.897" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Freelancers' sites request that you bid for the projects upfront, and sometimes schedule the project in phases. But most of the time, the project descriptions are rudimentary (like &quot;I urgently need an app to weigh the Moon&quot;) so that it is virtually impossible to make any assumption.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the initial phase of bidding, talking to the requester is not necessarily possible. So how does the bidding process really work ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13948" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4668" RevisionGUID="a37627e9-f018-4999-8c65-ec1e25b0d760" CreationDate="2016-06-29T07:30:52.897" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="How do we bid on freelancer's sites?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13949" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4668" RevisionGUID="a37627e9-f018-4999-8c65-ec1e25b0d760" CreationDate="2016-06-29T07:30:52.897" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13950" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4669" RevisionGUID="c3bbcac8-d475-4714-88e1-0674510e4af3" CreationDate="2016-06-29T09:32:49.763" UserId="11903" Text="The clients who post projects in freelancer sites do not care to give the details of the app in the project description. i have seen 90% of the clients not describing the requirements, they just say i need a android app or i need app to be build soon. but here freelancers gets confused weather to bid or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*I am giving these suggestions assuming that you are a new freelancer.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - So if you are a new freelancer then you have to be very careful. as&#xD;&#xA;   you have high chances of not getting the bid accepted by the client. as your profile is new and no one wants to takes risk on their project.&#xD;&#xA; - I would suggest that you search for mostly those projects which have a good description. and bid responsively as you have a limited number of bids.&#xD;&#xA; - Always make your proposal more interesting and make a demo if possible to show it to the client to make him believe that you are talented person.&#xD;&#xA; - Go with a good price and reply to the client as soon as he/she text you or contact you in any ways.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you get the project then do it to your best. and you will get more and more projects. and never give up. the beginning as always very slow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;more information for new freelancers [HERE][1] .&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/4665/11903" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13951" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4670" RevisionGUID="f6ac0ca2-2ab1-4c02-b30f-e59126ae7d37" CreationDate="2016-06-29T11:20:21.860" UserId="12904" Text="As long as your online work is incidental to your travel in Australia, then there should be no conflict with your visa. But technically, if you're working full-time, you might have an issue with one clause.&#xA;&#xA; http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/18076/does-condition-8115-mean-you-cant-check-your-work-email/18077&#xA;&#xA;In reality, you're not doing an Australian job, or doing an Aussie out of a potential job... So there's probably no issue...  but those of us who have our own businesses and stay in foreign countries for long periods, the water does get a little muddy.&#xA;&#xA;Ingat!&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13955" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4672" RevisionGUID="5d193e47-e22a-40b2-bfe5-fc6a5fd8a0f4" CreationDate="2016-06-29T18:35:55.690" UserId="9835" Text="You should come up with a template to send during bids. Without a lot of information as to the details of the project, you can't tailor the bid too much. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I usually, for these bids, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Introduction&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Exprieince and education&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Why I feel as though I'm the right choice/ what I can provide to make the project a success better/faster than others&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;past projects&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;skills&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;more about me and details as to how I generally accomplish projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Ask for a follow up &quot;Message me back&quot; or &quot;You can Skype me at&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's say they need a website. That's all it says &quot;I need a website&quot;. You don't know the scope or details but you can still explain your industry skills, project history, and how you develop/design website (process, time frame, special skills).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13956" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4673" RevisionGUID="b40a465e-d91a-4fd8-8ab9-e7a66be1fd20" CreationDate="2016-06-29T22:22:26.663" UserDisplayName="user12914" Text="I registered myself as a Ltd company a year ago with the UK government to ready myself for working freelance as a web developer. Since then I have been involved in other projects (mostly voluntary, some conventionally paid employment, on which I paid taxes) and have not done any freelance/company work whatsoever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I'm getting bills from the UK government for ever escalating amounts (they are saying £1300 last letter I got) for not filing taxes for a company that has not traded at all in any meaningful sense of the word (have paid out for some artworks and server rental, but never actually charged for any services).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can I do about this? I don't have £13 spare cash, let alone £1300. Is there anything I can do to stop the government charging me money I do not have for tax returns it would have made no sense to file and the forms for which I don't understand anyway?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I already paid them £15 to register the company with Companies House and they have done literally nothing for me in return, so I really don't see how they can be wanting £1300 as a result of my not trading whatsoever." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13957" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4673" RevisionGUID="b40a465e-d91a-4fd8-8ab9-e7a66be1fd20" CreationDate="2016-06-29T22:22:26.663" UserDisplayName="user12914" Text="Registered as a Ltd company but not traded yet; government threatening me for not filing taxes" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13958" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4673" RevisionGUID="b40a465e-d91a-4fd8-8ab9-e7a66be1fd20" CreationDate="2016-06-29T22:22:26.663" UserDisplayName="user12914" Text="|taxes|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13968" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="333" RevisionGUID="bb84453a-72aa-49dd-9414-71b4c674b3a0" CreationDate="2016-06-30T03:29:41.700" UserId="708" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="13972" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4306" RevisionGUID="52a01c2e-1880-4f49-9d36-47b3a1b7d26d" CreationDate="2016-06-30T20:38:40.150" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="13973" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4678" RevisionGUID="3ed48356-3ea9-474b-8cb3-8a8cbedc90e5" CreationDate="2016-07-01T01:48:24.253" UserId="12929" Text="A close friend has decided to hire me to do some web developing work. In addition, if (when?) the project is successful, he is interested to have me onboard as a business partner overlooking the maintenance side of the program (ie the application / service that the project produces).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am unsure what is a reasonable % of shares, but at this stage I'm thinking 50/50. On top of that, we'll both invoice the business for development time (from my part) and marketing &amp; strategizing time (his part). He has already received a grant to make this business a success, which is the pot of money that will pay for my invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thoughts?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13974" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4678" RevisionGUID="3ed48356-3ea9-474b-8cb3-8a8cbedc90e5" CreationDate="2016-07-01T01:48:24.253" UserId="12929" Text="Shares in the business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13975" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4678" RevisionGUID="3ed48356-3ea9-474b-8cb3-8a8cbedc90e5" CreationDate="2016-07-01T01:48:24.253" UserId="12929" Text="|contracts|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13982" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4681" RevisionGUID="76c6eae0-720e-4c93-a747-fa85855e267f" CreationDate="2016-07-01T14:58:34.577" UserId="1706" Text="Poppycock.  Do your web development work, yes.  Specify a price.  And even with this friend, get a written contract specifying deliverables (with milestones, hopefully) and payment terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for this &quot;business partner&quot; thing -- leave that alone.  It's usually a way of someone signifying that he/she wants you involved without having to make sure you get paid for your time.  If this person is directing what work you do or don't do, that's not a partner -- it's a client (or employer).  You can go on craigslist and find people with no tech skills offering &quot;partnership&quot; deals ANY time!  It's a joke!!!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You haven't even told us what kind of business it is, your friend's qualifications in that line of business, nor YOUR qualifications in that line of business.  Don't get involved in a business deal that you're not qualified to manage or steer if your partner is absent.  Stay in your lane.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider yourself warned :)  I'd hate to see you come back here in six months when it bottoms out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13983" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4682" RevisionGUID="1fa2e5c3-dc26-4fc1-b338-ccfdb919e7a9" CreationDate="2016-07-01T15:08:42.890" UserId="1706" Text="I can only add one thing to Memj's great answer here:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are offered 10%, 20%, or even 99% -- how do you go about proving just how much a business in another continent actually made?  Will you fly there to look at the books?  What will that cost?  Will your partner(s) keep accurate accounting -- or worse, will there be two sets of books?  What are your REALISTIC remedies if the money's not flowing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can't figure out how that will work, leave it alone." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13984" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4683" RevisionGUID="04809a0b-72eb-41eb-b836-5001878febc3" CreationDate="2016-07-01T18:36:44.030" UserId="12935" Text="Unfortunately this seems to happen a lot when using freelancing websites. Have you got a business name or can you find a LinkedIn profile for your client? It may be worth trying to get in touch by other means.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may also try emailing the customer support team at freelancer.com and explaining that you've had an unresponsive client. They may be able to chase them up too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm sorry to say you may have to write this one off, and don't do any more work on it until you have a reply from them.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13985" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4684" RevisionGUID="5719418a-5015-4443-95fe-2c49fc41deba" CreationDate="2016-07-01T20:54:42.710" UserId="1818" Text="I don't know the specifics of the UK, but at a high level I suspect it is similar to the US.  Once you have formally registered your business entity, the government expects periodic reporting from you with respect to taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to file even if you haven't done any business, just indicate in the filing that you have no revenue.  In the US, there are fines for not filing, whether you have revenue or not.  You may be in a similar situation.  In the US, there is an expectation that you will do business within a couple years with net revenue, other wise they think you are just avoiding taxes and the entity isn't real." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13986" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4423" RevisionGUID="1f61d7d4-2ccd-40ca-8f8a-29143374cca1" CreationDate="2016-07-02T01:59:46.173" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="13990" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4685" RevisionGUID="71e38ca7-133a-40fc-a8ff-d5400b81d93d" CreationDate="2016-07-04T01:08:11.167" UserDisplayName="anon" Text="The long story short is I was engaged, hired and paid via an online freelancing platform to do some development work. I believe I performed to the best of my abilities, however the guy who hired me is not happy. After attempts to resolve the problem, he is threatening to take legal action against me to recover the money which is roughly $3000 which was paid over the period of a couple of months via the freelancing platform's invoicing process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No money was received upfront, work was undertaken via the freelancing platform and all aspects of billing including invoicing were automatically handled by the platform as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;TL;DR&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* The freelancing platform I am using has a period of time in which the company/freelance hirer can dispute any logged hours before payment is made (a week for employer to review, then funds are held for a little while longer)&#xD;&#xA;* Payments are not instant. They are held in escrow incase the company/freelance hirer has a dispute.&#xD;&#xA;* Payments are based on hours logged through the application the freelance platform makes you use which screenshots your work and logs the hours automatically.&#xD;&#xA;* The client never filed a dispute against me, all payments were successfully made to me. There was never a dispute whilst the work was ongoing, at any stage.&#xD;&#xA;* The guy who hired me never attempted to file a complaint through the freelancing platform, even though the platform has a dispute resolution process which is great for both sides.&#xD;&#xA;* All complaints they have had, have been through email only.&#xD;&#xA;* We are both in the same country as one another, but different regions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can someone who hired me through a freelancing platform and agreed to their legal agreements, take legal action against me because they were not satisfied even though they made no attempt to file a dispute through the platform? My concern is they're in the same country as me. I know if they were in a different country, then the threat of a lawsuit wouldn't really mean much. Am I protected by the freelancing platform here?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13991" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4685" RevisionGUID="71e38ca7-133a-40fc-a8ff-d5400b81d93d" CreationDate="2016-07-04T01:08:11.167" UserDisplayName="anon" Text="Employer Via Freelancing Platform Threatening To Take Legal Action Against Me" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13992" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4685" RevisionGUID="71e38ca7-133a-40fc-a8ff-d5400b81d93d" CreationDate="2016-07-04T01:08:11.167" UserDisplayName="anon" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13993" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4685" RevisionGUID="bb381e87-dfc3-416e-a003-8a5f8d00f135" CreationDate="2016-07-04T01:26:14.347" UserDisplayName="anon" Comment="Contract clarification." Text="The long story short is I was engaged, hired and paid via an online freelancing platform to do some development work. I believe I performed to the best of my abilities, however the guy who hired me is not happy. After attempts to resolve the problem, he is threatening to take legal action against me to recover the money which is roughly $3000 which was paid over the period of a couple of months via the freelancing platform's invoicing process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No money was received upfront, work was undertaken via the freelancing platform and all aspects of billing including invoicing were automatically handled by the platform as well. We had no contract directly between the two of us, only through the platform itself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;TL;DR&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* The freelancing platform I am using has a period of time in which the company/freelance hirer can dispute any logged hours before payment is made (a week for employer to review, then funds are held for a little while longer)&#xD;&#xA;* Payments are not instant. They are held in escrow in-case the company/freelance hirer has a dispute.&#xD;&#xA;* Payments are based on hours logged through the application the freelance platform makes you use which screenshots your work and logs the hours automatically.&#xD;&#xA;* The client never filed a dispute against me, all payments were successfully made to me. There was never a dispute whilst the work was ongoing, at any stage.&#xD;&#xA;* The guy who hired me never attempted to file a complaint through the freelancing platform, even though the platform has a dispute resolution process which is great for both sides.&#xD;&#xA;* All complaints they have had, have been through email only.&#xD;&#xA;* We are both in the same country as one another, but different regions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can someone who hired me through a freelancing platform and agreed to their legal agreements, take legal action against me because they were not satisfied even though they made no attempt to file a dispute through the platform? I apologised they felt as though I didn't do a satisfactory job, but they've been so hostile and constantly holding over the prospect of legal action against me. I wanted to make it work, but the stress is too much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My concern is they're in the same country as me which would make the possibility of them attempting legal action a lot easier. I know if they were in a different country, then the threat of a lawsuit wouldn't really mean much. Am I protected by the freelancing platform here? Am I also protected by the fact they never attempted to file a dispute through the platform?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just looking for some options and perhaps additional information from anyone experienced in such matters or has been through a similar situation themselves." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13994" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4686" RevisionGUID="dda2dc5f-ea06-4b1c-94e4-ec58c83cda99" CreationDate="2016-07-04T02:03:07.760" UserId="9835" Text="Sounds like you're using Upwork? If not, let me know and I'll adjust this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I've been using Upwork for over a year and pretty much stopped using it because of low-quality clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there was no issue with your work during the development process and the client was able to see your work and then all of a sudden is not happy, that's a little suspicious. Unless, they're not satisfied with what's happened since the most recent billing period. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This client may be happy but may want to keep the work and make back the payment so, in essence, you worked for free. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Nevertheless**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are paid for your **time** especially during hourly contracts. You're paid $x/hour for your expertise and skill. You provided a service, even if it wasn't completely up to the clients expectations - you put in the time and your time is worth something. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been threatened a lawsuit or two in my time and have always been able to resolve the situation but I am not promising that your situation won't escalate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask the client for specifics as to why they're not happy, why they didn't bring up issues earlier, etc. This can all be used to call BS or as evidence later on.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Inform support. This client may have done this before/ have a history of threatening a lawsuit&#xD;&#xA; - Offer x amount of hours of free work to fix major issues&#xD;&#xA; - Offer to work at a discount (I'd say at least 50%) to fix issues&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they don't want you to fix anything then remove your work. I would tell them that I'm sorry they're unhappy with my work and that I'll refund them x% (I did this once and gave back 50%) but that I will be removing my work as they're not happy with it and I don't want to leave them with low-quality work or with work that was done but not technically paid for (because of the refund). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's the thing about legal action - no one is safe. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I could sue you because you missed a comma in your question or claim you keyed my car. I could bring it to court as well (more than likely would be thrown out). Anyone can sue anyone for anything. If things do escalate then you need to be prepared to build a case. Save all work hours, save all communications through all methods, have proof of work, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**STAY PROFESSIONAL**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Through ALL communication stay professional, helpful, calm, and don't use profanity. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;If none of this works and they decide to proceed with a lawsuit&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let the client know you're prepared to defend yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This had a client back off of a lawsuit from me once:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I have X which proves you had no problem with the work after seeing it multiple times. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Y shows communication between us that I offered to fix the problem but you wanted to keep my work and get a full refund. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not a lawyer but you may want to research one." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13996" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="3982" RevisionGUID="8b840ec1-a768-4f2c-82b4-d38a24663c81" CreationDate="2016-07-04T07:19:36.647" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="36" />
  <row Id="13997" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3982" RevisionGUID="07587a5b-be1e-433f-9162-83a523ab7746" CreationDate="2016-07-04T08:51:47.023" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/749888422983114752" />
  <row Id="14002" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4688" RevisionGUID="19753f88-4d99-4f6f-bc3a-20dc3e38e173" CreationDate="2016-07-04T16:19:08.837" UserId="708" Text="**Ignore it.** If escrow was used for payments, they had to relinquish their hold on the escrow.... if they did so without approving of the work, it's not your problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bullying you into more work, or a return of funds, is just that, bullying. If they fail to go through stated channels, it's even more a case of just plain bullying. You **do** have a contract with the client as per whatever middleman site you are using. Bullying is a very common practice by bad clients, because it works. Heck, it's clearly got you reeling (for no reason).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would simply **stop working and stop responding** to the client. Do all that you've been paid to do, then stop. And keep a record of *everything* which has transpired. Then forget it, until/unless some third party were to contact you, if that *ever* happens. In which case, you should have records.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No idea where you are... but in the US... anyone can sue anyone for anything. That does *not* mean they will win. And, although I'm not a lawyer and am not intending to provide *any* legal advice, it seems to me the *worse* case scenario would be an order to return the money they paid and their return of your product/code. So everyone goes back to zero. I can't imagine that they would be deserving of *anything* more." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14003" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4689" RevisionGUID="1edb7738-d2d6-4267-a6fe-badf2517abb4" CreationDate="2016-07-04T16:21:01.213" UserId="11579" Text="Your National Insurance contributions is calculated on total taxable income. The source of the taxable income is irrelevant - thus I suspect its likely you'll have to contribute more National Insurance, though I also suspect its so small that its not worth worrying about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Call your local tax office and ask them - I've had a UK Limited Company in the UK for 20+ years and have had to call on them over the years (meaning they are human and not out to trick you).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Alternatively, the UK Government website calculator might help:&#xD;&#xA;https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/how-to-manually-check-your-payroll-calculations&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14004" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4690" RevisionGUID="1120d422-d160-484c-9f92-886ef89602d4" CreationDate="2016-07-04T16:38:46.877" UserId="11579" Text="I started freelancing as a sys admin 20+ years ago and have have adapted my skills over the years to find myself having recruited a few for employers around Europe. Based on my experience, you'll find few positions that will suit your availability - I say few implying almost none but you might find the exception.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Firstly - SysAdmin is old school - I still use the term, but my sysadmin mates call themselves System Engineers nowadays. SysAdmin are the lesser qualified (using smaller toolset knowledge/experience and frequent repeditive work) I am told with a grin, the System Engineers are leading edge technologists.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway... One of the main reasons behind few opportunities for you is liability - if you work from remote, you are under the wings of your local laws - The ability of an employer to prosecute you for misadventure would be both expensive and complicated. I'm not saying you would be of that nature, but best practice for employers business decisions is based around risk/impact.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other risks that can apply are tax rules - for example within Europe many EU countries have a special 'chain law' which says if a business takes on a service provider (freelancer) and the freelancer fails to pay the taxes due, the tax man can work their way up the chain and charge the business. Thus, a business could carry the risks that you will pay all tax and your country, and their country could have different interpretation on what is due.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then there is data security - giving you command line access is like letting you into the bedroom of the business - all sorts of stuff is available within seconds and employing someone to watch over you would erase cost benefits of undertaking your services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Opportunity still exists though: Research your local market for international consultancies. They use their international relationships to win contracts that require people like you. They charge a premium to these other businesses, take a huge amount of cream off, and pay you the remainder (still very profitable, but don't be surprised if they are making more than half of what they might pay you). It might appear they do nothing for that cash, but they are undertaking commercial risks that go with these foreign contracts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly - research more about being a freelancer - it can be rewarding, but the relationship with the business is typically *not* the same as employee/employer. I compare it to prostitution - you are hired and fired without rights, without pension, health or other insurances, if you go sick, its unpaid, if you screw up, you could pay dearly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope that helps. Best of luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14005" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4691" RevisionGUID="d953846f-76d5-400d-9643-a1758f7df062" CreationDate="2016-07-04T17:42:38.840" UserId="708" Text="#Don't provide anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Avoid these clients.** Seriously, don't even consider working for clients such as this. If the client can not take the time to at least attempt to describe their issue as thoroughly as possible, especially in a *written* description, then they will **not** take the time to interact with you appropriately. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lack of any detail shows a *clear* apathy towards both the project and the worker. And that will ultimately translate to you tracking them down to get input, direction, and possibly payment. In addition to **repeated** reworking of things you've already completed because the client failed to describe things correctly to begin with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are at all interested in pleasing, seamless, beneficial client arrangements, simply do **not** quote/bid/estimate on a project with little or no description. The absolutely **most** you should do is ask for &quot;more detailed information&quot; before providing *anything* yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Vested clients *want* to eliminate as much guesswork as possible. It's understandable if they just do not posses the knowledge to describe an issue correctly or accurately. However, **I have yet to run into a client that can't describe the *problem* they are experiencing.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14007" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4692" RevisionGUID="429c53e1-2e02-4b3b-97f9-f66725793412" CreationDate="2016-07-05T01:47:11.413" UserId="4561" Text="One thing you can do is be very specific yourself regarding what you understand their request to be and exactly what you will deliver when you provide a quote.  So the client says &quot;I want an app that does xyz, how much will this cost&quot;  You can say &quot;I will provide you with an app that:&#xD;&#xA;- is compatible on these operating swystems&#xD;&#xA;- contains feature a&#xD;&#xA;- contains feature b&#xD;&#xA;- contains feature c&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;for ____ price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think some requests are vague because the client is lazy or trying to get something for nothing.  But I also think a lot of clients don't know what they want/need.  They have a general idea but aren't technical enough to give good details initially.  This could turn into a great client.  Or a major nightmare.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Either way, once you get going, they are going to realize all kinds of other things they want the software to do that they did not know enough to ask for originally.  If you have a detailed quote of your own to point to, they will understand that is not included in your original price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on my experience with prior projects I can often anticipate what will go wrong or what other things the client is not realizing they will want.  So another thing I do with my existing clients is sometimes say:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Included:***&#xD;&#xA;Feature a&#xD;&#xA;Feature b&#xD;&#xA;Feature c&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Not included:***&#xD;&#xA;Feature x&#xD;&#xA;Feature y &#xD;&#xA;Feature z&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;OR - maybe more appealing is to offer two or three prices.  The &quot;basic&quot; version with features a,b, and c will cost $x, and the comprehensive version with features x, y, and z will cost Y.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might also factor &quot;x hours of change requests&quot; into your proposal.  Or specify testing and troubleshooting as an extra, separate fee, so they don't hold you hostage for a year over a $50 project!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14008" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4693" RevisionGUID="5fc95082-5762-49a2-a807-a31b5d8d7fdd" CreationDate="2016-07-05T03:43:10.027" UserId="8094" Text="As a full-stack developer myself with an emphasis in backend development and the owner of a small web development studio, I wouldn't hire you for back-end work. You're not a back-end developer, yet. As a back-end developer, you're responsible for 3 main components: Database, Server Configuration/Architecture, and Application Design and Development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the following paragraphs, let me try to give you an idea of some of the things you'll find in backend development. When working wth the database, you're not just writing SQL queries, but making sure that your database structure is efficient, optimized, and, if it's a relational database, normalized. You're not just setting up Apache and mod_php on a Linux box (or deploying a pre-configured machine), but you're helping to decide what servers will be the best for the project. You'll probably be responsible for making sure that any teammates have a consistent development environment and tools like vagrant, grunt, gulp, bower, composer, etc. shouldn't scare you. You may be working with platforms-as-a-service like Heroku and debugging against their idiosyncrasies or working with a unique cloud platform like AWS. You have to make sure that the system is up to date, and that there aren't any glaring security holes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You won't just be writing SQL queries in your application layer, you'll have to understand which language and framework will be best for the job. You'll probably also work with an ORM or at the least a DBAL in your application. You should understand test driven development, agile methodologies, DRY, SOLID, and have incorporated those principles into your coding. You have to know how to avoid time-complexity and memory-complexity issues, and you must know how to mitigate the [top 10 web application security risks][2] (XSS, CSRF, SQL injection, etc.).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you'd like to become a back-end developer, here are some recommendations:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Build a useful site or two using one of the mainstream backend environments/frameworks. My first suggestion would be node.js, since you already know javascript. If you also master mongodb and nginx, paired with your front-end angular chops, you'll be able to advertise yourself as a MEAN stack developer. Other stacks that you'll find the majority of development work in are: LAMP/LEMP (linux, Apache/nginx, mysql/postgresql, and PHP), Ruby on Rails/Sinatra/Roda combined with Unicorn/Puma and nginx, and IIS/.NET stack.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Work with an established development team. I learned a lot when I worked with a couple of excellent development shops as a supplement to their in-house teams. They had some excellent developers who pushed me to learn more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. Don't start advertising as a backend developer if you've never had a backend job. Ease into it. Start by advertising full-stack development with an emphasis in front-end development. This is the position I'd start you in if I were to train you to do full-stack development (which appears to be where you want to go anyways).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 4. Keep asking questions, but make Google your best friend. Also, you should spend a bit of time working on your marketing and sales process if you want to take on the complete development of a websites for well-paying clients. I've been freelancing for about 2.5 years now. I just recently figured out how to [break the time barrier][3], and it's a learning process to do so effectively.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.s. If you wouldn't mind marking this as your answer or at least upvoting my answer, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Top_10_2013-Top_10&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.freshbooks.com/assets/other/Breaking-the-Time-Barrier.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14012" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4695" RevisionGUID="ddbcc505-c607-4552-b0b0-5595943240de" CreationDate="2016-07-05T04:09:04.400" UserId="8094" Text="RULE OF THUMB: Don't Waste your Time&#xD;&#xA;====&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Scott, I don't recommend wasting time on jobs with short descriptions like those in your question. I've only ever turned 2 or 3 into clients (and I've been working on Elance/Upwork for 2.5 years now). I do make a few exceptions, however.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EXCEPTIONS&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I make exceptions on occasion as I know that clients are sometimes just busy, and perhaps they're not expecting much from a post on a job platform. These jobs are frequently passed over by good freelancers as a general rule, so competition is low if you can demonstrate expertise AND the client is actively seeking help. How can you tell if it might be worth a quick contact?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually you can see details about the client's history along with their job posts. I look for the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Previous projects (pretty much absolutely required for the post to mean anything)&#xD;&#xA;- Decent hourly rate on hourly projects or a history of reasonable pay for fixed-price projects&#xD;&#xA;- Skill tags on the post that match my expertise or show the client to lack knowledge about what he needs (tagging iOS and .NET on a mobile app job, for instance)&#xD;&#xA;- Good reputation (4 stars or more)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the job post seems to have enough factors in its favor, then here's how I typically approach the first contact. I start with a friendly greeting, ask them a question about their project that highlights the fact that I understand what they might be looking for, reference a couple of past projects that were similar/qualify me to do a good job for them, and close asking for a quick 5-10 minute call to discuss their needs. I usually aim for less than 3 paragraphs, and I don't invest significant time in working up any kind of a quote. If a number is required, I'll quote my hourly rate or their project's budget (sometimes I'll put the cost of estimating the project instead, or my weekly rate).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope that helps! If you have any questions, I'd be happy to help you out since I've completed more than 15 projects successfully on job platforms in the last couple of years and it's currently the source of 80% of my work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14013" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4695" RevisionGUID="e19df4a2-b0fa-4cbd-8803-476c6c5534e8" CreationDate="2016-07-05T06:19:07.320" UserId="708" Comment="Removed my username since it wasn't relevant and was misused." Text="RULE OF THUMB: Don't Waste your Time&#xD;&#xA;====&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't recommend wasting time on jobs with short descriptions like those in your question. I've only ever turned 2 or 3 into clients (and I've been working on Elance/Upwork for 2.5 years now). I do make a few exceptions, however.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EXCEPTIONS&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I make exceptions on occasion as I know that clients are sometimes just busy, and perhaps they're not expecting much from a post on a job platform. These jobs are frequently passed over by good freelancers as a general rule, so competition is low if you can demonstrate expertise AND the client is actively seeking help. How can you tell if it might be worth a quick contact?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually you can see details about the client's history along with their job posts. I look for the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Previous projects (pretty much absolutely required for the post to mean anything)&#xD;&#xA;- Decent hourly rate on hourly projects or a history of reasonable pay for fixed-price projects&#xD;&#xA;- Skill tags on the post that match my expertise or show the client to lack knowledge about what he needs (tagging iOS and .NET on a mobile app job, for instance)&#xD;&#xA;- Good reputation (4 stars or more)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the job post seems to have enough factors in its favor, then here's how I typically approach the first contact. I start with a friendly greeting, ask them a question about their project that highlights the fact that I understand what they might be looking for, reference a couple of past projects that were similar/qualify me to do a good job for them, and close asking for a quick 5-10 minute call to discuss their needs. I usually aim for less than 3 paragraphs, and I don't invest significant time in working up any kind of a quote. If a number is required, I'll quote my hourly rate or their project's budget (sometimes I'll put the cost of estimating the project instead, or my weekly rate).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope that helps! If you have any questions, I'd be happy to help you out since I've completed more than 15 projects successfully on job platforms in the last couple of years and it's currently the source of 80% of my work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14014" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4696" RevisionGUID="8d5ff9d8-b408-43c5-a88e-5babfd50eff5" CreationDate="2016-07-05T15:30:11.803" UserId="12920" Text="I am working on web mapping app and I want to know how much should I charge the client for it, can you please give me a clear idea on what factors are taken in consideration for the pricing of web apps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are the technologies (all are free tools) used to create my web app :&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;   - Html/CSS&#xD;&#xA;   - Javascript&#xD;&#xA;   - Bootstrap&#xD;&#xA;   - jQuery&#xD;&#xA;   - Openlayers 3, morris.js, dataTables, dateTimePicker ( JS libraries )&#xD;&#xA;   - Geoserver ( cartographic server )&#xD;&#xA;   - PostgreSQL+PostGIS ( database )&#xD;&#xA;   - Apache2 ( web server )&#xD;&#xA;   - PHP5&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14015" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4696" RevisionGUID="8d5ff9d8-b408-43c5-a88e-5babfd50eff5" CreationDate="2016-07-05T15:30:11.803" UserId="12920" Text="How much does a web app cost?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14016" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4696" RevisionGUID="8d5ff9d8-b408-43c5-a88e-5babfd50eff5" CreationDate="2016-07-05T15:30:11.803" UserId="12920" Text="|price|software|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14017" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4697" RevisionGUID="13130f50-9929-4c8f-a232-7055f6740733" CreationDate="2016-07-05T16:49:22.040" UserId="1706" Text="This really tells us nothing about what the application will actually do or its complexity.  AND we're not here to do that for you anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can go about this two ways:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Pick an hourly rate that you're comfortable with, and charge that.  The client has the flexibility to tailor the requirements in whatever fashion, and you don't worry about that piece because you're paid for your time.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Do fixed-price, in milestones.  One milestone is for you to turn over a deliverable called a requirements document.  You get paid for this phase.  After that's done, you and the client can decide to continue, or not, and you can name your price for the other milestones to follow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is really a serious decision.  Don't screw yourself. In either case, don't forget a WRITTEN agreement covering whatever you're going to do, and specific payment terms.  And don't ever go more than a few weeks without getting a check.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14024" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4685" RevisionGUID="af0ab0a0-b6f0-42a9-9ae9-9e497b247cea" CreationDate="2016-07-06T03:06:42.220" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/750526356862230528" />
  <row Id="14028" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4700" RevisionGUID="cfa8a3cc-bdb1-4cfc-8733-b77828f287bc" CreationDate="2016-07-06T05:02:13.317" UserId="7858" Text="Pricing is notoriously difficult as it depends on several factors:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Your own desired hourly rate&#xD;&#xA;* What the client typically pays&#xD;&#xA;* The perceived value to the client&#xD;&#xA;* Whether the project is similar to anything you have undertaken before&#xD;&#xA;* Whether the client has clear requirements or not&#xD;&#xA;* Whether giving a discount most probably will lead to more work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While you decide what your own price target is, getting an idea of what the client might be willing to pay is often difficult or impossible to deduce. You need to somehow get at least a ballpark figure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have previous experience with very similar projects, you could go for a fixed price - but this requires that scope creep is minimized. Personally, I would never (again) set a fixed price with an 'IT-wise immature' client, as discussions very fast become sour. Fixed price requires that both parties acknowledge that changes will happen and that these will add to the price. Otherwise, constructive project discussions regarding functionality become legal arguments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If some of the technologies are new to you, a discount could be considered. Similarly, if the project very probably could lead to other similar projects, a discount could be considered a future investment. Personally, I no longer give such discounts as I have found that my freelancing career has never really followed any predictable path.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So - assuming you have experience with some/most of the technologies, but have not delivered a project exactly like this one and have not worked with this client before - I would go for an hourly rate and split the project into stages.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients generally like a fixed price, but the inevitable squabbling that follows tends to sour the relationship - so I would only do it as a last resort (or not at all).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Convincing them of an hourly rate is not always easy, but it tends to lead to a more transparent pricing structure. When they know they are paying for ALL your time, they tend to focus on things they actually want and need instead of what they can extract/extort from you. In addition, even if they abandon the project after some stage because of changed business needs or that it turned out to be more complex than anticipated, they will probably fee more satisfied with the process and might work with you again." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14029" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4696" RevisionGUID="958d6614-7c54-43fe-a38f-74ad085bb9c9" CreationDate="2016-07-06T16:35:05.837" UserId="1706" Comment="edited title" Text="How much do I charge to build a web app?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14030" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4552" RevisionGUID="db5ebac0-74be-46a4-a028-89e736fd6c5b" CreationDate="2016-07-06T17:32:59.897" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="14031" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4693" RevisionGUID="de7be233-0a08-48c7-892a-36dac312c0ae" CreationDate="2016-07-06T19:16:19.227" UserId="9835" Comment="Seems unnecessary to ask for a +1 or to be marked as the answer without indication from OP or community that this is helpful. " Text="As a full-stack developer myself with an emphasis in backend development and the owner of a small web development studio, I wouldn't hire you for back-end work. You're not a back-end developer, yet. As a back-end developer, you're responsible for 3 main components: Database, Server Configuration/Architecture, and Application Design and Development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the following paragraphs, let me try to give you an idea of some of the things you'll find in backend development. When working wth the database, you're not just writing SQL queries, but making sure that your database structure is efficient, optimized, and, if it's a relational database, normalized. You're not just setting up Apache and mod_php on a Linux box (or deploying a pre-configured machine), but you're helping to decide what servers will be the best for the project. You'll probably be responsible for making sure that any teammates have a consistent development environment and tools like vagrant, grunt, gulp, bower, composer, etc. shouldn't scare you. You may be working with platforms-as-a-service like Heroku and debugging against their idiosyncrasies or working with a unique cloud platform like AWS. You have to make sure that the system is up to date, and that there aren't any glaring security holes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You won't just be writing SQL queries in your application layer, you'll have to understand which language and framework will be best for the job. You'll probably also work with an ORM or at the least a DBAL in your application. You should understand test driven development, agile methodologies, DRY, SOLID, and have incorporated those principles into your coding. You have to know how to avoid time-complexity and memory-complexity issues, and you must know how to mitigate the [top 10 web application security risks][2] (XSS, CSRF, SQL injection, etc.).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you'd like to become a back-end developer, here are some recommendations:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Build a useful site or two using one of the mainstream backend environments/frameworks. My first suggestion would be node.js, since you already know javascript. If you also master mongodb and nginx, paired with your front-end angular chops, you'll be able to advertise yourself as a MEAN stack developer. Other stacks that you'll find the majority of development work in are: LAMP/LEMP (linux, Apache/nginx, mysql/postgresql, and PHP), Ruby on Rails/Sinatra/Roda combined with Unicorn/Puma and nginx, and IIS/.NET stack.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Work with an established development team. I learned a lot when I worked with a couple of excellent development shops as a supplement to their in-house teams. They had some excellent developers who pushed me to learn more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. Don't start advertising as a backend developer if you've never had a backend job. Ease into it. Start by advertising full-stack development with an emphasis in front-end development. This is the position I'd start you in if I were to train you to do full-stack development (which appears to be where you want to go anyways).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 4. Keep asking questions, but make Google your best friend. Also, you should spend a bit of time working on your marketing and sales process if you want to take on the complete development of a websites for well-paying clients. I've been freelancing for about 2.5 years now. I just recently figured out how to [break the time barrier][3], and it's a learning process to do so effectively.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Top_10_2013-Top_10&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.freshbooks.com/assets/other/Breaking-the-Time-Barrier.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14032" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4693" RevisionGUID="de7be233-0a08-48c7-892a-36dac312c0ae" CreationDate="2016-07-06T19:16:19.227" Comment="Proposed by 9835 approved by 1706, 8094 edit id of 466" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14033" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4695" RevisionGUID="40cc74d9-6791-49a6-a7ed-7acfffc47888" CreationDate="2016-07-06T19:19:49.020" UserId="8094" Comment="Sorry about confusing the questioner with you, Scott. I've rewritten my answer to properly address the Op." Text="RULE OF THUMB: Don't Waste your Time&#xD;&#xA;====&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Harry, I don't recommend wasting time on jobs with short descriptions like those in your question. I've only ever turned 2 or 3 into clients (and I've been working on Elance/Upwork for 2.5 years now). I do make a few exceptions, however.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EXCEPTIONS&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I make exceptions on occasion as I know that clients are sometimes just busy, and perhaps they're not expecting much from a post on a job platform. These jobs are frequently passed over by good freelancers as a general rule, so competition is low if you can demonstrate expertise AND the client is actively seeking help. How can you tell if it might be worth a quick contact?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually you can see details about the client's history along with their job posts. I look for the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Previous projects (pretty much absolutely required for the post to mean anything)&#xD;&#xA;- Decent hourly rate on hourly projects or a history of reasonable pay for fixed-price projects&#xD;&#xA;- Skill tags on the post that match my expertise or show the client to lack knowledge about what he needs (tagging iOS and .NET on a mobile app job, for instance)&#xD;&#xA;- Good reputation (4 stars or more)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the job post seems to have enough factors in its favor, then here's how I typically approach the first contact. I start with a friendly greeting, ask them a question about their project that highlights the fact that I understand what they might be looking for, reference a couple of past projects that were similar/qualify me to do a good job for them, and close asking for a quick 5-10 minute call to discuss their needs. I usually aim for less than 3 paragraphs, and I don't invest significant time in working up any kind of a quote. If a number is required, I'll quote my hourly rate or their project's budget (sometimes I'll put the cost of estimating the project instead, or my weekly rate).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope that helps! If you have any questions, I'd be happy to help you out since I've completed more than 15 projects successfully on job platforms in the last couple of years and it's currently the source of 80% of my work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14035" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4701" RevisionGUID="c87385e1-ac5d-4bbf-b37e-9ef9648e8177" CreationDate="2016-07-07T09:30:50.443" UserId="13002" Text="What should you do when you're offered to do different stages of work from two different clients (i.e. agencies) for the same project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By different stage of work, I mean the working stage and the verification (QC) stage, which generally should require two different persons.&#xD;&#xA;The projects were outsourced, hence this incidence can occur.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know turning down one is a must, but what to do when this situation keeps coming and you signed NDA with both parties (with the clause that you cannot tell anyone that you work for them)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems that I am the main freelancer for both clients.&#xD;&#xA;For the first client, I already worked with them in many projects in verification stage and I'm sure that they ask for my availability first before other freelancers; for the second client, they just stated that they want me to be their 'main freelancer' for their 'client', which seemingly they get outsourced from the first client - and they get outsourced because of the 'test' they asked me to do to qualify to be the outsourcer of this first client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice is appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14036" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4701" RevisionGUID="c87385e1-ac5d-4bbf-b37e-9ef9648e8177" CreationDate="2016-07-07T09:30:50.443" UserId="13002" Text="What to do when you are offered the same project but different stage of work by different clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14037" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4701" RevisionGUID="c87385e1-ac5d-4bbf-b37e-9ef9648e8177" CreationDate="2016-07-07T09:30:50.443" UserId="13002" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14039" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4702" RevisionGUID="b0a98423-912b-4e98-a600-16527e9e9402" CreationDate="2016-07-07T13:52:38.550" UserId="13007" Text="Don't submit to bidding wars.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The trick is to write a great proposal/pitch for the job that can win over your client. Your bid, or price, doesn't really matter as long as the client believes you're the best fit for the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are freelancers who live for bidding and copy-pasting job proposals. And the one thing they suck at is writing a convincing proposal ([see here for examples][1]).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Work on your portfolio, build your reputation and learn to write a great pitch. No need to include the price in your proposal, you can negotiate that later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancinghacks.com/how-to-win-clients-lessons-learned-freelance-proposals/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14040" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3604" RevisionGUID="df22eda8-74d7-4259-8dda-26e7b09726bd" CreationDate="2016-07-07T16:03:10.657" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="14041" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4703" RevisionGUID="c7f5a53d-6cff-4735-b97b-db8e9e07806b" CreationDate="2016-07-07T16:17:39.973" UserId="1706" Text="You have a conflict-of-interest.  It is your responsibility only to make sure YOU can't get into any kind of trouble as a result.  If the client for the quality-control stage doesn't ask, whatever.  Cover your own behind.  That MIGHT mean declaring yourself unfit due to the conflict." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14042" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4704" RevisionGUID="38b77f98-0320-45b6-9305-73a3c29bbec9" CreationDate="2016-07-07T16:38:44.640" UserId="708" Text="Pick a client... turn the other one down. You *know* you can't do both. The only ethical thing to do is to turn one down. There's no tightrope you can walk. There's no delicate balance you can pull off. The ONLY way you could do both is if the two clients for some reason realized (on their own) that they were both sending you work for the same project(s). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not fun when this happens, but there's really nothing more you can do without risking your reputation with *all* your clients. I've been in a similar situation.... under an NDA and offered a job I wanted, but it conflicted with previous NDA work... so had to turn down the new job. Hated doing that. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14043" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="153" RevisionGUID="6f461bb9-4477-4469-85c4-db0e835cef74" CreationDate="2016-07-09T03:02:01.577" UserId="13016" Comment="spelling, word choice" Text="Most of these sites have a reputation based system, meaning that your chances of being hired are drastically increasing as you complete more jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally, from the client's point of view he has two choices:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. To hire an **expensive freelancer** with **great reputation**&#xD;&#xA; 2. To hire a **cheap freelancer** with little or **no reputation**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a new freelancer on the site, you need to try to fall as much as possible in the second target of the client, meaning that offer as low rates as possible. You can gradually increase your rates as you gain reputation and returning clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14044" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="153" RevisionGUID="6f461bb9-4477-4469-85c4-db0e835cef74" CreationDate="2016-07-09T03:02:01.577" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 152, 1706 edit id of 467" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14045" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4705" RevisionGUID="6c6ef807-13ea-4a55-a03c-36135dc13952" CreationDate="2016-07-09T21:13:59.070" UserDisplayName="user13032" Text="It may sounds trivial, but maybe it's not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm looking for a job then I look to company's website open positions page and I send a curriculum. In this case the company would be my employer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If instead I'm a freelance and I'm looking to get a job then I try to contact the company to advertize my services. In this case the company would be my client.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Is there something in between? Think of a company that need a service (the development of a web application or something similar) for which it may hire somebody or may outsource it to a freelance. In this last case the distinction between employer and client, according to me, is not so clear.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the question is: do you think it makes sense to submit a curriculum to a company spontaneous applications page (where they seek for employee), and to write in the covering letter that I would be glad to work for them as a freelance in the case they need one for a service involving the skills I have?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14046" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4705" RevisionGUID="6c6ef807-13ea-4a55-a03c-36135dc13952" CreationDate="2016-07-09T21:13:59.070" UserDisplayName="user13032" Text="Getting consulting jobs by submitting curriculum to company's spontaneous applications page?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14047" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4705" RevisionGUID="6c6ef807-13ea-4a55-a03c-36135dc13952" CreationDate="2016-07-09T21:13:59.070" UserDisplayName="user13032" Text="|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14048" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4706" RevisionGUID="31a8f2f0-9f47-4ff7-b552-f62394da7030" CreationDate="2016-07-09T22:45:50.443" UserId="9835" Text="There's a big difference in being a freelancer and being an employee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're hired by a company as a W2 employee (or the equivalent if you're not in the US) you have a boss. They tell you how to do your job (to an extent). You get trained on how the team does x, y, and z and you work certain hours or can work within a range of hours (if you're salary). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're a freelancer then you're the boss. Yes, they hired you but, you're not their employee. You work for yourself. They give you a project and you get to decide how to do it. You get to set your own hours, and work for as many clients you can handle. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Further reading: [1][1], [2][2], [3][3]. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wrote an [answer for a similar question][4] about applying to jobs as a freelancer for companies looking for an employee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, yes you can do it and it doesn't hurt to try. Chances are you won't be looked at if you state you're a freelancer as HR vets most applications. If you can, go directly to the department head or the CEO (depending on the size of the company) and give them your pitch. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wouldn't contact these people in the same manner that you would for a normal W2 position as that's not what this would be. You need to show results, case studies, and your competitive advantages. A cover letter doesn't mean much here. Send them your [elevator speech][5] and include contact info.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't make this a part of your usual sales funnel because it's more effort than it's worth. Only do this if you're interested in the company/their product or service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://employment.findlaw.com/hiring-process/being-an-independent-contractor-vs-employee.html&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.sba.gov/starting-business/hire-retain-employees/hire-contractor-or-employee&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/employee-vs-independent-contractor-differences-you-need-to-know&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4623/is-it-advisable-to-contact-a-company-and-offer-your-services-based-on-job-advert/4624#4624&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://sfp.ucdavis.edu/files/163926.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14049" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4707" RevisionGUID="c618b928-90fe-484c-a853-8694afb69e43" CreationDate="2016-07-10T05:38:05.270" UserId="9835" Text="I've scaled a lot lately and I'm working at least 12 hour days 6 days a week in order to stay on top of all my contracts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a lot more leads that I just can't take on right now so most of them are being pit stopped ie. *I can't take on any more clients right now but I'll add you to the waitlist if you're interested*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have 2 choices right now:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Hire a VA to take some of the workload off of me for my existing clients and new clients. &#xD;&#xA; - Stop taking in new clients and risk losing good leads without gaining the equivalent back. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've worked with some VA's before but I've never done extensive work where they'd impact my overall clients and were usually the VA of a client that was able to do work in 1 area and give me more time to focus elsewhere. I digress. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I consider with both options?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I choose to hire a VA, how do I hire the right VA? I've heard many horror stories. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I don't take on any more clients how can I maintain current leads for 3-12 months and should I continue to try and gain more leads to cover ones that fall off the radar?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14050" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4707" RevisionGUID="c618b928-90fe-484c-a853-8694afb69e43" CreationDate="2016-07-10T05:38:05.270" UserId="9835" Text="What should one consider when deciding to hire a VA or stop taking on more clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14051" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4707" RevisionGUID="c618b928-90fe-484c-a853-8694afb69e43" CreationDate="2016-07-10T05:38:05.270" UserId="9835" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14052" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4707" RevisionGUID="b0c9a373-73fe-47a4-89e1-7a9d6d01a5ff" CreationDate="2016-07-10T05:40:24.830" UserId="9835" Comment="added 20 characters in body" Text="I've scaled a lot lately and I'm working at least 12 hour days 6 days a week in order to stay on top of all my contracts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a lot more leads that I just can't take on right now so most of them are being pit stopped ie. *I can't take on any more clients right now but I'll add you to the waitlist if you're interested*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have 2 choices right now:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Hire a VA (Virtual Assistant) to take some of the workload off of me for my existing clients and new clients. &#xD;&#xA; - Stop taking in new clients and risk losing good leads without gaining the equivalent back. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've worked with some VA's before but I've never done extensive work where they'd impact my overall clients and were usually the VA of a client that was able to do work in 1 area and give me more time to focus elsewhere. I digress. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I consider with both options?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I choose to hire a VA, how do I hire the right VA? I've heard many horror stories. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I don't take on any more clients how can I maintain current leads for 3-12 months and should I continue to try and gain more leads to cover ones that fall off the radar?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14053" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4708" RevisionGUID="f3531144-5cea-458c-a999-4568406f52fb" CreationDate="2016-07-10T05:57:39.797" UserId="708" Text="In most cases, too much work means it's time to raise prices. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The point of raising prices is to weed out the less profitable clients, but maintain your workload. At a higher price point, you will get less work, but your income will remain the same (or better). I, personally, would rather have 10 fantastic, regular, high-paying, clients than 50 sporadic, small job, clients. Especially if I make the same income either way. I could easily chop my pricing and get a ton more clients. That's not *always* a good thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's an old adage... if you get every job you bid on... your prices are too low.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My immediate suggestion** would be to start bidding *very high* on new client projects - such as double, or triple your normal rate. You'll be amazed that some will actually pay a much higher rate. Some won't, but if you have enough work already, there's not really that much loss there. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being posted, you *could* hire an assistant and in some cases that's a good fit. Realize that a distant assistant (internet) will still require your time in terms on direction, review, etc. So I would only ever consider an assistant for tasks that wouldn't require a great deal of oversight. If you can hire someone to completely take &quot;skill set A&quot; off of your plate, and (eventually) trust them completely with that aspect, then it may be a viable alternative. For example, an assistant to handle client relations, or quality control, or browser testing, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, an assistant to merely do the same tasks you do may not be a good fit if you want control over deliverables. Difficult to explain in text... but... my clients come to me for *my* aesthetic sense... *my* eye.. *my* methods.... teaching someone or overseeing someone to do things as I would do them would be as much or more of a burden as my just doing them from the start. Therefore, I have to be careful to hire for projects/aspects I don't *want* to handle or that are not dependent upon *my* direct input. Only you can evaluate how much of your time is taken in each project aspect and whether or not those aspects could be delegated without generating more work or time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14054" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4709" RevisionGUID="2b663f9e-65a1-42f5-9c72-ccd96c139c21" CreationDate="2016-07-10T17:58:19.630" UserId="1706" Text="There are possibilities.  But your chances are limited unless you can get around HR, whose contact information these things will provide, and deal with the hiring manager or the person who'd be signing a check.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can waste your time with HR if you like, but an HR department in anything other than a very small business is trained to ignore the type of call you're proposing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14055" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4710" RevisionGUID="1e8e69fc-58d1-41ec-ad16-8ad31d9dedd3" CreationDate="2016-07-11T18:46:09.310" UserId="13047" Text="It's time to look at your business plan - you DO have a business plan?!?!?!  do you want to be a small 1 man shop or grow to be more of a consulting shop.  I know a few language experts who are 1 man shops and charge between $125 and $150 an hour.  I also now a few 5 to 10 people shops who charge between $65 and $125 per hour depending on the difficulty level of the work being accomplished.  IMHO big ship = more management headaches = more $$$.  Smaller shop = more control = more uncertainty of work load MAY EQUAL more $$$" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14056" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4711" RevisionGUID="cdc8cfba-9947-452e-9b07-cb27c9661af6" CreationDate="2016-07-12T01:50:49.240" UserId="13049" Text="For at least a couple of years I have been trying to build awareness of my writing/copyediting communications business.  I have even tried offering my services in exchange for referrals, but without success. It's been very discouraging:  no one seems to be interested in writing/editing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I read [this stackexchange post][1] on building up presence (among a couple of others), and one of the things that has been repeatedly mentioned is social media.  For a time I had a Twitter page that included quick, writing-oriented quips and questions designed to (hopefully) get people thinking about the need for my services, but without any consistent business, I began to lose both material and inspiration.  Additionally, I have a day job, so I have a bit more pressure regarding the time I can give to my business, unlike pure entrepreneurs (I have to make sure I maintain what pay the bills!).  My question is, do I really need these outlets, and what would I post...particularly on a social-media platform like Facebook which calls for more extensive, detailed postings?  In my position, do I need these outlets?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just thought I'd ask; I'm not sure if/how social media would help at this point.  Thank you for trying to help in advance.&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/119/how-can-i-advertise-myself" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14057" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4711" RevisionGUID="cdc8cfba-9947-452e-9b07-cb27c9661af6" CreationDate="2016-07-12T01:50:49.240" UserId="13049" Text="Writer/editor: Building presence and social media sites" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14058" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4711" RevisionGUID="cdc8cfba-9947-452e-9b07-cb27c9661af6" CreationDate="2016-07-12T01:50:49.240" UserId="13049" Text="|attracting-clients|marketing|time-management|advertising|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14063" PostHistoryTypeId="34" PostId="3982" RevisionGUID="b2c21429-7ab5-4925-a813-252030ab153d" CreationDate="2016-07-12T08:51:55.593" UserId="-1" Comment="36" />
  <row Id="14064" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4714" RevisionGUID="98ad079c-099c-4006-9086-783e32470493" CreationDate="2016-07-12T10:05:52.513" UserId="7858" Text="Generally, people starting a business hope to advertise their way to at least the first clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Quite often, this turns out to be a costly misconception, as it turns out that one needs to actively demonstrate to clients that they need your service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This may very well apply in your case as well, as you deliver 'writing', which everyone in business is already doing to some degree. They do it themselves or have a secretary or intern handle what writing needs to be done. Most are probably relatively satisfied and are therefore not looking for your services at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might need to demonstrate what it actually is you offer that goes above and beyond what they already have in place. And that could be tricky, as contacting a client always implies that you personally believe their current solution is insufficient. This was not a problem for me when I started out making websites editable, as the clients agreed that their current solution was unsatisfactory. You - however - could risk stepping on peoples' toes by criticizing writing performed by someone connected to the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps a better bet for you would be offering your services as a sub-contractor to larger firms, so you become part of a package. When it turns out you cannot get to the clients directly, the only option is to go after the ones who have the clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Promoting yourself to these firms may very well be done using social media, having a blog and the like. However, even though you only deliver writing, you would probably need to have an aesthetically pleasing layout, as these firms tend to evaluate the whole picture.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So - you perhaps need to change a bit from having a direct client focus to an indirect one, where your primary target are the firms you want to sub-contract for. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14065" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4715" RevisionGUID="b3ce1fa9-f72b-4488-ac99-c0dba869df1a" CreationDate="2016-07-12T10:34:56.617" UserId="7486" Text="Situation: &lt;b&gt;Year 2013&lt;/b&gt;. There is this small-medium size manufacture company &quot;C&quot; who has a malfunctional website, infected with malware and viruses, if you seach the company name you get thousands results with online pharmacy etc. &#xD;&#xA;C is very unhappy and the original developers are ignoring C's requests to solve problems, so they started to look for some other solution, then they knew about me because C's owners are somehow my wife's relatives.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was not very happy at first because is always a problem to work for friends and relatives but they insisted so I wanted to see and get a better idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We met and they told me somewhat like &quot;I would like that you will become like an &lt;i&gt;internal freelance&lt;/i&gt; in our company so that you will be able to know us better and advise us better to what is best for us and for the C's success. You shall, with time, be able to operate on the site and socials in autonomy once you will know better the company from the inside&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;b&gt;Year 2014-15&lt;/b&gt;. In this time I took C's website, moved host, domain and email, set-up top-level hosting services which worked great, I spent several hours at their offices for set-ups and configuations. Rebuilt a new responsive fully-functional multi-language CMS with impact design and lot of features for clients, reserved areas for dealers, custom PHP web apps (back-end and front-end). We made production videos, photos and other interesting materials. Set-up newsletter system, facebook, twitter and instagram accounts, managed posts and blogs, eventually made remote and on-site technical assistance, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The result was very good and sactistactory, I made a lot of effort and C's has now a well lanched website and social presence. The visits increased a lot and they built a good number of registered user.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everyone is satisfied, web and social are working very good, regular payments, and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;b&gt;Year 2016&lt;/b&gt; first months: C's communications with me became strangely silent all of a sudden, my proposals by email were unanswered, very little were asked to me to do. &#xD;&#xA;Spring 2016: They asked me if I could send them the original photos and videos we made before, they asked me administration rights to edit social channels, etc. I understood that there was something strange going on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I requested a meeting with them to clear the situation. After about 10 days we met and what they told me is that: &lt;b&gt;one of the biggest C's supplier provided a &quot;service pack&quot; to C that includes, togheter with various trade fairs services, a 6 months consultancy for print and social and web marketing&lt;/b&gt; provided by a supplier's *favourite* web agency (&quot;W&quot;) consisting in about 10 employees doing various specialized tasks, and C took advantage of this service pack.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found myself in the unpleasant situation to be *downgraded* from main consultant and project manager to simple executor of other's requests. In fact shortly I was emailed by someone from W with very demanding emails asking me for complex tasks in short time, sending me pdf mockups of web pages to reproduce exactly in an already existing CMS with high-quality responsive well running template, newsletter mockups with complex print-style format graphics to make as&#xD;&#xA;responsive newsletters ([unsupported by most clients][1]), and so on. W is never happy and ask me always for &quot;fixing&quot; this and that by email to me and with CC to the C's CEO. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;W even started to ask me for things that are objectively and technically wrong and counter-productive (I started to think that W wants to put me intentionally in a bad light so they can *steal* the client to me with the reasons that I do &quot;wrong things&quot; since C's CEO has no technical knowledge).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When that happened I stopped to do anything and requestes a new meeting with C's CEO before doing anything else, I proved to him why W's requests were wrong with facts, examples and techical documentation, we agreed to finish some tasks in certain (proper) ways as I explained to him and I did so. I also told him that surely, being a single freelance, I can't do what 10 employees can, and if he needs another kind of service he is free and is also OK for me, but if he wants me to work for him, I want to work as I know and as I think is best (having 20+ years of experience) without other people to instruct me or giving me orders out of the blue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Meanwhile I found out that when W started to manage C's social channels, W bought thousands of fake likes to show that their work produce results, that question was faced with C's CEO at the beginning and he did not want fake likes, he wanted genuine likes. In the meantime Google Analytics shows that &lt;b&gt;the site is loosing traffic by 15%/month for the last 3-4 months (when W started to work for C)&lt;/b&gt;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now we are in a suspended situation, C is still making W work for them while none of C or W are asking me anything or contacting me for anything. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know exactly how to go on with C, I feel frustrated and demotivated to go on with C, also the fact that C's CEO is my wife's relative is a big complication for family relationships.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What whould you do in my situation? Any suggestion is greatly appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14066" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4715" RevisionGUID="b3ce1fa9-f72b-4488-ac99-c0dba869df1a" CreationDate="2016-07-12T10:34:56.617" UserId="7486" Text="Complicated situation with client and an aggressive external company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14067" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4715" RevisionGUID="b3ce1fa9-f72b-4488-ac99-c0dba869df1a" CreationDate="2016-07-12T10:34:56.617" UserId="7486" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14068" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4665" RevisionGUID="e7c926d3-9b40-43cd-9e1f-95d6971940a1" CreationDate="2016-07-12T11:19:11.267" UserId="13016" Comment="caps, grammar" Text="You have to do one thing: &quot; be patient &quot; and never give-up.  You will surely get a job.  But the problem is, most of the clients will want to give their jobs to an experienced freelancer who has a good record. There you are most likely not to get the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - But you will get job from client who are searching for cheaper&#xD;&#xA;   freelancer.&#xD;&#xA; - If the client has a small job and is searching for a cheaper freelancer.&#xD;&#xA; - You should always write an attractive proposal so that clients will be impressed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line is, if the client has a small project and is willing to take some risk on the project, they will go for new freelancer. And you should be cheaper. You should give excellent service to get more and more jobs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14069" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4665" RevisionGUID="e7c926d3-9b40-43cd-9e1f-95d6971940a1" CreationDate="2016-07-12T11:19:11.267" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 11903 edit id of 470" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14070" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4715" RevisionGUID="392da713-bf6b-4c53-ac22-f1fe375c4448" CreationDate="2016-07-12T13:36:51.213" UserId="7486" Comment="added 277 characters in body" Text="Situation: &lt;b&gt;Year 2013&lt;/b&gt;. There is this small-medium size manufacture company &quot;C&quot; who has a malfunctional website, infected with malware and viruses, if you seach the company name you get thousands results with online pharmacy etc. &#xD;&#xA;C is very unhappy and the original developers are ignoring C's requests to solve problems, so they started to look for some other solution, then they knew about me because C's owners are somehow my wife's relatives.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was not very happy at first because is always a problem to work for friends and relatives but they insisted so I wanted to see and get a better idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We met and they told me somewhat like &quot;I would like that you will become like an &lt;i&gt;internal freelance&lt;/i&gt; in our company so that you will be able to know us better and advise us better to what is best for us and for the C's success. You shall, with time, be able to operate on the site and socials in autonomy once you will know better the company from the inside&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;b&gt;Year 2014-15&lt;/b&gt;. In this time I took C's website, moved host, domain and email, set-up top-level hosting services which worked great, I spent several hours at their offices for set-ups and configuations. Rebuilt a new responsive fully-functional multi-language CMS with impact design and lot of features for clients, reserved areas for dealers, custom PHP web apps (back-end and front-end). We made production videos, photos and other interesting materials. Set-up newsletter system, facebook, twitter and instagram accounts, managed posts and blogs, eventually made remote and on-site technical assistance, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The result was very good and sactistactory, I made a lot of effort and C's has now a well lanched website and social presence. The visits increased a lot and they built a good number of registered user.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everyone is satisfied, web and social are working very good, regular payments, and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;b&gt;Year 2016&lt;/b&gt; first months: C's communications with me became strangely silent all of a sudden, my proposals by email were unanswered, very little were asked to me to do. &#xD;&#xA;Spring 2016: They asked me if I could send them the original photos and videos we made before, they asked me administration rights to edit social channels, etc. I understood that there was something strange going on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I requested a meeting with them to clear the situation. After about 10 days we met and what they told me is that: &lt;b&gt;one of the biggest C's supplier provided a &quot;service pack&quot; to C that includes, togheter with various trade fairs services, a 6 months consultancy for print and social and web marketing&lt;/b&gt; provided by a supplier's *favourite* web agency (&quot;W&quot;) consisting in about 10 employees doing various specialized tasks, and C took advantage of this &quot;service pack&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found myself in the unpleasant situation to be *downgraded* from main consultant and project manager to simple executor of other's requests. In fact shortly after the meeting I started to receive emails by someone from W with very demanding requests asking me for complex tasks in short time, sending me pdf mockups of web pages to reproduce exactly in an already existing CMS with high-quality responsive well running template, newsletter mockups with complex print-style format graphics to make as&#xD;&#xA;responsive newsletters ([unsupported by most clients][1]), and so on. W is never happy and ask me always for &quot;fixing&quot; this and that by email to me and with CC to the C's CEO. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;W even started to ask me for things that are objectively and technically wrong and counter-productive (I started to think that W wants to put me intentionally in a bad light so they can *steal* the client to me with the reasons that I do &quot;wrong things&quot; since C's CEO has no technical knowledge).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When that happened I stopped to do anything and requested a new meeting with C's CEO before doing anything else, I proved to him why W's requests were wrong with facts, examples and techical documentation, we agreed to finish some tasks in certain (proper) ways as I explained to him and I did so. I also told him that surely, being a single freelance, I can't do what 10 employees can, and if he needs another kind of service he is free and is also OK for me, but if he wants me to work for him, I want to work as I know and as I think is best (having 20+ years of experience) without other people to instruct me or giving me orders out of the blue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Meanwhile I found out that when W started to manage C's social channels, W bought thousands of fake likes to show that their work produce results, that question was faced with C's CEO at the beginning and he did not want fake likes, he wanted genuine likes. In the meantime Google Analytics shows that &lt;b&gt;the site is losing traffic by 15%/month for the last 3-4 months (when W started to work for C)&lt;/b&gt;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now we are in a suspended situation, C is still making W work for them while none of C or W are asking for new tasks or jobs or contacting me for anything. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know exactly how to go on with C, I feel frustrated and demotivated, they called me when the ship was sinking, then with two years of work I made it beautiful, functional and going, and then someone (without even asking me anything) told me to go to wash the laundry while someone else will pilot the ship.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also the fact that C's CEO is my wife's relative is a big complication for family/work relationships.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What whould you do in my situation? Any suggestion is greatly appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14071" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4716" RevisionGUID="6352acc0-019c-4fa7-8013-18388f2eaf7b" CreationDate="2016-07-12T14:19:17.333" UserId="7486" Text="In my experience, social marketing for business works well mostly when there is a good social strategy that involves a lot of effort in terms of investment, hours of work and specialized people. You almost can't do that in your spare time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also I had the chance to go to an e-commerce conference and talking about social marketing, what came out clear is that in the average **people don't read**, unless the text is something that they are looking for (docs, recipes, news, ect). What works well in social maketing are images and video, these are the things that most attract interest and shares.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could partecipate in some writing project, some multi-author books are being published and widely distributed so you will eventually get known and contacted. Or work for a bigger agency in the field of copywriting/editing/revision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But let me tell you that in my 20+ experience of web design and development, maybe 1 or 2 times I saw a company paying someone for writing or editing texts, they do that mostly by themselves and usually they see the bigger competitor's website and almost copy the texts changing here and there to fit their needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14072" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4717" RevisionGUID="73456e8d-8f01-4111-90eb-91d278bf4480" CreationDate="2016-07-12T14:37:20.247" UserId="7486" Text="Just let me give a simple suggestion: if you are now young (I guess) and you are working 12 hours a day 6 days a week (which I did that too), in the long term you are going to be eaten by your own job and have no time for your personal life or for developing your own business while building other's businesses, and when you will be in your 30's or 40's you will not be able phisically and mentally to keep up with that rithm (expecially if you will eventually have a family).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My suggestion is, while you can, try to built your business in a way that others work for you and you are the supervisor, and when all flows good you have time to think about other side projects and different ways to get extra income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I am in my 40's with 20+ years of web develoment and design, with family, in the past I based my freelance business on the amout of work (more work at proper price = more income), but now I am not able anymore to do &quot;computer marathons&quot;, after a certain point my powers of concentration fade away...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wish to have realized that before, but I didn't think about that when I was coding and photoshopping from 8am to 10-12pm every day for years.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14076" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="4663" RevisionGUID="101b5439-543e-487a-b9cf-ec71bfeac782" CreationDate="2016-07-12T15:36:45.583" UserId="75" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[101],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="14077" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4715" RevisionGUID="7cb348fc-73fd-4dca-9f62-7ed48422ead4" CreationDate="2016-07-12T16:26:41.623" UserId="7486" Comment="edited body" Text="Situation: &lt;b&gt;Year 2013&lt;/b&gt;. There is this small-medium size manufacture company &quot;C&quot; who has a malfunctional website, infected with malware and viruses, if you seach the company name you get thousands results with online pharmacy etc. &#xD;&#xA;C is very unhappy and the original developers are ignoring C's requests to solve problems, so they started to look for some other solution, then they knew about me because C's owners are somehow my wife's relatives.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was not very happy at first because is always a problem to work for friends and relatives but they insisted so I wanted to see and get a better idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We met and they told me somewhat like &quot;I would like that you will become like an &lt;i&gt;internal freelance&lt;/i&gt; in our company so that you will be able to know us better and advise us better to what is best for us and for the C's success. You shall, with time, be able to operate on the site and socials in autonomy once you will know better the company from the inside&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;b&gt;Year 2014-15&lt;/b&gt;. In this time I took C's website, moved host, domain and email, set-up top-level hosting services which worked great, I spent several hours at their offices for set-ups and configurations. Rebuilt a new responsive fully-functional multi-language CMS with impact design and lot of features for clients, reserved areas for dealers, custom PHP web apps (back-end and front-end). We made production videos, photos and other interesting materials. Set-up newsletter system, facebook, twitter and instagram accounts, managed posts and blogs, eventually made remote and on-site technical assistance, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The result was very good and satisfactory, I made a lot of effort and C's has now a well launched website and social presence. The visits increased a lot and they built a good number of registered users.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everyone is satisfied, web and social are working very good, regular payments, and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;b&gt;Year 2016&lt;/b&gt; first months: C's communications with me became strangely silent all of a sudden, my proposals by email were unanswered, very little were asked to me to do. &#xD;&#xA;Spring 2016: They asked me if I could send them the original photos and videos we made before, they asked me administration rights to edit social channels, etc. I understood that there was something strange going on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I requested a meeting with them to clear the situation. After about 10 days we met and what they told me is that: &lt;b&gt;one of the biggest C's supplier provided a &quot;service pack&quot; to C that includes, togheter with various trade fairs services, a 6 months consultancy for print and social and web marketing&lt;/b&gt; provided by a supplier's *favourite* web agency (&quot;W&quot;) consisting in about 10 employees doing various specialized tasks, and C took advantage of this &quot;service pack&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found myself in the unpleasant situation to be *downgraded* from main consultant and project manager to simple executor of other's requests. In fact shortly after the meeting I started to receive emails by someone from W with very demanding requests asking me for complex tasks in short time, sending me pdf mockups of web pages to reproduce exactly in an already existing CMS with high-quality responsive well running template, newsletter mockups with complex print-style format graphics to make as&#xD;&#xA;responsive newsletters ([unsupported by most clients][1]), and so on. W is never happy and ask me always for &quot;fixing&quot; this and that by email to me and with CC to the C's CEO. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;W even started to ask me for things that are objectively and technically wrong and counter-productive (I started to think that W wants to put me intentionally in a bad light so they can *steal* the client to me with the reasons that I do &quot;wrong things&quot; since C's CEO has no technical knowledge).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When that happened I stopped to do anything and requested a new meeting with C's CEO before doing anything else, I proved to him why W's requests were wrong with facts, examples and techical documentation, we agreed to finish some tasks in certain (proper) ways as I explained to him and I did so. I also told him that surely, being a single freelance, I can't do what 10 employees can, and if he needs another kind of service he is free and is also OK for me, but if he wants me to work for him, I want to work as I know and as I think is best (having 20+ years of experience) without other people to instruct me or giving me orders out of the blue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Meanwhile I found out that when W started to manage C's social channels, W bought thousands of fake likes to show that their work produce results, that question was faced with C's CEO at the beginning and he did not want fake likes, he wanted genuine likes. In the meantime Google Analytics shows that &lt;b&gt;the site is losing traffic by 15%/month for the last 3-4 months (when W started to work for C)&lt;/b&gt;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now we are in a suspended situation, C is still making W work for them while none of C or W are asking for new tasks or jobs or contacting me for anything. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know exactly how to go on with C, I feel frustrated and demotivated, they called me when the ship was sinking, then with two years of work I made it beautiful, functional and going, and then someone (without even asking me anything) told me to go to wash the laundry while someone else will pilot the ship.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also the fact that C's CEO is my wife's relative is a big complication for family/work relationships.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What whould you do in my situation? Any suggestion is greatly appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14078" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4718" RevisionGUID="4b631197-347c-43c5-8e70-b3f475a99dc5" CreationDate="2016-07-12T16:35:29.433" UserId="13059" Text="Sounds like you have 2 problems: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Work environment changed suddenly and dramatically for the worse.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Client began considering looking elsewhere for your services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me, the second problem is the real problem. And the easiest for you to effectively change. Any way you address the first problem, I suggest keeping the second one in mind.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients will often consider looking elsewhere. They do that. It isn't a bad thing if a) you are good at your job, and b) you are good at communicating that you are good at your job.  Most people don't want to make change for change's sake, but will also wonder if the grass really is greener on the other side. A relationship of trust helps a lot with that, but hiccups like this do occur. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, you should have a plan in place for loss of client. If you only have one client (not clear from question), and don't have a plan, it is easier to panic, and make things worse. I suggest to take some time (an hour, a week, I don't know your situation), and imagine life without this income. You need to be in control of your situation, and know how far you are willing to bend in order to keep that paycheck. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you know what you are willing to do, then look at the situation from your client's view: they have 6 months of 10 workers. It has already been paid for. If they don't use them, that is lost opportunity and money. How would this client feel if they were paying 10 people in cubicals to sit around and do nothing for 6 months? As such, your goal here is not to convince them that you are better, or that they make mistakes. Instead, your goals might be along the lines of:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Convince him that letting them do anything is worse than than having them do nothing. (Sounds like you have some ammunition, but probably not enough yet.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Convince him to change the dynamic, and that you manage the relationship, and still use those resources. (I am sure that W also sold PM services as part of this, so there is some uphill to this argument, but probably not as much as you might think.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - End the relationship gracefully so you might still could get a call back with the thing blows up, and still be able to use this client as a reference in the meantime.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Convince him to not hire them in exclusion of you when the 6 months are up. (maybe you need the paycheck now, and are willing to be humiliated for 6 months or longer in order to get it. You wouldn't be the first man, think about the guy who dresses in a hot dog suit and dances in front of the restaurant. That man is a hero for his family, not the loser society makes him to be. Different scale, but same principle here)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No matter what you do, you still have to deal with the fact that you have already made it clear that you don't like their favorite W. That isn't bad, adults don't like everyone, and don't have to. This fact becomes a problem if (when?) W decides that you are the final obstacle to landing the contract, and decide that the easiest way to land it is to show that they are more professional. This is probably path of least resistance for them, because someone with the job title of CEO will naturally think that a company is more professional than a freelancer, that more people are more professional than a single person, and that a stranger who pays a salesman is more professional than his weird aunt's cousin's (or little niece's, or whatever) husband. But you already have results, time, and trust on your side. The one thing you have to be most careful of, in this situation, I think, is to be painted as the &quot;You guys are mean, I'm taking my ball and going home!&quot; child, who won't cooperate when they ask for info about what you have already built. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, what do you do? Save your business first. Anyone can work with idiots and humiliate themselves for 6 months. Not everyone needs to, and that has to be your decision, but anyone can. You need to figure out how best to save your company, and whether that involves this client or not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Forget the family relationship. You can't do anything about it, and at this point it can only work against you, so don't bring it up. You have 3 years of results that (should) mean more than a distant family relationship. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it were me, I might say something like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you have got this amount of work to keep 10 people busy, and are willing to pay for it, then let's get started. Who better to manage it than me? I can manage people you hire, or, you know, I can take charge of finding managing temporary resources myself. What? You didn't know I could do that? I'm sorry, I must not have mentioned that I have (managed x people doing y thing at z company) and have (certificate in whatever) with (so many years of experience) and am a member of (board/club/association/website with so many members) that I can call on to assist me/us. And frankly, with my help, W could probably be turned around, and, together, we could save the free labor they already offered you. Why don't we take this opportunity of the free labor, as well as the work you have already done with them looking at the big picture, and really take your business to the next level? What do you say?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But no matter which strategy you choose, be a professional, and attack the second problem first. We all need this reminder sometimes, but employee or business owner, we need to be, and can be, in charge of our own actions and own decisions. Situations are transient, and can best be controlled through our own actions and decisions, and are really less dependent on other's actions and decisions than we often believe. Take a deep breath, it sucks, but it probably isn't really as bad as it feels to be right now. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14079" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4715" RevisionGUID="f889343a-072c-4677-99b7-0961e198a365" CreationDate="2016-07-12T16:37:06.720" UserId="7486" Comment="edited body" Text="Situation: &lt;b&gt;Year 2013&lt;/b&gt;. There is this small-medium size manufacture company &quot;C&quot; who has a malfunctional website, infected with malware and viruses, if you seach the company name you get thousands results with online pharmacy etc. &#xD;&#xA;C is very unhappy and the original developers are ignoring C's requests to solve problems, so they started to look for some other solution, then they knew about me because C's owners are somehow my wife's relatives.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was not very happy at first because is always a problem to work for friends and relatives but they insisted so I wanted to see and get a better idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We met and they told me somewhat like &quot;I would like that you will become like an &lt;i&gt;internal freelance&lt;/i&gt; in our company so that you will be able to know us better and advise us better to what is best for us and for the C's success. You shall, with time, be able to operate on the site and socials in autonomy once you will know better the company from the inside&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;b&gt;Year 2014-15&lt;/b&gt;. In this time I took C's website, moved host, domain and email, set-up top-level hosting services which worked great, I spent several hours at their offices for set-ups and configurations. Rebuilt a new responsive fully-functional multi-language CMS with impact design and lot of features for clients, reserved areas for dealers, custom PHP web apps (back-end and front-end). We made production videos, photos and other interesting materials. Set-up newsletter system, facebook, twitter and instagram accounts, managed posts and blogs, eventually made remote and on-site technical assistance, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The result was very good and satisfactory, I made a lot of effort and C's has now a well launched website and social presence. The visits increased a lot and they built a good number of registered users.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everyone is satisfied, web and social are working very good, regular payments, and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;b&gt;Year 2016&lt;/b&gt; first months: C's communications with me became strangely silent all of a sudden, my proposals by email were unanswered, very little were asked to me to do. &#xD;&#xA;Spring 2016: They asked me if I could send them the original photos and videos we made before, they asked me administration rights to edit social channels, etc. I understood that there was something strange going on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I requested a meeting with them to clear the situation. After about 10 days we met and what they told me is that: &lt;b&gt;one of the biggest C's supplier provided a &quot;service pack&quot; to C that includes, togheter with various trade fairs services, a 6 months consultancy service for print, social and web marketing&lt;/b&gt; provided by the supplier's *favourite* web agency (&quot;W&quot;) consisting in about 10 employees doing various specialized tasks, and C took advantage of this &quot;service pack&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found myself in the unpleasant situation to be *downgraded* from main consultant and project manager to simple executor of other's requests. In fact shortly after the meeting I started to receive emails by someone from W with very demanding requests asking me for complex tasks in short time, sending me pdf mockups of web pages to reproduce exactly in an already existing CMS with high-quality responsive well running template, newsletter mockups with complex print-style format graphics to make as responsive newsletters ([unsupported by most clients][1]), and so on. W is never happy and ask me always for &quot;fixing&quot; this and that by email to me and with CC to the C's CEO. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;W even started to ask me for things that are objectively and technically wrong and counter-productive (I started to think that W wants to put me intentionally in a bad light so they can *steal* the client to me with the reasons that I do &quot;wrong things&quot; since C's CEO has no technical knowledge).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When that happened I stopped to do anything and requested a new meeting with C's CEO before doing anything else, I proved to him why W's requests were wrong with facts, examples and techical documentation, we agreed to finish some tasks in certain (proper) ways as I explained to him and I did so. I also told him that surely, being a single freelance, I can't physically do what 10 employees can, and if he needs another kind of service he is free to obtain it and this also OK for me, but if he wants me to work for him, I want to work as I know and as I think is best (having 20+ years of experience) without other people to instruct me or giving me orders out of the blue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Meanwhile I found out that when W started to manage C's social channels, W bought thousands of fake likes to show that their work produce results, that question was faced with C's CEO at the beginning and he did not want fake likes, he wanted genuine likes. In the meantime Google Analytics shows that &lt;b&gt;the site is losing traffic by 15%/month for the last 3-4 months (when W started to work for C)&lt;/b&gt;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now we are in a suspended situation, C is still making W work for them while none of C or W are asking for new tasks or jobs or contacting me for anything. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know exactly how to go on with C, I feel frustrated and demotivated, they called me when the ship was sinking, then with two years of work I made it beautiful, functional and going, and then someone (without even asking me anything) told me to go to do the laundry while someone else will pilot the ship.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also the fact that C's CEO is my wife's relative is a big complication for family/work relationships.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What whould you do in my situation? Any suggestion is greatly appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14080" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4715" RevisionGUID="ec68423c-8118-4747-90a1-01bfd6d02093" CreationDate="2016-07-12T16:53:06.673" UserId="7486" Comment="added 357 characters in body" Text="Situation: &lt;b&gt;Year 2013&lt;/b&gt;. There is this small-medium size manufacture company &quot;C&quot; who has a malfunctional website, infected with malware and viruses, if you seach the company name you get thousands results with online pharmacy etc. &#xD;&#xA;C is very unhappy and the original developers are ignoring C's requests to solve problems, so they started to look for some other solution, then they knew about me because C's owners are somehow my wife's relatives.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was not very happy at first because is always a problem to work for friends and relatives but they insisted so I wanted to see and get a better idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We met and they told me somewhat like &quot;I would like that you will become like an &lt;i&gt;internal freelance&lt;/i&gt; in our company so that you will be able to know us better and advise us better to what is best for us and for the C's success. You shall, with time, be able to operate on the site and socials in autonomy once you will know better the company from the inside&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;b&gt;Year 2014-15&lt;/b&gt;. In this time I took C's website, moved host, domain and email, set-up top-level hosting services which worked great, I spent several hours at their offices for set-ups and configurations. Rebuilt a new responsive fully-functional multi-language CMS with impact design and lot of features for clients, reserved areas for dealers, custom PHP web apps (back-end and front-end). We made production videos, photos and other interesting materials. Set-up newsletter system, facebook, twitter and instagram accounts, managed posts and blogs, eventually made remote and on-site technical assistance, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The result was very good and satisfactory, I made a lot of effort and C's has now a well launched website and social presence. The visits increased a lot and they built a good number of registered users.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everyone is satisfied, web and social are working very good, regular payments, and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;b&gt;Year 2016&lt;/b&gt; first months: C's communications with me became strangely silent all of a sudden, my proposals by email were unanswered, very little were asked to me to do. &#xD;&#xA;Spring 2016: They asked me if I could send them the original photos and videos we made before, they asked me administration rights to edit social channels, etc. I understood that there was something strange going on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I requested a meeting with them to clear the situation. After about 10 days we met and what they told me is that: &lt;b&gt;one of the biggest C's supplier provided a &quot;service pack&quot; to C that includes, togheter with various trade fairs services, a 6 months consultancy service for print, social and web marketing&lt;/b&gt; provided by the supplier's *favourite* web agency (&quot;W&quot;) consisting in about 10 employees doing various specialized tasks, and C took advantage of this &quot;service pack&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found myself in the unpleasant situation to be *downgraded* from main consultant and project manager to simple executor of other's requests. In fact shortly after the meeting I started to receive emails by someone from W with very demanding requests asking me for complex tasks in short time, sending me pdf mockups of web pages to reproduce exactly in an already existing CMS with high-quality responsive well running template, newsletter mockups with complex print-style format graphics to make as responsive newsletters ([unsupported by most clients][1]), and so on. W is never happy and ask me always for &quot;fixing&quot; this and that by email to me and with CC to the C's CEO. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;W even started to ask me for things that are objectively and technically wrong and counter-productive (I started to think that W wants to put me intentionally in a bad light so they can *steal* the client to me with the reasons that I do &quot;wrong things&quot; since C's CEO has no technical knowledge).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When that happened I stopped to do anything and requested a new meeting with C's CEO before doing anything else, I proved to him why W's requests were wrong with facts, examples and techical documentation, we agreed to finish some tasks in certain (proper) ways as I explained to him and I did so. I also told him that surely, being a single freelance, I can't physically do what 10 employees can, and if he needs another kind of service he is free to obtain it and this also OK for me, but if he wants me to work for him, I want to work as I know and as I think is best (having 20+ years of experience) without other people to instruct me or giving me orders out of the blue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Meanwhile I found out that when W started to manage C's social channels, W bought thousands of fake likes to show that their work produce results, that question was faced with C's CEO at the beginning and he did not want fake likes, he wanted genuine likes. In the meantime Google Analytics shows that &lt;b&gt;the site is losing traffic by 15%/month for the last 3-4 months (when W started to work for C)&lt;/b&gt;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now we are in a suspended situation, C is still making W work for them while none of C or W are asking for new tasks or jobs or contacting me for anything. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know exactly how to go on with C, I feel frustrated and demotivated, they called me when the ship was sinking, then with two years of work I made it beautiful, functional and going, and then someone (without even asking me anything) told me to go to do the laundry while someone else will pilot the ship.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also the fact that C's CEO is my wife's relative is a big complication for family/work relationships.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What whould you do in my situation? Any suggestion is greatly appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Edit**: just to clear a few things, this is not my only client. I have many clients with long term work relationships. C is one of my clients.  Losing it won't cause me a big problem. Also I was very collaborative, kind and professional at my best with W, I gave all the info, materials and hours of my work days to make W comfortable with everything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14088" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4715" RevisionGUID="a26e9548-e803-4477-b73e-fa5390f14cfd" CreationDate="2016-07-13T18:53:31.653" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/753301347588505601" />
  <row Id="14089" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3028" RevisionGUID="7c255c1b-ff37-4471-9ebe-706e2defdfba" CreationDate="2016-07-13T19:06:06.043" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="14097" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4722" RevisionGUID="c9197d0d-c098-4560-8a2e-6a2b53bfd5a3" CreationDate="2016-07-14T18:08:56.933" UserId="13080" Text="I am a WordPress designer/developer and have little experience working with subcontractors but I want to start subbing out dev work to free up time to explore new avenues.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had a dev job to make a small site mobile responsive and got an estimate of 3 or so hours at $35/hr.  WOW!  I like it and I know this person will do a find job but as far as quoting a price to client - how much can I mark up their estimate?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was thinking 100% is still really reasonable for the job - charging $70/hr for 3 hrs $210 but in sticking to my principals of not selling my services sort, I think I should at least charge my hourly fee?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any suggestions welcome!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14098" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4722" RevisionGUID="c9197d0d-c098-4560-8a2e-6a2b53bfd5a3" CreationDate="2016-07-14T18:08:56.933" UserId="13080" Text="Markup on a subcontractor's fee for WordPress development" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14099" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4722" RevisionGUID="c9197d0d-c098-4560-8a2e-6a2b53bfd5a3" CreationDate="2016-07-14T18:08:56.933" UserId="13080" Text="|web-development|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14100" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4723" RevisionGUID="f8a6acdf-14c4-4681-88b3-7b6b712b6692" CreationDate="2016-07-14T18:47:24.860" UserId="13081" Text="I wanted to hire a developer to make a website for me, I found a decent guy but he says he can't use freelancer payment system and want payment to his personal bitcoin adress.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been scammed numerous times so I did not send him the money, Is this against freelancer.com rules and should I report this user?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;also; thought I should ask as well - i'm hiring someone to make a &quot;clone&quot; of btcx.se (buy btc website, no payment gateway but sms gateway), what should the price be for such a project? because both people offering at 150-200$ seems to wanna scam me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14101" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4723" RevisionGUID="f8a6acdf-14c4-4681-88b3-7b6b712b6692" CreationDate="2016-07-14T18:47:24.860" UserId="13081" Text="Freelancer.com - wants to be paid offsite" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14102" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4723" RevisionGUID="f8a6acdf-14c4-4681-88b3-7b6b712b6692" CreationDate="2016-07-14T18:47:24.860" UserId="13081" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14104" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4724" RevisionGUID="396887e6-f356-4e39-bae2-4b2bfb052332" CreationDate="2016-07-14T19:17:44.577" UserId="75" Text="Quick question for you, does the client care *how* it's done, or that it *gets* done?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients typically hire you for your skill, and for results, without caring how you do it. I have brought in sub-contractors for jobs, and still just changed my regular rate. My rate will cover a contractor or two, if I need some things done that I either don't have time for, or do not know how to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your hourly wage is $70/hr, then charge that, and *get the job done*. If it's going to cost you much more than that, then you need to get a proper quote prepared for the customer, and ensure you are keeping your head afloat when charging. Do not look at it as &quot;marking up the estimate&quot;, think of it as &quot;It's able to be completed in `xx` hours, and is going to cost `$xxx` to complete it&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you drop your rate, they are always going to expect a lower rate from you, which hurts you and others in your field. **YOU** are the professional, and in your **professional** opinion and experience, Contractor X can do the job properly, and it is not going to break the bank." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14105" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4723" RevisionGUID="82a1bb43-4fb0-4eed-b472-33d9742b5c3f" CreationDate="2016-07-14T19:18:45.613" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 250 characters in body" Text="I wanted to hire a developer to make a website for me, I found a decent guy but he says he can't use freelancer payment system and want payment to his personal bitcoin address.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been scammed numerous times so I did not send him the money. Is this against freelancer.com's rules and should I report this user?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14106" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4725" RevisionGUID="1f468ad5-6bcd-4453-8cda-c1f8c4939e09" CreationDate="2016-07-15T17:17:20.307" UserId="11579" Text="If the person is in your area - meaning you know where they live, you can sit and have a coffee together, then I might consider this solution (after checking/confirming previous work they've done).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the person you have found is based on a skype and email chat, then I would avoid. Especially if they want any payment up front. Bitcoin is like Western Union - once you put your money in the pot, there is no getting it back. You have no idea this person is who they say they are and whatever proof they share has question marks on it. You're unlikely to get an invoice that your tax man will accept too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't use the freelancer website - but I do question someone who uses the website and does not want to use their payment methods. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would also think twice about sharing credentials with your webserver, check any other work they have done (and confirm they've done the work and not just take their word for it).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14107" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4726" RevisionGUID="fa03173b-033e-4e84-84db-9961b65876ba" CreationDate="2016-07-16T10:32:50.447" UserDisplayName="user13095" Text="I wouldn't prefer you using bitcoin for payments because it doesn't store any data (like who are you sending the money )and you can be scammed easily and only pay after the job is done and you are satisfied with the job that the programmer has done.I guarantee that he is a scammer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14108" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4727" RevisionGUID="5f89a1c6-26d5-4c94-a82f-b084866817e1" CreationDate="2016-07-16T16:03:24.457" UserId="12040" Text="We did exactly the same thing - left the UK, moved to USA, and wanted to close our UK company but keep UK clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the bank account; if you have a business or personal account in the UK, you can create a new business account for your US company; just talk to your favorite bank. You'll need to go through a different department, so expect to talk to someone in London, but having an existing bank account makes it all nice and easy - we didn't need to go to the UK to do it. We no longer have any business or personal accounts in the UK apart from the one for our US LLC.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The new account will be in the US companies name, and your UK clients will send deposits to that account. We move most of the money each month (leaving just enough for bank charges), and we record it in our US accounting system in GBP (Quickbooks; it does the conversion to USD for us, and any anomalies are put somewhere like 'Exchange Rate' - our accountant does it, so I'm not 100% sure). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We do not fill out any UK tax forms; it's all US income, and all goes into the same LLC buckets. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To transfer money from the UK to our USA account, you *could* use your bank's facilities. Expensive and slow. We use a service called Global Webpay. They're based in the UK, and can send money anywhere in the world for a flat rate of 4.95GBP, and decent exchange rates. It takes two days for the money to arrive, which is fast enough for us." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14109" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4728" RevisionGUID="08948162-6670-4113-9ab5-81a3612fb8ce" CreationDate="2016-07-16T16:07:26.520" UserId="12040" Text="All scammers sound like decent guys at the start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;YOU'RE the employer in this case. You pay in whatever way is suitable for you, and it's up to the contractor to agree to use that method, or you find someone else to do the work. Web Designers are two a penny (on Freelancing sites, that's too often *literally* true...)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend you find a local web developer and sit down with them for a meeting. Just the act of doing that takes most of the risk out of the transaction." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14110" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4729" RevisionGUID="99c22f9f-b702-49f3-b78d-daefcbc52f0d" CreationDate="2016-07-16T16:11:17.693" UserId="12040" Text="Further to Luke's answer..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your contractor us charging $35/hr. If you pass that onto the client at that rate, you're going to be completely stiffed if your contractor cannot complete the job. Your markup needs to cover the contractor charges, your management charges, and the cost of a second contractor in case the first one flakes on you. If all goes well, you start building up a reserve of money against future bought-out project costs. If it goes bad, you at least break even." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14111" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4730" RevisionGUID="15087692-e722-4560-9b40-c462cb4ff729" CreationDate="2016-07-16T19:56:59.903" UserId="5100" Text="I am not getting customers who pay well for Mobile App Development, all the customers I meet either don't have money or they not like to spend that much of money, I am a freelancer in India, And Indian customers are looser they want to spend anything still they want best service, what can I do in this situation, I don't want to leave freelancing but I am finding it difficult to survive." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14112" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4730" RevisionGUID="15087692-e722-4560-9b40-c462cb4ff729" CreationDate="2016-07-16T19:56:59.903" UserId="5100" Text="Don't want to leave freelancing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14113" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4730" RevisionGUID="15087692-e722-4560-9b40-c462cb4ff729" CreationDate="2016-07-16T19:56:59.903" UserId="5100" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14115" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4731" RevisionGUID="dbcd60f8-8b83-461c-8ff2-feec30919d7c" CreationDate="2016-07-17T10:09:51.600" UserId="13104" Text="Spend a bit of time and work on your onboarding process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When a client comes to you for a mobile app, they are already in a state of mind that they will be spending money. They just need to know how much money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With your onboarding, make the client feel comfortable that you are able to bring their ideas to life. Explain in detail how you will approach the project and how you will add value to their idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients are more likely to say yes if they understand exactly what value they will be getting for their money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sure, in the end, they will get a mobile app, but it will be an app that brings value to their company, personal life, or other people." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14116" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4730" RevisionGUID="c3e1aba6-1640-432c-8ac1-dd3a5a0a1b48" CreationDate="2016-07-17T17:07:27.500" UserId="13016" Comment="many English corrections" Text="I am not getting customers who pay well for Mobile App Development.  All the customers I meet either don't have money or they do not like to spend much money.  I am a freelancer in India, and Indian customers do not want to spend anything; still they want best service.  What can I do in this situation?  I don't want to leave freelancing but I am finding it difficult to survive." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14117" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4730" RevisionGUID="c3e1aba6-1640-432c-8ac1-dd3a5a0a1b48" CreationDate="2016-07-17T17:07:27.500" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 5100 edit id of 471" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14118" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4732" RevisionGUID="35f6bbaf-873d-418f-9819-d3bc4cdee770" CreationDate="2016-07-17T20:11:23.893" UserId="11579" Text="Assuming that you have the technical skills that are in demand, have you asked yourself why you might not be getting the work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are you chasing mom/pop type business who don't have the skill/knowledge to communicate effectively with what they want? Perhaps your ability to understand or even ask the customer is not strong (don't be offended - we all have our strengths, and often, we fail to acknowledge or weaknesses).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consulting/freelancing/contracting... whatever you want to call it is not easy - its can be profitable, highly profitable, but its not easy. You have to have technical skill, marketing ability, accountability (both from a financial management sense, project management and communication sense). Few manage to perfect all of these.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not trying to scare you away but by posing these thoughts and giving honest consideration it might help you find what part of your strategy is letting you down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The customers you approach might be less familiar with getting others in another timezone, or even another continent to deliver a project. It depends heavily on communication - I've been contracting/consulting since 1994 and most of the rich work is available when the customer can see you if not daily, at least at some frequency. Projects change, costs change, timelines change - having to communicate this puts up front risk on the customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then there are liability risks - despite your best and most honest efforts, if your code results in the customer being held liable, the customer will have to pursue you thru expensive international courts if they are to hold you liable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some customers might think the risk/reward is just too much. Lean towards thinking of benefits the customer will win, then figure out how you can profit from making your customer win.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Example... A friend of mine was one of three founders at a Brazilian viral-ad making company. Their initial attempts to win customers proved unworkable so their alternative approach was to create products and sell the ideas to marketing companies who in turn would sell the ideas on to their customers. It made them a small fortune which included a couple of awards at Cannes film festival (which I believe, includes awards for adverts).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thus - perhaps you might want to consider creating products that are easily customizable with templates that target a specific market like real estate, car buying or health/sports/wellness. Select ten clients from somewhere in the world, copy/paste their branding from their website into your solution and contact them to try your product out. Cost accordingly - don't be shy - if you are too cheap, they won't look and if they are too expensive, they won't search either (do your own research for the market and region you are targeting). Don't sell the code, but sell the solution (thus allowing you to re-use the code with someone else's branding).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might get one in ten who say yes - and failing that, you'll have learned other skills in the process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14124" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="452" RevisionGUID="8ee32cf4-be45-49fb-9e9e-f2277c2fb9ad" CreationDate="2016-07-18T12:29:19.017" UserId="184" Comment="Moderator edits article" Text="&lt;p&gt;Freelancing Stack Exchange is for questions relating to &lt;b&gt;self-employed and freelance workers.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;**If your question covers...**&#xA;&#xA;* Agency work while freelancing&#xA;* Selling services to different employers without a long-term contract with any of them&#xA;* Client responsibilities to freelancers&#xA;* Cross-border requirements and laws for freelancing&#xA; &#xA;**and isn't about...**&#xA; &#xA;* Working in a part-time of full-time setting for a company&#xA;* How to use features of a Freelancing website for finding work&#xA;* Asking for life experiences or opinions on freelancing&#xA; &#xA;...then you’re in the right place to ask your question!&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;/search&quot;&gt;look around&lt;/a&gt; to see if your question has been asked before. It’s also OK to &lt;a href=&quot;/helpcenter/self-answer&quot;&gt;ask and answer your own question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If your question is not specifically on-topic for $SiteName, it may be on topic for another Stack Exchange site. If no site currently exists that will accept your question, you may &lt;a href=&quot;http://area51.stackexchange.com/faq&quot;&gt;commit to&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/76974/how-can-i-propose-a-new-site&quot;&gt;propose&lt;/a&gt; a new site at &lt;a href=&quot;http://area51.stackexchange.com/&quot;&gt;Area 51&lt;/a&gt;, the place where new Stack Exchange communities are democratically created.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more help, see &lt;a href=&quot;/help/dont-ask&quot;&gt;&quot;What types of questions should I avoid asking?&quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;##How should I answer?&#xA;&#xA;Your answer should provide enough context to help the asker determine if the answer is right for them. Answers based on facts, references, and specific expertise are preferable.&#xA;&#xA;If the question has the [legal](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/legal) tag, you should include references or citations to back up your answer. &#xA;&#xA;In general, your answer should always include material to support or explain why your answer is correct. Answers that don't meet these guidelines may be removed. For more information, see [the back it up rule](http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/55/should-this-site-have-a-back-it-up-rule)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14130" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4735" RevisionGUID="0dc0109e-e8aa-4632-864a-776a47b1cc9f" CreationDate="2016-07-19T23:53:59.003" UserId="12954" Text="I couldn't find anything that suggested it was against any rules Freelancer.com has in place, however, paying someone outside of the platform means you have zero protecting against being scammed. You do so at your own peril and honestly, it isn't worth it, especially for a big project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While I cannot know for sure, it does sound suspicious he wants you to pay him via his Bitcoin address and I feel like the way this guy has approached you thus far feels very scammy. The whole appeal of Bitcoin is the fact that payments are anonymous (relatively) and cannot be reversed. This is why a lot of ransomware asks you to pay via Bitcoin because it is untraceable. Ask him if he has other payment methods he accepts besides Bitcoin.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were in your situation, I would definitely say no because it isn't worth the trouble. The whole point of the escrow system Freelancer.com has in place is to prevent people like yourself being scammed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14135" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4737" RevisionGUID="d0d69ad5-2b8a-4fbd-8890-958b01338e6b" CreationDate="2016-07-20T18:46:27.837" UserId="9845" Text="Definitely always charge your normal rate, since your name is on the project and you still have to oversee your subcontractor and deal with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A note of caution when hiring subcontractors: Be sure of their expertise level first, or it could come back to haunt you. I'm in a similar position and recently outsourced some support work on Joomla and WordPress to someone who said they had experience with both and provided a portfolio of completed work. The Joomla work took 5x longer than I would have spent, and the WP development was so bad I had to re-do it myself. Instead of writing the code, the person installed page builders and plugins. While that can be fine for some people, that was not what I expected and the end result simply wasn't acceptable. I had to cut ties with that subcontractor and am still looking for a replacement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From now on, I will only offer project fees rather than hourly rates, with the stipulation that the project must be completed to spec. In case the bid goes beyond the 3 hours, make sure you are protected in your contract with the subcontractor." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14136" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4738" RevisionGUID="aea94129-022c-41af-a5fa-2c9e0744ff8f" CreationDate="2016-07-21T14:43:00.797" UserId="156" Text="I am aware that some companies are reluctant to directly hire unincorporated independent contractors for shorter-term software engineering projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What happens is that instead they engage the services of the staffing agencies, where they pay 100&amp;ndash;200$/hour to the staffing agency, which in turns pays the people it finds more like 50&amp;ndash;100$/hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you have more corporate doors open once you incorporate?  E.g., once you are the President, Owner and Lead Software Engineer at XYZ LLC, will you magically be able to get extra reqs from top companies that aren't posted on their web-site, and submit the services of your company for consideration in fulfilment of such requisitions? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14137" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4738" RevisionGUID="aea94129-022c-41af-a5fa-2c9e0744ff8f" CreationDate="2016-07-21T14:43:00.797" UserId="156" Text="Are more corporate doors open for incorporated freelancers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14138" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4738" RevisionGUID="aea94129-022c-41af-a5fa-2c9e0744ff8f" CreationDate="2016-07-21T14:43:00.797" UserId="156" Text="|contracts|legal|subcontracting|incorporation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14143" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4741" RevisionGUID="5de13df4-57f5-4aad-a0e1-1e518d178ebf" CreationDate="2016-07-21T20:51:59.473" UserId="5100" Text="I am Freelance Android Developer in India, normally I get local clients , from India only, When I talk about the payment, I ask all my clients to make 50% Payment before initiating the project because in some of my past experience with local clients even though i make their project , they refused to pay sometime, so i would like to know if this is the good approach?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14144" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4741" RevisionGUID="5de13df4-57f5-4aad-a0e1-1e518d178ebf" CreationDate="2016-07-21T20:51:59.473" UserId="5100" Text="Asking Clients to pay Advance Payment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14145" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4741" RevisionGUID="5de13df4-57f5-4aad-a0e1-1e518d178ebf" CreationDate="2016-07-21T20:51:59.473" UserId="5100" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14146" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4742" RevisionGUID="9db585b4-60ae-48d3-bc2d-8c41bd55cd4f" CreationDate="2016-07-21T21:29:39.433" UserId="12482" Text="An LLC is not a corporation, but that's beside the point.  An LLC and INC are both registered with the State and Federal databases.  From there your business entity is public for all to view.  Sadly, this opens the doors for mass solicitations that target naive business owners.  So, in short yes it does open doors but for all the wrong reasons." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14147" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4743" RevisionGUID="d3b7999b-f379-416b-9170-d74aa2f293ed" CreationDate="2016-07-21T21:53:06.733" UserId="708" Text="With new clients that approach me, I ask for a **non-refundable** deposit up front. Usually it ranges from 30% to 50% depending on the overall project cost. I tend to waive the deposit for any client I've previously worked for and not experienced payment issues with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When asked, or if the client balks at this, I explain that the deposit is to cover the work which *must* be performed *before* client approval is sought. And, after approval adjustment, changes, etc would be encompassed by the remaining payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many clients fail to realize that several hours of work must be performed and only *then* can they be contacted for approval or further direction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client declines the deposit or refuses to pay it... I don't do the work. It's that simple.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To use an analogy.... if I were a caterer hired to cater a banquet. I would ask for a non-refundable deposit up front to cover the cost of food and materials *before* the scheduled event. Then the remaining payment would be for services at the event. If the final event never happens, I *still* would have purchased all the necessary items. So, I should not be expected to cover the cost of my work prior to the event - thus the deposit and why it is non-refundable." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14148" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4743" RevisionGUID="74d27743-e826-4e41-95bc-d75a30fb3a5b" CreationDate="2016-07-21T22:03:12.113" UserId="708" Comment="added 45 characters in body" Text="With new clients that approach me, I ask for a **non-refundable** deposit up front. Usually it ranges from 30% to 50% depending on the overall project cost. I tend to waive the deposit for any client I've previously worked for and not experienced payment issues with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When asked, or if the client balks at this, I explain that the deposit is to cover the work which *must* be performed *before* client approval is sought. And, after approval adjustment, changes, etc would be encompassed by the remaining payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many clients fail to realize that several hours of work must be performed and only *then* can they be contacted for approval or further direction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client declines the deposit or refuses to pay it... I don't do the work. It's that simple.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To use an analogy.... if I were a caterer hired to cater a banquet. I would ask for a non-refundable deposit up front to cover the cost of food and materials and the hours of preparation that take place *before* the scheduled event. Then the remaining payment would be for services at the event. If the final event never happens, I *still* would have purchased all the necessary items and spent time scheduling and preparing for the event. So, I should not be expected to cover the cost of my work prior to the event - thus the deposit and why it is non-refundable." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14151" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4744" RevisionGUID="c4eea29e-aaf1-4234-a294-e1834bc38fe1" CreationDate="2016-07-21T22:43:59.307" UserId="156" Text="Yes, it should.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are not incorporated, then the company that is hiring you as an independent contractor can subsequently end up being sued for misclassifying their employees as independent contractors, resulting in all sorts of legal uncertainty if it were to happen on a sufficiently large scale, plus might end up having to cover your self-employment tax for you (to your benefit, but to their loss).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally, they will also no longer have to worry about issuing 1099 forms for you, which are only required when a business is paying an individual, but not for business-to-business transactions." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14155" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4741" RevisionGUID="d3138bc5-c9ac-4652-9fef-52f954a9eccf" CreationDate="2016-07-22T10:41:13.183" UserId="13016" Comment="Removed comma splices, and fixed caps, etc." Text="I am a freelance Android Developer in India.  Normally I get local clients, from India only.  When I talk about the payment, I ask all my clients to make 50% payment before initiating the project, because in some of my past experience with local clients, even though I complete their project, they refused to pay.  So I would like to know if this is a good approach." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14156" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4741" RevisionGUID="d3138bc5-c9ac-4652-9fef-52f954a9eccf" CreationDate="2016-07-22T10:41:13.183" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 5100 edit id of 472" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14160" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4747" RevisionGUID="f7b2f9d8-15ce-4f23-b71e-276272085ac4" CreationDate="2016-07-22T14:40:04.977" UserId="13177" Text="I've been working on contract jobs for this client for about 3-4 years. He's never given me a W2 and just told me to file my own taxes as a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've worked on 3 projects for him, each time he's paid me through Chase QuickPay, with no contracts what so ever. I basically got paid on a per 'set of tasks' basis. In total, he's paid me about $11k, for 3 projects in 3 years. Not just regular websites, but actual html5/angularjs applications. One was basically an app store, 2 were storefronts for html5 plugins. So I had to develop the product applications themselves AND the website to sell them, as well as server API development and database management.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Each project, ended badly. We would disagree on many things, like task/project timelines, deadlines, payment schedules, work schedules, and he even commented on my own health issues (Calling me fat, calling me names, etc.) He's gone as far as screaming at the top of his lungs in an office. As a result, none of the projects were ever fully completed. We've made progress, but I can't call the projects complete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I decided to drop him completely, as working with him has been nothing but a toxic and depressing experience. Now he says he's going to sue me, that I stole his money by not completing the projects. But I don't want to keep working for someone who will constantly insult me, badger me on a daily basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We have signed no contracts what so ever. He's sending me threatening emails about suing me in Small Claims court. Should I be worried?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have all the code I ever wrote, dated, and also logged on GitHub/Bitbucket." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14161" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4747" RevisionGUID="f7b2f9d8-15ce-4f23-b71e-276272085ac4" CreationDate="2016-07-22T14:40:04.977" UserId="13177" Text="Client wants to sue me, but we haven't signed any contracts. Should I be worried?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14162" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4747" RevisionGUID="f7b2f9d8-15ce-4f23-b71e-276272085ac4" CreationDate="2016-07-22T14:40:04.977" UserId="13177" Text="|contracts|legal|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14169" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4749" RevisionGUID="c0eda6b2-70f4-4ba5-8f39-7cf8ca185c97" CreationDate="2016-07-22T16:48:25.887" UserId="1706" Text="He could sue, but that doesn't mean he'll win.  This is a ploy to get you to come back and continue the abuse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Until you get a summons, there's really little to worry about.  In court, he's got to prove (without an attorney, since this is small claims):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. There was an agreement, or several agreements, of some type between you and him&#xD;&#xA; 2. There was consideration (money changing hands) for some work done&#xD;&#xA; 3. You materially failed to meet whatever was agreed upon (breach)&#xD;&#xA; 4. Potentially, he experienced some tangible damage by the alleged breach&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've found that clients like yours tend to blow a lot of smoke (guess where!).  You've probably got every email he's ever written to you and that you've sent to him, because this type of client doesn't write down anything otherwise.  Hang on to those, but don't panic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Going forward - get contracts in writing and save yourself a lot of headaches.  Don't work with abusive clients, and don't ever let the client dictate how you run your business.  It's really not worth the money in the long term so try and cut off this type of client as soon as you sense things are going downhill and the client is behaving in an uncivil fashion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you let stress-creating, INTENTIONAL interactions from a client slide once, you're just inviting a client to do it again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14170" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4750" RevisionGUID="5fe723e5-6d77-4d66-8dd9-1320954cf0c4" CreationDate="2016-07-22T16:56:37.053" UserId="1706" Text="You're doing just fine.  Think of other business models where the client's trust and credibility is on the line BEFORE any services are performed:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Here in the US, and probably everywhere, you can't rent a car without a deposit or a pre-charge against a credit card&#xD;&#xA; - You can't rent an apartment without a deposit&#xD;&#xA; - You can't contract for utilities, a cell phone, cable / DirecTV without providing a deposit or at least having credit good enough to show that you're likely to pay when the bill comes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So congratulations, your business is in order!!!  You're smarter than many others." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14171" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4751" RevisionGUID="bdd2a608-f1e6-458b-98d0-fe33d8310914" CreationDate="2016-07-22T17:02:52.573" UserId="1706" Text="You have the ability to get into more opportunities when your business is registered as a corp or LLC, because it removes a threat of liability (for paying statutory employees under-the-table) for the customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;HOWEVER, nobody's going to beat a path to your door other than the recruiters.  If your credentials are solid and in a &quot;hot&quot; field, your phone will ring off the hook with potential opportunities (but they're taking a cut!).  Whether new potential opportunities come in thru the recruiters or you find them thru marketing yourself, you've still got to prove yourself in either scenario.  And both approaches cost money, there's no getting around that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14174" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4752" RevisionGUID="4afe6cb3-ca83-48b4-802b-236839ae98b2" CreationDate="2016-07-23T03:55:49.937" UserId="5026" Text="At first, I have to say that I am not a Canadian. I came to Canada under International Experience Canada: Working-holiday program. At the moment of entering the country I got my work permit for the whole duration of staying (June 25th, 2016 - June 24th 2017). The work permit allows me to work with no restrictions on job titles, locations, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a web developer in my home country working with: PHP, MySQL, sometimes HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc. However, it seems that getting a full-time position will take some time in Canada. Procedures take 2-3 weeks and more to complete. So, while I am waiting for full-time position interviews, I have thought about trying doing some contract work (it is easier to get those at my situation). However, I am quite unsure about taxes I will have to pay while freelancing, so I am unsure about how much money do I have to ask for an hour of my work as well...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found quite a good calculator for the full-time case:&#xD;&#xA;http://www.paymentevolution.com/payrollcalculator&#xD;&#xA;I am not 100% sure if the calculator is working correctly, but it seems to be ok.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can anybody suggest a calculator for the contract case?&#xD;&#xA;What do I want to accomplish with the calculator - I want to understand how much real money will I have in my hands (after tax deduction) after, let's say, completing 8 hours job for 50 CAD / h." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14175" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4752" RevisionGUID="4afe6cb3-ca83-48b4-802b-236839ae98b2" CreationDate="2016-07-23T03:55:49.937" UserId="5026" Text="Contract in Toronto. Is there on-line calculator for gross/net/taxes to calculate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14176" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4752" RevisionGUID="4afe6cb3-ca83-48b4-802b-236839ae98b2" CreationDate="2016-07-23T03:55:49.937" UserId="5026" Text="|contracts|taxes|canada|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14180" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4753" RevisionGUID="e967bdb8-8fc2-467e-b2ac-5dabb9130ec9" CreationDate="2016-07-24T04:48:21.747" UserId="13191" Text="I am a VBA developer and excel automation developer.I have developed lot of projects for some BPO companies for automating their process.They settled their payments to my account directly but not form their company account.&#xD;&#xA;    Now i am searching for new job they are asking about my current CTC? what can i mention in that? I have all the proof in my bank statement for 4-5 Lakhs(approx.) per annum. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14181" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4753" RevisionGUID="e967bdb8-8fc2-467e-b2ac-5dabb9130ec9" CreationDate="2016-07-24T04:48:21.747" UserId="13191" Text="how to mention CTC for freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14182" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4753" RevisionGUID="e967bdb8-8fc2-467e-b2ac-5dabb9130ec9" CreationDate="2016-07-24T04:48:21.747" UserId="13191" Text="|resume|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14183" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4741" RevisionGUID="d656d741-2eac-4ea1-919a-7254a20358cb" CreationDate="2016-07-24T05:08:32.890" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/757080001254686720" />
  <row Id="14184" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4754" RevisionGUID="93526e26-f35d-435c-86cd-b6cf9ae0526a" CreationDate="2016-07-24T19:15:01.143" UserId="13197" Text="You are providing your customers with a good service and good prices, but you don't have your own office to meet them. You work at home. Well, this is exactly why you can provide them with excellent prices, YOU DON'T HAVE OVERHEAD. Tell them, use your &quot;non-office-reason&quot; as your leverage. Is totally honest and true. Also, tell them that you are proud of being part of another 56 million successful self-employed Americans than do exactly the same thing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14185" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4755" RevisionGUID="af7af82c-1ae2-4e63-b20e-d94fe3b71819" CreationDate="2016-07-24T22:42:30.163" UserId="12000" Text="There are more options than the 3 you listed. Maybe your client doesn't want to meet at a coffee shop because he doesn't want to discuss business in a public place where everybody can hear every detail. You could rent a meeting room for a couple of hours at a co-working space. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14186" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4752" RevisionGUID="7bc5f37c-e121-4763-84a0-879194e3e928" CreationDate="2016-07-25T01:50:47.080" UserId="5026" Comment="Removed the need for on-line calculator, added year of 2016 in the text as taxes changes from time to time..." Text="How do I calculate NET amount after taxes for the contract job taken in Toronto in year of 2016? Let's say, for example, I did my job for 50 CAD/hour before any taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am residing in Toronto since June of 2016. My client is in Toronto as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14187" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4752" RevisionGUID="7bc5f37c-e121-4763-84a0-879194e3e928" CreationDate="2016-07-25T01:50:47.080" UserId="5026" Comment="Removed the need for on-line calculator, added year of 2016 in the text as taxes changes from time to time..." Text="How do I calculate NET amount after taxes for the contract job taken in Toronto in year of 2016?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14188" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4538" RevisionGUID="8a3d899a-fa0c-48ca-b826-3fdf2f52fe6b" CreationDate="2016-07-25T08:25:10.377" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="14192" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="2848" RevisionGUID="0c499fc1-a119-45a1-8d02-aa1c4b0da48a" CreationDate="2016-07-25T16:17:40.477" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="14193" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4753" RevisionGUID="d0c1e3d2-b390-4a06-982b-551d1e77a625" CreationDate="2016-07-25T16:21:01.790" UserId="13016" Comment="several minor fixes" Text="I am a VBA developer and Excel Automation developer.  I have developed lot of projects for some BPO companies for automating their process.  They settled their payments to my account directly but not from their company account.&#xD;&#xA;    Now that I am searching for new job, they are asking about my current CTC. What can I mention in that? I have all the proof in my bank statement for 4-5 Lakhs(approx.) per annum. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14194" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4753" RevisionGUID="d0c1e3d2-b390-4a06-982b-551d1e77a625" CreationDate="2016-07-25T16:21:01.790" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 75 edit id of 473" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14195" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4757" RevisionGUID="ee3d1e3a-2649-4643-95b1-ebe816757d6f" CreationDate="2016-07-25T20:11:11.717" UserId="13104" Text="*Disclosure:&#xD;&#xA;I'm not a lawyer nor have experience with the law in your country. The following is my views on the matter and should not be taken as legal advice. Please consult with an actual lawyer.* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By definition, a freelancer is someone who exchanges work or services for money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you freelance for a client, you are the professional.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order to exchange your work or services to a client, you first need to agree on what the client needs and what you can deliver for a specified and agreed upon amount of money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best way to agree with a client is to write up an agreement. A contract of some sort, outlining the work that you are proficient at and the desired outcome for your client. Most importantly, specify your rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You, as the professional, needs to specify the scope and document it in an agreement. Everything that is out of scope, you create another agreement for the client to sign. If the client does not accept the agreement, don't do the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Communication with the client is key.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You did mention that the client paid you on a &quot;set of tasks&quot;. If you quoted on the &quot;set of tasks&quot;, he agreed on your rate and paid you the amount, then you need to complete the &quot;set of tasks&quot; before walking away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure that everything you and the client agreed upon, is in order before dropping the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the projects you have done for the client are still on a development server and the client is the reason that the projects are being delayed, for example when the client requests out of scope tasks, then you should bring it up with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finish the outstanding work, if any, then leave. Make sure your side is clean.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For future clients, use clear and precise contracts or agreements. Yes, it is more admin, but in the long run, it will help you immensely. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14196" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4758" RevisionGUID="7beb002f-cb10-4c45-b6ec-3d00177ca34b" CreationDate="2016-07-26T02:26:47.433" UserId="1018" Text="As others have pointed out it is fair, reasonable and professional to charge an up-front fee of 50% or similar.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This helps cover any initial costs and hopefully covers at least some of your time if the client does not wish to proceed for whatever reason.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Changing an up-front fee also means the client is taking a stake in the project and has a vested interest in continuing to completion. If the client has no stake in the outcome, then it makes it easy for the client to walk away if their circumstances change leaving you out of pocket." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14197" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4759" RevisionGUID="49cf00e7-d138-4d31-b3c1-2404d03b1973" CreationDate="2016-07-26T06:17:57.153" UserId="13207" Text="I am not very happy with Upwork now taking 20% of what I make.  I have had to raise my price just to continue getting 10%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anybody have any suggestions for a good alternative for Upwork?  I do use Guru.com but it only has a new job every hour, compared to a hundred jobs per hour.  I do have established customers paying me via Paypal, but new customers want to stick with the platform.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any suggestions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14198" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4759" RevisionGUID="49cf00e7-d138-4d31-b3c1-2404d03b1973" CreationDate="2016-07-26T06:17:57.153" UserId="13207" Text="Upwork taking 20% of my money. Alternatives" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14199" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4759" RevisionGUID="49cf00e7-d138-4d31-b3c1-2404d03b1973" CreationDate="2016-07-26T06:17:57.153" UserId="13207" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14200" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4760" RevisionGUID="36eaccd1-dca9-4dda-8952-854c2ca701c9" CreationDate="2016-07-26T14:05:33.167" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="I would advise to only try the projects that are taylored for you, and keep the rate you deserve.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will feel in a better position to introduce yourself and you will seduce the customers by showing good fitness to the task.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14201" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4761" RevisionGUID="a871c534-0a42-47e5-9a15-b2fb82779f55" CreationDate="2016-07-26T17:02:03.360" UserId="7486" Text="I have been working in the web design &amp; development field since 1995 and during the years I have been working as apprentice, then employee in big internet provider, founder of small company then evolved to bigger company, then back to single freelance working in home office, now still freelancing with the help of different other freelancers collegues (we help each other in our different specialisation). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been in all kind of situation from super modern agencies office in business areas, to cubicle, to garage, to average office, to home office, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since I work at home office (or similar situation) I always had to deal with the problem of being considered &quot;cheap&quot; by clients, I mean the place where you receive the clients seems affecting their perception of &quot;how much expensive you can be&quot;, if you are in a sleek bright modern office (possibly in a business area or nice building), you can easily ask a lot more and it is all ok. If you (same person with same skills) work in a confortable and well kept, clean, functional home office with average furniture and desks, the clients usually expect you to be &quot;cheap&quot; and have low rates, just because you are at home.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know of a freelance web designer (in another close city) who got an office in an attic on the main square of the city, who decorated the office with expensive paintings and sculptures, modern sleek glass furniture, large monitors a**le computers all over the office, etc, intentionally for the purpose to impress the clients and apply higher rates. This professional told to someone I know personally: &quot;People who are looking for cheap work don't even enter here&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, the &quot;funny&quot; part is that for two times in the last years I had to recover/rebuild web projects that this above said professional made (actually he doesen't really develop, he makes young apprentices work and develop for him then he send them away after the stage finish). The sites were made with Wordpress, with commercial templates with minimal personalisation, published and abandoned forever, when I was asked to rebuild these sites they were completely hacked and infected with malware and viruses and this &quot;professional&quot; refused to fix the problem or even he told to the client &quot;I will notice the problem to Google and they will solve it&quot;, which is a mockery since Google can't care less if your site is hacked of infected (I guess he just doesen't know what to do).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The &quot;shock&quot; was when I knew of his rates that are at least 3 times mine! In one case I knew he billed something like $1200 for something that I would happily bill $400. Am I stupid or the other is taking advantage of people technical ignorance?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I always focused myself on the work quality, to be a reliable person and polite worker, but it's hard to make new clients undestand that, and I always have to pull on the prices, vice-versa this above said professional seems to be attracting a lot of clients happy to pay high bills to have something that every freelance could do for 1/2 or 1/3 of the price. Somehow he built a reputation of someone who is above the others but it is not true (or he could be even worse to be honest).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I invest a lot of my money to rent/buy a magnificent office and in architects for furnish it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to communicate your value as a serious reliable freelancer other than impress the clients with special effects for it's own sake? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14202" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4761" RevisionGUID="a871c534-0a42-47e5-9a15-b2fb82779f55" CreationDate="2016-07-26T17:02:03.360" UserId="7486" Text="Reputation and prejudices on freelancers working at home offices" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14203" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4761" RevisionGUID="a871c534-0a42-47e5-9a15-b2fb82779f55" CreationDate="2016-07-26T17:02:03.360" UserId="7486" Text="|attracting-clients|price|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14204" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4761" RevisionGUID="4a050108-5f39-4e6a-8d0f-9c2866701f82" CreationDate="2016-07-26T17:19:14.360" UserId="7486" Comment="edited body" Text="I have been working in the web design &amp; development field since 1995 and during the years I have been working as apprentice, then employee in big internet provider, founder of small company then evolved to bigger company, then back to single freelance working in home office, now still freelancing with the help of different other freelancers collegues (we help each other in our different specialisation). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been in all kind of situation from super modern agencies office in business areas, to cubicle, to garage, to average office, to home office, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since I work at home office (or similar situation) I always had to deal with the problem of being considered &quot;cheap&quot; by clients, I mean the place where you receive the clients seems affecting their perception of &quot;how much expensive you can be&quot;, if you are in a sleek bright modern office (possibly in a business area or nice building), you can easily ask a lot more and it is all ok. If you (same person with same skills) work in a confortable and well kept, clean, functional home office with average furniture and desks, the clients usually expect you to be &quot;cheap&quot; and have low rates, just because you are at home.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know of a freelance web designer (in another close city) who got an office in an attic on the main square of the city, who decorated the office with expensive paintings and sculptures, modern sleek glass furniture, large monitors a**le computers all over the office, etc, intentionally for the purpose to impress the clients and apply higher rates. This professional told to someone I know personally: &quot;People who are looking for cheap work don't even enter here&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, the &quot;funny&quot; part is that for two times in the last years I had to recover/rebuild web projects that this above said professional made (actually he doesen't really develop, he makes young apprentices work and develop for him then he send them away after the stage finish). The sites were made with Wordpress, with commercial templates with minimal personalisation, published and abandoned forever, when I was asked to rebuild these sites they were completely hacked and infected with malware and viruses and this &quot;professional&quot; refused to fix the problem or even he told to the client &quot;I will notify the problem to Google and they will solve it&quot;, which is a mockery since Google can't care less if your site is hacked of infected (I guess he just doesen't know what to do).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The &quot;shock&quot; was when I knew of his rates that are at least 3 times mine! In one case I knew he billed something like $1200 for something that I would happily bill $400. Am I stupid or the other is taking advantage of people technical ignorance?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I always focused myself on the work quality, to be a reliable person and polite worker, but it's hard to make new clients undestand that, and I always have to pull on the prices, vice-versa this above said professional seems to be attracting a lot of clients happy to pay high bills to have something that every freelance could do for 1/2 or 1/3 of the price. Somehow he built a reputation of someone who is above the others but it is not true (or he could be even worse to be honest).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I invest a lot of my money to rent/buy a magnificent office and in architects for furnish it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to communicate your value as a serious reliable freelancer other than impress the clients with special effects for it's own sake? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14205" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4762" RevisionGUID="c36dc633-8f2f-4d38-a447-b6fadb4ae0fa" CreationDate="2016-07-26T20:47:45.807" UserId="4870" Text="It sounds like your question boils down to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;If company X can charge Y, and I'm just as skilled as company X, why&#xD;&#xA;&gt; can't I charge Y?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and, in a similar vein:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;How can I charge more for my services?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, your friend can charge more for his services because his clients perceive a higher value. You can charge more for your services when your clients perceive higher value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Therefore, to increase prices and profits, maximize your value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to maximize your company's value:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##1) Know who you are maximizing for&#xD;&#xA;- In order to maximize your value, you need to know who you are maximizing your value for. Since different clients have different needs, it is impossible to optimize for everyone. This is why niches are so important. They provide your company a goal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If you haven't already, define your ideal client. Your ideal client is a client that will pay you well for your services and provide your business a strong profit. So, how do you maximize profit? By maximizing the value your company provides to your clients. The more value you provide *to your clients* the more profitable your company will be. Remember though: you are maximizing the value you provide your clients. Your clients value different things than your company does. You need to understand what they value and maximize for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## 2) Know the needs of your target client&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- In order to maximize your value for your target client, you need to know the needs of your target client. As an example, let's say you are a mobile development shop targeting middle-stage startups in the US. In order to maximize your value to those clients, you need to know the challenges they are facing. Learn the ins and outs of your target client. Figure out what is holding them back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## 3) Define the needs you will address for your target client&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Once you know the needs of your target client, figure out which needs you are most equipped to address. While your clients might all have legal issues, unless you are an attorney, you're probably unfit to address those needs. You want to find that nice balance where your services perfectly mesh with your client's needs. You could face two problems at this stage. First: your company is incapable of addressing your client's most pressing needs. If this is the case, the easiest solution, and what I recommend in most cases, you should reassess your target client. However, if you're certain you have picked the right target client, your only other option is to develop the skills necessary to address those needs within your company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## 4) Clearly communicate the needs you will address to your target client&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Craft your message so it resonates with your target client. Make sure to use language your client will understand. If you develop software and your ideal client is non-technical, don't layer your website with jargon. Remember, you're writing your message for your client, not yourself.&#xD;&#xA;- Find the right platform for your message. If your ideal client is a 50yo CFO for a financial institution, maybe Facebook ads aren't the best form of advertising (although who knows, my mom is on Facebook more than I am). While it's important to get your message right, it's even more important to make sure you're giving your message to the right people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hopefully these tips help. If OP or anyone else has additional questions please do not hesitate to contact me (contact info in my profile).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14206" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4762" RevisionGUID="fd77b185-6507-4c7c-99fa-e19e64d88192" CreationDate="2016-07-26T20:58:52.033" UserId="4870" Comment="directly answer questions asked by OP" Text="It sounds like your question boils down to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;If company X can charge Y, and I'm just as skilled as company X, why&#xD;&#xA;&gt; can't I charge Y?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and, in a similar vein:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;How can I charge more for my services?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, your friend can charge more for his services because his clients perceive a higher value. You can charge more for your services when your clients perceive higher value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Therefore, to increase prices and profits, maximize your value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to maximize your company's value:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##1) Know who you are maximizing for&#xD;&#xA;- In order to maximize your value, you need to know who you are maximizing your value for. Since different clients have different needs, it is impossible to optimize for everyone. This is why niches are so important. They provide your company a goal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If you haven't already, define your ideal client. Your ideal client is a client that will pay you well for your services and provide your business a strong profit. So, how do you maximize profit? By maximizing the value your company provides to your clients. The more value you provide *to your clients* the more profitable your company will be. Remember though: you are maximizing the value you provide your clients. Your clients value different things than your company does. You need to understand what they value and maximize for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## 2) Know the needs of your target client&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- In order to maximize your value for your target client, you need to know the needs of your target client. As an example, let's say you are a mobile development shop targeting middle-stage startups in the US. In order to maximize your value to those clients, you need to know the challenges they are facing. Learn the ins and outs of your target client. Figure out what is holding them back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## 3) Define the needs you will address for your target client&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Once you know the needs of your target client, figure out which needs you are most equipped to address. While your clients might all have legal issues, unless you are an attorney, you're probably unfit to address those needs. You want to find that nice balance where your services perfectly mesh with your client's needs. You could face two problems at this stage. First: your company is incapable of addressing your client's most pressing needs. If this is the case, the easiest solution, and what I recommend in most cases, you should reassess your target client. However, if you're certain you have picked the right target client, your only other option is to develop the skills necessary to address those needs within your company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## 4) Clearly communicate the needs you will address to your target client&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Craft your message so it resonates with your target client. Make sure to use language your client will understand. If you develop software and your ideal client is non-technical, don't layer your website with jargon. Remember, you're writing your message for your client, not yourself.&#xD;&#xA;- Find the right platform for your message. If your ideal client is a 50yo CFO for a financial institution, maybe Facebook ads aren't the best form of advertising (although who knows, my mom is on Facebook more than I am). While it's important to get your message right, it's even more important to make sure you're giving your message to the right people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, I'll directly answer your questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Should I invest a lot of my money to rent/buy a magnificent office and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; in architects for furnish it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Will this provide a high degree of perceived value to your clients? To give you some anecdotal evidence, I currently work out of my home and do not believe it negatively impacts my current business. We have won 6-figure bids over agencies with fancy offices and nice furniture. Our clients don't place high value on fancy offices and furniture though. they want software that works.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; How to communicate your value as a serious reliable freelancer other&#xD;&#xA;&gt; than impress the clients with special effects for it's own sake?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value is communicated in many different ways. One way my company communicates our value is through case studies and testimonials. If a company is interested in hiring us, they at least have proof that we provided value to another company. If that company is similar enough -- and it should be if you clearly defined your ideal client -- case studies will go a long way to communicate value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other ways to communicate value:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Professionalism&#xD;&#xA;- Knowledgeability&#xD;&#xA;- Data/statistics&#xD;&#xA;- Pricing&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hopefully these tips help. If OP or anyone else has additional questions please do not hesitate to contact me (contact info in my profile).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14207" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4763" RevisionGUID="7ba92e9a-ea9e-4851-a457-ad6ec213c9ea" CreationDate="2016-07-26T21:24:08.760" UserId="12865" Text="I got an idea that will be really helpful on my current job. I will make this software eventually to every other companies that want to use it, but for now only my employer will have access to it. This lead to my question:&#xD;&#xA;**Should I tell them about this project?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm finishing my concept state and will take me like 3 months to build at least a Beta build. The software will be free with a (optional) subscription for more functions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14208" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4763" RevisionGUID="7ba92e9a-ea9e-4851-a457-ad6ec213c9ea" CreationDate="2016-07-26T21:24:08.760" UserId="12865" Text="Should I build an Alpha before presenting my concept" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14209" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4763" RevisionGUID="7ba92e9a-ea9e-4851-a457-ad6ec213c9ea" CreationDate="2016-07-26T21:24:08.760" UserId="12865" Text="|communication|marketing|software|project|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14210" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4761" RevisionGUID="3ecca017-e29f-4a6a-ae30-49df7f800e67" CreationDate="2016-07-26T21:36:11.290" UserId="4870" Comment="Reword title to make question easier to understand and distill essence of question" Text="How to increase reputation/value and reduce prejudices for freelancers working out of home offices" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14211" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4761" RevisionGUID="3ecca017-e29f-4a6a-ae30-49df7f800e67" CreationDate="2016-07-26T21:36:11.290" Comment="Proposed by 4870 approved by 7486 edit id of 475" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14212" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4764" RevisionGUID="55953733-8052-4370-820d-abe40ada2cf1" CreationDate="2016-07-27T04:46:26.177" UserId="13219" Text="I am an experienced web developer. I have 4+ year professional experience in web development and i started doing freelancing work one year ago. Till now i have successfully completed 5-6 projects that i got from local contacts. Now i want to start bidding on freelancing websites and i have also stated a it company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, my question is that which is better option to bid on freelancing websites as an 'Individual' or as a 'Company'. and which will attract client more. Also if i bid as an individual and successfully completed some projects than would it be legal to add those projects in my company portfolio as i am associated with that company. or should i have to bid as a company to add those projects in my company portfolio." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14213" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4764" RevisionGUID="55953733-8052-4370-820d-abe40ada2cf1" CreationDate="2016-07-27T04:46:26.177" UserId="13219" Text="Which is better option to bid as individual or to bid as a Company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14214" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4764" RevisionGUID="55953733-8052-4370-820d-abe40ada2cf1" CreationDate="2016-07-27T04:46:26.177" UserId="13219" Text="|freelance-websites|company-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14215" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4765" RevisionGUID="da5e3d8e-61b5-43a3-9f42-94e25f63732b" CreationDate="2016-07-27T15:14:02.200" UserId="13207" Text="I haven't seen where its mattered too much.  When I have hired for smaller projects I haven't cared if its a company name or individual name.  If I was hiring for &quot;the next Uber&quot; application, I would probably pay much more attention to the freelance profile than the name.  A quality proposal, good price, a good profile, and responsiveness has been what I used to hire people more than the name.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would think responsiveness is almost the key.  I found people that were awesome on everything, but I couldn't get ahold of them via Skype or email.  I moved on to the next person who was available to talk to me.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14216" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4766" RevisionGUID="f6cb5f41-1a5a-466e-ad78-872333fa8f51" CreationDate="2016-07-27T16:33:32.857" UserId="13207" Text="It would be definitely be worth a try to rent a space on an as-need basis.  Another cheap way to go is reserve library rooms.  It maybe not as nice as a rented office but it would &quot;feel&quot; more professional than a home.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are looking at a different spin, you might even think of a specialized rental space.  For example renting a mancave type space.  This would feel expensive, but also be a lot of fun for the client.  I linked to an example.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[https://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p4080412][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p4080412" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14217" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4765" RevisionGUID="88a647a7-47b7-494f-a646-0497aff69b40" CreationDate="2016-07-27T17:44:18.863" UserId="75" Comment="Basci grammer edits" Text="I haven't seen where its mattered too much.  When I have hired for smaller projects I haven't cared if it's a company name or individual name.  If I was hiring for &quot;the next Uber&quot; application, I would probably pay much more attention to the freelance profile than the name.  A quality proposal, good price, a good profile, and responsiveness has been what I used to hire people more than the name.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would think responsiveness is almost the key.  I found people that were awesome on everything, but I couldn't get a hold of them via Skype or email.  I moved on to the next person who was available to talk to me.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14218" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4767" RevisionGUID="09eb6835-b8ec-42d2-b9ce-32fce614ffa3" CreationDate="2016-07-27T18:05:55.153" UserId="75" Text="Dangerous territory here... But I'll bite.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can guarantee (likely with a lawyer's advice/help) that you developed it *on your own time on your own equipment in your own home*, you may have a case to keep it to yourself. Did you sign an Employment Agreement that stated the company owns anything you do? Check that out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, do you have it hosted elsewhere, such as your GitHub page? With a License file attached to it? Added insurance, as most employers will happily take their employee's hard-made products for themselves, because they believe they own the employee. Because they believe this, they want to own anything they create.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, how would your product *help* the company? Are you willing to do 24/7 support if something breaks, or they want new features added yesterday? You should *license* it to them, via a company you form, and just happen to be president of. Don't do it as an individual, if you plan on keeping work and private life separate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be prepared for them to say no if you charge them, unless it can solve a BIG problem; be prepared to be asked to support it free of charge if they say yes. Good luck&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14219" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4768" RevisionGUID="9212b74b-8042-4e56-a5d1-325c3c6e7175" CreationDate="2016-07-27T21:48:20.040" UserId="4870" Text="As a freelancer, I'm curious how others have successfully niched their services, and how I might go about finding a profitable niche. What is a good strategy for achieving service market fit?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14220" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4768" RevisionGUID="9212b74b-8042-4e56-a5d1-325c3c6e7175" CreationDate="2016-07-27T21:48:20.040" UserId="4870" Text="How to successfully niche and differentiate as a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14221" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4768" RevisionGUID="9212b74b-8042-4e56-a5d1-325c3c6e7175" CreationDate="2016-07-27T21:48:20.040" UserId="4870" Text="|attracting-clients|marketing|sales|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14222" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="4768" RevisionGUID="1243a516-55fb-4510-8716-666dab46cde1" CreationDate="2016-07-28T00:26:18.890" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="14223" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4768" RevisionGUID="ad61fd71-5833-4626-951b-5e416baa484e" CreationDate="2016-07-28T04:36:52.480" UserId="4870" Comment="added 31 characters in body" Text="As a freelance software developer (mobile/web), I'm curious how others have successfully niched their services, and how I might go about finding a profitable niche. What is a good strategy for achieving service market fit?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14224" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4769" RevisionGUID="2ace41fd-9c31-4cef-9532-408bab9846c0" CreationDate="2016-07-28T05:47:09.983" UserId="10374" Text="In France if the development is tied to your current activity (and it seems to be it from what you say) then the company can claim it as its own. Only way in that case would be to have someone else publish it or wait to be in another company.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14225" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="4768" RevisionGUID="96ff7aaf-c82a-4afd-b25a-8a4c82ac3e10" CreationDate="2016-07-28T16:15:00.163" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="14226" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4770" RevisionGUID="44852285-b0b1-493f-aaac-ffa6f69d1298" CreationDate="2016-07-29T04:41:06.807" UserId="2265" Text="You pay a lot of taxes that are not linked 1-on-1 with a single job, so you'll never get an exact number for that. &#xD;&#xA;However, as a freelancer I use a very simple calculation that works accurate enough so far (the same might exist for Toronto): taking ALL taxes into account, basically 50% of what I invoice is NET, i.e. if I take all my revenue at the end of the year and subtract all that I pay in various taxes (e.g. tax on the salary I pay myself, corporation tax, social security payments, profit tax, etc.) I'm left with 50% to actually spend on net salary, investments, expenses etc. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14227" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4771" RevisionGUID="c70520bd-110d-4105-a522-8aa43f4499c9" CreationDate="2016-07-29T04:57:01.393" UserId="2265" Text="Maybe not the answer you are looking for, but there are many ways to be &quot;niche&quot; of differentiate yourself, and not all of them boil down to skill. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Skill**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's get the obvious out of the way: if you are objectively more skilled than other in a specific aspect of mobile development you'll set yourself apart. Maybe your UX is always super attractive AND useful and you have a track record of apps that people love, maybe you just get work done faster than anyone else, i.e. something objective that you can see when you look around at other developers &quot;hey, I'm actually better at X or Y than they are&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;It takes experience to know where you excel versus others. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Presentation**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some developers differentiate on how they present themselves. Their website is very professional, they have great templates for proposals and presentations (or just the fact they have them), their appearance is different (e.g. extra classy, very outgoing, ...) or there is something else that sets them apart just because of the way they present themselves. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Niche**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Closely linked to Skill, but not the same: you can suck at something, but if there is no one else doing it you're still better than nothing. E.g. I know of a company that was desperate for a COBOL programmer for some legacy mainframe job. They couldn't find anyone, and the guy they finally hired probably took twice the time it should have taken BUT... there was no one else and he did get the job done to the company's satisfaction in the end.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottomline: it comes down to experience or observing, look around and see what are others not doing: it can be a specific mobile development skill (e.g. if you are a mobile developer you may want to specialize in secure development for mobile devices right about now) but it can definitely be any other aspect of doing business that can set you apart from the rest. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14228" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4618" RevisionGUID="2476dee7-c442-4510-9885-313c5692919c" CreationDate="2016-07-29T12:06:34.357" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="14233" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4773" RevisionGUID="179b2386-ec5b-42f9-bb6b-bb0951305e3c" CreationDate="2016-07-29T17:15:17.483" UserId="13255" Text="I'm currently residing in UK and working as an employee for a UK company. I'll soon move out of UK and travel around the world, while working on freelance contract for UK companies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the first time I'll do freelance contract and I'll be abroad. What is the best way to approach this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Do I start a limited company or should I be sole trader? Do I invoice the companies as a separate company or as a self employed person?&#xD;&#xA; - Where do I pay my taxes if my earnings are coming from UK but I'm not residing there?&#xD;&#xA; - Where do I get the accountant? Or do I need one?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14234" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4773" RevisionGUID="179b2386-ec5b-42f9-bb6b-bb0951305e3c" CreationDate="2016-07-29T17:15:17.483" UserId="13255" Text="Working on UK freelance contract for a UK company while travelling" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14235" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4773" RevisionGUID="179b2386-ec5b-42f9-bb6b-bb0951305e3c" CreationDate="2016-07-29T17:15:17.483" UserId="13255" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14240" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4306" RevisionGUID="722a609f-dc94-4beb-a3d7-a1e2f5a8f4f4" CreationDate="2016-07-30T21:21:09.463" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="14248" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4753" RevisionGUID="65011a79-496a-4a96-9273-8cc3a6b10db9" CreationDate="2016-08-01T13:29:23.587" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="clarified" Text="I am a VBA developer and Excel Automation developer.  I have developed lot of projects for some BPO companies for automating their process.  They settled their payments to my account directly but not from their company account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I am searching for new job and they are asking about my current cost to company. What value should I supply as a freelancer? I have all the income proof in my bank statement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14249" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4753" RevisionGUID="65011a79-496a-4a96-9273-8cc3a6b10db9" CreationDate="2016-08-01T13:29:23.587" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="clarified" Text="As a freelancer, how do I calculate my cost to company value?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14250" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4775" RevisionGUID="d05e76d4-dc78-4b88-8f10-d306e2ccbc05" CreationDate="2016-08-01T13:32:53.460" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="I would suggest just using your income amount instead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually, the CTC (cost to company) also includes additional expenses on top of your salary that your company pays. Since the CTC is the entire cost that the company spends on you every month, your freelancing income should be about the same, since you'd probably need to pay those expenses yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14251" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4776" RevisionGUID="69e70b43-8a49-441f-a55a-df430358c5be" CreationDate="2016-08-01T16:36:08.127" UserId="4870" Text="I'm going to offer a few counter-points to Dustin's answer. From my experience, presenting myself as the owner of a company, as opposed to a freelancer, led to a number of positive things (keep in mind this is all anecdotal):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Presenting as a company allows you to **increase your rates**. From my experience, there was a limit to how much I could charge as an individual. Even with project/value based pricing it was hard to demand the higher prices I knew other developers were receiving. However, when I started by company and brought on just one more person I then had a team I could market. This increased our perceived value and trust, allowing us to charge more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Presenting as a company **increases your perceived stability**. Some clients (not all) are put off by working with an individual. This often depends on the size of the client, scope of the project, and importance of the project. For large, critical, tasks many clients are not comfortable hiring a freelancer. What happens if you suddenly fall ill? What happens if you stop answering their phone calls? While all of these things can happen with companies as well, companies are inherently more stable because they have a greater number of individuals who can fill in if something happens.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Presenting as a company **increases your perceived value**. An individual freelancer has a finite number of skills, and while they might be an expert in several different areas, they cannot be an expert in everything (this is why, when selling yourself as a freelancer, you need to niche down and find your specialty). While a company cannot be everything for everyone either, they can offer a broader range of skills simply because they have more talent to draw from, inherently increasing their real and perceived value." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14256" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4778" RevisionGUID="115257df-a86a-4c6b-8069-9ebb6e31f634" CreationDate="2016-08-02T13:44:40.223" UserId="2839" Text="If you need to chase your client for small things, even from the beginning (e.g. signing a contract, because you need a file, to be called back by phone,...), in my experience is a sure red flag: imagine when you'll ask to be paid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sentences like &quot;trust me&quot;, &quot;I'm honest&quot;, &quot;we don't need a contract&quot;, &quot;we have not problem in paying you more if you deserve it&quot;, brought me to sue all theese super-loyal-clients...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes the client told me how the work (site/software/ecc.) I have to update has been done in the worst way possible from a previous freelancer&#xD;&#xA;(maybe this correspond to the &quot;drama&quot; part in the post of Chris Travers). At the end the client tryed to recoup the bad investment, so he was never happy in spite all my efforts and discounts. When finally he was happy, I recognize I had worked nearly for free." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14257" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4779" RevisionGUID="1967b55b-6bce-4bdc-8881-07c8a1fcf06a" CreationDate="2016-08-02T15:38:03.133" UserId="10647" Text="I'm preparing to sign an agreement to work as a freelance contractor using a corp2corp arrangement with my LLC.  I know nothing is hard and fast until I get actual quotes.  Unfortunately, actual quote can take a week or more to get back.  Can anyone give me any insight from their experience on what annual expectations I can expect (e.g. $5k, $20k, etc.) to pay for insurance...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Commercial General Liability Insurance:**&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * Each Occurrence Limit: $1,000,000&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * General Aggregate Limit: $2,000,000&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * Products-Completed Operations Limit: $1,000,000&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * Personal and Advertising injury Limit $1,000,000.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Workers' Compensation Insurance:** as required by state.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Employers Liability Insurance:** $1,000,000 per occurrence.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Excess/Umbrella Liability Insurance:** $3,000,000 per occurrence.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Errors and Omissions Liability Insurance** and/or **Professional Liability Insurance:** $2,000,000 per occurrence." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14258" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4779" RevisionGUID="1967b55b-6bce-4bdc-8881-07c8a1fcf06a" CreationDate="2016-08-02T15:38:03.133" UserId="10647" Text="Freelance Insurance for C2C Arrangement" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14259" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4779" RevisionGUID="1967b55b-6bce-4bdc-8881-07c8a1fcf06a" CreationDate="2016-08-02T15:38:03.133" UserId="10647" Text="|llc|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14260" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4780" RevisionGUID="41f18618-0ab0-4dce-91f9-3c1ff90dba6b" CreationDate="2016-08-02T17:28:09.213" UserId="1706" Text="For my small business - doing software development - I forked out about $1000/yr for just general liability and professional liability.  Your mileage may vary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The quote shouldn't take a week, though.  Something seems &quot;off&quot; to me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14261" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4781" RevisionGUID="0568cd3b-3439-40ab-ad33-3c111a22cf01" CreationDate="2016-08-02T17:54:18.787" UserId="13293" Text="I'm using **http://www.hivedesk.com** for **Time Tracking and Task Management** software that makes remote team collaboration easier. It is a powerful and simple-to-use project management tool to manage your team and tasks. &#xD;&#xA;Top Features:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;•	Time tracking software with screenshots&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;•	Project and task management&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;•	Review your remote workers’ logged time and productivity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;•	View and generate reports and graphs of their activity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;•	Remote workers have peace of mind knowing that productivity and time are not tracked unless they are checked into a project.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14263" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4782" RevisionGUID="26f7bc35-1598-44fc-922d-fd8bb58c0bb7" CreationDate="2016-08-02T21:37:05.360" UserId="13295" Text="I recently moved to Tennessee from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I'm a web developer with a large client base in the Netherlands. In Holland I was required to add 21% tax (VAT) to my invoices for Dutch clients. However, whenever I billed clients in non-EU countries the tax rate on my invoice had to be 0 % (VAT reverse charge).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the tables have turned. Since I will be invoicing my Dutch clients from my newly founded LLC in the US, how do I handle the tax aspect of my invoice for my Dutch clients? Do I put 0 % sales tax on my invoices? Do I charge the regular tax amount for my new home state? Do I charge no tax at all? For what it's worth, I work from home." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14264" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4782" RevisionGUID="26f7bc35-1598-44fc-922d-fd8bb58c0bb7" CreationDate="2016-08-02T21:37:05.360" UserId="13295" Text="Invoicing Dutch clients from my Tennessee LLC" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14265" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4782" RevisionGUID="26f7bc35-1598-44fc-922d-fd8bb58c0bb7" CreationDate="2016-08-02T21:37:05.360" UserId="13295" Text="|taxes|usa|llc|eu|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14266" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4783" RevisionGUID="4b894098-cbc6-410c-9511-a91357379bf5" CreationDate="2016-08-03T01:42:31.567" UserId="13298" Text="This question may be opinion based as it has a loose meaning behind &quot;bad concepts&quot;. I'm starting out as a freelance designer (not long left university), thus I'm continuously learning new techniques and general business etiquette.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've had a couple projects for clients but I've found the early stages of a project are me making mistakes, generally just creating bad concepts. My question is, is it moral to charge a client for these mistakes? My thought is that it's fine since the failures lead to the success of later concepts even though it may take me longer to get to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm asking this because I made a logo which is now relatively perfect but I spent a good amount of time on it, maybe too much. A solution could be not to charge per hour but at this stage it's almost impossible to give an accurate quote at the beginning of a project, as I said I'm new at this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any thoughts on this would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14267" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="4783" RevisionGUID="4b894098-cbc6-410c-9511-a91357379bf5" CreationDate="2016-08-03T01:42:31.567" UserId="13298" Text="charging clients for bad concepts in early stages (graphic design)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14268" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="4783" RevisionGUID="4b894098-cbc6-410c-9511-a91357379bf5" CreationDate="2016-08-03T01:42:31.567" UserId="13298" Text="|payment-terms|price|payments|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14269" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4781" RevisionGUID="b923d8b3-1336-48f1-9fdc-631799948ce3" CreationDate="2016-08-03T05:38:52.027" UserId="13293" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="I'm using **http://www.hivedesk.com** for **Time Tracking and Task Management** software that makes remote team collaboration easier. It is a powerful and simple-to-use project management tool to manage your team and tasks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Top Features:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;•	Time tracking software with screenshots&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;•	Project and task management&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;•	Review your remote workers’ logged time and productivity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;•	View and generate reports and graphs of their activity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;•	Remote workers have peace of mind knowing that productivity and time are not tracked unless they are checked into a project.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14270" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4783" RevisionGUID="c5abc9b1-47ee-41c7-ae11-662e15de4047" CreationDate="2016-08-03T13:20:57.017" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="clarifie title, cleaned up text" Text="I'm starting out as a freelance designer (not long left university), thus I'm continuously learning new techniques and general business etiquette.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've had a couple projects for clients but I've found the early stages of a project are me making mistakes, generally just creating bad concepts. My question is, is it moral to charge a client for these mistakes? My thought is that it's fine since the failures lead to the success of later concepts even though it may take me longer to get to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm asking this because I made a logo which is now relatively perfect but I spent a good amount of time on it, maybe too much. A solution could be not to charge per hour but at this stage it's almost impossible to give an accurate quote at the beginning of a project, as I said I'm new at this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any thoughts on this would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14271" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4783" RevisionGUID="c5abc9b1-47ee-41c7-ae11-662e15de4047" CreationDate="2016-08-03T13:20:57.017" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="clarifie title, cleaned up text" Text="Should I charge my client for mistakes I make?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14273" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4479" RevisionGUID="25d312f2-1eb9-4566-a17a-c5ff7504dd92" CreationDate="2016-08-03T17:21:40.093" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="14274" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4784" RevisionGUID="193b4db0-ee45-4273-8e2e-a415bf5fcc5a" CreationDate="2016-08-03T17:23:17.263" UserId="1706" Text="If you are spending your time to use your creative ability to build something to their satisfaction (which you cannot easily predict), then you are absolutely in the right to make the client pay for ALL your effort.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Labs pay scientists to try different things.  They have many, many failures.  Same goes for engineers in emerging fields, software developers, designers like yourself, animators, and all jobs involving creative pursuits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If these people got penalized for making mistakes, no one would work in those fields.  Value yourself!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14275" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4785" RevisionGUID="a2acd37a-8ea8-4434-ad40-dc93f64d651b" CreationDate="2016-08-03T19:46:17.307" UserId="708" Text="The only way you'll ever make money with design is to become familiar with and accustomed to value-based pricing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No client I've ever come across is willing to pay $150-$400 an hour... or willing to pay for 40 hours of work, at something ridiculous like $35/hr, when you've spent 30 hours of &quot;rough&quot; design exploration and only 10 hours actually finalizing something. However, most will gladly pay $600 without ever knowing it only took you 2 hours to design something. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you start out.. that $600 may mean you only early $10/hr because it took you 60 hours to finish... but as you improve you skill set, you whittle that away and start making more and more money without really increasing prices. Value-based pricing **rewards** you for being better at your job. The faster, more efficient you are, the more profit you make. Why should you charge an hourly rate clients will see as acceptable when you can do in 1 hour what other designers may need 5 hours to complete? **Only** value-based pricing is a viable model in my opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, in general, with value-based pricing in mind, *yes* you charge the client for your exploration time. But it's up to you to be quick about things. The longer you take, the less money you make -- which is a different mindset than &quot;the longer you take the more the client pays&quot;. The client pays the price you've bid/quoted... **you** have to ensure you are A) bidding accurately and B) not eating your own profits by taking too much time with projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other possibly helpful questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1588/which-is-the-most-honest-or-ethical-way-to-bill-hourly-or-fixed-price/1589#1589&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4534/am-i-supposed-to-be-paid-even-though-my-work-isnt-used/4536#4536&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4641/is-it-common-to-demand-deposit-retainer-to-avoid-payment-disputes/4644#4644&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3891/underestimated-project-do-you-charge-the-excess-time/3892#3892&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1304/whose-responsibility-is-to-give-budget-for-job-freelancer-or-client/1317#1317" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14276" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4785" RevisionGUID="286fdb4d-f3bd-4ee7-8038-6af5efa4eaea" CreationDate="2016-08-03T19:52:55.437" UserId="708" Comment="added 669 characters in body" Text="The only way you'll ever make money with design is to become familiar with and accustomed to value-based pricing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No client I've ever come across is willing to pay $150-$400 an hour... or willing to pay for 40 hours of work, at something ridiculous like $35/hr, when you've spent 30 hours of &quot;rough&quot; design exploration and only 10 hours actually finalizing something. However, most will gladly pay $600 without ever knowing it only took you 2 hours to design something. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you start out.. that $600 may mean you only early $10/hr because it took you 60 hours to finish... but as you improve you skill set, you whittle that away and start making more and more money without really increasing prices. Value-based pricing **rewards** you for being better at your job. The faster, more efficient you are, the more profit you make. Why should you charge an hourly rate clients will see as acceptable when you can do in 1 hour what other designers may need 5 hours to complete? **Only** value-based pricing is a viable model in my opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, in general, with value-based pricing in mind, *yes* you charge the client for your exploration time. But it's up to you to be quick about things. The longer you take, the less money you make -- which is a different mindset than &quot;the longer you take the more the client pays&quot;. The client pays the price you've bid/quoted... **you** have to ensure you are A) bidding accurately and B) not eating your own profits by taking too much time with projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;**An example:** &#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;A client approaches me for a tri-fold brochure. I *know* I can complete this in 3 hours tops... Client asks me what my hourly rate is. I simply tell then the cost for the brochure design will be $450.00.. the client is happy with that and hires me... It only takes me 2 hours to actually complete the brochure..... **I make $450.00**. &#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Conversely.... the client approaches me and asks what my hourly rate is. I tell them its $35 an hour. Then I tell them it'll take 3 hours.. they are thrilled and hire me... It only takes me 2 hours... I bill the client for 2 hours.... **I make $70.00**&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;*You tell me which is a better pricing model.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are billing hourly, you need to be honest and ethical and **never** pad your time. It's the only real way to remain in business and keep clients happy. If you are billing based on an *agreed upon amount* then the amount of time it takes you to complete something is largely irrelevant. Your'e being paid for your knowledge, experience as well as your skill, not just the time pushing a mouse around on a desk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other possibly helpful questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1588/which-is-the-most-honest-or-ethical-way-to-bill-hourly-or-fixed-price/1589#1589&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4534/am-i-supposed-to-be-paid-even-though-my-work-isnt-used/4536#4536&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4641/is-it-common-to-demand-deposit-retainer-to-avoid-payment-disputes/4644#4644&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3891/underestimated-project-do-you-charge-the-excess-time/3892#3892&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1304/whose-responsibility-is-to-give-budget-for-job-freelancer-or-client/1317#1317" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14280" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4785" RevisionGUID="e926659f-5ac9-4db1-b474-ff87940b511b" CreationDate="2016-08-03T20:32:04.763" UserId="708" Comment="added 384 characters in body" Text="The only way you'll ever make money with design is to become familiar with and accustomed to value-based pricing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No client I've ever come across is willing to pay $150-$400 an hour... or willing to pay for 40 hours of work, at something ridiculous like $35/hr, when you've spent 30 hours of &quot;rough&quot; design exploration and only 10 hours actually finalizing something. However, most will gladly pay $600 without ever knowing it only took you 2 hours to design something. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you start out.. that $600 may mean you only earn $10/hr because it took you 60 hours to finish a project... but as you improve your skill set and get better at estimating your time, you whittle that away and start making more and more money without really increasing prices. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value-based pricing **rewards** you for being better at your job. The faster, more efficient you are, the more profit you make. Why should you charge an hourly rate clients will see as acceptable when you can do in 1 hour what other designers may need 5 hours to complete? **Only** value-based pricing is a viable model in my opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, in general, with value-based pricing in mind, *yes* you charge the client for your exploration time. But it's up to you to be quick about things. The longer you take, the less money you make -- which is a different mindset than &quot;the longer you take the more the client pays&quot;. The client pays the price you've bid/quoted... **you** have to ensure you are A) bidding accurately and B) not eating your own profits by taking too much time with projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;**An example:** &#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;A client approaches me for a tri-fold brochure. I *know* I can complete this in 3 hours tops... Client asks me what my hourly rate is. I simply tell then the cost for the brochure design will be $450.00.. the client is happy with that and hires me... It only takes me 2 hours to actually complete the brochure..... **I make $450.00**. &#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Conversely.... the client approaches me and asks what my hourly rate is. I tell them its $150 an hour. They complain, whine, and balk. Telling me they generally only pay less than $40/hr. They *expect* to pay me the same rate they've paid others. As if every designer has the same abilities and skills.... but I'm *not* the same designer. So... lets pretend I cut my rate *(which I **NEVER** would)* to something like, say, $50/hr. Then I tell them it'll take 3 hours.. they are thrilled and hire me... It only takes me 2 hours... I bill the client for 2 hours.... **I make $100.00**&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;***You tell me which is a better pricing model.***&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;Dollar amounts are fictions and have no actual bearing on my pricing. &lt;br&gt;These are examples only and should **not** be seen as pricing advice.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are billing hourly, you need to be honest and ethical and **never** pad your time. It's the only real way to remain in business and keep clients happy. If you are billing based on an *agreed upon amount* then the amount of time it takes you to complete something is largely irrelevant. Your'e being paid for your knowledge, experience as well as your skill, not just the time pushing a mouse around on a desk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other possibly helpful questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1588/which-is-the-most-honest-or-ethical-way-to-bill-hourly-or-fixed-price/1589#1589&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4534/am-i-supposed-to-be-paid-even-though-my-work-isnt-used/4536#4536&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4641/is-it-common-to-demand-deposit-retainer-to-avoid-payment-disputes/4644#4644&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3891/underestimated-project-do-you-charge-the-excess-time/3892#3892&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1304/whose-responsibility-is-to-give-budget-for-job-freelancer-or-client/1317#1317" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14281" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4785" RevisionGUID="4acb1bc8-5a81-427e-be49-68ca3c853d4e" CreationDate="2016-08-03T21:04:01.140" UserId="708" Comment="added 878 characters in body" Text="The only way you'll ever make money with design is to become familiar with and accustomed to value-based pricing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No client I've ever come across is willing to pay $150-$400 an hour... or willing to pay for 40 hours of work, at something ridiculous like $35/hr, when you've spent 30 hours of &quot;rough&quot; design exploration and only 10 hours actually finalizing something. However, most will gladly pay $600 without ever knowing it only took you 2 hours to design something. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you start out.. that $600 may mean you only earn $10/hr because it took you 60 hours to finish a project... but as you improve your skill set and get better at estimating your time, you whittle that away and start making more and more money without really increasing prices. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value-based pricing **rewards** you for being better at your job. The faster, more efficient you are, the more profit you make. Why should you charge an hourly rate clients will see as acceptable when you can do in 1 hour what other designers may need 5 hours to complete? **Only** value-based pricing is a viable model in my opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, in general, with value-based pricing in mind, *yes* you charge the client for your exploration time. But it's up to you to be quick about things. The longer you take, the less money you make -- which is a different mindset than &quot;the longer you take the more the client pays&quot;. The client pays the price you've bid/quoted... **you** have to ensure you are A) bidding accurately and B) not eating your own profits by taking too much time with projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;**An example:** &#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;A client approaches me for a tri-fold brochure. I *know* I can complete this in 3 hours tops... Client asks me what my hourly rate is. I simply tell then the cost for the brochure design will be $450.00.. the client is happy with that and hires me... It only takes me 2 hours to actually complete the brochure..... **I make $450.00**. &#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Conversely.... the client approaches me and asks what my hourly rate is. I tell them its $150 an hour. They complain, whine, and balk. Telling me they generally only pay less than $40/hr. They *expect* to pay me the same rate they've paid others. As if every designer has the same abilities and skills.... but I'm *not* the same designer. So... lets pretend I cut my rate *(which I **NEVER** would)* to something like, say, $50/hr. Then I tell them it'll take 3 hours.. they are thrilled and hire me... It only takes me 2 hours... I bill the client for 2 hours.... **I make $100.00**&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;***You tell me which is a better pricing model.***&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;Dollar amounts are fictions and have no actual bearing on my pricing. &lt;br&gt;These are examples only and should **not** be seen as pricing advice.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are billing hourly, you need to be honest and ethical and **never** pad your time. It's the only real way to remain in business and keep clients happy. If you are billing based on an *agreed upon amount* then the amount of time it takes you to complete something is largely irrelevant. Your'e being paid for your knowledge, experience as well as your skill, not just the time pushing a mouse around on a desk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For something like a logo project, which you mention, first you **must**  *know* your overhead costs (electricity, equipment, software, rent, heat, water, etc). Then you calculate the approximate time needed multiplied by your hourly overhead... this gives you a *minimum* amount. After you have the minimum, it's a matter of market trends, current market pricing, depth and scope of the project, your area of expertise, etc to calculate the profit amount *on top of* the minimum you've calculated. This ultimately leads to a solid figure to bid/quote. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you bid/quote a solid figure, the client has no worries that you will be asking for more money, and generally there's *much less* issue with payment since it's understood from the beginning. And it's up to *you* to remain within the time you've bid. Any additional time means *you* eat that cost, not the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other possibly helpful questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1588/which-is-the-most-honest-or-ethical-way-to-bill-hourly-or-fixed-price/1589#1589&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4534/am-i-supposed-to-be-paid-even-though-my-work-isnt-used/4536#4536&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4641/is-it-common-to-demand-deposit-retainer-to-avoid-payment-disputes/4644#4644&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3891/underestimated-project-do-you-charge-the-excess-time/3892#3892&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1304/whose-responsibility-is-to-give-budget-for-job-freelancer-or-client/1317#1317" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14282" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4785" RevisionGUID="5b742f3b-80d2-45dd-a7d8-23cdb7c8f181" CreationDate="2016-08-03T21:22:06.617" UserId="708" Comment="added 749 characters in body" Text="The only way you'll ever make money with design is to become familiar with and accustomed to value-based pricing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No client I've ever come across is willing to pay $150-$400 an hour... or willing to pay for 40 hours of work, at something ridiculous like $35/hr, when you've spent 30 hours of &quot;rough&quot; design exploration and only 10 hours actually finalizing something. However, most will gladly pay $600 without ever knowing it only took you 2 hours to design something. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you start out.. that $600 may mean you only earn $10/hr because it took you 60 hours to finish a project... but as you improve your skill set and get better at estimating your time, you whittle that away and start making more and more money without really increasing prices. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value-based pricing **rewards** you for being better at your job. The faster, more efficient you are, the more profit you make. Why should you charge an hourly rate clients will see as acceptable when you can do in 1 hour what other designers may need 5 hours to complete? **Only** value-based pricing is a viable model in my opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, in general, with value-based pricing in mind, *yes* you charge the client for your exploration time. But it's up to you to be quick about things. The longer you take, the less money you make -- which is a different mindset than &quot;the longer you take the more the client pays&quot;. The client pays the price you've bid/quoted... **you** have to ensure you are A) bidding accurately and B) not eating your own profits by taking too much time with projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;**An example with value-based pricing:** &#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;A client approaches me for a tri-fold brochure. I *know* I can complete this in 3 hours tops... Client asks me what my hourly rate is. I simply tell then the cost for the brochure design will be $450.00.. the client is happy with that and hires me... It only takes me 2 hours to actually complete the brochure..... **I make $450.00**. ($225/hr)&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Same client... different tri-fold. I tell them it's the same price, $450. They are happy and hire me. This time I ran into a hurdle and it took me 4 hours to complete... **I make $450.00** But those extra 2 hours I needed means I made less profit on this project compared to the previous one. ($112.50/hr)&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;**Same scenario if pricing were hourly**:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Conversely.... the client approaches me and asks what my hourly rate is. I tell them its $150 an hour. They complain, whine, and balk. Telling me they generally only pay less than $40/hr. They *expect* to pay me the same rate they've paid others. As if every designer has the same abilities and skills.... but I'm *not* the same designer. So... lets pretend I cut my rate *(which I **NEVER** would)* to something like, say, $50/hr. Then I tell them it'll take 3 hours.. they are thrilled and hire me... It only takes me 2 hours... I bill the client for 2 hours.... **I make $100.00**&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Second trifold hourly. I bid at $50/hr. Tell the client it will take 3 hours. I run into a problem and it takes me 4 hours. What do I do about that additional $50? Do I contact the client asking for more money than I quoted (bad practice) or do I eat that figure as well, meaning for 4 hours of work I only made $150, essentially only $37/hr. Either way I must upset the client and possibly lose their business or make *far less* than I estimated.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;#You tell me which is a better pricing model.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Dollar amounts are fictions and have no actual bearing on my pricing. &lt;br&gt;These are examples only and should **not** be seen as pricing advice.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are billing hourly, you need to be honest and ethical and **never** pad your time. It's the only real way to remain in business and keep clients happy. If you are billing based on an *agreed upon amount* then the amount of time it takes you to complete something is largely irrelevant. Your'e being paid for your knowledge, experience as well as your skill, not just the time pushing a mouse around on a desk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For something like a logo project, which you mention, first you **must**  *know* your overhead costs (electricity, equipment, software, rent, heat, water, etc). Then you calculate the approximate time needed multiplied by your hourly overhead... this gives you a *minimum* amount. After you have the minimum, it's a matter of market trends, current market pricing, depth and scope of the project, your area of expertise, etc to calculate the profit amount *on top of* the minimum you've calculated. This ultimately leads to a solid figure to bid/quote. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you bid/quote a solid figure, the client has no worries that you will be asking for more money, and generally there's *much less* issue with payment since it's understood from the beginning. And it's up to *you* to remain within the time you've bid. Any additional time means *you* eat that cost, not the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other possibly helpful questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1588/which-is-the-most-honest-or-ethical-way-to-bill-hourly-or-fixed-price/1589#1589&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4534/am-i-supposed-to-be-paid-even-though-my-work-isnt-used/4536#4536&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4641/is-it-common-to-demand-deposit-retainer-to-avoid-payment-disputes/4644#4644&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3891/underestimated-project-do-you-charge-the-excess-time/3892#3892&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1304/whose-responsibility-is-to-give-budget-for-job-freelancer-or-client/1317#1317" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14283" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4785" RevisionGUID="feb249fc-119d-4bdb-bf81-9bae1df964a6" CreationDate="2016-08-03T21:29:05.977" UserId="708" Comment="added 124 characters in body" Text="The only way you'll ever make money with design is to become familiar with and accustomed to value-based pricing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No client I've ever come across is willing to pay $150-$400 an hour... or willing to pay for 40 hours of work, at something ridiculous like $35/hr, when you've spent 30 hours of &quot;rough&quot; design exploration and only 10 hours actually finalizing something. However, most will gladly pay $600 without ever knowing it only took you 2 hours to design something. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you start out.. that $600 may mean you only earn $10/hr because it took you 60 hours to finish a project... but as you improve your skill set and get better at estimating your time, you whittle that away and start making more and more money without really increasing prices. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value-based pricing **rewards** you for being better at your job. The faster, more efficient you are, the more profit you make. Why should you charge an hourly rate clients will see as acceptable when you can do in 1 hour what other designers may need 5 hours to complete? **Only** value-based pricing is a viable model in my opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, in general, with value-based pricing in mind, *yes* you charge the client for your exploration time. But it's up to you to be quick about things. The longer you take, the less money you make -- which is a different mindset than &quot;the longer you take the more the client pays&quot;. The client pays the price you've bid/quoted... **you** have to ensure you are A) bidding accurately and B) not eating your own profits by taking too much time with projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;**An example with value-based pricing:** &#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;A client approaches me for a tri-fold brochure. I *know* I can complete this in 3 hours tops... Client asks me what my hourly rate is. I simply tell then the cost for the brochure design will be $450.00.. the client is happy with that and hires me... It only takes me 2 hours to actually complete the brochure..... **I make $450.00**. ($225/hr)&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Same client... different tri-fold. I tell them it's the same price, $450. They are happy and hire me. This time I ran into a hurdle and it took me 4 hours to complete...  But those extra 2 hours I needed means I made less profit on this project compared to the previous one. **I make $450.00** ($112.50/hr)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;**Same scenario if pricing were hourly**:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Conversely.... the client approaches me and asks what my hourly rate is. I tell them its $150 an hour. They complain, whine, and balk. Telling me they generally only pay less than $40/hr. They *expect* to pay me the same rate they've paid others. As if every designer has the same abilities and skills.... but I'm *not* the same designer. So... lets pretend I cut my rate *(which I **NEVER** would)* to something like, say, $50/hr. Then I tell them it'll take 3 hours.. they are thrilled and hire me... It only takes me 2 hours... I bill the client for 2 hours.... **I make $100.00**&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Second trifold hourly. I bid at $50/hr. Tell the client it will take 3 hours. I run into a problem and it takes me 4 hours. What do I do about that additional $50? Do I contact the client asking for more money than I quoted (bad practice) or do I eat that figure as well, meaning for 4 hours of work I only made $150, essentially only $37/hr. Either way I must upset the client and possibly lose their business or make *far less* than I estimated. Even in the best case scenario and the client is happy to pay for the additional hour without a problem... **I make $200**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#You tell me which is a better pricing model.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Dollar amounts are fictions and have no actual bearing on my pricing. These are examples only and should **not** be seen as pricing advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are billing hourly, you need to be honest and ethical and **never** pad your time. It's the only real way to remain in business and keep clients happy. If you are billing based on an *agreed upon amount* then the amount of time it takes you to complete something is largely irrelevant. Your'e being paid for your knowledge, experience as well as your skill, not just the time pushing a mouse around on a desk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For something like a logo project, which you mention, first you **must**  *know* your overhead costs (electricity, equipment, software, rent, heat, water, etc). Then you calculate the approximate time needed multiplied by your hourly overhead... this gives you a *minimum* amount. After you have the minimum, it's a matter of market trends, current market pricing, depth and scope of the project, your area of expertise, etc to calculate the profit amount *on top of* the minimum you've calculated. This ultimately leads to a solid figure to bid/quote. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you bid/quote a solid figure, the client has no worries that you will be asking for more money, and generally there's *much less* issue with payment since it's understood from the beginning. And it's up to *you* to remain within the time you've bid. Any additional time means *you* eat that cost, not the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other possibly helpful questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1588/which-is-the-most-honest-or-ethical-way-to-bill-hourly-or-fixed-price/1589#1589&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4534/am-i-supposed-to-be-paid-even-though-my-work-isnt-used/4536#4536&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4641/is-it-common-to-demand-deposit-retainer-to-avoid-payment-disputes/4644#4644&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3891/underestimated-project-do-you-charge-the-excess-time/3892#3892&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1304/whose-responsibility-is-to-give-budget-for-job-freelancer-or-client/1317#1317" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14284" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4785" RevisionGUID="6c2db177-a69c-4700-a5cc-02726adcd098" CreationDate="2016-08-03T21:34:13.740" UserId="708" Comment="added 124 characters in body" Text="#Fire your hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only way you'll ever make money with design is to become familiar with and accustomed to value-based pricing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No client I've ever come across is willing to pay $150-$400 an hour... or willing to pay for 40 hours of work, at something ridiculous like $35/hr, when you've spent 30 hours of &quot;rough&quot; design exploration and only 10 hours actually finalizing something. However, most will gladly pay $600 without ever knowing it only took you 2 hours to design something. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you start out.. that $600 may mean you only earn $10/hr because it took you 60 hours to finish a project... but as you improve your skill set and get better at estimating your time, you whittle that away and start making more and more money without really increasing prices. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value-based pricing **rewards** you for being better at your job. The faster, more efficient you are, the more profit you make. Why should you charge an hourly rate clients will see as acceptable when you can do in 1 hour what other designers may need 5 hours to complete? **Only** value-based pricing is a viable model in my opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, in general, with value-based pricing in mind, *yes* you charge the client for your exploration time. But it's up to you to be quick about things. The longer you take, the less money you make -- which is a different mindset than &quot;the longer you take the more the client pays&quot;. The client pays the price you've bid/quoted... **you** have to ensure you are A) bidding accurately and B) not eating your own profits by taking too much time with projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;**An example with value-based pricing:** &#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;A client approaches me for a tri-fold brochure. I *know* I can complete this in 3 hours tops... Client asks me what my hourly rate is. I simply tell then the cost for the brochure design will be $450.00.. the client is happy with that and hires me... It only takes me 2 hours to actually complete the brochure..... **I make $450.00**. ($225/hr)&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Same client... different tri-fold. I tell them it's the same price, $450. They are happy and hire me. This time I ran into a hurdle and it took me 4 hours to complete...  But those extra 2 hours I needed means I made less profit on this project compared to the previous one. **I make $450.00** ($112.50/hr)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;**Same scenario if pricing were hourly**:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Conversely.... the client approaches me and asks what my hourly rate is. I tell them its $150 an hour. They complain, whine, and balk. Telling me they generally only pay less than $40/hr. They *expect* to pay me the same rate they've paid others. As if every designer has the same abilities and skills.... but I'm *not* the same designer. So... lets pretend I cut my rate *(which I **NEVER** would)* to something like, say, $50/hr. Then I tell them it'll take 3 hours.. they are thrilled and hire me... It only takes me 2 hours... I bill the client for 2 hours.... **I make $100.00**&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Second trifold hourly. I bid at $50/hr. Tell the client it will take 3 hours. I run into a problem and it takes me 4 hours. What do I do about that additional $50? Do I contact the client asking for more money than I quoted (bad practice) or do I eat that figure as well, meaning for 4 hours of work I only made $150, essentially only $37/hr. Either way I must upset the client and possibly lose their business or make *far less* than I estimated. Even in the best case scenario and the client is happy to pay for the additional hour without a problem... **I make $200**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#You tell me which is a better pricing model.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Dollar amounts are fictions and have no actual bearing on my pricing. These are examples only and should **not** be seen as pricing advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are billing hourly, you need to be honest and ethical and **never** pad your time. It's the only real way to remain in business and keep clients happy. If you are billing based on an *agreed upon amount* then the amount of time it takes you to complete something is largely irrelevant. Your'e being paid for your knowledge, experience as well as your skill, not just the time pushing a mouse around on a desk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For something like a logo project, which you mention, first you **must**  *know* your overhead costs (electricity, equipment, software, rent, heat, water, etc). Then you calculate the approximate time needed multiplied by your hourly overhead... this gives you a *minimum* amount. After you have the minimum, it's a matter of market trends, current market pricing, depth and scope of the project, your area of expertise, etc to calculate the profit amount *on top of* the minimum you've calculated. This ultimately leads to a solid figure to bid/quote. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you bid/quote a solid figure, the client has no worries that you will be asking for more money, and generally there's *much less* issue with payment since it's understood from the beginning. And it's up to *you* to remain within the time you've bid. Any additional time means *you* eat that cost, not the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other possibly helpful questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1588/which-is-the-most-honest-or-ethical-way-to-bill-hourly-or-fixed-price/1589#1589&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4534/am-i-supposed-to-be-paid-even-though-my-work-isnt-used/4536#4536&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4641/is-it-common-to-demand-deposit-retainer-to-avoid-payment-disputes/4644#4644&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3891/underestimated-project-do-you-charge-the-excess-time/3892#3892&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1304/whose-responsibility-is-to-give-budget-for-job-freelancer-or-client/1317#1317" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14286" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4787" RevisionGUID="ae50551b-3037-4a1a-84c7-3423c5fc1534" CreationDate="2016-08-04T00:06:23.267" UserId="13311" Text="When I started out, I applied two hourly rates: 1) for stuff I was relatively expert at and a second lower rate (50% of my full rate) for work that took longer than expected primarily because I was not entirely proficient. I did this &quot;behind the scenes,&quot; as far as the clients knew, I only had one rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are in this for the long haul, you'll have better client relationships if your are honest about your productivity and bill accordingly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's not to say that you can't charge full rate for concepting and exploration, just make sure the client understands that's what is going on.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14287" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="4788" RevisionGUID="832ef2b0-d211-49ea-b55e-f4790cd4fb66" CreationDate="2016-08-04T00:12:46.340" UserId="13311" Text="3-plus years on Elance and Upwork and I don't think it makes much difference.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I bid as an individual on freelance sites, but I have a company presence that I use away from the freelance sites. I keep them separate because I don't want people who are searching for my business to end up on my web site, not my freelance profile." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15286" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5787" RevisionGUID="89d348da-ccd7-4cae-8655-5b3e25d8d32e" CreationDate="2016-08-04T02:56:07.417" UserId="13311" Text="The first lesson I learned as a freelancer is to ask &quot;what's your budget? very early in the process -- &quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most prospective clients will hem and haw, and refuse to answer, either because they don't have a clue what things cost or because they're afraid to throw a number out when you might come in with an estimate that is much lower.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that point, I explain that I can offer a range of solutions ranging from $X to $XXXX, noting a few major variables that impact project cost. But I can't propose a solution that fits if I don't know how much they want to spend. Then it's back in their court.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they don't have a budget, don't know how much they can spend, or just won't give you a number, move on. You'll avoid people on fishing expeditions AND you'll avoid clients who do't know what they're doing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15287" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5788" RevisionGUID="0598b290-f6b8-4dd8-b9fe-fbd5e29951c5" CreationDate="2016-08-04T03:00:57.837" UserId="13311" Text="Focus on your strongest skills; what are you really expert at vs. what can you do. This gives you leverage with potential clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Focus on a niche you enjoy. This keeps you sane.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Research job boards, etc. to validate the demand for your chosen positioning. This keeps you from starving." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15288" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5789" RevisionGUID="925a473c-e41f-42dc-82d2-c7d71c588874" CreationDate="2016-08-04T17:26:54.947" UserId="14318" Text="i passed the last few months on learning web development. so far i have learned a lot in both front end and back end development like &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-html&#xD;&#xA;-css&#xD;&#xA;-java script&#xD;&#xA;-php&#xD;&#xA;-mysql(pdo)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;my next step is learning object oriented php and ajax and the makes me wonder&#xD;&#xA;what are the other technologies that i need to learn?&#xD;&#xA;do i need to learn how to configure a server and how servers works and networks and all that complicated stuff like nginx,apache,linux....?&#xD;&#xA;in which level i will that i'm ready for a job?&#xD;&#xA;how to get your first job if the client asks for experience?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15289" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5789" RevisionGUID="925a473c-e41f-42dc-82d2-c7d71c588874" CreationDate="2016-08-04T17:26:54.947" UserId="14318" Text="What technologies should i learn in order to be hired as a web developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15290" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5789" RevisionGUID="925a473c-e41f-42dc-82d2-c7d71c588874" CreationDate="2016-08-04T17:26:54.947" UserId="14318" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15291" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5790" RevisionGUID="eee31388-ab63-4eeb-bd21-87a99c835d14" CreationDate="2016-08-05T10:40:40.670" UserId="14326" Text="From what you say it sounds like you're already qualified to work on projects that use the LAMP stack - (linux, apache, MySL, php) on distributed infrastructure, so custom hosted WordPress sites etc.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's plenty it wouldn't hurt to learn, bash/linux is really handy. But 9 times out of ten people (especially the kind of clients you'll get starting out with) will be using cloud servers so you needn't worry about the engineering too much. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As Scott says, this is too large a question to answer definitively and you will get hired, there's a shortage of technologists in the market so in my experience people aren't that picky - i put myself through uni with nothing but fairly rudimentary python. Then once your working you can work out what your favourite things are on paid time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; If you feel like you need experience, try doing some pro-bono work, build a charity website or something. This also gives you the chance to make mistakes with someone who isn't going to be too mad about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope that helps, obviously there's a lot of scope for differing opinions here so disagreement welcome!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15292" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4788" RevisionGUID="6cd0677f-bab6-4740-863b-bd9e8be5d06c" CreationDate="2016-08-05T17:24:39.447" UserId="13311" Comment="edited for clarity" Text="3-plus years on Elance and Upwork and I don't think it makes much difference.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I bid as an individual on freelance sites, but I have a company presence that I use away from the freelance sites. I keep them separate because I want people who are searching for my business to end up on my web site, not my freelance profile." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15293" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5791" RevisionGUID="800b05be-45df-461e-a937-4ea6d3004f92" CreationDate="2016-08-05T18:29:45.263" UserId="14336" Text="I have a small business client who I freelanced for before getting my current full-time php development &amp; server administration job.  Let's call the client &quot;Joe's Pizza&quot; (not actual name).&#xD;&#xA;Joe's Pizza owes me about $10,000, which is roughly 1/7th of what I'm getting as a yearly salary at my new job.  That debt in various outstanding invoices is much more money than I wanted to rack up over the 6 years I worked with Joe's Pizza, but it happened piece by piece, $500 invoice by $500 invoice.  I actually liked the work, and the people, and didn't have many other work prospects at the time, so I continued working for them despite failures to pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After 6 months of no work for Joe's Pizza, and no further payment against that $10,000, I finally got a full-time salaried job instead.  Now I work at a tech startup, the job is great, and they pay me a consistent salary.  I told Joe's Pizza that I got a full-time job, and thus was no longer available to work on their problems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that point, the CEO of Joe's Pizza, let's call them Joe, who I'm still on friendly terms with, got back to me and said &quot;I want to chat about getting the new developer I want to chat about finalizing access to the back end for our new coder&quot;  I initially responded &quot;That process is generally more complicated than you seem to think, and you owe me a lot of money, so I would only be able to do that accompanied by payment&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, a week later, Joe wants to have a phone meeting &quot;to finalize the back-end access for the new developer&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- They may or may not be able to transition to another developer without me being involved at all.  I'm sure it will be much harder for them and much harder for the new developer to have no assistance in the transition.&#xD;&#xA;- For instance, I'm the only one with ssh key access to the server.  I have all the passwords for the host, the email service, github, etc etc.&#xD;&#xA;- They certainly own the servers and source code, but I have little interest in providing work for free or for peanuts to give their next developer access *while they still owe me money*. I'm not wealthy enough that I can even afford to take effort &amp; energy away from my current, paying job to provide free transition work for them, either (in part because of lots of outstanding invoices).&#xD;&#xA;- I do have a contract which I created myself that I worked for them under.&#xD;&#xA;- I wouldn't like to see their business fail because they can't develop their website, their server goes down, etc, a fact that I asked them to pay to fix many times over the preceding months.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, what should I consider doing?  What am I liable to do?  What tactics are most likely to be most effective here?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15294" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5791" RevisionGUID="800b05be-45df-461e-a937-4ea6d3004f92" CreationDate="2016-08-05T18:29:45.263" UserId="14336" Text="Client owes me substantial money, I got another job full-time, client wants me to hand over keys to next developer without payment" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15295" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5791" RevisionGUID="800b05be-45df-461e-a937-4ea6d3004f92" CreationDate="2016-08-05T18:29:45.263" UserId="14336" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|payments|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15296" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5792" RevisionGUID="22ae2295-530d-4210-9b83-a51ea9b9bcca" CreationDate="2016-08-05T19:01:44.753" UserId="14337" Text="Alec's answer is correct, I just wanted provide a more succinct answer. In today's market, it will help you be successful if you pick either the LAMP stack (which you appear to have made some progress in already, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAMP_(software_bundle)) or the MEAN stack: http://mean.io/#!/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The LAMP stack is the backbone of most web applications today. The MEAN stack is up and coming, especially for applications utilizing web sockets/&quot;realtime&quot; communication between clients through a server.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a good grasp on relational databases, css, JS, and html, Ruby on Rails is also an in-demand skill. RoR is easy to get started with but notoriously difficult to master, since mastering RoR is essentially mastering the full stack.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15297" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5793" RevisionGUID="29aca4ec-92b4-436a-8abb-a2bd01184d74" CreationDate="2016-08-05T19:23:44.817" UserId="4870" Text="Honestly, after picking up some basic html, css, and JavaScript you're ready to start working on some small projects. When I first started freelancing I knew very little, but I had the capacity to learn what I needed to learn on the job. I see so many developers bragging about the laundry list of technologies they know when what I would rather see is a few projects that demonstrate **they can actually build something**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, instead of focusing on which technologies you should learn, **work on an actual project**. As you build it, you will organically learn what you need to know to bring the project to fruition. Obviously, there are some fundamental skills that every web developer needs to know (HTML, JS, CSS, at least one backend language, some DB knowledge), but it sounds like you have many of the fundamentals down. Your next step should be putting those skills to the test on an actual project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15298" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5794" RevisionGUID="767bbf2b-2df7-4386-91aa-7f02a1827fc5" CreationDate="2016-08-05T19:42:34.847" UserId="708" Text="Unless you receive payment, I don't believe you are *obligated* to do *anything*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's your fault to some degree for letting outstanding invoices &quot;build up over time&quot;. You should **never** allow that to happen for **any** client. If they haven't paid you *they don't own anything*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would not even entertain transfer of **anything** until payment has been made in full. And *that* is what I would explain to &quot;Joe&quot;. He is benefitting from the work you've performed... you should be compensated. You should *not* continue to help him benefit from the work he has not paid for. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15299" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5795" RevisionGUID="6cab9ffa-59e4-455b-9420-3808df6c5727" CreationDate="2016-08-05T19:47:38.577" UserId="1706" Text="Generate an invoice marked &quot;past due&quot;.  Send certified.  That's all you can really do in your case, at this step, without getting an attorney involved.  The $10,000 is probably more than any state's small claims process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other than that, don't lift a FINGER until you've been paid in full.  You might hear your client trying to bargain with you, but you've already done the work and there's nothing to bargain about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't ever pile up that much work over such a long duration and be waiting for payment.  Never, never, never.  Unfortunately, this far in, you may not see a dime :(&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15300" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4690" RevisionGUID="1bfee607-9d80-47b8-bc3a-4d930bd5ab08" CreationDate="2016-08-05T21:16:17.843" UserId="13016" Comment="spelling and punctuation" Text="I started freelancing as a sys admin 20+ years ago and have adapted my skills over the years to find myself having recruited a few for employers around Europe. Based on my experience, you'll find few positions that will suit your availability - I say few implying almost none but you might find the exception.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Firstly - SysAdmin is old school - I still use the term, but my sysadmin mates call themselves System Engineers nowadays. SysAdmins are the lesser qualified (using smaller toolset knowledge/experience and frequent repetitive work) I am told with a grin; the System Engineers are leading edge technologists.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway... One of the main reasons behind few opportunities for you is liability - if you work from remote, you are under the wings of your local laws - The ability of an employer to prosecute you for misadventure would be both expensive and complicated. I'm not saying you would be of that nature, but best practice for employers business decisions is based around risk/impact.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other risks that can apply are tax rules - for example within Europe many EU countries have a special 'chain law' which says if a business takes on a service provider (freelancer) and the freelancer fails to pay the taxes due, the tax man can work their way up the chain and charge the business. Thus, a business could carry the risks that you will pay all tax and your country, and their country could have different interpretation on what is due.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then there is data security - giving you command line access is like letting you into the bedroom of the business - all sorts of stuff is available within seconds and employing someone to watch over you would erase cost benefits of undertaking your services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Opportunity still exists, though: Research your local market for international consultancies. They use their international relationships to win contracts that require people like you. They charge a premium to these other businesses, take a huge amount of cream off, and pay you the remainder (still very profitable, but don't be surprised if they are making more than half of what they might pay you). It might appear they do nothing for that cash, but they are undertaking commercial risks that go with these foreign contracts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly - research more about being a freelancer - it can be rewarding, but the relationship with the business is typically *not* the same as employee/employer. I compare it to prostitution - you are hired and fired without rights, without pension, health or other insurances.  If you get sick, it's unpaid; if you screw up, you could pay dearly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope that helps. Best of luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15301" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4690" RevisionGUID="1bfee607-9d80-47b8-bc3a-4d930bd5ab08" CreationDate="2016-08-05T21:16:17.843" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 11579 edit id of 478" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15303" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4782" RevisionGUID="d49b6463-d337-4a73-9a22-e32c77f979af" CreationDate="2016-08-06T01:10:02.903" UserId="13295" Comment="Added answer from TN CPA" Text="I recently moved to Tennessee from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I'm a web developer with a large client base in the Netherlands. In Holland I was required to add 21% tax (VAT) to my invoices for Dutch clients. However, whenever I billed clients in non-EU countries the tax rate on my invoice had to be 0 % (VAT reverse charge).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the tables have turned. Since I will be invoicing my Dutch clients from my newly founded LLC in the US, how do I handle the tax aspect of my invoice for my Dutch clients? Do I put 0 % sales tax on my invoices? Do I charge the regular tax amount for my new home state? Do I charge no tax at all? For what it's worth, I work from home.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Edit:** I've contacted a TN accountant, so for anyone with the same question here's what they said:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;You can put 0% tax rate on your invoice if you like, but the main thing is that the invoice should clearly show that it is an out-of-state customer (with an address from another state or country). TN considers web design and development as the creation of software on the customer’s server. So if your customer is located in TN then you would be subject to TN sales tax on that sale. You are not subject to TN sales tax on sales you make outside of the state or country.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15307" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5797" RevisionGUID="cc40d5e2-b3af-46d9-8207-3fa710b8d232" CreationDate="2016-08-06T12:43:48.520" UserId="9835" Text="I have a service in which I simply am the middleman for my client so that they don't have to deal with certain technical aspects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So payment goes as such:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I get paid for the service &gt; I pay the person who delivers the service &gt; I deliver completed service to client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't profit much on this as it's just a simple service charge to alleviate some stress and time from already busy business owners. I'm worried that I might lose money due to taxes or that in the future - if I don't file things correctly I could face issues with the IRS.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I charge the client $600 and pay the worker $500. I make $100.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm taxed based on the $600 then I lose money. I assume I only pay taxes on the $100 net profit. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(While I've been a freelancer for half a decade - I've never done anything except straight client work so I'm new to this)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I pay taxes on the $100 like I think I do, no big deal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, my invoices to show my income will show that the client paid me $600.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it as simple as:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I pay the worker $500 I attach their invoice to my invoice to show that I made $600 but paid $500?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Afterwhich I put X% of the $100 into my tax account. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15308" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5797" RevisionGUID="cc40d5e2-b3af-46d9-8207-3fa710b8d232" CreationDate="2016-08-06T12:43:48.520" UserId="9835" Text="Can you lose money due to taxes when outsourcing work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15309" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5797" RevisionGUID="cc40d5e2-b3af-46d9-8207-3fa710b8d232" CreationDate="2016-08-06T12:43:48.520" UserId="9835" Text="|usa|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15310" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5798" RevisionGUID="2672f734-b505-42aa-886d-4d797d279930" CreationDate="2016-08-06T14:02:40.423" UserId="13295" Text="I've contacted a TN accounting firm, here's what they said:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;You can put 0% tax rate on your invoice if you like, but the main thing is that the invoice should clearly show that it is an out-of-state customer (with an address from another state or country). TN considers web design and development as the creation of software on the customer’s server. So if your customer is located in TN then you would be subject to TN sales tax on that sale. You are not subject to TN sales tax on sales you make outside of the state or country.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15311" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4782" RevisionGUID="fab86b03-6a97-4627-8be7-3f79b945b105" CreationDate="2016-08-06T14:03:41.047" UserId="13295" Comment="deleted 520 characters in body" Text="I recently moved to Tennessee from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I'm a web developer with a large client base in the Netherlands. In Holland I was required to add 21% tax (VAT) to my invoices for Dutch clients. However, whenever I billed clients in non-EU countries the tax rate on my invoice had to be 0 % (VAT reverse charge).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the tables have turned. Since I will be invoicing my Dutch clients from my newly founded LLC in the US, how do I handle the tax aspect of my invoice for my Dutch clients? Do I put 0 % sales tax on my invoices? Do I charge the regular tax amount for my new home state? Do I charge no tax at all? For what it's worth, I work from home.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Edit:** I've contacted a TN accountant, see answer below." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15312" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3604" RevisionGUID="4abc29a0-e332-4474-89d7-7fe2cffa84f8" CreationDate="2016-08-06T16:42:36.617" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15313" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5799" RevisionGUID="b26668db-72b0-4663-a6a9-ed7cf23672f8" CreationDate="2016-08-07T11:34:29.210" UserId="14348" Text="I was asked for a quote for a two years long full-time freelancing. Are there any reasonable ways to calculate the amount to ask for?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My idea would be to multiply 210 workdays/year with my daily rate X.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The 220 workdays would be workdays in a year minus holidays and potential 2 weeks illness.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would use an X at roughly 75% of my usual rate for 1-2 month contracts, as I will have to look for new contracts soon. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a reasonable or accepted way to calculate these rates?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15314" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5799" RevisionGUID="b26668db-72b0-4663-a6a9-ed7cf23672f8" CreationDate="2016-08-07T11:34:29.210" UserId="14348" Text="long-term freelancing, pay rate calculation" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15315" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5799" RevisionGUID="b26668db-72b0-4663-a6a9-ed7cf23672f8" CreationDate="2016-08-07T11:34:29.210" UserId="14348" Text="|pay-rate|long-term|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15319" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4761" RevisionGUID="1890296e-73f1-449b-86c4-23cb903b5661" CreationDate="2016-08-07T18:11:17.873" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/762350416852033537" />
  <row Id="15321" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5802" RevisionGUID="b1533545-d14f-4d42-9959-868022e85e9b" CreationDate="2016-08-08T06:30:08.107" UserId="12000" Text="Did the client really ask for for a fixed price for two years? It is my experience that long-term contracts are payed based on your rate per hour, day or month. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for your calculation: Why would you give such a huge discount? I would recommend you to stick with your usual rate. You might find this question useful: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4650/discount-for-1-year-full-time-contract" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15323" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5803" RevisionGUID="5b2a4707-ee5e-4b61-bbf1-fb2f694a5828" CreationDate="2016-08-08T17:39:11.883" UserId="14361" Text="I would like to work on a project for free. I am willing to help someone. I have very good skills but I haven't worked for a while. I want to get into the freelancing business and I would start with a project for free. Where could I post an add like this???&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; I can to a lot of things, but I don't have unlimited time. All I want is to get myself going back again and to use the project as a reference in the future. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15324" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5803" RevisionGUID="5b2a4707-ee5e-4b61-bbf1-fb2f694a5828" CreationDate="2016-08-08T17:39:11.883" UserId="14361" Text="Get a project to work on" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15325" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5803" RevisionGUID="5b2a4707-ee5e-4b61-bbf1-fb2f694a5828" CreationDate="2016-08-08T17:39:11.883" UserId="14361" Text="|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15329" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4479" RevisionGUID="b17d0a04-a05d-4ef0-aeac-f8aadd0123f7" CreationDate="2016-08-08T18:53:10.840" UserId="13016" Comment="Caps, punctuation" Text="I live in South America.  I am working as Linux / Unix sys admin since 2005, still in the same path, but I would like to do it as a freelance now, offering service locally and outside my country, too - remote working :-) It would be nice to read some experiences or advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have experience with Linux, Free BSD, Sun Solaris 9 and 10.  Which of them has the better market for freelance jobs?  And which way is more effective for seeking this kind of jobs or offering this service ?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15330" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4479" RevisionGUID="b17d0a04-a05d-4ef0-aeac-f8aadd0123f7" CreationDate="2016-08-08T18:53:10.840" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 152, 1706 edit id of 477" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15332" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5805" RevisionGUID="d4532e1b-3bc4-4468-b189-3f02063d3a65" CreationDate="2016-08-09T02:38:25.103" UserId="14368" Text="Which is better option: Individual.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most clients like to hire individual freelancers rather companies/agencies. I've seen a lot of jobs with something like this in the title 'Companies..No need to bid', 'Agencies stay away'. Just a few reasons why I much prefer an Individual over a company:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) I believe Individual freelancers are more talented than a company hiring low grade talent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) I can directly see their credentials, their reputation &amp; can directly speak to them. With companies I will be arranged to some guy whose credentials I've not know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) I perceive individual freelancers are more 'value to money' even-though the bid is same. Companies incur a lot of unnecessary expenses &amp; I'm the one indirectly paying them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15335" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5805" RevisionGUID="24b231b4-bb94-4f99-8560-a46d3de9ad75" CreationDate="2016-08-09T15:54:35.830" UserId="75" Comment="edited body" Text="Which is better option: Individual.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most clients like to hire individual freelancers rather companies/agencies. I've seen a lot of jobs with something like this in the title 'Companies..No need to bid', 'Agencies stay away'. Just a few reasons why I much prefer an Individual over a company:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I believe Individual freelancers are more talented than a company hiring low grade talent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. I can directly see their credentials, their reputation &amp; can directly speak to them. With companies I will be arranged to some guy whose credentials I've not know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. I perceive individual freelancers are more 'value to money' even-though the bid is same. Companies incur a lot of unnecessary expenses &amp; I'm the one indirectly paying them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15336" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5806" RevisionGUID="c07607f8-2931-4282-bc8f-8d7413292a0b" CreationDate="2016-08-09T20:28:33.140" UserId="14377" Text="I am going to portray Mark Twain lecturing on his life &quot;so far&quot; at the age of 60 (the monologue/one-man, one-act play will be set in 1896).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I plan to perform in small ampitheateres, opera houses, and suchlike venues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although I have decades of public speaking experience, I have no &quot;show business&quot; experience or connections.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would I be better off dealing with these venues (their owners/managers) myself, when it comes to negotiating appearances, or contracting with an agent? I certainly understand the advantage they would bring to the table, but am not sure if it's really necessary." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15337" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5806" RevisionGUID="c07607f8-2931-4282-bc8f-8d7413292a0b" CreationDate="2016-08-09T20:28:33.140" UserId="14377" Text="Is it preferable for a stage performer to contract with an agent or be his own agent?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15338" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5806" RevisionGUID="c07607f8-2931-4282-bc8f-8d7413292a0b" CreationDate="2016-08-09T20:28:33.140" UserId="14377" Text="|partner|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15339" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5807" RevisionGUID="73f5e956-6149-4245-b9a3-407d4a4bb8a5" CreationDate="2016-08-10T05:59:06.027" UserId="7486" Text="If you have no experience in the show business you can start with a 1 year contract with an agent and see how it goes. Then when you are more experienced you decide how to go on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An agent who is active in that business probably has many contacts, friends and collegues to obtain jobs from more than you have now alone. You can have more chances than being your own agent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also having an agent will make you concentrate on your work and not much on the marketing and the papers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally an organization, theatre, etc, could accept more easily an artist from a trusted agent than from a unknown artist promoting himself.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15340" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4764" RevisionGUID="5299e33a-ea76-4167-a5d5-a06cc0298dca" CreationDate="2016-08-10T09:29:01.640" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/763306146820227072" />
  <row Id="15341" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5808" RevisionGUID="e8163fde-dc0f-4bca-99bf-e28f3c8a6c7d" CreationDate="2016-08-10T13:50:06.203" UserId="14386" Text="Specifically on sites like freelancer and fiverr, it seems as if literally nothing is stopping a client from:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Sending me requirements&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Waiting until I deliver the work (or insisting that I deliver a working copy and not just screenshots for payment)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Telling the &quot;system&quot; that they are not satisfied, effectively getting their money&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is notable that the person has to have the funds already - but nothing stops them from retracting the funds. Its not like I get a say in the matter, if a customer says that the work isn't satisfactory, even when an idiot could see that it was. This actually happened to me and now I am scared that every job I do will be community service. As such I stopped applying/answering on these types of sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking at the successful people on these sites, I wonder how they got any money at all. How in the world are these sites a viable source of income if it basically is set up in a way where the client can choose to pay or not regardless of the delivery?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15342" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5808" RevisionGUID="e8163fde-dc0f-4bca-99bf-e28f3c8a6c7d" CreationDate="2016-08-10T13:50:06.203" UserId="14386" Text="Should I be afraid of clients stealing work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15343" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5808" RevisionGUID="e8163fde-dc0f-4bca-99bf-e28f3c8a6c7d" CreationDate="2016-08-10T13:50:06.203" UserId="14386" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15344" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5809" RevisionGUID="c1824141-8caf-46fe-a24e-5deed3c85d9f" CreationDate="2016-08-10T14:12:33.887" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="What you have described is a huge problem when using freelancing websites in general. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There certainly are &quot;scammer&quot; clients out there. There is a degree of mutual trust required in a client-contractor relationship and some people exploit this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This could occur in client-contractor relationships outside of the internet, too. Consider a client approaches you with work, you deliver, and they disappear without paying you. You'd have to be particularly naive for this to happen (deliver without payment) but it certainly happens. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So there are a couple of issues to mitigate the chance:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Use milestones as payment after each part of the project.&#xD;&#xA;- Have small milestones in the beginning.&#xD;&#xA;- Ensure that the client is reputable by looking at their job history and ratings.&#xD;&#xA;- Don't deliver work without payment.&#xD;&#xA;- Take on realistic work. If the work offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above applies to more than just online work, but freelance work in general. However, with the internet it's a lot easier for someone to just disappear. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; How in the world are these sites a viable source of income if it&#xD;&#xA;&gt; basically is set up in a way where the client can choose to pay or not&#xD;&#xA;&gt; regardless of the delivery?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The site is just a tool. If you are naive you will get scammed, just like in real life. It's a matter of knowing the limitations of the tool and ensuring that you don't get scammed by setting up your payment scheme correctly. I have been using these sites for years and have never had a client dispute a payment. I also am very strict about who I take on as a client.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15348" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5811" RevisionGUID="5e071bfd-9efb-4cc3-a2b5-4d6eb122710c" CreationDate="2016-08-10T16:38:13.000" UserId="14388" Text="Currently I live in Oklahoma and have just started doing some software development for a few local businesses. Already registered a single proprietor LLC and obtained my EIN. I have not engaged a tax accountant yet and I just recognized my first revenue. Do I need to collect sales tax on the consulting services? No tangible products, besides code, is being delivered... What about other taxes...?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15349" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5811" RevisionGUID="5e071bfd-9efb-4cc3-a2b5-4d6eb122710c" CreationDate="2016-08-10T16:38:13.000" UserId="14388" Text="Sales tax and other taxes in Oklahoma" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15350" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5811" RevisionGUID="5e071bfd-9efb-4cc3-a2b5-4d6eb122710c" CreationDate="2016-08-10T16:38:13.000" UserId="14388" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15351" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5812" RevisionGUID="3ae82ce5-77e0-4e34-aa95-99dcb6fdfc1c" CreationDate="2016-08-11T11:55:27.253" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="When it goes about software develoment, you can sometimes provide restrained or tagged versions that are sufficient to prove proper working, waiting to deliver the unrestricted version after payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One might argue that the buyer can then fear you keeping this version, but this doesn't make much sense because it wouldn't pay you anything to do so." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15352" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4711" RevisionGUID="261adf11-85a7-43a2-9ab8-8450b8d85185" CreationDate="2016-08-11T14:55:40.120" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15354" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5813" RevisionGUID="a4e175f5-a302-48a8-a246-532d994d622c" CreationDate="2016-08-12T12:11:07.707" UserId="14406" Text="I'm about to start selling software online and I'm planning to use [gumroad](https://gumroad.com/) for it. (it deals with the card and paypal payment, invoices and deliver of the files)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was reading [the gumroad article about the new EU regulation regarding the VAT taxes](http://blog.gumroad.com/post/110080508463/vat).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does this means you'll be declaring the taxes for us and taken them directly from our customers whenever they pay?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does this mean we wouldn't even have to become self employed to start earning money legally as there's nothing to declare? (to HMRC in the UK, for example)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15355" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5813" RevisionGUID="a4e175f5-a302-48a8-a246-532d994d622c" CreationDate="2016-08-12T12:11:07.707" UserId="14406" Text="New EU regulation. No need to become self employed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15356" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5813" RevisionGUID="a4e175f5-a302-48a8-a246-532d994d622c" CreationDate="2016-08-12T12:11:07.707" UserId="14406" Text="|taxes|payments|uk|software|hmrc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15362" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3028" RevisionGUID="bfc90843-071d-41eb-afe8-ffda4b30399b" CreationDate="2016-08-12T19:29:20.523" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15363" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5815" RevisionGUID="389b752c-f879-44c0-9d4f-e2decc8f9891" CreationDate="2016-08-12T19:44:35.907" UserId="14411" Text="Have the Phone meeting, and tell the new developer you are owed $10,000 and are not willing to help until paid.  Think about the other guy about to be screwed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15364" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5816" RevisionGUID="cba950d6-739f-45e7-9cfe-0282a77e8c3b" CreationDate="2016-08-12T21:02:17.307" UserId="11857" Text="No. Gumroad simply deals with the *EU VAT* paperwork for you, nothing else. Registering as self-employed, filing taxes with HMRC etc. is all a completely different matter and still needs to be done.&#xA;&#xA;You currently don't need to register to for VAT in the UK unless your VAT taxable turnover is more than  £83,000. In the past that was all you needed to do but EU regulation means you must now pay VAT in the country of your consumers, not your country of residence, which can mean a lot of paperwork if your selling across a lot of the EU—this is what Gumroad is saving you from doing.&#xA;&#xA;- [GOV.UK - Registering for VAT in other EU countries](https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration/registering-vat-other-eu-countries)&#xA;- [GOV.UK - VAT on sales of digital services in the EU](https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/vat-moss-vat-on-sales-of-digital-services-in-the-eu)&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15365" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5817" RevisionGUID="0762035f-ba4c-4db4-b443-e56c9496ad8e" CreationDate="2016-08-12T21:35:15.230" UserId="14413" Text="Im a university student and im graduating soon. I'm trying to enter the freelancing world in order to get more experience in my field and gain some money [since i really need it] my question is how can i compete with people on the freelancing sites since they have a lot of experience [3 years + some of them up to 9 years] and im only a student without any experience. How can i build a powerful profile and a unique portfolio / CV. are there any key elements that i need to know about exactly to get featured or get any jobs? I'm a game developer and experience is a big thing in the industry &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;if this questions is in the wrong group or just a wrong question to ask here then i apologize.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15366" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5817" RevisionGUID="0762035f-ba4c-4db4-b443-e56c9496ad8e" CreationDate="2016-08-12T21:35:15.230" UserId="14413" Text="Compete with experienced people in freelancing websites" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15367" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5817" RevisionGUID="0762035f-ba4c-4db4-b443-e56c9496ad8e" CreationDate="2016-08-12T21:35:15.230" UserId="14413" Text="|freelance-websites|working-from-home|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15368" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3379" RevisionGUID="485377a4-4f2e-4479-a766-96c1db9cca87" CreationDate="2016-08-13T00:32:59.457" UserDisplayName="user710" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="Lets say I finished an app recently - was hired to develop it. By the end the client tested features, paid me and the development was over.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question: what to do with the bugs which can appear further? Should I fix my bugs for free in the future, or it is common practice to have a separate maintenance contract?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These are my bugs and if I wouldn't make them I would not have to fix them, on the other hand, bugs are inevitable in pretty much any more or less complex project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15371" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="129" RevisionGUID="e99eee6b-226f-4644-84eb-019dc7cd8952" CreationDate="2016-08-13T09:42:05.853" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/764396599422357504" />
  <row Id="15375" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="5813" RevisionGUID="c9c32c53-7a56-4b0b-93df-24d48597b596" CreationDate="2016-08-14T17:13:21.380" UserId="708" Comment="changed title for clarification" Text="If using Gumroad, is there still a need to become self employed in the EU?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15376" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4570" RevisionGUID="97280dde-16ce-443d-80d3-64355d356c06" CreationDate="2016-08-14T23:06:44.693" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15381" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4552" RevisionGUID="df6fc43d-cd72-4cbf-a57a-96eaeac5684a" CreationDate="2016-08-15T16:23:16.280" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15382" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="5820" RevisionGUID="edafdb3f-5997-4695-8db0-5d1ee0899740" CreationDate="2016-08-15T17:36:27.873" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/74293/judging-sincerity-of-freelance-job-offers" />
  <row Id="15383" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="5821" RevisionGUID="cdba089a-07aa-486c-a248-c7942d4ff42d" CreationDate="2016-08-15T17:36:27.873" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/74293/judging-sincerity-of-freelance-job-offers/74295#74295" />
  <row Id="15384" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="5822" RevisionGUID="ae64bd9e-d0e2-4a0f-9750-f21cc30ab4c2" CreationDate="2016-08-15T17:36:27.873" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/74293/judging-sincerity-of-freelance-job-offers/74296#74296" />
  <row Id="15385" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="5823" RevisionGUID="2dba0577-1abf-4921-ba26-fd70953fd94b" CreationDate="2016-08-15T17:36:27.873" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/74293/judging-sincerity-of-freelance-job-offers/74299#74299" />
  <row Id="15386" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="5824" RevisionGUID="a7e49652-abd6-4d45-9d87-ecb9ceb47fc8" CreationDate="2016-08-15T17:36:27.873" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/74293/judging-sincerity-of-freelance-job-offers/74302#74302" />
  <row Id="15387" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="5825" RevisionGUID="d9bebd82-eccd-4157-a22a-0ea06fb90b95" CreationDate="2016-08-15T17:36:27.873" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/74293/judging-sincerity-of-freelance-job-offers/74304#74304" />
  <row Id="15388" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5821" RevisionGUID="d3ce66d8-a4b8-4143-9559-1bd5e01ab058" CreationDate="2016-08-15T14:18:42.243" UserId="4258" Text="If they pay you for your time, on time, they're sincere. If they don't, they aren't. A decent contract can help set expectations as well as protecting both parties." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15389" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5822" RevisionGUID="17fa62ff-cdd3-443c-aefe-e7dea4000363" CreationDate="2016-08-15T14:19:45.863" UserId="14427" UserDisplayName="Peter" Text="Wasting a day hoping for work to arrive if you have other work lined up is on you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't start any work before you have a signed contract. If they sign a contract, the likelihood that they are serious is already much higher than before. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask for early payment for the first piece of work. Once they start paying you, the likelihood that they are serious is already quite high." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15390" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5823" RevisionGUID="831ce4f3-75b7-40ee-9543-b3d0c7b5d05a" CreationDate="2016-08-15T15:18:31.970" UserId="14429" UserDisplayName="Wesley Long" Text="What you are dealing with is known as a &quot;[Sales Pipeline][1].&quot; (Step through the Slideshow)  And you are getting the steps out of order.  That's what's causing your frustration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a tech person (like myself), it frustrates you because we're used to a &quot;Here's my problem.  Fix it for money.&quot; view of the world.  The reason that we think this way is that we are usually not even brought up to speed on issues until the pipeline process is complete.  Or, if you're a sales support engineer (at least partially), towards the end of the sales cycle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Two things you should remember:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. You should have a &quot;conversion rate&quot; of about 1 sale in ever 15 leads.  (At least this was the case for my freelance work ... 20 years ago).  That is, 1 in 15 will actually end up hiring you.  A lot of people have &quot;big dreams&quot; and think that their &quot;vision&quot; will draw people to work for them for free.  You'll learn to spot them soon enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. A fantastic idea written on piece of paper is worth the paper.  There's a reason most startups never make it (well, lots of them).  Properly assessing market scope, user demand, startup capital requirements, competition, etc., is a separate subject (probably a lecture series, actually).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to be a startup founder, then start focusing on that.  As a freelancer, your thought should be:  &quot;I will solve your problems for your money.&quot;  That's it.  Don't get caught up in their &quot;vision.&quot;  Don't worry about how good/bad their idea is.  You should worry about (in order):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Is this work legal / ethical?&#xD;&#xA; 2. Will I get paid in a timely manner.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Will doing this work help or hurt my chances of getting other work in the future?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for this guy, it sounds like he is a flake.  If he wanted you to do something the next day, but can't get you prep materials in a few days, then he has nothing together except a amorphous, pretty blob of an idea in his head.  Not that his idea is good or bad, but it is certainly not researched and developed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://blog.pipelinersales.com/sales-pipeline-management/what-is-sales-pipeline/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15391" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5824" RevisionGUID="7219bb53-6ffe-4e1c-9e08-c2ad5f04efc5" CreationDate="2016-08-15T16:15:09.243" UserId="12040" Text="Contracts and deposits. Deposit paid before any work starts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the work is too short for a contract, then payment in full before work starts. And still write a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Rush work? There's no such thing. When did their lack of planning become your emergency? If the client really wants the job 'yesterday', they'll have all the material you need, and they'll be prepared to pay in advance in order to reserve your undivided attention. Keep a simple one-page contract for these jobs, ready to issue at a moments notice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a lot of flakes out there who have grand ideas but no clue about business. For me, that includes *everyone* who doesn't want to read and sign a contract. A signature solidifies the relationship in a way that a verbal agreement never can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15392" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5825" RevisionGUID="51252d78-aa11-4fa9-80cb-e1cdc5b972be" CreationDate="2016-08-15T17:20:10.547" UserId="1706" Text="    it could be that he is just under time pressure and while the change in commitments is unfortunate, future opportunities may make up for it&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is your statement from above.  This tells me that you're more concerned about how your client's business is going than you are about your OWN business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How you run your business should NEVER be conditional to how a client runs theirs.  &quot;Future opportunities&quot;???  Friend, go to the Computer Gigs section on Craigslist in any large city, and you'll find innumerable parties looking for technical work done.  Many opportunities will read, &quot;No pay now, but this will be great for your portfolio,&quot; or &quot;No pay now, but as soon as we strike it rich, we'll bring you back to be our CTO!&quot;  It's bad enough that other parties will commit these games, but it's far worse if you do this to yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Trust in the value of your work and don't be afraid to reach out to resources like this when you feel something's odd.  It'll save you a heap of trouble and stress!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15393" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5820" RevisionGUID="1ba57218-5dc2-48bd-97e9-1696f3879505" CreationDate="2016-08-15T14:07:01.963" UserId="14428" UserDisplayName="fr13d" Text="**Question:** how do I distinguish between insincere freelance job offers on the one hand, and sincere offers on the other hand that may have defects, but can lead to a beneficial longer-term working relationship if worked through? The former have the potential to waste time and good-will, while the latter may not be ideal short term, but may be lucrative and thus not a waste of time long term. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Concrete situation:** I have recently decided to devote part of my time to freelance jobs. I have begun contacting various people in my personal network that I believe can potentially provide contacts for such work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One of these people has indicated that he himself would like to get me engaged in some of the prospective projects that he has in mind.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;_(I know both this person and his spouse from a professional setting. Up to now I haven't had any reason to doubt his professionalism and multiple qualifications.)_&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was invited to an informal chat with this person in which he gave me a very broad overview of the projects that he has in mind - and claims to have started groundwork on. I agreed that it all sounds very interesting and that I would very much like to be involved. Some preparatory work needs to be gotten in place, but I understood that I might be getting involved in a month or so. Apart from my resume (including skills) not paperwork was generated, not even an NDA (I was asked to honor his confidentiality and I am happy to be bound by my conscience).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few days later this person contacts me, after hours, and asks for a fairly small job to be done the next day. As I already have prior commitments, I respectfully excuse myself and he agrees that it can be done some days later. He offers to e-mail some material for me to look at in the mean time so I can start on it first thing in the morning. The morning of the day I set aside for this task comes with no e-mail having arrived yet. I phone, only to get the answering service, and no returned call the whole day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Result: A day wasted waiting and keeping myself available for this task, which could have been used gainfully otherwise. Also, I have other commitments set up for subsequent days, and if this person now decides he wants the work done after all, I'll again have to decline him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * On the one hand, it could be that he is just under time pressure and while the change in commitments is unfortunate, future opportunities may make up for it - if I do not go and burn bridges.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * On the other hand, I have begun questioning if this person (and his motives) are for real. Is this perhaps some elaborate game? Does this person perhaps suffer from delusions of grandeur about his plans - or perhaps some other abnormality? If so, it would be better to cut my losses and avoid being pulled in any further. (Although I am at the same time afraid that declining this person permanently might also affect my relationship with his spouse, although ideally and professionally it *should* not, although we are not in an ideal world.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * And on the third hand, it seems that his style of communicating verbally and very generally (perhaps a result of time pressure?), without vital specifics, versus me needing details, preferably in writing, is bound to cause misunderstanding/resentment sooner or later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Added&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As [Peter's](http://workplace.stackexchange.com/a/74296/45772) and [keshlam's](http://workplace.stackexchange.com/a/74295/45772) answers point out, an up-front contract goes a great length to help here. I agree, except that for tasks that may take max 4 hours, and perhaps are needed in a rush, this might be a bit of an overkill. I have done such small tasks for others in the past without much more than a verbal agreement. In the end I am more worried about reputation (customer stasifaction) than the money or time, as the former is largely a mental construct, that therefore scales more easily to larger projects (where the money may be better).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15394" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5820" RevisionGUID="1ba57218-5dc2-48bd-97e9-1696f3879505" CreationDate="2016-08-15T14:07:01.963" UserId="14428" UserDisplayName="fr13d" Text="Judging sincerity of freelance job offers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15395" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5820" RevisionGUID="1ba57218-5dc2-48bd-97e9-1696f3879505" CreationDate="2016-08-15T14:07:01.963" UserId="14428" UserDisplayName="fr13d" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15396" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5822" RevisionGUID="a4c794ed-4a0b-445e-ba7f-9157641a1bf6" CreationDate="2016-08-15T17:47:33.057" UserId="14427" Comment="added 512 characters in body" Text="Wasting a day hoping for work to arrive if you have other work lined up is on you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't start any work before you have a signed contract. If they sign a contract, the likelihood that they are serious is already much higher than before. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask for early payment for the first piece of work. Once they start paying you, the likelihood that they are serious is already quite high.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit to address Addendum of question:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't want to have the overhead of a written contract that was prepared by a lawyer, you can simplify, although I won't generally recommend that. You can just write down the essentials in an email: The description of the work and the amount and form of compensation. If they confirm, that is a legally binding contract. **If you cannot agree on the description of the work and the amount and form of compensation, then you are not ready to start the work.** Compared to this minimal contract, the primary advantage of a proper contract with multiple pages is that it also has a clause that limits your liability so you don't suddenly need to hand over everything you own to your client.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15397" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5823" RevisionGUID="d5df95a2-8ae6-4770-9628-49a23f396c96" CreationDate="2016-08-15T17:56:01.613" UserId="14429" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="What you are dealing with is known as a &quot;[Sales Pipeline][1].&quot; (Step through the Slideshow)  And you are getting the steps out of order.  That's what's causing your frustration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a tech person (like myself), it frustrates you because we're used to a &quot;Here's my problem.  Fix it for money.&quot; view of the world.  The reason that we think this way is that we are usually not even brought up to speed on issues until the pipeline process is complete.  Or, if you're a sales support engineer (at least partially), towards the end of the sales cycle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Two things you should remember:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. You should have a &quot;conversion rate&quot; of about 1 sale in ever 15 leads.  (At least this was the case for my freelance work ... 20 years ago).  That is, 1 in 15 will actually end up hiring you.  A lot of people have &quot;big dreams&quot; and think that their &quot;vision&quot; will draw people to work for them for free.  You'll learn to spot them soon enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. A fantastic idea written on a piece of paper is worth the paper.  There's a reason most startups never make it (well, lots of them).  Properly assessing market scope, user demand, startup capital requirements, competition, etc., is a separate subject (probably a lecture series, actually).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to be a startup founder, then start focusing on that.  As a freelancer, your thought should be:  &quot;I will solve your problems for your money.&quot;  That's it.  Don't get caught up in their &quot;vision.&quot;  Don't worry about how good/bad their idea is.  You should worry about (in order):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Is this work legal / ethical?&#xD;&#xA; 2. Will I get paid in a timely manner.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Will doing this work help or hurt my chances of getting other work in the future?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for this guy, it sounds like he is a flake.  If he wanted you to do something the next day, but can't get you prep materials in a few days, then he has nothing together except a amorphous, pretty blob of an idea in his head.  Not that his idea is good or bad, but it is certainly not researched and developed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://blog.pipelinersales.com/sales-pipeline-management/what-is-sales-pipeline/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15398" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5825" RevisionGUID="50ebacf1-b4f2-4dc2-a1b2-6310b924faf4" CreationDate="2016-08-15T18:05:08.883" UserId="1706" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body" Text="&gt; it could be that he is just under time pressure and while the change in commitments is unfortunate, future opportunities may make up for it&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is your statement from above.  This tells me that you're more concerned about how your client's business is going than you are about your OWN business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How you run your business should NEVER be conditional to how a client runs theirs.  &quot;Future opportunities&quot;???  Friend, go to the Computer Gigs section on Craigslist in any large city, and you'll find innumerable parties looking for technical work done.  Many opportunities will read, &quot;No pay now, but this will be great for your portfolio,&quot; or &quot;No pay now, but as soon as we strike it rich, we'll bring you back to be our CTO!&quot;  It's bad enough that other parties will commit these games, but it's far worse if you do this to yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Trust in the value of your work and don't be afraid to reach out to resources like this when you feel something's odd.  It'll save you a heap of trouble and stress!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15399" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="5820" RevisionGUID="996b89b0-a953-4b60-9c64-b8d0ea777eb0" CreationDate="2016-08-15T18:57:52.267" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/765261240407093248" />
  <row Id="15400" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5826" RevisionGUID="5c777c87-943f-4da5-862f-60b6d151c9fe" CreationDate="2016-08-15T19:36:04.047" UserId="5100" Text="I From India, I work on one of the project from the one software consultancy here in Mumbai, India, I started the work after reciving the advance payment, but soon client starts to change his requirement and he is continuing the same thing again and again, when I said I don't want to continue and want to quit the project after it has been completed almost 70% , the client said he don't want the project or source code and asking for refund, If I don't do it, he is threatning me for legal action, We don't have any legal agreement between us for the project. I don't want to refund any money to him as I work really hard to complete the project almost 70%, what should I do in this circumstances?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15401" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5826" RevisionGUID="5c777c87-943f-4da5-862f-60b6d151c9fe" CreationDate="2016-08-15T19:36:04.047" UserId="5100" Text="Client Asking For Refund?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15402" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5826" RevisionGUID="5c777c87-943f-4da5-862f-60b6d151c9fe" CreationDate="2016-08-15T19:36:04.047" UserId="5100" Text="|contracts|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15403" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="5826" RevisionGUID="e975de36-7d17-4304-9d69-93ed386263e2" CreationDate="2016-08-15T21:52:22.203" UserId="708" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|legal|difficult-client|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15404" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5827" RevisionGUID="fb8b5caa-fc37-4a17-a8c7-423c94f5527b" CreationDate="2016-08-16T05:15:56.837" UserId="13300" Text="It's really up to you to decide what the work you have already done is worth. If the advance payment was in the full amount then maybe meet the client in the 30%-50% refund range, supply him/her the code and be done with it. If you received less than that in advance payment then don't offer a refund, cut your losses and be done with them. Whatever the case you have done work and should receive some compensation. You have the advantage if there were to be legal action, you have actual code (proof of work) and the client just has their word about a deal that may or maynot have been agreed upon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lot of times clients do not understand the difficulty in adding features, to them it just another button or form. One way to hinder a client from making constant changes is to charge for changes after the requirements document has been signed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the future it might be of interest to have a contract that is either signed in person or through a service like DocuSign to avoid situations like this. In the document spell out what the terms of your service are including changes to software requirements. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But with all of that being said, you should speak with an attorney as laws are probably different in your area compared to mine. They will be able to tell you if verbal contracts are binding or if you could potentially break any other laws by not offering a refund." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15405" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5828" RevisionGUID="021633ef-85e0-4af8-9c40-4f0952da7d7a" CreationDate="2016-08-16T07:11:01.780" UserId="14434" Text="&gt; As Peter's and keshlam's answers point out, an up-front contract goes&#xD;&#xA;&gt; a great length to help here. **I agree, except that for tasks that may&#xD;&#xA;&gt; take max 4 hours, and perhaps are needed in a rush, this might be a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; bit of an overkill.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if it's just to find out what the problem is, my auto mechanic makes me sign a rough generic estimate of what it's going to cost every time I bring my car to him. This is not just for his benefit, it's for mine as well since it outlines the maximum amount I'm willing to pay (unless I specifically authorize a higher amount later on).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if you can't ask your client to sign such a document while in a rush, or return you an electronically signed copy of such a document by email. It probably just means that you don't have one already prepared and ready to go at a moment's notice. Ideally, you should always carry blank copies of such an agreement in your office, in your bag, in your car, and in your phone over email. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I have done such small tasks for others in the past without much more&#xD;&#xA;&gt; than a verbal agreement. In the end I am more worried about reputation&#xD;&#xA;&gt; (customer sastifaction) than the money or time, as the former is&#xD;&#xA;&gt; largely a mental construct, **that therefore scales more easily to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; larger projects (where the money may be better).**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Money and time are not just mental constructs. If you don't take care of getting your client to sign relatively simple contracts for a couple of hundred bucks here and there, it will probably be that much harder for you to do the same when contracts involve actual real amounts of money and real commitments of several weeks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's how you can scale. First master the right behavior for the small amounts. Trust me, those small amounts are actually much easier to get a client to commit to. And once you've mastered those small contracts, then that same behavior will come in handy once you go after the bigger contracts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to be a successful professional, you really do need get over this hangup. You can't pay for rent/mortgage/food with pats on the back alone. Also when first getting started, don't be above asking for small amounts of money from your clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, the quicker you can figure out that a client isn't willing to sign a small contract, the quicker you've figured out that the same client would never have been willing to pay you for a larger contract either. Some people are just born that way. It's not their fault. You don't need to change their mind. You just need to find out who they are so you can avoid them like the plague." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15406" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5826" RevisionGUID="4fb4ce5c-b72c-4676-a28a-5226a8ecb632" CreationDate="2016-08-16T08:27:44.100" UserId="11857" Comment="improved spelling, grammar, formatting and title" Text="I am from India. I have worked on a project from a software consultancy company here in Mumbai, India. I started the work after receiving an advance payment, but soon the client started to change his requirements and he is continuing the same thing again and again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I said I don't want to continue and want to quit the project after it has been almost 70% completed, the client said he doesn't want the project or source code and is asking for a refund. If I don't do it, he is threatening me with legal action. We don't have any legal agreement between us for the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to refund any money to him as I have worked really hard to complete the project to almost 70% completion. What should I do in these circumstances?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15407" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="5826" RevisionGUID="4fb4ce5c-b72c-4676-a28a-5226a8ecb632" CreationDate="2016-08-16T08:27:44.100" UserId="11857" Comment="improved spelling, grammar, formatting and title" Text="Client asking for a refund of advance payments for an uncompleted project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15408" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="5826" RevisionGUID="4fb4ce5c-b72c-4676-a28a-5226a8ecb632" CreationDate="2016-08-16T08:27:44.100" Comment="Proposed by 11857 approved by 708, 85 edit id of 480" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15409" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5829" RevisionGUID="d8c3bdad-8312-4b65-a7ca-171d8f5643d4" CreationDate="2016-08-16T08:56:14.570" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="No refund, except maybe if the advance payment covers more than what has been performed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A much better solution would be to find an agreement so that you deliver something of use to the customer (otherwise you can understand his anger). Ask for a written specification which will be formal, and negotiate the pricing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tell him your intent and stay firm. He will not sue you: you did some work on his request, which you can easily prove, there is nothing he can claim." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15410" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5830" RevisionGUID="8004e382-65d9-4cbd-8f45-24ea25ead639" CreationDate="2016-08-16T09:40:45.773" UserId="11857" Text="In cases where a physical meeting isn't possible and all client communication is done through email and phone, how can we request the client signs contracts?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sending physical copies through the post costs money and time, so that isn't ideal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as I'm aware, (generally speaking, of course this will depend on location. I'm in the UK, for example) a verbal agreement is as legal as a written one, as long as you can prove the agreement took place. So...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is a simple email reply to the sending of the contract saying &quot;I agree, please proceed&quot; enough for the contract to be assumed agreed on? Does the client need to print the contract, physically sign then scan and return a digital copy? Do we need to use a third-party service such as [DocuSign](https://www.docusign.co.uk/)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15411" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5830" RevisionGUID="8004e382-65d9-4cbd-8f45-24ea25ead639" CreationDate="2016-08-16T09:40:45.773" UserId="11857" Text="How to request digital signing of contracts" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15412" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5830" RevisionGUID="8004e382-65d9-4cbd-8f45-24ea25ead639" CreationDate="2016-08-16T09:40:45.773" UserId="11857" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15413" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="5820" RevisionGUID="18fe5255-6ffc-4303-814d-23f9270d4736" CreationDate="2016-08-16T09:47:06.050" UserId="11857" Comment="Needed tags..." Text="|difficult-client|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15414" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="5820" RevisionGUID="18fe5255-6ffc-4303-814d-23f9270d4736" CreationDate="2016-08-16T09:47:06.050" Comment="Proposed by 11857 approved by 85, 14428 edit id of 481" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15415" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5831" RevisionGUID="e6f28c70-73c6-45b1-98b8-8702764308e1" CreationDate="2016-08-16T13:26:29.593" UserId="1706" Text="This will depend on the laws in your venue, i.e. the United Kingdom.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here in the US, a &quot;contract&quot; is more so a *concept* than just a *single piece of paper with a signature*.  It can be a single document, or comprised of several e-mails or paper documents going back and forth. The real onus is that one or more parties have come to *agreement* in some way, shape, or form  from which someone else (like a judge, or attorney) can derive that there was an *accord* - a meeting of the minds - between the parties.  And a writing is *presumed* to be valid (i.e. 'approved', 'endorsed' even if its contents are vague and don't fit the business needs), unless a party FIRST says, &quot;Hey, that's not what I signed!&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've used DocuSign here, and it's a great tool.  But you should consult an attorney for UK and ask about validity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15416" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5832" RevisionGUID="2fc99515-ccbd-47eb-b073-b1fd39f2a9ce" CreationDate="2016-08-16T14:05:22.133" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="I have solved this very simply: if I don't have enough information, I enter an obviously dummy bid, explaining that I can't quote without this and that complementary information." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15417" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5833" RevisionGUID="7b523c86-8a30-4b96-943e-02847cdd1820" CreationDate="2016-08-16T15:43:46.233" UserId="12935" Text="I'd like to get some experienced freelancers' thoughts on this...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently I've found the amount of work coming in running very low, to the point where I've been having to consider taking at least a part time job again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My regular, well-paying clients are either away, don't have any work, or are cutting back, so I'm now only being approached by first-time potential customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's a pattern emerging: they get in touch, get really excited about my work, tell me what they are looking for, and I give them a quotation based on this, and a fair rate for my expertise. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I either get a &quot;sorry, it's too expensive..&quot; reply, or never hear from them again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I know that I'm not cheap, but I'm nowhere near as expensive as an agency or even some other freelancers I know. It seems that I have a choice, either to drop my prices to get at least some work (although I'd be earning well below a decent wage, barely enough to live on) or not get any work at all, do some amazing stuff for my portfolio, and delve deeper into my savings and overdraft in hope of better times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I drop my prices to a (IMO) ridiculously low rate just to get the work and bulk out my portfolio?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15418" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5833" RevisionGUID="7b523c86-8a30-4b96-943e-02847cdd1820" CreationDate="2016-08-16T15:43:46.233" UserId="12935" Text="Risk of pricing myself out of a job vs. not getting any work at all" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15419" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5833" RevisionGUID="7b523c86-8a30-4b96-943e-02847cdd1820" CreationDate="2016-08-16T15:43:46.233" UserId="12935" Text="|price|evaluating-clients|budget|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15420" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5834" RevisionGUID="b4a6087b-57dc-4845-9fe5-8124efcd22d8" CreationDate="2016-08-16T15:49:55.140" UserId="12935" Text="I'd suggest looking for other potential leads for work. Two of which have worked very well for me in the past.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1/ Networking events.&#xD;&#xA;Get yourself on meetup.com or similar and join local entrepreneurs/business start ups groups. You may find people starting or running small businesses who need design work doing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2/ Facebook&#xD;&#xA;Seriously. I don't just mean setting up a page for yourself. Join local groups, like design-related pages (or even non-design related) and keep your beady eyes peeled for people who are either asking for, or you suspect might need design support.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The advantage of these when you're starting out is that you're not necessarily competing against other designers (or not as many as on freelancing sites). You may be the only designer in the village, so to speak, and at the start you'll never get over the gap in experience, so make yourself the only choice in that area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you start getting small jobs, you can put that work on your website or freelancing sites if you wish, and use it to get yourself more, and better work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck. It's a tough path but rewarding." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15421" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5835" RevisionGUID="b57042a5-9d22-43bf-b0d7-107303ab6735" CreationDate="2016-08-16T16:06:11.233" UserId="12935" Text="I second what Harry says - if there's any way of tagging, partially covering or watermarking your work, do this and REFUSE to provide the final files until payment is received.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any decent client will be understanding, if you explain why to them in the right way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If in the case of you somehow providing the files and them not paying, since they did not pay they do not own the rights to the work. Post it everywhere you can think of, maybe even give it away for free if it's suitable - surely if they say it's not satisfactory they can't dispute you using it elsewhere, since it's useless to them? *evil grin *&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems a bit tit-for-tat, but I've done it in the past to prevent a scammer client from using designs I supplied (at least not without exposing themselves) and they later didn't pay for." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15422" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5836" RevisionGUID="d28c0358-9a69-4379-b63c-26e3d50c0002" CreationDate="2016-08-16T16:13:56.523" UserId="14440" Text="In my opinion (and experience having done exactly this a few times) it depends on whether this is project-based work or an ongoing commitment. There's nothing wrong with giving somebody a one-time &quot;discount&quot; especially if you're not particularly busy (nobody needs to know what you charge other clients*). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The big question is do you think it's worth your time and effort (*e.g* if you won't be able to pay the bills, not worth it). If you're committed to pursuing the freelance route, sometimes taking a gig for less is a way to stay on the path without taking a step &quot;backward&quot; and committing to a full/part time job. Not to mention it potentially gives you something you can add to your portfolio (if you need that).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All of that said, if its an ongoing gig (like a PR retainer or even a long-term project) you can run into trouble down the road if you start onboarding other clients that are paying full freight and you're stuck juggling time between them. You can also run into issues if they want more work later on: &quot;but you did X and that was more complicated than this new project, but you want double the price for it. What gives?!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;\*The exception of course is if they start referring you other clients and share &quot;what a great deal they got&quot; with your potential customers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15423" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5837" RevisionGUID="08971502-375d-4b50-8f54-6176097f7f8e" CreationDate="2016-08-16T16:30:57.450" UserId="14440" Text="There are a number of risks to you associated with the setup you're describing. Having no experience with Shopify, you're not in a position to adequately scope the changes they need to make. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, scoping this project is the same as scoping any other project. To arrive at a final price, you take the number of hours times your hourly rate to arrive at a time-and-materials estimate. If they want a fixed bid, it is customary to assess a risk multiplier to the final number to cover the uncertainty associated with the project. That risk multiplier can be changed based on your comfort with the platform and client, but a fixed-bid estimate should *always* be higher than a time-and-materials estimate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client insists on a fixed-bid project, before you begin any work, you should make sure that you have outlined, in as much detail as possible, what features you will be implementing and what each feature will cost. It is also imperative that you explain to the client that should they change their mind about anything at all, the price of the project may change.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were in your position, the risk multiplier I would apply to my rate would be rather large because I have no experience with the platform at hand and, for example, what I think is a simple change, could take several days to figure out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding your terms of payment question, depending on the size of the project there is usually a combination of milestones and a final deliverable. There is also a period of user acceptance testing around any final deliverable. This is an opportunity for the client to verify that things perform as desired. This gets back to the importance of clearly outlining the functionality to be implemented because the acceptance will be based on this agreement. In any case, before you request payment for a milestone, you should demonstrate the completeness of that milestone to the client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15424" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5838" RevisionGUID="765b645a-ab5d-4fda-af0a-a1ce2485c7e6" CreationDate="2016-08-16T17:19:05.513" UserId="1706" Text="You'd be better off trying to pick up some work through recruiters than ridiculously lowering your rate.  The longer you stay in projects where the client doesn't value your work, the more annoyed you'll become because the client will continue to be unreasonable.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually, this type of client is clueless and will work on the premise that you deliver million-dollar solutions at a fifty-cent price.  Raise your sights a little higher, and avoid cheap-skate clients like the plague!  I can't guarantee that you won't have some challenges along the way, but it's a better situation to have a challenge where you &quot;grow&quot; vs a challenge that stresses you out and only gives you the minimum reward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15426" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5839" RevisionGUID="4961ec35-c51a-4cc8-8aa4-5abae185e368" CreationDate="2016-08-16T18:57:10.047" UserId="708" Text="There's really no solid information to go on here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Not sure what &quot;ridiculously low&quot; means**... 80% your normal rate? 50%? 25? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No clue long have you been in the field?**  If you are pricing to match those with 10 years experience in your field and you have 2 years experience... then you may need to evaluate that. Being *&quot;not as expensive as an agency or other freelancers&quot;* means nothing really. Clients looking to hire an agency aren't looking to hire an individual freelancer - different markets. And unless these &quot;other freelancers&quot; have the exact same knowledge and experience as yourself, their pricing is somewhat irrelevant. No totally, but to a degree.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No idea how proficient and skilled you are at whatever you do.** *You* may feel justified in your pricing, but that doesn't mean the rest of the world does. In addition, you may feel your work is stunning, be-all-end-all work. But if clients aren't returning, it would seem that they feel the work isn't worth the cost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No clue where your clients are coming from.** Some client farms (freelance websites, craigslist, etc) are *always* going to be populated with a plethora of &quot;dirt cheap&quot; clients unwilling to pay *anything* they feel is unjustified. If you are gaining clients from these areas, *that* may be the issue entirely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I don't have any clue as to your financial standing.** (Not asking for it either). If you haven't been tucking money away during the good times, you've been slacking. The nature of freelancing in my experience has always been &quot;feast or famine&quot; -- too much work or not enough. You have to plan during good times to compensate for the slow times. Failing to do this will inevitably put you in a rough spot when a slow period hits and you are financially drained.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I don't know how you price** -- Hourly rate? Value-based? Long-term contracts?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The truth of the matter is, if you feel you are priced out of your market, then you've got to adjust something. ***Thinking* you are worth $X is quite different than clients beleiving you are worth $X.** Heck I feel I'm worth 2 to 3 times my rate... but that doesn't mean clients will pay that for the work I do. And I *know* clients gained from some resources would *never* pay my pricing. So, I don't use those resources to find clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it's true that most clients will *always* want a lower price, if several of them, especially existing clients, are not returning **they are telling you something**. There's an old adage that states, *&quot;If you get every project you bid on your rates are too low.&quot;* and the opposite is true as well, if you don't get *any* project you bid on, your rates are too high.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First thing to do is **[Fire Your Hourly Rate][1]** if that's how you are pricing. By *not* telling, or pricing work for clients, on disclosed hourly rates, you create some flexibility with your pricing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What this does is allow one to adjust pricing as workloads change. If there's a need for work, project pricing can easily drop 20%. This is much different than dropping an hourly rate 20%. We all know that once you drop an hourly rate for a client is *very difficult* to ever raise it for that client later. And conversely if there's an overload of work project costs can easily be increased by 20% to deter some smaller projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, *only you* know your pricing, abilities, and market. And *only you* can take an honest, open, look at your work and determine if you can ride out the slow period (both financially and emotionally) or drop pricing to hopefully gain work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *know* it can be difficult during slow periods. But I can't tell you if *you* should lower your prices. I don't know how anyone could.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From a personal standpoint, I have noticed a drop in my workload during Q1 and Q2 of 2016. My larger clients slowed a bit and haven't had a great need for new projects. What they have done this year is determine previous items worked well so they are merely reusing older projects with minor changes. I don't make as much on changes to existing items as I do on new items. It does happen. But they are returning in Q3. Point is.... slow times happen. Don't expect to *always* have enough work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Completely random prediction... the last slow period I had which comes close to Q1/Q2 of 2016 was in 2006... a year and a half later the housing bubble popped and *everyone* felt the crunch. So... since Q1/Q2 of 2016 were slow here, does that mean another bubble is going to pop end of 2017/beginning of 2018? Hmmmm.... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is all ***just speculation***. You actually may be a rock star who is *absolutely* worth your pricing. I don't know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4783/should-i-charge-my-client-for-mistakes-i-make/4785#4785" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15428" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5840" RevisionGUID="392d2b5e-330e-4a8c-9729-f94f0839b8ba" CreationDate="2016-08-16T23:24:30.420" UserId="14455" Text="Are you selling a Rolls Royce to someone that only wants a van?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question you have to tackle, and you have to get used to asking or at least working out, is &quot;What is your budget for this?&quot;. Then you tell them what you can do to achieve their goals within their working budget. Or you give them two options, one slightly under their budget so they can save some money, and one above their budget, so they can dream or stretch themselves a bit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But you do not decide how much your skills are worth, the market does.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Find out where the customers went, what they paid and why you didn't get the work. Call them. Ask them for feedback. Email them but speaking is better. Wish them luck, tell them you are still there if they need you and offer a gift for any referrals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lost proposal is not the end of the road.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope that helps,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15429" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5841" RevisionGUID="891e800a-9c2a-4db7-aa1a-af807486acd7" CreationDate="2016-08-16T23:35:11.117" UserId="14455" Text="You have just learned the importance of having a written schedule of deliverables. After which, anytime the client says 'can this do that', you say 'yes of course, that will be an additional $xx.xx, shall I add it to the requirements list?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you asked for an opinion - my answer would be NO REFUND.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, you should offer to help with the transition to another developer. If he does not want anything from you but the money back, draw up a list of the hours and what you coded and did. File them with copies of all the emails concerning the work. Zip them all up in an archive for your records only, in case of court action, and move on. Send him all the files anyway, a closing document explaining details of the code for a new developer (don't spend too long on it, just make it long winded and complex looking). Then you are done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IF he takes you to court, go to court, explain it all, and tell them he has been unreasonable in his demands. You are never going to make this relationship back, so move on. Courts understand that services are not products, and you worked a long time with his consent all the way. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next time, make sure your terms and conditions are written that say advance payments are non-refundable. This happens in business but a single page of an agreement (non=legalise is fine, just plain language) combined with the plan of what you are going to code is going to protect you in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck with it,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15430" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5842" RevisionGUID="d3d18b9e-560f-496d-9ee0-e020b18ed089" CreationDate="2016-08-16T23:39:59.540" UserId="14455" Text="It all depends on the amount of money involved. There is no need to set up a LTD company just for going overseas. You also have to be overseas quite a large chunk of the year to not be considered resident any more. If I were you, and I assume you are a sole trader, I would continue to do whatever you have been doing up to now, but if you want to see if there are any tax benefits, you need to speak to an accountant about your entire personal and financial situation. My only advice would be to pay for the advice, otherwise you are likely to not get good advice, but a sales pitch." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15431" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5843" RevisionGUID="c7c1077f-6615-4a10-8cbf-676c266f7432" CreationDate="2016-08-16T23:48:03.907" UserId="14455" Text="Tax is always on profit. You have not left yourself much room though for when the worker you are paying lets you down, or jobs go awry, etc. Things go wrong in business and you could well be storing up a big fall. If you had to then pay someone else to do the same job you would be looking at a huge loss.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15432" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5844" RevisionGUID="a9416b02-50fb-409e-bbab-a88129925216" CreationDate="2016-08-16T23:57:07.160" UserId="14455" Text="wow, game development is one industry where you are what you have done. But as a freelancer, my advice would be to pitch yourself as new, fresh, up to date, with a new look on things, as cutting edge as you can get. Do not try to deceive people about your level of experience, but turn it into an advantage. They are getting enthusiasm, up to date techniques from a fresh but well qualified young person who is keen to impress. 'Been doing it for 12 years' is not always the best selling point, or the biggest draw. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My first project was a freebie for a charity. That brought in my first paying client, but I was very cheap. Both of those on my portfolio brought in a nice project, and I was on my way. Your aim should be to collect written references from people saying how keen, motivated and competent you are and that they would gladly do business with you again in the future. Three good recent references and you can compete with anyone!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul.&#xD;&#xA;  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15433" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5845" RevisionGUID="f63c4425-9ceb-41f2-b377-476e02e7d351" CreationDate="2016-08-17T00:07:21.520" UserId="14455" Text="I think you exaggerate the problem on sites like these. Yes it can and does happen, but usually these are rare incidents. Scammers will target newbies because you have no track record to back you up. I gets better with time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no golden chalice in freelancing. These sites should not be your one egg in your basket, and for most people they are a short term supplement to an income. The super star sellers you see have usually worked incredibly hard for a long time to get where they are, and hard work and time are no guarantee that you can get there too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These sites are supplements, not solutions to, your freelancing career. Do not be too paranoid though. I mean, what are you out really, a few hours work, a few hours doing what you are supposed to enjoy doing as a freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;Don't let it upset you. And do a bit more customer research before risking a big hit. If they are going to scam you, they have almost certainly scammed other people before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope that helps&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15434" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5846" RevisionGUID="6e268e93-d6ff-4daf-941d-bcefbe895146" CreationDate="2016-08-17T00:25:47.320" UserId="2219" Text="You discern through experience, and you've gained some valuable experience this go-around.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reality is that you can't easily judge at the beginning whether someone is a solid lead or not, and sometimes you don't find out until too late that you've misjudged. You're going to have to accept that sometimes things don't go according to plan, and there are many ways to deal with that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Give your clients deadlines for your schedule.  In this case, &quot;I can set time aside for you on Wednesday, but I have to prepare a few things in advance so I'll need your information/contribution/design/materials/etc by Monday night.  If I don't have that, then I can't give you Wednesday.&quot; This gives you time to reschedule that slot if they fail to bring you the materials.&#xD;&#xA;2.  Always have backburner projects.  Eventually you'll gain projects, your own or someone else's, that are just slow burn &quot;get to it when you can&quot; projects.  Whether you offer a lower rate, or it's merely maintenance, or if you're taking time to upgrade your skills, you should always have something you can do that's productive when someone else falls through. Consulting is great, but it's implementing someone else's vision, and you only ever make as much as you work - if you develop your own product you may become your own client if it becomes successful, and you may find you have much more control over your work and income than you do relying on others to generate work for you.&#xD;&#xA;3. Accept that some people have a different work style than you.  Whether you can make it work or not depends on your flexibility.  For myself, I give a quote, and I make sure they understand up front what the conditions are to start the project, and the expectations.  Then if they fall through I simply move on with other things.  If they make contact again, I restate the terms to start.  It pushes people away that can't work on these terms, without rejecting them outright.  If they have to adjust because they want me, that's fine, but I am not interested in losing time, sleep, and generating stress trying to fit their work style.  There are other consultants they can work with, and they'll be happier with a better fit anyway, so I don't feel bad about setting deadlines, boundaries, and choosing my working style.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Part of the difficulty you have to face is that you're going to have to let some clients go.  Rather than firing them, it'll simply be a realization on their part that you aren't going to be able to meet their needs because their needs require on-demand scheduling, and you simply can't do that without losing a lot of time and other resources.  The only way you could make that work is if you charged them accordingly - if they waste 4 hours of your time for every 4 hours they contract with you, then you'll need to double your rates for them, accepting that half the time you'll be left without work.  Other professionals, Lawyers, doctors, etc charge clients for missed appointments, this isn't much different, it's simply a recognition that they need more time than they believe they need due to their work style." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15435" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5847" RevisionGUID="4f95a0d0-1fe4-48a4-b50d-2b101e8a540e" CreationDate="2016-08-17T02:49:30.050" UserId="708" Text="On my contracts they state:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;- Fax this signed contract back to : xxx-xxx-xxx&#xD;&#xA;- sign and attach it in an email response to xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.com. &#xD;&#xA;- Or respond via email, noting the contract number in the upper right corner, and specifically state *&quot;contact terms are accepted&quot;*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is, as @codenior points out, in the US. So, things in the UK may be more strict. However, in the US all that is really necessary is proof that terms were agreed to by both parties. They can keep the physical contract... I have a copy. I just need some written evidence that they saw it and agreed. Email is generally sufficient. In most cases, I get a fax though. There have been some cases where, via email, I get a cell phone photo attachment of the signed contract (also okay with me).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Disclosure: It's not like I get taken for a ride, well, really almost never. It happens on very small jobs exceptionally rarely and is generally not worth pursuing. But for the most part I've never had an issue. (knock on wood) The contract is generally about solidifying that I'm serious and the client is serious more than anything. For a larger contract... a fax or postal mail return is desired.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(FYI.. I HATE paying for the land line just to have the fax number... but to date I've seen no digital &quot;fax&quot; service that is worth the pricing.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15436" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5848" RevisionGUID="28ec03a6-5128-4fac-a0f5-98573f55bc51" CreationDate="2016-08-17T03:53:29.297" UserId="14457" Text="Often, when they want an estimate, I tell them that a small user manual will need to be written so they can use the final program. I do the user manual first. I quote a fixed price to write the user manual. I give them the manual and wait to get paid. Once I get paid, I give them a quote on how much it will cost to write the program. I write the program and give it to them. After they pay me, I give them the source code. If they never pay me, I'll wait until they come back in 6 months with changes they want to the program. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Larger tasks are broken up into pieces with each piece being a separate project. Where to divide the pieces is that each piece is useful to him immediately without the other pieces being finished. Each piece is required to be paid before the next piece begins. The reason to justify doing the project in pieces is that as she uses piece one, she'll get ideas on how to improve piece 2 before piece 2 has begun being written.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't avoid getting scammed some times. But by acting professional and letting it go, the scammer might recommend you others for legitimate projects. Some scammers are evil, but most scammers can't pay you because their idea failed. Have pitty." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15437" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5849" RevisionGUID="0fce963c-c84f-4c29-bfc8-a1012eb82416" CreationDate="2016-08-17T08:31:37.450" UserId="14464" Text="I'm a senior-developer in my company and I have almost a decade of experience in my field. Thanks to some presentation and talk I've given in the past I've been head-hunted for a prestigious job in Japan. I don't speak Japanese well and I don't know how many of the things work here. But long-story short - I want some freelance project and I have the time to do them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My problem is that I cannot communicate with the local market and if I'd ever want freelance in my own country I'd be able to meet the person and discuss all the details about the project. Also, I haven't been freelancing for about 4 years now so most of my freelance sources are now gone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is - how to find reliable freelance projects from abroad without being able to meet the client in person?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;NOTE: I do have a portfolio of pet-projects I've made in my free time as well as showing the large projects I participated in my company." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15438" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5849" RevisionGUID="0fce963c-c84f-4c29-bfc8-a1012eb82416" CreationDate="2016-08-17T08:31:37.450" UserId="14464" Text="How to find reliable sources of freelance projects abroad?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15439" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5849" RevisionGUID="0fce963c-c84f-4c29-bfc8-a1012eb82416" CreationDate="2016-08-17T08:31:37.450" UserId="14464" Text="|foreign-markets|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15440" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5850" RevisionGUID="3b31adab-5623-4caf-9c9f-f2d1003af441" CreationDate="2016-08-17T17:23:08.940" UserId="14440" Text="You likely will not need to pay or collect sales tax for services rendered. That said, you should check with an accountant. Other taxes/filings to watch out for (this is by no means exhaustive, as I said in my comment, I highly recommend checking with a local accountant):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- City/County Business License&#xD;&#xA;- Annual Report&#xD;&#xA;- Payroll tax (depending on how you pay yourself)&#xD;&#xA;- Franchise &amp; Excise tax (if applicable, this depends on the state)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15441" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5851" RevisionGUID="6adcff5d-9c88-4abb-be9c-66165da0839f" CreationDate="2016-08-17T18:04:03.583" UserId="14455" Text="I think you have the answer in the comments, but a church or charity or local organisation will not want a rusty amateur fiddling about with their sites on a 'not sure what I can still do but I will try' basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best advice given so far is to buy a domain and cheap hosting, and build a site for yourself. It could be a CV site, or a profile site, or just a site to practice on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you are a bit more confident in your abilities, and now have something to point to, find a local organisation or family/friend/contact that does not currently have a site, and offer to build one for them for free. That way they have nothing to lose. But you have to commit to doing it. You cannot be half arsed about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now you have your practice site, and a genuine site to point to, you can start pitching for small, easy jobs. Once you have one under your built, you can add them as a portfolio to your profile site, and then you are up and going. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck. Technology has moved on and continues to move at an exciting rate. But you will come up to speed quickly with some enthusiasm and commitment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15442" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5852" RevisionGUID="d31811ef-22ed-445d-92f2-ffc69f77a2b7" CreationDate="2016-08-17T19:25:22.803" UserId="12019" Text="I think you are looking at the wrong choices - you are debating whether to take work at a low rate or no work at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a third option - to learn skills as to how to market your services to a different market. There are always clients looking for the cheapest option - who are indifferent or ignorant of different product quality. But there are also clients who are looking for top quality, or at least good quality, and are prepared to pay for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have some spare time now, I recommend using it to find out how to market yourself to the quality seekers in your field and country." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15443" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="5808" RevisionGUID="daa40888-5cb0-44ee-96f5-c4f5e9e06855" CreationDate="2016-08-18T10:07:46.627" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/766215001506013184" />
  <row Id="15444" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4564" RevisionGUID="b258048d-6b0a-42f5-a882-66ae34ff9f78" CreationDate="2016-08-18T16:34:48.927" UserId="14473" Comment="Improved title, removed remark about it; minor grammatical fixes." Text="I'm a freelancer who offers digital marketing services. I recently established an LLC under a DBA name. From what I understand there is no difference between me and the LLC, and that we are the same entity, as I'm a single LLC owner (I have no employees). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With my existing clients am I able to claim that income at the end of the year as LLC profit (only claiming it once of course) given that I invoice companies under my name and not my LLC's name?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When it comes to clients, I did A/B testing and found that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Small - medium sized clients are more likely to hire me when I brand myself as just me rather than a company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Large sized clients prefer hiring a company over an individual (even if that company is only 1 person)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15445" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4564" RevisionGUID="b258048d-6b0a-42f5-a882-66ae34ff9f78" CreationDate="2016-08-18T16:34:48.927" UserId="14473" Comment="Improved title, removed remark about it; minor grammatical fixes." Text="Can I claim payments to me personally as income for my single-member LLC?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15446" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4564" RevisionGUID="b258048d-6b0a-42f5-a882-66ae34ff9f78" CreationDate="2016-08-18T16:34:48.927" Comment="Proposed by 14473 approved by 9, 1706 edit id of 483" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15447" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5817" RevisionGUID="60ccf614-422f-4da7-8952-50666202b559" CreationDate="2016-08-18T16:35:27.960" UserId="14473" Comment="Grammatical corrections; reworded small parts for clarity." Text="I'm trying to enter the freelancing world while finishing my degree, in order to get more experience in my field and make some money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I compete with people on the freelancing sites, since they have a lot of experience (I see people with 3-9 years)? I'm only a student without any experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I build a powerful profile and a unique portfolio / CV? are there any key elements that I need to know about exactly to get featured or get any jobs? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a game developer and experience is a big thing in the industry." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15448" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="5817" RevisionGUID="60ccf614-422f-4da7-8952-50666202b559" CreationDate="2016-08-18T16:35:27.960" UserId="14473" Comment="Grammatical corrections; reworded small parts for clarity." Text="Competing with experienced people on freelancing websites" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15449" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="5817" RevisionGUID="60ccf614-422f-4da7-8952-50666202b559" CreationDate="2016-08-18T16:35:27.960" Comment="Proposed by 14473 approved by 9, 1706 edit id of 482" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15450" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="5833" RevisionGUID="cd14b7c7-9a7d-4c64-9457-d120ba035a28" CreationDate="2016-08-18T16:36:26.653" UserId="1706" Comment="edited title" Text="How do I balance the risk of pricing myself out of a job vs. not getting any work at all?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15451" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5839" RevisionGUID="82c12fcf-b828-4d68-8219-d13e39393c40" CreationDate="2016-08-18T17:18:43.657" UserId="708" Comment="added 531 characters in body" Text="There's really no solid information to go on here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Not sure what &quot;ridiculously low&quot; means**... 80% your normal rate? 50%? 25? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No clue long have you been in the field?**  If you are pricing to match those with 10 years experience in your field and you have 2 years experience... then you may need to evaluate that. Being *&quot;not as expensive as an agency or other freelancers&quot;* means nothing really. Clients looking to hire an agency aren't looking to hire an individual freelancer - different markets. And unless these &quot;other freelancers&quot; have the exact same knowledge and experience as yourself, their pricing is somewhat irrelevant. No totally, but to a degree.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No idea how proficient and skilled you are at whatever you do.** *You* may feel justified in your pricing, but that doesn't mean the rest of the world does. In addition, you may feel your work is stunning, be-all-end-all work. But if clients aren't returning, it would seem that they feel the work isn't worth the cost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No clue where your clients are coming from.** Some client farms (freelance websites, craigslist, etc) are *always* going to be populated with a plethora of &quot;dirt cheap&quot; clients unwilling to pay *anything* they feel is unjustified. If you are gaining clients from these areas, *that* may be the issue entirely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I don't have any clue as to your financial standing.** (Not asking for it either). If you haven't been tucking money away during the good times, you've been slacking. The nature of freelancing in my experience has always been &quot;feast or famine&quot; -- too much work or not enough. You have to plan during good times to compensate for the slow times. Failing to do this will inevitably put you in a rough spot when a slow period hits and you are financially drained.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I don't know how you price** -- Hourly rate? Value-based? Long-term contracts?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The truth of the matter is, if you feel you are priced out of your market, then you've got to adjust something. ***Thinking* you are worth $X is quite different than clients beleiving you are worth $X.** Heck I feel I'm worth 2 to 3 times my rate... but that doesn't mean clients will pay that for the work I do. And I *know* clients gained from some resources would *never* pay my pricing. So, I don't use those resources to find clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it's true that most clients will *always* want a lower price, if several of them, especially existing clients, are not returning **they are telling you something**. There's an old adage that states, *&quot;If you get every project you bid on your rates are too low.&quot;* and the opposite is true as well, if you don't get *any* project you bid on, your rates are too high.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First thing to do is **[Fire Your Hourly Rate][1]** if that's how you are pricing. By *not* telling, or pricing work for clients, on disclosed hourly rates, you create some flexibility with your pricing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What this does is allow one to adjust pricing as workloads change. If there's a need for work, project pricing can easily drop 20%. This is much different than dropping an hourly rate 20%. We all know that once you drop an hourly rate for a client is *very difficult* to ever raise it for that client later. And conversely if there's an overload of work project costs can easily be increased by 20% to deter some smaller projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, *only you* know your pricing, abilities, and market. And *only you* can take an honest, open, look at your work and determine if you can ride out the slow period (both financially and emotionally) or drop pricing to hopefully gain work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *know* it can be difficult during slow periods. But I can't tell you if *you* should lower your prices. I don't know how anyone could.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From a personal standpoint, I have noticed a drop in my workload during Q1 and Q2 of 2016. My larger clients slowed a bit and haven't had a great need for new projects. What they have done this year is determine previous items worked well so they are merely reusing older projects with minor changes. I don't make as much on changes to existing items as I do on new items. It does happen. But they are returning in Q3. Point is.... slow times happen. Don't expect to *always* have enough work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Completely random prediction... the last slow period I had which comes close to Q1/Q2 of 2016 was in 2006... a year and a half later the housing bubble popped and *everyone* felt the crunch. So... since Q1/Q2 of 2016 were slow here, does that mean another bubble is going to pop end of 2017/beginning of 2018? Hmmmm.... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is all ***just speculation***. You actually may be a rock star who is *absolutely* worth your pricing. I don't know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additional:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're in the design field, one of the more difficult things to do is to create some residual income with a multiplier. Something you can do once, then sell multiple times - art, templates, books, training, t-shirts, etc. This takes some effort. And I struggle with it myself. So, I can't offer any solid venues for this. However, finding and maintaining something, anything, that you can sell or collect on without having to directly work on it can be a great cushion for those slow times. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4783/should-i-charge-my-client-for-mistakes-i-make/4785#4785" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15452" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5853" RevisionGUID="55123a06-896a-4930-a277-4faf2da1ffe1" CreationDate="2016-08-18T17:29:35.733" UserId="14455" Text="I run my own small business - basically building websites. I am always on the lookout for side projects, where I build and manage a site and the other person brings something equally valueable to the table (marketing or access to information or unique access to products to sell etc). These are done on a 50:50 profit share.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently someone approached me with a great idea for a site, but involved massive amounts of up front work, as it would have been a particularly complicated idea to implement. We had met to discuss the agreement, 50:50 was agreed, we set out a basic plan and the other party said he would put the agreement in writing for us to sign.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When the agreement arrived, it said initially it would be a 0:100 split, where I would have 0, until the site as planned was up and running. Clearly annoyed by this we spoke again and he said it was because he wanted to protect his idea, and that previously a developer had committed to it and then dropped out. He apologized and said he didn't want to be a 'dick' about it but it would end up 50:50 if everything went to plan. I questioned who would decide when that happened, and that basically he wanted me to work for free, with no ownership, on the basis he might be pleased and some day give me the 50%. I also explained that this is not what we discussed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clearly the project never went ahead. I could no longer trust the person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is, after a long winded explanation, is, was he right to want to protect his idea? Did he have a point, or was he just being unreasonable. How should I proceed in a given situation and does anyone know of any resources for the sort of agreement we should be using for such a project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know this is an opinion based question, I hope I don't get penalized for that. But any opinions would be very warmly welcomed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you in advance,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15453" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5853" RevisionGUID="55123a06-896a-4930-a277-4faf2da1ffe1" CreationDate="2016-08-18T17:29:35.733" UserId="14455" Text="Starting a joint project with someone" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15454" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5853" RevisionGUID="55123a06-896a-4930-a277-4faf2da1ffe1" CreationDate="2016-08-18T17:29:35.733" UserId="14455" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15455" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5854" RevisionGUID="208827bd-33d1-4276-ac6b-931ef1c782c8" CreationDate="2016-08-18T19:59:46.027" UserId="1706" Text=" 1. He was right to protect his idea.&#xD;&#xA; 2. He **was** being a d--k in the way he went about it - you two agreed on one set of operating rules, but he decided to give you an ultimatum about his real preference.  Reasonable people do this by consulting an attorney (both sides get their own, and negotiate).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a veteran developer.  I had an acquaintance (who called himself my &quot;friend&quot;) who had a connection with someone working on a reality TV show a few years back, and that third-person wanted some work done.  My acquaintance lacked the expertise.  He asked what I'd charge.  I gave him a number, and he told me he'd like to mark it up 15% or so to get his piece in the deal.  That sounded great.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, he flipped out when I asked who the third-party would be receiving invoices from (I had a concern that he would try to raise the markup severely, and try to keep me in the dark).  He got REALLY defensive all of a sudden, even though I hadn't accused him.  I explained that if we were going to partner for the effort, things needed to be transparent.  He kept saying &quot;Don't worry about that!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I left him ALONE.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15456" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="5833" RevisionGUID="ba842640-64ad-476c-a050-8ec8bad0284c" CreationDate="2016-08-18T22:07:56.893" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/766396238136807424" />
  <row Id="15457" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5855" RevisionGUID="8248c814-a42b-42bf-9349-5851648b5bb7" CreationDate="2016-08-19T02:40:26.253" UserId="2484" Text="I'm not seeing specific advice, so I thought that I would mention that I use [Hellosign][1] / [Hellofax][2] for gapps integrated signature stuff and faxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may not be perfect, but it's sufficient for me where I am.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I needed to go further than standard contracts and statements of work, I'd likely look at something like [Shake][3] where there are app datapoints logged for further credibility should problems arise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://hellosign.com&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://hellofax.com&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.shakelaw.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15459" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="5791" RevisionGUID="a568b7fb-96ff-477d-8bd3-178c31d1db1f" CreationDate="2016-08-19T13:08:51.480" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/766622959922479104" />
  <row Id="15464" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5858" RevisionGUID="f3b45d3e-30ce-4434-a646-f14c1dad9b66" CreationDate="2016-08-19T18:35:12.580" UserId="14455" Text="&gt;Does the client need to print the contract, physically sign then scan and return a digital copy?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the UK, no, they do not need to. However it is regarded as good practice to do so. Especially if the project is anything greater than a simple or small task for a small amount of money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Is a simple email reply to the sending of the contract saying &quot;I agree, please proceed&quot; enough for the contract to be assumed agreed on? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No, not quite. You need four elements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. An intention to enter into legal agreement (We intend for you to do this work)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. An offer (we will do this for you by this date or from this date.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. A consideration to enter into legal agreement (We will pay this much)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. An acceptance of the offer (the 'Yes go ahead', not a continued discussion)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I do is to create a document 'Outline/Schedule of work' (versioned) describing what we are going to do. A separate document 'Quotation' stating for work as described in the Schedule of Work, including a schedule of payments: ie 30% deposit, 30% on this date, 40% on completion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I then, in those documents, refer to a third document as 'Subject to our standard Terms and Conditions of service' which is a one page, simple plain english document, available publicaly on our website, saying we will do whatever we can to achieve the goals. The client will provide required materials in a timely basis. Payments are non refundable. All work product belongs to client upon completion of the project. Everything is private and sharing of information with third parties can only be done with the consent of us and the client. Additional work not included on the work schedule will be charged seperately. Quotations are valid for 3 months.  &#xD;&#xA;The key here is payments are non refundable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I then say that if they want to go ahead as soon as we get the deposit we will begin work as laid out in the scheme of work and subject to our standard terms and conditions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is it, they do not need to email me to say 'Yes please, go ahead', scan or sign anything or whatever. The payment is a clear indication that they accept our terms of service and the schedule of work, without any fuss, and have entered into an agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had one customer say 'we want a refund' when an addition to their schedule of work they deemed too expensive. I pointed out the terms and conditions (which incidentally should be versioned and dated) and they quietly backed off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The emails sending the quotation and schedule of work I keep safely stored away for reference as well as in all honesty all communications. If they want to make a change to the schedule, the quotation and schedules are both updated and sent again. &quot;Please find the ammended schedule of work and quotation V1.02 dated 12th May 2016 replacing any previous documents.&quot; There can be no confusion then over what schedule or payments are required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key is to be clear, upfront, with everything clearly documented preferably in an attachment, with a reference number and date on every document sent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope that helps,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15465" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4346" RevisionGUID="0e22c088-26c6-454c-bc31-4ef0083948cf" CreationDate="2016-08-19T18:51:09.247" UserId="11857" Comment="added 231 characters in body" Text="*Edit: Most of this answer is based on a part of the question that has now been removed:*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;*Assuming the above is illegal, then I think a Limited Partnership, or a Limited Liability Partnership may be the answer[...]*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I actually work in an almost identical situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't have to register a [Limited Partnership](https://www.gov.uk/set-up-and-run-limited-partnership) or a [Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)](https://www.gov.uk/set-up-and-run-limited-liability-partnership)—you can register as an ordinary business [Partnership](https://www.gov.uk/set-up-business-partnership/setting-up)—which is very similar to being a sole trader and you are still technically self-employed. Similarly to being a sole trader, you are still personally responsible for all losses, bills, debts etc. But all partners are responsible for their share of the business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you register as a partnership, one partner will be the nominated partner—who is responsible for submitting the partnership tax returns and keeping business records.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can both take your share of profits, pay your own NI contributions and any tax due on your share of the profits etc, essentially exactly the same as being a sole trader. The only difference is that you have to submit a separate tax return for the partnership.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can even do—as you said—have all the income come in to your bank account, pay your partners share to him and account for it as business income and your respective shares of the profit, without the need for invoicing each other etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Relevant Documents &amp; Reading (GOV.UK):**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - [Choose a legal structure for your business](https://www.gov.uk/business-legal-structures/business-partnership)&#xD;&#xA; - [Running a business partnership](https://www.gov.uk/set-up-business-partnership/setting-up)&#xD;&#xA; - [Self Assessment: register a partnership for Self Assessment (SA400)](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/self-assessment-register-a-partnership-for-self-assessment-sa400)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15469" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5858" RevisionGUID="bec67564-8347-47b2-b933-27189b0ceb90" CreationDate="2016-08-19T21:41:07.510" UserId="14455" Comment="added 40 characters in body" Text="&gt;Does the client need to print the contract, physically sign then scan and return a digital copy?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the UK, no, they do not need to. However it is regarded as good practice to do so. Especially if the project is anything greater than a simple or small task for a small amount of money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Is a simple email reply to the sending of the contract saying &quot;I agree, please proceed&quot; enough for the contract to be assumed agreed on? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT *** No, not quite. **** REMOVED&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Normally, yes. You need four elements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. An intention to enter into legal agreement (We intend for you to do this work)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. An offer (we will do this for you by this date or from this date.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. A consideration to enter into legal agreement (We will pay this much)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. An acceptance of the offer (the 'Yes go ahead', not a continued discussion)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I do is to create a document 'Outline/Schedule of work' (versioned) describing what we are going to do. A separate document 'Quotation' stating for work as described in the Schedule of Work, including a schedule of payments: ie 30% deposit, 30% on this date, 40% on completion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I then, in those documents, refer to a third document as 'Subject to our standard Terms and Conditions of service' which is a one page, simple plain english document, available publicaly on our website, saying we will do whatever we can to achieve the goals. The client will provide required materials in a timely basis. Payments are non refundable. All work product belongs to client upon completion of the project. Everything is private and sharing of information with third parties can only be done with the consent of us and the client. Additional work not included on the work schedule will be charged seperately. Quotations are valid for 3 months.  &#xD;&#xA;The key here is payments are non refundable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I then say that if they want to go ahead as soon as we get the deposit we will begin work as laid out in the scheme of work and subject to our standard terms and conditions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is it, they do not need to email me to say 'Yes please, go ahead', scan or sign anything or whatever. The payment is a clear indication that they accept our terms of service and the schedule of work, without any fuss, and have entered into an agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had one customer say 'we want a refund' when an addition to their schedule of work they deemed too expensive. I pointed out the terms and conditions (which incidentally should be versioned and dated) and they quietly backed off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The emails sending the quotation and schedule of work I keep safely stored away for reference as well as in all honesty all communications. If they want to make a change to the schedule, the quotation and schedules are both updated and sent again. &quot;Please find the ammended schedule of work and quotation V1.02 dated 12th May 2016 replacing any previous documents.&quot; There can be no confusion then over what schedule or payments are required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key is to be clear, upfront, with everything clearly documented preferably in an attachment, with a reference number and date on every document sent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope that helps,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15471" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5861" RevisionGUID="6000b8de-84f7-4dec-bdef-9421e449d947" CreationDate="2016-08-20T08:45:13.327" UserId="11857" Text="As with a lot of freelancers, I have busy periods and I have quite periods where the incoming work slows down. Some of this is consistent and expected (some months/quarters are usually busier than others), but other times it isn't. This leaves me with 2 problems;&#xA;&#xA;1. Financial. I don't have as much money coming in, meaning I'm either living off of savings or I go without. With a wife and three kids that isn't always easy. How can I best plan ahead for this?&#xA;&#xA;2. Productivity. With less work coming in, I have less *paid* work to do. Should I use the time to get on with some personal projects (that may or may not benefit me financially)? Should I spend the time looking for more clients? Take some time off and get on with the endless list is of DIY that needs doing to my house?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15472" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5861" RevisionGUID="6000b8de-84f7-4dec-bdef-9421e449d947" CreationDate="2016-08-20T08:45:13.327" UserId="11857" Text="How should I deal with the inconsistency of incoming work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15473" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5861" RevisionGUID="6000b8de-84f7-4dec-bdef-9421e449d947" CreationDate="2016-08-20T08:45:13.327" UserId="11857" Text="|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15475" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5861" RevisionGUID="36ab37e5-1246-4bde-aafc-7f647ecc43de" CreationDate="2016-08-20T11:45:56.133" UserId="11857" Comment="added 78 characters in body" Text="I am a freelance graphic designer (web/print/anything else you can think of). As with a lot of freelancers, I have busy periods and I have quite periods where the incoming work slows down. Some of this is consistent and expected (some months/quarters are usually busier than others), but other times it isn't. This leaves me with 2 problems;&#xA;&#xA;1. Financial. I don't have as much money coming in, meaning I'm either living off of savings or I go without. With a wife and three kids that isn't always easy. How can I best plan ahead for this?&#xA;&#xA;2. Productivity. With less work coming in, I have less *paid* work to do. Should I use the time to get on with some personal projects (that may or may not benefit me financially)? Should I spend the time looking for more clients? Take some time off and get on with the endless list is of DIY that needs doing to my house?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15476" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5862" RevisionGUID="820bce5e-17a0-4799-bfe4-dc68c03db2aa" CreationDate="2016-08-20T18:33:51.090" UserId="13300" Text="If you're having trouble getting work to come in maybe consider finding some type of marketing consultant that could direct you in the right path or give you new ideas on how to reach your potential customers. Also consider, if you haven't already, creating accounts on various social sites specific to your business. Social media is a great way to make your business presence known. You could take it a step further and create a blog with topics related to what you do, get people engaged and show that you know your industry.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But.... As a parent, remember that your kids are only young once and you'll never get those years back, so make your time count. This is where spending a little extra money now for help and off loading work on a consultant can get you some time back with your children and set you on a good path for your freelancing in the future. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15478" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5863" RevisionGUID="5707ff77-0219-45b0-9e22-225cda027537" CreationDate="2016-08-21T05:57:01.323" UserId="14507" Text="I want to calculate the Cost of developing the website exactly like this one: www.mazumamobile.com Can somebody guide me as how they have integrated this imei mobile search plugin and how much does it cost to buy it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15479" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5863" RevisionGUID="5707ff77-0219-45b0-9e22-225cda027537" CreationDate="2016-08-21T05:57:01.323" UserId="14507" Text="How can one estimate the cost of a website like this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15480" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5863" RevisionGUID="5707ff77-0219-45b0-9e22-225cda027537" CreationDate="2016-08-21T05:57:01.323" UserId="14507" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15482" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5865" RevisionGUID="580a74ac-8f7f-4ccc-b885-61fe885a9cc5" CreationDate="2016-08-21T13:04:50.273" UserId="14455" Text="Putting the social aspects of your life to one side this is my advice having been through the same thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Forget your personal projects. They are a luxury you cannot afford.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Set aside at least one day a week for marketing yourself and getting new business. Even when you are 100% booked, you still observe this day. This will help to put an end to the ups and downs of busy/quiet periods. When not busy market yourself more than this day of course, but this one day always do even when busy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. You do not make more money by spending more. Use, and do well, every free marketing opportunity you can first. Social media, Blogs, Knock on doors, go to networking events, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Over an annual cycle there will be a natural ebb and flow of work. Perhaps you are busy in the winter, perhaps your industry is quiet. Get to know this cycle. It is very easy. On a simple graph (52 weeks) start plotting the number of queries/jobs you get, the amount of sales you made etc. This is a five minute job once a week on a single Excel file.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. Finally, DIY, time with children etc - great. Do all these. It's called life. What do you think people do that work 40-50 hours a week in an office. Just because you are self employed do not imagine it is not hard work. But you must also get a break. Pick one day that you will never do work. Usually Sunday is good. On Sunday, do not even read an email, preferably do not even turn on a computer. Spend it just being alive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Save. This is the single most important thing. Build up some wealth. You should save at least 5% of everything that is paid to you, and if you can, more. This is not for christmas or a holiday, it is for the security of your family and future investment. It will build up quicker than you imagine, but 5% of every invoice you send, goes into a savings account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Children are expensive, and it is only going to get worse before it gets better. Finally remember this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Speed&#xD;&#xA;2. Quality&#xD;&#xA;3. Price&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A customer can have two, but not all three. They can have a speedy quality service but it will not be cheap. They can have a cheap quality service but it will not be quick. They can have a quick, cheap service but it will not be high quality. We kill ourselves as freelancers when we offer all three. That should never be offered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you are busy, put your prices up, get less work but more profitable. This is how you move up the ladder towards charging significant amounts of money per hour. When you are quiet, lower your prices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wish you luck, we have all been there, and will probably be there again in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best wishes,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15484" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4783" RevisionGUID="710bec82-d86b-4394-b826-755092a039e9" CreationDate="2016-08-21T13:18:05.177" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/767350057679069186" />
  <row Id="15485" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5867" RevisionGUID="9f1ae781-3cf7-4a71-aecd-73a7c29ff09a" CreationDate="2016-08-21T13:20:16.370" UserId="14455" Text="I have not followed those suggested links in the comments to your questions yet, but one idea I had was:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There must be a community or network of expats from your country in Japan. You cannot do business directly if you do not speak the native language, but you can do work for english speaking residents. So target foreign companies in Japan. Your story is very compelling and even though you do not speak Japanese I am sure your services would be very attractive to non-native companies operating in Japan.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15486" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5868" RevisionGUID="7c182c25-161d-4033-9faf-b9ca83447762" CreationDate="2016-08-21T13:27:07.780" UserId="14455" Text="IMHO, and I know I am late to this question, do NOT tell your current company about this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your plan should be something like: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Develop it in secret.&#xD;&#xA;2. Leave when almost ready and you have some savings to live off, work your notice, leave on great terms, tell them you are always about should they ever need your help, or input, or questions answered. Be the ideal employee upon leaving. You are going to need them again.&#xD;&#xA;3. Start your own company&#xD;&#xA;4. Build your company site, brand, contracts etc whilst user testing your product. Encrypt your product, produce licensing agreemnts etc. This all takes time.&#xD;&#xA;5. Hopefully a few months will have passed now, hopefully 2-3, time to approach your old company. As far as they are concerned, you started this after you left them. That is your story and stick to it.&#xD;&#xA;6. Offer it for FREE to your old company. You know them, they know you, use it as a production test and for feedback and debugging etc. Say you provide 3 months free support but if they want to keep using it they can, but if they want support after that it will cost them, but keep it at a price that would be unarguably great value. They are doing you a favor by giving your software credibility. Offer them free updates for life (again free testing for you). It is a win/win situation.&#xD;&#xA;7. Use this installation as a test case profile for your new business, and get selling your proven, used, and fully testing software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15487" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5868" RevisionGUID="2de2f0f5-c3db-410a-b91d-3b419e2dee66" CreationDate="2016-08-21T13:33:27.623" UserId="14455" Comment="Minor typo" Text="IMHO, and I know I am late to this question, do NOT tell your current company about this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your plan should be something like: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Develop it in secret.&#xD;&#xA;2. Leave when almost ready and you have some savings to live off, work your notice, leave on great terms, tell them you are always about should they ever need your help, or input, or questions answered. Be the ideal employee upon leaving. You are going to need them again.&#xD;&#xA;3. Start your own company&#xD;&#xA;4. Build your company site, brand, contracts etc whilst user testing your product. Encrypt your product, produce licensing agreemnts etc. This all takes time.&#xD;&#xA;5. Hopefully a few months will have passed now, hopefully 2-3, time to approach your old company. As far as they are concerned, you started this after you left them. That is your story and stick to it.&#xD;&#xA;6. Offer it for FREE to your old company. You know them, they know you, use it as a production test and for feedback and debugging etc. Say you provide 3 months free support but if they want to keep using it they can, but if they want support after that it will cost them, but keep it at a price that would be unarguably great value. They are doing you a favor by giving your software credibility. Offer them free updates for life (again free testing for you). It is a win/win situation.&#xD;&#xA;7. Use this installation as a test case profile for your new business, and get selling your proven, used, and fully tested software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15488" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5861" RevisionGUID="ddb41c54-76c4-4958-b60e-354c67a7c891" CreationDate="2016-08-21T14:43:00.880" UserId="13016" Comment="spelling and punctuation" Text="I am a freelance graphic designer (web/print/anything else you can think of). As with a lot of freelancers, I have busy periods and I have quiet periods when the incoming work slows down. Some of this is consistent and expected (some months/quarters are usually busier than others), but other times, it isn't. This leaves me with 2 problems:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Financial. I don't have as much money coming in, meaning I'm either living off of savings or I go without. With a wife and three kids, that isn't always easy. How can I best plan ahead for this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Productivity. With less work coming in, I have less *paid* work to do. Should I use the time to get on with some personal projects (that may or may not benefit me financially)? Should I spend the time looking for more clients? Take some time off and get on with the endless list is of DIY that needs doing to my house?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15489" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="5861" RevisionGUID="ddb41c54-76c4-4958-b60e-354c67a7c891" CreationDate="2016-08-21T14:43:00.880" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 11857 edit id of 484" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15490" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5869" RevisionGUID="4cf71822-02b2-416c-9ea4-0bbe6c5a0ad8" CreationDate="2016-08-21T15:26:08.553" UserId="1706" Text="To calculate the cost of the website, first you need to generate a functional requirements document comprising **every** feature on this site.  Don't leave anything out, and don't write the functional requirements to be specific to any software platform.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should CHARGE for the work done to create this complex functional requirements document.  If the client won't pay for this deliverable, don't take the job.  The end result is actually something the client can use, whether you end up doing the work or not.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that's done, decide on a platform.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then, for each feature that you've put out there in the functional requirement, do an estimate on how many hours it'll take for you to build that feature.  Be sure to allocate time for testing and any research needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Decide on your hourly rate (how much money you'd like to &quot;take home&quot;), and multiply that by the sum of the hours.  For sake of your sanity, add another 30% to that number.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you turn your numbers over to the client, be sure that you have grouped major features into &quot;milestones&quot; and that you're getting paid for each milestone completed instead of collecting all the money at the end (unless the client is paying up-front).  The reasons are numerous - look up &quot;milestone&quot; on this site to understand more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15491" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4738" RevisionGUID="db3c39e5-fc0e-4fef-99fa-0f1ad7d7fbd7" CreationDate="2016-08-21T17:44:05.653" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15492" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5870" RevisionGUID="3f6b44b1-2479-4cff-9a65-f7017110d20e" CreationDate="2016-08-21T20:44:01.793" UserId="14515" Text="I have for the past 7 years been employed as a consultant by a non-profit association managing an annual event. Over time I have assisted in marketing the association as a whole and now they would like to hire me as the Director of Marketing or Business Development. I have been from the start a 1099 employee and stick to the 1099 rules, I want it that way as I need to be flexible in my schedule and travel availability. Is this possible as a 1099? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15493" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5870" RevisionGUID="3f6b44b1-2479-4cff-9a65-f7017110d20e" CreationDate="2016-08-21T20:44:01.793" UserId="14515" Text="Can a consultant be placed in a Director position as a 1099" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15494" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5870" RevisionGUID="3f6b44b1-2479-4cff-9a65-f7017110d20e" CreationDate="2016-08-21T20:44:01.793" UserId="14515" Text="|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15495" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5871" RevisionGUID="2510f9ca-7ae2-4e6a-b620-d55d428f8fd6" CreationDate="2016-08-21T21:12:53.743" UserId="708" Text="&quot;1099 employee&quot; is an oxymoron. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't be a 1099 worker **and** an employee. By definition 1099 indicates an independent contractor or freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, no. *Employees* are traditionally **never** 1099 workers. But you should get benefits and other items as an actual *employee* that are not required for 1099 workers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15496" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5871" RevisionGUID="8c2d2e4e-14f1-43b9-bdc0-7dba56fc6226" CreationDate="2016-08-21T21:18:53.987" UserId="708" Comment="added 178 characters in body" Text="&quot;1099 employee&quot; is an oxymoron. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't be a 1099 worker **and** an employee. By definition 1099 indicates an independent contractor or freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, no. *Employees* are traditionally **never** 1099 workers. But you should get benefits and other items as an actual *employee* that are not required for 1099 workers. In fact, many business try and get away with classifying employees as 1099 workers so they can shirk the responsibility of actual employee benefits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Read more: [The difference between a 1099 worker and employee][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://tentiltwo.com/running-your-business-blog/1099-vs-employee-you-need-to-know-the-difference/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15499" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5873" RevisionGUID="2bcd99a6-c9ff-45cf-9d82-0d02ebfe5f59" CreationDate="2016-08-22T06:11:08.177" UserId="14520" Text="I don't have a company yet, but without be a register VAT company can I invoice a company outside the UK?&#xA;&#xA;Some country's ask every time for the VAT number." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15500" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5873" RevisionGUID="2bcd99a6-c9ff-45cf-9d82-0d02ebfe5f59" CreationDate="2016-08-22T06:11:08.177" UserId="14520" Text="Can i invoice a international costumer without be a registered VAT?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15501" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5873" RevisionGUID="2bcd99a6-c9ff-45cf-9d82-0d02ebfe5f59" CreationDate="2016-08-22T06:11:08.177" UserId="14520" Text="|taxes|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15502" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5874" RevisionGUID="5bdcd349-495b-4dcd-a280-b4c73119af0f" CreationDate="2016-08-22T06:32:30.517" UserId="14504" Text="&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;As before me you already got the answer and that's right.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Well my suggestion is to start coding and developing your project and host on free servers available and mentioned below.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;1. [Open Shift][1]&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;2. [000Webhost][2]&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I saw your previous comments you mentioned that &lt;br /&gt;&quot;Programming, I am little rusty but I have knowledge PHP, Python, Mysql&quot;&lt;br /&gt; So I provided you the links to free web servers.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br /&gt;Both supports PHP.&#xD;&#xA;and also provide a sub-domains for free.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br /&gt;Then as you done you may mention the url in your cv and then talk to people and showcase your skill for free.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Good Luck &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.openshift.com/ &#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.000webhost.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15503" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5875" RevisionGUID="9907c30f-4c95-46d5-8239-46f627169558" CreationDate="2016-08-22T13:09:05.723" UserId="14527" Text="Hope you are all well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, this UK client needs to pay approx 113 EUR for my services. I am registered as a freelancer here in Germany, is it ok to issue an invoice without any sort of tax ID number,apparently they do not even have a self employed ID number. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15504" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5875" RevisionGUID="9907c30f-4c95-46d5-8239-46f627169558" CreationDate="2016-08-22T13:09:05.723" UserId="14527" Text="Can I issue this UK client an invoice without their tax number?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15505" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5875" RevisionGUID="9907c30f-4c95-46d5-8239-46f627169558" CreationDate="2016-08-22T13:09:05.723" UserId="14527" Text="|uk|invoices|germany|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15510" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5878" RevisionGUID="072d0e3c-6611-45eb-8f99-6ed929ad54a3" CreationDate="2016-08-22T21:21:01.047" UserId="11579" Text="Just so I can confirm...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A UK Company owes your German self money?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If true, then correct, they do *not* need to provide anything. They should invoice you (meaning, they should send you a bill - a simple word document will suffice, with their name, address and bank details on it). Make the payment electronically so there is an audit. Not in cash, the German taxman will think you made a false invoice and pocketed the cash.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tell your customer that you need it in case you get audited for tax. Be pleasant so you can both avoid misunderstanding. Some Brits will think your request is eurocratic but in reality, you are both right. Your customer does not know German requirements, nor do you know British norms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are paying out regular sum's of money then additional paperwork would prove helpful in case the German tax man audits your books. But 5% or less of your yearly revenue paid into another European bank account should be acceptable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand your concern - remember going forward if you have future foreign relationships that you get a copy of something that says who they are. It can be a photocopy of an ID card or drivers license for example, or their memorandum and articles (every UK company has one). Always pay electronically so there is an audit trail. If you dont get an invoice, create your own so that the tax man knows you are doing your best to ensure an audit trail is kept. That way, if you do do something wrong, they'll just ask you to pay what is owed without a fine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope that helps - best of luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15511" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5879" RevisionGUID="bf69dadc-a3db-4412-bff7-921e827a9bd7" CreationDate="2016-08-23T00:25:14.080" UserId="14455" Text="They can ask, but if you do not have one then you do not have one. It is not mandatory for a company to be VAT registered if you are a small company. I think the limit is about 80k a year before you can be registered for VAT.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So yes, you can invoice all over the world without a VAT number." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15512" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5879" RevisionGUID="63f86118-9f06-4e7a-9f92-432055703951" CreationDate="2016-08-23T00:31:41.243" UserId="14455" Comment="added 244 characters in body" Text="They can ask, but if you do not have one then you do not have one. It is not mandatory for a company to be VAT registered if you are a small company. I think the limit is about 80k a year before you can be registered for VAT.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So yes, you can invoice all over the world without a VAT number.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you were registered for VAT you would have to charge 20% VAT, and although you can then claim back any VAT you paid on invoices yourself, in the end it is money that you are collecting for the government. Avoid it for as long as you can." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15515" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="5863" RevisionGUID="125db694-33e0-4075-ac82-56a36261bf15" CreationDate="2016-08-23T01:11:30.737" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;stanri&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="15516" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4759" RevisionGUID="b5fc08a3-e9bf-4b6f-8e40-61e34897cee4" CreationDate="2016-08-23T10:32:57.090" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/768033275910709248" />
  <row Id="15517" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5873" RevisionGUID="2ca30b54-a61d-4c0e-93c3-5f6a111ae0a1" CreationDate="2016-08-23T15:15:50.123" UserId="13016" Comment="No costumes here -- just a customer (spelling correction), conjugated verb correctly, and refined punctuation" Text="I don't have a company yet, but without being a register VAT company, can I invoice a company outside the UK?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some countries ask every time for the VAT number." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15518" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="5873" RevisionGUID="2ca30b54-a61d-4c0e-93c3-5f6a111ae0a1" CreationDate="2016-08-23T15:15:50.123" UserId="13016" Comment="No costumes here -- just a customer (spelling correction), conjugated verb correctly, and refined punctuation" Text="Can I invoice an international customer without be a registered VAT?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15519" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="5873" RevisionGUID="2ca30b54-a61d-4c0e-93c3-5f6a111ae0a1" CreationDate="2016-08-23T15:15:50.123" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by -1 edit id of 485" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15520" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5873" RevisionGUID="e838fb19-6c74-4388-b0e2-b880f53421cc" CreationDate="2016-08-23T15:15:50.123" UserId="9" Comment="Minor grammar fix" Text="I don't have a company yet, but without being a registered VAT company, can I invoice a company outside the UK?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some countries ask for the VAT number every time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15521" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="5873" RevisionGUID="e838fb19-6c74-4388-b0e2-b880f53421cc" CreationDate="2016-08-23T15:15:50.123" UserId="9" Comment="Minor grammar fix" Text="Can I invoice an international customer without being a registered VAT company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15522" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5880" RevisionGUID="f24b8a88-0354-4e8f-b112-c518b4995115" CreationDate="2016-08-23T15:39:50.940" UserId="12040" Text="If you have the UK company name and address, you can find their details at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/companies-house if they are an incorporated entity (ie, if it's not just a person who is self-employed).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A UK company will not have a 'tax number' as such, but they will have a Company Number if they're incorporated (ie, if their name ends in Limited, Ltd, plc, etc). You can find that at the above link. They may have a VAT number, which you will absolutely need if you are claiming back VAT.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's a person who is self-employed, all the information is irrelevant. They *may* have a VAT number, or may not. Just use their name and address.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15524" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5882" RevisionGUID="951a2c2c-7cc8-4a2a-bcf1-875c0ade6b61" CreationDate="2016-08-23T20:56:59.987" UserId="14440" Text="You can have whatever title they want to give you as a 1099 contractor. The fact that you're a 1099 has more to do with your relationship with the company, how responsible they are for you, what taxes they pay etc than what title you hold or the specific things you do for them (generally speaking; there's no role that _cannot_ be 1099'ed). That said, Scott is correct, either you're a 1099 or you're an employee. You cannot be both." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15534" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4538" RevisionGUID="95c7500f-1282-48eb-8117-32c24474a01f" CreationDate="2016-08-24T08:33:48.103" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15535" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5885" RevisionGUID="4489c9b1-96b0-4fcb-8269-34bacbec6c37" CreationDate="2016-08-24T14:47:57.480" UserId="14555" Text="I am currently working in UK but will go back to Hong Kong soon, one of my clients are happy with my work and would like to keep me working abroad after I go back to Hong Kong. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My questions are, can I work for a UK based client abroad, without a UK visa? Do I need to have a company to work for them, or I can keep a freelance basis? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, as I have a UK account, if I keep using the account, would there be any trouble? Will HMRC charge me for tax or what? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15536" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5885" RevisionGUID="4489c9b1-96b0-4fcb-8269-34bacbec6c37" CreationDate="2016-08-24T14:47:57.480" UserId="14555" Text="Can I work for a UK based client without a visa" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15537" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5885" RevisionGUID="4489c9b1-96b0-4fcb-8269-34bacbec6c37" CreationDate="2016-08-24T14:47:57.480" UserId="14555" Text="|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15541" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5886" RevisionGUID="fb8ea374-173d-49ea-ae8e-c6e13ed45216" CreationDate="2016-08-24T17:33:53.850" UserId="14556" Text="I'm on the other side of this situation.  I have a friend that had a massive project converting a very old application to a new C# .NET application. He needed help and went to the client and was upfront with them and said he needed to bring on one more contractor to be able to meet their requirements and deadline. They understood and actually agreed. They trusted him to find the right contractor and that is when my friend contacted me. It just so happened I was just laid off along with several other developers from a company going under fast. Anyway, how we worked it was the client paid me for hours worked.  I provide a time sheet and invoice every week.  My friend does the same.  At first, he was going to have me work for him and then he pay me but talked to the client and the client paying me directly was a much better way to go. If there is any issues with payment of hours worked (which there hasn't been and this project has been funded through December of this year)... but, if there had been any issues, it would be between me and the client, not my friend.  Also, if I ended up doing poor work, the client would be a lot more forgiving of him because my friend could explain that I have always done good work in the past... etc.... etc.  It would be the client letting me go and it would be on me, not my friend.  However, since he was generous enough to even think of me when it came to adding another contractor, I do the very best job I can and put in the hours needed to complete the tasks. It also worked out that I'm doing my favorite part of putting a database application together and that is the database design and the business classes in an n-tier application. I've decided if he doesn't land another large job, I'm already doing some marketing to go out on my own since I've enjoyed this so much.  Anyway, I wanted to mention this because maybe that would be the best way to get help when you need it. If you have a pool of contractors out there you can choose from, then go to the client and hopefully be able to arrange something like was arranged in this story I just told. It has a lot of benefits but even then, you have to make sure it is someone you trust that will treat the client fairly because their reputation is on the line as well. Oh, we also have it arranged that even though I technically get paid directly by the client, I get my work from my friend regarding what he needs in the business classes to be able to call from his presentation classes.  We've been working together on this project just over a year now and it has worked out great. I just consider him to be in charge and I do whatever he gives me to do that he needs to keep things moving.  Anyway, just a thought of a way to get extra help." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15542" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4747" RevisionGUID="4805670e-a9cf-4253-92ba-51f0c780761f" CreationDate="2016-08-24T20:41:55.640" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15543" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5886" RevisionGUID="bc5cacff-2417-4153-b035-94bd5ccb4ba8" CreationDate="2016-08-24T20:44:52.460" UserId="1706" Comment="Grammar and readability" Text="I'm on the other side of this situation.  I have a friend that had a massive project converting a very old application to a new C# .NET application. He needed help and went to the client and was upfront with them and said he needed to bring on one more contractor to be able to meet their requirements and deadline. They understood and actually agreed. They trusted him to find the right contractor and that is when my friend contacted me. It just so happened I was just laid off along with several other developers from a company going under fast. Anyway, how we worked it was the client paid me for hours worked.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I provide a time sheet and invoice every week.  My friend does the same.  At first, he was going to have me work for him and then he pay me but talked to the client and the client paying me directly was a much better way to go. If there is any issues with payment of hours worked (which there hasn't been and this project has been funded through December of this year)... but, if there had been any issues, it would be between me and the client, not my friend.  Also, if I ended up doing poor work, the client would be a lot more forgiving of him because my friend could explain that I have always done good work in the past... etc.... etc.  It would be the client letting me go and it would be on me, not my friend.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm still on this assignment.  I do the very best job I can, and put in the hours needed to complete the tasks. It has also worked out well that I'm doing my favorite part of putting a database application together, which is the database design and the business classes in an n-tier application. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've decided if he doesn't land another large job, I'm already doing some marketing to go out on my own since I've enjoyed this so much.  Anyway, I wanted to mention this because maybe that would be the best way to get help when you need it. If you have a pool of contractors out there you can choose from, then go to the client and hopefully be able to arrange something like was arranged in this story I just told. It has a lot of benefits but even then, you have to make sure it is someone you trust that will treat the client fairly because their reputation is on the line as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We also have it arranged that even though I technically get paid directly by the client, I get my work from my friend regarding what he needs in the business classes to be able to call from his presentation classes.  We've been working together on this project just over a year now and it has worked out great. I just consider him to be in charge and I do whatever he gives me to do that he needs to keep things moving.  Anyway, just a thought of a way to get extra help." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15546" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5888" RevisionGUID="3c31c956-1d3b-4df6-854d-dc70ccd9507f" CreationDate="2016-08-25T12:52:49.287" UserId="14562" Text="The temptation is always to lower rates when work isn't coming in. My rule of thumb is to only lower rates if you can get the job by lowering 5% or 10% max. Otherwise, it's just the wrong kind of customer and they will never pay you the rate you're really after.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's interesting that clients love you and are scared off by the final quote. What's worked for me in those situations is a change in sales strategy. There is a concept called 'sell something small first'. Make it easy for the customer to start working with you. Don't lower your rate but break the project into smaller pieces and sell them on the first piece only. Result: Trust is built up and the price seems smaller. This has often lead to more income compared to selling the single, larger project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could even try this with some of your recent rejections. See whether you can split a small (but useful) piece off the entire project, cost that at your normal rate and sell that as a stepping stone. Just because that deal didn't go through doesn't mean they found someone else + they clearly already know and like you. Good luck!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15547" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5889" RevisionGUID="8af343ea-5de7-4006-8616-52f66543e67e" CreationDate="2016-08-25T13:02:26.777" UserId="14562" Text="Good for you to get experience while still studying, many people seem to wait until it's too late. If you're really set on using freelancing websites, I can share what works best for me as someone who hires from UpWork regularly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a nutshell: You can't compete on experience or volume of bids. But you can compete on customer service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bids that always stand out:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. bid under the total fixed price&#xD;&#xA; 2. clearly describe the problem + suggested solution in the cover letter (must be a custom cover letter!!)&#xD;&#xA; 3. already do some of the work up front (this is often the most powerful tactic on fixed-price jobs. I almost always hire the person who goes the extra mile + shows they are passionate about solving my needs)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Judging by the responses I normally get, you will stand out like a golden, shiny star when you behave like that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This might seem like a good way to do lots of hard work for no reward. To put that into perspective: The last person I hired quoted at 25% of the fixed price, sent a detailed, friendly cover letter and did half of the work already. I paid them the full amount as a bonus, left a gushing 5-star review and would immediately hire them again. Good luck with your search!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15548" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5890" RevisionGUID="95962ed9-b87f-4cee-9ae0-7ee9940df6c1" CreationDate="2016-08-25T13:21:31.003" UserId="14562" Text="You're right to ask because this is quite complicated and very different from country to country. I'm also in the UK. As you said, a verbal agreement is considered binding but it's very difficult to prove what the parties agreed to. Similarly, with email - it's binding but can you easily show what the parties agreed to? Sometimes, detail is lost in a conversation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I almost always use DocuSign and ask the client to sign general terms and conditions and a 'Schedule' which outlines the actual work. This stands up on legal terms and I've found that it's valued by clients because it comes across as highly professional. Recently I got a bit lazy and confirmed a contract extension by email. I'd been working with the client for 2 years - he asked me a few weeks after whether we had ever agreed the extension because he couldn't remember signing anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;DocuSign has a good overview of the legality here: https://www.docusign.co.uk/how-it-works/legality" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15549" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5891" RevisionGUID="c38d5839-a164-4f25-b1ea-bfaa24cdddd1" CreationDate="2016-08-25T13:36:09.750" UserId="14562" Text="As others have said, stand fast and don't deliver anything until they have paid you. If you give in even a little, they will have won! And remember: Unless you really need the money it can sometimes be easier on yourself to let it go.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I really wanted to say though is this: Various comments above suggest harming the client in some way. I would strong advise AGAINST that! Don't destroy any work, don't block their website or service, don't drag their name into the mud, don't cause any harm. Don't seek revenge. If you're angry, go to the gym. Destructive action could open you up to lawsuits that far outweigh the $10,000 owed. Once lawyers get involved you will easily pay that in fees. A contract is always a two-way situation and just because the other party hasn't honored their part of the bargain, you don't have the right to break your part.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(and I also want to know what happened in the end :))" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15553" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5892" RevisionGUID="aa0ca295-5238-4d80-9d37-ebcedf0f530d" CreationDate="2016-08-26T09:21:17.210" UserId="9994" Text="Have a one to one meeting with the client and try to listen their prospective. We can express ourselves better face to face as compared to phone call. Also, it will help you to convince them. May be he is willing to pay and settle the things on the good note as they also know that they need your help. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, it's your fault that you kept on working for such a long duration without the payments. Let's consider the negative side of this as well... Client can say he does not need your work, so in that case you will loose all your money until and unless you take a legal action. So, in this case mutually settle on a Payment (not full payment, may be after any concession) so that you can at least get something than nothing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15554" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5893" RevisionGUID="cc549b21-4893-4b03-860f-0e2035ffe6b4" CreationDate="2016-08-26T09:35:25.590" UserId="14562" Text="This question is a bit older now - but I see it come up a lot and wanted to answer it 'properly'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a separate process for registering as a sole trader with HMRC in the UK, so yes, you will need to register again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You do so here: https://www.gov.uk/set-up-sole-trader/overview&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally the HMRC has a bad reputation but I've always found them extremely helpful, including their telephone helpline. It's worth giving them a call if you're in doubt." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15555" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5894" RevisionGUID="9bd7d3ac-8e20-42dd-a0e7-2a5d40d669cc" CreationDate="2016-08-26T09:40:08.500" UserId="9994" Text="Agreed! Upwork charges a hell of a lot of Fee. On the top of that Freelancer had to pay withdrawal fees, currency conversion fee, bank fee, etc. and the actual amount which a freelancer receive is very small. So, strategy is to deliver good work, make your clients happy and take them out of Upwork with mutual agreement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other alternatives can be:&#xD;&#xA;http://www.guru.com/&#xD;&#xA;https://www.toptal.com/&#xD;&#xA;https://outsource.com/&#xD;&#xA;freelancer.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15556" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5894" RevisionGUID="1f8a5893-45db-464b-bc99-4f6118a347e4" CreationDate="2016-08-26T09:48:19.273" UserId="9994" Comment="Added more info!" Text="Agreed! Upwork charges a hell of a lot of the Fee. On the top of that Freelancer had to pay withdrawal fees, currency conversion fee, bank fee, etc. and the actual amount which a freelancer receives is very small. So, strategy is to deliver good work, make your clients happy and take them out of Upwork with mutual agreement. Upwork charges a Payment Processing fee to clients as well, which can be a plus point for you to convince them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other alternatives can be:&#xD;&#xA;http://www.guru.com/&#xD;&#xA;https://www.toptal.com/&#xD;&#xA;https://outsource.com/&#xD;&#xA;freelancer.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15557" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5895" RevisionGUID="83e57bfe-f641-4933-8318-1994f7b57166" CreationDate="2016-08-26T09:52:37.197" UserId="14562" Text="A good way to get coding experience is also to join open-source projects. You can fix small issues to start with to get your hands dirty. This directly contributes to job success because it builds up your profile on github (many employers will ask to see your github activity).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here, for example, is a list of trending PHP projects on github: https://github.com/trending/php" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15558" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5896" RevisionGUID="6463e595-378c-476a-b608-6226da343a49" CreationDate="2016-08-26T10:08:24.513" UserId="9994" Text="If you want to get into the Freelancing then Join a freelancing website like Upwork or Freelancer. Create a profile, add your education and experience, take skill tests, etc. and start applying to the projects which fits best on your skills. You can't offer a Free service on these portals, but you can reduce your rate per hour/charge less fee as compared to your competitors and earn some good feedback and reputation. Once you have that, you can increase the price depending upon the actual value of the work. Always remember, **good work and client satisfaction is the key to success** on Freelancing Portals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All the best!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15559" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5897" RevisionGUID="770ba799-f0a9-428d-bc82-31626f55f557" CreationDate="2016-08-26T10:13:56.990" UserId="14562" Text="I find this question really difficult to answer because it's really a 'yes' and a 'no'. Yes, you can get work with larger companies because often large companies and agencies will only work with companies and simply won't hire individual freelancers anymore. This is purely for tax/legal reasons as others have explained. And 'no', because the fact that you have a company won't automatically lead to more work with larger organisations. You will still need to do the footwork, create contacts, sell your services. The question whether you have a company often only comes up right at the end, after they've decided whether to hire you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To compound the situation, if you want to work for really large companies, they'll often want to see your turnover for the last few years and how big your team is, so those kind of contracts won't be within reach at this stage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said all that - are you worried about creating a company? It's generally very easy and the costs involved are low. Perhaps if you look at it as a legal vehicle to run your freelance work rather than owning a 'company' it will remove some of the obstacles. Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15565" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5901" RevisionGUID="7c9adf10-1ca3-4bdf-84cf-f4683c6b06b5" CreationDate="2016-08-27T22:10:59.713" UserId="14594" Text="In Ontario, Canada, what information must be on a Statement of Earnings? I work as an independent contractor for a company, and thus receive money weekly as well as don't sell goods. I know that the CRA has a template somewhere on their website, but is it mandatory to follow it? I don't see the need to include cash sales, credit sales, sales returns, total sales etc. as I'm paid weekly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What information is required on a Statement of Earnings in Ontario, Canada, and does it need to be the same as the CRA provided template?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15566" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5901" RevisionGUID="7c9adf10-1ca3-4bdf-84cf-f4683c6b06b5" CreationDate="2016-08-27T22:10:59.713" UserId="14594" Text="Information for Statement of Earnings" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15567" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5901" RevisionGUID="7c9adf10-1ca3-4bdf-84cf-f4683c6b06b5" CreationDate="2016-08-27T22:10:59.713" UserId="14594" Text="|canada|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15568" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5902" RevisionGUID="8fd42a50-045f-4c67-954f-4ed61b89d6b0" CreationDate="2016-08-27T22:13:50.580" UserId="11579" Text="Put simple - nobody can force you to do attend that meeting to hand over the environment/service - asking you to do this without remuneration or paying for past effort is unlikely to look too favorable for them in front of a judge or arbitrator..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are friendly, don't burn bridges, find compromise. Chasing money that is owed to you over a period of six years is as much your fault as it is their problem. You should never let debt get that old.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You mention that you created a contract for the work that you had with them - did they actually sign it? Does it have an exit clause for either party?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When was the last time they paid you a cent? If it has been months, they are on very weak ground to assume any relationship is 'active' between you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Who pays for the hosting of the service at the moment?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to find compromise? Summarise why you think they owe you $10,000 and say you are open to reasonable offers that includes settling all bills that are outstanding, in addition to 6 or 12hours of your time handing the service over to the new person. If that displeases them, then they need to find an alternative solution that does not include you. They don't make their pizza for free, neither do you work for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Respect your time, and they will huff and puff, but they will have to pay more money to chase you legally thru the courts. Will they? Are they that sure of winning? Don't forget to remind them that you have a new job - it will cost you $500 to take a day, or part a day off. If they want your time, they'll have to cover that expense (you do not need to show them your payslip - no more so than they show you their payslip because you've bought one of their pizzas).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You supplied a service - you expect payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They supply pizza, as a service. They expect payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It really is that simple. No payment. No pizza. If they don't make an effort to pay you for your time, then you are unable to meet with their request.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15569" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5828" RevisionGUID="fac5a44e-0d22-416c-99e3-d725737f75e6" CreationDate="2016-08-28T08:35:38.027" UserId="14434" Comment="added 11 characters in body" Text="&gt; As Peter's and keshlam's answers point out, an up-front contract goes&#xD;&#xA;&gt; a great length to help here. **I agree, except that for tasks that may&#xD;&#xA;&gt; take max 4 hours, and perhaps are needed in a rush, this might be a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; bit of an overkill.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if it's just to find out what the problem is, my auto mechanic makes me sign a rough generic estimate of what it's going to cost every time I bring my car to him. This is not just for his benefit, it's for mine as well since it outlines the maximum amount I'm willing to pay (unless I specifically authorize a higher amount later on).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if you can't ask your client to sign such a document while in a rush, or return you an electronically signed copy of such a document by email. It probably just means that you don't have one already prepared and ready to go at a moment's notice. Ideally, you should always carry blank copies of such an agreement in your office, in your bag, in your car, and in your phone over email. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I have done such small tasks for others in the past without much more&#xD;&#xA;&gt; than a verbal agreement. In the end I am more worried about reputation&#xD;&#xA;&gt; (customer sastifaction) than the money or time, as the former is&#xD;&#xA;&gt; largely a mental construct, **that therefore scales more easily to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; larger projects (where the money may be better).**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Money and time are not just mental constructs. If you don't take care of getting your client to sign relatively simple contracts for a couple of hundred bucks here and there, it will probably be that much harder for you to do the same when contracts involve actual real amounts of money and real commitments of several weeks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's how you can scale. First master the right behavior for the small amounts. Trust me, those small amounts are actually much easier to get a client to commit to. And once you've mastered those small contracts, then that same behavior will come in handy once you go after the bigger contracts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to be a successful professional, you really do need get over this hangup. You can't pay for rent/mortgage/food with pats on the back alone. Also when first getting started, don't be above asking for small amounts of money from your clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, the quicker you can figure out that a client isn't willing to sign a small contract, the quicker you've figured out that the same client would never have been willing to pay you for a larger contract either. Some people are just born that way. It's not their fault. You don't need to change their mind. You just need to find out who they are so you can weed them out as quickly as possible. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15570" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5903" RevisionGUID="468ddd08-72ce-4e18-90b6-4b326aa0b41f" CreationDate="2016-08-28T11:16:21.600" UserId="5935" Text="No, there are no additional doors opened by owning and/or working under an LLC or corp. There is no benefit to the client if you are an LLC or corp because you are still a person and you are performing the work personally.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For instance, marketing yourself as the owner, CEO, or whatever of your single-member LLC or sole proprietor corp is quite silly unless your clients are looking for a bookkeeper. They are hiring you because of your trade skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;wrt: recruiters, in my field (software developer) there are a non-zero fraction of reqs that specify 1099 / W-2 only. This may be the same for you. Owning an LLC/corp will not benefit you in these contracts as you will have to work as an employee or sub of the recruiter." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15571" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4618" RevisionGUID="cba002da-04a2-4e5b-9068-52f51c7dc16b" CreationDate="2016-08-28T13:02:54.877" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15572" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5904" RevisionGUID="9c96aa26-8a78-44a7-a59e-d1b342e298c8" CreationDate="2016-08-29T10:33:43.970" UserId="14385" Text="Have you tried [HiveDesk][1] Yet? The tool servers great in terms of tracking time of remote workers, they offer a cross platform tool for Time Tracking and task management that makes remote team collaboration easier. It is a powerful and simple-to-use project management tool to manage your team and tasks. We have experience the best of satisfaction with this time tracking software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.hivedesk.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15573" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5905" RevisionGUID="f590e95b-aeba-42e6-b11c-b5f69bd061be" CreationDate="2016-08-29T17:07:22.087" UserId="14604" Text="Let's say that my clients use an ISP. Let's say the used to enjoy the ISP's homepage, and overall they still would like to view it's content.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's further assume that over the years, the ISP has accumulated a ton of errors on that webpage. To the tune of the latest firefox crawling to a halt on (many) 3 month old mid level desktops running Windows 10.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's finally assume that I am able to fix these errors, technically speaking. What are some ways I could get a contract with this ISP to fix the errors?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obstacles:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am one, they are many.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They only seem to have customer support, no other contact OR put another way **who is the right person to talk to**? And how do I find this information?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Useful(?):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a vested interest in fixing these errors so I would think the company, though large, might take me seriously.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I mean it, I checked, and most of the errors are javascript or HTML. But the JS is so bad it is killing FF instances.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The last time I tried to contact someone to fix a large company's website, I was put on hold indefinitely, each time I called. But is that just because they too did not know who to ask about this sort of thing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT: Help with correct tagging greatly appreciated" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15574" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5905" RevisionGUID="f590e95b-aeba-42e6-b11c-b5f69bd061be" CreationDate="2016-08-29T17:07:22.087" UserId="14604" Text="Cold calls and corporations" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15575" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5905" RevisionGUID="f590e95b-aeba-42e6-b11c-b5f69bd061be" CreationDate="2016-08-29T17:07:22.087" UserId="14604" Text="|sales|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15576" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="5906" RevisionGUID="1b210664-ab53-48d1-a51e-601e234a583e" CreationDate="2016-08-29T18:10:10.297" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/24364/licensing-a-blog-post-to-a-companys-blog" />
  <row Id="15577" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="5907" RevisionGUID="bbbe1350-a4f7-4838-85bf-0c27ccc5d820" CreationDate="2016-08-29T18:10:10.297" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/24364/licensing-a-blog-post-to-a-companys-blog/24366#24366" />
  <row Id="15578" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5907" RevisionGUID="71fcdbc2-68da-4cba-9f0d-3344e0540eb6" CreationDate="2016-08-28T14:59:15.547" UserDisplayName="mbakeranalecta" Text="I was approached about it once, but the licensing terms were quite complex and the expected payout very modest. Figuring out the complexities of the arrangement just did not seem worth the money. I think you would need to be looking at a regular licensing arrangement to make this worthwhile. I don't see how it makes sense for a single post. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are other considerations, though, beside the money. Will licensing the content extend your brand or compromise it. That is ultimately the more important question. In the end, I could not see how it extended my brand in a meaningful way, so I declined. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15579" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5906" RevisionGUID="1ab32510-8214-44ce-a9f4-f53a08a9b334" CreationDate="2016-08-28T14:49:47.977" UserId="14622" UserDisplayName="DiAlex" Text="I have a blog post that brings 3.24% of visitors per month. Startup needs content for their starting blog and they want to license that specific post.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Have you ever done licensed a blog post to someone else?** On which conditions?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it worth it to split your traffic with another company for X money? If yes, what would be a fair value?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15580" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5906" RevisionGUID="1ab32510-8214-44ce-a9f4-f53a08a9b334" CreationDate="2016-08-28T14:49:47.977" UserId="14622" UserDisplayName="DiAlex" Text="Licensing a blog post to a company's blog" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15581" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5906" RevisionGUID="1ab32510-8214-44ce-a9f4-f53a08a9b334" CreationDate="2016-08-28T14:49:47.977" UserId="14622" UserDisplayName="DiAlex" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15582" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5908" RevisionGUID="cbe3fbbb-0f95-4324-90bd-82e4236488e5" CreationDate="2016-08-29T18:12:35.843" UserId="12167" Text="Use a site that *guarantees* that its freelancers get paid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps I'm not supposed to promote a particular service, but Upwork is the one I know that does this. They have some kind of Escrow and Dispute Resolution systems to make things safer for freelancers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now, in fact, Upwork has told me that that my current client's account is in suspension -- maybe his credit card was declined or something, I wouldn't know. But I was still paid for the work I've done to date." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15584" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5909" RevisionGUID="bb985cba-4e5c-48bf-b138-23a52b071702" CreationDate="2016-08-29T19:18:23.703" UserId="14455" Text="It is a great question. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Your first problem: You have no contacts.**&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Knowing who to contact is often the golden question. Being heard or actually making contact is another. In a large company that sort of information or avenue in, is well protected information. That is partly why the so called 'well connected' people can make such inroads so quickly when bringing a new product or service to market. It really is who you know and not just what you know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The second: They probably know.**&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;It is probably the case that they know everything you are about to tell them, but either they are ignoring it because of timing, strategic issues, complications with other back end systems, IT restructuring, parent company control, budgeting issues, or a thousand other reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The third: They will not use you.**&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You may present the idea, maybe even trigger an upgrade cycle or process, but they will not use you. They will use a service provider used to dealing at scale, that can provide a contractual and perhaps national support service that one man cannot offer. Or they will use the internal systems provider that can tie the website into their back-ends seamlessly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The fourth: They will almost certainly want more than a fix.**&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;As soon as the fix issue comes around to be dealt with, there will be other voices calling for account integration, online services and sales, internationalization, seo and social media campaigns to work hand in hand with the website development. It will become a big project and will take time to get the budget in place to support it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Dealing with a big company is a notoriously difficult thing to do, unless you have a way in, a recommendation, a contact in the company or a reference from another corporate customer of yours of equal or greater standing than them. Even then you still may not survive the tender process, or it might all get done in house.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A way forward?**&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Your only solution is to first produce a value added plan that addresses the main thing they are concerned about. Potential return on investment. What can you offer that will help them to generate more income. It needs to be in one big package, with a fixed price tag, that answers all their questions and has elements they cannot do themselves and is not available from other providers. You need to think up something unique only you can offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you need to find them, at exhibitions, at shows, track them down online, visit their offices, send a free gift to someone to open up a conversation, find out who could help you get in there, and make contact to them. Make the package something they can tout as a great thing they achieved, give them something to buy into. Only then will you have a hook that might help you get in front of the decision makers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or, wait until they realize and a tender is put to market. Unfortunately dealing with a multinational is like dealing with a government, nothing will happen quickly, and nothing will happen without a really good look at the markets, the existing service providers, and as part of a much bigger long term plan.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sorry if that is not what you wanted to hear. I would estimate you have a 0.5% chance of getting into a position to help them. Sorry.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is frustrating, my phone providers website is so awful I refuse to use it. But I would not waste my time trying to get in there to fix it or improve it for them. It would be like flogging a dead horse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15585" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5909" RevisionGUID="d03aea07-ec10-43a9-82dd-d5d527701db4" CreationDate="2016-08-29T19:24:18.640" UserId="14455" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="It is a great question. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Your first problem: You have no contacts.**&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Knowing who to contact is often the golden question. Being heard or actually making contact is another. In a large company that sort of information or avenue in, is well protected information. That is partly why the so called 'well connected' people can make such inroads so quickly when bringing a new product or service to market. It really is who you know and not just what you know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The second: They probably know.**&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;It is probably the case that they know everything you are about to tell them, but either they are ignoring it because of timing, strategic issues, complications with other back end systems, IT restructuring, parent company control, budgeting issues, or a thousand other reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The third: They will not use you.**&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You may present the idea, maybe even trigger an upgrade cycle or process, but they will not use you. They will use a service provider used to dealing at scale, that can provide a contractual and perhaps national support service that one man cannot offer. Or they will use the internal systems provider that can tie the website into their back-ends seamlessly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The fourth: They will almost certainly want more than a fix.**&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;As soon as the fix issue comes around to be dealt with, there will be other voices calling for account integration, online services and sales, internationalization, seo and social media campaigns to work hand in hand with the website development. It will become a big project and will take time to get the budget in place to support it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Dealing with a big company is a notoriously difficult thing to do, unless you have a way in, a recommendation, a contact in the company or a reference from another corporate customer of yours of equal or greater standing than them. Even then you still may not survive the tender process, or it might all get done in house.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A way forward?**&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Your only solution is to first produce a value added plan that addresses the main thing they are concerned about. Potential return on investment. What can you offer that will help them to generate more income. It needs to be in one big package, with a fixed price tag, that answers all their questions and has elements they cannot do themselves and is not available from other providers. You need to think up something unique only you can offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you need to find them, at exhibitions, at shows, track them down online, visit their offices, send a free gift to someone to open up a conversation, find out who could help you get in there, and make contact to them. Make the package something they can tout as a great thing they achieved, give them something to buy into. Only then will you have a hook that might help you get in front of the decision makers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or, wait until they realize and a tender is put to market. Unfortunately dealing with a multinational is like dealing with a government, nothing will happen quickly, and nothing will happen without a really good look at the markets, the existing service providers, and as part of a much bigger long term plan.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sorry if that is not what you wanted to hear. I would estimate you have a &lt;0.5% chance of getting into a position to help them. Sorry.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is frustrating, my phone providers website is so awful I refuse to use it. But I would not waste my time trying to get in there to fix it or improve it for them. It would be like flogging a dead horse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15593" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5911" RevisionGUID="f1fee912-91b7-47dc-9809-0673fefbf578" CreationDate="2016-08-30T09:46:57.677" UserId="517" Text="I would say that your rate is low. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you remember, freelancers rates are higher than normal rates because with our work we have to save money for rainy periods. So for example, if $20/h is enough for you to live through the whole year and annual average of your work is 50% (50% of all your time), then your rate must not be lower than $40/h. This way, you will have money for rainy periods. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do set your salary!!!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you earn $10k in one month, it does not mean you can spend it. No way. You can spend only your salary each month. This way, you will have salary from money accumulated in the previous months. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you earned so much this year, you can reward yourself and take a large bonus at the end of a year. But you still have to have enough money for you salary in the forthcoming months. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this helped. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. Many people like to live reckless life and like the idea that they can spend with no limits. At the end, this hits you back in rainy period. Freelancing is about freedom, not about being reckless and irresponsible. For that, it's better you stick to the job in some company.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15594" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="5906" RevisionGUID="caf91b53-0b11-4433-ad03-c8869805b14f" CreationDate="2016-08-30T13:03:19.970" UserId="14622" Comment="edited tags" Text="|payment-terms|writing|licensing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15595" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4753" RevisionGUID="7a662e8c-8730-4862-be15-93bba212603c" CreationDate="2016-08-31T13:59:53.200" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15596" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5912" RevisionGUID="ef9da77e-a1e2-4ddc-9ed8-de8109c14afb" CreationDate="2016-09-01T04:12:44.550" UserId="14645" Text="The freelancer I hired reports me directly on the number of hours he spent working on my project, but there is no way I can verify the actual time he spent. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The work he does includes working on a computer and talking over the phone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I check the actual amount of time an employee spent on my project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Changing the pay type is not an option for variety reasons)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15597" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5912" RevisionGUID="ef9da77e-a1e2-4ddc-9ed8-de8109c14afb" CreationDate="2016-09-01T04:12:44.550" UserId="14645" Text="I hired a freelancer on hourly pay. How do I control how many hours he worked?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15598" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5912" RevisionGUID="ef9da77e-a1e2-4ddc-9ed8-de8109c14afb" CreationDate="2016-09-01T04:12:44.550" UserId="14645" Text="|freelance-websites|contract-to-hire|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15604" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5915" RevisionGUID="db78a1d7-8ae7-4e9c-b3bc-82b910a3499c" CreationDate="2016-09-01T09:24:19.277" UserId="11579" Text="I agree with @Apfelsaft above.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancers are service providers. If you are getting the service, and you are happy with the bill, then look to other areas of your business that you can improve on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are getting the service and not happy with the bill, try find compromise or else throw them overboard and replace them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's say you do nit pick how they spend their time - will it include bathroom breaks? What about they deviate from business to a quick joke over the phone with one of the clients. Is that chargeable? What about you are late delivering work to them, do they get to charge while they wait on you even though they have not performed anything functional for your benefit?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancers are not hire cars. Freelancers are like prostitutes. You pay them for a trick, they don't get sick, health or holiday benefits. If they devliver, they eat and live. If they don't deliver, they don't eat, they don't live. I've been in the business since 1994, been hired, and done the hireing so I like to think I know what I am talking about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suggest you concentrate on growing your business. Monitor and measure the work you get, by all means, but if you spend too much time monitoring your service suppliers, the business will eventually review your contribution to the bottom line and implement their own cost savings." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15605" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5916" RevisionGUID="8826aab2-9e64-4306-ad0e-88b6ed022923" CreationDate="2016-09-01T11:00:46.337" UserId="517" Text="A continuation of my sarcastic comment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You cannot! Period!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He can work 1h and rip you for 7, or he can work 14 and report 10. There are tools to record screenshots of this workspace and monitor number of keyboard strikes and mouse moves. But I can personally guarantee that they can trick that as well. I've been a lead of team where this tool told me they worked 14h each day 100% of time. So in 14h they did not eat, went to toilet, rest,... Should I trust this tool?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how do we control remote or in-house workers? By their output. See if they are finalizing their tasks and if your project is progressing and if you are earning money as well. If all three is YES, then stop worrying. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to hire another person who will do task estimation. This has to be a senior person who will know how to calculate time for others and to count in their experience level. So he reports you that Task A will take 2 days. You ask your worker to estimate it as well. If he says 2.5 days, you have a good worker. If he say a week, ask for elaboration. There may be really 1 week of work (something a senior was not aware) or you have a bad worker. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15606" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5823" RevisionGUID="57188bca-6871-4e0d-9367-8913f9368738" CreationDate="2016-09-01T19:08:57.463" UserId="14429" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="What you are dealing with is known as a &quot;[Sales Pipeline][1].&quot; (Step through the Slideshow)  And you are getting the steps out of order.  That's what's causing your frustration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a tech person (like myself), it frustrates you because we're used to a &quot;Here's my problem.  Fix it for money.&quot; view of the world.  The reason that we think this way is that we are usually not even brought up to speed on issues until the pipeline process is complete.  Or, if you're a sales support engineer (at least partially), towards the end of the sales cycle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Two things you should remember:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. You should have a &quot;conversion rate&quot; of about 1 sale in every 15 leads.  (At least this was the case for my freelance work ... 20 years ago).  That is, 1 in 15 will actually end up hiring you.  A lot of people have &quot;big dreams&quot; and think that their &quot;vision&quot; will draw people to work for them for free.  You'll learn to spot them soon enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. A fantastic idea written on a piece of paper is worth the paper.  There's a reason most startups never make it (well, lots of them).  Properly assessing market scope, user demand, startup capital requirements, competition, etc., is a separate subject (probably a lecture series, actually).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to be a startup founder, then start focusing on that.  As a freelancer, your thought should be:  &quot;I will solve your problems for your money.&quot;  That's it.  Don't get caught up in their &quot;vision.&quot;  Don't worry about how good/bad their idea is.  You should worry about (in order):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Is this work legal / ethical?&#xD;&#xA; 2. Will I get paid in a timely manner?&#xD;&#xA; 3. Will doing this work help or hurt my chances of getting other work in the future?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for this guy, it sounds like he is a flake.  If he wanted you to do something the next day, but can't get you prep materials in a few days, then he has nothing together except a amorphous, pretty blob of an idea in his head.  Not that his idea is good or bad, but it is certainly not researched and developed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://blog.pipelinersales.com/sales-pipeline-management/what-is-sales-pipeline/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15607" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5915" RevisionGUID="579dc294-8094-4584-8757-c4a2b05b4315" CreationDate="2016-09-01T19:12:03.207" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body" Text="I agree with @Apfelsaft above.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancers are service providers. If you are getting the service, and you are happy with the bill, then look to other areas of your business that you can improve on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are getting the service and not happy with the bill, try find compromise or else throw them overboard and replace them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's say you do nit pick how they spend their time - will it include bathroom breaks? What about they deviate from business to a quick joke over the phone with one of the clients. Is that chargeable? What about you are late delivering work to them, do they get to charge while they wait on you even though they have not performed anything functional for your benefit?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancers are not hire cars. Freelancers are like prostitutes. You pay them for a trick, they don't get sick, health or holiday benefits. If they deliver, they eat and live. If they don't deliver, they don't eat, they don't live. I've been in the business since 1994, been hired, and done the hiring so I like to think I know what I am talking about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suggest you concentrate on growing your business. Monitor and measure the work you get, by all means, but if you spend too much time monitoring your service suppliers, the business will eventually review your contribution to the bottom line and implement their own cost savings." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15614" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5918" RevisionGUID="45301081-9849-4d11-9921-7c9be5a05424" CreationDate="2016-09-01T22:17:21.190" UserId="14656" Text="You can't control how many hours they work (obviously), but you can protect yourself by opening up lines of communication.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do freelance on the side, and one thing I do to protect myself and the client is log all of the hours I worked, with small descriptions of what work was accomplished in that time. I also meet with my clients over Skype ever 1 to 3 weeks (depending on milestones) to go over what has been done. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way I know that the client is happy and I can count on getting paid, and the client can see the work that is being done. If they're unhappy after a couple milestones, they can fire me and cut their losses. If they continue to be happy, then it's money well spent! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing you might do is when going over the initial contract, ask what milestones and deliveries you can expect, and when, and try to get a few deliverables early on to make sure they're capable. That way, you can cut your losses early if things go wrong." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15619" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="5861" RevisionGUID="ef806f33-eed0-4572-a82e-1984dff38700" CreationDate="2016-09-02T02:05:39.377" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/771529489247371264" />
  <row Id="15620" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5920" RevisionGUID="ed4764e6-6f2d-4731-974a-3365dfed42c5" CreationDate="2016-09-02T06:42:00.527" UserId="7593" Text="It's difficult. The best and most straight forward answer is: signed agreement with statement of work. Using boilerplate language you can create an effective contract that will hold each party accountable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client, you, should provide a tasklist for the project. Define where actual work tasks will be listed and tracked. Do you have Github issues? Jira project tracking? Asana? Pivotal Tracker? As a freelancer, my favored clients are the ones that are happy to agree to a set budget, with a clearly defined scope of work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I track my time through Harvest and send invoices. In the line items I summarize what I was doing, usually to the hour. I bill to the 1/2 hour. My time is my most valuable asset and if you're buying some of it you better believe I want to do the best job possible because more hours == more revenue == less overall stress in my life. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't care if you want screenshots on the hour, a regular working schedule, or just a once-a-week checkin to verify progress. If we have a signed agreement I not only have natural incentive to do well, the client will have grounds for legal action if I breach the contract and don't complete the work agreed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe this is a bad thing but it hasn't backfired yet and 100% of the clients I've had have been happy with the way I work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15621" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5921" RevisionGUID="8f81f2eb-3357-4124-840a-7a56a00166ee" CreationDate="2016-09-02T07:06:07.917" UserId="11760" Text="Is it ok to reveal your tactics and techniques to customers? If not, what would you say? If yes, how much would you say?&#xA;&#xA;I work in digital marketing, it this helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15622" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5921" RevisionGUID="8f81f2eb-3357-4124-840a-7a56a00166ee" CreationDate="2016-09-02T07:06:07.917" UserId="11760" Text="Revealing tactics to customers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15623" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5921" RevisionGUID="8f81f2eb-3357-4124-840a-7a56a00166ee" CreationDate="2016-09-02T07:06:07.917" UserId="11760" Text="|attracting-clients|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15624" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5922" RevisionGUID="26519b61-4e2b-4d5f-a3e5-1d0071ec8b96" CreationDate="2016-09-02T10:47:26.397" UserId="14455" Text="It is a tricky one. What we do as freelancers is to deliver a service that has value to the customer. We hope that value far exceeds the value of the time and effort it actually takes to achieve that service. So, a little bit like a magician, we add a bit of pzazzle here, a wiffle and a waffle there, we teach them the magic words, but under no circumstances whatsoever should you ever reveal how the trick was actually done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The game is a little like evolution. The obvious tricks get leaked, people learn them and cheapen them, they become widespread, blogged about, websites emerge revealing the 'Tricks of the Trade', services start being run called DIY, how the experts do it. What was once special is now common place. But during this time our sophistication increases, we say, yes you can do that, but what we do is THIS - TADA. And so the cycle goes on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless you are one of those freelancers that specializes in doing drudge work (and there is nothing wrong with that), like &quot;I can type 100 words per minute for less than $10 per hour&quot;, then you have no tricks to reveal. But if you have any tricks at all, any shortcuts, that you have spent years discovering or perfecting, they are you bread and butter. They are your secrets and should not be shared, disclosed or even hinted at in any way whatsoever. And if you can sell that for a $1000, rather than $10, then do that. That seam of precious gold will soon run dry, exploit it while you can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Final analogy, you are a guide to a strange and mysterious land. You spent years learning to navigate the treacherous routes and pathways. You give guided tours for huge bowls of gold. Then someone says, would you mind drawing me a map? You say, ok. The following week the land is crowded with tourists but no one wants your services any more. Why? Because there is a map for sale in the local shop for $1.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thats my take on it anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15625" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5922" RevisionGUID="c51d37b0-132b-4fbe-8342-4ed41a0c021b" CreationDate="2016-09-02T10:58:04.527" UserId="14455" Comment="added 1677 characters in body" Text="It is a tricky one. What we do as freelancers is to deliver a service that has value to the customer. We hope that value far exceeds the value of the time and effort it actually takes to achieve that service. So, a little bit like a magician, we add a bit of pzazzle here, a wiffle and a waffle there, we teach them the magic words, but under no circumstances whatsoever should you ever reveal how the trick was actually done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The game is a little like evolution. The obvious tricks get leaked, people learn them and cheapen them, they become widespread, blogged about, websites emerge revealing the 'Tricks of the Trade', services start being run called DIY, how the experts do it. What was once special is now common place. But during this time our sophistication increases, we say, yes you can do that, but what we do now is THIS - TADA. And so the cycle goes on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless you are one of those freelancers that specializes in doing drudge work (and there is nothing wrong with that), like &quot;I can type 100 words per minute for less than $10 per hour&quot;, then you have no tricks to reveal. But if you have any tricks at all, any shortcuts, that you have spent years discovering or perfecting, they are you bread and butter. They are your secrets and should not be shared, disclosed or even hinted at in any way whatsoever. And if you can sell that for a $1000, rather than $10, then do that. That seam of precious gold will soon run dry, exploit it while you can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Final analogy, you are a guide to a strange and mysterious land. You spent years learning to navigate the treacherous routes and pathways. You give guided tours for huge bowls of gold. Then someone says, would you mind drawing me a map? You say, ok. The following week the land is crowded with tourists but no one wants your services any more. Why? Because there is a map for sale in the local shop for $1.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thats my take on it anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit:&#xD;&#xA;PS What would you say in answer to the customer that asks. Simply that it is not a process, more of an art form. Every assignment is different and every one requires a special and individually designed approach. There is no one answer and you can google for entry level methods and techniques, but they are often already out of date, and can often cause more harm than good. We are experts at what we do. You might need at least 3 years of continual development and in house training to get even in the same league as us, then five more to get to where we are today. Your business is to sell X and Y to the Z market and you do that brilliantly. Our business is to do A and B and we do that brilliantly. It you are looking for a university course or a training company, there are companies offering courses, but we don't do that. What we do today will be being taught in a couple of years time in those courses, but we are bang up to date, cutting edge and in the real world. We offer exceptional value for money and true professional expertise in our field. You would not generate your own electricity, or build your own car, or buy your own printing press. In the fast modern world of digital advertising, it would be an equally unprofitable task to try to replicate what we do. Let us do it for you, because that is what we do, and we are good at it, very good at it. That leaves you to get on with what you do best right now, while we ......&#xD;&#xA;You could go on for ages, about helping them to avoid the pitfalls, the dead ends, the costly mistakes, the missed opportunities because they were busy learning a new trade, or doing so and so in an amateurish way etc etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15626" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5922" RevisionGUID="4c86d261-783d-4e1a-b4c8-d819d090d565" CreationDate="2016-09-02T11:13:10.253" UserId="14455" Comment="minor typo" Text="It is a tricky one. What we do as freelancers is to deliver a service that has value to the customer. We hope that value far exceeds the value of the time and effort it actually takes to achieve that service. So, a little bit like a magician, we add a bit of pzazzle here, a wiffle and a waffle there, we teach them the magic words, but under no circumstances whatsoever should you ever reveal how the trick was actually done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The game is a little like evolution. The obvious tricks get leaked, people learn them and cheapen them, they become widespread, blogged about, websites emerge revealing the 'Tricks of the Trade', services start being run called DIY, how the experts do it. What was once special is now common place. But during this time our sophistication increases, we say, yes you can do that, but what we do now is THIS - TADA. And so the cycle goes on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless you are one of those freelancers that specializes in doing drudge work (and there is nothing wrong with that), like &quot;I can type 100 words per minute for less than $10 per hour&quot;, then you have no tricks to reveal. But if you have any tricks at all, any shortcuts, that you have spent years discovering or perfecting, they are your bread and butter. They are your secrets and should not be shared, disclosed or even hinted at in any way whatsoever. And if you can sell that for a $1000, rather than $10, then do that. That seam of precious gold will soon run dry, exploit it while you can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Final analogy, you are a guide to a strange and mysterious land. You spent years learning to navigate the treacherous routes and pathways. You give guided tours for huge bowls of gold. Then someone says, would you mind drawing me a map? You say, ok. The following week the land is crowded with tourists but no one wants your services any more. Why? Because there is a map for sale in the local shop for $1.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thats my take on it anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit:&#xD;&#xA;PS What would you say in answer to the customer that asks. Simply that it is not a process, more of an art form. Every assignment is different and every one requires a special and individually designed approach. There is no one answer and you can google for entry level methods and techniques, but they are often already out of date, and can often cause more harm than good. We are experts at what we do. You might need at least 3 years of continual development and in house training to get even in the same league as us, then five more to get to where we are today. Your business is to sell X and Y to the Z market and you do that brilliantly. Our business is to do A and B and we do that brilliantly. It you are looking for a university course or a training company, there are companies offering courses, but we don't do that. What we do today will be being taught in a couple of years time in those courses, but we are bang up to date, cutting edge and in the real world. We offer exceptional value for money and true professional expertise in our field. You would not generate your own electricity, or build your own car, or buy your own printing press. In the fast modern world of digital advertising, it would be an equally unprofitable task to try to replicate what we do. Let us do it for you, because that is what we do, and we are good at it, very good at it. That leaves you to get on with what you do best right now, while we ......&#xD;&#xA;You could go on for ages, about helping them to avoid the pitfalls, the dead ends, the costly mistakes, the missed opportunities because they were busy learning a new trade, or doing so and so in an amateurish way etc etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PPS Final Edit I Promise&#xD;&#xA;As great magicians always say, part of the reason they do not reveal how a trick is done is because once it is revealed, often the mundanity of it, the lack of genune magic and real buckets of sweat, are no longer so attractive. You will be replaced by some spotty 17 year old in the office with his hand up saying 'sir, sir, I can that for you', and he probably will have a good go at it. Anything to get away from his daily churn of data entry or customer services. Either way, you will be out of a job." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15627" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5922" RevisionGUID="cc748e79-0e92-4e11-a02e-40472df75359" CreationDate="2016-09-02T11:18:48.783" UserId="14455" Comment="minor typo" Text="It is a tricky one. What we do as freelancers is to deliver a service that has value to the customer. We hope that value far exceeds the value of the time and effort it actually takes to achieve that service. So, a little bit like a magician, we add a bit of pzazzle here, a wiffle and a waffle there, we teach them the magic words, but under no circumstances whatsoever should you ever reveal how the trick was actually done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The game is a little like evolution. The obvious tricks get leaked, people learn them and cheapen them, they become widespread, blogged about, websites emerge revealing the 'Tricks of the Trade', services start being run called DIY, how the experts do it. What was once special is now common place. But during this time our sophistication increases, we say, yes you can do that, but what we do now is THIS - TADA. And so the cycle goes on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless you are one of those freelancers that specializes in doing drudge work (and there is nothing wrong with that), like &quot;I can type 100 words per minute for less than $10 per hour&quot;, then you have no tricks to reveal. But if you have any tricks at all, any shortcuts, that you have spent years discovering or perfecting, they are your bread and butter. They are your secrets and should not be shared, disclosed or even hinted at in any way whatsoever. And if you can sell that for a $1000, rather than $10, then do that. That seam of precious gold will soon run dry, exploit it while you can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Final analogy, you are a guide to a strange and mysterious land. You spent years learning to navigate the treacherous routes and pathways. You give guided tours for huge bowls of gold. Then someone says, would you mind drawing me a map? You say, ok. The following week the land is crowded with tourists but no one wants your services any more. Why? Because there is a map for sale in the local shop for $1.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thats my take on it anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit:&#xD;&#xA;PS What would you say in answer to the customer that asks. Simply that it is not a process, more of an art form. Every assignment is different and every one requires a special and individually designed approach. There is no one answer and you can google for entry level methods and techniques, but they are often already out of date, and can often cause more harm than good. We are experts at what we do. You might need at least 3 years of continual development and in house training to get even in the same league as us, then five more to get to where we are today. Your business is to sell X and Y to the Z market and you do that brilliantly. Our business is to do A and B and we do that brilliantly. It you are looking for a university course or a training company, there are companies offering courses, but we don't do that. What we do today will be being taught in a couple of years time in those courses, but we are bang up to date, cutting edge and in the real world. We offer exceptional value for money and true professional expertise in our field. You would not generate your own electricity, or build your own car, or buy your own printing press. In the fast modern world of digital advertising, it would be an equally unprofitable task to try to replicate what we do. Let us do it for you, because that is what we do, and we are good at it, very good at it. That leaves you to get on with what you do best right now, while we ......&#xD;&#xA;You could go on for ages, about helping them to avoid the pitfalls, the dead ends, the costly mistakes, the missed opportunities because they were busy learning a new trade, or doing so and so in an amateurish way etc etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PPS Final Edit I Promise&#xD;&#xA;As great magicians always say, part of the reason they do not reveal how a trick is done is because once it is revealed, often the mundanity of it, the lack of genuine magic and the real buckets of sweat and drudgery are revealed, they are no longer attractive or mysterious. You will be replaced by some spotty 17 year old in the office with his hand up saying 'sir, sir, I can that for you', and he probably will have a good go at it. Anything to get away from his daily churn of data entry or customer services. Either way, you will be out of a job." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15628" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5923" RevisionGUID="a68aa1fa-6386-49c3-8f01-b988487f778d" CreationDate="2016-09-02T11:29:18.707" UserId="14455" Text="**can I work for a UK based client abroad, without a UK visa?**&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Yes you can. Visa's are about entering a country, not doing business with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Do I need to have a company to work for them, or I can keep a freelance basis?** &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;No, you do not need a company. You can remain freelance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Will HMRC charge me for tax or what?** &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;The UK government can only apply taxes to it's own residents, on imports and exports or basically on anything that comes under their jurisdiction. For certainty about this, get the overseas contract, take a couple of payments, then consult an accountant in your home country. If the answer you get is not in your favor, ask another accountant. You often get different answers especially when it comes to complex affairs. Get them to write down their advice to you and you are covered. Use that accountants services for your tax affairs. Unless you are charging huge amounts of money, you only need to comply with your own countries tax laws, and HMRC will ignore you and charge the UK company if they see fit. Once overseas and no longer a resident, it should be of no concern to you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15629" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5924" RevisionGUID="c670b750-0a97-4755-9e66-7e9acf41a3b6" CreationDate="2016-09-02T23:07:17.287" UserId="11760" Text="Has anyone experienced having a client tell them this? &#xA;&#xA;My motive is to find out if clients still want to work with you even if you increase your rates. Has any of you have any experience with this? &#xA;&#xA;Will clients still want to work with you even if you increase your rates, based from your experience?&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15630" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5924" RevisionGUID="c670b750-0a97-4755-9e66-7e9acf41a3b6" CreationDate="2016-09-02T23:07:17.287" UserId="11760" Text="&quot;Work faster and I'll pay you higher,&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15631" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5924" RevisionGUID="c670b750-0a97-4755-9e66-7e9acf41a3b6" CreationDate="2016-09-02T23:07:17.287" UserId="11760" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15632" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5925" RevisionGUID="277b51ea-de8e-430a-9a6c-412451e3d85c" CreationDate="2016-09-03T00:47:00.037" UserId="14429" Text="One thing to remember when you're a freelancer:  You work for yourself, not for your clients.  You are offering your clients services.  If you feel your rate is too low, you raise your rate.  Sometimes that means losing clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is not about what they want.  It is what the market will bear.  If you can raise your rates and bring in enough work to support those rates, that is what your market bears.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone told you this, it means they think of you more as an employee than a freelancer.  You need to &quot;fix&quot; that perception, if you intend to keep this client.  If you intend to seek other clients at higher rates, do what you can to make the parting amicable." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15635" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5926" RevisionGUID="e9f12c4f-f51e-4ede-b978-f1f82d5eea23" CreationDate="2016-09-03T08:52:45.117" UserId="14674" Text="I don't know coding or photoshop or cannot write but freelancing requires creativeness. Maybe some of you found creative ways to earn some from it. I'm open new ideas :) (also I'm good at typing and fast)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15636" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5926" RevisionGUID="e9f12c4f-f51e-4ede-b978-f1f82d5eea23" CreationDate="2016-09-03T08:52:45.117" UserId="14674" Text="What freelancing jobs I can start without knowledge about it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15637" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5926" RevisionGUID="e9f12c4f-f51e-4ede-b978-f1f82d5eea23" CreationDate="2016-09-03T08:52:45.117" UserId="14674" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15638" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5927" RevisionGUID="c7937488-ea75-4c4a-925d-32a72b2659fe" CreationDate="2016-09-03T17:24:36.307" UserId="14604" Text="So, I was commissioned to help fix a residential network - someone paying for cable, phone, and internet had issues with using the phone and internet at the same time. (No, it's not dial-up, its cable! haha)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, the ISP in question really dropped the ball. The client was supposed to have a tech show up to replace the modem - twice the tech was no call, no show. Client reports this, and is told he can go get the modem himself. He asks me to take out the modem, go get the new modem, set it up ... he would rather pay me than pay the ISP for the work they didn't do. When swapping the equipment, the ISP literally had nothing to say about the no shows. They didn't ask any information, just took the modem, and sent me off. I asked about hooking it up (I already knew how, wanted to test their knowledge) and they handed me a pamphlet and (incorrectly) said &quot;plug it in and wait 15 minutes and you're done&quot;. Pamphlet, and experience, says otherwise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, the modem wasn't the issue. Old one worked same as new one. The issue is that for whatever reason, these modems only allow one phone line in. Any more, and the modem resets periodically, and resets when line 2 rings. So with line 1, he can manage, but this leaves a sour taste in both of our mouths. This is all the ISP would have done, and charged him for it, but they didn't show, or care.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I was able to solve the issue, on his dime, and (somewhat) understandably, he has asked me if I could seek payment from the ISP. Not demanded it, mind you, just asked if there was any way... so I politely tell him, unfortunately you still owe me for services rendered, and would have to seek compensation for the bill from his ISP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I could have lied at this point, said just call them they will repay you, I'll take your credit card and run it please. But I want to be a trusted consultant, so I tell him: &quot;I'm not sure how to go about this off the top of my head. I'm sure they won't listen to me, some freelancer. But I'm not sure what to tell you to say, beyond the obvious fact that you and I just did their job for them, on your dime.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did what I thought I should do: gave him a grace period so we could both try and get payment from the real culprit. Left him an invoice due in a week, and told him that I would ask a trusted friend (stackoverflow is that friend :D) about the issue. I would LOVE the chance to stick someone at this ISP with the bill. They have caused me and my clients nothing but grief. Fixing phone issues is NOT what I had in mind for winning bread! Plus, this guy is well connected to a client of mine, so I'd like to be as much of a champion as I can, and not just another bill because the ISP stinks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think there is a snowballs chance in hell this guy could get refunded for the money. I think there is even less chance there is anything I can say or do about it directly, or else I would go back to the shop that I got the modem from with the invoice addressed to the ISP. But whatever advice I can give my client that will get him refunded would be fine. Anyone with any experience here, even just as a business owner or customer seeking the refund, would be appreciated!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15639" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5927" RevisionGUID="c7937488-ea75-4c4a-925d-32a72b2659fe" CreationDate="2016-09-03T17:24:36.307" UserId="14604" Text="Helping a client get what they deserve from their ISP" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15640" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5927" RevisionGUID="c7937488-ea75-4c4a-925d-32a72b2659fe" CreationDate="2016-09-03T17:24:36.307" UserId="14604" Text="|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15641" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5927" RevisionGUID="44487de6-892b-49ed-9746-b0719063e2bd" CreationDate="2016-09-03T17:31:01.473" UserId="14604" Comment="added 77 characters in body" Text="So, I was commissioned to help fix a residential network - someone paying for cable, phone, and internet had issues with using the phone and internet at the same time. (No, it's not dial-up, its cable! haha)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, the ISP in question really dropped the ball. The client was supposed to have a tech show up to replace the modem - twice the tech was no call, no show. Client reports this, and is told he can go get the modem himself. He asks me to take out the modem, go get the new modem, set it up ... he would rather pay me than pay the ISP for the work they didn't do. When swapping the equipment, the ISP literally had nothing to say about the no shows. They didn't ask any information, just took the modem, and sent me off. I asked about hooking it up (I already knew how, wanted to test their knowledge) and they handed me a pamphlet and (incorrectly) said &quot;plug it in and wait 15 minutes and you're done&quot;. Pamphlet, and experience, says otherwise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, the modem wasn't the issue. Old one worked same as new one. The issue is that for whatever reason, these modems only allow one phone line in. Any more, and the modem resets periodically, and resets when line 2 rings. So with line 1, he can manage, but this leaves a sour taste in both of our mouths. This is all the ISP would have done, and charged him for it, but they didn't show, or care.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I was able to solve the issue, on his dime, and (somewhat) understandably, he has asked me if I could seek payment from the ISP. Not demanded it, mind you, just asked if there was any way... so I politely tell him, unfortunately you still owe me for services rendered, and would have to seek compensation for the bill from his ISP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I could have lied at this point, said just call them they will repay you, I'll take your credit card and run it please. But I want to be a trusted consultant, so I tell him: &quot;I'm not sure how to go about this off the top of my head. I'm sure they won't listen to me, some freelancer. But I'm not sure what to tell you to say, beyond the obvious fact that you and I just did their job for them, on your dime.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did what I thought I should do: gave him a grace period so we could both try and get payment from the real culprit. Left him an invoice due in a week, and told him that I would ask a trusted friend (stackoverflow is that friend :D) about the issue. I would LOVE the chance to stick someone at this ISP with the bill. They have caused me and my clients nothing but grief. Fixing phone issues is NOT what I had in mind for winning bread! Plus, this guy is well connected to a client of mine, so I'd like to be as much of a champion as I can, and not just another bill because the ISP stinks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think there is a snowballs chance in hell this guy could get refunded for the money. I think there is even less chance there is anything I can say or do about it directly, or else I would go back to the shop that I got the modem from with the invoice addressed to the ISP. But whatever advice I can give my client that will get him refunded would be fine. I guess I'm looking for a way to provide that extra level of service, the warm fuzzy feeling - plus, fixing something for a client for free almost certainly guarantees a stellar recommendation!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15642" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5928" RevisionGUID="d7c34212-1b5d-403e-9dc3-e4d6250687e7" CreationDate="2016-09-03T22:17:24.637" UserId="11579" Text="Freelancing jobs without knowledge?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Politics or Prostitution... the latter can be dangerous, the former allows you to achieve a similar service but reach a wider audience and without the risks of an STD or NDE. Both don't look too well on the CV/resume.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15643" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4169" RevisionGUID="12be7179-0477-4b15-aada-366cb6b98a77" CreationDate="2016-09-04T11:11:54.307" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/772391733523050496" />
  <row Id="15644" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5929" RevisionGUID="bb8a62ce-244a-4b14-9c23-9d8e2766309a" CreationDate="2016-09-04T13:10:34.580" UserId="11262" Text="I have an open source project. A client contracted me to, among other things, develop new features in my project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract is a typical one which states my work belongs the the company, etc. And has a special clause for &quot;prior inventions&quot; in which the contractor specifies these, which will be excluded from the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My concern about this is the term &quot;prior&quot; which makes it unclear to me what happens if the &quot;prior invention&quot;, i.e. my open source project, is continuing being developed in the scope of the contract. Do entirely new features, which I add as part of the contract count as part of the &quot;prior invention&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I asked the contractee to change this wording but they insist that this is standard legal vocabulary and that everything I'll be doing in my project is part of the &quot;prior invention&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thoughts? I think it's clearer if they'd write something like &quot;the project X including new developments of it during in the scope of this contract or after, etc&quot;, but meeting some resistance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15645" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5929" RevisionGUID="bb8a62ce-244a-4b14-9c23-9d8e2766309a" CreationDate="2016-09-04T13:10:34.580" UserId="11262" Text="Contract: open source and &quot;prior inventions&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15646" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5929" RevisionGUID="bb8a62ce-244a-4b14-9c23-9d8e2766309a" CreationDate="2016-09-04T13:10:34.580" UserId="11262" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15647" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5929" RevisionGUID="bccb5467-054a-40f6-9924-555da8627d4f" CreationDate="2016-09-04T13:16:58.753" UserId="11262" Comment="deleted 3 characters in body" Text="I have an open source project. A client contracted me to, among other things, develop new features in my project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract is a typical one which states my work belongs the the company, etc. And has a special clause for &quot;prior inventions&quot; in which the contractor specifies these, which will be excluded from the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My concern about this is the term &quot;prior&quot; which makes it unclear to me what happens if the &quot;prior invention&quot;, i.e. my open source project, is continuing being developed in the scope of the contract. Do entirely new features, which I add as part of the contract count as part of the &quot;prior invention&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I asked the contractee to change this wording but they insist that this is standard legal vocabulary and that everything I'll be doing in my project is part of the &quot;prior invention&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thoughts? I think it's clearer if they'd write something like &quot;the project X including new developments of it during the scope of this contract or after, etc&quot;, but meeting some resistance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15648" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5929" RevisionGUID="ee1ff07c-359a-4d4b-a182-b92a114ad451" CreationDate="2016-09-04T15:51:34.223" UserId="11262" Comment="deleted 30 characters in body" Text="I have an open source project. A client contracted me to, among other things, develop new features in my project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract is a typical one which states my work belongs to the company, etc. And has a special clause in which I can specify my possible &quot;prior inventions&quot;, which will be excluded from the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My concern about this is the term &quot;prior&quot; which makes it unclear to me what happens if the &quot;prior invention&quot;, i.e. my open source project, is continuing being developed in the scope of the contract. Do entirely new features, which I add as part of the contract count as part of the &quot;prior invention&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I asked the contractee to change this wording but they insist that this is standard legal vocabulary and that everything I'll be doing in my project is part of the &quot;prior invention&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think it's clearer if they'd write something like &quot;the project X including new developments of it during the scope of this contract or after, etc&quot;. Thoughts? &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15649" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5930" RevisionGUID="d8250849-b4a1-4588-a296-3f24255710fb" CreationDate="2016-09-04T17:53:05.047" UserId="14429" Text="Don't sign anything that you're not comfortable with.  &quot;It's standard&quot; and &quot;It's just boilerplate&quot; are *NOT* acceptable responses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**YOU** need to make the changes to the contract as you deem necessary, and send it back to them for approval.  As a freelancer, you are every bit as responsible for the contract as they are.  Contracts are negotiable up until they are signed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client is not willing to negotiate the contract, I'd strongly suggest declining the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15650" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5931" RevisionGUID="f4f779c6-8037-4630-8615-dd3758cd17d4" CreationDate="2016-09-04T17:56:13.103" UserId="14429" Text="Unfortunately, you do not have standing to demand payment from the ISP.  Only your client does.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your client should take your invoice down to the ISP and demand to speak with a business customer service representative, and demand the amount of your invoice be credited to his account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The ISP doesn't have to listen to you, and won't." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15651" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5929" RevisionGUID="2454c2a3-e651-4d7e-8b2f-ba558abbc0a1" CreationDate="2016-09-04T19:02:32.657" UserId="11262" Comment="added 8 characters in body" Text="I have an open source project. A client contracted me to, among other things, develop new features in my project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract is a typical one which states my work belongs to the company, etc. And has a special clause in which I can specify my possible &quot;prior inventions&quot; - where I would add my open source project -, which will be excluded from the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My concern about this is the term &quot;prior&quot; which makes it unclear to me what happens when the &quot;prior invention&quot;, continues being developed as part of the contract. Do entirely new features, which I add as part of the contract count as part of the &quot;prior invention&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I asked the client to change this wording but they insist that this is standard legal vocabulary and that everything I'll be doing in my project is part of the &quot;prior invention&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think it's clearer if they'd write something like &quot;the project X including new developments of it during the scope of this contract or after, etc&quot;. Thoughts? &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15652" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5932" RevisionGUID="aa54f2f5-1a62-4b24-9d76-77ad21082c51" CreationDate="2016-09-04T19:22:32.583" UserId="14690" Text="I'm making a desktop app for my best friend's family restaurant (no, I'm doing it for free).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Background info:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My friend told me he tried with several apps he found on the Internet; in fact, he claims they have worked fine for him (&quot;by fine,&quot; meaning no bugs or crashes, the new meals are added, the bills are calculated with the right amount, etc.), but are very graphical unattractive at best, hideous and trying to leave you blind at worst (who thinks mixing yellow and red is a good idea for a GUI?), and lacking in features we wants / having features he doesn't need, so he figured he needed the app made for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Example: Someone and his/her buddies go to have their meal. He gives them the bill and cue some jerk in the group with a sattisfied sneer on his/her face: &quot;Oh, didn't we mention everyone is paying for their own stuff?&quot;, while the others snicker. They have previously said X friend was paying for it all, and this... gaslighting starts about how they hadn't said that, how my friend has a &quot;bad memory and shouldn't be a waiter&quot;, etc then he has to go back to the computer and do it over (and then the guys whine he took too much time to bill them, and demanding a &quot;discount&quot; for the long wait.)&#xD;&#xA;This happens all the time. Resourcing to ask them about who is paying what at beginning doesn't work either; they lie.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The feature he urgently wants is to quickly separate bills (now, he deletes the order and does several bills for each jerk, which takes its time), to stop these bully people for causing trouble and complaining for his tardiness.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, he's a role model user. Excellent, in fact. If he has a question, he asks. If he doesn't like something, he says it. He didn't understand why stuff is rendered &quot;inactive&quot; rather than be deleted; I explained it to him and: &quot;Oh, I see. It would be too complex given those relationships you mentioned.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The problem both my friend and I are dealing with:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The one causing issues is HIS SISTER. She's one of those &quot;I can't do no wrong / I'm always right / It's never my fault&quot; people. Whenever the parents (the owners of the restaurant) leave her in charge of using the computer and adding data to the current app, bad stuff happens. Whenever my friend comes with a new order, she goes to the kitchen and tells the chef what to cook, but she forgets to add the order into the system! By the end of day, they have counted their winnings in $ X, but the system says is $ Z. Well, duh!&#xD;&#xA;SOMEONE didn't go their job! When she's confronted by the parents and his brother, she claims she did type all the info and clicked the &quot;Add Order&quot; button, but the system didn't do it because of a VIRUS OR A HACKEEEEEEEEEER!!!!! (A computer that is never conected, by the way.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She doesn't even know what a virus means; it's just her little crutch to justify she didn't do anything right. If her brother points out the system has never failed to add stuff when he has used it, she pouts and mutters &quot;Maybe is a virus that comes and goes...&quot; If he points out the computer is safe from hackers due to not being connected, she stays quiet, but quickly goes back to her old ways.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This problem caused by her has been present in every app they have used.&#xD;&#xA;How can we (my friend and me) explain to her is not the program, but HER?&#xD;&#xA;If / when I finish my app, she's gonna blame it too; no matter how good I made it, it would still have &quot;lots and lots of viruses that don't let her save stuff.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We feel that even if we teach her the difference between a virus and a software with a bug, she's gonna scream it's &quot;has lots and lots of bugs, then.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone asks her: &quot;Hey, I heard soulblazer made a program for you. You know, I need someone to make a program for me. How good was yours?&quot; and she starts her rant about &quot;viruses&quot; and &quot;being unable to save stuff&quot;, I'm gonna sound like a thief. I don't want that, neither does my friend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other than convincing the parents to ban her from using the restaurant computer and changing her tasks to cooking the food, or asking for orders (we don't want her to be fired over this), we don't know what to do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15653" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5932" RevisionGUID="aa54f2f5-1a62-4b24-9d76-77ad21082c51" CreationDate="2016-09-04T19:22:32.583" UserId="14690" Text="How to deal with a stubborn user that constantly makes mistakes, but refuses to accept it's their fault" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15654" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5932" RevisionGUID="aa54f2f5-1a62-4b24-9d76-77ad21082c51" CreationDate="2016-09-04T19:22:32.583" UserId="14690" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15655" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="5932" RevisionGUID="71ef5fe4-d42e-47dc-a505-3d3254b2935c" CreationDate="2016-09-04T19:32:02.940" UserId="14690" Comment="edited tags" Text="|difficult-client|communication|small-projects|friends-services|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15656" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5932" RevisionGUID="76f93755-f97f-4441-824e-1289f1e1f96a" CreationDate="2016-09-04T19:38:16.677" UserId="14690" Comment="added 15 characters in body" Text="I'm making a desktop app for my best friend's family restaurant (no, I'm doing it for free).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Background info:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My friend told me he tried with several apps he found on the Internet; in fact, he claims they have worked fine for him (&quot;by fine,&quot; meaning no bugs or crashes, the new meals are added, the bills are calculated with the right amount, etc.), but are very graphical unattractive at best, hideous and trying to leave you blind at worst (who thinks mixing yellow and red is a good idea for a GUI?), and lacking in features we wants / having features he doesn't need, so he figured he needed the app made for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Example: Someone and his/her buddies go to have their meal. He gives them the bill and cue some jerk in the group with a sattisfied sneer on his/her face: &quot;Oh, didn't we mention everyone is paying for their own stuff?&quot;, while the others snicker. They have previously said X friend was paying for it all, and this... gaslighting starts about how they hadn't said that, how my friend has a &quot;bad memory and shouldn't be a waiter&quot;, etc then he has to go back to the computer and do it over (and then the guys whine he took too much time to bill them, and start demanding a &quot;discount&quot; for the long wait.)&#xD;&#xA;This happens all the time. Resourcing to ask them about who is paying what at the very beginning doesn't work either; they lie.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The feature he urgently wants is to quickly separate bills (now, he deletes the order and does several bills for each jerk, which takes its time), to stop these bully people for causing trouble and complaining for his tardiness.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, he's a role model user. Excellent, in fact. If he has a question, he asks. If he doesn't like something, he says it. He didn't understand why stuff is rendered &quot;inactive&quot; rather than be deleted; I explained it to him and: &quot;Oh, I see. It would be too complex given those relationships you mentioned.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The problem both my friend and I are dealing with:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The one causing issues is HIS SISTER. She's one of those &quot;I can't do anything wrong / I'm always right / It's never my fault&quot; people. Whenever the parents (the owners of the restaurant) leave her in charge of using the computer and adding data to the current app, bad stuff happens. Whenever my friend comes with a new order, she goes to the kitchen and tells the chef what to cook, but she forgets to add the order into the system! By the end of day, they have counted their winnings in $ X, but the system says is $ Z. Well, duh!&#xD;&#xA;SOMEONE didn't go their job! When she's confronted by the parents and his brother, she claims she did type all the info and clicked the &quot;Add Order&quot; button, but the system didn't do it because of a VIRUS OR A HACKEEEEEEEEEER!!!!! (A computer that is never conected, by the way.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She doesn't even know what a virus means; it's just her little crutch to justify she didn't do anything right. If her brother points out the system has never failed to add stuff when he has used it, she pouts and mutters &quot;Maybe is a virus that comes and goes...&quot; If he points out the computer is safe from hackers due to not being connected, she stays quiet, but quickly goes back to her old ways.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This problem caused by her has been present in every app they have used.&#xD;&#xA;How can we (my friend and me) explain to her is not the program, but HER?&#xD;&#xA;If / when I finish my app, she's gonna blame it too; no matter how good I made it, it would still have &quot;lots and lots of viruses that don't let her save stuff.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We feel that even if we teach her the difference between a virus and a software with a bug, she's gonna scream it's &quot;has lots and lots of bugs, then.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone asks her: &quot;Hey, I heard soulblazer made a program for you. You know, I need someone to make a program for me. How good was yours?&quot; and she starts her rant about &quot;viruses&quot; and &quot;being unable to save stuff&quot;, I'm gonna sound like a thief. I don't want that, neither does my friend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other than convincing the parents to ban her from using the restaurant computer and changing her tasks to cooking the food, or asking for orders (we don't want her to be fired over this), we don't know what to do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15657" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5929" RevisionGUID="af20fd86-42b5-44e0-bceb-d3b67fddce85" CreationDate="2016-09-04T20:44:41.203" UserId="11262" Comment="added 1404 characters in body" Text="I have an open source project. A client contracted me to, among other things, develop new features in my project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract is a typical one which states my work belongs to the company, etc. And has a special clause in which I can specify my possible &quot;prior inventions&quot; - where I would add my open source project -, which will be excluded from the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My concern about this is the term &quot;prior&quot; which makes it unclear to me what happens when the &quot;prior invention&quot;, continues being developed as part of the contract. Do entirely new features, which I add as part of the contract count as part of the &quot;prior invention&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I asked the client to change this wording but they insist that this is standard legal vocabulary and that everything I'll be doing in my project is part of the &quot;prior invention&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think it's clearer if they'd write something like &quot;the project X including new developments of it during the scope of this contract or after, etc&quot;. Thoughts? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As mentioned in a comment, it can help to provide the text in the agreement, here the relevant excerpts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Prior Inventions and Innovations.  Contractor has disclosed on Exhibit&#xD;&#xA;&gt; D, a complete list of all inventions or innovations made by Contractor&#xD;&#xA;&gt; prior to commencement of the Services for Company and which Contractor&#xD;&#xA;&gt; desires to exclude from the application of this Agreement.  Contractor&#xD;&#xA;&gt; will disclose to Company such additional information as Company may&#xD;&#xA;&gt; request regarding such inventions or innovations to enable Company to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; assess their extent and significance.  Company agrees to receive and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; hold all such disclosures in confidence. Contractor waives any and all&#xD;&#xA;&gt; rights to inventions and/or innovations made as a result of the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Services, even if such inventions and/or innovations are improvements&#xD;&#xA;&gt; on the existing inventions or innovations listed in Exhibit D.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And then the Exhibit D:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 1.     	Prior Innovations.  Except as set forth below, I acknowledge at this time that I have not made or reduced to practice (alone or&#xD;&#xA;&gt; jointly with others) any inventions or innovations relevant to any&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Services under this Agreement (if none, so state):   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &lt;REPO NAME&gt; existing code base as found in Github at&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &lt;LINK&gt; as of date of the Agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Both parties agree to keep a date-stamped copy of the &lt;REPO NAME&gt; code&#xD;&#xA;&gt; base as of the Agreement date.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15658" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5929" RevisionGUID="9246f4e2-174c-481a-810d-3b09146e008a" CreationDate="2016-09-04T21:00:00.970" UserId="11262" Comment="edited body" Text="I have an open source project. A client contracted me to, among other things, develop new features in my project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract is a typical one which states my work belongs to the company, etc. And has a special clause in which I can specify my possible &quot;prior inventions&quot; - where I would add my open source project -, which will be excluded from the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My concern about this is the term &quot;prior&quot; which makes it unclear to me what happens when the &quot;prior invention&quot;, continues being developed as part of the contract. Do entirely new features, which I add as part of the contract count as part of the &quot;prior invention&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I asked the client to change this wording but they insist that this is standard legal vocabulary and that everything I'll be doing in my project is part of the &quot;prior invention&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think it's clearer if they'd write something like &quot;the project X including new developments of it during the scope of this contract or after, etc&quot;. Thoughts? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As mentioned in a comment, it can help to provide the text in the agreement, here the relevant excerpts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Prior Inventions and Innovations.  Contractor has disclosed on Exhibit&#xD;&#xA;&gt; D, a complete list of all inventions or innovations made by Contractor&#xD;&#xA;&gt; prior to commencement of the Services for Company and which Contractor&#xD;&#xA;&gt; desires to exclude from the application of this Agreement.  Contractor&#xD;&#xA;&gt; will disclose to Company such additional information as Company may&#xD;&#xA;&gt; request regarding such inventions or innovations to enable Company to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; assess their extent and significance.  Company agrees to receive and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; hold all such disclosures in confidence. Contractor waives any and all&#xD;&#xA;&gt; rights to inventions and/or innovations made as a result of the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Services, even if such inventions and/or innovations are improvements&#xD;&#xA;&gt; on the existing inventions or innovations listed in Exhibit D.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And then the Exhibit D:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 1.     	Prior Innovations.  Except as set forth below, I acknowledge at this time that I have not made or reduced to practice (alone or&#xD;&#xA;&gt; jointly with others) any inventions or innovations relevant to any&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Services under this Agreement (if none, so state):   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; [REPO NAME] existing code base as found in Github at&#xD;&#xA;&gt; [LINK] as of date of the Agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Both parties agree to keep a date-stamped copy of the [REPO NAME] code&#xD;&#xA;&gt; base as of the Agreement date.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15659" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5933" RevisionGUID="db32e7ea-2370-462a-b106-666e804f4721" CreationDate="2016-09-05T00:56:42.110" UserId="1706" Text="Your words:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; (somewhat) understandably, he has asked me if I could seek payment from the ISP&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Understandably&quot; does not put food on your table.  You should have been clear to the client that there would be an additional charge for the services you rendered, and that the ISP was not even remotely a party to the business between you and your client.  Additionally, you should have been clear about payment terms (immediately due on performance, net 10, net 15, net 30, etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Had you done that up front, the client could either (a) agree to pay you in full, per the agreed terms, or (b) not receive your services, and deal directly with the ISP.  There would be no confusion on the client's part or yours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You've tried to be a convenience to your client, but you've created an inconvenience to yourself in the process.  This is not good business.  Be more direct next time.  There are actually clients out there who prey on people like you, and now you can only hope that you don't get burned.  Since this client has already shown a desire to get something-for-nothing, you may already be out of luck at ever seeing a dime." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15660" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5934" RevisionGUID="65473583-42ea-442e-bf28-4bada25e858f" CreationDate="2016-09-05T01:05:06.680" UserId="1706" Text="With all due respect, doing this for free is not a wise idea.  Western culture doesn't value stuff when it's free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Were this family to actually purchase a restaurant point-of-sale system:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. They'd be required to decide on features that they need or don't&#xD;&#xA; 2. They'd be on the hook to make a purchasing decision, and commit to their decision (i.e. not decide, the day after, that it wasn't appropriate for them)&#xD;&#xA; 3. They'd be on the hook to arrange an opportunity to *review* the software before using it in the business.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Most importantly: **they'd be on the hook to *PAY* for additional training, consulting, or modifications**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have someone unreasonable on your hands.  If this were me, I'd refer these folks to either an open-source product (do NOT offer to install or otherwise support it!) or a company that provides software and support.  Take yourself out of the middle because over time this will only prove to be a drain to your morale, and it will wreck your friendship." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15661" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5935" RevisionGUID="9c629355-c314-45d6-bbbf-5d0e1282d8ff" CreationDate="2016-09-05T01:13:08.920" UserId="1706" Text="&quot;Faster&quot; means longer work hours for an independent freelancer.  So you're going to throw your entire schedule off - personal life, meals, and rest - over nothing more than a verbal promise?  Don't fall for this without pre-payment or a written contract with *specific* terms on what &quot;faster&quot; means and how much money that translates to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The same clients who try this kind of stuff are the kind who end up dragging out your payment, but of course you don't know that until you've already done the work required.  They'll have you chasing a golden carrot, and you'll be right back on this site asking, &quot;How do I get my client to pay me as owed?&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15662" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5932" RevisionGUID="26359dcc-89f0-42b1-98f9-d7faa1048380" CreationDate="2016-09-05T03:09:44.803" UserId="14690" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="I'm making a desktop app for my best friend's family restaurant (no, I'm not doing it for free).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Background info:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My friend told me he tried with several apps he found on the Internet; in fact, he claims they have worked fine for him (&quot;by fine,&quot; meaning no bugs or crashes, the new meals are added, the bills are calculated with the right amount, etc.), but are very graphical unattractive at best, hideous and trying to leave you blind at worst (who thinks mixing yellow and red is a good idea for a GUI?), and lacking in features we wants / having features he doesn't need, so he figured he needed the app made for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Example: Someone and his/her buddies go to have their meal. He gives them the bill and cue some jerk in the group with a sattisfied sneer on his/her face: &quot;Oh, didn't we mention everyone is paying for their own stuff?&quot;, while the others snicker. They have previously said X friend was paying for it all, and this... gaslighting starts about how they hadn't said that, how my friend has a &quot;bad memory and shouldn't be a waiter&quot;, etc then he has to go back to the computer and do it over (and then the guys whine he took too much time to bill them, and start demanding a &quot;discount&quot; for the long wait.)&#xD;&#xA;This happens all the time. Resourcing to ask them about who is paying what at the very beginning doesn't work either; they lie.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The feature he urgently wants is to quickly separate bills (now, he deletes the order and does several bills for each jerk, which takes its time), to stop these bully people for causing trouble and complaining for his tardiness.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, he's a role model user. Excellent, in fact. If he has a question, he asks. If he doesn't like something, he says it. He didn't understand why stuff is rendered &quot;inactive&quot; rather than be deleted; I explained it to him and: &quot;Oh, I see. It would be too complex given those relationships you mentioned.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The problem both my friend and I are dealing with:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The one causing issues is HIS SISTER. She's one of those &quot;I can't do anything wrong / I'm always right / It's never my fault&quot; people. Whenever the parents (the owners of the restaurant) leave her in charge of using the computer and adding data to the current app, bad stuff happens. Whenever my friend comes with a new order, she goes to the kitchen and tells the chef what to cook, but she forgets to add the order into the system! By the end of day, they have counted their winnings in $ X, but the system says is $ Z. Well, duh!&#xD;&#xA;SOMEONE didn't go their job! When she's confronted by the parents and his brother, she claims she did type all the info and clicked the &quot;Add Order&quot; button, but the system didn't do it because of a VIRUS OR A HACKEEEEEEEEEER!!!!! (A computer that is never conected, by the way.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She doesn't even know what a virus means; it's just her little crutch to justify she didn't do anything right. If her brother points out the system has never failed to add stuff when he has used it, she pouts and mutters &quot;Maybe is a virus that comes and goes...&quot; If he points out the computer is safe from hackers due to not being connected, she stays quiet, but quickly goes back to her old ways.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This problem caused by her has been present in every app they have used.&#xD;&#xA;How can we (my friend and me) explain to her is not the program, but HER?&#xD;&#xA;If / when I finish my app, she's gonna blame it too; no matter how good I made it, it would still have &quot;lots and lots of viruses that don't let her save stuff.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We feel that even if we teach her the difference between a virus and a software with a bug, she's gonna scream it's &quot;has lots and lots of bugs, then.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone asks her: &quot;Hey, I heard soulblazer made a program for you. You know, I need someone to make a program for me. How good was yours?&quot; and she starts her rant about &quot;viruses&quot; and &quot;being unable to save stuff&quot;, I'm gonna sound like a thief. I don't want that, neither does my friend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other than convincing the parents to ban her from using the restaurant computer and changing her tasks to cooking the food, or asking for orders (we don't want her to be fired over this), we don't know what to do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15663" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5936" RevisionGUID="061f1703-0706-4a89-81c8-5f0db74757dd" CreationDate="2016-09-05T09:55:33.420" UserId="14694" Text="Faster doesn't necessarily mean more work per hour. It can be a simple as meaning they want fewer days to pass between now and project completion, how you do this is up to you, but basically they're talking about a rush fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially you work longer hours/more days/sooner/whatever in order to get the project completed in fewer calendar days, in exchange for this extra work/bump in the queue the client pays you more per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether you accept this is up to you, but it's not uncommon at all for freelancers to offer a faster turn around on a project at a higher hourly rate, it's there for those clients that decide they should start looking for help the day before a project is due." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15664" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5937" RevisionGUID="868d20d6-a922-4ce1-b7c4-3844f5a57cd8" CreationDate="2016-09-05T10:35:13.897" UserId="7486" Text="In my contracts I have a field that tells: &quot;company representative&quot;, that is the person who is officially authorized to communicate with me about the project and with whom I talk when I need info and stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were you:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I would meet your friend and tell him that you need a company representative, or contact person, who is &quot;computer aware&quot;. You will only and exclusively talk with that person, everyone inside the company will be able to communicate with you only through this person. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. I would talk to all of them and say clearly that your app is tested and working perfectly, but in the remote case that there will be a bug or a problem the company representative (#1) will privately report it to you and you will make tests and solve the bugs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. If there are viruses or hackers is a company problem, call a technician and fix the computer/network/etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Anything that will be said publicly about malfunctions and possible problems about your work will be evaluated for possible sue for defamation and indemnify request. Anyone who wrote in social network or said publicly anithing like that must delete the posts and fix the problem immediately.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. Do your best to make your app stupid-proof to avoid any possible predictable problem.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15665" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5937" RevisionGUID="38900931-113c-49bd-af5d-3017aabe2871" CreationDate="2016-09-05T10:40:20.907" UserId="7486" Comment="added 212 characters in body" Text="In my contracts I have a field that tells: &quot;company representative&quot;, that is the person who is officially authorized to communicate with me about the project and with whom I talk when I need info and stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were you:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I would meet your friend and tell him that you need a company representative, or contact person, who is &quot;computer aware&quot;. You will only and exclusively talk with that person, everyone inside the company will be able to communicate with you only through this person. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. I would talk to all of them and say clearly that your app is tested and working perfectly, but in the remote case that there will be a bug or a problem the company representative (#1) will privately report it to you and you will make tests and solve the bugs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. If there are viruses or hackers is a company problem, call a technician and fix the computer/network/etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Anything that will be said publicly about malfunctions and possible problems about your work will be evaluated for possible sue for defamation and indemnify request. Anyone who wrote in social network or said publicly anithing like that must delete the posts and fix the problem immediately.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. Add Google Analytics, or other stat service, to your app so that it will log the real accesses to it, so noone can tell that they added an order at time XX:XX when the logs shows no access at that time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Do your best to make your app stupid-proof to avoid any possible predictable problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15666" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3604" RevisionGUID="5d818550-9a47-4263-be0d-1db17682d5bb" CreationDate="2016-09-05T17:21:25.417" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15667" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5938" RevisionGUID="5c1b4159-7e8f-4ea6-a43b-3e3fc29d8278" CreationDate="2016-09-05T17:42:22.433" UserId="14455" Text="&gt; &quot;Will clients still want to work with you even if you increase your&#xD;&#xA;&gt; rates, based from your experience?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some will, some will not. But if you never change your price, how will you know? As a rule of thumb, when you are 80% fully booked, put your prices up. When you are less than 20% booked, put your prices down. You keep doing this, and you keep testing the market. You might be surprised at what people will pay. People that want to pay the least are not your ideal customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The real world is a bit more sophisticated of course. I have two customers that keep me afloat, that use me constantly, and I have a great relationship with them. They get a bargain from me, and account for at least 50% of my time. New customers, if I am excited by the role, get a great price, if I am not, they get a higher quote. If I really do not want the work, they get a ridiculously high quote. Sometimes they get accepted and everyone is happy, I get a great fee, they get the developer they wanted. Even if the role is a bit boring.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would never start a project without prices, timescales and objectives being laid out in advance. If they are late paying, I charge them. If they are late getting requirements to me, the project goes on hold, if they want to change timescales, I charge them, if they want to add objectives, I charge them. If they want to drop things, great, but no change in price. You would be surprised how this approach is actually respected and seen as professional. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You must vary your prices. You must try and move up the ladder of price points, otherwise you will always be scrabbling around at the bottom of the pile working for pennies." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15668" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5937" RevisionGUID="cf3a6999-6c8a-4c34-a8c4-0f39ae2623a6" CreationDate="2016-09-05T18:00:14.520" UserId="7486" Comment="added 9 characters in body" Text="In my contracts I have a field that tells: &quot;company representative&quot;, that is the person who is officially authorized to communicate with me about the project and with whom I talk when I need info and stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were you:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I would meet your friend and tell him that you need a company representative, or contact person, who is &quot;computer aware&quot;. You will only and exclusively talk with that person, everyone inside the company will be able to communicate with you only through this person. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. I would talk to all of them and say clearly that your app is tested and working perfectly, but in the remote case that there will be a bug or a problem the company representative (#1) will privately report it to you and you will make tests and solve the bugs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. If there are viruses or hackers is a company problem, let them call a technician and fix the computer/network/etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Anything that will be said publicly about malfunctions and possible problems about your work will be evaluated for possible sue for defamation and indemnify request. Anyone who wrote in social network or said publicly anything like that must delete the posts and fix the problem immediately.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. Add Google Analytics, or other stat service, to your app so that it will log the real accesses to it, so noone can tell that they added an order at time XX:XX when the logs shows no access at that time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Do your best to make your app stupid-proof to avoid any possible predictable problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15669" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5939" RevisionGUID="ae568888-8034-46f8-a203-8c5597a6a065" CreationDate="2016-09-05T18:04:50.193" UserId="14699" Text="I own a web development company. We were approached by an individual who had purchased a company and planned to rebuild the website and rebrand.  We immediately found and purchased the domains for his new brand. We did not have the intention of selling the domain back to him with any markup but it gives him an incentive to pick us as his developers. Was this an immortal thing to do? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15670" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5939" RevisionGUID="ae568888-8034-46f8-a203-8c5597a6a065" CreationDate="2016-09-05T18:04:50.193" UserId="14699" Text="Buying a domain for your client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15671" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5939" RevisionGUID="ae568888-8034-46f8-a203-8c5597a6a065" CreationDate="2016-09-05T18:04:50.193" UserId="14699" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15672" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5940" RevisionGUID="e9159540-6e28-480c-b11c-ae68843a3f89" CreationDate="2016-09-05T18:09:58.233" UserId="708" Text="Sounds like it to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is one thing to purchase domains *once you are hired* but to go snipe the domains *before* you are hired is a pretty underhanded thing to do... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You've now put the client in a position where they **must** deal with you if they want the domains. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you aren't marking things up, the client may have preferred to register via NetworkSolutions and you used GoDaddy. The Terms of Service are different at different registrars... and you've locked this possible client into things they may not want. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were the client... I'd be contemplating legal action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Really the client should have registered domains on their own right away before seeking developers. But that doesn't excuse you sniping the domains. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It was a very unethical move in my opinion." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15673" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5939" RevisionGUID="fa3f138b-3521-47fb-bc1f-8554fc441209" CreationDate="2016-09-05T18:18:00.637" UserId="14699" Comment="added 94 characters in body" Text="I own a web development company. We were approached by an individual who had purchased a company and planned to rebuild the website and rebrand.  We immediately found and purchased the domains for his new brand. We did not have the intention of selling the domain back to him with any markup but it gives him an incentive to pick us as his developers. Was this an immortal thing to do? &#xA;&#xA;It's important to note that we did not sign a Non-Disclosure or make any verbal agreements. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15674" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5941" RevisionGUID="28387a62-bfa2-40fc-99de-9bb38c3b1610" CreationDate="2016-09-05T18:57:54.633" UserId="14455" Text="Yes it was wrong. You should have said &quot;I would advise you to buy your domains ASAP and as a matter of urgency. Domains can disappear very quickly.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I use this advice as a friendly warm up when presenting a quote. It means we give good advice, are honest and up front, and are a reliable source of information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you did was really bad. If I had been that client, I never would have trusted you again. It was underhand, bullying and even without an NDA, an abuse of privileged information. I would strongly urge you to not repeat this again, and immediately put in writing to the customer an apology, that the domains are theirs even if they do not take up your quotation, change the domain owners name to theirs, and give them all the info they need to manage the domain directly themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15675" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5942" RevisionGUID="56d863e6-d9ba-4641-9c0c-9ee89a41e8ee" CreationDate="2016-09-05T18:59:09.463" UserId="14700" Text="I have been working with a client on an elaborate website for more than 12 months. The project is almost at completion, but there's some technical barriers stopping it from being finished: they have asked for extremely complicated features that, at the time (time being 8 months into the project), I said may be feasible, but now I know it is not. They expect the site to be ready now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problems arise with the fact that as the project has been under development, more and more requirements have been added to it. It's now at a stage where it is so complicated that I do not believe the infrastructure the business can afford is going to handle it at all. On top of all this, as the additional requirements are so demanding I have struggled to dedicate the time or resources to complete the project, leading to an angry client (I only work part-time on this, generally evenings).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To top this all off - I have completely finished my freelance career now. I enjoyed it and feel as if I have been relatively successful at it, but I'm moving onto a different career path. I'm extremely worried about this project and the client though, as they are friends (a big no no I now understand in the freelance world..!) and I do not want to harm my reputation (on both professional and personal level) nor lose a friend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is... How do I get out of this situation? How can I break those kinds of facts to a client so late into a project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand this may be a vague question in some ways, but I don't know where to turn. Any help would be deeply appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15676" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5942" RevisionGUID="56d863e6-d9ba-4641-9c0c-9ee89a41e8ee" CreationDate="2016-09-05T18:59:09.463" UserId="14700" Text="Gone into deep hole with client. What next?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15677" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5942" RevisionGUID="56d863e6-d9ba-4641-9c0c-9ee89a41e8ee" CreationDate="2016-09-05T18:59:09.463" UserId="14700" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15678" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5927" RevisionGUID="5a7f4282-06d6-4a96-939d-a0f82f37ae88" CreationDate="2016-09-05T19:34:40.123" UserId="14604" Comment="added 233 characters in body" Text="EDIT: Move on, this was a stupid question. Don't let a client's relationship to another client's get in your way: be clear, and direct, as usual especially regarding getting paid. And don't ask stupid questions if you want rep :(&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I was commissioned to help fix a residential network - someone paying for cable, phone, and internet had issues with using the phone and internet at the same time. (No, it's not dial-up, its cable! haha)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, the ISP in question really dropped the ball. The client was supposed to have a tech show up to replace the modem - twice the tech was no call, no show. Client reports this, and is told he can go get the modem himself. He asks me to take out the modem, go get the new modem, set it up ... he would rather pay me than pay the ISP for the work they didn't do. When swapping the equipment, the ISP literally had nothing to say about the no shows. They didn't ask any information, just took the modem, and sent me off. I asked about hooking it up (I already knew how, wanted to test their knowledge) and they handed me a pamphlet and (incorrectly) said &quot;plug it in and wait 15 minutes and you're done&quot;. Pamphlet, and experience, says otherwise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, the modem wasn't the issue. Old one worked same as new one. The issue is that for whatever reason, these modems only allow one phone line in. Any more, and the modem resets periodically, and resets when line 2 rings. So with line 1, he can manage, but this leaves a sour taste in both of our mouths. This is all the ISP would have done, and charged him for it, but they didn't show, or care.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I was able to solve the issue, on his dime, and (somewhat) understandably, he has asked me if I could seek payment from the ISP. Not demanded it, mind you, just asked if there was any way... so I politely tell him, unfortunately you still owe me for services rendered, and would have to seek compensation for the bill from his ISP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I could have lied at this point, said just call them they will repay you, I'll take your credit card and run it please. But I want to be a trusted consultant, so I tell him: &quot;I'm not sure how to go about this off the top of my head. I'm sure they won't listen to me, some freelancer. But I'm not sure what to tell you to say, beyond the obvious fact that you and I just did their job for them, on your dime.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did what I thought I should do: gave him a grace period so we could both try and get payment from the real culprit. Left him an invoice due in a week, and told him that I would ask a trusted friend (stackoverflow is that friend :D) about the issue. I would LOVE the chance to stick someone at this ISP with the bill. They have caused me and my clients nothing but grief. Fixing phone issues is NOT what I had in mind for winning bread! Plus, this guy is well connected to a client of mine, so I'd like to be as much of a champion as I can, and not just another bill because the ISP stinks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think there is a snowballs chance in hell this guy could get refunded for the money. I think there is even less chance there is anything I can say or do about it directly, or else I would go back to the shop that I got the modem from with the invoice addressed to the ISP. But whatever advice I can give my client that will get him refunded would be fine. I guess I'm looking for a way to provide that extra level of service, the warm fuzzy feeling - plus, fixing something for a client for free almost certainly guarantees a stellar recommendation!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15679" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5942" RevisionGUID="16a55097-8f5e-41a2-98fd-420729e238c4" CreationDate="2016-09-05T19:45:39.143" UserId="14700" Comment="added 242 characters in body" Text="I have been working with a client on an elaborate website for more than 12 months. The project is almost at completion, but there's some technical barriers stopping it from being finished: they have asked for extremely complicated features that, at the time (time being 8 months into the project), I said may be feasible, but now I know it is not. They expect the site to be ready now. (Update..) I would like to add that this was not communicated well to the client recently due to a whole host of personal problems, which unfortunately had serious impacts on my ability to work. They are aware it was a difficult time for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problems arise with the fact that as the project has been under development, more and more requirements have been added to it. It's now at a stage where it is so complicated that I do not believe the infrastructure the business can afford is going to handle it at all. On top of all this, as the additional requirements are so demanding I have struggled to dedicate the time or resources to complete the project, leading to an angry client (I only work part-time on this, generally evenings).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To top this all off - I have completely finished my freelance career now. I enjoyed it and feel as if I have been relatively successful at it, but I'm moving onto a different career path. I'm extremely worried about this project and the client though, as they are friends (a big no no I now understand in the freelance world..!) and I do not want to harm my reputation (on both professional and personal level) nor lose a friend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is... How do I get out of this situation? How can I break those kinds of facts to a client so late into a project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand this may be a vague question in some ways, but I don't know where to turn. Any help would be deeply appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15680" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5939" RevisionGUID="1a447ce4-ba20-43fb-8c21-169dc85bbec7" CreationDate="2016-09-05T19:56:13.040" UserId="14699" Comment="added 106 characters in body" Text="I own a web development company. We were approached by an individual who had purchased a company and planned to rebuild the website and rebrand.  We immediately found and purchased the domains for his new brand. We did not have the intention of selling the domain back to him with any markup but it looks like we did it to incentive him to pick us as his developers. Was this an immortal thing to do? &#xA;&#xA;It's important to note that we did not sign a Non-Disclosure or make any verbal agreements. We thought we were protecting him from domain lookups that buy the domains you search for. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15681" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5943" RevisionGUID="40919be1-365c-4d7e-a2e9-ac460b4e24fe" CreationDate="2016-09-05T20:18:36.020" UserId="7486" Text="You should have been more clear on the difficulties during the development of the project... now is a bit problematic...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can ask for a quotation to other freelancers that will be able to finish the job. Then you can talk to your client and explain more clearly as possible that you will need extra payments to finish the job since the last requests are too complex and cannot be included in the original price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they will accept you can hire freelancers to end the work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15682" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5944" RevisionGUID="a7b329b2-f896-4bde-8803-28453316f320" CreationDate="2016-09-05T23:41:29.937" UserId="14704" Text="I'm looking to begin freelance web development but unsure of how best to move forward. I've read that choosing to host sites for your client is up to you and all that but I had a question about integrating certain APIs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Say I'm building an e-commerce site for a client and will use Stripe and Shopify in a Rails app. Would I have the client create an account on those platforms so that way they can link their bank account to Stripe for cashing out and will they need to make an account on Shopify as a partner in order to utilize API keys there that are unique to their business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the best way to handle these third party programs?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15683" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5944" RevisionGUID="a7b329b2-f896-4bde-8803-28453316f320" CreationDate="2016-09-05T23:41:29.937" UserId="14704" Text="Using Stripe and other APIs for client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15684" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5944" RevisionGUID="a7b329b2-f896-4bde-8803-28453316f320" CreationDate="2016-09-05T23:41:29.937" UserId="14704" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15685" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5939" RevisionGUID="0a311428-756c-4382-aeae-d325e820f8d0" CreationDate="2016-09-05T23:59:43.030" UserId="14699" Comment="deleted 466 characters in body" Text="Thank you for your input, the client was happy with the outcome and glad we helped him out where he hasn't knowledgeable" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15686" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5945" RevisionGUID="60e17937-2497-4b52-9789-1482db30689c" CreationDate="2016-09-06T00:03:50.973" UserId="14702" Text="Of course it was unethical.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You used information that the client (or potential client) trusted you with - gave you with the assumption that you would handle it professionally and ethically - for your benefit, to the detriment of your client (preventing them from acquiring the domains, except through you).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You point out that you didn't sign an NDA or make any agreement, as if that makes it okay.&#xD;&#xA;Business dealings generally require some trust between the parties. Who could trust an organisation that thinks that way: That seeks any underhanded way to make money from the client, provided that it is not actually illegal? (And they *might* have grounds to sue.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most clients would assume some basic ethics and professionalism of the company they are considering hiring (so wouldn't ask you to sign an agreement to not cheat them before they even discuss their project).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You further point out, in a comment, &quot;It's on him to purchase the domain before making that information public&quot;, as if that makes him fair game to be ripped off by a company he trusted enough to consider hiring.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest that you should transfer the domain to him immediately, with no conditions attached.&#xD;&#xA;It would seem highly unlikely that he would ever trust you again, but he will probably warn others about you, and it won't sound as bad if give him the domains.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15687" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="5939" RevisionGUID="0d19a977-b4ad-4bf4-acb5-6a81c16a890c" CreationDate="2016-09-06T00:06:57.023" UserId="75" Comment="Rollback to [1a447ce4-ba20-43fb-8c21-169dc85bbec7]" Text="I own a web development company. We were approached by an individual who had purchased a company and planned to rebuild the website and rebrand.  We immediately found and purchased the domains for his new brand. We did not have the intention of selling the domain back to him with any markup but it looks like we did it to incentive him to pick us as his developers. Was this an immortal thing to do? &#xA;&#xA;It's important to note that we did not sign a Non-Disclosure or make any verbal agreements. We thought we were protecting him from domain lookups that buy the domains you search for. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15688" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5946" RevisionGUID="3e07ae8c-cf38-4b8d-81f5-06837f9dfc52" CreationDate="2016-09-06T10:52:57.563" UserId="11579" Text="In most cases, what you sign, you agree to in such that what you add to the project under the customers time would fall under the contract.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I say &quot;in most cases&quot; because just because something is signed and in writing does not automatically imply you are tied to it. It varies by juristiction. I recall a contract question some years ago that was raised in the UK version of Computer Weekly and it was answered by a UK lawyer. The question had less to do with prior art, and more to do with freedom of movement whereby the contractor was prevented from working with any of the clients clients, or any other client that was in the same industry as the project for a term of two years.  The lawyer replied that while such clauses were not uncommon, a three to six month period was acceptable, anything beyond that could be considered unduly restrictive and if it entered court, a judge could rule either one, or all clauses within the contract were invalid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Point being here is be careful signing any contract, but if all else fails and you have signed, then seek professional advice because your ink on paper does not always mean you forfeit your heart and soul. A court would have the ultimate decision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Prior work would not fall part of the contract (unless you agree otherwise).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes, work you do after the contract could infringe the contract depending on how soon after the contract ended, and how close a relationship it poses to the original work. I'm not a lawyer but I keep a close eye on news articles related to such subjects. I've seen articles on folk trying to pass new work off as &quot;new inventions&quot; when they were just a modification of an existing &quot;invention&quot; (business sometimes do this to extend the patent period).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As others have said, don't sign anything unless you comfortable - however based on my 20+ years experience, many companies I have contracted for have a standard contract which they won't change (because it entails them having to go back to their legal department which can cost time and money and delay their project). Most of the time I just read the contract carefully, sign it, but work within the terms of the contract which could result in limiting my creativity. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15689" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5947" RevisionGUID="ac6c80d6-e2eb-43e8-92b7-3dea8af6c013" CreationDate="2016-09-06T11:03:43.123" UserId="11579" Text="Find compromise, talk with the client and tell them that you need work with them on an exit plan. Set a hard date so its not just coffee talk. Three months? Six months? Be generous, but also, be realistic. If you cannot commit to six months, don't agree.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is not the end of the world. Yes, they might be upset, but things could be worse. Once you co-operate with the handover it will help take some of the sting your absence will bring. Make sure you are remunerated for handing the project over otherwise it will go on forever (which neither side will want). One advantage to passing the project on is your customer/friend will get a better idea on the real cost of the project and how valuable your contribution was. Agree how many hours a week you will contribute to the hand over too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any project, regardless if you are an employee or a freelancer should have a project plan that in its most basic form should describe what is in scope and out of scope, and it should summarise stage gates (where they review progress before you both agree that the next step should commence). It also means that as they add new features (&quot;feature creep&quot;) they'll appreciate the impact on delivery, the risk to the project, and possible cost over runs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15690" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5948" RevisionGUID="9cb44418-cdd6-45f6-adcb-d3dc5cbe22fb" CreationDate="2016-09-06T11:18:39.933" UserId="5929" Text="It depends what you do next.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you say, &quot;as a precaution I have acquired the domain names we were talking about. Please send me your details so that I can transfer the registration to your organisation ASAP, or if you prefer we can manage them for you&quot;, then you've jumped the gun and intruded slightly on a decision that really is the client's to make, but hopefully no serious harm done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should not *necessarily* expect to be reimbursed for them if the client decides to use someone else (or to cancel the exercise entirely), since you weren't asked to do it in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you say, &quot;I have acquired the domain names, now let's talk about how much you're willing to pay me for them&quot; then it's at least as immoral as any other domain-squatting, and I'd say rather more so since you acted on the specific and commercially-sensitive knowledge that your potential client would want those domains. NDAs establish that information is confidential and/or proprietary, but it doesn't follow that anything *not* under NDA is *not* proprietary, nor that it's always proper to act on it. I think in this case it isn't proper to squat a domain that your potential client discusses with you, and to avoid squatting you can't demand payment for the domain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We thought we were protecting him from domain lookups that buy the domains you search for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then fine. Follow through doing that, by transferring the domains to the client or their other designated agent as smoothly as possible. But as I said, don't expect to be reimbursed for unsolicited services." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15691" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5948" RevisionGUID="9269e5d5-db77-4844-8dd5-4d283fcdd8bc" CreationDate="2016-09-06T11:26:55.413" UserId="5929" Comment="added 124 characters in body" Text="It depends what you do next.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you say, &quot;as a precaution I have acquired the domain names we were talking about. Please send me your details so that I can transfer the registration to your organisation ASAP, or if you prefer we can manage them for you&quot;, then you've jumped the gun and intruded slightly on a decision that really is the client's to make, but hopefully no serious harm done. You may have been careless, if the client would have made a different decision from what you made, but I think not immoral.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should not *necessarily* expect to be reimbursed for them if the client decides to use someone else (or to cancel the exercise entirely), since you weren't asked to do it in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you say, &quot;I have acquired the domain names, now let's talk about how much you're willing to pay me for them&quot; then it's at least as immoral as any other domain-squatting, and I'd say rather more so since you acted on the specific and commercially-sensitive knowledge that your potential client would want those domains. NDAs establish that information is confidential and/or proprietary, but it doesn't follow that anything *not* under NDA is *not* proprietary, nor that it's always proper to act on it. I think in this case it isn't proper to squat a domain that your potential client discusses with you. To avoid squatting you can't demand payment for the domain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We thought we were protecting him from domain lookups that buy the domains you search for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then fine. Follow through doing that, by transferring the domains to the client or their other designated agent as smoothly as possible. But as a general principle, don't expect to be reimbursed for unsolicited services no matter how helpful you expect you're being." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15692" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5948" RevisionGUID="8ea716a7-f919-4672-a629-be6bf47942c2" CreationDate="2016-09-06T11:32:56.003" UserId="5929" Comment="added 124 characters in body" Text="It depends what you do next.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you say, &quot;as a precaution I have acquired the domain names we were talking about. Please send me your details so that I can transfer the registration to your organisation ASAP, or if you prefer we can manage them for you&quot;, then you've jumped the gun and intruded slightly on a decision that really is the client's to make, but hopefully no serious harm done. You may have been careless, if the client would have made a different decision from what you made, but I think not immoral.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should not *necessarily* expect to be reimbursed for them if the client decides to use someone else (or to cancel the exercise entirely), since you weren't asked to do it in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't be *sure* you've done the right thing, since there may be disadvantages to registering now. Just for one example, if the domain registrations are listed in a whois directory, then you've made a publicly-available statement that your name and address are somehow involved with the new brand. Albeit not a very direct statement, or one you can easily profit from, but still. You can undo that if it's not appropriate, but undoing something bad doesn't stop it being bad in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you say, &quot;I have acquired the domain names, now let's talk about how much you're willing to pay me for them&quot; then it's at least as immoral as any other domain-squatting, and I'd say rather more so since you acted on the specific and commercially-sensitive knowledge that your potential client would want those domains. NDAs establish that information is confidential and/or proprietary, but it doesn't follow that anything *not* under NDA is *not* proprietary, nor that it's always proper to act on it. I think in this case it isn't proper to squat a domain that your potential client discusses with you. To avoid squatting you can't demand payment for the domain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We thought we were protecting him from domain lookups that buy the domains you search for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then fine. Follow through doing that, by transferring the domains to the client or their other designated agent as smoothly as possible. But as a general principle, don't expect to be reimbursed for unsolicited services no matter how helpful you expect you're being." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15693" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5948" RevisionGUID="b868b0f4-b010-4b6f-a7c8-06f2aeb6401c" CreationDate="2016-09-06T11:40:31.107" UserId="5929" Comment="added 43 characters in body" Text="It depends what you do next.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you say, &quot;as a precaution I have acquired the domain names we were talking about. Please send me your details so that I can transfer the registration to your organisation ASAP, or if you prefer we can manage them for you&quot;, then you've jumped the gun and intruded slightly on a decision that really is the client's to make, but hopefully no serious harm done. You may have been careless, if the client would have made a different decision from what you made, but I think not immoral.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should not *necessarily* expect to be reimbursed for them if the client decides to use someone else (or to cancel the exercise entirely, or use fewer variants than you registered), since you weren't asked to do it in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't be *sure* you've done the right thing, since there may be disadvantages to registering now. Just for one example, if the domain registrations are listed in a whois directory, then you've made a publicly-available statement that your name and address are somehow involved with the new brand. Albeit not a very direct statement, or one you can easily profit from, but still. You can undo that if it's not appropriate, but undoing something bad doesn't stop it being bad in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you say, &quot;I have acquired the domain names, now let's talk about how much you're willing to pay me for them&quot; then it's at least as immoral as any other domain-squatting, and I'd say rather more so since you acted on the specific and commercially-sensitive knowledge that your potential client would want those domains. NDAs establish that information is confidential and/or proprietary, but it doesn't follow that anything *not* under NDA is *not* proprietary, nor that it's always proper to act on it. I think in this case it isn't proper to squat a domain that your potential client discusses with you. To avoid squatting you can't demand payment for the domain, not even what you paid for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We thought we were protecting him from domain lookups that buy the domains you search for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then fine. Follow through doing that, by transferring the domains to the client or their other designated agent as smoothly as possible. But as a general principle, don't expect to be reimbursed for unsolicited services no matter how helpful you expect you're being." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15694" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5939" RevisionGUID="f4e08f1a-ebec-46f0-b227-3cf3b6834ba9" CreationDate="2016-09-06T12:26:34.553" UserId="14699" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body" Text="I own a web development company. We were approached by an individual who had purchased a company and planned to rebuild the website and rebrand.  Right after the call we found and purchased the domain for his new brand for him, not to keep ourselves or sell back at a marked up value. Were a small town shop and most of our clients are new startups with very little technology skills. We're used to having to hold their hands. However in this situation I'm afraid we may have crossed a line. &#xA;&#xA;Do you guys/girls ever purchase domains for your clients? Or do you do only what is asked?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15695" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5949" RevisionGUID="2b2ae6be-863d-441f-b89f-b35a456133ed" CreationDate="2016-09-06T14:01:33.007" UserId="14725" Text="It would appear to be pretty clear to me:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  Contractor waives any and all rights to inventions and/or innovations made as a result of the Services, **even if such inventions and/or innovations are improvements on the existing inventions or innovations listed in Exhibit D**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This says they will own the rights to the new code which is part of your prior invention." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15696" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5950" RevisionGUID="99fb0b54-7e51-46f8-b23f-002b00b6a884" CreationDate="2016-09-06T14:19:31.277" UserId="14455" Text="**Take Control.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given that you have learned the importance of stopping project creep, what can you do now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Finish it&#xD;&#xA;2. Abandon it&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The choice is yours, but you have to control this. Without further knowledge of the price and initial agreements and payments made etc it is impossible to advise properly, but here are some ideas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Finishing it.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, get to where you should have been in the first place. Make a list of all the outstanding work. This list is final. Accept no amendments. Do not discuss it with them, write it out according to previous meetings and emails and list it out as as 'To be completed'.&#xD;&#xA;For each item, add a timescale. Add up all the timescales and create an estimated completion date. Email it to them, without grandstanding, and get on with it. If infrastructure cannot cope, for instance, you just email them and tell them what they need. It is not your job to get it, source it or implement it as this is not on the todo list.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Abandoning it.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again with no numbers to talk about, this is hard to advise on. I would suggest that you spend a week getting it to a stand alone, working stage as quickly as possible. Get all the files together, document them (actually do not spend too long on that, just make the document long, technical and providing passwords, DB access etc. with some code structure breakdown).&#xD;&#xA;Email them with a simple handover email. The reason is that despite your best intentions the project continues to expand exponentially and has far exceeded the original concepts outlined at the outset. That despite your best efforts to communicate these issues the project continues to expand at a relentless rate and that you no longer feel able to continue. Remember that this is their fault, not yours. Do not apologize nor take any responsibility. Be polite, but you have nothing to explain other than the obvious, here is what I have done, here is the docs you need to continue, here are all the files, good luck and good bye.&#xD;&#xA;You MAY want to include a summary of the work and hours you have done to account for any payments pre-empting any refund claims.&#xD;&#xA;Then walk away, and get on with your life. Always take at least 24 hours to respond to any emails or questions. Do not get into a protracted discussion, it is over. Do not offer advice, insights or anything else. Do not attend any further meetings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Good luck**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you do is up to you. Given the tone in your OP I would suggest you walk away. They are not going to suddenly treat you better, this is now a lose lose situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They have probably been abusing the friendship in this work relationship, so put that to one side completely. Sort out the work stuff, then get back to the friend stuff (if that is possible) afterwards. If this is how they make their money you can be sure they will be putting their business before you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope you get a chance to let us know how this works out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best wishes,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15697" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5950" RevisionGUID="6b038757-2924-4d12-8ffa-a58a8b95f11d" CreationDate="2016-09-06T14:25:36.770" UserId="14455" Comment="added 158 characters in body" Text="**Take Control.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given that you have learned the importance of stopping project creep, what can you do now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Finish it&#xD;&#xA;2. Abandon it&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The choice is yours, but you have to control this. Without further knowledge of the price and initial agreements and payments made etc it is impossible to advise properly, but here are some ideas. You need to take control of the situation, no more meetings or discussions, compromise is not going to work, just make some fair decisions and stick to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Finishing it.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, get to where you should have been in the first place. Make a list of all the outstanding work. This list is final. Accept no amendments. Do not discuss it with them, write it out according to previous meetings and emails and list it out as as 'To be completed'.&#xD;&#xA;For each item, add a timescale. Add up all the timescales and create an estimated completion date. Email it to them, without grandstanding, and get on with it. If infrastructure cannot cope, for instance, you just email them and tell them what they need. It is not your job to get it, source it or implement it as this is not on the todo list.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Abandoning it.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again with no numbers to talk about, this is hard to advise on. I would suggest that you spend a week getting it to a stand alone, working stage as quickly as possible. Get all the files together, document them (actually do not spend too long on that, just make the document long, technical and providing passwords, DB access etc. with some code structure breakdown).&#xD;&#xA;Email them with a simple handover email. The reason is that despite your best intentions the project continues to expand exponentially and has far exceeded the original concepts outlined at the outset. That despite your best efforts to communicate these issues the project continues to expand at a relentless rate and that you no longer feel able to continue. Remember that this is their fault, not yours. Do not apologize nor take any responsibility. Be polite, but you have nothing to explain other than the obvious, here is what I have done, here is the docs you need to continue, here are all the files, good luck and good bye.&#xD;&#xA;You MAY want to include a summary of the work and hours you have done to account for any payments pre-empting any refund claims.&#xD;&#xA;Then walk away, and get on with your life. Always take at least 24 hours to respond to any emails or questions. Do not get into a protracted discussion, it is over. Do not offer advice, insights or anything else. Do not attend any further meetings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Good luck**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you do is up to you. Given the tone in your OP I would suggest you walk away. They are not going to suddenly treat you better, this is now a lose lose situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They have probably been abusing the friendship in this work relationship, so put that to one side completely. Sort out the work stuff, then get back to the friend stuff (if that is possible) afterwards. If this is how they make their money you can be sure they will be putting their business before you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope you get a chance to let us know how this works out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best wishes,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15698" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5939" RevisionGUID="8933978e-494c-4800-81f7-2b7c9262ecdf" CreationDate="2016-09-06T14:26:23.103" UserId="100" Comment="not about a freelance website" Text="I own a web development company. We were approached by an individual who had purchased a company and planned to rebuild the website and rebrand.  Right after the call we found and purchased the domain for his new brand for him, not to keep ourselves or sell back at a marked up value. Were a small town shop and most of our clients are new startups with very little technology skills. We're used to having to hold their hands. However in this situation I'm afraid we may have crossed a line. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you ever purchase domains for your clients? Or do you do only what is asked?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15699" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="5939" RevisionGUID="8933978e-494c-4800-81f7-2b7c9262ecdf" CreationDate="2016-09-06T14:26:23.103" UserId="100" Comment="not about a freelance website" Text="|webmasters|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15700" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="5939" RevisionGUID="8933978e-494c-4800-81f7-2b7c9262ecdf" CreationDate="2016-09-06T14:26:23.103" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 14699 edit id of 488" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15701" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5951" RevisionGUID="4169a6b0-d9b5-4837-9dca-edf3e242949e" CreationDate="2016-09-06T14:42:55.697" UserId="14455" Text="I have resisted sarcastic answers, and lots came to mind. But here is some genuine advice because I feel everyone who can should freelance. It is simply a better way of life, which it appears you desire to try.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. On a piece of paper, write down everything you CAN do (this list may not be very long).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Get a few local newspapers and write down all the advertisers, and what they do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Find out what problems they have? You can imagine it, guess at it from the ads (especially the job ads), or call one or two up and tell them you are trying to think up a job small local companies might want you to do and do they have any ideas. You would be amazed, if you have a good attitude and are friendly, open and honest, what people will tell you. (This is along the lines of the classic 'Ask A Fool' approach to creativity). Talk to your family and friends, parents of freinds, neighbours, your local shop keeper, outline your thoughts briefly and get them to make a suggestion. Again, just because someone is a shopkeeper does not mean they do not have some great ideas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Identify what you can do to help these people to solve their problems. Think up a service, put a price to it, then get on the phone or knocking on doors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Suppose you decide you can cut grass and have access to a lawn mower. Or can deliver leaflets and have a bag. Get out and find someone to pay you to do that. Tell them 'first job is free then it is just x.xx per hour'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For cutting grass, walk around to find a hotel or a warehouse with overgrown or scruffy external land. Pop in 'Hi, want me to tidy up the front of your factory, can do it tomorrow for just £x, and it will make your visitors think better of you, and make your company look much more attractive.' type of thing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now you are a freelancer. Perhaps in five years time you will employ 20 people looking after the maintenance of every business in your local area, perhaps you will have franchised the business, and cover multiple territories, perhaps even delivering landscaping, or building maintenance with teams of electricians, plumbers, cleaners, painters and builders. Who knows where it will lead? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps one day you will be telling a magazine journalist about how you started out, with a single lawnmower and some initiative, whilst describing how you built your multi million pound empire......&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We can all dream, but only a few are brave enough to actually get out there and attempt to make their dreams come true. Go for it. You only live once...&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15702" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5952" RevisionGUID="7f0fb113-3193-4f92-b9d1-be0140d76c26" CreationDate="2016-09-06T16:30:21.660" UserId="14729" Text="I'm not as deeply involved as most posters to this question, so grain of salt, and I am perhaps learning, but this sounds like diligence and the intent was to profit the client.  Several things, such as tying up the client's potential choices are assumptions in this thread; the client, for all we've been told, is free to buy the domain(s) at par, or not to buy them -- thus no cost.  Small town services typically exceed and are more personal than in large towns and cities: the real world hasn't changed that much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The legal side is bound by practice and best practice, but those are refinements to a suit that is not known to exist in the context of this thread: assume there is or is not a standard business contract, and then assume there is almost nothing standard about creating contracts or doing business each and every time.  Initial agreements or even a brochure could ethically inform (clients, potential clients) about steps taken to initiate services: that would be a good practice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15703" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5953" RevisionGUID="c5fe1281-6c33-41ba-905f-80572cafca0a" CreationDate="2016-09-06T16:32:18.140" UserId="1706" Text="I've done work that has had to work against merchant accounts (Authorize.net).  Instead of using a live account (that can process **real** money) I coded against a free test account that Authorize.net provided.  I used the same approach with Paypal, using the Paypal Sandbox.  You should investigate to see if Stripe and Shopify offer something similar, where you can code against the test accounts and switch to production accounts once you've completed testing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should look to put the configuration information into a simple configuration file of some sort, rather than embedding it deep into your code.  That way, it can be switched easily when the time comes." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15704" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5954" RevisionGUID="00d8b74b-ee69-4cac-941c-4804d23e5d7a" CreationDate="2016-09-06T16:49:57.303" UserId="1706" Text="This was a move in desperation.  If I were such a client, I'd be concerned that you would be likely to overstep again.  What's the next move?  The client needs a bank account, and you go down to the bank and start talking to the branch manager?  The client is interested in office space, and you go out to start making a deal with a leasing agent?  I'd pay you off for my domain, and find someone else who respects protocol.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The fact that you did this with Ma and Pa Kettle (who might not know better) in Smalltown USA doesn't make it right.  Performing unsolicited services like this will keep you from working with anyone *besides* businesses like Ma and Pa, because it potentially can cause a snag in *their* business that you might not be able to undo easily.  No one's interested in the potential fallout." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15705" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5948" RevisionGUID="baf708ae-0b5e-4449-858e-ae207301b865" CreationDate="2016-09-06T17:54:58.607" UserId="5929" Comment="added 12 characters in body" Text="It depends what you do next.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you say, &quot;as a precaution I have acquired the domain names we were talking about. Please send me your details so that I can transfer the registration to your organisation ASAP, or if you prefer we can manage them for you&quot;, then you've jumped the gun and intruded slightly on a decision that really is the client's to make, but hopefully no serious harm done. You may have been careless, if the client would have made a different decision from what you made, but I think not immoral.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should not *necessarily* expect to be reimbursed for them, especially if the client decides to use someone else (or to cancel the exercise entirely, or use fewer variants than you registered), since you weren't asked to do it in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't be *sure* you've done the right thing, since there may be disadvantages to registering now. Just for one example, if the domain registrations are listed in a whois directory, then you've made a publicly-available statement that your name and address are somehow involved with the new brand. Albeit not a very direct statement, or one you can easily profit from, but still. You can undo that if it's not appropriate, but undoing something bad doesn't stop it being bad in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you say, &quot;I have acquired the domain names, now let's talk about how much you're willing to pay me for them&quot; then it's at least as immoral as any other domain-squatting, and I'd say rather more so since you acted on the specific and commercially-sensitive knowledge that your potential client would want those domains. NDAs establish that information is confidential and/or proprietary, but it doesn't follow that anything *not* under NDA is *not* proprietary, nor that it's always proper to act on it. I think in this case it isn't proper to squat a domain that your potential client discusses with you. To avoid squatting you can't demand payment for the domain, not even what you paid for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We thought we were protecting him from domain lookups that buy the domains you search for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then fine. Follow through doing that, by transferring the domains to the client or their other designated agent as smoothly as possible. But as a general principle, don't expect to be reimbursed for unsolicited services no matter how helpful you expect you're being." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15706" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5940" RevisionGUID="da91bedb-6314-426f-8577-52565cb15e3e" CreationDate="2016-09-06T19:19:36.297" UserId="708" Comment="added 537 characters in body" Text="Sounds like it to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is one thing to purchase domains *once you are hired* but to go snipe the domains *before* you are hired is a pretty underhanded thing to do... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You've now put the client in a position where they **must** deal with you if they want the domains. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you aren't marking things up, the client may have preferred to register via NetworkSolutions and you used GoDaddy. The Terms of Service are different at different registrars... and you've locked this possible client into things they may not want. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were the client... I'd be contemplating legal action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Really the client should have registered domains on their own right away before seeking developers. But that doesn't excuse you sniping the domains. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**It was a very unethical move in my opinion.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-- Moved from comment ---&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are considerations such as &quot;trade secrets&quot; and &quot;professional expectations&quot;. Information was shared with you to facilitate your business interaction, not so you could immediately pounce on the idea without discussion, regardless of your intentions - helpful or otherwise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be aware not everything *requires* an NDA for you to be held accountable. If there was a *reasonable expectation of secrecy* and you profit by breaking that expectation... well... a judge/arbitor may need to decide" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15707" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="5926" RevisionGUID="260fb70a-c2d6-4dfe-84f0-380548f58177" CreationDate="2016-09-06T21:59:20.077" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:152,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;stanri&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:1706,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;codenoir&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="15708" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5955" RevisionGUID="c6f0c229-62df-4a04-b97f-06e1f49995a1" CreationDate="2016-09-07T03:27:42.063" UserId="14740" Text="If you purchased the domain immediately after the call, there is no reason why you could not have simply asked your client if they wanted you to do so during the call--or you could have called them back prior to purchasing it, if you weren't already searching for it during the first call.  Next time, clear it with the client first, in case they want to handle the registration themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now that the damage is done, you should apologize to your client in writing for not consulting with them first, then offer to transfer it to them or manage it for them on their behalf--in either case, make it clear in writing that the domain belongs to them regardless of what they choose to do, and you will cover the costs of registration and management for the first year, including transferring to a different registrar if they prefer a different one.  Either way, you're probably only out at most $20 or so, which you should be able to easily absorb if you're charging a fair and reasonable fee for your development services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the rebranded site is not yet ready to launch and redirecting to the existing site is not appropriate, consult with your client regarding what to do with the domain until it is ready to launch." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15709" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="5939" RevisionGUID="63407790-1077-43dd-a126-f3eec9fe910f" CreationDate="2016-09-07T05:19:41.787" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/773390260852105216" />
  <row Id="15710" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5799" RevisionGUID="3e6a5f0a-e6a5-4c51-b21a-88facecac125" CreationDate="2016-09-07T06:55:55.083" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15711" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5956" RevisionGUID="6195427f-4309-4cdd-98a6-e32f0755bb9a" CreationDate="2016-09-07T13:18:19.117" UserId="14758" Text="I have recently published an iOS app that is performing (much) better than I expected. Initially the app was a personal learning and development project, and as such the proceeds from Apple are deposited into my personal bank account and I am registered self employed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is, is it possible to transfer revenue from my current self employed status to a new formed ltd. company? If we make an assumption that revenue will be between £5k and £10k a month, is this a more tax efficient way to collect my revenue?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15712" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5956" RevisionGUID="6195427f-4309-4cdd-98a6-e32f0755bb9a" CreationDate="2016-09-07T13:18:19.117" UserId="14758" Text="Transferring revenue from self employed to LTD company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15713" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5956" RevisionGUID="6195427f-4309-4cdd-98a6-e32f0755bb9a" CreationDate="2016-09-07T13:18:19.117" UserId="14758" Text="|legal|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15714" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5957" RevisionGUID="360f9781-423e-44a9-be3a-ad1ea1db7143" CreationDate="2016-09-07T13:27:06.237" UserId="14759" Text="I used to work at GoDaddy and saw this AAALLLLLL the time. It was always the same story. &quot;my web developer hosts it for me.&quot;, &quot;my web developer bought all my domain names.&quot; I advised against it in EVERY CASE! No, you get your own damn hosting account and give them access to it! You buy your own damn domains and call us to set up DNS for you! &#xD;&#xA;What I have done in the past with clients I KNEW were computer illiterate (once they were confirmed clients), is set up accounts at Godaddy or Inmotionhosting and made purchases on their behalves and gave them access to everything right away to change passwords in front of me so they knew i wasnt trying to keep their stuff. &#xD;&#xA;Give them their domain-WITHOUT MARKUP-and you will look honest. But upcharging a $12 domain name hardly seems worth the small town ridicule." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15715" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5958" RevisionGUID="f57d626b-445d-49fa-a1d9-3e1533c7cee9" CreationDate="2016-09-07T13:29:09.857" UserId="14759" Text="Best way to convince someone to upgrade: raise the cost of maintaining the old. That will keep them in the update mindset for good." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15716" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5959" RevisionGUID="b2c56dad-51ab-4bd4-a018-5ea20be28763" CreationDate="2016-09-07T16:13:12.543" UserId="14455" Text="**is it possible to transfer revenue from my current self employed status to a new formed ltd. company?** &#xD;&#xA;Yes of course it is possible. You can do this either as personal investment into the company (could be offset against your directors loan account which is payable back to you from the Ltd company) or you could make the app a ltd company's asset, associate a value to it and that money is now owed to you too, as if the LTD company bought an external app. This loan or deficit is removable from turnover before tax is due. But that all depends how you set up your company and how you pay wages or distribute dividends. You need a professional accountant to advise taking into account all the factors at hand. Most importantly, this seems like a good vehicle to start a company with, so if you plan to grow, probably the way to go. But that depends on your plans of course.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If we make an assumption that revenue will be between £5k and £10k a month, is this a more tax efficient way to collect my revenue?**&#xD;&#xA;As Wesley Long pointed out in a comment above, this is what accountants and tax professionals are for. This is simply impossible to answer in any meaningful way without a full picture of your aims, plans and current financial position. (ie More efficient than what?) You are well advised to spend a few hundred of your monthly income to pay for some professional advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15717" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5960" RevisionGUID="b02d8c56-6a53-4587-ad18-4dab3a289eed" CreationDate="2016-09-07T17:08:35.090" UserId="14765" Text="Most of our software work comes from referrals. As developers, how do you go about referring out projects that aren't in your wheelhouse?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15718" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5960" RevisionGUID="b02d8c56-6a53-4587-ad18-4dab3a289eed" CreationDate="2016-09-07T17:08:35.090" UserId="14765" Text="How do you refer out projects that aren't in your wheelhouse?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15719" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5960" RevisionGUID="b02d8c56-6a53-4587-ad18-4dab3a289eed" CreationDate="2016-09-07T17:08:35.090" UserId="14765" Text="|software|remote|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15720" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5961" RevisionGUID="009ecf89-faf9-47e4-b2fb-88d2bcab6c5b" CreationDate="2016-09-07T17:38:51.810" UserId="708" Text="Provide contact information for someone you *know* that *does* do the work necessary. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most the people I directly refer clients to know that if I haven't *specifically* mentioned this client to them, then I don't really know the client and merely dropping my name shouldn't carry any undue favoritism or trust in general. It's pretty easy to just drop a name... So I always make it a point to contact the referral directly if the client is in good standing with me. It helps overcome some of the initial apprehension with unknown clients for the referral.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I refer a client I have worked with in the past, I drop a quick email or phone call to let them know &quot;Client XX may be contacting you.&quot; and a brief history of my relations with the client:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - They pay on time&#xD;&#xA; - They pay, but generally 30 days out&#xD;&#xA; - They are meticulous with respect to X&#xD;&#xA; - I don't enjoy working with the client, but you may&#xD;&#xA; - Nice client, but they tend to want everything very quickly&#xD;&#xA; - This is my favorite client, please take care of them &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-- that sort of thing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or I politely decline the project if I can't make any direct referrals. *&quot;Sorry, I just don't do XXX and unfortunately I don't have anyone to directly refer you to.&quot;*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15721" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5960" RevisionGUID="97d2c909-41a7-482a-8980-712fa9d22f08" CreationDate="2016-09-07T18:45:10.623" UserId="1706" Comment="added 8 characters in body; edited title" Text="Most of our software work comes from referrals. As developers, how do you go about referring out projects that aren't in your area of competency?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15722" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="5960" RevisionGUID="97d2c909-41a7-482a-8980-712fa9d22f08" CreationDate="2016-09-07T18:45:10.623" UserId="1706" Comment="added 8 characters in body; edited title" Text="How do you refer out projects that aren't in your area of competency?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15723" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5962" RevisionGUID="4a9bb833-7d14-4e41-b5fb-f1114644b7d9" CreationDate="2016-09-07T20:40:15.443" UserId="11579" Text="As a matter of course, I avoid long term contracts. Despite best intentions, nobody knows where they will be or what they will want in two years. If you offer a discounted rate, you still carry risk, at a discount despite no assurance that the contract might be cut in X months. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if there is a clause to remunerate you if the project was to terminate early, a client could well just assign you to another project, or just make your life hell to encourage you to leave (so they could avoid remunerating you for shortening the contract).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you like the client, offer a 10% discount on your normal rate. The two year commitment from you is a promise that your rate will stay unchanged for the period of the contract (you still have to cover your own health, pension, sick pay holiday pay etc... these expenses don't just go away and your client might need reminding of this).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are based in Europe, you may not realise that the two year contract is a client trying to bend the law. EU Employment dictates something like maximum two contracts within two years maximum time frame - after that, employer can be compelled to provide health/pension/sick/holiday pay like they would a fulltime employee. Your client might be trying to avoid this (by offering you one long contract knowing full well they can throw you overboard if business or other conditions change)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15724" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5963" RevisionGUID="1d2db2e7-ca2f-482b-ac1b-c523bedb0127" CreationDate="2016-09-08T15:04:53.367" UserId="5334" Text="I think this is the right place - but let me know if it's not and I'll move it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been working as a freelancer/contractor in London for the last 12 months.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My client has a second office outside of London and, occasionally, their employees needs to visit the London office and stay overnight at a hotel (usually a Premier Inn or Travelodge - they get a £150 per night expense limit)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, as it's such short notice, there are no hotels available nearby.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, the employee has asked if they're able to stay at mine for the night, and I've asked my client (his boss) if they're able to pay me for putting one of their employees up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long story short, they've said I'm not able to bill them for bed and board because of &quot;insurance problems&quot; - is that correct?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I feel like they're just trying to keep their costs low at my expense... even though there's no real expense to me - he's a friend and I have a spare room. Maybe I'm just being greedy over-sensitive?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15725" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5963" RevisionGUID="1d2db2e7-ca2f-482b-ac1b-c523bedb0127" CreationDate="2016-09-08T15:04:53.367" UserId="5334" Text="Client employee needs to stay at my house, can I charge?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15726" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5963" RevisionGUID="1d2db2e7-ca2f-482b-ac1b-c523bedb0127" CreationDate="2016-09-08T15:04:53.367" UserId="5334" Text="|difficult-client|expenses|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15727" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="5963" RevisionGUID="e6b8aeac-6fac-4951-a8fd-28dfee8ac027" CreationDate="2016-09-08T15:19:09.300" UserId="5334" Comment="Updated the title for it to make better sense" Text="An employee from my current client needs to stay at my house, can I charge?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15728" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5964" RevisionGUID="93d6e0cf-22ed-4524-8cd3-f0a6848747a0" CreationDate="2016-09-08T15:40:17.123" UserId="14455" Text="I would see this as a favour to the customer, and not charge for it, especially as this person is a friend. It does feel a bit petty. If it was a stranger I would not have offered, and refused if asked. If that is the same for you, then yes, it is petty as this is just a friend staying over. If he claims the expense you cannot really issue him an invoice to cover it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is insurance an issue? It might well be. Imagine that he falls down the stairs at your house and you have invoiced for the stay. If it turns out your stairs are not up to standard (ie too big a gap in the railings or similar seemingly petty but essential health and safety standards) imagine if they decide to sue because of an accident that was not his fault, but costs them money, from somewhere that was charging him to stay. If it was a hotel there would be a claim.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the circumstance you have outlined, I would just let your friend stay as if well might if he was spending the night in London. If he can still claim overnight stay expense without a reciept or paperwork, perhaps he can buy you a meal as a thank you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit: Alternatively, imagine you invoiced for say £100 for the night and got paid. The next week they call you and say &quot;Mr X from so and so is visiting on Tuesday, we would like to book the room again for two nights?&quot; What are you going to say then?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15729" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5965" RevisionGUID="272321e2-013f-4ede-be30-8ebe38b6fe5c" CreationDate="2016-09-08T16:14:56.087" UserId="1706" Text="Don't do this.  If they're not paying, suggest alternatives.  AirBNB, hostels, whatever.  You didn't create the emergency, and it's not your job to bail them out for free (or they'll be looking for you to do it again).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're not being over-sensitive, and your spare room doesn't cost imaginary money." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15730" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5957" RevisionGUID="bf2ab6af-8c3a-4a29-a845-5784c6d1ef80" CreationDate="2016-09-08T16:17:47.520" UserId="1706" Comment="added 8 characters in body" Text="I used to work at GoDaddy and saw this all the time. It was always the same story. &quot;my web developer hosts it for me.&quot;, &quot;my web developer bought all my domain names.&quot; I advised against it in EVERY CASE! No, you get your own hosting account and give them access to it! You buy your own domains and call us to set up DNS for you! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I have done in the past with clients that I knew were computer illiterate (once they were confirmed clients), is &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - set up accounts at GoDaddy or Inmotionhosting&#xD;&#xA; - made purchases on their behalves&#xD;&#xA; - gave them access to everything right away to change passwords in front of me so they knew I wasn't trying to keep their stuff. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Give them their domain - without a mark-up - and you will look honest. But upcharging a $12 domain name hardly seems worth the small town ridicule." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15731" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5966" RevisionGUID="a3df529f-fc55-45d8-ac8a-0a139fd4d9fa" CreationDate="2016-09-08T16:34:19.643" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Yes you have the right to charge. You can work around the &quot;insurance problems&quot; by using another wording such as &quot;overtime&quot; or just charge as worktime, in agreement with your customer. If they find another excuse, then you'll know." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15732" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="5912" RevisionGUID="43a1bd47-fb33-4784-a224-ab765b62d1e6" CreationDate="2016-09-08T18:22:49.717" UserId="100" Comment="retagged -- " Text="|time-tracking|billable-hours|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15733" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="5912" RevisionGUID="43a1bd47-fb33-4784-a224-ab765b62d1e6" CreationDate="2016-09-08T18:22:49.717" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 9, 14645 edit id of 489" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15734" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5967" RevisionGUID="7b59f1e3-b24f-417b-945d-561a03b97ab3" CreationDate="2016-09-08T19:31:37.247" UserId="708" Text="#I would **never** allow this under *any* circumstance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The guy can sleep in his car... or the bus/train station for all I care. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if I charged and he's willing to pay, invading my home is **way** over the line for any freelance client. It sends a message, whether direct or indirect, that you'll allow the client to overstep the boundaries of a client/freelancer relationship. Business is business... the more you blur the line between business and personal, the more you'll feel &quot;guilty&quot; or &quot;obligated&quot; to help a &quot;friend&quot; rather than saying &quot;no&quot; to a client. Whether or not I have the space is completely irrelevant. It's *my home* not a bunk house.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, it's a slippery slope. No way would *any* client *ever* be allowed to stay in my home. -- Okay.... I may charge $5000-$10,000 a night and deal with it if they were willing to pay that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15735" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5967" RevisionGUID="ae17e613-5f88-4023-82f7-b17e1e8a4e2d" CreationDate="2016-09-08T19:47:45.133" UserId="708" Comment="added 367 characters in body" Text="#I would **never** allow this under *any* circumstance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The guy can sleep in his car... or the bus/train station for all I care. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if I charged and he's willing to pay, invading my home is **way** over the line for any freelance client. It sends a message, whether direct or indirect, that you'll allow the client to overstep the boundaries of a client/freelancer relationship. Business is business... the more you blur the line between business and personal, the more you'll feel &quot;guilty&quot; or &quot;obligated&quot; to help a &quot;friend&quot; rather than saying &quot;no&quot; to a client. Whether or not I have the space is completely irrelevant. It's *my home* not a bunk house.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, it's a slippery slope. No way would *any* client *ever* be allowed to stay in my home. -- Okay.... I may charge $5000-$10,000 a night and deal with it if they were willing to pay that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding insurance..... if this &quot;employee&quot; slips and falls in your home and then wants compensation for medical bills... and he's there for business reasons... what happens to **you** and **your insurance**? If you have homeowners insurance and they cover a business stay in your home. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are just so many, many reasons to never allow this for any client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15736" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5967" RevisionGUID="9cc90fb0-0985-4bcf-9595-4b485874b050" CreationDate="2016-09-08T20:48:08.030" UserId="708" Comment="added 277 characters in body" Text="#I would **never** allow this under *any* circumstance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The guy can sleep in his car... or the bus/train station for all I care. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if I charged and he's willing to pay, invading my home is **way** over the line for any freelance client. It sends a message, whether direct or indirect, that you'll allow the client to overstep the boundaries of a client/freelancer relationship. Business is business... the more you blur the line between business and personal, the more you'll feel &quot;guilty&quot; or &quot;obligated&quot; to help a &quot;friend&quot; rather than saying &quot;no&quot; to a client. Whether or not I have the space is completely irrelevant. It's *my home* not a bunk house.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, it's a slippery slope. No way would *any* client *ever* be allowed to stay in my home. -- Okay.... I may charge $5000-$10,000 a night and deal with it if they were willing to pay that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding insurance..... if this &quot;employee&quot; slips and falls in your home and then wants compensation for medical bills... and he's there for business reasons... what happens to **you** and **your insurance**? If you have homeowners insurance and they cover a business stay in your home. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are just so many, many reasons to never allow this for any client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also be aware, there's a *marked* difference between a &quot;client you are friendly with&quot; and a &quot;friend&quot;. I'm friendly with practically every client I've ever had... but I'd never call any of them my &quot;friend&quot;. Being friendly in business does *not* make a client your &quot;friend&quot;. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15737" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5968" RevisionGUID="61b4a1e9-f457-40ec-8241-8fcc4e76467b" CreationDate="2016-09-08T20:51:02.033" UserId="5568" Text="I'm planning to make an electronic toy for kids. I was wondering if I'm allowed to sell it if I decide to mass produce.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm guessing electronics goes under some kind of safety license. The voltage should be max. 12V but I'd like to use a transformer that connects to the standard plug (110V). With this, there might be some safety consequences.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will probably ask some company to mass produce. Who will take the liability in case something happens to people? What are my chance to sell my product legally and under the seller protection? &#xD;&#xA;Is there too much bureaucracy and I should just forget it or is there some good and easy way to proceed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15738" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5968" RevisionGUID="61b4a1e9-f457-40ec-8241-8fcc4e76467b" CreationDate="2016-09-08T20:51:02.033" UserId="5568" Text="Making a product that sells without a hassle" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15739" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5968" RevisionGUID="61b4a1e9-f457-40ec-8241-8fcc4e76467b" CreationDate="2016-09-08T20:51:02.033" UserId="5568" Text="|business-plan|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15740" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5969" RevisionGUID="4bf4de37-7914-493d-992d-08350b737d8c" CreationDate="2016-09-08T20:53:41.240" UserId="7486" Text="I would never do that in general, for three reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. If I really want to host a friend (who is really a good friend, not just some coworker) I would do that in name of our friendship, job or no job involved, so I would never ask money to my friend for staying a night at my house.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. It will create a pre-existing fact, so that every time the client will need a place to make people sleep and there is no availability, he will ask you to make them sleep at your house! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. If anything bad happens while he is at your house, and he claims he was there for work, you will be in big troubles.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway if your friend asked you, at personal level, if he can stay at your house, and you called the client asking for money for that... Well It was not a nice move... with all the respect." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15744" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5971" RevisionGUID="4a6ea624-7c54-4d0f-ae4a-13a0eb040fd6" CreationDate="2016-09-09T05:07:19.243" UserId="7858" Text="It's not really a business decision - even though it may have business consequences.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the person is someone you normally would let stay for free - then let them stay for free. If not, then politely decline the request regardless of the money offered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This would clearly keep the arrangement in your private sphere - making it clear to the company that you are doing them a favor. Charging on the other hand, signals that you generally are open to providing lodging.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, if you decide on charging - how much would you charge? A friendly rate? Will you then charge the higher 'complete stranger rate' the next time?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally (in a Danish context), I would actually find it weird if I stayed at a good friend's house and they were reimbursed for the inconvenience. You need to find out whether you are doing a favor or offering a service. Not both." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15745" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5968" RevisionGUID="93163532-df91-48b0-b267-24cf490ee764" CreationDate="2016-09-09T12:29:29.040" UserId="5568" Comment="added 105 characters in body" Text="I'm planning to make an electronic toy for kids. I was wondering if I'm allowed to sell it if I decide to mass produce.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm guessing electronics goes under some kind of safety license. The voltage should be max. 12V but I'd like to use a transformer that connects to the standard plug (110V). With this, there might be some safety consequences.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will probably ask some company to mass produce. Who will take the liability in case something happens to people? What are my chance to sell my product legally and under the seller protection? &#xD;&#xA;Is there too much bureaucracy and I should just forget it or is there some good and easy way to proceed?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've done some research but haven't found much. This is the reason why I posted here. I'm in the USA." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15746" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5968" RevisionGUID="142b452e-47aa-46d6-8ecc-3f94739b076f" CreationDate="2016-09-09T12:52:56.717" UserId="5568" Comment="added 396 characters in body" Text="I'm planning to make an electronic toy for kids. I was wondering if I'm allowed to sell it if I decide to mass produce.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm guessing electronics goes under some kind of safety license. The voltage should be max. 12V but I'd like to use a transformer that connects to the standard plug (110V). With this, there might be some safety consequences.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will probably ask some company to mass produce. Who will take the liability in case something happens to people? What are my chance to sell my product legally and under the seller protection? &#xD;&#xA;Is there too much bureaucracy and I should just forget it or is there some good and easy way to proceed?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've done some research but haven't found much. This is the reason why I posted here. I'm in the USA.&#xD;&#xA;Ok, I also discovered [this][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The cost of the certifications are in tens of thousands. That is very discouraging.&#xD;&#xA;So my question now would be: Will [Intertec][2] cover all of my certification under the US law?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/17057/what-certification-do-you-need-to-sell-electronic-device-to-us-market&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.intertek.com/marks/etl/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15747" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5972" RevisionGUID="66ca248a-a294-4d02-a001-abf65057f46e" CreationDate="2016-09-09T12:52:58.750" UserId="14455" Text="You could start by looking for toy safety legislation. A good starting point is wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_safety&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can look into the whole issue of manufacturing an idea into a product:&#xD;&#xA;https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/77962&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can take a look into liability:&#xD;&#xA;https://www.gov.uk/guidance/product-liability-and-safety-law&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All three links of fantastic content were found by using the first result of a Bing search. You can do similar searches for product funding, product development, design inspirations etc. The internet is mankinds most incredible source of virtually all and any information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should you go ahead and have further questions, you can post them here, or over at http://startups.stackexchange.com/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope that helps. If you have an idea, follow it through. The world is waiting..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15748" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5973" RevisionGUID="8a567884-f2be-409c-b189-01a01f2e8dba" CreationDate="2016-09-09T22:32:40.923" UserId="11760" Text="I work mostly from home, but I do have some clients that want me to commute to their homes for updates. &#xA;&#xA;How should I handle these fees? I would love to hear from people who have experienced this kind if work. :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15749" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5973" RevisionGUID="8a567884-f2be-409c-b189-01a01f2e8dba" CreationDate="2016-09-09T22:32:40.923" UserId="11760" Text="Fees for travel" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15750" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5973" RevisionGUID="8a567884-f2be-409c-b189-01a01f2e8dba" CreationDate="2016-09-09T22:32:40.923" UserId="11760" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15751" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5974" RevisionGUID="c50f231e-a494-4585-ba13-6f95ff0c7056" CreationDate="2016-09-09T23:09:01.987" UserId="7486" Text="It depends on the type of meeting and the &quot;size&quot; of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it is a medium-big project, I usually add a certain amount to the whole price that will cover the first meeting and the next 2 or 3, in terms of work time (for updates, quotes, drafts, etc) and travelling cost. I don't charge directly for the meeting itself but I get payd anyway because it's included in the whole price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I am requested to work at the client's company or office, I charge an hourly rate for all the hours that I stay there plus the time for travelling.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example I stay at client's office for 6 hours plus it takes for me 45 minutes to travel by car from my office, I charge in total 7,5 hours x my hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's what I usually do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also if the clients are reliable and we have a good work relationship, we usually agree by voice and all is ok, otherwise before I go I make them sign an &quot;intervention receipt&quot; with the time I stayed there, the travel time, and final price, so they can't complain after.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15753" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5975" RevisionGUID="74777f4e-dd0c-46a4-9535-62038b916348" CreationDate="2016-09-10T04:12:55.567" UserId="708" Text="I generally don't charge unless there are *unusual* costs involved.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What that means, is...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If I have to drive 150 miles, I'll rent a vehicle and charge the client for the vehicle rental then 50¢/mile for time, then work time on site. I do not charge my hourly rate for drive time.... I can't work on anything and can only drive. While I deserve to be compensated, I don't feel it's justified to charge my hourly rate to drive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If I need to purchase airfare.. the client is charged for that, plus accommodations, in addition to actual work hours on site. I don't charge for actual time traveling. I can work on anything I choose on the plane or in the hotel... so if I happen to be working on the client's projects, then they are charged for that time. But as a blanket rule, there's no direct, automatic charge for travel time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If I have to drive 20 minutes across town... I don't charge for that. I charge for time on site, but not for travel. These costs are so minimal that I just see them as the price for doing business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15754" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3078" RevisionGUID="a25d194d-c0ab-4521-be5b-bdd2e7092649" CreationDate="2016-09-10T05:28:05.737" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/774479538386501632" />
  <row Id="15755" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5974" RevisionGUID="c7a3c32d-2594-4033-b584-4670a47c6b69" CreationDate="2016-09-10T07:43:06.127" UserId="7486" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="It depends on the type of meeting and the &quot;size&quot; of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it is a medium-big project, I usually add a certain amount to the whole price that will cover the first meeting and the next 2 or 3, in terms of work time (for updates, quotes, drafts, etc) and travelling cost. I don't charge directly for the meeting itself but I get paid  anyway because it's included in the whole price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I am requested to work at the client's company or office, I charge an hourly rate for all the hours that I stay there plus the time for travelling.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example I stay at client's office for 6 hours plus it takes for me 45 minutes to travel by car from my office, I charge in total 7,5 hours x my hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's what I usually do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also if the clients are reliable and we have a good work relationship, we usually agree by voice and all is ok, otherwise before I go I make them sign an &quot;intervention receipt&quot; with the time I stayed there, the travel time, and final price, so they can't complain after.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15756" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5976" RevisionGUID="5368cb99-ba38-4a43-8617-076be3d69c22" CreationDate="2016-09-10T15:28:57.703" UserId="14791" Text="I have 3.5 years of experience in IT company at the position of senior Web developer and I want to start work as a freelancer. But my confusion is that  if I don't get inough work then, what? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are the risk if I do that?&#xD;&#xA;How can I get more clients?&#xD;&#xA;Can I charge client to big amount or less?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15757" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5976" RevisionGUID="5368cb99-ba38-4a43-8617-076be3d69c22" CreationDate="2016-09-10T15:28:57.703" UserId="14791" Text="Is it good to leave job for starting freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15758" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5976" RevisionGUID="5368cb99-ba38-4a43-8617-076be3d69c22" CreationDate="2016-09-10T15:28:57.703" UserId="14791" Text="|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15759" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="5976" RevisionGUID="aba514ab-8c6d-4d2a-a172-3df9928165a7" CreationDate="2016-09-10T15:36:56.763" UserId="14791" Comment="edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15760" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4711" RevisionGUID="9e880841-63bd-4269-8c1a-0157e0ba4514" CreationDate="2016-09-10T15:37:38.113" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15761" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5977" RevisionGUID="c9d17b0a-9fd3-4075-9f14-24d82958c050" CreationDate="2016-09-10T16:25:07.623" UserId="14793" Text="I'm thinking about IT freelancing.  What kinds of tools should I think about? So far I have Google calendar, a couple of IDEs for dev work and a bunch of communication options like Skype.  What I need is more business tools and other things I have not thought about.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15762" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5977" RevisionGUID="c9d17b0a-9fd3-4075-9f14-24d82958c050" CreationDate="2016-09-10T16:25:07.623" UserId="14793" Text="What tools do i need to freelance in IT?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15763" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5977" RevisionGUID="c9d17b0a-9fd3-4075-9f14-24d82958c050" CreationDate="2016-09-10T16:25:07.623" UserId="14793" Text="|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15764" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5978" RevisionGUID="fad2e8e8-cc16-4181-93b5-5eea836e630a" CreationDate="2016-09-10T16:32:19.893" UserId="14793" Text="Like anything else in life it's good to try things first.  Research your niche and see if you get clients.  There's plenty of freelance sites for web developers.  With time you'll get the reputation you deserve.  From other answers I've seen here on this site freelancing does work and you should not have too much difficulty with it.  Clients come from hard work.  Feel out your clients' needs and see what they can do regarding fees.  With different clients come different fees.  I wish you luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15765" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5979" RevisionGUID="35754dd8-d806-49a0-9232-d8f53b8169a1" CreationDate="2016-09-10T20:19:46.080" UserId="2265" Text="There is no concrete answer to &quot;what if there isn't enough work?&quot;. That's the risk you take as a freelancer: no work = no money. You lose the safety net of an employer that sends you a pay check every month.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is also why most freelancers I know (including myself) didn't just quit their job / resign and started looking for freelance work after that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They usually already started working a little on the side, making a website, building an app or doing some odd consultancy before they made the switch to full time freelancer. Others already had made some inquiries within their network to make sure they would indeed have some work if they turn freelancer.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So ask around, investigate the market in your area, find some agencies that act as a middle man between you and clients (they'll take their percentage, but you don't have to look for client). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Important thing: make some estimates, try to figure out how much revenue you would need to make the switch to freelancing viable. Play around with different rates, number of hours you want to work. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15766" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5980" RevisionGUID="e5b064cc-cf57-424c-ba13-7e59d3606901" CreationDate="2016-09-10T20:41:02.517" UserId="2265" Text="When I work with freelancers I request a timesheet which includes hours worked per day and a small description of what they did. &#xD;&#xA;(I deliver the same to my clients). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And I think that's as good as it gets, verify the hours with the description, as long as that makes sense it's fine (i.e. number of hours worked are reasonable for the task they performed). If it doesn't, discuss with the freelancer or fire him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that many countries have laws regarding the freedom a freelancer should have to be marked a freelancer. If a strong hierarchical relationship exists he/she will be considered an employee instead of freelancer. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15767" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5981" RevisionGUID="bd0aa7b1-f3d7-4637-943b-ecd443ea2819" CreationDate="2016-09-10T21:14:25.193" UserId="708" Text="Plain and simple.... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't have 6 months to 1 year of savings to live off of, you aren't adequately prepared to start freelancing full time. You can do it part time and keep your job. However, until you are prepared to live, without income, for several months you aren't ready for full time freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And *this* is how you prepare for &quot;no work&quot; periods." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15768" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5982" RevisionGUID="711c2d5f-ffa3-4a57-93b8-02004e84bab8" CreationDate="2016-09-10T21:18:26.893" UserId="14455" Text="You are so putting the cart before the horse. The first thing you will need is a customer. Your customer will requires something done. You can then consider what tools you need to get that job done. IT is too broad a topic, you could be laying cables for all I know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To get a customer you will need a telephone and a business card (perhaps). For an online customer you will probably need a website, but a profile page would do on LinkedIn or FB or wherever. Your website could just be a blogspot blog for instance. On most job sites they give you a profile page to fill in anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;References are good, get three written ones you can show people on or offline, which can be called and are happy to say how nice and reliable or skilled you are. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anything else you build up as and when you need it. Need to send an invoice, look into invoice programs or knock something up on Excel or Open Office. Need a todo list, use any online todo lists, need a calendar, use any online calendar, need a project management tool, use any online project management tools you want. None of this matters without a customer. You will not get a customer until you approach people. So the only tools you need initially are the things that prove you can do what you say you can, that your are honest and trustworthy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everything else you can sort out later, as and when you need it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15769" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5983" RevisionGUID="b1069a88-c30d-44cd-9ff3-b9d2729e5353" CreationDate="2016-09-10T21:28:13.943" UserId="14455" Text="I would add that if you live with your parents, will always be fed and have a roof over your head, then your living costs are pretty small.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if you have a mortgage, a family and children to feed, and high living costs then you are risking a lot more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Calculate your living costs, what is the monthly (and weekly) figure? Save up enough for four months, the quit and go for it. But before quitting as others have said start building your online portfolio or profile. Get your website up and running and get your service offering sorted out. Do a couple of free jobs for local charities in your spare time for your portfolio. It will feel like having two jobs for a while but it will be worth it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then when you are ready to take the plunge, and can support yourself for 4 months, quit as nicely as you can, (even with the potential to return if possible, no need to burn any bridges), and go for it. If you cannot find a customer in 3 months, use the last months of savings to find another job, or a part time job, or go back to your old one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always have one month covered in reserve, that should only be used when you are giving up and going back to work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you have no money at all, the world can seem a hard and indifferent place, so do not put yourself in that position, whatever you do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15770" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5982" RevisionGUID="886b4268-3e37-4b7a-89f2-19ff370b0afe" CreationDate="2016-09-11T00:05:37.050" UserId="14455" Comment="minor typo" Text="You are so putting the cart before the horse. The first thing you will need is a customer. Your customer will require something done. You can then consider what tools you need to get that job done. IT is too broad a topic, you could be laying cables for all I know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To get a customer you will need a telephone and a business card (perhaps). For an online customer you will probably need a website, but a profile page would do on LinkedIn or FB or wherever. Your website could just be a blogspot blog for instance. On most job sites they give you a profile page to fill in anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;References are good, get three written ones you can show people on or offline, which can be called and are happy to say how nice and reliable or skilled you are. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anything else you build up as and when you need it. Need to send an invoice, look into invoice programs or knock something up on Excel or Open Office. Need a todo list, use any online todo lists, need a calendar, use any online calendar, need a project management tool, use any online project management tools you want. None of this matters without a customer. You will not get a customer until you approach people. So the only tools you need initially are the things that prove you can do what you say you can, that your are honest and trustworthy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everything else you can sort out later, as and when you need it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15771" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5984" RevisionGUID="6d7a236c-7cb9-4ad9-83df-d9572ef9c867" CreationDate="2016-09-11T02:36:23.023" UserId="14797" Text="I would say it depends highly on what you can show of your 3.5 years experience. Saying you have that much experience (or any for that matter) is not enough to rely on landing clients. Your work will better speak for itself; For example listing projects you were involved with and what your role(s) contributed. I'll use WordPress development as a basic example: Did your experience include development roles? Did you contribute to any major updates? Or did you provide technical support to end users? IT is an over coined term and broadly used. I find clients much prefer specifics. I think it would be a bad idea to quit while banking on the idea that experience sells alone, and would suggest attempting to freelance a little on the side while holding your current job to see how things go." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15772" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5985" RevisionGUID="440e0331-6b81-4cb0-9a8d-f241913f8865" CreationDate="2016-09-11T05:44:44.273" UserId="14796" Text="I want to start an e-commerce, but I don’t have web/app developing background. I took several courses to get me started so I can communicate with developers. I need the web to be done by end of Dec, and the app to be done by end of Apr. My plan is to hire a full-stack developer. However, I will also continue my education in full stack development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before I ask my questions, here is a brief description of what I need to be built:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.A web+app with at least 4 pages&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;a.Front pg + Products (20-30 products that may be changed once every 6 months)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;b.Shopping Cart&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;c.Login + Account info (Store customer data including CC info, use Paypal)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;d.About us&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.From my online courses and research, the following tools would be great for this job:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;a.Web front end: Bootstrap + Angular&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;b.App (Android + iOS) front end: Ionic + Cordova&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;c.Back end: Node or PHP&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are my questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.I already have a detailed design with clearly defined specs and functionalities of the web and app. What do you think would be a reasonable time in hours to develop 2a, 2b, 2c? Please indicate your yrs of experience if you don’t mind. The answers might vary significantly depending on the person’s experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.Are there better tools than what I mentioned?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.Are there any particular areas that I need to pay attention to if I hire freelancers?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4.Given the timeline, how many developers do you think are needed for this job?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you very much for your help. Your answers are very important for me. If you need additional information, please feel free to pm me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you again,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Eric" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15773" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5985" RevisionGUID="440e0331-6b81-4cb0-9a8d-f241913f8865" CreationDate="2016-09-11T05:44:44.273" UserId="14796" Text="Cost estimation for an e-commerce Web and App development" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15774" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5985" RevisionGUID="440e0331-6b81-4cb0-9a8d-f241913f8865" CreationDate="2016-09-11T05:44:44.273" UserId="14796" Text="|price|consulting|web-development|budget|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15775" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5974" RevisionGUID="ab0d3aa2-bbf4-42dd-ba44-ab1d202def92" CreationDate="2016-09-11T08:29:37.197" UserId="7486" Comment="clarification" Text="It depends on the type of meeting and the &quot;size&quot; of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it is a medium-big project, I usually add a certain amount to the whole price that will cover the first meeting and the next 2 or 3, in terms of work time (for updates, quotes, drafts, etc) and travelling cost. I don't charge directly for the meeting itself but I get paid  anyway because it's included in the whole price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I am requested to work at the client's company or office, I charge an hourly rate for all the hours that I stay there plus the time for travelling.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example I stay at client's office for 6 hours plus it takes for me 45 minutes to travel by car from my office, I charge in total 7,5 hours x my hourly rate. Because if you in your working hours stop to work to drive 1 hour to your client, you could use that time to do something else that will produce a gain for you, also you are spending money for fuel etc, that's why is correct to charge for the travel. It's a refund for gain loss and car expenses that you wouldn't have if you didn't have to go there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course if the client is close and I take 30 minutes or less I don't charge anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also if the clients are reliable and we have a good work relationship, we usually agree by voice and all is ok, otherwise before I go I make them sign an &quot;intervention receipt&quot; with the time I stayed there, the travel time, and final price, so they can't complain after.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15776" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5986" RevisionGUID="b9dbdc6b-3af6-4347-ad30-4e8fd43f7211" CreationDate="2016-09-11T09:32:44.430" UserId="7486" Text="I was in a similar situation like 20 years ago. I left the company where I was working as graphic and web developer and started to work on my own in my small home office. Between bad and good periods I was never totally without works to do, most of the time I was/am with too much work and I ask for help to freelance collegues in my area. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I had not much work I dedicated myself to personal projects that gave satisfactions in terms or gain and success, later I sold these sites to other companies when I wanted to move on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I can say is to be polite and very clear with the clients on your rates, on how you work and what they can expect from you, respect what you say, respect deadlines and milestones, if you are not sure of something that is asked to you, be clear, say no or get some time to be informed. If you have a problem during a project be clear and talk about that with your client. Sincerity and reliability is very appreciated for long term relationships with good clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be ready to learn new things and move in unknown areas when is worth it, be ready to abandon things that you know very well for completely new things that you barely know (I was a skilled Flash/Actionscript developer, I don't even open the software since 2-3 years or more).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After the first 2-3 years of freelancing, 99% of the next my clients came to me (and still come) by word of mouth of other clients who suggested me as a reliable professional, rather than advertisements or websites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to move in your local area you must build a very good reputation as a professional and reliable person if you want to be a freelancer for long time. During these years I saw many freelancers and web agencies open and close after a few or more years, because they concentrated more on the &quot;sell and abandon&quot; strategy than to enstablish a good healty work relationship with their clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck for your career.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15777" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5986" RevisionGUID="7cdf1074-0439-45d8-9860-04c41b320c05" CreationDate="2016-09-11T09:44:20.507" UserId="7486" Comment="Typos" Text="I was in a similar situation like 20 years ago. I left the company where I was working as graphic and web developer and started to work on my own in my small home office. Between bad and good periods I was never totally without works to do, most of the time I was/am with too much work and I ask for help to freelance collegues in my area. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I had not much work I dedicated myself to personal projects that gave satisfactions in terms of gain and success, later I sold these sites to other companies when I wanted to move on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I can say is to be polite and very clear with the clients on your rates, on how you work and what they can expect from you, respect what you say, respect deadlines and milestones, if you are not sure of something that is asked to you, be clear, say no or get some time to be informed. If you have a problem during a project be clear and talk about that with your client. Sincerity and reliability is very appreciated for long term relationships with good clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be ready to learn new things and move in unknown areas when is worth it, be ready to abandon things that you know very well for completely new things that you barely know (I was a skilled Flash/Actionscript developer, I don't even open the software since 2-3 years or more).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After the first 2-3 years of freelancing, 99% of the next clients came to me (and still come) by word of mouth of other clients who suggested me as a reliable professional, rather than advertisements or websites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to move in your local area you must build a very good reputation as a professional and reliable person if you want to be a freelancer for long time. During these years I saw many freelancers and web agencies open and close after a few or more years, because they concentrated more on the &quot;sell and abandon&quot; strategy (or they were unreliable or only sleek image and poor results) than to enstablish a good healty work relationship with their clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck for your career.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15778" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3028" RevisionGUID="f90f2056-cf36-4d5a-b7d4-5d01ac71f1b9" CreationDate="2016-09-11T19:52:44.897" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15779" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5976" RevisionGUID="222af389-dce4-4011-a638-136c7842170f" CreationDate="2016-09-12T08:13:54.297" UserId="13016" Comment="punctuation and grammar" Text="I have 3.5 years of experience in an IT company at the position of senior Web developer and I want to start work as a freelancer. If I don't get enough work, then what? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are the risks if I do that?&#xD;&#xA;How can I get more clients?&#xD;&#xA;Do I charge clients a high rate, or low?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15780" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="5976" RevisionGUID="222af389-dce4-4011-a638-136c7842170f" CreationDate="2016-09-12T08:13:54.297" UserId="13016" Comment="punctuation and grammar" Text="Is it good to leave a job to start freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15781" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="5976" RevisionGUID="222af389-dce4-4011-a638-136c7842170f" CreationDate="2016-09-12T08:13:54.297" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 14791 edit id of 490" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15782" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5987" RevisionGUID="c05ae57d-70bb-4412-ae90-27f00ba9d0aa" CreationDate="2016-09-12T10:24:23.680" UserId="14455" Text="Prices for development as you describe vary considerably form country to country, even within countries, and sometimes even within counties within countries. They vary from developer to developer, agency to agency, and it is impossible to give you a meaningful quote.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, any quote provided, in three years time, will not be a valueable answer for any other reader, so it makes no sense to give you a figure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Accurate quotes take time to do, which is why any Freelancer doing one does so on the basis of actually getting the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are buying a car, you do not need to take a course in car mechanics or engineering. If you are buying a computer, you do not need to take a course in microchip design.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your concern over communicating with a developer assumes developers cannot speak about their work to laymen. For freelancers, if this was true, it would not bode well for their career.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer that builds these sort of things as my bread and butter, and have done so for over ten years, I can tell you that your 'specs' are the sort of gibberish I see from customers all the time. Our job is to get to the nub of the matter. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice would be to forget that you happen to want to learn this stuff for yourself, and go and visit some development agencies or freelancers in your city/town/local area, talk to them about your needs, let them ask the sort of questions that we really need answered, even if at the time you do not recognize the importance of your responses to certain questions. Be open and up front with your budget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Choose the agency that you feel most comfortable working with, and can offer you a solution within your budget." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15783" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5988" RevisionGUID="215bba4a-f917-4f94-96bc-f42de47666b4" CreationDate="2016-09-12T13:56:18.693" UserId="11760" Text="What kind of essential elements should I ask to have on my contract? I can't afford an actual lawyer right now so I am using online services. I will, of course, have them check it. &#xA;&#xA;Anyways, here are things I thought of:&#xA;&#xA; - late fees&#xA; - tasks beyond scope of work&#xA; - private policy&#xA; - arbitration&#xA; - project cancellation&#xA; - digital asset ownership&#xA; - consultation fees&#xA; - meeting deadline policy&#xA; - deliverables&#xA; - specific needs (if clients need an update an hour a week, etc)&#xA; - deposits&#xA; - retainers&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;...Is there anything else I should consider???" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15784" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5988" RevisionGUID="215bba4a-f917-4f94-96bc-f42de47666b4" CreationDate="2016-09-12T13:56:18.693" UserId="11760" Text="Essential elements on contracts" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15785" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5988" RevisionGUID="215bba4a-f917-4f94-96bc-f42de47666b4" CreationDate="2016-09-12T13:56:18.693" UserId="11760" Text="|contracts|legal|payment-terms|consulting|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15787" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5990" RevisionGUID="e946c3a3-0c8e-4fcc-bf66-df2ab5565c4c" CreationDate="2016-09-12T16:44:46.157" UserId="14793" Text="Should I ask every client to sign a contract?  In other words, does it show professionalism or does it turn people off?  Should I ask for a contract if the job is a certain length or certain importance?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15788" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5990" RevisionGUID="e946c3a3-0c8e-4fcc-bf66-df2ab5565c4c" CreationDate="2016-09-12T16:44:46.157" UserId="14793" Text="Should I ask every client to sign a contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15789" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5990" RevisionGUID="e946c3a3-0c8e-4fcc-bf66-df2ab5565c4c" CreationDate="2016-09-12T16:44:46.157" UserId="14793" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15790" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5991" RevisionGUID="d9acc3ea-6977-4da3-a846-e58a4597d412" CreationDate="2016-09-12T17:05:00.840" UserId="11579" Text="Yes! Yes! Yes!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I rolled my eyes when I read your question... sorry... but I did.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract is there for both of you and if you read questions elsewhere on freelancing, you'll read several who cut corners and found themselves with headaches.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Contracts set expectations. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your expectations:&#xD;&#xA;Do you expect to be paid? How much? When? For what? If your client is late paying, what happens? If you are late delivering, what happens? If you under-deliver, or miss-deliver, what happens?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your clients expectations:&#xD;&#xA;They expect you to deliver a product or service.  Your interpretation of the product or service is more than likely different than your clients expectations, and worse, both of you will differ the result. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Think...*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your client expects a bushel of apples, you deliver green, they expected red. Their idea of a bushel contains larger apples, your bushel idea contains many smaller apples.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So now... you have paid workers to pick those green apples, you don't know anyone else who wants green apples so you hope your customer will still take them off you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But they wanted red apples.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So... who decides on a compromise? Who decides that they pay you 80% of what you expected? 50% of what you expected? Who decides they pay you anything at all?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's say one of your apples is bad - too much weed killer sprayed, it kills someone. Your customer of course should have washed the apples, but they thought you washed the apples. Who is liable? The courts will decide. And without a contract that makes clear on where responsibility lie's, you'll be at the mercy of the court.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every bus or train ticket you ever got, every rental car, every hotel room, they all came with a contract even if you did not know it. Its there to protect you, and them. It sets limits/boundaries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A contract is like a seat belt in a car. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't need it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Until you need it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15791" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5992" RevisionGUID="afd1bfa6-2ba5-4e4c-9e4a-93680d9ed885" CreationDate="2016-09-12T17:14:19.803" UserId="11579" Text="I agree with @Mario's comments. I have a PDF that was made available by the PCG in the UK (Professional Contractors Group I think it stood for before they were taken over). It was free, and put together by lawyers, it had a few re-writes as laws changed. For example, within Europe, one has to take great care to avoid an employee/employer relationship otherwise who ever pays the invoice could be held liable for non-payment of deductions normally done on a salary paid person. There is no rule that defines who is an employee but an accumulation of working conditions can dictate if the service provider is in the eyes of the law considered an employee (salary worker, taxes/health/pension/holiday/sick/other benefits paid for by employer) as opposed to service provider (paid a premium because they cover their own taxes/benefits).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't re-create the wheel - you must live near a small business association that should be able to help you. Or get someone else's contract and make changes to it (then get someone else to review it)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15792" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5993" RevisionGUID="87f7dcd3-5e45-4d62-805d-447416fd8028" CreationDate="2016-09-12T17:54:39.567" UserId="1706" Text="**Payment Terms**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Payment terms are imposed to ensure that payments are received by you within a reasonable period of time of finishing the work.  Many freelancers miss this important component.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I prefer Net 15 (or shorter) terms.  Be sure to discuss this with your client.  If the client balks at a short turnaround on payments, **this is a red flag**.  If the client tries the old game of &quot;we'll pay you when *we* get paid&quot;, RUN!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;More payment terms are [here][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Payment Milestones**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is relates your deliverables.  If you're not working on a time-and-materials basis, be sure to connect your deliverables to specific payment-due amounts, and create invoices upon completing milestones instead of waiting until the end of the project.  This reduces the risk of you not getting paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/payment-terms-commonly-used-invoice-payment-terms-and-their-meanings" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15793" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5994" RevisionGUID="76625b5e-dce8-4c9b-8b63-7a774910ac25" CreationDate="2016-09-12T18:28:03.667" UserId="708" Text="The important aspect of any contract for me are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- What work will be done (Scope)&#xD;&#xA;- When is it to be completed (Deadlines)&#xD;&#xA;- What exactly is the final product (Deliverables)&#xD;&#xA;- How much will the Client be expected to pay and when (Fee and payment schedule, cancellation clause, deposits)&#xD;&#xA;- Who owns the final product (Ownership)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These is the crux of any contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Something no one ever tells anyone.... **The longer your contract the *more* it's going to scare off clients.** You don't need to have a long, double-speaking, legalese, contract to be protected. Contracts don't need to appear to be written by an attorney with decades of experience. Contracts merely need to detail what the parties are agreeing to, that's all. The problem with most &quot;contract templates&quot; is they are taken from a law firm or attorney-written and, well, attorney's *like* reading and writing &quot;legalese&quot; so they are generally full of it unnecessarily. And since most freelancer aren't lawyers, they assume they need to stick to some attorney-written script. You do not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't even *necessarily* need anything signed. For example (in the US), if you send an email detailing the above and the client replies that they agree, that could be seen as a contract. I've had some clients that are fantastic clients, but just don't like dealing with signing 2-3 pages of legalese contracts. However, If I layout the above in clear, common language terms, they have no problem agreeing to it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Contracts are **always** beneficial (to both parties) so they are **always** a good idea. However, just because it's a &quot;contract&quot; doesn't mean it has to appear to be presentable to the Supreme Court or based upon 4-5 page contract templates you find online. The **primary goal** of *any* contract is to merely put in writing what both parties agree to. While they are a good idea, being *too* &quot;legalese&quot; in contract can be a real turn off for some clients/people. Keep it simple, straight-forward, and clear.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Over the years I've whittled down my contract to a simple, single-sided, page/PDF that lists the above items for any project in *simple, plain* English. I also include an area for &quot;Assumptions&quot; which contains specific notes on the scope of that project, client responsibilities in terms of delivering content, etc. but I don't bother detailing a bunch of legal stuff that is unwarranted and included just to make the contract *appear* more &quot;legal&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can scribble on a bar napkin &quot;I'll create your web site, you pay me $xxx&quot; and both sign it.. that's a contract.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15794" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5995" RevisionGUID="840571ac-6409-4fd3-8327-c46854feb3b7" CreationDate="2016-09-12T18:49:09.550" UserId="708" Text="Well.... it depends....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Quite honestly I don't bother with contracts for small jobs. But I'm also aware that I **assume the risk** when doing so. I know that without a contract it's entirely possible I get stiffed and have little recourse. But in some cases the trouble to go file a claim, appear in court/arbitration, and then pay collection fees just isn't worth it. Be aware, US courts **do not** collect money for you if you win. You still have to collect yourself. That may mean hiring collection agencies, etc. Winning in court just gives you *legal right* to collect (garnishment, liens, etc). No one *has* to give you a check when you leave the courthouse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone wants something quick and easy for $100... I'm not asking them to sign a contract for that. I just need *anything* in writing that states they agree to pay what I've told them it'll cost (generally email, but texts in some cases).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I use contracts with *new* clients for projects of generally high 3 figures or more. *Or for any project which has complex deliverables, scope, and reoccurring payments.* If a project is *very* involved and deadlines are dispersed or milestones are necessary.. a contract is really a wise choice to put in clear writing what everyone thinks is the agreement. The more detailed a project is the more a contract becomes mandatory.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For repeat clients I tend to waive the contract more and more. Once trust has been established I rely on that. Sure I could get stuck in some of these cases, but in my experience, if a client pays without issue once or twice, chances are they will always pay and taking an extra day to deal with contract signing is often more delay than is necessary. I get them to agree to pricing/deadlines via email... then see that as enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'll never tell anyone to *not* use a contract. But there are cases where a full-blown overly detailed, 3 page contract may be a bit much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15795" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5995" RevisionGUID="b8c63d8b-dcc2-4ac2-b721-4efc5aba41fc" CreationDate="2016-09-12T18:56:08.343" UserId="708" Comment="added 284 characters in body" Text="Well.... it depends....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Quite honestly I don't bother with contracts for small jobs. But I'm also aware that I **assume the risk** when doing so. I know that without a contract it's entirely possible I get stiffed and have little recourse. But in some cases the trouble to go file a claim, appear in court/arbitration, and then pay collection fees just isn't worth it. Be aware, US courts **do not** collect money for you if you win. You still have to collect yourself. That may mean hiring collection agencies, etc. Winning in court just gives you *legal right* to collect (garnishment, liens, etc). No one *has* to give you a check when you leave the courthouse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone wants something quick and easy for $100... I'm not asking them to sign a contract for that. I just need *anything* in writing that states they agree to pay what I've told them it'll cost (generally email, but texts in some cases). But I do this far more for discussion points later than any legal reason. If they refuse to pay me the $100, I'll point out that they agreed to pay. But chances are, I'm not taking them to small claims for $100. I'll just make it know that &quot;CompanyX/PersonX&quot; doesn't pay their bills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I use contracts with *new* clients for projects of generally high 3 figures or more. *Or for any project which has complex deliverables, scope, and reoccurring payments.* If a project is *very* involved and deadlines are dispersed or milestones are necessary.. a contract is really a wise choice to put in clear writing what everyone thinks is the agreement. **The more detailed a project is the more a contract becomes mandatory.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For repeat clients I tend to waive the contract more and more. Once trust has been established I rely on that. Sure I could get stuck in some of these cases, but in my experience, if a client pays without issue once or twice, chances are they will always pay and taking an extra day to deal with contract signing is often more delay than is necessary. I get them to agree to pricing/deadlines via email... then see that as enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'll never tell anyone to *not* use a contract. But there are cases where a full-blown overly detailed, 3 page contract may be a bit much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15796" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5995" RevisionGUID="2f1278bb-479d-45f9-8c2e-85719fd684ea" CreationDate="2016-09-12T19:02:49.353" UserId="708" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="Well.... it depends....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Quite honestly I don't bother with contracts for small jobs. But I'm also aware that I **assume the risk** when doing so. I know that without a contract it's entirely possible I get stiffed and have little recourse. But in some cases the trouble to go file a claim, appear in court/arbitration, and then pay collection fees just isn't worth it. Be aware, US courts **do not** collect money for you if you win. You still have to collect yourself. That may mean hiring collection agencies, etc. Winning in court just gives you *legal right* to collect (garnishment, liens, etc). No one *has* to give you a check when you leave the courthouse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone wants something quick and easy for $100... I'm not asking them to sign a contract for that. I just need *anything* in writing that states they agree to pay what I've told them it'll cost (generally email, but texts in some cases). But I do this far more for discussion points later than any legal reason. If they refuse to pay me the $100, I'll point out that they agreed to pay. But chances are, I'm not taking them to small claims for $100. I'll just make it known that &quot;CompanyX/PersonX&quot; doesn't pay their bills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I use contracts with *new* clients for projects of generally high 3 figures or more. *Or for any project which has complex deliverables, scope, and reoccurring payments.* If a project is *very* involved and deadlines are dispersed or milestones are necessary.. a contract is really a wise choice to put in clear writing what everyone thinks is the agreement. **The more detailed a project is the more a contract becomes mandatory.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For repeat clients I tend to waive the contract more and more. Once trust has been established I rely on that. Sure I could get stuck in some of these cases, but in my experience, if a client pays without issue once or twice, chances are they will always pay and taking an extra day to deal with contract signing is often more delay than is necessary. I get them to agree to pricing/deadlines via email... then see that as enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'll never tell anyone to *not* use a contract. But there are cases where a full-blown overly detailed, 3 page contract may be a bit much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15797" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5996" RevisionGUID="218dab3c-732e-4a08-ad53-516c9d03e692" CreationDate="2016-09-12T19:21:57.440" UserId="14810" Text="Longtime ...Exchange lurker. First Question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a few projects in need of freelance developer(s). First and foremost is an experienced web dev for an ASP.NET MVC project. I am not a recruiter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I checked prior questions/answers... There are a lot of helpful responses regarding assistance for Freelancers, but nothing I could find regarding where the best place to FIND [serious, professional] freelancers would be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancing community, where do you look for the most dependable freelance project work?  I would prefer to stay away from sites such as CraigsList, and do not wish to go through an &quot;IT Service&quot; company that just recruits other devs and turns paperwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance for your responses." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15798" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="5996" RevisionGUID="218dab3c-732e-4a08-ad53-516c9d03e692" CreationDate="2016-09-12T19:21:57.440" UserId="14810" Text="Where is the best place to POST a project looking for a freelance developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15799" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="5996" RevisionGUID="218dab3c-732e-4a08-ad53-516c9d03e692" CreationDate="2016-09-12T19:21:57.440" UserId="14810" Text="|freelance-websites|small-projects|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15801" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5997" RevisionGUID="b0acbad2-2fea-4045-9ab1-de1020db7459" CreationDate="2016-09-12T19:55:42.897" UserId="14455" Text="Everyone will have a different opinion depending on their skill set, preferences and location. Why not post your jobs here on stack overflow?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://stackoverflow.com/jobs&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other than that, your search engine is your friend, just search and research which site offers you the value and response rate you are happy with. You are always going to have to judge applicants yourself anyway, so I would suggest you support stackoverflow and use their service." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15802" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5998" RevisionGUID="790ba3f2-8268-42cc-852d-ffcdd80b5e33" CreationDate="2016-09-12T21:52:18.097" UserId="708" Text="Quite honestly...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The best place to find freelance workers is by asking the people you know**.... Word of mouth is generally the optimal method to finding quality workers/vendors in *any* field. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I never look online or in the yellow pages for contractors to work on my home.. I ask homeowners I know who they use. The same is true for *any* profession.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The primary issue for both clients and workers on freelance sites is that *everyone* is a username and 8bit ASCii text does **not** convey tone or inflection. So read all the reviews you want, you'll be hard pressed to tell if someone is being sarcastic at times. Or even if the review is legitimate in some cases. I find, online it's much easier for unscrupulous people to appear legitimate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If no one I knew had any recommendations, I'd be first shopping *locally* for workers that I could meet in person. Face to face will tell you **a lot** more about someone than *anything* online ever will. Heck, even a phone call is better at conveying dedication, interest, and experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also be aware, that many successful freelancers never bother with online middleman sites and forfeiting commissions; Such sites aren't really necessary if you've built a stable of reliable, return, clients. So you'll never see these types of workers at online sites. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end.... everything is just a roll of the dice regardless of what you use to find people. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't. And that's true for any business relationship. Your guess is as good as anyone else's. You'll find freelancers that state www.example.com is the best thing since sliced bread... and you'll find others that think only rip-off clients use www.example.com. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15803" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="5999" RevisionGUID="f2360aec-f22e-4003-b663-04dc59d820cd" CreationDate="2016-09-13T08:01:54.230" UserId="7486" Text="I don't always make clients sign contracts for small tasks, but I should, mainly for these very important reasons:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Declaration of release on digital and physical ownership of the materials that the client provides to me (brands, photos, texts, etc). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Acceptance of privacy and sensible data treatment policy  (in EU is a big issue in terms of bureaucracy and high penalties).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Explicitly fix limits of your service to what is written in the contract and nothing else. More times happened to me that if you set up an ecommerce, or else, the client naively assume that is included that you must provide courses on how Internet works, how to use the scanner, fix issues with antivirus interacting with the email client, fix broken printers, clean the office and bring coffee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway I have a 4 pages contract (two with job specs and data, two with standard legalese stuff) and during all these years only one time happened that the client got to read it and asked me clarification. For other hundreds contract everyone signed it on pure faith without even whatcing it (they sign a declaration that they fully read it!).&#xD;&#xA;But where I live is normal because people are used, if you open a bank account or a telephone line you sign like 15 times a contract big nearly as a 20-30 pages.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15804" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5999" RevisionGUID="abbf2147-892f-4842-9909-0013a9b6105e" CreationDate="2016-09-13T08:20:58.217" UserId="7486" Comment="clarification and typos" Text="I don't always make clients sign contracts for small tasks (I do always for all the rest), but I should, mainly for these very important reasons:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Declaration of release on ownership of digital and physical materials that the client provides to me (brands, photos, texts, etc). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Acceptance of privacy and sensible data treatment policy  (in EU is a big issue in terms of bureaucracy and high penalties).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Explicitly fix limits of your service to what is written in the contract and nothing else. This may sounds obvious but more times happened to me that if you set up an ecommerce, or else, the client naively assume that is included that you must provide courses on how Internet works, how to use the scanner, fix issues with antivirus interacting with the email client, fix broken printers, clean the office and bring coffee. If that happens and the client is stubborn or trying to take advantage on you, you have your contract that he/she signed. I added that to my contracts specifically after a couple of times that people started to ask me anything and call me at every hour for any computer related problem, assuming that I had to provide assistance in things that I couldn't care less and totally out of the work that I had to do. (I'm open to give advices or solve some problem once in a while, but not on a regular beasis or client pretending me to do so).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway I have a 4 pages contract (one page front/back with job specs and data, another page front/back with standard legalese stuff) and during all these years only one time happened that the client got to read it and asked me for clarification. For other hundreds contracts everyone signed it on pure faith without even watching it (they sign a declaration that they fully read and understood it!).&#xD;&#xA;But where I live is normal because people are used, if you open a bank account, an adsl or a telephone line you sign like 15 times on contracts big nearly as a 20-30 pages with legal texts impossible to understand even if you try (unless you are a specilized lawyer then you can try an interpetation).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15805" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5999" RevisionGUID="1ae5036e-3c51-4be5-86cc-0075e8cb46b3" CreationDate="2016-09-13T08:41:38.760" UserId="7486" Comment="typo" Text="I don't always make clients sign contracts for small tasks (I do always for all the rest), but I should, mainly for these very important reasons:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Declaration of release on ownership of digital and physical materials that the client provides to me (brands, photos, texts, etc). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Acceptance of privacy and sensible data treatment policy  (in EU is a big issue in terms of bureaucracy and high penalties).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Explicitly fix limits of your service to what is written in the contract and nothing else. This may sounds obvious but more times happened to me that if you set up an ecommerce, or else, the client naively assume that is included that you must provide courses on how Internet works, how to use the scanner, fix issues with antivirus interacting with the email client, fix broken printers, clean the office and bring coffee. If that happens and the client is stubborn or trying to take advantage on you, you have your contract that he/she signed. I added that to my contracts specifically after a couple of times that people started to ask me anything and call me at every hour for any computer related problem, assuming that I had to provide assistance in things that I couldn't care less and totally out of the work that I had to do. (I'm open to give advices or solve some problem once in a while, but not on a regular basis or client pretending me to do so).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway I have a 4 pages contract (one page front/back with job specs and data, another page front/back with standard legalese stuff) and during all these years only one time happened that the client got to read it and asked me for clarification. For other hundreds contracts everyone signed it on pure faith without even watching it (they sign a declaration that they fully read and understood it!).&#xD;&#xA;But where I live is normal because people are used, if you open a bank account, an adsl or a telephone line you sign like 15 times on contracts big nearly as a 20-30 pages with legal texts impossible to understand even if you try (unless you are a specilized lawyer then you can try an interpetation).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15806" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6000" RevisionGUID="85527cca-a442-48fb-9e44-edf8da17a556" CreationDate="2016-09-13T13:08:15.520" UserId="14793" Text="I have been looking for clients for quite some time.  I'm an IT freelancer.  Besides the usual Google search and freelance web sites I ask to know about other sources." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15807" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6000" RevisionGUID="85527cca-a442-48fb-9e44-edf8da17a556" CreationDate="2016-09-13T13:08:15.520" UserId="14793" Text="How to find clients for IT freelancing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15808" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6000" RevisionGUID="85527cca-a442-48fb-9e44-edf8da17a556" CreationDate="2016-09-13T13:08:15.520" UserId="14793" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15809" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6001" RevisionGUID="faa39a52-b497-4c3a-b3ec-5b7fa2acc443" CreationDate="2016-09-13T18:50:57.220" UserId="14455" Text="I use three documents. Standard terms and conditions of service, schedule of work, and quotation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The quote says it will cost this much, with this deposit and this much due on so and so etc. It also has on it that this is a quotation for work detailed in the schedule of work, and that you agree to our terms and conditions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The schedule of work also has reference to our standard terms and conditions. This document outlines the work covered in the quote, what will be done, by when, who signs off etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The standard terms and conditions are on the website, and cover all the 'No refunds. Work is mine until paid stuff'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the last ten years barely a single customer has ever asked for the terms and conditions. They pay their deposit, I start work. If they want to add something into the schedule of work they get a separate quote, a schedule of work for the amendment, and if they want to include it, they can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not ask anyone to sign anything ever. There is simply no need when the quote and the schedules all say you agree and are bound to our standard terms and conditions of service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know a lot of people will bemoan this attitude. The only time I have come unstuck was when I agreed to start work without a full deposit, and that customer duly disappeared. I learned my lesson and moved on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS You should never be out of pocket during a project. The deposit should at least cover any initial outlay and a big % of your time that you have invested in the project. If it is a big project, you have payment points along the way to keep the project rolling. If the customer bails at any time you are covered and have not lost anything, except the nice profit margin you were expecting as the final payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15810" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6002" RevisionGUID="24a76c88-5788-45e1-a1d6-406a9ef9ac8a" CreationDate="2016-09-13T20:31:52.633" UserId="14699" Text="I have a client that has on 4 separate occasions scheduled then canceled appointments to meet. He claims to be ready to sign a contract and get started, but we are left waiting.  I've suggested having our meetings online via Google Hangouts/Skype or just group calls but he insists we meet in person.  He's constantly trying to get me to schedule the next appointment but I'm losing faith that he will ever come through.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand that new business founders are going to be busy, but what I can do as a web development company to help him get the site started?   " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15811" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6002" RevisionGUID="24a76c88-5788-45e1-a1d6-406a9ef9ac8a" CreationDate="2016-09-13T20:31:52.633" UserId="14699" Text="What to do about negligent clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15812" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6002" RevisionGUID="24a76c88-5788-45e1-a1d6-406a9ef9ac8a" CreationDate="2016-09-13T20:31:52.633" UserId="14699" Text="|attracting-clients|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15813" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6003" RevisionGUID="deb33737-6745-4cfe-a97a-8c4ea9848085" CreationDate="2016-09-13T20:42:01.833" UserId="708" Text="I'd just be &quot;busy&quot; myself and be unavailable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This kind of interaction is a harbinger to how quickly he'll pay and how important he'll see any requests on your part to complete any projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- One cancelation is understandable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Two cancellations *might* be okay depending upon his/her reasoning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Three cancellations shows a *clear* lack of commitment or intention.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Four cancellations shows a *complete* lack of respect for your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Expend your time and resources on clients that *are* committed rather than on clients that just waste your time unnecessarily." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15814" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6004" RevisionGUID="9cf0f069-80eb-4ebd-ab3c-5e9af7de810c" CreationDate="2016-09-13T21:31:01.817" UserId="11579" Text="Have you found sites but not getting the jobs, or not found sites?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stackoverflow, Linkedin, jobserve.com are just some of the many that are out there. It might well be that your location goes against you. My clients want me on site, not work from home. The jobs that are available for you to do from home are fraught with difficulty and risk and their availability will vary tremendously based on your skillset." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15815" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6005" RevisionGUID="68928342-f745-4f98-b88e-7929ba57b333" CreationDate="2016-09-14T12:14:36.133" UserId="14824" Text="I have been recently hired by a US based company to code on their platform.&#xD;&#xA;Living in a different country, how can I verify that the company is legit and how do I find any information regarding the company.&#xD;&#xA;Like in my country the government has a portal where I can check the registration details of the company including the registered office address, board members, paid up capital etc.&#xD;&#xA;I have requested the registration information of the company and they have provided me with the registration file number.&#xD;&#xA;But I cant find an official site, where I can cross verify them.&#xD;&#xA;Any help would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15816" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6005" RevisionGUID="68928342-f745-4f98-b88e-7929ba57b333" CreationDate="2016-09-14T12:14:36.133" UserId="14824" Text="How to verify a US based company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15817" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6005" RevisionGUID="68928342-f745-4f98-b88e-7929ba57b333" CreationDate="2016-09-14T12:14:36.133" UserId="14824" Text="|legal|usa|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15818" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6006" RevisionGUID="1b1f2da4-27de-4594-86e3-f7cd47f80e95" CreationDate="2016-09-14T14:43:43.303" UserId="1706" Text="To verify a US corporation, limited liability company or similar, check with the Secretary of State for the state in which the business is registered.  Most of them will have a &quot;Business Portal&quot; link where you can get this sort of information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the company is not incorporated or have a similar legal status, then check the business license department in the city that the business is in." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15819" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4552" RevisionGUID="55ae94b1-00ca-4354-9168-9d9ac4d1346f" CreationDate="2016-09-14T16:47:08.643" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15820" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6007" RevisionGUID="cd5448c0-c379-4c08-9c1d-dc042b57fc89" CreationDate="2016-09-15T10:44:20.867" UserId="14835" Text="If you are looking for a job then you should register your account at these freelancing sites like freelancer.com,upwork,fiverr,linkdin,Guru etc and try to find clients according to your criteria." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15822" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="5990" RevisionGUID="07a305be-35ea-4a46-83bc-2e3cc1c1bda4" CreationDate="2016-09-15T11:46:40.617" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/776386750084251648" />
  <row Id="15823" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6005" RevisionGUID="faa32c52-cfe1-4539-aabf-572bebae42ef" CreationDate="2016-09-15T16:15:59.853" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15824" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4306" RevisionGUID="d5b8cf76-b5a1-4bcb-929d-ace534ec4af1" CreationDate="2016-09-15T17:03:51.190" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15825" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5797" RevisionGUID="436cc73e-7e63-4465-ac02-e565cdac47e9" CreationDate="2016-09-16T00:16:13.853" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15826" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6008" RevisionGUID="57930153-dd5a-4731-87a6-b280917b3cac" CreationDate="2016-09-16T10:30:20.217" UserId="13016" Text="I'd be direct and politely remind him that he has failed 4 times.  On the off chance he thought you were as casual about missing meetings as he is, I'd give him one more chance, but on my terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Specifically, that means he must understand you mean it when you commit to a meeting, so this failing again means there will be no future working together.  And he will have to pay in advance, though not necessarily in full.  It could be a milestone at a time, or an projected invoice at a time -- whatever makes sense." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15827" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5811" RevisionGUID="7cbd52a8-6c90-42f3-a2b7-96ba5553719c" CreationDate="2016-09-16T17:33:14.950" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15828" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6009" RevisionGUID="ff954cda-43c2-418b-ab83-9fd4a020155b" CreationDate="2016-09-17T20:00:37.533" UserId="11760" Text="&#xA;&#xA;I am a fast learner and every time usually about a week or two. Right now, I am a entry-level online marketer. I am trying to determine how much I should charge my client because their industry is different than the usual ones.&#xA;&#xA;Right now, I get paid by the hour. The owners are old-fashioned therefore I understand why they don't want to invest in something they're not sure might work. Besides, they never really had the need to do off-line marketing because they get their customers by referrals. (I just figured that I bring this up just in case someone asks about it.)&#xA;&#xA;My clients are in the luxury industry so I have to research a lot of information. They are more concerned towards their brand (as most lux brands are) so I cannot do a lot of tests as often as I regular marketers should. The problem is, testing is the core of marketing. We test to figure out what works best with them. Copying similar brands in the same industry is expensive. &#xA;&#xA;Should my rates be determine by my experience-even more so-than liability? &#xA;&#xA;Any advice or relative experiences would really help me in this as I have a hard time looking for this kind of information online. &#xA;&#xA;Thank you so much in advanced! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15829" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6009" RevisionGUID="ff954cda-43c2-418b-ab83-9fd4a020155b" CreationDate="2016-09-17T20:00:37.533" UserId="11760" Text="Increasing rates and liability" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15830" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6009" RevisionGUID="ff954cda-43c2-418b-ab83-9fd4a020155b" CreationDate="2016-09-17T20:00:37.533" UserId="11760" Text="|payment-terms|pay-rate|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15831" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6010" RevisionGUID="8a859cff-35fb-4e9b-8c0e-052b1f7c73a4" CreationDate="2016-09-18T14:28:38.313" UserId="14604" Text="I am developing a website for my software development / consulting business. Is it appropriate to have a section &quot;Resume&quot; or &quot;About Me&quot; that lists my non-freelancing job experience? I have seen many freelancers craft a personal site and a freelance/professional site, and they would put their &quot;seeking-full-time-job&quot; style resume in the Personal site, and put their portfolio and freelance projects on their business/professional website. This seems like overkill - but on the other hand, I do not want someone to see my resume on my consultancy site and interpret this somehow as unprofessional.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Much of my work experience helps demonstrate my technical skill, but not necessarily my skill as a consultant. **Whether I am selling consulting or selling my butt planted in a cubicle chair 9-5, I would think it is appropriate to list my work history - but I seldom see this on freelancer's portfolio sites so I'm questioning my instincts. Should I avoid resume-style work history list on a professional/consulting website? I'm simply worried it will come off as unprofessional.** For what it is worth,  the business is a one man operation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15832" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6010" RevisionGUID="8a859cff-35fb-4e9b-8c0e-052b1f7c73a4" CreationDate="2016-09-18T14:28:38.313" UserId="14604" Text="Professional work history - is it taboo to list on my consultancy website?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15833" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6010" RevisionGUID="8a859cff-35fb-4e9b-8c0e-052b1f7c73a4" CreationDate="2016-09-18T14:28:38.313" UserId="14604" Text="|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15834" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6011" RevisionGUID="6e21aacb-e020-446c-a2b4-64faa55abfe5" CreationDate="2016-09-18T15:16:32.763" UserId="708" Text="You can use the information, but not in a &quot;resume&quot; or &quot;CV&quot; style....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Rather than:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - 2005-2008 Company X&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;   Director of XXX&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;   Responsible for XXX, XXXX, and XXXX&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use something like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - 3 years developing software designed to XXXXX&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;   Included debugging and deployment on XXXX and XXXX platforms&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That sort of thing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't have to throw away the information if you feel it's valuable, and you shouldn't fabricate anything. However, you can merely present the information in a different manner showing *what you did* rather than &quot;where you worked&quot; and focusing more on experience than career path.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And presenting it in a non-resume type format will immediately overcome the impression that the experience was all on-the-job. So, readers won't know right away when you started consulting as opposed to being a full time employee somewhere." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15835" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="6012" RevisionGUID="d4b28750-3fe5-487b-89d1-acbcd612dfef" CreationDate="2016-09-18T19:53:19.560" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://video.stackexchange.com/questions/19415/how-to-adjust-freelance-prices-overseas-specifically-in-southern-europe" />
  <row Id="15836" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6012" RevisionGUID="8490618c-a1a8-49fd-b2cc-98bbac2474df" CreationDate="2016-09-18T14:55:12.790" UserId="14874" UserDisplayName="Jon" Text="I have been doing freelance for about 7 years in Los Angeles and I have a solid pricesheet that I quote rates from in LA. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would I go about adjusting that to be appropriate for a different country? I am now preparing to quote a rate in Spain as I have moved and I want it to not be too high. I realise the economies are different, what would be appropriate? Does anyone have a general % that could be applied?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15837" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6012" RevisionGUID="8490618c-a1a8-49fd-b2cc-98bbac2474df" CreationDate="2016-09-18T14:55:12.790" UserId="14874" UserDisplayName="Jon" Text="How to adjust freelance prices overseas, specifically in Southern Europe" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15838" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6012" RevisionGUID="8490618c-a1a8-49fd-b2cc-98bbac2474df" CreationDate="2016-09-18T14:55:12.790" UserId="14874" UserDisplayName="Jon" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15839" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6013" RevisionGUID="68412432-2e0a-467b-a749-7226b62ea92a" CreationDate="2016-09-19T13:15:21.520" UserId="14864" Text="Hopefully not just parroting what others have said, imagine yourself the owner of two broken TVs in two separate homes. You call two local TV repair technicians. The first one comes in and knows that TV inside out. She recognizes the trouble immediately and has it fixed in 15 minutes, gives your TV a good overall check, and everything is up and running again in half an hour. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second technician comes in and spends 3.5 hours isolating the problem and figuring out how to fix it. She then spends another half hour giving the TV an overall check. Her total time? Four hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are focused on making sure people put in the hours, the first technician who took much better care of you will only be paid one quarter as much as the one who had to tinker and figure things out. That would make no sense, just as focusing everything on your current freelancer's hours makes no sense. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Figure out what needs to get done, and if your freelancer is skilled enough to do it in less time, pay the bill with a smile and be grateful you have an expert who can take good care of you. Focus on the output, not the input." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15840" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6014" RevisionGUID="bc936aa5-2f95-424e-8d01-95c78d2dcfe8" CreationDate="2016-09-19T13:32:08.913" UserId="14455" Text="This is not an easy task. Although the technology is the same, you are entering an entirely different market place where supply and demand are unknown to you. Also, the entire scale could vary (smallest and largest charges) so applying a simple % will not be enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only real way to do this is to research the market place. For instance you could compare salaries for similar roles between the two markets, and deduce an implied % change from the % change in salaries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could contact several companies for fictitious quotes for work, and see what you get quoted, although be careful doing this as it is not really a completely honest activity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could locate someone offering similar services and approach them for market insights. Most people are helpful and would have a discussion with you about it if they understood you were not an immediate competitor. Perhaps you could offer something in return but you do not have to. You could use the same approach to a potential customer too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest checking salaries of comparable jobs would give a good insight, but there is the added complication of how freelancers are regarded in your new market place. Are they expected to be cheap, are they held in high regard, are they seen as stop gaps?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, you can do what most freelancers do when starting out. Get your prices as low as possible and get a customer. Then start adjusting your prices up as you get to know the new market place and you start to build a new track record in that new location.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15841" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6015" RevisionGUID="689f776d-48e4-4590-aaad-1b1515acbce0" CreationDate="2016-09-19T16:32:22.367" UserId="14434" Text="At this point, I would remind him that he already cancelled four times, and I'd ask him to **pay a retainer in advance** before I'd move forward with any more tentative appointments. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15842" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6016" RevisionGUID="2bc404bd-cbbd-484f-8f91-efbc4cccad4a" CreationDate="2016-09-19T17:23:09.637" UserId="14866" Text="Yes you should always use contracts for all jobs. It isn't a question of turning off clients it's a question of defining the legal relationship between you and your clients, the expectations and deliverables that the work encompasses and how disputes will be remedied. It also helps you define when work will be considered done and how pay will be allocated. It also gives you the opportunity to discuss these issues before work starts and or you and you client fall out of love with each other...." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15843" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6017" RevisionGUID="915b0063-30ff-49e2-a0dd-84b5cc09fc4d" CreationDate="2016-09-20T13:12:45.517" UserId="1353" Text="Bearing in mind the saying that 5% of your customers cause 95% of your hassles...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've identified my 5%, i.e. one customer who really annoys me on a regular basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what's the best way to 'sack' this customer ? In other words, how do I tell them that I will no longer be providing services to them ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For information - I develop websites, host them and maintain them. I charge yearly and there's nothing in my contracts to disallow me sacking them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15844" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6017" RevisionGUID="915b0063-30ff-49e2-a0dd-84b5cc09fc4d" CreationDate="2016-09-20T13:12:45.517" UserId="1353" Text="What's the best way to 'sack' a customer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15845" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6017" RevisionGUID="915b0063-30ff-49e2-a0dd-84b5cc09fc4d" CreationDate="2016-09-20T13:12:45.517" UserId="1353" Text="|contracts|customer-relations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15846" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6018" RevisionGUID="81f51c86-69c4-4c76-9644-3caffc6a2554" CreationDate="2016-09-20T14:28:06.643" UserId="14455" Text="I think the rule is 80/20. 80% of complaints from 20% of customers. It applies to so many things like 20% of your carpet will get 80% of the wear and tear etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is a great question and one I have come across myself so I smiled a bit when I saw your question. I have done it the good way and the bad way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bad way. I wrote to the customer and told them that when their hosting expired in 6 weeks time that they will need to find an alternate host. This was because the level of support and assistance they required was outside the service levels we were offering and we could no longer support their website. The fuss, the to-ing and fro-ing and the general hassle that resulted was immeasurable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The good way. With another customer I wrote to them to say that we are no longer offering pure hosting services, and that our full annual management fee is £xxx (some generally horribly high figure). As your business does not require this level of support or assistance, we would recommend this host (name some cheap alternative) that will match your needs for a fraction of the cost. We are sorry to be losing you but, once you have opened an account we will gladly FTP your files and database contents to your new host. To take advantage of this simply email us with your new account details and we will transfer all your data for free. Alternatively you are welcome to continue with our services at the higher price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they stay, they pay. If they go, you spend 30 mins transferring their data for them and you are free. Believe me, that you will spend a lot longer than 30mins dealing with a 'go away' type letter, and they will leave thinking 'what a nice company, helping us out like that and saving us money'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck with it though, whatever you do, do not tell them it is because they are a pain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15847" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6019" RevisionGUID="b126693f-cb39-42fc-813e-e42d08b6f3ac" CreationDate="2016-09-20T22:31:51.773" UserId="1706" Text="Make sure all your invoices with this customer are paid first.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use this: &quot;due to changes in our business model,&quot; or &quot;due to changes in our business priorities&quot;, blah blah blah, &quot;as of (some date) we will no longer be able to support your needs as one of our customers.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no need to get into the details as to *why*.  Don't refer the customer to anyone you *like* - send the customer to one of the &quot;gig&quot; websites, and let 'em go.  Smile!  No more messy customer!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15849" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6021" RevisionGUID="7afe2848-0bd9-4989-8395-147f552bec44" CreationDate="2016-09-21T17:15:07.637" UserId="14888" Text="After leaving a major media conglomerate following four years as a manager, I accepted my first freelance/contract role in an industry I plan to transition toward. It is a four month assignment for a flat-rate weekly stipend with an increasing hourly commitment as follows:&#xD;&#xA;Weeks 1-2, 10 hr/wk&#xD;&#xA;Weeks 3-9, 20 hr/wk&#xD;&#xA;Weeks 10-16, 40 hr/wk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My contract specifically lays out my role as helping to execute a trade show from the marketing/sponsorships perspective as a liaison between external event sponsors and the internal marketing and events teams. When the stipend is broken down in the latter weeks, the hourly rate is equivalent to less than minimum wage. I was not delighted with the level of payment, but saw it as means to an end given my career redirection following grad school and nine post-education years in the events workplace.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During week 7 of the contract, I was introduced to a project an intern had left unfinished which the company I am working for was paid $20k to execute. The marketing project includes a digital campaign and directed industry survey which will ultimately run for approximately two months. Since I am new to freelancing, I was hesitant to come across as less than a team player, but I have now been told in writing that I am to own the full rollout and wrap-up of this project alongside my contracted work, since the person who contracted me has no more bandwidth for completing it himself in the lead-up to the same event I am working on. The sponsor for which the marketing survey and campaign is being created is not in any way affiliated with the event I was contracted to help execute. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) I am now concerned that I will not be able to execute my contract points as well given the time I have and will continue to have to dedicate to the side project.&#xD;&#xA;2) I don't know if I am in too deep to now repeat and push my concerns with the department head who has assigned the work to me.&#xD;&#xA;3) Since this is a completely separate project, not even a scope creep related to the event I was hired for, am I within my rights to request an additional stipend or compensation for the extra work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a feeling I have a lot to learn here, but I'd rather learn it now.&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for any experience or guidance the community can share. I'd at least like to be able to protect myself from this in future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15850" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6021" RevisionGUID="7afe2848-0bd9-4989-8395-147f552bec44" CreationDate="2016-09-21T17:15:07.637" UserId="14888" Text="Do extra projects indicate extra pay for stipend contractors?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15851" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6021" RevisionGUID="7afe2848-0bd9-4989-8395-147f552bec44" CreationDate="2016-09-21T17:15:07.637" UserId="14888" Text="|scope-creep|scope-of-work|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15852" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6022" RevisionGUID="d2e23492-8844-4c98-9ee1-20a25c9e6b9b" CreationDate="2016-09-21T19:44:47.347" UserId="708" Text="It seems to me that you are *really* still thinking like an employee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are a freelancer and have a contract detailing what you've been hired to do, then *anything* **not** included in that contract is A) open for discussion/rejection by you and B) due additional compensation. *Unless* your contract states something like &quot;anything we give you, you complete&quot; In which case... you signed a *very* bad contact. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no &quot;team player&quot; when it comes to freelancing. I am **my** business, not my clients business. What I do, who I do it for, and when I do it is for **me** to determine and either agree to or refuse. While I *always* want to appear helpful and willing to discuss/negotiate anything. And my goal is to *always* help my clients meet their goals to the best of my ability. My first priority is *always* to **me and my business**. I have complete control over whether or not I say &quot;NO&quot; to *anything* at any time. And I am responsible if I *allow* a client to take advantage of me and my services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately you are bound by the contract... that's the extent of your agreement. There's no need to do anything outside the contract without additional compensation. And as a separate entity you are **always** free to push back on or discuss anything you feel is not in your interest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine you were hiring someone else... would you be expecting to complete this new project for free?? If the answer is &quot;no&quot;, then you shouldn't be doing it for free either.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end your goal should be to support your client and the original project first as you originally intended. *Anything* that will make sticking to the original contract untenable, should be discussed and not merely accepted as something you *must* do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15853" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6022" RevisionGUID="a5e2d059-10f1-463e-bea8-2adb7da8c453" CreationDate="2016-09-21T19:55:11.683" UserId="708" Comment="added 306 characters in body" Text="It seems to me that you are *really* still thinking like an employee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are a freelancer and have a contract detailing what you've been hired to do, then *anything* **not** included in that contract is A) open for discussion/rejection by you and B) due additional compensation. *Unless* your contract states something like &quot;anything we give you, you complete&quot; In which case... you signed a *very* bad contact. (or it may indeed be an *employment* contract rather than a project/freelance contract - Be aware, *many* business try and classify employees as freelancers for tax breaks. The IRS is cracking down on this. If the client is telling you when to work, where to work, how to work... you are an employee and not a freelancer -- but that's a different matter).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no &quot;team player&quot; when it comes to freelancing. I am **my** business, not my clients business. What I do, who I do it for, and when I do it is for **me** to determine and either agree to or refuse. While I *always* want to appear helpful and willing to discuss/negotiate anything. And my goal is to *always* help my clients meet their goals to the best of my ability. My first priority is *always* to **me and my business**. I have complete control over whether or not I say &quot;NO&quot; to *anything* at any time. And I am responsible if I *allow* a client to take advantage of me and my services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately you are bound by the contract... that's the extent of your agreement. There's no need to do anything outside the contract without additional compensation. And as a separate entity you are **always** free to push back on or discuss anything you feel is not in your interest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine you were hiring someone else... would you be expecting to complete this new project for free?? If the answer is &quot;no&quot;, then you shouldn't be doing it for free either.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end your goal should be to support your client and the original project first as you originally intended. *Anything* that will make sticking to the original contract untenable, should be discussed and not merely accepted as something you *must* do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15854" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6023" RevisionGUID="31175388-6a5b-4cea-b396-53e7274e7dbc" CreationDate="2016-09-22T03:08:13.613" UserId="14894" Text="I have hired freelance coders many times. First I will look for number of reviews &amp; quality of those reviews.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next I need verification of the skillset which the tests provide&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So yes if there are 3 freelancers...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. No stars &amp; no tests&#xD;&#xA;2. Many stars &amp; jobs but no skill tests&#xD;&#xA;3. Many stars &amp; jobs &amp; several skill tests&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;.. I will be happy to chat with all of them but &quot;3&quot; will be the one I choose if they all sound the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Two of the best things you can do are put a targeted proposal &amp; open chat communications immediately&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These can out weight both reviews &amp; exams taken&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Often the times I have ignored reviews - the coder has let me down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also if your skill tests are just generic, english , HTML, CSS, jquery etc then of course these are expected minimum standards. So perhaps you wont notice much difference.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But think if the project requires a more specific skillset. FB or Twitter API, LINQ etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is when it gives you a greater advantage" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15855" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6024" RevisionGUID="a7b274b6-ec01-41b5-b604-b09cfcfdc5ff" CreationDate="2016-09-22T10:09:02.173" UserId="14562" Text="I'm going to go at this from a different angle:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. There is no correct answer here. You can do all the research you want and still get it wrong. The only way to find out is to go out there and find some new clients. They will soon tell you whether your prices are too high or too low.&#xD;&#xA;2. Go in high, just above the highest rate you feel comfortable quoting. You might find that a seasoned pro from LA is in high demand and can charge a premium. Rates are negotiated, not set in stone, so even if you quote too high you will still have a chance to lower them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Each region still has different client groups. The trick is not to lower your rates but to find the high paying clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This might feel a bit nerve-wracking while sitting in a room planning your move but once you get out there your 7 years experience will kick in and you'll be fine!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15856" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6025" RevisionGUID="226ba3d5-ff8c-4e97-a9cf-77c3f744a2c8" CreationDate="2016-09-22T10:22:53.007" UserId="14562" Text="The extra cost in arranging the foreign account and the related bookkeeping is probably higher than the transfer fees you're trying to save.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a less complex alternative, speak to your US bank about opening a GBP bank account. Your clients could then transfer money into that, so at least they don't need to deal with exchange rates. The transfer fees are often negligible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If transfer fees become a problem, suggest TransferWise to your clients. And, finally, they could arrange the transfer so that you pay your own fees and they only pay theirs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As someone who has paid a lot of overseas companies I wonder whether you're overcomplicating it. Are you sure your clients would mind the switch? Why not try invoicing them in USD and getting them to pay by transfer? If you're worried you could add a £30 reduction to cover transfer costs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15857" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6026" RevisionGUID="7250ae3a-6355-4a6a-914e-c95e20ee7f3b" CreationDate="2016-09-22T14:26:13.327" UserId="14455" Text="You say you are an entry level online marketeer, so the old-fashioned, do business by referrals, high end luxury brand might well be a bit suspicious. High end luxury brands are probably the hardest to market online, and you can easily damage the brand with a poor ad placement, content or design. So their concerns are justified.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are unsure about investing in something that might not work, get paid by referral, which potentially could lead to either a fantastic income or a minimal to 0 income depending on your success. It removes their risk but means you have to know you are going to generate referrals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What makes you think only the luxury brands need a lot of research. Any market needs extensive research. Why can you not do some testing? As you say, testing and adapting is the bedrock of online marketing, so this confuses me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, for this customer, I would lay out what I can do for them and the cost, and leave it up to them. If they want it they will pay you, if not then move on to other customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an entry level marketeer, you probably need some easier projects under your belt rather than this more difficult sounding one. And yes, your experience affects price, probably more than your actual skills. If you had done online marketing for Nike, or Star Wars, then you can command a lot more confidence in the market and a much higher price. If you have only done a tiny bit of work for ABC Taxis, a small local cab firm, with minimal results, then you will command less confidence and a much smaller price.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice, is you should not be coercing people into doing things they are unsure about. You should be presenting your services to people that need your services, or want your services, or have your services done by someone else that you can either undercut or provide additional features to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck with it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15859" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6027" RevisionGUID="cdc825c0-948f-424c-841a-0adb652217f9" CreationDate="2016-09-24T12:26:03.590" UserId="14793" Text="The tests are not a waste of time.  First, it helps the freelancing web site.  In the long run that helps you.  Also, some clients filter by tested applicants.  It might or might not matter what your score was on any given test but at least you'll be listed as someone involved in that specific topic.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15860" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5875" RevisionGUID="9fcf122f-8655-47d4-a8f7-73aee77bba77" CreationDate="2016-09-24T12:49:11.113" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15861" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6028" RevisionGUID="840a4f26-491d-4ce1-b57c-815352d3ffce" CreationDate="2016-09-24T19:21:42.240" UserId="14927" Text="To me it varies based upon the customer.  If its a valid reputable company I don't ask them to sign my own agreement.  They will have their agreement which they want me to sign.  In that case I use that document as an agreement.  If its a smaller client I will provide the agreement.  If its a smaller client and I am unsure if they will pay I also ask for a upfront deposit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So to answer your question it depends.  There should always be a document which is signed by both parties which spells out the work.  The document could be provided by either side.  In some cases there is an additional deposit.  If a deposit is used it is mentioned in the signed document." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15862" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6029" RevisionGUID="f1319c37-c63e-4839-86ec-38c248931536" CreationDate="2016-09-24T19:29:58.317" UserId="14927" Text="I do a mix of 1099 and w2 work.  Even when I have a w2 I still pay for my own insurance through the exchange.  I do this because even though I am losing money by paying my entire insurance, I don't lose big money by paying the penalty.  The first year it became active, I had a mix of insurance coverage and it was it incredibly difficult to verify insurance via the exchange.  ie. First three months, I purchased my own insurance.  Next six months I was on company insurance.  Final three months I was 1099 with different company and thus on my own insurance.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was penalized for early withdrawl of insurance in first part of the year.  Then at end of year the exchange provider said I was convered for just three months.  I was with the provider for 9 months.  Not to mention when I needed coverage they said I did not have insurance even though they were happily taking my checks but providing coverage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It took months to get everyone on the same page.  At one point I had a three way call with exchange, the bank and the insurance company.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that point, I tell employers, if they only do w2 contracts that is fine.  I will do w2, but I will not participate in insurance and I would prefer a higher rate." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15863" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5803" RevisionGUID="9abe7a7f-be77-49b4-8dbb-96b64d10c281" CreationDate="2016-09-25T10:18:42.330" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15864" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6030" RevisionGUID="aa0050b9-9ae2-4ed4-8b55-94fee0c03b84" CreationDate="2016-09-25T14:27:40.027" UserId="14934" Text="[![enter image description here][1]][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/0FDU6.png&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the next step I need to do for me to accept the job and start working on it. Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15865" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6030" RevisionGUID="aa0050b9-9ae2-4ed4-8b55-94fee0c03b84" CreationDate="2016-09-25T14:27:40.027" UserId="14934" Text="How could I start working with these project. I have been offer a project but I dont know how to accept it. What is the next step I need to do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15866" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6030" RevisionGUID="aa0050b9-9ae2-4ed4-8b55-94fee0c03b84" CreationDate="2016-09-25T14:27:40.027" UserId="14934" Text="|negotiation|client-support|sales|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15867" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6031" RevisionGUID="b42c1591-61a4-45f8-9d90-5476b4e962f0" CreationDate="2016-09-26T18:31:24.593" UserId="14949" Text="There are many contract templates out there for software development freelancers. However, most are written for the US jurisdiction, and are worded so as to be enforceable in a US court of law. Now, it's clear that most contracts do not lead to dispute, and most disputes are settled outside the court. However, it seems the value of a contract is as a deterrent against the worst-case scenario, e.g. a lawsuit in case the work is completed and the client refuses to pay. To be an effective deterrent, the contract surely needs to be written with appropriate legal language, which varies between jurisdictions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancers, how do you handle contracts for an international client base scattered through multiple jurisdictions? Do you just use a US template contract for each client, and hope for the best? Do you have a template for each country?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15868" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6031" RevisionGUID="b42c1591-61a4-45f8-9d90-5476b4e962f0" CreationDate="2016-09-26T18:31:24.593" UserId="14949" Text="Contracts for clients in different jurisdictions" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15869" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6031" RevisionGUID="b42c1591-61a4-45f8-9d90-5476b4e962f0" CreationDate="2016-09-26T18:31:24.593" UserId="14949" Text="|contracts|foreign-markets|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15871" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4738" RevisionGUID="8d0ce3ed-34a4-470b-9401-6d0e12edb8dc" CreationDate="2016-09-27T11:33:47.787" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15875" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6033" RevisionGUID="f162c48f-1780-49bc-9ba4-cfd496a6c615" CreationDate="2016-09-27T12:46:48.997" UserId="5100" Text="I completed one of my Android App Recently, I provide him with Free Support of 1 Month after going live on play store, and then I will charge him after the free period. Is it the good practice. Should I provid that free support or Should I extend the time of support, I would Like to Know from the experiance developers on here how they manage the support phase of the app development after going live on google play store. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15876" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6033" RevisionGUID="f162c48f-1780-49bc-9ba4-cfd496a6c615" CreationDate="2016-09-27T12:46:48.997" UserId="5100" Text="Should I Provide Free Support for Sometime" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15877" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6033" RevisionGUID="f162c48f-1780-49bc-9ba4-cfd496a6c615" CreationDate="2016-09-27T12:46:48.997" UserId="5100" Text="|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15878" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6034" RevisionGUID="cc21b912-4a93-49c2-bf9a-e277a99c18f0" CreationDate="2016-09-27T13:57:12.123" UserId="14760" Text="I think a month of support is good. After the initial playing around with the app clients tend to change &quot;support&quot; into change requests. If another real support/bug request does come through, and you feel strongly that it should have been part of the original app I would suggest you fix it, and let the client know you won't bill them for that. They will appreciate it and not mind paying in future because they know you have a moral sense when it comes to billing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15880" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6035" RevisionGUID="1cb77691-913b-4841-bc13-e3e005eab1ca" CreationDate="2016-09-27T15:20:58.373" UserId="14866" Text="I have used both of these. I find that customers who become bad ones usually do so because I'm not communicating effectively to set expectations. But sometimes you just have bad customers and I think either of the above is a good way to do it" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15881" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6036" RevisionGUID="c6b8e8dc-ab4d-4263-b22b-5e03c02cffc2" CreationDate="2016-09-27T15:33:32.280" UserId="14455" Text="No you should not. Support should be a package they pay for, under your terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You build an app. It is tested by the end user, signed off and paid for, and only then does it go live. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If bugs become apparent after they have signed it off they need to have purchased a support package of some sort from you. You cannot be retro fixing your app and implementing version changes every five minutes for free. If they find a bug after go live, then that is their fault for not testing it properly before sign off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It adds clarity. Post launch support is a paid for service - end of story. Then, you are not getting into arguments about 'that is a change, not a bug'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once something goes live, often new ideas, or things you told them and they ignored become apparent to the customer, and they want it, in fact it becomes critical - &quot;But without it our system is useless to us so it is a bug in that it does not do what we need it to do&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Believe me when I say that your best intentions for 'bug fixing' post launch will just open a bucket of problems for you, an unhappy customer, and tears all round. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15882" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6037" RevisionGUID="530d1117-704c-4a00-922f-ae03610593ec" CreationDate="2016-09-27T16:53:55.290" UserId="2391" Text="I have a client I've been working with for a few months and the job has paid well. I've been working at an hourly rate and the development has been very incremental. At all times I've been completely transparent about the hours I've spent on the job, what I've achieved and I've invoiced weekly. There has never been talk of an overall budget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client has now started complaining about how expensive the project has been and is asking me to reduce my rates for bugfixes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't intend to reduce my rate, but I would like to make some kind of concessions for him as he's been a long-term customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any ideas?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15883" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6037" RevisionGUID="530d1117-704c-4a00-922f-ae03610593ec" CreationDate="2016-09-27T16:53:55.290" UserId="2391" Text="What concessions could I make for a client who's getting stressed about their budget?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15884" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6037" RevisionGUID="530d1117-704c-4a00-922f-ae03610593ec" CreationDate="2016-09-27T16:53:55.290" UserId="2391" Text="|pay-rate|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15885" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6038" RevisionGUID="f0cd85a0-9f8e-4286-9c4d-5e6e17ed32b9" CreationDate="2016-09-27T19:39:35.793" UserId="1706" Text="There really aren't any concessions to make.  You're hourly, and that arrangement makes it okay (sort of) that the client can alter the requirements at-will because you still get something out of it no matter hat.  It's sounding like this client didn't do the homework and NOW is trying to retrofit the project into a fixed budget -- but that's not your problem.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they're asking for concessions at this point, essentially they're asking for free work based on their own bad planning.  I say if you give 'em an inch, they'll come back next week and ask for two.  The project is in trouble because (a) the money's running out and (b) if the requirements were tighter, you probably wouldn't have so many bug fixes.  Bug-fixes is a PREDICTABLE part of the software development life cycle, so your work isn't costing them anything out of the ordinary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stand your ground on your rate for as long as you can.  Let them hire somebody cheap to do the bug fixes, and you move on to a client that's a bit more savvy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15886" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6039" RevisionGUID="e5038b9c-ef3a-4807-9633-d0ebd8ea6172" CreationDate="2016-09-27T20:36:14.860" UserId="14455" Text="The request is unreasonable on the part of the customer. In fact bug fixing often costs much more, and bug fixers usually get paid more than initial builds, because it is often difficult to find and fix sometimes very complex problems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your rates are your rates, you have done nothing wrong, you should not lower your rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The pleading of poverty on the part of the customer might be true, might not be true, this is simply not your problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only thing I would say though, is a soon as this type of flag is raised in your mind you should start looking for another customer to replace this one. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have no other work, you might consider reducing your prices to secure short term work while you search for other work. Or have a frank discussion with him. What is the end goal, what do you need to get there, what is the overall budget left? Perhaps you can change this to a fixed price project and finish it for him. But he is not your friend, however 'nice' your relationship has been, and I would advise against this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think of this as money for my childrens clothes and food. How much clothing or food does he want your children to go without exactly? And for what? I bet it is not a charity providing water to drought victims or similarly good cause is it? And with the money he saves, what is he going to do with it? Feed and clothe his own children perhaps? Or make the next installment on his car?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15887" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6030" RevisionGUID="df2d8332-c4b7-4603-ae1f-d4be7dbec00b" CreationDate="2016-09-27T21:46:57.010" UserId="13016" Comment="grammar fixes" Text="[![enter image description here][1]][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/0FDU6.png&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the next step I need to do for me to accept the job and start working on it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15888" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6030" RevisionGUID="df2d8332-c4b7-4603-ae1f-d4be7dbec00b" CreationDate="2016-09-27T21:46:57.010" UserId="13016" Comment="grammar fixes" Text="How could I start working with this project? I have been offered a project but I dont' know how to accept it. What is the next step I need to do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15889" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6030" RevisionGUID="df2d8332-c4b7-4603-ae1f-d4be7dbec00b" CreationDate="2016-09-27T21:46:57.010" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by -1 edit id of 492" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15890" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6030" RevisionGUID="1bf602f1-901f-4e68-b348-e917bb718d0c" CreationDate="2016-09-27T21:46:57.010" UserId="9" Comment="Move image to bottom, grammar" Text="I've been offered a project on Freelancer, but I don't know how to accept it. How do I accept the job and start working on it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the email that I received:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![][1]][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/0FDU6.png&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15891" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6030" RevisionGUID="1bf602f1-901f-4e68-b348-e917bb718d0c" CreationDate="2016-09-27T21:46:57.010" UserId="9" Comment="Move image to bottom, grammar" Text="Accepting a Freelancer project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15892" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6030" RevisionGUID="1bf602f1-901f-4e68-b348-e917bb718d0c" CreationDate="2016-09-27T21:46:57.010" UserId="9" Comment="Move image to bottom, grammar" Text="|freelance-websites|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15893" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6017" RevisionGUID="3733e788-e0bd-4142-9264-9dc284955aca" CreationDate="2016-09-27T21:47:47.290" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/780886679343230977" />
  <row Id="15897" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6041" RevisionGUID="5343fe1d-6dc1-451c-b0e7-e06ffa4b2750" CreationDate="2016-09-27T22:28:31.253" UserId="14967" Text="I assume you have a signed contract? It is for him to tell you what he wants/expects from you, so then you can decide whether you're willing to write an addendum. It's rather difficult to know for sure without knowing more about the nature of this contract and the ongoing work. Another possible answer is to identify specific deliverables and develop reasonable fixed-price contracts for each. You have to be careful, though, about wording, so you don't find yourself essentially working for free. Very best of luck to you. Please do not sell yourself short just because this client failed to plan well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15898" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6042" RevisionGUID="107cef5d-42a6-4897-b51e-76c90a44e9b5" CreationDate="2016-09-27T22:31:38.070" UserId="14967" Text="I always recommend against free anything. You can't pay bills with exposure. Charge for your services accordingly. Otherwise you may be underselling yourself, devaluing your skills and your profession, and undercutting colleagues. Very best of luck to you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15899" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6043" RevisionGUID="5a333d74-24c5-4e8f-bc39-f260d0fafd83" CreationDate="2016-09-27T22:39:02.337" UserId="14967" Text="Once you are sure you do not want to work with this customer, make sure all of their invoices are paid in full, and simply say no to future service. It's really difficult to think of specific ways to handle this without details. Generally, I would say something like, &quot;Attached, please find your receipt for your final payment. As of (DATE), this account will close. Thank you very much for your business over the past year. It has been a pleasure serving you, and we wish you the best in your future endeavors.&quot; I call this a twist on the assumptive close. You word things in ways that simply assume the conclusion you want." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15900" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6044" RevisionGUID="a568434b-c7b3-485e-a62d-911417a21d1f" CreationDate="2016-09-27T22:50:33.613" UserId="1706" Text="Write your contract so that the venue for any disputes is local to YOU.  If not, the default jurisdiction if you need to sue is wherever the client is.  In the case with international clients, this will make it really difficult for you because you'd either have to go to court there, or hire an attorney there, if such a dispute arose." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15901" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6045" RevisionGUID="b6ec05c5-60d2-479b-820f-ffaf03b43f0c" CreationDate="2016-09-28T10:53:53.347" UserId="14975" Text="It looks like you are the one who offered the project to the freelancer. Now you have to wait for the freelancer to accept the job. Then you will get another notification email. You can proceed from there." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15902" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6046" RevisionGUID="1e7fc08a-29e4-4bdb-b090-c1318cea4222" CreationDate="2016-09-28T10:57:49.917" UserId="14562" Text="I have worked with clients all over the world - and as codenoir says, the only important factor in terms of location is to be clear about the jurisdiction the contract falls under. Eg, for England/Wales:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*This Agreement is governed by the law of England and Wales, and is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That also means that you can use the legal language of your own country because the interpretation will be done in the jurisdiction of your own country.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However: I am a strong supporter of contracts that are written in plain English rather than complex legalese. If you don't understand what is written in your own contracts (and if your mother doesn't understand it) then it's probably too complicated. See also the [Plain English Campaign][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/ &quot;Plain English Campaign&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15903" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6047" RevisionGUID="4e9aa37f-bd1d-496f-ae60-2379a3ae9428" CreationDate="2016-09-28T11:13:40.757" UserId="14562" Text="I really welcome your approach of listening to the customer and wanting to keep what has been a really good customer! Just saying 'don't lower your rates' is not a very helpful approach. It's been my motto as a freelancer to try and save my clients money for years and it's paid very well :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some ideas:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. What you can reduce, without lowering your rates, is the time you spend on the project. Instead of ad-hoc work, collect enough bugs throughout the week and then spend 1 or 2 days of focused work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Cap the budget and help the client prioritise which bugs to fix. Or if the trust is there, you prioritise the bugs that are important. Then say 'I've fixed x,y,z and we've reached the budget cap. Do you want to spend 1/2 day extra this week or keep the bugs until next week? In my experience, they will often spend the extra money anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All of this shows you care and are listening to your client's concerns. That is all that matters. This is where you build trust and create a really deep,long-lasting relationship. And you may find that they will continue to pay you the same amount as before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck &amp; let us know how it goes!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15904" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6048" RevisionGUID="4407a2dd-6659-46da-b418-2b7dc226d939" CreationDate="2016-09-28T12:02:51.593" UserId="2872" Text="I am leaving the company that I am currently employed by (permanent member of staff).  I am going to freelance for them once I have left and want to know what to charge per day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long story short:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I work there as an analyst, writing up reports based on my findings;&#xD;&#xA; - I have built a custom Microsoft Access database for the team;&#xD;&#xA; - I am leaving (for personal reasons); and&#xD;&#xA; - they want me to do my analysis work on a freelance basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At present I earn around £40,000 (not the actual amount - this is for the purpose of this example) as a full-time permanent member of staff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason I have been asked to work freelance is simply because I am an expert in my field.  My work was initially going to be divided between the team members, but nobody there has skills that are advanced enough to do what I do to the level and standard that I complete it to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Further to this, I have built an Access database from the ground up and it has now been used by the team for a number of years - as with before, nobody is knowledgeable enough to be able to take up the database administration once I leave.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on that, what would be an acceptable daily rate to charge instead?  My thoughts were that I would charge £400 per day (example figure)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15905" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6048" RevisionGUID="4407a2dd-6659-46da-b418-2b7dc226d939" CreationDate="2016-09-28T12:02:51.593" UserId="2872" Text="Daily rate for existing customer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15906" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6048" RevisionGUID="4407a2dd-6659-46da-b418-2b7dc226d939" CreationDate="2016-09-28T12:02:51.593" UserId="2872" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15907" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6048" RevisionGUID="191d2712-a079-40d0-b828-631571930105" CreationDate="2016-09-28T12:15:01.557" UserId="2872" Comment="edited title" Text="Daily freelance rate for previous full-time/permanent employer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15908" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6049" RevisionGUID="384aab31-a6dc-411b-8afd-a0d9b53b64e1" CreationDate="2016-09-28T13:54:04.543" UserId="14793" Text="I believe the answers above pretty much sum up what I would write.  To make another point I would communicate with fellow freelancers.  If you find you can easily get another client and don't need to worry about the rates perhaps there's someone else who would do some work for a lower rate.  On the one hand, this could keep you involved in the project (perhaps as an overseer), get you points from fellow freelancers who can't find work and your boss would see it as an effort on your part to help with the budget problem." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15909" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6050" RevisionGUID="90317718-50a0-49e8-8269-5123b5ae8b33" CreationDate="2016-09-28T17:48:46.243" UserId="14976" Text="I'm a freelancer, recently I got a client for a mobile app, the matter is I don't know how to write a technical offer for the app, can someone help me please ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15910" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6050" RevisionGUID="90317718-50a0-49e8-8269-5123b5ae8b33" CreationDate="2016-09-28T17:48:46.243" UserId="14976" Text="How to write technical offer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15911" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6050" RevisionGUID="90317718-50a0-49e8-8269-5123b5ae8b33" CreationDate="2016-09-28T17:48:46.243" UserId="14976" Text="|negotiation|consulting|software|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15912" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6051" RevisionGUID="23384c5a-54a1-4cf0-a53d-82513a813f83" CreationDate="2016-09-28T17:59:43.030" UserId="14455" Text="Not sure what you mean by a technical offer. Perhaps this will help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You write down what you are going to do, how long it will take, what the customer will get delivered at the end of it. This is your schedule of work and should be as detailed as you can manage it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You then write a quote for how much money you would want to complete the schedule of work. This will show the total amount and the deposit required to start (and any applicable taxes).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the customer then has a question like 'What framework will you use?' you reply as honestly and openly as you can, but the next time you write a schedule of work, you include that info too. In this way your quotes and work descriptions improve over time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no single way to do this. There is no right or wrong way except in the final analysis of did you get the job or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope that helps,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15914" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6053" RevisionGUID="de631b90-9797-49df-87fb-60bd390666a3" CreationDate="2016-09-28T19:10:16.973" UserId="14977" Text="I am based in the UK and thinking of doing some freelance work through Upwork alongside my main full-time job to boost my income a little.  &#xA;However, I'm wondering whether any income earned through a site like Upwork is subject to income tax or not, and if so, how should it be declared? Any help/advice on this would be very helpful! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15915" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6053" RevisionGUID="de631b90-9797-49df-87fb-60bd390666a3" CreationDate="2016-09-28T19:10:16.973" UserId="14977" Text="Income tax when working as freelancer through Upwork (UK)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15916" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6053" RevisionGUID="de631b90-9797-49df-87fb-60bd390666a3" CreationDate="2016-09-28T19:10:16.973" UserId="14977" Text="|freelance-websites|uk|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15917" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6054" RevisionGUID="73936643-d910-4e7d-9999-a758e7b751a4" CreationDate="2016-09-28T19:57:47.840" UserId="708" Text="**Figure your overhead.....**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the work is on-site for them, your overhead may only include transportation to and from. If you are working remotely, then your overhead would include (anything and everything* required to complete the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Calculate your hourly rate...**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember, that as a freelancer, you have to cover things like sick days, healthcare, vacations, etc. Clients don't provide these items so you have to factor those into hourly rate calculations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See Here:&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4619/struggling-to-come-up-with-an-estimation-of-the-value-of-my-work/4621#4621&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/57/how-do-i-calculate-pay-rate-if-ive-never-freelanced-before?rq=1&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1851/from-agency-to-freelance-what-should-i-charge&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2541/how-much-should-i-charge-for-graphic-design-and-how?noredirect=1&amp;lq=1&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Then multiply your hourly rate by the amount of hours they want you to work in a day.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Previous salaries really mean very little to a freelancer other than... well, you don't want to make *less* at any time. You can use the previous salary as a general guideline, but until you calculate your overhead... and subsequent hourly rate, there's no telling if that salary comes close to what you *need* to make as a freelancer. And again, no clue if the work is on or off-site and that may be a large contributing factor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15918" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6054" RevisionGUID="78071b04-59dc-40ab-99c6-a6ec3cbb44ca" CreationDate="2016-09-28T20:05:18.447" UserId="708" Comment="added 179 characters in body" Text="**Figure your overhead.....**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the work is on-site for them, your overhead may only include transportation to and from. In which case, a fee close to your salary, perhaps slightly higher to cover lost &quot;employee&quot; benefits, would be appropriate. If you are working remotely, then your overhead would include *anything and everything* required to complete the work. So the previous salary may have no bearing whatsoever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Calculate your hourly rate...**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember, that as a freelancer, you have to cover things like sick days, healthcare, vacations, etc. Clients don't provide these items so you have to factor those into hourly rate calculations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See Here:&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4619/struggling-to-come-up-with-an-estimation-of-the-value-of-my-work/4621#4621&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/57/how-do-i-calculate-pay-rate-if-ive-never-freelanced-before?rq=1&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1851/from-agency-to-freelance-what-should-i-charge&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2541/how-much-should-i-charge-for-graphic-design-and-how?noredirect=1&amp;lq=1&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Then multiply your hourly rate by the amount of hours they want you to work in a day.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Previous salaries really mean very little to a freelancer other than... well, you don't want to make *less* at any time. You can use the previous salary as a general guideline, but until you calculate your overhead... and subsequent hourly rate, there's no telling if that salary comes close to what you *need* to make as a freelancer. And again, no clue if the work is on or off-site and that may be a large contributing factor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15923" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6053" RevisionGUID="10878faa-00f0-4423-a4e7-de0323ce0669" CreationDate="2016-09-28T21:18:08.987" UserId="14977" Comment="added 59 characters in body" Text="I am based in the UK and thinking of doing some freelance work through Upwork alongside my main full-time job to boost my income a little.  &#xA;However, I'm wondering whether any income earned through a site like Upwork is subject to income tax or not, and if so, how should it be declared? On top of my regular income? Or is it a separate category? Any help/advice on this would be very helpful! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15925" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6048" RevisionGUID="50d74cca-39d3-4bdd-b769-008e3e40424d" CreationDate="2016-09-29T08:04:45.583" UserId="2872" Comment="added 192 characters in body" Text="I am leaving the company that I am currently employed by (permanent member of staff).  I am going to freelance for them once I have left and want to know what to charge per day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long story short:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I work there as an analyst, writing up reports based on my findings;&#xD;&#xA; - I have built a custom Microsoft Access database for the team;&#xD;&#xA; - I am leaving (for personal reasons); and&#xD;&#xA; - they want me to do my analysis work on a freelance basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At present I earn around £40,000 (not the actual amount - this is for the purpose of this example) as a full-time permanent member of staff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason I have been asked to work freelance is simply because I am an expert in my field.  My work was initially going to be divided between the team members, but nobody there has skills that are advanced enough to do what I do to the level and standard that I complete it to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Further to this, I have built an Access database from the ground up and it has now been used by the team for a number of years - as with before, nobody is knowledgeable enough to be able to take up the database administration once I leave.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on that, what would be an acceptable daily rate to charge instead?  My thoughts were that I would charge £400 per day (example figure).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT: (29/09/2016):**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* The work will be carried out off-site; and&#xD;&#xA;* I will not be working full-time - it will be on an ad-hoc basis only, I imagine  perhaps around 25 days per year." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15926" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6056" RevisionGUID="77bc20f9-1f23-4d1c-b04d-1a3cae38afa4" CreationDate="2016-09-29T09:01:38.833" UserId="14562" Text="good idea to start a bit of freelancing on the side! There are some rules but they are easy and shouldn't scare you off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm in the UK too:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. the income is taxable in the same way as your normal income&#xD;&#xA;2. you will need to register with HMRC as a sole trader (even though you keep your normal job) - I think within 3 months but I could be wrong (https://www.gov.uk/set-up-sole-trader/overview)&#xD;&#xA;3. You need to check your normal work contract to see what it says about taking on other work. Always work from home on your own computer - when you do freelance work on work machines or at the office, the ownership situation gets really tricky.&#xD;&#xA;4. You will need to do annual tax returns. This can be annoying - but there are fixed price packages available from accountants or use FreeAgent, which handles most of the calculations for you (or if you're ok with numbers and don't do much work, then you can do it yourself)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the plus side, you can start to claim tax relief on freelance-work related purchases! New laptop, magazine subscriptions, even an allocation of your workspace at home.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck, let us know how it goes." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15928" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6057" RevisionGUID="dd15b2e3-eb15-443e-b457-873c1790d572" CreationDate="2016-09-29T13:46:31.087" UserId="14986" Text="I have just set up a UK-based company, and need some guidance on taxation. The company is not VAT-regsitered, which may mean I cannot charge VAT in any case. The The service being provided is some teaching via webinar - I will be in the UK but the students will be outside of the EU. In addition, the body organising the webinar is a non-profit organisation. Can anybody please help explain what I should charge (if anything) in addition to the standard fee? Many thanks " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15929" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6057" RevisionGUID="dd15b2e3-eb15-443e-b457-873c1790d572" CreationDate="2016-09-29T13:46:31.087" UserId="14986" Text="Should an EU-based company add VAT for services provided to non-EU-based charity?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15930" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6057" RevisionGUID="dd15b2e3-eb15-443e-b457-873c1790d572" CreationDate="2016-09-29T13:46:31.087" UserId="14986" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15932" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6058" RevisionGUID="56667602-c542-49af-9155-1acb808af6cc" CreationDate="2016-09-29T17:08:21.880" UserId="14455" Text="The only tax you can add is VAT, but since you are not VAT registered then you cannot charge it. If you do you will be fined significantly for tax fraud. So you should set a price and charge that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15933" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6058" RevisionGUID="09c23e19-1f5b-4b62-8af0-3cfd46fdf55b" CreationDate="2016-09-29T17:43:31.530" UserId="14455" Comment="added 10 characters in body" Text="The only tax you can add is VAT, but since you are not VAT registered then you cannot charge it. If you do you will be fined significantly for tax fraud. So you should just set a price and charge only that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15934" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6054" RevisionGUID="8c638b98-d595-4809-b682-55d94ca77065" CreationDate="2016-09-29T20:41:26.073" UserId="708" Comment="added 169 characters in body" Text="**Figure your overhead.....**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the work is on-site for them, your overhead may only include transportation to and from. In which case, a fee close to your salary, perhaps slightly higher to cover lost &quot;employee&quot; benefits, would be appropriate. If you are working remotely, then your overhead would include *anything and everything* required to complete the work - electricity, heat, equipment, software, internet service, phone service, etc. Generally these are all things covered by employers but are all overhead for freelancers. So the previous salary may have no bearing whatsoever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Calculate your hourly rate...**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember, that as a freelancer, you have to cover things like sick days, healthcare, vacations, etc. Clients don't provide these items so you have to factor those into hourly rate calculations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See Here:&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4619/struggling-to-come-up-with-an-estimation-of-the-value-of-my-work/4621#4621&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/57/how-do-i-calculate-pay-rate-if-ive-never-freelanced-before?rq=1&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1851/from-agency-to-freelance-what-should-i-charge&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2541/how-much-should-i-charge-for-graphic-design-and-how?noredirect=1&amp;lq=1&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Then multiply your hourly rate by the amount of hours they want you to work in a day.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Previous salaries really mean very little to a freelancer other than... well, you don't want to make *less* at any time. You can use the previous salary as a general guideline, but until you calculate your overhead... and subsequent hourly rate, there's no telling if that salary comes close to what you *need* to make as a freelancer. And again, no clue if the work is on or off-site and that may be a large contributing factor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15935" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6059" RevisionGUID="3af76854-4721-4e20-823f-e7d4bb8c5cfe" CreationDate="2016-09-30T09:56:22.137" UserId="14562" Text="nice job on getting this organised! Freelancing for your previous employer is a great way to get started.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've done a lot of IT contracting in the UK and £400 sounds fairly normal. You can also get good UK info from http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/contracts/uk/vba.do. The median rate they quote is £364.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, you are actually an expert for this particular role. They have zero training costs and you can get stuck in straight away. That deserves a premium. An oft-quoted rule of negotiation states that it's easier to drop your prices than raise them. So start out significantly higher than your actual rate. You might find that they are willing to pay £650 or more. Who knows! There is no 'real' rate, only the rate your client is willing to pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, I'd go for a shorter contract, perhaps 3 months. Don't get locked in for longer. That gives you room to renegotiate the rate or take other more interesting freelance projects once you've tasted the freedom and have seen what else is out there!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15936" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6060" RevisionGUID="3578f225-23b2-4214-8688-1fc5b5acc1ba" CreationDate="2016-09-30T10:42:44.200" UserId="2391" Text="Thanks for all the input, this was my response (It's a Google Sheets Script, so not too mission critical):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Great question. It has been really interesting to explore this - I think there is definitely a blog post here!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every software project is going to involve a degree of research and experimentation. We are bringing together a complex set of tools in a potentially infinite number of ways. We are designing and building a bespoke, custom product because an off the shelf solution does not already exist. Bugs (the software acting in an unexpected way) are an inevitable part of this process. The industry uses a R&amp;D or “agile” approach to overcome this. For example I develop in small chunks, working with complete transparency through my journal and timesheet. Hopefully generating the trust that I have the skills to do the job and create something worth investing in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So looking at our last couple of bugs:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - [Redacted]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking through our bugs (the ones with a red label) I can not see any that are due to “mistakes” (what I would call a coding error) made in the code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So bugs can be due to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Coding error** - This is what could be construed as a developer’s&#xD;&#xA;   “mistake”, an error in the way the coding language is used or simply&#xD;&#xA;   making a typo.  Limitations on what the technology will let you do -&#xD;&#xA;   Google Apps imposes various quotas on things like execution time&#xD;&#xA; - **How the technology is going to react in certain situations** - the&#xD;&#xA;   documentation may not describe our particular scenario and we have to&#xD;&#xA;   try it out before we see how it actually works&#xD;&#xA; - **New features breaking an existing one** - In a complex system a change&#xD;&#xA;   in one area may have unpredictable effects elsewhere&#xD;&#xA; - **User Error** - Making the code robust enough to cope with every user&#xD;&#xA;   input has to be balanced against the time this would take, and if it&#xD;&#xA;   would actually be possible. So the code may receive input that isn’t&#xD;&#xA;   expected and act in an unwanted way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this helps explain how bug-fixing is an integral, equally valuable part of software development, along with designing, coding, testing etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other things to keep in mind are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Quantifying the savings** - compare the actual cost savings the&#xD;&#xA;   automation continuously generates through reduced admin man-hours,&#xD;&#xA;   against your investment in software development.&#xD;&#xA; - **Productising** - there are a lot of industries that could find&#xD;&#xA;   something like [Redacted] useful, so it could also be worth exploring&#xD;&#xA;   productising it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yours,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Andrew" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15937" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6048" RevisionGUID="e4d3249c-ca68-4f8c-bc43-da13f6d6c394" CreationDate="2016-09-30T11:58:44.380" UserId="2872" Comment="added 259 characters in body" Text="I am leaving the company that I am currently employed by (permanent member of staff).  I am going to freelance for them once I have left and want to know what to charge per day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long story short:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I work there as an analyst, writing up reports based on my findings;&#xD;&#xA; - I have built a custom Microsoft Access database for the team;&#xD;&#xA; - I am leaving (for personal reasons); and&#xD;&#xA; - they want me to do my analysis work on a freelance basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At present I earn around £40,000 (not the actual amount - this is for the purpose of this example) as a full-time permanent member of staff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason I have been asked to work freelance is simply because I am an expert in my field.  My work was initially going to be divided between the team members, but nobody there has skills that are advanced enough to do what I do to the level and standard that I complete it to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Further to this, I have built an Access database from the ground up and it has now been used by the team for a number of years - as with before, nobody is knowledgeable enough to be able to take up the database administration once I leave.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on that, what would be an acceptable daily rate to charge instead?  My thoughts were that I would charge £400 per day (example figure).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT: (29/09/2016):**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* The work will be carried out off-site; and&#xD;&#xA;* I will not be working full-time - it will be on an ad-hoc basis only, I imagine  perhaps around 25 days per year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT: (30/09/2016):**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* I have also dabbled in the idea of charging them per report as I am, in reality, going to be producing a product for them.  Therefore, my idea was £2,000 per report as each report will take approximately five days to complete." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15938" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4753" RevisionGUID="2ec34847-f156-4256-a4fb-c68e9faa2f29" CreationDate="2016-09-30T14:28:23.490" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15941" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6061" RevisionGUID="fa1c88a7-b928-4330-b113-f1e2d263aba4" CreationDate="2016-10-02T03:12:22.420" UserId="15004" Text="I am a freelancer from India who had a similar problem a while back. &#xD;&#xA;All you need to do is contact your client and ask them for an affidavit of payments made to you; the majority of companies here are happy with that as proof of income instead of payslips. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your CTC would be equal to your income - as that is exactly how much your client spent to hire you. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15943" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="5976" RevisionGUID="d1f8f9dd-04dd-42a6-b0f0-23d7a0c48655" CreationDate="2016-10-03T05:07:01.190" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/782809154998198272" />
  <row Id="15944" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6063" RevisionGUID="8c6f9c4f-3374-441c-ab13-64f0bf0bfab8" CreationDate="2016-10-03T05:46:44.747" UserId="15011" Text="The reality is they built a business on referral and if you want to help them build a brand outside of their steady referral sources. Then it is proabably best to build off their current success.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One example is, letting the luxury clients know that, If you liked our luxury service, please feel free to schedule your next visit online. If you like the way we customize our luxury products and services to your exact taste. Be sure to visit us online and note those things you would like to make sure we have available during your next visit. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another example: The person goes to schedule their next service and the website asks, you had Charles as your server last time, would you prefer he be the one you work with this time? Last time you arrived in the evening and you ate a light dinner, do you want us to get a meal started the moment our driver picks you up from the airport?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they serve a high end customer base, then they do things a certain way, and their clients will be more impressed with tools that increase their experience and reduce the number of specific requests they have to make to get things exactly as they want them. A company that is using all the tools of the internet to create a high end luxury experience, and make it easy to share that experience with friends and family is going to get more traction than any marketing that will get a bunch of views, unique visitors, or a viral video. For a high end luxury service, more than anything else the key factors to success are going to be about tracking data as it relates to the customers preferences.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That means you charge by the hour, because if you cannot build what they need, you need to be able to hire people who can. You also need to be able to communicate how the solution you offer enhances their existing service so that you do not have to constantly fight with them about price and value. Luxury services will spend $100 per paper plate if it means their customers will pay $1,000 per paper plate. As long as they can communicate the value to their clients, they will spend the money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this example I used a luxury service because I did not see that you mentioned exactly what the luxury brand is or does. If your current approach is what is working best. You need to stick with charging by the hour, and using everything you learn from this project to build the products and services you will offer to the next luxury brand. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15945" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6000" RevisionGUID="ddfe78a2-d0f8-45f1-a566-4e89fac3fa7f" CreationDate="2016-10-03T11:28:35.870" UserId="14793" Comment="answers not sufficient" Text="I have been looking for clients for quite some time.  I'm an IT freelancer.  Besides the usual Google search and freelance web sites I ask to know about other sources.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After reading initial answers which included suggestions of web sites I thought to delete the question.  Perhaps my writing 'Besides' in the question didn't help.  Since I wrote original question I have not found answers hence the edit; hope for an answer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15946" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6000" RevisionGUID="ddfe78a2-d0f8-45f1-a566-4e89fac3fa7f" CreationDate="2016-10-03T11:28:35.870" UserId="14793" Comment="answers not sufficient" Text="|freelance-websites|remote|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15947" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6064" RevisionGUID="3a8ae7cf-2928-4ada-890f-be1e03777b49" CreationDate="2016-10-03T16:06:03.150" UserId="15011" Text="Both. If it is emotionally burdensome to work for this individual, and you know that his products make money in the marketplace. Then you would be wise to get both. An hourly wage to make it worth the energy and hassle and a percentage to be a bonus that compensates you for participating in the process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest you make sure the houly rate is your base income, the amount you need to survive, and be pretty comfortable. If you have already been working with this person, you both know what that amount is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bonus should be a reflection of what you are not earning off the products they take to the marketplace. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the last 2 or 3 products they took to market generated $200,000 and you earned a 10% bonus plus your hourly rate then your boss is probably losing money. And if the are not, then getting an extra $20,000 is a good deal for you and your bills were paid during the development process. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the last 2 or 3 products they took to market generated 5 million dollars and you earned a 10% bonus plus your hourly rate then you and your boss are making a pretty good living, and the hourly rate helped you cope until the bonus came in and reminded you why you work for this person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to be a partner with your employer, you would need to be willing to make some investment in the overhead. Consider the things your employer does not get paide to do. Who works through christmas eve and christmas day putting together proposals and negotiating the deals? Who fronts the money for software upgrades and equipment. Who pays to travel to locations out of town to learn a little bit more about how things are done at the company who would be a competitor if they figured out there was money to be made with this product line? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you decide to work on a percentage make sure you cover your costs. Either up front with an hourly rate, or after the fact by the size of your percentage. Remember that this person is not easy to work for, so the time between product releases to the market is going to be the time between doing the work, and getting paid. With an hourly wage you know you are paid on a set schedule, no matter how well the product development stage goes, and no matter how awful the product development stage goes. With a bonus percentage worked into the compensation deal, you will get to share in the benefit. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Typically the challenge to this type of proposal is people ask for an hourly wage and 50% profit sharing. As if they took all the risk, because they did most of the work. That is not how it works. You were hired to do all the work. That is why they pay you. The profit sharing should be something that is easy for your employer to grasp as a good idea, because they can easily measure what it will cost them in dollars and cents. They already know the goodwill and intangible benefits that come from the right proposal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15949" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6065" RevisionGUID="8cc3413e-e8ff-4166-8f99-41606135f900" CreationDate="2016-10-03T16:34:09.243" UserId="15011" Text="Offering support is a worse case scenario approach.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Proposal&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) I will do the job for $x.xx amount and once it is signed off the contract ends.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) I will do the job for $x,xxx,xxx.xx amount and once it is signed off I will provide a set time of support. The extremely large dollar amount encompases the fact that you define support as &quot;how do I change the color from cobalt blue to navy blue.&quot; They define support as &quot;redesign the whole thing.&quot; IF they say the support package seems to high. Offer to lower it by limiting it to 5 minutes of consultation, 1 hour of consultation, or whatever is the worse case scenario for the amount of money you are getting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have found I do not mind If I have already been paid for work I still have to do. I do mind being expected to do work I was not paid for, and does not fall within the original agreement.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15950" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6066" RevisionGUID="fde2410b-ad69-4277-8b1f-460e20bfa4a0" CreationDate="2016-10-03T17:55:13.713" UserId="14793" Text="I agree that the word 'Free' is problematic.  I would work task by task after the initial project is completed.  Clearly define the tasks and their worth and have the client decide if it's worth continuing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15951" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6067" RevisionGUID="83dba4ed-5d94-43d0-8286-d70e1bfdb947" CreationDate="2016-10-03T19:45:13.207" UserId="15017" Text="Scott is on the right track!!! I didn't click on the links, but suspect they are a great place to start.  The only think I didn't see is accounting just for taxes (at least in US) is a MIN 15%.   ... and that's AFTER &quot;grossing up&quot; for sick time / healthcare / vacations / bench time etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15953" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6069" RevisionGUID="e56618dc-50c6-47d3-9b08-6e51b10fc9d2" CreationDate="2016-10-04T06:34:31.677" UserId="13264" Text="I join with @Sheryl and think you should find a small project and easy, to begin with. Paid lower than the competitors and mention in your cover letter, you have an experience but you are new at upwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After you get a task you should do it perfectly to get good feedback from the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Happy working " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15955" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6071" RevisionGUID="3af77764-8c75-40e8-b416-2c5955dc0c9c" CreationDate="2016-10-04T09:45:21.077" UserId="14562" Text="it might seem really overwhelming at first. The answer, in a nutshell, is to get your first client. Everything else will flow from there. You won't need to have a website or business cards for that - it's all about speaking to people and getting out of your home office and connecting to potential customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you've already worked as a facilitator in the past (no idea what that is by the way! :)), I'd suggest getting in touch with previous groups that you've worked with. Meet them for a coffee, ask them about their current challenges. Then offer them a small fix for one of their problems as a starting point + build up from there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for branching out: Getting established in a new field is much more difficult and I'd wait until you've got a few jobs under your belt. It works the same way as with your current field: speak to people in the new field, as much as you can, to understand what problems they are trying to solve. You can use your previous jobs as examples of how you've solved those problems for others. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck and let us know how you get on!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15957" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6072" RevisionGUID="5406e398-09fb-4b34-8867-edde025515f9" CreationDate="2016-10-04T17:19:28.227" UserId="14793" Text="I believe you have started in the right place to answer your question.  There are people here with the talent.  As it looks to me from your description of facilitator, you put talent to work where the work is needed.  Come to think of it I believe that more facilitators are needed.  In fact, I'd like to see more facilitators on freelance sites." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15959" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6073" RevisionGUID="6c587e52-8821-4dd4-a830-a3edef7951a9" CreationDate="2016-10-05T06:51:44.993" UserId="13264" Text="I prefer to offer a free support for my client for some time because it adds some credit to my profile and helps to build good and long relation with him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if they want to add extra function for software/app. In this case, I will charge him." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15960" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3604" RevisionGUID="461e3291-2886-4b86-be76-6a8f4ffa7c19" CreationDate="2016-10-05T17:28:38.040" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15961" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6074" RevisionGUID="abef6b2b-afb9-4a8f-b965-c4c9f72ea951" CreationDate="2016-10-05T20:35:15.667" UserId="14455" Text="I hope this doesn't get voted down as opinion based, but am looking for advice about this situation. I have been freelancing for over 15 years, but following a recent upheaval in my personal life some 6 months ago, it has felt a bit empty and unrewarding. So for 6 months I have plowed on, doing the same things as usual but without the same passion or love of it any more. So I really was primed for a big change, but not sure what I could do to change things dramatically enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So after a presentation I gave at a meeting at one of my long term customers today, which went down really well (I was actually being very brutal about the mistakes they had made) I was offered a job with them. And much to my own surprise I accepted their offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am now worried that after so long being self employed that I am going to find it hard being part of a team again, where I am no longer independent or an outsider. Does anyone have any suggestions or advice about how I can manage this transition?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The team I am joining is very good. The customer that will now be my employer is growing and expanding rapidly. I know the owner quite well and I respect him a lot and have enjoyed working with him. I have done project work for him as a freelancer for over six years. I am committed to this and want to do well, but am now nervous that perhaps I am too much in the 'freelancer' mindset, am too steeped in the self employed &quot;work when I want to&quot; type mentality, that actually stepping back into the workforce will be more difficult than even I am expecting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know this is a strange question to ask on a Freelancing Q&amp;A, but technically I am a freelancer, this is sort of about freelancing (albeit the end of freelancing) and I would really appreciate and value any input anyone might have on the best way to handle this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you in advance from a slightly nervous but otherwise excited freelancer who has made a massive step into what is now unfamiliar territory.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15962" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6074" RevisionGUID="abef6b2b-afb9-4a8f-b965-c4c9f72ea951" CreationDate="2016-10-05T20:35:15.667" UserId="14455" Text="Advice about the transition out of freelancing for a long term freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15963" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6074" RevisionGUID="abef6b2b-afb9-4a8f-b965-c4c9f72ea951" CreationDate="2016-10-05T20:35:15.667" UserId="14455" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15964" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6075" RevisionGUID="47e7d583-4aba-4309-9468-7c7b5e3b2b52" CreationDate="2016-10-06T12:07:18.777" UserId="15045" Text="I am a registered sole trader in the UK ( since i was living there in the last 3 years ) but recently moved to Spain ( more than 6 months ). I am a freelance photographer, having contracts from Hungary, and England. I now have an oportunity for a month long photography project in Spain. My question is, can I write a freelance contract with the employee, based on the UK sole trader business? My clients are changing, and as it is more international than spanish based, I would think that there is no need for registration for autonomo. I would like to know if anyone is or was in similar situation, and what the solution can be. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you very much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Grego" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15965" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6075" RevisionGUID="47e7d583-4aba-4309-9468-7c7b5e3b2b52" CreationDate="2016-10-06T12:07:18.777" UserId="15045" Text="Where to pay tax?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15966" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6075" RevisionGUID="47e7d583-4aba-4309-9468-7c7b5e3b2b52" CreationDate="2016-10-06T12:07:18.777" UserId="15045" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15967" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6000" RevisionGUID="c77dbc81-3c62-407e-800b-2fc796a364c0" CreationDate="2016-10-06T18:41:50.230" UserId="14793" Comment="added 234 characters in body" Text="I have been looking for clients for quite some time.  I'm an IT freelancer.  **Besides** the usual Google search and freelance web sites I ask to know about other sources.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After reading initial answers which included suggestions of web sites I thought to delete the question.  Perhaps my writing 'Besides' in the question didn't help.  Since I wrote the original question I have not found answers.  I looked at other similar questions but again saw upwork and freelancer and usual advice.  Since my original writing I have become convinced that freelancing in IT is not feasible and would advise people to research as much as possible before depending on it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15968" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6076" RevisionGUID="be0612c5-59f4-43ca-b211-330743c1d7c4" CreationDate="2016-10-06T20:11:31.257" UserId="2265" Text="As far as I know it doesn't matter where you perform the services, if the company is based in the UK and your invoice is sent from that company in the UK, you pay taxes in the UK. &#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that your services, as they are performed in another EU country, may fall under intracommunity services, meaning that you don't have to charge VAT on your invoice. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15969" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6076" RevisionGUID="20572ac8-07ca-4d9f-a436-65169a092e5a" CreationDate="2016-10-07T06:19:00.460" UserId="2265" Comment="added info via link" Text="As far as I know it doesn't matter where you perform the services, if the company is based in the UK and your invoice is sent from that company in the UK, you pay taxes in the UK. &#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that your services, as they are performed in another EU country, may fall under intracommunity services, meaning that you don't have to charge VAT on your invoice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Info on intra community: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/vat/eu-vat-rules-topic/where-tax_en" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15970" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6077" RevisionGUID="2e7edfb0-8ed8-4bb4-ba7d-0a3f0910fc4a" CreationDate="2016-10-07T06:43:38.040" UserId="7858" Text="Being a freelancer, I have at times made suggestions which some of the client's employees have made for years, the only difference being that they were largely ignored whereas I apparently convinced them virtually immediately. This made me slightly uneasy, as I feared a backlash from the employees for so easily getting 'my way' - but they were actually just relieved that the changes were finally coming.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The employer probably knew that their setup was not optimal - and therefore valued your brutal honesty.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They also probably realize the risk of hiring a long-time freelancer, but apparently feel the risk is outweighed by the advantages:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. They get a view from a competent outsider who is not bogged down&#xD;&#xA;    in internal organizational squabbles &#xD;&#xA; 2. They get a commitment from you, now that you are permanently employed&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes an organization needs outsiders to move on. To me, it sounds like a great opportunity for you to actually make a mark." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15971" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6078" RevisionGUID="eadffb5d-10c7-45f9-8494-7231f91f76d3" CreationDate="2016-10-07T07:26:13.857" UserId="15053" Text="Three years ago I did some freelancing for a client. It was one of my first clients when I did the freelance switch.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did 2 bigger and 2 smaller projects for him and all where catastrophic. He is terrible in project management and getting specs and offers straight and is horrible at communicating with clients. He is really pushy like the world would end if we didn't ship tomorrow, even though all projects where heavily delayed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All these projects where really, really stressful for me and I only did the follow up projects because I was in the process of buying an appartment and needed the money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There was never a problem with money, he always paid in time and sometimes he even did compensate for the extra time. I was loyal as well and did some smaller change requests for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now there's a big change in the underlying shop system of that bigger project and he needs my help. I haven't worked with that shop system for a while and it would take significant time for me to get up to speed again. Therefore it's very hard to give an estimate and I already know that estimating for him is very crucial, because things tend to escalate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Legally, my warranty deed is over.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a pretty healthy ecosystem of freelance clients at the moment and am fully booked.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is bombarding me via mail and skype on if I have time and can help him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to do that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's a gentle, not offensive way to tell him that I do no longer want to work with him?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15972" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6078" RevisionGUID="eadffb5d-10c7-45f9-8494-7231f91f76d3" CreationDate="2016-10-07T07:26:13.857" UserId="15053" Text="How to tell a client that I do no longer want to work with him?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15973" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6078" RevisionGUID="eadffb5d-10c7-45f9-8494-7231f91f76d3" CreationDate="2016-10-07T07:26:13.857" UserId="15053" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15974" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6079" RevisionGUID="361fe677-9f86-4599-b3da-7e423394d689" CreationDate="2016-10-07T12:58:08.657" UserId="14562" Text="I completely understand your worry and actually have a very similar client that just popped up after a few years of absence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First off, know that whether or not you work with this client is completely up to you. As you say, there is no contractual requirement and there is also no moral or human rights requirement. It's always your decision and you can choose whether or not to work with a client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best way I've found is to be gentle and not burn any bridges. A short email would be enough, for example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Dear xyz, many thanks for getting in touch. A lot has changed since we last worked together 3 years ago and I'm afraid I don't take on this kind of work anymore. I wish you the best of success with your project, kind regards - Shredding&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This gives him a clear, assertive answer so that he knows to go elsewhere to resolve his needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope that helps, let me know if you have any questions!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15975" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6080" RevisionGUID="a5eb2799-bfcb-49f7-b5bb-802acb969299" CreationDate="2016-10-07T13:04:46.433" UserId="14562" Text="user3244085's answer specifies the situation for a company but you say that you were a sole trader in the UK. I assume that means you don't have a company in the UK and any income from photography is personal income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this situation, as you're now resident in Spain and no longer in the UK, you need to pay tax on any income in Spain. You should also have notified HMRC before leaving and may have needed to submit a tax return. Best to speak with a UK-based accountant to clarify.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The relevant HMRC link (the whole thing is worth a read as it covers other cases as well): https://www.gov.uk/tax-right-retire-abroad-return-to-uk&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15976" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6081" RevisionGUID="69d46cdf-bf16-4280-82f1-7b57e7486d39" CreationDate="2016-10-07T13:26:46.420" UserId="5334" Text="I've been contracting at the same place for 1.5 years, and it's coming to an end on October 28th.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's a rumour going round that no contractor's are being extended and, although my client hasn't specifically said that to me, they also haven't shown any interest in extending me either. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, how does one ask for an extension (or just an update on the situation) without it coming across as desperate or like I'm acting purely in my own interest (because extension = money... and the hassle of not having to look for another contract).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15977" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6081" RevisionGUID="69d46cdf-bf16-4280-82f1-7b57e7486d39" CreationDate="2016-10-07T13:26:46.420" UserId="5334" Text="How to ask for a contract extension" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15978" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6081" RevisionGUID="69d46cdf-bf16-4280-82f1-7b57e7486d39" CreationDate="2016-10-07T13:26:46.420" UserId="5334" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15979" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6082" RevisionGUID="ff61de7f-29a3-413d-8494-1cb3f14ba2da" CreationDate="2016-10-07T13:29:42.110" UserId="14793" Text="I also saw the duplicate possibility of this question.  I offer an answer anyway.  Find a fellow freelancer and hand it off.  There's a lot of freelancers without a comfortable client base." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15980" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6083" RevisionGUID="109c59d4-97fd-403a-811c-ed270dfe0578" CreationDate="2016-10-07T13:42:45.370" UserId="7858" Text="Don't ask them; tell them - which perhaps might trigger a response:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I usually inform clients that my contract is coming to an end - and unless extended by the date yyyy-mm-dd, I will actively be seeking another contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When appropriate, I add that I'm enjoying my time at the client and would prefer to stay." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15981" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6084" RevisionGUID="522d09b4-69a8-44fb-88be-d5c8fb6218c4" CreationDate="2016-10-07T16:04:37.467" UserId="14455" Text="You should definitely send a written enquiry into their plans and intentions over renewal of your contract. CC it into your bosses boss too, so it is not just ignored.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not sure what type of work you are doing but start powering down as well. For instance, if a new task comes in that to complete would take longer than your contract allows, refuse to start it or make it clear that although you can make some plans and initial headway it will not be you completing it, so time for handover documentation would need to be allowed for etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Start looking for work anyway. Do not put all your eggs in one basket. When they approach you (if they do) you can then at least tell them you have other offers, and in fact job hunting can be fun too. Use recruitment services as they do a lot of the hard work and leg work for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Start booking time off for interviews. That normally puts the cat amongst the pigeons too. Book time off for an interview at one of their biggest competitors (even if you have to make it up), you do not have to give them any details, but it might jolt them a bit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Definitely do not let it stand. You need to know. It is not desperate or needy and your deadline is looming. I would have started this process weeks ago.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck with it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15982" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6085" RevisionGUID="a002891e-394d-426f-aa80-1d892658fe38" CreationDate="2016-10-07T17:46:02.237" UserId="15060" Text="Given that you have plenty of business right now, I would recommend telling the client that you are very sorry, but you are currently too busy with obligations to current clients to be able to take on this work, and you expect this situation to continue in the future. There is nothing he or she can really say to this, but it doesn't break the relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you know other freelancers in your field who are looking for work, you might want to recommend them to this client, but I would suggest contacting them first with the realities of working with this client so they could accept or reject the job with an understanding of the problems you had. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I worked as a freelance Japanese to English technical translator for many years, and part of the process of establishing yourself is pruning your client base as you increase in skill and reputation and gain clients who are professional, and who pay well and on time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15983" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6009" RevisionGUID="e4b45542-10d5-418f-9652-5a8d5d3de738" CreationDate="2016-10-07T20:26:34.667" UserId="11760" Comment="added 177 characters in body" Text="&#xA;&#xA;I am a fast learner. Right now, I am a entry-level online marketer. I am trying to determine how much I should charge my client because their industry is different than the usual ones.&#xA;&#xA;My clients are in the luxury industry so I have to research a lot of information. They are a concierge that caters to celebrities. They are more concerned towards their brand (as most lux brands are) so I cannot do a lot of tests as often as regular marketers should. The problem is, testing is the core of marketing. We test to figure out what works best for our goals. Copying similar brands in the same industry is expensive.&#xA;&#xA;Right now, I get paid by the hour. The owners are old-fashioned therefore I understand why they don't want to invest in something they're not sure might work. Besides, they never really had the need to do offline marketing because they get their customers by referrals. (I just figured that I bring this up just in case someone asks about it.)&#xA;&#xA;I now know that I should include overhead to my prices. Otherwise, I would not be able to run this.&#xA;&#xA;Should my rates be determine by my experience-even more so-than liability? With liability I mean by the mistakes I will end up having.&#xA;&#xA;Any advice or relative experiences would really help me in this as I have a hard time looking for this kind of information online and offline.&#xA;&#xA;Thank you so much in advanced! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15984" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5799" RevisionGUID="e4f6dc5a-3fdb-4993-b595-9024a760d8eb" CreationDate="2016-10-07T21:39:59.943" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="15986" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6086" RevisionGUID="bb452a02-285b-4e75-b78e-c1390306d6d2" CreationDate="2016-10-08T07:45:29.163" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="I have been in negotiations with a client over the past few days about a large job he needs me to perform. It requires the use of an expensive piece of software. When I asked about the licensing, he said he'd supply me with a license.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Today I received an email from him with the licensing info, only to find it is very obviously cracked. He supplied the cracker tool and instructions to use it and everything. I was expecting him to supply a legitimate licence. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am unsure what to do moving forward. It's a big job and I don't know if this is normal, especially for a small company who needs expensive tools. Should I just be quiet and use the software, or should I turn down the big job? And if I do, should I report him somewhere?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15987" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6086" RevisionGUID="bb452a02-285b-4e75-b78e-c1390306d6d2" CreationDate="2016-10-08T07:45:29.163" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="My client wants me to use pirated software. What should I do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15988" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6086" RevisionGUID="bb452a02-285b-4e75-b78e-c1390306d6d2" CreationDate="2016-10-08T07:45:29.163" UserDisplayName="user152" Text="|legal|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15989" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6087" RevisionGUID="153d5542-0282-4bf8-bbc7-4cf7c6d432fa" CreationDate="2016-10-08T08:32:40.327" UserId="14793" Text="If you really need the job I'd look for comparable software that would be legal to use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I'd drop the project like a hot potatoe." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15990" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="6074" RevisionGUID="e2a647d6-9d8e-4379-a85f-825ec41a9ee2" CreationDate="2016-10-08T09:24:05.030" UserId="14455" Comment="37" />
  <row Id="15991" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6088" RevisionGUID="5c943185-cfb2-4955-b53c-98174428546f" CreationDate="2016-10-08T10:24:21.030" UserId="14793" Text="I hope my answer won't be too blunt.  The reasons I read for being nervous are childish.  The reasons for career changes should be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - making more money?&#xD;&#xA; - benefits?&#xD;&#xA; - will you learn more or will you remain stagnant&#xD;&#xA; - does the change reflect how you see yourself in a few years from now?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15992" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6089" RevisionGUID="83b29b9d-501b-4722-b0e2-89cef7cfdc38" CreationDate="2016-10-08T12:01:55.367" UserId="14793" Text="Either my google is not working or my only resource for clients is a handful of websites.  Before you reply with your addition, I've seen:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. upwork.com (elance gone; odesk gone)&#xD;&#xA; 2. guru.com&#xD;&#xA; 3. peopleperhour.com&#xD;&#xA; 4. truelancer.com&#xD;&#xA; 5. djangojobs.com&#xD;&#xA; 6. freelancer.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently asked for a source to find clients.  The answers I got were some form or other of quoting one of these web sites.  My questions is: how is it possible that there's only a handful of these web sites most of which can be skipped just looking at the content.  Is IT freelancing really that uncommon?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15993" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6089" RevisionGUID="83b29b9d-501b-4722-b0e2-89cef7cfdc38" CreationDate="2016-10-08T12:01:55.367" UserId="14793" Text="How's it possible there's only a handful of IT freelance web sites?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15994" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6089" RevisionGUID="83b29b9d-501b-4722-b0e2-89cef7cfdc38" CreationDate="2016-10-08T12:01:55.367" UserId="14793" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15995" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6090" RevisionGUID="76d52b21-d4a1-4193-8935-df28cab3c760" CreationDate="2016-10-08T13:30:05.233" UserId="14455" Text="No it is not uncommon. There are a bunch of leading freelance websites that have invested heavily in their infrastructure, marketing, legal set up, financial set up and staffing. They have age, size and market share on their side and they all do a pretty good job in one way or another. The challange with a site like this is to get a good number of freelancers, to do that you need jobs posted. To get jobs posted, you need a good number of freelancers. It is like a catch 22 and until you meet the critical mass of both, you have nothing but an empty, non performing website. So it is a difficult market to enter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, most freelancers avoid sites like these because of the 20% taken by the site. So as soon as possible, freelancers move off these sites when their reputation and client base grows.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, the prices these site quote are quite simply ridiculous in the extreme. One example I saw was for a website design and build, plus a food ordering and online delivery system, plus an admin for staff to run the food outlets from, plus an app to do the same but via geo location on android and apple, plus restaurant table booking, plus another app for waiters to take orders to tie in with the ordering system. Sounds like a great job eh, fabulous customer, tons of demands, tons of requirements, big project you might suspect. They were offering UP TO $500. I mean, honestly, I would not design or build a brochure site for that money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can you imagine the pile of crap they would get for $500 if you tried to do all the requested stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, so yes, there are now big players left in a mature market, the numbers really show the difficulty of entry and competing to get any sort of market share.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15996" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6091" RevisionGUID="796fbf22-7d6d-4ef2-a172-5ced38664115" CreationDate="2016-10-08T13:34:38.167" UserId="2265" Text="It's not at all uncommon. I can only speak for Europe, but I have never ever felt the need to go to one of those sites, they're horrible. 95% of IT freelancers here get their job through either their network, via their website or other marketing they set up or via recruiting firms. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Especially banks and other large corporations have 'preferred suppliers' who only work via a number of suppliers including recruitment firms that go out to find the correct profiles. I think TEKsystems is quite big in the US as well. I just send them my resume and hook me up :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15997" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6092" RevisionGUID="747c8915-9757-4e8d-ade2-b528df755c9f" CreationDate="2016-10-08T13:39:13.990" UserId="14455" Text="You cannot do it. If a client offered you good money to smuggle drugs would you do that? How about sharing illegal porn, would you do that? What about buying beer for underage drinkers, would you do that? Your client is asking you to use illegal software, you have to be asking why? What sort of person would do that? Is this the sort of person you really want to be doing business worth. I am guessing you want to be professional, you want to be legitimate, you want to build a career on a solid foundation. If so, then do not do this, you are worth more than that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He may see it as a victimless crime, but he is stealing from the people that have invested millions in development and design and production. He is stealing their code. How would you feel if he stole yours?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As user6035379 said, find some other source of legitimate software and say to him, I cannot use the info you sent as it is obviously illegally obtained and not a genuine license key. If you say it is I will check with the original vendor, but on the assumption it is not, I would suggest we proceed with this open source version of the software, etc etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He will respect you more for it in the end. But if you lose the job, that might be just as well anyway, since he has already indirectly implied you are dishonest, stupid or desperate. You are better than that I am sure." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15998" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6092" RevisionGUID="ba01fe96-f344-4638-949c-f47df4971428" CreationDate="2016-10-08T15:53:38.700" UserId="14455" Comment="minor typo" Text="You cannot do it. If a client offered you good money to smuggle drugs would you do that? How about sharing illegal porn, would you do that? What about buying beer for underage drinkers, would you do that? Your client is asking you to use illegal software, you have to be asking why? What sort of person would do that? Is this the sort of person you really want to be doing business with. I am guessing you want to be professional, you want to be legitimate, you want to build a career on a solid foundation. If so, then do not do this, you are worth more than that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He may see it as a victimless crime, but he is stealing from the people that have invested millions in development and design and production. He is stealing their code. How would you feel if he stole yours?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As user6035379 said, find some other source of legitimate software and say to him, I cannot use the info you sent as it is obviously illegally obtained and not a genuine license key. If you say it is I will check with the original vendor, but on the assumption it is not, I would suggest we proceed with this open source version of the software, etc etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He will respect you more for it in the end. But if you lose the job, that might be just as well anyway, since he has already indirectly implied you are dishonest, stupid or desperate. You are better than that I am sure." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15999" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6093" RevisionGUID="e2c3e35d-84c2-44e3-b409-9e9d6dde4703" CreationDate="2016-10-08T18:38:00.520" UserId="708" Text="Client wants me to steal secret plans from the CEO of his competing company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He sent an email today detailing where I can find the plans, how to break into his offices, and a schedule for when the break in would be best.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you think you are blameless if you break in and steal the plans?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just because you can steal while remaining seated at your desk, doesn't make the theft *not* theft.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seriously.... a client is asking you to break a law which only makes **you liable** if you are caught. If you do not want to perform illegal tasks, refuse the work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realize if you are caught for piracy, it is **you** that will pay any fines or serve any jail time, not the client. After all the software is on *your* devices, not the client's.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#Ultimately, **any** client with this mindset is *not* a good client. If they steal from others, they *will* steal from you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Drop the client, refuse the work, and don't take on any additional work from this client. It's merely a matter of time before they rip you off as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16000" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6094" RevisionGUID="2395a24e-486c-4f61-9fe0-e2e2937a7467" CreationDate="2016-10-08T19:43:26.573" UserId="708" Text="Here's something you may not have considered....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Age.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have *no clue* how old you may be. &quot;Freelancing for 10 years&quot; would suggest roughly maybe around 30 years old, give or take.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What about when you are 50? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Few, if any companies hire employees in areas of tech development or design above the age of 40. Agism is **very real** when it comes to employment and even more so when you are in a rapidly changing field such as tech/web. (they'll deny it, but it is a *very* real consideration.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, while giving up a successful freelancing career at 30 may seem like a great move. What happens in 5-10 years when that company no longer needs you or you are tired of working for them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should not anticipate being able to simply &quot;find a new job&quot; at 40 or 50 the same way you can at 30. So, you would need to rebuild a freelance career from scratch... or start a different profession as you get older.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While employment always *feels* better because it *seems* far more secure and stable, the truth of the matter is that it is not always a great solution long term.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, you could simply freelance part time to keep your freelance business afloat. But that may cause &quot;burn out&quot; faster than is desirable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, I wouldn't necessarily be concerned with how successful you are at the new position, I'd be looking 5-10 years down the road and asking if being employed now is *actually* going to be beneficial to me then.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being &quot;part of a team&quot; is great and can be very rewarding. But I'd still hesitate to give up my own business. Rememeber, **no one** *ever* becomes rich or exceptionally successful by working for other people." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16001" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6074" RevisionGUID="33641d1f-bca2-4c8b-8d40-20f4db380164" CreationDate="2016-10-08T20:38:16.710" UserId="14455" Comment="Tried to add clarity by bolding actual question" Text="I hope this doesn't get voted down as opinion based, but am looking for advice about this situation. I have been freelancing for over 15 years, but following a recent upheaval in my personal life some 6 months ago, it has felt a bit empty and unrewarding. So for 6 months I have plowed on, doing the same things as usual but without the same passion or love of it any more. So I really was primed for a big change, but not sure what I could do to change things dramatically enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So after a presentation I gave at a meeting at one of my long term customers today, which went down really well (I was actually being very brutal about the mistakes they had made) I was offered a job with them. And much to my own surprise I accepted their offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am now worried that after so long being self employed that I am going to find it hard being part of a team again, where I am no longer independent or an outsider. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Does anyone have any suggestions or advice about how I can manage this transition?** In particular how to make it a success now I have committed to it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The team I am joining is very good. The customer that will now be my employer is growing and expanding rapidly. I know the owner quite well and I respect him a lot and have enjoyed working with him. I have done project work for him as a freelancer for over six years. I am committed to this and want to do well, but am now nervous that perhaps I am too much in the 'freelancer' mindset, am too steeped in the self employed &quot;work when I want to&quot; type mentality, that actually stepping back into the workforce will be more difficult than even I am expecting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know this is a strange question to ask on a Freelancing Q&amp;A, but technically I am a freelancer, this is sort of about freelancing (albeit the end of freelancing) and I would really appreciate and value any input anyone might have on the best way to handle this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you in advance from a slightly nervous but otherwise excited freelancer who has made a massive step into what is now unfamiliar territory.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16002" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6093" RevisionGUID="28a7d306-cafa-4e88-a431-afb196a5264e" CreationDate="2016-10-09T19:10:55.627" UserId="708" Comment="added 2563 characters in body" Text="Client wants me to steal secret plans from the CEO of his competing company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He sent an email today detailing where I can find the plans, how to break into his offices, and a schedule for when the break in would be best.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you think you are blameless if you break in and steal the plans?&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;If the police arrest you for breaking into the office, do you think you'll get off and the client would be charged?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just because you can steal while remaining seated at your desk, doesn't make the theft *not* theft.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seriously.... a client is asking you to break a law which only makes **you liable** if you are caught. If you do not want to perform illegal tasks, refuse the work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realize if you are caught for piracy, it is **you** that will pay any fines or serve any jail time, not the client. After all the software is on *your* devices, not the client's.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#Ultimately, **any** client with this mindset is *not* a good client. If they steal from others, they *will* steal from you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Drop the client, refuse the work, and don't take on any additional work from this client. It's merely a matter of time before they rip you off as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the work *requires* the use of the software, and you do not already own a license for the software and/or the client is unable/unwilling to provide you with a license, you can't legally use the software - therefore you can't do the work being requested (unless you want to break the law). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In most cases, a freelancer should already own the software necessary to complete their projects. However, on rare occasions work may require specialty software for a single client. It is *not* unheard of for the client to purchase a license for the software and provide that license to the freelancer. With the understanding that the *client* owns the software and it is to be used on *only* their project. In some cases the software is uninstalled or removed from the freelancer's systems once the projects are complete. Any client that &quot;gets around&quot; legally paying for tools they need will &quot;get around&quot; paying your invoices when they are presented. Required tools are a *tax deduction* and for business there's no viable reason to *not* pay for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This also makes your work in these scenarios a work-for-hire type of agreement since the client is providing tools - you may not *want* to complete work under a work-for-hire umbrella.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me personally, if I do not already own software required to complete a project - I examine the costs of the software for my business and the return I would receive on that investment. If possible I look into alternative software to compete the tasks. However, if it is determined that it is not cost effective for my business to purchase a license for a particular software package, then I don't take on work which requires that software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But there may be ways to **keep the project** when this problem arises. (but not for clients asking you to steal outright) --  During bidding/quoting and it's determined that specialty software is needed, check the numbers. If profit on a project would make the cost of the software viable - i.e. the project would yield a profit of $5,000 and the software in question is $1,000. So I'd merely cut my profit by purchasing the software. I would seek a (non-refundable) deposit before work began which covered the software cost and initial work to be performed. As stated previously, purchase of software (tools) to complete your work is a tax deduction, so there's no real reason you *shouldn't* be legal if you are in business. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16003" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6095" RevisionGUID="e0e0810b-cf1d-4d71-8832-a255b8719de8" CreationDate="2016-10-09T20:36:22.580" UserId="7486" Text="Many years ago before starting freelancing I used to work in a big Internet provider as employee web designer &amp; developer, the company used to install expensive cracked software on all computers and also sent his technicians to install servers inside companies using cracked softwares provided by the bosses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One day the police (informed by others) came to the company and you have no idea how many problems we had for the next years. The company closed and had to pay very high penalties. We were called many times to testify to the judges in the court, and the tecnicians who used to install cracked softwares provided by the bosses were involved in the crime of piracy togheter with the bosses, because they know the softwares were cracked.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I warmly suggest you to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Pretend regularly licensed software.&#xD;&#xA;- Find an open source or cheaper alternative if possible.&#xD;&#xA;- If you think it can be an investment for you, buy yourself a licence.&#xD;&#xA;- If you really want to go on, at least make the client sign a declaration of release where he declares that the softwares that he provides to you are fully legal and regularly licensed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16004" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6095" RevisionGUID="e91cd85c-ef52-48b9-af0f-a760e2cc0260" CreationDate="2016-10-09T20:41:35.153" UserId="7486" Comment="edited body" Text="Many years ago before starting freelancing I used to work in a big Internet provider as employee web designer &amp; developer, the company used to install expensive cracked software on all computers and also sent his technicians to install servers inside companies using cracked softwares provided by the bosses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One day the police (informed by others) came to the company and you have no idea how many problems we had for the next years. The company closed and had to pay very high penalties. We were called many times to testify to the judges in the court, and the tecnicians who used to install cracked softwares provided by the bosses were involved in the crime of piracy togheter with the bosses, because they knew the softwares were cracked.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I warmly suggest you to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Pretend regularly licensed software.&#xD;&#xA;- Find an open source or cheaper alternative if possible.&#xD;&#xA;- If you think it can be an investment for you, buy yourself a licence.&#xD;&#xA;- If you really want to go on, at least make the client sign a declaration of release where he declares that the softwares that he provides to you are fully legal and regularly licensed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16005" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6095" RevisionGUID="a7ed0065-16b8-4ca1-8dc0-1b9fc4132cbd" CreationDate="2016-10-09T21:37:06.583" UserId="7486" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="Many years ago before starting freelancing I used to work in a big Internet provider as employee web designer &amp; developer, the company used to install expensive cracked software on all computers and also sent his technicians to install servers inside companies using cracked softwares provided by the bosses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One day the police (informed by others) came to the company and you have no idea how many problems we had for the next years. The company closed and had to pay very high penalties. We were called many times to testify to the judges in the court, and the technicians who used to install cracked softwares provided by the bosses were involved in the crime of piracy togheter with the bosses, because they knew the softwares were cracked.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I warmly suggest you to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Pretend regularly licensed software.&#xD;&#xA;- Find an open source or cheaper alternative if possible.&#xD;&#xA;- If you think it can be an investment for you, buy yourself a licence.&#xD;&#xA;- If you really want to go on, at least make the client sign a declaration of release where he declares that the softwares that he provides to you are fully legal and regularly licensed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16006" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6095" RevisionGUID="34692da4-274f-4522-83db-e519a38bcc18" CreationDate="2016-10-10T07:59:57.627" UserId="7486" Comment="added 35 characters in body" Text="Many years ago before starting freelancing I used to work in a big Internet provider as employee web designer &amp; developer, the company used to install expensive cracked software on all computers and also sent his technicians to install servers inside companies using cracked softwares provided by the bosses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One day the fiscal police (who was informed by others) came to the company and you have no idea how many problems we employees had for the next years. The company closed and had to pay very high penalties. We were called many times to testify to the judges in the court, and the technicians who used to install cracked softwares provided by the bosses were initially involved in the crime of piracy togheter with the bosses, because they knew the softwares were cracked.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I warmly suggest you to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Pretend regularly licensed software.&#xD;&#xA;- Find an open source or cheaper alternative if possible.&#xD;&#xA;- If you think it can be an investment for you, buy yourself a licence.&#xD;&#xA;- If you really want to go on, at least make the client sign a declaration of release where he declares that the softwares that he provides to you are fully legal and regularly licensed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16007" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4711" RevisionGUID="19d069dc-601b-4f44-a3e3-eadb816eb771" CreationDate="2016-10-10T16:31:19.760" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16008" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6096" RevisionGUID="09920167-e67b-4783-8f64-8273a9140af4" CreationDate="2016-10-10T17:44:23.217" UserId="14866" Text="I've never used any of these sites. I receive all of my work as a result of connections in my network. Those connections think of me when they have opportunities because of my reputation. &#xD;&#xA;Because my network is a key source of employment I am very careful about who I network with. I know a lot of people but do not network with people whose work I would not unhesitatingly recommend. This protects my integrity and my reputation and helps me find clients who know I am capable as much because of my past work as because of the quality of people I &quot;hang out with.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16009" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6097" RevisionGUID="3dc7d242-56ed-421f-873e-51ff8588e1bb" CreationDate="2016-10-10T17:53:26.600" UserId="14866" Text="Never use pirated materials! NEVER! This is how you make your living, if you want your reputation to be less than strellar this is the fastest way to get there.Is this a client you want to associate with? Remember what your mother told you &quot;you are who you hang out with....&quot; On a more serious note consider the legal implications of this request and know that your liability insurance would not cover you if there is litigation later. Also know that you will be judged by other clients by what you did for this client as much as what you did not do and this will affect your future earning ability.  You should make it clear to this client that this is not appropriate and then provide alternatives. If this client is cash strapped many software vendors offer trial licenses that can be converted on a prorated basis and many sales reps will work with clients to gain a future sale. So there are options-theft however is never one of them...." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16010" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6098" RevisionGUID="1e1fe875-8b26-483a-90e7-4813c08de911" CreationDate="2016-10-10T17:59:28.223" UserId="14866" Text="Be honest. If you are genuinely at your capacity and can't take on his work tell him that. What would not do is tell him because he is slow or disorganized or whatever because this guy sounds like the type who would try to rebut your reasons and corner you into something you don't want to do that you don't have time for...." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16011" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6099" RevisionGUID="cf4e2a1f-714c-4591-b50d-7f9214f5eaa8" CreationDate="2016-10-11T02:04:52.287" UserId="15085" Text="I'm about to start my first consulting gig with my first client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The things is, I've spent 10+ hours already just scoping the project and estimating how many hours each task takes before even starting to negotiate the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is, when he says ok and starts drafting a contract for X hours for all the tasks that I've given estimates for, is that the time for me to say &quot;sounds good, also add $1,000 for the time I spent scoping this thing&quot; or is that not a thing consultants usually charge for?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16012" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6099" RevisionGUID="cf4e2a1f-714c-4591-b50d-7f9214f5eaa8" CreationDate="2016-10-11T02:04:52.287" UserId="15085" Text="Consulting: Do I charge for the time I take to plan the scope of the project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16013" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6099" RevisionGUID="cf4e2a1f-714c-4591-b50d-7f9214f5eaa8" CreationDate="2016-10-11T02:04:52.287" UserId="15085" Text="|scope-of-work|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16014" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6100" RevisionGUID="f221b2bc-7a71-40f8-9286-64e7b38bbd5c" CreationDate="2016-10-11T02:45:58.237" UserId="708" Text="In most businesses, the time it takes to write a quote is seen as a loss-leader -- the price you must pay if you want the actual work (which does pay). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So no, you generally do not charge for the time it takes to quote/bid a project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16015" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6101" RevisionGUID="44ae9b78-0fda-40bc-9788-e8c562938518" CreationDate="2016-10-11T06:02:53.887" UserId="7858" Text="Generally, projects can either be 'fixed amount' or 'time and materials' where an hourly/daily rate is agreed upon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client seems to prefer a fixed amount, one usually adds the time used estimating to the total cost of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the project is paid by the hour, one usually does not visibly charge for the up-front estimations, unless the client has asked for estimates and knows they will be charged. Perhaps quote a slightly higher rate to the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Never surprise a client with an unexpected charge; even one which might seem insignificant compared to the scope of the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16016" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6102" RevisionGUID="abe35900-7e97-474e-84a5-25ac036fb754" CreationDate="2016-10-11T11:31:12.633" UserId="2265" Text="Generally speaking time you spend on a proposal is the 'cost of sales', i.e. the time and effort you spend on drafting proposals, doing presales meetings etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case, scoping the project in such level of detail is considered part of the executing of the project. So what you have done is work that I personally would only be doing when the contract was signed. If the customer suddenly says &quot;I changed my mind, it's not going to happen&quot; you did all this work for free. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To summarize: all the work you need to do to sell the project, including a global estimate of costs in your proposal is &quot;cost of sales&quot; and is not invoiced separately. Actually planning and fully scoping the project is part of executing the project, not part of sales, and should be invoiced.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As mentioned above: if you have fixed price projects it doesn't matter anyway because you have agreed on a price for the entire project. If you're on time and material I'd definitely invoice this time once the project starts. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16017" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6103" RevisionGUID="084c0c6a-90f1-498f-9759-369e2a8b2805" CreationDate="2016-10-11T14:34:40.497" UserId="15094" Text="**Contact the software vendor** and try to negotiate a temporary licence, or even see if you can get a short-term trial license from the vendor. Check the terms of licensing for if you can use the software and final works for production use until the license expires.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And keep in mind that if you do choose to use the pirated software (which I would advise against), you have now created a paper trail where you have admitted knowledge of it being pirated and should you be found pirating the software, this prior knowledge will certainly not help you if prosecuted." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16018" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6104" RevisionGUID="213c13bc-d636-4df8-8002-39c113337427" CreationDate="2016-10-11T15:43:24.230" UserId="14793" Text="I bid for a project on upwork.com&#xD;&#xA;The invitation is for a test project.  The test project includes my having to have an AWS account, mysql, ansible, etc, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is:  Is this much investment in a test project worth it for me when my client base is just about none existent?  Looking for clients is hard enough but finding things like this that sound like a lot of wasted time makes me doubt myself.&#xD;&#xA;Also, the test project needs to be put on github; is this a total waste of time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16019" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6104" RevisionGUID="213c13bc-d636-4df8-8002-39c113337427" CreationDate="2016-10-11T15:43:24.230" UserId="14793" Text="Test project asking for too much to get a job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16020" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6104" RevisionGUID="213c13bc-d636-4df8-8002-39c113337427" CreationDate="2016-10-11T15:43:24.230" UserId="14793" Text="|project-bidding|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16021" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6105" RevisionGUID="c2640fcd-9f00-4de8-9228-f9e8f19d7d24" CreationDate="2016-10-11T16:04:06.830" UserId="708" Text="&quot;Test projects&quot; are *never* acceptable to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you hire a contractor to refurbish your kitchen... do you expect him to do a &quot;test project&quot; by refurbishing your bathroom first?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want a mechanic to tune up your car.... do you expect him/her to complete a &quot;test project&quot; by rotating your tires first?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my world there is **no such thing** as a &quot;test project&quot;. I get paid for work I do. If a client wants to pay me to complete something, then hire me to complete additional projects, that's fine. But I **do not** work for free -- and it makes no difference that the client calls something a &quot;test project&quot; it is still work on my part. The same amount of work if the project were called a &quot;asdeasdas project&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The label the client puts on the project means *nothing*. The reality is, by using &quot;test&quot; they are trying to manipulate into working for free because they *hope* you assume they have more work for you. But who knows if the will *ever* have anything more for you to do. And by using &quot;test&quot; they can get the work done for free... and just claim they didn't like it and have nothing more for you. Essentially, &quot;test&quot; is a red flag for a client that will not pay you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Good* clients *never* ask for &quot;test&quot; projects, ever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Don't work for free.** It's just a way of others to take advantage of you. Your **portfolio** and work history should be enough to show a prospective client what you are capable of doing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Test project&quot; = do something free for us" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16022" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6105" RevisionGUID="02114317-275b-4032-86df-89a84cfe2e25" CreationDate="2016-10-11T16:16:51.367" UserId="708" Comment="added 21 characters in body" Text="&quot;Test projects&quot; are *never* acceptable to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you hire a contractor to refurbish your kitchen... do you expect him to do a &quot;test project&quot; by refurbishing your bathroom first?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want a mechanic to tune up your car.... do you expect him/her to complete a &quot;test project&quot; by rotating your tires first?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my world there is **no such thing** as a &quot;test project&quot;. I get paid for work I do. If a client wants to pay me to complete something, then hire me to complete additional projects, that's fine. But I **do not** work for free. It makes no difference that the client calls something a &quot;test project&quot; it is still work on my part. The same amount of work if the project were called a &quot;Ren &amp; Stimpy Project&quot; or a &quot;GobbdyGook Project&quot;. The amount of effort and time on my part is the same. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The label the client puts on the project means *nothing*. The reality is, by using &quot;test&quot; they are trying to manipulate into working for free or at a reduced rate because they *hope* you assume they have more work for you. But who knows if there will *ever* be anything more for you to do. And by using &quot;test&quot; they can get the work done for free/cheap... and just claim they didn't like it and have nothing more for you. Essentially, &quot;test&quot; is a red flag for a client that will not pay you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Good* clients *never* ask for &quot;test&quot; projects, **ever**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Don't work for free.** It's just a way of others to take advantage of you. Your **portfolio** and work history should be enough to show a prospective client what you are capable of doing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Test project&quot; = do something free for us" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16023" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6106" RevisionGUID="4f69b657-015f-4432-9b75-ff4d2d5b3a86" CreationDate="2016-10-11T19:00:46.403" UserId="737" Text="Remote into a computer on your client's network that has a licensed version of the required software installed. Do you work remotely, and you wont need a licensed copy on your computer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is of course *IF* they have a licensed copy on their networks. They may be pirating all there copies too.  If so, then I'd walk away, if not run! If they don't value the other programmers, who's to say they will value your work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16024" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6074" RevisionGUID="b3e3dc4d-f21a-45de-8cb3-6f3a83f178d5" CreationDate="2016-10-11T19:33:18.443" UserId="75" Comment="Removed fluff" Text="I have been freelancing for over 15 years, but following a recent upheaval in my personal life some 6 months ago, it has felt a bit empty and unrewarding. So for 6 months I have plowed on, doing the same things as usual but without the same passion or love of it any more. So I really was primed for a big change, but not sure what I could do to change things dramatically enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So after a presentation I gave at a meeting at one of my long term customers today, which went down really well (I was actually being very brutal about the mistakes they had made) I was offered a job with them. And much to my own surprise I accepted their offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am now worried that after so long being self employed that I am going to find it hard being part of a team again, where I am no longer independent or an outsider. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Does anyone have any suggestions or advice about how I can manage this transition?** In particular how to make it a success now I have committed to it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The team I am joining is very good. The customer that will now be my employer is growing and expanding rapidly. I know the owner quite well and I respect him a lot and have enjoyed working with him. I have done project work for him as a freelancer for over six years. I am committed to this and want to do well, but am now nervous that perhaps I am too much in the 'freelancer' mindset, am too steeped in the self employed &quot;work when I want to&quot; type mentality, that actually stepping back into the workforce will be more difficult than even I am expecting." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16028" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="5976" RevisionGUID="330ce9c1-28fa-4f13-9481-42e82c9cdf83" CreationDate="2016-10-11T23:00:00.177" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="16029" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6108" RevisionGUID="427dbc23-0974-4805-908b-854ff3aab1b2" CreationDate="2016-10-12T00:21:58.557" UserId="4697" Text="I have not been able to find any freelancer's association or union to join in the country where I am currently residing in, Indonesia. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This means that I have been freelancing since forever **without** enjoying the benefit of networking, perks, health and dental insurance coverage, discounts and possible expansion, access to legal advise, as well as freebies and goodies that come with being a member of a freelancer's association. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Throughout my 10+ years freelancing, I have worked with people all over the world, India, the States, Germany, Brazil, China, and many more. They have all found me by word-or-mouth or personal recommendations. Still, I feel like I am missing out a lot without a union or association with other freelancers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there *international associations* or *unions* for freelancers that I can join? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16030" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6108" RevisionGUID="427dbc23-0974-4805-908b-854ff3aab1b2" CreationDate="2016-10-12T00:21:58.557" UserId="4697" Text="Missing the benefits of freelancer's association or union" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16031" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6108" RevisionGUID="427dbc23-0974-4805-908b-854ff3aab1b2" CreationDate="2016-10-12T00:21:58.557" UserId="4697" Text="|communication|negotiation|foreign-markets|branch-office|disability|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16032" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6109" RevisionGUID="b1b890ac-3004-4ea8-9f86-802e5f9e1551" CreationDate="2016-10-12T01:12:54.787" UserId="4697" Text="A lot of people are actively seeking to build their presence on social media sites online!  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there is one new thing I have learned from hanging out with other freelancers on Facebook groups is that people need to learn to build their online brands and social media presence. These are possible things to do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Join bootcamps** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With the rise of online businesses, there is also a rise in the need for online *coaching*. Many SMEs and freelancers are in need of support for their newly found businesses. Boot camps is one way to get just that. Find boot camps that focus on helping you in achieving your desired goals&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**More strategies**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need more social media strategies. Practice the different scenarios that may happen and document your brainstorming activities. Design your strategies based on practicality. Make sure to follow your social media strategies and document your results!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Educate your clients** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Teach your clients how to work with you. As silly as this may sound, ***they might not know how to best work with you***, the unique business and individual whose services they may find useful. You need to teach offer them materials that will let them know how to work together at your level. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16033" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6109" RevisionGUID="5d9b9fc3-a344-40c5-8792-0284f0f431c1" CreationDate="2016-10-12T01:23:11.280" UserId="4697" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="A lot of people are actively seeking to build their presence on social media sites online!  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there is one new thing I have learned from hanging out with other freelancers on Facebook groups is that people need to learn to build their online brands and social media presence. These are possible things to do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Join boot camps** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With the rise of online businesses, there is also a rise in the need for online *coaching*. Many SMEs and freelancers are in need of support for their newly found businesses. Boot camps is one way to get just that. Find boot camps that focus on helping you in achieving your desired goals&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**More strategies**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need more social media strategies. Practice the different scenarios that may happen and document your brainstorming activities. Design your strategies based on practicality. Make sure to follow your social media strategies and document your results!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Educate your clients** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Teach your clients how to work with you. As silly as this may sound, ***they might not know how to best work with you***, the unique business and individual whose services they may find useful. You need to teach offer them materials that will let them know how to work together at your level. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16034" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6110" RevisionGUID="164160be-eafb-45cf-af00-9b007e12ca56" CreationDate="2016-10-12T05:28:06.917" UserId="7858" Text="None of the perks you mention are actually free; they're all paid for in some way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me, part of being a freelancer is having the right and obligation to construct the package of perks you want for yourself. Personally, I choose to attend 3-4 conferences a year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding the networking, (at least in Denmark) one could work out of a shared office instead of at home. In addition, one could use sites like Meetup.com to find or organize networking." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16035" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6111" RevisionGUID="ec17ab61-1035-445d-839e-9196cf31e614" CreationDate="2016-10-12T05:45:47.240" UserId="7858" Text="It's always difficult when starting out - and some clients choose to take advantage of that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sadly, it is a red flag when a prospective client very quickly signals that more work could/will be forthcoming after a initial 'trial'. I actually never worked again for the two (paying) clients who claimed to have lots of future work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, you need to build up a portfolio. If you do not have a semi-commercial at-home-project of your own - and the client's proposed technology stack is exactly what you want to work with - you could go for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, you should ensure that you can walk away from the project if/when the client starts to extort work from you - as they very likely will. When your time costs them zero, they will very probably make endless change requests. Any good client relationship needs to be somewhat symmetrical - and working for free is about as asymmetric as things can get." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16036" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6112" RevisionGUID="df422acb-4c48-4123-a2c4-64fcd2521fd4" CreationDate="2016-10-12T06:42:33.290" UserId="2265" Text="Basically what you are describing is the trade off you make when turning freelancer. None of those things are provided by default, but all can be obtained if you choose to do so. &#xD;&#xA;Networking is done by visiting conferences, seminars or other events. Insurance can be arranged by simply getting some, the same goes for legal advice.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A union for freelancers wouldn't be useful. For one, unions' main function is negotiating with employers and helping employees. Freelancers don't have employers but clients and they are free to negotiate the terms of the engagement. Neither are freelancers employees, so there are no employee rights to be defended. &#xD;&#xA;Associations for freelancers do exist (although usually per sector, not for freelancers as a group), at least where I'm from in Europe, but I have never actually felt the need to be a part of those. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16037" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6113" RevisionGUID="58ad704b-f8c9-49e5-98d7-fc22a0930d78" CreationDate="2016-10-12T10:18:12.090" UserId="14455" Text="I would strongly suggest that you see this as an opportunity to start your own organization. You can base it off the many models that are available but you would make it free to join at first. Once you have a few members you can start listing recommended services, such as the 'perks' you mention, from a good dedicated supplier that you could potentially arrange a discount with for members of your club. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would try to make membership free if I were you, but move towards a paid membership in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were doing this, I would start with a website. Then find a couple of other freelancers to meet with once a month just for a chat about business etc. Then start actively recruiting more members in your local area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It could be beneficial for you as a member of a community, once up and running you could join or affiliate with a larger international organization. It could also be financially rewarding if you can begin to organize talks from guest speakers, proper solid membership benefits, and start charging for membership.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is after all how all organizations start. I do not think it would initially be too much of a time burden, but would look great on your CV too." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16038" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6114" RevisionGUID="aa38581c-28d0-4a80-a970-4b728a5566d4" CreationDate="2016-10-12T13:38:19.353" UserId="5893" Text="I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill. Yeah, it's scary to suddenly have to put pants on to go to work when you're used to being in your underwear and fuzzy slippers, but remember how much self-discipline you've acquired being successfully self-employed for 15+ years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, too, am a lot older than 30, and while I know far too well about the age discrimination that goes on (apparently, it's not a good idea to show more than 15 years of job experience on your resume anymore), I also know that there are companies that actually value experience. I had worked for one for 7 years, and I think out of the more than 100 employees, 10 of them were under 30. (there were people in my department on either side of 70!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know if your new employer will let you telecommute a couple days per week, but an arrangement like that might help your transition. You will find that the &quot;team spirit&quot; (i.e. water-cooler conversations and frequent interruptions) will reduce your productivity drastically, and working from home once in a while will be a nice break from that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been a freelancer for the most part for 16 years; but most of it has been as a &quot;contract employee&quot; where I'm supposed to be in the office most of the time, and working for one client for months or years at a stretch (and sometimes I've been converted to full-time employee). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I would suggest to you is to keep a liquid nest egg of *at least* 6 months living expenses - try to put away a year's worth if you can. That way, you'll be prepared for every contingency, including you deciding you don't like being an employee and quitting, or they deciding you're expendable and laying you off. That will give you enough breathing room to either find anther job (which is possible, but time consuming) or building your freelance business back up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16039" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6115" RevisionGUID="2436617a-852a-4e9e-974d-64afae89a55e" CreationDate="2016-10-12T13:47:50.107" UserId="7486" Text="I don't know if I am going to properly answer your questions because I am a convinced *work-on-your-own* person :) but I am going to tell my personal experiences and impressions on that wide subject...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been freelancing for over than 20 years now, and during these years happened that I was offered a few times to enter a company as employee and therefore close my own business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even though the employee position *seemed* more secure and comfortable for many reasons, each time I did not accept and I opted to keep the freelance-client work relationship, and in the end I was right to keep it because the *secure* position with years got weak and (some of) the companies was forced to fire many employees due to world or sector crisis, but I still kept and keep working nowadays with the same companies, because they pay me per job when they need it, and I am not a big fixed cost for them no matter how the businesses goes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also for me is not comfortable at all to re-enter to work in team inside the companies, for many reasons: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- First of all I'm used to work alone in my office, when I go to client's offices for a day or so I don't know how can they work with all the noise, talks and distractions. I am more productive if I can concentrate 100% on the task so I ask if I can stay in a separate small room (if possible and according to the work).&#xD;&#xA;- Second when I work there I see that I go a LOT faster and I produce more in terms of quality and quantity than the employees, so that many times I find myself to wait them (sometimes happened - not wanting it - that I put them in bad light with the boss). After 20 years or self-discipline in the work place, where you must produce good and fast results, you naturally go above the standard and that can be a problem for others and for yourself too.&#xD;&#xA;- Other many reasons...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;About the age factor, it is very true that after a certain age is very difficult to find an employee position inside a company because they propend to get young people (also for taxes discounts), so if you have this chance think very well if catch it or keep going on as freelance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think about that too a lot, what would be like in 10-20 years from now? I am on my 40's and I am completely aware that I can't keep intense work rithms as when I was 20 or 30, also many young people are showing in the business with their freshness and enthusiasm, but I don't worry too much now because I have experice by my side and people trust me as a reliable person and for now I have no problem getting and keeping clients at me (for what are my possibilities as a single person).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to keep one foot in the freelance world and worry for the future or lose passion, I can suggest you to differentiate your business and knowledges, don't just stick to one or two competences but become familiar with more things, that will be also more interesting to move in new areas. Also because a table stay stable (sorry for the rhyme) the more legs it has. If a table has 4 or more legs, when you cut one leg, it still stays up in some way, this is also how many should be your streams of earnings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example with time I developed many skills and I work in different areas for very different clients (BTW I always wondered if this is a good or bad thing, but that kept me always with works to do and incomes), I can be a pure programmer, a pure designer, a pure photographer, a full-stack developer, or all of these togheter, which often happens (I'm also certified in some of these areas), so I always find something to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But as I said before, I'm one person and I'm not 20 anymore, and sometimes I feel burnt-out of stress and tasks to do, so since some time I am trying to have a side business with my own commercial company applying my knowledges for myself this time and not for others. I keep freelancing with good clients and and tring to grow other areas of business hoping that with years going on the freelance part of incomes will be less and less and the commercial part will become the main income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe you can try to do a part time employee with this company (for example 2-3 full days a week) and see how it goes and if you find yourself comfortable or not, at the same time you can keep your good clients and work for them in the rest of the time. Then you will decide what is best for you, possibly it will be a very good decision and a very good place to work for many years to come, and I really hope so for you if that is what you wish and decide to do. All the best!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16040" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6116" RevisionGUID="b9b1eaf4-6774-4c11-b296-2f9a4cf19e1a" CreationDate="2016-10-12T16:33:25.653" UserId="708" Text="This really depends on the type of work you do. There are organizations for general fields:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[AIGA][1] American Institute for Graphic Design&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[IWPA][2] International Web Association&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[AITP][3] Association of IT Professionals&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You'd focus on an organization based upon your work, not merely the fact you freelance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether or not it is beneficial to be a member any of these organizations is for you to determine. In most cases, they come with a monthly fee for &quot;dues&quot; and then provide some items for it's members. In my experience, the dues are well beyond any benefit for being a member, so I've never found them very useful. But your opinion may be different. One thing is for certain, they would offer a &quot;hub&quot; to connect with others in the field. But then again, there are generally conferences which offer networking as well (without dues).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.aiga.org/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://iwanet.org/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.aitp.org/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16041" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6117" RevisionGUID="e907aa53-5fcb-4169-9d2b-d3b05e7b402a" CreationDate="2016-10-12T17:47:21.960" UserId="15108" Text="I currently work full time for a client. I know that isn't the definition of freelance, but certain characteristics of our relationship lead me to believe that I'm still a freelancer. That being:&#xA;&#xA; 1. I am self employed &#xA; 2. I work remote and choose my own hours&#xA; 3. I can say yes or no to any projects he gives me&#xA; 4. I can take as much time off as I want with next to no warning required (there are obvious exceptions to this)&#xA; 5. I can, and do, take breaks to work with other clients periodically&#xA; 6. While I work full time for him I have no contract **what so ever**&#xA;&#xA;The first five are the characteristics of a dream job, but number 6 was an accident. I was first employed by him via a [freelancing platform][1], but after two weeks he was banned from there due to a violation of their T&amp;C by asking for English speaking freelancers in the title of a job post. It was at this time that he asked me if I would like to get paid [directly][2]. To this I readily agreed to. Because of this sudden change no contract of any sort was drawn up. At the time I also had no reason to doubt that I would get paid. Because:&#xA;&#xA; 1. I had already been paid by him twice already&#xA; 2. His business was in a tail spin when I joined. I personally replaced 5 other developers.  Meaning he needs me. (He seems to attract all the freelancers who don't know what they are doing)&#xA;&#xA;And that being said I **do** always get paid, but I have yet to be paid without having to remind him. &#xA;&#xA;The way payment is supposed to work is I send him my time sheet every Tuesday and he pays me for the previous Monday to Sunday. He apparently pays about half of his freelancers this way. The others are paid via the freelancing platform. He is in Australia and I am in the UK so I send him my time sheet every Monday evening my time. By the time I get up on Tuesday it is already about 5pm down under so he has had all day to pay me. I normally wait till Tuesday evening my time before messaging him and every time, like clock work, he get back with the phrase &quot;I will pay today&quot;. He has only once said sorry, normally it's just those 4 words. &#xA;&#xA;It's Wednesday today and even after a reminder this morning still no payment. If I was to say what I feel then I'd be gone in a heart beat and at the loss of a weeks pay since there is no contract. &#xA;&#xA;So my question is this: &#xA;&#xA;**What can I say to a full time client who always pays, but just always late and I don't have a contract with** &#xA;&#xA;P.S. I have definitely learned my lesson about contracts...&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: https://upwork.com&#xA;  [2]: https://currencyfair.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16042" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6117" RevisionGUID="e907aa53-5fcb-4169-9d2b-d3b05e7b402a" CreationDate="2016-10-12T17:47:21.960" UserId="15108" Text="Long term client regularly pays late" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16043" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6117" RevisionGUID="e907aa53-5fcb-4169-9d2b-d3b05e7b402a" CreationDate="2016-10-12T17:47:21.960" UserId="15108" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|difficult-client|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16044" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6118" RevisionGUID="7a830da9-ae62-432d-add0-287fdd0ef13f" CreationDate="2016-10-12T19:09:27.270" UserId="15109" Text="As long as you have the required information to for your tax records, and other record keeping requirements, any invoice format is accepted. The basic requirements are the contractor's name, the date and the amount. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are registered for GST/HST, there will be additional requirements based on the amount of the invoice. Here is a link to the details:&#xD;&#xA;http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/gst-tps/bspsbch/itc-cti/nvc-eng.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16045" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6119" RevisionGUID="6174c6f5-1eb6-49ed-85f7-cf7a4b94d5cf" CreationDate="2016-10-12T19:37:15.480" UserId="15109" Text="As an unincorporated independent contractor, your income from contract work will be subject to tax as personal business income. Your net income can be calculated with the formula: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Gross Income - Expenses) x (1 - Tax rate)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Below are the taxes that make up your tax rate:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. CPP Currently 9.9% on self-employed business income&#xD;&#xA;2. Average Federal Income Tax Rate (0% - 33%)&#xD;&#xA;3. Average Provincial Income Tax (Ontario is 0% - 13.16%)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To find the average tax rate, use the formula for each federal and provincial:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Total Tax - Income Tax Credits) / Taxable Income&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tax rates and calculations ca be found here: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/fq/txrts-eng.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tax credits vary on your personal situation, but always include the basic  $11,474 for federal tax and $10,011 for Ontario tax.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16046" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6120" RevisionGUID="a0281013-6523-4d87-acfc-dc4530df04b7" CreationDate="2016-10-12T20:01:34.853" UserId="15109" Text="No. A salary taken out of a salary does not help anything. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an unincorporated self-employed person in Canada, you are taxed on your net business income (Income minus eligible expenses). Your income is taxed whether you keep it in the business as cash or equity or draw it out. A salary from the business will not effect the income taxes (unless you use it for eligible business expenses or are incorporated)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To find out what you can deduct from your income as business expenses, see the CRA website here: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/slprtnr/bsnssxpnss/menu-eng.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A proprietor or partner salary is specifically excluded. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16047" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6121" RevisionGUID="dd285bbf-b523-4e41-a816-70ab5c1bd652" CreationDate="2016-10-12T20:18:54.253" UserId="15109" Text="I would suggest the following answers as options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Make and sign a contract with payment terms and detail what happens when payments are late.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Ask for payment before you start the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Keep reminding them to pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Charge late payment fees if payments are not made on time.&#xD;&#xA;5. Find a client that pays on time. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16048" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6122" RevisionGUID="441459f6-29c7-4c0e-bb39-75cbc674a0fb" CreationDate="2016-10-12T20:56:52.473" UserId="14429" Text="You will get burned.  I've been here.  I &quot;trusted&quot; someone like this.  It destroyed me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, get another customer, ASAP.  You're going to need it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, do not turn over your work product until you've been paid.  If you're working in software, version control is great because you can retrieve a version by its date and turn over source code as payment is made.  *DO NOT USE THEIR VERSION CONTROL*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third, get a contract.  No matter how much they scream, GET A CONTRACT." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16049" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6089" RevisionGUID="b40df95b-1249-4693-bf88-75ab387b2326" CreationDate="2016-10-13T04:38:48.137" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/786425932231958529" />
  <row Id="16050" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6123" RevisionGUID="1184f6ef-4fe2-419b-bd0c-4975508fc281" CreationDate="2016-10-13T09:48:06.950" UserId="14455" Text="This is not a late payer. Chasing him does make you seem desperate. A late payer (and I have had a few in my time) pay after 60 days. I take great pleasure in waiting for their next contact or request and gently turning them away. I turned one away today, politely and nicely, but it feels great, almost like revenge! Lol.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would treat this client of yours with kid gloves. Keep it friendly, make it a standing joke between you. However I would also start 'extending' the time worked. An additional hour here or there adds up to 4 or 5 a week which makes up a sort of late payment of sorts. I am not saying be dishonest, but start rounding up. 40 mins here is an hour on the timesheet etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, you cannot work full time for him with no benefits, no stability, no contract, no respect etc etc for much longer. So while it pays the bills keep going but make selling your services your No.1 priority. Find new local customers you can start to build a proper foundation on. This is your main focus while filling in the timesheet is a very short term answer to very real bills. If he cut you off tomorrow what would you do? You need a buffer and more stability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Look, as freelancers, we make money when we charge for our expertise. It might only take me half an hour to transform someones website, but that half an hour took years of development, training, practice and understanding. They do not pay me for half an hour, they pay for access to that knowledge. When you can charge hundreds of pounds for half an hours work is when you are really getting there. Project work is the key too. They pay you a few thousand to get a job done. You get it done. If you get it done in a few days, great. Everyone is happy. No one can say, &quot;but it only took you a day or two&quot;. Get three of those jobs done in a week and you have had a great week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me customers pay up front. Either a 50% deposit for project work (or 33% for a bigger project with 3 payments), or they buy a block of hours which they can then use up. A 10 hour block is far more expensive than say a 40 hour block. These block hour packages have proven very popular BTW. But are only available to customers where I did the initial site build. Otherwise it is project work for them too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest that you build up some savings to buffer 'late' payments against.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He sounds altogether dubious though. To keep saying &quot;I forgot&quot; does not value your work in any way. Hourly rates can be the worst to work to. He has already broken T&amp;C's of the original website almost certainly by continuing to use you and bypassing them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But while he is your only source of income, it is kid gloves all the way. You want your customers to enjoy interacting with you. To welcome your emails, not think &quot;oh here we go again&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16051" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3537" RevisionGUID="b1f717c2-7189-495d-bd97-48cfb898d7ba" CreationDate="2016-10-13T14:19:16.567" UserId="5516" Comment="add links to remote jobs listings &amp; e-residency" Text="I am currently in the process of becoming a digital nomad myself. I have been investigating this for a few months now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###You must sort out a few things&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Earn money**: Ideally, you want several income streams to reduce risks.&#xD;&#xA; - **Legal status**: you want to make sure this is sorted out as without that you probably will have trouble charging anyone for your services.&#xD;&#xA; - **Legal address**: you will still have mails coming from organizations &amp; you will need a good system to make this work. Either get a friend or relative to help you, or get a professional service (i.e. in Switzerland the post can scan your mails &amp; email them to you).&#xD;&#xA; - **Banking**: you must have an excellent bank providing cutting edge online services. Forget about old fashion banks &amp; switch to something reliable at anytime from anywhere.&#xD;&#xA; - **Health insurance**: you **must** have a good international health insurance, you'd easily find yourself in big trouble if you have any health issue. see http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get&#xD;&#xA; - **Gear**: you must make sure you have the right tool for the job, once you are away it can be difficult to buy it&#xD;&#xA; - **Insure your gear**: you want to insure your belongings, it won't save your work but at least it'll reduce the financial impact of getting something stolen.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your gear**: uglify your gear so it's less likely to get stolen &amp; buy appropriate housing (shockproof, waterproof, &amp; so on) to prevent physical damage.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your data: encrypt sensitive files**: use tools such as Truecrypt or BitLocker to only allow yourself to access your sensitive data.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your data: digital backups**: you will probably want to have digital backups of your work. You want a strategy that works smoothly so that if you loose your work (ie. lose your computer in a sailing accident), you can not only access all the lost work but also setup the new gear as the original one in a minimum amount of time.&#xD;&#xA; - **Work place**: you might want to make your life easy &amp; start by moving to a location that is known for welcoming digital nomads, it'll save you tone of time &amp; you'll be able to learn from others&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###Further resources to get started on being a digital nomad&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/digital-nomad-101-how-to-become-a-digital-nomad/465&#xD;&#xA; - http://flagtheory.com/digital-nomad/&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io - Biggest Digital Nomad forum&#xD;&#xA; - http://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job#job-boards - Find remote jobs&#xD;&#xA; - https://github.com/kaizensoze/remote-freelance-jobs - Find remote jobs&#xD;&#xA; - http://digitalnomadhub.net&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler&#xD;&#xA; - When must you pay income taxes? http://www.liferemotely.com/work-while-traveling/managing-a-business/65-paying-taxes-in-your-home-country-when-you-arent-living-there&#xD;&#xA; - http://leapin.eu Estonian e-residency made easy&#xD;&#xA; - https://e-estonia.com Estonian e-residency&#xD;&#xA; - http://e-estonia.com/e-residents/services-and-benefits - Estonian e-residency: Register a company, open a bank account &amp; more&#xD;&#xA; - http://passports.io&#xD;&#xA; - https://freedomsurfer.com/offshore-jurisdictions&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/where-should-i-register-my-company-as-a-digital-nomad-singapore-hong-kong/520/4&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/is-panama-a-good-destination-for-tax-residency-for-digital-nomads/2588/14&#xD;&#xA; - https://boldanddetermined.com/hong-kong-business-guide/&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com - tech tips&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadlist.com/guides - books&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com/hammocks-hard-drives/ - books&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get/46751#46751&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - https://nomadforum.io/t/does-international-health-insurance-for-digital-nomads-exist/378&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/09/top-10-tactics-for-protecting-your-stuff/&#xD;&#xA; - https://truecrypt.ch&#xD;&#xA; - https://medium.com/nomad-gate/the-world-s-best-bank-accounts-for-international-travelers-and-nomads-3257e6839cff&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.grownupplayground.com/banking-solutions-for-travelers-digital-nomads/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16052" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6124" RevisionGUID="beefd788-2e67-4f4d-b907-8256e360b366" CreationDate="2016-10-13T15:18:10.603" UserId="14793" Text="The answers above are pretty much what I'd write.  The only thing I did not see addressed is the fact that this is your first client.  Taking that fact into account I would work with the client and do your best to come out with a client not having worked for free.  See what your client says.  Perhaps his expectation of having a fast planner are beyond your capability.  If this is the case you'd need to make concessions.  On the other hand, if the client is taking you for granted you should take note.  As far as the technicality of project management, I believe the above answers do a good job." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16056" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6126" RevisionGUID="9a333673-208c-4b61-b38c-e19888db527a" CreationDate="2016-10-13T20:28:51.107" UserId="5893" Text="It may be too late for this particular project, but when you figure out your hourly rate, you need to account for your &quot;non-billable time&quot; (i.e. business development - proposals, etc - and other administrative activities that aren't directly billable to clients) and roll that into your hourly rates. So proposal development/scoping projects doesn't get a line item, but the costs are covered in the overall project cost." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16057" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6127" RevisionGUID="ea2e7637-e30b-4787-8942-0fa3b2d954b0" CreationDate="2016-10-14T03:27:56.107" UserId="15109" Text="I'm in the process of switching from charging by the hour over to fixed price contracts. I only charge for labour, not any materials. In creating a contract for a fixed price what terms do I need to include in order to protect my work and income? I have the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Date of contract &#xD;&#xA; - Company Name and address&#xD;&#xA; - Client Name&#xD;&#xA; - Amount to be paid&#xD;&#xA; - When payments will be made&#xD;&#xA; - Details of work to be done&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there anything else I need to add to make sure that I don't end up regretting the switch, or is this everything?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16058" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6127" RevisionGUID="ea2e7637-e30b-4787-8942-0fa3b2d954b0" CreationDate="2016-10-14T03:27:56.107" UserId="15109" Text="What are the essential parts I need to include in a fixed price contract for services?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16059" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6127" RevisionGUID="ea2e7637-e30b-4787-8942-0fa3b2d954b0" CreationDate="2016-10-14T03:27:56.107" UserId="15109" Text="|contracts|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16060" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6128" RevisionGUID="8decb813-1aa5-4a49-9425-ea8b103e61fb" CreationDate="2016-10-14T03:47:19.217" UserId="15121" Text="Ive been learning css,html,and javascript for front end dev and also started learning bootstrap. Ive had a few of my dads friends tell me they want a website for their business. The website would just have a home page, about, contact, and gallery. So i was planning on using a free bootstrap template to use as a foundation but tweak it to their needs. Is $70 a good price? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another Question lol if i plan to do more freelancing should i bother to learn ruby on rails, django, php, etc. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16061" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6128" RevisionGUID="8decb813-1aa5-4a49-9425-ea8b103e61fb" CreationDate="2016-10-14T03:47:19.217" UserId="15121" Text="WebDev/Des: How much to charge/ how to charge" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16062" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6128" RevisionGUID="8decb813-1aa5-4a49-9425-ea8b103e61fb" CreationDate="2016-10-14T03:47:19.217" UserId="15121" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16063" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6129" RevisionGUID="c43f2295-f74c-4cae-bf56-6146b7535183" CreationDate="2016-10-14T06:39:46.200" UserId="7858" Text="Details of work to be done - is really important and should be really detailed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since the contract is fixed price, your definition of 'done' will be quite different from that of the client, as it is usually in their interest to strive for absolute perfection in every detail and to include new ideas during the project as part of the fixed price and not separately chargeable change requests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract needs to make very the clear the difference between a bug, a change request and a change of scope - and how these are to be handled financially. Obviously, the fixed price cannot include bug fixing for all eternity - but when does it stop? One thing is certain - whenever a client sees the product for the first time, they will want something changed. You need to avoid allowing the fixed price project to become a 'continuous brainstorm' on the client's part.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If at all possible, split the project into separate 'milestones' that need to be completed and paid for before moving on to the next stage. This will allow the client and you to establish a way of handling smaller deliveries - instead of only having one huge delivery potentially followed by a huge prolonged (legal) argument." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16064" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6130" RevisionGUID="400a8ce6-3ef3-4a07-937f-bedacfb083ec" CreationDate="2016-10-14T07:01:59.130" UserId="15123" Text="I have also been in the same situation as yourself when I started to learn web development. It seems that what your customers are wanting is a simple information website. In this case, the best case scenario would be to do your research into what freelancers normally charge. You can visit http://upwork.com or https://www.freelancer.co.uk to get a rough idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;$70 seems like a relatively low price considering that things do not often go as planned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The price also depends on the quality of your work - but if you are trying to get a few websites under your belt preparing you for bigger projects in future, then personally **I would take it.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In fact, you'd be surprised that most clients often don't have a real indication of what to pay, so you have an upper hand here as long as you show confidence and are pro-active.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Tip for your project:** stay organised and keep your head clear before you proceed to build anything (it saves you a lot of time!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Answering your next question: It is important that you always invest in your skills - there is absolutely no harm in learning those different languages but it's always best if you specialise in one before moving on to the other. Multi-tasking can actually reduce productivity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16065" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6131" RevisionGUID="af754f9c-2545-4e36-98c6-c1f552fca87c" CreationDate="2016-10-14T10:27:19.240" UserId="708" Text="- **Ownership**&#xD;&#xA;- **When ownership transfers** (if at all)&#xD;&#xA;- Define deliverables (sub heading of scope/details of work)&#xD;&#xA;- Time to complete&#xD;&#xA;- Troubleshooting/changes/bug squashing - time for/limits&#xD;&#xA;- Any guarantee or warrantee or the lack thereof&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is difficult to be overall definitive since there is no indication about the *nature* of the work to be completed. There may be other items which are beneficial depending upon the type of work. For example: Illustration - you'd also may want to include reproduction limits for illustrations." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16066" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6132" RevisionGUID="d1004fce-0290-4fc3-a3dc-9e51e22de4d9" CreationDate="2016-10-14T17:12:18.330" UserId="15129" Text="I am not sure about your state, but this would work in some states.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could start the project as a sole proprietor, and then once the LLC is formed, you transfer your project to the LLC, which then continues the project. If possible, you then bill the customer after the LLC is formed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any payment received before then would need to go on your personal taxes, since the LLC didn't exist yet. You either need to pay taxes on it under your personal taxes, or you can negate out the transaction by hiring your LLC.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, let's say you accepted a deposit of $1000. That $1000 is your income on your personal tax return as business income. But, the IRS allows you to deduct expenses. So you personally hire your LLC to complete the project and you pay the LLC $1000. Your personal profit is now $0, and you pay no personal tax on it. But now, your LLC has $1000 of income that it has to pay taxes on. You basically shift the tax burden to the LLC. This is acceptable since the government still gets its taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are going to do this, talk to your accountant to make sure that you do this the proper way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But take note that before the LLC is formed, any agreements listing the LLC as a party could be deemed be invalid. You could word the contract or agreements so that you are allowed to transfer the project to the LLC. You probably could get away with the contract even saying the project will be completed by your LLC. What you can't do is sign the contract as your LLC. You would have to sign the contract personally. This means no limited liability while the project is in your possession, so be careful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To protect yourself, you may want to consult an attorney concerning the proper wording of a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So it's possible to start work before the LLC is formed, but there is more paperwork involved." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16067" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6133" RevisionGUID="c69d239e-847b-4225-9a32-48ba3e458c74" CreationDate="2016-10-14T17:26:36.123" UserId="15129" Text="Some states have exceptions for non-profit associations, and a co-op could be legally organized as a non-profit association.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, Texas allows &quot;[Unincorporated Nonprofit Associations][1]&quot; under the Uniform Unincorporated Nonprofit Association Act, Chapter 252 of the Texas Business Organizations Code (&quot;BOC&quot;). As the name implies, these organizations are not required to incorporate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These co-ops you mention may be operating under a similar law in Rhode Island.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Laws vary by state, so be sure to do your research before deciding on a legal structure. If necessary, get advice from an attorney.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.sos.state.tx.us/corp/nonprofit_org.shtml" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16074" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="29" RevisionGUID="0fa428dd-09d1-470c-88c2-80931507b9dc" CreationDate="2016-10-15T07:53:24.833" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/787199683529584640" />
  <row Id="16075" PostHistoryTypeId="34" PostId="6074" RevisionGUID="02471e60-cdac-473c-91c8-3f4fb9b99f72" CreationDate="2016-10-15T10:18:54.940" UserId="14455" Comment="37" />
  <row Id="16076" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5797" RevisionGUID="2a8aab44-cb1c-445c-a7c7-b028ae5b2b0b" CreationDate="2016-10-16T00:24:02.257" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16083" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5811" RevisionGUID="f46aa46a-edcc-44d4-b9e6-09055aae9e03" CreationDate="2016-10-16T18:37:03.680" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16084" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6138" RevisionGUID="fbd563eb-b50b-474d-a998-3cdf91a7ab9e" CreationDate="2016-10-16T22:25:02.120" UserId="15152" Text="Does anyone know of a good and prerferably free project management where I can basically manage invoices etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I can add payment details for each project and Client and if it's overdue an email is sent to me. I can ever mark it as paid etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does such an amazing web app (self hosted) exist or is it my next project? (Any collaborators for an open source project around?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16085" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6138" RevisionGUID="fbd563eb-b50b-474d-a998-3cdf91a7ab9e" CreationDate="2016-10-16T22:25:02.120" UserId="15152" Text="Best Project and Client Management" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16086" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6138" RevisionGUID="fbd563eb-b50b-474d-a998-3cdf91a7ab9e" CreationDate="2016-10-16T22:25:02.120" UserId="15152" Text="|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16087" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6139" RevisionGUID="0f30f3ee-786f-4419-8fdf-6cde10ffa7a4" CreationDate="2016-10-17T01:35:39.883" UserId="15153" Text="The job is thus:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Take email from random address generator &#xD;&#xA; - Verify the address as a valid residential address&#xD;&#xA; - If it is not residential or it is not a valid address, it doesn't&#xD;&#xA;   count  &#xD;&#xA; - Gather several thousand addresses, with a maximum of 10,000,   &#xD;&#xA;   making sure that the higher populated the area is, the more addresses&#xD;&#xA;   I have for it  &#xD;&#xA; - And once I have my addresses, upload them all to an Excel sheet&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I haven't the foggiest clue how much to charge for this. Its part information gathering, part information verification, then sorting to make sure I have higher numbers in certain areas in accordance to its population, and then data entry with either basic typing of it all, or a short Excel macro to get it all in." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16088" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6139" RevisionGUID="0f30f3ee-786f-4419-8fdf-6cde10ffa7a4" CreationDate="2016-10-17T01:35:39.883" UserId="15153" Text="This job is so very odd, and I don't know how much should I charge for this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16089" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6139" RevisionGUID="0f30f3ee-786f-4419-8fdf-6cde10ffa7a4" CreationDate="2016-10-17T01:35:39.883" UserId="15153" Text="|payment-terms|pay-rate|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16090" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6140" RevisionGUID="fbd3940c-4776-4b11-865d-f2217a00f8f6" CreationDate="2016-10-17T04:10:51.200" UserId="15143" Text="It doesn't sound like insanely difficulty but it will take your time to do it correctly.&#xA;&#xA;To price it, break the job into smaller pieces like implementing a random generator. Be honest to yourself, ask yourself how many hours would that take you to do it.&#xA;&#xA;For example, implementing a random generator should not take you long, but collecting addresses will take longer unless you know exactly what you are doing. &#xA;&#xA;Now multiply your hour rate with the number of hours you think you might need." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16091" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6141" RevisionGUID="cb9b7e81-aacb-48ff-829b-14172558a9ab" CreationDate="2016-10-17T13:48:27.367" UserId="14562" Text="it's always tricky to estimate jobs that you haven't done before!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When there is so much uncertainty, there is a simple recipe. Break down the task into repeatable jobs and bring it down to a level that you can control. Quote the first one at fixed price, then re-quote for the rest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do a single email address or single geographical area first, so that you can understand the work required. You quote this at fixed, reasonable cost and take the hit if you make a mistake. Then quote for the rest of the job after you've done that work. Make sure that the client knows the price can go up or down after that first unit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[as an additional benefit you also have the chance to walk away from the project if it turns out to be a nightmare]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You sell this approach to the client quite easily: It's transparent and fair. Be honest, you haven't done that kind of work before and want to make sure they get a fair deal. You don't want to price it too high (they will lose) or too low (making it unsustainable for you - again they lose due to quality of work).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope that helps, happy to answer any questions!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16092" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6142" RevisionGUID="3400ea5e-b9dc-453f-a304-db5b05f572ef" CreationDate="2016-10-17T17:05:26.173" UserId="15164" Text="first time questioner, and I'm so glad to have found this site! I'm thinking of bidding on a freelance editing job through a freelance job website. The employer wants people to agree to a bonus/penalty pay deal: You get extra money for finishing the work early and lose money if you deliver late. I've never heard of this before. Is this getting to be standard? I have no problem meeting deadlines, but I don't know whether some of these projects are set up to make you fail -- like, ghostwriting a book in two days or something. Thanks for any info. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16093" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6142" RevisionGUID="3400ea5e-b9dc-453f-a304-db5b05f572ef" CreationDate="2016-10-17T17:05:26.173" UserId="15164" Text="Pay Penalty for Late Delivery?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16094" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6142" RevisionGUID="3400ea5e-b9dc-453f-a304-db5b05f572ef" CreationDate="2016-10-17T17:05:26.173" UserId="15164" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|payments|penalties|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16095" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6143" RevisionGUID="0f010b00-2003-4630-b0c9-caeab8636301" CreationDate="2016-10-17T17:24:45.283" UserId="14866" Text="Scott nailed it. I do not do &quot;test projects&quot; and you shouldn't either. Work is work and it takes just as long to work for free as it does for pay. If you are just starting out consider sub-contracting by aligning with a firm that allows you to work on a 1099 as opposed to w-2. You get wxposure, experience and will build your network that will start thinking of you when they have jobs...." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16096" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6144" RevisionGUID="c7617294-2224-4f9c-b992-57ea1bca0c27" CreationDate="2016-10-17T21:00:08.287" UserId="15166" Text="I've started a year ago with a client at a daily rate of €100. We are starting a new project together and after reviewing my new skills and needs, my new daily rate should be €150~180.&#xA;How to justify such an increase from a year to another ? Given that we are working with the same techs, but with a lot more of experience. &#xA;&#xA;The question behind this being : **what are the main arguments to justify a daily rate to a client?** " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16097" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6144" RevisionGUID="c7617294-2224-4f9c-b992-57ea1bca0c27" CreationDate="2016-10-17T21:00:08.287" UserId="15166" Text="How to justify an increase of your daily rate" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16098" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6144" RevisionGUID="c7617294-2224-4f9c-b992-57ea1bca0c27" CreationDate="2016-10-17T21:00:08.287" UserId="15166" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16099" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6145" RevisionGUID="1ac3d896-cecf-4866-b64c-7b3f88414b67" CreationDate="2016-10-17T23:30:45.373" UserId="708" Text="I don't feel the need to *justify* anything - my rates are my rates. If a client doesn't like them, they can hire someone else. I don't need to explain my fee calculations to clients, only what I'll charge them if they hire me. I don't &quot;argue&quot; my rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm increasing rates for an existing client, I send an email between projects stating rates will increase as of Month XX, 20XX. If I'm asked why, I'll cite cost of living, inflation, and overall equipment maintenance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16100" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6146" RevisionGUID="25bd68fe-2e90-4675-a54d-c48269f71e32" CreationDate="2016-10-18T05:55:30.313" UserId="7858" Text="Naturally, one may always raise rates - even though one risks being replaced or just generally souring the client relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A 60-80% increase could be viewed as extortion by the client unless they acknowledge that your role has changed considerably, e.g. from 'just' producing to architecting solutions and/or managing others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only time I succeeded raising my rate during a contract, it was by 33% in a situation where I had accepted a low rate because of financial necessity - so the increase merely brought me up to current market rates. I illustrated this by interviewing at potential future clients, which made the current client accept the increase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients are capitalists; they have a lot more respect for what the market values you at, than your own (more vague) claims. Generally, making them pay a fair market rate doesn't seem to affect the relationship, whereas 'forcing' them to comply with what they feel is a unjustified increase, very probably will have a negative impact sooner or later." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16101" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6138" RevisionGUID="44ad620f-0758-4dc8-ae03-9ed03b74d41d" CreationDate="2016-10-18T08:49:47.657" UserId="14793" Comment="unclear title" Text="Does anyone know of a good and prerferably free project management software (app) where I can basically manage invoices etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I can add payment details for each project and Client and if it's overdue an email is sent to me. I can ever mark it as paid etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does such an amazing web app (self hosted) exist or is it my next project? (Any collaborators for an open source project around?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16102" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6138" RevisionGUID="44ad620f-0758-4dc8-ae03-9ed03b74d41d" CreationDate="2016-10-18T08:49:47.657" UserId="14793" Comment="unclear title" Text="Best Project and Client Management software" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16103" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6138" RevisionGUID="44ad620f-0758-4dc8-ae03-9ed03b74d41d" CreationDate="2016-10-18T08:49:47.657" Comment="Proposed by 14793 approved by -1 edit id of 494" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16104" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6138" RevisionGUID="ce03239d-5b70-441e-a9f5-c5c62f87dd78" CreationDate="2016-10-18T08:49:47.657" UserId="7858" Comment="unclear title" Text="Does anyone know of a good and preferably free project management software (app) where I can basically manage invoices etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I can add payment details for each project and Client and if it's overdue an email is sent to me. I can ever mark it as paid etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does such an amazing web app (self hosted) exist or is it my next project? (Any collaborators for an open source project around?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16110" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6149" RevisionGUID="7fe99158-4237-4207-b6b3-fb7d6b240e65" CreationDate="2016-10-18T16:31:38.730" UserId="12034" Text="I've received requirements for a project, from a possible new client.&#xD;&#xA;Thing is, he expects it all wouldn't take more than 2 weeks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After spending some hours doing an estimate, I know there's no way a single senior developer would be able to do it all in less than 10 weeks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I communicate this to the client without losing him? Wouldn't he think I'm trying to scam him since the estimation is way over what he expected?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I really don't want to lose this client since it looks like an excellent long term opportunity.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16111" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6149" RevisionGUID="7fe99158-4237-4207-b6b3-fb7d6b240e65" CreationDate="2016-10-18T16:31:38.730" UserId="12034" Text="Managing client expectations when estimated time is more than expected" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16112" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6149" RevisionGUID="7fe99158-4237-4207-b6b3-fb7d6b240e65" CreationDate="2016-10-18T16:31:38.730" UserId="12034" Text="|attracting-clients|communication|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16113" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6150" RevisionGUID="3d976a67-03cb-440b-b298-abc2e1180ae9" CreationDate="2016-10-18T17:44:58.257" UserId="708" Text="Here's the thing.... can you do the work in 2 weeks?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can't then what possible benefit is there to trying to retain a client with such unrealistic expectations? Or in other words, if someone asks you to do the impossible and they'll pay you.... no matter how much you may *want* to do it... it is **impossible** so you can't. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be aware that many clients, even some savvy clients, aren't fully aware of what is involved in projects they may want completed. In my experience they will *estimate* based upon *their* timeframes in the past. However, many are aware that their estimate is just that - *their estimate* - and not real-world expectations from someone aware of all the details which will need completed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is also common for clients to *negotiate* timeframes from an *unrealistic* starting point. &quot;2 weeks&quot; is a common *ballpark* figure used. The client may be *fully expecting* you to return and state you need much more time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, the time you need is the time you need. I don't know about you but I can't make my brain work faster than it does. I can't make my body go without sleep and food for days on end. I can't make applications save faster than they do. I can't make servers load well constructed web pages faster than their processor allows. I can't make time move slower. I can't make gravity less evasive... **I can't do the impossible**. So I can't worry about retaining a client during *estimations* by trying to meet impossible goals. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When it comes to time frames..... Estimate what you need... not what the client expects. Then if you feel you may be able to shave a week or so off while working, do that. But it is generally good practice to ask for **more** time than you think you'll need, not less. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you lose a project because of your *realistic* timeframes, and the client isn't open to seeing *realistic* figures, then it's not a good client to begin with. Remember **your** the expert when it comes to your work, not the client. Just because they *want* the impossible, it doesn't mean you should feel obligated to provide the impossible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16114" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6151" RevisionGUID="2a469c8a-30e0-45e7-96bb-1df7f2d2c0ba" CreationDate="2016-10-18T22:53:19.770" UserId="15143" Text="I have a client who agreed on a fixed quote with me. Unfortunately, it didn't work well because:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - He wanted me to wait a year for him&#xD;&#xA; - He added new items to the project&#xD;&#xA; - He was planning the 2017, 2018 ... version without any extra funding&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I politely asked him to provide me new money. This time, my new quote is significantly more than what I quoted before. Obviously, my client is **VERY** angry, and would like me to shutup and just work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Q:** How should I write a professional response? While I'd like for more money, I don't want him to lose face. How does a professional freelancer write? That's a possibility that I'll need to &quot;sack&quot; my client, but I'd like to minimize the possibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is my draft response:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Back in 2015, you wanted to sell the full version on the desktop and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; only distributed the light version on iOS. It was only because the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; cost of creating a new application on desktop that made you switched&#xD;&#xA;&gt; both versions to iOS.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Unfortunately, it's simply not fair for me to do extra works when we&#xD;&#xA;&gt; agreed I was only responsible for the light version. While I&#xD;&#xA;&gt; understand your focus has shifted to the mobile, my payment has not&#xD;&#xA;&gt; been updated. The requirements have changed, but my compensation&#xD;&#xA;&gt; haven't. My quote was a fixed price and based on the information I had&#xD;&#xA;&gt; at the time. I hope you understand that I can't work on the project&#xD;&#xA;&gt; forever (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 ...) with a very limited fixed&#xD;&#xA;&gt; quote back when we were still thinking to sell the games on the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; desktop.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16115" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6151" RevisionGUID="2a469c8a-30e0-45e7-96bb-1df7f2d2c0ba" CreationDate="2016-10-18T22:53:19.770" UserId="15143" Text="How should I write a professional response for more money?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16116" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6151" RevisionGUID="2a469c8a-30e0-45e7-96bb-1df7f2d2c0ba" CreationDate="2016-10-18T22:53:19.770" UserId="15143" Text="|payment-terms|payments|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16117" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6152" RevisionGUID="13e25374-3101-42d9-beed-e4f869b7f7b9" CreationDate="2016-10-18T23:40:46.053" UserId="708" Text="First, If you are a native English speaker, check your grammar. It's pretty bad. If you are *not* a native English speaker, but deal with native English clients regularly, you may want to have a friend or someone proofread some emails/communications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you have it, but proofread a bit:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Back in 2015, you wanted to sell the full version for desktop and only distribute a 'light' version for iOS. It was the cost of creating a new application for desktop which seemed to make you switch both versions to iOS. Unfortunately, it's simply not fair for me to complete the extra work of a desktop version, when we agreed I was to be responsible for only the 'light' or iOS version. While I understand your focus has shifted to a mobile application, my fees have not been updated. The project requirements have changed, but my compensation has not. My quote was a fixed price and based upon the information I was presented at the time. I hope you understand that I can't work on a project forever with a limited fixed quote based upon original scope requirements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I'd write it....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;In 2015, I was approached to create a 'light' version of the application which was to be distributed for iOS. It was understood that a desktop version was *not* part of the project scope. It seems you are now asking for both an iOS version *and* a desktop version. This entails additional work and therefore additional compensation. The project requirements have changed. My previous quote was a fixed fee based upon the information I was presented at that time. As requirements change, it should not be a surprise that fees to support new requirements change as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the record, **any** quote or estimate I provide has a **limited time frame** stated in/on it. Such as &quot;Valid for 30 days&quot;. Any business returning to you 2-3 years later and expecting you to honor an estimate is kidding themselves and trying to take advantage of you. I have *never* heard of any estimate or quote being honored by *any* business past 90 days, much less a year or more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some unspoken tips for &quot;more professional&quot; communication... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Avoid communications where you explain what *they* are thinking or feeling, i.e. &quot;that made you switch&lt;s&gt;ed&lt;/s&gt; both&quot; or &quot;back when we were still thinking&quot; -- speculating on what people think or feel tends to lead to arguments. Stick to just facts, nothing more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Avoid stating *anything* about how *you* feel.... i.e. &quot;simply not fair for me&quot; or &quot;I hope you understand&quot; -- Comments which allude to your emotions generally do one of two things - either they show the client you are uncertain and they may be able to bully you into what they want. Or, they convey a sense on uncertainty and the client may lose faith in your abilities. Your emotions, especially unsavory emotions, should **never** be conveyed to a client, especially in written communication. Over the phone, it's difficult to not convey emotions. But in general the less emotional you appear to be, the better your client relations will become. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16118" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6152" RevisionGUID="1eded4a0-f2d6-4c6c-9f5a-03529349a1bc" CreationDate="2016-10-18T23:47:22.717" UserId="708" Comment="added 152 characters in body" Text="First, If you are a native English speaker, check your grammar. It's pretty bad. If you are *not* a native English speaker, but deal with native English clients regularly, you may want to have a friend or someone proofread some emails/communications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you have it, but proofread a bit:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Back in 2015, you wanted to sell the full version for desktop and only distribute a 'light' version for iOS. It was the cost of creating a new application for desktop which seemed to make you switch both versions to iOS. Unfortunately, it's simply not fair for me to complete the extra work of a desktop version, when we agreed I was to be responsible for only the 'light' or iOS version. While I understand your focus has shifted to a mobile application, my fees have not been updated. The project requirements have changed, but my compensation has not. My quote was a fixed price and based upon the information I was presented at the time. I hope you understand that I can't work on a project forever with a limited fixed quote based upon original scope requirements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I'd write it....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;In 2015, I was approached to create a 'light' version of the application which was to be distributed for iOS. It was understood that a desktop version was *not* part of the project scope. It seems you are now asking for both an iOS version *and* a desktop version. This entails additional work and therefore additional compensation. The project requirements have changed. My previous quote was a fixed fee based upon the information I was presented at that time. As requirements change, it should not be a surprise that there will be additional fees to support additional requirements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the record, **any** quote or estimate I provide has a **limited time frame** stated in/on it. Such as &quot;Valid for 30 days&quot;. Any business returning to you 2-3 years later and expecting you to honor an estimate is kidding themselves and trying to take advantage of you. I have *never* heard of any estimate or quote being honored by *any* business past 90 days, much less a year or more. If your estimates/quotes do *not* currently have a deadline date to them, *add one immediately*. Otherwise, you may continually run into this problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some unspoken tips for &quot;more professional&quot; communication... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Avoid communications where you explain what *they* are thinking or feeling, i.e. &quot;that made you switch&lt;s&gt;ed&lt;/s&gt; both&quot; or &quot;back when we were still thinking&quot; -- speculating on what people think or feel tends to lead to arguments. Stick to just facts, nothing more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Avoid stating *anything* about how *you* feel.... i.e. &quot;simply not fair for me&quot; or &quot;I hope you understand&quot; -- Comments which allude to your emotions generally do one of two things - either they show the client you are uncertain and they may be able to bully you into what they want. Or, they convey a sense of uncertainty and the client may lose faith in your abilities. Your emotions, especially unsavory emotions, should **never** be conveyed to a client, especially in written communication. Over the phone, it's difficult to not convey emotions. But in general the less emotional you appear to be, the better your client relations will become. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16119" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6152" RevisionGUID="c495a9c6-2c1e-4aef-bcc4-717cc86b51db" CreationDate="2016-10-18T23:52:22.750" UserId="708" Comment="added 152 characters in body" Text="First, If you are a native English speaker, check your grammar. It's pretty bad. If you are *not* a native English speaker, but deal with native English clients regularly, you may want to have a friend or someone proofread some emails/communications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you have it, but proofread a bit:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Back in 2015, you wanted to sell the full version for desktop and only distribute a 'light' version for iOS. It was the cost of creating a new application for desktop which seemed to make you switch both versions to iOS. Unfortunately, it's simply not fair for me to complete the extra work of a desktop version, when we agreed I was to be responsible for only the 'light' or iOS version. While I understand your focus has shifted to a mobile application, my fees have not been updated. The project requirements have changed, but my compensation has not. My quote was a fixed price and based upon the information I was presented at the time. I hope you understand that I can't work on a project forever with a limited fixed quote based upon original scope requirements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I'd write it....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;In 2015, I was approached to create a 'light' version of the application which was to be distributed for iOS. It was understood that a desktop version was *not* part of the project scope. It seems you are now asking for both an iOS version *and* a desktop version. Creating multiple versions of the application entails additional work and therefore additional compensation. The project requirements have changed. My previous quote was a fixed fee based upon the information I was presented at that time. As requirements change, it should not be a surprise that there will be additional fees to support additional requirements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the record, **any** quote or estimate I provide has a **limited time frame** stated in/on it. Such as &quot;Valid for 30 days&quot;. Any business returning to you 2-3 years later and expecting you to honor an estimate is kidding themselves and trying to take advantage of you. I have *never* heard of any estimate or quote being honored by *any* business past 90 days, much less a year or more. If your estimates/quotes do *not* currently have a deadline date to them, *add one immediately*. Otherwise, you may continually run into this problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some unspoken tips for &quot;more professional&quot; communication... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Avoid communications where you explain what *they* are thinking or feeling, i.e. &quot;that made you switch&lt;s&gt;ed&lt;/s&gt; both&quot; or &quot;back when we were still thinking&quot; -- speculating on what people think or feel tends to lead to arguments. Stick to just facts, nothing more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Avoid stating *anything* about how *you* feel.... i.e. &quot;simply not fair for me&quot; or &quot;I hope you understand&quot; -- Comments which allude to your emotions generally do one of two things - either they show the client you are uncertain and they may be able to bully you into what they want. Or, they convey a sense of uncertainty and the client may lose faith in your abilities. Your emotions, especially unsavory emotions, should **never** be conveyed to a client, especially in written communication. Over the phone, it's difficult to not convey emotions. But in general the less emotional you appear to be, the better your client relations will become. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16121" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6150" RevisionGUID="d20ead98-1164-473b-81ea-c20f647ba039" CreationDate="2016-10-19T04:10:45.350" UserId="708" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="Here's the thing.... can you do the work in 2 weeks?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can't then what possible benefit is there to trying to retain a client with such unrealistic expectations? Or in other words, if someone asks you to do the impossible and they'll pay you.... no matter how much you may *want* to do it... it is **impossible** so you can't. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be aware that many clients, even some savvy clients, aren't fully aware of what is involved in projects they may want completed. In my experience they will *estimate* based upon *their* timeframes in the past. However, many are aware that their estimate is just that - *their estimate* - and not real-world expectations from someone aware of all the details which will need completed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is also common for clients to *negotiate* timeframes from an *unrealistic* starting point. &quot;2 weeks&quot; is a common *ballpark* figure used. The client may be *fully expecting* you to return and state you need much more time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, the time you need is the time you need. I don't know about you but I can't make my brain work faster than it does. I can't make my body go without sleep and food for days on end. I can't make applications save faster than they do. I can't make servers load well constructed web pages faster than their processor allows. I can't make time move slower. I can't make gravity less invasive... **I can't do the impossible**. So I can't worry about retaining a client during *estimations* by trying to meet impossible goals. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When it comes to time frames..... Estimate what you need... not what the client expects. Then if you feel you may be able to shave a week or so off while working, do that. But it is generally good practice to ask for **more** time than you think you'll need, not less. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you lose a project because of your *realistic* timeframes, and the client isn't open to seeing *realistic* figures, then it's not a good client to begin with. Remember **your** the expert when it comes to your work, not the client. Just because they *want* the impossible, it doesn't mean you should feel obligated to provide the impossible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16122" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6153" RevisionGUID="21bd6190-d96a-433f-af01-7f01c1785e1f" CreationDate="2016-10-19T05:50:03.240" UserId="7858" Text="It seems you have two choices:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Accept an impossible deadline and thus disappoint the client&#xD;&#xA;2) Risk pricing yourself out of getting the client&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This could be a case of right client, wrong time. Unless you are desperate for money, I would lay out an honest plan, knowing they probably will reject it. Generally, it is easier to be honest about the project if you believe no-one could complete the project on the client's expected time and price. Perhaps they will revisit your plan three months later when their project is still unfinished.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Two weeks is very little for virtually any task at a completely new client. Taking on the work *could* lead to more work at the client - but it will very probably be under the same unrealistic terms which you just accepted. If the client has signaled that more work could be forthcoming *and* they insist on an unrealistic fixed price, I would see that as a red flag and avoid altogether.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If possible, split the project into meaningful stages/milestones billed hourly. This will not lower the time or price, but give the client a sense of control - since they can follow the process more closely (if they wish) and potentially take the half-finished work elsewhere." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16123" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6154" RevisionGUID="55b775f8-0d89-4b86-b8a3-52f3f3ea4d1b" CreationDate="2016-10-19T08:01:51.253" UserId="7858" Text="Assuming (from the comments) that one must deliver regardless of being late and therefore being paid less, it sounds very asymmetrically tilted towards the client's advantage - even though the bonus/fee sounds symmetric.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Haven't really heard of such arrangements, but imagine they would occur in a buyer's market, where an oversupply of desperate freelancers compete for few projects. If this is the case, there is already quite massive downward pressure on the real hourly rate - meaning the bonus will probably never come into play." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16124" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6155" RevisionGUID="9996e44c-1553-4928-916d-79d305a8690b" CreationDate="2016-10-19T09:38:10.313" UserId="12482" Text="You generally do no add sales tax to products that you buy ( already taxed ).  This is classified by the IRS as a pass-through tax.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Similarly you do not tax your own labor.  You do however charge your client for taxes paid if you supplied them material that you paid taxes on.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you engage in the making of raw materials that is sold then that would be appropriate for a sales tax.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Read on up on the IRS pages.  It's all there, for free." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16129" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6158" RevisionGUID="5008528c-0da0-4b15-b0ae-3bec3eb1b12b" CreationDate="2016-10-19T18:31:09.733" UserId="14699" Text="As a full stack developer for hire I have created dozens of websites for a wide array of clients. I'm continually trying to refine my process and have noticed the biggest waste of time is design due to customer input. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With earlier projects this would mean actually changing the html/css as their suggestions came in, but I've since changed to trying to nail down a design document (psd) before I start writing any code. However, this still means I'm wasting entirely too much time going back and forth on what designs they like and do not like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this an inevitable truth? What steps, if any, can I take to prevent the constant re-hashing of minor design details?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16130" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6158" RevisionGUID="5008528c-0da0-4b15-b0ae-3bec3eb1b12b" CreationDate="2016-10-19T18:31:09.733" UserId="14699" Text="How do you curtail too much customer input on website design?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16131" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6158" RevisionGUID="5008528c-0da0-4b15-b0ae-3bec3eb1b12b" CreationDate="2016-10-19T18:31:09.733" UserId="14699" Text="|freelance-websites|customer-relations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16132" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6159" RevisionGUID="ac1b9897-b56b-4a82-82c2-beacde62fafe" CreationDate="2016-10-19T18:53:37.660" UserId="4870" Text="I would suggest adding language to your contract specifying how many design revisions will be allowed, free-of-charge. Be frank with your client when discussing this part of the contract and tell them the reason the clause is there is because in the past an inordinate amount of time has been wasted (on both sides) re-hashing minor design details.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you make it clear to the client there will be a limited number of revisions, they should take the revisions more seriously. However, if you acquiesce whenever the client wants to make changes, they have no incentive to limit the number of modifications. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16133" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6160" RevisionGUID="0a6efe0f-1bc1-4b63-a90b-08b106b44fbf" CreationDate="2016-10-19T19:07:53.983" UserId="4870" Text="Honestly, I would keep things as simple as possible in the beginning. As a first pass, put together a simple spreadsheet. When you find you have outgrown that (could take a while), I would recommend something like Freshbooks (https://www.freshbooks.com/pricing). I have been using Freshbooks as my invoicing/accounting software for several years now and have been quite pleased. However, I am starting to outgrow that platform and will likely transition to Quick Books in the near future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I often find newer freelancers / small business owners fretting about which tools to use and wasting time looking for &quot;the perfect tool.&quot; Remember that the goal of your tools is to save you time, and often the best tools are the simplest. While there is a SaaS product for everything, I nearly always start with a spreadsheet, and only when I truly outgrow the spreadsheet do I start looking for a better tool.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16134" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4776" RevisionGUID="23dfa554-7760-4ebe-b063-78bbc76a9202" CreationDate="2016-10-19T19:16:55.057" UserId="4870" Comment="edited body" Text="I'm going to offer a few counter-points to Dustin's answer. From my experience, presenting myself as the owner of a company, as opposed to a freelancer, led to a number of positive things (keep in mind this is all anecdotal):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Presenting as a company allows you to **increase your rates**. From my experience, there was a limit to how much I could charge as an individual. Even with project/value based pricing it was hard to demand the higher prices I knew other developers were receiving. However, when I started my company and brought on just one more person I then had a team I could market. This increased our perceived value and trust, allowing us to charge more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Presenting as a company **increases your perceived stability**. Some clients (not all) are put off by working with an individual. This often depends on the size of the client, scope of the project, and importance of the project. For large, critical, tasks many clients are not comfortable hiring a freelancer. What happens if you suddenly fall ill? What happens if you stop answering their phone calls? While all of these things can happen with companies as well, companies are inherently more stable because they have a greater number of individuals who can fill in if something happens.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Presenting as a company **increases your perceived value**. An individual freelancer has a finite number of skills, and while they might be an expert in several different areas, they cannot be an expert in everything (this is why, when selling yourself as a freelancer, you need to niche down and find your specialty). While a company cannot be everything for everyone either, they can offer a broader range of skills simply because they have more talent to draw from, inherently increasing their real and perceived value." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16135" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6161" RevisionGUID="c21f3f9c-4b40-4ef1-b514-1127ad645f9f" CreationDate="2016-10-19T19:26:07.687" UserId="4870" Text="While the answers provided effectively address the bulk of your question, I wanted to address your last statement:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;I really don't want to lose this client since it looks like an excellent long term opportunity.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be *very* careful with this thought process. While it may sound logical to take on a project in the hopes for a 'long term opportunity,' remember that your present situation is also very important. As a freelancer, your ultimate goal is to be in a position wherein all of your clients are great for your present situation, as well as for your future. Don't waste time with bad clients and opportunities hoping they will benefit you in the future. I've been down this road before, and it isn't a fun one. As a freelancer, it is very important you get comfortable saying 'no.'" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16139" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6162" RevisionGUID="7ac6ae8b-bee7-4d5f-be12-bed08ccf0f80" CreationDate="2016-10-19T22:32:47.197" UserId="7486" Text="It's very important that you talk very well with your client, before starting to work, to understand as much as possible what he expects to see in his web site. This is a crucial part that when well done will save you from hours of pointless work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Write a sketch on paper togheter with the client, that represent the layout and decide the  colors, when done make it clear with the client that the design was decided togheter and it is approved, verbally or signing the paper for approval.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then add to your contract that after the meeting you will send a detailed draft or mockup, and then up to 3 minor revisions are free and the rest is hourly billable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just don't let the client make you guess the design, he could say no to all your proposal. If you spend 30 minutes or 1 hour talking to him to go deep into the design and decide togheter what to do and how, he will not have many chances to change a lot unless going against the taken decisions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he wants a completely different design you can ask a deposit to restart the process from scratch.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16140" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6163" RevisionGUID="05f9e993-b65a-4f98-b794-22e06bd5f541" CreationDate="2016-10-20T01:59:07.303" UserId="708" Text="**Directed Choices**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most clients I experience want to feel as though they have input into how things look. I think that's just human nature. The key for me has been to always provide **directed choices** rather than open-ended questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What this means in rather than:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;What color do you want it?&quot; &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;or&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&quot;How do you think it should look?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You ask something along the lines of:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;Do you want that blue or green?&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;or&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Do you prefer the way button A looks or button B?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This may *seem* like a very minor thing, but it's not. You are limiting the input from the client without them directly realizing it. This helps the client feel vested and involved because they are making choices. But, in turn, it *greatly* lightens the load on you because you are limiting the scope of choices available.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The same philosophy works for just about any design element. You just have to ask the questions the right way. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you want that a serif or sans serif font? &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Do you want that background to be an image or solid color? &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Ok, which image [this one] or [this one]?&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Do you prefer the types size in A or B?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Truth is, even using this method, you're almost always going to run into that one client that just sucks up your time by being indecisive and wanting constant changes. In those instances, I politely explain that a choice has to be made and stuck to otherwise I'm wasting too much time reworking things I thought were complete. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm odd in that I do *not* limit client revisions in my contracts. I've always been of the mindset that I'd rather have a satisfied client than one that left angry because they reached a revision limit and didn't get what they wanted. I've never really been bitten by this practice. Sure I may need to do a couple extra rounds of revisions for a client, but they leave happy and willing to return to me for more work. Which ultimately means I don't care about the extra revisions. Many professionals do limit revisions though. So if that model works for you, have at it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16141" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6163" RevisionGUID="7a59044f-0510-44a8-a32c-3967b41d3bf6" CreationDate="2016-10-20T02:14:45.177" UserId="708" Comment="added 571 characters in body" Text="**Directed Choices**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most clients I experience want to feel as though they have input into how things look. I think that's just human nature. The key for me has been to always provide **directed choices** rather than open-ended questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What this means in rather than:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;What color do you want it?&quot; &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;or&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&quot;How do you think it should look?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You ask something along the lines of:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;Do you want that blue or green?&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;or&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Do you prefer the way button A looks or button B?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This may *seem* like a very minor thing, but it's not. You are limiting the input from the client without them directly realizing it. This helps the client feel vested and involved because they are making choices. But, in turn, it *greatly* lightens the load on you because you are limiting the scope of choices available.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The same philosophy works for just about any design element. You just have to ask the questions the right way. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you want that a serif or sans serif font? &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Do you want that background to be an image or solid color? &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Ok, which image [this one] or [this one]?&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Do you prefer the types size in A or B?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Truth is, even using this method, you're almost always going to run into that one client that just sucks up your time by being indecisive and wanting constant changes. In those instances, I politely explain that a choice has to be made and stuck to otherwise I'm wasting too much time reworking things I thought were complete. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm odd in that I do *not* limit client revisions in my contracts. I've always been of the mindset that I'd rather have a satisfied client than one that left angry because they reached a revision limit and didn't get what they wanted. I've never really been bitten by this practice. Sure I may need to do a couple extra rounds of revisions for a client, but they leave happy and willing to return to me for more work. Which ultimately means I don't care about the extra revisions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In fact, in many cases, before ever taking on work, I explain to clients (often because they ask) that there is indeed no revision limit clause in my contract. Specifically because I *want* them to get a final product of which they are proud rather than being fearful of &quot;oh we've already used our 3 revisions&quot;. However, I do ask that they be cognizant of how many changes they are requesting and not abuse the no-limit factor. Basically, in a friendly fashion, I explain that I'm working *with* them, please don't take advantage of that. If they do, I'm going to speak up. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many professionals do limit revisions though. So if that model works for you, have at it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16142" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6163" RevisionGUID="f81f5039-cb62-4228-924c-1a79a76cef04" CreationDate="2016-10-20T02:20:00.707" UserId="708" Comment="added 571 characters in body" Text="**Directed Choices**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most clients I experience want to feel as though they have input into how things look. I think that's just human nature. The key for me has been to always provide **directed choices** rather than open-ended questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What this means in rather than:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;What color do you want it?&quot; &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;or&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&quot;How do you think it should look?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You ask something along the lines of:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;Do you want that blue or green?&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;or&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Do you prefer the way button A looks or button B?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This may *seem* like a very minor thing, but it's not. You are limiting the input from the client without them directly realizing it. This helps the client feel vested and involved because they are making choices. But, in turn, it *greatly* lightens the load on you because you are limiting the scope of choices available.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The same philosophy works for just about any design element. You just have to ask the questions the right way. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Do you want that a serif or sans serif font? &#xD;&#xA; - NOT &quot;What font do you want to use&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Do you want the background to be an image or solid color?&#xD;&#xA; - NOT &quot;What should the background look like?&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Ok, which image [this one] or [this one]? &#xD;&#xA; - NOT &quot;What kind of image do you want?&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Do you prefer the types size in A or B? &#xD;&#xA; - NOT &quot;What types size should I use?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Truth is, even using this method, you're almost always going to run into that one client that just sucks up your time by being indecisive and wanting constant changes. In those instances, I politely explain that a choice has to be made and stuck to otherwise I'm wasting too much time reworking things I thought were complete. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm odd in that I do *not* limit client revisions in my contracts. I've always been of the mindset that I'd rather have a satisfied client than one that left angry because they reached a revision limit and didn't get what they wanted. I've never really been bitten by this practice. Sure I may need to do a couple extra rounds of revisions for a client, but they leave happy and willing to return to me for more work. Which ultimately means I don't care about the extra revisions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In fact, in many cases, before ever taking on work, I explain to clients (often because they ask) that there is indeed no revision limit clause in my contract. Specifically because I *want* them to get a final product of which they are proud rather than being fearful of &quot;oh we've already used our 3 revisions&quot;. However, I do ask that they be cognizant of how many changes they are requesting and not abuse the no-limit factor. Basically, in a friendly fashion, I explain that I'm working *with* them, please don't take advantage of that. If they do, I'm going to speak up. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many professionals do limit revisions though. So if that model works for you, have at it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16143" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6163" RevisionGUID="6e23dc8e-e3b7-4224-b1bb-276f66bdd518" CreationDate="2016-10-20T03:51:41.437" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 578 characters in body" Text="**Directed Choices**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most clients I experience want to feel as though they have input into how things look. I think that's just human nature. The key for me has been to always provide **directed choices** rather than open-ended questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What this means in rather than:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;What color do you want it?&quot; &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;or&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&quot;How do you think it should look?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You ask something along the lines of:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;Do you want that blue or green?&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;or&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Do you prefer the way button A looks or button B?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This may *seem* like a very minor thing, but it's not. You are limiting the input from the client without them directly realizing it. This helps the client feel vested and involved because they are making choices. But, in turn, it *greatly* lightens the load on you because you are limiting the scope of choices available.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The same philosophy works for just about any design element. You just have to ask the questions the right way. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Do you want that a serif or sans serif font? &#xD;&#xA; - NOT &quot;What font do you want to use&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Do you want the background to be an image or solid color?&#xD;&#xA; - NOT &quot;What should the background look like?&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Ok, which image [this one] or [this one]? &#xD;&#xA; - NOT &quot;What kind of image do you want?&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Do you prefer the types size in A or B? &#xD;&#xA; - NOT &quot;What types size should I use?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Truth is, even using this method, you're almost always going to run into that one client that just sucks up your time by being indecisive and wanting constant changes. In those instances, I politely explain that a choice has to be made and stuck to otherwise I'm wasting too much time reworking things I thought were complete. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm odd in that I do *not* limit client revisions in my contracts. I've always been of the mindset that I'd rather have a satisfied client than one that left angry because they reached a revision limit and didn't get what they wanted. I've never really been bitten by this practice. Sure I may need to do a couple extra rounds of revisions for a client, but they leave happy and willing to return to me for more work. Which ultimately means I don't care about the extra revisions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many professionals do limit revisions though. So if that model works for you, have at it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16144" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6162" RevisionGUID="50e04119-bbf4-47be-b2b9-44b6178b31b6" CreationDate="2016-10-20T06:51:01.303" UserId="7486" Comment="added 269 characters in body" Text="It's very important that you talk very well with your client, before starting to work, to understand as much as possible what he expects to see in his web site. This is a crucial part that when well done will save you from hours of pointless work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Write a sketch on paper togheter with the client, that represent the layout and decide the  colors, when done make it clear with the client that the design was decided togheter and it is approved, verbally or signing the paper for approval.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then add to your contract that after the meeting you will send a detailed draft or mockup, and then up to 3 minor revisions are free and the rest is hourly billable. That doesen't mean that you are going to bill any little detail that is asked to you, you can make further edits for free, but the client understand that it is a work that takes time and efforts, and also you are covered in the case of a a very picky undecided client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just don't let the client make you guess the design, he could say no to all your proposal. If you spend 30 minutes or 1 hour talking to him to go deep into the design and decide togheter what to do and how, he will not have many chances to change a lot unless going against the taken decisions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he wants a completely different design you can ask a deposit to restart the process from scratch.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16145" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6164" RevisionGUID="70d5f9fb-fc7c-4652-903f-ba68f47e1e72" CreationDate="2016-10-20T07:13:59.237" UserId="7486" Text="If a client comes to me with such request (do in 2 weeks what it takes 10 weeks) I think:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. The client is completely unaware of the work to do and what it takes in terms of time and effort.&#xD;&#xA;2. The client is aware of point 1 but tries to take advantage on me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Case 1: I make my best to make him understand the work that needs to be done and we agree on milestones, times, deposit and billing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Case 2: This is offensive to my dignity as a worker and person, I decline the client with no other chance because if a client starts like that, it will be a worse future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16146" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6158" RevisionGUID="15786908-859b-48b6-a605-fa48f2174470" CreationDate="2016-10-20T11:04:34.963" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/789059731721687040" />
  <row Id="16147" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6165" RevisionGUID="bb663b41-3216-4e49-a93a-9b32b86b470a" CreationDate="2016-10-20T12:38:17.410" UserId="14793" Text="Use themes.  Present 3-4 themes each with minimal differences.  Depending on the kind of client you may or may not be able to get away with it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16148" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6142" RevisionGUID="dc110f42-d5b0-4b5c-afba-e5b818179230" CreationDate="2016-10-20T16:35:41.227" UserId="58" Comment="Edited for clarity" Text="I'm thinking of bidding on a freelance editing job through a freelance job website. The employer wants people to agree to a bonus/penalty pay deal: You get extra money for finishing the work early, and lose money if you deliver late.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've never heard of this before. Is this standard practice? I have no problem meeting deadlines, but I don't know whether some of these projects are deliberately set up to make you fail — like ghostwriting a book in two days, or something close to impossible. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16149" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6142" RevisionGUID="dc110f42-d5b0-4b5c-afba-e5b818179230" CreationDate="2016-10-20T16:35:41.227" UserId="58" Comment="Edited for clarity" Text="Are pay penalties for late delivery standard practice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16150" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6166" RevisionGUID="e912aafa-300e-4e0b-8a18-e0a8cb6bbdd4" CreationDate="2016-10-20T18:56:31.067" UserId="15195" Text="As you have mentioned &quot;After spending some hours doing an estimate&quot; I guess you would have created a detailed task list and hours for each task for estimating the final duration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My suggestion would be to polish that file and send it to the clients with all details and breakdowns. After reading that file if he understand and agrees to it, you've got a good client and that project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he still sticks to the 2 week deadline, ending the conversation there would be a better option as it will not take you anywhere. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16151" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6139" RevisionGUID="69ce9ec4-6fbe-4fe4-bdca-4451aabf37ea" CreationDate="2016-10-20T19:58:17.313" UserId="13016" Comment="minor clean up; removed question mark from declarative statement (it's not interrogative)" Text="The job is thus:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Take email from random address generator &#xD;&#xA; - Verify the address as a valid residential address&#xD;&#xA; - If it is not residential or it is not a valid address, it doesn't&#xD;&#xA;   count  &#xD;&#xA; - Gather several thousand addresses, with a maximum of 10,000,   &#xD;&#xA;   making sure that the higher populated the area is, the more addresses&#xD;&#xA;   I have for it  &#xD;&#xA; - And once I have my addresses, upload them all to an Excel sheet&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I haven't the foggiest clue how much to charge for this. It's part information gathering, part information verification, then sorting to make sure I have higher numbers in certain areas in accordance to its population, and then data entry with either basic typing of it all, or a short Excel macro to store it all." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16152" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6139" RevisionGUID="69ce9ec4-6fbe-4fe4-bdca-4451aabf37ea" CreationDate="2016-10-20T19:58:17.313" UserId="13016" Comment="minor clean up; removed question mark from declarative statement (it's not interrogative)" Text="This job is so very odd, and I don't know how much should I charge for this" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16153" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6139" RevisionGUID="69ce9ec4-6fbe-4fe4-bdca-4451aabf37ea" CreationDate="2016-10-20T19:58:17.313" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 7858, -1 edit id of 493" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16154" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6139" RevisionGUID="df670521-aa9c-4acf-987b-89d97d82d06d" CreationDate="2016-10-20T19:58:17.313" UserId="9" Comment="Shorten title, re-word" Text="The job is thus:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Take email from random address generator &#xD;&#xA;* Verify the address as a valid residential address&#xD;&#xA;* If it is not residential or it is not a valid address, it doesn't count  &#xD;&#xA;* Gather several thousand addresses, with a maximum of 10,000, making sure that the higher populated the area is, the more addresses I have for it  &#xD;&#xA;* And once I have my addresses, upload them all to an Excel sheet&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's part information gathering, part information verification, then sorting to make sure I have higher numbers in certain areas in accordance to its population, and then data entry with either basic typing of it all, or a short Excel macro to store it all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I haven't the foggiest clue how much to charge for this. How would I work this out?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16155" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6139" RevisionGUID="df670521-aa9c-4acf-987b-89d97d82d06d" CreationDate="2016-10-20T19:58:17.313" UserId="9" Comment="Shorten title, re-word" Text="How to price odd job" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16156" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6139" RevisionGUID="df670521-aa9c-4acf-987b-89d97d82d06d" CreationDate="2016-10-20T19:58:17.313" UserId="9" Comment="Shorten title, re-word" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16157" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6167" RevisionGUID="92fb379c-47bf-4f3f-aaca-62d3b09b8b61" CreationDate="2016-10-21T01:42:47.257" UserId="15196" Text="I just recently graduated college with a Bachelors in Computer Science and I am currently debating on going into freelance work. My problem however is that I don't know if I will be able to complete the work because I have never truly been able to have something that tells me whether or not I would be good enough to complete freelance work. I have made an android app before and I would like to do freelance work within that realm, but is there someway to tell whether or not I would be good enough rather than just taking an assignment from someone and not being able to complete the work for them? The main reason I can't go out an find work right now is because of a family issue so I am currently only able to work from home." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16158" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6167" RevisionGUID="92fb379c-47bf-4f3f-aaca-62d3b09b8b61" CreationDate="2016-10-21T01:42:47.257" UserId="15196" Text="Having trouble gauging my level of knowledge/expertise?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16159" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6167" RevisionGUID="92fb379c-47bf-4f3f-aaca-62d3b09b8b61" CreationDate="2016-10-21T01:42:47.257" UserId="15196" Text="|usa|remote|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16160" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6168" RevisionGUID="158bb425-f016-41a5-8995-be9a6cfc05ca" CreationDate="2016-10-21T07:13:02.580" UserId="7486" Text="To improve as a freelancer you must always challenge yourself with new tasks, new jobs and be good (and developing) in problem solving, because it's true that the more you are experienced and the more you feel secure in facing jobs, but it is also true that you will almost never stop to learn new things, solve new problems and update your skills and knowledges, and also *drop* knowledges when the market says that a certain technology is not appealing anymore (see Flash web sites for example).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To *test* yourself in what you want to do, you don't necessary need to get hired for a job if you don't feel secure now, you can think about publishing a free app or an open source project, design and develop it and see how you feel about it. Or you can get some input from a friend or relative about something that they need and go for it at your best. When you will feel secure in certain areas of development you can look for jobs on line or from other sources.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't worry about occasional frustration, it's completely normal, just take your time to think well about all the different solutions, make pauses when you feel stuck, take naps to refresh your brain, and be constant and effective in your effort.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also you can read here in this community many other questions and answers about what you are asking for.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16161" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6169" RevisionGUID="808738fd-26ff-48be-8edc-91160c6bb111" CreationDate="2016-10-21T16:38:55.597" UserId="14431" Text="You've probably already though of this, but working as an employee for a company in your field is a good way to test your level of expertise. What you learn at school is often very different than what you actually do on the field. It's also a good way to acquire experience without having to do charity work and it can give you a good confidence boost." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16162" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6170" RevisionGUID="a6753901-7b16-4129-a853-9575c20957b6" CreationDate="2016-10-21T16:44:23.440" UserId="4870" Text="Freelancing is simply offering your skills and expertise in exchange for compensation. Your job is to find clients with needs that match your skills.. and of course they exist!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It sounds like you're worried about taking on a project that you won't be able to complete. Here are some of my thoughts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Be open and transparent about your current skill-set. Don't sell yourself as a senior engineer, capable of architecting a scalable, full-stack, solution if that is outside your realm of expertise. However, there are many individuals and companies looking for help that does not require senior-level experience. When I first started working as a freelancer I helped clients out with little snippets of code here-and-there. Fixed WordPress bugs. In other words, I started small and worked my way up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Work on a time and materials basis. Instead of drafting and committing to a fixed-bid project, work on an hourly basis instead. This is a low-risk way to get started as a freelancer (and many freelancers continue to work hourly for the same reasons!).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Work on side projects to build experience. So you want to be a freelance Android developer? You're in luck.. Android is open source! Start playing around with the API. Build out some screens. Integrate with 3rd party services. Etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One final thought: don't get bogged down in all the things you don't know. Right now, with the skills you currently have, there is a client out there who would greatly benefit from the skills you provide. As I mentioned, you might have to start small, but as you build experience and skills, you will increase the value you provide and subsequently increase the amount you can charge (basic supply and demand).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16163" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6171" RevisionGUID="fcc7228e-1af3-4b6e-b811-2f3bb0d28120" CreationDate="2016-10-21T17:16:58.880" UserId="14793" Text="Freelancing is very difficult.  You shouldn't see freelancing as a way to gauge your skills.  In Freelancing you have to have a whole new set of administrative skills that includes being able to get clients, managing your time, finances and resources.  Freelancing makes you the boss and puts that much more burden on you.  Good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16164" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6172" RevisionGUID="fe243ca4-e9ff-4ab2-9996-d8814b9326d4" CreationDate="2016-10-21T23:37:47.877" UserId="15209" Text="I live in the UK, work in the IT industry, and have recently started working as a 'contractor' in my own right for the first time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Over the last few years, I have had a few 'fixed term contracts' with different companies, but in each of these cases, I have become an employee of that company, whether it has meant working directly for them, or for one of their clients at the client's site. With the job that I have recently started, I am now legally speaking 'self-employed', and will invoice the company for whom I am doing the work for 'services rendered' at the end of each month, rather than being paid a salary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand that this has implications on a few aspects of my life, such as the fact that I will now have to pay my tax and NI contributions myself, rather than having them automatically deducted from my pay through PAYE. Are there any other things that I should be aware of/ will need to take into consideration with respect to how I am paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When previously working for a consultancy firm at one of their clients' sites, I was part of a team that included a number of people who were 'contractors', and they had mentioned that they incorporated themselves- this is now something that I am considering, since I am now technically 'self-employed'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I understand, incorporating yourself can be advantageous in terms of protecting your personal assets from any liability, as well as having tax benefits... But I have no idea about whether it is worth doing, or how to go about it if so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are the pro's and con's of incorporating yourself? Are there particular circumstances where it would definitely be best to do so/ not to do so? How can I decide whether it is right for me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16165" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6172" RevisionGUID="fe243ca4-e9ff-4ab2-9996-d8814b9326d4" CreationDate="2016-10-21T23:37:47.877" UserId="15209" Text="Contract work- what are the advantages of setting up your own company/ incorporating yourself?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16166" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6172" RevisionGUID="fe243ca4-e9ff-4ab2-9996-d8814b9326d4" CreationDate="2016-10-21T23:37:47.877" UserId="15209" Text="|contracts|incorporation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16167" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6173" RevisionGUID="6581ac10-e25e-4189-a775-edbbf4efbc70" CreationDate="2016-10-22T05:40:49.900" UserId="15213" Text="I'm a part time freelancer since last 6 years an nowadays it is very hard to get new work, but recently i started using this chrome extension which is very helpful for me to get new job notifications instantly from guru.com, so that i can place my bid before someone apply for the same job and it save my time because i don't want to refresh the pages each for new job notifications&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/freelance-jobs-notifier/ebbbikghjmebifeocfeboinihckggopj" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16171" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4552" RevisionGUID="143cba2c-a7ae-4527-a0d6-772a53a700d8" CreationDate="2016-10-22T10:52:54.523" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16172" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6175" RevisionGUID="b8d6cfd1-8228-43fe-befa-90b268d92076" CreationDate="2016-10-22T13:05:03.343" UserId="517" Text="This week a client from another region is visiting my team. We will have a whole-day meeting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In our last conversation he told me that he would like to take our team to lunch. It's 6-7 persons on the lunch meaning the cost is not insignificant. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, since he is our client and he is a visitor in our town, is it OK that he takes us for lunch and pays for it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I offer to pay the lunch instead?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have never been in situations like this and I am not sure what to do. I would not like to offend him by not paying the lunch (if it's expected), but neither to offend him by saying that we will pay the lunch what he had offered first. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16173" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6175" RevisionGUID="b8d6cfd1-8228-43fe-befa-90b268d92076" CreationDate="2016-10-22T13:05:03.343" UserId="517" Text="Is it professional that client pays the lunch?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16174" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6175" RevisionGUID="b8d6cfd1-8228-43fe-befa-90b268d92076" CreationDate="2016-10-22T13:05:03.343" UserId="517" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16176" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6176" RevisionGUID="166039c9-f36e-4bd6-abf1-827fb9692183" CreationDate="2016-10-22T14:07:45.157" UserId="708" Text="There's no hard and fast rule about any of this and I suspect customs vary based upon location.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me.... if the client visits me.... I pay. If I visit the client, often the client pays. Essentially it comes down to who is the *guest*. Since the client isn't part of your team, he's the guest.. so you should pay. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your situation I'd *politely* insist that I cover the lunch.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But ultimately, it's all up to you. If he's adamant about paying, thank him and let him." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16177" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="6176" RevisionGUID="4f38d5b9-057e-44c2-acc0-01ccbaf8c077" CreationDate="2016-10-22T14:07:53.863" UserId="708" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="16178" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6177" RevisionGUID="33ac9e6a-a254-4841-824f-96b158d32170" CreationDate="2016-10-22T14:36:47.947" UserId="7486" Text="In my experience if I go to work at the client's place sometimes some clients offers the lunch, other times not. When the clients comes to me sometimes me too I offer the lunch, or we go to a cafeteria or something like that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were you in this case I would accept the client's offer because maybe it's something that he would like to do for your team, but I would also thank him with a gift offered by me or by the whole team. For example each member of the team can put X amount of money to reach a certain amount  needed to buy some nice gift for you client: a nice case of wines; something tipical of your region; some nice technological accessory; etc, and I would give it to the client in the name of the whole team to thank for his visit and in the name of our good work relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16179" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6178" RevisionGUID="51fb5525-6a21-43d8-b94e-58f317af4dfd" CreationDate="2016-10-22T15:48:09.207" UserId="14793" Text="I would think of a few things in regards to the issue:&#xD;&#xA;- Am I the only one he's paying for or not?  If he's doing it for others then it's less significant&#xD;&#xA;- How often does he do it?  Did he invite me(us) once?  Does he do it every week?  If it's often enough there may be something to offering to pay&#xD;&#xA;- Think of it from his point of view.  What does he want?  Maybe he's hoping for something he can only achieve by giving you lunch.  If that's the case fish for the reason.  Perhaps it's something you'd want to do anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It sounds from your question that he comes around only once in a while so it might not be an issue.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line is the fact that you feel uncomfortable.  I would do what is expected to not feel uncomfortable because your discomfort will show in your work and that will hurt both of you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16180" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6176" RevisionGUID="48010682-8c32-4f3e-90eb-eef95e4dcd1d" CreationDate="2016-10-22T20:13:48.450" UserId="708" Comment="added 145 characters in body" Text="There's no hard and fast rule about any of this and I suspect customs vary based upon location.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me.... if the client visits me.... I pay. If I visit the client, often the client pays. Essentially it comes down to who is the *guest*. Since the client isn't part of your team, he's the guest.. so you should pay. However, in some cases the client may want to say &quot;thank you&quot; for work well done and they insist on paying... so let them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your situation I'd offer to pay, but he resisted, I wouldn't put up too much of a fight.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, it's all up to you. If he's adamant about paying, thank him and let him." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16181" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="6176" RevisionGUID="59154f60-6771-4584-b007-a00aed629ab8" CreationDate="2016-10-22T20:13:55.947" UserId="708" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="16182" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6179" RevisionGUID="ca66579d-3a1c-4961-abec-b501a090c538" CreationDate="2016-10-23T11:25:33.383" UserId="14793" Text="How important is it to be a nice guy to my clients?  Specifically, I'm wondering if I need to make efforts outside my work responsibility.  The other option is getting the work done and leaving. The advantages of 'just getting the work done and leaving' is that there's no personal expectations and I can focus on the job.  I'd like to hear from other people who may or may not have gained from certain extra niceties with regards to their clients and how it effected the project and the freelancer-client relationship." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16183" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6179" RevisionGUID="ca66579d-3a1c-4961-abec-b501a090c538" CreationDate="2016-10-23T11:25:33.383" UserId="14793" Text="How important is it to be a nice guy to your clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16184" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6179" RevisionGUID="ca66579d-3a1c-4961-abec-b501a090c538" CreationDate="2016-10-23T11:25:33.383" UserId="14793" Text="|attracting-clients|business-plan|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16185" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6180" RevisionGUID="69f59ccc-07f1-43df-99b6-144a10581375" CreationDate="2016-10-23T11:49:35.843" UserId="7486" Text="Mutual kindness, gentleness and thankfulness is very important to keep long term good relationships with clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have many clients who could go to any other freelance but they always wants me because we enstablished a good work relationship based on mutual respect, personality affinity and things that goes beyond the work task to complete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example sometimes clients call me or email me to ask for casual advices or opinions on something not related to work or that I may know, I'm glad to help and that takes me 5 minutes. Sometimes I do the same with them. They are small but good favours that we exhange and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The result is that I get most work by word of mouth than by other means. If people are happy with you they talk about that with others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me is not good to work with a Sheldon-type freelance that acts like a robot and disappear, because in work too is important to have a pleasant experience if I have to deal personally with someone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if the goal is to &quot;sell and disappear&quot; because of the nature of the product I guess it can be OK too to focus only in the task with a minimum acceptable social interaction.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16186" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6181" RevisionGUID="4bf38e59-decb-4bb5-b40a-86ef33815912" CreationDate="2016-10-23T13:14:31.290" UserId="517" Text="If you're a nice guy, clients will like you. But they also want to try to take advantage of you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The more important is to be a professional guy. Utmost professional. When you are a professional, it means that you are also responsible, and client will like you because their project will progress and they will be often informed of the project status. However, they will probably not try to take advantage of you and if they try, they are ready to get No from you. Like asking for discount or similar things." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16187" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6176" RevisionGUID="64eedc37-5b5e-4b13-bcda-897c9e4b80eb" CreationDate="2016-10-23T16:14:43.957" UserId="708" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="There's no hard and fast rule about any of this and I suspect customs vary based upon location.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me.... if the client visits me.... I pay. If I visit the client, often the client pays. Essentially it comes down to who is the *guest*. Since the client isn't part of your team, he's the guest.. so you should pay. However, in some cases the client may want to say &quot;thank you&quot; for work well done and they insist on paying... so let them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your situation I'd offer to pay, but if he resisted I wouldn't put up too much of a fight.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, it's all up to you. If he's adamant about paying, thank him and let him." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16188" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6182" RevisionGUID="e6498f16-5f16-4b1a-9100-fb6114a73600" CreationDate="2016-10-23T18:16:58.207" UserId="15227" Text="I contracted with a client and the contract included 6 months of free support after releasing first version.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is requesting more features (of course I'm getting paid), but because of school I can't do them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I give the remaining parts to someone else? If I can, should I tell the client? What if the new freelancer makes trouble? Am I responsible for his troubles?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16189" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6182" RevisionGUID="e6498f16-5f16-4b1a-9100-fb6114a73600" CreationDate="2016-10-23T18:16:58.207" UserId="15227" Text="Can't support the project anymore - Can I give it to someone else?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16190" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6182" RevisionGUID="e6498f16-5f16-4b1a-9100-fb6114a73600" CreationDate="2016-10-23T18:16:58.207" UserId="15227" Text="|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16191" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6183" RevisionGUID="b38e70a4-003a-4ba8-a43a-7b27e42a4f90" CreationDate="2016-10-23T20:31:19.427" UserId="7486" Text="Be clear with your client, inform him about the situation and propose to him a contract transfer to some other freelance that is able to complete the tasks and support. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or if you want to keep control over the product that you developed, hire a freelancer youself and make him complete the requested jobs, while you will do only quality check and keep contact with your client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16192" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6184" RevisionGUID="2f5585b7-5d08-40a8-8759-af153e5cd680" CreationDate="2016-10-23T23:34:55.987" UserId="14455" Text="As a freelancer you have committed to only supporting existing features. What you do beyond that is up to you. You can just say you are not available for further feature requests, or too busy, or give them a quote that is very high and they will find someone else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I think you should find the time. I bet you could if you really tried. Also give yourself plenty of time in terms of the timescales you give the customer, explain that you cannot start immediately as you have other commitments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finding and giving the work to a 3rd party is more complicated than it might at first seem. You might get lucky or it might go horribly wrong. I would avoid that if you can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This commercial work is going to stand you in a very good position when it comes to job hunting or future work. I really would reconsider turning it down if I were you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS what Mario said above is absolutely right. Sort out what you want to do and be straight and up front with the customer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16193" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6185" RevisionGUID="b72ccf44-c5d0-4a9e-872f-d96c94226ad5" CreationDate="2016-10-23T23:48:21.030" UserId="14455" Text="I think the previous answers give a lot of good answers. Personally, I would have lunch, and then pay. If the customer says &quot;this is on me&quot; or something similar, I would argue &quot;No, you are our guest, let me get this&quot;, but if he argued that even once, I would give in. After all, the customer is always right (theoretically).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I would finish with the usual &quot;ok, this time, but next time it is definitely on me&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Should I offer to pay the lunch instead?&#xD;&#xA;Yes, in fact you should assume you are going to pay, and act like you expect to pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    I have never been in situations like this and I am not sure what to do. &#xD;&#xA;    I would not like to offend him by not paying the lunch &#xD;&#xA;    (if it's expected), but neither to offend him by saying that &#xD;&#xA;    we will pay the lunch what he had offered first. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people would be offended if you did not let them. It is like a mark of authority, and I assume your customer has a bigger company than yours. So expect to pay, attempt to pay, but do not labour the point nor argue it. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16194" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6186" RevisionGUID="1204dbb7-0c1f-4148-8b3d-0e9c9e897756" CreationDate="2016-10-24T00:02:36.433" UserId="14455" Text="You might find this useful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.incorporate.com/how_to_incorporate_yourself.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I would avoid being salaried in any way, and work on an invoice basis. This enables you to remain 'the boss' in where and how and when you work, and to make some decent money. The ideal is to be able to charge thousands of pounds for a day or twos work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is not always possible depending on the sort of contracting you are doing. But being a contractor is not quite the same as being a freelancer IMHO. Either way, in my experience, as a sole trader, or a LTD company, has never had any affect on how people view my business. I used to think that being a LTD company and being VAT registered would improve my ability to apply for the choicest roles, but in reality it had absolutely no impact whatsoever. After all, it is all just a paper shuffling exercise about how you arrange your tax affairs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What really made a difference, was when I employed a team of people and could sell the team and it's combined abilities. But if you are not in that situation, then no amount of paper shuffling is going to change the fact that you are a one man band. So don't try to hide it, make it an advantage, make it the reason why people should choose you, make companies and their overheads seem cumbersome and overloaded, whereas you are fast, flexible and dedicated to your customers cause.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for protecting yourself, you need a good contract, watertight terms and conditions and liability insurance. I would feel naked without these and vulnerable.&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16195" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6187" RevisionGUID="d1ba858f-45a1-4b5f-81ea-f66e6eeac9a4" CreationDate="2016-10-24T02:25:56.637" UserId="15153" Text="My client needed someone to gather confirmed residential addresses and put them into an Excel file, and then to upload that into BingPlaces to help out his business. We spent two days talking, with me letting him know how I can best help him and get the information he needed in a fast and efficient manner. He then told me that he would get someone else to look up addresses, all I'd need to do is to upload them into Excel. I quoted him a price $0.13 per address, since we were talking about thousands of addresses. I made sure each day to let him know I was ready to help him in gathering more addresses quicker, and that I was available to help. He told me for five days straight he was fine, and he was working on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Today he went me a list of all the addresses he got. He, in five days, was able to produce a total of 259 addresses. This is coming out to be less than $35.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do I do? I'm genuinely furious. I feel misled and lied to, and I've wasted all this time for a truly pathetic payout. I've been professional, I've stayed in communication, and I've made sure that I've made it known I am ready to help more than what he wanted me for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I just an idiot for not getting a contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16196" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6187" RevisionGUID="d1ba858f-45a1-4b5f-81ea-f66e6eeac9a4" CreationDate="2016-10-24T02:25:56.637" UserId="15153" Text="Client misled me on workload, and now I'm hosed" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16197" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6187" RevisionGUID="d1ba858f-45a1-4b5f-81ea-f66e6eeac9a4" CreationDate="2016-10-24T02:25:56.637" UserId="15153" Text="|payment-terms|pay-rate|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16198" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6188" RevisionGUID="5efd746f-e7a0-4385-b0f3-c463c946946d" CreationDate="2016-10-24T06:05:04.690" UserId="7858" Text="There's not much more you can do, than see this as a learning experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always have some sort of contract. It does not need to be an expensive legal document; in many cases a 'mutual project agreement' stating the bare minimum in less than a page will suffice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case, it seems you would have been better off charging for actual time consumed - perhaps with a starting minimum.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or perhaps you could have step-wise quotes; e.g. expensive for the first 1000, followed by a tapering off." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16200" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6190" RevisionGUID="45d47d18-dc4b-492d-850b-7c2ade744887" CreationDate="2016-10-24T09:45:30.047" UserId="15202" Text="UK IT contractor here...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have 3 options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Go Limited&#xD;&#xA; 2. Go umbrella&#xD;&#xA; 3. FTCs&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Going Limited has its perks. You take a cut of the VAT as profit, can offset expenses at source, minimal overheads. However, you will need an accountant for your annual returns (personal and company) and that can be expensive. If your income before taxes is less than £40k, this is not worth it. There are some hefty upfront costs involved too (a few hundred pounds), and you will be responsible for invoicing, managing a relationship, marketing yourself, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Umbrella is basically &quot;Limited Light&quot;. All the perks, less paperwork. You are an employee of the umbrella, you pay PAYE, and the umbrella handles the rest. As thiese are percentage based, they're fine up to £40k, after that, go limited. As with Limited, you are running the business and have to handle things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FTC contracts are the other way of operating. These can be good, but consider that the employer has to do the leg-work, and you cannot expense anything. As a result, you will earn less.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, going Limited was great for me. Others I have worked with have headed back to being permanent or FTC employees after a year or two." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16201" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5875" RevisionGUID="befce8d7-1eec-4ecf-8ba8-fbfcb22dfdb3" CreationDate="2016-10-24T13:33:38.817" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16202" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6191" RevisionGUID="233d8d24-651c-41fb-8914-641107eac26e" CreationDate="2016-10-24T15:43:08.793" UserId="7486" Text="This happens to me once in a while, and I do my best to convince the client for his own business greater good, but this time is getting serious...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am developing a web project for the client (it's a small company of about 10 employee), the site has a very nice modern bootstrap responsive template with full screen images in background, [html5 flipping books][1], etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is that I have to publish in this website 26 PDF catalogues, of about 30 to 50 pages each. These catalogues are self made, they don't want to spend money so someone inside the company does the catalogues in MS Word, but believe me, to put the pages of these catalogues in the site is like a punch in the face and a kick in the teeth togheter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't put here the catalogues for obvious reasons but imagine in MS Word, add a black background (with white borders around), insert the logo in the first page (the logo background has a different point of black, so you see a nice square), insert a picture directly from the camera or phone as it is, add a yellow text in Comic CAPS like &quot;NEW CATALOGUE 2016-2017&quot;. Then all the following pages are tables with low quality misaligned pictures and Comic texts around. Some pictures was clipped with magic wand and have ugly borders... Then all is printed to PDF by a freeware plugin. OK you got the idea...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's really a pity to ruin a very nice website inserting hundreds of these pages, so I suggested to the client to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Redo all the catalogues in the proper professional way.&#xD;&#xA;2. Abandon the idea of flipping books, use an e-commerce style web catalogue,  using only the single images and adding the description in the backend.&#xD;&#xA;3. Put the catalogues only as downloadable files not showing anything of them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is very stubbord and he doesen't want to do anything of that, because he doesen't want to lose time or spend money. He told me that the catalogues are pretty good and he wants to see in the site the catalogues as they are, in the form of browsable flipping books.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I make him understand that it's going to be a suicide in terms of company image? What would you do in this case?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.google.com/?gfe_rd=cr#q=html5%20flip%20book%20example" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16203" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6191" RevisionGUID="233d8d24-651c-41fb-8914-641107eac26e" CreationDate="2016-10-24T15:43:08.793" UserId="7486" Text="How to deal with client's delusion to be a good graphic designer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16204" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6191" RevisionGUID="233d8d24-651c-41fb-8914-641107eac26e" CreationDate="2016-10-24T15:43:08.793" UserId="7486" Text="|difficult-client|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16205" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6191" RevisionGUID="a4544b96-7014-4af8-a49b-b5842f0bd0d2" CreationDate="2016-10-24T16:03:32.803" UserId="7486" Comment="added 145 characters in body" Text="This happens to me once in a while, and I do my best to convince the client for his own business greater good, but this time is getting serious...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am developing a web project for the client (it's a small company of about 10 employee), the site has a very nice modern bootstrap responsive template with full screen images in background, [html5 flipping books][1], etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is that I have to publish in this website 26 PDF catalogues, of about 30 to 50 pages each. These catalogues are self made, they don't want to spend money so someone inside the company does the catalogues in MS Word, but believe me, to put the pages of these catalogues in the site is like a punch in the face and a kick in the teeth togheter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't put here the catalogues for obvious reasons but imagine in MS Word, add a black background (with white borders around), insert the logo in the first page (the logo background has a different point of black, so you see a nice square), insert a picture directly from the camera or phone as it is, add a yellow text in Comic CAPS like &quot;NEW CATALOGUE 2016-2017&quot;. Then all the following pages are tables with low quality misaligned pictures and Comic texts around. Some pictures was clipped with magic wand and have ugly borders... Then all is printed to PDF by a freeware plugin. OK you got the idea...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's really a pity to ruin a very nice website inserting hundreds of these pages, so I suggested to the client to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Redo all the catalogues in the proper professional way.&#xD;&#xA;2. Abandon the idea of flipping books, use an e-commerce style web catalogue,  using only the single images and adding the description in the backend.&#xD;&#xA;3. Put the catalogues only as downloadable files not showing anything of them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is very stubbord and he doesen't want to do anything of that, because he doesen't want to lose time or spend money. He told me that the catalogues are pretty good and he wants to see in the site the catalogues as they are, in the form of browsable flipping books.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I make him understand that it's going to be a suicide in terms of company image? What would you do in this case? Do you have to face clients that pretend to be good graphic designers or to have good graphical taste but they absolutely and objectively don't?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.google.com/?gfe_rd=cr#q=html5%20flip%20book%20example" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16207" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6192" RevisionGUID="7a2492f0-7c6b-4b38-a993-eae9bda91bd7" CreationDate="2016-10-24T17:30:54.720" UserId="1706" Text="Get your money, and run.  That's all you can do.  Sometimes you have to allow people to fall on their faces before they can realize that there's this neat thing called gravity." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16208" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6193" RevisionGUID="f4b41e80-45df-4d89-b53a-5f29dd3076cc" CreationDate="2016-10-24T17:32:53.353" UserId="14866" Text="Being a civil and civilised person is what is required. You're not trying to date these people you're trying to help. Civility with a healthy heaping of professionalism is what works best. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16209" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3028" RevisionGUID="f356b1d1-7dd6-4e67-8cc3-c4117bf50f32" CreationDate="2016-10-24T19:42:06.177" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16210" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6194" RevisionGUID="2ea7e076-545e-412b-ae60-96d08d7cd4ed" CreationDate="2016-10-24T19:54:03.470" UserId="708" Text="There's literally *nothing* you can do here. If the client does not see the value in design.... you, being an outside professional entity, **won't** change that mindset. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, small business owners, or just business owners, only learn the value of design through direct impactful information.... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Catalog A (secretary's Word file) resulted in $XXX.00 sales. &#xD;&#xA;- Catalog B (professionally designed) resulted in $XX,XXX.00 sales. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Either that or they engage with a business partner, wife, husband, sibling, mentor, parent who convince them of the value so they &quot;try&quot; it only to discover there actually *is* value in professional design.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, it's a tough pill to swallow, but just do what he wants and get your money. Voicing disagreement is fine, But adamantly standing by your disagreement is just poor customer service. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've lost count of the number of times I've just shut up and did what the client wanted even though I expressed to them it wasn't the best course of action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yup.. ruins a possible portfolio piece, but he's the client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16211" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6195" RevisionGUID="2731e893-2ed1-4dfc-b2e1-a6d2dec0da33" CreationDate="2016-10-24T20:08:06.900" UserId="708" Text="I'm a one-man shop. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have a few separate computer systems:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Primary desktop workhorse where 90% of my work is completed.&#xD;&#xA;- Laptop, capable of some work (apps installed), but in general used for communication, etc while traveling&#xD;&#xA;- Various tablets/smart phones never really used for &quot;work&quot; but maybe communication.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This past weekend I had what appears to be a video card issue in my primary system. I can work, but it's taken me from 3-30&quot; monitors down to 1 monitor. Still able to work, but I feel exceptionally hobbled.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I live in a small town and can't just run out for a new video card - ordered one online but it'll be 2 days before it arrives. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, my main workstation is crippled, but functional. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This got me to wondering. What if the main system died entirely and was unusable. **What's a good backup plan for such an instance?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't always stall for 3-4 days and wait for a new system, then spend 3-4 more days installing software, etc/ to get it in working condition. A week of unavailability is generally too long.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm hesitant to just set up a second system as a backup due to costs. I'd really never need it except in emergencies but cost for the hardware/software licenses could easily approach 5 figures. That seems untenable from a business perspective. In the past I've used the laptop for a week while waiting on a new system. But due to the speed of technology, the laptop is now out of date and possibly underpowered. It could be used, but it would probably mean working at less than 30% of my normal speed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How to do you prepare for unforeseen equipment issues?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16212" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6195" RevisionGUID="2731e893-2ed1-4dfc-b2e1-a6d2dec0da33" CreationDate="2016-10-24T20:08:06.900" UserId="708" Text="What is an appropriate safety net for equipment failure?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16213" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6195" RevisionGUID="2731e893-2ed1-4dfc-b2e1-a6d2dec0da33" CreationDate="2016-10-24T20:08:06.900" UserId="708" Text="|business-plan|safety|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16214" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6196" RevisionGUID="c02ec35c-6358-4835-a086-b62fe57af29c" CreationDate="2016-10-24T22:00:08.870" UserId="7486" Text="It's really annoying when things like that happens :( that happened to me too a few times...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work mainly in two offices (I would say 50-50), the main bigger home office and a second very small office in another city, also often I work at client's place so it's very important for me to be 100% mobile.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is my setup in the main office:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. A desk with a powerful mobile workstation connected to a docking station, to this I connect one 24&quot; monitor, speakers, network, keyboard, etc. It acts like a desktop workstation and this is my main work computer.&#xD;&#xA;2. A second desk with a mini tower workstation with a 24&quot; monitor, which is essentially a clone of #1. I use Adobe software bundles that by licence are installable on two computers, other than that I use mainly Open Source software for coding, office, etc, so I don't have big expenses for double licences. This is the backup worstation in case the first has problems, but usually I use both togheter for different tasks or batches (or to watch stream tv or music :) ).&#xD;&#xA;3. NAS with two 3Tb HD's in RAID 1, with remote access (personal cloud), so I can access my backup files from anywhere. Here are made daily backups of the data of the two computers.&#xD;&#xA;4. Network color laser printer, photographic printer, other devices...&#xD;&#xA;5. Small photo studio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the second small office I have:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. A desk exacly like #1 of main office with docking station, 24&quot; monitor,etc. When I go from an office to another I just unplug the mobile workstation and plug it in the other docking station, so I have my same workplace in the two offices.&#xD;&#xA;2. A single disk 1Tb NAS with remote access.&#xD;&#xA;3. Economic printer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I go at client's office I just use the mobile workstation itself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: all the monitors are calibrated so they match each others so I have no problems with colors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With me I always bring a good computer case with my mobile workstation, tablet, rechargers, briefcase with papers, and all the basics.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So in case of main pc failure I have the clone desktop workstation where I can work with no problems, I'm also used to use only one 24&quot; monitor so I don't feel in difficulty for this aspect. Also I do daily backups in 2 different NAS so I can access anytime the data from anywhere. I also use external HD's for on the fly backups or if I have many Gb to save or process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16215" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6196" RevisionGUID="6d52efd2-79c1-4599-8e5a-4865481c3e98" CreationDate="2016-10-24T22:31:29.187" UserId="7486" Comment="added 24 characters in body" Text="It's really annoying when things like that happens :( that happened to me too a few times...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work mainly in two offices (I would say 50-50), the main bigger home office and a second very small office in another city, also often I work at client's place so it's very important for me to be 100% mobile.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is my setup in the main office:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. A desk with a powerful mobile workstation connected to a docking station, to this I connect one 24&quot; monitor, speakers, network, keyboard, etc. It acts like a desktop workstation and this is my main work computer.&#xD;&#xA;2. A second desk with a mini tower workstation with a 24&quot; monitor, which is essentially a clone of #1. I use Adobe software bundles that by licence are installable on two computers, other than that I use mainly Open Source software for coding, office, etc, so I don't have big expenses for double licences. This is the backup worstation in case the first has problems, but usually I use both togheter for different tasks or batches (or to occasionally watch stream tv or listen to  music :) ).&#xD;&#xA;3. NAS with two 3Tb HD's in RAID 1, with remote access (personal cloud), so I can access my backup files from anywhere. Here are made daily backups of the data of the two computers.&#xD;&#xA;4. Network color laser printer, photographic printer, other devices...&#xD;&#xA;5. Small photo studio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the second small office I have:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. A desk exacly like #1 of main office with docking station, 24&quot; monitor,etc. When I go from an office to another I just unplug the mobile workstation and plug it in the other docking station, so I have my same workplace in the two offices.&#xD;&#xA;2. A single disk 3Tb NAS with remote access.&#xD;&#xA;3. Economic printer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I go at client's office I just use the mobile workstation itself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: all the monitors are calibrated so they match each others so I have no problems with colors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With me I always bring a good computer case with my mobile workstation, tablet, rechargers, briefcase with papers, and all the basics.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So in case of main pc failure I have the clone desktop workstation where I can work with no problems, I'm also used to use only one 24&quot; monitor so I don't feel in difficulty for this aspect. Also I do daily backups in 2 different NAS so I can access anytime the data from anywhere. I also use external HD's for on the fly backups or if I have many Gb to save or process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16216" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6195" RevisionGUID="b64ee34f-ace9-4484-bb97-bafa25afd7b4" CreationDate="2016-10-25T00:48:25.847" UserId="708" Comment="added 781 characters in body" Text="I'm a one-man shop. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have a few separate computer systems:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Primary desktop workhorse where 90% of my work is completed.&#xD;&#xA;- Laptop, capable of some work (apps installed), but in general used for communication, etc while traveling&#xD;&#xA;- Various tablets/smart phones never really used for &quot;work&quot; but maybe communication.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This past weekend I had what appears to be a video card issue in my primary system. I can work, but it's taken me from 3-30&quot; monitors down to 1 monitor. Still able to work, but I feel exceptionally hobbled.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I live in a small town and can't just run out for a new video card - ordered one online but it'll be 2 days before it arrives. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, my main workstation is crippled, but functional. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This got me to wondering. What if the main system died entirely and was unusable. **What's a good backup plan for such an instance?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't always stall for 3-4 days and wait for a new system, then spend 3-4 more days installing software, etc/ to get it in working condition. A week of unscheduled unavailability is generally far too much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm hesitant to just set up a second system as a backup due to costs. I'd really never need it except in emergencies but cost for the hardware/software licenses could easily approach 5 figures. That seems untenable from a business perspective. In the past I've used the laptop for a week while waiting on a new system. But due to the speed of technology, the laptop is now out of date and possibly underpowered. It could be used, but it would probably mean working at less than 30% of my normal speed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Data isn't an issue. I have triple redundant backups and even with a complete utter system failure I can be back up and running in a day at most if the *hardware* is functional.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have tons of spare hard drives. So if a drive dies, I'm covered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have an extra HDTV that, in a pinch, can be used as a (horrible) monitor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But what about actual hardware failures - CPU, video card, power supplies, etc.?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Note I'm a Mac-based office. Always have been [20+ years]. So, it's not like I can have an extra power supply for my MacPro laying around.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm thinking about possibly something like an iMac.. but spending a couple grand for a system I don't *really* need is troubling me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there were a place local that rented systems, I'd consider that. One-day rental of an adequate system runs in the neighborhood of $300 though. That seems ridiculous. In fact for a week of rental I may as well buy another system.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How to do you prepare for unforeseen equipment issues?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16217" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6197" RevisionGUID="6a3644c5-f1d7-42e7-8607-e17231c97c48" CreationDate="2016-10-25T05:33:19.617" UserId="7858" Text="Disagreeing with the client happens now and then.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whenever I come across something odd at a client, I attempt to explain it - like you have. If they still disagree, I rethink and rephrase my argument and present it again. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client still disagrees or chooses to outright ignore my advice, that is their sovereign right. There might be business aspects you don't know about and they do not want to disclose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are confident in your advice and the client is long-term, future developments should validate your advice. If or when that happens, never be an I-told-you-so; just help the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other option is leaving the client in an orderly fashion, stating that you cannot continue working as you fundamentally disagree with their approach.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The preferable option depends on a wide scale of factors; the depth of the disagreement, the importance of the client, your financial situation and so on." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16218" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6198" RevisionGUID="ba015e15-6587-425a-8beb-52ad102904f9" CreationDate="2016-10-25T07:16:51.567" UserId="12000" Text="You should talk to your tax adviser. If you invoice a client from another EU country, you have to submit a &quot;recapitulative statement&quot; (Zusammenfassende Meldung). For this statement you will need the VAT number of your client. More information can be found here: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/faq.html#item_9&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will probably not be necessary if your client is not a company but a private person. But even in this case, contact your tax adviser! There is also the question of whether you have to add VAT to the invoice total, which depends on the kind of service/product your were selling. More can be found here: http://europa.eu/youreurope/business/vat-customs/cross-border/index_en.htm&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are just writing an invoice to a client in another EU country without knowing the regulation you are most certainly doing it wrong.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16219" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6199" RevisionGUID="15de7b84-c887-4c4f-bcf2-06ba5a694358" CreationDate="2016-10-25T07:20:05.057" UserId="2910" Text="You could turn it around and tell your client:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;If you ask me to go through with this I have end our relationship, because as a professional I can't stand for this. It will reflect badly on my job as a professional web-designer.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your ability to get new work depends a lot on your past work and you don't want to have an ugly turd in your portfolio. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16220" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6200" RevisionGUID="be4da73a-bc02-4e63-90b2-326fb0555879" CreationDate="2016-10-25T10:42:04.200" UserId="15250" Text="I have a new client who I am building a (very small) website for. He has already paid the first 50% upfront. He wants to have a discussion over Skype which I am happy to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's been over two weeks and we haven't managed to chat together yet. For the last few days he has agreed on a time to talk (we are in significantly different timezones) so I have been waking up very early in the morning to accommodate for him - yesterday he cancelled and today I got no reply. It's been over two weeks that I am trying to have this discussion and I am getting fed up. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the best thing to do in this situation? I am almost tempted to tell him to get lost." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16221" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6200" RevisionGUID="be4da73a-bc02-4e63-90b2-326fb0555879" CreationDate="2016-10-25T10:42:04.200" UserId="15250" Text="New client has paid deposit but impossible to get a hold of" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16222" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6200" RevisionGUID="be4da73a-bc02-4e63-90b2-326fb0555879" CreationDate="2016-10-25T10:42:04.200" UserId="15250" Text="|freelance-websites|difficult-client|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16223" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6191" RevisionGUID="62379a27-d2b4-42cd-ba3d-7e2f0032c15f" CreationDate="2016-10-25T11:25:05.273" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/790876831494832128" />
  <row Id="16224" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6201" RevisionGUID="8bb89efe-0a0e-4a8a-857d-84fe872d1550" CreationDate="2016-10-25T12:15:32.100" UserId="8002" Text="I am a freelancer in Russia, I work on UpWork and have permanent income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I am considering of moving to another country in EU, say, Italy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that there are some companies in other countries that can &quot;hire&quot; you as their employee, but just provide legal status to you in front of government - you move your funds thru their accounts and they &quot;pay&quot; you the salary from your money, taking all the legal questions on them (taxes, other social payments, commissions).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This seems to be the most convenient and legal way to work on your own, but be employed as an employee in the existing company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know the company in Poland (Moja Firma), but cannot find the same in other countries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Could anyone suggest any?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16225" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6201" RevisionGUID="8bb89efe-0a0e-4a8a-857d-84fe872d1550" CreationDate="2016-10-25T12:15:32.100" UserId="8002" Text="Freelancer moving to Italy" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16226" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6201" RevisionGUID="8bb89efe-0a0e-4a8a-857d-84fe872d1550" CreationDate="2016-10-25T12:15:32.100" UserId="8002" Text="|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16227" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6202" RevisionGUID="c811f0da-efa6-468b-bfe3-abee7839f62e" CreationDate="2016-10-25T15:14:27.503" UserId="15170" Text="Not much you can do this time only hassle him, maybe figure a way of adding the costs on top as extras, but not really in a way that wont damage your relationship with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For future reference, add something to your contract that allows you to charge for meeting time as if it was work time, as meetings are exactly that. It may be difficult given your method of charging clients (which I wouldn't advise changing given it's a solid and secure model) but perhaps add it as extra costs in the same sense of scope change, or add a 'cancellation fee' for meetings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In conclusion I wouldn't suggest attempting anything drastic with your current client as this could lead to some issues with your business relationship and he may not agree with the extra costs. But definitely look at a way of handling this and adding it to your contract for future clients to prevent repetition of this situation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16228" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6202" RevisionGUID="b197041d-bd53-4bbf-8af4-2355975ae26c" CreationDate="2016-10-25T15:53:39.577" UserId="15170" Comment="added 18 characters in body" Text="Not much you can do this time only hassle him, maybe figure out a way of adding the costs on top as extras, but it's not really possible in a way that wont damage your relationship with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For future reference, add something to your contract that allows you to charge for meeting time as if it was work time, as meetings are exactly that. It may be difficult given your method of charging clients (which I wouldn't advise changing given it's a solid and secure model) but perhaps add it as extra costs in the same sense of scope change, or add a 'cancellation fee' for meetings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In conclusion I wouldn't suggest attempting anything drastic with your current client as this could lead to some issues with your business relationship and he may not agree with the extra costs. But definitely look at a way of handling this and adding it to your contract for future clients to prevent repetition of this situation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16229" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6203" RevisionGUID="7f26a09b-1a9f-4715-8f44-b466fcbb7fa0" CreationDate="2016-10-25T16:11:37.363" UserId="708" Text="He paid you.. what's the problem??&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since he paid you, he clearly has full intent on following through. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your time zones are wildly different, *that* may be the issue. And, in fact you may want to give him a bit more leeway due to this. I realize you state you are &quot;waking up early&quot; but just schedule something so you don't have to. Find a common ground. You can't be more than 8-9 hours apart. So you should be able to schedule something at the start of your day and the end of his or vice versa. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being annoyed that someone paid you and you've had simple meeting scheduling conflicts for a couple weeks is a bit over the top in my opinion. Good customer service would be of a mindset that he's paid, lets work *with* him, not get annoyed that a meeting is proving difficult to schedule. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's one thing if he hasn't given you anything, but it's another matter entirely if he's proven intent by paying a deposit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted... I too get annoyed and cancelled meetings at the last minute or no-shows. That's a different matter. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See here: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/6002/what-to-do-about-negligent-clients/6003#6003 &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-- but that does deal with a client prior to any commitment (deposit) so with a deposit I'd expand to allow at least 3 cancellations before I say anything. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I'd just express that my time is valuable and I have a fairly full schedule. I can't continually put things aside for meetings which are then cancelled at the last minute. If he's not prepared to move forward, I'll happily return the deposit. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16230" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6203" RevisionGUID="01c03086-edef-4873-a624-0c307c7b7c69" CreationDate="2016-10-25T16:17:46.100" UserId="708" Comment="added 125 characters in body" Text="He paid you.. what's the problem??&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since he paid you, he clearly has full intent on following through. I also don't see 2 meetings falling through as &quot;impossible to get ahold of&quot;. Don't forget you are in a **service** industry. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your time zones are wildly different, *that* may be the issue. And, in fact you may want to give him a bit more leeway due to this. I realize you state you are &quot;waking up early&quot; but just schedule something so you don't have to. Find a common ground. You can't be more than 8-9 hours apart. So you should be able to schedule something at the start of your day and the end of his or vice versa. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being annoyed that someone paid you and you've had simple meeting scheduling conflicts for a couple weeks is a bit over the top in my opinion. Good customer service would be of a mindset that he's paid, lets work *with* him, not get annoyed that a meeting is proving difficult to schedule. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's one thing if he hasn't given you anything, but it's another matter entirely if he's proven intent by paying a deposit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted... I too get annoyed and cancelled meetings at the last minute or no-shows. That's a different matter. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See here: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/6002/what-to-do-about-negligent-clients/6003#6003 &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-- but that does deal with a client prior to any commitment (deposit) so with a deposit I'd expand to allow at least 3 cancellations before I say anything. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I'd just express that my time is valuable and I have a fairly full schedule. I can't continually put things aside for meetings which are then cancelled at the last minute. If he's not prepared to move forward, I'll happily return the deposit. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16231" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6195" RevisionGUID="121d2aa1-4c77-4165-a0fb-f46454b788a9" CreationDate="2016-10-25T23:30:25.177" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/791059367277756417" />
  <row Id="16232" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6204" RevisionGUID="b1c7e895-6fdb-4ca4-a2f3-bf8e618af264" CreationDate="2016-10-25T23:53:34.353" UserId="11080" Text="I was introduced by an acquaintance to someone who has work that I could do. We both met in person to discuss my abilities and the type of work I would do. Everything went great. However, we never talked about my hourly rate. So I have two questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Should I have brought up payment during the meeting?&#xD;&#xA;2. The client sent me a invoice template to fill out. Should I just do the work and fill in my rate afterwards? Or should I contact the client to talk about payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm relatively new to freelancing and don't know what is expected of me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16233" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6204" RevisionGUID="b1c7e895-6fdb-4ca4-a2f3-bf8e618af264" CreationDate="2016-10-25T23:53:34.353" UserId="11080" Text="Should I discuss hourly rate before doing job or just do the work and let the client see the rate in the invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16234" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6204" RevisionGUID="b1c7e895-6fdb-4ca4-a2f3-bf8e618af264" CreationDate="2016-10-25T23:53:34.353" UserId="11080" Text="|payment-terms|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16235" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6204" RevisionGUID="c46e00e2-5bcc-4c89-abb8-bd42eb6ec5c1" CreationDate="2016-10-26T00:12:22.223" UserId="11080" Comment="added 134 characters in body" Text="I was introduced by an acquaintance to someone who has work that I could do. We both met in person to discuss my abilities and the type of work I would do. Everything went great. However, we never talked about my hourly rate. So I have two questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Should I have brought up payment during the meeting?&#xD;&#xA;2. The client sent me a invoice template to fill out. Should I just do the work and fill in my rate afterwards? Or should I contact the client to talk about payment.&#xD;&#xA;3. I foresee doing different tasks for this client of varying levels of difficulty. Is it acceptable to change my hourly rate for each task/project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm relatively new to freelancing and don't know what is expected of me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16236" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6205" RevisionGUID="a952673f-1ae6-4476-8d55-b5ee26bfdc2d" CreationDate="2016-10-26T00:37:01.337" UserId="708" Text="**Always** discuss payment **before** work begins. **ALWAYS**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you fail to do this it is inevitable that you will end up doing work the client doesn't want to pay for.. thus wasting your time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16237" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6200" RevisionGUID="a4097a6f-de3b-4a18-841f-7f45e6c4039e" CreationDate="2016-10-26T02:36:25.080" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/791106175534264321" />
  <row Id="16238" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6205" RevisionGUID="7632bf75-ca4c-4ae0-a75e-c86cd28245cd" CreationDate="2016-10-26T04:57:25.723" UserId="708" Comment="added 71 characters in body" Text="**Always** discuss payment **before** work begins. **ALWAYS**. (You *should* have a contract detailing scope and payment)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you fail to do this it is inevitable that you will end up doing work the client doesn't want to pay for.. thus wasting your time and ultimate resulting in conflict and losing the client in most cases." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16239" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6206" RevisionGUID="4c8bd34c-eafc-40fe-b99f-0bc8a748fb0e" CreationDate="2016-10-26T07:54:12.483" UserId="7858" Text="The hourly rate must be discussed prior to sending an invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether to have different rates for different types of work, is your business decision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I have never had varying rates towards the same client. My time has a fixed price regardless of the tasks. Discussing rates repeatedly risks souring the client relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are not fully booked, I guess you could charge a lower rate for tasks that can wait until better paying tasks have been completed - but  would avoid it if at all possible. Do not offer lower rates unless the client insists.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16240" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6158" RevisionGUID="1e821a15-900a-40f0-9e55-99edc1454f6d" CreationDate="2016-10-26T12:35:13.013" UserId="100" Comment="not about freelancing websites" Text="|design|customer-relations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16241" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6158" RevisionGUID="1e821a15-900a-40f0-9e55-99edc1454f6d" CreationDate="2016-10-26T12:35:13.013" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 7858, -1 edit id of 496" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16242" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6158" RevisionGUID="37805276-4344-4ddb-b30c-3ffc977a6678" CreationDate="2016-10-26T12:35:13.013" UserId="14699" Comment="not about freelancing websites" Text="|freelance-websites|design|customer-relations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16243" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6185" RevisionGUID="03c84ab2-20ad-4c41-8b2f-1a1703a38ec7" CreationDate="2016-10-26T13:43:46.753" UserId="100" Comment="quote instead of code markup" Text="I think the previous answers give a lot of good answers. Personally, I would have lunch, and then pay. If the customer says &quot;this is on me&quot; or something similar, I would argue &quot;No, you are our guest, let me get this&quot;, but if he argued that even once, I would give in. After all, the customer is always right (theoretically).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I would finish with the usual &quot;ok, this time, but next time it is definitely on me&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Should I offer to pay the lunch instead?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, in fact you should assume you are going to pay, and act like you expect to pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I have never been in situations like this and I am not sure what to do. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I would not like to offend him by not paying the lunch &#xD;&#xA;&gt; (if it's expected), but neither to offend him by saying that &#xD;&#xA;&gt; we will pay the lunch what he had offered first. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people would be offended if you did not let them. It is like a mark of authority, and I assume your customer has a bigger company than yours. So expect to pay, attempt to pay, but do not labour the point nor argue it. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16244" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6185" RevisionGUID="03c84ab2-20ad-4c41-8b2f-1a1703a38ec7" CreationDate="2016-10-26T13:43:46.753" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 7858, 7486 edit id of 495" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16245" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6158" RevisionGUID="7b1cce62-c070-4403-b2f8-f90b99be156d" CreationDate="2016-10-26T13:51:51.537" UserId="14699" Comment="edited tags" Text="|design|customer-relations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16246" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6207" RevisionGUID="17973f70-58b7-415d-854f-1bc47d17cf8a" CreationDate="2016-10-26T16:28:43.867" UserId="14429" Text="You send him this email:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Mr. Smith,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I have not been able to reach you for our scheduled meetings.  I want to finish this project for you as quickly as possible.  However, I cannot proceed until we have our discussion.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I will have to cease work on the project until we can have the discussion about the (whatever issue) and I have enough information to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Please let me know your availability as soon as you can.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Thank you,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Joe Freelancer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16247" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6208" RevisionGUID="677d0fd1-e719-45c8-9192-7eec7c87856a" CreationDate="2016-10-27T06:44:36.140" UserId="7486" Text="In Italy there are special programs for startups that are very interesting, you can obtain a VAT ID and pay 5% of taxes as forfait and you can't deduce expenses (as a sort of balancing system), that for the first 5 years, but you  should definitely talk with an Italian accountant because the matter is complicated. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are also strict  laws for foreign workers and probably you should need to obtain a work visa too or/and get officially  hired by a company to stay here longer periods.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Talk to an accountant or work counselor in Italy that can guide you and explain all the possibilities. Or maybe call the Russian embassy in Italy and ask for the information that you need to know... probably they can give you some free telephone consultancy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16248" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6209" RevisionGUID="a880e559-80ef-4aa1-878e-91cd4a817d32" CreationDate="2016-10-27T07:36:27.960" UserId="7486" Text="You should elaborate and enstablish a &quot;workflow&quot; that you apply with all your clients, that will enable you and the client to have mutual clear, reliable and productive collaboration, and will protect you from any client's criticism during or after the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Meeting with client to clarify exactly what is wanted, what to do, and how.&#xD;&#xA;2. Provide (for acceptance) a concise but detailed PDF quote with scope of work, prices, deliverables, milestones, etc.&#xD;&#xA;3. Have a second meeting to finalize the contract that the client will sign, where there will be reported in details what was written in #2.&#xD;&#xA;4. ... and so on ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are 100% clear and transparent on all these aspects, the client will not have any unpleasant surprise, and you will be protected against any criticism (unless you don't respect what you say), because he was totally informed on anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16249" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6210" RevisionGUID="74ee1a59-6ce9-4ab2-8624-f30388dfcb82" CreationDate="2016-10-27T08:16:13.690" UserId="12000" Text="1. Yes! You rate should be discussed at the first meeting/call. Otherwise you will waste time on customers who aren't willing to value your work.&#xD;&#xA;2. If you want to get payed, you will have to contact him and discuss the rate before you start working.&#xD;&#xA;3. That would be possible but unusual, and I would advise against it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16250" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6172" RevisionGUID="588327db-caa8-4625-ab55-b5e3d2bb3520" CreationDate="2016-10-27T08:44:17.837" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/791561142917267456" />
  <row Id="16251" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6209" RevisionGUID="7630b945-3fdf-4c46-b551-a102803a1322" CreationDate="2016-10-27T13:06:35.183" UserId="13016" Comment="spelling and word choice" Text="You should elaborate and establish a &quot;workflow&quot; that you apply with all your clients, that will enable you and the client to have mutual clear, reliable and productive collaboration, and will protect you from any client's criticism during or after the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Meeting with client to clarify exactly what is wanted, what to do, and how.&#xD;&#xA;2. Provide (for acceptance) a concise but detailed PDF quote with scope of work, prices, deliverables, milestones, etc.&#xD;&#xA;3. Have a second meeting to finalize the contract that the client will sign, where there will be reported in detail what was written in #2.&#xD;&#xA;4. ... and so on ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are 100% clear and transparent on all these aspects, the client will not have any unpleasant surprise, and you will be protected against any criticism (unless you don't respect what you say), because he was totally informed on everything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16252" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6209" RevisionGUID="7630b945-3fdf-4c46-b551-a102803a1322" CreationDate="2016-10-27T13:06:35.183" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 7486 edit id of 498" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16253" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4279" RevisionGUID="755f49cb-c2a6-45fc-8bc1-51d71ec9e7a6" CreationDate="2016-10-27T17:44:21.273" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/791697052841443329" />
  <row Id="16254" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6211" RevisionGUID="b3aa16d5-8ff3-4275-b864-abfa7d98777e" CreationDate="2016-10-28T06:54:47.500" UserId="13264" Text=" &#xD;&#xA;I hire an Indian company to develop a website for classified ads but it takes so long time and not finish yet. Therefore I decide to find a new company to do this work but I don't want to face the same situation again.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;This my post: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~0186afa2defb7fc055&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;I think about request **evaluation task** to find truly good company. can anyone suggest a small and effective task that my help me to find what I looking for?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, how can I improve my listing to attract professional development company?&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;any advice I will appreciate.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16255" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6211" RevisionGUID="b3aa16d5-8ff3-4275-b864-abfa7d98777e" CreationDate="2016-10-28T06:54:47.500" UserId="13264" Text="Evaluation Task to find good development company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16256" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6211" RevisionGUID="b3aa16d5-8ff3-4275-b864-abfa7d98777e" CreationDate="2016-10-28T06:54:47.500" UserId="13264" Text="|programmer|project-management|fixed-price|proposal|interview|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16257" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6212" RevisionGUID="340491b2-77c2-4558-8f2d-41c590d1a4ec" CreationDate="2016-10-28T07:13:04.223" UserId="15264" Text="It's an old thread but an age old problem!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other answers here are great for the sources of information and activities to keep yourself up to speed:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Subscribe to blogs&#xD;&#xA;- Read Twitter&#xD;&#xA;- Build side projects&#xD;&#xA;- Take part in communities &#xD;&#xA;- etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I would add that **the most important thing** is to integrate this learning practice into your **daily routine.** You must set some time aside every day to do these things and see that time as an important part of your work schedule. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's hard to do but if you don't put these activities into your daily routine then you'll never do them, work will always be more important. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Start small - 15 minutes checking your RSS and read one full longer article over your coffee before work. Then spend 30 minutes on your own project each evening. Or something similar.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Do it every day and you'll make progress :)**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16258" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6213" RevisionGUID="1b951850-7706-41b5-aafb-3c4f9d3662fe" CreationDate="2016-10-28T07:17:15.257" UserId="15253" Text="I am a newbie to freelancer.in and want to bid in here.&#xD;&#xA;but the main thing is that to write the proposal on the bid. i heard its the main thing that we could impress the Client. i am an UX/UI designer. can anyone one help me how to write the proposal. if possible give some sample relating to graphics design / logo design / 3d design/ web design." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16259" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6213" RevisionGUID="1b951850-7706-41b5-aafb-3c4f9d3662fe" CreationDate="2016-10-28T07:17:15.257" UserId="15253" Text="How to write a Proposal on a Graphics Design bid as a newbie(in freelancer.com)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16260" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6213" RevisionGUID="1b951850-7706-41b5-aafb-3c4f9d3662fe" CreationDate="2016-10-28T07:17:15.257" UserId="15253" Text="|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16261" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6214" RevisionGUID="584c3d41-d85c-4961-984c-f21504ab0d5a" CreationDate="2016-10-28T08:26:06.563" UserId="15202" Text="Asking someone to complete unpaid work as a freelancer in the hopes of landing a job isn't going to go down very well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's for web design, it would be better to ask for samples of previous work (at least 5) and details on how long it took for each one and the challenges that they faced. You can very quickly see whether they are legitimate or not from this.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16262" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6031" RevisionGUID="62b45e51-ed8b-4023-86d2-7e9841810015" CreationDate="2016-10-28T11:06:04.237" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16263" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="802" RevisionGUID="9159711e-6482-41ae-9320-a57e7818466a" CreationDate="2016-10-28T15:13:23.743" UserId="100" Comment="retagged (q. is not about freelancing websites)" Text="|price|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16264" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="802" RevisionGUID="9159711e-6482-41ae-9320-a57e7818466a" CreationDate="2016-10-28T15:13:23.743" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 7858, 9 edit id of 497" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16265" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6211" RevisionGUID="68c6fa76-221f-4f40-979a-3ec4dfe6b4ef" CreationDate="2016-10-28T15:51:52.257" UserId="13264" Comment="update based on answer" Text=" &#xD;&#xA;I hire an Indian company to develop a website for classified ads but it takes so long time and not finish yet. Therefore I decide to find a new company to do this work but I don't want to face the same situation again.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;This my post: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~0186afa2defb7fc055&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;I think about request **evaluation task** to find truly good company. can anyone suggest a small and effective task that my help me to find what I looking for?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, how can I improve my listing to attract professional development company?&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;any advice I will appreciate.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Thanks&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Update***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;the task is paid" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16266" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6215" RevisionGUID="3d5566da-c773-45a7-90cf-9c87aefa799a" CreationDate="2016-10-28T16:27:15.383" UserId="14793" Text="Social networks are a hint of what some people do.  Make friends.  Hang out with other developers.  You'll talk.  You'll shmooz.  You'll learn." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16268" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6216" RevisionGUID="3a16a1df-9ee1-4119-be54-dc7b5e0386d5" CreationDate="2016-10-29T04:21:01.017" UserId="15274" Text="Bid on php project on upwork&#xD;&#xA;Watch this Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtdurH2u8Ik&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16269" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4447" RevisionGUID="59336d8b-84f7-4630-8fda-91a8e8126f82" CreationDate="2016-10-30T05:47:33.493" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/792603828927496192" />
  <row Id="16272" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6218" RevisionGUID="0d3bd964-47de-41ee-adf7-7bdb1220d1c8" CreationDate="2016-10-31T14:40:55.350" UserId="14793" Text="In freelancing I've found that being your own boss means you're your own manager.  Being a manager assumes you have the skills to manage.  If you're a technical person like me you might not appreciate all the boss does behind the scenes to get the project completed.  I found, managing myself, that I had to have the same skills as the boss I used to take for granted and that includes communicating properly to clients.  Communicating properly to clients means that you have to have an agenda before speaking with them.  There's a whole science to it.  I can give you a few examples but it's not a skill I'd get from an answer here.  For example, examine why the communication is taking place to begin with.  That'll give you a hint as to what you're trying to accomplish.  Is it a big task you're communicating about or just something to move from point A to point B?  Do you need to have the big picture in mind during this communication or not?  &#xD;&#xA;You get the point.  Besides communication with clients you might as the same question about other areas of project management and my answer would be close to the same." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16273" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6219" RevisionGUID="baf09cd8-841c-412b-b7da-dab15ad034b5" CreationDate="2016-10-31T17:56:37.693" UserId="14866" Text="Agree communication is key but if would add this. Your wife needs to understand that this is not a hobby; this is how you put food on the table and a roof over your mutual heads. The issue sounds like one of lack of understanding. Being at home does not mean being available. I agree with others that setting expectations is important. I also agree that bit helps to have a separate controlled space. But a key part is that you and she's need to agree that there are work hours and non-work hours and that she needs to treat your work hours the same way she would if you worked in an office. If she wouldn't expect to be able to call you whenever if you were in an office then she should not expect it in this instance. You don't have to be mean when you share this but you do need to share it. Good luck...." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16275" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6220" RevisionGUID="a74f7505-6c4b-4f05-9735-b4562c65a47a" CreationDate="2016-10-31T19:27:52.667" UserId="15259" Text="I'm currently studying web development and working as a student trainee in a startup. During my free time I sometimes create and maintain websites for others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reward I get for my work is quite similar to pocket money, so not really worth the work I do (even though I get references and the experience).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After my studies I think of starting my freelancer career, but to earn enough money I would need to raise the price by ...a lot. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be the best way to go away from the &quot;pocket money&quot; and raise the prices and preventing the current &quot;customers&quot; to move on to another developer/agency?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16276" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6220" RevisionGUID="a74f7505-6c4b-4f05-9735-b4562c65a47a" CreationDate="2016-10-31T19:27:52.667" UserId="15259" Text="Starting freelancer career while already having customers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16277" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6220" RevisionGUID="a74f7505-6c4b-4f05-9735-b4562c65a47a" CreationDate="2016-10-31T19:27:52.667" UserId="15259" Text="|web-development|customer-relations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16278" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6221" RevisionGUID="917ec458-85ea-4899-89c3-1fa6ade82c3b" CreationDate="2016-10-31T19:34:38.517" UserId="708" Text="If you aren't already charging market value it's highly unlikely you'll retain any existing customers once you do start charging market value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Chances are, clients you currently have are clients because you aren't charging them what anyone else would charge. If you raise your pricing to more standard rates, these clients will most often just go find someone else that undervalues their work rather than paying you more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cheap clients tend to stay cheap clients... and don't really have much loyalty towards workers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best way for you to make more money is to find **new** clients at your new pricing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The fact of the matter is that whether working full time, part time, or just spare time, your hourly rate shouldn't be any different. The difference is in the amount of hours you work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16280" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6222" RevisionGUID="c4c84be5-8f48-439f-9bb5-95767dbd3096" CreationDate="2016-11-01T01:13:42.863" UserId="14450" Text="You should definitely fix an hourly rate before you agree to do any work. even if you agree a fixed price for a defined job this ensures that you have well defined terms for what you are invoicing for and you have a firm basis for negotiation in the case of any dispute. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As well as the basic hourly rate you should also make provision for any expenses, material or 3rd party costs which may apply. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Ideally yes, but if payment doesn't get raised in a face to face meeting you should follow up with a letter or email to formally confirm your payment terms. Make sure your client agrees to this before you start work. &#xD;&#xA;2) It is not a bad idea to discuss they likely total cost of a job with your client, this can just be non-binding estimate but it at least means that you both have similar figure in mind. &#xD;&#xA;3) Generally no. Your client is paying for your expertise and experience, the difficulty will be reflected in the time it takes you to complete the task. The only real exception being if there are extra expenses masticated with a specific task eg hire of equipment or similar expenditure which can be most conveniently billed by the hour or if you have a higher rate for working unsocial or extended hours. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16281" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6223" RevisionGUID="95c005ac-8040-45a6-b5be-8aa16a378217" CreationDate="2016-11-01T06:24:31.387" UserId="7858" Text="Agree with the answer stating that you will not be able to retain current clients. Once you've 'anchored' your price level, it turns out to be virtually impossible to change it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, new freelancers tend to undervalue their own services, because they find the work relatively straight-forward and therefore don't charge by the value it gives the client, which often is considerably higher than the effort of the freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it suits you, perhaps find a commercial partner - a salesman - who will price the product according to the perceived value to the client. If you find someone really good, they might also be more ambitious and go after customers you never would have.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, finding this commercial partner is quite difficult. I tried for a long time and ultimately failed. However, if your ambition ultimately is to create a 'real' company, sooner or later you'll need to find partners. May as well start now." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16282" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6224" RevisionGUID="532a5440-5659-49d5-9ec8-6f27b2ce1e2f" CreationDate="2016-11-01T12:17:10.533" UserId="13264" Text="I suggest you to get free or low cost project from on of your friends or relatives that makes their work more efficient and add it to your profile. &#xA;&#xA;In this way you will be motivated to finish the work and verify your skills practically." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16283" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6224" RevisionGUID="73006d54-b0e8-4bae-b17b-d4163eecef16" CreationDate="2016-11-01T12:32:01.080" UserId="13264" Comment="added 70 characters in body" Text="I suggest you to get free or low cost project from on of your friends or relatives that makes their work more efficient and add it to your profile. &#xA;&#xA;In this way you will be motivated to finish the work and verify your skills practically.&#xA;&#xA;If this solution fit you question, please check ✔ at the left side. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16284" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6220" RevisionGUID="756a42b4-e8d8-4786-b35f-78340cdaf0e8" CreationDate="2016-11-01T15:01:58.633" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/793468128357482497" />
  <row Id="16285" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6225" RevisionGUID="a4bbb69b-ce65-4e39-ba2b-b036b5b27155" CreationDate="2016-11-01T18:45:50.393" UserId="708" Text="In my experience, having the knowledge to complete any project is only about 30-40% of what is required as a freelancer. Face it, there are hundreds or thousands of people out there that can do what you do for the most part. Having the skills doesn't necessarily make you a great freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The #1 thing you need to have as a freelancer is the ability to **solve problems** decisively. What this means is, if you take on a project and half-way through you discover you need to do X, but have no clue how to do X, you need to be able to solve that problem efficiently. Whether it's learning X rapidly, asking at some web site to find out how to complete X, hiring someone to complete X, or purchasing X from some third party source - whatever. But you must be able to solve problems when they arise. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is generally what sets successful freelancers apart from those who fail and it has very little to do with actual skill set or abilities at any given time. Having good skills and abilities may get you clients, but an inability to solve critical issues in a timely manner will lose those clients, and fairly rapidly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you may want to evaluate your *personality* and abilities when it comes to *deductive problem solving* **more** than any current skills or experience. Some people are fantastic at completing a given task. They may always be quick and detailed and provide an excellent final product. However, those same superstars may choke, gag, and collapse when they are asked to figure out how to complete something they've never done before. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, it is **far more** important to be a self-starter and problem solver than it is to be a rock star with your skill set or have mountains of experience." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16286" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6225" RevisionGUID="639101a6-e620-49a6-9bba-cb93489cf3dc" CreationDate="2016-11-01T18:56:46.060" UserId="708" Comment="added 1110 characters in body" Text="I actually voted to close the question.... primarily because there's no way anyone else can tell you how to evaluate your skills. Only *you* know what you are capable of. I couldn't build an Android app today... so you're ahead of me there. But I don't work in the app building space either. In addition, I could review some web sites and probably figure out how to slap together some crummy little Android app by the end of the week... but that doesn't mean I'd be prepared to take on paying clients for those types of projects. So, really, there's no way for anyone here to have **any** clue as to your abilities or aptitude. I mean, are you building using core programming for Android or are you just using some what-you-see-is-what-you-get app creator? Do you have an in-depth understanding of how to accomplish things in the app building space? Can you build apps for multiple platforms or are you limited to only Android? I think some self reflection would really answer your own question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I decided to respond because I think many of the other answers are missing perhaps the bigger picture......&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, having the knowledge to complete any project is only about 30-40% of what is required as a freelancer. Face it, there are hundreds or thousands of people out there that can do what you do for the most part. Having the skills doesn't necessarily make you a great freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The #1 thing you need to have as a freelancer is the ability to **solve problems** decisively. What this means is, if you take on a project and half-way through you discover you need to do X, but have no clue how to do X, you need to be able to solve that problem efficiently. Whether it's learning X rapidly, asking at some web site to find out how to complete X, hiring someone to complete X, or purchasing X from some third party source - whatever. But you must be able to solve problems when they arise. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is generally what sets successful freelancers apart from those who fail and it has very little to do with actual skill set or abilities at any given time. Having good skills and abilities may get you clients, but an inability to solve critical issues in a timely manner will lose those clients, and fairly rapidly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you may want to evaluate your *personality* and abilities when it comes to *deductive problem solving* **more** than any current skills or experience. Some people are fantastic at completing a given task. They may always be quick and detailed and provide an excellent final product. However, those same superstars may choke, gag, and collapse when they are asked to figure out how to complete something they've never done before. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, it is **far more** important to be a self-starter and problem solver than it is to be a rock star with your skill set or have mountains of experience." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16287" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6225" RevisionGUID="2b5c56cb-97f3-4800-8ae4-9524625c76bd" CreationDate="2016-11-01T19:08:01.200" UserId="708" Comment="added 657 characters in body" Text="I actually voted to close the question.... primarily because there's no way anyone else can tell you how to evaluate your skills. Only *you* know what you are capable of. I couldn't build an Android app today... so you're ahead of me there. But I don't work in the app building space either. In addition, I could review some web sites and probably figure out how to slap together some crummy little Android app by the end of the week... but that doesn't mean I'd be prepared to take on paying clients for those types of projects. So, really, there's no way for anyone here to have **any** clue as to your abilities or aptitude. I mean, are you building using core programming for Android or are you just using some what-you-see-is-what-you-get app creator? Do you have an in-depth understanding of how to accomplish things in the app building space? Can you build apps for multiple platforms or are you limited to only Android? I think some self reflection would really answer your own question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I decided to respond because I think many of the other answers are missing perhaps the bigger picture......&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, having the knowledge to complete any project is only about 30-40% of what is required as a freelancer. Face it, there are hundreds or thousands of people out there that can do what you do for the most part. Having the skills doesn't necessarily make you a great freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The #1 thing you need to have as a freelancer is the ability to **solve problems** decisively. What this means is, if you take on a project and half-way through you discover you need to do X, but have no clue how to do X, you need to be able to solve that problem efficiently. Whether it's learning X rapidly, asking at some web site to find out how to complete X, hiring someone to complete X, or purchasing X from some third party source - whatever. But you must be able to solve problems when they arise. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is generally what sets successful freelancers apart from those who fail and it has very little to do with actual skill set or abilities at any given time. Having good skills and abilities may get you clients, but an inability to solve critical issues in a timely manner will lose those clients, and fairly rapidly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you may want to evaluate your *personality* and abilities when it comes to *deductive problem solving* **more** than any current skills or experience. Some people are fantastic at completing a given task. They may always be quick and detailed and provide an excellent final product. However, those same superstars may choke, gag, and collapse when they are asked to figure out how to complete something they've never done before. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is largely *unacceptable* to take on a project (enter a contract) and then fail to hold up your end of the deal. You should **never** take on work unless you are confident you can complete everything which is involved or *figure out how* to complete things you may not currently know how to complete. If a project has a piece you know you *don't* know. Then you should discuss that with the client *before* taking on the project and go over what you see as possible solutions. In some cases, clients can be amenable to *&quot;I'll complete A, B, C and F. However, I don't have any experience with D and E. Someone else will be needed for those phases.&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, it is **far more** important to be a self-starter and problem solver than it is to be a rock star with your skill set or have mountains of experience." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16288" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6226" RevisionGUID="9c54649a-e38b-4da2-ae50-39fb29ef4969" CreationDate="2016-11-01T22:50:25.223" UserId="14455" Text="The link provided by Mario in the comment to your question is a great link, however I would like to add something to it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A great proposal does two things, it answers all the explicit and implied questions raised by the original bid/proposal/tender and provides the answers to the simple questions of how much will it cost, how long will it take, how will you do it and how will it solve our problem. If you can answer all that you have a great proposal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A weak proposal leaves questions unanswered, like 'what feedback can we give?', 'how many revisions can we make?', 'what support is there for us post delivery?'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All you can do, is to concisely address all the issues without writing a novel, and provide a mechanism to answer any further questions. As a freelancer, your ability to do this will improve with time, experience and the ability to cut and paste from one proposal to the next.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Writing a bid proposal is as personal and individual as it gets. It gives you the opportunity to shine, to stand above the rest in clarity and understanding, but offers all the risks of failing to address the underlying issues or to answer the unspoken questions. It is an art form you will master with time and practice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A template or bland outline will help you in the early days, but as you become more proficient and expert in your field they will seem as detached and ambiguous to you as they would to a true leader or expert in their field. But if you are new to writing proposals, they will provide an invaluable guide to adhere to as you develop.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A great proposal will win you work. A poor one will lose you work. A template will help you to not lose work outright, but only time and expertise and practice will make you great. In time you will neither want, need nor look at templates for writing proposals, instead you will understand what the client is actually asking for, you will read between the lines and get to the crux of the matter at hand and write individual responses to every bid, and win a big proportion of them. If you can get there quickly, great, but in the beginning expect to write far more proposals than you win - and see every loss as a learning exercise. Ask for feedback, seek reasons for the alternate choice that was made without judgement, and very soon your proposals will be blowing people away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me, my best proposals have always had one key element that always hit the mark, that is understanding what the client actually wanted from often overblown or confused descriptions from amateur writers. If I had to give one piece of advice, it would be to try to understand where the client is coming from, and where they want to go. If you can nail that, you can nail the proposal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16289" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6227" RevisionGUID="be18796a-fac5-4248-b632-5cf41d6f3eea" CreationDate="2016-11-01T23:09:16.180" UserId="14455" Text="Preparing for unforeseen equipment issues is a problem for any small enterprise, especially when it comes to critical hardware.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only answer is to not rely on any one piece of equipment. The net can solve this quite adequetely for critical software backups and files (like email, accounting, quotes, invoices, contracts, graphics, video etc) through the cloud and if not entirely free, entirely reasonably priced.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for 'my most powerful machine that I use for everything but cannot afford two of' then so be it. What exactly is the problem with a two day or three day recovery period. So a smaller less powerful machine or infrastructure is a PITA but it is an emergency measure. Short term.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally I have my big office machine, that I back up important files to a separate hard drive. Critical files are on the cloud and accessible from any device. I also have my beautiful laptop, that I can use quite comfortably for any task, and do so from home or customer sites as and when I want to. The loss of either my big bertha or my sleek laptop would not leave me stranded. But at home I also have my 'other' PC that I keep just in case. I make sure all three are able to operate. If my office burned down with my laptop in it, I would have my home PC. If my Laptop and home PC burned down I have my office PC. If some virus took out my home and office PC I have my laptop. If something happened to all three all my critical files are in the cloud or on my portable hard drive. If the internet collapsed I have my own copies of files. I am not sure what more I could do, and believe me, things have often happened that has meant I have had to revert to one of the backups or the other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The car analogy is a good one. You cannot afford two cars, to have a back up in the garage at all times. But you do have access to care hire, emergency recovery or break down assistance. Or you can go out and buy a new car. Or take a taxi. It is the same with hardware, either have a spare, or have the means to get a spare and recover all your critical software. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I prepare for critical equipment issues? I have a backup or a spare. That is not the only answer, but for me is the best one.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16290" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6228" RevisionGUID="1333b8c8-6359-4e72-9088-53cc7d613e27" CreationDate="2016-11-02T10:59:16.123" UserId="13016" Text="I had an office with all the gear I needed, but struggled with too many random failures.  Then I got a large UPS, which also conditioned the power line.  Mysteriously, my hardware failures stopped.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your failure of 2 monitors suspiciously close to the same time suggests a power line problem.  My recommendation, then, is to get a good, large UPS.  It won't cover all your bases, because gear can fail for other reasons, but it sure is good &quot;insurance&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16291" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5803" RevisionGUID="2371b3e2-53e3-45f8-91ee-e0108bcbc65b" CreationDate="2016-11-03T06:36:39.207" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16292" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6229" RevisionGUID="b5f736e0-1780-4629-b8db-55e67efb43c0" CreationDate="2016-11-03T22:43:16.257" UserId="13065" Text="What's the best tool for keeping track of all the moving parts of a creative business? I'm looking to be able to see the status &amp; details of clients, prospects, projects, action items, documents &amp; conversations all in one place. Does that even exist? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you use? How does it work for you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16293" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6229" RevisionGUID="b5f736e0-1780-4629-b8db-55e67efb43c0" CreationDate="2016-11-03T22:43:16.257" UserId="13065" Text="recommended tool to track clients, projects, files etc.?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16294" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6229" RevisionGUID="b5f736e0-1780-4629-b8db-55e67efb43c0" CreationDate="2016-11-03T22:43:16.257" UserId="13065" Text="|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16295" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6230" RevisionGUID="69d60371-a8b3-44bf-9e69-41d2c87db5c3" CreationDate="2016-11-04T17:26:51.687" UserId="7486" Text="This is a very wide subject... You can search online for CRM/ERP/Fiscal Management softwares for Creative Agencies/Studios. You'll find hundreds of solutions, guides and software comparisons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By the way if you are a single freelance you'll hardly need any of these. Sometimes a well organised spreadsheet will do the work of keeping track of the ongoing works, tasks, deadlines, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally I use some online spreadsheets (with daily backups) and a small fiscal management software for invoices and similar documents." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16296" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3604" RevisionGUID="8d157bb8-5c2a-42a0-89ff-43a41ed05e0c" CreationDate="2016-11-04T17:51:24.717" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16297" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6231" RevisionGUID="2b4cd4b8-5f3c-49d1-8121-4226876d78d3" CreationDate="2016-11-04T21:05:17.487" UserId="14455" Text="I have found that clients often do not know what they are looking for. That often the right answer is not the answer they are seeking. The real skill is in the questions you ask. They should not make the customer feel like a dunce, but they have to shed light on what the customer really needs or what they really want. What they want is often more easy to provide than what they need, which sometimes you just have to shrug and provide. You may know that X will be better, but if they want Y, then you give them Y. When they realise X was better, you get another job transforming Y into X. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are a consultant, as well as a provider, so you try to explain X is best, but ultimately you only have one question to answer. &quot;What can I do for you today, right now, that will help you solve the problem you have&quot;. You will not solve all their problems, and it is hard to bill for consultancy, so try to minimise it. Get a clear goal, a clear measurable outcome, an agreed price and deliver. Then get paid and start to talk about what next, how else you can help. In that way one time buyers become long term loyal customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Is this communication issue because I am doing very low-rated jobs, and due to the price policy the customers allow themselves not to handle their tasks in a proper, comprehensive way? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No, it never changes, whatever the price of the project. In fact the bigger the price tag the worse it can get.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; How can I improve this communication?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whenever you are communicating just keep this at the forefront of your mind. You are trying to get them to agree to a set of tasks that represent a body of work you are going to get paid for. So do not discuss at length why blue is colder than red, or why red signifies danger, as them &quot;would they prefer that in blue or red?&quot; When they say in red you write down &quot;1. Blocks in red&quot;. When you have enough tasks written down to represent a fair chunk of the work you are ready to offer a quote. Does it matter if you think green is the best colour, or if a bluey red is best? No, of course not. So do not dwell on it. If they say &quot;what colour do you think this should be&quot; you respond with &quot;what colours are you considering&quot;. They say &quot;Blue or Green&quot; and you say &quot;I think green, shall we go with green?&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is a game of turning their random thoughts into tasks you can do for them. Once you get the hang of it, it is great fun and often the best part of the project. Personally I love the planning stage, especially with a chatty customer that is unsure of what they want. They are like incredibly rare golden geese, with lots of golden eggs to lay for you :-)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16298" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6232" RevisionGUID="31c271a3-f4c9-4c50-a4e3-0205bcd50658" CreationDate="2016-11-05T11:20:42.413" UserId="14793" Text="I'd like to get more repeat business from clients.  Aside from asking them &quot;are you looking for any more work done&quot; is there any other way to approach them to secure more work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16299" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6232" RevisionGUID="31c271a3-f4c9-4c50-a4e3-0205bcd50658" CreationDate="2016-11-05T11:20:42.413" UserId="14793" Text="how do I get more repeat business from existing clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16300" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6232" RevisionGUID="31c271a3-f4c9-4c50-a4e3-0205bcd50658" CreationDate="2016-11-05T11:20:42.413" UserId="14793" Text="|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16301" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6233" RevisionGUID="c48a235d-372a-4690-ab3c-66f4167224d8" CreationDate="2016-11-05T19:49:49.223" UserId="2265" Text="Upselling (the term for getting more work from existing clients) starts with asking clients if you can help them with anything else. However, often your added value as a freelancer, external to the company, is that you can also provide some advice or offer new tech that the client is not aware of.&#xD;&#xA;Maybe a client doesn't know he needs X or Y. A few things you can try:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. create a newsletter to existing or previous clients detailing new projects or new features you have created, that might trigger an 'old' client to want that as well&#xD;&#xA; 2. Directly approach a client with advice or a concrete offer: &quot;For client A I have done X, I think this might be beneficial for you as well, can I interest you in X?&quot;&#xD;&#xA; 3. Actively search out innovative ideas or features competitors have and point this out to your client, often a competitor move is just the thing to get a client interested in an additional feature or project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16302" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6234" RevisionGUID="072ef421-6372-4bcd-8cc5-2a93d7d3d51a" CreationDate="2016-11-05T19:52:11.780" UserId="2265" Text="My company has recently started using Teamleader, you might look into that. &#xD;&#xA;It has all the basics a freelancer needs: CRM, Invoicing, Timetracking, Project and Milestone Mgt, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Context: just a satisfied user, not affiliated to Teamleader in any way. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16306" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6236" RevisionGUID="3171f5aa-805f-4b9a-9749-85232fcac966" CreationDate="2016-11-06T21:56:19.977" UserId="15365" Text="I currently use [Freeter][1] for all the projects on which I'm working, whether or not they're for a particular client. It was developed by a freelancer who had the same needs as you, and even though it's $30 (will be $40; it's 25% while it's in beta), I'd say it's definitely worth at least downloading the free trial and seeing for yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freeter.io/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16307" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6230" RevisionGUID="3914210f-77ae-415d-bdad-f6fb2b3df350" CreationDate="2016-11-07T10:39:39.403" UserId="7486" Comment="added 784 characters in body" Text="This is a very wide subject... You can search online for CRM/ERP/Fiscal Management softwares for Creative Agencies/Studios. You'll find hundreds of solutions, guides and software comparisons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By the way if you are a single freelance you'll hardly need any of these. Sometimes a well organised spreadsheet will do the work of keeping track of the ongoing works, tasks, deadlines, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally I use some online spreadsheets (with daily backups) and a small fiscal management software for invoices and similar documents.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the past I tested a few softwares but I always found them an added layer of complexity in my daily work after a while, I just wasted time (and money) over them and they did not solve me any problem or improved my productivity, in my case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless there are very good reasons to use these kind of softwares (large number of clients, big agency, sales departments, etc) I usually discourage to use them for a single freelance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also I always adhered to the &quot;[KISS principle][1]&quot;, which stands for slightly different and very good advices like these:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Keep it simple and stupid.&#xD;&#xA;- Keep it short and simple.&#xD;&#xA;- Keep it simple and straightforward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;... keeping that in my mind always avoided me many complications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16308" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6237" RevisionGUID="4f7d41e1-d305-430f-83cf-e93566c988af" CreationDate="2016-11-07T18:38:12.930" UserId="14793" Text="I'd research open source software.  I googled 'open source project management software' and came up with some solutions.  The advantages are obvious." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16309" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6238" RevisionGUID="387135c6-d94a-4741-9e2d-7705f1e741bd" CreationDate="2016-11-07T18:44:39.790" UserId="14866" Text="Agree with others. Your current rate is attracting certain clients-more likely than not the ones that are price sensitive. They also probably aren't demanding. Both will change when you adjust your rate. Clients that will pay market correct will insist on higher quality and will be willing to fire you if you don't produce it. So be sure to consider the quality of your work and bake that and a certain quality standard into your new pricing and then deliver the results. Good luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16310" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6237" RevisionGUID="47cacdeb-80ef-418e-ba5a-663f9924dba5" CreationDate="2016-11-09T21:14:24.547" UserId="14793" Comment="added more suggestions." Text="I'd research open source software.  I googled 'open source project management software' and came up with some solutions.  The advantages are obvious.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Microsoft office also does the job." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16311" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6221" RevisionGUID="ccebd986-651e-42fb-8ab4-4aea6bc89fac" CreationDate="2016-11-11T12:48:40.460" UserId="708" Comment="added 438 characters in body" Text="If you aren't already charging market value it's highly unlikely you'll retain any existing customers once you do start charging market value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Chances are, clients you currently have are clients because you aren't charging them what anyone else would charge. If you raise your pricing to more standard rates, these clients will most often just go find someone else that undervalues their work rather than paying you more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cheap clients tend to stay cheap clients... and don't really have much loyalty towards workers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best way for you to make more money is to find **new** clients at your new pricing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The fact of the matter is that whether working full time, part time, or just spare time, your hourly rate shouldn't be any different. The difference is in the amount of hours you work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted, *some* hourly discount due to turnaround speed may be appropriate. So I can see why someone would charge a lower rate to make up for the fact that they need two weeks working in their spare time, as opposed to 3-4 days if they were working full time. Still best to find new clients rather than trying to retain the lower paying clients. Raise your rates.. if they stick around great... but expect them to leave." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16312" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5901" RevisionGUID="2a2510c5-4005-421e-bdec-e6100feeb182" CreationDate="2016-11-11T19:10:27.203" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16313" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6239" RevisionGUID="5a414a07-d327-4de0-b9df-49b427473500" CreationDate="2016-11-13T17:17:17.380" UserId="14793" Text="I'd like to give an answer of &quot;go ask an accountant&quot;.  On the other hand an accountant answered.  So, I'll have to ask a question of my own here." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16314" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6240" RevisionGUID="1c1a552f-44b6-470f-944b-1794f2611b80" CreationDate="2016-11-13T17:19:01.783" UserId="14793" Text="I've noticed a few accounting questions here.  How dependable are the answers I could expect?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16315" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6240" RevisionGUID="1c1a552f-44b6-470f-944b-1794f2611b80" CreationDate="2016-11-13T17:19:01.783" UserId="14793" Text="Questions regarding accounting; can I trust the information?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16316" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6240" RevisionGUID="1c1a552f-44b6-470f-944b-1794f2611b80" CreationDate="2016-11-13T17:19:01.783" UserId="14793" Text="|accounting|trust|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16317" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6241" RevisionGUID="f83cd692-6efb-4856-9063-3f2703310044" CreationDate="2016-11-14T16:25:48.423" UserId="7486" Text="**NO.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a disease I believe you don't go searching in Google and cure yourself based on **strangers' opinions**, but you will go to a doctor and get a checkup and then a therapy if needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The same is with accounting information, you won't trust the **opinions** of people from all around the world for your personal accounting. Indeed is almost sure that they won't fit your particular situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you can find here (and elsewhere) are general advices based on personal experiences, but I strongly encourage you to get a professional accountant that will follow and guide you at best for your particular situation and needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That will avoid you a lot of troubles." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16318" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5797" RevisionGUID="f05d8dc1-0bae-4ac9-9fa6-8ea174484d7e" CreationDate="2016-11-15T00:58:39.993" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16319" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6242" RevisionGUID="b2fa02e3-6fc9-4107-b5be-c93b75b45ba5" CreationDate="2016-11-15T08:57:05.810" UserId="14793" Text="Regarding freelance web sites:  Sometimes there are options to represent yourself as a group of freelancers; a team if you will.  The advantages of doing so are clear.  I work alone.  I can't find fellow freelancers who'd want to team up with me.  I'd like to create a virtual team, so to speak, but that would be lying.  Now, if I possess the diversity of skills that would be required of an entire team would it be considered unethical to represent myself as part of a team?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16320" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6242" RevisionGUID="b2fa02e3-6fc9-4107-b5be-c93b75b45ba5" CreationDate="2016-11-15T08:57:05.810" UserId="14793" Text="Should I represent myself falsely?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16321" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6242" RevisionGUID="b2fa02e3-6fc9-4107-b5be-c93b75b45ba5" CreationDate="2016-11-15T08:57:05.810" UserId="14793" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16324" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6244" RevisionGUID="56669e4c-e752-4324-8004-8dad95e7483f" CreationDate="2016-11-15T13:55:28.913" UserId="2265" Text="Just to be sure, let's not confuse VAT or Sales Tax (based on revenue) and other taxes based on the profit your company makes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;VAT is calculated on what you invoice: you invoice 600,- and you will charge VAT on your invoice based on the 600,- (payable VAT to tax authorities). However you also paid 500,- for the service which means you will also have paid VAT on that invoice (receivable VAT). So at the end of the month or quarter you need to pay VAT but not for the full 600 but only for the difference between VAT you paid (which was invoiced to you) and the VAT you charged (which you invoiced your customer). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other taxes are usually based on profit. You earned 600, but to make that 600 possible you also paid 500. So your profit before taxes is 100 and you will pay taxes on it, finally resulting in your profit after taxes.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16325" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6245" RevisionGUID="511d5312-f424-4f89-a2bd-463e29e36c67" CreationDate="2016-11-15T14:25:47.693" UserId="2265" Text="Are you alone? Then 'we' is misrepresentation, and at some point during a project it will become clear that you are in fact alone and the client will find out. It may not mean the end of a contract when they do, but you can rest assured a client will take note to verify every other statement you make to ensure there is no further exaggeration or 'creativity'. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unlike one of the other answers, I don't see how being creative with the truth is anything else than a euphemism for lying. And the old 'but everyone is doing it' is no excuse either. Not to mention that you can ask yourself which looks better: an incredibly versatile freelancer or a team of 3 or 4 with limited skill sets. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I am no saint, in the beginning of my freelance career I tried exactly the same sort of 'creativity' you mention, and it never worked out. Just stick to the truth and you'll see things remain simple, straightforward and customers trust you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16326" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6246" RevisionGUID="cdb0e7f8-b32c-471b-a083-fe9d2a041a1c" CreationDate="2016-11-15T14:26:40.370" UserId="15421" Text="I've never done freelance work before, but I have a lot of video-related skills that I'd like to market and find work using.  I always make it a point to do research on web sites before I commit to anything.  I'd like to join a freelance site, but reviews I've found for a variety of them are consistently bad.  I'm not talking one or two disgruntled clients/workers, I mean consistent 1-2 stars and horror story comments across the board.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I gauge the safety of a particular freelance site when almost all the reviews I find warn you to stay away?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16327" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6246" RevisionGUID="cdb0e7f8-b32c-471b-a083-fe9d2a041a1c" CreationDate="2016-11-15T14:26:40.370" UserId="15421" Text="What are some safe freelance sites?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16328" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6246" RevisionGUID="cdb0e7f8-b32c-471b-a083-fe9d2a041a1c" CreationDate="2016-11-15T14:26:40.370" UserId="15421" Text="|freelance-websites|safety|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16329" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6247" RevisionGUID="7bbed057-4594-4c7b-8950-2fa93f2ac343" CreationDate="2016-11-15T15:12:28.413" UserId="7486" Text="+1 to user3244085's answer because I was going to write an answer saying exactly the same things. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But also I want to add that if a single freelance says that he is a team of 5 people (when is 1), that can be appealing at first but also means that the client expects a &quot;work power&quot; of at least 200 hours per week (assuming 8 hours x 5 days x 5 people), a single freelance will never be able to work that much even without sleeping because 200 hours / 24 are 8,3 days per week which is impossible. The client will not see any problem while he asks for small jobs but there will be big troubles when the single freelance will not be able anymore to handle bigger projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I strongly always encourage to be clear and transparent with the client, first for personal work ethics, second because lies or &quot;creative truth&quot; is very hard to maintain in time, sooner or later the client will discover the lie and that is very bad for the work relationship and **personal reputation**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have more skills present yourself genuinely for what you are in work terms, be clear in describe yourself and your knowledges. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16330" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6248" RevisionGUID="04336a6b-d2f6-47cd-9c1e-0816d273c2d9" CreationDate="2016-11-15T15:26:12.173" UserId="2265" Text="upwork.com, since the merger of elance and odesk they really worked on their platform, the interaction with freelancers / job posters works very well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the down side: they also ask for a bigger percentage.&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16331" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="6246" RevisionGUID="4423a9a9-8d70-42ed-b62d-a1399e5ba144" CreationDate="2016-11-15T18:13:53.350" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:1706,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;codenoir&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="16332" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6069" RevisionGUID="a6d8c738-0345-4e6c-b3bf-c915b9c67a99" CreationDate="2016-11-15T18:16:54.973" UserId="1706" Comment="edited body" Text="I agree with Sheryl and think you should find a small project and easy, to begin with. Paid lower than the competitors and mention in your cover letter, you have an experience but you are new at upwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After you get a task you should do it perfectly to get good feedback from the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Happy working " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16333" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6246" RevisionGUID="d217d397-58a3-4d10-b2e7-74612f62b829" CreationDate="2016-11-15T19:20:37.217" UserId="15421" Comment="added 646 characters in body" Text="I've never done freelance work before, but I have a lot of video-related skills that I'd like to market and find work using.  I always make it a point to do research on web sites before I commit to anything.  I'd like to join a freelance site, but reviews I've found for a variety of them are consistently bad.  I'm not talking one or two disgruntled clients/workers, I mean consistent 1-2 stars and horror story comments across the board.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I gauge the safety of a particular freelance site when almost all the reviews I find warn you to stay away?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit: Not sure how this is too broad, but I'll try elaborating a bit more.  An example of one review site I've checked is SiteJabber.  If you search the name of a freelance site such as freelancer.com or upwork.com you'll see loads of reviews from people who claim they've gotten their accounts frozen/closed, lack of arbitration (from sites who claim to have it), and so on.  It's hard to know if this is the vocal few or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every review site I check is like this, so clearly I can't base my decision on that.  I'd just like to know several freelance sites that are reputable and proven to be safe to join and use when looking for work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16334" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6249" RevisionGUID="7e4a6ffc-16ff-4e57-9c50-18a2d2a98292" CreationDate="2016-11-16T15:47:58.297" UserId="15435" Text="I'm a freelance textile/surface pattern designer. My job is to do trend research, create repeating designs and find clients to buy them. I can create up to ten designs every week. Each one sells for around $500. Sometimes I work with studios who take 40% of that price. Finding clients and selling my designs takes a lot of work and time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been approached by a company that wants 7 designs every week. These would be designs made from their design brief. This means I would have less work and more sales. However they are only willing to pay $180 per design. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The pros are that my annual income would increase by a large margin. I would have less work to do every week (good for a new mom also doing home care for baby). The cons are that I would be selling at a very low price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I take this offer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16335" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6249" RevisionGUID="7e4a6ffc-16ff-4e57-9c50-18a2d2a98292" CreationDate="2016-11-16T15:47:58.297" UserId="15435" Text="Do I take this job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16336" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6249" RevisionGUID="7e4a6ffc-16ff-4e57-9c50-18a2d2a98292" CreationDate="2016-11-16T15:47:58.297" UserId="15435" Text="|price|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16337" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6250" RevisionGUID="0b2af2de-3589-40d5-90ed-b297e4eaf1f2" CreationDate="2016-11-16T19:04:43.063" UserId="14455" Text="Of course the answer 'depends'. But given your increase in real salary this represents I, personally, would take it. However, I would want some sort of commitment to minimum contract plus a fee if they pull out in recognition that during this time your standing as a freelancer with companies and agencies will diminish considerably. So if they commit to a minimum of 12 months, with a 3 month penalty for cutting it short, say, then go for it. If not, what is to stop them letting you go after 3 months?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would also avoid any talk of exclusivity. Then if you produce more designs, you can still sell them through agencies and have additional income. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16338" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6251" RevisionGUID="22366b5d-7d36-43ed-92de-5364128cac9a" CreationDate="2016-11-16T19:17:59.480" UserId="14455" Text="I agree with all that has been said, that you should never lie, you will just look like an idiot when you are discovered. But I wanted to add this, that you can see good things about being an individual. For instance...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;As an individual I can react and respond quickly and authoritatively to every request, every situation and under all circumstances.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;As a specialist and an expert in my field, I have developed a network of other expert consultants, designers and developers that I can call upon for assistance at any time, so should anything arise I cannot personally deal with, you can be certain that I will have the channels at hand to cope with any challanges that may arise&quot;&#xD;&#xA;Now here you are saying you are a member of stack overflow, without actually saying it, or have access to peopleperhour, or any other online forum where you can discuss issues, find answers or sub contract work out to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You do not have to lie. You should be proud of what you are right now, and sell the benefits that brings. For instance many clients like to know that to you, they are the single most important thing in the world. Their project really matters to you and its success is your success too. As opposed to an agency that needs to bring on X number of new clients or sell X amount of deals every week just to pay for the offices and the wage bill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Honesty will pay you far more in the long run than any deceptively gained contracts. Been there, done that, learned that honesty pays.&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16339" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6252" RevisionGUID="83fa4088-c386-4971-a3f9-f887214b03d6" CreationDate="2016-11-16T20:29:01.957" UserId="15438" Text="I've used a tool called AccountSight. This software tool provides various features in to one. Check out their website at www.AccountSight.com.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a time tracking segment, which allows you and your other users to keep time efficiently and submit for review. They even have a time/stopwatch button which tracks the whole time precisely down to a second. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's also a reporting section, and this is what you are looking for, I believe. It shows all the necessary data you need for quickly reviewing you company work, hours, employee work status, resources etc. You can filter your reports depending on various search filters.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, this tool can help you calculate your hours and availability for your clients quickly, and do the same for your team members. All data is available and provided in real time, so you don't have to worry about making the wrong calculation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The customer service representatives are very friendly and are always willing to work with you in order to provide the best contents. Their prices are reasonable. I would recommend it.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16340" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6253" RevisionGUID="18484e1f-f25d-48f5-8e55-fafc0fd5715f" CreationDate="2016-11-17T00:56:16.527" UserId="12865" Text="I'm about to develop an app for Android and IOS to a company of lawyers, the process, meeting, etc will be online since I don't live on their country.&#xD;&#xA;The app only will be available on their country (Mexico).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They give me 2 way of payment, 1 time payment for finished product or a percent of their sales. Now, I want this project to be a long term relationship &amp; a permanent income. the obvious answer is Sales% but what if they don't sale, or I don't get paid by true amount or at all. I got a friend that work there is one of the bosses and I trust him, but no the others since I don't know them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My META is not huge amount of money, just:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**1-** Reference on my CV.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2-** Future projects with the same Client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**3-** A job to rely on for my needs on a daily/monthly basis ex:(helping my family on general payments, devtools, entertainment).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**4-** Keeping the source code if I can so I can use it for other companies with the same structure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**5-** Learning &amp; adding exp. about dev, laws, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16341" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6253" RevisionGUID="18484e1f-f25d-48f5-8e55-fafc0fd5715f" CreationDate="2016-11-17T00:56:16.527" UserId="12865" Text="How should I get paid" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16342" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6253" RevisionGUID="18484e1f-f25d-48f5-8e55-fafc0fd5715f" CreationDate="2016-11-17T00:56:16.527" UserId="12865" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|payments|remote|long-term|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16348" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6255" RevisionGUID="e016423c-4f67-46e2-ae6e-71dddcc7e15a" CreationDate="2016-11-17T15:02:10.633" UserId="7486" Text="You should opt for a mixed type of payment: a one time **discounted** payment for finished product **plus** a percentage of their sales.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, only if you are very sure that they will sell the app, because if you have any doubt, I would opt for just one time payment plus occasional fees for upgrades and changes, that will come.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask yourself: How much is the percentage? How many sales they will have to do to make you earn what you expect? Is that plausible? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't trust much what they say, lawyers are very good with words and maybe will make you think that you will earn a lot of money when not. Personally I had sometimes laywers as clients and they were not the best clients to me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16349" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6256" RevisionGUID="55a4471f-9702-4ff0-ba59-664fb2aaa2b5" CreationDate="2016-11-17T18:31:25.110" UserId="14455" Text="In a similar situation myself, I too tried many online tools, and all of them bar none were either over complicated, too biased in one direction (task management, project management, calendar scheduling or team sharing) that in the end I made my own. But even that became a headache quickly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My solution was offline. Two white boards, this month and next month. I etched on a month outline (generalised) on each with a permanent marker, then used dry wipe pens to mark on when or what I was working on. I could book this month time in or next months time in. I could erase things easily, move things about easily enough, colour code stuff, and have as many notes, side diagrams, arrows etc as I needed on them. When the month ended, the current month was erased and labelled next month, and next months calendar became this months.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I even tried to replicate this online but could not replace the value of the freehand drawing over the calendar.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you build a simple tool that can manage this stuff in a user friendly way online that will be fantastic. I never managed it. Google calendar is brilliant but not for this sort of generalized work planning. So for me the answer was offline, two white boards and some dry markers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The obvious disadvantage was that it was only available in my office, but since I was in there every day, that was not a problem. When a customer called I could glance down and say, &quot;The earliest I can do that is Thursday&quot; or similar, nearly instantly. Then a quick note on that day, and get back to my work. No fuss, no mucking around, instant, free, flexible and fast." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16350" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6257" RevisionGUID="b3824aab-924c-4b2e-8977-02eb16745184" CreationDate="2016-11-17T20:07:30.170" UserId="1706" Text="Don't do this.  You're being set up.  You should be getting paid in milestones, and not waiting till the end.  Or, get a retainer up front, just like attorneys would do.  Here's why.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Payment At End Scenario ##&#xD;&#xA;They can give you requirements A, B, C up front.  You agree to them, and start developing.  When you finish B, they request D, E, and F.  Time has passed, but you still haven't been paid.  They can do this indefinitely.  I guarantee, by &quot;E&quot; they'll want to put it in the app store  They're earning money, but you're not done with F, so you get nothing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Payment as Percentage Scenario ##&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is simple.  How will you know how much they've sold?  People can lie.  &quot;We're waiting on reports, but it's taking a long time, and we can't calculate what we owe you until we get them.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Also Important!! ##&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other part that stands out in this scenario is the fact that they're in another country.  If they don't pay after you've done the work, THEN what?  It's ridiculously impossible to sue someone in a foreign country (Look at all the other posts here.  Seriously.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you propose milestones or a retainer and you encounter a lot of resistance, they probably never intended to pay you in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16351" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6257" RevisionGUID="f1a9cd91-558e-4d4c-b804-b81630918329" CreationDate="2016-11-17T20:18:26.533" UserId="1706" Comment="added 85 characters in body" Text="Don't do this.  You're being set up.  You should be getting paid in milestones, and not waiting till the end.  Or, get a retainer up front, just like attorneys would do.  Here's why.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Payment At End Scenario ##&#xD;&#xA;They can give you requirements A, B, C up front.  You agree to them, and start developing.  When you finish B, they request D, E, and F.  Time has passed, but you still haven't been paid.  They can do this indefinitely.  I guarantee, by &quot;E&quot; they'll want to put it in the app store  They're earning money, but you're not done with F, so you get nothing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Payment as Percentage Scenario ##&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is simple.  How will you know how much they've sold?  People can lie.  &quot;We're waiting on reports, but it's taking a long time, and we can't calculate what we owe you until we get them.&quot;  What if they don't market the product?  What if it's taken down from the app store?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Also Important!! ##&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other part that stands out in this scenario is the fact that they're in another country.  If they don't pay after you've done the work, THEN what?  It's ridiculously impossible to sue someone in a foreign country (Look at all the other posts here.  Seriously.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you propose milestones or a retainer and you encounter a lot of resistance, they probably never intended to pay you in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16352" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6258" RevisionGUID="229a7ba4-f008-4e34-880a-b64153814043" CreationDate="2016-11-17T23:54:14.670" UserId="15447" Text="I'm working as a freelance for 5 months. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I signed a contract between my own company and a headhunter; this contract evoking my mission to the final client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So there's also a contract between this final client and my headhunter's company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just learnt that the final client ignores totally the existence of my company. They considered me as a classical salary of my headhunter. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, first contract evokes my own company and the headhunter's company. &#xD;&#xA;Second contract evokes the headhunter's company and the final client's company.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should my headhunter have declared my company to the final client? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16353" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6258" RevisionGUID="229a7ba4-f008-4e34-880a-b64153814043" CreationDate="2016-11-17T23:54:14.670" UserId="15447" Text="Must the client mention the existence of my own company to the final client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16354" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6258" RevisionGUID="229a7ba4-f008-4e34-880a-b64153814043" CreationDate="2016-11-17T23:54:14.670" UserId="15447" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16355" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6258" RevisionGUID="13c74bf0-843f-4a34-b004-3345242a6026" CreationDate="2016-11-18T00:03:16.903" UserId="15447" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|web-development|long-term|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16356" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6258" RevisionGUID="13c74bf0-843f-4a34-b004-3345242a6026" CreationDate="2016-11-18T00:03:16.903" UserId="15447" Comment="edited tags" Text="I'm working as a freelance for 5 months. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I signed a contract between my own company and a headhunter; this contract evoking my mission to the final customer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So there's also a contract between this final customer and my headhunter's company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just learnt that the final customer ignores totally the existence of my company. They considered me as a classical salary of my headhunter. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, first contract evokes my own company and the headhunter's company. &#xD;&#xA;Second contract evokes the headhunter's company and the final customer's company.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should my headhunter have declared my company to the final customer? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16357" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6258" RevisionGUID="13c74bf0-843f-4a34-b004-3345242a6026" CreationDate="2016-11-18T00:03:16.903" UserId="15447" Comment="edited tags" Text="Must the customer mention the existence of my own company to the final customer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16358" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6258" RevisionGUID="3b02c3b0-5ff5-48c1-97a4-38da1fa0c60b" CreationDate="2016-11-18T00:26:52.047" UserId="15447" Comment="added 13 characters in body" Text="I'm working as a freelance for 5 months. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I signed a contract between my own company and a headhunter; this contract dealing with my mission to the final customer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So there's also a contract between this final customer and my headhunter's company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just learnt that the final customer ignores totally the existence of my company.&#xD;&#xA;It wasn't mentioned in its contract. &#xD;&#xA;It considered me as a classical salary of my headhunter. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, first contract is between my own company and the headhunter's company. &#xD;&#xA;Second contract is between the headhunter's company and the final customer's company.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should my headhunter have declared my company to the final customer? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16359" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6259" RevisionGUID="ed664d25-ce81-461f-9551-285b668c87b2" CreationDate="2016-11-18T00:39:54.283" UserId="708" Text="In many cases, no.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But it all depends upon your contract with the agent/headhunter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless your agreement with the headhunter specifically states they must disclose your company to all the clients you complete work for, they are perfectly fine keeping you an &quot;invisible&quot; entity. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In fact, this is often the backbone of some firms... they collect a stable of workers for subcontracting. Then merely become &quot;project managers&quot; by finding clients and delegating the work which needs to be done to their subcontractors. All the while leaving the clients the impression that the &quot;manager&quot; is completing all the work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Read the contract with the &quot;headhunter&quot;. In some instances it *specifically* prohibits you contacting their clients directly. And it's possible you are under a work-for-hire agreement with the headhunter, meaning the headhunter *owns* everything you do. Hard to say without reading the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your interest is in someone finding work specifically for you and your company, then you may be seeking an **agent** not a subcontracting agreement. Agents generally find clients, introduce you to them, then step away from the connection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this &quot;headhunter&quot; is assigning you tasks, reviewing them, then paying you... you actually **are** closer to an employee than an independent entity. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16360" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5811" RevisionGUID="9c4cc4f4-8157-41ff-88b0-878e3d0609d4" CreationDate="2016-11-18T09:47:26.027" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16366" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6261" RevisionGUID="fca83dc4-6150-42c2-a211-b3de3b1d7b26" CreationDate="2016-11-19T14:20:06.413" UserId="15457" Text="Let's say I'm making a website for a client. We sit down and scope it out, try and define everything in the project. The total comes to $1000. I work on the site for a week or two, but there is some unseen complication that makes the work more involved.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In theory, since the client has agreed to pay the hourly rate to finish the project, I could just send the bill and force her to pay it. But this seems likely to create bitterness and mistrust in the future, as well as being awkward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How might the way of dealing with it be different if the full costs are $1100, $2000 or $10,000?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should one give regular updates as to the progress and current costs? Is it ok to tell the client when it goes over the estimate or should it be in advance? What if the work cannot be completed in cost and the client refuses to pay any more?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16367" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6261" RevisionGUID="fca83dc4-6150-42c2-a211-b3de3b1d7b26" CreationDate="2016-11-19T14:20:06.413" UserId="15457" Text="How to notify a client of costs that increase beyond the estimate" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16368" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6261" RevisionGUID="fca83dc4-6150-42c2-a211-b3de3b1d7b26" CreationDate="2016-11-19T14:20:06.413" UserId="15457" Text="|invoices|price-per-hour|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16369" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6262" RevisionGUID="0a2fe7c2-ba03-4a99-b676-832dcae7c75a" CreationDate="2016-11-20T12:44:19.260" UserDisplayName="user15467" Text="Here's my situation at the moment - I graduated last year with a physics degree from a decent uni, and I have since been working as a software engineer on a graduate programme with an aerospace company. I enjoy programming very much and I've been doing it for years, both before and during university, getting experience in various languages including C++, C#, Python and Java and dabbling in some web stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will be with my current company for around another year and a half until I have finished with the graduate programme and I reach a natural decision point - do I keep working where I am now, do I do something similar in a different company or do I try for something totally different? What I'm leaning towards is this - I'd like to keep programming but escape the office/cubicle environment as I really don't see myself being compatible with it long-term. I like the look of what some people are doing as software freelancers - travelling pretty much anywhere they please and working remotely over the internet. Travel is another passion of mine and I have always wanted to integrate it with my work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, my question is this - what are the common sources of work for people doing this? **Is it possible to get proper contract work where you can code remotely**, or are people exclusively getting more 'unofficial' jobs from sites like Upwork? Of course there are a lot of contractors working in many different companies (including the one I'm with at the moment) but they still seem to be tied down to the office life so I don't think that the traditional contractor route is for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for the help and I'm happy to provide more info if it will be useful!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16370" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6262" RevisionGUID="0a2fe7c2-ba03-4a99-b676-832dcae7c75a" CreationDate="2016-11-20T12:44:19.260" UserDisplayName="user15467" Text="Working as a travelling software engineer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16371" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6262" RevisionGUID="0a2fe7c2-ba03-4a99-b676-832dcae7c75a" CreationDate="2016-11-20T12:44:19.260" UserDisplayName="user15467" Text="|software|travel|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16372" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6263" RevisionGUID="1671c9a6-33af-4d32-ae7a-4e050e826103" CreationDate="2016-11-20T14:35:08.180" UserId="2265" Text="In my experience clients appreciate transparent and frequent updates about the project. I use a simple template that I send out weekly or biweekly that includes updates on planning and budget estimate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Either way, it's always best to inform the client as soon as possible when you will be going over estimate or budget. As long as you can explain why this should never be an issue in Time &amp; Material project (an hour work is an hour invoiced), although it is up to the client to decide whether or not he wants to continue. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is also the main difference between Time and Material projects and Fixed Price project: &#xD;&#xA;With T&amp;M projects the client knows he will pay for time spent and nothing more. If it takes longer than expected it will be more costly.&#xD;&#xA;Fixed price means the risk is with the freelancer: if all works out great and it takes less time than expected that's sweet for the freelancer, if it takes longer that's the freelancer's problem. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16373" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6264" RevisionGUID="32461f54-5ed1-4ff7-bf49-3a7cdb3ba812" CreationDate="2016-11-21T09:08:34.930" UserId="11835" Text="I paid a freelancer in full before he finished because he had some family problems. He has not delivered the website, he changed logins, took the website down and does not reply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When in the resolutions centre you click &quot;report a problem&quot; but if I made 2 payments of 50% will i get all the money back. How exactly does it work? Will the refund me 100% if the freelancer does not deliver?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I ensure I'm covered if this gets escalated?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16374" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6264" RevisionGUID="32461f54-5ed1-4ff7-bf49-3a7cdb3ba812" CreationDate="2016-11-21T09:08:34.930" UserId="11835" Text="Paypal disputes - how do I ensure I get my service deliverd or money back?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16375" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6264" RevisionGUID="32461f54-5ed1-4ff7-bf49-3a7cdb3ba812" CreationDate="2016-11-21T09:08:34.930" UserId="11835" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16376" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6265" RevisionGUID="d68e641c-2f4c-4f01-a677-649d80285071" CreationDate="2016-11-21T10:08:01.877" UserId="15152" Text="I decided to make my own tool with Laravel. It is open source, if anyone wishes to use it. I made it so I can create clients, projects and invoices and clients can also pay through the site with Stripe integration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://github.com/shivampaw/UltimateCRM" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16377" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4552" RevisionGUID="88d1b3ad-5e2d-4fb9-9d41-8f3ec3138a3d" CreationDate="2016-11-21T11:50:16.273" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16379" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6266" RevisionGUID="161068e5-494b-4b46-9331-8d3f4a894f03" CreationDate="2016-11-21T20:14:27.440" UserId="15276" Text="If you meant on [freelancer.com](https://www.freelancer.com), you've broken the rule as all payments supposed to remain onsite *(on Freelancer.com)*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As such, they *(Freelancer.com)* **CANNOT** intervene on your behalf.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I where you, I'll rather consider it a lose battle; you can only get your money and or the service paid for if and only if the freelancer in question chose to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may try consulting their support, but I truly doubt it will yield any fruit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Otherwise, *PayPal* itself, but again, that will depend on many factors; in this case: I think the earlier, the better." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16380" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6267" RevisionGUID="270f50e4-abef-491f-b6f4-f1f8b3c33dc6" CreationDate="2016-11-22T04:53:09.057" UserId="15482" Text="I have been asked to get a police check prior to being awarded an I.T. Dev Contract. I really want this job, but need to provide this check as soon as possible to. So my question where can i go to get a background check?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm in Australia and i can see that the Australian Federal Police Offer a police check via fax. I don't have a fax machine, how else can I get this check done quickly? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any pointers really helpful thanks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16381" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6267" RevisionGUID="270f50e4-abef-491f-b6f4-f1f8b3c33dc6" CreationDate="2016-11-22T04:53:09.057" UserId="15482" Text="Police Checking Service" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16382" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6267" RevisionGUID="270f50e4-abef-491f-b6f4-f1f8b3c33dc6" CreationDate="2016-11-22T04:53:09.057" UserId="15482" Text="|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16383" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6268" RevisionGUID="ad082e58-7ce2-4e32-bfeb-4a076666f8e8" CreationDate="2016-11-22T05:03:47.247" UserId="15484" Text="You actually can get this done two ways:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Australian Federal Police do provide a 'National Police Check' online, however this required you to download, print, sign and upload a document. Personally this process did take some time to deliver the police check. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Site: https://www.afp.gov.au/what-we-do/services/criminal-records/national-police-checks&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This service can also be done quicker, without this download, print, sign and upload process via a third party provider. Site: https://www.nationalcrimecheck.com.au&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Look up some reviews on this service before trying, goodluck :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16384" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6269" RevisionGUID="2342593a-6567-4ac7-bd7b-ccfd31601f0d" CreationDate="2016-11-22T06:23:47.000" UserId="7858" Text="Generally speaking, one should always notify the client whenever costs might escalate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What the best course of action is in this specific case, depends on what the 'unseen complication' is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it is something that the non-expert client reasonably could expect you as a professional to have foreseen and you want a continuing relationship with the client, one could argue that you do not charge fully for the fix and see it as an investment. If the fix is trivial, I would probably do it for free without ever mentioning it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if the 'unforeseen complication' is the inevitable 'scope creep', then you should explain to the client why this goes beyond the contract and suggest alternative solutions; the first being you charging fully for time spent and the other being down-scaling the project but still delivering a usable product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients obviously value their money, but they typically value honesty more - especially when they feel at the mercy of the IT-supplier." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16385" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6253" RevisionGUID="be12c2d7-30d8-4f3d-918c-e2041964f198" CreationDate="2016-11-22T13:47:57.630" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/801059646991646720" />
  <row Id="16389" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6271" RevisionGUID="ca6cbf88-65a0-4727-a6ab-9a5f19a5ccbf" CreationDate="2016-11-22T20:02:29.323" UserId="15457" Text="Where is the best place for a freelancer to get a contract? Is it necessary to get a lawyer or is it sufficient to buy a contract online? I am in England.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much should each contract be customised? Presumably there will be a price and custom scope of works for each job that needs to be included. I also do different job types like hourly rates until the job is done, fixed price contracts and on site day rates for a set number of days." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16390" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6271" RevisionGUID="ca6cbf88-65a0-4727-a6ab-9a5f19a5ccbf" CreationDate="2016-11-22T20:02:29.323" UserId="15457" Text="What kind of contract and where to get it from?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16391" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6271" RevisionGUID="ca6cbf88-65a0-4727-a6ab-9a5f19a5ccbf" CreationDate="2016-11-22T20:02:29.323" UserId="15457" Text="|contracts|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16392" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6271" RevisionGUID="e9122105-fb49-42f4-aabc-3a7ef1f34313" CreationDate="2016-11-22T22:09:52.340" UserId="15457" Comment="added 18 characters in body" Text="Where is the best place for a freelance software developer to get a contract? Is it necessary to get a lawyer or is it sufficient to buy a contract online? I am in England.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much should each contract be customised? Presumably there will be a price and custom scope of works for each job that needs to be included. I also do different job types like hourly rates until the job is done, fixed price contracts and on site day rates for a set number of days." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16393" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6271" RevisionGUID="66a043a3-7981-4217-9bda-2fb3e023c842" CreationDate="2016-11-23T00:19:09.780" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|legal|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16399" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3028" RevisionGUID="74917543-9621-40d2-9990-e71a3a888955" CreationDate="2016-11-23T20:29:48.607" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16402" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5875" RevisionGUID="29504266-9e8b-488a-9be8-29a29dd60725" CreationDate="2016-11-24T07:29:56.990" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16405" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6275" RevisionGUID="90558f20-507b-4bba-a7b2-93538ac63fab" CreationDate="2016-11-24T22:59:25.293" UserId="1706" Text="I'm going to address only a part of this question - the part about having a fax machine.  There are a ridiculous number of online fax services available.  Some are for sending only, and others are for both sending and receiving.  Determine your need, and do a Google search." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16406" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6276" RevisionGUID="3e9568a5-c079-49d6-9170-d5393bfeda2e" CreationDate="2016-11-25T04:12:08.610" UserId="4615" Text="In a nutshell, I've been doing freelance iOS development for a client on an ongoing basis since 2013.  Originally my main contact with the business was, let's say, Person A.  Recently the client has brought on a new person to manage the project, let's call them Person B.  Person B hasn't replaced Person A (as in, Person A is still with the business), rather has just supplanted Person A's role as primary point of contact on the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The established pattern of work, with Person A, was that I'd quote the cost of a round of development, they'd approve it, and then when I was done I would deliver application binaries together with an invoice for the work.  After the invoice was paid, I would refresh the client's internal Git repository with a copy of the application source-code.  That worked well and as far as I'm aware kept everybody happy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, recently I submitted my binaries and invoice for the latest bundle of work, and then was informed by Person B that I'd not receive payment until I also provided the source-code.  I responded that as a matter of policy I don't do that, and I've not heard anything back from Person B since then, nor received any payment.  It's been about a week since I've heard anything from them now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some other potentially relevant points:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* The work I'm invoicing for is almost entirely work that Person A approved.&#xD;&#xA;* Person B did not mention their desire to receive source-code in advance nor did I (or would I) agree to such a thing, and in fact their process tends to treat independent contractors more like internal developers; they simply create tickets in Jira and then expect people to work on them without further discussion.&#xD;&#xA;* In 2015, when the client was setting up their internal Git repository, I explicitly stated that I would not submit any code into it prior to receiving payment, and there were no objections at the time.&#xD;&#xA;* I've not had any issues with this client in terms of non-payment or demands that I do things that I never agreed to do as condition of payment in the past.  It has, until recently, been an amicable and productive relationship.&#xD;&#xA;* I'm confused as to why I'm getting the silent treatment from Person B.&#xD;&#xA;* The binaries I provide prior to invoicing are always fully functional and production ready.  I do not prevent the client from immediately deploying them to end-users.&#xD;&#xA;* The project is generally fairly informal; there's no &quot;official&quot; contract and all work is planned, quoted, and approved by e-mail.&#xD;&#xA;* I'm in Australia, where written promises exchanged by e-mail do count legally as civil contracts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I'm somewhat at a loss with respect to where I go from here.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I give them the source code, when I never agreed to do such a thing, and when I'm pretty sure that doing so is highly unprofessional if not basically crazy?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I stand my ground, and if so, how do I get past the impasse with Person B seemingly freezing me out?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I have at the moment is a draft e-mail to Person A (with Person B CC'ed), which reads like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hi `Person A`, are you able to assist with this?  `Person B` and I appear to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; be at an impasse.  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I value our professional partnership and the opportunity to work on&#xD;&#xA;&gt; this project, however I'm unsure from where, when, or why this&#xD;&#xA;&gt; expectation of receiving source-code prior to payment has&#xD;&#xA;&gt; materialized.  As an independent contractor, I do not transfer&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ownership of the source code I develop on behalf of `Busisness Name` (or any&#xD;&#xA;&gt; other client) until the work that's gone into it has been paid in&#xD;&#xA;&gt; full.  This is a matter of policy, and something which I made clear in&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 2015 to `Project Contact` when he was the main point of contact for this&#xD;&#xA;&gt; project.  It's never been an issue before.  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; As I've provided binaries which demonstrate that the functionality&#xD;&#xA;&gt; covered in the invoice sent on 11 November 2016 has been implemented,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; and as (to the best of my knowledge) those binaries have been deployed&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to testers and/or end users, I would appreciate it if that invoice&#xD;&#xA;&gt; would now be paid.  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Or if there are any technical faults which you've identified in the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; work submitted, please advise and I'll correct them as quickly as&#xD;&#xA;&gt; possible.  In the absence of any such advice, however, I can only&#xD;&#xA;&gt; consider the work completed and the invoice payable. I'll happily&#xD;&#xA;&gt; refresh the git repository with the latest sources upon receipt of&#xD;&#xA;&gt; payment, but unfortunately under no circumstance can I do so&#xD;&#xA;&gt; beforehand.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Thanks,  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; `Me`.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The plan is to send that on Monday if the situation doesn't change before then.  Is that an appropriate and reasonable approach?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16407" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6276" RevisionGUID="3e9568a5-c079-49d6-9170-d5393bfeda2e" CreationDate="2016-11-25T04:12:08.610" UserId="4615" Text="New project manager suddenly demanding source-code prior to payment" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16408" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6276" RevisionGUID="3e9568a5-c079-49d6-9170-d5393bfeda2e" CreationDate="2016-11-25T04:12:08.610" UserId="4615" Text="|payment-terms|invoices|programmer|project-management|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16409" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6277" RevisionGUID="a6d05dce-63d0-4f7f-bee4-fcf981ed59e1" CreationDate="2016-11-25T09:06:36.443" UserId="15170" Text="IANAL, nor any form of professional regarding law, let alone Australian law.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, from what I've found from a quick google of Australian copyright law, it seems to conform with most copyright laws throughout the US and EU. Therefore I can only assume that transfer of ownership works similarly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With this assumption, you still seem to be the owner of those binaries. So if the worst comes, you should be able to obtain compensation for the work from a small claims court (Whether that is worth it or not is entirely your decision).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Though once again i'm not a lawyer or law professional and therefore the advice above should be taken with a grain of salt.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding current affairs, I wouldn't hesitate in sending an email to Person A regarding the matter as Person B has already made his intentions clear and it is unlikely you'll get anywhere swiftly on negotiations with him. Though I would advise toning down your email rather than a passive aggressive jab at Person B as this is unlikely to go far. Instead raise the issue as needed &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hi Person A,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; As to my knowledge there is still an outstanding invoice regarding&#xD;&#xA;&gt; `Work`, If there are any issues regarding payment, please keep me&#xD;&#xA;&gt; informed so that we can come to a compromise and get this issue&#xD;&#xA;&gt; resolved as soon as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; The invoice has been discussed with Person B, however there has been&#xD;&#xA;&gt; no progression regarding payment. I will be happy to provide the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; source code as soon as payment has been made, as per our usual&#xD;&#xA;&gt; agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Kind Regards,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a fairly poor draft but could easily be improved to fit the situation, and I feel it points out the key parts without so obviously taking a stab at person B.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whilst you may want to bring Person B to attention and take a good stab at him, remaining professional will allow you to be quite smug. If the situation goes your way, then he will likely feel belittled by Person A's payment and dismissal of Person B's demands; If not, then do not provide the source code until payment has been made, as at the moment you are in the favourable position. You hold the source code, as well as copyright ownership on the unpaid binaries they possess (especially if it's deployed to users and making them money)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16410" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6278" RevisionGUID="c81ec8c3-87a5-460b-90c1-7a7082073145" CreationDate="2016-11-25T10:42:43.237" UserId="2265" Text="Simple down to earth advice: unless you have a contract or document that explicitly includes the requirement to supply the source code before payment, I think you are right not to change the existing arrangement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would not go behind person B's back though, that might escalate.&#xD;&#xA;I'd communicate with person B and explain the situation and the way of working and include person A in the email. &#xD;&#xA;And keep the email simple. Just a paragraph indicating the previous way of working, the fact that payment hasn't arrived and that you would like to proceed as before. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, not sure if you already did this, don't underestimate the might of a simple meeting or phone call. Not everything needs to be done via email and in my experience I have often felt that I was in an impasse with someone only to find out that some face time or direct communication via telephone was all that was required. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16413" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6279" RevisionGUID="8fea7dd9-ed06-40dd-86e7-8565661cc240" CreationDate="2016-11-25T22:47:34.343" UserId="14429" Text="The single worst mistake I ever made as a contractor was agreeing to provide source code before payment was made.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't do it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This doesn't pass the &quot;smell test&quot; at all." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16414" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6280" RevisionGUID="d8500a5f-4db4-4de1-9674-3e53942c4b9b" CreationDate="2016-11-26T13:06:52.073" UserId="15521" Text="I would like to become a freelancing programmer and web developer. I am now studying computer science in university, so my programming skills and the number of language that I know will improve and increase over the times. Since I am still studying, I would like to find some small short programming or web development freelance job to do. But some freelancing website I found on the web requires bidding, or the jobs are long term.&#xD;&#xA;I would like if someone can recommend some freelance website for small programming or web development projects.&#xD;&#xA;And also, is there any tips for getting started in freelancing?&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16415" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6280" RevisionGUID="d8500a5f-4db4-4de1-9674-3e53942c4b9b" CreationDate="2016-11-26T13:06:52.073" UserId="15521" Text="How to find small short programming freelance job or project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16416" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6280" RevisionGUID="d8500a5f-4db4-4de1-9674-3e53942c4b9b" CreationDate="2016-11-26T13:06:52.073" UserId="15521" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16417" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6281" RevisionGUID="f0f6e1ce-b251-4876-84ca-7f0766184631" CreationDate="2016-11-26T16:40:09.420" UserId="15524" Text="I am working from home this weekend. I am a developer and I have created a program that purges records at the click of a button.  The entire process take after clicking about 12 hours to complete.  I need to check in on the progress from time to time just in case there are any unexpected errors thrown. So in the beginning stages of the program there were several starts and stops fix something start over again.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, now I don't think there will be anymore errors and this weekend I expect the program to run without issue from end to end.  I am still monitoring the program and have kept it on a second monitor running for 6+ hours.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would I bill for this time although I am not physically writing code I am technically working ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would feel guilty to bill for the entire 12 hours while I watch a movie on one screen and monitoring the program in the other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, note that I will need to run this program 7 more times which would be a total 96 approx hours." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16418" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6281" RevisionGUID="f0f6e1ce-b251-4876-84ca-7f0766184631" CreationDate="2016-11-26T16:40:09.420" UserId="15524" Text="Billing Work from Home Long Running Task" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16419" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6281" RevisionGUID="f0f6e1ce-b251-4876-84ca-7f0766184631" CreationDate="2016-11-26T16:40:09.420" UserId="15524" Text="|working-from-home|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16420" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6276" RevisionGUID="6ab04434-cac7-459d-b678-c3d4f8046b6a" CreationDate="2016-11-26T23:06:39.927" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/802649801405804544" />
  <row Id="16421" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6282" RevisionGUID="4517151f-8567-4b84-8dd8-519a4d26e1ac" CreationDate="2016-11-27T04:19:16.303" UserId="12865" Text="Test actions in developments states is also a developer job in order to release or apply for approval, I wouldn't feel guilty at all, you did the code before (I suppose) and now you're at test phase. If you still think it doesn't worth huge bill then just do some simple math: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;bill = (hours_of_work * min_payrate_you_willing_to_acept) + taxes_if_any;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope it was helpful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16422" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2917" RevisionGUID="4107ef72-eb4d-48ff-8848-bedfd662936d" CreationDate="2016-11-27T05:06:39.117" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/802740395105013760" />
  <row Id="16423" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6031" RevisionGUID="0bf88e73-2965-42e1-aa60-fbb5dc8615e5" CreationDate="2016-11-27T11:25:59.403" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16424" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6283" RevisionGUID="7fc5f892-d0e2-487e-ac02-51ec63283007" CreationDate="2016-11-27T20:01:34.800" UserId="15537" Text="I aim to offer private programming tutoring, but don't know if it is ethical to offer services for free while others with similar backgrounds (but more tutoring experience) seem to consistently charge over a certain amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I intend to offer my services, for now, in exchange for the opportunity to gague my own abilities in the act of instruction, and to determine whether I should invest the time to grow and promote myself in this regard.  Will this fly, or might I catch flak for it down the line?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16425" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6283" RevisionGUID="7fc5f892-d0e2-487e-ac02-51ec63283007" CreationDate="2016-11-27T20:01:34.800" UserId="15537" Text="Is it ethical to offer free services in a paid community while still measuring one's capacity to offer the service in the first place?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16426" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6283" RevisionGUID="7fc5f892-d0e2-487e-ac02-51ec63283007" CreationDate="2016-11-27T20:01:34.800" UserId="15537" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16427" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6284" RevisionGUID="6a84b67a-e7c0-4805-b12a-5eb6eca31e2b" CreationDate="2016-11-28T11:35:26.290" UserId="15202" Text="I see no ethical issue here, you are guaging your abilities and offering a great deal at the same time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I would limit the amount of free work you do. Maybe offer the first *x* hours free for the first *y* clients, stating as such in your ad. This will prevent further pain down the line when your pricing kicks in." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16428" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6277" RevisionGUID="286e0122-d405-4998-9303-4ef0f1a42f08" CreationDate="2016-11-28T12:14:03.443" UserId="15170" Comment="added cdkMoose advice from comments, as well as further disclaimer regarding legal advice" Text="IANAL, nor any form of professional regarding law, let alone Australian law.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, from what I've found from a quick google of Australian copyright law, it seems to conform with most copyright laws throughout the US and EU. Therefore I can only assume that transfer of ownership works similarly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With this assumption, you still seem to be the owner of those binaries. So if the worst comes, you should be able to obtain compensation for the work from a small claims court (Whether that is worth it or not is entirely your decision). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As mentioned by cdkMoose in the comments, see a lawyer before considering action. Also, whilst the independence of each contractor's work seems to keep the situation from becoming complicated, it's worth mentioning that a situation with multiple contractors could complicate the situation, this would further warrant the need for a legal professional to keep you in the clear when dealing with the situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Though once again i'm not a lawyer or law professional and therefore the advice above should be taken with a grain of salt.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding current affairs, I wouldn't hesitate in sending an email to Person A regarding the matter as Person B has already made his intentions clear and it is unlikely you'll get anywhere swiftly on negotiations with him. Though I would advise toning down your email rather than a passive aggressive jab at Person B as this is unlikely to go far. Instead raise the issue as needed &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hi Person A,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; As to my knowledge there is still an outstanding invoice regarding&#xD;&#xA;&gt; `Work`, If there are any issues regarding payment, please keep me&#xD;&#xA;&gt; informed so that we can come to a compromise and get this issue&#xD;&#xA;&gt; resolved as soon as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; The invoice has been discussed with Person B, however there has been&#xD;&#xA;&gt; no progression regarding payment. I will be happy to provide the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; source code as soon as payment has been made, as per our usual&#xD;&#xA;&gt; agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Kind Regards,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a fairly poor draft but could easily be improved to fit the situation, and I feel it points out the key parts without so obviously taking a stab at person B.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whilst you may want to bring Person B to attention and take a good stab at him, remaining professional will allow you to be quite smug. If the situation goes your way, then he will likely feel belittled by Person A's payment and dismissal of Person B's demands; If not, then do not provide the source code until payment has been made, as at the moment you are in the favourable position. You hold the source code, as well as copyright ownership on the unpaid binaries they possess (especially if it's deployed to users and making them money).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;as a quick reminder: I'm not a lawyer or legal professional and I urge you to take any legal advice here with a grain of salt as it can be difficult enough to keep up with legislation and laws regarding my own country, let alone Australia's law." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16429" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6285" RevisionGUID="47a53155-29b9-486e-95ab-e73ffed23224" CreationDate="2016-11-28T15:50:10.410" UserId="1706" Text="I'm not familiar with Australia's laws, nor am I a lawyer.  But here's what I'd do.  Stick to your guns - do not send source code!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, take into account any *payment terms* that apply to the invoice.  What are your payment terms?  (I hope you have SOMETHING established, in writing!!!)  If you don't have specific payment terms, then you can probably establish them *implicitly* - i.e. if you usually get paid with ten days, then you could probably infer a Net 10 payment term.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, when the payment is past-due per terms, **send a written demand for immediate payment**.  This has to be sent by some means that is trackable.  Here in the States, we have private mail carriers (Fedex, UPS) as well as the Post Office and all can provide legally-admissible proofs of delivery for documents.  You could also use a registered e-mail service (here, we have RPost).  Escalate your demand, and send it to someone above your client's troublemaker.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third, if that's doesn't work within an amount of time acceptable to you, look toward the courts.  Is it a &quot;small claim&quot;?  (Here, small claims is a shortened process for amounts usually $5000 USD or less, and no attorney is required or permitted; I'm not sure if such a venue is available to you).  Or will you need an attorney?  Start digging in on answering this question for yourself NOW.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this stage, documenting **everything** is very important for a successful outcome." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16431" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6287" RevisionGUID="250d2a11-66d0-438b-ae56-3d34e26ccf1e" CreationDate="2016-11-29T00:43:26.193" UserId="1706" Text="Got cable?  A phone (without a &quot;minute&quot; plan).  You pay for *availability*.  The phone company and cable company really don't care if you use the service or not, and they're not charging a fraction of the monthly fee if you don't utilize the service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Likewise:  if you have to be **available** for the process to run from start to finish, charge for the entire time span. That's business.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16432" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6288" RevisionGUID="e2865744-e488-476a-b6a1-103a6e9a84b6" CreationDate="2016-11-29T10:49:19.820" UserId="12865" Text="For that kind of thing I suppose you will still looking and looking and probably won't find anything at all, I use freelancer.com and there was a few months I was looking for small jobs that I can finish in less than 15 days but didn't work, my best advice is: Start a small project yourself while still looking, as is web I'm not that familiar with it, but I'm mainly a mobile dev and when I can't find a freelancer job I continue my project or start a new one if I'm free, Even if they don't get to the market it works as an experience &amp; learning ways of improvements of my coding skills, and platform I'm developing in. This can help you to speed up any medium/large project that you may get because you already have a design :D." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16433" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6289" RevisionGUID="1523ae2c-5dd1-4a44-a1bb-f8bacbe55a7b" CreationDate="2016-11-29T13:12:32.037" UserId="14793" Text="Try:&#xD;&#xA;freelancer.com&#xD;&#xA;upwork.com&#xD;&#xA;guru.com&#xD;&#xA;djangojobs.com&#xD;&#xA;linkedin.com&#xD;&#xA;truelancer.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let us know how you get along with your search.  Good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16434" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1448" RevisionGUID="8e3e100c-40f6-4721-9ce9-cf35da31b635" CreationDate="2016-11-29T14:51:57.970" UserId="12900" Comment="Change formatting for improved readability" Text="Try this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; My rate for shorter term projects is *&amp;lt;fill in the blank&amp;gt;*.  For projects that are more than *&amp;lt;fill in the blank&amp;gt;* in duration, I may be willing to negotiate a better rate for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way, you don't cut yourself short.  Start with the higher number.  Also, be wary of customers who are shopping on solely price instead of quality because you may likely discover that once you get on board with such a customer, they'll want to nickel and dime you (and pay late, if at all) every step of the way.  For me, the more a customer focuses on &quot;price, price, price, price, price&quot;, the less I want to deal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16435" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1448" RevisionGUID="8e3e100c-40f6-4721-9ce9-cf35da31b635" CreationDate="2016-11-29T14:51:57.970" Comment="Proposed by 12900 approved by 7486, 1706 edit id of 500" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16436" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6289" RevisionGUID="d5c91d47-a30e-435b-9e3e-005553ae6f6c" CreationDate="2016-11-29T15:21:50.123" UserId="14793" Comment="I edited because the comment below my answer wanted to delete my answer even though I think my original answer was sufficient, efficient, concise and useful.  " Text="I'm editing the answer because the comment below asked me to.  When it comes to programming as a freelance career you've come to the right place to get answers and resources on how to earn a living.  What I would like to do is point you in the direction where many people have succeeded in finding exactly what it is you're looking for.  Try:&#xD;&#xA;freelancer.com&#xD;&#xA;upwork.com&#xD;&#xA;guru.com&#xD;&#xA;djangojobs.com&#xD;&#xA;linkedin.com&#xD;&#xA;truelancer.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you bid for projects don't get discouraged if you don't at first succeed.  Rememeber, it takes time to build a reputation for good programming skills.&#xD;&#xA;Let us know how you get along with your search.  Good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16437" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6290" RevisionGUID="9ed979b5-7a26-4f1d-b0b7-2d685998672c" CreationDate="2016-11-29T19:41:01.697" UserId="5556" Text="I would simply write an email to Person B explaining how you and Person A did business before, detail how the work flow process worked before and how it can be beneficial now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask the right questions, it could be the way his previous employment had him do things and he may not know any better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;i.e &quot; I have never shared my source code prior to payment for this reason, is there any concern I can address now for you?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I like your letter idea you have in your question however I would not address to Person A I would address to Person B and cc Person A. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also shorter is better, if Person B is upset or ignoring you a long winded email will get over looked or moved to a later category.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16443" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1451" RevisionGUID="aa11657f-7ff5-4a40-a850-f8772c9c2f4f" CreationDate="2016-11-29T22:03:43.327" UserId="12900" Comment="Fix typos, grammar, and formatting. Escape angle brackets." Text="I work like this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Projects up to *&amp;lt;enter work hours&amp;gt;* have such and such rate. Projects over *&amp;lt;amount of work hours&amp;gt;* get minimum hourly rate. This works well in case you immediately know the scope of the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What if you are not sure whether you will spend 15 or 155 work hours? In such cases, I tell my clients that the hourly rate will be *XY* dollars until we reach a specific amount of work hours (100, 200,...). After that, I charge them the minimum rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you work fixed-price projects only, then always try to earn your monthly salary. If the project will last 1 month, then the minimum price is *&amp;lt;your monthly salary&amp;gt;*. Start with the higher amount, but don't go below your salary. If you have an office, then instead of &quot;salary&quot;, the term &quot;office costs&quot; should be used.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If anyone has a better methodology, I'd like to hear it as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16444" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1451" RevisionGUID="aa11657f-7ff5-4a40-a850-f8772c9c2f4f" CreationDate="2016-11-29T22:03:43.327" Comment="Proposed by 12900 approved by 1706, 9 edit id of 501" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16445" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="6229" RevisionGUID="84958933-14a7-45c4-8f7a-9386111837f2" CreationDate="2016-11-30T19:00:56.897" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="16446" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6291" RevisionGUID="ff049209-3a09-49e1-bf30-3bb978d8e443" CreationDate="2016-11-30T19:01:32.523" UserId="15557" Text="I'm fairly new to freelancing, but I have an active online presence in my community, which a startup company noticed. They approached me for an ongoing project and requested a 60% discount off my stated normal rate, which is dramatically below my minimum acceptable rate. Considering that it's ongoing work, I offered a 40% discount, but they maintained that they needed the 60% discount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I just settle for the low rate? Or would I be missing a huge opportunity if I decline the offer? (I'm not sure how common ongoing contracts are in freelance web development.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16447" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6291" RevisionGUID="ff049209-3a09-49e1-bf30-3bb978d8e443" CreationDate="2016-11-30T19:01:32.523" UserId="15557" Text="Should I accept a low hourly rate while in between contracts?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16448" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6291" RevisionGUID="ff049209-3a09-49e1-bf30-3bb978d8e443" CreationDate="2016-11-30T19:01:32.523" UserId="15557" Text="|pay-rate|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16449" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6292" RevisionGUID="45ad2faf-bdc8-464c-957d-517babb5efae" CreationDate="2016-11-30T19:44:29.050" UserId="2265" Text="Don't do it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clearly they don't value your work, a 60% discount is what you ask for haggling in a North African marketplace, not development work with a freelancer. And keep in mind that although they ask 60% discount, they will still demand 100% dedication, quality and timeliness. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, after a while you will definitely start to resent the low rate which will affect your work and make you miserable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(this answer is assuming you are not about to turn homeless because you desperately need money, beggars can't be choosers). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16450" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6293" RevisionGUID="2aa99363-80d2-4bc7-afa9-d7c884bf36f0" CreationDate="2016-12-01T05:24:00.353" UserId="15566" Text="Hi first when I clicked on this exchange I assumed it was for writing (science, fiction, pamphlets, whatever), but realized it's mostly computer related.  So I like to hear if people have had success in other areas as well, specifically writing, and can provide me some practical help.  If this is the wrong forum, please let me know where I can post it, thanks.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16451" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6293" RevisionGUID="2aa99363-80d2-4bc7-afa9-d7c884bf36f0" CreationDate="2016-12-01T05:24:00.353" UserId="15566" Text="Anybody has experience with feelancing writing jobs and can offer specific advice about how to get them?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16452" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6293" RevisionGUID="2aa99363-80d2-4bc7-afa9-d7c884bf36f0" CreationDate="2016-12-01T05:24:00.353" UserId="15566" Text="|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16454" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6294" RevisionGUID="bc9fc0dd-d80d-4f04-a96f-6eef71cc2c6f" CreationDate="2016-12-01T09:24:02.057" UserId="15570" Text="I also think that **you should opt for mixed payment**, i.e. they should pay you for work done when you deliver predefined milestone, but also you should ask for percentage or monthly fee for support and additional funds for further development. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Do not give them source code** (unless it was agreed previously), at least not until they pay you at least three times of what is now offered to you.&#xD;&#xA;Regarding percentage fee, you can try to implement analytics into your app and measure number of unique users that used your app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, think about offering them app as a service, i.e. find a way to be the only person that can be administer the app, including possibility to take the app down if they refuse to pay you what was earlier agreed.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16455" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6295" RevisionGUID="248cd237-d4c4-40c7-bbca-fc9942cf20ba" CreationDate="2016-12-01T09:26:53.260" UserId="7486" Text="If someone would ask me a 60% discount off my hourly rate it would be **offensive** to my worker's dignity. I would not even keep up a telephone conversation with someone like that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would consider a 5%-10% discount on large or long term project (0% on small projects), only when I know I can optimize the work processes and that will not cause loss of income to me. Other than that is a definitve **NO-GO**!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I have to admit also that when I started freelancing (20+ years ago) at the beginning I did some underpaid jobs just for the purpose to build a portfolio or because the client was very important, like once that I made a logo for a local University, that it's still used wordwide, and that I proudly show in my portfolio and to clients. Once in a while I also do pro-bono projects for non-profit organization. That is ok, **but never let anyone take advantage of you or undervalue you as worker and as person**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16456" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6296" RevisionGUID="6accc8e5-4086-452f-9622-ea0ede3d2cec" CreationDate="2016-12-01T09:39:34.477" UserId="15570" Text="Think of that startup's company offer this way:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Is that project interesting to you? {If yes then +1}&#xD;&#xA; - Do you think it will be a good reference? {If yes then +1}&#xD;&#xA; - Do you think there will be a good chance for salary increase in a recent future? {If yes then +1}&#xD;&#xA; - How bad do you need the money now? {If you need the money badly then +1}&#xD;&#xA; - Are you able to continue living the way you are living now with the rate that is offered to you? {If yes then +1}&#xD;&#xA; - How easy would it be for you to leave that&#xD;&#xA;   project when something better shows up? {If easily then +1}&#xD;&#xA; - Do you have something better to do now? {If no then +1} &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you summed up less than 4 then definitely don't accept the offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also award more points for each answer and than calculate again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16457" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6297" RevisionGUID="b19ad336-2adf-48ca-94c9-803a853d6bfc" CreationDate="2016-12-01T09:58:16.250" UserId="15570" Text="In short:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Make profile on freelancing sites such as UpWork, Freelancer, Fiverr etc... and be active in applying for jobs and improving your profile (this can take months)&#xD;&#xA; - Make online portfolio with links to your previous work and recommendations of previous clients (letters with links to their LinkedIn profile or even better link to YouTube video in which your clients recommend you)&#xD;&#xA; - Write a blog and promote it any way you can all the time&#xD;&#xA; - Comment on other people's blogs&#xD;&#xA; - Comment on copy writing and content writing forums and portals (don't forget to include link to your blog, especially to service page)&#xD;&#xA; - Ask previous clients to recommend you&#xD;&#xA; - If you don't have any experience then ask influential writers, blogers and similar to give you some gig you can do for them for free&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16458" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6298" RevisionGUID="bd1be682-b3dd-4445-93c7-bbaa5a5b49a7" CreationDate="2016-12-01T10:15:26.823" UserId="15570" Text="There are numerous topics about this all over Internet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Short-term options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Ask friends and family if you can help them in some way by developing web app for their need&#xD;&#xA; - Ask fellow students that aren't doing so well to help them with their studies for a fee&#xD;&#xA; - Offer web development tuition services in local classifieds&#xD;&#xA; - Go through web development forums and search for a topic with no good answers and then offer to solve a problem for a fee&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long-term options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Make profile on freelancing sites such as UpWork, Freelancer, Fiverr etc... and be active in applying for jobs and improving your profile (this can take months)&#xD;&#xA; - Make online portfolio with links to your previous work and recommendations of previous clients (letters with links to their LinkedIn profile or even better link to YouTube video in which your clients recommend you)&#xD;&#xA; - Write a professional blog (post about web development and similar) and promote it any way you can all the time&#xD;&#xA; - Comment on other developers's blogs&#xD;&#xA; - Comment on web development forums and portals (don't forget to include link to your blog, especially to service page)&#xD;&#xA; - Ask previous clients to recommend you&#xD;&#xA; - If you don't have any experience then **ask to volunteer on a project that you think would be a good reference** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16459" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6299" RevisionGUID="03aad694-57b1-40f7-8112-ef1674d4f18f" CreationDate="2016-12-01T11:17:49.777" UserId="15570" Text="You didn't give enough details about your project. &#xD;&#xA;You can take a look at professional software development contract here:&#xD;&#xA;https://isotope11.com/docs/Software_Development_Agreement.pdf&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or just Google it using keyword: software development contract sample filetype:pdf&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**In short, you should include:** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Definitions&#xD;&#xA;2. Terms and conditions&#xD;&#xA;3. Fees, expenses, and payment&#xD;&#xA;4. Intellectual property rights and license (not essential)&#xD;&#xA;5. Term and termination&#xD;&#xA;6. Limited warranties&#xD;&#xA;7. Limitation of liability&#xD;&#xA;8. Third party disclaimer (not essential)&#xD;&#xA;9. Indemnification obligations (not essential)&#xD;&#xA;10.	Confidentiality&#xD;&#xA;11.	Delays/Force majeure &#xD;&#xA;12.	Choice of law; venue; limitation of actions (not essential)&#xD;&#xA;13.	Independent contractor status (not essential)&#xD;&#xA;14.	Communication channels used/NOTICES&#xD;&#xA;15.	Entire agreement (not essential)&#xD;&#xA;16.	Disputes (not essential)&#xD;&#xA;17.	Severability&#xD;&#xA;18.	Waiver (not essential)&#xD;&#xA;19.	Survival (not essential)&#xD;&#xA;20.	Days&#xD;&#xA;21.	Approval (not essential)&#xD;&#xA;22.	Trademarks (not essential)&#xD;&#xA;23.	Third party software (not essential)&#xD;&#xA;24.	Law affecting electronic commerce (not essential)&#xD;&#xA;25.	Lawful purpose (not essential)&#xD;&#xA;26.	Assignment (not essential)&#xD;&#xA;27.	Reservation of rights (not essential)&#xD;&#xA;28.	Remedies not exclusive (not essential)&#xD;&#xA;29.	Choice of law and jusrisdiction&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**In more details:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Software Development Agreement**&#xD;&#xA;THIS Software Development Agreement (&quot;Agreement&quot;) is made effective the ______ day of _______ 20___ between Development company and (&quot;Client&quot;).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;WHEREAS, Client desires to have software developed by Development company; and WHEREAS, Development company represents that it has the expertise to develop such a software; and&#xD;&#xA;WHEREAS, Development company desires to develop software for Client upon the terms and conditions hereinafter set forth;&#xD;&#xA;NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the mutual covenants and promises herein set forth, the parties hereby agree as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.	**DEFINITIONS**: The following capitalized terms, when used in this Agreement, shall have the meanings&#xD;&#xA;ascribed to them in this Section 1:&#xD;&#xA;1.1.	&quot;Product&quot; shall mean the software program to be developed by Development company pursuant to this Agreement in accordance with the Specifications, together with user manuals, other documentation and any other ancillary materials to be developed by Development company pursuant hereto.&#xD;&#xA;1.2.	&quot;Specifications&quot; shall mean the specifications for the Product as directed by Client, together with any additional specifications or modifications to the specifications that may be agreed to in writing by the parties during the term of this Agreement.&#xD;&#xA;1.3.	&quot;Intellectual Property&quot; shall mean all intellectual property other than the Technology owned by Development companyprior to the Effective Date or licensed to Development companyby a third party, and used in the development of the Product.&#xD;&#xA;Other capitalized terms shall have the meanings ascribed to them in the body of this Agreement.&#xD;&#xA;2.	**TERMS AND CONDITIONS**:&#xD;&#xA;2.1.	DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRODUCT: Client hereby retains ... &#xD;&#xA;2.2.	CHANGE ORDERS: In the event Client desires to make any modifications ....&#xD;&#xA;2.3.	SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE: Any support and maintenance services, updates, versions, or new releases shall be contracted under a separate agreement ....&#xD;&#xA;2.4.	CLIENT RESPONSIBILITIES: Client agrees to perform all tasks assigned to Client as set forth in this Agreement, the Product Specifications, or a Change Order, and to provide all assistance and cooperation to ....&#xD;&#xA;2.5.	PROJECT MANAGERS: Client and Development company shall assign a Project Manager for managing the implementation of the Product. The Project Managers shall be responsible for: &#xD;&#xA;2.6.	ASSIGNMENT OF PROJECT: Development company reserves the right, and Client hereby agrees, to assign ...&#xD;&#xA;2.7.	MARKETING: Client hereby grants Development company the right to use the name and service marks of Client in its marketing materials ...&#xD;&#xA;2.8.	COMPATIBILITY: Unless otherwise specifically identified in the System Specifications or a Change Order: ...&#xD;&#xA;3.	**FEES, EXPENSES, AND PAYMENT.**&#xD;&#xA;3.1.	EXPENSES: Client shall reimburse Development company for reasonable out-of-pocket travel expenses ...&#xD;&#xA;3.2.	FEES: Client agrees to pay Development company for the completion of the Scope of Work as set forth in&#xD;&#xA;accordance with Exhibit A hereto in accordance with the following schedule:&#xD;&#xA;$	/hr.&#xD;&#xA;3.3.	TAXES: Client shall pay, reimburse, and/or hold Development company harmless for all sales, use, transfer, privilege, tariffs, excise, and all other taxes and all duties...&#xD;&#xA;3.4.	OTHER FEES: Unless otherwise provided in this Agreement or in a Change Order, payment for all other services rendered by Development company shall be contracted under a separate agreement between Development company and Client.&#xD;&#xA;3.5.	FORM OF PAYMENT: All payments made to Development company under this Agreement shall be in United States currency in the form of company check, cashier’s check, or electronic wire transfer.&#xD;&#xA;3.6.	PAYMENT OF INVOICES: All invoices shall be paid by Client within fourteen (14) days of receipt. ...&#xD;&#xA;4.	**INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND LICENSE:**&#xD;&#xA;4.1.	PRODUCT: All materials, including, but not limited to, software, programs, source code and object code, comments to the source or object code, specifications, documents, abstracts and summaries thereof (collectively, the “Products”) developed by Development company in connection with ....&#xD;&#xA;4.2.	PRE-EXISTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY:. Notwithstanding any provision of this Agreement to the contrary, any routines, methodologies, processes, libraries, tools or technologies created, adapted or used by Development company in its business ...&#xD;&#xA;4.3.	THIRD PARTY LICSENSES: In addition to any other fees set forth in this Agreement, Client shall be required to purchase any ...&#xD;&#xA;5.	**TERM AND TERMINATION:**&#xD;&#xA;5.1.	TERM: This Agreement shall be effective as of the Effective Date and shall continue in effect until complete payment of ...&#xD;&#xA;5.2.	TERMINATION FOR CAUSE: This Agreement may be terminated by either party upon written notice to the other...&#xD;&#xA;5.3.	EFFECT OF TERMINATION: Client shall pay Development company for all services rendered and work performed up to the effective date of termination for any reason...&#xD;&#xA;5.4.	RETURN OF PROPRIETARY OR CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION: Within ten (10)days after the termination or expiration of this Agreement, each party shall return ...&#xD;&#xA;6.	**LIMITED WARRANTIES:**&#xD;&#xA;6.1.	PRODUCT: Development company warrants that for a period of ninety (90) days from launch of the Product, the Product will operate in accordance with all the material terms of the Product Specifications. ...All warranty claims ...&#xD;&#xA;6.2.	PERFORMANCE OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES: Development company warrants that the professional services will be performed in a workmanlike and professional manner by appropriately qualified personnel.&#xD;&#xA;6.3.	Notwithstanding the above, Client’s exclusive remedies for all damages, losses, and causes of actions whether in contract, tort including negligence or otherwise, shall not exceed ...&#xD;&#xA;7.	**LIMITATION OF LIABILITY:** Under no circumstances shall Development company, its contracted providers,  officers, agents, or anyone else involved in creating, producing, or distributing Client’s Product be liable for any....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;8.	**THIRD PARTY DISCLAIMER:** Development company MAKES NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, ...&#xD;&#xA;9.	**INDEMNIFICATION OBLIGATIONS:**&#xD;&#xA;9.1.	CLIENT INDEMNITY: Client agrees that it shall defend, indemnify, save and hold Development company harmless from any and all demands....&#xD;&#xA;9.2.	DEVELOPMENT COMPANYINDEMNITY: Development company shall indemnify and hold harmless Client (and its ...&#xD;&#xA;9.3.	Promptly after receipt by a person entitled to indemnification pursuant to the foregoing Section 9.1 or 9.2 (the &quot;Indemnified Party&quot;) of notice of the commencement of any action, the ...&#xD;&#xA;10. **CONFIDENTIALITY:** The parties agree to hold each other’s Proprietary or Confidential Information in strict confidence. The parties agree not to make each other’s Proprietary or Confidential Information ...&#xD;&#xA;11.	**FORCE MAJEURE:** Except with regard to payment obligations, either party shall be excused from delays in performing or from failing to perform its obligations under this Agreement to the extent the ....&#xD;&#xA;12.	**CHOICE OF LAW; VENUE; LIMITATION OF ACTIONS:** This Agreement shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the ...&#xD;&#xA;13.	**INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR STATUS:** The relationship of Development company to Client will be that of an independent contractor, and neither Development company nor any employee of Development company will be deemed to be an agent or employee of Client. It is expressly understood that this undertaking is not a joint venture.&#xD;&#xA;14.	**NOTICES:** Any written notice or demand required by this Agreement shall be sent by registered or certified mail (return receipt requested), personal delivery, overnight commercial carrier, or other guaranteed delivery to the other party at the address set forth herein. The notice shall be effective (a) as of the date of delivery if the notice is sent by personal delivery, overnight commercial courier or other guaranteed delivery, and (b) as of five (5) days after the date of posting if the notice is transmitted by registered or certified mail.&#xD;&#xA;15.	**ENTIRE AGREEMENT:** This Agreement and all exhibits, schedules, and Change Order(s) set forth the entire agreement between the parties with regard to the subject matter hereof. No other agreements, representations, or warranties have been made by either party to the other with respect to the subject matter of this Agreement, except as referenced herein. This Agreement may be amended only by a written agreement signed by both parties.&#xD;&#xA;16.	**DISPUTES:** Client and Development company agree to make a good-faith effort to resolve any disagreement arising out of...&#xD;&#xA;17.	**SEVERABILITY:** In the event that a court finds any provision of this Agreement invalid and/or unenforceable, the parties agree that the remaining provisions shall remain valid and in force.&#xD;&#xA;18.	**WAIVER:** Neither party shall be deemed by mere lapse of time (without giving notice or taking other action hereunder) to have waived any breach by the other party of any of the provisions of this Agreement. ...&#xD;&#xA;19.	**SURVIVAL:** The following provisions shall survive termination or expiration of this Agreement: ...&#xD;&#xA;20.	**DAYS:** Unless indicated otherwise, all references to &quot;days&quot; shall mean calendar days.&#xD;&#xA;21.	**APPROVAL:** This Agreement shall not be binding upon Development company until it has been signed by an officer of Development company&#xD;&#xA;22.	**TRADEMARKS:** The Client unconditionally warrants and guarantees that any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork furnished to Development company, Inc. ....&#xD;&#xA;23.	**THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE:** Additionally, in the event Client elects to install or seek assistance from Development company in connection with the installation of any third-party software, the following terms shall...&#xD;&#xA;24.	**LAW AFFECTING ELECTRONIC COMMERCE:** The client agrees that the client is solely responsible for complying with such laws, taxes, and tariffs, and will hold harmless, protect, and defend Development company ...&#xD;&#xA;25.	**LAWFUL PURPOSE:** Client may only use the Product for lawful purposes.&#xD;&#xA;26.	**ASSIGNMENT:** Neither party may not assign this Agreement or any of its rights or obligations or the license hereunder, without the prior written consent of the other.&#xD;&#xA;27.	**RESERVATION OF RIGHTS:** Development company reserves all rights not specifically granted herein.&#xD;&#xA;28.	**REMEDIES NOT EXCLUSIVE:** The remedies available to the parties under this Agreement are cumulative and not exclusive to each other, and any such remedy will not be deemed or construed to affect any right which either of the parties is entitled to seek at law, in equity or by statute.&#xD;&#xA;29.	**CHOICE OF LAW AND JUSRISDICTION:** This Agreement will be governed and interpreted by the laws of the jurisdiction of the State of Alabama, without regard to its conflicts of law provisions. The parties hereby irrevocably and unconditionally agree to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the jurisdiction of the State of Alabama, and all courts competent to hear appeals there from.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**IN WITNESS WHEREOF,** &#xD;&#xA;Development company and Client have executed this Agreement effective as of the date and year first written above.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client Company:________&#xD;&#xA;Representing Client Company:_________&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Development company: _________&#xD;&#xA;Representing Development company:_________&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16460" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6293" RevisionGUID="54f62bdd-a97c-4e41-821b-1e4312ee868a" CreationDate="2016-12-01T22:11:04.357" UserId="15566" Comment="more info" Text="Hi first when I clicked on this exchange I assumed it was for writing (science, fiction, pamphlets, whatever), but realized it's mostly computer related.  So I like to hear if people have had success in other areas as well, specifically writing, and can provide me some practical help.  If this is the wrong forum, please let me know where I can post it, thanks.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit: to add more info, I have tried various online magazines (e.g. New Yorker), based on info I found online about places that pay for articles/stories/poetry but I have had no luck.  Some places also ask that you do not make simultaneous submissions so basically I have to wait 6 months or longer before I can submit again to another place so this really ties up my hands.  Because I have a college degree, I do like to do research online and write an article about that, like for instance on psychology or health related issues.  I also have an interest in writing poetry and fiction but that's a hobby of mine and I have no college degree in those areas.  I just like to be able to make some money each month, anything upwards of 500 dollars as right now I'm in a tough situation (because of an illness) and can't be working outside home.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I really appreciate your help. :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16464" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6281" RevisionGUID="a06f6680-b9ed-4157-b3c1-015c03a84127" CreationDate="2016-12-02T11:35:24.553" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/804650167307796481" />
  <row Id="16465" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6301" RevisionGUID="063e24e1-6050-4e84-962c-dc5abc65e5c3" CreationDate="2016-12-02T13:00:52.240" UserId="15457" Text="For a regular service fee (i.e. website maintanance, fixing bugs, keeping it online etc), what is the best way to charge and invoice? Assuming I bill $50 monthly, should I ask for 6 months upfront to avoid chasing a small amount of money or send an invoice every month?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16466" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6301" RevisionGUID="063e24e1-6050-4e84-962c-dc5abc65e5c3" CreationDate="2016-12-02T13:00:52.240" UserId="15457" Text="How to invoice for regular payments" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16467" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6301" RevisionGUID="063e24e1-6050-4e84-962c-dc5abc65e5c3" CreationDate="2016-12-02T13:00:52.240" UserId="15457" Text="|invoices|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16468" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6302" RevisionGUID="9ba95344-71f6-4493-a94d-5c96e8f50804" CreationDate="2016-12-02T13:47:49.740" UserId="15202" Text="Why not both?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might want to look at offering a 3/6 month support package (with the basics thrown in), bill for it up front and then have ongoing support on an hourly rate once the package ends. This will guarantee you the money, while not putting the customer's nose out of joint.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't be afraid of monthly billing either. It's very easy to set up (either bought or self-made)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16469" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6303" RevisionGUID="d6f8a2ee-8eb6-4a45-880d-96b26b6aff8b" CreationDate="2016-12-02T14:21:06.887" UserId="1706" Text="Use a credit card service  that allows recurring monthly payments, or Paypal's recurring payment facility.  Invoicing the same amount each month for such a small amount will waste a lot of your time - printing, mailing, visiting the bank.  Set it and forget it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16470" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6304" RevisionGUID="d301eca7-61dc-4070-bff8-69102f2d51b7" CreationDate="2016-12-02T22:42:32.357" UserId="15586" Text="There are several options to get remote work. I think freelancing is not strictly implied. There are several highly succesful companies that only have remote workers. I would suggest that you also look into these options. This can come with the benefit of a steady Job. Gitlab is an example. There are many openings to be found if you look into specific jobs allowing remote. The hacker news monthly hiring post has these for example. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are going intofreelancing you can go for:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- freelance marketplaces  (upwork)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- freelance communities  (gigster)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- agencies&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- personal network" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16471" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6305" RevisionGUID="7c272273-d609-48a1-a8bc-9045bf668222" CreationDate="2016-12-02T22:50:44.663" UserId="15585" Text="Definitely give updates on progress and cost. My approach for increase in cost is to take care of it upon intake of the project. I include this in the proposal:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The agreed fees are our best estimate given the information provided.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If additional is forth coming, the project specifications change, or&#xD;&#xA;&gt; scheduling changes, cost and expense estimates may change. Any&#xD;&#xA;&gt; modifications of fees due to the change of scope of the project will&#xD;&#xA;&gt; be submitted in writing and approved by (client name here).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way we've talked about it and everyone involved is aware of the possibility of a cost increase." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16472" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6306" RevisionGUID="e9a8e8a1-2304-4d15-8fd6-76814a6d23f8" CreationDate="2016-12-03T20:43:56.853" UserId="15592" Text="There are now &quot;[invitations to interview][1]&quot; that go out to a limited number of applicants at a time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Accepting these invitations leads to *substantially* more hires than bidding on jobs from search -- you are in a smaller pool of applicants and the job listings are tailored to your skills and work history. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's easier for the clients/employers than sifting through endless proposals and you don't have to devalue yourself and your work by bidding with lower rates than you would normally charge just to be considered.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211063018-Interview-and-Negotiate-with-a-Client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16476" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6308" RevisionGUID="9bd8ef81-5503-4489-814e-b8b6cdf51e6d" CreationDate="2016-12-05T16:04:26.480" UserId="14793" Text="Have a look on the left side of upwork.com's filter.  You might find exactly what you're looking for with the right filter.  It looks straight forward but there's quite a bit to choose from.  Read everything.  Once you see a project you like save the search.  That worked for me.  Good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16477" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4447" RevisionGUID="b0229ac2-5727-413f-90d2-03b0a5355490" CreationDate="2016-12-05T21:40:14.143" UserId="12167" Comment="Changed title from &quot;choose&quot; to &quot;decide&quot;. I was getting answers like &quot;the ones you like&quot;, but I want to be able to make a reasoned choice." Text="How to decide what Upwork projects to bid on?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16479" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6309" RevisionGUID="7a1a3d44-5bbe-44ca-97c7-c84e26ffcd4a" CreationDate="2016-12-06T18:30:34.407" UserId="14793" Text="I believe the question is a good one.  Having some experience in this field, I believe, you should do as much research as possible on your own.  My answer is, it's not intuitive.  It depends on what kind of coder you are, your resourcefulness, etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16480" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6310" RevisionGUID="ac6ef5a3-6e18-427b-a99d-3fd990d9859e" CreationDate="2016-12-08T04:26:53.483" UserId="15627" Text="Trying to get a sense of best practices around finder's fees and client relations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A business partner (BP) of mine introduced me to a company (X) where I have done web development now for several years. How it originally worked was–I would invoice BP, and he would invoice X (adding 20% for his fees).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At one point I found it was actually easier for me to deal directly with the client. I was essentially handling all of the client requests. So I offered to do the estimates and invoicing, and I would just pay BP the 20% difference. This way BP didn't have to add an extra step.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This has been an ongoing agreement, and over time I have been feeling like I do all of the work - why should I be paying him the 20% increase. When I brought it up to BP he said that it isn't technically a finder's fee, and that its an Industry Standard to expect 20% from clients that have been referred. BTW-this wasn't just thrown at me, it was in our initial agreement - not like there were any surprises here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BP has a valid point in that he generated the relationship with X - its a client that he has been working with for years, even if he hasn't been for the last 10 years or so. On the other hand, I have also been nurturing that relationships for the last 5-7 years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have chosen to honor BP's request, as I really value the relationship. But it scratched that part of my brain that wanted to get second opinions. As this is something that I would not expect to apply to business partners that I refer clients to–unless I am actually managing the client relations (e.g. defining requests, generating estimates, invoicing, etc). So...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) What are the industry standards for Finder's Fees (percentage wise, is 20% reasonable)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Would this fall into the category of Finder's Fee? If not, what would you call it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) Whatever you call it, is it reasonable to last forever? Or at some point would the client become my client? He also mentioned that in these circumstances what usually happens is I would buy out X from BP. Where BP would determine how much it's worth to give up X.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) Do I need to 1099 the BP for the amount I am not being paid?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16481" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6310" RevisionGUID="ac6ef5a3-6e18-427b-a99d-3fd990d9859e" CreationDate="2016-12-08T04:26:53.483" UserId="15627" Text="How Long can a Finder's Fee or Upcharge by Business Partner Go On" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16482" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6310" RevisionGUID="ac6ef5a3-6e18-427b-a99d-3fd990d9859e" CreationDate="2016-12-08T04:26:53.483" UserId="15627" Text="|freelance-websites|referral|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16483" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6310" RevisionGUID="8be6c9c7-f451-47a8-870c-c8ad17465a69" CreationDate="2016-12-08T04:34:46.820" UserId="15627" Comment="added 314 characters in body" Text="Trying to get a sense of best practices around finder's fees and client relations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A business partner (BP) of mine introduced me to a company (X) where I have done web development now for several years. How it originally worked was–I would invoice BP, and he would invoice X (adding 20% for his fees).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At one point I found it was actually easier for me to deal directly with the client. I was essentially handling all of the client requests. So I offered to do the estimates and invoicing, and I would just pay BP the 20% difference. This way BP didn't have to add an extra step.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This has been an ongoing agreement, and over time I have been feeling like I do all of the work - why should I be paying him the 20% increase. When I brought it up to BP he said that it isn't technically a finder's fee, and that its an Industry Standard to expect 20% from clients that have been referred. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BP has a valid point in that he generated the relationship with X - its a client that he has been working with for years, even if he hasn't been for the last 10 years or so. On the other hand, I have also been nurturing that relationships for the last 5-7 years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BTW-this wasn't just thrown at me, it was in our initial and ongoing agreement - not like there were any surprises here. So I take full responsibility for taking on the &quot;dealing directly with client&quot; - I preferred it to having to try to coordinate with BP and the Client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So - I have chosen to honor BP's request, as I really value the relationship. But it scratched that part of my brain that wanted to get second opinions. As this is something that I would not apply to business partners that I refer clients to–unless I am actually managing the client relations (e.g. defining requests, generating estimates, invoicing, etc). I could see an initial finders fee for the first job, but after that I would consider the additional work to be theirs. So...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) What are the industry standards for Finder's Fees (percentage wise, is 20% reasonable)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Would what I described above fall into the category of Finder's Fee? If not, what would you call it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) Whatever you call it, is it reasonable to last forever? Or at some point would the client become my client? He also mentioned that in these circumstances what usually happens is I would buy out X from BP. Where BP would determine how much it's worth to give up X. Is this common?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) Do I need to 1099 the BP for the amount I am paying to BP?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16484" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6310" RevisionGUID="850993c2-bd38-4e16-bb68-352646c65fc1" CreationDate="2016-12-08T04:43:30.420" UserId="15627" Comment="added 53 characters in body" Text="Trying to get a sense of best practices around finder's fees and client relations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A business partner (BP) of mine introduced me to a company (X) where I have done web development now for several years. How it originally worked was–I would invoice BP, and he would invoice X (adding 20% for his fees).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At one point I found it was actually easier for me to deal directly with the client. I was essentially handling all of the client requests. So I offered to do the estimates and invoicing, and I would just pay BP the 20% difference. This way BP didn't have to add an extra step.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This has been an ongoing agreement, and over time I have been feeling like I do all of the work - why should I be paying him the 20% increase. When I brought it up to BP he said that it isn't technically a finder's fee, and that its an Industry Standard to expect 20% from clients that have been referred. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BP has a valid point in that he generated the relationship with X - its a client that he has been working with for years (even if he hasn't been for the last 7 years or so). I would not have this client if it wasn't for BP. On the other hand, I have also been nurturing the relationship with X for the last 7 years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BTW-this wasn't just thrown at me, it was in our initial and ongoing agreement - not like there were any surprises here. So I take full responsibility for taking on the &quot;dealing directly with client&quot; - I preferred it to having to try to coordinate with BP and the Client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So - I have chosen to honor BP's request, as I really value the relationship. But it scratched that part of my brain that wanted to get second opinions. As this is something that I would not apply to business partners that I refer clients to–unless I am actually managing the client relations (e.g. defining requests, generating estimates, invoicing, etc). I could see an initial finders fee for the first job, but after that I would consider the additional work to be theirs. So...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **What are the industry standards for Finder's Fees (percentage&#xD;&#xA;    wise, is 20% reasonable)?**&#xD;&#xA; 2. **Would what I described above fall into&#xD;&#xA;    the category of Finder's Fee? If not, what would you call it?**&#xD;&#xA; 3. **Whatever you call it, is it reasonable to last forever? Or at some&#xD;&#xA;    point would the client become my client? He also mentioned that in&#xD;&#xA;    these circumstances what usually happens is I would buy out X from&#xD;&#xA;    BP. Where BP would determine how much it's worth to give up X. Is&#xD;&#xA;    this common?**&#xD;&#xA; 4. **Do I need to 1099 the BP for the amount I am paying&#xD;&#xA;    to BP?**&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16485" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6311" RevisionGUID="8740a5b9-65f7-4ca1-b06a-dc9d13bdeed5" CreationDate="2016-12-08T05:26:30.200" UserId="708" Text="Sounds more like a kickback than a &quot;finder's fee&quot; -- Finders fees are generally *one-time* fees. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Kickbacks are ethically questionable, but done all the time. If you are raising your fees 20% to cover these costs and BP isn't doing *anything*, then it's a very fine line ethically. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Agents will take a percentage, but they generally do *something* to earn that percentage regularly such as handle the client relations.. bring in new clients/work regularly, etc. But agents don't continually collect royalties months or years after they've left the relationship with the client. If BP is bringing in new work still, even if not for this particular client, then I'd be inclined to continue to pay the percentage. If BP is literally doing *nothing* for you.. then why do you &quot;value the relationship&quot; so much?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately... whatever you two agree upon is what you agree upon. There's really no &quot;norm&quot; when it comes to contracts regarding this type stuff. I can't say whether or not 20% is high... it seems a little high for *zero* work on BP's part. But ultimately it's whatever you agree to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, would have a hard time with a financial relationship where all the burden of work and client relations are upon me. But I'd have no issue with a fee for handling client relations with respect to clerical matters - or if they are bringing new client to me regularly. Your original arrangement, where you'd invoice BP and he/she'd invoice the client, is what I prefer. That way if BP wants to mark things up, they mark things up, and it's **their** responsibility to be paid by the client(s). You just have to track BP and get payment from him/her.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are sending money to BP... you should be noting those payouts on your taxes. After all, that money is *not* profit for you. It's an expense. Whether or not you need a 1099 depends upon the formal entities involved. I.E. 1099s may not be required between businesses, but are with individuals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To be blunt, it sounds as though you are a fantastic cash cow for BP. They do nothing but wait for your money. Of *course* they consider a &quot;buyout&quot; reasonable... it's more money for doing nothing. Ask yourself this.... if you quit contacting BP and sending him/her the kickback, but continued working for this client, what's the downfall? If it's just &quot;breaking a contract&quot; you may want to start looking for a way out of this &quot;deal&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16486" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6311" RevisionGUID="17ed6650-e278-4e04-8dc9-d8534271cf05" CreationDate="2016-12-08T05:32:18.240" UserId="708" Comment="added 66 characters in body" Text="Sounds more like a [kickback][1] than a &quot;finder's fee&quot; -- Finders fees are generally *one-time* fees. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Kickbacks are ethically questionable, but done all the time. If you are raising your fees 20% to cover these costs and BP isn't doing *anything*, then it's a very fine line ethically. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Agents will take a percentage, but they generally do *something* to earn that percentage regularly such as handle the client relations.. bring in new clients/work regularly, etc. But agents don't continually collect royalties months or years after they've left the relationship with the client. If BP is bringing in new work still, even if not for this particular client, then I'd be inclined to continue to pay the percentage. If BP is literally doing *nothing* for you.. then why do you &quot;value the relationship&quot; so much?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately... whatever you two agree upon is what you agree upon. There's really no &quot;norm&quot; when it comes to contracts regarding this type stuff. I can't say whether or not 20% is high... it seems a little high for *zero* work on BP's part. But ultimately it's whatever you agree to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, would have a hard time with a financial relationship where all the burden of work and client relations are upon me. But I'd have no issue with a fee for handling client relations with respect to clerical matters - or if they are bringing new client to me regularly. Your original arrangement, where you'd invoice BP and he/she'd invoice the client, is what I prefer. That way if BP wants to mark things up, they mark things up, and it's **their** responsibility to be paid by the client(s). You just have to track BP and get payment from him/her.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are sending money to BP... you should be noting those payouts on your taxes. After all, that money is *not* profit for you. It's an expense. Whether or not you need a 1099 depends upon the formal entities involved. I.E. 1099s may not be required between businesses, but are with individuals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To be blunt, it sounds as though you are a fantastic cash cow for BP. They do nothing but wait for your money. Of *course* they consider a &quot;buyout&quot; reasonable... it's more money for doing nothing. Ask yourself this.... if you quit contacting BP and sending him/her the kickback, but continued working for this client, what's the downfall? If it's just &quot;breaking a contract&quot; you may want to start looking for a way out of this &quot;deal&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickback_(bribery)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16487" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6312" RevisionGUID="7008defd-3d8b-492d-8e55-8373c58eba9b" CreationDate="2016-12-08T06:20:50.833" UserId="15628" Text="I have been working for different companies but now that i need some more money i want to try freelance. I do not know how much to charge for this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I got a project that requires me to create a website which will interact with an api. I have to do all the backend and frontend pages. They are pushing requirements as i am working and the project has very tight limit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much should i charge for a project like this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16488" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6312" RevisionGUID="7008defd-3d8b-492d-8e55-8373c58eba9b" CreationDate="2016-12-08T06:20:50.833" UserId="15628" Text="How much to charge as a freelance?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16489" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6312" RevisionGUID="7008defd-3d8b-492d-8e55-8373c58eba9b" CreationDate="2016-12-08T06:20:50.833" UserId="15628" Text="|price|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16490" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6313" RevisionGUID="7ac87a4e-c154-4bb3-9843-51143b64f7e0" CreationDate="2016-12-08T08:00:34.723" UserId="7858" Text="First of all, the client and you need to decide whether payment should be fixed price or hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients automatically tend to prefer fixed price - but you should only accept this if the requirements are also fixed or you have performed similar tasks so often that you are aware of the actual work load.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancers tend to prefer an hourly rate to avoid being 'guilted' into doing free work at the later stages of a fixed price project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, an hourly rate means the client will always evaluate whether they actually need a specific feature, whereas they under a fixed price often will try to extract as much work from you as possible until you draw the line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What your actual hourly rate should be, depends on your circumstances - but you obviously need to get paid more than a similar full-time employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I have to estimate the price for a fixed price project, I take my hourly rate and multiply it by the time I believe it takes - and then multiply it by a 'risk factor'. You should tell the client that a fixed price comes at this premium - as that can often nudge them towards accepting a pay-as-you-go hourly rate (if that is what you prefer)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16491" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6311" RevisionGUID="19b11da4-ab06-46b3-b0c6-d0e4b877e6ef" CreationDate="2016-12-08T08:52:04.290" UserId="708" Comment="added 131 characters in body" Text="Sounds more like a [kickback][1] than a &quot;finder's fee&quot; -- Finders fees are generally *one-time* fees. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Kickbacks are ethically questionable, but done all the time. If you are raising your fees 20% to cover these costs and BP isn't doing *anything*, then it's a very fine line ethically.  If the client were to discover you're charging 20% more just to pay BP 20%... well... if I were the client, I'd consider action based upon that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Agents will take a percentage, but they generally do *something* to earn that percentage regularly such as handle the client relations.. bring in new clients/work regularly, etc. But agents don't continually collect royalties months or years after they've left the relationship with the client. If BP is bringing in new work still, even if not for this particular client, then I'd be inclined to continue to pay the percentage. If BP is literally doing *nothing* for you.. then why do you &quot;value the relationship&quot; so much?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately... whatever you two agree upon is what you agree upon. There's really no &quot;norm&quot; when it comes to contracts regarding this type stuff. I can't say whether or not 20% is high... it seems a little high for *zero* work on BP's part. But ultimately it's whatever you agree to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, would have a hard time with a financial relationship where all the burden of work and client relations are upon me. But I'd have no issue with a fee for handling client relations with respect to clerical matters - or if they are bringing new client to me regularly. Your original arrangement, where you'd invoice BP and he/she'd invoice the client, is what I prefer. That way if BP wants to mark things up, they mark things up, and it's **their** responsibility to be paid by the client(s). You just have to track BP and get payment from him/her.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are sending money to BP... you should be noting those payouts on your taxes. After all, that money is *not* profit for you. It's an expense. Whether or not you need a 1099 depends upon the formal entities involved. I.E. 1099s may not be required between businesses, but are with individuals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To be blunt, it sounds as though you are a fantastic cash cow for BP. They do nothing but wait for your money. Of *course* they consider a &quot;buyout&quot; reasonable... it's more money for doing nothing. Ask yourself this.... if you quit contacting BP and sending him/her the kickback, but continued working for this client, what's the downfall? If it's just &quot;breaking a contract&quot; you may want to start looking for a way out of this &quot;deal&quot;. Review the contract with BP.. is there a &quot;buyout&quot; clause? Is there a termination date (I sincerely hope you didn't sign a &quot;lifetime&quot; agreement with BP for this)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickback_(bribery)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16492" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6311" RevisionGUID="278b12a9-071f-4916-82ae-6603abad8448" CreationDate="2016-12-08T08:57:27.017" UserId="708" Comment="added 131 characters in body" Text="Sounds more like a [kickback][1] than a &quot;finder's fee&quot; -- Finders fees are generally *one-time* fees. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Kickbacks are ethically questionable, but done all the time. If you are raising your fees 20% to cover these costs and BP isn't doing *anything*, then it's a very fine line ethically.  If the client were to discover you're charging 20% more just to pay BP 20%... well... if I were the client, I'd consider action based upon that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Agents will take a percentage, but they generally do *something* to earn that percentage regularly such as handle the client relations.. bring in new clients/work regularly, etc. But agents don't continually collect royalties months or years after they've left the relationship with the client. If BP is bringing in new work still, even if not for this particular client, then I'd be inclined to continue to pay the percentage. If BP is literally doing *nothing* for you.. then why do you &quot;value the relationship&quot; at all? It would merely be an *expense* with zero benefit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately... whatever you two agree upon is what you agree upon. There's really no &quot;norm&quot; when it comes to contracts regarding this type stuff. I can't say whether or not 20% is high... it seems a little high for *zero* work on BP's part. But ultimately it's whatever you agree to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, would have a hard time with a financial relationship where all the burden of work and client relations are upon me. But I'd have no issue with a fee for handling client relations with respect to clerical matters - or if they are bringing new client to me regularly. Your original arrangement, where you'd invoice BP and he/she'd invoice the client, is what I prefer. That way if BP wants to mark things up, they mark things up, and it's **their** responsibility to be paid by the client(s). You just have to track BP and get payment from him/her.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are sending money to BP... you should be noting those payouts on your taxes. After all, that money is *not* profit for you. It's an expense. Whether or not you need a 1099 depends upon the formal entities involved. I.E. 1099s may not be required between businesses, but are with individuals. *Consult your accountant*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To be blunt, it sounds as though you are a fantastic cash cow for BP. They do nothing but wait for your money. Of *course* they consider a &quot;buyout&quot; reasonable... it's more money for doing nothing. Ask yourself this.... if you quit contacting BP and sending him/her the kickback, but continued working for this client, what's the down side? Surely after several years of working with the client directly, BP has little or no sway regarding your relationship with this client. If it's just &quot;breaking a contract&quot; you may want to start looking for a way out of this &quot;deal&quot;. Review the contract with BP.. is there a &quot;buyout&quot; clause? Is there a termination date (I sincerely hope you didn't sign a &quot;lifetime&quot; agreement with BP for this)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickback_(bribery)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16493" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6314" RevisionGUID="bd20ccd0-988f-463e-ad24-f3569b3a5810" CreationDate="2016-12-08T09:46:54.493" UserId="15586" Text="Your rate should be something you are comfortable with. This means the following: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- You believe you are adding value at this rate for your client.&#xD;&#xA;- You can cover all your costs:&#xD;&#xA;   - Cost of working&#xD;&#xA;   - Insurance&#xD;&#xA;   - Build up reserves for periods of less work&#xD;&#xA;   - Build up for your pension&#xD;&#xA;   - etc.&#xD;&#xA;- You make enough profit for you to justify your time and choice&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is expressed into an hourly rate and the amount of hours you expect to work paid. You have to determine these two variables.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After this you make these calculation you have to make the specific calculations for the job offered by your client. This was quite well answered by @morsor. A hourly rate is less risky, but a fixed price is usually a calculation of how many hours you expected to spend plus risk margin times your hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having an hourly rate does not imply that you do not work all hours that a client asks. A principal of maximizing value for your client should be first. This means sometimes advising a client not to spend money by letting you work on something. For a long term client this will greatly increase trust and future work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16494" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6315" RevisionGUID="c819922d-29a5-42a1-9fa1-1dc309527e61" CreationDate="2016-12-08T13:18:59.890" UserId="14793" Text="It sounds to me like you haven't decided if you wanna go per-hour or fixed price costs.  You should really make that decision before the project starts.  If this is a one shot deal and don't know the employer you can guage the project and decide if you need it to be fixed price or not.  If you know this employer and are expecting to get more work and consider the work more important than the way you get paid then probably a combination of per-hour and fixed price would do the trick.  For example, if the employer had you start doing the work and you didn't make payment plans then you can do milestone fixed price (say, when you finish the first part of the project) and then in your project management mindset you would re-evaluate if you want to continue fixed cost or per-hour.  Let's say the employer wants to continue fidgeting with the first milestone after that milestone has been completed then per-hour would be appropriate.  &#xD;&#xA;Bottom line: sit down and think about it for yourself because your employer will plan things to work out for his own benefit so make sure you do the same." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16495" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6311" RevisionGUID="9e7edf5e-3c73-46f3-8dac-85201e08016c" CreationDate="2016-12-08T19:32:16.733" UserId="708" Comment="added 385 characters in body" Text="Sounds more like a [kickback][1] than a &quot;finder's fee&quot; -- Finders fees are generally *one-time* fees. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Kickbacks are ethically questionable, but done all the time. If you are raising your fees 20% to cover these costs and BP isn't doing *anything*, then it's a very fine line ethically.  If the client were to discover you're charging 20% more just to pay BP 20%... well... if I were the client, I'd consider action based upon that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Agents will take a percentage, but they generally do *something* to earn that percentage regularly such as handle the client relations.. bring in new clients/work regularly, etc. But agents don't continually collect royalties months or years after they've left the relationship with the client. If BP is bringing in new work still, even if not for this particular client, then I'd be inclined to continue to pay the percentage. If BP is literally doing *nothing* for you.. then why do you &quot;value the relationship&quot; at all? It would merely be an *expense* with zero benefit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately... whatever you two agree upon is what you agree upon. There's really no &quot;norm&quot; when it comes to contracts regarding this type stuff. I can't say whether or not 20% is high... it seems a little high for *zero* work on BP's part. But ultimately it's whatever you agree to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, would have a hard time with a financial relationship where all the burden of work and client relations are upon me. But I'd have no issue with a fee for handling client relations with respect to clerical matters - or if they are bringing new client to me regularly. Your original arrangement, where you'd invoice BP and he/she'd invoice the client, is what I prefer. That way if BP wants to mark things up, they mark things up, and it's **their** responsibility to be paid by the client(s). You just have to track BP and get payment from him/her.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are sending money to BP... you should be noting those payouts on your taxes. After all, that money is *not* profit for you. It's an expense. Whether or not you need a 1099 depends upon the formal entities involved. I.E. 1099s may not be required between businesses, but are with individuals. *Consult your accountant*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To be blunt, it sounds as though you are a fantastic cash cow for BP. They do nothing but wait for your money. Of *course* they consider a &quot;buyout&quot; reasonable... it's more money for doing nothing. Ask yourself this.... if you quit contacting BP and sending him/her the kickback, but continued working for this client, what's the down side? Surely after several years of working with the client directly, BP has little or no sway regarding your relationship with this client. If it's just &quot;breaking a contract&quot; you may want to start looking for a way out of this &quot;deal&quot;. Review the contract with BP.. is there a &quot;buyout&quot; clause? Is there a termination date (I sincerely hope you didn't sign a &quot;lifetime&quot; agreement with BP for this)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You would need to consult an attorney (which I am *not*), but if there's no termination date on a contract and neither party is in breech of the agreement, often simply serving adequate notice that you wish to exit the agreement can be enough. Now what is &quot;adequate&quot; is relative to the circumstances, which is why an attorney may be in a better place to give advice regarding this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickback_(bribery)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16496" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6316" RevisionGUID="e0109e8e-e77a-4fa7-a2a7-d2fe479e3661" CreationDate="2016-12-08T20:00:13.743" UserId="1706" Text="**I am not an attorney**.  This is SO simple.  Is your agreement with BP in writing, and does it state that the arrangement is perpetual?  If there's no written agreement that you won't ever invoice the customer directly, then you should do just that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16497" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6317" RevisionGUID="761a7b5d-71d8-4f8c-beb1-4af79b18169b" CreationDate="2016-12-08T20:28:01.207" UserId="2265" Text="Nothing much to add on what Scott already mentioned. But just so you have a few more people weighing in:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I think 20% is pretty steep, especially for doing nothing. I have worked with people who gave me work at their customer and then took a 25% margin but in those cases my BP handled the client relationship and, as a more senior profile than me, functioned as someone that I could turn to for questions and support. This does not seem to be the case here. &#xD;&#xA; 2. No, it's a margin for doing nothing. &#xD;&#xA; 3. Definitely not this version (doing no work at all), the ones I encountered were for a period (e.g. 1 year) or a specific project (eg 40 days of invoicing)&#xD;&#xA; 4. Check with an accountant. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16498" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6311" RevisionGUID="d611a250-2c6c-4cf8-91ef-6c93aee2a52e" CreationDate="2016-12-08T22:52:05.020" UserId="708" Comment="added 656 characters in body" Text="Sounds more like a [kickback][1] than a &quot;finder's fee&quot; -- Finders fees are generally *one-time* fees. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Kickbacks are ethically questionable, but done all the time. If you are raising your fees 20% to cover these costs and BP isn't doing *anything*, then it's a very fine line ethically.  If the client were to discover you're charging 20% more just to pay BP 20%... well... if I were the client, I'd consider action based upon that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Agents will take a percentage, but they generally do *something* to earn that percentage regularly such as handle the client relations.. bring in new clients/work regularly, etc. But agents don't continually collect royalties months or years after they've left the relationship with the client. If BP is bringing in new work still, even if not for this particular client, then I'd be inclined to continue to pay the percentage. If BP is literally doing *nothing* for you.. then why do you &quot;value the relationship&quot; at all? It would merely be an *expense* with zero benefit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately... whatever you two agree upon is what you agree upon. There's really no &quot;norm&quot; when it comes to contracts regarding this type stuff. I can't say whether or not 20% is high... it seems a little high for *zero* work on BP's part. But ultimately it's whatever you agree to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, would have a hard time with a financial relationship where all the burden of work and client relations are upon me. But I'd have no issue with a fee for handling client relations with respect to clerical matters - or if they are bringing new client to me regularly. Your original arrangement, where you'd invoice BP and he/she'd invoice the client, is what I prefer. That way if BP wants to mark things up, they mark things up, and it's **their** responsibility to be paid by the client(s). You just have to track BP and get payment from him/her.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are sending money to BP... you should be noting those payouts on your taxes. After all, that money is *not* profit for you. It's an expense. Whether or not you need a 1099 depends upon the formal entities involved. I.E. 1099s may not be required between businesses, but are with individuals. *Consult your accountant*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that if it's **actually** a **business partner** -- as in you both work under the *same* company umbrella -- then you don't 1099 **partners**. The business files taxes and reports any payouts it made. The payouts to business personnel is the responsibility of *that* party to report as income. In addition, if it is *actually* a partnership... then income would be coming into the *company* not you. And the *company* would be paying you, not clients. This, frankly does *not* sounds like a business partner, but rather a freelance marketer or someone that makes a living finding clients and then hiring subcontractors. That's *not* really a &quot;partnership&quot; but rather more of a simple business relationship with another party. Wal-mart buys toys to sell from AlexToys... but that doesn't make them partners. Partners share in the rise and fall of the business.... they profit when the business is doing well, suffer when it's not, and they share in the responsibility of any expenses the business may have.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To be blunt, it sounds as though you are a fantastic cash cow for BP. They do nothing but wait for your money. Of *course* they consider a &quot;buyout&quot; reasonable... it's more money for doing nothing. Ask yourself this.... if you quit contacting BP and sending him/her the kickback, but continued working for this client, what's the down side? Surely after several years of working with the client directly, BP has little or no sway regarding your relationship with this client. If it's just &quot;breaking a contract&quot; you may want to start looking for a way out of this &quot;deal&quot;. Review the contract with BP.. is there a &quot;buyout&quot; clause? Is there a termination date (I sincerely hope you didn't sign a &quot;lifetime&quot; agreement with BP for this)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You would need to consult an attorney (which I am *not*), but if there's no termination date on a contract and neither party is in breech of the agreement, often simply serving adequate notice that you wish to exit the agreement can be enough. Now what is &quot;adequate&quot; is relative to the circumstances, which is why an attorney may be in a better place to give advice regarding this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickback_(bribery)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16499" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6311" RevisionGUID="1f53ba08-055d-4f56-b94c-ee8348c1d8ea" CreationDate="2016-12-09T00:14:01.800" UserId="708" Comment="added 244 characters in body" Text="Sounds more like a [kickback][1] than a &quot;finder's fee&quot; -- Finders fees are generally *one-time* fees. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Kickbacks are ethically questionable, but done all the time. If you are raising your fees 20% to cover these costs and BP isn't doing *anything*, then it's a very fine line ethically.  If the client were to discover you're charging 20% more just to pay BP 20%... well... if I were the client, I'd consider action based upon that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Agents will take a percentage, but they generally do *something* to earn that percentage regularly such as handle the client relations.. bring in new clients/work regularly, etc. But agents don't continually collect royalties months or years after they've left the relationship with the client. If BP is bringing in new work still, even if not for this particular client, then I'd be inclined to continue to pay the percentage. If BP is literally doing *nothing* for you.. then why do you &quot;value the relationship&quot; at all? It would merely be an *expense* with zero benefit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately... whatever you two agree upon is what you agree upon. There's really no &quot;norm&quot; when it comes to contracts regarding this type stuff. I can't say whether or not 20% is high... it seems a little high for *zero* work on BP's part. But ultimately it's whatever you agree to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, would have a hard time with a financial relationship where all the burden of work and client relations are upon me. But I'd have no issue with a fee for handling client relations with respect to clerical matters - or if they are bringing new client to me regularly. Your original arrangement, where you'd invoice BP and he/she'd invoice the client, is what I prefer. That way if BP wants to mark things up, they mark things up, and it's **their** responsibility to be paid by the client(s). You just have to track BP and get payment from him/her.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are sending money to BP... you should be noting those payouts on your taxes. After all, that money is *not* profit for you. It's an expense. Whether or not you need a 1099 depends upon the formal entities involved. I.E. 1099s may not be required between businesses, but are with individuals. *Consult your accountant*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that if it's **actually** a **business partner** -- as in you both work under the *same* company umbrella -- then you don't 1099 **partners**. The business files taxes and reports any payouts it made. The payouts to business personnel is the responsibility of *that* party to report as income. In addition, if it is *actually* a partnership... then income would be coming into the *company* not you. And the *company* would be paying you, not clients. This, frankly does *not* sounds like a business partner, but rather a freelance marketer or someone that makes a living finding clients and then hiring subcontractors. That's *not* really a &quot;partnership&quot; but rather more of a simple business relationship with another party. Wal-mart buys toys to sell from AlexToys... but that doesn't make them partners. Partners share in the rise and fall of the business.... they profit when the business is doing well, suffer when it's not, and they share in the responsibility of any expenses the business may have.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To be blunt, it sounds as though you are a fantastic cash cow for BP. They do nothing but wait for your money. Of *course* they consider a &quot;buyout&quot; reasonable... it's more money for doing nothing. Ask yourself this.... if you quit contacting BP and sending him/her the kickback, but continued working for this client, what's the down side? Surely after several years of working with the client directly, BP has little or no sway regarding your relationship with this client. If it's just &quot;breaking a contract&quot; you may want to start looking for a way out of this &quot;deal&quot;. Review the contract with BP.. is there a &quot;buyout&quot; clause? Is there a termination date (I sincerely hope you didn't sign a &quot;lifetime&quot; agreement with BP for this)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You would need to consult an attorney (which I am *not*), but if there's no termination date on a contract and neither party is in breech of the agreement, often simply serving adequate notice that you wish to exit the agreement can be enough. Now what is &quot;adequate&quot; is relative to the circumstances, which is why an attorney may be in a better place to give advice regarding this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there is no formal written agreement between you two... just tell BP you're done sending him the kickback. It's been several years since he/she has had *any* interaction with the client and any &quot;finders-fee&quot; has been paid at this point. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickback_(bribery)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16501" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6318" RevisionGUID="343fe207-5674-4ce2-8e00-ac78c1f994f4" CreationDate="2016-12-09T06:03:49.153" UserId="15631" Text="So I started on Upwork about a year ago, have completed 5 projects and apparently am now considered top rated.... My selection process:&#xA;&#xA; 1. Only consider clients that have a history of filling roles and have a reasonable average hourly rate paid out&#xA; 2. Avoid anyone who says they want an expert but add the lowest pay bracket to the job&#xA; 3. I generally try to focus on jobs in Australia as that is where I live. Its just easier with timezones and Aussies tend to favour bids from within AU&#xA; 4. Offer a suggestion of how to acomplish the task in the proposal, ensure English is perfect&#xA; 5. Expect that 80% of proposals will be ignored because a bloke from Bangladesh has said he would do it for $12. Consider it a lucky escape&#xA; 6. I did NOT offer to become a slave at rock bottom prices. A very low bid will not compete with other bidders and gives the impression your work is no better valued &#xA; 7. Instead of above, put more effort into the proposal *without* writing an essay and boring everyone to tears&#xA;&#xA;Above all, I didn't quit my day job to focus on Upwork and anyone who does is crazy. I consider it a way to build my portfolio as a consultant in order to pitch myself to local companies with whom I can forge a long term, valuable relationship with." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16502" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6319" RevisionGUID="612313f0-adf2-4cc6-a9b3-03d27c824368" CreationDate="2016-12-09T06:20:49.233" UserId="15631" Text="I'm a one man band freelance company and have been using Upwork to supplement my income. I do it part time as well as working full time as a contractor for a government department.&#xA;&#xA;I want to start attracting clients without using Upwork. One way I thought about doing this was by improving my website with lots of content and technical blogs to attract traffic.&#xA;&#xA;Then it got me thinking, does any business actually search `web developmemt company` in Google anymore? Also, if I focus a blog on technical articles ill get fellow devs visiting, not potential paying clients.&#xA;&#xA;What is your experience?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16503" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6319" RevisionGUID="612313f0-adf2-4cc6-a9b3-03d27c824368" CreationDate="2016-12-09T06:20:49.233" UserId="15631" Text="Do you spend lots of time on a website for your freelance company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16504" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6319" RevisionGUID="612313f0-adf2-4cc6-a9b3-03d27c824368" CreationDate="2016-12-09T06:20:49.233" UserId="15631" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16505" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6320" RevisionGUID="6991eb74-c588-4ee3-8157-c693251d0776" CreationDate="2016-12-09T06:52:50.443" UserId="7858" Text="In my experience, a website will - in itself - give you nothing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients are only found by actively seeking them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you have lots of face time with a potential client, a website should make no difference. However, a website could be helpful as a supplement, as it allows a short chance encounter in which contact details were exchanged, to perhaps become a selling opportunity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, if a website is created - who should it target? The technical professionals or the non-technicals who make hiring decisions? Targeting both is not always as simple as it sounds.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, if you work with IT - especially programming - it could be viewed as strange if you have absolutely no web presence. That is actually the reason I have a very basic website with contact details, picture and CV/resume." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16506" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6321" RevisionGUID="ec55e24a-99f7-49f8-a359-2cb6657ac064" CreationDate="2016-12-09T10:02:18.530" UserId="7486" Text="Since now I was very rarely contacted by clients that found me from my website, and consider that I am online with my website since 1996, each 1-2 years I renewed it making it tecnically and graphically up to date (being a web developer and designer, it should be an example of good design and efficiency), it responds well to keywords and have a good number of visits (thinking locally), even if my goal is not to have a huge amount of visitors. In fact I use my website as a portfolio to show to existing and potential clients example of my works, skills and competencies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I always found new works to do by word of mouth by other clients, after the first times that I built a stable clients base, I was then always contacted (more or less frequently) by people who heard about me by other satisfied clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would not base my business on the fact that I should be found on line for searches like &quot;web developmemt company&quot; because (right now) it outputs 71.900.000 results, and you will be one on 71.900.000, there is a very far chance that someone will contact you by that method, unless you will optimize the site to be found in your area, and even when you will succeed in that, it will also depends on how many other similar companies you have around, for example I am not in big city and I have around 8 web companies within a 5km of radius, and other 30 (with some of them important web agencies) within a 25km of radius from me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion, to find a stable base of clients is more important to be known in your area as a reliable professionist that people can trust, rather than spend weeks of work in writing blogs etc to make traffic and then play dog eat dog game in the search engines results and rankings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By the way to have a simple good looking, efficient, up to date website with portfolio, CV and other useful info, is a must.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16507" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6321" RevisionGUID="4a1047a6-c2f5-4d9e-a178-79dfa6371fe1" CreationDate="2016-12-09T10:08:24.460" UserId="7486" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="Since now I was very rarely contacted by clients that found me from my website, and consider that I am online with my website since 1996, each 1-2 years I renewed it making it tecnically and graphically up to date (being a web developer and designer, it should be an example of good design and efficiency), it responds well to keywords and have a good number of visits (thinking locally), even if my goal is not to have a huge amount of visitors. In fact I use my website as a portfolio to show to existing and potential clients example of my works, skills and competencies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I always found new works to do by word of mouth by other clients, after the first times that I built a stable clients base, I was then always contacted (more or less frequently) by people who heard about me by other satisfied clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would not base my business on the fact that I should be found on line for searches like &quot;web developmemt company&quot; because (right now) it outputs 71.900.000 results, and you will be one on 71.900.000, there is a very far chance that someone will contact you by that method, unless you will optimize the site to be found in your area, and even when you will succeed in that, it will also depends on how many other similar companies you have around, for example I am not a in big city and I have around 8 web companies within a 5km of radius, and other 30 (with some of them important web agencies) within a 25km of radius from me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion, to find a stable base of clients is more important to be known in your area as a reliable professionist that people can trust, rather than spend weeks of work in writing blogs etc to make traffic and then play dog eat dog game in the search engines results and rankings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By the way to have a simple good looking, efficient, up to date website with portfolio, CV and other useful info, is a must.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16508" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6322" RevisionGUID="4647618d-4a1b-43a8-b93a-6dfe2aaf3f60" CreationDate="2016-12-09T10:36:58.803" UserId="708" Text="Just my experience, but here's what a web site *actually* does for you in most instances:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- It will lend credibility to you (or your company) **if** it is not *too* generic. If the site *looks* like a template or just some random stock photo infused script, it won't help as much as it will hurt. It needs to be personable and unique. &#xD;&#xA;- It may provide uncertain clients a place to view your work.&#xD;&#xA;- It may help past (or existing) clients find you if they've lost your contact info.&#xD;&#xA;- It provides you server space so you can send clients link to items they need. (It looks more professional, in my opinion, if you use your own domain rather than drop box or hightail, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's about it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, if you want to invest a whole bunch of time into beefing up a site with tech blogs and articles, etc. then you may be able to swing in some ad revenue if traffic increases enough. But that can be a lot of work for little return unless you build a go-to site that is very unique. Realize in this day and age any *new* site is going to struggle against sites that have been around for a decade unless there's a *very unique* pull. And (as morsor answered) who do you target? Clients? Other professionals? You won't get work from other professionals and there's just so much client-focused content you can create before a site just looks like an ad-revenue site, and thus unappealing to clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing my experience has shown me is that my web site has **never** gotten me any work. At best, I'll get a contact form submission from some random person wanting a quote without providing *any* information and when asked for more info, they don't have any. So, essentially wasting my time. I haven't updated my web site in about 8 years. Yes it needs an update. However, it still *appears* fairly modern and is still very functional, so updating it hasn't been a pressing matter. I have too much paying work to worry about my own web site. In fact, I've considered hiring someone to update my own web site because it's such a low priority for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make no mistake, a web site is *must*. And it has to be functional and appealing. But I just don't feel mine has *ever* pulled in *any* client. I get clients 95% of the time via word-of-mouth. (I've never used any freelance marketing website).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16509" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6322" RevisionGUID="780b2d8d-c803-4db9-9459-66c16f74a293" CreationDate="2016-12-09T10:42:35.013" UserId="708" Comment="added 625 characters in body" Text="Just my experience, but here's what a web site *actually* does for you in most instances:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- It will lend credibility to you (or your company) **if** it is not *too* generic. If the site *looks* like a template or just some random stock photo infused script, it won't help as much as it will hurt. It needs to be personable and unique. &#xD;&#xA;- It may provide uncertain clients a place to view your work.&#xD;&#xA;- It may help past (or existing) clients find you if they've lost your contact info.&#xD;&#xA;- It provides you server space so you can send clients link to items they need. (It looks more professional, in my opinion, if you use your own domain rather than drop box or hightail, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's about it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, if you want to invest a whole bunch of time into beefing up a site with tech blogs and articles, etc. then you may be able to swing in some ad revenue if traffic increases enough. But that can be a lot of work for little return unless you build a go-to site that is very unique. Realize in this day and age any *new* site is going to struggle against sites that have been around for a decade unless there's a *very unique* pull. And (as morsor answered) who do you target? Clients? Other professionals? You won't get work from other professionals and there's just so much client-focused content you can create before a site just looks like an ad-revenue site, and thus unappealing to clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing my experience has shown me is that my web site has **never** gotten me any work. At best, I'll get a contact form submission from some random person wanting a quote without providing *any* information and when asked for more info, they don't have any. So, essentially wasting my time. I haven't updated my web site in about 8 years. Yes it needs an update. However, it still *appears* fairly modern and is still very functional, so updating it hasn't been a pressing matter. I have too much paying work to worry about my own web site. In fact, I've considered hiring someone to update my own web site because it's such a low priority for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make no mistake, a web site is *must*. And it has to be functional and appealing. But I just don't feel mine has *ever* pulled in *any* client. I get clients 95% of the time via word-of-mouth. (I've never used any freelance marketing website).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The competition online for an online business is rough. Just imagine trying to compete with eBay or Amazon... well that's essentially what any &quot;web development&quot; site is going to do... but worse since web dev is web dev and SEO, tricks of the trade, etc., are known by *all* the top competing businesses in the field. Coming to the game late (2016/17) just means there's ground you'll *never* make up unless you have a team of dedicated workers all striving to overcome existing top-ranked search results.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, forget about trying to compete online. Just make a nice web site.. then focus your marketing efforts elsewhere.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16510" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6323" RevisionGUID="8adc2169-7f7e-466e-aaf0-1eab56b0675e" CreationDate="2016-12-09T12:35:15.520" UserId="15603" Text="They are obviously tattempting to take advantage of you.  I was in between contracts and i took a crappy paid to fill the gap.  I hated every minute of it!! truly.  Not only for the rate, but also because i found out they were paying at and evtra 50% more to someone else.  I left not long after.  It also tarnished my standing with the organisation.  I have not put that on my cv as just leave that time as unemployed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16511" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6324" RevisionGUID="83475ee5-a17c-49c1-bde1-67b558301f93" CreationDate="2016-12-09T16:13:48.267" UserId="15638" Text="I’m just in the process of [setting up as a sole trader][1][,][2] alongside my current employment and was wondering about a **few things.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I set up as self employed, will my current employer be notified of this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The industries are completely different and it doesn’t state in my contract I can have other employment but just wondered if they will find out?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance! Take care!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;________________________________________________________________________________&#xD;&#xA;&quot;You can do everything you set your mind to!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.smarta.com/advice/starting-up/starting-your-own-business/what-is-a-sole-trader/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://moneybanker.com/&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16512" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6324" RevisionGUID="83475ee5-a17c-49c1-bde1-67b558301f93" CreationDate="2016-12-09T16:13:48.267" UserId="15638" Text="Help and adviced needed!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16513" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6324" RevisionGUID="83475ee5-a17c-49c1-bde1-67b558301f93" CreationDate="2016-12-09T16:13:48.267" UserId="15638" Text="|local-business|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16517" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6326" RevisionGUID="64d72231-72be-4d7e-95e2-f792ea847dec" CreationDate="2016-12-09T16:22:27.767" UserId="15202" Text="&gt; If I set up as self employed, will my current employer be notified of&#xD;&#xA;&gt; this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No. You might have a change in tax code from HMRC, but your employer has no right to question it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The industries are completely different and it doesn’t state in my&#xD;&#xA;&gt; contract I can have other employment but just wondered if they will&#xD;&#xA;&gt; find out?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Probably not, but it's a good idea to tell them anyway just in case a conflict of interest arises down the line&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A couple of extra tips:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Record your expenses from day one. Do it daily.&#xD;&#xA; - Use a decent accountant for if you go Ltd company, I use [Quba](www.quba.solutions/Accountant)&#xD;&#xA; - Put 20% of your takings to one side for corporation tax before paying yourself (if Ltd), then put 20% of what you pay yourself to one side for personal tax&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Source: Currently a Ltd Company Cotractor and former HMRC Revenue Officer and Taxation Adviser" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16518" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6327" RevisionGUID="1f827ced-a68a-4346-99d6-d7378467fe4f" CreationDate="2016-12-09T21:28:10.933" UserId="10398" Text="**Your website is only a crucial, but single component of your clients' the overall buying journey.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's what your client's journey should look like:&#xD;&#xA;1. They hear about you the a previous client of yours and want a website too.&#xD;&#xA;2. They look you up, and find look at your work, read your blog articles etc.&#xD;&#xA;3. Everything on your site, social media profiles, Dribbble page, etc. shows the quality of your work as well as the fact that your a creative **professional**.&#xD;&#xA;4. Your prospective client goes from kinda sorta thinking about hiring you, to getting in touch with you to hire you ASAP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are some things your website should include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Your Work (duh.)&#xD;&#xA;- What you offer, and who you offer it to (niche down!)&#xD;&#xA;- A personal bio about you&#xD;&#xA;- A blog that covers all about the process of what you do, and how to do it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16523" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6319" RevisionGUID="07657c03-bf3b-40ca-8100-b68447b8ec02" CreationDate="2016-12-10T12:15:32.160" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/807559369458151425" />
  <row Id="16524" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6324" RevisionGUID="70aa57a1-7c78-4de6-b412-be20c74eacd4" CreationDate="2016-12-11T07:54:55.060" UserId="7486" Comment="More clear title " Text="If I set up as self employed, will my current employer be notified of this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16525" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6328" RevisionGUID="2dbc8ff8-2e04-4c5c-ad28-0519816f4621" CreationDate="2016-12-11T10:38:57.487" UserId="15659" Text="i am VAT registered and I need to invoice a company that is not vat registered and does not charge vat for its services. Do I need to add vat to my invoice when dealing with this company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16526" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6328" RevisionGUID="2dbc8ff8-2e04-4c5c-ad28-0519816f4621" CreationDate="2016-12-11T10:38:57.487" UserId="15659" Text="UK VAT - Do I need to charge VAT" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16527" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6328" RevisionGUID="2dbc8ff8-2e04-4c5c-ad28-0519816f4621" CreationDate="2016-12-11T10:38:57.487" UserId="15659" Text="|taxes|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16528" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6329" RevisionGUID="d4af71cb-64ff-417b-9bb3-215111ffe7b8" CreationDate="2016-12-11T12:38:41.177" UserId="15007" Text="When you are working as freelancer,  you are exposed to whole world. In such situation always be careful about copyright. Do not use others copyright material without permission.  &#xA;If you want to use your work,  change your work in such way that it doesn't look like the original. &#xA;Hope you got the point. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16529" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6330" RevisionGUID="52efe24a-7c54-47b2-a008-c8fc6c7dcca2" CreationDate="2016-12-11T13:00:28.787" UserId="15007" Text="I was freelancer for more than 7 years. From my experience I can tell you 3 secrets of getting freelance job. They are:&#xA;&#xA;1. Bid on small or low budget project - for first few projects. First 3 projects should be for  advertisement only. Don't expect money. But, don't do it for free.&#xA;&#xA;2. Bid on projects as early as possible&#xA;&#xA;3. If any client or employer contacts you, reply instantly.&#xA;&#xA;To learn more details you can visit [http://webindream.com/getting-freelance-job/][1]&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: http://webindream.com/getting-freelance-job/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16530" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6331" RevisionGUID="d994bc7c-e9ac-46f3-8c99-03b260395c2a" CreationDate="2016-12-11T13:34:12.837" UserId="15007" Text="It's best for you to learn ruby on rails or DJango. They will add lot more extra value to your freelance job field. &#xA;In addition, always learn new things (language, framework, techniques, tools etc) if you want to stay in software development field. &#xA; If you need any guidelines to get started with freelancing I recommend to read following article [http://webindream.com/freelance-how-start-freelance/][1]&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: http://webindream.com/freelance-how-start-freelance/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16531" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6324" RevisionGUID="d2e943c1-1334-4650-9cc4-401310bbc484" CreationDate="2016-12-11T13:53:31.250" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 164 characters in body; edited tags" Text="I’m just in the process of [setting up as a sole trader][1][,][2] alongside my current employment and was wondering about a **few things.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I set up as self employed, will my current employer be notified of this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The industries are completely different and it doesn’t state in my contract I can have other employment but just wondered if they will find out?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.smarta.com/advice/starting-up/starting-your-own-business/what-is-a-sole-trader/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://moneybanker.com/&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16532" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6324" RevisionGUID="d2e943c1-1334-4650-9cc4-401310bbc484" CreationDate="2016-12-11T13:53:31.250" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 164 characters in body; edited tags" Text="|uk|local-business|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16536" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5790" RevisionGUID="32c64a26-0ff9-4d36-964f-4fe468cbe49e" CreationDate="2016-12-11T20:57:36.113" UserId="14326" Comment="Grammar" Text="From what you say it sounds like you're already qualified to work on projects that use the LAMP stack - (linux, apache, MySL, php) on distributed infrastructure, so custom hosted WordPress sites etc.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's plenty it wouldn't hurt to learn, bash/linux is really handy. But 9 times out of ten people (especially the kind of clients you'll get starting out with) will be using cloud servers so you needn't worry about the engineering too much. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As Scott says, this is too large a question to answer definitively and you will get hired, there's a shortage of technologists in the market so in my experience people aren't that picky - i put myself through uni with nothing but fairly rudimentary python. Then once you're working you can work out what your favourite things are on paid time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; If you feel like you need experience, try doing some pro-bono work, build a charity website or something. This also gives you the chance to make mistakes with someone who isn't going to be too mad about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope that helps, obviously there's a lot of scope for differing opinions here so disagreement welcome!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16537" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6333" RevisionGUID="7f7e6611-0948-4636-910c-32f622b093dd" CreationDate="2016-12-12T11:23:00.950" UserId="15202" Text="Short answer, yes you charge VAT. If you are VAT registered, you are responsible for charging VAT, regardless of the VAT status of your customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Full guidance [here](https://www.gov.uk/vat-businesses/how-vat-works)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggect that you include &quot;+ VAT&quot; in all of your agreements and contracts to prevent disputes." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16538" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="6334" RevisionGUID="09a28b30-b417-48cc-912b-fc153361e849" CreationDate="2016-12-12T15:04:06.127" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/81278/how-to-handle-lending-tools-equipment-to-freelancing-acquaintance" />
  <row Id="16539" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="6335" RevisionGUID="a8ab4ca9-cff5-4db7-ada7-de2b015a4310" CreationDate="2016-12-12T15:04:06.127" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/81278/how-to-handle-lending-tools-equipment-to-freelancing-acquaintance/81280#81280" />
  <row Id="16540" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6335" RevisionGUID="fda823c2-77f3-4d49-8fed-b2cf95fa08b5" CreationDate="2016-12-12T14:31:26.317" UserId="18984" UserDisplayName="Draken" Text="My Gran always had sound advice for this circumstance,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; [Never a lender nor a borrower be][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically means don't lend or borrow or anything. I know you want to help your friend out, but this could turn nasty if you are really not careful. This is expensive equipment your are lending out and unless you cover your back, your friend could break it, not have the money to pay you back and leave you in a difficult space. That doesn't allow for a better friendship to foster.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's a hard thing to do, unless you have some contracts written up, but you need to protect yourself. Don't put yourself in that situation, it's really not worth it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/said-neither-borrower-lender-be.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16541" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6334" RevisionGUID="fed93a45-b368-4777-a497-f7aa2c433fb1" CreationDate="2016-12-12T14:05:49.283" UserId="15668" Text="One of my acquaintances who recently started freelancing with a friend of him, asked me if he could borrow my camera. After some thinking I'm not sure if I'd like to lend him my camera because he has one himself, and he will need mine for a freelance job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On one hand I'd like to help him out because he hasn't a lot of money and is struggling to start as a freelancer. There aren't much jobs available for him. On the other hand he is asking me for help frequently. E.g. if I could make a website for a very low price. When I dropped a reasonably low price ('discount for friends'), he said he didn't have the money and that he would stick to a free self-made website and maybe ask me to create a 'real' website later on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We're both in the creative field and I did/do some freelancing as well, so even though we can help each other we can also be competitors. And I wouldn't like my camera to be damaged or broken, even if they would pay me back some of the value I'd still have to buy a new one (and spend money).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question: If I decide to lend him the camera for his freelance work, what arrangements are reasonable to propose?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Location: Europe. I'm not seeking legal advice, only what would be reasonable to propose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;E.g. if they break the camera they have to pay back the amount of money I bought it for? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nowadays it's worth less, but if I have to buy a new one I'd spend money I wouldn't spend (and like to spend) otherwise. I'm satisfied with this camera.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should we write down some agreement? I don't think he has the money to pay the amount right now. How to handle this matters for acquaintances/friends? I don't want this to influence our relationship.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16542" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6334" RevisionGUID="fed93a45-b368-4777-a497-f7aa2c433fb1" CreationDate="2016-12-12T14:05:49.283" UserId="15668" Text="How to handle lending tools/equipment to freelancing acquaintance?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16543" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6334" RevisionGUID="fed93a45-b368-4777-a497-f7aa2c433fb1" CreationDate="2016-12-12T14:05:49.283" UserId="15668" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16544" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6331" RevisionGUID="9743c529-2588-43a0-a8af-149ec5dcdd48" CreationDate="2016-12-12T16:27:03.523" UserId="15007" Comment="deleted 184 characters in body" Text="Answering to your last question: it's best for you to learn ruby on rails or DJango. They will add lot more extra value to your freelance job field. &#xD;&#xA;In addition, always learn new things (language, framework, techniques, tools etc) if you want to stay in software development field. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16545" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6336" RevisionGUID="9d3b4a0f-8622-4a12-8ff0-addd9b6343b4" CreationDate="2016-12-13T06:07:57.380" UserId="2265" Text="Depends on the acquaintance I suppose and how valuable the camera is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, most European countries (from Europe myself) insist on people having a liability insurance for exactly this purpose: if you break someone's stuff by accident, the insurance pays. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding Grandmother's advice in the other answer: never lend money. Totally true. &#xD;&#xA;But regarding objects or tools I disagree. I lend stuff regularly and so do my friends. And that actually feels quite nice, to help out and to know someone will help you out. Bit of a philosophical question as well I guess: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; - relying only on yourself, and expecting the rest of the world to do the same (the bastards!)&#xD;&#xA; - relying on your friends to help you out, and in turn you help them out&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also important: I am assuming there is a friendship of sorts and no history of him breaking your stuff, I wouldn't lend my stuff to just anyone either.    " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16553" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6338" RevisionGUID="9a18094e-8032-4363-81f3-d8cadc2cf812" CreationDate="2016-12-14T03:46:43.743" UserId="15631" Text="$70 is very cheap for a website, but if you are doing it for a friend and to get experience then go for it. Just don't expect to earn a decent living charging fees like that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are looking at offering brochure style websites to clients, you should probably learn how to use a CMS such as Wordpress or my favourite, Orckestra (formally Composite C1).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Inevitably your client will want to change content themselves, and &quot;most&quot; business people still don't want to know how to change content themselves. Charging a fee for simply logging in to a website and changing some text is a good way to supplement your income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for what technology to learn, that's entirely dependent on who your target market is. For the standard blanket web development you'll a) run into lots of competition and b) be able to code it in whatever stack you like&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally - My approach is to focus on some kind of niche. Integrations with Xero accounting system have worked well for me, as have NopCommerce customisations." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16554" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6339" RevisionGUID="018553ee-ec53-4f2c-8fce-df8df4b3344d" CreationDate="2016-12-14T03:52:57.843" UserId="15631" Text="Quality over quantity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead of browsing all jobs or putting some vague search term be specific. This not only filters out most of the junk but it has the added benefit of showing you better quality jobs because the client has actually bothered to add decent requirements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16555" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6340" RevisionGUID="6bae9119-0be2-4866-9a26-0694c4bb9405" CreationDate="2016-12-14T04:58:31.937" UserId="15631" Text="Ultimately, a freelancer from the Western world is only going to succeed financially if they can source clients away from sites such as Upwork. That's where the big money lies and where successful relationships are more likely formed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you achieve this? Cold calling and cold emailing now seems to be thought of as committing an atrocious act of spamming and it isn't exactly a great use of time to knock on the door of every local company on the off chance they a) want some work done and b) they happen to use the technology you code in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are your methods? One such method I thought about was searching LinkedIn for developers with the same skills I have and build a shortlist of the companies they work for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a developer, sales is a pretty nasty world for me. Would be interested to know how fellow dev freelancers go about selling their services and finding clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16556" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6340" RevisionGUID="6bae9119-0be2-4866-9a26-0694c4bb9405" CreationDate="2016-12-14T04:58:31.937" UserId="15631" Text="Cold calling / emailing companies for work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16557" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6340" RevisionGUID="6bae9119-0be2-4866-9a26-0694c4bb9405" CreationDate="2016-12-14T04:58:31.937" UserId="15631" Text="|attracting-clients|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16559" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6341" RevisionGUID="5c0c680d-e651-490b-8d42-a07ca75e9688" CreationDate="2016-12-14T17:20:20.997" UserId="9845" Text="Knowing they have options usually makes people happy. Offering recurring billing and lump-sum billing is also a great way to increase your income without doing anything. For example, not every client can or wants to pay for 6 months or a year upfront, but it would be a help to you. So offer a &quot;discount&quot; on your lump-sum billing by tacking on an additional fee for recurring billing. That way, clients who pay upfront for a whole year pay less than those who pay upfront for 6 months, and those clients pay less than those who pay monthly. An example scenario:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - One annual payment: $600&#xD;&#xA; - 6-month payment: $315&#xD;&#xA; - Monthly fee: $55&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can still advertise your rate as $50/month, with the caveat that that price is for paying a full year in advance. Or you can advertise that your rate is $55/month, but you give discounts for paying in advance. Either way you're not taking a hit, you're encouraging people to pay upfront, and you look like you've put a lot of thought into this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like someone suggested, PayPal recurring billing is one option for handling monthly payments. I personally use Freshbooks, which automates invoices, still allows PayPal payments, and has other easy payment options. The ability to set and forget is important so you can spend less time on administrative tasks and more time on your real work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16560" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6342" RevisionGUID="326aeac0-9b03-4dc9-ba83-4bebb63abd04" CreationDate="2016-12-14T17:35:50.030" UserId="9910" Text="A possible customer from NY contacted me with a budget request. I replied back with an estimate in hours and money, defining several elements of the project.&#xA;&#xA;Before that we exchanged some emails and even if we don't know each other in person we got a background because of a common community in which both participate.&#xA;&#xA;The thing is that I am from Spain and in my opinion even if you are not interested you should reply back. I would like to know if that is something more cultural or, if in the business world has a meaning." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16561" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6342" RevisionGUID="326aeac0-9b03-4dc9-ba83-4bebb63abd04" CreationDate="2016-12-14T17:35:50.030" UserId="9910" Text="What does it mean when a budget doesn't receive a reply?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16562" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6342" RevisionGUID="326aeac0-9b03-4dc9-ba83-4bebb63abd04" CreationDate="2016-12-14T17:35:50.030" UserId="9910" Text="|communication|budget|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16563" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6343" RevisionGUID="f4bac5d7-5972-49be-8302-9bed9a63b860" CreationDate="2016-12-14T17:42:30.920" UserId="9910" Text="I faced and still facing the same situation. My recommendations are:&#xA;&#xA;1. Go to several meetings, enterpreneur events, same tech networkings and so on, the people from similar businesses are more familiar with me and even they make the call. When I call there is a real connection.&#xA;&#xA;2. Take some testimonials from people, no companies, that have managing positions.&#xA;&#xA;3. Identify their needs. I have a design background and many design studios can't communicate properly with developers (in my region at least). So there's where I fit and can bring more value.&#xA;&#xA;4. After that cold calling is easier. I know exactly who to call, the arguments to use and have references from similar customers.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;Hope it helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16565" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6128" RevisionGUID="261d87e6-05d1-4463-b092-b2e7311bd36a" CreationDate="2016-12-15T08:39:58.840" UserId="11857" Comment="Improved title, tags and formatting" Text="Ive been learning CSS, HTML and JavaScript for front end dev and also started learning Bootstrap. I've had a few of my dads friends tell me they want a website for their business. The website would just have a home page, about, contact, and gallery. So I was planning on using a free Bootstrap template to use as a foundation but tweak it to their needs. Is $70 a good price?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, If I plan to do more freelancing should I bother to learn Ruby on Rails, Django, PHP, etc?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16566" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6128" RevisionGUID="261d87e6-05d1-4463-b092-b2e7311bd36a" CreationDate="2016-12-15T08:39:58.840" UserId="11857" Comment="Improved title, tags and formatting" Text="How to charge for web design and development?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16567" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6128" RevisionGUID="261d87e6-05d1-4463-b092-b2e7311bd36a" CreationDate="2016-12-15T08:39:58.840" UserId="11857" Comment="Improved title, tags and formatting" Text="|payments|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16568" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6128" RevisionGUID="261d87e6-05d1-4463-b092-b2e7311bd36a" CreationDate="2016-12-15T08:39:58.840" Comment="Proposed by 11857 approved by -1 edit id of 502" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16569" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6128" RevisionGUID="f1142aa2-934e-4b4e-be75-95811214013a" CreationDate="2016-12-15T08:39:58.840" UserId="7858" Comment="Improved title, tags and formatting" Text="I've been learning CSS, HTML and JavaScript for front end dev and also started learning Bootstrap. I've had a few of my dads friends tell me they want a website for their business. The website would just have a home page, about, contact, and gallery. So I was planning on using a free Bootstrap template to use as a foundation but tweak it to their needs. Is $70 a good price?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, If I plan to do more freelancing should I bother learning Ruby on Rails, Django, PHP, etc?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16570" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6344" RevisionGUID="7ab454d7-6c5c-4233-8663-7cda57fa56c8" CreationDate="2016-12-15T11:17:38.623" UserId="2265" Text="There is no law against being slightly rude or impolite, just social custom. And especially in sales cycles it can happen a lot that people don't reply for a multitude of reasons. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My own rule for this sort of thing: &#xD;&#xA;If *you* are the one who wants something, *you* need to go after it. &#xD;&#xA;If they want something, they must go after it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this case, you want the project. So you need go after it, you are the one selling. Just send a polite follow up. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16571" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6345" RevisionGUID="0fd7ca20-b842-4b14-99ae-fa3b4d9bccac" CreationDate="2016-12-15T13:30:44.363" UserId="7858" Text="In my experience, even seemingly eager clients can spend weeks deciding on whether to move ahead on a project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A client not replying could mean several things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Your offer was financially way out of their league and they are either offended or embarrassed by it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Your offer is within their means, but the internal processes at the client take time&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) The client is at a much earlier stage than you thought and they are merely testing the waters in order to estimate a budget which then needs approval&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) The client contact is on vacation, is sick, is forgetful, too stressed, lazy and so on&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next time you make an offer, adding an expiry date might speed up the process. Having said that, most clients know that they can most probably accept the offer even after expiry.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you haven't already, there is no harm in contacting the client and asking what they think. In fact, they would expect you to do so, since you are the seller. You should be the one pushing the process forward." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16572" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5797" RevisionGUID="d2cf65eb-999c-474a-bd6c-b56119ac3b83" CreationDate="2016-12-15T14:38:10.017" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16573" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6346" RevisionGUID="811f7104-6671-41b5-8aec-85a4fad1f607" CreationDate="2016-12-15T15:12:10.747" UserId="15698" Text="Any tip for finding clients located in my area/country from sites such as Upwork etc?&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;(I am looking for quick short projects, not necessarily paying well, and theyI think they are often advertised on such sites)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can google Upwork with country name, but I don't find it efficient.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16574" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6346" RevisionGUID="811f7104-6671-41b5-8aec-85a4fad1f607" CreationDate="2016-12-15T15:12:10.747" UserId="15698" Text="Finding local clients from international sites?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16575" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6346" RevisionGUID="811f7104-6671-41b5-8aec-85a4fad1f607" CreationDate="2016-12-15T15:12:10.747" UserId="15698" Text="|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16576" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6346" RevisionGUID="58aca1de-def8-4515-85b5-bd69ab346217" CreationDate="2016-12-15T15:39:46.297" UserId="15698" Comment="added 7 characters in body" Text="Any tip for finding clients located in my area/country from sites such as Upwork etc?&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;(I am looking for quick short projects, not necessarily paying well, and I would think such gigs are often advertised on such sites)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can google Upwork with country name, but I don't find it efficient.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16577" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6346" RevisionGUID="cf0e5cb9-21ab-4efb-a9f6-30c65f3426f7" CreationDate="2016-12-15T16:28:12.530" UserId="15698" Comment="added 19 characters in body" Text="Any tip for finding jobposts from local clients located in my area/country from sites such as Upwork etc?&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;(I am looking for quick short projects, not necessarily paying well, and I would think such gigs are often advertised on such sites)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can google Upwork with country name, but I don't find it efficient.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16578" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6347" RevisionGUID="6e163a64-c208-48c7-a2f9-a27d613624ac" CreationDate="2016-12-15T17:18:13.310" UserId="12034" Text="Lately, a couple of clients have been taking way too much of my time, in tasks such as:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - extensive, totally pointless meetings &#xD;&#xA; - endless discussions about assets sizing (basically they aren't sure about how to provide assets, and I'm just used to have a professional designer working on that, so I don't know a lot about it either)&#xD;&#xA; - deliberately pay invoices late, etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Besides changing my personality and stop being so &quot;polite&quot; to them, I see that, specifically in the second point, it is kind of my fault for not being clear enough about what my work will specifically be -and what other tasks will be client's responsability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I figured that there has to be way to be very clear about that, the same way I only sign their contracts (non disclure and payment contract), is there a way to be really specific about how I will work? Something like a contract for saying that I won't spend more than whatever time on meetings, and that I won't be responsible for any other thing that the programming I do, so assets and everything else besides programming will be client's responsability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or is there another way to manage clients that just don't realize that my paid work is for programming only?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16579" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6347" RevisionGUID="6e163a64-c208-48c7-a2f9-a27d613624ac" CreationDate="2016-12-15T17:18:13.310" UserId="12034" Text="Being clear about the way I work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16580" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6347" RevisionGUID="6e163a64-c208-48c7-a2f9-a27d613624ac" CreationDate="2016-12-15T17:18:13.310" UserId="12034" Text="|difficult-client|communication|overtime|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16581" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5803" RevisionGUID="8959e582-da27-4897-b57d-5322d335a854" CreationDate="2016-12-15T18:38:12.910" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16582" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6347" RevisionGUID="e36ca12f-c544-437e-a839-524db0881f7d" CreationDate="2016-12-15T19:12:02.593" UserId="75" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="Lately, a couple of clients have been taking way too much of my time, in tasks such as:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - extensive, totally pointless meetings &#xD;&#xA; - endless discussions about assets sizing (basically they aren't sure about how to provide assets, and I'm just used to have a professional designer working on that, so I don't know a lot about it either)&#xD;&#xA; - deliberately pay invoices late, etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Besides changing my personality and stop being so &quot;polite&quot; to them, I see that, specifically in the second point, it is kind of my fault for not being clear enough about what my work will specifically be -and what other tasks will be client's responsibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I figured that there has to be way to be very clear about that, the same way I only sign their contracts (non-disclosure and payment contract), is there a way to be really specific about how I will work? Something like a contract for saying that I won't spend more than whatever time on meetings, and that I won't be responsible for any other thing that the programming I do, so assets and everything else besides programming will be client's responsibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or is there another way to manage clients that just don't realize that my paid work is for programming only?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16583" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6348" RevisionGUID="867e04a4-a59a-416c-bcd1-fe0f5a4c69a2" CreationDate="2016-12-15T19:21:37.783" UserId="75" Text="It takes just one bad client to make you think about this... So true!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm hoping you are far enough in your career that you have other clients and other projects to work on as well. If not, read the next part; if you do, great!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have other work to do, then you need to explain to your clients what takes priority, what the due dates are, and that work does not continue without payment / escrow. As a freelancer, your time is valuable, and usually the only way you are making money. So, treat anyone who does not respect your time / life as someone who does not respect YOU / YOUR COMPANY.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a large project you are working on for this client, it needs to have milestones setup that are definable, and have a clear indication of what is considered &quot;complete&quot; for that step. It will be included with the Scope of Work. The client should sign off on various stages, and money should be paid once work has been shown to have been completed, before additional work happens.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for billing, make sure your bills go out *on time* and to the *right address / recipient*. Once the bill is sent in the mail or email, I set a reminder on my calendar for 30 days. If I have not received payment for that invoice by the 30 days, I send a reminder invoice, and a statement explaining that late fees apply unless the money is in my account in 14 days. If it's for a project, work would have already stopped while I wait, and the statement would reflect this. After that 14 days, a new invoice is made, including a late fee, and sent to the client explaining that they are past due. No work has been done otherwise with this client for the past 14 days, so not much is lost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the meetings are not being productive, then require them to send a meeting agenda ahead of time to all expected participants. If there is no use in you being there, explain politely that you have other projects to work on during that time, or that you are only available for *xx* minutes at *yy:zz* time. Set the limit, and stick to it! We've all wasted lots of time in meetings that could have been better spent elsewhere. You're the expect on your time and craft, so make it known!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do not have other clients, you can still use a lot of the advice above - remember, you need to spend time working on yourself / your business, and that also includes finding NEW clients as well. If you are stuck having just one client, then you are essentially an employee without benefits. Explain that you are busy during the meetings that you could do without, and use the time to expand your business, in any way you can." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16585" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6324" RevisionGUID="df894734-999e-41cd-9cc0-44601f832570" CreationDate="2016-12-15T21:45:24.930" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/809514723448385536" />
  <row Id="16586" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6349" RevisionGUID="6dff74e8-6abf-47bf-8640-4250c6d91c09" CreationDate="2016-12-15T22:08:13.660" UserId="1706" Text="&gt; taking way too much of my time&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client hasn't been taking too much of your time.   No, you've been **allowing** it.  If your client wants the privilege of having you sit through meetings while the staff gets all their ducks in a row, and you can't control how long these meetings take, then you need to be charging by the hour and not for a fixed price.  A fixed price situation is only good where the requirements for the work are **also** fixed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even all-you-can-eat restaurants have *reasonable boundaries* as to how much you're allowed to consume!  It appears the scope of your involvement in the project has changed materially, and you need to SPEAK UP, and get paid for the variance.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16587" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6350" RevisionGUID="21e09b1c-d944-4f42-bb02-eef74e3ca64e" CreationDate="2016-12-16T10:04:35.213" UserDisplayName="user14891" Text="Should I or can I edit my clients testimonials to make them more grammatically correct?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I allowed to use snippets of them, rather than the entire thing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or am I better not to edit them at all?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would never change them drastically to make myself look better than they are making me out to be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are people's thoughts on this? Have you done it yourself?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;This is more of an ethics based question." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16588" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6350" RevisionGUID="21e09b1c-d944-4f42-bb02-eef74e3ca64e" CreationDate="2016-12-16T10:04:35.213" UserDisplayName="user14891" Text="Can I modify clients testimonials?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16589" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6350" RevisionGUID="21e09b1c-d944-4f42-bb02-eef74e3ca64e" CreationDate="2016-12-16T10:04:35.213" UserDisplayName="user14891" Text="|attracting-clients|portfolio|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16590" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6351" RevisionGUID="412bad1e-f2ac-4078-8acd-44862e2a9a2a" CreationDate="2016-12-16T10:07:37.407" UserId="7486" Text="In addition to the good advices that was given already by others, I want just to say that after encountering a few clients exacly as you described, I made it very simple and added in the contract the following (in a nutshell):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; For the development of project &quot;A&quot; (as described in attached specs module &quot;B&quot;):&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; - $$$$ (fixed price)&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - $$ / hourly for all the extras not explicitly mentioned in the specs such as for example but not limited to: graphic elaboration, text typing, catalogues scans, photo retouch, extra meetings, software configuration, etc, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then in my contract I have section (the above said module &quot;B&quot; that is almost always the same that I personalize for each job) where I describe exactly the project in details, the specs for the assets and materials that they will give me (example: texts in standard DOC or ODT, pictures in high res JPG, data in XLS, SQL..., etc), and the last line says that it is included *up to* 3 meetings one hour each.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, for the 99.9% of the cases that is never necessary, and most of the times I do only 1 or 2 meetings (at begin and end) but if helps your client to understand that your time is precious as theirs and you have no time to lose, also when you encounter that painful client once in a while, you will be able to show him the contract that he signed, so if he wants to stay 4 hours a day to talk about pointless things, he will know that he will pay your hourly rate x n hours n days to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, this is for the *average* of my jobs. For particular, big or long term works we enstablish each time different personalized conditions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other times I do more than 3 meetings or make free favours to the clients to keep good relationships.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16591" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6352" RevisionGUID="51b979f8-23cd-4106-b106-2c16663bdeee" CreationDate="2016-12-16T10:15:24.540" UserId="7486" Text="When I find really ugly texts or errors in the texts that the client gives to me, I always correct them (limited to my mother tongue) and then I inform the client that I made the corrections. Usually they are fine with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16592" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6351" RevisionGUID="e3c777b9-c387-46db-9713-1e262d35b025" CreationDate="2016-12-16T12:10:17.260" UserId="7486" Comment="edited body" Text="In addition to the good advices that was given already by others, I want just to say that after encountering a few clients exacly as you described, I made it very simple and added in the contract the following (in a nutshell):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; For the development of project &quot;A&quot; (as described in attached specs module &quot;B&quot;):&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; - $$$$ (fixed price)&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - $$ / hourly for all the extras not explicitly mentioned in the specs such as for example but not limited to: graphic elaboration, text typing, catalogues scans, photo retouch, extra meetings, software configuration, etc, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then in my contract I have section (the above said module &quot;B&quot; that is almost always the same that I personalize for each job) where I describe exactly the project in details, the specs for the assets and materials that they will give me (example: texts in standard DOC or ODT, pictures in high res JPG, data in XLS, SQL..., etc), and the last line says that it is included *up to* 3 meetings one hour each.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, for the 99.9% of the cases that is never necessary, and most of the times I do only 1 or 2 meetings (at begin and end) but it helps your client to understand that your time is precious as theirs and you have no time to lose, also when you encounter that painful client once in a while, you will be able to show him the contract that he signed, so if he wants to stay 4 hours a day to talk about pointless things, he will know that he will pay your hourly rate x n hours to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, this is for the *average* of my jobs. For particular, big or long term works we enstablish each time different personalized conditions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other times I do more than 3 meetings or make free favours to the clients to keep good relationships.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16593" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6353" RevisionGUID="a467e6d2-e4e0-4657-b830-913baa14329f" CreationDate="2016-12-16T13:25:20.527" UserId="708" Text="This answer is based upon my 20 years experience of having legal departments review testimonials and approve/refuse edits. I am not a lawyer though. Almost every piece I design has many, many testimonials and they almost always go through *that* company's legal department for review. So, while I'm not a lawyer myself, I've gotten familiar with what I can and can't do with respect to testimonials.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For **testimonials**, generally no, you should not edit when possible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Testimonials are unlike other text. For legal reasons, what is reproduced must very closely resemble what was actually submitted. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You amy also want to consider the fact that some grammatical errors and non-standard usage may actually *lend to the credibility* of the testimonials themselves. People, in general, don't write casually using absolute proper English. So, it's not absolutely necessary to stick to proper English when reproducing casual conversation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* You can swap unclear pronouns for proper nouns at times if the testimonial is unclear what the subject refers to. Customarily these changes are denoted by brackets within the text, a la...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;It has been great!&quot; ----&gt; &quot;[Company] has been great!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;He taught me alot!&quot; ----&gt; &quot;[Joe] taught me alot&quot; &lt;sub&gt;(yes grammatical error was left as is)&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- You can insert words if they are missing, again brackets are used to designate the insertion, a la....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;The savings have unbelievable!&quot; ----&gt; &quot;The savings have [been] unbelievable!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Misspellings can generally be corrected without the need to designate the change.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;The savigns have been unbeleivable!&quot; --&gt; &quot;The savings have been unbelievable!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- *Most* grammatical errors should be left **as is**. Correcting a grammatical error is often more subjective based upon regional dialect and education level and can change the *intent* of the testimonial in some instances. Because of this, it is often best to *leave* grammatical errors as is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- You **can** truncate a testimonial, or only use part of what was submitted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;My cat, Snowball, hates winter. She likes to play in the leave in Autumn though. This product was fantastic at reducing her hairballs!&quot; --&gt; &quot;This product was fantastic at reducing hairballs!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should be aware that some legal departments have had issues with *overly* &quot;cherry-picking&quot; testimonials. Don't eliminate actual testimonial text that may be less than &quot;wonderful&quot; for the product/service if it's then followed by something you *do* wish to include. The **intent** of the testimonial should often remain. Again, this can also lend to the *credibility* of the testimonial itself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are overly concerned with an unintelligible testimonial, it's best to either *not* use that testimonial, or have a legal department review the changes you wish to make.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16594" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6353" RevisionGUID="88b6ded1-2264-47fc-b1fa-414ea68c5121" CreationDate="2016-12-16T13:33:13.673" UserId="708" Comment="added 665 characters in body" Text="This answer is based upon my 20 years experience of having legal departments review testimonials and approve/refuse edits. I am not a lawyer though. Almost every piece I design has many, many testimonials and they almost always go through *that* company's legal department for review. So, while I'm not a lawyer myself, I've gotten familiar with what I can and can't do with respect to testimonials.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For **testimonials**, generally no, you should not edit when possible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Testimonials are unlike other text. For legal reasons, what is reproduced must very closely resemble what was actually submitted. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You amy also want to consider the fact that some grammatical errors and non-standard usage may actually *lend to the credibility* of the testimonials themselves. People, in general, don't write casually using absolute proper English. So, it's not absolutely necessary to stick to proper English when reproducing casual conversation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* You can swap unclear pronouns for proper nouns at times if the testimonial is unclear what the subject refers to. Customarily these changes are denoted by brackets within the text, a la...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;It has been great!&quot; ----&gt; &quot;[Company] has been great!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;He taught me alot!&quot; ----&gt; &quot;[Joe] taught me alot&quot; &lt;sub&gt;(yes grammatical error was left as is)&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- You can insert words if they are missing, again brackets are used to designate the insertion, a la....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;The savings have unbelievable!&quot; ----&gt; &quot;The savings have [been] unbelievable!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Misspellings can generally be corrected without the need to designate the change.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;The savigns have been unbeleivable!&quot; --&gt; &quot;The savings have been unbelievable!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- *Most* grammatical errors should be left **as is**. Correcting a grammatical error is often more subjective based upon regional dialect and education level and can change the *intent* of the testimonial in some instances. Because of this, it is often best to *leave* grammatical errors as is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- You **can** truncate a testimonial, or only use part of what was submitted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;My cat, Snowball, hates winter. She likes to play in the leave in Autumn though. This product was fantastic at reducing her hairballs!&quot; --&gt; &quot;This product was fantastic at reducing hairballs!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Removing innocuous, unimportant, unrelated bits is generally okay. but anything which directly refers to the company/product/service should generally be left as is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should be aware that some legal departments have had issues with *overly* &quot;cherry-picking&quot; testimonials. Don't eliminate actual testimonial text that may be less than &quot;wonderful&quot; for the product/service if it's then followed by something you *do* wish to include. The **intent** of the testimonial should often remain. Again, this can also lend to the *credibility* of the testimonial itself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are overly concerned with an unintelligible testimonial, it's best to either *not* use that testimonial, or have a legal department review the changes you wish to make.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Testimonials are **quotes** and putting words into *someone else's mouth* can be haphazard and problematic. You should strive to leave things as they are quotesd as much as possible. It is *not* unheard of for a someone to see their name being used as a testimonial and be unhappy with how the *intent* of their quote has been changed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example... &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;I hate this company! All they do is steal for me. I wish I knew they existed years ago. Then I'd have a benchmark to avoid!&quot; &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*could* be edited down to &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;I wish I knew [Company] existed years ago.&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Which *completely* changes the *intent* of the quote... and can get you/the company into **a lot** of trouble.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16595" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6353" RevisionGUID="20dcd549-170a-4e0d-b737-92d9fd4cbe7d" CreationDate="2016-12-16T13:47:17.577" UserId="708" Comment="added 84 characters in body" Text="This answer is based upon my 20 years experience of having legal departments review testimonials and approve/refuse edits. I am not a lawyer though. Almost every piece I design has many, many testimonials and they almost always go through *that* company's legal department for review. So, while I'm not a lawyer myself, I've gotten familiar with what I can and can't do with respect to testimonials.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For **testimonials**, generally no, you should not edit when possible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Testimonials are unlike other text. For legal reasons, what is reproduced must very closely resemble what was actually submitted. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may also want to consider the fact that some grammatical errors and non-standard usage may actually *lend to the credibility* of the testimonials themselves. People, in general, don't write casually using absolute proper English. So, it's not absolutely necessary to stick to proper English when reproducing casual conversation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* You can swap unclear pronouns for proper nouns at times if the testimonial is unclear what the subject refers to. Customarily these changes are denoted by brackets within the text, a la...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;It has been great!&quot; ----&gt; &quot;[Company] has been great!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;He taught me alot!&quot; ----&gt; &quot;[Joe] taught me alot&quot; &lt;sub&gt;(yes grammatical error was left as is)&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- You can insert words if they are missing, again brackets are used to designate the insertion, a la....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;The savings have unbelievable!&quot; ----&gt; &quot;The savings have [been] unbelievable!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Misspellings can generally be corrected without the need to designate the change.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;The savigns have been unbeleivable!&quot; --&gt; &quot;The savings have been unbelievable!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- *Most* grammatical errors should be left **as is**. Correcting a grammatical error is often more subjective based upon regional dialect and education level and can change the *intent* of the testimonial in some instances. Because of this, it is often best to *leave* grammatical errors as is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- You **can** truncate a testimonial, or only use part of what was submitted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;My cat, Snowball, hates winter. She likes to play in the leave in Autumn though. This product was fantastic at reducing her hairballs!&quot; --&gt; &quot;This product was fantastic at reducing hairballs!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Removing innocuous, unimportant, unrelated bits is generally okay. but anything which directly refers to the company/product/service should generally be left as is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should be aware that some legal departments have had issues with *overly* &quot;cherry-picking&quot; testimonials. Don't eliminate actual testimonial text that may be less than &quot;wonderful&quot; for the product/service if it's then followed by something you *do* wish to include. The **intent** of the testimonial should often remain. Again, this can also lend to the *credibility* of the testimonial itself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are overly concerned with an unintelligible testimonial, it's best to either *not* use that testimonial, or have a legal department review the changes you wish to make.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Testimonials are **quotes** and putting words into *someone else's mouth* can be haphazard and problematic. You should strive to leave things as they are quotesd as much as possible. It is *not* unheard of for a someone to see their name being used as a testimonial and be unhappy with how the *intent* of their quote has been changed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example... &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;I signed up for SubscriptionB last year. I hate this company! All they do is steal from me. I wish I knew they existed years ago. Then I'd have a benchmark to avoid!&quot; &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*could* be edited down to &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;I signed up for Subscription B last year. I wish I knew [Company] existed years ago.&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Which *completely* changes the *intent* of the quote... and can get you/the company into **a lot** of trouble.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16596" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6353" RevisionGUID="9e472a49-bf7e-4c91-b696-0685e693d3d4" CreationDate="2016-12-16T13:53:13.323" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="This answer is based upon my 20 years experience of having legal departments review testimonials and approve/refuse edits. I am not a lawyer though. Almost every piece I design has many, many testimonials and they almost always go through *that* company's legal department for review. So, while I'm not a lawyer myself, I've gotten familiar with what I can and can't do with respect to testimonials.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For **testimonials**, generally no, you should not edit when possible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Testimonials are unlike other text. For legal reasons, what is reproduced must very closely resemble what was actually submitted. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may also want to consider the fact that some grammatical errors and non-standard usage may actually *lend to the credibility* of the testimonials themselves. People, in general, don't write casually using absolute proper English. So, it's not absolutely necessary to stick to proper English when reproducing casual conversation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* You can swap unclear pronouns for proper nouns at times if the testimonial is unclear what the subject refers to. Customarily these changes are denoted by brackets within the text, a la...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;It has been great!&quot; ----&gt; &quot;[Company] has been great!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;He taught me alot!&quot; ----&gt; &quot;[Joe] taught me alot&quot; &lt;sub&gt;(yes grammatical error was left as is)&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- You can insert words if they are missing, again brackets are used to designate the insertion, a la....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;The savings have unbelievable!&quot; ----&gt; &quot;The savings have [been] unbelievable!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Misspellings can generally be corrected without the need to designate the change.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;The savigns have been unbeleivable!&quot; --&gt; &quot;The savings have been unbelievable!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- *Most* grammatical errors should be left **as is**. Correcting a grammatical error is often more subjective based upon regional dialect and education level and can change the *intent* of the testimonial in some instances. Because of this, it is often best to *leave* grammatical errors as is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- You **can** truncate a testimonial, or only use part of what was submitted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;My cat, Snowball, hates winter. She likes to play in the leave in Autumn though. This product was fantastic at reducing her hairballs!&quot; --&gt; &quot;This product was fantastic at reducing hairballs!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Removing innocuous, unimportant, unrelated bits is generally okay. but anything which directly refers to the company/product/service should generally be left as is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should be aware that some legal departments have had issues with *overly* &quot;cherry-picking&quot; testimonials. Don't eliminate actual testimonial text that may be less than &quot;wonderful&quot; for the product/service if it's then followed by something you *do* wish to include. The **intent** of the testimonial should often remain. Again, this can also lend to the *credibility* of the testimonial itself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are overly concerned with an unintelligible testimonial, it's best to either *not* use that testimonial, or have a legal department review the changes you wish to make.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Testimonials are **quotes** and putting words into *someone else's mouth* can be haphazard and problematic. You should strive to leave things as they are quoted as much as possible. It is *not* unheard of for a someone to see their name being used as a testimonial and be unhappy with how the *intent* of their quote has been changed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example... &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;I signed up for SubscriptionB last year. I hate this company! All they do is steal from me. I wish I knew they existed years ago. Then I'd have a benchmark to avoid!&quot; &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*could* be edited down to &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;I signed up for Subscription B last year. I wish I knew [Company] existed years ago.&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Which *completely* changes the *intent* of the quote... and can get you/the company into **a lot** of trouble.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16597" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6353" RevisionGUID="38d20e9b-03db-4c85-8442-05a3844c68f7" CreationDate="2016-12-16T14:03:08.443" UserId="708" Comment="added 434 characters in body" Text="This answer is based upon my 20 years experience of having legal departments review testimonials and approve/refuse edits. I am not a lawyer though. Almost every piece I design has many, many testimonials and they almost always go through *that* company's legal department for review. So, while I'm not a lawyer myself, I've gotten familiar with what I can and can't do with respect to testimonials.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For **testimonials**, generally no, you should not edit when possible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Testimonials are unlike other text. For legal reasons, what is reproduced must very closely resemble what was actually submitted. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may also want to consider the fact that some grammatical errors and non-standard usage may actually *lend to the credibility* of the testimonials themselves. People, in general, don't write casually using absolute proper English. So, it's not absolutely necessary to stick to proper English when reproducing casual conversation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* You can swap unclear pronouns for proper nouns at times if the testimonial is unclear what the subject refers to. Customarily these changes are denoted by brackets within the text, a la...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;It has been great!&quot; ----&gt; &quot;[Company] has been great!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;He taught me alot!&quot; ----&gt; &quot;[Joe] taught me alot&quot; &lt;sub&gt;(yes grammatical error was left as is)&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- You can insert words if they are missing, again brackets are used to designate the insertion, a la....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;The savings have unbelievable!&quot; ----&gt; &quot;The savings have [been] unbelievable!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Misspellings can generally be corrected without the need to designate the change.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;The savigns have been unbeleivable!&quot; --&gt; &quot;The savings have been unbelievable!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- *Most* grammatical errors should be left **as is**. Correcting a grammatical error is often more subjective based upon regional dialect and education level and can change the *intent* of the testimonial in some instances. Because of this, it is often best to *leave* grammatical errors as is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- You **can** truncate a testimonial, or only use part of what was submitted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;My cat, Snowball, hates winter. She likes to play in the leave in Autumn though. This product was fantastic at reducing her hairballs!&quot; --&gt; &quot;This product was fantastic at reducing hairballs!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Removing innocuous, unimportant, unrelated bits is generally okay. but anything which directly refers to the company/product/service should generally be left as is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should be aware that some legal departments have had issues with *overly* &quot;cherry-picking&quot; testimonials. Don't eliminate actual testimonial text that may be less than &quot;wonderful&quot; for the product/service if it's then followed by something you *do* wish to include. The **intent** of the testimonial should often remain. Again, this can also lend to the *credibility* of the testimonial itself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are overly concerned with an unintelligible testimonial, it's best to either *not* use that testimonial, or have a legal department review the changes you wish to make.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Testimonials are **quotes** and putting words into *someone else's mouth* can be haphazard and problematic. You should strive to leave things as they are quoted as much as possible. It is *not* unheard of for a someone to see their name being used as a testimonial and be unhappy with how the *intent* of their quote has been changed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example... &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;I signed up for SubscriptionB last year. I hate this company! All they do is steal from me. I wish I knew they existed years ago. Then I'd have a benchmark to avoid!&quot; &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*could* be edited down to &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;I signed up for Subscription B last year. I wish I knew [Company] existed years ago.&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Which *completely* changes the *intent* of the quote... and can get you/the company into **a lot** of trouble.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my world, for my clients, the clients *have* to retain the original testimonial letter/email/video/whatever for comparison. And I have worked with companies in the past where the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reviewed testimonials. So, when comparing the original quote to what was reproduced, it should *always* be clear that they are essentially the same quote and not overly edited to meet a sales goal. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16598" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6352" RevisionGUID="0ead0605-9ad7-47f3-bc9b-4b5e2c5138ae" CreationDate="2016-12-16T14:04:11.007" UserId="7486" Comment="added details" Text="When I find really ugly texts or errors in the texts that the client gives to me, I always correct them (limited to my mother tongue) and then I inform the client that I made the corrections. Usually they are fine with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even for testimonials, as long as you don't change the actual meaning and you only correct the typos or wrong verbs, it is fine, for three reasons: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. If you put testimonials name and surname along with the bad written phrases and typos, if you correct the text, it will be for their good reputation also, I think they will appreciate it, I guess.&#xD;&#xA;2. If I am in a website (or other media) and I read testimonials with clearly wrong grammar, ugly verbs and others what I think is: A) The company didn't pay enough attention to review typos; B) That company doesen't pay enough attention to what its webmaster is publishing on the site; C) That company's clients are ignorant.&#xD;&#xA;3. I don't want to be associated with these company's clients since they are ignorant clients and I am not :) But this is more a subconscius matter...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also understand completely what Scott says that testimonials are people's direct quotes, but IMHO it is good to correct and properly format even the direct quotes, not changing anything of the exact meaning, in a global view of the good quality of the project, respecting the testimonials themselves, the company and the user experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16599" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6354" RevisionGUID="04461af6-f0c4-4eb3-b2b0-a133ce20000c" CreationDate="2016-12-16T16:23:15.757" UserId="5556" Text="A friend and I are kicking around the idea of starting a freelance website very similar to upwork odesk etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Only difference is ours would be completely free and ad supported, hopefully before we get too big we could generate enough revenue to justify paying for better hosting than what we are currently thinking of, which is hosting it from our houses and using an email relay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have seen the complaints about upwork and read a couple articles about how much other freelance IT sites charge a lot in commissions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The price for us to run the site will be fairly minimal, we are thinking about $20 a month for the email relay, $1 for the first year for the domain provided we can find a good one no one else is squatting. The price of internet to our homes provided we don't get blacklisted or DDOSed. I have a couple good servers sitting around collecting dust. Figure have everyone use paypal to take care of payment or what ever method they agree on to keep that part out of my hands.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It should take about 3 months from start to finish before going live. So the only ture investment is out time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My though are, and correct me if im wrong please. I should have no problem getting IT people to sign up, being in the freelance IT world for about 15 years Im pretty sure of the demand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to get the people that will actually pay the IT people to go and use the site? Besides SEOing the crap out of the site is there any other things I might think about before setting out on the endeavor?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes before anyone asks we are a little crazy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16600" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6354" RevisionGUID="04461af6-f0c4-4eb3-b2b0-a133ce20000c" CreationDate="2016-12-16T16:23:15.757" UserId="5556" Text="Thinking about designing a freelance website How to get customers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16601" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6354" RevisionGUID="04461af6-f0c4-4eb3-b2b0-a133ce20000c" CreationDate="2016-12-16T16:23:15.757" UserId="5556" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16602" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6354" RevisionGUID="045dff2e-4032-4829-b941-f98d5cd7af3c" CreationDate="2016-12-16T16:35:36.050" UserId="5556" Comment="better clarity of the question." Text="A friend and I are kicking around the idea of starting a freelance website very similar to upwork odesk etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Only difference is ours would be completely free and ad supported, hopefully before we get too big we could generate enough revenue to justify paying for better hosting than what we are currently thinking of, which is hosting it from our houses and using an email relay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have seen the complaints about upwork and read a couple articles about how much other freelance IT sites charge a lot in commissions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The price for us to run the site will be fairly minimal, we are thinking about $20 a month for the email relay, $1 for the first year for the domain provided we can find a good one no one else is squatting. The price of internet to our homes provided we don't get blacklisted or DDOSed. I have a couple good servers sitting around collecting dust. Figure have everyone use paypal to take care of payment or what ever method they agree on to keep that part out of my hands.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It should take about 3 months from start to finish before going live. So the only ture investment is out time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My though are, and correct me if im wrong please. I should have no problem getting IT people to sign up, being in the freelance IT world for about 15 years Im pretty sure of the demand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to get the people that will actually pay the IT people to go and use the site? Besides SEOing the crap out of the site is there any other things I might think about before setting out on the endeavor?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind Im not looking for ideas of how to get anyone to my website, but how did upwork, odesk etc, build the trust and relationship with paying clients to stop by their website in the first place?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes before anyone asks we are a little crazy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16603" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6354" RevisionGUID="045dff2e-4032-4829-b941-f98d5cd7af3c" CreationDate="2016-12-16T16:35:36.050" UserId="5556" Comment="better clarity of the question." Text="Thinking about designing a free freelance website How to get customers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16604" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6355" RevisionGUID="af667a77-b47b-4592-b403-7a75bfb6e259" CreationDate="2016-12-16T20:43:11.520" UserId="15709" Text="I think it's a great idea, but it is all about reputation that you build over time, you have to grant secure payments and make the clients and freelancers feel secure in a reliable platform for both. You can only start and build your reputation little by little.&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16605" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6356" RevisionGUID="c55cb94b-f4df-4860-9bb7-a2a9eb10c97c" CreationDate="2016-12-17T00:10:27.820" UserId="15709" Text="I completed a code work for a client, he accepted it and approved. &#xD;&#xA;The only thing we have are a few emails we exchanged with quotes and descriptions of what to do.&#xD;&#xA;I have an email where he say the work is good and they are haopy with it.&#xD;&#xA;We agreed by email that he will pay me after the job was completed. I gave the work and he wanted to test it and then pay me. But a few months passed and he always say that he will pay soon but then weeks pass and he don't pay, I email him asking to get payd, he say that is ok he will soon but then nothing happens, and so on...&#xD;&#xA;The money that he has to pay me are not worth a legal action, I would spend almost the same for a lawyer, so I cant proceed in that way, but at same time I would like to get payd for the work done also because they accepted it.&#xD;&#xA;What should I do? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16606" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6356" RevisionGUID="c55cb94b-f4df-4860-9bb7-a2a9eb10c97c" CreationDate="2016-12-17T00:10:27.820" UserId="15709" Text="Client procastinate payments over and over" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16607" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6356" RevisionGUID="c55cb94b-f4df-4860-9bb7-a2a9eb10c97c" CreationDate="2016-12-17T00:10:27.820" UserId="15709" Text="|difficult-client|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16608" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6357" RevisionGUID="b6ca3971-af17-4482-b1a9-58da26b2d32a" CreationDate="2016-12-17T00:48:05.950" UserId="15709" Text="I have worked as programmer a couple of years in a translation and copywriting studio and to make orthographic and grammatical corrections to any text, citation, speeches or quoting was mandatory. The guideline was that is totally unacceptable to produce any publishable text that contains such errors. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The story that someone can sue you because you did grammatical or orthographic correction (without changing the meaning) on any text is totally ridiculous, is a nonsense, is like if someone sue you because you take away some dirt from the road leaving it clean, or like if you fix a bug in a script.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am having a hard time to believe that any honest competent lawyer will want to assist you wanting to sue another because he corrected your mispelled writing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16609" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6358" RevisionGUID="003b9d74-f2da-452e-90cb-8f46123a81dc" CreationDate="2016-12-17T08:57:08.193" UserId="10374" Text="From what I saw recently on French site launching their own up work like and from what I have to for my own business. It is a lot of communication/marketing and SEO strategy.  I also recommend to have a look in any meetup locally that could help your promotion. . &#xD;&#xA;If you have access to some it already it is a good start as the customer can already have access to services. &#xD;&#xA;2 things : you should really handle the paiement as it is what will help you build the trust because you will manage the disputes. &#xD;&#xA;The other thing is that you should find a way to differentiate (apart from the free which is not enough I think).&#xD;&#xA;Hope it will helps and good luck. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16611" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6360" RevisionGUID="b95a9a15-0b15-4557-a013-c68c5f262318" CreationDate="2016-12-17T21:51:07.460" UserId="12865" Text="Well i saw a very important error on your part, Never but never send the work before payment. If he want to test it or see it work then do a screen share on skype and show him the product working. Send the product once payment is done not before or in procesing state. &#xA;&#xA;For the second part keep telling him, he will get tired and will pay you, if not I would make sure that no one accept any job from him again. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16612" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6356" RevisionGUID="03af96d5-7697-454b-bebd-dfa6f2e06488" CreationDate="2016-12-18T00:52:58.983" UserId="15276" Comment="Edited title (shorter and concise) and content (readability with spacing)." Text="I completed a code work for a client; he accepted it and approved.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only thing we have are a few emails we exchanged with quotes and descriptions of what to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have an email where he say the work is good and they are happy with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We agreed by email that he will pay me after the job was completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I gave the work and he wanted to test it and then pay me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Months after, he kept assuring to paying soon but never kept to his words.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I email him asking about my pay, it yield the same result; *[...] that he will pay me*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Taking a legal action wouldn't be worth the cost (based on the amount he owes me); I would have spent almost the same for a lawyer: that's not a feasible option.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't afford either to let go because I would like to be payed for the work done since he accepted it as executed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I do in order to get my pay?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16613" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6356" RevisionGUID="03af96d5-7697-454b-bebd-dfa6f2e06488" CreationDate="2016-12-18T00:52:58.983" UserId="15276" Comment="Edited title (shorter and concise) and content (readability with spacing)." Text="Payments overly procastinated" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16614" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6356" RevisionGUID="03af96d5-7697-454b-bebd-dfa6f2e06488" CreationDate="2016-12-18T00:52:58.983" Comment="Proposed by 15276 approved by 15709 edit id of 503" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16615" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6361" RevisionGUID="161bbdd2-ad3e-4c37-966f-cb34d6b07aad" CreationDate="2016-12-18T03:30:13.767" UserId="708" Text="If you can't take legal action because it is cost prohibitive (although small claims doesn't require lawyers), then your only real option is to keep bugging the client until they pay. Just don't do any *more* work until you are paid for previous work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16616" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6350" RevisionGUID="29f369cd-6e3c-488a-bdb7-cb04924d688c" CreationDate="2016-12-18T10:03:26.663" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/810425230493708293" />
  <row Id="16617" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6343" RevisionGUID="8763c474-63ad-4f08-a0f5-63fa077eece5" CreationDate="2016-12-18T10:07:24.740" UserId="9910" Comment="Improve readability and extend the answer." Text="I faced and still facing the same situation. My recommendations are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Go to several meetings, enterpreneur events, same tech networkings and so on. After that the people from similar businesses are more familiar with me and even they make the call. When I call there is a real connection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Take some testimonials from people, no companies, that have managing positions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Identify their needs. I have a design background and many design studios can't communicate properly with developers (in my region at least). So there's where I fit and can bring more value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. After that cold calling is easier. I know exactly who to call, the arguments to use and have references from similar customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other day I visited a company to offer my services after exchange two emails (one for Hi, one for Thanks, there I will be). They know me from my coworking, but never spoke before. We have not started to work together, but they were willing to collaborate and even offered me a position in their team. The influence of people around and the familiarity was everything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope it helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16618" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5811" RevisionGUID="b313b953-cf29-4fc5-bf9e-7f970fc41a44" CreationDate="2016-12-18T10:10:35.530" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16619" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6362" RevisionGUID="fb683fd2-d372-4cf8-b4d5-2de366a0129c" CreationDate="2016-12-18T15:24:30.457" UserId="9910" Text="I did some content writing a few years ago and have hired many content creators. I didn't make big money or write in important magazines. It was about Joomla mainly, but these are my recomendations:&#xA;&#xA; 1. Keep it simple and focused. Being an expert is very good and you will focus all of your time in one thing.&#xA; 2. Remove all other stuff from your profile. Once I received a CV half page long. Very honest, lack of extensive exlerience or excellent work, but focused on what I was looking for. Hired.&#xA;3. Write as a guest blogger. You will have examples and recomendations.&#xA;&#xA;You don't need much more. Don't start a blog (in my opinion) yet, just focus." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16620" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6363" RevisionGUID="cfbf22d5-d992-44ef-a686-4f07222c94f9" CreationDate="2016-12-18T15:32:56.573" UserId="9910" Text="Full time freelancer living in Spain here. You must register as an &quot;*Autonomo*&quot; after you reach the top of selling professional services, more or less 2000€ for unemployed people last time I checked it.&#xA;&#xA;Check if your contract allows it.&#xA;&#xA;It may vary depending on the &quot;*Comunidad Autonoma*&quot; in which you are living or your work, so go to &quot;*Seguridad Social*&quot; and ask for selling &quot;*Servicios Profesionales*&quot;.&#xA;&#xA;Hope it helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16621" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6364" RevisionGUID="44cb16f1-df5e-42d6-9b40-7f7d049ad83e" CreationDate="2016-12-18T16:49:49.240" UserId="13016" Text="Even if a legal resolution results in no net profit, having done it could be helpful in the future.  You will be able to honestly claim to a future client that a legal resolution is a possibility and that you've done it before.  @Scott makes a good suggestion, too.  Small claims court is pretty cheap." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16622" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6347" RevisionGUID="4ad0a908-c0d2-4440-90fc-7dee84cfd025" CreationDate="2016-12-19T01:11:38.050" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/810653783751618560" />
  <row Id="16623" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6356" RevisionGUID="0c570c72-2d9b-4037-8643-a1df94788d52" CreationDate="2016-12-19T07:17:12.613" UserId="13016" Comment="spelling and punctuation" Text="I completed a code work for a client; he accepted it and approved.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only thing we have are a few emails we exchanged with quotes and descriptions of what to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have an email where he says the work is good and they are happy with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We agreed by email that he will pay me after the job was completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I gave the work and he wanted to test it and then pay me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Months after, he kept assuring to paying soon but never kept to his words.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I email him asking about my pay, it yields the same result; *[...] that he will pay me*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Taking a legal action wouldn't be worth the cost (based on the amount he owes me); I would have spent almost the same for a lawyer: that's not a feasible option.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't afford either to let go because I would like to be paid for the work done, since he accepted it as executed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I do in order to get my pay?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16624" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6356" RevisionGUID="0c570c72-2d9b-4037-8643-a1df94788d52" CreationDate="2016-12-19T07:17:12.613" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 14455, 7486 edit id of 504" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16628" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6366" RevisionGUID="8a4f0b4f-45c8-4666-9675-40f055f5bba6" CreationDate="2016-12-19T07:43:17.787" UserId="7858" Text="Depending on your location, you might have options such as small claims court or some type of collections service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have only sent low-conflict emails, you need to escalate the issue. In my location (Denmark), that would mean sending a formally worded letter stating that payment is outstanding and you therefore have no other option than involving appropriate third parties unless payment is received within a week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the above is not an option or is fruitless as well, all you can hope for is that the client returns needing bug-fixes or additional functionality. At this stage you must demand full payment before continuing the conversation. In addition, for any future work - I would demand pre-payment, given the client's lack of discipline." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16629" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6367" RevisionGUID="31f17e83-da66-462f-916a-822089c13519" CreationDate="2016-12-19T07:46:51.300" UserId="15709" Text="I think noone here can answer your question because it is a very complicated task that involves local, national and international laws.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You shoud definitely go to a professional accountant to have all the answers tailored for your situation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16630" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6368" RevisionGUID="0776b25c-89c9-44ee-b221-72322a181c01" CreationDate="2016-12-19T08:53:29.877" UserId="15709" Text="I am aware that I am not so good at interact with clients, but I am also aware that I am a skilled programmer with years of experience in many fields, actually my work rates are higher than the average, the problem is that once in a while some clients takes advantage of the fact that I am not able to &quot;sell myself&quot; in the proper way or I am not good in imposing myself when it comes to contracts etc, in fact I was ok as employee when I just had to do my job and other cared about selling, payments, etc, but with crisis in this moment what I can do is freelancing, but I'm ok with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because of that, I thought that maybe I could take advantage myself of some more impersonal way of work as it could be a freelancer site like Upwork for example, also they offer a payment guarantee where the client will make deposits for the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I want to achieve is to be active in Upwork (to say one of them) but not playing the &quot;lowest price&quot; competition with others, I don't want to have huge amount of underpayd jobs, I want to have a few good paying jobs that I can develope with quality in the proper amount of time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to enter with my actual hourly rate which is higher than the average (still is not between the highest), because I want to be payd for what I can do and I don't want to work 16 hours a day in competition with ridicolous prices like I saw there $7/$10 per hour which is impossible, my prices would be around 10 times these ones.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, english is not my main language, I can easily read, write, communicate efficiently in written form (within my limits), but when it comes to skype meetings I think I would be in difficulty to keep a good conversation (while in general I would be enough good to express myself and understand spoken english).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you have any experience in that? Do you think that is it possible to do what I want to do? Is it a normal path to start with very low prices close to zero and then raise them as you complete work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice or suggestion is warmly welcome.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16631" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6368" RevisionGUID="0776b25c-89c9-44ee-b221-72322a181c01" CreationDate="2016-12-19T08:53:29.877" UserId="15709" Text="How to enter freelance websites with high rates since the beginning" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16632" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6368" RevisionGUID="0776b25c-89c9-44ee-b221-72322a181c01" CreationDate="2016-12-19T08:53:29.877" UserId="15709" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|difficult-client|pay-rate|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16633" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6369" RevisionGUID="0f1526dc-dff8-474a-b246-d1b8f1f889b2" CreationDate="2016-12-19T13:00:35.143" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="I'm not sure what it is about this time of year, but I often get people from foreign countries emailing me with work requests (I'm a UK based graphic designer).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've only ever done work for those based in the UK, but I hate turning work down, especially when it's something quite interesting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it quite likely that they might be contacting me because it will be easier to get away with not paying? I imagine the Small Claims Court is only good for when dealing with UK based businesses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm sure it can't be that hard to find a designer at least in the same continent as them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There was one occasion where a guy based in Africa was trying to con me out of £1000, but that was just so obvious that it wasn't genuine. However I've had other requests that *do* seem genuine, but have turned them down just to be on the safe side.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any thoughts are appreciated" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16634" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6369" RevisionGUID="0f1526dc-dff8-474a-b246-d1b8f1f889b2" CreationDate="2016-12-19T13:00:35.143" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="Enquiries from overseas" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16635" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6369" RevisionGUID="0f1526dc-dff8-474a-b246-d1b8f1f889b2" CreationDate="2016-12-19T13:00:35.143" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="|payment-terms|attracting-clients|payments|evaluating-clients|foreign-markets|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16636" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6370" RevisionGUID="276ad909-cbe5-4265-a487-e61d7a7523e6" CreationDate="2016-12-19T13:45:13.230" UserId="12652" Text="I think your best chance is freelancers bringing their customers to your site. I would definitly do it, I like the functionality of upwork but the huge service fees are ruining me.&#xD;&#xA;Of course SEO and advertising is also important to bring people to your site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let me know if you need beta-testers ;) " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16637" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6371" RevisionGUID="2feb78f9-f6b6-49b1-9816-46243450d6ac" CreationDate="2016-12-19T15:55:58.187" UserId="15709" Text="With 99,9% of probability is about phishing or malware. They even copy existing templates of real requests from real companies, they attach a zip or pdf with malware then you get some virus or cryptolocker... then you are blackmailed and in trouble with your computers... just ignore them!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16638" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6368" RevisionGUID="1f5b9efd-616c-4ab2-810f-8e7022bb42b1" CreationDate="2016-12-19T16:12:17.680" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/810880442811420672" />
  <row Id="16643" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6373" RevisionGUID="55404f96-d708-4390-ae53-3b292d6a1182" CreationDate="2016-12-19T21:51:10.070" UserId="1018" Text="Whether dealing with local or overseas clients, you ideally want them to take a stake in the project before starting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I achieve this on most projects by asking for 50% of my fee up front.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Using this method, you'll soon find out if you are dealing with a scammer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16648" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6373" RevisionGUID="0e3650e6-a7ff-4200-a2cb-20bcea65c3f6" CreationDate="2016-12-19T22:06:12.447" UserId="1018" Comment="added 69 characters in body; added 82 characters in body" Text="Whether dealing with local or overseas clients, you ideally want them to take a stake in the project before starting (otherwise it can be easy for them to walk away for whatever reason).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I achieve this on most projects by asking for 50% of my fee up front.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Using this method, you'll soon find out if you are dealing with a scammer as anyone who is serious should see this as a professional and reasonable request." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16649" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6350" RevisionGUID="714682df-4aae-4a8d-80e6-77ea1c4cb46f" CreationDate="2016-12-20T05:34:29.923" UserDisplayName="user14891" Comment="added an example; deleted 1116 characters in body" Text="Should I or can I edit my clients testimonials to make them more grammatically correct?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I allowed to use snippets of them, rather than the entire thing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or am I better not to edit them at all?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would never change them drastically to make myself look better than they are making me out to be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are people's thoughts on this? Have you done it yourself?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;**This is more of an ethics based question.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16650" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6376" RevisionGUID="f4bba061-0933-4b92-8aac-306dbaf6c6f0" CreationDate="2016-12-20T09:52:09.107" UserId="15709" Text="I have worked a couple of years in a translations and copywriting studio as a programmer, but I saw there that writers were hired after personal (or skype) meetings and after test jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They usually received a lot of CV and contacts with examples references like blogs, articles, etc, but they mostly ignored that because (guess what) parts of the blogs and articles were copy/paste from others! Yes, incredible but if you would copy a sentence from their blogs and search in Google, you could find other blogs with the same articles, so who wrote what? You can't deduce that from the CV&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is an overload of online blogs, in the company they used to give more value to referral letters and undisputably recognizable phisical or online publishings, for a first contact, then they used to have a face to face talk and then a first testing job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16651" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6377" RevisionGUID="cc8853d4-4c7f-4fdc-b0c3-3326e104415b" CreationDate="2016-12-20T10:40:18.280" UserId="9910" Text="I understand your problem. What helped me to develop a profile is the following:&#xA;&#xA;Make it clear from the beginning your prices and years of experience. Don't justify it, there are always jobs/projects that require skilled people, and projects that don't. Act accordingly to your experience.&#xA;&#xA;If you have many years of experience a portfolio with a few huge/hard projects and former employees testimonials would be nice.&#xA;&#xA;Use a short brieff and be goal oriented. My customers value that the most.&#xA;&#xA;If you have an engineering degree use it, show it off. A customer once hired me instead of her daughter because of my degree and seriousness. People value formal education, especially if they know that their position requires it.&#xA;&#xA;You need to apply the right projects and choose carefully your words (be patient and work hard). Price is always a competitive factor, be aware that there may be people as skilled as you with better profiles and lower rates.&#xA;&#xA;All the above is as valuable as ***Just do it***.&#xA;&#xA;Hope it helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16652" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6362" RevisionGUID="7872a621-ae85-49c4-a545-2727afbd2585" CreationDate="2016-12-20T11:19:34.203" UserId="9910" Comment="Improve grammar and legibility." Text="I did some content writing a few years ago and have hired many content creators. I didn't make big money or write in important magazines. It was about Joomla mainly, but these are my recommendations:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Keep it simple and focused. Being an expert is very good and you&#xD;&#xA;    will focus all of your time in one thing.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Remove all other stuff from your profile. Once I received a CV half&#xD;&#xA;    page long. Very honest, lack of extensive experience or excellent&#xD;&#xA;    work, but focused on what I was looking for. Hired.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Write as a guest blogger. You will have examples and recommendations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't need much more. Don't start a blog (in my opinion) yet, just focus." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16653" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6378" RevisionGUID="8c833b82-a1e0-4342-a35c-85147a9d83ab" CreationDate="2016-12-20T14:41:37.610" UserId="15709" Text="Something like one year ago I did a simple project for a client on his already existing website. Actually he is someone I know (friend of friends...) and we have only verbal agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is an automated procedure that store the users data in a database, make some queries, return automated emails with attachments, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I gave the work ready to use, he had to compile text, add attachments, etc. He did that part all alone I gave only the clean working software. He payd me and all ok.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few months ago he asked me to make some minor changes that I did, but when entering the site I saw that he is selling courses that are literally copied by other courses and adapted to his needs. There are video from TV channels, pictures from Google searches, pieces of movies, PDF and any other thing that was grabbed ready from Internet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I told him that he can't sell these materials since it's a copyright infingement, but he answered me &quot;Don't worry, all that is publicly visible is original, I took this materials only for teaching purposes and also is sent one-to-one in private email address, so noone will find out and also they can't make my emails public because they will break the privacy laws&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have no contract or anything with him, and I don't want to be involved in any problem. Do you think that I should make him sign some releasing agreement? If he will have legal problems can I be involved too?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16654" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6378" RevisionGUID="8c833b82-a1e0-4342-a35c-85147a9d83ab" CreationDate="2016-12-20T14:41:37.610" UserId="15709" Text="I found out that a client is using the work I did for him to sell fraud courses" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16655" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6378" RevisionGUID="8c833b82-a1e0-4342-a35c-85147a9d83ab" CreationDate="2016-12-20T14:41:37.610" UserId="15709" Text="|freelance-websites|difficult-client|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16656" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6377" RevisionGUID="0c394812-5eca-4312-afda-649fac8564c0" CreationDate="2016-12-20T14:42:14.647" UserId="9910" Comment="Improve grammar and legibility." Text="I understand your problem. What helped me to develop a profile is the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make clear from the beginning your prices and years of experience. Don't justify it, there are always jobs/projects that require skilled people, and projects that don't. Act accordingly to your experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have many years of experience a portfolio with a few huge/hard projects and former employees testimonials would be nice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use a short brieff and be goal oriented. My customers value that the most.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have an engineering degree use it, show it off. A customer once hired me instead of her daughter because of my degree and seriousness. People value formal education, especially if they know that their position requires it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to apply the right projects and choose carefully your words (be patient and work hard). Price is always a competitive factor, be aware that there may be people as skilled as you with better profiles and lower rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All the above is as valuable as ***Just do it***.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope it helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16657" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6379" RevisionGUID="5a0bff4c-6fc7-4906-9244-aecdb0c9c664" CreationDate="2016-12-20T15:06:46.447" UserId="7486" Text="You should take the routine to make any client (friends, family, or not) sign a well done contract (you can [search here][1] to find many posts about that) that contains also a releasing agreement on any material that he will give you or that he will use independently on your sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this case, I'm not a lawyer but I don't think that you can be involved in anything illegal, since you produced a &quot;clean&quot; software that he used for his purposes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would be like if you build an empty site with Wordpress for a client, and then he fills it with copyrighted materials. Or if you sell cooking knifes and then someone use it for an armed robbery.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any case, if you will have a signed contract from the client will always be better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/search?q=contract%20is%3Aquestion" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16658" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6380" RevisionGUID="b7e2164f-3321-48e0-bf0f-f9667598bb98" CreationDate="2016-12-20T15:19:36.453" UserId="14562" Text="The short answer is 'yes', you can start with a higher rate. People who participate in the race to the bottom form a separate layer - you don't start there and then work your way to the top. By pricing yourself higher you immediately say that you're of a different caliber.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I write this from the perspective of someone who hires on UpWork. The one thing that sets applicants apart from the rest is excellent customer service. If you take the time to understand and respond to the client's brief you're already doing more than 80% of applicants.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You do this by:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Actually reading the brief&#xD;&#xA;2. Send a personalised response that specifically answers how you would do the work&#xD;&#xA;3. If you can, already produce some work. I'm not a supporter of free work but that is the one thing that has swung it for me many times. Not because I get free work but because it allows me to quickly see how trustworthy and skilled the applicant is. Tests are one thing, actual work quite another.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apply these diligently and you will find well-paying work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These are taken from a more in-depth article here:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelance-survivor.com/freelancing-sites-how-can-you-get-your-first-job/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16659" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6381" RevisionGUID="69822134-124e-456f-8f72-b2aec8217878" CreationDate="2016-12-20T15:48:23.983" UserId="14562" Text="as many people have said here already, there is no 'correct' rate for a given piece of work. I've often been amazed by how much freelance rates vary. I've literally been paid a different of 300% for the same kind of work, by clients that were of a similar size and had their offices less than 500m from each other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While in the long run you can essentially charge whatever you want, this is very difficult when you're first starting out - and you ask about how to calculate your rate when you've never started freelancing before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What has worked really well for me is to calculate the lowest possible rate you need to earn to still put food on the table.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Take your monthly expenses (just check your bank statement)&#xD;&#xA;2. Add 25% for tax&#xD;&#xA;2. Divide by 112 (4 days per week * 7 hours per day * 4 weeks per month)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**This gives you your minimum rate.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then go out and find clients. If they pay you more than the minimum, you're winning. You will make mistakes and you will undercharge, however that can be adjusted upwards as you go. It's more important that you learn the business of freelancing than make a killing right from the outset.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Calculation taken from http://freelance-survivor.com/conquer-your-freelance-pricing-anxiety-in-just-5-minutes/]" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16660" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6382" RevisionGUID="44de59d4-5689-497f-8544-4836b4729939" CreationDate="2016-12-20T15:55:25.897" UserId="14562" Text="I hire on UpWork, so can answer this from the other side of the equation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a general rule, 80% of applicants will send generic applications that may as well come from a robot. By sending personal replies that are specific to the job you're bidding on, you are already 'winning'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The one single thing that has made the biggest impact for me on software development projects are people that have done some of the work already. This easily beats people that have higher ratings and more experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not about me getting free work - in every case I have paid them more than the original bid. A small part of up-front work quickly addresses the questions of trust and whether the freelancer has the skills to complete the work. It also shows a high level of personal commitment and the interest to deliver work quickly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a nutshell:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Read the project description very carefully.&#xD;&#xA;2. Write a personal response.&#xD;&#xA;3. Explain how you would solve the problem.&#xD;&#xA;4. Do a bit of work up-front [optional - you'll already do well with 1 to 3]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[mostly taken from here, which also has more good advice: http://freelance-survivor.com/freelancing-sites-how-can-you-get-your-first-job/]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck &amp; let us know how you get on!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16661" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6383" RevisionGUID="a9afc4db-ca7a-4664-bd83-76d43013c86f" CreationDate="2016-12-20T18:27:20.813" UserId="708" Text="Truth is.. **even a contract won't protect you** if you *knowingly* do something illegal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine this... a woman hires you to steal her friends car.... you make her sign a contract that she is *actually* the thief and you are released from all liability and are only doing what you are hired to do. You steal the car... do you think the contract saves you from any criminal pursuit? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, if you *know* what the client is doing is infringement, assisting means you *are guilty as well*, regardless of any contract or verbal agreement. The *only* option you have is to **not** do the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given all this. If you are merely writing software to manipulate data and are *not* involved with anything he's &quot;borrowing&quot;, then you may be okay. i.e. SnapOn makes a screwdriver... I use that screwdriver to steal a car... SnapOn isn't responsible for *how* I used their product. But If I ask SnapOn to make me a special screwdriver *specifically* for stealing cars and they do.. well, then SnapOn is as fault." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16662" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6384" RevisionGUID="5d35681d-7430-4d9a-9a9a-cacf765b99c6" CreationDate="2016-12-20T19:41:26.133" UserId="15276" Text="**TL;DR**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you think that I should make him sign some releasing agreement?&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;**NO; there's absolutely no need.** *One may ask; for what purpose? You **CANNOT** be truly protected for premeditated acts, not even with a written agreement!*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he will have legal problems can I be involved too?&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;**If and only if you delivered further on the project after having noticed the copyright infringement you've made mention of.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You delivered the project initially as asked in all fairness and due processes without any possible fraudulent implications; your ability to determine the scope of work and nature of the project was based on information given you by your client which at that stage had no negative connotation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When asked further for modifications, now that the clean project you delivered grew with data added by your client, you now realised it contains copyright infringed materials.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You did well by drawing his attention to that fact and based on his response, I can conclude he is fully aware of what he is doing and has no intention or soever to refrain from such a practice but banking on possible escape doors should the worse occur.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having reflected on this challenge as you did and taking a conscious time and effort to seek advice into the matter equally demonstrates that you are morally sound and frown on this act.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;You have to trust your gut; simply back off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From the very moment you know of his true intention and practice, should you continue further (with or without an agreement and or legal denial of possible copyright infringement repercussions) with him on the said project, you absolutely no longer have any cover under the law." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16663" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6378" RevisionGUID="1e77e803-e219-450e-9114-705691026f4f" CreationDate="2016-12-21T04:15:37.307" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/811424861717491712" />
  <row Id="16664" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6381" RevisionGUID="407ecc47-b7cb-4471-8ff4-08420873fe28" CreationDate="2016-12-21T09:45:17.743" UserId="15709" Comment="fixed broken link" Text="as many people have said here already, there is no 'correct' rate for a given piece of work. I've often been amazed by how much freelance rates vary. I've literally been paid a different of 300% for the same kind of work, by clients that were of a similar size and had their offices less than 500m from each other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While in the long run you can essentially charge whatever you want, this is very difficult when you're first starting out - and you ask about how to calculate your rate when you've never started freelancing before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What has worked really well for me is to calculate the lowest possible rate you need to earn to still put food on the table.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Take your monthly expenses (just check your bank statement)&#xD;&#xA;2. Add 25% for tax&#xD;&#xA;2. Divide by 112 (4 days per week * 7 hours per day * 4 weeks per month)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**This gives you your minimum rate.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then go out and find clients. If they pay you more than the minimum, you're winning. You will make mistakes and you will undercharge, however that can be adjusted upwards as you go. It's more important that you learn the business of freelancing than make a killing right from the outset.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Calculation taken from [http://freelance-survivor.com/conquer-your-freelance-pricing-anxiety-in-just-5-minutes/][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelance-survivor.com/conquer-your-freelance-pricing-anxiety-in-just-5-minutes/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16665" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6381" RevisionGUID="407ecc47-b7cb-4471-8ff4-08420873fe28" CreationDate="2016-12-21T09:45:17.743" Comment="Proposed by 15709 approved by 7486, 7858 edit id of 506" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16666" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6385" RevisionGUID="ea2feb7c-8e9e-40f7-92e1-e01f284f537e" CreationDate="2016-12-21T13:46:22.087" UserId="15709" Text="As external freelance I manage/update a web site for a client, they have a small internal department who follows the marketing part and social networks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They often send me emails (often in lunch time pause or friday evening) like: &quot;update this site with this product right now because in a matter of one hour we will send a newsletter&quot;, &quot;do that by tomorrow morning because there will be this event...&quot;, or similar requests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I really feel not respected at all with that behaviour. I am not their employee and I am a &quot;Company&quot; as they are, I have other clients, appointments and other deadlines too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually I get upset then I calm down and I do the work as soon as I can to not create problems to the whole company, but when that happens I have the instict to voluntarly don't do what is asked and then answer: &quot;I'm sorry I was out of office for an important meeting, I will do that by tomorrow as soon as I can&quot;, or something like that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A couple of times I talked with the boss about that, he says he understands and he told me that he would talk to them, but then that behaviour often happens.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand that there are urgencies sometimes, but if you plan to send some newsletter or some event, you know already that at least days before, why send me work to do in 1 hour of time?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you have similar clients too with similar behaviours? How do you act in this case?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16667" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6385" RevisionGUID="ea2feb7c-8e9e-40f7-92e1-e01f284f537e" CreationDate="2016-12-21T13:46:22.087" UserId="15709" Text="Disrespect from client's marketing department" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16668" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6385" RevisionGUID="ea2feb7c-8e9e-40f7-92e1-e01f284f537e" CreationDate="2016-12-21T13:46:22.087" UserId="15709" Text="|difficult-client|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16669" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6386" RevisionGUID="40188c49-4c24-4feb-b00c-e9d5028bc2c6" CreationDate="2016-12-21T14:08:34.590" UserId="15202" Text="The easiest way to handle the short-notice work is to set up a Service Level Agreement (SLA). You can document how much notice the client must give, and how soon you will act, with financial requirements in each direction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Get this agreed, signed by management. Implement a basic ticket handling system and boom, you can bill extra for the urgent stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, make sure you include sections for out of hours cover, holiday cover and other potential breaks. The agreement will only work if it puts a requirement on both parties." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16670" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6369" RevisionGUID="3588d971-ae96-43c9-865b-27de49fedbf8" CreationDate="2016-12-21T16:16:34.327" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/811606294566174722" />
  <row Id="16671" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6264" RevisionGUID="c9dadb17-552f-4142-8a09-029e6d23d887" CreationDate="2016-12-21T20:14:49.527" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16672" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6387" RevisionGUID="7aaa60d7-756a-4a0f-9640-943be3114d10" CreationDate="2016-12-22T05:11:13.663" UserId="15631" Text="The prices you quoted to run the website may well be just for the hosting and to keep the site live, but what are the marketing costs going to be? You have the classic chicken and egg dilemma here. As a freelancer I'm not going to register if there are no jobs. How do you attract good jobs? Through selling a good pool of freelancers willing to do the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your marketing efforts on this will be huge, not to mention expensive. Adwords, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn will all cost lots of money to gain any real traction. I don't think SEO alone will put you in front of the audiences you need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe lots of cold calling and cold emailing to companies to list jobs would do the trick. Who would do that? Whether it's you or someone else that will cost you as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wish you success, but if you haven't thought about a marketing budget for this then your chances of succeeding are slim. It's like building a new flashy shop giving away free jeans and placing it somewhere between New Zealand and Hawaii. Nobody knows it's there or how to get to it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16673" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6381" RevisionGUID="01d9b11b-1673-4bfb-8e97-4aee95b044d4" CreationDate="2016-12-22T15:01:30.617" UserId="14562" Comment="fixed spelling" Text="as many people have said here already, there is no 'correct' rate for a given piece of work. I've often been amazed by how much freelance rates vary. I've literally been paid a difference of 300% for the same kind of work, by clients that were of a similar size and had their offices less than 500m from each other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While in the long run you can essentially charge whatever you want, this is very difficult when you're first starting out - and you ask about how to calculate your rate when you've never started freelancing before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What has worked really well for me is to calculate the lowest possible rate you need to earn to still put food on the table.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Take your monthly expenses (just check your bank statement)&#xD;&#xA;2. Add 25% for tax&#xD;&#xA;2. Divide by 112 (4 days per week * 7 hours per day * 4 weeks per month)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**This gives you your minimum rate.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then go out and find clients. If they pay you more than the minimum, you're winning. You will make mistakes and you will undercharge, however that can be adjusted upwards as you go. It's more important that you learn the business of freelancing than make a killing right from the outset.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Calculation taken from [http://freelance-survivor.com/conquer-your-freelance-pricing-anxiety-in-just-5-minutes/][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelance-survivor.com/conquer-your-freelance-pricing-anxiety-in-just-5-minutes/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16674" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6388" RevisionGUID="75831955-a0cd-487d-8477-05db3813f2e6" CreationDate="2016-12-22T15:16:02.890" UserId="14562" Text="to add a bit of a freelancing spin to it - theoretically you could charge him to use the camera. If he were to need a special camera for a shoot, he would need to rent it and pass that cost on to the client. Your situation is not much different. Under these circumstances you would be best served by having a written agreement to cover the hire + what happens if the camera breaks. You would also need to declare the extra income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Moving to a philosophical angle:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, he's your friend, so you'd like to help...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or would you? You say &quot;On the other hand he is asking me for help frequently&quot;, so perhaps you would prefer to say 'no' but feel guilty about it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My grandmother had also had a saying: &quot;You teach people how to treat you&quot;. If you're feeling taken advantage of in this friendship, perhaps it's time to set some clearer boundaries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Combining the two, perhaps you could ask for a non-financial return, say get him to buy you a few drinks / lunch / take photos for your personal use in return. That way your help is being acknowledged and valued and you avoid the complications of a financial transaction.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16676" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6385" RevisionGUID="906794d8-e196-48b9-83f0-07d69fca76db" CreationDate="2016-12-23T10:27:52.140" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/812243316372885508" />
  <row Id="16677" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6389" RevisionGUID="af1c1cf4-5f08-4c42-8839-ae80095893c9" CreationDate="2016-12-23T14:35:48.670" UserId="14793" Text="Marketing research.  When you're a freelancer you're selling yourself.  You're marketing yourself.  The first thing you have to learn is how to evaluate your own self worth.  For that, you need to do research and you need to know how to do research otherwise you'll be dependent on other people to guess for you.&#xD;&#xA;In evaluating yourself and your market worth you need to know what you yourself can and can't do.  Then you evaluate yourself against others who do the same.  Then you research the market.  There is usually a range of numbers that includes skill level, age, relevance of skill, etc.&#xD;&#xA;There's many things you need to do.  The bottom line is if you want to be a freelancer you are your own boss, your own marketing agent, your own accountant, etc.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16678" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3028" RevisionGUID="12ef4f60-f2c0-4945-b5fd-a017cf755d63" CreationDate="2016-12-23T21:21:20.517" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16679" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6390" RevisionGUID="e4a2de13-40c1-442c-aa0e-5b7b696c5839" CreationDate="2016-12-24T06:00:41.267" UserId="15783" Text="So I have identified a local business that has been having a lot of success in the local brick and mortar retail market and I believe with my help on the technology side they could expand to become a nationwide heavy-weight in their industry.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am preparing a business proposal for their CEO and would like to ask for equity in the company as part payment for my services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I believe this would be fair as I would be taking them from a non-existent online presence to developing a bespoke e-commerce solution which would integrate into their retail stores and online marketplaces as well as handling their SEO which would really drive up their revenue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In return for equity I would significantly lower the price for developing this custom solution which would take between 1-2 years to complete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I being unreasonable by asking a potential client for a 1-2% share of their company in return? I should mention this company has not approached me but I will be reaching out to them to suggest how they could expand with my help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16680" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6390" RevisionGUID="e4a2de13-40c1-442c-aa0e-5b7b696c5839" CreationDate="2016-12-24T06:00:41.267" UserId="15783" Text="Asking client for shares" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16681" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6390" RevisionGUID="e4a2de13-40c1-442c-aa0e-5b7b696c5839" CreationDate="2016-12-24T06:00:41.267" UserId="15783" Text="|attracting-clients|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16682" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5875" RevisionGUID="473343a4-2090-4124-a6ff-559835838207" CreationDate="2016-12-24T08:29:08.150" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16683" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6391" RevisionGUID="51d29941-b906-4558-9c31-a2ada2df6706" CreationDate="2016-12-24T10:26:24.990" UserId="14793" Text="I don't see a problem with asking for equity.  Your proposal to them is sound the way you describe it here.  You seem to be an able freelancer with the right skills to help them complete their project.  If you are convinced that it is you that they want as their freelancer and your business relationship is healthy then I would assume it would only be to their benefit that they accept your proposal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16684" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="b4e7cb46-8aec-4a50-8aad-5087037eb173" CreationDate="2016-12-24T11:45:19.887" UserId="9910" Text="I've created a simple SaaS (Software as a Service) project that helps small towns improve their tourism websites and apps easily, fast and paying a small fee each month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Why I want to sell it?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm moving to the Netherlands and I will not have enough time to develop it. It is for small towns, so there will be many problems with meetings, and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Why to my &quot;competence&quot;?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - They are bigger and can offer this service.&#xD;&#xA; - They trust me, tried to hire me a couple of weeks ago.&#xD;&#xA; - This project can generate synergies with their business model.&#xD;&#xA; - Got access to the CEO.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What are my concerns?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to propose it, but I don't know how to start. I have the design, the development and examples. The system is straightforward and I'm creating documentation to simplify/explain it even more. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to get copied, although that would require a good investment on their side, so I think that it isn't very smart.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - What should I give them?&#xD;&#xA; - How can I see if there's real interest?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16685" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="b4e7cb46-8aec-4a50-8aad-5087037eb173" CreationDate="2016-12-24T11:45:19.887" UserId="9910" Text="How to sell a project to your competence? Documents, Warnings, Considerations" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16686" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="b4e7cb46-8aec-4a50-8aad-5087037eb173" CreationDate="2016-12-24T11:45:19.887" UserId="9910" Text="|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16687" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6390" RevisionGUID="bfd35dce-b9c0-4dc1-a09e-c441237cb7fb" CreationDate="2016-12-24T16:40:58.810" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/812699600717049857" />
  <row Id="16688" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6393" RevisionGUID="807dd259-2467-412b-a472-289004845726" CreationDate="2016-12-24T21:34:04.983" UserId="15681" Text="The issue is that the position location can be anywhere in the US, depending on the freelancers location.  It is not as easy as just picking a job description from some website list based on location.  How do I choose a number, when the base could be in the most expensive job market or the cheapest one?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The job description for reference:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - You will prepare, compile and sort documents for data entry. &#xD;&#xA; - You will verify data and correct data where necessary. &#xD;&#xA; - You will enter data    from sources into prescribed computer&#xD;&#xA;   databases, files or forms.&#xD;&#xA; - You will check completed work for accuracy.&#xD;&#xA; - You will store completed documents in designated locations. You will&#xD;&#xA;   comply with data integrity and security policies.&#xD;&#xA; - Ability to use or desire to learn    Excel and be able to write&#xD;&#xA;   complex functions such as: pivot tables,    lookup formulas (VLOOKUP,&#xD;&#xA;   HLOOKUP), logical formulas (or, if, and, iserror), conditional&#xD;&#xA;   formatting, and numerous other excel functions&#xD;&#xA; - You will maintain own computer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16689" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6393" RevisionGUID="807dd259-2467-412b-a472-289004845726" CreationDate="2016-12-24T21:34:04.983" UserId="15681" Text="How could I get an idea of how much a freelance Data Associate should make?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16690" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6393" RevisionGUID="807dd259-2467-412b-a472-289004845726" CreationDate="2016-12-24T21:34:04.983" UserId="15681" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16691" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="eba2189f-6aa2-40f7-8179-9f925d93b274" CreationDate="2016-12-24T22:46:53.523" UserId="9910" Comment="edited title; edited body" Text="How to sell a project to your competitor? Documents, Warnings, Considerations" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16692" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="eba2189f-6aa2-40f7-8179-9f925d93b274" CreationDate="2016-12-24T22:46:53.523" UserId="9910" Comment="edited title; edited body" Text="I've created a simple SaaS (Software as a Service) project that helps small towns improve their tourism websites and apps easily, fast and paying a small fee each month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Why I want to sell it?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm moving to the Netherlands and I will not have enough time to develop it. It is for small towns, so there will be many problems with meetings, and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Why to my &quot;competitor&quot;?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - They are bigger and can offer this service.&#xD;&#xA; - They trust me, tried to hire me a couple of weeks ago.&#xD;&#xA; - This project can generate synergies with their business model.&#xD;&#xA; - Got access to the CEO.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What are my concerns?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to propose it, but I don't know how to start. I have the design, the development and examples. The system is straightforward and I'm creating documentation to simplify/explain it even more. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to get copied, although that would require a good investment on their side, so I think that it isn't very smart.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - What should I give them?&#xD;&#xA; - How can I see if there's real interest?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16693" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6385" RevisionGUID="4c8a35c0-f155-4730-a7f7-72ccd5ff4ba2" CreationDate="2016-12-25T00:03:48.850" UserId="14793" Comment="title was not clear." Text="How to handle interpersonal relationships and expectations from client's marketing department" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16694" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6385" RevisionGUID="4c8a35c0-f155-4730-a7f7-72ccd5ff4ba2" CreationDate="2016-12-25T00:03:48.850" UserId="14793" Comment="title was not clear." Text="|difficult-client|time-management|customer-relations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16695" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6385" RevisionGUID="4c8a35c0-f155-4730-a7f7-72ccd5ff4ba2" CreationDate="2016-12-25T00:03:48.850" Comment="Proposed by 14793 approved by 14455, 1018 edit id of 507" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16697" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6394" RevisionGUID="b118a39b-cccf-4446-be2f-7c7b0ebe691f" CreationDate="2016-12-25T13:41:18.183" UserId="13093" Text="If you are planning to hire local freelancers in UpWork you have to make a filtered search. When you login to your UpWork client profile, I assume you do have one to hire freelancers, at the top of the dashboard you will notice '**Find Freelancer**' option where you can search for freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Search for your desired job to be done for example, 'logo design'. Then you'll get a new page with some filtering options. Click on '**Advanced Filters**' option that reveals other filtering options like ***location***, ***hourly rate*** etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Customize the filtering options as you desire and click '**Update Filters**'. If everything is okay, you will find your desired freelancers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![UpWork 'Advanced Filtering' option to find Freelancers][1]][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Thank you.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/W6Qvt.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16698" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6395" RevisionGUID="c860cfc4-ae83-4f93-8138-e2f883df2b6f" CreationDate="2016-12-25T17:52:24.410" UserId="708" Text="During initial exploratory conversations with clients, I make a few important facts as clear as I can:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I do NOT, by default, work weekends. At no time should the client anticipate or expect that the coming Saturday and Sunday are working days for me. The **only** way I may work a weekend is if arrangements have been made *prior* to Thursday of that week... and even then, I may not be available for that particular weekend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I **never** accept &quot;overnight&quot; projects without additional rush fees. If there's a typo or error on something, I'll fix the error as soon as possible, which may often mean same day/overnight. However, I do not ever initiate a standard new project for an expected overnight delivery. At a *bare minimum* I require 36-48 hours notice for anything. And that does not ensure I can complete things within that 36-48 hours. It merely ensures I'm aware that the project is needed rapidly. A **rush fee** may be available depending upon my current schedule if a project truly is needed. This may mean overnight delivery, if the scope of the project makes it even feasible. (I can't do 40 hrs of work &quot;overnight&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- The only thing I can't change are the amount of hours in a day. I have other clients and other projects. My time is a limited resource and I must schedule things appropriately so that expectations of delivery are possible with **all** my clients. As with any business, I constantly market myself and constantly acquire new projects. Things are completed on a first-come-first-serve basis. Understand that I *want* to get everything done when as soon as possible. However, that is not always achievable do to standard demands such as sleep, food, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;99.9% of my clients understand all this and really just see it as *common courtesy*. They may tell me they needs something &quot;NOW&quot; but they all understand that their &quot;now&quot; means &quot;as soon as I can&quot; for *my business*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's an old saying, **&quot;An emergency on your part does not constitute one on my part.&quot;** Now, I don't actually recite that to clients, but that's what I think. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client asks for something which is not feasible, I just reply with **&quot;Sorry, I've got a lot on my plate at the moment. The best I could do is get this to you by XXXXX. I understand you need it as quickly as possible and if I can deliver it sooner, I certainly will. I just don't see how I can get this done by XXXX due to prior commitments.&quot;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Almost without fail, the client understands. However, If that statement causes issues, then I explain that there's little I can do. And while I realize that something is imperative to them, I have additional responsibilities which are important to my business. I can't simply drop everything to complete their project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sidebar... if I'm being repeatedly pushed by &quot;employees&quot; or &quot;staff&quot; of my client and I've already reached out the client about problems with demanding deliveries from staff, then I'm just formal and blunt with the staff... &quot;No. I can't do that. The best I can do is have it to you by XXXX.&quot; If they argue, I merely state... &quot;Sorry. My schedule is booked. If there's an issue with this please have [the Boss/My client] contact me to discuss possible escalation incurring additional rush fees.&quot; I've lost track of how many times the &quot;expected delivery&quot; has changed to a more reasonable timeframe after such exchanges. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short... people *will* walk all over you if you *allow* them to. But they will also learn to plan better if you refuse to let them. So it's your choice how you want to &quot;train&quot; your clients. I prefer to &quot;train&quot; my clients to think of me as a separate entity with " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16699" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6395" RevisionGUID="caa032b5-786c-4a90-ae1e-7af3f9019b02" CreationDate="2016-12-25T17:57:35.477" UserId="708" Comment="added 424 characters in body" Text="During initial exploratory conversations with clients, I make a few important facts as clear as I can:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I do NOT, by default, work weekends. At no time should the client anticipate or expect that the coming Saturday and Sunday are working days for me. The **only** way I may work a weekend is if arrangements have been made *prior* to Thursday of that week... and even then, I may not be available for that particular weekend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I **never** accept &quot;overnight&quot; projects without additional rush fees. If there's a typo or error on something, I'll fix the error as soon as possible, which may often mean same day/overnight. However, I do not ever initiate a standard new project for an expected overnight delivery. At a *bare minimum* I require 36-48 hours notice for anything. And that does not ensure I can complete things within that 36-48 hours. It merely ensures I'm aware that the project is needed rapidly. A **rush fee** may be available depending upon my current schedule if a project truly is needed. This may mean overnight delivery, if the scope of the project makes it even feasible. (I can't do 40 hrs of work &quot;overnight&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- The only thing I can't change are the amount of hours in a day. I have other clients and other projects. My time is a limited resource and I must schedule things appropriately so that expectations of delivery are possible with **all** my clients. As with any business, I constantly market myself and constantly acquire new projects. Things are completed on a first-come-first-serve basis. Understand that I *want* to get everything done when as soon as possible. However, that is not always achievable do to standard demands such as sleep, food, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I don't answer calls or respond to emails after standard working hours. If there's truly an emergency, they can call and leave a voicemail. I may check voicemail after hours and be available to address something which is *actually* an emergency. However, emails may not be seen until the next business day and voicemails not referring to an *actual* emergency may not be addressed until the next business day as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;99.9% of my clients understand all this and really just see it as *common courtesy*. They may tell me they needs something &quot;NOW&quot; but they all understand that their &quot;now&quot; means &quot;as soon as I can&quot; for *my business*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's an old saying, **&quot;An emergency on your part does not constitute one on my part.&quot;** Now, I don't actually recite that to clients, but that's what I think. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client asks for something which is not feasible, I just reply with **&quot;Sorry, I've got a lot on my plate at the moment. The best I could do is get this to you by XXXXX. I understand you need it as quickly as possible and if I can deliver it sooner, I certainly will. I just don't see how I can get this done by XXXX due to prior commitments.&quot;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Almost without fail, the client understands. However, If that statement causes issues, then I explain that there's little I can do. And while I realize that something is imperative to them, I have additional responsibilities which are important to my business. I can't simply drop everything to complete their project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sidebar... if I'm being repeatedly pushed by &quot;employees&quot; or &quot;staff&quot; of my client and I've already reached out the client about problems with demanding deliveries from staff, then I'm just formal and blunt with the staff... &quot;No. I can't do that. The best I can do is have it to you by XXXX.&quot; If they argue, I merely state... &quot;Sorry. My schedule is booked. If there's an issue with this please have [the Boss/My client] contact me to discuss possible escalation incurring additional rush fees.&quot; I've lost track of how many times the &quot;expected delivery&quot; has changed to a more reasonable timeframe after such exchanges. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short... people *will* walk all over you if you *allow* them to. But they will also learn to plan better if you refuse to let them. So it's your choice how you want to &quot;train&quot; your clients. I prefer to &quot;train&quot; my clients to think of me as a separate entity with " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16700" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6395" RevisionGUID="46def4de-da74-47b0-9229-4d256a9ea6f0" CreationDate="2016-12-25T18:04:13.123" UserId="708" Comment="added 71 characters in body" Text="***YOU* are in charge of how the client (or their staff) treat you.** People *will* walk all over you if you *allow* them to. But they will also learn to plan better if you refuse to let them. So it's your choice how you want to &quot;train&quot; your clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During initial exploratory conversations with clients, I make a few important facts as clear as I can:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I do NOT, by default, work weekends. At no time should the client anticipate or expect that the coming Saturday and Sunday are working days for me. The **only** way I may work a weekend is if arrangements have been made *prior* to Thursday of that week... and even then, I may not be available for that particular weekend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I **never** accept &quot;overnight&quot; projects without additional rush fees. If there's a typo or error on something, I'll fix the error as soon as possible, which may often mean same day/overnight. However, I do not ever initiate a standard new project for an expected overnight delivery. At a *bare minimum* I require 36-48 hours notice for anything. And that does not ensure I can complete things within that 36-48 hours. It merely ensures I'm aware that the project is needed rapidly. A **rush fee** may be available depending upon my current schedule if a project truly is needed. This may mean overnight delivery, if the scope of the project makes it even feasible. (I can't do 40 hrs of work &quot;overnight&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- The only thing I can't change are the amount of hours in a day. I have other clients and other projects. My time is a limited resource and I must schedule things appropriately so that expectations of delivery are possible with **all** my clients. As with any business, I constantly market myself and constantly acquire new projects. Things are completed on a first-come-first-serve basis. Understand that I *want* to get everything done when as soon as possible. However, that is not always achievable do to standard demands such as sleep, food, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I don't answer calls or respond to emails after standard working hours. If there's truly an emergency, they can call and leave a voicemail. I may check voicemail after hours and be available to address something which is *actually* an emergency. However, emails may not be seen until the next business day and voicemails not referring to an *actual* emergency may not be addressed until the next business day as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;99.9% of my clients understand all this and really just see it as *common courtesy*. They may tell me they needs something &quot;NOW&quot; but they all understand that their &quot;now&quot; means &quot;as soon as I can&quot; for *my business*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's an old saying, **&quot;An emergency on your part does not constitute one on my part.&quot;** Now, I don't actually recite that to clients, but that's what I think. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client asks for something which is not feasible, I just reply with **&quot;Sorry, I've got a lot on my plate at the moment. The best I could do is get this to you by XXXXX. I understand you need it as quickly as possible and if I can deliver it sooner, I certainly will. I just don't see how I can get this done by XXXX due to prior commitments.&quot;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Almost without fail, the client understands. However, If that statement causes issues, then I explain that there's little I can do. And while I realize that something is imperative to them, I have additional responsibilities which are important to my business. I can't simply drop everything to complete their project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sidebar... if I'm being repeatedly pushed by &quot;employees&quot; or &quot;staff&quot; of my client and I've already reached out the client about problems with demanding deliveries from staff, then I'm just formal and blunt with the staff... &quot;No. I can't do that. The best I can do is have it to you by XXXX.&quot; If they argue, I merely state... &quot;Sorry. My schedule is booked. If there's an issue with this please have [the Boss/My client] contact me to discuss possible escalation incurring additional rush fees.&quot; I've lost track of how many times the &quot;expected delivery&quot; has changed to a more reasonable timeframe after such exchanges. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16701" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6396" RevisionGUID="14ebc8e5-c9f2-4736-9736-37e39f51ba0e" CreationDate="2016-12-25T19:12:19.547" UserId="708" Text="Realize that any price point is largely *fabricated*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No one can tell you what to charge and even looking at others in the same field at best you may get a general outlook on the current market, but no directly relatable figures for freelancing. Also realize *employees* typically earn *far less* than freelancers in the same field because employees get things like health care, heat, power, vacation, sick days, 401k -- all of which freelancers *must pay for themselves*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, looking at direct competition freelance rates aren't going to tell you much either. One freelancer may charge $100 for something while another charges $200 for the same thing. They may *both* be priced accordingly for *their* services and expertise... you would have no way of knowing. You generally can't price based on what other's charge. If you do, you either end up burning off clients because they feel they are paying too much for your services eventually leaving you aching for clients, or you short yourself and work way more than you should to make the same income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can get a general &quot;guestimate&quot; though by looking at what corporations are paying for an employment position in the field....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Compile a list of salaries for similar full time employment positions, regardless of location in the US. Yes some will be higher, some lower. Try and target positions all looking for your general level of skill/experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Average those salaries to get a single `median` salary figure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some trains of thoughts are to just charge 3 or 4 times what the average salary is for an employee. So you could multiply the `median` by 3 or 4 and get a yearly salary. Often this may work. It depends upon the field. I know in my field 3*salary is slightly more than what my current hourly rate is... My market wouldn't bear me setting a rate at 3x median salaries, let alone at 4x. So I, personally, have found this method close, but not quite usable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, it's also best to know your *minimum*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Calculate your yearly `overhead` (heat, electricity, water, equipment, software, subscription services, health care, mortgage/rent, repairs, etc.). This gives you a `minimum` yearly income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Factor the amount of `work hours` you plan to be available per year (be certain to deduct time for vacations, personal days, sick days, etc) - general ballpark may be around 1800 hours (about 40 hours a week for 45 weeks, leaving roughly 7 weeks for &quot;personal&quot; stuff)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Divide the `overhead` by the `work hours` to get your `minimum hourly` rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- To get the `median hourly` rate, just divide the `median` by the same amount of `work hours`.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From here.. it's more subjective.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Look at how your `minimum` yearly relates to the `median` salary.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Look at how your `minimum hourly` relates to the `median hourly` rate.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is the `minimum` higher or lower? It *should* be lower. If your `minimum` is higher, then you may need to evaluate the feasibility of *actually* being able to freelance in this field. Higher `minimum` means you may be currently living *outside* what freelancing will support. So, you may need to pay down some debt and eliminate some monthly expenses before freelancing is feasible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the `median` is higher, how much higher? A lot? A little? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's just a little... again you may have too many monthly expenses and may want to consider reducing debt first so you aren't &quot;scrambling&quot; for income right away. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then there's all the unknowns... how much experience do you have? How proficient are you at what you do compared to a recent college graduate or entry-level employee? These are intangible in general and merely require self-evaluation and *honest* assessment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Standard figures are to customarily add 20% to your hourly *minimum* for profit. But that's just a ballpark. So you take your `minimum hourly` Add 20% to it... how does that compare to the `median hourly` rate? How about if you add 40%, 60%... 150%... 200% etc. to your `minimum hourly`. Remember every % above your `minimum hourly` would be *profit* for you. So maybe it takes 130% added to your `minimum hourly` to get to the same as the `median hourly`. Your'e already in good shape then.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, suppose you've got 10 years experience and specialize in a &quot;niche&quot; of the field that not many specialize in? Maybe add another 10% for every year of experience to compensate you for the expertise you offer above an average employee. Maybe add another 20% because you're able to turn projects around much faster than in an office environment? It's all *subjective*. In the end you may feel that your `minimum hourly` + 250% is a price point you feel good about and, while higher than average employee salaries, you offer much more than any employee could offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you test the market... if you get way more work than you can handle, your pricing is *too low* and you need to start raising it. If you have client connections but aren't ever getting any actual work from them, then your pricing may be too high. So you adjust. If you get enough work, but don't get everything you bid on, you're probably priced pretty well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pricing is often a *constant* moving target as skills improve, clients change, technology changes, etc. The only real imperative thing is that you are **always** charging *at least* your `minimum` so you aren't *losing* money by freelancing. And remember, it's *always* easier to lower pricing than it is to raise it. Starting a bit high and dropping (if even necessary) is often the best &quot;guess&quot; when you first venture out." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16702" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6395" RevisionGUID="337d4c26-1850-4a52-949c-4800049c5e14" CreationDate="2016-12-26T05:54:37.533" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 4 characters in body" Text="***YOU* are in charge of how the client (or their staff) treat you.** People *will* walk all over you if you *allow* them to. But they will also learn to plan better if you refuse to let them. So it's your choice how you want to &quot;train&quot; your clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During initial exploratory conversations with clients, I make a few important facts as clear as I can:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I do NOT, by default, work weekends. At no time should the client anticipate or expect that the coming Saturday and Sunday are working days for me. The **only** way I may work a weekend is if arrangements have been made *prior* to Thursday of that week... and even then, I may not be available for that particular weekend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I **never** accept &quot;overnight&quot; projects without additional rush fees. If there's a typo or error on something, I'll fix the error as soon as possible, which may often mean same day/overnight. However, I do not ever initiate a standard new project for an expected overnight delivery. At a *bare minimum* I require 36-48 hours notice for anything. And that does not ensure I can complete things within that 36-48 hours. It merely ensures I'm aware that the project is needed rapidly. A **rush fee** may be available depending upon my current schedule if a project truly is needed. This may mean overnight delivery, if the scope of the project makes it even feasible. (I can't do 40 hrs of work &quot;overnight&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- The only thing I can't change are the amount of hours in a day. I have other clients and other projects. My time is a limited resource and I must schedule things appropriately so that expectations of delivery are possible with **all** my clients. As with any business, I constantly market myself and constantly acquire new projects. Things are completed on a first-come-first-serve basis. Understand that I *want* to get everything done as soon as possible. However, that is not always achievable due to physical demands such as sleep, food, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I don't answer calls or respond to emails after standard working hours. If there's truly an emergency, they can call and leave a voicemail. I may check voicemail after hours and be available to address something which is *actually* an emergency. However, emails may not be seen until the next business day and voicemails not referring to an *actual* emergency may not be addressed until the next business day as well. This holds true for weekends as well... I may check voicemail over weekends, but I probably will *not* be checking emails.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;99.9% of my clients understand all this and really just see it as *common courtesy*. They may tell me they needs something &quot;NOW&quot; but they all understand that their &quot;now&quot; means &quot;as soon as I can&quot; for *my business*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's an old saying, **&quot;An emergency on your part does not constitute one on my part.&quot;** Now, I don't actually recite that to clients, but that's what I think. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client asks for something which is not feasible, I just reply with **&quot;Sorry, I've got a lot on my plate at the moment. The best I could do is get this to you by XXXXX. I understand you need it as quickly as possible and if I can deliver it sooner, I certainly will. I just don't see how I can get this done by XXXX due to prior commitments.&quot;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Almost without fail, the client understands. However, If that statement causes issues, then I explain that there's little I can do. And while I realize that something is imperative to them, I have additional responsibilities which are important to my business. I can't simply drop everything to complete their project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sidebar... if I'm being repeatedly pushed by &quot;employees&quot; or &quot;staff&quot; of my client and I've already reached out the client about problems with demanding deliveries from staff, then I'm just formal and blunt with the staff... &quot;No. I can't do that. The best I can do is have it to you by XXXX.&quot; If they argue, I merely state... &quot;Sorry. My schedule is booked. If there's an issue with this please have [the Boss/My client] contact me to discuss possible escalation incurring additional rush fees.&quot; I've lost track of how many times the &quot;expected delivery&quot; has changed to a more reasonable timeframe after such exchanges. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16703" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6397" RevisionGUID="991cc4d9-9570-4842-9b1c-6b16cd13209c" CreationDate="2016-12-26T15:33:59.043" UserId="14793" Text="I have found craigslist.org useful.  You can save your searches in different countries.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16704" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6398" RevisionGUID="60ccc48e-907f-4d9a-ab61-75e42334f26f" CreationDate="2016-12-27T17:45:57.040" UserId="15802" Text="I am negotiating to provide a javascript front-end, for evaluation only.&#xD;&#xA;Instead of licensing software, the client asked for a not-disclosure agreement.&#xD;&#xA;As a purpose, it is clearly written for evaluation only, but it is not specified technical term of use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are common implicit practices to release a web-client software so to avoid mis-use?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As example, I thought to release library on my own servers, enabling use of JS scripts via CORS and check for api_key.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it implicit or fully justifiable or must be written in Terms of Use, otherwise software scrits must be provided too? What are common and acceptable practices in evaluation of software for business purpose?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16705" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6398" RevisionGUID="60ccc48e-907f-4d9a-ab61-75e42334f26f" CreationDate="2016-12-27T17:45:57.040" UserId="15802" Text="What is implicit common practice in licensing software (client Javasript) for evaluation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16706" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6398" RevisionGUID="60ccc48e-907f-4d9a-ab61-75e42334f26f" CreationDate="2016-12-27T17:45:57.040" UserId="15802" Text="|contracts|negotiation|software|evaluating-clients|licensing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16707" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="200" RevisionGUID="bbdea73f-d040-44af-a12f-20596971e0ff" CreationDate="2016-12-27T18:00:31.187" UserId="72" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body" Text="If I have a client who is interested in bartering their goods or service for my service, how would I propose negotiations that would protect myself, my client, and my work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is offering to barter the construction of a hand made guitar in exchange for a web site that I will be building alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since there is no plan for cash to change hands, the value of services seems hard to quantify. How should I write out a contract that ensures proper delivery of goods and services on both ends? Also, should I take into account any taxes, even though no money is changing hands?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The entire transaction will take place in the state of New York in the US." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16708" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6399" RevisionGUID="83ec44bc-074f-4a79-8601-1a57dd6e983f" CreationDate="2016-12-27T19:34:02.030" UserId="1706" Text="This one's very simple.  (I am not an attorney)  Your awareness of his intent to commit a crime, AND most especially the fact that afterward you continue to work with him AND benefit from the situation financially would probably make you an [accessory before the fact][1].  A contract won't save you.  Backing out will.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessory_(legal_term)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16709" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6400" RevisionGUID="27a6a0fe-b16b-4d82-8a64-4d4752d78348" CreationDate="2016-12-27T19:54:11.037" UserId="1706" Text="OK.  Your client doesn't want to sign a licensing agreement.  Here's how to look at this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If the work has not already been performed, and you do the work, it's technically a work-for-hire, and the client would own the code, and there would be no need for a licensing agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If the work has already been performed prior to any specific agreement, then you are the owner of the work and a licensing agreement is appropriate.  What is also very appropriate is that you don't turn over original source code, but instead, highly obfuscated Javascript.  You could actually code something in there that &quot;phones in&quot; to a server somewhere to report use of the script by way of an AJAX call or similar, and potentially disables the script past a certain date or if it's not hosted from a FIXED server name.  Protect your intellectual property!   If the client is bucking against any type of licensing agreement, I'd find the situation to be highly suspect (i.e. your client's going to take the code and run with it without paying you its proper worth).  I found something you might use - [Jscrambler][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In either case, get your money up front before you demonstrate anything on a browser your client can access!&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://jscrambler.com/en/how-it-works" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16710" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6342" RevisionGUID="daacced5-373c-4665-a305-69e05307e9e0" CreationDate="2016-12-27T20:00:18.130" UserId="1706" Comment="Clarify" Text="A possible customer from NY contacted me with a request-for-quotation. I replied back with an estimate in hours and money, defining several elements of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before that, we exchanged some emails and though we don't know each other personally, we have some &quot;community&quot; ties with one another.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The thing is that I am from Spain and in my opinion even if you are not interested you should reply back. I would like to know if this behavior is culturally appropriate in New York or, if in the business world this has some other meaning." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16711" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6342" RevisionGUID="daacced5-373c-4665-a305-69e05307e9e0" CreationDate="2016-12-27T20:00:18.130" UserId="1706" Comment="Clarify" Text="What does it mean when a client stops communicating after receiving a proposal?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16714" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6393" RevisionGUID="a15ac5ed-231e-4851-9637-487bfcf3365e" CreationDate="2016-12-27T22:56:37.563" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/813881298783797248" />
  <row Id="16715" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6396" RevisionGUID="b4170f32-45da-4d58-a7eb-513fcfd25905" CreationDate="2016-12-27T23:26:47.353" UserId="708" Comment="added 329 characters in body" Text="Realize that any price point is largely *fabricated*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No one can tell you what to charge and even looking at others in the same field at best you may get a general outlook on the current market, but no directly relatable figures for freelancing. Also realize *employees* typically earn *far less* than freelancers in the same field because employees get things like health care, heat, power, vacation, sick days, 401k -- all of which freelancers *must pay for themselves*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, looking at direct competition freelance rates aren't going to tell you much either. One freelancer may charge $100 for something while another charges $200 for the same thing. They may *both* be priced accordingly for *their* services and expertise... you would have no way of knowing. You generally can't price based on what other's charge. If you do, you either end up burning off clients because they feel they are paying too much for your services eventually leaving you aching for clients, or you short yourself and work way more than you should to make the same income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can get a general &quot;guestimate&quot; though by looking at what corporations are paying for an employment position in the field....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Compile a list of salaries for similar full time employment positions, regardless of location in the US. Yes some will be higher, some lower. Try and target positions all looking for your general level of skill/experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Average those salaries to get a single `median` salary figure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some trains of thoughts are to just charge 3 or 4 times what the average salary is for an employee. So you could multiply the `median` by 3 or 4 and get a yearly salary. Often this may work. It depends upon the field.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, if I use my last employment salary (+10 years ago), and multiply that by 3....  it is considerably more than what my current hourly rate is... My market just would not bear me setting a rate at 3x my last salary, let alone 4x. So I, personally, have found this method interesting, but not quite usable. I still make what I feel I'm worth, it just can't be 3x my last paid salary position. My rate is, however, relatively close to 4x the salary for an entry-level position in my field. So... well... you have to determine things for yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**It's also imperative to know your *minimum* rate.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Calculate your yearly `overhead` (heat, electricity, water, equipment, software, subscription services, health care, mortgage/rent, repairs, etc.). This gives you a `minimum` yearly income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Factor the amount of `work hours` you plan to be available per year (be certain to deduct time for vacations, personal days, sick days, etc) - general ballpark may be around 1800 hours (about 40 hours a week for 45 weeks, leaving roughly 7 weeks for &quot;personal&quot; stuff)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Divide the `overhead` by the `work hours` to get your `minimum hourly` rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- To get the `median hourly` rate, just divide the `median` by the same amount of `work hours`.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From here.. it's more subjective.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Look at how your `minimum` yearly relates to the `median` salary.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Look at how your `minimum hourly` relates to the `median hourly` rate.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is the `minimum` higher or lower? It *should* be lower. If your `minimum` is higher, then you may need to evaluate the feasibility of *actually* being able to freelance in this field. Higher `minimum` means you may be currently living *outside* what freelancing will support. So, you may need to pay down some debt and eliminate some monthly expenses before freelancing is feasible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the `median` is higher, how much higher? A lot? A little? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's just a little... again you may have too many monthly expenses and may want to consider reducing debt first so you aren't &quot;scrambling&quot; for income right away. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then there's all the unknowns... how much experience do you have? How proficient are you at what you do compared to a recent college graduate or entry-level employee? These are intangible in general and merely require self-evaluation and *honest* assessment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Standard figures are to customarily add 20% to your hourly *minimum* for profit. But that's just a ballpark. So you take your `minimum hourly` Add 20% to it... how does that compare to the `median hourly` rate? How about if you add 40%, 60%... 150%... 200% etc. to your `minimum hourly`. Remember every % above your `minimum hourly` would be *profit* for you. So maybe it takes 130% added to your `minimum hourly` to get to the same as the `median hourly`. Your'e already in good shape then.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, suppose you've got 10 years experience and specialize in a &quot;niche&quot; of the field that not many specialize in? Maybe add another 10% for every year of experience to compensate you for the expertise you offer above an average employee. Maybe add another 20% because you're able to turn projects around much faster than in an office environment? It's all *subjective*. In the end you may feel that your `minimum hourly` + 250% is a price point you feel good about and, while higher than average employee salaries, you offer much more than any employee could offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you test the market... if you get way more work than you can handle, your pricing is *too low* and you need to start raising it. If you have client connections but aren't ever getting any actual work from them, then your pricing may be too high. So you adjust. If you get enough work, but don't get everything you bid on, you're probably priced pretty well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pricing is often a *constant* moving target as skills improve, clients change, technology changes, etc. The only real imperative thing is that you are **always** charging *at least* your `minimum` so you aren't *losing* money by freelancing. And remember, it's *always* easier to lower pricing than it is to raise it. Starting a bit high and dropping (if even necessary) is often the best &quot;guess&quot; when you first venture out." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16716" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6401" RevisionGUID="41d27606-a409-4d92-9837-61a01ee804b6" CreationDate="2016-12-28T10:42:08.060" UserId="15808" Text="I’ve used [Jscrambler][1] and I can tell you they have a date lock feature which may be useful for enforcing license agreements and delivering demos with time to live. It is worth the money if you need good protection, but I guess it really depends on the value of the code you are trying to protect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.jscrambler.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16717" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6354" RevisionGUID="6362a0e8-4e90-4907-9fd3-1e6bb2111246" CreationDate="2016-12-28T13:56:37.963" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/814107792873259008" />
  <row Id="16718" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6229" RevisionGUID="84caa599-edf9-43bc-90a9-270d10105548" CreationDate="2016-12-28T23:09:42.440" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16719" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6402" RevisionGUID="dd5d90df-a1af-4626-941a-5ceb5afe9b17" CreationDate="2016-12-29T07:37:51.647" UserId="1793" Text="I'm working something for a client and I'm paid per hour. I created a tool to automate redundant tasks which basically lessens the time to 90%. I'm thinking I'm actually shooting myself in the foot because I'm taking all those money away by shortening the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My options are:  &#xD;&#xA;1. Don't mention it to the client and just file the time manually? I don't think this is fair.  &#xD;&#xA;2. Ask a raise for my rate per hour, this one I think is fairer since I actually built the tool myself and spent hours to develop it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you guys think?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16720" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6402" RevisionGUID="dd5d90df-a1af-4626-941a-5ceb5afe9b17" CreationDate="2016-12-29T07:37:51.647" UserId="1793" Text="I built a tool to automate work, should I ask a raise?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16721" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6402" RevisionGUID="dd5d90df-a1af-4626-941a-5ceb5afe9b17" CreationDate="2016-12-29T07:37:51.647" UserId="1793" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16722" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6403" RevisionGUID="fb8c6a9f-52dc-41e5-8d6a-7cc1b8ee3a84" CreationDate="2016-12-29T10:29:43.430" UserId="536" Text="This is tricky.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't ask for a raise, you are in a contract and building a tool doesn't dissolve that. You were hired to solve a problem, and that includes all the logistics of seeing the originally requested solution delivered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would bill as agreed and use the tool. Finish ahead of the anticipated date as you currently expect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client asks how you finished so much faster than expected, then you can always explain how you found some areas where you were able to automate to reduce the time needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: Depending on the terms of your agreement, that tool &quot;may&quot; now be owned by your client. So you may want to review your agreement carefully.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Provided you own the tool and get to keep it, then you maybe able to use it on other projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it the tool can't be used (for whatever reason), then you still maybe able to take what you learned to automate other processes which could be time consuming for other projects." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16723" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6404" RevisionGUID="8120dc7d-8a9f-4cee-9008-a7a216e85630" CreationDate="2016-12-29T13:20:18.280" UserId="708" Text="If I create a tool which makes it easier to complete my work, and complete it much faster than before, the client does not need to know about it. (Provided you aren't under a work-for-hire agreement). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How I do my job, the speed at which I do my job, the tools I use to complete my job, what hours I work and where those hours fall, are all **my choice** and the *core* of what freelancing often is. If none of these are true.... are you *certain* you aren't under a work-for-hire-agreement? (In which case, the client may own this new &quot;tool&quot;.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm 200% faster at completing tasks today than I was 5 years ago... but I should *never* make *less* money just because I can complete something at a faster pace. **Never** penalize yourself for being good at your job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where this gets tricky is if you are under an hourly payment agreement. If work took you 4 hours yesterday, but this new tool means it'll only take 30 minutes today, you're in a pickle - at least ethically. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could keep your rates the same and just invoice for the 4 hours it *would* have taken you to complete without your new tool. Its ethically questionable, however, again, *how* you complete your work is your business. Developing something that the means you don't need 4 hours doesn't necessarily mean the client shouldn't be paying what 4 hours of time is worth. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could raise your rates considerably and cut the reported hours down to 30 minutes - this may be problematic. If you start slashing your expected or anticipated work time, you may find that when there's a problem you don't have adequate time to deal with things and clients are harping at you because you've been so fast in the past.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally, the balance would be somewhere in the middle. You raise rates to appropriately compensate you for your speed.. and you cut the necessary turnaround time down to allow the client to benefit from the new speed increase as well. Both you and the client get something this way. Client gets faster turnaround, you get more free time without any loss of income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tend to not work hourly in most cases due to this. I work on **value-based** pricing. I've quoted a price to my client. The client is happy with that price and will pay that price. *How* I complete my tasks is *entirely* my choice - whether it takes me 16 hours or just 1, the client doesn't care they will still pay the quoted price. If I come up with a huge time saver, the client still pays what they've agreed to pay... I merely may be working far less to deliver what is expected. Again, I *refuse* to penalize myself for being good at my job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't think this question could really definitively be answered without fully understanding any contract or agreement you have with your client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16724" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6404" RevisionGUID="457d44cb-00e1-4292-b10e-41024e332c7c" CreationDate="2016-12-29T13:25:27.893" UserId="708" Comment="added 161 characters in body" Text="If I create a tool which makes it easier to complete my work, and complete it much faster than before, the client does not need to know about it. (Provided you aren't under a work-for-hire agreement). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How I do my job, the speed at which I do my job, the tools I use to complete my job, what hours I work and where those hours fall, are all **my choice** and the *core* of what freelancing often is. If none of these are true.... are you *certain* you aren't under a work-for-hire-agreement? (In which case, the client may own this new &quot;tool&quot;.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm 200% faster at completing tasks today than I was 5 years ago... but I should *never* make *less* money just because I can complete something at a faster pace. **Never** penalize yourself for being good at your job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where this gets tricky is if you are under an hourly payment agreement. If work took you 4 hours yesterday, but this new tool means it'll only take 30 minutes today, you're in a pickle - at least ethically. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could keep your rates the same and just invoice for the 4 hours it *would* have taken you to complete without your new tool. Its ethically questionable, however, again, *how* you complete your work is your business. Developing something that the means you don't need 4 hours doesn't necessarily mean the client shouldn't be paying what 4 hours of time is worth. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could raise your rates considerably and cut the reported hours down to 30 minutes - this may be problematic. If you start slashing your expected or anticipated work time, you may find that when there's a problem you don't have adequate time to deal with things and clients are harping at you because you've been so fast in the past.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally, the balance would be somewhere in the middle. You raise rates to appropriately compensate you for your speed.. and you cut the necessary turnaround time down to allow the client to benefit from the new speed increase as well. Both you and the client get something this way. Client gets faster turnaround, you get more free time without any loss of income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tend to not work hourly in most cases due to this. I work on **value-based** pricing. I've quoted a price to my client. The client is happy with that price and will pay that price. *How* I complete my tasks is *entirely* my choice - whether it takes me 16 hours or just 1, the client doesn't care they will still pay the quoted price. If I come up with a huge time saver, the client still pays what they've agreed to pay... I merely may be working far less to deliver what is expected. Again, I *refuse* to penalize myself for being good at my job. It's my opinion that for *most* freelancers working for hourly pay is never a great position to be in. Fire your hourly rate if possible. It's holding you back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't think this question could really definitively be answered without fully understanding any contract or agreement you have with your client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16728" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6402" RevisionGUID="589b1bf7-6da8-4045-908a-f7e7f79d823e" CreationDate="2016-12-31T16:59:45.027" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/815241038893813764" />
  <row Id="16729" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="200" RevisionGUID="58d253ef-ee29-4a89-bd4f-eeb3eabe9b63" CreationDate="2017-01-01T07:59:44.713" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/815467530739445760" />
  <row Id="16730" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6406" RevisionGUID="5532d183-7ef9-40a7-80df-af77d4368b26" CreationDate="2017-01-02T01:22:26.923" UserId="11760" Text="From a business college student's point of view, you will need to do a few things to sell your idea to your competitor.&#xA;&#xA;Protect your idea.&#xA;====&#xA;How? You will need to have your app patented. This may take a long time so I would recommend getting started on it. Here is the link for more info:&#xA;&#xA;https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/can-you-patent-your-mobile-app&#xA;&#xA;Write a proposal&#xA;====&#xA;&#xA;Now for telling your competitor, you will need to write up a proposal. Here is a website that has templates.&#xA;&#xA;https://www.sampletemplates.com/letter-templates/business-proposal-letter.html&#xA;&#xA;One more thing:&#xA;&#xA;In order to get your competitor's attention I would recommend to get to know them first (maybe become friends with them first). From there it will be easier for you to pitch the idea to him/her. Only write up the propsal once he/she shows interest. &#xA;&#xA;This is definitely not easy but it is doable. Goodluck. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16731" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6407" RevisionGUID="ff0cc151-31c7-4bef-b3bf-4ad873fc357b" CreationDate="2017-01-02T15:02:21.390" UserId="14793" Text="If, from the outset, the deal does not look good, you should rethink the project.  If you do decide to continue with the project then you have the other answers here to follow guidelines and keep the project positive." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16732" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6402" RevisionGUID="513fe61a-7c5a-46c5-9fee-b7c5d82f21e8" CreationDate="2017-01-02T23:28:51.387" UserId="1793" Comment="added 32 characters in body" Text="I'm working something for a client and I'm paid per hour. I created a tool to automate redundant tasks which basically lessens the time to 10% (leaving 90% off to automation). I'm thinking I'm actually shooting myself in the foot because I'm taking all those money away by shortening the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My options are:  &#xD;&#xA;1. Don't mention it to the client and just file the time manually? I don't think this is fair.  &#xD;&#xA;2. Ask a raise for my rate per hour, this one I think is fairer since I actually built the tool myself and spent hours to develop it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you guys think?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16733" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6408" RevisionGUID="63deca4a-cc7e-402a-a66d-0d9c84b0e1d9" CreationDate="2017-01-03T00:03:39.380" UserId="15394" Text="Recently, I started working for a client, and he found my work really excellent, and he's asked me to build a team and do a complete project for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to learn iOS development,and build an iOS app myself, so would it be a valid/legit thing to ask my client to pay me for the time I learn new things?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Definitely, I need to ask him, but from a general perspective, would it be OK?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16734" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6408" RevisionGUID="63deca4a-cc7e-402a-a66d-0d9c84b0e1d9" CreationDate="2017-01-03T00:03:39.380" UserId="15394" Text="Can learning a new technology be a paid task for a client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16735" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6408" RevisionGUID="63deca4a-cc7e-402a-a66d-0d9c84b0e1d9" CreationDate="2017-01-03T00:03:39.380" UserId="15394" Text="|payment-terms|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16736" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6409" RevisionGUID="acd5062b-5370-4a99-8687-d5d131e29725" CreationDate="2017-01-03T01:05:52.513" UserId="5578" Text="It he asks you to hire a team of professionals and you would like to become a professional yourself for his money that's not fair at all. &#xD;&#xA;If he would like you to build the app and initialy you were not required to know ios you can charge him for learning. &#xD;&#xA;As an option you can make it some kind of fixed price and not to charge your usual rates.&#xD;&#xA;It's good to let client know in advance an estimate of time/money you are planning to spend for learning." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16737" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6410" RevisionGUID="ed2f165a-b45c-43cb-b7a9-8341bc2abb53" CreationDate="2017-01-03T01:37:12.683" UserId="708" Text="If you do not know how to build an iOS app... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- How in the world do you know how long it will take you to learn how build one? &#xD;&#xA;- How would you know how long *actually building* the app would take?&#xD;&#xA;- How would you know how long it will take to become familiar and comfortable with security issues? &#xD;&#xA;- How long to construct and implement Updates? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if you know *none* of this, because you *couldn't possibly* until you learn how to build an app, how could you ask a client to pay for something without knowing what the costs would be?? Are you expecting the client to just write a &quot;blank check&quot; so to speak and &quot;hope&quot; he/she gets a solid app in the end, after who knows how long? What if it takes you a year to learn things? What if after a year you *still* don't have a solid understanding of security issues? What if the client was expecting the app in 3 - 6 months? What if a &quot;team&quot; could have built the app in 6 weeks?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think about all that... now do ***you* honestly** think it's a good idea to ask the client to pay for you to learn?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, **no**. it is not &quot;okay&quot; to ask a client to pay you to educate yourself. He's/She's *not* your employer. **To be frank, even just asking will make you seem *really* inexperienced and unprofessional.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Employers may often pay for education because they reap direct rewards when their employees learn. It's an &quot;investment&quot; in the employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But in a freelance situation, your *client* doesn't receive much of anything by paying you to learn something new. You would be essentially asking the client to pay you so they could be your &quot;guinea pig&quot;. You get all the rewards and the client is left crossing their fingers hoping that you &quot;learn&quot; the correct stuff you need to learn. In most cases, the client is interested in a solid final product... so **hire a team** as you were asked to do. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I applaud you for wanting to learn... but delving into an entirely new language or environment is *never* something for which the client should be paying. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16738" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6410" RevisionGUID="f0263cfe-9f5f-4b3d-8ab2-e9b4c5e4af9f" CreationDate="2017-01-03T01:56:06.023" UserId="708" Comment="added 78 characters in body" Text="If you do not know how to build an iOS app... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- How in the world do you know how long it will take you to learn how build one? &#xD;&#xA;- How would you know how long *actually building* the app would take?&#xD;&#xA;- How would you know how long it will take to become familiar and comfortable with security issues? &#xD;&#xA;- How long to construct and implement Updates? &#xD;&#xA;- How would you know the *best method* to implement *any* given feature set?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if you know *none* of this, because you *couldn't possibly* until you learn how to build an app, how could you ask a client to pay for something without knowing what the costs would be?? Are you expecting the client to just write a &quot;blank check&quot; so to speak and &quot;hope&quot; he/she gets a solid app in the end, after who knows how long? What if it takes you a year to learn things? What if after a year you *still* don't have a solid understanding of security issues? What if the client was expecting the app in 3 - 6 months? What if a &quot;team&quot; could have built the app in 6 weeks?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think about all that... now do ***you* honestly** think it's a good idea to ask the client to pay for you to learn?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, **no**. it is not &quot;okay&quot; to ask a client to pay you to educate yourself. He's/She's *not* your employer. **To be frank, even just asking will make you seem *really* inexperienced and unprofessional.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Employers may often pay for education because they reap direct rewards when their employees learn. It's an &quot;investment&quot; in the employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But in a freelance situation, your *client* doesn't receive much of anything by paying you to learn something new. You would be essentially asking the client to pay you so they could be your &quot;guinea pig&quot;. You get all the rewards and the client is left crossing their fingers hoping that you &quot;learn&quot; the correct stuff you need to learn. In most cases, the client is interested in a solid final product... so **hire a team** as you were asked to do. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I applaud you for wanting to learn... but delving into an entirely new language or environment is *never* something for which the client should be paying. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16739" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6411" RevisionGUID="90a52bd0-4583-4fde-89d7-8840c1bdf0dc" CreationDate="2017-01-03T02:54:00.213" UserId="15851" Text="I agree with @Scott and @Nikita&#xD;&#xA;Asking to pay for learning new tech might look even rude to your clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Making good progress in one tech field does not mean that you can do same thing in other tech field, and this will be general idea for anyone else, I believe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So saying &quot;hey, I have shown my skills here, and I will be great skilled guy on IOS, too, so hire me although I am new to IOS&quot; is normally UNACCEPTABLE I believe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16740" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6410" RevisionGUID="6392748f-ee29-4a51-b354-c5493df97f0b" CreationDate="2017-01-03T03:31:19.870" UserId="708" Comment="added 361 characters in body" Text="If you do not know how to build an iOS app... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- How in the world do you know how long it will take you to learn how build one? &#xD;&#xA;- How would you know how long *actually building* the app would take?&#xD;&#xA;- How would you know how long it will take to become familiar and comfortable with security issues? &#xD;&#xA;- How long to construct and implement Updates? &#xD;&#xA;- How would you know the *best method* to implement *any* given feature set?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if you know *none* of this, because you *couldn't possibly* until you learn how to build an app, how could you ask a client to pay for something without knowing what the costs would be?? Are you expecting the client to just write a &quot;blank check&quot; so to speak and &quot;hope&quot; he/she gets a solid app in the end, after who knows how long? What if it takes you a year to learn things? What if after a year you *still* don't have a solid understanding of security issues? What if the client was expecting the app in 3 - 6 months? What if a &quot;team&quot; could have built the app in 6 weeks?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think about all that... now do ***you* honestly** think it's a good idea to ask the client to pay for you to learn?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;(Note: I know *nothing* about building iOS apps, but I could surely learn the basics and slap something together in a week. Something fairly functional and attractive in a month. However, building something for commercial purposes, in a solid, reliable manner, in *any* profession/environment often takes *months* of learning, if not years.) &lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, **no**. it is **not &quot;okay&quot; to ask** a client to pay you to educate yourself. He's/She's *not* your employer. **To be frank, even just asking will make you seem *really* inexperienced and unprofessional.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Employers may often pay for education because they reap direct rewards when their employees learn. It's an &quot;investment&quot; in the employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But in a freelance situation, your *client* doesn't receive much of anything by paying you to learn something new. You would be essentially asking the client to pay you so they could be your &quot;guinea pig&quot;. You get all the rewards and the client is left crossing their fingers hoping that you &quot;learn&quot; the correct stuff you need to learn. In most cases, the client is interested in a solid final product... so **hire a team** as you were asked to do. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I applaud you for wanting to learn... but delving into an entirely new language or environment is *never* something for which the client should be paying. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16741" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6412" RevisionGUID="2c167f79-a13a-42de-943c-63049087832c" CreationDate="2017-01-03T04:14:30.553" UserId="15858" Text="I'm from Vietnam and a vietnam citizen. A startup in US want to contract me for 50 hours of work. They gave me a IRS form and suggest me to fill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I have 3 questions here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Do I have to fill the form?&#xD;&#xA;2. If I filled the form, does that mean I will have to pay tax?&#xD;&#xA;3. How much of tax I would have to pay? Like 40% of what the start up pay me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16742" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6412" RevisionGUID="2c167f79-a13a-42de-943c-63049087832c" CreationDate="2017-01-03T04:14:30.553" UserId="15858" Text="Do I have to pay for contacting work in US" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16743" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6412" RevisionGUID="2c167f79-a13a-42de-943c-63049087832c" CreationDate="2017-01-03T04:14:30.553" UserId="15858" Text="|contracts|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16744" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6408" RevisionGUID="84071826-9f95-41ff-91c7-b89fa5d41473" CreationDate="2017-01-03T07:31:09.353" UserId="15394" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="Recently, I started working for a client, and he found my work really excellent, and he's asked me to build a team and do a complete project for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to learn iOS development, and build an iOS app myself, so would it be a valid/legit thing to ask my client to pay me for the time I learn new things?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Definitely, I need to ask him, but from a general perspective, would it be OK?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16745" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6412" RevisionGUID="3f21229c-4549-4a14-9893-53278c25c6e8" CreationDate="2017-01-03T07:36:37.673" UserId="15858" Comment="edited title" Text="Do I have to pay tax for contacting work in US" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16746" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6412" RevisionGUID="3f21229c-4549-4a14-9893-53278c25c6e8" CreationDate="2017-01-03T07:36:37.673" UserId="15858" Comment="edited title" Text="I'm from Vietnam and a vietnam citizen. A startup in US want to contract me for 50 hours of work. They gave me a IRS form and suggest me to fill. The form name **w-9**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I have 3 questions here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Do I have to fill the form?&#xD;&#xA;2. If I filled the form, does that mean I will have to pay tax?&#xD;&#xA;3. How much of tax I would have to pay? Like 40% of what the start up pay me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16747" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6413" RevisionGUID="23ebdc41-57cb-45ed-a709-e1727a3f80c9" CreationDate="2017-01-03T15:39:28.213" UserId="15877" Text="If the client wants to hire you to use a skill they know you don't have, then it might be in order for them to pay for some sort of training.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they want you specifically rather than hiring somebody who already has that skillset, there is room for discussion there.  It's assumed that some sort of training up front would pay off in fewer billable hours later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe they send you to some conference and you bill it to them or you agree on some kind of course and you bill it to them or something like that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client doesn't care that you have the skill and it doesn't benefit them, then don't bother asking.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it would be nice to get all kinds of free money off of an employer, I wouldn't expect that the situations would happen too often.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a general sense, things are much more often expensed to the employer when the employer suggests the thing rather than when the employee suggests the thing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16748" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6384" RevisionGUID="7b835b79-eec1-43b8-a95a-cd1dd526ad54" CreationDate="2017-01-03T16:05:17.660" UserId="11857" Comment="Quoting relevant text &amp; formatting" Text="**TL;DR**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Do you think that I should make him sign some releasing agreement?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**NO; there's absolutely no need.** One may ask; for what purpose? You **CANNOT** be truly protected for premeditated acts, not even with a written agreement!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If he will have legal problems can I be involved too?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If and only if you delivered further on the project after having noticed the copyright infringement you've made mention of.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You delivered the project initially as asked in all fairness and due processes without any possible fraudulent implications; your ability to determine the scope of work and nature of the project was based on information given you by your client which at that stage had no negative connotation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When asked further for modifications, now that the clean project you delivered grew with data added by your client, you now realised it contains copyright infringed materials.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You did well by drawing his attention to that fact and based on his response, I can conclude he is fully aware of what he is doing and has no intention or soever to refrain from such a practice but banking on possible escape doors should the worse occur.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having reflected on this challenge as you did and taking a conscious time and effort to seek advice into the matter equally demonstrates that you are morally sound and frown on this act.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to trust your gut; simply back off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From the very moment you know of his true intention and practice, should you continue further (with or without an agreement and or legal denial of possible copyright infringement repercussions) with him on the said project, you absolutely no longer have any cover under the law." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16749" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6384" RevisionGUID="7b835b79-eec1-43b8-a95a-cd1dd526ad54" CreationDate="2017-01-03T16:05:17.660" Comment="Proposed by 11857 approved by 15276 edit id of 510" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16750" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6384" RevisionGUID="cdf000e2-3930-4644-9da9-cc18859023a9" CreationDate="2017-01-03T17:15:43.850" UserId="15276" Comment="Clarity enhanced." Text="**TL;DR**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Do you think that I should make him sign some releasing agreement?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**NO; there's absolutely no need.** One may ask; for what purpose? You **CANNOT** be truly protected for premeditated acts, not even with a written agreement!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If he will have legal problems can I be involved too?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If and only if you delivered further on the project after having noticed the copyright infringement** you've made mention of, YES; you surely will.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You delivered the project initially as asked in all fairness and due processes without any possible fraudulent implications; your ability to determine the scope of work and nature of the project was based on information given you by your client which at that stage had no negative connotation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When asked further for modifications, now that the clean project you delivered grew with data added by your client, you now realised it contains copyright infringed materials.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You did well by drawing his attention to that fact and based on his response, I can conclude he is fully aware of what he is doing and has no intention or soever to refrain from such a practice but banking on possible escape doors should the worse occur.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having reflected on this challenge as you did and taking a conscious time and effort to seek advice into the matter equally demonstrates that you are morally sound and frown on this act.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to trust your gut; simply back off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From the very moment you know of his true intention and practice, should you continue further (with or without an agreement and or legal denial of possible copyright infringement repercussions) with him on the said project, you absolutely no longer have any cover under the law." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16751" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6414" RevisionGUID="557dd5f2-04cf-41f2-bf6d-cd0e24f86e4a" CreationDate="2017-01-03T17:20:18.187" UserId="15880" Text="I think the majority have answered above, but would like to clarify my answer.&#xD;&#xA;If you are hired on a monthly salary basis then costs incurred in learning and perhaps time are usually covered by the employer. So you learn at the billed time and software, lessons etc are covered by the employer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your work is on a project by project basis then you should split your work as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Actual management of hiring, task alocating and organising the team as a manager. This is management time that you can bill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Learning a new development language. This is within your efforts of hiring a skilled worker and does not fall in the category of doing something but rather finding someone to do it, thus it is not billable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An exception of this would be if the new learning is a small part of the project and your time is mainly organising hiring and doing all the other development you are hired to do. Again out of pocket expenses, if asked and explained in your offer document in advance may be billed, otherwise no.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general always make an offer document outlining what you will and what you will not do, with details of timeframe and cost charged. If you do not know how long it will take and who will do it, then you can charge a preliminary small amount upfront for the time it will take you to find out and create a detailed offer document. Keep in mind that there is the possibility that your employer goes out shopping and he might find someone do make an offer document for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general if you are organised, transparent and communnication written in clear conscise detail form then there are no issue, problems arise when things are left out and people start filling in with personal sided assumptions." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16752" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6384" RevisionGUID="70141219-d13c-4de0-83fc-b23929f92a18" CreationDate="2017-01-03T17:29:12.483" UserId="15276" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body" Text="**TL;DR**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Do you think that I should make him sign some releasing agreement?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**NO; there's absolutely no need.** One may ask; for what purpose? You **CANNOT** be truly protected for premeditated acts, not even with a written agreement!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If he will have legal problems can I be involved too?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If and only if you delivered further on the project after having noticed the copyright infringement you've made mention of, YES; you surely will.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You delivered the project initially as asked in all fairness and due processes without any possible fraudulent implications; your ability to determine the scope of work and nature of the project was based on information given you by your client which at that stage had no negative connotation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When asked further for modifications, now that the clean project you delivered grew with data added by your client, you now realised it contains copyright infringed materials.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You did well by drawing his attention to that fact and based on his response, I can conclude he is fully aware of what he is doing and has no intention or soever to refrain from such a practice but banking on possible escape doors should the worse occur.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having reflected on this challenge as you did and taking a conscious time and effort to seek advice into the matter equally demonstrates that you are morally sound and frown on this act.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to trust your gut; simply back off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From the very moment you know of his true intention and practice, should you continue further (with or without an agreement and or legal denial of possible copyright infringement repercussions) with him on the said project, you absolutely no longer have any cover under the law." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16753" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6415" RevisionGUID="fb25ddba-2a17-4b1e-ad82-67cac3501702" CreationDate="2017-01-03T18:41:24.210" UserId="1706" Text="I'll have to disagree with some of the other rationales shown here.  While it'd be pretty dumb to *expect* a client to pay while you learn, people in business learn-as-they-go at the client's expense it all the time.  This is the reason - at least, in the US - that a business from a physician or attorney is called a &quot;practice&quot; -- because they're **practicing** and they don't know everything to cover every situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;OP didn't state what skills have already been put to use for the client.  I'll say that if prior skills include no software development at all, then expecting a client to pay for the iOS learning curve would be quite a stretch.  This doesn't mean it's impossible, but fulfilling the client's *actual functional requirement* might make this one a long-shot.  Some clients can eat such a cost, and others cannot.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best that can be done is to be up front with the client about the actual experience level in dealing with technologies *like* iOS, and allow the client to make the decision.  Put your truth out there, and maybe the client will bite, or maybe the client will find someone else for that job.  **DON'T** start out by mentioning that you will lower your rate -- use this method as a last resort or if you need the work and the client proposes it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16754" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6406" RevisionGUID="285cf021-7c12-4bc9-b63b-2593ced8188e" CreationDate="2017-01-03T19:45:31.543" UserId="11760" Comment="content cleanup; deleted 159 characters in body" Text="From a business college student's point of view, you will need to do a few things to sell your idea to your competitor.&#xA;&#xA;Protect your idea.&#xA;====&#xA;&#xA;Good job on thinking about this. As a market researcher, you have no idea how many times I see ideas stolen. &#xA;&#xA;How should you protect your idea? You will need to have your app patented. This may take a long time so I would recommend getting started on it. Here is the link for more info:&#xA;&#xA;https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/can-you-patent-your-mobile-app&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;Write a proposal&#xA;====&#xA;&#xA;Now for telling your competitor (or the person you want to sell your app to) you will need to write up a proposal. Here is a website that has templates.&#xA;&#xA;https://www.sampletemplates.com/letter-templates/business-proposal-letter.html&#xA;&#xA;How to get your competitor's attention&#xA;======&#xA;&#xA;Mention your project as an **investment**. You are actually selling them an investment so I'm sure you'll get their attention.&#xA;&#xA;Write up the proposal once they show interest. The questions they ask you are things you should add to your proposal. &#xA;&#xA;To make sure that they think about it, give them a deadline. Lastly, tell them that you are also looking for other investors (even if you're not). This is a copywriting technique. &#xA;&#xA;This may not seem easy but it is doable. &#xA;&#xA;Goodluck. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16755" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6416" RevisionGUID="bedacb66-c653-40e4-b264-17b49a290c7b" CreationDate="2017-01-03T20:05:51.713" UserId="15882" Text="#In this answer: some rather general(izable) advice&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;Pro/con reading it:  &#xD;&#xA;(+) applicable to many situations  &#xD;&#xA;(–) not based on loads of professional experience/ expert knowledge  &#xD;&#xA;(–) may be obvious  &#xD;&#xA;  (+) but remembering this may still be useful  &#xD;&#xA;(+) may be good/ useful advice&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##Go with your gut.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, I do have a bit more input than that, which might benefit you by triggering some gut feelings – encouraging or discouraging.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Depending on the (culture and) character of your client and the relationship between the two of you,) I would probably apply this general principle:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##When in doubt, try it out.  Ask. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Extra carefully, politely!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Chances are, you have more to gain than to loose:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Even if the chance that they say Yes is small, that outcome might be so useful for you that the opportunity as a whole has weight.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- A 'catastrophic' outcome seems unlikely.  They will probably not ditch you just for a silly insolent question (if it even is one (to them)).  Even less, since they already showed their high opinion of your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- (Even in the unlikely worst case, you will have gained an experience.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could also consider &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###going about it 'cleverly':&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead of bluntly asking if they'll finance you, you could sort of **ask *them* for advice**, telling them that you wonder whether it would be appropriate for a freelancer to ask a client whether they would pay them to learn something like iOS development.  Maybe beforehand, sort of casually, mention how interested you would be in learning that.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Advantages of this cautious approach:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- You signal, that you're not confident in this question, so it should seem less grave, in case they might be upset by the request in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Your request is clear enough for them to agree if that's what they want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If they feel that would be a stupid question to ask, they can decline by phrasing their answer in the form of advice, that this question would not be a good idea.  That way they could decline without outright rejecting you and you both 'save face' – it might be less awkward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may still come off as unprofessional, but may still be worth it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending on the person's (culture and) character and your relationship, they may prefer a more direct approach.  Or none at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So all of these are just suggestions to give you ideas – ultimately I'd expect your intuition/ gut to be your best guide on whether you should implement them or what else is the best way for you in this situation to go about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS: If you decide to ask, please share with us  how they reacted! :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16756" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6402" RevisionGUID="1fd86e5a-299b-444c-b27f-cb617f6a2d97" CreationDate="2017-01-04T03:13:08.013" UserId="1793" Comment="added 390 characters in body" Text="I'm working something for a client and I'm paid per hour. I created a tool to automate redundant tasks which basically lessens the time to 10% (leaving 90% off to automation). I'm thinking I'm actually shooting myself in the foot because I'm taking all those money away by shortening the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My options are:  &#xD;&#xA;1. Don't mention it to the client and just file the time manually? I don't think this is fair.  &#xD;&#xA;2. Ask a raise for my rate per hour, this one I think is fairer since I actually built the tool myself and spent hours to develop it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you guys think?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#EDIT&#xD;&#xA;I actually thought of charging per project done but the problem is there are ad-hoc tasks for each project, like revisions or modifications so I'm not entirely sure how to deal with this. I find it more complicated if I do project base.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also client doesn't have rights to what I build for myself, only the ones they explicitly want to be done by me; deliverables, assets, etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16757" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6412" RevisionGUID="15d4ab36-0930-4818-bf01-d9e73d3a9eb4" CreationDate="2017-01-04T06:46:39.993" UserId="13016" Comment="minor clean up" Text="I'm from Vietnam and a vietnam citizen. A startup in the US wants to contract me for 50 hours of work. They gave me an IRS form and suggested I fill it out. The form name **w-9**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I have 3 questions here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Do I have to fill out the form?&#xD;&#xA;2. If I filled the form, does that mean I will have to pay tax?&#xD;&#xA;3. How much tax would I have to pay? Like 40% of what the start-up pays me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16758" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6412" RevisionGUID="15d4ab36-0930-4818-bf01-d9e73d3a9eb4" CreationDate="2017-01-04T06:46:39.993" UserId="13016" Comment="minor clean up" Text="Do I have to pay tax for contracting work in US" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16759" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6412" RevisionGUID="15d4ab36-0930-4818-bf01-d9e73d3a9eb4" CreationDate="2017-01-04T06:46:39.993" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 708, -1 edit id of 511" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16760" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6412" RevisionGUID="8b2f28f8-50d3-4797-86c2-39446a02d5cf" CreationDate="2017-01-04T06:46:39.993" UserId="7858" Comment="minor clean up" Text="I'm from Vietnam and a vietnamese citizen. A startup in the US wants to contract me for 50 hours of work. They gave me an IRS form and suggested I fill it out. The form name **w-9**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I have 3 questions here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Do I have to fill out the form?&#xD;&#xA;2. If I filled the form, does that mean I will have to pay tax?&#xD;&#xA;3. How much tax would I have to pay? Like 40% of what the start-up pays me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16761" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6408" RevisionGUID="801024a0-2014-45d2-b8ae-2e1b72795daf" CreationDate="2017-01-04T11:14:43.080" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/816603761170907136" />
  <row Id="16762" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6417" RevisionGUID="4202adaa-4a18-44b0-b0bb-efa70475196f" CreationDate="2017-01-04T13:58:27.793" UserId="517" Text="Would you pay me to learn how to build a house and then build a house for you? I hardly think you would. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you are looking for a stipend which will allow you to have money while you learn something. I highly doubt your client will accept this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In programming, you have a junior, a mid-level and a senior programmer. You are not even a junior, but close to some student on the 1 year of study. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Programming is very, very complex. Clients expect to earn money from the app we make for them, so any app programmed badly (and you will surely make a bad app since it's your first app), will cost clients a lot. I know this, because I have fixed dozens of bad apps where someone made such app in 3 months, and it took me 2-3 times more just to fix such app. So this is how severe mistakes are in programming. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were you, I would find someone to do the work and you can take finder's fee or project manager's fee on top of his bill. Just make sure you find a good guy and that you have both iPhone and iPad to quality test an app he is building for your client. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16763" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6418" RevisionGUID="815c125e-3edb-41f8-847a-0e8a96667bf3" CreationDate="2017-01-04T15:19:09.857" UserId="15202" Text="[Here is the current tax agreement between the USA and Vietnam](https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/tax-policy/treaties/Documents/Treaty-Vietnam-7-7-2015.pdf)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Read article 14. It says that you pay tax in Vietnam if you live there, unless you spend a portion of time based in the USA. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16765" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6410" RevisionGUID="67362cac-0ae5-4b3c-b25e-3c96e0e0931b" CreationDate="2017-01-04T18:22:41.560" UserId="708" Comment="added 801 characters in body" Text="If you do not know how to build an iOS app... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- How in the world do you know how long it will take you to learn how build one? &#xD;&#xA;- How would you know how long *actually building* the app would take?&#xD;&#xA;- How would you know how long it will take to become familiar and comfortable with security issues? &#xD;&#xA;- How long to construct and implement Updates? &#xD;&#xA;- How would you know the *best method* to implement *any* given feature set?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if you know *none* of this, because you *couldn't possibly* until you learn how to build an app, how could you ask a client to pay for something without knowing what the costs would be?? Are you expecting the client to just write a &quot;blank check&quot; so to speak and &quot;hope&quot; he/she gets a solid app in the end, after who knows how long? What if it takes you a year to learn things? What if after a year you *still* don't have a solid understanding of security issues? What if the client was expecting the app in 3 - 6 months? What if a &quot;team&quot; could have built the app in 6 weeks?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think about all that... now do ***you* honestly** think it's a good idea to ask the client to pay for you to learn?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;(Note: I know *nothing* about building iOS apps, but I could surely learn the basics and slap something together in a week. Something fairly functional and attractive in a month. However, building something for commercial purposes, in a solid, reliable manner, in *any* profession/environment often takes *months* of learning, if not years.) &lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, **no**. it is **not &quot;okay&quot; to ask** a client to pay you to educate yourself. He's/She's *not* your employer. **To be frank, even just asking will make you seem *really* inexperienced and unprofessional.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Employers may often pay for education because they reap direct rewards when their employees learn. It's an &quot;investment&quot; in the employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But in a freelance situation, your *client* doesn't receive much of anything by paying you to learn something new. You would be essentially asking the client to pay you so they could be your &quot;guinea pig&quot;. You get all the rewards and the client is left crossing their fingers hoping that you &quot;learn&quot; the correct stuff you need to learn. In most cases, the client is interested in a solid final product... so **hire a team** as you were asked to do. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I applaud you for wanting to learn... but delving into an entirely new language or environment is *never* something for which the client should be paying. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I should add that in the tech world learning is a *constant* and *ongoing* thing. It is not unheard of to get a client who wishes to use a specific API and you would need to learn how to adapt to that API. Basically.. you know PHP... but need to adapt your PHP to work with a client-requested API you've never used before, that's common. That's generally okay if you explain to the client that you are unfamiliar with the API *they want* and will need to educate yourself about it. You aren't learning *new things* as much as you are learning *how to translate what you already know*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, this is markedly different that *&quot;having never built an iOS app, I want to try.&quot;* Learning *brand new, never before explored*, technologies is something you should do on your own. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16767" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6378" RevisionGUID="0d1e42f7-95e1-4088-9fec-448498acbef2" CreationDate="2017-01-04T19:12:09.480" UserId="15276" Comment="Edited content (grammatical fixes, quote and presentation, improved clarity of expression and readability)." Text="About a year ago, I've delivered a simple project for a client on his already existing website: he's actually someone I know (a friend of friends) and we only had a verbal agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is an automated procedure that store the users data in a database, make some queries, return automated emails with attachments, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I gave the work ready to use, he had to compile text, add attachments, etc. He did that part all alone I gave only the clean working software and he payed me as required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few months ago he asked me to make some minor changes that I did, but, when entering the site, I realised that he is selling courses that are literally copied by other courses and adapted to his needs; there are video from TV channels, pictures from Google searches, pieces of movies, PDF documents as well as many other resources he likely accessed on the internet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I told him that he can't sell these materials since it amounts to (surely) infringing on copyrighted resources, but he answered me:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Don't worry, all that is publicly visible is original, I took this materials only for teaching purposes and also is sent one-to-one in private email address, so none will find out and also they can't make my emails public because they will break the privacy laws.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no *written agreement* binding us and I don't want to be involved in any legal related challenges.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it appropriate I make him sign an agreement to this effect?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should he be facing any legal charge(s); would it be extended to me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16768" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6378" RevisionGUID="0d1e42f7-95e1-4088-9fec-448498acbef2" CreationDate="2017-01-04T19:12:09.480" Comment="Proposed by 15276 approved by 7858, -1 edit id of 512" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16769" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6378" RevisionGUID="356ec473-ddf4-4a67-9fe2-cbef459a10a9" CreationDate="2017-01-04T19:12:09.480" UserId="1706" Comment="Edited content (grammatical fixes, quote and presentation, improved clarity of expression and readability)." Text="About a year ago, I completed a simple project for a client on his already existing website: he's actually someone I know (a friend of friends) and we only had a verbal agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is an automated procedure that store the users data in a database, allows some queries, and creates automated emails with attachments, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I turned over the work ready-to-use.  He had to compile text, add attachments, etc. He did that part all alone.   I gave only the clean working software and he payed me as required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few months ago, he asked me to make some minor changes.  I did those, but while using the site, I realised that he is selling courses that are literally copied from other courses and adapted to his needs.   There are videos from TV channels, pictures from Google searches, pieces of movies, PDF documents as well as many other resources he likely accessed on the internet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I told him that he can't sell this material since it amounts to (surely) infringing on copyrighted resources, but his response was &quot;don't worry, all that is publicly visible is original, I took this materials only for teaching purposes and also is sent one-to-one in private email address, so none will find out and also they can't make my emails public because they will break the privacy laws.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no *written agreement* binding us and I don't want to be involved in any legal action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it appropriate that I make him sign an agreement to this effect?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he were facing any legal action, would it extend to me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16770" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6384" RevisionGUID="f5fbee51-c595-4182-8806-5c0041b70a40" CreationDate="2017-01-04T20:51:56.787" UserId="15276" Comment="Updated questions quote from OP." Text="**TL;DR**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Is it appropriate that I make him sign an agreement to this effect?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**NO; there's absolutely no need.** One may ask; for what purpose? You **CANNOT** be truly protected for premeditated acts, not even with a written agreement!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If he were facing any legal action, would it extend to me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If and only if you delivered further on the project after having noticed the copyright infringement you've made mention of, YES; you surely will.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You delivered the project initially as asked in all fairness and due processes without any possible fraudulent implications; your ability to determine the scope of work and nature of the project was based on information given you by your client which at that stage had no negative connotation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When asked further for modifications, now that the clean project you delivered grew with data added by your client, you now realised it contains copyright infringed materials.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You did well by drawing his attention to that fact and based on his response, I can conclude he is fully aware of what he is doing and has no intention or soever to refrain from such a practice but banking on possible escape doors should the worse occur.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having reflected on this challenge as you did and taking a conscious time and effort to seek advice into the matter equally demonstrates that you are morally sound and frown on this act.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to trust your gut; simply back off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From the very moment you know of his true intention and practice, should you continue further (with or without an agreement and or legal denial of possible copyright infringement repercussions) with him on the said project, you absolutely no longer have any cover under the law." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16771" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6340" RevisionGUID="32d0166f-56d7-415f-b8fc-b2408da0387b" CreationDate="2017-01-05T05:19:19.703" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/816876711828668416" />
  <row Id="16772" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6420" RevisionGUID="3570779b-b6a3-4e0b-8283-b39fdabd042d" CreationDate="2017-01-05T05:49:48.820" UserId="15906" Text="I need help dealing with this situation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a (person who claims to be my) &quot;friend&quot; who did not pay upon completion and delivery of project, despite a signed contract last May. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - The project was delivered in completion to spec, above and beyond. [Despite the client not providing all the required assets (with last minute deadlines), with me working overtime. It also won a few industry awards.] &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - It seems this &quot;friend&quot; hasn't figured his business out, unfortunately - nearly a year later. He's coming back to me, asking to waste my time with coffee, &quot;to get to know me better&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My freelancer's thought goes like: friend or not, **this is a client who didn't pay**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My response: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You know - it would be really nice if you'd pay up from last time. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Let's talk after... whenever that happens.  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Oh yeah, I threw in for free the graphics conversion and stuff you&#xD;&#xA;&gt; were supposed to get done - and got pissed you didn't do your work.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Scrappy startup issues, but not paying people for doing work is not&#xD;&#xA;&gt; cool.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;His response: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Ugh, [name]! Why are you so snappy?! I consider you a friend (even if you don't). You believed in me from the very beginning and I will never forget that. We got in a fight, that happens. We've helped each other many times over the years. I just want to work on us getting to know each other as people better, because bottom line - we both have the same passions and are not giving up on them. I think you know this.&#xD;&#xA;...and your next move might be defensive/smart response, but Yosun - I'm not trying to fight with you. I'm trying to be your friend. A better friend. Get some coffee. Talk our shit out like normal adults. I think it's worth a shot, a REAL try. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My reply:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Let's start with understanding our different perspectives. Can you try&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to understand where I'm coming from? &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; We had a client-contractor relationship with a written contract that&#xD;&#xA;&gt; was broken. I did the work; it was a total hit, but I wasn't paid.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Friend or not, to me, you're a client who didn't pay. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; But hey! Were you even a friend? I'm a contractor, and you know that&#xD;&#xA;&gt; contracts pay my bills. Friends don't leave friends out in the cold. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I've done all I can to help you for free. But, take it as honest&#xD;&#xA;&gt; advice, you really need to figure your business out. People need to be&#xD;&#xA;&gt; paid. Like I said - figure that out - and then, maybe, let's talk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;His reply: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Ya, I see what your saying, and there is more to that that I want to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; talk about. So yes, I'm sorry. But you're talking to me like I'm just&#xD;&#xA;&gt; some random dude/company. You always have. There have been glimmers of&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;friendship&quot; from you I've seen, but for some reason you are so&#xD;&#xA;&gt; defensive ALL THE TIME and switch back to me just being some&#xD;&#xA;&gt; dude/company... Look, I think there is a reason why we ran into each&#xD;&#xA;&gt; other. I don't know what it is yet. But I think we owe it to at least&#xD;&#xA;&gt; work on being friends better, getting to know each other. Why do you&#xD;&#xA;&gt; think I keep coming back to you?! It's not because your the only AR&#xD;&#xA;&gt; genius in the Bay. It's because I get you, and I think you get me&#xD;&#xA;&gt; (like 40%). Dude, put you ego aside, I'll do the same. I don't think&#xD;&#xA;&gt; this really has anything to do about $.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My spidey-sense from having spent the last 20 years of my life doing contract work summarizes this &quot;friend&quot; as: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Undermining my skills and achievements as &quot;dime a dozen&quot; in order to&#xD;&#xA;   get &quot;free work&quot;. &lt;i&gt;Obviously&lt;/i&gt;, he could just find another&#xD;&#xA;   developer in the bay to scam.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My final response: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hmm, this reads like a defensive email. I think I'm the only person&#xD;&#xA;&gt; nice enough to help you out for free - but there's a limit to that.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Please figure out your business. My venmo is [ ]  I'm&#xD;&#xA;&gt; blocking you until then!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Friendship&quot; Should I have dealt with this differently? As a contractor-friend, I think I'm already doing him a favor by not taking him to small claims or demanding a late fee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(In regards to small claims court, I don't have the time, though it's a &quot;friend startup service I'll build your entire app for ridiculous discount&quot; $5k contract. :()&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16773" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6420" RevisionGUID="3570779b-b6a3-4e0b-8283-b39fdabd042d" CreationDate="2017-01-05T05:49:48.820" UserId="15906" Text="Dealing with &quot;friend&quot; who won't pay after delivery despite signed contracts" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16774" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6420" RevisionGUID="3570779b-b6a3-4e0b-8283-b39fdabd042d" CreationDate="2017-01-05T05:49:48.820" UserId="15906" Text="|contracts|late-payment|friends-services|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16775" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6421" RevisionGUID="fda6a886-0d11-4513-ad20-19eb16d1733a" CreationDate="2017-01-05T06:57:29.300" UserId="7858" Text="It's pretty obvious that this client/friend is trying to extract free work from you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your approach is generally sound; no more work should be performed until payment has been completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, only you know whether you have any sort of remaining leverage. Is there more stuff he needs done, like bugs and extra features?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have no leverage at all, I would actually take the coffee and hear him out, hoping that you can position yourself better and actually get paid - unless he is a charismatic sweet-talker who merely will sucker you into more free work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16776" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6422" RevisionGUID="d43467a6-a923-47d7-b807-98d87142d7e2" CreationDate="2017-01-05T07:15:43.033" UserId="708" Text="Is this a script from a soap opera? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's **far too much discussion** taking place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Business is **business** and *not* friendship. **Ignore** anything not directly related to the *business*. All the back and forth trying to get the other to &quot;understand&quot; your position is, frankly silly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All you should be stating.. ***&quot;We have a contract. Pay me.&quot;*** When he/she replies.. reply with, ***&quot;We have a contract. Pay me.&quot;*** When he/she asks to go to coffee... reply with ***&quot;Okay, will you have a check for me?&quot;***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just stop trying to plea with him/her to understand. He/she FULLY understands, they just don't want to or can't afford to pay you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Every single thing you state* should be asking for payment or facilitating delivery of payment. Who you are, what your &quot;Dreams&quot; or &quot;goals&quot; are, how much &quot;alike&quot; you may be, etc. are all completely 100% **irrelevant** and stalling tactics. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stop being a &quot;friend&quot; or former friend and start running a *business*. If you had a boss... and this client wasn't paying, what would the boss do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Simply put.. file suit, small claims or otherwise... or, write off the money as lost.*** And if it were me... I'd write off the person who refused to pay me as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Friends&quot; don't stiff &quot;friends&quot; out of paying for agreed upon work when a contract made it clear there was payment due. This person **is not** your friend." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16777" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6422" RevisionGUID="e7fa081c-f0dd-43e3-9bae-fc3f0f9a6c23" CreationDate="2017-01-05T07:22:03.997" UserId="708" Comment="added 101 characters in body" Text="Is this a script from a soap opera? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's **far too much discussion** taking place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Business is **business** and *not* friendship. **Ignore** anything not directly related to the *business*. All the back and forth trying to get the other to &quot;understand&quot; your position is, frankly silly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All you should be stating.. ***&quot;We have a contract. Pay me.&quot;*** When he/she replies.. reply with, ***&quot;We have a contract. Pay me.&quot;*** When he/she asks to go to coffee... reply with ***&quot;Okay, will you have a check for me?&quot;*** When asked to complete more work, reply with **&quot;I'd be happy to after I'm paid for previous work.&quot;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just stop trying to plea with him/her to understand. He/she FULLY understands, they just don't want to or can't afford to pay you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Every single thing you state* should be asking for payment or facilitating delivery of payment. Who you are, what your &quot;Dreams&quot; or &quot;goals&quot; are, how much &quot;alike&quot; you may be, etc. are all completely 100% **irrelevant** and stalling tactics. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stop being a &quot;friend&quot; or former friend and start running a *business*. If you had a boss... and this client wasn't paying, what would the boss do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Simply put.. file suit, small claims or otherwise... or, write off the money as lost.*** And if it were me... I'd write off the person who refused to pay me as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Friends&quot; don't stiff &quot;friends&quot; out of paying for agreed upon work when a contract made it clear there was payment due. This person **is not** your friend." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16779" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6424" RevisionGUID="aa4f7e1b-330d-43f4-a706-92c62cd3e189" CreationDate="2017-01-05T13:25:45.987" UserId="15170" Text="Your chain of emails is unprofessional, you fail yourself by dropping to your client's argumentative level. As well as this, instead of getting to the point you make jabs and petty points informally, that seem very emotionally attached trying to play the guilt card and shame him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is no way to follow up proceedings of a broken contract. Instead of continuing this chain of emails, which is clearly heading nowhere, create a new email or physical letter for your client. This email should be as formal as possible, with clear intent. The intent being that you expect payment as per the written contract and failure of said payment will lead to further legal action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Attach an Invoice to this email, covering all breakdowns of costs, as well as means of payment. Finally, you should provide a &lt;b&gt;reasonable&lt;/b&gt; deadline of when this payment should be made (or a &lt;b&gt;reasonable&lt;/b&gt; response addressing why he believes the claim is unjust) before you begin legal proceedings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note:** If his response is along the lines of &quot;I see you as a friend . . .&quot;, keep your response professional or send a reminder when the time comes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he still refuses to pay, or sends a lengthy letter about you letting it go, send a reminder. Within this reminder, you should also include anything necessary or recommended when notifying the client of legal action (Dependant upon the country in which you're taking the action). For example, within the UK it is recommended you list the documents you have within your possession to back the claim.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, after this has been fully exhausted, take legal action. in the uk, the online fee of taking someone to small claims court is £25, it'd be alot easier and somewhat cheaper to receive the payment before legal action, but the action is likely worth it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If however the legal action isn't worth it, I'd cut your losses and move on as threatening legal action without going through with your decision may be bad for reputation and mark you as a pushover. (Go for it if you're ok with that, or you know this client will have no influence over future client's decisions.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**P.S** - Next time don't provide the content without payment, if a client has the work and you have no way of shutting it off, the client then has no interest in your payment. The interest in your payment should be mutual, as it ensures timely and dependable payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16780" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6424" RevisionGUID="374cba9c-82b0-49fb-a96e-d4882eee95ee" CreationDate="2017-01-05T13:34:21.920" UserId="15170" Comment="added 201 characters in body" Text="Your chain of emails is unprofessional, you fail yourself by dropping to your client's argumentative level. As well as this, instead of getting to the point you make jabs and petty points informally, that seem very emotionally attached trying to play the guilt card and shame him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is no way to follow up proceedings of a broken contract. Instead of continuing this chain of emails, which is clearly heading nowhere, create a new email or physical letter for your client. This email should be as formal as possible, with clear intent. The intent being that you expect payment as per the written contract and failure of said payment will lead to further legal action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Attach an Invoice to this email, covering all breakdowns of costs, as well as means of payment. Finally, you should provide a &lt;b&gt;reasonable&lt;/b&gt; deadline of when this payment should be made (or a &lt;b&gt;reasonable&lt;/b&gt; response addressing why he believes the claim is unjust) before you begin legal proceedings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note:** If his response is along the lines of &quot;I see you as a friend . . .&quot;, keep your response professional or send a reminder when the time comes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he still refuses to pay, or sends a lengthy letter about you letting it go, send a reminder. Within this reminder, you should also include anything necessary or recommended when notifying the client of legal action (Dependant upon the country in which you're taking the action). For example, within the UK it is recommended you list the documents you have within your possession to back the claim.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, after this has been fully exhausted, take legal action. in the uk, the online fee of taking someone to small claims court for upto £300 is £25 (for a 5k contract it can be £205 - £455 which is minuscule compared to profit), it'd be alot easier and somewhat cheaper to receive the payment before legal action, but the action is likely worth it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If however the legal action isn't worth it, I'd cut your losses and move on as threatening legal action without going through with your decision may be bad for reputation and mark you as a pushover. (Go for it if you're ok with that, or you know this client will have no influence over future client's decisions.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also refuse to believe that you don't have time for small claims court but have time to work for free on a contract valued at 5k&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**P.S** - Next time don't provide the content without payment, if a client has the work and you have no way of shutting it off, the client then has no interest in your payment. The interest in your payment should be mutual, as it ensures timely and dependable payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16781" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6425" RevisionGUID="0686dce7-e9f9-4c8c-baf7-b7ad0ca14f94" CreationDate="2017-01-05T15:11:39.713" UserId="15916" Text="Others already wrote some nice answers; I'd like to mention a common situation from my personal experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are cases where a client needed a person who knows X, Y and Z technologies, but it proved difficult to find anyone with this set of knowledge on the local job market¹. A contractor might already know X and Y, and offer/be offered² to join the project under the condition that the client agrees for spending some billable hours on learning Z to fill the missing knowledge. Bonus points if the contractor already knows some technology Z' that is known to share similarities with Z, even if it is not directly applicable to the employer's problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;¹ This might happen due to many reasons. Some common ones are: small cities that usually lack specialists, technology that is very new and hence not many people had yet chance to practice it³, technology that is outdated and hence not many people bothered to learn it, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;² A client sometimes knows he doesn't have any other choice and makes it clear upfront.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;³ This is actually common for startups that build their market advantage on new technologies. Many people seek jobs in startups for this reason.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case, it would probably be fine if you already has experience managing teams (given that your client wants you to build one), you have the domain knowledge required to solve your client's problem (e.g. your client is a tour operator and you know all the intricate details of what it takes to organize a tour), you are already a skilled programmer in general and, let say, you already have experience in writing Android apps⁴. Then, if your client explicitly agrees to fund your learning, and you can confidently provide good estimates on its costs and time⁵, then there's nothing wrong in doing so.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16783" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6426" RevisionGUID="7ef6a3b4-1735-4db8-bf22-d45169002c29" CreationDate="2017-01-05T18:24:21.710" UserId="15925" Text="You are falling into his trap.  You are picking up his leads.  They don't lead anywhere.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there would be any interest in friendship rather than extortion, the solution would be to take him to court, have him default on his payment, enter private insolvency and pay what he actually can in the light of him bungling his business, with you as a prime-line creditor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's not what he is proposing.  Instead he is trying to salvage himself (assuming he actually _is_ strapped of cash rather than straight-out fleecing you) with smarmy words.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is in your debt and want to talk you into giving him still more credit (what point would there otherwise in stressing how you are on one page with regard to work?).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he were serious about getting out of the debt to you rather than into more of it, he would be talking about going into insolvency and getting your debts paid eventually under the oversight of a court.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What he offers to you is fleecing you more.  Even if he is deluding himself as much as you, nothing good can come of that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Enter your claim at the court or write it off.  Don't enter into any further business with this person as it is a losing proposition.  This is the least hopeless route to actually retain any actual friendship if you are out for that: otherwise the debt will keep standing between you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are interested at all in what amounts to friendship, be prepared to draw this line.  It _will_ lose you money you are owed, make no mistake.  If you leave the choice of how much it is to the courts, both of you can put it behind you then.  Either with or without friendship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Letting yourself be fleeced on a continuing basis will not be a one-time hard toll but constant poison to your relation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16784" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6427" RevisionGUID="c418a478-216a-4797-aea7-f385e0b379c0" CreationDate="2017-01-05T19:48:39.953" UserId="15929" Text="Here's how you handle this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Bring someone in that *does* know how to build iOS apps.  &#xD;&#xA;2. Have that person scope the project.  They should provide you a pretty good estimate of hours involved.  &#xD;&#xA;3. Take those hours, multiply by the rate, add a bit of *fudge factor* and present the estimate to the client.  &#xD;&#xA;4. If they say yes, then hire the required people.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your job then is to manage them.  If you want to learn iOS development along the way, then kudos to you but that's not what the client is paying you for.  Personally, I'd take the spare time you have and try to find other clients that want some iOS development done so you don't have to fire those people when the project is complete." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16785" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6420" RevisionGUID="979cd088-9092-4b36-a65f-8b9e1434078e" CreationDate="2017-01-05T20:26:38.080" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/817105042767482880" />
  <row Id="16787" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6429" RevisionGUID="6a3e3435-3a45-4e43-8629-3747bfc18554" CreationDate="2017-01-05T20:35:24.803" UserId="15934" Text="You could let him know that, as a &quot;friend,&quot; you're happy to meet him from time to time (as much as friends are), but if he wants any work, its friend-to-friend until he pays what is needed to restore a working business relationship.  Then, as a friend, it might we worth pointing out that you have to run your business, and as a friend he needs to understand that paying customers come first.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Beyond that, it really depends on what you find fun.  If you can finish work and still be raring to go doing the same stuff for free on your own time, maybe he's got an argument to be had as friends.  Most of us typically don't want to do our work at home, on our own time, so he needs to understand as a &quot;friend&quot; that you don't really want to work through that stuff.  If he wants that kind of stuff done, he needs to engage  in a business relationship.  He can try to be a friend too, but business relationships are not founded on not-geting-paid, so it's pretty much a non-starter if he's not paying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, the final question is &quot;are you his friend?&quot;  Do you really want a friendship with this individual?  I can't answer that question because I haven't seen how you two interact, but I have a gut feeling the answer is no, you aren't looking for a friend with this kind of personality." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16790" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6422" RevisionGUID="031dd7a3-38f5-4761-b534-a1d03c8c4625" CreationDate="2017-01-05T21:58:33.513" UserId="708" Comment="added 159 characters in body" Text="Is this a script from a soap opera? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's **far too much discussion** taking place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Business is **business** and *not* friendship. **Ignore** anything not directly related to the *business*. All the back and forth trying to get the other to &quot;understand&quot; your position is, frankly silly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All you should be stating.. ***&quot;We have a contract. Pay me.&quot;*** When he/she replies.. reply with, ***&quot;We have a contract. Pay me.&quot;*** When he/she asks to go to coffee... reply with ***&quot;Okay, will you have a check for me?&quot;*** When asked to complete more work, reply with **&quot;I'd be happy to after I'm paid for previous work.&quot;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just stop trying to plea with him/her to understand. He/she FULLY understands, they just don't want to or can't afford to pay you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Every single thing you state* should be asking for payment or facilitating delivery of payment. Who you are, what your &quot;Dreams&quot; or &quot;goals&quot; are, how much &quot;alike&quot; you may be, etc. are all completely 100% **irrelevant** and stalling tactics. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stop being a &quot;friend&quot; or former friend and start running a *business*. If you had a boss... and this client wasn't paying, what would the boss do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Simply put.. file suit, small claims or otherwise... or, write off the money as lost.*** And if it were me... I'd write off the person who refused to pay me as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Friends&quot; don't stiff &quot;friends&quot; out of paying for agreed upon work when a contract made it clear there was payment due. This person **is not** your friend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**WARNING:** [Adult language at this *relevant* link: **Mike Monteiro: F' You Pay me!**][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://creativemornings.com/talks/mike-monteiro--2/1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16791" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6422" RevisionGUID="c7efcd71-7a35-4e46-bf08-c6e25cfedc8e" CreationDate="2017-01-05T22:08:13.343" UserId="708" Comment="added 135 characters in body" Text="Is this a script from a soap opera? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's **far too much discussion** taking place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Business is **business** and *not* friendship. **Ignore** anything not directly related to the *business*. All the back and forth trying to get the other to &quot;understand&quot; your position is, frankly silly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All you should be stating.. ***&quot;We have a contract. Pay me.&quot;*** When he/she replies.. reply with, ***&quot;We have a contract. Pay me.&quot;*** When he/she asks to go to coffee... reply with ***&quot;Okay, will you have a check for me?&quot;*** When asked to complete more work, reply with **&quot;I'd be happy to after I'm paid for previous work.&quot;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just stop trying to plea with him/her to understand. He/she FULLY understands, they just don't want to or can't afford to pay you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Every single thing you state* should be asking for payment or facilitating delivery of payment. Who you are, what your &quot;Dreams&quot; or &quot;goals&quot; are, how much &quot;alike&quot; you may be, etc. are all completely 100% **irrelevant** and stalling tactics. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stop being a &quot;friend&quot; or former friend and start running a *business*. If you had a boss... and this client wasn't paying, what would the boss do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Simply put.. file suit, small claims or otherwise... or, write off the money as lost.*** And if it were me... I'd write off the person who refused to pay me as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Friends&quot; don't stiff &quot;friends&quot; out of paying for agreed upon work when a contract made it clear there was payment due. This person **is not** your friend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[*Relevant* link: **Mike Monteiro: F' You Pay me!**][1] **WARNING: it does contain adult language.** (It's a conference where Mr. Moneiro speaks, discussing issues with payments, contracts, those that won't pay, how to handle it, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://creativemornings.com/talks/mike-monteiro--2/1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16792" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6430" RevisionGUID="ecbd53a5-548c-40be-941a-7a37f41a7dae" CreationDate="2017-01-05T22:36:52.447" UserId="1706" Text="A *friend* doesn't put you in a compromise where you can't pay your bills on time or put food on your table.  This is no friend of yours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like `lewis` here has stated, you need to get off the &quot;friendly&quot; approach.  You need to push toward small claims.  NO WHINING about how you don't have time, okay?  Now, here's the deal.  Small claims court can get you a judgment, but a judgment isn't worth the piece of paper it's printed on if (a) your client is broke and (b) he can prove to the court that he has no assets above the basic means to live on (at a subsistence level).  If he's **actually** derelict, then you're gonna have to chalk this up as &quot;tuition&quot; and write him and the whole thing off.  If not, let's proceed (I'm assuming you're in CA, since you mentioned the Bay):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I am not an attorney** but I've had to approach doing this enough times with my clients that it's like muscle-memory now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(a) Send a demand letter, by some method by which you can prove its delivery.  You can use postal mail, Fedex, UPS, or if you prefer to do thing online, use RPost.  If you've invoiced, include a copy of the invoice.  Make sure your letter *specifically* reads &quot;due on receipt&quot;.  This step is just a formality, because a judge is going to ask if you sent a demand letter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(b)  Fill out the form.  Obviously, this is small claims so you can't involve an attorney.  Your post tells me you're a smart guy, so you don't need one.  Here's the form, for chrissakes: [CA small claims form][1] and [instructions][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(c) Take a few copies to the courthouse (nearest to where this person resides or works) to file it.  If you don't have time, you can send anybody who does.  Just make sure the thing is filled out.  This will get you a *court date*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(d) Have it served *immediately*, as there's a time limit.  You can make use of the sheriffs, which will be the cheapest but you'll have to go to wherever they accept document **in person**, which could be a pain in the rear getting to.  Or you could have anyone over 18 (besides yourself) mail it and fill out a proof of service form for free, or a process server can hand deliver it ($75?) after you send a PDF.  Okay, you end up with a proof of service form. It's best if you **physically** return this to the clerk's office - but as a last resort, mail it in as soon as you get it; either way, keep a copy.  Be SURE to take a copy to court with you, along with the demand letter and print-outs of any e-mails you've exchanged.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(e) Show up in court, and let the judge do the work.  If you get a judgment and he's still dragging, turn it over to a judgment recovery service and they'll charge you 10% but at least you'll end up with some bucks in your pocket.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this whole process toward a judgment takes more than eight hours of your time, I'd be highly surprised.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/sc100.pdf&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/sc100info.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16793" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6431" RevisionGUID="1023b199-48b5-4f19-a00f-831c59d7f554" CreationDate="2017-01-06T01:47:59.503" UserId="15631" Text="Shamless plug here but if you use Xero, Zoho or Reckon for invoicing then my app will look after credit card pre-approvals and automatically charge your client on the due date. You can also use it manually without an external invoicing system.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[ChargeConnex][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.chargeconnex.com/ &quot;ChargeConnex&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16796" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6432" RevisionGUID="5fff0e46-ccd5-4251-a693-1effcc2c8207" CreationDate="2017-01-06T09:47:20.980" UserId="15952" Text="I've experienced this exact scenario. Involving legal assistance will likely eat into any possible gains, and the amount recovered would probably be less than the cost of legal action, not accounting for the time and effort expended - that can vary from country to country, I'm based in Ireland where that's a slow and expensive process. You are being manipulated, and engaging with it (as other posters have identified).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Write it off and have absolutely no further contact with the individual involved: Consider it an expensive course in client relationship management, and that you have learned something (in my case, stay away from freelance work). This is definitively *not* a friend that you are describing here." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16804" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6388" RevisionGUID="992de09b-f961-457a-b24e-44627c47991a" CreationDate="2017-01-06T13:19:31.540" UserId="14562" Comment="fixed grammar" Text="to add a bit of a freelancing spin to it - theoretically you could charge him to use the camera. If he were to need a special camera for a shoot, he would need to rent it and pass that cost on to the client. Your situation is not much different. Under these circumstances you would be best served by having a written agreement to cover the hire + what happens if the camera breaks. You would also need to declare the extra income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Moving to a philosophical angle:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, he's your friend, so you'd like to help...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or would you? You say &quot;On the other hand he is asking me for help frequently&quot;, so perhaps you would prefer to say 'no' but feel guilty about it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My grandmother also had a saying: &quot;You teach people how to treat you&quot;. If you're feeling taken advantage of in this friendship, perhaps it's time to set some clearer boundaries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Combining the two, perhaps you could ask for a non-financial return, say get him to buy you a few drinks / lunch / take photos for your personal use in return. That way your help is being acknowledged and valued and you avoid the complications of a financial transaction.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16805" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6434" RevisionGUID="1e9f3833-3f43-4307-b309-d5d0457043f1" CreationDate="2017-01-06T14:11:17.723" UserId="14562" Text="I would argue that there are cases where you can ask your client to pay for education. I'm not sure that something as general as iOS development would qualify however.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example: I was hired a while back to work on a financial application. There was a particular area that required advanced mathematical modelling techniques that I wasn't familiar with (neither was anybody else on the team). The choice was to hire another, more expensive expert or to get me to learn the new technique. They opted for the latter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When the skills you are talking about form the core skills required to carry out your trade, I would agree that you need to learn for yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't think there are hard and fast rules about this though. I've hired a python programmer, for example, and asked them to work on a Javascript project, because I loved their professional approach and attitude. I'm sure I paid for a bit of education during the process and was happy to do so." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16806" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6435" RevisionGUID="b84fb95b-3d87-4317-82d8-5a635590d18f" CreationDate="2017-01-06T14:24:13.540" UserId="14562" Text="bretterer, you don't really seem to be asking about time tracking tools but about how to deal with lots of small requests coming in by email. For me, this is more of a productivity question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is my own process:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Don't leave your email open. Instead, allocate set times during the day that you will spend on dealing with emails. This cuts out the countless small interruptions. It also trains your clients not to expect an immediate reply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Work through your emails in a steady stream. Emails that require a simple reply - just send it. For anything else that takes longer, don't solve it straight away. Instead, add it to your project to-do list for that client and then deal with it as you would any other client request. Send a short reply back to explain what you have done and what billing implications there will be (if any) - they may need to confirm back that they want to go ahead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Both of these steps prevent emails interrupting your normal work and ensure that you get paid for larger tasks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16807" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6436" RevisionGUID="892485df-47df-404e-a9c5-3b85aedc3a91" CreationDate="2017-01-06T14:45:15.610" UserId="14562" Text="Scott already gave an in-depth answer - but I'd like to offer an opposite perspective.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Determining the rough budget is a standard part of a sales process. It's called qualifying your client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no point you spending time on putting together a quote for $10,000 only to find that they only have $500 to spend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if they really only have $500 to spend, there is no point submitting a $10,000 proposal that will most certainly fail. Much better to try and sell them something for $500 that meets some of their business objectives and still gets you paid. If you can do this, the same client will start to trust you and see that you can solve their business problems, rather than deliver what they ask for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your job as a sales person is to create a win-win for your client and for you. The only way to arrive there is to ask questions, and the rough budget is one of them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**This is what a friend of mine does:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    You: What is your rough budget?&#xD;&#xA;    Client: I don't really know (they say this in 99.9% of the cases)&#xD;&#xA;    You: Ok, shall we assume for the sake of conversation $20k?&#xD;&#xA;    Client: Oh, no, I was thinking more like $5k.&#xD;&#xA;    You: Ok, let's discuss your business requirements and see where what is feasible within those parameters.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Another has a dropdown on their website:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is your annual development spend?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    0 - 5k&#xD;&#xA;    5k - 10k&#xD;&#xA;    10k-50k&#xD;&#xA;    50k-100k&#xD;&#xA;    100k+&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**In your situation**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You say that you already know these clients. That means that you have built up a relationship with them, which makes it easier to ask these questions. At the very least you can have a casual chat with them about the kind of money they are looking to spend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And remember: Clients often make a list of requirements with absolutely NO idea of how much it's likely to cost. Simply quoting based on those requirements will win you much fewer jobs than discussing the business needs and working out a feasible solution within their budget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck, happy to answer more questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16814" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6437" RevisionGUID="8d05ddd8-5a63-43ef-be63-07f22a3bd8e0" CreationDate="2017-01-06T23:10:21.580" UserId="15966" Text="I'm considering a freelance offer for a startup in the US (I'm European) and I'd like to know if I should request some sort of down-payment for these initial hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically I don't want to get ripped-off and I'm thinking that if I don't have this mechanism, then the client can simply not pay me after I work for some time and there's nothing I can do about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I reckon the project will be done in roughly 80h or so and I want to bill weekly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, two questions actually:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Should I use down-payment for an hourly-based gig?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) What would be a reasonable net-X? How many days?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16815" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6437" RevisionGUID="8d05ddd8-5a63-43ef-be63-07f22a3bd8e0" CreationDate="2017-01-06T23:10:21.580" UserId="15966" Text="Should I request a down-payment if I'm paid by the hour?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16816" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6437" RevisionGUID="8d05ddd8-5a63-43ef-be63-07f22a3bd8e0" CreationDate="2017-01-06T23:10:21.580" UserId="15966" Text="|payment-terms|remote|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16823" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6438" RevisionGUID="40b76149-0411-4020-a0e4-a9a3cd8d7056" CreationDate="2017-01-07T05:31:48.310" UserId="15970" Text="Down-payments are a legitimate means of gauging a client's seriousness about the project and ability to pay. While there is nothing inherently wrong with requesting a down-payment, some clients might be as trepidatious about paying a freelancer upfront as you might be about working with no assurances about your paycheck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An effective compromise between you and your client might be to establish milestone payments for the project.  Depending on the project, your milestones might be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Result or production based (as in an aspect of the project is complete and demonstratable)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Hourly (where the client has some way of verifying your work/progress after a certain number of hours)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you believe you can convince your client to pay you upfront without scaring them off,  I have two possible recommendations for traditional down-payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* 20-30% upfront (for short projects, or projects where a contract is signed significantly before the start date)&#xD;&#xA;* Invoicing for 1-2 weeks of work upfront&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just make sure you treat the down-payment with the caution it demands.  Depending on the terms of your agreement, payments received before completion may be subject to reimbursement if the project fails to reach completion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16826" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6439" RevisionGUID="dd99ced9-ce04-4bf5-8deb-63fa36588cd1" CreationDate="2017-01-07T13:39:06.620" UserId="15980" Text="Our company, a small team, may be providing a software solution to a larger client. The solution, a website, resides entirely on our servers and is branded for our customer. We have total ownership of the software and hardware. In effect, the solution will look and feel to an End User as if they are interacting with our client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Our solution does a little processing of data from the End User and passes the results on to the client. We have no further involvement and there is no money flow from the client to us, our revenue is purely from the End User interacting with our site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question**: What is the most suitable contract to enter into for this form of work? We are not developing, nor are we maintaining. Our best guess is a Saas, but the client never owns the solution." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16827" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6439" RevisionGUID="dd99ced9-ce04-4bf5-8deb-63fa36588cd1" CreationDate="2017-01-07T13:39:06.620" UserId="15980" Text="Providing a Solution - Best Contract Form?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16828" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6439" RevisionGUID="dd99ced9-ce04-4bf5-8deb-63fa36588cd1" CreationDate="2017-01-07T13:39:06.620" UserId="15980" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16830" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6440" RevisionGUID="705553c6-1e6f-4da4-a9c1-0cdfa6c83782" CreationDate="2017-01-07T16:12:27.483" UserId="13264" Text="Work as freelancer does not risky free.. so you will face good and bad clients during your freelancing career.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For hourly-based work, normally, we ask the client for weekly bid. However, you may ask for down payment for hosting or to hire a designer that maybe you. Just think of the work process and you may find a reason to get down-payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hopefully, this situation not forever and next project the payment will be more smooth because the clients start trusting you and can ask for 50% downpayment without worry." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16838" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6442" RevisionGUID="4a9753a2-77dc-457f-b9f2-79888b571872" CreationDate="2017-01-08T13:16:14.563" UserId="15983" Text="I'm again starting to try find freelancing jobs. Last time about 7 years ago, but unable to find work(with little work though), so my motivation dropped and I moved on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think that freelancing(expecially starting it) will require lot of work and it is art form as is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I seen these work proposals, which has little or none information about eg. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Need build website for business. 5 pages&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well applying job and getting it is challenge. Then you have to convert client needs to actually what you need to do, Eg. hosting, dynamic or static website, database etc. When this task is done you can begin to work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, freelancers do above-mentioned task and then hire other freelancers to do these jobs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this a thing and is there sites or services this kind of &quot;work/job-flow&quot;. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16839" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6442" RevisionGUID="4a9753a2-77dc-457f-b9f2-79888b571872" CreationDate="2017-01-08T13:16:14.563" UserId="15983" Text="Is there site for freelancers hiring freelancers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16840" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6442" RevisionGUID="4a9753a2-77dc-457f-b9f2-79888b571872" CreationDate="2017-01-08T13:16:14.563" UserId="15983" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16843" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6443" RevisionGUID="beeca98e-e908-4cfc-a279-1baac33c853e" CreationDate="2017-01-09T06:24:33.367" UserId="2265" Text="Yes, these sites are called &quot;Freelancer websites&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To use does websites it doesn't matter if the client is also a freelancer. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16844" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6444" RevisionGUID="9d8ed040-1e95-4e2b-88ab-c22cef256b0e" CreationDate="2017-01-09T09:56:58.053" UserId="517" Text="Down-payment is what I use each time in with new clients. It is a matter of distrust and no client should be offended with it. I'd rather having offended client who leaves me than work for garbage. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for the first few months, I usually ask clients to pay for a week or two ahead. If I see the client is OK, I usually do not stop work on the first Monday which is not paid, but I wait a few days. If it's starting to become a habit, I ask client to start loading money for the longer period so that I do not stop providing service without money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And this works well. Clients are not offended and I am not being ripped off. We are in business relations and I do not tolerate spoiled behavior. So just present yourself as a serious professional doing excellent work and request nothing less from the clients. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16846" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6445" RevisionGUID="6d3a7cb3-4945-4ef8-aa4b-b8944927c117" CreationDate="2017-01-09T15:45:16.797" UserId="15202" Text="You said SaaS, you're spot on. You host it, maintain it, support it. The client pays for it to just work. This is Software As A Service." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16847" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6443" RevisionGUID="7002a25f-2092-4210-8f54-44f94adfe94e" CreationDate="2017-01-09T17:28:10.093" UserId="2265" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="Yes, these sites are called &quot;Freelancer websites&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To use those websites it doesn't matter if the client is also a freelancer. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16850" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6448" RevisionGUID="3f2693cc-0cdd-42d1-980d-2a4aa8b02463" CreationDate="2017-01-10T17:05:41.367" UserId="14793" Text="If the project is 80 hours as you describe I would ask for payment after 5 hours as a gesture of good will and then payment every 10 hours or so." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16851" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6449" RevisionGUID="d04b8382-2a5f-47ee-bdbd-34b1e64a9d46" CreationDate="2017-01-10T17:46:14.287" UserId="15704" Text="I want to be a freelance writer, I've done some research on it and I will be signing up for online classes to learn more about the subject. Is there anybody on here who has succeeded as a freelance writer and could provide tips on the road ahead?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16852" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6449" RevisionGUID="d04b8382-2a5f-47ee-bdbd-34b1e64a9d46" CreationDate="2017-01-10T17:46:14.287" UserId="15704" Text="How to succeed as a freelance writer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16853" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6449" RevisionGUID="d04b8382-2a5f-47ee-bdbd-34b1e64a9d46" CreationDate="2017-01-10T17:46:14.287" UserId="15704" Text="|freelance-websites|working-from-home|resume|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16854" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6450" RevisionGUID="eaace701-f9de-46b4-9784-949fcf487ea1" CreationDate="2017-01-10T22:11:43.667" UserId="14777" Text="I was reading [this][1] in Wikipedia:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; However, there is risk involved in avoiding these costs if an employee&#xD;&#xA;&gt; is improperly classified as a contingent worker.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What laws make this a risk?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contingent_work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16855" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6450" RevisionGUID="eaace701-f9de-46b4-9784-949fcf487ea1" CreationDate="2017-01-10T22:11:43.667" UserId="14777" Text="What laws classify an employee as a contingent worker?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16856" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6450" RevisionGUID="eaace701-f9de-46b4-9784-949fcf487ea1" CreationDate="2017-01-10T22:11:43.667" UserId="14777" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16857" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6451" RevisionGUID="097bceb6-9e71-4bbc-93ce-2ecb1a4370e9" CreationDate="2017-01-11T01:57:51.723" UserId="16018" Text="Recently I started freelancing as a full-stack developer in Brazil and it's been very good so far, but I am a little stuck on this one client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By far my biggest client yet, they want a customized software solution that runs and monitors their operations and also allows their clients to access accounts and generate reports, monitor progress of services being performed.  It will also be a tool for the employees, who will use it to finalize service orders via their smart phones. This client will also be expanding to the rest of Latin America. The bottom line is if the software stops, so does their business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I think we can agree that it is a fairly large project. I offered them a package of 600 hours at a huge discount because I was assured I could charge a monthly fee. They also requested exclusivity and access to the source code which I also agreed on at no extra cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, now this client doesn't feel that it is fair to pay a reasonable monthly fee for technical support, code maintenance and database administration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am perfectly capable of doing all three of these things but 8 hours a month just seems very little for a software of this scale. They responded with my original maintenance fees proposal of 30 hours a month with a request for a breakdown of the costs which was a big mistake because then they started asking questions like &quot;Do we really need database administration? How will the software behave without any of these things?&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I am getting the impression that they only want to pay when things go wrong. Were my expectations for the monthly fees too high?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;        " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16858" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6451" RevisionGUID="097bceb6-9e71-4bbc-93ce-2ecb1a4370e9" CreationDate="2017-01-11T01:57:51.723" UserId="16018" Text="Freelance programmer's monthly fees, expectations too high?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16859" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6451" RevisionGUID="097bceb6-9e71-4bbc-93ce-2ecb1a4370e9" CreationDate="2017-01-11T01:57:51.723" UserId="16018" Text="|software|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16860" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6452" RevisionGUID="7b181d2c-49e8-410b-aa74-52b7db7f21d7" CreationDate="2017-01-11T09:12:56.007" UserId="708" Text="***[What's the difference Between an Independent Contractor and an Employee][1]***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IRS: ***[Independent Contractor or Employee][2]***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A simplistic way of telling an employee from a contingent worker is the *relationship* the business has with the worker. If the business is *providing tools/equipment*, telling the worker *when* and *where* to work, or telling the workers *how* to complete their work, or *what* to actually work on... then chances are the worker is an *employee* and **not** a contingent worker.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Contingent workers most often set their own hours, use their own tools, and complete their work according to their expertise, without any direct oversight. They are given tasks or projects from the businesses, but how and when those projects are completed is entirely up to the worker.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, some businesses may classify &quot;employees&quot; as &quot;contingent workers&quot; (Freelancers/Independent Contractors) in an effort to avoid paying for things like unemployment, healthcare, vacations, sick leave, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the business is discovered to be mis-classifying workers this way, they may be in violation of tax laws and could suffer tax penalties for claiming the mis-classification (and attempting to avoid &quot;employee&quot; fees).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/css/resource/the-difference-between-an-independent-contractor-and-an-employee&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/independent-contractor-self-employed-or-employee" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16861" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6452" RevisionGUID="eaad327b-f4fa-469b-8d9a-87e1b94f32e8" CreationDate="2017-01-11T09:24:44.760" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body" Text="***[What's the difference Between an Independent Contractor and an Employee][1]***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IRS: ***[Independent Contractor or Employee][2]***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A simplistic way of telling an employee from a contingent worker is the *relationship* the business has with the worker. If the business is *providing tools/equipment*, telling the worker *when* and *where* to work, or telling the workers *how* to complete their work, or *what* to actually work on... then chances are the worker is an *employee* and **not** a contingent worker.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Contingent workers most often set their own hours, use their own tools, and complete their work according to their expertise, without any direct oversight. They are given tasks or projects from the business, but how and when those projects are completed is entirely up to the worker.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, some businesses may classify &quot;employees&quot; as &quot;contingent workers&quot; (Freelancers/Independent Contractors) in an effort to avoid paying for things like unemployment, healthcare, vacations, sick leave, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the business is discovered to be mis-classifying workers this way, they may be in violation of tax laws and could suffer tax penalties for claiming the mis-classification (and attempting to avoid &quot;employee&quot; fees).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/css/resource/the-difference-between-an-independent-contractor-and-an-employee&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/independent-contractor-self-employed-or-employee" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16862" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6453" RevisionGUID="c129e3de-380f-4ebd-97e8-e609f67365b4" CreationDate="2017-01-11T10:11:29.410" UserId="16021" Text="I was on a student visa in the UK, but now I am going back to the US and am trying to figure out if I am allowed to freelance for the company that I had interned for in the UK while living in the US." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16863" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6453" RevisionGUID="c129e3de-380f-4ebd-97e8-e609f67365b4" CreationDate="2017-01-11T10:11:29.410" UserId="16021" Text="I am a US citizen living in the US, can I freelance for a UK company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16864" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6453" RevisionGUID="c129e3de-380f-4ebd-97e8-e609f67365b4" CreationDate="2017-01-11T10:11:29.410" UserId="16021" Text="|legal|uk|usa|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16865" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6454" RevisionGUID="b080a55f-c4f3-49a7-9433-065729f1c482" CreationDate="2017-01-11T10:39:40.797" UserId="517" Text="Years ago I tried to be a writer. I got freelancing tasks to rewrite some texts. In the end, it turned out to be a lot of work for the minimum rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After I was asked to make a master paper for some small money, I stopped being a writer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I turned to programming and my perspective on the freelancing turned 180 degrees. At that time I also read a lot of stories of other writers and watched their profiles on freelancer sites, and realized that 99% of them are not earning much. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also if you want to do anything in English, I have to say that native and Philipino writers will win over you (in case you are not native like myself). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16866" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6328" RevisionGUID="f802a1f9-798f-4e58-aacb-3bcd43ca3c4e" CreationDate="2017-01-11T11:29:21.707" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16867" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6455" RevisionGUID="052f7157-8ac5-482a-93df-81e17ec711dc" CreationDate="2017-01-11T11:34:00.363" UserId="15202" Text="It is perfectly acceptable to work from the US for a UK company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will need to invoice the UK company from a US entity (either Inc or self-employed), paying the taxes at a state and federal level in the USA. You should call your state's small business administration (sba.gov on a federal level) and ask for advice on how to get set up." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16868" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6456" RevisionGUID="a8e0bd81-1ace-47a4-9f8e-6bd4e4d5e3c3" CreationDate="2017-01-11T11:42:04.530" UserId="15202" Text="Ah, the good old fashioned &quot;stuff works and never breaks&quot; assumption from a non-it manager.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First up, DBA requirements. Advise them that if they do not wish to procure DBA support from you, they will need to provide their own DBA. Ensure that your terms of service/sla/etc do not include DBA support as part of the package. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, general support requirements. I would suggest creating a realistic offering at a fantastic rate, but any support outside of this limit will be billed at a premium. To prevent new features being demaded as part of support, ensure scope documents are clearly agreed upon. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Onto development. Offer additional development at your standard rate, hourly. Include a detailed SLA for development activities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you have all of these in a solid SLA, have the customer sign it off. Now you have covered yourself in the event the customer unplugs the server and breaks everything, and they will have areed to pay you for their own foolishness." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16869" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6457" RevisionGUID="79b73bd4-9156-4e38-bb40-24d1da39829f" CreationDate="2017-01-11T16:21:53.673" UserId="11579" Text="The regulations that tend to apply are typically guided by where the work is performed. Since you would perform the work in the US, then you are applicable to US laws (thus ensure you register yourself appropriately there in order to raise an invoice to the UK company). If you think of it, the relationship would be no different than the call centers in India who serve the UK (or other places in the world).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's important to make clear that you would have to raise an invoice in order to be paid - you would not be an employee in receipt of a salary from the UK company. US taxes would be your responsibility. The UK entity might ask for evidence that you are registered (even if just a copy of your passport) so that when they pay your invoice, the UK taxman can be somewhat confident that your invoices are legit in the event of a UK HMRC tax audit." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16871" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6458" RevisionGUID="84a97f84-c7e3-4d4e-b47f-38e7ac8271f8" CreationDate="2017-01-12T16:21:52.630" UserId="11858" Text="Negotiate the minimum amount of hours that are interesting for you, if the company does not accept that, simply go for another client. It is not good for any freelancer to have just one client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sooner or later the company will realize that they need someone to take care of the system and the infrastructure, and if they decide to hire someone later it will probably cost more and be less productive than the programmer which developed the application in first place (you).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Never under valuate yourself." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16872" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6459" RevisionGUID="1c9b78b6-d927-4031-82d6-6afa902ff8bf" CreationDate="2017-01-12T17:51:53.473" UserId="16018" Text="I have a some experience in the matter but I think my biggest mistake was confusing a desire to be a freelance writer, with the desire of working from home. I get the same perks now as a programmer and the rates are good.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The rates seem really low for freelance writers in my opinion, especially on the freelance job websites. If you establish a good relationship with clients and always deliver good quality work on time, they will definitely prefer working with you, even if it means paying a higher rate but it's very hard to build those relationships online.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think a good approach is getting involved in some indie projects like for games and short films.  Writing is something often over-looked which explains why a lot of indie projects lack good dialog, narratives and publicity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom line, think outside the box, don't do what everyone else is doing and build relationships with clients that will keep them coming back for more even if it means doing some pro bono work here and there&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16873" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6460" RevisionGUID="425698b6-cc0a-4339-b6ea-84fdfcafc8d0" CreationDate="2017-01-12T19:35:49.343" UserId="16035" Text="I've just started working as a freelancer on the website UpWork (I live in the UK) ,but there are a few things I have no idea of so I was wondering if you could provide some knowledge on:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. tax&#xD;&#xA;2. vat&#xD;&#xA;3. setting up a company (and how to go about doing this)&#xD;&#xA;4. things you think I should know about&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think that's it for now, if I can think of other things I want to know I will add it to the OP,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;p.s. if there's a kind of &quot;get started&quot; guide for this kind of thing, that would be even better." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16874" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6460" RevisionGUID="425698b6-cc0a-4339-b6ea-84fdfcafc8d0" CreationDate="2017-01-12T19:35:49.343" UserId="16035" Text="I've started working on Upwork and almost finished my first job, how do I deal with tax?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16875" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6460" RevisionGUID="425698b6-cc0a-4339-b6ea-84fdfcafc8d0" CreationDate="2017-01-12T19:35:49.343" UserId="16035" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16880" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6460" RevisionGUID="7f4b5c2b-f154-4fa1-ace9-945535a9187d" CreationDate="2017-01-12T20:12:29.880" UserId="16035" Comment="added 307 characters in body" Text="I've just started working as a ruby developer freelancer on the website UpWork (I live in the UK) ,but there are a few things I have no idea of so I was wondering if you could provide some knowledge on:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. tax&#xD;&#xA;2. vat&#xD;&#xA;3. setting up a company (and how to go about doing this)&#xD;&#xA;4. things you think I should know about&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The main difficulty is I don't know where to start in looking for information or which information will be of use to me, I'm pretty much completely ignorant. Even just being pointed in the right direction would be a massive help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think that's it for now, if I can think of other things I want to know I will add it to the OP,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;p.s. if there's a kind of &quot;get started&quot; guide for this kind of thing, that would be even better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.P.S. person that downvoted me? Yeah I'm ignoring you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16881" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6461" RevisionGUID="31f32bb6-7369-4477-8d06-f3a6edcda4c0" CreationDate="2017-01-13T09:16:19.243" UserId="517" Text="It's almost impossible to predict how many hours it may take to maintain some system. Every system that has users who use it can have a person full-time maintaining it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I also know that many clients are not willing to pay for 1 man full-time but would actually like to have someone who can jump any time any issue happens and fix the bug with the minimum costs. Such client have to be either educated on the nature of maintenance or remove them from the list of clients. Any other way will get you a headache and you will earn nothing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So 30 hours per month is nothing for 3 roles you promised to fulfil. And yes, 8 hours or 1 man-day is a joke. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In cases like yours, if I can afford it, I will drop the client with words that his suggestion will not bring quality maintenance to the system and that I will be blamed at the end because nothing works. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I cannot afford to lose the client, I will educate him. I will write a professional long message (just 1, don't write 5) explaining what it means to support the system, what are the consequences of bad maintenance and how unrealistic their expectations are. Also explain how paying for your time they also reserve immediate help. Otherwise they will have to wait for their turn when an issue occurs - no immediate help is possible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are not ready to understand, and you still want to work with them, then accept that role 1 man-day per month. Do as much as you can in 1 day and then go offline until the next month. If they come in panic, tell them that you are overly busy and for this month you cannot work on their system. Remind them how you warned them about this. In reality no killer error will appear immediately, but they will realise how important the maintenance is and that 1 day per month is a real joke. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16882" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6462" RevisionGUID="732798cb-b2e9-40f1-9e98-d9a6465ddfe7" CreationDate="2017-01-13T09:21:53.317" UserId="517" Text="Upwork as well as any other freelancing service has very detailed FAQs. Read them all. They also have live support so use them as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For tax and VAT, if I can recall, you can add VAT or tax to any bill you invoice to your clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, all questions regarding the Taxes when money comes to your bank account should be asked your local tax officers. I am sure that any clerk in the tax office will be able to reply to these questions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just don't be a fool and rely to Internet replies to things where you can be penalized. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16883" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6463" RevisionGUID="f4cfae93-d759-4995-875b-8c40b0c42e5a" CreationDate="2017-01-13T10:29:19.220" UserId="15202" Text="This applies to UK only, as at 2016/17 tax year&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Tax**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will depend on how you set yourself up. If you are working and want this as side-money, you can let HMRC know and they will arrange a Self Assessment return for you. Best to call them to sort this out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basic rule of thumb, put 20% of all income to one side for tax.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**VAT** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you start freelancing full time, as a self employed person or as a Ltd company, you will need to charge/pay VAT if you will bill more than £80k. If this is the case, get an accountant! Do not charge VAT if not VAT registered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Setting up a company**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can do this yourself with companies house for a £100 fee. Don't!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Get an accountant. If you're going to be making more that £40k, Ltd is the way forward. Otherwise, self employed is the way for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Things to know about**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are serious about freelancing or contracting, get a separate bank account. Track your invoices and expenses properly. If you're going to be making more than £40k, get an accountant.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's all I can think of off the top of my head." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16884" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6453" RevisionGUID="0d9eff06-e50f-4603-9b91-8f0f764528da" CreationDate="2017-01-13T21:08:36.273" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/820014708132577282" />
  <row Id="16887" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6464" RevisionGUID="9f10b3fb-fcd5-4172-b9f9-d2a9f9eb955e" CreationDate="2017-01-15T09:01:03.217" UserId="517" Text="Is it realistic to think that there are services where you can find large projects of over $500k? They are of course for teams of 10+, not for individuals or small teams. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far, all projects I saw on freelancing sites or via personal connections were of max $100k.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is, are such large project offered to the remote teams or they are reserved strictly for companies that have local office in that country (so they better deal with legal issues in trouble time)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The root of this question is that I have never seen such projects offered online to remote teams. So I would like to know they rules and chances to bid to such large projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this seem off topic, it is not. So please ask me to elaborate more my question if it's unclear.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16888" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6464" RevisionGUID="9f10b3fb-fcd5-4172-b9f9-d2a9f9eb955e" CreationDate="2017-01-15T09:01:03.217" UserId="517" Text="Services to find very large project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16889" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6464" RevisionGUID="9f10b3fb-fcd5-4172-b9f9-d2a9f9eb955e" CreationDate="2017-01-15T09:01:03.217" UserId="517" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16890" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6465" RevisionGUID="64c75346-612e-4aea-8e7e-d0d521fd3649" CreationDate="2017-01-15T17:39:18.740" UserId="14793" Text="I'm not clear on whether or not you're already a writer and entering freelancing or beginning your writing career as a freelancer.  Either way, freelance writing is like many other kinds of freelancing.  You need to be resourceful and be a go-getter.  Don't wait for work to come to you.  If you're already a writer then you already know the ins and outs of making writing a success.  In freelancing you will be your own boss and will have to do whatever your boss would do.  Good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16891" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6466" RevisionGUID="05bc0ab6-fca9-4ea3-8afa-ad33a4204ad6" CreationDate="2017-01-16T05:20:08.273" UserId="16018" Text="So you find an ideal IT project that requires your exact skill set, except it's being offered for pennies on the dollar.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancers from countries with the lowest salaries are more likely to make a proposal for the job and get accepted, thus accumulating more reputation and experience making it even more challenging for freelancers based in countries with higher salaries and costs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can the online freelance market be segregated in a way that's fair, balanced and provide genuine equal opportunities to the freelancer? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16892" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6466" RevisionGUID="05bc0ab6-fca9-4ea3-8afa-ad33a4204ad6" CreationDate="2017-01-16T05:20:08.273" UserId="16018" Text="How can the online freelance IT market be segregated?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16893" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6466" RevisionGUID="05bc0ab6-fca9-4ea3-8afa-ad33a4204ad6" CreationDate="2017-01-16T05:20:08.273" UserId="16018" Text="|freelance-websites|information-technology|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16894" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6467" RevisionGUID="01caad83-1782-41a4-bfb1-d17dec2e416d" CreationDate="2017-01-16T06:48:55.957" UserId="2265" Text="It's called globalization and doesn't restrict itself to the online freelance market: you can't compete on price, it needs to be quality. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;'The West' stands out not because we're cheaper but because we have 'knowledge economies', i.e. our people have access to better education and should therefore be able to deliver higher quality of work in the non-manufacturing industries such as IT or other fast-innovating areas of business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try to either differentiate yourself on quality or offer on more local jobs, as plenty of people are still hesitant to send work overseas via a freelance site. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16895" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6468" RevisionGUID="60dd9e44-084a-4f90-822a-1b024c7dd44c" CreationDate="2017-01-16T08:12:52.160" UserId="517" Text="On the surface, it is just as you have described it. But the reality is different. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every fresh client will go with the lowest rate in his project. And eventually he will be burnt and will realize that the rate and quality go along. In that case, he can try another project with the medium rate or go with the high rates from contractors closer to him. This is where your chances are. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another case is that clients will chose you over the cheapest rate because of the legal liabilities. He will pay you more, but he is sure he can sue you in case you do the job badly. I doubt he will sue some company 3000 miles away in a country with weird laws. Such clients are your chance as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, from what I have seen, Western contractors will get hired by clients of their own country and they usually can make a good living with 2-3 clients. Other low-rate contractors must have 100 clients to make the living. Would you replace with them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So although they will accumulate jobs with the lowest rate, they will NEVER do them with quality. Why? A simple math. They do the job at the lowest rate and those clients are usually assholes who want 1M project for 10 bucks. So low-rate clients will have to have 10 or 20 such jobs to actually earn something. What will they sacrifice? The quality. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So although your pace will be slower in gaining quality, you have higher chance to earn from freelancing. I have seen 100s of low-rate guys disappearing after some time (probably quit on freelancing and found a stable job in the local company). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16896" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5811" RevisionGUID="2e16f374-9133-4c06-8cab-28ea6d7f06c6" CreationDate="2017-01-17T10:41:16.933" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16901" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6466" RevisionGUID="5cf248c7-aa25-4541-bf0b-92afeecd5bf1" CreationDate="2017-01-17T16:42:43.490" UserId="16018" Comment="added 162 characters in body" Text="So you find an ideal IT project that requires your exact skill set, except it's being offered for pennies on the dollar.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancers from countries with the lowest salaries are more likely to make a proposal for the job and get accepted, thus accumulating more reputation and experience making it even more challenging for freelancers based in countries with higher salaries and costs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can the online freelance market be segregated in a way that's fair, balanced and provide genuine equal opportunities to the freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Edit:** I acknowledge that not everyone agrees that the market should be segregated but this post is to explore the possible ways in which it could be.      &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16907" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6472" RevisionGUID="a0e83a52-8fc5-4297-b4c3-b45bf8130dfe" CreationDate="2017-01-18T01:12:58.817" UserId="16084" Text="Yesterday I met with a potential SEO client. We verbally settled on a price and both walked away happy, but now I'm having some serious second thoughts. I don't think that I can meet the promised results for two reasons:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - First, I'm realizing more and more that the required work is outside of my skillset (I know, it was a pretty hasty decision).&#xD;&#xA; - Second, I'm already foreseeing friction between us. The client isn't willing to make necessary changes to her website due to her personal preferences.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All in all, I think that it would be best to end the relationship. I want (need) to handle this gracefully, especially because this client is a very close friend of *another* one of my clients, with whom I am currently in good standing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I best explain this to the client? Over the phone or in writing? (It's a remote job, so I can't meet face-to-face.) Should I include my second reason listed above? Thanks in advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16908" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6472" RevisionGUID="a0e83a52-8fc5-4297-b4c3-b45bf8130dfe" CreationDate="2017-01-18T01:12:58.817" UserId="16084" Text="Declining freelance job after already accepting" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16909" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6472" RevisionGUID="a0e83a52-8fc5-4297-b4c3-b45bf8130dfe" CreationDate="2017-01-18T01:12:58.817" UserId="16084" Text="|contracts|communication|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16910" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6473" RevisionGUID="49d7d0c5-af08-4691-bf80-fff629158059" CreationDate="2017-01-18T05:46:48.453" UserId="64" Text="Sensitive topics are always best discussed ideally face to face. If that's not possible, then video chat or the phone is the next best option. Email and chat are fraught with all kinds of issues, such as lacking body language and eye contact which is important to convey the tone of the message.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that said, you have two reasons for not wanting to take the job. One of them revolves around you, the other involves the personality of the client.  The first reason should be enough of a reason to end the business relationship. I'd say mention that only, as there's no need to leave a bad taste in this person's mouth.  You may want to work with her in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing to make sure is that you didn't have a contract prohibiting you from terminating early without some kind of compensation. If the client insists you do the work, and if you signed anything in writing, you may want to speak to an attorney to find out how to proceed, but there's nothing wrong with having the conversation with the client to see where she stands." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16911" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="6449" RevisionGUID="cfb44fcd-c27b-4a5a-ae2e-ea1a8a33fc1c" CreationDate="2017-01-18T05:47:37.887" UserId="64" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:2265,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;user3244085&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="16912" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6474" RevisionGUID="d8ccbd85-b280-4c40-b92b-56a202d3cbb7" CreationDate="2017-01-18T08:18:40.993" UserId="7858" Text="You say you 'met' with the client and agreed terms. You will need to 'meet' the client again at the same 'level' at least - meaning if you agreed on the phone, you cannot decline by email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client will probably be mildly annoyed at the very least. If possible, a way to mitigate that, would be referring the client to another provider who you know will de able to deliver.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, freelancing often requires going outside and even adding to one's skill-set. As long as the job is done, clients will not care that you actually learn on the job - as long as you are upfront and honest about it and do not claim to be an expert. So, perhaps you should view this as a chance to expand your skill-set?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client friction is also pretty common when freelancing. Since you already foresee it now, you could attempt to address it by creating a contract or 'project description' where you agree to the process in the potentially troublesome situations. No need to involve lawyers to create a length document; a page or two is sufficient, as the most important aspect is having the client sign off on the process pre-argument." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16913" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6420" RevisionGUID="6131904c-2ae0-4297-911c-f6891c156f12" CreationDate="2017-01-18T11:33:10.377" UserId="15276" Comment="Added a relevant tag (difficult-client)." Text="|contracts|difficult-client|late-payment|friends-services|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16914" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6420" RevisionGUID="6131904c-2ae0-4297-911c-f6891c156f12" CreationDate="2017-01-18T11:33:10.377" Comment="Proposed by 15276 approved by 7858, 2265 edit id of 514" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16915" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6475" RevisionGUID="551143d9-ae5f-4715-a0eb-3076f2172c95" CreationDate="2017-01-18T14:38:29.573" UserId="16091" Text="I live in the UK and I work as a freelancer. I am not a Brtish citizen (but EU one), I  live in London and previously I was hired by a company in the UK. Few months back I started to work for a French company as a freelancer. I was told that as a self-employed I just need to pay taxes in UK and invoice French company for my work. As the accountant in France started to have some doubts about it, I would be very grateful if somebody can answer this question.&#xD;&#xA;Thank you in advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16916" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6475" RevisionGUID="551143d9-ae5f-4715-a0eb-3076f2172c95" CreationDate="2017-01-18T14:38:29.573" UserId="16091" Text="working from UK as a freelance for company in France" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16917" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6475" RevisionGUID="551143d9-ae5f-4715-a0eb-3076f2172c95" CreationDate="2017-01-18T14:38:29.573" UserId="16091" Text="|taxes|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16918" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6476" RevisionGUID="372534e9-f5d1-494a-966b-bf2fd68a0bde" CreationDate="2017-01-18T18:09:58.230" UserId="14793" Text="You need to stop the project.  An inadequate skill-set is reason enough.  You need to tell the client you made a mistake and have to cancel the project.  You can find another reason for your second point of 'personal preferences'.&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line is that the longer you drag it out the harder it will be to disconnect from the project and the end result will be failure." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16928" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6479" RevisionGUID="a8680d66-e402-4621-8d2c-fa0bb7161913" CreationDate="2017-01-18T21:15:56.090" UserId="16018" Text="Sounds like an opportunity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could either learn the required skill set, or involve a third-party to help you. If the money is right, collaborate a little. Perhaps you could even refer them to another freelancer who has all the required skill sets who might in-turn refer clients to you someday.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whatever you decide, provide the client with an alternative and be as helpful as you can be. That way instead presenting the client with a problem, you're presenting them with a solution.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16929" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6480" RevisionGUID="def14a8a-bfd2-40a6-997a-fb4aa6e87699" CreationDate="2017-01-18T21:37:36.950" UserId="16018" Text="Well, any rules regarding tax will probably apply to most countries, especially the European continent. The general rule of thumb is that you declare your income in the country that you reside. As long as the money you're earning is from legitimate sources, I don't see an issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The UK government won't complain about receiving tax from a foreign source of income, and the French government can't prevent companies from outsourcing work to freelancers from other countries. Even if the French government punishes them with some kind of tax embargo, it will be theirs to pay, not yours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16930" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6480" RevisionGUID="edd6377a-b229-418f-b323-2f7aaa4d743e" CreationDate="2017-01-19T03:22:33.473" UserId="16018" Comment="added 220 characters in body" Text="Well, any rules regarding tax will probably apply to most countries, especially the European continent. The general rule of thumb is that you declare your income in the country that you reside. As long as the money you're earning is from legitimate sources, I don't see an issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The UK government won't complain about receiving tax from a foreign source of income, and the French government can't prevent companies from outsourcing work to freelancers from other countries. Even if the French government punishes them with some kind of tax embargo, it will be theirs to pay, not yours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Edit:** Here is some more information that you may find helpful, so far no one has voted to close it: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2727/uk-freelancer-living-in-thailand-working-for-uk-based-clients-tax?rq=1&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16931" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6481" RevisionGUID="46ed3a66-b0a3-44c4-bd5a-71ef91fcbd5f" CreationDate="2017-01-19T05:48:16.893" UserId="16094" Text="I have received a contract that has a two part payment. I'm not sure what to make out of the writing as it says the second part of the payment is contingent upon **(i) COMPANY closing of debt or equity financing round, (ii) the sale of all or substantially all of the COMPANY's assets or majority of the COMPANY's voting power.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does this mean they can refuse the pay me if they don't get financing? Are there any loopholes to this statement?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16932" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6481" RevisionGUID="46ed3a66-b0a3-44c4-bd5a-71ef91fcbd5f" CreationDate="2017-01-19T05:48:16.893" UserId="16094" Text="What does contingent payment mean?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16933" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6481" RevisionGUID="46ed3a66-b0a3-44c4-bd5a-71ef91fcbd5f" CreationDate="2017-01-19T05:48:16.893" UserId="16094" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16934" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6482" RevisionGUID="1eaf87a9-484b-44a5-8a0c-28ef181aa3a3" CreationDate="2017-01-19T10:11:32.193" UserId="15202" Text="Have you declared yourself as self employed with HMRC? Are you planning on operating as a Ltd company? As @user3244085 says, you need UK specific tax advice, possibly an accountant. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an abridged version: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;UK residents pay UK tax. You declare your income either as self-employed or you start a Ltd company. For the formaer, contact HMRC and get a UTR code. For the latter, contact an accountant." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16935" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6483" RevisionGUID="01add84e-ccc3-4fc4-9a54-45a631f9af88" CreationDate="2017-01-19T10:16:05.893" UserId="15202" Text="It means that they will pay you the next payment on the condition that they either launch the company successfully (via a finance round) or they sell the budding company to a bigger fish.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for loopholes, that will depend on your state (some have protections against this), and tort precedent." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16936" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6484" RevisionGUID="e8d5fdba-26ef-40c2-90ab-874a292afcee" CreationDate="2017-01-19T10:32:52.757" UserId="16059" Text="Your situation falls under the European Union VAT system. In that category most freelancing should be a B2B service, which means the customer pays VAT in their country, i.e. you invoice without VAT and your French customer pays the VAT with their tax declaration. For more details see:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - [http://ec.europa.eu, Where to tax?][1]&#xD;&#xA; - [https://www.taxation.co.uk, Reversing the charge][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is all rather confusing to read for a first invoice. But if you do this for several customers in EU countries, or if you also buy services (e.g. use Amazon Web Services), then it does work quite well and simplifies invoicing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note:** This is under the assumption that your are VAT registered in the UK, and both you and your customer have VAT IDs for the paperwork. Without a VAT registration it is probably slightly different and you should really seek local tax advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/vat/eu-vat-rules-topic/where-tax_en#supply_services&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.taxation.co.uk/Articles/2010/03/03/258931/reversing-charge" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16938" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6485" RevisionGUID="674ccbe5-e243-4d66-8115-75c882939593" CreationDate="2017-01-20T10:42:56.600" UserId="2872" Text="I have started my own consultancy business and have been asked to do two things for a client:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Provide assistance around how to manage data in an existing system&#xD;&#xA;2. Provide training around database development&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client definitely wants both of these options carried out and, at first glance, I would think that option 1 would warrant an hourly rate and option 2 would warrant a daily rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although, the more I think about it, the more uncertain I become - what tends to be the case in such scenarios and what questions should I ask myself?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16939" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6485" RevisionGUID="674ccbe5-e243-4d66-8115-75c882939593" CreationDate="2017-01-20T10:42:56.600" UserId="2872" Text="Consulting - daily rate or hourly rate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16940" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6485" RevisionGUID="674ccbe5-e243-4d66-8115-75c882939593" CreationDate="2017-01-20T10:42:56.600" UserId="2872" Text="|pay-rate|consulting|price-per-hour|hourly|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16941" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6485" RevisionGUID="5e1d3fc1-b239-4690-9357-06b2e3341650" CreationDate="2017-01-20T11:16:24.160" UserId="2872" Comment="added 233 characters in body" Text="I have started my own consultancy business and have been asked to do two things for a client:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Provide assistance around how to manage data in an existing system&#xD;&#xA;2. Provide training around database development&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client definitely wants both of these options carried out and, at first glance, I would think that option 1 would warrant an hourly rate and option 2 would warrant a daily rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In terms of what to charge per hour / day (consulting) / day (training), I am rather uncertain as I cannot find any guidance as to what the typical rates tend to be - what do experienced data consultants charge in such instances?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although, the more I think about it, the more uncertain I become - what tends to be the case in such scenarios and what questions should I ask myself?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16942" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6486" RevisionGUID="7d9cbadd-2ccd-4d7e-ad2d-b8d6bbd9d36c" CreationDate="2017-01-20T11:42:40.780" UserId="517" Text="Go with the daily rate if you can do it that way. You will earn more. However, I think that the client will propose hourly rate for both things. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, about the hourly rate, it's impossible to tell how much to charge. Even if you and me are from the same town, we would not charge the same. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So just do what other freelancers do: count your costs and add profit to costs total and that will be your hourly rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In time, you will know if it's enough or you need to raise it. It's impossible to get the correct rate immediately. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Aside of this, you can visit freelancers services and find contractors from your area and see how much they charge. Also try to find a small company from your region (the best would be a company with just a few workers), and see who much they charge. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, there is no typical rate. Your rate is as high as you are able to sell it to the client. So you can get $10/h from one client and then $110/h from another. You will realize soon that freelancers are very similar to car sellers :). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16943" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6485" RevisionGUID="148044f7-d5e6-482d-bc7f-6e9712d89d76" CreationDate="2017-01-20T16:18:14.680" UserId="15276" Comment="Edited title." Text="Hourly vs daily rate for consulting" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16944" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6485" RevisionGUID="148044f7-d5e6-482d-bc7f-6e9712d89d76" CreationDate="2017-01-20T16:18:14.680" Comment="Proposed by 15276 approved by -1 edit id of 515" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16945" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6485" RevisionGUID="af55e9c3-c0f8-4a74-8069-f6450e567a58" CreationDate="2017-01-20T16:18:14.680" UserId="2872" Comment="Edited title." Text="Hourly or daily rate for consulting?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16946" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6264" RevisionGUID="bf6970e8-7620-4874-9578-13b8dd1aa197" CreationDate="2017-01-20T21:12:09.317" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16947" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6487" RevisionGUID="b95a74bb-a1a8-47af-b8bc-5d0fdd7ec331" CreationDate="2017-01-20T23:57:54.527" UserId="16120" Text="Here are some tips and thoughts around this. Personally I don't think that selling a company is very much different from selling a product or solution. So think about how you sell your product or service today to your customers. Key considerations include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- What's the value of your business to that competitor- how much would they value your company or your customers? What does it bring that they don't have? How can they make more money by having it? If they built it themselves how much would it cost them? If you are not part of the sale, then is there still value in buying what you have built? Who would manage it? How much does it cost to maintain the platform ongoing? Is there someone who understands how your software works who can help to integrate it with this competitor company? Understanding the value that you bring to the table is critical in determining if there is an actual pain point or need you are solving for the competitor. It will also likely help you determine how big that need is and that leads to helping you understand how much your company may be worth to that competitor. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- As many are aware, word of mouth marketing is very powerful. Similarly when you are trying to sell a company, if the CEO of this competitive company not only hears about the value of your company from you but also from some of his or her trusted advisors, it is even more valuable. Are there people in your network and the CEO's network who really love your service who could plant a seed with the CEO about how it could really help out his or her business? It goes a long way when the suggestion is coming from others in addition to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Your value always goes up when you have a strong customer base. Think about ratings and reviews - the more ratings and higher reviews your product has, the more confidence someone has in buying it. Similarly in this situation - if you have actual customers that not only use your product but are paying for it and love it and are willing to talk about it at length - this helps to show the buyer that there is real value here that you are offering.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Lastly it always helps when you can create a bit of competition yourself. Do you only have one prospective buyer? By talking to 2 or three prospective buyers and getting them interested, it helps by creating more urgency as well as with regard to the value of the company. If no one else is interested, there is no urgency to buy it and the buyer has a significant competitive advantage. If there are others who want to buy the same company, you are in a better position for offering a price that makes sense for you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16948" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6488" RevisionGUID="e592a9ec-bba6-4aab-8571-c3c9200bc02b" CreationDate="2017-01-21T00:58:50.793" UserId="1018" Text="Some governments have tender websites where departments request tenders ([RFT][1]) for a product or service to be delivered. Government tenders often have particular requirements such as the use of local employees or a pre-qualification process before being able to tender.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Outside of government, the process is often referred to as a request for proposal ([RFP][2]) but there isn't necessarily a central point of contact for these and companies may send an RFP to a short list of service providers who they know may be able to provide the required product or service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Request_for_tender&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Request_for_proposal" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16949" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6488" RevisionGUID="c702c856-cf10-4f4e-815a-53d17103c7a1" CreationDate="2017-01-21T01:12:30.267" UserId="1018" Comment="Add comment about online tender websites" Text="Some governments have tender websites where departments request tenders ([RFT][1]) for a product or service to be delivered. Government tenders often have particular requirements such as the use of local employees or a pre-qualification process before being able to tender.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Outside of government, the process is often referred to as a request for proposal ([RFP][2]) but there isn't necessarily a central point of contact for these and companies may send an RFP to a short list of service providers who they know may be able to provide the required product or service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Update:** Searching the web for &quot;tenders&quot; does show some websites that aim to put service seekers in touch with service providers and these websites may be what you are looking for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Request_for_tender&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Request_for_proposal" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16951" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6490" RevisionGUID="19920c4c-b05b-42c6-a37f-2e0de3a37744" CreationDate="2017-01-21T18:56:49.490" UserId="16125" Text="I am about to finish my Graduation ( B.Tech - Computer Science) very soon. I do like the idea of working with freedom like freelancing provides. Honestly, I noticed quite a significant difference in what we learn at an undergraduate level and the expectations and demands of clients over at freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I am trying to say is, although I have written programs in C/C++/C# but the level of programming was never of that stature. We did normal programs, implemented some algorithms at best but freelancing looks way above my level right now. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A simple question would be. How exactly I have to prepare myself to become a reputed freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What things I have to focus on.? Obviously hard work is necessary but what about the mindset and planning to achieve something as big as this. If anybody could share their experience and point me in the right direction. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16952" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6490" RevisionGUID="19920c4c-b05b-42c6-a37f-2e0de3a37744" CreationDate="2017-01-21T18:56:49.490" UserId="16125" Text="Few questions I wanted to ask" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16953" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6490" RevisionGUID="19920c4c-b05b-42c6-a37f-2e0de3a37744" CreationDate="2017-01-21T18:56:49.490" UserId="16125" Text="|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16954" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6490" RevisionGUID="5ee4123a-f054-42b6-af67-6a70700e6553" CreationDate="2017-01-21T20:15:43.330" UserId="2265" Comment="edited title" Text="How to prepare for freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16955" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5894" RevisionGUID="3894d413-fc3f-4a29-90c6-223721b66939" CreationDate="2017-01-21T20:19:42.197" UserDisplayName="user16034" Comment="improved url formatting" Text="Agreed! Upwork charges a hell of a lot of the Fee. On the top of that Freelancer had to pay withdrawal fees, currency conversion fee, bank fee, etc. and the actual amount which a freelancer receives is very small. So, strategy is to deliver good work, make your clients happy and take them out of Upwork with mutual agreement. Upwork charges a Payment Processing fee to clients as well, which can be a plus point for you to convince them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other alternatives can be:&#xD;&#xA;http://www.guru.com/&#xD;&#xA;https://www.toptal.com/&#xD;&#xA;https://outsource.com/&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancer.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16956" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="5894" RevisionGUID="3894d413-fc3f-4a29-90c6-223721b66939" CreationDate="2017-01-21T20:19:42.197" Comment="Proposed by 16034 approved by 85, 2265 edit id of 517" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16957" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6451" RevisionGUID="4aa463de-d303-425a-8ec8-bcea804eefc3" CreationDate="2017-01-21T20:19:49.730" UserDisplayName="user16034" Comment="improved tags" Text="|negotiation|client-support|software|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16958" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6451" RevisionGUID="4aa463de-d303-425a-8ec8-bcea804eefc3" CreationDate="2017-01-21T20:19:49.730" Comment="Proposed by 16034 approved by 85, 2265 edit id of 516" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16960" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6490" RevisionGUID="99a847b6-43f0-485e-8875-cab7b9608746" CreationDate="2017-01-21T20:28:37.707" UserId="16125" Comment="added 43 characters in body" Text="I am about to finish my Graduation ( B.Tech - Computer Science) very soon. I do like the idea of working with freedom like freelancing provides. Honestly, I noticed quite a significant difference in what we learn at an undergraduate level and the expectations and demands of clients over at freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I am trying to say is, although I have written programs in C/C++/C# but the level of programming was never of that stature. We did normal programs, implemented some algorithms at best but freelancing looks way above my level right now. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A simple question would be. How exactly I have to prepare myself to become a reputed freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What things I have to focus on for career in Computer Science, Programming? Obviously hard work is necessary but what about the mindset and planning to achieve something as big as this. If anybody could share their experience and point me in the right direction. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16969" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6466" RevisionGUID="807bde8d-e112-4cf3-ad7c-8366cfd4737b" CreationDate="2017-01-22T09:48:46.353" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/823105114173042688" />
  <row Id="16971" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6266" RevisionGUID="813bfd56-fceb-43b0-9400-6975a8b00714" CreationDate="2017-01-22T15:05:50.317" UserId="13016" Comment="where --&gt; were; (yield results) or (bear fruit), not a mix of idioms" Text="If you meant on [freelancer.com](https://www.freelancer.com), you've broken the rule, as all payments are supposed to remain onsite *(on Freelancer.com)*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As such, they *(Freelancer.com)* **CANNOT** intervene on your behalf.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were you, I'll rather consider it a lost battle; you can only get your money and/or the service paid for if and only if the freelancer in question chose to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may try consulting their support, but I truly doubt it will yield any results.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Otherwise, *PayPal* itself, but again, that will depend on many factors; in this case: I think the earlier, the better." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16972" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6266" RevisionGUID="813bfd56-fceb-43b0-9400-6975a8b00714" CreationDate="2017-01-22T15:05:50.317" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 15276 edit id of 518" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16975" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3028" RevisionGUID="d16f3a85-9997-4da6-95fe-d18e97cafa96" CreationDate="2017-01-22T21:50:04.483" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="16976" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6495" RevisionGUID="752f5f15-2257-43e0-953f-20ead85796e1" CreationDate="2017-01-22T22:13:26.210" UserId="11579" Text="I've got 20+ years consulting within IT behind me so I would hope that counts for something. Hopefully a prior answer I supplied might help:&#xD;&#xA;http://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recommend getting a year or two in a full time job first. Anyone can work in a bar or restaurant, but the best make the biggest tips. If the food and drink being served stays the same, and the location is the same, the ability to provide good customer service will be the key difference. So... while you might think you can code, successful consulting means you need to know how to sell yourself, regularly, you need know how to work well with others in stressful possibly politically unfriendly situations. College/school teaches you lots - I respect what you have attained so far, but you will have to learn and adapt new environments and new skills every day for the rest of your life.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16977" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6485" RevisionGUID="33fa606b-9a1c-46c1-8a3a-81dfaf28a2c9" CreationDate="2017-01-23T15:52:25.623" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/823559017838604288" />
  <row Id="16981" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6496" RevisionGUID="b6a8965b-3ad8-4665-b9e4-fb58ecf728a8" CreationDate="2017-01-23T20:08:45.720" UserId="1706" Text="It means you're being baited, unless you've agreed to a highly exceptional situation here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Normally, nothing in a contract for freelance work *you* have to perform should make the payment contingent on how the client chooses to direct business (i.e. selling off their assets, relocating, and so forth.)  Here's why - what if the client decides to never fulfill the contingency?  You're screwed!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Throw this one back, it reeks of a client trying to pull a fast one." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16985" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6498" RevisionGUID="7a7917f7-3122-4f8b-8316-97b921bcbe12" CreationDate="2017-01-23T22:30:49.610" UserId="11579" Text="I have a UK registered consultancy business for 22+ years, and contracted in six EU countries - hopefully my time/experience counts for something.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The French accountant is more likely uncomfortable with the arrangement, but I believe with near certainty, is not illegal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a law in many EU countries that I once heard refered to as a &quot;chain law&quot;. It can effect contractors/consultants and this might be the concern of the French accountant. Basically, if you invoice the French company and do not pay your taxes, their concern is the French company might be held liable for them (and thus end up paying you and HMRC).  My understanding is the UK does not have this law (but BE, NL and I think F and DE do). The French accountant will not be familiar with UK tax laws, assumes the worst and thus is possibly concerned that if you don't pay the Queen then he will have to do it for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I strongly recommend you read a previously answered question, specifically on liability http://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585  Register yourself a UK Limited Company - You only need to be UK resident and nowadays a single person can create a Limited Company (when I started trading you needed a minimum of two 'officers' to form an Ltd). Opening a company is easy, but maintaining a company has (a little) paperwork. My UK accountant charges about 400GBP a year and I recommend you follow a similar route. Alternatively there are consultancies that act as umbrella companies - you work for them as an employee, they raise your invoices and do the paperwork. In return, they'll charge an admin fee. I'm not a fan of this, but I know others who have followed it happily for years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Expect to face some pains - ask any IT contractor about IR35 (Inland Revenue 35). The law came in 10+ years ago however the taxman has decided to re-examine and apply the law in a manner that makes contracting within the UK a less profitable business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16986" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6498" RevisionGUID="bdd00175-b07c-4217-ae0e-928d4dcd2ed0" CreationDate="2017-01-23T22:39:53.383" UserId="11579" Comment="deleted 26 characters in body" Text="I have a UK registered consultancy business for 22+ years, and contracted in six EU countries - hopefully my time/experience counts for something.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The French accountant is more likely uncomfortable with the arrangement, but I believe with near certainty, is not illegal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a law in many EU countries that I once heard refered to as a &quot;chain law&quot;. It can effect contractors/consultants and this might be the concern of the French accountant. Basically, if you invoice the French company and do not pay your taxes, their concern is the French company might be held liable for them (and thus end up paying you and HMRC).  My understanding is the UK does not have this law (but BE, NL and I think F and DE do). The French accountant will not be familiar with UK tax laws, assumes the worst and thus is possibly concerned that if you don't pay the Queen then he will have to do it for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I strongly recommend you read a previously answered question, http://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585  Register yourself a UK Limited Company - You only need to be UK resident and nowadays a single person can create a Limited Company (when I started trading you needed a minimum of two 'officers' to form an Ltd). Opening a company is easy, but maintaining a company has (a little) paperwork. My UK accountant charges about 400GBP a year and I recommend you follow a similar route. Alternatively there are consultancies that act as umbrella companies - you work for them as an employee, they raise your invoices and do the paperwork. In return, they'll charge an admin fee. I'm not a fan of this, but I know others who have followed it happily for years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Expect to face some pains - ask any IT contractor about IR35 (Inland Revenue 35). The law came in 10+ years ago however the taxman has decided to re-examine and apply the law in a manner that makes contracting within the UK a less profitable business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16991" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6499" RevisionGUID="d90af7d4-5f92-4a35-b76a-376a97012d49" CreationDate="2017-01-24T05:53:00.713" UserId="15143" Text="I frequently hire contractors, so I'll share how I select applicants. I think that's how most other contractors hire a contractor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not a good idea to offer a low rate just because you think you are a fresh graduate. You'll only get cheap and dumb projects. You wouldn't be able to develop your history, and you wouldn't be able to develop your talent as well. Trust me, anybody who wants to pay you low have very little respect to you, and you wouldn't want to work with them (why waste your career?).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to be **good** in something practical. What do you want to do? If you want to do iOS apps, you should read/study Objective-C/Swift etc. You'll have to prove you are a great iOS app developer by doing some apps under your name.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I post a job advertisement, I'd filter anybody who doesn't give a CV in the application. I'd also filtered out anybody who has never worked full-time. I'd put strong preference on whoever has a project developed under her name. For example, if I'm looking for an iOS app developer, I'd expect someone who have an app on the App Store. I'd also always check the candidate on Linkedln and the company the application works. I'd be expecting a positive profile.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What does that mean for you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Get a full-time job to grow your CV and your technical skills. You should try to work at somewhere that you want to work and enjoy. If you enjor your work, you'll be able to transfer what you learn to freelancing.&#xD;&#xA; - Start your own project or join an open-source. Your want your name searchable on Google.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16992" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6500" RevisionGUID="7300512b-9467-4e44-8da3-193c781f90e0" CreationDate="2017-01-24T06:17:10.180" UserId="16138" Text="Should I want to mention that what techniques I use to build a website for clients in agreement (written or verbal) ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a example, If I get a project to build a website and If I have plan to use WordPress with a free or premium theme, should I tell it to my client that I will use WordPress?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16993" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6500" RevisionGUID="7300512b-9467-4e44-8da3-193c781f90e0" CreationDate="2017-01-24T06:17:10.180" UserId="16138" Text="Should I want to mention that what techniques I use to build a website for clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16994" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6500" RevisionGUID="7300512b-9467-4e44-8da3-193c781f90e0" CreationDate="2017-01-24T06:17:10.180" UserId="16138" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16995" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6501" RevisionGUID="8aef940e-914d-4715-b981-d4b2f47be5ad" CreationDate="2017-01-24T08:01:11.627" UserId="7858" Text="That depends on the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A tech-savvy client will most often want full disclosure, possibly even micro-manage the process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client has no interest in technology at all and is more or less leaving it all up to you, then they probably do not care. However, in the sales phase, I would definitely mention the very wide adoption of Wordpress, as factors such as wide adoption, continued development and availability of freelancers are relevant non-technical factors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When in doubt, disclose the details and see how the client reacts. All (smaller) clients are different and part of your role is to establish functioning two-way communication. The smaller the client, the more individual personalities come into play.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, I have found that clients do not care to be involved in essentially technical decisions, like which database or programming language to use. However, when the technical decision is actually a business decision, they want to be involved. For example: On the face of it, choosing 'open source' over a proprietary product seems like a technical decision, but can easily be presented as a business decision, as it involves pricing, vendor lock-in and so on." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16996" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6490" RevisionGUID="6800f894-e406-415e-8c01-e3845251cc40" CreationDate="2017-01-25T11:45:39.530" UserId="13016" Comment="minor clean up; fixed sentence fragment" Text="I am about to finish my Graduation ( B.Tech - Computer Science) very soon. I do like the idea of working with freedom like freelancing provides. Honestly, I noticed quite a significant difference in what we learn at an undergraduate level and the expectations and demands of clients over at freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I am trying to say is, although I have written programs in C/C++/C# but the level of programming was never of that stature. We did normal programs, implemented some algorithms at best but freelancing looks way above my level right now. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How exactly do I prepare myself to become a reputed freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What things do I have to focus on for a career in Computer Science, Programming? Obviously, hard work is necessary but what about the mindset and planning to achieve something as big as this? Please share you experience and point me in the right direction. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16997" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6490" RevisionGUID="6800f894-e406-415e-8c01-e3845251cc40" CreationDate="2017-01-25T11:45:39.530" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 16125 edit id of 519" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16998" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6502" RevisionGUID="886b09a3-3fda-4da6-a95a-5a01a13a8ac1" CreationDate="2017-01-25T12:44:44.733" UserId="517" Text="More important question is why do you want to hide it from the client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Using wordpress does not mean that you are doing anything wrong. In cases like yours, I present a client plan for cheaper or more expensive option. A cheaper one includes: wordpress, free them, blah blah blah. More expensive one includes: custom CMS, paid theme or custom made theme, blah blah. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So a client chooses a way he will go. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In case you are working for a fixed price, which is not enough for the custom CMS, then you can mention something like &quot;I see that the budget is not intended for the custom CMS and custom themes, so we will use Wordpress and free theme of your choice&quot;. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17002" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6504" RevisionGUID="59260260-aed7-4a05-8589-2c494177d279" CreationDate="2017-01-25T19:05:34.810" UserId="16155" Text="I am resident in the UK, I am a freelancer and my client wish to pay in EUR. I have been checking different options for getting paid in my current Business account or either create a Foreign Currency account but it is not cheap for the level of income I will get in the year.&#xD;&#xA;I have a personal account in EUR in Spain which I thought I could give to my client to transfer the EUR, I would then use TransferWise to transfer the EUR to GBP which looks the economic option, I will then declare this income for tax purposes in the UK. &#xD;&#xA;May do you know if that is legal? I am unsure either if Spanish Tax Authorities will require pay any tax on that amount but in that case it would be Double Taxation?&#xD;&#xA;Many thanks for you help!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17003" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6504" RevisionGUID="59260260-aed7-4a05-8589-2c494177d279" CreationDate="2017-01-25T19:05:34.810" UserId="16155" Text="UK based Freelancer, my client wants to pay in EUR. I have a personal EUR account in Spain" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17004" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6504" RevisionGUID="59260260-aed7-4a05-8589-2c494177d279" CreationDate="2017-01-25T19:05:34.810" UserId="16155" Text="|uk|foreign-markets|spain|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17006" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6505" RevisionGUID="082c47c1-4cb9-46cb-a605-939c3c8ca4f8" CreationDate="2017-01-26T02:22:46.400" UserId="16157" Text="Apologies if this is off topic, this is really a question about branding. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work full time in IT, but more recently some of my side projects have been gaining more traction. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- A ['Humans of' Facebook page.][1] &#xD;&#xA;- A [political/relationships blog][2]. &#xD;&#xA;- An [interactive geometric art webapp][3]. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm wanting to generally consolidate these projects under a full stack web and media development umbrella. ie. selling my services as a someone who can implmement a full social web strategy, with particular emphasis on the web development. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question I have is about email addresses. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example with my blog, for research purposes I might want to be emailing various people for information, and in that scenario it would be good to have a @eyesofablacksheep.com email address. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't have a domain name for my Humans of Newtown page, and at this point I don't particularly want one - but I do need a Humans of Newtown email to add to my business card. Currently I'm just using a gmail address - but is that unprofessional?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And mainly, because web development is what I'm most likely to get paid for - I need a business email @blacksheepcode.com for doing work there. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question is - is there a way to set up multiple email addresses without having to pay separately for each one? - Given that I'm not currently earning money from these side projects, these costs quickly add up. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there another simple way to setup email addresses for multiple domains without a paying for each one?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewtownwgtn/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://eyesofablacksheep.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://blacksheepcode.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17007" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6505" RevisionGUID="082c47c1-4cb9-46cb-a605-939c3c8ca4f8" CreationDate="2017-01-26T02:22:46.400" UserId="16157" Text="Strategy for multiple email addresses?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17008" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6505" RevisionGUID="082c47c1-4cb9-46cb-a605-939c3c8ca4f8" CreationDate="2017-01-26T02:22:46.400" UserId="16157" Text="|branding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17009" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6506" RevisionGUID="4256e76b-42b8-42c8-a53b-416138f5af55" CreationDate="2017-01-26T06:52:00.167" UserId="2265" Text="Short answer, no. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Longer:&#xD;&#xA;You might want to use a workaround, register one domain with a more generic name and use each of the things you mention above as a brand (i.e. an email address) on that generic domain name. You can then use subdomains xxx.example.com to even create specific websites for each brand.&#xD;&#xA;Most hosting providers will allow you to register as many email addresses as you like within reasonable limits.&#xD;&#xA;If you use Gsuite or similar for emails instead of the default mail from your provider, you might want to set up an alias instead of an email address (as each email box on Gsuite needs to be paid for).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suppose this is personal preference, but I feel a gmail address (or any other free service) is unprofessional, you really do need your own address. If only because gmail will index &amp; search all contents of your email for profiling and ad purposes in the free version.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17010" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6507" RevisionGUID="94576e66-6a6d-4ff9-8cba-f17d4bcd4c85" CreationDate="2017-01-26T15:54:16.590" UserDisplayName="user16164" Text="I have created today an account on [HubStaff Talent](https://talent.hubstaff.com/). They claim not to have any fees at all. I have not tested it yet to see whether it is true.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far, I have used Freelancer and UpWork. Both of them have fees. Freelancer even charges you 4 USD for accepting a won project (crazy idea, I guess)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17011" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6508" RevisionGUID="1ab9cbf0-5381-470f-be88-18089f22665b" CreationDate="2017-01-26T18:39:16.823" UserId="75" Text="I do this, and for free as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have 4 domains that I'm responsible for, 2 that are my own personal, and 2 that other organizations pay for after I bill them. I have an email at each.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's great to have one main inbox for your work related stuff, and only you can pick which domain to put it all through.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On all the others, point the MX records at a free mail service for 1 email address/domain; I use Zoho for this (no affiliation). Any emails sent to my kinda-personal domain gets forwarded to my main one, so I only have one to check on my phone. The headers are maintained, so I can see if it's *CanadianLuke@domain1.ca* vs *CanadianLuke@domain2.ca*." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17012" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6509" RevisionGUID="5a14a2bc-d235-482b-bd52-315e208423f0" CreationDate="2017-01-26T21:54:57.327" UserId="16167" Text="Long story short&#xD;&#xA;without paying somewhere it will be harder.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I could explain at least 2ways to do it&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1' *It what I did for few months* : solution is to find a email provider such as Tutanota.de&#xD;&#xA;and you buy a 5 alias for around 10$US/year and you will be able to send from 5differents email which could be from 5 differents domain name.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I point Tutanota because I tried with different provider and it have always something wasn't really working like;&#xD;&#xA;- unable to have multidomain&#xD;&#xA;- able to receive from different email@domain but unable to send from it;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The down side it's only manageable via a webmail + apps&#xD;&#xA;so your unable to use it as a SMTP server to send from your website, such as exemple.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2' *It what I do now* : I built my own server in a way i'm able to send and receive from and as many email and domain I need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- [arstechnica how to run your own e-mail server][1]&#xD;&#xA;- Yunohost could do this job too&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course maybe you don't want to manage your own server&#xD;&#xA;So we could have a more private chat and I could see if I could host you ;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/how-to-run-your-own-e-mail-server-with-your-own-domain-part-1/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17013" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6510" RevisionGUID="673fc7d4-bc14-4dfa-b1c8-6e652ec2840d" CreationDate="2017-01-26T23:58:54.870" UserId="16168" Text="Background: I'm just a couple weeks into starting as a freelance consultant. I'm on a contract at the moment that's like a 20hr/week retainer as a sole prop. I'm planning to incorporate as an S-corp.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client wants to move me from 20hrs/week to full-time (still remote-work). I currently don't have other clients, but was planning to use the other half-time to build up marketing/blog. Can I suggest a 40hr/week retainer contract through my consulting company? Is that legal for the client under the definition of a full-time employee from the IRS?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are the pros and cons of this move for the client and myself?&#xD;&#xA;For the client: they wouldn't need to pay payroll taxes, benefits, etc. Downsides is that they may feel I'm not as committed to the company. Any other downsides for them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For myself: I would pay for my own benefits, pay my own taxes, etc. HOWEVER, I quit my previous fulltime because I wanted some freedom and to build this consulting business out, so joining on as fulltime at this client's company is something I really want to avoid. I guess this post is more that I want to understand the downsides for the client and be able to address them when I speak with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additional detail, they want to move me to fulltime then hire a couple more people and have me lead a team.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17014" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6510" RevisionGUID="673fc7d4-bc14-4dfa-b1c8-6e652ec2840d" CreationDate="2017-01-26T23:58:54.870" UserId="16168" Text="Freelancing at 20 hrs/week. Client wants to move me to full-time. Can I do a 40 hrs/week retainer contract instead under my consulting corp?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17015" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6510" RevisionGUID="673fc7d4-bc14-4dfa-b1c8-6e652ec2840d" CreationDate="2017-01-26T23:58:54.870" UserId="16168" Text="|legal|retainer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17016" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6511" RevisionGUID="05b1547c-92d3-4647-9e3f-d5cbeb3c9336" CreationDate="2017-01-27T01:43:01.443" UserId="15143" Text="I always outline my approach briefly and non-technically to my clients. It's always a good idea to do it. Your client may not care, but that improves communication, trust and they may think you're actually here to help them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Communication is the key of success in freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only downside is like 5-minute time for writing the email. You should do it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17018" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6229" RevisionGUID="1b050165-3829-4de8-b654-7604d902a84b" CreationDate="2017-01-27T23:48:00.827" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17019" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6513" RevisionGUID="90f540cc-a995-4d14-898a-7debe0f5bd1c" CreationDate="2017-01-29T16:38:06.917" UserId="16193" Text="I am a French Citizen with the Australian Permanent Residency. I am currently in Australia but I am moving back to France in a month for family reasons. My company is proposing me to keep working for them from France as a contractor and for an undetermined period. Basically, I will have the same duties but with a Freelancer statut. I may have to travel 1 or 2 times to Australian for meetings (not sure yet).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wondered if I have to declare myself leaving permanently at the border or if I need to declare that I am temporarily leaving the country? Does that decision would impact my right to still working for my company? &#xD;&#xA;I wondered also if, as a permanent resident working from overseas, I will have to pay my taxes in Australia. I am pretty sure that I will already have to pay taxes in France.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And last question, How does it work for my company? Do they have the right to employ me as an overseas contractor after having been employed more than 3 years with them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is a very specific case I know, but if someone have a response I would be more than happy to read it.&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17020" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6513" RevisionGUID="90f540cc-a995-4d14-898a-7debe0f5bd1c" CreationDate="2017-01-29T16:38:06.917" UserId="16193" Text="Doing business in Australia as freelancer located overseas but with the Australian Permanent Residency" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17021" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6513" RevisionGUID="90f540cc-a995-4d14-898a-7debe0f5bd1c" CreationDate="2017-01-29T16:38:06.917" UserId="16193" Text="|contracts|taxes|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17022" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6514" RevisionGUID="5795d8eb-0437-4c5c-9a95-ffa22f581fee" CreationDate="2017-01-29T19:30:26.517" UserId="11579" Text="Note: I have never been to Australia.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you leave Australia, you will be non-resident - your permanent residency card allows you to return, but your next home country will be your next place of residency. Your permanent residency card just means you can return at some point in the future and stay/work and probably vote in some elections. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Taxes will be owed to your new country of residence. Thus, if your new home is in France, and you provide services to an Australian entity, you will need to send an invoice from France to the Australian Company. All taxes will be due to your new country of residency (France?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can have business meetings to Australia and I suspect your permanent residency card omits your visa requirements - however if you did not have residency, a simple visa would be required akin to tourist visa since you would likely not stay beyond 90days. Visas would likely differ if your work is manual/physical (ie engineer or doctor) or mental (brain power).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In terms of leaving the country and declaring it is your own choice. I have never been to Australia, but I have left the UK I was asked to declare why I was leaving and what I might earn in my new country. I just scribbled across the form &quot;going back packing in Australia&quot; believe it or not.  Why? The info requested was for British statistical purposes. Not my benefit. How you leave is your choice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However... check the conditions of your permanent residency - *some* countries have a limit on how long you can be outside the country before the permit becomes invalid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17023" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6500" RevisionGUID="4f3f470d-91ac-493c-83f7-ebccc6e93961" CreationDate="2017-01-29T21:05:44.847" UserId="13016" Comment="removed extra words, fixed caps" Text="Should I want to mention what techniques I use to build a website for clients in agreement (written or verbal) ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if I get a project to build a website and if I have a plan to use WordPress with a free or premium theme, should I tell my client that I will use WordPress?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17024" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6500" RevisionGUID="4f3f470d-91ac-493c-83f7-ebccc6e93961" CreationDate="2017-01-29T21:05:44.847" UserId="13016" Comment="removed extra words, fixed caps" Text="Should I want to mention what techniques I use to build a website for clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17025" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6500" RevisionGUID="4f3f470d-91ac-493c-83f7-ebccc6e93961" CreationDate="2017-01-29T21:05:44.847" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 7858, 2265 edit id of 520" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17026" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6515" RevisionGUID="b76317f1-a296-48ca-ad62-60bdd1eb512c" CreationDate="2017-01-30T13:40:25.040" UserId="15447" Text="I have worked as a freelance for 1 complete month in company XXX (final client in their building). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my contract, it's written that I will get paid 30 days after my bill transmission.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just received a call from my headhunter (intermediate) 1 hour ago that regarding some issues with some kind of weird context, I will be paid for this first complete month 60 days after.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, what he told me:    &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Sorry Mik, but I learnt 20 minutes ago that company YYY don't want to sign a kind of paper REQUIRED for you to be paid in time.        &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm explaining: The guy preceding you, that you are replacing, was coming from company YYY.                   &#xD;&#xA;&gt; YYY is used to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; be the master provider of tech profiles for company XXX.        &#xD;&#xA;They don't want to &quot;retire&quot; so quickly, like a kid that wants to take revenge. We make our possible to treat with them so that you will be paid in 60 days accurately.         &#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you are in trouble, we can split the payment so that you'll get 1/8 of the total in 30 days accurately.     &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Do you see any problem with that? Sorry again. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to keep good contacts but also I don't want to be &quot;owned&quot;.    &#xD;&#xA;I would add that I have savings that would be secured me for two months, but I don't want to count on that.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would you treat this case?   &#xD;&#xA;Should I &quot;yell&quot; or should I accept it as a vagary of freelancing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17027" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6515" RevisionGUID="b76317f1-a296-48ca-ad62-60bdd1eb512c" CreationDate="2017-01-30T13:40:25.040" UserId="15447" Text="Learning that my first bill will be paid after two months instead of one" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17028" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6515" RevisionGUID="b76317f1-a296-48ca-ad62-60bdd1eb512c" CreationDate="2017-01-30T13:40:25.040" UserId="15447" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|payments|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17029" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6515" RevisionGUID="28ddd196-21bb-46c1-9bc6-a1da7e86d337" CreationDate="2017-01-30T13:45:51.880" UserId="15447" Comment="added 10 characters in body" Text="I have worked as a freelance for 1 complete month in company XXX (final client in their building). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my contract, it's written that I will get paid 30 days after my bill transmission.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just received a call from my headhunter (intermediate) 1 hour ago informing that regarding some issues with some kind of weird context, I will be paid for this first complete month 60 days after.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, what he told me:    &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Sorry Mik, but I learnt 20 minutes ago that company YYY don't want to sign a kind of paper REQUIRED for you to be paid in time.        &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm explaining: The guy preceding you, that you are replacing, was coming from company YYY.                   &#xD;&#xA;&gt; YYY is used to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; be the master provider of tech profiles for company XXX.        &#xD;&#xA;They don't want to &quot;retire&quot; so quickly, like a kid that wants to take revenge. We make our possible to treat with them so that you will be paid in 60 days accurately.         &#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you are in trouble, we can split the payment so that you'll get 1/8 of the total in 30 days accurately.     &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Do you see any problem with that? Sorry again. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to keep good contacts but also I don't want to be &quot;owned&quot;.    &#xD;&#xA;I would add that I have savings that would be secured me for two months, but I don't want to count on that.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would you treat this case?   &#xD;&#xA;Should I &quot;yell&quot; or should I accept it as one of freelancing risk?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17030" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6515" RevisionGUID="4bbe4d00-3860-4bab-8b37-0b614e9d226e" CreationDate="2017-01-30T15:15:31.837" UserId="15447" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body" Text="I have worked as a freelance for 1 complete month in company XXX (end client in their building). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my contract, it's written that I will get paid 30 days after my bill transmission.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just received a call from my headhunter (intermediary) 1 hour ago informing that regarding some issues with some kind of weird context, I will be paid for this first complete month 60 days after.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, what he told me:    &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Sorry Mik, but I learnt 20 minutes ago that company YYY don't want to sign a kind of paper REQUIRED for you to be paid in time.        &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm explaining: The guy preceding you, that you are replacing, was coming from company YYY.                   &#xD;&#xA;&gt; YYY is used to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; be the master provider of tech profiles for company XXX.        &#xD;&#xA;They don't want to &quot;retire&quot; so quickly, like a kid that wants to take revenge. We make our possible to treat with them so that you will be paid in 60 days accurately.         &#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you are in trouble, we can split the payment so that you'll get 1/8 of the total in 30 days accurately.     &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Do you see any problem with that? Sorry again. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to keep good contacts but also I don't want to be &quot;owned&quot;.    &#xD;&#xA;I would add that I have savings that would be secured me for two months, but I don't want to count on that.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would you treat this case?   &#xD;&#xA;Should I &quot;yell&quot; or should I accept it as one of freelancing risk?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17031" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6516" RevisionGUID="26263c12-d73d-41f6-8420-eed67eeb8fa4" CreationDate="2017-01-30T15:38:56.727" UserId="517" Text="Since you have DONE work and have not been paid before, you cannot do much but wait. Check the contract between you and your intermediary and push on him. If he has screwed up, let him pay you and then he waits for the payment from this company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I dislike such behavior and this would be a great read signal not to work with this company or this intermediary. Or work under different rules. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, whatever you do, do nothing in rush. I would do this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. inspect the contract in details&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. if the contract says that I am to be paid in 30 days, I would try to politely say to my intermediary that I want my money or at least 50% now. My life cannot stop because he screwed up. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Once I get hold of my money, I would not start a new job without changing the rules. I would request upfront like 20%, then 50% at some point, and the rest after the contract ends. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No matter how attractive the intermediary looks or how much work he can get me, what's the point of working for him if you have to wait for your money each time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17033" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6517" RevisionGUID="f2d3d710-a392-43ed-abe6-a6c48ed2b0bb" CreationDate="2017-01-31T08:49:00.243" UserId="7858" Text="I find it amazing that it has taken your headhunter a month to discover that the end-client would not be signing a document.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, it seems that the headhunter simply does not have the liquidity to pay you in full. This might be true if the company is small.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, the only two possible sanctions you can impose are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Upon contract expiry, refusing to extend - if the client wants an extension&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Upon missing payment, refuse to do more work (unless your contract explicitly forbids this)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a minimum,  I would inform the headhunter that the situation is very unprofessional. Whether I would attempt to exert maximum pressure by doing 2), would depend on my financial situation and the ease/difficulty of getting another contract. Being financially secure, I would probably just extract as much payment now as possible, not merely accepting their 1/8, but going for 1/4 - and upon contract expiry do 1) - stating the payment terms as the sole reason." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17034" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6515" RevisionGUID="8d82342b-b4d3-4e55-a163-53551379ca5b" CreationDate="2017-01-31T22:43:08.603" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/826561480686452736" />
  <row Id="17041" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6520" RevisionGUID="4f1a8f98-de20-44bd-80a9-a04fabe88b96" CreationDate="2017-02-03T13:54:41.007" UserId="11579" Text="Who is your contract with?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your contract is with the headhunter, then they have cash flow problems. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The headhunter has a contract with the client. If they get paid within 60 days, they need resolve this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By the way, what you call headhunter I call recruiter, agency or pimp - I think we talking about the same people. A third party that fits between you and the client. This relationship exists for a number of reasons, one being to ensure there is no employee/employer relationship between client and you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have had more than a couple of dozen contracts since 1994, a small number were one man band recruiters and things typically worked out. I say typically because my first ever contract was with a recruiter who was taking a 60% profit margin (meaning he was profiting more from my work than I was). They were afraid I would find out, and he held back paying me (the more he owed me, the less likely I would leave was this crazy thinking). When one invoice was 9 weeks past payment I turned up at the client one morning, told them I was fit for work but witholding services due to non-payment. We parted company but I eventually got paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Point being is your recruiter could be a small business like you - you have to decide if they are going to hold out on paying you at all. You don't state what country you are in - in the UK, each company (thus, your recruiter) must file accounts at companieshouse.gov.uk and you can check 1) how old the company is 2) if the directors have ever been in trouble and 3) if they are behind with any taxes. It's a simple credit check that won't cost you anything - I would do something like this on your recruiter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I like comments from @Peter-MV about the recruiter making some effort to pay you since you also have expenses that need you need cover - however I have never worked/demanded any % payment up front. Typically I invoice end of month, wait 30days, then get paid. In 20+ years, with exception to my first contract, all the other recruiters/agencies paid me this way. If your contract says payment due in 30days, then you are within your rights - and while you might not want to rock the boat with the client, the headhunter/recruiter/agency/pimp won't want to rock the boat either. Don't get shirty, be polite and you can apply firm pressure to reduce your risks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17045" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6521" RevisionGUID="a9c73a13-aa05-461f-9160-3e546d5e1db9" CreationDate="2017-02-04T11:57:13.210" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="I'm having trouble getting paid for an invoice that a client owes me (just £100). He has started ignoring my phonecalls and texts and has never been very good over email to begin with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm starting to lose patience in chasing for such a small amount of money and am tempted to go through the small claims court — https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/overview&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would cost me £25 if I fill the form online.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there a certain amount of reminders that I need to send the client? and how overdue does the invoice need to be?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17046" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6521" RevisionGUID="a9c73a13-aa05-461f-9160-3e546d5e1db9" CreationDate="2017-02-04T11:57:13.210" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="Small claims court for unpaid small invoice? (UK)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17047" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6521" RevisionGUID="a9c73a13-aa05-461f-9160-3e546d5e1db9" CreationDate="2017-02-04T11:57:13.210" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="|payment-terms|difficult-client|payments|invoices|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17048" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6522" RevisionGUID="415f4980-f550-49fa-b509-3e3a21650228" CreationDate="2017-02-04T14:19:59.170" UserId="16265" Text="First - I apologise if this is the wrong question to ask or this is posted in the wrong place. I myself am not a developer, but I could use some help from freelance developers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm in need of a web developer for a couple of one-off projects. I already have some in-house developers working on some larger client based things and I don't want to take them off the work they're doing. Therefore I thought it best to outsource a couple of projects that are for ourselves and not client based.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first place I tried was  People Per Hour. I've had good experiences with proof readers but not so with developers. After speaking with my in-house devs, they have said a lot of the example sites I've been sent have messy code, multiple JS files, fail GT Metrix or are not savvy with W3C and Schema practices, which at the price they're offering is expected I suppose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The projects are fairly simple - setting up a Wordpress site with 5 custom templates and a database search function. I'm willing to pay more for quality so that our devs here can jump in later to make any future edits. Ideally I'd like to find someone I can use when needed in future as I have a few more projects lined up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So my question:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can anyone suggest where to find good freelancers?&#xD;&#xA;Where does a lot of your work come from?&#xD;&#xA;Where should I be looking?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help would be greatly appreciated!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17049" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6522" RevisionGUID="415f4980-f550-49fa-b509-3e3a21650228" CreationDate="2017-02-04T14:19:59.170" UserId="16265" Text="Where to Find a Good Freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17050" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6522" RevisionGUID="415f4980-f550-49fa-b509-3e3a21650228" CreationDate="2017-02-04T14:19:59.170" UserId="16265" Text="|freelance-websites|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17051" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6522" RevisionGUID="d11e4bb9-2d9f-4c8e-a881-e5b8db7312cf" CreationDate="2017-02-04T14:27:18.610" UserId="16265" Comment="added 231 characters in body" Text="First - I apologise if this is the wrong question to ask or this is posted in the wrong place. I myself am not a developer, but I could use some help from freelance developers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm in need of a web developer for a couple of one-off projects. I already have some in-house developers working on some larger client based things and I don't want to take them off the work they're doing. Therefore I thought it best to outsource a couple of projects that are for ourselves and not client based.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first place I tried was  People Per Hour. I've had good experiences with proof readers but not so with developers. After speaking with my in-house devs, they have said a lot of the example sites I've been sent have messy code, multiple JS files, fail GT Metrix or are not savvy with W3C and Schema practices, which at the price they're offering is expected I suppose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The projects are fairly simple - setting up a Wordpress site with 5 custom templates and a database search function. I'm willing to pay more for quality so that our devs here can jump in later to make any future edits. Ideally I'd like to find someone I can use when needed in future as I have a few more projects lined up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So my question:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can anyone suggest where to find good freelancers?&#xD;&#xA;Where does a lot of your work come from?&#xD;&#xA;Where should I be looking?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help would be greatly appreciated!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT:** I have Googled and have posted jobs on a range of other sites but I find I'm receiving similar 'I'll set up a Wordpress site for £200' sort of responses. I'm looking for a little higher quality (for a higher price)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17053" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6451" RevisionGUID="ac638665-9ed9-40db-ad0b-f3611e3dee31" CreationDate="2017-02-05T11:05:04.650" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/828197746213531650" />
  <row Id="17054" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6523" RevisionGUID="81cc7623-0058-4f88-9f14-eae47a078038" CreationDate="2017-02-06T10:24:05.877" UserId="15202" Text="From personal experience, this is not a fun experience. You need to weigh this up as if it were a contract itself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For £100, you need to work out if a day of your time (at least) is worth it. However, you also need to consider whether you want to maintain your reputation (and punish that of your client).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client does not appear, you win. If you win, they pay the costs (but not for time lost), and some expenses (like travel to court, etc). If you lose, you are out of pocket for the claim and the fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now here's the thing. You can pick the court location. For example, if your client is remote, you can file locally to yourself, so they will have to weigh up the cost of travel vs settling the claim pre-court.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A whole load more info can be found [here](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/taking-legal-action/small-claims/#h-starting-a-claim)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17055" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6507" RevisionGUID="f243c588-ccf3-4434-b552-943d25c5f4ff" CreationDate="2017-02-06T21:15:20.803" UserDisplayName="user16164" Comment="Added details about OutSourceLY." Text="I have created today an account on [HubStaff Talent](https://talent.hubstaff.com/). They claim not to have any fees at all. I have not tested it yet to see whether it is true.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far, I have used Freelancer and UpWork. Both of them have fees. Freelancer even charges you 4 USD for accepting a won project (crazy idea, I guess).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Beside OutSource ( https://www.outsource.com/ ), they have also recently created OutSourceLY ( https://www.outsourcely.com/ ). This one also claims not to have any fees. I guess that they obtain their revenues from the advertisements that they post alongside the useful pieces of information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bad thing about OutSourceLY is that one needs to verify their account. So, if you do not feel like contacting ANY of your former employers in order to get some credentials, it is pretty useless." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17060" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6526" RevisionGUID="14b9f554-bae1-4c53-ada2-90a81acc25c2" CreationDate="2017-02-07T14:16:12.937" UserId="16293" Text="It's important to find a balance between being transparent, and overwhelming a client with information. Developers/technically-minded folk can often find themselves getting carried away, describing the cool things that they will use to build a website, but run the risk of paralysing the client with information overload.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Throughout a proposal phase, a client really just wants to know how you can help solve their issue, and not necessarily the nuts and bolts of how you will do it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So with that in mind, I'd perhaps skip the details on the theme (too granular in my opinion, unless of course they are technical and want to know this), but tell them that you will use WordPress.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people feel the need to white-label WordPress to make it appear as their own CMS, but the more astute clients will always consider the longevity of any business relationship. In fact, I use WordPress as a 'plus' point in my proposals, highlighting it's widespread use, and the fact that if I did get run over by a bus, it could be easily managed by another developer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be confident that you're solving their true problems with the technology that you choose to use. If the client asks for more detail, *then* you can tell them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this helps!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17061" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6527" RevisionGUID="4a0105cb-c31f-478e-a487-ffda8a26a23b" CreationDate="2017-02-07T17:46:39.627" UserId="16293" Text="There are some platforms better than others. Upwork, Freelancer and PeoplePerHour have freelancers with a broad range of skills, but &quot;good&quot; is subjective.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the past, and even recently, I've found great freelancers on the above platforms, but I have got much better at hiring - and that's the key. Hiring is a skill in itself, and is far beyond simply posting a job online.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can define your job well, interview well and perhaps do a paid trial then your chances of success are much higher, regardless of the platform.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're not technical but have access to some technical folk (you mentioned some devs you have contact with), then use their expertise to help analyse interview answers and paid trial tasks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sure you'll spend some money on finding the right person, but when you do you can expect to work with them for years to come.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some 'premium' freelancer platforms also worth checking out are: Codeable.com for WordPress development and Toptal.com for a number of different skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck, and I hope this helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17066" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6528" RevisionGUID="d75f56f3-491d-4b35-a829-f08f68298df9" CreationDate="2017-02-08T09:37:20.230" UserId="16307" Text="This question is close to [Must the customer mention the existence of my own company to the final customer?][1] but with a big difference: The customer wants me to work onsite at the final customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long story:&#xD;&#xA;I was approached by Headhunter A from the UK, she wanted me to give her my CV as a .doc-file. Then she forwarded me to Headhunter B, which she said was a colleague but in reality is a different company (in germany). Now B wants me to introduce myself to the final client (Company C, also germany), but in the name of a different company: IT Consultant D (germany).&#xD;&#xA;If I would go through with that contract, I would work fulltime as a freelancer for Company C for almost a year, at Company C in the name of Consultant D and will have a contract with Headhunter A.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am pretty sure that I won't take this offer, because of Scheinselbständigkeit (german equivalent of Misclassification of employees as independent contractors) and the obvious reason: That this is not normal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am from germany but in all my projects until now, I worked for companies outside of germany.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question: Is this normal, am I overreacting? Is this maybe normal for german companies?&#xD;&#xA;Headhunter A wanted my CV as .doc, she promised not to change anything, but I am pretty sure, she redacted my contact-info. Or is there another reason why someone would prefer .doc over .pdf?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/6258/must-the-customer-mention-the-existence-of-my-own-company-to-the-final-customer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17067" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6528" RevisionGUID="d75f56f3-491d-4b35-a829-f08f68298df9" CreationDate="2017-02-08T09:37:20.230" UserId="16307" Text="Customer wants me to not disclose my company to the final customer where I should work on site" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17068" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6528" RevisionGUID="d75f56f3-491d-4b35-a829-f08f68298df9" CreationDate="2017-02-08T09:37:20.230" UserId="16307" Text="|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17069" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6529" RevisionGUID="2e519a19-8b66-4eda-a2d8-7d3945da30f4" CreationDate="2017-02-08T11:37:05.947" UserId="7858" Text="In a Danish context, what you describe happens now and then; probably most often when foreign recruiters are involved.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have had one contract that explicitly stated that I had to present myself as an employee of the recruiter/consultancy and NOT as a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, when an employee of the end client asked whether I was a freelancer, I told the truth - which in principle actually violated the terms of the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I ever see such a clause again, I would actually want it removed. At the very least, I would ask the consultancy whether they really want we to lie when asked. If they do, I would consider it a 'red flag' and perhaps not sign the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most Danish clients do not seem to care whether their 'external hires' are employees elsewhere or freelancers; to them it makes no difference - except when they drag their feet extending a contract and discover that the 'externals' who are more pushy, are the freelancers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17070" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6530" RevisionGUID="02a4aa92-925d-44dc-8e95-7088884e597f" CreationDate="2017-02-08T15:54:59.153" UserId="11579" Text="I'm not a lawyer - I have 20+ years contracting across EU with my UK Limited Company, more than a couple of dozen contracts. I like to think I know something to help here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The heading of your contract references who the parties are - you (service provider), the recruiting/pimp/agency/consultancy in the middle, and possibly the end client (where you work onsite).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the reference to the end-client is not the name of the company you will work onsite with, then you have no commercial relationship nor any legal responsibility to them. Your work on any customers site is legally described/contained within the parties named on the contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are several reasons why your pimp might ask you not to mention that you are an external consultant. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Sometimes the end client is specifically not named because it could change. Sometimes this is the real reason, sometimes its to avoid the implication that you have employee/employer relationship. Many tests have to be passed to prove employee/employer relationship and one such test is a fixed place of work (desk, benefits, non-project related work are all factors).&#xD;&#xA; - Some clients are concerned about continuation and knowing that they&#xD;&#xA;   are paying someone to pay someone who pays someone else to find you&#xD;&#xA;   means their perceived risks are higher.&#xD;&#xA; - Sometimes pimps plan on growing their business brand, and if you were&#xD;&#xA;   to emphasize you were not direct with them, it does not help their&#xD;&#xA;   efforts (it probably does not go against it either).&#xD;&#xA; - Another reason (of greater importance in Germany) is hireing&#xD;&#xA;   consultants requires a special license that not every consultancy&#xD;&#xA;   will have. I've found big name IT recruiting companies being forced&#xD;&#xA;   to go under a German competitors books purely because the UK&#xD;&#xA;   recruiter did not have this license and did not want to undertake&#xD;&#xA;   risk to infringing the laws. I once had two guys work under my UK&#xD;&#xA;   company onsite in Germany and an employment lawyer (husband of a&#xD;&#xA;   friend of mine) told me I was breaking the law but duration of my contract (less than a year) and with only two working for me, it would be unlikely I get caught.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've had a combination of contracts over the years that made various stipulations - most though not all clients knew I was a sub-contractor." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17071" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6522" RevisionGUID="e8cffbe0-db24-4572-9eda-8007732cc631" CreationDate="2017-02-08T19:00:50.507" UserId="16265" Comment="Edited question to align more with forum rules" Text="**EDIT-** *Edited as requested to be less of an open-ended question. That said I did receive some very useful advice. I contacted our local PHP meet up who passed me onto a local developer. Also, since countless hours on PPH, Upwork and the like, I discovered I needed to be much more focused in terms of my brief from a technical stand point.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Question edited as per below:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First a bit of background info - We have a project that's been dropping down our to do list for almost a year. It's an internal project, one I'm keen to get live. I'm personally coming to you from a content stand point, and without a website to work with, I myself am stuck. Our internal developers are currently far too busy with client work - in our daily standup, their sprints are always full week to week so I wouldn't want to take them off projects they're currently invested in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This has therefore lead me to look for a freelancer that I can outsource this one project to. There would be a possibility for more work should this one go well, however the difficulty I am finding isn't getting hold of a developer keen to do one-off projects, but finding a **quality developer.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I am not a developer myself defining quality may be a little more difficult - but from the feedback I have received from our devs here, it's how clean the code is, the methods used to build the code, the documentation and the like. I now have a four-page PDF with our requirements which has been super useful. This is to ensure quality and to allow my own developers to jump into the code in future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've tried - People Per Hour, Upwork, Elance, Twitter, LinkedIn, Toptal and Codeable, all to no real avail.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PPH - Here I had the most 'bids' on my job, but most very cheap and the example sites didn't look good in terms of design nor code. *I should mention I'm willing to pay for quality.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Upwork - Much better than PPH in terms of quality, but after speaking with some of the top-rated developers, as soon as I handed them our more technical requirements a lot said *'I use html and CSS, I don't touch SASS or Git or Laravel*' etc, which doesn't fit with our methods here making it more difficult for us to make future edits and keep our quality high.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other sites - I found either had too much spam or similar to PPH.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The best response I had** was to contact our local PHP meet up and now I am in talks with a local developer who said all our technical requirements are as expected, no problem at all. So this is a positive lead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So my questions**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I now have a list of technical requirements from my own developers. As freelancers I understand this may not be something you would expect, but would you find it useful? Does it help bring clarity on the project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- With this project being a fair investment, there is a sense of trust between client and freelancer. How can that trust be strengthened? Once again does my list of requirements help if the freelancer can agree to these?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- While I understand most freelance developers have their own ways of doing things, is there a way I can make it clear that I want my site built a certain way without putting anyone off? It's like asking for a baker to make a cake and giving them the ingredients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- More off topic - should developers be able to build from design concepts or is a pixel-perfect design always preferred? This is more of out of interest since I've had varying responses to preference. I've only supplied flat-PDFs so far before committing and some have said that's all they need, others have requested my PSDs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- And finally - is a freelancer even right for what I am looking for? Am I asking too much of one person? Should I be looking at going to an agency instead?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help as always greatly appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17072" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6522" RevisionGUID="e8cffbe0-db24-4572-9eda-8007732cc631" CreationDate="2017-02-08T19:00:50.507" UserId="16265" Comment="Edited question to align more with forum rules" Text="How To Find Quality Freelancers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17073" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6531" RevisionGUID="f056e87e-1e0e-4961-b348-faecea7eec92" CreationDate="2017-02-09T01:31:22.527" UserId="12865" Text="I'd say local freelancer will do you the best for your business and product, by local I don't mean country, I mean state/province. It may be harder to find but in the end you will be more secure in all aspects. Online Freelancers while there are some goods and would never do something bad to their customer, there is a risk chance of being scammed even on these websites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope you find someone good and honest." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17074" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6532" RevisionGUID="361dbf9e-d53c-45f6-bb86-cf8770d47959" CreationDate="2017-02-09T10:08:05.443" UserId="16321" Text="I'm a UK freelancer doing various design projects for some EU clients (Italy/France). I'm registered as a sole-trader in the UK and I've just sent my first invoice to a client. The client has asked for a certificate of my UK residence so that their government understands that I will be paying tax in the UK (this is what they've told me).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there an easier way of doing this? The process for getting a certificate of residence is around 15 days, and if I have to apply for one each month I send an invoice then it becomes a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I include my UTR number on the invoice? What can I do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17075" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6532" RevisionGUID="361dbf9e-d53c-45f6-bb86-cf8770d47959" CreationDate="2017-02-09T10:08:05.443" UserId="16321" Text="UK resident freelancing for EU clients -- do I need to send a certificate of UK residence every time I invoice a client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17076" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6532" RevisionGUID="361dbf9e-d53c-45f6-bb86-cf8770d47959" CreationDate="2017-02-09T10:08:05.443" UserId="16321" Text="|uk|eu|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17077" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6533" RevisionGUID="825e1f51-516b-43ff-9df0-b07bfaadd36d" CreationDate="2017-02-09T16:54:22.457" UserId="16326" Text="Freelancing is a big leap when you decide to take it. You have to remember that as a new graduate you don't have much &quot;real world&quot; experience. My suggestion is to start out working in a professional capacity with a company, to build up your CV. Once you have worked for a year or so, then start trying to find freelance work in your spare time. This will help build up your reputation as a freelancer. The last thing you want is to quit your job and have no income coming in. With no reputation as a freelancer people will be more likely to pick those who have experience and a good reputation. You will find over time that you will be able to have your own clients and even business maybe. &#xD;&#xA;Also, keep in mind that when freelancing there are many risks in the way of how you will get paid and if you get paid. You have to screen your clients and learn how to pick the best ones because some will not be honest unfortunately. You also risk having little or no pay during slow times. &#xD;&#xA;You also have to decide if you want to be on a site such as UpWork or People Per Hour, or if you want to stay more local and advertise your work in your neighborhood. I hope this all helps and good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17078" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6534" RevisionGUID="aa9a48be-a893-4f64-bce3-b309da1ab51a" CreationDate="2017-02-09T17:03:10.577" UserId="16326" Text="Yes, you absolutely can! I live in the US and freelanced for a company in Australia. The only thing is that because they are not in the country, they are not required to send you any kind of tax documents, and come tax time you will have to pay taxes on all your income for the year. The plus is that you can also deduct your business expenses. My best advice for you is to keep a copy of all invoices you send to the company, all payments they send, and receipts for the year and consult a tax professional when it comes time to pay taxes. Also, if you can afford the expense, consult an accountant who can help you estimate taxes and even pay your taxes quarterly so you don't have a huge chunk to pay come tax time. Alternatively, just make sure to put about 20% of your pay into a savings account so you have the money to pay. This is saving more than you really need to, but this way you know you have enough to cover it instead of having to scramble to find the money." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17079" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6535" RevisionGUID="59b228ab-349d-4f03-bd5e-4978b5595d6a" CreationDate="2017-02-09T19:14:10.090" UserId="16326" Text="I have been freelancing for a while now and in some of the work I do I am required to visit a lot of different websites. This isn't an issue, but I worry about my safety online. I have Webroot, but that is it. Should I invest in another security program? I was researching and I came across a lot of different information. I came across this when researching how to maintain my privacy: https://securethoughts.com/3-best-vpns-privacy/. Is this necessary, or is it overkill? Thanks! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17080" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6535" RevisionGUID="59b228ab-349d-4f03-bd5e-4978b5595d6a" CreationDate="2017-02-09T19:14:10.090" UserId="16326" Text="How to stay safe online as a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17081" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6535" RevisionGUID="59b228ab-349d-4f03-bd5e-4978b5595d6a" CreationDate="2017-02-09T19:14:10.090" UserId="16326" Text="|working-from-home|software|safety|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17082" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6536" RevisionGUID="ab07dc72-500e-4137-af97-f1589b645c86" CreationDate="2017-02-09T19:41:12.500" UserId="16327" Text="Framework (x) is under propietary licence, it's API and documentation is publicly availbale for anyone. Commercial use without permission is prohibited.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Customer (A)  is licensed to use the framework x and even sells products involving framework x. He is ordering me as a FL to teach one of his own customers (B) about framework x.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am heavily using the documentation to prepare the seminar. Am I getting legally in trouble? Anyone experience in that?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17083" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6536" RevisionGUID="ab07dc72-500e-4137-af97-f1589b645c86" CreationDate="2017-02-09T19:41:12.500" UserId="16327" Text="Copyright - Teaching propietary framework for customer who has the licence" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17084" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6536" RevisionGUID="ab07dc72-500e-4137-af97-f1589b645c86" CreationDate="2017-02-09T19:41:12.500" UserId="16327" Text="|contracts|copyright|licensing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17085" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6537" RevisionGUID="004ab96f-f303-4fa1-ba63-cccb991cad1b" CreationDate="2017-02-09T22:09:03.403" UserId="11579" Text="It's overkill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you know what Caller ID is? Well when you visit a website, your IP address which is akin to a phone number is logged on every server you visit. Its the way the internet works, you cannot avoid it. The VPN brings a layer of security in play whereby your &quot;call&quot; (web browser visit) goes via a middle man and their IP address is reported on the target server. Your IP address is recorded and kept on the server with the VPN. In either case, the law would need a search warrant to examine the server (and the VPN could prove complicated if its in another country).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unlike your phone number, your IP address is likely to change often as most ISPs charge if you get a fixed IP. In addition, an IP address will not identify your home address but instead possibly identify your neighbourhood.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;VPNs also encrypt the data over the wire - but if you are doing normal surfing then this is an extra layer that won't add any value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use a good web browser (I use firefox but Chrome, Safari, Opera or even IE are also fine). Make sure you are not signed in as an Administrator or &quot;root&quot; user - you should only use those accounts when adding/removing software. A virus, if you get hit, gets the same access that you have so if you are using a master user, then the master user has access to your entire machine (and recovery is more painful). If you are using an ordinary user (or Limited user in windows) then the virus will be contained to that user only and its alot easier to clean up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Never open any document without first scanning it (thus do a right mouse button and &quot;Scan...&quot; (assuming you have an anti-virus program installed).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure you have a firewall or router between you and the outside world (true in most cases).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If any website says you need to install something - don't. If your website can view a well known branded website like CNN,NYTimes,BBC and you can view video there, then anything that supposedly does not work on another site is likely something you don't want to install." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17086" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6450" RevisionGUID="6aa93549-ad06-48f2-a337-c64305a31648" CreationDate="2017-02-10T09:40:36.210" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17087" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6538" RevisionGUID="dd636ff1-2145-40ea-b944-30b2f6260adb" CreationDate="2017-02-10T10:16:41.687" UserId="15202" Text="As you are working on behalf of customer A, you should be covered by their license to train customer B. If this is prohibited, it is customer A who has breached the licensing agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the sake of CYA, ensure that all expectations are documented, and flag your licensing concern to company A." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17088" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6539" RevisionGUID="c347feaf-5c45-44c5-b729-3811fc314b9a" CreationDate="2017-02-10T11:32:24.173" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="I spoke to a fellow freelancer about this and here is what he advised...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 1. Send them a &quot;letter before action&quot; along with an invoice, basically tell them if they pay within 7 days you won't take any further action&#xD;&#xA;&gt; and will waive interest as allowed by UK, and also won't take them&#xD;&#xA;&gt; through small claims. Explain that they'll be liable to pay the small&#xD;&#xA;&gt; claim fees when they lose, and that you can charge them £40 recovery&#xD;&#xA;&gt; fees on top. Link them to this:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; https://www.gov.uk/late-commercial-payments-interest-debt-recovery/claim-debt-recovery-costs&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 2. In 7 days send another invoice including the recovery fee and the interest, give them 7 days to pay the total. Explain that if they&#xD;&#xA;&gt; don't you'll start a small claim and they'll be liable to pay the fees&#xD;&#xA;&gt; for that when they lose (look up how much it costs and explain the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; total very clearly)&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 3. In 7 days start the small claim, and send them an invoice separately including the small claim fee, tell them if they pay now&#xD;&#xA;&gt; you'll cancel the claim.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; They usually pay at step 1 or 2!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm thinking I may give this a go" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17089" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6540" RevisionGUID="091179b7-d44e-4989-a78f-ce42e93276b1" CreationDate="2017-02-10T11:39:19.810" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="As a graphic designer, not all of the jobs I take on are that big. A lot of the time it may just be a couple days work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I find a lot of clients want to meet up to discuss the project in detail. I'm happy to meet up and talk through it, but if they expect me to travel far (I don't drive) then it doesn't make much sense to me due to the amount of my time that it will consume.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would it come across as unprofessional to tell a client that I'm not willing to travel to meet them because the job is too small i.e. 1–2 days work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17090" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6540" RevisionGUID="091179b7-d44e-4989-a78f-ce42e93276b1" CreationDate="2017-02-10T11:39:19.810" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="When is a job too small for meetings?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17091" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6540" RevisionGUID="091179b7-d44e-4989-a78f-ce42e93276b1" CreationDate="2017-02-10T11:39:19.810" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="|contracts|difficult-client|price|client-support|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17092" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6328" RevisionGUID="be0a451b-29c1-4d57-99c5-cd6c34ce0443" CreationDate="2017-02-10T11:40:46.580" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17093" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6541" RevisionGUID="4074b096-dad2-43f9-8b27-4584ec6d4b2b" CreationDate="2017-02-10T11:46:05.187" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17094" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6541" RevisionGUID="4074b096-dad2-43f9-8b27-4584ec6d4b2b" CreationDate="2017-02-10T11:46:05.187" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17095" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6542" RevisionGUID="3c087dd8-6ffc-44c7-8e44-8897f2c8f4ce" CreationDate="2017-02-10T11:46:05.187" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17096" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6542" RevisionGUID="3c087dd8-6ffc-44c7-8e44-8897f2c8f4ce" CreationDate="2017-02-10T11:46:05.187" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17097" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6543" RevisionGUID="8498b6b5-d224-4ded-8b25-d39bf4d64fa3" CreationDate="2017-02-10T13:36:29.657" UserId="15170" Text="Relying on software to be secure for you is the absolute wrong mentality to have when it come to internet security. Firewalls and anti-virus software are helpful, but are much better suited as a last line of defence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;So why are anti-virus programs and firewalls a bad thing?&quot; you might ask. They're not, I myself and most security-conscious users of computers use anti-virus and firewalls. No one in the right mind would suggest you remove them, and neither would I. I am simply suggesting that you, or any user, don't rely on these to keep them safe. Relying on software to keep you safe provides a dangerous mentality of ignorance, and a false impression of &quot;I'm 100% safe online&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To protect yourself against threats online, you should simply follow good practices and be aware of the risks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Firstly, a VPN is complete overkill for purely freelancing / work related tasks. as fiprojects rightly states, an IP essentially holds the same privacy standards as a phone number; you probably don't want to it broadcast for the world to see, but people need it to contact you, and you give it everyone that you contact. Now to each their own, but would I set up a phone system to obscure my own phone number, like a proxy or relay? probably not, maybe if I was expecting to do something incriminating then maybe, but then I'd also go through other methods as well to fully ensure anonymity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My suggestion for staying safe online would be to read up on proper practices. There are a number of sites that offer this information, many seem to target children due to the notion of teaching them sooner rather than later, but there are a number that focus more on adult safety and provide some logic behind practices. As well as these sites, http://security.stackexchange.com/ hosts a few questions regarding online safety.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These practices are simple, like not downloading from untrustworthy sources, or signing up to insecure / untrustworthy sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, keep a calm, judgemental and sceptical frame of mind when browsing the web. This may sound obvious or simple, but a large number of users get caught out by attacks where they're redirected and are immediately confronted with 5 or 6 pop-ups and notifications telling them their PC is infected and they need to 'download this and that' or 'call so and so tech support'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, I'd suggest learning more about networking and the behind the scenes of online communications if you're serious about keeping yourself secure. Now I'm in no way an expert of the subject, but a little knowledge goes a long way. It can be scary reading about all the horror stories online, reading up on the latest hack and doubting your security online; in a way that hearing about a disastrous plane crash before flying and not knowing the reasons can be scary. Once you start to look into it and understand the reasons behind why, it becomes less so, as it was most likely pilot error.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17098" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6544" RevisionGUID="d416786d-2f30-4e36-8992-1ec4de12bcee" CreationDate="2017-02-10T14:34:52.143" UserId="454" Text="If the customer is inside the UK, you add on 20% VAT to the invoice. (Even if they are VAT registered.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the customer is inside the European Union and not VAT registered, you apply UK 20% VAT to the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the customer is inside the European Union and VAT registered, you do not add VAT and state 'This supply is subject to the reverse charge'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the customer is outside the European Union, you do not charge VAT because it is outside the scope. Note there is a difference between 0% VAT and no VAT." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17099" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6544" RevisionGUID="4cbce8c4-7d61-42d6-9f91-de34f5d81c7b" CreationDate="2017-02-10T14:41:02.643" UserId="454" Comment="added 127 characters in body" Text="If the customer is inside the UK, you add on 20% VAT to the invoice. (Even if they are VAT registered.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the customer is inside the European Union and not VAT registered, you apply UK 20% VAT to the invoice. (Unless you exceed the local threshold, in which case you need to be VAT registered in that member state and apply local VAT.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the customer is inside the European Union and VAT registered, you zero-rate VAT and state 'This supply is subject to the reverse charge'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the customer is outside the European Union, you do not charge VAT because it is outside the scope. Note there is a difference between 0% VAT and no VAT." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17100" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6545" RevisionGUID="ea6b888b-9acc-4557-8b0e-f02a0b25f2fa" CreationDate="2017-02-10T14:44:32.670" UserId="2265" Text="I like this question: I struggled with the exact same thing with meetings in general. Clients one hour away asking me to join in on a meeting. I usually ended up spending an afternoon with 2 hours travel and 2 hours meeting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So these days, I'll try Skype first. &#xD;&#xA;If the client doesn't want Skype I'll explain that I will need to invoice the time because the size of the project (and my quote) normally don't include face to face meetings. &#xD;&#xA;Most clients will then decide Skype isn't so bad after all, others understand my predicament and are willing to pay for my time. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17101" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6546" RevisionGUID="2b01bbb6-bce8-454a-a4c6-f38f930305b8" CreationDate="2017-02-10T16:10:40.080" UserId="517" Text="No, do not decline them unless you do not work on it, you don't like it and so on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Simply ask a client if he is wiling to cover your travelling costs and that you will charge time spent on meeting with him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After all, in the meeting you are not drinking coffee and talk about the purpose of life, but you actually work, right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client accepts, you are happy as you are not travelling in vain. If he declines, then you are happy again as you never wanted to travel on the first place. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17102" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6547" RevisionGUID="269976f0-16d5-4fa4-9bc0-03395497ee4f" CreationDate="2017-02-10T17:38:40.557" UserId="16337" Text="I have an employer here in Canada wanting me to do a gig as an independent contractor, and start asap. Front-End web, fairly straightforward project. At the same time, they and/or the recruiter are pushing me to get contractor insurance. I've worked one such contract gig before and nobody even mentioned insurance. I've never seen it discussed here or anyplace else. I called up one company to get an estimate some time back and the rep was citing annual fees in the thousands of dollars.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How useful/important is contractor insurance for a role like this? Any useful input/experience from you would be appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being pushed in this direction by the hiring people makes me feel like either the insurance itself or maybe even the job are open to being a scam: e.g. I build the project, do it well, but they complain and make money off a settlement through the insurance, I'm ruined, the end." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17103" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6547" RevisionGUID="269976f0-16d5-4fa4-9bc0-03395497ee4f" CreationDate="2017-02-10T17:38:40.557" UserId="16337" Text="How worthwhile is contractor insurance (esp. in Canada)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17104" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6547" RevisionGUID="269976f0-16d5-4fa4-9bc0-03395497ee4f" CreationDate="2017-02-10T17:38:40.557" UserId="16337" Text="|legal|software|canada|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17106" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6548" RevisionGUID="d0358324-6782-4a70-80f2-93684d4fda72" CreationDate="2017-02-11T06:28:54.627" UserId="7858" Text="I cannot specifically address the Canadian aspect, but generally speaking the situation does raise a few eyebrows.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having been an IT-contractor for 15+ years, insurance has been mentioned 3-4 times. I have insurance, but have never needed it. As a side note, my Danish insurance explicitly does not cover North America, so there may be some liability laws that should be looked into if you decide to move forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When there is an intermediate company between the contractor end end client, it's only natural that the intermediate seek to limit their exposure to any potential disagreement between the two other parties - who are involved in the actual work, which 99% of the time is what causes disagreements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When the client has been mine directly (as seems to be the case here), I have never ever heard them mention insurance. There could be several reasons for that; the first being that they assume you have insurance, another being that they do not foresee problems of a scale that merit insurance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case, I would ask the client which aspects of the project worry them to a degree that they are willing to pay for insurance. If the client is not technologically advanced, it could be that they are merely attempting to insure away a general paranoia towards technology. If so, make it clear that there are best practices that mitigate all of their concerns; e.g. source control, CI, backup.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only real red flag would be if they want insurance against late delivery. Scope creep is often tricky to manage - especially if the client is 'immature' regarding IT-projects, or just unresponsive or organizationally a mess. Instead I would attempt to put processes in place that seek to ensure that the delivery process moves along and resolve issues when they arise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client seems to insist on insurance regardless of what you say - it could be time to walk away, as it seems they have already decided that they will be needing the insurance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17110" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6521" RevisionGUID="5a9e9c98-cfb5-4138-8459-e488f963b451" CreationDate="2017-02-11T20:38:48.743" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/830516458325176320" />
  <row Id="17111" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6550" RevisionGUID="237b1c7b-f693-4524-af4c-58f0f6db6c3f" CreationDate="2017-02-12T00:14:44.513" UserId="2265" Text="&#xD;&#xA;Contractor insurance is a basic requirement for working as a freelancer where I work (EU). &#xD;&#xA;Most of the contracts I get specifically mention they expect to me have contractor insurance. It costs around 500-700 euros though, certainly not thousands. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reasoning for the insurance is: if I give incorrect advice, or create something which is used and then causes damage that results in financial losses the client knows I have an insurance that can cover this. &#xD;&#xA;Never heard anyone actually needing it though. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17112" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6551" RevisionGUID="e7470f44-fe59-4a21-94d4-d4914c33452e" CreationDate="2017-02-12T01:21:18.053" UserId="16018" Text="Although my skills with clients have improved over the years, finding new projects and negotiating with clients is still a very time-consuming process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wouldn't feel too bad about offering 15-20% of the value of a contract, that I probably wouldn't have been able to negotiate very high in the first place, so I could focus more on development and earn more in the long run.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question is, where can we find such talent agents? Is it exclusive to the theatrical arts?   &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17113" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6551" RevisionGUID="e7470f44-fe59-4a21-94d4-d4914c33452e" CreationDate="2017-02-12T01:21:18.053" UserId="16018" Text="Finding talent agents for software developers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17114" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6551" RevisionGUID="e7470f44-fe59-4a21-94d4-d4914c33452e" CreationDate="2017-02-12T01:21:18.053" UserId="16018" Text="|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17116" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6542" RevisionGUID="c0cfead2-cbad-460a-897c-2cdf0da7e039" CreationDate="2017-02-12T08:40:23.380" UserId="16333" Comment="added 70 characters in body" Text="Tag based on the location - a country called *Germany*, middle Europe." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17117" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6542" RevisionGUID="c0cfead2-cbad-460a-897c-2cdf0da7e039" CreationDate="2017-02-12T08:40:23.380" Comment="Proposed by 16333 approved by 7858, 1018 edit id of 521" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17118" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6553" RevisionGUID="04fcd543-1ff3-4385-8094-f01e7a51f5a8" CreationDate="2017-02-12T10:18:24.160" UserId="16348" Text="I'm not sure if this is the write place to ask but if not please advise where may be better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not an ideal situation but I need money and I'm good with computers (actually just got my degree). Friends and family recommended I go to individual's homes and trouble shoot computer problems. Most want to pay me and I need the money so I accept but sometimes the task is very easy. For example a lady wanted me to teach her how to copy photos from her phone onto her computer. However another time someone wanted me to downgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 7 and that was more involved (driver issues etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much should I charge? Someone suggested I vary the price depending on the level of work required. For example charge $20/hr for easy jobs like teaching someone how to transfer files from phone to computer and $30 for more involved jobs like downgrading OS. Is this a good idea? By the way, these are usually senior people or people who are very uncomfortable using computers that I work with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm thinking of making an add for my service and not sure what to put for the cost." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17119" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6553" RevisionGUID="04fcd543-1ff3-4385-8094-f01e7a51f5a8" CreationDate="2017-02-12T10:18:24.160" UserId="16348" Text="Computer troubleshooting service; change pay rate for more difficult problems?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17120" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6553" RevisionGUID="04fcd543-1ff3-4385-8094-f01e7a51f5a8" CreationDate="2017-02-12T10:18:24.160" UserId="16348" Text="|pay-rate|payments|advertising|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17121" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6554" RevisionGUID="718baa7e-a387-4528-847f-1bab93a4742e" CreationDate="2017-02-12T14:08:43.490" UserId="16350" Text="You can charge based on your standard. If you are new to this field and charge high, no one will approach you for service. So, first make an identity and charge based on that. Now , at starting phase, charge less. So that only people will approach you. Also satisfy the people who come to you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17122" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6555" RevisionGUID="fa005a4d-af49-418f-846d-47f05703b345" CreationDate="2017-02-12T17:18:19.007" UserId="708" Text="Like any direct service/repair business you charge a *standard hourly rate*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most services of this nature do **not** vary rates based upon what the problem may be. They charge $xx per hour. If the problem takes 1 hour to fix, you make X*1. If the problem takes 5 hours to fix, you make X*5. That's just how repair services work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A mechanic doesn't have one rate for oil changes and one rate for a head gasket replacement - They have **one rate** then multiply that rate by the time needed to repair the problem." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17123" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6490" RevisionGUID="6495fa3c-0d60-4bd9-8e2b-41b24ef58f8f" CreationDate="2017-02-12T17:39:03.093" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/830833608038432770" />
  <row Id="17125" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6556" RevisionGUID="e60076e7-1221-4ae9-a2bd-0f3ea8a9aad9" CreationDate="2017-02-13T08:57:12.227" UserId="16356" Text="Okay, so, a couple months ago I started working with a man who needed help with his website. He had a very low budget, but seemed kind of desperate and was an older man who was basically banking on his business making it big and i sorta felt for him so I agreed to help him with some web tasks and marketing items for $100 a month. This is waaaay below anything I would normally charge, by the way. I am a young woman (23) and he specified he was looking for a student to do the work so I should have seen the red flags.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Two months later and only $100 payment received, this guy was texting me every day, trying to get me to go to these weekly meetings that were outside of our agreement, never giving me enough notice, started showing a bit of a short temper, and overall just making me uncomfortable and being way too demanding. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, it is February and I had not received February payment, it was a couple days late. I tried to speak to him about how the scope of the project had changed and that this was becoming too much for me. He kept badgering and twisting things around as he usually does and eventually I told him very politely that I could not continue working on the project, but would carry out the work in the next few weeks and help with his transition. He thanked me and said that was fine. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next thing you know he tells me he will not be paying me for February since now he has to look for someone else. So I tell him that I will not work without payment. He tells me he will consider paying me when the work is done, and continues to send me messages and emails (one was an approx 4000 word email about how he was a visionary and I was not seeing the value in the work). I respond and tell him that I will not do unpaid work, and ask that he respect my decision not to continue and stop sending me long messages.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now he's sending me legal threats. It started with him wanting me to continue the work with no confirmation of payment and now he's saying my only option is to financially compensate him and pay for someone to carry out his tasks at market rate. I know this is ridiculous and he is just trying to take advantage of me but it is stressful and kind of creepy. In one of his emails he says &quot;this will be a very expensive lesson for you&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I do anything? I'm never doing discounted work again, especially for someone I barely know. This guy is totally erratic and bordering on harassment. Does he really have any legal standing? He's basically saying that because I quit before his site was completely finished he can sue me for damages.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17126" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6556" RevisionGUID="e60076e7-1221-4ae9-a2bd-0f3ea8a9aad9" CreationDate="2017-02-13T08:57:12.227" UserId="16356" Text="Client refuses to pay, now threatening to sue me for breach of contract" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17127" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6556" RevisionGUID="e60076e7-1221-4ae9-a2bd-0f3ea8a9aad9" CreationDate="2017-02-13T08:57:12.227" UserId="16356" Text="|payment-terms|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17128" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6557" RevisionGUID="d09a9e0e-b1e3-4945-8d40-93d62c209741" CreationDate="2017-02-13T09:58:14.720" UserId="15170" Text="Firstly, read the contract, there's no way we can assess the contract and understand whether you're in breach or not. Secondly, read up on contract law within your state / country, look into his options of obtaining the product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stop all work now, take down any files he may have access to over the internet, and refuse to provide any work. This should be done sooner rather than later to prevent him from paying someone to obtain as much as possible through scraping.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Copyright law within most jurisdictions handles the transfer of ownership upon payment. Check the specifics within your state / country as IANAL and can't provide 100% accurate legal advice. But with your case, and assuming we're following 'standard' copyright law, you legally must provide the work in which you've been paid $100 for, as he is the legal owner of this. However, all unpaid work belongs to yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking at this case, I'd rule out small claims. The client may or may not have a leg to stand on with his claims (again, we don't have the contract so we don't know), and if he does, it could get messy and go either way. If you're confident you can win a case if it does go to small claims, by all means follow through, but that's something you need to decide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if small claims isn't an option, using it as a means to obtain payment is an option. follow your jurisdiction's regular means of starting a small claims case with the client, as the process can be intimidating whilst remaining professional. From your descriptions of his legal threats, it seems quite unprofessional and childish if anything. This gives me a feeling that he's not too serious with it, and he would likely sh*t himself when something professional comes through with significance and pure, cold intentions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your jurisdiction would likely have you provide a letter of intent to the client, informing him of your intent to take him to small claims court, with an attached invoice. Again, no snide remarks, insults or point scoring, just pure intentions and facts. refer to any proof you may provide within court to win your case, including: the contract between yourself and the client; invoices sent in attempts to obtain payment; any current unpaid work for the client; any email strings that further establish a legally binding contract; etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As mentioned above, read through your contract and look for any clauses similar to a non-disclosure agreement or a non-compete clause (not sure how far these would stand in court but best to assume it's enough to prosecute, rather than take the risk, but definitely check with your local laws too). If there are no clauses regarding or related to the two topics mentioned, you're in the clear. &#xD;&#xA;I'd include a, possibly separate, letter to him that at current, you have also looked into alternative options of payment (I.E Selling unpaid work to competitors, Using the remaining parts of the unpaid product yourself).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But again, make sure this is as formal as possible. Don't fall into a trap of obviously trying to extort (legally of course) the money, as people easily identify this method and usually see it as a sign of desperation, that you've lost all hope of obtaining payment so are resorting to violent letters and threats of ruining his business. I'd definitely give this letter a good second read just to make sure there aren't any hints of obvious aggression (though with that said, you want it to be intimidating, just not aggressive as such)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To finalise the feel of professionalism, make sure these letters are sent via post rather than email if possible. If you do intent to follow through with small claims, make sure you pay some extra to get a proof of him successfully receiving the letter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But most importantly, remember not to fall to his level of obvious on-the-spot threats and condescending assumptions of already winning. Refuse to co-operate via his provoking emails and instead only communicate through formal means and 'legal speak' to keep this client at arms length, and ensure he understands the current relationship and situation is serious." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17129" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6557" RevisionGUID="912e5e38-b61d-4613-a03f-45e5d31b0779" CreationDate="2017-02-13T10:06:13.013" UserId="15170" Comment="added 199 characters in body" Text="Firstly, read the contract, there's no way we can assess the contract and understand whether you're in breach or not. Secondly, read up on contract law within your state / country, look into his options of obtaining the product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stop all work now, take down any files he may have access to over the internet, and refuse to provide any work. This should be done sooner rather than later to prevent him from paying someone to obtain as much as possible through scraping.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Copyright law within most jurisdictions handles the transfer of ownership upon payment. Check the specifics within your state / country as IANAL and can't provide 100% accurate legal advice. But with your case, and assuming we're following 'standard' copyright law, you legally must provide the work in which you've been paid $100 for, as he is the legal owner of this. However, all unpaid work belongs to yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking at this case, I'd rule out small claims. The client may or may not have a leg to stand on with his claims (again, we don't have the contract so we don't know), and if he does, it could get messy and go either way. If you're confident you can win a case if it does go to small claims, by all means follow through, but that's something you need to decide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if small claims isn't an option, using it as a means to obtain payment is an option. follow your jurisdiction's regular means of starting a small claims case with the client, as the process can be intimidating whilst remaining professional. From your descriptions of his legal threats, it seems quite unprofessional and childish if anything. This gives me a feeling that he's not too serious with it, and he would likely sh*t himself when something professional comes through with significance and pure, cold intentions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your jurisdiction would likely have you provide a letter of intent to the client, informing him of your intent to take him to small claims court, with an attached invoice. Again, no snide remarks, insults or point scoring, just pure intentions and facts. refer to any proof you may provide within court to win your case, including: the contract between yourself and the client; invoices sent in attempts to obtain payment; any current unpaid work for the client; any email strings that further establish a legally binding contract; etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As mentioned above, read through your contract and look for any clauses similar to a non-disclosure agreement or a non-compete clause (not sure how far these would stand in court but best to assume it's enough to prosecute, rather than take the risk, but definitely check with your local laws too). If there are no clauses regarding or related to the two topics mentioned, you're in the clear. &#xD;&#xA;I'd include a, possibly separate, letter to him that at current, you have also looked into alternative options of payment (I.E Selling unpaid work to competitors, Using the remaining parts of the unpaid product yourself).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But again, make sure this is as formal as possible. Don't fall into a trap of obviously trying to extort (legally of course) the money, as people easily identify this method and usually see it as a sign of desperation, that you've lost all hope of obtaining payment so are resorting to violent letters and threats of ruining his business. I'd definitely give this letter a good second read just to make sure there aren't any hints of obvious aggression (though with that said, you want it to be intimidating, just not aggressive as such)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To finalise the feel of professionalism, make sure these letters are sent physically rather than through email if possible. If you do intend to follow through with small claims, make sure you pay some extra to get proof of him successfully receiving the letter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But most importantly, remember not to fall to his level of obvious on-the-spot threats and condescending assumptions of already winning. I repeat this, as it is a regular mistake of most in similar situations. It doesn't provide any gains, as it doesn't intimidate a client, it only tarnishes your own standards and reputation. Refuse to co-operate via his provoking emails and instead only communicate through formal means and 'legal speak' to keep this client at arms length, and ensure he understands the current relationship and situation is serious." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17130" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6528" RevisionGUID="4415bc17-901f-4396-91f3-3a428c82ba0a" CreationDate="2017-02-13T10:58:20.983" UserId="16307" Comment="added 388 characters in body" Text="This question is close to [Must the customer mention the existence of my own company to the final customer?][1] but with a big difference: The customer wants me to work onsite at the final customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long story:&#xD;&#xA;I was approached by Headhunter A from the UK, she wanted me to give her my CV as a .doc-file. Then she forwarded me to Headhunter B, which she said was a colleague but in reality is a different company (in germany). Now B wants me to introduce myself to the final client (Company C, also germany), but in the name of a different company: IT Consultant D (germany).&#xD;&#xA;If I would go through with that contract, I would work fulltime as a freelancer for Company C for almost a year, at Company C in the name of Consultant D and will have a contract with Headhunter A.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am pretty sure that I won't take this offer, because of Scheinselbständigkeit (german equivalent of Misclassification of employees as independent contractors) and the obvious reason: That this is not normal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am from germany but in all my projects until now, I worked for companies outside of germany.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question: Is this normal, am I overreacting? Is this maybe normal for german companies?&#xD;&#xA;Headhunter A wanted my CV as .doc, she promised not to change anything, but I am pretty sure, she redacted my contact-info. Or is there another reason why someone would prefer .doc over .pdf?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for the responses so far.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I ask Headhunter B for clarification and the constellation would be like that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancer F will have a contract with Headhunter B (from germany). This contract will state that F has to tell Customer C that F works for D (IT consultant that work for C). F has to work for 12 month full time at the office of C and will do every work D gives him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;B also told F that D has a lot of freelancers working in such a constellation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/6258/must-the-customer-mention-the-existence-of-my-own-company-to-the-final-customer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17131" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6558" RevisionGUID="8cd7adcd-58f5-448a-bcb9-bca301c156fb" CreationDate="2017-02-13T11:10:15.270" UserId="7858" Text="Sounds like the client from hell; low discounted rate, bad payment discipline, erratic and way too demanding. Sadly, I have never experienced this type of client relationship improve - so your best (and perhaps only) option is to cut your losses and get out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could inform him that you are withdrawing from the project and will no longer respond to any communication. This means you effectively give him work you have done for free and will probably make him eventually go away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you need or want payment, the situation is more tricky as you will have to confront him using all the leverage you have. Remove any existing unpaid work and perform no more work until all debts have been settled. Ideally, demand pre-payment for any additional work. The downside to this model is that you have to be prepared to continue working for the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Only you can evaluate whether the money is worth it. Ideally, you should renegotiate the contract, setting an hourly rate and not a low fixed price - but that is probably not feasible." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17132" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6559" RevisionGUID="0cdd7aa5-5295-4c76-bdee-933dc1f0b851" CreationDate="2017-02-13T11:14:52.320" UserId="13016" Text="He still wanted further work, regardless of his payment status.  Therefore, he has no grounds to sue you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I learned this when my client/employer did the exact same thing to me.  Walker Petroff fit your description to a tee, and he said, &quot;stop bugging us or get a lawyer!&quot;.  I got a lawyer and then he counter-sued me for over a million dollars.  It was a bluff, as he dropped it right after the deposition.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your client is following this pattern, too, so be sure of your facts and don't back down. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17133" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6557" RevisionGUID="63e44a89-48d7-4a54-8012-b64d36feee95" CreationDate="2017-02-13T11:16:21.123" UserId="15170" Comment="added 308 characters in body" Text="Firstly, read the contract, there's no way we can assess the contract and understand whether you're in breach or not. Secondly, read up on contract law within your state / country, look into his options of obtaining the product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stop all work now, take down any files he may have access to over the internet, and refuse to provide any work. This should be done sooner rather than later to prevent him from paying someone to obtain as much as possible through scraping.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Copyright law within most jurisdictions handles the transfer of ownership upon payment. Check the specifics within your state / country as IANAL and can't provide 100% accurate legal advice. But with your case, and assuming we're following 'standard' copyright law, you legally must provide the work in which you've been paid $100 for, as he is the legal owner of this. However, all unpaid work belongs to yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking at this case, I'd rule out small claims. The client may or may not have a leg to stand on with his claims (again, we don't have the contract so we don't know), and if he does, it could get messy and go either way. If you're confident you can win a case if it does go to small claims, by all means follow through, but that's something you need to decide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if small claims isn't an option, using it as a means to obtain payment is an option. follow your jurisdiction's regular means of starting a small claims case with the client, as the process can be intimidating whilst remaining professional. From your descriptions of his legal threats, it seems quite unprofessional and childish if anything. This gives me a feeling that he's not too serious with it, and he would likely sh*t himself when something professional comes through with significance and pure, cold intentions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your jurisdiction would likely have you provide a letter of intent to the client, informing him of your intent to take him to small claims court, with an attached invoice. Again, no snide remarks, insults or point scoring, just pure intentions and facts. refer to any proof you may provide within court to win your case, including: the contract between yourself and the client; invoices sent in attempts to obtain payment; any current unpaid work for the client; any email strings that further establish a legally binding contract; etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As mentioned above, read through your contract and look for any clauses similar to a non-disclosure agreement or a non-compete clause (not sure how far these would stand in court but best to assume it's enough to prosecute, rather than take the risk, but definitely check with your local laws too). If there are no clauses regarding or related to the two topics mentioned, you're in the clear. &#xD;&#xA;I'd include a, possibly separate, letter to him that at current, you have also looked into alternative options of payment (I.E Selling unpaid work to competitors, Using the remaining parts of the unpaid product yourself).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But again, make sure this is as formal as possible. Don't fall into a trap of obviously trying to extort (legally of course) the money, as people easily identify this method and usually see it as a sign of desperation, that you've lost all hope of obtaining payment so are resorting to violent letters and threats of ruining his business. I'd definitely give this letter a good second read just to make sure there aren't any hints of obvious aggression (though with that said, you want it to be intimidating, just not aggressive as such)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To finalise the feel of professionalism, make sure these letters are sent physically rather than through email if possible. If you do intend to follow through with small claims, make sure you pay some extra to get proof of him successfully receiving the letter. This course of action is likely the most beneficial, even if you're not seeking to gain payment for your losses. The method reinforces your professional demeanour, and shows the client you're willing to escalate to legal action if need be. This, if anything, should at the very least get him off your back. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But most importantly, remember not to fall to his level of obvious on-the-spot threats and condescending assumptions of already winning. I repeat this, as it is a regular mistake of most in similar situations. It doesn't provide any gains, as it doesn't intimidate a client, it only tarnishes your own standards and reputation. Refuse to co-operate via his provoking emails and instead only communicate through formal means and 'legal speak' to keep this client at arms length, and ensure he understands the current relationship and situation is serious." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17134" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6560" RevisionGUID="bc3355fb-96c1-422f-8506-885edf327f3c" CreationDate="2017-02-13T11:54:27.067" UserId="16307" Text="I am pretty sure that this would be a case of Scheinselbständigkeit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end I refused the offer and told B to never contact me again. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did some research, I am not a lawyer, so please be critical and tell me if I misinterpreted things:&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;What would happened if Freelancer F had worked in this constellation for 12 month and got caught in the end:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;F has to pay the VAT of his business expenses for the time of the project and and the employee part of the social insurance (pension, health, nursing care and unemployment insurance). Also the last three month of the employer part (in germany the tax for the social state is split between employer and employee).&#xD;&#xA;Also he has to pay income taxes (up to 42 %) for the whole income he cannot subtract business expenses.&#xD;&#xA;Headhunter B has to pay the employer part of the social taxes and the income tax for the last 12 month (up to four years).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Worst Case:**&#xD;&#xA;Headhunter B declares bankruptcy, because he had more than on freelancer on contract when he got busted. He does not pay the last invoices and he does not pay his part of the social taxes. I am not sure of this part: German law defines the income tax as a joint liability of employee and employer, this means: If B declares bankruptcy, F has to pay the whole amount of taxes on his own + does not get the last payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion it is not worth the trouble, there are enough other clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am thinking about forwarding the conversation to the authorities or at least to C (who seems to be unaware that his contractor is allegedly breaking the law).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any thoughts or improvements, please feel free to comment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17135" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6555" RevisionGUID="53f422da-bf3e-4a1b-9e75-c019004d65c6" CreationDate="2017-02-13T16:56:16.743" UserId="708" Comment="added 538 characters in body" Text="Like any direct service/repair business you charge a *standard hourly rate*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most services of this nature do **not** vary rates based upon what the problem may be. They charge $xx per hour. If the problem takes 1 hour to fix, you make X*1. If the problem takes 5 hours to fix, you make X*5. That's just how repair services work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A mechanic doesn't have one rate for oil changes and one rate for a head gasket replacement - They have **one rate** then multiply that rate by the time needed to repair the problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This being posted, you *could* determine a few flat-rate services. If you *know* that upgrading an OS generally takes 3 hours.... you could state than an &quot;OS Upgrade costs $X&quot; (Hourly rate * 3). It's all based upon your standard hourly rate still. The occasional problem with this, is when you run into that customer which actually takes 5 hours to upgrade their OS... you would have to eat that extra 2 hours of work. But, in turn, you run into customers who only need 2 hours to upgrade their OS so you make an extra hour of money. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17137" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6561" RevisionGUID="72b3e03d-2a67-423e-b662-3aa5bf9f458d" CreationDate="2017-02-13T22:40:16.370" UserId="1706" Text="Mistake #1 was accepting a fixed price for a variable amount of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Mistake #2 is accepting any kind of business correspondence via text.  And quite possibly, handing out your cell phone number to clients that you don't have any good &quot;history&quot; with.  They'll wreck your privacy.  The simplest response is, &quot;I don't accept client communication by text.  Please e-mail instead.  I will review your requests at that time.&quot;  AND it's really more challenging to establish a paper trail with text messages in the midst, to sort out messes like you're in now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If all your work is post-paid, and you've only been paid a few hundred bucks so far, then this dude probably won't get far in court.  He can sue - yes.  But it's a small claim, and he can't hire an attorney for a small claim.  The most he'll get back is whatever he spent, and even then, that's unlikely because the payment/work units are severable by each month.  (I'm not an attorney!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd just close up shop as far as dealing with this person is concerned.  If you're paying for hosting, zip up all the files, store them just-in-case, and shut it down.  If he decides to pay you afterward, send him his files BUT NOT BEFORE you receive payment **(and if it's a check, when it clears)**, and be done with it.  I'd ignore any kind of conversion other than &quot;where do I send a certified check?&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17138" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6553" RevisionGUID="dc523442-d58b-42ab-94e5-f00b3d82d04a" CreationDate="2017-02-14T08:07:14.910" UserId="2265" Comment="corrected spelling" Text="I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask but if not please advise where may be better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not an ideal situation but I need money and I'm good with computers (actually just got my degree). Friends and family recommended I go to individual's homes and trouble shoot computer problems. Most want to pay me and I need the money so I accept but sometimes the task is very easy. For example a lady wanted me to teach her how to copy photos from her phone onto her computer. However another time someone wanted me to downgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 7 and that was more involved (driver issues etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much should I charge? Someone suggested I vary the price depending on the level of work required. For example charge $20/hr for easy jobs like teaching someone how to transfer files from phone to computer and $30 for more involved jobs like downgrading OS. Is this a good idea? By the way, these are usually senior people or people who are very uncomfortable using computers that I work with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm thinking of making an ad for my service and not sure what to put for the cost." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17139" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6562" RevisionGUID="bd1d0528-1f01-4171-a538-66a8ddb7601d" CreationDate="2017-02-14T16:08:15.443" UserId="16365" Text="The answer is no, talent agents are not exclusive to actors. Many other &quot;highly paid&quot; professions have agents: sports players, musicians, actors, authors, for example. But *most* of those professions make significantly more than software developers, so anyone just out to make a buck (and most middle-men are), is going to go after those bigger fish.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have read over the years about several companies that purport to attack this problem more like talent agencies. Probably the one that made the biggest news splash is [10x][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Software development is clearly lucrative enough that plenty of &quot;middle-men&quot; are making money. Especially if they can automate the process. That's what sites like upwork and xplace are doing. But there's a full spectrum. On one hand you have complete automation, and on the other you have a dedicated sales team.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any software company of more than even a couple of people usually has someone whose full-time job is to manage client relationships and close sales. It's not uncommon for agencies to have even 50% of their staff devoted to sales. So I guess my point is that sales is hard work. It's easily a full-time job. If you have so much extra work that you can skim 15-20% off the top, maybe consider hiring a subcontractor to bring in more sales?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's worth noting that recruiters hear about more jobs than you do, and some percentage of those jobs are open to contractors. They are few and far between, however. I respond to any recruiter that contacts me on LinkedIn that sounds like they probably actually read my profile, politely telling them about what I do, and promising a conversation if they have a real opportunity that matches my interests. (Only a few have ever replied, but I have gotten one decent gig that way.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, there's really nothing like leveraging your own network. Anecdotally, I went almost three months looking for work at the beginning of 2016, and when I finally posted on twitter that I was looking for work, it came pouring in. This may have been a coincidence, but who knows!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.10xmanagement.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17143" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6564" RevisionGUID="7028d1fd-271c-4ca3-9be8-62f52d0a9ad1" CreationDate="2017-02-15T09:00:50.453" UserId="7486" Text="About 6 years ago I worked as a freelance web designer, developer and products photographer for a local company (15 minutes of car from my office) that works in the fashion industry.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At some point they needed a more intensive service that I couldn't phisically provide (being a single worker) so they moved to a bigger agency with specialized teams of many workers. This agency is at a 1,5 hours of distance from the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client after 6 years contacted me again because he wants me to provide him the products photography service because for him is too expensive and time consuming to bring the products to the agency, and the quality of the photos made by that agency is less or equal than the photos that I did for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short words, he will give me a room at his factory, I should be there on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to shoot products photos, the products can be maybe 50 to 80 pieces (hats, bags, etc) each time, each piece should be made in 5 views (front, rear, etc), then I should take all these pictures and do the post-production in my office and return them to the clients in 3-4 different formats. He wants also me to assure that service with a 2 or 3 days or forewarning, each time he needs that job to be done, he will call me and in 2 or 3 days I should be there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He said that this could be a long lasting work, if all goes good that could go on for years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We already discussed the prices and he seems ok with that, we should meet by the end of february to try to organize the work for the next months (we did not agree yet to start or not, just discussed about it).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My problem is that if I get this job it will be almost a full time work for me. I have already many clients with long lasting good relationship and I don't know if I will be able to properly follow all of them if I take that new job. And I don't feel like disregard or abandon other clients because if this client will go elsewhere (as already happened) I'll remain with no other clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I asked the client if we can &quot;concentrate&quot; the photo shootings once a month, so I know that the first week of the month I have that task to do and for the rest of the month I can follow others jobs. He answered that this is not good for him because he sells a lot in e-commerce and when he has products to sell they must be ready as soon as possible not the month after.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also have another problem: along the year my work schedule is already fixed for other clients. I have clients that does important trade fairs, conferences, etc, they usually call me 1-2 months before to say &quot;please be available to work for me in the first week of july because I have that important trade fair...&quot;. In these periods I will not be available for the photo shootings with 2-3 days of forewarning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The job is very interesting, I am specialized in products photography and it will be an easy going task with a trusted client and good earnings, but in the other hand he is too demanding with time commitment and availability, I already know that I will have problems with other clients for the above said reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I thought that I could hire myself other freelance collegues to help me, I did that in the past, but the other clients were not happy that I sent them to another freelancer or sometimes I had problems with the general work quality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would you do in my place? I am very uncertain and undecided if I should go on or not." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17144" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6564" RevisionGUID="7028d1fd-271c-4ca3-9be8-62f52d0a9ad1" CreationDate="2017-02-15T09:00:50.453" UserId="7486" Text="Decision and negotiation of long term time-consuming job" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17145" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6564" RevisionGUID="7028d1fd-271c-4ca3-9be8-62f52d0a9ad1" CreationDate="2017-02-15T09:00:50.453" UserId="7486" Text="|negotiation|time-management|project-management|subcontracting|long-term|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17146" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6565" RevisionGUID="471e2e3a-f42a-46d8-b7f9-9163fce55da0" CreationDate="2017-02-15T10:08:49.310" UserId="517" Text="Well from what I can see, you are a good photographer and you have more work than you can handle. So this is a good position for expansion. The same happened to me in the programming field. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Declining a long-term client is never a good idea. Especially if a client is paying you your price and if he's a good client. So bringing another man to a team is a way to go. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, any client that worked with you before will not be happy if he sees another man working instead of you. They like you, your style, your quality,... It's up to you to persuade the client that by bringing another man, quality will not be jeopardized. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to make the client understand that you are too busy and working for him over your energy will produce bad quality. Tell him that you cannot sacrifice quality no matter what. So bringing an extra hand is the only way to preserve quality. This guy will only do the shoooting and you will do post-production. Even if this guy is good at post-production, you do not have to disclose that right now. If the client likes the output, he will not care who did post-production. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In cases like this, what worked for me is offering a risk assurance. I usually tell the client that if he is not happy with the work, that I will charge him zero. This usually calms them down as they know that they don't have to pay you in case your guy screwed up. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But take care of this!!! In order to preserve your quality, you will have to approve of every output because clients see this as your work. So train the new guy the way you do and examine every output he makes. If you don't like it, the clients will not like it eventually as well. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17147" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6564" RevisionGUID="92be200a-50e7-4ff9-b1e2-93c311c1f64f" CreationDate="2017-02-15T10:49:10.373" UserId="7486" Comment="added 11 characters in body" Text="About 6 years ago I worked as a freelance web designer, developer and products photographer for a local company (15 minutes of car distance from my office) that works in the fashion industry.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At some point they needed a more intensive service that I couldn't phisically provide (being a single worker) so they moved to a bigger agency with specialized teams of many workers. This agency is at 1,5 hours of car distance from the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client after 6 years contacted me again because he wants me to provide him the products photography service because for him is too expensive and time consuming to bring the products to the agency, and the quality of the photos made by that agency is less or equal than the photos that I did for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short words, he will give me a room at his factory, I should be there on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to shoot products photos, the products can be maybe 50 to 80 pieces (hats, bags, etc) each time, each piece should be made in 5 views (front, rear, etc), then I should take all these pictures and do the post-production in my office and return them to the clients in 3-4 different formats. He wants also me to assure that service with a 2 or 3 days or forewarning, each time he needs that job to be done, he will call me and in 2 or 3 days I should be there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He said that this could be a long lasting work, if all goes good that could go on for years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We already discussed the prices and he seems ok with that, we should meet by the end of february to try to organize the work for the next months (we did not agree yet to start or not, just discussed about it).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My problem is that if I get this job it will be almost a full time work for me. I have already many clients with long lasting good relationship and I don't know if I will be able to properly follow all of them if I take that new job. And I don't feel like disregard or abandon other clients because if this client will go elsewhere (as already happened) I'll remain with no other clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I asked the client if we can &quot;concentrate&quot; the photo shootings once a month, so I know that the first week of the month I have that task to do and for the rest of the month I can follow others jobs. He answered that this is not good for him because he sells a lot in e-commerce and when he has products to sell they must be ready as soon as possible not the month after.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also have another problem: along the year my work schedule is already fixed for other clients. I have clients that does important trade fairs, conferences, etc, they usually call me 1-2 months before to say &quot;please be available to work for me in the first week of july because I have that important trade fair...&quot;. In these periods I will not be available for the photo shootings with 2-3 days of forewarning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The job is very interesting, I am specialized in products photography and it will be an easy going task with a trusted client and good earnings, but in the other hand he is too demanding with time commitment and availability, I already know that I will have problems with other clients for the above said reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I thought that I could hire myself other freelance collegues to help me, I did that in the past, but the other clients were not happy that I sent them to another freelancer or sometimes I had problems with the general work quality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would you do in my place? I am very uncertain and undecided if I should go on or not." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17148" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6566" RevisionGUID="22df847e-4999-4de6-8609-8d805e3df40f" CreationDate="2017-02-15T16:37:13.993" UserId="708" Text="You've already answered your own question.... *&quot; I don't feel like disregard or abandon other clients because if this client will go elsewhere (as already happened) I'll remain with no other clients.&quot;* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Putting all your proverbial &quot;eggs&quot; in one&quot; basket' for a freelancer is **never** a good thing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See if you can work out a shooting schedule for 2 days a week with this new guy. You may not be able to turn things around as fast as he wants, but if it's your work, experience, and quality he is seeking, he will undoubtedly understand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of my clients want things right away. However, they all understand I have other commitments and work as fast as possible. Most decent clients understand this. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17149" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6566" RevisionGUID="54ac5df8-7522-4859-8641-97dc5100eede" CreationDate="2017-02-15T16:43:17.283" UserId="708" Comment="added 40 characters in body" Text="You've already answered your own question.... *&quot; I don't feel like disregard or abandon other clients because if this client will go elsewhere (as already happened) I'll remain with no other clients.&quot;* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Putting all your proverbial &quot;eggs&quot; in one&quot; basket' for a freelancer is **never** a good thing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See if you can work out a shooting schedule for 2 days a week with this new guy. Or a week of shooting, then a week off. You may not be able to turn things around as fast as he wants, but if it's your work, experience, and quality he is seeking, he will undoubtedly understand. It sounds like it's just a matter of finding a schedule which suits you both.  I can understand that once a month isn't often enough. But a couple days each week may be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of my clients want things right away. However, they all understand I have other commitments and work as fast as possible. Most decent clients understand this. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17152" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6567" RevisionGUID="4f31d1df-15cf-4465-b271-14d106c77770" CreationDate="2017-02-16T00:53:00.133" UserId="15143" Text="I'm an Australian independent contractor. I have a hard-to-work-with client who I'm happy to let go (and fire). We agreed to work on an app which had been delivered early last year. The client was satisfied with the works, and he's already selling it on the App Store.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There was absolutely no mention of source code, change in code ownership etc when the deal agreed back in 2015. The project was a modified form of my existing code which existed before the deal, and the client obviously has no ownership in it. There was no contract. The deal was something like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Q: Can you make a new app for me? I want the following features ...&#xD;&#xA;    A: OK. This is the price ....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, the client has been refusing to pay off the final instalment which is about $42 AUD. I sent him my bank details on how much he had already paid, and how much he still owed. He agreed the transaction was not complete, but still refused to pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is trying to negotiate and bargain with me for the final instalment. He insisted I had to sent him the source code, something never agreed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Q: What's the best way to address this situation? I'm currently sending him overdue notices, and avoiding to negotiate for something that I should receive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17153" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6567" RevisionGUID="4f31d1df-15cf-4465-b271-14d106c77770" CreationDate="2017-02-16T00:53:00.133" UserId="15143" Text="Client doesn't want to pay the final instalment and try to negotiate for new conditions" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17154" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6567" RevisionGUID="4f31d1df-15cf-4465-b271-14d106c77770" CreationDate="2017-02-16T00:53:00.133" UserId="15143" Text="|payment-terms|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17155" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6567" RevisionGUID="acf3547e-96d7-49c2-8203-69024802f7a5" CreationDate="2017-02-16T00:58:18.070" UserId="15143" Comment="added 323 characters in body" Text="I'm an Australian independent contractor. I have a hard-to-work-with client who I'm happy to let go (and fire). We agreed to work on an app which had been delivered early last year. The client was satisfied with the works, and he's already selling it on the App Store.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There was absolutely no mention of source code, change in code ownership etc when the deal agreed back in 2015. The project was a modified form of my existing code which existed before the deal, and the client obviously has no ownership in it. There was no contract. The deal was something like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Q: Can you make a new app for me? I want the following features ...&#xD;&#xA;    A: OK. This is the price ....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, the client has been refusing to pay off the final instalment which is about $42 AUD. I sent him my bank details on how much he had already paid, and how much he still owed. He agreed the transaction was not complete, but still refused to pay. The project is **partially paid**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is trying to negotiate and bargain with me for the final instalment. He insisted I had to sent him the source code, something never agreed. He also wants total ownership of everything, but without explicit written agreement (https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/understanding-ip/getting-started-with-ip/ip-ownership), he'd only be given the non-exclusive rights to distribute the app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Q: What's the best way to address this situation? I'm currently sending him overdue notices, and avoiding to negotiate for something that I should receive unconditionally. Should I negotiate and explain? Should I just keep sending him overdue notices?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17156" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6567" RevisionGUID="de5eb7fc-52b8-49a9-b1c3-f7841ac1d202" CreationDate="2017-02-16T01:21:09.270" UserId="15143" Comment="added 230 characters in body" Text="I'm an Australian independent contractor. I have a hard-to-work-with European client who I'm happy to let go (and fire). We agreed to work on an app which had been delivered early last year. The client was satisfied with the works, and he's already selling it on the App Store.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There was **absolutely no mention** of source code, change in code ownership etc when the deal agreed back in 2015. The project was a modified form of my existing code which existed before the deal, and the client obviously has no ownership in it. There was no contract. The deal was something like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Q: Can you make a new app for me? I want the following features ...&#xD;&#xA;    A: OK. This is the price ....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, the client has been refusing to pay off the **final instalment** which is about **$42 AUD**. I sent him my bank details on how much he had already paid, and how much he still owed. He agreed the transaction was not complete, but still refused to pay. The project is **partially paid**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is trying to negotiate and bargain with me for the final instalment. He insisted I had to sent him the source code, something never agreed. He also wants total ownership of everything, but without explicit written agreement (https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/understanding-ip/getting-started-with-ip/ip-ownership), he'd only be given the non-exclusive rights to distribute the app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the best way to address this situation? I'm currently sending him overdue notices, and avoiding to negotiate for something that I should receive unconditionally. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It goes like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  &gt; Client: I agree the transaction is incomplete, but I insist you hand over the source code ...&#xD;&#xA;  &gt; Myself: Dear xxx, this is the overdue payment notice. Please complete it ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I negotiate and explain? Should I just keep sending him overdue notices? Should I ignore?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17157" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6567" RevisionGUID="451e2527-7fcd-446b-8738-31608821890f" CreationDate="2017-02-16T01:29:17.393" UserId="15143" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="I'm an Australian independent contractor. I have a hard-to-work-with European client who I'm happy to let go (and fire). We agreed to work on an app which had been delivered early last year. The client was satisfied with the works, and he's already selling it on the App Store.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There was **absolutely no mention** of source code, change in code ownership etc when the deal agreed back in 2015. The project was a modified form of my existing code which existed before the deal, and the client obviously has no ownership in it. **There was no contract**. The deal was something like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Client: Can you make a new app for me? I want the following features ...&#xD;&#xA;    Myself: OK. This is the price ....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, the client has been refusing to pay off the **final instalment** which is about **$42 AUD**. I sent him my bank details on how much he had already paid, and how much he still owed. He agreed the transaction was not complete, but still refused to pay. The project is **partially paid**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is trying to negotiate and bargain with me for the final instalment. He insisted I had to sent him the source code, something never agreed. He also wants total ownership of everything, but without explicit written agreement (https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/understanding-ip/getting-started-with-ip/ip-ownership), he'd only be given the non-exclusive rights to distribute the app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the best way to address this situation? I'm currently sending him overdue notices, and avoiding to negotiate for something that I should receive unconditionally. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It goes like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Client: I agree the transaction is incomplete, but you must hand over the source code ...&#xD;&#xA;    Myself: Dear xxx, this is the overdue payment notice. The overdue amount is $42.23 AUD ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I negotiate and explain? Should I just keep sending him overdue notices? Should I ignore? What should I do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17158" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6567" RevisionGUID="b05d58c6-75a4-4aa3-be1c-1782fc1024a4" CreationDate="2017-02-16T01:38:35.140" UserId="15143" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="I'm an Australian independent contractor. I have a hard-to-work-with European client who I'm happy to let go (and fire). We agreed to work on an app which had been delivered early last year. The client was satisfied with the works, and he's already selling it on the App Store.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There was **absolutely no mention** of source code, change in code ownership etc when the deal agreed back in 2015. The project was a modified form of my existing app which existed before the deal, and the client obviously has no ownership in it. **There was no contract**. The deal was something like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Client: Can you make a new app for me? I want the following features ...&#xD;&#xA;    Myself: OK. This is the price ....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, the client has been refusing to pay off the **final instalment** which is about **$42 AUD**. I sent him my bank details on how much he had already paid, and how much he still owed. He agreed the transaction was not complete, but still refused to pay. The project is **partially paid**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is trying to negotiate and bargain with me for the final instalment. He insisted I had to sent him the source code, something never agreed. He also wants total ownership of everything, but without explicit written agreement (https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/understanding-ip/getting-started-with-ip/ip-ownership), he'd only be given the non-exclusive rights to distribute the app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the best way to address this situation? I'm currently sending him overdue notices, and avoiding to negotiate for something that I should receive unconditionally. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It goes like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Client: I agree the transaction is incomplete, but you must hand over the source code ...&#xD;&#xA;    Myself: Dear xxx, this is the overdue payment notice. The overdue amount is $42.23 AUD ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I negotiate and explain? Should I just keep sending him overdue notices? Should I ignore? What should I do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17159" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6568" RevisionGUID="99dcf12c-e52d-40d7-a1a9-5c610033d4bb" CreationDate="2017-02-16T03:53:27.317" UserId="16386" Text="As stated on the IP Australia website:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; In Australia, the IP created by a contractor is by law considered the property of the contractor unless otherwise stated in the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you should be under no obligation to hand over the source code if that was never agreed upon in a contract. But on the other hand, it would be hard to enforce payment without that same contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may need to cut your losses because the cost of retrieving final payment through legal means would outweigh the $42 outstanding. Never a fun thing to do a freelancer but the more time and energy spend chasing this is less time spent on new projects. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17160" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6569" RevisionGUID="14f4b4ff-07cd-4519-919c-49d1149e4e23" CreationDate="2017-02-16T03:53:43.957" UserId="16018" Text="Well, the first thing to remember is that your client is trying to negotiate from a position of weakness. You are the owner of the intellectual property and without access to the source code, your client cannot update the app or add new features.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the app starts failing and requires a new version, he won't have a choice but to pay you to fix it because it's your IP and you have the source code. If a company wants to purchase it, it's yours to sell :) and be sure to remind him of all that when he needs your help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is also no guarantee whatsoever that you will receive any money after you hand over the source code since his credibility is quite underwhelming.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I think most project source code is probably worth more than $42. You can ignore him because he can't afford to ignore you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the meantime, move onto new projects.       &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;      &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17161" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6567" RevisionGUID="6f4ab33f-0a85-4e7d-8119-5c3daca032b6" CreationDate="2017-02-16T05:17:44.410" UserId="15143" Comment="added 155 characters in body" Text="I'm an Australian independent contractor. I have a hard-to-work-with European client who I'm happy to let go (and fire). We agreed to work on an app which had been delivered early last year. The client was satisfied with the works, and he's already selling it on the App Store.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There was **absolutely no mention** of source code, change in code ownership etc when the deal agreed back in 2015. The project was a modified form of my existing app which existed before the deal, and the client obviously has no ownership in it. **There was no contract**. The deal was something like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Client: Can you make a new app for me? I want the following features ...&#xD;&#xA;    Myself: OK. This is the price ....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, the client has been refusing to pay off the **final instalment** which is about **$42 AUD**. I sent him my bank details on how much he had already paid, and how much he still owed. He agreed the transaction was not complete, but still refused to pay. The project is **partially paid**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is trying to negotiate and bargain with me for the final instalment. He insisted I had to sent him the source code, something never agreed. He also wants total ownership of everything, but without explicit written agreement (https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/understanding-ip/getting-started-with-ip/ip-ownership), he'd only be given the non-exclusive rights to distribute the app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically he's bargaining for:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - &quot;Update&quot; and &quot;upgrade&quot; the app whenever he thinks and wishes&#xD;&#xA; - Access the source code because he thinks he &quot;paid&quot; for it&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the best way to address this situation? I'm currently sending him overdue notices, and avoiding to negotiate for something that I should receive unconditionally. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It goes like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Client: I agree the transaction is incomplete, but you must hand over the source code ...&#xD;&#xA;    Myself: Dear xxx, this is the overdue payment notice. The overdue amount is $42.23 AUD ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I negotiate and explain? Should I just keep sending him overdue notices? Should I ignore? What should I do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17162" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6567" RevisionGUID="04148e5a-8484-4d7b-95fa-bf6b63c20f58" CreationDate="2017-02-16T05:29:22.757" UserId="15143" Comment="added 89 characters in body" Text="I'm an Australian independent contractor. I have a hard-to-work-with European client who I'm happy to let go (and fire). We agreed to work on an app which had been delivered early last year. The client was satisfied with the works, and he's already selling it on the App Store.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There was **absolutely no mention** of source code, change in code ownership etc when the deal agreed back in 2015. The project was a modified form of my existing app which existed before the deal, and the client obviously has no ownership in it. **There was no contract**. The deal was something like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Client: Can you make a new app for me? I want the following features ...&#xD;&#xA;    Myself: OK. This is the price ....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, the client has been refusing to pay off the **final instalment** which is about **$42 AUD**. I sent him my bank details on how much he had already paid, and how much he still owed. He agreed the transaction was not complete, but still refused to pay. The project is **partially paid**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is trying to negotiate and bargain with me for the final instalment. He insisted I had to sent him the source code, something never agreed. He also wants total ownership of everything, but without explicit written agreement (https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/understanding-ip/getting-started-with-ip/ip-ownership), he'd only be given the non-exclusive rights to distribute the app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically he's bargaining for:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - &quot;Update&quot; and &quot;upgrade&quot; the app whenever he wishes&#xD;&#xA; - Access the source code because he thinks he &quot;paid&quot; for it&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the best way to address this situation? I'm currently sending him overdue notices, and avoiding to negotiate for something that I should receive unconditionally. Everytime he tries to negotiate, I simply reply with a payment notice (and nothing else).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It goes like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Client: I agree the transaction is incomplete, but you must hand over the source code ...&#xD;&#xA;    Myself: Dear xxx, this is the overdue payment notice. The overdue amount is $42.23 AUD ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I negotiate and explain? Should I just keep sending him overdue notices? Should I ignore? What should I do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17164" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5811" RevisionGUID="87640f0f-7343-40bb-893b-49386dfcde5a" CreationDate="2017-02-16T10:52:05.373" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17165" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6567" RevisionGUID="d4234fcf-3736-4369-906c-1789a1e207eb" CreationDate="2017-02-16T11:57:02.337" UserId="13016" Comment="punctuation and infinitive correction" Text="I'm an Australian independent contractor. I have a hard-to-work-with European client who I'm happy to let go (and fire). We agreed to work on an app which had been delivered early last year. The client was satisfied with the works, and he's already selling it in the App Store.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There was **absolutely no mention** of source code, change in code ownership, etc. when the deal was made back in 2015. The project was a modified form of my existing app, which existed before the deal, and the client obviously has no ownership in it. **There was no contract**. The deal was something like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Client: Can you make a new app for me? I want the following features ...&#xD;&#xA;    Myself: OK. This is the price ....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, the client has been refusing to pay off the **final installment** which is about **$42 AUD**. I sent him my bank details on how much he had already paid, and how much he still owed. He agreed the transaction was not complete, but still refused to pay. The project is **partially paid**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is trying to negotiate and bargain with me for the final installment. He insisted I had to send him the source code, something never agreed. He also wants total ownership of everything, but without explicit written agreement (https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/understanding-ip/getting-started-with-ip/ip-ownership), he'd only be given the non-exclusive rights to distribute the app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, he's bargaining for:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - &quot;Update&quot; and &quot;upgrade&quot; the app whenever he wishes&#xD;&#xA; - Access the source code because he thinks he &quot;paid&quot; for it&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the best way to address this situation? I'm currently sending him overdue notices, and avoiding to negotiate for something that I should receive unconditionally. Every time he tries to negotiate, I simply reply with a payment notice (and nothing else).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It goes like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Client: I agree the transaction is incomplete, but you must hand over the source code ...&#xD;&#xA;    Myself: Dear xxx, this is the overdue payment notice. The overdue amount is $42.23 AUD ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I negotiate and explain? Should I just keep sending him overdue notices? Should I ignore? What should I do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17166" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6567" RevisionGUID="d4234fcf-3736-4369-906c-1789a1e207eb" CreationDate="2017-02-16T11:57:02.337" UserId="13016" Comment="punctuation and infinitive correction" Text="Client doesn't want to pay the final instalment and tries to negotiate for new conditions" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17167" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6567" RevisionGUID="d4234fcf-3736-4369-906c-1789a1e207eb" CreationDate="2017-02-16T11:57:02.337" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 15143 edit id of 522" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17168" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6571" RevisionGUID="dee96313-c9eb-4e69-af89-fc0f3e2576bf" CreationDate="2017-02-16T17:59:28.953" UserId="1706" Text="If these other posts are correct about Australian IP law, then why don't you change the app name in the source, compile, and put it on the App Store yourself?  You'll get your money, and then some.  Don't waste your time over $42.  You're in a great position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17169" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6540" RevisionGUID="0b618e57-d5bd-4f3d-9850-e0c738e04adf" CreationDate="2017-02-17T00:11:10.470" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/832381841051176961" />
  <row Id="17170" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6572" RevisionGUID="f50475b8-4b5e-47b0-80cf-57a48a242fb5" CreationDate="2017-02-17T01:58:31.923" UserId="7717" Text="$20/hr is a fairly typical rate for a high-school or college student doing IT drudgery for friends of family and other acquaintances. It's not a living wage, but it can cover basic luxuries like video games or eating out. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Make sure you set a minimum charge** (often equivalent to 1 hour of pay). It is not worth your time to go someone's house for a 15-minute fix and then get paid $5.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Elderly customers will sometimes overpay you; they have you come over for something that takes half an hour, you tell them the bill is $20, and they end up giving you $60 - $100 because you were so nice and so helpful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;More importantly, **why are you relying on this to make money when you have a degree?** Don't start putting out ads for your home IT services; look for a real job." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17171" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6573" RevisionGUID="0836d10d-6104-44c6-b83a-ffaae54cc658" CreationDate="2017-02-17T02:40:18.667" UserId="7717" Text="I have been doing long-term software development with an out-of-state client. They market several apps and their revenue comes from subscriptions and services related to these apps. Despite this, they only have a handful of employees and no in-house software developers. All of their dev work is done by myself and a handful of other freelancers, only one of whom I work with on a semi-regular basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This other guy, who I'll refer to as John, strikes me as painfully incompetent. He and I cover different portions of the front-end and back-end, so sometimes I have to ask him to do a task which I can't handle myself. When I ask him to do something, he says 'ok' and then does it in a different (usually incompatible, and always inferior) way than what I asked. Even when he tries to do it the right way, it's usually broken the first time (he never tests anything). He doesn't respond to a lot of my emails and often forgets to tell me when he makes a change that directly affects the work I'm doing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I make suggestions for how to improve our software infrastructure, he often suggests some terrible shortcut that only a college freshman would think was acceptable. Sometimes he approaches and convinces the client to take a shortcut behind my back, and then I have to write them an extremely detailed explanation of why he is wrong and how his approach is worse. Other times he simply starts implementing his shortcut without discussing it with anyone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I eventually looked him up online, expecting to learn he was still in junior college, and found that he has a solid university education and decent work background, but in a completely different field that is not applicable to software development in any way. I have no idea how he ended up with his current position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've only complained about him directly to the client once, when he kept failing at the same simple task over and over for two weeks; I only addressed that single issue and not his overall ability. Since then, he's been better, but better is far short of *competent*. Working with him is infuriating, but I haven't approached the client about this because I don't know how to express my feelings in a professional way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How do you explain to a client that one of their other freelancers is not competent at his job, in a professional but compelling manner?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17172" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6573" RevisionGUID="0836d10d-6104-44c6-b83a-ffaae54cc658" CreationDate="2017-02-17T02:40:18.667" UserId="7717" Text="How to explain to client their other freelancer is incompetent?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17173" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6573" RevisionGUID="0836d10d-6104-44c6-b83a-ffaae54cc658" CreationDate="2017-02-17T02:40:18.667" UserId="7717" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17174" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6573" RevisionGUID="042c56c9-58b1-4869-81e8-47e038040741" CreationDate="2017-02-17T02:46:26.183" UserId="7717" Comment="added 245 characters in body" Text="I have been doing long-term software development with an out-of-state client. They market several apps and their revenue comes from subscriptions and services related to these apps. Despite this, they only have a handful of employees and no in-house software developers. All of their dev work is done by myself and a handful of other freelancers, only one of whom I work with on a semi-regular basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This other guy, who I'll refer to as John, strikes me as painfully incompetent. He and I cover different portions of the front-end and back-end, so sometimes I have to ask him to do a task which I can't handle myself. When I ask him to do something, he says 'ok' and then does it in a different (usually incompatible, and always inferior) way than what I asked. Even when he tries to do it the right way, it's usually broken the first time (he never tests anything). He doesn't respond to a lot of my emails and often forgets to tell me when he makes a change that directly affects the work I'm doing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I make suggestions for how to improve our software infrastructure, he often suggests some terrible shortcut that only a college freshman would think was acceptable. Sometimes he approaches and convinces the client to take a shortcut behind my back, and then I have to write them an extremely detailed explanation of why he is wrong and how his approach is worse. Other times he simply starts implementing his shortcut without discussing it with anyone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I eventually looked him up online, expecting to learn he was still in junior college, and found that he has a solid university education and decent work background, but in a completely different field that is not applicable to software development in any way. I have no idea how he ended up with his current position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've only complained about him directly to the client once, when he kept failing at the same simple task over and over for two weeks; I only addressed that single issue and not his overall ability. Since then, he's been better, but better is far short of *competent*. Working with him is infuriating, but I haven't approached the client about this because I don't know how to express my feelings in a professional way. He does many other tasks for the client that I am not involved in and I have no idea how he performs at those tasks; since the client hasn't fired him yet, it is possible that he is more competent on other tasks or that the client is very forgiving.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How do you explain to a client that one of their other freelancers is not competent at his job, in a professional but compelling manner?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17175" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6574" RevisionGUID="05579d05-c6cd-487c-a71f-e39d09ec2cc8" CreationDate="2017-02-17T02:55:33.060" UserId="708" Text="Short answer, **you don't**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Longer answer ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Speaking poorly of other freelancers will reflect more *upon you* than on them. Yes, that *seems* backwards, but it's not. If you complain about other *people* it is *you* who will gain a reputation as being difficult or not being a &quot;team player&quot;. You're the squeaky wheel who will garner all the bad attention... not the other person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When dealing with tasks that are incomplete or incorrect. Merely explain to the client, &quot;I'll have to repair the issues with A in order to implement B.&quot; ... or... &quot;Unfortunately, the way A is constructed, it won't be compatible when we build B. So, I'll need to rewrite A from the ground up.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The gist is.. .you detail **the work** you need to redo, fix, or otherwise address. You *do not* state anything about *who* completed the work or your *opinion* about anyone else or their competency. Stick to strict **facts** about the work. Essentially act as if someone you don't know is doing the other work. All criticism should be about the work itself. An astute client will eventually see that you are rewriting or fixing a lot of items inevitably costing them more money. Just keep records of *why* things are incorrect and why they need reworked. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Only ever mention &quot;John&quot; or his competency if the client *directly* asks you pointed questions regarding him and his abilities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for the emotional aspect, just be grateful that &quot;John&quot; is creating more billable hours for you and improving your income. You shouldn't be frustrated, you should be happy to earn more." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17176" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6575" RevisionGUID="ac8c02c5-d3b9-4c4e-b49d-1da7d3375cf0" CreationDate="2017-02-17T17:41:09.810" UserId="7486" Text="A related thing happened to me too, the difference was that the other part was a web agency, they tried to put me in bad light with the client also with sort of sabotage actions, trusting on the fact that the client could be technically uneducated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It was a difficult moment between me, the client and that external company (you can read the story [here][1] if you are curious).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What did I do? I always kept a professional behaviour with the client and with that external company, I never blamed anyone or complained about other's actions, BUT when they tried to put me in bad light with strange requests or similar things, I produced precise proofs and detailed documentations about why that particular task was counter-productive and what should have been done instead, eventually I requested a meeting with the client to talk face to face about these matters and did so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my humble position of a single man company I just moved forward as a caterpillar with calm and professionality (even if sometimes I felt anger raising inside) with the tasks and jobs that I had to do for that client, respecting deadlines and the requested quality, and never letting anyone step on my feet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The result is that the relationship with the client is very good and alive, we met last week and he gave me many different tasks to do in the next weeks, and that external company was limited to weekly produce one or two contents for the facebook page.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line is that you should go on with professionality and be clear with your client when you have production problems and why, and **at most bring brilliant solutions and limited or no complains at all**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4715/complicated-situation-with-client-and-an-aggressive-external-company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17179" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6576" RevisionGUID="7285ffe3-3edb-480f-aebd-ed8fc2c2177d" CreationDate="2017-02-18T11:24:24.067" UserId="16399" Text="[Here they are mentioning their price:][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You’ll pay:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt;  - 20% for the first $500 you bill your client across all contracts &#xD;&#xA;&gt;  - 10% for total billings with your client between $500.01 and $10,000 &#xD;&#xA;&gt;  - 5% for total billings with your client that exceed $10,000&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, you're only highlighting 20% and not 5%. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.upwork.com/blog/2016/05/upwork-pricing/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17180" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6576" RevisionGUID="2cdac86d-e47d-4cda-abc0-428856c0651c" CreationDate="2017-02-18T15:35:02.730" UserId="16399" Comment="added 274 characters in body" Text="[Here they are mentioning their price:][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Beginning in June, freelancers will see a sliding service fee of either 5%, 10% or 20%. The service fee is based on a freelancer’s lifetime billings with each client (across all hourly and fixed-price contracts the freelancer has ever had with that client on Upwork).&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; You’ll pay:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt;  - 20% for the first $500 you bill your client across all contracts &#xD;&#xA;&gt;  - 10% for total billings with your client between $500.01 and $10,000 &#xD;&#xA;&gt;  - 5% for total billings with your client that exceed $10,000&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, you're only highlighting 20% and not 5%. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.upwork.com/blog/2016/05/upwork-pricing/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17187" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6573" RevisionGUID="0c879d60-e0f5-409e-b0db-5ad07972ed06" CreationDate="2017-02-19T00:16:34.923" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/833107977490014208" />
  <row Id="17188" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="3a3a39b5-1558-48ff-a75e-a909edc58e08" CreationDate="2017-02-20T01:01:17.117" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17193" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3520" RevisionGUID="afb22e19-e9b0-49d0-ac04-22ed793a37df" CreationDate="2017-02-21T00:27:38.643" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/833835536871804928" />
  <row Id="17194" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6580" RevisionGUID="82ecc10f-5e12-4eb9-8731-0200cf4fbd6e" CreationDate="2017-02-21T09:12:25.260" UserId="16436" Text="I am brand new at this. I'm making a person a website and I'm currently prototyping. I'm planning on using Balsamiq and have installed their free trial. I red through the licence agreement to the best of my ability, but wanted to make sure, is there anything in the licence or anywhere else that said you can't use a trial for commercial services? Is anything like this ever a concern?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17195" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6580" RevisionGUID="82ecc10f-5e12-4eb9-8731-0200cf4fbd6e" CreationDate="2017-02-21T09:12:25.260" UserId="16436" Text="Can you still charge a person money if you used a trial version of a software?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17196" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6580" RevisionGUID="82ecc10f-5e12-4eb9-8731-0200cf4fbd6e" CreationDate="2017-02-21T09:12:25.260" UserId="16436" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|licensing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17197" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6580" RevisionGUID="b17e5c9a-df87-4c19-af69-c4a441f0910d" CreationDate="2017-02-21T09:32:40.850" UserId="16436" Comment="added 82 characters in body" Text="I am brand new at this. I'm making a person a website and I'm currently prototyping. I'm planning on using Balsamiq and have installed their free trial. I red through the licence agreement to the best of my ability, but wanted to make sure, is there anything in the licence or anywhere else that said you can't use a trial for commercial services? Is anything like this ever a concern?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What if your trial runs out and you start a new trial on a different computer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17198" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6581" RevisionGUID="37903318-7f30-48c8-840f-2d4fbcab0b16" CreationDate="2017-02-21T11:14:26.800" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="I've been chasing annoyingly small invoice of £100 for over a month now. The client keeps ignoring my emails and phonecalls.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Twice he's texted me to apologise with some kind of excuse for why he's been quiet, as well as saying he will pay it 'today'... alas, the payments didnt turn up on either occasion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am planning on sending a letter threatening to take him to the small claims court as well as stating how he will be liable to pay my legal fees when I win.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, that will take time to write properly and also going to the Post Office to send recorded delivery will also consume valuable time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm thinking my next course of action might be to send him a really formal email stating that I am under the impression that he is trying to avoid payment, and if he doesn't pay soon *then* I will be considering legal action." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17199" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6581" RevisionGUID="37903318-7f30-48c8-840f-2d4fbcab0b16" CreationDate="2017-02-21T11:14:26.800" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="Should I warn client that I'm going to have to threaten legal action?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17200" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6581" RevisionGUID="37903318-7f30-48c8-840f-2d4fbcab0b16" CreationDate="2017-02-21T11:14:26.800" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="|legal|difficult-client|payments|invoices|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17201" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6582" RevisionGUID="ccc4555c-8947-4751-9ea0-87af7eae8277" CreationDate="2017-02-21T12:21:02.930" UserId="15170" Text="First, from looking at your [first question][1] and reading this one, I assume you've already pandered to the clients apologies and promises of payment too much. As well as this, I'll be assuming you're set on taking court action, and will therefore address the process required before action; rather than assess whether the option is viable or worth your time, only you can decide and you seem to already have the answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any further communications you send to him should formally address the issue and not the cause. The issue is you are out of pocket, and that's it really, any communications shouldn't insult or inaccurate accuse your client of anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to point out quickly that IANAL and most of SE's community aren't either. No one here is able to provide 100% accurate legal advice, and I suggest you consult a lawyer or legal professional for some legal guidance on the matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the UK, [Citizen's Advice][2] and [Gov.Uk][3] have some great advice and guidance on taking court action, from the prerequisites all the way through to the end of the case. Most of the information below has been taken from the above sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should definitely write a letter to your client before taking action, else you may end up being liable for the client's court costs. Your objective is to show and provide full co-operation and allow the issue to be resolved. If you and your client can come to a **viable** compromise* then take it, the court will not favour you if you are unreasonable and refuse to co-operate for the point of taking court action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now to actually writing the letter. From citizen's advice, it says you should include your: &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - name and address &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - reason for claim &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - any facts that are relevant (work done, them using your work for any monetary gain, etc.) &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - what you are asking for (make sure this bit is as clear and unambiguous as possible) &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - how much you're claiming (including any court costs you wish to claim back and any expenses with sources) &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - a list of documents you'll be providing your (signed contract(s), email strings, invoices that have been sent, etc.) &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - A deadline of acknowledgement (14 days) and payment (30 days) (these seem to be considered reasonable enough time frames)&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - A reminder that you will be starting court action if the payment is still outstanding by the time of the deadline. &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - A reminder of rules set within the [Civil Procedure Rules][4]. (I don't know enough about these rules to give decent advice so give&#xD;&#xA;   that link a read for more information.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, attach an Invoice to the letter as well, get proof of posting from the post office, and keep a personal copy too. If you haven't received a response or payment within the given deadlines, move towards starting your claim.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;\* and make damn sure it is viable, as you may not be able to back out easily upon accepting it, and I doubt any court would take your favour if you've accepted a compromise, only to back out and still claim the money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/6521/small-claims-court-for-unpaid-small-invoice-uk&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/taking-legal-action/small-claims/going-to-court/taking-court-action/step-one-write-a-letter-before-action/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/overview&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/pd_pre-action_conduct" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17202" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6582" RevisionGUID="2c6c7c76-2f14-4f6b-b0cd-cf67e1d2e697" CreationDate="2017-02-21T12:27:12.327" UserId="15170" Comment="added 12 characters in body" Text="First, from looking at your [first question][1] and reading this one, I assume you've already pandered to the clients apologies and promises of payment too much. As well as this, I'll be assuming you're set on taking court action, and will therefore address the process required before action; rather than assess whether the option is viable or worth your time, only you can decide and you seem to already have the answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any further communications you send to him should formally address the issue and not the cause. The issue is you are out of pocket, and that's it really, any communications shouldn't insult or inaccurate accuse your client of anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to point out quickly that IANAL and most of SE's community aren't either. No one here is able to provide 100% accurate legal advice, and I suggest you consult a lawyer or legal professional for some legal guidance on the matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the UK, [Citizen's Advice][2] and [Gov.Uk][3] have some great advice and guidance on taking court action, from the prerequisites all the way through to the end of the case. Most of the information below has been taken from the above sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should definitely write a letter to your client before taking action, else you may end up being liable for the client's court costs. Your objective is to show and provide full co-operation and allow the issue to be resolved. If you and your client can come to a **viable** compromise* then take it, the court will not favour you if you are unreasonable and refuse to co-operate for the point of taking court action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now to actually writing the letter. From citizen's advice, it says you should include your: &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - name and address &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - reason for claim &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - any facts that are relevant (work done, them using your work for any monetary gain, etc.) &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - what you are asking for (make sure this bit is as clear and unambiguous as possible) &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - how much you're claiming (including any court costs you wish to claim back and any expenses with sources) &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - a list of documents you'll be providing your (signed contract(s), email strings, invoices that have been sent, etc.) &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - A deadline of acknowledgement (14 days) and payment (30 days) (these seem to be considered reasonable enough time frames)&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - A reminder that you will be starting court action if the payment is still outstanding by the time of the deadline. &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - A reminder of rules set within the [Civil Procedure Rules][4]. (I don't know enough about these rules to give decent advice so give&#xD;&#xA;   that link a read for more information.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, attach an Invoice to the letter as well, get proof of posting from the post office, and keep a personal copy too. If you haven't received a response or payment within the given deadlines, move towards starting your claim.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;\* and make damn sure it is viable, as you may not be able to back out easily upon accepting it, and I doubt any court would take your favour if you've accepted a compromise, only to back out and still claim the money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/6521/small-claims-court-for-unpaid-small-invoice-uk&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/taking-legal-action/small-claims/going-to-court/taking-court-action/step-one-write-a-letter-before-action/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/overview&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/pd_pre-action_conduct" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17203" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6583" RevisionGUID="a2c08d39-c9b6-4225-ab8c-5e6ff0d85e81" CreationDate="2017-02-21T14:38:50.120" UserId="16308" Text="I don't know about Balsamiq but from my experience most of the softwares I've seen so far with free/trial version didn't allow commercial use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's allowed then as long as it won't be a problem for the client I don't see why you couldn't with different trials." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17205" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6585" RevisionGUID="28dbda42-c4c0-4118-a595-45e093054f45" CreationDate="2017-02-21T16:41:23.883" UserId="16441" Text="I am considering becoming a freelance software developer later this year. However, I am not sure when would be the best time to start. The earliest I can start would be in June, but I am worried that there might be less work during the summer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is your experience?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In case it makes a difference, it would be mostly Front-End development work, and I live in Germany." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17206" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6585" RevisionGUID="28dbda42-c4c0-4118-a595-45e093054f45" CreationDate="2017-02-21T16:41:23.883" UserId="16441" Text="Starting as freelance web developer in the summer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17207" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6585" RevisionGUID="28dbda42-c4c0-4118-a595-45e093054f45" CreationDate="2017-02-21T16:41:23.883" UserId="16441" Text="|web-development|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17208" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6586" RevisionGUID="bc531bdc-33d7-42b0-b2c7-c04d92c120dc" CreationDate="2017-02-21T18:31:09.297" UserId="16443" Text="If I am based in the united States and outsourcing a software application development work to a individual in India. Do I need a import license or does he need to have a export license for me to be able to use and sell that software application which he has developed for me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17209" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6586" RevisionGUID="bc531bdc-33d7-42b0-b2c7-c04d92c120dc" CreationDate="2017-02-21T18:31:09.297" UserId="16443" Text="Import / export license for software development outsourcing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17210" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6586" RevisionGUID="bc531bdc-33d7-42b0-b2c7-c04d92c120dc" CreationDate="2017-02-21T18:31:09.297" UserId="16443" Text="|legal|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17215" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3028" RevisionGUID="80864ad7-8321-41bc-a00b-fbf472109f3a" CreationDate="2017-02-21T21:50:45.337" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17222" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6588" RevisionGUID="d871d98d-a15e-49d0-9a75-b7aef369ab12" CreationDate="2017-02-22T00:00:33.127" UserId="16448" Text="I am currently a high school student and I'm looking to start working. I am not able to drive myself around yet so I have my eyes on freelancing right now. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far I have these certifications:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Microsoft 2013; Word (and Expert), PowerPoint, Excel, SharePoint, Outlook, and OneNote&#xD;&#xA; - Adobe Flash CS6&#xD;&#xA; - Adobe Dreamweaver CS6 and CC 2015 (with about 2 years experience)&#xD;&#xA; - MTA Networking Fundamentals&#xD;&#xA; - CompTIA Net+&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was looking towards redesigning websites since I read that Google lowers the SEO ratings for non-responsive websites. I've also been working in 3ds Max, though I still consider myself a beginner. Would someone even hire a student? And what other types of freelancing jobs would I be able to take?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17223" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6588" RevisionGUID="d871d98d-a15e-49d0-9a75-b7aef369ab12" CreationDate="2017-02-22T00:00:33.127" UserId="16448" Text="Freelancing in highschool?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17224" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6588" RevisionGUID="d871d98d-a15e-49d0-9a75-b7aef369ab12" CreationDate="2017-02-22T00:00:33.127" UserId="16448" Text="|working-from-home|usa|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17225" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6580" RevisionGUID="cbab50bf-0de5-4ac4-b1c2-a8735940bcb9" CreationDate="2017-02-22T01:04:39.893" UserId="16436" Comment="added 306 characters in body" Text="I am brand new at this. I'm making a person a website and I'm currently prototyping. I'm planning on using Balsamiq and have installed their free trial. I red through the licence agreement to the best of my ability, but wanted to make sure, is there anything in the licence or anywhere else that said you can't use a trial for commercial services? Is anything like this ever a concern?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What if your trial runs out and you start a new trial on a different computer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;UPDATE: I did read the licence, [found here][1], but am still unsure as it is long and hard to understand. I didn't find any words &quot;commercial&quot; or &quot;profit&quot; so does this mean it's ok to use and charge someone a fee for a mockup made with it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://media.balsamiq.com/files/BalsamiqEula.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17229" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6590" RevisionGUID="c48c23b2-9f2d-4fe5-927e-f6bbb803b0d8" CreationDate="2017-02-22T09:14:57.340" UserId="7858" Text="&gt; What if your trial runs out and you start a new trial on a different&#xD;&#xA;&gt; computer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Asking this question indicates that you know you are at the very least in a gray zone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Put yourself in the software vendor's place; if you allow someone else to use a trial version of your product for free, how would you feel if they used it commercially?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the license cost is miniscule compared to the entire project budget, attempt to add it as an expense. If you argue that this extra cost will lead to quicker delivery or a better end product, most sane clients would probably choose to bear the expense." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17233" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6592" RevisionGUID="69e8ed1e-7109-4b82-a8f0-fed7d626e1b9" CreationDate="2017-02-22T16:10:04.780" UserId="16459" Text="This is Liz from the Sales Support team at Balsamiq. You’re more than welcome to use our free trial at your pace, and to your convenience. There aren’t any strings attached regarding the wireframes you create during the trial period. They are yours and you can use them commercially if you wish. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nothing stops you from starting a new trial on a new computer. We do rely on the honor system and hope our customers do the same. But if you’re strapped for cash, please get in touch with us, we might be able to work something out: sales@balsamiq.com. We often give licenses away via our [Free Program][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please feel free to drop by our [dedicated forum][2] whenever you have questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking forward to hearing from you!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://balsamiq.com/free/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://forums.balsamiq.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17234" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6564" RevisionGUID="6026dec8-462b-4c3d-82a3-f260cd63b0a3" CreationDate="2017-02-22T18:32:57.747" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/834471054303252481" />
  <row Id="17235" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6593" RevisionGUID="99f49a6c-0be6-4aaa-a263-3dcd579d1493" CreationDate="2017-02-22T19:49:21.277" UserId="16463" Text="Never stop learning. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Build something just for the hell of it. (Start with a blog or a portfolio) At least in my experience freelancing, not many people will care what specific software you know how to use. They will care, however, about your results. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So even if you can't get someone to pay you yet, make stuff anyway. I'd be a whole lot more likely to work with a High School student if they had a profile full of practice projects for made up companies, than a High School student with just a resume full of certifications." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17236" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6594" RevisionGUID="08e6eefe-f156-4d63-8df6-63fd379652e4" CreationDate="2017-02-22T19:50:51.307" UserId="16462" Text="I recently got my first project on Up Work, i had a lot of communication with two of the people from their side on Skype and i have been working on their project from previous week, i have developed couple of User Interfaces for that application, all was going good, but suddenly when yesterday morning time i asked him to schedule a voice call on Skype in night to discuss some things related to project, he didn't replied, and now it is more than 36 hours being passed and both of them are not replying to my messages in the group at Skype and neither in private messages, their status keeps showing offline.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am confused what is going on, what should i do now, should i continue working on the project, or wait for them to response back, because i am afraid they might don't want to continue on this project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and another thing to note is that my first week payment status is also in review right now." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17237" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6594" RevisionGUID="08e6eefe-f156-4d63-8df6-63fd379652e4" CreationDate="2017-02-22T19:50:51.307" UserId="16462" Text="Client not Responding from more than last 36 Hours" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17238" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6594" RevisionGUID="08e6eefe-f156-4d63-8df6-63fd379652e4" CreationDate="2017-02-22T19:50:51.307" UserId="16462" Text="|payments|communication|programmer|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17239" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6573" RevisionGUID="b13ed577-28e2-47ee-bac5-0e9fd3faa8aa" CreationDate="2017-02-22T20:31:36.627" UserId="7717" Comment="more concise" Text="I have been doing long-term software development with an out-of-state client. All of their dev work is done by myself and a handful of other freelancers, only one of whom I work with on a semi-regular basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This other guy, who I'll refer to as John, strikes me as painfully incompetent. He and I cover different portions of the front-end and back-end, so sometimes I have to ask him to do a task which I can't handle myself. When I ask him to do something, he says 'ok' and then does it in a different (usually incompatible, and always inferior) way than what I asked. Even when he tries to do it the right way, it's usually broken the first time (he never tests anything). He doesn't respond to a lot of my emails and often forgets to tell me when he makes a change that directly affects the work I'm doing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When brainstorming a large task, he often proposes extremely low-quality solutions that aren't acceptable on a professional project; sometimes he even starts implementing these solutions without getting approval first.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've only complained about him directly to the client once, when he kept failing at the same simple task over and over for two weeks and was preventing us from meeting a deadline; I only addressed that single issue and not his overall ability. Since then, he's been better, but better is far short of *competent*. Working with him is infuriating, but I haven't approached the client about this because I don't know how to express my feelings in a professional way. He does many other tasks for the client that I am not involved in and I have no idea how he performs at those tasks; since the client hasn't fired him yet, it is possible that he is more competent on other tasks or that the client is very forgiving.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How do you explain to a client that one of their other freelancers is not competent at his job, in a professional but compelling manner?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17240" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6573" RevisionGUID="793f400b-def2-4f63-ac8f-023ae306d1f2" CreationDate="2017-02-22T20:47:22.847" UserId="7717" Comment="clarify" Text="I have been doing long-term software development with an out-of-state client. All of their dev work is done by myself and a handful of other freelancers, only one of whom I work with on a semi-regular basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This other guy, who I'll refer to as John, strikes me as painfully incompetent. He and I cover different portions of the front-end and back-end, so sometimes I have to ask him to do a task which I can't handle myself. When I ask him to do something, he says 'ok' and then does it in a different (usually incompatible, and always inferior) way than what I asked. Even when he tries to do it the right way, it's usually broken the first time (he never tests anything). He doesn't respond to a lot of my emails and often forgets to tell me when he makes a change that directly affects the work I'm doing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When brainstorming a large task, he often proposes extremely low-quality solutions that would be impossible to maintain and aren't acceptable on a professional project; sometimes he even starts implementing these solutions without getting approval first. These aren't minor, &quot;this could probably be refactored&quot; design issues, but massive flaws that would have far-reaching repercussions if implemented in his way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've only complained about him directly to the client once, when he kept failing at the same simple task over and over for two weeks and was preventing us from meeting a deadline; I only addressed that single issue and not his overall ability. Since then, he's been better, but better is far short of *competent*. Working with him is infuriating, but I haven't approached the client about this because I don't know how to express my feelings in a professional way. He does many other tasks for the client that I am not involved in and I have no idea how he performs at those tasks; since the client hasn't fired him yet, it is possible that he is more competent on other tasks or that the client is very forgiving.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How do you explain to a client that one of their other freelancers is not competent at his job, in a professional but compelling manner?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17242" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6596" RevisionGUID="3ac1be9c-501f-4c77-aac8-d93f2499faee" CreationDate="2017-02-22T22:44:36.587" UserId="16463" Text="I think your best bet, assuming you're currently working full time, would be to find and take on a client or two before you dive in head first. There's a lot more to freelancing than just putting a couple files worth of code together. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It wouldn't make any sense to quit your day job in order to freelance without already having a solid portfolio and/or several consistent clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17244" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6597" RevisionGUID="49c0cb7c-0d30-4d98-95a4-f1cb3425a17d" CreationDate="2017-02-23T08:30:54.260" UserId="15202" Text="Unless the client made assurances to be immediately contactable during this period, they have no urgent need to respond. There are anumber of things that might be diverting their attention.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; I would suggest allowing at least 72 hours before following up. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17245" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6585" RevisionGUID="22fd1139-c399-49fc-bc5c-d0bc90f21840" CreationDate="2017-02-23T10:16:52.560" UserId="16441" Comment="More details about my current situation" Text="I am considering becoming a freelance software developer later this year. However, I am not sure when would be the best time to start. The earliest I can start would be in June, but I am worried that there might be less work during the summer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is your experience?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In case it makes a difference, it would be mostly Front-End development work, and I live in Germany.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT: I am currently in full-time employment. However, I'm not sure looking for clients before leaving my job is realistic, as I have a 3 months notice period. I had a couple of chats with recruiters about freelancing jobs, but the notice period was always a deal killer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, I don't have a &quot;solid portfolio&quot;, but I have 3 showcases." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17246" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6582" RevisionGUID="6a26c33a-11ad-41dc-af3a-742ae9bda308" CreationDate="2017-02-23T14:03:39.040" UserId="15170" Comment="spelling" Text="First, from looking at your [first question][1] and reading this one, I assume you've already pandered to the clients apologies and promises of payment too much. As well as this, I'll be assuming you're set on taking court action, and will therefore address the process required before action; rather than assess whether the option is viable or worth your time, only you can decide and you seem to already have the answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any further communications you send to him should formally address the issue and not the cause. The issue is you are out of pocket, and that's it really, any communications shouldn't insult or inaccurately accuse your client of anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to point out quickly that IANAL and most of SE's community aren't either. No one here is able to provide 100% accurate legal advice, and I suggest you consult a lawyer or legal professional for some legal guidance on the matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the UK, [Citizen's Advice][2] and [Gov.Uk][3] have some great advice and guidance on taking court action, from the prerequisites all the way through to the end of the case. Most of the information below has been taken from the above sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should definitely write a letter to your client before taking action, else you may end up being liable for the client's court costs. Your objective is to show and provide full co-operation and allow the issue to be resolved. If you and your client can come to a **viable** compromise* then take it, the court will not favour you if you are unreasonable and refuse to co-operate for the point of taking court action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now to actually writing the letter. From citizen's advice, it says you should include your: &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - name and address &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - reason for claim &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - any facts that are relevant (work done, them using your work for any monetary gain, etc.) &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - what you are asking for (make sure this bit is as clear and unambiguous as possible) &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - how much you're claiming (including any court costs you wish to claim back and any expenses with sources) &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - a list of documents you'll be providing your (signed contract(s), email strings, invoices that have been sent, etc.) &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - A deadline of acknowledgement (14 days) and payment (30 days) (these seem to be considered reasonable enough time frames)&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - A reminder that you will be starting court action if the payment is still outstanding by the time of the deadline. &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - A reminder of rules set within the [Civil Procedure Rules][4]. (I don't know enough about these rules to give decent advice so give&#xD;&#xA;   that link a read for more information.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, attach an Invoice to the letter as well, get proof of posting from the post office, and keep a personal copy too. If you haven't received a response or payment within the given deadlines, move towards starting your claim.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;\* and make damn sure it is viable, as you may not be able to back out easily upon accepting it, and I doubt any court would take your favour if you've accepted a compromise, only to back out and still claim the money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/6521/small-claims-court-for-unpaid-small-invoice-uk&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/taking-legal-action/small-claims/going-to-court/taking-court-action/step-one-write-a-letter-before-action/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/overview&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/pd_pre-action_conduct" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17247" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6598" RevisionGUID="7cf1fef6-e407-4311-a1a2-5d046dfaa72c" CreationDate="2017-02-23T16:58:44.333" UserId="16475" Text="This was my first job on freelancer site. the employer approve to me an invoice with 750 GBP&#xD;&#xA;I was working all day and night long and managed to complete it in time.&#xD;&#xA;He said it was good.&#xD;&#xA;Now he is not answering to my messages. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![enter image description here][1]][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can I do in this scenario? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/KhIG9.jpg" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17248" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6598" RevisionGUID="7cf1fef6-e407-4311-a1a2-5d046dfaa72c" CreationDate="2017-02-23T16:58:44.333" UserId="16475" Text="Employer doesn't answer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17249" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6598" RevisionGUID="7cf1fef6-e407-4311-a1a2-5d046dfaa72c" CreationDate="2017-02-23T16:58:44.333" UserId="16475" Text="|freelance-websites|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17251" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6598" RevisionGUID="a7b7c87b-ab52-41e5-abf1-b3524b2a6fec" CreationDate="2017-02-23T23:05:35.540" UserId="708" Comment="Removed image.. it added no value whatsoever, except website/user promotion" Text="This was my first job on freelancer site. the employer approve to me an invoice with 750 GBP&#xD;&#xA;I was working all day and night long and managed to complete it in time.&#xD;&#xA;He said it was good.&#xD;&#xA;Now he is not answering to my messages. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can I do in this scenario? &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17252" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6599" RevisionGUID="907f7756-7be9-4dac-899a-0c30df4f19aa" CreationDate="2017-02-24T00:03:50.173" UserId="16480" Text="I don't know if this is the right place to ask, but I was wondering if it is a fair exchange to offer equity instead of payment for services in business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, &quot;John&quot; signs a contract stating that he will receive equity in the revenue of whatever industry/company/etc. he is contributing to, instead of paying him for doing it. It isn't &quot;free work&quot; because equity stake can be worth a lot of money should the business grow big -- and a contract guarantees he/she gets their cut. In such eyes, equity stakes can be more rewarding than a single payment for a service. Here's an example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bob is trying to start a company, but needs suppliers. He offers the suppliers equity stake in his future earnings indefinitely should they provide him with the supplies he needs to start his business. It may not be that he can't pay nor doesn't want to invest himself. Perhaps he has faith in his business expanding and will fairly share the stake he offers to the service provider for the rest of his business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In other words, he would rather his investors take their chances like him, but have the ability to earn their share of the company's/etc. success continuously, as opposed to only a one-time exchange.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, is this bad practice? Would this be a good or bad thing to offer to high-quality freelancers looking for work: an equity stake instead of money/benefits directly?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17253" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6599" RevisionGUID="907f7756-7be9-4dac-899a-0c30df4f19aa" CreationDate="2017-02-24T00:03:50.173" UserId="16480" Text="Offering equity instead of pay -- yes or no?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17254" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6599" RevisionGUID="907f7756-7be9-4dac-899a-0c30df4f19aa" CreationDate="2017-02-24T00:03:50.173" UserId="16480" Text="|payment-terms|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17256" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6600" RevisionGUID="20919d1a-5210-405e-82e8-c44eee6ae3d2" CreationDate="2017-02-24T07:07:33.997" UserId="2265" Text="It's not exactly bad practice, but most suppliers will not be willing to take that risk. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some startups make it big, many more fail disastrously. So unless Bob has a previous and strong business relationship with a supplier, I would tell Bob not to count on any suppliers accepting the offer. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17257" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6601" RevisionGUID="1741a2ee-53a2-47d7-b830-d064cf31a43f" CreationDate="2017-02-24T08:01:40.457" UserId="7858" Text="Depending on how long the client has been unresponsive, you must now escalate matters by using more formal language. Don't merely repeat what you have already said and don't ask for payment; state that payment is due!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First of all, if you have any sort of leverage, now is the time to use it - and ensure that you continue to have it. Example: If you can take the work back (like a website), do it now. Do not warn the client, giving them an opportunity to revoke your access. In fact, if possible - revoke their access.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have no real leverage and basically are at the mercy of the client, all you can do is threaten legal action. In a Danish context, if the client has acknowledged receiving the invoice, you may hand it over to a debt collector. In your location, perhaps there is a small claims court.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client still ignores you, all you can do is hope they come back for additional work or fixes to what you have already delivered. Should this happen, you obviously demand immediate payment in full and take your precautions to ensure future payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17258" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6602" RevisionGUID="a214352b-1883-488d-a111-fedc26a01a62" CreationDate="2017-02-24T08:14:46.503" UserId="7858" Text="Whenever offered equity I have informed potential clients/employers that accepting equity would make me an actual investor, meaning I will need to perform due diligence of their company's financial state, be informed of the business model and strategy to a much larger degree than a mere employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This usually makes the owner back down and either offer actual payment - or look for another person who is less demanding." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17259" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6603" RevisionGUID="1a73f3bc-aad1-4851-bc8e-1008c307e29e" CreationDate="2017-02-24T10:12:28.823" UserId="15202" Text="First of all, check that your payment isn't just &quot;processing&quot; within the site. Upwork payments can take up to a week to clear.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, escalate within the site. Most have safeguards to protect both parties. Use them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Harrassing the client is only going to impact your rating, increase your blood pressure and delay the process." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17261" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6605" RevisionGUID="8c9d8eb9-527d-4708-9d6c-4ec6685140e4" CreationDate="2017-02-25T00:30:04.677" UserId="16491" Text="Several years ago I had a client for whom I did some web design. He either didn't use the design or soon after quit the business for which he wanted it, I don't recall, but repeated invoicing produced no results. Finally I sent a message stating that this is how I make my living and I really need to be paid, and the check came in the mail right away. Honest laying out of the facts often works with basically honest people." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17262" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6606" RevisionGUID="94ef085d-02c8-4c22-90c0-1914ad778e24" CreationDate="2017-02-25T11:41:12.037" UserId="15143" Text="Someone that I met recently offered me an equity-only position for a non-existing business (only ideas, nothing started), and I accepted that. However, the business person insisted we wouldn't have any written agreement (such as contract) until our relationship is stable and ready.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, he gave me a **verbal** agreement on equity and I'm expected to work until it was time to seek legal advice. No company, no office, no funding, just a verbal agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Q:** Is this normal for equity-only positions? Should I ask him to sign a legal document or otherwise I'd fire him?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note:** This question is not about whether I should take equity or cash.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17263" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6606" RevisionGUID="94ef085d-02c8-4c22-90c0-1914ad778e24" CreationDate="2017-02-25T11:41:12.037" UserId="15143" Text="I'm okay to take equity but no written agreement?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17264" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6606" RevisionGUID="94ef085d-02c8-4c22-90c0-1914ad778e24" CreationDate="2017-02-25T11:41:12.037" UserId="15143" Text="|contracts|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17265" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6606" RevisionGUID="b5d5a107-4ed7-4769-88df-6d45994b7600" CreationDate="2017-02-25T12:12:21.977" UserId="15143" Comment="added 48 characters in body" Text="Someone that I met recently offered me an equity-only position for a non-existing business (only ideas, nothing started), and I accepted that. However, the business person insisted we wouldn't have any written agreement (such as contract) until our relationship is stable and ready.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, he gave me a **verbal** agreement on equity and I'm expected to work until it was time to seek legal advice. No company, no office, no funding, just a verbal agreement. I asked for legal documentation but he refused.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Q:** Is this normal for equity-only positions? Should I ask him to sign a legal document or otherwise I'd fire him?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note:** This question is not about whether I should take equity or cash.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17266" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6606" RevisionGUID="e28f9528-84a2-4d06-93ab-41fcbb642082" CreationDate="2017-02-25T12:18:03.490" UserId="15143" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="Someone that I met recently offered me an equity-only position for a non-existing business (only ideas, nothing started), and I accepted that. However, the business person insisted we wouldn't have any written agreement (such as contract) until our relationship is stable and ready.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, he gave me a **verbal** agreement on equity and I'm expected to work until it was time to seek legal advice. No company, no office, no funding, just a verbal agreement. I asked for legal documentation but was rejected.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Q:** Is this normal for equity-only positions? Should I ask him to sign a legal document or otherwise I'd fire him?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note:** This question is not about whether I should take equity or cash.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17267" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6606" RevisionGUID="8d61c329-5daa-4e88-a74c-234ce9bc0747" CreationDate="2017-02-25T12:23:04.623" UserId="15143" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="Someone that I met recently offered me an equity-only position for a non-existing business (only ideas, nothing started), and I accepted that. However, the business person insisted we wouldn't have any written agreement (such as contract) until our relationship is stable and ready.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, he gave me a **verbal** agreement on equity and I'm expected to work until it was time to seek legal advice. No company, no office, no funding, just a verbal agreement. I asked for legal documentation but was rejected.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Q:** Is this normal for equity-only positions? Should I ask him to sign a legal document or otherwise I'd fire him?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note:** This question is not about whether I should take equity or cash. Please don't discuss about it. It's about the procedures for equity.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17268" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6606" RevisionGUID="b99ba4fe-eac6-486d-a60f-ad67008d4059" CreationDate="2017-02-25T12:42:48.537" UserId="15143" Comment="added 56 characters in body" Text="Someone that I met recently offered me an equity-only position for a non-existing business (only ideas, nothing started), and I accepted that. However, the business person insisted we wouldn't have any written agreement (such as contract) until our relationship is stable and ready.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, he gave me a **verbal** agreement on equity and I'm expected to work until it was time to seek legal advice. The timing is not decided by me and not defined at all. No company, no office, no funding, just a verbal agreement. I asked for legal documentation but was rejected.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Q:** Is this normal for equity-only positions? Should I ask him to sign a legal document or otherwise I'd fire him?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note:** This question is not about whether I should take equity or cash. Please don't discuss about it. It's about the procedures for equity.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17269" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6607" RevisionGUID="107da556-3d45-4093-a5ba-5928d9349b9e" CreationDate="2017-02-25T19:09:11.953" UserId="16417" Text="I'd like to do freelancing, but I am really bothered because I do not want to get into a mess, biting off more than I can chew.  The way I see it one has about 10-20 hours a week, more like 10 if they have a family.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is that a reasonable amount of time to provide a good, reliable product?  I am not going to go full-time freelance.  But I am not going to swindle people into hiring me by promising too much and hoping I can do it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is in the context of programming, typically web apps, most any language, capable.  I know this is broad.  I did not know a specific way to ask.  The scope of projects would be on the smaller side.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17270" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6607" RevisionGUID="107da556-3d45-4093-a5ba-5928d9349b9e" CreationDate="2017-02-25T19:09:11.953" UserId="16417" Text="How many hours can one freelance in programming part-time and still provide a good product?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17271" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6607" RevisionGUID="107da556-3d45-4093-a5ba-5928d9349b9e" CreationDate="2017-02-25T19:09:11.953" UserId="16417" Text="|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17272" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6608" RevisionGUID="ad099cc3-cf43-4414-8a5c-68e2fe511ae2" CreationDate="2017-02-26T00:17:07.817" UserDisplayName="user16080" Text="__NO__. It's not okay to take equity without a written agreement. Established company, new company, or possible future company, it's still the same - no paper, no work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You __need__ a contract before doing _any_ work. It is immaterial whether it's for equity or cash.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since there is no company yet, the only contract you can get is from the one thinking about creating the company. You need to assess the risks of relying on his business plan, which means you need to see that plan. After all, by doing equity work you are &quot;investing&quot; in that business plan. Don't do equity work based on a business plan that you wouldn't invest cash in. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As this is still the idea for a business, the contract needs to limit how much work you do when. Have clauses that limits how many hours you invest in the company-to-be before it's formed, and what kind of output and time investment is expected of you at what stages of the company's progress through the business plan. Set limits, and enforce them. If you were investing cash in the business, you wouldn't keep investing your cash forever, don't invest your labor forever either.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also include clauses that control who &quot;owns&quot; your production. Until the company exists, and is able to compensate you a minimum amount, you should probably keep all copyrights for yourself. If the company never happens, maybe your work can be finished as a solo project, or re-purposed for some other business. If the copyrights don't belong to you, you can't and all your work is gone in a breath of air. Working for equity is a gamble, but that doesn't mean you can't hedge your bet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the other party doesn't &quot;understand&quot; your insistence on a contract, offer them equity in your company if they will supply a new computer, pay the monthly utility bills, obtain the development software you need, and cover the costs of your data connections, until you have time to find a lawyer and investigate an agreement for the same." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17279" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="601" RevisionGUID="d44223ca-b423-408b-88d4-d599a4f9c9d5" CreationDate="2017-02-27T07:50:39.480" UserId="16454" Comment="fixed grammer" Text="After I finished my CS school, I had an accident which took me far away from the industry for approximately 4 years. After that I worked on my dad's business, and I didn't do much in the way of programming.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've done 3-4 websites in PHP (mostly for friends), and 2 Android Applications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everything I've done so far was trial and error. Now, I see technologies like TDD, pattern design and frameworks galore. Honestly, I think I've missed the bus.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The thing is , I was really enjoying and still enjoy programming but with my experience, I don't know what to put on my CV.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I put down Freelancing as an actual field of experience?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17280" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="601" RevisionGUID="d44223ca-b423-408b-88d4-d599a4f9c9d5" CreationDate="2017-02-27T07:50:39.480" Comment="Proposed by 16454 approved by 2265, 7858 edit id of 524" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17281" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6598" RevisionGUID="b317db5e-bf2d-4755-98bf-edd35b2d2cc2" CreationDate="2017-02-27T07:50:55.180" UserId="13016" Comment="grammar corrections" Text="This was my first job on a freelancer site. The client approved my invoice for 750 GBP.&#xD;&#xA;I was working all day and night long and managed to complete it in time.&#xD;&#xA;He said it was good.&#xD;&#xA;Now he is not answering my messages. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can I do in this scenario? &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17282" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6598" RevisionGUID="b317db5e-bf2d-4755-98bf-edd35b2d2cc2" CreationDate="2017-02-27T07:50:55.180" UserId="13016" Comment="grammar corrections" Text="Client doesn't answer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17283" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6598" RevisionGUID="b317db5e-bf2d-4755-98bf-edd35b2d2cc2" CreationDate="2017-02-27T07:50:55.180" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 2265, 7858 edit id of 523" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17284" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6581" RevisionGUID="cece958e-728e-4688-bee7-7bbf8bdc3f68" CreationDate="2017-02-27T10:13:43.127" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/836157354328608768" />
  <row Id="17286" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6612" RevisionGUID="fdeb5bd3-7ded-46b5-8d43-ef0ae0bd5624" CreationDate="2017-02-27T13:39:03.823" UserId="517" Text="It depends on your area of freelancing. In programming, the normal weekly output is 30 to 35 hours. I once tried to have productive 8 hours and it took me 11h in time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So 10-20h is NOT good for projects where you are running against the deadline. 10-20h is OK for programming projects where you work on non-urgent tasks. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17289" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="4759" RevisionGUID="013d2267-d3ce-4732-973a-ba6f31a3c2df" CreationDate="2017-02-27T14:28:19.937" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="17293" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6613" RevisionGUID="e89e69e3-30ec-4118-b92c-aaa016ad8aa0" CreationDate="2017-02-27T20:32:16.003" UserId="16519" Text="I've a web development client who has fallen behind on payments. While working out with the client how to handle the situation, others involved in the site have sent work requests. What (if anything) do I say to them? Even when a plan is in place, I might not accept some of the tasks, so need to figure out what to say both before and after the payment situation is handled." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17294" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6613" RevisionGUID="e89e69e3-30ec-4118-b92c-aaa016ad8aa0" CreationDate="2017-02-27T20:32:16.003" UserId="16519" Text="What should I say to others in an endeavor when a client isn't making payments?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17295" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6613" RevisionGUID="e89e69e3-30ec-4118-b92c-aaa016ad8aa0" CreationDate="2017-02-27T20:32:16.003" UserId="16519" Text="|communication|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17296" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6614" RevisionGUID="eab8cc12-425c-4a00-b6e1-7b48a093a4f0" CreationDate="2017-02-27T22:50:27.267" UserId="708" Text="&gt;*&quot;Thanks, I'll get to this as soon as I can.&quot;* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they push...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;*&quot;Sorry I'm currently involved some discussions with [insert client] and will need to resolve a few matters before moving forward with new items.&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;if they further push...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;*&quot;Sorry. As I stated I will get to this as soon as it's possible. At this point I do not have a time frame.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if they just won't give up....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;*&quot;Please feel free to contact [insert client] to express any concerns you may have regarding the speed at which projects are completed.&quot;*&lt;br /&gt; &lt;sub&gt;(This gets them to inadvertently convey how important you are to the client.)&lt;/sub&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17297" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6615" RevisionGUID="55b8c9d4-4de1-43f6-8848-9258bbfc7a5f" CreationDate="2017-02-28T01:21:06.697" UserId="16521" Text="With all the abovementioned valuable advices.. I strongly recommend you using a virtual machine -like vmware- to access unknown websites. Installing all security software there to. You will be able to visit them..without affecting your system. You can also use deepfreeze-like  software that deletes all unwanted adware or malware everytime you reboot the system.. Without the need to reinstall a new virtual machine if you suspect something wrong happened with some sites" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17298" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6616" RevisionGUID="f5de8fb2-5b8e-4fc9-93c1-b0af28c31662" CreationDate="2017-02-28T02:31:03.347" UserId="16522" Text="I am considering learning the skills needed to become a freelance web programmer. I just dont know what that involves. I have confidence in back-end development but am learning more about front end. I live in India and you dont need many dollars converted to rupees to make a good living. Since I live in India, I will not be able to meet clients locally. All interaction will have to be through the net. So I am not sure what skills I need. I have:&#xD;&#xA;- Solid understanding of HTML/CSS&#xD;&#xA;- Intermediate understanding of C# but am currently learning JS and jQuery&#xD;&#xA;- Basic understanding of SQL&#xD;&#xA;- Good understanding of 3D modeling&#xD;&#xA;- Understanding of image editing but no real digital art skills&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am just not sure what I would be required to do in a freelance web design project since I have almost no experience in actual work with a client. Specifically what worries me is that I am reasonably confident I can do the coding aspect of it but what about aspects like logo design? I offered to make a free website for a local business and was able to code a multilanguage responsive website for them from scratch(using only Bootstrap). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem came in the design aspect when I found out about the copyright issue of images and movies online. I am certain not all clients want movies on their sites but all will want images and I dont have good creative skills when it comes to digital art. My client wanted only one, a logo banner but it was not a simple image(An umbrella with an eye). They didn't like what I created in Adobe Illustrator. So do online clients provide the design content or expect you to create it as a freelancer? What kind of work does a freelance web programmer DO?&#xD;&#xA;Designing website graphics? images, animations...&#xD;&#xA;Designing website layout? responsive pages&#xD;&#xA;Designing website functionality? coding, DB interaction&#xD;&#xA;Website maintenance? server-side support, error checking/prevention&#xD;&#xA;Building browser extensions?&#xD;&#xA;Coding apps with web support?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can only communicate with clients online and will have no online rep when I eventually start so I will need to build some first before I can hope to find work. I think this means doing work for free initially --- possibly on Github. I can think of no other way to build online rep so would appreciate suggestions. I think my biggest weakness is that as an Indian freelancer, I would only have an online presence, not a local one. So it requires building an online presence first which is currently zero.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am in no rush to make money and have time to devote to learn the needed skills. I suspect I will also need to learn PHP, Python and maybe Node.js and Ruby on Rails. So please help me understand.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17299" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6616" RevisionGUID="f5de8fb2-5b8e-4fc9-93c1-b0af28c31662" CreationDate="2017-02-28T02:31:03.347" UserId="16522" Text="skills needed to do and find freelance web design work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17300" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6616" RevisionGUID="f5de8fb2-5b8e-4fc9-93c1-b0af28c31662" CreationDate="2017-02-28T02:31:03.347" UserId="16522" Text="|freelance-websites|working-from-home|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17301" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6617" RevisionGUID="606515a5-fb7e-4e25-9fa6-cb31726fcc65" CreationDate="2017-02-28T03:13:28.213" UserId="16524" Text="here are what I've been trying. Which is most effective?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I send a LinkedIn invite to every potential hiring manager that is not a 1st connection. In the invitation, I say I'm an available contractor, and give my contact info. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. I email each 1st connection hiring manager. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. I try to call each hiring manager and offer my services. This is time consuming, but there is nothing like getting a YES.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Which is best? Are there other ways to utilize LinkedIn?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17302" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6617" RevisionGUID="606515a5-fb7e-4e25-9fa6-cb31726fcc65" CreationDate="2017-02-28T03:13:28.213" UserId="16524" Text="How should a freelance software engineer find clients with LinkedIn?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17303" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6617" RevisionGUID="606515a5-fb7e-4e25-9fa6-cb31726fcc65" CreationDate="2017-02-28T03:13:28.213" UserId="16524" Text="|attracting-clients|programmer|software|marketing|advertising|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17304" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6616" RevisionGUID="6cbb14aa-592e-4a5c-8864-9c793429a5f1" CreationDate="2017-02-28T08:07:19.020" UserId="16522" Comment="simplyfying question" Text="I am considering learning the skills needed to become a freelance web programmer or web designer. I have confidence in back-end development but am learning more about front end. I live in India and you dont need many dollars converted to rupees to make a good living. Since I live in India, I will not be able to meet clients locally. All interaction will have to be through the net. So I am not sure what skills I need. I have:&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Solid understanding of HTML/CSS&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Intermediate understanding of C# but am currently learning JS and jQuery&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Basic understanding of SQL&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Good understanding of 3D modeling&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Understanding of image editing but no real digital art skills&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can only communicate with clients online and will have no online rep when I eventually start so I will need to build some first before I can hope to find work. I think this means doing work for free initially --- possibly on Github. I can think of no other way to build online rep so would appreciate suggestions. I think my biggest weakness is that as an Indian freelancer, I would only have an online presence, not a local one. So it requires building an online presence first which is currently zero.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am in no rush to make money and have time to devote to learn the needed skills. I suspect I will also need to learn PHP, Python and maybe Node.js and Ruby on Rails. So please help me understand :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What languages do I need to learn(based on on what I have shown I know, am learning, and plan to learn) and what kind of activity will be needed to start building an online rep for a completely online freelancing beginner web programmer or web designer?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17305" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6616" RevisionGUID="8d3dec98-3db6-4f11-a425-443280b75fce" CreationDate="2017-02-28T08:13:42.360" UserId="16522" Comment="deleted 38 characters in body" Text="I am considering learning the skills needed to become a freelance web programmer or web designer. I have confidence in back-end development but am learning more about front end. I live in India and you dont need many dollars converted to rupees to make a good living. Since I live in India, I will not be able to meet clients locally. All interaction will have to be through the net. So I am not sure what skills I need. I have:&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Solid understanding of HTML/CSS&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Intermediate understanding of C# but am currently learning JS and jQuery&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Basic understanding of SQL&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Good understanding of 3D modeling&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Understanding of image editing but no real digital art skills&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can only communicate with clients online and will have no online rep when I eventually start so I will need to build some first before I can hope to find work. I think this means doing work for free initially --- possibly on Github. I can think of no other way to build online rep so would appreciate suggestions. I think my biggest weakness is that as an Indian freelancer, I would only have an online presence, not a local one. So it requires building an online presence first which is currently zero.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am in no rush to make money and have time to devote to learn the needed skills. I suspect I will also need to learn PHP, Python and maybe Node.js and Ruby on Rails. So please help me understand :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on on what I have shown I know, am learning, and plan to learn, what kind of activity will be needed to start building an online rep for a completely online freelancing beginner web programmer or web designer? Is there any difference? Both seem to involve coding...&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17306" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6616" RevisionGUID="5c25e6d5-c521-4ba8-836b-2dc26850c91a" CreationDate="2017-02-28T08:19:25.357" UserId="16522" Comment="deleted 38 characters in body" Text="I am considering learning the skills needed to become a freelance web programmer or web designer. I have confidence in back-end development but am learning more about front end. I live in India and you dont need many dollars converted to rupees to make a good living. Since I live in India, I will not be able to meet clients locally. All interaction will have to be through the net. So I am not sure what skills I need. I have:&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Solid understanding of HTML/CSS&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Intermediate understanding of C# but am currently learning JS and jQuery&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Basic understanding of SQL&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Good understanding of 3D modeling&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Understanding of image editing but no real digital art skills&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can only communicate with clients online and will have no online rep when I eventually start so I will need to build some first before I can hope to find work. I think this means doing work for free initially --- possibly on Github. I can think of no other way to build online rep so would appreciate suggestions. I think my biggest weakness is that as an Indian freelancer, I would only have an online presence, not a local one. So it requires building an online presence first which is currently zero.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am in no rush to make money and have time to devote to learn the needed skills. I suspect I will also need to learn PHP, Python and maybe Node.js and Ruby on Rails. So please help me understand :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on on what I have shown I know, am learning, and plan to learn, what kind of activity will be needed to start building an online rep for a completely online freelancing beginner web programmer or web designer? Is there any difference? Both seem to involve coding...one just seems front end, the other back end but as long as I'm not making art I'd rather go down the path that offers more chance of money. Not necessarily more money....just more CHANCE.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17307" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6618" RevisionGUID="99c935a2-b5a8-4432-9d46-c53ba887dec4" CreationDate="2017-02-28T12:14:05.360" UserId="517" Text="This seem like enough. I have been contacted on their initiative numerous time, and they seem to lack software engineers. So I would say that they are happy now when someone actually contacted them first. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do not hear from them in a few weeks, ping them again. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17308" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6617" RevisionGUID="075528ac-b6e7-4e06-a69d-fc51c632b4a3" CreationDate="2017-02-28T16:20:20.470" UserId="16524" Comment="better title" Text="How should a freelance software engineer use Linkedin to find clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17309" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6619" RevisionGUID="e0142702-93e2-410e-866d-cbf28dbfa91a" CreationDate="2017-02-28T16:24:11.107" UserId="16524" Text="I've done freelance software contracting since 1982 and only get Bus. insur. when client asks for it.  I have never heard of a programmer being sued.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, over last few years, Bus. Insur rates have gone way up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be careful what you tell an insur. company.  Certain keywords are red flags:  like automotive.  I said automotive, and they practically hung up!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17310" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6614" RevisionGUID="f207a3aa-02d2-403d-a3b9-a047302cab07" CreationDate="2017-02-28T16:46:00.057" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body" Text="&gt;*&quot;Thanks, I'll get to this as soon as I can.&quot;* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they push...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;*&quot;Sorry I'm currently involved in discussions with [insert client] and will need to resolve a few matters before moving forward with new items.&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;if they further push...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;*&quot;Sorry. As I stated I will get to this as soon as it's possible. At this point I do not have a time frame.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if they just won't give up....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;*&quot;Please feel free to contact [insert client] to express any concerns you may have regarding the speed at which projects are completed.&quot;*&lt;br /&gt; &lt;sub&gt;(This gets them to inadvertently convey how important you are to the client.)&lt;/sub&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17311" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6513" RevisionGUID="f26ac2c2-8607-465d-a0b6-d53c8e91cd73" CreationDate="2017-02-28T19:37:44.447" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17312" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6620" RevisionGUID="ff1b8594-d6a5-46d6-89fb-5b22a2d9c9ef" CreationDate="2017-02-28T20:04:59.730" UserId="16533" Text="I have just finished my first freelance job as graphic designer in London. The client asked me an invoice. How can I create it? I have my NINo but I do not have a VAT number, is it possible to create a Non-VAT invoice? How can I do it? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you in advance,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ilaria" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17313" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6620" RevisionGUID="ff1b8594-d6a5-46d6-89fb-5b22a2d9c9ef" CreationDate="2017-02-28T20:04:59.730" UserId="16533" Text="Non- Vat Invoice? How to invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17314" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6620" RevisionGUID="ff1b8594-d6a5-46d6-89fb-5b22a2d9c9ef" CreationDate="2017-02-28T20:04:59.730" UserId="16533" Text="|taxes|uk|invoices|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17315" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6621" RevisionGUID="b95a1681-c982-444c-bf39-4788450bf7bf" CreationDate="2017-02-28T20:11:37.650" UserId="2265" Text="Some excellent help can be found on the gov.uk site which, I have to be honest, is the first result when you google for &quot;UK invoice&quot;. Getting the info from a government website is always more reliable than a Q&amp;A website, even in the Stackexchange network. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers/overview" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17319" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6623" RevisionGUID="98909a13-119d-4d15-a1b7-db29df161eea" CreationDate="2017-03-01T02:35:30.017" UserId="14967" Text="Having been on LinkedIn since approximately 2008, I am proposing that your question begs the question. That is, it assumes that one should use LinkedIn at all. I have yet to see a benefit other than staying connected with colleagues for networking purposes. Over the past 9 years I have had personalized, step-by-step assistance from both free and paid consultants to build my LinkedIn presence. I have followed every article about using LI most effectively. I am constantly updating information, writing articles, etc. I have followed all best practices (and had objective parties review my attempts) to reach out to possible clients. Despite all of the best efforts, including all of the techniques you mention as well, I have yet to see benefits from using their site. I wish you the very best, but I hope you'll not put too much energy into them as a resource. In short - try everything and then some, but don't get your hopes up too high." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17320" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6624" RevisionGUID="c4c18e63-47c6-4ff1-8b52-5af9ecd37298" CreationDate="2017-03-01T02:42:55.387" UserId="14967" Text="Equity, stock options, health insurance... these are all benefits. They should not be used as a substitute for actual compensation. It's poor business. Get a line of credit to enable you to pay your employees, and/or seek out investors who will give you money in exchange for equity share in your company. Asking people to be part of making your company run (whatever that may be), and giving them &quot;I can't pay you now, but if the company makes money, you'll finally get money based on the equity I give you&quot; is NO way to run a business or treat employees. People seek work to get paychecks to pay their bills. Your equity means zippidydoodah as a replacement for money in the bank." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17322" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6625" RevisionGUID="bf6a1afd-24fe-4e01-8792-3eca66f9c6db" CreationDate="2017-03-01T11:04:54.530" UserId="16538" Text="Soon I will be hiring some freelancers to continue a project with me.&#xA;&#xA;The project has been created with&#xA;- Client: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP&#xA;- Server: C#.NET&#xA;- Database: MySQL&#xA;&#xA;Just as a security precaution I want to take steps to prevent theft of the code.&#xA;&#xA;Is it possible to protect this, and if so what steps should I take?&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17323" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6625" RevisionGUID="bf6a1afd-24fe-4e01-8792-3eca66f9c6db" CreationDate="2017-03-01T11:04:54.530" UserId="16538" Text="Protecting code from other freelancers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17324" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6625" RevisionGUID="bf6a1afd-24fe-4e01-8792-3eca66f9c6db" CreationDate="2017-03-01T11:04:54.530" UserId="16538" Text="|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17325" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6625" RevisionGUID="daa2e7c9-f87b-4158-8a64-b9a16e6b7d2e" CreationDate="2017-03-01T11:15:04.357" UserId="16538" Comment="added 37 characters in body" Text="Soon I will be hiring some freelancers to continue a project with me.&#xA;&#xA;The project has been created with&#xA;- Client: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP&#xA;- Server: C#.NET&#xA;- Database: MySQL&#xA;&#xA;Just as a security precaution I want to take steps to prevent theft of the code.&#xA;&#xA;Is it possible to protect this, and if so what steps should I take?&#xA;&#xA;Edit: these will be remote workers.&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17326" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6626" RevisionGUID="8174aa27-c41c-459f-9890-ee38e6131b68" CreationDate="2017-03-01T11:55:40.563" UserId="7858" Text="There is very little you can do about a remote worker having the code they work on - unless you make them work in a remote desktop environment set up to prevent copy-pasting code to their actual location. (If that is even possible)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your goal is to prevent someone reselling the entire product, you could split the work so no one ever has the complete picture. The downside will very probably be added workload due to miscommunication and problems tying everything together. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if the delivery essentially is a one-of-a-kind custom product that cannot be reused at another client without major rewriting, I would ignore the risk - because others just having that code doesn't take away business from you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a side note, the remote coders will hopefully learn new techniques during the project - and I personally believe they should be allowed to reuse such code later. After all, you are profiting from their past experiences." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17327" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6627" RevisionGUID="ba1bb1a2-bc7c-4d51-940e-e970b3f563d2" CreationDate="2017-03-01T20:33:06.933" UserId="14413" Text="Im a fresh graduate from uni and im trying to enter the freelancing word, however im not sure how.. its such a big community with many experienced people. How can someone such as me face and get clients if 9+ years experienced people are there? How can i market myself and find clients? How can i market my skills? I already have a portfolio but no one knows about it. How can i make it visible what is the key to start getting projects and gaining real word projects experience? Thank you! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17328" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6627" RevisionGUID="ba1bb1a2-bc7c-4d51-940e-e970b3f563d2" CreationDate="2017-03-01T20:33:06.933" UserId="14413" Text="Finding clients and marketing myself" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17329" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6627" RevisionGUID="ba1bb1a2-bc7c-4d51-940e-e970b3f563d2" CreationDate="2017-03-01T20:33:06.933" UserId="14413" Text="|working-from-home|consulting|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17330" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6628" RevisionGUID="103d4396-a473-4a52-bbdc-bb4c76601715" CreationDate="2017-03-01T21:34:01.497" UserId="7717" Text="On the legal side, you have your remote developers sign a **non-disclosure agreement**. A properly written NDA will prohibit them from stealing your code or disclosing it to others and will generally establish your right to sue them if they violate the NDA. You should consult a lawyer for this, but you might be able to find sample NDAs online to help you get started.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as physical circumvention methods to make it impossible for them to steal the code, there isn't much you can do, although it can help to put different sections of the code in separate repositories (e.g. HTML in one repo, PHP in another repo) and only give each developer access to the section they're working on." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17331" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6628" RevisionGUID="09faa3a2-18f5-44e6-8859-c866d03512d7" CreationDate="2017-03-01T21:39:03.683" UserId="7717" Comment="better word" Text="On the legal side, you have your remote developers sign a **non-disclosure agreement**. A properly written NDA will prohibit them from stealing your code or disclosing it to others and will generally establish your right to sue them if they violate the NDA. You should consult a lawyer for this, but you might be able to find sample NDAs online to help you get started.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as physical prevention methods to make it impossible for them to steal the code, there isn't much you can do, although it can help to put different sections of the code in separate repositories (e.g. HTML in one repo, PHP in another repo) and only give each developer access to the section they're working on." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17332" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6629" RevisionGUID="f307da9f-7295-436f-9d9b-281797333491" CreationDate="2017-03-01T22:33:41.287" UserId="16524" Text="When I cold call a hiring manager for the first time, what exactly is the best thing for me to say after they answer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been a contract software engineer for 25 years.  Times are always changing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I used to say:&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Hello, I'm &lt;name&gt;, a software engineering contractor, and I'm calling to offer my services.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But lately this is often interpreted to mean that I'm a job shop offering the service of providing contractors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm mainly looking in the Silicon Valley area.  Hiring managers are 95% of the time friendly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's 2017.  What should I say?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;specifically:&#xD;&#xA;Should I say I'm a &quot;freelance software engineer&quot; or a &quot;contract software engineer&quot;?   Is &quot;freelance&quot; a thing these days?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17333" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6629" RevisionGUID="f307da9f-7295-436f-9d9b-281797333491" CreationDate="2017-03-01T22:33:41.287" UserId="16524" Text="What's the best cold call pitch for a freelancing software engineer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17334" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6629" RevisionGUID="f307da9f-7295-436f-9d9b-281797333491" CreationDate="2017-03-01T22:33:41.287" UserId="16524" Text="|attracting-clients|communication|marketing|sales|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17335" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6630" RevisionGUID="c747f81f-524c-4300-8dd3-04d00062f271" CreationDate="2017-03-02T00:35:07.247" UserId="708" Text="&gt;&quot;Hi, I'm a software engineer, who works on a contract basis, and I'm calling to offer my services.&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You've got &quot;contractor&quot; in a poor location. A &quot;contractor&quot; **is** someone that hires others to do the work. i.e. &quot;General Contractor&quot;, &quot;Talent Contractor&quot;, &quot;Plumbing Contractor&quot;. So, it stands to reason people hearing &quot;Software Engineer Contractor&quot; assume you hire software engineers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17336" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6631" RevisionGUID="6e513db1-aa83-4680-9809-39b3fcd2bd9e" CreationDate="2017-03-02T07:21:13.253" UserId="16547" Text="If you are a **fresh graduate** as you said then you probably should not have a good portfolio as there are already experienced freelancers out there in the market. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suggest you to get some work done first, you can pick the work from your friends that are already working or you can low down your rates on freelancing sites, and  stay connected with the community of your choice that will help you to create a better portfolio. After that I think it will be easy to dive into freelancing world." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17337" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6632" RevisionGUID="b3f93227-6806-4254-9d58-4676464947f7" CreationDate="2017-03-02T09:16:00.333" UserId="7486" Text="Many years ago I used to work for a few years togheter with an experienced programmer. He told me that when he needed others to help him with software development, and he didn't want to reveal the code to them (so they couldn't at all copy, steal or resell the code or part of it), he used to give them precise tasks to do without letting them know the general project, in this way: &quot;write a function (or library) that takes this input in this format [...], and that returns this output in this format [...]&quot;. They even didn't understand what was that about or for. But I don't know if that is suitable in your case." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17338" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6633" RevisionGUID="0b502b0a-2d4b-4e63-8d3b-469409b2604a" CreationDate="2017-03-02T18:46:43.673" UserId="16555" Text="I want to hire someone to integrate Authorize.net with the Wordpress plug-in WPJobBoard. There are instructions for adding a new payment method on their website but I'd rather pay someone than spend time figuring it out. Is Upwork.com the best place to try to find freelance help for something like this? Or are there other resources? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem I have with Upwork is I have to post the job and a price. I'd rather post a job and have someone say they can do it for X amount. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks, Gary" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17339" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6633" RevisionGUID="0b502b0a-2d4b-4e63-8d3b-469409b2604a" CreationDate="2017-03-02T18:46:43.673" UserId="16555" Text="Where's the best place to find Authorize.net developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17340" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6633" RevisionGUID="0b502b0a-2d4b-4e63-8d3b-469409b2604a" CreationDate="2017-03-02T18:46:43.673" UserId="16555" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17345" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6635" RevisionGUID="31dcb451-6451-4ca9-b9a0-ee77e8a76c5a" CreationDate="2017-03-02T23:11:36.377" UserId="16558" Text="Gary/Drew,&#xD;&#xA;I can tell you how much it should cost for the average payment plugin. For a US based developer you would expect 10-20 hours and hourly rate would range from 40-85/hr.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For an offshore solution you will look at the same time but hourly range from $20-$40/hr&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The good thing is an auth.net plugin is a fairly basic connection compared to most out there and likely many have the experience in it's API. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have used the freelancing sites for years now and find there are certain regions that have better quality coders than others but the best thing is to find your own regulars if you have more than one project. Don't give out your cpanel access, ftp only and your WP logins then change them after. And make sure you have your SSL installed before work. You will need a secure site to process credit cards. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17346" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6636" RevisionGUID="ea09de2f-459d-42cf-a1c7-c28c71904eee" CreationDate="2017-03-02T23:23:19.197" UserId="16558" Text="I would create your own portfolio of work, create some sites detailing your skills and be able to demonstrate that those sites and skills were in fact developed by yourself meaning put your name on them and be willing to make edits for a prospective client to see that you have built them, not someone else.  That said, you are competing against many others in your country and I first started dealing with Indian freelancers years ago and because there are hundreds of thousands of &quot;programmers&quot; there, the thousands that are any good are difficult to find. You have an uphill battle but if you have attention to detail and skills you can make it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17347" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6637" RevisionGUID="795d2f29-88ef-47b6-a39a-6f16a7ec958e" CreationDate="2017-03-02T23:33:05.193" UserId="16558" Text="You MUST have something in writing. You don't need a lawyer initially, just pay it out in detail and sign two originals in front of a notary.  The notary will cost about $10 you can find one at most any bank and they will stamp each document.  Detail the ownership, expenses, initial payouts, etc. It doesn't need to have everything in legalese. If you have to go to court over it, a doc you write will make more sense than any run-on sentence laden legal contract.   And if you decide to go forward without any papers, at the very least, keep the code on your own server with no other access.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17348" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6638" RevisionGUID="e8f2b50d-1ba4-44dd-ba46-bc8eaac7d231" CreationDate="2017-03-02T23:47:14.507" UserId="16558" Text="If you or he needs a license then there are thousands of unlicensed projects out there. I highly doubt it and if you do require a license, I expect all the freelancer sites would have some sort of revenue angle to promote the necessity for a license if one were in fact needed. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17350" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6640" RevisionGUID="96e49317-7133-4cd0-849a-21293545d1cc" CreationDate="2017-03-02T23:57:54.670" UserId="16558" Text="As we say over here, &quot;get all your ducks in a row&quot; before you give notice. You said your portfolio only consists of 3 showcases. Perhaps is it only 3 paid examples of your work but you can build more examples showing off your skills, put it on your own site, it does not need to be a live site or have been a paid job. A portfolio is an example of your skills paid or not. You can also build templates to sell at places like themeforest but they may want exclusive rights, read the fine print, but there are other places. Show me your work, I may be interested, I need front end work for a variety of wordpress sites. I hope I'm allowed to say that?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17351" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6641" RevisionGUID="b460a6f3-0132-4dc6-81cc-da9b7241d7f6" CreationDate="2017-03-03T00:28:48.633" UserId="16558" Text="This is a topic I have contemplated and have a bit of experience in and upcoming with a Java project. Setting aside legal this and that I'll give you what I believe to be an honorable expectation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. As a client, if I hire you to build an app for me, whether you have one similar already started or not, I would expect to have the source code given to me after the last payment unless you have stated otherwise. I think this is a reasonable expectation for the client to have, written or not. Otherwise you hold me hostage to any price you want to charge for updates and mods. If you discounted the project because you already have most of it built and want to keep the source code, you need to state that in the beginning. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. As a client I would expect any bugs, if discovered, to be worked out at no extra charge after final payment over a certain period of time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. As a client I would expect to pay for updates and new features from your or another developer if I choose. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. As a client I would not expect to have exclusive use of the code but I would expect you not to make an app called Client2 and sell it next to mine. If you modified the code to do something else I get it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. As a developer you should expect to get paid. And if you are not paid and have more demands (not requests) put upon the project, you would have no obligation to do any fixes or updates or provide the source code. I do think you should provide the source code if he pays the final. I think that would be honorable and be lesson learned for future jobs if you didn't think about it.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know why anyone would expect not to have the source code after hiring someone to build a project. That's like a home builder not giving you the keys to your house. He built it for you, but you can't use/mod it unless you hire him again. It's a hostage situation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17352" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6642" RevisionGUID="8b4ed043-66e7-4886-9cd5-ef6528700ee3" CreationDate="2017-03-03T00:36:42.403" UserId="16558" Text="Have the client send the products to you. I assume you have some sort of lightbox/room or you can make one or if the demand is so high have the client rents you a small space nearby. The products get sent to you with a return call tag, you shoot them and send them back, upload the images. Saves you 3 hours driving each trip, likely you can get the work done faster working evenings or weekends and with less notice in some cases. Much more efficient. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17357" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6643" RevisionGUID="7abb4425-8621-4421-a824-d9043cb617dd" CreationDate="2017-03-03T06:16:08.050" UserId="16547" Text="Which is the best place to find javascript programmer on hourly basis, that can code in javascript at a professional level." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17358" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6643" RevisionGUID="7abb4425-8621-4421-a824-d9043cb617dd" CreationDate="2017-03-03T06:16:08.050" UserId="16547" Text="What is the best place to find a great javascript programmer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17359" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6643" RevisionGUID="7abb4425-8621-4421-a824-d9043cb617dd" CreationDate="2017-03-03T06:16:08.050" UserId="16547" Text="|freelance-websites|programmer|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17360" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6644" RevisionGUID="b6b80b55-6087-4719-8130-5b5b6a7b08d8" CreationDate="2017-03-03T09:06:31.940" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="It is indeed pretty difficult to prevent them from using the source code they have had access to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a minimum precaution state explicitly in the contract with them that they cannot use the code for other purposes and have to destroy any copies in the end. Even better to announce what the penalty would be in case of infringement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are really paranoid, you can tag the code with discrete strings that encrypt your name, making sure that they end-up in the executables, to serve as evidence of hijacking." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17361" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6632" RevisionGUID="ead685b6-85b3-40fb-8c0d-098219a320a9" CreationDate="2017-03-03T11:08:07.617" UserId="13016" Comment="spelling, grammar" Text="Many years ago, I worked for a few years together with an experienced programmer. He told me that when he needed others to help him with software development, and he didn't want to reveal the code to them (so they couldn't at all copy, steal or resell the code or part of it), he used to give them precise tasks to do without letting them know the general project, in this way: &quot;write a function (or library) that takes this input in this format [...], and that returns this output in this format [...]&quot;. They even didn't understand what was that about or for. But I don't know if that is suitable in your case." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17362" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6632" RevisionGUID="ead685b6-85b3-40fb-8c0d-098219a320a9" CreationDate="2017-03-03T11:08:07.617" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 7486 edit id of 525" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17363" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6637" RevisionGUID="1e3cd315-9f41-4841-9ce7-5794626bc154" CreationDate="2017-03-03T14:40:04.247" UserId="16558" Comment="spelling and a little more detail" Text="You MUST have something in writing. You don't need a lawyer initially, just lay it out in detail and sign two originals in front of a notary.  The notary will cost about $10 you can find one at most any bank and they will stamp each document.  Detail the ownership split, expenses before payouts, initial payout schedule, who controls finances etc. If you are not on the eventual corp, keep the source code and project on your own server. You don't need to have everything in legalese. If you have to go to court over it, the doc you write will make more sense than any run-on sentence laden legal contract to a jury or mediator.  And if you decide to go forward without any papers, at the very least, keep the code on your own server with no other access.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17364" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6629" RevisionGUID="a7143a82-f053-47d5-a786-eadabdfc011b" CreationDate="2017-03-04T01:48:11.827" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/837842075009839104" />
  <row Id="17365" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="71f7e9d9-dc6c-4527-beb6-50efd59daffa" CreationDate="2017-03-04T07:48:14.593" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/837932683636453376" />
  <row Id="17366" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6264" RevisionGUID="2dbfe4aa-6314-4758-bc8c-27a346bda753" CreationDate="2017-03-04T10:49:35.473" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/837978321648562177" />
  <row Id="17367" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2852" RevisionGUID="1ba00478-74ef-4066-bd7e-9e0dddd9ddb9" CreationDate="2017-03-04T13:49:43.137" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/838023652411117569" />
  <row Id="17368" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6645" RevisionGUID="7e1948a9-66c8-4dc2-9512-eb54ac94a9e7" CreationDate="2017-03-04T17:23:21.310" UserId="16574" Text="I'm a webdeveloper, who want to start freelancing. I tried the following sites without any &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Freelancer.com&#xD;&#xA;   - Tried it for several months and I got only one &quot;job&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;   - I got a bad client who quitted after accepting the job. It was a hard round to get my money back.&#xD;&#xA; - Upwork&#xD;&#xA;   - Trying it for several months without any jobs.&#xD;&#xA; - Peopleperhour&#xD;&#xA;   - I registered half year ago as a freelancer, but I got a &quot;recruiter&quot; registration and I can't post new hourly or bid on jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you advise?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17369" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6645" RevisionGUID="7e1948a9-66c8-4dc2-9512-eb54ac94a9e7" CreationDate="2017-03-04T17:23:21.310" UserId="16574" Text="Newbie freelancer, advice needed" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17370" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6645" RevisionGUID="7e1948a9-66c8-4dc2-9512-eb54ac94a9e7" CreationDate="2017-03-04T17:23:21.310" UserId="16574" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17371" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6646" RevisionGUID="8731b432-b221-4868-9cf3-f8f46360d5cd" CreationDate="2017-03-04T23:29:23.280" UserId="15143" Text="It's generally very competitive to land yourself a freelancing job. If you don't have a very impressive portfolio, you are out of luck. Nobody will give you easy access to well-paying clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My best advise is for you to do something for yourself. Don't wait and don't rely on your &quot;bad&quot; clients. Build your portfolio, meet people and go from there. Don't waste time on those websites, just start your own business. Once you have a business running, you should get to know the community, and by then your personal connection will land you well-paid jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of the good contracting jobs **are not done online**, they are by personal contacts. People will trust you more if they know what you can do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17372" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6647" RevisionGUID="3cd098b7-af1f-4ee0-a374-ae51ddf3731b" CreationDate="2017-03-05T00:08:50.487" UserId="11069" Text="Your source code is yours, and yours alone, failing a contract biding you to hand it over. If the client asks for the source, put a generous price tag on it, as it was not requested from the beginning. It really does not matter what I thinks...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would advise you being consistent on your communications. You fulfilled your side of obligations, the customer has to keep their side, sticking to the values arranged. Furthermore, you have also a second interest on being consistent, that is having a proper trail certain things like handing over source code were not arranged, failing having a proper contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For now, given their track record, I would not have much conversations with them besides having your money back. If they fail to pay the exact amount, they are not worth your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for getting your money back, bid your time and do not lose much sleep over it. The client will come to you when there is a major problem to be corrected.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17373" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6647" RevisionGUID="c136c7d8-6b53-4e6d-82e8-b5b4a2718820" CreationDate="2017-03-05T00:14:36.097" UserId="11069" Comment="added 334 characters in body" Text="Your source code is yours, and yours alone, failing a contract biding you to hand it over. If the client asks for the source, put a generous price tag on it, as it was not requested from the beginning. It really does not matter what the customer thinks, that is his problem, not yours. Furthermore, the law is in your side.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would advise you being consistent on your communications. You fulfilled your side of obligations, the customer has to keep their side, sticking to the values arranged. Furthermore, you have also a second interest on being consistent, that is having a proper trail certain things like handing over source code were never requested, failing having a proper contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For now, given their track record, I would not have much conversations with them besides having your money back. If they fail to pay the exact amount, they are not worth your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for maintenance, I have no idea of the values involved. For projects where a fixed substancial amount of money were involved (several thousand), it would be courteous to provide a 6-month window of a &quot;guarantee&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For lower values, and for time paid by month, or by hour it does not make sense at all, and it would be extra work, hopefully in a pre-fixed price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for getting your money back, bid your time and do not lose much sleep over it. The client will come to you when there is a major problem to be corrected." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17374" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6647" RevisionGUID="528b7caa-cd98-4d58-a76e-f9ae1c8c610f" CreationDate="2017-03-05T00:25:42.507" UserId="11069" Comment="added 17 characters in body" Text="As a contractor, your source code is yours, and yours alone, failing a contract biding you to hand it over. If the client asks for the source, put a generous price tag on it, as it was not requested from the beginning. It really does not matter what the customer thinks, that is his problem, not yours. Furthermore, the law is in your side.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would advise you being consistent on your communications. You fulfilled your side of obligations, the customer has to keep their side, sticking to the values arranged. Furthermore, you have also a vested interest on being consistent, that is having a proper trail certain things like handing over source code were never requested, failing having a proper contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For now, given their track record, I would not have much conversations with them besides having your money back. If they fail to pay the exact amount, they are not worth your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for maintenance, I have no idea of the values involved. For projects where a fixed substancial amount of money were involved (several thousand), it would be courteous to provide a 6-month window of a &quot;guarantee&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For lower values, and for time paid by month, or by hour it does not make sense at all, and it would be extra work, hopefully in a pre-fixed price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for getting your money back, bid your time and do not lose much sleep over it. The client will come to you when there is a major problem to be corrected." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17375" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6647" RevisionGUID="6da787a2-22e5-4ac6-9f53-65a32d141bce" CreationDate="2017-03-05T00:37:42.957" UserId="11069" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="As a contractor, your source code is yours, and yours alone, failing a contract biding you to hand it over. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client asks for the source, put a generous price tag on it, as it was not requested from the beginning. It really does not matter what the customer thinks, that is his problem, not yours. Furthermore, the law is in your side.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would advise you being consistent on your communications. You fulfilled your side of obligations, the customer has to keep their side, sticking to the values arranged. Furthermore, you have also a vested interest on being consistent, that is having a proper trail certain things like handing over source code were never requested, failing having a proper contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For now, given their track record, I would not have much conversations with them besides having your money back, so I think you are on the right track dealing with a problematic customer. If they fail to pay the exact amount, they are not worth your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for maintenance, I have no idea of the values involved. For projects where a fixed substancial amount of money were involved (several thousand), it would be courteous to provide a 6-month window of a &quot;guarantee&quot; *only after* all due payments are settled.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For lower values, and for time paid by month, or by hour it does not make sense at all, and it would be extra work, hopefully in a pre-fixed price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for getting your money back, bid your time and do not lose much sleep over it. The client will come to you when there is a major problem to be corrected." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17376" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6647" RevisionGUID="bc57c2d3-94fe-449a-b7ca-08cf9fd9e111" CreationDate="2017-03-05T00:58:43.900" UserId="11069" Comment="added 47 characters in body" Text="As a contractor, your source code is yours, and yours alone, failing a contract biding you to hand it over. In Europe, I do confirm the laws are pretty much the same, so you have got your bases covered by law, either in Australia or in Europe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client asks for the source, put a generous price tag on it, as it was not requested from the beginning. It really does not matter what the customer thinks, that is his problem, not yours. Furthermore, the law is in your side.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would advise you being consistent on your communications. You fulfilled your side of obligations, the customer has to keep their side, sticking to the values arranged. Furthermore, you have also a vested interest on being consistent, that is having a proper trail certain things like handing over source code were never requested, failing having a proper contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For now, given their track record, I would not have much conversations with them besides having your money back, so I think you are on the right track dealing with a problematic customer. If they fail to pay the exact amount, they are not worth your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for maintenance, I have no idea of the values involved. For projects where a fixed substancial amount of money were involved (several thousand), it would be courteous to provide a 6-month window of a &quot;guarantee&quot; *only after* all due payments are settled.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For lower values, and for time paid by month, or by hour it does not make sense at all, and it would be extra work, hopefully in a pre-fixed price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for getting your money back, bid your time and do not lose much sleep over it. The client will come to you when there is a major problem to be corrected *if you keep the ownership of the source code*." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17383" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6650" RevisionGUID="35ee4d2a-cb99-4378-9cc1-9c3d0ac35ab1" CreationDate="2017-03-05T19:39:20.683" UserId="11728" Text="I have a similar experience: almost impossible together jobs at upwork. But I have succeeded at PeoplePerHour.  My advice is that you try with a regular account there. I'm getting a constant stream of jobs, and the pay is increasing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17384" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="6651" RevisionGUID="cfb3f153-3566-4f3c-b02a-5bd330169ee1" CreationDate="2017-03-05T22:57:24.150" UserId="-1" Comment="from http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/86250/should-i-charge-for-idle-services-as-a-freelancer" />
  <row Id="17385" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6651" RevisionGUID="08eff48b-0379-4582-9dda-4f4e7cb2bf65" CreationDate="2017-03-05T22:38:49.703" UserId="16590" Text="In my freelancing; I am currently working on a project where I need to upload files so i'm sitting here waiting for the files to upload so I can continue to work on the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer; is it ethical to charge the client for idleness (the waiting game)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a web developer and always ensure the customer is satisfied with the service; I like to be 100% honest at all times however; I charge on an hourly basis and no contract is set on this current project but it is verbal. What should I do in this situation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By the way - this is my first question on this SE so please let me know if i've missed something and i'll make changes. Many thanks! :) " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17386" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6651" RevisionGUID="08eff48b-0379-4582-9dda-4f4e7cb2bf65" CreationDate="2017-03-05T22:38:49.703" UserId="16590" Text="Should I charge for idle services as a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17387" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6651" RevisionGUID="08eff48b-0379-4582-9dda-4f4e7cb2bf65" CreationDate="2017-03-05T22:38:49.703" UserId="16590" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17388" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6651" RevisionGUID="4d581063-2754-4364-b673-29804451b1b5" CreationDate="2017-03-05T23:01:00.960" UserId="16590" Comment="edited tags" Text="|pay-rate|payments|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17389" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6652" RevisionGUID="04e1b27e-247a-46c2-a0aa-ae289c9b356b" CreationDate="2017-03-05T23:26:54.633" UserId="7557" Text="I do contract work and also charge by the hour.  What I charge for is my time to complete the job given the tools that I have, and if that includes waiting on a file to up load then so be it, it gets absorbed into the billing.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also bill on a per hour basis and don't bill on shorter time units, (although YMMV for your field of work) and the client already has an estimate of how long the job will take - in which I also include time for contingencies such as slow network connections etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However with that said I do try and fill my time productively with other tasks needed by the client for a job - unlike those slacker employees I know who happily spend 1/2 at the water cooler discussing their weekend activities.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17391" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6653" RevisionGUID="58c20a31-0d8b-4517-b23f-46e0565f7944" CreationDate="2017-03-06T04:58:45.377" UserId="156" Text="Are you a licensed Engineer, e.g., a non-software one?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If not, you generally cannot be found liable for unintentional software defects.  Just ask Microsoft:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/should-software-developers-be-liable-their-code&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Should Microsoft pay for the billions of dollars of damage that flaws in its software have caused around the world? It might have to, if a new European Commission consumer protection proposal becomes law." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17395" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6651" RevisionGUID="efaa3aa8-1b47-4568-b850-ead479cd00db" CreationDate="2017-03-06T08:01:16.263" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/838660737853706240" />
  <row Id="17396" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6655" RevisionGUID="09a6d8e4-c5a3-4a1d-bac8-0ce8dbcc6870" CreationDate="2017-03-06T09:58:31.600" UserId="16538" Text="When running a project with funds in excess of $100k with a lot of freelancers, how can I ensure they don't just run away with their fees never to be heard from again?&#xA;&#xA;I have seen escrow services but I'm not sure if this is the norm." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17397" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6655" RevisionGUID="09a6d8e4-c5a3-4a1d-bac8-0ce8dbcc6870" CreationDate="2017-03-06T09:58:31.600" UserId="16538" Text="When running a large project south lots of freelancers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17398" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6655" RevisionGUID="09a6d8e4-c5a3-4a1d-bac8-0ce8dbcc6870" CreationDate="2017-03-06T09:58:31.600" UserId="16538" Text="|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17399" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6652" RevisionGUID="b1c34af5-3224-4277-921c-aa8a345e9ee7" CreationDate="2017-03-06T12:45:31.790" UserId="7557" Comment="added 7 characters in body" Text="I do contract work and also charge by the hour.  What I charge for is my time to complete the job given the tools that I have, and if that includes waiting on a file to up load then so be it, it gets absorbed into the billing.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also bill on a per hour basis and don't bill on shorter time units, (although YMMV for your field of work) and the client already has an estimate of how long the job will take - in which I also include time for contingencies such as slow network connections etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However with that said I do try and fill my time productively with other tasks needed by the client for a job - unlike those slacker employees I know who happily spend a 1/2 hour at the water cooler discussing their weekend activities.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17400" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6656" RevisionGUID="a21a8f0a-d02e-4846-9e7c-46d79766cf12" CreationDate="2017-03-06T16:30:15.890" UserId="15447" Text="I'm working as a Freelance for 2 months (4 months remaining). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract between my headhunter and me mentions 3 entities: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - My own company&#xD;&#xA; - Headhunter's company&#xD;&#xA; - End client's company&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just learnt (two months later!) that there's another entity in the chain:&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; - My own company &#xD;&#xA; - Headhunter's company&#xD;&#xA; - **Another company charging to transmit end client's money to my Headhunter.**&#xD;&#xA; - End client's company&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They didn't told me it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The issue now is that this &quot;new&quot; intermediary doesn't want to pay my headhunter in time (some conflicts between them apparently).         &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my headhunter wants to pay me **more than 60 days** after receipt of my invoice instead of 30 maximum as mentioned explicitly by my contract. &#xD;&#xA;For instance, for January, I sent my invoice the 31th, so I expected to be pay the **3rd March**. They want to pay the **7th April**.    &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *&quot;We don't have money now, sorry, and sorry again, you would have to wait 60 days instead of 30 for each of your invoices&quot;*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is a good way to solve this kind of severe issue?   &#xD;&#xA;I just lost any confidence with them.       " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17401" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6656" RevisionGUID="a21a8f0a-d02e-4846-9e7c-46d79766cf12" CreationDate="2017-03-06T16:30:15.890" UserId="15447" Text="Having another intermediary that I was unaware of" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17402" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6656" RevisionGUID="a21a8f0a-d02e-4846-9e7c-46d79766cf12" CreationDate="2017-03-06T16:30:15.890" UserId="15447" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|payments|late-payment|information-technology|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17403" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6656" RevisionGUID="96b5bf0f-0b1a-4529-91b9-8ee3377b1b95" CreationDate="2017-03-06T16:35:25.893" UserId="15447" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="I'm working as a Freelance for 2 months (4 months remaining). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract between my headhunter and me mentions 3 entities: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - My own company&#xD;&#xA; - Headhunter's company&#xD;&#xA; - End client's company&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just learnt (two months later!) that there's another entity in the chain:&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; - My own company &#xD;&#xA; - Headhunter's company&#xD;&#xA; - **Another company charging to transmit end client's money to my Headhunter.**&#xD;&#xA; - End client's company&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They didn't told me it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The issue now is that this &quot;new&quot; intermediary doesn't want to pay my headhunter in time (some conflicts between them apparently).         &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my headhunter wants to pay me **more than 60 days** after receipt of my invoice **instead of 30 maximum** as mentioned explicitly by my contract. &#xD;&#xA;For instance, for January, I sent my invoice the 31th, so I expected to be pay the **3rd March**. They want to pay the **7th April**.    &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *&quot;We don't have money now, sorry, and sorry again, you would have to wait 60 days instead of 30 for each of your invoices&quot;*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is a good way to solve this kind of severe issue?   &#xD;&#xA;I just lost any confidence with them.       " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17404" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6656" RevisionGUID="96b5bf0f-0b1a-4529-91b9-8ee3377b1b95" CreationDate="2017-03-06T16:35:25.893" UserId="15447" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="How to deal with non-respect of payment-terms?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17405" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6657" RevisionGUID="f33eef96-b0e8-4525-9dc5-13f45438aade" CreationDate="2017-03-06T16:43:21.133" UserId="15202" Text="You have answered your own question...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; as mentioned explicitly by my contract&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have it in your contract, you have both signed it, you have the upper hand. Demand payment by the due date, as per the contract. Remind them that failure to pay is breach of contract, the implications of this should be clear to them already." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17406" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6658" RevisionGUID="9a20ba0c-d4bf-48a5-9952-0ffc20a573cc" CreationDate="2017-03-06T17:09:08.190" UserId="16417" Text="I read places like UpWork need your SSN.  Should I give these types of sites my SSN?  Is that really necessary?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17407" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6658" RevisionGUID="9a20ba0c-d4bf-48a5-9952-0ffc20a573cc" CreationDate="2017-03-06T17:09:08.190" UserId="16417" Text="Should I give an online freelance website my SSN?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17408" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6658" RevisionGUID="9a20ba0c-d4bf-48a5-9952-0ffc20a573cc" CreationDate="2017-03-06T17:09:08.190" UserId="16417" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17409" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6659" RevisionGUID="4dd2b6cc-7618-4d59-9d04-50fb13587c0e" CreationDate="2017-03-06T18:39:48.780" UserId="708" Text="In general you should guard your SSN as much as possible. It's one number than can allow for all sort of identity theft. It's also a number, since it's rarely used, people tend to forget is important. They give it to practically anyone who asks, doctors, dentists, contractors, etc. All of which don't *actually* need the SSN. They ask for it because it makes it easier on them if collections become necessary. But you aren't *required* to give it to them. I leave such form fields blank when I see them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't give my SSN to *anyone* unless it involves something financial where I'm either being paid, or asking for money such as a mortgage, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do **not** know Upwork or any online service of it's type. However, I would assume the company behind the web site would either 1099 you at years end or send you a statement of earned income through their service. In either case the **do** have a legitimate reason for needing your SSN. Even if they don't do either of these items, they still have to pay taxes as well and detail who they paid what to. So having your SSN allows the IRS to track you down and check if you reported the income they claimed to pay you... or they reported too much.. or you failed to claim the income... basically.. it's the link between you two the IRS *requires*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are uncomfortable providing your SSN in these types of situations, you can apply and receive an [EIN (employment Identification Number)][1] from the IRS. This number operates the same as a SSN in these situations essentially. You provide it to those paying you. However, only the IRS has the link between the EIN and your actual SSN. An EIN is a personal identifier *for the IRS*, not for everyone in the world. It's free and merely takes a moment to fill out the form.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, I don't know Upwork or if they are set up to accept EIN numbers in any online forms. EINs are typically only 5-7 digits not the 9 digits of an SSN.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/apply-for-an-employer-identification-number-ein-online" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17410" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6659" RevisionGUID="a63dfd73-733b-4a32-bae7-708c3fe5f8f4" CreationDate="2017-03-07T04:17:47.410" UserId="708" Comment="added 12 characters in body" Text="In general you should guard your SSN as much as possible. It's one number than can allow for all sort of identity theft. It's also a number, since it's rarely used, people tend to forget is important. They give it to practically anyone who asks, doctors, dentists, contractors, etc. All of which don't *actually* need the SSN. They ask for it because it makes it easier on them if collections become necessary. But you aren't *required* to give it to them. I leave such form fields blank when I see them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't give my SSN to *anyone* unless it involves something financial where I'm either being paid, or asking for money such as a mortgage, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do **not** know Upwork or any online service of it's type. However, I would assume the company behind the web site would either 1099 you at years end or send you a statement of earned income through their service. In either case they **do** have a legitimate reason for needing your SSN. Even if they don't do either of these items, they still have to pay taxes as well and detail who they paid what to. So having your SSN allows the IRS to track you down and check if you reported the income they claimed to pay you... or they reported too much.. or you failed to claim the income... basically.. it's the link between you two the IRS *requires*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are uncomfortable providing your SSN in these types of situations, you can apply and receive an [EIN (employment Identification Number)][1] from the IRS. This number operates the same as a SSN in these situations essentially. You provide it to those paying you. However, only the IRS has the link between the EIN and your actual SSN. An EIN is a personal identifier *for the IRS*, not for everyone in the world. It's free and merely takes a moment to fill out the form.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, I don't know Upwork or if they are set up to accept EIN numbers in any online forms. EINs can only be 5-7 digits in some cases and not the 9 digits of an SSN.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/apply-for-an-employer-identification-number-ein-online" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17411" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6660" RevisionGUID="eadae74c-e8ec-4f3d-87bf-46857f6abde9" CreationDate="2017-03-07T04:19:43.590" UserId="16569" Text="Both the answers provided here are good. Here's my take. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Never** bad mouth or belittle anyone. It makes **you** look worse than them (unless of course they are engaging in the same activity). But just as bad still isn't good. I've been self employed for the better part of 30 years and my best advice is to you is as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Never** insult anyone whether you think they richly deserve it or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Never** complain. It sounds like whining.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you feel a product is inferior **offer a better one**, detailing how your solution is superior is perfectly acceptable, negativity is not constructive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can't offer a better solution now, **learn** until you can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For more general words of wisdom see [my profile.](http://stackexchange.com/users/3732749/elder-geek)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17412" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6575" RevisionGUID="5ea69bbe-0995-4451-af50-d147a7f08e2a" CreationDate="2017-03-07T07:52:05.420" UserId="7486" Comment="deleted 10 characters in body" Text="A related thing happened to me too, the difference was that the other part was a web agency, they tried to put me in bad light with the client also with sort of sabotage actions, trusting on the fact that the client could be technically uneducated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It was a difficult moment between me, the client and that external company (you can read the story [here][1] if you are curious).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What did I do? I always kept a professional behaviour with the client and with that external company, I never blamed anyone or complained about other's actions, BUT when they tried to put me in bad light with strange requests or similar things, I produced precise proofs and detailed documentations about why that particular task was counter-productive and what should have been done instead, eventually I requested a meeting with the client to talk face to face about these matters and did so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my humble position of a single man company I just moved forward as a caterpillar with calm and professionality (even if sometimes I felt anger raising inside) with the tasks and jobs that I had to do for that client, respecting deadlines and the requested quality, and never letting anyone step on my feet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The result is that the relationship with the client is very good and alive, we met last week and he gave me many different tasks to do in the next weeks, and that external company was limited to weekly produce one or two contents for the facebook page.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line is that you should go on with professionality and be clear with your client when you have production problems and why, and **at most bring brilliant solutions and no complaints at all**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4715/complicated-situation-with-client-and-an-aggressive-external-company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17413" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6661" RevisionGUID="4d1b085f-6acd-49a9-ae1c-93bd64d910a2" CreationDate="2017-03-07T08:01:57.743" UserId="16597" Text="I am employed at a university, and moonlight as a popular science writer. The gig is pretty ok, pays well enough and the pieces are interesting to research and write. I am paid a fixed price on a piece-to-piece basis, regardless of the time spent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lately the venue have started to write me with science questions unrelated to the pieces I am writing, but connected to other articles. Given my background, the questions are not hard, but can be answered with little research in about 10 minutes. This happens approximately once every or every second month. Normally I work approximately 10 h/month for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't mind answering the questions - in fact, I quite often answer similar questions for free, when people from the general public approach me - but I do feel a bit uneasy about it. I don't have great experience with the freelancing world, but the general idea is that they should pay me for answering, right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this normal, and should I stop feeling uneasy about it? Should I require payment? If I should approach them, do you have any suggestions how to do it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17414" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6661" RevisionGUID="4d1b085f-6acd-49a9-ae1c-93bd64d910a2" CreationDate="2017-03-07T08:01:57.743" UserId="16597" Text="Freelance science writer getting unpaid questions from editor" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17415" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6661" RevisionGUID="4d1b085f-6acd-49a9-ae1c-93bd64d910a2" CreationDate="2017-03-07T08:01:57.743" UserId="16597" Text="|payment-terms|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17416" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6662" RevisionGUID="35a841c0-96a3-4e6f-b77d-8f5ba5e5f899" CreationDate="2017-03-07T08:12:50.687" UserId="16436" Text="I'm new at this and making a simple website for a person. It will mostly be HTML and CSS (no fancy scripts). I'm considering having him sign a contract. What exactly should be included in a contract? I'm assuming payment, but any thing else like they agree to take responsibility if they give me copyrighted material to put on the site?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've never seen a full contract and if someone could share it would be great. I'd like to see an entire example so I can see how it's laid out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17417" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6662" RevisionGUID="35a841c0-96a3-4e6f-b77d-8f5ba5e5f899" CreationDate="2017-03-07T08:12:50.687" UserId="16436" Text="What should be included in a contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17418" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6662" RevisionGUID="35a841c0-96a3-4e6f-b77d-8f5ba5e5f899" CreationDate="2017-03-07T08:12:50.687" UserId="16436" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17423" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6660" RevisionGUID="49adcaf2-45bf-4ea6-96b2-b83a5e7b4cc3" CreationDate="2017-03-07T13:02:46.910" UserId="16569" Comment="expansion for further clarity" Text="Both the answers provided here are good. Here's my take. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Never** bad mouth or belittle anyone. It makes **you** look worse than them (unless of course they are engaging in the same activity). But just as bad still isn't good. I've been self employed for the better part of 30 years and my best advice is to you is as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that by insulting Johns abilities you are also insulting your clients ability (by extension) to choose appropriate help. If the client takes it that way, they may begin to question if it was accurate to choose you!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Never** insult anyone whether you think they richly deserve it or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Never** complain. It sounds like whining.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you feel a product is inferior **offer a better one**, detailing how your solution is superior is perfectly acceptable, negativity is not constructive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can't offer a better solution now, **learn** until you can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being nice costs you nothing. The cost of being rude is incalculable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For more general words of wisdom see [my profile.](http://stackexchange.com/users/3732749/elder-geek)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17424" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6660" RevisionGUID="3c75f9e1-feab-4104-818b-ca78507cca82" CreationDate="2017-03-07T13:50:14.303" UserId="16569" Comment="minor expansion after further thought." Text="Both the answers provided here are good. Here's my take.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We don't always get to pick the members on our team. In this context &quot;John&quot; is your team member. What you need to do is figure out how to help &quot;John&quot; help you! Since your client chose both you and &quot;John&quot; it is in your best interests to prove that you can function in this environment. Casting aspersions on &quot;John&quot; is a exceptionally bad idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that by insulting &quot;John's&quot; abilities you are also insulting your clients ability (by extension) to choose appropriate help. If the client takes it that way, they may begin to question if it was accurate to choose you!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Never** bad mouth or belittle anyone. It makes **you** look worse than them (unless of course they are engaging in the same activity). But just as bad still isn't good. I've been self employed for the better part of 30 years and my best advice is to you is as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Never** insult anyone whether you think they richly deserve it or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Never** complain. It sounds like whining.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you feel a product is inferior **offer a better one**, detailing how your solution is superior is perfectly acceptable, negativity is not constructive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can't offer a better solution now, **learn** until you can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being nice costs you nothing. The cost of being rude is incalculable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For more general words of wisdom see [my profile.](http://stackexchange.com/users/3732749/elder-geek)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17425" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6664" RevisionGUID="105cf7a5-a5bf-4e32-a7d1-c62d467d7b79" CreationDate="2017-03-07T14:30:21.693" UserId="15202" Text="There are plenty of good resources for this, [try this one](https://www.crunch.co.uk/blog/freelancer-advice/2014/11/07/protect-yourself-with-these-contract-samples/)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, you need to cover:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* What you will do&#xD;&#xA;* How long it will take&#xD;&#xA;* The nature of your &quot;employment&quot;&#xD;&#xA;* Your fees, and milestones for payment&#xD;&#xA;* The finality of the product (is it yours or theirs? Who will maintain it after it is done? etc)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17426" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6665" RevisionGUID="a2d03ffd-4ba1-4122-8e3d-1abc8020edb1" CreationDate="2017-03-07T15:31:19.230" UserId="16600" Text="It might sound ridiculous, but this has happened to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently met a non-technical GP doctor, who is interested in finding a programmer for his ideas. He is an offical General Practitioner doctor, and is a rich man.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He wants to sell GP doctor examination materials, required for anyone who wants to become a doctor. He also wants to establish a community for GP doctors and sell advertisements for GP doctors. It'll be a website and mobile apps, potentially a web app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Detailed information:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - No funding, no business plan, no marketing plan&#xD;&#xA;  - He won't prove to me why his idea would work.&#xD;&#xA;  - He &quot;thinks&quot; it'll work but there's no statistics and data.&#xD;&#xA;  - He claims it would work, but he doesn't want to prove it because he thinks I'm an outsider and thus won't understand the industry.&#xD;&#xA;  - No business formed. It's just a verbal agreement.&#xD;&#xA;  - **No contract, no payment**&#xD;&#xA;  - I am expected to work for myself until it's timing for starting a new business&#xD;&#xA;  - I am expected be responsible for all technical works&#xD;&#xA;  - I am expected to come up with my own way to add value for the business&#xD;&#xA;  - No timing and expectation of the next stage&#xD;&#xA;  - He promises if everything goes well, he will have many more new ideas and project with equity only&#xD;&#xA;  - He wants me to prove what I can do for him&#xD;&#xA;  - He thinks I will be a millionaire by working with him for equity&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He will consider to establish a business with me later if our relationship is stable and reliable. No timing and no criteria of what defines a &quot;working&quot; relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel his tone is bossy and uncomfortable. I have a feeling that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - He thinks his idea is the next &quot;big&quot; thing&#xD;&#xA;  - He is very proud of his ideas and often repeat how many ideas he has.&#xD;&#xA;  - He likes giving me lessons, he doesn't believe 1-1 status between a doctor and a programmer&#xD;&#xA;  - He said he is very worried I would steal his idea&#xD;&#xA;  - He doesn't respect a programmer, and like to compare myself (an Australian) with a cheap Indian contractor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He wants me to think what I want to do and how I should contribute to his ideas. I think I will give him a response. What questions should I ask him? How should I evaluate this proposal given that I'm not a doctor? What are the nicest words to say if I want to reject him?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17427" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6665" RevisionGUID="a2d03ffd-4ba1-4122-8e3d-1abc8020edb1" CreationDate="2017-03-07T15:31:19.230" UserId="16600" Text="How to respond without hurting a potential IDEA business guy's business proposal" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17428" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6665" RevisionGUID="a2d03ffd-4ba1-4122-8e3d-1abc8020edb1" CreationDate="2017-03-07T15:31:19.230" UserId="16600" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17429" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6666" RevisionGUID="22500af5-ecd0-403c-bf46-643de06b69d8" CreationDate="2017-03-07T16:48:24.833" UserId="7486" Text="I met some guys like this one in my work career til now. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I usually do (and would do in your case) is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Enstablish the right mutual work positions: I am the professional in my area, you are the professional in your area, mutual respect is the base.&#xD;&#xA; - Raise my doubts on the project whenever I have any, warn the client about possible failures and missing parts and necessary steps or moves to do.&#xD;&#xA; - Present my quote for the project with every detail along with the contract and 30% prepayment for starting to think and work on the project.&#xD;&#xA; - When the contact is signed and the prepayment is done, I work on that as stated in the contact.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is not happy with that there are many other freelancers that maybe would be happy to invest time on that *millionare* project..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17430" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6666" RevisionGUID="993cebc2-20f1-4a47-980a-70090f7e71cb" CreationDate="2017-03-07T16:59:24.320" UserId="7486" Comment="added 294 characters in body" Text="I met some guys like this one in my work career til now. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I usually do (and would do in your case) is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Enstablish the right mutual work positions: I am the professional in my area, you are the professional in your area, mutual respect is the base.&#xD;&#xA; - Raise my doubts on the project whenever I have any, warn the client about possible failures and missing parts and necessary steps or moves to do.&#xD;&#xA; - Present my quote for the project with every detail along with the contract with 30% prepayment for setting up things to work to on the project.&#xD;&#xA; - When the contact is signed and the prepayment is done, I work on that as stated in the contact.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is not happy with that there are many other freelancers that maybe would be happy to invest time on that *millionare* project with zero guarantee to get any payment at all...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't have to be *too nice* or be afraid to offend him, just be normally gentle and professional. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he is too *bossy* with you and yo don't feel comfortable with him, don't work with him, say that you have other projects in your schedule and you won't have time for other big projects." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17431" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6667" RevisionGUID="ad388e09-3535-4e31-879c-9b1fdea5ccb3" CreationDate="2017-03-07T17:52:26.950" UserId="708" Text="I often explain to my clients that *they are the expert in their area, not me.* I can do what *I do* well, but I have little to no knowledge of their area of expertise. It is up to *them* to make decisions and inform me when something needs to conform to matters they are knowledgable about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A general example: I don't write copy for for clients (beyond button text or something). Although I'm often asked to by new clients. There are copywriters for such tasks. Or worst case, the client is in a more knowledgable position to write copy about what they do than I *ever* will be. I do what **I do**, because I know how to do that well. When asked to step outside of that area and actually do something in an *entirely different profession*, I push back. If you hire someone to tune up your car, you don't also ask them to remodel your bathroom do you? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My general response is something along the lines of:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm very happy to do whatever I can do. Please realize I am a [whatever you do], not a [client profession]. I know a great deal about my job and what it entails. I know almost nothing about the [client profession] profession. I'm not in a knowledgable position to make suggestions or alterations which would be inline with standard practices in your area. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I rely on you to make those types of suggestions. I just can't create content or features which you and your colleagues may find useful. I need your help to tell me what would be useful.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&gt;If there's some technical reason, based on my experience, your suggestions may be ill advised, I'll let you know. But you are the expert at [client profession]. I am in no position to contradict what you tell me is needed or correct. I can only tell you when something is technically incorrect concerning [web design/development, layout, color, etc.].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most clients *really* appreciate this. It allows them to feel both respected and invested in the work. It provides a more &quot;collaborative' atmosphere and gives them a sense of ownership in the final product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients that want me to step outside my area of expertise and just  &quot;do it for them&quot;, when I know nothing about the profession, aren't the clients I general seek or have. I'm *not* grunt labor and any client that treats me as such, is just not who I want to work with. If a client isn't vested in the work... why should I be? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17432" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6666" RevisionGUID="3b6a9eeb-4c8c-4306-a5c8-93ec34391483" CreationDate="2017-03-07T18:11:39.720" UserId="7486" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="I met some guys like this one in my work career til now. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I usually do (and would do in your case) is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Enstablish the right mutual work positions: I am the professional in my area, you are the professional in your area, mutual respect is the base.&#xD;&#xA; - Raise my doubts on the project whenever I have any, warn the client about possible failures and missing parts and necessary steps or moves to do.&#xD;&#xA; - Present my quote for the project with every detail along with the contract with 30% prepayment for setting up things to work to on the project.&#xD;&#xA; - When the contract is signed and the prepayment is done, I work on that as stated in the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is not happy with that there are many other freelancers that maybe would be happy to invest time on that *millionare* project with zero guarantee to get any payment at all...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't have to be *too nice* or be afraid to offend him, just be normally gentle and professional. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he is too *bossy* with you and you don't feel comfortable with him, don't work with him, say that you have other projects in your schedule and you won't have time for other big projects." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17433" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6668" RevisionGUID="0d2e36da-1de7-45db-a81a-bd3a1fdbd24a" CreationDate="2017-03-07T20:02:04.483" UserId="16519" Text="Three elements for the response:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - If applicable, apologize for the delay. *(It always pays to be polite.)*&#xD;&#xA; - Inform the correspondent that the budget is currently limited. *(Lets them know of the current situation without revealing anything potentially damaging to the reputation of the client.)*&#xD;&#xA; - Request they send the request through the client for prioritization. *(Both allows the client to perform the necessary task of triage and, as in Scott's answer, underscores how important the tech work is.)*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17434" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6665" RevisionGUID="0d0e866a-6c97-414f-8d96-1acbf11690ed" CreationDate="2017-03-08T02:46:07.950" UserId="16600" Comment="added 335 characters in body" Text="It might sound ridiculous, but this has happened to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently met a non-technical GP doctor, who is interested in finding a programmer for his ideas. He is an offical General Practitioner doctor, and is a rich man.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He wants to sell GP doctor examination materials, required for anyone who wants to become a doctor. He also wants to establish a community for GP doctors and sell advertisements for GP doctors. It'll be a website and mobile apps, potentially a web app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Detailed information:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - No funding, no business plan, no marketing plan&#xD;&#xA;  - He won't prove to me why his idea would work.&#xD;&#xA;  - He &quot;thinks&quot; it'll work but there's no statistics and data.&#xD;&#xA;  - He claims it would work, but he doesn't want to prove it because he thinks I'm an outsider and thus won't understand the industry.&#xD;&#xA;  - No business formed. It's just a verbal agreement.&#xD;&#xA;  - **No contract, no payment**&#xD;&#xA;  - I am expected to work for myself until it's timing for starting a new business&#xD;&#xA;  - I am expected be responsible for all technical works&#xD;&#xA;  - I am expected to come up with my own way to add value for the business&#xD;&#xA;  - No timing and expectation of the next stage&#xD;&#xA;  - He promises if everything goes well, he will have many more new ideas and project with equity only&#xD;&#xA;  - He wants me to prove what I can do for him&#xD;&#xA;  - He thinks I will be a millionaire by working with him for equity&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He will consider to establish a business with me later if our relationship is stable and reliable. No timing and no criteria of what defines a &quot;working&quot; relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel his tone is bossy and uncomfortable. I have a feeling that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - He thinks his idea is the next &quot;big&quot; thing&#xD;&#xA;  - He is very proud of his ideas and often repeat how many ideas he has.&#xD;&#xA;  - He likes giving me lessons, he doesn't believe 1-1 status between a doctor and a programmer&#xD;&#xA;  - He said he is very worried I would steal his idea&#xD;&#xA;  - He doesn't respect a programmer, and like to compare myself (an Australian) with a cheap Indian contractor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He wants me to think what I want to do and how I should contribute to his ideas. I think I will give him a response. What questions should I ask him? How should I evaluate this proposal given that I'm not a doctor? What are the nicest words to say if I want to reject him?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I asked him for a written agreement, he instantly refused. He questioned me if the deal went well, there wouldn't be any reason for him to look a new developer. I responded that he could simply kick me away, pay someone else in cash and take 100% equity. He replied he wouldn't do that. How should I respond?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17435" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6667" RevisionGUID="f70b1b91-647b-4045-a87b-99616743f408" CreationDate="2017-03-08T03:26:44.917" UserId="708" Comment="added 594 characters in body" Text="I often explain to my clients that *they are the expert in their area, not me.* I can do what *I do* well, but I have little to no knowledge of their area of expertise. It is up to *them* to make decisions and inform me when something needs to conform to matters they are knowledgable about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A general example: I don't write copy for for clients (beyond button text or something). Although I'm often asked to by new clients. There are copywriters for such tasks. Or worst case, the client is in a more knowledgable position to write copy about what they do than I *ever* will be. I do what **I do**, because I know how to do that well. When asked to step outside of that area and actually do something in an *entirely different profession*, I push back. If you hire someone to tune up your car, you don't also ask them to remodel your bathroom do you? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My general response is something along the lines of:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm very happy to do whatever I can do. Please realize I am a [whatever you do], not a [client profession]. I know a great deal about my job and what it entails. I know almost nothing about the [client profession] profession. I'm not in a knowledgable position to make suggestions or alterations which would be inline with standard practices in your area. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I rely on you to make those types of suggestions. I just can't create content or features which you and your colleagues may find useful. I need your help to tell me what would be useful.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&gt;If there's some technical reason, based on my experience, your suggestions may be ill advised, I'll let you know. But you are the expert at [client profession]. I am in no position to contradict what you tell me is needed or correct. I can only tell you when something is technically incorrect concerning [web design/development, layout, color, etc.].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most clients *really* appreciate this. It allows them to feel both respected and invested in the work. It provides a more &quot;collaborative' atmosphere and gives them a sense of ownership in the final product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients that want me to step outside my area of expertise and just  &quot;do it for them&quot;, when I know nothing about the profession, aren't the clients I general seek or have. I'm *not* grunt labor and any client that treats me as such, is just not who I want to work with. If a client isn't vested in the work... why should I be? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After the question edit:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Anyone** who **immediately** refuses a written agreement.. you should then **immediately** thank them for their time and **walk away**, if not run.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A written agreement protects **both** you *and* the client. Any client that doesn't want that protection, generally has ulterior motives which will **not** be in your favor. Be aware there are millions of *bad* clients out there who will promise you the world, but refuse a contract... and then you have a hard time even getting table scraps from them, let alone get them to actually fulfill their promises." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17436" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6669" RevisionGUID="e1d96513-a2c9-4d60-b204-0f8ecc0442eb" CreationDate="2017-03-08T03:46:45.020" UserId="16569" Text="Do the math. Try to find a way to free up some more time. What if scenarios can help. (What if I do X on the weekend, can I free up some time for Y during the week?) If you can manage that you can put off the need for help and control quality (provided you don't exhaust yourself)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One good way to reduce demands on your time is to raise prices (carefully, gradually)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes expansion isn't all it's cracked up to be when good help is hard to find. I've been there and feel your pain. Absent the ability to clone yourself it's very difficult to find someone who will do things at the level of quality you yourself deliver. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most importantly don't let the decision making process paralyze you. We always want to do everything right, but we learn the most from our mistakes. Regardless, if you take a [systematic approach]((http://web.mnstate.edu/peil/M110/Worksheet/PolyaProblemSolve.pdf)) to the problem you will get better results than if you [flip a coin](https://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/decfail.htm)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My typical approach to a clients scheduling demands is to offer them a choice. For instance &quot;I can manage Thursday afternoon or Friday morning, which works best for you?&quot; Of course the choices you offer fit your schedule. This makes it clear that you are trying to be accommodating and allows them to feel like they are in control as they get to pick (from the narrow field of choices that you have provided) It also makes it clear that requests for other days and times are unmanageable and will be declined, in most cases this is enough and they won't ask for unavailable times, If they do, I simply reiterate my original statement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17437" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6670" RevisionGUID="786284ca-e73b-47f5-8f87-c488d4ad6762" CreationDate="2017-03-08T03:48:03.107" UserId="16608" Text="You should respond by declining his offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He doesn't know what he's doing. And, frankly, you don't know what you're doing. There is a LOT involved in spinning up a new startup. And much of that is legal and contractual. The reality is, a lot of people have ideas. Not a lot of people have successful businesses based on new ideas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he has &quot;an idea&quot; and needs you to work on it for no money, how are you going to eat? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just say, &quot;No.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17438" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6669" RevisionGUID="1d4095db-3e21-4a2e-8ec7-bb1ec0b367f5" CreationDate="2017-03-08T04:04:28.507" UserId="16569" Comment="expansion -" Text="Do the math. Try to find creative ways to free up some more time. What if scenarios can help. (What if I do X on the weekend, can I free up some time for Y during the week?) If you can manage that you can put off the need for help and control quality (provided you don't exhaust yourself)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider what you can sub out without impacting quality. Possibly conversion into the 3-4 different formats.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One good way to reduce demands on your time is to raise prices (carefully, gradually)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes expansion isn't all it's cracked up to be when good help is hard to find. I've been there and feel your pain. Absent the ability to clone yourself it's very difficult to find someone who will do things at the level of quality you yourself deliver. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most importantly don't let the decision making process paralyze you. We always want to do everything right, but we learn the most from our mistakes. Regardless, if you take a [systematic approach]((http://web.mnstate.edu/peil/M110/Worksheet/PolyaProblemSolve.pdf)) to the problem you will get better results than if you [flip a coin](https://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/decfail.htm)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My typical approach to a clients scheduling demands is to offer them a choice. For instance &quot;I can manage Thursday afternoon or Friday morning, which works best for you?&quot; Of course the choices you offer fit your schedule. This makes it clear that you are trying to be accommodating and allows them to feel like they are in control as they get to pick (from the narrow field of choices that you have provided) It also makes it clear that requests for other days and times are unmanageable and will be declined, in most cases this is enough and they won't ask for unavailable times, If they do, I simply reiterate my original statement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not comfortable with the &quot;jump when I call&quot; service he's requesting. Poor planning on his part shouldn't necessitate an emergency on your part. Offer a manageable response time frame and tell him that's the best you can guarantee, but that you'll do your best to be as accommodating as possible. Or offer to contact him each month with available days for him to pick from." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17439" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6671" RevisionGUID="aec48b13-52f7-4e8c-9707-9ae00f634ec4" CreationDate="2017-03-08T04:14:03.763" UserId="16608" Text="Large financial firms use tools like Citrix to provide a desktop environment remotely. They configure Citrix to prevent copy/paste across the gap between client and server. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This enables workers to &quot;see&quot; their work, but not export it. Similarly, they block outgoing web requests, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reality is that you probably cannot do this - it is a stupefyingly difficult and cumbersome task, and requires pretty much a dedicated department.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're just trying to protect code that you wrote from being copied, your best bet is probably to break out your workers into silos, and break your code across multiple repositories: client, server, database, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can then unite the code during the build process, but restrict individual users to only accessing one or two repos." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17440" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6588" RevisionGUID="ab630304-d478-498c-a213-a55b6a38d33f" CreationDate="2017-03-08T05:14:23.067" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/839343515360440320" />
  <row Id="17441" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6666" RevisionGUID="b65d69d3-ebee-49c9-8bd9-1d3e8b65eb01" CreationDate="2017-03-08T07:57:28.173" UserId="7486" Comment="added 1117 characters in body" Text="I met some guys like this one in my work career til now. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I usually do (and would do in your case) is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Enstablish the right mutual work positions: I am the professional in my area, you are the professional in your area, mutual respect is the base.&#xD;&#xA; - Raise my doubts on the project whenever I have any, warn the client about possible failures and missing parts and necessary steps or moves to do.&#xD;&#xA; - Present my quote for the project with every detail along with the contract with 30% prepayment for setting up things to work to on the project.&#xD;&#xA; - When the contract is signed and the prepayment is done, I work on that as stated in the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is not happy with that there are many other freelancers that maybe would be happy to invest time on that *millionare* project with zero guarantee to get any payment at all...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't have to be *too nice* or be afraid to offend him, just be normally gentle and professional. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he is too *bossy* with you and you don't feel comfortable with him, don't work with him, say that you have other projects in your schedule and you won't have time for other big projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**About your edit:** this is not a new matter about people's good relationships, in fact the ancient Romans were no stupid, they used to say *&quot;Verba volant, scripta manent&quot;*, that literally means *&quot;Spoken words fly away, written words remain&quot;*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Romans understood that about 2000 years ago, and I guess that your client knows that very well too, to the point that he doesen't want to engage a serious, professional and correct work relationship with you. He just wants to take advantage of you and this is not correct at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your place I would just say: &quot;I'm sorry but I got engaged in another long term contract and right now I am not able to work on your project, I can't afford the risk to work for weeks or months without any real perspective of get proper income&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally I would never work for a client like that. At this point I would not trust him even with a written agreement because if he is a rich person and he behaves like that with you, he could even use a lawyer to find some small pointless clause or reason to criticize your work or your contract to try to avoid to pay you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17442" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6666" RevisionGUID="7fd9be8b-30e7-4686-bf19-12b957656961" CreationDate="2017-03-08T08:15:27.703" UserId="7486" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="I met some guys like this one in my work career til now. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I usually do (and would do in your case) is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Enstablish the right mutual work positions: I am the professional in my area, you are the professional in your area, mutual respect is the base.&#xD;&#xA; - Raise my doubts on the project whenever I have any, warn the client about possible failures and missing parts and necessary steps or moves to do.&#xD;&#xA; - Present my quote for the project with every detail along with the contract with 30% prepayment for setting up things to work to on the project.&#xD;&#xA; - When the contract is signed and the prepayment is done, I work on that as stated in the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is not happy with that there are many other freelancers that maybe would be happy to invest time on that *millionare* project with zero guarantee to get any payment at all...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't have to be *too nice* or be afraid to offend him, just be normally gentle and professional. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he is too *bossy* with you and you don't feel comfortable with him, don't work with him, say that you have other projects in your schedule and you won't have time for other big projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**About your edit:** this is not a new matter about people's good relationships, in fact the ancient Romans were no stupid, they used to say *&quot;Verba volant, scripta manent&quot;*, that literally means *&quot;Spoken words fly away, written words remain&quot;*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Romans understood that about 2000 years ago, and I guess that your client knows that very well too, to the point that he doesen't want to engage a serious, professional and correct work relationship with you. He just wants to take advantage of you and this is not correct at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your place I would just say: &quot;I'm sorry but I got engaged in another long term contract and right now I am not able to work on your project, I can't afford the risk to work for weeks or months without any real perspective to get a proper income&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally I would never work for a client like that. At this point I would not trust him even with a written agreement because if he is a rich person and he behaves like that with you, he could even use a lawyer to find some small pointless clause or reason to criticize your work or your contract to try to avoid to pay you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17443" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6666" RevisionGUID="51ead488-6667-42d5-9d6f-209fbdbf0ec9" CreationDate="2017-03-08T09:07:30.427" UserId="7486" Comment="added 5 characters in body" Text="I met some guys like this one in my work career til now. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I usually do (and would do in your case) is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Enstablish the right mutual work positions: I am the professional in my area, you are the professional in your area, mutual respect is the base.&#xD;&#xA; - Raise my doubts on the project whenever I have any, warn the client about possible failures and missing parts and necessary steps or moves to do.&#xD;&#xA; - Present my quote for the project with every detail along with the contract with 30% prepayment for setting up things to work to on the project.&#xD;&#xA; - When the contract is signed and the prepayment is done, I work on that as stated in the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is not happy with that there are many other freelancers that maybe would be happy to invest time on that *millionare* project with zero guarantee to get any payment at all...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't have to be *too nice* or be afraid to offend him, just be normally gentle and professional. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he is too *bossy* with you and you don't feel comfortable with him, don't work with him, say that you have other projects in your schedule and you won't have time for other big projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**About your edit:** this is not a new matter about people's good relationships, in fact the ancient Romans were no stupid, they used to say *&quot;Verba volant, scripta manent&quot;*, that literally means *&quot;Spoken words fly away, written words remain&quot;*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Romans understood that about 2000 years ago, and I guess that your client knows that very well too, to the point that he doesen't want to engage a serious, professional and correct work relationship with you. He just wants to take advantage of you and this is not correct at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your place I would just say: &quot;I'm sorry but I got engaged in another long term contract and right now I am not able to work on your project, also I can't afford the risk to work for weeks or months without any real perspective to get a proper income&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally I would never work for a client like that. At this point I would not trust him even with a written agreement because if he is a rich person and he behaves like that with you, he could even use a lawyer to find some small pointless clause or reason to criticize your work or your contract to try to avoid to pay you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17444" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6672" RevisionGUID="62c53149-3374-430d-888d-89fae927d459" CreationDate="2017-03-08T09:14:25.810" UserId="16327" Text="**Bob's perspective**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If Bob is providing equity as a PLUS to the actual payment, it can be a good strategy to draw attention of good freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bob has to concern two main factors here:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - social aspects&#xD;&#xA; - legal aspects&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In countries, where society has a strong feeling for social justice, Bob may be perceived as exploiter, because equity based wage creates a strong dependency between company and the workers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If equity is the only thing, Bob is providing, he may even get in trouble in some countries, due to regulatory limits, where such contracts are prohibited. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**John's perspective**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some countries, Bob may also bring John into a troublesome situation, because maybe John's legal **freelancing** status suddenly becomes a **profession** status. This is because he is by contract now officially an investor with a completely new and different taxation rate and documentation requirements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Providing equity only can make John and his freelancer buddies very angry at Bob and lowers the reputation of Bob dramatically." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17445" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6669" RevisionGUID="b5f31806-7190-4d6f-95d5-899fdff2c041" CreationDate="2017-03-08T13:05:25.070" UserId="16569" Comment="typo" Text="Do the math. Try to find creative ways to free up some more time. What if scenarios can help. (What if I do X on the weekend, can I free up some time for Y during the week?) If you can manage that you can put off the need for help and control quality (provided you don't exhaust yourself)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider what you can sub out without impacting quality. Possibly conversion into the 3-4 different formats.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One good way to reduce demands on your time is to raise prices (carefully, gradually)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes expansion isn't all it's cracked up to be when good help is hard to find. I've been there and feel your pain. Absent the ability to clone yourself it's very difficult to find someone who will do things at the level of quality you yourself deliver. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most importantly don't let the decision making process paralyze you. We always want to do everything right, but we learn the most from our mistakes. Regardless, if you take a [systematic approach](http://web.mnstate.edu/peil/M110/Worksheet/PolyaProblemSolve.pdf) to the problem you will get better results than if you [flip a coin](https://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/decfail.htm)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My typical approach to a clients scheduling demands is to offer them a choice. For instance &quot;I can manage Thursday afternoon or Friday morning, which works best for you?&quot; Of course the choices you offer fit your schedule. This makes it clear that you are trying to be accommodating and allows them to feel like they are in control as they get to pick (from the narrow field of choices that you have provided) It also makes it clear that requests for other days and times are unmanageable and will be declined, in most cases this is enough and they won't ask for unavailable times, If they do, I simply reiterate my original statement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not comfortable with the &quot;jump when I call&quot; service he's requesting. Poor planning on his part shouldn't necessitate an emergency on your part. Offer a manageable response time frame and tell him that's the best you can guarantee, but that you'll do your best to be as accommodating as possible. Or offer to contact him each month with available days for him to pick from." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17446" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6673" RevisionGUID="4246b350-c720-480d-9e59-2ce69f497d63" CreationDate="2017-03-08T16:13:55.423" UserId="2880" Text="Put yourself in client's position. Think why they have been giving work to you? Was it their past experience with you, referral, your good school etc.? Then keeping yourself in client's position, think if your contractor wants to employ junior developers, what would be your reaction. For example, any precondition and guarantee and formal quality metrics would you want?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17447" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6674" RevisionGUID="787bca32-5af6-4884-9319-a5e82091d0eb" CreationDate="2017-03-08T19:11:48.947" UserId="9845" Text="This is a solid question. While I don't have a background in science writing, I do write about trade-related issues for a few clients, though I get paid for my time rather than per piece. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend approaching your client about hiring you as an on-call expert for technical questions. Explain that you spend a decent amount of time on answering these questions, and they have become regular enough that you need to be compensated for your time. You can float a reasonable rate and explain why it's reasonable (ie your availability, expertise, background knowledge, etc.). Just because you enjoy the work doesn't mean you shouldn't be paid for it! You can also aim high with your rate if you think they might bargain down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a strict 10-minute rule with my clients: if a question requires more than 10 minutes of my time to answer (due to research, problem-solving or something else), they get billed for it. Otherwise, I'm happy to answer questions for free with the caveat that I charge if they become excessive (ie multiple questions per week). I already have hourly agreements on file with these clients, and they've signed contracts with the terms clearly stated. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17448" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6665" RevisionGUID="55cf88fd-481b-4b53-964e-cf0f60bf27b2" CreationDate="2017-03-08T20:15:32.417" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/839570299049938960" />
  <row Id="17450" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6675" RevisionGUID="342e0876-d6b1-400b-88a5-23e9cc2174eb" CreationDate="2017-03-09T03:40:17.787" UserId="16619" Text="I've hired 3 people from https://www.f6s.com/ recently.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's a busy startup community with both technical and business type people actively looking for opportunities, and it costs nothing to post jobs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17451" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6676" RevisionGUID="00178743-d36c-492a-87a8-cfcefdbac4b1" CreationDate="2017-03-09T07:50:48.417" UserId="16436" Text="This is my first time making a website for someone else who will be paying me. I am writing a contract to have him sign but am stuck on one part. The question is so simple I have trouble phrasing it: how do parties know when the job is done?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, what if I finish the website, give it to the client, he pays me, but several months latter gives me more work and says &quot;I thought the website you gave me was just another revision and our contract is still in effect&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should the contract include a term &quot;Contract automatically terminates after the designer writes to the client that he has made his last revision and has been fully paid&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Both me and the client have full time jobs and this is something on the side so I don't want to include a formal schedule and say &quot;this contract terminates on day x&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17452" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6676" RevisionGUID="00178743-d36c-492a-87a8-cfcefdbac4b1" CreationDate="2017-03-09T07:50:48.417" UserId="16436" Text="What to include in contract to identify the end of work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17453" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6676" RevisionGUID="00178743-d36c-492a-87a8-cfcefdbac4b1" CreationDate="2017-03-09T07:50:48.417" UserId="16436" Text="|contracts|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17454" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6677" RevisionGUID="bbedab4f-2787-4383-b262-c71d42913fd3" CreationDate="2017-03-09T08:04:11.300" UserId="7486" Text="Usually I work on a testing server that is not the final destination of the site. Once the client approve (by email is better but also verbally if it is a trusted client) the copy on the testing server, I move the site to the main domain publushing it. From this moment I consider the work finished. I also state that process in my contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This also saves you from giving the finished work to the client before full or partial payments are done.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17455" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6677" RevisionGUID="797b2acf-2e49-4985-ae95-527ccd182ef8" CreationDate="2017-03-09T08:18:04.497" UserId="7486" Comment="edited body" Text="Usually I work on a testing server that is not the final destination of the site. Once the client approve (by email is better but also verbally if it is a trusted client) the copy on the testing server, I move the site to the main domain publishing it. From this moment I consider the work finished. I also state that process in my contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This also saves you from giving the finished work to the client before full or partial payments are done.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17456" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6677" RevisionGUID="74fb9e3a-2910-41bc-9960-d372989a7011" CreationDate="2017-03-09T08:23:30.753" UserId="7486" Comment="edited body" Text="Usually I work on a testing server that is not the final destination of the site. Once the client approve (by email is better but also verbally if it is a trusted client) the copy on the testing server, I move the site to the main domain publishing it. From this moment I consider the work finished. I also state that process in my contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This also saves you from giving the finished work to the client before full or partial payments are done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can't work on a separated testing server you should close the site with an &quot;under construction&quot; or temporary home page, make ad admin account for yourself and a guest account for your client, then after the approval make the site public and consider the work done from this moment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client asks you for bug fixes etc do that for free for a limited time, if he asks for improvement or new features provide a detailed quote for the work to be done and make the client approve it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17457" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6264" RevisionGUID="1cbbae46-a687-415b-b0ad-20f8c07be24d" CreationDate="2017-03-09T11:01:14.177" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17458" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6594" RevisionGUID="49822f28-5978-450d-b366-06424538c17a" CreationDate="2017-03-09T14:18:34.203" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/839842852448440320" />
  <row Id="17459" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="6643" RevisionGUID="df33b36d-73b5-483b-b835-5f12292d3575" CreationDate="2017-03-09T19:21:54.150" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:15202,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;JohnHC&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="17460" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3073" RevisionGUID="49d8fa0e-c357-4efe-b012-ebe1fe68a813" CreationDate="2017-03-09T20:21:35.793" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/839934210848747520" />
  <row Id="17462" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6676" RevisionGUID="845e718b-4caf-4086-b24e-80878b426f2e" CreationDate="2017-03-10T02:21:55.543" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/840024890447155205" />
  <row Id="17463" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6661" RevisionGUID="8471a404-72bc-496c-a11c-20a254949264" CreationDate="2017-03-10T14:30:46.143" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/840208309999267840" />
  <row Id="17464" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6678" RevisionGUID="8feda580-2f97-495f-a702-1aa02e94ecb5" CreationDate="2017-03-10T16:54:48.360" UserId="16636" Text="I am currently working as a freelancer in a Freelancer platform (Freelancer.com).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I accepted a project that is requires cURL and PHP knowledge. He has the original script handed down to me, basically its a script that logins to a &quot;banking&quot; website, then allows its user to send money to other people. What he wants is to make the script first get &quot;fixed&quot; to allow login. Which I fixed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The &quot;banking website&quot; will not allow users to readily transfer money to other users. There's physical verification required, which I am not familiar.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I realized, this can be used for illegal.&#xD;&#xA;**The application allows logging in to a &quot;banking website&quot;**, even though it cannot &quot;confirm&quot; or &quot;bypass&quot; the verification to successfully authorize the money transfer, just the fact that the application can login to this financial institution's records can be alarming.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I mean, if the employer decided to scrape the sensitive information, or get the username/password _POST request then record it, isn't that illegal? Isn't that phishing? Isn't that fraud?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I still have ongoing projects with him, and I'm already starting to think the other way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am actually scared, an employer has a script I helped coding, and he can use that for bad things. Even if I stop now, I helped him in fixing the &quot;log-in&quot; method.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I thinking too much? Can somebody give me some tips?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17465" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6678" RevisionGUID="8feda580-2f97-495f-a702-1aa02e94ecb5" CreationDate="2017-03-10T16:54:48.360" UserId="16636" Text="How to be not liable if my application became something used for illegal stuff?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17466" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6678" RevisionGUID="8feda580-2f97-495f-a702-1aa02e94ecb5" CreationDate="2017-03-10T16:54:48.360" UserId="16636" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17467" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6678" RevisionGUID="79b21944-42bc-4a6f-b770-6348234b0295" CreationDate="2017-03-10T17:15:06.507" UserId="16636" Comment="added 18 characters in body" Text="I am currently working as a freelancer in a Freelancer platform (Freelancer.com).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I accepted a project that is requires cURL and PHP knowledge. He has the original script handed down to me, basically its a script that logins to a &quot;banking&quot; website, then allows its user to send money to other people. What he wants is to make the script first get &quot;fixed&quot; to allow login. Which I fixed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The &quot;banking website&quot; will not allow users to readily transfer money to other users. There's physical verification required, which I am not familiar as it is overseas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I realized, this can be used for illegal.&#xD;&#xA;**The application allows logging in to a &quot;banking website&quot;**, even though it cannot &quot;confirm&quot; or &quot;bypass&quot; the verification to successfully authorize the money transfer, just the fact that the application can login to this financial institution's records can be alarming.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I mean, if the employer decided to scrape the sensitive information, or get the username/password _POST request then record it, isn't that illegal? Isn't that phishing? Isn't that fraud?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I still have ongoing projects with him, and I'm already starting to think the other way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am actually scared, an employer has a script I helped coding, and he can use that for bad things. Even if I stop now, I helped him in fixing the &quot;log-in&quot; method.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I thinking too much? Can somebody give me some tips?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17468" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6679" RevisionGUID="fc28c3ee-c888-4c20-88ff-9de160cb8b68" CreationDate="2017-03-10T19:14:27.077" UserId="7717" Text="First off, this sounds *super* sketchy and if I were you I would back out of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Read the User Agreement at Freelancer.com (https://www.freelancer.com/about/terms ) to see if it mentions anything about you being liable to the client for how the client uses the work product, or anything about working on a product that will be used for illegal purposes. If there isn't anything about you being liable to the client or the work product being illegal/used illegally, and you haven't signed a contract with the client, you *probably* don't have to worry about being *financially* liable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, you could still get caught up in a criminal investigation. Imagine spending long hours in a room at the police station, repeatedly trying to explain that you really didn't know how the client was going to use the product, and that you don't know where the client is now. You might even be forced to testify in court.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just for reference, I once was interviewed by a client who sent me a contract that said something to the effect of &quot;you agree to indemnify and protect us from any and all claims that the Work Product has been used to violate someone's rights&quot;. If I had signed that contract, I would have been fully responsible for anything illegal that the client did with the product!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are concerned, it would be best to talk to a lawyer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17469" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6680" RevisionGUID="6f05b761-d3bc-44ef-b3e0-ae012b4cc4d6" CreationDate="2017-03-10T19:37:38.633" UserId="7717" Text="Most of the open-ended contracts I have worked on include the three following conditions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Work ends immediately if both parties agree that the work has been completed&#xD;&#xA; - The freelancer must give 30 days notice if he decides to stop working on the project before the project is complete. You can adjust this down to 14 or sometimes even 7 days for a smaller project; obviously both parties should agree on the duration of the notice.&#xD;&#xA; - If the client decides to end the project before the work has been completed, work ends immediately but the client must pay for all work completed thus far. If this was an hourly contract, the client pays you for any hours you worked that haven't already been paid. If you are working by milestones, *this includes partial payment for any partially completed milestone* for which you otherwise wouldn't have been paid until the milestone was completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an example of the last condition; let's say that the final milestone is to add a News page, and the price for this milestone is $1000 to be paid when you complete the News page. When you are halfway completed with the page, the client decides they don't want to finish the site, and they cancel the project. They have to pay you $500 for the 50% of the milestone that you completed. This does not apply if *you* cancel the project and the notice period ends with a feature partially completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Occasionally on a large project, you can get away with requiring the client to give *x* days notice before canceling the project, or else to pay an early termination fee on top of any payment for work completed thus far. The idea here is to cover your losses from suddenly losing a planned source of income and having to find a new client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17470" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6680" RevisionGUID="b20ccf13-10e1-451a-9478-ca6f0277daa1" CreationDate="2017-03-10T19:44:34.027" UserId="7717" Comment="added 349 characters in body" Text="Most of the open-ended contracts I have worked on include the three following conditions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Work ends immediately if both parties agree that the work has been completed&#xD;&#xA; - The freelancer must give 30 days notice if he decides to stop working on the project before the project is complete. You can adjust this down to 14 or sometimes even 7 days for a smaller project; obviously both parties should agree on the duration of the notice.&#xD;&#xA; - If the client decides to end the project before the work has been completed, work ends immediately but the client must pay for all work completed thus far. If this was an hourly contract, the client pays you for any hours you worked that haven't already been paid. If you are working by milestones, *this includes partial payment for any partially completed milestone* for which you otherwise wouldn't have been paid until the milestone was completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an example of the last condition; let's say that the final milestone is to add a News page, and the price for this milestone is $1000 to be paid when you complete the News page. When you are halfway completed with the page, the client decides they don't want to finish the site, and they cancel the project. They have to pay you $500 for the 50% of the milestone that you completed. This does not apply if *you* cancel the project and the notice period ends with a feature partially completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Occasionally on a large project, you can get away with requiring the client to give *x* days notice before canceling the project, or else to pay an early termination fee on top of any payment for work completed thus far. The idea here is to cover your losses from suddenly losing a planned source of income and having to find a new client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On a milestone project, you can probably also say that the work is completed when all milestones have been completed. If the client is expecting to add additional milestones down the road, you can add a clause that additional milestones have to be agreed upon by both parties, or that they become a separate project with a separate termination date." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17471" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6681" RevisionGUID="a852be5c-f548-4e0e-bef0-7ea649d37cb3" CreationDate="2017-03-10T19:46:22.653" UserId="708" Text="I would merely point out that **no** &quot;user agreement&quot; or contract will protect you, regardless of what it states, if you *knowingly* assist in illegal activity. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is **absolutely** no such thing as a contract clause that indemnifies you from being held responsible for illegal activity if you know, or possibly *even suspect* it is occurring while you are working. Indemnification clauses generally cover *future* activity or use of your work once it has been *completed and delivered*. Essentially, they cover you once you are no longer *actively* working on anything so you can't be held responsible for things that occur in the future which can't be predicted. However, if it is occurring *while* you are working and you *know*... you can't escape that fact merely due to some clause in a contract or user agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Unauthorized access* to a third party's database is *clearly* nefarious. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know &quot;Freelancer.com&quot; at all.. but I would, if possible, break the log in script again.... then walk away. At the very least I'd walk away *immediately* to try and mitigate any further involvement. There may be channels at the freelance site to allow you to contact the site itself about the project. I would do that, if possible, and explain why you want to terminate the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless the client can show *written* authorization from the &quot;banking site&quot; which allows him to log in with this app... and you can **verify** that authorization... I would not assist at all. And I would have asked for and verified this authorization *before* ever &quot;fixing&quot; anything." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17472" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6681" RevisionGUID="dc4caeb2-6597-472e-80a6-1b8fd409bc98" CreationDate="2017-03-10T19:52:09.020" UserId="708" Comment="added 262 characters in body" Text="I would merely point out that **no** &quot;user agreement&quot; or contract will protect you, regardless of what it states, if you *knowingly* assist in illegal activity. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is **absolutely** no such thing as a contract clause that indemnifies you from being held responsible for illegal activity if you know, or possibly *even suspect* it is occurring while you are working. Indemnification clauses generally cover *future* activity or use of your work once it has been *completed and delivered*. Essentially, they cover you once you are no longer *actively* working on anything so you can't be held responsible for things that occur in the future which can't be predicted. However, if it is occurring *while* you are working and you *know*... you can't escape that fact merely due to some clause in a contract or user agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If I sell you a gun and 3 years later you shoot someone. I can't be held responsible for selling you the gun. If you tell me you want to shoot someone so *then* I sell you a gun... then I'm a party to the conspiracy of the crime and can be held responsible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Unauthorized access* to a third party's database is *clearly* nefarious. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know &quot;Freelancer.com&quot; at all.. but I would, if possible, break the log in script again.... then walk away. At the very least I'd walk away *immediately* to try and mitigate any further involvement. There may be channels at the freelance site to allow you to contact the site itself about the project. I would do that, if possible, and explain why you want to terminate the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless the client can show *written* authorization from the &quot;banking site&quot; which allows him to log in with this app... and you can **verify** that authorization... I would not assist at all. And I would have asked for and verified this authorization *before* ever &quot;fixing&quot; anything." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17473" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6682" RevisionGUID="fdf0cb05-5ac4-45e2-91d1-5a22dd108043" CreationDate="2017-03-10T21:07:39.367" UserId="2265" Text="The open source contract (https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/projects/contract-killer/) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Quote:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Your killer contract should cover:&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;     - A simple overview of who is hiring who, what they’re being hired to&#xD;&#xA;       do, when and for how much &#xD;&#xA;     - What both parties agree to do and what their respective responsibilities are &#xD;&#xA;     - The specifics of the deal and what is or isn’t included in the scope &#xD;&#xA;     - What happens when people change their minds (as they almost always do) &#xD;&#xA;     - A simple overview of liabilities and other legal matters &#xD;&#xA;     - You might even include a few jokes" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17474" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6522" RevisionGUID="0ebf4d72-8f4c-4c78-8a2e-4bf382aafbbd" CreationDate="2017-03-11T02:23:40.693" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17475" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6683" RevisionGUID="31b2ee3c-cc8a-4eff-9a7f-9b910331a49e" CreationDate="2017-03-11T09:12:49.247" UserId="7717" Text="&gt; Upwork - Much better than PPH in terms of quality, but after speaking&#xD;&#xA;&gt; with some of the top-rated developers, as soon as I handed them our&#xD;&#xA;&gt; more technical requirements a lot said 'I use html and CSS, I don't&#xD;&#xA;&gt; touch SASS or Git or Laravel'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd say just keep looking. Maybe you're focusing too much on people who advertise themselves as front-end web developers and need to find someone who mentions Laravel or PHP in their profile. &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I now have a list of technical requirements from my own developers. As&#xD;&#xA;&gt; freelancers I understand this may not be something you would expect,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; but would you find it useful? Does it help bring clarity on the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;YES. **DEAR [DIETY] PLEASE.** I hate every client that doesn't have technical requirements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; With this project being a fair investment, there is a sense of trust&#xD;&#xA;&gt; between client and freelancer. How can that trust be strengthened?&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Once again does my list of requirements help if the freelancer can&#xD;&#xA;&gt; agree to these?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A good initial way to build trust is by *thoroughly reading the freelancer's profile before you contact them* and mention *specific parts of their profile* that appeal to you. This shows the freelancer that you are paying attention to them as a person and not just spamming invites (ironically, the same advice is true in reverse for freelancers applying to projects). Discuss the project enough with them to be sure they fully understand what you want, but don't make them feel like they have to spend 20 unpaid hours in discussions and planning before you'll consider hiring them. YES, TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS HELP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; While I understand most freelance developers have their own ways of&#xD;&#xA;&gt; doing things, is there a way I can make it clear that I want my site&#xD;&#xA;&gt; built a certain way without putting anyone off?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're trying to hire a professional, not a teenager with an attitude. Simply be clear about what you want and provide those sweet sweet design documents. *Anyone who is &quot;put off&quot; isn't worth working with.* (On the other hand, do not write 5 paragraphs about how hard-assed you are and how you won't put up with anyone's shit - clients like that are just scary).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; More off topic - should developers be able to build from design concepts or is a pixel-perfect design always preferred?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That partly depends on the preferences of the developer, but a flexible developer should be able to do both. I usually find it easier to build off of a very precise design with detailed mockups, unless the mockups weren't well thought-out and would be unreasonably impractical to implement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; And finally - is a freelancer even right for what I am looking for? Am I asking too much of one person?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're not asking too much of one person. There are definitely quality developers out there willing to work on big projects and follow precise directions. It sounds like you have enough resources to guide the freelancer and now it's just a matter of finding the right person. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, a tip - make sure you review the freelancer's work history. If they have a 5-star 100% positive rating but half of their projects have been cancelled with no feedback, be *very suspicious*. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17478" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6450" RevisionGUID="5adb7983-ac97-4fc0-9c71-fa03a544b0d8" CreationDate="2017-03-12T10:02:06.837" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17479" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6678" RevisionGUID="220d95bb-5fc4-4c42-b291-eebe303dde2c" CreationDate="2017-03-12T17:34:45.473" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/840979387734466560" />
  <row Id="17480" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6685" RevisionGUID="278c4b0c-1215-42ad-b2d5-66046a30fd4b" CreationDate="2017-03-12T21:41:11.973" UserId="16018" Text="As long as it's not detrimental to the quality of the final product, I believe all freelancers should be able to deliver projects as fast as they like. Having said that, I find myself earning less money by delivering top-quality projects sooner rather than later as other less-experienced freelancers earn more by taking longer to complete their jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are many industries that charge extra for meeting clients' requests sooner, so what would be the best way to apply this to freelancing apart from simply increasing the hourly rate?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17481" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6685" RevisionGUID="278c4b0c-1215-42ad-b2d5-66046a30fd4b" CreationDate="2017-03-12T21:41:11.973" UserId="16018" Text="How to work faster without earning less?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17482" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6685" RevisionGUID="278c4b0c-1215-42ad-b2d5-66046a30fd4b" CreationDate="2017-03-12T21:41:11.973" UserId="16018" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17483" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6686" RevisionGUID="c24fb179-204c-4603-a2f8-db128fd53ce8" CreationDate="2017-03-13T00:33:42.917" UserId="708" Text="You'll never get ahead with hourly based pricing.. you should use [Value-based pricing](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/search?q=value+based+pricing) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With hourly pricing, you penalize yourself the better you get at your job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fire your hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;More detail (but not exactly a duplicate question):&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4783/should-i-charge-my-client-for-mistakes-i-make/4785#4785" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17484" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6645" RevisionGUID="e1f0bc5d-3a12-4091-bfb4-16a8f3c52222" CreationDate="2017-03-13T08:38:15.987" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/841206763269558273" />
  <row Id="17485" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6687" RevisionGUID="deac53b6-2174-4319-a1cb-47ab557ab28f" CreationDate="2017-03-13T08:53:10.663" UserId="15202" Text="You can always increase your rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will need to ensure that any proposal/bid you make reflects this, clearly demonstrating that you plan to take less time, with a final cost estimate at the end of the bid (clearly marked as an estimate, of course).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way, the client can compare your bid against others and can make a clear choice based on value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;eg&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;100 hours x $50 per hour = $5000 **(competitors)**  &#xD;&#xA;50 hours x $75 per hour = $3750 **(you)**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know which one I'd pick for a project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once finished, you can move on to the next project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17486" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6688" RevisionGUID="b2fda6ca-c18d-4478-9cf1-886308bf0dab" CreationDate="2017-03-13T09:52:15.150" UserId="517" Text="1. Don't work is a project is suspicious&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Don't work if a project is contradictory to your beliefs&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. It is not your project&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Since you are paid to make the app, there are small chances that anyone will ever think of suing you" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17487" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6689" RevisionGUID="31bf0d58-9a2f-44f4-947a-ee669b7355af" CreationDate="2017-03-13T10:04:28.560" UserId="517" Text="This seems to me as you are not sure what you want or you need a developer who is expert in multiple fields. Such are rarer than fairies. So you may reconsider what you need and try to find multiple persons. I am sure that 1 of them will work all the time, and other will be just a help. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In case, you want an expert for A, B and C in one person, I would look for the expert in the most complex thing. There are high chances that he knows &quot;weaker&quot; technologies. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, a PHP expert will probably know html, css,... while I cannot bet that HTML/CSS expert will know PHP. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another thing is a price. Are you looking for a remote dev to save money or there is no such person locally? Working with someone locally is far easier. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to save money and decided to go for the remote guy, they try to get a recommendation and interview those. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do not manage to find the guy, then try freelancing sites. From my experience, the most quality can be found on upwork which is huuuge and it may take a month to find the proper guy. Look at his previous jobs, what his clients are saying, if their feedback is 1 work like &quot;nice&quot; or &quot;good work&quot; or they really made some good feedback from their happiness.  Look if the guy has longer projects in his portfolio. The more the better. Those with 1 or 2 projects are not really the top ones because they may have worked on easy tasks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After you have narrowed down a few guys, send them all the apecs. I usually try to overload them with docs to see if they will read it (I do mention that this is a long-term work). If he does not take time to read it, he is not the right guy for me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And lastly, take a video(!) interview and talk to the guy. Try to see how he works, if he replies with short sentences or is capable of discussion, ask him some &quot;what do you think&quot; question, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you can see, you also have to do your homework to find the right guy. They will not drop out of nowhere. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17488" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6547" RevisionGUID="8d14fbee-832f-45cb-9a71-cef57df77990" CreationDate="2017-03-14T01:04:13.717" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17489" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6690" RevisionGUID="b5f566f5-1430-4dee-b5f0-b03e4d053310" CreationDate="2017-03-14T02:04:17.553" UserId="9845" Text="If you're looking for ideas outside of increasing your rates (which I recommend doing on a regular basis, as I do annually), here are a few:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Mandatory minimums for projects:** If you have a good idea of how long something will take, make that the minimum hourly total for the project. That way, if you work faster, they get a quicker delivery and you still get paid fairly. If you end up needing to put in more hours, as long as the communication lines are open and this is an understood possibility, it shouldn't be a problem.&#xD;&#xA; - **Additional fees:** While most of my pricing is hourly as well, I have a few additional fees spelled out in my contracts. If there are particular milestones or additions that it would make sense to charge extra for, do so. Or include a &quot;rush fee&quot; that means you give the job priority and will get it done faster. But be careful with these - obviously nobody likes surprise fees, so they need to be clearly explained.&#xD;&#xA; - **Time/Completion bonus:** This isn't something that I do and probably doesn't fit in with my industry, but it might for yours (though I think it would make more sense to come from the client). But what you could do is say, &quot;the average freelancer costs X much and finishes in X amount of time. I'll work for the same amount, but if I finish x weeks early I get a completion bonus of $X.&quot; I'm honestly not sure how many clients would be welcome to an idea like this one, so it really depends on your industry, how well you sell the idea, and your ability to get things done faster than everyone else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17494" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6685" RevisionGUID="c024530a-4976-4e43-9040-919a5ff6dc22" CreationDate="2017-03-14T08:47:26.713" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/841571461185884160" />
  <row Id="17495" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6692" RevisionGUID="98f0f5b7-c21f-493b-b692-55423025f724" CreationDate="2017-03-14T10:55:57.850" UserId="16265" Text="**UPDATE:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you everyone for your answers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I contacted our local PHP meet up and simply emailed their contact form on their website. They put me in touch with a local developer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although a lot more expensive than we'd hoped, we took her on and she has done an outstanding job. We've given her a technical document, one pixel-perfect PSD for the content page and PDFs of the other pages along with style guides and she's done a brilliant job at pulling this all together.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the first time I've worked with purely a front-end developer and the results definitely show.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you once again to everyone for all your tips and suggestions." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17496" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6693" RevisionGUID="02d620a1-eb58-4baf-bc31-de930e64e16c" CreationDate="2017-03-14T20:03:47.820" UserId="7717" Text="Delivering the project sooner means you make less money *from that project*. It also means you are available to start another project that will be a new revenue stream. As long as you keep your schedule full, there is no loss in income. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I typically have three contracts going at once. I have found that this is enough to minimize my downtime, without overwhelming me. You may find that the optimum number for yourself is more or less, depending on your work habits and how quickly your clients respond to questions and provide files that you need." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17497" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6694" RevisionGUID="25cad087-80cc-4a47-b29f-5a75f0a5b8a6" CreationDate="2017-03-14T20:07:42.587" UserId="7717" Text="**Never work on a project for equity.** Anyone who asks you to work for equity is extremely inexperienced, and trying to take advantage of you. Explain that you are a professional and you expect to be paid for your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can accept equity as a bonus, but never as your primary form of payment. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17498" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6695" RevisionGUID="1655f2ed-ed31-45c5-9d90-f5804cd32334" CreationDate="2017-03-15T03:19:19.580" UserId="16666" Text="What is the best source of information about financial and legal requirements for LLCs?  My husband has been paying my quarterly taxes, but I want to make sure we aren't missing anything without investing in a professional accountant or lawyer.  Is there an easy-to-navigate site with all the information I need? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17499" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6695" RevisionGUID="1655f2ed-ed31-45c5-9d90-f5804cd32334" CreationDate="2017-03-15T03:19:19.580" UserId="16666" Text="Unemployment Insurance" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17500" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6695" RevisionGUID="1655f2ed-ed31-45c5-9d90-f5804cd32334" CreationDate="2017-03-15T03:19:19.580" UserId="16666" Text="|taxes|llc|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17501" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6696" RevisionGUID="a24b3011-a5e6-41e7-aaa3-68cc536926de" CreationDate="2017-03-15T03:41:57.507" UserId="2265" Text="Don't, go to an accountant. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Go to an affordable one, or go on a one-time consult or whatever option you have to save money on this but you really do need professional advice. If you get this wrong, it will cost you a lot more. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17502" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6697" RevisionGUID="a55b76e7-3b68-40bd-827c-a7431f70a044" CreationDate="2017-03-15T10:05:43.987" UserId="16670" Text="I'm from a third world country where the luxury to accept payments from most popular payment gateways like PayPal doesn't exist to get payment transfers done cheap from my clients to me. I lose a significant amount of my earnings due to transfer fees. Would it be ethical to pass the burden of paying for all the transfer fees to my client in addition to the monetary compensation I am paid?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17503" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6697" RevisionGUID="a55b76e7-3b68-40bd-827c-a7431f70a044" CreationDate="2017-03-15T10:05:43.987" UserId="16670" Text="Should your clients pay for your payment transfer fees" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17504" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6697" RevisionGUID="a55b76e7-3b68-40bd-827c-a7431f70a044" CreationDate="2017-03-15T10:05:43.987" UserId="16670" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17506" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6699" RevisionGUID="b2059e36-789e-4e07-9aca-daf3061b8fe1" CreationDate="2017-03-15T15:50:44.603" UserId="16597" Text="The important question is not just about money - as I understand you, you would much rather bill your normal rate with a decent deadline, than bill double with a short deadline.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So whatever rate you choose, make sure to inform your client in the initial quote, and make it their, well-informed choice. Eg.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Feature X: 100 $ &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Feature Y: 50 $&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Feature Z: ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The quote assumes a 2 week deadline.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;+50% is added to the quote for deadlines shorter than a week - only upon mutual agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An additional +50% is added to the quote for deadlines shorter than a 48 h - only upon mutual agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That will surely have the desired effect." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17510" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6701" RevisionGUID="ce5c3658-0570-4868-abb0-4d09b53f4f40" CreationDate="2017-03-15T19:56:01.820" UserId="16674" Text="Most companies like PayPal have it in their agreements that you can not do this. But, to be honest, just factor it into the price and know you'll be taking home X-Payment Provider's Take. Just and idea." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17511" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="6697" RevisionGUID="82dfd671-02a4-431e-8f35-01cec87188fa" CreationDate="2017-03-16T03:31:01.280" UserId="-1" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[3651],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:7858,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;morsor&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:15202,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;JohnHC&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;,&quot;BindingReason&quot;:{&quot;DuplicateApprovedByAsker&quot;:&quot;&quot;}}]}" />
  <row Id="17512" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="599" RevisionGUID="bea049cb-d5be-4f58-957e-cbd5b1b55cbe" CreationDate="2017-03-16T15:51:56.800" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.meta.stackexchange.com/" Text="If you were to sell a *widget*, the floor selling price would be calculated as:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; minimum selling price = cost to manufacture + required profit&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;where &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; cost to manufacture = unit manufacturing cost + proportion of fixed overhead costs&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;where the total of `fixed overhead costs` are amortised across all manufactured widgets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Delivery and transport (etc) are then added on top, as a separate line item.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Update:** See also the excellent [blog article by Christopher Penn, titled &quot;How to set your consultant billing rate&quot;][1] identified by [@jmorte253 on Meta][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pricing up the provision of services is exactly the same... you need to know the fixed costs of running your business, and the unit cost of producing each widget (webpage, website, hour-of-consultancy) etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And expenses incurred get added as disbursements (with or without a markup as agreed)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The trick is setting your prices so that your required profit at a level that you are happy with, and at a price that the customer is happy with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you set your profit too high, or your overheads are too high, or your unit costs are too high you will lose out!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no definitive answer to the question, though, as individual circumstances (of supplier or customer) will affect the prices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: although the question is tagged as [tag:price-per-hour] there are other pricing models available for website development. Certainly I would expect website design to be more [tag:fixed-price] with support extra, but that's opinion!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.christopherspenn.com/2012/07/how-to-set-your-consultant-billing-rate/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/132/citing-sources-as-a-way-to-promote-the-site?noredirect=1#comment186_132" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17515" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6694" RevisionGUID="3ccbd11d-6fa4-426d-b878-9ae4ff8b9b33" CreationDate="2017-03-16T22:02:30.457" UserId="7717" Comment="added 290 characters in body" Text="**Never work on a project for equity.** Anyone who asks you to work for equity is extremely inexperienced and/or trying to take advantage of you. Politely explain that you are a professional and you expect to be paid for your time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client keeps asking you to work for equity, say that you need the money now to pay bills and such, and suggest that the client take a business loan to fund the development; then, when the project is a smashing success, they can keep all of the revenue for themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can accept equity as a bonus, but never as your primary form of payment. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17516" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2205" RevisionGUID="9197478f-4bea-4100-80e0-3eb49ef6faac" CreationDate="2017-03-17T09:05:56.470" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/842663279700905986" />
  <row Id="17517" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6543" RevisionGUID="2a038554-a35f-4625-aeb2-289fb6a11eeb" CreationDate="2017-03-17T10:46:12.513" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://security.stackexchange.com/ with https://security.stackexchange.com/" Text="Relying on software to be secure for you is the absolute wrong mentality to have when it come to internet security. Firewalls and anti-virus software are helpful, but are much better suited as a last line of defence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;So why are anti-virus programs and firewalls a bad thing?&quot; you might ask. They're not, I myself and most security-conscious users of computers use anti-virus and firewalls. No one in the right mind would suggest you remove them, and neither would I. I am simply suggesting that you, or any user, don't rely on these to keep them safe. Relying on software to keep you safe provides a dangerous mentality of ignorance, and a false impression of &quot;I'm 100% safe online&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To protect yourself against threats online, you should simply follow good practices and be aware of the risks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Firstly, a VPN is complete overkill for purely freelancing / work related tasks. as fiprojects rightly states, an IP essentially holds the same privacy standards as a phone number; you probably don't want to it broadcast for the world to see, but people need it to contact you, and you give it everyone that you contact. Now to each their own, but would I set up a phone system to obscure my own phone number, like a proxy or relay? probably not, maybe if I was expecting to do something incriminating then maybe, but then I'd also go through other methods as well to fully ensure anonymity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My suggestion for staying safe online would be to read up on proper practices. There are a number of sites that offer this information, many seem to target children due to the notion of teaching them sooner rather than later, but there are a number that focus more on adult safety and provide some logic behind practices. As well as these sites, https://security.stackexchange.com/ hosts a few questions regarding online safety.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These practices are simple, like not downloading from untrustworthy sources, or signing up to insecure / untrustworthy sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, keep a calm, judgemental and sceptical frame of mind when browsing the web. This may sound obvious or simple, but a large number of users get caught out by attacks where they're redirected and are immediately confronted with 5 or 6 pop-ups and notifications telling them their PC is infected and they need to 'download this and that' or 'call so and so tech support'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, I'd suggest learning more about networking and the behind the scenes of online communications if you're serious about keeping yourself secure. Now I'm in no way an expert of the subject, but a little knowledge goes a long way. It can be scary reading about all the horror stories online, reading up on the latest hack and doubting your security online; in a way that hearing about a disastrous plane crash before flying and not knowing the reasons can be scary. Once you start to look into it and understand the reasons behind why, it becomes less so, as it was most likely pilot error.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17518" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6573" RevisionGUID="a7b8b9b6-eea8-453a-b94c-961f20ca3d55" CreationDate="2017-03-17T20:18:14.067" UserId="7717" Comment="example" Text="I have been doing long-term software development with an out-of-state client. All of their dev work is done by myself and a handful of other freelancers, only one of whom I work with on a semi-regular basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This other guy, who I'll refer to as John, strikes me as painfully incompetent. He and I cover different portions of the front-end and back-end, so sometimes I have to ask him to do a task which I can't handle myself. When I ask him to do something, he says 'ok' and then does it in a different (usually incompatible, and always inferior) way than what I asked. Even when he tries to do it the right way, it's usually broken the first time (he never tests anything). He doesn't respond to a lot of my emails and often forgets to tell me when he makes a change that directly affects the work I'm doing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine having this conversation with someone over a two-week period:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **You:** I need you to make a function that accepts input in form X and returns output in form Y. [long explanation of why this is the case]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **John:** Okay, I made a function that accepts input in form A and returns output in form B&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **You:** That way doesn't make sense and isn't what we need. The function needs to take in X and output Y&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **John:** Ok, I changed the function to take in X and output B&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **You:** No, it needs to take in X and output Y. [summarize earlier explanation]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **John:** Okay, I finally read all of the original email you sent me and now I understand what you are looking for. I changed the function to take in C and output Y&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **You:** *The function needs to **accept input in form X and return output in form Y**. The input and output cannot be in any other format*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **John:** Okay, I did it the way you asked&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **You:** It doesn't work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **John:** Oops, I didn't test it. It should be fixed now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **You:** It doesn't work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **John:** Oops, I configured some things incorrectly. Try it now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **You:** It doesn't work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **John:** Okay, I'll look into it...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When brainstorming a large task, he often proposes extremely low-quality solutions that would be impossible to maintain and aren't acceptable on a professional project; sometimes he even starts implementing these solutions without getting approval first. These aren't minor, &quot;this could probably be refactored&quot; design issues, but massive flaws that would have far-reaching repercussions if implemented in his way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've only complained about him directly to the client once, when he kept failing at the same simple task over and over for two weeks and was preventing us from meeting a deadline; I only addressed that single issue and not his overall ability. Since then, he's been better, but better is far short of *competent*. Working with him is infuriating, but I haven't approached the client about this because I don't know how to express my feelings in a professional way. He does many other tasks for the client that I am not involved in and I have no idea how he performs at those tasks; since the client hasn't fired him yet, it is possible that he is more competent on other tasks or that the client is very forgiving.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How do you explain to a client that one of their other freelancers is not competent at his job, in a professional but compelling manner?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17520" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="5811" RevisionGUID="039618a7-2864-43e2-89bb-6b4f137b4556" CreationDate="2017-03-18T11:12:36.960" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17526" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6703" RevisionGUID="9e5c4a68-c692-48d3-b330-e037dc76754b" CreationDate="2017-03-20T18:52:37.760" UserId="16722" Text="It's my second semester of college and I've taken some relatively advanced data structures classes and java programming. I have written a solid amount of programs in a variety of different languages over the past few years. I'd like to get a start as a freelance programmer/web developer. Where should I start?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17527" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6703" RevisionGUID="9e5c4a68-c692-48d3-b330-e037dc76754b" CreationDate="2017-03-20T18:52:37.760" UserId="16722" Text="Starting freelance career as a programmer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17528" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6703" RevisionGUID="9e5c4a68-c692-48d3-b330-e037dc76754b" CreationDate="2017-03-20T18:52:37.760" UserId="16722" Text="|web-development|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17529" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6704" RevisionGUID="831b550b-46d4-497e-97e7-76dc42139705" CreationDate="2017-03-20T19:14:23.940" UserId="16724" Text="If I form a LLC today, would I be protected from any lawsuits from the past inventory I sold BEFORE I became a LLC, or am I only protected from the date of my LLC going forward?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17530" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6704" RevisionGUID="831b550b-46d4-497e-97e7-76dc42139705" CreationDate="2017-03-20T19:14:23.940" UserId="16724" Text="LLC and liability from past" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17531" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6704" RevisionGUID="831b550b-46d4-497e-97e7-76dc42139705" CreationDate="2017-03-20T19:14:23.940" UserId="16724" Text="|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17534" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6705" RevisionGUID="b0d33470-b202-4cda-89e6-91efa08b2268" CreationDate="2017-03-21T21:46:56.780" UserId="12482" Text="Any transactions before the formation of the LLC would technically be under a sole proprietor/individual.  Yet, even then, you could be liable for breaching the cooperate veil if the LLC is not held in good standing, your business and personal identity were blurred, and so on." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17535" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6705" RevisionGUID="b5931747-358a-4fea-a07c-77cbe64ef6dd" CreationDate="2017-03-21T21:53:43.813" UserId="12482" Comment="added 78 characters in body" Text="Any transactions before the formation of the LLC would technically be under a sole proprietor/individual.  For example, at your personal bank account, not a business LLC bank account.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yet, even with an LLC, your personal assets could be seized for breaching the cooperate veil if the LLC is not held in good standing,  bad debts, or other bad business practices happen." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17536" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6705" RevisionGUID="65aafd03-32a6-4e0c-aaf4-a966d4b4e27c" CreationDate="2017-03-21T22:04:58.557" UserId="12482" Comment="added 112 characters in body" Text="Any transactions before the formation of the LLC would technically be under a sole proprietor/individual.  For example, at your personal bank account, not a business LLC bank account.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yet, even with an LLC, your personal assets could be seized for breaching the cooperate veil if the LLC is not held in good standing, mixing business and personal transactions so as to blur the two identities, or other bad business practices happen.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom line: LLCs offers *some* protection from personal liabilities as long as the LLC is in good standing, but unfortunately it would only apply to the business transactions that occurred through the LLC, not through a personal checking account." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17537" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="30219fbf-4324-4f08-891a-75890c1df13e" CreationDate="2017-03-22T01:30:55.923" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17538" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6706" RevisionGUID="1e74c432-9095-42ca-9ee3-fa81a77bfb36" CreationDate="2017-03-22T07:32:24.980" UserId="16733" Text="I have designed a website for one of my client's and he is just asking for some documentation, my question here is Am I responsible for documenting the website or it is the web developer's or SEO work, please guide me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17539" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6706" RevisionGUID="1e74c432-9095-42ca-9ee3-fa81a77bfb36" CreationDate="2017-03-22T07:32:24.980" UserId="16733" Text="Who is responsible for documenting a freelance business website?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17540" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6706" RevisionGUID="1e74c432-9095-42ca-9ee3-fa81a77bfb36" CreationDate="2017-03-22T07:32:24.980" UserId="16733" Text="|freelance-websites|working-from-home|web-development|group-freelancing|webmasters|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17541" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6706" RevisionGUID="04b6db4c-142b-4a0c-8164-f35035cfa7db" CreationDate="2017-03-22T07:36:34.000" UserId="16733" Comment="added 154 characters in body" Text="I have designed a website for one of my client's and this is my first freelance work in which I have designed the complete front-end look of the website, he is just asking for some documentation, I don't know what this term actually means, my question here is Am I really responsible for documenting the website, which means is that mandatory or optional, please guide me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17542" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6707" RevisionGUID="6536f7ad-d331-49d3-a7d5-21aacb62cb0f" CreationDate="2017-03-22T08:26:53.133" UserId="7858" Text="Ask the client what they mean - and get concrete answers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the website includes some sort of content management system, the client probably wants a document including screen dumps describing how to perform typical tasks. Many clients will not be using the functionality on a daily basis and therefore need instructions; these must be provided by you - either in writing or by them phoning you every time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you probably have not included documentation in your estimate, your choices seem to be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Annoy the customer by attempting to get extra money for producing&#xD;&#xA;    documentation&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; 2. Do it for free as a learning experience and include documentation in&#xD;&#xA;    your future quotes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have no other current work, I would go for option 2. As a new freelancer, you especially need good customer interactions as a part of your individual brand-building." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17547" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6708" RevisionGUID="a334b949-987e-41be-9b22-8929cc193cbd" CreationDate="2017-03-22T23:51:49.227" UserId="10058" Text="Times are tough and finding clients for a full website is getting tougher, so I'm looking for parallel services I could offer to get my foot in the door, small mini contracts to help make their websites better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just like a garage might offer discounted oil changes, then they can upgrade to tune up and put more parts on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any ideas or suggestions? Please post you list of services that could be offered?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17548" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6708" RevisionGUID="a334b949-987e-41be-9b22-8929cc193cbd" CreationDate="2017-03-22T23:51:49.227" UserId="10058" Text="Looking for &quot;get foot in the door&quot; small contract ideas for finding web design and IT services clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17549" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6708" RevisionGUID="a334b949-987e-41be-9b22-8929cc193cbd" CreationDate="2017-03-22T23:51:49.227" UserId="10058" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|webmasters|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17554" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6662" RevisionGUID="c46a78bd-d5f3-4133-84e0-28e7139629d8" CreationDate="2017-03-23T13:06:18.983" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/844898098790977536" />
  <row Id="17555" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6711" RevisionGUID="91beadb8-c97e-4aeb-89c9-c1f9aa8b311b" CreationDate="2017-03-23T13:46:44.103" UserId="16744" Text="**United States** Software Designer/Dev Scenario:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a salary job, lets say 100K a year, and I now also have opportunities to work for other companies as an independent contractor in addition to that. I already have all of the benefits from my salaried employer, so I'm trying to understand what to charge in this situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did some research on what independent contractors charge and they all take into account the health benefits / insurance / tax / leave / sick pay and what not so they basically double+ the hourly rate of what they would work for as a salaried employee (in terms of 2,000 hours) at minimum, so $100/hr fee in place of a $100k a  year job at the least.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand that I will be paying more taxes while doing IC work in the US, but since I am already employed and have benefits from another company should this factor in to decreasing my rate?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have experience in this area as it seems to be some what of an ethical dilemma? Or maybe not? I don't know, I've asked lots of people and they all say you should still use the contracting rate that you would use if you were not employed by a company already.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess my overall question would be: &quot;as someone that is already paid a salary, should I decrease my contracting fee working for another company at the same time because I already have all of the benefits I need&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a slight revision from [This Workplace Exchange Question][1] Hoping to get some more insight.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/87674/should-i-keep-my-ic-wages-the-same-even-though-i-have-a-salaried-job-already &quot;workplace exchange&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17556" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6711" RevisionGUID="91beadb8-c97e-4aeb-89c9-c1f9aa8b311b" CreationDate="2017-03-23T13:46:44.103" UserId="16744" Text="Should I keep my IC wages the same even though I have a salaried job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17557" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6711" RevisionGUID="91beadb8-c97e-4aeb-89c9-c1f9aa8b311b" CreationDate="2017-03-23T13:46:44.103" UserId="16744" Text="|contracts|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17558" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6712" RevisionGUID="f015c7d0-82ac-4c95-bb8b-d818589f1191" CreationDate="2017-03-23T14:22:07.763" UserId="1706" Text="No.  If you're charging less than &quot;market&quot;, then clients may get the impression that you're taking on work for cheap because you're not very good at it.  The other side of the situation is that your 9-to-5 may not last forever, and if you have an opportunity to transition your side gig into full-time type hours, it's obviously not going to yield as much as the other job.  Also, it'll be harder to justify a seemingly arbitrary increase in your rate to your side-gig client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So start out getting paid what you're worth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17559" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6713" RevisionGUID="5ee791df-839e-449c-8210-8ba182786c96" CreationDate="2017-03-23T15:10:57.757" UserId="708" Text="There are some ethical implications where your industry is concerned, in addition to personal implications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you wish your industry to thrive and be a viable source of income, you really shouldn't undercut all your competition merely because your circumstances allow you to do so. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are willing to complete projects at rates *drastically* below market rates, you give clients the impression that *everyone* could complete their projects for that relative amount. This, in turn, creates obstacles for everyone in your industry. Inevitably it drives pricing for *everyone* down, Yourself included. Good luck raising your rates later after the entire industry has seen a 40% drop in overall pricing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just ask professional photographers how the mico-stock photo web sites *killed* their profession. Or at least made it *very difficult* to sustain a viable income the way they used to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is also currently happening in the writing industry. Writers are continually having to lower pricing because anyone with a laptop can claim to be a writer and charge next to nothing. This is making it very difficult for others who have been in the industry for years to maintain their current pricing levels.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition to all this.. if *you* **ever** intend or desire to work full time for yourself, you are setting up your freelance (contracting) arm to be a non-livable income. Which means, if you want o venture out full time into contracting, you'll have to find all *new* clients at a new, higher rate because most existing clients won't support a dramatic rate increase, regardless of the reason.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Charge normal rates..** factoring in healthcare, electricity, and all overhead. **You'll thank yourself later for doing so.** Not to mention, you'll be making more money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If anything, a *small* percentage discount may be okay due to slower turnaround times *because* you have a full time job. The reality is many clients with larger projects don't want to hire someone who's merely moonlighting. In my experience, they tend to favor full time freelancers. So it's feasible that you will only get work as a moonlighter, if your rates are a tad below market level. &quot;tad&quot; meaning roughly 10% lower, nothing dramatic." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17560" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6714" RevisionGUID="a62b084e-de57-4aa9-8694-ea143c06278a" CreationDate="2017-03-23T17:16:25.093" UserId="1706" Text="If you used a CMS, point your client to the user's manual.  That's the easiest approach.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If everything's custom, and the documentation was not included in your original scope of work, then the client needs to pay for it.  Very cut-and-dry." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17561" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3028" RevisionGUID="d088ab61-9a0b-4c50-b6a3-198f94ba00ff" CreationDate="2017-03-23T22:49:24.060" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17562" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6711" RevisionGUID="c333a184-65ed-4a41-a1ad-6342c1bdb9ae" CreationDate="2017-03-24T07:09:02.763" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/845170575974707202" />
  <row Id="17565" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="5811" RevisionGUID="50f90340-6dcf-458c-b338-b42cd1a68c76" CreationDate="2017-03-24T16:15:44.850" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/845308158402871300" />
  <row Id="17571" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6717" RevisionGUID="e95652a1-75d0-4f02-990c-c72c2a865efb" CreationDate="2017-03-24T22:55:02.023" UserId="16558" Text="President Trump has signed an Executive Order to tell the IRS NOT to enforce fines levied for lack of health insurance due to the expected revision of the ACA. While it is still law, it is not to be enforced. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;It orders agencies to “waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation of any provision or requirement” of ObamaCare that imposes a “fiscal burden on any State or a cost, fee, tax, penalty, or regulatory burden on individuals, families, healthcare providers, health insurers, patients, recipients of healthcare services, purchasers of health insurance, or makers of medical devices, products, or medications.”&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It was stupid anyway, young healthy people chose to pay the fine of a couple hundred dollars as opposed to thousands in premiums. Math never stops. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17572" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6718" RevisionGUID="d26d0a0e-3891-42d1-9056-df1646e0f740" CreationDate="2017-03-24T22:59:39.913" UserId="16558" Text="What &quot;kind&quot; of website? If it is just a static website, with or without a CMS there is nothing to give him other than the template you made and logins if it is something like wordpress.  If it is an application perhaps he is wanting source code. But it sounds like a simple HTML or WP site and the client does not know what he is asking for. If you are hosting it perhaps he wants access, if he is hosting it on his server well, he has the access. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17573" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6719" RevisionGUID="7ba2e6e9-b192-4d33-85d3-42be102e040a" CreationDate="2017-03-24T23:04:33.807" UserId="16558" Text="I'm not sure how &quot;we&quot; would offer a list of services that you can do. We don't know your skillset.  If I said list yourself as a Java developer and you are not a Java guy then what good would that do? What are your webdev skills?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17574" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6720" RevisionGUID="515ea5a6-b321-4625-b4fa-e2d1251e667a" CreationDate="2017-03-24T23:15:24.953" UserId="16558" Text="You will need to make your bones at all the freelancer sites and do the dirty work until you have a reputation then you will likely find some regular clients that you can make some decent money with. Any Angular experience? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17575" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6721" RevisionGUID="20a7f1b3-2f19-4c6c-a613-5f9b40901582" CreationDate="2017-03-24T23:28:41.690" UserId="16558" Text="There is nothing wrong with using a bank api to create an app, there are many bank APIs out there for that exact reason. However, if you do not have test credentials into that API, it sounds like a dark app made for phising and capture username/passwords of people thinking they are using their banks app.  Very few people create banking apps so highly unlikely it is legit. Regarding your liability, if the app is to commit fraud, don't think the FBI won't put you behind bars and let the courts decide your liability and livability. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17576" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6722" RevisionGUID="ddc609b8-6b5c-4c38-a6a6-64b2821dcd4b" CreationDate="2017-03-24T23:46:39.307" UserId="16558" Text="Create an overview, not detailed, give a projection of revenues and how you calculate that. Determine your selling price.  Have an NDA signed then show him the overview and sales projections. If he is truly interested and the price is semi-agreeable, create a LOI, Letter of Intent to purchase based on his examination and viability of the product. Include in the LOI that he will not create a similar product for the next &quot;x&quot; amount of time if he chooses not to make the purchase. There is really no way around someone copying you but you have a paper trail if you can afford to go after them. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17577" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6723" RevisionGUID="0ee2c7b8-1dbc-4aa0-aba9-265b02458871" CreationDate="2017-03-25T14:14:23.133" UserId="16491" Text="If you do, you'll be undercutting the market and creating lowered expectations of payment for everyone in the field. The price will be advertised to other companies through word-of-mouth and they'll be pressuring other freelancers to offer similar pricing. It's similar to W-2 employees offering a cut rate service in their spare time. It takes work from serious freelancers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17578" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6724" RevisionGUID="e8676705-488f-473e-81ea-4eac65b31dc3" CreationDate="2017-03-25T14:39:07.707" UserId="10262" Text="I'm planning on starting a fiverr gig soon but I need some clarification on a couple things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. When do I have to report earnings? Right away? After a certain amount is made?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. In terms of taxes which category does fiverr fall under? I've never done taxes for anything so any tips you might have for accounting as a freelancer would help me tremendously. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17579" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6724" RevisionGUID="e8676705-488f-473e-81ea-4eac65b31dc3" CreationDate="2017-03-25T14:39:07.707" UserId="10262" Text="A couple questions about fiverr" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17580" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6724" RevisionGUID="e8676705-488f-473e-81ea-4eac65b31dc3" CreationDate="2017-03-25T14:39:07.707" UserId="10262" Text="|accounting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17582" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6726" RevisionGUID="ef29d114-3821-4561-9141-11c9c5d3a7bb" CreationDate="2017-03-26T04:04:03.790" UserId="16763" Text="I've recently picked up a client in Australia, while I am US based. When outlining the work to be done and setting up the contract, is there any differences that need to be made? Will the contract be binding at all since we aren't under the same government systems? Finally, does anyone have any other info on this in general (articles, links, etc.)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks much!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17583" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6726" RevisionGUID="ef29d114-3821-4561-9141-11c9c5d3a7bb" CreationDate="2017-03-26T04:04:03.790" UserId="16763" Text="Freelance contract for international clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17584" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6726" RevisionGUID="ef29d114-3821-4561-9141-11c9c5d3a7bb" CreationDate="2017-03-26T04:04:03.790" UserId="16763" Text="|contracts|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17585" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6727" RevisionGUID="141d8290-6b21-456e-80f8-1dede620034a" CreationDate="2017-03-26T21:30:05.567" UserId="16558" Text="If you have had an income and never paid taxes you have a bigger problem than how to deal with reporting from Fiverr.  So you have either never had a job in your life as the reason you never paid taxes or everyone else is paying more because you are not paying at all. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, any freelancer income is reported as &quot;other wages&quot; on your annual 1040 filing. Most any tax site allows you to fill out for free the 1040ez form and submit for free. Regarding states taxes you can fill out those forms online as well but likely a $30 fee to file unless you want to do it yourself. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17586" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6728" RevisionGUID="bc69f172-aac9-4979-b1ea-1bed6dd17102" CreationDate="2017-03-27T07:22:10.673" UserId="517" Text="If you are so desperate for work, do a milestone work with them. Make them list a few tasks, you estimate, and set fixed price at any rate you want. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they decline, let it be like that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But in general, a client who wants YOU because of your qualities, but does not want to pay you your rate, does not respect you. He only wants good work for bargain. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to set monthly salary to work for them. But make sure it month per month. For example, you want to earn monthly $1000. Your rate is set such that at yearly average you earn approx $1000. If you think that you will not have work in 1 month, then it's better to work the minimum monthly earning for them, than to earn nothing. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17587" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6729" RevisionGUID="8538aa05-c468-42f3-b4f1-23e1cbfde62d" CreationDate="2017-03-27T14:53:11.650" UserId="15202" Text="&gt; When outlining the work to be done and setting up the contract, is&#xD;&#xA;&gt; there any differences that need to be made?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No. Service based means that you are supplying goods in your country.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Will the contract be binding at all since we aren't under the same government systems?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, tort law is fairly ubiquitous&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Finally, does anyone have any other info on this in general (articles, links, etc.)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having never worked with AUS, I do not" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17589" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6730" RevisionGUID="7ae998ac-580b-41b2-9c50-6666674279c3" CreationDate="2017-03-27T21:13:52.593" UserId="1706" Text="If you are writing the contract, then it'd probably be best that you specify that legal venue -- in the case of any disagreements that may occur -- be YOUR location.  That way, you can bring legal action without having to travel to Australia or having to hire an attorney there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure you're billing by the hour and invoicing in SHORT durations (no more than two weeks, but weekly is even better); or, if you're doing fixed-price, sell the project in &quot;milestones&quot; (you can search this site for related posts)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17590" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6731" RevisionGUID="8f1fc4ef-3d75-4e5e-bcf0-68ca9f86d223" CreationDate="2017-03-28T02:19:34.563" UserId="16783" Text="This is an additional service above and beyond your original agreement with the client.  There is nothing wrong with charging for extra services beyond what originally agreed to.  You are not in violation of any kind of copyright laws or extorting anyone if you charge to provide a copy of data they lost.  You bought the hard drive, you spent the time and care to make (and keep) a backup, and they are lucky you did so.  It will take you X amount of time to either FTP (on an internet line you pay for), or buy a memory card and ship it out.  Bill them by the hour plus expenses (card, shipping etc).  I charge $100 to $200 for this, plus expenses.  I had a client come to me a year after the shoot and I charged them $300, and they were happy to pay and get the files back after so much time.  You are a professional, charge for your professional services, and charge a nominal fee for extra services like this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17591" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6726" RevisionGUID="cf944253-36fc-4221-96c0-4d18f5eaa986" CreationDate="2017-03-28T06:20:56.153" UserId="85" Comment="Improved formatting; delete 'thanks'" Text="I've recently picked up a client in Australia, while I am US based.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - When outlining the work to be done and setting up the contract, is there any differences that need to be made?&#xD;&#xA; - Will the contract be binding at all since we aren't under the same government systems?&#xD;&#xA; - Finally, does anyone have any other info on this in general (articles, links, etc.)?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17592" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6732" RevisionGUID="28325d81-6624-4170-8e44-4d35f8cff23d" CreationDate="2017-03-28T06:56:08.507" UserId="85" Text="As a freelancer, you hold several distinct roles within the company&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Owner/shareholder&#xD;&#xA; - Director/Manager&#xD;&#xA; - Employee/Worker&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Limited Liability bit only limits the liability of the stock/shareholders - to the amount of their investment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Activities by the director/manager are subject to their fiduciary duties - which is why most companies hold Director's Indemnity Insurance; likewise, activities by employees are subject to them meeting the law - and why most companies hold Public Liability Insurance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a product is defective, or an employee of the company breaks the law, the company is still liable..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17593" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6733" RevisionGUID="158ca904-f79f-486c-8c2b-6f6a54fa7457" CreationDate="2017-03-28T20:15:09.827" UserId="7557" Text="I am doing a small software job for a client (who I have worked with before and know fairly well).  This particular job requires some additional hardware which from my preliminary research would be in the $1200 range.  The client is aware of both the need for the hardware and my estimated cost and is OK with my choice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During a recent phone call he approved the direction I wanted to go with the hardware and wants me to procure it and then added that I should &quot;  .. add in a reasonable mark up on the hardware&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that marking up hardware is a common thing to do but how should I determine what is reasonable?  Off the top of my head I can think of estimating how much interest I'll get hit with on my credit card between buying the equipment and being paid.  But the what other considerations are there that I should think about?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17594" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6733" RevisionGUID="158ca904-f79f-486c-8c2b-6f6a54fa7457" CreationDate="2017-03-28T20:15:09.827" UserId="7557" Text="Marking up hardware costs" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17595" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6733" RevisionGUID="158ca904-f79f-486c-8c2b-6f6a54fa7457" CreationDate="2017-03-28T20:15:09.827" UserId="7557" Text="|estimation|money|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17596" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6734" RevisionGUID="e76d9b5e-f1ef-4ef1-a679-415a2b787ac0" CreationDate="2017-03-28T20:31:46.260" UserId="708" Text="Customarily you do *not* charge interest. If you finance the purchase(s) that's on your shoulders, not the clients. In addition, you should be able to pay off any balance when you receive payment from the client. So markup due to covering costs would cover your interest in teh interim.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**It is customary to markup expenses about 20%.** That means you aren't marking up the equipment, you are marking up the money you must shell out. You are covering costs with your money.. so there's a fee for you taking that risk. Basically, you charge the client for using *your* money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you were to determine the cost of the item(s) and the client sent you that payment and *then* you purchased things, there would be no markup because you aren't covering costs at any point." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17597" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6735" RevisionGUID="b058ff2d-4735-4cf0-9377-de8e74377039" CreationDate="2017-03-28T22:46:47.927" UserId="16792" Text="Just FYI, Shooting video with a DSLR is perfectly professional; they're used in many films and TV series. It's certainly better than a crappy consumer 'video camera', though it's not as good as a proper cinema camera like a BMCC, C100, or Red One.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Taking stills while shooting video however, is not professional. It's possible he didn't bring a tripod because he'd not been briefed properly or had misunderstood the brief, and expected to need to move, and hence to shoot hand-held/shoulder-rig or gimbal. Though as a professional, he should probably have had a tripod in the car just in case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even professionals make mistakes. I once accidentally recorded an event in slow-mo (camera was located awkwardly, and I unknowingly hit the button whilst starting recording). Unfortunately, at 120fps, the flicker of the lights was very visible, making it unwatchable. However, being a professional, I spent my own time fixing this in post. The client never saw the mess.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He's likely embarrassed, but given he's uploaded it would be happy for you to use the footage for free, but won't want his name associated with it. Get confirmation of this by email or mail, and move on." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17598" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6598" RevisionGUID="c00d3d5a-b471-40d0-a8ef-e2a0d22b5788" CreationDate="2017-03-29T08:03:41.493" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17599" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6736" RevisionGUID="7c0a4bf0-3ed8-4bc9-8a81-80946205559b" CreationDate="2017-03-29T12:20:26.990" UserId="12318" Text="I was writing recently on the topic: [The ultimate guide to land a freelance gig – End to End][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://blog.envoice.in/ultimate-guide-land-freelance-gig-end-end/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To start with you will need to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Polish your freelancing portfolio &#xD;&#xA; 2. Learn more about the client you are going to pitch to &#xD;&#xA; 3. Learn more about the client you are going to pitch to  &#xD;&#xA; 4. Prepare for the first meeting&#xD;&#xA; 5. Learn how to create an estimate" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17600" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6734" RevisionGUID="172a8412-b497-41f7-9d64-a1992baf90e6" CreationDate="2017-03-29T15:55:24.723" UserId="708" Comment="added 128 characters in body" Text="Customarily you do *not* charge interest. If you finance the purchase(s) that's on your shoulders, not the clients. In addition, you should be able to pay off any balance when you receive payment from the client. So markup due to covering costs would cover your interest in the interim.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**It is customary to markup expenses about 20%.** That means you aren't marking up the equipment, you are marking up the money you must shell out. You are covering costs with your money.. so there's a fee for you taking that risk. Basically, you charge the client for using *your* money. You are essentially giving the client a *loan* to expedite the acquisition of something. The markup is the loan processing fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you were to determine the cost of the item(s) and the client sent you that payment and *then* you purchased things, there would be no markup because you aren't covering costs at any point and there's no &quot;loan&quot; in play." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17601" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6737" RevisionGUID="1e0b3c3b-937b-41d9-a700-ad71e3d385e3" CreationDate="2017-03-30T11:27:02.513" UserId="2872" Text="The title pretty much says it all: I am working for Company A and am now leaving.  Their clients, Client A, B, C and D all really like the work I do and have personally commented to me about how useful and well done it is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I leave, is there anything legally stopping me from contacting Clients A, B, C and D and offering them the same services but on a freelance basis?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I appreciate that they may have loyalty to Company A and that they may inform Company A that I have offered them the same services outside of the Company A environment which could jeapordise my reference, but that isn't what my question is about - I want to know, in legal terms, if I can do this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as I am aware, there is nothing in my contract stating that an employee can't do this post-employment (basically, it doesn't say that I *can't* do it).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am based in London, England.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Also note that I couldn't find one specific tag that is suitable for this question; if you are able to categorise it explicitly, then please do so.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17602" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6737" RevisionGUID="1e0b3c3b-937b-41d9-a700-ad71e3d385e3" CreationDate="2017-03-30T11:27:02.513" UserId="2872" Text="I am leaving work to go freelance - can I contact my employer's clients once I leave?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17603" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6737" RevisionGUID="1e0b3c3b-937b-41d9-a700-ad71e3d385e3" CreationDate="2017-03-30T11:27:02.513" UserId="2872" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17604" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6738" RevisionGUID="01c72809-3226-4b24-aa3e-4b6f9bef859c" CreationDate="2017-03-30T12:31:02.513" UserId="517" Text="If you have Non-Compete clause in the contact, then it's illegal indeed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If not, then it's not morally right. And if I am the client, I would never broke relations with my contractor I am happy with just to work cheaper with his ex worker. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On your side, it's a bit suspicious why a client would want to work with you. Is it only quality of your services or he plans to delay with payments, be a general as****e, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, go to a legal counselor and ask him this question. He will know the regulations of your own country. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17605" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6739" RevisionGUID="2dace8f2-fadc-4bea-a758-f10ca532c993" CreationDate="2017-03-30T13:52:15.883" UserId="16558" Text="It is a grey area. If you do not have a non-compete, send out an email to the clients thanking them for the time working with them and let them know you have left to go on your own and appreciate everything the company did for you and tell them they are in good hands with your replacement. Have a detailed signature perhaps your linkedin account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have praised your former employer, said they will do a great job even with you gone, and you are appreciative of the time there.  How can the company argue with that?  You made them look good and you have not directly solicited the clients. However, the clients that are more attached to you than the company can find you if they so desire and that is certainly not your fault. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17606" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6740" RevisionGUID="6d3ff45c-aa0b-45d1-ac88-c29c16c4725f" CreationDate="2017-03-30T14:13:39.567" UserId="16558" Text="Your percentage of markup on the hardware is based upon your decision of what you feel is fair and the other end-user prices out there. You first need to add on your hard expense such as shipping driving to pick it up , time to order etc. then decide how much you want to make that you feel is fair to the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you should absolutely factor in the cost of carrying charge on your card. You don't put &quot;10% interest&quot; on the invoice but when you add your profit to the hardware, that is a cost factor as well as any shipping or expense to go an pick it up. That potential interest charge is a cost and needs to be considered.  You can also create a hardware only invoice with a prompt pay discount whereas you give a discount for paying quickly on the hardware and you would not incur the interest charge such as  5% 10 Net 30.  Meaning if they pay you in 10 days you give them a 5% discount and if they pay after 10 days then they pay the full amount of the invoice because you will be carrying the cost on your card.  The 5% represents the costs to you from your credit card company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example but adjust for yourself as needed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;$1200 hardware&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;$ 200 markup&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;$  20 shipping&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;$ 120 Tax&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;$  50 potential interest on card&#xD;&#xA;____ &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Total $1590&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Terms 3% 10 Net 30&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they pay you within 10 days they will pay you $1542.30 which gives you time to pay the credit card without an interest charge. But you need separate hardware and labor invoices&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you are covered in your costs if your credit card bill becomes due before you are paid. If they pay you before hand, you can deduct those costs from the invoice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I disagree that the interest payments are your fault, they are an expense and not a reflection of your financial decisions. If you paid cash for the products your money is not able to make money elsewhere, that is a carrying cost. If the company does not want to incur additional expenses they could purchase the hardware themselves. With you purchasing the hardware, you make a few extra bucks &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17607" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6741" RevisionGUID="8c427ffb-bcc8-4bc6-8be1-1cb6556a1b56" CreationDate="2017-03-30T15:09:40.247" UserId="708" Text="You might want to consider the message you'll send to these clients.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're willing to &quot;stab your employer in the back&quot; by trying to steal their clients, clients might consider that quite telling. They may feel that you'd be willing to also &quot;stab them in the back&quot; if the opportunity presented itself. How you treat others (including past employers) is very indicative of how you'll treat me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if there is nothing *legal* preventing you from doing this, the gain is short lived. So you end up burning many bridges for the hopes of immediate, but not lasting, clients, if any. If your former employer feels your split from the company was amicable, they'll be in a better mindset to pass along contact information for you if asked. If the former employer is unhappy with you, they'll do everything in their power to discourage *anyone* from contacting you. One bad &quot;word or mouth&quot; spreads like wildfire.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Take the high ground and find new clients, if you offered something unique your employer's clients liked about their relationship with your employer, they'll seek you out. You don't need to go looking for them. The reality is, if you're venturing out freelancing full time, you probably shouldn't *need* those clients to start out. Sure, they may be nice to have,but if it's imperative you gain them, you might not be in a great position to start freelancing full time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Today I work with several clients that were connected to may last employer (more than 10+ years ago). They found *me*. I never went looking for them. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17608" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3520" RevisionGUID="d363caa3-d40e-4b28-a826-a8794bf2a0b3" CreationDate="2017-03-30T17:15:07.683" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17609" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6742" RevisionGUID="b938d733-14e9-4467-9fd3-95eaae24377a" CreationDate="2017-03-30T19:56:51.790" UserId="2265" Text="For the current situation I would like to know if I am morally wrong, not whether I would win in a court room. So it's primarily opinion based, but that's the point: I don't believe I have done anything wrong but the other party clearly does so I'm starting to wonder and looking for opinions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a freelancer who worked mainly for one company, company A, for a number of years. I have some small projects on the side that have recently become significantly larger, so I have stopped working for company A. During my last months at company A, I made a template that is quite useful to clients as it helps them to comply with some aspect of a law. I never invoiced them for the time spent on making the template. I never said I would use the template elsewhere, but I never said I wouldn't either and I definitely meant to use it for myself as well.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So company A has been using this template, but only gave it to selected clients. In general they believe it's necessary to not share templates because they believe it sets them apart from the competition and thus represents real money.     &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have also been using this template: I put it on a website and regularly distribute it at training sessions I give. I also put my logo on it. &#xD;&#xA;Company A saw this, and now claims I am not allowed to use the template because it's theirs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-- full disclosure --  &#xD;&#xA;When I started working on the template I talked about it with one of the managing partners of company A and he pointed me to some good resources that helped me make the template. A junior employee also spent an hour or two improving the template, based on my instructions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I right in believing I did nothing wrong by distributing the template freely with my logo, or is company A correct in saying the template is theirs and I have an ethics problem? (yes, those are their words) " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17610" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6742" RevisionGUID="b938d733-14e9-4467-9fd3-95eaae24377a" CreationDate="2017-03-30T19:56:51.790" UserId="2265" Text="Who owns the excel template I made? (not legally, ethically)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17611" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6742" RevisionGUID="b938d733-14e9-4467-9fd3-95eaae24377a" CreationDate="2017-03-30T19:56:51.790" UserId="2265" Text="|consulting|ethics|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17612" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6742" RevisionGUID="5d8b5517-f4db-4c48-a8a1-f68af41e19be" CreationDate="2017-03-30T20:05:04.400" UserId="2265" Comment="deleted 59 characters in body" Text="For the current situation I would like to know if I am morally wrong, not whether I would win in a court room. So it's primarily opinion based, but that's the point: I don't believe I have done anything wrong but the other party clearly does so I'm starting to wonder and looking for opinions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a freelancer who worked mainly for one company, company A, for a number of years. I have some small projects on the side that have recently become significantly larger, so I have stopped working for company A. During my last months at company A, I made a template that is quite useful to clients as it helps them to comply with some aspect of a law. I never invoiced them for the time spent on making the template. I never said I would use the template elsewhere, I never said I wouldn't either.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So company A has been using this template, but only gave it to selected clients. In general they believe it's necessary to not share templates because they believe it sets them apart from the competition and thus represents real money.     &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have also been using this template: I put it on a website and regularly distribute it at training sessions I give. I also put my logo on it. &#xD;&#xA;Company A saw this, and now claims I am not allowed to use the template because it's theirs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-- full disclosure --  &#xD;&#xA;When I started working on the template I talked about it to one of the managing partners of company A and she pointed me to some good resources that helped me make the template. Another employee also spent an hour or two improving the template, based on my instructions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I right in believing I did nothing wrong by distributing the template freely with my logo, or is company A correct in saying the template is theirs and I have an ethics problem? (yes, those are their words) " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17613" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6513" RevisionGUID="adfddd7c-e561-44af-a192-7988e2869af7" CreationDate="2017-03-30T20:18:39.047" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17614" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6743" RevisionGUID="8d4be08b-9db9-4975-9020-c97024465d43" CreationDate="2017-03-30T21:02:39.047" UserId="16558" Text="You are no longer at Company A, correct?  You have nothing to worry about legally and they know it which is why they used the word &quot;ethically&quot;. They sound like petty bullies to me and if an excel template gives them such an itch then they have bigger problems with their company. If it was created by someone else there and you took it, that's different, but you made an excel template, got some feedback and made some adjustments. It's a template, not a bunch of data on a template. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17615" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6744" RevisionGUID="412de706-b56d-4516-8114-c5095fd3a6cd" CreationDate="2017-03-30T22:01:37.207" UserId="708" Text="My **opinion** is that Company A is **correct**. Possibly even legally, but I am not an attorney.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By your own admission, **Company A, or its employees, assisted in creation, development, and improvement of this template making them a co-creator.** It would be a *reasonable expectation* that Company A was improving the work for their benefit and not for distribution. You did not create this template solely on your own, which means you do not own the template solely on your own. And, as with all creative ventures, would need permission from everyone involved in the creation before the work can be distributed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They have no right to prevent *you* from using the template yourself since you also assisted in creating it, but they *may* have a right to prevent you from *sharing* the template with other, possibly competing, companies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Strict legal ramifications would come down to the terms you were governed by when working for Company A. For example, a work-for-hire agreement **clearly** means they own everything and you own nothing. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17616" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6744" RevisionGUID="f6dc1fb8-6110-4a1e-ac76-b64c440c5dc3" CreationDate="2017-03-30T23:27:59.537" UserId="708" Comment="added 130 characters in body" Text="My **opinion** is that Company A is **correct**. Possibly even legally, but I am not an attorney.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By your own admission, **Company A, or its employees, assisted in creation, development, and improvement of this template making them a co-creator.** It would be a *reasonable expectation* that Company A was improving the work for their benefit and not for distribution. You did not create this template solely on your own, which means you do not own the template solely on your own. In fact, it is entirely possible that you *could not* have created the template in its current state *without* Company A's involvement. And, as with all creative ventures, would need permission from everyone involved in the creation before the work can be distributed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They have no right to prevent *you* from using the template yourself since you also assisted in creating it, but they *may* have a right to prevent you from *sharing* the template with other, possibly competing, companies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Strict legal ramifications would come down to the terms you were governed by when working for Company A and *exactly* who did what. For example, a work-for-hire agreement **clearly** means they own everything and you own nothing. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17617" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6744" RevisionGUID="ca826a8d-c5a5-4fda-b19b-562f94a309fe" CreationDate="2017-03-30T23:33:05.103" UserId="708" Comment="added 130 characters in body" Text="My **opinion** is that Company A is **correct**. Possibly even legally, but I am not an attorney.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By your own admission, **Company A, or its employees, assisted in creation, development, and improvement of this template making them a co-creator.** It would be a *reasonable expectation* that Company A was improving the work for their benefit and not for distribution. You did not create this template solely on your own, which means you do not own the template solely on your own. In fact, it is entirely possible that you *could not* have created the template in its current state *without* Company A's involvement. And, as with all creative ventures, would need permission from everyone involved in the creation before the work can be distributed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They have no right to prevent *you* from using the template yourself since you also assisted in creating it, but they *may* have a right to prevent you from *sharing* the template with other, possibly competing, companies. Distributing it in training sessions, to me, is a tad over the line. You are essentially making it available to anyone and everyone. If Company A relies on this as a business asset, they may be correct in feeling you are devaluing that asset.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Strict legal ramifications would come down to the terms you were governed by when working for Company A and *exactly* who did what. For example, a work-for-hire agreement **clearly** means they own everything and you own nothing. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17618" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6617" RevisionGUID="78f1f562-b842-4171-91c8-814156426fbd" CreationDate="2017-03-31T03:22:01.623" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17619" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6745" RevisionGUID="b98a486b-5431-4b9d-8f61-31b7348421f0" CreationDate="2017-03-31T14:51:40.507" UserId="7486" Text="I don't know where you are but in Europe, in general, the law works like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. If you are an **employee** everything that you produce when you work for a company it's intellectual property of the company. You have no rights to reuse anything.&#xD;&#xA;2. If you are a **freelance** (an external indipendent company) everything that you produce for any of your clients it's your intellectual property, and your clients acquire the &quot;licence&quot; to use it. **Unless** you sign a contract where you state that you sell the &quot;licence of use&quot; along with the intellectual property of the product/software/etc, or you sign a contract where you state that your product will be for exclusive use of the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now in case #2, you are allowed to sell (for example) the same software you developed for client A to clients B, C, D, ... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But in your specific case is more complicated because you declared that someone from the company helped you in some way, in this case the final product is a team work and is not from your exclusive work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In **my opinion**, considering the case #2, you can reuse/resell the parts of the work that were made exclusively by you, and you are not allowed to use the parts that were made by others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Please Note**: I am not a lawyer and I'm not the best also with english, so don't take what I wrote as granted, it's just my personal (local) experience.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17620" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6741" RevisionGUID="a1587f7a-9fb2-42b1-88ff-30e00cab3dec" CreationDate="2017-03-31T15:14:27.620" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="You might want to consider the message you'll send to these clients.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're willing to &quot;stab your employer in the back&quot; by trying to steal their clients, clients might consider that quite telling. They may feel that you'd be willing to also &quot;stab them in the back&quot; if the opportunity presented itself. How you treat others (including past employers) is very indicative of how you'll treat me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if there is nothing *legal* preventing you from doing this, the gain is short lived. So you end up burning many bridges for the hopes of immediate, but not lasting, clients, if any. If your former employer feels your split from the company was amicable, they'll be in a better mindset to pass along contact information for you if asked. If the former employer is unhappy with you, they'll do everything in their power to discourage *anyone* from contacting you. One bad &quot;word or mouth&quot; spreads like wildfire.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Take the high ground and find new clients, if you offered something unique your employer's clients liked about their relationship with your employer, they'll seek you out. You don't need to go looking for them. The reality is, if you're venturing out freelancing full time, you probably shouldn't *need* those clients to start out. Sure, they may be nice to have,but if it's imperative you gain them, you might not be in a great position to start freelancing full time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Today I work with several clients that were connected to my last employer (more than 10+ years ago). They found *me*. I never went looking for them. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17621" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6733" RevisionGUID="3411d110-0e58-48f8-8e44-29f1a3ac4313" CreationDate="2017-03-31T16:53:30.413" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/847854376177807361" />
  <row Id="17623" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6586" RevisionGUID="ee058ada-67fe-4cca-bd3e-1fb965559ebe" CreationDate="2017-04-02T00:17:20.907" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17625" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6747" RevisionGUID="b2cbd8d0-a57c-4d5e-b440-ca806d4fda35" CreationDate="2017-04-02T17:53:56.140" UserId="13093" Text="If you are working on upwork, once you've completed the desired job you should have some of the **evidences** like *contract details, interviews or message screen-shots* that is required to prove that you are legit. Having all in your hand, you should refer to upwork [report your client][1] section. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From there you will be able to select your `question category` in your case select `work, feedback, and disputes`. Then you have to select another option,  `Unresponsive Client` will be best suitable in your case. Having that selected, attach your evidences in a zipped folder and fill other relevant informations (*email, description about your problem)* and submit.&#xD;&#xA;[![Upwork report your client][2]][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that, by any chance, if you've contacted with the client **outside of the upwork network** about the contract or payment, upwork authority will not be liable for this scenario or even you could've been get blocked instead because of violating upwork freelancer rules. But if you haven't done that, in most cases, upwork solves these type of issues within one or two weeks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**In case if you are not working on upwork,** most freelancing websites like freelancer.com, peoplesperhour.com or fiverr.com has a support section from there you will be able to submit a query or open a support ticket. You just need to follow the same rules as showing them the screen-shots and relevant files and information to get paid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/requests/new&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/dqw56.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17626" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2765" RevisionGUID="9c89e455-6f46-45b3-9531-814d8063ba56" CreationDate="2017-04-02T19:03:18.097" UserDisplayName="user5768" Comment="deleted 1663 characters in body" Text="I am a young web designer (20 years old) from Slovenia, i love design and i am passionate about it.I have been designing since I was 14 years old. My boss is happy with my work. I also see that collegues from college like my designs and frequently reach out to me and or ask me questions. I wouldnt consider myself excellent, but I believe that currently my skill is moderate( i still have/want much to learn and discover). :) I am currently employed and studying part time. I also do freelance work for my collegues and friends of friends and anyone that reaches out to me basically.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am wondering how hard it is to start the freelance, how do you know if I am ready for it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for reading!! please leave any suggestions, thoughts, opinions or comments I will be happy and grateful if you do! Please help me :(" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17629" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="1215" RevisionGUID="df005842-def6-4f17-b301-0d33b3f209ae" CreationDate="2017-04-02T19:15:30.390" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="17630" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6748" RevisionGUID="8674cf1f-7a13-4881-a6aa-b62e2a2993a3" CreationDate="2017-04-03T08:45:29.053" UserId="8574" Text="this is a vital question , &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;especially relevant to south east asian freelancers, who are frequently being underpaid, mistreated for equal rights &amp; a social payment inequality seem to be prevalent conducted by the Western Freelancer Buyers{/Employers}" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17631" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6748" RevisionGUID="8674cf1f-7a13-4881-a6aa-b62e2a2993a3" CreationDate="2017-04-03T08:45:29.053" UserId="8574" Text="Is there any authority to look after the non-payment issues to freelancers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17632" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6748" RevisionGUID="8674cf1f-7a13-4881-a6aa-b62e2a2993a3" CreationDate="2017-04-03T08:45:29.053" UserId="8574" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17633" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6737" RevisionGUID="a4923326-5170-41c8-b958-79663d401a58" CreationDate="2017-04-03T11:13:35.957" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/848855999087771649" />
  <row Id="17634" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6749" RevisionGUID="2d50bfdd-757f-4cdf-98d4-0455f44d2a72" CreationDate="2017-04-03T14:22:23.207" UserId="15202" Text="Let's address each point in turn...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Non-payment**  &#xD;&#xA;Handled through the courts and the extensions thereof. Which country you open the suit in will depend on countries involved and existing trade agreements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Underpaid**  &#xD;&#xA;This is a free market. South east asian freelancers are often paid less than those in the west for 3 main reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Language barrier  &#xD;&#xA;    It exists. Sometimes it is just quirks and idioms, other times it is more&#xD;&#xA; 2. Preference for local developers  &#xD;&#xA;    Cultural preferences, available times, etc&#xD;&#xA; 3. Work style  &#xD;&#xA;    Having worked with software devs from all over the world, there is a definite cultural difference in approach to development work between the west and SE Asia. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is more of an observation than my own preference (I have previously been asked if I can recommend people based on the criteria of being British).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Mistreatment**  &#xD;&#xA;Again, free market. Put better conditions into the contract. As for discrimination, I have not encountered this and am unable to comment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, the contract between the freelancer and the client should be written in such a way as to protect both parties' interests fairly. If you, as a freelancer, sign a contract that crucifies you, the only person at fault is you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17635" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6750" RevisionGUID="247f262e-26bc-47fb-bd1a-eebe895ee7d3" CreationDate="2017-04-03T14:33:09.730" UserId="14877" Text="Please also note that in your case of working on Upwork, Upworks TOS include a basic NDA agreement between the two parties, so this is rarely required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I assume that your client doesn't even know about this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See: https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211063608-Can-I-ask-freelancers-to-sign-a-non-disclosure-agreement&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and: https://www.upwork.com/hiring/legal/intellectual-property-protection-non-disclosure-agreements/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17636" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6751" RevisionGUID="76f5521f-8e53-4fe1-923d-c0457e1e0898" CreationDate="2017-04-03T17:26:50.633" UserId="1706" Text="This sounds like a work-for-hire concern.  I'm not an attorney.  If you're in the US, then the Copyright Office has this spelled out pretty clearly [here][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ09.pdf&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In particular, this section:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 	Section 101 of the Copyright Act (title 17 of the U.S. Code) defines a “work made for hire” in two parts:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;	&#xD;&#xA;&gt;	a) a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment&#xD;&#xA;&gt;	&#xD;&#xA;&gt;	or&#xD;&#xA;&gt;	&#xD;&#xA;&gt;	b) a work specially ordered or commissioned for use&#xD;&#xA;&gt;	&#xD;&#xA;&gt;	  1. as a contribution to a collective work,&#xD;&#xA;&gt;	  2. as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work,&#xD;&#xA;&gt;	  3. as a translation,&#xD;&#xA;&gt;	  4. as a supplementary work,&#xD;&#xA;&gt;	  5. as a compilation,&#xD;&#xA;&gt;	  6. as an instructional text,&#xD;&#xA;&gt;	  7. as a test,&#xD;&#xA;&gt;	  8. as answer material for a test, or&#xD;&#xA;&gt;	  9. as an atlas,&#xD;&#xA;&gt;	&#xD;&#xA;&gt;     if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17637" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6752" RevisionGUID="3da2d95d-96a2-4bf7-b6e7-b3a4b8a09477" CreationDate="2017-04-04T00:08:05.787" UserId="15631" Text="I took on some work for a client when I first started using Upwork and I was also in a full time job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The rate I quoted for the work was low ($55 AUD per hour) but I felt it was a good price at the time to get my foot in the door.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've since become a full time freelancer, and my standard hourly rate is $100 AUD per hour. I have 2 other clients that are paying that rate for my services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As this work is ongoing and likely to take up a decent amount of time over the coming weeks I'm in a difficult scenario whereby I need to raise my price for this client but I don't want to loose them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would you tackle this issue?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17638" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6752" RevisionGUID="3da2d95d-96a2-4bf7-b6e7-b3a4b8a09477" CreationDate="2017-04-04T00:08:05.787" UserId="15631" Text="Raise price of hourly rate for existing client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17639" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6752" RevisionGUID="3da2d95d-96a2-4bf7-b6e7-b3a4b8a09477" CreationDate="2017-04-04T00:08:05.787" UserId="15631" Text="|pay-rate|negotiation|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17640" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6249" RevisionGUID="e7b09556-d5fa-402f-8071-eac870816e5c" CreationDate="2017-04-04T03:20:20.413" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17641" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6402" RevisionGUID="da8b798d-7a99-4f7b-b63f-c6782b2907cd" CreationDate="2017-04-04T06:12:42.600" UserId="1793" Comment="added 5 characters in body" Text="I'm working something for a client and I'm paid per hour. I created a tool to automate redundant tasks which basically lessens the time down to 10% (leaving 90% off to automation). I'm thinking I'm actually shooting myself in the foot because I'm taking all those money away by shortening the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My options are:  &#xD;&#xA;1. Don't mention it to the client and just file the time manually? I don't think this is fair.  &#xD;&#xA;2. Ask a raise for my rate per hour, this one I think is fairer since I actually built the tool myself and spent hours to develop it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you guys think?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#EDIT&#xD;&#xA;I actually thought of charging per project done but the problem is there are ad-hoc tasks for each project, like revisions or modifications so I'm not entirely sure how to deal with this. I find it more complicated if I do project base.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also client doesn't have rights to what I build for myself, only the ones they explicitly want to be done by me; deliverables, assets, etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17642" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6753" RevisionGUID="3d9ad798-adf5-4e4a-b511-7fcb45837625" CreationDate="2017-04-04T07:32:24.547" UserId="517" Text="Every one of us has come to this point. In my case, at some point when I got &quot;too many&quot; clients, I started filtering them on those keep working and those that simply take my time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I sent circular email to all of them informing them that in 6 months my rate will increase and will be XYZ dollars. I found this fair as this gives them time to find someone else if they cannot work with me any more. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few clients left, those bigger ones stayed with me. But a few clients I liked to work with asked me how we can keep working together under the old rate. I offered them an option either that I work their project when I have no other more expensive tasks on the table or that I employ another person who will work for them supervised by me. Again, a few gone from me after that, but a few stayed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I not only not got more earning, but I employed 1 person and kept low-rat clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;NOTE: This was my own case. I heard that others were not so open with their clients. They started offering new rates to new clients, and assigned another person to work on low-rate projects. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17646" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6755" RevisionGUID="270e82d9-f83b-4a4b-9422-931d1697ab86" CreationDate="2017-04-05T02:07:18.953" UserId="16168" Text="I've incorporated as a solo freelance consultant. I have 1 client at 20 hours/week. My marketing plan is through content-marketing via a technical blog. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to ask an old coworker to join as a freelance consultant so we can work together. I'm certain the 1 client I'm working with would hire him (as they are trying to hire 1 or 2 more people in a niche field), so I'd like to ask if he wants to join me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm leaning towards suggesting my coworker incorporate as his own business. We can both contribute to the technical blog together if he would like. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Questions:&#xD;&#xA;1) I'm leaning toward suggesting he incorporate as his own freelance consultant company instead of us splitting the one I started. Does that make sense?&#xD;&#xA;2) If we both contribute to a content-marketing blog, how would we split the client work? I guess we would need to figure that out ourselves?&#xD;&#xA;3) If he doesn't contribute to the marketing blog, and I bring in all the work, how much or should I take a % of pay for projects he works on?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17647" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6755" RevisionGUID="270e82d9-f83b-4a4b-9422-931d1697ab86" CreationDate="2017-04-05T02:07:18.953" UserId="16168" Text="I've started freelance consulting. I want to ask an old colleague to join as a fellow freelance consultant. How?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17648" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6755" RevisionGUID="270e82d9-f83b-4a4b-9422-931d1697ab86" CreationDate="2017-04-05T02:07:18.953" UserId="16168" Text="|consulting|incorporation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17649" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6755" RevisionGUID="75c9d7ba-4d38-4328-a58c-6bcdbca35d17" CreationDate="2017-04-05T02:22:25.390" UserId="16168" Comment="added 6 characters in body" Text="I've incorporated as a solo freelance consultant. I have 1 client at 20 hours/week. My marketing plan is through content-marketing via a technical blog. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to ask an old coworker to join as a freelance consultant so we can work together. I'm certain the 1 client I'm working with would hire him (as they are trying to hire 1 or 2 more people in a niche field), so I'd like to ask if he wants to join me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm leaning towards suggesting my coworker incorporate as his own business. We can both contribute to the technical blog together if he would like. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) I'm leaning toward suggesting he incorporate as his own freelance consultant company instead of us splitting the one I started. Does that make sense?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) If we both contribute to a content-marketing blog, how would we split the client work? I guess we would need to figure that out ourselves?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) If he doesn't contribute to the marketing blog, and I bring in all the work, how much or should I take a % of pay for projects he works on?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17650" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6756" RevisionGUID="ca83c85e-3d9b-4483-9eae-d6d439d23512" CreationDate="2017-04-05T08:33:23.027" UserId="517" Text="Why don't you hire him instead of &quot;showing&quot; him your clients and connecting him to them? This way you can earn a bit from his work. And of course, suffer negative consequences in case of troubles. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This seems like a lot of work and questions for all good things you will provide to your colleague: start his business, get a client immediately, gain reputation, earn money from start,...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The result of this are the questions you asked which all arose from the fact that you do not want to hire him as a worker , but insisting on him starting his own business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, there is an option you outsource the work to him and take some percent from this work. This is good option if the work is not long-term and hiring him would not be an option. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17651" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="742" RevisionGUID="7d753322-95c5-41df-859d-232f8923570b" CreationDate="2017-04-05T17:39:05.567" UserId="9974" Comment="corrected grammar" Text="I am an experienced IT freelancer (15+ years of software development and systems administration) and have recently gained some SAP certification, actually the basic SAP ERP certificate (from SAP AG) and an ABAP certificate from a local university.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I'd like to apply my new skills a bit, preferably remotely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the well-known sites where freelance projects are posted there is barely any SAP stuff. Are there any special sites I just don't know about or SAP distant contract work doesn't exist at all?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17652" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="742" RevisionGUID="7d753322-95c5-41df-859d-232f8923570b" CreationDate="2017-04-05T17:39:05.567" Comment="Proposed by 9974 approved by 7486, 2265 edit id of 526" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17653" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="744" RevisionGUID="004e6159-f434-43eb-ac2c-d8c1b88edf3e" CreationDate="2017-04-06T13:41:29.840" UserId="9974" Comment="updated top sites" Text="Being specialist in such tech is a good and bad thing. Good thing because you can set higher rates. Bad because there isn't much work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking for a specialized communities is a bit outdated. I once read that most such communities are abandoned nowadays. I am not sure about SAP, but it may be the same thing. Or maybe someone will give you a killer URL ;). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So first thing I would do is constantly monitoring ([top 7 freelancing sites][1]). Set up a good RSS which will inform you on any SAP job that is posted. Being so rare and you being so good will get you a change to win almost all such project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second thing I would do is not limiting myself to SAP or broadening my search. For example, I see a project where I see that the client is having a project where he may need my services in the future or he needs them now but did not explicitly asked for them. I would also apply to such job letting the client that he should need my services as well or offering myself for future work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As in real life, a client may not need you right now, but it's good you too introduce to each other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The third this is that I would find a large clients of a specific website. Once they post a job which comes into the category of my services, I would apply to it and introduce myself. Many such large clients will never post a job for a specific service because he has a lot of experience on those websites and he simply does not think that he will find a good person there. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/276990" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17654" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="744" RevisionGUID="004e6159-f434-43eb-ac2c-d8c1b88edf3e" CreationDate="2017-04-06T13:41:29.840" Comment="Proposed by 9974 approved by 2265, 85 edit id of 527" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17658" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="744" RevisionGUID="022a5b5e-59de-49eb-8e54-da22f8e66333" CreationDate="2017-04-06T18:22:31.043" UserId="75" Comment="Rollback to [064c8413-4787-45d2-bc53-96e74d166777]" Text="Being specialist in such tech is a good and bad thing. Good thing because you can set higher rates. Bad because there isn't much work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking for a specialized communities is a bit outdated. I once read that most such communities are abandoned nowadays. I am not sure about SAP, but it may be the same thing. Or maybe someone will give you a killer URL ;). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So first thing I would do is constantly monitoring top 5 freelancing sites ([google link][1]). Set up a good RSS which will inform you on any SAP job that is posted. Being so rare and you being so good will get you a change to win almost all such project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second thing I would do is not limiting myself to SAP or broadening my search. For example, I see a project where I see that the client is having a project where he may need my services in the future or he needs them now but did not explicitly asked for them. I would also apply to such job letting the client that he should need my services as well or offering myself for future work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As in real life, a client may not need you right now, but it's good you too introduce to each other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The third this is that I would find a large clients of a specific website. Once they post a job which comes into the category of my services, I would apply to it and introduce myself. Many such large clients will never post a job for a specific service because he has a lot of experience on those websites and he simply does not think that he will find a good person there. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&amp;channel=fs&amp;q=freelancing%20site&amp;ie=utf-8&amp;oe=utf-8#channel=fs&amp;q=best%20freelancing%20%20sites%202013" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17659" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6758" RevisionGUID="dda3baf7-1f54-47e0-b885-b32912021881" CreationDate="2017-04-07T05:17:37.800" UserId="16590" Text="Recently I have had quite a few remote jobs. By remote jobs I mean clients want me to travel more than 100km from where I do my business. &#xA;&#xA;Generally consists of flights or driving. &#xA;Clients usually pay for flights and pay for petrol.&#xA;&#xA;The issue I found with remote jobs is it usually consists of morning wake ups and extra travel time. Though it's all paid for its quite exhausting and is much easier to work at home and make the same amount with a few extra hours.&#xA;&#xA;Is it ethical to charge for travel time even though expenses are covered or is there something else to consider? &#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17660" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6758" RevisionGUID="dda3baf7-1f54-47e0-b885-b32912021881" CreationDate="2017-04-07T05:17:37.800" UserId="16590" Text="Remote jobs - how to charge clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17661" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6758" RevisionGUID="dda3baf7-1f54-47e0-b885-b32912021881" CreationDate="2017-04-07T05:17:37.800" UserId="16590" Text="|payment-terms|pay-rate|travel|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17662" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6758" RevisionGUID="54fa0be6-91ec-4808-b6c0-225d18a019b6" CreationDate="2017-04-07T05:29:11.810" UserId="16590" Comment="added 39 characters in body; added 1 character in body" Text="Recently I have had quite a few remote jobs. By remote jobs I mean clients want me to travel more than 100km from where I do my business. &#xA;&#xA;Generally consists of flights or driving. &#xA;Clients usually pay for flights and pay for petrol.&#xA;&#xA;The issue I found with remote jobs is it usually consists of morning wake ups and extra travel time. Though it's all paid for its quite exhausting and is much easier to work at home and make the same amount with a few extra hours.&#xA;&#xA;Is it ethical to charge for travel time even though expenses are covered or is there something else to consider? &#xA;&#xA;EDIT: I work in I. T at an hourly basis&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17663" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6759" RevisionGUID="b431012c-5e38-4c64-a0d1-5f33c7eedac1" CreationDate="2017-04-07T08:26:04.580" UserId="517" Text="I usually avoid accepting share from business success because it always includes free work from my side. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, after years being in the business, I found a client who is ready to offer business profit share ABOVE our regular costs. Like incentive to put even more of myself in the project and to easily drop any side offer on new products. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The app is a mobile app and generates income via in-app purchasing and ads. So how do I get X percents of the profit? How do I know the amount of profit on monthly/yearly basis?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is very serious and the question is serious. How can I assure that I actually get X percent and not less?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not a petty person, but if I am offered something, I do not like to be screwed, but I expect transparency. So I am asking this questions in advance just to be prepared if something bad happens to know how to react. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17664" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6759" RevisionGUID="b431012c-5e38-4c64-a0d1-5f33c7eedac1" CreationDate="2017-04-07T08:26:04.580" UserId="517" Text="Best way to get share from client's business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17665" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6759" RevisionGUID="b431012c-5e38-4c64-a0d1-5f33c7eedac1" CreationDate="2017-04-07T08:26:04.580" UserId="517" Text="|profit-share|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17666" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6759" RevisionGUID="aee0902d-d9df-4050-a880-eb8a5f813d63" CreationDate="2017-04-07T11:35:06.870" UserId="517" Comment="added 265 characters in body" Text="I usually avoid accepting share from business success because it always includes free work from my side. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, after years being in the business, I found a client who is ready to offer business profit share ABOVE our regular costs. Like incentive to put even more of myself in the project and to easily drop any side offer on new products. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The app is a mobile app and generates income via in-app purchasing and ads. So how do I get X percents of the profit? How do I know the amount of profit on monthly/yearly basis?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is very serious and the question is serious. How can I assure that I actually get X percent and not less?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not a petty person, but if I am offered something, I do not like to be screwed, but I expect transparency. So I am asking this questions in advance just to be prepared if something bad happens to know how to react. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT: Signing a contract (just that) is not an option because each contract violations request me to go to court which take a lot of time and additional costs. So I am looking for practical and concrete solutions aside of the legal ones provided by a contract. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17667" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6760" RevisionGUID="34b48ff9-0147-44a8-aeed-b15d6666928b" CreationDate="2017-04-07T14:20:21.540" UserId="15202" Text="Ethical? Of course it is. You already charge for your time. You can add this into a callout fee, or travel time as a separate line item on your invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a however here... Your overall cost will increase, possibly affecting your ability to be competitive." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17668" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6761" RevisionGUID="12e56618-a48b-495d-ba05-47efb2b470cf" CreationDate="2017-04-07T17:48:17.040" UserId="16558" Text="There are a couple things to consider.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. you are being paid your regular rate, therefore anything above that rate (profit share) is a bonus however long of short it is paid out and if client did not offer you a profit share then you are charging the same yes? then you are ahead of the game.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. how to audit the profit share? have logins to the backend to see the purchases and advertising revenues. That said while you may see what is owed, there is no way to collect if they choose not to pay. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. a contract, as you said, enforcing a contract is expensive, and in this case could well outweigh the profits from the app so it not practical. It may make someone feel better to have the law on their side but the reality is it costs money to go to court. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. the problem arises when you are expected to put in more of your time without compensation based on future profit sharing. that is the risk. think of it as selling a car to the client, he says thank for the car, I want to give you a portion of the proceeds from my use of the car.  Nothing out of your pocket at this point, but when he asks you to do service work on the car for free, in anticipation of a profit share, that is where you should have a problem. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. I would want to know why the client wants to give you ongoing profits above and beyond your regular rate. It makes no sense business wise unless he intends to leverage that on some way. Is the app legal? or doe sit push boundaries like another one mentioned here about collecting bank logins? You may be wanted as a &quot;fall guy&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In conclusion, there is no way to enforce a contract due to the costs, you are already being paid your normal rate, so consider any profit sharing as a bonus but ask if you are expected to do anything in exchange for that profit share. Likely it will be updating the app and then you need to ask for backend access to monitor revenues and decide if you want to offer free updates in exchange for a cut. And if you do, and feel the profit share is advantageous over straight pay, I'd still ask for payment in advance to be subtracted from your profit share.  This way you still get paid even if there are no profits. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A bit long winded..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17669" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6762" RevisionGUID="d20a49a4-1fc9-4fe9-8c65-b632e045ebec" CreationDate="2017-04-08T07:19:44.337" UserId="517" Text="Well it depends on what you have agreed before. I am sure the client mentioned travelling, but you overlooked at it and did not consider time you will &quot;lose&quot; travelling. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would approach to a client honestly and openly telling him how you did not expect it will be so tiring and time consuming. Offer him some options like working from home X of 5 days or extra costs for time spent on travelling, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would go with an option to work from home X days from 5 and those days I am travelling to work and back would consider work time. For example, if I spend 3 hours travelling to work and back and work 8 hours, I would expect to be paid 11 hours. Simply because this is freelance work and the client is the one insisting to work in his premises. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the nature of your work is to travel to remote locations (if you are some hardware expert or even backend expert), then I am not sure you will be able to charge extra. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17670" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4533" RevisionGUID="a4d2aace-e9a1-4b7a-b10a-429a26828a41" CreationDate="2017-04-09T15:51:58.600" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17671" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6752" RevisionGUID="26dfede0-9691-452b-bd1d-7739092de8c3" CreationDate="2017-04-10T08:44:03.730" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/851355082188881920" />
  <row Id="17672" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6763" RevisionGUID="42702564-5638-45f3-b01b-602490a2cfcb" CreationDate="2017-04-10T16:21:04.120" UserId="12034" Text="**First things first:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I worked with `company` in a project for `client`, where I was simply a developer that did the tasks defined by `company`.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;`client` then decides that he wants to make his own team after `company` contract finishes, so `client` contacts me, and after several months, I am part of his team, separated from `company`. In the team, there's a `randomGuy` who would act as CTO.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;`randomGuy` is terribly arrogant. Even though he knows *nothing* about programming and doesn't understand *anything* technical about the project, he has this prepotent attitude where he questions me about literally everything. But OK, fine; I leave my pride aside and I try to be professional about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Situation:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An issue that I had reported several times to `company` and was never resolved because `company` didn't manage a task for it appears again, since we want to publish the app. `randomGuy` asks me about it; I answer what I just said; &quot;`company` is well aware of it; if they told you that it's ready for publication, then that issue must have been resolved by them&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A day after, `randomGuy` writes to `company`:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; (My name) made us aware of an issue. I was never told about this and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; (My name) says that we're still waiting on you to work with us to deal&#xD;&#xA;&gt; with this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My problem:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My reaction was &quot;is `randomGuy` (unnecessarily) putting me in a position of conflict with `company`, who was my client, who has contacted me for other work unrelated to this project?!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm baffled by this. If I were `company`, I wouldn't ever work again with a freelancer that not only blames me, but also **creates a conflict situation, when it isn't needed *at all*.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel like `randomGuy` has hurt my reputation with `company` and that I've potentially lost `company` as a client, and he has not behaved like a team player, much less like a leader. He could have contacted `company` without creating this conflict with me in the center of it. I feel like I need to call him out on this, to be clear that I don't want to work with someone that behaves like this, and that I expect this to be the last time he does something like this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are your thoughts? Was `randomGuy` attitude unprofessional? Is my reputation with `company` irreparably broken? How (and should I) talk about this with `randomGuy`?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17673" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6763" RevisionGUID="42702564-5638-45f3-b01b-602490a2cfcb" CreationDate="2017-04-10T16:21:04.120" UserId="12034" Text="Someone contacted my client and created a conflict, how do I handle it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17674" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6763" RevisionGUID="42702564-5638-45f3-b01b-602490a2cfcb" CreationDate="2017-04-10T16:21:04.120" UserId="12034" Text="|communication|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17675" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6764" RevisionGUID="1538d16f-b254-4310-8eb9-53e6f8db0c4d" CreationDate="2017-04-10T22:22:48.137" UserId="9910" Text=" I think is simple:&#xA;&#xA; 1. RandomGuy is not professional, but in terms of intelligence. He/her didn't want to mess with you, just lack of intelligence.&#xA; 2. Be clear with random guy and tell him/her about what he did and why do you think it puts you in a bad position.&#xA; 3. Company doesn't care that much, if they do, they will find out that the problem was already reported.&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17676" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6765" RevisionGUID="27f41476-a499-409a-9f5d-b0dc8d4da47f" CreationDate="2017-04-11T00:09:06.283" UserId="16558" Text="Your work with current client is temporary, yes? As is your relationship with Randomguy? However your reputation is more permanent. I would do two things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Contact the Company directly and let them know you did not &quot;throw them under the bus&quot; but rather addressed Clients question about an item still on the punch list and you did not speak poorly of Company. I would tell them you enjoyed the work you had done for Company previously and it still remains that you are available for other projects should they need you. I would let Company know not to take to heart anything RandomGuy says and you will do your best to maintain their reputation with client. (Company will not go to RandomGuy and say &quot;Freealncer said this&quot; they will appreciate you looking out for them and understand the position you are in with Randomguy.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. I would then address RandomGuy, this is more difficult as RandomGuy is riding on the short bus and does not seem to understand the consequences of his statements. All mouth no ears.  I would let him know that you did not explain it to him in the way he presented it to Company and it reflects poorly upon yourself. It him served no purpose to bring up your name as he could have simply said &quot;Hey Company,we want to launch but this part of the app is not yet complete. What is the status?&quot; I would not tell RandomGuy you spoke to Company or he will screw something else up.  Then limit your information to RandomGuy only about present work and not prior work at company. You were hired to do a job with client not intermediate between Company and Client.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17678" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6767" RevisionGUID="630ac616-956b-448a-a2c5-1bf5de505d87" CreationDate="2017-04-11T07:25:11.907" UserId="517" Text="Needless to say that I was in a similar situation. A company owner created a contract with me and then assigned a lead person to handle all team members. A lead person seem to never liked me because my knowledge was better that his. As a result, a month or so later, my contract was stopped due to some silly reasons without being able to find code proof for their claims. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I did wrong:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I was too much of a team player and did not CC every communication with the guy who hired me&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. I communicated with the lead in a private sessions&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. I trusted that project aim is more important than petty envy&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case, since you already think that your reputation has been jeopardized and that you will eventually lose this contract, I would contact the GUY WHO HIRED you, and professionally expressed your concern that your reputation may be downgraded. DO NOT blame anyone. Act as a professional, not like a baby. Explain what was the cause of the issue, how you made the company aware of this issue on several occasions and who you felt that you need to write this additional explanation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The tone must be professional, do not involve anyone, do not blame anyone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client really respects you and do not treat you as meat, he will understand that CTO may not be acting properly. BUT you must not suggest this or tell it explicitly or CTO may revenge on you. Whether you like it or not, he is above you in the hierarchy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is also a think that I saw other people do: kiss ass. I am not such a person nor I know how to do it. But I saw that ass kissers are usually liked by their leads. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17683" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6769" RevisionGUID="b8b02874-48a6-45c1-b852-93588efb40ab" CreationDate="2017-04-12T00:23:37.943" UserId="939" Text="I am professional and experienced developer with 7 year experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I bids on upwork and freelancer regularly but did not get any response from any clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any other good website to get freelancer work? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17684" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6769" RevisionGUID="b8b02874-48a6-45c1-b852-93588efb40ab" CreationDate="2017-04-12T00:23:37.943" UserId="939" Text="Best website to get freelancer work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17685" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6769" RevisionGUID="b8b02874-48a6-45c1-b852-93588efb40ab" CreationDate="2017-04-12T00:23:37.943" UserId="939" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17687" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="799" RevisionGUID="6e1f808e-075f-41d3-b556-06052eebd0f0" CreationDate="2017-04-12T07:31:58.900" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://programmers.stackexchange.com/ with https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/" Text="If you are talking about selling your source code, then look at this question: https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/206793/how-do-you-put-price-on-your-source-code&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are talking about selling the right to be the only user of the app (and later resell it himself) without selling your source code, then things getting more complex. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you have existing users of the app? How many?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much do you earn from this app monthly?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much do you predict the client will charge fee to his users?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After you figure out this, you have multiple choices:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Keeping your ads in the app, letting him marketing the app. He earns from fee, you earn from ads.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Selling him full rights for 1 year for the price you would earn in 1 year + adding 20% or so extra on that price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Combination of the above&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Beside your rent price, you can also talk with him about annual support contract where he will hire you for X number of work hours for the period of 1 year (as a programmer). In return, whenever there is a bug, you immediately fix it until you spend all pre-bought work hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After you additional info, I have something more to add.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also read a link I provided. You will see that people are recommending a few ways to calculate the price of the code which you can apply for your app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you know how many work hours it took you to make the app? Multiply it with your hourly price and then with number 3. You will get the price of your app where you will actually earn money. If you don't know your hourly price, then go to multiple top freelancing websites and check the average price of Android coding. I think it should be around $20 per hour. If you're however living in the USA and the company is from USA as well, then I think the hourly price will increase to at least $60.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I should warn you that after you calculate this, the price will probably be too high. Then do your best to get as closest price to this one as possible :). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since we have not see your app, keep in mind that you're not selling the app, but the algorithm. So if someone will make similar app for $500 or $1000, it does not mean that your algorithm does not costs as much as $10k. Betting is a serious business. As comparison, a friend of mine who has a team of developers and who code betting apps only, has recently got a contract with some South African company to make a betting app for them (actually to adopt his existing app to their needs), and he took $2M for that job. This is to be aware that is someone knows how to use your app, and if the algorithm is so good indeed, then such person can earn six figures pretty quickly. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17688" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2754" RevisionGUID="474a7ae2-4661-4c97-93ac-6c1b207cc027" CreationDate="2017-04-12T07:31:58.900" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://programmers.stackexchange.com/ with https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/" Text="Here's an alternative viewpoint to the other responses:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You can start freelancing when you won't be embarrassed about somebody coming in behind you and reviewing your work.**  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let me elaborate a little.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While learning to program, we do what we can to &quot;get the job done&quot;.  We also tend to be very creative while getting the job done and we might not know about a certain method that would've saved us 20 lines of code.  Or patterns.  Or best practices with security. Etc. (See more: [When should you call yourself a senior developer?][1] or [What's the difference between Junior and Senior Developers?][2])&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All this comes back to building a maintainable product.  Remember that *it's harder to read code than it is to write it.*  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider what will happen when your client wants enhancements in a year.  Either you or somebody else will be stuck figuring out what you wrote and why.  Will you be able to justify to that person all (or at least most) of your decisions?  Will that person even be able to follow what you're written with minimal ramp-up time?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're uncertain about the quality of your code and produce a lot &quot;hacks&quot; to get things done -- irregardless of whether it works or not -- then maybe setting yourself up as a freelancer may not be ideal when your reputation is on the line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/25564/when-should-you-call-yourself-a-senior-developer?rq=1 &quot;When should you call yourself a senior developer&quot;&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/14914/whats-the-difference-between-entry-level-jr-sr-developers?lq=1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17689" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6771" RevisionGUID="0fabe05b-820d-4b2e-99dc-e9e7b36307a8" CreationDate="2017-04-12T11:27:37.477" UserId="517" Text="I will speak strictly statistically without touching the quality of those sites. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there are 10k and more designers that succeeded on sites like Upwork, Freelancer,... I do not see reason why you should search something else. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead, try to analyze why you did not get any job. It could be your price OR your English OR lastly quality of your design. Good think is that people of all quality level succeed on such sites, so you should probably set your price better. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So try this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You see cool job and you bid&#xD;&#xA;2. You do not get the job&#xD;&#xA;3. DO NOT stop here. Take this task and make it for yourself and post it on places like Behance and other&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working this way you will quickly build good portfolio of samples which you can show to your clients. I am positive that 99,99% of clients wants to see some previous works when they hire a designer. Working this way, you do not need to get actually hired to build portfolio - isn't it better to build your portfolio then only big and do nothing?!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17690" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6769" RevisionGUID="3e70282a-1590-40c1-b0ac-bf551404a1d3" CreationDate="2017-04-12T16:17:41.017" UserId="13016" Comment="subject-verb agreement, adjective correction, basic grammar." Text="I am a professional and experienced developer with 7 years experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I bid on Upwork and freelancer regularly but did not get any response from any clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any other good website to get freelance work? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17691" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6769" RevisionGUID="3e70282a-1590-40c1-b0ac-bf551404a1d3" CreationDate="2017-04-12T16:17:41.017" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 517, 7486 edit id of 529" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17692" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6772" RevisionGUID="a0be400b-2e4c-462f-9aca-e22cdac7c0f0" CreationDate="2017-04-12T17:04:16.640" UserId="708" Text="Ignore it unless asked. If the client is in *any* way bothered or troubled by `randomGuy`'s comment they'll surely ask you. If they never say anything... they don't really care.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If asked, merely state:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;I reported this issue on [date] via email to [name]. I don't know why `randomGuy` is stating he wasn't aware.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17693" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6773" RevisionGUID="ae303cf2-0a8b-4b00-a94a-65a2d32584d8" CreationDate="2017-04-12T20:46:36.700" UserId="16906" Text="I am a US resident and do some contract work for clients in the UK. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This work done 100% remotely from the US. The work involves carrying out research and analysis (e.g. in Excel) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Technically I am a sub-contractor. I supply services to (and charge) a UK-based company (my client), who in turn supplied the end product to customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can any one tell me if I am required to register and charge for VAT?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance for your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17694" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6773" RevisionGUID="ae303cf2-0a8b-4b00-a94a-65a2d32584d8" CreationDate="2017-04-12T20:46:36.700" UserId="16906" Text="Do I charge VAT for work I do for UK clients (I am US-based)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17695" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6773" RevisionGUID="ae303cf2-0a8b-4b00-a94a-65a2d32584d8" CreationDate="2017-04-12T20:46:36.700" UserId="16906" Text="|uk|usa|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17698" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6774" RevisionGUID="2b0fd9d9-8e91-4ebd-b1c5-7e11b4e52cf4" CreationDate="2017-04-12T23:02:28.223" UserId="16590" Text="I'm looking to start offering maintenance to my clients whom I have setup sites of computers for. I'm currently thinking of a business with four computers in three different sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much should I charge as an ethical and honest monthly basis for computer maintenance? I realise that in the workforce there are I.T individuals that bump up the price substantially to take advantage of individuals and their understanding of I.T services. (hence looking for ethical &amp; honest basis).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are some factors to consider in pricing and how should they be valued? I generally charge at an hourly rate so monthly is quite hard to invisage. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17699" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6774" RevisionGUID="2b0fd9d9-8e91-4ebd-b1c5-7e11b4e52cf4" CreationDate="2017-04-12T23:02:28.223" UserId="16590" Text="How should I calculate rates for computer maintenance services?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17700" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6774" RevisionGUID="2b0fd9d9-8e91-4ebd-b1c5-7e11b4e52cf4" CreationDate="2017-04-12T23:02:28.223" UserId="16590" Text="|pay-rate|information-technology|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17701" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6547" RevisionGUID="8e64c595-767b-466f-938a-4477bf3aee47" CreationDate="2017-04-13T01:33:43.710" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17702" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6775" RevisionGUID="8661dde4-1d10-4337-aee0-9181060685f2" CreationDate="2017-04-13T07:48:23.553" UserId="517" Text="Is computer maintenance your real gear? If not, you may have problems settings the price. The reason for this is that you know your hourly price for programming, but you do not know then what should be the price of maintenance. Obviously, it will be cheaper but will it be 80% of your hourly rate, or 40%, or...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had the same problems when I had to set the rate for software support which is not my main gear. And then it happened that either my rate was too high for the client or they were offering rate too low for me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case, the best thing is to see how much other charge in your area. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you cannot find this out, then try setting maintenance rate to some percentage of your hourly rate and see if this is too much for the clients. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17703" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6767" RevisionGUID="981807f1-2b71-4a51-9947-740087b73ba9" CreationDate="2017-04-13T07:49:10.643" UserId="7710" Comment="made text clearer" Text="Needless to say that I was in a similar situation. A company owner created a contract with me and then assigned a lead person to handle all team members. The lead person apparently never liked me, because my knowledge was better that his. As a result, a month or so later, my contract was ended, due to some silly reasons, without their being able to find code proof for their claims. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I did wrong:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I was too much of a team player and did not CC every communication with the guy who hired me&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. I communicated with the lead in a private session&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. I trusted that the project aim was more important than petty envy&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case, since you already think that your reputation has been jeopardized and that you will eventually lose this contract, I would contact the GUY WHO HIRED you, and professionally express your concern that your reputation may be downgraded. DO NOT blame anyone. Act as a professional, not like a baby. Explain what was the cause of the issue, how you made the company aware of this issue on several occasions and who you felt that you need to write this additional explanation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The tone must be professional, do not involve anyone, do not blame anyone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client really respects you and does not treat you as meat, he will understand that CTO may not be acting properly. BUT you must not suggest this or say it explicitly or CTO may take revenge on you. Whether you like it or not, he is above you in the hierarchy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is also a thing that I've seen other people do: kiss ass. I am not such a person nor do I know how to do it. But I've seen that ass kissers are usually liked by their leads. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17704" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6767" RevisionGUID="981807f1-2b71-4a51-9947-740087b73ba9" CreationDate="2017-04-13T07:49:10.643" Comment="Proposed by 7710 approved by 517 edit id of 530" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17705" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3473" RevisionGUID="18187510-d5ff-42b0-81e0-0ed76ae4fae5" CreationDate="2017-04-13T08:56:09.980" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/852445291852824576" />
  <row Id="17706" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6776" RevisionGUID="8e55b46a-bc78-4114-a17b-87ef0e0e0b6d" CreationDate="2017-04-13T11:50:29.300" UserId="16558" Text="You do not need to collect VAT. It is the responsibility of the client in the UK to add on VAT when they sell it to the next level. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider this, if you were required, you would then be filling out annual tax forms for the EU (they are still in EU)  and then have to figure out how to deduct those paid taxes as expenses on your own US taxes. You are not required to deal with VAT.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Similar if you have a business in Utah and sell a product, without sales tax, to a consumer in North Carolina, you are not responsible to collect tax for an out of state sale. If you did, you would have to register with 50 different states and submit tax filings to each every year whether you made a sale or not to that state.  Instead, what happens is the customer in North Carolina (or UK/EU) is responsible for reporting their own purchase and paying the appropriate sales tax, if any. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17710" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5968" RevisionGUID="5c379763-f9bb-4c9d-92db-d17c7e599a78" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:33:11.193" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://electronics.stackexchange.com/ with https://electronics.stackexchange.com/" Text="I'm planning to make an electronic toy for kids. I was wondering if I'm allowed to sell it if I decide to mass produce.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm guessing electronics goes under some kind of safety license. The voltage should be max. 12V but I'd like to use a transformer that connects to the standard plug (110V). With this, there might be some safety consequences.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will probably ask some company to mass produce. Who will take the liability in case something happens to people? What are my chance to sell my product legally and under the seller protection? &#xD;&#xA;Is there too much bureaucracy and I should just forget it or is there some good and easy way to proceed?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've done some research but haven't found much. This is the reason why I posted here. I'm in the USA.&#xD;&#xA;Ok, I also discovered [this][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The cost of the certifications are in tens of thousands. That is very discouraging.&#xD;&#xA;So my question now would be: Will [Intertec][2] cover all of my certification under the US law?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/17057/what-certification-do-you-need-to-sell-electronic-device-to-us-market&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.intertek.com/marks/etl/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17713" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6779" RevisionGUID="2a51f7ae-3f3b-4bf9-b0ca-c6ef3fe797fe" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:44:57.777" UserId="517" Text="Ok, the title is silly as I am not sure how to formulate it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the case. A very cool guy, programmer, introduced me to his client and asked that I code something for his client, while he will stay focused on his own work on that software. I issues invoices to this guy (NOT his client!), and he paid all my invoices. The most important fact is that he DID not take any percentage on my work, he just passed my invoices. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then he asked me to stop the work because the client is refusing to reimburse him my costs. I stopped work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the client is asking me directly to continue work, but he still did not pay this cool guy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am thinking to either not reply to this client or to tell him that we can work only after he pays off the cool guy. Is this bad business decision? Should I be fair to my fellow programmer how connected me to this client on the first place or I should be an asshole and accept the work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a question on morality. And should the programmers stick together in situations like this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. I am not starving so it is not mandatory I accept the continuation of work in this project. It would be good, of course, and it would secure the stable income for this year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PPS. Please do not reply with things like &quot;you should not work for this client as he may trick you as well&quot;. This will not happen because I know how to work in cases like this. My fellow programmer was too naive and got himself into problems. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17714" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6779" RevisionGUID="2a51f7ae-3f3b-4bf9-b0ca-c6ef3fe797fe" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:44:57.777" UserId="517" Text="Be fair if client offering more work, but owe money to person that paid you for previous work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17715" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6779" RevisionGUID="2a51f7ae-3f3b-4bf9-b0ca-c6ef3fe797fe" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:44:57.777" UserId="517" Text="|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17716" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="642" RevisionGUID="d2fea35d-488c-4d1c-887f-604bb90f092d" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:46:18.973" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/ with https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/" Text="&quot;design, writing, programming&quot; is not clear enough either. With Design there is a creative phase which can't really be verified. Such a creative phase can take 20 minutes or 20 hours. With writing there could be a creative phase or even a research phase which is also difficult to verify. With programming there isn't the creative phase, planning maybe, but not creative.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Honestly, it is slightly offensive to be seen as a thief first regardless of any past experiences on the part of the client. And it's bad business on the part of the client if they immediately express to you they assume you're a thief.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, to alleviate things you can do the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Assure them you are accurate&#xD;&#xA;- Provide client references the new client can contact&#xD;&#xA;- Provide detailed, itemized, time reports&#xD;&#xA;- Be prepared to defend every dollar you invoice&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The #1 thing to alleviate this is to simply bid/bill per-project and provide hard quotes for the work to be done. This ensure the client pays what they need to pay and doesn't allow any cost creep. For new clients I often bid per-project with an explanation that I'm happy to bill hourly but per-project eliminates any surprises when an invoice is sent. Per-project pricing places the onus on me to accurately calculate the time needed to complete a project rather than on the client to pay me whatever it may take.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In reality, I never bill hourly for anything other than minor revisions. And I still provide the client with time estimates so they are aware of ballpark costs. I may use my hourly rate to calculate per-project fees, but it is rare that actual design is priced hourly. In my experience, pricing design hourly just serves to get you working far more than you should be. For many creative projects you may find [this question at GraphicDesign.stackexchange.com][1] helpful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/18142/which-is-a-better-design-pricing-model" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17717" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1849" RevisionGUID="cfefb8d4-5845-465c-893c-461853808cc4" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:46:18.973" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/ with https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/" Text="In literal terms, **be your own boss** in every sense of the word.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I find that motivation for client projects is slipping I fall into &quot;boss&quot; mode. That is, I **set a schedule** for work and adhere to it as if I had a boss. It doesn't have to be a strict 9 to 5 schedule, but a block of time -- 4, 6 or 8 hrs -- every day where I will *not* touch anything other than client projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't &quot;cheat&quot; and venture off. No random social network/forum/SE surfing during this time. No personal phone calls or text messages. No unnecessary breaks. I treat my office as if I didn't own it and someone else was responsible for my paychecks. This helps me ensure I stay disciplined and get work completed as I need to. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It can sometimes be very difficult to spend time doing things you would rather not be doing at the time. But if you had a 9-5 job, that's exactly what you would be doing most days. There are times where I must simply force myself to buckle-down and get things done. This is especially true if you're own lack of motivation is financially becoming an issue. Remember, slack off too much and you'll be looking for a new job which will probably pay less, if not new clients in a desperate fashion. If that's not motivation for you, it should be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also find that after the first 30 minutes to an hour, the motivation is no longer an issue for that particular day, sometimes more. Much like any task in life you *really* don't *feel* like doing.... once you start it, it becomes far less daunting that staring at it from across the room.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's a related question at GraphicDesign.StackExchange.com: &#xD;&#xA;[How to Get motivated When Drained][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/20963/how-to-get-motivated-when-drained" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17718" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2461" RevisionGUID="ef499810-4da7-4aa2-a9d9-ca69b5b06229" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:46:18.973" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/ with https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/" Text="Here's what I tell others in my industry - design - which may be related. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, age never matters to any real degree. Most of my clients have no clue how old I may be - and they don't care. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Experience matters. The more years of experience you have the better off you are in terms of marketing yourself. However, high-end, visible experience will outweigh years of non-visible experience (example: developed some well known iOS apps but only have 3 years experience as opposed to 10 years experience working for &quot;johns programming&quot; where nothing is publicly known).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know your market, but in mine.. Craigslist is about as *far away* as you can get from finding *good* clients. You need to network and find clients via word of mouth or referrals. Join the Chamber of Commerce, seek local social groups dedicated to your field. Tell people you know (not other employees) that you want to start finding jobs you can complete in your spare time. Look at the dedicated employment web sites - NOT craigslist. The employment sites (in my experience) aren't great for maintaining a freelance career (in my field) - they make you work way too hard and rarely have repeat clients for you - but they are a way to get your foot in the door. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My general seven steps to preparing to freelance full time&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. First, figure out your rates. Know the minimum you need to charge if&#xD;&#xA;    you were working freelance. Once you know the minimum, add 20-50% to&#xD;&#xA;    it. This will provide some profit margin. I won't go into&#xD;&#xA;    calculating    your rates, but there is an excellent answer over at &#xD;&#xA;    [GraphicDesign.StackExchange.com][1] regarding this. It would apply &#xD;&#xA;    to *any* freelancer.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Second, figure out what **unique** tools, skills, knowledge you&#xD;&#xA;    bring to clients as opposed to your competition. Look at your skill&#xD;&#xA;    set from an outside perspective and be **honest** with yourself&#xD;&#xA;    regarding your skills. Are you exceptionally skilled in a specific&#xD;&#xA;    area? Are you grossly under skilled in a commonly needed area? Think&#xD;&#xA;    about an &quot;elevator pitch&quot; for clients - a short 30 second to 1&#xD;&#xA;    minute paragraph which defines *why* you would be valuable to them&#xD;&#xA;    were they to work with you. You should be able to recite this off&#xD;&#xA;    the top of your head - not in an &quot;I practiced this&quot; manner, but you&#xD;&#xA;    should be able to *clearly* explain your value.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Third, use the above two items and work in your spare time. Dedicate&#xD;&#xA;    a couple hours in the evening each day and time on the weekends to&#xD;&#xA;    work freelance projects. This will **build a stable of clients**&#xD;&#xA;    while you still have the security of employment. This will help you&#xD;&#xA;    learn the ins and outs of client-based work. It's much different&#xD;&#xA;    than being employed. You need to be far more diplomatic, less&#xD;&#xA;    willing to complain, and always willing to smile. It also takes&#xD;&#xA;    practice to learn to say &quot;NO&quot; to a someone willing to pay you. This&#xD;&#xA;    &quot;spare time&quot; work will be invaluable in learning how to deal with&#xD;&#xA;    clients and the job you have will provide a safety net while you&#xD;&#xA;    stumble through it at first - like we *all* have.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Fourth, while working this part time freelancing, pass on the&#xD;&#xA;    smaller inconsequential projects. Remember, you're looking to build&#xD;&#xA;    relationships with high-end, repeat client. You don't want to waste&#xD;&#xA;    time on the small one-off, no repeat, down-and-dirty, projects. You&#xD;&#xA;    want clients that appreciate and respect your work. Don't bid/quote&#xD;&#xA;    on anything which is not &quot;shooting for the stars&quot; for you. Go after&#xD;&#xA;    those high-end projects. After all, if you don't get them you still&#xD;&#xA;    have your job and that paycheck. So, aim high.&#xD;&#xA; 5. Fifth, **save money**. While enjoying the regular paycheck tuck part&#xD;&#xA;    of it away. As much as you can. Before even *considering*&#xD;&#xA;    freelancing full time you need to have a **minimum** of 6 months to&#xD;&#xA;    live off of. More is *always* better. If you have a family or large&#xD;&#xA;    debts, you may want to consider a minimum of one year salary before&#xD;&#xA;    considering full time freelancing. Remember to factor in things your&#xD;&#xA;    employer is currently paying for - healthcare, 401k, dentists, etc.&#xD;&#xA;    These expenses will be *yours* if you are self-employed. Figure out&#xD;&#xA;    your &quot;cushion&quot; - that is how long you could go without *any* income&#xD;&#xA;    and still be okay. If it's under 6 months (or preferably a year) you&#xD;&#xA;    aren't ready financially to make the move to full time freelancing.&#xD;&#xA; 6. Sixth, **pay down debts**. Try to eliminate any ongoing debts you&#xD;&#xA;    may have. Pay down credit cards, get rid of store credit cards, pay&#xD;&#xA;    off a debt such as a car if possible. Basically, you want to get&#xD;&#xA;    your monthly debt to income ratio down to as little as possible. The&#xD;&#xA;    goal is to have as much money coming *in* as possible while needing&#xD;&#xA;    to pay out the *smallest* possible amount each month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Repeat all the above regularly. Keep working towards these six items until you think you have them down solid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 7. -**Evaluate**- Evaluate yourself ***honestly*** every couple months. And I do mean **honestly**. &#xD;&#xA; - Are you maintaining the part-time freelance clients? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you always looking for work? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you struggling financially? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you missing freelance deadlines? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you finding your freelance clients are often upset or dissatisfied?&#xD;&#xA; - Are you turning away projects due to your own lack of knowledge/experience? &#xD;&#xA; - Are you not following through with freelance opportunities when the present themselves? &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;If the&#xD;&#xA;    answer to *any* of this is &quot;yes&quot; you aren't ready and you need to&#xD;&#xA;    focus on the areas you aren't meeting. These are *very important*&#xD;&#xA;    when freelancing. You need to be dependable in addition to having a&#xD;&#xA;    dependable income stream.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**When to jump.....**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you have a stable of repeat clients that keep you working most of the time (during your designated freelance hours) **without** any great need to go find new projects, you have that 6 months/1 year of saved income, aren't currently struggling to make financial ends meet, and you are bringing in enough freelance money to sustain 3/4 of your debt each month.... you are probably ready to make the leap to full time freelancing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, having a stable of good clients, even if they are merely part-time clients *before* you quit regular employment is critical. Don't even consider freelancing full time if you have no *repeat* freelance clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then of course there is option 2.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just quit and start doing it. Be prepared to bomb and need to frantically find a new employment position if things fail. And be prepared to struggle if you can't find that new employment. Some people thrive in chaos and it motivates them. I would not recommend this method, but to each his own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In either situation there is risk. If you are the type of person who is risk-adverse then you need to ensure the seven steps above are taken care of completely. Yes it can be scary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**After you make the leap...** give it 90 days. If after 90 days of full-time freelancing you aren't facing any any major concerns in terms of finances or workload, you'll most likely be fine and things will only improve. If after 90 days you aren't bring in enough money or aren't finding any work then you may want to start looking for other employment. However, thanks to the cushion in #5 above, it won't be a frantic rush to &quot;save the house&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember to always keep that &quot;cushion&quot;. Freelance income is feast or famine - you may do great one month then not so great the next. So, during good months don't go rushing out to buy new equipment or something. Remember lean times *will* come so be prepared for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/a/959/3270" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17719" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2544" RevisionGUID="61deeda1-1000-46b6-8a4d-943c0e9e5860" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:46:18.973" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/ with https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/" Text="First realize that depending upon where you are in the US $11-$15 is practically minimum wage. Not quite, but it's not much more. If the companies can't go out and pull someone off the street to do your job, you're worth much more than minimum wage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;@DA01 gave an excellent link in his comment: https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/a/959/306 check that. There are **a lot** of overhead charges as a freelancer you don't have as an employee - software, hardware, health care, electricity, heat, gas, water, organization dues, equipment maintenance, accounting, clerical hours, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's also a common thought that freelance rates should be approximately 3 times as large as any employment rate. So, if you were making $12/hr as an employee you'd charge roughly $36/hr as a freelancer. I, personally, still think that is much too low in most cases for anyone with more than a year or two of experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Truth of the matter is, no one can tell *you* what *you* should charge. It's all based upon *your* overhead and *your* experience and expertise. Someone who has 5 years experience is almost always going to be worth more than someone with 1 year of experience. In addition, there can be other factors such as region of work, type of work, specialized style, etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17720" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3307" RevisionGUID="b556dcb3-c12e-4412-9ab9-21a902632902" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:46:18.973" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/ with https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/" Text="I've been a designer for over 25 years, there has **never** been *any* reason for me to *ever* work for free at the request of someone I didn't know. Ever.  &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;Yes I've worked for free for family or friends, but never random clients.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- *Would your plumber install a new sink as a &quot;test&quot; to see if you like their work?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- *Would an electrician wire a new outlet for you as a &quot;test&quot; to see if you liked their work?* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- *Would your mechanic give your car a tune-up as a &quot;test&quot; to see if you liked their work?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Anyone* asking you to do *anything* for free for whatever reason is only trying to take advantage of you. And more often than not, they are *fully aware* of what they are doing. If they tell you there's a budget afterwards, 99.5% will be lying about that as well. Just as much as they lie when they say stuff like, &quot;We have a lot of work, if we like this we'll be sending a great deal your way.&quot; It's all lies and signs of **horrible** clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to turn it down, which you *always* should, it's pretty simple:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Sorry, I don't work on speculation of payment. Please review my portfolio and feel free to ask me any questions regarding my work. I would really love to discuss how my skills may help you move forward. However, I will not begin any work without a customary contract in place and an initial deposit. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;There's a question over at GraphicDesign.StackExchange.com which isn't directly related. However reading my answer and specifically the addendum may be enlightening.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[**SEE HERE**](https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/25712/what-should-i-do-if-a-potential-client-claims-my-pricing-is-too-high/25713#25713)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, requests for free work only paint a big red X on that client's forehead as a **bad client**. You really **shouldn't *want*** to work for people making those types of requests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every minute you spend on some &quot;test&quot; project in preparation for your getting ripped off, you could be spending on a *paying client's* project. Why would you waste your time when you could be making money? It's pointless." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17721" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3387" RevisionGUID="5bbcdd44-5b3d-4b6b-a716-181f2c81dd46" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:46:18.973" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/ with https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/" Text="**About the unpaid hours they may owe you payment for**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's an easy way to ask to get paid and not go back and forth; you can simply tell your client that your accountant needs to do the paperwork (or you're doing it) of the month, and you're sending your invoice before &quot;closing&quot; the month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**About completing the project**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't like working with that client because it's draining you, just don't. If your contract clearly has a clause about this then respect it and end your misery there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can simply send them the invoice for the 50%, and mention the files will be sent after this is paid. You shouldn't get in any legal trouble if you respect your contract but you should expect some drama and frustration though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;OR &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they're really a lot of trouble to deal with and you can easily find work with your new energy, just send them the files and mention that you no longer want to work with them, that the contract is dissolved in good faith. You don't need to justify anything, just make sure to clearly mention and have proofs that the files were delivered. For example, you can use Hightail and get a receipt when the files are downloaded.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Future projects**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's never too late to &quot;update&quot; your terms, and change the way you offer your services for your next projects. If you want to change the terms for the next projects, you can do it on your NEW contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client asks you why it's different, you can simply explain that due to the workload you got lately due to your extreme popularity and referrals, you have no other choice but to change the terms. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also set a hourly rate higher. It can be very VERY high if you don't want to work with the client anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By updating your terms on the new contract and adding a higher hourly rate, your client might simply decide to wait before going further with this. You can [read this][1], maybe it will help you getting paid more easily for the multiple revisions, and [this answer][2] to get some tricks about how to deal with clients or teams who send you a lot of emails or call you too often.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**One suggestion for your time tracking**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freshbooks is a very good invoicing and time tracking system. You can install a timer on your computer and track down the time spent on each project, when, what, etc. Then you can use this to invoice your client. A real time saver and not messy as Basecamp. It's not for project management but you might not need Basecamp if you use Freshbooks and your email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want some ways to easily track the number of proofs you sent and the revisions, you can have a look at my answer on this [question][3].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3226/project-based-freelance-project-requiring-multiple-unexpected-redos-from-clien/3337#3337&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3365/handling-client-extras-on-the-fly/3381#3381&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/55629/what-is-your-file-naming-convention-do-you-use-for-version-control/55645#55645" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17722" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4589" RevisionGUID="7ae5f3cd-5f24-4206-9e83-89213429c743" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:46:18.973" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/ with https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/" Text="There's no hard and fast rule about this in my experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some freelancers like to play it loose and ambiguous with dollar amounts. My opinion is this is often done for three reasons: A) They want to be able to &quot;feel&quot; the client out in case they can get more money from them or B) they aren't confident enough and are too scared of losing a job due to pricing and C) they feel it may convey an attitude of willingness to compromise or an overall lax attitude. -- Again, just my opinion. And I'm not stating these are all *wrong*, they just aren't the way I do business. I've seen many the freelancer state things like &quot;Just pay me what you think it's worth.&quot; That's all well and good if you aren't really concerned with how much money you are earning or don't feel your time is of value. But to me.... I really *need* to be paid if I'm spending my time and experience to assist a client in making money for themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working this way **greatly** escalates the chances of you not being paid, or being underpaid. Sure you may be seen as a &quot;nice guy/gal&quot; but which is more important - earning a living or being seen as &quot;nice&quot;? If there's no solid, agreed upon figure, there **will** be arguments and disagreements about what you are worth. If you can afford to just walk away from any job without payment, or file lawsuits to get your payment, then okay. Most don't have the time, patience or resources to actually survive this way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;This is like working at Taco Bell and not worrying about getting a paycheck. Taco Bell makes money either way -- if they don't have to pay you, they'll be more than happy to take your free or reduce wage services. Why would you ***not*** want to be paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#I provide hard, solid, numbers when asked what my hourly rate is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I'm asked what my hourly rate is, I provide my hourly rate. Period. I don't waffle. I'm not ambiguous about how much I expect the client to pay me. I want **no** misunderstanding. The client needs to be *fully aware* that if they want me to do X, they are expected to pay $X. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On top of that, I do **not** alter my pricing just because a client feels my pricing is unjustified (to them). Clients have **no idea** what my overhead is and what my expenses are. Therefore a *client* is **never** in a position to tell me what I should earn. Ever. I don't care what they've paid in the past. I don't care what they *think* is acceptable. I've set my rates. Pay them or move on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Related questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/25712/what-should-i-do-if-a-potential-client-claims-my-pricing-is-too-high/25713#25713&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1304/whose-responsibility-is-to-give-budget-for-job-freelancer-or-client/1317#1317&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2541/how-much-should-i-charge-for-graphic-design-and-how/2544#2544&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2383/as-a-freelancer-how-do-you-quote-charge-for-a-project/2385#2385&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/917/client-wants-to-pay-a-percentage-of-revenue-generated-by-website/923#923&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3891/underestimated-project-do-you-charge-the-excess-time/3892#3892&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3305/how-to-politely-turn-down-a-clients-request-for-a-free-test-job/3307#3307&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3075/how-to-negotiate-a-price-after-an-item-of-work-is-done/3083#3083&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a ton of questions here regarding pricing and client relations. It may help to just search and review other questions/answers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Below is only added because you used the word &quot;recruiter&quot; rather than &quot;client&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding the &quot;recruiter&quot; -- be careful. Just my experience, but if this person is looking to use you and be essentially your &quot;agent&quot; -- as in they go out get work, you complete the work then you pay them for finding the work -- you need to **seriously negotiate** compensation and how payments are structured. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've seen several instances where a &quot;recruiter&quot; would refer a client to me, then expect *me* to write them a check for a percentage of the project - a &quot;[kickback][1]&quot; essentially. This is done *all the time* but it is often ethically questionable because it is so easy to raise rates to clients in order to compensate for the kickback -- and often that is the case. In addition, when you start writing checks for this type of thing it can have a detrimental effect on how you *feel* about freelancing. It's no fun shelling out money for completing your work. It just *feels* backwards (because it is).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, there are &quot;recruiters&quot; that go out, find the work, come to you to complete the work, then *they* bill the client and *they* write *you* a check for the services -- you don't get payment directly from the client. You get payment from the &quot;recruiter&quot;. Essentially you become and &quot;invisible&quot; resource for them. This is very common and generally not a problem. In fact, I've worked this way with some clients for years. However, you need to ensure (via a contract) that if the &quot;recruiter's&quot; client doesn't pay the &quot;recruiter&quot; then you still get paid. Don't allow your payment to be dependent upon the recruiter's payment. Get a contract in place that states **every** project the recruiter asks you to complete, the **recruiter** is responsible to pay for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Note according to the rate calculator you linked to, I'd be a baz-illionaire by now - those figures seem exceptionally unconventional to me. Without *any* explanation as to *how* the values are being calculated, I would not put *any* stock in what that link states.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;According to that link, Based on my last W2 position (more than 10 years ago) I should be charging more than 4 times what I currently charge... I'd starve because no one would hire me as a freelancer at that rate. If I were to go back to W2 employment, based on my current earnings... well.. I'd *never* find *any* position paying that much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kickback" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17723" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="615" RevisionGUID="0bbf221d-1865-427f-9262-eda96cad87e7" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:48:48.683" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://workplace.stackexchange.com/ with https://workplace.stackexchange.com/" Text="Unlink the projects you have worked in and your employment history.&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make two sections in your résumé:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **Projects**, This should include side projects and everything that **you** consider relevant evidences to prove your qualifications.  &#xD;&#xA;List *technical* details, e.g. development tools and platforms you have used (and supposedly you're familiar with).  &#xD;&#xA;Indicate your *role* and the most interesting activities you have participated in, regarding each project (expos, contests, whatever).  &#xD;&#xA;It does not matter who's the project owner. You may simply skip the employer's company name, but be ready to provide with references when asked.  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; My personal preference is to have this section just after the contact info, as it seems to be the most important to me.&#xD;&#xA;* **Career**, where all employers and formal positions (*employment history*) is recorded. You probably have this already.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Further reading from Workspace.SE:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* [How should I list the employer for contract work on my resume?](https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/4115/how-should-i-list-the-employer-for-contract-work-on-my-resume)&#xD;&#xA;* [Incorporating off-job technical qualifications on resume](https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/4168/incorporating-off-job-technical-qualifications-on-resume)&#xD;&#xA;* [Handling a Gap in Your Résumé](https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/3692/handling-a-gap-in-your-resume-travel-experience)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17724" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="624" RevisionGUID="bd509e7f-0821-4993-8708-452bce1d832d" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:48:48.683" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://workplace.stackexchange.com/ with https://workplace.stackexchange.com/" Text="Probably, everyone who's in freelance/outsourcing business have had these problems. I'm not thinking my answer will contain an exhaustive list of your possible mistakes, but here are several ones that caught my eye when reading the question.  &#xD;&#xA;Prepend each item with &quot;possibly&quot;, &quot;IMHO&quot;, &quot;YMMV&quot;, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **Too high quality standards**. It well may be that you are requesting too high quality from the very beginning. For instance, if it's a mockup/prototype, your contractor may spend too much effort while developing it with full quality when it is not needed. Altogether it would lead towards losing time when working an actual product. I would expect that each subcontractor in a line may produce lower-quality result, and your role is to make it higher (finally, you are getting paid specifically for that).&#xD;&#xA;* Don't be afraid to **delegate**. *&quot;If you want to do it right, do it yourself&quot;* seems to be a wrong approach. Some tasks, indeed, require maximal quality your business entity (yourself plus subcontractors) can reach, hence they require your best attention, but it does not mean they can't be delegated &amp;mdash; at least, partially.&#xD;&#xA;* **Poor communication**. *&quot;leave contractors alone until they reach deadlines&quot;* &amp;mdash; I can't really think of a worse thing.  &#xD;&#xA;**&quot;Fire-and-forget&quot; subcontractor is a treasure**, I have barely seen a dozen of such people working as subcontractors as they usually quickly rise towards opening their business which is larger than mine. Finally, *they* are in position to hire me, not vice versa.  &#xD;&#xA;Usually, we are working with *average* people (not in a negative sense). People tend to make mistakes, and *continuous communication is the way to let average people to produce great results*.  &#xD;&#xA;So, [Schedule Your Communication](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/197/61). Don't set up yourself for a failure by [breaking deadlines, ever](https://workplace.stackexchange.com/a/5589/2145).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;A bit of philosophy to answer a question raised in a comment. This is a pure opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no ultimate answer on how to keep with own tasks.  &#xD;&#xA;My (a bit idealistic) understanding is that *if I'm getting paid for a job, the job is mine*. I can outsource it partially, but I can't avoid personal involvement, quality check, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of a large company (call them A) outsourcing at a subcontractor (B). B well may have different quality standards (not necessarily weaker than A's, but anyway). In order to place A's label on a product they **have** to be involved, e.g. run their own testing. This is why you may find cheaper &quot;copies&quot; of electronic equipment labeled B (or illegally labeled A). Chances are that you will find absolute copy, but out of a shipment of 100 items, say 5 would fail, while the A's quality allows maybe 1." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17725" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5820" RevisionGUID="a5f91901-ba24-4a1f-a3af-a05920ff591f" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:48:48.683" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://workplace.stackexchange.com/ with https://workplace.stackexchange.com/" Text="**Question:** how do I distinguish between insincere freelance job offers on the one hand, and sincere offers on the other hand that may have defects, but can lead to a beneficial longer-term working relationship if worked through? The former have the potential to waste time and good-will, while the latter may not be ideal short term, but may be lucrative and thus not a waste of time long term. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Concrete situation:** I have recently decided to devote part of my time to freelance jobs. I have begun contacting various people in my personal network that I believe can potentially provide contacts for such work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One of these people has indicated that he himself would like to get me engaged in some of the prospective projects that he has in mind.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;_(I know both this person and his spouse from a professional setting. Up to now I haven't had any reason to doubt his professionalism and multiple qualifications.)_&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was invited to an informal chat with this person in which he gave me a very broad overview of the projects that he has in mind - and claims to have started groundwork on. I agreed that it all sounds very interesting and that I would very much like to be involved. Some preparatory work needs to be gotten in place, but I understood that I might be getting involved in a month or so. Apart from my resume (including skills) not paperwork was generated, not even an NDA (I was asked to honor his confidentiality and I am happy to be bound by my conscience).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few days later this person contacts me, after hours, and asks for a fairly small job to be done the next day. As I already have prior commitments, I respectfully excuse myself and he agrees that it can be done some days later. He offers to e-mail some material for me to look at in the mean time so I can start on it first thing in the morning. The morning of the day I set aside for this task comes with no e-mail having arrived yet. I phone, only to get the answering service, and no returned call the whole day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Result: A day wasted waiting and keeping myself available for this task, which could have been used gainfully otherwise. Also, I have other commitments set up for subsequent days, and if this person now decides he wants the work done after all, I'll again have to decline him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * On the one hand, it could be that he is just under time pressure and while the change in commitments is unfortunate, future opportunities may make up for it - if I do not go and burn bridges.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * On the other hand, I have begun questioning if this person (and his motives) are for real. Is this perhaps some elaborate game? Does this person perhaps suffer from delusions of grandeur about his plans - or perhaps some other abnormality? If so, it would be better to cut my losses and avoid being pulled in any further. (Although I am at the same time afraid that declining this person permanently might also affect my relationship with his spouse, although ideally and professionally it *should* not, although we are not in an ideal world.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * And on the third hand, it seems that his style of communicating verbally and very generally (perhaps a result of time pressure?), without vital specifics, versus me needing details, preferably in writing, is bound to cause misunderstanding/resentment sooner or later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Added&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As [Peter's](https://workplace.stackexchange.com/a/74296/45772) and [keshlam's](https://workplace.stackexchange.com/a/74295/45772) answers point out, an up-front contract goes a great length to help here. I agree, except that for tasks that may take max 4 hours, and perhaps are needed in a rush, this might be a bit of an overkill. I have done such small tasks for others in the past without much more than a verbal agreement. In the end I am more worried about reputation (customer stasifaction) than the money or time, as the former is largely a mental construct, that therefore scales more easily to larger projects (where the money may be better).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17726" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6711" RevisionGUID="090eff3d-e8c5-4d38-82ee-e20aa217b408" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:48:48.683" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://workplace.stackexchange.com/ with https://workplace.stackexchange.com/" Text="**United States** Software Designer/Dev Scenario:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a salary job, lets say 100K a year, and I now also have opportunities to work for other companies as an independent contractor in addition to that. I already have all of the benefits from my salaried employer, so I'm trying to understand what to charge in this situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did some research on what independent contractors charge and they all take into account the health benefits / insurance / tax / leave / sick pay and what not so they basically double+ the hourly rate of what they would work for as a salaried employee (in terms of 2,000 hours) at minimum, so $100/hr fee in place of a $100k a  year job at the least.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand that I will be paying more taxes while doing IC work in the US, but since I am already employed and have benefits from another company should this factor in to decreasing my rate?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have experience in this area as it seems to be some what of an ethical dilemma? Or maybe not? I don't know, I've asked lots of people and they all say you should still use the contracting rate that you would use if you were not employed by a company already.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess my overall question would be: &quot;as someone that is already paid a salary, should I decrease my contracting fee working for another company at the same time because I already have all of the benefits I need&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a slight revision from [This Workplace Exchange Question][1] Hoping to get some more insight.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/87674/should-i-keep-my-ic-wages-the-same-even-though-i-have-a-salaried-job-already &quot;workplace exchange&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17728" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4333" RevisionGUID="4d5ad4af-ed27-4cc7-9e38-ac3150b00eee" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:51:26.990" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://startups.stackexchange.com/ with https://startups.stackexchange.com/" Text="You have not referenced location but I am thinking a similar question on startups exchange that I answered is likely to help you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that rates are higher when you travel and work on a clients site, as opposed to working from home. I've been a freelancer as you call it since 1994 - Working from home brings problems of miscommunication with the customer and can lead to headaches. See another question I answered http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4266/client-threatening-legal-action-constantly/4286#4286&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not suggesting you do or do not work from home, but I'm just pointing out that the work can be rich but money is not free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Europe, most of my contracts have come from jobserve.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17729" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4350" RevisionGUID="988289fa-6236-41bd-8a80-f9c7e58381c9" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:51:26.990" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://startups.stackexchange.com/ with https://startups.stackexchange.com/" Text="You need a contract. I've been doing business since 1994 under what some folk refer to as a freelancer (I call it contracting consultant).  Without agreed project deliveables, you will carry the risk of a customer who is never happy, constant changes being asked from you and your expectations of your costs being covered, and your customers interpretation of you correcting without cost what they perceive to mistakes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, depending on what country you are in, without a contract and without clear deliverables, you could be considered an employee. Europe (especially the UK) would see it this way. It leaves the employer open to taxes, paying you sick pay, pension, other benefits (if other employees get car, paid cell phone or health insurance, then you would also qualify).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When in business, the agreement is never between two people (buyer of services and provider of services). There is also laws, and tax laws. Regardless of you or your employers general understanding, the law of the land applies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So even if you don't care about the taxman - think about your relationship with the customer. Break your project down to the most basic goal, agree on that, then once you deliver that, agree the next step... Do that and you two will have a long lasting happy relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A previous Q&amp;A that I did should interest you - even if you are from a different country, you should at least read and consider the points https://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17730" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4355" RevisionGUID="a96a0df0-9bd7-44d4-8730-c5ce9092f99c" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:51:26.990" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://startups.stackexchange.com/ with https://startups.stackexchange.com/" Text="Your location and your personality /confidence is as much if not more important than what you know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A freelancer is sometimes called a consultant or a contractor. All are service providers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A company will expect a service provider to undertake a responsibility for a task or project. They are not interested in giving you experience or a test and paying you to learn. If you are too cheap, well, if something is too good to be true, it usually is and many companies will avoid you. If you too expensive they will move on to. Your charge rate depends on location. Because your skills have alit to do with design most clients would want you onsite. Working from remote leaves huge area for what you believe the client wants and what they expect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A prior q&amp;a I answered should help https://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17731" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4370" RevisionGUID="46827e0c-b71b-41a0-806e-b788048e63bf" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:51:26.990" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://startups.stackexchange.com/ with https://startups.stackexchange.com/" Text="In short, I believe the answer is yes - at least for me in Germany, and the UK. The costs would be viewed no more different than your internet connection or other business related expense.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have touched on this subject (and offer additional advice) in a prior question in the startups exchange&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recommend you speak with an accountant as you could find there are additional expenses that you can write off against your taxes. In addition I recommend liability insurance as you are now exposed to greater risk of things going wrong (from those who pay you, and from those you pay). The insurance will be tax deductible also.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What @morsor says below is also correct - A number of conditions exist whereby a person can be considered an employee. Make sure you and the other freelancers you pay have a contract between you or you could be held liable if they don't pay their taxes (the law could determine you were an employer, thus holding you responsible). If the law determines they are employee's, then their health, sick pay, holiday pay etc could catch you in an uncomfortable position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17732" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4384" RevisionGUID="07b26177-8aca-4b02-92ad-2ede02b2b72e" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:51:26.990" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://startups.stackexchange.com/ with https://startups.stackexchange.com/" Text="I've been a freelancer since 1994 - We call it a contractor or consultant in Europe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an employee, you get health benefits, possibly a pension, car, cell phone etc as part of the job. A sick day and your holidays won't effect your pay check. After a couple of years or more, depending on laws where you live, you could get a redundancy check if they were ever to let you go without cause.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a contractor/freelancer, you don't get any of the above. Paperwork is heavier - I answered a question on the startups exchange a while back which should give you more food for your thoughts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I fell into contracting - I was out of work, someone offered me a short contract which ended up lasting 9months - others followed, as well as homes in five EU countries, many new friends, but I also lost out on important family get togethers...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have enjoyed it though I'm tired of it now. It depends on your personality - if you are happy with 9-5, if interviews once or twice a year bother you, if you are hopeless at paperwork... It can be very rich work (10-20k a month is regular for me and I take two to three months vacation a year too), but I do not recommend jumping into it for money alone. My brother tried and hated the irregularity of it all - you really need to be flexible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope something above helps. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17734" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4416" RevisionGUID="bd62d9d6-0eea-469d-952d-df98fd311553" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:51:26.990" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://startups.stackexchange.com/ with https://startups.stackexchange.com/" Text="When you say freelancing, are you talking about working part time from home, or working for a period of weeks or months possibly on the clients site?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been a contractor/consultant since 1994 and based on my experience, more money and more work is available if you are prepared to work on a clients site. It will also pay considerably more. I've been in management for about ten years - my last development contract was PHP,Javascript and a little MySQL back in 2004 or 2005 and doing a 40hour week my invoice was around 10,000 to 12000 GBP a month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where to look? I see jobs on stackoverflow, linkedin and jobserve. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think you are US based and I wrote an answer to a question that might interest you here:&#xD;&#xA;https://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have grand ambitions, you could provide solutions at a price which includes support payments (so you are on-call but collect money long after the project has finished) https://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8613/process-for-implementing-support-contracts/8615#8615&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17735" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5972" RevisionGUID="51ac8816-5261-4da2-aaee-cf077a5c5cfd" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:51:26.990" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://startups.stackexchange.com/ with https://startups.stackexchange.com/" Text="You could start by looking for toy safety legislation. A good starting point is wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_safety&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can look into the whole issue of manufacturing an idea into a product:&#xD;&#xA;https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/77962&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you can take a look into liability:&#xD;&#xA;https://www.gov.uk/guidance/product-liability-and-safety-law&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All three links of fantastic content were found by using the first result of a Bing search. You can do similar searches for product funding, product development, design inspirations etc. The internet is mankinds most incredible source of virtually all and any information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should you go ahead and have further questions, you can post them here, or over at https://startups.stackexchange.com/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope that helps. If you have an idea, follow it through. The world is waiting..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17736" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6495" RevisionGUID="e9e32c57-8577-4191-88a1-731c6419f9f1" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:51:26.990" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://startups.stackexchange.com/ with https://startups.stackexchange.com/" Text="I've got 20+ years consulting within IT behind me so I would hope that counts for something. Hopefully a prior answer I supplied might help:&#xD;&#xA;https://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recommend getting a year or two in a full time job first. Anyone can work in a bar or restaurant, but the best make the biggest tips. If the food and drink being served stays the same, and the location is the same, the ability to provide good customer service will be the key difference. So... while you might think you can code, successful consulting means you need to know how to sell yourself, regularly, you need know how to work well with others in stressful possibly politically unfriendly situations. College/school teaches you lots - I respect what you have attained so far, but you will have to learn and adapt new environments and new skills every day for the rest of your life.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17737" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6498" RevisionGUID="6b1ecaaa-dca8-4593-aad5-3151b99ec87a" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:51:26.990" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://startups.stackexchange.com/ with https://startups.stackexchange.com/" Text="I have a UK registered consultancy business for 22+ years, and contracted in six EU countries - hopefully my time/experience counts for something.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The French accountant is more likely uncomfortable with the arrangement, but I believe with near certainty, is not illegal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a law in many EU countries that I once heard refered to as a &quot;chain law&quot;. It can effect contractors/consultants and this might be the concern of the French accountant. Basically, if you invoice the French company and do not pay your taxes, their concern is the French company might be held liable for them (and thus end up paying you and HMRC).  My understanding is the UK does not have this law (but BE, NL and I think F and DE do). The French accountant will not be familiar with UK tax laws, assumes the worst and thus is possibly concerned that if you don't pay the Queen then he will have to do it for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I strongly recommend you read a previously answered question, https://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585  Register yourself a UK Limited Company - You only need to be UK resident and nowadays a single person can create a Limited Company (when I started trading you needed a minimum of two 'officers' to form an Ltd). Opening a company is easy, but maintaining a company has (a little) paperwork. My UK accountant charges about 400GBP a year and I recommend you follow a similar route. Alternatively there are consultancies that act as umbrella companies - you work for them as an employee, they raise your invoices and do the paperwork. In return, they'll charge an admin fee. I'm not a fan of this, but I know others who have followed it happily for years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Expect to face some pains - ask any IT contractor about IR35 (Inland Revenue 35). The law came in 10+ years ago however the taxman has decided to re-examine and apply the law in a manner that makes contracting within the UK a less profitable business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17738" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3537" RevisionGUID="6ec4b52a-a3c6-4eed-8d67-78de445c7d80" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:52:14.870" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://travel.stackexchange.com/ with https://travel.stackexchange.com/" Text="I am currently in the process of becoming a digital nomad myself. I have been investigating this for a few months now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###You must sort out a few things&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Earn money**: Ideally, you want several income streams to reduce risks.&#xD;&#xA; - **Legal status**: you want to make sure this is sorted out as without that you probably will have trouble charging anyone for your services.&#xD;&#xA; - **Legal address**: you will still have mails coming from organizations &amp; you will need a good system to make this work. Either get a friend or relative to help you, or get a professional service (i.e. in Switzerland the post can scan your mails &amp; email them to you).&#xD;&#xA; - **Banking**: you must have an excellent bank providing cutting edge online services. Forget about old fashion banks &amp; switch to something reliable at anytime from anywhere.&#xD;&#xA; - **Health insurance**: you **must** have a good international health insurance, you'd easily find yourself in big trouble if you have any health issue. see https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get&#xD;&#xA; - **Gear**: you must make sure you have the right tool for the job, once you are away it can be difficult to buy it&#xD;&#xA; - **Insure your gear**: you want to insure your belongings, it won't save your work but at least it'll reduce the financial impact of getting something stolen.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your gear**: uglify your gear so it's less likely to get stolen &amp; buy appropriate housing (shockproof, waterproof, &amp; so on) to prevent physical damage.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your data: encrypt sensitive files**: use tools such as Truecrypt or BitLocker to only allow yourself to access your sensitive data.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your data: digital backups**: you will probably want to have digital backups of your work. You want a strategy that works smoothly so that if you loose your work (ie. lose your computer in a sailing accident), you can not only access all the lost work but also setup the new gear as the original one in a minimum amount of time.&#xD;&#xA; - **Work place**: you might want to make your life easy &amp; start by moving to a location that is known for welcoming digital nomads, it'll save you tone of time &amp; you'll be able to learn from others&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###Further resources to get started on being a digital nomad&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/digital-nomad-101-how-to-become-a-digital-nomad/465&#xD;&#xA; - http://flagtheory.com/digital-nomad/&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io - Biggest Digital Nomad forum&#xD;&#xA; - http://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job#job-boards - Find remote jobs&#xD;&#xA; - https://github.com/kaizensoze/remote-freelance-jobs - Find remote jobs&#xD;&#xA; - http://digitalnomadhub.net&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler&#xD;&#xA; - When must you pay income taxes? http://www.liferemotely.com/work-while-traveling/managing-a-business/65-paying-taxes-in-your-home-country-when-you-arent-living-there&#xD;&#xA; - http://leapin.eu Estonian e-residency made easy&#xD;&#xA; - https://e-estonia.com Estonian e-residency&#xD;&#xA; - http://e-estonia.com/e-residents/services-and-benefits - Estonian e-residency: Register a company, open a bank account &amp; more&#xD;&#xA; - http://passports.io&#xD;&#xA; - https://freedomsurfer.com/offshore-jurisdictions&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/where-should-i-register-my-company-as-a-digital-nomad-singapore-hong-kong/520/4&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/is-panama-a-good-destination-for-tax-residency-for-digital-nomads/2588/14&#xD;&#xA; - https://boldanddetermined.com/hong-kong-business-guide/&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com - tech tips&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadlist.com/guides - books&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com/hammocks-hard-drives/ - books&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get/46751#46751&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - https://nomadforum.io/t/does-international-health-insurance-for-digital-nomads-exist/378&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/09/top-10-tactics-for-protecting-your-stuff/&#xD;&#xA; - https://truecrypt.ch&#xD;&#xA; - https://medium.com/nomad-gate/the-world-s-best-bank-accounts-for-international-travelers-and-nomads-3257e6839cff&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.grownupplayground.com/banking-solutions-for-travelers-digital-nomads/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17739" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4670" RevisionGUID="dd0530a0-b359-4e61-91d4-7e09b2e907b7" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:52:14.870" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://travel.stackexchange.com/ with https://travel.stackexchange.com/" Text="As long as your online work is incidental to your travel in Australia, then there should be no conflict with your visa. But technically, if you're working full-time, you might have an issue with one clause.&#xA;&#xA; https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/18076/does-condition-8115-mean-you-cant-check-your-work-email/18077&#xA;&#xA;In reality, you're not doing an Australian job, or doing an Aussie out of a potential job... So there's probably no issue...  but those of us who have our own businesses and stay in foreign countries for long periods, the water does get a little muddy.&#xA;&#xA;Ingat!&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17740" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1759" RevisionGUID="831fcd17-2265-4dcc-ac4b-e17c6a285229" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:52:19.677" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://productivity.stackexchange.com/ with https://productivity.stackexchange.com/" Text="If you insist on sprinting to complete the project at the beginning, I would suggest looking into [polyphasic sleep](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep) as a possibly healthier alternative. Basically, instead of sleeping once per day for 6 to 8 hours straight, you spread your sleep time across each 24-hour period and require less total sleep-time in the process. It might give you a head start on those huge projects. However, in my opinion, this should not be a long-term lifestyle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On your profile you mention that you're studying psychology. You might then know that prolonged exertion of the mind doesn't promote mental hygiene. You'll get physically and mentally exhausted in the long run, which in turn __will negatively affect your performance__.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're still young and you probably don't grasp all the consequences of this on your health and psyche on the long term. It's *always* relevant to maintain a healthy lifestyle and balance all aspects of your life. Otherwise, in the long run it'll probably end up costing you more (on many aspects) than what you hope to gain right now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your main concern is a lack of time, you should investigate more effective productivity habits. In between projects, go hang around [Personal Productivity SE](https://productivity.stackexchange.com/). Remove distractions, work in a quiet environment. Learn to work smarter, not harder." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17741" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="99" RevisionGUID="6714f405-c313-43b3-b7cc-35bafe3c9e47" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="My suggestion: learn from the experience and consider [working on retainer][1] next time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think your client is trying to take advantage of your good will, and you'll likely have a very difficult time extracting yourself from that situation without serious negative reactions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order to try and preserve a good relationship, you may need to consider sucking it up and doing as requested, but certainly start by getting a contract in place before going any further with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/44/when-is-it-ok-to-ask-a-client-for-more-money/97#97" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17742" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="180" RevisionGUID="00c1cdda-e128-4a0c-b864-13487c44f51d" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="&gt;I know my finances are sound, but how can I reassure the client that I am not going to disappear tomorrow&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't, because there is no guarantee. You could get [hit by a bus](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/126/how-can-we-prepare-for-getting-hit-by-a-bus) tomorrow and you and the client need to be prepared for the possibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; How can I word contracts so it doesn't look like a single person but isn't being deceptive&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You shouldn't. The client should know that it's a one-man show and if they know they shouldn't care if that is shown on the contract&amp;mdash;on the contrary, the contract should reflect your situation, otherwise you might get yourself into real trouble.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an example: big companies are usually not dependent on one employee and they can carry out the contract even if one of the key employees can't continue with the project, but you should negotiate a force majeure clause that lets you void the contract with no or minimal penalties if you get hit by a bus and break both your arms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Is it ok for me to &quot;hide&quot; that I am, ultimately small time even though I pour my heart and soul into this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally I think that trying to give the impression that you are more than one person is not ok, especially if you are selling your personal skills and commitment. Companies are accustomed to hiring individual talent. It's better not to give false impression if you can't live up to it if need be (&quot;You broke both your arms? Can you just pass the project to your coworkers? No? But you said you were 100% sure your company could meet the deadline!&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's somewhat different if you sell something like an online service through a web site where you might not want to emphasize the size of the content provider." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17743" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="245" RevisionGUID="0dce80ed-810d-4928-a384-67d02e408fc5" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="In my [city](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/221/100) there are many shops that don’t have a website. I’d love to explain why they should have one and offer my service to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I’m unsure how to approach them. If I’m a regular customer, it’s no big deal. But I don’t visit most of these shops regularly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* I could [cold call](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_calling). Feels kind of shady to me (maybe because it’s forbidden to cold call private persons in my country). &#xD;&#xA;* I could write them a letter. But wouldn’t this be too formal? Where begins unwanted advertisment?&#xD;&#xA;* I could just enter the shop and talk to them. But I’d probably catch an employee. Even if it would be the shop owner, might he/she feel overwhelmed? Is it considered rude?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I approach them? Anything important to keep in mind when doing so?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17744" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="249" RevisionGUID="d0fce802-26d9-4dae-b136-437345f7af8e" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="Take for example a (software development) project that has been estimated by the freelancer as N hours on a pay-per-hour contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From the perspective of the commissioner, how much *buffer* should be allocated to the estimate and What happens when this buffer is exceeded?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Similarly, how should the freelancer handle a situation where he/she expects to be far over the estimate. Should the freelancer *take the hit* and complete the excess for free, or should this be re-budgeted with the commissioner?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So to summarize: When the freelancer has exceeded the estimated effort, who funds the rest of the project, freelancer, commissioner, or both?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Additional notes:**&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;@jmort253 posted a strong answer to [this very similar question][1]. I'm looking for responses covering the perspective of both the provider and the client. What should the freelancer do to reduce costs on underestimations? What should the commissioner do to reduce costs on underestimations? How can this end with both parties happy (and each getting best value out of the other)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/44/when-is-it-ok-to-ask-a-client-for-more-money" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17745" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="265" RevisionGUID="b94af9ea-ad44-4303-ad08-eca58b14caf8" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="If I wish to start freelancing with the sole purpose of providing support services (in this case, IT), to Charities and Nonprofits what are the possible options under which I can provide these services?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If we work under the assumption that I myself don't intend to make any profits out of this venture:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Is there a specialised form of business/employment for this purpose?&#xD;&#xA;* I currently operate as a sole-trader with books showing zero profit. Is this a problem? (It's not faked!)&#xD;&#xA;* What are the implications on National Insurance, as it is still payable out of my pocket, which means that I am taking a hit for it? Are there exemptions?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Myself and the consumers are based in the United Kingdom, so I'd prefer specific answers, but welcome all constructive points of view.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Another question which addresses similar issues: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/269/donating-my-work-to-charitable-organizations" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17747" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="303" RevisionGUID="a11c37d0-843a-4dbf-b48c-ceb273beb8d0" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="There are [several benefits to writing a business plan][1], but as someone who never wrote one up, I would like to know, for a small, one man business:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- How should I approach writing one?&#xD;&#xA;- What should it include?&#xD;&#xA;- What shouldn't it include?&#xD;&#xA;- What scope/size should it be?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/288/do-i-need-a-formal-business-plan-to-run-a-successful-freelance-business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17748" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="314" RevisionGUID="7e619945-a603-41a2-8994-72dc655d4c47" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="I'm running a relatively small one-man business in the software sector. I just started and am trying to create a larger portfolio. For that, I offer some friends free services. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found a few reasons to send these clients €0,- invoices, mostly similar to the reasons to send 100% discount invoices to charity funds that I gave [here](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/270/19):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Clarity about what has to be done and when &#xD;&#xA;* No transfers (as I would have with a 0% discount bill and returning the money as a gift)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And also:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* With an invoice I have more distinguishable clients which makes that I have more chance on getting a better certificate from the state (doesn't matter how it exactly works, this is an advantage)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Suppose that these clients won't have a problem with the €0,- invoices, **could there be any reason for me to not send them?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I ask this, because I've never seen people sending invoices like this, and I can only see advantages." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17749" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="322" RevisionGUID="44355fde-4265-49d5-8e33-7e9de9961985" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="This question is inspired by https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/319/how-should-i-deal-with-my-first-clients-who-ask-for-my-portfolio&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any established community for non-profit organizations and hobbyists looking for a freelancer that would do a site for free for them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fresh webmasters need portfolio to have something to show to potential client. They could do a dummy project that would be published on localhost, but it's much better to do a real-life example. On the other site there are various organisations such as school running clubs, grasshopper-breeders community or some hobbyist who collects material about Svan language. They have ideas to make some simple website, but have no programming skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Both sites wins. The freelancer gets experience, portfolio and the satisfaction to do something useful. The hobbyists have the website made for free, which helps them to popularize their activities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I'm a potential freelance webmaster. I'd love to involve in such activities. I've tried to find something like that, but without success. Where should I go? Does something like that exist?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17750" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="381" RevisionGUID="2ea89354-7b28-4bb1-a7cf-0f5d0b41d5c4" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="I'd like to define the following case as the **Loner Freelance Case**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* The freelancer is a full-stack web designer and developer.&#xD;&#xA;* The client is a small company who wants a web page.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many software development enterprises use [agile methodologies][1] to get their job done. I've researched agile's approach to the software development process to see whether or not it is viable on a small team. If so, I figure it can be applicable to other scenarios (say, with more people involved). I've learned that their main advantage lies in their adaptability to change. This can be really useful in many cases, but especially in the loner freelance case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what I've learned, I can conclude that delivering a usable product to the client often results in that client collaborates rather than observing the process, giving a valuable feedback.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a few questions, though:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Is my conclusion correct?&#xD;&#xA;2. In the loner freelance case, could the relation between the client and the freelance be considered a &quot;team&quot; because both work together?&#xD;&#xA;3. Assuming the agile methodologies are meant for teamwork, could it be useful in the Loner Freelance Case, even though it's not exactly a &quot;team&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Side note:** I have seen [this question][2], but this question involves only two entities in the development process: the freelancer and the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; [1]: http://www.agilemanifesto.org&#xD;&#xA; [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/328" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17751" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="383" RevisionGUID="3bef9159-4d47-43c1-b4f2-3e479ef1d379" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="I'm new to freelancing, and I have doubts on how to correctly bill in time increments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While researching about how to measure the time spent on each client, I [read](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3/tracking-hours-you-are-working-for-clients) that some people do time-dependent billing on 15-minute increments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nowadays, I split the work on 25-minute increments to do tasks. Can I use this increment for the purpose of billing on a time-dependent basis like the 15 minutes increments are used to?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**NOTE**: I split work by a 25-minute increment, since I use the [pomodoro technique](http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17752" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="409" RevisionGUID="8179f0fe-b924-4ffd-bfd0-0571b5202ce2" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="This might do better on workplace if you are an employee.  If you are a freelancer with them you should come up with a rate and if they don't like it or there are no factors that make it worth it to you, move on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However I am going to flip this on its head and say &quot;suppose you mostly do freelancing but have an employee who does some things for customers.  How much to charge?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For background reading you should lool at https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/317/writing-my-first-business-plan-how-do-i-know-what-to-put-in-the-pro-forma-balan&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You start off looking at fixed costs.  You say they have high fixed costs.  That works against you in this case.  Once you know what your full fixed costs are, then you look at production costs and overhead and see what is needed to make it work.  This is how you plan production costs and fixed costs against revenues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I bring in subcontractors and agree to have them do work on a project with me paying them my minimum markup is 100%.  In other words I charge twice what I pay.  I do this because I offer additional guarantees and I may have to step in and fix things that have been done wrong, and I have low expenses.  I am also taking on all non-billable work relating to what was done by someone else so my risk and overhead are significant.  If I had higher expenses, my markup might be significantly higher.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do think that a 400% markup ($20 -&gt; $100) does seem excessive, but without knowing the specifics of their business I don't know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However your concern as a worker should be &quot;is it worth your time to work there?&quot;  If it is then it doesn't matter why, and how much of what you get out of it is money, or what they are selling what you do for.  If it is not, then you need a raise or to get work elsewhere." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17753" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="430" RevisionGUID="fd26c95e-35b0-4d91-b361-513bbdae0695" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="I’m working mostly for small businesses and I’ve never used a written contract. No client has asked about it yet. The only paper involved is my offer and invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I started my freelancing, I read into this topic and came to the conclusion that I shouldn’t use [contract templates](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/169/100) without talking to a lawyer. Before I could make an appointment, the first clients showed up, I worked for them, everything was fine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, reading here at Freelancing SE, I feeld like I should get a contract template which I can use for future work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But is it really necessary? Would you recommend it? Or is it only worth it for bigger clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17754" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="481" RevisionGUID="9f2452a6-6a05-4d4e-89ce-a14ff50043f1" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="TL;DR: In any case, I would suggest to stay positive. Try to turn the things like you are not raising a conflict of interests by asking something for yourself. **Try to convince your client** that you have the same goals, to make the job done at minimal cost and maximum quality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, resolving an existing problem prior doing anything else seems to be a good idea to me as it will help you **both** keep your face and avoid loss of reputation/respect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have actually done a good insight into the problem. Let me focus on the following ideas:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You have highlighted what's wrong with the client, but you did not look what **you** have probably done wrong. Think of it for yourself and learn from it:&#xD;&#xA;   * Have you communicated with them often enough?&#xD;&#xA;   * Are you sure they were aware that you are on the right track?&#xD;&#xA;   * Have you raised the unsolved issues (like poor communication) early or let them stay unresolved?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Get to a mutual agreement of how you wrap up the work done **in the past**. I would not go ahead with any future tasks without it.&#xD;&#xA;1. Get to a **principal decision** on any future work. I mean, one of the possible outcomes may appear a decision just to throw this client away and look for another project for yourself. You said you want to keep the client, but reading your description I would probably decide to forget it;&#xD;&#xA;1. Get a **written contract** that will govern what you do and how. Ultimately, it should define:&#xD;&#xA;   1. Type of job, fixed scope + fixed price or per-hour work + flexible scope;&#xD;&#xA;      * In case of flexible scope, define very thoroughly how the scope is defined (certainly, not in a bunch of emails or, worse, over the phone) and what are **success criteria** to decide whether the job is done or not;&#xD;&#xA;      * Don't forget about milestones and deadlines as well;&#xD;&#xA;   1. Hourly rate or the final cost;&#xD;&#xA;   1. Terms on overdue delivery and overdue payment;&#xD;&#xA;   1. Terms on communication; weekly calls?&#xD;&#xA;   1. Terms on any extra payments like hosting or whatever; who's responsible for that? when and how it would be done?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my experience, I'm not really surprised by a client who does not like emails and prefers phone calls. [Schedule your communication](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/197/61) in a way that satisfies everyone." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17755" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="505" RevisionGUID="8514e363-88ae-4bfe-b9c9-c5a61ca97b94" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="Agree with [Oded](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/502/512) that talking should come first. Communication.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A little story of my own FWIW. My dad kept dropping in during work hours, despite my reminding him several times that I really needed to focus on work during the day and couldn't spend a lot of time chatting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He finally got the point after I sent him an invoice. He shows up looking for a coffee after work now, so things are shiny. (Mind you, he never paid the bill... must send him an overdue notice. (joke))" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17756" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="512" RevisionGUID="9e763476-69b1-41d9-98e6-587763d7dd1e" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="A standard contingency in many organisations I have worked in is 15%, but as you are working alone I would push that up to 20%, as I indicated in a [similar answer here][1]. The key is to get as much scope agreed with the client up front so that you don't have any surprises down the road, but the only thing that can really help you regarding estimation of time to deliver requirements is experience. The more experience you have of delivering similar functionality, the better your estimation will become.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In every project you undertake, try to get in the habit of recording how long every requirement takes to deliver, noting down in particular any aspects that took longer than expected. If you can build this log up over time it will become an invaluable resource for future estimation. The key to estimating well is to spot the potential gotchas early and incorporate enough time in your quote to deal with them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will have to gauge the client, but I think it's reasonable to provide a higher and lower estimation for areas of functionality that you are unsure of in terms of time. You could provide 2 quotes so that they prepare for the worst. If you can deliver to the lower quote it would stand you in good stead for future work if you then charge them the lower of the 2 quotes upon delivery.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are careful to define the scope up front with the client, then anything that falls outside of that can trigger a Change Control, which can be captured and charged for separately. The key here is that the extra work is because of functionality requested by the client and not because you underestimated the original scope.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/191/fixed-price-or-per-hour-for-a-webdeveloper/192#192" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17757" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="624" RevisionGUID="3a224d61-f967-4324-8beb-dfb11b62ba48" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="Probably, everyone who's in freelance/outsourcing business have had these problems. I'm not thinking my answer will contain an exhaustive list of your possible mistakes, but here are several ones that caught my eye when reading the question.  &#xD;&#xA;Prepend each item with &quot;possibly&quot;, &quot;IMHO&quot;, &quot;YMMV&quot;, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **Too high quality standards**. It well may be that you are requesting too high quality from the very beginning. For instance, if it's a mockup/prototype, your contractor may spend too much effort while developing it with full quality when it is not needed. Altogether it would lead towards losing time when working an actual product. I would expect that each subcontractor in a line may produce lower-quality result, and your role is to make it higher (finally, you are getting paid specifically for that).&#xD;&#xA;* Don't be afraid to **delegate**. *&quot;If you want to do it right, do it yourself&quot;* seems to be a wrong approach. Some tasks, indeed, require maximal quality your business entity (yourself plus subcontractors) can reach, hence they require your best attention, but it does not mean they can't be delegated &amp;mdash; at least, partially.&#xD;&#xA;* **Poor communication**. *&quot;leave contractors alone until they reach deadlines&quot;* &amp;mdash; I can't really think of a worse thing.  &#xD;&#xA;**&quot;Fire-and-forget&quot; subcontractor is a treasure**, I have barely seen a dozen of such people working as subcontractors as they usually quickly rise towards opening their business which is larger than mine. Finally, *they* are in position to hire me, not vice versa.  &#xD;&#xA;Usually, we are working with *average* people (not in a negative sense). People tend to make mistakes, and *continuous communication is the way to let average people to produce great results*.  &#xD;&#xA;So, [Schedule Your Communication](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/197/61). Don't set up yourself for a failure by [breaking deadlines, ever](https://workplace.stackexchange.com/a/5589/2145).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;A bit of philosophy to answer a question raised in a comment. This is a pure opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no ultimate answer on how to keep with own tasks.  &#xD;&#xA;My (a bit idealistic) understanding is that *if I'm getting paid for a job, the job is mine*. I can outsource it partially, but I can't avoid personal involvement, quality check, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of a large company (call them A) outsourcing at a subcontractor (B). B well may have different quality standards (not necessarily weaker than A's, but anyway). In order to place A's label on a product they **have** to be involved, e.g. run their own testing. This is why you may find cheaper &quot;copies&quot; of electronic equipment labeled B (or illegally labeled A). Chances are that you will find absolute copy, but out of a shipment of 100 items, say 5 would fail, while the A's quality allows maybe 1." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17758" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="696" RevisionGUID="98dcba24-ae76-4d91-a8f3-5438ea41a900" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="You just have to start like all of us. I had 10 years of experience when started freelancing and even thou I was a beginner for remote clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So to answer your questions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm good written, reading and medium as speaker in english.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Work on your English. The language barrier may be larger obstacle than lack of knowledge. At least perfect your passive English (written language) so that you can flawlessly communicate via emails, chats, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Where do I start? How do I find my first customer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like we all did :). Google &quot;freelancing&quot; and register and top sites. Fill the profile professionally and start applying for jobs. If you do it all right, you should expect to get your first job (probably smaller one) in a month or so. You can expect to live from freelancing after 6 months in case you deliver quality products. &#xD;&#xA;Read this post of mine, it may help: [read this][1]. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm also have a blog about ASP.NET written in PT-BR. Should I do some&#xD;&#xA;&gt; kind of portifolio to show my expertice?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Absolutely! Portfolio is the best thing to prove your experience. Also do IT tests on those freelancing sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/544/how-can-i-measure-the-credibility-of-a-freelancing-website/635#635" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17759" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="712" RevisionGUID="b79a69ed-1de6-45e4-809f-23c6133cabef" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="As with the previous posts, this is difficult to measure as a general rule. So let's look at it from the client's prospective. This will refer to the SPIN selling I mention in [this answer](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/223/75), as it applies here a little bit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to show your client that you fill a need, even if they don't know what the need is yet. In my industry (Information Technology), customers tend not to know how to do things quicker (i.e. with scripts or custom programs), or constantly (i.e. scheduling backups, checking logs, etc). I need to show them how the problems of not having me can have negative effects on the business. That is the Situation. The Problem is that they are not using me, and therefore, losing money (Implication). The Needs Payoff is when I come in, fix things up, make everything smoother then ever, and they get to work properly, and more efficiently.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for contacting them, unless they are expecting your call at the time, or you know them on a personal level, they will likely see calls as simple spam. Telephone marketing does not usually work on most professionals, in my experience (both selling myself as a freelancer, and as a salesman for a technology company). The two best forms of contacting a client are in person, or via email. Email is easy to disregard as spam, but is also much easier to deal with, and you can get away with sending in a promotion once a month, without getting on people's nerves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can get into the office of the person who is making the decision, you are over halfway there! That is when you can explain how your services will improve their business, make everyone more efficient, or whatever you may provide as a service. Sometimes you will have a &quot;gatekeeper&quot; (aka the secretary) who will always deny you, but that is when you can pull out the business card, and trade with the manager's email and full name on the card. You can then tell him/her that you will email the boss in a few days with an offer for your services, and that you look forward to talking with them in the near future. Always have a smile on your face, and **do not become the pushy salesperson**!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17760" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="716" RevisionGUID="abeab561-25a4-4b1c-8d5d-9dd6b6ba575e" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="The question &quot;whether I can register myself as CEO of my own company while I am a full time employee of another company&quot; boils down to what you have agreed in your contract of employment with the other company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See also: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/603/freelance-consulting-while-employed&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fundamentally, there is not usually a legal obstacle to holding down two employments - as long as the tax authorities get their cut - whether the second job is a second employment, or as self-employed or freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there was such an obstacle, then I suggest that a significant proportion of freelancers would have a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, your contract of employment may place restrictions on outside interests, especially if in a related field to your day-job - in such instances talk to your manager (or the HR department)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17761" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="765" RevisionGUID="5e033aeb-b2ba-476a-98b5-c46e869df002" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="My perspective here is similar to this question: [Is it appropriate to include time to research if you don't know how to do something?](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/738/820), as both tackle the issues of who should pay for something that may only be relevant to a single project, but may also be legitimatly expected of a contractor. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**In your field, are those tools standard?** If I do 3D modeling for product prototype, I think it's acceptable for a client to assume I have one of a few industry standard CAD packages. If I work on the Microsoft stack, I think it's appropriate for a client to expect I use Visual Studio, or at least can interface seamlessly with developers that do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Outside of this client, are those tools useful?** Using the 3D modeling example, if a client expects me to have the same package they use internally - and there are (as I understand it, and let's just go with that for the example) a few CAD packages used industry wide - I think it's also appropriate to ask the client to cover a portion of the cost, somehow tied to how useful the package will be for other clients in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Are those tools completely project specific?** If this is the only project that the tools will be useful for (because they're for niche use cases, needed for legacy issues, etc) I think it's acceptable to expect the client to cover the cost, or provide the tools directly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To your specific case, if the client seems to understand your concern about the cost it maybe worth asking why they want you to purchase the tooling, instead of providing it for you. It could be that they don't / can't license the tools easily for a contractor to use. Or it could be that they can't purchase software that is installed on systems they don't own (internal IT policy).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If for some reason it needs to be purchased by the contractor, and the tools are very project specific, I'd tell them there will be a $4000 setup fee (or similar) and that will go to the cost of purchasing and setting up the tooling. If they balk at that, you could offer to discount the first 4 months of hours (or however you're billing them), to offset *some* of that cost." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17762" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="807" RevisionGUID="400e1a64-3c08-42dd-b05c-345d2cee33ff" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="[ChrisTravers](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/users/60/chris-travers) has a [good list](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/354/75) above, and I'd like to add a few more things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Dates the quote can be completed. You need a date for expiration (described in above answer), as well as for when the work can be done, from the time you get the OK. Will this project take 3 working days? Make sure that's on the quote! There is nothing good about saying it takes 3 working days, and 2 1/2 days later, the client wants it done right as soon as he says OK! &#xD;&#xA;- How much notice is needed. For larger projects, you may need to give notice for workers or resources to become available. This can be included with the dates, but should be included nonetheless&#xD;&#xA;- Depending on the scope or project, you can add a mini-FAQ of questions you believe the client may have, whether it's about the technology or the project itself" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17763" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="813" RevisionGUID="07c18572-142a-4ca3-ad07-90184a3fcde0" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="&gt; How do I find trustworthy places where people post jobs, people do the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; jobs, and the best one gets paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The 'where do I find places' part of this question [has been answered by Tim](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/810/820), I just wanted to add my point of view regarding contests, and an alternative approach. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason why designers and freelancers are usually against contests is because there is no direct contact with the client, you have people working for little or nothing (mostly nothing), and clients see design as an *expense* and not an *asset*. Contests depend on luck, if you are lucky enough you will get paid for the effort you put into your submission. If not, too bad. For these and other reasons, most designers don't like them (and are explicitly against them) because they **devalue the industry as a whole**. Nobody should work for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But there are other ways of start working as designer without having to resort to contests. You mention you want to choose your projects. Well, sites like elancer and others list jobs (not designers), and the only thing you need to have is a good portfolio. You can create **pieces for fictional projects**, instead, and use those. Real experience is always better, of course, but you want to demonstrate you are capable of designing stuff, and you want to showcase your style. These portfolio pieces will give you that. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17764" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="873" RevisionGUID="3a2aa3c2-d645-4682-965d-1cc67347d683" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="1. Do you have a portfolio of previous projects? How are people going to know if you're any good without previous work being available? When I designed websites (back when I did), I had asked every client, before starting, if I could use it in my portfolio. Every one of them said to go ahead. That's the first thing.&#xD;&#xA;2. Until your name is well known, you may not get many jobs to start. You need to advertise yourself in every way: online presence, friends/family, Facebook, Twitter, maybe a blog... You need people to realize you are wanting to do web stuff, and you want to take on projects. See [this question](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/221/best-approach-to-finding-clients-in-your-own-city) for more info about finding clients in your local area.&#xD;&#xA;3. If you're bidding too high, you won't get the job; if you're bidding too low, you won't be satisfied. Determine your ideal rate. See [this question](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/191/fixed-price-or-per-hour-for-a-webdeveloper) for information on determining if it's a price per hour, or per project, that you should be using.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, it's how you advertise yourself, and what you can deal with for a job. Don't take a large project for pennies on the dollar, and don't undervalue yourself. I always estimate an extra 50%, because every client will want more and more and more; that's how I prepare for the inevitable." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17765" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="881" RevisionGUID="843d945e-ae30-43a3-82e1-904e8fa10eba" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="I am located in Germany (EU), and my Brazilian customers say that for importing my services they have to pay 52% of taxes on top of my invoices. Previously, they [assumed it's 24%][1], but that turned out to be wrong. Apparently, there are strong protectionist measurements by the Brazilian government, hoping to stimulate the domestic market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any way to bring down these taxes? Could I, as a German citizen, found a company in Brazil?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/653/735" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17766" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="960" RevisionGUID="388b4f1c-f286-4dae-987c-ca8f49bff8bf" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="Based on my previous [post][1], we decided to hire part-time freelancer who will reply to all emails and do all non-technical correspondence with the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I am not sure how to train this person, that is, what tasks to give him/her. Let me present some of my concerns:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Should we hire a person who is not a developer or a designer? (our projects are development and design) Obviously we can get not only lower hourly rate, but I don't think that a designer or a developer would accept being a PA or something. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Should this person reveal his identity to clients (so that they know they are not talking to anyone of us directly) or the client should think he's talking to someone of us?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Should this person work our time or Philippines time or he/she should work US time (most clients are from the USA)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. At this point we plan to have a person who will reply emails only for those clients who contact us first. Do you think it's realistic that we train him/her to be able to bid to new projects in our name?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/948/how-important-is-a-prompt-reply-in-the-freelance-world" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17767" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1254" RevisionGUID="936af437-52a4-4a2a-85eb-1bdca6958bc9" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="I upvoted Łukasz L.'s answer, which addresses the body of your question well (taxes/invoicing concerns).  I'd like to answer the other part of your question, &quot;Why should I not provide free services to friends when freelancing?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a freelance UX designer.  I have done two free projects for friends, as I described in my answer to https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1247/should-i-work-for-free-for-non-profit-orginizations.  Designers are frequently asked for free work, possibly more than many other professionals are.  Some advice about free work from [this article][1] by Speider Schneider and its comments: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Do free work for friends only if you are getting something back in return.&#xD;&#xA; - Have a quota for how many hours of free work you are willing to do per month or quarter.  Don't go over that quota.&#xD;&#xA; - On free projects, only do one revision.  Don't accommodate change requests or new revisions (I would add: without charging your rate for it).  Do your best on that revision.  If it's for your portfolio, it represents the best of your professional ability.&#xD;&#xA; - Do the project on your terms - no requirements and no deadlines.&#xD;&#xA; - [Don't do jobs on spec][2].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd add this advice:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Clearly define the project's scope.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Don't make it a team project unless your friends are staff members&#xD;&#xA;   with a key role working for the client.  (In my second project's&#xD;&#xA;   case, the developer has served for years as the client's webmaster&#xD;&#xA;   and we know he is dependable.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Have a very detailed task breakdown.  (I've been a software engineer&#xD;&#xA;   and know that this is a huge risk in software projects, but it can be&#xD;&#xA;   mitigated with a good task breakdown.)&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - Have sufficient outside income stream(s) while you work on the free project, whether that means having other paying client(s) or having an outside job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Understand how much of a return on investment there is for you in doing the free project.  Consider [diminishing marginal utility][3].  I did full site redesigns for my friends, and I'm not sure today if designing any more than the homepage for free was a good decision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - During the time period when you are working on the project, keep spending time with these friends doing things that aren't related to work.  I'm still friends with the people I did free work for, in part because of this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/06/requests-for-free-work-surprising-revelations/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.nospec.com/articles/just-say-no&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marginal_utility" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17768" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1285" RevisionGUID="8a2dacd6-2165-436f-8ffd-02a9e9fca294" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="This is from my previous [post][1], which answer shed a part of my problem but i have been having a long issues since when i apply for job, it get declined, reason? &quot;**Choose another contractor**&quot;, i changed my format of writting cover letter as i think the problem might lies this. I have 4.81 score and i am a web developer, i scored in top10% in few test and few in top 20%. Typically my format of writting a cover letter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;     Hello,&#xD;&#xA;    I have read your job in detail; I would like to do your project, as I am very good in &#xD;&#xA;    - skill 1, &#xD;&#xA;    - skill 2, &#xD;&#xA;    - skill 3,&#xD;&#xA;    - skill 4,&#xD;&#xA;    - skill 5,&#xD;&#xA;    - skill 6&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    I am listed in top 10 abc contractors. I am well versed with abc, xyz, and abc. I am available to start the project. My availability is 40+ hours a week.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Few of my work in abc are&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    www.abc.org&#xD;&#xA;    www.abc.com&#xD;&#xA;    www.xyz.com&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    I look forward for your consideration.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Regards,&#xD;&#xA;    my name&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why is it that, client 99% reject my application with reason of choose another contractor, i understand that there are many other and its up to the client, yet 99-100% of my applied jobs gets rejected. why?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1235/bad-rating-has-decreased-my-chances-of-getting-work/1239?noredirect=1#1239" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17769" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1346" RevisionGUID="af9b2109-8dcc-42eb-9468-11e90e1ead7c" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="First of all you need to derive the minimum hourly rate for your location.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you need to calculate the time required for doing the things and just multiply it with hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here one thing you need to consider in mind is that you also consider the testing part in the time estimation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the beginning try to calculate how much money you need for living in 1 month. The divide it to 4 weeks and that is money you have to earn in 1 week. You may further divide it with 40 to get your hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And this is the MIN hourly rate only IF you work 40 hours a week. Many freelancers will double or triple their hourly rates because you can hardly work 40 hours a week as a beginner and you need to earn your living somehow. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thats all enjoy freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;refer the answer of Peter here https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1215/cost-of-an-android-app-newbie-help" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17770" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1365" RevisionGUID="6f444e02-00ed-4638-b998-ef685358a5a0" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="Andrew in his [reply][1] showed us what should Retainer Agreement hold. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I started writing a Retainer Agreement and it became more complex that I thought it would. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Immediately write Retainer for 1 year or offer 3,6,9,12-month periods? Freelancers would prefer 1-year contract of course, while clients would prefer smaller chunks. &#xD;&#xA;2. How many work hours to offer per 1 month? I usually work immediately on those fixes so I cannot offer 40 work hours per week since it's not realistic + clients will find it too expensive&#xD;&#xA;3. What happens if a client buys 500 work hours for 5 months and we use only 250? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I think of new ones, I will edit this question. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/565/retainer-agreements" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17771" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1529" RevisionGUID="ffbada4a-1abb-490c-9efb-ce0cc6267517" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="This will borrow my knowledge from [this question](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/713/hourly-billing-is-it-appropriate-to-include-time-to-research-if-you-dont-know), because I feel a lot of the knowledge would be the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First off, from when I was a freelance web programmer, using PHP and MySQL (I do not do design), a lot of the code was fairly straight forward, even the custom stuff. When I did my research in how to do something, if I could see how it would help future clients, I would not charge the full rate of researching it, and would just add the cost to the next few clients who wanted that same feature. Everyone feels like a win-win.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it ethical? I believe to. My time needs to be paid for, but that's not the reason you're paying me. They're paying me for my expertise. There are only a few ways to add two numbers on a computer, the most common being `x += 1`. If I use this for Client A, does this mean for Client B, I need to use `x = x + 1`? Does not seem logical.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The main issue is that almost everything has been done. For those that haven't been done, you are probably not the first. If you come up with a method that adds two numbers together, is flawless, and works perfectly no matter how you implement it, it's *stupid* to not use it. All the clients I have dealt with understand that they pay me for my expertise, not my time. I know the process, I know what works, because as a freelancer, *I am the expert in my field*. This is the attitude to go forward with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client who pays by the project does not care if it takes 5 or 10 hours, they just want it to work. If you charge $500 for the Widget Factory component, and the first time it takes you 10 hours, you're billed out at $50/hour. If you can reuse it for the next client, while still charging $500 for the component, and you can re-use old code and have it working in 5 hours, that's $100/hour you're charging! You are getting paid for your expertise, not your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Does the client make you sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement)?** Then check to see what it covers, hopefully with a lawyer. If it's just the *general idea of the project as a whole*, then you should be safe keeping snippets that help you out more. *Ask before signing the agreement!* The last thing you want is to get in hot water with a company that could put you through court for months at a time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17772" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1568" RevisionGUID="c5ecfb2b-8f42-4ef2-915c-e4d3d7368741" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="This sounds very close to a retainer style agreement, but with payments in arrears. I don't like this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you and the client know that it will cost $xxx of money every month, it should be due by the 1st of each month, in advance. That would make it a proper retainer. You need an agreement in place (contract, Scope of Work, etc) to protect you, and the client. Even if the client is big, you should not be bullied around. Period.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would recommend getting a proper retainer contract drawn up with a lawyer, and making sure issues like this will not happen again. For example, how does one party end the contract? What happens if payment is not made? What happens if they want you working more than what is in your retainer account? A lawyer will get all this written down, in plain Legalese writing, and explain in detail what you are signing with your client. In my experience, I only do this type of arrangement with 2 very good clients, and it does include a lot of *reasonable* restrictions. See [this answer](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1365/how-to-properly-make-retainer-agreement-for-it-company/1371#1371) for what I do and suggest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, you need these terms worked out ahead of time. After work has started, you may only be going on the client's good word that you'll get paid, and on time. Every time you do something for a client, it needs to be billed out; whether it's once a month, or as you leave their site each day. On the invoice, it should state your payment terms, and it should be clear before working for the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you already did the work and billed the client, you are currently waiting for the money to come in. I would suggest getting the contract (as suggested above) drawn up, ready to sign with the client. Schedule a meeting to talk to the client, and explain (very calmly!) your concerns about payment, and the work you are doing. Make sure you never put down the client, but that he respects you as you respect him. If he is being rude, interrupting when you are speaking, etc., then I would just leave the client; you may try another day if you feel that would help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When dealing with businesses, they have their own practices. If they do not work for your company, you need to address that with them, and potentially reach a compromise with them. Remember, they are paying for your expertise, and they expect to get their money's worth. They need to feel as though they are in charge, and that you are there just to guide them and complete anything they can't/won't themselves. I would start the conversation slowly and softly, and explain that you do like this working relationship, but would like to see the money a little quicker. *It will be a touchy subject for most clients, so please don't beat around the bush to talk to them*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, do I feel you are in the right for calling and asking about the money owed, after only 15 days? I'm on the fence. I believe I need to get paid in a timely manner, but I also send out the bill every day, as soon as the work is done. My terms are set to Net 30, so I don't even *think* about the bill until the next month. Usually, I set aside the 1st of each month to go through &quot;overdue&quot; bills, and just send a friendly reminder. After 60 days, I add 2%, compounded monthly. I have not gotten to 90 days yet, as the 2% late fee after 60 days gets the money almost right away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps, and do realize, this may be a touchy subject. Don't beat around the bush, respect them in your conversations, and understand their point of view (i.e. Joe Freelancer wants money quicker than usual for some reason)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17773" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1588" RevisionGUID="65ea8f33-4877-43f1-b181-e6cedcfc73bf" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="I ran into an interesting discussion below [this](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1586/pricing-a-wireframe-project/1587?noredirect=1#comment1892_1587) question regarding ethics in billing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where I think hourly billing is the most transparent way to bill, the other side has written, [extensively](http://www.markrichman.com/never-bill-hour-redux/) I might add, on why it isn't and one should go for fixed price instead. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion the way you charge a project does not determine whether you charge unethically or not. I can charge more hours than I actually worked because I actually work much faster than the customer thinks I do. &#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, fixed price projects offer an ideal opportunity to set a price that is too high which the customer will always be forced to pay whether a project took three weeks or only one to complete.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---edit: clarification that the question is not about ethical business in general, but specifically billing ----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand doing business in an ethical way does not need to be determined by the billing, if you want to pull one over on your customer it can be done in any way number of ways. However, I think hourly billing at least is the best way to bill: you are transparent on the amount of work you performed and that's what you bill. No black box lump sum amount which may or may not represent work. If you want to account for experience and skill, just raise your hourly price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---end edit----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what is the most honest, transparent or ethical way to bill in your opinion? Hourly or fixed price?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;_I realize this might be more of a discussion than a question and I'm unsure if this falls within the scope of the site, but I think it is a very relevant topic for many freelancers_ " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17774" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1589" RevisionGUID="8e725519-c476-4002-975c-3c029bb2ad03" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="Unethical people can be unethical completely regardless of any payment structure. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pricing high does not instantly make someone unethical. Perhaps that price for the three week project is accurate even though experience allows the work to be done faster. There are simply too many variables here to answer in any sort of definitive manner&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;	&#xD;&#xA;Here's a scenario.... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bob has 20 years experience and charges $500 an hour.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Chuck has 2 years experience and charges $50 an hour&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Both are presented a project.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Bob estimates it at 10 hours totaling $5k.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Chuck estimates 100 hrs totaling $5k.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Both provide the client with a flat rate quote of $5k and 2 weeks to complete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It actually takes Chuck 86 hours to complete the project.&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Bob takes 9.5 hours to complete it. Because experience allows him to estimate with slightly more accuracy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would sound as though you feel Chuck is then unethical if he invoiced for the agreed upon $5k because technically, based on the stated hourly rates, he should invoice for $4300. Or you feel Bob is unethical because if it only took him 9.5 hours he should somehow not charge his standard hourly rate... or that everyone should have the same hourly rate (which makes absolutely no sense).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't understand how that would be logical. And I don't understand how, if the client agrees upon the $5k why it's even an issue. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hourly rates are never hard quotes, at least for me. Hourly rates are always *estimates*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my field (design) hourly rate work is reserved for edits and maintenance, not projects on the whole. Flat rate (or value-based) pricing is always a much better pricing model in my opinion. There are solid reasons you should [fire your hourly rate][1] which I won't go into here. However, one thing is certain hourly rates are a sure way to ensure you lose money as you gain experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We all know those clients that freak out at higher hourly rates but have no issue paying larger invoices. If both Chuck and Bob quote the job at $5k and the client is happy there's no issue - ethical or otherwise. However, it is doubtful that Bob get any work if he quotes the project at $500/hr for 10 hours and Chuck quotes it at $50/hr for 100 hours. Bob can't spread out the 10 hours needed over 100 hours and it makes no business or financial sense for Bob to lower his hourly rate to match Chuck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The easiest, hardest to discover, way of over billing is to bill hourly then forge or fabricate the actual hours needed to complete something. I would hazard a guess that this is the most used unethical manner of pricing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Flat rate pricing ensures the client *knows* what they will be invoiced before a project begins. If that figure is agreed upon, and the work is completed on time and in satisfactory condition, everything else is somewhat irrelevant. To me, if you deliver a solid, complete project, on its scheduled deadline, there's really very little way one could be unethical with flat-rate or value-based pricing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- [Related regarding &quot;billable hours&quot; and freelancing.][2]&#xD;&#xA;- [Also related, regarding pricing and budgets][3]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://baltimoredrew.com/fire-your-hourly-rate/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1047/how-can-i-discipline-myself-as-a-freelancer/1052#1052&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1304/whose-responsibility-is-to-give-budget-for-job-freelancer-or-client/1317#1317" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17775" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1652" RevisionGUID="d65976c2-5656-4881-987b-5d6e6ba2a9fe" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="As a designer myself, my experience would tell me to work with you to find an logo you *do* want to use. I'd have a difficult time working on a logo and not satisfying the client in the end. If you haven't expressed clearly what you do not like and why you feel the current revision is unsuitable you should do so in a polite and respectful manner. Simply opening the discussion may be very beneficial. I know it would be for any client of mine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, perhaps I'm wrong but from the wording of your question it would see you saw his portfolio then a final design... This should not be the case. There should be multiple steps in between those two to ensure he *is* on the right track. If that's not the case, perhaps you need to ask why you aren't seeing preliminary ideas and only final designs and push him back a bit to show *ideas* before working towards final images. This is the most common path taken - discussion - 3-5 roughs - discussion - additional roughs or 1-3 comps (based on roughs) - discussion - 1-2 refined comps - discussion - 1 final.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have explained and the designer is still not &quot;getting&quot; it, and you are still unhappy with the work, and you just want to move on, then I personally, as a designer, would retain the initial 50% deposit/payment and not invoice for the remaining 50% (and not deliver final files). I can't feel good about charging final payments if the work was not satisfactory to the client. In reality though, every effort would be made to find something which *is* satisfactory before I reach this point with any of my clients. You really should speak to the designer about this. They may feel a small fee is warranted, or they may feel that a &quot;kill&quot; fee equal to the amount you've already paid is fair. Only the designer can decide what they feel is amicable to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As [@NivF007][1] [posted][2], emails *can* be construed as a &quot;meeting of the minds&quot; and therefore a contract. Any good designer I know is going to seek resolution rather than trying to charge you for work you don't find worthwhile.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted, forgive me, but without knowing you or the designer, it could be assumed the difficulty lies with you and your expectations. If your expectations are above and beyond what would be considered &quot;normal&quot; and the designer has made every effort to meet them, you are still unhappy, and the designer is no longer interested in seeking a solution for you. Then in those cases, it's not uncommon for both parties to agree to walk away for fees already collected/paid. Again, I don't think anyone can tell you what is &quot;right&quot; or &quot;fair&quot; except the designer you are working with. If unreasonable demands caused the designer many, many more hours of work than was anticipated, he/she may feel warranted in charging you to cover that extra work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/users/2489/nivf007&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/1651/75" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17776" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1690" RevisionGUID="673b15b2-9a03-430d-ba01-5cb71ff4d7c2" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="I put net 15 days on invoices. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;15 days is customarily the minimum. Remember payment may need to be routed through accounting, or the mail if a check is sent. You can't expect or require immediate payment in most cases, even though it's nice when clients do that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a weekly invoice, with 15 days you'll always be a week behind. The other option would be to request the first week up front (at contract signing), that way you are always a week ahead and can stop work if payment hasn't been received for the the coming week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Related: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1038/what-is-the-correct-steps-in-resolving-lack-of-payment?rq=1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17777" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1857" RevisionGUID="de31cdd5-2271-4527-8805-ac43b9251cf8" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="I posted [this question][1] yesterday regarding how much to charge a client - and by which method (hourly or one-off payment) that I have previously worked with on a non-freelance basis, but I now want to know whether or not I should charge VAT?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have little knowledge of how VAT works and I understand that there a few factors to be taken into account.  First of all, the work I will be doing is office-based, however I plan on working from a satellite office in order to complete the task.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know where to start when trying to work out if/how/when to charge VAT, so thought that I would put my question out there to those who do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My concerns are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I am not VAT registered and don't know if I should be if I'm not&#xD;&#xA;    going to charge VAT;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Can VAT only be applied to certain types of work? *(Such as labour, skilled tasks (such as software development), etc.)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help with this topic would be wonderful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/1851/2872" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17778" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1873" RevisionGUID="36517e67-bfbf-4698-992c-4fbca1c2c0e5" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="I have posted numerous questions about my work being very slow ([here][1] [here][2] and [here][3]), and now it seems like work has dried up or died. The reason I say &quot;died&quot; is because for months, I haven't been contacted by any client; I've sent hundreds of applications. I even hired a Resume Writer, followed her instructions and got nothing. I used to earn good money, even on smaller projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand that in at the start of the year, people were recovering from Christmas budget expenses, and work might be slow; but I haven't been able to see any change in my line of work. I have been rated highly (top 10%) for Wordpress development, among other things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I determine if I should go back to working in an office? If I did, what would I tell the employer about my 3 years gap in my CV? It's been 5 months since I've been able to make any decent money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1235/bad-rating-has-decreased-my-chances-of-getting-work-how-can-i-recover-from-bad&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1285/application-getting-constant-declined&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1804/how-to-tell-client-that-i-can-fix-their-problem-in-a-cover-letter-when-they-hav" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17779" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1933" RevisionGUID="8d47f0a3-e190-4742-a1d0-c130d37c832a" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="You'll want a sort of retainer agreement. There are [other](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/1365/75) [answers](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1566/30-days-to-pay-with-recurring-payment/1568#1568) that explain about retainers, and when to use them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, they want you available for a long while, which gives you some security (which can be good, it could be bad). Do not fall into the trap of it becoming *just a job*, with them just paying you as a contractor but expecting you to act like an employee. Make sure you keep that distinction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You'll also need to keep track of your days and time you are working for this client. Do you know ahead of time what 120 days you will be working? Every Monday and Wednesday, with a couple Fridays thrown in for good measures? Do you choose the time to come in? Will you be given notice when you are expected to be there? Are you working 14 hour days for this client for each of the 120 days?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The red flag for me that it is a retainer is that you are not specifying that it's 120 *consecutive* working days. So I would be a little concerned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- What happens if you don't work for a month / take a vacation?&#xD;&#xA;- When will you be expected to show up when you are told?&#xD;&#xA;- Are off hours **truly** time off (as in, you won't be called in while out of town, or with other clients)?&#xD;&#xA;- Does this client take priority over other jobs?&#xD;&#xA;- What happens at the end of the year or the end of the 120 days? What if you need to work more days, or if there are extra work days paid for in advance?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would personally charge them up front for the first two months, and expect to have the &quot;retainer&quot; filled up by 1 month's pay by the first of the previous month (i.e. starting in January, you should be paid January and February by January 1st, March on February 1st, etc). Find out how much each &quot;month&quot; will cost, and stick to it. If they don't use you during the month (and you've been available), then you get the rest of the retainer for that month. If you hit *10* hours per month (I'm going to assume 10 hours per month, based on 12 equal months), then all work should stop until your retainer is filled up again, or until the next month. **THIS MUST BE CLEAR**, otherwise you will be taken advantage of." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17780" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2142" RevisionGUID="be199414-ea90-4454-a1c3-0c8f69146be9" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="A project bid should basically contain the information needed for the client to determine whether or not to use your services. It can be delivered in different formats, depending on your or your client's preference (such as paper, a PDF, a single-page site, etc.).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Chris Travers][1] and [Canadian Luke][2] had posted answers on a separate question regarding the information that should be included within a bid. The information includes:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * A clear description of what is offered, including as appropriate quantity, scope, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * A clear description of who is responsible for overruns. This can be further clarified by labelling the document a QUOTATION for fixed bids and an ESTIMATE for estimates of hourly work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * A clear description of payment terms, late fees, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * Any other terms of service, either incorporated literally or by reference.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * An expiration date, informing the customer how long they have before the rates may need to be rechecked or renegotiated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * Dates the quote can be completed. You need a date for expiration (described in above answer), as well as for when the work can be done, from the time you get the OK. Will this project take 3 working days? Make sure that's on the quote! There is nothing good about saying it takes 3 working days, and 2 1/2 days later, the client wants it done right as soon as he says OK!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * How much notice is needed. For larger projects, you may need to give notice for workers or resources to become available. This can be included with the dates, but should be included nonetheless&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * Depending on the scope or project, you can add a mini-FAQ of questions you believe the client may have, whether it's about the technology or the project itself&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that if your bid differs greatly from the contract after you've won the bid (especially in areas of price/scope/dates), then you may end up losing the bid after all (and getting some negative reputation). If there are changes between the bid and the contract, please make sure that the client understands the differences and that they'd accept the differences.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/354/9&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/807/9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17781" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2156" RevisionGUID="0c08a3b4-b3ec-4f55-acd5-1386974baf57" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="We recently came to the end of a 6 month hourly contract (at about 25 hours per week).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client and my company discussed renewal, but the sticking point became our hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client wanted us to lower our rate in exchange for a 12 month contract, but the initial price that we gave them was already, in my opinion, low.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anything lower than our current rate would risk our company not making money, or having to cut our employees salaries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This resulted in negotiations stalling, and the client has informed us that they will be reallocating our work to someone else, but have asked for *transition* of all work to whoever is taking over.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project was a somewhat open-ended optics/systems/software engineering project.  The product is currently in the design and implementation phase, so there is no final product from us.  This is *not* a fixed price contract.  There was no support agreement.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Our only termination obligation under the contract is to transfer all currently generated materials (including source code, documentation, design documents, etc.) and all of the client owned/purchased hardware to the client.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will certainly involve discussions and training on the code that has been currently written (which hasn't been fully documented due to time pressure, part of the task list going forward if renewal occurred was for all code to be properly documented).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because the relationship (other than the renewal disagreement) was quite amicable and we really enjoyed working with the people and we enjoyed the work technically, we are prepared to offer some level of *free transition service.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For this level of contract (6 months, 25 hours per week) what is the appropriate level/amount of free transition/free training to give them?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We don't want to give too much, especially since they didn't renew...and the final product is about 2 years away...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Our question is similar to [this question][1], but we want to determine upfront how much free time we want to provide, instead of negotiating after the fact.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Update**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I informed the client that I will provide *1 hour* of questions, etc. for transition and that any other support will require a new contract, and any contract less than 3 months in length will be billed at our full non-discounted rate.&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1869/client-suspended-dev-work-but-still-wants-fixes" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17782" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2171" RevisionGUID="d630393c-edf0-40bd-b875-f3d97e3ff2da" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="I've seen this asked a few different ways (closest was [here][1]), but I am looking to find out from the business's perspective, how to report (if necessary) the amount paid to a foreign contractor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My situation is as follows: I have a US LLC and am wanting to contract an agency in India that I have found via [odesk.com][2]. I know I'd have to file a 1099 for a US contractor working in the US, and I think the 1042(S) for a foreign contractor working in the US, but what if I have a foreign contractor working outside of the US? Would this fall in a box of the 1065? Should I file a 1099/1042(S)? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/580/what-are-the-tax-issues-involved-with-employing-a-worker-in-a-different-countr&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.odesk.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17783" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2300" RevisionGUID="e513abc8-b8ff-4e9d-9c38-b573c750d169" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="I read this post which would answer part of my question:&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2022/how-to-setup-client-ownership-of-domain-name-and-hosting&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In that question, the asker wanted to know how to make sure ownership of the domain/hosting is handed off to the client so that person wouldn't have to manage it indefinitely. I have a similar question:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I mostly work for organizations having at least one or two IT departments of their own. Oftentimes, they have their own servers. However, not all clients have their own infrastructure. For instance, let's picture the following client:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The client is a very small business or non-profit organisation, or is a standalone person&#xD;&#xA; 2. The client is non-technical&#xD;&#xA; 3. The client has no server infrastructure. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this case, if you create a Drupal/Wordpress/etc site using a panel, it will be fully managed after server downtime or hardware failure. It will just restart and work. The backups are taken care of by the hosting provider.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But what if, lets say, you'd rather use Django or Play Framework? This requires more complex tooling. For instance, I'll need the following items:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Console access, with sufficient privileges to set up the server. &#xD;&#xA; 2. I'll need to take care of inittab setup, so the application restarts in case of trouble. I'll need to be root.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Questions:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When using something like Django or the Play Framework, will using something like inittab be enough to allow me to disengage from the client and not have to maintain the system? If I want to disengage, must I use a major panel created CMS or will the above plan work? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17784" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2347" RevisionGUID="1731eaa6-af22-4b1f-88ed-6ade395f865a" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="A relevant quote from [Contract Killer 3][1] (a boilerplate contract):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ## Technical Support&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We’re not a website hosting company so we don’t offer support for website hosting, email or other services relating to hosting. You may already have professional hosting and you might even manage that hosting in-house; if you do, great. If you don’t, we can set up an account for you at one of our preferred hosting providers. We can set up your site on a server, plus any statistics software such as Google Analytics and we can provide a separate estimate for that. Then, the updates to, and management of that server will be up to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agree with you in that you want to make this transparent to your customer (which is what a contract should do). I would let the client purchase the domain and hosting (guiding them through how to do such if required), then I would, as part of my contract, deliver the site and deploy it on that server.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a few advantages with this approach:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* The customer is the one that gets the bills for the website, not you. That means one less step for them getting their bills paid (the customer pays the hosting provider, instead of the customer paying you, then you paying the hosting provider).&#xD;&#xA;* The customer is the owner of the domain. This can prevent any awkward situations where [you are unable to transfer the domain to them][2], but the domain renewal is due next week.&#xD;&#xA;* It's one less thing for you to manage, freeing your time for non-maintenance activities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://gist.github.com/malarkey/4031110&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/126/9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17785" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2355" RevisionGUID="74f1e091-48c7-4550-8a9c-12e8a2cd9f0c" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="Last night, I provided support to a recent customer by setting up their small business's email address to be read within an email client. I had already done this on one of their devices as part of the contracted work (with the majority of the work being web design/development), and what I did last night was adding sending/receiving email capabilities to two more machines. Overall, the time spent doing this was one hour rounded.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, we don't have a formal contract for this kind of small support, but my customer asked me to send along the bill. As I see it, I have a few different options for how to approach the billing in this case (along with different lines of reason):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* **Free**: They were good customers, it would add goodwill (which isn't really needed at this point; they're happy with my work), and it could be considered as part of the original contracted work.&#xD;&#xA;* **Invoice for a percentage of my per-hour rate**: I don't have any pricing models set up for a retainer rate or support work like this, and I didn't perform web design work. Therefore, how can I justifying charging the full rate to myself?&#xD;&#xA;* **Invoice for full per-hour rate**: At the end of the day, I used time that I would be spending on another customer's work, and I shouldn't be selling myself short.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a case such as this, what would be the best way to handle pricing for minor support issues that are _possibly_ unrelated to the original work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would contend that [this][1] does not apply as a duplicate, since I did not contract the work out to a third party&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/855/9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17786" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2697" RevisionGUID="886ca47b-07c2-41bb-8edc-6a17d2eb1bf7" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="The two answers above both include good suggestions. It has also been helpful for me to be more realistic about my productivity. As levelnis discusses in an answer to the question at the url below, I find it difficult to bill more than 6 hours day a day when I'm doing intense coding. On the other hand, if I have a day full of simpler tasks I can be productive for 8-10 hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2042/how-many-hours-a-man-day-really-is-programming &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for me it's been a combination of good habits and monthly income goals, as Peter MV describes in his answer, being realistic about my productivity, and increasing my rate for coding, as outlined in Stacey's answer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17787" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2734" RevisionGUID="2a84ebce-eb9f-47e3-85c5-ff1b7c73e29a" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="In the case of a code deliverable (the client receives the source code), it is common for the sole ownership of the code IP to belong to the client. Since it may contain trade secrets and algorithms that are part of the client's IP, it is understandable that the client will want to protect the code and ensure it is secure. Online work platforms have often got this built into their terms of service by default (see [this answer][1]).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a contract says that the code belongs to the client, this means that:  &#xD;&#xA;(1) You are obligated to delete all of your copies of the code if the client asks you to.  &#xD;&#xA;(2) You can't use the code at all anywhere else for any other projects (personal or otherwise) unless the client gives you permission. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1619/what-to-do-with-code-after-odesk-job-completion" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17788" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2848" RevisionGUID="e8b654c3-c1cd-47ac-a442-1e85e196353f" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="This is what a friend asked me and I directed him to the similar question https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/96/517 here. Then we started discussing the issue and I realize that this question is nothing like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Find the first client&#xD;&#xA;2. How to get the first job&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and other similar questions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that I decided to post this question here as I was without an answer. If you still find it as a duplicate, I will delete it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The situation is like this:There is an experienced contractor who has been living using sites like Elance, odesk, Freelancer, etc. He has a good reputation, dozens of clients and 50+ projects. He decided not to rely on these sites any more and pay them a percentage and decided to work outside of them instead. His other main reason is that his account was locked for the 5th time for 10 days just because he was hired by a suspicious client and these Services needed time to investigate if he's guilty or not. In the meantime he lost a couple of potential clients. (Who would work for the contractor with a locked account?) So his main reason is the locking of his account for any silly reason (others who read this may simply not want to pay service fees any more). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But he lives in a poor region and that is why he chose to use these websites in the first place. Yet again, all his clients are individuals or small companies who do not have enough work for him to make a living from them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what choices does he have now? Is it impossible for him (and other like him) to live without large services like those I mentioned above? Does he have to return to his ex company to have small salary and earn small extra part-time?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there anyone around who started working using these services and left them and made a living without them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope you now realize why I was without a good answer to this question. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17789" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2923" RevisionGUID="53a84f6e-6515-45d8-b746-ba847d3ae6e0" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="You forgot the most important part of your question - for good money e.g. cheap. You will find those guys nowhere. I have tried dozens of times (I am developer and I outsources a few projects) and each time I faced the same issues like you. It's regardless if you tried on odesk/elance or Linkedin or Craglist or XYZ. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cheap guys are not cheap for no reason. They are either incompetent or they charge low so they don't mess with debugging. I charge high because I spend more time polishing the application then in the core coding. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, those cheap guys took me more money than if I hired 3 times more expensive guy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But be careful, if a guy charges $50 or more per hour, it does not mean that he is good. So if I were you, I would stick to odesk/elance and trying to find a guy who charges the fair price (not low, not high). The one who stands behind his work. Try getting the local price and then pick the one who will save you 20% or 30%. Stories like &quot;I found a guy who can build new Facebook for $10 per hour is a bed story for your babies&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other than these services, you can try real networking like [Scott explained][1] or you can try Linkedin or similar services. But from all Internet services, odesk/elance and similar sites proved to be the best as you have some kind of insight into contractor's work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or you can try to find someone via Stackoverflow by picking him via his reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/2849/517" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17790" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3045" RevisionGUID="014d5d11-e45a-4a27-9b8b-d1a5d9d52e9c" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="Matlab is good for fleshing out system performance and designing system mockups prior to prototyping. It is *NOT* viable for production systems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Matlab is really good for the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Imaging problems/systems&#xD;&#xA;* Control systems and design (simulink)&#xD;&#xA;* DSP, filters, and linear systems&#xD;&#xA;* Physical optics and light propagation&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Matlab is ok for:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Machine learning/classification problems&#xD;&#xA;* GUI &#xD;&#xA;* Regression problems&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many companies use Matlab, especially for optical system/image processing mockups and control systems. I personally used it a for a contract with a large orange grower for a fruit defect grading prototype (in addition to C++ and other optical modeling design software like FRED, ZEMAX).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your biggest issue will be finding clients, but Matlab is particularly prevalent in the **aerospace, defense, electrical engineering, applied mathematics, and optical engineering** communities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that, if you are not a US citizen, then contracting with US aerospace and defense companies will be quite difficult.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your second question was about the financial part. Really this heavily depends on your overall expertise, not just your Matlab knowledge. For instance, I have already written entire packages in Matlab for light propagation, and for light polarization modeling. Now that these are finished, I can use them for all clients and charge them accordingly. If you wanted to charge a single client to build something like that, it would be very costly. Also I have a lot of experience using Matlab on optical and optical systems problems. Given this background, I can charge very good rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The answer to the financial question is maybe.** What other expertise do you bring to the table? What kinds of custom software do you have in *your own toolkit?* You will need to use yourself as an entire package to determine a rate, then decide if it is viable. Please also take a look at my [answer here][1] for general advice about freelancing rates vs employment salaries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/57/how-do-i-calculate-pay-rate-if-ive-never-freelanced-before/2230#2230" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17791" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3091" RevisionGUID="d42c8cb8-4e19-422f-9e3e-67bddd4253fb" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="If you don't know well your client, your first goal is to build **relationship of trust**. In my view, the best way is to fix price a **small job** first, that is easy to estimate and deliver on time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will give you great opportunity to understand how the client works and how **enjoyable** and **productive** the work for both sides.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that information, it will be much easier for you to estimate the time and cost for your next piece of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if your relationship won't go as expected, you can easier quit after the small work done, with no bad feelings for both sides.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See also [my other answer here][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/2195/4546" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17792" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3092" RevisionGUID="416268ba-69f1-4d0b-a68d-5bc67590416a" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="Here is my Entrepreneur/Employer's perspective:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't know well your client, your first goal is to build **relationship of trust**. In my view, the best way is to fix price a **small job** first, that is easy to estimate and deliver on time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will give you great opportunity to understand how the client works and how **enjoyable** and **productive** the work for both sides.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that information, it will be much easier for you to estimate the time and cost for your next piece of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if your relationship won't go as expected, you can easier quit after the small work done, with no bad feelings for both sides.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See also [my other answer here][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/2195/4546" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17793" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3135" RevisionGUID="e46c3e0a-ddac-4823-8fab-1f9b8d4bf8f8" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="See my answer to the question [Do you fix hourly estimation or accept your mistake and do for free?][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;tl;dr:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The point of a fixed price is to protect the client's budget; I take the risk, but charge for it in my bid. The point of billing time and expenses is to allow the client flexibility in the scope and direction of the project, protecting me against changes and unknowns, for which the client takes the risk. If you contract fixed price, make sure your have a scope-of-work statement, and stick to it, or charge for extras.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/514/do-you-fix-hourly-estimation-or-accept-your-mistake-and-do-for-free/527#527" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17794" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3143" RevisionGUID="a08bf61a-f8c8-4b4c-ab8f-24ec6af80ed1" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="I'm working as an android developer in a company for full-time but I'm never worked as a freelance per project, and now someone wants to hire me to make an app, and I have to decide how much does it costs but I don't have any idea how.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;when searching for such issue I came across [this question][1] and it gave me an overview but didn't gave me a standard for this and the most of answers were directed to the specific app the op asked about, and to give you an overview of my app, it such a reminder app which allows you to open the camera and take a picture to the thing you wanna to remind and assign specific time for it then close the app which will work as a background service and when this time came it will give a ring with displaying the name and the photo of the thing that is reminded.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1215/how-do-i-estimate-the-cost-of-building-an-android-app" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17795" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3183" RevisionGUID="0614cc1e-59c6-463c-8e2b-3e6a8c889445" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="Seems like most of the answers are geared toward &quot;who would want to do that?&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But there other [question][1]s asking about ways to gain experience. So, I would think there would be at least one person interested.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To answer your parts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Mobile-optimized website vs. dedicated app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It all depends on the goal of the client. Perhaps he just wants an app listed in the app store. Seems legit enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Convince him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your opinion it is bad practice, but that doesn't make it so. Your opinion may be correct and valuable to him and you could share it with him. If he opts to disregard your opinion, then you may choose to pass on the project. I have done many things in my professional career that in my opinion were not the best option, but I did them anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Prize as incentive&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, this is your opinion because YOU would not participate. There are many different interest out in the world. I don't have interest in working on public open source projects, but there are MANY folks that love it. I, like you, would not spend time working on a project for a prize, but someone else may love the idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, share your opinion and then either do or do not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3173/should-i-create-a-demo-project-to-learn-new-technologies-and-to-expand-my-portfo" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17796" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3288" RevisionGUID="25157aaf-5e6b-4e5f-8f58-761288702178" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="As Mario states in his [comment](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3286/the-worst-idea-ever#comment6124_3286), there is a lot of risk of no payment, with lots of work. I wouldn't take this gamble.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I would do though is show off your abilities, and offer your portfolio to the potential clients. It's easy to make a portfolio in a few days or a couple weeks, essentially screen shots of what you can create for them. Once it's made, you update it when you have new designs or new techniques available; otherwise, it's what you show to every potential client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For web sites, I'd recommend 5-10 different designs, and get them screen shotted. Then, print them out on high-quality, high-gloss paper that looks amazing - you will spend money on this. Even better, posterboard! But, be aware it may get awkward to carry around. Then, go in with this, and your laptop. Have your portfolio on your computer (or the Internet, if you know there will be free Wifi), and let the customer look at what you have available. Give them the 60-second sell; most bosses/managers make their decisions rather quickly, so show your best works early in the meeting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they say no, it's perfectly acceptable to ask why, but *do not probe repeatedly if they don't tell you why*. After that, thank them for their valuable time, and politely ask if you can come around again in 3 months, 6 months, or a year, to get an update on how their business is doing. If they say yes, then you can start talking more about what you can do *for them*, and how *inexpensive* it would be, compared to the *monetary returns* they would be getting. What I mean is, if you are going to charge $1,500 for a website, you need to show how the customer is going to make $10,000 back." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17797" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3387" RevisionGUID="7976a379-0dc9-415d-823b-32cb48931b9c" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="**About the unpaid hours they may owe you payment for**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's an easy way to ask to get paid and not go back and forth; you can simply tell your client that your accountant needs to do the paperwork (or you're doing it) of the month, and you're sending your invoice before &quot;closing&quot; the month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**About completing the project**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't like working with that client because it's draining you, just don't. If your contract clearly has a clause about this then respect it and end your misery there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can simply send them the invoice for the 50%, and mention the files will be sent after this is paid. You shouldn't get in any legal trouble if you respect your contract but you should expect some drama and frustration though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;OR &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they're really a lot of trouble to deal with and you can easily find work with your new energy, just send them the files and mention that you no longer want to work with them, that the contract is dissolved in good faith. You don't need to justify anything, just make sure to clearly mention and have proofs that the files were delivered. For example, you can use Hightail and get a receipt when the files are downloaded.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Future projects**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's never too late to &quot;update&quot; your terms, and change the way you offer your services for your next projects. If you want to change the terms for the next projects, you can do it on your NEW contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client asks you why it's different, you can simply explain that due to the workload you got lately due to your extreme popularity and referrals, you have no other choice but to change the terms. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also set a hourly rate higher. It can be very VERY high if you don't want to work with the client anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By updating your terms on the new contract and adding a higher hourly rate, your client might simply decide to wait before going further with this. You can [read this][1], maybe it will help you getting paid more easily for the multiple revisions, and [this answer][2] to get some tricks about how to deal with clients or teams who send you a lot of emails or call you too often.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**One suggestion for your time tracking**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freshbooks is a very good invoicing and time tracking system. You can install a timer on your computer and track down the time spent on each project, when, what, etc. Then you can use this to invoice your client. A real time saver and not messy as Basecamp. It's not for project management but you might not need Basecamp if you use Freshbooks and your email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want some ways to easily track the number of proofs you sent and the revisions, you can have a look at my answer on this [question][3].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3226/project-based-freelance-project-requiring-multiple-unexpected-redos-from-clien/3337#3337&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3365/handling-client-extras-on-the-fly/3381#3381&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/55629/what-is-your-file-naming-convention-do-you-use-for-version-control/55645#55645" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17798" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3505" RevisionGUID="06721109-dced-456c-aced-b73cbef541d9" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="I'm a web application developer in the UK and am looking to start out in freelancing. I'm in the progress of writing up a Terms of Engagement (ToE) and am making some decisions about how best to structure project payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I plan to request a Requirements Analysis from clients, either writing it with them or asking them to produce one and then reviewing it together. My intention is that this will form the part of a written agreement, together with a pro-forma contract for the protection of both parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As part of the ToE I'd like to set out a payment approach and I am finding conflicting advice about the fairest way to do this. I like the idea of [milestone payments](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/2353) since I imagine it will develop increasing trust as milestones are completed. Also, in the unlikely event something goes wrong in the relationship, the client will have taken X fraction of a project for X fraction of the cost, which seems fair. However, other folks [suggest 30 day terms are common](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/3179), which would put an unnecessary and lengthy delay in project progress.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have experience with balancing these things? I should imagine smaller clients will just get on and pay so that a deliverable can be handed over, but is this a problem with larger clients? Is it wise for freelancers to insist on milestone payments, even if larger clients have a Finance Department policy of paying 30 days after invoice?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17799" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3510" RevisionGUID="bb52ef04-19c9-4b4c-9974-3f32602c7d81" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="My question is a sort of inverse of [this one](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/2597/8370), where the OP asks whether a client may expect software tests as automatic deliverable in a software project. To me, that would imply a knowledgeable customer who knows that tests represent a percentage development cost that can help insulate against the surprise costs of regressions later on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm looking to get started as a freelance developer, and I foresee the opposite problem. I think writing good software (unit/functional/etc) tests takes time, and since this is a substantial fraction of time spent it must be billed for. If we say that it takes 20% of a project's billable hours, clients may see this as an avoidable expense and ask for it to be removed from the schedule of work. For the freelance engineer, this may result in a loss of quality and a lower level of deployment confidence (neither of which are great if the freelancer is hired as a maintainer over the long term).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[This answer](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/1474/8370) suggests that the day rate should be high enough to effectively throw writing tests in for free. However, this may make estimates look uncompetitive, and I'd rather have the client know exactly what they're getting for their money. Thus, is it worth persuading clients of the value of this deliverable?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17800" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3684" RevisionGUID="fbbb0196-2b16-4804-b7a1-071dae5f9581" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="**Is it possible?** Yes, I've done that - work for multiple clients at the same time - for [most of my time as a freelancer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aL4ii_Z3EI&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;t=266).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How is it possible?** For most clients (at least in my case) some weeks there's a lot of work (say building a new feature), some weeks there's little (them testing that feature, and responding to questions). That's part of the skill-set of a freelancer, balancing client needs when those clients don't even know about each other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also about balancing your time, knowing when there will be a lull in one project, and making sure things are lined up to start a 'when you have the time' request from another client. But that means you'll need to be flexible yourself. Those target hours may be a good guideline, but you'll need to be willing to work a long few days because a few projects collided (and then perhaps take a few days off the net week).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**When is it not possible?** If some of your clients do not understand the difference between an employee and a freelancer. I go [into that a bit here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aL4ii_Z3EI&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;t=1324). Or if the kind of freelancing you're doing doesn't have something similar to the ebb and flow I describe (something where the work load is consistent all the time) then you may have issues being able to only dedicate part of the time. But at that point, it seems like it may not be the right kind of job for a freelancer, it's more of a 'traditional' [contractor vs employee](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aL4ii_Z3EI&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;t=178) concept.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**About billing:** As I've answered in a [few other questions](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/search?q=user%3A820+odesk), I've had success simplifying the invoicing process with oDesk (now UpWork). Letting them track the time and invoice the clients weekly means I get to avoid extra time spent on timelogs, and get paid every week." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17801" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3751" RevisionGUID="ff3856e2-39b6-4bfc-8494-7094a4bc9905" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="I agree with Canadian Luke regarding breaking down exact times for your fixes or work. As suggested from the question I asked earlier in the year about [End of Project Process][1], User45623 advised charging/accounting for these types of situations in advance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My suggestion is add extra hours for completing the project if you're using a technology or developing a custom aspect that may bring up issues later. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My other suggestion is to stipulate in your contract that after the website is complete and bug free, all other revisions, maintenance and additions are charged hourly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3666/end-of-project-process &quot;End of Project Process&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17802" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3792" RevisionGUID="c3b101ce-beaa-4fff-872b-ddb845c8488b" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="I have the same story as [this][1], but I do have time logs in google docs like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![enter image description here][2]][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;an NDA signed by me (don't have a copy signed by the other party, though) + email correspondence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We had the project back in 2013, so it's 2.5 years. The customer is of Finnish origin, but resides in Canada. At least the NDA had been signed between us and a Canadian entity from Vancouver, BC. Two unpaid paypal invoices for $2775 + $2499. Is there any chances/ways to get it? What are they? I'm willing to sell it to collections or anyone else with a significant discount, but would anyone be interested or there is no chances at all after 2.5 yrs?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3766/handling-a-client-that-doesnt-pay-after-services-are-delivered&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/hQ1WY.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17803" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3817" RevisionGUID="3df0153a-456b-469c-9664-32d47b43cfb9" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="This is **really** just an opinion-based answer. But the question is also really just purely opinion-based as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd send something similar to....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi [client],&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;[service x] is a *closed* environment. [service x] makes their revenue by locking out certain editing capabilities and serving the same overall structure to every customer. While some visual, or front-end, alterations are permitted to allow a sense of customization, most, if not all, back-end or development editing is either restricted or hobbled a great deal or simply not permitted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;In order to achieve what you wish to accomplish, I must be allowed to edit both the front-end and back-end portions of the web site. Unfortunately, because [service X] is a closed environment it will no longer meet your needs if you wish to implement x, x, x or x. So, to facilitate your desired changes, a standard web hosting account is needed. Standard web hosting accounts freely offer the ability to edit both front-end and back-end content unrestricted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here you can insert a paragraph explaining the size of an account which will be needed, perhaps bandwidth limitations, etc. - but be careful **not** to be too technical, clients don't generally care if the server supports PHP5 or is a *nix server, etc.. Then explain your hosting rates or recommend a service. Related: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2022/how-to-setup-client-ownership-of-domain-name-and-hosting/2026#2026&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Once a hosting account is established, I need to be able to access the services to implement your desired features. It's common practice to provide the web designer/developer with log in information for technical aspects which are needed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Please feel free to let me know what areas regarding the above you are uncomfortable with. I'm happy to discuss things in greater detail. It is not ever my goal to request or implement anything which I don't feel is warranted to facilitate your needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Thank you!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17805" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3957" RevisionGUID="65efbb41-2778-48ce-813a-4a48e9ffa848" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="Each time they tack on additional things to what you were told about and calculated the price for - a new section to the page; a fade for the intro type as the user scrolls; animating the hamburger icon to an &quot;x&quot; a certain way on certain devices - you inform them of the additional fee which will be required for the extra work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are being difficult about paying the original fee for the original scope of work, they are unlikely to provide the additional fees any more easily.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is a question about dealing with a difficult client in this situation.  &#xD;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3910/dealing-with-an-irate-client-that-wants-free-work/3951#3951&quot;&gt;Dealing with a difficult client that wants free work&lt;/a&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17806" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4015" RevisionGUID="ca105a1c-25d2-4921-b7f4-428f957b9a65" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="- **Good** clients are generally *not* the clients looking for the *cheapest* workers they can find. They are customarily more vested in abilities than actual price points. &#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients *know* that quality workers demand more than a bare minimum rate.&#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients customarily find *good* workers and continue to return to those workers in order to maintain a level of quality.&#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients respect the worker and understand that a business transaction must be beneficial *both* ways.&#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients openly discuss issues to *solve* them rather than focusing on blame.&#xD;&#xA;- **Good** clients understand rates may increase over a period of time - they understand inflation, cost of living, and other business principles such as this as a &quot;whole&quot; rather than focusing *only* on what they must pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--- &#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients will always shop for the *cheapest* worker they can find.&#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients will be slow to pay.&#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients generally have issues with scope creep.&#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients will only return to hire you again if they feel they got the &quot;better end&quot; of the deal. &#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients *never* accept an issue may be on *their* end and almost *always* assume if there's a problem it's the worker's fault.&#xD;&#xA;- **Bad** clients *always* want the same price, or a *better* price -  **if** they happen to return to you. They always argue for discounts, want a &quot;deal&quot;, or complain your rates are too high (even if they are remarkably low). They focus on what they are paying, not what they are receiving, your skills, abilities or other things you offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These are **generalizations**. However, in the $10/hr range you are setting yourself to build a stable of bad, demanding, problematic clients. In all my years of experience, I have **never** run into a **single** client looking for the &quot;cheapest rates&quot; that was anything other than a problem. Now, that is *my* experience. perhaps yours is different. And I *do not* know your region or specific fields. So, things could be different.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order to build **stable, repeat, long-standing, clients** you need one thing from them -- *loyalty*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you need to ask yourself who is more likely to value *your services* and feel more loyal over a period of time - the client paying you $10/hr or the client paying $50/hr?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or look at it this way... which do you take better care of and value more - the $20 pair of sunglasses you got at the grocery store or the $300 pair of Oakleys sunglasses?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then ask yourself where you want to be positioned in the market. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Gaining a quality stable of good, return, clients may take some time. However, **I have yet to *ever* see a bad client turn into a good client.** Things just do **not** happen that way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyone bargain shopping and hiring you for $10/hr is going to be a one-off, get it and be done, client. If they *happen* to return to you it will be out of necessity (or cheapness) on their part, not due to any loyalty towards you. And the moment you raise your rates, they will start looking for someone else at $10/hr rather than pay a higher rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can **never** start cheap with a client and expect them to be a long-standing, quality, client. They will customarily balk at each and every rate increase and as soon as they find someone cheaper, they'll drop you like a hot potato.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, I don't know your region or current rate trends for *your* specific skill set. But it seems to me, pricing yourself low is *never* a valid business decision unless you *know* you just want *any* work you can get, no matter how *bad* that work or client may be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, there's some general thought to the industry you are in. If everyone in your specific field is charging $30-$80/hr and you price yourself at $10/hr, you kind of do a disservice to *everyone* in the industry by conveying to the word that the work isn't worth much money. Granted this is a minor, secondary, thought. But if you *ever* want to be making *really good* money, you should keep the industry as a whole in mind and seek to elevate it, not lower it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also be aware.. I don't use online services like &quot;upwork&quot; because that's where a lot of bad clients find workers. There are better ways to find quality clients. https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2848/how-can-experienced-contractor-survive-outside-elance-odesk-freelancer/2849#2849&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Edit for additional note: I do not know where you are located... but here, the U.S. state minimum wage is currently just above $9/hr -- so at $10/hr your basically saying you essentially have no more skill or experience than **any** random person off the street. Be aware of the message you send with your pricing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17807" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4037" RevisionGUID="0a82944f-a54d-401d-b6c6-d67b4be65ab9" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="First, there is certainly no universal answer to this. There are many factors, and a fair amount of them have little to do with your work itself, and more to do with your goals, tolerance to risk, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I have fear that high hourly rate could reduce work/project consistency.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think in your case, that's your answer. Since you're billing hourly ([which is what I do](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1588/which-is-the-most-honest-or-ethical-way-to-bill-hourly-or-fixed-price/1600#1600)), you can look at it as supply / demand. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When should you increase your price? When there is **more demand than supply**. Which is to say, when you **turn down or delay new work because your schedule is full**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that point your rate becomes a way to reduce demand until it matches the available supply. So if you're currently working at capacity, this method would have you increasing your rate incrementally until you reach a point of equilibrium. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, freelancing is a bit volatile by nature, so 'equilibrium' won't really mean you never have to delay a new project or have some downtime between projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But **supply / demand isn't a perfect model** (at all) when it comes to **your time**. As [Peter points out](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/4024/820) you could benefit from increasing your rate to a point that you have more time (supply) than work (demand) yet be making the same or more. I touch on this briefly during the ['I Don't Scale' section of my 'Adventures' talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aL4ii_Z3EI&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;t=800).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another factor to consider when it comes to hourly rates is that some clients won't be interested in you because of your rate. But that cuts both ways. It's not just clients that can't (or won't) afford higher rates, there are also clients that won't be interested in low rates **because of what a low rate communicates to them**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can raise rates without surplus demand as long as the value of your time has increased. Or, to state it another way, as long as you understand clients will have a different expectation when paying $50/hr than they do when paying $10/hr. (*At least good, competent clients will.*)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  I would like to know what is base which help to decide hourly rate up down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not the only list that could be put together, but a **tl;dr; of the above**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Are you working at capacity? Increase incrementally until demand matches supply.&#xD;&#xA;- Are you tired of working at capacity? Experiment with increases that keep your income the same, but reduce your time.&#xD;&#xA;- Has your skill or ability increased significantly? Increase to reflect the value, understanding that client expectations will change as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17808" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4163" RevisionGUID="4be94061-5f30-45bd-a40d-67c11b1ff42a" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="&lt;h3&gt;You should not refuse a contract based on subjective views.&lt;/h3&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; really didn't sound like a good fit for me&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes, technically it's not really interesting but wait:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **It could evolve:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the job you done is ok, the client can ask for more and maybe offers you interesting job to do then.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **You could always learn new things**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try to do it the most professional way while trying to learn something new is a great way of thinking and it's motivational.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **You build your reputation up or down with each job**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if your client has no other job for you, he could recommend you to his contacts or if you just quit with a job not complete, then he could also warn his contacts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **You could meet new persons and make new contacts.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my personal experience, I've met great people while working on not so fantastic jobs - technically speaking. Your network contact is almost as important as your skills (if not more).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The objective questions you should ask yourself are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Could I do it in time ?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Is the price I'm paid is ok ?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Is there another task I'm involved I should do instead because it's more &lt;replace by what adjective fit best you&gt; ?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Time can be converted to money but not the other way around. Try to not waste it by refusing something to finally do nothing instead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And as [SOIA][1] commented, you need carefully review your contract before accepting it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/users/708/soia" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17809" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4271" RevisionGUID="898ff7c6-9359-4f22-a71d-11b40d620efa" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="If you already have a contract, he can threatened to sue you all he wants, there's still an agreement that was made between you and the client initially. Keep track of all the communication (you do now) and also when he calls you a liar. You shouldn't be too worry about the legal actions as this can also become an expensive process for your client and it's not always advantageous. Since it seems to work on you, it's possible the client noticed he can simply use these threats to coerce you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this was my client, I would request a new update to the contract in order to continue the project. In that new contract, you should add new terms/conditions (that he's unlikely to accept) **and also charge a very high prepaid hourly rate and base price** since he doesn't seem to respect the scope. Add a lot of details about the communication, the delay caused by you having to wait for feedback, revisions cost, etc. Give yourself some room for all the issues you now know might happen again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client refuses to sign that new contract, simply give him his files and move on even if you suffer of some losses. For one terrible client, you'll get 10 new ones who will be worth your time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also possible to simply cancel the contract but expect some resistance and more threats as this can be even more frustrating for the client than being given a &quot;non option&quot;!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason why you might want to give your client the option to update the contract rather than simply saying &quot;I'm done&quot; is that you let him the choice to continue to work with you with precise conditions or to stop working with you. You also take back some control on the whole situation and put your client back on the track. If he ever accept to sign it, you'll still deal with the bad attitude of your client but at least you'll get paid very well for the headaches and stress. It's normal to update a contract when the scope of a project changes a lot since the timeframe changes as well and the estimate for the cost of the project has to be updated too. You'll be able to start over with a plan to follow and can even suggest to your client to take a few weeks to think about all this and come back to you when he has a clear idea about what he wants. It's also a good way to get back some respect from the client and show you will not get coerced anymore. That's what any respectable business would do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, if the project gets cancelled, refer to your cancellation agreement in your contract. If you provided already everything you agreed to, then you do NOT refund anything and you simply give the files to the client. The only thing you should refund (and only partially usually) is what was prepaid or any down payment on the work that hasn't been done already. You could &quot;freeze&quot; the amount he gave you last month and make him agree to your new contract first. Then do the revisions based on your new fees. That money will be used for the new hourly rate you'll charge for the next revisions. This might actually help you accelerate the process; he'll probably try to limit the revisions to fit that budget and be done with the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is starting to call you a liar, make him understand this is a serious allegation that makes you feel terribly uncomfortable and that you might need to discuss with your own lawyer (It doesn't matter if you don't have a lawyer.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One last comment that might help you: Don't think of yourself as a freelancer. Start calling your services **a business**. That should help you get the mindset you should have when dealing with clients and know what is acceptable or not from them. Right now you seem to have the mindset of the &quot;small freelancer&quot; vs the &quot;Goliath business&quot; but in reality, you should expect a business to business relationship (and the level of respect that goes with this).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Related:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3226/project-based-freelance-project-requiring-multiple-unexpected-redos-from-clien/3337#3337" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17810" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4333" RevisionGUID="966c6572-38ac-428f-a0a4-71e5b1398647" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="You have not referenced location but I am thinking a similar question on startups exchange that I answered is likely to help you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that rates are higher when you travel and work on a clients site, as opposed to working from home. I've been a freelancer as you call it since 1994 - Working from home brings problems of miscommunication with the customer and can lead to headaches. See another question I answered https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4266/client-threatening-legal-action-constantly/4286#4286&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not suggesting you do or do not work from home, but I'm just pointing out that the work can be rich but money is not free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Europe, most of my contracts have come from jobserve.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17811" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4358" RevisionGUID="c8aafc68-ba9a-472e-91dd-f6e60154d8b2" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="Tough question. Seems like the real issue here is **what are you being compensated for**? And **what value are you providing**? I find it best when those two are aligned closely. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**tl;dr:** _I think your best bet is to bill hourly regardless of outcome, but clearly define how much of your time they're willing to pay for per board._&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a [huge advocate for hourly billing](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1588/which-is-the-most-honest-or-ethical-way-to-bill-hourly-or-fixed-price/1600#1600), because with that the first question is easy to answer - you're being compensated for your time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, in your case it may be very advantageous to be compensated for the quantity of boards you process. Then an increase of productivity means increased profits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the client side of things, it seems like the value to them is known working boards. It's better for them if the count of those boards is high (start with 100 boards, have 95 known to be working at the end).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[_I'm inferring a few things here. Since you seem confident that some boards won't have any issues, some will be repairable, and some won't, I'm guessing that the company has a set of boards where the quality is in question. From that, the value to them is - even if it's a smaller group in the end - knowing the quality of each board._]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I believe you'll see the best outcome when what you're selling (charging for) matches the value the client gets - in this case it seems like a per board kind of model *might* work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, you **have value concerns about that**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; but what if I spend hours troubleshooting and can't find the problem, or worse yet: There is no problem&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the troubleshooting / repair is a very repeatable and consistent process, then you could charge per board. But if not, that's a huge risk to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You could modify the per board** pricing a bit, and charge for 'good' boards - that would allow you to skip any boards that look to be too time consuming (based on the per board charge). But that doesn't align well with what the client seems to be looking for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You could charge per board**, and be very clear that you'll spend some maximum of time per board before moving on to the next one (translates into what the client is willing to pay to salvage a board). So the client will know that there are potentially `repairable` boards in the `bad` set. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you're done with your first pass, any leftover time could be used on the most likely repairable boards: `(max_time * total_boards) - time_spent`&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You could just charge for you time**, which is _probabbly_ what I'd do. The client wants to know the boards are either good (possibly repaired) or bad. That takes time - and based on your question, potentially a large variance in that time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key is translating the value for your client into time. You can still have a maximum time per board (so the client isn't concerned about an invoice for far more than the value of a working board), and still use the leftover time after a first pass. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But since you've mapped a relationship between the value and the compensation, you can better invoice the client in those decisions. If 90% of the boards are working after the first pass, and you've taken 50% of the time they're willing to pay for - do they *really* want to spend (potentially) the other 50% of the budget on that last 10%? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course in this case - as with most - transparent communication is critical. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17812" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4368" RevisionGUID="74e14f32-71fc-4b90-a0f2-5b9336e8c8bd" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="That's completely up to **you**, and what risks you're willing to take. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a [huge advocate for hourly billing](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1588/which-is-the-most-honest-or-ethical-way-to-bill-hourly-or-fixed-price/1600#1600) and that (along with a few other key concepts) defines more [than just what I charge for](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aL4ii_Z3EI).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because my freelancing philosophy is that I **consider myself the product** I have no reason to sell anything else (hosting, domains, other freelancers' time).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead, I'll *manage* all those resources for a client, but [bill the way I always do](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aL4ii_Z3EI&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;t=915): charging for my time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just realize that if you *do* sell those things to clients (reselling a hosting provider's services) you inherit the responsibility the client would otherwise associate with the hosting company. Since you're the one they're paying, you're the one they'll contact for support. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While hosting companies have entire departments dedicated to this, you probably don't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; or the client reimburses me later&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's perhaps the worst situation, where you're not even making a profit on reselling a service. In this case the client *might not* hold you responsible for any problems (but could, since they're still paying you); however, you're on the hook for the payment should they not reimburse you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That'd be a situation to avoid completely. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case I'd help the client setup the hosting they need (charging for your time to do that). Then if they have you on a longer term contract, make sure you're CC'd on all account emails, and manage as much of that for them as possible, but keep the business relationship between your client and the hosting provider." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17813" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4373" RevisionGUID="1022a4b8-2a50-4ac3-854f-93054e41aaf9" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="It depends on how your freelance is configured.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a sole proprietor taxes customarily involve:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - 1099s (If received, [but not required][1])&#xD;&#xA; - 1040 (not 1040EZ)&#xD;&#xA; - schedule C (deductions/expenses) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And taxes are paid in quarterly payments based upon these forms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There may be more forms required for an S-Corp or other formal organization formation (articles of organization, meeting minutes, etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An actual freelance business can be created in many different forms. Each will have it's unique requirements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4106/should-i-expect-a-1099" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17814" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4432" RevisionGUID="5de85e7e-c038-4e40-b587-f23d1d03c002" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="**I would never discount my rate.** Using 'rate' seems to indicate hourly billing (which I'm [a huge advocate for](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1588/which-is-the-most-honest-or-ethical-way-to-bill-hourly-or-fixed-price/1600#1600), at least in the type of work I've done). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're billing hourly, the thing you're charging for is your time not the task. So it doesn't matter if the task requires less of your skill, or seems 'easier' (talking to someone may feel easier than writing code) - the client is paying for the same thing, [your time](https://youtu.be/6aL4ii_Z3EI?t=619).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I'd never discount the rate, in fact, because you're billing a small block of time, I might **charge a minimum of 2 hours (as it interrupts other work)**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That all said, this looks like **a great opportunity to take a stab at value based billing**. While it's just an hour or so of your time, the money you may be saving the company is significant (hiring costs are high, bad hiring even more so).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead of discounting your rate, you could try to get an idea of what savings / value you interviewing a prospective developer gives the company, and charge them a fixed fee derived from that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17815" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4589" RevisionGUID="a318d320-66d6-4807-858d-7201cdfe3f8b" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="There's no hard and fast rule about this in my experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some freelancers like to play it loose and ambiguous with dollar amounts. My opinion is this is often done for three reasons: A) They want to be able to &quot;feel&quot; the client out in case they can get more money from them or B) they aren't confident enough and are too scared of losing a job due to pricing and C) they feel it may convey an attitude of willingness to compromise or an overall lax attitude. -- Again, just my opinion. And I'm not stating these are all *wrong*, they just aren't the way I do business. I've seen many the freelancer state things like &quot;Just pay me what you think it's worth.&quot; That's all well and good if you aren't really concerned with how much money you are earning or don't feel your time is of value. But to me.... I really *need* to be paid if I'm spending my time and experience to assist a client in making money for themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working this way **greatly** escalates the chances of you not being paid, or being underpaid. Sure you may be seen as a &quot;nice guy/gal&quot; but which is more important - earning a living or being seen as &quot;nice&quot;? If there's no solid, agreed upon figure, there **will** be arguments and disagreements about what you are worth. If you can afford to just walk away from any job without payment, or file lawsuits to get your payment, then okay. Most don't have the time, patience or resources to actually survive this way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;This is like working at Taco Bell and not worrying about getting a paycheck. Taco Bell makes money either way -- if they don't have to pay you, they'll be more than happy to take your free or reduce wage services. Why would you ***not*** want to be paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#I provide hard, solid, numbers when asked what my hourly rate is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I'm asked what my hourly rate is, I provide my hourly rate. Period. I don't waffle. I'm not ambiguous about how much I expect the client to pay me. I want **no** misunderstanding. The client needs to be *fully aware* that if they want me to do X, they are expected to pay $X. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On top of that, I do **not** alter my pricing just because a client feels my pricing is unjustified (to them). Clients have **no idea** what my overhead is and what my expenses are. Therefore a *client* is **never** in a position to tell me what I should earn. Ever. I don't care what they've paid in the past. I don't care what they *think* is acceptable. I've set my rates. Pay them or move on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Related questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/25712/what-should-i-do-if-a-potential-client-claims-my-pricing-is-too-high/25713#25713&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1304/whose-responsibility-is-to-give-budget-for-job-freelancer-or-client/1317#1317&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2541/how-much-should-i-charge-for-graphic-design-and-how/2544#2544&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2383/as-a-freelancer-how-do-you-quote-charge-for-a-project/2385#2385&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/917/client-wants-to-pay-a-percentage-of-revenue-generated-by-website/923#923&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3891/underestimated-project-do-you-charge-the-excess-time/3892#3892&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3305/how-to-politely-turn-down-a-clients-request-for-a-free-test-job/3307#3307&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3075/how-to-negotiate-a-price-after-an-item-of-work-is-done/3083#3083&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a ton of questions here regarding pricing and client relations. It may help to just search and review other questions/answers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Below is only added because you used the word &quot;recruiter&quot; rather than &quot;client&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding the &quot;recruiter&quot; -- be careful. Just my experience, but if this person is looking to use you and be essentially your &quot;agent&quot; -- as in they go out get work, you complete the work then you pay them for finding the work -- you need to **seriously negotiate** compensation and how payments are structured. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've seen several instances where a &quot;recruiter&quot; would refer a client to me, then expect *me* to write them a check for a percentage of the project - a &quot;[kickback][1]&quot; essentially. This is done *all the time* but it is often ethically questionable because it is so easy to raise rates to clients in order to compensate for the kickback -- and often that is the case. In addition, when you start writing checks for this type of thing it can have a detrimental effect on how you *feel* about freelancing. It's no fun shelling out money for completing your work. It just *feels* backwards (because it is).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, there are &quot;recruiters&quot; that go out, find the work, come to you to complete the work, then *they* bill the client and *they* write *you* a check for the services -- you don't get payment directly from the client. You get payment from the &quot;recruiter&quot;. Essentially you become and &quot;invisible&quot; resource for them. This is very common and generally not a problem. In fact, I've worked this way with some clients for years. However, you need to ensure (via a contract) that if the &quot;recruiter's&quot; client doesn't pay the &quot;recruiter&quot; then you still get paid. Don't allow your payment to be dependent upon the recruiter's payment. Get a contract in place that states **every** project the recruiter asks you to complete, the **recruiter** is responsible to pay for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Note according to the rate calculator you linked to, I'd be a baz-illionaire by now - those figures seem exceptionally unconventional to me. Without *any* explanation as to *how* the values are being calculated, I would not put *any* stock in what that link states.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;According to that link, Based on my last W2 position (more than 10 years ago) I should be charging more than 4 times what I currently charge... I'd starve because no one would hire me as a freelancer at that rate. If I were to go back to W2 employment, based on my current earnings... well.. I'd *never* find *any* position paying that much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kickback" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17816" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4621" RevisionGUID="e622f822-92e2-4c4e-a65a-0fbe1fd48491" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="I'm in the US.. so I think in US wage terms...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;£5/hr is roughly $7.30/hr US &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By **law** in the US, no one can be paid less than $7.25/hr. Most states actually set the minimum wage higher. For example in my state it's over $9/hr **minimum**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're basically working for bare, minimum wage. If you feel what you are doing *anyone* off the street could do with absolutely *zero* special education or knowledge, then okay. And I mean *anyone*. If they could poke their head out the door and grab the next person walking by to do your job... then *maybe* its a minimum wage job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember an *employer* also generally covers things like paid leave/sick days and holidays, electric bills, price of equipment and it's maintenance... *none* of that is covered if you are a freelancer. You must cover of all that as well (In the US it would include healthcare, but I know that's not an issue in the UK). So, even IF you feel the *work* is only worth minimum wage.. what about all the additional expenses you have that are required in order for you to do *any* work, let alone *this* client's work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you think your work requires **any** special skills or knowledge, you are **greatly** under paying yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1851/from-agency-to-freelance-what-should-i-charge&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1673/how-to-determine-what-to-charge-for-a-first-time-student-applying-to-be-a-gamifi&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3685/what-to-charge-for-freelance-project-for-fiances-company&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2383/as-a-freelancer-how-do-you-quote-charge-for-a-project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17817" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4669" RevisionGUID="85991215-9cdb-4f9f-985d-55fcf9cbbf0e" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="The clients who post projects in freelancer sites do not care to give the details of the app in the project description. i have seen 90% of the clients not describing the requirements, they just say i need a android app or i need app to be build soon. but here freelancers gets confused weather to bid or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*I am giving these suggestions assuming that you are a new freelancer.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - So if you are a new freelancer then you have to be very careful. as&#xD;&#xA;   you have high chances of not getting the bid accepted by the client. as your profile is new and no one wants to takes risk on their project.&#xD;&#xA; - I would suggest that you search for mostly those projects which have a good description. and bid responsively as you have a limited number of bids.&#xD;&#xA; - Always make your proposal more interesting and make a demo if possible to show it to the client to make him believe that you are talented person.&#xD;&#xA; - Go with a good price and reply to the client as soon as he/she text you or contact you in any ways.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you get the project then do it to your best. and you will get more and more projects. and never give up. the beginning as always very slow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;more information for new freelancers [HERE][1] .&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/4665/11903" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17818" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4706" RevisionGUID="b2bdea3c-61ab-4f84-b5f9-fd21f8169965" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="There's a big difference in being a freelancer and being an employee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're hired by a company as a W2 employee (or the equivalent if you're not in the US) you have a boss. They tell you how to do your job (to an extent). You get trained on how the team does x, y, and z and you work certain hours or can work within a range of hours (if you're salary). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're a freelancer then you're the boss. Yes, they hired you but, you're not their employee. You work for yourself. They give you a project and you get to decide how to do it. You get to set your own hours, and work for as many clients you can handle. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Further reading: [1][1], [2][2], [3][3]. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wrote an [answer for a similar question][4] about applying to jobs as a freelancer for companies looking for an employee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, yes you can do it and it doesn't hurt to try. Chances are you won't be looked at if you state you're a freelancer as HR vets most applications. If you can, go directly to the department head or the CEO (depending on the size of the company) and give them your pitch. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wouldn't contact these people in the same manner that you would for a normal W2 position as that's not what this would be. You need to show results, case studies, and your competitive advantages. A cover letter doesn't mean much here. Send them your [elevator speech][5] and include contact info.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't make this a part of your usual sales funnel because it's more effort than it's worth. Only do this if you're interested in the company/their product or service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://employment.findlaw.com/hiring-process/being-an-independent-contractor-vs-employee.html&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.sba.gov/starting-business/hire-retain-employees/hire-contractor-or-employee&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/employee-vs-independent-contractor-differences-you-need-to-know&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4623/is-it-advisable-to-contact-a-company-and-offer-your-services-based-on-job-advert/4624#4624&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://sfp.ucdavis.edu/files/163926.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17819" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4711" RevisionGUID="879cc411-5f35-4bf5-bbca-0bc0a3e37baa" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="For at least a couple of years I have been trying to build awareness of my writing/copyediting communications business.  I have even tried offering my services in exchange for referrals, but without success. It's been very discouraging:  no one seems to be interested in writing/editing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I read [this stackexchange post][1] on building up presence (among a couple of others), and one of the things that has been repeatedly mentioned is social media.  For a time I had a Twitter page that included quick, writing-oriented quips and questions designed to (hopefully) get people thinking about the need for my services, but without any consistent business, I began to lose both material and inspiration.  Additionally, I have a day job, so I have a bit more pressure regarding the time I can give to my business, unlike pure entrepreneurs (I have to make sure I maintain what pay the bills!).  My question is, do I really need these outlets, and what would I post...particularly on a social-media platform like Facebook which calls for more extensive, detailed postings?  In my position, do I need these outlets?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just thought I'd ask; I'm not sure if/how social media would help at this point.  Thank you for trying to help in advance.&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/119/how-can-i-advertise-myself" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17820" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4785" RevisionGUID="2a605753-6a65-41c2-8461-b5d8760b9cdb" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="#Fire your hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only way you'll ever make money with design is to become familiar with and accustomed to value-based pricing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No client I've ever come across is willing to pay $150-$400 an hour... or willing to pay for 40 hours of work, at something ridiculous like $35/hr, when you've spent 30 hours of &quot;rough&quot; design exploration and only 10 hours actually finalizing something. However, most will gladly pay $600 without ever knowing it only took you 2 hours to design something. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you start out.. that $600 may mean you only earn $10/hr because it took you 60 hours to finish a project... but as you improve your skill set and get better at estimating your time, you whittle that away and start making more and more money without really increasing prices. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Value-based pricing **rewards** you for being better at your job. The faster, more efficient you are, the more profit you make. Why should you charge an hourly rate clients will see as acceptable when you can do in 1 hour what other designers may need 5 hours to complete? **Only** value-based pricing is a viable model in my opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, in general, with value-based pricing in mind, *yes* you charge the client for your exploration time. But it's up to you to be quick about things. The longer you take, the less money you make -- which is a different mindset than &quot;the longer you take the more the client pays&quot;. The client pays the price you've bid/quoted... **you** have to ensure you are A) bidding accurately and B) not eating your own profits by taking too much time with projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;**An example with value-based pricing:** &#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;A client approaches me for a tri-fold brochure. I *know* I can complete this in 3 hours tops... Client asks me what my hourly rate is. I simply tell then the cost for the brochure design will be $450.00.. the client is happy with that and hires me... It only takes me 2 hours to actually complete the brochure..... **I make $450.00**. ($225/hr)&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Same client... different tri-fold. I tell them it's the same price, $450. They are happy and hire me. This time I ran into a hurdle and it took me 4 hours to complete...  But those extra 2 hours I needed means I made less profit on this project compared to the previous one. **I make $450.00** ($112.50/hr)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;**Same scenario if pricing were hourly**:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Conversely.... the client approaches me and asks what my hourly rate is. I tell them its $150 an hour. They complain, whine, and balk. Telling me they generally only pay less than $40/hr. They *expect* to pay me the same rate they've paid others. As if every designer has the same abilities and skills.... but I'm *not* the same designer. So... lets pretend I cut my rate *(which I **NEVER** would)* to something like, say, $50/hr. Then I tell them it'll take 3 hours.. they are thrilled and hire me... It only takes me 2 hours... I bill the client for 2 hours.... **I make $100.00**&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Second trifold hourly. I bid at $50/hr. Tell the client it will take 3 hours. I run into a problem and it takes me 4 hours. What do I do about that additional $50? Do I contact the client asking for more money than I quoted (bad practice) or do I eat that figure as well, meaning for 4 hours of work I only made $150, essentially only $37/hr. Either way I must upset the client and possibly lose their business or make *far less* than I estimated. Even in the best case scenario and the client is happy to pay for the additional hour without a problem... **I make $200**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#You tell me which is a better pricing model.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Dollar amounts are fictions and have no actual bearing on my pricing. These are examples only and should **not** be seen as pricing advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are billing hourly, you need to be honest and ethical and **never** pad your time. It's the only real way to remain in business and keep clients happy. If you are billing based on an *agreed upon amount* then the amount of time it takes you to complete something is largely irrelevant. Your'e being paid for your knowledge, experience as well as your skill, not just the time pushing a mouse around on a desk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For something like a logo project, which you mention, first you **must**  *know* your overhead costs (electricity, equipment, software, rent, heat, water, etc). Then you calculate the approximate time needed multiplied by your hourly overhead... this gives you a *minimum* amount. After you have the minimum, it's a matter of market trends, current market pricing, depth and scope of the project, your area of expertise, etc to calculate the profit amount *on top of* the minimum you've calculated. This ultimately leads to a solid figure to bid/quote. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you bid/quote a solid figure, the client has no worries that you will be asking for more money, and generally there's *much less* issue with payment since it's understood from the beginning. And it's up to *you* to remain within the time you've bid. Any additional time means *you* eat that cost, not the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other possibly helpful questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1588/which-is-the-most-honest-or-ethical-way-to-bill-hourly-or-fixed-price/1589#1589&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4534/am-i-supposed-to-be-paid-even-though-my-work-isnt-used/4536#4536&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4641/is-it-common-to-demand-deposit-retainer-to-avoid-payment-disputes/4644#4644&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3891/underestimated-project-do-you-charge-the-excess-time/3892#3892&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1304/whose-responsibility-is-to-give-budget-for-job-freelancer-or-client/1317#1317" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17821" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5802" RevisionGUID="b68e9f0a-00b5-4e2d-a47b-94a15a9e93d0" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="Did the client really ask for for a fixed price for two years? It is my experience that long-term contracts are payed based on your rate per hour, day or month. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for your calculation: Why would you give such a huge discount? I would recommend you to stick with your usual rate. You might find this question useful: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4650/discount-for-1-year-full-time-contract" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17822" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5839" RevisionGUID="0f24d8ba-1b2c-4ff5-8b46-7d90a0602c0c" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="There's really no solid information to go on here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Not sure what &quot;ridiculously low&quot; means**... 80% your normal rate? 50%? 25? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No clue long have you been in the field?**  If you are pricing to match those with 10 years experience in your field and you have 2 years experience... then you may need to evaluate that. Being *&quot;not as expensive as an agency or other freelancers&quot;* means nothing really. Clients looking to hire an agency aren't looking to hire an individual freelancer - different markets. And unless these &quot;other freelancers&quot; have the exact same knowledge and experience as yourself, their pricing is somewhat irrelevant. No totally, but to a degree.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No idea how proficient and skilled you are at whatever you do.** *You* may feel justified in your pricing, but that doesn't mean the rest of the world does. In addition, you may feel your work is stunning, be-all-end-all work. But if clients aren't returning, it would seem that they feel the work isn't worth the cost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No clue where your clients are coming from.** Some client farms (freelance websites, craigslist, etc) are *always* going to be populated with a plethora of &quot;dirt cheap&quot; clients unwilling to pay *anything* they feel is unjustified. If you are gaining clients from these areas, *that* may be the issue entirely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I don't have any clue as to your financial standing.** (Not asking for it either). If you haven't been tucking money away during the good times, you've been slacking. The nature of freelancing in my experience has always been &quot;feast or famine&quot; -- too much work or not enough. You have to plan during good times to compensate for the slow times. Failing to do this will inevitably put you in a rough spot when a slow period hits and you are financially drained.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I don't know how you price** -- Hourly rate? Value-based? Long-term contracts?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The truth of the matter is, if you feel you are priced out of your market, then you've got to adjust something. ***Thinking* you are worth $X is quite different than clients beleiving you are worth $X.** Heck I feel I'm worth 2 to 3 times my rate... but that doesn't mean clients will pay that for the work I do. And I *know* clients gained from some resources would *never* pay my pricing. So, I don't use those resources to find clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it's true that most clients will *always* want a lower price, if several of them, especially existing clients, are not returning **they are telling you something**. There's an old adage that states, *&quot;If you get every project you bid on your rates are too low.&quot;* and the opposite is true as well, if you don't get *any* project you bid on, your rates are too high.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First thing to do is **[Fire Your Hourly Rate][1]** if that's how you are pricing. By *not* telling, or pricing work for clients, on disclosed hourly rates, you create some flexibility with your pricing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What this does is allow one to adjust pricing as workloads change. If there's a need for work, project pricing can easily drop 20%. This is much different than dropping an hourly rate 20%. We all know that once you drop an hourly rate for a client is *very difficult* to ever raise it for that client later. And conversely if there's an overload of work project costs can easily be increased by 20% to deter some smaller projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, *only you* know your pricing, abilities, and market. And *only you* can take an honest, open, look at your work and determine if you can ride out the slow period (both financially and emotionally) or drop pricing to hopefully gain work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *know* it can be difficult during slow periods. But I can't tell you if *you* should lower your prices. I don't know how anyone could.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From a personal standpoint, I have noticed a drop in my workload during Q1 and Q2 of 2016. My larger clients slowed a bit and haven't had a great need for new projects. What they have done this year is determine previous items worked well so they are merely reusing older projects with minor changes. I don't make as much on changes to existing items as I do on new items. It does happen. But they are returning in Q3. Point is.... slow times happen. Don't expect to *always* have enough work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Completely random prediction... the last slow period I had which comes close to Q1/Q2 of 2016 was in 2006... a year and a half later the housing bubble popped and *everyone* felt the crunch. So... since Q1/Q2 of 2016 were slow here, does that mean another bubble is going to pop end of 2017/beginning of 2018? Hmmmm.... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is all ***just speculation***. You actually may be a rock star who is *absolutely* worth your pricing. I don't know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additional:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're in the design field, one of the more difficult things to do is to create some residual income with a multiplier. Something you can do once, then sell multiple times - art, templates, books, training, t-shirts, etc. This takes some effort. And I struggle with it myself. So, I can't offer any solid venues for this. However, finding and maintaining something, anything, that you can sell or collect on without having to directly work on it can be a great cushion for those slow times. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4783/should-i-charge-my-client-for-mistakes-i-make/4785#4785" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17823" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6054" RevisionGUID="7a387f1e-1abf-4afa-ab9d-9ee9186b11a4" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="**Figure your overhead.....**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the work is on-site for them, your overhead may only include transportation to and from. In which case, a fee close to your salary, perhaps slightly higher to cover lost &quot;employee&quot; benefits, would be appropriate. If you are working remotely, then your overhead would include *anything and everything* required to complete the work - electricity, heat, equipment, software, internet service, phone service, etc. Generally these are all things covered by employers but are all overhead for freelancers. So the previous salary may have no bearing whatsoever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Calculate your hourly rate...**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember, that as a freelancer, you have to cover things like sick days, healthcare, vacations, etc. Clients don't provide these items so you have to factor those into hourly rate calculations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See Here:&lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4619/struggling-to-come-up-with-an-estimation-of-the-value-of-my-work/4621#4621&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/57/how-do-i-calculate-pay-rate-if-ive-never-freelanced-before?rq=1&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1851/from-agency-to-freelance-what-should-i-charge&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2541/how-much-should-i-charge-for-graphic-design-and-how?noredirect=1&amp;lq=1&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Then multiply your hourly rate by the amount of hours they want you to work in a day.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Previous salaries really mean very little to a freelancer other than... well, you don't want to make *less* at any time. You can use the previous salary as a general guideline, but until you calculate your overhead... and subsequent hourly rate, there's no telling if that salary comes close to what you *need* to make as a freelancer. And again, no clue if the work is on or off-site and that may be a large contributing factor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17824" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6203" RevisionGUID="0549f6b2-4271-4119-b575-bdef7cd3b9b3" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="He paid you.. what's the problem??&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since he paid you, he clearly has full intent on following through. I also don't see 2 meetings falling through as &quot;impossible to get ahold of&quot;. Don't forget you are in a **service** industry. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your time zones are wildly different, *that* may be the issue. And, in fact you may want to give him a bit more leeway due to this. I realize you state you are &quot;waking up early&quot; but just schedule something so you don't have to. Find a common ground. You can't be more than 8-9 hours apart. So you should be able to schedule something at the start of your day and the end of his or vice versa. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being annoyed that someone paid you and you've had simple meeting scheduling conflicts for a couple weeks is a bit over the top in my opinion. Good customer service would be of a mindset that he's paid, lets work *with* him, not get annoyed that a meeting is proving difficult to schedule. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's one thing if he hasn't given you anything, but it's another matter entirely if he's proven intent by paying a deposit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All that being posted... I too get annoyed and cancelled meetings at the last minute or no-shows. That's a different matter. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See here: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/6002/what-to-do-about-negligent-clients/6003#6003 &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-- but that does deal with a client prior to any commitment (deposit) so with a deposit I'd expand to allow at least 3 cancellations before I say anything. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I'd just express that my time is valuable and I have a fairly full schedule. I can't continually put things aside for meetings which are then cancelled at the last minute. If he's not prepared to move forward, I'll happily return the deposit. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17825" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6379" RevisionGUID="4ceaef55-b0df-4404-955b-200a5c618bac" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="You should take the routine to make any client (friends, family, or not) sign a well done contract (you can [search here][1] to find many posts about that) that contains also a releasing agreement on any material that he will give you or that he will use independently on your sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this case, I'm not a lawyer but I don't think that you can be involved in anything illegal, since you produced a &quot;clean&quot; software that he used for his purposes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would be like if you build an empty site with Wordpress for a client, and then he fills it with copyrighted materials. Or if you sell cooking knifes and then someone use it for an armed robbery.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any case, if you will have a signed contract from the client will always be better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/search?q=contract%20is%3Aquestion" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17826" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6480" RevisionGUID="e2c4f45b-ebdc-4c2a-aa57-7f54f612f32c" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="Well, any rules regarding tax will probably apply to most countries, especially the European continent. The general rule of thumb is that you declare your income in the country that you reside. As long as the money you're earning is from legitimate sources, I don't see an issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The UK government won't complain about receiving tax from a foreign source of income, and the French government can't prevent companies from outsourcing work to freelancers from other countries. Even if the French government punishes them with some kind of tax embargo, it will be theirs to pay, not yours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Edit:** Here is some more information that you may find helpful, so far no one has voted to close it: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2727/uk-freelancer-living-in-thailand-working-for-uk-based-clients-tax?rq=1&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17827" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6528" RevisionGUID="fa11bc70-9f8a-43fd-b697-489ae88ecb19" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="This question is close to [Must the customer mention the existence of my own company to the final customer?][1] but with a big difference: The customer wants me to work onsite at the final customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long story:&#xD;&#xA;I was approached by Headhunter A from the UK, she wanted me to give her my CV as a .doc-file. Then she forwarded me to Headhunter B, which she said was a colleague but in reality is a different company (in germany). Now B wants me to introduce myself to the final client (Company C, also germany), but in the name of a different company: IT Consultant D (germany).&#xD;&#xA;If I would go through with that contract, I would work fulltime as a freelancer for Company C for almost a year, at Company C in the name of Consultant D and will have a contract with Headhunter A.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am pretty sure that I won't take this offer, because of Scheinselbständigkeit (german equivalent of Misclassification of employees as independent contractors) and the obvious reason: That this is not normal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am from germany but in all my projects until now, I worked for companies outside of germany.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question: Is this normal, am I overreacting? Is this maybe normal for german companies?&#xD;&#xA;Headhunter A wanted my CV as .doc, she promised not to change anything, but I am pretty sure, she redacted my contact-info. Or is there another reason why someone would prefer .doc over .pdf?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for the responses so far.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I ask Headhunter B for clarification and the constellation would be like that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancer F will have a contract with Headhunter B (from germany). This contract will state that F has to tell Customer C that F works for D (IT consultant that work for C). F has to work for 12 month full time at the office of C and will do every work D gives him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;B also told F that D has a lot of freelancers working in such a constellation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/6258/must-the-customer-mention-the-existence-of-my-own-company-to-the-final-customer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17828" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6575" RevisionGUID="344b3762-3532-43c2-ad20-82a49942aaf1" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="A related thing happened to me too, the difference was that the other part was a web agency, they tried to put me in bad light with the client also with sort of sabotage actions, trusting on the fact that the client could be technically uneducated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It was a difficult moment between me, the client and that external company (you can read the story [here][1] if you are curious).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What did I do? I always kept a professional behaviour with the client and with that external company, I never blamed anyone or complained about other's actions, BUT when they tried to put me in bad light with strange requests or similar things, I produced precise proofs and detailed documentations about why that particular task was counter-productive and what should have been done instead, eventually I requested a meeting with the client to talk face to face about these matters and did so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my humble position of a single man company I just moved forward as a caterpillar with calm and professionality (even if sometimes I felt anger raising inside) with the tasks and jobs that I had to do for that client, respecting deadlines and the requested quality, and never letting anyone step on my feet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The result is that the relationship with the client is very good and alive, we met last week and he gave me many different tasks to do in the next weeks, and that external company was limited to weekly produce one or two contents for the facebook page.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line is that you should go on with professionality and be clear with your client when you have production problems and why, and **at most bring brilliant solutions and no complaints at all**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4715/complicated-situation-with-client-and-an-aggressive-external-company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17829" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6582" RevisionGUID="458fb762-d140-4016-9934-215f98007bdb" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="First, from looking at your [first question][1] and reading this one, I assume you've already pandered to the clients apologies and promises of payment too much. As well as this, I'll be assuming you're set on taking court action, and will therefore address the process required before action; rather than assess whether the option is viable or worth your time, only you can decide and you seem to already have the answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any further communications you send to him should formally address the issue and not the cause. The issue is you are out of pocket, and that's it really, any communications shouldn't insult or inaccurately accuse your client of anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to point out quickly that IANAL and most of SE's community aren't either. No one here is able to provide 100% accurate legal advice, and I suggest you consult a lawyer or legal professional for some legal guidance on the matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the UK, [Citizen's Advice][2] and [Gov.Uk][3] have some great advice and guidance on taking court action, from the prerequisites all the way through to the end of the case. Most of the information below has been taken from the above sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should definitely write a letter to your client before taking action, else you may end up being liable for the client's court costs. Your objective is to show and provide full co-operation and allow the issue to be resolved. If you and your client can come to a **viable** compromise* then take it, the court will not favour you if you are unreasonable and refuse to co-operate for the point of taking court action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now to actually writing the letter. From citizen's advice, it says you should include your: &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - name and address &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - reason for claim &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - any facts that are relevant (work done, them using your work for any monetary gain, etc.) &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - what you are asking for (make sure this bit is as clear and unambiguous as possible) &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - how much you're claiming (including any court costs you wish to claim back and any expenses with sources) &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - a list of documents you'll be providing your (signed contract(s), email strings, invoices that have been sent, etc.) &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - A deadline of acknowledgement (14 days) and payment (30 days) (these seem to be considered reasonable enough time frames)&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - A reminder that you will be starting court action if the payment is still outstanding by the time of the deadline. &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - A reminder of rules set within the [Civil Procedure Rules][4]. (I don't know enough about these rules to give decent advice so give&#xD;&#xA;   that link a read for more information.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, attach an Invoice to the letter as well, get proof of posting from the post office, and keep a personal copy too. If you haven't received a response or payment within the given deadlines, move towards starting your claim.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;\* and make damn sure it is viable, as you may not be able to back out easily upon accepting it, and I doubt any court would take your favour if you've accepted a compromise, only to back out and still claim the money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/6521/small-claims-court-for-unpaid-small-invoice-uk&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/taking-legal-action/small-claims/going-to-court/taking-court-action/step-one-write-a-letter-before-action/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/overview&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/pd_pre-action_conduct" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17831" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6686" RevisionGUID="184548ee-eae7-443c-8260-44f66db95bac" CreationDate="2017-04-13T12:57:34.733" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/ with https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/" Text="You'll never get ahead with hourly based pricing.. you should use [Value-based pricing](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/search?q=value+based+pricing) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With hourly pricing, you penalize yourself the better you get at your job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fire your hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;More detail (but not exactly a duplicate question):&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4783/should-i-charge-my-client-for-mistakes-i-make/4785#4785" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17833" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6780" RevisionGUID="017d564c-f255-4c7c-8f93-cf4ab621c602" CreationDate="2017-04-13T14:17:50.997" UserId="16558" Text="This is simple.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do not work with client until he pays cool guy and then he needs to pay you IN ADVANCE of any work. What makes you think the client will not do the same thing to you as he did the cool guy?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Reply to client and copy the cool guy on your response. Do not put the cool guy in the dark. Cool guy will appreciate it forever, client only cares about free stuff. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17834" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6781" RevisionGUID="fd5ac48a-5669-4570-ba33-d9e117409f1a" CreationDate="2017-04-13T14:18:50.740" UserId="708" Text="Disregard that you know &quot;this cool guy&quot; and examine the **facts**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You **know** this client has failed to pay others. Why would you be any different? Why would this non-paying client feel compelled to pay?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you *know* the client owes others for similar work, is it not possible that the client is coming directly to you because others are *refusing* to work for them due to non-payment?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if you take on the work, be prepared to hunt down the client for payment. If that's acceptable to you, then go ahead. Even with safeguards in place, I tend to shy away from clients which I'm well aware that getting payment will be troublesome. I prefer clients that pay when invoiced. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Knowing what you know about this client, you seem a tad overconfident that you can &quot;secure stable income&quot; from them. Just because you may have a contract requiring milestone payments or a deposit *never* means the client will pay what they agree to pay and unless you have direct access to their banking, there's no guarantee you'll get any money, even *after* a law suit. And who whats lawsuits to get paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, would *not* mix my business with anyone else's business  and what the client may or may not owe others is none of my concern. Although how clients treat others is telling about how they will treat me. I'd make no mention of anyone else to the client when dealing with the client. If &quot;this cool guy&quot; is someone I'm on a friendly basis with, I may *separately* inform him that I was contact by the client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17835" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6781" RevisionGUID="752ec5d9-a77e-4551-a4ed-56689923ee8c" CreationDate="2017-04-13T14:26:15.683" UserId="708" Comment="added 365 characters in body" Text="Disregard that you know &quot;this cool guy&quot; and examine the **facts**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You **know** this client has failed to pay others. Why would you be any different? Why would this non-paying client feel compelled to pay?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you *know* the client owes others for similar work, is it not possible that the client is coming directly to you because others are *refusing* to work for them due to non-payment?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if you take on the work, be prepared to hunt down the client for payment. If that's acceptable to you, then go ahead. Even with safeguards in place, I tend to shy away from clients which I'm well aware that getting payment will be troublesome. I prefer clients that pay when invoiced. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Knowing what you know about this client, you seem a tad overconfident that you can &quot;secure stable income&quot; from them. Just because you may have a contract requiring milestone payments or a deposit *never* means the client will pay what they agree to pay and unless you have direct access to their banking, there's no guarantee you'll get any money, even *after* a law suit. And who whats lawsuits to get paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, would *not* mix my business with anyone else's business  and what the client may or may not owe others is none of my concern. Although how clients treat others is telling about how they will treat me. I'd make no mention of anyone else to the client when dealing with the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If &quot;this cool guy&quot; is someone I'm on a friendly basis with, I may *separately* inform him that I was contacted by the client. In all probability, the client is only contacting you directly because &quot;this cool guy&quot; merely passed on your invoices. So to me, it would seem the client is attempting to circumvent or take advantage of &quot;this cool guy&quot; providing your contact information... I would *not* take on the work merely in order to not play any part in any collusion against &quot;this cool guy&quot; if I valued that relationship. Proving a &quot;workload' or &quot;sceduling&quot; excuse to the client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17836" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6781" RevisionGUID="19174012-5ff7-4329-a46c-4fd06818ce7e" CreationDate="2017-04-13T14:43:31.170" UserId="708" Comment="added 99 characters in body" Text="Disregard that you know &quot;this cool guy&quot; and examine the **facts**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You **know** this client has failed to pay others. Why would you be any different? Why would this non-paying client feel compelled to pay?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you *know* the client owes others for similar work, is it not possible that the client is coming directly to you because others are *refusing* to work for them due to non-payment?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if you take on the work, be prepared to hunt down the client for payment. If that's acceptable to you, then go ahead. Even with safeguards in place, I tend to shy away from clients which I'm well aware that getting payment will be troublesome. I prefer clients that pay when invoiced. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Knowing what you know about this client, you seem a tad overconfident that you can &quot;secure stable income&quot; from them. Just because you may have a contract requiring milestone payments or a deposit *never* means the client will pay what they agree to pay. Even with advance payments, who is to say you get one, then no more, essentially killing the project? Unless you have direct access to their banking, there's no guarantee you'll get any money, even *after* a law suit. And who whats lawsuits to get paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, would *not* mix my business with anyone else's business  and what the client may or may not owe others is none of my concern. Although how clients treat others is telling about how they will treat me. I'd make no mention of anyone else to the client when dealing with the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If &quot;this cool guy&quot; is someone I'm on a friendly basis with, I may *separately* inform him that I was contacted by the client. In all probability, the client is only contacting you directly because &quot;this cool guy&quot; merely passed on your invoices. So to me, it would seem the client is attempting to circumvent or take advantage of &quot;this cool guy&quot; providing your contact information... I would *not* take on the work merely in order to not play any part in any collusion against &quot;this cool guy&quot; if I valued that relationship. Proving a &quot;workload' or &quot;sceduling&quot; excuse to the client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17837" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6772" RevisionGUID="230c3d0f-76b3-4d3b-86e4-dbddd6f4c520" CreationDate="2017-04-13T17:56:23.087" UserId="708" Comment="added 617 characters in body" Text="Ignore it unless asked. If the client is in *any* way bothered or troubled by `randomGuy`'s comment they'll surely ask you. If they never say anything... they don't really care.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If asked, merely state:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;I reported this issue on [date] via email to [name]. I don't know why `randomGuy` is stating he wasn't aware.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-- In my career, I choose to *not* &quot;play&quot; the office politics and posturing games many play (like `randomGuy` is doing). So, this may not be a fabulous answer if you, yourself, engage in these types of maneuvers. I've always been of mind that a pleasant work environment is *much, much* more important than setting myself up to look good for a promotion or rate increase or making others look less enticing. That often means I'm not the &quot;shark&quot; an employer or client notices, which to me is fine, no amount of one-upsmanship will help me sleep better at night...I'm *far* more the type to quietly do my work to the best of my ability and never strive for direct recognition. I take more solace knowing I've completed a job well, than in praise from others. Content in the realization that in most instances any merits I'm due for the work I've completed will come my way without my having to be a &quot;bully&quot; about it. However, you may have a different personality type. So, I don't anticipate this answer working for some. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17838" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6772" RevisionGUID="db1673e5-e50b-4e41-bbdc-70f0388240f2" CreationDate="2017-04-13T18:14:49.387" UserId="708" Comment="added 377 characters in body" Text="Ignore it unless asked. If the client is in *any* way bothered or troubled by `randomGuy`'s comment they'll surely ask you. If they never say anything... they don't really care.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If asked, merely state:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;I reported this issue on [date] via email to [name]. I don't know why `randomGuy` is stating he wasn't aware.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-- In my career, I choose to *not* &quot;play&quot; the office politics and posturing games many play (like `randomGuy` is doing). So, this may not be a fabulous answer if you, yourself, engage in these types of maneuvers. I've always been of mind that a pleasant work environment is *much, much* more important than setting myself up to look good for a promotion or rate increase or making others look less enticing. That often means I'm not the &quot;shark&quot; an employer or client notices, which to me is fine, no amount of one-upsmanship will help me sleep better at night...I'm *far* more the type to quietly do my work to the best of my ability and never strive for direct recognition. I take more solace knowing I've completed a job well, than in praise from others. Content in the realization that in most instances any merits I'm due for the work I've completed will come my way without my having to be a &quot;bully&quot; about it. However, you may have a different personality type. So, I don't anticipate this answer working for some. None of this means I don't point out the work I've done at times.. I just don't do it at the expense of others and I don't allow the attempts of others to denigrate my work on a personal level to be a catalyst to a big reaction from me. Which is why I post &quot;if asked&quot;. I won't jump into the fray and play the little mind games. But I also wont accept fault where there is none." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17839" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6772" RevisionGUID="193d8521-f5b4-4f5c-bec7-b4e3be39fbf5" CreationDate="2017-04-13T18:31:27.870" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 892 characters in body" Text="Ignore it unless asked. If the client is in *any* way bothered or troubled by `randomGuy`'s comment they'll surely ask you. If they never say anything... they don't really care.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If asked, merely state:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;I reported this issue on [date] via email to [name]. I don't know why `randomGuy` is stating he wasn't aware.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-- In my career, I choose to *not* &quot;play&quot; the office politics and posturing games many play (like `randomGuy` is doing). So, this may not be a fabulous answer if you, yourself, engage in these types of maneuvers. I don't allow the attempts of others to denigrate my work on a personal level to be a catalyst to a big reaction on my part. My work speaks for itself. Which is why I post &quot;if asked&quot;. I won't jump into the fray and play the little mind games. But I also wont accept fault where there is none." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17840" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6782" RevisionGUID="8c89e2d1-9d2a-4a80-91a7-77f70dd1e637" CreationDate="2017-04-13T19:39:39.860" UserId="2884" Text="Depending on the situation/client, I generally will do one of the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Charge them normal rate for travel time, as it is consuming my time. This is the default method.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Charge them one rate for work done at your location, and a higher rate for time spent on-site, without charging for the travel.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) Charge them a daily rate instead of by the hour when travel is required. The daily rate will be based around 8 hours of on-site work, plus an inconvenience fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an example, let's say your normal rate for work is $75 per hour. I would charge people $125 an hour if I'm required to be on-site. This works if the travel doesn't consume my entire day, when clients are within a reasonable driving distance (let's say a commute time of an hour each direction).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm required to fly somewhere, or travel a considerable distance which makes working for other clients difficult/impossible, then I'll charge them a daily rate. The daily rate will generally be something like $125 * 10, but they're free to consume my time for as many hours as they want for the day, but I also charge for travel days. I charge more than 8 hours because of the inconvenience for me. So let's say I'm living in New York, and my client is in Los Angeles, and they want to meet with me on a particular day (in person). The flight from NY to LA is about 5 hours, and so my travel will generally get booked as a flight from NY to LA, arriving in the evening and an overnight stay in a hotel. The second day will be a meeting a flight home. In this case, they pay my travel expenses, plus they have to pay my daily rate for 2 days. If they want me to do some preliminary work or have a dinner meeting with me on the day I arrive, there's no additional charges since they have already paid for the whole day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This type of system is reasonably easy to explain. I don't give clients the option, I generally decide how I'm going to invoice them, but I will be up-front about it so they are not surprised. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17841" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3423" RevisionGUID="3e5cd7f7-8f6b-41bd-be58-fd75b10d733a" CreationDate="2017-04-13T21:00:17.867" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/852627524920193024" />
  <row Id="17842" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2765" RevisionGUID="d265f376-61cc-4c5c-9212-579a36f1e45f" CreationDate="2017-04-14T18:06:00.670" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/852946052374286338" />
  <row Id="17852" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6786" RevisionGUID="05892ab4-ec69-47ab-85e4-19222da2f4ae" CreationDate="2017-04-17T02:20:55.103" UserId="16937" Text="Has anyone worked on an upwork.com project? Is there a risk in client sending you documents, sites, and software with malware to work on? I would like to do some freelancing, but I'm scared that I might infect my computer with malware." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17853" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6786" RevisionGUID="05892ab4-ec69-47ab-85e4-19222da2f4ae" CreationDate="2017-04-17T02:20:55.103" UserId="16937" Text="Has anyone worked on an upwork.com project? Is there a risk in client sending you documents, sites, and software with malware to work on?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17854" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6786" RevisionGUID="05892ab4-ec69-47ab-85e4-19222da2f4ae" CreationDate="2017-04-17T02:20:55.103" UserId="16937" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17855" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6787" RevisionGUID="4e19a561-1955-49a4-ae9f-000d22489634" CreationDate="2017-04-17T03:29:26.087" UserId="15143" Text="While it's not impossible it's extremely unlikely anybody would target you with virus on the site. It's expensive, manual process, slow and pointless to do it for just a small number of users. Not cost effective.&#xA;&#xA;Please focus your attention on something else more productive." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17856" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6788" RevisionGUID="997966db-fdf8-4f19-96f2-fe7ddbcd2cdd" CreationDate="2017-04-17T08:50:49.210" UserId="16940" Text="Any guides for the cost of living Belgium and Luxembourg for a non-EU IT freelancer/ self-employed? Eg, monthly rent, tax, VAT, health insurance, food, etc. Any local freelance websites for IT consultants?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17857" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6788" RevisionGUID="997966db-fdf8-4f19-96f2-fe7ddbcd2cdd" CreationDate="2017-04-17T08:50:49.210" UserId="16940" Text="Belgium V Luxembourg - cost of living for a non-EU freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17858" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6788" RevisionGUID="997966db-fdf8-4f19-96f2-fe7ddbcd2cdd" CreationDate="2017-04-17T08:50:49.210" UserId="16940" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|taxes|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17859" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6789" RevisionGUID="827798e4-f62e-420b-a93e-120b7c999040" CreationDate="2017-04-17T13:30:31.953" UserId="16558" Text="I would suggest you try [Expat Exchange][1] they have guides on both countries you are looking at as well as tax information. If you are a US citizen or US Green Card holder, remember you have to file taxes to the US every year even if you do not live in the US. If you live outside of the US for around 330 days of the year you get an income exemption of around $100k that is non-taxable to the US but you still have to file. You can find others in their forum in the same situation, info on expenses, healthcare etc etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.expatexchange.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17860" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6790" RevisionGUID="f2cd9c4a-182a-402c-854c-38faa4cfcce6" CreationDate="2017-04-18T03:24:42.003" UserId="16590" Text="I'm considering getting into computer maintenance. There is a firm which I'm working with who have a few sites which I have setup the computer infrastructure for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In computer maintenance; I've heard there is a lot of stress involved i.e. working after hours &amp; other difficulties. I'm curious to know what these are and whether or not control methods can be set in place to ensure these are under control?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The tasks i'm looking to do for my clients include backups, updates, fixing email issues, fixing computer issues, fixing viruses &amp; there will be many more which i cant think of at the top of my head. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Currently I work at set time frames, and I really hope I can achieve the same in computer maintenance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What areas of computer maintenance can involve stress and how can they be taken control of?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17861" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6790" RevisionGUID="f2cd9c4a-182a-402c-854c-38faa4cfcce6" CreationDate="2017-04-18T03:24:42.003" UserId="16590" Text="Controlling stress associated with maintenance services" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17862" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6790" RevisionGUID="f2cd9c4a-182a-402c-854c-38faa4cfcce6" CreationDate="2017-04-18T03:24:42.003" UserId="16590" Text="|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17863" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6791" RevisionGUID="bdcc5513-560f-47b2-b44d-f6defb7043b0" CreationDate="2017-04-18T08:03:39.070" UserId="15202" Text="This sounds like a combination of System Admin and Desktop Support. I'll answer for both as I have done both...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're looking after servers and networks, 99.99% of the job will be in office hours. The 0.01% of the work that happens outside is where the money is. Companies will want someone that they can call at 2am to come and fix their server. In these cases, you charge a stand-by fee (for being available) and a call-out fee (for going out). If they don't want to pay this, then they cannot call you out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Desktop support is a little different. This should ALL be in office hours. If a machine goes down, chances are that there is another option. Again, though, if a company wants round the clock support, charge them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you really don't want to offer Out of Hours support, you don't have to. You can state in the contract that you do not provide support after 18:00 or before 07:00, and you absolutely do not provide support on Sundays. That's the beauty of freelancing, you make your own schedule. However, you will be limiting your client base and your income as a result." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17871" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6794" RevisionGUID="3279e7b3-433f-422c-82b4-56dd7869a754" CreationDate="2017-04-19T18:51:44.867" UserId="16959" Text="I have been working on Upwork for a considerable length of time now. Here is what I have to tell you if you intend to join Upworkers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancing is an entrepreneurial undertaking, it is not entirely risk-free. The risk of malware is not peculiar to any particular platform, not least - Upwork. We encounter these every day as long as you connecting you are your pc to other hardware and software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice is get your computer security up to date and functioning. You may try these products https://www.mcafee.com/consumer/en-gb/store/m0/catalog.html?PIFld=-1&amp;rfhs=1 you get to be warned against harmful sites and documents. You can also install system security ad-ons or extentions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Go for your goals ... shits happen in the internet world ... take precautions but if you get hit, rise up, dust yourself and continue. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17872" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6795" RevisionGUID="f3f4ca94-a486-4862-a49e-427846b2dd71" CreationDate="2017-04-19T20:31:04.900" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17873" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6795" RevisionGUID="f3f4ca94-a486-4862-a49e-427846b2dd71" CreationDate="2017-04-19T20:31:04.900" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17874" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6796" RevisionGUID="1b1c941d-7b95-4cf2-b15b-2707dc923612" CreationDate="2017-04-19T20:31:04.900" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17875" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6796" RevisionGUID="1b1c941d-7b95-4cf2-b15b-2707dc923612" CreationDate="2017-04-19T20:31:04.900" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17876" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6790" RevisionGUID="c0885e57-6f83-43fd-8740-df343c3cce17" CreationDate="2017-04-20T03:50:54.207" Comment="http://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/854905184572637184" />
  <row Id="17878" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6797" RevisionGUID="ad971af0-a1ac-44ee-83fe-60aea7e213b1" CreationDate="2017-04-20T22:07:24.007" UserId="708" Text="*&quot;Has anyone ever eaten at Taco Bell and gotten food poisoning? I'm wondering what the chances are of me being poisoned if I eat there?&quot;* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-- In short... *everything* has a risk. No one can definitely state you will be safe 100% of the time. Does Taco Bell **want** to give you food poisoning? Of course not. Can it happen, of course it can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you use Email for **anything** you run the *exact* same risk you are asking about." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17880" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6798" RevisionGUID="13ba51f2-c351-47f9-ba33-356177050089" CreationDate="2017-04-21T08:51:31.843" UserId="5298" Text="So, there is some knowledge you gain from your career and this information is important and valuable because it save the client big money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, for OTP verification with a mobile number, there exist many free services which client is unaware of. He thinks that all services are paid and I told them that there are some free services which I can integrate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now before the proposal has been accepted, he ask me what service am I going to use for OTP verification which I claim to be free and reliable? I am afraid he will get the information from me and use it with some other Freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should this be tackled, should I pass the information without knowing if I will gain the proposal or dodge it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17881" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6798" RevisionGUID="13ba51f2-c351-47f9-ba33-356177050089" CreationDate="2017-04-21T08:51:31.843" UserId="5298" Text="Should I provide information to the client before proposal is accepted?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17882" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6798" RevisionGUID="13ba51f2-c351-47f9-ba33-356177050089" CreationDate="2017-04-21T08:51:31.843" UserId="5298" Text="|communication|consulting|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17883" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6799" RevisionGUID="fc41560c-65ff-44bc-a659-e592bb4b5320" CreationDate="2017-04-21T10:06:55.273" UserId="517" Text="This is indeed tricky question and no one can give you a proper answer. I am always in doubt when I am faced with such dilemma. If I tell them, they may use this information and hire someone to do it, but if I do not tell them, they will not hire me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my experience, each time I told client that I cannot disclose my full portfolio before we have audio talk (when I am suspicious that he may be using my portfolio as his own), I was never contacted back. The same when I told them that I cannot disclose information before I am their official contractor, clients did not come back to me any more. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Was it because they wanted free advise? Was it because they thought that I am not as experienced as I am presenting myself? I do not know this!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So do like we all would do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. if you are so desperate of work, disclose this information and tell him that there are a lot of things like this one which you are aware of and that you are sure that your knowledge will contribute to his project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. if you are not desperate for work, tell him that you are not willing to disclose this information before you become their contractor and try to explain some other things that you can contribute to the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am interested to see what others will say. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17889" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6801" RevisionGUID="08ab8329-5d9e-4247-ad4a-07a00144ff01" CreationDate="2017-04-21T14:35:19.710" UserId="16974" Text="well, I started with fiverr and I was successful from there, nevertheless, I suggest you follow the advice given by @Peter " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17890" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6802" RevisionGUID="ad9ff388-e070-48bb-8e19-ef3e3c14216a" CreationDate="2017-04-21T17:33:36.300" UserId="1706" Text="Just because those services are free doesn't mean you have to give up *the information about them* for free.  There's no benefit for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd tell my client the same thing, and offer a written report - a deliverable - that the client can review.  But you make the client PAY for the report, separate of your other services.  Set your own price, and be reasonable.  Make it absolutely clear, right from the beginning, that you're not in business to be your client's &quot;buddy&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17901" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3028" RevisionGUID="5c5f9d08-d4f5-4e7a-9697-e23faeb60cc2" CreationDate="2017-04-23T23:53:25.407" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17902" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="c559d39d-a4c5-4f89-9c56-fe49315ff1ef" CreationDate="2017-04-24T00:57:35.707" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17903" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6808" RevisionGUID="02950ecd-9ec6-4a8e-b25b-979409f1af1d" CreationDate="2017-04-24T11:11:40.843" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="I have recently started working part-time with a local design agency. As I am only there 3 days per week, I am paying very little tax from my wages due to me being only slightly above the threshold for tax-free allowance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I also freelance the rest of the time, so I'll get taxed on everything that I earn from freelancing (though I won't technically need to pay that for another 21 months).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much should I set aside to pay my self-assessment for the 2017/2018 tax year? Should it be 20% of everything I earn through freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17904" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6808" RevisionGUID="02950ecd-9ec6-4a8e-b25b-979409f1af1d" CreationDate="2017-04-24T11:11:40.843" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="How much money to set aside for tax (UK)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17905" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6808" RevisionGUID="02950ecd-9ec6-4a8e-b25b-979409f1af1d" CreationDate="2017-04-24T11:11:40.843" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="|hmrc|taxes|money|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17906" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6809" RevisionGUID="7aca4a40-a881-4792-ac4b-b8705386d2d1" CreationDate="2017-04-24T12:54:56.697" UserId="15202" Text="If you are self employed, you **must** register as such with HMRC. You will need to allocate 20% for tax and an additional 9% for National Insurance (total 29% off the top).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you will be earning more than around £40k freelancing, get a Ltd company set up. For this, you will need an accountant. They will tell you how much to set aside.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are umbrella, don't do anything, it's all handled at source." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17908" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6811" RevisionGUID="62f7853a-10e9-4acc-84e8-28bfcdecd362" CreationDate="2017-04-24T14:55:05.290" UserId="17000" Text="Cold calling and cold mailing are both rather sub-par ways to get clients. Ideally you first prove yourself in your niche/market/area so that people have heard of you and then they approach you and not vice versa.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only appropriate way to get clients vs the cold approach is to warm up by doing some research and crafting a tailor-made offer specifically for the needs of the given potential client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You take a closer look at their site, store or product and offer the exact thing they are obviously lacking. Something like &quot;I've noticed that your site is slower than 70% of your competitors. I could do x, y, z to improve it drastically.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17909" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6264" RevisionGUID="062bf15a-e1a2-4581-a3f6-8cce0aad31c0" CreationDate="2017-04-24T19:12:24.823" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17910" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6798" RevisionGUID="ca1fb58a-9ddb-4fa1-8b6a-904eecf1126e" CreationDate="2017-04-26T13:37:31.870" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/857227141385256965" />
  <row Id="17917" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6813" RevisionGUID="d2d085ed-3ca7-484b-a6e3-b2100d356008" CreationDate="2017-04-26T17:45:07.390" UserId="11545" Text="To this point in my freelancing career I have always done remote work at my hourly rate. I have been asked to be onsite just initially for my next contract. Does anyone out there charge different rates onsite vs remote. Should I charge all travel/accommodation expenses as well?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17918" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6813" RevisionGUID="d2d085ed-3ca7-484b-a6e3-b2100d356008" CreationDate="2017-04-26T17:45:07.390" UserId="11545" Text="Change in rate for onsite work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17919" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6813" RevisionGUID="d2d085ed-3ca7-484b-a6e3-b2100d356008" CreationDate="2017-04-26T17:45:07.390" UserId="11545" Text="|pay-rate|travel|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17920" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6813" RevisionGUID="5253e21d-1a4a-47a6-8d48-f3140280c736" CreationDate="2017-04-26T18:01:19.373" UserId="11545" Comment="more thoughts" Text="To this point in my freelancing career I have always done remote work at my hourly rate. I have been asked to be onsite just initially for my next contract. Does anyone out there charge different rates onsite vs remote. Should I charge all travel/accommodation expenses as well?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--Edit More Thoughts --&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If by specifying two rates am I effectively saying I am more valuable in person and not as valuable working remote? Possibly coming off as a less efficient remote worker.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17921" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6814" RevisionGUID="fbb8159c-988d-4d91-ba9b-d7bb5a163fbe" CreationDate="2017-04-26T19:10:07.087" UserId="14455" Text="As a freelancer, I am free to work when and where I want. When onsite I am expected to be present during certain hours on certain days. I am also unable to take phone calls or deal with other customers. Because of this, I charge an onsite fee. The amount is private and varies, but say a customer wants me for a week on site, I would charge an additional 10 to 30 % onsite surcharge to my fees (depending on many other factors, like what rate they are paying, length of project, how busy I am, how much I like being at the client site, how much profit I am making anyway from them etc.). If I am to be onsite for a few hours or half a day, I waive the fee of course as this is nothing more than a long meeting. I would never commit to more than a week as it would begin to adversely affect my business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17922" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6814" RevisionGUID="ee58d4f7-2e53-4b02-8317-57b0dbf2cbbd" CreationDate="2017-04-26T19:15:14.580" UserId="14455" Comment="Added EDIT to compare to travel charges" Text="As a freelancer, I am free to work when and where I want. When onsite I am expected to be present during certain hours on certain days. I am also unable to take phone calls or deal with other customers. Because of this, I charge an onsite fee. The amount is private and varies, but say a customer wants me for a week on site, I would charge an additional 10 to 30 % onsite surcharge to my fees (depending on many other factors, like what rate they are paying, length of project, how busy I am, how much I like being at the client site, how much profit I am making anyway from them etc.). If I am to be onsite for a few hours or half a day, I waive the fee of course as this is nothing more than a long meeting. I would never commit to more than a week as it would begin to adversely affect my business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All it really represents is that if they want to benefit from my presence, immediate input and ability to be questioned on demand, to train or enhance their team, and to be constrained to working when they want me to, then they have to compensate me for that. So onsite should be more expensive, definitely. However, not all customers will understand that and how you approach it and sell it is altogether a different matter. But being onsite is a new demand, on top of doing the project work, so they should pay more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT: I never charge travel or accommodation. I have found it much easier to explain a surcharge for being onsite rather than negotiate travel and accommodation charges. In that way I travel how I want and stay where I want, and it is nothing to do with the client. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17926" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4138" RevisionGUID="81c5369e-cfe8-4042-8f0f-a4dac8d4fcff" CreationDate="2017-04-27T01:38:18.577" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/857408531238178816" />
  <row Id="17929" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6816" RevisionGUID="80eace56-2f3a-4c2c-9a2a-21e12bc52e86" CreationDate="2017-04-27T13:57:28.350" UserId="17026" Text=" I live in Ukraine and the company he presents in USA. We signed a contract. How can I get MY money? &#xD;&#xA;CEO of this company says that they o not owe me any money but according to signed contract they do. But I live in Ukraine. They owe me around $4000" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17930" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6816" RevisionGUID="80eace56-2f3a-4c2c-9a2a-21e12bc52e86" CreationDate="2017-04-27T13:57:28.350" UserId="17026" Text="What should I do if my ex-employer refuses me to pay? I live in Ukraine and the company he presents in USA." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17931" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6816" RevisionGUID="80eace56-2f3a-4c2c-9a2a-21e12bc52e86" CreationDate="2017-04-27T13:57:28.350" UserId="17026" Text="|payment-terms|pay-rate|payments|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17932" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6817" RevisionGUID="a702a0e1-8bbe-4052-86fd-985a0961ffc4" CreationDate="2017-04-27T14:13:54.533" UserId="517" Text="Did you use any online platform for work or it was a direct work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you two worked directly, you have no other options but wait for client's mercy (will not get it probably) or start a law suit in the USA. It may be costly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before you give up, try to find a USA lawyer via Upwork and check for his fees. Note that clients and companies are usually cowards when they get an official email from the lawyer from their country. In 90% of cases, they will solve the issue (i.e. pay you) and choose not to go to the court. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, in my country if you owe me 4k and court costs are 1M, the losing side pays for the costs. So I get 4k and the lawyer gets 1M from the losing side. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;NOTE: This all works in case the client is bad guy and you did all the work good and he does not want to pay you. but if you did a bad work and want the payment, I think you will have a real fight to prove that he owes you 4k. If this is the case, maybe you approach to him saying that you know that you messed things up and offer to take 2k or less to compensate the damage you produced. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17933" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6816" RevisionGUID="b37d8c21-431d-43b9-84cc-3ea7f978535c" CreationDate="2017-04-27T14:39:28.610" UserId="17026" Comment="added 1221 characters in body; edited title" Text=" I live in Ukraine and the company he presents in USA. We signed a contract. How can I get MY money? &#xD;&#xA;CEO of this company says that they o not owe me any money but according to signed contract they do. But I live in Ukraine. They owe me around $4000&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I worked for this company since end of February. They develop software in java. That was worst code base I ever seen. &#xD;&#xA;So I created list of possible improvements but it left only on the list. The code full of things that even not-so-experienced developer would be shocked. They almost do not use frameworks, and when they using those, they sometimes use it like it is their code. They reinventing wheel every time. They actively use reflection in production without reasonable cause . They do not follow OOP principles at all. You write in java like that is not java but probably something like C. &#xD;&#xA;They wanted me to write some services and I proposed to use Spring Batch, and they agreed.&#xD;&#xA;I worked on that service.&#xD;&#xA;Suddenly, my manager called me and told me that we terminate our cooperation immediately.&#xD;&#xA;They paid me for days I worked.&#xD;&#xA;But in contract there's a 15 days notice period - they said they won't pay that because I was fired with cause - because they didn't like my work. But in that case they had to notify my 30 days in advance and after that period check if situation improved.&#xD;&#xA;So in I was fired with case, they owe me for 30 days.&#xD;&#xA;I live in Ukraine and this company is from US. What can I do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17934" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6816" RevisionGUID="b37d8c21-431d-43b9-84cc-3ea7f978535c" CreationDate="2017-04-27T14:39:28.610" UserId="17026" Comment="added 1221 characters in body; edited title" Text="What should I do if my ex-employer refuses me to pay? I live in Ukraine and the company he presents in USA" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17935" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6813" RevisionGUID="761725c7-5545-4d69-9cff-8bcf55d58508" CreationDate="2017-04-27T22:42:28.950" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/857726671163715584" />
  <row Id="17936" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6816" RevisionGUID="d8151148-6c80-4fa1-a3a5-f04c86aa405c" CreationDate="2017-04-27T22:47:53.693" UserId="17026" Comment="added 139 characters in body" Text=" I live in Ukraine and the company he presents in USA. We signed a contract. How can I get MY money? &#xD;&#xA;CEO of this company says that they o not owe me any money but according to signed contract they do. But I live in Ukraine. They owe me around $4000&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I worked for this company since end of February. They develop software in java. That was worst code base I ever seen. &#xD;&#xA;So I created list of possible improvements but it left only on the list. The code full of things that even not-so-experienced developer would be shocked. They almost do not use frameworks, and when they using those, they sometimes use it like it is their code. They reinventing wheel every time. They actively use reflection in production without reasonable cause . They do not follow OOP principles at all. You write in java like that is not java but probably something like C. &#xD;&#xA;They wanted me to write some services and I proposed to use Spring Batch, and they agreed.&#xD;&#xA;I worked on that service.&#xD;&#xA;Suddenly, my manager called me and told me that we terminate our cooperation immediately.&#xD;&#xA;They paid me for days I worked.&#xD;&#xA;But in contract there's a 15 days notice period - they said they won't pay that because I was fired with cause - because they didn't like my work. But in that case they had to notify my 30 days in advance and after that period check if situation improved.&#xD;&#xA;So in I was fired with case, they owe me for 30 days.&#xD;&#xA;I live in Ukraine and this company is from US. What can I do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Update.** Thank you!!! This company has many clients in US.&#xD;&#xA;What about posting info with company name? I believe they won't like it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17937" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6816" RevisionGUID="e5346189-81b9-4e1a-926b-4b4a0ae58d45" CreationDate="2017-04-27T22:54:16.170" UserId="17026" Comment="added 111 characters in body" Text=" I live in Ukraine and the company he presents in USA. We signed a contract. How can I get MY money? &#xD;&#xA;CEO of this company says that they o not owe me any money but according to signed contract they do. But I live in Ukraine. They owe me around $4000&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I worked for this company since end of February. They develop software in java. That was worst code base I ever seen. &#xD;&#xA;So I created list of possible improvements but it left only on the list. The code full of things that even not-so-experienced developer would be shocked. They almost do not use frameworks, and when they using those, they sometimes use it like it is their code. They reinventing wheel every time. They actively use reflection in production without reasonable cause . They do not follow OOP principles at all. You write in java like that is not java but probably something like C. &#xD;&#xA;They wanted me to write some services and I proposed to use Spring Batch, and they agreed.&#xD;&#xA;I worked on that service.&#xD;&#xA;Suddenly, my manager called me and told me that we terminate our cooperation immediately.&#xD;&#xA;They paid me for days I worked.&#xD;&#xA;But in contract there's a 15 days notice period - they said they won't pay that because I was fired with cause - because they didn't like my work. But in that case they had to notify my 30 days in advance and after that period check if situation improved.&#xD;&#xA;So in I was fired with case, they owe me for 30 days.&#xD;&#xA;I live in Ukraine and this company is from US. What can I do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Update.** Thank you!!! This company has many clients in US.&#xD;&#xA;This company has many clients in US. What about posting info (reviews on different sites) with company name? I believe they won't like it. And probably other people won't get scammed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17942" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6816" RevisionGUID="efb0bda4-4ebb-4fae-80c6-abac819ce6f2" CreationDate="2017-04-28T00:01:03.503" UserId="17026" Comment="Posted update" Text=" I live in Ukraine and the company he presents in USA. We signed a contract. How can I get MY money? &#xD;&#xA;CEO of this company says that they o not owe me any money but according to signed contract they do. But I live in Ukraine. They owe me around $4000&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I worked for this company since end of February. They develop software in java. That was worst code base I ever seen. &#xD;&#xA;So I created list of possible improvements but it left only on the list. The code full of things that even not-so-experienced developer would be shocked. They almost do not use frameworks, and when they using those, they sometimes use it like it is their code. They reinventing wheel every time. They actively use reflection in production without reasonable cause . They do not follow OOP principles at all. You write in java like that is not java but probably something like C. &#xD;&#xA;They wanted me to write some services and I proposed to use Spring Batch, and they agreed.&#xD;&#xA;I worked on that service.&#xD;&#xA;Suddenly, my manager called me and told me that we terminate our cooperation immediately.&#xD;&#xA;They paid me for days I worked.&#xD;&#xA;But in contract there's a 15 days notice period - they said they won't pay that because I was fired with cause - because they didn't like my work. But in that case they had to notify my 30 days in advance and after that period check if situation improved.&#xD;&#xA;So in I was fired with case, they owe me for 30 days.&#xD;&#xA;I live in Ukraine and this company is from US. What can I do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Update.** Thank you!!! This company has many clients in US.&#xD;&#xA;This company has many clients in US. What about posting info (reviews on different sites) with company name? I believe they won't like it. And probably other people won't get scammed.&#xD;&#xA;**Update 2** I there any organization where I can submit some complaint? They scamming me in fact - and it breaks the law I believe." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17943" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6818" RevisionGUID="0d4d2ead-eb41-4786-af3e-f1e063f4b751" CreationDate="2017-04-28T11:59:28.147" UserId="7858" Text="Probably not the answer you're looking for but...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I understand it, you have been paid for work delivered - so you are complaining that they don't pay you in full for the 15 day notice period. In my experience when charging by the hour, the notice period isn't really honored - as the client could simply revoke your access, thus preventing you from billing any hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to me you might not have managed expectations very well, as the software sounds like it is 15+ years old, created pre-Spring Framework in Java by a C/C++ programmer. Many companies have similar legacy software and are blissfully unaware of how outdated it is. Suggesting a modernization is honorable, but it is not without risks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are effectively telling the company that their software (possibly their primary product) is out-of-date. Some may appreciate that information and act on it, while others will view you as a nosey know-it-all outsider. Software as you describe it is quite often written by programmer(s) who are highly proficient in C/C++, but not Java and often they have very central positions in the company. This should never be underestimated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, changing the software architecture this massively will almost always take longer than anyone expected - and to the client it could seem that you are merely exchanging code **you** don't understand for code **they** don't understand - or even asked for. They could feel you are installing yourself as the sole maintainer of the code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before undertaking a rewrite/change of this sort, always ensure that the client is on board - and preferably enthusiastically so. And even then, you must ensure that they remain on board for the duration of the change by giving them frequent status reports.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the money you feel they owe you is not critical, move on and take this as a learning experience." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17944" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6819" RevisionGUID="880e993b-6eb4-41ca-b1fe-77590446a32c" CreationDate="2017-04-28T14:18:31.760" UserId="17040" Text="I live in Greece and as you know in Greece the finacial situation is bad. So it make me reluctant to job offers for a freelance-contract job that I receive via mail and some of them pay well. I am thinking of working as freelancer but I have not registered as one yet and of cource I have not done any freelance job yet because of heavy tax cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Therefore I was thinking use an umbrella company that will cast all these worries away. But I want to ask some questions before I take a decision:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. What are the pos and cons of using an umbrella company?&#xD;&#xA;2. Does the sites such as upwork, peopleperhour, freelancer.com work as umbrella companies?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually the job offers are in European Union countries such as Belgium." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17945" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6819" RevisionGUID="880e993b-6eb4-41ca-b1fe-77590446a32c" CreationDate="2017-04-28T14:18:31.760" UserId="17040" Text="Would an umbrella company help me to work as a Freelancer in Greece?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17946" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6819" RevisionGUID="880e993b-6eb4-41ca-b1fe-77590446a32c" CreationDate="2017-04-28T14:18:31.760" UserId="17040" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17947" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6820" RevisionGUID="ab18ef26-6fb4-4f44-9960-1064da3abd03" CreationDate="2017-04-28T14:46:12.750" UserId="17042" Text="A client has asked me if I can make an app (because a company asked him).  He knows I've never made one before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They have a long list of specifications that they want it to do.  There's no hurry:  I would have six months to complete it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While I have experience with PHP, C, UNIX, MySQL, HTML, CSS, WordPress, Joomla, etc., I haven't used any of the tools they want to build the app with (Amazon Web Services, a couple of data sources, and an SDK they like).  I'd like to learn app development.  It just seems like a lot of things to learn all at once.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think my best option would be to talk with someone who's already familiar with those tools.  At the very least, that person could give me some idea of how much time and effort I'm looking at.  How do I find someone for consultation with those skills?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17948" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6820" RevisionGUID="ab18ef26-6fb4-4f44-9960-1064da3abd03" CreationDate="2017-04-28T14:46:12.750" UserId="17042" Text="How can I find an app developer to guide and assist me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17949" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6820" RevisionGUID="ab18ef26-6fb4-4f44-9960-1064da3abd03" CreationDate="2017-04-28T14:46:12.750" UserId="17042" Text="|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17953" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6822" RevisionGUID="20159fa2-a1f3-4e3f-a7eb-e1749c933aef" CreationDate="2017-04-28T20:36:32.650" UserId="11911" Text="{TheirName} &#xA;&#xA;You and I haven't spoken before but my name is {YourName}, i understand that you're the {TheirRole}, is that correct?&#xA;&#xA;{Silence until they respond}&#xA;&#xA;Great, the reason for my call today is that I've been following {TheirCompany} for a while and it looks like you're a bit short staffed on engineers, is that right?&#xA;&#xA;{Silence until they respond}&#xA;&#xA;Cool, I've worked for the past {NumYears} at companies like {Company1}, {Company2} and {Company3} as a {WhateverYourRole}. &#xA;&#xA;When is a good time for you to set aside 15-20 minutes next week to talk through if my background is a good fit?&quot;&#xA;&#xA;{Stop talking}&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17955" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3520" RevisionGUID="a482759c-08f9-45ec-8649-8348df259e98" CreationDate="2017-04-29T17:19:14.207" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17956" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6513" RevisionGUID="5300cb5c-676e-49ee-9a40-1ad101ec61c6" CreationDate="2017-04-29T20:20:00.310" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17957" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6819" RevisionGUID="f165e280-6797-4eb0-a7d4-fae44cf630cc" CreationDate="2017-04-29T21:51:16.723" UserId="17040" Comment="edited title" Text="Questions Related Umbrella companies" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17958" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6819" RevisionGUID="02f1abec-9b47-47e5-8c76-99805d68a83c" CreationDate="2017-04-30T11:48:57.720" UserId="17040" Comment="added 107 characters in body" Text="I live in Greece and as you know in Greece the finacial situation is bad. So it make me reluctant to job offers for a freelance-contract job that I receive via mail and some of them pay well. I am thinking of working as freelancer but I have not registered as one yet and of cource I have not done any freelance job yet because of heavy tax cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Therefore I was thinking use an umbrella company that will cast all these worries away. But I want to ask some questions before I take a decision:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. What are the pos and cons of using an umbrella company?&#xD;&#xA;2. Does the sites such as upwork, peopleperhour, freelancer.com work as umbrella companies?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually the job offers are in European Union countries such as Belgium.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#Edit 1&#xD;&#xA;As requested Umbrella company I mean this term: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbrella_company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17959" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6819" RevisionGUID="43acce84-c937-4411-a7f8-3db2099249f6" CreationDate="2017-04-30T11:57:54.750" UserId="17040" Comment="edited title" Text="Questions Related to Umbrella companies" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17960" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6813" RevisionGUID="9ba5e8c9-b066-4dc8-aac8-3e662bbb1927" CreationDate="2017-05-01T05:15:04.247" UserId="11545" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="To this point in my freelancing career I have always done remote work at my hourly rate. I have been asked to be onsite just initially for my next contract. Does anyone out there charge different rates onsite vs remote. Should I charge all travel/accommodation expenses as well?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--Edit-- More Thoughts&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If by specifying two rates am I effectively saying I am more valuable in person and not as valuable working remote? Possibly coming off as a less efficient remote worker.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17961" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6820" RevisionGUID="609bd283-55e0-4e43-85dd-cbd681254430" CreationDate="2017-05-01T05:30:21.860" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/858916481530294272" />
  <row Id="17962" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6823" RevisionGUID="5bb67a18-638c-4084-909f-cf7e97de619f" CreationDate="2017-05-01T07:31:59.227" UserId="517" Text="In Umbrella term we usually user term Agency or middle man. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working for an agency pros:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- you get work without having to look for clients&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- you will get all kinds of work and can grow in your knowledge&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cons:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- you are usually underpaid. what they offer is a rate for a senior probably and you will be offered junior rate&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- they deliver work and want it be done, without caring about holidays, weekends, vacations, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- often you are paid when they are so you both share the risk. fight that you are paid for their work and they handle the risk only&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, I have always avoided agencies, unless I know the guy who runs it. I would rather take work from another guy from the same niche who does not have time to finish it. you will earn more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suggest you try to work as a direct freelancer via freelancing websites. And when and if you start earning, you can then register a company. But I think Greece has the same law like my country: you do not have to pay taxes or register business until you start earning serious money. It means for small money (you can expect small money as a beginner), you will not have to pay taxes or register company. But please, check you local laws, don't believe my words in full. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17963" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6824" RevisionGUID="4b62c27b-ac03-4da5-b6ed-aead4a03e8e7" CreationDate="2017-05-01T20:24:16.863" UserId="17061" Text="I recently started doing freelance work for a small-to-medium sized company. Per the terms of the agreement, on April 1 I submitted an invoice for all of my hours for March. We never discussed due date on invoices, but in my experience I usually get a check in the mail after 2-3 weeks at the most, and I simply put &quot;due on receipt&quot; for every invoice I create.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On April 26th, having not received payment yet, I sent a brief and friendly email asking about the status of the invoice and payment. I was told the company &quot;pays at 30&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand the premise of &quot;[net D](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_D)&quot; billing, in the context of one business giving another business a specified period of time to pay before it's considered late. As a contractor though I don't understand why a company would sit on an invoice for 30 days before sending payment. What would be the purpose of this other than &quot;that's our policy&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17964" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6824" RevisionGUID="4b62c27b-ac03-4da5-b6ed-aead4a03e8e7" CreationDate="2017-05-01T20:24:16.863" UserId="17061" Text="Net D billing as a freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17965" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6824" RevisionGUID="4b62c27b-ac03-4da5-b6ed-aead4a03e8e7" CreationDate="2017-05-01T20:24:16.863" UserId="17061" Text="|invoices|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17966" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6825" RevisionGUID="536e99e3-ff53-43d9-91f4-51117b72297f" CreationDate="2017-05-01T20:34:41.150" UserId="708" Text="That's 30 days they accrue interest on the money, and otherwise take advantage of having the funds available *before* they need to relinquish anything to you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may not seem like a lot of money. However, if you saw $5 laying the the street, wouldn't you pick it up? That's why keeping the funds to gain interest on them is of merit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you wanted something shorter than Net 30, you should have negotiated that in the contract. I, personally, always use Net 15. My invoices state &quot;due upon receipt&quot; then detail late fees accrued after 15 days (contract also details late fees after 15 days).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Without* any agreement, then they *could* wait as long as they wanted until you were prepared to take some further action. Most good business will do Net 30 though. It is kind of standard." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17967" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6586" RevisionGUID="83bfe882-44db-4b49-acf6-10ca7f9257f4" CreationDate="2017-05-02T01:13:16.073" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="17969" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6826" RevisionGUID="3f0d4bf7-d075-4750-b8dd-6639e5427152" CreationDate="2017-05-02T19:54:54.867" UserId="17075" Text="Up till now, we've used admin@company.com in the past for all vendor account profiles. But it was also utilized for NOC alerts and became a virtual catch-all for a slurry of notifications. We are migrating mail hosts, so I was considering creating something separate for hosted account profiles (ex: profiles@company.xyz)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Question: anyone have any suggestion for best practices regarding company account registrations or input from past experiences? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17970" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6826" RevisionGUID="3f0d4bf7-d075-4750-b8dd-6639e5427152" CreationDate="2017-05-02T19:54:54.867" UserId="17075" Text="Using generic email address for account registration" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17971" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6826" RevisionGUID="3f0d4bf7-d075-4750-b8dd-6639e5427152" CreationDate="2017-05-02T19:54:54.867" UserId="17075" Text="|communication|productivity|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17972" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6824" RevisionGUID="d83f0420-73e6-4795-a5dc-8c7298e3d5ad" CreationDate="2017-05-03T03:10:12.287" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/859605984834138114" />
  <row Id="17977" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6828" RevisionGUID="9e78d915-1ac7-4f7a-94f9-d83f16010e4e" CreationDate="2017-05-04T04:52:14.137" UserId="17086" Text="I am a US citizen, but a permanent New Zealand resident. I own my own company here (it's just me in the company), as it allowed me to not pay the self-employment tax America wanted to charge me for contracting with NZ companies. I have been thinking about doing some freelancing work with US companies, but fear it may be way more of a headache than its worth. Either way, my questions are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Can US companies pay my NZ company through Paypal without me setting up a company in the US or somehow registering my company with the US?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) What are the tax implications for the US side if a US company can pay my NZ company for freelance work? i.e. Will I need to file quarterly taxes or corporate taxes with the US?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know what happens on the NZ side, but am having real trouble finding out what happens and what the tax implications are on the US side. Thanks for any help you can give!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17978" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6828" RevisionGUID="9e78d915-1ac7-4f7a-94f9-d83f16010e4e" CreationDate="2017-05-04T04:52:14.137" UserId="17086" Text="Freelancing for US clients as a US citizen with a foreign company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17979" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6828" RevisionGUID="9e78d915-1ac7-4f7a-94f9-d83f16010e4e" CreationDate="2017-05-04T04:52:14.137" UserId="17086" Text="|taxes|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17980" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6829" RevisionGUID="8b1a5fbb-9f26-40e2-9175-73e434d318c2" CreationDate="2017-05-04T16:10:17.280" UserId="2265" Text="1) of course US companies can hire a non-US company. Unless The Idiot Formerly Knowm As Trump passed some new law that I am not familiar with restricting any business with non-US companies. (which he didn't, many of his companies use non US contractors)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) No you don't. You pay taxes in NZ. That's why everybody hates Apple and Starbucks for having companies in Ireland, you pay taxes where you earn. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17981" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6830" RevisionGUID="70966715-7255-4ca6-bfe9-90658305c8c6" CreationDate="2017-05-04T21:52:00.957" UserId="17091" Text="Currently I am based in the USA in Portland/Oregon (no tax state).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a client from the Netherlands for multiple skype coaching sessions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She pays through Paypal, but do I charge any taxes?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17982" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6830" RevisionGUID="70966715-7255-4ca6-bfe9-90658305c8c6" CreationDate="2017-05-04T21:52:00.957" UserId="17091" Text="I am a freelance coach based in Portland/USA. What taxes do I need to charge to a client in the Netherlands" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17983" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6830" RevisionGUID="70966715-7255-4ca6-bfe9-90658305c8c6" CreationDate="2017-05-04T21:52:00.957" UserId="17091" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17984" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6831" RevisionGUID="39d9c385-da38-46d9-be00-03e1f01c0621" CreationDate="2017-05-05T07:32:58.763" UserId="17075" Text="I ended up setting up secondary mailbox for corp accounts under a sub-domain email! Actually starting to roll this out to further compartmentalize and uniquely identify our email-based notification system. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17985" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6832" RevisionGUID="5c2b513a-22fb-4cb0-a58e-7b809f29707f" CreationDate="2017-05-05T10:05:48.820" UserId="17094" Text="I am a software developer in the USA with a lot of focus on .Net  I've been doing it for fun since I was a kid and am about 10 years into a career now,  but I've only worked as a corporate programmer. This means I'm not only underpaid and treated like a technician instead of a content creator,  but I've also discovered that it means there are big gaps in my experience due to intense specialization in the needs of the companies I've worked for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This would be fine,  except layoffs have hit me twice in the past and my spider sense is tingling about my current job of 3 years.  Its a private company that was 6 months late giving us annual reviews and most of those reviews listed only bad things and ignored accomplishments.  There have been suits walking around our privately owned company for three weeks,  management is in constant meetings,  and our DBA of 18 years put in her notice yesterday.   Over half of the IT group got bad reviews and were given unrealistic goals (like 2 days for projects slated for three months).     All of the reviews have the same followup week, precisely at the end of a business quarter. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I may be paranoid but that looks like firing to prevent layoffs to me.  I'm in a red state so dirty pool to avoid unemployment payouts is common.  Unfortunately,  local jobs in my industry have dried up as well.  I  decided maybe this was a sign it was time to freelance,  but sites giving tips on the topic all suggest saving money I won't be able to save before starting.  I have a wife and two kids and a mortgage so I'm somewhat anchored to where I am. Her income is meager and just covers groceries. I also have social anxiety and have a dead Facebook that mostly exists to make me seem more mainstream to potential employers who check those. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm obviously not in the ideal situation to start freelancing,  but with a doom clock ticking and few other options I might need to anyway.  All the advice I find online seems to lean on assuming there's a nest egg to fall back on.  What would be the best approach for someone who doesn't get to have that nest egg? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17986" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6832" RevisionGUID="5c2b513a-22fb-4cb0-a58e-7b809f29707f" CreationDate="2017-05-05T10:05:48.820" UserId="17094" Text="Best practices for starting as a freelancer with little time to prepare?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17987" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6832" RevisionGUID="5c2b513a-22fb-4cb0-a58e-7b809f29707f" CreationDate="2017-05-05T10:05:48.820" UserId="17094" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17988" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6833" RevisionGUID="584a48d2-38cb-4713-bf05-c428e009c250" CreationDate="2017-05-05T11:50:58.370" UserId="517" Text="Can this help you: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/101/how-do-i-get-my-first-job-at-a-freelancing-site ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Aside of this, majority of us started freelancing having full-time job. No one waited to get fired, but we gathered crumbles and built career from that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were you, I would first start educating myself. I was do it yesterday. I guess you need 1 month to fill up all the gaps. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Aside of this, start checking freelacing sites like Upwork on what clients need in your expertize. If you see something is repeatedly asked, educate yourself on that thing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try Craiglist and see if anyone from your country needs remote worker. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;the bottom line is that you are a beginner in freelancing world and you have to start form the bottom. You will do stupid tasks for small money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just be patient and build your reputation, experience and clients' relations. If all goes well, we will be hearing another story from you in 1 year of time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Goodluck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17992" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6835" RevisionGUID="83889d70-52ce-4e29-af01-2795edfee014" CreationDate="2017-05-05T21:34:52.180" UserId="708" Text="This may come across as a bit harsh. It's honestly not meant to be. It is however a *realistic* answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The **best approach** if you don't have a financial cushion to fall back on, is to **get another job**.&#xD;&#xA;------------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if that means as a Gas Station attendant, McDonalds, or whatever, until you have enough freelance work to support you. You can be working on building freelance footing while also searching for employment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The the reality is, you'll need employment if you aren't finically prepared to go 2-3 months without *any* income (minimum).**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you are the best freelance worker ever, and the best person on Earth at your work, it'll take *time* to build up client relationships and find steady work as a freelancer. *This* is why a financial cushion is the best route to take. You are most likely *not* going to be able to cover a mortgage payment June 1st if you start freelancing May 1st. Any project which would actually pay you *within* that 30 days isn't going to be a &quot;big dollar&quot; project. And a &quot;big dollar&quot; project will generally not pay until Net 30 *in addition* to the time you need to complete the work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reality is, if you started right now, today, by trying to utilize any of the online freelance sites (which I personally hate), it'll take a *minimum* of 20-30 days before you see *any* financial return, no matter how great or small that return may be. And the odds of you getting enough work to cover even modest living expenses a month from now are unlikely.  Realize that on these &quot;brokerage&quot; sites, new users are *unproven and unknown* to the clientele. So, even if you're fantastic at your services, you need clients to take a leap by hiring you. This greatly narrows the client-base which you'll appeal to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd also add that just because you feel you are &quot;specialized&quot; in a particular area, that does *not* mean you can't be a successful freelancer. It just means you need to find those clients who are seeking your area of specialization. But again, that will take time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17993" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6835" RevisionGUID="cdccad91-ba31-4f13-8de4-f0c4ab24b3f7" CreationDate="2017-05-05T21:48:41.780" UserId="708" Comment="added 142 characters in body" Text="This may come across as a bit harsh. It's honestly not meant to be. It is however a *realistic* answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The **best approach** if you don't have a financial cushion to fall back on, is to **get another job**.&#xD;&#xA;------------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if that means as a Gas Station attendant, McDonalds, or whatever, until you have enough freelance work to support you. You can be working on building freelance footing while also searching for employment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Everyone* wishes they could just decide to start freelancing and make enough money to live on, but that's simply not how the world works.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The the reality is, you'll need employment if you aren't finically prepared to go 2-3 months without *any* income (minimum).**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you are the best freelance worker ever, and the best person on Earth at your work, it'll take *time* to build up client relationships and find steady work as a freelancer. *This* is why a financial cushion is the best route to take. You are most likely *not* going to be able to cover a mortgage payment June 1st if you start freelancing May 1st. Any project which would actually pay you *within* that 30 days isn't going to be a &quot;big dollar&quot; project. And a &quot;big dollar&quot; project will generally not pay until Net 30 *in addition* to the time you need to complete the work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reality is, if you started right now, today, by trying to utilize any of the online freelance sites (which I personally hate), it'll take a *minimum* of 20-30 days before you see *any* financial return, no matter how great or small that return may be. And the odds of you getting enough work to cover even modest living expenses a month from now are unlikely.  Realize that on these &quot;brokerage&quot; sites, new users are *unproven and unknown* to the clientele. So, even if you're fantastic at your services, you need clients to take a leap by hiring you. This greatly narrows the client-base which you'll appeal to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd also add that just because you feel you are &quot;specialized&quot; in a particular area, that does *not* mean you can't be a successful freelancer. It just means you need to find those clients who are seeking your area of specialization. But again, that will take time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17996" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6835" RevisionGUID="8d1aadda-5aad-43be-9542-4143679c892f" CreationDate="2017-05-06T04:34:09.287" UserId="708" Comment="added 11 characters in body" Text="This may come across as a bit harsh. It's honestly not meant to be. It is however a *realistic* answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The **best approach** if you don't have a financial cushion to fall back on, is to **get another job**.&#xD;&#xA;------------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if that means as a Gas Station attendant, McDonalds, or whatever, until you have enough freelance work to support you. You can be working on building freelance footing while also searching for employment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Everyone* wishes they could just decide to start freelancing and make enough money to live on, but that's simply not how the world works.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The the reality is, you'll need employment if you aren't finically prepared to go 2-3 months (minimum) without *any* income whatsoever.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you are the best freelance worker ever, and the best person on Earth at your work, it'll take *time* to build up client relationships and find steady work as a freelancer. *This* is why a financial cushion is the best route to take. You are most likely *not* going to be able to cover a mortgage payment June 1st if you start freelancing May 1st. Any project which would actually pay you *within* that 30 days isn't going to be a &quot;big dollar&quot; project. And a &quot;big dollar&quot; project will generally not pay until Net 30 *in addition* to the time you need to complete the work. You *may* be able to find plethora of smaller paying projects and then frantically scramble to get them done so you can*request* payment.. and wait to get paid. But when factoring time needed to *actually* work, you're still looking at 2-3 weeks best case scenario before payment will be received. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reality is, if you started right now, today, by trying to utilize any of the online freelance sites (which I personally hate), it'll take a *minimum* of 20-30 days before you see *any* financial return, no matter how great or small that return may be. And the odds of you getting enough work to cover even modest living expenses a month from now are unlikely.  Realize that on these &quot;brokerage&quot; sites, new users are *unproven and unknown* to the clientele. So, even if you're fantastic at your services, you need clients to take a leap by hiring you. This greatly narrows the client-base which you'll appeal to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd also add that just because you feel you are &quot;specialized&quot; in a particular area, that does *not* mean you can't be a successful freelancer. It just means you need to find those clients who are seeking your area of specialization. But again, that will take time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17997" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6835" RevisionGUID="614e46dd-0926-49f7-bbc1-6649b36fa2b3" CreationDate="2017-05-06T04:42:51.300" UserId="708" Comment="added 335 characters in body" Text="This may come across as a bit harsh. It's honestly not meant to be. It is however a *realistic* answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The **best approach** if you don't have a financial cushion to fall back on, is to **get another job**.&#xD;&#xA;------------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if that means as a Gas Station attendant, McDonalds, or whatever, until you have enough freelance work to support you. You can be working on building freelance footing while also searching for employment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Everyone* wishes they could just decide to start freelancing and make enough money to live on, but that's simply not how the world works.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The the reality is, you'll need employment if you aren't finically prepared to go 2-3 months (minimum) without *any* income whatsoever.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you are the best freelance worker ever, and the best person on Earth at your work, it'll take *time* to build up client relationships and find steady work as a freelancer. *This* is why a financial cushion is the best route to take. You are most likely *not* going to be able to cover a mortgage payment June 1st if you start freelancing May 1st. Any project which would actually pay you *within* that 30 days isn't going to be a &quot;big dollar&quot; project. And a &quot;big dollar&quot; project will generally not pay until Net 30 *in addition* to the time you need to complete the work. You *may* be able to find plethora of smaller paying projects and then frantically scramble to get them done so you can*request* payment.. and wait to get paid. But when factoring time needed to *actually* work, you're still looking at 2-3 weeks best case scenario before payment will be received. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reality is, if you started right now, today, by trying to utilize any of the online freelance sites (which I personally hate), it'll take a *minimum* of 20-30 days before you see *any* financial return, no matter how great or small that return may be. And the odds of you getting enough work to cover even modest living expenses a month from now are unlikely.  Realize that on these &quot;brokerage&quot; sites, new users are *unproven and unknown* to the clientele. So, even if you're fantastic at your services, you need clients to take a leap by hiring you. This greatly narrows the client-base which you'll appeal to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd also add that just because you feel you are &quot;specialized&quot; in a particular area, that does *not* mean you can't be a successful freelancer. It just means you need to find those clients who are seeking your area of specialization. But again, that will take time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being successful at a freelance career is not like lighting a match. It doesn't just ignite. It's more like a **slow boil**. You have to start working and *wait* for things to pick up (helped by marketing) until eventually you get to a point where you find a few great clients that allow you to keep that &quot;boil&quot; steady and rolling.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17998" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6835" RevisionGUID="2609e541-ae17-436b-ba6b-bf3bfeedf091" CreationDate="2017-05-06T05:02:08.450" UserId="708" Comment="added 777 characters in body" Text="This may come across as a bit harsh. It's honestly not meant to be. It is however a *realistic* answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The **best approach** if you don't have a financial cushion to fall back on, is to **get another job**.&#xD;&#xA;------------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if that means as a Gas Station attendant, McDonalds, or whatever, until you have enough freelance work to support you. You can be working on building freelance footing while also searching for employment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Everyone* wishes they could just decide to start freelancing and make enough money to live on, but that's simply not how the world works. And there *are* some individuals who are simply *not* cut out to be freelancers because they can't come to terms with the feast or famine aspect of the financial side. Many *need* that steady paycheck. You may be able to profit greatly freelancing, but you will probably *never* have any sort of &quot;steady paycheck&quot;. Even in contract work, there may be steady income for a few months, but that also has a limited lifespan. If you *can't* save money with a full time job... you can't start freelancing. Primarily because if funds are *that* tight, you **can't** afford  to depend solely upon freelancing income. Freelance part time while working a full time job. This is how most get started, and start saving money to build that financial cushion which is pretty much mandatory.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The the reality is, you'll need employment if you aren't finically prepared to go 2-3 months (minimum) without *any* income whatsoever.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you are the best freelance worker ever, and the best person on Earth at your work, it'll take *time* to build up client relationships and find steady work as a freelancer. *This* is why a financial cushion is the best route to take. You are most likely *not* going to be able to cover a mortgage payment June 1st if you start freelancing May 1st. Any project which would actually pay you *within* that 30 days isn't going to be a &quot;big dollar&quot; project. And a &quot;big dollar&quot; project will generally not pay until Net 30 *in addition* to the time you need to complete the work. You *may* be able to find plethora of smaller paying projects and then frantically scramble to get them done so you can*request* payment.. and wait to get paid. But when factoring time needed to *actually* work, you're still looking at 2-3 weeks best case scenario before payment will be received. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reality is, if you started right now, today, by trying to utilize any of the online freelance sites (which I personally hate), it'll take a *minimum* of 20-30 days before you see *any* financial return, no matter how great or small that return may be. And the odds of you getting enough work to cover even modest living expenses a month from now are unlikely.  Realize that on these &quot;brokerage&quot; sites, new users are *unproven and unknown* to the clientele. So, even if you're fantastic at your services, you need clients to take a leap by hiring you. This greatly narrows the client-base which you'll appeal to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd also add that just because you feel you are &quot;specialized&quot; in a particular area, that does *not* mean you can't be a successful freelancer. It just means you need to find those clients who are seeking your area of specialization. But again, that will take time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being successful at a freelance career is not like lighting a match. It doesn't just ignite. It's more like a **slow boil**. You have to start working and *wait* for things to pick up (helped by marketing) until eventually you get to a point where you find a few great clients that allow you to keep that &quot;boil&quot; steady and rolling.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17999" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6835" RevisionGUID="67381014-ee3f-4c2b-8240-2dfecb9045bd" CreationDate="2017-05-06T10:25:43.880" UserId="708" Comment="added 86 characters in body" Text="This may come across as a bit harsh. It's honestly not meant to be. It is however a *realistic* answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The **best approach** if you don't have a financial cushion to fall back on, is to **get another job**.&#xD;&#xA;------------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if that means as a Gas Station attendant, McDonalds, or whatever, until you have enough freelance work to support you. You can be working on building freelance footing while also searching for employment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Everyone* wishes they could just decide to start freelancing and make enough money to live on, but that's simply not how the world works. And there *are* some individuals who are simply *not* cut out to be freelancers because they can't come to terms with the feast or famine aspect of the financial side. Many *need* that steady paycheck. You may be able to profit greatly freelancing, but you will probably *never* have any sort of &quot;steady paycheck&quot;. Even in contract work, there may be steady income for a few months, but that also has a limited lifespan. If you *can't* save money with a full time job... you can't start freelancing. Primarily because if funds are *that* tight, you **can't** afford  to depend solely upon freelancing income. Freelance part time while working a full time job. This is how most get started, and start saving money to build that financial cushion which is pretty much mandatory.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The the reality is, you'll need employment if you aren't finically prepared to go 2-3 months (minimum) without *any* income whatsoever.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you are the best freelance worker ever, and the best person on Earth at your work, it'll take *time* to build up client relationships and find steady work as a freelancer. *This* is why a financial cushion is not only the best route to take, but pretty much the *only* route for anyone with financial responsibilities. You are most likely *not* going to be able to cover a mortgage payment June 1st if you start freelancing May 1st. Any project which would actually pay you *within* that 30 days isn't going to be a &quot;big dollar&quot; project. And a &quot;big dollar&quot; project will generally not pay until Net 30 *in addition* to the time you need to complete the work. You *may* be able to find plethora of smaller paying projects and then frantically scramble to get them done so you can*request* payment.. and wait to get paid. But when factoring time needed to *actually* work, you're still looking at 2-3 weeks best case scenario before payment will be received. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reality is, if you started right now, today, by trying to utilize any of the online freelance sites (which I personally hate), it'll take a *minimum* of 20-30 days before you see *any* financial return, no matter how great or small that return may be. And the odds of you getting enough work to cover even modest living expenses a month from now are unlikely.  Realize that on these &quot;brokerage&quot; sites, new users are *unproven and unknown* to the clientele. So, even if you're fantastic at your services, you need clients to take a leap by hiring you. This greatly narrows the client-base which you'll appeal to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd also add that just because you feel you are &quot;specialized&quot; in a particular area, that does *not* mean you can't be a successful freelancer. It just means you need to find those clients who are seeking your area of specialization. But again, that will take time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being successful at a freelance career is not like lighting a match. It doesn't just ignite. It's more like a **slow boil**. You have to start working and *wait* for things to pick up (helped by marketing) until eventually you get to a point where you find a few great clients that allow you to keep that &quot;boil&quot; steady and rolling.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18000" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6836" RevisionGUID="58259588-d5f4-41c3-8820-697449dbdeca" CreationDate="2017-05-06T18:11:51.530" UserId="17102" Text="I believe she doesn't need to pay taxes.  In Canada, when I sell reports to the US, they do not pay taxes.  Only charge taxes for Canadian residents." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18001" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6837" RevisionGUID="12a04715-6e0e-4aea-9dae-df27aa116ec4" CreationDate="2017-05-07T02:06:58.867" UserId="17105" Text="I am an independent contractor and recently saw a job posting for the same work I do as a contractor. I do not want to be an employee but would like the organization to know that I specialize in that type of work.&#xD;&#xA;How do I approach the organization about my services? By the way they have an immediate need.&#xD;&#xA;I'm thinking I should introduce my company and services and ask for a meeting. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18002" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6837" RevisionGUID="12a04715-6e0e-4aea-9dae-df27aa116ec4" CreationDate="2017-05-07T02:06:58.867" UserId="17105" Text="How to offer services when organization is looking for an Employee" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18003" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6837" RevisionGUID="12a04715-6e0e-4aea-9dae-df27aa116ec4" CreationDate="2017-05-07T02:06:58.867" UserId="17105" Text="|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18004" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6835" RevisionGUID="c7cab454-8b13-4e2f-82cd-49644229dbaf" CreationDate="2017-05-08T02:28:17.697" UserId="708" Comment="added 31 characters in body" Text="This may come across as a bit harsh. It's honestly not meant to be. It is however a *realistic* answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The **best approach** if you don't have a financial cushion to fall back on, is to **get another job**.&#xD;&#xA;------------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if that means as a Gas Station attendant, McDonalds, or whatever, until you have enough freelance work to support you. You can be working on building freelance footing while also searching for employment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Everyone* wishes they could just decide to start freelancing and make enough money to live on, but that's simply not how the world works. And there *are* some individuals who are simply *not* cut out to be freelancers because they can't come to terms with the feast or famine aspect of the financial side. Many *need* that steady paycheck. You may be able to profit greatly freelancing, but you will probably *never* have any sort of &quot;steady paycheck&quot;. Even in contract work, there may be steady income for a few months, but that also has a limited lifespan. If you *can't* save money with a full time job... you can't start freelancing. Primarily because if funds are *that* tight, you **can't** afford  to depend solely upon freelancing income. Freelance part time while working a full time job. This is how most get started, and start saving money to build that financial cushion which is pretty much mandatory.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The the reality is, you'll need employment if you aren't financially prepared to go 2-3 months (minimum) without *any* income whatsoever.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you are the best freelance worker ever, and the best person on Earth at your work, it'll take *time* to build up client relationships and find steady work as a freelancer. *This* is why a financial cushion is not only the best route to take, but pretty much the *only* route for anyone with financial responsibilities. You are most likely *not* going to be able to cover a mortgage payment June 1st if you start freelancing May 1st. Any project which would actually pay you *within* that 30 days isn't going to be a &quot;big dollar&quot; project. And a &quot;big dollar&quot; project will generally not pay until Net 30 *in addition* to the time you need to complete the work. You *may* be able to find plethora of smaller paying projects and then frantically scramble to get them done so you can merely *request* payment.. and you'll still have to wait to get paid. But when factoring time needed to *actually* work, you're still looking at 2-3 weeks best case scenario before payment will be received. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reality is, if you started right now, today, by trying to utilize any of the online freelance sites (which I personally hate), it'll take a *minimum* of 20-30 days before you see *any* financial return, no matter how great or small that return may be. And the odds of you getting enough work to cover even modest living expenses a month from now are unlikely.  Realize that on these &quot;brokerage&quot; sites, new users are *unproven and unknown* to the clientele. So, even if you're fantastic at your services, you need clients to take a leap by hiring you. This greatly narrows the client-base which you'll appeal to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd also add that just because you feel you are &quot;specialized&quot; in a particular area, that does *not* mean you can't be a successful freelancer. It just means you need to find those clients who are seeking your area of specialization. But again, that will take time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being successful at a freelance career is not like lighting a match. It doesn't just ignite. It's more like a **slow boil**. You have to start working and *wait* for things to pick up (helped by marketing) until eventually you get to a point where you find a few great clients that allow you to keep that &quot;boil&quot; steady and rolling.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18005" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6838" RevisionGUID="4da8519d-8077-4e09-b50e-081e3d3f234c" CreationDate="2017-05-08T10:42:54.233" UserId="17119" Text="I'm pretty sure you DO have to collect and pay VAT if the sale takes place in the EU.&#xA;&#xA;https://quaderno.io/blog/what-you-must-know-about-vat-if-you-have-customers-in-europe/&#xA;&#xA;All the app stores for example force you to charge VAT / local sale taxes, although I believe they handle the collection and payment for you.&#xA;&#xA;When doing business in a country the general rule is you have to pay tax to that country.&#xA;&#xA;However, there are lots of other reasons why you might not be liable, (earning less than £85k? sale technically takes place in the US?) or the VAT might be 0%  you should talk to an accountant" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18007" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6837" RevisionGUID="43eb9726-a827-4b65-a806-1701630cff1e" CreationDate="2017-05-09T15:30:28.463" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/861966606104186881" />
  <row Id="18018" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6845" RevisionGUID="0d4ff3d3-9f1d-43d0-97e3-0d6bbf733713" CreationDate="2017-05-11T04:29:24.920" UserId="17147" Text="I worked for a few months as Individual contractor `from India` for a U.S. company. I always stayed in India during this time. Now, while applying for a regular job in India, they are asking for SSN ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it required for individual to apply for SSN or EIN or something else ?&#xD;&#xA;Is it required for remote-companies to give SSN ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If not, how should i explain it to my new-job-background-verification-person ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This was my first contract remote job, so i am worried if i am in some trouble.&#xD;&#xA;Please suggest." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18019" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6845" RevisionGUID="0d4ff3d3-9f1d-43d0-97e3-0d6bbf733713" CreationDate="2017-05-11T04:29:24.920" UserId="17147" Text="Contract Remote Job for US company : Do we need SSN?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18020" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6845" RevisionGUID="0d4ff3d3-9f1d-43d0-97e3-0d6bbf733713" CreationDate="2017-05-11T04:29:24.920" UserId="17147" Text="|contracts|usa|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18021" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6846" RevisionGUID="35fe322d-497c-4420-935b-f8fbad1ddc2c" CreationDate="2017-05-12T06:52:42.773" UserId="8524" Text="I'm looking at general liability insurance but the market doesn't seem to comprehend that there might not be a physical location. It's entirely an online business and I work from my laptop remotely with no employees. Is anyone aware of an affordable service provider?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18022" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6846" RevisionGUID="35fe322d-497c-4420-935b-f8fbad1ddc2c" CreationDate="2017-05-12T06:52:42.773" UserId="8524" Text="General liability insurance for online business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18023" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6846" RevisionGUID="35fe322d-497c-4420-935b-f8fbad1ddc2c" CreationDate="2017-05-12T06:52:42.773" UserId="8524" Text="|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18024" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6847" RevisionGUID="174c183f-ea2b-4a0e-b920-b9049c77c18d" CreationDate="2017-05-12T15:36:01.817" UserId="16906" Text="Answering my own question, in case anyone has this issue in future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I sent a query to the UK tax authority (HMRC) who responded as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;As you are providing supplies to a UK business from outside the UK, your client would be liable to account for the VAT using the reverse charge procedure. This is explained in section 5 of VAT Notice 741A: place of supply. **Therefore, you do not need to charge or register for VAT**, however you may choose to register for VAT in the UK if you wanted to. This is explained in VAT Notice: 700/1 Should I be registered for VAT?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, there are different requirements depending on whether you are supplying a **business** or **consumer** in the UK. If you are supplying a business, you do not have to charge VAT. If you are supplying an end consumer, you would be responsible for  charging VAT in some circumstances. Hope this helps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18025" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6846" RevisionGUID="601f8246-ccbe-4806-830a-96185aacef46" CreationDate="2017-05-12T17:38:24.227" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 4 characters in body" Text="I'm looking at general liability insurance but the market doesn't seem to comprehend that there might not be a physical location. It's entirely an online business and I work from my laptop remotely with no employees. How can I find an affordable service provider?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18027" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6547" RevisionGUID="f430f799-89a2-49ae-8a62-189036dd199c" CreationDate="2017-05-13T02:14:52.480" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18029" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6848" RevisionGUID="9da263f8-4f26-4e50-8d7e-a2972ccedc26" CreationDate="2017-05-13T07:11:53.177" UserId="16590" Text="I'm quite young in my I.T. business and my clients suggest I start charging retainers for my services. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not too sure about what structures monthly retainers use and what services they include as i've been running under an hourly payment basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the difference between charging a retainer and charging hourly rates? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18030" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6848" RevisionGUID="9da263f8-4f26-4e50-8d7e-a2972ccedc26" CreationDate="2017-05-13T07:11:53.177" UserId="16590" Text="Computer maintenance: Whats the difference between charging a retainer and hourly rates?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18031" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6848" RevisionGUID="9da263f8-4f26-4e50-8d7e-a2972ccedc26" CreationDate="2017-05-13T07:11:53.177" UserId="16590" Text="|remote|retainer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18032" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6845" RevisionGUID="f7a1c920-4ea8-48d1-9588-6cb1587c2d66" CreationDate="2017-05-13T07:34:01.637" UserId="17147" Comment="added 12 characters in body" Text="I worked for a few months as Individual contractor `from India` for a U.S. company. I always stayed in India during this time. Now, while applying for a regular job in India, Indian company is asking for US-SSN ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it required for individual to apply for SSN or EIN or something else ?&#xD;&#xA;Is it required for remote-companies to give SSN ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If not, how should i explain it to my new-job-background-verification-person ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This was my first contract remote job, so i am worried if i am in some trouble.&#xD;&#xA;Please suggest." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18033" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6849" RevisionGUID="ad33bfd4-902c-4228-8271-92b93f60bb56" CreationDate="2017-05-13T13:47:38.203" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="I am quoting for a potential new client, and she has said that they need to go through a *3-quote process*... does this mean that they are looking for a quote from me and two others?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or does it mean that I will have to quote in stages?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm assuming it is one of the above anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't ask my client for a while as she's unavailable, so if anyone could shed any light on what she might mean that would be great." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18034" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6849" RevisionGUID="ad33bfd4-902c-4228-8271-92b93f60bb56" CreationDate="2017-05-13T13:47:38.203" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="What is a 3-quote process?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18035" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6849" RevisionGUID="ad33bfd4-902c-4228-8271-92b93f60bb56" CreationDate="2017-05-13T13:47:38.203" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="|attracting-clients|invoices|project-bidding|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18036" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6850" RevisionGUID="8a666060-6184-49a0-9c70-f2c5104a661a" CreationDate="2017-05-13T23:14:13.987" UserId="1018" Text="I'd take it to mean that the potential client is seeking three quotes to ensure that the accepted quote is competitive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The cheapest quote needn't be the winning quote as long as the winning quote persuades the client they are getting good value for money." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18037" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6851" RevisionGUID="37de4c74-19cd-4d97-baf6-f1f34b78570a" CreationDate="2017-05-14T20:19:30.683" UserId="14455" Text="A retainer is a set monthly fee for you to take charge of a service or for responding to and fixing/repairing/updating/sorting your customers issues/problems/changes out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An hourly rate is where you add up your time spent per week (say) and invoice them per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The benefit for the customer of a retainer is that they know what your role is (as specified in your specifications of what is covered and what is not) and what the running cost to the business is. They don't then have to consider how much it will cost to do A or B or bother with time consuming quotes and job estimates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The benefit to you of a retainer is that you know what this customer is worth each and every month to you, and although some months will be heavy (ie your hourly rate in effect drops) other months will be light (ie in effect your hourly rate goes up).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would strongly suggest you get as many customers on retainer as possible. This is far better than an hourly rate for your business and for your customer IMHO.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A good retainer model I use is where I update my customers sites for them. I provide a issue tracker for them so they can raise a support ticket for say &quot;Can you add this pdf to the downloads page&quot; and I can respond with questions for clarity or with a completed message. This acts not only as a clear work log, but a measure of response times from me to them for instance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For items not covered in our agreement (such as advising on their PPC campaigns) I sometimes choose to do it for them anyway (if it is a light month) or respond with a quote for the work to be completed. Some customers just email in any requests as it is quicker and easier for them but I add them myself to the ticket system just for a complete record.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My retainer agreement specifies their monthly fee, what the support desk is for and what it covers, and a maximum amount of requests or time spent by me for them. In the background I keep a private tally for the year (the term of their agreement) and get worried only if it is too light to justify their next year commitment or too big so that I am spending too much time on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With two or three retainers you can start looking to take on an employee to cover the work load, while you get on with finding more customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Retainers are great, personally I love them, and try my best to get every customer on them. Just make sure the price is attractive to the customer, because retainers can see you through those times when the more interesting or profitable project work dries up." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18038" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6852" RevisionGUID="4f2c45f6-b754-41ac-ac9e-129aca709380" CreationDate="2017-05-14T20:32:15.087" UserId="14455" Text="You will not get one for online work in that way, or if you do it will be expensive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You do not need one if you do not have employees, you visit customers at their premises, and your terms and conditions specifically say you are not responsible for any adverse affects or losses incurred with down time, bugs, problems with your online work etc and that the company, not you, take full responsibility for any code or copy they use in their systems. (this is conversational but you get what I mean).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have never had a single customer balk for even one moment at my terms and conditions that include such get outs as &quot;I do my best and take no responsibility for anything that might happen as a consequence of what I do&quot; (Again you will need better or more formal wording but you get the point).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may get lots of people say &quot;You do need insurance for this kind of work&quot; but you do not, and in fact I would go as far as saying that it is impossible to get the sort of insurance to cover this. People think they are covered, but they are not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No person can get injured from you typing code on your laptop. The only thing you need to say is that if your code leads to any problems, it is the customers responsibility for implementing it, or allowing it to be implemented and not fully testing, not yours.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18039" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6853" RevisionGUID="84c9f97c-4c54-4b61-9ef2-4c694db21a39" CreationDate="2017-05-14T20:41:47.777" UserId="14455" Text="It means that your potential customer requires 3 quotes before making a decision about outsourcing any work. (As Neil above stated)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are quoting, and you have not actually met and talked to this customer, do not spend any time on it at all. Just knock up your normal quote paperwork with a relevant opening paragraph and move on. In reality companies often know exactly who they are going to use and your quote is just fulfilling their business criteria.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, buying leads often leads to this sort of situation. If you are not geared up to spit out quality, great looking quotes in an almost mechanical manner, don't bother. I know many people will say that is wrong but I am only talking about my own experiences here. 3 quote companies are a pain to deal with. The chances are you will not be the cheapest, not be the best and you will not have an inside track.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best companies are where the sale is agreed and shaken on following a meeting that has gone well, and the quote is just a minimal formal document they need to sign the contract. Then, if they need to get other quotes, I often provide them with the names of local companies I know are either massively expensive or just not very good at quoting. Either way, you have the inside track.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are just quoting out of the blue in response to a bought lead or a cold contact, it is your job to get the inside track, not spend time on a quote that might not even be read properly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18040" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="255" RevisionGUID="38f71a9b-2e8c-4df7-a5ff-48a7e90193e1" CreationDate="2017-05-14T20:43:43.963" UserId="17138" Comment="Fixed grammar" Text="I absolutely understand what you mean. A couple of years ago I faced the same dilemma. No matter how low I bid, I could never get a project. But as of today if I bid on a project, 90% of the chances are that I will get it. Thanks to more than [110 Five Star Ratings][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was almost on the verge of giving it up but then someone gave me some advice which helped me get my first project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how did I manage to do it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A. Create a proposal where you explain why you should be picked even though you are new.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It could be some thing like&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Dear XYZ&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I have been in this industry for XX years and such jobs are my daily practice. This is my first time on this site and hence you can see that I do not have any ratings/testimonials to show you. I can assure you that if you work with me once, you will always work with me for these kind of projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now you mention stuff here on why the employer should choose you.... Attach a sample and tell the employer that it can be delivered the moment he chooses your bid...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**B. Submit samples of your previous work**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't just submit any sample. The sample should be relevant to the current project you are bidding on&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**C. Submit working sample of the current work.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do not want to do that then attach a video of the working application. I use CAMTASIA to record a video to show how the completed project looks like. **Trust me this almost will seal the project for you**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Start with these 3 and you will see results very soon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.freelancer.com/users/feedback_1193882.html?period=entire_history&amp;category=0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18041" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="255" RevisionGUID="38f71a9b-2e8c-4df7-a5ff-48a7e90193e1" CreationDate="2017-05-14T20:43:43.963" Comment="Proposed by 17138 approved by 2265, 14455 edit id of 534" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18042" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6854" RevisionGUID="7301e5fe-ec5a-44db-9491-c2265e19a79b" CreationDate="2017-05-14T20:57:29.170" UserId="14455" Text="&gt; &quot;I have a wife and two kids and a mortgage&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Same here when I started. It was very tough. It is actually more rewarding but far harder than just doing a job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;What would be the best approach for someone who doesn't get to have&#xD;&#xA;&gt; that nest egg?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ten years ago I would have said &quot;go for it - what the hell&quot;. Now, with a divorce under my belt, I would say without a nest egg you just cannot do it apart from your spare time (weekends and evenings). If you are serious about being a freelancer, spend a year saving some money. It is like asking how can I be a hairdresser without any scissors. You can't. You can try, but you are in for a long uphill struggle that will probably end in tears. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18043" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6855" RevisionGUID="02ebea4c-3148-445a-92fc-415369d10c86" CreationDate="2017-05-15T07:55:26.027" UserId="517" Text="A retainer is a way for a client to book (reserve) you for a certain amount of hours per week or month in case something urgent comes up in his project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He will pay you monthly reservation whether you worked for him or not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also when he comes to you asking to do something, you do it immediately. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Retainer is good stable source of income. Bad side is that you have to be prepared for the client to come with requests each week. And you have to jump on his project immediately, not tomorrow, not when you finish something else. It often means you have to work extra hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Take note that you are obliged to work urgently only up to the amount of hours specified in the contract. All extra is paid as an extra and you can work on it when you have time. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18044" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6851" RevisionGUID="122e0083-bcba-4c8d-bb95-67e876b553fe" CreationDate="2017-05-15T18:06:34.923" UserId="13016" Comment="fixed comma splice;  other minor clean up" Text="A retainer is a set monthly fee for you to take charge of a service or for responding to and fixing/repairing/updating/sorting your customers' issues/problems/changes out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An hourly rate is where you add up your time spent per week (say) and invoice them per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The benefit for the customer of a retainer is that they know what your role is (as specified in your specifications of what is covered and what is not) and what the running cost to the business is. They don't then have to consider how much it will cost to do A or B or bother with time-consuming quotes and job estimates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The benefit to you of a retainer is that you know what this customer is worth each and every month to you, and although some months will be heavy (i.e., your hourly rate in effect drops), other months will be light (i.e., in effect, your hourly rate goes up).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would strongly suggest you get as many customers on retainer as possible. This is far better than an hourly rate for your business and for your customer IMHO.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A good retainer model I use is where I update my customers' sites for them. I provide an issue tracker for them so they can raise a support ticket for say, &quot;Can you add this PDF to the downloads page&quot; and I can respond with questions for clarity or with a completed message. This acts not only as a clear work log, but a measure of response times from me to them for instance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For items not covered in our agreement (such as advising on their PPC campaigns), I sometimes choose to do it for them anyway (if it is a light month) or respond with a quote for the work to be completed. Some customers just email in any requests as it is quicker and easier for them but I add them myself to the ticket system just for a complete record.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My retainer agreement specifies their monthly fee, what the support desk is for and what it covers, and a maximum amount of requests or time spent by me for them. In the background, I keep a private tally for the year (the term of their agreement) and get worried only if it is too light to justify their next year commitment or too big so that I am spending too much time on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With two or three retainers you can start looking to take on an employee to cover the workload, while you get on with finding more customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Retainers are great. Personally, I love them, and try my best to get every customer on them. Just make sure the price is attractive to the customer, because retainers can see you through those times when the more interesting or profitable project work dries up." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18045" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6851" RevisionGUID="122e0083-bcba-4c8d-bb95-67e876b553fe" CreationDate="2017-05-15T18:06:34.923" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 14455 edit id of 535" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18046" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6856" RevisionGUID="bb51d531-f36e-4d6d-a0c9-62ef117de0a9" CreationDate="2017-05-15T18:28:50.183" UserId="17176" Text="You could look for experts on freelancing websites. I've seen jobs posted for people asking for this kind of help - not to execute the project but to give some directions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are also online communities. For example, for app development, you could look into: https://www.facebook.com/groups/react.native.community/ &#xD;&#xA;Then ask your questions there, interact, and you might find people who can help you. I imagine there should be communities for other tools as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18049" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6858" RevisionGUID="c40cf693-d86e-4a8b-8a4c-855ec3cf908c" CreationDate="2017-05-16T02:32:19.963" UserId="17173" Text="I'm a freelance software developer too and I pretty much get all my work through LinkedIn. The thing is, my connections are a lot of (pre selected) recruiters. I know a lot of freelancers hate recruiters, but I don't get that. Recruiters often have a foot in companies, you yourself just can't get in. Going through an intermediate also takes away a lot of risks for you and the company... Like if a company goes belly up, you still get payed. The other way around, it saves you making contracts and of course &quot;cold&quot; calling/mailing people for a possible contract, what is often seen as spam.&#xA;&#xA;Just make sure you have all your skills listed and a good description.&#xA;&#xA;I don't care they take a percentage, as long as I get what I want out of it, it's a win win... also when you stay in good contact, it are the recruiters who will probably help you get a contract, when times are less good for freelance contracts." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18050" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6859" RevisionGUID="72411e7a-4c99-450d-bab8-ed7ba849f301" CreationDate="2017-05-16T05:57:14.150" UserId="17181" Text="I want to get some new experience working with different people around the world. So, I'm looking for some sort of a collaboration site, where people looking for designers/developers etc and collaborate in order to create it. This article is dedicated to game development, but what I'm looking is some iOS\android developement with backend. Any help?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-find-other-gamedevs-and-artists-to-work-with--gamedev-9220" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18051" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6859" RevisionGUID="72411e7a-4c99-450d-bab8-ed7ba849f301" CreationDate="2017-05-16T05:57:14.150" UserId="17181" Text="Where to find people for colloboration" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18052" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6859" RevisionGUID="72411e7a-4c99-450d-bab8-ed7ba849f301" CreationDate="2017-05-16T05:57:14.150" UserId="17181" Text="|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18053" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6860" RevisionGUID="5e4c2193-c043-4e1f-b59f-0568f9c135be" CreationDate="2017-05-16T08:05:59.200" UserId="517" Text="Why trying to find a team? If you have an idea, try to gather a team. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use forums, present your &quot;practice&quot; idea and gather a team of international developers who will work for free. There are many guys ready to do this to gain some practice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can even try posting a project on freelancing service websites asking to gather a team for collaboration. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line is that you are not bound to join others' team. At this very moment there are millions of developers wanting to gain some experience. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18054" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6861" RevisionGUID="39e7378a-7463-4172-9b1e-ed4f5bf67c89" CreationDate="2017-05-16T08:35:23.433" UserId="15209" Text="I am an IT professional/ software developer, and have been self-employed since October last year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I first went self-employed, I only had the one client, and was working for them full time. After delivering the project to them, I had a bit of 'down' time while looking for my next client/ project. I have now secured my next project, and recently started working for that client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, between finishing working for my first client, and starting working for this one, I did a few days work (just decommissioning old servers &amp; setting up new ones) that I got through a recruitment agency.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, one of the recruiters at the agency had been in touch regarding a couple of roles he was recruiting for, and while those discussions were on going, he mentioned that he had a few days work available decommissioning &amp; setting up these servers at the local court. He asked if I would be willing to assist with this work, and I said I'd be happy to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This work took place over three separate days, and after the first day (there were a couple of weeks between each work day), I sent the recruitment agency an invoice for the work I had done, at the agreed rate, and was paid on receipt of that invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, following the next two days' work, I invoiced the agency in the same way as I had previously, and they then got back to me to say that I would have to invoice them through an umbrella company... But they had not mentioned that I would have to do this at all before I agreed to do the work, and they now appear to be refusing to pay unless I send them the invoice this way (I have had no response to emails sent a couple of weeks ago).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since going self-employed, I have managed invoicing my clients myself, and would rather keep doing this, than pay an umbrella company a fee to do it for me... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I ensure that this agency pay me the agreed amount for the two days' work that I've done for them, which is outstanding?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18055" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6861" RevisionGUID="39e7378a-7463-4172-9b1e-ed4f5bf67c89" CreationDate="2017-05-16T08:35:23.433" UserId="15209" Text="Company want me to invoice them through an Umbrella company, and not directly- how can I ensure I get paid?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18056" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6861" RevisionGUID="39e7378a-7463-4172-9b1e-ed4f5bf67c89" CreationDate="2017-05-16T08:35:23.433" UserId="15209" Text="|payments|invoices|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18057" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6862" RevisionGUID="58d0e6e4-f4cc-46ea-9774-65cbdd222716" CreationDate="2017-05-16T09:39:25.983" UserId="15202" Text="First off, check your contract with the agency. If the contract is with you, then they should be paying you. Failure to do so is a breach and you can start the process of threatening court (although this would kill your business).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, and here's where it gets sticky, as a self employed contractor, the agency is required to cover a number of potential liabilities. Most insist on either a Ltd or an umbrella (essentially an Ltd) so that any liabilities can be shifted onto you. As a rule of thumb, earning over £45k should be done through an Ltd, anything less is umbrella territory. Bear in mind, as an Ltd you will need an accountant and your own insurances (liability and indemnity).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's an absolute minefield, but have a chat with an accountant and see what they recommend, most will dispense free advise on the hopes of signing you up." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18058" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6861" RevisionGUID="50c1b0b3-e2ea-4011-960d-d41f69b6bad2" CreationDate="2017-05-16T09:45:51.357" UserId="15202" Comment="Added a tag for UK" Text="|payments|uk|invoices|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18059" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6861" RevisionGUID="50c1b0b3-e2ea-4011-960d-d41f69b6bad2" CreationDate="2017-05-16T09:45:51.357" Comment="Proposed by 15202 approved by 15209 edit id of 537" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18060" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6863" RevisionGUID="45595887-cae9-47ce-996a-1034bf91451f" CreationDate="2017-05-16T09:48:48.467" UserId="17184" Text="I am full time freelancer recently i got pretty larger project. The Project was mainly depends on Facebook and Instagram API's. &#xD;&#xA;As we get started i used Instagram sandbox and Facebook test account to create the web app. When every thing was done i said the client to submit the app for Instagram. But Instagram declined the app and said these permission are only for publisher and some thing any how we have tired like 5-6 times but they keep declining it and they only permitted a baisc permission but our app was depending on other permissions as well. So here IG goes failed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client was also requiring some thing that wasn't possible to do with Facebook API. Like facebook API doesn't allow that and in start i said to client that it's not possible but he said it's possible he will let me know about. &#xD;&#xA;My whole team is aware that it's not possible we are working from last 6 years in this field so we were pretty sure about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now both Facebook and IG app are not working the way he wants and same it's not our fault. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not sure what to do in this case should i ask for complete money? or get half loss and get paid partially? or just don't get paid? We have worked about complete month on this app and i am not sure what should i do next?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18061" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6863" RevisionGUID="45595887-cae9-47ce-996a-1034bf91451f" CreationDate="2017-05-16T09:48:48.467" UserId="17184" Text="What should do if project goes failed" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18062" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6863" RevisionGUID="45595887-cae9-47ce-996a-1034bf91451f" CreationDate="2017-05-16T09:48:48.467" UserId="17184" Text="|freelance-websites|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18063" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6864" RevisionGUID="2b9da60e-8b40-497e-b0eb-1d14cb1310e8" CreationDate="2017-05-16T10:55:56.093" UserId="517" Text="Since you are using Upwork I suggest you try to resolve this with the client. This way both will be happy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You made a big mistake. You continued to work although you knew that something is not possible to implement. You should have stand by your opinion at the beginning telling client that you are the expert in that field, not him. If he insists that something is possible, ask him to give you the evidence today or tomorrow. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18064" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6865" RevisionGUID="f97e6410-7bd9-4e8c-8511-a6831c569476" CreationDate="2017-05-16T13:20:59.443" UserId="17187" Text="In your case you do not need a U.S. SSN. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can find all of the official information about U.S. SSN (Social Security Numbers) in this pdf-document published by the U.S. Social Security office.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Social Security Numbers for Noncitizens][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10096.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18065" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6858" RevisionGUID="7043c188-0fe0-46a1-b518-95ba8b9dad77" CreationDate="2017-05-16T17:55:23.677" UserId="17173" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="I'm a freelance software developer too and I pretty much get all my work through LinkedIn. The thing is, my connections are a lot of (pre selected) recruiters. I know a lot of freelancers hate recruiters, but I don't get that. Recruiters often have a foot in companies, you yourself just can't get in. Going through an intermediate also takes away a lot of risks for you and the company... Like if a company goes belly up, you still get paid. The other way around, it saves you making contracts and of course &quot;cold&quot; calling/mailing people for a possible contract, what is often seen as spam.&#xA;&#xA;Just make sure you have all your skills listed and a good description.&#xA;&#xA;I don't care they take a percentage, as long as I get what I want out of it, it's a win win... also when you stay in good contact, it are the recruiters who will probably help you get a contract, when times are less good for freelance contracts." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18066" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6866" RevisionGUID="f0cd565c-7c58-4502-a81e-6d8f667c1ecc" CreationDate="2017-05-16T22:52:26.483" UserId="17192" Text="I'm starting to design from 2012 and I have made some design for some event (I'm the committee of the event) and sometimes I created it in my spare time. But, why can I get some money from it so I don't have to get money from my parents anymore (I am a college student now). Is there any tips for me to get some client so I can get paid from it? Big thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18067" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6866" RevisionGUID="f0cd565c-7c58-4502-a81e-6d8f667c1ecc" CreationDate="2017-05-16T22:52:26.483" UserId="17192" Text="Is there any tips to get projects for junior graphic designer like me" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18068" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6866" RevisionGUID="f0cd565c-7c58-4502-a81e-6d8f667c1ecc" CreationDate="2017-05-16T22:52:26.483" UserId="17192" Text="|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18069" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6858" RevisionGUID="f1d307d8-db3a-4c74-9be4-0485ecee3d12" CreationDate="2017-05-16T23:35:05.553" UserId="17173" Comment="deleted 8 characters in body" Text="I'm a freelance software developer too and I pretty much get all my work through LinkedIn. The thing is, my connections are a lot of (pre selected) recruiters. I know a lot of freelancers hate recruiters, but I don't get that. Recruiters often have a foot in companies, you yourself just can't get in. Going through an intermediate also takes away a lot of risks for you and the company... Like if a company goes belly up, you still get paid. The other way around, it saves you making contracts and of course &quot;cold&quot; calling/mailing people for a possible contract, what is often seen as spam.&#xA;&#xA;Just make sure you have all your skills listed and a good description.&#xA;&#xA;I don't care they take a percentage, as long as I get what I want out of it, it's a win win... also when you stay in good contact, it are the recruiters who will probably help you get a contract, when times are less good for freelancers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18070" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6867" RevisionGUID="b9034b01-2d65-4582-8b4d-15e5efe70d08" CreationDate="2017-05-17T05:06:11.967" UserId="17195" Text="Generally speaking, no you do not need a SSN. You will not be able to even apply for a SSN since you did not mention you have a visa to work **physically in the US**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The most common request for a SSN for an overseas contractor to a US company is for the W-8 forms. The IRS says these are for &quot;[non-resident aliens who do work and/or make income in the U.S. or foreign business entities who make income in the U.S][1]&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without these forms, the US company is obligated to withhold a percentage of your funds. On the most common W-8BEN form, you have the option of entering your SSN or ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number). However this is optional, see [the instructions][2] to decide if you need to apply for an ITIN.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It sounds like there is some miscommunication with your Indian company. You should explain you do not need a SSN and that you were not working physically in the US.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.irs.com/articles/fill-out-irs-tax-form-w-8&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw8ben.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18071" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6868" RevisionGUID="94052bc1-4f61-4df5-a726-1f4cb18d5c11" CreationDate="2017-05-17T07:59:46.263" UserId="517" Text="Would you hire someone with your exact skills for a job? If no, then it means you have to improve your abilities. If yes, then you may get a job soon. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are good enough try finding jobs via freelancing sites, forums, facebook groups, even Craiglists. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be persistent and provide good quality and in a year your parent will start asking money from you. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18072" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6869" RevisionGUID="1a394522-9e44-41ce-8a37-3bb99afba462" CreationDate="2017-05-17T10:24:05.967" UserId="17173" Text="In my opinion, since you're the one who took the job under these circumstances, it's also your responsibility. That goes along with being self-employed. You can't just dismiss the responsibility. &#xA;&#xA;A client comes to a professional, because they can't do something theirselves. At that moment they hire and pay you for your expertise. You took the job, so you also took the responsibility. It was your responsibility to check the Facebook and Instagram API admission rules and give feedback to your client that his wishes aren't executable.&#xA;&#xA;Compare it with another self employed professional... You want a new house build. You hire a contractor, because you don't know anything about building a house. The contractor looks at the plans and starts building... At the end the house is finished, but it has no roof, because the government rules forbid to build so high... The contractor comes to you and says it's done, but he didn't know about those rules, so not his responsibility... &#xA;&#xA;Would you pay him for a job well done?&#xA;&#xA;My point being: If you take a job, every aspect of that job is your responsibility, that is including investigation into the feasibility of the assignment. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18073" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4705" RevisionGUID="cf87452e-57c4-4d0e-a0da-e205bdabc30d" CreationDate="2017-05-17T17:52:50.607" UserId="15870" Comment="correct use of curriculum -&gt; CV" Text="It may sounds trivial, but maybe it's not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm looking for a job then I look to company's website open positions page and I send a CV (curriculum vitae). In this case the company would be my employer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If instead I'm a freelance and I'm looking to get a job then I try to contact the company to advertize my services. In this case the company would be my client.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Is there something in between? Think of a company that need a service (the development of a web application or something similar) for which it may hire somebody or may outsource it to a freelance. In this last case the distinction between employer and client, according to me, is not so clear.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the question is: do you think it makes sense to submit a CV to a company spontaneous applications page (where they seek for employee), and to write in the covering letter that I would be glad to work for them as a freelance in the case they need one for a service involving the skills I have?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18074" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4705" RevisionGUID="cf87452e-57c4-4d0e-a0da-e205bdabc30d" CreationDate="2017-05-17T17:52:50.607" Comment="Proposed by 15870 approved by 2265, -1 edit id of 536" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18075" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4705" RevisionGUID="6e1802a3-6134-4b75-b6a8-fc38ec620698" CreationDate="2017-05-17T17:52:50.607" UserId="14455" Comment="correct use of curriculum -&gt; CV" Text="It may sound trivial, but maybe it's not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm looking for a job then I look to a company's website open positions page and I send a CV (curriculum vitae). In this case the company would be my employer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If instead I'm a freelancer and I'm looking to get a job then I try to contact the company to advertize my services. In this case the company would be my client.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Is there something in between? Think of a company that needs a service (the development of a web application or something similar) for which it may hire somebody or may outsource it to a freelancer. In this last case the distinction between employer and client, according to me, is not so clear.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the question is: do you think it makes sense to submit a CV to a company's spontaneous applications page (where they seek an employee), and to write in the covering letter that I would be glad to work for them as a freelancer in the case they need one for a service involving the skills I have?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18076" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6870" RevisionGUID="8532f093-a6a1-4ff6-a694-0df3e4addb09" CreationDate="2017-05-17T18:22:01.207" UserId="17173" Text="A viable contract between you and a client should at least contain: &#xA;&#xA;- The exact work you're responsible for and the definition of done.&#xA;- The agreed rate and who is responsible for taxes.&#xA;- The way and timing of invoicing.&#xA;- The date or period the work is taking place.&#xA;&#xA;There is a lot more, but these entries are applicable to your situation. If you work self-employed, you need to make sure you cover things professionally​ and they are your responsibility.&#xA;&#xA;If you have a contract that mentiones these things, then you are covered and they will have to pay. Preferably in good understanding, if not through legal channels, but it probably won't come to that when the contract is sound. If not, then you learned a valuable and expensive lesson.&#xA;&#xA;It happened to me too when I just started out. Didn't want to &quot;bother&quot; the client with a contract for small jobs, because it somehow didn't feel comfortable to do so. &#xA;&#xA;I am now more then 10 years in and never have these kinds of problems anymore, because I always formally kickoff with a contract. This doesn't have to be a large document. Just a declaration with a few bullet point with the specifics accompanied by and referenced to (and this is important) general terms you work under. (Can be downloaded for free if you look or just copy it from somewhere. There are specific ones for software btw).&#xA;I use templates that I had drafted up by a legal firm. Costs you some, but worth the ease of mind.&#xA;&#xA;Formalisation is to avoid problems like this, which almost always leads to the loss of a customer and relation, regardless if you get paid in the end, a lost customer is always bad. &#xA;&#xA;And don't forget, if you work without (a legally checked) contract and general terms, you can even be held liable to lawsuits when your software is e.a. hacked or bugged. Not something to be taken lightly.&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18077" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6871" RevisionGUID="9a147a3d-8542-4648-b750-db2692f0df33" CreationDate="2017-05-17T19:33:11.280" UserId="17173" Text="Have you tried looking at open source projects on GitHub? Or create your own if you think you have an idea. Open source projects are usually open for collaboration. Find one (maybe a small one to get you started) that interests you and ask if you can be a (outside) collaborator. It will also give you valuable work experience working with Git and GitHub, on top of code structuring and style and the subject at hand. And it's all in the open, so it makes a great addition to your resume.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Otherwise post a call on LinkedIn, perfect platform to find other like-minded professionals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ps. I'm in the mobile game development business and &quot;we&quot; need back-ends too... Lol." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18078" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6872" RevisionGUID="6258891b-35fd-48f8-b557-d99f672483b7" CreationDate="2017-05-18T00:09:18.183" UserId="17173" Text="It's not like it's patented information? And besides a contract, there must be a certain degree of trust between 2 parties or you shouldn't accept the assignment in the first place. Because you can keep adding to this list: What if he decides not to pay you?&#xA;&#xA;The way I look at it: You are a business man and so is your client. You have a service he wants, or you wouldn't be sitting there. For him to pull weird stunts just to save on costs, will cost him more in reputation then he will save in costs. And good businessmen will know that you only have one reputation to spend. So in the rare case something like that would happen, rest assure that that guy won't be in business long.&#xA;&#xA;If you go all secret on him, that won't do the relationship any good. So start from trust, be open, honest and transparent, untill you have actual reason to doubt. That will build a much better relationship and the chance for repeat business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18079" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6861" RevisionGUID="0fed082f-a8bd-4a45-8c91-f3f1437b3d29" CreationDate="2017-05-18T06:58:34.477" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/865099273909809152" />
  <row Id="18080" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6873" RevisionGUID="fe02fb73-c5b5-47c8-8732-de75d556e64f" CreationDate="2017-05-18T12:57:41.773" UserId="17176" Text="You can also try community hubs. There are many Meetups, facebook groups and forums where developers gather around some specific technology they use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could try interacting in a few of them and try to find people to work together.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Going straight for Github as @stevenvanc suggested is a good idea too." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18081" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6874" RevisionGUID="3b78862d-4a70-4b4f-920c-6ab937f28ad6" CreationDate="2017-05-18T13:06:17.660" UserId="17176" Text="You can start by:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Talking to people close to you. Tell them what you want to help others with and ask if they know anyone who needs that. For example: creating a logo, designing a slide presentation, etc. Something that is aligned with your skills.&#xD;&#xA; - There are online freelancing websites where there are lots of jobs you can bid on. They usually don't pay that much but they can be a gateway to get experience. You can try Upwork, Fiverr, Freelance.com .&#xD;&#xA; - You can improve your portfolio by helping good causes, like a nonprofit or a community you feel drawn to. Talk to them and offer to help in exchange for a testimonial if they like your work. Then you can put those on your website and start your reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18082" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6863" RevisionGUID="0e83ddd9-c2b8-495c-b4ba-aa9fea04db62" CreationDate="2017-05-18T17:13:57.697" UserId="13016" Comment="minor clean up, lots" Text="I am a full time freelancer.  Recently, I got a pretty large project. The project mainly depends on Facebook and Instagram API's. &#xD;&#xA;As we got started, I used Instagram sandbox and Facebook test account to create the web app. When everything was done, I had the client submit the app for Instagram. But Instagram declined the app and said these permission are only for the publisher and something.  Anyhow, we have tried about 5-6 times but they keep declining it and they only permitted a basic permission but our app depends on other permissions as well. So here IG goes failed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client was also requiring something that wasn't possible to do with Facebook API. Like facebook API doesn't allow that and at the start, I told the client that it's not possible but he said it's possible he will let me know. &#xD;&#xA;My whole team is aware that it's not possible.  We are working from last 6 years in this field so we were pretty sure about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now both Facebook and IG app are not working the way he wants and same it's not our fault. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not sure what to do in this case.  Should I ask for payment in full, or get half and get paid partially? Or do I just not get paid? We have worked about a month on this app and I am not sure what should I do next.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18083" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6863" RevisionGUID="0e83ddd9-c2b8-495c-b4ba-aa9fea04db62" CreationDate="2017-05-18T17:13:57.697" UserId="13016" Comment="minor clean up, lots" Text="What should I do if a project fails?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18084" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6863" RevisionGUID="0e83ddd9-c2b8-495c-b4ba-aa9fea04db62" CreationDate="2017-05-18T17:13:57.697" Comment="Proposed by 13016 approved by 2265, 17184 edit id of 539" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18085" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4669" RevisionGUID="a54f7858-3750-4166-88a6-6cb752752874" CreationDate="2017-05-18T17:20:46.453" UserId="15527" Comment="grammar, spelling, format" Text="The clients who post projects in freelancer sites do not care to give the details of the app in the project description. I have seen 90% of the clients not describing the requirements. They just say &quot;I need an android app&quot; or &quot;I need an app to be build soon&quot;. But here freelancers gets confused weather to bid or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*I am giving these suggestions assuming that you are a new freelancer.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* So if you are a new freelancer, then you have to be very careful. As you have high chances of not getting the bid accepted by the client. As your profile is new, no one wants to take risk on their project.&#xD;&#xA;* I would suggest that you search for mostly those projects which have a good description. And bid responsively as you have a limited number of bids.&#xD;&#xA;* Always make your proposal more interesting, and make a demo if possible to show it to the client, to make him believe that you are talented person.&#xD;&#xA;* Go with a good price and reply to the client as soon as he/she text you or contact you in any ways.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you get the project, then do it to your best. And you will get more and more projects. And never give up. The beginning as always very slow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;More information for new freelancers [here][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/4665/11903" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18086" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4669" RevisionGUID="a54f7858-3750-4166-88a6-6cb752752874" CreationDate="2017-05-18T17:20:46.453" Comment="Proposed by 15527 approved by 11903 edit id of 544" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18090" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="4705" RevisionGUID="c18914ee-44b8-4ef7-8838-a2aa0975c893" CreationDate="2017-05-18T18:41:38.170" UserId="15870" Comment="fix the subject too :-)" Text="Getting consulting jobs by submitting CV to company's spontaneous applications page?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18091" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4705" RevisionGUID="c18914ee-44b8-4ef7-8838-a2aa0975c893" CreationDate="2017-05-18T18:41:38.170" Comment="Proposed by 15870 approved by 2265, 14455 edit id of 538" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18092" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1593" RevisionGUID="f50ee0a3-c19b-4e4b-abcc-1dfb84a64862" CreationDate="2017-05-18T18:44:48.330" UserId="15527" Comment="spelling typos" Text="It depends on the kind of troubleshooting and the time that you spend on the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the troubleshooting takes a long time, yes I would charge on hourly basis. After all we spend time in solving the problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it takes less time and its just a minor fix then there is no need to charge. But if the troubleshooting is often (more than twice), then consider charging a small amount even for minor fixes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had delivered a android application to client. The client wanted to test the code, and he had no knowledge of what tools to be used and how to run the app on the real device. So I installed all the tools, downloading and showing him how to run the app, and how to troubleshoot if he ends up in errors or stucks in a problem. The whole process took about a hour or two considering the download time. So i charged for the 2 hours and the client was happy to pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could make a agreement prior to delivery with the client that troubleshooting will cost based on the time you spend (hours/days spend)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18093" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1593" RevisionGUID="f50ee0a3-c19b-4e4b-abcc-1dfb84a64862" CreationDate="2017-05-18T18:44:48.330" Comment="Proposed by 15527 approved by -1 edit id of 541" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18094" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1593" RevisionGUID="785bf2e2-92b7-4094-bd1d-7ebd10ca0855" CreationDate="2017-05-18T18:44:48.330" UserId="14455" Comment="spelling typos" Text="It depends on the kind of troubleshooting and the time that you spend on the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the troubleshooting takes a long time, yes I would charge on hourly basis. After all we spend time in solving the problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it takes less time and its just a minor fix then there is no need to charge. But if the troubleshooting is often (more than twice), then consider charging a small amount even for minor fixes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had delivered an android application to a client. The client wanted to test the code, and he had no knowledge of what tools to be used and how to run the app on the real device. So I installed all the tools, downloading and showing him how to run the app, and how to troubleshoot if he got errors or stuck with a problem. The whole process took about a hour or two considering the download time. So I charged for the 2 hours and the client was happy to pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could make an agreement prior to delivery with the client that troubleshooting will be charged based on the time you spend (hours/days spent)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18095" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6173" RevisionGUID="020c800d-0ed2-4315-b078-6f593151f650" CreationDate="2017-05-18T18:47:06.813" UserId="15527" Comment="link conversion, multiple typos" Text="I'm a part time freelancer since the last 6 years. Nowadays it is very hard to get new work. Recently I started using [this][1] chrome extension, which is very helpful for me to get new job notifications instantly from guru.com. So that I can place my bid before someone apply for the same job. And it saves my time because I don't want to refresh the pages each for new job notifications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/freelance-jobs-notifier/ebbbikghjmebifeocfeboinihckggopj" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18096" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6173" RevisionGUID="020c800d-0ed2-4315-b078-6f593151f650" CreationDate="2017-05-18T18:47:06.813" Comment="Proposed by 15527 approved by -1 edit id of 542" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18097" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6173" RevisionGUID="810d830c-0335-465d-b10b-9be0385c2dec" CreationDate="2017-05-18T18:47:06.813" UserId="14455" Comment="link conversion, multiple typos" Text="I have been a part time freelancer for the last 6 years. Nowadays it is very hard to get new work. Recently I started using [this][1] chrome extension, which is very helpful for me to get new job notifications instantly from guru.com. So that I can place my bid before someone else applies for the same job. And it saves me time because I don't want to refresh the pages for each new job notification.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/freelance-jobs-notifier/ebbbikghjmebifeocfeboinihckggopj" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18098" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1743" RevisionGUID="c4ec0f07-97c0-4723-bacd-350f199f7a94" CreationDate="2017-05-18T18:51:24.740" UserId="15527" Comment="multiple typos, spelling" Text="You should never neglect your health. You should sleep for about 6-8 hours a day to be healthy. You can end up in trouble at a later age.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Plan out in such a way that you don't overwork and you need to skip your sleep. You can Work for 8 hours- 10 hours a day and still end up finishing the project. If you end up in minor bugs you can speak to the client and ask for few more days to fix the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients do expect in time delivery and they are happy if you deliver a quality project in time. So if the work takes 1 week depending on the project, take few extras days. Inform the client the project will be completed in 1 and half weeks. Don't fix on exact 1 week, because there might be days when you will be ill and you can't take up work on that day. Always better to quote a few days extra.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Definitely in the long run working continuously without sleep affects health. If it is absolutely urgent, and you need to deliver the project the next day, you can skip sleep for a day. I encountered a situation where I had to deliver an update (not a final delivery) to the client, and I got stuck on the some issue. I didn't sleep that night, fixed the issue, and delivered the update. But if it is likely to repeat (skipping sleep) for few day's, I would certainly not think of skipping sleep." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18099" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1743" RevisionGUID="c4ec0f07-97c0-4723-bacd-350f199f7a94" CreationDate="2017-05-18T18:51:24.740" Comment="Proposed by 15527 approved by -1 edit id of 540" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18100" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1743" RevisionGUID="aba2d878-1685-4bfe-8023-1ccc27be7efb" CreationDate="2017-05-18T18:51:24.740" UserId="14455" Comment="multiple typos, spelling" Text="You should never neglect your health. You should sleep for about 6-8 hours a day to be healthy. You can end up in trouble at a later age.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Plan out in such a way that you don't overwork and you need to skip your sleep. You can work for 8 - 10 hours a day and still end up finishing the project. If you end up with minor bugs you can speak to the client and ask for a few more days to fix the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients do expect delivery on time and they are happy if you deliver a quality project in time. So if the work takes one week, depending on the project, take a few extras days, inform the client the project will be completed in one and half weeks. Don't fix on exactly one week, because there might be days when you will be ill and you can't take up work on that day. Always better to quote a few days extra.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Definitely in the long run working continuously without sleep affects health. If it is absolutely urgent, and you need to deliver the project the next day, you can skip sleep for a day. I encountered a situation where I had to deliver an update (not a final delivery) to the client, and I got stuck on some issue. I didn't sleep that night, fixed the issue, and delivered the update. But if it is likely to repeat (skipping sleep) for a few day's, I would certainly not think of skipping sleep." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18101" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6876" RevisionGUID="3eb2d715-0422-46dd-a75c-a6ad0db78474" CreationDate="2017-05-18T19:40:45.003" UserId="17226" Text="I have been working remote for the same client for nearly 10 years. I was a full-time employee and someone I worked with previously presented me with the opportunity (Primarily C# Stack).  Sadly the contract is scheduled to expire in December.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have any experience with building a team and getting team based contracts vs. individuals in the IT field.  I know there would need to be a single point of contact but leveraging talents from a pool of developers enables throttling as well as allocating tasks to the best suited resource.  A 3 month contract could be the result of many people's contributions IMO. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have worked with some extremely talented people and I want to continue to do so.  I do receive a lot of job reqs for perm but I have been unable to convert to remote project/contract type work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18102" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6876" RevisionGUID="3eb2d715-0422-46dd-a75c-a6ad0db78474" CreationDate="2017-05-18T19:40:45.003" UserId="17226" Text="Team based Consulting contracts" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18103" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6876" RevisionGUID="3eb2d715-0422-46dd-a75c-a6ad0db78474" CreationDate="2017-05-18T19:40:45.003" UserId="17226" Text="|attracting-clients|consulting|software|contract-to-hire|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18104" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4270" RevisionGUID="d728adfd-8da5-48b2-814d-2480bc3ad9dc" CreationDate="2017-05-18T19:59:38.050" UserId="15527" Comment="multiple spelling fixes, chat removal, formatting" Text="After all this I tried a [random freelancing site][1]. Within 60 seconds of creating my account, I scored a job paying $15 - $32 with a terribly stated title (*&quot;I want someone to do a simple pygame&quot;*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It had eight days remaining, so I quoted two days at $15. I was instantly contacted and given a *very* bad description of the task and a zip folder with a small game inside. After 35 minutes of trying to work out what I actually had to do, I was given 2 hours to debug the University assignment of some lazy guys, which I did. However, there was an odd compilation problem (a dialog popped up on compile saying incorrect indentation) so I had to say I couldn't do it. I don't think freelancing is for me, because I'm not a people person (IQ - 126 but very low EQ so no social skills) and it is too much trouble.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think, I will go back to hobby game development and just post them on the internet as code examples. If I could have a reference to another site to do volunteer code work, I would appreciate it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.freelancer.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18105" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4270" RevisionGUID="d728adfd-8da5-48b2-814d-2480bc3ad9dc" CreationDate="2017-05-18T19:59:38.050" Comment="Proposed by 15527 approved by 14455, 2265 edit id of 545" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18106" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3680" RevisionGUID="e74b96d5-16da-46dc-bbff-ea868e6d7b91" CreationDate="2017-05-18T19:59:53.590" UserId="15527" Comment="typos, spelling" Text="Let me start by saying that I'm not a web designer but a web developer, so I don't have that much experience building pretty frontends like these.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With my limited knowledge, I take into account my ignorance and lack of experience, I would not claim to be able to do it in less than 40 hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;120 does not sound crazy, maybe if I sat down and started building the site, I would find all kinds of problems and would take a lot more than my initial and naive 40 hour estimation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would tell him to reevaluate his estimation process, don't lower your price outside of your comfort zone, keep the offer open to him in the off chance that his in-house development fails horribly and he needs to call you to make it from scratch again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't ever let the client decide how much your time is worth." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18107" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3680" RevisionGUID="e74b96d5-16da-46dc-bbff-ea868e6d7b91" CreationDate="2017-05-18T19:59:53.590" Comment="Proposed by 15527 approved by 14455, 2265 edit id of 543" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18108" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6877" RevisionGUID="8c6e4e20-a8f9-4594-a154-353e3d0f2c9e" CreationDate="2017-05-18T20:39:42.197" UserId="1706" Text="In the short term - contract gigs.  Let the recruiters do the work of finding work for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the long term - networking so you can cut out the middleman." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18109" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6878" RevisionGUID="6fd86eee-cd1d-4447-a051-f0a0e15b62a4" CreationDate="2017-05-19T05:13:33.383" UserId="11789" Text="Definitely try to make it right.  You don't need a glowing referral, but you want to try to avoid any negatives." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18110" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6879" RevisionGUID="456b0a3e-c13b-43ed-9d0c-85849037ad47" CreationDate="2017-05-19T05:16:22.983" UserId="11789" Text="The beauty of contracts is that they can say whatever you want.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you and the employer hammer out the agreement in writing you're nearly there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then, upon agreement, both of you sign.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bingo.  Whatever is written is now a legal agreement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18111" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6880" RevisionGUID="682398de-929e-494e-a8d8-7fe4f4848de0" CreationDate="2017-05-19T05:31:08.693" UserId="11789" Text="Best way is to do like in real estate.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;CMA - Comparative Market Analysis.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Find two or three comparables and show how your price is better, even if higher because it will also include you with your expertise." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18112" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2230" RevisionGUID="50ca5bce-b389-4608-b1a1-a45584b90f92" CreationDate="2017-05-19T09:41:32.503" UserId="1752" Comment="eliminated unnecessary info" Text="Note, this is an answer modified from one I gave on the workplace stackexchange.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to find out the market rate for an equivalent employee first, then your costs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The following costs must be accounted for accurately in order to compute an hourly rate just to keep you on par with the salaried employee&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* G &amp; A (this is accounting speak for computers, software costs, office space, electricity, rent, travel, professional development; things you cannot charge a client for directly)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Overhead (this is mostly labor that you cannot charge to a client, but sometimes includes things I stuck in G &amp; A above)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Fringe benefits (this is retirement, health insurance, liability insurance, workman's comp, taxes, paid time off)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Profit (you need a little of this, you are taking on some risk by not being permanently employed)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, the G &amp; A + overhead costs for a contractor are high because contractors typically only work between 20 and 30 hours per week.  If you are billing by the hour, you can only bill the actual hours worked for a client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently finished a contract where the scope of the work which I was hired for was equivalent to an engineer in the $115-135,000 annual salary range.  I just happened to pick $125,000 as my break even calculation number.  Note that I live in the USA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For this calculation I lumped G &amp; A and Overhead costs together, since for me they are really the same thing when working out of my home office, and I don't have any other employees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My annualized costs were : &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* G &amp; A + Overhead : $23,000 (note that this is with no rent, but includes computer upkeep and software licensing, travel, phone, accountant, invoicing software, and other test hardware)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Fringe Benefits : $43,000 (this includes heath, all taxes, liability insurance, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above were actual costs.  You will need to *use your own costs in your calculations.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I need to calculate the hourly rate.  To accomplish this task, I need to compute how many hours per week that I work on an annualized basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I actually worked about 30-32 hours per week on the contract, the rest of the time I was working on billing, accounting, hour tracking, task reports, etc. (all unbillable to the client). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also need to remember vacation for this calculation, and I'll use 6 weeks of paid time off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My total annualized billable hours were (52 - 6) weeks*32 hours/week = 1472 hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My total costs were $23,000 + $43,000 + $125,000 = $191,000.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This means that my hourly rate must be $191,000/1472 hours = $129.76/hour, **just to break even!**  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the *no profit rate.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want a bit of profit, you need to add that to this rate.  For example, to have a profit rate of 10% I would need a hourly rate of 1.10*$129.76/hour = $142.74/hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that the way I computed the hourly rate here *implicitly accounts for* paid time off and non-billable overhead labor, if you need or want explicit numbers you can do that as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The break-even rate ($129.76/hour) is *2.16 times* the 40 hour equivalent of $125,000 per year ($60.10/hour).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before contracting and setting a rate, you need to figure out all of these costs for yourself, then do the above break even calculation.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some things you must pay for in the US are : &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Software for commercial use (sans alternatives)&#xD;&#xA;* Taxes&#xD;&#xA;* Various insurance (depends on location)&#xD;&#xA;* Hardware, electricity, internet, etc. for you business&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;but other costs are up to you.  I refuse to go without health insurance, for instance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If you cannot close contracts at more than the break even number (for hourly billing), then you should attempt to obtain a regular salaried position.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*If you choose to not include benefits, retirement costs, etc. in your calculations, you are effectively working for below market rate.*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18113" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6881" RevisionGUID="4cf86d74-1010-4c1e-9691-f5b46acf4249" CreationDate="2017-05-19T11:47:03.630" UserId="517" Text="Going from single freelancer that does all the work himself to a team leader is a totally different thing. I have done the same and ended up doing little to no coding and mainly working on monitoring, leading, issue resolving, etc. In short, doing boring stuff instead of things I like. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since it is impossible to explain all issues you may face, I will point out the most important ones. All the rest will be learned on the fly: from good extra earning, to money loss, broken nerves,...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Important things when someone else is doing the work and you are the only point of contact:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You must be familiar with ALL parts of the project. Just as you are coding it, but not using your hands. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. You must insist on your quality standards or the clients will quickly see that the output is not as good as when you worked on it&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Regardless of the fact that they are doing the work, you and your reputation are on the line. Just as you are doing the work. If something bad happens, you will not be able to blame the team. Protect your reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. When estimating project, ask the team to do another estimation (aside of yours) and compare them. If you can finish something in 1d, it does not mean that they can as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. When calculating how much to charge the project, count time you may spend on the project (leading or fixing things) aside of the hours you spend on managing project and amount you want to earn on top of all costs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Try to NEVER tell your clients that you will do the work if the team will. Developer negotiating skills to sell your team which will be monitored by a guru (yourself). &#xD;&#xA;NOTE: Unless you are starving and have not penny aside, never lie your clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;7. When estimating projects costs and if you have guys on monthly salary, then calculate a buffer for salaries. It's the amount you take away from money your earned in the project and set aside for salaries in rainy days. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;8. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER think that all money you earned is for spending. If you are doing this as the primary job, set your salary and live with the salary. There will be millions of things that you will have to buy from the money you leave aside. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;9. Developer organisational skills as you will have to document everything. From a few answers a client told you about the project to list of questions the team sends you. You will drown in the papers (electronic ones of course), but never keep anything in your head. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;10. Do not be cheap not to afford the best paid tools to speed up your business. They are usually 10 or 20 dollars a month and will save you hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;11. Surround yourself with honest and trustworthy people. They must understand the project aims and to live for the project. MUST MUST MUST be easy to work on. &#xD;&#xA;I intentionally did not mention &quot;find the best programmers around&quot; because approx 90% of my projects are of average complexity. So 1 senior and 5 juniors of the above mentioned qualities will do more than 5 seniors with the opposite qualities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After a few years, if this process is still working and you are still earning money, you can think of making a company as you will have a base of clients. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18116" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6883" RevisionGUID="9fdf2183-b9c7-4084-a3d2-f48868f22478" CreationDate="2017-05-19T18:35:46.813" UserId="7557" Text="**TL;DR**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I quoted Company A a fixed price amount to write some software using a product from a particular Vendor (that I selected).  But these products didn't work as advertised and I discovered multiple show-stopping bugs.  I spent considerable time and effort researching the root cause of the bugs and convincing tech support that the bugs actually existed.  In effect I was doing free QA for the Vendor for their commercial products.  In doing so I burnt through more than my wildest dreams of the contingency time I built into my fixed price quote.  Can I ask the Vendor for compensation?  Or do I just have to suck it up?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The long version**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2 months ago Company A (who I know well) asked me if I wanted to take on a small software project that involved supplying some 3rd party hardware and integrating it into their system.  I googled around for suitable hardware, and worked up a fixed price quote for about 1 1/2 weeks work - which included reasonable extra contingency time based on my experience in the problem domain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In doing my searching the Vendors products matched my requirements almost perfectly.  Choosing products from a different vendor would have meant building a much more complex system with less functionality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I then got Product 1 from the Vendor.  Day 1 of using product 1 I run into a show stopping bug. I spend time investigating the issue and finally submit a ticket to the Vendor. 24 hours later they fixed the bug (which was totally obvious if anyone had actually used the product). Later on I run into another show stopping bug.  This time it literally takes me days to convince tech support that there is an issue.  Finally they admit that there is a bug and instead of trying to fix it, they offer me my money back.  When pressed they finally say &quot;it's an obscure bug in an older product, and we don't have the expertise to fix it now.&quot;.  So basically I am screwed over that product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next I get product 2 from the Vendor that uses a different technology and hopefully won't have the same obscure bug as the last one (but it does entail a rewrite of the interface section).  Right off the bat I start seeing something that I think is a bug, but because it seems random I can't put my finger on it.  But after days worth of testing it eventually it becomes more and more obvious that it is not me.  So I submit a ticket.  Tech support basically comes back with &quot;Nah, its you, it's not us&quot;.  I can't prove a thing so I let it drop.  A couple of days later I run into a different, show stopping bug. I spend time proving its them and not me, and submit a bug.  This one is so obvious and they admit that it caused major discussions in their office about how things should actually work before they came up with a solution.  Then I am back to doing burn-in tests and start running into that &quot;random&quot; bug that I first encountered.  I profile my code and the system and start to get an understanding of where and when the issue is triggered.  I re-open the conversation with tech support, but they keep denying that its them and when they actually do reproduce the behavior on their end they discount it as not being their issue.  Eventually (after significant testing) I come up with smoking gun that points directly back to them and is reproducible 100% of the time.  That was yesterday and I am still waiting to hear their reply. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now to the actual question.  I took on a fixed price contract with Company A and chose to complete it with the Vendors product.  Being fixed price I knew that I was taking on risk, but if the Vendors products had worked as advertised, or close to then that risk was under control.  However I  ran into multiple show stopping bugs in the the Vendors products.  Researching and identifying the root causes of these bugs has cost me significant amount of time well and easily over a factor of 10 over any contingency I considered.  I feel put out by the because I feel like I have had to lead them around by the nose and point directly at the issues and make the issues so obvious that the Vendor can't ignore them.  In this respect I feel like I have been acting as free QA for their products and have put in significant hours in doing so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So is their anyway I can approach the Vendor and say something like (albeit it politely)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I have spent a significant about of time researching the root causes&#xD;&#xA;&gt; of the  screwups in your products and doing the QA that your own team&#xD;&#xA;&gt; was too dumb or too lazy to do.  You owe me Bud.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't feel that I can go back to Company A and ask for more (although I might be able to get more out of them) as it was not their issue.  The amount is also not high enough to justify bringing in lawyers as I would easily pay out what I got back.  But anyway I have no actual monetary loses, just my time, as I am waiting for another company to get back to me with their next project for me - and their projects make this one look like peanuts in comparison." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18117" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6883" RevisionGUID="9fdf2183-b9c7-4084-a3d2-f48868f22478" CreationDate="2017-05-19T18:35:46.813" UserId="7557" Text="Asking Vendor for compensation for failures in their products" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18118" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6883" RevisionGUID="9fdf2183-b9c7-4084-a3d2-f48868f22478" CreationDate="2017-05-19T18:35:46.813" UserId="7557" Text="|customer-relations|money|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18119" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6884" RevisionGUID="8bcbbc49-06a7-4da2-acb6-67bf0a30c36f" CreationDate="2017-05-19T18:49:01.697" UserId="708" Text="I did *not* read the entire thing.. just the first paragraph synopsis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;... (real scenario, not fabricated) I purchased a Adobe Photoshop.... While using Photoshop I discover a few &quot;show stopping&quot; bugs, primarily due to how *I* use the application and *my particular system*. Nonetheless clear bugs in the software. I detail these bugs and go back and forth with Adobe to convince them they exist. Eventually they acquiesce ... do you think Adobe will compensate me? Do you think anyone in that position would get anything?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Software, for the most part, is like a used car... you get an &quot;as is&quot; product. Most sales disclaimers and terms of service state as much. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**It is highly unlikely that even if you were to ask for compensation, you'd receive anything.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There would need to be some sort of written guarantee or warranty that implicitly states you would be compensated. Best case scenario, is *some* vendors may refund the purchase price. However, for software that it exceptionally unlikely because, well, the product has already been delivered and there's no way for the vendor to know if anyone actually destroys the product rather than retaining it for use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Scenario 2... you build a web site... client approves the site, your deliver files, client goes about their business.  A few days or weeks later the Client contacts you and states there are bugs in the web site... they want compensation. Would *you* be inclined to give them anything?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18121" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6863" RevisionGUID="c570f343-c29d-4596-9973-d490639c6dda" CreationDate="2017-05-20T03:58:36.080" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/865778757742854144" />
  <row Id="18122" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6885" RevisionGUID="d6e50954-5349-4e16-b91c-d4bac6b9b166" CreationDate="2017-05-20T14:34:38.710" UserId="17173" Text="Like @AlexD said, it depends on the license agreement.&#xA;&#xA;Also, did you pay for the vendor product? If it's free or open source then you can 100% forget about compensation.&#xA;&#xA;If you paid and they advertised certain functionality that simply didn't exist or clearly not functioning, you may have a small chance because then they could be held liable to some degree.&#xA;&#xA;However, there is a very fine line between a bug in their software and a bug in the way you use their software and if I where their lawyer, I would also argue that you should have pre-tested (which you should have). Also the company never asked you to spend your time and if you would have asked, they would gladly have given you your money back. All and all, it will be damn near impossible to get compensated.&#xA;&#xA;For next time make sure, if you use 3rd party software, to read the license agreement and take it for a trial spin before you invoice something to your client. It's part of your feasibility research... It's all about minimizing your risks and maximizing your profit." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18123" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6886" RevisionGUID="e60f8fb2-948e-4a3c-a5eb-75ca687e02c7" CreationDate="2017-05-20T15:09:14.807" UserId="17173" Text="First I would strongly advise to get outide info from a professional on this. The end of the day, we all have knowledge and tips, but non of us (I assume) are freelance tax specialist.&#xA;&#xA;I know different types of &quot;products&quot; have different kinds of rules. Coaching is a service. For services generally goes that you pay tax in the country where the work (the service) takes place. &#xA;&#xA;So there is the &quot;tricky&quot; part. To my knowledge international law still has no consensus on how to deal with services  that are executed remotely through the internet. The same goes for cybercrime. Because what country counts as the country the service is executed? So many different countries, so many laws, so many supervising instances... &#xA;&#xA;So where do you pay tax? (I'm in software development, so basically the same thing. Delivering a service).&#xA;&#xA;You're not in that country, so you're not physically doing your work there... Basically you have nothing to do with the receiving country. So you apply your own tax laws. I invoice with my countries tax and my client can ask taxes back from my country, since they in turn don't need to pay our taxes. There is a whole multi-billion industry build on just tax refunds. In your case that would be simple. Your country doesn't have tax, so you invoice with tax 0%. The big companies like Google do it too, that's why there is so much international criticism, they avoid taxes by having e.a. an office in Ireland and invoice from there.&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18124" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6848" RevisionGUID="6ac5bae3-f0d6-4f4c-8d42-61ecd6536349" CreationDate="2017-05-21T07:34:10.840" UserId="11789" Comment="added one tag" Text="|remote|retainer|hourly|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18125" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6848" RevisionGUID="6ac5bae3-f0d6-4f4c-8d42-61ecd6536349" CreationDate="2017-05-21T07:34:10.840" Comment="Proposed by 11789 approved by 16590 edit id of 549" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18129" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6887" RevisionGUID="4bc40e5d-1c47-467a-9c5e-d9952c1c92e8" CreationDate="2017-05-22T06:14:04.797" UserId="17195" Text="Sounds like this is your first big project, for what is (presumably) a sizeable budget for you. This is both a risky situation, and a great learning experience - perform well and you can start expecting to bill in this price range in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are some hints:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**1. Get contracts in place**&#xD;&#xA;A contract is only as useful as your ability to enforce it, but at the very least a written contract indicates some agreement between all parties on what you agree to deliver, how, and by when. You need this in place with your client (if they are the source of funds), and with the freelancers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2. Trust must be earnt**&#xD;&#xA;If you can, try to find freelancers who you have worked with previously, or who come recommended by somebody you know. If you need to build a working relationship in the midst of a stressful project, it can be tough. At the very least, only allocate larger chunks of the budget to those who have performed well on smaller parts of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**3. Project management is a skill**&#xD;&#xA;Recognize that running the project is a skill quite different to development / design / whatever you were doing previously. You need to plan ahead, pay attention to details, and communicate with everybody. If you prefer to just stay &quot;heads down&quot; in your laptop screen - I'd find somebody else to lead the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**4. Communicate frequently**&#xD;&#xA;Following on from the above, try to communicate much more than you feel necessary. Both in terms of frequency, and content. Resist the urge to rely only on email - use phone calls and meet in person regularly if possible. You would be amazed how many projects have problems due to some simple misunderstanding.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**5. Use milestones**&#xD;&#xA;Break up the project into smaller pieces, and aim to complete sections by certain dates. Always be adjusting as the project progresses - spend more time helping out the freelancers who are behind schedule.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**6. Prepare for things to go wrong**&#xD;&#xA;Even with all of the above, things will go wrong. A freelancer may not be able to complete his section and may need to be replaced. You may be running late on some milestone. Make sure you have built in enough buffer in your budget and your time schedule to account for this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18130" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6547" RevisionGUID="7f53026d-8413-4f47-a63f-e49022c15c0e" CreationDate="2017-05-22T06:22:01.290" UserId="11789" Comment="added one tag" Text="|legal|software|canada|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18131" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6547" RevisionGUID="7f53026d-8413-4f47-a63f-e49022c15c0e" CreationDate="2017-05-22T06:22:01.290" Comment="Proposed by 11789 approved by 2265, 7858 edit id of 551" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18132" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6846" RevisionGUID="d5373f11-8245-46b5-af26-bcdf94fcdd39" CreationDate="2017-05-22T06:22:10.670" UserId="11789" Comment="Added one tag" Text="|legal|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18133" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6846" RevisionGUID="d5373f11-8245-46b5-af26-bcdf94fcdd39" CreationDate="2017-05-22T06:22:10.670" Comment="Proposed by 11789 approved by 2265, 7858 edit id of 550" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18134" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1579" RevisionGUID="dd0bfd06-3524-4839-9c04-8928060105ac" CreationDate="2017-05-22T06:22:20.527" UserId="11789" Comment="added one tag" Text="|attracting-clients|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18135" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1579" RevisionGUID="dd0bfd06-3524-4839-9c04-8928060105ac" CreationDate="2017-05-22T06:22:20.527" Comment="Proposed by 11789 approved by 2265, 7858 edit id of 548" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18136" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6830" RevisionGUID="ae19d595-941d-49b7-9b9c-5e170d5b822b" CreationDate="2017-05-22T06:22:35.627" UserId="11789" Comment="Added one tag" Text="|legal|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18137" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6830" RevisionGUID="ae19d595-941d-49b7-9b9c-5e170d5b822b" CreationDate="2017-05-22T06:22:35.627" Comment="Proposed by 11789 approved by 2265, 7858 edit id of 547" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18138" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6888" RevisionGUID="1ab82a1e-b62c-4095-b1a5-46f5e013ea73" CreationDate="2017-05-22T06:24:48.157" UserId="17195" Text="You should be applying for fewer jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not about the quantity of jobs available. You need to find the jobs which suit your skills, your experience, and your expected rates - and then focus more on your applications for those jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's what I would do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Go to several of your favorite freelancing sites and setup keyword searches. &#xD;&#xA;- Don't just browse aimlessly. &#xD;&#xA;- Search only for the skills you have (or are learning), with clients of a decent feedback score and budget. &#xD;&#xA;- Review these once per day only.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Spend more time on your applications&#xD;&#xA;- From the shortlist in step 1, don't try to apply to everybody. &#xD;&#xA;- Only focus on those where your skills would be an excellent match for the client. Ignore the rest.&#xD;&#xA;- Craft a well-written application - show that you understand their requirements, share your portfolio, demonstrate how you can solve their problem. Check this for spelling mistakes, grammar errors, don't commit basic mistakes like saying &quot;Hi John&quot; when the client's name is &quot;Martin&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Respond quickly&#xD;&#xA;- Clients will usually ask questions to assess how responsive you are, and how well you have understood the job requirements.&#xD;&#xA;- Respond as soon as possible, and communicate well. This is a test.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Focus your profile&#xD;&#xA;- State clearly what you are good at, and what you offer.&#xD;&#xA;- Charge a decent rate. Increasing your rates will attract higher quality clients who offer quality pay for quality work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18139" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6849" RevisionGUID="3cf30089-39b9-48f4-80f4-e70470dd8ee5" CreationDate="2017-05-22T13:18:05.837" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/866644335269478400" />
  <row Id="18140" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6420" RevisionGUID="afd867ae-db3a-4406-a9f5-6734ddcf865f" CreationDate="2017-05-23T01:04:49.313" UserId="15906" Comment="added 539 characters in body" Text="I need help dealing with this situation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a (person who claims to be my) &quot;friend&quot; who did not pay upon completion and delivery of project, despite a signed contract last May. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - The project was delivered in completion to spec, above and beyond. [Despite the client not providing all the required assets (with last minute deadlines), with me working overtime. It also won a few industry awards.] &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - It seems this &quot;friend&quot; hasn't figured his business out, unfortunately - nearly a year later. He's coming back to me, asking to waste my time with coffee, &quot;to get to know me better&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My freelancer's thought goes like: friend or not, **this is a client who didn't pay**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My response: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You know - it would be really nice if you'd pay up from last time. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Let's talk after... whenever that happens.  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Oh yeah, I threw in for free the graphics conversion and stuff you&#xD;&#xA;&gt; were supposed to get done - and got pissed you didn't do your work.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Scrappy startup issues, but not paying people for doing work is not&#xD;&#xA;&gt; cool.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;His response: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Ugh, [name]! Why are you so snappy?! I consider you a friend (even if you don't). You believed in me from the very beginning and I will never forget that. We got in a fight, that happens. We've helped each other many times over the years. I just want to work on us getting to know each other as people better, because bottom line - we both have the same passions and are not giving up on them. I think you know this.&#xD;&#xA;...and your next move might be defensive/smart response, but [Your Name] - I'm not trying to fight with you. I'm trying to be your friend. A better friend. Get some coffee. Talk our shit out like normal adults. I think it's worth a shot, a REAL try. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My reply:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Let's start with understanding our different perspectives. Can you try&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to understand where I'm coming from? &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; We had a client-contractor relationship with a written contract that&#xD;&#xA;&gt; was broken. I did the work; it was a total hit, but I wasn't paid.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Friend or not, to me, you're a client who didn't pay. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; But hey! Were you even a friend? I'm a contractor, and you know that&#xD;&#xA;&gt; contracts pay my bills. Friends don't leave friends out in the cold. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I've done all I can to help you for free. But, take it as honest&#xD;&#xA;&gt; advice, you really need to figure your business out. People need to be&#xD;&#xA;&gt; paid. Like I said - figure that out - and then, maybe, let's talk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;His reply: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Ya, I see what your saying, and there is more to that that I want to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; talk about. So yes, I'm sorry. But you're talking to me like I'm just&#xD;&#xA;&gt; some random dude/company. You always have. There have been glimmers of&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;friendship&quot; from you I've seen, but for some reason you are so&#xD;&#xA;&gt; defensive ALL THE TIME and switch back to me just being some&#xD;&#xA;&gt; dude/company... Look, I think there is a reason why we ran into each&#xD;&#xA;&gt; other. I don't know what it is yet. But I think we owe it to at least&#xD;&#xA;&gt; work on being friends better, getting to know each other. Why do you&#xD;&#xA;&gt; think I keep coming back to you?! It's not because your the only AR&#xD;&#xA;&gt; genius in the Bay. It's because I get you, and I think you get me&#xD;&#xA;&gt; (like 40%). Dude, put you ego aside, I'll do the same. I don't think&#xD;&#xA;&gt; this really has anything to do about $.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My spidey-sense from having spent the last 20 years of my life doing contract work summarizes this &quot;friend&quot; as: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Undermining my skills and achievements as &quot;dime a dozen&quot; in order to&#xD;&#xA;   get &quot;free work&quot;. &lt;i&gt;Obviously&lt;/i&gt;, he could just find another&#xD;&#xA;   developer in the bay to scam.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My final response: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hmm, this reads like a defensive email. I think I'm the only person&#xD;&#xA;&gt; nice enough to help you out for free - but there's a limit to that.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Please figure out your business. My venmo is [ ]  I'm&#xD;&#xA;&gt; blocking you until then!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Friendship&quot; Should I have dealt with this differently? As a contractor-friend, I think I'm already doing him a favor by not taking him to small claims or demanding a late fee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(In regards to small claims court, I don't have the time, though it's a &quot;friend startup service I'll build your entire app for ridiculous discount&quot; $5k contract. :()&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently found out that this person has won a contest to pitch the product on TV. As I understand, financially, the client was previous unable to pay (and probably has horrible credit, so that if I sued in court, he wouldn't mind having his permanent record messed up by legal unable to pay). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Should I inform the contest that he has an unpaid contract? &#xD;&#xA; - Or, should I wait until after he actually seems like he can pay? I assume that this TV show will at least get this product some customers so he can pay his bills.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18141" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6420" RevisionGUID="16d7080e-770d-4630-9b25-f0c9bbb3c71f" CreationDate="2017-05-23T01:24:23.303" UserId="15906" Comment="added 246 characters in body" Text="I need help dealing with this situation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a (person who claims to be my) &quot;friend&quot; who did not pay upon completion and delivery of project, despite a signed contract last May. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - The project was delivered in completion to spec, above and beyond. [Despite the client not providing all the required assets (with last minute deadlines), with me working overtime. It also won a few industry awards.] &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - It seems this &quot;friend&quot; hasn't figured his business out, unfortunately - nearly a year later. He's coming back to me, asking to waste my time with coffee, &quot;to get to know me better&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My freelancer's thought goes like: friend or not, **this is a client who didn't pay**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My response: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You know - it would be really nice if you'd pay up from last time. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Let's talk after... whenever that happens.  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Oh yeah, I threw in for free the graphics conversion and stuff you&#xD;&#xA;&gt; were supposed to get done - and got pissed you didn't do your work.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Scrappy startup issues, but not paying people for doing work is not&#xD;&#xA;&gt; cool.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;His response: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Ugh, [name]! Why are you so snappy?! I consider you a friend (even if you don't). You believed in me from the very beginning and I will never forget that. We got in a fight, that happens. We've helped each other many times over the years. I just want to work on us getting to know each other as people better, because bottom line - we both have the same passions and are not giving up on them. I think you know this.&#xD;&#xA;...and your next move might be defensive/smart response, but [Your Name] - I'm not trying to fight with you. I'm trying to be your friend. A better friend. Get some coffee. Talk our shit out like normal adults. I think it's worth a shot, a REAL try. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My reply:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Let's start with understanding our different perspectives. Can you try&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to understand where I'm coming from? &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; We had a client-contractor relationship with a written contract that&#xD;&#xA;&gt; was broken. I did the work; it was a total hit, but I wasn't paid.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Friend or not, to me, you're a client who didn't pay. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; But hey! Were you even a friend? I'm a contractor, and you know that&#xD;&#xA;&gt; contracts pay my bills. Friends don't leave friends out in the cold. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I've done all I can to help you for free. But, take it as honest&#xD;&#xA;&gt; advice, you really need to figure your business out. People need to be&#xD;&#xA;&gt; paid. Like I said - figure that out - and then, maybe, let's talk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;His reply: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Ya, I see what your saying, and there is more to that that I want to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; talk about. So yes, I'm sorry. But you're talking to me like I'm just&#xD;&#xA;&gt; some random dude/company. You always have. There have been glimmers of&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;friendship&quot; from you I've seen, but for some reason you are so&#xD;&#xA;&gt; defensive ALL THE TIME and switch back to me just being some&#xD;&#xA;&gt; dude/company... Look, I think there is a reason why we ran into each&#xD;&#xA;&gt; other. I don't know what it is yet. But I think we owe it to at least&#xD;&#xA;&gt; work on being friends better, getting to know each other. Why do you&#xD;&#xA;&gt; think I keep coming back to you?! It's not because your the only AR&#xD;&#xA;&gt; genius in the Bay. It's because I get you, and I think you get me&#xD;&#xA;&gt; (like 40%). Dude, put you ego aside, I'll do the same. I don't think&#xD;&#xA;&gt; this really has anything to do about $.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My spidey-sense from having spent the last 20 years of my life doing contract work summarizes this &quot;friend&quot; as: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Undermining my skills and achievements as &quot;dime a dozen&quot; in order to&#xD;&#xA;   get &quot;free work&quot;. &lt;i&gt;Obviously&lt;/i&gt;, he could just find another&#xD;&#xA;   developer in the bay to scam.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My final response: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hmm, this reads like a defensive email. I think I'm the only person&#xD;&#xA;&gt; nice enough to help you out for free - but there's a limit to that.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Please figure out your business. My venmo is [ ]  I'm&#xD;&#xA;&gt; blocking you until then!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Friendship&quot; Should I have dealt with this differently? As a contractor-friend, I think I'm already doing him a favor by not taking him to small claims or demanding a late fee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(In regards to small claims court, I don't have the time, though it's a &quot;friend startup service I'll build your entire app for ridiculous discount&quot; $5k contract. :()&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently found out that this person has won a contest to pitch the product on TV. As I understand, financially, the client was previous unable to pay (and probably has horrible credit, so that if I sued in court, he wouldn't mind having his permanent record messed up by legal unable to pay). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Should I inform the contest that he has an unpaid contract? &#xD;&#xA; - Or, should I wait until after he actually seems like he can pay? I assume that this TV show will at least get this product some customers so he can pay his bills.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just sent him this email:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Congrats on winning the Home Shopping Network. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Now that you're a rich gazillionaire, I hope that you can pay for the app I built for you way back then. I am attaching the invoice again for your convenience. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18142" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6889" RevisionGUID="61614181-c94b-4e62-ad46-5618007a86ee" CreationDate="2017-05-23T01:28:07.923" UserId="15906" Text="I have an unpaid signed contract from last year that still bothers me a bit. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently found out that this person has won a contest to pitch the product on TV. As I understand, financially, the client was previously unable to pay (and probably has horrible credit, so that if I sued in court, he wouldn't mind having his permanent record messed up by legal unable to pay). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Should I inform the contest that he has an unpaid contract? &#xD;&#xA; - Or, should I wait until after he actually seems like he can pay? I assume that this TV show will at least get this product some customers so he can pay his bills.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just sent him this email:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Congrats on winning the [big TV pitch contest name]. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Now that you're a rich gazillionaire, I hope that you can pay for the app I built for you way back then. I am attaching the invoice again for your convenience.  &#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18143" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6889" RevisionGUID="61614181-c94b-4e62-ad46-5618007a86ee" CreationDate="2017-05-23T01:28:07.923" UserId="15906" Text="Signed Contract Unpaid Client just won pitch product @ Major TV Show" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18144" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6889" RevisionGUID="61614181-c94b-4e62-ad46-5618007a86ee" CreationDate="2017-05-23T01:28:07.923" UserId="15906" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18145" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2539" RevisionGUID="240861c1-811e-476f-ba38-b3fdc0379113" CreationDate="2017-05-23T09:53:21.097" UserDisplayName="user152" Comment="added 494 characters in body" Text="The majority of countries only charge taxes on people for either (1) the time that they were working there, or (2) who have been physically present in the country for a significant period of time (&quot;tax residents&quot;). This is [residency based taxation][1]. Most countries have a [physical presence test][2] for this kind of thing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even though the US is even more strict about who pays taxes, as a [non-resident alien][3], you still need to be physically present in order to pay taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A quote from the irs website about non-resident aliens elaborates (emphasis mine):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you are any of the following, you must file a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; return:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  &#xD;&#xA;&gt;  - A nonresident alien individual engaged or considered to be&#xD;&#xA;&gt; engaged in a trade or business *in the United States* during the year.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ,,,&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So even in the case of the US, it is necessary to be physically present in the US at the time that you're working in order to pay taxes there (as long as you're a nonresident alien)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The rest of the countries operate under a territorial taxation system, notably Singapore and Hong Kong. Residents of these countries only pay tax on local income. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally, for the USA in particular, tax is only applied to us-sourced income. The source of the income is tied to the *contractor location*. See [here][4]. This means that for anyone outside the USA, no W-8BEN and no tax withholding is required. If you were to visit the USA and perform work there for a few weeks, then this paperwork would be required and you would subject to witholding tax.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_taxation#Residency&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_presence_test&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Taxation-of-Nonresident-Aliens&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/nonresident-aliens-source-of-income" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18146" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1048" RevisionGUID="961a6754-693f-41b1-964c-b8c3d02ea8c6" CreationDate="2017-05-23T12:37:19.810" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://stackoverflow.com/ with https://stackoverflow.com/" Text="It depends on the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I charge most clients an hourly rate for this type of work. It often takes a few months before a whole hour is accumulated for a particular website and client. I have an arrangement with clients that anything less than an hour is held over to the next month as it's not worth raising an invoice for less than an hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A new client recently put me on a retainer for an hour a month to do this type of work for them as this helps them budget appropriately for this type of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When sensible precautions are taken (e.g. see https://stackoverflow.com/a/19139389/1983389), Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal etc are generally quite secure systems and you could charge a monthly fee to guarantee the security of the website. This could include restoring the website as part of the service if it becomes compromised. This gives clients peace of mind and is a service worth paying for.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18148" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3542" RevisionGUID="3880eebc-1b4f-43b7-842f-fef318815fdb" CreationDate="2017-05-23T12:37:19.810" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://stackoverflow.com/ with https://stackoverflow.com/" Text="So are they sharing a folder with her but not telling her when they update it?  I use DropBox with many clients and some Google Drive, but I have never added files and expected them to just &quot;know&quot; that - or vice versa.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are probably programs you can write to monitor the folders, and there are online project management programs like Assembla, BaseCamp, etc. where you get notifications when changes are made.  But those usually cost, so I would tell the clients:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Please email me any time you update the files and want me to do something with them.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do proposals for new clients I would include a section on how your organization manages projects that lists this expectation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, for Dropbox at least, see this:&#xD;&#xA;https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9633410/get-notified-when-a-file-changes-on-dropbox&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and this:&#xD;&#xA;https://ifttt.com/connect/dropbox/ios_notifications&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18150" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5997" RevisionGUID="8ef69a4b-a8b6-4a47-8b1b-f2a7bddc55d4" CreationDate="2017-05-23T12:37:19.810" UserId="-1" Comment="replaced http://stackoverflow.com/ with https://stackoverflow.com/" Text="Everyone will have a different opinion depending on their skill set, preferences and location. Why not post your jobs here on stack overflow?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://stackoverflow.com/jobs&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other than that, your search engine is your friend, just search and research which site offers you the value and response rate you are happy with. You are always going to have to judge applicants yourself anyway, so I would suggest you support stackoverflow and use their service." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18151" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6848" RevisionGUID="49f7aa02-f8ed-4242-bfb5-94466876151f" CreationDate="2017-05-23T16:23:08.930" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/867053292664356866" />
  <row Id="18152" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3028" RevisionGUID="b6884cb0-cb61-443e-bfd6-c55911f1dd0f" CreationDate="2017-05-24T00:52:15.603" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18153" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="f79767e1-56c4-4daf-b423-e48db86cd854" CreationDate="2017-05-24T01:52:15.263" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18154" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6890" RevisionGUID="1f190e5e-d27c-4db1-88c6-af8627fbd038" CreationDate="2017-05-24T15:00:21.617" UserId="5893" Text="Don't assume that he'd be OK with a judgement against him from a court case. If the amount on the contract is below the upper limit for small claims court, send him one more (registered) letter saying pay the invoice within XX days or you will be subject to legal action (and include the invoice).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also think you should tack on a late fee and interest, but if that's not in your contract, I don't think the extra fees would hold up in court (but you can also sue for your legal expenses).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And once you file, you might be able to get on TV yourself (on one of those court tv shows like Judge Judy)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18155" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6891" RevisionGUID="917d5275-4fba-41e1-96d7-6e0ad3ec6110" CreationDate="2017-05-24T15:09:04.100" UserId="5893" Text="One additional thing for you moving forward: **Always (ALWAYS) get a deposit when the initial contract is signed** If the project takes a long time, schedule intermediate payments (monthly, at particular milestones, whatever). Final payment to be delivered **before** handing over final work; or similarly have in the contract that **you** own all rights to the work until the final payment has been made (and then you will transfer rights or license - whatever you've agreed to - to the client).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This protects you from situations like this. If you had the ownership of the work clause in your contract, you can prohibit him from using your work because he has no rights to it. If it's unspecified, you may still own the work (and can use that for leverage ingetting paid) but it's harder to prove if it's not written explicitly in the contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18156" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6264" RevisionGUID="6bac416c-337b-499f-8851-4350d693bb1f" CreationDate="2017-05-24T20:12:04.400" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18161" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6820" RevisionGUID="6ba38bf8-ce34-4150-973b-68b134740071" CreationDate="2017-05-25T11:17:57.440" UserId="17042" Comment="Update" Text="A client has asked me if I can make an app (because a company asked him).  He knows I've never made one before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They have a long list of specifications that they want it to do.  There's no hurry:  I would have six months to complete it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While I have experience with PHP, C, UNIX, MySQL, HTML, CSS, WordPress, Joomla, etc., I haven't used any of the tools they want to build the app with (Amazon Web Services, a couple of data sources, and an SDK they like).  I'd like to learn app development.  It just seems like a lot of things to learn all at once.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think my best option would be to talk with someone who's already familiar with those tools.  At the very least, that person could give me some idea of how much time and effort I'm looking at.  How do I find someone for consultation with those skills?&#xD;&#xA;________&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you for the advice.  I'm sorry I didn't respond sooner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After several other developers gave the client estimates for the app (large estimates), we both realized it was too big of a job for just one person – let alone one who's never even made an app.  So I bowed out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Last I heard, the client couldn't find any estimates within the customer's budget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I appreciate all of your responses, and now I'll know what to do the next time I'm in this situation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18163" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6894" RevisionGUID="2b82999b-7e34-492e-bbc5-33eca13e38c4" CreationDate="2017-05-26T04:22:15.370" UserId="17289" Text="This might not solve directly your billing time needs, but it's really helpful to track your productivity and see where you spent your working time: [RescueTime](https://www.rescuetime.com/ref/1098140).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You install a small application that stays in your tray and it tracks all your windows, generating later a report on your productivity.  &#xD;&#xA;It can automatically categorize a LOT of applications, and for those he understands wrong or doesn't know, you can set what the window means: very productive, productive, neutral, distracting or very distracting. That sums up to a productivity score for your day. You can also ignore some applications that have no actual meaning and you spend very little time on (such as file explorers).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's a paid version that adds features such as offline time tracking (you can manually enter what you did, such as meetings or client calls, as the app asks what you were doing when the computer was idle), integrations, and even deeper statistics and other stuff I don't actually know because I didn't use the paid version after the trial :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This was the only application that really helped me stay focused - because I was afraid of receiving that dreaded email by Sunday morning saying I wasn't productive D:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![Dashboard][2]][2]&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/ja0t8.png&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/77G4p.jpg" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18166" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6832" RevisionGUID="fdc7d933-340a-47de-8dc3-82daa72f7543" CreationDate="2017-05-27T07:48:05.377" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/868373225746706432" />
  <row Id="18167" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6895" RevisionGUID="2db2dd55-e88a-4266-871f-e7384a7493b1" CreationDate="2017-05-28T18:32:16.670" UserId="17298" Text="Try to persuade him into using a software that replaces that software and that is not an illegal copy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If using the pirated software is the only option, drop it. Don't worth it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18168" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6896" RevisionGUID="925511ec-6482-4cd1-986d-8dcb3ebb703b" CreationDate="2017-05-29T08:42:25.687" UserId="17305" Text="As per my opinion, Before you start project i think you have send some condition to client like policy or in other word terms. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before you start using any third party you must mention dependence in scope document or term and condition documents so it will be safe side if any issue happened with third party. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can send Instagram official document link for particular permission issue as you are facing and for that reason as a developer not able to do that's functionality or module. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One more things you can do is send official mail to Instagram support team and tell him the permission issue they may can help some things also add client in loop so you can be safe side.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should try this any options or still issue let me know on skype : jaymin.limbachiya&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18169" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6896" RevisionGUID="0cacae90-53ba-4de0-b579-4aef58557bcb" CreationDate="2017-05-29T08:45:22.257" UserId="15235" Comment="grammar corrections, please leave your contact details in your profile" Text="As per my opinion, before you start the project, I think you have to send some conditions to client like policy or other work terms. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before you start using any third party, you must mention this dependence in the scope document or terms and condition documents, so it will be safe if any issue happens with the third party. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can send Instagram official document link for particular permission issue as you are facing and for that reason as a developer not able to do that's functionality or module. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One more thing you can do is send an official mail to the Instagram support team , and tell them about the permission issue; they may can help some things, also add the client in the loop so you can be on the safe side.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should try these options, if you still have issues, let me know." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18170" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6896" RevisionGUID="0cacae90-53ba-4de0-b579-4aef58557bcb" CreationDate="2017-05-29T08:45:22.257" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 17305 edit id of 552" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18171" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3520" RevisionGUID="c5701a9c-87f1-439a-a4cd-cb448ef9d714" CreationDate="2017-05-29T17:32:19.743" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18172" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6895" RevisionGUID="9cc1e535-f417-4496-b5cf-e02ebdce3b81" CreationDate="2017-05-29T18:58:56.433" UserId="2265" Comment="grammar" Text="Try to persuade him into using a software that replaces that software and that is not an illegal copy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If using the pirated software is the only option, drop it. Not worth it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18173" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6897" RevisionGUID="89cc95fe-f3c5-4560-8554-70630da46280" CreationDate="2017-05-30T17:38:49.407" UserId="17153" Text="When freelancing with a client you know well or do not know well, when they ask you to develop your software functionality in independent modules that can be plugged into any project they create, how can you ensure that they do not use it for any illegal purposes? Especially when their work is used in multiple countries?  &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;Would it be possible to include it in an email or a contract that &quot;...and the client x agrees that whatever software I develop for client x will be used only for purposes acceptable under the law of this country and under international law...&quot;?  &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;If a freelancer creates software for a client with the knowledge that the software is going to be used for legal purposes, and if the client uses the software for something illegal in future, then what is the liability of the freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18174" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6897" RevisionGUID="89cc95fe-f3c5-4560-8554-70630da46280" CreationDate="2017-05-30T17:38:49.407" UserId="17153" Text="Ensuring software modules I build aren't used for illegal purposes?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18175" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6897" RevisionGUID="89cc95fe-f3c5-4560-8554-70630da46280" CreationDate="2017-05-30T17:38:49.407" UserId="17153" Text="|legal|software|ethics|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18176" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6898" RevisionGUID="756b2e8f-80c4-45c3-ad5d-716157cf2895" CreationDate="2017-05-30T20:29:11.370" UserId="11789" Text="I look at it like this:  If I give $1 to a panhandler then it is not my responsibility what he/she does with it.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course I don't give any money to just anybody with their hand out.  I at least take a look and see if they look hungry.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And definitely will not give any to someone with a sign out that says &quot;Give me money so I can buy illegal ...&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18177" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6899" RevisionGUID="17cfa823-a8c8-473d-a986-8e807a50a756" CreationDate="2017-05-30T21:26:36.193" UserId="14455" Text="&gt; ...how can you ensure that they do not use it for any illegal&#xD;&#xA;&gt; purposes? Especially when their work is used in multiple countries?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You cannot. But if someone asks me to write a module that secretly stores keystrokes and email them somewhere, then I would probably decline the job. Use your common sense, is it a registered company, is it fairly innocuous coding, has anything raised red flags to your sense of morality. If you have any concerns, drop the client and move on.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Would it be possible to include it in an email or a contract that&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;...and the client x agrees that whatever software I develop for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; client x will be used only for purposes acceptable under the law of&#xD;&#xA;&gt; this country and under international law...&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes you could, but depending what you are being asked, this would probably not offer you any protection legally, and is a bit of a weird thing to include in a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If a freelancer creates software for a client with the knowledge that&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the software is going to be used for legal purposes, and if the client&#xD;&#xA;&gt; uses the software for something illegal in future, then what is the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; liability of the freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, if you know and take part, then you are a conspirator to the crime. So if you 'know' that is the case, then yes, of course you are risking a criminal charge of some description.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a simple rule of thumb in business IMHO (of course there are many). That is to 'play by the rules of the game'. The game here is the law of course, so put simply, do not break the law, but further than that, do not do anything you are uncomfortable with. This customer has clearly raised some concerns for you. My advice would be in that situation, drop the job and move on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One example I have for you, a customer approached me because he saw the site I had built for his competitor. He said something like &quot;I want a copy of that site, just change the design a bit so it looks different&quot;. He offered a fair amount of money, but I felt uncomfortable. So I turned him down politely. He then got very shirty with me, called me several times, ended in verbal abuse. Now was I right to drop him? Given the charachter he displayed when he didn't get his way, absolutely I was right. If you are in any way uncomfortable, just do not do it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From your question, it seems to me that you are worth more than that and are better than that.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18178" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6900" RevisionGUID="cd253862-d7a8-4b28-abfd-4247f3e6972d" CreationDate="2017-05-30T21:39:52.507" UserId="14455" Text="&gt; Does anyone have any experience with building a team and getting team based contracts vs. individuals in the IT field.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes I do. This is the reality IMHO. One person gets the contract and de-facto is the project lead. That person then uses their contacts to build a team to fulfill the contract, but takes full responsibility for the implementation and takes all the risks of failure. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have connections that you can leverage. Use them and they will use you when they get contracts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The dream, and I call it that on purpose, is that several non-committed people begin advertising under a single corporate banner, let us call it Sky-X for example. Sky-X wins a contract, but who is the boss? Who appoints roles? Who distributes profits, or pays for losses. Who invests what to start advertising? Sky-x is really a company, and needs to be one to succeed. The dream of a loosely coupled team of individuals running off doing their own things but working under one name just simply does not work in the real world.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reality is that someone has to take the risk. If you own the brand Sky-X  and you invest in the advertising and prep work, and you remain in control, leveraging your contacts, other freelances etc. then you might make it work. But forming a company is relatively quick, easy and cheap, that you might as well go the whole hog and do it properly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Otherwise, you are just a freelancer using the services of other freelancers. Which is of course a perfectly normal and standard practice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18179" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6901" RevisionGUID="bccea36f-42a4-4332-9dfc-fba12bde3394" CreationDate="2017-05-30T21:52:49.667" UserId="14455" Text="The accepted answer is very good but I wanted to add two more points.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You have learned an interesting lesson. If the deposit does not cover you for basic costs, you are taking on board too much risk. Your business model or approach needs to be addressed here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. You have learned an expensive lesson. If I were you I would write off any costs, leave the client happy and content (as much as possible since you have wasted his time) and try to learn from it. How should you have approached this project? How could you have made it work? What will you do differently in the future so that this does not happen again? Why did you not charge more upfront, or stage payments on development? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apologize to the customer, ask for no payment, see it as the price of this  freelancing lesson, learn from it, make changes to how you do business, and move on. No regrets. We all live and learn. This project was a loss for you, the next one will be a win!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18180" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6902" RevisionGUID="caf8a5cf-5fc8-4ed5-a089-d8a86d4ef742" CreationDate="2017-06-01T17:47:48.520" UserId="17094" Text="1. Never use pirated software.  It makes you complicit in a crime that the client is committing (and therefore, an accessory if not an accomplice).&#xD;&#xA;2. Never use pirated software.  It is usually woefully behind on security updates and patches. &#xD;&#xA;3. Never use pirated software.  It, or the cracking application, is often packing malware in the installation. &#xD;&#xA;4. Never use pirated software. Those who would steal from others will happily steal from you. &#xD;&#xA;5. Be sure it's pirated software before declining the job.  Some software applications actually use a crack or license file you drop in (I'm looking at you, some versions of Delphi).  Do your research&#xD;&#xA;6. If you know it's pirated, look up the publisher.  Some publishers pay a ridiculous bounty for turning in users of pirate software, and you might be able to remove an illicit company from the market while at the same time making more than they could ever pay you. The BSA has itself put up thousand to million dollar bounties depending on the severity of the infringement. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18181" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6903" RevisionGUID="0ed543ce-b26e-4c41-84bd-969f0e52700e" CreationDate="2017-06-01T18:43:11.013" UserId="17337" Text="I'm a web developer with around 2 years of experience and am considering getting into freelancing. I have been reading about freelancing from articles, blogs and posts online, and have a fair idea of how things work. I just wanted to get a realistic idea of how a day for a freelancer looks like, whats the hardest part of the day, what task take most of your time other than the project tasks and which tools do you find yourself using usually? Any other info around this would also help." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18182" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6903" RevisionGUID="0ed543ce-b26e-4c41-84bd-969f0e52700e" CreationDate="2017-06-01T18:43:11.013" UserId="17337" Text="What does you average day as a freelancer look like?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18183" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6903" RevisionGUID="0ed543ce-b26e-4c41-84bd-969f0e52700e" CreationDate="2017-06-01T18:43:11.013" UserId="17337" Text="|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18184" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6903" RevisionGUID="472fa933-bdf1-49ba-9362-b69498d84c5d" CreationDate="2017-06-01T18:53:44.130" UserId="17337" Comment="edited title" Text="What does your average day as a freelancer look like?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18185" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="6903" RevisionGUID="0ebd19d3-dceb-49b9-9a7d-e00df51411ac" CreationDate="2017-06-01T19:45:18.157" UserId="17337" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:17337,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Debaterdev&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="18186" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="6903" RevisionGUID="c826ec46-5a70-4bf7-b83d-952a11d5ba7a" CreationDate="2017-06-01T19:46:00.377" UserId="17337" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:17337,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Debaterdev&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="18187" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6903" RevisionGUID="bc0a0ca2-326a-4c6b-9ba3-b5469d03e01b" CreationDate="2017-06-01T19:47:42.400" UserId="17337" Comment="deleted 340 characters in body" Text="Whats the hardest part of the day, what task take most of your time other than the project tasks and which tools do you find yourself using usually? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18188" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6903" RevisionGUID="af3c0d07-dba1-424b-8546-ea6b6576b734" CreationDate="2017-06-01T19:54:46.977" UserId="17337" Comment="added 280 characters in body" Text="I'm a web developer with around 2 years of experience and new into freelancing. I have been reading about freelancing from articles/blogs online and posts here, and have a fair idea of how things work. Just wanted to get a realistic idea of how a day for a freelancer looks like, whats the hardest part of the day, what task take most of your time other than the project tasks and which tools do you find yourself using usually. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18189" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6904" RevisionGUID="a85d5bc8-1caf-4d28-b2a1-edd720800671" CreationDate="2017-06-01T21:24:42.943" UserId="14455" Text="I have been a freelance web developer for about 15 years. Here are my thoughts on your question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; What does your average day as a freelancer look like?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best thing about freelancing is every day can be very different. One day you are a salesman, the next day a developer, the next day a marketeer, the next day a public speaker, the next day an entrepreneur etc. etc. I would suspect no two freelancers do it in quite the same way. There is no real pathway to follow, you are walking through an unknown forest, with no trail, no signposts, and only your whim and instinct to decide if you head uphill to see the view or down hill to swim in the stream. It can be a wonderful life, but like all wild landscapes, dangers can lurk in unexpected places. Sometimes the risks are part of the fun.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; whats the hardest part of the day&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without a doubt, the hardest part of the day is doing the tasks that have to be done that you really do not like to do. For instance, for me, it is accounting. I hate it. At the end of each month I sit down to collate all my invoices, bills, payments, bank statements, mileage, etc. and bundle it all up for the accountant. Often I am late doing it because I hate it, but it has to be done. I suspect that for every freelancer, the hardest part of the day is always doing what we dislike doing, and for each, it will be different.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; what task take most of your time&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me, fulfillment. But since I love web development, this is also the best bit. If actually doing paid work does not take up the bulk of your time, you should wonder why? After all, if you are not being paid for your time, you have not done your marketing, sales or networking well enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But ignoring project tasks, the second biggest time filler is finding new projects. Your day should be filled either with doing paid work or finding it. Nothing else in your freelance work life matters. Find work, do it, get paid. If you do not enjoy the hunt, the chase and the close, then you may as well get a job. Personally, my best days are when I close deals and send the invoice. I go home happy, content and full of the wonders of life. When you lose an exciting project, it can be heartbreaking. But you move on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; which tools do you find yourself using&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Non project tools? For the most part, email and the telephone. Strange question really, not sure what you are getting at. My best tool that really makes what I do possible is my phone. Make sure you have a powerful, fast, fully featured smart phone, the best you can get. It really helps to be able to do nearly anything customer related on the move and anywhere. Secondly, use an online accounting and quoting system to generate invoices. Another incredibly useful tool. Finally, get a phone answering service to answer your phone calls when you are not available, that answer in your trading name. People hate to speak to answering machines. Make sure a human always answers your phone, that is also a tool (in this case a service) that will prove to be invaluable in the long run. Also very handy to switch calls to them when you want to work uninterrupted on a project, yet not miss out on any potential new customers calling.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope that helps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18190" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6903" RevisionGUID="dcd13df4-b90a-4adf-a30f-fab196123511" CreationDate="2017-06-01T22:41:47.927" UserId="17337" Comment="added 6 characters in body" Text="I'm a web developer with around 2 years of experience and new into freelancing. I have been reading about freelancing from articles/blogs online and posts here, and have a fair idea of how things work. Just wanted to get a realistic idea of how a day for a freelancer looks like, whats the hardest part of the day, what task take most of your time other than the project tasks, and which apps/tools do you find yourself using usually. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18192" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6905" RevisionGUID="2dcc7caf-412f-4abc-bdde-1db3ebd3f6af" CreationDate="2017-06-03T02:41:46.617" UserId="17349" Text="I am a freelance graphic designer and very new to this field. I have a client who is starting an e-commerce commerce business. I am not working with him hourly or on flat rates. He is saying he will give me 10% of profit from my designs. Is it ok? &#xD;&#xA;Also I have designed a character for him. The idea of the character was his but all designing is mine. Should he share copyrights with me? If not what should be the compensation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18193" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6905" RevisionGUID="2dcc7caf-412f-4abc-bdde-1db3ebd3f6af" CreationDate="2017-06-03T02:41:46.617" UserId="17349" Text="How much percentage of profit should I get in an e-commerce startup?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18194" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6905" RevisionGUID="2dcc7caf-412f-4abc-bdde-1db3ebd3f6af" CreationDate="2017-06-03T02:41:46.617" UserId="17349" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18195" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6906" RevisionGUID="886e5cf2-2c94-4c94-8df5-5dea4b44b7fc" CreationDate="2017-06-03T11:41:46.660" UserId="1278" Text="Short Answer: No. You should accept payments in cash. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long Answer: By taking on a percentage of profit, you are effectively becoming a business partner with your client, which isn't the relationship you want. It adds complexity to your business:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - You have to figure out how to track which sales you can attribute to your design. &#xD;&#xA; - You will have delays in your cash flow. &#xD;&#xA; - You are taking control of your business's revenue out of your own hands and into the hands of your client. How many units they sell is a function of several factors, of which design is a small part. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless you are interested in becoming a long-term business partner with the client, then I would ask for a cash for services rendered. And if you do want to be a partner, negotiate better terms. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18198" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="6903" RevisionGUID="c8a3cbfc-b3d0-4f44-911e-c0d3ef997c5e" CreationDate="2017-06-04T08:50:01.417" UserId="64" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Metis&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:7717,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;user45623&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="18199" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6907" RevisionGUID="e5a9e88b-fdbb-4167-9424-443375069e4a" CreationDate="2017-06-05T00:41:41.187" UserId="17361" Text="Well Clients asking you to break the law, you shouldn't even try to do that job.&#xD;&#xA;If anyone asks the client &quot;Who did this job?&quot; the client's answer would be &quot;YOU&quot;. The clients would have &quot;Clean hands&quot; about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So don't do it, and ask him to work with legal software, their infrastructure of servers will be better and you will be free of guilt." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18200" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6908" RevisionGUID="fcdc6d2c-fede-4491-8b8f-0016a2df8bb6" CreationDate="2017-06-06T04:31:52.110" UserId="17366" Text="I do freelance web development, but haven't been doing it for a very long time. I do **not** do design work. I'm just going to use web fonts as an example, but my question could apply to subscription APIs, or other rentable resources which end up integrated into clients' websites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Say I receive a PSD or AI file from a client, who I assume worked with a designer on how they want their site to look. Several fonts are included which are not available as web fonts without a subscription to a web font server which costs let's say $50 a year. (Please assume for the sake of this question they don't want to self-host, I'm well aware they could buy individual licenses but this question is ultimately about subscription resources that developers might need in order to complete a client's request)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having my own subscription may not be difficult for me to do. I could, for example, recoup part of this cost from a client as a necessary expense on their part, and if it's something that I commonly need to use perhaps I need only charge them a small amount as the cost could be spread out. I as a developer could potentially serve numerous clients at a fraction of the cost of what it would cost them to continue paying the fee for their own personal use. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, what if I decide to stop paying, or what if I stop gaining clients that need to use the service? Is it my responsibility as a developer to provide this resource, or do I need to let my clients know that they need to purchase their own subscription to maintain access to a resource they want included, and then use their account to integrate it? I'm leaning toward the latter as the safer option for the client and the most logical on my part, but I'm not quite sure of what's expected of me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18201" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6908" RevisionGUID="fcdc6d2c-fede-4491-8b8f-0016a2df8bb6" CreationDate="2017-06-06T04:31:52.110" UserId="17366" Text="Is it a web developer's responsibility to maintain subscriptions for resources (eg web fonts)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18202" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6908" RevisionGUID="fcdc6d2c-fede-4491-8b8f-0016a2df8bb6" CreationDate="2017-06-06T04:31:52.110" UserId="17366" Text="|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18203" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6909" RevisionGUID="f4d64890-a73a-43a0-bbde-882e1c4e4c99" CreationDate="2017-06-06T06:08:54.887" UserId="7858" Text="What you choose to do should depend on the client relationship you want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want long-term relationships with clients who are not tech-savvy, you should at the very least guide them or (even better) handle things for them. When negotiating the initial contract, you should agree on how expenses of this magnitude are handled. Perhaps they prefer you asking for permission everytime and passing the cost on to them; perhaps they prefer you shielding them from all the technical stuff - which means you'll need to include this when estimating your hourly rate or fixed price. All clients are different; you'll need to find a solution that works on a case-by-case basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, if you don't want (or expect) a client relationship to be longer than the initial project, it makes more sense to have the client officially own and pay for such third party products." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18204" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6910" RevisionGUID="1a876902-ebaf-4249-bb1d-cd6925ac5d50" CreationDate="2017-06-06T11:49:28.410" UserId="17370" Text="&#xD;&#xA;I have been working with a recruitment consultant (by this term I mean a person / firm which focuses on referring a candidate for an opening within a company). Until now, this had been for full-time roles, so if a candidate is placed successfully, the consultant takes 8.33% (1/12) of the yearly salary of the candidate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a certain project, I need to work with a freelancer, who would get paid per hour, or on a per-project basis. What would be the appropriate way of paying the _recruitment consultant_? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18205" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6910" RevisionGUID="1a876902-ebaf-4249-bb1d-cd6925ac5d50" CreationDate="2017-06-06T11:49:28.410" UserId="17370" Text="Payment to recruitment consultant for referring a consultant?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18206" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6910" RevisionGUID="1a876902-ebaf-4249-bb1d-cd6925ac5d50" CreationDate="2017-06-06T11:49:28.410" UserId="17370" Text="|payment-terms|pay-rate|payments|price|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18207" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6911" RevisionGUID="2491d79f-8323-4a1f-818c-9f79dfeb2514" CreationDate="2017-06-06T13:21:24.480" UserId="15202" Text="Paying for a recruiter for a temp or contract role is normally handled in one of two ways:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Finders fee&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this scenario, you will pay them for the hire, and then pay them after a month of successfully recruiting a candidate. This is usually comparable to hiring a permanent member of staff, adjusted for time scales&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Contract fee&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the recruitment consultant is going to &quot;handle&quot; the employee, then they often charge acontract fee on top of the hourly rate. It is usually quite high, around 25% on top, but they will handle everything." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18208" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6895" RevisionGUID="b8355be3-26ba-48d8-96e1-14067802892e" CreationDate="2017-06-06T16:36:42.897" UserId="58" Comment="Reworded the answer to make a little more sense" Text="Try to convince them to use replacement software that is not an illegal copy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If using pirated software is the only option, drop it; it's not worth it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18209" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="6876" RevisionGUID="ae662662-1718-4888-830b-a4daa88754bd" CreationDate="2017-06-06T16:40:24.140" UserId="58" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="18210" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6845" RevisionGUID="f0b6e71e-2e9e-48ff-8203-34df19e011d8" CreationDate="2017-06-06T16:44:32.687" UserId="58" Comment="Updated wording, etc." Text="I worked for a few months as a contractor (from India) for a US company. I was located in India the entire time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While applying for a regular job in India, the Indian company is asking for my US Social Security Number.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it required for an individual to apply for a SSN or EIN, or something else in this case, or for US-based companies you work for remotely to give you a SSN?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If not, then how should I explain this to my new job? This was my first remote contract, so I'm worried I may be in trouble over this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18211" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6845" RevisionGUID="f0b6e71e-2e9e-48ff-8203-34df19e011d8" CreationDate="2017-06-06T16:44:32.687" UserId="58" Comment="Updated wording, etc." Text="Does remote working for a US Company qualify you for a SSN?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18212" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="6905" RevisionGUID="568f18ae-19e6-4e6f-844e-4e9e1a223ae4" CreationDate="2017-06-06T16:46:25.083" UserId="58" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[917],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Metis&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="18214" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6907" RevisionGUID="b6233ba4-407c-4c4f-8bc2-d40a21a7512b" CreationDate="2017-06-06T17:00:16.483" UserId="58" Comment="Updated spelling &amp; grammar; reworded slightly" Text="If a client is asking you to break the law, you shouldn't even attempt to do that job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If anyone asks the client &quot;Who did this job?&quot;, the client would point the finger at you. The client would have &quot;clean hands&quot; in that sense and would lay the blame on you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So don't do it, and ask him to work with legal software; their infrastructure will be better and you wont be liable." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18215" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="6240" RevisionGUID="3a92e0e7-c17e-472e-a012-606e7eca01df" CreationDate="2017-06-06T17:01:11.640" UserId="58" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:58,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Amelia&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="18219" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6086" RevisionGUID="8b214ff2-3de8-4caf-9b2e-b2f74b3951eb" CreationDate="2017-06-07T08:39:48.187" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/872372505327128576" />
  <row Id="18220" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6912" RevisionGUID="06fba18f-f85b-42ea-beab-9bb9c1de2e8e" CreationDate="2017-06-08T10:36:59.753" UserId="2265" Text="Just to be sure I understand, does your question boil down to this: &#xD;&#xA;Should I use my own subscriptions for third party extensions on one of my clients' websites, or arrange for them to have their own?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me the answer seems obvious: why would the client use your subscription for their website, putting them into a position where they are dependent on you when there is no need to? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course they need their own subscription, they pay for it either way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's the easy part, the real question is: how will it be maintained? By you or by someone else? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a side note, this question is off topic I think, this is not about freelancing but about web development. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18225" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6915" RevisionGUID="476ae5e6-626c-4f6f-adc8-3bc9191997a8" CreationDate="2017-06-10T13:28:12.043" UserId="17417" Text="I have a potential client who has sent me the functional spec for their app idea. The spec is a PPT, which does a pretty good job at specifying the features, design and flow of information within the app. Of course, by just reviewing the spec you cannot be sure to be 100% certain you have acknowledged all requirements. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No contract has been signed, but they are very interested in working with me. We've agreed this would be a fixed-rate contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm considering suggesting to meet with their team and determine all requirements based on the spec. This seems like a lot of work for both teams (plus I wouldn't be paid yet) and something that should only be done after the contract is signed. Plus, it may turn them off from working with me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Otherwise, does it make sense to send them a proposal with an estimate based on the spec, sign a service agreement based on the estimate, then meet with their team to formally review requirements in detail, then re-evaluate the cost?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is when in the process do you determine the &quot;final&quot; requirements for the project, and when do you determine what to charge for the work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18226" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6915" RevisionGUID="476ae5e6-626c-4f6f-adc8-3bc9191997a8" CreationDate="2017-06-10T13:28:12.043" UserId="17417" Text="Determining fixed price app dev contract before or after review of specs" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18227" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6915" RevisionGUID="476ae5e6-626c-4f6f-adc8-3bc9191997a8" CreationDate="2017-06-10T13:28:12.043" UserId="17417" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18229" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6916" RevisionGUID="a00a793c-a8a2-46e8-b297-c82201de388f" CreationDate="2017-06-12T06:35:18.270" UserId="7858" Text="'Final requirements' may be a problem, as customers virtually always want to make changes as soon as they actually see the product the first time. Regardless of the time spent, I have never seen 'final requirements' that turned out to actually be 'final'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If at all possible, an iterative project model should be preferred instead of trying to hammer out all requirements beforehand. Having a short feedback loop, where the client monitors progress often is a good way to ensure the project stays on course.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether to bill by the hour or a pre-determined fixed-price depends on the client's and your needs. If their budgets are written in stone and they MUST have an unchangeable price quote, you'll need to go fixed price. Since this incurs a lot of risk on your side due to the almost inevitable 'scope creep', you should multiply your initial estimate by a factor which depends on your experience with the technology and the potential for unexpected surprises.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I would attempt to have the client accept a fixed hourly rate. However, this works better if the client has previous experience with IT-projects and accepts being part of the day-to-day process. One huge advantage with having an hourly rate is that it minimizes the 'gold plating' late in the project. If the client is billed for ALL small changes, they tend to think in terms of need-to-have versus nice-to-have, as opposed to the fixed price where they naturally will try to extract as much work from you as possible." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18230" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6917" RevisionGUID="5ec283b7-6236-4a70-a51d-589688c86247" CreationDate="2017-06-12T07:50:35.713" UserId="517" Text="You said &quot;they are interested to work with me&quot;, but the real truth is that they are interested IF your price if fine with them. Clients would always work with good programmers if the price meets their budget. If not, then suddenly they no longer want to work with you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what to do? Definitely DO NOT go to their premises and research project if it will incur costs to you. You will NEVER get paid for this. Not unless you put these costs later hidden under some other task, which is morally (and maybe legally) wrong. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So in projects like this, always go with some bulk costs to simply test the clients if they are aware of the potential costs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, you can tell them &quot;I would need to come to your premises and meet with your team to research what you need and to calculate costs of the project. But before I do this, I would like to tell you the rough costs of the project if I compare it to other similar projects I did in the past. The cost will be from X to Y dollars. Is this something that you expected and do you have the budget to cover the costs up to Y?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With this approach you will get the immediate answer. If they say &quot;this is way over our budget&quot;, then you can propose cutting off some features to meet their budget. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But DO NOT incur yourself extra costs before you know what their budget is. If they reject you with the bulk price, they would reject you in the end as well + they would get free idea analysis with costs. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18231" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6918" RevisionGUID="02c08a2c-b832-429f-b0e2-b28ec5959193" CreationDate="2017-06-12T15:53:53.153" UserId="5568" Text="I'm a freelance writer and decided to write a book basically by transcribing someone's else talks in a different language.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A person has 50 videos where he talks about certain subjects. Theses videos are free of use and don't have any copyright, people are encouraged to share. Basically, someone recorded his voice during his talks and with his consent. Then he uploaded it on YT and now I decided to transcribe it in my native language. I'm planning to publish the book and maybe offer for sale.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I still need to contact the author of the video or the speaker and ask for the approval to use his speech as the subject of my book? Or since it will be in a different language the product's form will be contributed solely to me as an author? Maybe pointing him as a reference but how do you reference a youtube video?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18232" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6918" RevisionGUID="02c08a2c-b832-429f-b0e2-b28ec5959193" CreationDate="2017-06-12T15:53:53.153" UserId="5568" Text="Can I write a book from someone's else talk?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18233" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6918" RevisionGUID="02c08a2c-b832-429f-b0e2-b28ec5959193" CreationDate="2017-06-12T15:53:53.153" UserId="5568" Text="|legal|sales|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18234" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6919" RevisionGUID="25767cb8-bd8e-49d0-8134-09240284ba64" CreationDate="2017-06-12T17:18:12.077" UserId="708" Text="Yes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The work is copyrighted. Transposing the media (and/or language) is it delivered on does not remove copyrights. At *best* your book would be a derivative work, still requiring permission." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18235" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6919" RevisionGUID="abc247a3-e7d3-4b5c-8dfc-e8ea8243bc81" CreationDate="2017-06-12T20:58:55.480" UserId="708" Comment="added 6 characters in body" Text="Yes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The work is copyrighted. Transposing the media (and/or language) which it is delivered on does not remove copyrights. At *best* your book would be a derivative work, still requiring permission." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18236" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6920" RevisionGUID="4f81eb45-f3f3-4060-b4ee-d86ec707206a" CreationDate="2017-06-13T15:53:10.970" UserId="17443" Text="I'm a development freelancer/subcontractor (if it's not the same within the described question) and I provide web frontend and backend development on a couple of popular open source CMS.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I run my own website and social media and I was wondering if it's ok (legal), to post information about me being involved in a project, as subcontractor, but without mentioning the middle man's name. So literally something like 'I was subcontracted to develop a new website for company X, check out the results - link to website'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm asking about sort of 'default' rules as contract had not mentioned anything specific regarding NDA, copyrights etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18237" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6920" RevisionGUID="4f81eb45-f3f3-4060-b4ee-d86ec707206a" CreationDate="2017-06-13T15:53:10.970" UserId="17443" Text="Using work I was subcontracted to in portfolio or on social media" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18238" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6920" RevisionGUID="4f81eb45-f3f3-4060-b4ee-d86ec707206a" CreationDate="2017-06-13T15:53:10.970" UserId="17443" Text="|freelance-websites|portfolio|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18239" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6921" RevisionGUID="0a20e24e-eac8-4ea5-bd98-6949372011f6" CreationDate="2017-06-13T16:10:51.750" UserId="708" Text="Traditionally it's fine to show work you've completed unless a contract specifically restricts you from doing so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be aware, you may be eventually contacted by the client. I've had that happen... got a cease and desist letter claiming I was showing work I didn't complete because the client had no clue it was actually me that did the work. It only took a couple emails to explain that I was subcontracted and actually did do the work and things were fine. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18241" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6922" RevisionGUID="dbea068f-d4ba-4c0b-9cc5-0eee6bb63ad3" CreationDate="2017-06-13T21:21:02.363" UserId="11857" Text="&gt;These videos are free of use and don't have any copyright&#xA;&#xA;Everything is copyrighted. Just because there's no explicit statement doesn't mean you can use it. Always assume *you cannot use someone else's work until you have permission to do so*.&#xA;&#xA;&gt;people are encouraged to share&#xA;&#xA;There is a big difference between sharing someone's work and creating a new product of your own, based entirely off of that work.&#xA;&#xA;Th fact that you're translating the work doesn't make all that much of a difference. If you're translating and quoting small sections as references in a larger piece of work then you *may* be OK; but it's a grey area on not worth the risk to assume you can do it...&#xA;&#xA;The *only* reasonable course of action here is to seek permission. Don't try to find a loophole. Don't try to do it regardless and hope you don't get caught. Don't plead ignorance. Reach out to the guy and ask. It's as simple as that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18242" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6923" RevisionGUID="e66cc934-ee5b-4d72-8615-bdb865e05b5c" CreationDate="2017-06-14T06:54:31.393" UserId="7858" Text="On virtually every project, I work as a freelancer/subcontractor through a third party.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my LinkedIn profile, I never mention that third party; only the fact that I was freelancing and not employed is mentioned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, a few times my contract with the third party has explicitly stated that I must present myself as an employee of the third party and not a freelancer. However, every time the client's employees have asked me whether I was a freelancer or not - to which I have preferred 'admitting' the truth rather than lying. So - technically, I have violated contracts, but it has never become an issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, whenever I have signed a seemingly restrictive NDA with the client, I've always asked them to approve my project description before posting it to LinkedIn.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally - regardless of contracts and NDAs, I attempt to describe projects in non-controversial terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally - I'm not sure what the upside is of mentioning all the 'middle men'. It would demonstrate that I have been involved with many third parties - and at times more than one at a time. I am unsure of in which light this information will be perceived by clients and the third parties. So it seems more safe to just leave it out. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18243" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6924" RevisionGUID="39fa3cbc-3e29-4fbe-8a88-2411c694dddc" CreationDate="2017-06-14T11:27:51.027" UserId="517" Text="This is always tricky. You can see Metis experience. In cases like this my first point of contact is the person who contracted me. I inform him that I want to use the project in my portfolio and if he is OK with it. In half cases I get OK, in other half I do not get the green light. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason for this is that many agencies or individuals subcontract their work to you without informing their client. I find that the contract between me and the person who hired me is confidential and that I should not put this project in my portfolio if this will make problems to MY client (not the project owner). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, you can play numb and put it in the portfolio, but chances are 99% that you will never be subcontracted by this person ever again. So just play fair and communicate before putting anything in your portfolio. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18248" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6510" RevisionGUID="949f9bee-4729-4c6c-954b-b984652b0929" CreationDate="2017-06-18T05:26:28.463" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18249" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6926" RevisionGUID="c52f080b-a0a0-4841-8871-7af87583ca81" CreationDate="2017-06-19T17:03:47.980" UserId="17477" Text="I've just become a freelance web developer and I have a paid subscription to Forge. I want to host all my new clients' sites on my Forge account. Each client pays an upfront cost for the website, plus a monthly service fee for hosting, updates, analytics, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm just not sure if it's allowed by the law and getforge.com. I am in the United States." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18250" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6926" RevisionGUID="c52f080b-a0a0-4841-8871-7af87583ca81" CreationDate="2017-06-19T17:03:47.980" UserId="17477" Text="If I develop websites as a freelancer, can I use my Forge account for all my clients while charging them a monthly rate for services?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18251" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6926" RevisionGUID="c52f080b-a0a0-4841-8871-7af87583ca81" CreationDate="2017-06-19T17:03:47.980" UserId="17477" Text="|legal|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18252" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6927" RevisionGUID="c6e41278-7a36-416d-9a4e-017624d04cf0" CreationDate="2017-06-19T17:45:21.310" UserId="17440" Text="I just got off the phone with an English recruiting agency, discussing a job in Germany. They said that payment will be done through a &quot;payroll company&quot;, which will pay my taxes. Apparently, this is so the employing company can make sure that I pay my taxes. He said if I don't pay taxes, the tax office can go after the employers instead of me, and they prefer to do that since it's easier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have never heard of this practice. I'm assuming the company and the procedure is legit, but I'm just very confused, and have the following questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Why would the employer care if I pay taxes? I have never heard that the German tax office can pursue a company employing a freelancer that doesn't pay taxes. They did nothing wrong.&#xD;&#xA; 2. How do they &quot;pay the taxes for me&quot;? Am I going into some sort of non-freelance employment with that company?&#xD;&#xA; 3. Is this a red flag or common practice? I've never worked with a recruiter from outside of Germany, so I don't know about the additional administrative effort needed.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18253" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6927" RevisionGUID="c6e41278-7a36-416d-9a4e-017624d04cf0" CreationDate="2017-06-19T17:45:21.310" UserId="17440" Text="What are &quot;payroll companies&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18254" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6927" RevisionGUID="c6e41278-7a36-416d-9a4e-017624d04cf0" CreationDate="2017-06-19T17:45:21.310" UserId="17440" Text="|taxes|payments|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18255" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6928" RevisionGUID="62f757ed-f4b9-463c-a858-e50dc28435ce" CreationDate="2017-06-19T19:20:55.257" UserId="17480" Text="I have several health care and science articles that were published in peer-reviewed journals that I wrote or copy edited under contract or as part of my employment at an academic medical center. I am not listed or acknowledged as an author on any of them. Is it ethical to cite these pieces either on my resume/CV or in cover letters to prospective clients? (I have no compunction about sharing in face-to-face meeting—should I?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18256" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6928" RevisionGUID="62f757ed-f4b9-463c-a858-e50dc28435ce" CreationDate="2017-06-19T19:20:55.257" UserId="17480" Text="Can Ghostwriting Be Listed on Resume?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18257" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6928" RevisionGUID="62f757ed-f4b9-463c-a858-e50dc28435ce" CreationDate="2017-06-19T19:20:55.257" UserId="17480" Text="|consulting|resume|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18258" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6929" RevisionGUID="7cc05176-f6f0-43ad-8d79-f17569046885" CreationDate="2017-06-19T20:18:45.383" UserId="1706" Text="&gt; They did nothing wrong&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here in the States, employees are required to pay taxes, AND there is a mandated employer tax contribution which is &quot;extra&quot; (not included in the base salary). Some employers try to pay employees off-the-record because the cost of labor is cheaper if they simply avoid paying all taxes.  The government has severe penalties against this practice - and the government will go after not only the employer, but the employee as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case there's probably similar legislation in England.  So rather than the *potential* of being on the hook if you don't pay your taxes, the recruiting agency is eliminating the issue by forcing the taxes to be paid before you can put anything in your pocket.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, the payroll company will register you.  Then for each pay period, it will collect money from your employer, apportion and transmit the taxes to the appropriate authority (either England or Germany) and leave the rest for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18259" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6930" RevisionGUID="a214ed76-51d5-405a-9d23-5612e45ad1b7" CreationDate="2017-06-20T13:47:19.870" UserId="15202" Text="Looks like they will be employing you as an employee (the agency).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Why would the employer care if I pay taxes? I have never heard that the German tax office can pursue a company employing a freelancer that doesn't pay taxes. They did nothing wrong.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because, as an employer, they are responsible. We have employer collection of taxes as standard.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; How do they &quot;pay the taxes for me&quot;? Am I going into some sort of non-freelance employment with that company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They will take tax at source (UK taxes called PAYE)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Is this a red flag or common practice? I've never worked with a recruiter from outside of Germany, so I don't know about the additional administrative effort needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Common practice. I have my own Ltd company (gmbh?) and send invoices to avoid exactly this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18260" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="6930" RevisionGUID="24588142-3616-403c-bc8d-61a4dbf5fe65" CreationDate="2017-06-20T13:48:12.777" UserId="15202" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:15202,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;JohnHC&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="18261" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="6930" RevisionGUID="8072ffd8-54b4-49e4-b442-1fdfaf3f3460" CreationDate="2017-06-20T13:49:51.873" UserId="15202" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:15202,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;JohnHC&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="18262" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6931" RevisionGUID="0c9fbf01-7905-41b5-b86e-44ae80feb8af" CreationDate="2017-06-21T02:23:41.380" UserId="11036" Text="I've been doing freelance jobs lately that do not involve NDA. However I received an offer from a client that requires an NDA prior to project start. Does NDA projects restrict the project themselves from being put in my portfolio?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18263" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6931" RevisionGUID="0c9fbf01-7905-41b5-b86e-44ae80feb8af" CreationDate="2017-06-21T02:23:41.380" UserId="11036" Text="Are projects under NDA not allowed in portfolio?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18264" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6931" RevisionGUID="0c9fbf01-7905-41b5-b86e-44ae80feb8af" CreationDate="2017-06-21T02:23:41.380" UserId="11036" Text="|freelance-websites|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18265" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6932" RevisionGUID="bd70dff3-4403-4364-8002-827861fc3abb" CreationDate="2017-06-21T04:27:10.033" UserId="708" Text="Uhm, **YES**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Non-Disclosure** means you can't tell anyone what you worked on. That includes showing it off in a portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you would like to display the work in your portfolio you need to **specifically** discuss that with the client and get an *written addendum* to the NDA which specifically states you what you *can* display in a portfolio. But I can't see any clients being okay with *&quot;Keep our secrets... but show them off in a portfolio&quot;.*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18266" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6932" RevisionGUID="b564f8cf-d2b7-4630-8978-0ad85ea414c8" CreationDate="2017-06-21T04:46:37.377" UserId="708" Comment="added 24 characters in body" Text="Uhm, **YES**. They are *not* allowed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Non-Disclosure** means you can't tell anyone what you worked on. That includes showing it off in a portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you would like to display the work in your portfolio you need to **specifically** discuss that with the client and get an *written addendum* to the NDA which specifically states you what you *can* display in a portfolio. But I can't see any clients being okay with *&quot;Keep our secrets... but show them off in a portfolio&quot;.*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18267" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6932" RevisionGUID="37438e3d-50f7-40ed-821b-26ef665bd7b8" CreationDate="2017-06-21T05:15:41.657" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 4 characters in body" Text="Uhm, **YES**. They are *not* allowed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Non-Disclosure** means you can't tell anyone what you worked on. That includes showing it off in a portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you would like to display the work in your portfolio you need to **specifically** discuss that with the client and get an *written addendum* to the NDA which specifically states what you *can* display in a portfolio. But I can't see any clients being okay with *&quot;Keep our secrets... but show them off in a portfolio&quot;.*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18268" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6655" RevisionGUID="d51f5510-22cf-433a-91c2-64f8658a86ea" CreationDate="2017-06-21T06:27:08.960" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18269" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6547" RevisionGUID="520ee766-4cb2-4cf9-88c6-bf1ca663d72f" CreationDate="2017-06-21T07:30:53.043" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18270" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6928" RevisionGUID="3c995f69-5bdd-496d-abad-58e5ca87b9df" CreationDate="2017-06-21T07:45:51.230" UserId="100" Comment="retagged, paragraph, removed thanks" Text="I have several health care and science articles that were published in peer-reviewed journals that I wrote or copy edited under contract or as part of my employment at an academic medical center. I am not listed or acknowledged as an author on any of them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it ethical to cite these pieces either on my resume/CV or in cover letters to prospective clients? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(I have no compunction about sharing in face-to-face meeting—should I?)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18271" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6928" RevisionGUID="3c995f69-5bdd-496d-abad-58e5ca87b9df" CreationDate="2017-06-21T07:45:51.230" UserId="100" Comment="retagged, paragraph, removed thanks" Text="Can ghostwriting be listed on the resume?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18272" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6928" RevisionGUID="3c995f69-5bdd-496d-abad-58e5ca87b9df" CreationDate="2017-06-21T07:45:51.230" UserId="100" Comment="retagged, paragraph, removed thanks" Text="|subcontracting|resume|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18273" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6928" RevisionGUID="3c995f69-5bdd-496d-abad-58e5ca87b9df" CreationDate="2017-06-21T07:45:51.230" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 2265, 7858 edit id of 553" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18278" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6931" RevisionGUID="b37e46b7-3a13-41b1-824a-4a4f9e7e9845" CreationDate="2017-06-21T16:24:12.103" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18279" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6934" RevisionGUID="11e65850-3a47-4ce9-b5f7-d1b1e4d448eb" CreationDate="2017-06-21T19:35:55.793" UserId="17506" Text="I have just developed a javascript which I am planning to start selling online through my website. However, all the legal procedures I need to take into consideration make even more confused than when I started. I address the people who have already walked that path and can provide information to the people who are just diving into this corporate mystery.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS: I would be very grateful if someone could answer the questions bellow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Q1:** Can I sell my software if I do not have a firm?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Q2:** Should I add VAT when someone is ordering my software?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Q2.1** If yes, what should I do with the extra money (from the VAT) that I collected from the buyer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Q3** If you have a return money policy, should you return the already paid VAT?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18280" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6934" RevisionGUID="11e65850-3a47-4ce9-b5f7-d1b1e4d448eb" CreationDate="2017-06-21T19:35:55.793" UserId="17506" Text="How to sell my software online and deal with VAT?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18281" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6934" RevisionGUID="11e65850-3a47-4ce9-b5f7-d1b1e4d448eb" CreationDate="2017-06-21T19:35:55.793" UserId="17506" Text="|taxes|software|sales|accounting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18282" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6927" RevisionGUID="1cd3e31d-eabe-49a8-a531-c405cc7cf61b" CreationDate="2017-06-22T01:13:28.190" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/877696000219119616" />
  <row Id="18286" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6936" RevisionGUID="fad1d093-4e39-473b-b886-49360c7562a5" CreationDate="2017-06-22T08:20:34.460" UserId="17511" Text="I have been hired as a freelancer to build a video splitting utility that's supposed to split video clips at certain points as indicated by the user.&#xD;&#xA;I am using ffmpeg as a library and it produces files that play OK in all the players I have. However, when my client tries to import the files in Final Cut Pro (which is an essential part of my client's workflow) the files do not play as intended, they have some kind of visual distortion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not have access to FCP and even if I did I don't think I could fix ffmpeg bugs, if they're bugs in ffmpeg at all and not bugs in Final Cut Pro. I also don't know of any other video manipulation library that could get the job done with any kind of video file, and we are already way past the time estimate I gave my client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a fixed bid project, I have been working for nearly a month (more than expected) fixing bugs and trying to solve my client's needs (which weren't well specified at the beginning), and I don't know what to do now. How do I handle this situation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18287" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6936" RevisionGUID="fad1d093-4e39-473b-b886-49360c7562a5" CreationDate="2017-06-22T08:20:34.460" UserId="17511" Text="Can't satisfy client's need in fixed-bid project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18288" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6936" RevisionGUID="fad1d093-4e39-473b-b886-49360c7562a5" CreationDate="2017-06-22T08:20:34.460" UserId="17511" Text="|contracts|software|fixed-price|overtime|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18289" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6937" RevisionGUID="10182ca5-9c2c-4966-937b-37e7f91b0647" CreationDate="2017-06-22T10:10:43.187" UserId="15202" Text="Answering for UK, and somewhat EU...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Q1: Can I sell my software if I do not have a firm?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, although I would not recommend it. Once your software is commercial, you will do well to get commercial indemnity insurance (in case your software does some damage). This is best procured on behalf of a company as the liability will be limited to the company itself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Q2: Should I add VAT when someone is ordering my software?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;UK/EU: Only if you are VAT registered. If UK, earning more than £70k from sales means you will need to register. You can register if less if you want to. Speak to an accountant for advise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Q2.1 If yes, what should I do with the extra money (from the VAT) that I collected from the buyer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bank it until your own VAT return and bill are due.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Q3 If you have a return money policy, should you return the already paid VAT?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18290" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6938" RevisionGUID="020d8aaa-68a6-4f7a-88df-dd4d8a8a7755" CreationDate="2017-06-22T12:24:32.177" UserId="517" Text="Everyone here will ask you this as the first thing: What does the contract say?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or if you two are using some freelancing platform: What did you agree on?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients usually say &quot;I want something fixed&quot; and it is up to you (and your experience) to form fixed-price bid like this: &quot;I will do X, Y and Z for the $$$&quot;. Later on, if the project goes out of the scope, you can refer to your bid and explain what was your price about. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bad side of freelancing sites is that clients can leave you bad feedback. And if the client is an as****e, he can even try to blackmail you threatening with bad feedback. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But you probably knew all of this. So what can you do? Be honest and write a good tone explanatory email about what you were hire for. Explain to him that you are expert for X library and the code you write yourself, and that the bug he has is either a product of library inner features or bug in the tool he is using. Explain to him that you cannot fix bugs in the tool he is using, and how you do not have such level of knowledge to fix bugs inside the library. You can tell him that he is free to consult any other contractor about this matter and that he will repeat your words. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is reasonable, he will accept this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is unreasonable, then you will have hard time in this project. You will probably have to contact the freelancing service to step in and resolve your issues. But be warned, if I am right, clients can leave bad comment after the resolution process. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So it all comes back to your ability to get yourself out of bad situation. Write good explanatory email, even find Internet proofs about your claims. The best thing is to resolve it all with the client. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18296" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6940" RevisionGUID="3f7a100b-b4fe-483b-8589-921d7daaf1bf" CreationDate="2017-06-22T21:19:58.420" UserId="2265" Text="I think there is a serious chance you won't see the money / will be asked to pay back, if you don't deliver. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's the thing with fixed price projects: you agree on a deliverable, a specific outcome for a specific amount. If you can't deliver, you don't get paid unless your contract says otherwise. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So it seems you have two options: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Tell your client you won't be able to deliver, and start arguing over how much of the project you can still invoice&#xD;&#xA; 2. Find someone else who *can* finish the job, and hopefully the super hero that bails you out isn't too expensive as he saves the day." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18297" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="322bb0a9-75d1-4343-a78f-7a6671c06c6e" CreationDate="2017-06-23T02:04:00.763" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18298" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6941" RevisionGUID="2d8e272b-30d5-4f5c-bec0-63e59ba2cb84" CreationDate="2017-06-23T10:28:56.213" UserId="2265" Text="Q1: yes, but financially this would be silly if you intend to make your living off of it, also regarding liability having a company is the better choice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Q2: No, unless you get a VAT number / become VAT registered. Not charging VAT means you also don't get any VAT back when you purchase something.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Q2.1: Obviously you need to pay that to the government. If you become VAT registered, they'll make sure that you do, no worries there...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Q3: Yes.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clearly though, if you want to get serious about selling, please visit an accountant and get this stuff double checked. It can cost you a lot of money if you don't get things like taxes, VAT, company stuff sorted properly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18299" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6942" RevisionGUID="ab1d7415-12db-4a24-9beb-4b491597e860" CreationDate="2017-06-23T13:45:20.383" UserId="17417" Text="Am a freelance app developer. Should my contracts include a clause to protect me from guaranteeing that the apps I build for clients will be approved?&#xA;&#xA;As long as I for client specs, I shouldn't be accountable. Of course if rejected sure to bug I'll fix. &#xA;&#xA;If so, what kind of verbiage could you suggest to include?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18300" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6942" RevisionGUID="ab1d7415-12db-4a24-9beb-4b491597e860" CreationDate="2017-06-23T13:45:20.383" UserId="17417" Text="App Dev contract does not guarantee app store approval" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18301" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6942" RevisionGUID="ab1d7415-12db-4a24-9beb-4b491597e860" CreationDate="2017-06-23T13:45:20.383" UserId="17417" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18302" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6943" RevisionGUID="f3382d41-3182-4e7d-b791-7728e22cd3d1" CreationDate="2017-06-23T16:02:43.623" UserId="17528" Text="I'm a British citizen living in Germany, working as a freelancer and I'm trying to work out tax here and it's made me very confused.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also want to study here, which makes matters more difficult. As an EU citizen (for the time being) I can work according to the sames rules as German students, but I'm not sure how that affects my taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as I understand, and please correct me if I'm wrong, as a regular freelancer I normally pay both the employee's and employer's parts of the health insurance/pension contributions and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I become a student, what happens then? As a student freelancer I would be on the student health insurance, pay income tax and pay 9.45% pension contributions (as I'm pretty sure I'll be earning more than 850€)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question for you all is, as a freelancer would I also have to pay the employer's contribution to pension insurance? &#xD;&#xA;If I work more than 20 hours a week I would have to pay normal health insurance, however would I again have to pay the employer's contribution?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18303" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6943" RevisionGUID="f3382d41-3182-4e7d-b791-7728e22cd3d1" CreationDate="2017-06-23T16:02:43.623" UserId="17528" Text="Freelancing as a student in Germany - EU citizens" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18304" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6943" RevisionGUID="f3382d41-3182-4e7d-b791-7728e22cd3d1" CreationDate="2017-06-23T16:02:43.623" UserId="17528" Text="|pension|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18308" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6264" RevisionGUID="f83cb474-b148-4d22-82bb-66b7cbec59a3" CreationDate="2017-06-23T20:16:08.827" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18309" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6945" RevisionGUID="38c90f42-bb7c-4106-b710-39f8648cb8c3" CreationDate="2017-06-24T11:49:53.537" UserId="15276" Text="As a contractual freelancer, you will (should) in one way or the other offer to some extend consulting services, unless explicitly stated otherwise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just as a medical doctor, after careful observations, you diagnose and prescribe (with likely further observations and adjustment based on your patient's physiological condition and response to treatment in order to achieve the true purpose of the medication, alienating all possible adverse effects from your decision ~ as an expert in your field) based on your knowledge and experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In that light, you will have not only exercised as a true professional but equally provided stun statutory cover grounds for any potential legal suite against you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, your agreement should emphatically highlight that you do not take any direct/indirect responsibility for failed events resulting from action(s) contrary to your counsel, before, during and after (a conscious, possibly mutual and acceptable period, further guided by a legal frame and catering for possible alterations called by either you, the contracted, or them, the contractors). Also, you should take full/shared (depending on nature and circumstances) responsibility for incidents resulting from your involvement including but not limited to bugs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't forget natural rules! Know your strength and limits, what you can and cannot do, your ethical, moral value and image, what is feasible and what is not; that gives you control, authority and earn you respect, whether you sign up or decline the offer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18312" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6946" RevisionGUID="b5369d67-402a-4bae-8dd6-d8a005fbb3cf" CreationDate="2017-06-26T09:11:36.983" UserId="517" Text="Well, app store approval and how to get app approved is derived from experience. And knowing that Apple is more rigorous here, you HAVE TO be familiar with all cases when apple WILL or MAY NOT approve of the app. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you definitely must not put it all in client's hands. If I were the client, I would find you cheated on me and drained my money. For example, you cannot developer app that exists inside iOS system when even the birds know that Apple will never approve of such app. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how do I handle cases like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Ask for project specifications and see all of the features. &#xD;&#xA;2. Many clients will come to you saying that they are not sure if some feature will be approved so check those features yourself. &#xD;&#xA;3. If you are in USA, then CALL apple support. They treat US-based companies differently them EU or Asian companies. Ask them if this app can be approved and get some verification of the conversation. &#xD;&#xA;4. Always check &quot;what's coming in the next iOS&quot;. For example, iOS 11 is coming with File app so for me this is a red light that Apple may start rejecting apps that handle files on iOS. &#xD;&#xA;5. Most times, app will not be approved, but you then need to invest extra energy and time to resolve the issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To conclude, you definitely must not code mobile app if you cannot guarantee app's release. If you are not sure, DO call Apple service (or Google Play as well) and check but also DO ask your client to call them himself as well. If you are outside USA and the client is in the USA, then demand that he calls the service due to prioritized treatment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding the contract, I would definitely consult a legal advisor and ask him to make you the contract. Because inside you have to give a guarantee, which can be voided under certain circumstances. For example, a client has to do his part of the work, but there also has to be clause where both Apple and Google deserve right to reject the app, no matter how well you code it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18313" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6947" RevisionGUID="c5f30b3f-0705-44d7-9232-f1be17532fc0" CreationDate="2017-06-26T22:02:41.773" UserId="2265" Text="Yes you will need to pay the employer pension contribution yourself. Keep in mind, that is if you are a freelancer: you could also set up your own company (e.g. GmbH). Also I believe you get a 50% reduction for the pension payments in your first 3 years as freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And finally, don't take my word for it. Find the relevant government entity and give them a call or send an email. They'll speak/write English. You DO NOT want to rely solely on a website with free advice for this type of stuff. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18314" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6948" RevisionGUID="7860e572-8d6c-4e92-9ed4-4c157a3e3b0e" CreationDate="2017-06-26T22:07:37.020" UserId="2265" Text="Depends on the NDA. NDA's I sign generally concern information I will receive or process in the course of the project, but that doesn't mean I can't put the project on my resume. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And when in doubt: just ask the client. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18315" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6949" RevisionGUID="c07078a1-4df2-42d9-928a-bc5b9c9303c6" CreationDate="2017-06-27T06:43:39.780" UserId="7858" Text="It very much depends on the content of the NDA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently, I worked on a cutting-edge mobile payment app - and even without an NDA, it was pretty obvious that I (initially) was not allowed to mention it. However, after the launch, I could mention the project by name and elaborate on the technology stack.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whenever in doubt, just ask the client. I usually send a sample description for them to approve, as that seems a simple and transparent way to avoid any legal pitfalls." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18316" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6950" RevisionGUID="d8396b71-35d3-415f-9227-e1d650b7aa5a" CreationDate="2017-06-28T17:45:39.590" UserId="17575" Text="I have just completed my first freelance project with a customer, and I am now sitting down to create the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In case it matters: Both me and the company are UK based, and I am acting as a member of a partnership (and therefore invoicing under my legal name)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project has been a little bumpy (as I guess they always are) but everyone seems satisfied now, which is great.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I expected before starting the project that I would be working on a time + materials basis, but I ended up receiving a Purchase Order for the equivalent of the upper limit of my estimate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a result of various misunderstandings and miscommunications, I have ended up spending more time than my initial estimate allowed for to complete the task I was given. I am happy to accept this extra work without quibble (largely as I don't have the energy to fight over a few hours), however I would like to try and tactfully inform them that this extra work occurred and I have chosen on my own behalf not to charge them for it, in a kind of &quot;aren't I helpful&quot; sort of a way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As such - I was considering including an additional line item in my invoice indicating the excess hours worked, billed at a rate of 0 per hour. Or alternatively, applying a discount equal to the extra work done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wanted to know if there were any possible negative consequences of this, or if it is something that is frowned upon or otherwise just &quot;not the done thing&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18317" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6950" RevisionGUID="d8396b71-35d3-415f-9227-e1d650b7aa5a" CreationDate="2017-06-28T17:45:39.590" UserId="17575" Text="Should I include gratis overtime on an invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18318" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6950" RevisionGUID="d8396b71-35d3-415f-9227-e1d650b7aa5a" CreationDate="2017-06-28T17:45:39.590" UserId="17575" Text="|uk|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18319" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4751" RevisionGUID="8b5d6bc2-3610-42bb-b35f-cb42d06d434f" CreationDate="2017-06-28T17:45:51.507" UserDisplayName="user7489" Comment="less text-speak and shouty case" Text="You have the ability to get into more opportunities when your business is registered as a corp or LLC, because it removes a threat of liability (for paying statutory employees under-the-table) for the customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, nobody's going to beat a path to your door other than the recruiters.  If your credentials are solid and in a &quot;hot&quot; field, your phone will ring off the hook with potential opportunities (but they're taking a cut!).  Whether new potential opportunities come in through the recruiters or you find them through marketing yourself, you've still got to prove yourself in either scenario.  And both approaches cost money, there's no getting around that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18320" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4751" RevisionGUID="8b5d6bc2-3610-42bb-b35f-cb42d06d434f" CreationDate="2017-06-28T17:45:51.507" Comment="Proposed by 7489 approved by 1706 edit id of 555" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18321" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3520" RevisionGUID="dd33bbf7-dd41-4766-82b6-36373eb38439" CreationDate="2017-06-28T18:07:41.467" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18322" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3474" RevisionGUID="3480e7fe-a0ac-40ad-977f-ad2a8c41c0c0" CreationDate="2017-06-29T07:04:10.983" UserDisplayName="user7489" Comment="spelling, capitalization" Text="If Freelancer refuses to be paid, I guess at this point it's his choice hence his decision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for copyright - you can always sight the contract offered + communique, emails + recorded videos shared as evidence as you being the owner. (For Freelancer never had intention to record/use those videos).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Further since contract was never explicit - no things were agreed upon deliverables - you might be at fault here. But you may have learnt things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Feel free to discuss things telling him of your expectations (as if it really helps at this point). But key point is to get communication going and being honest and fair with your part of deal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18323" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3474" RevisionGUID="3480e7fe-a0ac-40ad-977f-ad2a8c41c0c0" CreationDate="2017-06-29T07:04:10.983" Comment="Proposed by 7489 approved by 1706, 2265 edit id of 554" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18324" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6951" RevisionGUID="bf6f9c9a-cf88-47d3-b116-fb4561227286" CreationDate="2017-06-29T08:41:17.443" UserId="7858" Text="Though I understand your view, I would strongly advise against displaying free hours on your invoice. It could just as easily be viewed as a passive-aggressive move, which is the exact opposite of what you want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if it comes across the way you intend - what if there is a next time where you do not include any free work? You might very well be setting an unwanted precedent leading to unnecessarily awkward future conversations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just keep your invoice simple and bill the customer for the work - especially when they are satisfied. It does not seems you need small 'tricks' like this to build this customer relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short: The potential downside seems a lot larger than the upside, which is one of my simple ways of deciding on which actions to take." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18325" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6951" RevisionGUID="36e51fb7-23bc-4749-9164-1a8aa8b60c2f" CreationDate="2017-06-29T08:43:47.807" UserId="7858" Comment="Fixed typo" Text="Though I understand your view, I would strongly advise against displaying free hours on your invoice. It could just as easily be viewed as a passive-aggressive move, which is the exact opposite of what you want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if it comes across the way you intend - what if there is a next time where you do not include any free work? You might very well be setting an unwanted precedent leading to unnecessarily awkward future conversations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just keep your invoice simple and bill the customer for the work - especially when they are satisfied. It does not seem you need small 'tricks' like this to build this customer relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short: The potential downside seems a lot larger than the upside, which is one of my simple ways of deciding on which actions to take." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18326" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6952" RevisionGUID="370caf51-7332-4bfb-aa50-e422d4c69e2e" CreationDate="2017-06-29T11:44:35.720" UserId="517" Text="Do not go with the discount. Once they smell the lower rate, they will ask it every time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would list all extra hours and put price to 0 (zero). This way you stick to your rate and you showed client that you did not charge extra hours. But this does not mean that you will not charge extra hours in the future. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18333" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3537" RevisionGUID="aaa0cb37-7565-4565-984e-82955a8b5980" CreationDate="2017-06-30T11:38:13.347" UserId="5516" Comment="added 500 characters in body" Text="I am currently in the process of becoming a digital nomad myself. I have been investigating this for a few months now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###You must sort out a few things&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Earn money**: Ideally, you want several income streams to reduce risks.&#xD;&#xA; - **Legal status**: you want to make sure this is sorted out as without that you probably will have trouble charging anyone for your services.&#xD;&#xA; - **Legal address**: you will still have mails coming from organizations &amp; you will need a good system to make this work. Either get a friend or relative to help you, or get a professional service (i.e. in Switzerland the post can scan your mails &amp; email them to you).&#xD;&#xA; - **Banking**: you must have an excellent bank providing cutting edge online services. Forget about old fashion banks &amp; switch to something reliable at anytime from anywhere.&#xD;&#xA; - **Health insurance**: you **must** have a good international health insurance, you'd easily find yourself in big trouble if you have any health issue. see https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get&#xD;&#xA; - **Gear**: you must make sure you have the right tool for the job, once you are away it can be difficult to buy it. Some inspiration on http://www.grownupplayground.com/travel-gear-backpackers-long-term-travelers/&#xD;&#xA; - **Insure your gear**: you want to insure your belongings, it won't save your work but at least it'll reduce the financial impact of getting something stolen.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your gear**: uglify your gear so it's less likely to get stolen &amp; buy appropriate housing (shockproof, waterproof, &amp; so on) to prevent physical damage.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your data: encrypt sensitive files**: use tools such as Truecrypt or BitLocker to only allow yourself to access your sensitive data.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your data: digital backups**: you will probably want to have digital backups of your work. You want a strategy that works smoothly so that if you loose your work (ie. lose your computer in a sailing accident), you can not only access all the lost work but also setup the new gear as the original one in a minimum amount of time.&#xD;&#xA; - **Work place**: you might want to make your life easy &amp; start by moving to a location that is known for welcoming digital nomads, it'll save you tone of time &amp; you'll be able to learn from others&#xD;&#xA; - **Car or Van**: owning a car or converted van sounds ideal to travel around a continent (i.e. Europe), however it is a big administrative burden and a rather high cost. This involves: dealing with insurances (regular &amp; breakdown), yearly car check (MOT, TÜV, or whatever the name. It is at a given deadline in a given country), occasional repairs, occasional accidents, occasional police fines, storage when traveling without it and so on. It will cost you a lot of time and money, so think twice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###Further resources to get started on being a digital nomad&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/digital-nomad-101-how-to-become-a-digital-nomad/465&#xD;&#xA; - http://flagtheory.com/digital-nomad/&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io - Biggest Digital Nomad forum&#xD;&#xA; - http://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job#job-boards - Find remote jobs&#xD;&#xA; - https://github.com/kaizensoze/remote-freelance-jobs - Find remote jobs&#xD;&#xA; - http://digitalnomadhub.net&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler&#xD;&#xA; - When must you pay income taxes? http://www.liferemotely.com/work-while-traveling/managing-a-business/65-paying-taxes-in-your-home-country-when-you-arent-living-there&#xD;&#xA; - http://leapin.eu Estonian e-residency made easy&#xD;&#xA; - https://e-estonia.com Estonian e-residency&#xD;&#xA; - http://e-estonia.com/e-residents/services-and-benefits - Estonian e-residency: Register a company, open a bank account &amp; more&#xD;&#xA; - http://passports.io&#xD;&#xA; - https://freedomsurfer.com/offshore-jurisdictions&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/where-should-i-register-my-company-as-a-digital-nomad-singapore-hong-kong/520/4&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/is-panama-a-good-destination-for-tax-residency-for-digital-nomads/2588/14&#xD;&#xA; - https://boldanddetermined.com/hong-kong-business-guide/&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com - tech tips&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadlist.com/guides - books&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com/hammocks-hard-drives/ - books&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get/46751#46751&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - https://nomadforum.io/t/does-international-health-insurance-for-digital-nomads-exist/378&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/09/top-10-tactics-for-protecting-your-stuff/&#xD;&#xA; - https://truecrypt.ch&#xD;&#xA; - https://medium.com/nomad-gate/the-world-s-best-bank-accounts-for-international-travelers-and-nomads-3257e6839cff&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.grownupplayground.com/banking-solutions-for-travelers-digital-nomads/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18341" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6956" RevisionGUID="8434a451-024f-482d-be8e-f965e9c81623" CreationDate="2017-07-02T16:22:49.087" UserId="17608" Text="I'm a web developer, and I charge my clients &quot;hosting and maintenance&quot; fees. This covers my raw hosting costs, but it also includes overhead for server maintenance and handling the occasional &quot;critical bugfix&quot;. That's usually good enough for my clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I now have a client that's looking for a service-level guarantee. I've never done an SLA, but I figured I could offer &quot;99% availability for mission-critical features&quot; and in the case of a failure give a &quot;prorated refund on hosting for time duration of lost availability&quot;. It's a relatively simple application, so I'm not expecting to have to troubleshoot very often.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there anything I'm not thinking of that would make this type of agreement a bad idea?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18342" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6956" RevisionGUID="8434a451-024f-482d-be8e-f965e9c81623" CreationDate="2017-07-02T16:22:49.087" UserId="17608" Text="Am I shooting myself in the foot with a 99% availability SLA?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18343" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6956" RevisionGUID="8434a451-024f-482d-be8e-f965e9c81623" CreationDate="2017-07-02T16:22:49.087" UserId="17608" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18344" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6957" RevisionGUID="6c7aff82-e7c5-45bb-a46b-538c357fdfbd" CreationDate="2017-07-02T18:19:30.063" UserId="708" Text="Unless you have 100% access to the server at all times and can make server-level changes, including but not limited to *hardware replacement* if needed, providing a guarantee seems a bit haphazard.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I always hesitate to guarantee *anything* which is ultimately on the shoulders of some other company or individual. If you are just reselling hosting... that means ultimately *your* guarantee would be in the hands of your hosting provider, not you. You would essentially be guaranteeing another company's work/service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Chances are things will probably run fine and you'll be okay. But there's always that slim chance there's a major issue which could end up costing a lot of time and money to correct, all because you've offered a guarantee. For me, that slim chance is often enough to just find another client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Disclosure: I quit reselling hosting a few years ago and now merely direct clients to companies I think are worthwhile. For me, personally, the constant influx of &quot;my email isn't working&quot; was enough to get me out of the reselling game. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18345" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6958" RevisionGUID="66d56ea6-1495-4ba4-a3df-6b78d72b618d" CreationDate="2017-07-03T04:38:22.373" UserId="14870" Text="Try to shift up the risk to your provider. Ask them to give you SLA. If they do not give you, there is a reason behind it, and you either should not give SLA for the same reason." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18346" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6959" RevisionGUID="2e1ac1bc-c9b8-4705-8e95-29fb2ee6c419" CreationDate="2017-07-03T10:07:06.467" UserId="17612" Text="I've been working in IT for 5 years, *C/C++* middleware on *Linux* being my main specialization. I know some *Java*, *Python*, *C#*, have completed a desktop 3d viewer on *C++/Qt* and also know some web - a bit of *PHP*, *JavaScript*, basic *HTML/CSS*, some *Android* programming. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While still retaining my position as a full-employed C/C++ programmer, I'd like to take some small side jobs in my free time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Honestly, I'm a bit lost what to do and how to approach the issue. I'd like to dive a bit into web-development, but haven't completed any serious project - either front or back-end. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would you advise me to do in order to get started? Where should I look for tasks, how do I establish myself as a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18347" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6959" RevisionGUID="2e1ac1bc-c9b8-4705-8e95-29fb2ee6c419" CreationDate="2017-07-03T10:07:06.467" UserId="17612" Text="Getting started as a freelance programmer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18348" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6959" RevisionGUID="2e1ac1bc-c9b8-4705-8e95-29fb2ee6c419" CreationDate="2017-07-03T10:07:06.467" UserId="17612" Text="|freelance-websites|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18349" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6960" RevisionGUID="76e4ffff-297f-436e-aff1-d7088d4f0e56" CreationDate="2017-07-03T11:11:31.583" UserId="17443" Text="I've been working with an agency to develop a web site for their client. I had a contract with the agency, not the end client. I was unfortunately off my guard on this one and the contract didn't state the code ownership before or after the job is done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Situation is this... on my end project reached completion stage but didn't go live yet (go live is a task of the agency who contracted me). Without going into reasons (there weren't any really, defo nothing related to misconduct or anything similar) they decided to 'end' the contract before the go live happened. So technically, project was finished and they acknowledged it but surely there would be issues or bugs, even during the go live, they would need help with. I know now that help is provided by other dev party they have been contracting on regular basis as their 'support'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And all would be grand if not the fact that they haven't paid my completion invoice yet. They claim they will but the chances of this being true and a lie are 50/50. I was wondering if there is anything I can do except spamming their phones now and go legal chasing payment later. As in, would there be anything in the code ownership grounds that I could use for now?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How does the code ownership work in a default subcontracting situation, where it's not enforced or amended by specific contract agreements?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BTW, I have a similar situation with one other job, also technically completed (but practically not and passed to other dev party) but not paid for. It's not 1 to 1 scenario as with the first one but similar, hence I'd love to learn about general rules first, before trying to apply specific solution to both these cases." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18350" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6960" RevisionGUID="76e4ffff-297f-436e-aff1-d7088d4f0e56" CreationDate="2017-07-03T11:11:31.583" UserId="17443" Text="Code ownership in web dev subcontracting" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18351" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6960" RevisionGUID="76e4ffff-297f-436e-aff1-d7088d4f0e56" CreationDate="2017-07-03T11:11:31.583" UserId="17443" Text="|contracts|ownership|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18352" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6655" RevisionGUID="43be3fb6-5dbc-4d87-9982-7fdb043713d1" CreationDate="2017-07-03T11:50:58.030" UserId="10569" Comment="Fixed grammar, made question intent more clear" Text="When running a project with funds in excess of $100k with a lot of freelancers, how can I ensure they don't just run away with their fees never to be heard from again?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have seen escrow services but I'm not sure if this is the norm." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18353" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6655" RevisionGUID="43be3fb6-5dbc-4d87-9982-7fdb043713d1" CreationDate="2017-07-03T11:50:58.030" UserId="10569" Comment="Fixed grammar, made question intent more clear" Text="Managing payments on a large project with lots of freelancers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18354" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6655" RevisionGUID="43be3fb6-5dbc-4d87-9982-7fdb043713d1" CreationDate="2017-07-03T11:50:58.030" Comment="Proposed by 10569 approved by 7858, 2265 edit id of 556" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18355" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6961" RevisionGUID="5b0a4abe-847f-4602-94dd-af29b791310d" CreationDate="2017-07-03T18:14:25.157" UserId="17614" Text="SUMMARY: A customer is satisfied with the quality of services she received but realizes, after the fact, that other service providers charge less. Although there is a difference in the quality of services between the providers, the customer has a hard time seeing it and is now mad at the service provider and wants a fee reduction. Should the provider give her a reduction? Would it really change her mind that the provider tried to take advantage of her? Are there other ways to salvage the customer relationship? If so what?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;CONTEXT: I own and operate a very small business (250k/year sales). We sell professional services to individuals, not businesses. The average customer will purchase our services 2 to 3 times in their entire lifetime, and our average invoice is around $6,000. We're in a highly competitive industry with a great many competitors and, as is often the case with services, customers tend to see all competitors as the same. Although our services are not a commodity and I certainly don't see them as such, many people have a hard time differentiating the services of one competitor from another.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is my strong belief, and I do have some concrete data to back it up, that we offer a better quality of service and achieve better results for our customers than even some of our best competitors and definitely much, much better than our average competitor - the barrier to entry in our industry is relatively low and there is a considerable amount of low quality low-cost players. Accordingly, our fees tend to be higher than those charged by the competition - sometimes 25% to 50% higher than the average competitor, and 5% to 15% higher than some of the best alternatives. Unfortunately, the nature of our business and our services are such that sometimes, the better we are at our job, the harder it is for the customer to see the value in our services (holy %$?! that seemed easy, quick and effortless, why the hell am I giving you so much money?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PROBLEM: We just finished doing some work for a client that was referred to us. She was referred to us because we have a good reputation in our area and do great work. We talked with this person on the phone, asked her some questions to better understand her needs, sent her a very thorough information package containing our entire service offer, fees, contract and information about our business. We then met with her and signed the contract. Everything went well, we provided her with great service and obtain some great results for that customer. At the end of our mandate, she filled out our online customer survey and gave us a 9 out of 10 in every category.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few weeks after we were done with the work, but before we are scheduled to receive payment, she gets in touch with us to say that she is mad and feels like we took advantage of her and that we charged her way too much. See, a few people told her that she could have hired some of our competitors for less and she now feels stupid that she didn't shop around and trusted the person that referred her to us. Though she has not directly asked for it, she is hinting that we should substantially lower the amount of our invoice and basically admit that we took advantage of her.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;MY TAKE: I feel bad that the customer feels the way she feels and I am sad that what was a pleasant customer relationship turned sour after the fact. It's as if she purchased a BMW or Mercedes, thinking that those were the only cars available, not realizing that there are Toyotas and Hyundais in the world. Now that she realizes that there are Hyundais and Toyotas, she feels like she overpaid for her Mercedes. (They all have 4 wheels, seats and take you from point A to point B, don't they? I got screwed!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't help to think that offering a discount would be an admission that we tried to screw her over (which is absolutely not the case, we offer premium quality services and results, at a premium price) and really, would not be enough to change her opinion of us. A full refund, in this particular case, would represent about 8% of our total forecasted 2017 revenue. I don't want her to start giving us bad word of mouth but at the same time, I'm not sure that the cost to prevent that is equal to what we may or may not lose in potential sales if she ever starts to badmouth us.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;QUESTION: Is there anything we can do, that would stand the test of a cost/benefit analysis, to save the relationship? If so, what? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18356" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6961" RevisionGUID="5b0a4abe-847f-4602-94dd-af29b791310d" CreationDate="2017-07-03T18:14:25.157" UserId="17614" Text="Dealing with a customer that was satisfied with your services but is mad about the price" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18357" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6961" RevisionGUID="5b0a4abe-847f-4602-94dd-af29b791310d" CreationDate="2017-07-03T18:14:25.157" UserId="17614" Text="|price|marketing|customer-relations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18358" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6962" RevisionGUID="59937966-fa9b-4d18-b528-57dab6f7c666" CreationDate="2017-07-03T19:21:17.523" UserId="708" Text="Personal opinion... don't engage too much. If the relationship is damaged, then it's damaged. Get paid and move on. Too much discussion will only inflame issues. In addition, *any* reduction not cited in the contract shows your willingness to **not** adhere to the contract itself. This *could* be interpreted as a failure in the agreement from its inception. The client's lack of due diligence on *their part* does not mean your company should suffer damages. Once this perception is set in a customer's mind, it really unlikely you can overcome it without serious price reductions of &quot;freebies&quot; and that, in turn, means the customer will at least *attempt* to get a reduction *every single time*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi [client], I regret that you may have misunderstood the agreement you signed. All fees were clearly indicated before any work began and at any point prior to engaging our services you were free to comparison shop with other firms/service providers in an effort to save costs. Everything were were hired to complete was stated up front and above board. There are no hidden fees and certainly no attempt to take advantage of or otherwise reap some unhidden benefit from this business relationship. The contract clearly indicated the work to be done and the price for those services. We traditionally expect our clients to adhere to the contract which has been signed, much the same way we ourselves value the contract as a binding agreement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're analogy using cars is a decent one. Imagine what the BWM dealer would tell this customer if they wanted a reduction in price to match a Toyota **after** the sales contracts had been signed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18359" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6956" RevisionGUID="f61543f4-86bc-4a44-a87d-8d81fafcaa3f" CreationDate="2017-07-04T05:31:09.387" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/882109503386288128" />
  <row Id="18361" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6961" RevisionGUID="c3f9355b-f125-474c-b848-d7ca23ca4d2a" CreationDate="2017-07-04T19:46:22.987" UserId="75" Comment="Bolded section titles for readability" Text="**SUMMARY**: A customer is satisfied with the quality of services she received but realizes, after the fact, that other service providers charge less. Although there is a difference in the quality of services between the providers, the customer has a hard time seeing it and is now mad at the service provider and wants a fee reduction. Should the provider give her a reduction? Would it really change her mind that the provider tried to take advantage of her? Are there other ways to salvage the customer relationship? If so what?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**CONTEXT**: I own and operate a very small business (250k/year sales). We sell professional services to individuals, not businesses. The average customer will purchase our services 2 to 3 times in their entire lifetime, and our average invoice is around $6,000. We're in a highly competitive industry with a great many competitors and, as is often the case with services, customers tend to see all competitors as the same. Although our services are not a commodity and I certainly don't see them as such, many people have a hard time differentiating the services of one competitor from another.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is my strong belief, and I do have some concrete data to back it up, that we offer a better quality of service and achieve better results for our customers than even some of our best competitors and definitely much, much better than our average competitor - the barrier to entry in our industry is relatively low and there is a considerable amount of low quality low-cost players. Accordingly, our fees tend to be higher than those charged by the competition - sometimes 25% to 50% higher than the average competitor, and 5% to 15% higher than some of the best alternatives. Unfortunately, the nature of our business and our services are such that sometimes, the better we are at our job, the harder it is for the customer to see the value in our services (holy %$?! that seemed easy, quick and effortless, why the hell am I giving you so much money?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**PROBLEM**: We just finished doing some work for a client that was referred to us. She was referred to us because we have a good reputation in our area and do great work. We talked with this person on the phone, asked her some questions to better understand her needs, sent her a very thorough information package containing our entire service offer, fees, contract and information about our business. We then met with her and signed the contract. Everything went well, we provided her with great service and obtain some great results for that customer. At the end of our mandate, she filled out our online customer survey and gave us a 9 out of 10 in every category.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few weeks after we were done with the work, but before we are scheduled to receive payment, she gets in touch with us to say that she is mad and feels like we took advantage of her and that we charged her way too much. See, a few people told her that she could have hired some of our competitors for less and she now feels stupid that she didn't shop around and trusted the person that referred her to us. Though she has not directly asked for it, she is hinting that we should substantially lower the amount of our invoice and basically admit that we took advantage of her.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**MY TAKE**: I feel bad that the customer feels the way she feels and I am sad that what was a pleasant customer relationship turned sour after the fact. It's as if she purchased a BMW or Mercedes, thinking that those were the only cars available, not realizing that there are Toyotas and Hyundais in the world. Now that she realizes that there are Hyundais and Toyotas, she feels like she overpaid for her Mercedes. (They all have 4 wheels, seats and take you from point A to point B, don't they? I got screwed!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't help to think that offering a discount would be an admission that we tried to screw her over (which is absolutely not the case, we offer premium quality services and results, at a premium price) and really, would not be enough to change her opinion of us. A full refund, in this particular case, would represent about 8% of our total forecasted 2017 revenue. I don't want her to start giving us bad word of mouth but at the same time, I'm not sure that the cost to prevent that is equal to what we may or may not lose in potential sales if she ever starts to badmouth us.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**QUESTION**: Is there anything we can do, that would stand the test of a cost/benefit analysis, to save the relationship? If so, what? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18362" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6963" RevisionGUID="d6953d6b-64d3-4384-bdbe-6b7ce50a44e0" CreationDate="2017-07-05T22:23:45.090" UserId="1706" Text="Neoflash,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a customer's #1 motivation is to get a service done as cheaply as possible, then you can't fix that whether you are at the pre-service stage, performing the service, or done with it.  You just got lucky that it didn't come out sooner.  I hope you've cashed any checks from this customer and aren't sitting on them!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That same customer can't call their electric company or mortgage company and try to beat them down over prices already agreed to.  Similar attempts won't work at the supermarket, or lots of other places that your customer will frequent even over the course of a week's time.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So really, all that's happened here is that your customer has sensed that you're a little vulnerable in the area of standing on your price, and is now trying to capitalize on that.  Don't fall for it!  If you're used to repeat business, PLEASE let this one go.  If you allow this customer to nickle and dime you, even after-the-fact, every other interaction will be tinged with the same dynamic.  Is is worth the stress and headache?  Choose wisely!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18363" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6961" RevisionGUID="ca95ec5c-3b38-4846-b293-dadb54bf481a" CreationDate="2017-07-06T05:46:12.617" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/882838068163751938" />
  <row Id="18364" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6964" RevisionGUID="e5e3d9a9-8a01-4204-b886-f3429e5498c5" CreationDate="2017-07-06T08:42:34.287" UserId="17575" Text="Following on from some completed freelance work, I have received a request for ongoing support to help in house resources build upon the work already provided.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The company is approximately 1 hour round trip away, and I expect this support work to be relatively brief (at most 1-2 hours), which puts me in a difficult position as far as charging is concerned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My rate is quite high, but the cost of travelling would probably eat 10-25% of the final invoice, which is not a small amount. I would like to cover this with a call out fee (which on my first thought would essentially be equivalent to 1 hour at usual rate + a little extra for fuel, to covers both my time and my costs) but I am unsure if this would be unexpected or non-standard.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it unusual for software freelancers to charge a call out fee for a small piece of work like this? If it is appropriate, does a call out charge based on my rate for time + other expenses seem reasonable?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18365" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6964" RevisionGUID="e5e3d9a9-8a01-4204-b886-f3429e5498c5" CreationDate="2017-07-06T08:42:34.287" UserId="17575" Text="Ongoing software support UK - Should I charge a call out fee?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18366" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6964" RevisionGUID="e5e3d9a9-8a01-4204-b886-f3429e5498c5" CreationDate="2017-07-06T08:42:34.287" UserId="17575" Text="|uk|invoices|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18367" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6910" RevisionGUID="2d6fdb96-d287-49a5-b8e4-11b88e3e0fda" CreationDate="2017-07-06T14:23:29.117" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18371" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6966" RevisionGUID="5af04a19-d349-4992-af6d-eaef3f58ed35" CreationDate="2017-07-07T05:37:10.593" UserId="17648" Text="I recently did a job for a large organization. The job was not a long-term one, so the terms were that I would complete the work and then submit my invoice after completion of work. I was fine with this. The contract I was asked to sign by the client included a clause that states:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; An invoice must be submitted within 30 days from the end date of the purchase order authorization, or upon completion of the service, whichever occurs first. Failure to submit an invoice within 30 days will be considered a material breach of this contract.  This will result in non-payment of services rendered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally the contract stated that invoices must be delivered electronically to the E-mail address of the contact person I worked with. The contract specifically said paper-based invoices cannot be accepted. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the time I signed the contract I did not see either of these as being a problem. However, right after completing the job I had a family emergency and was away for a couple of weeks. With everything going on the invoice just slipped my mind. When I was &quot;back on track&quot; I looked at my records and noticed I hadn't invoiced, so I sent the invoice via Email. This was on day number 29 after I'd completed the work. I requested confirmation of receipt of the invoice in the Email. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did not get a response on day 30 that my invoice had been received. So, to be safe, I sent it again, again requesting confirmation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Later the same day, I received a reply to the Email I sent on day 30, saying that I violated the contract by sending my invoice late. They claimed it was received on day 31, apparently a classic off-by-one error on their part,  and therefore I would not be paid. I informed my contact that I had actually submitted the invoice on day 29 but it apparently had not been received. I was given quite a nasty reply, along the lines of &quot;well next time send it in sooner and that won't happen.&quot; I cannot prove whether or not the invoice was ignored, maybe got spam-foldered, or whether it was actually not delivered. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I have any basis whatsoever to challenge this? The amount in question is quite significant. This is an organization I hoped to work with in the future, so I don't want to get on their &quot;bad side&quot;, but the amount in question is too significant to ignore. I find it odd that a contract can actually stipulate such a short invoicing period, and I can't honestly say I've heard of a clause like that in a contract before nor have I ever seen it myself in my work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I even have any recourse in terms of charge-off or bad debt given the contract? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18372" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6966" RevisionGUID="5af04a19-d349-4992-af6d-eaef3f58ed35" CreationDate="2017-07-07T05:37:10.593" UserId="17648" Text="Possible to challenge contractual invoice time limit?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18373" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6966" RevisionGUID="5af04a19-d349-4992-af6d-eaef3f58ed35" CreationDate="2017-07-07T05:37:10.593" UserId="17648" Text="|contracts|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18374" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6950" RevisionGUID="e33ef16d-4344-4595-b773-e18247822dcf" CreationDate="2017-07-07T08:46:12.687" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/883245754499911681" />
  <row Id="18376" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6967" RevisionGUID="dcf8515e-450b-42b6-a33f-bcebddd64cbc" CreationDate="2017-07-07T16:20:11.317" UserId="75" Text="Although I do not create software for my clients, I do provide support. I have a driving rate, as well as a work rate. If the client is outside my city limits, I charge $60/hr driving. This is reasonable, as I can hit anywhere in my city within 30 minutes (I live very close to the center of my city).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyone outside of city limits, I'll be driving for a minimum of 1 hour, there and back together. I'm not using my head much to do travelling, and I find it relaxing, so I charge slightly less. Once I get on site, my standard rate applies (which is higher).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you drive long distances, especially in your own vehicle, you put wear and tear on the vehicle and its parts. Oil changes, new tires (in my country, we need both Summer tires and Winter tires - all-season tires don't cut it), standard maintenance, etc all needs to be taken into account with your own vehicle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, imagine if you lived in a different country. Should you not get paid to travel to the customer's site? Absolutely, you need to be compensated!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, you are essentially out of service for your other customers while you are travelling. This means that you are LOSING money (fuel, wear-and-tear, etc) when you need to travel, which is not fair to you. **YOU** are the expert, and part of that is knowing what you're worth, and your costs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, I would ensure they understand there is a cost for you to be driving there, as well as your rate while you're onsite. I also offer remote support with a remote access program, and that is simply my on-site rate, without the driving. I would offer both solutions (if that would work for your industry), and let the client decide if it's worth calling you out, or if it's a simple &quot;Fix this&quot; issue." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18381" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6969" RevisionGUID="1b708f1e-1588-4cff-b5bf-f1d6b3d1281e" CreationDate="2017-07-08T19:57:35.307" UserId="17662" Text="Don't do it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of it this way:  If the program the client wanted to steal was one *you* wrote and would lose the income from by their theft, would you think *that* was OK?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You write software for a living.  Don't steal other people's work, that's stealing *their* life." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18382" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6970" RevisionGUID="10a4342a-ef65-49e7-b459-8bb5e60e06bf" CreationDate="2017-07-09T01:41:26.930" UserId="13016" Text="To answer your question, yes, it is possible to challenge the time limit.  You will need a lawyer for that, and will likely win, in my amateur opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You sent on day 29, so you are entitled to full payment.  That they play games by ignoring it is something that reflects badly on them, and any judge should see right through that.  Also, outcomes of cases like this often favor the little guy, you, and I say &quot;like this&quot; because you did, in fact, comply with the contract, and shady companies have often pushed the little guy around, counting on the fact that most do not have funds to fight.  Been there, done that, won.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you probably want is 1) for them to pay you, 2) for them to respect you going forward (which they do not), and 3) them to like you and continue having work for you.  You cannot have all this.  Their move is deliberate, obviously, so if you win one way, they will make sure you lose another way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My choice would be to calmly hire a lawyer, win, expect no future work from them, nor losses, and move on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my case, the contract work so closely resembled employment, state law protected me as though I were an employee.  In South Carolina, the state awards &quot;treble damages&quot;, which means triple, so my $10K turned into $30K in the suit.  I settled out of court for $20K, which was really break-even for me, after legal costs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18384" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6971" RevisionGUID="2cd44ec0-2b5d-4e3f-aa20-9ab5d1e13a0c" CreationDate="2017-07-09T14:57:10.200" UserId="17665" Text="When doing a project or any work for a company, ask if you can use them as a reference. That's a great time to get permission. You can even add it as a part of a document they write off on when the job is complete. It basically just says you can use the logo. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've gone both routes of asking and not asking and haven't had an issue with any. When asking, I've always got a clear yes or I don't care. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only time I got in trouble was when a Disney rep said sure and shortly after I got a C&amp;D letter from their lawyers. You can't use ANYTHING Disney or anything under their umbrella at all for any reason ever." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18385" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6972" RevisionGUID="068a3f6a-74e0-45f7-8687-8b60b598f121" CreationDate="2017-07-09T16:31:42.613" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="I met with a client recently in order to gather her requirements for a project. All sounds quite do-able... except for one request with regards to doubling the lengths of user visits on her website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am quite certain I can *improve* the lengths of visits on their websites... but I can't promise that they will *double*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I do in terms of writing my proposal? Say that the ideal situation is to double visiting times, rather than promising it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18386" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6972" RevisionGUID="068a3f6a-74e0-45f7-8687-8b60b598f121" CreationDate="2017-07-09T16:31:42.613" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="Making promises in a proposal for something that might not be possible" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18387" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6972" RevisionGUID="068a3f6a-74e0-45f7-8687-8b60b598f121" CreationDate="2017-07-09T16:31:42.613" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="|contracts|web-development|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18393" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6975" RevisionGUID="a87ebc7a-2abd-4ae4-8db8-2524f546cac7" CreationDate="2017-07-10T07:12:22.217" UserId="7858" Text="Even though the request in itself is pretty clear and quite easily measured, it might be worthwhile examining what the client really wants.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If time = money, the request for 'doubling time spent' could actually mean 'double my money'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If so, perhaps the focus should shift to money instead of time. Perhaps there are other ways to monetize? Betters ads? Memberships? Premium content?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, if the client is fixated on doubling time spent - you will have a decision to make. If the client wants to penalize you somehow for not fulfilling the request, suggest you are rewarded for over-delivery. That might make them think twice - but it can also potentially make you more of a business partner than a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before accepting the risk, consider to which degree you actually influence user behavior. Even the best technical solution will not get attention if the content is worthless. If the client insists on you bearing the entire risk of something partially out of your hands, walking away might be the best option." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18394" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6976" RevisionGUID="62ccc673-4dd3-4f45-941f-43dd6a9489ee" CreationDate="2017-07-10T16:11:04.380" UserId="1706" Text="No, don't make that kind of promise.  You can promise to take specific actions which *might* be likely to lengthen the duration of user sessions, such as what is described [here][1], but you can't put a blanket promise in the contract to &quot;double&quot; the length without exposing yourself to legal action.  What if it doesn't work?  What if external conditions change?  You'd still be on the hook;  if you promise it and it doesn't work out, that's a breach.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://optinmonster.com/11-hacks-to-keep-visitors-on-your-pages-longer/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18400" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6978" RevisionGUID="88bd30cc-d1f4-4747-8ca2-78771cc0b2f9" CreationDate="2017-07-11T06:49:33.567" UserId="17675" Text="I'm going to play devil's advocate, I guess.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The comment, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the better we are at our job, the harder it is for the customer to see the value in our services (holy %$?! that seemed easy, quick and effortless, why the hell am I giving you so much money?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;causes me to raise an eyebrow. Maybe it's a tactical error, but what are you doing letting your customers see you make it look easy?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, you talked on the phone, sent her an information packet, met her to sign the contract, and ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm paying thousands of dollars for what is essentially personal services, (professional, okay, but *for individuals*, did you not say?), I'm going to want face-to-face. Otherwise, it's going to be hard to convince me you aren't giving me something canned, and a canned solution ought to be cheap. (... cheap being defined by your competitors' lower prices.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you really are confident of the value your version of the services provides above that of your competition, letting your customers see you work should be a tactic to avoid this kind of problem. It gives them more of a sense of the value of what you provide and it gives you more opportunity to customize what you give them. (Customizing can only add to the delivered value, I think?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a sort of metaphor, say I sell you a kilogram of gold bullion in a plain brown wrapper sent by package express mail. If you don't complain about the delivery method, you're likely to say to yourself, &quot;lead.&quot; And, &quot;Hornswagglers. Lost cause.&quot; And you give up and put it on a shelf where it gathers dust. And the value I intended you to receive is not delivered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the present case, and this will apply even if the customer turns out to be a wangler, get yourself a consultant and a lawyer to work over your options and your approach. With their help, contact those who referred her to you and find out if they are aware of complaints she hasn't raised with you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Schedule more face-to-face and on-location with her to help her use what you delivered, and maybe customize it for her. And, in the process, you can demonstrate the value of what you have delivered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And collect information in case you have to sue -- do keep your eyes and ears open, but don't take the antagonistic or inquisitional approach. Leave that to the lawyer if and only if it's necessary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sure, it eats into your profit to hire a lawyer and a consultant, but you're making decent money. You should be able to plow some of that back into your future profitability." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18404" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6980" RevisionGUID="d63c379b-61a7-4373-8bff-4121fcde2aec" CreationDate="2017-07-11T10:45:18.237" UserId="17575" Text="The UK government website specifies that invoices are payable within 30 days unless a different payment date is agreed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Unless you agree a payment date, the customer must pay you within 30 days of getting your invoice or the goods or service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Source: [gov.uk website][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I issue an invoice to a client with a due date of say 2 weeks from the invoice date, would a lack of response to that invoice constitute acceptance of that due date? Or is explicit agreement required? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not trying to pull a fast one on my client here and sneakily charge them interest, however I want to ensure my initial invoice is paid before I am too invested into subsequent work, and I am aware from working with other contractors that a 14 day due date seems to be common practice&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers/payment-obligations &quot;gov.uk website&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18405" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6980" RevisionGUID="d63c379b-61a7-4373-8bff-4121fcde2aec" CreationDate="2017-07-11T10:45:18.237" UserId="17575" Text="Does an undisputed due date on an invoice constitute agreement to that due date?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18406" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6980" RevisionGUID="d63c379b-61a7-4373-8bff-4121fcde2aec" CreationDate="2017-07-11T10:45:18.237" UserId="17575" Text="|uk|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18407" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6981" RevisionGUID="dfd40f9d-b5eb-4864-9209-a75d45fff83a" CreationDate="2017-07-11T12:41:21.000" UserId="1018" Text="A service level of 99 % uptime allows the following downtime:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Daily: 14m 24.0s&#xD;&#xA;- Weekly: 1h 40m 48.0s&#xD;&#xA;- Monthly: 7h 18m 17.5s&#xD;&#xA;- Yearly: 3d 15h 39m 29.5s&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A reliable web hosting solution is unlikely to be down for more than 7 hours per month so you'd likely be quite safe. In the event of a hosting company disaster, you could probably restore a recent backup to a new host and be up and running in less than 7 hours if you had to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you say, define a reasonable penalty and exclude any special circumstances out of your control such as Acts of God.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recommend checking service level agreements of companies in your industry or similar industries for ideas. You can find these online as they are often available to prospective customers and not just customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should charge more for a service with an SLA as you may need to prioritise work for SLA clients, e.g. working outside of normal hours to keep them online in an emergency, and they should pay for this privilege.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, I am not a lawyer and you should probably get someone qualified in this area to check over your ideas." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18413" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6983" RevisionGUID="516bf635-a771-4bd2-97ea-e210eac5cbc5" CreationDate="2017-07-12T07:07:27.177" UserId="7858" Text="Basically a legal question - and I am not a British lawyer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a Danish context, one needs to react when receiving an invoice one disagrees with, be it the amount, due date, VAT or otherwise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If possible, I have the customer acknowledge the invoice, as that clears the road for later sending the invoice to a 'debt collector' ('Inkasso' in Danish) if needed, thus avoiding the courts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When signing an agreement with a new client, the due date is always part of the deal. Nothing in the invoice should ever be surprising to an honest client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18414" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6984" RevisionGUID="4f24d3b6-8f85-4fed-9938-eb905bf746ea" CreationDate="2017-07-12T14:09:56.980" UserId="4271" Text="It depends on what you agreed with the client. What does it say in your contract? You do have a contract right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, with interest, you can't just start charging interest if the payment is late. There are steps you need to go though&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://www.contractoruk.com/limited_companies/contractor_late_payment_letters_-_free_templates.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, there doesn't seem to be a 'norm' with invoices. I've had clients who do 30 days, 14 days and 7 days. It depends on what you agree with your client and whats in the contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18415" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6985" RevisionGUID="85732539-d2db-4533-b75c-001456f155b6" CreationDate="2017-07-12T15:50:42.870" UserId="16611" Text="In Brief:&#xD;&#xA;I have a short-term, part-time software consulting contract (200-300hrs over 2-3months) for which the client has specified hourly and daily rates. What is a typical ratio between hourly : daily rates (given details/context below)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Details/Context: &#xD;&#xA;The client does business with a close colleague of mine - so I am doing this work as a courtesy to some extent - though I figure the client isn't aware of this fact (early versions of the contract were shamelessly one-sided, etc). My originally proposed rates were $100/hr capping at $800/day (so a 10hr day = $800). However, the client made the following change in the latest version of the contract:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ...Consultant shall be paid an hourly fee of $80/hr or a daily fee of&#xD;&#xA;&gt; $600...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Notice that 8hrs * $80/hr = $640, not $600. (I never bill for lunch)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**- I'll put any updates / answers to questions below here. Thanks! -**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18416" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6985" RevisionGUID="85732539-d2db-4533-b75c-001456f155b6" CreationDate="2017-07-12T15:50:42.870" UserId="16611" Text="Setting Rates - What ratio should I use for my Hourly : Daily rates?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18417" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6985" RevisionGUID="85732539-d2db-4533-b75c-001456f155b6" CreationDate="2017-07-12T15:50:42.870" UserId="16611" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18418" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6986" RevisionGUID="85a3d0c7-41b0-46ed-b95a-c3790cfb0ab9" CreationDate="2017-07-12T16:38:30.960" UserId="708" Text="I don't understand the question. It seems straightforward to me....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Number of hours worked in a day times my hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't give discounts for &quot;daily&quot; work. Why would I? If I can make $800/day at my hourly rate for **any** client, why would I charge less for this one specific client? My expertise, abilities, speed, etc don't change because something takes 8 hours instead of 5.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I am inclined to give *any* discount I stick to percentages... 5%, 10%. So **if** I were to offer a discount (and that's a BIG &quot;if&quot;)... 8hr * $100/hr = $800 - 10% = $720&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seems to me cutting the hourly rate from $100/hr to $80/hr is *really* undercutting your price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(FYI $100/hr for a 10 hour day is $1,000 not $800 - if you subtract an hour for lunch, then $900)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18419" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6986" RevisionGUID="5dd2dae0-b6e9-4c5c-a2bb-eb6c7689b5f8" CreationDate="2017-07-12T16:57:40.363" UserId="708" Comment="added 120 characters in body" Text="I don't understand the question. It seems straightforward to me....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Number of hours worked in a day times my hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't give discounts for &quot;daily&quot; work. Why would I? If I can make $800/day at my hourly rate for **any** client, why would I charge less for this one specific client? My expertise, abilities, speed, etc don't change because something takes 8 hours instead of 5.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I am inclined to give *any* discount I stick to percentages... 5%, 10%. So **if** I were to offer a discount (and that's a BIG &quot;if&quot;)... 8hr * $100/hr = $800 - 10% = $720 -- if you subtract and hour for lunch.. 7hr * $100 = $700 - 10% = $630. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seems to me cutting the hourly rate from $100/hr to $80/hr is *really* providing at **20%** discount. That, to me, is too great of a discount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(FYI $100/hr for a 10 hour day is $1,000 not $800 - if you subtract an hour for lunch, then $900)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18420" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6987" RevisionGUID="798dfa2c-d7f8-4431-bff7-2239044be827" CreationDate="2017-07-13T04:08:55.010" UserId="2265" Text="Normally daily rate is number of hours worked * hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only time when I make an exception is for ad hoc assignments where a client asks for an afternoon of my time, or one day for a specific workshop or training. I charge a higher &quot;ad hoc consultancy&quot; rate for that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;E.g.:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- ad hoc consultancy: 1.000 / day&#xD;&#xA;- longer projects (10 days and up): 850 / day&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For semi permanent roles (e.g. 6 months full time) I know some of my colleague-freelancers give another discount but I never take such assignments (didn't become freelancer to still spend months on end at the same client). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18421" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6988" RevisionGUID="7d0e8f75-41fd-4851-9f5f-b7066f211a22" CreationDate="2017-07-13T04:13:42.683" UserId="2265" Text="Interesting, here (Benelux) it's different: an invoice is by definition payable the moment it is sent. &#xD;&#xA;Payment terms are a favor you give to your client and to be fair: one that is expected. But legally nothing forces you to use a payment term at all. So if you put a due date of 14 days and there is no reaction then 14 days it is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To avoid confusion all my contracts or quotes contain a payment term though, so when invoice time comes there shouldn't be any surprises. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Took me a while to get over the classic freelancer fear: &quot;what if my client doesn't agree to it? I'll just not say anything until I need to send an invoice!&quot; &#xD;&#xA;That is a mistake, anything regarding payment or price or whatever should be clear before I lift a finger. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18422" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6989" RevisionGUID="ef6865ce-b7f8-4193-81a5-369d259e1dbb" CreationDate="2017-07-13T10:02:19.350" UserId="17687" Text="I was offered to sign a contract for Consultant/Developer position working remotely for company in United Arab Emirates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Contract contains Indemnification paragraph that looks strange to me. Since it's my first contract I have some doubts if I should sign it (since I will have unlimited liability).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you think about this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Consultant hereby indemnifies and agrees to defend and hold harmless XXXX from and againstany and all claims, demands and actions, and any liabilities, damages or expenses resulting there &#xD;&#xA;from, including court costs and reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of or relating to the services performed by Consultant under this Agreement or the representations and warranties made by&#xD;&#xA;Consultant herein. Consultant's obligations under this paragraph hereof shall survive the termination, for any reason, of this Agreement. Additionally, Consultant shall indemnify and hold XXXX harmless against all claims, costs, liability and loss, including attorneys fees, arising out of&#xD;&#xA;or relating to the performance by Consultant under this Agreement and/or the Consultants failure to perform its obligations hereunder, including but not limited to claims of infringement of patent, trademark or other proprietary rights, claims or actions based upon or arising out of damage or&#xD;&#xA;injury (including death) to persons or property or based on any violation of law, breach of any Consultant's warranties or representations and claims by Consultant or personnel assigned by&#xD;&#xA;Consultant for benefits or compensation from either XXXX or XXXX' clients. &#xD;&#xA;XXXX SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOST REVENUE, LOST PROFITS OR ANY OTHER CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY OR OTHER DAMAGES SUFFERED BY CONSULTANT UNDER ANY PART OF THIS AGREEMENT, WHETHER OR NOT THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH&#xD;&#xA;LOST PROFITS OR DAMAGES HAS BEEN DISCLOSED TO XXXX OR COULD HAVE BEEN REASONABLY FORESEEN BY XXXX." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18423" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6989" RevisionGUID="ef6865ce-b7f8-4193-81a5-369d259e1dbb" CreationDate="2017-07-13T10:02:19.350" UserId="17687" Text="Consulting contract (Developer) - Indemnification" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18424" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6989" RevisionGUID="ef6865ce-b7f8-4193-81a5-369d259e1dbb" CreationDate="2017-07-13T10:02:19.350" UserId="17687" Text="|contracts|consulting|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18425" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6990" RevisionGUID="d8907ed1-934b-4af3-a4df-f652f7c229aa" CreationDate="2017-07-13T13:02:01.497" UserId="15143" Text="I am a buyer on upwork.com seeking for someone to remotely access and upgrade my server.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's a contractor who wanted to work **without** a contract. I'd sent him the offer but it was not accepted (I even paid for deposit). The contractor asked me to share him the server details, and he said he would only accept the offer once the job is complete. Thus, he didn't want to take the deposit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Q:** I'm not sure if I should trust him. Why would he do that? There's no guarantee I'd even anything without a contract...&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18426" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6990" RevisionGUID="d8907ed1-934b-4af3-a4df-f652f7c229aa" CreationDate="2017-07-13T13:02:01.497" UserId="15143" Text="Why anybody would work without a contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18427" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6990" RevisionGUID="d8907ed1-934b-4af3-a4df-f652f7c229aa" CreationDate="2017-07-13T13:02:01.497" UserId="15143" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18428" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6991" RevisionGUID="e2420dfa-e427-4db2-a7b3-b7cf5cb0e421" CreationDate="2017-07-13T13:23:58.453" UserId="2265" Text="I assume he wants to be paid outside of Upwork and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with a contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Upwork takes a nice chunk our of your earnings, and perhaps he wants to avoid it and will request payment outside of upwork when the job is done. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18429" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6992" RevisionGUID="f21dd9db-cce7-453d-b71d-f8e13fde8fbe" CreationDate="2017-07-13T15:53:06.943" UserId="517" Text="This is a common scam on Upwork. Well not a real scam, but here is the thing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You CANNOT rate him before he finished the work. So if he is not sure he can finish the work, he will work on it but without accepting the offer. So if you are unhappy or he is not in the mood to finish the contract, you CANNOT DO ANYTHING about it. And if you are happy, he will accept the contract because he knows that you will give him good rating. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;DO NOT work with such guys. You have no idea if this is not a real scammer who can ruin your server. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;DO contact support and reply such behavior. There guys are inventing new things every day so let Upwork deal with them, and you do not work without contract. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18431" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6993" RevisionGUID="8851943a-0609-4d8b-bd68-8ff0cb9cfdf7" CreationDate="2017-07-13T16:22:07.517" UserId="17691" Text="ive been learning front end development for 2 months now, and thinking of getting a freelance job even just from a small scale business. I can now comfortably write html,css and use preprocessor also some jquery and js.. but i dont know how the process works on freelancing.. especially as a beginner what do i need to ask my client? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18432" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6993" RevisionGUID="8851943a-0609-4d8b-bd68-8ff0cb9cfdf7" CreationDate="2017-07-13T16:22:07.517" UserId="17691" Text="What do I need to know from my client as freelance front end developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18433" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6993" RevisionGUID="8851943a-0609-4d8b-bd68-8ff0cb9cfdf7" CreationDate="2017-07-13T16:22:07.517" UserId="17691" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18434" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6994" RevisionGUID="9e2dbab8-1dbb-4753-b4d2-e50acc649592" CreationDate="2017-07-13T17:29:51.917" UserId="17692" Text="I am looking on taking my first job as a freelance developer and the project involves ecommerce. We are starting to get to the contract talks and I wanted to make sure if anything goes horrible wrong in the event of hacking or loss of money from their store being down. I am not open to be sued personal and have my personal assets at risk. If I created an LLC for my freelance work would this protect me from losing an personal assets in the case of a lawsuit? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18435" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6994" RevisionGUID="9e2dbab8-1dbb-4753-b4d2-e50acc649592" CreationDate="2017-07-13T17:29:51.917" UserId="17692" Text="Does LLC Protect from Personal Lawsuit" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18436" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6994" RevisionGUID="9e2dbab8-1dbb-4753-b4d2-e50acc649592" CreationDate="2017-07-13T17:29:51.917" UserId="17692" Text="|legal|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18437" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6995" RevisionGUID="85c26129-079d-4f10-b306-3e3b77644fe9" CreationDate="2017-07-13T17:47:57.167" UserId="16611" Text="I have an hourly-rated contract with a client (small tech company, ~5 people + a few contractors). The first 7 months went well - payments tended to be a week or two late on occasion, which I attributed to disorganization. However, a month ago the accounts receivable reached $25k - at which point I stopped working for the client. Since then, I have a chain of emails and phone calls trying to solicit payment (or partial payment) from the client. I receive responses within 1-3 days - usually a verbal guarantee from the client that I'll receive at least a partial payment within the next week - which has never happened.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm now considering taking legal action (a letter from lawyer then sueing). The law firm is willing waive all costs if we do not receive payment, though they will of course take a decent percentage of the payout if we win. This, of course, is all assuming that the client is able to pay (an important variable in this equation).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm hoping there is a good rule of thumb out there to determine when its best to begin legal action. My concerns are (1) loss of money and (2) the client becoming uncivil/hostile. Thx.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;p.s. - please note this is similar to [question 6581][1] though this addresses a larger outstanding payment ($25,000 vs £100) and, thus, addresses costs of legal action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/6581/should-i-warn-client-that-im-going-to-have-to-threaten-legal-action" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18438" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6995" RevisionGUID="85c26129-079d-4f10-b306-3e3b77644fe9" CreationDate="2017-07-13T17:47:57.167" UserId="16611" Text="When to take legal action against client for outstanding payment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18439" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6995" RevisionGUID="85c26129-079d-4f10-b306-3e3b77644fe9" CreationDate="2017-07-13T17:47:57.167" UserId="16611" Text="|legal|payments|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18440" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6991" RevisionGUID="3410df8e-e979-47ae-afe7-22330a85205f" CreationDate="2017-07-13T20:03:33.410" UserId="2265" Comment="edited body" Text="I assume he wants to be paid outside of Upwork and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with a contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Upwork takes a nice chunk out of your earnings, and perhaps he wants to avoid it and will request payment outside of upwork when the job is done. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18441" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6996" RevisionGUID="63e559cf-4e34-4d95-9272-84770396e04e" CreationDate="2017-07-13T21:03:38.727" UserId="1706" Text="&quot;When&quot;?  I'd have started considering it if a client of mine was more than two weeks late.  But you're way past that point.  The real question is how effective anything you do will actually be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're going to get the strongly-worded letter from the attorney sent to your client, you need to be in a position to back up the demand.  You've really hurt yourself because if things go to litigation, you may to have to pull *more* money out of your pocket to pay the attorneys before all is resolved.  Then, you might get a judgment in court, but that doesn't mean your client will pay immediately; the client might even dissolve the business and start anew just to get around paying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The point is that you must be very careful about being too headstrong in your remediation efforts, because legal fees can eat up anything you might gain.  Consider your options - and emotional tolerance level - carefully.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And NEXT time, don't let a client run that kind of a bill up without taking action much sooner." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18442" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6997" RevisionGUID="ff3b2d60-17b8-4edb-b24a-82458bfe7bac" CreationDate="2017-07-13T21:07:02.363" UserId="1706" Text="Generally, yes, unless you are found guilty of some crime or gross wrongdoing related to the claims in the lawsuit.  The liability would be limited to the assets of the LLC; hence the expression &quot;limited liability company&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not an attorney." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18443" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6990" RevisionGUID="dd8f29b3-9aa2-4433-846d-0b7f1383c70c" CreationDate="2017-07-14T02:19:12.517" UserId="15143" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="I am a buyer on upwork.com seeking for someone to remotely access and upgrade my server.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's a contractor who wanted to work **without** a contract. I'd sent him the offer but it was not accepted (I even paid for deposit). The contractor asked me to share him the server details, and he said he would only accept the offer once the job is complete. Thus, he didn't want to take the deposit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Q:** I'm not sure if I should trust him. Why would he do that? There's no guarantee I'll even pay anything without a contract...&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18444" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6998" RevisionGUID="b0808bbf-610b-4690-9f42-8aee8e791486" CreationDate="2017-07-14T08:02:59.223" UserId="517" Text="The client is ready for a lawsuit whenever you decide you will proceed this way. you can sue anyone, any time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you are firm about going the lawsuit way and you see that no other method will work, then visit a legal adviser and check how realistic is that you will win. Because if you are likely to lose, it better to lose 25k then 25k+legal costs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if I were you, before going to the lawsuit way, I would ask my legal representative to send him official &quot;last warning before a lawsuit&quot; which basically say that the lawsuit will be filed within X days and that you will stop all relations with the clients including turning off his server, webpage, mobile app or whatever you were working for him. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18445" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="6999" RevisionGUID="9590c3c0-b7f7-4142-af6b-9daf77d10ac5" CreationDate="2017-07-14T08:26:12.343" UserId="16574" Text="I am a web developer who works for a company and next to it has &quot;private clients&quot; as a freelancer. One of my client is my co-worker's friend, who is a real estate rental salesman.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First I had to move his webpage to our server. The webpage used a lot of out-dated function what our webserver didn't treated well. I had even to rewrite the image uploading class to work like it used to be. He paid in time&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After my co-worker said that the client need a new development: He needed a &quot;flats to sale&quot; &quot;system&quot; next to the &quot;flats to rent&quot; I shipped the code in-time under the &quot;planned hours&quot;. My co-worker said that upload the code and the client will come the day after to pay. He didn't come and phoned that he will come next monday. We waited for him but again, he didn't come. Now the code is shipped three weeks ago and there was five or more scheduled meeting that he skipped. I thinking about deactivating the admin page and charge him higher amount for the delay." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18446" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="6999" RevisionGUID="9590c3c0-b7f7-4142-af6b-9daf77d10ac5" CreationDate="2017-07-14T08:26:12.343" UserId="16574" Text="Can I charge higher for a non paying client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18447" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="6999" RevisionGUID="9590c3c0-b7f7-4142-af6b-9daf77d10ac5" CreationDate="2017-07-14T08:26:12.343" UserId="16574" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18448" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7000" RevisionGUID="acc06b2e-554f-446a-a630-2dae9a54e223" CreationDate="2017-07-14T08:34:12.803" UserId="17697" Text="To ship a project you always need to install something on customer's PC/server. There are 2 options: make it yourself or write an instruction for them. It's not that important if the setup is small. But now I'm facing a setup which took around 2 working days on my PC because of compilation time and resolving issues both. I'm using those frameworks for the first time (will definetely be somewhat faster the second time). It's a fixed price project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I add this as additional cost? I always have feeling that I should be well-familiar with the software on which I'm basing my solution (I usually do not, in fact), so presuming this I consider installation an easy process that is not paid separately.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Furthermore, the customer is tempted to make it themselves to get experience for further deployment. But they will definetely run into problems and most probably it will spend both my/their time. I'm also not very tempted to provide educational services." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18449" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7000" RevisionGUID="acc06b2e-554f-446a-a630-2dae9a54e223" CreationDate="2017-07-14T08:34:12.803" UserId="17697" Text="Installing complex software at customer site" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18450" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7000" RevisionGUID="acc06b2e-554f-446a-a630-2dae9a54e223" CreationDate="2017-07-14T08:34:12.803" UserId="17697" Text="|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18451" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7001" RevisionGUID="32ffaa06-b541-4ee3-b515-93b15ae6c752" CreationDate="2017-07-14T08:53:44.123" UserId="15143" Text="Well... If your customer isn't paying, charging higher certainly won't help. You:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Find out where your customer is, in particular, why he isn't paying. Too expensive? Bad quality? Something else? Call him repeatedly.&#xD;&#xA; - Do you have a contract? If you do, you might be able to goto the court. But ... unless the amount is significant, you should probably just write it off.&#xD;&#xA; - Talk to your co-worker in a serious tone. Your customer is his friend, he is kind of responsible for the mess. Can he contact his friend? If you don't mind losing your co-worker, can you ask him to be responsible (at least pay partially).&#xD;&#xA; - The fact that your customer hasn't come for meetings might mean he doesn't need your service anymore, and you don't know that. This is a common scenario, in particular, if you don't have a contract.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;We have lots of existing posts about not-paying clients. Give a search." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18452" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7002" RevisionGUID="f02ff67c-e246-440a-8af0-9f17aa180d94" CreationDate="2017-07-14T09:40:31.217" UserId="17697" Text="I have quite simple contract terms so far. I don't expect that any legal actions are possible (the money is not that big and we're always around the globe). It's more for the client to be aware what to expect in case of problems. Should I ask them to make a photo of their signature in that case? Or just prompt to read and confirm?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18453" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7002" RevisionGUID="f02ff67c-e246-440a-8af0-9f17aa180d94" CreationDate="2017-07-14T09:40:31.217" UserId="17697" Text="What is the simplest way to sign up an agreement" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18454" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7002" RevisionGUID="f02ff67c-e246-440a-8af0-9f17aa180d94" CreationDate="2017-07-14T09:40:31.217" UserId="17697" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18455" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7003" RevisionGUID="ce1025be-93f4-438d-a2c8-67d7fc67b9ce" CreationDate="2017-07-14T16:34:45.650" UserId="75" Text="This is one reason why I like having a &quot;dev server&quot;. I do development on a server that I own and control. When I get paid, the code gets uploaded to the customer's server.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far, there have been no ill-effects from this setup, other than the possibility to lose time. I host the server in my home, on an Internet connection not made for business use. At any time, I can turn it off. At any time, I can remove all traces of it. At any time, I can allow more than just the business' IP address to connect to it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One of my first projects involved a lengthy photo shoot with puppies, laying it out on the site, and creating a mailing script. This was straight out of college, so it took me a couple days to complete everything. Silly me, I paid for a hostname, a VPS in a server farm, and uploaded everything. My mistake? I paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Knowing then what I know now, I would have put it on my server that I already owned, given a long URL (i.e. https://client123.example.com) that clearly shows who the owner is (Me, from Example.com Industries), and let them know it's ready to be transferred to their provider once I get payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18456" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7004" RevisionGUID="02e6fe69-027f-48bc-b6b9-93258d786671" CreationDate="2017-07-14T16:41:15.943" UserId="75" Text="Are you being paid to deploy the project as well? It sounds like you are, but check your contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it is going to take lots of time to deploy something for a customer, you need to be the expert in learning what common pitfalls there are, and how to remedy them *before* you go onsite.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fixed-price projects are just that - fixed price. They're nice for the customer because they know *exactly* how much to expect to pay. Do not charge more without discussing it with them first, and they agree and understand *why* you need to charge more. Be prepared for angry customers if it is your first install. My recommendation is *just do the work*, and learn for next time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18457" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6992" RevisionGUID="3719d952-1f0c-4e85-abbc-ad255f36f203" CreationDate="2017-07-14T16:42:56.513" UserId="-1" Comment="&quot;Report&quot; is clearly what was meant." Text="This is a common scam on Upwork. Well, not a real scam, but here is the thing:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You CANNOT rate him before he finished the work. So if he is not sure he can finish the work, he will work on it, but without accepting the offer. So if you are unhappy, or he is not in the mood to finish the contract, you CANNOT DO ANYTHING about it. And if you are happy, he will accept the contract because he knows that you will give him good rating. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;DO NOT work with such guys. You have no idea if this is not a real scammer who can ruin your server. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;DO contact support and report such behavior. There guys are inventing new things every day so let Upwork deal with them, and you do not work without a contract. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18458" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6992" RevisionGUID="3719d952-1f0c-4e85-abbc-ad255f36f203" CreationDate="2017-07-14T16:42:56.513" Comment="Proposed by anonymous approved by 2265, 75 edit id of 557" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18459" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7005" RevisionGUID="8381c62a-1aa0-4915-a761-71c8b470070d" CreationDate="2017-07-14T18:25:53.127" UserId="708" Text="You can not arbitrarily add fees to an invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In most instances, only disclosed fees can be invoiced. So, if your contract or invoice includes a notice of late fees then you can include those. If the contract includes services with understood on-going billing, then you can invoice for the period of those services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But you really can't just add figures to an invoice because you are angry or annoyed. If that were legal, just imagine the invoices everyone could send.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additional fees **must** be justified, not emotional." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18469" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6990" RevisionGUID="5f784845-7e70-4944-891c-770c8b235e46" CreationDate="2017-07-16T22:34:38.683" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/886715727490629633" />
  <row Id="18471" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7009" RevisionGUID="bcfd688c-4990-49b1-8616-d599289b594c" CreationDate="2017-07-17T04:52:50.317" UserId="17695" Text="Can the old guys in this field &quot;Freelancing&quot; tell me the best websites to offer gigs and services to people because I only know one website and it is not enough for me.&#xD;&#xA;PS: Is Wirex would be a good website to order a Visa card?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18472" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7009" RevisionGUID="bcfd688c-4990-49b1-8616-d599289b594c" CreationDate="2017-07-17T04:52:50.317" UserId="17695" Text="Best Sites To Offer Services" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18473" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7009" RevisionGUID="bcfd688c-4990-49b1-8616-d599289b594c" CreationDate="2017-07-17T04:52:50.317" UserId="17695" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18476" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7011" RevisionGUID="d56450f2-db1b-45c0-a5ce-19b7a5d27c00" CreationDate="2017-07-17T14:03:10.993" UserId="17728" Text="I am an engineering student studying in one of the top schools in my country. I have been tutoring students for about 2 years, sharing my expertise with those who are about to take university entrance exams (mostly high school students).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Students usually find me through my blog where I post articles about problem solving strategies, time management, dealing with stress, building resilience and patience etc. I also share stories of my previous students and their successes in exams.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During sessions, I usually: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - solve difficult, challenging problems&#xD;&#xA; - talk to students about common sources of distraction and how to deal with those&#xD;&#xA; - talk to families about their attitude towards the student and how they can provide the student with a more efficient environment (I don't charge money for these talks of course, they are usually like tea talks)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, generally speaking, I work roughly as a personal trainer for these students.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of my students say they are satisfied with the learning experience. I regularly provide the students' families with information about the student's progress, and they also openly express their satisfaction and say they are willing to continue with tutoring sessions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is, after 2-3 months of tutoring 2-4 hours per week, the families suddenly and abruptly change their minds and want to put and end to the sessions, with no display of dissatisfaction or distrust. Am I missing something? Is it possible that I have problems with reading some cues about their attitude towards me? How can I keep my client families wanting to stay with me until the end of the semester?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S.: For the sake of comparison, I charge $15 per hour which amounts to $120-$240 per month where an average white collar earns $1200 per month in my country.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18477" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7011" RevisionGUID="d56450f2-db1b-45c0-a5ce-19b7a5d27c00" CreationDate="2017-07-17T14:03:10.993" UserId="17728" Text="How can I keep my students and their families satisfied with my tutoring?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18478" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7011" RevisionGUID="d56450f2-db1b-45c0-a5ce-19b7a5d27c00" CreationDate="2017-07-17T14:03:10.993" UserId="17728" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18479" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7012" RevisionGUID="65f1e287-e6f6-4b6c-8bbc-040039824386" CreationDate="2017-07-17T14:13:41.230" UserId="17729" Text="[Upwork][1] is good, but to be able to earn a living income from it takes time and effort since you will need to build a portfolio and get enough ratings from customers who have seen and left positive feedback on your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However I highly advise doing your own research before deciding on a platform/website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.upwork.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18480" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7011" RevisionGUID="69a97710-105a-467e-8d8f-c6f0464dc6d4" CreationDate="2017-07-17T14:41:29.357" UserId="17728" Comment="added 516 characters in body" Text="I am an engineering student studying in one of the top schools in my country. I have been tutoring students for about 2 years, sharing my expertise with those who are about to take university entrance exams (mostly high school students).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Students usually find me through my blog where I post articles about problem solving strategies, time management, dealing with stress, building resilience and patience etc. I also share stories of my previous students and their successes in exams.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During sessions, I usually: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - solve difficult, challenging problems&#xD;&#xA; - talk to students about common sources of distraction and how to deal with those&#xD;&#xA; - talk to families about their attitude towards the student and how they can provide the student with a more efficient environment (I don't charge money for these talks of course, they are usually like tea talks)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, generally speaking, I work roughly as a personal trainer for these students.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of my students say they are satisfied with the learning experience. I regularly provide the students' families with information about the student's progress, and they also openly express their satisfaction and say they are willing to continue with tutoring sessions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is, after 2-3 months of tutoring 2-4 hours per week, the families suddenly and abruptly change their minds and want to put and end to the sessions, with no display of dissatisfaction or distrust. Am I missing something? Is it possible that I have problems with reading some cues about their attitude towards me? How can I keep my client families wanting to stay with me until the end of the semester?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S.: For the sake of comparison, I charge $15 per hour which amounts to $120-$240 per month where an average white collar earns $1200 per month in my country.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT: There are some tutoring centers, located in a building with super crammed and dimly lighted classrooms, employing teachers so incompetent that they are unable to find a proper job at a school, charging $2000 up front per year and these families choose to send their kids to these tutoring centers. Is there a psychological effect of paying up front, where you feel like you have to get the most of what you have just paid, instead of the option I give them where they can choose to cancel whenever they want?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18482" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7014" RevisionGUID="497d08c8-1fd6-4539-934d-6c707510defb" CreationDate="2017-07-17T16:42:25.197" UserId="75" Text="First off, do you have any sort of standardized method of evaluating the progress of the student? If you can take some sort of evaluation at the start, then maybe every month after that, and *show* the parents the improvement, they may see it as a better return on their investment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The biggest part of Freelancing is not solving a problem - it's marketing yourself as the best choice to solve the problem. I know it sounds contradictory, but you can't solve the problem without getting your foot in the door.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you have no issue getting the clients in the first place, you need to show that you are constantly solving all their problems. Having a standardized, quantitative measure of progress to show the people paying will help. I'm 100% certain the tutoring centres you are competing with will do this already." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18483" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="7009" RevisionGUID="23376d2e-1240-4568-aeed-b05096840d24" CreationDate="2017-07-17T16:44:47.423" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Metis&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="18484" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="1836" RevisionGUID="4e201ef7-92ec-429c-942c-10e1bed9cc3f" CreationDate="2017-07-17T16:49:16.613" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="18486" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7015" RevisionGUID="837be944-9568-4bcf-822b-b332bc615910" CreationDate="2017-07-17T23:02:39.373" UserId="1706" Text="I AM NOT AN ATTORNEY, and this does not constitute legal advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically this says that if anything goes wrong that's even in *proximity* to the work you're doing, you're the first person to get sued.  If you don't have your own limited liability company or corporation to work behind, this means that a judgment for a lawsuit can attach (take) your personal assets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's probably another paragraph that indicates the jurisdiction (maybe &quot;choice of law&quot;) for legal disputes - it's probably going to be in UAE.  If that's the case, UAE laws apply and a UAE attorney will be your best resource.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As it is, be very, very, VERY careful with this contract.  It's like a loaded pistol :(&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18487" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6510" RevisionGUID="b3edc2fb-e028-4b15-8074-0233013ba1d6" CreationDate="2017-07-18T06:03:21.287" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18488" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7016" RevisionGUID="539f30ba-5c61-47e7-8c5e-e28ef28220dc" CreationDate="2017-07-18T06:19:36.747" UserId="17195" Text="A little secret to successful freelancing is that your **communication skills** (how your client perceives working with you) are just as important as your **technical skills** (what you actually perform for your client).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd say you need to ask your client(s) at least the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. What are their requirements? Understand what problem they are trying to solve, what have they tried in the past, what worked and what did not.&#xD;&#xA; 2. What is their expected timeline? Are they expecting to complete your project in the next week, month, year? &#xD;&#xA; 3. Propose your deliverables. This is what you are promising to give them (for beginner freelancers, always add more detail than you expect), and in what timeframe. Have a discussion with them on which items are more or less important.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Propose your pricing and payment terms. Offer a few options so that your client can select from different levels of service you offer. Always get an initial deposit before you start work, and preferably progress payments as you reach certain milestones.&#xD;&#xA; 5. List a few basic conditions. For example, how much you charge if your client makes a change to the requirements, what you need from them (eg access to brand guidelines etc). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You mention &quot;ask&quot; so perhaps you are thinking this is mainly verbal. A verbal discussion is a great way to get things started, but you should always get an agreement in writing before starting work to minimize any disagreements." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18492" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7018" RevisionGUID="9e702b0c-f6e0-4fb0-9a16-a36c8f0586af" CreationDate="2017-07-18T13:47:17.730" UserId="17738" Text="Some businesses that I use send me an email with the agreement, and ask that I reply, by email, with my name and &quot;I agree to the terms&quot; in the body. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a good solution for relatively small amounts, a few hundred perhaps, you'll have to decide where your comfort level is. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For larger amounts, and a more secure/binding contract, there are many online services which allow you to send PDF agreements by email and have them signed and returned to you, generally without any special software by your client. These will typically have monthly subscription costs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to decide what is appropriate for your business. For smaller amounts, and international, it may not be cost effective to pursue non-paying clients legally. Therefore, does it it make sense to have a fancy contract system. As long as the agreement and correspondence is professional, that is probably the most important thing. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18494" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7019" RevisionGUID="0d3e9388-5bdf-48fa-919a-78d1ae80b169" CreationDate="2017-07-18T16:35:45.447" UserId="12333" Text="I've been working at a design and marketing agency for about a year now and I'm not planning on leaving soon. I also do freelance work on the side, and I'm updating my website. Can I feature some of the clients I've done design work for at my agency on my site, as long as I credit my agency and the team in the individual projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18495" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7019" RevisionGUID="0d3e9388-5bdf-48fa-919a-78d1ae80b169" CreationDate="2017-07-18T16:35:45.447" UserId="12333" Text="Can I show clients I've worked with at my agency on my personal portfolio site?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18496" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7019" RevisionGUID="0d3e9388-5bdf-48fa-919a-78d1ae80b169" CreationDate="2017-07-18T16:35:45.447" UserId="12333" Text="|freelance-websites|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18497" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7020" RevisionGUID="c83b0830-696c-4403-9dc4-a17d58736a09" CreationDate="2017-07-18T19:11:03.647" UserId="1706" Text="You can use services like RPost or Docusign if you want a pure electronic approach.  But what's wrong with having the client sign a sheet of paper, scan, and e-mail?  Keep things simple." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18498" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="7002" RevisionGUID="4c7fd555-4f62-4d57-9692-24a257cf5a9c" CreationDate="2017-07-18T19:11:38.030" UserId="1706" Comment="edited title" Text="What are simple ways to have a remote client endorse an agreement?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18501" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7021" RevisionGUID="df5403f8-8852-479c-b744-46256fd89206" CreationDate="2017-07-18T22:52:51.567" UserId="16605" Text="You can use an e-signature tool like Docusign, Hellosign, or Authentisign to have the client sign the contract electronically.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or you can have them print out a copy of the contract, sign it, scan it, and email it back to you for records.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also request for them to get the printed document notarized in their country or at an US consulate if available, and then have them mail the hard copy back to you.  Depending on the country, some contracts will need to be notarized in order to be valid.  I would recommend consulting with an attorney specializing in these matters.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18502" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7022" RevisionGUID="fba5d06f-d778-44b2-bcb3-cca569cc31b5" CreationDate="2017-07-18T23:07:26.693" UserId="16605" Text="Yes, but normally you would mention that in your contract with your client.  If it was not in your original contract with your client, I would recommend asking the client (in writing or email) as a courtesy. Most of the time, they will say yes.  Best of luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18503" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7023" RevisionGUID="8b12fbda-d05b-4286-9756-6c252932c5d2" CreationDate="2017-07-18T23:15:19.187" UserId="15276" Text="No please; this may seem to a large extend unhealthy and unethical in my humble opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You've worked for the agency and as such can have this reflected in your CV, with your core duties and responsibilities, without exposing any customer information nor claiming direct/indirect credit for a specific product/services unless with express written permission/approval.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to understand that your agency (as you currently still work there) is **a unit**, with competitors as either individual or corporates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Leaving your formal unit to compete against it, then use her product(s) &quot;as jointly designed with *you* (you as what??? an individual having worked with them, for them, or as your *current* startup ~ likely legally not possible as your startup wouldn't have been an existing entity as at the time of execution of such projects)&quot;; what message are you conveying the public?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recommend you do focus on your personal achievements as a freelancer for such a portfolio for much respect and brighter prospects rather than morally conflicting. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18505" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7024" RevisionGUID="aa879532-08d0-46a3-916a-b7d9cc7414e3" CreationDate="2017-07-19T09:31:35.837" UserId="15456" Text="While I was looking for answers to a question that [has already been asked][1] here, I stumbled upon [this answer][2]. The second &quot;golden rule&quot; suggests:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If it's something that will take more than 1 hour or so, and it's not in the domain &quot;you should know that before you applied to job&quot;, then ask a client if he is ready to finance the research time since the product will be of higher quality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But how does one ask if the client is willing to invest money in something without losing him as a client? Because I think that the client might consider you (the freelancer) as not competent enough and decide to find another freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: I'm not a freelancer. I have no idea how any of that works. This question just popped in my head.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS: I couldn't find a more suitable tag than [tag:time-management]. &#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/713/hourly-billing-is-it-appropriate-to-include-time-to-research-if-you-dont-know&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/718/15456" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18506" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7024" RevisionGUID="aa879532-08d0-46a3-916a-b7d9cc7414e3" CreationDate="2017-07-19T09:31:35.837" UserId="15456" Text="How does one ask a client if he is ready to finance research time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18507" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7024" RevisionGUID="aa879532-08d0-46a3-916a-b7d9cc7414e3" CreationDate="2017-07-19T09:31:35.837" UserId="15456" Text="|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18508" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7025" RevisionGUID="da527aea-85ef-40d7-addb-555a7194f7ba" CreationDate="2017-07-19T09:43:38.907" UserId="517" Text="That is the key to success in being a freelancer. You have to read the client. And read him quickly and quickly recognize those who are really interested to pursue some idea or those who only waste your time without willing to pay for it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what I do: I scan the client during our initial conversation, chat or audio. If he is in rush, does not have time to type or explain, he does not seem interested in pursuing his idea. For those, I go straight in the head telling them that research will take X hours and it will cost Y dollars. As a result, he will get a paper on the research. You can guess, 99% such clients go to another contractor. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For other, I walk on a thin ice. Ask them to describe what they need, and then tell them it will take for example 5 hours for the research. After that I either ask them if he has budget to finance research. I explain to them that I can do a quick research up to 1h, but results would be such that we cannot rely on them entirely. Or if he wants a more quality research, than we can set an hourly arrangement. You see, I always give THEM option to choose which way they will pursue. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, if the research will result in your estimation, then so far I have not been able to find a way to be paid for estimation. It happens that estimations that take up to 1h result in job, and those that I do over the weekend and take over 3h usually end up with client not getting back to me again. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;NOTE: when I say estimation, I do not refer to detailed estimations. NEVER EVER give detailed estimation for unpaid work. There are many cheap hunters who need estimation and are not willing to pay for it. I refer to 1-2 page excel estimation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. lastly, it also depends how desperate for work you are. if you need work, then obviously you will have to do everything to get the job. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18509" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7026" RevisionGUID="705887b1-dc7d-492a-ae18-79b98f533a62" CreationDate="2017-07-19T10:39:10.097" UserId="15709" Text="A client called me at the telephone weeks ago, he said he is the CEO of a local big car dealer, my number was given to him by another of my clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He said he wanted to talk about the website. We agreed to contact again the week after to fix a meeting date and hour. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He didn't call me so I called him a couple of times (no answer) and then the day after I called again and he answered. He told me that he could meet me two days after at 8:00 am.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I prepared myself for good knowing it is an important company with big sales volume, with examples, things to say and to explain, proposals, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The day after at 8:00 am I was at his office, he welcomed me and he started to talk about himself, he did this, he did that, he launched this service, he launched these people (unknown to me), and then he asked suddenly to present myself to him, so I presented briefly myself, my knowledges, my skills and I wanted then to show him and explain some of my top projects to complete the presentation, but he refused saying: &quot;I already so them on your site&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then he said: &quot;I want to develop a specific platform for the a specific type of business and then sell it worldwide by the end of the year, are you able to develop that?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I said: &quot;It depends! I could take two weeks or two years depending on the requested features and specs. Also I am a single freelance I can't guarantee 100% commitment to your project since I already have long term clients that I have a live and continuous collaboration... But let's talk about the project so I can undestand better.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He said: &quot;Now I only wanted to meet you and know you. Please give me a week of time and I will send you by email a word file with all the specification of that project. Please review it and then we will meet and talk in depth&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then he got up from the chair, shook my hand, said &quot;it was a pleasure, have a good day...&quot; and he left the room leaving me there... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was a bit shocked about that, I entered the room at 8:00 and left it at 8:12. I just left my business card on hid desk and went back to office.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel I was in the middle line between being treated bad (he gave the the &quot;pink slip&quot;...) and having to manage an aggressive manager myself...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now more than two weeks passed but I had no news from him, I don't know if I want to work for him, but a part of me thinks that it could be an interesting project with a successfull company...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I contact him again?&#xD;&#xA;Do you think that he just got rid of me after the first 10 minutes of meeting?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18510" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7026" RevisionGUID="705887b1-dc7d-492a-ae18-79b98f533a62" CreationDate="2017-07-19T10:39:10.097" UserId="15709" Text="Rude and confusing client but possible important job" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18511" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7026" RevisionGUID="705887b1-dc7d-492a-ae18-79b98f533a62" CreationDate="2017-07-19T10:39:10.097" UserId="15709" Text="|difficult-client|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18512" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7026" RevisionGUID="3b989720-ae38-4906-8e28-a0acd1d35780" CreationDate="2017-07-19T11:54:58.123" UserId="15709" Comment="added 6 characters in body" Text="A client called me at the telephone weeks ago, he said he is the CEO of a local big car dealer, my number was given to him by another of my clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He said he wanted to talk about the website. We agreed to contact again the week after to fix a meeting date and hour. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He didn't call me so I called him a couple of times (no answer) and then the day after I called again and he answered. He told me that he could meet me two days after at 8:00 am.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I prepared myself for good knowing it is an important company with big sales volume, with examples, things to say and to explain, proposals, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The day after at 8:00 am I was at his office, he welcomed me and he started to talk about himself, he did this, he did that, he launched this service, he launched these people (unknown to me), and then he asked suddenly to present myself to him, so I presented briefly myself, my knowledges, my skills and I wanted then to show him and explain some of my top projects to complete the presentation, but he refused saying: &quot;I already saw them on your site&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then he said: &quot;I want to develop a specific platform for the a specific type of business and then sell it worldwide by the end of the year, are you able to develop that?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I said: &quot;It depends! I could take two weeks or two years depending on the requested features and specs. Also I am a single freelance I can't guarantee 100% commitment to your project since I already have long term clients that I have a live and continuous collaboration... But let's talk about the project so I can understand better.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He said: &quot;Now I only wanted to meet you and know you. Please give me a week of time and I will send you by email a word file with all the specification of that project. Please review it and then we will meet and talk in depth&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then he got up from the chair, shook my hand, said &quot;it was a pleasure, have a good day...&quot; and he left the room leaving me there... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was a bit shocked about that, I entered the room at 8:00 and left it at 8:12. I just left my business card on his desk and went back to my office.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel I was in the middle line between being treated bad (he gave me the &quot;pink slip&quot;...) and having to manage an aggressive manager myself...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now more than two weeks passed but I had no news from him, I don't know if I want to work for him, but a part of me thinks that it could be an interesting project with a successfull company...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I contact him again?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you think that he just got rid of me after the first 10 minutes of meeting?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18513" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7027" RevisionGUID="c50e11aa-f11f-4420-bf51-0c950db818db" CreationDate="2017-07-19T12:21:41.053" UserId="517" Text="He does not look odd to me. Just another overpotent I-am-the-smartest CEO. He is busy and you are some geek programmer who is doing something that his nephew could do, but just a bit better. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would I continue? Depends. There are things I am ready to tolerate and things I am not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A client has bad manners, does not treat me as high as I wanted - No Problem. I will do the project. The most important thing is that he is not cursing on me. I also tend to avoid people who are used to work with grey zones (gambling, criminals, ...) as they often like to put force in front of intelligence. I do not have time for that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After his manners, I would check what kind of payment terms he had in mind. If he will accept my milestones scheme (and not &quot;Pay full on delivery&quot;), then I am OK with it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the person that requires a GOOD contract. When he signs it, make sure he has time for you to tell him a few important paragraphs from the contract - like those that you will work only on things you agreed in the contract, anything beyond is treated as an extra. Just point him 2-3 important things so he does not mean that you will do EVERYTHING for the money he gives you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would call him again, saying that you are expecting him to send you project specification. THIN ICE: If you want to go to the ice and a bid show him that you are not a slave, tell him that you have another long-term offer and that you need to decide in 2 days if you will accept that offer or his offer. So he needs to send you something today or tomorrow, otherwise you will not be able to promise that you will take the project in work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And lastly, if you FEEL that this is a person that you should avoid, then just be silent and do not accept the project. I often listen to my guts and I have never regretted about it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18514" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7026" RevisionGUID="9861af40-e77b-4772-85b5-d5c531c91dc5" CreationDate="2017-07-19T12:48:35.200" UserId="15709" Comment="deleted 4 characters in body" Text="A client called me at the telephone weeks ago, he said he is the CEO of a local big car dealer, my number was given to him by another of my clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He said he wanted to talk about the website. We agreed to contact again the week after to fix a meeting date and hour. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He didn't call me so I called him a couple of times (no answer) and then the day after I called again and he answered. He told me that he could meet me two days after at 8:00 am.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I prepared myself for good knowing it is an important company with big sales volume, with examples, things to say and to explain, proposals, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The day after at 8:00 am I was at his office, he welcomed me and he started to talk about himself, he did this, he did that, he launched this service, he launched these people (unknown to me), and then he asked suddenly to present myself to him, so I presented briefly myself, my knowledges, my skills and I wanted then to show him and explain some of my top projects to complete the presentation, but he refused saying: &quot;I already saw them on your site&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then he said: &quot;I want to develop a specific platform for a specific type of business and then sell it worldwide by the end of the year, are you able to develop that?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I said: &quot;It depends! I could take two weeks or two years depending on the requested features and specs. Also I am a single freelance I can't guarantee 100% commitment to your project since I already have long term clients that I have a live and continuous collaboration... But let's talk about the project so I can understand better.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He said: &quot;Now I only wanted to meet you and know you. Please give me a week of time and I will send you by email a word file with all the specification of that project. Please review it and then we will meet and talk in depth&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then he got up from the chair, shook my hand, said &quot;it was a pleasure, have a good day...&quot; and he left the room leaving me there... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was a bit shocked about that, I entered the room at 8:00 and left it at 8:12. I just left my business card on his desk and went back to my office.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel I was in the middle line between being treated bad (he gave me the &quot;pink slip&quot;...) and having to manage an aggressive manager myself...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now more than two weeks passed but I had no news from him, I don't know if I want to work for him, but a part of me thinks that it could be an interesting project with a successfull company...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I contact him again?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you think that he just got rid of me after the first 10 minutes of meeting?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18516" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7026" RevisionGUID="3ef2a2db-c10a-40e1-b47d-139b53bcc6dc" CreationDate="2017-07-19T13:41:45.150" UserId="15709" Comment="deleted 4 characters in body" Text="A client called me at the telephone weeks ago, he said he is the CEO of a local big car dealer, my number was given to him by another of my clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He said he wanted to talk about the website. We agreed to contact again the week after to fix a meeting date and hour. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He didn't call me so I called him a couple of times (no answer) and then the day after I called again and he answered. He told me that he could meet me two days after at 8:00 am.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I prepared myself for good knowing it is an important company with big sales volume, with examples, things to say and to explain, proposals, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The day after at 8:00 am I was at his office, he welcomed me and he started to talk about himself, he did this, he did that, he launched this service, he launched these people (unknown to me), and then he asked suddenly to present myself to him, so I presented briefly myself, my knowledges, my skills and I wanted then to show him and explain some of my top projects to complete the presentation, but he refused saying: &quot;I already saw them on your site&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then he said: &quot;I want to develop a specific platform for a specific type of business and then sell it worldwide by the end of the year, are you able to develop that?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I said: &quot;It depends! I could take two weeks or two years depending on the requested features and specs. Also I am a single freelance I can't guarantee 100% commitment to your project since I already have long term clients that I have a live and continuous collaboration... But let's talk about the project so I can understand better.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He said: &quot;Now I only wanted to meet you and know you. Please give me a week of time and I will send you by email a word file with all the specification of that project. Please review it and then we will meet and talk in depth&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then he got up from the chair, shook my hand, said &quot;it was a pleasure, have a good day...&quot; and he left the room leaving me there... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was a bit shocked about that, I entered the room at 8:00 and left it at 8:12. I just left my business card on his desk and went back to my office.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel like I was in the middle line between being treated with bad manners and having to deal with an aggressive/strange client...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now more than two weeks passed but I had no news from him, I don't know if I want to work for him, but a part of me thinks that it could be an interesting project with a successfull company...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I contact him again?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you think that he just subtly got rid of me after the first 10 minutes of meeting?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18517" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7019" RevisionGUID="de71a3a9-ba57-4c06-a39a-a32a4816cbc2" CreationDate="2017-07-19T14:01:44.583" UserId="12333" Comment="added 176 characters in body" Text="I'm an art director working at a design and marketing agency for about a year now and I'm not planning on leaving soon. I also do freelance work on the side, and I'm updating my website. Can I feature some of the clients I've done design work for at my agency on my site, as long as I credit my agency and the team in the individual projects? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I'm not asking about the work itself,** because I won't list any work I haven't talked to my agency about to make sure. **Just asking about the ability to list the client logos as clients I've worked with**, so there aren't any contract issues I can think of. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18519" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7029" RevisionGUID="e0848f8a-d3e4-49aa-8a2f-5d30d60c5924" CreationDate="2017-07-19T21:30:44.610" UserId="7717" Text="It sounds to me like he treated your interview like he was interviewing a potential new employee, rather than interviewing a freelancer. He most likely wanted to meet you and get a feel for you as an individual. I would assume that he is interviewing other freelancers and will send you the specifications if you meet his short list." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18520" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7029" RevisionGUID="0ce1bbb2-c7c3-49d8-85bf-29d18b9cec45" CreationDate="2017-07-19T21:36:57.233" UserId="7717" Comment="wording" Text="It sounds to me like he treated your interview as if he was interviewing a potential new employee, rather than interviewing a freelancer. He most likely wanted to meet you and get a feel for you as an individual. I would assume that he is interviewing other freelancers and will send you the specifications if you meet his short list." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18521" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7030" RevisionGUID="20eece79-538a-4954-8061-c41d8951fe56" CreationDate="2017-07-19T22:08:16.193" UserId="1706" Text="&gt; He said he wanted to talk about the website. We agreed to contact again the week after to fix a meeting date and hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This didn't exactly happen, did it?  You drove across town, and back, to sit with this guy for twelve minutes.  He didn't care at all about your time.  But what's worse is that instead of going down a course - prescribed by you - of getting a new project, you *allowed* him to dominate the meeting after having had to chase him down to even get an audience with him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's worse is that you didn't meet him in a situation where he would be required to vest his time in the same manner as you, i.e. at a coffee shop or rented meeting room.  So he had the advantage in getting you to his office and dismissing you quickly.  He never had to leave his seat to do a thing, but YOU did.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, THINK AHEAD.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With this client, you're going to be chasing him down for requirements, to sign off on work, and to get paid.  So far, his behavior shows that he is inconsiderate and doesn't feel accountable at all for making promises to you and then breaking them (in your example, he's done this twice).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless you are desperate - which he is hoping for - run away fast.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18522" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7031" RevisionGUID="7eb7dc3d-fab3-4635-83c7-c11ddb85e47c" CreationDate="2017-07-19T22:53:02.713" UserId="7717" Text="You're in a tough situation because you are in an industry where it is difficult to justify major price differences to the customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if you were a freelance carpenter, you could justify your higher prices by saying that your work uses better materials, is constructed to a higher standard, and will last longer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, when you're selling property for someone else, it's a bit harder to illustrate value to the client. I think in many circumstances the seller is more concerned with profit than with speed, particularly when you're selling something as valuable as real estate. Unless the seller needs the cash urgently to pay off some emergency expense or to buy another property in cash, most people are going to want to wait for the best offer to come along.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You haven't provided a lot of information about the circumstances you're in, but my impression from your comments is that you sold someone's real estate very quickly, which caused them to question your value. I think this is understandable; if the property sells very quickly, it will tend to make the seller think that the price was set too low or that the real estate agent didn't put much effort into the sale.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You wrote:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The more skilled I am at designing an effective marketing campaign, the faster the property is going to sell. I don't charge by the hour worked, but for the result of my work. When things go really well, I get the result, without having to work many hours. Some people have a hard time accepting that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That makes it sound like your *only* concern is selling the property quickly (do you charge a flat rate, or a commission?). Here's the golden question: **did the client specifically direct you to sell as quickly as possible/to prioritize speed over profit?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they asked you to sell as quickly as possible, and that's what you did, then you did your job correctly and they don't have any room to negotiate a new rate for the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they *didn't* specifically ask you to sell as quickly as possible, and you sold the property as fast as you could or with minimal effort, then it's arguable that you didn't do your due diligence in getting them the full market value of the property. Even if you couldn't realistically have sold the property for more than you did, the client might *think* you could have and there's no way to prove otherwise. If you didn't learn and follow the client's priorities in selling the property, then I would say that you made the mistake and you should agree to charge them a lower rate.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18523" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7031" RevisionGUID="175dc3d9-1adc-4dec-9604-ed2538cd6297" CreationDate="2017-07-19T22:59:33.087" UserId="7717" Comment="added 158 characters in body" Text="You're in a tough situation because you are in an industry where it is difficult to justify major price differences to the customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if you were a freelance carpenter, you could justify your higher prices by saying that your work uses better materials, is constructed to a higher standard, and will last longer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, when you're selling property for someone else, it's a bit harder to illustrate value to the client. I think in many circumstances the seller is more concerned with profit than with speed, particularly when you're selling something as valuable as real estate. Unless the seller needs the cash urgently to pay off some emergency expense or to buy another property in cash, most people are going to want to wait for the best offer to come along.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You haven't provided a lot of information about the circumstances you're in, but my impression from your comments is that you sold someone's real estate very quickly, which caused them to question your value. I think this is understandable; if the property sells very quickly, it will tend to make the seller think that the price was set too low or that the real estate agent didn't put much effort into the sale. Look at the flip-side: a typical buyer is not going to purchase the property immediately unless the price is so absurdly low that it would be stupid to wait and compare it to other options.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You wrote:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The more skilled I am at designing an effective marketing campaign, the faster the property is going to sell. I don't charge by the hour worked, but for the result of my work. When things go really well, I get the result, without having to work many hours. Some people have a hard time accepting that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That makes it sound like your *only* concern is selling the property quickly (do you charge a flat rate, or a commission?). Here's the golden question: **did the client specifically direct you to sell as quickly as possible/to prioritize speed over profit?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they asked you to sell as quickly as possible, and that's what you did, then you did your job correctly and they don't have any room to negotiate a new rate for the work. Explain that another agent might have taken longer to sell the property, or else would have had to sell at a lower price to match your speed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they *didn't* specifically ask you to sell as quickly as possible, and you sold the property as fast as you could or with minimal effort, then it's arguable that you didn't do your due diligence in getting them the full market value of the property. Even if you couldn't realistically have sold the property for more than you did, the client might *think* you could have and there's no way to prove otherwise. If you didn't learn and follow the client's priorities in selling the property, then I would say that you made the mistake and you should agree to charge them a lower rate.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18524" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7032" RevisionGUID="01d99168-d077-43e3-8284-b111a01c0618" CreationDate="2017-07-20T00:00:47.250" UserId="17757" Text="That gov.uk link is a very good one. There are some non-government sites which also give advice on running a small business and others which have templates for invoices. This [Google Doc lists all the links][1] I wanted to put in this post, but couldn't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I recommend you use some business accounting software. When I started out freelancing, I used Word and Excel to make invoices. But when it came time to file my tax return, the records I'd kept were inadequate. I now use a web-based software that records my invoices, business expenses and income. Some are listed in the Google Doc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no difference between a &quot;VAT invoice&quot; and a &quot;non-VAT invoice&quot;, except the latter doesn't include line items for VAT. Just tell your client you're not VAT registered if they ask.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't need to give your employer your NI number in your invoice. However, they might ask you for your UTR – unique tax reference. Clients don't need it – I suspect they use it as proof you exist, in case they get audited.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd recommend you [get this book on business accounting][2]- and if you plan on freelancing full-time, find an accountant. Search around for one who works with other people in your field, and ask them how much it'll cost do to your taxes. I guarantee a good accountant will save you money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BTW - If you haven't already, you need to register with HMRC as being self-employed. And as soon a client pays you, put 20% of that money into a savings account or an ISA (preferably one that doesn't give you instant access), so it's set aside for when you have to pay your tax bill. I didn't do this when I went full-time freelance a few years back and I'm still paying the price for it. (Literally. Every month. To HMRC.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kV488uzkJG4mXH0t0LdrjQBEuT5NfNReMMavkcuE74U/edit?usp=sharing&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://amzn.to/2gLEhh1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18525" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7033" RevisionGUID="458daf7c-509c-40c0-a0b3-7e4d1dfdd95a" CreationDate="2017-07-20T00:19:16.297" UserId="17757" Text="As Chris said in the comment, speak to an accountant about whether it's worthwhile for you to register. Unless your turnover is above [the VAT registration threshold of £85,000][1] (not £81k) or you purchase a lot of equipment (or a few pieces of expensive equipment), it likely won't be worthwhile.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You do need to register your business with HRMC and pay tax on all business income. Unless you set up a limited company (speak to an accountant about this), you'll be a 'sole trader'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before you invoice your client, check:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The bank account they will pay into is able to accept payments in a foreign currency, &#xD;&#xA; 2. How much the bank will charge you (and they will) for accepting a&#xD;&#xA;   foreign currency payment, &#xD;&#xA; 3. What currency exchange rate the client must use. (If you don't set this, you could lose out: $100 could be worth £130 today, but £120&#xD;&#xA;   tomorrow), and&#xD;&#xA; 4. Whether using a [currency transfer company][2] will charge&#xD;&#xA;   you less than your bank for this service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you haven't already, add into your contract that there is an extra fee for payment in non-sterling currencies to cover the extra fees, and the client must pay for any shortfall in payment due to exchange rates changing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration-thresholds&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.money.co.uk/money-transfers/money-transfers-to-uk-from-abroad.htm" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18526" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7034" RevisionGUID="18e2ab92-93d7-4d65-b137-b40453d76d70" CreationDate="2017-07-20T02:31:44.243" UserId="17675" Text="Yes, you are missing non-verbal clues. You can't avoid missing clues, so don't get too excited about it. But keep watching and listening for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But that is not the only thing you are fighting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The sales approach is important, of course. (I hate that fact, but it's a fact.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The corporate tutoring environment has to work hard to get customers, so their ads are good. Common sense should tell people that the better the ads, the more they should mistrust the product. But we know how it is with common sense.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The tutoring industry in many countries is in collusion with the testing industry (and with some proper educational institutions). They have been working to push the idea that grades are more important than actually learning anything, because grades are the only tangible thing they know how to sell. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They don't say it directly, of course, but they sell the value of a diploma from a prestige institution as hard as they can. The hidden text is&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; To get a **good** job you **must** have a degree from a **good** school! To get into a **good** school you must have **good** grades and **high** scores on the entrance exams. To get **good** grades and **high** test scores, you **must** know everything. **We** can help your children memorize **everything**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, you can spot the leaps in logic there and I can spot the leaps in logic there, but the poor kids are being indoctrinated in this almost religious attitude by teachers and public school administration who are under pressure to improve their school's test averages. And the poor parents who attend PTA conferences get the indoctrination, too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You, as an individual, do not have access to the tests, so your value, in relation to the perceived and false value of a diploma from a prestige institution, has to be lower than that of a cruddy cram school that force-feeds noise in the guise of data extracted from textbooks designed to teach the tests. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The noise is regurgitated as &quot;good&quot; scores and promptly washed from memory. (Some of it may stick, but nothing like real learning.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can continue, but I've gone too far. It's a vicious cycle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What initiates the cycle?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Too many graduates who can't get a good job using what they have learned and need work (any work), and a lot of related malfunctioning aspects of our current society. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And we get into conspiracy theory, and, yes, there are people who think it is to their advantage to push more people into the malfunctioning areas of our society because they hope parts of society will be destroyed and then they can pretend to be saviors of society and get power. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some of them actually form secret organizations. Fortunately for the rest of us, the reasons their desire for power is derived from personal defects that undermine their organizations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, the accumulative effect does leave us with things like *juku* that are anything but places to study, and it does leave us with people who really want to teach having to compete on an unbalanced playing field.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is actually not a new problem. It's part of the reason that parents in the backwaters of the US a hundred years ago didn't want their kids going to schools. The problem is basically as old as civilization, and many wars have resulted from it, all through history.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't have any answers to this problem except, don't give in to the illusions and don't tell the parents of your students what I've just told you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Talk about things like, you can give the students a place to recover from the stress of the cram school. And if the students start feeling like there's no meaning to it all, you can help them at least find meaning in learning some of the subjects they find interesting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sympathize with both the students and the parents without telling them directly what the insanity is. They won't appreciate that, because it puts stress on them. Don't hint too broadly at the evil nature of the competition, either. That'll make them not trust you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While you are teaching the students, don't lay on too thick with the difference between memorized noise (so-called facts) and real understanding, but don't leave it alone. Make sure you help the students enjoy learning how to think.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't get too worried when the students leave.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And leave the door open for them to come back, as much as you can. Some of them will come back if you can show them that you can help make the trip through this swamp a bit more pleasant.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those who don't come back -- even a month or two with someone who can help them really learn to think will help them break the cycle some years down the road." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18528" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7035" RevisionGUID="2be87845-f4ec-4574-90de-2f0a21ae4df7" CreationDate="2017-07-20T10:50:36.580" UserId="17140" Text="I have an offer for a position in a new startup and I was asked to provide concept designs for at least 1 page ( both mobile and desktop version ) It's a lot of work because I need to apply the brand guidelines to the wireframes, read and understand the brief and other docs.&#xD;&#xA;I don't feel like this kind of test is the best way to choose a designer and I have to put food on the table, also I need to design a proposal and calculate hours required to design each page + a lot of headaches ( Approx. 3 days worth of work ) I have free time but I don't like working for free, on the other hand there's a lot of money to be made if I'm hired.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you think guys?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18529" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7035" RevisionGUID="2be87845-f4ec-4574-90de-2f0a21ae4df7" CreationDate="2017-07-20T10:50:36.580" UserId="17140" Text="Spec work for a future medium-sized company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18530" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7035" RevisionGUID="2be87845-f4ec-4574-90de-2f0a21ae4df7" CreationDate="2017-07-20T10:50:36.580" UserId="17140" Text="|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18531" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7036" RevisionGUID="a6bfb73b-cbdb-4af4-9781-b5a0f5fa6f9f" CreationDate="2017-07-20T11:19:05.827" UserId="17757" Text="I've had a client try this on me (not for this kind of design work, but for magazine production). And they ended up being the worst client I've ever worked for. Now, my policy is [always &quot;f**k you, pay me&quot;][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, in your place, I'd provide the company with examples of my similar work from my portfolio. If that isn't acceptable to them, I'd walk away from the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they challenged me on why I didn't do the spec work, I'd explain I don't work for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If that's unacceptable for them, it shows they're trying to screw me and all others going for the contract. And if they'll do that now, how will they treat me when I'm working for them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, there's the question about what they're doing with all those examples of spec work they'll be sent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://youtu.be/jVkLVRt6c1U" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18532" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7037" RevisionGUID="8880ad19-540e-471d-8519-05ef61b41bdb" CreationDate="2017-07-20T14:54:51.433" UserId="708" Text="No **good client** asks for &quot;test&quot; projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is *no such thing as a &quot;test&quot; project*. Just because the client labels something &quot;test&quot; that does not mean less work is involved. All &quot;test&quot; ensures is that the client isn't expecting to pay for your time, that's it. Regardless of the work the client can claim it wasn't satisfactory and never pay for your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a **huge** red flag for a bad client. Don't fall for it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you work, invoice for work. If the client is uncertain about hiring you, then can hire you and *pay you* to complete something small initially, then decide if they want to hire you for additional work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you happen to be a bit pressed to find work, you're wasting your time on this client. There's an 80% or better chance you won't make any money here so the time you spend on their &quot;test&quot; project *could* be spent on a *paying* project for someone else. Or at a minimum searching for a paying project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18533" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7035" RevisionGUID="1e4a4b88-17bd-438f-9ee8-5f17591894aa" CreationDate="2017-07-20T16:27:02.033" UserId="17140" Comment="added 9 characters in body" Text="I have an offer for a position in a new startup and I was asked to provide concept designs for at least 1 page ( both mobile and desktop version ) It's a lot of work because I need to apply the brand guidelines to the wireframes, read and understand the brief and other docs. Also I need to put in place a proposal and calculate hours required to design each page + a lot of headaches ( Approx. 3 days worth of work ) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't feel like this kind of test is the best way to choose a designer but I have to put food on the table, I have free time but I don't like working for free, on the other hand there's a lot of money to be made if I'm hired.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you think guys?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18534" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7038" RevisionGUID="959b43d1-e1bf-4d92-9b53-b4bf43a400b9" CreationDate="2017-07-20T17:07:52.197" UserId="7717" Text="Don't ask; just include it in your budget without specifically itemizing it. If they aren't happy with the total budget, then you can decide if you want to charge less or nothing for that learning period." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18537" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6547" RevisionGUID="69b919f3-994d-4a51-8012-83280279661f" CreationDate="2017-07-21T08:24:06.213" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18541" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7040" RevisionGUID="dc21c78a-d11a-4294-85d3-332c082299ae" CreationDate="2017-07-21T15:07:56.733" UserId="17777" Text="For U.S only.  Federal IP law states that the creator of the IP owns the IP unless otherwise stated in the contract. I'm going to assume that your contract was silent on this and did not contain a &quot;Works for Hire&quot; clause. You are giving your customer a license to use the software, not ownership.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;State law can not override federal law. Any language the State mandates would need to be in the contract though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are under no legal obligation to give up your source code. However, you may want to consider using it as leverage to get paid. If you won't need the source code again give it up, however, in the transfer agreement make sure you say that you also own the source code; joint custody. From here I think you'll need to get an IP attorney." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18542" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7041" RevisionGUID="20f1913e-777f-4351-8a14-ff4282f9cf9d" CreationDate="2017-07-21T15:13:43.463" UserId="17777" Text="U.S. Federal IP law says that the creator of the IP owns the IP unless otherwise stated in the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The creator of the IP gives the customer a license to use the IP. Since you still own the IP you can use it on other projects. If the contract states otherwise then the contract will prevail.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do give the source code to your customer try to make sure the transfer agreement allows for joint custody; you and your customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding the &quot;Works for Hire&quot; comment: A works for hire clause must be in the contract for it to apply. If it's not in the contract then the default goes back to the creator retaining ownership.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18543" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7029" RevisionGUID="39683576-1785-4edb-94f2-06dc0fe0d4ef" CreationDate="2017-07-21T17:45:48.733" UserId="7717" Comment="added 203 characters in body" Text="It sounds to me like he treated your interview as if he was interviewing a potential new employee, rather than interviewing a freelancer. He most likely wanted to meet you and get a feel for you as an individual. I would assume that he is interviewing other freelancers and will send you the specifications if you meet his short list. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also *possible* that he was turned off by your answer to his first question (&quot;I could take two weeks or two years depending on the requested features and specs&quot;) and decided to stop considering you at that point, but didn't want to be so rude as to immediately tell you to leave. If you haven't heard from him for weeks, it might be safe to assume you won't hear from him." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18544" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7029" RevisionGUID="6081a8c1-51fe-405d-9239-1c8eb3bbba0b" CreationDate="2017-07-21T18:11:50.260" UserId="7717" Comment="added 1561 characters in body" Text="It sounds to me like he treated your interview as if he was interviewing a potential new employee, rather than interviewing a freelancer. He most likely wanted to meet you and get a feel for you as an individual. Think about his job; he's the CEO of a car dealership. Most of his employees could be considered salespeople, so he's probably used to hiring people based on his first impression of their personality, which is what counts the most on the showroom floor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would assume that he is interviewing other freelancers and will send you the specifications if you meet his short list. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also *possible* that he was turned off by your answer to his first question (&quot;I could take two weeks or two years depending on the requested features and specs&quot;) and decided to stop considering you at that point, but didn't want to be so rude as to immediately tell you to leave. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Often, people from traditional businesses aren't used to getting such vague answers for a timeframe; they're used to buying physical goods and services from vendors who provide relatively standard options and timeframes. For example, if called about getting a new AC unit for his building, he might get an answer like &quot;most installations take 3-5 days unless you have a very unusual setup&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Always try to have a handy analogy to help the potential client understand why your answer is so vague.** For example, you might say &quot;Well sir, if I asked you how long it takes to build a new car dealership, you'd probably tell me it depends on how big of a lot I'm looking for, what area I'm located in, what type and brand of vehicle I'm looking to sell, how many employees I'll need to train, etc. Similarly, I can't give you a precise estimate without knowing more about what you want to build.&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Alternatively, **it can help to give some BS average figure**, such as &quot;Well, typically the websites that my clients want to make take 5 - 6 weeks to build, but obviously it depends on how complex your idea is.&quot; This sometimes helps clients feel more comfortable, even if the average number you give is meaningless and ends up being nowhere near what their project would require. This approach is a bit more of a gamble, and you might not want to try it unless you're good at reading people." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18545" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7029" RevisionGUID="566a9c19-6d7e-47b0-9ccd-43806f816398" CreationDate="2017-07-21T18:22:56.197" UserId="7717" Comment="deleted 16 characters in body" Text="It sounds to me like he treated your interview as if he was interviewing a potential new employee, rather than interviewing a freelancer. He most likely wanted to meet you and get a feel for you as an individual. Think about his job; he's the CEO of a car dealership. Most of his employees are salespeople, so he's probably used to hiring people based on his first impression of their personality, which is what counts the most on the showroom floor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would assume that he is interviewing other freelancers and will send you the specifications if you meet his short list. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also *possible* that he was turned off by your answer to his first question (&quot;I could take two weeks or two years depending on the requested features and specs&quot;) and decided to stop considering you at that point, but didn't want to be so rude as to immediately tell you to leave. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Often, people from traditional businesses aren't used to getting such vague answers for a timeframe; they're used to buying physical goods and services from vendors who provide relatively standard options and timeframes. For example, if called about getting a new AC unit for his building, he might get an answer like &quot;most installations take 3-5 days unless you have a very unusual setup&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Always try to have a handy analogy to help the potential client understand why your answer is so vague.** For example, you might say &quot;Well sir, if I asked you how long it takes to build a new car dealership, you'd probably tell me it depends on how big of a lot I'm looking for, what area I'm located in, what type and brand of vehicle I'm looking to sell, how many employees I'll need to train, etc. Similarly, I can't give you a precise estimate without knowing more about what you want to build.&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Alternatively, **it can help to give some BS average figure**, such as &quot;Well, typically the websites that my clients want to make take 5 - 6 weeks to build, but obviously it depends on how complex your idea is.&quot; This sometimes helps clients feel more comfortable, even if the average number you give is meaningless and ends up being nowhere near what their project would require. This approach is a bit more of a gamble, and you might not want to try it unless you're good at reading people." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18546" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7042" RevisionGUID="53abbac0-031d-4eaa-8ce7-c6a2e08a2d19" CreationDate="2017-07-21T19:59:13.647" UserId="708" Text="Whether or not the guy was &quot;rude&quot; is really your call. That's often more of a percieved thing. While what you've detailed doesn't really sound so much rude as possibly inattentive, his *attitude* really tells the story and no one here can pick up on that via text. So, if you felt he was rude, then I'll assume he was.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The big question is.... do you *want* to work with this guy based upon his attitude?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For *most* new clients who contact me, I'll stay attentive and involved in a cursory fashion. I do have other clients and other work to attend to. So, if asked for a meeting, sure I'll make that meeting. You better as well though. Miss 1 meeting and okay, I may let that slide, miss 2 and you then have to come to me I won't come to you a third time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I expect specification or information on a specific date... I'll reach out the day after that date if I've not received anything. If I still don't get anything... I ignore the client until they pop up again. They essentially go into my &quot;looking but not serious&quot; category.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't ever want to tell a client that I specifically *&quot;have other things to do&quot;* That's the same as stating *&quot;you aren't important enough to me.&quot;* Which is NEVER the message I want to convey to any client. I merely make myself less available as they prove themselves to be inattentive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So **yes**, I'd reach out **once** to see if he was going to send specifications. Beyond that, I wouldn't chase him. Being *too* attentive when the client is the exact opposite sends the unconscious message that you are desperate for work... which then starts eroding the respect a client may have for you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18547" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7029" RevisionGUID="f8ad1406-716a-4bc1-b70a-44a154640e2b" CreationDate="2017-07-22T01:16:10.217" UserId="7717" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="It sounds to me like he treated your interview as if he was interviewing a potential new employee, rather than interviewing a freelancer. He most likely wanted to meet you and get a feel for you as an individual. Think about his job; he's the CEO of a car dealership. Most of his employees are salespeople, so he's probably used to hiring people based on his first impression of their personality, which is what counts the most on the showroom floor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would assume that he is interviewing other freelancers and will send you the specifications if you meet his short list. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also *possible* that he was turned off by your answer to his first question (&quot;I could take two weeks or two years depending on the requested features and specs&quot;) and decided to stop considering you at that point, but didn't want to be so rude as to immediately tell you to leave. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Often, people from traditional businesses aren't used to getting such vague answers for a timeframe; they're used to buying physical goods and services from vendors who provide relatively standard options and timeframes. For example, if he called about getting a new AC unit for his building, he might get an answer like &quot;most installations take 3-5 days unless you have a very unusual setup&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Always try to have a handy analogy to help the potential client understand why your answer is so vague.** For example, you might say &quot;Well sir, if I asked you how long it takes to build a new car dealership, you'd probably tell me it depends on how big of a lot I'm looking for, what area I'm located in, what type and brand of vehicle I'm looking to sell, how many employees I'll need to train, etc. Similarly, I can't give you a precise estimate without knowing more about what you want to build.&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Alternatively, **it can help to give some BS average figure**, such as &quot;Well, typically the websites that my clients want to make take 5 - 6 weeks to build, but obviously it depends on how complex your idea is.&quot; This sometimes helps clients feel more comfortable, even if the average number you give is meaningless and ends up being nowhere near what their project would require. This approach is a bit more of a gamble, and you might not want to try it unless you're good at reading people." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18548" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7043" RevisionGUID="567c895d-7b0f-4c70-8f33-b5c0cc3fbe8a" CreationDate="2017-07-22T01:19:55.793" UserId="7717" Text="Ask the agency and the client. If they both say yes, then you're good. If not, then you can't put the projects in your portfolio." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18549" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7044" RevisionGUID="8967b445-c142-456e-9464-eea1c962f8e4" CreationDate="2017-07-22T11:48:11.713" UserId="15276" Text="&gt; Should I contact him again?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, you should.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether you are interested in working with him or not, do contact him and let him know as (effective) communication is one of the key elements to successful business and business relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Do you think that **he just subtly got rid of me after the first 10 minutes of meeting**?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Honestly, I don't think so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We all are different and likely in all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Besides, nothing insinuates that from your narration but respect as he wasn't rude to you in anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is true non-verbal communication is equally important and shouldn't be ignored just as cultural dimension, often brushed under the carpet by many.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While I must admit some of my clients are extremely chatty, there are other ones who are simply not; they may have less time or interact less but convey most often fruitfully their needs and expectations, specific in their request (even if not precise enough on your side ~ in that case, I simply answer on an average request timeframe for that global scope, then call for more details so as to give a suitable timeframe based on his specific needs) with reference to their field and less knowledge on what it that may translate to (that's why he needs you) among others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Few observations and recommendations based on your submission;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*I just left my business card on his desk and went back to my office.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here in Ghana, that will most likely be interpreted by the CEO as a sign of disrespect and or otherwise; he never requested for that, it wasn't given in hand, you violated privacy by interacting with his desk without his approval, etc., ~ besides: he already know you, your website, and can easily contact you as he already did.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In most cultures where you may give out your business card with one hand (mainly your right hand; in Ghana just as most African country, using your left hand is definitely synonymous to an insult). *There is currently no article I could reference online at the moment to illustrate this as the body language is important just as considering whether you may offer your card to a given person indirectly (through someone representing him, even in his/her presence) based on certain criteria; I may possibly work out one in the future.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Japan, cultural values and etiquettes are equally pronounced; you ultimately need to do so holding and giving it the right way and with the right posture (placing your business cards on top of your business card holder, using your right hand to offer your card while holding it by the top corner, giving a brief self introduction as you offer your card).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even the receiver does receive by observing a certain cultural norms; the common practice is to confirm the name of the one giving you his/her business card and say thank you for the card, then placing the card on top of the card holder (you shouldn't put it right away into your card holder or anywhere until appropriate).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*... read more [here](https://blog.gaijinpot.com/exchanging-business-cards-japan/) and watch this [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of8UgykfUbw) as well.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Both cultural insights above may seem trivial but can have very devastating effective when not observed properly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition to that, your answer to his question to knowing whether you can get his product ready *by the **end of the year*** was not the best as *you* estimate *... or **two years***; ~ a Yes or No answer will do in such cases than evasive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, you said to him *you **can't guarantee 100% commitment to his project*** and that may easily be interpreted as: you are not such an important client to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should manage your relationships with your clients and prospective ones in a professional manner; your clients **do not** need to know how you go about with that **nor** told *I can't ...* because of commitment to client B.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can't, do consider to either learn it, hire a PR for that purpose or co-work with one so you focus on what you are good at while he/she handles that aspect of your business; it is better you owe a percentage of something than a 100 of nothing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18550" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7045" RevisionGUID="84a6710c-c623-4629-b4d3-7c14e2cb613b" CreationDate="2017-07-22T12:04:06.483" UserId="17780" Text="I work as a full-time programmer and about half year ago I also started to work on freelance; so I have pretty much experience as a programmer, but I feel that I lack some organisational skills needed for freelance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agreed to do a fixed price job. I didn't have enough experience to estimate it and thus I underestimated it (I track my time and I spent about 4 times more than I planned), but I understand that I can't blame the client, because we discussed the conditions earlier and he did everything right.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do I do in such a situation? I see several options here:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - just finish the job: it results in lower rate, but, anyway, I learned&#xD;&#xA;   something new from the situation; &#xD;&#xA; - inform the client about the time I spent. Not sure what should follow&#xD;&#xA;   that line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can you recommend me about that? Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18551" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7045" RevisionGUID="84a6710c-c623-4629-b4d3-7c14e2cb613b" CreationDate="2017-07-22T12:04:06.483" UserId="17780" Text="Should I discuss price of underestimated fixed price job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18552" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7045" RevisionGUID="84a6710c-c623-4629-b4d3-7c14e2cb613b" CreationDate="2017-07-22T12:04:06.483" UserId="17780" Text="|price|negotiation|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18553" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7046" RevisionGUID="77ca4694-68a8-4087-bcdf-93096875651c" CreationDate="2017-07-22T22:13:36.170" UserId="17767" Text="Providing a fixed-price quotation is really **hard**, for anything which includes work one haven't done before, preferably several times. It also requires a really mature client that is used to provide clear and unambiguous requirements - a rarity in the business. And, the client must of course pay a premium to compensate for the risk. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, my experience, is that most clients are understanding if one is open about the issue and a good description of why the quotation turned out wrong so wrong. Don't expect the client to pay for all your loss, but you might get some good-will compensation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, if we're &quot;only&quot; talking about a man-week or two in actual work, I guess it's not worth the hassle. Just swallow the pill and enjoy the learning experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, what makes a supplier stand-out from a client's perspective, is not how well the project executes when there's no hickups, but how well the communication and issues are resolved, when the project runs into problems.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18554" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="6001858b-af27-41b0-bc2b-349e3c77f892" CreationDate="2017-07-23T02:42:39.743" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18556" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6934" RevisionGUID="32b2b18f-5f51-44df-9477-2eb7463ce80f" CreationDate="2017-07-23T10:50:36.080" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18558" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7026" RevisionGUID="9cd97d99-e5f9-4212-a88e-016acbb3dc7e" CreationDate="2017-07-23T19:40:43.337" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/889208673993728001" />
  <row Id="18559" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6264" RevisionGUID="697ad6f9-8b42-4c29-9543-a33360dcf4cc" CreationDate="2017-07-23T21:01:19.733" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18560" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7047" RevisionGUID="fe63be64-636b-464e-9ef8-625601222457" CreationDate="2017-07-24T09:20:55.500" UserId="517" Text="Always and always, in case of miscalculations, talk to the client first. Explain to him why you missed estimations and how you worked much more than you initially thought. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask the client if he is willing to compensate extra hours you put in the project. Client has right to decline since it is not his fault you missed your calculations. But any good client will offer you extra, if not in full, then partial extra. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also ask yourself: why did you work extra? Is it because you were learning new things? Or clients added new features / you discovered new features? Were these discoveries result of junior inability to discover them or even a senior would miss on this spot?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These are the questions you should ask yourself before asking for extra. Client are usually not willing to pay for your learning (nor they should) because they hired an expert. And it is your fault is you misrepresented yourself. So just think about these things to see what is really extra and what is the learning. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS. in case a client wanted low-end junior developer, this does not work. In this case, ask for all extra work as the client was aware that you will learn new things on his project. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18561" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7011" RevisionGUID="22e73ac2-d291-45e7-ac84-cb60840078b7" CreationDate="2017-07-24T13:42:01.283" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/889480791922814976" />
  <row Id="18562" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7023" RevisionGUID="87e69f1b-8ae6-4d5f-8204-7fcd68595f6e" CreationDate="2017-07-24T14:44:27.390" UserId="58" Comment="_Heavy_ edit to try and move the answer to plain english. Removed the section on legality of companies as it is wildly off-topic, too." Text="No — this may seem to a large extent both unhealthy and unethical in my humble opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You've worked for the agency and as such can have this reflected in your CV, with your core duties and responsibilities, without exposing any customer information or claiming direct/indirect credit for a specific product/services unless with express written permission/approval.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to understand that your agency (as you currently still work there) **is a company**, with individual and corporate competitors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Leaving your company to then compete against it, using that company's product(s) as leverage (mentioning you were a part of that project); what message are you trying to send? And would it be you as an individual, or your new company you'd be attributing this to?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recommend you focus on your personal achievements as a freelancer for your portfolio for better and brighter prospects, rather than morally conflicting ones." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18563" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7048" RevisionGUID="3ea613b1-df66-4a63-b5a6-21145162cadc" CreationDate="2017-07-24T21:48:20.293" UserId="17793" Text="Yes but explain that you were working within a particular team or as a member of the agency. Other than that you should obviously only share content that you're contractually allowed to share with regards to that agencies policies." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18567" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7050" RevisionGUID="950ed555-4654-4d02-9fb3-2a54a63a3e44" CreationDate="2017-07-25T17:36:17.660" UserId="17801" Text="I am currently working as a technical freelance writer for a client. He has asked me to write 10 lengthy articles (~2000 Words each) about a technical topic in a &quot;tutorial&quot; fashion. We agreed on a fixed rate of $0.2 per word. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before I started working on the 10 articles, I outlined the articles in a hierarchy of Article-Sections-Subsections-Brief Description in a document. After I was done, the whole outline document was 600 words.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question is, should I ask my client for a payment for that outline? (Given that I spent around 3 hours preparing it). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18568" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7050" RevisionGUID="950ed555-4654-4d02-9fb3-2a54a63a3e44" CreationDate="2017-07-25T17:36:17.660" UserId="17801" Text="Should I ask for a payment for the outline of a course I am writing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18569" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7050" RevisionGUID="950ed555-4654-4d02-9fb3-2a54a63a3e44" CreationDate="2017-07-25T17:36:17.660" UserId="17801" Text="|payment-terms|payments|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18570" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7051" RevisionGUID="29f5890c-58f2-41a6-b454-4d1d79ec2be6" CreationDate="2017-07-25T17:52:34.857" UserId="17662" Text="It probably won't hurt to *ask* for payment, but if it's not something they agreed to in advance, don't be surprised if they decline.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You would probably be better off using your document as a &quot;wireframe&quot; for the series of articles, and incorporate as much (or all) of it that you can into the finished product.  You will recover your investment that way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18574" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7053" RevisionGUID="f60891d4-3efd-42f5-a1ef-8da48358cae8" CreationDate="2017-07-26T03:21:56.963" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="I am negotiating a contract where the customer wants an exclusiveness option. The project is about development of software and exclusiveness means that I am not allowed to resell it to third parties later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What coefficient should I apply to value this exclusiveness in the contract ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18575" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7053" RevisionGUID="f60891d4-3efd-42f5-a1ef-8da48358cae8" CreationDate="2017-07-26T03:21:56.963" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="What's the value of exclusiveness?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18576" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7053" RevisionGUID="f60891d4-3efd-42f5-a1ef-8da48358cae8" CreationDate="2017-07-26T03:21:56.963" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="|price|negotiation|offer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18578" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7055" RevisionGUID="0971bc99-9378-426f-bf8d-60683a833774" CreationDate="2017-07-26T04:51:08.840" UserId="2265" Text="your rate should include a 'cost of sales'. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I.e. when I make a quote for a customer, that usually costs me a few hours as well. I can't charge for that, but that cost is included in the total project cost. Would you consider this outline as part of a pre sales process or is it part of the project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless you included the outline in the list of stuff the client would have to pay for, such as the articles, then it may be difficult to ask money for it. On the other hand if it is unclear, it is writing too, so why shouldn't it be invoiced?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18579" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7056" RevisionGUID="b8301474-25da-428b-a014-a9ff1f45fd16" CreationDate="2017-07-26T05:44:01.507" UserId="17309" Text="I applied for a job through Guru three months ago and then had a detailed conversation regarding the project. The client was happy with the rough solution presented by me but disappered after some discussion. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently he tried reaching me again and this time he agreed to give the project to me accepting all my charges/service terms and conditions. But this time, most of the communication happened through whatsapp chat. Shall I directly deal with client and payment through PayPal or should send an agreement through Guru website?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason I want to directly deal with client is higher charges levied by websites on contract amount." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18580" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7056" RevisionGUID="b8301474-25da-428b-a014-a9ff1f45fd16" CreationDate="2017-07-26T05:44:01.507" UserId="17309" Text="Direct PayPal invoicing or contract through freelance website for new client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18581" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7056" RevisionGUID="b8301474-25da-428b-a014-a9ff1f45fd16" CreationDate="2017-07-26T05:44:01.507" UserId="17309" Text="|freelance-websites|payment-terms|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18582" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7057" RevisionGUID="ffcd33ea-958f-4bde-bc05-6e180664a4b2" CreationDate="2017-07-26T06:55:12.300" UserId="15276" Text="Your post may be off-topic but if not, paying outside the Guru platform may be interpreted as you taking full responsibility of your action (including the risk of being duped) as that will be at the blind sight of the Guru platform , where they may have absolutely no power to control anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be warned; you cannot (likely supported by their terms and conditions you would have already agreed to in order to use their platform and thereby binding you) ask the Guru platform for any support should a problem arise as you may be breaking your contractual agreement with them through that action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other sanctions may apply as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18583" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7058" RevisionGUID="0168a06a-9dbd-4f30-bb0a-5018186b14da" CreationDate="2017-07-26T07:07:24.733" UserId="15143" Text="I regularly communicate with my clients on WhatsApp, there's nothing wrong with that. WhatsApp is a very common communication tool.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will need to make a decision on whether you want to take a risk working outside the platform. Only you have the answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Do you trust your client?&#xD;&#xA; - Will a deposit be paid? Never work for anything like paid-after-delivery.&#xD;&#xA; - Do you want to take risks for higher profit margin?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I personally take the risks and work with my clients without any platform. If you want to take the risk, make sure you start working without any payment guarantee.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18584" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7059" RevisionGUID="a6431a44-1098-44a7-b67b-c5a0b59526d7" CreationDate="2017-07-26T07:31:27.380" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Two options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- follow the normal Guru workflow (fully);&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- work on an advance-payment basis only (possibly splitting the workload into phases, but each time paid in advance).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the latter case, the customer can claim that they are disadvantaged. Tell him that the work done cannot be given back, while money can :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18585" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7058" RevisionGUID="b5074f45-dc83-4c2f-b4c0-4a965bd82ee2" CreationDate="2017-07-26T07:42:16.777" UserId="15143" Comment="added 6 characters in body" Text="I regularly communicate with my clients on WhatsApp, there's nothing wrong with that. WhatsApp is a very common communication tool.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will need to make a decision on whether you want to take a risk working outside the platform. Only you have the answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Do you trust your client?&#xD;&#xA; - Will a deposit be paid? Never work for anything like paid-after-delivery.&#xD;&#xA; - Do you want to take risks for higher profit margin?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I personally take the risks and work with my clients without any platform. If you want to take the risk, make sure you don't start working without any payment guarantee.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18586" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7060" RevisionGUID="14121ef9-9314-4f8b-9af6-cc8f8dddc8b7" CreationDate="2017-07-26T09:38:32.697" UserId="2265" Text="You won't find a coefficient that you can apply, as there are many factors to consider:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* How much work is involved?&#xD;&#xA;* Do you charge per hour or fixed price for the software? &#xD;&#xA;* Can you reuse some of the code in other applications?&#xD;&#xA;* Will you also be given the same exclusiveness regarding maintenance of the application? (i.e. the guarantee that you and you alone can do the maintenance)&#xD;&#xA;* Is this a product with an annual license fee or do they just pay for the software and that's it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short: if you just make the software, no license fees, no maintenance,fixed price, and you can't reuse any of the code in other applications I'd be putting a very big premium on the total price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But it really depends. In the end you'll just have to crunch the numbers and decide on a price that makes it worth the effort for you. &#xD;&#xA;I would recommend to add some recurrent revenue to the contract (e.g. maintenance or yearly license fee).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18588" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7062" RevisionGUID="4179f32b-d80f-4a21-a72a-1a8adfcba051" CreationDate="2017-07-26T12:24:25.493" UserId="517" Text="Depends on your plans. Do you plan to get new clients via freelancing sites or by direct recommendation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you believe that you will get decent amount of new clients via recommendations, then do the work directly and not pay fees to those sites. Many guys here are working by this system. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, if you suspect that you will find clients via freelancing sites, then do the work via them. You will build your profile and get new clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing thou, I was once spammed by Upwork informing me that if I bring my own client to their platform, they will charge me 0%. This is even smaller than Paypal. And you can always take those clients off Upwork without breaching their regulations. You  may think about this option as well. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18589" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7063" RevisionGUID="cd8984bc-4347-463a-8410-0de48715ac5c" CreationDate="2017-07-26T12:27:23.577" UserId="517" Text="Although I have never signed contract for the purpose you state, a friend of my how is a game developer and has his team, does this often. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They charge their time for one price and as the output give you ONLY the game. A client does not get access to the source code. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client want the source code, they treat this as if they have built some generic platform which can produce more games with a different theme and charge 5 times more. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may try to think about a similar way for charging the exclusiveness they seek. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18590" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7053" RevisionGUID="8cde75e2-9ad9-49d8-8b77-0b86dfe9e594" CreationDate="2017-07-26T12:28:39.360" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="added 129 characters in body" Text="I am negotiating a contract where the customer wants an exclusiveness option. The project is about development of software and exclusiveness means that I am not allowed to resell it to third parties later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What coefficient should I apply to value this exclusiveness in the contract ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;It is worth to know that this piece of software is indeed reusable by others as such or with minor adaptations." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18592" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7064" RevisionGUID="7ee7964d-9f66-42b7-b41f-f9f434d4fb5c" CreationDate="2017-07-26T17:00:07.747" UserId="708" Text="I really can't answer for code....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;... but ....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;in my field, design, I'd find this comparable to illustrations. I customarily charge a multiplier for exclusive rights to illustrations. Somewhere around 3x or 4x works out well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This somewhat depends on **rights** as well and not merely exclusivity. If the client wants *all right* then a higher multiplier is warranted. If the client merely wants an exclusive license, then I negotiate a time frame for exclusivity. After all, if the client *doesn't* want the rights, but wants exclusivity - what benefit is there in me *not* transferring rights unless the exclusivity ends at some future point?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *always* include the cost of exclusivity as a separate line item on quotes so that the customer can see what that specific factor is costing them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So either: &lt;br &gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Exclusive License For XX years/months/etc ... $xxxx.xx&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;or&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Transfer of Copyrights ... $xxxx.xx&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some clients quickly change their mind about exclusivity when they see figures. On the other hand, like all quotes, some clients don't have a problem with the figures at all. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In truth, it's very difficult to quantify values, at least for me. There's no telling *exactly* how much I'm giving up in terms of future usage. So really, it's all just &quot;best guess&quot; and figures are high enough where I won't feel I shorted myself when looking back on things. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18594" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7064" RevisionGUID="2ddfb9ea-2856-4a9a-a43c-1735d5032330" CreationDate="2017-07-26T17:14:49.940" UserId="708" Comment="added 333 characters in body" Text="I really can't answer for code....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;... but ....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;in my field, design, I'd find this comparable to illustrations. I customarily charge a multiplier for exclusive rights to illustrations. Somewhere around 3x or 4x works out well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I generally do is estimate the time needed to create the original... then apply the multiplier. This generally covers many future usage scenarios since that creation time would be needed at least once if I were to come across the need for something similar and *not* be able to use what I've already created or have on-hand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This somewhat depends on **rights** as well and not merely exclusivity. If the client wants *all right* then a higher multiplier is warranted. If the client merely wants an exclusive license, then I negotiate a time frame for exclusivity. After all, if the client *doesn't* want the rights, but wants exclusivity - what benefit is there in me *not* transferring rights unless the exclusivity ends at some future point?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *always* include the cost of exclusivity as a separate line item on quotes so that the customer can see what that specific factor is costing them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So either: &lt;br &gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Exclusive License For XX years/months/etc ... $xxxx.xx&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;or&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Transfer of Copyrights ... $xxxx.xx&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some clients quickly change their mind about exclusivity when they see figures. On the other hand, like all quotes, some clients don't have a problem with the figures at all. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In truth, it's very difficult to quantify values, at least for me. There's no telling *exactly* how much I'm giving up in terms of future usage. So really, it's all just &quot;best guess&quot; and figures are high enough where I won't feel I shorted myself when looking back on things. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18595" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7065" RevisionGUID="d265c369-170d-4eb1-8920-d6965b632c31" CreationDate="2017-07-26T23:47:41.723" UserId="708" Text="I have *never* used any online freelancing platform for *any* client. All communications are direct, including contract negotiations and payments. I dislike &quot;chat&quot; overall, it's too easy to allow incessant interruptions. So, I do **not** use any messengers. I handle communications vie email and telephone (and sometimes texts). There shouldn't ever be a need for anything more in my opinion - none of what I do is &quot;life and death&quot; requiring instant communication beyond a phone call.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't *need* a third party taking a percentage of your revenue, why would you ever instigate that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have I been ripped off? Yes, but only a couple times. Does using a freelance platform ensure you won't be ripped off? Absolutely not. But, the freelance platforms, in my opinion, make it *much easier* for bad clients to hide or manipulate the system to get more than they are paying for. Just read the answer from @PeterMV here: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/6990/why-anybody-would-work-without-a-contract It's always possible to &quot;game the system&quot; once a bad client knows how it works. It's pretty difficult to &quot;game the system&quot; if **I** *am* the system.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With direct communication I get a **much** clearer indication of the *type* of client someone is and am able to spot bad clients *much* more rapidly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18597" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7045" RevisionGUID="76ccc632-c85c-4cb2-8886-5dd8a375964f" CreationDate="2017-07-27T04:10:11.307" UserId="15276" Comment="Removed irrelevant content mainly." Text="I work as a full-time programmer and about half year ago.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also started to work on freelance; so I have pretty much experience as a programmer, but I feel that I lack some organisational skills needed for freelance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agreed to do a fixed price job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I didn't have enough experience to estimate it and thus I underestimated it (I track my time and I spent about 4 times more than I planned), but I understand that I can't blame the client, because we discussed the conditions earlier and he did everything right.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do I do in such a situation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I see several options here:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - just finish the job: it results in lower rate, but, anyway, I learned&#xD;&#xA;   something new from the situation; &#xD;&#xA; - inform the client about the time I spent. Not sure what should follow&#xD;&#xA;   that line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can you recommend me about that?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18598" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7045" RevisionGUID="76ccc632-c85c-4cb2-8886-5dd8a375964f" CreationDate="2017-07-27T04:10:11.307" Comment="Proposed by 15276 approved by 2265, 17780 edit id of 558" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18600" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7066" RevisionGUID="eff7f6e7-61b9-4a23-8d49-d06fd9d50e69" CreationDate="2017-07-28T02:57:28.323" UserId="17821" Text="Hope this is the right place to ask this question. I tend to hang out over at StackOverflow.&#xA;&#xA;I'm soon going to close a transaction with the owner of an existing single-member LLC, that will transfer 100% of the current member's interest to me, making me the sole member (owner) of the LLC.&#xA;&#xA;It's unclear to me whether I need to apply for a new EIN. My attorney is unsure, and my CPA says it would make his life easier. What I really want to know is, definitively, what the correct thing to do is.&#xA;&#xA;Any help appreciated. Thanks. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18601" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7066" RevisionGUID="eff7f6e7-61b9-4a23-8d49-d06fd9d50e69" CreationDate="2017-07-28T02:57:28.323" UserId="17821" Text="Buying 100% member interest in existing LLC. Do I need a new EIN?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18602" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7066" RevisionGUID="eff7f6e7-61b9-4a23-8d49-d06fd9d50e69" CreationDate="2017-07-28T02:57:28.323" UserId="17821" Text="|legal|taxes|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18606" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3520" RevisionGUID="fd9b2b46-d386-4563-bd6d-37b614c97bc0" CreationDate="2017-07-28T18:28:22.720" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18607" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7068" RevisionGUID="338fa1c5-63f7-460a-84ce-eb213ebfde17" CreationDate="2017-07-28T21:18:17.730" UserId="17835" Text="I have a client that wants to forward his calls to me when he's busy with a meeting. He wants me to be available from 9-5, but will only be forwarding his calls to me when he's with a client. Do I bill him for the entire time he may be forwarding calls or just for the time I'm on the phone? There may only be 5-10 calls a day, so I won't be on the phone much, but he doesn't want the calls to go to voice mail." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18608" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7068" RevisionGUID="338fa1c5-63f7-460a-84ce-eb213ebfde17" CreationDate="2017-07-28T21:18:17.730" UserId="17835" Text="Do I bill for time my client wants me to be on-call, waiting for calls to be forwarded?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18609" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7068" RevisionGUID="338fa1c5-63f7-460a-84ce-eb213ebfde17" CreationDate="2017-07-28T21:18:17.730" UserId="17835" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18610" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7069" RevisionGUID="40807da4-d9a1-46b8-8a11-1520d631ae2d" CreationDate="2017-07-28T21:59:28.533" UserId="708" Text="If I have a client that wants me available during a specific span of time, they pay for that time. How they utilize that time is there option. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are free to schedule and pay for 8 hours, and ultimately only utilize my skills for 30 minutes. They still pay for the 8 hours they requested I be available to them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18611" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7070" RevisionGUID="fcdf7d7f-9608-4552-ad2d-567372881624" CreationDate="2017-07-29T09:02:23.107" UserId="17837" Text="I would say, if the work was not sensitive, I mean where any information can pose as a threat or likely to affect or compromise your client, you should desist. I also think in my opinion, that its always good to ask your client if you can use the project you did in your portfolio outlining clearly what information you will be giving out for evaluation purposes of your client. If the client may have questions arising from such, then you should address the same before using them in your portfolio. In my opinion, always ask before using such information." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18614" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7069" RevisionGUID="527c9b9d-c8fa-4e7e-ba89-eef25219201b" CreationDate="2017-07-29T23:45:30.150" UserId="708" Comment="added 696 characters in body" Text="If I have a client that wants me available during a specific span of time, they pay for that time. How they utilize that time is there option. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are free to schedule and pay for 8 hours, and ultimately only utilize my skills for 30 minutes. They still pay for the 8 hours they requested I be available to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, this all comes down to **negotiation** though. If the client only wants to pay a per-call fee, then you are free to negotiate that. It all really depends upon how disruptive the calls may be to you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example: I offer something such as $50 per hour or $50 per call and let the client pick. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Say I'm available for 8 hours....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - If the client chooses per call.. and took 5 calls, then the client gets the better deal. &#xD;&#xA; - If the client chooses per call and I get 10 calls, then I get the better deal. &#xD;&#xA; - If the client chooses per hour and I take 10 calls, the client gets the better deal. &#xD;&#xA; - If the clint chooses per hour and I take 5 calls, I get the better deal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18615" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7069" RevisionGUID="86ca846c-40a8-4639-836d-352abe5f6d33" CreationDate="2017-07-29T23:50:43.690" UserId="708" Comment="added 696 characters in body" Text="If I have a client that wants me available during a specific span of time, they pay for that time. How they utilize that time is there option. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are free to schedule and pay for 8 hours, and ultimately only utilize my skills for 30 minutes. They still pay for the 8 hours they requested I be available to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like all my clients, they pay for my time and experience. I'm not really paid for just completing manual tasks. Any schlub can perform manual tasks. It's the knowledge and experience I posses that makes *my* performance worth my rates." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18616" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7069" RevisionGUID="7b2ae71b-c6b1-4e70-87e4-9b10b52e5cab" CreationDate="2017-07-30T02:21:16.573" UserDisplayName="user16080" Comment="Spelling correction" Text="If I have a client that wants me available during a specific span of time, they pay for that time. How they utilize my skills in that time is their option. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are free to schedule and pay for 8 hours, and ultimately only utilize my skills for 30 minutes. They still pay for the 8 hours they requested I be available to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like all my clients, they pay for my time and experience. I'm not really paid for just completing manual tasks. Any schlub can perform manual tasks. It's the knowledge and experience I posses that makes *my* performance worth my rates." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18617" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7069" RevisionGUID="7b2ae71b-c6b1-4e70-87e4-9b10b52e5cab" CreationDate="2017-07-30T02:21:16.573" Comment="Proposed by 16080 approved by 708 edit id of 560" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18618" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7053" RevisionGUID="bd66d560-db9f-45aa-836f-5a5b34816333" CreationDate="2017-07-30T02:31:01.270" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/891486255673999360" />
  <row Id="18620" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7072" RevisionGUID="26841414-bfb3-4395-946a-a155773c863a" CreationDate="2017-07-30T20:16:45.387" UserId="17849" Text="In the litigious environment we operate in today I would be very careful to use a logo of a firm on your website.  I agree with Brian K Haney's discussion with nominative use above.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Going forward, as you work with clients, you may want to ask them if you can use their logo (or likeness) in promotional materials on your website.  Then you will know upfront.  In some cases you can offer a discount or some &quot;Free&quot; services if they agree to do this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18622" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7073" RevisionGUID="e1d21adb-56c7-4ade-887d-dac93465e56a" CreationDate="2017-07-31T09:42:04.853" UserId="7858" Text="This is basically a contractual matter and depends on the type of work (mission critical or mundane support) and your client's expectations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally, clients pay for your time - so it depends on how much of a burden being on-call is. If it actually prevents you from performing other work, it would need to be compensated as actual work. However, if you need not react immediately and can still plan your working day as you see fit, some sort of discount could be given.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Billing for non-worked time (from the client perspective) can easily sour a client relationship - so the agreement needs to be concrete and in writing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18626" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7075" RevisionGUID="e7c25734-bd47-4844-870e-1ce390c38a7f" CreationDate="2017-07-31T15:53:19.510" UserId="17859" Text="Is there any way I can invoice from a residential address without making it look like its coming from a home?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;psid" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18627" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7075" RevisionGUID="e7c25734-bd47-4844-870e-1ce390c38a7f" CreationDate="2017-07-31T15:53:19.510" UserId="17859" Text="Invoicing from a Residential Address" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18628" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7075" RevisionGUID="e7c25734-bd47-4844-870e-1ce390c38a7f" CreationDate="2017-07-31T15:53:19.510" UserId="17859" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18629" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7076" RevisionGUID="18f7c805-e846-4f91-a229-8a43be5054aa" CreationDate="2017-07-31T16:21:32.740" UserId="708" Text="An address looks like an address. You can't disguise it in any way. If the fact that the address is residential can be determined from merely looking at the address, there's nothing you can do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can however, get a PO box or other &quot;box&quot; service to use as a business address.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, send all business mail to a PO Box so my home address isn't so publicly used." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18630" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="1980" RevisionGUID="e48ecf1a-5013-4abd-aaca-747d2b246600" CreationDate="2017-07-31T16:31:23.210" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="18631" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7075" RevisionGUID="14d55aff-4755-4c08-8eb5-da4000c161e3" CreationDate="2017-07-31T17:02:40.677" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 18 characters in body" Text="Is there any way I can invoice from a residential address without making it look like its coming from a home?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18635" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7077" RevisionGUID="0ffa882c-df6c-493a-9868-8de952abd151" CreationDate="2017-08-01T09:20:50.197" UserId="3047" Text="This may sound like a ridiculous question, but to be honest I am a bit puzzled about the best attitude that I should take towards one project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For few months I have been working for one client and after that time I have realized something, that was not visible at first sight - my client is a person, who dislike people of other race and religion and is pro Russian, to put it lightly, who is xenophobic, racist, adores Putin, to put it bluntly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Russia / Putin I see like a different opinion or setting that everyone is entitled to, the other things I have a hard time accepting and I believe one should not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What to do, however? I am building an intranet CRM system for whole company and my leaving would give a hard time also to other people. It also seems unprofessional to me. I am paid on a hourly basis and I have been already compensated for several months' work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes I wonder what took me so long to realize it and I just feel that by staying I am actually helping to spread those ideas and once the system is finished, client will be more free and able to be even more proactive in advertising those ideas and supporting those political parties that do as well, for example.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far I have stopped going for a lunch as I usually feel embarrassed there and when I tried to be an opponent, it seemed to have no effect. Or should I try harder?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for any opinions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18636" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7077" RevisionGUID="0ffa882c-df6c-493a-9868-8de952abd151" CreationDate="2017-08-01T09:20:50.197" UserId="3047" Text="Different world opinions with my client, quit or stay?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18637" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7077" RevisionGUID="0ffa882c-df6c-493a-9868-8de952abd151" CreationDate="2017-08-01T09:20:50.197" UserId="3047" Text="|moral|opinion|racism|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18638" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7078" RevisionGUID="639353ca-3bff-4508-9afb-3679eae0528f" CreationDate="2017-08-01T09:26:03.800" UserId="17864" Text="Business is business. If you don't do his work, others will. Make the most of it, and if it makes you feel unhappy, try to wrap it as soon as possible. Better yet, try to find another gig in the meantime, and when that's all set in, raise the price on the russian client. He'll either insist, or compensate fairly well, to shed your tears away." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18639" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7079" RevisionGUID="09a65bc8-cf4e-4930-ba37-1ad656892e0d" CreationDate="2017-08-01T10:27:03.480" UserId="517" Text="Are you working on-site or remotely? Seems like on-site work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are working together with this guy, I can understand who you feel. Working environment for me is a thing which will push me work cheaper (for good team) or more expensive / leave (when team is bad). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Leaving for this reason is not silly at all. Things that bother you will influence your work in a year of a few years. I have myself quit my job for this very reason - atmosphere was bad and when I came home I was nervous and bad thoughts were constantly in my head. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were you, I would first try to move away from all things that bother you. It may work well for you. Each time when you have to talk to this guy, try to be on topic, and when he moves to off topic talk that you do not approve of, tell him that you have a lot of work to do and leave. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are in this to earn something, so you have to try everything to see if you can work in such environment. If not, you will know what to do. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18640" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7080" RevisionGUID="87d1da15-4878-4588-b878-1bce974bc1a1" CreationDate="2017-08-01T11:49:41.220" UserId="17821" Text="I just bought a company yesterday that has been run for the last six years by the owner's sister (&quot;Sue&quot;), whom I would give the title of &quot;Business Manager&quot;. It's a small business, but we do government work, so there's a fair amount of paperwork in addition to routine accounting through QuickBooks. I'd like to assume Sue's job because the company has greatly downsized since its heydey when a full-time Business Manager was needed. Her job is something I can do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sue has been making a salary of $38,188 with no additional benefits. Because there will be some turnover, and because I'll need her to do a handful of things in addition to answering my questions, I'd like to offer to keep her employed at an hourly consulting rate for a short period of time, say 30 days from today. Realistically, I would expect her to record no more than 10 hours per week for the next month, as part of the transition.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to lowball her unfairly (she's done a great job heretofore), but I'm on a serious budget and cannot afford to overpay her. What hourly rate should I offer her? I originally considered dividing her salary by 2080 (hours in a year), but ~$18/hr seems low. Any advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18641" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7080" RevisionGUID="87d1da15-4878-4588-b878-1bce974bc1a1" CreationDate="2017-08-01T11:49:41.220" UserId="17821" Text="How much should I pay a previously salaried employee to stay on as a consultant?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18642" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7080" RevisionGUID="87d1da15-4878-4588-b878-1bce974bc1a1" CreationDate="2017-08-01T11:49:41.220" UserId="17821" Text="|pay-rate|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18643" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7081" RevisionGUID="34236db3-50e5-409e-8d09-ced39c3cb773" CreationDate="2017-08-01T12:50:30.093" UserId="517" Text="I have seen that many companies offer full-time rate as 50% of their real rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Based on this, it looks like you should offer her $36/h. And she should be happy with it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you cannot afford $36, then go a bit lower until you reach the mutual satisfactory rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, many people will tell you that you are a business and not a charity. So &quot;low&quot; is not low if the other side accepts it. If the other side declines the offered rate, then you negotiate for the best rate FOR YOU, not for the employee. In reality, this rule is stretched based on the demand and need. If someone can do the job for $18, then you should offer that rate to her as well. If you really need her, then offer her $36 or lower so you are sure she will do the work, but you are not out of the budget. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18644" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7082" RevisionGUID="bd67c381-6340-4eb0-a618-90995d156e93" CreationDate="2017-08-02T04:31:29.210" UserId="17869" Text="Is is hard for one guy to finish the freelancing job? For example, in software engineering area, some guys can only do backend and some guys can only do frontend, it's hard for them to finish freelancing job individually. So here's the problem, do you want to find co-worker with different skill to help you finish the job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18645" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7082" RevisionGUID="bd67c381-6340-4eb0-a618-90995d156e93" CreationDate="2017-08-02T04:31:29.210" UserId="17869" Text="Do you need Co-worker when doing freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18646" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7082" RevisionGUID="bd67c381-6340-4eb0-a618-90995d156e93" CreationDate="2017-08-02T04:31:29.210" UserId="17869" Text="|partner|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18650" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7084" RevisionGUID="be9a7d8b-2e77-4ee7-b7de-150b51a68fca" CreationDate="2017-08-02T17:50:03.297" UserId="708" Text="Whether or not you need a partner or coworker depends on the work you do, the work you take on, and your desired business goals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is completely possible to never have a partner and be successful in any fields. It is by no means ever a &quot;requirement&quot; to have a coworker or partner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the work you perform has certain expectations which you can not meet yourself, then you may need a reliable subcontractor or co-worker to perform the duties you can't. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18652" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7084" RevisionGUID="59f55d3e-d011-443c-9642-177b90b449dd" CreationDate="2017-08-02T18:08:51.080" UserId="708" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="Whether or not you need a partner or coworker depends on the work you do, the work you take on, and your desired business goals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is completely possible to never have a partner and be successful in many fields. It is by no means ever a &quot;requirement&quot; to have a coworker or partner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the work you perform has certain expectations which you can not meet yourself, then you may need a reliable subcontractor or co-worker to perform the duties you can't. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18653" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7085" RevisionGUID="2d202a73-e344-4f4b-acb1-8a5172e42c71" CreationDate="2017-08-02T18:24:49.783" UserId="708" Text="I promised myself years ago to never use my powers for evil :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me, first and foremost is my well being, that includes mental well being as well. I dislike supporting products/services I personally find offensive. They leave a sticky, gross, felling on me. This is different than work on a product service to support something I don't believe in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've worked on projects in the past which I *knew* preyed upon people's fears or ability to not see the &quot;con&quot; that was taking place - things like &quot;this cures cancer&quot; or &quot;The economy is going to collapse&quot;. Clearly lies, but not offensive remarks. I always see these types of things as &quot;buy beware&quot; situations. Someone's going to do the work.. why not me. If there are &quot;suckers&quot; out there willing to buy into it, that's their fault. It's more a &quot;free will&quot; thing - the buyer/reader has a choice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's a thin line. Nonetheless I'm not adamant about only working on things I personally support. But I am adamant about not working on things which offend me or anyone I know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, first, I don't take on work for views which I consider unsavory. I'd never work for race-based organizations, regardless of the race. I'd never work in the porn industry, I'd never work for one particular political party today - I would have 30 years ago - etc. However, if I take on the work *then* find out other things which make the work unsavory I find an out. Either give considerable notice that I will be leaving or just outright quit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where this gets sticky is in a contract situation. If I've *legally* agreed to complete work, I must complete it. That is unless the other party breeches the agreement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I were to accept work, then find out the client is an overt racist I would **speak up**. Hiring me to complete work does *not* mean you hire control over my personal beliefs. When an offensive comment is made, I'd make it clear, *&quot;Excuse me, that offends me. I'd appreciate it if you tried to curb your views [on other ethnic groups, religion, politics] when we speak.&quot;* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's the worst that can happen? The client will either stop with the offensive remarks, or try and find a way out of working with me - win win for me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18657" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7087" RevisionGUID="281d4d36-507e-48ca-b4ec-02df95f233f7" CreationDate="2017-08-02T20:11:23.310" UserId="17884" Text="In all honesty, engaging &quot;Sue&quot; at a rate based on her previous salary is probably low-balling her (unless she was paid an insanely, extremely over-market wage). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Benefits or not, Federal 'payroll' taxes are 21.3% (13.65 employer paid) and State taxes are not reflected in the salary, not to mention the additional tax reporting problems &quot;Sue&quot; will need to manage at the end of the year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you are doing is hiring a temporary Business Manager (for which there is a going consultant market rate) who is fully trained in all the tasks (which would drive you to the high end of the market rate) and has an intimate knowledge of the government regulations and accounting involved in your exact business operations (which would command a premium on the market rate).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are trying to be fair in what you pay, it should be in line with the market rate in your particular market. Check with the local temp agencies and see what they would charge. It could be that $36/hour is fair, but as a contract I would state it in terms of $1440 for a 4 week engagement of 10 hours a week. That seems awfully darn low to be tying up a highly specialized consultant for a month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask &quot;Sue&quot; what she would want. Maybe offer to keep her on part-time for 20 hours/week for a month (basically the &quot;50% of her real rate&quot; theory), or 10 hours a week with a $1K or $2K severance bonus if she sticks around to the end of the month (still within 36/hour). Those options would save both of you paperwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Somewhere between what she wants and the value you (and the market) place on her service you can find an adequate rate. It really doesn't need to reflect the previous salary; that's just the lowest point you can fast-talk someone into accepting. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18658" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7088" RevisionGUID="7abb844d-6550-4cac-9a2a-cec7197da608" CreationDate="2017-08-03T05:35:58.083" UserId="17892" Text="I am freelancer Android application developer, I got a project based on Hotel booking which I completed it in 20 days( **project based pay** ) and the client paid me 20k(INR) as I am new to freelancing am I paid enough? or paid less from the client ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What will be the right amount for this project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;sorry if this is off-topic i am new to this SE site" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18659" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7088" RevisionGUID="7abb844d-6550-4cac-9a2a-cec7197da608" CreationDate="2017-08-03T05:35:58.083" UserId="17892" Text="Am i paid enough for my work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18660" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7088" RevisionGUID="7abb844d-6550-4cac-9a2a-cec7197da608" CreationDate="2017-08-03T05:35:58.083" UserId="17892" Text="|freelance-websites|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18661" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7089" RevisionGUID="71ec1811-e920-434d-978a-5cda4f818c98" CreationDate="2017-08-03T09:54:29.257" UserId="7858" Text="Setting a price is notoriously difficult and involves guessing how much your delivery is actually worth to the client. No one here can help you guess what your specific client in India could potentially pay you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To begin estimating a price, consider what a normal monthly salary (including any benefits) is for a job you can get. If you have never been employed, find the data for India online at a site like https://www.glassdoor.com/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Normally, one would target a higher amount than a typical salary to compensate for client risk and time bewteen contracts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your availability could also be a factor; if you have more work opportunities than you need, you can obviously raise the price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How desperate you are could be a factor. The more you need money, the more you might need to lower your price." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18667" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="7088" RevisionGUID="297be36a-4b22-48d8-9bef-88b4e555cf7c" CreationDate="2017-08-03T17:25:23.037" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Metis&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="18671" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7066" RevisionGUID="f44a0e89-2488-4b9c-a346-3e4cfeb487e2" CreationDate="2017-08-04T08:25:18.467" UserId="15276" Comment="Edited content for presentation and clarity of expression (removed irrelevant contents mainly)." Text="I'm soon going to close a transaction with the owner of an existing single-member LLC, that will transfer 100% of the current member's interest to me, making me the sole member (owner) of the LLC.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's unclear to me whether I need to apply for a new EIN. My attorney is unsure, and my CPA says it would make his life easier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I really want to know is, definitively, what is the correct thing to do is?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18672" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7066" RevisionGUID="f44a0e89-2488-4b9c-a346-3e4cfeb487e2" CreationDate="2017-08-04T08:25:18.467" Comment="Proposed by 15276 approved by 708, 7486 edit id of 559" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18673" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7091" RevisionGUID="4149b5a3-3be1-4401-a6b7-0b335c5fc029" CreationDate="2017-08-04T16:56:52.317" UserId="1706" Text="The best thing to do here would be to contact IRS and ask the experts there.  It would have been nice to get the information from your attorney, but I'd guess that a CPA would have more qualified advice.  Whatever you do, document your findings AND the name of the person who you speak to." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18674" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7092" RevisionGUID="5e2d93d5-5ac5-4f6b-833e-1adcd03e0712" CreationDate="2017-08-04T17:06:27.187" UserId="1706" Text="Rather than getting caught up in a boatload of paperwork, find a reputable temporary-services agency and pay the agency to pay Sue at a given rate.  Your cost will be Sue's hourly rate plus a markup rate for the agency that will cover their mandatory Social Security contribution and put a few dollars in their pocket for the convenience.  Typical markup rates would be between 12%-50%.  At the end of all this, you just pay the agency without having the burden of calculating payroll taxes and making payments to the state and the fed, and worrying about W-2's next year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, the $18 rate is absolutely appropriate but you might be nice and bump it up to $20.  A marked-up $18 will cost you $20-$27/hr, and a marked-up $20 will cost you $22-$30/hr.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This might be the simplest approach for you to not spread yourself too thin.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18675" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7093" RevisionGUID="a155e93d-b174-4f7b-91cb-f2f94de84d9f" CreationDate="2017-08-04T21:37:21.750" UserId="1706" Text="You may want to keep some safe distance in having your home address all over things like contracts and so forth.  But occasionally, you may need to receive overnight mail and packages too.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The happy medium for me, for years, has been a Private Mail Box (PMB).  You get one of these at places like the UPS Store.  They can receive overnight packages as well as regular mail, unlike a PO Box.  A PMB is not glaringly obvious like a PO Box in terms of someone seeing an address and making a judgment call on the size or ability of your business, AND it keeps people away from your little slice-of-heaven called home." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18682" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7095" RevisionGUID="e9772e2e-722a-457b-96cb-fd5fce9b54e9" CreationDate="2017-08-05T14:15:19.333" UserId="17911" Text="hope you are all doing well. I'm a solo freelancer working from home in a developing country. Sometimes I need a trusted-feeling address to show for my clients. Is it illegal to rent a virtual address from a developed country to show it in my contracts and email signatures? Are there any harms that might come to me later? Beside that, I feel it a bit of cheating. Thanks for any help." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18683" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7095" RevisionGUID="e9772e2e-722a-457b-96cb-fd5fce9b54e9" CreationDate="2017-08-05T14:15:19.333" UserId="17911" Text="Virtual address for freelance use?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18684" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7095" RevisionGUID="e9772e2e-722a-457b-96cb-fd5fce9b54e9" CreationDate="2017-08-05T14:15:19.333" UserId="17911" Text="|virtual-office|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18685" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6910" RevisionGUID="f837f27e-e25f-43f2-ad5d-dd70aaffc403" CreationDate="2017-08-05T14:43:11.313" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18688" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7096" RevisionGUID="f06ae455-a97f-4ec2-a130-9a270bb2eded" CreationDate="2017-08-05T21:51:19.117" UserId="17912" Text="The answer to your question is &quot;Legal,&quot; by whose jurisdiction and in what country. In America, it would not be illegal, as long as the address was then truly your, and you in fact could and were capable of being contacted at the address. This is because if you can be contacted there, it is truthfully your address. However, if you could not be contacted at the address, then you would have committed a fraud. Many businesses utilize PO Boxes, or mail services in order to obtain a lawful street address. It is all perfectly legal and a very common practice in America. I can not speak to the laws of your particular country, as I do not know the laws or customs of your country. Furthermore, I am not a licensed attorney, and the advice given should not be relied upon or utilized as a substitute for the well reasoned advice of a lawyer, licensed to practice law in the particular state in which you seek to conduct or transact your business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18689" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7097" RevisionGUID="aa4203cf-f761-47c7-9f63-6cef70661593" CreationDate="2017-08-05T22:22:31.673" UserId="17913" Text="You may sue under violation of Federal Labor law, or even standard contract theory. You need not concern yourself with ownership of the code, if all you are seeking is for payment of your already completed and preformed services. The thing of value, which you wish to obtain proper payment for is your labor. It sounds as if you already have a contract for that, so you basically have all you need. Take the contract, proof of your sent invoices, and draft a declaration stating you did the work as stated in your labor agreement, and then simply go get a judgement at the local court house. The self-help section of the judicial counsel website has all the forms you need, and aside from the declaration you will not need to draft any legal documents. Then ask the clerk at the court house which is the proper department at the courthouse to file it with (There is usually a fast-tracked department for liens and money judgments for failures to pay and collect. File one copy with the clerk, send one to the party with outstanding debt, and if they fail to pay by the court date, you'll get a default judgement and order for them to pay the debt. Once you have that, you may sell it to a collection agency, and let them worry about making the stingy customers pay the debt. All of this can reasonably done without the assistance of an attorney, just follow the directions carefully on the form you get from the self-help judicial counsel website. They may even have a collect a debt link to click on, as this is a very common occurrence and procedure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  If you are absolutely married to the idea of using the code as leverage, you may revoke the license of the stingy customer as they have not paid for that which you created, own, and licensed to them. This is a much more complicated way to go about receiving payment, sand I highly suggest hiring an attorney to do this for you. Speaking of attorneys, I am required to state that I am not an attorney, and nothing in this post may be considered to be legal advice nor should it be utilized as a substitute for the well reasoned advice of a licensed attorney, in good standing with the state bar association having jurisdiction over the state in which these transactions occurred.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18690" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7098" RevisionGUID="13c0a5ed-72b2-4313-8a3f-13ee381fb0a2" CreationDate="2017-08-05T22:36:31.970" UserId="17914" Text="Absolutely not. I agree with the prior poster:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Dear Valued Customer, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    I have undertaken the fixes we already agreed to verbally, and they are ready for delivery at such time as I receive the signed copy of the contract already in your possession. If you have misplaced the contract, I can send you a replacement copy. This is for your legal protection, as well as my own. Thank you in advance. I await your transmission of the signed copy of our already agreed to contract, along with your instructions as to the delivery of the already completed work product.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  If they have a problem signing the contract, you'll have an even bigger problem receiving payment. Standard best business practice is of course to withhold all work, until such time as they sign the contract.   " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18691" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7099" RevisionGUID="78663b16-fdf6-40b2-b6bf-24cd832d5250" CreationDate="2017-08-05T23:59:45.123" UserId="17914" Text="I agreed with the last poster mdomans. The first thing you must do is specifically identify and **document** that which you consider to be covered by your first contract, and that which you consider to be extra work beyond your original agreement. This is crucial so you know exactly what it is you feel you are owed or may be losing, beyond a general sense of &quot;hey, I'm working more hours than I was supposed to be on this deal.&quot; If possible, it may help to put an actual dollar figure on the extra work if that can be calculated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Once you have the two separated and documented, you'll have a better and clearer idea of what it is you're actually talking about, how much you believe you are owed, or how much you may have cheated yourself out of. It may turn out that upon documenting it, it isn't as much as you believed it to be. However, if after separating and documenting you realize that you have cheated yourself out of just an unacceptable amount of time or money create an invoice. In the invoice include the documentation showing what you believe is beyond the scope of the first agreement, detailing hours, skills utilized beyond any covered by the first agreement, and exactly how you arrived at the &quot;extra&quot; number. Then simply send the client the documentation and invoice for the extra work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It could be that the client is also aware of the fact that you have done an extraordinarily amount of work beyond the scope of your original agreement, and will take no issue with paying the extra cost for the extra services. For example, if they have requested for just an unreasonable or inordinate amount of changes and work-arounds, making the job a &quot;custom&quot; job rather than your &quot;standard&quot; services or job. Then the client should be reasonable and understand if not accept the fact that this is not what you've agreed to in the first agreement.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    It could be that it is as you fear, and the client may say, &quot;Well, I didn't agree to that, so I am not paying that.&quot; At which point, you can decide to either finish out the contract, but doing only that which you believe or can legally document to be a part of the first agreement. If the client wishes to have extra services, then it is only fair that they pay extra money. If they have an issue with that, they may turn out to be the sort of people you do not want to do business with after all. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    While some may say this approach to be jarring to the client. However, this plan of action is legal, to the point, is the quickest way to both draw a line in the sand, as well as making sure the practice gets nipped in the bud asap. If you play it out in your head, almost any other scenario ends up with you just having to not only forfeit the extra work you've already done, but then being the clients whipping boy for the remainder of the contract. If you think you feel cheated now, imagine how you'll feel having to continue finishing out the contract having to continue to do all that free extra work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; At the very least, the path I have laid out opens the door for not having to continue to do extra work for free going forward. This is because after fully explaining to the client exactly what you believe to be covered by your original agreement, and that which you wish to incorporate into a new agreement, if the client is completely unreasonable you have a fall back position. The fall back position is to tell the client, &quot;Well, I will finish out my obligation to you, but only my obligation. Going forward any extra services, will unfortunately require extra charges to you. The reason being I simply can no longer sustain the continued extra demands on my time and energies, without being compensated for that extra time and demands you are requesting from me.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Please update this blog when you get a chance, and let all know what you ended up doing, and how it turns out for you. Good luck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18692" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7100" RevisionGUID="abd9f994-b1f0-4fec-8c91-7d558f2b5f67" CreationDate="2017-08-06T00:53:38.330" UserId="17914" Text="You may not have a contract at all, as the one you have seems from your description of events to be illusory. You have received some good advice here, and you should incorporate as much as possible into your work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A. You don't have a one big contract. At best it appears you have several smaller contracts. Check the terms, of the contract, and figure out what exactly you agreed to. He can't make drastic changes beyond the scope of the work he contracted you for. New revisions are new work, new jobs, new contracts, which you should be paid for in full. He can't sue you for contracts you don't have, preformed in good faith, and completed. The bugs are all you are legally required to fix. A contract requires offer of consideration, acceptance of that offer, and performance, and it doesn't matter if its software or a car. Think of it like a contract for a car. You sell the car, and the radiator is blown out, you're probable on the hook. However, the customer comes back and tells you, I wanted it in blue, even though he bought the red one. He must pay you to repaint it. He bought a car, and comes back claiming to want a truck. Guess what, he must pay you for both. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   Courts won't recognize contracts that try to incorporate satisfaction clauses, as they are illusory. Therefore, if he paid you to build software that does x, y, and z, if it does x.y.and z then you have delivered the product and fulfilled your contract. He can't sue you, because a lawyer won't take the case, because it must have merit. Lawyers get in trouble and can lose their license if they try to file a frivolous lawsuit. What I'm telling you, is let the guy talk his s**t, because he can't actually sue without cause. So stop letting he get you for free work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  If you want to keep him as a client, do as Jay C suggests. Excellent customer service and client retention advice. Go-junta is correct on the in the future get incorporated as LLC tip, and some one some where said get liability insurance. All of which are awesome ideas. It is unlawful to threaten legal action, when you don't have a meretricious reason, a misdemeanor in fact. You may wish to inform your client of that fact. I don't know how bad you need this guys business, but quit him. You most likely do not have a contract or have already fulfilled your end. This is not legal advice, nor should it be substituted for legal advice from a license attorney.   " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18693" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1970" RevisionGUID="5309a023-2116-43cb-857a-774dfe1a803f" CreationDate="2017-08-07T11:17:23.650" UserId="2839" Comment="added 1171 characters in body" Text="I agreed with a customer to import data from excel files and build a report with them. Since it was not a big project I did not charge too much. I also asked for an annual fee for bug fixing and maintenance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As in the [boiling frog story][1], the customer asked for little changes now and then (the frog is me). After more than a year I realized that I'd built a sort of ERP, where importing excel data was used only once to avoid the initial manual data entry phase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order to get the report, I had implemented (for free) a lot of business logic and many statistical calculations just to have a &quot;correct&quot; model (bespoke to the customer).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to give to my customer a new version of the contract I use for ERP programs (and not for import/export utilities as I did with him), with higher prices for the initial software cost, annual maintenance and other contract conditions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project is nearly completed. How can I tell all of this to the customer? I'm afraid he could reply &quot;Hey, we have agreed to this price, I'll pay you only that. The changes you made are part of annual maintanence after all&quot;. And as I managed the things he wouldn't be completely wrong. I'd like just to try to recover the situation if possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for your help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Update - 7th July 2017**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I followed the advise to list all the extra features, but the customer kept changing point of view just to be right whatever I said. After sending him a copy of old e-mails to show how his mind (hem...) was not serving him well, he started to say he has an intellectual property on the calculations (it's a weighted average that I suggest to use...).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I offered him the option to pay me nothing more, keeping the part of software he payed, but he had to delete my software (the part not payed) otherwise he was infringing my copyright. I sent also a license agreement. He never answered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that, I talk with a lawyer, a friend of mine, who offered to send him an order for payment just to unblock the situation. After a few days he asked if he had to talk to his lawyer or we could find an agreement. I offer the possibility to an agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;14 months has passed since that time. We never meet each other... I'm upset and annoyed. I don't know if the story will end in some other way. For sure I learned the lesson. In case of news I will update this post. I think it can be of help to others, just as an example not to follow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18694" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1970" RevisionGUID="36764832-9f84-427c-b533-02123d87cae9" CreationDate="2017-08-07T12:10:40.137" UserId="2839" Comment="Update of 07th july 2017" Text="I agreed with a customer to import data from excel files and build a report with them. Since it was not a big project I did not charge too much. I also asked for an annual fee for bug fixing and maintenance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As in the [boiling frog story][1], the customer asked for little changes now and then (the frog is me). After more than a year I realized that I'd built a sort of ERP, where importing excel data was used only once to avoid the initial manual data entry phase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order to get the report, I had implemented (for free) a lot of business logic and many statistical calculations just to have a &quot;correct&quot; model (bespoke to the customer).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to give to my customer a new version of the contract I use for ERP programs (and not for import/export utilities as I did with him), with higher prices for the initial software cost, annual maintenance and other contract conditions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project is nearly completed. How can I tell all of this to the customer? I'm afraid he could reply &quot;Hey, we have agreed to this price, I'll pay you only that. The changes you made are part of annual maintanence after all&quot;. And as I managed the things he wouldn't be completely wrong. I'd like just to try to recover the situation if possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for your help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Update - 7th July 2017**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I followed the advise to list all the extra features, but the customer kept changing point of view just to be right whatever I said. After sending him a copy of old e-mails to show how his mind (hem...) was not serving him well, he started to say he has an intellectual property on the calculations (it's a weighted average that I suggest to use...).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I offered him the option to pay me nothing more, keeping the part of software he payed, but he had to delete my software (the part not payed) otherwise he was infringing my copyright. I sent also a license agreement. He never answered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that, I talk with a lawyer, a friend of mine, who offered to send him an order for payment just to unblock the situation. After a few days he asked if he had to talk to his lawyer or we could find an agreement. I offer the possibility to an agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He told me he wanted to wait for a change in the law since maybe my software (not payed) could be useless for him after that. I tried to let him understand that I worked for that software and the fact he had to pay me had nothing to do with the fact that law can change.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After more than 6 months the law eventually changed and he needed no more my unpaid software... but he don't want to delete it neither.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nearly a year has passed since that time. He even said to me that that piece of software could be helpful for him even with change in the law, I just have to fix bugs before he can pay... (obviously I don't trust him anymore).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm upset and annoyed. I don't know if the story will end in some other way. For sure I learned the lesson. In case of news I will update this post. I think it can be of help to others, just as an example not to follow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18695" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7101" RevisionGUID="4aaeafdd-a1e5-4ad5-ad67-b2ae7db2a879" CreationDate="2017-08-07T23:47:25.840" UserId="17927" Text="An LLC is a seperate entity, and has nothing to do with you. The LLC's EIN will remain with the LLC.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of it as the Social Security number for &quot;person&quot;. That's how all business in an LLC is conducted - as a seperate person. You are simply a manager." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18696" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6966" RevisionGUID="857ea2ba-6527-48a0-9a31-f192d1d90e1d" CreationDate="2017-08-08T02:06:47.293" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18697" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7102" RevisionGUID="5cb0e98f-9eaa-46de-8679-c61ec9f746aa" CreationDate="2017-08-08T02:30:34.597" UserId="17928" Text="So I am a software engineer and currently have lots of clients that I create and maintain websites in WordPress. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One of my clients, who I have a maintenance contract with(fixed $ / month) wants to be involved in certain aspects of the website, such as customizations and time to time changing functionality on their own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When they attempt to do this, most of the time, they fail and either crash the website or just don't get it working.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, they inform me, that they wanted to make A work and broke the website and they want me to fix it. After I spent time figuring out their error and fixing it, they always want step by step documentation on what I did to fix it and what they need to do in future to make this work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have told them a couple of times, to not try to make/change things on their own, but they claim they want to know how to do simple stuff on their own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, they are paying me per month, fixed rate, and it gives them unlimited items to request. Thus they won't be paying extra if they ask me to do it instead of them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I am coming to conclusion is, that they are slowly collecting documentation of how to do most items and will eventually either downgrade their maintenance plan with me or completely cut me off since they know how to do to everything they need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I go about this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I tell them that I am no longer supplying documentation for my work, or should I supply it if they want?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the correct approach for this situation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks everyone!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18698" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7102" RevisionGUID="5cb0e98f-9eaa-46de-8679-c61ec9f746aa" CreationDate="2017-08-08T02:30:34.597" UserId="17928" Text="Client wants manual for everything I do" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18699" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7102" RevisionGUID="5cb0e98f-9eaa-46de-8679-c61ec9f746aa" CreationDate="2017-08-08T02:30:34.597" UserId="17928" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18700" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7103" RevisionGUID="e5398439-56a1-487a-a288-6c3abfa7aaf4" CreationDate="2017-08-08T02:37:23.997" UserId="708" Text="Supply documentation for an additional fee. It's more work to track everything you do... you should be compensated for that work. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18701" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7077" RevisionGUID="aba633ed-60e1-488c-88af-0020e359f418" CreationDate="2017-08-08T02:56:44.370" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/894754218052960257" />
  <row Id="18702" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7104" RevisionGUID="d6c2a7ee-c89a-4854-be28-e9ced362c011" CreationDate="2017-08-08T03:12:11.657" UserId="17637" Text="Receiving orders for work from clients and assign them to freelancers. But, I am not from IT business but administration." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18703" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7104" RevisionGUID="d6c2a7ee-c89a-4854-be28-e9ced362c011" CreationDate="2017-08-08T03:12:11.657" UserId="17637" Text="Necessary for a portfolio?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18704" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7104" RevisionGUID="d6c2a7ee-c89a-4854-be28-e9ced362c011" CreationDate="2017-08-08T03:12:11.657" UserId="17637" Text="|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18705" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7105" RevisionGUID="b85ead19-2962-4743-9fc1-6970bfc3d66c" CreationDate="2017-08-08T07:49:46.503" UserId="15202" Text="As admin, it is unlikely that you will have a portfolio. Instead, you should create a solid CV and present this when asked for details about previous work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, speak to your current/previous employers and ask if they would be happy to write you a reference, or a recommendation on linkedin." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18706" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7077" RevisionGUID="fc83ee07-6268-45bc-b25f-c8f65d65626b" CreationDate="2017-08-08T09:10:55.787" UserId="100" Comment="retagged; removed fluff" Text="For few months I have been working for one client and after that time I have realized something, that was not visible at first sight - my client is a person, who dislike people of other race and religion and is pro Russian, to put it lightly, who is xenophobic, racist, adores Putin, to put it bluntly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Russia / Putin I see like a different opinion or setting that everyone is entitled to, the other things I have a hard time accepting and I believe one should not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What to do, however? I am building an intranet CRM system for whole company and my leaving would give a hard time also to other people. It also seems unprofessional to me. I am paid on a hourly basis and I have been already compensated for several months' work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes I wonder what took me so long to realize it and I just feel that by staying I am actually helping to spread those ideas and once the system is finished, client will be more free and able to be even more proactive in advertising those ideas and supporting those political parties that do as well, for example.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far I have stopped going for a lunch as I usually feel embarrassed there and when I tried to be an opponent, it seemed to have no effect. Or should I try harder?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18707" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7077" RevisionGUID="fc83ee07-6268-45bc-b25f-c8f65d65626b" CreationDate="2017-08-08T09:10:55.787" UserId="100" Comment="retagged; removed fluff" Text="|difficult-client|ethics|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18708" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7077" RevisionGUID="fc83ee07-6268-45bc-b25f-c8f65d65626b" CreationDate="2017-08-08T09:10:55.787" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 3047 edit id of 563" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18709" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7106" RevisionGUID="8cb3481c-74ff-4441-8c3d-59b292da0c2e" CreationDate="2017-08-09T08:44:31.230" UserId="7858" Text="If legally possible, the contract needs to be re-negotiated, as you are performing actual repairs and not typical maintenance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it is the client's right to attempt to become independant of you, you on the other hand should be able to expect to be the sole provider of maintenance - which should not include mopping up after the client made a mess.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems you need to review the expectations of both parties. If they want to cut you out, be proactive about it and negotiate a 'release contract' where you are paid for documentation and perhaps on-site training and remote support.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps being paid by the hour is the way to go? In fixed price relationships, clients tend to want every single detail covered, whereas they consider nice-to-have versus need-to-have when paying by the hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18717" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3537" RevisionGUID="fb741581-7821-44a9-b82b-0b5dea66e325" CreationDate="2017-08-10T11:31:19.910" UserId="5516" Comment="add storage space" Text="I am currently in the process of becoming a digital nomad myself. I have been investigating this for a few months now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###You must sort out a few things&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Earn money**: Ideally, you want several income streams to reduce risks.&#xD;&#xA; - **Legal status**: you want to make sure this is sorted out as without that you probably will have trouble charging anyone for your services.&#xD;&#xA; - **Legal address**: you will still have mails coming from organizations &amp; you will need a good system to make this work. Either get a friend or relative to help you, or get a professional service (i.e. in Switzerland the post can scan your mails &amp; email them to you).&#xD;&#xA; - **Banking**: you must have an excellent bank providing cutting edge online services. Forget about old fashion banks &amp; switch to something reliable at anytime from anywhere.&#xD;&#xA; - **Health insurance**: you **must** have a good international health insurance, you'd easily find yourself in big trouble if you have any health issue. see https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get&#xD;&#xA; - **Gear**: you must make sure you have the right tool for the job, once you are away it can be difficult to buy it. Some inspiration on http://www.grownupplayground.com/travel-gear-backpackers-long-term-travelers/&#xD;&#xA; - **Insure your gear**: you want to insure your belongings, it won't save your work but at least it'll reduce the financial impact of getting something stolen.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your gear**: uglify your gear so it's less likely to get stolen &amp; buy appropriate housing (shockproof, waterproof, &amp; so on) to prevent physical damage.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your data: encrypt sensitive files**: use tools such as Truecrypt or BitLocker to only allow yourself to access your sensitive data.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your data: digital backups**: you will probably want to have digital backups of your work. You want a strategy that works smoothly so that if you loose your work (ie. lose your computer in a sailing accident), you can not only access all the lost work but also setup the new gear as the original one in a minimum amount of time.&#xD;&#xA; - **Work place**: you might want to make your life easy &amp; start by moving to a location that is known for welcoming digital nomads, it'll save you tone of time &amp; you'll be able to learn from others&#xD;&#xA; - **Store what you own**: you want to have a safe place to store valuable things you can't travel with (i.e. paperwork &amp; electronics). For instance, [Shurgard self-storage in Berlin][1] has 1m containers costing around 30 euros a month: it's very safe, has 6am to 10pm access, temperature &amp; humidity controlled. You might want to put all the things you really care about in such space and store all the rest in a less safe/expensive place (i.e. in a friend's basement). Don't you worry, even if you need something from this storage while on the other side of the globe, all the access is through combination locks, so you can always send a trusted person to get whatever is needed.&#xD;&#xA; - **Car or Van**: owning a car or converted van sounds ideal to travel around a continent (i.e. Europe), however it is a big administrative burden and a rather high cost. This involves: dealing with insurances (regular &amp; breakdown), yearly car check (MOT, TÜV, or whatever the name. It is at a given deadline in a given country), occasional repairs, occasional accidents, occasional police fines, storage when traveling without it and so on. It will cost you a lot of time and money, so think twice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###Further resources to get started on being a digital nomad&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/digital-nomad-101-how-to-become-a-digital-nomad/465&#xD;&#xA; - http://flagtheory.com/digital-nomad/&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io - Biggest Digital Nomad forum&#xD;&#xA; - http://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job#job-boards - Find remote jobs&#xD;&#xA; - https://github.com/kaizensoze/remote-freelance-jobs - Find remote jobs&#xD;&#xA; - http://digitalnomadhub.net&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler&#xD;&#xA; - When must you pay income taxes? http://www.liferemotely.com/work-while-traveling/managing-a-business/65-paying-taxes-in-your-home-country-when-you-arent-living-there&#xD;&#xA; - http://leapin.eu Estonian e-residency made easy&#xD;&#xA; - https://e-estonia.com Estonian e-residency&#xD;&#xA; - http://e-estonia.com/e-residents/services-and-benefits - Estonian e-residency: Register a company, open a bank account &amp; more&#xD;&#xA; - http://passports.io&#xD;&#xA; - https://freedomsurfer.com/offshore-jurisdictions&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/where-should-i-register-my-company-as-a-digital-nomad-singapore-hong-kong/520/4&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/is-panama-a-good-destination-for-tax-residency-for-digital-nomads/2588/14&#xD;&#xA; - https://boldanddetermined.com/hong-kong-business-guide/&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com - tech tips&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadlist.com/guides - books&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com/hammocks-hard-drives/ - books&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get/46751#46751&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - https://nomadforum.io/t/does-international-health-insurance-for-digital-nomads-exist/378&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/09/top-10-tactics-for-protecting-your-stuff/&#xD;&#xA; - https://truecrypt.ch&#xD;&#xA; - https://medium.com/nomad-gate/the-world-s-best-bank-accounts-for-international-travelers-and-nomads-3257e6839cff&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.grownupplayground.com/banking-solutions-for-travelers-digital-nomads/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.shurgard.de/en/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18718" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3537" RevisionGUID="917d3321-2141-4937-8e09-6aa8a27812ef" CreationDate="2017-08-10T11:40:39.253" UserId="5516" Comment="add voting &amp; improve storage" Text="I am currently in the process of becoming a digital nomad myself. I have been investigating this for a few months now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###You must sort out a few things&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Earn money**: Ideally, you want several income streams to reduce risks.&#xD;&#xA; - **Legal status**: you want to make sure this is sorted out as without that you probably will have trouble charging anyone for your services.&#xD;&#xA; - **Legal address**: you will still have mails coming from organizations &amp; you will need a good system to make this work. Either get a friend or relative to help you, or get a professional service (i.e. in Switzerland the post can scan your mails &amp; email them to you).&#xD;&#xA; - **Banking**: you must have an excellent bank providing cutting edge online services. Forget about old fashion banks &amp; switch to something reliable at anytime from anywhere.&#xD;&#xA; - **Health insurance**: you **must** have a good international health insurance, you'd easily find yourself in big trouble if you have any health issue. see https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get&#xD;&#xA; - **Gear**: you must make sure you have the right tool for the job, once you are away it can be difficult to buy it. Some inspiration on http://www.grownupplayground.com/travel-gear-backpackers-long-term-travelers/&#xD;&#xA; - **Insure your gear**: you want to insure your belongings, it won't save your work but at least it'll reduce the financial impact of getting something stolen.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your gear**: uglify your gear so it's less likely to get stolen &amp; buy appropriate housing (shockproof, waterproof, &amp; so on) to prevent physical damage.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your data: encrypt sensitive files**: use tools such as Truecrypt or BitLocker to only allow yourself to access your sensitive data.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your data: digital backups**: you will probably want to have digital backups of your work. You want a strategy that works smoothly so that if you loose your work (ie. lose your computer in a sailing accident), you can not only access all the lost work but also setup the new gear as the original one in a minimum amount of time.&#xD;&#xA; - **Work place**: you might want to make your life easy &amp; start by moving to a location that is known for welcoming digital nomads, it'll save you tone of time &amp; you'll be able to learn from others&#xD;&#xA; - **Store what you can't take**: you want to have a safe place to store valuable things you can't travel with (i.e. paperwork &amp; electronics). For instance, [Shurgard self-storage in Berlin][1] has containers starting from 1m cube (this one costs 30€/month): it's very safe, has 6am to 10pm access, it's temperature+humidity controlled (no damage even storing for 1+ year) and your belonging are even insured. Put all the things you really care about in such space and then store all the rest in a less safe/expensive place (i.e. in a friend's basement). Regarding access: even if you need something from this storage while on the other side of the globe, all the access is through combination locks, so you can send a trusted person to get whatever is needed (no need for signature or else).&#xD;&#xA; - **Car or Van**: owning a car or converted van sounds ideal to travel around a continent (i.e. Europe), however it is a big administrative burden and a rather high cost. This involves: dealing with insurances (regular &amp; breakdown), yearly car check (MOT, TÜV, or whatever the name. It is at a given deadline in a given country), occasional repairs, occasional accidents, occasional police fines, storage when traveling without it and so on. It will cost you a lot of time and money, so think twice.&#xD;&#xA; - **Voting**: `&quot;Brexit, Trump, what's next!??&quot;` You will be away from your country and who knows for how long. But you still want your voice to be heard. Setup a way for you to be able to vote (i.e. power of attorney). Some countries are terrible at this (very slow setup), so prepare that well in advance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###Further resources to get started on being a digital nomad&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/digital-nomad-101-how-to-become-a-digital-nomad/465&#xD;&#xA; - http://flagtheory.com/digital-nomad/&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io - Biggest Digital Nomad forum&#xD;&#xA; - http://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job#job-boards - Find remote jobs&#xD;&#xA; - https://github.com/kaizensoze/remote-freelance-jobs - Find remote jobs&#xD;&#xA; - http://digitalnomadhub.net&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler&#xD;&#xA; - When must you pay income taxes? http://www.liferemotely.com/work-while-traveling/managing-a-business/65-paying-taxes-in-your-home-country-when-you-arent-living-there&#xD;&#xA; - http://leapin.eu Estonian e-residency made easy&#xD;&#xA; - https://e-estonia.com Estonian e-residency&#xD;&#xA; - http://e-estonia.com/e-residents/services-and-benefits - Estonian e-residency: Register a company, open a bank account &amp; more&#xD;&#xA; - http://passports.io&#xD;&#xA; - https://freedomsurfer.com/offshore-jurisdictions&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/where-should-i-register-my-company-as-a-digital-nomad-singapore-hong-kong/520/4&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/is-panama-a-good-destination-for-tax-residency-for-digital-nomads/2588/14&#xD;&#xA; - https://boldanddetermined.com/hong-kong-business-guide/&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com - tech tips&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadlist.com/guides - books&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com/hammocks-hard-drives/ - books&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get/46751#46751&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - https://nomadforum.io/t/does-international-health-insurance-for-digital-nomads-exist/378&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/09/top-10-tactics-for-protecting-your-stuff/&#xD;&#xA; - https://truecrypt.ch&#xD;&#xA; - https://medium.com/nomad-gate/the-world-s-best-bank-accounts-for-international-travelers-and-nomads-3257e6839cff&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.grownupplayground.com/banking-solutions-for-travelers-digital-nomads/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.shurgard.de/en/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18719" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3537" RevisionGUID="7d2bfffc-630a-4161-8189-990519f10743" CreationDate="2017-08-10T11:47:46.287" UserId="5516" Comment="improve the car part" Text="I am currently in the process of becoming a digital nomad myself. I have been investigating this for a few months now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###You must sort out a few things&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Earn money**: Ideally, you want several income streams to reduce risks.&#xD;&#xA; - **Legal status**: you want to make sure this is sorted out as without that you probably will have trouble charging anyone for your services.&#xD;&#xA; - **Legal address**: you will still have mails coming from organizations &amp; you will need a good system to make this work. Either get a friend or relative to help you, or get a professional service (i.e. in Switzerland the post can scan your mails &amp; email them to you).&#xD;&#xA; - **Banking**: you must have an excellent bank providing cutting edge online services. Forget about old fashion banks &amp; switch to something reliable at anytime from anywhere.&#xD;&#xA; - **Health insurance**: you **must** have a good international health insurance, you'd easily find yourself in big trouble if you have any health issue. see https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get&#xD;&#xA; - **Gear**: you must make sure you have the right tool for the job, once you are away it can be difficult to buy it. Some inspiration on http://www.grownupplayground.com/travel-gear-backpackers-long-term-travelers/&#xD;&#xA; - **Insure your gear**: you want to insure your belongings, it won't save your work but at least it'll reduce the financial impact of getting something stolen.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your gear**: uglify your gear so it's less likely to get stolen &amp; buy appropriate housing (shockproof, waterproof, &amp; so on) to prevent physical damage.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your data: encrypt sensitive files**: use tools such as Truecrypt or BitLocker to only allow yourself to access your sensitive data.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your data: digital backups**: you will probably want to have digital backups of your work. You want a strategy that works smoothly so that if you loose your work (ie. lose your computer in a sailing accident), you can not only access all the lost work but also setup the new gear as the original one in a minimum amount of time.&#xD;&#xA; - **Work place**: you might want to make your life easy &amp; start by moving to a location that is known for welcoming digital nomads, it'll save you tone of time &amp; you'll be able to learn from others&#xD;&#xA; - **Store what you can't take**: you want to have a safe place to store valuable things you can't travel with (i.e. paperwork &amp; electronics). For instance, [Shurgard self-storage in Berlin][1] has containers starting from 1m cube (this one costs 30€/month): it's very safe, has 6am to 10pm access, it's temperature+humidity controlled (no damage even storing for 1+ year) and your belonging are even insured. Put all the things you really care about in such space and then store all the rest in a less safe/expensive place (i.e. in a friend's basement). Regarding access: even if you need something from this storage while on the other side of the globe, all the access is through combination locks, so you can send a trusted person to get whatever is needed (no need for signature or else).&#xD;&#xA; - **Car or Van**: rent, rent, rent! With services such as [Drivy][2] and many apps for car rentals by the minute, there are only very specific cases that can justify owning a car. Owning a car or converted van sounds ideal to travel around a continent (i.e. Europe), however it is a big administrative burden and a rather high cost. This involves: dealing with insurances (regular &amp; breakdown), yearly car check (MOT, TÜV, or whatever the name: it is at a given deadline in a given country), occasional repairs, occasional accidents, occasional police fines, storage when traveling without it &amp; so on. It will cost you a lot of time, money, and might force you to be in a given place at a given time (for admin reasons): so think twice.&#xD;&#xA; - **Voting**: `&quot;Brexit, Trump, what's next!??&quot;` You will be away from your country and who knows for how long. But you still want your voice to be heard. Setup a way for you to be able to vote (i.e. power of attorney). Some countries are terrible at this (very slow setup), so prepare that well in advance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;###Further resources to get started on being a digital nomad&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/digital-nomad-101-how-to-become-a-digital-nomad/465&#xD;&#xA; - http://flagtheory.com/digital-nomad/&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io - Biggest Digital Nomad forum&#xD;&#xA; - http://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job#job-boards - Find remote jobs&#xD;&#xA; - https://github.com/kaizensoze/remote-freelance-jobs - Find remote jobs&#xD;&#xA; - http://digitalnomadhub.net&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler&#xD;&#xA; - When must you pay income taxes? http://www.liferemotely.com/work-while-traveling/managing-a-business/65-paying-taxes-in-your-home-country-when-you-arent-living-there&#xD;&#xA; - http://leapin.eu Estonian e-residency made easy&#xD;&#xA; - https://e-estonia.com Estonian e-residency&#xD;&#xA; - http://e-estonia.com/e-residents/services-and-benefits - Estonian e-residency: Register a company, open a bank account &amp; more&#xD;&#xA; - http://passports.io&#xD;&#xA; - https://freedomsurfer.com/offshore-jurisdictions&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/where-should-i-register-my-company-as-a-digital-nomad-singapore-hong-kong/520/4&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/is-panama-a-good-destination-for-tax-residency-for-digital-nomads/2588/14&#xD;&#xA; - https://boldanddetermined.com/hong-kong-business-guide/&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com - tech tips&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadlist.com/guides - books&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com/hammocks-hard-drives/ - books&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get/46751#46751&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - https://nomadforum.io/t/does-international-health-insurance-for-digital-nomads-exist/378&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/09/top-10-tactics-for-protecting-your-stuff/&#xD;&#xA; - https://truecrypt.ch&#xD;&#xA; - https://medium.com/nomad-gate/the-world-s-best-bank-accounts-for-international-travelers-and-nomads-3257e6839cff&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.grownupplayground.com/banking-solutions-for-travelers-digital-nomads/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.shurgard.de/en/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://drivy.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18720" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7102" RevisionGUID="2c67c91c-b29d-415a-b5a6-ca514d71340e" CreationDate="2017-08-10T12:01:55.860" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/895616196397215744" />
  <row Id="18721" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7109" RevisionGUID="214d6eff-2d00-4f22-80ac-8a66aa089281" CreationDate="2017-08-10T15:14:25.190" UserId="17836" Text="I want to know what do you think of personal pictures of yourself on portfolios. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will soon be taking a photoshoot with a proper photographer for my portfolio, I mainly want it for my hero image and one for a profile pictures on popular freelance sites. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you think it adds any benefits for conversion? and if what do you think it would be ideal, pose, wardrobe, etc. ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My niche is web development for small to medium companies." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18722" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7109" RevisionGUID="214d6eff-2d00-4f22-80ac-8a66aa089281" CreationDate="2017-08-10T15:14:25.190" UserId="17836" Text="Freelancer pictures on portfolio" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18723" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7109" RevisionGUID="214d6eff-2d00-4f22-80ac-8a66aa089281" CreationDate="2017-08-10T15:14:25.190" UserId="17836" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18724" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7110" RevisionGUID="d920b44c-722c-4e93-8568-3dbe2905e8d1" CreationDate="2017-08-10T15:15:19.757" UserId="17949" Text="A portfolio can give you an idea of the quality and style of a freelance designer. witch can be a helpful tool to made decisions (witch work, witch frelancer).  But if you don't have a background or experience in design it will be pretty useless. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I never find much use in a portfolio from a developer/programer because a portfolio is more visual and development have many relevant background aspects that a portfolio can show." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18725" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7109" RevisionGUID="5fcd2156-634b-4515-82d0-bc18aa0ce86e" CreationDate="2017-08-10T15:26:12.630" UserId="17836" Comment="edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|programmer|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18726" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7111" RevisionGUID="e890abb9-6926-4185-b555-944520de01ae" CreationDate="2017-08-10T16:11:00.900" UserId="17950" Text="When I talked with the client for the first time, we didn't set well stablished limits for the project. The project is a mobile app. The agreement was that I was going to copy a Web App he was finishing. At that point, the project didn't seem too big and we settled a price and a deadline.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During the development, he continued adding features and making changes to the Web App. At the beginning it was little, but then the project became larger and larger. The deadline came, but they agreed to add one month in order for me to finish. Then he continued adding features and every time I told him it wasn't the agreement, he found a different way to evade it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I'm at a point where the extra month ended and he and his partners are furious because it isn't finished (Which is obvious because he just ended the app one week ago and I'm still adding that features). I haven't received last month payment and we don't have any contract. My client is calling me every 2 hours and writing every 15 minutes to see how is the project going and forces me to stay awake at night, threatening me if I don't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Each time I'm presenting the App, he still finds a difference from the Web App. This is no longer business. ¿What can I do in order to end with this situation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS: My client resides in another city and wants to come to my place." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18727" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7111" RevisionGUID="e890abb9-6926-4185-b555-944520de01ae" CreationDate="2017-08-10T16:11:00.900" UserId="17950" Text="Complicated situation with client and a never ending project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18728" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7111" RevisionGUID="e890abb9-6926-4185-b555-944520de01ae" CreationDate="2017-08-10T16:11:00.900" UserId="17950" Text="|difficult-client|negotiation|software|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18729" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7112" RevisionGUID="1535dbea-a4ad-4c06-882a-e9ed45a745e9" CreationDate="2017-08-10T17:04:42.327" UserId="17949" Text="You must establish a base line for the features included in the app. You will have to negociate with your client what concrete features of the web app will be included in the app. And make clear that additional &quot;new&quot; features will have an extra cost. Have account of all the features included since the beggining of the proyect or since the first deadline and use it to show the extra work done. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without the base line you can go forever with this proyect." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18731" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7113" RevisionGUID="cb026e58-23c1-460e-8cb2-9ca409bede93" CreationDate="2017-08-11T07:08:34.753" UserId="15143" Text="I agree with Carlos. Every **single** fixed-term project I worked with took advantage of adding new features without adjusting the payment. I had never seen anybody stricly obey to the contract (if there is one...).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's fine to do minor extra works, but it's not okay to exhaust yourself forever. If your client is calling you every like 2-hours, you have very good reason to **fire** him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You said you have been paid but the last month, this is greats news! **Reject and stop working**. I repeat, **reject and stop working**. Start negotiation, don't work until more money come. Withhold the source code if the last payment is not received.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stop now, the worse you lose is just a one-month part-time money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18732" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7113" RevisionGUID="8ddc1907-c845-4ae3-b2f6-7481887f68da" CreationDate="2017-08-11T07:16:04.550" UserId="15143" Comment="added 859 characters in body" Text="I agree with Carlos. Every **single** fixed-term project I worked with took advantage of adding new features without adjusting the payment. I had never seen anybody stricly obey to the contract (if there is one...).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's fine to do minor extra works, but it's not okay to exhaust yourself forever. If your client is calling you every like 2-hours, you have very good reason to **fire** your client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You said you have been paid but the last month, this is greats news! **Reject and stop working**. I repeat, **reject and stop working**. Start negotiation, don't work until more money come. Withhold the source code if the last payment is not received.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stop now, the worse you lose is just a one-month part-time money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Example**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a real example from me. I agreed to work with someone for a mobile app without a contract. It was not a complicated app, I asked for only $1400 fixed USD. The expected delivery was about two weeks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But my client repeately disappeared then appeared. The project eventually dragged for two years... The relationship was also tense as he wanted me to work on the app forever (he mentioned the 2018, 2019 version etc...) without any more payment. I had to work very hard to make myself paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My client refused to pay for the final instalment and tried to use it for bargaining power:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/6567/client-doesnt-want-to-pay-the-final-instalment-and-tries-to-negotiate-for-new-c&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had no choice but to terminate further communication. No, he never paid for the remaining amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18733" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7114" RevisionGUID="7555578a-5418-4963-954a-c2f3bce1ec01" CreationDate="2017-08-11T07:50:02.103" UserId="7858" Text="Your situation demonstrates the difference between 'fixed price' and 'pay by the hour'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When the rate is fixed, the client will always attempt to extort additional work; no details are ever too minor. From the client's view point, they have already borne the cost and will naturally try to get the most out of their investment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, when time is money - the client has more incentive to evaluate whether a feature is 'nice to have' or 'need to have'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To improve your situation, you will need to insist on a contract and prompt payment. Do not let the client talk you out of it, saying &quot;We're almost done; let's get it done and then sort things out&quot;. They still need you now - so at this very moment YOU have leverage which you MUST use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suggest you stop further work and do the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Insist on payment for all work until now before proceeding further&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Set future expectations by writing an agreement stating an hourly rate and defining what constitutes a bug and a change request. You need not involve lawyers; my agreements were typically less than a page. The important thing is that the relationship becomes more 'professional' when the parties have negotiated and signed an agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if your client becomes furious, don't back down; insist that an agreement is in their best interest as well, as setting an hourly rate will force them to prioritize which in the end will lead to a faster time to market - which both parties want!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be aware that the client may very well threaten legal action - but since you have no contract it seems there is literally nothing to build a case on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above is not easy - especially if this will be your first 'client confrontation' - but it is necessary and a good learning experience." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18734" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7113" RevisionGUID="8a0fb3d4-121b-45b0-bc77-a68986076190" CreationDate="2017-08-11T09:50:08.913" UserId="15143" Comment="added 166 characters in body" Text="**EDIT**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please don't meet your client face-to-face and allow your client to come to your place. This is dangerous, and unnecessary. Make an excuse and say NO.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agree with Carlos. Every **single** fixed-term project I worked with took advantage of adding new features without adjusting the payment. I had never seen anybody stricly obey to the contract (if there is one...).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's fine to do minor extra works, but it's not okay to exhaust yourself forever. If your client is calling you every like 2-hours, you have very good reason to **fire** your client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You said you have been paid but the last month, this is greats news! **Reject and stop working**. I repeat, **reject and stop working**. Start negotiation, don't work until more money come. Withhold the source code if the last payment is not received.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stop now, the worse you lose is just a one-month part-time money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Example**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a real example from me. I agreed to work with someone for a mobile app without a contract. It was not a complicated app, I asked for only $1400 fixed USD. The expected delivery was about two weeks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But my client repeately disappeared then appeared. The project eventually dragged for two years... The relationship was also tense as he wanted me to work on the app forever (he mentioned the 2018, 2019 version etc...) without any more payment. I had to work very hard to make myself paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My client refused to pay for the final instalment and tried to use it for bargaining power:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/6567/client-doesnt-want-to-pay-the-final-instalment-and-tries-to-negotiate-for-new-c&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had no choice but to terminate further communication. No, he never paid for the remaining amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18740" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7095" RevisionGUID="0316b8d8-c38c-49d9-8af4-8afc80408a9a" CreationDate="2017-08-11T15:56:21.557" UserId="100" Comment="added tag, removed fluff" Text="I'm a solo freelancer working from home in a developing country. Sometimes I need a trusted-feeling address to show for my clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it illegal to rent a virtual address from a developed country to show it in my contracts and email signatures? Are there any harms that might come to me later? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Beside that, I feel it a bit of cheating." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18741" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7095" RevisionGUID="0316b8d8-c38c-49d9-8af4-8afc80408a9a" CreationDate="2017-08-11T15:56:21.557" UserId="100" Comment="added tag, removed fluff" Text="|legal|virtual-office|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18742" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7095" RevisionGUID="0316b8d8-c38c-49d9-8af4-8afc80408a9a" CreationDate="2017-08-11T15:56:21.557" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 2265, 75 edit id of 561" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18744" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6980" RevisionGUID="ccf3b49d-890f-44ef-aeb3-2809f3d6c77c" CreationDate="2017-08-12T04:37:49.607" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18745" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7116" RevisionGUID="b7410c5e-f78f-4c23-817c-23bbb9cc9611" CreationDate="2017-08-12T07:20:44.390" UserId="17965" Text="I hope this is the right piace to ask my question.&#xA;I'm an electronic developer with knowledge in hardware, firmware and a bit of software.&#xA;&#xA;Ten years ago I began my own freelance activity. I never thought about the business plan. Until now it's pretty straight:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; I wait until a customer ask me for something to do, I offer him a quote, if he agrees I do the job.&#xA;&#xA;This was ok at beginning. Now I want to improve it because it has several disadvantages:&#xA;&#xA; &#xA; &#xA; - it relies on customer needs: if one is not going to develop something new he wouldn't call me&#xA; &#xA; &#xA; - it cannot grow: after I use all my available time, and learned enough to work at reasonable speed, I can't accept more work. &#xA; &#xA; - it's hard to get rid of the limit above hiring someone or even outsourcing some parts of the projects. Hiring someone requires almost to double the activity, while outsourcing a single part require a lot of effort to make clear specifications due to the high level of integration about different aspects of the projects.&#xA;&#xA;By the way, some customers in the agreement explicitly wrote that I cannot give my job to a third person/company, for various reasons.&#xA;&#xA;I kindly ask an help to brainstorming about how to change my business model in order to allow it to grow.&#xA;&#xA;As final note currently my jobs have these characteristics:&#xA; &#xA; - custom needs: they fit a specific need. Most of the time they require a single shot. Problem solved, no more activities to do.&#xA; &#xA; - develop and prototype, but the production is handled by the customer. This is usually explicitly stated in the requests. And they don't accept a commissioni o the sold units because &quot;they've already paid me for the job&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18746" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7116" RevisionGUID="b7410c5e-f78f-4c23-817c-23bbb9cc9611" CreationDate="2017-08-12T07:20:44.390" UserId="17965" Text="Business plan for developers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18747" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7116" RevisionGUID="b7410c5e-f78f-4c23-817c-23bbb9cc9611" CreationDate="2017-08-12T07:20:44.390" UserId="17965" Text="|business-plan|customer-relations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18748" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7117" RevisionGUID="9107919f-5ad9-4cbe-8044-69b95757ba88" CreationDate="2017-08-12T07:34:09.507" UserId="17966" Text="I'd ditch the client. The problem isn't with providing the documentation (though I do believe it should have an additional fee), but with them messing around without coordinating with you, and then it's your 'obligation' to figure out the mess and fix it. Something you could've done in 10 minutes, now takes 3 hours. Unless the contract is worth a LOT, the frustration isn't worth it. My opinion. I've ditched clients in the past and never regret them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18750" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7118" RevisionGUID="72b4a384-1f2e-45f2-94b9-1de1ee050c67" CreationDate="2017-08-13T04:11:19.360" UserId="11793" Text="I'd re-negotiate the contract to more clearly state what you are agreeing to do in a month. Otherwise, you're literally losing money when you could be servicing your other (paying) clients. Stand up for yourself: Be firm, but be respectful. Let the client know their business is important, and that you'd like to maintain a _mutually beneficial_ relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Documentation, although valuable, has a limited shelf life. Once the code changes, the docs go stale. Ask yourself: Are you being asked to document for other, internal developers, or are you teaching web programming to non-web-programmers? If we are talking business owners attempting to learn web programming, remind them of the scope of the work you were hired to do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18755" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7120" RevisionGUID="4ebc80fe-4004-47d9-8e61-bc1a8c78ac17" CreationDate="2017-08-14T12:05:36.167" UserId="5172" Text="1 If properly set up, for help as a contractor, initially  'as sole maintainer' or with later ability  by customer when customer can take charge themselves I would recommend a couple of things.&#xD;&#xA;2 In initial set up make sure contract allows for 'a premium rate' to resolve any changes made by others  when not under maintainer's supervision. &#xD;&#xA;3 Show an optional  item billing rate to allow training under supervision of maintainer of your customer's staff (high rate - at least three  times your normal billing rate!) with a minimum level equal to say three months fee. &#xD;&#xA;4 Your problem is that your customer may think he or his staff can adjust WordPress easily due to the WP adverts and the hints or training available on the internet. You need to show you are willing to train them (and thus lose the 'routine contract') however you would then support them when mistakes are made at a premium rate as you have no underlying continuous contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18756" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7121" RevisionGUID="abc22488-ba81-44cd-be63-0649810c3c01" CreationDate="2017-08-14T12:15:42.250" UserId="5172" Text=" Be dressed in formal business attire for your area, or just your face as in a passport photo. It must not set up a picture that can backfire on you in a few years time. &#xD;&#xA;A certain &quot;G____&quot; employee later found that his 'cool picture' caused problems when he wanted to change jobs. Leave  the casual photos to your Facebook or real friends social network." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18757" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7122" RevisionGUID="85cc8e00-3584-4b6f-a94b-cdd15e2be201" CreationDate="2017-08-14T12:24:10.890" UserId="5172" Text="If you can get reference letters from previous customers/clients I would add to your portfolio page  words such as &#xD;&#xA;&quot; On specific request, if required during negotiations, we can present letters of recommendation from past and present clients.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS what is &quot;&amp;amp&quot; mistype in the English text." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18758" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7123" RevisionGUID="fa61564d-c78d-4cba-b6e7-a1166dd9c177" CreationDate="2017-08-14T12:30:54.057" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="The maintenance contract covers only fixes of your own work. (Unless it also covers enhancements, but this should be stated somewhere.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fixing their mistakes is an extra performance that you can charge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Writing documentation is an extra performance that you can charge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding &quot;What I am coming to conclusion is, that they are slowly collecting documentation of how to do most items and will eventually either downgrade their maintenance plan with me or completely cut me off since they know how to do to everything they need&quot;: yes, accept it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18759" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7124" RevisionGUID="51c458dc-8fec-4607-8101-1088e947a41f" CreationDate="2017-08-14T12:33:13.663" UserId="5172" Text="I must endorse that you employ &quot;Sue&quot; (as she has all prior knowledge needed by you until you can handle the big hassle of government paperwork) through an employment agency and take the cost hit. An &quot;Employee&quot;  (part time or full time or casual) will give you major administration problems while to an employment agency they are routine." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18760" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7125" RevisionGUID="1bd1f27d-2d4b-43a6-8069-705183be4049" CreationDate="2017-08-14T17:23:51.140" UserId="75" Text="We won't tell you what needs to be done for your particular needs, but we can help with a business plan. Essentially, you want a road map for how your business is going to succeed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How will customers find you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How will you do your marketing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When do you expect to be profitable?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much do you anticipate you will invest in your business?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are hundreds more questions you can answer for your business plan. The important part though is to *start writing one now*, even if it's one sentence. Then, you can adjust as your go along. I've had business plans for clients that were one or two sentences, and they were successful. I've had ones that are an entire page, and they are successful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, there are businesses with plans that simply fail, but if you take a step back, it helps. Figure out *what* your business is going to do, and *how* it's going to make money doing it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me, I rely heavily on word-of-mouth for my Technical Services. My marketing is limited to online resources that meet certain needs for the customers I want to attract. As I am not busy for 8 hours a day doing that, I do not need to worry about pushing clients into the following week, which also gives me a bit of an edge of being always available. My business plan is simply &quot;Provide technical support and services to local residents&quot;. Short and sweet, to the point." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18761" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7126" RevisionGUID="7b1c94fb-dd36-4512-9aff-aa134ec79b3e" CreationDate="2017-08-14T18:32:55.567" UserId="5172" Text="In the United Kingdom, you could register a Limited Company with the 'UK resident company secretary/director' for service of any legal documents being  a company secretary agency who act as company secretaries to foreign  persons wishing to trade from a UK Limited Company, however you would also need a local accountant to do the bookkeeping, submit tax reports etc.&#xD;&#xA;This is similar to the USA answer above.&#xD;&#xA;Disclaimer: This was route I advised to a Chinese friend who needed a UK incorporation for some business, but I was never part of his business. Such foreign director companies acting through company services agencies are I understand quite normal, but costly. However you are well advised to take appropriate legal and financial advice on such a method of trading. An accounting firm who specialise in this trade is given below (NOTE : I have no connections with them and only know them from web browsing among accountancy firms)&#xD;&#xA;Quote&#xD;&#xA;https://www.accountsandlegal.co.uk/small-business-advice/can-an-overseas-investor-or-non-uk-resident-own-a-uk-company&#xD;&#xA;UNQUOTE&#xD;&#xA;NOTE:  Treat all information with the utmost caution. Take legal advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18762" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7127" RevisionGUID="3591b577-8aa5-4c50-be7a-001894b292c4" CreationDate="2017-08-14T18:42:49.693" UserId="5172" Text="As many folk now work from home, and many folk just have a 'home address',  for both personal address and business address, there is little lost in using your home address if your customers know you work from home. If trying to hide home address then you need a Post Office Box number for normal mail, but you will not be able to have courier delivered items delivered to a normal POB address. Sometimes it is useful to rent a desk in an office complex, local industrial estate or such like; if you want to appear with a business address different from your home and you do actually use this address as a work base." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18763" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7128" RevisionGUID="536b02fc-c26c-48b1-8c60-68c650e8f033" CreationDate="2017-08-14T19:51:44.483" UserId="5172" Text="The date on the invoice is the &quot;tax date&quot;. The invoice is due immediately unless you have agreed a specific term with the customer. If you say &quot;Payment to be made within 14 days of invoice date&quot; or similar on the invoice and provide proof of delivery of invoice and agreement that client accepts the invoice by acknowledgement. Then you have if you have no terms in the 'contract' set up the terms in the invoice. However it would be prudent when taking a job to state that all invoices must be paid within 14 days of date of issue and have client accept that in writing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would advise that accepting terms and accepting invoices does not always get invoices paid on time. If delays occur you need to  state you cannot do further work (or submit work already done) until existing invoices are paid. The 30 day legal limit to pay by a big firm to a small firm in UK law is often disregarded.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I usually at start of new work always bill on a 7 day rolling period (weekly billing, stated so in agreement to do work) so that an individual unpaid invoice can be chased in the small debts courts, but that is done when I am quite happy to end the relationship and just get the money outstanding. Monthly invoices can be too big to chase in small debts court (an internet application starts that ball rolling); so if worried I would advise not allowing invoice billing to be monthly and keep it at a 14 day interval. (This if fact means you risk two periods of 14 days; as if first is unpaid at end of 14 days from invoice , you will have completed the second 14 day period of work, and have just invoiced it! Risk is always two invoice period amounts. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18764" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7129" RevisionGUID="54c6e8ac-b6f9-4949-a24d-388214fd90c7" CreationDate="2017-08-14T21:50:40.680" UserId="17987" Text="I'm a creative freelance who has been scoring bigger and bigger clients. My invoices have significantly jumped and business is getting good. I have a *VERY* large corporation who wants me to host a website being created for them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is a website portal of sorts that they will use internally and for whatever reason they want nothing to do *at all with it being hosted*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The agreement will see me receive a annual payment for taking care of the hosting and domain. I suppose I would need to find a server provider that would be good enough to handle their requests then mark it up for taking care of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have never done this before so I am looking for great insight, knowledge and figures. I'm happy to provide more information if I have it, but right now this is pretty much the extent of what I'm told as a deal is still being brokered. I appreciate the insight!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18765" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7129" RevisionGUID="54c6e8ac-b6f9-4949-a24d-388214fd90c7" CreationDate="2017-08-14T21:50:40.680" UserId="17987" Text="How Much To Charge For Freelance Web Hosting For VERY Large Corporation" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18766" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7129" RevisionGUID="54c6e8ac-b6f9-4949-a24d-388214fd90c7" CreationDate="2017-08-14T21:50:40.680" UserId="17987" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|client-support|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18767" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6960" RevisionGUID="23b028f1-1afb-4b28-82d9-0d8ef0831073" CreationDate="2017-08-15T12:07:33.710" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/897429552233926656" />
  <row Id="18768" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7095" RevisionGUID="741972a9-3823-4b8a-93fb-cf29329ef57a" CreationDate="2017-08-15T15:07:33.713" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/897474850637393920" />
  <row Id="18769" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7130" RevisionGUID="b5dc6c0d-5fc4-4939-acb3-7b97d48c1c50" CreationDate="2017-08-15T16:25:53.420" UserId="75" Text="Website hosting can be basic, or very advanced. Does your client have the requirements from their site's developer as to what is required/recommended? If not, get that information before you even think about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you cannot get the requirements, then I would recommend you find a few different hosting providers, get their specs, and offer them as your &quot;solutions&quot;. If their webapp does not run on it due to the specs being too low, it's up to the client to pay more to get what's needed - this only happens if you provide **up front** what your services can host. For example - PHP 5.0, 5.5, or 7.0? Apache vs nginx? MySQL vs MariaDB vs PostgreSQL vs MS SQL? Windows vs Linux?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, uptime and availability. What will the client accept? Many web hosts offer close to 99.999% uptime (&quot;Five 9's&quot;) means only 5 minutes per year the site can be inaccessible! See [High Availability](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_availability#Percentage_calculation) for more information on what can be offered. You need to make sure if you host it yourself, you can maintain that availability; if you offload to a third party, make sure they can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How about monthly payments? I don't know any providers that accept a yearly payment, they all seem to be monthly. What if you client disappears when your bill is due? Get them down to monthly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Updates? Upgrades? Who's responsible? Does it count as downtime if they are performing the upgrade (it may seem silly, but some clients see it that way)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's what I recommend you do, especially if you foresee any issues with the above:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Get a list of domain registrars and hosting providers you like. Learn what their costs are to the client, and how they can upgrade later if needed.&#xD;&#xA;2. Send the information along to the client, letting them know these are what you recommend their web developer use.&#xD;&#xA;3. Sit back, relax, and don't worry about the inevitable long hours you could have spent troubleshooting someone else's issue just because you hosted it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18770" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7131" RevisionGUID="b6a14bfa-527b-4f7d-9db5-3e7fac3b610e" CreationDate="2017-08-15T17:13:33.020" UserId="517" Text="Why do you allow being treated like this? &quot;Calling me every 2h and messaging every 15min + threatening&quot; - WFT bro???? &#xD;&#xA;I would never, NEVER, N E V E R allow being treated like this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, aside of this, the client obviously wanted a lot of free work and he found fertile ground to impose his requests for free. At this point, you only have 2 options: break the contract and deliver all work after being paid the last month or continue work like a human being. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you decide to continue work, I would immediately tell the client that you do not accept any meeting since you are not a company and you do not meet with other clients in person (you may change this in 1 year if you have good relations by then). &#xD;&#xA;After this, I would make a detailed email about what they wanted and how they changed requests which is treated as an extra work, but they paid nothing. So it is their blame because the project is not finished, not yours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that, ask them to pay the last month so you can continue working. Stop work until they pay you. And for the future, set with the fixed monthly rate which includes X number of work hours that you will spend on all requests they have. Anything after that is paid as an extra. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18771" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7080" RevisionGUID="e2fae66a-e82f-40cc-bea7-2b860cbc2397" CreationDate="2017-08-15T21:09:12.967" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/897565864224071681" />
  <row Id="18772" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7132" RevisionGUID="0ba26702-fd5e-4de4-95af-dac879c647b1" CreationDate="2017-08-16T15:27:55.470" UserId="15709" Text="In short words: I am a web designer / developer (front end and back end). I do that proficiently since more than 10 years, and I am appreciated and good skilled in designing and programming. I work alone in a home office.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My target business are local clients, small to medium companies, hotels, shops, restaurants, etc, altough I do some bigger work from time to time but I can't handle to be full time committed to a single big project for long time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't do any marketing, clients come to me by word of mouth by other satisfied clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since a few years this type of business became really inflated due to the following main reasons:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Many online services offer sites &quot;for free&quot; then you pay to remove ads if you want. With time many of my small business clients decided to move to these types of services and they are OK with it.&#xD;&#xA;- Many other clients (restaurants, shops) don't even want anymore a website, they just open a Facebook page and they too are OK with that.&#xD;&#xA;- Many other new young freelancers and studios are showing up each month and some of them too are doing &quot;move and restyle your site for free for the first year then pay xx/month&quot; they work 12 hours a day even weekends or nights...&#xD;&#xA;- Bigger local web agencies are &quot;fighting&quot; each other to stay alive and they started to attract even small businesses with cheap products relying on high numbers for renewals and updating.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The fact is that there is a LOT of offer and not much request for the type of work that I offer too...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My incomes are getting lower and I feel on a dead railway... I'm still going enough good for now with some faithful clients but I feel like sooner or later I'll reach the end...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I need to significantly raise my incomes also because soon I'll be a father and I have to guarantee a good life to my family and daughter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I survive this situation? Should I start look some other type of job? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18773" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7132" RevisionGUID="0ba26702-fd5e-4de4-95af-dac879c647b1" CreationDate="2017-08-16T15:27:55.470" UserId="15709" Text="Inflated business area, what to do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18774" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7132" RevisionGUID="0ba26702-fd5e-4de4-95af-dac879c647b1" CreationDate="2017-08-16T15:27:55.470" UserId="15709" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|business-plan|money|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18775" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7133" RevisionGUID="6371f56c-6e7f-4ba6-b3cd-ba9a1a4a1bd2" CreationDate="2017-08-16T16:18:43.750" UserId="75" Text="I'll start by saying the cold hard truth about websites - most companies don't see them as a way to get new business, or at least not as much as it would cost to build them. You're competing with Facebook pages, with LinkedIn Business Profiles, and the newest WYSIWYG builders from pretty much any hosting company that charges extra.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order to stay competitive, you need to do a few things, especially if you want to stay in the Web Development business:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Learn new technologies that would let you do your job faster and more efficiently. I don't know too many expert developers who don't use libraries whenever possible.&#xD;&#xA;- Reach out to clients that are not local. Learn to use Skype or another video conferencing system to &quot;meet face to face&quot; with your potential clients. Local clients will run out as you are seeing now.&#xD;&#xA;- Create a portfolio. You and I both know that if a developer understands how to upload files with SCP (screw FTP!) that you can get very cheap hosting. Build yourself a portfolio website, market your skills there. This is your new goal.&#xD;&#xA;- If you don't already, create social media profiles for your professional freelancing work. Write articles that interest business owners, and have them all link to your website somewhere - even if you make a blog and just provide a link.&#xD;&#xA;- Be prepared to be asked for the world. We all know it's not possible, but don't let the fact you're feeling you're in a rut distract you from reality. Yes, you need food on the table and a roof over your head - but make sure you keep your quality up during this time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If all else fails, it may be time to either join one of the bigger firms for a steady paycheck, or change your field. I wish you luck, as I know many web developers that were awesome to work with!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18776" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="7129" RevisionGUID="0985c380-1a91-4989-b38e-71f660c01fe0" CreationDate="2017-08-16T18:06:37.303" UserId="708" Comment="Edited title to not be &quot;What do I charge&quot;" Text="How to determine pricing for Freelance Web Hosting For VERY Large Corporation" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18777" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6510" RevisionGUID="12a0d9bd-2dd8-4a35-b9b6-e41c1c3b8b8d" CreationDate="2017-08-17T06:28:28.990" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18778" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7134" RevisionGUID="32999f49-0fce-4f29-9e06-9a9724e9b014" CreationDate="2017-08-17T13:49:31.247" UserId="17529" Text="First of all keep in mind that freelancing always is a risk. Sometimes things are going well, sometimes not. Sometimes I love to be free and having no boss, but sometimes I really hate the responsibilities and problems which you only have as a single freelancer (you probably know).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was in a pretty similar situation and here is how I got out of it:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Take a part time job at some company (2-3 days a week) (offer them to write them freelancer bills instead of employment in order to keep accounting staff easy). This will ensure a fixed monthly income for bad times.&#xD;&#xA; - Go away from building standard stuff. Create a niche. My niche was starting to build highly customized 5 star premium online shops. This is bringing me a lot of money currently. Why? Because standard Shopify shops suck in comparison to my work.&#xD;&#xA; - Make a list and work out each and every point which makes you better than a website builder. Use it to convince your customers.&#xD;&#xA; - Get to know GOOD new people (e.g. Graphic Designers, Marketers) which may need your work for well-paid high quality projects. Good contacts are hard to find, but you have to keep on searching.&#xD;&#xA; - Go away from shitty jobs and customers. It is not worth it and it will cost you a lot of time you should have invested better.&#xD;&#xA; - Find a way to get scheduled payment instead of one-time payments from your customers (e.g. maintenance). I heard of some freelancing silverbacks that this is a very good strategy.&#xD;&#xA; - Improve your skills. Always.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that freelancing can be hard. It takes many years to build a successful business and if it is not working than you have to change something dramatically. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If nothing helps anymore give up your business and join a company fulltime for a while. It may bring new perspectives into your career." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18779" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7134" RevisionGUID="05425881-1372-4a27-a5b0-47afcabbe33c" CreationDate="2017-08-17T13:55:47.823" UserId="17529" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="First of all keep in mind that freelancing always is a risk. Sometimes things are going well, sometimes not. Sometimes I love to be free and having no boss, but sometimes I really hate the responsibilities and problems which you only have as a single freelancer (you probably know).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was in a pretty similar situation and here is how I got out of it:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Take a part time job at some company (2-3 days a week) (offer them to write them freelancer bills instead of employment in order to keep accounting staff easy). This will ensure a fixed monthly income for bad times.&#xD;&#xA; - Go away from building standard stuff. Create a niche. My niche was starting to build highly customized 5 star premium online shops. This is bringing me a lot of money currently. Why? Because shop-builders like Shopify suck in comparison to my work.&#xD;&#xA; - Make a list and work out each and every point which makes you better than a website builder. Use it to convince your customers.&#xD;&#xA; - Get to know GOOD new people (e.g. Graphic Designers, Marketers) which may need your work for well-paid high quality projects. Good contacts are hard to find, but you have to keep on searching.&#xD;&#xA; - Go away from shitty jobs and customers. It is not worth it and it will cost you a lot of time you should have invested better.&#xD;&#xA; - Find a way to get scheduled payment instead of one-time payments from your customers (e.g. maintenance). I heard of some freelancing silverbacks that this is a very good strategy.&#xD;&#xA; - Improve your skills. Always.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that freelancing can be hard. It takes many years to build a successful business and if it is not working than you have to change something dramatically. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If nothing helps anymore give up your business and join a company fulltime for a while. It may bring new perspectives into your career." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18780" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7135" RevisionGUID="245ed270-d3ac-4ed0-bb49-2cebff9762f8" CreationDate="2017-08-17T14:21:23.380" UserId="17529" Text="This is probably one of your first projects, because you do not have ANY idea of how things are working. You are a freelancer and not f*ckin bond-slave of your clients. I can tell you something. Software projects without exact specification and boundaries very often end up like this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And guess what? Clients will dislike you EVEN if you made an large amount of extra work as they do not see the work, but only unprofessionality and bad service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For your future projects the process must be like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Requirements analysis&#xD;&#xA; 2. Set an offer (and exactly describe the time plan, contents, technologies and boundaries of the project)&#xD;&#xA; 3. Acceptance / Denial of the offer&#xD;&#xA; 4. Start of work&#xD;&#xA; 5. If finishing after the deadline accept to be a bit cheaper&#xD;&#xA; 6. If you exceed the deadline of the exactly defined project by weeks or months then it is your fault and you may not get paid. But remember YOU made the offer. So just do not promise things you can not keep.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: Some companies / freelancers are even setting a bill for the first two steps in case of denial." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18781" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7134" RevisionGUID="36731c6f-d227-44e7-854d-ea22519ab253" CreationDate="2017-08-17T15:23:20.073" UserId="17529" Comment="added 20 characters in body" Text="First of all keep in mind that freelancing always is a risk. Sometimes things are going well, sometimes not. Sometimes I love to be free and having no boss, but sometimes I really hate the responsibilities and problems which you only have as a single freelancer (you probably know).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was in a pretty similar situation and here is how I got out of it:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Take a part time job at some company (2-3 days a week) (offer them to write them freelancer bills instead of employment in order to keep accounting staff easy). This will ensure a fixed monthly income for bad times.&#xD;&#xA; - Go away from building standard stuff. Create a niche. My niche was starting to build highly customized 5 star premium online shops. This is bringing me a lot of money currently. Why? Because shop-builders like Shopify suck in comparison to my work.&#xD;&#xA; - Make a list and work out each and every point which makes you better than a website builder. Use it to convince your customers.&#xD;&#xA; - Get to know GOOD new people (e.g. Graphic Designers, Marketers) which may need your work for well-paid high quality projects. Good contacts are hard to find, but you have to keep on searching.&#xD;&#xA; - Go away from shitty jobs and customers. It is not worth it and it will cost you a lot of time you should have invested better.&#xD;&#xA; - Find a way to get scheduled payment instead of one-time payments from your customers (e.g. maintenance). I heard of some freelancing silverbacks that this is a very good strategy.&#xD;&#xA; - Improve your skills and adapt to change. Always.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that freelancing can be hard. It takes many years to build a successful business and if it is not working than you have to change something dramatically. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If nothing helps anymore give up your business and join a company fulltime for a while. It may bring new perspectives into your career." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18784" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7132" RevisionGUID="1edbae1c-378e-4cc4-9f43-ee5eb9d32811" CreationDate="2017-08-19T18:21:30.923" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/898973212410863616" />
  <row Id="18786" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6547" RevisionGUID="7c17aa9d-fef4-43a7-b158-9103889baf2c" CreationDate="2017-08-20T09:09:32.800" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18787" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7111" RevisionGUID="ad746b62-1ebe-4672-90aa-8436ab69adf0" CreationDate="2017-08-20T15:32:30.557" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/899293069048254466" />
  <row Id="18788" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7136" RevisionGUID="ecad5443-1a93-4f4d-acb3-e5464902b333" CreationDate="2017-08-20T20:39:53.950" UserId="18036" Text="The website of a major webservices company could benefit from a simple additional feature.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Technically, it would be straightforward to implement this feature (they don't need me for this).  Commercially, it should significantly increase the quality of their service and could have a significant impact on their traffic.  Therefore, the reason they didn't implement it already *must be* that they didn't have the idea — yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am willing to suggest this improvement, but for several reasons I want to monetize it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Now, how can I secure this idea while approaching them ?**  I mean, odds are they won't be interested until they *know* the idea, but then, what could keep them from dismissing me while implementing the feature ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I believe intellectual property will be of no help here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am thinking about asking them to sign a contract with an explicit clause stating that if they are not interested with the idea, they can't implement it on their website for 5 years or something.  I have yet to check such a clause would be legal, though.  But maybe this approach would be too &quot;naive&quot; anyway ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18789" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7136" RevisionGUID="ecad5443-1a93-4f4d-acb3-e5464902b333" CreationDate="2017-08-20T20:39:53.950" UserId="18036" Text="How do I secure an idea when approaching a company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18790" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7136" RevisionGUID="ecad5443-1a93-4f4d-acb3-e5464902b333" CreationDate="2017-08-20T20:39:53.950" UserId="18036" Text="|legal|negotiation|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18791" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7137" RevisionGUID="5161950a-18bf-40cf-bae7-99b868b3f4f2" CreationDate="2017-08-21T06:08:40.910" UserId="17662" Text="I answered a job posting on Upwork, and in response, &quot;David Lee&quot; asked me for my Skype ID.  Because of a number of &quot;issues&quot; on my end, it took several days before we were both on Skype at the same time when this conversation ensued:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* Hi&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* are you available now?&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Fred Koschara:* Yes, I'm here&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* Great&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* Ok, Sorry but I have to apologize something first.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* That the job posted is not needed anymore.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* But I have something to discuss with you now if you have time.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Fred Koschara:* What do you have?&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* ok, thanks&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* I am from China and also a web developer myself.&#xD;&#xA;But I can't create account on Upwork.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* So I want to purchase someone's Upwork account.&#xD;&#xA;I would really appreciate if you can help me.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Fred Koschara:* Didn't you have to create an account to post the job?&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* Oh, it's just client account which I created yesterday&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* not verified one also&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* so do you work full time on Upwork?&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Fred Koschara:* It's one of the things I do&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Fred Koschara:* How would you &quot;purchase&quot; an account?&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* I want to talk about the price.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* and pay immediately through paypal&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Fred Koschara:* I'm not quite sure what you mean.  Are you saying you want me to give you my username and password, with my work history and profile attached?  Is that what you are saying you want to buy?&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* Yes, that's right.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* That means also you should not use it once I start using it.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* And I am willing to pay for it.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Fred Koschara:* How much are you willing to pay?&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* I am sorry but I lost your profile&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* would you please send it again to me?&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* oh, I found it&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* you have only one job history&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* is it Video verified one?&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Fred Koschara:* yes&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* I can pay 600$.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Fred Koschara:* hahahahahahaha  I've spent 40 years building my reputation as a contract programmer and consultant, and you think I'd be willing to sell **that** for $600?&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* You mean you spent 40 years to make this profile?&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Fred Koschara:* No, I only found Upwork about a month ago, I've been working in this business for 40 years&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* I understand.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* As I said, I am Chinese.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* I am not so rich.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* But I am doing this because Upwork is only platform on which I can make earnings for living.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* I am impressed in your passion for work.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* Sorry, I thought you are young looking at your photo. lol&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* 30s&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* like me&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Fred Koschara:* that's what most people think when they see me&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* They might be&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* So would you pls help me this poor Chinese youth?&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* (bow)&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Fred Koschara:* My Upwork account, and the credentials and history associated with it, are part of my reputation.  You are going to find that an honest person will never &quot;sell&quot; their reputation, and that if you **do** manage to &quot;buy reputation&quot; from someone, it won't be worth the money you paid for it.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* I see&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* I just want to by a Upwork account and use it to get jobs there&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* You can remove those work history on it before selling it&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *Fred Koschara:* This is going to make an &quot;interesting&quot; blog post....&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* haha&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* I would appreciate if you please don't do it.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *David Lee:* I am doing this for my living, being very serious..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(FWIW the lines about &quot;Ok, Sorry but I have to apologize something first.&quot; and &quot;That the job posted is not needed anymore.&quot; were repeated from when he first contacted me and I told him I was busy replacing a failed UPS.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've reported this incident to Upwork, but is there anybody else I should make aware of the situation?  In addition to being unethical, it seems like doing this sort of thing should be illegal, although trying to enforce it on someone in China would be &quot;difficult&quot; at best.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How common is this practice?  Has anyone else been approached with the same or similar scams?  How did you deal with it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18792" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7137" RevisionGUID="5161950a-18bf-40cf-bae7-99b868b3f4f2" CreationDate="2017-08-21T06:08:40.910" UserId="17662" Text="How do I respond to someone wanting to &quot;purchase&quot; my reputation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18793" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7137" RevisionGUID="5161950a-18bf-40cf-bae7-99b868b3f4f2" CreationDate="2017-08-21T06:08:40.910" UserId="17662" Text="|attracting-clients|ownership|trust|ethics|offer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18794" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7138" RevisionGUID="f9988c96-3808-44d2-8205-c0d0edced5fe" CreationDate="2017-08-21T12:01:02.370" UserId="517" Text="I am not surprised :). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This person has probably be banned and cannot attach his credit card or pass verification process. I am surprised you had nerves to talk to much to him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also saw guys asking you to open the account as they cannot do it. But mainly that is not true. I was asked to do this for PayPal: just open an account and remove your credit card later. No freaking way I would ever risk doing things like this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a common thing. I would say as common as getting an email from a billionaire from Africa who is willing to send you his millions. Guys simply want something quickly thinking it would help them. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18795" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7139" RevisionGUID="a27ad399-9525-4946-9a4c-c3782176c564" CreationDate="2017-08-21T18:24:06.590" UserId="18020" Text="Imagine that I bought some items online (they could be consumables, materials or the like) to a shop based in a non-EU country. The goods were sent by post and weren't stopped at customs, so I haven't paid VAT on them. Can I still claim them as a business expense, if I'm a self-employed that doesn't issue VAT? (I don't know if it's relevant, just in case it is)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18796" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7139" RevisionGUID="a27ad399-9525-4946-9a4c-c3782176c564" CreationDate="2017-08-21T18:24:06.590" UserId="18020" Text="Using goods bought abroad as business expense (based in UK)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18797" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7139" RevisionGUID="a27ad399-9525-4946-9a4c-c3782176c564" CreationDate="2017-08-21T18:24:06.590" UserId="18020" Text="|taxes|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18798" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7140" RevisionGUID="26866c05-3286-49b6-b6b7-425905d9cf7e" CreationDate="2017-08-22T02:24:21.323" UserId="708" Text="I don't use upwork... but I'd respond to this the same way as if someone were to ask me to give them my social security number.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;No thanks. I'm not interested.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And move on. I would have *never* had the conversation you had. I would have excused myself the moment purchasing my profile was presented.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The thing is you **don't** want to be a memorable experience for these people. You want them to forget about you and only remember you declined. If you become too memorable, there's no telling what they might do, or attempt to do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18799" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7141" RevisionGUID="cdcb158e-c675-403b-93c7-efd47a05c8b1" CreationDate="2017-08-22T02:25:41.033" UserId="4618" Text="**You can't.** Even if you create an NDA that's legal, and have them sign it, I'm guessing you don't have the resources to actually fight a 'major webservices company' in court, while they probably have lawyers already.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you fight them, I'm sure they can say they had this idea for a long time, and most surely they can come up with some 'proof'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your best shot here is to have a great plan and approach. You have to exit the meeting with them thinking that you have the feature so well thought already that it would be a risk doing it with their own staff." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18800" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="7bc285cd-d529-4b85-a6c2-bbb50fb76fe0" CreationDate="2017-08-22T03:24:09.597" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18801" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7142" RevisionGUID="c82e1d32-12e7-4b6a-a358-c85ef060d8e3" CreationDate="2017-08-22T06:02:17.360" UserId="2265" Text="There is no way you can make this happen the way you want it. Do you have a contact at this company? How will you get in touch with the right people? If it is indeed a major web services company you would be lucky to get the idea on the right level to begin with. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You also assume that simply offering them the idea will make them all &quot;Wow we need this!&quot;. There is no way you know this for sure, no matter how glorious you think the idea is. Many things can come into play at a major web services company when deciding to implement or not, and not all of those things are reasonable or make sense. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best you can do is suggest the idea, offer your services as the genius that you are and hope this heavenly feature makes them want to hire you. And that's probably wishful thinking. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18805" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6934" RevisionGUID="6b19a626-cfc4-4363-b3c9-a4c497f73507" CreationDate="2017-08-22T11:24:29.630" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18807" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7145" RevisionGUID="722ec45a-7f37-4bb0-8ac8-6fae65637e41" CreationDate="2017-08-22T15:45:57.953" UserId="18050" Text="I've worked as freelancer remotely for clients based in Germany several times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They paid me via Paypal and I sent them an invoice for &quot;consulting services&quot; or &quot;web hosting&quot;, not sure how they handled their financials internally but most likely along the lines of &quot;business expense&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18809" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7146" RevisionGUID="08aa8a0b-301b-437d-805f-adc88c244e13" CreationDate="2017-08-22T15:59:47.970" UserId="18050" Text="Depends on how you want to portray yourself, you want to be a  &quot;business owner&quot; or a &quot;freelancer for hire&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For freelancer focus on personality, fresh, young, creative.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fur business the focus is on serious, clean, reliable, professional.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;good luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18810" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6264" RevisionGUID="719af411-e916-4a91-ada6-7d8a2b4e0c8b" CreationDate="2017-08-22T21:27:17.433" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18811" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7147" RevisionGUID="fe45b952-379b-4e5a-86c4-1d2f7183e141" CreationDate="2017-08-23T01:16:02.863" UserId="708" Text="Personal opinion....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No**. There's no reason anyone hiring me needs to know what I look like. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's a *very old* resume rule which states that you *never* put your photo on your resume. There is a *very* good reason for this.. bias or outright discrimination. Not just based on sex or race, but on age, attitude, percieved personality, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Placing your photo on something, where you are looking to gain work, merely allows those that are of that mindset to avoid you based upon your appearance. It offers almost *zero* benefit having your photo on anything seeking work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a 20 year old looking to gain work.... those seeking more experienced companies will immediately be turned away. For someone looking for an young, socially connected, fresh worker, a photo of someone ~40 years old will immediately turn them away. All based solely on the photo, not capabilities because they'll never even get that far. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being posted, if you are branded well and you *are* your brand and you are *well known*, then using your photo *may* be beneficial. For example, if Neil deGrasse Tyson started a webdev firm.... using his photo would immediately lend creditability to the web site. Or at least confirm that yes it's his company. So in this instance using a photo is good. But this is the *exception*, not the rule. So, for most....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's zero reason you need to include a personal photo and in most cases it will *hurt* you far more than it may help you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18814" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7096" RevisionGUID="72c6a100-b7de-4cd4-83fc-85a18c15e184" CreationDate="2017-08-24T15:09:04.153" UserId="100" Comment="paragraphs, added Wikipedia link" Text="The answer to your question is &quot;Legal,&quot; by whose jurisdiction and in what country. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In America, it would not be illegal, as long as the address was then truly your, and you in fact could and were capable of being contacted at the address. This is because if you can be contacted there, it is truthfully your address. However, if you could not be contacted at the address, then you would have committed a fraud. Many businesses utilize [PO Boxes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-office_box &quot;Wikipedia article: 'Post-office box'&quot;), or mail services in order to obtain a lawful street address. It is all perfectly legal and a very common practice in America. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can not speak to the laws of your particular country, as I do not know the laws or customs of your country. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, I am not a licensed attorney, and the advice given should not be relied upon or utilized as a substitute for the well reasoned advice of a lawyer, licensed to practice law in the particular state in which you seek to conduct or transact your business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18815" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7096" RevisionGUID="72c6a100-b7de-4cd4-83fc-85a18c15e184" CreationDate="2017-08-24T15:09:04.153" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 2265, 9 edit id of 562" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18816" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7148" RevisionGUID="3ee760bf-2b82-4e32-ac6a-5439e150acfd" CreationDate="2017-08-25T17:09:16.237" UserId="18074" Text="There's this client who asked me to write some lines of code, the contract said: &#xA;&#xA;&quot; The Client is hiring the Developer to do the following: Point a form to send a user entered text field to custom API. The URL and port need to be configurable. Display the result on the same page using JS code.&quot;&#xA;&#xA;What I mean by ''custom API'' is create a code with a random API request to third party server (for demonstration purpose) then display the results on the same page.&#xA;&#xA;Actually he paid me 50% upfront but the script still don't work because of some cross origin issues. I’ll definitely need more time to read the docs and figure it out how to add `Access-Control-Allow-Origin.` To be frank it's kind of above my level of experience.&#xA;&#xA;Now the only solution I have is to build a proxy using Flask. That means you’ll send data to your own rest API, pass it to aws then send response from the proxy to your actual website, or even better scrap content directly from the results page, finally display the results with JS.&#xA;&#xA;It's happens because he was keeping his API private until I wrote the first script. This job is not profitable for me even if he pay the agreed quote.&#xA;&#xA;What should I do?&#xA;&#xA; 1. Ask for more money &#xA; 2. Ask for more money" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18817" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7148" RevisionGUID="3ee760bf-2b82-4e32-ac6a-5439e150acfd" CreationDate="2017-08-25T17:09:16.237" UserId="18074" Text="Unexpected additional work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18818" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7148" RevisionGUID="3ee760bf-2b82-4e32-ac6a-5439e150acfd" CreationDate="2017-08-25T17:09:16.237" UserId="18074" Text="|money|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18819" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7149" RevisionGUID="5acd5618-f384-4bd0-b64c-579fbde5654b" CreationDate="2017-08-25T17:50:43.850" UserId="708" Text="I'm not certain what you are asking.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have a contract stating you'll complete `A` for a specified sum.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You *later* discovered completing `A` will take more time than you estimated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have 2 options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Stick to your contract and complete `A` as you agreed and learn to&#xD;&#xA;    better understand the details of project before providing a pricing.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Tell the client you underestimated and would like to revisit&#xD;&#xA;    pricing. This often upsets clients. However, sometimes a client is&#xD;&#xA;    amenable to pricing discussions if they understand full scope was&#xD;&#xA;    not possible at the time of an *estimate*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not clear if your contract included an **estimate** or a **quote** for the pricing. They are different.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it was a *quote* you would be obligated to finish the project for the agreed upon pricing, even *if* you discovered you underbid. If the client has a contract for $x and they don't want to pay more, you're stuck. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the provided pricing was an *estimate*, the client should be fully aware that pricing was subject to review and there would be little issue revisiting the subject." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18820" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7056" RevisionGUID="bfc8bcb6-c812-4830-8237-d61f6c3280a8" CreationDate="2017-08-26T00:12:12.600" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18821" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7150" RevisionGUID="8bb781dd-f39b-4a12-80d5-c43435a7595b" CreationDate="2017-08-26T18:38:22.567" UserId="18084" Text="I'm currently working as a freelancer at fiverr from the last few months. Now I've listen about many others sites for freelancers like freelancer,guru,upwork etc. I don't know which website is best for beginners. Anyone here, who wanted to share his/her experience with me. Every single suggestion will be appreciated" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18822" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7150" RevisionGUID="8bb781dd-f39b-4a12-80d5-c43435a7595b" CreationDate="2017-08-26T18:38:22.567" UserId="18084" Text="Which website is best for freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18823" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7150" RevisionGUID="8bb781dd-f39b-4a12-80d5-c43435a7595b" CreationDate="2017-08-26T18:38:22.567" UserId="18084" Text="|freelance-websites|working-from-home|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18824" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7151" RevisionGUID="1383d9c7-50fa-4877-bda4-831ef77d43bc" CreationDate="2017-08-27T02:39:48.997" UserId="18087" Text="there are many  things you can do with only these skills , such as &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1 making static website &#xD;&#xA;2 setting up a word press website (no programming required )&#xD;&#xA;3 doing user experience testing &#xD;&#xA;4 managing blog &#xD;&#xA;5 doing social media marketing " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18825" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3520" RevisionGUID="55829119-7c12-4c68-ba63-d0c5e62ea754" CreationDate="2017-08-27T18:37:25.370" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18826" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7152" RevisionGUID="0310cae2-16b3-4c32-8f35-454147bc8638" CreationDate="2017-08-28T13:04:27.257" UserId="517" Text="There is only 1 best site - best site for you. That site can be the worst for me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the only solution is to try them ALL and find your best one. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or simply use one with millions of freelancers and try to succeed there. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18828" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7154" RevisionGUID="fb213ffb-eaec-4a6d-b4c2-f5b79f5b1c86" CreationDate="2017-08-30T01:42:37.580" UserId="1706" Text="I guess you're going to lose money on this one. If a client ever has the ability to add unknown requirements at a later time after you sign a contract, then doing a fixed-price contract is a very unwise way to go.  You can only do a fixed price for a fixed scope of work. Otherwise, you bill for your time and the client can introduce as many surprises as needed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18829" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7155" RevisionGUID="0aea12de-3f4f-4b62-adce-bb52e3f1be1f" CreationDate="2017-08-30T07:21:11.283" UserId="7717" Text="&gt; I don't do any marketing, clients come to me by word of mouth by other satisfied clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, there's your problem. Word of mouth has reached its limit. Start marketing, or start using one of the popular freelancing websites to connect with new clients. I use the latter approach and it has exposed me to far more opportunities than I even have time to accept." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18835" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7129" RevisionGUID="3cb7077b-0242-491a-9a76-11fcac117694" CreationDate="2017-08-31T10:02:57.493" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/903196400640552960" />
  <row Id="18836" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7157" RevisionGUID="710067f0-6cae-49f3-95d5-108208d0e835" CreationDate="2017-09-01T02:48:03.890" UserId="15906" Text="Every once in a while, I get a client who keeps sending me files over text and email and all kinds of other means. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It becomes a mess and when I bring up that it takes 20 minutes to find all the files - when I ask them yet again to please put the files on Dropbox, they say &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I don't know how to use a dropbox?  My assistant uses it but I'm not sure how to use it?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Considering this snarky reply: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You just drag and drop it in box. Probably cheaper for you to ask your secretary &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, maybe the client really needs help. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there standard guides to forward to clients to get them to use Dropbox or any other centralized online file sharing/storage? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18837" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7157" RevisionGUID="710067f0-6cae-49f3-95d5-108208d0e835" CreationDate="2017-09-01T02:48:03.890" UserId="15906" Text="Guides for clients to learn to save files to online cloud storage" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18838" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7157" RevisionGUID="710067f0-6cae-49f3-95d5-108208d0e835" CreationDate="2017-09-01T02:48:03.890" UserId="15906" Text="|difficult-client|communication|client-support|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18839" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7158" RevisionGUID="2766675b-42ce-459c-a8e0-d95b7a899d1c" CreationDate="2017-09-01T04:18:15.367" UserId="708" Text="I consider it part of my job to make it as easy as possible for clients to send me anything. The *last thing* I want to do is make it uncomfortable or unusual for any client to send me anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I may suggest DropBox, Hightail, my own guest FTP access server, email.. but if any of the suggestions are met with resistance I drop it immediately and accept that the client will use the method they prefer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, do not think pushing a specific delivery methods is conducive to continued client relations. I would rather deal with the minor organizational issues certain delivery methods may present for me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18843" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7160" RevisionGUID="9b292bf9-3e23-4b2a-977d-a0a22680b599" CreationDate="2017-09-01T10:03:45.210" UserId="15709" Text="I'm a single web designer / developer freelance and I work in a home office, my target clients are small to medium local businesses, shops, hotels, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have several clients and I am available to them for any maintenance, updates or problem solving, in working hours, I also have a schedule of works to complete with certain deadlines.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Two weeks ago I had a sudden unexpected and very debilitating health problem, I was hospitalized for a few days and being treated with strong I.V. painkillers and other medicines. Later when I came back home I was very weak and totally unable to do anything for almost a week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During this time my wife answered the client's calls and informed them about my temporary inability to work for health reasons. Although I have managed to solve a few minor things with the help of one other freelance-collegue, that had consequences:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- A client moved suddenly to another freelance because he needed the work done, probably I will not see him again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- A company (my client since 3 years) had a problem with the website due to a provider change of settings, I couldn't do anything... they expressed me their concern about possible future similar problems, they said probably they will move to a bigger web agency to avoid to be dependent to a single person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I had some calls and emails for jobs to do that I had not even answered and declined.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I am in a terrible delay with deadlines, I should work days and nights but I am not physically able to stay at work more than a few hours a day since I am still in therapy with many medicines.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please note that this never happened to me before, this is the first time I had such problem and totally unexpected...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to be &quot;ready&quot; for such events? Do you arrange your work in some way to grand your client's business continuity? Do you arrange anything to minimize the effects of unplanned similar events?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18844" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7160" RevisionGUID="9b292bf9-3e23-4b2a-977d-a0a22680b599" CreationDate="2017-09-01T10:03:45.210" UserId="15709" Text="How to deal with sudden health problem" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18845" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7160" RevisionGUID="9b292bf9-3e23-4b2a-977d-a0a22680b599" CreationDate="2017-09-01T10:03:45.210" UserId="15709" Text="|working-from-home|local-business|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18846" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7161" RevisionGUID="31c02d21-f07a-4170-a944-fb3a2ec96b79" CreationDate="2017-09-01T11:25:39.727" UserId="517" Text="Get the help ASAP! A help that you can monitor and see (ideally in the same town as yours). Let this guy handles urgent work until you are better. If need-be, pay him so much that your margin is at the positive zero. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, talk to your clients and try to postpone those with non-urgent requests. For others, use your help mate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Aside of this, this has proven that your clients are a****les. You are good just as long as you can deliver. When you are out of order, they replace her. So this has proven you that you need more reliable clients, those that will treat you as a human. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18847" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7162" RevisionGUID="b2df111b-82b1-4149-acf4-1a978d87a4d2" CreationDate="2017-09-01T15:49:30.767" UserId="708" Text="I would agree that your clients are pretty bad if they drop you that fast over health issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My work doesn't involve anything which could possibly be seen as a real &quot;emergency&quot; such as a web site not functioning or payment processing being broken. So, that may offer me a tad more breathing room overall. If you are involved in matters which *would* be a financial emergency for your clients, you need to find someone that can step in and at least deal with emergencies. Someone capable of understanding a web site's control panel or settings, etc. Heck you may even be able to teach your wife to follow specific instructions when needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I sympathize with your situation. In my field there's literally *no one* I can pass off work too. I've searched for years to find an assistant or employee or even another freelancer to take over client work when needed. I can't find one when I'm *healthy*, let alone when I'm medicated and unwell. In addition, passing off some of my work (to anyone) would involve transferring tens of GBs of files for some projects which is no easy task and would take as much brain-power to stay organized as completing the work would take.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;What I do is... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First my contract states that I am not liable for unavoidable and unpredictable &quot;acts of God&quot;. This would include, but be limited to, natural disasters and health related issues which are unforeseeable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As soon as possible I inform the clients that [project X] will be delayed by an estimated [x] days due to unexpected and unavoidable health issues. In addition, a 10%/20% discount will be applied to the pricing to hopefully compensate for the delay. If this delay is untenable, I am happy to invoice for work up to the current state and provide anything necessary, within the scope of the contract, so another worker can take over the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Beyond this, I'm kind of stuck. There's not much more I can do. I have measures in place should I die, such as providing a backup hard drive to a colleague (in another field) so he can disperse files to my clients, etc. But as much as I've searched, there doesn't appear to be a way to implement a temporary safety net for my work. I just have to hope my clients understand and work around the issue with me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Overall, what I found is the clients are unsympathetic or unwilling to accept that there is a delay I can not avoid, are the clients I needed to **replace**. Life happens and any client who is unwilling to accept that, on rare occasions, is really expressing that they have little or no loyalty to me and my services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did have issues in Q1 of both 2016 and 2017 (related to the same health issue) which caused delays of a few weeks each time. I was working as much as I could but at a snail's pace when compared to regular performance. My clients were annoyed by the delays this caused, but they understood overall. (Assuming these types of delays are few and very far between) I lost money. I lost a few projects. But overall my clients were just wanting me to get back up to speed as soon as possible. Good clients seem to understand, bad clients just want their work done and don't care *why* there's a delay. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18848" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7148" RevisionGUID="05463699-12b7-4fa0-a377-7e01d7de3392" CreationDate="2017-09-01T15:55:22.733" UserId="9" Comment="deleted 424 characters in body; edited tags" Text="I have a client that asked me to write code for them. Specifically (from the contract):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The Client is hiring the Developer to do the following: Point a form to send a user entered text field to custom API **[ed: random API request to third-party server]**. The URL and port need to be configurable. Display the result on the same page using JS code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client has paid me 50% upfront, but the script still doesn't work due to a technical problem that, frankly, is a bit above my level of expertise. Moreover, the problem stemmed from the API being private until I wrote the first script.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only solution I see is to build a larger system than what I had originally budgeted, and because of it, the job will no longer be profitable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I do? Should I ask for more money? If so, how?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18849" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7148" RevisionGUID="05463699-12b7-4fa0-a377-7e01d7de3392" CreationDate="2017-09-01T15:55:22.733" UserId="9" Comment="deleted 424 characters in body; edited tags" Text="|contracts|scope-of-work|money|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18861" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7165" RevisionGUID="50ae112a-5e63-49db-be00-b965b5bc5e58" CreationDate="2017-09-02T15:45:02.840" UserId="17697" Text="No NDA was signed and nothing was discussed with customer in this relation. Then I'm tempted to store projects in my public github and post links to them in my blog as a demo for potential customers. At the same time I'm afraid this is may look like (or may be) an offence regarding the previous customers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18862" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7165" RevisionGUID="50ae112a-5e63-49db-be00-b965b5bc5e58" CreationDate="2017-09-02T15:45:02.840" UserId="17697" Text="Is it correct to store freelance projects publicly on github?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18863" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7165" RevisionGUID="50ae112a-5e63-49db-be00-b965b5bc5e58" CreationDate="2017-09-02T15:45:02.840" UserId="17697" Text="|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18864" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7166" RevisionGUID="f2cfe28e-74c7-46ba-99e1-cfa05998ccbb" CreationDate="2017-09-02T20:57:41.860" UserDisplayName="user18140" Text="I have seen multiple examples of it being done, agencies or people linking to the previous work self hosted - but as courtesy just ask the client first if you can put it up on your code account as proof of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also something to consider - if you don't show that you got permission to put it on GitHub, prospective clients could be turned away." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18865" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7167" RevisionGUID="25a8d24c-85c5-4d95-ba91-88588046013d" CreationDate="2017-09-03T09:06:14.530" UserId="15457" Text="A client approached us with a project, we gave an estimate based on the fairly loose spec with the expectation that before work began we'd have the chance to discuss a full spec and sign off on the total budget.&#xA;&#xA;However time went on and due to their workload we didn't get all the details necessary for a final price and we just had to start working and keep incrementing as the decisions and assets were sent over in order to meet the deadline.&#xA;&#xA;We are now in the position of being a few days away from the deadline with most of the work done, finally at the point where we know the total scope, but we have no formal agreement beyond our initial estimate, which is about 70% of the total project since some parts increased in complexity.&#xA;&#xA;What's the best way to approach this? Obviously we'd like to get paid for the full amount. Should we update the estimate and send it over? Simply send over our final bill when done based on day rate? Cut our losses and just bill the estimate?&#xA;&#xA;It's a medium size company with 30-50 employees. We're two people." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18866" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7167" RevisionGUID="25a8d24c-85c5-4d95-ba91-88588046013d" CreationDate="2017-09-03T09:06:14.530" UserId="15457" Text="Finalising the estimate when work is nearly complete" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18867" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7167" RevisionGUID="25a8d24c-85c5-4d95-ba91-88588046013d" CreationDate="2017-09-03T09:06:14.530" UserId="15457" Text="|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18868" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7168" RevisionGUID="20bce53b-c97c-44ef-805a-dd96eacb331a" CreationDate="2017-09-03T09:06:48.867" UserId="18142" Text="Me and my friends are starting a startup by providing e-services as taking projects from the clients all over the world....like app development, website development, digital marketing and many more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to ask that should i start taking projects already or should i make a good project to show as a reference to clients which is the best approach to get started smoothly and also what is the average price of an app and website separately in USD ?  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18869" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7168" RevisionGUID="20bce53b-c97c-44ef-805a-dd96eacb331a" CreationDate="2017-09-03T09:06:48.867" UserId="18142" Text="How to get Started As Freelancer by providing e-services?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18870" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7168" RevisionGUID="20bce53b-c97c-44ef-805a-dd96eacb331a" CreationDate="2017-09-03T09:06:48.867" UserId="18142" Text="|web-development|design|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18871" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7169" RevisionGUID="8e962e92-939b-454a-898d-3f067da95354" CreationDate="2017-09-03T10:31:17.717" UserId="18143" Text="Good luck with your new venture. There are many things you can do to make sure that you and your team has best chance of success.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**1. Clarity of Roles within Team:** &#xD;&#xA;The moment you and your friends enter into a business plan to work together, you need to make sure everyone is on the same page, everyone has clearly defined role/job-description they are responsible for in the business to make it work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have minimum level of productivity expected, number of hours per week etc to put into business by each member. As partnerships are hard, partnerships among friends are the hardest due to different level of expectations, with no formal discussion on it, until it is too late...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2. Services Offered - Narrower the Better:**&#xD;&#xA;You need to be very specific and narrow in this regard, at least in the beginning so you can demonstrate your skill and target niche clients etc...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;App Development itself is very big field, I suggest to narrow it to platform e.g IOS or Android and industry e.g. Games or Data Driven or CMS etc..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Same goes with Website Development, I am in this field for 10 years, we are 5 persons team, we just do Website Development, and even then we focus mainly about PHP Projects, with no design work, just the Web Apps within narrow list of industries and we often wonder and wish to add more members for in-house graphic design etc... thing i am trying to say is that you need to very focused about skillset your team has and then focus on the best services you can provide and let the others go unless you have more team members to handle in future .. for now as narrow and niche the targeting is better it will be to convince clients and show results with your related work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**3. Target Clients Demographics** &#xD;&#xA;Same as services you need to be very specific and narrow to target the clients which fit in best in your situation. So you can easily track them and market to them, you have to target in the start people you can easily approach, maybe in your locality, then build up from there it help you build your portfolio as well as testimonials then you can keep expanding your target market as you grow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You asked should you start taking projects already or first build reference project. I would suggest you can gather few mockups and projects you already have done to showcase, but instead of building something big, I suggest try to land client for the most valuable skill your team has, and try to build something for that first client even for low price than market just to get first client and project. Yes you should trying to land your client as soon as you have specified the services you are going to offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18872" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7170" RevisionGUID="242ea65f-25c7-4215-886f-92f220c6cbd9" CreationDate="2017-09-03T10:40:27.753" UserId="18143" Text="I would try to bring this to the contact person as soon as possible. Here is how I will approach this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My expectation will be: Be ready to cut the losses and accept the agreed price if they do not approve.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best Case I will try to accomplish is to talk to the client and say, what you said already, look the work we quoted for on such and such date, had not this/this and this part included in the estimate and now as we have worked to meet deadlines without considering the price, you and I know these parts of the work were not present in the initial scope and I did not want to slow the progress so I did not interrupted the work during the working phase. Can you please reconsider the bill and let me add xyz hours to the bill which is my base hourly rate, and it correspond to the hours worked for this additional work....If you cannot get this approved now from your side, I totally understand... etc...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One thing I will never do is that send the final bill with over bill or updated estimate without discussing with the client as this may set them on defensive mode.. bette to discuss before updating bill and I am sure they will understand. My clients always have compensated in situations like these, I just needed to discuss before sending bill and sometimes they agreed to update the amount, other times they said no , send the agreed bill, but let me get bonus approved for your team for the job well done.. and yes Bonus have been more than the extra effort's bill I was asking.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18873" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7171" RevisionGUID="f49808e6-d0fa-4fff-915e-b18e9e929a80" CreationDate="2017-09-03T10:43:42.000" UserId="18143" Text="I would not do this, as clients may have objections. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can try to make blog posts with specific screens trying to highlight something specific you worked on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can contact and talk to your clients and ask specifically if they are ok for this part of the project, this module's code if I host on github, and in the process i might end up improving/updating the code, which you will have free access to get updated code with no extra cost ... this might tempt them to approve but some clients might cannot afford their source code to be public so please ask them and go ahead only if they specifically give you permission for this..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18874" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7172" RevisionGUID="314d7c3e-4f66-4374-ab86-8b5a7fda58f4" CreationDate="2017-09-04T00:19:16.600" UserId="15906" Text="Another option you can try is to evaluate whether the extended work done for this can be re-used or scaled for other projects. Then, try to replicate getting clients with the same esoteric API needs. You can then justify not charging your client more, with the understanding that the &quot;free work&quot; you put in can be monetized later from other clients with the same need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, if you used a standard contract online, there is usually a clause where if the client has any non-public information that you need to develop with, such as a private API, they were required to provide that to you. This can be a point from which you re-negotiate a higher sum, due to the client's omission from what was agreed upon. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18875" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7173" RevisionGUID="0adde133-b8d6-453a-94a9-f7fb95e689b5" CreationDate="2017-09-04T02:46:25.330" UserId="16590" Text="When initially starting my business, I took on many different tools to improve my service to my clients as a website developer &amp; digital marketer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've reached a point where as I diversify my service and gain more and more clients, the amount of software used and the fees involved have become quite expensive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it suggested to charge clients a fee for my software use in the service or should this be embedded in the hourly rate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18876" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7173" RevisionGUID="0adde133-b8d6-453a-94a9-f7fb95e689b5" CreationDate="2017-09-04T02:46:25.330" UserId="16590" Text="Should I charge my clients for software fees?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18877" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7173" RevisionGUID="0adde133-b8d6-453a-94a9-f7fb95e689b5" CreationDate="2017-09-04T02:46:25.330" UserId="16590" Text="|pay-rate|software|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18878" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7174" RevisionGUID="6bf37f0c-028b-4bb0-9718-175b8200b91c" CreationDate="2017-09-04T03:00:01.977" UserId="708" Text="The cost of doing business should be calculated as your *overhead* when figuring out your rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The tools you need to complete your work should *never* be directly invoiced to clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you hire someone to paint your house, you'd be pretty upset if they charged you for ladders, scaffolds, and drop cloths. Those are standard tools for the work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients should only ever be invoiced for *specific* items which are unique to the project(s). i.e. you'd pay for the paint to paint your house." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18879" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7175" RevisionGUID="1886b78a-52b5-44c3-87cb-f5275ab7c3ee" CreationDate="2017-09-04T04:50:41.080" UserId="18146" Text="I've been self employed providing data collection/analysis services for two years and landed my biggest client, a bank, about two months ago.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agreed to collect, clean and tag 10,000 (public domain) mortgage contracts that would basically give them a map of every loan that's been issued for every commercial building in their tri-county region for the last 10 years. Said bank will use this data to reach out to business owners who's loans are coming up for refinancing (loans from other banks) so they could get the business to refinance with them. If my client signs on 10 - 20 new loans in the next 5 years using my database they could easily make an additional $1,000,000 in revenue in the next 10 - 15 years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I thought I could get the job done in a month so I asked for 2 months. They agreed but decided last minute they only wanted to pay once the job was completed. I agreed to this (mistake No 1?). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of today I'm three weeks behind on my original delivery date (of which they seem okay with). I'm almost done but I've realized I've sold myself really short because by the time I'm done/paid the amount of unanticipated extra work I had to do is going to dilute my effective hourly rate to a fifth my market value (since I also racked up out of pocket costs for additional labor).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Short of my written agreement with said client I literally owe them nothing. Since I don't get paid until I give them the database there's nothing really forcing me to stick to the (unfair) agreement I naively made (except maybe morals). What's more I now have a list of at least 30 other banks I could potentially sell this data to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it in bad taste to try to renegotiate for higher compensation? Do I risk loosing their trust in my business as one that &quot;keeps its word&quot; if I do that? What should I do? &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18880" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7175" RevisionGUID="1886b78a-52b5-44c3-87cb-f5275ab7c3ee" CreationDate="2017-09-04T04:50:41.080" UserId="18146" Text="I grossly under estimated my costs for a job and want to renegotiate compensation. Should I?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18881" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7175" RevisionGUID="1886b78a-52b5-44c3-87cb-f5275ab7c3ee" CreationDate="2017-09-04T04:50:41.080" UserId="18146" Text="|contracts|negotiation|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18882" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7176" RevisionGUID="944666e7-7812-4f2f-b98f-a1c64e67bd77" CreationDate="2017-09-04T04:52:08.213" UserId="15143" Text="You should never post sensitive source code publicly. I wouldn't pay you if I knew you'd share my project to the rest of the world.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, you may briefly write a description of the project on your blog and some screenshots." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18883" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7177" RevisionGUID="1f4737b5-dddb-45e9-a412-daa11b9cae7b" CreationDate="2017-09-04T13:35:42.443" UserId="2265" Text="No matter how you present it, that is blackmail. And I very much doubt a bank did not let you sign an NDA which prohibits you from using this data elsewhere. &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Fixed price is exactly what the name implies: fixed price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you can do is create an overview of the work and costs and propose a new compensation, while not in any way holding back on delivering what you promised. If you're lucky they be willing to compensate, if you're not lucky you can take this lesson to the next project. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18884" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6910" RevisionGUID="a95b1d16-5ebd-4ff4-b735-9888c00e54b9" CreationDate="2017-09-04T14:55:21.140" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18885" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7178" RevisionGUID="0a1d2fee-cb1b-4a18-86e3-e9686ab1808b" CreationDate="2017-09-04T17:23:54.780" UserId="16417" Text="I don't know why it would be bad to approach a business per se, but there are times I am incredibly frustrated with sites I know are easily fixable.  For example, a small Mom-and-Pop business whose site isn't responsive - at all.  I'm frustrated because I cannot use it across my devices and simple media calls would fix it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it somehow unprofessional or just a bad idea to contact the the owners and tell them what is wrong (and right) with their site, and that you are capable of fixing it and &quot;Would you like to talk?&quot;  This is &quot;cold sales&quot; isn't it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would certainly be professional.  I wouldn't simply call or write and say &quot;Your site is bad.&quot; or immediately send an SOW.  Just talk to them and see what they say, what they need and so on.  There could be more than technical problems, but for this question, I'd like to start there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit:  This is similar, but I am not sure it answers my question.  https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/5905/cold-calls-and-corporations?rq=1&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18886" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7178" RevisionGUID="0a1d2fee-cb1b-4a18-86e3-e9686ab1808b" CreationDate="2017-09-04T17:23:54.780" UserId="16417" Text="Is it unprofessional to approach a business, unsolicited, based upon technical problems you see on their website?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18887" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7178" RevisionGUID="0a1d2fee-cb1b-4a18-86e3-e9686ab1808b" CreationDate="2017-09-04T17:23:54.780" UserId="16417" Text="|sales|ethics|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18888" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7179" RevisionGUID="6c16ed33-b22a-435f-a6ad-b462bac1fcd8" CreationDate="2017-09-04T17:41:22.280" UserId="75" Text="I would say to go ahead, offering fixes for problems, even if they don't realize they have problems. I wrote about this as well with another answer, about SPIN selling.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You created the Situation - Web site usability is not as good as it could be across enough devices. The Problem is that it can cause people to not use their website - that they pay for. The Implication is that users will not think their business is new-age or 21-st century. The Needs-Payoff is that by fixing it with your help, they'll attract more customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, paraphrase to sound better than what I posted here. Point is, you found an issue, and know of a great solution to offer them. If the owners see value in improving the site with the &quot;problems&quot; you found, then you can continue. If they don't believe it's an issue, then they feel the Need Payout is not high enough to use a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Either way, you can start making a name for yourself as the problem solver, but do not over do it. If they reject you 3 times in a 2-minute speech, then take the hint. If they want to hire you, make sure you have an estimate ready to go, or at least you can create one quickly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18889" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7180" RevisionGUID="ca73eb21-4fd1-4576-aa25-ab00c2978677" CreationDate="2017-09-04T17:47:43.547" UserId="708" Text="Imagine you're walking down the street... some stranger walks up to you.... &#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;Hi. I'm Johnny. I am a professional stylist. I would like to point out that your haircut is not the correct cut for your head shape. That shirt is outdated by about 20 years and your shoes don't match the rest of your outfit. I can help you with this if you hire me.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, the best approach is to *generalize* things where ever possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;Hi. I'm Johnny. I am a professional stylist. I was curious if you'd be interested in services that may help you better define hairstyles and clothing choices to fit your overall image? I have xxx years experience and a proven track record.... etc. I think my services may greatly benefit you in your professional pursuits.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, it's bad to insult people with your initial contact. Expressing that you can improve on what they already have may still be slightly insulting, but it's never seen as anywhere near as &quot;personal&quot; as pointing out specific flaws can be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It has to be handled with &quot;kid gloves&quot; to be effective. You never want to flat out express what's &quot;wrong&quot; with anything. The owners may have done the work themselves, or had a friend/family member do it and may see you pointing out flaws as nothing more than an unsolicited attack. You don't want that. If your contact is perceived this way you'll only generate bad word of mouth.. nothing more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Focus on &quot;I can improve&quot; rather than &quot;you need to fix&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18890" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7175" RevisionGUID="f33b27d9-d45c-4777-911f-a69f6346ad5b" CreationDate="2017-09-04T18:28:22.477" UserId="18146" Comment="added 22 characters in body" Text="I've been self employed providing data collection/analysis services for two years and landed my biggest client, a bank, about two months ago.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agreed to collect, clean and tag 10,000 (public domain) mortgage contracts that would basically give them a map of every loan that's been issued for every commercial building in their tri-county region for the last 10 years. Said bank will use this data to reach out to business owners who's loans are coming up for refinancing (loans from other banks) so they could get the business to refinance with them. If my client signs on 10 - 20 new loans in the next 5 years using my database they could easily make an additional $1,000,000 in revenue in the next 10 - 15 years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I thought I could get the job done in a month so I asked for 2 months. They agreed but decided last minute they only wanted to pay once the job was completed. I agreed to this (mistake No 1?). One strange thing is that **I never signed an NDA.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of today I'm three weeks behind on my original delivery date (of which they seem okay with). I'm almost done but I've realized I've sold myself really short because by the time I'm done/paid the amount of unanticipated extra work I had to do is going to dilute my effective hourly rate to a fifth my market value (since I also racked up out of pocket costs for additional labor).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Short of my written agreement with said client I literally owe them nothing. Since I don't get paid until I give them the database there's nothing really forcing me to stick to the (unfair) agreement I naively made (except morals). What's more I now have a list of at least 30 other banks I could potentially sell this data to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it in bad taste to try to renegotiate for higher compensation? Do I risk loosing their trust in my business as one that &quot;keeps its word&quot; if I do that? What should I do? &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18891" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6960" RevisionGUID="bbe6e483-746c-4910-823c-b85f184ad1f3" CreationDate="2017-09-04T22:56:22.880" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18892" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7181" RevisionGUID="0e5a26de-6ede-448d-a192-00b2ca1829ba" CreationDate="2017-09-05T00:24:44.740" UserId="18076" Text="Be prepared for various personalities of site owners. Some would appreciate your offer where solid fix/change for reasonable price can introduce you to further business with them. Others (sometimes considering themselves to be &quot;practical&quot;) will suggest that you are attempting to waste energy on nonsense, because &quot;who cares about the details&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The more unique your skills are, the more interesting your offer can sound. Extreme case are freelance security experts, able to approach a bank with &quot;sample of extracted data of few of their clients&quot; and offer to fix vulnerabilities. I know about such a man, who finds and solves one or two such cases per year to enjoy above-average living standard and solid reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if you see things that other don't and there is a way to solve them so both parties would be happy, this can be called your open door – despite some offers turned down." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18893" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7181" RevisionGUID="5ba0b3d1-d22c-4de4-8252-b5a14bf945b7" CreationDate="2017-09-05T00:31:21.070" UserId="18076" Comment="added 26 characters in body" Text="Be prepared for various personalities of site owners. Some would appreciate your offer where solid fix/change for reasonable price can introduce you to further business with them. Others (sometimes considering themselves to be &quot;practical&quot;) will suggest that you are attempting to waste energy on nonsense, because &quot;who cares about the details&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The more unique your skills are, the more interesting your offer can sound. Extreme case are freelance security experts, able to approach a bank with &quot;sample of extracted data of few of their clients&quot; and offer to fix vulnerabilities they used to get the data. I know about such a man, who finds and solves one or two such cases per year to enjoy above-average living standard and solid reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if you see things that other don't and there is a way to solve them so both parties would be happy, this can be called your open door – despite some offers turned down." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18898" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7183" RevisionGUID="5ecdfebf-1596-4fe2-b5d4-d19eb2bb9c20" CreationDate="2017-09-05T06:47:39.650" UserId="12794" Text="I think their are some factors to consider.&#xA;&#xA; 1. The general &quot;aggressiveness&quot; of your marketing strategy: As Scott pointed out in his answer, you might offend or insult people with your offer. This is however no general excuse not to try it. Of course, there may be vaild/commonly accepted reasons for being upset, but people could also dislike your offer because of your surname or your hair cut. Generally, they won't tell you why. So you have to decide for yourself how much of the risk you want to take.&#xA;&#xA; 2. Minimizing the risk of being seen as unprofessional. There is a wide variety of approaches you can try in your case. You should use some common sense and some &quot;stakeholder analysis&quot; to avoid bad feelings.&#xA;&#xA;I think that you need a (truly) honest story that the person you contact can relate to in order for your approach to work. For example like the block quote below:&#xA;&#xA;**Disclaimer**&#xA;&#xA; - English is not my native language, so the wording might not be idiomatic.&#xA; - People might still find this &quot;obvious&quot; despite your actual intentions. This is why you should not, for example, send this to every business in town.&#xA; - There is a ton of possibilities to adjust/improve the text depending on the situation. It is meant as an illustrative example.&#xA;&#xA;&gt; I'm from $nearby and came across your website searching for a local&#xA;&gt; dealer of $x. Unfortunately, I had trouble $doing_y on my mobile&#xA;&gt; device and could not find the information I needed. I tell you this&#xA;&gt; because I am web designer myself and I care about user experience.&#xA;&gt; Please do not see this as an offering of my own services but as a&#xA;&gt; friendly hint. I have no expectation of you contacting me in return. If&#xA;&gt; you think the issue I described should be resolved, contact the&#xA;&gt; maintainer of your website.&#xA;&#xA;The messages that are meant be sent are:&#xA;&#xA; - I visited your site out of interest for your business, not because I am searching for new clients.&#xA; - As a professional I feel obliged to tell you about an issue on your website.&#xA; - I trust that you already have another professional taking care of your website. Mistakes happen. Tell him if you want, I trust your judgement.&#xA; - If you found this hint useful, remember me at some time in the future.&#xA; - If you are unsatisfied with your &quot;professional&quot; or you already fired him/her, feel free to contact me. I can fix it for you.&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18899" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7183" RevisionGUID="74ba0078-db77-4542-8b2f-4c46450b4d4c" CreationDate="2017-09-05T07:06:23.183" UserId="12794" Comment="added 84 characters in body" Text="I think their are some factors to consider.&#xA;&#xA; 1. The general &quot;aggressiveness&quot; of your marketing strategy: As Scott pointed out in his answer, you might offend or insult people with your offer. This is however no general excuse not to try it. Of course, there may be vaild/commonly accepted reasons for being upset, but people could also dislike your offer because of your surname or your hair cut. Generally, they won't tell you why. So you have to decide for yourself how much of the risk you want to take. You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs. You can choose the eggs, however.&#xA;&#xA; 2. Minimizing the risk of being seen as unprofessional. There is a wide variety of approaches you can try in your case. You should use some common sense and some &quot;stakeholder analysis&quot; to avoid bad feelings.&#xA;&#xA;I think that you need a (truly) honest story that the person you contact can relate to in order for your approach to work. For example like the block quote below:&#xA;&#xA;**Disclaimer**&#xA;&#xA; - English is not my native language, so the wording might not be idiomatic.&#xA; - People might still find this &quot;obvious&quot; despite your actual intentions. This is why you should not, for example, send this to every business in town.&#xA; - There is a ton of possibilities to adjust/improve the text depending on the situation. It is meant as an illustrative example.&#xA;&#xA;&gt; I'm from $nearby and came across your website searching for a local&#xA;&gt; dealer of $x. Unfortunately, I had trouble $doing_y on my mobile&#xA;&gt; device and could not find the information I needed. I tell you this&#xA;&gt; because I am web designer myself and I care about user experience.&#xA;&gt; Please do not see this as an offering of my own services but as a&#xA;&gt; friendly hint. I have no expectation of you contacting me in return. If&#xA;&gt; you think the issue I described should be resolved, contact the&#xA;&gt; maintainer of your website.&#xA;&#xA;The messages that are meant be sent are:&#xA;&#xA; - I visited your site out of interest for your business, not because I am searching for new clients.&#xA; - As a professional I feel obliged to tell you about an issue on your website.&#xA; - I trust that you already have another professional taking care of your website. Mistakes happen. Tell him if you want, I trust your judgement.&#xA; - If you found this hint useful, remember me at some time in the future.&#xA; - If you are unsatisfied with your &quot;professional&quot; or you already fired him/her, feel free to contact me. I can fix it for you.&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18900" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7178" RevisionGUID="a1185765-f2f4-41da-b206-3e320a137636" CreationDate="2017-09-05T07:10:46.360" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/904965008450314241" />
  <row Id="18901" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7184" RevisionGUID="c5c16e54-c63f-4498-b7e5-312a9e873224" CreationDate="2017-09-05T11:31:19.253" UserId="58" Text="I would not post source code that was written for clients publicly unless you have explicit permission from said client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The easiest (by far) way you can have open-source code as a freelancer that you can reuse and have as a portfolio is just to create reusable libraries that you can use in each client project, but **keep the actual source for clients private**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An example of this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a couple of repositories on github that I use between multiple clients. I wrote and maintained these partially myself, and partially for a client with explicit permission (and our contract said that all source code belonged to me, with a licence for them to use it, with proper copyright waivers. The company dealt with open source work, though, so this is very much non-standard).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wouldn't make a client website source public, but I would include my own public packages in it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18902" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7183" RevisionGUID="3ebdc0c6-4b3c-46cf-8201-9b9486fdb5c3" CreationDate="2017-09-05T15:27:29.680" UserId="12794" Comment="edited body" Text="I think there are some factors to consider.&#xA;&#xA; 1. The general &quot;aggressiveness&quot; of your marketing strategy: As Scott pointed out in his answer, you might offend or insult people with your offer. This is however no general excuse not to try it. Of course, there may be vaild/commonly accepted reasons for being upset, but people could also dislike your offer because of your surname or your hair cut. Generally, they won't tell you why. So you have to decide for yourself how much of the risk you want to take. You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs. You can choose the eggs, however.&#xA;&#xA; 2. Minimizing the risk of being seen as unprofessional. There is a wide variety of approaches you can try in your case. You should use some common sense and some &quot;stakeholder analysis&quot; to avoid bad feelings.&#xA;&#xA;I think that you need a (truly) honest story that the person you contact can relate to in order for your approach to work. For example like the block quote below:&#xA;&#xA;**Disclaimer**&#xA;&#xA; - English is not my native language, so the wording might not be idiomatic.&#xA; - People might still find this &quot;obvious&quot; despite your actual intentions. This is why you should not, for example, send this to every business in town.&#xA; - There is a ton of possibilities to adjust/improve the text depending on the situation. It is meant as an illustrative example.&#xA;&#xA;&gt; I'm from $nearby and came across your website searching for a local&#xA;&gt; dealer of $x. Unfortunately, I had trouble $doing_y on my mobile&#xA;&gt; device and could not find the information I needed. I tell you this&#xA;&gt; because I am web designer myself and I care about user experience.&#xA;&gt; Please do not see this as an offering of my own services but as a&#xA;&gt; friendly hint. I have no expectation of you contacting me in return. If&#xA;&gt; you think the issue I described should be resolved, contact the&#xA;&gt; maintainer of your website.&#xA;&#xA;The messages that are meant be sent are:&#xA;&#xA; - I visited your site out of interest for your business, not because I am searching for new clients.&#xA; - As a professional I feel obliged to tell you about an issue on your website.&#xA; - I trust that you already have another professional taking care of your website. Mistakes happen. Tell him if you want, I trust your judgement.&#xA; - If you found this hint useful, remember me at some time in the future.&#xA; - If you are unsatisfied with your &quot;professional&quot; or you already fired him/her, feel free to contact me. I can fix it for you.&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18903" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7185" RevisionGUID="ddc132c6-16c0-429f-9abc-e7630b07f840" CreationDate="2017-09-05T17:57:17.577" UserId="18173" Text="Fatal flaw: Your progression of events soon leads to &quot;I need the password to your web site&quot;.  At this point &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You cannot be distinguished from an attacker&#xD;&#xA;----&#xD;&#xA;Bad guys do a lot of bad things when they get into a website. What they're after is the website's PageRank and other trust factors.  They'll hide content in a nondescript directory like /.images/ (the dot makes it hidden to routine checks).  They typically use the trust factors to slip bad content into social media, ad networks or organic web search with keyword-laden spew.  Once the user lands, they are hit with the payload - malware, affiliate marketing, improper ad displays that cheat the ad networks, you name it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's up to you whether you want to do business in a way that can't be distinguished from phishing... but you end up with fools for customers, IMO, as well as the risk of someone else phishing them and undoing all your work.    Even worse, the &quot;bad&quot; could get pinned on you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would be a great deal better if this was a *local* shop and you could *walk in the door and talk to the owner personally*.  Far better if you had a preexisting relationship and he knew you as a customer. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18904" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7186" RevisionGUID="21ea68ae-ccb8-4452-8273-899c7068fcf0" CreationDate="2017-09-05T21:42:18.470" UserId="1923" Text="I try to keep things quick, to the point, and professional - saves everyone time. I've never written down a script since each project/company can vary a lot, but something along the lines of:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;Hi, my name is {name}, I'm an experienced software freelancer, and I see your company does/needs {thing}, which I have {experience/interest} in. I just wanted to call to see if discussing {potential project} might be mutually beneficial. Do you have a couple minutes to talk?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel like this approach generally works for the person on the other end, because you:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Act like a person and treat them the same, not like a sales rep hunting a lead-generation bonus&#xD;&#xA;   - Acknowledge (briefly) that you don't have an existing relationship&#xD;&#xA;   - Don't demand a lot of time, or that they concede to a follow up be ending with &quot;when can I call you back?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;   - They've probably read the same books on pushy sales techniques that you have, and no one likes feeling manipulated by being on the receiving end of a pushy approach&#xD;&#xA; 2. Show you've made an effort to understand them specifically&#xD;&#xA;   - Mention that you've done your homework/research on the company and its (and by extension, the callee's) needs&#xD;&#xA;   - State (or at least imply) that you believe you can help them&#xD;&#xA;   - You are reaching out to them specifically, not just running through a cold-call list&#xD;&#xA; - State that you have experience with the tools needed to solve their problems&#xD;&#xA; 3. Establish the sort of relationship you want to have&#xD;&#xA; - You are someone who takes initiative&#xD;&#xA; - You want to focus on how you can help them, but aren't going to work for free&#xD;&#xA; - You respect their time by being brief, and their authority in their job by not being pushy&#xD;&#xA; - Imply that you want a partnership as an outside resource, and are not interested in being a direct hire" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18905" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7187" RevisionGUID="39e25cd7-14f4-4595-86ba-d26c8a2c7f19" CreationDate="2017-09-06T02:04:23.117" UserId="18180" Text="I've attempted a couple advertising campaigns on Facebook and Yelp, but after $250 on Yelp and $20 on Facebook I have nothing to show for it. What can I do to get more clients? I specifically do IT contracting." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18906" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7187" RevisionGUID="39e25cd7-14f4-4595-86ba-d26c8a2c7f19" CreationDate="2017-09-06T02:04:23.117" UserId="18180" Text="How do I advertise my freelance services effectively?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18907" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7187" RevisionGUID="39e25cd7-14f4-4595-86ba-d26c8a2c7f19" CreationDate="2017-09-06T02:04:23.117" UserId="18180" Text="|attracting-clients|advertising|information-technology|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18908" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7183" RevisionGUID="8e7c696d-847e-424d-9078-76d08419a0da" CreationDate="2017-09-06T06:20:57.287" UserId="12794" Comment="added 1037 characters in body" Text="I think there are some factors to consider.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The general &quot;aggressiveness&quot; of your marketing strategy: As Scott pointed out in his answer, you might offend or insult people with your offer. This is however no general excuse not to try it. Of course, there may be vaild/commonly accepted reasons for being upset, but people could also dislike your offer because of your surname or your hair cut. Generally, they won't tell you why. So you have to decide for yourself how much of the risk you want to take. You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs. You can choose the eggs, however.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Minimizing the risk of being seen as unprofessional. There is a wide variety of approaches you can try in your case. You should use some common sense and some &quot;stakeholder analysis&quot; to avoid bad feelings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think that you need a (truly) honest story that the person you contact can relate to in order for your approach to work. For example like the block quote below:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Disclaimer**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - English is not my native language, so the wording might not be idiomatic.&#xD;&#xA; - People might still find this &quot;obvious&quot; despite your actual intentions. This is why you should not, for example, send this to every business in town.&#xD;&#xA; - There is a ton of possibilities to adjust/improve the text depending on the situation. It is meant as an illustrative example.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm from $nearby and came across your website searching for a local&#xD;&#xA;&gt; dealer of $x. Unfortunately, I had trouble $doing_y on my mobile&#xD;&#xA;&gt; device and could not find the information I needed. I tell you this&#xD;&#xA;&gt; because I am web designer myself and I care about user experience.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Please do not see this as an offering of my own services but as a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; friendly hint. I have no expectation of you contacting me in return. If&#xD;&#xA;&gt; you think the issue I described should be resolved, contact the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; maintainer of your website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The messages that are meant be sent are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I visited your site out of interest for your business, not because I am searching for new clients.&#xD;&#xA; - As a professional I feel obliged to tell you about an issue on your website.&#xD;&#xA; - I trust that you already have another professional taking care of your website. Mistakes happen. Tell him if you want, I trust your judgement.&#xD;&#xA; - If you found this hint useful, remember me at some time in the future.&#xD;&#xA; - If you are unsatisfied with your &quot;professional&quot; or you already fired him/her, feel free to contact me. I can fix it for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some thougts regarding Wildcards' comment:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Of course, an implicit offer is made, as you may have noticed (its the point of the entire discussion). But by telling the contacted person that you have no expectation of an assigment, you are building a golden bridge for him/her not to be offended by your unsolicited contact. If they are otherwise pleased with their website maintainer, they will probably not switch to you. If not, they might contact you, because you pointed them to a relevant problem and are qualified to fix it (this is the actual business opportunity).&#xD;&#xA; - If this is all to subtle for your taste and you think the receiver won't get the message, my paragraph about &quot;agressiveness&quot; applies.&#xD;&#xA; - If you tell people that story despite other intentions (i.e. you are indeed searching for bugs in websites to get new customers) you are manipulating them straight away. The OP mentions that he was genuinely frustrated when visiting a website in question, so this dos *not* apply to him." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18909" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7183" RevisionGUID="e39c9b55-08ed-4de8-a9b3-5c8caa2e88a2" CreationDate="2017-09-06T06:30:53.407" UserId="12794" Comment="added 11 characters in body" Text="I think there are some factors to consider.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The general &quot;aggressiveness&quot; of your marketing strategy: As Scott pointed out in his answer, you might offend or insult people with your offer. This is however no general excuse not to try it. Of course, there may be vaild/commonly accepted reasons for being upset, but people could also dislike your offer because of your surname or your hair cut. Generally, they won't tell you why. So you have to decide for yourself how much of the risk you want to take. You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs. You can choose the eggs, however.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Minimizing the risk of being seen as unprofessional. There is a wide variety of approaches you can try in your case. You should use some common sense and some &quot;stakeholder analysis&quot; to avoid bad feelings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think that you need a (truly) honest story that the person you contact can relate to in order for your approach to work. For example like the block quote below:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Disclaimer**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - English is not my native language, so the wording might not be idiomatic.&#xD;&#xA; - People might still find this &quot;obvious&quot; despite your actual intentions. This is why you should not, for example, send this to every business in town.&#xD;&#xA; - There is a ton of possibilities to adjust/improve the text depending on the situation. It is meant as an illustrative example.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm from $nearby and came across your website searching for a local&#xD;&#xA;&gt; dealer of $x. Unfortunately, I had trouble $doing_y on my mobile&#xD;&#xA;&gt; device and could not find the information I needed. I tell you this&#xD;&#xA;&gt; because I am web designer myself and I care about user experience.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Please do not see this as an offering of my own services but as a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; friendly hint. I have no expectation of you contacting me in return. If&#xD;&#xA;&gt; you think the issue I described should be resolved, contact the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; maintainer of your website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The messages that are meant be sent are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I visited your site out of interest for your business, not because I am searching for new clients.&#xD;&#xA; - As a professional I feel obliged to tell you about an issue on your website.&#xD;&#xA; - I trust that you already have another professional taking care of your website. Mistakes happen. Tell him if you want, I trust your judgement.&#xD;&#xA; - If you found this hint useful, remember me at some time in the future.&#xD;&#xA; - If you are unsatisfied with your &quot;professional&quot; or you already fired him/her, feel free to contact me. I can fix it for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some thougts regarding Wildcards' comment:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Of course, an implicit offer is made, as you may have noticed (its the point of the entire discussion). But by telling the contacted person that you have no expectation of an assigment, you are building a golden bridge for him/her not to be offended by your unsolicited contact. If they are otherwise pleased with their website maintainer, they will probably not switch to you. If not, they might contact you anyway, because you pointed them to a relevant problem and you are qualified to fix it (this is the actual business opportunity).&#xD;&#xA; - If this is all to subtle for your taste and you think the receiver won't get the message, my paragraph about &quot;agressiveness&quot; applies.&#xD;&#xA; - If you tell people that story despite other intentions (i.e. you are indeed searching for bugs in websites to get new customers) you are manipulating them straight away. The OP mentions that he was genuinely frustrated when visiting a website in question, so this dos *not* apply to him." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18910" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7188" RevisionGUID="dad6e4ee-789a-4912-b296-cdc0d41bb3fb" CreationDate="2017-09-06T06:47:34.673" UserId="15860" Text="**Be honest and completely communicative.**  This is in no way unprofessional.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One keynote here is that you're *not* some random cold caller.  *You are a user of their website and their service.*  Or at least you are a user of their website and *potentially* of their service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be open about it.  Example text:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hi, I came across your website looking for local appliance repair—I live in the such and so area.  I want you to know that your website's &quot;schedule a visit&quot; feature is broken, and just gives a blank screen.  This is more than a little bit frustrating.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I ended up getting my appliance fixed another way, but I wanted to tell you about the broken feature on your website; it might be costing you a lot of business.  (I happen to work in web design and may be able to help you with fixing the website, if you don't already have someone to do that.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hope you get it fixed okay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or, if you are actually a customer of theirs and just *impeded* by their website rather than totally stopped, something like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hi, I've been a customer of yours for a while now but I hadn't tried using your website until today.  It's very difficult to navigate.  I'm glad I'd already been to your store and love your products; if this website had been my first impression I don't think I would have discovered the quality you provide.  (I love my xyz product that I got last year.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I wanted to bring it to your attention so you can take it up with your IT person and get the website streamlined.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Thanks for the work you do; please keep it up!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; (Please let me know if you *don't* have an IT person currently—I'm not looking for work particularly, but I'm experienced in web design and perhaps we could do business together in other roles.  :)  Or if not, just know you have a happy customer who thinks your website poorly represents you.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The keynote is *honesty* and *reality.*  Don't say something if it isn't true.  This is *not* unprofessional at all; rather the opposite.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your concept of &quot;professional&quot; is &quot;impersonal; cold; uncaring; unfeeling; robotic phone trees&quot; then I suggest you clear up the word fully.  This is the *opposite* of its true meaning." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18911" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7189" RevisionGUID="66f61b1c-0836-42d3-9d35-2b10ea7f4528" CreationDate="2017-09-06T08:01:28.490" UserId="15202" Text="The standard approach of picking up jobs online, coupled with some good linkedin will serve you well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, general networking and industry conferences are a great way to meet other people in your field or looking for people in your field." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18912" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7183" RevisionGUID="274bea43-b5c0-4a0a-8337-26efa835e205" CreationDate="2017-09-06T11:16:43.767" UserId="15860" Comment="Suggesting edit based on discussion with answer author in comments—for his review/acceptance/disapproval." Text="I think there are some factors to consider.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The general &quot;aggressiveness&quot; of your marketing strategy: As Scott pointed out in his answer, you might offend or insult people with your offer. This is however no general excuse not to try it. Of course, there may be vaild/commonly accepted reasons for being upset, but people could also dislike your offer because of your surname or your hair cut. Generally, they won't tell you why. So you have to decide for yourself how much of the risk you want to take. You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs. You can choose the eggs, however.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Minimizing the risk of being seen as unprofessional. There is a wide variety of approaches you can try in your case. You should use some common sense and some &quot;stakeholder analysis&quot; to avoid bad feelings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think that you need a (truly) honest story that the person you contact can relate to in order for your approach to work. For example like the block quote below:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Disclaimer**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - English is not my native language, so the wording might not be idiomatic.&#xD;&#xA; - People might still think this an &quot;obvious ploy&quot; despite your actual intentions. This is why you should not, for example, send this to every business in town—because that would *not* be honest.&#xD;&#xA; - You will have to adjust and improve the text depending on your situation; it is meant as an illustrative example.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hello, I'm from $nearby and came across your website searching for a local&#xD;&#xA;&gt; dealer of $x. Unfortunately, I had trouble $doing_y on my mobile&#xD;&#xA;&gt; device and could not find the information I needed. I wanted to mention this&#xD;&#xA;&gt; because I am web designer myself and I care about user experience;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; it's important to the success of a website, so take this as a friendly&#xD;&#xA;&gt; hint.  If you see eye to eye about this, I suggest you contact whoever&#xD;&#xA;&gt; you have in charge of maintaining your website; they should be able to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; handle fixing this.  Hope this is helpful to you.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Sincerely,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; John Doe&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Web Designer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The messages that are meant be sent are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I visited your site out of interest for your business, not because I am searching for new clients.&#xD;&#xA; - As a professional I feel obliged to tell you about an issue on your website.&#xD;&#xA; - I trust that you already have another professional taking care of your website. Mistakes happen. Tell him if you want, I trust your judgement.&#xD;&#xA; - If you found this hint useful, remember me at some time in the future.&#xD;&#xA; - If you are unsatisfied with your &quot;professional&quot; or you already fired him/her, feel free to contact me. I can fix it for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some thougts regarding Wildcards' comment:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Of course, an implicit offer is made, as you may have noticed (its the point of the entire discussion). But by telling the contacted person that you have no expectation of an assigment, you are building a golden bridge for him/her not to be offended by your unsolicited contact. If they are otherwise pleased with their website maintainer, they will probably not switch to you. If not, they might contact you anyway, because you pointed them to a relevant problem and you are qualified to fix it (this is the actual business opportunity).&#xD;&#xA; - If this is all to subtle for your taste and you think the receiver won't get the message, my paragraph about &quot;agressiveness&quot; applies.&#xD;&#xA; - If you tell people that story despite other intentions (i.e. you are indeed searching for bugs in websites to get new customers) you are manipulating them straight away. The OP mentions that he was genuinely frustrated when visiting a website in question, so this dos *not* apply to him." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18913" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7183" RevisionGUID="274bea43-b5c0-4a0a-8337-26efa835e205" CreationDate="2017-09-06T11:16:43.767" Comment="Proposed by 15860 approved by 12794 edit id of 569" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18916" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7192" RevisionGUID="32760f64-942e-468f-a2ae-4283d108e81b" CreationDate="2017-09-06T21:36:27.143" UserId="1706" Text="&gt; Since I don't get paid until I give them the database there's nothing really forcing me to stick to the (unfair) agreement I naively made (except morals)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not true.  If your client has made any commitments based on expectation that you'll finish, and you don't, you can be held liable for any damages your client incurs as a result.  The term for what I'm explaining is called '[reasonable reliance][1]'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would be poor taste to try and renegotiate.  It's bad enough that you're late as-is, but attempting to renegotiate is pretty much a guarantee that you can't use this client as a reference AND you're not going to see any repeat business.  You're going to have to suck it up, unfortunately.  Hopefully your estimating skills will improve as a result of finishing this gig.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One last thing.  As for the NDA - you're using publicly available material.  Not sure how that's relevant.  With the same skill set as you, anyone could derive the same results.  According to [this][2], you may have an implied copyright in the work-product unless your contract specifies otherwise, so maybe that's a bonus.  But non-disclosure and copyright aren't really related concepts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=1732&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://labor-employment-law.lawyers.com/employment-contracts/ownership-of-work-product-depends-on-your-status.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18917" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7193" RevisionGUID="6c3e9e1d-7055-48a3-ab89-01ae7574cb3e" CreationDate="2017-09-07T11:29:47.927" UserId="18191" Text="If a client and freelancer agrees to pay outside of platform directly i don't see a problem. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But some sites just block the accounts ( they spy on your messages yeah).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can anyone explain me how is this even right ? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know its in their &quot;ToC&quot; but that's just not right.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You want to make money you make by ads, reddit, craiglist doesn't ask for fees does it ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18918" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7193" RevisionGUID="6c3e9e1d-7055-48a3-ab89-01ae7574cb3e" CreationDate="2017-09-07T11:29:47.927" UserId="18191" Text="Getting payment outside of platform" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18919" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7193" RevisionGUID="6c3e9e1d-7055-48a3-ab89-01ae7574cb3e" CreationDate="2017-09-07T11:29:47.927" UserId="18191" Text="|freelance-websites|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18921" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7195" RevisionGUID="7f7ac2cd-6dc1-4481-9f2a-4f2710d57d38" CreationDate="2017-09-07T16:52:36.743" UserId="708" Text=" 1. **This is how business is done**. If an agent connects you with a source&#xD;&#xA;    of income, it is *customary* for that agent to be compensated for&#xD;&#xA;    making the connection and in turn helping you earn money. How much that &quot;agent&quot; receives should be explained prior to any connections being made. While I don't use crowd source web sites for work, even I know they all detail their fees prior to signing up for their services (which is why I don't use them).&#xD;&#xA; 2. If you disagree with the Terms of Service (TOS) if **any** web site&#xD;&#xA;    or service you are *free to not use that service*. Using the service&#xD;&#xA;    in any respect implies agreement to their terms.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Focusing on fees associated with receiving payments will ultimately&#xD;&#xA;    be frustrating and annoying in almost all cases. Sure a crowd source site may take 10%. However, PayPal and credit card processors will take a percentage as well were you to use them. There's no such thing as *legally* receiving money for work performed *without* paying a fee somewhere. If you *don't* pay a fee, then you are most likely breaking tax laws by not reporting the income and trying to pass it off as &quot;friends and family&quot; money. That may work up to a point, but once you start earning decent money it has a high probability of raising eyebrows with tax auditors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's understandable to dislike the fees associated with some services and really, it's a pretty natural reaction when starting out. However, if you gain enough experience to realize that you'd be making $0 if you were *not* using the payment processor or agent, you quickly realize the percentages are merely the cost of doing business. I don't know about you, but I would honestly prefer to make $10,000 and have to pay someone $1,000, resulting in my net profit of $9,000, than make $0 because I'm not willing to pay any percentage." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18924" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7196" RevisionGUID="2b147a57-b67c-42a7-9f22-96619aafb0db" CreationDate="2017-09-08T00:38:35.277" UserId="18197" Text="I started freelancing 3 years ago, my hourly rate was between 25 and 30$/hour. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have accumulated a lot of experience and I have a better quality clients that pay better than my old clients.&#xD;&#xA;My new clients pay an hourly rate of 60 to 120$/hour and I am thinking of increasing my hourly rate for my old clients to at least 45$/hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is a good way to approach my old clients and tell them about my new hourly rate?&#xD;&#xA;Should I wait for them to send me a project to communicate my new rate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18925" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7196" RevisionGUID="2b147a57-b67c-42a7-9f22-96619aafb0db" CreationDate="2017-09-08T00:38:35.277" UserId="18197" Text="Increasing hourly rate for an old client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18926" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7196" RevisionGUID="2b147a57-b67c-42a7-9f22-96619aafb0db" CreationDate="2017-09-08T00:38:35.277" UserId="18197" Text="|pay-rate|payments|hourly|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18927" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7197" RevisionGUID="7ee25c6d-99f6-4b28-97fc-71c22d529f53" CreationDate="2017-09-08T01:14:50.747" UserId="75" Text="Here's what I did, and you can tweak it as you need it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I sent out a letter (using postal mail, even for my local clients), explaining that the rates have increased for new clients, and my current clients are keeping the same rate for the next 90 days. I explained that after 90 days, the rate will be increased to the same amount new clients are paying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are jumping from $25-$30 per hour up to $120 per hour, you will get lots of lash-back! Increase slowly, never 4 times the price all at once! I think your $45 rate for old clients is very reasonable, and I would maybe support you keep that for another year or so. Then, repeat again: letter to clients that after 90 days, the rate is increasing to (for example) $65/hour. Take small steps with your loyal customers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18932" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6966" RevisionGUID="ad256988-fa27-45d4-a8a6-ba444c0f750a" CreationDate="2017-09-08T09:01:44.880" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18935" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7175" RevisionGUID="fd89bae0-db1f-417d-8cf3-dbde81ce375c" CreationDate="2017-09-09T16:22:26.730" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/906553393208061952" />
  <row Id="18936" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7199" RevisionGUID="4e52de08-7b56-46ca-b539-bd6fd0197aa3" CreationDate="2017-09-10T15:37:01.317" UserId="18209" Text="Is it ok to have 40 billable hours per week? Would it seem weird if I bill 40h per week?&#xD;&#xA;Most freelancers I read online report 5-6 billable hours per day. &#xD;&#xA;What is the standard practice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18937" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7199" RevisionGUID="4e52de08-7b56-46ca-b539-bd6fd0197aa3" CreationDate="2017-09-10T15:37:01.317" UserId="18209" Text="is it ok to have 40 billable hours per week?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18938" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7199" RevisionGUID="4e52de08-7b56-46ca-b539-bd6fd0197aa3" CreationDate="2017-09-10T15:37:01.317" UserId="18209" Text="|hourly|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18939" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7200" RevisionGUID="4ea2a295-0555-401b-b63f-08787facd9ea" CreationDate="2017-09-10T16:28:42.433" UserId="18209" Text="Should the due date be different from the invoice date?&#xD;&#xA;Also, if I have a clause in the contract that all payment should be done within 30 days from the invoice sendout, should I have the &quot;date+30days&quot; as due date or the &quot;date&quot;? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18940" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7200" RevisionGUID="4ea2a295-0555-401b-b63f-08787facd9ea" CreationDate="2017-09-10T16:28:42.433" UserId="18209" Text="Due date vs invoice date" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18941" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7200" RevisionGUID="4ea2a295-0555-401b-b63f-08787facd9ea" CreationDate="2017-09-10T16:28:42.433" UserId="18209" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18942" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7201" RevisionGUID="7324680f-2672-498a-b2ab-ce5735aca24e" CreationDate="2017-09-10T18:07:16.850" UserId="1706" Text="The term &quot;due date&quot; is for stuff you get at your house (phone bill, electric bill, etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In **business**, the standard concept for when bills are to be paid is known as &quot;payment terms&quot;.  You don't specify a due date on each invoice.  You specify payment terms in your CONTRACT, and may wish to also print the terms on each invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Net 10 = due 10 calendar days from invoice date&#xD;&#xA; - Net 30 = due 30 calendar days from invoice date&#xD;&#xA; - Net XX = due XX calendar days from invoice date (replace XX with whatever number you like)&#xD;&#xA; - Net on receipt = due upon receipt of invoice&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that I specified &quot;calendar&quot; days in my description?  Why?  Calendar days is not the same as business days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every accounts payable department will instantly recognize &quot;net&quot; terms.  And just for the record, here's more info on [common payment terms][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you are setting up your contract, you MUST ask if the client can support whatever payment terms you desire.  If you don't ask, and you don't specify in your contract, then you'll be in a guessing game as to when you're going to get paid.  If you are specific, you take a lot of potential stress out of the equation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an independent, I *always* work Net 10 or shorter.  Net 30 is a very long time to wait:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - If you bill weekly at Net 30, that means if you start working January 1, you don't see any money for that week until February 10.&#xD;&#xA; - If you bill weekly at Net 10, that means a check is sent out around January 17 instead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Big difference, eh?  Lock in that payment term IN WRITING before you start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/payment-terms-commonly-used-invoice-payment-terms-and-their-meanings" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18943" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7202" RevisionGUID="3c4d8f72-472d-49c0-ab35-312703b9b721" CreationDate="2017-09-10T18:15:21.067" UserId="1706" Text="If you are working on-site with a client, the U.S. standard is 40 hours.  If you are working offsite:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. If your FULL workday tracks along with the regular workday of a client's internal staff, bill eight hours.  Day to day, subtract any &quot;irregular&quot; blocks in which you're not working (running errands, doctor's appointments, etc).  This is usually acceptable.&#xD;&#xA; 2. If you're doing piecemeal work offsite, bill for the time you're working.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With all these, you may choose to round to hour, half-hour, or quarter-hour increments.  However, in any case where you're actually working over 40 hours, bill for ALL the time worked." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18944" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7203" RevisionGUID="2b38ea87-50ed-4271-966f-cc9cfd01a59c" CreationDate="2017-09-10T18:24:01.640" UserId="18209" Text="How often should I send out an invoice to the client? &#xD;&#xA;What is standard practice?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18945" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7203" RevisionGUID="2b38ea87-50ed-4271-966f-cc9cfd01a59c" CreationDate="2017-09-10T18:24:01.640" UserId="18209" Text="How often should I send an invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18946" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7203" RevisionGUID="2b38ea87-50ed-4271-966f-cc9cfd01a59c" CreationDate="2017-09-10T18:24:01.640" UserId="18209" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18947" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7204" RevisionGUID="523f8e6f-b1ad-404e-90a6-f28a20e158f4" CreationDate="2017-09-10T19:05:29.180" UserId="18209" Text="I am in EU and I have a client in US.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I add my VAT id/taxpayer identification number in the invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18948" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7204" RevisionGUID="523f8e6f-b1ad-404e-90a6-f28a20e158f4" CreationDate="2017-09-10T19:05:29.180" UserId="18209" Text="Should I add taxpayer identification number in invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18949" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7204" RevisionGUID="523f8e6f-b1ad-404e-90a6-f28a20e158f4" CreationDate="2017-09-10T19:05:29.180" UserId="18209" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18950" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7205" RevisionGUID="2d06df1e-a1b4-42e0-8275-9701106f1163" CreationDate="2017-09-10T20:11:58.727" UserId="14455" Text="Rule of thumb: One invoice a month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But it depends on your business model.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Monthly subscription:**&#xD;&#xA;Invoice monthly of course. Although here you would probably be taking payment in advance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**One-off job:**&#xD;&#xA;Options here depending on the size of the job.&#xD;&#xA;1- Invoice for deposit. Invoice on completion.&#xD;&#xA;2- Invoice for deposit. Invoice half way through or on milestones. Invoice on completion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Ongoing work.**&#xD;&#xA;Options again...&#xD;&#xA;1. Invoice monthly amount&#xD;&#xA;2. Invoice when amount owed reaches a certain limit or a particular length of time has expired.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Unpaid invoice.**&#xD;&#xA;1. Send reminder after 2 weeks&#xD;&#xA;2. Send payment required now after 4 weeks&#xD;&#xA;3. Send final demand after 6 weeks&#xD;&#xA;4. Send a letter of intent to prosecute after 8 weeks&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I would have to ask why you are in a situation where your client does not expect when he has to pay. You should detail payment dates in your contract/quote and in your terms and conditions you should lay out penalties for late payment. In the UK it is customary to charge bank base rate + 5% interest monthly on late payments. At this rate it is enforceable by debt collection via the small claims or civil courts - as long as you have a signed contract stating all this beforehand.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18951" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7206" RevisionGUID="33b185eb-0d33-4976-ba5e-c754302e4467" CreationDate="2017-09-10T20:19:02.710" UserId="14455" Text="If you are freelancing on an hourly rate then the aim is for every hour you work to be billable. If you work 40 hours, then bill it. If you work 60 hours then bill that, although make sure you can justify it and that your client is ok with you racking up more than a standard weeks hours on the project. They may well have budgeted for a normal working week." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18952" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7207" RevisionGUID="5d3f6cf8-b83b-408e-81bd-a5fbd5d82c49" CreationDate="2017-09-10T21:40:34.420" UserId="708" Text="To be honest, I don't understand the quandary here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are working 40 hours a week, invoice for 40 hours a week for a client. If you are *not* working 40 hours per week for a client, invoice for the time you *are* working.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or are you asking if it's okay to invoice for 40 hours when you aren't actually working 40 hours? If that is the actual question, then **no** - again, invoice for the time you *are* working. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that the time you spend managing your freelance business, i.e. handling client emails, sending invoices, responding to inquiries, etc. is *not* time you should be invoicing clients for. That time amounts to a business expense for you and never a client expense." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18953" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7208" RevisionGUID="d880b75d-5198-4ec8-992e-138f1c37532c" CreationDate="2017-09-10T21:42:45.963" UserId="708" Text="**Yes.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just like your [business] name, address, phone number, email address.... Any specific information regarding taxes such as an EID, TaxID, VAT ID should *always* be present on invoices, even *if* the payee does not necessarily need that information for a particular invoice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18954" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7209" RevisionGUID="e797181c-ebfd-4f4f-9c95-de1627a7cef1" CreationDate="2017-09-11T01:30:22.173" UserId="18209" Text="I read in a lot of posts online that &quot;work for hire&quot; is considered a bad thing from the freelancer's perspective (software developer).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm an independent contractor for a US company in California.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client says this to you:&#xD;&#xA;Work is &quot;work for hire&quot;. We expect to wholly and completely own the program, the source code for the program, and any associated products such as artwork used to produce the final product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Aside from the fact that I am creating a web app, using lots of open-source technology (which obviously they can't own), what does that statement mean really?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I write a nice, elegant, custom method (say a before_filter) that solves a particular problem in this project (one that I have never encountered before, but I would like to use in the future), by agreeing to this clause does it mean that I can't use that custom method or any other original works I create for that project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This seems like a trap all around. How do I avoid getting myself handcuffed and prevented from continually improving my craft by using work I have done in other projects and making it better?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18955" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7209" RevisionGUID="e797181c-ebfd-4f4f-9c95-de1627a7cef1" CreationDate="2017-09-11T01:30:22.173" UserId="18209" Text="Should I accept &quot;work for hire&quot; terms?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18956" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7209" RevisionGUID="e797181c-ebfd-4f4f-9c95-de1627a7cef1" CreationDate="2017-09-11T01:30:22.173" UserId="18209" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18957" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7210" RevisionGUID="47d4505a-f7bb-4250-a418-2f14f817b549" CreationDate="2017-09-11T01:43:39.203" UserId="708" Text="Work for Hire means the client owns **everything** as if you didn't even exist.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no &quot;avoiding&quot; anything. You either agree to a work-for-hire agreement or you do not. It's that cut and dry." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18958" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7211" RevisionGUID="0bf4837b-0776-49a5-8571-60a8f20ed7c2" CreationDate="2017-09-11T10:14:09.337" UserId="16436" Text="To [my understanding][1], a person must always have a license to use an app. If I get a contract to build a small, simple app, must I still explicitly give a license or is it implied when I send the deliverable and they pay me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I must give a license, what is the best way to do this? Does sending it in an email suffice, or must each copy display the license on a computer using it the first time? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/22540/if-an-app-doesnt-have-a-licence-can-anyone-use-it-in-anyway/22548#22548" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18959" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7211" RevisionGUID="0bf4837b-0776-49a5-8571-60a8f20ed7c2" CreationDate="2017-09-11T10:14:09.337" UserId="16436" Text="How to grant a license to others to use your app" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18960" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7211" RevisionGUID="0bf4837b-0776-49a5-8571-60a8f20ed7c2" CreationDate="2017-09-11T10:14:09.337" UserId="16436" Text="|contracts|legal|licensing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18961" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7212" RevisionGUID="dc3a82b5-b719-4f5f-97b0-2274b809acee" CreationDate="2017-09-11T13:45:14.287" UserId="18209" Text="Should I add in the contract that all communication hours (emails, answering questions) are billable hours?&#xD;&#xA;Is this standard?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18962" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7212" RevisionGUID="dc3a82b5-b719-4f5f-97b0-2274b809acee" CreationDate="2017-09-11T13:45:14.287" UserId="18209" Text="Should I add in the contract that all communication hours are billable hours?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18963" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7212" RevisionGUID="dc3a82b5-b719-4f5f-97b0-2274b809acee" CreationDate="2017-09-11T13:45:14.287" UserId="18209" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18964" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7213" RevisionGUID="86269f91-2352-49a7-b06a-c297eff0f622" CreationDate="2017-09-12T04:35:54.047" UserId="708" Text="You have to **clearly** define what constitutes billable communications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is **not** customary for **any** business to bill customers merely because they contacted the business. In fact, it would be fairly *infuriating* if you got charged every time you contacted any business. I, personally, would *never* want a client to feel they aren't free to contact me. That seems like a roadblock to lucrative client communications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, with that being posted... long &quot;meetings&quot; over the phone or a messenger *should* be billable hours. If you have to take an hour or two out of your day to speak with a client about progress, changes, implementation, then yes you should be invoicing for that hour or two. For some clients, this is the only ting that will prevent them being a nuance. So invoice for meetings.. don't invoice for &quot;communication&quot; in general. Set a limit... anything longer than X minutes becomes billable." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18965" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7214" RevisionGUID="16746908-a8ed-4677-9d70-cc9dd1db21a2" CreationDate="2017-09-12T09:24:41.280" UserId="18209" Text="I want to re-negotiate an hourly rate with a client. What I do saves them a great deal of money/time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I phrase &quot;this is of great value to you&quot; elegantly? Is this considered cocky? Should I mention that I'm delivering something that is valuable to them and that I &quot;deserve&quot; that kind of money?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18966" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7214" RevisionGUID="16746908-a8ed-4677-9d70-cc9dd1db21a2" CreationDate="2017-09-12T09:24:41.280" UserId="18209" Text="How to say &quot;this is of great value to you&quot; to the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18967" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7214" RevisionGUID="16746908-a8ed-4677-9d70-cc9dd1db21a2" CreationDate="2017-09-12T09:24:41.280" UserId="18209" Text="|pay-rate|hourly|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18968" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7215" RevisionGUID="61c27f60-0134-4df8-beff-9e224f4ab56f" CreationDate="2017-09-12T09:38:42.777" UserId="708" Text="Send an invoice when payment is due. It's that simple. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Doesn't matter if it's daily, weekly, monthly.. whenever money is due." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18969" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7216" RevisionGUID="2181a106-9918-4217-99de-6f086402a818" CreationDate="2017-09-12T09:49:35.380" UserId="17752" Text=":)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should ***always*** include the date of issue on the invoice (i.e. the day the invoice was created). The due date should ***not*** be the same date as the date of issue, *unless this is outlined in your payment term*s. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a contract specifying how long client's have to pay, you should set the due date according to the payment terms in this contract. Like Xavier mentioned, you can also add the payment terms to your invoice to clarify the due date. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We have a blog post [Invoice due date: why it’s important][1], you can check this out if you want to find out more about due dates and invoicing!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this helps! :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Kate from Debitoor [invoicing software][2] &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://debitoor.com/blog/invoice-due-date-why-its-important&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://debitoor.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18970" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7216" RevisionGUID="e887f5c3-e7ba-4218-8ad6-c3344b551c65" CreationDate="2017-09-12T11:55:26.637" UserId="17752" Comment="added 50 characters in body" Text="Whilst you should always include the date of issue on the invoice (i.e. the day the invoice was created), the due date should *not* be the same date as the date of issue, *unless this is outlined in your payment term*s. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a contract with specific payment terms which specific how long a client has to pay, you should set the due date according to the payment terms in this contract. Like Xavier mentioned, you can also add the payment terms to your invoice to clarify the due date. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We have a blog post explaining the importance of due dates on invoices: [Invoice due date: why it’s important][1], you can check this out if you want to find out more!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this helps! :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Kate from Debitoor [invoicing software][2] &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://debitoor.com/blog/invoice-due-date-why-its-important&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://debitoor.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18971" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7217" RevisionGUID="e6e6640e-8e74-4f06-90d5-3714ec7f3747" CreationDate="2017-09-12T12:05:21.557" UserId="15202" Text="One of my clients, with whom I am contracting, has asked for a copy of my full indemnity and liability policy documents.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this a reasonable request, or should I just provide the headline details?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18972" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7217" RevisionGUID="e6e6640e-8e74-4f06-90d5-3714ec7f3747" CreationDate="2017-09-12T12:05:21.557" UserId="15202" Text="Client is asking for a copy off my insurance docs, should I share?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18973" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7217" RevisionGUID="e6e6640e-8e74-4f06-90d5-3714ec7f3747" CreationDate="2017-09-12T12:05:21.557" UserId="15202" Text="|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18974" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7218" RevisionGUID="81ee8bfe-ca49-49e8-a5c8-ff0126d82ed9" CreationDate="2017-09-12T12:41:29.940" UserId="18230" Text="As it can be expected that you do not have the private funds to cover the extend of your professional liability, this is actually quite normal and reasonable. I used to limit my liability to the amount covert by my insurance and guarantee the client that such an insurance was existent in my standard contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Great advertising also: &quot;A limited liability company may just go bankrupt, but if make a mistake, I have a big insurance company backing me up with 2 million €!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client wished to increase liability, I´d also offer that, but just factor in the increased insurance cost into my hourly rate." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18975" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7219" RevisionGUID="c6a63589-5548-4fee-be33-3ce71106a41c" CreationDate="2017-09-12T12:48:50.920" UserId="18230" Text="If you are being paid hourly, it does not really matter of how much value it is to your client, but what the opportunity costs are of somebody else doing the work. (if the work is at all feasible)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is the con of being paid hourly. The pro is, if the client does not make good use of your creations, you are still getting paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you should not use the value as an argument, but your market-worth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Due to overall cost increase I also have to adjust my rate by 10%&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;As I am doing more and more of this special stuff almost no other contractor could deliver, I can not longer offer you the standard rate for that.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18976" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7220" RevisionGUID="3333e39e-e60d-4579-8b9f-8dd994353983" CreationDate="2017-09-12T12:53:02.103" UserId="18230" Text="If you are contracted to develop an app, you contract should state who gets ownership of the result. The norm is that you client gets full rights, so if anyone wants to use this app afterwards, they´d have to license it with them. Of course you are free to make other deals like shared revenue, or you keep the rights and just grant them (one) license.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also look at who will give support and who will bear liability for that app, if others are to use it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18977" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7214" RevisionGUID="eebe0bc1-07b2-4ef7-944c-e1a2cf020d20" CreationDate="2017-09-12T15:19:59.157" UserId="18209" Comment="added 101 characters in body" Text="I want to re-negotiate an hourly rate with a client. What I do saves them a great deal of money/time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I phrase &quot;this is of great value to you&quot; elegantly? Is this considered cocky? Should I mention that I'm delivering something that is valuable to them and that I &quot;deserve&quot; that kind of money?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Edit**: that is prior to signing any contract. We had mentioned the initial rate during a call.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18978" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7098" RevisionGUID="27f0167b-7043-4762-b772-599299114932" CreationDate="2017-09-12T16:20:21.190" UserId="9" Comment="Fixed formatting" Text="Absolutely not. I agree with the prior poster:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Dear Valued Customer, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I have undertaken the fixes we already agreed to verbally, and they are ready for delivery at such time as I receive the signed copy of the contract already in your possession. If you have misplaced the contract, I can send you a replacement copy. This is for your legal protection, as well as my own. Thank you in advance. I await your transmission of the signed copy of our already agreed to contract, along with your instructions as to the delivery of the already completed work product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they have a problem signing the contract, you'll have an even bigger problem receiving payment. Standard best business practice is of course to withhold all work, until such time as they sign the contract.   " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18979" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7219" RevisionGUID="e787a212-e67c-42ca-a3ad-0a346819b743" CreationDate="2017-09-12T18:54:01.727" UserId="18230" Comment="added 424 characters in body" Text="If you are being paid hourly, it does not really matter of how much value it is to your client, but what the opportunity costs are of somebody else doing the work. (if the work is at all feasible)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is the con of being paid hourly. The pro is, if the client does not make good use of your creations, you are still getting paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you should not use the value as an argument, but your market-worth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Due to overall cost increase I also have to adjust my rate by 10%&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;As I am doing more and more of this special stuff almost no other contractor could deliver, I can not longer offer you the standard rate for that.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As per your edit, it is hard to argue any increas in your rate at all.&#xD;&#xA;A nail cost´s the same if you use it to hold the Mona-lisa or to build a birdhouse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe, if you discoverd during the process that you need some other tools/ skills/ carry more responsibility you could argue that the rate you mentioned does not apply. If I where your client, you would come across as very dishonest if you tried such a thing.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18980" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7221" RevisionGUID="6c4cc405-ca4b-4072-9c86-5db1f922036f" CreationDate="2017-09-12T19:01:28.847" UserId="18230" Text="You should have a EU-VAT number. This number should be on any invoice. Your clients can check its validity Here:&#xD;&#xA;http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IF you do not have such a number, get one from you financial authorities.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18981" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7222" RevisionGUID="b116e17c-762c-453c-a7b9-6cab436bb433" CreationDate="2017-09-12T23:18:58.440" UserId="708" Text="In the words of Clint Eastwood in The Unforgiven... ***&quot;Deserve's got nuthin ta do wit' it'&quot;***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't express to a client that they *should* pay more because you *feel* you are worth it. That's just poor negotiating. Emotion has little or nothing to do with financial negotiations, or at least it shouldn't. Pleas for more money because you &quot;think you are worth it&quot; or &quot;your providing great value&quot; or anything along those general, nondescript lines are *amateur* and *hackneyed* at best. No client gives a darn about what you &quot;think you deserve&quot;. Clients are only interested in *what they must pay to get what they need done*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to revisit pricing, revisit pricing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hi [client], &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;After further exploration into the scope and requirements of the project, I'm afraid we may need to revisit pricing. I realize I gave you a general estimate in a previous conversation before complete scope was understood. Now that I have a better grasp on deliverables and requirements, can we please discuss my compensation. I would love to find a figure that is satisfying to us both. At this time, I believe $xxxxx (per hour or whatever) is a more accurate representation of fees which will be incurred. I am completely open to discussion on the matter. Please let me know your thoughts or concerns. Thanks!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From there, you need to have your ducks in a row... **hard**, **realistic**, **definitive** reasons why you need more money. Things like - additional 10 hours to build A, additional license for third-party package B, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No one, and I mean **no one**, is going to revisit pricing because you *feel* like you deserve more or because you are giving away too much value for a previously quoted price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also be aware, revisiting a previously discussed price to *any degree* could very well result in the client walking away. Some clients will... you have to be willing to accept that before asking for more money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's kind of like someone asking a lot of questions on a vote-based Q&amp;A site and then never voting on any answers - even though they continue to ask others to invest time explaining their experience with matters. You have to accept that some people are self-centered and don't care about your time or investment in *helping* them with something they need." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18982" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7220" RevisionGUID="4c07ae58-d1ac-415a-8079-8e2f1424c29e" CreationDate="2017-09-13T07:33:16.247" UserId="18230" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="If you are contracted to develop an app, your contract should state who gets ownership of the result. The norm is that your client gets full rights, so if anyone wants to use this app afterwards, they´d have to license it with them. Of course you are free to make other deals like shared revenue, or you keep the rights and just grant them (one) license.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also look at who will give support and who will bear liability for that app, if others are to use it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18983" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7220" RevisionGUID="14280144-2ec1-43c8-819b-289f8f8fbf27" CreationDate="2017-09-13T08:14:22.433" UserId="18230" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="If you are contracted to develop an app, your contract should state who gets ownership of the result. The norm is that your client gets full rights, so if anyone wants to use this app afterwards, they´d have to license it with them. Of course you are free to make other deals like shared revenue, or you keep the rights and just grant them (one) license.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also look at who will give support and who will bear liability for that app, if others are to use it. So in some cases it may be better to just deliver you work and leave all rights and liabilities to the client. If you do not, make sure you have adequate insurance for the the whole product-live-cycle!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have no (written) contract, normally copyright kicks in and you have all the rights - though the client might argue that is not what was agreed upon and you have a verbal contract that says otherwise. So best to stay away from any ambiguity and have it written. This protects mainly the clients interest, as he will want to get the rights for what he paid for, but also spares you the potential conflict. Remember you are the one doing it professionally and as such should counsel the client in his best interest." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18984" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7223" RevisionGUID="ec3070bc-937a-4c8c-968c-8fc384cad0e0" CreationDate="2017-09-13T09:29:21.817" UserId="14621" Text="This is normal in the UK freelancing market and I am used to having to provide these as part of the onboarding process. The full details are not always asked for as some just want to see cover exists, but personally I wouldn't be unhappy to provide the full documents as they are pretty standard for most providers and freelancers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As @Daniel notes it is normal that you would not have the funds to cover the extent of professional liability, so it is entirely normal to have indemnity insurance for this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you work through a limited company then the maximum that could be recovered from the company is the value of its assets if sued for liability which is normally far less than the amounts covered by professional liability insurance but could well end up with the company being wound up by the courts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Under UK law if in a non-limited liability partnership or as a sole trader that is self employed a client could be able to claim against your assets as well as any company assets which is a good reason to use the limited company or limited liability forms of partnership as well as having the insurance. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18989" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7075" RevisionGUID="9e9789bd-259e-4deb-8801-73db9cebdaaf" CreationDate="2017-09-13T19:05:17.153" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="18990" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="452" RevisionGUID="e8498ae6-2847-4e6b-bcb8-9c2097ada5cd" CreationDate="2017-09-13T22:26:47.910" UserId="75" Comment="Moderator edits article" Text="&lt;p&gt;Freelancing Stack Exchange is for questions relating to &lt;b&gt;self-employed and freelance workers.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;**If your question covers...**&#xA;&#xA;* Agency work while freelancing&#xA;* Selling services to different employers without a long-term contract with any of them&#xA;* Client responsibilities to freelancers&#xA;* Cross-border requirements and laws for freelancing&#xA; &#xA;**and isn't about...**&#xA; &#xA;* Working in a part-time or full-time setting for a company&#xA;* How to use features of a Freelancing website for finding work&#xA;* Asking for life experiences or opinions on freelancing&#xA;* Marketing or finding Freelancers within the site to complete your work&#xA; &#xA;...then you’re in the right place to ask your question!&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;/search&quot;&gt;look around&lt;/a&gt; to see if your question has been asked before. It’s also OK to &lt;a href=&quot;/helpcenter/self-answer&quot;&gt;ask and answer your own question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If your question is not specifically on-topic for $SiteName, it may be on topic for another Stack Exchange site. If no site currently exists that will accept your question, you may &lt;a href=&quot;http://area51.stackexchange.com/faq&quot;&gt;commit to&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/76974/how-can-i-propose-a-new-site&quot;&gt;propose&lt;/a&gt; a new site at &lt;a href=&quot;http://area51.stackexchange.com/&quot;&gt;Area 51&lt;/a&gt;, the place where new Stack Exchange communities are democratically created.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more help, see &lt;a href=&quot;/help/dont-ask&quot;&gt;&quot;What types of questions should I avoid asking?&quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;##How should I answer?&#xA;&#xA;Your answer should provide enough context to help the asker determine if the answer is right for them. Answers based on facts, references, and specific expertise are preferable.&#xA;&#xA;If the question has the [legal](http://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/legal) tag, you should include references or citations to back up your answer. &#xA;&#xA;In general, your answer should always include material to support or explain why your answer is correct. Answers that don't meet these guidelines may be removed. For more information, see [the back it up rule](http://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/55/should-this-site-have-a-back-it-up-rule)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18991" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7225" RevisionGUID="0ecaa64f-9718-4085-9704-814a838c94c4" CreationDate="2017-09-14T02:50:02.630" UserId="7717" Text="&gt; Aside from the fact that I am creating a web app, using lots of open-source technology (which obviously they can't own), what does that statement mean really?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract should have a clause about using open-source materials or third-party libraries. Usually something to the effect that you must notify the client about any open-source materials you use. ***Make sure you don't use anything with a viral open-source license.***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the contract has no provisions for open-source material/third-party libraries, the client is probably too inexperienced to be worth working for, but you should still take the time to explain that you'll never be able to complete the task if you have to reinvent the wheel and the hammer and sliced bread and electricity. (I once chatted with a potential client who wanted to make an Android app without using any third-party technology whatsoever. I had to explain to them that it was not practical to make an app without using the Android SDK or some third-party app development framework.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If I write a nice, elegant, custom method (say a before_filter) that solves a particular problem in this project (one that I have never encountered before, but I would like to use in the future), by agreeing to this clause does it mean that I can't use that custom method or any other original works I create for that project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course. If this bothers you, you are going to have a *very* difficult time freelancing. There are some helper functions and utility classes I always use that I've rewritten from scratch a dozen times for different clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not a lawyer, but I think the general rule of thumb is that you can copyright a specific piece of written code, but you can't copyright an algorithm. So let's say that you come up with a new sorting algorithm while you are working on a project, and the specific sorting algorithm itself isn't a crucial intrinsic part of the application (i.e., you could reasonably replace it with a different sorting algorithm). Then you are probably clear to recreate that algorithm *from memory* on a future project. However, if you were hired specifically to write that algorithm, or the algorithm is highly specialized and could not reasonably be replaced with another algorithm, you probably shouldn't try to reproduce it later. Also, don't memorize the code for the algorithm so well that you can rewrite it line-by-line entirely from memory; at that point, you are copying, rather than recreating.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18992" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7222" RevisionGUID="693d97f2-3178-4a70-9ba6-173b250fd692" CreationDate="2017-09-14T06:51:07.893" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 357 characters in body" Text="In the words of Clint Eastwood in The Unforgiven... ***&quot;Deserve's got nuthin ta do wit' it'&quot;***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't express to a client that they *should* pay more because you *feel* you are worth it. That's just poor negotiating. Emotion has little or nothing to do with financial negotiations, or at least it shouldn't. Pleas for more money because you &quot;think you are worth it&quot; or &quot;your providing great value&quot; or anything along those general, nondescript lines are *amateur* and *hackneyed* at best. No client gives a darn about what you &quot;think you deserve&quot;. Clients are only interested in *what they must pay to get what they need done*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to revisit pricing, revisit pricing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hi [client], &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;After further exploration into the scope and requirements of the project, I'm afraid we may need to revisit pricing. I realize I gave you a general estimate in a previous conversation before complete scope was understood. Now that I have a better grasp on deliverables and requirements, can we please discuss my compensation. I would love to find a figure that is satisfying to us both. At this time, I believe $xxxxx (per hour or whatever) is a more accurate representation of fees which will be incurred. I am completely open to discussion on the matter. Please let me know your thoughts or concerns. Thanks!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From there, you need to have your ducks in a row... **hard**, **realistic**, **definitive** reasons why you need more money. Things like - additional 10 hours to build A, additional license for third-party package B, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No one, and I mean **no one**, is going to revisit pricing because you *feel* like you deserve more or because you are giving away too much value for a previously quoted price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also be aware, revisiting a previously discussed price to *any degree* could very well result in the client walking away. Some clients will... you have to be willing to accept that before asking for more money. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18996" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7220" RevisionGUID="935199f9-0023-4b1a-be88-970117fb1246" CreationDate="2017-09-14T10:35:06.210" UserId="18230" Comment="added 383 characters in body" Text="If you are contracted to develop an app, your contract should state who gets ownership of the result. The norm is that your client gets full rights, so if anyone wants to use this app afterwards, they´d have to license it with them. Of course you are free to make other deals like shared revenue, or you keep the rights and just grant them (one) license.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also look at who will give support and who will bear liability for that app, if others are to use it. So in some cases it may be better to just deliver you work and leave all rights and liabilities to the client. If you do not, make sure you have adequate insurance for the the whole product-live-cycle!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have no (written) contract, normally copyright kicks in and you have all the rights - though the client might argue that is not what was agreed upon and you have a verbal contract that says otherwise. So best to stay away from any ambiguity and have it written. This protects mainly the clients interest, as he will want to get the rights for what he paid for, but also spares you the potential conflict. Remember you are the one doing it professionally and as such should counsel the client in his best interest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit, after comments by OP: A License is noting more than a &quot;permit to use&quot; i.e. a form of contract. This is kind implicit if you give somebody a copy of your software and he pays you for it. What form the license must take (implicit, verbal, electronic, written, with protection in the program) is dependent on what the parties are comfortable with. There are no rules for that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18997" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7227" RevisionGUID="b474808d-b0f9-4f37-bfd3-a583fbc65df7" CreationDate="2017-09-14T14:52:32.790" UserId="18249" Text="For over 40 years I have been making hardwood floors for clients all over UK and across the world. I give fixed price quotations for 99% of the work and they rangemin costs from around £5k and £300K. I have always charged 70% of contract value up-front, only occasionally varying that to 50% with confirmation of the clients order and 25% prior to loading for delivery, the 30% or 25% balance being due on the day of completion of the works. I never have any problems with customers paying up-front.  Some part with very large sums of money sometimes 2 years ahead of any materials being delivered to site.  I also am always paid very promptly. Though the Terms of Trading require payment on the day of completion, in practice it usually takes me a day or two to produce the invoice, which is invariably sent by email.  It is very rare that I am not paid the balance within 2 to 3 days of sending the email.  I do not work for anyone who wants to pay in arrears. However, to support that, I never let the customer down.  I always deliver what the quote says. We strive for perfection on every job. We never have to go back to do put rights.  If only more small businesses took the same approach to payment and to the quality of work delivered the courts would be much less busy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18998" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7225" RevisionGUID="a7881a0d-3ab7-4f92-99e8-631cb7245b7d" CreationDate="2017-09-14T17:53:31.463" UserId="7717" Comment="added 427 characters in body" Text="&gt; Aside from the fact that I am creating a web app, using lots of open-source technology (which obviously they can't own), what does that statement mean really?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract should have a clause about using open-source materials or third-party libraries. Usually something to the effect that you must notify the client about any open-source materials you use. ***Make sure you don't use anything with a viral open-source license.***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the contract has no provisions for open-source material/third-party libraries, the client is probably too inexperienced to be worth working for, but you should still take the time to explain that you'll never be able to complete the task if you have to reinvent the wheel and the hammer and sliced bread and electricity. (I once chatted with a potential client who wanted to make an Android app without using any third-party technology whatsoever. I had to explain to them that it was not practical to make an app without using the Android SDK or some third-party app development framework.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If I write a nice, elegant, custom method (say a before_filter) that solves a particular problem in this project (one that I have never encountered before, but I would like to use in the future), by agreeing to this clause does it mean that I can't use that custom method or any other original works I create for that project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course. If this bothers you, you are going to have a *very* difficult time freelancing. There are some helper functions and utility classes I always use that I've rewritten from scratch a dozen times for different clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not a lawyer, but I think the general rule of thumb is that you can copyright a specific piece of written code, but you can't copyright an algorithm. So let's say that you come up with a new sorting algorithm while you are working on a project, and the specific sorting algorithm itself isn't a crucial intrinsic part of the application (i.e., you could reasonably replace it with a different sorting algorithm). Then you are probably clear to recreate that algorithm *from memory* on a future project. However, if you were hired specifically to write that algorithm, or the algorithm is highly specialized and could not reasonably be replaced with another algorithm, you probably shouldn't try to reproduce it later. Also, don't memorize the code for the algorithm so well that you can rewrite it line-by-line entirely from memory; at that point, you are copying, rather than recreating.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; This seems like a trap all around. How do I avoid getting myself handcuffed and prevented from continually improving my craft by using work I have done in other projects and making it better?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not a trap, it's fairly standard. Why would people want to pay you to write code which you get to keep and reuse later without their permission? You can probably find some clients who are okay with it, but don't plan on it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19000" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7229" RevisionGUID="d6517722-72cd-460a-a8b1-75593b4ec95b" CreationDate="2017-09-14T21:10:29.980" UserId="17210" Text="Unless you have **explicit permission** to do so, sharing source code that you are being paid to correct is a bad route to take.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many clients will have objections to the source code they are paying for being published to the world.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A description or short snippet could be included with a blog article, however having a full public repo is going to cause arguments you do not want to cause." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19004" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="2852" RevisionGUID="3491901e-8c60-4e6a-8156-70872acc3f4d" CreationDate="2017-09-15T14:03:55.390" UserId="18178" Comment="38" />
  <row Id="19007" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7209" RevisionGUID="46e2a9c2-0235-4bf5-a97f-891fa7311862" CreationDate="2017-09-15T22:33:56.120" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/908821208543776768" />
  <row Id="19008" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6510" RevisionGUID="150e60cf-ab06-412c-8b62-d351bd708229" CreationDate="2017-09-16T06:38:24.187" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19010" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2174" RevisionGUID="486dfac7-5593-4710-830a-f89f1564fd22" CreationDate="2017-09-16T19:34:08.437" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/909138349482528774" />
  <row Id="19011" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7160" RevisionGUID="b0ffa5bd-d5a4-45f4-b784-c296151852ab" CreationDate="2017-09-17T08:49:23.817" UserId="15709" Comment="edited body; edited tags" Text="I'm a single web designer / developer freelance and I work in a home office, my target clients are small to medium local businesses, shops, hotels, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have several clients and I am available to them for any maintenance, updates or problem solving, in working hours, I also have a schedule of works to complete with certain deadlines.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Two weeks ago I had a sudden unexpected and very debilitating health problem, I was hospitalized for a few days and being treated with strong I.V. painkillers and other medicines. Later when I came back home I was very weak and totally unable to do anything for almost a week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During this time my wife answered the client's calls and informed them about my temporary inability to work for health reasons. Although I have managed to solve a few minor things with the help of one other freelance-collegue, that had consequences:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- A client moved suddenly to another freelance because he needed the work done, probably I will not see him again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- A company (my client since 3 years) had a problem with the website due to a provider change of settings, I couldn't do anything... they expressed me their concern about possible future similar problems, they said probably they will move to a bigger web agency to avoid to be dependent to a single person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I had some calls and emails for jobs to do that I had not even answered and declined.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I am in a terrible delay with deadlines, I should work days and nights but I am not physically able to stay at work more than a few hours a day since I am still in therapy with many medicines.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please note that this never happened to me before, this is the first time I had such problem and totally unexpected...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to be &quot;ready&quot; for such events? Do you arrange your work in some way to grant your client's business continuity? Do you arrange anything to minimize the effects of unplanned similar events?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19012" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7160" RevisionGUID="b0ffa5bd-d5a4-45f4-b784-c296151852ab" CreationDate="2017-09-17T08:49:23.817" UserId="15709" Comment="edited body; edited tags" Text="|difficult-client|working-from-home|local-business|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19013" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7162" RevisionGUID="4af37677-fec9-4326-81e1-8e9a5c4a221b" CreationDate="2017-09-17T10:15:15.810" UserId="708" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="I would agree that your clients are pretty bad if they drop you that fast over health issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My work doesn't involve anything which could possibly be seen as a real &quot;emergency&quot; such as a web site not functioning or payment processing being broken. So, that may offer me a tad more breathing room overall. If you are involved in matters which *would* be a financial emergency for your clients, you need to find someone that can step in and at least deal with emergencies. Someone capable of understanding a web site's control panel or settings, etc. Heck you may even be able to teach your wife to follow specific instructions when needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I sympathize with your situation. In my field there's literally *no one* I can pass off work too. I've searched for years to find an assistant or employee or even another freelancer to take over client work when needed. I can't find one when I'm *healthy*, let alone when I'm medicated and unwell. In addition, passing off some of my work (to anyone) would involve transferring tens of GBs of files for some projects which is no easy task and would take as much brain-power to stay organized as completing the work would take.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;What I do is... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First my contract states that I am not liable for unavoidable and unpredictable &quot;acts of God&quot;. This would include, but not be limited to, natural disasters and health related issues which are unforeseeable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As soon as possible I inform the clients that [project X] will be delayed by an estimated [x] days due to unexpected and unavoidable health issues. In addition, a 10%/20% discount will be applied to the pricing to hopefully compensate for the delay. If this delay is untenable, I am happy to invoice for work up to the current state and provide anything necessary, within the scope of the contract, so another worker can take over the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Beyond this, I'm kind of stuck. There's not much more I can do. I have measures in place should I die, such as providing a backup hard drive to a colleague (in another field) so he can disperse files to my clients, etc. But as much as I've searched, there doesn't appear to be a way to implement a temporary safety net for my work. I just have to hope my clients understand and work around the issue with me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Overall, what I found is the clients which are unsympathetic or unwilling to accept that there is a delay I can not avoid, are the clients I needed to **replace**. Life happens and any client who is unwilling to accept that, on rare occasions, is really expressing that they have little or no loyalty to me and my services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did have issues in Q1 of both 2016 and 2017 (related to the same health issue) which caused delays of a few weeks each time. I was working as much as I could but at a snail's pace when compared to regular performance. My clients were annoyed by the delays this caused, but they understood overall. (Assuming these types of delays are few and very far between) I lost money. I lost a few projects. But overall my clients were just wanting me to get back up to speed as soon as possible. Good clients seem to understand, bad clients just want their work done and don't care *why* there's a delay. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, I stress if these are *very few and far between*. If they tend to happen monthly, well then you've either got much more important things going on or you are using health as an excuse for other things. Clients will pick up on *either* of those and fond someone to replace you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19014" PostHistoryTypeId="34" PostId="2852" RevisionGUID="28969caf-363c-445d-bff6-5a13bc853787" CreationDate="2017-09-17T15:38:14.840" UserId="7431" Comment="38" />
  <row Id="19018" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7175" RevisionGUID="575d6497-2815-43dd-a3bb-b1232f9509f2" CreationDate="2017-09-18T01:19:16.487" UserId="18146" Comment="added 1217 characters in body" Text="I've been self employed providing data collection/analysis services for two years and landed my biggest client, a bank, about two months ago.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agreed to collect, clean and tag 10,000 (public domain) mortgage contracts that would basically give them a map of every loan that's been issued for every commercial building in their tri-county region for the last 10 years. Said bank will use this data to reach out to business owners who's loans are coming up for refinancing (loans from other banks) so they could get the business to refinance with them. If my client signs on 10 - 20 new loans in the next 5 years using my database they could easily make an additional $1,000,000 in revenue in the next 10 - 15 years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I thought I could get the job done in a month so I asked for 2 months. They agreed but decided last minute they only wanted to pay once the job was completed. I agreed to this (mistake No 1?). One strange thing is that **I never signed an NDA.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of today I'm three weeks behind on my original delivery date (of which they seem okay with). I'm almost done but I've realized I've sold myself really short because by the time I'm done/paid the amount of unanticipated extra work I had to do is going to dilute my effective hourly rate to a fifth my market value (since I also racked up out of pocket costs for additional labor).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Short of my written agreement with said client I literally owe them nothing. Since I don't get paid until I give them the database there's nothing really forcing me to stick to the (unfair) agreement I naively made (except morals). What's more I now have a list of at least 30 other banks I could potentially sell this data to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it in bad taste to try to renegotiate for higher compensation? Do I risk loosing their trust in my business as one that &quot;keeps its word&quot; if I do that? What should I do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## UPDATE&#xD;&#xA;I decided to resist renegotiating any prior terms and stayed true to my original agreement. I felt this was the right thing to do. I've learned a lot from this experience:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Resist the temptation to use fixed price contracts for work you've never done before. Such instruments are better suited to familiar tasks you've actually done before where the costs are already known. &#xD;&#xA; 2. Focus on and deliver the lowest hanging fruit first. One of the reasons costs ran away from me on this project was because I was being a perfectionist and wanted to give my client the absolute best product I could. That's a nice goal but perfectionism is costly and sometimes (often?) is down right infeasible (as was my case). Turns out I could have finished this project 4 weeks earlier as the client was satisfied with the &quot;imperfect&quot; (by my standards) product.&#xD;&#xA; 3. It's better to reach out for guidance/help from your support community (be that SO, your friends, family) regularly and as you face challenge. I wish I had consulted a trusted friend about this problem sooner as that would've given me a fresh, calm person's perspective on the problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope my documented experience here is useful for someone." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19021" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7232" RevisionGUID="ca69d0aa-1dee-4602-8e80-a4c03f6b4450" CreationDate="2017-09-18T19:52:46.537" UserId="1706" Text="I'd say that you should be careful about sending the full document.  An unscrupulous client may be trying to figure out how to get a free paycheck.  Turn over this type of information on a specific need-to-know basis." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19022" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7233" RevisionGUID="c6fe3067-9361-4931-af1b-be0a2317ad30" CreationDate="2017-09-18T23:16:59.597" UserId="18271" Text="I'm an experienced software developer contractor who builds bespoke web sites, databases and apps. Although I have my own limited company, contractors in the UK typically have a boss, time table (schedule) and work under close supervision, just like permanent staff. An agency pays the contractor to work for one of their clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How can I make the transition from contractor to freelancer?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to operate like an actual IT company, have my own client portfolio (no agencies), no bosses, no schedule, etc. However I don't want to use freelancing websites like UpWork as they pay low rates and refuse to protect freelancer's interest before employers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19023" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7233" RevisionGUID="c6fe3067-9361-4931-af1b-be0a2317ad30" CreationDate="2017-09-18T23:16:59.597" UserId="18271" Text="Experienced IT contractor to become a freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19024" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7233" RevisionGUID="c6fe3067-9361-4931-af1b-be0a2317ad30" CreationDate="2017-09-18T23:16:59.597" UserId="18271" Text="|attracting-clients|uk|software|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19025" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7234" RevisionGUID="6bb593f9-42a1-4a4f-9d10-f0fc28ce863d" CreationDate="2017-09-19T08:59:10.013" UserId="14774" Text="An acquaintance has asked me to create a Mobile Application for his business. There are two alternatives to get revenue from the application. &lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;b&gt;Get paid one time&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;OR&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;b&gt;Get a certain percentage of commission from the sales of product listed in the application.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Questions: &#xD;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which would be the best alternative for the source of revenue.&lt;/li&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What Terms And Conditions should I setup with that acquaintance? &lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Should I approach a legal consultant before discussing with that person? &lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What would be the possible legal issues that would occur after the application is delivered to the person?&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How would I ensure that the person would pay me the promised commission?&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can I divert the commission amount automatically through a payment gateway into my bank account?&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If going by the first alternative, how I can ensure that the quoted amount is paid?&lt;/li&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19026" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7234" RevisionGUID="6bb593f9-42a1-4a4f-9d10-f0fc28ce863d" CreationDate="2017-09-19T08:59:10.013" UserId="14774" Text="Best alternative to get revenue from a mobile application" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19027" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7234" RevisionGUID="6bb593f9-42a1-4a4f-9d10-f0fc28ce863d" CreationDate="2017-09-19T08:59:10.013" UserId="14774" Text="|contracts|legal|sales|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19028" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6547" RevisionGUID="e9790f09-b305-44ff-a321-f07587772582" CreationDate="2017-09-19T09:11:34.460" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19029" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7235" RevisionGUID="a7fc08a2-67a3-4331-aac6-c2d0a7c030f5" CreationDate="2017-09-19T09:25:28.847" UserId="18230" Text="&gt; Which would be the best alternative for the source of revenue.&#xD;&#xA;Depends. If you don´t need money right now, and can afford to never see any pay at all, if sales are bad, then calculate:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- OneTime pay&#xD;&#xA;- Revenue &quot;expected sales&quot; x &quot;commission&quot; x &quot;risk-factor&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Risk factor for instance 0.5 for not having the cash instantly, you have to determine that for yourself - How likely is it that sales will be good, what other investment could you make with the money. Then, take whichever is higher.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; What Terms And Conditions should I setup with that acquaintance?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask Lawyer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Should I approach a legal consultant before discussing with that person?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, see above. When discussing, you should already have an idea what you would want and how this works legally.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; What would be the possible legal issues that would occur after the application is delivered to the person?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Support and liability for errors in the code. (Business-applications have quite the potential to cause financial losses)&#xD;&#xA;- Cost-sharing / profit-calculations&#xD;&#xA;- Taxation.&#xD;&#xA;- ... discuss with lawyer!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; How would I ensure that the person would pay me the promised commission?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have a good contract that will stand before court and allows you insight into the revenues.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Can I divert the commission amount automatically through a payment gateway into my bank account?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess that will be hard to do with any standard Google/Apple app store provider, but you´d have to discuss with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If going by the first alternative, how I can ensure that the quoted amount is paid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, good contract and clear definition of the deliverable. Negotiate milestones and get partly paid for each milestone, so you already have most of the money before the finished product is delivered.&#xD;&#xA;Make a official and well-documented handover at the end, where the client signs off on the delivery." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19030" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7236" RevisionGUID="23a3ee38-edf7-4175-a274-68d2b609a759" CreationDate="2017-09-19T11:25:15.547" UserId="18276" Text="I need to organize my working hours for many projects and customers due to huge work load.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like a web app with the following features:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Tasks&#xD;&#xA; - List item&#xD;&#xA; - Calendar &#xD;&#xA; - Multiple Customers&#xD;&#xA; - Multiple Project&#xD;&#xA; - Invoice (opt)&#xD;&#xA; - Time-Track (opt)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tried several ones, found Scoro to be one of the best but really expensive due to their min. 5 users policy, also Humanity and others are cute but not complete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Actually I'm using Asana + Google Calendar but it's really not enough, for example I cannot schedule multiple project on the calendar and so no overview on it...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What tool do you use? Any suggestion?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you guys :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19031" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7236" RevisionGUID="23a3ee38-edf7-4175-a274-68d2b609a759" CreationDate="2017-09-19T11:25:15.547" UserId="18276" Text="Best Management tool for self-employed: Tasks, Calendar, Multiple Customers, Multiple Project, Invoice, Time-Track" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19032" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7236" RevisionGUID="23a3ee38-edf7-4175-a274-68d2b609a759" CreationDate="2017-09-19T11:25:15.547" UserId="18276" Text="|time-management|project-management|customer-relations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19033" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7233" RevisionGUID="9518b799-8786-41be-9e9d-06c784015bd1" CreationDate="2017-09-19T13:47:14.593" UserId="18271" Comment="deleted 228 characters in body" Text="As a contractor my job is developing web sites, databases and apps. Although I have my own limited company, contractors in the UK still have a boss, time table (schedule) and work just like permanent staff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How can I make the transition from contractor to freelancer?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to operate like an actual IT company, have my own client portfolio (no agencies), no bosses, no schedule and going off freelancing websites like UpWork." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19034" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7233" RevisionGUID="72de4453-d2bb-4b5e-b7bf-375a330b4a76" CreationDate="2017-09-19T13:53:36.600" UserId="18271" Comment="deleted 228 characters in body" Text="How can I make the transition from contractor to freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a contractor my job is developing web sites, databases and apps. Although I have my own limited company, contractors in the UK still have a boss, time table (schedule) and work just like permanent staff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to operate like an actual IT company, have my own client portfolio (no agencies), no bosses, no schedule.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Options I have considered to get clients who would hire me to work independently are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Government marketplace&#xD;&#xA; - Incubators like Googlecamp&#xD;&#xA; - &lt;strike&gt;Freelancing websites&lt;/strike&gt; (low rates, low quality employers)&#xD;&#xA; - LinkedIn" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19038" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7238" RevisionGUID="01e2cc52-8ba6-444a-99d0-0b53bfa49723" CreationDate="2017-09-19T21:56:02.807" UserId="18280" Text="Many jurisdictions have statutes of **implied contracts**, **implied warranties**, and more which cover situations when a dispute arises and where no written documents exist describing the arrangement. If you go to a restaurant there is an **implied contract** which assumes that you will be provided with food and service in exchange for payment. In most states a similar **implied contract** would exist for your software development. In lieu of any agreement, if you accept money for for development the **implication** is that you get to keep the money, and the client owns the software. You also have an **implied duty** to protect the client's work-in-progress assets. I usually include a copyright disclaimer as a file header in the client's name right from the first line of code written. &#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19039" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7239" RevisionGUID="91162fd6-6c89-4fec-a0fc-c094d9d4e1ca" CreationDate="2017-09-20T00:20:45.567" UserId="18271" Text="My clients tend to think that everybody out there want a similar software I've done for them and are reluctant for the source code to be published. What I do to show my work is recording demo videos where I run in Debug mode some of the web sites and desktop applications developed by me. A professional design and friendly user interfaces can be seen while I review a small portion of the code that solves a complex and specific problem. In Debug mode I inspect variables to show the data and explain why that bit is efficient and well designed. Less than 5% of the code is shown on video but potential employers love it as they don't have lots of time to spend and want someone to talk through and explain how it works." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19041" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7240" RevisionGUID="d7db3fdf-b783-4420-9cf6-3f218e1a3173" CreationDate="2017-09-20T07:46:57.803" UserId="17153" Text="I've seen [this question][1] about the confusion on using a residential address, but my question is that since I'm a software professional and I don't expect the company to deliver anything to my postal address and just do a bank transfer of the payment, is it still necessary as a formality or legality for me to mention my postal address in the invoice?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/7075/invoicing-from-a-residential-address" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19042" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7240" RevisionGUID="d7db3fdf-b783-4420-9cf6-3f218e1a3173" CreationDate="2017-09-20T07:46:57.803" UserId="17153" Text="Is it compulsory to mention my postal address in an invoice I create?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19043" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7240" RevisionGUID="d7db3fdf-b783-4420-9cf6-3f218e1a3173" CreationDate="2017-09-20T07:46:57.803" UserId="17153" Text="|legal|invoices|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19044" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7241" RevisionGUID="d0c3a865-b063-4954-8566-765b896a63b9" CreationDate="2017-09-20T08:29:56.067" UserId="708" Text="In order to create a **legal** business entity in the United States a location (address) **must** be on file and is *public record*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With the above in mind, what additional harm could come from putting that address on an invoice? Really none. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are *not* located in the US but doing business with US companies, and trying to hide your remote location, you may get away with it for a period of time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Frankly *not* having contact information on invoices would raise suspicions. At least for myself. If you trust me to pay you, why not trust me with an address in case I *prefer* to mail a check." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19045" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7240" RevisionGUID="32444dd1-8d27-4cb6-bcb5-1d9ecb7c4c21" CreationDate="2017-09-20T08:52:51.240" UserId="17153" Comment="added 127 characters in body" Text="I've seen [this question][1] about the confusion on using a residential address, but my question is that since I'm a software professional and I don't expect the company to deliver anything to my postal address and just do a bank transfer of the payment, is it still necessary as a formality or legality for me to mention my postal address in the invoice?  &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;EDIT: This is in India, and I'll be mentioning my email ID, bank account number and phone number on the invoice anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/7075/invoicing-from-a-residential-address" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19047" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7238" RevisionGUID="dc786899-0082-40b3-b5e2-33a30051aa6e" CreationDate="2017-09-20T19:15:54.190" UserId="18280" Comment="added 437 characters in body; added 75 characters in body" Text="Many jurisdictions have statutes of **implied contracts**, **implied warranties**, and more which cover situations when a dispute arises and where no written documents exist describing the arrangement. If you go to a restaurant there is an **implied contract** which assumes that you will be provided with food and service in exchange for payment. In most states a similar **implied contract** would exist for your software development. In lieu of any agreement, if you accept money for for development the **implication** is that you get to keep the money, and the client owns the software. You also have an **implied duty** to protect the client's work-in-progress assets. I usually include a copyright disclaimer as a file header in the client's name right from the first line of code written. For example:&#xA; &#xA;        Copyright © 2010 by Bill Shakespeare All rights reserved. &#xA;        No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, &#xA;        or transmitted in any form or by any means, including &#xA;        photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical &#xA;        methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, &#xA;        except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical &#xA;        reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by &#xA;        copyright law." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19048" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7238" RevisionGUID="57548de1-29c2-452f-a491-beff8aa5e971" CreationDate="2017-09-20T19:21:16.130" UserId="18280" Comment="deleted 143 characters in body; added 143 characters in body" Text="Many jurisdictions have statutes of **implied contracts**, **implied warranties**, and more which cover situations when a dispute arises and where no written documents exist describing the arrangement. If you go to a restaurant there is an **implied contract** which assumes that you will be provided with food and service in exchange for payment. In most states a similar **implied contract** would exist for your software development. In lieu of any agreement, if you accept money for for development the **implication** is that you get to keep the money, and the client owns the software. You also have an **implied duty** to protect the client's work-in-progress assets. I usually include a copyright disclaimer as a file header in the client's name right from the first line of code written. For example:&#xA; &#xA;        /**********************************************************/&#xA;        Copyright © 2010 by Bill Shakespeare All rights reserved. &#xA;        No part of this software or firmware may be reproduced, &#xA;        distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, &#xA;        including photocopying, recording, or other electronic &#xA;        or mechanical methods, without the prior written &#xA;        permission of the author. &#xA;         /**********************************************************/     " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19049" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7238" RevisionGUID="7cd8a7c4-6f77-4a9d-ba4a-86a260d466c3" CreationDate="2017-09-20T19:30:34.757" UserId="18280" Comment="added 253 characters in body; deleted 4 characters in body" Text="Many jurisdictions have statutes of **implied contracts**, **implied warranties**, and more which cover situations when a dispute arises and where no written documents exist describing the arrangement. If you go to a restaurant there is an **implied contract** which assumes that you will be provided with food and service in exchange for payment. In most states a similar **implied contract** would exist for your software development. In lieu of any agreement, if you accept money for for development the **implication** is that you get to keep the money, and the client owns the software. You also have an **implied duty** to protect the client's work-in-progress assets. I usually include a copyright disclaimer as a file header in the client's name right from the first line of code written. For example:&#xA; &#xA;        /**********************************************************/&#xA;        Copyright © 2010 by Bill Shakespeare All rights reserved. &#xA;        No part of this software or firmware may be reproduced, &#xA;        distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, &#xA;        including photocopying, recording, or other electronic &#xA;        or mechanical methods, without the prior written &#xA;        permission of the author. &#xA;        /**********************************************************/     &#xA;or,&#xA;&#xA;        /**********************************************************/&#xA;        Copyright © 2010 by Bill Shakespeare and the BigCode &#xA;        Corporation.  All rights reserved.  &#xA;        /**********************************************************/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19050" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7242" RevisionGUID="77ae21ab-15da-4244-a1c6-de97c6f2c9f0" CreationDate="2017-09-20T22:05:26.130" UserId="2265" Text="There is no simple answer to that, it's basically about making a name for yourself, building a network and getting noticed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Linkedin worked great for me, by slowly posting good content I got invited to speak at seminars and speaking engagements and used the exposure to build a network. Assignments started coming in from there. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But that may be totally different for you: maybe an old colleague started a business that you can work for, maybe Facebook works really well, perhaps you can find a recruiter who only takes a one time cut and let's you do business directly with the client...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So many ways you can make that happen. Just get going :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19051" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7243" RevisionGUID="c6f9c34c-61d5-4c70-9210-a120fc85f32b" CreationDate="2017-09-21T00:13:01.717" UserId="18286" Text="I've been coding for a few years, and have a decent C.V. I've been on 2 internships, but never actually been payed for my work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm going off to university, and figured freelance development would be a convenient solution for income, as opposed to working in the local supermarket.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd be comfortable doing full-stack work, but I'm sure most back-end work is in full-time jobs, as opposed to remote freelance jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I build a client base. Should I use websites such as fiverr? Or is it really going out to random stores asking if they require a website?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is freelancing the best option, or could I look for something like a weekend part-time job? I've heard there are little-to-none in software development." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19052" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7243" RevisionGUID="c6f9c34c-61d5-4c70-9210-a120fc85f32b" CreationDate="2017-09-21T00:13:01.717" UserId="18286" Text="How can I build a base?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19053" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7243" RevisionGUID="c6f9c34c-61d5-4c70-9210-a120fc85f32b" CreationDate="2017-09-21T00:13:01.717" UserId="18286" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19054" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="6a446283-127d-4950-8f9e-427d3462e430" CreationDate="2017-09-21T03:49:14.983" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19056" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7245" RevisionGUID="0c1ca3e6-f9f6-455a-9ad3-276d7e4bd73c" CreationDate="2017-09-21T05:55:12.057" UserId="15709" Text="Google Calendar, Google Spreadsheet and Google Drive are great for these tasks, are free and accessible from desktop and apps anywhere anytime." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19057" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7246" RevisionGUID="b6fad664-d9df-4d92-8300-ba308146ca83" CreationDate="2017-09-21T08:22:18.417" UserId="18230" Text="I am not sure you really need a client-base for this there are a lot of small to mid sized businesses who just need some maintenance of their business-application or automate some smaller tasks. Most students I know of where pretty busy with just one client. Seek a local company where you can easily stop by on afternoons. Most universities have some sort of board and there are even agencies specialized on that kind of work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19058" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7247" RevisionGUID="f3eefd46-3d5d-4a2b-8757-b7dde2ddeaec" CreationDate="2017-09-21T09:21:08.453" UserId="16590" Text="I'm looking to start offering maintenance retainers for my customers. &#xA;I'm trying to understand how I can charge customers and what to charge them for. &#xA;&#xA;For example, one of my clients has 3 sites where they have a business setup with I. T. infrastructure. &#xA;&#xA;What should I charge my client for in a retainer for maintenance? From my understanding realistically callouts would only occur maximum twice a month. Is a retainer payment based on hours per week or expected hours per week? &#xA;&#xA;Reason I ask these questions is due to not sure what to offer my clients as I generally charge by hour but it seems retainers are the way to go. &#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19059" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7247" RevisionGUID="f3eefd46-3d5d-4a2b-8757-b7dde2ddeaec" CreationDate="2017-09-21T09:21:08.453" UserId="16590" Text="What should be included in an I. T maintenance retainer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19060" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7247" RevisionGUID="f3eefd46-3d5d-4a2b-8757-b7dde2ddeaec" CreationDate="2017-09-21T09:21:08.453" UserId="16590" Text="|client-support|retainer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19061" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="7233" RevisionGUID="8203c01d-83fd-49eb-bea7-52ab611d314f" CreationDate="2017-09-21T15:27:40.777" UserId="18271" Comment="39" />
  <row Id="19062" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3578" RevisionGUID="9a95bec6-aa84-4ebc-bf2e-fa18fd978bfb" CreationDate="2017-09-21T15:50:55.333" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19064" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7248" RevisionGUID="fa9cadff-be4b-4760-b20a-841ef9f15d43" CreationDate="2017-09-21T16:19:28.663" UserId="75" Text="I am mostly in the same boat as you, so I'll offer my experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, what *kind* of work would you be expecting to cover with the maintenance agreement? Are you going to fix their phones? Are you going to fix stolen equipment, or Domain Admins who have ran wild with the DC? Are you going to switch out all their computers on a set schedule? Or are you going to cover things like minor virus infections, back up restoration, new user onboarding?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You'll need to determine the kind of work, then estimate (as best you can) the cost per user to manage their equipment and requirements each month. User account maintenance *should* be easy, less than 1 billable hour each if your system is setup correctly, *as an example*. Teaching them how to access company resources (i.e. printers, Intranet sites, server shares, etc) should be less than 1 billable hour if the user is teachable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, why am I saying to do it per user? Because work sometimes scales, it sometimes doesn't! If you have 2 users at each site, and 3 sites to manage, you can easily cover the sites together, because there is a small user base. If one site grows to 50 users, another to 75, and the third to 10, that becomes a lot more work, even if things do not break.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When quoting a price, ensure you aim for the higher end so that you can start offering discounts or downgrades to meet their budget. And make it **very** clear that anything outside of the general maintenance tasks you are offering is over and above from *xx* hours of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your mileage will vary, but you are essentially turning into an &quot;on call&quot; kind of freelancer, who may be required to fix issues no matter what time of day, and that is going to cost the client money for that kind of accessibility." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19065" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7249" RevisionGUID="1dee68d5-a8d3-4ee2-b23e-27fc2f1a4523" CreationDate="2017-09-21T17:23:02.503" UserId="18294" Text="I've been on my own for a long time, working with clients from all over the world, did fine until some years ago. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the past, I used to work with several associates and they helped me out when I was not able to work at top speed, for whatever reason. I also outsourced to some of them when I had too much work on my desk to handle all by myself; they saved me time, sometimes because they were in a different time zone, enabling me to do projects in a shorter amount of time. In addition, I worked with people who were simply better at certain things than I, or faster or better equipped or when it made more sense for me to work on something else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I found that while outsourcing was not possible with all work, that usually also meant that the client really appreciated what I did. Good business relationships are a matter of give and take. Clients who know that you will usually do what you can for them even if they contact you at very short notice or on weekends usually are also able to cut you some slack when things are not going as planned on your end.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Yes, there are good clients and bad clients and it's not good to hang on to bad clients, but most of us also know that in lean times, you're still happy enough with those &quot;bad&quot; clients. To some extent, you can and should educate clients.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, I too have worked with clients (two) who dropped me when I was dealing with all sorts of practical problems after a relocation. Although one of those clients had on occasion even offered - and paid - me more money to secure my time for a project, generally speaking, my contribution simply was not specific enough for them to value me more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![enter image description here][1]][1]Offering a discount in the event of a hiccup often works really well, I have found. Particularly if you're (very) generous, the client will come away with a very **positive** feeling that can amazingly quickly wipe out any negative feelings he, she or they initially had and make them think of you or keep them thinking of you in a very positive way. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(One person actually later told me that my discount offer had had a huge impact and I had previously noticed that someone else suddenly turned highly cooperative after I offered a substantial discount.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See the situation from the client's side. What would make you happy if you were on the other side? Sometimes, you can even simply ask that and then do it. Finally, don't be *too* apologetic and don't get drawn into useless arguments, because that too can create negative feelings on the other side.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/n4sHS.jpg" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19068" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7251" RevisionGUID="a7d9f31c-7809-4274-ac8b-728120fa7042" CreationDate="2017-09-21T20:11:03.203" UserId="18298" Text="Did exactly the same a few years back, had a job and then became a contractor and incorporated my own LLC. The time period was from 2004 to 2008 during which the transition happened. The best way to go about it is to ensure that you have at least one client, who would vouch for you and would stay with you when you transition, this is important, unless you have a nest egg, as it would put undue pressure for you to keep your hearth going.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All the hundred different sites, LinkedIn helps, but always ensure you have word of  mouth recommendations, the selling is done by somebody else, they vouch for you and the deal is with you. Easiest to win and to keep. A good job done, will ensure you get more of such deals, and the first year would be tough, but as the branches of good word grows, you would be surprised how many references you get and get kudos for all the good job done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But this is for a one man consulting gig, if you are to expand, have a team think of all the operational issues that come with building the team, if it is word of mouth that brings most of your business, it can be tough to keep the same quality of service with the team, the fact is they are not you.As they say mediocrity is a function of how many you have in your team.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The help I get now, is your better half taking care of the bank, invoices and other operational tasks, you do the technical stuff and you  do not need to worry about the banks, paying for your Internet, getting your stationery, or printing your collateral." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19069" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6264" RevisionGUID="2aaeae99-31ba-4a64-9758-feaeefd560ea" CreationDate="2017-09-21T21:52:29.133" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19070" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7252" RevisionGUID="31b0e252-c2f5-4388-b579-7a8947118ab9" CreationDate="2017-09-22T03:39:37.740" UserId="16590" Text="When a retainer is set for I.T. services; how should I deal with sickness and holiday leave?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;i.e. If a service requires me to attend it within 3 hours; and i'm abroad or quite sick; what would be the best method to inform the client or prepare them for such situations? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a question i'm thinking about before forming retainer based structure for my business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19071" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7252" RevisionGUID="31b0e252-c2f5-4388-b579-7a8947118ab9" CreationDate="2017-09-22T03:39:37.740" UserId="16590" Text="How to deal with holiday leave/sickness when on retainer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19072" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7252" RevisionGUID="31b0e252-c2f5-4388-b579-7a8947118ab9" CreationDate="2017-09-22T03:39:37.740" UserId="16590" Text="|retainer|maintenance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19073" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7253" RevisionGUID="2c6f6edc-bdd4-416e-b568-2a7cf17871c5" CreationDate="2017-09-22T08:48:09.117" UserId="7717" Text="For holidays, just email the client in advance to give them sufficient notice, and don't charge your retainer during that period. If you are sick, let the client know ASAP and again don't charge the retainer for that period (although if the client pays well enough, you might want to remain available even when you're sick)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19074" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7254" RevisionGUID="4e53a693-70c2-43dd-82fa-305754672175" CreationDate="2017-09-22T10:09:49.637" UserId="18277" Text="I've used a self hosted solution called 'Freelancer Office' that does similar tasks, I'm sure there will be others out there. You list an item and can then add that item to an invoice. It's a good all in one solution however it would be another system to back up and maintain and you obviously have a hosting cost attached.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Link to the system I referenced: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://codecanyon.net/item/freelancer-office/8870728?s_rank=1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19087" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7160" RevisionGUID="3c0db495-3cef-4b0a-96b5-f46a39571d8b" CreationDate="2017-09-23T14:11:52.280" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/911593962879713280" />
  <row Id="19089" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7258" RevisionGUID="237f731c-f9cd-4b58-ad08-1d753deda7ba" CreationDate="2017-09-24T06:19:43.193" UserId="18309" Text="A company I worked for has contacted me to organise a photo shot where the end product will be used in marketing materials. I have done this before while on pay-role however this time around they are requesting a cost estimate including my fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as the shoot. It is a small shoot. 1 location 1 subject and the requesting company is large scale enterprise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was hoping to get a ballpark number or learn if there is a common hourly rate out there." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19090" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7258" RevisionGUID="237f731c-f9cd-4b58-ad08-1d753deda7ba" CreationDate="2017-09-24T06:19:43.193" UserId="18309" Text="How much to charge to organise a photo shot" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19091" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7258" RevisionGUID="237f731c-f9cd-4b58-ad08-1d753deda7ba" CreationDate="2017-09-24T06:19:43.193" UserId="18309" Text="|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19092" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7259" RevisionGUID="f9e83f3e-9216-444e-a055-b2357d5680ae" CreationDate="2017-09-24T12:20:56.917" UserId="18310" Text="If the company is a enterprise type of business you should charge them by hour, list down your own expenses and the itemized things they need like, raw copies of photos, number of shots etc. Then by which, you can have an idea on how much the whole amount would be, most likely around 25-35$ per hour for the shoot as an estimate then if they would request for discounts its a round off on your part." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19093" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7260" RevisionGUID="473841b2-d99e-4b63-87f2-36f0772e85be" CreationDate="2017-09-24T12:37:07.030" UserId="18310" Text="Mention the most honest reason why you can't make it to the said appointment/job and then just state a short apology. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a structured retainer job, I suggest it should be a home based/on-call person quoted per hour on the job that he/ s" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19094" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7260" RevisionGUID="c422f7b6-a304-4e56-b124-2752c2d96704" CreationDate="2017-09-24T14:44:40.733" UserId="18310" Comment="added 424 characters in body" Text="Mention the most honest reason why you can't make it to the said appointment/job and then just state a short apology. For Holiday leaves, as user45623 mentioned, inform your employer in advance. Share your calendar when possible so that your client/s have an idea of what your schedule looks like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During sickness, if you are able, offer to work from home. If not, just send them an email, or a quick call/voice message. If you aren't able to provide notice, have someone do it for you. Family/friend/spouse. Anyone. Providing notice shows sincerity and integrity and is certainly better than just going AWOL. Do not charge for work that wasn't done on schedule." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19095" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7261" RevisionGUID="3f3167d9-5a3c-4902-8f32-29c31f33646d" CreationDate="2017-09-24T20:49:43.710" UserId="522" Text="You shouldn't have to tell the client that your work is of great value to them.  In your discovery process, you should get your client to quantify the benefits of your work.  For example, how much revenue will your deliverables bring under conservative scenarios.  Or, how much staff time will it save them, and multiply that by the average rate that they pay that staff.  If you do this well, they will be very much aware of the value of your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Something like &quot;we've already seen that this will generate an extra $50k for you in the first quarter&quot; is much more powerful than telling them your work had &quot;great value&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19096" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7056" RevisionGUID="91c811a1-6898-4f27-a866-d77f8bebcb4e" CreationDate="2017-09-25T00:28:31.160" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19098" PostHistoryTypeId="34" PostId="7233" RevisionGUID="c9e26b68-69e1-4fe1-8f20-1d39a6c47662" CreationDate="2017-09-25T14:05:50.797" UserId="18271" Comment="39" />
  <row Id="19099" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7258" RevisionGUID="d733aa7e-9ed0-4af4-9203-dd88c665cdf7" CreationDate="2017-09-25T18:56:10.970" UserId="75" Comment="Brought question on topic; minor grammar issues" Text="A company I worked for has contacted me to organize a photo shot where the end product will be used in marketing materials. I have done this before while on payroll; however, this time around they are requesting a cost estimate including my fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as the shoot, it is a small shoot. One location, one subject and the requesting company is large scale enterprise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I determine how much to charge for this job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19101" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7262" RevisionGUID="14c6798c-35b3-4306-8e52-12c9350fde09" CreationDate="2017-09-26T05:52:11.543" UserId="2265" Text="Two ways of looking at this: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Determine your price, how much do you want for this project to make it worth your while? Do you want an hourly rate or a fixed price?  &#xD;&#xA;2. How much is the customer willing to pay? This could be more than option 1. Find out what similar shoots cost for corporate clients, and decide on what you think you can get. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask around, use linkedin, twitter, other fora. Ask colleagues, friends. And my advice: go for option 1, decide what you think would be a good price regardless of what others may charge corporate clients. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19102" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1477" RevisionGUID="3f3dd98f-2203-4696-820c-3d3a236a9930" CreationDate="2017-09-26T05:52:23.733" UserId="15527" Comment="http -&gt; https" Text="A freelance website is a site which links freelancers to clients and (more specifically) client projects, often through a bidding process. Examples include oDesk, eLance, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This tag is not intended to be for questions regarding the development of websites for customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##Example questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While this question, https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1244/how-to-get-work-on-freelancer-com-as-an-existing-contractor-but-new-to-freelance, primarly targets non-experts, it's a good example of when to use this tag. The question is more of a marketing question.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19103" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1477" RevisionGUID="3f3dd98f-2203-4696-820c-3d3a236a9930" CreationDate="2017-09-26T05:52:23.733" Comment="Proposed by 15527 approved by 14455, 2265 edit id of 565" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19104" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="36" RevisionGUID="64ec794e-e012-41a7-ac6c-d9875000e402" CreationDate="2017-09-26T05:53:04.093" UserId="15527" Comment="http -&gt; https" Text="Answers with this tag must follow the [&quot;Back it up&quot; rule](https://meta.freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/55/64), in which you must show citations or some sort of legal text to back up your answer. Answers without proper citations may be edited or removed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For questions, you must tell us what jurisdiction you are located in; for example, `I am in British Columbia, Canada`. Blanket legal questions without some sort of research or agreement in place to fall back on may be closed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19105" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="36" RevisionGUID="64ec794e-e012-41a7-ac6c-d9875000e402" CreationDate="2017-09-26T05:53:04.093" Comment="Proposed by 15527 approved by 14455, 2265 edit id of 564" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19106" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7263" RevisionGUID="b49e5a4b-70e5-4b3d-9864-9f3b313e120a" CreationDate="2017-09-26T07:40:56.290" UserId="18318" Text="I'm writing a proposal to do some recurring work for a client. I'll be selling them services, packaged into a unit, and they may need none, or several of these units in any given month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question is: how should I charge for these units, given that the amount I'll sell to the client each month is variable?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideas I can think of (some better than others):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - simply bill up-front at order time for each unit (or 50%, or etc.), which could result in an invoice per week if things heat up - lots of paperwork&#xD;&#xA; - charge a fixed retainer, then charge the balance at the end of the month (or refund the retainer), which balances risk somewhat and ensures I get at least a little bit of pay no matter what&#xD;&#xA; - bill at the end of the month, assuming all risk myself&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's a common way to handle this pattern? Are there others I haven't thought of?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19107" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7263" RevisionGUID="b49e5a4b-70e5-4b3d-9864-9f3b313e120a" CreationDate="2017-09-26T07:40:56.290" UserId="18318" Text="How to charge for variable recurring services?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19108" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7263" RevisionGUID="b49e5a4b-70e5-4b3d-9864-9f3b313e120a" CreationDate="2017-09-26T07:40:56.290" UserId="18318" Text="|payment-terms|payments|billing|retainer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19112" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7265" RevisionGUID="f5053df2-3774-4e49-9e6c-628701408a94" CreationDate="2017-09-26T14:56:34.630" UserId="18230" Text="Without you providing more details I would say the most common way is to bill at the end of a period (month,week etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Exceptions: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If you have considerable external costs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- The customer or the market often has problems with unpaid bills. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(encountered the latter with call centers, where the network providers used to offer prepaid contracts due to a high number of bankruptcies in the market)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19114" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3520" RevisionGUID="8e051c7c-d32e-405a-99c0-a8554a9d42e9" CreationDate="2017-09-26T19:10:48.450" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19123" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="7175" RevisionGUID="94e13c22-9773-41ab-bc90-fd458108d83b" CreationDate="2017-09-27T17:47:25.773" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="19124" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7268" RevisionGUID="aad54fb2-144b-44b7-a39d-322997f9484f" CreationDate="2017-09-27T19:24:46.957" UserId="18332" Text="I'm a full stack software engineer who have been freelancing for a client for 2 years, it turned to a remote job but we never agreed on any contract she just keep sending tasks and I do them and bill her hourly, her company is perfect and I feel like a part of their team in U.S and although I'm getting $2000 USD a month (charging her hourly) it's a lot in my country. even if it's not that much in U.S, living costs are cheaper here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was offered another job with 3500 euro (net 2000Euro) per month which I know is not a good offer but with opportunity to relocate in Germany with a blue card honestly even if the pay is not perfect and I feel I deserve more I feel I can prove my self there and improve my life drastically .&#xD;&#xA;It's a life changing opportunity. I can't refuse this offer as I really want to move to Germany and I this opportunities rarely come.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My biggest concern is we have 2 categories of projects (Urgent projects I do on weekly / monthly basis) and there is 2 big projects we have been working on for a year and they are not yet complete (because designer is late in delivery and vision is not clear, and urgent projects always delay this project)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I end this with my client in good terms?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will give her one and half month notice but I know we'll never finish the two big projects in this time, and since I am with her for 2 years I am worried they will have a lot of problems without me as they are dependent on me (I know you'll say this is an illusion they don't depend on you, but I'm almost running all company stuff assisting and consulting for the CTO not just developing)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel like there is no good way to end this without letting them down, and I don't think they would care about refund for unfinished project. (which I've been working on for a lot and will be hard to refund )&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I do beside trying to improve documentations? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sorry for the very long question, needed to let this out." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19125" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7268" RevisionGUID="aad54fb2-144b-44b7-a39d-322997f9484f" CreationDate="2017-09-27T19:24:46.957" UserId="18332" Text="Leaving my best client for Job offer, what's the best way to end this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19126" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7268" RevisionGUID="aad54fb2-144b-44b7-a39d-322997f9484f" CreationDate="2017-09-27T19:24:46.957" UserId="18332" Text="|contracts|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19127" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="7268" RevisionGUID="713767aa-3a59-4c4d-8c33-5c2eade228d7" CreationDate="2017-09-27T19:30:28.153" UserId="18332" Comment="edited tags; edited title" Text="Leaving my best longterm freelance client for a Job offer, what's the best way to end this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19128" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7268" RevisionGUID="713767aa-3a59-4c4d-8c33-5c2eade228d7" CreationDate="2017-09-27T19:30:28.153" UserId="18332" Comment="edited tags; edited title" Text="|contracts|communication|long-term|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19129" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7268" RevisionGUID="e324213a-2005-4285-b7b2-b337ab6e9628" CreationDate="2017-09-27T19:39:44.833" UserId="18332" Comment="added 84 characters in body" Text="I'm a full stack software engineer who have been freelancing for a client for 2 years, it turned to a remote job but we never agreed on any contract she just keep sending tasks and I do them and bill her hourly, her company is perfect and I feel like a part of their team in U.S and although I'm getting $2000 USD a month (charging her hourly) it's a lot in my country. even if it's not that much in U.S, living costs are cheaper here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was offered another job with 3500 euro (net 2000Euro) per month which I know is not a good offer but with opportunity to relocate in Germany with a blue card honestly even if the pay is not perfect and I feel I deserve more I feel I can prove my self there and improve my life drastically .&#xD;&#xA;It's a life changing opportunity. I can't refuse this offer as I really want to move to Germany and I this opportunities rarely come.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My biggest concern is we have 2 categories of projects (Urgent projects I do on weekly / monthly basis) and there is 2 big projects we have been working on for a year and they are not yet complete (because designer is late in delivery and vision is not clear, and urgent projects always delay this project)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I end this with my client in good terms? &#xD;&#xA;What is enough notice time (given that we have no contract but ethics require it)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will give her one and half month notice but I know we'll never finish the two big projects in this time, and since I am with her for 2 years I am worried they will have a lot of problems without me as they are dependent on me (I know you'll say this is an illusion they don't depend on you, but I'm almost running all company stuff assisting and consulting for the CTO not just developing)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel like there is no good way to end this without letting them down, and I don't think they would care about refund for unfinished project. (which I've been working on for a lot and will be hard to refund )&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What should I do beside trying to improve documentations? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sorry for the very long question, needed to let this out." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19130" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7269" RevisionGUID="b37545e2-7bbf-4184-96c2-236351cafb8e" CreationDate="2017-09-27T19:48:41.500" UserId="75" Text="In situations like this, I like to imaging I'm the client, and someone else is a freelancer. How would that make me feel, and how would I deal with any mess?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First off, as much notice as necessary. If you have the ability to work remotely for the client, even if it's after your day job, you can offer a change in rate, and to do what you can remotely, until they find another freelancer. This would hopefully keep them happy as long as you're reliable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long term, document everything you can. Hopefully, you have a project outline detailing what has and has not been done, and hopefully your code is written or commented well enough that anyone can come in and complete it. To verify if your documentation is useful, ask a **trusted** friend who knows less than you about the system if they can understand it. If they can, GREAT! If not, then you know what you need to work on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is up to the company to make sure they can survive without any single key person. If they can't, it's largely on them for not managing personnel correctly. For your freelancing business, document everything you can, and prepare a hand-off package when requested - passwords, links, tools, licenses, etc. Imagine your freelancer decided to take a job, and what you'd need to complete the project without that person." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19131" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7270" RevisionGUID="c9bf92dc-863e-4864-ae8e-b95591ff5b5c" CreationDate="2017-09-27T20:04:47.623" UserId="18333" Text="I just completed a project and ended up going about 20 hours over on a 39 hour project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I allowed some scope creep because my contract was not that bulletproof and I didn't feel it was worth the hassle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I saw a suggestion to include the hours but discount them at 100%. Has anyone used this technique before?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;`Possible benefits`: client sees how much work was put into the project and does not develop unrealistic expectations. Also leaves more proper records when referencing back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;`Possible downsides`: client may think you are trying to guilt them into paying for the extra hours. Client may see it as unprofessional because you were unable to provide a good estimate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have learned to better estimate and prevent scope creep for the future, but what are your guys thoughts on this technique given my situation? Thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19132" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7270" RevisionGUID="c9bf92dc-863e-4864-ae8e-b95591ff5b5c" CreationDate="2017-09-27T20:04:47.623" UserId="18333" Text="Including Extra Work as 100% Discounted Hours" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19133" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7270" RevisionGUID="c9bf92dc-863e-4864-ae8e-b95591ff5b5c" CreationDate="2017-09-27T20:04:47.623" UserId="18333" Text="|invoices|billing|billable-hours|scope-creep|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19134" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7271" RevisionGUID="ed9af1a3-81c6-4741-a320-7fa85596ab22" CreationDate="2017-09-28T00:42:55.303" UserId="7717" Text="Right now I have several more clients than I'd really like to have. They are mostly good clients overall, and I enjoy the work I do for them. However, work is never 100% steady with any of them; any given client might give me steady work for several weeks, and then not have anything for me to do for a few weeks after that. All of my contracts are hourly, no retainer, so if I don't have anything to do for anyone on a given day, I don't make any income that day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of the time, things balance out. Even if I don't hear from a few of my clients in a given week, I'll have enough work to do for the remaining clients that I can get in a normal 40 hours for the week. Of course, things don't always work out so neatly. If everyone sends me work at once, I can barely keep up. Conversely, sometimes all of them seem to go on vacation on the same week and I'm left sitting on my hands.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't feel comfortable taking on any *more* clients because I'd be completely overloaded if everyone sent me work at once. I also don't want to start dismissing clients with whom I've had good long-term relationships just because there is some downtime. Nobody is ever willing to pay retainer fees, so that idea is out as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there any good strategies to mitigate downtime or loss of income without adding more and more clients? &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19135" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7271" RevisionGUID="ed9af1a3-81c6-4741-a320-7fa85596ab22" CreationDate="2017-09-28T00:42:55.303" UserId="7717" Text="Too many clients, not enough work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19136" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7271" RevisionGUID="ed9af1a3-81c6-4741-a320-7fa85596ab22" CreationDate="2017-09-28T00:42:55.303" UserId="7717" Text="|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19139" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7272" RevisionGUID="b94ca03b-4436-420e-8a5c-09207712c4f0" CreationDate="2017-09-28T14:37:49.600" UserId="517" Text="I heard only 2 types of stories: those that have 1 client but long-term (and are afraid what would happen if they lose him) and those that have too many clients but short-term. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been in both situations. First like you, and then started increasing rate to get just a few good clients. As a result, when I was on 1 client only, a client suddenly decided not to pursue project maintenance any more. It took me 6 months to reinstate all connections and to return to the position you are complaining about. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, as of them, I have established these rules:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Keep all good clients no matter of their work load or rate&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Find good guys that I can trust and can outsource work when I cannot handle all. Clients are happy with work done, these guys earn, and I also earn finder fee. Win-win for everyone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Keep finding clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In time, you will have a good team of reliable guys that you can outsource work while you have too much work. It can also happen that you work 6-month full-time project for 1 client while outsource all other tasks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But take care not to sacrifice on quality while outsourcing or your will lose clients. Never accept worse quality than you would deliver yourself. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19145" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7271" RevisionGUID="d462b775-c410-4927-9b2e-52e476c541d7" CreationDate="2017-09-30T23:47:32.343" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/914275549622816768" />
  <row Id="19151" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7275" RevisionGUID="43b41431-b7d6-45db-ad21-c57c4a125e2b" CreationDate="2017-10-02T13:01:10.840" UserId="15709" Text="As you may have already read [I had health problems][1], I was K.O. for 3 weeks and it was a big problem for my job for many reasons... I am still having right now hard times to keep up with previous enstablished schedules and deadlines, but I am managing the situation (more or less) well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The &quot;problem&quot; is that I am getting contacted for new jobs from old and new clients, but they don't know about my situation and what happened in this last period.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have almost no time and no chance to work on new projects in the short term. I don't want to ignore them also I don't want to decline possible good jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was thinking to answer them explaining my situation and maybe ask if they can wait some weeks, I'll be glad to work for them, but I don't know if this is the right approach.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I tell them about my health issues and hope for their understanding? Should I just say that I am too busy in this moment? Should I just say I would be available after a certain date? How would you answer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS: I was thinking about hiring some freelance or ask for help to collegues, but for some things the clients wants me, wants to meet me and interact with me during the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/7160/how-to-deal-with-sudden-health-problem" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19152" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7275" RevisionGUID="43b41431-b7d6-45db-ad21-c57c4a125e2b" CreationDate="2017-10-02T13:01:10.840" UserId="15709" Text="How to answer to new client's requests while having no time to work for them?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19153" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7275" RevisionGUID="43b41431-b7d6-45db-ad21-c57c4a125e2b" CreationDate="2017-10-02T13:01:10.840" UserId="15709" Text="|communication|time-management|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19154" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7275" RevisionGUID="3b9ab678-b163-4471-ba50-6bd06bf229f1" CreationDate="2017-10-02T14:11:50.273" UserId="15709" Comment="deleted 9 characters in body" Text="As you may have already read [I had health problems][1], I was K.O. for 3 weeks and it was a big problem for my job for many reasons... I am still having right now hard times to keep up with previous enstablished schedules and deadlines, but I am managing the situation (more or less) well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The &quot;problem&quot; is that I am getting contacted for new jobs from old and new clients, but they don't know about my situation and what happened in this last period.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have almost no time left to work on new projects in the short term, but I don't want to ignore them and also I don't want to decline possible good jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was thinking to answer them explaining my situation and maybe ask if they can wait some weeks, I'll be glad to work for them, but I don't know if this is the right approach.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I tell them about my health issues and hope for their understanding? Should I just say that I am too busy in this moment? Should I just say I would be available after a certain date? How would you answer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS: I was thinking about hiring some freelance or ask for help to collegues, but for some things the clients wants me, wants to meet me and interact with me during the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/7160/how-to-deal-with-sudden-health-problem" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19164" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7279" RevisionGUID="3b174e9f-7b7e-4c10-8fa0-de4b5dd1bec1" CreationDate="2017-10-03T01:30:38.130" UserId="18280" Text="I stopped giving fixed-bids on projects many years ago and am happy with the results. I explain to the clients that I will give them an estimated plan with line items and best estimates for each item. I also explain to the client that I cannot foresee problems that may crop up during implementation.&#xA;&#xA;Furthermore, I provide brief status reports (informally via email) on Fridays. Should a complication begin to arise I will discuss it in the status email so they are aware that additional effort may be required.&#xA;&#xA;Good clients will understand and usually work with you. Clients who insist on fixed-bids usually are more difficult to work with and do not understand that certain things (software) cannot be accurately estimated. &#xA;&#xA;For me, the quality of my clientele increased as the fixed-bidders dropped off. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19168" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7281" RevisionGUID="8bef089f-ba55-4751-b885-a45cee6ae54e" CreationDate="2017-10-03T11:30:16.023" UserId="12865" Text="I would hire a friend of mine who can take the freelance job or someone who can, and any task given I forward them, but I will do revision after my hired guy finish to make sure quality is still in place. &#xA;&#xA;Something like this:&#xA;Client&gt;Me&gt;friend&gt;Me&gt;Client in case everything is ok.&#xA;Client&gt;Me&gt;friend&gt;Me&gt;Friend loop if something is not ok.&#xA;&#xA;Regards.&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19169" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7282" RevisionGUID="4a2412a6-68f3-41c2-8cc0-22dbbfa01078" CreationDate="2017-10-03T12:06:44.907" UserId="18371" Text="For EU countries you can charge about 8-9% (annual), usually starting 30days after invoice date.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A calculator and the rules can be found here: &#xD;&#xA;http://europa.eu/youreurope/business/sell-abroad/payments/late-payment/index_en.htm" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19170" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7283" RevisionGUID="97ae84ab-3e61-41ac-b15b-c3e0c745b54e" CreationDate="2017-10-03T18:24:37.783" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="Is it acceptable to agree a quote first before going to the effort of typing up a proposal and sending a contract?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I often find myself typing up a proposal only to end up losing out on the work to a competitor, meaning wasted time and effort on my part.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So from now on I'm considering simply agreeing a cost first with a quote (or at least confirming that it is within their budget) and then, depending on what the client comes back with, typing up a proposal etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think this would be a more efficient process but I'm not sure if it may look a little unprofessional sending a proposal *after* a quote?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19171" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7283" RevisionGUID="97ae84ab-3e61-41ac-b15b-c3e0c745b54e" CreationDate="2017-10-03T18:24:37.783" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="Agreeing a cost before sending a proposal + contract" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19172" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7283" RevisionGUID="97ae84ab-3e61-41ac-b15b-c3e0c745b54e" CreationDate="2017-10-03T18:24:37.783" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="|contracts|price|fixed-price|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19173" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7284" RevisionGUID="a4b66316-e6b2-4f62-939a-26e2e4e88ff6" CreationDate="2017-10-04T09:17:47.293" UserId="517" Text="Well I do the same as you. And I get back from a client maybe 1 in 10 times (talking about when I am not recommended to a client, but just sending cold proposals on something they need). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In you case, let put yourself into client's perspective. If I want something and a guy tells me &quot;yes I can do it for the budget and if you decide to work with me I will make detailed proposal&quot;. Would I contact this guy? Not at all. Or I would tell him to write a proposal without considering him seriously. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, back on the freelancer's side. Do you think you lost contractor because you wrote quality proposal? Don't be silly. You lost it because the client:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. was looking for cheapest work&#xD;&#xA;2. was looking for someone quickly without looking for quality&#xD;&#xA;3. was unserious client picking the first from the line probably the cheapest one again&#xD;&#xA;4. did not like your proposal or style&#xD;&#xA;5. posted a ghost job and never started to pursue it&#xD;&#xA;6. etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So simply continue what you do and rely on your hunch. If you feel that short 1-liner will work, then make it such. If you feel that you need to make quality proposal, then make it such. I am sure with this approach, you will lose all unserious clients, but you are on a good path to get good clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I said, I am doing the same way as you, and I have no plans to change my style. But I also rely on my hunch. So if I sense unserious client, I reply with short sentences trying not to waste time on them before I am sure that they are serious and that they have the budget for their project. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19176" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6910" RevisionGUID="0c86d6fe-ad08-4cd7-81f6-3f6ffc1c7bd6" CreationDate="2017-10-04T14:59:55.953" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19177" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7285" RevisionGUID="44bc3780-22ce-4caa-8bd6-2b4b453110c8" CreationDate="2017-10-04T19:44:05.433" UserId="18384" Text="I've recently been approached by an employer that has denied my job application some time ago due to incompatible schedules. I understand they're still looking for a person to fill that position, or maybe outsource the job instead, because they'd like me to analyze their systems and write a project proposal to address their IT issues.&#xA;&#xA;Now I believe I have proven myself as a specialist to them, since they came up with that offer. However, I've never written a project proposal, but I have a pretty good idea of what it should have in general and in their specific case.&#xA;&#xA;Should I agree to the job that I have no prior experience with? If so, what should I expect to charge them, considering? I know they are a small medical startup, and they also asked me to give them an estimate.&#xA;&#xA;Thanks in advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19178" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7285" RevisionGUID="44bc3780-22ce-4caa-8bd6-2b4b453110c8" CreationDate="2017-10-04T19:44:05.433" UserId="18384" Text="Should I take on this proposal writing job and what should I charge?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19179" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7285" RevisionGUID="44bc3780-22ce-4caa-8bd6-2b4b453110c8" CreationDate="2017-10-04T19:44:05.433" UserId="18384" Text="|payments|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19183" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6960" RevisionGUID="8eb8fc2d-b257-497d-b454-31c454e3e394" CreationDate="2017-10-04T23:00:08.283" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19184" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7287" RevisionGUID="bb24bcbc-996b-44bf-b14f-6a21ffb80c75" CreationDate="2017-10-05T01:04:31.943" UserId="11681" Text="I am working with a client where I will have to write the curriculum for an iOS course. The curriculum will consists of the flow of the iOS course (4-5 weeks) course and also the assignments. The course will not have any descriptive articles as they can be found on the web. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So mainly the course consists of assignments. There is a chance that the course will have video lectures but for that I will have to charge extra not sure how much. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any ideas how I should proceed with this? Should I break down each assignment a separate charge and each lecture a separate charge? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19185" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7287" RevisionGUID="bb24bcbc-996b-44bf-b14f-6a21ffb80c75" CreationDate="2017-10-05T01:04:31.943" UserId="11681" Text="How to determine the price of writing an iOS curriculum" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19186" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7287" RevisionGUID="bb24bcbc-996b-44bf-b14f-6a21ffb80c75" CreationDate="2017-10-05T01:04:31.943" UserId="11681" Text="|consulting|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19188" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7288" RevisionGUID="3de7dd89-df24-451c-a6fa-773da213fbc7" CreationDate="2017-10-05T11:09:38.960" UserId="18230" Text="You have basically tree possibilities&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Cost based:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The most common mode for freelancers: Just calculate you hourly cost including desired profit and multiply by hours spent. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Market based:** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Price it on, what a similar Product or Service would cost elsewhere i.e. what its worth in the market is. You do this usually when you can sell you product multiple times, so one customer does not have the bear the full cost. Make sure you cover your cost including increased overhead and a risk-margin once you reached your sales-goals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Revenue Sharing:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are pretty convinced of the product, can afford to risk a little bit and want to create a sustainable long-term income. You could, for example, take a small license fee per student. This has the greatest earning-potential but also the greatest risk." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19189" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7289" RevisionGUID="88ca34b4-57e4-4b68-ad15-8b1c09118169" CreationDate="2017-10-05T11:36:17.840" UserId="18230" Text="If you have no experience, make sure you are paid by the hour and for your time - not for the result.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should charge an hourly rate that covers all your costs and a profit that allows you to earn more than normal employment in this kind of job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Simple Example (numbers completely made up - find them out for your locality):&#xD;&#xA;Say you´d earn $500/week net before taxes if employed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Say you want a 20% profit for taking the entrepreneurial risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    600$ for your income&#xD;&#xA;     30$ for Professional indemnity&#xD;&#xA;     50$ downpay for work-equipment&#xD;&#xA;     50$ for office space&#xD;&#xA;    100$ health insurance &#xD;&#xA;     60$ for retirement plan&#xD;&#xA;     ... what else costs you may have&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;890$ add 4/53 for holidays and 2/53 for sick-days etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You probably need on day a week for bookkeeping/invoicing/advertising etc.&#xD;&#xA;So you´d have to earn 1090$ in 32 work-hours, you should charge a minimum of $35 per hour!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19190" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7290" RevisionGUID="4cf8b034-89b8-4e43-84af-377416e2358c" CreationDate="2017-10-05T11:54:15.173" UserId="18230" Text="If you can´t take on more work, for whatever reason, just state that you are currently fully booked and possibly when you expect to be free again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don´t tell any personal stuff. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have more people competing for you time than you can serve, you should also look at increasing prices, especially if it´s not something you could hand over to another person." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19191" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7291" RevisionGUID="43f4cfc9-c8e9-4f4f-8f46-e7679c5a28bc" CreationDate="2017-10-05T12:09:45.943" UserId="18230" Text="This depends how you invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I let myself be persuaded in giving a fixed quote, I don´t even show any hour to the client. &#xD;&#xA;He just gets function X: Price $ 1,000&#xD;&#xA;(Internally i calculate my hourly rate and add a risk-margin X to it)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I am paid by the hour an have to give an estimate, I make sure i communicate this as estimate and deliver a time-sheet to prove my efforts. I make sure to keep my client updated regularly, especially if I realize I need more time. If I then decide to stick to my original estimate in the invoice for some reason, he already know my real effort from the time-sheet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One exception: If I spend time researching or fixing something stupid that I really blame on myself, I may hide it entirely from the client and book this on myself as educational spending.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could deliver the invoice with just the 39 hours, but add a time sheet where your real effort is visible. Then have a chat with the client where you tell him that it took you longer but you wanted to stay true to your word so you only invoiced the original amount. In my experience he will appreciate the gesture as it shows honesty and reliability, even when the consequences are not favorable for you. You build trust by showing how you cope with difficulties, not by hiding them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19192" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7289" RevisionGUID="731ad1e0-165b-48de-bb02-fd29753f4346" CreationDate="2017-10-05T12:53:07.857" UserId="18230" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="If you have no experience, make sure you are paid by the hour and for your time - not for the result.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should charge an hourly rate that covers all your costs and a profit that allows you to earn more than normal employment in this kind of job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Simple Example (numbers completely made up - find them out for your locality):&#xD;&#xA;Say you´d earn $500/week net before taxes if employed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Say you want a 20% profit for taking the entrepreneurial risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    600$ for your income&#xD;&#xA;     30$ for Professional indemnity&#xD;&#xA;     50$ downpay for work-equipment&#xD;&#xA;     50$ for office space&#xD;&#xA;    100$ health insurance &#xD;&#xA;     60$ for retirement plan&#xD;&#xA;     ... what else costs you may have&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;890$ add 4/53 for holidays and 2/53 for sick-days etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You probably need one day a week for bookkeeping/invoicing/advertising etc.&#xD;&#xA;So you´d have to earn 1090$ in 32 work-hours, you should charge a minimum of $35 per hour!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19193" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7292" RevisionGUID="e6a1f37d-33be-4a26-aaa2-91a7bdb462ae" CreationDate="2017-10-05T18:34:44.120" UserId="402" Text="I have registered as a freelancer and yet to start my career. In all the proposals, I have been questioned to showcase my skills(Mostly sql and PLSQL) with some sample work. I have no idea what kind of portfolio/sample work will be impressive and will also showcase my skills?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have seen many front end developers' sharing applications/websites they have developed. But its not  possible for a backend developer like me to display a database without a front end. To a person hiring, it might look like data (Lot of data) and nothing interesting. So when recruiter asks to show a sample of my work, what do I do? Just show them my queries or scripts might not interest a person. (Am I wrong?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; What kind of Sample should I present to the recruiters that will gain their attention?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19194" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7292" RevisionGUID="e6a1f37d-33be-4a26-aaa2-91a7bdb462ae" CreationDate="2017-10-05T18:34:44.120" UserId="402" Text="How should a backend developer showcase his/her projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19195" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7292" RevisionGUID="e6a1f37d-33be-4a26-aaa2-91a7bdb462ae" CreationDate="2017-10-05T18:34:44.120" UserId="402" Text="|attracting-clients|portfolio|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19196" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7293" RevisionGUID="83e68946-a2fb-4a3c-abb2-b0f2f88a3a73" CreationDate="2017-10-05T19:56:35.227" UserId="75" Text="Could you showcase how you've been efficient?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A customer had a query that ran for over 3 minutes to retrieve the data. After detailing the requirements, I was able to run a query to produce the same results in only 3 seconds, making their systems run 60x more efficiently&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would something like that work for you? As a person who appreciates efficiency, it's very easy to see that your solution would scale well, as opposed to the previous solution that made us wait for a long time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19199" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7295" RevisionGUID="52c493de-d0d6-4f99-b3a8-839761f667d3" CreationDate="2017-10-06T14:02:07.117" UserId="18350" Text="I am a freelancer and I'm looking for the best country to incorporate in.&#xD;&#xA;Reading through the various DTAs, I see the term &quot;permanent establishment&quot; used everywhere.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consulting with a lawyer, I was informed that if my *personal* residence is outside the country of incorporation, it counts as a PE of the company. Therefore, it is liable for taxation *in the country of personal residence*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my mind, this makes the whole point of looking for a better tax deal abroad moot. If my home country wants to tax me through the nose, why would I incorporate abroad and pay even more?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have I got this straight or am I missing something?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS: I am searching within the EU only." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19200" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7295" RevisionGUID="52c493de-d0d6-4f99-b3a8-839761f667d3" CreationDate="2017-10-06T14:02:07.117" UserId="18350" Text="Freelancer incorporation abroad: permanent establishment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19201" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7295" RevisionGUID="52c493de-d0d6-4f99-b3a8-839761f667d3" CreationDate="2017-10-06T14:02:07.117" UserId="18350" Text="|taxes|foreign-incorporation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19202" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7288" RevisionGUID="32327f3d-538d-4e64-baf8-e291334eed5b" CreationDate="2017-10-06T15:17:39.007" UserId="18230" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="You have basically three possibilities&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Cost based:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The most common mode for freelancers: Just calculate you hourly cost including desired profit and multiply by hours spent. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Market based:** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Price it on, what a similar Product or Service would cost elsewhere i.e. what its worth in the market is. You do this usually when you can sell you product multiple times, so one customer does not have the bear the full cost. Make sure you cover your cost including increased overhead and a risk-margin once you reached your sales-goals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Revenue Sharing:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are pretty convinced of the product, can afford to risk a little bit and want to create a sustainable long-term income. You could, for example, take a small license fee per student. This has the greatest earning-potential but also the greatest risk." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19205" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7296" RevisionGUID="c1b0a777-b1d1-420b-90dd-c5a8d01797fe" CreationDate="2017-10-07T05:12:38.963" UserId="17309" Text="I am a part time freelancer since last 4 years along with full-time job. Sometimes it felt like being your own boss and sometimes subcontracting the work given me a pleasure of being an investor where money works for you while you're sleeping.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Reaping the benefits of such experience, I consider myself to start my own business. Is it good thinking or just vague imagination? How running a startup is different from being freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19206" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7296" RevisionGUID="c1b0a777-b1d1-420b-90dd-c5a8d01797fe" CreationDate="2017-10-07T05:12:38.963" UserId="17309" Text="Freelancer to Entrepreneur" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19207" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7296" RevisionGUID="c1b0a777-b1d1-420b-90dd-c5a8d01797fe" CreationDate="2017-10-07T05:12:38.963" UserId="17309" Text="|portfolio|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19208" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7296" RevisionGUID="45211e0e-c3d6-4100-a6ee-c31254eb9740" CreationDate="2017-10-07T06:31:40.790" UserId="17309" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="I am a part time freelancer since last 4 years along with full-time job. Sometimes it feels like being your own boss and sometimes subcontracting the work gives me pleasure of being an investor where money works for you while you're sleeping.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Reaping the benefits of such experience, I consider myself to start my own business. Is it good thinking or just vague imagination? How running a startup is different from being freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19209" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7296" RevisionGUID="45211e0e-c3d6-4100-a6ee-c31254eb9740" CreationDate="2017-10-07T06:31:40.790" UserId="17309" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="|working-from-home|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19213" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7298" RevisionGUID="8693d746-3449-45a9-871a-d8ce93c2cf92" CreationDate="2017-10-07T20:26:12.583" UserId="18406" Text="I have grappled with this problem as well. if this is a client that you will have additional work from, even perhaps of the same parameters as first job, you almost have to make them aware of those extra hours, even if you don’t charge them this time  ... for the simple reason you don’t want to have to  continually give the client those extra hours free of charge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Depending on how well versed and familiar the person you are dealing with is with what you do, let that guide and determine the content and extensiveness of your explanation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I too do what Daniel does, and doing this weeds out the clients you didn’t really want anyway. That inflexibility may be due to multiple reasons, from individual personality to fixed budget parameters, but it has been my experience at the end of day the “why” doesn’t matter and as hard as it can be to turn down work ... in the long run it is most definitely to your benefit. If they are inflexible re: a hard and fast quote, that will carry over into other elements of that client relationship. When a quote is requested I never ask what they want, I give them just what Daniel said an estimate. I wait for them to insist on a fixed price. So initially don’t offer it ever. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But too what must be said from the POV of a creative freelancer 16 years now ... part of my job as a freelancer is educating my clients regarding the unknown elements of that process and when they are requesting a fixed quote is when that eduacation starts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Also I have found the range of accuracy is in direct relation to complexity of the project ... the smaller more simplistic the project the more accurate my time estimates are.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if you really want a project and it is very complex with unknown factors, being aware of those factors, allow for extra time because it is always better coming in under then over for both you and the cliient. There have been times I have literally doubled by estimated hours for a quote because there were so many unknowns.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always with first time clients, they themselves are an unknown so you always want to add extra time to first time client projects. The unknown ranging from how well they have it together to even how clear and defined what the client wants is ... all these can change time investment on your end.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But allowing for that extra time, even if you go over you aren’t loosing all of those hours so maybe 3-5 instead of 20. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19214" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7298" RevisionGUID="39806b8e-5b1b-46d5-9724-fec1ee689d74" CreationDate="2017-10-07T20:32:09.837" UserId="18406" Comment="added 38 characters in body" Text="I have grappled with this problem as well. if this is a client that you will have additional work from, even perhaps of the same parameters as first job, you almost have to make them aware of those extra hours, even if you don’t charge them this time  ... for the simple reason you don’t want to have to  continually give the client those extra hours free of charge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Depending on how well versed and familiar the person you are dealing with is with what you do, let that guide and determine the content and extensiveness of your explanation. This has never been a negative for me and it does exactly what Daniel said it builds trust.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I too do what Daniel and Doug do just estimates whenever possible, and doing this weeds out the clients you didn’t really want anyway. That inflexibility may be due to multiple reasons, from individual personality to fixed budget parameters, but it has been my experience at the end of day the “why” doesn’t matter and as hard as it can be to turn down work ... in the long run it is most definitely to your benefit. If they are inflexible re: a hard and fast quote, that will carry over into other elements of that client relationship. When a quote is requested I never ask what they want, I give them just what Doug said an estimate. I wait for them to insist on a fixed price. So initially don’t offer it ever. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But too what must be said from the POV of a creative freelancer 16 years now ... part of my job as a freelancer is educating my clients regarding the unknown elements of that process and when they are requesting a fixed quote is when that eduacation starts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Also I have found the range of accuracy is in direct relation to complexity of the project ... the smaller more simplistic the project the more accurate my time estimates are.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if you really want a project and it is very complex with unknown factors, being aware of those factors, allow for extra time because it is always better coming in under then over for both you and the cliient. There have been times I have literally doubled by estimated hours for a quote because there were so many unknowns.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always with first time clients, they themselves are an unknown so you always want to add extra time to first time client projects. The unknown ranging from how well they have it together to even how clear and defined what the client wants is ... all these can change time investment on your end.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But allowing for that extra time, even if you go over you aren’t loosing all of those hours so maybe 3-5 instead of 20. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19216" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7299" RevisionGUID="4880d72e-8d6d-4724-ae7a-b0b2cbaa6ec9" CreationDate="2017-10-08T02:33:39.443" UserId="16149" Text="someone is paying me to write them a program. This program could be useful for many people though, so after they've paid me I'm thinking of putting it up on the web as free, everyone can see the source code, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But the person originally paying me might think it's mean because he needed to pay and everyone else gets it free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another idea is to wait a couple of years and then put it on the internet. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is good practice?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Ps. I couldn't find any good tags, so add them and delete this message if you think of good ones, or post them in the comments and I'll add them and delete this message)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19217" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7299" RevisionGUID="4880d72e-8d6d-4724-ae7a-b0b2cbaa6ec9" CreationDate="2017-10-08T02:33:39.443" UserId="16149" Text="Is it bad to release work as free after it's sold?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19218" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7299" RevisionGUID="4880d72e-8d6d-4724-ae7a-b0b2cbaa6ec9" CreationDate="2017-10-08T02:33:39.443" UserId="16149" Text="|programmer|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19219" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7300" RevisionGUID="725ec101-3ae2-4d75-ab92-094adb160d96" CreationDate="2017-10-08T06:41:06.290" UserId="708" Text="I **always** include every discount on any invoice. Even if the discount amounts to 100%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why? Well...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The client see the added value they are receiving.&#xD;&#xA; 2. If I should have trouble collecting the amount due, there's a&#xD;&#xA;    written record of the discount provided. And that discount can be&#xD;&#xA;    rescinded if payment is not made. So if collections becomes necessary, I can go after the non-discounted amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do not provide a written record of the discount you've extended, then it amounts to your word against theirs. So keep **written records** of everything." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19220" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6966" RevisionGUID="997e759e-e33e-42e5-84a3-27f58a27e40a" CreationDate="2017-10-08T09:49:46.003" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19221" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7301" RevisionGUID="8b10ba87-7f06-48d6-b0e0-ea44fe08f4b9" CreationDate="2017-10-08T17:00:03.537" UserId="708" Text="Yes. It's exceptionally unethical in *most* instances unless it's agreed upon prior to the work being performed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In all probability the *only* reason this &quot;program&quot; was creates was due to the client *paying* you to create it. Any client *paying you* for you to then release the product for free is going to be very, very, very upset.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, the contract for the work may mean you don't own the IP and would be essentially distributing it against the rights you have. No way of knowing this without seeing the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, the *one* thing you can be **absolutely certain** of is such an action will spark horrible word-of-mouth for your services from the client who paid you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19223" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7301" RevisionGUID="44f37847-8458-40e1-a5eb-4abcf304d1a1" CreationDate="2017-10-09T18:21:31.383" UserId="708" Comment="edited body" Text="Yes. It's exceptionally unethical in *most* instances unless it's agreed upon prior to the work being performed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In all probability the *only* reason this &quot;program&quot; was created was due to the client *paying* you to create it. Any client *paying you* only to then have you turn around and release, the product they paid for, for free is going to be very, very, very upset. Possibly even so much as to consider legal recourse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, the contract for the work may mean you don't own the Intellectual Property (IP) and would be essentially distributing it against the rights you have. No way of knowing this without seeing the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, the *one* thing you can be **absolutely certain** of is such an action will spark horrible word-of-mouth for your services from the client who paid you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(I'm honestly amazed this is even a consideration.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19224" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7300" RevisionGUID="67cdf208-a85d-4295-be52-5a638a079c55" CreationDate="2017-10-10T06:36:30.563" UserId="708" Comment="added 97 characters in body" Text="I **always** include every discount on any invoice. Even if the discount amounts to 100%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why? Well...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The client see the added value they are receiving.&#xD;&#xA; 2. If I should have trouble collecting the amount due, there's a&#xD;&#xA;    written record of the discount provided. And that discount can be&#xD;&#xA;    rescinded if payment is not made. So if collections becomes necessary, I can go after the non-discounted amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do not provide a written record of the discount you've extended, then it amounts to your word against theirs. So keep **written records** of everything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I actually indicate on the invoice all discounts are valid for 30 days to encourage payment. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19225" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7302" RevisionGUID="1ec02ccf-e308-45ae-996e-c71865921731" CreationDate="2017-10-10T08:07:53.053" UserId="18230" Text="Having done both:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Startup is to freelancing like - take your administrative overhead and multiply by 100. Also take your responsibility and your worries and multiply by 100.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If you are good at your job, stay freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;- If you are good at finding people who are good at their job, start a company.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19226" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7303" RevisionGUID="32c80377-f058-4bcd-916e-419a2064003a" CreationDate="2017-10-10T08:51:22.667" UserId="18230" Text="You are not missing something. To get to enjoy the Tax-loopholes you have to be a big Multinational (or be willing to move)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19227" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7304" RevisionGUID="d32019b0-43cb-4f77-a472-faa81276131f" CreationDate="2017-10-10T09:03:39.337" UserId="18230" Text="Normally such matters should be discussed beforehand. A development-contract should always clearly state ownership and exclusivity!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you could do, is reach out to the client and see what he thinks of your Idea. Especially after some time has passed, he may also be interested in any further development open-sourcing can bring. Also, you could include him in the credentials  like:&quot;This source code was developed by X and sponsored by Y-Company&quot; Maybe he´ll like the Marketing-effect?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have an open discussion I don´t see a problem, but you should be prepared to get a &quot;No&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19228" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7305" RevisionGUID="eee146a0-4ee3-483f-ac11-4349ea04a80a" CreationDate="2017-10-10T10:20:38.237" UserId="18427" Text="After working on a freelance Graphic Design project in New York for an individual wanting to start a magazine I had to return back to the UK for visa reasons. I did not manage to complete the project but the design was finished by the other designer I was working through. The invoice I sent was in last December and have been asking for it to be paid for nearly a year now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client keeps falling back on the contract, which states that payment will happen within two weeks of the first issue of the magazine being put out, but his magazine project has failed and its not being printed. There is nothing in the contract about what happens in this situation. After regular reminders of the invoice the client is now saying I breached the contract terms by not completing the job (this is not mentioned in the contract) and now is saying he will get his lawyer involved. I want to go ahead with this, not for the money but so he can't think he can just screw people over, but worried about what legal standing I have? I don't want to get caught up in some court case, has anyone had any similar experience?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19229" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7305" RevisionGUID="eee146a0-4ee3-483f-ac11-4349ea04a80a" CreationDate="2017-10-10T10:20:38.237" UserId="18427" Text="Client refusing to pay, threatening to involve lawyer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19230" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7305" RevisionGUID="eee146a0-4ee3-483f-ac11-4349ea04a80a" CreationDate="2017-10-10T10:20:38.237" UserId="18427" Text="|contracts|legal|payment-terms|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19231" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7305" RevisionGUID="f2357b34-63e5-4a36-85e2-de348bf19eb1" CreationDate="2017-10-10T11:18:40.837" UserId="18427" Comment="deleted 3 characters in body" Text="After working on a freelance Graphic Design project in New York for an individual wanting to start a magazine I had to return back to the UK for visa reasons. I did not manage to complete the project but the design was finished by the other designer I was working with. The invoice I sent was in last December and have been asking for it to be paid for nearly a year now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract states that payment will happen within two weeks of the first issue of the magazine being put out, but his magazine project has failed and its not being printed. There is nothing in the contract about what happens in this situation yet the client continues to constantly replies to my messages telling me to remember the terms I signed off on in the contract. After regular reminders of the invoice the client is now saying I breached the contract terms by not completing the job, something that isn't covered in the contract, and now is saying he will get his lawyer involved. I want to go ahead with this, not for the money but so he can't think he can just screw people over, but worried about what legal standing I have? I don't want to get caught up in some court case, has anyone had any similar experience?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19232" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7306" RevisionGUID="0d04d74c-9183-4545-8fe0-8d14d49c4f2c" CreationDate="2017-10-10T11:47:40.370" UserId="18230" Text="There is always a possibility of payment dispute when you freelance - especially if something is not successful. This is part of the &quot;entrepreneurial risk&quot; you should factor into your pricing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apparently you made the Payment dependent on the Project as a whole being a success. It was not - take it as a learning. In the Future only sign contracts to be paid in relation to delivery of the work and preferably billed by the hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have any legal standing can only be answered by an attorney familiar with you case and the local laws.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it is not for the money I would not bother and write it off to experience. Life is to short to teach every jackass a lesson. Concentrate on the good clients, you´ll get further that way!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19233" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7307" RevisionGUID="59e203ff-0ddf-4dc7-9390-55509d2236ac" CreationDate="2017-10-10T13:19:13.540" UserId="15143" Text="You aren't going to get your money back. Forget it. There's no possibility your client will pay without legal disputes. Unless you want to hire a lawyer, I think you should write it off for experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's unlikely you'll be put into court, that was just a response for not paying. Everyone who failed to pay me in my career threatened me with something like that, but nothing ever happened.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think like this? What would your client possibly get? Hiring a lawyer is **very** expensive, who would do it for a failed magazine? The project completed, you were never paid, the business already failed .... There is no motivation and incentive to put you to court.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19234" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7299" RevisionGUID="3d059a7e-9c89-4200-9c68-1f11406c0223" CreationDate="2017-10-10T14:41:03.423" UserId="9" Comment="Replaced [programmer] with [copyright], grammar" Text="A client is paying me to write a program for them. This program could be useful to many people though, so after they've paid me, I'm thinking of putting the program and source code online for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But the client who paid me may think it's mean because they had to pay for the program, but everyone else gets it for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another idea is to wait a couple of years and then put it on the internet. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be the best practice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19235" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7299" RevisionGUID="3d059a7e-9c89-4200-9c68-1f11406c0223" CreationDate="2017-10-10T14:41:03.423" UserId="9" Comment="Replaced [programmer] with [copyright], grammar" Text="|copyright|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19236" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7291" RevisionGUID="889744b2-c2f1-4f02-87a5-fda030180735" CreationDate="2017-10-10T14:58:19.843" UserId="18230" Comment="edited body" Text="This depends how you invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I let myself be persuaded in giving a fixed quote, I don´t even show any hour to the client. &#xD;&#xA;He just gets function X: Price $ 1,000&#xD;&#xA;(Internally I calculate my hourly rate and add a risk-margin X to it)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I am paid by the hour an have to give an estimate, I make sure I communicate this as estimate and deliver a time-sheet to prove my efforts. I make sure to keep my client updated regularly, especially if I realize I need more time. If I then decide to stick to my original estimate in the invoice for some reason, he already know my real effort from the time-sheet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One exception: If I spend time researching or fixing something stupid that I really blame on myself, I may hide it entirely from the client and book this on myself as educational spending.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could deliver the invoice with just the 39 hours, but add a time sheet where your real effort is visible. Then have a chat with the client where you tell him that it took you longer but you wanted to stay true to your word so you only invoiced the original amount. In my experience he will appreciate the gesture as it shows honesty and reliability, even when the consequences are not favorable for you. You build trust by showing how you cope with difficulties, not by hiding them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19237" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7305" RevisionGUID="f914e9a8-5eb5-4124-a90e-9cdef7db0b8f" CreationDate="2017-10-11T03:02:57.810" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/917948607785066496" />
  <row Id="19242" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7310" RevisionGUID="817c49bd-ca56-433b-b3be-a669b03a56dc" CreationDate="2017-10-11T15:05:58.657" UserId="18443" Text="My solution was to **inform her about the schledule**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not only this allows her to plan her own stuff, it also creates clear boundary when I need to work or have skype meeting or whatever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It also removes any doubt about whether you really need to be working at that specific time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19246" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7311" RevisionGUID="00a8078f-08bc-4b29-a1d8-18351fa49fb3" CreationDate="2017-10-11T19:00:25.430" UserId="18059" Text="Do clients ask for proofs of certs and education or your portfolio is enough?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a net developer with a couple of years of experience, I never bothered to do beyond high school because where I live developers are very rare so companies don't hesitate to give you a contract after 3 months of trial. I was wondering this because lately I'm having entire weeks with nothing to do&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19247" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7311" RevisionGUID="00a8078f-08bc-4b29-a1d8-18351fa49fb3" CreationDate="2017-10-11T19:00:25.430" UserId="18059" Text="Do you need a degree to freelance?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19248" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7311" RevisionGUID="00a8078f-08bc-4b29-a1d8-18351fa49fb3" CreationDate="2017-10-11T19:00:25.430" UserId="18059" Text="|portfolio|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19249" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7312" RevisionGUID="03cb335e-41bd-450f-af6f-62d1010a4650" CreationDate="2017-10-12T08:24:08.470" UserId="708" Text="A degree is only required when laws require it. Such as.... (in the United States) A PhD is mandatory to be a doctor. Passing the Bar is mandatory to be an attorney, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless laws require a profession to be licensed or have educational minimums, then no you do not need to have a degree to freelance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having a degree will almost *always* put you above job candidates without degrees. Some employers will only consider those with *proven* knowledge. If you can do that without formal education you may be fine. However, formal education at least confirms to employers that you studied the area you are attempting to work in." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19250" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7313" RevisionGUID="0e5a2bfa-1886-4841-bdad-14afe0ca6e5e" CreationDate="2017-10-12T10:00:55.493" UserId="14925" Text="No, You don't need a degree. You need to know the skills in which you are freelancing so that you can complete the tasks assigned to you effectively and successfully" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19251" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7314" RevisionGUID="2ec272f7-c90a-40f7-b079-e1f06bff1ef0" CreationDate="2017-10-12T10:10:40.970" UserId="18230" Text="I have never been asked for any proofs of certs or anything. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, a MCSE-Badge or similar on your website does have some advertising effect. But I never encountered one who wanted to actually see proof or anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question is, how do you get your clients. When you get recommended, have worked for them prior or get recognized in any other way as &quot;the man to got to, for this kind of problems&quot; Degree will not play any role in getting the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you compete, like on a portal and the other freelancers have additional qualification to advertise their services, you are likely to get sorted out." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19252" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7315" RevisionGUID="bc518ac4-8706-4178-bcc4-9bcbf266644b" CreationDate="2017-10-12T12:59:32.930" UserId="18448" Text="I know the question have been debated here, but I didn't quite find a lot of informations about developement (most was about CMS aka WordPress, Drupal)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I did a mission of about 3 months with a big company (~65000 employees). The mission was about adding the missing features and debugging as Full-Stack (Laravel Backend, JQuery/HTML/CSS Front) of an internal reference database they use daily&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now they liked my work, they want a maintenance contract for this needs :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    - maintenance of the server (adding a little bit of DevOps there)&#xD;&#xA;    - potential debugging of the application&#xD;&#xA;    - potential evolution of the application&#xD;&#xA;And the contract should be an annual one&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I'm a bit starting of with big company as a freelancer, I don't know how I could price my maintenance contract.&#xD;&#xA;As a first try, I made one that charge an annual fee for the disponibility it imply accompagned with an ascending hour payments for each degree of maintenance they would (is the need impterative ? critical ? or simply a need of little debugging ?) but I don't know if it could fit as big company there tends to like all-in-one annual fees and basta.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how could you see a good round up of this and maybe give a poential price ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19253" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7315" RevisionGUID="bc518ac4-8706-4178-bcc4-9bcbf266644b" CreationDate="2017-10-12T12:59:32.930" UserId="18448" Text="Maintenance contract as a Full-Stack developer with big company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19254" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7315" RevisionGUID="bc518ac4-8706-4178-bcc4-9bcbf266644b" CreationDate="2017-10-12T12:59:32.930" UserId="18448" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|web-development|maintenance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19255" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7316" RevisionGUID="e1881edc-6bba-4da0-9fc0-12687ee5b069" CreationDate="2017-10-12T13:19:02.410" UserId="18230" Text="How about offer them a fixed price for one year of maintenance with an hour-cap.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like, this agreement shall include up to 96 work-hours per year. Work exceeding that amount will be charged at a rate of xy. Unused hours will be discarded ate the end of the year and may not be redistributed to other tasks...&#xD;&#xA;(*Adjust to your need and have wording checked by lawyer*)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then be sure to keep track of your hours and share with them on a monthly basis. Also you should define how hours are counted, like every request is rounded up to to at least 15 minutes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also be sure to leave you enough room for your response time - you my be sick or on holidays so guaranteeing a 24 hour reaction time under all circumstances may not be the feasible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19256" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7317" RevisionGUID="fc3c5ed8-4a24-4e12-907a-81247be48d4f" CreationDate="2017-10-12T17:16:22.233" UserId="18059" Text="If you want to show this to a non technical person build ERM's and UML's that should be enough to show them your knowledge with databases&#xD;&#xA;Say some stuff like: &quot;x table works for y module in the app so it's a critical component for operation etc etc&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the person has knowledge then build a repository and upload a lot of basic stored procedures, functions, backup automation, replication, basic queries etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19267" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7322" RevisionGUID="08fcae56-d3e6-41af-b5c0-fdc2c0c57fee" CreationDate="2017-10-13T08:52:01.123" UserId="16721" Text="Thoroughly read your contract is there any condition like this? If there you cann't use it. If not than you can use it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But let me ask you one question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Are you really thinking about it?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just think that if you are client you paid some money to developer for your product. &#xD;&#xA;You are going to done social media marketing , SEO etc for making that product famous.&#xD;&#xA;But suddendly you find open source code or product same like your paid product. What will comes first in your mind?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What will you do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19269" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7323" RevisionGUID="f372ae90-e4fd-4913-b037-d4a8d47c1907" CreationDate="2017-10-13T08:58:02.303" UserId="18230" Text="You need a professional indemnity that covers claims arising out of that period. PI is kind of an &quot;passive legal protection&quot; because the insurance company will try to protect you to not have to pay any claims." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19270" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7324" RevisionGUID="2730da0f-9b4b-4b95-8e3f-bb28c6fef3fe" CreationDate="2017-10-13T09:18:02.100" UserId="18456" Text="I'm creating a new privacy document based on the GDPR. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a site which collects some personal data (first name, last name, location, etc). My site (including database) is hosted by a hosting company, they undoubtedly have access to my server.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I need to document whom I'm sharing the personal information with. I'd like to market my site as *&quot;We don't share your information with third parties.&quot;*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although I'm now not entirely sure anymore. Is this hosting company, legally speaking, a 'third party'?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19271" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7324" RevisionGUID="2730da0f-9b4b-4b95-8e3f-bb28c6fef3fe" CreationDate="2017-10-13T09:18:02.100" UserId="18456" Text="Is a hosting party a 'third-party'?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19272" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7324" RevisionGUID="2730da0f-9b4b-4b95-8e3f-bb28c6fef3fe" CreationDate="2017-10-13T09:18:02.100" UserId="18456" Text="|legal|software|information-technology|company-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19273" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7325" RevisionGUID="5b58d543-b37f-4bac-85ba-d11cd3e22429" CreationDate="2017-10-13T15:03:47.383" UserId="18230" Text="Not really sharing, because the may not legally be allowed to access the data.&#xD;&#xA;Depends on your jurisdiction - in the EU you would have to make sure they are contractually bound to keep that data secret and are not under higher jurisdiction that says otherwise. That is why serious hosting company's usually have documents prepared for that. Maybe you could still be &quot;not sharing&quot; if you made sure the date on the server is properly encrypted? Or get your own Server at a co-location." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19274" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7270" RevisionGUID="eb801f47-3f11-4c2a-9bcb-0dede558f4c5" CreationDate="2017-10-13T18:07:04.170" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/918900909563961344" />
  <row Id="19276" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7326" RevisionGUID="30edb08b-0424-48b4-a704-80f8c923481e" CreationDate="2017-10-15T15:01:50.150" UserId="18465" Text="You must not put it up in open.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If still you feel a strong need to publish the code or solution, you must a priori ask the relevant client for their comfort and convenience." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19277" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7327" RevisionGUID="41e23692-4c34-4de5-ac97-cb862cb5dffc" CreationDate="2017-10-16T00:13:48.663" UserId="2884" Text="Where are you located? Where is the party that is hiring you located?  Much of the advice in this column so far would be quite illegal in the United States, and potentially so even if you are not located in the US. In the US, if you are hired to develop software, then that work is considered for hire, which means that unless the contract states otherwise, 100% of the ownership and legal rights go to the company that hired you. You do not own the code, they do, you just programmed it. If you release the code, that could result in some serious legal trouble for you. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19278" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6510" RevisionGUID="f0c97995-0eaf-41d1-b9d4-37a7771b4ab7" CreationDate="2017-10-16T07:18:11.280" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19279" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7328" RevisionGUID="0b3c3f99-a372-4838-8148-72d220b3d217" CreationDate="2017-10-16T16:41:09.733" UserId="18467" Text="Is it common for freelancers to have a minimum number of hours they will bill? If so what is the minimum number of hours? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I bill hourly in 1/2 hour increments, but I have not set a minimum number of hours. The issue is I get many small support projects/requests (for example lets 5 requests, that take about 20-30 minutes each) on a weekly basis that usually interrupt my work on a long term projects (lets say 1-2 week project). I may only work on the small project for 20-30 minutes, but the loss of effort/productiveness on the long term project is greater than that. The interruption breaks my flow from getting things done on the long term project. So I'm thinking a 1 hour minimum or maybe a 1.5 hour minimum is not too much to ask. Or is there some other common practice to cover the loss in productivity caused by small support projects/requests. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it help here's a little background. I'm a freelance web developer, and have been working for myself for 10 years. Most of the requests are to support sites I've built. Many requests are for software upgrades. Some requests are just to add content. Some request are for site enhancements (install, configure, and/or stylize a plugin). &#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19280" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7328" RevisionGUID="0b3c3f99-a372-4838-8148-72d220b3d217" CreationDate="2017-10-16T16:41:09.733" UserId="18467" Text="Minimum number of hours" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19281" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7328" RevisionGUID="0b3c3f99-a372-4838-8148-72d220b3d217" CreationDate="2017-10-16T16:41:09.733" UserId="18467" Text="|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19282" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7329" RevisionGUID="70f3161b-829d-4e7b-8829-d07a5025ec06" CreationDate="2017-10-16T17:17:33.907" UserId="18230" Text="Yes it is common, any you just delivered the reasoning why.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although, I think you need to separate between two different problems here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. The immediate productive loss / switching time between tasks. You increment of 1/2 hourly seems about right for me - but of course you need to determine for yourself what fits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. If it happens often, scheduling of your other work gets difficult. Now this is a little bit tricky, because sometime those little support and maintenance jobs may be necessary to keep your client happy. So just rejecting those could impossible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should try to formalize those incidents in a way that you can keep some concentration time for you. There are several possibilities for those situations:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- A ticking system could help collect the requests and let you deal with them once you are ready.&#xD;&#xA;- Support contracts could give you a certain, paid time you can plan with, for these cases.&#xD;&#xA;- Special telephone hours you negotiate with your clients could help you get some quiet time to do the other tasks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also had my &quot;special&quot; clients who would for example pay double my normal rate, because I ended up always working double the billable time for them etc. So if you have clients you feel you are not making a fair amount of money on, feel free to introduce individual rules." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19283" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6510" RevisionGUID="34aa27dc-3cea-4488-b089-2eebf51f5f3d" CreationDate="2017-10-18T06:11:36.677" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/920532797277777921" />
  <row Id="19287" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7329" RevisionGUID="2a4aaff9-0748-4ddb-a89f-4dc35c1a2be5" CreationDate="2017-10-18T18:31:05.033" UserId="18230" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="Yes it is common, any you just delivered the reasoning why.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although, I think you need to separate between two different problems here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. The immediate productive loss / switching time between tasks. Your increment of 1/2 hourly seems about right for me - but of course you need to determine for yourself what fits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. If it happens often, scheduling of your other work gets difficult. Now this is a little bit tricky, because sometime those little support and maintenance jobs may be necessary to keep your client happy. So just rejecting those could be impossible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should try to formalize those incidents in a way that you can keep some concentration time for you. There are several possibilities for those situations:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- A ticking system could help collect the requests and let you deal with them once you are ready.&#xD;&#xA;- Support contracts could give you a certain, paid time you can plan with, for these cases.&#xD;&#xA;- Special telephone hours you negotiate with your clients could help you get some quiet time to do the other tasks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also had my &quot;special&quot; clients who would for example pay double my normal rate, because I ended up always working double the billable time for them etc. So if you have clients you feel you are not making a fair amount of money on, feel free to introduce individual rules." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19288" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6547" RevisionGUID="c48e8500-9fb1-4e93-aa8b-f1ce0ed5cf5d" CreationDate="2017-10-19T10:03:14.810" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19290" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7332" RevisionGUID="b7aed9ab-e459-4ce4-90c2-04f39f324a7a" CreationDate="2017-10-20T18:56:16.810" UserId="18497" Text="It is not &quot;exceptionally unethical&quot; as previously answered.  Ethics has nothing to do with it as it is a matter of property.  Just because a client pays you to develop a program for them does not automatically convey to them some ethical right of ownership to the work.  After all it is the fruit of your labor.  The property ownership is all that matters and that depends on the circumstances.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, and this should go without saying, the only advice you should take seriously is that from an intellectual property lawyer in your jurisdiction. (I am not one.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the US, if you are the copyright owner of source code then you can license that work however you wish.  You can sell it to Alice today and then give it to Bob tomorrow.  You can license it to Acme Inc. as open source next week and then license it to Bell Corp. using a proprietary agreement next year.  Being your property it is yours to dispense with as you see fit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But you may have surrendered that right to the client.  In my own independent contract work for software companies I have not yet seen a consulting agreement that did not explicitly convey the intellectual property ownership of my work to the client.  In fact they are usually quite verbose on the matter and cast a wide net just to be sure with language such as &quot;all rights, title, interests, secrets, etc&quot; and then &quot;in perpetuity&quot;.  If you signed such an agreement with your client then you are bound by that and any attempt to resell the work later would be theft from the client and possibly fraud to the buyer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However if you did not agree to such terms then the client does not necessarily have an implied ownership of your work.  In the US for example you would need to refer to the appropriate state laws concerning work for hire and shop rights, again with the help of an IP lawyer.  Much of it depends on precedence.  Even if the client does have implied ownership you might find they don't care.  Or they may be willing to sell you back the rights for reasonable compensation.  (I have done that!)  Get such indifference or deals in writing and then you will be able to freely market your work &quot;guilt free&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19293" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="08557d70-601f-4861-afcb-ceb9721bb669" CreationDate="2017-10-21T04:38:48.557" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19295" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3578" RevisionGUID="e6c82c82-b7b8-4e54-9027-2ab52210226f" CreationDate="2017-10-21T15:51:29.227" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19296" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7334" RevisionGUID="5305b76b-d894-4347-a16b-442811d84ed2" CreationDate="2017-10-21T20:40:42.603" UserId="18504" Text="Check the terms of service for Forge to see if they say otherwise (I super doubt this), and your development contract, otherwise you're in the clear.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your clients pay you for services rendered, but you set the prices for that service and can structure it however you want. The charges you pay to make this happen are up to you. You can structure your prices however you like." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19301" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7336" RevisionGUID="c26b84db-6039-4507-8eab-95bf7d570301" CreationDate="2017-10-23T12:32:34.447" UserDisplayName="user18473" Text="I am fresh graduate in computer science with no industrial experience, other than tutoring.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I have decide to work as a freelance web developer. I am trying to build portfolio in-order to showcase my skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I am hoping to develop two websites from the scratch using Django and Ruby on Rails. And finally host them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Does developing one website from framework would be enough to get the first freelancing job? or should I do couple of small projects from each framework?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice would be highly appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19302" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7336" RevisionGUID="c26b84db-6039-4507-8eab-95bf7d570301" CreationDate="2017-10-23T12:32:34.447" UserDisplayName="user18473" Text="How much projects need to get the first web development job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19303" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7336" RevisionGUID="c26b84db-6039-4507-8eab-95bf7d570301" CreationDate="2017-10-23T12:32:34.447" UserDisplayName="user18473" Text="|attracting-clients|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19304" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7336" RevisionGUID="71aaabe9-7975-4124-bc86-7eb7720d18c9" CreationDate="2017-10-24T05:09:50.217" UserDisplayName="user18473" Comment="added 67 characters in body" Text="I am fresh graduate in computer science with no industrial experience, other than tutoring.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I have decide to work as a freelance web developer. I am trying to build portfolio in-order to showcase my skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I am hoping to develop two websites from the scratch using Django and Ruby on Rails. And finally host them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Does developing one website from framework would be enough to get the first freelancing job? or should I do couple of small projects from each framework?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice would be highly appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*My goals is to find clients locally and on freelancing platforms.*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19305" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7336" RevisionGUID="dc0d28ce-f113-43a1-a987-327eaebd0d96" CreationDate="2017-10-24T05:16:37.777" UserDisplayName="user18473" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="I am fresh graduate in computer science with no industrial experience, other than tutoring.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I have decide to work as a freelance web developer. I am trying to build portfolio in-order to showcase my skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I am hoping to develop two websites from the scratch using Django and Ruby on Rails. And finally host them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Does developing one website from framework would be enough to get the first freelancing job? or should I do couple of small projects from each framework?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice would be highly appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*My objective is to find clients locally and on freelancing platforms.*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19306" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7337" RevisionGUID="d759a9c8-46e0-4024-8d61-dbbe994350f2" CreationDate="2017-10-24T05:18:33.083" UserId="15143" Text="Please note the number of websites you make is secondary to the quality you have. A single high traffic website you have is much more important than 100000 nobody-care useless websites. If you want to do it, please  focus on quality and try to make it useful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know about your local area so I won't comment, I'll focus on online platforms. No, making one or multiple websites **won't** land you a job magically. If that was the case, everybody would be able to get a freelancing job - if you can make a website, other freelancers can also do that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please note website development is extraordinary competitive, you'll compete against 100+ freelancers everytime when you make a bid, most of them will have better history and experience than a fresh graduate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not here to discourage you, I'm just here to point out facts. If you find yourself difficulty in securing your first job online, please spend your efforts on building a truly useful and popular website. If you can do that, you'll find getting freelancing jobs much easier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Number of projects itself won't land you your first web development job**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19311" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7338" RevisionGUID="45227253-09d6-4c9d-b47b-6dfd92422ea5" CreationDate="2017-10-24T17:28:27.550" UserId="18180" Text="I am aware there are many other questions like this one, but from what I've seen the answer varies significantly based on which countries are involved. I'm a freelance contractor in the US, and I may soon be working with a New Zealand company. What are my tax obligations? I know of those intrinsic to working as an independent contractor in the US, but what changes or is added when the client is in New Zealand?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19312" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7338" RevisionGUID="45227253-09d6-4c9d-b47b-6dfd92422ea5" CreationDate="2017-10-24T17:28:27.550" UserId="18180" Text="US Freelancer working for New Zealand company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19313" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7338" RevisionGUID="45227253-09d6-4c9d-b47b-6dfd92422ea5" CreationDate="2017-10-24T17:28:27.550" UserId="18180" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19314" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7339" RevisionGUID="06dd2b4c-84b1-41f4-834b-e7487592a347" CreationDate="2017-10-24T20:22:37.740" UserId="708" Text="US taxes are based upon **US INCOME**. Where that income originates is irrelevant. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You live and work in the US... you drive on US roads... your children (if you have any) go to US schools... you pay US taxes on all money you earn, even if that income originates from outside the US or even Earth. In many respects it's the same as state taxes. If you live in State A you pay State A taxes, even if you have a client living in State B or State C. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The *only* difference with overseas clients is the rate of exchange for the currency. If you charge $10 US the client sends you $10US, that means they are actually spending roughly $15 NZD. You still earn $10 US dollars though. So you pay taxes on teh $10 US dollars you earned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, in this case, don't let the client talk you into receiving NZD... you'll make **less**. Make it clear that all invoices are in US Dollars. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And yeah.. hire an accountant. Or even jsut fond one you can connect with from time to time to bounce stuff off of if needed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19315" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7339" RevisionGUID="ef807134-9df7-4612-8f33-3fbf9d77019e" CreationDate="2017-10-24T20:24:24.493" UserId="708" Comment="added 76 characters in body" Text="US taxes are based upon **US INCOME**. Where that income originates is irrelevant. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You live and work in the US... you drive on US roads... your children (if you have any) go to US schools... you pay US taxes on all money you earn, even if that income originates from outside the US or even Earth. In many respects it's the same as state taxes. If you live in State A you pay State A taxes on your income, even if you have a client living in State B or State C. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The *only* difference with overseas clients is the rate of exchange for the currency. If you charge $10 US the client sends you $10US, that means they are actually spending roughly $15 NZD. You still earn $10 US dollars though. So you pay taxes on teh $10 US dollars you earned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, in this case, don't let the client talk you into receiving NZD... you'll make **less**. Make it clear that all invoices are in US Dollars. If you don't and the client sends you that $10 as NZD, you'll only earn ~$7.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And yeah.. hire an accountant. Or even jsut fond one you can connect with from time to time to bounce stuff off of if needed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19316" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7339" RevisionGUID="1052b664-e4e8-43cc-8003-32aa787230ce" CreationDate="2017-10-24T20:26:10.843" UserId="708" Comment="edited body" Text="US taxes are based upon **US INCOME**. Where that income originates is irrelevant. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You live and work in the US... you drive on US roads... your children (if you have any) go to US schools... you pay US taxes on all money you earn, even if that income originates from outside the US or even Earth. In many respects it's the same as state taxes. If you live in State A you pay State A taxes on your income, even if you have a client living in State B or State C. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The *only* difference with overseas clients is the rate of exchange for the currency. If you charge $10 US the client sends you $10US, that means they are actually spending roughly $15 NZD. You still earn $10 US dollars though. So you pay taxes on the $10 US dollars you earned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, in this case, don't let the client talk you into receiving NZD... you'll make **less**. Make it clear that all invoices are in US Dollars. If you don't and the client sends you that $10 as NZD, you'll only earn ~$7.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And yeah.. hire an accountant. Or even jsut fond one you can connect with from time to time to bounce stuff off of if needed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19317" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7339" RevisionGUID="e1e0c880-37fa-42dd-8c55-74229e0ed4b7" CreationDate="2017-10-24T20:32:17.097" UserId="708" Comment="edited body" Text="US taxes are based upon **US INCOME**. Where that income originates is irrelevant. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You live and work in the US... you drive on US roads... your children (if you have any) go to US schools... you pay US taxes on all money you earn, even if that income originates from outside the US or even Earth. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In many respects, as an example, it's similar to state taxes. If you live in State A you pay State A taxes on your income, even if you have a client living in State B. You *don't* pay taxes in State B just because a client happens to live in State B.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The *only* difference with overseas clients is the rate of exchange for the currency. If you charge $10 US the client sends you $10US, that means they are actually spending roughly $15 NZD. You still earn $10 US dollars though. So you pay taxes on the $10 US dollars you earned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, in this case, don't let the client talk you into receiving NZD... you'll make **less**. Make it clear that all invoices are in US Dollars. If you don't and the client sends you that $10 as NZD, you'll only earn ~$7.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And yeah.. hire an accountant. Or even just find one you can connect with from time to time to bounce stuff off of if needed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19318" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7056" RevisionGUID="e2f8dc69-0ac1-4f41-a19b-d7aa2dfad684" CreationDate="2017-10-25T00:34:44.493" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19319" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7340" RevisionGUID="9a14dd77-ffb8-4208-80d2-049ee69dc485" CreationDate="2017-10-25T06:32:41.677" UserId="18530" Text="As being freelancer the biggest drawback for newcomer would be to be supervised for their work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Last day I had interview and they apology to get me hired because I do freelancing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is almost understood that Freelancer's mostly don't have polished work who never got chance to do job under someone's supervision. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My Question is that How a freelancer who could make anything asked for but cannot guaranty whether the written code meet quality standards or not, can fill this gap? How could freelancers get their work supervised by someone to point out their mistakes? &#xD;&#xA;  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19320" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7340" RevisionGUID="9a14dd77-ffb8-4208-80d2-049ee69dc485" CreationDate="2017-10-25T06:32:41.677" UserId="18530" Text="How to get Supervisor or Senior Developer to check and review your work ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19321" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7340" RevisionGUID="9a14dd77-ffb8-4208-80d2-049ee69dc485" CreationDate="2017-10-25T06:32:41.677" UserId="18530" Text="|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19322" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7341" RevisionGUID="ceae5c28-a32a-4b5c-8bc2-8cd49450fc39" CreationDate="2017-10-25T07:53:04.387" UserId="18230" Text="Option one: Hire a known expert in your field to do some training/review etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Option two: Get a recognized degree in your field. That is really the whole point to MCSE program and the like: To guarantee that the owner is able to produce work up to a certain standard. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Option three: Build/Join a network of freelancers where you can have mutual support and discussions of the more difficult problems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Option four: Start publishing yourself, speak at conferences etc. Publishing your ideas and parts of your work will get you a ton of feedback and attention as well. If you are in fact good at your field you will in time become yourself a &quot;known expert&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19323" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7342" RevisionGUID="a1dbed3d-8100-411c-9a77-935b02823ca2" CreationDate="2017-10-25T08:12:39.840" UserId="18230" Text="Most clients won´t know or care which fancy technology you use and what framework. Some may have heard some buzzword and say things like: *We want to use Wordpress, my son said everyone is using it, it´s the best* or *it has to be in java* such nonsense. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They also probably wont know how to tell qualitative differences, like how compatible your designs are on different platforms etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They will mostly buy on 1: Price and 2: Do they like what they see.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Learn to speak in their lingo so you can educate them on what you offer does better than others. If you can show them some sites that look quite differently from each other, you can increase the chance that they like on of these.&#xD;&#xA;If you have some templates ready, maybe you can even be competitive with your price. A happy customer is a returning customer and the extra-wishes will come. So you´ll just have to build up you client base.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19324" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7322" RevisionGUID="281d9a6e-a902-4884-b988-2fbaa73ee7e0" CreationDate="2017-10-25T12:39:02.100" UserId="18230" Comment="Language, spelling" Text="Thoroughly read your contract, is there any condition like this? If there is, you can't use it. If not than you can use it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But let me ask you one question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Are you really thinking about it?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just think that if you are client, you paid some money to the developer for your product. &#xD;&#xA;You are going to do social media marketing, SEO etc. for making that product famous.&#xD;&#xA;But suddenly you find an open source code or a product, the same like your paid product. What will come first to your mind?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would you do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19325" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7322" RevisionGUID="281d9a6e-a902-4884-b988-2fbaa73ee7e0" CreationDate="2017-10-25T12:39:02.100" Comment="Proposed by 18230 approved by 16721 edit id of 581" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19326" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7310" RevisionGUID="18b44f92-6bb0-4501-8ba0-9b0b5be42598" CreationDate="2017-10-25T13:01:50.110" UserId="18230" Comment="Improved language and spelling" Text="My solution was to **inform her about the schedule**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not only does this allow her to plan her own stuff, it also creates a clear boundary when I need to work or have a skype meeting or whatever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It also removes any doubt about whether you really need to be working at that specific time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19327" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7310" RevisionGUID="18b44f92-6bb0-4501-8ba0-9b0b5be42598" CreationDate="2017-10-25T13:01:50.110" Comment="Proposed by 18230 approved by 18443 edit id of 580" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19333" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7344" RevisionGUID="b94d691b-3492-41f3-bde5-313036211770" CreationDate="2017-10-25T18:51:21.710" UserId="708" Text="&gt;It is almost understood that Freelancer's mostly don't have polished work who never got chance to do job under someone's supervision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sorry. It's **not** &quot;understood&quot;. In fact, I find it quite *rude* if someone approaches me for work assuming I don't know what I'm doing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If anything, the &quot;understanding&quot; would be that a freelancer has enough practical, real-world, experience to complete their work in a *polished and professional* manner.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you are describing is a *hobbyist*, not a *freelancer*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't have any real-world experience, you need to get some. Daniel points out a few ways in his answer as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Get a real job in the field you want to freelance in.&#xD;&#xA;- Hire an experience professional in your field to review it.&#xD;&#xA;- Get a formal education&#xD;&#xA;- Worst case, disclose to potential clients that you have no practical, real-world experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can't do any of the above, then in my opinion, you should *not* be &quot;freelancing&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19334" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6773" RevisionGUID="ae303cf2-0a8b-4b00-a94a-65a2d32584d8" CreationDate="2017-10-25T19:18:37.970" Comment="Proposed by 18180 approved by 16906 edit id of 574" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19335" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7344" RevisionGUID="1da316f0-9623-40bd-a3a1-8b3066188c21" CreationDate="2017-10-25T19:22:24.610" UserId="708" Comment="added 314 characters in body" Text="&gt;It is almost understood that Freelancer's mostly don't have polished work who never got chance to do job under someone's supervision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sorry. It's **not** &quot;understood&quot;. In fact, I find it quite *rude* if someone approaches me for work assuming I don't know what I'm doing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If anything, the &quot;understanding&quot; would be that a freelancer has enough practical, real-world, experience to complete their work in a *polished and professional* manner.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you are describing is a *hobbyist*, not a *freelancer*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't have any real-world experience, you need to get some. Daniel points out a few ways in his answer as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Get a real job in the field you want to freelance in.&#xD;&#xA;- Hire an experience professional in your field to review it.&#xD;&#xA;- Get a formal education&#xD;&#xA;- Worst case, disclose to potential clients that you have no practical, real-world experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can't do any of the above, then in my opinion, you should *not* be &quot;freelancing&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Truth of the matter is you should *not* be asking others to pay your if you have no practical experience, and aren't disclosing that fact up front. Doing so only serves to *devalue* the *entire field* you are attempting to work in. In short, you give *everyone* a bad name if you don't know what you are doing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19336" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6830" RevisionGUID="ae19d595-941d-49b7-9b9c-5e170d5b822b" CreationDate="2017-10-25T19:34:21.577" Comment="Proposed by 18180 approved by -1 edit id of 572" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19337" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6830" RevisionGUID="1d803f05-9a65-4795-845f-b16e9100156c" CreationDate="2017-10-25T19:34:21.577" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, reworded question, summarized title" Text="I am currently based in Portland, Oregon in the US. As a note, Oregon is a no-tax state. I have a client in the Netherlands who pays for multiple Skype coaching sessions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My client pays through Paypal; should I be charging taxes?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19338" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6830" RevisionGUID="1d803f05-9a65-4795-845f-b16e9100156c" CreationDate="2017-10-25T19:34:21.577" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar, reworded question, summarized title" Text="Do I charge taxes to clients in another country when I'm based in a no-tax state?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19339" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6830" RevisionGUID="7ef2f588-a644-4948-b72c-60f6f37667e3" CreationDate="2017-10-25T19:53:08.457" UserId="9" Comment="added 5 characters in body; edited title" Text="I am currently based in Portland, Oregon in the US. As a note, Oregon has no sales tax. I have a client in the Netherlands who pays for multiple Skype-based coaching sessions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My client pays through Paypal; should I be charging taxes?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19340" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="6830" RevisionGUID="7ef2f588-a644-4948-b72c-60f6f37667e3" CreationDate="2017-10-25T19:53:08.457" UserId="9" Comment="added 5 characters in body; edited title" Text="Do I charge taxes to clients in the Netherlands when I'm based in a state with no sales tax?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19341" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7151" RevisionGUID="cb66a4d6-2ad7-4817-926b-dd1287188e78" CreationDate="2017-10-26T13:55:41.650" UserId="18230" Comment="corrected numbered list" Text="there are many  things you can do with only these skills , such as: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. making static website &#xD;&#xA;2. setting up a word press website (no programming required )&#xD;&#xA;3. doing user experience testing &#xD;&#xA;4. managing blog &#xD;&#xA;5. doing social media marketing " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19342" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7151" RevisionGUID="cb66a4d6-2ad7-4817-926b-dd1287188e78" CreationDate="2017-10-26T13:55:41.650" Comment="Proposed by 18230 approved by -1 edit id of 583" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19343" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7151" RevisionGUID="f421f822-6eef-4848-a240-9b132c71918b" CreationDate="2017-10-26T13:55:41.650" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar" Text="There are many things you can do with only these skills, including&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Making static website&#xD;&#xA;2. Setting up a WordPress website (no programming required)&#xD;&#xA;3. Conducting user experience testing&#xD;&#xA;4. Managing a blog&#xD;&#xA;5. Doing social media marketing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19344" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7151" RevisionGUID="a01146b7-7730-4427-99aa-81b5ce3c4105" CreationDate="2017-10-26T16:25:25.777" UserId="75" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="There are many things you can do with only these skills, including:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Making a static website&#xD;&#xA;2. Setting up a WordPress website (no programming required)&#xD;&#xA;3. Conducting user experience testing&#xD;&#xA;4. Managing a blog&#xD;&#xA;5. Doing social media marketing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19345" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3520" RevisionGUID="d8161c12-8996-4133-a8a9-2f50f9f8a33d" CreationDate="2017-10-26T19:57:25.023" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19346" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7345" RevisionGUID="446ff5f9-3b10-49ce-b0c7-a2d47e382151" CreationDate="2017-10-27T00:47:48.557" UserId="18230" Text="Not int the us, but should be applicable as well. I have basic P&amp;I and usually exclude any liability that exceeds my insurance in the contract.&#xD;&#xA;I offer to up the liability if client feels it is needet, but they need to compensate the addirional cost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that total exclusion of *any* liability would be illegal here in germany. You are always liable for harm to persons and culpable negligence here. So getting insurance is kind of a no-brainer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19351" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="7347" RevisionGUID="d571bf5b-0a15-4fe9-958e-bae3086e0e06" CreationDate="2017-10-27T18:24:31.337" UserId="-1" Comment="from https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/86575/freelance-payments" />
  <row Id="19352" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7347" RevisionGUID="827fd160-7d7d-4d55-9c9b-35f70c688507" CreationDate="2017-10-27T10:36:33.667" UserId="18548" Text="I have done freelance work mostly related to graduation level problem solution, but in one of my case i failed to provide right solution even working quite good on it,so i refunded back the amount.So what my question is what policy anyone should follow while doing some online work that even though you work on that at least some reasonable amount should paid back to you for your efforts taken. Does anyone have same situation where final work goes wrong even working hard on that. Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19353" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7347" RevisionGUID="827fd160-7d7d-4d55-9c9b-35f70c688507" CreationDate="2017-10-27T10:36:33.667" UserId="18548" Text="Freelance payments" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19354" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7347" RevisionGUID="827fd160-7d7d-4d55-9c9b-35f70c688507" CreationDate="2017-10-27T10:36:33.667" UserId="18548" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19355" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7348" RevisionGUID="6b9a9c42-770f-473e-9406-1b1adc9fb879" CreationDate="2017-10-28T17:44:41.237" UserId="2964" Text="I have been in contact with a prospect that is asking an unusual request. We started communicating through text and email, and after I gave him an estimate he accepted which was great. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But before sending me an initial payment he said he needed a favor: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He would send me money to pay another private consultant, because he says this other consultant doesn't have the resources to accept visa payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Initially, I declined doing this and haven't yet. It seems odd to me that they can't seem to work out this transaction between themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anyone heard anything like this before? What do you think is the right action to take with this request?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Matt Frey" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19356" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7348" RevisionGUID="6b9a9c42-770f-473e-9406-1b1adc9fb879" CreationDate="2017-10-28T17:44:41.237" UserId="2964" Text="An unusual request" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19357" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7348" RevisionGUID="6b9a9c42-770f-473e-9406-1b1adc9fb879" CreationDate="2017-10-28T17:44:41.237" UserId="2964" Text="|contracts|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19358" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7349" RevisionGUID="47981ef9-d8f9-4ce0-8dca-964efebd22bf" CreationDate="2017-10-28T17:49:24.717" UserId="2964" Text="Agree with what others have stated above. Clients generally won't be concerned with what technology you use to get the job done, as long as it works efficiently and effectively, gets them customers, and looks amazing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1 project may not be enough to showcase your skill set. It may appeal to certain prospects and earn you contracts but adding more projects will definitely help show your capabilities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Matt Frey" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19359" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7350" RevisionGUID="2fee706c-6ac6-490c-a22f-88d51a5271ba" CreationDate="2017-10-28T21:22:22.833" UserId="708" Text="#It's a scam&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anytime an unknown third party is involved, it's a **scam**. Just pass on the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Con: He sends you money that is &quot;on hold&quot; or a check... then you pay the third party... then the money he sent is revoked, or the check bounces, leaving you paying out with no return. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No one** in business, and I mean **no one**, &quot;doesn't have the ability to accept Visa&quot; as long as Paypal and email addresses exist." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19360" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7351" RevisionGUID="17dd3cdc-6cdf-4182-9897-06819cab2a9c" CreationDate="2017-10-28T21:29:01.990" UserId="708" Text="It is customary in service industry work, where final outcome is an unknown until some research, investigation, or initial diagnosis us required -- to charge a **non-refundable deposit** to cover the initial work that is required. You need a contract or agreement for this **before** you start *any* work at all. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is along the lines of a &quot;repair shop&quot; charging you $x to diagnose a problem. Then if you wish to continue, you would pay for the full service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you had no agreement *before* starting, then it would *not* be acceptable to try and collect &quot;diagnostic&quot; or &quot;research&quot; fees *after the fact*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, be aware business has a concept of a **&quot;loss leader&quot;**. This is the concept that you perform some service *without* payment merely in teh *hopes* of achieving the bigger project. Sometimes you'll get that larger paying job, sometimes you won't and the initial effort is a loss." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19361" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7350" RevisionGUID="f1f23461-1038-4e61-8604-4b9e567c8453" CreationDate="2017-10-28T21:33:42.570" UserId="708" Comment="added 7 characters in body" Text="#It's a scam&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anytime an unknown third party is involved, it's a **scam**. Just pass on the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Con: &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;He sends you money that is &quot;on hold&quot; or a check... then you pay the third party... then the money he sent is revoked, or the check bounces, leaving you paying out with no return. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No one** in business, and I mean **no one**, &quot;doesn't have the ability to accept Visa&quot; as long as Paypal and email addresses exist." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19362" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7344" RevisionGUID="0c7c7aa5-f5bc-4e8c-82d4-2f2112b45976" CreationDate="2017-10-28T21:36:39.907" UserId="708" Comment="added 34 characters in body" Text="&gt;It is almost understood that Freelancer's mostly don't have polished work who never got chance to do job under someone's supervision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sorry. It's **not** &quot;understood&quot;. In fact, I find it quite *rude* if someone approaches me for work assuming I don't know what I'm doing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If anything, the &quot;understanding&quot; would be that a freelancer has enough practical, real-world, experience to complete their work in a *polished and professional* manner.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you are describing is a *hobbyist*, not a *freelancer*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't have any real-world experience, you need to get some. Daniel points out a few ways in his answer as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Get a real job in the field you want to freelance in.&#xD;&#xA;- Hire an experience professional in your field to review your work, and be prepared to redo it.&#xD;&#xA;- Get a formal education&#xD;&#xA;- Worst case, disclose to potential clients that you have no practical, real-world experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can't do any of the above, then in my opinion, you should *not* be &quot;freelancing&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Truth of the matter is you should *not* be asking others to pay you if you have no practical experience, and aren't disclosing that fact up front. Doing so only serves to *devalue* the *entire field* you are attempting to work in. In short, you give *everyone* a bad name if you don't know what you are doing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19363" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7350" RevisionGUID="e26308e6-bfc5-4a3e-b20f-42ff784c94fe" CreationDate="2017-10-28T21:41:36.793" UserId="708" Comment="added 18 characters in body" Text="#It's a scam&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anytime an unknown third party is involved regarding payment, it's a *scam*. **Especially**, if it's along the lines of *&quot;I'll pay you, then you pay them&quot;*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#Just pass on the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Con: &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;He sends you money that is &quot;on hold&quot; or a check... then you pay the third party... then the money he sent is revoked, or the check bounces, leaving you paying out with no return. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No one** in business, and I mean **no one**, &quot;doesn't have the ability to accept Visa&quot; as long as Paypal and email addresses exist." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19364" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7352" RevisionGUID="33904215-56ce-47ce-9a30-594eb0f385bf" CreationDate="2017-10-28T22:31:50.057" UserId="18555" Text="Most freelancers work through websites like upwork and elance which take out all the hassles of getting paid for the work. Just play by the rules set by the platform and you will get good reviews. Of course, they take a commission for providing you all the convenience. There many more such websites you can try depending upon the exact work you do. There are some websites dedicated to homework assignments too!  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19365" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5875" RevisionGUID="dde3631c-9a03-4a00-a22e-4c748d241e7b" CreationDate="2017-10-29T00:14:55.573" UserId="18180" Comment="Retagging tax to taxes, removed useless leading statement" Text="A UK client needs to pay approx 113 EUR for my services. I am registered as a freelancer here in Germany, is it ok to issue an invoice without any sort of tax ID number,apparently they do not even have a self employed ID number. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19366" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="5875" RevisionGUID="dde3631c-9a03-4a00-a22e-4c748d241e7b" CreationDate="2017-10-29T00:14:55.573" Comment="Proposed by 18180 approved by 708, 14455 edit id of 578" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19367" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7298" RevisionGUID="c844f5ea-7162-4592-842d-8c5edca0f5fc" CreationDate="2017-10-29T00:15:35.377" UserId="18230" Comment="Grammar, spelling" Text="I have grappled with this problem as well. If this is a client that you will get additional work from, even perhaps of the same parameters as the first job, you almost have to make them aware of those extra hours, even if you don’t charge them this time  ... for the simple reason you don’t want to have to continually give the client those extra hours free of charge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Depending on how well versed and familiar the person you are dealing with is, let that guide and determine the content and extensiveness of your explanation. This has never been a negative for me and it does exactly what Daniel said, it builds trust.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I too do what Daniel and Doug do - just estimates whenever possible Doing this weeds out the clients you didn’t really want anyway. That inflexibility may be due to multiple reasons, from individual personality to fixed budget parameters, but it has been my experience at the end of day the “why” doesn’t matter. As hard as it can be to turn down work ... in the long run it is most definitely to your benefit. If they are inflexible re: a hard and fast quote, that will carry over into other elements of that client relationship. When a quote is requested I never ask what they want, I give them just what Doug said: an estimate. I wait for them to insist on a fixed price. So initially don’t offer it, ever. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But what must also be said: from the POV of a creative freelancer since 16 years  ... part of my job as a freelancer is educating my clients regarding the unknown elements of that process. When they are requesting a fixed quote is when that education starts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, I have found the range of accuracy is in direct relation to complexity of the project ... the smaller, more simplistic the project, the more accurate my time estimates are.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if you really want a project and it is very complex, with unknown factors - being aware of those factors - allow for extra time because it is always better coming in under then over budget for both you and the client. There have been times I have literally doubled my estimated hours for a quote because there were so many unknowns.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always with first time clients, they themselves are an unknown, so you always want to add extra time to first time client projects. The unknown ranging from how well they have it together to even how clear and defined it is that the client wants ... all these can change the time investment on your end.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But allowing for that extra time, even if you go over, you aren’t loosing all of those hours so maybe 3-5 instead of 20. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19368" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7298" RevisionGUID="c844f5ea-7162-4592-842d-8c5edca0f5fc" CreationDate="2017-10-29T00:15:35.377" Comment="Proposed by 18230 approved by 9, 14455 edit id of 582" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19369" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7295" RevisionGUID="52c493de-d0d6-4f99-b3a8-839761f667d3" CreationDate="2017-10-29T00:16:01.687" Comment="Proposed by 18180 approved by 708, 14455 edit id of 570" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19370" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6053" RevisionGUID="1e4e253c-b20c-4c0d-aa88-65e8ed85da4f" CreationDate="2017-10-29T00:16:26.657" UserId="18180" Comment="Retagging tax to taxes, removed useless trailing statement" Text="I am based in the UK and thinking of doing some freelance work through Upwork alongside my main full-time job to boost my income a little.  &#xD;&#xA;However, I'm wondering whether any income earned through a site like Upwork is subject to income tax or not, and if so, how should it be declared? On top of my regular income? Or is it a separate category?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19371" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6053" RevisionGUID="1e4e253c-b20c-4c0d-aa88-65e8ed85da4f" CreationDate="2017-10-29T00:16:26.657" Comment="Proposed by 18180 approved by 708, 14455 edit id of 577" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19372" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="5797" RevisionGUID="cc40d5e2-b3af-46d9-8207-3fa710b8d232" CreationDate="2017-10-29T00:16:37.883" Comment="Proposed by 18180 approved by 708, 14455 edit id of 579" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19374" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6808" RevisionGUID="02950ecd-9ec6-4a8e-b25b-979409f1af1d" CreationDate="2017-10-29T00:16:54.997" Comment="Proposed by 18180 approved by 708, 14455 edit id of 573" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19375" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6504" RevisionGUID="59260260-aed7-4a05-8589-2c494177d279" CreationDate="2017-10-29T00:17:03.753" Comment="Proposed by 18180 approved by 708, 14455 edit id of 575" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19376" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7353" RevisionGUID="d6053e2b-d457-42f5-9d52-816bbd879618" CreationDate="2017-10-29T02:54:08.900" UserId="18556" Text="A project manager (client owner) hired me to work on his project w/o a signed contract. I gave him a quote about certains tasks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I started working on the project and it turns out the environment (vagrant w/ ansible) is very complex to setup on my computer. The whole website is very badly optimized as well and I didn't expect to spend so much time setting it up. I don't know how to handle that from my side. I recently asked him to pay 30% of my time and he don't want to pay for that. It's a well-known vagrant, but it's a mix of learn and debug.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a senior developer and it's not my first environment. The issue was actually a problem with High Sierra w/ APFS. I wasted more than 30h on the problem that I can't charge and he's not sure he want to hire me anymore because of the 2-3 weeks I delayed his project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are your recommendations?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19377" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7353" RevisionGUID="d6053e2b-d457-42f5-9d52-816bbd879618" CreationDate="2017-10-29T02:54:08.900" UserId="18556" Text="How to charge complex development environment as a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19378" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7353" RevisionGUID="d6053e2b-d457-42f5-9d52-816bbd879618" CreationDate="2017-10-29T02:54:08.900" UserId="18556" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19380" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7355" RevisionGUID="905c5e5e-6c46-474d-84fb-f009aef9af57" CreationDate="2017-10-29T12:37:27.957" UserId="15143" Text="I'm a freelancer myself for mobile apps and also frequently hire other freelancers for my works. Everytime when I make a bid, I receive bids from all over the world. Many of the bidders charge like $10 or even less! The freelancer I have now only charges $7 an hour, and he's happy!!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I personally charge much more than them, thus I'm able to earn a significant margin (get a job and hire someone online to help me). Ok. The quality wasn't the top, but I was able to fill the gaps myself. It worked well for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Q:** I don't understand why they'd do that, I think they would earn more money in a local supermarket? What's the point of waiting for a freelancing job online, and only charge it like $10 an hour?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19381" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7355" RevisionGUID="905c5e5e-6c46-474d-84fb-f009aef9af57" CreationDate="2017-10-29T12:37:27.957" UserId="15143" Text="Why &lt; $10 per hour for freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19382" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7355" RevisionGUID="905c5e5e-6c46-474d-84fb-f009aef9af57" CreationDate="2017-10-29T12:37:27.957" UserId="15143" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19383" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7353" RevisionGUID="736c439f-0941-4106-bc00-7ee9a2ff1e09" CreationDate="2017-10-29T12:42:50.080" UserId="18556" Comment="change the last question to be more precise" Text="A project manager (client owner) hired me to work on his project w/o a signed contract. I gave him a quote about certains tasks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I started working on the project and it turns out the environment (vagrant w/ ansible) is very complex to setup on my computer. The whole website is very badly optimized as well and I didn't expect to spend so much time setting it up. I don't know how to handle that from my side. I recently asked him to pay 30% of my time and he don't want to pay for that. It's a well-known vagrant, but it's a mix of learn and debug.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a senior developer and it's not my first environment. The issue was actually a problem with High Sierra w/ APFS. I wasted more than 30h on the problem that I can't charge and he's not sure he want to hire me anymore because of the 2-3 weeks I delayed his project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would you do in a similar situation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19384" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7355" RevisionGUID="ae06cfde-9960-4a4e-b3b1-48358bbdfb05" CreationDate="2017-10-29T12:46:23.040" UserId="15143" Comment="added 12 characters in body" Text="I'm a freelancer myself for mobile apps and also frequently hire other freelancers for my works. Everytime when I make a bid, I receive bids from all over the world. Many of the bidders charge like $10 or even less! The freelancer I have now only charges $7 an hour, and he's happy!!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I personally charge much more than them, thus I'm able to earn a significant margin (get a job and hire someone online to help me). Ok. The quality wasn't the top, but I was able to fill the gaps myself. It worked well for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Q:** I don't understand why they'd do that, I think they would earn more money in a local supermarket or McDonald? What's the point of waiting for a freelancing job online, and only charge it like $10 an hour?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19385" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7356" RevisionGUID="6358efef-8274-4b68-bfed-7600e298c441" CreationDate="2017-10-29T15:08:42.957" UserId="708" Text="#Rate of exchange&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;$10 US = a whole lot more in many countries around the world. The US Dollar is one of the higher rated currencies, along with the Pound and Euro. $1 is often much more than that in other countries. You may be paying $7 US / hr but that may equate to 4 or 5 times (or more) that amount in the worker's country." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19386" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7357" RevisionGUID="18acd901-b08e-43ad-bafe-784554b3aa5b" CreationDate="2017-10-30T09:42:20.057" UserId="18230" Text="First, you should try to prevent getting in such a situation in the first place. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Never work without a written contract!&#xD;&#xA;- Never give a fixed quote for a system or environment you are not familiar with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*(Sometimes you have to invest 1-2 days to investigate the clients setup and show you are the right one for the job. But there is a point where you got to know under which condition you will be doing your work)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then, setup cost is work too, so I´ll bill for it! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I want to get to know a specific framework, and can use it for other clients also, I may decide do give a 50% discount - but usually not. I usually try to give the client a working development environment in a VM - if I´m not working on his machines anyways. I´m a one-man-show so I have to make sure the client is not entirely dependent on me. This is part of my service and it has to be payed for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think what would an employee do? Two weeks of unpaid work for installing all the tools to his new work machine and get to know the framework and project? I think not!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19387" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7358" RevisionGUID="ca643ff9-1ba1-40de-9721-6db1fb8a3e99" CreationDate="2017-10-30T09:55:42.597" UserId="18230" Text="If they are working for you, you are apparently delivering additional value. They may not have the skills, the language or the access to the customers you have so they could not just work there on their own. Also, it sounds like you are taking some responsibility towards the customer. So it makes sense that you get a fair margin for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are several reasons why somebody works for a certain amount, but usually this is, because it is currently his best economic offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Could be that McD India only pays  the equivalent of 3$/h (*I have no idea*)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe some are still learning and want to build some experience, so the´ll discount to get some jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Could be that working in a field they like, even at less pay, it is more enjoyable and thus the better option.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;... you get the idea.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19389" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7359" RevisionGUID="911bea85-1558-4b4c-a995-304a95b3a352" CreationDate="2017-10-30T10:37:50.627" UserId="18230" Text="Scott has the right answer. It is a Scam!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally: Even if it where not a scam, it would most likely be illegal. You may want to check your local regulations on money-laundering. You would function as a payment provider, which usually have to fulfill a lot of requirements." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19390" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7360" RevisionGUID="f21c8da2-45b4-4652-a3ff-e2d10df1f9b9" CreationDate="2017-10-30T10:39:44.310" UserId="18230" Text="&#xD;&#xA;It is always bad to take on work you can not finish. The better way to handle a request in an area you are not too certain you can help, is to let your client know from the beginning that is new ground for you, and if they are willing to go forward with you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But sometimes it happens you discover some obstacles you did not foresee. In these cases it is crucial that you communicate this right away and help the client to find alternative solutions. IT is also important that you make them aware of the effort you already put in. Maybe there is also some value in what you did so far. You have to reach an agreement with them, on how to adapt to the situation and what a fair compensation for you could be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best is, you have a contract that pays by the hour. So you are in a strong position. For example, you give them 50% off because you did not achieve the goals, but still get some compensation. If you are paid for the finished product, you are at their mercy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19391" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7361" RevisionGUID="feb0ca99-d2a0-4bcd-a348-d253ab19b3c7" CreationDate="2017-10-30T12:50:57.283" UserId="2606" Text="I used to charge around that when I started. I was a student back then, working during the night and studying during the day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These were my thoughts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Not Possible to get a job at night where I live, but freelance client were mostly from the other side of the world.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Even though I was sick, I was able to work from my home. Can't get opportunity like that over here.&#xD;&#xA; 3. I save travel time if I freelance. It is a competitive market, so I'll have to charge less than what I generally do.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Places like McD would pay average salary of around $200/500 a month. That is not for me, I have skills to use. Even if I charge less, I can make more.&#xD;&#xA; 5. It is not mainly about the money, I get to work with some foreigner, get to use my skills and actually see someone using it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What others said is true too, $7 is a lot in some places for some people. Everybody doesn't want to do a job at McD.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can hire an 2-4 years experienced web developer for around $300/month in some countries." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19400" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7364" RevisionGUID="97355ade-0f33-4229-a76d-f76f79e7ec5e" CreationDate="2017-10-31T17:24:31.543" UserId="10604" Text="As a freelance translator, I'm constantly running into a need to check multiple facts and quotes scattered across multiple books. These books, if available online, are often quite expensive, to the point where buying one book might eat all the profit I'm expecting to get from the client (think $30 book needed to check a single fact for a proper translation of a $30 job).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are my options for accessing these books?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* I could bill my client more, explaining that I needed this and this book to check those and those facts during the translation. This uncovers uncomfortably much about my internal processes; I don't want to argue if I needed this $30 book or could do with a $25 one. I also imagine this will not be taken lightly by the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* I imagine that I'm not the one who has this problem. Are there organizations for freelance translators that would share the costs of book access?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Obviously, there are multiple ways to obtain pirated copies of books, but I want to limit the scope of this question to legal options." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19401" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7364" RevisionGUID="97355ade-0f33-4229-a76d-f76f79e7ec5e" CreationDate="2017-10-31T17:24:31.543" UserId="10604" Text="What are legal options of accessing books needed for freelance translating?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19402" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7364" RevisionGUID="97355ade-0f33-4229-a76d-f76f79e7ec5e" CreationDate="2017-10-31T17:24:31.543" UserId="10604" Text="|expenses|translations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19403" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7365" RevisionGUID="11905170-f3a2-4009-adb6-c05269867114" CreationDate="2017-10-31T18:20:08.193" UserId="708" Text="I have a yearly software bill that I **must** pay to work. That fee gets counted as **overhead** when factoring project costs. These &quot;books&quot; would seemingly equate to similar &quot;tools&quot; required to complete your projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is how business is done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you need &quot;tools&quot; to complete you work, whatever they may be - books, pencils, software, etc. - then those tools should be used to calculate your minimum hourly rate. &lt;br /&gt;&#xD;&#xA;i.e. -- `Overhead x (Profit %) = Hourly rate`&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't imagine that once you have a library of books you'd need to then continually purchase more books. But if there were a case where a particular job required a *specific* resource, you would then evaluate the resource. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Is it something you'll use for many clients from that point forward?&#xD;&#xA; 2. It it something you'll use for **only** this one client then *never* have need of again?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;if (1) then you would charge the client a percentage of the cost, generally 10-20% is acceptable. Because the resource would add value to your services, you can't ethically expect the client to pay the full price for it when you will use it for other clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If (2) then the client is invoiced for the full amount, in addition to a common markup of roughly 20% to cover the costs of the resource. Again, this is only if this single client will need the resource and you'll *never* use it again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also build in a cost for yearly upgrade/maintenance of the &quot;tools&quot;. If you know, on average, you need to spend $xx per year to keep the tools up to date and viable, then you can add an additional % to your hourly rate to help offset that expense.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for pirating.. theft is theft. Since all business expenses are tax deductions, it's hard to listen to anyone in *business* justify pirating the items they need to perform their work. Above and beyond the legal ramifications, there is an absolute connotation that the business will steal from anyone if the need presents itself. At least if the piracy is known about." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19404" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7364" RevisionGUID="5e53ea66-fc2f-42ce-930b-8529da6250b7" CreationDate="2017-10-31T21:31:31.693" UserId="10604" Comment="added examples" Text="As a freelance translator, I'm constantly running into a need to check multiple facts and quotes scattered across multiple books. These books, if available online, are often quite expensive, to the point where buying one book might eat all the profit I'm expecting to get from the client (think $30 book needed to check a single fact for a proper translation of a $30 job).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To give examples, one day I might be working on a translation of a physics textbook and will need to look up a number of other textbooks to recall the correct terminology. The other day, I might be translating a piece of fiction filled with allusions to other works of art, so I'll need to look through numerous works of art to undestand the broad context and the implications of each allusion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are my options for accessing these books?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* I could bill my client more, explaining that I needed this and this book to check those and those facts during the translation. This uncovers uncomfortably much about my internal processes; I don't want to argue if I needed this $30 book or could do with a $25 one. I also imagine this will not be taken lightly by the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* I imagine that I'm not the one who has this problem. Are there organizations for freelance translators that would share the costs of book access?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Obviously, there are multiple ways to obtain pirated copies of books, but I want to limit the scope of this question to legal options." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19406" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7366" RevisionGUID="c0905c99-4375-4b3f-8381-00cdac2f3134" CreationDate="2017-11-01T09:09:02.167" UserId="18230" Text="1. Old fashioned: look for a local library. Where I live you can get premium-access to the public library for a small monthly fee. You can also go there and read any book on-premises for free, so perfect for checking all available sci-fi books for references etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Build up a library of commonly needed books. You could set a budget for that (100$ a month etc.) and factor in the cost in you hourly rate, as suggested above.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Especially for highly specialized work, you could try to negotiate a budget for special expenditures with your client. Say, *translation 2000$ +up to 10% optional for expenses* - or something like this. You´d then just purchase whatever you needed for the job at hand and put the total value at the bill at the end. No need to ague every decision if you are given an &quot;allowance&quot; beforehand." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19407" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7268" RevisionGUID="da9f36ed-b690-4a9c-bbc2-bf53fe196ecc" CreationDate="2017-11-02T11:59:28.570" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19408" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7367" RevisionGUID="39b09375-12bf-4519-97b3-a4cea6243af7" CreationDate="2017-11-02T12:43:57.683" UserId="12982" Text="I will soon be starting an iOS application for a long time client. For the past year I have used an `iPhone 5` for my testing of APNS, GPS, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The `iPhone 5` will **not** support the new `iOS 11` operating software, only the `iPhone 5s` and above will do so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Should my client contribute towards the purchase of an `iOS 11` compatible device?** An `iPhone 6+` for example. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19409" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7367" RevisionGUID="39b09375-12bf-4519-97b3-a4cea6243af7" CreationDate="2017-11-02T12:43:57.683" UserId="12982" Text="Should my client contribute towards mandatory equipment" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19410" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7367" RevisionGUID="39b09375-12bf-4519-97b3-a4cea6243af7" CreationDate="2017-11-02T12:43:57.683" UserId="12982" Text="|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19411" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7368" RevisionGUID="7f7f1068-32a9-4fe2-a945-48d3d0fd6ac3" CreationDate="2017-11-02T15:03:13.727" UserId="18230" Text="Depends: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Are you offering iOS development as a regular service? Then update costs of for your tools should be factored into your rate. There is nothing wrong with having different rates for different work, so if the tools are especially pricey or you don´t sell so much hours just up your rate (or try to find more work in that area)  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you only do this upon your clients request: They should provide the specialized tools. Normally this means they will provide you one of their devices and you have to give it back at the end of your assignment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As usual, there is some grey area in between and if your client is happy to contribute a certain amount for you, updating your iPhone (as it means he does not have to provide one of theirs) you may have a win-win." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19412" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7369" RevisionGUID="68a6d2ef-7f80-465b-9c9f-b1ff0c0c002e" CreationDate="2017-11-02T17:56:29.167" UserId="18594" Text="I've been trying to earn just $200 a month for five years now but I failed!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I tried tons of PTC and surveys websites and I found out that they are scam or they pay too low. They don't worth it. I spend a lot of time and effort testing those websites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. I tried to sell some images and pictures on some websites (I don't recall their names because that was in the past) and no one bought them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. I've created many blogs and I failed to gain traffic. Finally, I build a blog that is not in English. It has more than 10,000 views per month. But I earn about as low as $3 a month!!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 4. I teach my native language on youtube. My channel has more than 10,000 views per months too and 2K subscribers. I earn about $12 a month. That's very low too. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 5. Currently, I work as a transcriber. This gives me $30 a month at most. Maybe that's because they don't have a large number of customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 6. I've just graduated this year. I really need to get $200 a month because they are enough for my living. If I managed to do it, I don't have to get a real work. I can work online. So, I applied to one of the websites that can make me earn $10 per a tested website. I applied twice but I failed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 7. I created accounts on Fiverr and Freelancer but no one buys my gigs or hires me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Could you tell me a way to get $200 a month, Please? I need a trusted (legit) website that gives me a job. I prefer not to search for customers or get traffic. I need direct tasks or jobs like what I do as a transcriber. The website gives me files to transcribe, Then I get paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've many skills. I can type very fast. I'm an expert in photoshop, MS word, power point, excel. I've two languages (English and Arabic) so I can work as a translator.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you so much,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19413" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7369" RevisionGUID="68a6d2ef-7f80-465b-9c9f-b1ff0c0c002e" CreationDate="2017-11-02T17:56:29.167" UserId="18594" Text="Is it possible to earn $200 a month by freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19414" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7369" RevisionGUID="68a6d2ef-7f80-465b-9c9f-b1ff0c0c002e" CreationDate="2017-11-02T17:56:29.167" UserId="18594" Text="|freelance-websites|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19415" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7370" RevisionGUID="5f6ee86b-a986-44a9-95de-3ab623df30c0" CreationDate="2017-11-02T23:56:56.937" UserId="18230" Text="Sounds like you need to develop your your skills. The ones you listed, every kid fresh out of school can do that - no need to find a stranger of the internet, just ask in the neighbourhood.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, what you listed above that you tried in the past I would not count as freelancing. What I understand as freelancing is: Being so proficient/expert in one specific field of work and being able to sell that to different parties so you are better of than someone doing similar things in a fixed employment situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most successful freelancers did get where they are, by first learning the trade and building their network in a normal job and only took up freelancing when they saw an opportunity to survive economically at a later stage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try finding a field you are passionate about, get really good in that field. Then see if freelancing is an option for your. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19417" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7371" RevisionGUID="38e81b13-48c4-478a-b543-f6d57ac8ee27" CreationDate="2017-11-03T04:09:00.280" UserId="15143" Text="$200 freelancing a month is actually very low. Many freelancers make more than that from their works in just a day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet for you to make money. It's unusual for new graduates to survive in the online freelancing market unless you have something special to offer for. You can't compete with other experienced freelancers around the world.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will need to be good in something, I mean problem-domain experts and show it somewhere. Don't bother those websites again, they won't work for you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19418" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7370" RevisionGUID="0f0d36c6-3002-4544-9d79-75226873c1d2" CreationDate="2017-11-03T11:35:27.363" UserId="18230" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="Sounds like you need to develop your your skills. The ones you listed, every kid fresh out of school can do that - no need to find a stranger of the internet, just ask in the neighbourhood.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, what you listed above that you tried in the past I would not count as freelancing. What I understand as freelancing is: Being so proficient/expert in one specific field of work and being able to sell that to different parties so you are better off than someone doing similar things in a fixed employment situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most successful freelancers did get where they are, by first learning the trade and building their network in a normal job and only took up freelancing when they saw an opportunity to survive economically at a later stage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try finding a field you are passionate about, get really good in that field. Then see if freelancing is an option for your. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19419" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7372" RevisionGUID="f565fb1e-23d0-430b-b3a5-9619cb79fa48" CreationDate="2017-11-03T16:29:33.910" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Propose your translation services (only to your mother tongue) for 10$ an hour. You should be able to find 20 hours of work per month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Possibly typing, but I would expect the fees to be lower, as this takes no real skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be sure to refine your profile and show example translations. You can propose free trials, but of a limited extent !" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19420" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7373" RevisionGUID="db73a0e3-86d0-478a-b217-3d5574f10420" CreationDate="2017-11-03T21:03:33.780" UserId="18602" Text="I am training on converting PSD files To HTML , I get the PSDs from upwork ,&#xD;&#xA;is it right to upload the done work in free domain and put it in my portfolio ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19421" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7373" RevisionGUID="db73a0e3-86d0-478a-b217-3d5574f10420" CreationDate="2017-11-03T21:03:33.780" UserId="18602" Text="how to create a portfolio when you have never got hired?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19422" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7373" RevisionGUID="db73a0e3-86d0-478a-b217-3d5574f10420" CreationDate="2017-11-03T21:03:33.780" UserId="18602" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19428" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7355" RevisionGUID="6c5391c9-c559-49da-b88a-e94f0025d4d2" CreationDate="2017-11-04T13:01:43.850" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/926796601804255234" />
  <row Id="19429" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7374" RevisionGUID="a52f7a9d-350f-4233-9e54-87fe3805bc00" CreationDate="2017-11-04T16:33:26.073" UserId="18609" Text="Create a portfolio based on your skills.&#xD;&#xA;I make websites, graphics, and animations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I was to make a portfolio, I would start off with making websites I believe are trending or short animated films.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, publish them on platforms like Behance, or Youtube. This way you may just get noticed or garner a following." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19430" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7375" RevisionGUID="b434505a-edb5-42b0-99af-63da584dc22a" CreationDate="2017-11-04T16:42:13.897" UserId="18609" Text="I started freelancing about 6 years ago. One thing I have noticed in the last few years is that local connections really matter. (It might just be for me.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Getting people to talk about your work really helps when you work as a freelancer, they might just talk about you with a potential client. You can also start off with websites like Upwork, try creating a solid profile there (it matters).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, although freelancing is a blast, try working with a company or agency. Learn the ropes of the business, build connections. I recently started with an agency and I have got to say.. There is a lot I did not know about running a freelance business and my skills until I started working with an agency." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19431" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7376" RevisionGUID="48ea7559-2aec-46f5-8e9a-f131169589d0" CreationDate="2017-11-06T11:26:54.323" UserId="18619" Text="I've been dealing with a potential client lately, and they are very slow with their correspondence and decision-making. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We've had several meetings going over my proposals, but they're delaying their decision citing that they are still having internal discussions. I've been politely following up every two-three days, which they are responding positively but they're still not finalizing a deal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's been over a month and I want to let them know that if they are not going to commit to a decision (positive or negative) I'm going to move on to other clients. (I'm already talking to other clients.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want it to sound like an ultimatum or a marketing technique to create the feeling of scarcity. I just want them to understand that I cannot spend any more time waiting on this project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I go about expressing the situation politely to force a decision out of the client?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19432" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7376" RevisionGUID="48ea7559-2aec-46f5-8e9a-f131169589d0" CreationDate="2017-11-06T11:26:54.323" UserId="18619" Text="How to hurry a client into a decision?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19433" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7376" RevisionGUID="48ea7559-2aec-46f5-8e9a-f131169589d0" CreationDate="2017-11-06T11:26:54.323" UserId="18619" Text="|difficult-client|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19434" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7377" RevisionGUID="4f00c4cf-3259-49b5-851e-71a24c0b2cd5" CreationDate="2017-11-06T15:34:07.973" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19435" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7377" RevisionGUID="4f00c4cf-3259-49b5-851e-71a24c0b2cd5" CreationDate="2017-11-06T15:34:07.973" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19436" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7378" RevisionGUID="e72c83c2-f578-498c-a120-4557de215e88" CreationDate="2017-11-06T15:34:07.973" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19437" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7378" RevisionGUID="e72c83c2-f578-498c-a120-4557de215e88" CreationDate="2017-11-06T15:34:07.973" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19438" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7379" RevisionGUID="ef675a1b-2153-40b2-82e9-d976f1ccc56e" CreationDate="2017-11-06T17:59:00.287" UserId="708" Text="You don't need to be so polite. Business is business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not suggesting being rude by any means, but being forthright and upfront will serve you best. You pretty much *have* to provide an ultimatum. There's no way around it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's how I would handle it....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------&#xD;&#xA;For a gentle nudge......&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi [Client],&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;I'd really love to get started on [project name]. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Has there been any decision regarding confirmation to move forward? Are there more concerns you may still be deliberating?&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Year's end often presents more work than my time will allow and I would love to ensure we're moving forward and I can dedicate my time to your project.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially you start dropping hints that you're busy and they need to jump on the fact you are available. With every conversation try and insinuate that if they don't grab your time, it may not be available.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'd love to get started! I'm concerned my window or opportunity to work on this may be drawing near.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Any progress with the signing of the contract? I need to schedule my available time and I'm unsure if I should factor in this project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a more definitive deadline....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi [Client],&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;This time of year often brings in a great deal of work for me. Often, much more than my time will allow. To this end, I need to pick and choose which projects I feel I can best serve. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;I would truly enjoy the opportunity to work on [project name]. However, in order to sequester the time necessary to complete the project I need to confirm we are moving forward before [November XX, 2017]. Otherwise I'll need to move on to other opportunities.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;I would be very happy to discuss concerns or answer any questions you may still be deliberating over. I really do want to work on [project name].&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, I need to consider scheduling.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you for your understanding.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that... they either confirm by the date or you move on." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19439" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="7369" RevisionGUID="06524160-8772-4900-b7be-b62c347a4d42" CreationDate="2017-11-06T18:56:29.587" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="19440" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7376" RevisionGUID="8a70ca68-5cb1-4f8f-b3bf-9ba8cc144cf6" CreationDate="2017-11-06T19:23:56.997" UserId="18619" Comment="improve grammar" Text="I've been dealing with a potential client lately, and they are very slow with their correspondence and decision-making. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We've had several meetings going over my proposals, but they're delaying their decision citing that their internal discussions. I've been politely following up every two-three days, which they are responding positively but they're still not finalizing a deal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's been over a month and I want to let them know that if they are not going to commit to a decision (positive or negative) I'm going to move on to other clients. (I'm already talking to other clients.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want it to sound like an ultimatum or a marketing technique to create the feeling of scarcity. I just want them to understand that I cannot spend any more time waiting on this project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I go about expressing the situation politely to force a decision out of the client?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19442" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7381" RevisionGUID="493059a8-96f0-41fc-a0fd-6db91afa36f8" CreationDate="2017-11-07T13:47:03.380" UserId="18230" Text="As a rule of thumb, you should never &quot;wait&quot; for a client. Instead, only make binding offers which are time-limited (i.e. valid for two weeks or a Month) and keep talking with other clients. Also, if you know you have something else in the pipeline you know you´d rather do, put *depending on availability* on you offers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are some clients who ask for a quote and then keep talking for a year, so you could easily do several projects in between. If an offer is due to expire, you always have a reason to contact you client again an push for approval.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, I would encourage you not to invest too much unpaid time in the proposal-process. As a rule of thumb, I invest 1-2 days and if the clients needs further counseling for their decision-making, the have to pay it by the hour. Some just need to get the message that your time has value!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19445" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7381" RevisionGUID="09b35c04-1915-4ad9-9fb4-5dce48ac22ca" CreationDate="2017-11-08T08:20:25.690" UserId="18230" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="As a rule of thumb, you should never &quot;wait&quot; for a client. Instead, only make binding offers which are time-limited (i.e. valid for two weeks or a Month) and keep talking with other clients. Also, if you know you have something else in the pipeline you know you´d rather do, put *depending on availability* on you offers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are some clients who ask for a quote and then keep talking for a year, so you could easily do several projects in between. If an offer is due to expire, you always have a reason to contact your client again an push for approval.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, I would encourage you not to invest too much unpaid time in the proposal-process. As a rule of thumb, I invest 1-2 days and if the clients needs further counseling for their decision-making, they have to pay it by the hour. Some just need to get the message that your time has value!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19446" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7111" RevisionGUID="450bd68e-4b4e-497f-8c26-5f8d24623aaf" CreationDate="2017-11-08T17:03:04.023" UserId="17950" Comment="added 1033 characters in body" Text="When I talked with the client for the first time, we didn't set well stablished limits for the project. The project is a mobile app. The agreement was that I was going to copy a Web App he was finishing. At that point, the project didn't seem too big and we settled a price and a deadline.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During the development, he continued adding features and making changes to the Web App. At the beginning it was little, but then the project became larger and larger. The deadline came, but they agreed to add one month in order for me to finish. Then he continued adding features and every time I told him it wasn't the agreement, he found a different way to evade it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I'm at a point where the extra month ended and he and his partners are furious because it isn't finished (Which is obvious because he just ended the app one week ago and I'm still adding that features). I haven't received last month payment and we don't have any contract. My client is calling me every 2 hours and writing every 15 minutes to see how is the project going and forces me to stay awake at night, threatening me if I don't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Each time I'm presenting the App, he still finds a difference from the Web App. This is no longer business. ¿What can I do in order to end with this situation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS: My client resides in another city and wants to come to my place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Ending (Edit)**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for all your answers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After a week I couldn't avoid my client to come to my city, but I saw him just to negotiate. We agreed to finish a couple of things in order to get the full payment. After that, they went back to their city and I stopped working.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Back in their city, the client tried to continue with the development again (without paying) so I didn't continue. I tried to call him for a week to get paid but he didn't answer. I wrote him telling I wouldn't deliver any of the latest code and I blocked him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next day, his boss called me. He told me he removed the person who hired me, from the project. He was going to continue with this. After a long negotiation, we agreed he would pay me the half of the last payment, for the development at the point it was.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Comments**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for all your answers. Sorry I didn't updated this for long time, but I read all your suggestions and all of them where useful. I'm working on every point you told me to avoid falling into this again." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19448" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7382" RevisionGUID="2ff229d6-9f55-4e48-bfcb-5e6144653b49" CreationDate="2017-11-10T07:36:33.643" UserId="18645" Text="(This is what I'm doing) &#xD;&#xA;   ☆Offer your services FOR FREE ☆&#xD;&#xA;to non profits,  charities, schools,  or struggling businesses.&#xD;&#xA;- In exchange for a few public review postings  and recommendations. &#xD;&#xA;It proves credability, (if in fact it's a reliable organization you donated your services to).&#xD;&#xA; And you get a real world challenge outside your comfort zone.  &#xD;&#xA;Good luck ☆.&#xD;&#xA;Jenny @&#xD;&#xA; - JennyChive.com &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19449" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7382" RevisionGUID="47d9d268-5ace-4a35-9325-232a0b94a3af" CreationDate="2017-11-10T17:53:21.773" UserId="977" Comment="removed email address" Text="This is what I'm doing: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   ☆Offer your services FOR FREE ☆&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;to non profits,  charities, schools,  or struggling businesses.&#xD;&#xA;- In exchange for a few public review postings  and recommendations.   &#xD;&#xA;It proves credibility, (if in fact it's a reliable organization you donated your services to).&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;And you get a real world challenge outside your comfort zone.  &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19450" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7382" RevisionGUID="47d9d268-5ace-4a35-9325-232a0b94a3af" CreationDate="2017-11-10T17:53:21.773" Comment="Proposed by 977 approved by -1 edit id of 585" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19451" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7382" RevisionGUID="8885015a-8e95-4d67-9b31-fe41ed57bf67" CreationDate="2017-11-10T17:53:21.773" UserId="9" Comment="Reformatted answer" Text="Offer your services to non-profits, charities, schools, or struggling businesses. Instead of asking for monetary payment, ask for publicly-available review postings and recommendations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you donate your services to reliable and reputable organizations, it can help prove your credibility while giving you a real-world challenge outside your comfort zone." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19459" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7386" RevisionGUID="6da1a265-2b03-41c4-9f6b-c1de5d7a80b3" CreationDate="2017-11-13T19:16:01.103" UserId="708" Text="The purpose of a portfolio is to show off your skills (and creativity in some cases). You can do this without any *actual* work. When people graduate from schools they start with &quot;student work&quot; in their portfolio. It's understood by those hiring that &quot;student work&quot; is not necessarily real-world work but is merely to show what the person may be capable of. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Start by looking at the areas in which you want to be hired. What skills are beneficial to those seeking that work? How can you show those skills in a portfolio?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then create your own projects to show your skills. If you specialize in front-end mark up, then create a front-end web page for some fictitious company. If you specialize in CSS then create a page which shows off your CSS skills well. If you focus on front end conversion but have *no* design skills, then you're in a tough spot. It's hard to show off front-ed skills if you aren't a designer. You may want to merely find some small web sites which are very poorly constructed, then rebuild those sites to a more modern, fluid, responsive markup.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To be honest, I don't know how prevalent PSD2HTML is any longer. It was big 10-15 years ago but I've had almost no call for that workflow in quite a while. However, that just may be my experience (I do not use crowdsourcing sites like upwork). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are wanting to show off your PSD to HTML skills, then you need to be clear that you are *not* the designer and merely a &quot;translator&quot; in a sense. You'll need to show an image of the original PSD then your interpretation of that design. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In most instances, unless otherwise stated, showing work you've done in a portfolio is fine. But be certain to check any contracts or terms with your clients first. Some contracts restrict displaying content or may have a Non-Disclosure Agreement attached. In which case, you clearly shouldn't be showing anything." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19461" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7387" RevisionGUID="ca2ce956-57a9-4c70-9d7f-f1c7a97c81e2" CreationDate="2017-11-13T21:03:33.007" UserId="18223" Text="For a back-end developer, I believe your portfolio would be the enterprises and the scale of the projects you worked on. Even though I am a front-end developer, I'm not really focused on integrating websites or designing apps but more on implementing business logic in JS. So every time I have to sell myself, I always talk about the size of the clients, the complexity of the projects, why it was difficult, how did I overcome the problems, etc. That's somehow my &quot;portfolio&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19465" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7388" RevisionGUID="9748a600-0be8-4f9d-bbc7-4cd06546711f" CreationDate="2017-11-14T21:27:19.283" UserId="18333" Text="I've read mixed opinions. Is it better to wait for say, a week incase anything small comes up and avoid needing to invoice them for a small unit right after. Or, is it better to send the invoice right away? I freelance part time on the side, so my income is not dependent on the money." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19466" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7388" RevisionGUID="9748a600-0be8-4f9d-bbc7-4cd06546711f" CreationDate="2017-11-14T21:27:19.283" UserId="18333" Text="How quickly do you send invoice after completion of project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19467" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7388" RevisionGUID="9748a600-0be8-4f9d-bbc7-4cd06546711f" CreationDate="2017-11-14T21:27:19.283" UserId="18333" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19468" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7389" RevisionGUID="32f9602e-e90f-4ebe-b4a7-26716ab31664" CreationDate="2017-11-14T21:33:43.467" UserId="75" Text="The main objective is to be consistent. It can also be a great time saver to have all billings go out once a week, or twice a month, or once a month. To do this, you need to have your documentation ready to go.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether it's just a notepad, or an actual time-keeping application you use, ensure it's accurate, and find a way to mark what has been invoiced, and what has been paid. A simple Excel sheet *could* do this for you, if that works for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my case, I invoice the day of, unless I'm expecting further work. My work is tech support, so it can be months or hours before hearing from a client again. The time I work is recorded, brief description of what I did during that time, then each week I go through my notes and do my billings." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19469" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7390" RevisionGUID="c338b550-718a-4431-9659-68637d1676a3" CreationDate="2017-11-15T00:50:07.030" UserId="708" Text="I invoice at one of 2 times... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- When a project is complete and I've gotten client approval. Note there still may be some follow up work such as sending files somewhere or communication changes to someone, etc. But the bulk of the work is done. I do this for intermittent or new clients to ensure they don't forget they owe me money. If you wait too long, some will forget and then they stall or wait to pay you since you didn't appear to be quick to invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- For regular, steady clients, who pay without fail and have a great deal of work weekly for me, I invoice monthly. It makes more sense to invoice once a month for everything I've done than to dedicate so much time to clerical work daily or weekly. Even if I were to invoice weekly or bi-monthly it would mean I'm spending a great deal more time with clerical stuff. I keep a detailed list of each project, time spent, and what's owed. Then at the end of the month I just take a &quot;clerical day&quot; and handle invoicing, follow-ups on late payments, etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19471" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6510" RevisionGUID="af591675-2e0d-4d08-86ea-bd09c09d6ae1" CreationDate="2017-11-15T08:08:23.523" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19472" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7391" RevisionGUID="288134fc-60e6-4417-b245-09e2a0493e36" CreationDate="2017-11-15T10:20:29.213" UserId="18230" Text="For me it´s a risk vs convenience thing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a regular client that you trust, and you know there are often some small additional task right after you delivered, the should be no problem with waiting a few days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a new client, or one where finances could be unstable, bill as soon as you can - for lager jobs bill parts in advance or upon predefined milestones." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19473" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7368" RevisionGUID="0c468333-465d-47d1-8070-7d2c33ddd3a4" CreationDate="2017-11-15T10:21:29.723" UserId="18230" Comment="deleted 4 characters in body" Text="Depends: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Are you offering iOS development as a regular service? Then update costs for your tools should be factored into your rate. There is nothing wrong with having different rates for different work, so if the tools are especially pricy or you don´t sell so much hours just up your rate (or try to find more work in that area)  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you only do this upon your clients request: They should provide the specialized tools. Normally this means they will provide you one of their devices and you have to give it back at the end of your assignment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As usual, there is some grey area in between and if your client is happy to contribute a certain amount for you, updating your iPhone (as it means he does not have to provide one of theirs) you may have a win-win." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19474" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="7392" RevisionGUID="46011b49-85ed-4435-b422-dafb0400ffce" CreationDate="2017-11-15T15:52:56.563" UserId="-1" Comment="from https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/102666/pricing-for-month-of-work-as-freelance-ios-dev" />
  <row Id="19475" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="7393" RevisionGUID="e178f787-9cf0-4df6-80b5-c6df94399d03" CreationDate="2017-11-15T15:52:56.563" UserId="-1" Comment="from https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/102666/pricing-for-month-of-work-as-freelance-ios-dev/102669#102669" />
  <row Id="19476" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7393" RevisionGUID="58dc551d-4656-4341-9b6e-3f40c70d406d" CreationDate="2017-11-15T15:51:02.970" UserDisplayName="Glen Pierce" Text="It is impossible to determine the price without knowing the scope of the project.&#xA;&#xA;Agreeing to a fixed price is probably a bad idea. The customer will probably ask for more features, want bugs fixed, and need maintenance of the app (for example when a new OS comes out or a new screen size comes out). They will almost certainly try to get these from you for free or at a low fixed price. If you're working for a fixed price, you'll be incentivized to do everything as quickly as possible, taking shortcuts that might make future maintenance take much more time.&#xA;&#xA;You'll probably end up not wanting to work on the project because it won't be worth it to you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19477" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7392" RevisionGUID="5f8bb987-1a62-4a4e-8e03-0eeeb5771809" CreationDate="2017-11-15T15:05:21.510" UserId="18680" Text="So I'm about to land my first client as freelance iOS developer. I did my research but didn't believe how much I could actually price, and ended up charging too low for a bit over 20 hours of work at $30 an hour. Total was a bit over $700. Reasons are because I had no idea what clients budget was, its my first client, really want it for my portfolio, and pretty much built half the app already during prototype i did for free. Client was shocked at how low, and we agreed that I should spend more time on the app(I`m thinking about a month) and to come back with a fixed price (rather than hourly because risk of additionally hours to pay). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Problem is I can't boost price too high since I already set a low baseline price, but want to get as much as I can without seeming like I'm trying to get over on them now that we both I went way under. Im thinking $1500, or is that too big a jump? Please someone give professional opinion? Maybe you've been in this situation?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By the way, my skills are solid &amp; Im confident in my abilities. I've already proven I can successfully build app. My time would be split between building this app and working for start-up remotely. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19478" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7392" RevisionGUID="5f8bb987-1a62-4a4e-8e03-0eeeb5771809" CreationDate="2017-11-15T15:05:21.510" UserId="18680" Text="Pricing for month of work as freelance iOS Dev" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19479" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7392" RevisionGUID="5f8bb987-1a62-4a4e-8e03-0eeeb5771809" CreationDate="2017-11-15T15:05:21.510" UserId="18680" Text="|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19480" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7391" RevisionGUID="325aec45-f0ea-4dba-9e27-3d1938b79824" CreationDate="2017-11-15T17:45:39.750" UserId="75" Comment="added 5 characters in body" Text="For me it's a risk vs convenience thing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a regular client that you trust, and you know there are often some small additional tasks right after you delivered, there should be no problem with waiting a few days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a new client, or one where finances could be unstable, bill as soon as you can - for larger jobs, bill parts in advance or upon predefined milestones." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19481" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7392" RevisionGUID="fca39c58-7cff-40e8-be3c-72d8d5ca372a" CreationDate="2017-11-15T20:15:37.627" UserId="18680" Comment="deleted 120 characters in body" Text="So I'm about to land my first client as freelance iOS developer. I did my research but didn't believe how much I could actually price, and ended up charging too low. Reasons are because I had no idea what clients budget was, its my first client, really want it for my portfolio, and pretty much built half the app already during prototype i did for free. Client was shocked at how low, and we agreed that I should spend more time on the app(I`m thinking about a month) and to come back with a fixed price (rather than hourly because risk of additionally hours to pay). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Problem is I can't boost price too high since I already set a low baseline price, but want to get as much as I can without seeming like I'm trying to get over on them now that we both I went way under. Please someone give professional opinion? Maybe you've been in this situation?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By the way, my skills are solid &amp; Im confident in my abilities. I've already proven I can successfully build app. My time would be split between building this app and working for start-up remotely. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19482" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="7392" RevisionGUID="5f743a57-f842-41c1-bcc9-a8a245bc760c" CreationDate="2017-11-15T21:02:06.747" UserId="18680" Comment="edited title" Text="Pricing as freelance iOS Dev" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19483" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7394" RevisionGUID="74a62bfd-aa21-45f6-9d28-1c8b56f9c863" CreationDate="2017-11-16T02:30:26.470" UserId="18685" Text="First and foremost, do not quit your day job, even if you get one or two clients to begin with. The freelancing world is unforgiving. I am a freelancer looking to get back into full-time work with a seasonal business on the side.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I saw a need in my region, where these small mediocre businesses have websites from the 90s. I thought, great, a market. There is a reason these businesses have websites from the 90s. They don't care...and mobile responsive, please they are unmoved by the fact that 89% of people look things up on their phone. I mean they don't even bother claiming their Yelp accounts and haven't noticed that people have left horrible reviews about them and again...don't care.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I worked full-time for a popular VPS provider and even their customers were all internationally based. Businesses around here, have never even heard of them and they started here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I share that to say, as a freelancer, you will have to find clients on a global scale and just by doing that, you are embarking on a journey of global competition. You are competing with US programmers, European programmers and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But please do not be dissuaded by my response. I realize I live in an area that is still holding on to their legacy Perl applications with both hands and both feet. So perhaps in your area you may have better luck. I do believe local is the key. If you can be the local web dev guy and build a name for yourself with SMEs in your community, you will be golden, but if its anything like the part of the US where I live, despite the fact that these SMEs need, I mean desperately need your services, there is a reason why they haven't already bother with someone like you...they don't care. They don't care if their site still says copyright 2012. Which makes you wonder who is paying the hosting provider? They must be on autopay from 2009 and just forgot about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So yeah, hold on to your day job until you start bringing in an income that is at least 50% of what you currently make, but you need an actual plan on how you will scale.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now with my seasonal business, I already have a plan on how to scale it and grow it, a real plan. I did follow successful developers who successfully became freelancers and it did not turn out as well for me as for them. Either that or they misrepresented themselves. Like getting tons of work on Upwork. You have to submit over 60 proposals a week and you might get one bite. These are actual numbers, I submitted 60 proposals in one week and got one client. I of course had pay for the upgraded account to be able to continue to submit proposals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19484" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7395" RevisionGUID="813e4e1f-7538-47f3-9526-2b4fee1c033a" CreationDate="2017-11-16T08:52:34.410" UserId="18609" Text="Usually what I do when it comes to pricing is come up with a small hourly charge. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Say $5 to $12 per hour &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But since there is no way of letting the client know how many hours I worked, I would multiply the hourly charge with 8 hours to get the daily charge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    $5 * $8 = $40 per day &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From this I would come up with an estimate of how much time I am expected to spend on the project. Usually my basic turn around is 30 days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    30 days * $40 per day = $1200&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would charge a minimum of $1200 as an estimate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, here are some tips when working with freelance clients:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * Always ask the client about their projected budget for the project.&#xD;&#xA; * Add about 5 to 7 days above your estimate number of days. This can help in two ways:&#xD;&#xA;  * If the client does not respond in time or has a revision, you will still be able to complete within the &quot;predicted&quot; number of days.&#xD;&#xA;  * If you finish before the expected time, you come out as the awesome professional who really knows what he's doing. The client might even trust you more.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; * Coming up with a daily price helps you estimate additional pricing in case a client wants an additional feature or revision thats not included in the base price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, ALWAYS have a contract prepared. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wish you the best of luck in this project. :) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19491" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6547" RevisionGUID="fa275d76-ed54-4d1b-b955-f1e7c152d64e" CreationDate="2017-11-18T10:33:39.413" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19492" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7397" RevisionGUID="41c4e8a9-2f5a-465e-9827-1c116d2d28db" CreationDate="2017-11-18T12:50:41.280" UserId="14455" Text="I think there are different circumstances to take into account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Big Project.&#xD;&#xA;I usually send three invoices, the first payment is usually around 20% before starting a project. I would never start work with a new customer without some sort of down payment. The second is for another 20% usually 3/4 of the way through when there is something for the client to see, test perhaps and certain milestones have been met. The final payment is on completion but before the system is live, released or in production. For websites, it is on the day of launch.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Ongoing work (hourly).&#xD;&#xA;For this I would bill monthly in arrears, at the start of the month. So on August 1st they get an invoice for all work carried out in July, although for a new customer we would estimate the hours to be worked and I would get a down payment of about 20% up front, discounted off their first invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Trusted long term customer&#xD;&#xA;For project work I would bill at the completion of the project. For hourly work continue to bill on the first of each month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for delays in sending invoices, do not do that. You are suggesting that your work is not valuable, that your payments are not urgent and can wait, and that your services are not a priority. None of these is good for long term business. Send invoices immediately, get paid up front if only a small deposit, and take your invoicing very seriously. With regular formal invoicing acting as a project reporting tool, a good and consistent invoicing routine will make you look professional, valuable and a serious business. A poor invoicing routine will make you look like an amateur.&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19493" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7397" RevisionGUID="35e549b3-66e4-4cf2-9a45-b0618c98c971" CreationDate="2017-11-18T12:57:07.833" UserId="14455" Comment="Clarifications" Text="&gt; How quickly do you send invoice after completion of project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Immediately. There is no reason to wait. As for snagging and bug fixing, that is included for, say, two weeks after completion. Anything reported in those two weeks is fixed as part of the service. No excuse for buggy or shoddy work. Even if the fix takes longer than two weeks, they have a two week testing and reporting window. Anything afterwards requires a support contract which they pay for, or they hire you on an hourly basis. Absolutely nothing new is added in this period, just snagging and bug fixing. This is very important.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Timing of invoice matters a lot. But there are different circumstances to take into account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Big Project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I usually send three invoices, the first payment is usually around 20% before starting a project. I would never start work with a new customer without some sort of down payment. The second is for another 20% usually 3/4 of the way through when there is something for the client to see, test perhaps and certain milestones have been met. The final payment is on completion but before the system is live, released or in production. For websites, it is on the day of launch.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Ongoing work (hourly).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For this I would bill monthly in arrears, at the start of the month. So on August 1st they get an invoice for all work carried out in July, although for a new customer we would estimate the hours to be worked and I would get a down payment of about 20% up front, discounted off their first invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Trusted long term customer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For project work I would bill at the completion of the project. For hourly work continue to bill on the first of each month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for delays in sending invoices, do not do that. You are suggesting that your work is not valuable, that your payments are not urgent and can wait, and that your services are not a priority. None of these is good for long term business. Send invoices immediately, get paid up front if only a small deposit, and take your invoicing very seriously. With regular formal invoicing acting as a project reporting tool, a good and consistent invoicing routine will make you look professional, valuable and a serious business. A poor invoicing routine will make you look like an amateur.&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19494" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="de0ebb8e-441a-4150-95f7-a5438ee80b59" CreationDate="2017-11-20T05:02:55.223" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19495" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7398" RevisionGUID="eeeb88a4-8b94-4890-9da5-50b044bbd6fc" CreationDate="2017-11-20T12:37:42.117" UserId="18705" Text="Can a  software development contract have a minimum term stipulation? Say, can a 'minimum' one year term after, say, one month of acceptable work be included in the contract?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm interested to hear thoughts on both W2s and C2Cs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19496" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7398" RevisionGUID="eeeb88a4-8b94-4890-9da5-50b044bbd6fc" CreationDate="2017-11-20T12:37:42.117" UserId="18705" Text="Can a software development contract have a minimum term stipulation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19497" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7398" RevisionGUID="eeeb88a4-8b94-4890-9da5-50b044bbd6fc" CreationDate="2017-11-20T12:37:42.117" UserId="18705" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|long-term|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19498" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3578" RevisionGUID="8b506d0a-69c3-4d92-8eca-8be60c9803ef" CreationDate="2017-11-20T16:13:31.297" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19499" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7399" RevisionGUID="98ef91a2-0eb3-4c58-925a-935e1f72a4ce" CreationDate="2017-11-21T07:06:10.480" UserId="7858" Text="Generally, you can put anything both parties agree to in a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have never heard of such a clause and it does seem to go against one of the primary reasons for using freelancers - flexibility for the employer. Some freelancers do have various sorts of retainers, which potentially could be an alternative way for you to secure work at your client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At times I've been presented with various try-before-you-buy condititions, which it seems your clause is a twist on. Personally, I and virtually all my clients prefer a straight freelance contract; the exception being 'immature' clients new to freelancing, who seem to believe freelancers are desperate to become employees after a trial period." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19500" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7400" RevisionGUID="a73e9266-193b-4a78-9811-e4e698e08fdb" CreationDate="2017-11-21T10:50:11.967" UserId="18230" Text="I used to have rebated service contracts where I would reserve a certain number of days per month for a client and he would pay me a monthly fixed fee. These had notice periods, which was appropriate because my client wanted the security of having access to my services for the foreseeable future and I wanted some fixed income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So yes, such arrangements are made. One year seems a long time though, also when both parties have to make a considerable up-front investment, this could be reasonable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other option would be to just agree to non-refundable advance payments upon reaching certain milestones." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19501" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7400" RevisionGUID="e873e0f1-ec70-418d-869f-b8e8a4c59f8c" CreationDate="2017-11-21T17:19:44.317" UserId="18230" Comment="deleted 3 characters in body" Text="I used to have rebated service contracts where I would reserve a certain number of days per month for a client and he would pay me a monthly fixed fee. These had notice periods, which was appropriate because my client wanted the security of having access to my services for the foreseeable future and I wanted some fixed income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So yes, such arrangements are made. One year seems a long time, although when both parties have to make a considerable up-front investment, this could be reasonable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other option would be to just agree to non-refundable advance payments upon reaching certain milestones." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19502" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6548" RevisionGUID="d5c277e8-f063-48af-9f8f-921bfa74f597" CreationDate="2017-11-22T07:46:20.507" UserId="18714" Comment="typo in 3rd paragraph" Text="I cannot specifically address the Canadian aspect, but generally speaking the situation does raise a few eyebrows.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having been an IT-contractor for 15+ years, insurance has been mentioned 3-4 times. I have insurance, but have never needed it. As a side note, my Danish insurance explicitly does not cover North America, so there may be some liability laws that should be looked into if you decide to move forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When there is an intermediate company between the contractor and the end client, it's only natural that the intermediate seek to limit their exposure to any potential disagreement between the two other parties - who are involved in the actual work, which 99% of the time is what causes disagreements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When the client has been mine directly (as seems to be the case here), I have never ever heard them mention insurance. There could be several reasons for that; the first being that they assume you have insurance, another being that they do not foresee problems of a scale that merit insurance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case, I would ask the client which aspects of the project worry them to a degree that they are willing to pay for insurance. If the client is not technologically advanced, it could be that they are merely attempting to insure away a general paranoia towards technology. If so, make it clear that there are best practices that mitigate all of their concerns; e.g. source control, CI, backup.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only real red flag would be if they want insurance against late delivery. Scope creep is often tricky to manage - especially if the client is 'immature' regarding IT-projects, or just unresponsive or organizationally a mess. Instead I would attempt to put processes in place that seek to ensure that the delivery process moves along and resolve issues when they arise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client seems to insist on insurance regardless of what you say - it could be time to walk away, as it seems they have already decided that they will be needing the insurance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19503" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6548" RevisionGUID="d5c277e8-f063-48af-9f8f-921bfa74f597" CreationDate="2017-11-22T07:46:20.507" Comment="Proposed by 18714 approved by 7858 edit id of 586" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19504" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7401" RevisionGUID="fcfd8d46-b58a-43c5-be92-1efc998e6801" CreationDate="2017-11-22T09:46:57.743" UserId="18230" Text="If your client wants Insurance, just get it and factor it into your prices! Other than that, make sure you limit your liability in the contract so it does not exceed the amount you are insured.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I even advertise with my insurance: *If you go to a limited liability company and they fail at your project - you can sue them but they will just go bankrupt. If I fail, I am insured up to 5 million Euro!*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don´t know how you would be ruined. The thing about insurances is, they don´t like to pay claims. They usually have very good lawyers to dispute bigger claims. That´s why it is also known as *passive legal insurance*. If it was a scam, it would be much easier to rip you of if you did not have insurance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19505" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7401" RevisionGUID="323bbe8b-f3e9-48f3-8846-752397f94a4a" CreationDate="2017-11-22T09:52:24.007" UserId="18230" Comment="added 88 characters in body" Text="If your client wants Insurance, just get it and factor it into your prices! Other than that, make sure you limit your liability in the contract so it does not exceed the amount you are insured.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I even did advertise with my insurance: *If you go to a limited liability company and they fail at your project - you can sue them but they will just go bankrupt. If I fail, I am insured up to 2 million Euros!* I would even offer to up the coverage to 10 mio for a slightly higher hourly fee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don´t know how you would be ruined. The thing about insurances is, they don´t like to pay claims. They usually have very good lawyers to dispute bigger claims. That´s why it is also known as *passive legal insurance*. If it was a scam, it would be much easier to rip you of if you did not have insurance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19512" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7056" RevisionGUID="a9b00e7c-3fcd-475a-b105-04cb6c5eca22" CreationDate="2017-11-24T00:40:12.867" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19514" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7404" RevisionGUID="ad6e6f01-6622-41e3-8c82-6a805ead4b82" CreationDate="2017-11-24T09:52:25.193" UserId="18725" Text="I am a freelance web-developer, but later I want to build a startup on it. So I found a good name what is formed by an adjective and a noun. The noun is 'solutions'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I didn't hesitated and bought the domain with the country TLD. (I first wanted to build the brand locally, than grow to globally.) My webpage is finished and I started to use the domain as my freelance e-mail address, and the FB page of that name has many likes, too. But I didn't checked that the .com and the .solutions TLD-s are taken by a domain reseller company (they want you to pay 2700USD to buy the .com and 2500 to buy the .solutions)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I found that the same adjective sounds good with the 'systems' noun and the local, the .com and the .systems TLD's are all free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next to it, my girlfriend want to be a freelance designer and next to it she want to operate a webshop.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My questions: when is safe the 'name change'? Or is it a good idea of using the following formating?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    old name as the startup/group name&#xD;&#xA;    (and waiting for the expiriy of those domains to buy them)&#xD;&#xA;    |    &#xD;&#xA;    -&gt; my girlfriend's brand&#xD;&#xA;    -&gt; my brand (with the new name)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and we both using the old name's email address.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19515" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7404" RevisionGUID="ad6e6f01-6622-41e3-8c82-6a805ead4b82" CreationDate="2017-11-24T09:52:25.193" UserId="18725" Text="Brand naming strategies?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19516" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7404" RevisionGUID="ad6e6f01-6622-41e3-8c82-6a805ead4b82" CreationDate="2017-11-24T09:52:25.193" UserId="18725" Text="|branding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19517" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7405" RevisionGUID="6459d3ae-aa6a-46fc-9faf-4de207f0e9f8" CreationDate="2017-11-24T17:53:21.233" UserId="708" Text="Branding is generally handled in one of two ways...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- &quot;Formerly XXXXXXX&quot;&#xD;&#xA;- &quot;A subsidiary of XXXXX&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given the clarifying comment, it's imperative to consider how you want to move forward and what you want your business to look like 1, 3, 5, + years down the road.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If the goal is to inevitably alter the brand name entirely**, then I would suggest leaving the old domain, with a *redirect* to the new domain. This will ensure all your existing visitors get forwarded to the primary web site. You might also consider an &quot;I see you came from our old site. Don't forget to update bookmarks.&quot; type of message. Eventually traffic to the old domain will slow and die. At which point you can let it go. Although leaving a redirect in place is never really a *bad* thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you spend your time and energy on the new domain. Pretty much ignoring the old domain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The **brand** should reflect, for a period of time, the previous brand name or identity. Hence the &quot;formerly XXXX&quot; method. This allows existing clientele to be aware that it's the same company just a new name/brand and eliminates much of the mistrust which may otherwise surface.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**If the goal is to merely operate under *both* brands**, then you want both sites to appear completely different and **never** duplicate content. You're probably aware, but duplicate content on multiple web sites will *lower* SEO across them all. And in this case you don't necessarily need to do *anything* to the old site except perhaps add an advertisement for the new site/brand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**As for your girlfriend and *her* business**.... be careful. Realize I have *no idea* about your relationship. But mixing business with someone you are in a non-binding relationship with can be **horrific**. If you have a falling out and she in intertwined with *your* business ventures, a vindictive person can sabotage the business of the other. Again, I do *not* know either of you. But until you are married and both *legally* responsible for the aspects of the business. I would **never**, not ever, mix my business with a &quot;girlfriend&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By mixing the domains and businesses you are both putting yourselves in a position to be responsible for the other's mistakes. If either of you were to happen to be sued for something and the businesses are mixed... there's no telling if a judge would see you as *one* business rather than two separate entities, making you both equally and severally liable. Same holds true for taxes. No clue where you are located, but if one of you fails to pay taxes, the IRS *might* see you as one business and go after the other for payment. All may seem wonderful and dandy now... but relationships can change rapidly often resulting if severe regrets for commingling things, especially things centered around income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have her purchase her *own* domain. You can support her by building the site or with the technical aspects or anything else she may need, even pay for her domain if you feel you should. But keep *your business* separate from *her business*. There are legal ramifications if you do not, at least until you are married.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19518" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7405" RevisionGUID="d6397300-7aa5-4a9c-bd04-dc7df8459483" CreationDate="2017-11-24T17:59:32.210" UserId="708" Comment="added 978 characters in body" Text="Branding is generally handled in one of two ways...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- &quot;Formerly XXXXXXX&quot;&#xD;&#xA;- &quot;A subsidiary of XXXXX&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given the clarifying comment, it's imperative to consider how you want to move forward and what you want your business to look like 1, 3, 5, + years down the road.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#If the goal is to inevitably alter the brand name entirely&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;...then I would suggest leaving the old domain, with a *redirect* to the new domain. This will ensure all your existing visitors get forwarded to the primary web site. You might also consider an &quot;I see you came from our old site. Don't forget to update bookmarks.&quot; type of message. Eventually traffic to the old domain will slow and die. At which point you can let it go. Although leaving a redirect in place is never really a *bad* thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you spend your time and energy on the new domain. Pretty much ignoring the old domain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The **brand** should reflect, for a period of time, the previous brand name or identity. Hence the &quot;formerly XXXX&quot; method. This allows existing clientele to be aware that it's the same company just a new name/brand and eliminates much of the mistrust which may otherwise surface.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#If the goal is to merely operate under *both* brands&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;...then you want both sites to appear completely different and **never** duplicate content. You're probably aware, but duplicate content on multiple web sites will *lower* SEO across them all. And in this case you don't necessarily need to do *anything* to the old site except perhaps add an advertisement for the new site/brand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You then build out the new brand/site as a completely separate entity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#If the goal is to operate the new domain as a subset of the old domain&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;....then branding for the new site is often the same branding as the old site with a touch of flair - the &quot;A subsidiary of XXXX&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FedEx does this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![enter image description here][1]][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Same general brand with some alterations for subsets of the company. Without being a big, internationally known company, you need to stay closer to your primary brand to remain identifiable, but the general idea is a tag line or some other unique aspect added to the existing brand t indicate a subset within the company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You would brand the new site with this derivative brand and build it with original content related to those special services or the thought behind the subsidiary. Again, you do not want to duplicate content from the main site if SEO is a concern.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#As for your girlfriend and *her* business....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;...be careful. Realize I have *no idea* about your relationship. But mixing business with someone you are in a non-binding relationship with can be **horrific**. If you have a falling out and she is intertwined with *your* business ventures, a vindictive person can sabotage the business of the other. Again, I do *not* know either of you. But until you are married and both *legally* responsible for the aspects of the business. I would **never**, not ever, mix my business with a &quot;girlfriend&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By mixing the domains and businesses you are both putting yourselves in a position to be responsible for the other's mistakes. If either of you were to happen to be sued for something and the businesses are mixed... there's no telling if a judge would see you as *one* business rather than two separate entities, making you both equally and severally liable. Same holds true for taxes. No clue where you are located, but if one of you fails to pay taxes, the IRS *might* see you as one business and go after the other for payment. All may seem wonderful and dandy now... but relationships can change rapidly often resulting if severe regrets for commingling things, especially things centered around income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have her purchase her *own* domain. You can support her by building the site or with the technical aspects or anything else she may need, even pay for her domain if you feel you should. But keep *your business* separate from *her business*. There are legal ramifications if you do not, at least until you are married.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/cOBpv.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19519" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7405" RevisionGUID="7544648a-a0a9-42a6-9f2e-a4aae2268928" CreationDate="2017-11-24T18:09:33.063" UserId="708" Comment="added 978 characters in body" Text="Altering branding is generally handled in one of three ways...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- &quot;Formerly XXXXXXX&quot;&#xD;&#xA;- Completely unrelated branding to appear as a new company&#xD;&#xA;- &quot;A subsidiary of XXXXX&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given the clarifying comment, it's imperative to consider how you want to move forward and what you want your business to look like 1, 3, 5, + years down the road.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#If the goal is to inevitably alter the brand name entirely&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;...then I would suggest leaving the old domain, with a *redirect* to the new domain. This will ensure all your existing visitors get forwarded to the primary web site. You might also consider an &quot;I see you came from our old site. Don't forget to update bookmarks.&quot; type of message. Eventually traffic to the old domain will slow and die. At which point you can let it go. Although leaving a redirect in place is never really a *bad* thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you spend your time and energy on the new domain. Pretty much ignoring the old domain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The **brand** should reflect, for a period of time, the previous brand name or identity. Hence the &quot;formerly XXXX&quot; method. This allows existing clientele to be aware that it's the same company just a new name/brand and eliminates much of the mistrust which may otherwise surface.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#If the goal is to merely operate under *both* brands&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;...then you want both sites to appear completely different and **never** duplicate content. You're probably aware, but duplicate content on multiple web sites will *lower* SEO across them all. And in this case you don't necessarily need to do *anything* to the old site except perhaps add an advertisement for the new site/brand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You then build out the new brand/site as a completely separate entity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#If the goal is to operate the new domain as a subset of the old domain&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;....then branding for the new site is often the same branding as the old site with a touch of flair - the &quot;A subsidiary of XXXX&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FedEx does this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![enter image description here][1]][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Same general brand with some alterations for subsets of the company. Without being a big, internationally known company, you need to stay closer to your primary brand to remain identifiable, but the general idea is a tag line or some other unique aspect added to the existing brand t indicate a subset within the company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You would brand the new site with this derivative brand and build it with original content related to those special services or the thought behind the subsidiary. Again, you do not want to duplicate content from the main site if SEO is a concern.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#As for your girlfriend and *her* business....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;...be careful. Realize I have *no idea* about your relationship. But mixing business with someone you are in a non-binding relationship with can be **horrific**. If you have a falling out and she is intertwined with *your* business ventures, a vindictive person can sabotage the business of the other. Again, I do *not* know either of you. But until you are married and both *legally* responsible for the aspects of the business. I would **never**, not ever, mix my business with a &quot;girlfriend&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By mixing the domains and businesses you are both putting yourselves in a position to be responsible for the other's mistakes. If either of you were to happen to be sued for something and the businesses are mixed... there's no telling if a judge would see you as *one* business rather than two separate entities, making you both equally and severally liable. Same holds true for taxes. No clue where you are located, but if one of you fails to pay taxes, the IRS *might* see you as one business and go after the other for payment. All may seem wonderful and dandy now... but relationships can change rapidly often resulting if severe regrets for commingling things, especially things centered around income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have her purchase her *own* domain. You can support her by building the site or with the technical aspects or anything else she may need, even pay for her domain if you feel you should. But keep *your business* separate from *her business*. There are legal ramifications if you do not, at least until you are married.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personal opinion regarding domain names.... It's pointless to &quot;wait for one to expire&quot; 95% of the time. That is unless you pay some domain-sniping company to snatch it up at the first opportunity. The cost for that can be as much as trying to purchase the domain from the existing owner. And many, many, many domain owners and squatters only renew yearly so you THINK it's going to expire soon. But realize they have that 30 day grace period and first rights to reinstate it. You can only &quot;snipe&quot; a domain from someone who is not paying attention to it and ignoring all the renewal emails, for at least 30 days. (Heck, Network Solutions will even CALL an owner when a domain is ready to expire.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I generally thing it is better to find a Top Level Domain that is available (I know it's impossible at times). This can, and often will, have general branding implications. It's great to come up with a &quot;cool name&quot; for your company, but if that TLD is *never* going to be available because someone else also thought of it, it's still rather pointless.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, myself, only purchase .com domains for primary web presence. Anything else *looks* like you couldn't get the .com and clients go looking at the .com. I will use .net or other non-TLD domains for things like client access, or general SEO supporting the .com. But I just don't bother with primary web sites unless they *are* a .com.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/cOBpv.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19520" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7405" RevisionGUID="14e768fc-7aff-4f52-adc8-a79db931761b" CreationDate="2017-11-24T18:21:28.100" UserId="708" Comment="edited body" Text="Altering branding is generally handled in one of three ways...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- &quot;Formerly XXXXXXX&quot;&#xD;&#xA;- Completely unrelated branding to appear as a new company&#xD;&#xA;- &quot;A subsidiary of XXXXX&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given the clarifying comment, it's imperative to consider how you want to move forward and what you want your business to look like 1, 3, 5, + years down the road.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#If the goal is to inevitably alter the brand name entirely&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;...then I would suggest leaving the old domain, with a *redirect* to the new domain. This will ensure all your existing visitors get forwarded to the primary web site. You might also consider an &quot;I see you came from our old site. Don't forget to update bookmarks.&quot; type of message. Eventually traffic to the old domain will slow and die. At which point you can let it go. Although leaving a redirect in place is never really a *bad* thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you spend your time and energy on the new domain. Pretty much ignoring the old domain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The **brand** should reflect, for a period of time, the previous brand name or identity. Hence the &quot;formerly XXXX&quot; method. This allows existing clientele to be aware that it's the same company just a new name/brand and eliminates much of the mistrust which may otherwise surface.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#If the goal is to merely operate under *both* brands&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;...then you want both sites to appear completely different and **never** duplicate content. You're probably aware, but duplicate content on multiple web sites will *lower* SEO across them all. And in this case you don't necessarily need to do *anything* to the old site except perhaps add an advertisement for the new site/brand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You then build out the new brand/site as a completely separate entity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#If the goal is to operate the new domain as a subset of the old domain&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;....then branding for the new site is often the same branding as the old site with a touch of flair - the &quot;A subsidiary of XXXX&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FedEx does this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![enter image description here][1]][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Same general brand with some alterations for subsets of the company. Without being a big, internationally known company, you need to stay closer to your primary brand to remain identifiable, but the general idea is a tag line or some other unique aspect added to the existing brand t indicate a subset within the company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You would brand the new site with this derivative brand and build it with original content related to those special services or the thought behind the subsidiary. Again, you do not want to duplicate content from the main site if SEO is a concern.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#As for your girlfriend and *her* business....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;...be careful. Realize I have *no idea* about your relationship. But mixing business with someone you are in a non-binding relationship with can be **horrific**. If you have a falling out and she is intertwined with *your* business ventures, a vindictive person can sabotage the business of the other. Again, I do *not* know either of you. But until you are married and both *legally* responsible for the aspects of the business. I would **never**, not ever, mix my business with a &quot;girlfriend&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By mixing the domains and businesses you are both putting yourselves in a position to be responsible for the other's mistakes. If either of you were to happen to be sued for something and the businesses are mixed... there's no telling if a judge would see you as *one* business rather than two separate entities, making you both equally and severally liable. Same holds true for taxes. No clue where you are located, but if one of you fails to pay taxes, the IRS *might* see you as one business and go after the other for payment. All may seem wonderful and dandy now... but relationships can change rapidly often resulting if severe regrets for commingling things, especially things centered around income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have her purchase her *own* domain. You can support her by building the site or with the technical aspects or anything else she may need, even pay for her domain if you feel you should. But keep *your business* separate from *her business*. There are legal ramifications if you do not, at least until you are married.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personal opinion regarding domain names.... It's pointless to &quot;wait for one to expire&quot; 95% of the time. That is unless you pay some domain-sniping company to snatch it up at the first opportunity. The cost for that can be as much as trying to purchase the domain from the existing owner. And many, many, many domain owners and squatters only renew yearly so you THINK it's going to expire soon. But realize they have that 30 day grace period and first rights to reinstate it. You can only &quot;snipe&quot; a domain from someone who is not paying attention to it and ignoring all the renewal emails, for at least 30 days. (Heck, Network Solutions will even CALL an owner when a domain is ready to expire.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I generally think it is better to find a Top Level Domain that is available (I know it's impossible at times). This can, and often will, have general branding implications. It's great to come up with a &quot;cool name&quot; for your company, but if that TLD is *never* going to be available because someone else also thought of it, it's still rather pointless.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, myself, only purchase .com domains for primary web presence. Anything else *looks* like you couldn't get the .com and clients go looking at the .com. I will use .net or other non-TLD domains for things like client access, or general SEO supporting the .com. But I just don't bother with primary web sites unless they *are* a .com.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/cOBpv.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19524" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7407" RevisionGUID="883d4193-fa9f-48b6-a9de-8381374da3af" CreationDate="2017-11-25T19:53:54.447" UserId="18736" Text="I believe the most straightforward approach would be to follow-up with the various groups you worked with and get explicit permission to reference the articles in your job hunting efforts. While you're at it, you may also want to ask for them to be a client reference.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;E.g. speak with them over the phone in person &amp; then follow-up with a confirmation email where you request that they confirm. &quot;Hello &lt;Name&gt;, thank you for speaking with me. I wanted to formally confirm that you are comfortable with me sharing my involvement in the &lt;titles of papers&gt; with future employers. Your confirmation reply would be greatly appreciated.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19526" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7409" RevisionGUID="27cd9ad7-f981-4f0c-b823-5b965b7d1f11" CreationDate="2017-11-27T09:42:43.103" UserId="18744" Text="As a non-EU student you can work &quot;120 days or 240 half days per year.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(source: https://www.haw-hamburg.de/english/international-degree-students/visa-legal-questions/working-in-germany.html)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're a German citizen concerned with compliance, consider asking the freelancer to incorporate as a business in the US as you would then have a business to business transaction.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://nvsos.gov/sos/businesses/start-a-business/limited-liability-company&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19527" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7410" RevisionGUID="0f9fcf6d-406e-47a5-bbdc-60447361196d" CreationDate="2017-11-27T09:51:02.030" UserId="18744" Text="Getting started as a freelancer is quite easy; failing as a freelancer is even easier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best successes I've seen follow three patterns:&#xD;&#xA;1) Establish your portfolio&#xD;&#xA;2) Start with a whale client&#xD;&#xA;3) Diversify quickly&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Establish your portfolio.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, your biggest advantages are your quantity of work and your flexiblity of price.  Using these together, begin your portfolio by doing work at nearly any price.  This feels counterintuitive as an employee, but the discount is basically your cost of marketing.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A portfolio of relevant projects and client testimonials will be the most important thing you have in the next ten years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Start with a whale client.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're still an employee and you know how to live in that world.  A whale client is someone who provides the initial work and capital to get started.  It isn't uncommon to resign from a job and then continue freelancing for the same position: I did this for three months when I started freelancing, and made the same income on 50% less responsibility.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) Diversify.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The biggest trap a new freelancer will make, when they have a whale client, is to actually not diversify income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer you trade unlimited upside for unlimited downside.  This means you need to begin by minimizing the real risk to your business, which is lack of cash flow.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a rule you should have less than 50% of your income tied to one client, and you should have at least five clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you have your whale, go back to step 1, and expand your portfolio." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19528" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7411" RevisionGUID="495c22f8-e0f0-40ec-802c-8ee4e18c1fe8" CreationDate="2017-11-27T10:05:09.943" UserId="18744" Text="The wage disparity is crazier than you might imagine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I first started hiring freelancers online around 2010, and I was giddy to nearly cover a $5k contract with a $500/mo VA in the Philippines.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That work didn't actually go the way I expected, but I assumed it was a selection problem in how i hired, so I doubled down and moved to Vietnam.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There I found English speaking, technically competent students willing to work for $200/month.  (Actually some were willing to work for less, I just didn't realize it.)  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also found savvy individuals who had learned to collect projects online and then outsource them further.  So that contractor charging $7/hr may actually hand the work to someone for $1/hr who doesn't have the luxury of speaking English.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From this I learned three things:&#xD;&#xA;1) Differences in cost of living can be 1-2 orders of magnitude.  &#xD;&#xA;2) Everything you've taught yourself online, anyone with an internet connection could have learned as well.&#xD;&#xA;3) The same struggles for pricing happen everywhere, they're just at a different level of magnitude. (I had great employees rej" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19533" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7414" RevisionGUID="7f020d19-a818-4cdb-8042-0ee9b6de1dc6" CreationDate="2017-11-28T19:53:15.223" UserId="18223" Text="Here's my thoughts on this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. You might want to impose a online scheduler for your client. They may all arrive at once because they don't know when and how busy you are. Knowing that in advance, they might ask for your services at the appropriate time.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Now that you have too much customers, you might want to increase your prices.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Maybe a clean-up is an option at this point." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19535" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7415" RevisionGUID="013d0c20-db07-4ded-8581-c9e60fc8163e" CreationDate="2017-11-29T09:31:09.000" UserId="18230" Text="You can try to influence the timing of your client a little bit, to make your work-distribution more even.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tools you have for this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Timed offers:** When a client requests a quote from you, always set a expiration date for that quote.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Prices:** You can adjust your rate to make them buy, or postpone certain orders.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Communication:** Either communicate with your clients openly to get them to work more closely with your on planning or use tricks like announcing &quot;Last time-slots for December!&quot; when in truth you have nothing in December ... you´ll have to see what works best.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, some time for idling / acquisitions should be expected and factored into your daily rate. Some part of why freelancers get paid more than fixed employees is for taking the risk of downtime on themselves." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19536" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7353" RevisionGUID="8f74ac22-eeb6-497d-91f9-d4a63111205a" CreationDate="2017-11-29T09:46:22.177" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19541" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7417" RevisionGUID="cdc33a17-5686-4dc3-9922-a401f18a369c" CreationDate="2017-11-30T17:00:08.740" UserId="18798" Text="I've done a fair amount of freelancing over my career, here are some answers to your questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Can I suggest a 40hr/week retainer contract through my consulting company?&#xD;&#xA;Yes, as long as you're not breaking the law, your contract can say pretty much whatever you need it to r.e. compensation. My approach to this type of commitment (i.e. requested number of hours) is to word the SOW such that you will provide up-to that many hours per week/month/year and to get the customer to create a PO in that amount. I try to avoid committing all of my time (&quot;up to&quot; does not commit you to actually work that amount...) unless the rate is really good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Is that legal for the client under the definition of a full-time employee from the IRS?&#xD;&#xA;Not always, but, it's not really your problem; my view on this law is that it prevents employers from cheating employees out of benefits by calling them nonexempt.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    What are the pros and cons of this move for the client and myself?&#xD;&#xA;My main concern is the 40hr/wk commitment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * 40hrs/wk, your take: At that rate you are full-time for one client. This creates the following problems for your business:&#xD;&#xA;  * You will not have any time for any other customers&#xD;&#xA;  * You will not have any time to develop any other customers&#xD;&#xA;  * You will not have any time to invest in you business (process, tooling, hiring, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;  * &#xD;&#xA; So, basically, you are just a full-time employee without the benefits, commitment to professional development, etc. Avoid this if you're serious about developing a freelance business unless there is something else about the job (great rate, tech area you're interested in, flexibility of where/how you work) that makes it special.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * 40hrs/wk, client take: &#xD;&#xA;  * The upside is that they are not paying taxes and overhead on you and they can terminate you pretty much whenever they want to without running afoul of employment laws. &#xD;&#xA;  * The downside is you are a bit more mercurial and, if you turn out to be good and hard to replace, this can be a significant issue. &#xD;&#xA;  * There is also the issue that, if they treat you like an employee, they my have an issue when audited. If there's just you that they are treating this way then it might not get picked up, if it's a widespread practice then they are at risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;_&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;        Downsides is that they may feel I'm not as committed to the company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Get over that one! You're a consultant/contractor; if they want commitment they should be shopping a full-time req." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19546" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7419" RevisionGUID="e1a6a09d-9923-420f-93be-7802f2f0e29d" CreationDate="2017-12-01T16:31:48.837" UserId="1105" Text="It doesn't actually matter whether you're a EU citizen or not. You can engage in commercial activities under your own company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What might be a problem:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* you, quite possibly, won't be subsidized any more&#xD;&#xA;* you might have to address a few legal topics such as&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  * where is your company located&#xD;&#xA;  * what is the legal form of your company (equivalent of Limited, sole-company, ...)&#xD;&#xA;  * what are the countries where you have to pay taxes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also there's the social implication whether the client will accept it. There's no law that keeps you from being a student in Germany **and** running a company. Get professional tax advise from a German advisor and possibly an advisor from the country where your company originates from.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being said: Germany doesn't exactly make it easy to get this right but it is not prohibited by any means." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19549" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7268" RevisionGUID="774b0c7d-1562-422f-aaac-6c984e143d63" CreationDate="2017-12-02T12:05:09.263" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19551" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7421" RevisionGUID="71ffdf2d-904c-4051-822b-4b4bb65014c6" CreationDate="2017-12-04T03:59:44.987" UserId="18004" Text="It normally takes 6-8 weeks for the consulting firm I work for to pay me after I bill them for a month of my labor (I am a software developer). I currently have 3 outstanding invoices, and the oldest one was sent 9 weeks ago as of this writing. The contract states that they pay me within 5 days of receiving payment from the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To have check sent, I usually have to talk to someone on the phone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not sure if I am being treated poorly, or if this is typical of subcontracting arrangements. Is it &quot;normal&quot; for payments to take this long? The client is a pretty large company, so I understand that the gears turn a little slow, but 9 weeks? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19552" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7421" RevisionGUID="71ffdf2d-904c-4051-822b-4b4bb65014c6" CreationDate="2017-12-04T03:59:44.987" UserId="18004" Text="As a subcontractor, how long should it take to get paid?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19553" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7421" RevisionGUID="71ffdf2d-904c-4051-822b-4b4bb65014c6" CreationDate="2017-12-04T03:59:44.987" UserId="18004" Text="|late-payment|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19554" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7422" RevisionGUID="8ab61283-7f54-4d49-93bf-7a4696758b51" CreationDate="2017-12-04T04:15:56.207" UserId="708" Text="Put simply: if they are not adhering to the terms of the contract they agreed to, they are in breech of the agreement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, you are being treated poorly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;30 days is standard. But if they already agreed to 5 days, yhen the MOST you should be waiting is 10-15 days due to mail service." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19555" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7422" RevisionGUID="e9b57cb2-1ecb-4373-a526-57622518fe48" CreationDate="2017-12-04T05:06:00.333" UserId="708" Comment="added 58 characters in body" Text="Put simply: if they are not adhering to the terms of the contract they agreed to, they are in breech of the agreement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, you are being treated poorly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;30 days is standard. But if they already agreed to 5 days, then the *most* you should be waiting is 10-15 days due to mail service, if they mail a check rather than paying electronically." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19556" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7421" RevisionGUID="890b8a0e-99d2-4650-ba73-5697ca4136ec" CreationDate="2017-12-04T05:07:18.200" UserId="18004" Comment="added 8 characters in body" Text="It normally takes 6-8 weeks for the consulting firm I work for to pay me after I bill them for a month of my labor (I am a software developer). I currently have 3 outstanding invoices, and the oldest one was sent 9 weeks ago as of this writing. The contract states that they pay me within 5 days of receiving payment from the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To have a check sent to me, I usually have to talk to someone on the phone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not sure if I am being treated poorly, or if this is typical of subcontracting arrangements. Is it &quot;normal&quot; for payments to take this long? The client is a pretty large company, so I understand that the gears turn a little slow, but 9 weeks? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19557" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7423" RevisionGUID="0b15062b-63fc-48c1-9f4c-ed4c4b1e75d1" CreationDate="2017-12-04T13:37:17.097" UserId="18863" Text="I run a digital design business and I have to take on an additional designer to handle an increased workload from my main client. The client is willing to pay for the added design resource plus a markup for my project management time (I will be designing and managing) but I'm not sure how to add this fee or what it should be . The idea is that the client will be able to scale and take on more business with our help, and it will also allow me to scale my business in the process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I estimate I will spend about 25% of my time managing the other designer, the rest of my time designing. So, do I add 25%? And do I add it onto MY rate or the total of my rate + designer rate? I'm not sure what the correct formula would be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The additional designer rate = $30ph and my rate = $50ph.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've mostly been a one man band until now so it would be good to get some experienced guidance on this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19558" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7423" RevisionGUID="0b15062b-63fc-48c1-9f4c-ed4c4b1e75d1" CreationDate="2017-12-04T13:37:17.097" UserId="18863" Text="How do I charge for project management?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19559" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7423" RevisionGUID="0b15062b-63fc-48c1-9f4c-ed4c4b1e75d1" CreationDate="2017-12-04T13:37:17.097" UserId="18863" Text="|contracts|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19560" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7424" RevisionGUID="67515e23-4868-47a7-a20d-520d2316d77c" CreationDate="2017-12-04T16:21:28.910" UserId="18868" Text="&gt;  I don't understand why they'd do that, I think they would earn more money in a local supermarket or McDonald?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's look at salary negotiations when interviewing for a job at McDonalds. The manager of McDolands needs to hire a new employee. He first needs to decide what responsibilities he needs filled and the salary range. We'll assume here that he just wants to hire anyone for any position. To do that he must decide what the lowest level is he's interesting in hiring (let's say a student with no experience), and he must decide the highest level he can afford (let's say a previous McDonalds manager).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The manager now has a salary range (hypothetically) of $7.25/hr to $12.00/hr (range found via Google). He won't hire someone for less than that and he won't hire someone for more. He is going to keep this a secret during the hiring process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When he interviews people he will ask them what hourly wage they want for the responsibilities they're interested in. He will then weigh the value between what they have to offer with what they are asking for. Any candidates who ask for more than $12.00/hr are not hired, and since $7.25/hr is the minimum wage allowed by law. He will reject any candidates he feels are not worth that amount. He will pick the candidate that offers the best return for his wage. Understand, he won't pick the cheapest unless no one else who asked for more was better than the cheapest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's that simple, and it also applies to your situation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I personally charge much more than them, thus I'm able to earn a significant margin (get a job and hire someone online to help me).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't hire someone for more than you make and you want to keep some for yourself. This defines your range. Once you know your range you're in a position to look for help, but the range doesn't change the issue of supply and demand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Ok. The quality wasn't the top, but I was able to fill the gaps myself. It worked well for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You managed to yield a return on your investment in hiring that person. That's all it means. You found a way to locate a supply of workers that fit inside your range. If it didn't work out and it cost you money, then you wouldn't be here asking this question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; What's the point of waiting for a freelancing job online, and only charge it like $10 an hour?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You said &quot;online&quot; and that is the fundamental issue here. It also sounds like they announced their hourly rate publicly. Which means, that you ignored the others who were outside your range. There is no negotiations since you know your range and they've already disclosed their rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the game of salary negotiations the first one to show their cards loses. **Always!**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might have had enough range to afford $20/hr but instead agreed to $10/hr. That is not your fault. It's the fault of the candidate who didn't understand the game of negotiating. They should have performed some research to see what the general salary range was for the work they were doing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other issue here is the use of &quot;hire me&quot; websites where everyone shares their hourly rate. These websites create a stock market economy where &quot;trends&quot; drive up or down the rates. People are charging based upon their ability to quickly find work using the website, and their rates are tightly coupled to the use of that website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they walked down the street to their local customer they would negotiate a completely different rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These kinds of &quot;hire me&quot; websites become saturated quickly with freelancers who drive down the economy value by overwhelming the population with a lower standard of living. So in layman terms, you get a lot of people from third world countries. While you might not hire people from these regions you are hiring in their online economy. Which means, that local talent are subject to lower rate competition.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19562" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7425" RevisionGUID="2b60328e-d27f-4da6-91fe-9b93d2be179a" CreationDate="2017-12-04T17:17:57.483" UserId="18230" Text="There are different approaches, you´ll have to decide which one fits you the best (and which you can sell to your client).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Subcontract: Just pay your additional designer out of your own pocket and invoice to you client the agreed rate for that kind of work. It does not really matter who did it. There should be a profit out of this to pay for the added overhead and responsibility you take.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Log your managing time and invoice it separately, at an agreed rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;for instance:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Design             20h x $50 = $1000&#xD;&#xA;    Project managemnt   5h x $60 =  $300&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This especially if the other designer is invoicing the client himself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19563" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7425" RevisionGUID="3d80fe13-97ed-4287-96dc-da6769a275e3" CreationDate="2017-12-04T17:23:30.790" UserId="18230" Comment="added 422 characters in body" Text="There are different approaches, you´ll have to decide which one fits you the best (and which you can sell to your client).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Subcontract: Just pay your additional designer out of your own pocket and invoice to you client the agreed rate for that kind of work. It does not really matter who did it. There should be a profit out of this to pay for the added overhead and responsibility you take. I think this is the normal standard.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Log your managing time and invoice it separately, at an agreed rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;for instance:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Design             20h x $50 = $1000&#xD;&#xA;    Project managemnt   5h x $60 =  $300&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This especially if the other designer is invoicing the client himself. The rate does not have to be different, but it could make sense to do it as this kind of service may have different cots and risks attached.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. You can also agree with your client on a fixed or percentual overhead fee like your suggestion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any event, you should log your work and reevaluate after some time if your pricing needs to be adjusted - as always when you do new things.&#xD;&#xA;    " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19564" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7417" RevisionGUID="a3af589d-aed1-4aff-8524-1ad8832b4f49" CreationDate="2017-12-04T17:56:43.683" UserId="9" Comment="Code formatting to quote formatting, some grammar changes and word changes" Text="I've done a fair amount of freelancing over my career, here are some answers to your questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Can I suggest a 40hr/week retainer contract through my consulting company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes! As long as you're not breaking the law, your contract can say pretty much whatever you need it to r.e. compensation. My approach to this type of commitment (i.e. requested number of hours) is to word the Statement of Work such that you will provide up to that many hours per week/month/year and to get the customer to create a PO in that amount. I try to avoid committing all of my time (&quot;up to&quot; does not commit you to actually work that amount...) unless the rate is really good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Is that legal for the client under the definition of a full-time employee from the IRS?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not always, but it's not really your problem; my view on this law is that it prevents employers from cheating employees out of benefits by calling them nonexempt.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; What are the pros and cons of this move for the client and myself?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My main concern is the 40hr/wk commitment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* 40hrs/wk, your take: At that rate you are full-time for one client. This creates the following problems for your business:&#xD;&#xA;    * You will not have any time for any other customers&#xD;&#xA;    * You will not have any time to develop any other customers&#xD;&#xA;    * You will not have any time to invest in your business (process, tooling, hiring, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, you are just a full-time employee without the benefits, commitment to professional development, etc. Avoid this if you're serious about developing a freelance business unless there is something else about the job (great rate, tech area you're interested in, flexibility of where/how you work) that makes it special.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* 40hrs/wk, client take: &#xD;&#xA;    * The upside is that they are not paying taxes and overhead on you and they can terminate you pretty much whenever they want to without running afoul of employment laws. &#xD;&#xA;    * The downside is you are a bit more mercurial and, if you turn out to be good and hard to replace, this can be a significant issue. &#xD;&#xA;    * There is also the issue that, if they treat you like an employee, they my have an issue when audited. If there's just you that they are treating this way then it might not get picked up, if it's a widespread practice then they are at risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Downsides is that they may feel I'm not as committed to the company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Get over that one! You're a consultant/contractor; if they want commitment, they should be looking for a full-time employee." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19565" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7426" RevisionGUID="abc3fc11-67f2-4257-bf55-16e64b2ccbd9" CreationDate="2017-12-04T23:57:57.770" UserId="18868" Text="You **double** your hourly rate and charge for *two* people. This means that all of your invoices are now **double**. You detail everything as you did before, but now the client has hired **two**. It doesn't matter if that person costs you less money, but you're taking a risk if you charge less for that other person's time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- What happens if that person quits or is fired?&#xD;&#xA;- What happens if they don't have enough skill?&#xD;&#xA;- What happens if you have to work more hours to cover their learning curve?&#xD;&#xA;- What happens if you have to do their work for them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it can seem appealing to bring on someone junior and just *adjust* what you bill to account for that junior level, but that junior is going to cost you more than what you think. You're going to spend some of your own money (in the form of time) doing training and simply waiting for that person to come up to speed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any discount you give a client for your time is just money out of your own pocket.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19567" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7425" RevisionGUID="79183db6-0159-420e-924c-6263e565fd54" CreationDate="2017-12-05T10:03:19.090" UserId="18230" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="There are different approaches, you´ll have to decide which one fits you the best (and which you can sell to your client).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Subcontract: Just pay your additional designer out of your own pocket and invoice to your client the agreed rate for that kind of work. It does not really matter who did it. There should be a profit out of this to pay for the added overhead and responsibility you take. I think this is the normal standard.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Log your managing time and invoice it separately, at an agreed rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;for instance:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Design             20h x $50 = $1000&#xD;&#xA;    Project managemnt   5h x $60 =  $300&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This especially if the other designer is invoicing the client himself. The rate does not have to be different, but it could make sense to do it as this kind of service may have different cots and risks attached.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. You can also agree with your client on a fixed or percentual overhead fee like your suggestion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any event, you should log your work and reevaluate after some time if your pricing needs to be adjusted - as always when you do new things.&#xD;&#xA;    " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19568" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7428" RevisionGUID="de8d01d3-6655-4269-ad61-8fee48a4022f" CreationDate="2017-12-05T15:30:57.497" UserId="18879" Text="I am a (&quot;Top Rated&quot;) and 5* freelancer on Upwork, with a 100% rating for completed projects.  I refuse any / all offers from Upwork clients who even hint @ inappropriately working outside the network, but I do report them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Neither do I accept offers without a subsequent interview of the client so that I can be confident that we are a good fit.  I occasionally do suggest that I submit a &quot;free sample&quot; or a preliminary draft prior to executing a contract.  I simply have enough confidence in my work product to provide protection the client.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;More importantly, I can also protect myself and maintain a sterling reputation for not only quality, but integrity as well.  In the previous 12 months, I have invested less than 2 hours into projects that didn't come to fruit, while saving 100's of hours in unnecessary revisions or interim consultations.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The approach also allows me to avoid unreasonable, unqualified clients with whom collaborations become difficult or may have given me less than stellar feedback ... who originally felt the need to hire a writer and then become &quot;experts&quot; on the art and science, retroactively. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19573" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7430" RevisionGUID="de5dbae7-86ae-49c9-bbfc-e79c2cda81d3" CreationDate="2017-12-06T14:45:03.043" UserId="18894" Text="I am currently doing a thesis for a company that engage in B2B.The main problem of the company right now is that about 20% (+/- 15 clients) of their clients are constantly paying their invoice late, some are even 90+ days overdue. As part my of research I have to contact these clients and do an interview with them over late-payment. I know it's a tough question to ask a client on why they are paying their invoices late. But , what are possible smart interview questions that I can ask over these late payments without offending these clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19574" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7430" RevisionGUID="de5dbae7-86ae-49c9-bbfc-e79c2cda81d3" CreationDate="2017-12-06T14:45:03.043" UserId="18894" Text="Interview questions for Late-Paying clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19575" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7430" RevisionGUID="de5dbae7-86ae-49c9-bbfc-e79c2cda81d3" CreationDate="2017-12-06T14:45:03.043" UserId="18894" Text="|late-payment|accounting|finance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19579" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7432" RevisionGUID="81b3c5cd-1a94-4293-9f48-25f8df7453e4" CreationDate="2017-12-06T17:25:00.247" UserId="9845" Text="This is a pretty neat idea, because a lot of freelancers (myself included) struggle with late payments. What's probably really important is to get a picture of these types of companies - are there certain things that make a company more likely to pay late? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Is the client large, medium, small, or a single-member/entrepreneur?&#xD;&#xA; - Is there a chain of approval for invoices received, and how does that work?&#xD;&#xA; - Do they have a set billing/payment schedule that they adhere to for&#xD;&#xA;   all vendors? For example, at least one of my clients is a very large&#xD;&#xA;   company with their own billing system. Even though my invoices are&#xD;&#xA;   net 10, they pay 30 days regardless.&#xD;&#xA; - How long has the client been working with the company? (Perhaps they&#xD;&#xA;   take the relationship for granted?)&#xD;&#xA; - What type of business is the client company?&#xD;&#xA; - How does the client pay? Certain types of payments tend to be faster than others (ie credit card payments are quicker than checks, etc.)&#xD;&#xA; - This may be a touchy subject - but does the client have cash-flow problems that cause late payments?&#xD;&#xA; - Is there anything the company can do to expedite receiving payments from the client? (ie, how the invoice is received, how often invoice reminders are sent, late fees, etc.)&#xD;&#xA; - How valuable is the service offered by the company (the biller) to the client? (this may give insight into late/missed payments)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's all I can think of, but I'd bet there are some additional questions you could ask. Only one or two of these would seem to step on toes, and depending on how you ask them, they could provide a lot of insight. Best of luck on your thesis!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19580" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7433" RevisionGUID="e70cdf1a-e611-40f5-bcce-c38c8ba2cee6" CreationDate="2017-12-06T19:03:48.287" UserId="18899" Text="I Can Understand asking these type of question to your clients is very tough but surely you can put some smart question .&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;=&gt;Asking for client satisfaction is very import over your work . Most of the clients pay late just because they were not happy with your work or they might need more modifications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;=&gt;Always try to find the reason behind late payment never argue with your client for payment, be gentle and ask the reason for delay . &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;=&gt;Choose payment verified clients before bidding for work . You can also have payments in different sprints of work completion . &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;=&gt;Last but always try to gain faith over your client.Keep Questioning if you get a chance because this will only bring trust and you can have better outcomes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19584" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7434" RevisionGUID="c1a8f9c6-5112-4603-b22e-fafbce3d5c56" CreationDate="2017-12-08T03:56:40.287" UserId="15906" Text="For other startups whose product/funding appear to be uncertain and demand that I sign an NDA, I started requesting a lawyer lookover fee for the issuing party. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note - I am bootstrapping my own startup while offering expertise to contract for other startups and companies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've had some nasty responses from such parties. I'm not actively looking for work, and they are the one requesting my time.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would you deal with such situations? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19585" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7434" RevisionGUID="c1a8f9c6-5112-4603-b22e-fafbce3d5c56" CreationDate="2017-12-08T03:56:40.287" UserId="15906" Text="Dealing with NDAs from startups in similar field - Requiring Lawyer Lookover Fee for NDAs" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19586" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7434" RevisionGUID="c1a8f9c6-5112-4603-b22e-fafbce3d5c56" CreationDate="2017-12-08T03:56:40.287" UserId="15906" Text="|nda|startups|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19590" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7423" RevisionGUID="7797ae21-ce81-41b9-be54-0ff7b091914a" CreationDate="2017-12-08T09:25:44.130" UserId="18863" Comment="deleted 517 characters in body" Text="I run a design small business and I have to take on an creative resource to handle an increased workload from one of my clients. How do I calculate my project management fee?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I estimate I will spend about 25% of time on project management. So, do I add 25%? on top of the hourly rate or the total of my rate + my design resource rate? I've heard varying different methods..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19591" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7436" RevisionGUID="a4195d8d-a842-485a-b61b-c6987b7de497" CreationDate="2017-12-08T15:11:34.163" UserId="708" Text="Shrug, Smile, and say &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;I'm happy to look over your NDA. This is what I do. Just like I would never expect you to provide me services for free, I expect to be compensated when my services are provided.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then move on if they are still argumentative.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--- and that'll be $3 for looking over your question :) ----" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19593" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7434" RevisionGUID="3b7ff897-ca86-4e8e-94f8-2d5eae815e5b" CreationDate="2017-12-09T00:06:52.880" UserId="15906" Comment="added 95 characters in body" Text="For other startups whose product/funding appear to be uncertain and demand that I sign an NDA, I started requesting a lawyer lookover fee for the issuing party. *Note, I'm upfront and actually tell them this is what my attorney charges to lookover an NDA.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note - I am bootstrapping my own startup while offering expertise to contract for other startups and companies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've had some nasty responses from such parties. I'm not actively looking for work, and they are the one requesting my time.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would you deal with such situations? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19596" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7268" RevisionGUID="90486ee6-7aa1-49fb-940c-2ed484c26bb0" CreationDate="2017-12-10T05:32:08.820" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/939729423523307521" />
  <row Id="19604" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7439" RevisionGUID="7a3ea0cc-99e0-4055-b2ce-594ced8fd83e" CreationDate="2017-12-11T19:20:34.013" UserId="1818" Text="This review is for your benefit, not theirs. You are not providing a service for them here, you are managing your own business. To some extent, they don't care how well you review it as long as you sign it.  The exposure is yours so why should they pay for it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Costs like this should be accounted for in your operating budget and feed into your rates, but should not be billed directly to the client any more than you would bill them for your professional insurance or other business costs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19608" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7441" RevisionGUID="20c6bfdb-12d0-4173-a38f-39e18805666d" CreationDate="2017-12-12T08:50:31.713" UserId="18934" Text="I'm a beginner in web application development and I'm wondering if there are places to find smaller projects to practice one's skills. The reason I'm asking this is because where I'm from there used to be, though quite a few years ago, a website for freelancing where you initially took simpler tasks that didn't pay you in order to get &quot;reputation&quot; on the website so people would trust you with more sophisticated tasks. Even though I find the system itself questionable I wonder if there is anything similar on a more global scale that would allow me to practice my skills on simple apps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19609" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7441" RevisionGUID="20c6bfdb-12d0-4173-a38f-39e18805666d" CreationDate="2017-12-12T08:50:31.713" UserId="18934" Text="Freelancing for practice" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19610" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7441" RevisionGUID="20c6bfdb-12d0-4173-a38f-39e18805666d" CreationDate="2017-12-12T08:50:31.713" UserId="18934" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19611" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7442" RevisionGUID="a469db05-39c9-4ef8-88a2-79fe19041233" CreationDate="2017-12-12T20:22:20.040" UserId="75" Text="My question is *why*? If you look around, you'll see others recommending how to get your foot in the door.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to practice a skill, you need to sometimes create the project to practice it on. Create a fictitious company (Example Corp), and design your Web App around their requirements. Then, once you have a working product, put it in your portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; What if you're not creative enough to design for Example Corp? How can I get my name out there locally?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try talking to non-profit organizations in your area. Most will accept people creating value for them for free, and will even be a great reference! Use this to get practice dealing with an organization (of any size), take note of what works and doesn't, then continue from there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you get your portfolio setup, you can spend more time designing / building, and less time haggling." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19613" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7443" RevisionGUID="1a1c7a1e-167c-4eb2-b91c-d809ec2ac70a" CreationDate="2017-12-13T19:47:21.420" UserId="18953" Text="It depends on the freelancer's skills. If any freelancer applies at such kind of job where Academic skills are required then the degree is important.When your client is happy with your service and you don't have any academic degree it doesn't carry any value at that time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19621" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7446" RevisionGUID="ef249e24-ea8e-4300-9f0c-ee4370e7d2f0" CreationDate="2017-12-14T10:28:42.860" UserDisplayName="user18957" Text="I need to get a 3D model done for a game I'm working on, and I plan on using [cgtrader.com][1] to &quot;hire&quot; someone. Later, I want to release the model for other people to use once my game is done, and I want to publish it on [cgtrader][1], either for free or for a very small price. Can I do that? Or does the nature of the work not allow it, since it was done for another project, not necessarily to be distributed on its own?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.cgtrader.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19622" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7446" RevisionGUID="ef249e24-ea8e-4300-9f0c-ee4370e7d2f0" CreationDate="2017-12-14T10:28:42.860" UserDisplayName="user18957" Text="Can I distribute/sell the results of contracted work done for me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19623" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7446" RevisionGUID="ef249e24-ea8e-4300-9f0c-ee4370e7d2f0" CreationDate="2017-12-14T10:28:42.860" UserDisplayName="user18957" Text="|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19627" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7448" RevisionGUID="4cc78a46-af50-4056-9ae3-36be0583a2bf" CreationDate="2017-12-14T12:40:59.963" UserId="708" Text="You have to negotiate the ownership of the intellectual property when you hire an artist.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most artist will sell the rights, which is what you need, but it does generally cost more. By default, artists own everything they create unless there's a contract stipulating otherwise." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19628" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7449" RevisionGUID="02c634f5-4071-4644-be77-59423c1e1204" CreationDate="2017-12-14T14:50:59.487" UserDisplayName="user18957" Text="I would like to start doing and receiving freelance work, however I don't want to give my name away to random people. Obviously I don't want to compromise on the legal front, either. Is there a way for me to do and receive freelance work without giving my real identity away? This isn't about dodging responsibility btw, I just don't want people to know my real name." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19629" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7449" RevisionGUID="02c634f5-4071-4644-be77-59423c1e1204" CreationDate="2017-12-14T14:50:59.487" UserDisplayName="user18957" Text="Can you perform/receive freelance work anonymously?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19630" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7449" RevisionGUID="02c634f5-4071-4644-be77-59423c1e1204" CreationDate="2017-12-14T14:50:59.487" UserDisplayName="user18957" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19631" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7449" RevisionGUID="04839391-5208-47ba-a78e-fa2bdfcc00b8" CreationDate="2017-12-14T16:24:17.060" UserDisplayName="user18957" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|switzerland|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19632" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7450" RevisionGUID="89c7012d-0276-46e0-aca2-09c4b0706ce5" CreationDate="2017-12-14T18:15:04.550" UserId="75" Text="Is there an issue with using a company name? Register as a sole proprietor or limited liability corporation or something similar, and use that name for all your work. Just be warned, depending on your expected client base, `noClue Industries` may not be the best of names ;-)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19634" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7451" RevisionGUID="b7577940-df5d-4651-967d-f88003d39e55" CreationDate="2017-12-15T02:12:12.870" UserId="18960" Text="Basically I'm designing a Shopify website for a client, we agreed to have them pay me in three installments and the site would be done in 21 days. With the last installment paid when the project is finished. However there is some content she hasn't provided yet (pictures) and may not have them for a little while. The deadline has passed and I don't mind that much, but I'm wondering if I should ask for the last installment (she's paid two already) since the deadline has passed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19635" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7451" RevisionGUID="b7577940-df5d-4651-967d-f88003d39e55" CreationDate="2017-12-15T02:12:12.870" UserId="18960" Text="Should I ask for the remaining amount of money owed to me when client extends deadline?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19636" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7451" RevisionGUID="b7577940-df5d-4651-967d-f88003d39e55" CreationDate="2017-12-15T02:12:12.870" UserId="18960" Text="|money|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19638" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7452" RevisionGUID="948a0703-11cb-4ae6-8b46-2b630d9759fe" CreationDate="2017-12-15T18:23:43.957" UserId="18965" Text="This Exchange question here: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/195 deals with the subject quite well, but it is more focused towards a specific problem. This question is quite generic. That being said, if this is mainly down to opinion or too broad I do apologise. &#xA;&#xA;Normal business hours are Monday through to Friday. Usually 9am until 6pm (or very similar). Is it considered then bad practice to email clients during the weekend; large organisations within the creative, digital industry do not work weekends. The weekend is a time of rest. &#xA;&#xA;Should all business communication be kept to normal business hours? Would you say you significantly increase the risk of your client taking a dislike to you if you email them at the weekend? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19639" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7452" RevisionGUID="948a0703-11cb-4ae6-8b46-2b630d9759fe" CreationDate="2017-12-15T18:23:43.957" UserId="18965" Text="Is it unacceptable or not wise to email clients during the weekend?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19640" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7452" RevisionGUID="948a0703-11cb-4ae6-8b46-2b630d9759fe" CreationDate="2017-12-15T18:23:43.957" UserId="18965" Text="|freelance-websites|communication|working-from-home|time-management|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19641" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7453" RevisionGUID="9631fa21-3d70-4ab4-a00d-ec66df9d1866" CreationDate="2017-12-15T18:39:30.257" UserId="708" Text="Here's my *opinion* and practice....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I **never** respond or contact clients during *any* time I want to myself, ever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is to say.. I don't respond to or contact clients before 9am, after 5pm, on weekends or on holidays - even *if* I happen to be working. If I get an email from a client at 6pm Friday night.. I do not respond until 9 am Monday at the earliest. I don't answer my phone after about 5:15 pm unless the caller ID tells me it's a personal call.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason for this is primarily to kind of train clients in my availability. The *moment* a response is seen during traditional &quot;off-hours&quot; a client will customarily start to *expect* you to be available during those periods.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What it all boils down to ... if I want time to myself, it's up to me to enforce and live by it. The more lax I get with my available client time, the more it will continually dwindle down to nothing. And I have no intention of being &quot;on call&quot; for my clients all the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: I offer **no** services whatsoever which would *ever* constitute an &quot;emergency&quot; during off-hours with the possible exception of time zone differences. However, if time zones mean I'm contacted, it would be *before* the start of my work day... so I respond at 9am then." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19642" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7453" RevisionGUID="ac13d3de-c2b1-45ca-8968-476c7c35db48" CreationDate="2017-12-15T19:19:17.997" UserId="708" Comment="added 105 characters in body" Text="Here's my *opinion* and practice....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I **never** respond or contact clients during *any* time I want to myself, ever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is to say.. I don't respond to or contact clients before 9am, after 5pm, on weekends or on holidays - even *if* I happen to be working. If I get an email from a client at 6pm Friday night.. I do not respond until 9 am Monday at the earliest. I don't answer my phone after about 5:15 pm unless the caller ID tells me it's a personal call.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason for this is primarily to kind of train clients in my availability. The *moment* a response is seen during traditional &quot;off-hours&quot; a client will customarily start to *expect* you to be available during those periods. Responding on weekends causes this to happen *very rapidly*. They'll start contacting you every weekend.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What it all boils down to ... if I want time to myself, it's up to me to enforce and live by it. The more lax I get with my available client time, the more it will continually dwindle down to nothing. And I have no intention of being &quot;on call&quot; for my clients all the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: I offer **no** services whatsoever which would *ever* constitute an &quot;emergency&quot; during off-hours with the possible exception of time zone differences. However, if time zones mean I'm contacted, it would be *before* the start of my work day... so I respond at 9am then." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19643" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7454" RevisionGUID="db15d76d-fcaa-4148-8c11-404f44ab6f87" CreationDate="2017-12-15T22:26:54.730" UserId="12926" Text="If the text of the agreement is as you describe, then what we have here is a contract loophole.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Both of you agreed that the site will be complete in 21 days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Both of you agreed that final payment will be made when the site is complete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you can ask for final payment, but be prepared for your client to say &quot;but the site isn't finished yet.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would have been preferable to include in the agreement that if the client is the reason the deadline is missed, the final payment will be paid on day 21.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is all part of the process in learning how to structure and qualify agreements. The larger your projects get, the more useful it might be to consult an attorney." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19644" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7434" RevisionGUID="947003da-2ebf-4893-bbdd-c77ceab1c078" CreationDate="2017-12-16T02:13:43.450" UserId="15906" Comment="added 106 characters in body" Text="For &quot;other&quot; startups whose product/funding appear to be uncertain and demand that I sign an NDA, I started requesting a lawyer lookover fee for the issuing party. *Note, I'm upfront and actually tell them this is what my attorney charges to lookover an NDA.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note - I am bootstrapping my own startup while offering expertise to contract technical software development services for other startups and companies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've had some nasty responses from such parties. I'm not actively looking for work, and they are the one requesting my time. Sadly, sometimes these people were once &quot;San Francisco friends.&quot;   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How would you deal with such situations - politically sensitively?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: these people are not necessarily &quot;clients&quot;, but potential prospective clients. Some of them strong sell me to the point where it feels like they are trying to extort me to work for them. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19646" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7455" RevisionGUID="a6e1a2c2-a41b-4e84-abd6-6e819e680625" CreationDate="2017-12-16T03:27:09.780" UserId="18967" Text="Client did not pay for first session even though we agreed on paying weekly, now there is second session tomorrow I sent him a message asking about how he would do the payments, he saw it but keeps ignoring. Let's say he did not pay tomorrow either, I have text messages showing that he agrees to pay certain amount, text messages also includes stuff like ''We just finished the session'' etc. What happens if I go to police?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19647" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7455" RevisionGUID="a6e1a2c2-a41b-4e84-abd6-6e819e680625" CreationDate="2017-12-16T03:27:09.780" UserId="18967" Text="I am a tutor and my client does not pay" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19648" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7455" RevisionGUID="a6e1a2c2-a41b-4e84-abd6-6e819e680625" CreationDate="2017-12-16T03:27:09.780" UserId="18967" Text="|money|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19649" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7456" RevisionGUID="c8093c87-ee96-49e1-8a11-beb1fba4787d" CreationDate="2017-12-16T04:10:09.180" UserId="12040" Text="If the client is behind in payments, you don't do further sessions until they have caught up. At the moment, the client owes for one session. Tomorrow, they've doubled that if they don't pay. Never have more money at risk than you're prepared to lose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your first order of business tomorrow is to ask for payment BEFORE the session." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19650" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7457" RevisionGUID="8eded710-36f6-4c84-9e99-02758ffe0f4e" CreationDate="2017-12-16T04:15:00.453" UserId="12040" Text="You need to get an attorney to write up a contract for you which covers your intended use, stipulating copyright and licensing agreements in advance. And then, you have to find an artist prepared to sign your contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It might be considered expensive, but not compared to being on the wrong end of a copyright lawsuit." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19651" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="7458" RevisionGUID="e16e6457-dca1-41a0-940e-dce5c51e0226" CreationDate="2017-12-17T01:46:42.387" UserId="-1" Comment="from https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/104172/should-i-ask-for-the-remaining-amount-of-money-owed-to-me-when-client-extends-de" />
  <row Id="19652" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7458" RevisionGUID="04b2e690-7187-4e4b-8055-3eee12f78e66" CreationDate="2017-12-15T21:36:20.633" UserId="18960" Text="Basically I'm designing a Shopify website for a client, we agreed to have them pay me in three installments and the site would be done in 21 days. With the last installment paid when the project is finished. However there is some content she hasn't provided yet (pictures) and may not have them for a little while. The deadline has passed and I don't mind that much, but I'm wondering if I should ask for the last installment (she's paid two already) since the deadline has passed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19653" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7458" RevisionGUID="04b2e690-7187-4e4b-8055-3eee12f78e66" CreationDate="2017-12-15T21:36:20.633" UserId="18960" Text="Should I ask for the remaining amount of money owed to me when client extends deadline?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19654" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7458" RevisionGUID="04b2e690-7187-4e4b-8055-3eee12f78e66" CreationDate="2017-12-15T21:36:20.633" UserId="18960" Text="|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19655" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7459" RevisionGUID="165fdadd-c517-4650-a5b4-06b9198a257a" CreationDate="2017-12-17T17:42:34.960" UserId="708" Text="This kind of comes down to client relations more than anything...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They don't have a fully working product, and they are the cause of the delay. So, it's a bit different than if they have a full product and want additional work, or if the delay is due to your work, not the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What *I would do* in a similar situation is consider the client. Do I like working with them? Is the delay causing issues for me? Are they using the partial product I've completed?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the sake of good client relations, I wouldn't be inclined to force the client to stick to the exact payment schedule of the contract if there are unanticipated delays on their part - I would lean towards amending the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In most similar situation I would be inclined to delay the final payment until they have a final product. However, if their delay is expected to be considerable, I may ask for 50% of the final payment, then the remainder when the project is complete. This *would* be an alteration to contract. So, it needs to be in writing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being posted, the existing contract terms you have matter. If the contract stated payment is to be made by [date] without respect to project state, then you would be within the contract terms to ask for payment. If the contract terms state that payment is to be made upon completion, then they are within their rights to *not* pay you until the project is complete, even if the delay is their fault.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19665" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="2f278f90-a9a2-4cd6-90c3-35d80b4e076f" CreationDate="2017-12-20T06:03:00.550" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19667" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7462" RevisionGUID="827c02a1-03a3-46f0-bf4f-c8c675f3fc31" CreationDate="2017-12-21T05:20:12.493" UserId="18914" Text="I am developing a website for my client, and the content for the site is usually provided by him. So in one particular case, my client provided me with images of &quot;his employees&quot;. Now my question is, what if he doesn't have the consent of his employees to use the image on the website? Is there a possibility that I could be sued? Or will it be the client's problem to handle? Also, in the future, do I add some clause into the contract that protects me from such cases? I need to know what the general practice is." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19668" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7462" RevisionGUID="827c02a1-03a3-46f0-bf4f-c8c675f3fc31" CreationDate="2017-12-21T05:20:12.493" UserId="18914" Text="Using images in your website without a direct consent of the subject" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19669" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7462" RevisionGUID="827c02a1-03a3-46f0-bf4f-c8c675f3fc31" CreationDate="2017-12-21T05:20:12.493" UserId="18914" Text="|legal|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19670" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7463" RevisionGUID="79d02aff-4075-4edd-bb86-40185813a34b" CreationDate="2017-12-21T05:45:15.563" UserId="708" Text="Your contract should have a clause that the client is responsible for ensuring all provided content is free of restrictions and the client is liable for any issues ensuing from content the client provided.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's unlikely you would be liable, however, and it's not impossible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am **NOT** a lawyer and this should not be seen as legal advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19671" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7462" RevisionGUID="b2d07006-f79a-44b9-9590-0319af845151" CreationDate="2017-12-21T05:47:08.127" UserId="18914" Comment="added 38 characters in body" Text="I am developing a website for my client, and the content for the site is usually provided by him. So in one particular case, my client provided me with images of &quot;his employees&quot;. Now my question is: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - What if he doesn't have the consent of his employees to use the image&#xD;&#xA;   on the website?  &#xD;&#xA; - Is there a possibility that I could be sued? Or will    it be the&#xD;&#xA;   client's problem to handle?&#xD;&#xA; - Also, in the future, do I add    some clause into the contract that&#xD;&#xA;   protects me from such cases?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I need to know what the general practice is." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19672" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7463" RevisionGUID="50acd249-015e-4a33-823b-2dd71d1fb9a0" CreationDate="2017-12-21T06:13:54.380" UserId="708" Comment="added 7 characters in body" Text="Your contract should have a clause that the client is responsible for ensuring all provided content is free of restrictions and the client is liable for any issues ensuing from content the client provided.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's unlikely you would be liable, however, it's not absolutely impossible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am **NOT** a lawyer and this should not be seen as legal advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19680" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6547" RevisionGUID="f7e3949e-594d-4b40-8dab-4df7536397af" CreationDate="2017-12-22T10:17:16.147" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19683" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7056" RevisionGUID="c65ec56f-a2b3-46a7-80ff-3226bfbfca54" CreationDate="2017-12-24T01:36:50.577" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19692" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6928" RevisionGUID="51e07d8b-7ca6-437d-9cea-68aa46b11989" CreationDate="2017-12-25T20:53:24.010" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19693" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7468" RevisionGUID="454a5756-d221-4117-8791-92ca3094efb2" CreationDate="2017-12-26T01:37:24.920" UserId="19022" Text="I graduated a year ago, worked for a year for my dad's company because the plan was for me to take over. I do not want to do this anymore, and would now like to start as a freelancer. I am worried about my resume though. Will I have to mention the employment at my dads company? Can I just say that I had been freelancing all this time? How could I avoid mentioning the name of the company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS: The name of my dad's company and my surname give it away, that this was my dads company.&#xD;&#xA;PS2: I really would like to not tell anyone and hide that I worked there, but I don't know how." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19694" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7468" RevisionGUID="454a5756-d221-4117-8791-92ca3094efb2" CreationDate="2017-12-26T01:37:24.920" UserId="19022" Text="Starting as a freelancer, can I hide my previous workplace?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19695" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7468" RevisionGUID="454a5756-d221-4117-8791-92ca3094efb2" CreationDate="2017-12-26T01:37:24.920" UserId="19022" Text="|resume|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19696" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7469" RevisionGUID="08279f23-1ff1-42d5-8877-29b5107a8403" CreationDate="2017-12-26T04:26:45.900" UserId="708" Text="Freelancing isn't about &quot;resumes&quot; it's about practical work history.. if you have work history, you don't really need any resume.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, haven't needed a &quot;resume&quot; in over a decade... Just a list of previous clients and possibly some testimonials, work samples, and client reference... more of a marketing sales promotion than a &quot;resume&quot; in the traditional sense. There's often little or no need to detail time frames, contact information, responsibilities, etc like a resume entails.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess it depends upon your area of freelance, which you don't explain at all." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19697" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7468" RevisionGUID="05689889-8ca8-40b0-be63-0cdcf521949b" CreationDate="2017-12-26T16:21:43.780" UserId="19022" Comment="added 35 characters in body" Text="I graduated a year ago, worked for a year for my dad's company because the plan was for me to take over. I do not want to do this anymore, and would now like to start as a freelancer. I am worried about my resume though. Will I have to mention the employment at my dads company? Can I just say that I had been freelancing all this time? How could I avoid mentioning the name of the company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS: The name of my dad's company and my surname give it away, that this was my dads company.&#xD;&#xA;PS2: I really would like to not tell anyone and hide that I worked there, but I don't know how.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit: I am a software engineer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19698" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7470" RevisionGUID="3f93fe03-ae1e-45fd-8449-3f4fb4d69d84" CreationDate="2017-12-26T19:41:10.187" UserId="12040" Text="Agree with Scott that your contract should have a clause ensuring that any customer-suppled content is their legal responsibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's possible that the client's employee contracts have a clause stating that their image may be used in their marketing - but you don't know that, and you shouldn't *need* to know about that. The client should also have  model-release for each identifiable person in the photo, to indemnify them; again, unlikely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Could you be sued? Yes... but unlikely. The (probably ex-) employee would sue their employer first, and you might get named in the suit (along with the hosting company), but a decent lawyer would swat it away as long as you were only doing what your client asked. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19699" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7471" RevisionGUID="67f44109-3253-4ae5-8600-1a8a6b13ab21" CreationDate="2017-12-27T04:50:01.757" UserId="2283" Text="# Employer Perspective&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a former hiring manager, reading a resume isn't about the positions held. I could care less about where you worked. It's about inferring a work ethic and ability to expand. If you grew in skills in an unrelated field, it's relevant to express growth. If you did something in a related field, how can I apply that to my need? Some things I would look for when reading a resume:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Has this candidate used the skills I'm looking for?&#xD;&#xA;* Has the individual in question been actively engaged in professional development?&#xD;&#xA;* What is the growth rate of relevant skills?&#xD;&#xA;* Is there an explanation for why the skills haven't grown at a rate I would expect?&#xD;&#xA;* Given the previous questions, can I reasonably expect to train the candidate in the skills I need in a timely manner?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An employer-employee relationship often takes on the burden of training and professional development. You are looking to prove that you are worth their investment of time and money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Client Perspective&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When hiring freelancers I look for similar things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Does the contractor have a history of my task?&#xD;&#xA;* Is there evidence of strong understanding in the area that I need assistance?&#xD;&#xA;* How has the contractor solved problems similar to the problems solved by my task?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a client-contractor relationship the expectation is that you can carry out the task at hand with little burden on the client. You want to highlight projects that are similar to the task being contracted. Primarily those that have been successful, but failed projects are acceptable as well if you can turn them in to lessons learned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Contractor Perspective&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, you can't afford to lose jobs due to inexperience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Starting as a freelancer, you should use your resume as chronological reference to build your portfolio. In each past work experience, what have you done that can be applied to the type of work you are pursuing? Everything else is irrelevant.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are responsible for sales and marketing of yourself. Why should they hire you? What makes you stand out?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I often take a client proposal and respond with a statement of work (SOW). With each skill expressed in my SOW, I look for at least one past project that highlights my capability of accomplishing the task.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Summary&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If hiding previous work experience makes you unable to provide evidence that you are capable, then you can't afford to. If you can highlight your capability without it, then you can hide whatever you choose." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19700" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7471" RevisionGUID="831d158a-3a86-4bf9-ac90-4d1d7ecd1f81" CreationDate="2017-12-27T05:00:27.933" UserId="2283" Comment="added 205 characters in body" Text="# Employer Perspective&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a former hiring manager, reading a resume isn't about the positions held. I could care less about where you worked. It's about inferring a work ethic and ability to expand. If you grew in skills in an unrelated field, it's relevant to express growth. If you did something in a related field, how can I apply that to my need? Some things I would look for when reading a resume:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Has this candidate used the skills I'm looking for?&#xD;&#xA;* Has the individual in question been actively engaged in professional development?&#xD;&#xA;* What is the growth rate of relevant skills?&#xD;&#xA;* Is there an explanation for why the skills haven't grown at a rate I would expect?&#xD;&#xA;* Given the previous questions, can I reasonably expect to train the candidate in the skills I need in a timely manner?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An employer-employee relationship often takes on the burden of training and professional development. You are looking to prove that you are worth their investment of time and money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Client Perspective&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When hiring freelancers I look for similar things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Does the contractor have a history of my task?&#xD;&#xA;* Is there evidence of strong understanding in the area that I need assistance?&#xD;&#xA;* How has the contractor solved problems similar to the problems solved by my task?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a client-contractor relationship the expectation is that you can carry out the task at hand with little burden on the client. You want to highlight projects that are similar to the task being contracted. Primarily those that have been successful, but failed projects are acceptable as well if you can turn them in to lessons learned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Contractor Perspective&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, you can't afford to lose jobs due to inexperience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Starting as a freelancer, you should use your resume as chronological reference to build your portfolio. In each past work experience, what have you done that can be applied to the type of work you are pursuing? Everything else is irrelevant.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are responsible for sales and marketing of yourself. Why should they hire you? What makes you stand out?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I often take a client proposal and respond with a statement of work (SOW). With each skill expressed in my SOW, I look for at least one past project that highlights my capability of accomplishing the task.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Summary&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If hiding previous work experience makes you unable to provide evidence that you are capable, then you can't afford to. If you can highlight your capability without it, then you can hide whatever you choose.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stating that you've been freelancing for a period of time that you have nothing to show for will most likely have a negative impact. Leading to the assumption that you aren't very successful/efficient." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19701" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6959" RevisionGUID="18071792-cf97-408e-b907-503f145bfcc1" CreationDate="2017-12-27T10:25:19.803" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19709" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7473" RevisionGUID="78644299-fdc7-42d8-be9c-1c68737d63c3" CreationDate="2017-12-28T17:58:19.577" UserId="8703" Text="I was referred to a potential client who has a very vast project in his mind. The potential client is sensible enough to understand the some of the technicalities and they even split the whole concept into different phases, where one phase is a pre-requisite for the next. The client has no idea about how to approach. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Each phase is *technically feasible* and is **well** within my limits. At the same time, not even one phase is simple. They demand a big deal of brainstorming and finding out a better strategy in approaching their development. Since the phases are inter-connected, the strategy should be valid throughout and not bring any huge re-works.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not to mention, the cost and time estimations are also to be done for the project - phase wise, considering first phase now. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So to deal with this, I sent out a detailed email explaining the complexity of the phase, what has to be understood and proposed the following. I told I will take time, analyse the phase in detail, come up with questions, bottlenecks and other anticipated problems. Post this, I have asked the client to come in for a meeting to discuss and decide on how to deal with the bottlenecks and problems. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Along with these, I did quote a very rough cost to give them an idea of what to expect, with a strong mention of increase or decrease in cost, based on the discussion and decisions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client was *pleased* with my efforts and dedication. He *happily* agreed to give all the time required and understood the cost constraints.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;     &#xD;&#xA;**So What's The Big Deal**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So far so good. But the real issues are as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1.    The scope of the current phase is about `n categories` having - `n elements` where each element can have a `design` (one design or one design for a period of time) with the ability to `programmatically` create, read, update and delete (CRUD) and `send` it in all decided ways and all decided means of digital communication. I need to think of a strategy and come up with a generic method that will suit for most (if not all) of the elements, also considering the needs of the next phases in mind. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2.    This demands **at-least** a week's time ~ close to `50+ hours` which is again a *mere* anticipation. Also, the project/phase isn't of a common need and the efforts it demands for the strategy has a **very little** scope of being useful in future.   &#xD;&#xA; 3.    This project is the **dream project** of the client. He has enquired other considered other freelancers/companies but my approach, communication, workflow etc has impressed him a lot. He **mentioned** he *wants* to work with me (and other great words which you don't hear often) and relies on me as of now.&#xD;&#xA; 4.    To even `estimate` a fair time and cost that the phase *demands*, I need to start working on the strategy, analyse what it demands, find out if it brings in any new needs and dig deep to my best to be sure of what I'm getting into.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although, there is a *fair* chance I would get this project, my experience has taught me to not take it for granted until we both sign a contract. Now, I **can't afford** to put in a week's time (*or more*) to think of a strategy and not get paid if the project doesn't kick off. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To make it a `win-win` for both of us, I have decided to ask for - what I have termed as a `Project Research Cost` to the client. I couldn't decide on a `basis` to `calculate` and ask an amount. So, I have decided to ask a *small* amount that will make me *feel* secured while doing the needful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How it's a win-win?** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client **agrees** to work with me, I can reduce the amount I took as `Project Research Cost` from the agreed upon total cost. If, for some reason, the client **is not** working with me, he would still have a strategy, which he can use, if he wishes to continue developing with someone else. Remember, the strategy is formed based on the client's decisions after a having a good amount of discussion and debate on project's critical elements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**But**, I feel *strategy* makes the **whole** difference and it's a fool's decision to provide the strategy for the small `Project Research Cost`. Although the formed strategy may not be reusable as such for me, it still doesn't make it convincing to give away considering the *huge* time and effort. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I'm thinking of proposing to deliver a *document* which will contain the identified questions, problems, bottlenecks and also a `Minutes of Meeting` which will have details of what was discussed and what was decided by the client. Just that. The strategy and other worked-upon elements (if any) remains with me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion, the client **still** has valuable document, which to me, is convincing enough to be delivered *against* the `Project Research Cost`. I understand the client *may not* appreciate the value of these documents right away. But, my approach is all about trying to be professional, approach business as business, valuing my efforts, delivering value for value and being careful about not making it easy for my competitor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you think? Do you know of any better approach for my concerns?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I appreciate opinions from anyone and everyone, but I'm looking for, a sort of validation, from a better experienced person." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19710" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7473" RevisionGUID="78644299-fdc7-42d8-be9c-1c68737d63c3" CreationDate="2017-12-28T17:58:19.577" UserId="8703" Text="Charging for Project (Strategy) Research before signing a contract" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19711" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7473" RevisionGUID="78644299-fdc7-42d8-be9c-1c68737d63c3" CreationDate="2017-12-28T17:58:19.577" UserId="8703" Text="|payment-terms|difficult-client|payments|project-management|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19712" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7474" RevisionGUID="8aabbcb5-1f3c-498c-b5a5-cf2ee25b3213" CreationDate="2017-12-28T18:23:08.623" UserId="12040" Text="Your approach is valid - that's what a lot of consultants do; working under contract to produce a specification for the client. The deliverable is the specification, and then the consultant becomes just one other contractor bidding for the work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure that you are paid fully for the specification, and assume that you're not going to be the company developing the end system. If you are, that's a bonus." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19713" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7463" RevisionGUID="24cb6801-e1d3-4c95-a412-912f7be066ea" CreationDate="2017-12-28T21:12:44.430" UserId="708" Comment="added 352 characters in body" Text="Your contract should have a clause that the client is responsible for ensuring all provided content is free of restrictions and the client is liable for any issues ensuing from content the client provided.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's unlikely you would be liable, however, it's not absolutely impossible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am **NOT** a lawyer and this should not be seen as legal advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that even *with* such a contract clause, implementing something you *know* in infringement can still get you into trouble. Just ask the client, in writing, if they have permission to use the content. And get a response *in writing*. If the client tells you &quot;Yes&quot; then the onus is on them... if you are lied to, you have a written record of it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19718" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7353" RevisionGUID="d5e15c76-f079-48ea-b618-5bd42947f3f6" CreationDate="2017-12-29T10:33:13.883" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19726" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7476" RevisionGUID="54706826-daa5-4192-a955-c1fca7536e4f" CreationDate="2017-12-30T05:45:58.693" UserId="19053" Text="If your agreement is in writing then send a friendly, or even better very simple invoice reminder of payment being past due to keep emotions out of it. If they have an issue, they'll likely contact you. If not, they should pay as agreed. The delay is on their end, not yours. Therefore, your services(and bottom line) shouldn't be affected negatively. Stay professional and simple. Note: If this is a USA based job, most fiscal years are ending and it's important to receive that immediately for the books to stay even. Luck :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19727" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7477" RevisionGUID="54742484-e2ce-4bd2-a422-abe86d14bb18" CreationDate="2017-12-30T05:55:33.840" UserId="19053" Text="I own two businesses and can tell you that I'm a *Firm* believer there is no such thing as a stupid question. If you're polite and respectful with your approach and delivery and they can't respect that, then they have some issues to work on. Not you. Data is important. Get the data you need. I highly recommend approaching this via email and not by phone, especially with an eye-catching, well thought out, thought-provoking subject line to ensure that it gets opened. Keep it simple but be assertive. I admire the people in this world that aren't afraid of being judged and take risks. Just ask Tony Robbins :) Luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19728" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3578" RevisionGUID="321ef6ed-1f10-4bce-a67f-7e8bf0630e48" CreationDate="2017-12-31T17:05:24.790" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19729" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7478" RevisionGUID="7c7a6748-439e-4123-9499-4ae22b96a8cd" CreationDate="2017-12-31T19:35:48.413" UserId="19059" Text="I think it's a bad sign trying to charge the client for unanticipated expenses prior to even having a working deal.   But I applaud you for being honest about having up-front additional investments, and I think this is the angle you should focus on...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice would be, be honest with the client about this and explain to him that other developers might jump right into the project and pretend the work is easier than it really is at first, and once they've got you committed, they'll pad the time into later work and project creep, but you'd rather be honest with him up front and hope that he respects this.   Contract work of the highest quality requires a significant level of trust.  Let him know you want to immediately begin to establish this trust by being honest -- there was significant setup involved, and this is the way your relationship will always be.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although this is also undoubtedly a learning experience.  Don't underestimate the amount of setup time in future projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client still balks at your honesty.  This could be a blessing in disguise, that you would have been further taken advantage of.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19730" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7479" RevisionGUID="6d7a99bd-dd71-42f3-875f-ffaa19048e5d" CreationDate="2017-12-31T19:40:03.690" UserId="19059" Text="I think the technical term for what you're doing is called a, &quot;feasibility study.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And it's not unusual to do this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your expertise and analysis is valuable.  The client should respect your approach if you have any chance of being seriously considered for the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's certainly value in the document.  At the least, if he doesn't use you for the services, you've given him much more in-depth info from which he can generate more detailed RFPs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looks right to me!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19731" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7268" RevisionGUID="34420a8f-d6f7-43ab-8fd3-c07f6ca51009" CreationDate="2018-01-01T12:14:41.887" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19735" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6510" RevisionGUID="14bed5d9-579d-4cb2-8567-ccddb4b777e3" CreationDate="2018-01-03T18:55:34.740" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19736" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7481" RevisionGUID="176c6f1a-d6dc-4a7f-aa05-8ae14038da63" CreationDate="2018-01-04T03:32:33.593" UserId="19071" Text="I am a freelancer for web-development and I have currently 3 customer  but no own homepage. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to create a blog in english. The main reasons for that are given in this [short talk][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, I would like to create a page where my customer can log in and use a ticket system and where I can advertise myself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, since I am from Germany I am thinking about using a domain like ***my-name.de***  which contains my blog and my business like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![enter image description here][2]][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I only want to offer my blog in English to prevent writing each post twice. Thus if blog and business would share the same domain together, I would do everything in English. Here is what I don't like about the idea:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; -  I would use a ***.de*** domain for English content only.&#xD;&#xA; -  If I want to write something about me in German too, but provide my Blog only in English language, then my site is inconsistent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, I could separate blog (***myBlog.com***) and business (***my-name.de***).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This would have the advantages that &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Blog would be only in English (.com domain)&#xD;&#xA; - My business would be only in German (.de domain)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;but it has the disadvantages that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I would need two buy separate domains and SSL certificates&#xD;&#xA; - I would need somehow two distinct logos for the pages&#xD;&#xA; - I would need to invent some random blog name&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am just not sure which way to go. Also, the blog would be for other developer, so I am not sure if this would make sense because my 3 customers so far have no developing-background at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any recommendations which way is the best to go here? Or should I maybe create a blog &amp; business domain in English like that: ***my-name.com*** ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI-TDIoV_uw&amp;t=315s&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/SK4cn.jpg" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19737" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7481" RevisionGUID="176c6f1a-d6dc-4a7f-aa05-8ae14038da63" CreationDate="2018-01-04T03:32:33.593" UserId="19071" Text="Should I seperate websites for blog and business?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19738" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7481" RevisionGUID="176c6f1a-d6dc-4a7f-aa05-8ae14038da63" CreationDate="2018-01-04T03:32:33.593" UserId="19071" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19739" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7482" RevisionGUID="481d4502-826e-4a3b-9621-b6314bb0d513" CreationDate="2018-01-04T18:06:35.843" UserId="75" Text="I have two main URLs that I share with people: my blog, and my &quot;professional&quot; website. They use the same certificate, issued by my proxy, Cloudflare (not affiliated, just like them).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recommend separating it out. Your blog can potentially include contributions from other users, especially if it gets to be a bigger blog! It also helps having different personas to be known as - the Founder of BigBlog Company, and as the great Adam of Adam Portfolios! It gives you a separation of responsibilities, and allows for leniency one way or the other if you decide to go full time into only one (or none) of the two sites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having a `.com` for most people means English-speaking people are welcome. If you're blog is just in English, that would help. If you want to only work with German clients, then keeping `adam.de` would be beneficial, as users going to a `.de` domain are expecting it to be in German.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, the SSL issue is a non-issue if you have a proxy (i.e. Cloudflare), or if you use Let's Encrypt for your certificates. They are both free for small to medium sites." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19741" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7483" RevisionGUID="ff2781a6-ff6c-49ea-baa9-c675aa7e839c" CreationDate="2018-01-09T07:33:36.503" UserId="19101" Text="I'm a new programmer who lost his job(in a different field) recently due to a health issue. Now I can work from home only. So being a programmer I think it could be possible but since I'm new(21/male) I don't have any experience that where should I start from and try to get one. Could you help me please and give some suggestions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19742" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7483" RevisionGUID="ff2781a6-ff6c-49ea-baa9-c675aa7e839c" CreationDate="2018-01-09T07:33:36.503" UserId="19101" Text="How can a new programmer work from home as a freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19743" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7483" RevisionGUID="ff2781a6-ff6c-49ea-baa9-c675aa7e839c" CreationDate="2018-01-09T07:33:36.503" UserId="19101" Text="|freelance-websites|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19744" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7484" RevisionGUID="848735b0-7d30-483e-85cd-a66a2edda2d8" CreationDate="2018-01-09T14:23:26.300" UserId="7858" Text="Short answer:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need customer(s). In order to get them, you need a reason for them to hire you. Among those are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) You have specific skills and can document successful deliveries&#xD;&#xA;2) You are cheap&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the first case, you could attempt directly contacting potential customers. Most often, this leads to a large amount of non-responses and outright rejections - which may be disheartening when starting out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead, you could hire others to do the cold-calling and have them book meetings with potential clients where you then by yourself attempt to sell your services. This approach assumes you have at least a little money to begin with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Alternatively, you can 'bid' for clients via a portal like Upwork - with which I have no experience, but suppose price is the primary parameter. This is probably the cheapest way to get started from scratch.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having established a good relationship with a client, they might ask you to perform work outside your comfort zone. Never turn those requests down out-of-hand, but make an honest assessment of whether this is something you could undertake. Clients might hire you for technical skills, but they most often keep you for other reasons such as a friendly, professional problem-solving attitude." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19745" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7485" RevisionGUID="362e5621-13b4-419d-a495-6cdc69da8acc" CreationDate="2018-01-09T18:20:13.633" UserId="708" Text="I don't really think this question is answerable...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, consider that to be a freelancer it entails some **good non-directed problem solving abilities**. You don't have anyone standing over you telling you what to do or how to work out an issue. It's in your hands to have enough deductive reasoning abilities to come to solutions when necessary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finding work would seem to me to be the #1 problem **all** freelancers face. How you solve that problem for your skill set and abilities can be, and often is, *wildly different* than how I may solve that problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are many, many, many paths to finding work...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Online crowdsourcing&#xD;&#xA;- Subcontracting&#xD;&#xA;- Friends and family&#xD;&#xA;- Small business leagues&#xD;&#xA;- Chambers of Congress&#xD;&#xA;- Word of Mouth&#xD;&#xA;- Direct advertising (on or off line)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Often many are aware of these avenues but for one reason or another don't &quot;feel&quot; like venturing into them. One has to ask how serious you are about being a freelancer if you are sitting around merely waiting for work to fall into your lap.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A simple web search for &quot;freelance work&quot; will turn up many crowdsource web sites. Narrow your search more and you may get better results. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Telling *everyone* you know you are searching for freelance projects in the field of XXXXX can often lead to someone thinking &quot;Hey, John Doe was just asking me about that.&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Attending SBA or COC meetings in your area and getting familiar with the *business owners* there may lead to work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically... you have to hustle. It is not going to merely &quot;happen&quot; for you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19746" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7485" RevisionGUID="d6a6e3fc-670e-4663-8d8e-817ae2a33734" CreationDate="2018-01-09T23:10:32.867" UserId="708" Comment="added 160 characters in body" Text="I don't really think this question is answerable...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, consider that to be a freelancer it entails some **good non-directed problem solving abilities**. You don't have anyone standing over you telling you what to do or how to work out an issue. It's in your hands to have enough deductive reasoning abilities to come to solutions when necessary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finding work would seem to me to be the #1 problem **all** freelancers face. How you solve that problem for your skill set and abilities can be, and often is, *wildly different* than how I may solve that problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are many, many, many paths to finding work...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Online crowdsourcing&#xD;&#xA;- Subcontracting&#xD;&#xA;- Friends and family&#xD;&#xA;- Small business leagues&#xD;&#xA;- Chambers of Congress&#xD;&#xA;- Word of Mouth&#xD;&#xA;- Direct advertising (on or off line)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Often many are aware of these avenues but for one reason or another don't &quot;feel&quot; like venturing into them. One has to ask how serious you are about being a freelancer if you are sitting around merely waiting for work to fall into your lap.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A simple web search for &quot;freelance work&quot; will turn up many crowdsource web sites. Narrow your search more and you may get better results. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Telling *everyone* you know you are searching for freelance projects in the field of XXXXX can often lead to someone thinking &quot;Hey, John Doe was just asking me about that.&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Attending SBA or COC meetings in your area and getting familiar with the *business owners* there may lead to work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically... you have to hustle. It is not going to merely &quot;happen&quot; for you. And, to be a bit blunt... if you have to ask where to get work.. you may not be cut out for freelancing, since that is the #1 issue all freelancers must solve." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19751" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7487" RevisionGUID="270acec0-b893-4031-854d-263147aab904" CreationDate="2018-01-12T10:08:22.323" UserId="166" Text="short answer - register to famous freelancing site (there are plenty, I do personally recommend upwork.com) , follow the rules of the specific site and apply to the jobs that you really can accomplish only, but apply as much as you can without dissapointment , having in mind always that first job is the hardest one." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19757" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7490" RevisionGUID="61a3935c-fcff-4c2f-9028-3af384a7174e" CreationDate="2018-01-13T12:40:46.750" UserId="19129" Text="I'm a working holiday maker in Sydney. Now I'm working for a startup company as a fullstack developer. My working holiday visa is expiring in Feb. The young company now still need some time to become available to sponsor me. During this period, we wonder by law whether it will be possible that I can work for them remotely from overseas?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If yes, what regulation applies? Will this become a contract job, or I have to become a freelancer? How can the company pay me? Do I need to pay tax for Australia?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19758" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7490" RevisionGUID="61a3935c-fcff-4c2f-9028-3af384a7174e" CreationDate="2018-01-13T12:40:46.750" UserId="19129" Text="Is it possible for Australian company to hire a full-time freelancer overseas?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19759" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7490" RevisionGUID="61a3935c-fcff-4c2f-9028-3af384a7174e" CreationDate="2018-01-13T12:40:46.750" UserId="19129" Text="|payment-terms|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19760" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7491" RevisionGUID="b80aeaac-67ae-431d-a6d3-c64a6db1bc96" CreationDate="2018-01-14T03:52:38.417" UserId="19135" Text="So I am in a bit of a pickle. I am 17 years of age and have just started freelancing and am loving it! I currently use Upwork.com to find clients to do work with. However, I created an account for Upwork in 2015 when I was even younger, which means I must have (regrettably, I know guys...) put a fake birth date when I was 14 years old and a dumb freshman to get into the site. I recently have discovered that I must be 18 years old to use Upwork.com because contracts are only legally binding when you are 18 years old and above.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, with all of this being said, I will have made around $400-$500 after my current job is done. Since this money is technically &quot;ill-gotten&quot; since I used Upwork as a minor, how do I file this money for taxes? Am I even able to file taxes since the money I earned was earned on a website where I violated TOS? The LAST thing I need is to have the IRS come back on me for tax evasion when I'm 30 years old.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand what I have done here is wrong, but it was all unintentional. I didn't create an account for Upwork with the intention of violating the TOS.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you guys could help me out, it would be highly appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19761" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7491" RevisionGUID="b80aeaac-67ae-431d-a6d3-c64a6db1bc96" CreationDate="2018-01-14T03:52:38.417" UserId="19135" Text="Filing taxes as a minor from Upwork" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19762" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7491" RevisionGUID="b80aeaac-67ae-431d-a6d3-c64a6db1bc96" CreationDate="2018-01-14T03:52:38.417" UserId="19135" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19763" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7492" RevisionGUID="637e58e0-148c-4902-a0a7-3b4419a74261" CreationDate="2018-01-14T04:51:36.833" UserId="708" Text="How are you expecting anyone here to help? You violated the TOS.. you can't legally enter into a contract as a minor... you generally do not file taxes on illegal earnings. This is why there are things such as money laundering. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The *only* possible solace you may find is that there's a limit to the amount of income you must make before filing taxes is mandatory. It can vary, but generally it's $600US. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, if your mess up and your clients find you violated the TOS and are under age, they *could* sue you in a civil court for any damages you cause since you are committing fraud. I'm sure Upwork could takes action if so inclined as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The **smart and legal** thing to do would be to stop work. Cancel any current ongoing projects. Don't collect *any* money. And wait until you are 18 before attempting to take on a new project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19765" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7492" RevisionGUID="e5013492-019f-438d-8975-2780d3036cbf" CreationDate="2018-01-14T05:59:17.773" UserId="708" Comment="added 58 characters in body" Text="How are you expecting anyone here to help? You violated the TOS.. you can't legally enter into a contract as a minor... you generally do not file taxes on illegal earnings. This is why there are illegal things such as money laundering - to hide earnings you shouldn't legally be making.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The *only* possible solace you may find is that there's a limit to the amount of income you must make before filing taxes is mandatory. It can vary, but generally it's $600US. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, if your mess up and your clients find you violated the TOS and are under age, they *could* sue you in a civil court for any damages you cause since you are committing fraud. I'm sure Upwork could takes action if so inclined as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The **smart and legal** thing to do would be to stop work. Cancel any current ongoing projects. Don't collect *any* money. And wait until you are 18 before attempting to take on a new project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19769" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7494" RevisionGUID="9c2acd0d-549c-4c6e-ae52-3053ba697ea9" CreationDate="2018-01-15T12:28:40.487" UserId="19145" Text="Simple, per hour. Agree to an hourly rate with him and log how much time you spend on ANYTHING for the client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19771" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7495" RevisionGUID="6ded7423-857f-4c84-96c2-6f2255914203" CreationDate="2018-01-16T05:42:00.993" UserId="15143" Text="Of course it's **possible**, but you wouldn't be the company's employee. You can't be an employee because you don't have tax file number for the Australian Taxation. You are welcome to work as an external Chinese contractor, charging your services and pay your own tax in China.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19772" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7492" RevisionGUID="ac319c06-7b98-40d8-bc09-78f822cc7314" CreationDate="2018-01-16T14:38:44.403" UserId="708" Comment="added 354 characters in body" Text="How are you expecting anyone here to help? You violated the TOS.. you can't legally enter into a contract as a minor... you generally do not file taxes on illegal earnings. This is why there are illegal things such as money laundering - to hide earnings you shouldn't legally be making.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The *only* possible solace you may find is that there's a limit to the amount of income you must make before filing taxes is mandatory. It can vary, but generally it's $600US. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, if your mess up and your clients find you violated the TOS and are under age, they *could* sue you in a civil court for any damages you cause since you are committing fraud. I'm sure Upwork could takes action if so inclined as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The **smart and legal** thing to do would be to stop work. Cancel any current ongoing projects. Don't collect *any* money. And wait until you are 18 before attempting to take on a new project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I **absolutely** realize this is not the answer you *want* to hear. I imagine you are salivating over that possible $500. But the reality is.. there's no getting around your circumstances. You can either end it abruptly, showing some remorse, or continue with the unethical behavior. Continuing merely increases your odds of creating *more* problems." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19773" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7496" RevisionGUID="f1afde56-2a98-4648-8eb2-e990d5f27093" CreationDate="2018-01-16T16:25:53.593" UserId="708" Text="**You can't.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, at least you can't get **paid** for anything anonymously. After all, *any* payment processor is going to want your information... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm writing you a check, I need to know who to make it out to. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you file a business name, the government will have a *public* record of the filing which can be searched.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The *only* possible way to work anonymously would be to deal exclusively in cash and face to face. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19777" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7498" RevisionGUID="6c4ceec6-fd48-479e-91e6-34840cbb2887" CreationDate="2018-01-18T15:03:53.117" UserId="19139" Text="I'm currently doing a website for a client as a freelance web developer. We had our first meetup and we discussed what he wants on the website, what his company *does*, etc.  I coming up with the pages that he will need, such as products, services, contact etc. There were a few others related to his business. I showed him my initial draft of the website, which included the links that will be at the top navigator. He was happy with my initial draft.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However by our second meeting he had sketched together a very similar design to mine but with a few tweeks. This is fine and I didn't have any problems with these changes.&#xD;&#xA;However there was two things I noticed that I didn't like. He had added two new links to the top menu of the website. These links are &quot;About Us&quot; and &quot;News&quot;. When I asked him how does he want the news section to work (Wordpress or others), which I was a bit reluctant about because it means more work for me with the same pay, he simply replied &quot;I don't know. I did research on my competitors and they all had it&quot;. I died inside at this. &#xD;&#xA;I decided to tell him quickly that there's no point in having the page if he doesn't know what he's going to do, how he's going to write up this news, or doesn't have time to do it. He then said ok we wont use &quot;News&quot;. But by our next meeting he had referred to a newer version of his sketch, and it still included a &quot;News&quot; link. I asked him about it, reminding him that we agreed to get rid of it, and he said &quot;Well I thought we could just have a link to my Twitter&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;I'm not sure if he wants a new page to just display one twitter icon, to use a twitter api thing that shows tweets, or to have the main link direct to his twitter. I feel like I'm a broken record with him and don't know how to say &quot;that's a bit rubbish to do/it will look poor&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;A similar thing is with his &quot;About Us&quot; section. While I find that the page may be necessary, I don't feel it needs to be at the top of the page, but rather in a footer with the Cookies Policy and other things no one cares about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I raise these points to him without offending him? I've always told him I would always provide my professional oppinion if necessary, but now that I think it is - I don't know how!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some information: - the man is a sucessful business person and a little intimidating&#xD;&#xA;- His business has been going for about 2 years and makes a lot of money but this is his first website" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19778" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7498" RevisionGUID="6c4ceec6-fd48-479e-91e6-34840cbb2887" CreationDate="2018-01-18T15:03:53.117" UserId="19139" Text="How to tell a client that some of their pages on a website are completely useless" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19779" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7498" RevisionGUID="6c4ceec6-fd48-479e-91e6-34840cbb2887" CreationDate="2018-01-18T15:03:53.117" UserId="19139" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19780" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7499" RevisionGUID="555d5e83-366d-44dd-9a6a-38f5864fa9c3" CreationDate="2018-01-18T16:54:54.893" UserId="18223" Text="He just wants the feature so he can use it in the future if he ever needs it in my opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, if you agreed on a quote for the first mockup, then you have the right to refuse to develop these sections or do them at additional costs. If you gave him a quote before defining what was going to be in the site, then it's your problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But finally, it's just a Wordpress blog. Just set him up the basic blog view without doing anything. If he asks for customization, just say there will be additional costs since it was not a planned feature since the beginning (if it was not of course)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19782" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7501" RevisionGUID="0a213d33-0eae-446e-98fb-1dc2c2f5af51" CreationDate="2018-01-19T04:00:28.433" UserId="708" Text="Well, first mistake is agreeing to a price before setting the **entire scope** of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Always* fully understand what is desired and then quote based upon that. Make it *abundantly clear* to the client during these exploratory conversations that **any** additional items will add additional costs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, you need to remember **you** are the expert when dealing with the client. The client may be successful in *their* business and know *their* business well, but they are hiring you because *they don't know* what you know. So you need to be in control, set limitations, and set expectations properly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are in the preliminary sketch phase of a project and new items are being added. You're first reaction should be along the lines of:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm happy to add that after some discussion regarding it's functionality. However, it will incur additional costs since it was not part of the original scope we agreed upon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Repeat that every time something out of the defined scope is added. And *then* if the client is still interested in adding whatever it is, delve into functionality. Always remembering the client *doesn't know* what may be feasible, wise, best practice, or *anything* about development/interactivity/etc. It's up t you to speak up and let him/her know that the Twitter API provides a fairly simple &quot;newsfeed&quot; like scroll which doesn't warrant an entire page. It may be better to merely link directly to the Twitter account via an icon or display the last 3 tweets as a &quot;news scroll&quot; somewhere appropriate on the site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, you shouldn't be intimidated. You have *way more knowledge* about this stuff than the client does. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19783" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="7f6190ef-5c81-4779-b7fa-24f0c1294110" CreationDate="2018-01-19T07:13:21.413" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19788" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7501" RevisionGUID="c2513fad-1589-4d7d-b675-43298702cd70" CreationDate="2018-01-19T14:58:06.977" UserId="708" Comment="added 441 characters in body" Text="Well, first mistake is agreeing to a price before setting the **entire scope** of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Always* fully understand what is desired and then quote based upon that. Make it *abundantly clear* to the client during these exploratory conversations that **any** additional items will add additional costs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, you need to remember **you** are the expert when dealing with the client. The client may be successful in *their* business and know *their* business well, but they are hiring you because *they don't know* what you know. So you need to be in control, set limitations, and set expectations properly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are in the preliminary sketch phase of a project and new items are being added. You're first reaction should be along the lines of:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm happy to add that after some discussion regarding it's functionality. However, it will incur additional costs since it was not part of the original scope we agreed upon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Repeat that every time something out of the defined scope is added. And *then* if the client is still interested in adding whatever it is, delve into functionality. Always remembering the client *doesn't know* what may be feasible, wise, best practice, or *anything* about development/interactivity/etc. It's up t you to speak up and let him/her know that the Twitter API provides a fairly simple &quot;newsfeed&quot; like scroll which doesn't warrant an entire page. It may be better to merely link directly to the Twitter account via an icon or display the last 3 tweets as a &quot;news scroll&quot; somewhere appropriate on the site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, you shouldn't be intimidated. You have *way more knowledge* about this stuff than the client does. You don't want to appear argumentative, but you also don't want to be a complacent &quot;Yes man&quot;. Express your opinions in a professional polite manner and explain *why* what he/she wants may not be a good idea. If the client pushes back and is adamant that something stupid be added, then, well, they are the client. They win. Just don't &quot;roll over&quot; because you are afraid to speak up. The client is *paying you* to speak up if you know better." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19792" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7504" RevisionGUID="61fc1e07-2595-4e92-a966-eb871c1051aa" CreationDate="2018-01-20T12:51:23.643" UserId="19139" Text="I would send the message but on behalf of someone else, maybe a fake person. Make out you're interested in their work by admiring a part that doesn't exist, thus pointing out its a different work, while still sounding like an innocent client looking for a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;Eg. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;I really like the way you designed X website, especially (identify something you did that they didn't so that go on it to see), I'm thinking of having a website similar. How long would it take? I also like how you did (another one)&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or maybe &quot;I like the update you did to the website recently! Do you give discount for returning clients?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They're bound to go back and look at it. Maybe then it would prompt them to remove it. Or atleast ammend their website to show their original designs/screenshots etc" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19793" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7505" RevisionGUID="bf8dfee9-0008-416e-9abd-b418a4b9f6c7" CreationDate="2018-01-20T13:04:39.223" UserId="19139" Text="I was going through the same thing. I think the ultimate answer is you cant.&#xD;&#xA;You could find people who want a website, who don't have a limited company and arent filing their expenses, etc. And if it was a cash transaction you could get away with all the legal stuff. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;However most clients that come to me are official limited companies, and they require proof of identification for their records, and they require invoices for my services so that they can file it as an expense. &#xD;&#xA;These things require your name, address etc. Not for all things, but most. Also, if you want to create a contract it would be hard to do without your name and signature. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;However, there are things you can do to not be so public immediately. For example your email address could be contact@yourdomain.com. You dont necessarily have to put your name on a websites footer. Your own website can only show your first name. These things you can do that hides your full identity, but when it comes to having the client, you will need to provide your full identity, but hopefully by this point you have already agreed to be his contractor/freelancer, and have established a relationship that is more personal (i.e they talk to your about this business, their business goals, maybe even their finances in come cases!). This is like a two way understanding that your meetings are confidential and professional. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;If you create a contract you can also put a clause that both parties need to keep the identities private unless otherwise agreed, must not harass, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope that helps " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19794" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6547" RevisionGUID="0840f165-c617-477d-8a3b-5429db30b840" CreationDate="2018-01-21T10:36:00.627" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19795" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7496" RevisionGUID="61a07c4a-00f9-47a1-9a60-9ef3c9cfe6d6" CreationDate="2018-01-21T13:51:33.563" UserId="708" Comment="added 166 characters in body" Text="**You can't.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, at least you can't get **paid** for anything anonymously. After all, *any* payment processor is going to want your information... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm writing you a check, I need to know who to make it out to. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I absolutely need to claim the money I pay you as an expense for **my** business. So, I need to give your name or company name to the IRS when I file *my* taxes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you file a business name, the government will have a *public* record of the filing which can be searched.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The *only* possible way to work anonymously would be to deal exclusively in cash and face to face. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19796" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7506" RevisionGUID="f99054f2-55ee-442b-b9e5-127b90a7d0d4" CreationDate="2018-01-21T21:54:04.387" UserId="19192" Text="When is it a good idea to operate from an LLC and have them sign an NDA? Small project, but you never know. Personal use ATM, but that could change. I think them being local would dissuade them profiting from my idea. That being said, you never know if they're lying about their location." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19797" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7506" RevisionGUID="f99054f2-55ee-442b-b9e5-127b90a7d0d4" CreationDate="2018-01-21T21:54:04.387" UserId="19192" Text="How necessary are NDAs for small projects when working with freelancers supposedly in your home country?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19798" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7506" RevisionGUID="f99054f2-55ee-442b-b9e5-127b90a7d0d4" CreationDate="2018-01-21T21:54:04.387" UserId="19192" Text="|nda|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19802" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7508" RevisionGUID="2cb9ca63-c11b-4758-889c-09d446c0ce98" CreationDate="2018-01-23T09:23:19.223" UserId="16059" Text="The main question is 'anonymous towards whom?'. As Scot laid out you cannot be completely anonymous and operate legally, because there are always some requirements on taxation and bookkeeping.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;IMHO user6950100's advice is already quite good. Some freelancers run a small one person limited company and use that to build their brand. In that case you are still the acting legal person, but you can limit you personal exposure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One other hint in that direction: some coworking spaces rent out post boxes and telephone desk services. That way you can even have a nice looking business address without giving away your home address.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also consider working with business partners; this leads to new options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Start a simple company. (You will need a laywer for than. In Switzerland the *einfache Gesellschaft* might be an option to keep it simple.) In this case the company is the legal person and the company name will be in most of the paperwork (website, invoices, etc.). In contact with clients you will also have good reason to downplay your own role (&quot;company first&quot;) without appearing overly paranoid  ;-)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Or find a small agency (or two) and subcontract for them. Depending on your kind of work that might be the easiest and well established way. Then they can handle the marketing and contract negotiations while you can focus on your work. You will still need a contract with the agency, but there is little contact to the actual customer.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19803" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7509" RevisionGUID="2ae8e302-dfea-4664-ace7-2521c609cd19" CreationDate="2018-01-23T15:40:18.653" UserId="7858" Text="Whether to bother with having an NDA obviously depends on the sensitivity of the material you wish remains undisclosed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, another aspect is whether you actually have the means and will to legally pursue anyone who breaches it. If not, the NDA becomes more symbolic - which might perhaps still be worthwhile." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19805" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7510" RevisionGUID="ff268f93-4160-4676-b308-2f033a696f9e" CreationDate="2018-01-23T22:32:12.700" UserId="19156" Text="Some background info: I accepted a freelance task. That is very small. Probably 3-5 hours of work in total. I'm a female developer. I stated in my email that I require a small percentage of the agreed amount to start working. The client in email said he wants to meet and give me cash. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it reasonable for me to suggest that we don't need to meet? can talk on phone/email instead? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel between developers, we understand things can be handled virtually. But client is not very tech savvy to begin with. So I understand the client's proposal to meet. But at the same time, I don't want to meet with the client because time consuming and the fact that I'm a female developer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;would this hurt me in the future, dealing with other potential clients? Any of you freelancers meet with clients in person? for a task that is &lt; $200? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19806" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7510" RevisionGUID="ff268f93-4160-4676-b308-2f033a696f9e" CreationDate="2018-01-23T22:32:12.700" UserId="19156" Text="small web project, is it reasonable to not meet with the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19807" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7510" RevisionGUID="ff268f93-4160-4676-b308-2f033a696f9e" CreationDate="2018-01-23T22:32:12.700" UserId="19156" Text="|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19808" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7511" RevisionGUID="0ea6ca9e-607e-49b1-a598-63bdba286681" CreationDate="2018-01-23T23:01:56.643" UserId="708" Text="Let me tell a story....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did some (very) minor design work about 5-10 years ago for a client who is older and not at all &quot;tech savvy&quot;. It wasn't an expensive job... and really I only agreed to it because I was slow at the time. It was just a 3 page &quot;brochure&quot; static HTML site. Nothing real involved at all. And I went ahead an hosted it on a reseller account I happen to have. His site gets almost no traffic and the bulk of it's use is for email associated with his domain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since then, I've apparently become IT support for this client. Once or twice a year I get an (angry) phone call that he *&quot;can't get to my Squirrelmail&quot;*. In fact, I got one such call last week. Although he's not angry at me specifically, his demeanor is just generally terribly unpleasant. He starts out yelling and on more than one occasion I've had to calmly tell him &quot;Please stop yelling at me. I'm trying to help you but I don't like being yelled at.&quot; And he does calm down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My general feeling about the guy is he can go take a hike. I don't need to deal with people like that and I certainly don't care if I lose the $100 a year in hosting revenue from him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**However,** this guy passes my name along to others. He's a millionaire and been in business for 50+ years. So.... do I cut him loose and *not* get the occasional referral from him? Or do I deal with a couple hours a year as a loss leader for a better referral later?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another story...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;About 15 years ago I was negotiating with a prospective client. She lived in another state, but her and her husband wanted to take a trip to my area and meet me. I was hesitant at first. But after some conversation it was clear she just wanted a face to face meeting for a hour or two and that was it. The project being discussed was worth a few hundred dollars, but not really  a lot to me, certainly not enough to warrant her trip. But I agreed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She and her husband (both company owners) flew in, we had a pleasant lunch and they agreed to the project. That was the gist of the meeting. They went home.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since that time, this client has *repeatedly* returned to me for more work. Often with hefty returns for me. It was that initial meeting that she said *made her feel comfortable* working with me. For much of 2000-2010 she was one of my leading clients. Her business has been struggling since 2010, but I still get a couple projects a year form her, jsut nothing that notable. Without that meeting that may have never happened.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The point is...** I, personally, *never* know which client is going to generate more revenue and more referrals than the other clients. So.... I treat them all relatively the same. I deal with the annoyance in return for good word of mouth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it were me, I'd meet the client if that's what they are requesting and it's not too much of an imposition on me. While a job for a couple hundred dollars may amount to nothing really, the word of mouth gained from it may be greater. But for $200, just the initial meeting.. not anything more after that.. email/phone should be sufficient afterwards.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people simply prefer to meet face to face to know who you are. It may have something to do with generational gaps, but regardless, some are just more comfortable paying people they can recognize in a crowd." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19809" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7511" RevisionGUID="9d9bc675-435f-4367-80da-58849f610294" CreationDate="2018-01-24T03:42:17.217" UserId="708" Comment="added 1463 characters in body" Text="Let me tell a story....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did some (very) minor design work about 5-10 years ago for a client who is older and not at all &quot;tech savvy&quot;. It wasn't an expensive job... and really I only agreed to it because I was slow at the time. It was just a 3 page &quot;brochure&quot; static HTML site. Nothing real involved at all. And I went ahead an hosted it on a reseller account I happen to have. His site gets almost no traffic and the bulk of it's use is for email associated with his domain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since then, I've apparently become IT support for this client. Once or twice a year I get an (angry) phone call that he *&quot;can't get to my Squirrelmail&quot;*. In fact, I got one such call last week. Although he's not angry at me specifically, his demeanor is just terribly unpleasant overall. He starts phone conversations (he doesn't like emailing) yelling, and I mean yelling at the top of his lungs with language full of expletives - just angry ranting. On more than one occasion I've had to calmly tell him &quot;[Clint], please stop yelling at me. I'm trying to help you but I don't like being yelled at. If you continue to yell at me I'm going to have to end this conversation.&quot; And then he does calm down. I do understand it's only out of frustration, but it's not something I should have to deal with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My general feeling about the guy is he can go take a hike. I don't need to deal with people like that and I certainly don't care if I lose the $100 a year in hosting revenue from him. And on more than one occasion I've come close to just telling him he has 10 days to find new hosting and I'll send him files for his site. Knowing full well, this would put him in a complete tailspin since he doesn't understand ANYTHING about web dev at all. In fact, I've *prevented* him from being suckered in by scammers on multiple occasions offering to &quot;improve his SEO&quot; all they need is log in access to his hosting and domain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**However,** this guy passes my name along to others. He's a millionaire and been in business for 50+ years. He's got a lot of contacts. And many of his contacts are older business owners who may be retired and no longer have a direct staff to call upon. So, he generates revenue for me in a round-about manner. So.... do I cut him loose and *not* get the occasional referral from him? Or do I deal with a couple hours a year as a loss leader for a better referrals later?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another story...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;About 15 years ago I was negotiating with a prospective client. She lived in another state, but her and her husband wanted to take a trip to my area and meet me. I was hesitant at first. But after some conversation it was clear she just wanted a face to face meeting for a hour or two and that was it. The project being discussed was worth a few hundred dollars, but not really a lot to me, certainly not enough to warrant her trip. But I agreed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She and her husband (both company owners) flew in, we had a pleasant lunch and they agreed to the project. That was the bulk of the meeting. They went home. They merely wanted to see my demeanor with them. They are immigrants and apparently often get treated as &quot;dumb&quot; by people merely due to their accents. They are both PhD holders in sciences and math. Far from dumb in any sense of the word. They merely don't alway speak clear English.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since that time, this client has *repeatedly* returned to me for more work. Often with hefty returns for me. It was that initial meeting that she said *made her feel comfortable* working with me. In her words, &quot;You didn't treat us as if we were stupid even though we can be difficult to understand at times.&quot; For much of 2000-2010 she was one of my *leading* revenue clients. Her business has been struggling since 2010, but I still get a couple projects a year from her, nothing that notable, but still stays in contact. Without that initial meeting I'm fairly certain I'd have missed out on tens of thousands of dollars in revenue over the years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The point is...** I, personally, *never* know which client is going to generate more revenue and more referrals than the other clients. So.... I treat them all relatively the same. I deal with the annoyance in return for good word of mouth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it were me, I'd meet the client if that's what they are requesting and it's not too much of an imposition on me. While a job for a couple hundred dollars may amount to nothing really, the word of mouth gained from it may be greater. But for $200, just the initial meeting.. not anything more after that.. email/phone should be sufficient afterwards.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people simply prefer to meet face to face to know who you are. It may have something to do with generational gaps, but regardless, some are just more comfortable paying people they can recognize in a crowd." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19810" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7511" RevisionGUID="8c49210b-4118-42ae-bc62-a7f0fb8496bb" CreationDate="2018-01-24T15:30:32.913" UserId="708" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="Let me tell a story....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did some (very) minor design work about 5-10 years ago for a client who is older and not at all &quot;tech savvy&quot;. It wasn't an expensive job... and really I only agreed to it because I was slow at the time. It was just a 3 page &quot;brochure&quot; static HTML site. Nothing real involved at all. And I went ahead an hosted it on a reseller account I happen to have. His site gets almost no traffic and the bulk of it's use is for email associated with his domain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since then, I've apparently become IT support for this client. Once or twice a year I get an (angry) phone call that he *&quot;can't get to my Squirrelmail&quot;*. In fact, I got one such call last week. Although he's not angry at me specifically, his demeanor is just terribly unpleasant overall. He starts phone conversations (he doesn't like emailing) yelling, and I mean yelling at the top of his lungs with language full of expletives - just angry ranting. On more than one occasion I've had to calmly tell him &quot;[Client], please stop yelling at me. I'm trying to help you but I don't like being yelled at. If you continue to yell at me I'm going to have to end this conversation.&quot; And then he does calm down. I do understand it's only out of frustration, but it's not something I should have to deal with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My general feeling about the guy is he can go take a hike. I don't need to deal with people like that and I certainly don't care if I lose the $100 a year in hosting revenue from him. And on more than one occasion I've come close to just telling him he has 10 days to find new hosting and I'll send him files for his site. Knowing full well, this would put him in a complete tailspin since he doesn't understand ANYTHING about web dev at all. In fact, I've *prevented* him from being suckered in by scammers on multiple occasions offering to &quot;improve his SEO&quot; all they need is log in access to his hosting and domain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**However,** this guy passes my name along to others. He's a millionaire and been in business for 50+ years. He's got a lot of contacts. And many of his contacts are older business owners who may be retired and no longer have a direct staff to call upon. So, he generates revenue for me in a round-about manner. So.... do I cut him loose and *not* get the occasional referral from him? Or do I deal with a couple hours a year as a loss leader for a better referrals later?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another story...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;About 15 years ago I was negotiating with a prospective client. She lived in another state, but her and her husband wanted to take a trip to my area and meet me. I was hesitant at first. But after some conversation it was clear she just wanted a face to face meeting for a hour or two and that was it. The project being discussed was worth a few hundred dollars, but not really a lot to me, certainly not enough to warrant her trip. But I agreed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She and her husband (both company owners) flew in, we had a pleasant lunch and they agreed to the project. That was the bulk of the meeting. They went home. They merely wanted to see my demeanor with them. They are immigrants and apparently often get treated as &quot;dumb&quot; by people merely due to their accents. They are both PhD holders in sciences and math. Far from dumb in any sense of the word. They merely don't alway speak clear English.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since that time, this client has *repeatedly* returned to me for more work. Often with hefty returns for me. It was that initial meeting that she said *made her feel comfortable* working with me. In her words, &quot;You didn't treat us as if we were stupid even though we can be difficult to understand at times.&quot; For much of 2000-2010 she was one of my *leading* revenue clients. Her business has been struggling since 2010, but I still get a couple projects a year from her, nothing that notable, but still stays in contact. Without that initial meeting I'm fairly certain I'd have missed out on tens of thousands of dollars in revenue over the years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The point is...** I, personally, *never* know which client is going to generate more revenue and more referrals than the other clients. So.... I treat them all relatively the same. I deal with the annoyance in return for good word of mouth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it were me, I'd meet the client if that's what they are requesting and it's not too much of an imposition on me. While a job for a couple hundred dollars may amount to nothing really, the word of mouth gained from it may be greater. But for $200, just the initial meeting.. not anything more after that.. email/phone should be sufficient afterwards.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people simply prefer to meet face to face to know who you are. It may have something to do with generational gaps, but regardless, some are just more comfortable paying people they can recognize in a crowd." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19811" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6928" RevisionGUID="82a54662-0a4a-4291-8770-755ab5a72649" CreationDate="2018-01-24T21:23:12.333" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19812" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7512" RevisionGUID="f7af2468-6fc2-44dc-81ce-3798b21f414a" CreationDate="2018-01-25T16:44:34.920" UserId="19222" Text="I'm not an experienced web developer but I'm in college and really needed a quick job as I'm in a financial pit. I can hack up a website in Python/Django in short time depending on complexity. (Eg. a shopping site, simple web apps, etc) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is a simple example of my work. [Web Application][1] It's a very basic web application. But is there a market for simple web apps in freelancing? Is it possible for me to get into freelancing right away, or am I being too naive?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://reelbugs.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19813" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7512" RevisionGUID="f7af2468-6fc2-44dc-81ce-3798b21f414a" CreationDate="2018-01-25T16:44:34.920" UserId="19222" Text="Can I get into freelance web development with just basic web dev knowledge?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19814" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7512" RevisionGUID="f7af2468-6fc2-44dc-81ce-3798b21f414a" CreationDate="2018-01-25T16:44:34.920" UserId="19222" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|webmasters|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19815" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7513" RevisionGUID="99a46ca8-869e-4a6e-8653-30b8209e8858" CreationDate="2018-01-25T17:04:01.477" UserId="708" Text="It's not going to be something you'll see money from in a week... or two... or three... or more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to *find clients*&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You have to discuss scope and needs&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You have to negotiate contracts&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You *might* get a deposit after the above&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You have to do the work&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You have to make changes&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You have to test the work&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You have to make changes&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You have to test the work&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You have to make changes&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You have to test the work&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You have to submit an invoice&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You have to wait for payment to arrive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not an &quot;overnight&quot; income generator until you are well established, and even then few companies pay you immediately. Usually you can do things like Net 15, but most companies use Net 30. (30 days to pay you after completion).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for &quot;can you&quot;.... sure. There are all sorts of clients looking for all sorts of work. How well your particular skill set fairs no one can say." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19816" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6959" RevisionGUID="10611841-234a-4d2f-a06f-4fdda2fe2085" CreationDate="2018-01-26T10:36:13.023" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19817" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7514" RevisionGUID="dd2118df-b4fb-428d-8bd1-9efd03818c60" CreationDate="2018-01-26T14:16:32.573" UserId="19139" Text="You need to be able to offer the basics such as responsive design, or things like a contact form. Granted not all clients want or care about this, but you might want to brush up on these skills if you dont know them. The last thing you want to do is find a client, find their needs, and realise you cant meet them. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19818" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7515" RevisionGUID="6727f34e-74c8-4443-94af-bd94dd14411f" CreationDate="2018-01-26T14:26:42.610" UserId="19139" Text="While the obvious languages are useful, I would say there are other skills that are also required. I fell for the same thing, as a typical developer you want all teh programming skill possible, but fail to realise there is so much more you need.&#xD;&#xA;For developing, you also want to be able to do responsive web design, understanding servers/hosts/ how would you transfer files over to clients server once complete(fileZilla maybe), and sometimes photoshop (because the client doesn't realise they're different skills),&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But the other skills I was talking about include things like time management, bookkeeping (if you are declaring your earnings), understanding and communicating with clients (harder than you think), stress management, overall being professional. In addition I would say you need your own website that includes your portfolio. That will help with getting hired." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19819" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7516" RevisionGUID="3e2cd0dd-bc57-4668-ad86-1184827d9038" CreationDate="2018-01-26T14:34:54.833" UserId="19139" Text="If the guy isn't complaining about the price, stick to it. If you change it, you send a message that you might have been (unintentionally or not) ripping him off/unnecessirily over charging, and it also says your estimates are out of line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Present the case that your estimates are reasonable. However since he is not complaining about the price, I wouldn't worry. If you want to easy some guilt/anxiety, you can tell the client that you are fully dedicated to doing the work, will work to ensure it is what he wants, and as someone else suggested, suggest giving him a 10% discount next time he wants some changes in the future. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is your estimate reasonable? I would say so. I always undersell myself because if I go too high, clients think you're ripping them off even when you're not, and say nevermind. So I just go by what I think they will be more comfortable paying, which loses me money in the long run. If You need to support yourself, after all." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19820" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7517" RevisionGUID="2f1c330c-a04d-4a71-9ea3-d984cd006f2c" CreationDate="2018-01-26T14:39:21.080" UserId="19139" Text="Yes, you can. You only need to issue VAT when you're VAT registered, which is what you do when you earn over a certain amount. Im not sure what it is, but its pretty high.&#xD;&#xA;I think you might be getting mixed up with the fees of taxes here. Claiming on expenses means you wont pay tax on what you earnt because the cost of that item was not considered profit.&#xD;&#xA;The amount of tax youpay on goods doesn;t really have to do with anything regarding your own earnings." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19823" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5789" RevisionGUID="6ea93ff7-1a55-4feb-a3ec-aafec9d63991" CreationDate="2018-01-27T15:33:35.433" UserId="14318" Comment="deleted 7 characters in body" Text="i passed the last few months on learning web development. so far i have learned a lot in both front end and back end development like &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-html&#xD;&#xA;-css&#xD;&#xA;-java script&#xD;&#xA;-php&#xD;&#xA;-mysql(pdo)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;my next step is learning object oriented php and ajax and that makes me wonder&#xD;&#xA;what other technologies i need to learn?&#xD;&#xA;do i need to learn how to configure a server and how servers works and networks and all that complicated stuff like nginx,apache,linux....?&#xD;&#xA;in which level i will know that i'm ready for a job?&#xD;&#xA;how to get your first job if the client asks for experience?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19831" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7520" RevisionGUID="b0088658-db96-471b-b468-7e68d1ed33f0" CreationDate="2018-01-29T15:14:37.687" UserId="19139" Text="You have to always think about what happens if the client wants to withdraw from your services at any point. If you give it a long think you'll end up finding many loopholes in your agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I realized quickly that only paying once they were 100% with the product at 100% complete would they need to pay, meant I could spend 400 hours and not receive a penny.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You're in this situation where you ask for 50% deposit for the website and the samples are at no cost if they take it, but $100 if they don't. This is bad in the customers eyes because it seems like as soon as they start talking with you, it's costing them. This is a big no-no to them. &#xD;&#xA;What I would suggest in the future is to fully understand what they want first before you do some samples, and bump up your price of the website. This way you get paid for that time, and if they don't like the sampling, consider it a loss. However you can reduce the risk of loss by ensuring you understand what they want, and not spend long on the samples. &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;After this client or moving forward to your next work, I would suggest changing your contract to free samples (where you dont spend long) and bump up the price for the website.&#xD;&#xA;What I would do for now with this client is keep sending them an invoice for your services, something like 'as per your contractual agreement here is your invoices for our services'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could go to court but as others mentioned, even if you win, you won't see much of it. Keep sending them invoices for maybe a year, and if nothing comes of it consider it a loss and move on. You've earnt more here than money - experience!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19832" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1793" RevisionGUID="aa8b6d03-03b5-41b9-ab9e-3f2a95b3c996" CreationDate="2018-01-29T17:05:17.567" UserId="708" Comment="added 154 characters in body" Text="Be aware, even if you were to pursue something like small claims court and win, it's still *your job* to collect. **A court won't collect for you.** They merely allow you to legally pursue avenues of collection such as garnishment. Also be aware that there *are* filing fees which are generally $50-$100 so it'l cost you that to file a claim. Now, you can get that awarded back if you win.... **if** you win.... but it's going to cost you the filing fees up front.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you were to use something like a collection agency you'd be giving up a percentage of the whatever was collected. So you'll never gain the full $100 that way either and that's *if* the agency collects anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For $100, I'd simply keep sending invoices every 15 days until the end of time or until I get paid. I find that for some stubborn clients the constant invoice becomes *highly* annoying to them and eventually they may pay to simply stop the invoices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other avenues aren't really worth their cost to pursue. So chalk it up to a learning cost, be smarter about it next time, and move on. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19833" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7516" RevisionGUID="a6c7e2da-59e9-4f1f-84d6-f4351e803d3c" CreationDate="2018-01-30T19:38:03.623" UserId="19139" Comment="fixed typo, added extra clarity" Text="If the guy isn't complaining about the price, stick to it. If you change it, you send a message that you might have been (unintentionally or not) ripping him off/unnecessirily over charging, and it also says your estimates are out of line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Present the case that your estimates are reasonable. However since he is not complaining about the price, I wouldn't worry. If you want to easy some guilt/anxiety, you can tell the client that you are fully dedicated to doing the work, will work to ensure it is what he wants, and as someone else suggested, suggest giving him a 10% discount next time he wants some changes in the future. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is your estimate reasonable? I would say so. I always undersell myself because if I go too high, clients think you're ripping them off even when you're not, and say nevermind. So I just go by what I think they will be more comfortable paying, which loses me money in the long run. You need to support yourself, after all, and you're saving him a lot of trouble by setting up everything he needs to even get you started (databases etc). I would stick to it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19834" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7521" RevisionGUID="baa735c3-9507-4ceb-8810-08339c062542" CreationDate="2018-01-30T19:47:48.797" UserId="19139" Text="First think about the type of customers you want to provide a service to. Someone that wants a website? Ok so think about the things they might be asking for. Responsiveness? Checkout/shopping baskets are popular, zoom in/zoom out abilities on images? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then think about if you are able to do those. Responsive frameworks are good to use and fairly easy if you're good with css. But if they dont want the default layout a framework comes with, you'll need to know how change that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are you able to help the customer with buying a domain, and setting up their server? Are you able to help with getting the website live on their server. Do you have the patience, and more importantly, do you have the time?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I too work full time and offer my services part time. I also tell my clients that I work full time and will work on their website, and so usually say 6 weeks, even if its a small website. Most of the time the client doesnt have any urgency for their website so this is usually ok.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you have a portfolio? If you do, create a website and put that up. This isnt always necessary as none of my clients have ever asked to see previous work, but it's not a bad idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're happy with your knowledge, then start looking for clients. I use GumTree which surprisingly brought me a few. Try there first, or something similar like craiglist or whatever. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And before you start, write up a contract. It takes ages to do and will save you time for when you do have a client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19839" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7523" RevisionGUID="d554338b-9dac-4166-b85b-ff9ecac69ff8" CreationDate="2018-02-01T16:49:07.587" UserId="18230" Text="If somebody has such a large Project, it is good business practice to get different quotes on the table. This does not necessarily mean you have to be the cheapest, at the and the overall package decides. The Client has to feel confident that you are up to the job and have a realistic view of the work involved also.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there is a big mismatch in perception about how much the project is worth, the is either a communication error in the specs or somebody is offering serious dumping prices - anyways, be glad that you did not get that project, it will probably not go well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are spot on with your pricing, you can only hope you have made a good enough Impression that the client trusts you with the project. Sometimes you can´t even win as a one-man-show and will just be used to negotiate with the bigger players. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now you can only offer to explain your services and your estimation further if he has any troubles with his comparison, thank him for the opportunity and express that you are looking forward to work with him.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19842" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7523" RevisionGUID="a1617a5b-0025-4071-9b5b-d29bda333e7d" CreationDate="2018-02-02T08:09:49.383" UserId="18230" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="If somebody has such a large Project, it is good business practice to get different quotes on the table. This does not necessarily mean you have to be the cheapest, at the and the overall package decides. The Client has to feel confident that you are up to the job and have a realistic view of the work involved also.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there is a big mismatch in perception about how much the project is worth, there is either a communication error in the specs or somebody is offering serious dumping prices - anyways, be glad that you did not get that project, it will probably not go well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are spot on with your pricing, you can only hope you have made a good enough Impression that the client trusts you with the project. Sometimes you can´t even win as a one-man-show and will just be used to negotiate with the bigger players. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now you can only offer to explain your services and your estimation further if he has any troubles with his comparison, thank him for the opportunity and express that you are looking forward to work with him.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19843" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7524" RevisionGUID="70e6162c-9ddf-4e0a-b601-80423da0ec22" CreationDate="2018-02-02T10:04:59.003" UserId="4338" Text="Previously I have created few websites for a marketing agency.&#xD;&#xA;They put their site link on these sites: &quot;Site by &lt;Marketing Agency&gt;&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I put these sites created in my portfolio?&#xD;&#xA;There is no NDA signed between me and marketing agency.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, what will potential client think if the site is in my portfolio and there is &quot;Site by &lt;Marketing Agency&gt;&quot; on it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19844" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7524" RevisionGUID="70e6162c-9ddf-4e0a-b601-80423da0ec22" CreationDate="2018-02-02T10:04:59.003" UserId="4338" Text="Site created for agency...can I show it in my portfolio?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19845" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7524" RevisionGUID="70e6162c-9ddf-4e0a-b601-80423da0ec22" CreationDate="2018-02-02T10:04:59.003" UserId="4338" Text="|contracts|legal|attracting-clients|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19847" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7525" RevisionGUID="fec9fd03-7b34-415f-ade2-3be6a06ec6e8" CreationDate="2018-02-02T16:00:29.183" UserId="19283" Text="A transport company in Brazil are providing me services for transport within the EU. I am based on the EU will I have to pay VAT when invoiced?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19848" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7525" RevisionGUID="fec9fd03-7b34-415f-ade2-3be6a06ec6e8" CreationDate="2018-02-02T16:00:29.183" UserId="19283" Text="VAT charge in the EU" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19849" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7525" RevisionGUID="fec9fd03-7b34-415f-ade2-3be6a06ec6e8" CreationDate="2018-02-02T16:00:29.183" UserId="19283" Text="|taxes|payments|invoices|vat|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19855" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7527" RevisionGUID="119073b2-0d37-446a-a52f-3f7c52148dea" CreationDate="2018-02-03T18:43:14.020" UserId="12282" Text="I seem to be having the same problem with my projects, particularly my Wordpress website clients. I estimate the time it takes to complete the task but the project gets held up because the client doesn't have all of the content prepared. I understand they might not be able to visualise what is needed of them until the website is in place, but waiting for them to get it all ready really drags out the project and in turn affects my next / other project(s).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or worse again, they give me half arsed copy that just ruins my design with one line sentences for spaces intended to be full paragraphs leaving these ugly gaps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you prepare the job before actually starting the work so all expectations are met?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19856" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7527" RevisionGUID="119073b2-0d37-446a-a52f-3f7c52148dea" CreationDate="2018-02-03T18:43:14.020" UserId="12282" Text="How to prepare a job to keep it on schedule?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19857" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7527" RevisionGUID="119073b2-0d37-446a-a52f-3f7c52148dea" CreationDate="2018-02-03T18:43:14.020" UserId="12282" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|project-management|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19858" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7528" RevisionGUID="4cafb512-b0f8-4b32-9991-1d3360ff8f30" CreationDate="2018-02-03T19:11:16.073" UserId="75" Text="Part of my contact, and Scope of Work, is that I list out what is required to meet each milestone. For Wordpress sites (or any website, really), I layout a task list such as:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The CLIENT must agree to provide the following before the server time is purchased and name is purchased: *Authorization in writing from xxxx to pay a fee of $xxx per year in advance*&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The CLIENT must agree to provide the following before the web site is ready for access: *All media assets (pictures, videos, drawings), layout design (agreed upon with me), and text for the xxx page, yyy page, and zzz page.*&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Failure to provide any of the above will result in delays, which will not be deductible from the agreed price&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have the client initial each section, explaining to him/her what is required and why. If they need another freelancer for part (i.e. creating the graphics when you only do web site back-end tasks), then it is on them to find someone to do it, or ask me for a referral.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember, as a Freelancer, our job is to not screw out the client; our job is to accomplish the client's goal as quickly and efficiently as possible. Explaining what you need to get their job done up front helps with communications, and therefore, expectations, placed upon you and future professionals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do the back-end stuff for a few websites. I do NOTHING in relation to making something look good, and I explain that. I then offer the contact details of a few people I trust to handle the parts I can't, and offer to connect them to my client. This has worked well for me, as I like working with the other freelancers I recommend, and it allows us to collaborate on bigger projects later on. By telling the client on the first meeting what my area of expertise is, they can make the business decision on how to move on, letting them have the power still.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Did I mention our job as a Freelancer is to sometimes stroke the client's ego? ;-)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19859" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7524" RevisionGUID="56726a44-a6e4-49ea-a2f9-b6b23882bb8b" CreationDate="2018-02-05T05:17:09.360" UserId="4338" Comment="added 25 characters in body" Text="Previously my agency have created few websites for a marketing agency.&#xD;&#xA;They put their site link on these sites: &quot;Site by &lt;Marketing Agency&gt;&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can we put these sites created, in my  agency portfolio?&#xD;&#xA;There is no NDA signed between us and marketing agency.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, what will potential client think if the site is in my agency portfolio and there is &quot;Site by &lt;Marketing Agency&gt;&quot; on it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19860" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7510" RevisionGUID="95bc1d70-43f2-47c5-ae0c-49e9dd412cea" CreationDate="2018-02-05T08:21:16.340" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/960428094036303872" />
  <row Id="19862" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7529" RevisionGUID="ca6a913f-60b4-40a5-97ad-f835d39b1264" CreationDate="2018-02-06T04:28:22.753" UserId="19310" Text="I am a Vietnamese freelancer. I have UK based clients who I am doing work for whilst I was here in Vietnam (totally working remotely with 6-month contract). The earning and salary will be transferred to my Vietnamese bank account. Do I need to pay UK tax as a freelance foreigner? I am currently sifting through their website but would appreciate some immediate feedback." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19863" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7529" RevisionGUID="ca6a913f-60b4-40a5-97ad-f835d39b1264" CreationDate="2018-02-06T04:28:22.753" UserId="19310" Text="UK tax for foreign freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19864" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7529" RevisionGUID="ca6a913f-60b4-40a5-97ad-f835d39b1264" CreationDate="2018-02-06T04:28:22.753" UserId="19310" Text="|taxes|uk|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19865" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7530" RevisionGUID="7ff12673-b147-4efe-82bd-9c4fa1c49358" CreationDate="2018-02-06T05:49:56.553" UserId="708" Text="I don't know about Vietnam, but traditionally you pay taxes where **you** live, not where clients live. You would pay Vietnamese taxes based upon your income. You would *not* pay UK taxes since you don't live in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19866" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7531" RevisionGUID="d37dfefb-0c9d-42ff-aeb6-8ef6c453cda5" CreationDate="2018-02-06T10:33:01.373" UserId="18230" Text="The first question is: Do you get a salary or to you write them invoices?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you get a Salary, they should have to look after the formalities. Though that may be different in you country.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you get paid on a freelancing basis, which I presume since  you posted here, you have to look after the formalities. Normally you´d have to register in the EU vor VAT. If you are not able to do this, there are Payment providers wich are and can invoice for you, but that will cost you a fee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For definitiv answers pleas consult a tax adviser, as legal counseling is out of scope here." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19867" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7531" RevisionGUID="cff80dd1-fc7c-45d1-b8a7-2ba38b62ceb7" CreationDate="2018-02-06T16:51:10.833" UserId="18230" Comment="added 163 characters in body" Text="The first question is: Do you get a salary or to you write them invoices?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you get a Salary, they should have to look after the formalities. Though that may be different in you country.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you get paid on a freelancing basis, which I presume since  you posted here, you have to look after the formalities. &#xD;&#xA;If this is considered a B-to-B transaction you customer probably needs to register  and pay VAT under the reverse-charge procedure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you deal with private customers you´d have to register in the EU vor VAT. If you are not able to do this, there are Payment providers wich are and can invoice for you, but that will cost you a fee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For definitiv answers pleas consult a tax adviser, as legal counseling is out of scope here." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19868" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7532" RevisionGUID="9312907c-6ed2-4232-a283-67cb16cb3c7e" CreationDate="2018-02-06T16:54:21.300" UserId="18230" Text="Probably yes. When in doubt, you are probably responsible for registering for VAT. Ask you tax adviser or local financial authorities for details." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19869" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7530" RevisionGUID="4370204d-2c38-4352-aa5b-5baafc3421f7" CreationDate="2018-02-06T17:03:41.393" UserId="708" Comment="added 92 characters in body" Text="#You pay taxes where you live. You *do not* pay taxes where your customers/clients live.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know about Vietnam, but traditionally you pay taxes where **you** live, not where clients live. You would pay Vietnamese taxes based upon your income. You would *not* pay UK taxes since you don't live in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19881" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7535" RevisionGUID="3656e6b0-1d07-4de1-81cf-7babd22f2002" CreationDate="2018-02-08T12:06:07.753" UserId="19325" Text="So, I got a client through Freelancer about a year and a half ago who was not willing to pay me on the site because he said he had an accountant and company process that didn't allow that, but he was willing to sign a contract online. Since he is in the UK and I am in India, I figured that was the only way. After struggling to pay through PayPal (he said there was fraud comitted on that account) and me not having a bank account in the UK, he ended up paying me on Freelancer. Months post that, he used my services, apologized as he was traveling/facing trouble with the bank/was hospitalized - all the excuses in the book, and till date has not paid me. The contract has a 14 day payment release clause. Can I take legal action? If yes then how do I go about it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19882" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7535" RevisionGUID="3656e6b0-1d07-4de1-81cf-7babd22f2002" CreationDate="2018-02-08T12:06:07.753" UserId="19325" Text="Can I sue my client for not paying?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19883" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7535" RevisionGUID="3656e6b0-1d07-4de1-81cf-7babd22f2002" CreationDate="2018-02-08T12:06:07.753" UserId="19325" Text="|freelance-websites|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19896" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7539" RevisionGUID="7bc820ab-fe36-4d53-81fc-0e8052706706" CreationDate="2018-02-08T21:03:36.513" UserId="18230" Text="1. Yes you can!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. You find a lawyer who knows about this stuff!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19897" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7540" RevisionGUID="5bc20f74-5032-44a5-b4cd-0b090fdfbfee" CreationDate="2018-02-09T07:40:59.637" UserId="19331" Text="Yes, you don't need to meet the client, this is perfectly reasonable. If the brief and scope of work is understood and the terms agreed, its saves a lot of time just getting the job done, especially quick/small jobs, I have some clients that I have had for years and never met them in person." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19898" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7541" RevisionGUID="fc9e7cde-3f4b-4b60-8186-ac6a9fc261fa" CreationDate="2018-02-09T12:14:41.563" UserId="19336" Text="As a freelancer who provides mostly backend development/ setup of the software, sometimes I'm required to install 3rd party modules bought/ owned by a client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an example, if customer has bought envato theme with regular license, is it ok for me to use it even though I'm technically charging for the end product?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also client owns the end product after development is done. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19899" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7541" RevisionGUID="fc9e7cde-3f4b-4b60-8186-ac6a9fc261fa" CreationDate="2018-02-09T12:14:41.563" UserId="19336" Text="Regular or Extended license for Theme/Module bought by a client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19900" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7541" RevisionGUID="fc9e7cde-3f4b-4b60-8186-ac6a9fc261fa" CreationDate="2018-02-09T12:14:41.563" UserId="19336" Text="|licensing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19901" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7542" RevisionGUID="00601535-9317-41bd-a534-84397499fd29" CreationDate="2018-02-09T17:04:40.403" UserId="708" Text="If the client purchased the license, it is perfectly fine for you to include the product as part of your development *for this client*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should *not* use the product for *any* other clients in the future however.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;Imagine you are a home builder. You get hired to build a home. Your client goes out and purchases all the (correct) lumber for the build, gives it to you and says, &quot;Here, use this.&quot; -- You're fine building the home with client-supplied lumber. It actually saves you the time and trouble of sorting out what you need to purchase and determining what type of lumber the client would prefer. The only difference is you *can't* mark-up the lumber costs and pass them on to the client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19906" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7544" RevisionGUID="832eac5b-3ae0-43a0-94fc-2d5123216fd8" CreationDate="2018-02-10T13:10:38.563" UserId="19139" Text="I'm jut at the end of completing a website for my client. Overall it's gone rather smooth and if all clients were like that I think my life would be pretty simple.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We will meet up shortly to do the hand-over process, where I show him everything that's done, tell him how log in to his accounts once I'm no longer around, how to see his analytics, what to do if he needs any help, and just an overall summary of service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However I thought of a question I could ask him during this meeting a while back. I made a mental note to do a closing interview/questionnaire when I'm done if I think of more questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Only problem is I can't remember what that question is. Maybe it wasn't important. But it got me thinking:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Should I do a closing interview?&#xD;&#xA;- If so, what should I say?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to ask &quot;Overall are you happy with your service?&quot; because I feel like we wouldn't have got all the way to the end if they were not so the question might be pointless, and I don't want them to feel I'm just asking to big up an ego. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, do you think I should provide a document of some sort that states this is the end of service? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19907" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7544" RevisionGUID="832eac5b-3ae0-43a0-94fc-2d5123216fd8" CreationDate="2018-02-10T13:10:38.563" UserId="19139" Text="Should I do a closing interview with my client post-launch of website?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19908" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7544" RevisionGUID="832eac5b-3ae0-43a0-94fc-2d5123216fd8" CreationDate="2018-02-10T13:10:38.563" UserId="19139" Text="|interview|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19909" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7545" RevisionGUID="c17a9da7-22ce-4c01-bb0b-effd916dafd6" CreationDate="2018-02-10T13:18:46.793" UserId="19139" Text="Do you not want to meet because you fear once they see you are a female developer they will change their mind?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If so, that's even more of a reason to meet up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you feel like you need to prove yourself - do it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a female developer myself, and we all know it's a male dominated career. I don't think I've ever had a client that has pressumed I'm less able, but with being a minority, and because of who I am as a person, I always love to prove people wrong. So go meet them, explain exactly what you will be doing, what you charge, agree a date for completion, tell them there's no need to meet again, and accept payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's worth noting that they may want to meet BECAUSE they're paying in cash. They probably don't want to add it to the books so need to pay a person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make it a short meeting so it doesn't take up too much of your time, and make sure to get all the information you need that it's worth your time. Charge extra if needed. But yes, in general it's good to meet anyway. Clients want to know where there money is going." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19910" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7546" RevisionGUID="89aad7b0-a5d9-42c0-8db2-6e2ef4598ded" CreationDate="2018-02-10T13:31:34.023" UserId="19139" Text="Don't feel bad. It's your job. They know that. There's a few ways you can make it less awkward for yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Send an e-mail update on the website (if the client is paying in installments) and say &quot;Hi [client]. The website has been updated with the following changes [x,y,z]. Let me know if you see any problems. Also see attached the invoice for the first stallment of service. Have a good day. Thanks, [your name]&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) When creating a contract for your client, it's worth adding the payment plan in there. Make it something you both are happy with. Maybe you agree 50% upfront and 50% completion. If this is the case you could say in an e-mail &quot;Thanks for your time today. I've attached an invoice for the deposit of service. Once payment is recieved I can begin the work. Thanks&quot;, or similarly, &quot;Following our contract the final payment is needed in order to complete the work. Attched is the invoice for final bill of service&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they know the payment is coming then it's less awkward to ask. But bare in mind it's not cheeky. Everybody knows they have to pay for things in life. You could even drop it in conversation&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) [after having a discussion on what's next to do on the website] &quot;Great. Ok well thank you for your time today. I'll get those changes done and I'll send you an invoice &quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's how I do it. But I don't even feel guilty anymore. I used to, but now it's just business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19911" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7498" RevisionGUID="e037f7e9-55d6-426c-b015-75e8c7e911a2" CreationDate="2018-02-10T13:43:16.700" UserId="19139" Comment="added 25 characters in body" Text="I'm currently doing a website for a client as a freelance web developer. We had our first meetup and we discussed what he wants on the website, what his company *does*, etc.  I coming up with the pages that he will need, such as products, services, contact etc. There were a few others related to his business. I showed him my initial draft of the website, which included the links that will be at the top navigator. He was happy with my initial draft.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However by our second meeting he had sketched together a very similar design to mine but with a few tweeks. This is fine and I didn't have any problems with these changes.&#xD;&#xA;However there was two things I noticed that I didn't like. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He had added two new links to the top menu of the website. These links are &quot;About Us&quot; and &quot;News&quot;. When I asked him how does he want the news section to work ( does he want it linking to a new Wordpress?), which I was a bit reluctant about because it means more work for me with the same pay, he simply replied &quot;I don't know. I did research on my competitors and they all had it&quot;. I died inside at this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I decided to tell him quickly that there's no point in having the page if he doesn't know what he's going to do, how he's going to write up this news, or doesn't have time to do it. He then said ok we wont use &quot;News&quot;. But by our next meeting he had referred to a newer version of his sketch, and it still included a &quot;News&quot; link. I asked him about it, reminding him that we agreed to get rid of it, and he said &quot;Well I thought we could just have a link to my Twitter&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not sure if he wants a new page to just display one twitter icon, to use a twitter api thing that shows tweets, or to have the main link direct to his twitter. I feel like I'm a broken record with him and don't know how to say &quot;that's a bit rubbish to do/it will look poor&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;A similar thing is with his &quot;About Us&quot; section. While I find that the page may be necessary, I don't feel it needs to be at the top of the page, but rather in a footer with the Cookies Policy and other things no one cares about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I raise these points to him without offending him? I've always told him I would always provide my professional oppinion if necessary, but now that I think it is - I don't know how!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some information: - the man is a sucessful business person and a little intimidating&#xD;&#xA;- His business has been going for about 2 years and makes a lot of money but this is his first website" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19915" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7548" RevisionGUID="8689f568-0b93-4238-a066-7526dcea99c5" CreationDate="2018-02-11T20:46:34.243" UserId="19350" Text="(Please let me know if there are better suited StackExchange communities for this question.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been contacted on LinkedIn by a lawyer and his clients. They asked me if I would be interested in reviewing a piece of source code and answer specific questions they have about it such as whether it performs this or that function, how long it would typically take to write such code, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm qualified to review the code and provide detailed, argumented answers to their questions, and I would be delighted to help them. However it would be my first case as an expert witness and I'm unsure about the quote I should give them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To be more precise, I need to provide a quote for an &quot;initial review&quot; which they estimate would take around 8-10 hours (which I think is entirely reasonable even if I may adjust this slightly). I would also need to travel (international, 4-hour flight) to attend a cross examination that they estimate would take 2 to 3 hours (but at least 36 hours in total if travel and accomodation is accounted for).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even though I did consulting for a few years a long time ago, I'm no longer self-employed. I'm principal engineer in a software company in an entirely unrelated line of business. However I have a strong presence in the open source community and it's as an open source project leader and software author that I would testify (in my free time).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an established software author with around 20 years of experience in the field related to the code I'm being asked to review, what would be a reasonable hourly rate? Beside the 8-10 hours for the initial review and the 2-3 hours for the cross examination, what else should I bill? Should I simply increase the hourly rate to account for the 36 hours of travel time, or would they typically pay travel (and related) expenses?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for all the help in this new exciting adventure. Quick answers are appreciated since the timing is rather tight on this one." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19916" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7548" RevisionGUID="8689f568-0b93-4238-a066-7526dcea99c5" CreationDate="2018-02-11T20:46:34.243" UserId="19350" Text="Quote for source code review as expert witness" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19917" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7548" RevisionGUID="8689f568-0b93-4238-a066-7526dcea99c5" CreationDate="2018-02-11T20:46:34.243" UserId="19350" Text="|software|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19919" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7550" RevisionGUID="b7a8747c-9f99-4e2e-b154-4fc7d71edcae" CreationDate="2018-02-11T21:35:34.813" UserDisplayName="user19352" Text="A client who I’ve worked with before sent me a work contract. I signed it and returned it to them expecting them to return it signed immediately. However it’s been almost two weeks and they haven’t signed it yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Wondering if I have any recourse to cancel the agreement before I get their signed copy. I’m in Canada.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe relevant: In the termination section of the contract it gives reasons that they can terminate but none for me are listed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19920" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7550" RevisionGUID="b7a8747c-9f99-4e2e-b154-4fc7d71edcae" CreationDate="2018-02-11T21:35:34.813" UserDisplayName="user19352" Text="Client has my signed copy of contract but they haven’t signed yet" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19921" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7550" RevisionGUID="b7a8747c-9f99-4e2e-b154-4fc7d71edcae" CreationDate="2018-02-11T21:35:34.813" UserDisplayName="user19352" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19922" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7551" RevisionGUID="722c8109-f32f-413a-a429-52621bafc3ca" CreationDate="2018-02-12T10:55:53.060" UserId="19139" Text="Im not too sure what you're asking or what the problem is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps you could write to them asking if you will receive a copy of their signature on the contract? They might be thinking that with them writing it, they only need yours to make it an agreement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19923" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7548" RevisionGUID="8a6f8110-490a-46bd-93df-f68f39a8d5dd" CreationDate="2018-02-12T16:06:54.677" UserId="9" Comment="Removed snippet at beginning, added French nationality from asker's answer (https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/7549/9)" Text="I've been contacted on LinkedIn by a lawyer and his clients. They asked me if I would be interested in reviewing a piece of source code and answer specific questions they have about it such as whether it performs this or that function, how long it would typically take to write such code, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm qualified to review the code and provide detailed, argumented answers to their questions, and I would be delighted to help them. However it would be my first case as an expert witness and I'm unsure about the quote I should give them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To be more precise, I need to provide a quote for an &quot;initial review&quot; which they estimate would take around 8-10 hours (which I think is entirely reasonable even if I may adjust this slightly). I would also need to travel (international, 4-hour flight) to attend a cross examination that they estimate would take 2 to 3 hours (but at least 36 hours in total if travel and accomodation is accounted for).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even though I did consulting for a few years a long time ago, I'm no longer self-employed. I'm a principal engineer in a software company in an entirely unrelated line of business. However I have a strong presence in the open source community and it's as an open source project leader and software author that I would testify (in my free time).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an established software author in France with around 20 years of experience in the field related to the code I'm being asked to review, what would be a reasonable hourly rate? Beside the 8-10 hours for the initial review and the 2-3 hours for the cross examination, what else should I bill? Should I simply increase the hourly rate to account for the 36 hours of travel time, or would they typically pay travel (and related) expenses?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for all the help in this new exciting adventure. Quick answers are appreciated since the timing is rather tight on this one." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19926" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7552" RevisionGUID="231b1cb8-3432-406b-8457-480c45686b43" CreationDate="2018-02-12T19:05:07.767" UserId="19361" Text="I'm a freelancer working with a US company. I want to move to the Netherlands, so I started looking for a job, but my client suggested another solution: to find an intermediary company in Netherlands that can hire me and outsource me back to my current client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I earn enough on my current contract to qualify for Highly Skilled Migrant visa, the only problem I need a recognized sponsor in Netherlands to hire me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I started searching for companies like this, but so far no luck: it seems that most outsourcing firms have only their own existing employees, and at least from looking at their sites, there's no mention of anything like this. So, is this a valid option? Are there companies that do this? And is it legal? Maybe there's some special term for this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19927" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7552" RevisionGUID="231b1cb8-3432-406b-8457-480c45686b43" CreationDate="2018-02-12T19:05:07.767" UserId="19361" Text="Are there any intermediary companies in Netherlands that allow you to work with your existing clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19928" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7552" RevisionGUID="231b1cb8-3432-406b-8457-480c45686b43" CreationDate="2018-02-12T19:05:07.767" UserId="19361" Text="|outsourcing|local-business|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19929" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7553" RevisionGUID="818918a5-2424-4743-9d41-c8477251be36" CreationDate="2018-02-14T11:00:30.287" UserId="18230" Text="1. If you where hired and rented back to your original client, you would no longer be a freelancer, but a paid employee, so this could belong into workplace. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. The company hiring you will want some compensation for their Indetermination, also taxes and social security will probably be deducted so don´t expect to get the same kind of money you are currently getting. Try [an income calculator][1] to get a feel for it. Expect your employer to want some 30% profit share (+/- depending how complicated the deal my be)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Under the circumstances in (2), any Company offering paid development work should be happy to hire you, as it seems you are bringing in a customer who will fully cover the expenses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://thetax.nl/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19930" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7554" RevisionGUID="25294ccd-89cc-456e-b09a-8656cacfc575" CreationDate="2018-02-14T11:16:22.463" UserId="18230" Text="What I would do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a rule ob thumb I would about triple the current gross hourly amount you are making under your normal employment. Adjust to how much you want or not want to do this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then bill all hours you spent, incl researching and administrative.&#xD;&#xA;For on-site appointments bill a whole-days rate (8 hours).&#xD;&#xA;Travel expenses (Flight + Hotel) should be paid by contracting party. Add a generous daily allowance for additional expense (food etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some additional questions to ask:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Are you allowed to take compensation for this under your current employment contract?&#xD;&#xA; - Can you in any way be held liable for the findings of your review? Do you need insurance for this?&#xD;&#xA; - Do you need special visa etc. when you get compensated for your trip? &#xD;&#xA; - How to invoice, taxes involved?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19931" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7353" RevisionGUID="99ac4873-5fec-45e5-898e-a1d253852718" CreationDate="2018-02-14T13:09:04.720" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19932" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7555" RevisionGUID="835e1460-96bd-4281-8fec-67cc6a3d978e" CreationDate="2018-02-15T09:25:26.607" UserId="19374" Text="In my experience, setting realistic expectations is just as important when establishing a relationship with a client as anything. Any additional work tends to come as a surprise to the client. I find it helpful when providing estimates to also include some form of a caveat to account for unexpected work/setup/etc. This unexpected work can be billed hourly or the quote can include x hours/money to account for unexpected work. It is important that this is communicated to the client and done honestly. If you pad other tasks to account for the extra time spent, you risk losing the client's trust and you are reinforcing unrealistic expectations for how long tasks really take to complete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being said, if there is no agreement, contract, or wording in the quote that would account for unexpected tasks, then you don't have much leverage in this situation other than trying to make the client understand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this case, I would communicate how much work was required to set up the environment and why it took so long. I would bill the client for the work since it is work. If they refuse to pay, it might be a foreshadowing of unpaid invoices and disrespect for your time to come. If the work must go unpaid and you intend to keep the client, make sure you come to an agreement on how such cases should be compensated going forward." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19939" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7557" RevisionGUID="a1faef7c-e55e-4095-af9b-0f0f24beaf7e" CreationDate="2018-02-16T17:52:08.847" UserId="19385" Text="I have been working a supposedly 6-month Contract-to-Hire C2H position on W2 for an agency for about 8 months now. Coming into the position having previously been a full-time permanent position with a smaller company was a risk for me but I was promised many exciting things and a bigger company, some of which turns out to have been BS.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have received great feedback from my peers and leadership relating to my performance, but have not received any offer to convert to a FTE. I have been told on more than one occasion it'll be happening in weeks, but after months of waiting, nothing has changed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While this is a frustration, I am left in something of a limbo as the contract I have with the agency has no end date. It reads like I am a permanent employee. Relating to Term and Termination, the contract states &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;The term of this Agreement will begin on the Effective Date, and will&#xD;&#xA;&gt; terminate when either the Employee or the Company terminates the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; employment relationship (the “Term”).&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It feels like I am not getting the benefits of contracting or the benefits of being an FTE. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So - what are my options here?** Can I reasonably request a definitive end date to the contract-to-hire from the agency? Should I request more money from them as a stop gap until the company pull their finger out and hire me? Is it advisable to get a permanent job offer in an attempt to force an offer from this company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what I understand of others who have been in this position, it is typical for an end date to be included in the contract, at which point a decision is made to hire full time or to pass." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19940" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7557" RevisionGUID="a1faef7c-e55e-4095-af9b-0f0f24beaf7e" CreationDate="2018-02-16T17:52:08.847" UserId="19385" Text="Contract-to-hire with no end date" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19941" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7557" RevisionGUID="a1faef7c-e55e-4095-af9b-0f0f24beaf7e" CreationDate="2018-02-16T17:52:08.847" UserId="19385" Text="|contracts|contract-to-hire|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19942" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7558" RevisionGUID="df760409-13e4-4a8b-b0ac-529a4d4e4ca1" CreationDate="2018-02-16T19:07:37.467" UserId="19386" Text="This happened to me, almost exactly word-for-word. I signed a contract for a contract-to-hire and was given an estimate that my hire to FT would be about two months away. Well, months came and went, and more vague promises, all while being reassured that they had every intention of bringing me on FT. Then the project work stopped being consistent and reliable. Then the invoices started being paid later and later until finally, they told me they weren't going to be able to pay anymore. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There were a lot more issues with this particular company. They asked a lot from me that were unreasonable or unlawful, as I was a contractor, not a employee (had to attend daily dev standup in person at the office, that sort of thing). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending on your work situation, you can give an ultimatum - you've had months of observation of this trend so you have no reason to believe that will change if you let it go. It won't stop happening until someone does something; they're not going to be that person, so hop on it yourself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can ask them for a date by which they will hire you. If they refuse, remind them that you are a free agent and are (presumably) able to find more work at another company who will commit. I am in software development so I was able to find a FT job the week after I ended my contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Oh, and start keeping documentation of EVERYTHING. Every email, every meeting (take notes), every conversation. You won't regret having evidence." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19947" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7560" RevisionGUID="2c2ebea0-e3f1-4916-b5f3-39da3abe4c28" CreationDate="2018-02-17T23:14:44.787" UserId="14455" Text="Of course the answer to this depends on your terms and conditions. End of service comes when they pay the final invoice, but that of course depends on your payment schedule. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Closing Interview.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All you are doing here is giving them a chance to think of new things to add, problems for you to solve or issues that might otherwise not have been mentioned. You will definitely leave with a new todo list of fixes, otherwise the managers you are speaking to will feel they have not done their part.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Writing a document**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All you are doing here is giving them material to question you, as well as spending time writing a document that may well be out of date before it is ever used. Never put anything in writing unless you are being paid to do it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Training as part of handover**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All you are doing here is offering training you have not been paid to do. Their analytics, logging into accounts etc is something you put in an email informally to whoever is actually going to need it. Not as part of a handover.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Post service questionnaire.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only reason for this is to secure more work. People generally do not want to fill them in, will write or tick anything they think of immediately with no thought, and generally you are asking for criticism you probably don't deserve. Why give them food for thought about how you could have done something better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What I would do:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your terms and conditions you offer 30 days post launch support and bug fixing. If they do not ask for something, you do not provide it. You launch the site, give them the admin access, get your final invoice in, and sit back and wait. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After 30 days, you contact the decision maker and ask for a testimonial, or even better, write one yourself and ask them if it is ok with him/her if you use it. Often the decision maker does not have time to write these things, and will often agree to whatever you write. &quot;We had a problem with our old site that the new site has fixed. We love the design and look forward to lots of success with it in the future, a big thank you to our designer and developer&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After 60 days (or sooner if post your 30 days support you get bug fixes or new feature requests) approach them with an ongoing monthly payment for website support. Here you can add in things like training on analytics, account security, administering the admin users, bug fixes, enhancements etc etc. Whatever you can think of where you add value without too much of your time. These support contracts soon become your bread and butter, and are so valuable that your actual website development and build costs are driven down in an attempt to get more of these support contracts up and running. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But initially, get the site live ASAP, get your final bill paid, and do not give your customer any opportunities to list more and more (often trivial things like &quot;I am not sure we quite like the blue you have used&quot;) tasks for you to do before they hand over the cash.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, you should have had a 'Schedule of Work'. If they ask for anything not on that, make sure you give them a quote for it before doing it. They should be paying for your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Paul.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19949" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="61ed6b4b-f9dc-48b4-8775-40af57d7d8c0" CreationDate="2018-02-18T07:32:19.757" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19950" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7561" RevisionGUID="dcf9d302-497e-4c25-8ea5-345738976526" CreationDate="2018-02-18T09:58:02.373" UserId="19397" Text="The title may not be the best thing to describe my question and I apologize for that&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a client with a project that is basically a private social network, the project is aimed at a certain family and it will have calendar, events, phone book, family tree and some statistics&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have used various websites to find an experienced freelancer to do my project and I happen to come across this company whom showed me some really nice results&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We made a contract outside of the website, listing all of the project's features, how it should work, and the milestones. We came to agree to have an upfront payment of 15% from the total amount, then after each milestone is approved we pay the amount agreed for that milestone. The contract was signed and scanned then sent back to us.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project was supposed to take four months, but it ended up taking over eight months, and before receiving the work of the second milestone, the freelancer demanded the payment before sharing the work with us. Obviously that is not following our contract and I mentioned it to the freelancer, but they simply replied with &quot;Our management does not approve of your contract&quot; and I ended up paying for absolutely nothing in return&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While that experience was very bad, my manager was to try again but I am not sure how to be able to avoid such incidents with freelancers. I understand that not all freelancers are the same, but I do not was to be paying for something that I am not going to receive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be the best way to ensure that this does not happen again? a contract through a lawyer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19951" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7561" RevisionGUID="dcf9d302-497e-4c25-8ea5-345738976526" CreationDate="2018-02-18T09:58:02.373" UserId="19397" Text="Being safe as a client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19952" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7561" RevisionGUID="dcf9d302-497e-4c25-8ea5-345738976526" CreationDate="2018-02-18T09:58:02.373" UserId="19397" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19953" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7562" RevisionGUID="9e855cd6-160f-4d7e-9903-5da38619bf9f" CreationDate="2018-02-18T16:23:35.583" UserId="708" Text="Yes a legal team or advice will help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your contract with the freelancer you describe was *never* signed and returned to you... it's really your folly for proceeding with **anything**. There's no &quot;agreement&quot; without signatures from **all** parties involved. Note that's only if all parties *can* be bound by the contract terms or punitive measure in the contract *can* be pursued.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best way to protect yourself is to only hire freelancers *within your own country*, have a *contract* and **never** agree to any work being done or any payment being made until the contract is **signed** and returned. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By only hiring within your country, everyone involved will be bound by the *same laws* and, if necessary, contract disputes can be handled far more efficiently. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One of the biggest mistakes I've seen be made is to hire a foreign developer, pay them a bunch of money, then have absolutely zero recourse when they fail to deliver merely due to international laws or the financial burden inflicted by pursuing them. This is a *big* reason many United States clients only work with freelancers in the US. It has *nothing* to do with skill or ability, it's about being protected at least in some way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19954" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7562" RevisionGUID="a56d085c-0da6-4b52-b982-c32506d64cb1" CreationDate="2018-02-18T16:29:14.653" UserId="708" Comment="added 394 characters in body" Text="Yes a legal team or advice will help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your contract with the freelancer you describe was *never* signed and returned to you... it's really your folly for proceeding with **anything**. There's no &quot;agreement&quot; without signatures from **all** parties involved. Note that's only if all parties *can* be bound by the contract terms or punitive measure in the contract *can* be pursued.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best way to protect yourself is to only hire freelancers *within your own country*, have a *contract* and **never** agree to any work being done or any payment being made until the contract is **signed** and returned. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By only hiring within your country, everyone involved will be bound by the *same laws* and, if necessary, contract disputes can be handled far more efficiently. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One of the biggest mistakes I've seen be made is to hire a foreign developer, pay them a bunch of money, then have absolutely zero recourse when they fail to deliver merely due to international laws or the financial burden inflicted by pursuing them. This is a *big* reason many United States clients only work with freelancers in the US. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All this has *nothing* to do with skill or ability, it's about being protected at least in some way. There are thousands of *great* freelancers all over the world who are not only good at their jobs, but are absolutely ethical and upstanding. I am **in no way** trying to disparage or denigrate *any* freelancer from *any* country/region. However, when considering self-protection, it's often impossible to enforce any contract over international borders unless you have some well-experienced international legal team to turn to. *That* is the primary issue." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19955" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7563" RevisionGUID="8027637b-00b4-4321-966e-7cbf1b782434" CreationDate="2018-02-18T18:25:40.397" UserId="17155" Text="I want to open a &quot;micro-entreprise&quot;, which in France is the only status for freelancers. Until the last year, the &quot;auto-entrepreneur&quot; status was the best one to be freelance but it had been fused with the &quot;micro-entreprise&quot; status. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am searching for information about this status, because it's a new one, there is not precise data for it on Internet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have yourself opened a &quot;micro-entreprise&quot;, could you explain me what you had to do to open it? In French, I also opened [a topic on developpez.net](https://www.developpez.net/forums/d1816349/emploi-etudes-informatique/emploi/juridique/auto-entreprenariat-devient-micro-entreprise-commencer) forum.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19956" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7563" RevisionGUID="8027637b-00b4-4321-966e-7cbf1b782434" CreationDate="2018-02-18T18:25:40.397" UserId="17155" Text="Being Freelance in France" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19957" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7563" RevisionGUID="8027637b-00b4-4321-966e-7cbf1b782434" CreationDate="2018-02-18T18:25:40.397" UserId="17155" Text="|france|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19958" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7564" RevisionGUID="77bd71fe-05ab-489a-9b9d-a3a4a643b79d" CreationDate="2018-02-19T00:05:55.687" UserId="19401" Text="I'm about to start work on a small client project and I'm not sure where to host the source code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems silly to suggest to them to create a private Github repo on the paid tier, since it's a project of such a small scale.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been thinking of hosting the code as a private repo on my own personal Github account. The idea seems wrong right off the bat, so I wanted to hear your opinion on the matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also - gitlab/bitbucket are out of the question because of the continuous deployment I have set up for my hosting." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19959" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7564" RevisionGUID="77bd71fe-05ab-489a-9b9d-a3a4a643b79d" CreationDate="2018-02-19T00:05:55.687" UserId="19401" Text="Where to host source code for a small client project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19960" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7564" RevisionGUID="77bd71fe-05ab-489a-9b9d-a3a4a643b79d" CreationDate="2018-02-19T00:05:55.687" UserId="19401" Text="|web-development|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19965" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7567" RevisionGUID="510e5564-36cb-416d-b29c-84cf5e568dce" CreationDate="2018-02-19T08:53:35.110" UserId="7858" Text="Many factors could be considered:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be most practical for the client? How IT-savvy are they? If they have zero IT people employed, perhaps delivering the code on a USB-stick is preferable. If they do have other IT - or perhaps could benefit from having multiple repositiories at Github, that could be a more modern option. In addition, it would easilier enable remote work - which may or may not be relevant.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be in line with your ambitions towards the client? If this is a one-time solution and you don't expect further income, perhaps the USB-stick is fine. If more projects are forthcoming, setting up a client-owned infrastructure for that seems reasonable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is off course also the 'protectionist' angle, where a freelancer seeks to prevent the client from employing another freelancer. In that case, using your own Github account would be the way to go. In time, the client might feel held at ransom by you - so that approach is usually at best short-sighted.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19970" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7569" RevisionGUID="08bd6e67-33a9-42a3-a630-649b9433afb5" CreationDate="2018-02-20T09:53:00.477" UserId="7858" Text="In addition to using freelancers from your own jurisdiction, one can also seek to minimize risk by NOT engaging in a '100% deliver everything' fixed-price contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even though (upper) management understandably prefers having a fixed price, it very often turns out to be an illusion. The freelancer seeks to minimize their risk by padding estimates considerably and the client by staging payments - but in the end it often ends with lengthy arguments over what is covered by the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The alternative is a 'pay as you go' contract where the freelancer is paid for their time. This approach requires that you as a client are able to maintain a short feedback loop and run the project so you at any time can back out and have at least a partial solution for which you have paid a reasonable price. If all goes well, the whole solution will be delivered - but if you need to jump ship, it will be possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To management, 'pay as you go' often sounds like a potentially endless waste of money - but the fact that all time costs money actually drives the project forward - or gets it cancelled. 'Fixed price' runs a larger risk of going into a long non-productive stalemate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An added bonus with 'pay as you go' is often less late-project-arguing over what constitutes a bug (that must be fixed for free) and a not-free change request. In fixed-price projects, clients understandably attempt to extract as much 'free' work from the freelancer, often leading to a deterioration of the relationship." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19974" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7571" RevisionGUID="c5c2d1c9-b4d8-4755-a97e-7a4fa408be33" CreationDate="2018-02-21T06:23:59.000" UserId="19418" Text="I am new to Freelancer and recently placed a bid for one project. Project owner is asking for me to pay the deposit before work is started. They said it is refundable amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it safe to do so?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regards&#xD;&#xA;Ashwani Shrivastava" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19975" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7571" RevisionGUID="c5c2d1c9-b4d8-4755-a97e-7a4fa408be33" CreationDate="2018-02-21T06:23:59.000" UserId="19418" Text="Project owner is asking for refundable deposit" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19976" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7571" RevisionGUID="c5c2d1c9-b4d8-4755-a97e-7a4fa408be33" CreationDate="2018-02-21T06:23:59.000" UserId="19418" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19977" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7572" RevisionGUID="040d4bab-1ec4-4313-9f6a-a1f74437ddf3" CreationDate="2018-02-21T07:30:54.227" UserId="7858" Text="Without knowing the customs in all countries, on the face of it - this sounds fishy. What is their argument for wanting you to deposit money before working? I cannot even make up a legitimate reason. YOU are the freelancer, so the cash should generally flow from the client to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It should actually be the other way around; you perform or deliver no work before some payment has been secured.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do not be appeased by the term 'refundable'; once you have paid money, it can be impossible to get back. Non-payment is a very common weapon used against (inexperienced) freelancers; do everything you can to prevent this from happening to yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there is a legitimate reason and you decide to go along, you must ensure that the deposit is placed at a verifiably independant third party - and that a contract states when money is refunded." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19978" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7573" RevisionGUID="28e671ed-ea35-444b-be15-2994460b1599" CreationDate="2018-02-21T07:57:01.727" UserId="708" Text="If you are performing the work and they are hiring you, there's **no reason on Earth** you should be paying them **anything** for *any* reason." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19979" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7574" RevisionGUID="ef53a838-74a6-48bc-888a-6b0cb2314fec" CreationDate="2018-02-21T08:28:52.603" UserId="19419" Text="First of all, ask this question from yourself. why they need money?&#xD;&#xA;you are doing something for them so they have to pay the money. in the worst situation, they can pay after finishing the project. &#xD;&#xA;by the way, I highly recommend you, always take some money as a deposit (or any other name) in advance before you start to work. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19980" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7575" RevisionGUID="1810d454-b452-4f2f-876a-0d33f4161330" CreationDate="2018-02-21T11:36:33.640" UserId="517" Text="If you want to be a freelancer, then learn to use Google. There are similar stories for the past 10  months, maybe a year where silly freelancers were conned to pay something to start work. all of them were scammed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes there were asking for the costs of the work permit, other times something else. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But in order to do any freelancer work, you will NOT be ask to pay ANYTHING in advance. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19982" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7576" RevisionGUID="147a4dd8-f5d8-4575-8c71-a9e88a1fd84d" CreationDate="2018-02-22T00:50:25.607" UserId="19425" Text="For small projects maybe VisualStudioOnline is worth considering. It's free up to 5 users, gives private repos, wiki, task management and basic CI/CD.&#xD;&#xA;Maybe UI and capabilities aren't equal to Github's, but it's free." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19984" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7577" RevisionGUID="51163d1d-7ee5-4ae2-a559-fc329085e085" CreationDate="2018-02-22T07:43:46.663" UserId="19427" Text="So, I recently finished a job with a friend who runs a business through his Sole Proprietorship (sp), and the sp is in his name (we both live in Pennsylvania). The job cost $6000 total, which we split two ways, 3000 a piece.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He wants my social security number and address so he can claim me on his taxes as an employee. Does that sound right? I just want to make sure I'm not giving out my social if not needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, how do I claim him on my taxes and do I need his social as well in order to do so, or can I just list him as a sole proprietorship or something?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19985" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7577" RevisionGUID="51163d1d-7ee5-4ae2-a559-fc329085e085" CreationDate="2018-02-22T07:43:46.663" UserId="19427" Text="I did some freelance work for someone who is a sole proprietor, how do I report on my taxes?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19986" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7577" RevisionGUID="51163d1d-7ee5-4ae2-a559-fc329085e085" CreationDate="2018-02-22T07:43:46.663" UserId="19427" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19987" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7578" RevisionGUID="46aea93a-2756-46b7-98e7-beadd1db92da" CreationDate="2018-02-22T08:17:38.100" UserId="708" Text="(Assumed United States Jurisdiction)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client made the check out to him, then he paid you half. He would need your SSN or EIN (Tax ID) to show the payment on his taxes to you as a 1099 payout. If he were to *not* do this, it would appear he made the entire $6k and would owe tax on all of it. He's correct in wanting to claim the payout to you to decrease his tax liability. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You would need his SSN/EIN to show where your $3k came from. If *he* cut you a check, he paid you. The client did *not* pay you. He actually should issue you a 1099 form with his information on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he's claiming you as an &quot;employee&quot; then he needs to issue a W2 to you for your taxes. And he's also on the hook for Unemployment, social security, etc, surrounding your employment position. It's doubtful he wants to claim you as an &quot;employee&quot;. I suspect either you used that word incorrectly or he did.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you both received money from the client, then you would both file taxes independently on the funds using the client's tax ID as an identifier of the income source.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As with all matters regarding taxes, you really should speak to a *tax professional*. While other freelancers may have some experience with similar matters, only *tax professionals* will be in a position to provide direct advice. I am *not* a tax professional." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19989" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7506" RevisionGUID="ccb862d1-b038-4732-9f48-669a3e824a7d" CreationDate="2018-02-22T16:15:28.503" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19990" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7580" RevisionGUID="5f8e5c90-7db5-4b66-9165-af258f15689e" CreationDate="2018-02-22T18:10:42.013" UserId="19433" Text="If you were paid in 2017, he is required to issue a 1099-MISC (or W-2 if he's treating you as an employee, but this is unlikely) to you by January 31, 2018. This will include his EIN/SSN which you will put on your taxes. Until then you should not need his information, he just needs your SSN so he can report the payment to the IRS.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are required to pay estimated taxes for your income at least quarterly. For income between January 1 and March 31, 2018, for example, the due date is April 17, 2018. If you owe too much in taxes when you file your tax return next year you will be charged a fee. Then you will include the information from the 1099 he sends you on your tax return next year, and you will also list the estimate taxes you paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(I'm making some assumptions here about the work, but it should apply.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19991" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7581" RevisionGUID="852dcb8e-97bf-45b3-b747-a516aeafffe8" CreationDate="2018-02-23T05:23:02.583" UserId="17808" Text="My personal preference is to create a new project on Google Cloud and use their source control.  Free for up to 5 projects a month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://cloud.google.com/source-repositories/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19993" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6928" RevisionGUID="e33afa52-c874-43e5-aab2-dc7f437dde21" CreationDate="2018-02-23T21:26:33.960" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="19996" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7583" RevisionGUID="b2e2a70b-e32a-4671-9a1a-8d73344759f7" CreationDate="2018-02-24T20:21:13.770" UserId="19446" Text="No, it is not safe and is not at all advisable since those will have your personal information + some means of payment... As far as I know, no country can demand a &quot;benevolently&quot; handed money to be refunded... Don't do it!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19999" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7099" RevisionGUID="55670b32-c7e7-444a-992c-7bc384df2954" CreationDate="2018-02-24T20:40:57.047" UserId="61" Comment="fixed a paragraph formatting" Text="I agreed with the last poster mdomans. The first thing you must do is specifically identify and **document** that which you consider to be covered by your first contract, and that which you consider to be extra work beyond your original agreement. This is crucial so you know exactly what it is you feel you are owed or may be losing, beyond a general sense of &quot;hey, I'm working more hours than I was supposed to be on this deal.&quot; If possible, it may help to put an actual dollar figure on the extra work if that can be calculated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Once you have the two separated and documented, you'll have a better and clearer idea of what it is you're actually talking about, how much you believe you are owed, or how much you may have cheated yourself out of. It may turn out that upon documenting it, it isn't as much as you believed it to be. However, if after separating and documenting you realize that you have cheated yourself out of just an unacceptable amount of time or money create an invoice. In the invoice include the documentation showing what you believe is beyond the scope of the first agreement, detailing hours, skills utilized beyond any covered by the first agreement, and exactly how you arrived at the &quot;extra&quot; number. Then simply send the client the documentation and invoice for the extra work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It could be that the client is also aware of the fact that you have done an extraordinarily amount of work beyond the scope of your original agreement, and will take no issue with paying the extra cost for the extra services. For example, if they have requested for just an unreasonable or inordinate amount of changes and work-arounds, making the job a &quot;custom&quot; job rather than your &quot;standard&quot; services or job. Then the client should be reasonable and understand if not accept the fact that this is not what you've agreed to in the first agreement.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It could be that it is as you fear, and the client may say, &quot;Well, I didn't agree to that, so I am not paying that.&quot; At which point, you can decide to either finish out the contract, but doing only that which you believe or can legally document to be a part of the first agreement. If the client wishes to have extra services, then it is only fair that they pay extra money. If they have an issue with that, they may turn out to be the sort of people you do not want to do business with after all. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While some may say this approach to be jarring to the client. However, this plan of action is legal, to the point, is the quickest way to both draw a line in the sand, as well as making sure the practice gets nipped in the bud asap. If you play it out in your head, almost any other scenario ends up with you just having to not only forfeit the extra work you've already done, but then being the clients whipping boy for the remainder of the contract. If you think you feel cheated now, imagine how you'll feel having to continue finishing out the contract having to continue to do all that free extra work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; At the very least, the path I have laid out opens the door for not having to continue to do extra work for free going forward. This is because after fully explaining to the client exactly what you believe to be covered by your original agreement, and that which you wish to incorporate into a new agreement, if the client is completely unreasonable you have a fall back position. The fall back position is to tell the client, &quot;Well, I will finish out my obligation to you, but only my obligation. Going forward any extra services, will unfortunately require extra charges to you. The reason being I simply can no longer sustain the continued extra demands on my time and energies, without being compensated for that extra time and demands you are requesting from me.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Please update this blog when you get a chance, and let all know what you ended up doing, and how it turns out for you. Good luck.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20000" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7409" RevisionGUID="10f0f65c-9e2a-42e6-b04c-3d802e882268" CreationDate="2018-02-24T20:45:45.183" UserId="61" Comment="fixed formatting of links" Text="As a non-EU student you can work &quot;120 days or 240 half days per year.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;([source](https://www.haw-hamburg.de/english/international-degree-students/visa-legal-questions/working-in-germany.html))&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're a German citizen concerned with compliance, consider asking the freelancer to incorporate as a business in the US as you would then have a business to business transaction.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Nevada Secretary of State: Form a Nevada or Register a Foreign (Non-Nevada) Limited-liability Company](http://nvsos.gov/sos/businesses/start-a-business/limited-liability-company)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20001" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7571" RevisionGUID="6f46880a-ad85-486c-aded-2d3c109554a1" CreationDate="2018-02-24T20:54:14.943" UserId="61" Comment="removed a signature" Text="I am new to freelancing and recently placed a bid for one project. Project owner is asking for me to pay the deposit before work is started. They said it is refundable amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it safe to do so?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20008" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7139" RevisionGUID="f60e57ec-0b27-4bbc-938d-c85b8c54b0c7" CreationDate="2018-02-25T14:41:21.440" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20011" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7587" RevisionGUID="eb8a8ffe-af2d-41c7-8156-118905e95bee" CreationDate="2018-02-26T13:31:00.463" UserId="18448" Text="Micro-entreprise is only a new fuzzy word for auto-entrepreneur. There is no difference, and it is habitually used to refer as the tax regime for this type of entrepreneurs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To open one, you should simply consider doing your demand on the official website https://www.lautoentrepreneur.fr/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What to know about the status : &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- You can have the [ACCRE][1], giving you degressive exoneration of taxes in the span of 3 years (only if you meet certains conditions)&#xD;&#xA;- The tax floor has changed in 2018, it has pretty doubled for all types of enterprise, see [here][2]. The mere change is that you can now have TVA payments if you exceed some tax thresold&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F11677&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.auto-entrepreneur.fr/statut-auto-entrepreneur/limites/plafonds.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20012" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7587" RevisionGUID="4b9b9003-7ca7-4c82-bd13-acb4165bb769" CreationDate="2018-02-26T13:41:03.553" UserId="18448" Comment="added 238 characters in body" Text="Micro-entreprise is only a new fuzzy word for auto-entrepreneur. There is no difference, and it is habitually used to refer as the tax regime for this type of entrepreneurs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To open one, you should simply consider doing your demand on the official website https://www.lautoentrepreneur.fr/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What to know about the status : &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- You can have the [ACCRE][1], giving you degressive exoneration of taxes in the span of 3 years (only if you meet certains conditions)&#xD;&#xA;- The tax floor has changed in 2018, it has pretty doubled for all types of enterprise, see [here][2]. The mere change is that you can now have collecting and disbursment of TVA if you exceed some revenues thresold&#xD;&#xA;- You have to open a bank account [separated from your personal one][3], but it don't have to be a professional one&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F11677&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.auto-entrepreneur.fr/statut-auto-entrepreneur/limites/plafonds.html&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCodeArticle.do?idArticle=LEGIARTI000029959650&amp;cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006073189&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Globally, it is pretty easy to handle the administratives task of an `auto-entreprise` because you don't have to make an accounting. But as this changed in 2018 with the doubling up of the turnover, if you now exceed 32 270€, you have to pay the TVA and thus make some accounting things that makes the things a bit harder." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20013" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7588" RevisionGUID="5f4fe250-e3ad-4fc6-af71-465620fd458c" CreationDate="2018-02-26T16:45:36.157" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="It's absolutely the converse, they should make the deposit!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of the freelancing sites propose an escrow policy such that you are guaranteed to be paid if you've done the work. In case of problems, the litigation is between the customer and the site, not you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20014" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7589" RevisionGUID="06acbcd7-3216-41ad-b6b0-941caa0ad78d" CreationDate="2018-02-26T18:41:37.543" UserId="15440" Text="I am a certified martial arts instructor, and I have been working towards opening a sideline business doing self defense seminars targeted at a mainly female population.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To this, I attended a training/certification seminar in July of last year (2017), and a similar certification in early February this year (2018). I have a target &quot;open&quot; date of April 1 this year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I know that mileage driving to/fro and items like that are deductible, as are training costs to keep current. What I don't know, is if I took the seminars with the intent of starting this business, are they still able to be written off as training expenses? Or can those only be after the actual open date of the business?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20015" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7589" RevisionGUID="06acbcd7-3216-41ad-b6b0-941caa0ad78d" CreationDate="2018-02-26T18:41:37.543" UserId="15440" Text="Is there a time limit for assigning cost of training as a business expense?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20016" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7589" RevisionGUID="06acbcd7-3216-41ad-b6b0-941caa0ad78d" CreationDate="2018-02-26T18:41:37.543" UserId="15440" Text="|taxes|startups|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20017" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7589" RevisionGUID="e6ffce39-f74a-4801-938f-082529631b9c" CreationDate="2018-02-26T18:42:38.260" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|taxes|startups|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20018" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7589" RevisionGUID="c59dd96a-679c-4aab-947f-e4312338efbf" CreationDate="2018-02-26T18:43:59.517" UserId="15440" Comment="added 38 characters in body" Text="I am a certified martial arts instructor, and I have been working towards opening a sideline business doing self defense seminars targeted at a mainly female population, currently based in the United States.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To this, I attended a training/certification seminar in July of last year (2017), and a similar certification in early February this year (2018). I have a target &quot;open&quot; date of April 1 this year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I know that mileage driving to/fro and items like that are deductible, as are training costs to keep current. What I don't know, is if I took the seminars with the intent of starting this business, are they still able to be written off as training expenses? Or can those only be after the actual open date of the business?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20019" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7589" RevisionGUID="c59dd96a-679c-4aab-947f-e4312338efbf" CreationDate="2018-02-26T18:43:59.517" UserId="15440" Comment="added 38 characters in body" Text="|taxes|usa|startups|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20020" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7590" RevisionGUID="80b151be-4d0b-4c4f-96bd-ebc8dacdb108" CreationDate="2018-02-26T20:23:29.607" UserId="708" Text="You **can't** write off business expenses *before* the business entity is formed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think *logically* about what you are asking..... If it were possible to write off education as a business expense for a business which is formed well after the education... every business owner the the US would be writing off any college tuition, even if it took place 20 years prior to any business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the business has been formed, but not officially opened, you *may* be able to write off the training as pre-operational expenses. You'll need to speak to a tax professional experienced in such matters.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key factors are the date the business entity is officially, legally, formed (not when you &quot;thought about it&quot;) and the dates of education/training.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20021" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7591" RevisionGUID="39ab43df-8dd4-471c-90c5-3769aec4cd48" CreationDate="2018-02-27T17:52:15.167" UserId="19456" Text="For future reference: you should **not** sign *any* contract if you are uncomfortable with the terms, no matter what relationship you've previously had with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client provides a contract with no termination T&amp;Cs protecting you, only those protecting them, add your own T&amp;Cs to protect yourself, and initial that addition, send it unsigned back to them and in the accompanying communications **clearly** outline the change you made and *why* you made it. If they agree to that contract change, then you both sign and move on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Contracts *should* be draughted to protect all parties: if it's a one-sided contract and your client refuses to amend it to address your concerns, walk away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As your previous answer noted, without both parties having executed (signed) the contract, it is **not** currently in force, and is therefore unenforceable. You are not bound by it until both parties have a duly executed copy of said contract in their possession.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am **not** a lawyer, this is not competent legal advice: I ***am*** a many-year freelancer and have trod these roads before.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20029" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7594" RevisionGUID="4333b2c5-03e6-4a38-947f-9b53b18cad1b" CreationDate="2018-03-01T15:23:56.117" UserId="17757" Text="As has been said, you can claim that purchase as a business expense.&#xA;But you will have to convert the cost of the purchase from the purchase currency to sterling. And whatever conversion rate you use will have to be used for all purchases in that currency during that tax year: so if you use the rate on the day you made the purchase, you will need to use that even if the rate changes later in the tax year.&#xA;You only have to pay VAT if you’re VAT registered.&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20044" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7600" RevisionGUID="4dc2b161-e947-429e-a589-013038ded6b2" CreationDate="2018-03-02T22:19:25.653" UserId="19139" Text="When doing a portfolio, you want to make sure you get credit for what you have done, and it's very important to not take credit of someone elses work. You need to decide what area or what percentage of what you are showcasing was created by you. You may need to clarify &quot;all images on this website was created by me&quot;, or &quot;all mark up and javascript was written by me&quot; so that people know what you are responsible for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The agency will only be annoyed if you tried to take credit for their/someone elses work.&#xD;&#xA;If you have a contract, check to see what the contract says regarding this area." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20045" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7601" RevisionGUID="1d06ffd1-de3a-402c-b743-c4e21fde28c4" CreationDate="2018-03-02T22:29:19.750" UserId="19139" Text="The person in the comments is right. No one can make this decision for you because we dont know all the details. But try thinking about:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) If you need to travel to a place of work instead of currently working from home, how much time does that use? How much does it cost in transport?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Does the company provide benefits that self employment doesn't? Learning from others, new experience, vacation/holidays, sick pay?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) Which one pays the most if you did the same amount of hours? If you received double money from working self employed and it only cost you 10 more hours than private company - is that important to you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are so many things to consider and different people will answer differently depending on THEIR situation, so you need to figure out what is best for your situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me, I have no kids, and I live alone with my partner who also works crazy hours. If you're looking for an answer, I would say no don't take it, as the money is more important to me than a bit more hours, and I like the other things you get such as pride with building yourself and your company up, one-to-one relationships with clients, etc. Time doesn't bother me because I don't have anyone depending on me. But that's just me. Don't go with my answer just because someone on the internet said they would. What is best for you?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20053" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7527" RevisionGUID="eae551cf-66ca-4610-af00-3e6a6061c1fc" CreationDate="2018-03-05T19:22:30.940" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20058" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7605" RevisionGUID="6b29eb2e-eeb5-486c-a91c-516eb221b1d6" CreationDate="2018-03-07T14:34:24.057" UserId="18927" Text="In the case of needing a certain amount of articles, let's say 50, is it better to ask for an example of how the freelancer would write a single article before awarding the bid or after doing it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask for an example first:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Pros: you see if the style and the way the freelancer writes fits your needs&#xD;&#xA; - Cons: the freelancer is somehow working for free (?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Award bid and then ask for an example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Pros: respects freelancer job, no free samples&#xD;&#xA; - Cons: if you don't like their style or isn't what you need then you may lose money due to having already awarded the project and may incur in some escrow dispute.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is more practical and fairer for both parties?  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20059" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7605" RevisionGUID="6b29eb2e-eeb5-486c-a91c-516eb221b1d6" CreationDate="2018-03-07T14:34:24.057" UserId="18927" Text="Ask for a preview of the job before awarding a bid or after?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20060" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7605" RevisionGUID="6b29eb2e-eeb5-486c-a91c-516eb221b1d6" CreationDate="2018-03-07T14:34:24.057" UserId="18927" Text="|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20063" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7606" RevisionGUID="2f64156f-4b19-4438-8bab-3ddc3e971a7d" CreationDate="2018-03-07T17:56:27.073" UserId="708" Text="Freelancers will have a **portfolio** of past work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Reviewing a portfolio should be enough to give you a sense of style and abilities. All you need to do is request to see their portfolio." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20064" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7607" RevisionGUID="0a53478d-66cc-4e8c-b0ed-b41f11048ae3" CreationDate="2018-03-07T18:01:44.713" UserId="19521" Text="What is the point of asking for a preview after awarding the contract? If you're happy with it, great, continue with the project. If you're unhappy with it, oh well, you're already committed, so continue with the project. I don't see how getting a preview after awarding the bid is anything other than a waste of time, since it won't change how the project progresses." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20065" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7606" RevisionGUID="2e89d69b-a38a-40c1-9f8c-000fc8a4e154" CreationDate="2018-03-07T18:54:54.343" UserId="708" Comment="added 230 characters in body" Text="Freelancers will have a **portfolio** of past work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Reviewing a portfolio should be enough to give you a sense of style and abilities. All you need to do is request to see their portfolio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No one** should ever enter an escrow agreement with the intention of possibly breaching that agreement. It's unethical and could *possibly* constitute fraud to a degree. At the very least it's a crappy thing to do to others." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20066" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7606" RevisionGUID="d0e3b368-3b95-469f-adfe-e98e3bb53391" CreationDate="2018-03-08T03:33:42.883" UserId="708" Comment="added 661 characters in body" Text="Freelancers will have a **portfolio** of past work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The purpose of a portfolio is for the freelancer to be able to show examples of their previous projects/work. They may have a range of styles or methods they are comfortable with and the portfolio should showcases some of their better work in those areas/styles. Freelancers set up portfolios so they don't have to do any &quot;free&quot; work but can still show off their skills to potential clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Reviewing a portfolio should be enough to give you a sense of style and abilities. *All you need to do is request to see their portfolio.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No one** should ever enter an escrow agreement (or ANY contract) with the full intention of breaching that agreement if the mood strikes them. It's unethical and could *possibly* constitute fraud to a degree. At the very least it's a really horrible thing to do to others. Quite honestly, jsut you posting you'd do that would be enough for me to decline ANY work from you. I mean, how do I know you'll pay me ever or randomly decide you don't want to adhere to any payment contract? **Sounds to me like you merely want to take advantage of others.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20067" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7606" RevisionGUID="48396cc7-9689-497b-98f6-9f90c0e1225f" CreationDate="2018-03-08T03:49:43.670" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 66 characters in body" Text="Freelancers will have a **portfolio** of past work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The purpose of a portfolio is for the freelancer to be able to show examples of their previous projects/work. They may have a range of styles or methods they are comfortable with and the portfolio should showcases some of their better work in those areas/styles. Freelancers set up portfolios so they don't have to do any &quot;free&quot; work but can still show off their skills to potential clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Reviewing a portfolio should be enough to give you a sense of style and abilities. *All you need to do is request to see their portfolio.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No one** should ever enter an escrow agreement (or ANY contract) with the full intention of breaching that agreement if the mood strikes them. It's unethical and could *possibly* constitute fraud to a degree. At the very least it's a really horrible thing to do to others. Quite honestly, jsut you posting you'd do that would be enough for me to decline ANY work from you. I mean, how do I know you'll pay me ever or randomly decide you don't want to adhere to any payment contract? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20068" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7606" RevisionGUID="d41df71c-f810-4194-8938-7f86171b81c2" CreationDate="2018-03-08T04:02:07.613" UserId="708" Comment="added 5 characters in body" Text="Freelancers will have a **portfolio** of past work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The purpose of a portfolio is for the freelancer to be able to show examples of their previous projects/work. They may have a range of styles or methods they are comfortable with and the portfolio should showcases some of their better work in those areas/styles. Freelancers set up portfolios so they don't have to do any &quot;free&quot; work but can still show off their skills to potential clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Reviewing a portfolio should be enough to give you a sense of style and abilities. *All you need to do is request to see their portfolio.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No one** should ever enter an escrow agreement (or ANY contract) with the full intention of breaching that agreement if the mood strikes them. It's unethical and could *possibly* constitute fraud to a degree. At the very least it's a really horrible thing to do to others. Quite honestly, you posting you'd do that would be enough for me to decline ANY work from you. I mean, how do I know if you'll ever pay me or merely randomly decide you don't want to adhere to any payment contract? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20069" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7529" RevisionGUID="62915d8e-823d-4be7-922f-45d143f36a5c" CreationDate="2018-03-08T17:36:33.920" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20070" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7606" RevisionGUID="159ad7b7-e3d8-4d2a-965f-f335a5f458a0" CreationDate="2018-03-08T17:46:21.653" UserId="708" Comment="added 50 characters in body" Text="Freelancers will have a **portfolio** of past work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The purpose of a portfolio is for the freelancer to be able to show examples of their previous projects/work. They may have a range of styles or methods they are comfortable with and the portfolio should showcases some of their better work in those areas/styles. Freelancers set up portfolios so they don't have to do any &quot;free&quot; work but can still show off their skills to potential clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Reviewing a portfolio should be enough to give you a sense of style and abilities. *All you need to do is request to see their portfolio.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No one** should ever enter an escrow agreement (or ANY contract) with the full intention of breaching that agreement if the mood strikes them. It's unethical and could *possibly* constitute fraud to a degree. At the very least it's a really horrible thing to do to others. Quite honestly, you posting you'd do that would be enough for me to decline ANY work from you. I mean, how do I know if you'll ever pay me or merely randomly decide you don't want to adhere to any payment contract? You *do* understand what a **contract** is, right?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20071" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7608" RevisionGUID="bd935e50-2e2e-439a-aff8-eb1fd7cc5498" CreationDate="2018-03-09T08:28:04.980" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="State clearly in the contract (or any form of written agreement) what your requirements are.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- content must be delivered on-time, otherwise there is an extra charge for the delay incurred;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- content must be of a prescribed word count, otherwise there is an extra charge for layout adjustment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the second clause, you have to specify the word count early enough (possibly while showing a preview).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20072" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7609" RevisionGUID="52f65591-c0c1-4e2c-afec-8401cebaa90e" CreationDate="2018-03-10T16:35:11.437" UserId="19545" Text="I am a new start-up, I am self-employed (working as an sole proprietor, LLC), for a government agency and they are wanting to give $X for my services of software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I need to figure out how much that that equates to. Normally, I'd just divide X by an hourly rate, but being self-employed, the taxes have me at a loss here. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From the IRS.gov site ... &quot;Self-employed individuals generally must pay self-employment tax (SE tax) as well as income tax. SE tax is a Social Security and Medicare tax primarily for individuals who work for themselves.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I calculate this into the amount being offered? I would like to respond with how many hours at what rate I can do and be able to pay the taxes I am obligated to the state (Tx., no state income tax) as self-employed.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20073" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7609" RevisionGUID="52f65591-c0c1-4e2c-afec-8401cebaa90e" CreationDate="2018-03-10T16:35:11.437" UserId="19545" Text="How to estimate as self-employed for gov't contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20074" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7609" RevisionGUID="52f65591-c0c1-4e2c-afec-8401cebaa90e" CreationDate="2018-03-10T16:35:11.437" UserId="19545" Text="|contracts|taxes|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20075" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7610" RevisionGUID="cd156499-9aa8-40f7-8508-7cc8eb27689d" CreationDate="2018-03-10T18:01:18.593" UserId="708" Text="Taxes are a **percentage** of your income and that percentage **varies** based upon the *amount* of your income. There's **no way** anyone can tell you what you may owe without *specific* figures regarding your income. And even an estimate would entail you sharing at least some past figures. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's always been my thought that if you have to calculate rates to be certain you are covering your taxes, you are charging **WAY** too little. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are factoring your income does to small percentages, you're not making enough money being self-employed. This is along similar lines of ... if you had a full time job and when you factored you monthly budget you had to figure out exactly how many gallons of gas you could afford in a week.... well, that's living on a pretty tight string. You'd need a better job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your rates should *inherently* be providing enough of a profit margin to cover taxes. Most base profit margins are around 20% overhead, but realistically some fields can *easily* charge 100% , 200%, 300% over your overhead. You should have an idea about which overall tax bracket you are in. That can be used as a basis but really you should be charging more than whatever that percentage is. i.e. if you are in a 23% tax bracket... you should be charging more than (overhead+23%) for your hourly rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pricing is a *tricky* matter and no one can really help you with it. There are so many varying factors - overhead, region, skill level, experience, demand, expertise, market demand, competition - that anyone who does provide you hard numbers would merely be **guessing** at best." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20076" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7610" RevisionGUID="899fee53-5fdc-4202-85cb-060cb013a7b7" CreationDate="2018-03-10T18:17:57.130" UserId="708" Comment="edited body" Text="Taxes are a **percentage** of your income and that percentage **varies** based upon the *amount* of your income. There's **no way** anyone can tell you what you may owe without *specific* figures regarding your income. And even an estimate would entail you sharing at least some past figures. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's always been my thought that if you have to calculate rates to be certain you are covering your taxes, you are charging **WAY** too little. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are factoring your income down to small percentages, you're not making enough money being self-employed. This is along similar lines of ... if you had a full time job and when you factored you monthly budget you had to figure out exactly how many gallons of gas you could afford in a week.... well, that's living on a pretty tight string. You'd need a better job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your rates should *inherently* be providing enough of a profit margin to cover taxes. Most base profit margins are around 20% overhead, but realistically some fields can *easily* charge 100% , 200%, 300% over your overhead. You should have an idea about which overall tax bracket you are in. That can be used as a basis but really you should be charging more than whatever that percentage is. i.e. if you are in a 23% tax bracket... you should be charging more than (overhead+23%) for your hourly rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pricing is a *tricky* matter and no one can really help you with it. There are so many varying factors - overhead, region, skill level, experience, demand, expertise, market demand, competition - that anyone who does provide you hard numbers would merely be **guessing** at best.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would also point out that a &quot;sole proprietorship&quot; and an &quot;LLC&quot; are two **different** business entities. The terms are not universally interchangeable. There are tax and financial requirement differences (especially as an LLC). You may be a &quot;Single member LLC&quot; which operates very similar to a sole proprietorship, but that does **not** make you a sole proprietorship in the eyes of the law (IRS). You simply can *not* be both a sole proprietorship AND an LLC. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20077" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7611" RevisionGUID="b13844c5-ae42-431d-aa76-c94d67fe97e2" CreationDate="2018-03-11T21:39:00.373" UserId="17939" Text="The short answer is if they are offering you $X, you need to factor in a lot of different taxes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Withholding - depends upon how much after expenses you can pay yourself. I generally figure 25%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are also responsible for both ends of Social Security (12.4%) and Medicare (2.9%) which equates to 15.3% (2018) at the very least. So you should factor in about 40% for taxes (which makes me sick to think about). Because you can expense a lot as your own business, that figure &quot;may&quot; come down quite a bit depending upon your circumstances.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another way to look at $X is from the perspective of what a salaried employee would get.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition to taxes you will also want to factor in your overhead in running your own business, i.e. doing your own paperwork or hiring it out, making your own sales calls, handling your own contracts, etc. It takes a lot of personal time that nobody pays you for. As a developer myself, I look at what a regular salaried employee might get paid for the same job, add 25% for benefits, then add 50% on top of that. For a bid like you mentioned, something like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;X$/hr&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Benefits for salaried employee (25%) - makes it .80X$/hr (X / 1.25)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Extra taxes (~10%) - makes it .73X$/hr&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other overhead (~30%) - makes it somewhere in the neighborhood of .56X$/hr&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So by that calculus your &quot;take&quot; will be a little better than half what a salaried employee would get being paid the same amount. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should be able, with sites like glassdoor, to get a decent read on what the market will pay for your services. Pricing is tricky, though, but I have found government agencies tend to be pretty realistic and pay pretty well. All the companies that have lowballed me to the point of walking away have been private companies sadly. Good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20078" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7612" RevisionGUID="26f1fda6-710e-4949-b238-c358a048a918" CreationDate="2018-03-12T02:04:05.127" UserId="19550" Text="My name is Stan, I am web designer based in Canada. I have got some issues with one of my clients recently that make me really upset. The client is threatening me and trying to sue me because I am not doing the work we have not agreed on. I can tell you the whole story here in order to get the full understanding of how it all began.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First of all, I signed a contract with one client several months ago to help him to improve the project he was working on. We have agreed that I will make a logotype for him, make a re-design of his website in Photoshop (about 10 pages of design), and make a couple banners that will be included in Photoshop design, and finally, as the last milestone we had a &quot;CSS minification and JQuery bug fixing&quot; which means that I have to clean up the CSS coding file to make it more readable and usable for the future; and the JQuery bug fixing had to be done on one of the pages on his existing website. Those were all the milestones we've agreed on during the initial stages of the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After I have done all the work relative to logo design and website design in Photoshop along with banners, the client decided to take a different path. The client is now asking me to develop 10+ pages of the design I've done in Photoshop along with &quot;CSS minification and JQuery bug fixing&quot;. The development of 10+ pages was not part of the contract as we've agreed that I will improve the design of the website and will help him with a couple issues with CSS and JQuery. That's it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now, the client threatens me that he will get me to the court if I don't develop the pages we have not agreed on. I have all the messages related to the project and the messages with him telling that I will &quot;get hurt&quot; and that I am &quot;acting like a fool&quot;, etc. There is a full history of messages that can tell you a whole story about this project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Moreover, the client also decided to reorganize the milestones by himself in order to get what he wants, but the initial milestones and agreement tell a completely different story in terms of requirements. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like you to help me to resolve this issue as soon as it is possible as the client is trying to sue me and he is threatening me with telling me that I will &quot;get hurt&quot;! By the way, do you think I should end the contract or wait until we resolve this issue? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To conclude, I am ready to deliver the last milestone with &quot;CSS minification and JQuery bug fixing&quot; that was initially set as one of the milestones. However, I am not ready to do the work we've not agreed on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you for support,&#xD;&#xA;Stan.&#xD;&#xA;[![enter image description here][1]][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/whLHU.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20079" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7612" RevisionGUID="26f1fda6-710e-4949-b238-c358a048a918" CreationDate="2018-03-12T02:04:05.127" UserId="19550" Text="Upwork client is trying to sue me and threatening as well. What to do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20080" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7612" RevisionGUID="26f1fda6-710e-4949-b238-c358a048a918" CreationDate="2018-03-12T02:04:05.127" UserId="19550" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20083" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7613" RevisionGUID="abe6a648-580a-4556-8718-8a6fc9c81b9e" CreationDate="2018-03-12T10:17:06.250" UserId="7858" Text="Bad clients usually threaten all sorts of action, but rarely follow through. No one should go to court over USD 150 - and they should have better things to do than character assassinate you on Upwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems you have secured adequate documentation of the chain of events - which is good. All you can do is maintain your professionalism throughout. What the client does is out of your control.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your preferred course of action very much depends on whether you have been satisfactorily paid for your services up till now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is the case, inform the client that you have upheld your side of the agreement and send them all the deliverables. Ideally, this will end the matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you still have money on the line, navigating this issue becomes more difficult. Do not focus on the threats of lawsuit, as they most probably are empty threats; focus on professionally ending the client relationship in the best possible (or least harmful) way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20084" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7614" RevisionGUID="a5eb66ef-ec1a-4858-91e3-134b290c92b0" CreationDate="2018-03-13T12:37:05.690" UserId="19139" Text="I think he's trying to play Mr. Big Man. Trust me, he doesn't want to go to court either.&#xD;&#xA;You must state that you both agreed the first version of the contract. And you must deliver on that and he pmust pay for that (unless you both agree you can cancel).&#xD;&#xA;If he then changes his mind, that's a new contract. When he changes the scope you must instantly remind them that changing the scope affects the contract.&#xD;&#xA;He might be confused and think what he is now asking for is the same as what's in the contract.&#xD;&#xA;Write to him and explain that you agreed X in the contract, and X involes doing a,b,c tasks. Then explain that he has requested Y, which was not included. And explain that because it takes more time, resources etc, a new time/estimate/price will need to be given, and it's not included in the contract.&#xD;&#xA;You must stress the importance of what you've agreed and outline that what he has asked for is not what you agreed. You must explain this to him like a child.&#xD;&#xA;He should then see he has no leg to stand on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20100" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7619" RevisionGUID="cf5a39af-5f12-4737-bfc4-3d754e3fbcbd" CreationDate="2018-03-15T14:50:10.020" UserId="19582" Text="I have a very specific question about invoicing a company in another EU country. The circumstances are as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I live in country A.&#xD;&#xA; 2. The Company being invoiced resides in country B.&#xD;&#xA; 3. I have a bank account in country B.&#xD;&#xA; 4. I am a part-time employer (employed in country A).&#xD;&#xA; 5. I want to invoice the Company in country's B currency (money would be then transferred to my bank account in country B).&#xD;&#xA; 6. I want to pay taxes related to these invoices in country A.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is that generally accepted pattern / scenario? Does that mean the invoice should include VAT? If so, which country's tax rate should I use?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20101" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7619" RevisionGUID="cf5a39af-5f12-4737-bfc4-3d754e3fbcbd" CreationDate="2018-03-15T14:50:10.020" UserId="19582" Text="Intra-EU freelancer / contractor invoicing rules (taxes)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20102" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7619" RevisionGUID="cf5a39af-5f12-4737-bfc4-3d754e3fbcbd" CreationDate="2018-03-15T14:50:10.020" UserId="19582" Text="|taxes|invoices|eu|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20103" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7620" RevisionGUID="ea614f2d-9555-4edd-973b-b2322b8bc4bc" CreationDate="2018-03-15T17:06:58.743" UserId="11704" Text="I used to do the same thing (Part-time employed in country A, as well as self-employed invoicing other clients in country B in a different currency), so I'll tell you what I did.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Create a **self-employed company in country A**&#xD;&#xA;2. Create a **bank account in country A - with currency of country B**, and link that account to your self-employed company&#xD;&#xA;3. Ask your **Revenue office** (from country A) **to issue you a** **[VIES number][1]**. In this case you'll be allowed to invoice any company in EU, and shouldn't be worried about VAT. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After all that you should pay tax to the Revenue office from country A according to country A regulations. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;  I want to invoice the Company in country's B currency (money would be&#xD;&#xA;&gt; then transferred to my bank account in country B).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as I know that's only possible if you create a self-employed company in country B.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**NOTE** &#xD;&#xA;Please be advised that I'm not an accountant or a lawyer, for a specialized answer contact your local Revenue office.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/vat-customs/check-number-vies/index_en.htm" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20107" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7619" RevisionGUID="12505971-b0d1-4a12-8016-7576eb9d598e" CreationDate="2018-03-15T22:55:23.193" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/974418809774895104" />
  <row Id="20108" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7621" RevisionGUID="2067b283-67d1-4eba-9336-caf409a4db49" CreationDate="2018-03-16T07:42:21.440" UserId="19590" Text="I think in such cases you should probably give your own suggestions right after you tell someone to change their approach, so to speak. Self-confident people tend to be impulsive, that is why you must provide some proofs to assure them in your point. Something like &quot;if you do *that* - you'll have *that*, you don't want to look *that way*&quot; Tell him, you see the website not only as a website developer, but also as a consumer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20109" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7621" RevisionGUID="e3fd65f6-67ce-4113-ae30-f1e4cf859c1d" CreationDate="2018-03-16T07:49:27.570" UserId="19590" Comment="added 9 characters in body" Text="I think in such cases you should probably give your own suggestions right after you tell someone to change their approach, so to speak. Self-confident people tend to be impulsive, that is why you must provide some proofs to assure them in your point. Something like &quot;if you do *that* - you'll have *that*, you don't want to look *that way*, right?&quot; &#xD;&#xA;Tell him you see the website not only as a website developer, but also as a consumer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20110" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7548" RevisionGUID="c3ce7fab-930a-476d-bbbe-92f772bae1c7" CreationDate="2018-03-16T12:05:41.950" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20111" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7622" RevisionGUID="e5588ecc-c51d-467b-85bb-1b7a04490767" CreationDate="2018-03-16T18:53:18.010" UserId="19595" Text="I hope I am in the correct forum for this question.  I checked [All Sites][1] and Freelancing was the closest to the question I had.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have built a Java library, which I am planning to sell.  It will be used as a project's dependency and most users would use it with their build tools such as Maven/Gradle etc.  I wanted to know if somebody is already doing so and what selling model they followed.  I am thinking:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * Per user pricing:  Based on the number of users or developers using the library.  The catch is here, since it will be used as a dependency, the team can purchase a single license and several users can utilize the API?  &#xD;&#xA; * Project based pricing:  Based on the number of projects the library will be used in.  This is probably more straight-forward in this scenario, and assuming the sale is made for 1-5 projects at a fixed cost, it is easier for the end-customer to understand how the installations work.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;To me,  project based pricing seems a little more sensible and easier to understand from the user's perspective.  However, I wanted to see if there are better models out there that the community uses in such scenarios.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://stackexchange.com/sites" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20112" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7622" RevisionGUID="e5588ecc-c51d-467b-85bb-1b7a04490767" CreationDate="2018-03-16T18:53:18.010" UserId="19595" Text="Selling Java library - which pricing model to choose?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20113" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7622" RevisionGUID="e5588ecc-c51d-467b-85bb-1b7a04490767" CreationDate="2018-03-16T18:53:18.010" UserId="19595" Text="|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20114" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7622" RevisionGUID="9956d794-521a-4799-813a-65a30f79ee54" CreationDate="2018-03-16T19:50:56.250" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 191 characters in body" Text="I have built a Java library, which I am planning to sell.  It will be used as a project's dependency and most users would use it with their build tools such as Maven/Gradle etc.  I wanted to know if somebody is already doing so and what selling model they followed.  I am thinking:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * Per user pricing:  Based on the number of users or developers using the library.  The catch is here, since it will be used as a dependency, the team can purchase a single license and several users can utilize the API?  &#xD;&#xA; * Project based pricing:  Based on the number of projects the library will be used in.  This is probably more straight-forward in this scenario, and assuming the sale is made for 1-5 projects at a fixed cost, it is easier for the end-customer to understand how the installations work.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;To me,  project based pricing seems a little more sensible and easier to understand from the user's perspective.  However, I wanted to see if there are better models out there that the community uses in such scenarios.  &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20115" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7623" RevisionGUID="05852383-9d09-4531-940c-82b6ab1e00ac" CreationDate="2018-03-19T12:03:59.223" UserId="19606" Text="I plan on working as a Freelance developer. But here in the UAE, one has to acquire a Freelance license. For this to be granted, you have to submit a business plan. The question is, how should a freelance business plan be written in comparison to a normal business plan. For example, as a freelancer, you may or may not always get clients. As opposed to some other forms of business, which can constantly offer their services. How will I be able to convince the approving body that as a freelancer, I can make a good business and earn some money." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20116" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7623" RevisionGUID="05852383-9d09-4531-940c-82b6ab1e00ac" CreationDate="2018-03-19T12:03:59.223" UserId="19606" Text="Freelance Business Plan" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20117" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7623" RevisionGUID="05852383-9d09-4531-940c-82b6ab1e00ac" CreationDate="2018-03-19T12:03:59.223" UserId="19606" Text="|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20118" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7624" RevisionGUID="35fbc937-d9c6-4400-bf2e-11f3b723d78c" CreationDate="2018-03-19T12:17:50.160" UserId="18230" Text="Gerneally speaking there is not really a difference. A business plan should outline how you expect your business to run. It will always differ from the result once you actually go through with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then, why bother?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. To an informed reader, it should outline the premises on which you want to build your business, and reveal potential flaws.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. After you started your business, you can use this for controlling your actual progress and see where you need to put in additional effort.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you recon you will not always have clients, your plan should show how you cope with that. It is ok, some businesses (freelance or not) have downtime and are still viable. It is also important to show that you are aware of those risks and what you plan to do to minimize them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20119" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7625" RevisionGUID="8fb9f3d5-1137-4a21-85e2-9ac10cdb837a" CreationDate="2018-03-19T12:45:55.470" UserId="18230" Text="First: I think ist is your obligation as a expert Web pages to consult your customer. The customer is usually happy about helpful comments - of course you should stay respectful and objective. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;so no *&quot;that's a bit rubbish&quot;* but rather *&quot;We can do this, but my experience is that it would be better to do it like X for reasons A, B and C!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second: If some new request will carry more work, embrace it and be happy. You just need to inform your customer that it does and how much it will cost him additionally. Never just accept more work as included. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a customer wants a certain change, and is happy to pay for it, despite your counselling, you should do it. Better yet, you should try to understand what your customer wants to achieve with it/ how his business is impacted by it. At last, you may be the expert on programming, but he is the one who makes the money with his business. Assume that he knows something about his trade.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example on the &quot;About us&quot; - this may be an important section in his market, because new clients will want to have a look at the team, possibly to contact the right person directly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand on the News-Section: If you inform your client that he need have a constant stream of news and that it usually takes a business with a dedicated PR-position to keep this alive, he may refrain from it. Show him examples of websites with outdated news-sections and argue that this can have an adverse effect, as customers may assume this company is no longer active. Offer alternatives: What about Putting the twitter feed on the front-page?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you Provide that sort of counselling, this is what can set you apart from the large flock of &quot;to-spec&quot; web designers that often will work from overseas for very little money. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20120" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7624" RevisionGUID="c15cfce1-0262-4d5c-8729-3b3f5b191320" CreationDate="2018-03-19T12:49:49.840" UserId="18230" Comment="edited body" Text="Generally speaking there is not really a difference. A business plan should outline how you expect your business to run. It will always differ from the result once you actually go through with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then, why bother?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. To an informed reader, it should outline the premises on which you want to build your business, and reveal potential flaws.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. After you started your business, you can use this for controlling your actual progress and see where you need to put in additional effort.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you recon you will not always have clients, your plan should show how you cope with that. It is ok, some businesses (freelance or not) have downtime and are still viable. It is also important to show that you are aware of those risks and what you plan to do to minimize them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20121" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7626" RevisionGUID="71deb183-34f4-4015-b53a-3939c2515408" CreationDate="2018-03-19T14:57:41.997" UserId="100" Text="A German freelancer needs to buy work equipment (computer, printer, paper, etc.) in Germany, and wants to recover the VAT (*Mehrwertsteuer*/*Umsatzsteuer*) that is included in the price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it sufficient that he gets an invoice on which the included VAT is shown separately? Or are there any other requirements?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Must the ‎invoice recipient be the freelancer himself, or could it be a friend? If the recipient is the freelancer, must it show the freelancer’s business address/name, or could it show his private address?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Must the invoice show the freelancer’s VAT ID (*Umsatzsteuer-Identifikationsnummer*)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In other words, can the freelancer buy in the same way as if buying privately, or does he have to sign up as business customer in web shops?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20122" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7626" RevisionGUID="71deb183-34f4-4015-b53a-3939c2515408" CreationDate="2018-03-19T14:57:41.997" UserId="100" Text="Requirements on invoice for expenses to be able to recover the included VAT" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20123" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7626" RevisionGUID="71deb183-34f4-4015-b53a-3939c2515408" CreationDate="2018-03-19T14:57:41.997" UserId="100" Text="|taxes|germany|expenses|vat|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20124" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7627" RevisionGUID="b9c5b40b-cd6f-4cb2-9c55-acb664fd4131" CreationDate="2018-03-20T12:36:29.370" UserId="18230" Text="Yes, the Freelancer can buy just the same as a private person, and later decide this is a business-expense. Recipient must be the Freelancer himself though, not a friend etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The invoice has to fulfill all requirements of a regular invoice under German law, [see here (German)][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The usual cash register-printout (Kassenzettel) does not suffice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.hsk-schneider.de/merkblaetter/Merkblatt%20HSK%20-%20Rechnungsanforderungen%20gem.%20Par.%2014%20UStG.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20125" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7612" RevisionGUID="71504fb5-f4b2-47f7-9799-66038ca7bca8" CreationDate="2018-03-21T17:27:10.020" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/976510539340877825" />
  <row Id="20126" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7628" RevisionGUID="cf72cd8f-d637-497e-9f3f-a0ec2fa187ee" CreationDate="2018-03-21T22:41:11.390" UserId="19627" Text="So I'm kinda new on the whole 'do works for companies' thing, I'm artist, have been drawing for the past 6y and mostly I do art from person to person, but I was approached by a client who wanted to have me draw a logo for his IT company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since this is my first time doing a commission for a company, I have literaly no idea how to go from that. From what I've been told I need to be pretty specific about it in contracts, about such things as if they get profits out of the art, and so on... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically what I'm asking is. What do I do, and how do I proceed? And yeaaah I don't have money or a known lawyer to ask help about it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20127" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7628" RevisionGUID="cf72cd8f-d637-497e-9f3f-a0ec2fa187ee" CreationDate="2018-03-21T22:41:11.390" UserId="19627" Text="How do I set up a contract for a IT company's logo?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20128" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7628" RevisionGUID="cf72cd8f-d637-497e-9f3f-a0ec2fa187ee" CreationDate="2018-03-21T22:41:11.390" UserId="19627" Text="|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20129" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7629" RevisionGUID="44849980-e34d-4943-add7-7d1b43af2be3" CreationDate="2018-03-21T22:50:02.817" UserId="708" Text="**Logos** are different than other artwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes you need a contract. However, it is **not** customary for the artist to retain *any* rights or have any stipulations on usage for a logo. A company needs to be free to use their logo in *any* instance for *any* purpose. Putting usage restrictions in place for a logotype does nothing but create undue stress - for both you and the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In simple terms, a contract for a logo would entail general aspects such as **cost**, amount of **revisions** permitted before additional costs are incurred, **payment** schedules, **indemnity** clauses, **cancellation** fees, and **contingencies** as to *when* rights are transferred (upon full payment) and *what* those right are (all rights in cases of logos).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is customary to merely *transfer **all** rights* to the artwork once payment *in full* has been received where logo design is concerned. So, keep the contract simple and straight-forward. No need to muddy it up with usage and royalty issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Logotypes also generally entail providing native files (vector .ai files) which is also different than other artwork most of the time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20130" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7629" RevisionGUID="dcc7c5b1-5b0c-4712-9c38-21dd7be7dc8e" CreationDate="2018-03-21T22:56:39.090" UserId="708" Comment="added 364 characters in body" Text="**Logos** are different than other artwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes you need a contract. However, it is **not** customary for the artist to retain *any* rights or have any stipulations on usage for a logo. A company needs to be free to use their logo in *any* instance for *any* purpose. Putting usage restrictions in place for a logotype does nothing but create undue stress - for both you and the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In simple terms, a contract for a logo would entail general aspects such as **cost**, amount of **revisions** permitted before additional costs are incurred, **payment** schedules, **indemnity** clauses, **cancellation** fees, and **contingencies** as to *when* rights are transferred (upon full payment) and *what* those right are (all rights in cases of logos).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is customary to merely *transfer **all** rights* to the artwork once payment *in full* has been received where logo design is concerned. So, keep the contract simple and straight-forward. No need to muddy it up with usage and royalty issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Logotypes also generally entail providing native files (vector .ai files) which is also different than other artwork most of the time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Different stack, but these may be helpful:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- [Copyright on free work&#xD;&#xA; ](https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/a/54182/3270) (&quot;free&quot; doesn't really matter in this context)&#xD;&#xA;- [Is it inappropriate to ask for royalties on a logo design if the client decides to print the logo on products and sell them?](https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/a/42464/3270)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20131" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7627" RevisionGUID="99c3d464-15c9-4e75-976a-0de7b8228438" CreationDate="2018-03-22T08:31:03.510" UserId="18230" Comment="added 37 characters in body" Text="Yes, the Freelancer can buy just the same as a private person, and later decide this is a business-expense. Recipient must be the Freelancer himself though, not a friend etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The invoice has to fulfill all requirements of a regular invoice under German law, [see here (German)][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The usual cash register-printout (Kassenzettel) does not suffice, at least not for anything over 150€.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.hsk-schneider.de/merkblaetter/Merkblatt%20HSK%20-%20Rechnungsanforderungen%20gem.%20Par.%2014%20UStG.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20132" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7627" RevisionGUID="ef5b0cf0-1e81-4ac3-8e62-feff84e71f50" CreationDate="2018-03-22T08:37:51.563" UserId="18230" Comment="added 37 characters in body" Text="Yes, the Freelancer can buy just the same as a private person, and later decide this is a business-expense. Recipient must be the Freelancer himself though, not a friend etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The invoice has to fulfill all requirements of a regular invoice under German law, [see here (German)][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The usual cash register-printout (Kassenzettel) does not suffice, at least not for anything over 150€.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*One other thing: Some consumer-protection rules like the two weeks return right for goods ordered online do not automatically apply to B-to-B transactions. So be careful when you order something as business!*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.hsk-schneider.de/merkblaetter/Merkblatt%20HSK%20-%20Rechnungsanforderungen%20gem.%20Par.%2014%20UStG.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20133" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7630" RevisionGUID="089420a0-67c5-4fd6-8a2e-b3be29fefe27" CreationDate="2018-03-23T15:40:54.717" UserId="18209" Text="I recently started consulting and I was wondering how does one learn how to write a:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- MSA (master service agreement),&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- SOW (statement of work),&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- RFP (request for proposal),&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a big client but I have no idea how to write a &quot;proposal&quot;. I know how to do the technical work but I am inexperienced at the non-technical side of consulting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How did you get started with writing proposals?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can you recommend a resource that goes through all those important business aspects of consulting?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20134" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7630" RevisionGUID="089420a0-67c5-4fd6-8a2e-b3be29fefe27" CreationDate="2018-03-23T15:40:54.717" UserId="18209" Text="How to learn about MSA, SOW, RFP? (consulting)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20135" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7630" RevisionGUID="089420a0-67c5-4fd6-8a2e-b3be29fefe27" CreationDate="2018-03-23T15:40:54.717" UserId="18209" Text="|consulting|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20136" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7630" RevisionGUID="5b55c64e-270b-4447-a7b4-bef6a50ce5ff" CreationDate="2018-03-23T17:07:09.223" UserId="18209" Comment="deleted 3 characters in body" Text="I recently started consulting and I was wondering how does one learn how to write a:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- MSA (master service agreement),&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- SOW (statement of work),&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- RFP (request for proposal),&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a big client but I have no idea how to write a &quot;proposal&quot;. I know how to do the technical work but I am inexperienced at the non-technical side of consulting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I get started with writing proposals?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can you recommend a resource that goes through all those important business aspects of consulting?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20139" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7506" RevisionGUID="ac2f7ae5-9940-4704-affa-a1313c4809a7" CreationDate="2018-03-24T17:10:39.390" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20144" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7498" RevisionGUID="7f869bbb-db7e-4472-a239-db4c61cb5a04" CreationDate="2018-03-26T14:42:39.063" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/978281076673085442" />
  <row Id="20145" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7632" RevisionGUID="622eae47-a3e1-48b5-b7e7-f1804a6f3588" CreationDate="2018-03-26T15:02:46.223" UserId="18209" Text="I have a project with a client and I don't know how to put a price on it.&#xD;&#xA;I mentioned that we can do either hourly or fixed price project. He said that it would be better to do everything in 2 week sprints on a fixed price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know how much to price the project. Should I ask for $5k-$10k per week?&#xD;&#xA;The project is very important to the client, meaning that he is getting great value out of it.&#xD;&#xA;I estimate it will take me 3 months to complete. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand I'm a bit afraid to do it as a fixed price because I might underestimate as it often happens.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there any resources to read that can help me with this?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20146" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7632" RevisionGUID="622eae47-a3e1-48b5-b7e7-f1804a6f3588" CreationDate="2018-03-26T15:02:46.223" UserId="18209" Text="What/how to price project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20147" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7632" RevisionGUID="622eae47-a3e1-48b5-b7e7-f1804a6f3588" CreationDate="2018-03-26T15:02:46.223" UserId="18209" Text="|price|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20148" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="fd36fabb-b229-4712-9b89-77c6578ecb7e" CreationDate="2018-03-26T21:20:47.123" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20161" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7637" RevisionGUID="340b0299-1d72-4a96-a3eb-d87aedcb623a" CreationDate="2018-03-28T13:12:57.507" UserId="18674" Text="I think of building a website (may be with an android app too) that has games for kids (to train the brain, memory, attention ...etc). In case all goes well, how would the economic model be? I don't want to make it paid and I don't think the number of views count in the case of a website which most or all of its visitors are children because of two reasons :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - They don't have purchasing power for the ads displayed&#xD;&#xA; - Their decision is easily compromised by their parents&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So most advertisers would be rightfully reluctant to advertise on such a website. The proof: the web lacks famous websites that target this category versus [more visited are website targeting an older population][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The questions:&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Those are just my thoughts, please help me with your feedback and points that I'm missing.&#xD;&#xA; - The objective is how could such websites be economically viable (websites which can generate a lot of visits, but within a population that is economically inactive)? &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Many thanks,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_websites" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20162" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7637" RevisionGUID="340b0299-1d72-4a96-a3eb-d87aedcb623a" CreationDate="2018-03-28T13:12:57.507" UserId="18674" Text="Does the success of a website depend not only on the number of visits but on the target population too?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20163" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7637" RevisionGUID="340b0299-1d72-4a96-a3eb-d87aedcb623a" CreationDate="2018-03-28T13:12:57.507" UserId="18674" Text="|freelance-websites|marketing|business-plan|advertising|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20164" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7563" RevisionGUID="eb107363-8808-48d6-9a07-ae7b8f65bd99" CreationDate="2018-03-28T14:27:13.543" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20167" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7638" RevisionGUID="d294594d-c510-4f23-815c-a2b9ace4755a" CreationDate="2018-03-28T17:33:23.400" UserId="15709" Text="&lt;sup&gt;(sorry for my not good english)&lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If during a work dialogue someone would tell me one (or more) times that &quot;I will get hurt&quot;, that would be the perfect reason to stop suddenly any professional relationship because noone should consider working properly under threats of any kind.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Indeed if you keep talking with him will look like a passive behaviour and he will feel that you are somehow &quot;scared&quot; of him and tolerate his bad manners.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once happened a similar situation to me many years ago and that was how I reacted:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I printed all the emails and chats with all the threats and dialogues and I went to the local police, I talked 15 minutes about that with an officer, he told me that a phisical threat (&quot;you will get hurt&quot;) is itself a crime and the client could be even sued just by that and asked of heavy monetary indemnification and get condemned by the law. I didn't officially filed a complaint anyway for that moment.&#xD;&#xA;2. I sent an email to the client stating all that in point #1, plus saying to him that from this moment any professional relationship is ended forever with no further contact **with the motivation of his faulty and criminal behaviour**, and that I will keep all the payments that I received since now and he had to pay me all the rest as stated in the contract (since the work was completed and clearly documented), he was just complaining to keep the work done and not pay me.&#xD;&#xA;3. I told him that I have a close relative that is an experienced lawyer and he is ready to assist me for free (not true, but helped! he would never know... I could always find a lawyer eventually...).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client disappeared from that day plus **I stalked him for months in email and messages until he payd me all that we agreed in the contract**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You know... *barking dogs never bite...*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS: I would inform UpWork customer care that there is a user who threats phisically other users, probably his account will get suspended." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20171" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7640" RevisionGUID="7288143f-18b1-4e1c-9c73-3598f1675e33" CreationDate="2018-03-29T13:45:39.203" UserId="18230" Text="I cant help you with your general economics (If I could, I would just do that business myself, wouldn´t I?) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I can tell you is: Highly targeted Advertisement is normally payed way better than the broad &quot;shower&quot; approach.  Also, there are enough companies specifically targeting children. Children do have a lot of buying power nowadays. The can also be seen as influences and as young adults of tomorrow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20172" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7641" RevisionGUID="17b43498-2334-4d98-a504-78881c90663b" CreationDate="2018-04-01T10:37:48.123" UserId="18209" Text="I'm a bit confused about the date that I need to put on my invoice.&#xD;&#xA;I'm getting paid on the 1st day of the month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I did some work on March. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. When should I send the invoice? March 31th or April 1st?&#xD;&#xA;2. When should the due date be (I have net 30). April 1st?&#xD;&#xA;3. So basically should I be generating an invoice for the previous month's work? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20173" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7641" RevisionGUID="17b43498-2334-4d98-a504-78881c90663b" CreationDate="2018-04-01T10:37:48.123" UserId="18209" Text="Date on invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20174" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7641" RevisionGUID="17b43498-2334-4d98-a504-78881c90663b" CreationDate="2018-04-01T10:37:48.123" UserId="18209" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20175" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7642" RevisionGUID="fc29638a-bb62-413d-972f-3f495afebbfa" CreationDate="2018-04-01T13:56:12.603" UserId="19718" Text=" - the invoice date: last day of the previous month when work was completed (March 31)&#xD;&#xA; - send invoice the same/next day (March 31 OR April 1st) doesn't make a difference&#xD;&#xA; - yes: invoice is always generated after work is completed unless otherwise agreed upon.  (in case of multi month project OR pre-payment arrangement)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;hope this helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20176" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7641" RevisionGUID="842455e7-6984-4224-98bb-e1d2b22711c4" CreationDate="2018-04-01T14:26:10.290" UserId="18209" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="I'm a bit confused about the date that I need to put on my invoice.&#xD;&#xA;I'm getting paid on the 1st day of the month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I did some work on March. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. When should I send the invoice? March 31th or April 1st?&#xD;&#xA;2. When should the due date be (I have net 30). April 30th?&#xD;&#xA;3. So basically should I be generating an invoice for the previous month's work? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20177" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7643" RevisionGUID="0a7d3cbc-9d1d-43e5-92e2-cc2d195eabe9" CreationDate="2018-04-01T15:22:39.347" UserId="18209" Text="If the client owns the code and IP for the work I'm doing for them, does this automatically grant them an exclusive license?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I resell the solution or part of it to other clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20178" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7643" RevisionGUID="0a7d3cbc-9d1d-43e5-92e2-cc2d195eabe9" CreationDate="2018-04-01T15:22:39.347" UserId="18209" Text="Exclusivity of work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20179" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7643" RevisionGUID="0a7d3cbc-9d1d-43e5-92e2-cc2d195eabe9" CreationDate="2018-04-01T15:22:39.347" UserId="18209" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20180" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7644" RevisionGUID="ba1334fa-a2de-4832-92b3-7b7703f29550" CreationDate="2018-04-01T17:50:06.313" UserId="708" Text="- **License**: Permission to use something which has been granted by the *owner* of the product. The Licensee has *no rights* to resell or distribute licensed products unless that distribution/reselling is agreed upon and *part of the actual license*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **Ownership**: There is **no license** with *ownership*. Ownership indicates complete, al-inclusive, control over the product and/or IP. The **owner** is free to do whatever they wish with the product they own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can not resell anything if the client owns it. &quot;Owning&quot; means they have **all rights** to the product (code and/or IP), not merely a &quot;license&quot; to use it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20181" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7644" RevisionGUID="a5b6cfa0-b659-466f-ae91-b5e149ff7d84" CreationDate="2018-04-01T17:56:20.130" UserId="708" Comment="added 152 characters in body" Text="- **License**: Permission to use something which has been granted by the *owner* of the product. The Licensee has *no rights* to resell or distribute licensed products unless that distribution/reselling is agreed upon and *part of the actual license*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **Ownership**: There is **no license** with *ownership*. Ownership indicates complete, all-inclusive, control over the product and/or IP. The **owner** is free to do whatever they wish with the product they own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can not resell anything if the client owns it. &quot;Owning&quot; means they have **all rights** to the product (code and/or IP), not merely a &quot;license&quot; to use it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Owners** do not need permission to do anything.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;**Licensees** *always* need permission from the owner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Webster's Dictionary definitions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;License: permission to do or not to do something.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Ownership: legal right of possession; proprietorship&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Understanding the difference between ownership and licensing is **imperative** in some freelance work. Often by merely licensing work to client you can then further profit from your work by reselling, repurposing, or redistributing products you *own*. However, a savvy client may ask for ownership or a &quot;work-for-hire&quot; agreement. In these cases you are invisible and own nothing. The client owns everything you produce under such an agreement and you can *only* utilize that work for *that* client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20182" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7644" RevisionGUID="2451ce8c-76ec-43cf-8363-f1d0fb487537" CreationDate="2018-04-01T18:03:24.903" UserId="708" Comment="added 107 characters in body" Text="- **License**: Permission to use something which has been granted by the *owner* of the product. The Licensee has *no rights* to resell or distribute licensed products unless that distribution/reselling is agreed upon and *part of the actual license*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **Ownership**: There is **no license** with *ownership*. Ownership indicates complete, all-inclusive, control over the product and/or IP. The **owner** is free to do whatever they wish with the product they own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can not resell anything if the client owns it. &quot;Owning&quot; means they have **all rights** to the product (code and/or IP), not merely a &quot;license&quot; to use it. And you *own* nothing, so you need *their permission* if you wish to reuse something you created for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Owners** do not need permission to do anything.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;**Licensees** *always* need permission from the owner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Webster's Dictionary definitions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;License: permission to do or not to do something.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Ownership: legal right of possession; proprietorship&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Understanding the difference between ownership and licensing is **imperative** in some freelance work. Often by merely licensing work to client you can then further profit from your work by reselling, repurposing, or redistributing products you *own*. However, a savvy client may ask for ownership or a &quot;work-for-hire&quot; agreement. In these cases you are invisible and own nothing. The client owns everything you produce under such an agreement and you can *only* utilize that work for *that* client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20186" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7644" RevisionGUID="02ff553e-6a87-40c8-bf3e-0f653d768631" CreationDate="2018-04-02T19:45:49.667" UserId="708" Comment="added 290 characters in body" Text="- **License**: Permission to use something which has been granted by the *owner* of the product. The Licensee has *no rights* to resell or distribute licensed products unless that distribution/reselling is agreed upon and *part of the actual license*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- **Ownership**: There is **no license** with *ownership*. Ownership indicates complete, all-inclusive, control over the product and/or IP. The **owner** is free to do whatever they wish with the product they own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can not resell anything if the client owns it. &quot;Owning&quot; means they have **all rights** to the product (code and/or IP), not merely a &quot;license&quot; to use it. And you *own* nothing, so you need *their permission* if you wish to reuse something you created for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Owners** do not need permission to do anything.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;**Licensees** *always* need permission from the owner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Webster's Dictionary definitions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;License: permission to do or not to do something.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Ownership: legal right of possession; proprietorship&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Understanding the difference between ownership and licensing is **imperative** in some freelance work. Often by merely licensing work to client you can then further profit from your work by reselling, repurposing, or redistributing products you *own*. However, a savvy client may ask for ownership or a &quot;work-for-hire&quot; agreement. In these cases you are invisible and own nothing. The client owns everything you produce under such an agreement and you can *only* utilize that work for *that* client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And be aware, simply because you may have *created* something, if the client *owns* the work.. you can not and should not assume you have *any* license to do *anything* with the work you created. The Client would still need to grant you permission to use the work you created elsewhere." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20187" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7646" RevisionGUID="9400ea29-f173-4f06-87fa-d3220c771eb3" CreationDate="2018-04-03T00:57:03.227" UserId="18209" Text="I'm trying to structure a deal for my consultancy and would like the opinion of others about whether the following is a standard approach:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I'm thinking of doing billing weekly with bi-weekly reporting/feedback. Is that common?&#xD;&#xA;2. When should I get paid? Should I do net15?&#xD;&#xA;3. Does it make sense to have a price markup on components that I've already made for different projects in the past?&#xD;&#xA;4. Is it standard to include a clause in the contract that I'm free to renegotiate/change the agreed fixed weekly pricing?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20188" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7646" RevisionGUID="9400ea29-f173-4f06-87fa-d3220c771eb3" CreationDate="2018-04-03T00:57:03.227" UserId="18209" Text="Weekly pricing, help with structure of deal" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20189" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7646" RevisionGUID="9400ea29-f173-4f06-87fa-d3220c771eb3" CreationDate="2018-04-03T00:57:03.227" UserId="18209" Text="|contracts|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20190" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7647" RevisionGUID="1f2c91f8-8b16-4666-9003-98603d90624c" CreationDate="2018-04-03T12:03:12.100" UserId="18230" Text="It is hart to answer this question as this always depends on what´s custom in your location / your business etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I´d just ask the client what he prefers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. You have do decide what you are comfortable with, here. Generally the earlier the payment the more secure. Also a good idea to put late-fees into the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Can´t really answer this as it depends on so many factors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Depends on the structure of your deal? Something like: *All prices are subject to change with a written notice of 4 weeks* sound sensible so everybody know what to expect. Customer will probably have the rigth to cancel the order when you change the prices though. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20191" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7647" RevisionGUID="ae837d84-6ca2-4943-9be4-4016794889b2" CreationDate="2018-04-03T13:18:09.580" UserId="18230" Comment="added 366 characters in body" Text="It is hart to answer this question as this always depends on what´s custom in your location / your business etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I´d just ask the client what he prefers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. You have do decide what you are comfortable with, here. Generally the earlier the payment the more secure. Also a good idea to put late-fees into the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. This depends: If you really own the component, you should have a rough idea to how many Clients you want to sell this, do a fixed price based on this (Like Auto cad is more expensive Photoshop, which is more expensive than MS word ..)&#xD;&#xA;IF it was paid contract work, you normally don´t own the component but will be a little bit faster in rewriting it due to prior experience. Bill you real hours. But that´s just my opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Depends on the structure of your deal? Something like: *All prices are subject to change with a written notice of 4 weeks* sound sensible so everybody know what to expect. Customer will probably have the rigth to cancel the order when you change the prices though. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20192" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7646" RevisionGUID="21370d21-6e61-47b9-9239-86aead3566e2" CreationDate="2018-04-03T13:20:03.800" UserId="18209" Comment="added 392 characters in body" Text="I'm trying to structure a deal for my consultancy and would like the opinion of others about whether the following is a standard approach:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I'm thinking of doing billing weekly with bi-weekly reporting/feedback. Is that common?&#xD;&#xA;2. When should I get paid? Should I do net15?&#xD;&#xA;3. Does it make sense to have a price markup on components that I've already made for different projects in the past?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;edit: &#xD;&#xA;I worked for another client to complete component A for 2 months. That component/knowledge should be used in this project as well. I could &quot;configure&quot; it in 2 days for the new case, but that would be a punishment for my efficiency. Therefore I'm thinking of charging an extra for this component specifically. I want to know if this is common practice or an outlandish thing to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Is it standard to include a clause in the contract that I'm free to renegotiate/change the agreed fixed weekly pricing?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20193" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7648" RevisionGUID="ab019892-96e8-42e1-843d-9015998cd2ce" CreationDate="2018-04-03T14:27:20.917" UserId="10668" Text="Nail down with him what the primary goal of the site is. You can do this for each page too, each page should have a primary goal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then figure if the page or content is helping or hindering that goal. An unused News area with lots of old, sporadic posts is not going to support anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It doesn't matter what he wants on the site (giant logo, animated cat gif), what matters is what will speak to his customers, and you can support that with research, testing, and your industry experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being clear, professional, and not apologetic, gets professional results back from clients. If they get too personal about their business and can't handle qualified critiques, it's probably someone who is better not to have as a client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20194" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7649" RevisionGUID="729433fd-3a87-4d8e-82ed-4030796577fd" CreationDate="2018-04-03T22:11:41.773" UserId="19727" Text="My friend and I recently went into freelancing a few months ago. We've had a couple of clients we completed projects for so far, all of which for people who did not have a site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently we had a meeting with a potential client who had his company's site built by an agency out of state. He was looking to hire someone more local to fix some design issues and bugs on his site. We had a face-to-face with him then told him we will send over our rates the next day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When we send over our rates to clients, we also send over a draft of our contract, which includes a page with a detailed list of what work will be done for them. This is just used as a paper trail so we can assure that no disputes over what work was agreed upon will happen later on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A while after we sent over our rates, we did not hear back from our potential client. We checked his site and noticed that some revisions were made in accordance to the list we sent to him. We speculate that he just took our details and sent them over to the agency he was already working with, using us as free consultation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We are admittedly livid, but are going to take this as a learning experience for future clients. I'm wondering how much detail should we provide to a client when discussing what work we can do for their site? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We want to confirm what work we will do for them, but don't want to spend too much time doing free design consultation for them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20195" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7649" RevisionGUID="729433fd-3a87-4d8e-82ed-4030796577fd" CreationDate="2018-04-03T22:11:41.773" UserId="19727" Text="How much detail do you provide a client wanting to improve an existing site?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20196" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7649" RevisionGUID="729433fd-3a87-4d8e-82ed-4030796577fd" CreationDate="2018-04-03T22:11:41.773" UserId="19727" Text="|contracts|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20198" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7650" RevisionGUID="41352fe9-f1b2-46bf-a790-6c4b777807fa" CreationDate="2018-04-04T15:29:06.960" UserId="708" Text="I generalize as much as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- *Improve navigation discoverability*&#xD;&#xA; - **NOT** Improve navigation discovery by increasing button size , creating drop down menus, changing color, moving to left.&#xD;&#xA;- *Increase Call to Action visibility on home page*&#xD;&#xA; - **NOT** Increase home page call to action by adding a hero image with direct link to sales route&#xD;&#xA;- *Utilize dynamic content*&#xD;&#xA; - **NOT** Create dynamic content via animation in hero image to show products/services offered&#xD;&#xA;- *Integrate Social Media*&#xD;&#xA; - **NOT** Integrate social media by adding newsfeed of recent Twitter posts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those sorts of things. I cover the areas I feel could benefit from improvements but not *anything* specific in regards to *what* those improvements may be. If they take my general improvements list to someone else, well they may have a bullet list of things to look at, but no direct suggestions in terms of implementation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After a contract is signed and initial payments, *then* I'll go into more detail regarding changes. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20202" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7652" RevisionGUID="6e2a0bcc-3ab6-4d0c-8dfe-9b2cd9c60012" CreationDate="2018-04-05T18:51:06.193" UserId="19139" Text="Definatley ask for example first.&#xD;&#xA;It's not unreasonable to ask to see an example. When we go for interviews for jobs, we are providing an example of ourselves, with the risk of 'wasting time'. You can look at it the same way. They want the work, and you want to make sure it won't be a waste of time and money.&#xD;&#xA;Asking for an example is reasonable for the type of work, and most workers in that area will have a portfolio of some kind anyway.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20203" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7653" RevisionGUID="26775d6b-361b-43f4-b58f-a52eb4a81069" CreationDate="2018-04-05T18:59:56.310" UserId="19139" Text="While I don't program in Ruby in Rails, I think £4,000 might be a bit of a push, but certainly not an extra  £2,000.&#xD;&#xA;However, you said you could do it yourself - but you haven't. And CSS alone won't get you very far. &#xD;&#xA;How many hours have they put in? Perhaps they are working weekends and late nights and they feel the price is reasonable for this unsociable hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm on the fence with this because while I didn't charge as much as this person is, I too had a client that was complaining on the price. I had to explain they were reasonable for time. This could be the same situation and if that's the case, either carry on paying or stop and do it yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps you can come to an agreement to change the payment. For example, 'I'll pay you this but once we've reached X checkpoint I would like to stop, or pay a fixed price for Y to be completed'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always have a backup plan though in case they decide to throw in the towel." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20204" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7654" RevisionGUID="5f7d87bc-d4c7-47fd-902b-2c39784e98d3" CreationDate="2018-04-05T19:44:30.447" UserId="19139" Text="You said you stepped in but we don't know what that means, if you were either asked or you offered to help. Either way, if it wasn't mentioned by you at the time, you certainly can't do it now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of it this way, I'm decorating my house. I go to the store and buy 3 tubs of paint, rollbrush, ladders and everything else. My friend calls and asks what I'm up to. I tell them I'm painting my kitchen. They come over and go 'woah woah, you're doing it all wrong. Here, let me help'. And they redo the whole kitchen.&#xD;&#xA;And they come over every day to do the kitchen. And then once it's all done they say &quot;So how much are you going to pay me? I just spent every day this week helping you redecorate&quot;. Should I give them money? The answer is NO. It doesn't matter if my salary is high or I live in a large house. As far as the courts would be concerned this is a gift.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use it for your portfolio and say nothing. Consider it a gift of gratitude if they give you anything." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20211" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7529" RevisionGUID="90121e53-4826-4280-8c38-ada23d8115d1" CreationDate="2018-04-07T18:12:08.137" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20212" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7656" RevisionGUID="fce40e8b-bcde-4df3-a674-6656c1d08294" CreationDate="2018-04-09T10:50:39.673" UserId="18230" Text="Given your premises we are not really any more in Freelancer territory, but more in a interpersonal problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I would do: Make a List of everything you build and how much hours each item has taken, so you effort gets visible. Then start an open communication along the lines of:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Look this I started out helping a little, but this has grown into a full-blown programming job. I am happy to assist further, but we need to talk about compensation. This it what I did so far.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then show your time sheet. See how they react. If they are open to talk about compensation, start educating them about the amount they would normally pay for such service but that you are not trying to make them pay that full amount. If they are happy with your work (and possibly need to rely on you in the future) I don´t see why you could not come to an amicable solution. I would aim for 1/2 to 2/3 of price for past hours and a fairly normal rate for any further support." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20227" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7660" RevisionGUID="bcd7ee62-a6be-478d-9aa3-4612fb9ad4d7" CreationDate="2018-04-11T07:38:04.017" UserId="19782" Text="What is needed to work legally in France as a freelancer for a foreigner?, I'm specially interested in knowing what is needed when the person is not from the european union, the US, or countries in the schengen area." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20228" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7660" RevisionGUID="bcd7ee62-a6be-478d-9aa3-4612fb9ad4d7" CreationDate="2018-04-11T07:38:04.017" UserId="19782" Text="What will a foreigner will need to legally work as a freelancer (web developer) in France?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20229" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7660" RevisionGUID="bcd7ee62-a6be-478d-9aa3-4612fb9ad4d7" CreationDate="2018-04-11T07:38:04.017" UserId="19782" Text="|france|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20230" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7661" RevisionGUID="e8394487-120d-4f3f-8f13-934b703bebbe" CreationDate="2018-04-11T11:41:18.783" UserId="18230" Text="When I get a new client with an existing system, I bill them the initial assessment with a reasonably hourly rate. The same goes for new clients who want   to see drafts. I also offer them to discount 50% off of the price of that assessment if they book me for (some of) the items I found.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That way the info is theirs and paid, and they can go to whom they want for implementation. They also have a incentive to stay with me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You´ll certainly scare some clients off with this tactic, but you can answer for your own if those are the clients you will really miss..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20231" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7647" RevisionGUID="08fc36c3-3135-4bfd-a158-261d9f971e51" CreationDate="2018-04-11T11:43:23.203" UserId="18230" Comment="edited body" Text="It is hard to answer this question as this always depends on what´s customary in your location / your business etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I´d just ask the client what he prefers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. You have do decide what you are comfortable with, here. Generally the earlier the payment the more secure. Also a good idea to put late-fees into the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. This depends: If you really own the component, you should have a rough idea to how many Clients you want to sell this, do a fixed price based on this (Like Auto cad is more expensive Photoshop, which is more expensive than MS word ..)&#xD;&#xA;IF it was paid contract work, you normally don´t own the component but will be a little bit faster in rewriting it due to prior experience. Bill you real hours. But that´s just my opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Depends on the structure of your deal? Something like: *All prices are subject to change with a written notice of 4 weeks* sound sensible so everybody know what to expect. Customer will probably have the rigth to cancel the order when you change the prices though. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20232" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7660" RevisionGUID="779cabad-a291-488b-ad98-ee93639178a4" CreationDate="2018-04-11T15:32:34.523" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/984091846610735104" />
  <row Id="20233" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7662" RevisionGUID="ab24fc6f-74c6-4488-94b7-d10a7cff8b39" CreationDate="2018-04-11T18:26:37.123" UserId="708" Text="Anecdote: I had a colleague which hired a (full-time) worker for an agreed upon annual salary... two weeks into the employment agreement this worker asked for a raise which was apparently substantial... he was fired.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can *ruin* a relationship by being greedy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider this....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client A **paid you to learn** this &quot;component&quot;. They *invested* in you so you could further be of service to them. Without that investment you may not know this &quot;component&quot;. In addition, without this knowledge you may not be getting *any* additional work from the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, you want to charge this *same client* a premium for the knowledge *they* paid you to learn. They *already paid a premium* with that first project taking 2 months rather than 2 days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is merely bad practice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charge the *next* client needing this &quot;component&quot; a premium for the knowledge/experience. However, never charge the client that invested in you to begin with and supplied you with this knowledge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Look at it another way.. via physical objects....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have nothing to sit on... So, Bob paid for a new office chair so you could work on his project. Now, Bob has a second project. You want to charge Bob for office chair maintenance since you have a new one you need to upkeep. Considering Bob paid for the chair initially, doesn't that sound silly and greedy?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20234" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7662" RevisionGUID="328b57be-d792-46fa-8208-0ec7a431e5b4" CreationDate="2018-04-11T18:33:29.517" UserId="708" Comment="added 748 characters in body" Text="Anecdote: I had a colleague which hired a (full-time) worker for an agreed upon annual salary... two weeks into the employment agreement this worker asked for a raise which was apparently substantial... he was fired.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can *ruin* a relationship by being greedy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider this....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client A **paid you to learn** this &quot;component&quot;. They *invested* in you so you could further be of service to them. Without that investment you may not know this &quot;component&quot;. In addition, without this knowledge you may not be getting *any* additional work from the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, you want to charge this *same client* a premium for the knowledge *they* paid you to learn. They *already paid a premium* with that first project taking 2 months rather than 2 days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is merely bad practice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charge the *next* client needing this &quot;component&quot; a premium for the knowledge/experience. However, never charge the client that invested in you to begin with and supplied you with this knowledge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Look at it another way.. via physical objects....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have nothing to sit on... So, Bob paid for a new office chair so you could work on his project. Now, Bob has a second project. You want to charge Bob for office chair maintenance since you have a new one you need to upkeep. Considering Bob paid for the chair initially, doesn't that sound silly and greedy?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a collection of past items I've used and own (personal). I also have a collection of past items I've used for each client (project). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If I pull something from the &quot;personal&quot; collection, I charge a markup for it's use.&#xD;&#xA;- If I pull something from the &quot;project' collection, that client is *never* charged a markup for its use. They paid for it's creation (even if I technically own the item IP according to contracts.)&#xD;&#xA;- I don't pull from Client A &quot;projects&quot; for use in Client B &quot;projects&quot;. Anything which is &quot;free to use anywhere&quot; i.e. created on my own time generally, is in the &quot;personal&quot; collection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, this is all *highly* dependent upon the specialization and/or generalization of any assets.&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20235" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7662" RevisionGUID="6e7da162-2c80-42c8-afe2-4d6b2a0211fe" CreationDate="2018-04-11T18:38:48.483" UserId="708" Comment="added 29 characters in body" Text="Anecdote: I had a colleague which hired a (full-time) worker for an agreed upon annual salary... two weeks into the employment agreement this worker asked for a raise which was apparently substantial... he was fired.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can *ruin* a relationship by being greedy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider this....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client A **paid you to learn** this &quot;component&quot;. They *invested* in you so you could further be of service to them. Without that investment you may not know this &quot;component&quot;. In addition, without this knowledge you may not be getting *any* additional work from the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, you want to charge this *same client* a premium for the knowledge *they* paid you to learn. They *already paid a premium* with that first project taking 2 months rather than 2 days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is merely bad practice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charge the *next* client needing this &quot;component&quot; a premium for the knowledge/experience. However, never charge the client that invested in you to begin with and supplied you with this knowledge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Look at it another way.. via physical objects....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have nothing to sit on... So, Bob paid for a new office chair so you could work on his project. Now, Bob has a second project. You want to charge Bob for office chair maintenance since you have a new one you need to upkeep. Considering Bob paid for the chair initially, doesn't that sound silly and greedy?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a collection of past items I've used and own (personal). I also have a collection of past items I've used for each client (project). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If I pull something from the &quot;personal&quot; collection, I charge a markup for it's use.&#xD;&#xA;- If I pull something from the &quot;project' collection, that client is *never* charged a markup for its use. They paid for it's creation (even if I technically own the item IP according to contracts.)&#xD;&#xA;- I don't pull from Client A &quot;projects&quot; for use in Client B &quot;projects&quot;. Anything which is &quot;free to use anywhere&quot;, i.e. created on my own time generally or any associated client relationship has long since been dissolved, is in the &quot;personal&quot; collection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, this is all *highly* dependent upon the specialization and/or generalization of any assets and any associated contracts.&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20236" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7663" RevisionGUID="b655f3c2-4adb-4efe-960a-0a88c9434690" CreationDate="2018-04-12T14:36:04.460" UserId="19793" Text="I run a small consulting company, mostly paperwork for immigration, starting a business, and a range of other things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I quite often get a lot of people stopping by to ask questions, leaving, doing the work themselves, and coming back to ask more questions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel that if they are coming back to ask more questions that should show right there I have the knowledge required to help them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not mind answering some questions or filling out / sending some paper work off for them, if it is the first time they have come in, also have a lot of paying customer that these free loaders take time from.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When they come in a second time I want to find a way to politely tell them that they need to pay me to keep moving forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel very rude and have problem saying no to people especially when they give me a good sob story.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20237" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7663" RevisionGUID="b655f3c2-4adb-4efe-960a-0a88c9434690" CreationDate="2018-04-12T14:36:04.460" UserId="19793" Text="How to politely stop doing free work for people" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20238" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7663" RevisionGUID="b655f3c2-4adb-4efe-960a-0a88c9434690" CreationDate="2018-04-12T14:36:04.460" UserId="19793" Text="|payment-terms|ethics|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20239" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7664" RevisionGUID="0825c6d9-23ed-4c62-bb0b-66e8e1709a23" CreationDate="2018-04-12T21:40:53.943" UserId="19139" Text="You may feel rude but at the end of the day it's your business. If they come back the second time you should give less information than you provided on their first visit, but tell them you can give them a more thorough explanation if they booked an appointment.&#xD;&#xA;Alternatively stop giving away free information. When someone calls/comes to see you with their problem, you can respond with &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;That sounds like a very complicated situation. If you would like to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; book an appointment, we can discuss your current situation, and work&#xD;&#xA;&gt; out the best thing for you&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way they know you are invested in their story and want to help, and you have offered your services, and you have not provided them with much information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Giving away free information is one thing, but don't start filling out papers for people. You need to charge, or else you're just a charity." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20243" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5945" RevisionGUID="1b59e049-d784-4fd0-8e2d-57cc215731fe" CreationDate="2018-04-14T18:52:23.577" UserId="14702" Comment="Corrected a typo: Missing the word &quot;you&quot; in the last sentence." Text="Of course it was unethical.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You used information that the client (or potential client) trusted you with - gave you with the assumption that you would handle it professionally and ethically - for your benefit, to the detriment of your client (preventing them from acquiring the domains, except through you).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You point out that you didn't sign an NDA or make any agreement, as if that makes it okay.&#xD;&#xA;Business dealings generally require some trust between the parties. Who could trust an organisation that thinks that way: That seeks any underhanded way to make money from the client, provided that it is not actually illegal? (And they *might* have grounds to sue.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most clients would assume some basic ethics and professionalism of the company they are considering hiring (so wouldn't ask you to sign an agreement to not cheat them before they even discuss their project).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You further point out, in a comment, &quot;It's on him to purchase the domain before making that information public&quot;, as if that makes him fair game to be ripped off by a company he trusted enough to consider hiring.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest that you should transfer the domain to him immediately, with no conditions attached.&#xD;&#xA;It would seem highly unlikely that he would ever trust you again, but he will probably warn others about you, and it won't sound as bad if you give him the domains.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20244" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2765" RevisionGUID="30e8cb7a-093e-4365-bd0e-8ef85f77e125" CreationDate="2018-04-14T22:31:01.523" UserId="19139" Comment="grammar, spelling, punctuation" Text="I am a young web designer (20 years old) from Slovenia, I love design and I am passionate about it.&#xD;&#xA;I have been designing since I was 14 years old. My boss is happy with my work. I also see that colleagues from college like my designs and frequently reach out to me and or ask me questions. &#xD;&#xA;I wouldn't consider myself excellent, but I believe that currently my skill is moderate ( I still have/want much to learn and discover).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am currently employed and studying part time. I also do freelance work for my colleagues and friends of friends and anyone that reaches out to me basically.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am wondering how hard it is to start the freelance, how do I know if I am ready for it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20245" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2765" RevisionGUID="30e8cb7a-093e-4365-bd0e-8ef85f77e125" CreationDate="2018-04-14T22:31:01.523" Comment="Proposed by 19139 approved by 61, 14455 edit id of 589" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20246" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7575" RevisionGUID="3ccb5d1e-985d-40f9-a98c-ab1781179479" CreationDate="2018-04-14T22:31:30.010" UserId="19802" Comment="Rude and not coming across as helpful; putting down the guy when he's new won't help; give positive feedback, even if its blunt; just not negative and condesendinf like this response was!" Text="If you want to be a freelancer, then you should do your due diligence in researching topics such as this. &#xA;&#xA;There are similar stories for the past 10 months, maybe a year, where freelancers were conned to pay something to start work. They were all scammed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes there were asking for the costs of the work permit, other times something else. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But in order to do any freelancer work, you will NOT be asked to pay ANYTHING in advance. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20247" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7575" RevisionGUID="3ccb5d1e-985d-40f9-a98c-ab1781179479" CreationDate="2018-04-14T22:31:30.010" Comment="Proposed by 19802 approved by 61, 14455 edit id of 588" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20249" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7548" RevisionGUID="4ed787a3-e891-4430-8214-6272edb1ce00" CreationDate="2018-04-15T12:59:45.647" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20250" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7664" RevisionGUID="0a0999e8-2e5f-4040-949c-6e00593b0bfd" CreationDate="2018-04-16T12:39:17.523" UserId="19139" Comment="added 6 characters in body" Text="You may feel rude but at the end of the day it's your business. If they come back the second time you should give less information than you provided on their first visit, but tell them you can give them a more thorough explanation if they booked an appointment.&#xD;&#xA;Alternatively stop giving away free information. When someone calls/comes to see you with their problem, you can respond with &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;That sounds like a very complicated situation. If you would like to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; book an appointment, we can discuss your current situation, and work&#xD;&#xA;&gt; out the best thing for you&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way they know you are invested in their story and want to help, and you have offered your services, and you have not provided them with much information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, giving away free information is one thing, but don't start filling out papers for people. You need to charge, or else you're just a charity." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20252" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7667" RevisionGUID="3c4e71d4-52ce-4cb1-8ca9-78460e4636d0" CreationDate="2018-04-17T23:59:40.373" UserId="16157" Text="I'm (about to be) a freelance web developer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Changes are I'll be hiring the services of primarily graphic designers to create logos, design pages etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thing is - in designing a business card for example - I don't really know what makes a business card good or whatever. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there some general guidelines for what's reasonable to request or expect, and what's not? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20253" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7667" RevisionGUID="3c4e71d4-52ce-4cb1-8ca9-78460e4636d0" CreationDate="2018-04-17T23:59:40.373" UserId="16157" Text="How do I avoid being a bad client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20254" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7667" RevisionGUID="3c4e71d4-52ce-4cb1-8ca9-78460e4636d0" CreationDate="2018-04-17T23:59:40.373" UserId="16157" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20255" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7668" RevisionGUID="50262362-4bec-4361-b0d7-b2004919f363" CreationDate="2018-04-18T03:52:37.923" UserId="708" Text="It's really no different than avoiding being an a-hole in other areas of life. Be kind, respectful, pay your bills, and listen when the designer presents an issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realize *they* are the experts in their areas, not you. And while your decision is final since you are the client, designers *often* have valuable input and insight into marketing which you may not be considering. (i.e. a decent designer *will* know what makes a business card good. So, listen to their suggestions.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for specifics, well, that'll take discussions. Remember they are agreeing to work with you *just as much* as you are agreeing to work with them. It's a **collaboration**, not employee arrangement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20256" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7668" RevisionGUID="4418a4dd-82bb-42e5-b6af-717def6203bb" CreationDate="2018-04-18T04:03:21.743" UserId="708" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="It's really no different than avoiding being an a-hole in other areas of life. Be kind, respectful, pay your bills, and listen when the designer presents an issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realize *they* are the experts in their areas, not you. And while your decision is final since you are the client, designers *often* have valuable input and insight into marketing which you may not be considering. (i.e. a decent designer *will* know what makes a business card good. So, listen to their suggestions.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for specifics, well, that'll take discussions. Remember they are agreeing to work with you *just as much* as you are agreeing to work with them. It's a **collaboration**, not an employee arrangement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20257" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7668" RevisionGUID="f46a9885-29dd-4636-9e87-35d55c4a72e0" CreationDate="2018-04-18T05:02:17.403" UserId="708" Comment="added 89 characters in body" Text="It's really no different than avoiding being unpleasant to deal with in other areas of life. Be kind, respectful, pay your bills, and listen when the designer presents an issue. Essentially treat anyone you work with how you would prefer to be treated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Realize *they* are the experts in their areas, not you. And while your decision is final since you are the client, designers *often* have valuable input and insight into marketing which you may not be considering. (i.e. a decent designer *will* know what makes a business card good. So, listen to their suggestions.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for specifics, well, that'll take discussions. Remember they are agreeing to work with you *just as much* as you are agreeing to work with them. It's a **collaboration**, not an employee arrangement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20258" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7623" RevisionGUID="4abc005c-439a-4ac3-9913-3b4fca738b84" CreationDate="2018-04-18T13:22:49.513" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20262" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7663" RevisionGUID="8efbf103-a094-4574-927d-096c61fc8def" CreationDate="2018-04-21T22:07:54.050" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/987815212144263169" />
  <row Id="20266" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="245" RevisionGUID="1a9e0946-5d8c-487e-a9d0-0e78ba234711" CreationDate="2018-04-22T05:36:48.160" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="20267" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7506" RevisionGUID="9b0b2e31-1b83-4f70-91cc-b68bf9287545" CreationDate="2018-04-23T17:11:45.183" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20268" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7670" RevisionGUID="aeb2afa3-5e53-41f5-a304-d232e013d184" CreationDate="2018-04-23T20:18:01.577" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="I don't see any problem in asking for a payment. The work that you have done is valuable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But don't demand a payment, as there was no agreement from the beginning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they agree, it's fine. Otherwise, simply rejoyce about your achievement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20269" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7667" RevisionGUID="4bf8eb45-6ba0-4c15-97e4-4d10267c444f" CreationDate="2018-04-24T02:43:23.283" UserId="16157" Comment="added 289 characters in body" Text="I'm (about to be) a freelance web developer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Changes are I'll be hiring the services of primarily graphic designers to create logos, design pages etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thing is - in designing a business card for example - I don't really know what makes a business card good or whatever. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally - I would like to chat with people in general about freelancing, branding strategies etc, but I don't want to be leading people on and basically wasting their time; but at the same time - I really can't afford to be paying people $50-200/hr for every conversation I have. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there some general guidelines for what's reasonable to request or expect, and what's not? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20274" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7672" RevisionGUID="e5d30c8b-8516-42e5-820d-9014a6a6f6a2" CreationDate="2018-04-24T21:59:32.580" UserId="19847" Text="I am currently negotiating a license agreement with a former client that I have stopped developing for. It was up till now just work based on a verbal agreement. Now as we are going seperate ways we are making sure we are both protected.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As it stands I own the IP and the copyright on the site has my name on it. I will be licensing to them to use and to modify themselves as they need. Once the license is setup, what should that copyright on the site say, and how will it change as they develope the site further?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20275" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7672" RevisionGUID="e5d30c8b-8516-42e5-820d-9014a6a6f6a2" CreationDate="2018-04-24T21:59:32.580" UserId="19847" Text="If I am licensing a website to a client, what should the copyright on the site say?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20276" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7672" RevisionGUID="e5d30c8b-8516-42e5-820d-9014a6a6f6a2" CreationDate="2018-04-24T21:59:32.580" UserId="19847" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20277" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7672" RevisionGUID="82c624b6-a73d-478b-a339-024d516bf3e7" CreationDate="2018-04-24T22:05:44.820" UserId="19847" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20278" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7673" RevisionGUID="55e34205-147b-4891-9f2c-4adac13d29ad" CreationDate="2018-04-25T03:30:47.823" UserId="708" Text="Copyrights indicate the owner of the IP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could do &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;© 2018 [Your Company]. Used with permission.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;© 2018 [Your Company]. Licensed to [Client Company].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Site Contents © [Client Company]&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Website Design © 2018 [Your Company]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20279" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="7673" RevisionGUID="2bc6814e-3a0d-45f2-8c4c-ab77e34fcaa2" CreationDate="2018-04-25T05:29:52.170" UserId="708" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="20280" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="ab7580af-af51-418d-957d-fa1712efff3e" CreationDate="2018-04-25T21:20:54.480" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20281" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="7673" RevisionGUID="8f13c1f5-6260-42d7-9f37-6ce71cfd250d" CreationDate="2018-04-25T21:28:29.353" UserId="708" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="20282" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3075" RevisionGUID="23bc99d4-1fe3-4cb6-8450-5cf0e0852824" CreationDate="2018-04-26T07:20:57.947" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/989403946816098306" />
  <row Id="20284" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7563" RevisionGUID="0e1a773d-182f-48f4-9fe9-1e6fe568cec0" CreationDate="2018-04-27T15:25:18.743" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20285" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7637" RevisionGUID="562d9573-134b-4710-845c-b8c676695b7b" CreationDate="2018-04-28T14:25:19.290" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20286" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7674" RevisionGUID="3bf8edb2-b9fa-4b20-8884-9b6ca11079ca" CreationDate="2018-04-28T17:09:57.200" UserId="2964" Text="Parents see value in their kids education and if it's fun for the kids they will want to play/use your websote/app - so it's a win-win. You may want to target the parents in your ad campaign or social media marketing with the benefits they can give their kids, and then target the kids with the fun aspects of your website/app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In terms of payment strategy, you could work it like other SaaS companies and do a monthly subscription service as well as over a fixed term(3, 6 or 12 month) deal that gives them a discount. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Adding stats and badges on your program would help out a lot too. Gives the kids/users incentive to keep playing and get more rewards. (I.e. kids answer math questions or solve puzzles and gain points based on the number of correct answers/accuracy. Then they can use their points to pimp their avatar or get items that give them bonus skills.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you could use ads on free memberships for money if no one signs up, and paid get ad free experience plus better rewards, points or upgrades. (More detailed stats or advice on how to improve).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps you out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Matt" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20287" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7675" RevisionGUID="a0d11300-85d6-4ea6-a5b2-d2d6383414d8" CreationDate="2018-04-29T20:22:58.790" UserId="19873" Text="The auto-entrepreneur business in France, also called micro-entrepreneur, was launched in France in 2009 for small businesses. It offers a simple legal structure for sole traders, who will be paying their social charges based on their turnover. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An auto-entrepreneur business can be registered online and the social charges can also be declared online.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This [site][1] has lot of up-to-date info regarding fees, rules, and changes made in 2017.  I've included other helpful links.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - https://www.auto-entrepreneur.fr/ &#xD;&#xA; - https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.startbusinessinfrance.com/auto-entrepreneur&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.startbusinessinfrance.com/blog/post/summary-of-changes-to-the-auto-entrepreneur-business-in-2017" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20288" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7563" RevisionGUID="4692b229-4f3c-4d99-a822-1161e711a56d" CreationDate="2018-04-29T22:22:11.667" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/990717911919681536" />
  <row Id="20289" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7676" RevisionGUID="84d878c6-8c1d-4656-80e5-4c411e89beb7" CreationDate="2018-04-30T05:58:34.413" UserId="19876" Text="I want to work as a freelancer for data entry. &#xA;Which skills are required for it? &#xA;And I also want my fees by paytm so what to do?&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20290" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7676" RevisionGUID="84d878c6-8c1d-4656-80e5-4c411e89beb7" CreationDate="2018-04-30T05:58:34.413" UserId="19876" Text="I want to work as a freelancer for data entry job which skills are required for it and how to make my profile attractive?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20291" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7676" RevisionGUID="84d878c6-8c1d-4656-80e5-4c411e89beb7" CreationDate="2018-04-30T05:58:34.413" UserId="19876" Text="|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20292" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7677" RevisionGUID="c65f9318-240d-4178-90ba-c8e6876a5a89" CreationDate="2018-04-30T09:58:33.260" UserId="19139" Text="It all really depends on what kind of data you are adding, what your clients want, how they want data adding.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would say it's likely they will want things in a database if you're talking about websites, such as stock etc. But it could also be things like entering numbers in Microsoft Excel.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other skills would be maths, analytics, and data analytics. I think you should find your customers first and see what it is THEY want, and update your skills accordingly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20294" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="661" RevisionGUID="1016c091-347f-4d84-bb41-a5f9f3a0c6c7" CreationDate="2018-04-30T13:22:13.430" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/990944411679850497" />
  <row Id="20295" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7347" RevisionGUID="41ae7a20-961d-4ae0-8e06-86b77841de9d" CreationDate="2018-05-01T01:49:00.687" UserId="15235" Comment="grammar corrections, tags edited" Text="I have done freelance work mostly related to graduation level problem solutions, but in one of my case I failed to provide the right solution, even after working quite good on it, so I refunded back the amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question: what policy anyone should one follow while doing some online work that, even though you work on that for at least some reasonable amount, should pay back to you for your efforts taken? Does anyone have the same situation where the final work goes wrong, even working hard on that?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20296" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="7347" RevisionGUID="41ae7a20-961d-4ae0-8e06-86b77841de9d" CreationDate="2018-05-01T01:49:00.687" UserId="15235" Comment="grammar corrections, tags edited" Text="Payments for problems when the solution hasn't been delivered" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20297" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7347" RevisionGUID="41ae7a20-961d-4ae0-8e06-86b77841de9d" CreationDate="2018-05-01T01:49:00.687" UserId="15235" Comment="grammar corrections, tags edited" Text="|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20298" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7347" RevisionGUID="41ae7a20-961d-4ae0-8e06-86b77841de9d" CreationDate="2018-05-01T01:49:00.687" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by -1 edit id of 590" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20299" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7347" RevisionGUID="ee7b5bec-ca62-4e3d-bead-217784f2bf5f" CreationDate="2018-05-01T01:49:00.687" UserId="61" Comment="grammar corrections, tags edited" Text="I have done freelance work mostly related to graduation level problem solutions, but in one of my case I failed to provide the right solution, even after working quite good on it, so I refunded back the amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question: what policy should one follow while doing some online work that, even though you work on that for at least some reasonable amount, should pay back to you for your efforts taken? Does anyone have the same situation where the final work goes wrong, even working hard on that?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20305" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7681" RevisionGUID="cf495700-71c5-4840-a22b-2fc916066e69" CreationDate="2018-05-03T17:27:54.810" UserId="16417" Text="If you are an occasional freelancer (for programmer, sysadmin, etc.), do you need business insurance, even if you aren't really an official &quot;business&quot;?  Assume for this you are doing things on UpWork or a site like that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20306" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7681" RevisionGUID="cf495700-71c5-4840-a22b-2fc916066e69" CreationDate="2018-05-03T17:27:54.810" UserId="16417" Text="Do you need insurance before you freelance?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20307" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7681" RevisionGUID="cf495700-71c5-4840-a22b-2fc916066e69" CreationDate="2018-05-03T17:27:54.810" UserId="16417" Text="|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20312" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="2854" RevisionGUID="f7d437b6-75ba-4018-abd3-dd6876c7798f" CreationDate="2018-05-04T16:06:15.753" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="20314" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7683" RevisionGUID="807fa2fd-14fe-43fd-af5f-de500517f118" CreationDate="2018-05-04T18:35:01.753" UserId="19906" Text="This is really a relative question considering the concept of insurance, what country you're doing business in, what your local licensing and business laws require, etc., but to try to give you a rough idea, the TL;DR is basically NO, you do not require it, nor, in my opinion, do you even really need it. However, UpWork has an alternative argument posted on their website [here][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Insurance is always nice to have if or when you need it, but Business Liability Insurance rates are ridiculously low because most small businesses don't end up needing what it covers. Ten years ago I owned a few mall kiosks, most lease agreements required insurance with $1,000,000 Aggregate Limit, I was paying like $10 or $20 a month for it. Here's an [article][2] that touches on a couple scenarios and where the cost of insurance and benefits come into play.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.upwork.com/hiring/community/liability-insurance-101/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.hiscox.com/small-business-insurance/general-liability-insurance/general-liability-insurance-cost" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20318" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7685" RevisionGUID="2ada41d7-52ab-415d-a8a2-4fe71dc65233" CreationDate="2018-05-06T14:23:05.543" UserId="19919" Text="This is a contracted job to cover a maternity leave. The contract states 30 hours a week maximum at at a certain rate, anything over would be actually a lesser hourly rate,  and even so, they will only pay me a maximum amount each month, period (when doing the math, that means 32 hours a week is the &quot;true&quot; max if i have permission to go over). We established monday to thursday as my working days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clearly, they underestimated the hours needed to cover, as I'm getting constant emails and work on evening and weekends. Friday, my supposed day off, is always a mess of items that come in and need to be done, &quot;urgent&quot; emails to be answered. By Thursday i was already at 30 hours, and the work I've done since is clearly way over even the couple of hours extension.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am covering for pretty much a co-owner of the company. When I was hired, I was told it would be handling the day to day but &quot;it's not like other agencies where you are working nights and weekends&quot; and &quot;with 4 days a week it'll be an easy summer.&quot; In general, its been a highly stressful gig compared to how it was explained prior.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My time is money and they are clearly not going to pay me for all the extra. I need to push back but of course, there's an inherent guilt in that this woman is about to have a baby next week. However, this contract is for 4 months, and I have scheduled my own personal client work and just personal needs for my friday to sundays, and I cannot continue to work for this company beyond the contract (nor should i). The whole reason I agreed to it was that it was giving me the flexibility to still be able to work on my own clients on Fridays. I dont want to leave and screw them over, i just want to get things straightened out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Trying to find the right words to politely say this without coming off in the wrong way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20319" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7685" RevisionGUID="2ada41d7-52ab-415d-a8a2-4fe71dc65233" CreationDate="2018-05-06T14:23:05.543" UserId="19919" Text="How to Push Back on Client Overstepping Contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20320" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7685" RevisionGUID="2ada41d7-52ab-415d-a8a2-4fe71dc65233" CreationDate="2018-05-06T14:23:05.543" UserId="19919" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20321" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7685" RevisionGUID="526ed8cd-479f-4902-a39b-18374577fe86" CreationDate="2018-05-06T14:38:02.040" UserId="19920" Comment="fixed spelling" Text="This is a contracted job to cover a maternity leave. The contract states 30 hours a week maximum at at a certain rate, anything over would be actually a lesser hourly rate,  and even so, they will only pay me a maximum amount each month, period (when doing the math, that means 32 hours a week is the &quot;true&quot; maximum if I have permission to go over). We established Monday to Thursday as my working days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clearly, they underestimated the hours needed to cover, as I'm getting constant emails and work on evening and weekends. Friday, my supposed day off, always has a mess of items that come in and need to be done, and *&quot;urgent&quot;* emails that need to be answered. By Thursday I was already at 30 hours, and the work I've done since is clearly way over even the couple of hours extension.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am covering for pretty much a co-owner of the company. When I was hired, I was told it would be handling the day to day but &quot;it's not like other agencies where you are working nights and weekends&quot; and &quot;with 4 days a week it'll be an easy summer.&quot; In general, its been a highly stressful gig compared to how it was explained prior.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My time is money and they are clearly not going to pay me for all the extra time. I need to push back but of course, there's an inherent guilt in that this woman is about to have a baby next week. However, this contract is for 4 months, and I have scheduled my own personal client work and just personal needs for my Friday to Sundays, and I cannot continue to work for this company beyond the contract (nor should I). The whole reason I agreed to it was that it was giving me the flexibility to still be able to work on my own clients on Fridays. I don't want to leave and screw them over, I just want to get things straightened out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am trying to find the right words to politely express this without coming off in the wrong way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20322" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7685" RevisionGUID="526ed8cd-479f-4902-a39b-18374577fe86" CreationDate="2018-05-06T14:38:02.040" Comment="Proposed by 19920 approved by 19919 edit id of 591" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20323" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7686" RevisionGUID="a265fc3a-8629-488f-93f3-85f450e0dfc0" CreationDate="2018-05-06T15:43:09.953" UserId="708" Text="Just because you *receive* an email in the evening or on a weekend, that does **not** mean you need to attend to it at that time. If you do, then that's kind of your fault. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See here: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1060/a-bad-client-who-pays-a-lot-should-money-or-attitude-prevail&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately it's up to you to adhere to the contract as much as it is up to them. If the contract states 32 hrs max, then that's what I would work. (Although a contract that pays *less* for more hours seems like a bad contract to agree to in the first place)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20324" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7685" RevisionGUID="754f6909-4b21-4478-842f-fdb1be6a16b7" CreationDate="2018-05-06T15:43:32.733" UserId="19919" Comment="added 122 characters in body" Text="This is a contracted job to cover a maternity leave. The contract states 30 hours a week maximum at at a certain rate, anything over would be actually a lesser hourly rate,  and even so, they will only pay me a maximum amount each month, period (when doing the math, that means 32 hours a week is the &quot;true&quot; maximum if I have permission to go over). We established Monday to Thursday as my working days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clearly, they underestimated the hours needed to cover, as I'm getting constant emails and work on evening and weekends. Friday, my supposed day off, always has a mess of items that come in and need to be done, and *&quot;urgent&quot;* emails that need to be answered. By Thursday I was already at 30 hours, and the work I've done since is clearly way over even the couple of hours extension. They have also asked me to attend events on weekends which I cannot do and was not brought up prior to working with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am covering for pretty much a co-owner of the company. When I was hired, I was told it would be handling the day to day but &quot;it's not like other agencies where you are working nights and weekends&quot; and &quot;with 4 days a week it'll be an easy summer.&quot; In general, its been a highly stressful gig compared to how it was explained prior.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My time is money and they are clearly not going to pay me for all the extra time. I need to push back but of course, there's an inherent guilt in that this woman is about to have a baby next week. However, this contract is for 4 months, and I have scheduled my own personal client work and just personal needs for my Friday to Sundays, and I cannot continue to work for this company beyond the contract (nor should I). The whole reason I agreed to it was that it was giving me the flexibility to still be able to work on my own clients on Fridays. I don't want to leave and screw them over, I just want to get things straightened out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am trying to find the right words to politely express this without coming off in the wrong way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20325" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7686" RevisionGUID="4d3084f5-18df-48d6-972a-12801488b22b" CreationDate="2018-05-06T15:45:16.380" UserId="708" Comment="added 391 characters in body" Text="Just because you *receive* an email in the evening or on a weekend, that does **not** mean you need to attend to it at that time. If you do, then that's kind of your fault. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See here: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1060/a-bad-client-who-pays-a-lot-should-money-or-attitude-prevail&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately it's up to you to adhere to the contract as much as it is up to them. If the contract states 32 hrs max, then that's what I would work. Although a contract that pays *less* for more hours seems like a bad contract to agree to in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they complain you aren't &quot;working enough&quot; point to the contract.... Remember you don't *owe* them anything. They are *paying* for services. If they can't or won't pay more, then you need to limit your working to what has been agreed upon, regardless of wether everything gets done or not. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;I can't get that done this week. We have already reached the contract maximum of 30 hours.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20329" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7688" RevisionGUID="87221f67-894d-467e-affc-ce476001d3d9" CreationDate="2018-05-07T13:46:15.040" UserId="15709" Text="&lt;sup&gt;excuse me for my not good English&lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work as a freelance web developer for small to medium local companies and I work alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some times happens that I have too much works and projects going on at the same time, or maybe I gave my availability to a specific client for a week because they have a trade fair or something like that. So I must work hard and produce results as expected and planned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Meanwhile I receive new requests for meetings or new jobs from other enstablished clients, I always answer the phone or by emails saying &quot;I am sorry but I can't meet you this week because I have a mandatory project to finish which I have planned since months. I can meet you the next week by this date... etc&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some clients seems not understanding at all what I say and they start to call 2 or 3 times a day, send requests by email and so on. Just to answer them on the phone or to send a reply by email takes me time and deconcentrate me, when i restart to work I need to refocus etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So some times I literally turn offline the telephone and close the email client so I don't get emails and calls or messages in by any means. That can be for half day to one full day, then maybe I recontact them when I am less busy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But while doing that I feel &quot;guilty&quot; in some way that I maybe can be rude or unpolite to clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How is your behaviour in these cases, are you available 100% of the time or you go &quot;offline&quot; when you are busy?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20330" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7688" RevisionGUID="87221f67-894d-467e-affc-ce476001d3d9" CreationDate="2018-05-07T13:46:15.040" UserId="15709" Text="Is it rude to be unavailable to clients when you are very busy?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20331" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7688" RevisionGUID="87221f67-894d-467e-affc-ce476001d3d9" CreationDate="2018-05-07T13:46:15.040" UserId="15709" Text="|difficult-client|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20332" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7688" RevisionGUID="ced7ce31-3c50-46b8-a157-337930ecf527" CreationDate="2018-05-07T14:01:36.650" UserId="15709" Comment="typos" Text="&lt;sup&gt;excuse me for my not good English&lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work as a freelance web developer for small to medium local companies and I work alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some times happens that I have too much works and projects going on at the same time, or maybe I gave my availability to a specific client for a week because they have a trade fair or something like that. So I must work hard and produce results as expected and planned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Meanwhile I receive new requests for meetings or new jobs from other enstablished clients, I always answer the phone or by emails saying &quot;I am sorry but I can't meet you this week because I have a mandatory project to finish which I have planned since months. I can meet you the next week by this date... etc&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some clients seems not understanding at all what I say and they start to call 2 or 3 times a day, send requests by email and so on. Just to answer them on the phone or to send a reply by email takes me time and deconcentrate me, when I restart to work I need to refocus etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So some times I literally turn offline the telephone and close the email client so I don't get emails, calls or messages by any means. That can be for half day to one full day, then maybe I recontact them when I am less busy the day after or as soon as I can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But while doing that I feel &quot;guilty&quot; in some way that I maybe can be rude or unpolite to clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How is your behaviour in these cases, are you available 100% of the time or you go &quot;offline&quot; when you are busy?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20333" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7689" RevisionGUID="31094afc-8d9c-4158-a21a-806ca782f85e" CreationDate="2018-05-07T14:14:31.563" UserId="708" Text="You should **not** feel guilty.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes work *requires* you to shut out the world and focus. And as a sole proprietor or single member business clients should somewhat expect that they can't *always* gain immediate access to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I often let emails sit, ignore the phone, etc. while I'm in the middle of something.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless you have a contract with a client that states you are to be &quot;on call and available&quot; during specific hours, you aren't doing *anything* wrong.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20334" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7660" RevisionGUID="44c148bf-33f0-41ce-b9ca-4eb8d05f0773" CreationDate="2018-05-07T15:18:44.953" UserId="19920" Comment="corrected spelling" Text="What is needed to work legally in France as a freelancer for a foreigner?, I'm specially interested in knowing what is needed when the person is not from the European union, the US, or countries in the Schengen area." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20335" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="7660" RevisionGUID="44c148bf-33f0-41ce-b9ca-4eb8d05f0773" CreationDate="2018-05-07T15:18:44.953" UserId="19920" Comment="corrected spelling" Text="What will a foreigner need to legally work as a freelancer (web developer) in France?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20336" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7660" RevisionGUID="44c148bf-33f0-41ce-b9ca-4eb8d05f0773" CreationDate="2018-05-07T15:18:44.953" Comment="Proposed by 19920 approved by 19782 edit id of 593" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20339" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7529" RevisionGUID="06edfd08-ccb6-4676-9685-61d9306fc9ae" CreationDate="2018-05-07T18:38:08.603" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20340" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7691" RevisionGUID="675d3f6c-0347-44dc-95e0-9807cb2e7390" CreationDate="2018-05-08T06:25:58.583" UserId="19932" Text="Yours would be a Small Claims case. You have 1 year and 1 day to file against someone who owes you money. Your case is too old. This is regulated by Statute of Limitations if you are in the US.&#xD;&#xA;If you got this client on Freelancer, you should have gone to them first. They have a Dispute Policy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20341" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7692" RevisionGUID="cc449875-9d15-411f-bf0b-c0adff4698c2" CreationDate="2018-05-08T06:36:10.690" UserId="19932" Text="First of all, you cannot &quot;be all things to all people.&quot; Then determine what &quot;business&quot; you are in and learn what fees to charge. Tell them from the beginning you have a business, you are a professional and you charge fees. Sit down with them and YOU ask questions to determine what their problem is. Then figure out how long it will take to solve their problem and quote them a fee. You can only give up so much &quot;free information&quot; before it bites into your bottom line." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20346" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7691" RevisionGUID="5fc320be-efa2-40a5-9e70-b6272f807852" CreationDate="2018-05-08T08:29:01.883" UserId="58" Comment="reworded and made the tone a little more neutral" Text="In the US, this would be a small claims case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have 1 year and 1 day to file against someone who owes you money; in this case, your case would be too old, as this is regulated by Statute of Limitations if you are in the US.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you got this client on Freelancer, they have a dispute policy, which should be your first call.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20347" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7535" RevisionGUID="b54cb518-d5ba-4443-a8f3-81ad65af3697" CreationDate="2018-05-08T08:31:05.010" UserId="58" Comment="Updated formatting a little" Text="So, I got a client through Freelancer about a year and a half ago who was not willing to pay me on the site because he said he had an accountant and company process that didn't allow that, but he was willing to sign a contract online.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since he is in the UK and I am in India, I figured that was the only way. After struggling to pay through PayPal (he said there was fraud committed on that account) and me not having a bank account in the UK, he ended up paying me on Freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Months after that, he used my services, apologized as he was traveling/facing trouble with the bank/was hospitalized (all the excuses in the book), and even now has not paid me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract has a 14 day payment release clause; can I take legal action in this case? And how would I go about it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20348" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7535" RevisionGUID="b54cb518-d5ba-4443-a8f3-81ad65af3697" CreationDate="2018-05-08T08:31:05.010" UserId="58" Comment="Updated formatting a little" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20351" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7694" RevisionGUID="33980de9-6bb7-45b4-9aee-543159a6297e" CreationDate="2018-05-09T21:26:47.597" UserId="9845" Text="Scott gave a good answer. I'd like to add on to that with a few different ways to handle this so your clients don't feel like they're getting shafted. Many of us who do similar work deal with the same problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Create an availability calendar for people to schedule phone calls, meetings, etc. If you use Google, you can create appointment slots directly in your Google calendar and share that with clients. There are other free and paid options available.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Have a policy in your contracts about phone calls and availability. For example, I have set business hours and don't answer the phone outside those hours, though I do check voicemails. I also bill clients when calls are longer than 10 minutes or become excessive, and my contracts explicitly state this. People are less likely to bother you all the time if you charge every time they call.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Allow yourself some quiet hours each day where you don't answer the phone or emails. Doesn't have to be all day, but for projects that require focus, the world won't end if you don't answer a message within an hour or two. You can also always set up an automated email response or message that says you are working on a project and will respond after 3pm or something similar.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Setting boundaries for clients can be tricky if you've been readily available to them in the past, but it's an important step for keeping organized and avoiding getting overwhelmed. Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20352" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7695" RevisionGUID="76ddb232-4c32-4751-8cf1-ad4e5acd415d" CreationDate="2018-05-10T11:41:53.630" UserId="15143" Text="You'll need an insurance but only if you're dealing with large businesses, and the amount of the contract is significant. That's generally reserved for an agency. If you're just working as a causal programmer, mostly likely not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Upworks jobs are small; serious and large jobs won't goto the  open market. Those large jobs might require an insurance, but you aren't going to see them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone askes you to buy an insurance on Upworks, think about the risks. Insurance is quite complicated for an oversea client. Unless the amount is very significant (unlikely), don't bother." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20353" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7696" RevisionGUID="56c11da8-29c5-4852-a071-d3098455a183" CreationDate="2018-05-10T18:26:38.320" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="I am delivering compiled libraries to a customer. This customer wants a guarantee that whatever happens (say if I disappear unexpectedly), he will remain able to use the software when compiler upgrades occur, and also that corrective maintenance will remain possible at all times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This virtually means that the customer wants some access to the source code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can you advise of a way to satisfy the customer while avoiding direct transfer of the sources, to prevent any misuse, such as redistribution or misappropriation by unfair employees, and protect my know-how ? I do trust this customer, but he is about to be absorbed in a larger structure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that his can be settled via a contract, but this pretty theoretical as I would never be in a position to discover an infringement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20354" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7696" RevisionGUID="56c11da8-29c5-4852-a071-d3098455a183" CreationDate="2018-05-10T18:26:38.320" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Securing source code" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20355" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7696" RevisionGUID="56c11da8-29c5-4852-a071-d3098455a183" CreationDate="2018-05-10T18:26:38.320" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="|software|intellectual-property|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20356" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7697" RevisionGUID="9daf9387-bab9-46a6-b90f-03d42a783e74" CreationDate="2018-05-10T19:33:34.717" UserId="708" Text="Well a contract would disclose whether or not the customer *has a right* to source code. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If they don't have rights to source code, don't deliver it. If they are concerned about you &quot;vanishing&quot; then they need to then pay for source code so they have it on hand if needed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If the contract states they receive and pay for source code... there's no need for you to worry about securing it from them. They've purchased it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand what you are posting regarding not really being able to track any infringement, but that's fairly irrelevant and a separate (local) issue on your end. If I am ever concerned about infringement I know the primary thing I can do is *not* deliver aspects which would make it easy. And if I do deliver such aspects, I pretty go on faith that clients are ethical and trustworthy until proven otherwise." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20357" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7697" RevisionGUID="457d2f79-7167-4351-9eed-7d70889fc19a" CreationDate="2018-05-11T03:04:09.650" UserId="708" Comment="added 156 characters in body" Text="Well a contract would disclose whether or not the customer *has a right* to source code. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If they don't have rights to source code, don't deliver it. If they are concerned about you &quot;vanishing&quot; then they need to then pay for source code so they have it on hand if needed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If the contract states they receive and pay for source code... there's no need for you to worry about securing it from them. They've purchased it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand what you are posting regarding not really being able to track any infringement, but that's fairly irrelevant and a separate (local) issue on your end. If I am ever concerned about infringement I know the primary thing I can do is *not* deliver aspects which would make it easy. And if I do deliver such aspects, I do so at a price appropriate for the release of rights to the work. In other words, I either don't deliver or do. And I never release rights without payment for delivery. But that's my stance. I don't do licensing AND deliver source files." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20360" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7698" RevisionGUID="f3f5d0d8-298e-43e7-aabe-67ad507bb9a9" CreationDate="2018-05-14T14:55:46.097" UserId="18230" Text="One option would be to put the source code with a trusted third party. A notary for example. In my experience this is not very common and will incur some costs as well as possibly set off your client. It will probably suffice to give the client an encrypted version of the source and have the notary hand out the key, if you do not respond within 2 weeks etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I´d advise you to think long and hard if this is really necessary to protect your interests. Value of most source codes if often highly overrated, as it is often easy to rebuild or reverse engineer. Your strongest suit are usually your domain-knowledge and your proven track-record of professionalism, which often includes giving clients access to the source." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20361" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7688" RevisionGUID="34ae861c-3d39-45db-83f7-85ce6d80f737" CreationDate="2018-05-15T07:37:03.477" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/996293365900742656" />
  <row Id="20362" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7699" RevisionGUID="076f6b1a-a40c-474c-8fc2-549e83206d0f" CreationDate="2018-05-15T13:21:33.240" UserId="19897" Text="I am keen to avoid situations (as I have had in the past) where I hand over source code, and am not paid until significantly later. I'm perfectly happy to demonstrate that the work has been done, but I would like, at the least to specify that they can not legally use the work until it is paid for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any standard wording for this? Either:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* &quot;I will demonstrate the work, but you can't have the source code until I receive payment&quot;; or&#xD;&#xA;* &quot;I will give you the code, but you can't do anything with it other than assess it until I receive payment&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this uncommon or unreasonable?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20363" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7699" RevisionGUID="076f6b1a-a40c-474c-8fc2-549e83206d0f" CreationDate="2018-05-15T13:21:33.240" UserId="19897" Text="How to specify a &quot;deliverables after payment&quot; clause?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20364" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7699" RevisionGUID="076f6b1a-a40c-474c-8fc2-549e83206d0f" CreationDate="2018-05-15T13:21:33.240" UserId="19897" Text="|contracts|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20365" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7699" RevisionGUID="dcdbe2ac-f7cf-448e-aa3c-f5385756c3f9" CreationDate="2018-05-15T13:33:32.880" UserId="19897" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20366" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7700" RevisionGUID="fd5dba9b-31d9-40fd-90cc-32acaa4655a5" CreationDate="2018-05-15T14:20:58.977" UserId="708" Text="It is common and completely reasonable. At least the source code delivery part. The *&quot;not do anything with it&quot;* isn't really common. If clients aren't permitted to do anything with the source code, **don't** deliver it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Common phraseology:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Delivery upon receipt of full payment&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;.... to be delivered subsequent to final payment" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20367" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7688" RevisionGUID="a9651587-278c-4e90-8b73-fb785a7fb13e" CreationDate="2018-05-15T19:49:08.527" UserId="19920" Comment="improved formatting" Text="&lt;sup&gt;excuse me for my not good English&lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work as a freelance web developer for small to medium local companies and I work alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes it happens that I have too much works and projects going on at the same time, or maybe I gave my availability to a specific client for a week because they have a trade fair or something like that. So I must work hard and produce results as expected and planned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Meanwhile, I receive new requests for meetings or new jobs from other established clients, I always answer the phone or by emails saying &quot;I am sorry but I can't meet you this week because I have a mandatory project to finish which I have planned since months. I can meet you the next week by this date... etc&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some clients seems not understanding at all what I say and they start to call two or three times a day, send requests by email and so on. Just to answer them on the phone or to send a reply by email takes me time and distract me, when I restart to work I need to refocus etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, sometimes I literally turn off the telephone and close the email client so I don't get emails, calls or messages by any means. That can be for half day to one full day, then maybe I recontact them when I am less busy the day after or as soon as I can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But while doing that I feel &quot;guilty&quot; in some way that I maybe can be rude or unpolite to clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How is your behaviour in these cases, are you available 100% of the time or you go &quot;offline&quot; when you are busy?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20368" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7688" RevisionGUID="a9651587-278c-4e90-8b73-fb785a7fb13e" CreationDate="2018-05-15T19:49:08.527" Comment="Proposed by 19920 approved by 61, 15709 edit id of 594" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20377" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7704" RevisionGUID="1bc83db7-efea-4556-b8dc-769fb79c3bef" CreationDate="2018-05-16T16:24:44.317" UserId="5893" Text="This isn't a complete answer, but a properly written RFP will describe exactly how they want the proposal done (sometimes specifying the font type and size, and page count limits). I suggest getting a copy of a government RFP from municipal, state, or federal levels and seeing what sections they require. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Commercial RFPs will generally have fewer requirements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Frequently the proposal will become the SOW&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've only seen one MSA and I wasn't involved with responding to it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----&#xD;&#xA;In general, a proposal will describe the client's problem, your approach to solving the problem, who will be working on it (with their qualifications), how long it will take (milestone breakdown), and how much it will cost (with a payment schedule).  If there is follow up work, the MSA is important to describe what sort of maintenance is included in the proposal price, or how much it will be afterwards.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20380" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7705" RevisionGUID="38d884d1-9608-469e-971b-6a7a32b2dd45" CreationDate="2018-05-20T00:47:23.153" UserId="20002" Text="Proposal writing in response to RFPs can be quite a difficult endeavor. &#xA;&#xA;The best way to learn is having a good mentor, who’s an experienced proposal writer. If you know someone has this experience, ask if they will be your mentor. &#xA;&#xA;That said, you can learn how to write proposals on your own. I’ve probably written hundreds of proposals as a research scientist, as a pre-sales solution architect/engineer, and as a board member for a community art center. All forms of proposal writing share similar skills. &#xA;&#xA;As such, my first suggestion is to look for educational material on any kind of proposal writing, such as: [Government Proposal Writing 101][1] or [Introduction to Proposal Writing][2]. &#xA;&#xA;The next thing is to collect a set of [sample RFP responses][3]. At first this will give you something to mimic when creating your first proposals. Later you’ll use your own past proposals. Everywhere I’ve worked maintained a reference set of proposals, because you’ll see similar questions from one RFP to another. It takes time to craft quality answers, reusing those answers will save tons of time and result in better proposals.&#xA;&#xA;At one point I attended a proposal writing training session at a conference put on by National Science Foundation (NSF) program managers. Listening to people who write RFPs / solicitations significantly changed my viewpoint as a proposal writer. Probably the best advice was most program managers want just as much to see good proposals as you want to make one. Ask them questions to help you make your proposal better! &#xA;&#xA;Last but especially not least, learn from your failures. If you ask, you can often get information on why you’re proposal failed. This is great information for the next proposal. If it’s a recurring RFP this becomes an essential step to improve your chances for next time.&#xA;&#xA;What I’ll say about SOWs is similar to RFPs. Look for a mentor, [education material][4], [examples][5], and learn from your mistakes. Review with your clients at the end of a project what went well and what didn’t, then consider if something added to the SOW could have made things better.&#xA;&#xA;With a MSA (master service agreement), I’ll deviate from a mentor to saying you want a lawyer. I would look at [MSA templates][7]. I modified and tweaked one for my small business. That said, this is a contract make sure it is solid by having a lawyer review it. &#xA;&#xA;What Mike and Gab have to say is essential to understanding why you need an MSA. “[F* You, Pay Me][6]”&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: https://youtu.be/-5Q1QgevYeA&#xA;  [2]: https://grantspace.org/training/introduction-to-proposal-writing-3/&#xA;  [3]: http://www.howdesign.com/design-business/proposal/&#xA;  [4]: https://www.smartsheet.com/how-write-statement-work-any-industry&#xA;  [5]: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/16/stelprdb1041239.pdf&#xA;  [6]: https://youtu.be/jVkLVRt6c1U&#xA;  [7]: https://www.docracy.com/0gjm5qhy1nv/master-services-agreement" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20381" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7706" RevisionGUID="883713eb-5870-4a48-995e-6db59db321a0" CreationDate="2018-05-21T18:29:35.213" UserId="20006" Text="If I'm doing a passive task (i.e.: Generate &amp; download a database dump), is ethical to pass that time as billable hours? I'm not working, but in that moment I can't do any other tasks for my work (suppose that my computer is busy). Instead, I can go to the supermarket or see cable tv)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20382" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7706" RevisionGUID="883713eb-5870-4a48-995e-6db59db321a0" CreationDate="2018-05-21T18:29:35.213" UserId="20006" Text="Billable hours when doing passive task" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20383" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7706" RevisionGUID="883713eb-5870-4a48-995e-6db59db321a0" CreationDate="2018-05-21T18:29:35.213" UserId="20006" Text="|ethics|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20384" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7707" RevisionGUID="22214867-d152-42b4-aa97-e5bcf59cd70d" CreationDate="2018-05-21T20:15:34.050" UserId="708" Text="&gt;I can't do any other tasks for my work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then yes it is billable time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps at a reduced rate due to it being &quot;waiting time&quot; as opposed to &quot;active time&quot;. But that's your call. I'd have a hard time billing my standard rate if I was watching TV or running to the store merely because my system was busy with a task. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20385" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7707" RevisionGUID="ba2fbd96-e124-492b-897f-1a7de64a3f77" CreationDate="2018-05-21T20:34:16.250" UserId="708" Comment="added 94 characters in body" Text="&gt;I can't do any other tasks for my work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then yes it is billable time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps at a reduced rate due to it being &quot;waiting time&quot; as opposed to &quot;active time&quot;. But that's your call. I'd have a hard time billing my standard rate if I was watching TV or running to the store merely because my system was busy with a task. But then, I'd have at least 2 systems if my work involved locking one up for a period of time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20386" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7708" RevisionGUID="8f2de69c-ae9e-4f70-94e5-887114d038f6" CreationDate="2018-05-22T11:01:45.203" UserId="20009" Text="So, I don't really know if this is a propriate place for this question, but I believe that there're many freelancers here so I've got very important question for you.&#xD;&#xA;How do I find clients.&#xD;&#xA;I've created my own website where I offer my services, I've posted links to that website on Facebook sale groops and still no one is calling, I don't have big and impressive portfolio because I'm just starting, but I have skills to do websites, shops, and some web apps.&#xD;&#xA;So, any tips for me? I really need to start earning money.&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for any help." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20387" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7708" RevisionGUID="8f2de69c-ae9e-4f70-94e5-887114d038f6" CreationDate="2018-05-22T11:01:45.203" UserId="20009" Text="How to find clients when u are freelancer, need tips what to do" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20388" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7708" RevisionGUID="8f2de69c-ae9e-4f70-94e5-887114d038f6" CreationDate="2018-05-22T11:01:45.203" UserId="20009" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20389" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7709" RevisionGUID="649473d4-7f18-47e3-8994-c5a1c6699c57" CreationDate="2018-05-22T13:34:58.050" UserId="8573" Text="A project in which I'm involved uses a 3rd party library among its Maven dependencies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What the 3rd party did is to set up a Maven repository on public Internet, protected by username / password. My company pays a yearly fee to the 3rd party to have access to their Maven repo. We configure their repository in our Maven settings file, and that's it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obvioulsy, having an account, _technically_ means we can use the latest version of the library in any project we need. I don't have access to contracts between my company and the 3rd party, maybe some more severe limitations are defined there, so maybe _legally_ we can't do that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope it helps. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20390" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7710" RevisionGUID="e2a1feee-2c20-4f45-abf4-f918698ce6ef" CreationDate="2018-05-22T13:42:42.410" UserId="8573" Text="1. Build a &quot;demo&quot; project. Something that could likely be an actual project. This way you can make your portfolio bigger.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Organize courses about the technologies you know. Is another way to find potential interested customer. I found two of the main customers in my life this way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20391" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7711" RevisionGUID="4bd79d03-9110-44ee-afc3-48700cb4b545" CreationDate="2018-05-22T15:46:37.587" UserId="18230" Text="Yes, it´s probably billable time but ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Morally and depending on jurisdiction and contract, you have the obligation towards your client to make the best use of his paid time - going to the Supermarket/Watch may pose a problem. You normally also have the obligation to advise him to the best of your knowledge, so you should make suggestions how to make more effective use of your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I´d try one of the following approaches.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it is only an occasional incident:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Plan your task so that your PC does the downloading/etc. when you wouldn´t use it anyways, don´t bill that time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Occupy yourself with something at least remotely useful to the client, such as studding documentation, going over your planning or preparing status reports.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. For work where you have to occasionally click/configure something and than wait again, I´d think about rounding up every phase where you have to do something to the next full quarter or so, but not bill the time where you where really doing nothing (watching TV for 2 hours without interruption)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there are recurring tasks:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Get a different machine, that works in the background. The client may be willing to provide one if that saves a lot of billed hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. Offer to automate those tasks, if possible, to have them run when you don´t need the machine. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Offer a different rate for low-intensity work, where you essentially rent out only your machine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This may seem like you are loosing out on possible revenue that way, but being a good adviser as well as making effective use out of the client´s money will ensure you further and probably better paid contracts int the future!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20392" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7712" RevisionGUID="5a11f172-f01d-4801-9842-fa803ad7773b" CreationDate="2018-05-23T07:28:45.837" UserId="20021" Text="I'm not 100% sure this is the correct place to ask this but I guess I'll find out. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am trying to startup up my own and my first business. Its a webshop which sells 3D prints. I offer both physical  products and a service to print anything they want. So they deliver a file to me and ill print it and ship it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem that I have is that I am setting up a web shop, I need photo's of my prints for the web shop. I have bought a nice camera and made a makeshift photobooth. The picture quality is nice but it does look DIY-ish. As in the photobooth is clearly a makeshift one. &#xD;&#xA;Is this good enough for a local company to have or is a perfect image quality really necessary? I do not want to look unprofessional. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just to make it a little bit more clear, the image quality of the camera is good. But the content of the image looks DIYish. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Kind regards,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Robbert" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20393" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7712" RevisionGUID="5a11f172-f01d-4801-9842-fa803ad7773b" CreationDate="2018-05-23T07:28:45.837" UserId="20021" Text="Using &quot;DIY&quot; quality product images on website" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20394" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7712" RevisionGUID="5a11f172-f01d-4801-9842-fa803ad7773b" CreationDate="2018-05-23T07:28:45.837" UserId="20021" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20395" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7712" RevisionGUID="c714f1c4-a57c-4792-993c-1f24f310d91b" CreationDate="2018-05-23T10:46:32.203" UserId="61" Comment="removed a signature" Text="I'm not 100% sure this is the correct place to ask this but I guess I'll find out. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am trying to startup up my own and my first business. Its a webshop which sells 3D prints. I offer both physical  products and a service to print anything they want. So they deliver a file to me and ill print it and ship it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem that I have is that I am setting up a web shop, I need photo's of my prints for the web shop. I have bought a nice camera and made a makeshift photobooth. The picture quality is nice but it does look DIY-ish. As in the photobooth is clearly a makeshift one. &#xD;&#xA;Is this good enough for a local company to have or is a perfect image quality really necessary? I do not want to look unprofessional. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just to make it a little bit more clear, the image quality of the camera is good. But the content of the image looks DIYish. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20396" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7713" RevisionGUID="49f8bdbf-a8ab-49e4-b610-0b70ed65a000" CreationDate="2018-05-23T15:52:51.190" UserId="708" Text="If you are concerned about image quality, it might be a good business investment to look around for someone with some experience with image editing - a design or photography student or professional.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may not need such a person to take new photos, but they may have a better skill set where post processing the images is concerned, making them look better overall without reshooting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I realize cost may be a factor, but if you yourself are concerned about the images, anyone else is going to see what you see times 10.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It all ultimately comes down to what you are willing to invest in this startup.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You *might* be able to find some quick tips for image editing by searching the web for specific problems (image to dark/light, remove background, etc). But really only a trained eye is going to do a good job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether or not image quality alters the return on the site... well... you'd have to test that. There's no way to know otherwise." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20397" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7714" RevisionGUID="175b120f-e407-4a2f-b88a-a910606ffc2e" CreationDate="2018-05-24T13:34:23.923" UserId="20030" Text="Let me start off by saying I made alot of mistakes on my end taking on a project. Now I am in a position where I have a software development project that is a bit of a nightmare and suffering from mission creep. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can you provide advice on what options I can take and what you think is the best course of action?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Background:**  &#xD;&#xA;I took on a project to develop a WordPress theme that is a web application for a digital agency. I was to work with another person who I thought was an experienced developer but turned out to only have very limited knowledge of html and css. The verbal agreement was that the other dev (who works for the agency) would do all the html, css and animations (gsap javascript). My mistakes include (but are not limited to); agreeing to an accelerated project timeline (I said 12 weeks but they got me down to 4 weeks), fixed project price, thinking the other developer could do their part, agreeing to a project without making them clearly outline all their needs (animations, webgl integrations, etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's now been 6 weeks and I have implemented the features outlined in the contract (5 templates, audio feature, custom posts, custom field integration). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The Problems:**   &#xD;&#xA;- The client keeps adding on more todos, he considers them expansions/alterations of the features I agreed to do in the contract but these changes are significant time consuming changes.  &#xD;&#xA;- The dev's changes introduce bugs and errors.  &#xD;&#xA;- The dev is meant to maintain the project after I am finished but doesn't have the skills or experience to compile to project for deployment. I have needed to train him on how to use git, npm, webpack, vue.js, etc. He currently has a problem where he cannot compile the project in production mode, it's obviously something to do with his npm/node version because it works fine for me on 2 different computers and OS's. But the client and him think it's my project setup. Should I or am I obliged to fix this issue for him? If he can't fix it, the client can't maintain/deploy the project. Fixing it involves me sitting down with him and just debugging the problem and trying to find a solution. The client is under the impression the problem is my code or project setup.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What actions do I have available to me? Should I say no to performing tech support for the dev? Should I agree to do some of the changes the client wants? Should I say no to all of them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What do I want to do:**  &#xD;&#xA;At this point I want to leave them with the project as is. It's not nice but I believe I have implemented the features outlined in the contract. I realise I will receive a big reputation loss and possibly legal action. I invoiced the client in 2 instalments, so 50% after 2 weeks (client paid this) and another 50% 3 weeks after that (not yet paid). I am happy to loose the last installment and maybe that would provide some legal protection?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20398" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7714" RevisionGUID="175b120f-e407-4a2f-b88a-a910606ffc2e" CreationDate="2018-05-24T13:34:23.923" UserId="20030" Text="Do all clients requests, some off them or none at all?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20399" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7714" RevisionGUID="175b120f-e407-4a2f-b88a-a910606ffc2e" CreationDate="2018-05-24T13:34:23.923" UserId="20030" Text="|contracts|ethics|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20400" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7715" RevisionGUID="2cb680e8-abb3-43ce-b5a7-9c778dc09d96" CreationDate="2018-05-24T13:47:38.807" UserId="20030" Text="My answer is purely anecdotal, I am a software dev who worked for a distributer that sold Civil Engineering software (it was an application rather than an API/library). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The model was a bit of a gray area, they would sell licenses per user but for larger businesses they would make per business agreements that would mean they could get X licenses for X fee on a per project basis. The nature of Civil Engineering is to work per project, so when a client won a big project for a highway, dam etc. they would hire more Civil Engineers then approach us saying; we are working on project X and need Y licenses what kind of deal can you do. For smaller clients the sales model was simply per user no wiggle room. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20401" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7716" RevisionGUID="d1a5810c-88a0-45b0-ab2f-4c890c76b219" CreationDate="2018-05-24T15:58:44.943" UserId="20035" Text="This is more of an ethical dilemma. I am working as a contractor for a state agency. For last few years, the top brass has changed and very arrogant people have stepped in. Their first order of business was to show to everyone that state employees are doing all the work.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;This is as far from truth as possible. The state agency where I work, employs several hundred contractors who do the actual work. The state employees have no skills/motivation to do anything. They lack the insight into any technical work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently, a state employee has been asking me for &quot;help&quot; with something she was assigned to do, but does not have the skills to do. This means that I will be doing all the research and prepare written instructions whereas in meetings and e-mails, all the credit will go to her, I am not even invited to these meetings or cc'ed on the e-mails. For all practical purposes, I don't even exist. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if I give her written steps to do the work, the complexity of the task is such that I cannot cover every possible combination and when she runs into any problems, she will ask me to resolve the issue while taking credit for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My questions are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this normal in contracting because I have never seen it happen to any of my friends who are in contracting. Everyone works as part of team, and no one takes credit for other person's work, be it employee or contractor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I help the employee?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I even continue to work with this client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I asked a friend and he said that since I was a contractor, I should not expect anything. To me, this is unacceptable. Claiming credit for someone else's work is unethical. Any advise will be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20402" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7716" RevisionGUID="d1a5810c-88a0-45b0-ab2f-4c890c76b219" CreationDate="2018-05-24T15:58:44.943" UserId="20035" Text="Is it ok for an employee to claim credit for work done by contractor?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20403" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7716" RevisionGUID="d1a5810c-88a0-45b0-ab2f-4c890c76b219" CreationDate="2018-05-24T15:58:44.943" UserId="20035" Text="|ethics|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20409" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7719" RevisionGUID="4085045a-d57f-44fa-9af4-18e867792010" CreationDate="2018-05-25T11:52:07.803" UserId="708" Text="I've lost count how often others have taken credit for my work. You may need to come to terms with that if you are going to be a freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I see it, there's little or nothing to be gained by trying to express to others that someone is falsely taking credit for your work. It ultimately causes you to look petty, aggressive, egomaniacal, and insecure. Even if you are perfectly just in your wanting to expose someone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's best to just do what you do and ignore the office politics which may be going on around you. Eventually it'll be discovered that whoever is taking credit *can't actually do* what they claim they've done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not meaning to make it sound easy to do this. But, it is the best way I've found to deal with such matters." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20410" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7720" RevisionGUID="a51cedd7-487b-401f-aa84-e5a593c69292" CreationDate="2018-05-25T15:58:22.680" UserId="5893" Text="What does the contract that you signed say? If there is anything in there that says &quot;***WORK FOR HIRE***&quot; then you have given up your rights to the IP that you've created. It means that the hiring entity owns all your work. It does NOT mean that you can't take credit for the work you do within the organization (i.e. internally to peers, bosses and other staff). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's certainly not ethical for this person to do this. As to &quot;normal&quot; that depends on the organization's culture. If it were me, I'd want to be included in the emails and meetings. How are you billing for this work? I mean if you're freelancing (which it kind of sounds like you are), is this beyond the scope of your contract? If so, you can easily refuse to help her, since you aren't really getting paid to do it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20411" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7721" RevisionGUID="65d5c480-0f91-40c0-a269-82bc924bcc1e" CreationDate="2018-05-25T16:03:26.790" UserId="5893" Text="Another option for your web store is to purchase one or 2 stock photographs from one of the better stock sites and create samples from them. Including pro photos with your &quot;diy&quot; photos will show the range of what your output will look like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't want to buy stock photography, find a local photographer or 2 and partner with them. They'll be shooting weddings and other things, and could &quot;upsell&quot; your services to their clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20414" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="48b03aca-3a6a-4cfb-ba0a-910b2627f672" CreationDate="2018-05-25T22:05:17.583" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20416" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7706" RevisionGUID="e28e39a1-3b73-4d04-a881-92bfc13fe3bb" CreationDate="2018-05-26T01:55:31.843" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1000193683885568005" />
  <row Id="20421" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7724" RevisionGUID="c04ff92a-cd69-4c64-85c5-875c13de770e" CreationDate="2018-05-26T15:22:08.893" UserId="20046" Text="I am new to freelancing. I have developed a project for a client. I am waiting for the final invoice to be settled - fixed price project. The client has requested revision changes 3 times. By revision changes I mean, I have presented the project to them and they have given me a list of changes to implement (this has occurred 3 times). Now I have been given a 4th list of revision changes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm unsure how to phrase or communicate that I cannot do anymore change till my previous invoice has been paid. Can you provide some advice and/or examples? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I/can I simply say; I cannot perform your requested changes until the last invoice has been settled?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20422" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7724" RevisionGUID="c04ff92a-cd69-4c64-85c5-875c13de770e" CreationDate="2018-05-26T15:22:08.893" UserId="20046" Text="How to tell client I cant do any more changes till they pay invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20423" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7724" RevisionGUID="c04ff92a-cd69-4c64-85c5-875c13de770e" CreationDate="2018-05-26T15:22:08.893" UserId="20046" Text="|difficult-client|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20424" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7725" RevisionGUID="60287f38-64d6-49cd-b5e6-b5f4155ecaee" CreationDate="2018-05-27T14:15:40.967" UserId="20048" Text="in my 6 months of freelancing i have faced this kind of clients many time. at first i didn't mention the chrage for extra revisions. which turned into a problem pretty soon. but now a days I give a fixed package with 3 revisions. if they want more they have pay extra. I clear the terms beforehand. &#xA;&#xA;**tldr;** say it straight. if you are working extra, you should be paid extra." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20425" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7725" RevisionGUID="aa377ed1-f684-40a9-89e4-764411068c93" CreationDate="2018-05-27T14:22:07.650" UserId="20048" Comment="added 65 characters in body" Text="in my 6 months of freelancing i have faced this kind of clients many time. at first i didn't mention the chrage for extra revisions. which turned into a problem pretty soon. but now a days I give a fixed package with 3 revisions. if they want more they have pay extra. I clear the terms beforehand. &#xA;&#xA;**tldr;** say it straight. if you are working extra, you should be paid extra. And clear the revision term before starting any future projects." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20426" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7726" RevisionGUID="482edb07-947e-4ea5-ba5b-2a660570173e" CreationDate="2018-05-28T02:34:30.613" UserId="15143" Text="Unfortunately, as a contractor this is very common and usual. I'd never CC, invite my contractors, give credits to them, no way under any possible scenario. Of course, I'd pay them generally at a rate they're happy with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't get both; you're external to the organization, so you have more freedom than as an employee. You also have less expectation. For returns, you are expected just take the money and walk away. Your hour rate should be higher than a full-time employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sorry, this is how it works." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20429" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7714" RevisionGUID="fc30be69-74f4-4b44-a2b9-a8e579dd6570" CreationDate="2018-05-28T04:56:03.930" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1000963893110460423" />
  <row Id="20430" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7727" RevisionGUID="4c218e73-f022-4db4-8939-46121c72ed50" CreationDate="2018-05-28T13:07:46.540" UserId="7858" Text="Assuming you have a contract stating the fixed price and the three changes, you simply refer to that very contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Having delivered the contractually agreed upon work, I am happy to work on &#xD;&#xA;    further refinements. However, this will require payment of invoices and &#xD;&#xA;    agreeing on a future hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Insist on an hourly rate, as this benefits the client as well as you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Continuing in a fixed price mode most often leads to a souring of the client relationship, as they naturally try to extract as much additional work from you, often with no issue being too small.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Agreeing on a pay-as-you-go hourly rate means *every* change costs them money, which limits their nice-to-haves and will result in a more rapid final delivery and probably avoids ending badly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20431" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7728" RevisionGUID="f6dd9856-41cc-43ca-b024-816ca365dd48" CreationDate="2018-05-28T18:56:34.393" UserId="708" Text="Heres the thing....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to have a *conversation* with the client. Not emails.. not instant message, but a *conversation* as in *speaking* via telephone, Skype, or in person. The is **no way** you are going to adequately express your concerns via *any* text delivery method. Text is heard in the *reader's voice* not the writers. So, if the client is at all bothered, annoyed, or concerned themselves that will come across to them when the *read* anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not unfounded to speak with the client and voice the issues...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I'm not comfortable with new features being implemented for the price we agreed upon. These expansions can be quite time consuming and considerable and I can not complete those for the current price. I'm happy to discuss expansions and revisions as a *separate* milestone after delivery.&#xD;&#xA;- I, unfortunately, am being overwhelmed by the need to train [dev's name] in many instances. These include xxxx, xxxx, xxxx, xxx. In addition problems are being created due to improper xxxxxx. These all are taking a considerable amount of my time as well. I am concerned that moving forward this will not decrease and again, I can not support continued training under the current price we agreed upon.&#xD;&#xA;- I'm very happy to move forward with training and expansions, but we need to resolve pricing for the additional time they will require. If you feel this is unwarranted, I'm happy to deliver a viable product which meet our original agreement. In fact, we are already there in my view. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20432" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7728" RevisionGUID="1735505e-97d1-4f32-ba98-e43bd9575214" CreationDate="2018-05-30T19:32:46.970" UserId="708" Comment="added 197 characters in body" Text="Heres the thing....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to have a *conversation* with the client. Not emails, not texts, not instant messages, but a *conversation* as in *speaking* via telephone, Skype, or in person. The is **no way** you are going to adequately express your concerns via *any* text delivery method. Text is heard in the *reader's voice* not the writers. So, if the client is at all bothered, annoyed, or concerned themselves that will come across to them when they **read** anything. *Your* tone of voice is imperative and needs to be conveyed not the clients internal voice. Leaving this up to the client interpretation via text is a recipe for an argument or discourse in almost all instances.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not unfounded to speak with the client and voice the issues...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I'm not comfortable with new features being implemented for the price we agreed upon. These expansions can be quite time consuming and considerable and I can not complete those for the current price. I'm happy to discuss expansions and revisions as a *separate* milestone after delivery.&#xD;&#xA;- I, unfortunately, am being overwhelmed by the need to train [dev's name] in many instances. These include xxxx, xxxx, xxxx, xxx. In addition problems are being created due to improper xxxxxx. These all are taking a considerable amount of my time as well. I am concerned that moving forward this will not decrease and again, I can not support continued training under the current price we agreed upon.&#xD;&#xA;- I'm very happy to move forward with training and expansions, but we need to resolve pricing for the additional time they will require. If you feel this is unwarranted, I'm happy to deliver a viable product which meet our original agreement. In fact, we are already there in my view. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20433" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7729" RevisionGUID="261b43e3-b48d-48c5-b56d-a130dd6f3e5f" CreationDate="2018-05-31T18:35:09.503" UserId="20067" Text="I do motion graphics and editing. A lot of my &quot;time&quot; is waiting for the client to respond to the last version I sent, or to answer a question about how to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client is claiming I should only bill for &quot;actual work&quot; time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The typical scenario:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Time 0: I get an email saying &quot;do this thing&quot;&#xD;&#xA; - I ask some questions ... length, colors, need some media etc. (because &#xD;&#xA;the first email NEVER contains all necessary info)&#xD;&#xA; - 15 mins later I get an answer. I ask another question.&#xD;&#xA; - 5 mins later I get an answer. Now I can start.&#xD;&#xA; - I spend 1 hours making this thing, and send it.&#xD;&#xA; - 25 mins later, they email me &quot;can you change x, y and z&quot;&#xD;&#xA; - I reply &quot;When you say z, do you mean z1 or z2?&quot;&#xD;&#xA; - 5 mins later they say &quot;z2&quot;&#xD;&#xA; - I do z2 and send it.&#xD;&#xA; - 10 mins later they say &quot;wait, change j, k and l&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've now spent 2 hours on this thing, of which 1 hour is &quot;actual work.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then this cycle repeats 3 more times throughout the &quot;day&quot;. I do the final change. I send it. I ask &quot;Are we done for today? Are you sending to your client?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One hour later they say &quot;OK, we're done for today.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now it's been 7 hours of my day. But only 3 hours of &quot;work&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would bill 7 hours. Client is saying I should bill for 3.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is standard practice? What do you all do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(I'm especially interested to hear from people in media/entertainment/marketing.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20434" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7729" RevisionGUID="261b43e3-b48d-48c5-b56d-a130dd6f3e5f" CreationDate="2018-05-31T18:35:09.503" UserId="20067" Text="Do you bill for time waiting for client to respond within a single shift/day?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20435" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7729" RevisionGUID="261b43e3-b48d-48c5-b56d-a130dd6f3e5f" CreationDate="2018-05-31T18:35:09.503" UserId="20067" Text="|working-from-home|billing|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20436" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7730" RevisionGUID="8729fd6c-6d07-4d28-ba68-e9f5f254c656" CreationDate="2018-05-31T19:45:46.020" UserId="708" Text="You bill for 3.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Communication with clients is part of clerical work and not directly billable. You **are not on staff as an employee**, if you are freelancing. Unless you have a *specific **contract*** which states that you will invoice for a full day regardless of time on project, the client is correct. Communication is *never* billable. It's a *[loss leader][1]* if anything. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer you are more than capable of moving on to *some other project* while providing the client enough time to review, make decisions, and get back to you. In fact, for clients which tend to repeatedly change things in rapid succession it's *always been my stance* that it's far wiser to wait a day to start revisions than to try and get them revisions immediately.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I mean. you *can't* tell me that you sit, staring at an email client, or IM window.. waiting... waiting.. waiting.. waiting.. for a response. No. you are doing *other things* in the interim. Other things which are generally *not* client billable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_leader" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20447" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7724" RevisionGUID="b60ea4c9-a580-4f74-a8a2-d9d4b820a7d1" CreationDate="2018-06-01T20:05:50.837" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1002642398370041857" />
  <row Id="20449" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7733" RevisionGUID="9b32ab0c-ed14-4008-8296-a344e02c3fbe" CreationDate="2018-06-02T14:41:49.663" UserId="17858" Text="I develop mobile apps and websites, and charge hourly since these are long-term contracts with continuous development. I'm paid at the start of every month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some websites/web services I can host for free on Heroku because they're low-tier. But now I'm at the point where I need to pay for hosting (larger instance size, database, etc.); these services are typically billed monthly. Some of these projects can incur non-trivial hosting costs of up to $50/month. If it were $10/year for a domain, I'd just pay it and forget about it, but that's not the case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since hosting/tools/services are specific to the client's project, how do I have the client pay for them? My first reaction is to start including a separate invoice for service/tooling bills, alongside the invoice for hours worked on development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is including a separate invoice a good idea, or is there a better approach?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note**: I could have the client set up payment directly on Heroku/Amazon/etc. to pay for all of the services individually, but it's a headache to manage. Most of my clients aren't tech-savvy, and setting up accounts/payments with websites they've never heard of before might, quite frankly, scare them. I'd rather just pay for it myself and bill them for it afterward." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20450" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7733" RevisionGUID="9b32ab0c-ed14-4008-8296-a344e02c3fbe" CreationDate="2018-06-02T14:41:49.663" UserId="17858" Text="I charge hourly, but services used by the client have monthly costs" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20451" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7733" RevisionGUID="9b32ab0c-ed14-4008-8296-a344e02c3fbe" CreationDate="2018-06-02T14:41:49.663" UserId="17858" Text="|payments|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20452" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7734" RevisionGUID="ddd88059-32ba-41dd-a8f0-e64daba013bc" CreationDate="2018-06-02T18:12:38.937" UserId="708" Text="I would merely add a line item to my invoices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Service ............... $xxx&lt;br &gt;&#xD;&#xA;Service ............... $xxx&lt;br &gt;&#xD;&#xA;Service ............... $xxx&lt;br &gt;&#xD;&#xA;Service ............... $xxx&lt;br &gt;&#xD;&#xA;Hosting ............... $xxx&lt;br &gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know why you'd even consider an additional invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also customary to mark-up any requirements you pay on behalf of the client to ensure they are maintained. So I'd charge at least (Hosting + 20%) to the client. If hosting costs me $50, then I'd charge the Client a minimum of $60 for hosting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20453" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7735" RevisionGUID="93e25c4e-b9ce-4d9c-a040-afa5a6d56f9e" CreationDate="2018-06-02T19:38:44.630" UserId="20078" Text="Option 1) Encourage them to sign up for their domain and hosting **before** you take on their project. They are going to need these services anyway once the project has finished anyway so explain that to them the importance.&#xA;&#xA;Option2) Become an affiliate to a hosting package. Many hosts offer affiliate programs for signing people up to them. You may lose money initially but in the long run you will receive money for all the websites you have built with a particular host.&#xA;&#xA;Both of these options are what I was doing for years. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20454" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7736" RevisionGUID="452367e6-85de-419d-95a6-facf3392accd" CreationDate="2018-06-02T19:51:47.180" UserId="20078" Text="Additionally, you could create a website for a particular field, say a jewellery store, then contact stores with poor websites showing them what their website could look like. If they say no, move on to the next jewellery store with a poor website. Once someone sees the end product, they are far more likely to purchase the site off of you. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20455" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7727" RevisionGUID="4cc14694-9339-40eb-a273-6ca3148c588f" CreationDate="2018-06-04T04:51:10.010" UserId="17858" Comment="Formatting should be block quote, not code; minor grammar fixes" Text="Assuming you have a contract stating the fixed price and the three changes, you simply refer to that very contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Having delivered the contractually agreed upon work, I am happy to work on further refinements. However, this will require payment of invoices and agreeing on a future hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Insist on an hourly rate, as this benefits the client as well as you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Continuing in a fixed price mode most often leads to a souring of the client relationship, as they naturally try to extract as much additional work from you as possible, often with no issue being too small.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Agreeing on a pay-as-you-go hourly rate means *every* change costs them money, which limits their nice-to-haves and will result in a more rapid final delivery and probably avoids ending badly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20456" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7727" RevisionGUID="4cc14694-9339-40eb-a273-6ca3148c588f" CreationDate="2018-06-04T04:51:10.010" Comment="Proposed by 17858 approved by 61, 7858 edit id of 597" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20457" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7725" RevisionGUID="a51cbcf1-1358-4b7f-8742-ff4f7b5a28da" CreationDate="2018-06-04T04:51:46.633" UserId="17858" Comment="Spelling and grammar fixes" Text="In my 6 months of freelancing I have faced these kinds of clients many times. At first I didn't mention the charge for extra revisions, which turned into a problem pretty quickly. But nowadays I give a fixed package with 3 revisions. If they want more, they have pay extra. I clear the terms beforehand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**tldr;** say it straight: if you are working extra, you should be paid extra, and clear the revision terms before starting any future projects." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20458" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7725" RevisionGUID="a51cbcf1-1358-4b7f-8742-ff4f7b5a28da" CreationDate="2018-06-04T04:51:46.633" Comment="Proposed by 17858 approved by 61, 7858 edit id of 598" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20459" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7708" RevisionGUID="7243eb20-3f4a-4c3a-9f74-c1be3bbdce60" CreationDate="2018-06-04T10:02:32.693" UserId="6033" Comment="Improve title, question structure and remove unnecessary introduction" Text="How do I find clients? I've created my own website where I offer my services, I've posted links to that website on Facebook sale groups and still no one is calling. I don't have a big and impressive portfolio because I'm just starting, but I have the skills to do websites, shops and some web apps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, any tips for me? I really need to start earning money.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20460" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="7708" RevisionGUID="7243eb20-3f4a-4c3a-9f74-c1be3bbdce60" CreationDate="2018-06-04T10:02:32.693" UserId="6033" Comment="Improve title, question structure and remove unnecessary introduction" Text="How to find clients when you are a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20461" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7708" RevisionGUID="7243eb20-3f4a-4c3a-9f74-c1be3bbdce60" CreationDate="2018-06-04T10:02:32.693" Comment="Proposed by 6033 approved by 61, 20009 edit id of 596" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20462" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2854" RevisionGUID="57203380-e71b-46e4-aed3-5023a45dfa50" CreationDate="2018-06-05T23:12:43.353" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1004138978747043840" />
  <row Id="20463" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7737" RevisionGUID="0a8dbbcc-5c40-4595-ad16-10ae1766f5e5" CreationDate="2018-06-09T13:00:36.463" UserId="20119" Text="I am not in a position to buy my own domain right now. I have no other option, but to use a free email provider. Can that affect my chances of getting hired by clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately for me, first.last@gmail.com for my name is not available. Which one of these should I avoid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. first.last@zoho.com&#xD;&#xA;2. first.last@icloud.com&#xD;&#xA;3. last.first@outlook.com (Yes, first.last@outlook.com is also taken!)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20464" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7737" RevisionGUID="0a8dbbcc-5c40-4595-ad16-10ae1766f5e5" CreationDate="2018-06-09T13:00:36.463" UserId="20119" Text="Does email domain affect the chances of getting clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20465" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7737" RevisionGUID="0a8dbbcc-5c40-4595-ad16-10ae1766f5e5" CreationDate="2018-06-09T13:00:36.463" UserId="20119" Text="|attracting-clients|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20466" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7738" RevisionGUID="f30c9625-726a-47e0-8f36-5252051a2570" CreationDate="2018-06-09T17:54:49.183" UserId="75" Text="If you're not in the position to buy a domain (most available for under $15/yr), then you may need to look at other options.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the longest time, I used `firstlast@gmail.com`, and clients didn't seem to mind. The biggest thing to remember is that if you use an email from your preteen years (ie `supersexyguy6969@hotmail.com`), it will be seen as *very* unprofessional.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If `firstlast` is not available, look at other variations. You could also use this time to create a company name, and see if that's available (check your provincial/state registries as well), and create an email address based on that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whatever you decide, make sure you will always have access to it. For example, don't get email hosted by your ISP if you think you'll ever choose another ISP." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20467" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7739" RevisionGUID="197b4777-1fd3-45a6-b168-1f8ff8fe373c" CreationDate="2018-06-10T07:48:38.460" UserId="708" Text="My personal opinion is that it says a great deal about someone who is in the business of web dev or online business and they don't have their own domain. Costs are so very minimal, if you are serious about the business, you get a domain. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reality is even *one single project* should provide enough financial resources to register a domain for many years." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20468" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7740" RevisionGUID="adfb6a0b-765b-4d24-903d-51287b93f941" CreationDate="2018-06-10T18:10:43.247" UserId="20127" Text="Perhaps this is a numpty question: I am sold trader in a specialist field and have a colleague with whom I would like to work with regularly who is also a sole trader. For various reasons we would like to retain our identities as single specialists rather than form a partnership at this time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We feel we could then more easily freelance for different contractors on large jobs however as and when. But we would like to work together on smaller projects, even tendering for projects together but as individuals entities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is that possible or does it just make it too complicated?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20469" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7740" RevisionGUID="adfb6a0b-765b-4d24-903d-51287b93f941" CreationDate="2018-06-10T18:10:43.247" UserId="20127" Text="Two sole traders tending for jobs together who don't want to be partners" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20470" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7740" RevisionGUID="adfb6a0b-765b-4d24-903d-51287b93f941" CreationDate="2018-06-10T18:10:43.247" UserId="20127" Text="|group-freelancing|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20473" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7741" RevisionGUID="943137a7-74ca-4509-a49f-d6abf7dfbcd6" CreationDate="2018-06-13T00:51:36.747" UserId="20134" Text="If you work as a freelancer, you are expected to charge for the specific job you perform, but I would suggest that you take into consideration as part of your rate your overhead, which should include activities not directly related to the task, which might include communications, clerical work, office supplies, accountant, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the end of the day, your rate should reflect your expected cost, along with your desired revenue. The trick here is that you to keep a competitive rate, so for it all to make sense you have to plan for selling a minimum number of hours, which cover your overhead expenses and leave enough to pay for your time. If you hit the target you make money, if you miss it you make less (or perhaps lose money).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bear in mind that giving too much information to the customer about what you are doing confuses them, and leads to unnecessary discussions that erode the relationship and might cost you your client. Keep it simple for the customer, and they will be happy to pay!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20474" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7742" RevisionGUID="1a7cb8b8-7daf-4c7b-a5c9-febfc279f946" CreationDate="2018-06-13T01:03:16.070" UserId="20134" Text="In my experience, this is very frequent: most of the time this depends on who gets the customer and manages the relationship. This is called the Prime contractor, and can get whoever to complement their services (in this case your colleague). If your colleague got the contract, the roles would reverse.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually you work out a contract which specifies the general terms of this arrangement, and you add attachments with the specifics for each job (shares, deliverables, rates etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way you work separately but jointly on projects, Does that make sense?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20475" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7743" RevisionGUID="5a7340f5-9685-48fa-8473-87838e61acf3" CreationDate="2018-06-13T09:05:08.117" UserId="7858" Text="In a similar scenario, I was part of a 4-man team of independant contractors working together at a larger client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To avoid having to form a company in which liability is collective and not individual, we all had short written contracts with the client-facing contractor, regarding expectations, responsibilities and payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the sales pitch, we all had similar business cards in the company of the contractor who handled the client relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, we were all involved in drawing up the contract with the end client and were thus not merely sub-contractors being kept in the dark.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although it was a one-off and never repeated, it worked quite well - as the process was quite light-weight and transparent to all. Except the client perhaps, who probably had the impression that we were all from the same company. Had they asked, we would have informed them of our arrangement - but they never did." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20489" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7748" RevisionGUID="a97d0b2a-7fde-40a9-a4da-6d291e0becad" CreationDate="2018-06-17T00:09:55.263" UserId="20083" Text="How does paypal work with upwork do they just send the money to Paypal and if you can't get project you still have to pay for taxes from upwork?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20490" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7748" RevisionGUID="a97d0b2a-7fde-40a9-a4da-6d291e0becad" CreationDate="2018-06-17T00:09:55.263" UserId="20083" Text="Upwork no project still need to pay taxes" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20491" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7748" RevisionGUID="a97d0b2a-7fde-40a9-a4da-6d291e0becad" CreationDate="2018-06-17T00:09:55.263" UserId="20083" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20492" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7749" RevisionGUID="fae9d0b7-974f-4f71-ae02-a850344db982" CreationDate="2018-06-19T13:52:02.150" UserId="20162" Text="I took a project, and I estimate it at a certain price.&#xD;&#xA;Problem is, I really largely underestimate it, because of me, and some area where the client was not very clear.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I did it on a freelancer website, so I can't modify the price anymore, and I almost did at least 60 % of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are my options ? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20493" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7749" RevisionGUID="fae9d0b7-974f-4f71-ae02-a850344db982" CreationDate="2018-06-19T13:52:02.150" UserId="20162" Text="What can I do if underestimated the project ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20494" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7749" RevisionGUID="fae9d0b7-974f-4f71-ae02-a850344db982" CreationDate="2018-06-19T13:52:02.150" UserId="20162" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20495" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7748" RevisionGUID="9a7e0939-dcd3-46f9-82c3-28cdb12aebd4" CreationDate="2018-06-19T17:18:48.350" UserId="20083" Comment="edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20496" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7750" RevisionGUID="894cf18a-89d7-4c8e-b55a-66ec1ebde75d" CreationDate="2018-06-19T18:31:17.093" UserId="708" Text=" 1. Finish the project for the agreed upon amount and learn from your&#xD;&#xA;    mistake.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Ask for more money or stop working on the project, and create an&#xD;&#xA;    unhappy client which will probably have other ramifications." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20497" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7751" RevisionGUID="0ce4212e-17c5-42fa-aff6-77439387e234" CreationDate="2018-06-21T03:18:06.370" UserId="20170" Text="I'm interested in doing online tutoring and I've gotten offers from a few companies, but I'm new to this and I have maybe a strange concern.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lot of tutoring sites want to list information about you like your first name, last name/initial, college you went to, major, general location, photo, etc. Most of this information has to be real so that they can verify your qualifications and pay you. But at least in my case, it's pretty easy to use these things to figure out my street address from public records websites, even though I've tried to &quot;opt out&quot; of those websites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question: is this actually a concern or am I being paranoid? An online tutor could work with hundreds of students in a couple of years and that increases the chances of meeting someone shady. But obviously a lot of people tutor and don't seem to have problems." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20498" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7751" RevisionGUID="0ce4212e-17c5-42fa-aff6-77439387e234" CreationDate="2018-06-21T03:18:06.370" UserId="20170" Text="Safety/privacy as an online tutor?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20499" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7751" RevisionGUID="0ce4212e-17c5-42fa-aff6-77439387e234" CreationDate="2018-06-21T03:18:06.370" UserId="20170" Text="|safety|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20500" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7752" RevisionGUID="86a22065-d458-449e-bcab-256f8e744270" CreationDate="2018-06-21T03:30:04.030" UserId="708" Text="Truth of the matter is, at least in the United States, anyone's address is public record if they've purchased a home and *easily* discoverable online with only a name. Even if they haven't purchased a home many other things are public record - marriage, divorce, custody, *anything* court related, traffic tickets, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While I agree that it's unfortunate so *much* can be found about a person, there's not a great which can be done if you need to conduct business under your real name.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Traditionally, sites which require verifiable information do so for *them*, their site, not for public display. So although a web site may know you are Eric/Elaine Baker... you typically use a pseudonym or username for the public to see. This way the web site can pay you and have actual record of who you are for tax/legal purposes, but the pubic or clients, really only know the information you share with them. But.. I have no idea how any particular site you may be looking at *actually* unctions." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20505" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7752" RevisionGUID="9e9b018a-aea4-47c7-bd0e-303b1fd38b8c" CreationDate="2018-06-21T15:13:44.990" UserId="708" Comment="added 13 characters in body" Text="Truth of the matter is, at least in the United States, anyone's address is public record if they've purchased a home and *easily* discoverable online with only a name. Even if they haven't purchased a home many other things are public record - marriage, divorce, custody, *anything* court related, traffic tickets, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While I agree that it's unfortunate so *much* can be found about a person, there's not a great which can be done if you need to conduct business under your real name.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Traditionally, sites which require verifiable information do so for *them*, their site, not for public display. So although a web site may know you are Eric/Elaine Baker... you typically use a pseudonym or username for the public to see. This way the web site can pay you and have actual record of who you are for tax/legal purposes, but the pubic or clients, really only know the information you share with them. But.. I have no idea how any particular site you may be looking at *actually* functions or operates." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20507" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7754" RevisionGUID="0ebaa813-9265-4661-840b-18226832ef14" CreationDate="2018-06-21T21:04:12.897" UserId="19508" Text="Basically- if its income, its taxable. you will need to report it and pay appropriate taxes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Upwork has its own payment system. i would recommend using that instead of Paypal because Upwork has a good escrow system to ensure you get paid. I have had good arbitration with Upwork also &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20508" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7752" RevisionGUID="09a64e4f-95dc-4dce-97bd-3b523d6cd2d1" CreationDate="2018-06-23T00:10:51.760" UserId="708" Comment="added 388 characters in body" Text="Truth of the matter is, at least in the United States, anyone's address is public record if they've purchased a home and *easily* discoverable online with only a name. Even if they haven't purchased a home many other things are public record - marriage, divorce, custody, *anything* court related, traffic tickets, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While I agree that it's unfortunate so *much* can be found about a person, there's not a great which can be done if you need to conduct business under your real name.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Traditionally, sites which require verifiable information do so for *them*, their site, not for public display. So although a web site may know you are Eric/Elaine Baker... you typically use a pseudonym or username for the public to see. This way the web site can pay you and have actual record of who you are for tax/legal purposes, but the pubic or clients, really only know the information you share with them. But.. I have no idea how any particular site you may be looking at *actually* functions or operates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be aware if I were in the market to hire someone to tutor my child, it would be pretty much *mandatory* that I know who they actually are. I wouldn't trust some nondescript username to have direct, extended, contact with my child. The business you wish to go into really *requires* that you be up front about your identity, otherwise it would be a haven for degenerates and predators." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20509" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7622" RevisionGUID="0c9214ae-816d-47ba-a85c-624cb303ab9f" CreationDate="2018-06-23T14:16:08.133" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20510" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7752" RevisionGUID="2b834441-482e-4ace-9323-91da8179277a" CreationDate="2018-06-23T16:57:31.267" UserId="708" Comment="added 5 characters in body" Text="Truth of the matter is, at least in the United States, anyone's address is public record if they've purchased a home and *easily* discoverable online with only a name. Even if they haven't purchased a home many other things are public record - marriage, divorce, custody, *anything* court related, traffic tickets, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While I agree that it's unfortunate so *much* can be found about a person, there's not a great deal which can be done if you need to conduct business under your real name.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Traditionally, sites which require verifiable information do so for *them*, their site, not for public display. So although a web site may know you are Eric/Elaine Baker... you typically use a pseudonym or username for the public to see. This way the web site can pay you and have actual record of who you are for tax/legal purposes, but the pubic or clients, really only know the information you share with them. But.. I have no idea how any particular site you may be looking at *actually* functions or operates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be aware if I were in the market to hire someone to tutor my child, it would be pretty much *mandatory* that I know who they actually are. I wouldn't trust some nondescript username to have direct, extended, contact with my child. The business you wish to go into really *requires* that you be up front about your identity, otherwise it would be a haven for degenerates and predators." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20511" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7755" RevisionGUID="97c71835-f274-4f51-bf8d-52715469a0f6" CreationDate="2018-06-24T08:11:05.297" UserId="17674" Text="It depends.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Are you a woman?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Yes**, regardless of how attractive you may think you are or aren't, you should be concerned if it's trivially easy for hundreds to thousands of adult students to find your home address.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Are you a guy?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No**, it probably doesn't really matter, as long as you aren't getting involved in students' personal lives. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Either way**, [Scott's opinion notwithstanding](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/7752/17674), **only the company** needs to know your real name and information for legitimate purposes. If you were to do anything untoward, law enforcement could get the information from them. The parents don't actually need that info and shouldn't be stalking you; they should trust the company to weed out the baddies. If they're all that suspicious, they should be hiring their own tutors individually from families in their own communities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Therefore, **you should be able to talk to the company** and explain your situation, which is uncommon if they usually only go by first name and last initial. They should be able to work with you to adjust your screenname to make it less unique and, if they can't, it *is* going to be safer for you to just work for a different company or find other work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20512" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7756" RevisionGUID="acaa2260-bbae-45a2-a8a9-3fc8ae500b82" CreationDate="2018-06-24T15:20:59.873" UserId="20198" Text="I am looking to do some freelance work as a graphic designer.  I've been in the industry for 10+ years.  I can make whatever a potential client is looking for.  Where do you go when first starting out? I have ads up on fiverr.  It seems like breaking in and getting your first gig is the hardest part!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20513" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7756" RevisionGUID="acaa2260-bbae-45a2-a8a9-3fc8ae500b82" CreationDate="2018-06-24T15:20:59.873" UserId="20198" Text="How to efficiently find graphic design opportunities" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20514" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7756" RevisionGUID="acaa2260-bbae-45a2-a8a9-3fc8ae500b82" CreationDate="2018-06-24T15:20:59.873" UserId="20198" Text="|freelance-websites|working-from-home|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20515" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="480ffcec-3377-41e0-90f9-4807953f3782" CreationDate="2018-06-24T22:19:43.060" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20516" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7757" RevisionGUID="eed9d438-1b3c-4853-9676-9950f7fa9304" CreationDate="2018-06-25T07:58:37.000" UserId="20203" Text="1) Pay for user. It wouldn't work. Reason: we have team of 100 developers, but your library used only by server when it build application. You got the idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Pay for project. It is ok... if... if your library used by big company with strict policies and they prefer more legal way than more simple way. And more simple = why to pay, while we already have it?!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) Pay for company. It is convenient for you and for them. One-time payment for license. BUT it will generate not much many in long run...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**4*) Pay for time.** They pay for subscription on monthly/annual-bases. It is simple, convinient for each side - AND regulary generate you money!!! In this case company became your client for a long time, they always remember about you  and you can sell them you new products. This is the BEST way today for handling business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*5?) Pay for connection or per action.* Something like API for google.translate. 10k request for 5$. If your library used for online requests - you can easily add counting for this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a result: I recommend you to use model #4 - REGULAR PAYMENT FOR USING" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20517" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7709" RevisionGUID="bb9cc6d0-2f59-4a25-a84b-3eea05785c69" CreationDate="2018-06-25T14:00:28.883" UserId="17674" Comment="grammar and spelling fixes" Text="A project on which I'm involved uses a 3rd-party library among its Maven dependencies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What the 3rd party did was to set up a Maven repository on the public Internet, protected by a username and password. My company pays a yearly fee to the 3rd party to have access to their Maven repo. We configure their repository in our Maven settings file, and that's it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, having an account _technically_ means we can use the latest version of the library in any project we need. I don't have access to the contracts between my company and the 3rd party, though, so maybe some more severe limitations are defined there and maybe _legally_ we can't do that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope it helps. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20518" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7709" RevisionGUID="bb9cc6d0-2f59-4a25-a84b-3eea05785c69" CreationDate="2018-06-25T14:00:28.883" Comment="Proposed by 17674 approved by 8573 edit id of 602" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20519" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7757" RevisionGUID="83fbe9de-583d-4cdb-be7f-23de6d95c823" CreationDate="2018-06-25T14:54:06.380" UserId="17674" Comment="grammar and spelling" Text="1) Pay for each user. It wouldn't work. Reason: we have team of 100 developers, but your library is only used by the server when it builds the application. You get the idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Pay for each project. It is ok... if... if your library is used by a big company with strict policies and they prefer the more legal way to the simpler way. And the simplest = why pay, when we already have it?!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) Pay for each company. It is convenient for you and for them. One-time payment for license. BUT it won't generate much money in long run...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**4) Pay for time.** They pay for a subscription on a monthly/annual basis. It is simple, convenient for both sides - AND regularly generates money for you!!! In this case, the company becomes your client for a long time, they always remember you, and you can sell them your new products. This is the BEST way today for handling business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5) Pay per connection or per action. Something like the API for google.translate. 10k requests for 5$. If your library is used for online requests, you can easily add a counter for this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a result: I recommend you to use model #4 - REGULAR PAYMENT FOR USE." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20520" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7757" RevisionGUID="83fbe9de-583d-4cdb-be7f-23de6d95c823" CreationDate="2018-06-25T14:54:06.380" Comment="Proposed by 17674 approved by 20203 edit id of 601" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20521" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7751" RevisionGUID="f14e3ade-4f6a-4e3a-a0e9-481b5756ab58" CreationDate="2018-06-26T15:49:51.443" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1011637673176551424" />
  <row Id="20522" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7758" RevisionGUID="7ac77fa7-51f9-4c49-9f46-f82fb6972a5c" CreationDate="2018-06-27T09:22:43.020" UserId="20212" Text="Recently I responded to a request from a recruiter of a UK-based, &quot;award-winning&quot; recruitment company. We talked on the phone, and the recruiter proposed to submit my profile to a project as well as proactively submit it to companies. I responded by email, rejecting both proposals since I did not find them convincing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It has now come to my attention that the recruiter is nonetheless sending my profile, with the following claim:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; as an example of a freelancer that I am currently working with, I have attached the (anonymised) profile of an active candidate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The profile is not anonymised though as it starts with my name. The PDF has been edited to contain the recruitment company's logo. It contains my CV, project references and skills. My profile is available for download from my website. However, I would claim that this is copyrighted material and personal information that is not free for use without permission.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I find the recruiter's behavior unethical and potentially damaging to my reputation and business. It is staggering what some recruiters are trying to get away with. I don't intend to let them. What are my options with respect to a response?&#xD;&#xA;- What damage could result from this?&#xD;&#xA;- In what ways could the actions of the recruiter be against the law? Areas I can imagine are data protection laws, copyright laws, laws protecting business and personal reputation... &#xD;&#xA;- Are there precedent cases for this kind of &quot;false representation&quot;? Is it common?&#xD;&#xA;- Can you see a rationale behind the recruiter's behavior?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20523" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7758" RevisionGUID="7ac77fa7-51f9-4c49-9f46-f82fb6972a5c" CreationDate="2018-06-27T09:22:43.020" UserId="20212" Text="Recruiter forwarding freelancer's profile without consent" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20524" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7758" RevisionGUID="7ac77fa7-51f9-4c49-9f46-f82fb6972a5c" CreationDate="2018-06-27T09:22:43.020" UserId="20212" Text="|legal|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20527" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7760" RevisionGUID="a178e4f4-0c34-48b4-a1ee-faffcc084c12" CreationDate="2018-06-28T07:20:09.143" UserId="20104" Text="I have agreed to work complete the mobile App project. The client had spoken to me expressing the idea of the App. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;to give some Technical structure for their idea had designed supporting Database structure etc. then we have agreed on some amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, Client has now come up with a new set of designs and screens which are high end required more working hours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I am wondering how to express my concern to the client and convince them to increase the budget for the App.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;I am little afraid, how I should put my thoughts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I ask for the partnership and pay me in profits, if so, please guide me pros &amp; cons. Thanks in Advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20528" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7760" RevisionGUID="a178e4f4-0c34-48b4-a1ee-faffcc084c12" CreationDate="2018-06-28T07:20:09.143" UserId="20104" Text="How to ask for increase the budget for a freelancing project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20529" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7760" RevisionGUID="a178e4f4-0c34-48b4-a1ee-faffcc084c12" CreationDate="2018-06-28T07:20:09.143" UserId="20104" Text="|freelance-websites|business-plan|budget|changes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20530" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7761" RevisionGUID="ba74f33f-dc64-4ae2-a527-b3f9b3b60253" CreationDate="2018-06-28T10:24:07.587" UserId="708" Text="&gt;***&quot;This isn't what was agreed upon. &lt;br&gt;I'll need to re-scope the project and provide a new cost estimate.***&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be forthright, upfront, and honest about it. The client is certainly aware they've made additional changes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for getting compensation via an equity stake, that's an entirely different negotiation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20531" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7762" RevisionGUID="ec22fbd8-cb59-48ca-8ddc-f8492edb0835" CreationDate="2018-06-28T21:11:45.730" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="There is no need not to come down with a sledgehammer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Send them an e-mail firmly asking to withdraw your CV and abstain from using it. Demand an acknowledgement of that e-mail. It is also good to remind the previous one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If no acknowledgement comes, send them a registered letter with the same content. This step will most probably not be needed.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20532" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7762" RevisionGUID="3a907da0-13e2-4af7-9d5f-e18b4db5ab0a" CreationDate="2018-06-28T21:17:51.197" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="g" Text="There is no need not to come down with a sledgehammer, nor to worry. They have no right to do that without your consent and they know it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Send them an e-mail firmly asking to withdraw your CV and abstain from using it. Demand an acknowledgement of that e-mail. It is also good to remind the previous message.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If no acknowledgement comes, send them a registered letter with the same content. This step will most probably not be needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20536" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7764" RevisionGUID="0a02bfee-5019-4fb4-bcd8-f5bf1d6c8f17" CreationDate="2018-06-29T16:23:49.303" UserId="708" Text="**Word of Mouth**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Nothing* else will work well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those crowdsource web sites are overly populated by hobbyists willing to work for next to nothing. Everyone and their brother who has a pirated copy of Photoshop thinks they can be a designer. You can't work at a professional freelance level for design using those sites in my experience. If you do *happen* to stumble upon a decent client at those sites it'll take a long time.... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients using &quot;fvr&quot; et. al. are looking for &quot;five dollar&quot; designs. They are &quot;cheap&quot; clients looking to spend as little as possible (I'm aware fvr isn't only about $5). You can **not** sustain a viable freelance career or business with those *type of clients*. You *must* have a better client base. Clients with return business who see the value in professional design as opposed to their cousin that has Photoshop.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See here:&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2848/how-can-experienced-contractor-survive-outside-elance-odesk-freelancer/2849#2849" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20540" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7708" RevisionGUID="e485b376-ebb5-4005-90f5-88513c044f48" CreationDate="2018-06-30T03:50:26.573" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1012906178056282113" />
  <row Id="20545" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7767" RevisionGUID="b440058e-a638-4259-84db-23253da23e8c" CreationDate="2018-06-30T22:32:38.543" UserId="514" Text="One of the costs of a registered domain is administering it. It ends up being hours, maybe not cash, but it is still a cost. If you're in or serving online business, you eat it. Otherwise, one option is to use a mail provider who can offer you a sub-domain. My provider, Fastmail.com, (and I'm sure there are others) offer sub-domains on one of their many domains. So I chose MyName@&amp;lt;MyBizName&amp;gt;.fastmail.fm. It was free, it contains my business name and my personal name, just like a Me@MyDomain.com would plus another element or two. I've never had any less-than-positive comments on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Disclaimer: I have no connection to my provider except as a 10+ year happy customer.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20546" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7768" RevisionGUID="29fe4da9-601f-49bf-892d-137cb2575a37" CreationDate="2018-07-01T16:40:04.317" UserId="20243" Text="The only type of work that may require a deposit is government work. This may be some kind of bond that you pay and submit with an official bid. This is in case you back out at the last minute and they have to resubmit the request for proposal again. The thing is that this may cause them to get no bids. In which case, they will resubmit the RFQ without the requirement. If you were to win the bid and sign the contract, the bond would be refunded to you. After that, you can fail at the project and they can take you to court unless a remedy is in writing already on that contract. The penalty could be something like this: You would owe the city, county or state 10% of the contract or you would pay the difference between your contract (the lowest bid) and the next lowest bid. I hope this helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20551" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7770" RevisionGUID="d4b0968f-f3f4-4f52-8fbb-934b96f77880" CreationDate="2018-07-03T11:31:50.097" UserId="20254" Text="I am working as a freelance software developer in Germany, and I need to know if I should be charging a South African client VAT or not. I have found out the answer for Germany, other EU states, USA and Australia, but does anyone know specifically for South Africa?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20552" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7770" RevisionGUID="d4b0968f-f3f4-4f52-8fbb-934b96f77880" CreationDate="2018-07-03T11:31:50.097" UserId="20254" Text="Freelancer in Germany, South African client, do I charge VAT?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20553" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7770" RevisionGUID="d4b0968f-f3f4-4f52-8fbb-934b96f77880" CreationDate="2018-07-03T11:31:50.097" UserId="20254" Text="|germany|vat|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20554" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7771" RevisionGUID="ba1fae9b-9d3b-41ea-b166-cafaf40fc439" CreationDate="2018-07-04T10:19:10.123" UserId="7858" Text="In Denmark, the answer would be no for all those countries. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, when submitting the quarterly/semi-annual VAT to the authorities, one must also register the amount of non-VAT sales (EU and non-EU)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20556" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7498" RevisionGUID="6f507feb-8b1a-43b0-b973-eaeb7c5548eb" CreationDate="2018-07-06T08:39:33.570" UserId="100" Comment="removed irrelevant tag, added tag" Text="|difficult-client|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20557" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7498" RevisionGUID="6f507feb-8b1a-43b0-b973-eaeb7c5548eb" CreationDate="2018-07-06T08:39:33.570" Comment="Proposed by 100 approved by 61, 85 edit id of 587" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20558" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7773" RevisionGUID="4ae2195e-c812-4c37-b1bd-1e309050d6d7" CreationDate="2018-07-06T09:16:41.623" UserId="20266" Text="Make a showcase and I mean a worthy one. &#xD;&#xA;Make a showcose of at least 5 of the latest design trends and design something that is trending like a cryptocurrency app for example, just a few screens will suffice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think of at least 5 of these projects in different spaces and think of ways to show your expertise and how to stand out and dominate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you post this on behance, your website/blog and all your social media. &#xD;&#xA;On your blog show how you build the designs. This will give you the expert status and make sure your blog has plenty of conversion/call 2 action buttons/links on it to convert this person of interest to a partner/buyer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps. &#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20559" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7774" RevisionGUID="60462700-3c5e-41fe-b707-c44ee0a112e9" CreationDate="2018-07-06T17:18:07.453" UserId="20268" Text="I was recruited as a software developer through an agency to an end client. Now having worked with the client for a couple of years they trust me and are always asking if I know fellow developers that might consider joining. I was thinking about capitalizing on the demand for people by setting up my own agency, supplying people and taking a cut of the rate. I would like some opinions on what the legalities are here, what conflicts of interest might exist and whether if I were to find somebody and have them placed &quot;through me/my company&quot; whether I should disclose that to the end client. Thoughts appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20560" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7774" RevisionGUID="60462700-3c5e-41fe-b707-c44ee0a112e9" CreationDate="2018-07-06T17:18:07.453" UserId="20268" Text="Supplying your own people to a client. Conflict of interest? Full disclosure?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20561" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7774" RevisionGUID="60462700-3c5e-41fe-b707-c44ee0a112e9" CreationDate="2018-07-06T17:18:07.453" UserId="20268" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20562" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7774" RevisionGUID="bad4f07b-3284-4159-b11f-f73cf8b638d5" CreationDate="2018-07-07T17:12:36.143" UserId="75" Comment="Brought question on topic" Text="I was recruited as a software developer through an agency to an end client. Now having worked with the client for a couple of years they trust me and are always asking if I know fellow developers that might consider joining. I was thinking about capitalizing on the demand for people by setting up my own agency, supplying people and taking a cut of the rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to know what the legalities are here, what conflicts of interest might exist and whether if I were to find somebody and have them placed &quot;through me/my company&quot; whether I should disclose that to the end client. Thoughts appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20567" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7776" RevisionGUID="60d26083-a93f-419f-965c-35d43f9f3ff4" CreationDate="2018-07-08T10:49:26.477" UserId="18276" Text="I'm an IT freelancer in Italy, with experience in software development, web design and recently system administration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Around three months ago I got a new client to work for and signed contract to realize 3 new websites for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the contract there is specified that the infrastructure wherein the websites will be installed would be on his charge and I would just had to get the sites done and then upload them to its hosting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By the way, a months later, I verified that the client hosting was too slow and so, I suggested him to move on a VPS, that would guarantee better performance and also could make him save some money as the same machine would host more sites and mail accounts. So I set up the VPS environment and started move some sites and email accounts on it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that, I realized that the cost of the VPS it's only virtually lower, as the time I get on it to keep it updated, well configured and working good (mail issues, SSL certs issues and renews, back-up configuration, system healthy checks, etc) it's quite a lot, and I'm not getting payed for that. Moreover, when the contract will be completed on the end of the year the client does not have any IT staff that could continue the maintenance or face up to problems eventually get out from it. I have no interest in continue the contract or getting payed for system administration as it's not my core business and moreover I found the client to be quite difficult and aggressive with me when not the situation to be, but I find myself stuck in this situation as the client accepted my suggestion earlier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I would like to do now it's to say to the customer that the VPS it's no more a good idea and it would be better to get back on a normal hosting, but this translates for him in losing the saving I previous prospected to him, but of course, when I will end up the contract by completing all the websites, I cannot abandon him with a VPS that requires periodically maintenance, and if he will need to find some other IT staff it, it will be a cost anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically I suggested him the wrong choice before, and moreover got it to work on my expenses by now I want to stop this situation as soon as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What could be a good exit strategy? I'm avalaible to sustain the cost of migration the sites and mail accounts back to an hosting, and even pay for him for the first year of service, but later than, he will have to pay for it by himself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just want to remind you that in the contract I'm not in charge of managing any hosting but I made the mistake to stepped forward to give him that suggestion and actualized it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What to do now? How do I resolve this situation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for the help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20568" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7776" RevisionGUID="60d26083-a93f-419f-965c-35d43f9f3ff4" CreationDate="2018-07-08T10:49:26.477" UserId="18276" Text="What to do If I suggested and implemented wrong infrastructure for a client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20569" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7776" RevisionGUID="60d26083-a93f-419f-965c-35d43f9f3ff4" CreationDate="2018-07-08T10:49:26.477" UserId="18276" Text="|contracts|difficult-client|customer-relations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20571" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7622" RevisionGUID="ec95e22a-a5a3-4c8f-9625-8baa9330a87a" CreationDate="2018-07-08T15:54:20.667" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1015987456745885696" />
  <row Id="20572" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7777" RevisionGUID="c46b13a8-f430-464b-9143-ba3c2d2f70b5" CreationDate="2018-07-08T23:05:57.793" UserId="20280" Text="I'm the primary author of an open-source software program. I was contacted by a client who wished to contract me to add a (major) feature to the program so that it could be used in their company's application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I estimated the amount of time it would involve (about 2 months fulltime) and multiplied by my consultant rate and gave the client the number. The price seemed high to the client, so I suggested divide the task in half: I would do some supporting and enhancing work on the existing program first (and not bill them for this part), and I would then work on adding feature which should be faster and easier. And this seemed like a good plan to the client. This plan would take more time overall (up to 6 months) but reduce the price tag for the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I worked on the first half for a few months (still with no contract) and then&#xD;&#xA;reported to client that I was switching gears and starting the clock. A few weeks in, I had a prototype and sent client some sample input and output and described the remaining work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I ran into complications. The feature is governed by an international Standard and one small part proved to be very complicated and tricky. I have kept client up to date on all these details.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But now I've overrun my timeframe (3 months on the billable half), and more complications have cropped up and it may several more months of painstaking effort, with steadily less prospect of getting paid for my hours. The conversation with client has shifted to the licencing cost of other commercial software, which are all lower than my initial price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But the kicker of the story is there exists GPL software which they could simply used for this[1]. It's going to be much more expensive to get the quality of output from my program up to the level which this GPL program already produces.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I sent the client an email suggesting that they do this, and they could use my program as a means of demonstrating that they are using the GPL program in the correct and legal manner. They could use my program for this in its current form without my needing to finish the work on refining the output quality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And the client mailed me back saying they were much more interested in linking to a library for &quot;performance and maintanance reasons&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Just be done with this  &#xD;&#xA; 1. Convince them that the existing GPL software really is perfect for them if they can give up their attachment to linking with it  &#xD;&#xA; 1. Get paid&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1] There are a handful of specific requirements for using the GPL software without purchasing a commercial licence all of which are met by installing normally from a Red Hat or Debian package and using the GPL software with a *shell-out* rather than linking to it as a library." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20573" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7777" RevisionGUID="c46b13a8-f430-464b-9143-ba3c2d2f70b5" CreationDate="2018-07-08T23:05:57.793" UserId="20280" Text="Convince client not to want my software" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20574" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7777" RevisionGUID="c46b13a8-f430-464b-9143-ba3c2d2f70b5" CreationDate="2018-07-08T23:05:57.793" UserId="20280" Text="|contracts|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20575" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7777" RevisionGUID="6b77b1ac-1273-4614-af8b-b8b687a9ea29" CreationDate="2018-07-08T23:32:29.033" UserId="20280" Comment="added 35 characters in body" Text="I'm the primary author of an open-source software program. I was contacted by a client who wished to contract me to add a (major) feature to the program so that it could be used in their company's application.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I estimated the amount of time it would involve (about 2 months fulltime) and multiplied by my consultant rate and gave the client the number. The price seemed high to the client, so I suggested that we divide the task in half: I would do some supporting and enhancing work on the existing program first (and not bill them for this part), and I would then work on adding the feature which should then be faster and easier. And this seemed like a good plan to the client. This plan would take more time overall (up to 6 months) but reduce the price tag for the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I worked on the first half for a few months (still with no contract) and then&#xD;&#xA;reported to client that I was switching gears and starting the clock. A few weeks in, I had a prototype and sent client some sample input and output and described the remaining work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I ran into complications. The feature is governed by an international Standard and one small part proved to be very complicated and tricky. I have kept client up to date on all these details.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But now I've overrun my timeframe (3 months on the billable half, 8 months overall), and more complications have cropped up and it may several more months of painstaking effort, with steadily less prospect of getting paid for my hours. The conversation with client has shifted to the licencing cost of other commercial software, which are all lower than my initial price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But the kicker of the story is there exists GPL software which they could simply used for this[1]. It's going to be much more expensive to get the quality of output from my program up to the level which this GPL program already produces.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I sent the client an email suggesting that they do this, and they could use my program as a means of demonstrating that they are using the GPL program in the correct and legal manner. They could use my program for this in its current form without my needing to finish the work on refining the output quality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And the client mailed me back saying they were much more interested in linking to a library for &quot;performance and maintanance reasons&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Just be done with this  &#xD;&#xA; 1. Convince them that the existing GPL software really is perfect for them if they can give up their attachment to linking with it  &#xD;&#xA; 1. Get paid&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1] There are a handful of specific requirements for using the GPL software without purchasing a commercial licence all of which are met by installing normally from a Red Hat or Debian package and using the GPL software with a *shell-out* rather than linking to it as a library." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20576" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7778" RevisionGUID="288dc2d8-bc8a-4df6-8e58-38c14ef9dc19" CreationDate="2018-07-09T15:55:26.257" UserId="75" Text="This is a tough issue, but goes to show that extra planning ahead of time would work wonders for the client, and for you as the expert.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Coming from a SysAdmin-type standpoint, maintaining one server is every easy, and most could be scripted or documented for the client to do it. I would spend some good time on this, as you could use the documentation for future clients who have this issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, there are questions on the Unix.SE site about enabling automatic updates and upgrades. You could set that to be scripted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are responses for renewing SSL certificates automatically with Certbot. You could set that to be scripted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, create it as a package. If the client chooses to bring on a SysAdmin, that's on them. You need to provide the tools they need to keep it going for a short time, at least (at least 3 months).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you go to exit the contract (successfully), make sure the client understands you are hands-off at that point. You will relinquish any SSH keys and passwords, and any other accounts you had access to. You provide them a short manual (one or two pages tops if they are not tech savvy) for information on basic troubleshooting or access to different parts of the system. You could team up with a SysAdmin type freelancer to come up with the documentation, if your contract allows.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can show that you did your part, all the better! If you can suggest a SysAdmin type freelancer to take over, that shows you are the expert in your area, and can suggest someone to do a good job afterwards for your client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20579" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7779" RevisionGUID="6887d489-6c52-4aab-8c66-4a96d180d915" CreationDate="2018-07-10T08:10:32.040" UserId="20290" Text="Apologies if this isn't the right part of Stack Exchange, this seems the right place though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm helping a music teacher friend who lives on private tuition. They want to provide short videos that students can learn with between face-toface lessons but doesn't want those videos getting passed on in the wider world.    They aren't looking for a get-rich-quick scheme, the teacher wants to teach one-to-one students.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We've looked at You Tube and Vimeo so far. In the student context I understand this means:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Vimeo simply uses password access. i.e. if one student passes on the&#xD;&#xA;   password then there is no protection.&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - You tube has a feature that requires a student to log in with their own gmail account which has been pre-authorised by the teacher. This seems ideal except that it seems not to work. The user interface accepts one e-mail address and then refuses to add or delete any users.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question:** Are there any other online tools that provide protection to teachers distributing course materials?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Context #1**  I don't think they are that bothered about people thousands of miles away, getting the benefit, its more just where it might make the difference between a recommendation from a current student to a potential new one (i.e. very positive) instead becoming &quot;here, use all these videos for free&quot; (i.e. a direct loss of income). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Context #2**  Clearly we realise there is no protection from someone using you-tube downloader or something like that other than putting the teachers emblem in the corner of the video." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20580" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7779" RevisionGUID="6887d489-6c52-4aab-8c66-4a96d180d915" CreationDate="2018-07-10T08:10:32.040" UserId="20290" Text="How to protect video course materials provided to students" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20581" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7779" RevisionGUID="6887d489-6c52-4aab-8c66-4a96d180d915" CreationDate="2018-07-10T08:10:32.040" UserId="20290" Text="|ownership|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20582" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7779" RevisionGUID="dbbad115-886a-492f-aec6-773f92e1792c" CreationDate="2018-07-10T08:26:53.877" UserId="20290" Comment="punctuation" Text="Apologies if this isn't the right part of Stack Exchange, this seems the right place though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm helping a music teacher friend who lives on private tuition. They want to provide short videos that students can learn with between face-toface lessons but doesn't want those videos getting passed on in the wider world.    They aren't looking for a get-rich-quick scheme, the teacher wants to teach one-to-one students.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We've looked at You Tube and Vimeo so far. In the student context I understand this means:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Vimeo simply uses password access. i.e. if one student passes on the&#xD;&#xA;   password then there is no protection.&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - You tube has a feature that requires a student to log in with their own gmail account which has been pre-authorised by the teacher. This seems ideal except that it seems not to work. The user interface accepts one e-mail address and then refuses to add or delete any users.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Question:** Are there any other online tools that provide protection to teachers distributing course materials?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Context #1**  I don't think they are that bothered about people thousands of miles away getting the benefit. Its more just where it might make the difference between a recommendation from a current student to a potential new one (i.e. very positive) instead becoming &quot;here, use all these videos for free&quot; (i.e. a direct loss of income). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Context #2**  Clearly we realise there is no protection from someone using you-tube downloader or something like that other than putting the teachers emblem in the corner of the video." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20583" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7780" RevisionGUID="a1b5712f-589f-453e-b8c5-3f127b14cc60" CreationDate="2018-07-10T09:35:50.317" UserDisplayName="user20292" Text="One of my main problem with freelancing is that some of my clients ask me to add new feature in the middle of project when we have reached an agreement about tasks and price. So basically I'm adding these features for free. If the task is big I usually ask for extra money and time but for small tasks I do them for free and when the project is finished I realize that I have added tons of tiny features basically for free. So how should I deal with clients who ask for extra features?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20584" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7780" RevisionGUID="a1b5712f-589f-453e-b8c5-3f127b14cc60" CreationDate="2018-07-10T09:35:50.317" UserDisplayName="user20292" Text="How to deal with clients that ask for new features in the middle of project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20585" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7780" RevisionGUID="a1b5712f-589f-453e-b8c5-3f127b14cc60" CreationDate="2018-07-10T09:35:50.317" UserDisplayName="user20292" Text="|difficult-client|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20586" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7768" RevisionGUID="0ceb7afd-6f72-43eb-b701-374a2194a7d6" CreationDate="2018-07-10T10:05:47.680" UserId="85" Comment="Grammar and layout" Text="The only type of work that may require a deposit is government work. This may be some kind of bond that you pay and submit with an official bid, in case you back out at the last minute and they have to resubmit the request for proposal again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The thing is that this may cause them to get no bids, in which case, they will resubmit the RFQ without the requirement. If you were to win the bid and sign the contract, the bond would be refunded to you. After that, you can fail at the project and they can take you to court unless a remedy is in writing already on that contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The penalty could be something like this: You would owe the city, county or state 10% of the contract or you would pay the difference between your contract (the lowest bid) and the next lowest bid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20587" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7781" RevisionGUID="f4774cab-8494-4c83-ac75-c3d169716ef1" CreationDate="2018-07-10T19:45:52.073" UserId="20294" Text="Specify in the contract that each extra features and changes have a value by its difficulty between 1..5 that determined by developer and the value has a certain coefficient, for example n*5&#xA;&#xA;In developing process completly document extra features or changes requested by employeer and set the difficulty value.&#xA;At the end add all numbers and multiple them by your coefficient explained in agreement , this is the price which employeer must pay for extra small features and changes.&#xA;&#xA;For example the collect of all the extra requested features is 17 and the coefficient explained in agreement is 5, so the employeer should pay 17*5 = 85$ for the small changes or features that was not part of original agreement.&#xA;&#xA;The price for big feature or changes calculate in separate agreement. This formula is just for small changes or features." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20588" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7782" RevisionGUID="c36d59ed-1c93-4589-baef-e4e7d4e4550f" CreationDate="2018-07-10T20:44:37.837" UserId="514" Text="Keeping the flexibility to add and change on the fly makes the job more like an R&amp;D job, and an hourly bill rate is better suited. Fixed-price contracts work well if the job is well defined and agreed upon up front, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I typically do a mix of both, if the client requests a fixed price. I suggest we plan that I work for time-and-expenses to prepare a job specification we can agree on, then negotiate a fixed price for me to do it. The fixed-price contract states that any changes may require renegotiating the price." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20591" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7785" RevisionGUID="1324a46d-379c-4b3e-977a-32dec2e7ba90" CreationDate="2018-07-11T18:18:27.053" UserId="20305" Text="I am a young iOS programmer with a good amount of experience. I have been doing iOS programming for five or six years I have a couple finished apps on the App Store that are very aesthetic and that I am proud of. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to gain more programming experience with real companies or at least other parties (i.e. not me or my friends). However, I do not think I have the portfolio, connections, or capital necessary to promote myself through what I would guess are the more traditional means (advertising campaigns, etc.). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have looked into services like Fiverr, but (a) I am unsure of their viability, and (b) I have an alternative idea:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are many industry-made apps on the App Store that have plenty of room to improve/are far from perfect/are unattractive. Could I get in contact with the companies that own these improvable apps and offer my services to improve them **for free**?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would do it for free/volunteer for a couple reasons:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. To expand my portfolio&#xD;&#xA; 2. To gain more experience&#xD;&#xA; 3. They probably wouldn't even consider it if I charged them&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My general question (Is this a viable plan?) can be broken down into specifics:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Would any company even respond? &#xD;&#xA; - Would companies be reluctant to allow outsiders with my 'qualifications' to do this? &#xD;&#xA; - Is there a certain kind of company I should target? &#xD;&#xA; - Is there a certain way to get in contact with them? &#xD;&#xA; - Do you have any suggestions or improvements to my plan?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20592" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7785" RevisionGUID="1324a46d-379c-4b3e-977a-32dec2e7ba90" CreationDate="2018-07-11T18:18:27.053" UserId="20305" Text="Viability of a plan to get experience and to grow portfolio" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20593" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7785" RevisionGUID="1324a46d-379c-4b3e-977a-32dec2e7ba90" CreationDate="2018-07-11T18:18:27.053" UserId="20305" Text="|attracting-clients|communication|programmer|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20597" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7787" RevisionGUID="70e6d394-8abe-4146-8857-335b60f4ff17" CreationDate="2018-07-11T22:18:40.573" UserId="20306" Text="As a Teen, I can say I would like to participate, learn and most importantly, work as early as possible. But here comes a dilemma.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In freelancing or even outsourcing, most company pays using credit cards, or even have this age barrier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it possible for a teen / underage be working &quot;part-time&quot; in an online outsourcing work, and earn?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20598" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7787" RevisionGUID="70e6d394-8abe-4146-8857-335b60f4ff17" CreationDate="2018-07-11T22:18:40.573" UserId="20306" Text="Underage Freelance working" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20599" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7787" RevisionGUID="70e6d394-8abe-4146-8857-335b60f4ff17" CreationDate="2018-07-11T22:18:40.573" UserId="20306" Text="|working-from-home|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20600" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7788" RevisionGUID="d1749b35-f64c-4de0-8677-fe144d259ed9" CreationDate="2018-07-12T00:37:45.187" UserId="708" Text="**You can not legally be bound by contract as a minor.** (At least in the United States)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancing, as in agreeing to work for the client agreeing to pay, IS a contract. And &quot;freelance&quot; web site is going to want to hold you to their contract terms.. as a minor, they can't. So, they won't be interested in working with you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stick with getting work from family/friends." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20602" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7788" RevisionGUID="c6779a0c-8021-4003-9d95-2f66ba738fed" CreationDate="2018-07-12T04:24:19.187" UserId="708" Comment="edited body" Text="**You can not legally be bound by contract as a minor.** (At least in the United States)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancing, as in agreeing to work for the client agreeing to pay, IS a contract. Any &quot;freelance&quot; web site is going to want to hold you to their contract terms.. as a minor, they can't. So, they won't be interested in working with you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stick with getting work from family/friends." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20605" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7788" RevisionGUID="7d6b3cdb-1b1b-4e3b-a451-3f8494630c20" CreationDate="2018-07-13T08:10:18.567" UserId="708" Comment="added 1163 characters in body" Text="**You can not legally be bound by contract as a minor.** (At least in the United States)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have **not** indicated the *type of work* you are seeking. This may play a large roll. In some cases, teenagers, close to legal age may be permitted to work legally with a guardian's permission. That does not mean you can enter a contract or that your guardian may enter a contract *for you*. But you may be able to work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, you could get &quot;freelance&quot; work as a landscaper, or painter, or anything which is more &quot;one-off&quot; type of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I imagine you are asking about &quot;online outsourcing&quot; because you have something specific in mind. Without discussing what that specific is, it's difficult to answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancing, as in agreeing to work and the client agreeing to pay, IS a contract. Any &quot;freelance&quot; web site is going to want to hold you to their contract terms.. as a minor, they can't. So, they won't be interested in working with you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general clients paying for work, don't want an underage teenager working on things most of the time. I realize you may have a wide range of skills and be very adept, but there's *no possible way* a 16 or 17 year old can have even 2 years of *accurate*, *real-world*, experience. I don't wish to offend you but, you don't know what is you don't know regardless of how capable or talented you think you are.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stick with getting work from family/friends or word of mouth. You honestly won't be considered for better clients unless you lie and hide your age and lack of experience." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20606" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7740" RevisionGUID="fc4dea2d-f496-4c98-8fdc-5411989d39e4" CreationDate="2018-07-13T10:00:32.443" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20607" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="7785" RevisionGUID="3f1cc987-299e-4a6e-80bb-bb4d8dd4adef" CreationDate="2018-07-13T19:17:16.967" UserId="20305" Comment="40" />
  <row Id="20611" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7788" RevisionGUID="f3070914-3425-4590-9a90-7ba528ca5619" CreationDate="2018-07-16T16:45:36.457" UserId="708" Comment="added 570 characters in body" Text="**You can not legally be bound by contract as a minor.** (At least in the United States)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have **not** indicated the *type of work* you are seeking. This may play a large roll. In some cases, teenagers, close to legal age may be permitted to work legally with a guardian's permission. That does not mean you can enter a contract or that your guardian may enter a contract *for you*. But you may be able to work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, you could get &quot;freelance&quot; work as a landscaper, or painter, or anything which is more &quot;one-off&quot; type of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I imagine you are asking about &quot;online outsourcing&quot; because you have something specific in mind. Without discussing what that specific is, it's difficult to answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancing, as in agreeing to work and the client agreeing to pay, IS a contract. Any &quot;freelance&quot; web site is going to want to hold you to their contract terms.. as a minor, they can't. So, they won't be interested in working with you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general clients in the technical realm, i.e. coding, app building, etc - who are actually paying for work, don't want an underage teenager working on things most of the time. There's a level of liability if things break. They can wreak havoc on other systems or products. Building something digitally isn't the same as more craftsman or manual type of work. I realize you may have a wide range of skills and may feel you are very adept at some things, but there's *no possible way* a 16 or 17 year old can have even 2 years of *accurate*, *real-world*, experience. Let alone someone younger. I don't wish to offend you but, you *don't know* what is you *don't know* regardless of how capable or talented you think you are. Situations and complications arise in technical projects which can only be overcome through experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stick with getting work from family/friends or word of mouth. You honestly won't be considered for better clients related to digital work unless you lie and hide your age and lack of experience. And note that *purposefully* hiding such information could be equated to *fraud* and make you liable. But, I'm not a lawyer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20612" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7790" RevisionGUID="5065a67e-297d-4039-a861-a055675063ae" CreationDate="2018-07-16T19:39:05.310" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="If you did something that is relevant for the kind of freelancing you are looking for in this company, you very very well mention it with the name explicitly stated as confidential, or simply omitted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is irrelevant experience, why to mention it ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20613" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7791" RevisionGUID="4e04bbee-3935-45c1-b89c-7b74a8802dde" CreationDate="2018-07-17T09:15:56.933" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="IMO, contacting companies with the message &quot;I can improve your apps for free&quot; will be translated to &quot;they are so crappy!&quot; and cause your application to be kicked out to Mars.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A better approach could be &quot;I have seen the wonderful apps x &amp; y of yours, and I want to let you know that I would be pleased to develop similar software, in case you would need manpower&quot;. And show your skills with a little promotional portfolio." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20617" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7793" RevisionGUID="cfbbaf76-fc81-47ac-bd9d-03734a08168a" CreationDate="2018-07-18T09:26:26.037" UserId="20078" Text="One methodology you could use is a page with an expiring link.&#xA;You would embed the video into a webpage that once viewed will expire. You would need some coding knowledge to do so but the security will be protected that way. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20619" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7795" RevisionGUID="1787993d-20ef-4896-81bb-21b32d5c59a3" CreationDate="2018-07-18T10:14:22.920" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="I am afraid that by mentioning the GPL, you saw the branch on which you are sitting. IMO, the first priority is to get paid. As there seems to be a contractual agreement with them, they have to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stop any work until payment. Then suggest your services for integration of that GPL solution. As this is a new task, feel free to raise your fee (after all you want to get rid of them, so you have nothing to lose).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They will probably put pressure on you by retaining money, but stay firm: you worked, you must be paid. The fact that there is (possibly) no official written contract doesn't matter. You can (hopefully) prove from communication with them that both parties agreed on a task, which you performed, and a cost, which you announced." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20620" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7796" RevisionGUID="0dce502a-3b22-468f-b3e7-a906ac9ecbec" CreationDate="2018-07-18T12:49:45.917" UserId="18230" Text="I´ll have to frame-challenge your premise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a company has a crappy app, they either &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. don´t care enough to invest, or &#xD;&#xA;2. the don´t know better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, even if you work free of charge, improving the app wont be free for the company. They would have to get you some kind of contact, supervise you, give you the sources etc. So a lot of work to do for their paid employees, they´d have to direct resources on that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for 1, the won´t care for your offer. For 2 they´d be willing to pay for improvements, but they cant judge if your claims hold any water. What they can judge is your perceived quality of work, which equals your price =&gt; zero!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I´d suggest instead is to create a little analysis of their app where you identify rooms for improvement. Send them a blueprint of what you are offering them and don´t even talk about money. If they show interest, then you can talk money - and it better be more then nil! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20621" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7797" RevisionGUID="47be0fa3-29e7-4f32-97fd-cd9bfab5fa4f" CreationDate="2018-07-18T18:31:52.923" UserId="20334" Text="I have been a freelancer / IT consultant for the last 20+ years I still have trouble coming up with my brand or specialization.   The closest description to what I do is some kind of a generalizing specialist.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason why I have trouble is that I want to highlight my expertise in cyber security, VoIP, virtualization, Linux and Windows DevOps, software development &#xD;&#xA;and rapid prototyping, complex networking, and more.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just typing this makes me cringe because I feel shy and humble calling myself an expert in these fields considering the geniuses that I look up to in those fields.   And yet, I feel like somehow I'm undervaluing myself because on some level I have proven myself to be an expert.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let me give you one of many examples where this happened:  I was working with a senior network engineer on a complex network architecture problem involving BGP, VSRP and VLANs, I successfully able to lead my colleague to a solution.  If the senior network engineer left the project I would have finished just the same except it would have taken me 3x longer (because I would have to look up all the commands and router capabilities that my colleague had all memorized in his head).   Anyone who gave me Cisco command test would conclude I had no idea what I was doing - after all, how can an expert not have all the commands memorized?  Am I really a networking expert? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have many similar success stories in other areas.  My success always involves one of two factors.  Either, patience from my client because they trust me that I will get to a solution by brute generalization and perseverance, or some domain expert that I can work with whose brain I can pick and lead them to a solution.   I enjoy doing both (working collaboratively and by myself)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you call that kind of consultant?  Can I call my self an expert?  Yes, I was the one who was instrumental in leading my colleague to the goal, but I wasn't the one who had all the commands memorized.   Or on another occasion, yes, I solved a really complex technical issue that no one else could, but I had to learn on the job.  It's like an expert that doesn't know anything.  Or it's like expert only because even though my peers could be more of experts than I can they don't use the same brute generalizing perseverance to reach the goal - they give up because they get intimidated by the problem.   Can I still call myself an expert?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not asking how I handle current clients.  Once clients know me they know exactly what my value proposition is - they are all very happy.   How do I communicate this to new clients?   How do I explain that I'm an expert that has to learn the thing as he goes?  It just sounds weirdly inconsistent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course the natural answer here is that I'm simply a manager - except I tried that and I'm definitely not a manager type.  I like to get my hands deep into the minutia of IT (and I absolutely have to because that's what makes me so effective).  Also I'm not a manager, because I hate nagging people.  Whenever I'm made a manager it's by title only - I still get my hands in there on a daily basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I meet someone new and they ask me what kind of IT I do, I have a stupid blank stare, because I want to answer &quot;I do it all and I'm also pretty darn good at it all&quot; ... but I keep quiet because I know how ridiculous and stupid that sounds.  And even if I could get over that, it still sounds like serious bragging.  I can't brag because it's being humble that drives me to learn more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm an expert learner I guess .. but again more cringes and more weird looks - this time from the person who I'm talking to.  What the heck does that mean and why would anyone want to hire an expert learner? ... this guy really is a weirdo.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So as you can see that's why keep all these weird theories to myself :-) and try to act more or less normal.  As a result I pick one of my many areas of expertise and talk to them about that ...but I feel like I'm missing telling them about all the other stuff I'm good at.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20622" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7797" RevisionGUID="47be0fa3-29e7-4f32-97fd-cd9bfab5fa4f" CreationDate="2018-07-18T18:31:52.923" UserId="20334" Text="How do I market myself as a specializing generalist?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20623" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7797" RevisionGUID="47be0fa3-29e7-4f32-97fd-cd9bfab5fa4f" CreationDate="2018-07-18T18:31:52.923" UserId="20334" Text="|attracting-clients|consulting|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20624" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7758" RevisionGUID="f51a03ba-29fe-4bf3-9d9e-22a46957531c" CreationDate="2018-07-18T22:06:30.767" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1019704994788990976" />
  <row Id="20625" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7798" RevisionGUID="7e5ef0d7-143d-490b-a4fd-10cb18ccb7b8" CreationDate="2018-07-19T10:19:57.507" UserId="18230" Text="First, you are not a *specializing* generalist - you are simply a generalist. What you describe it the definition of a generalist! And that´s no bad thing!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So where or what to you want to be or get to? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I apply for a programming job, I´ll highlight my development skills. If I´m after that Sys-Admin position I´ll empathize the relevant experience for that. If I want a management position I´ll do neither and concentrate on abstract problem-solution and social skills. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you market everything to everyone you will be a good match for nobody!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think about what you want to do, or what the client is looking for and how you fit in with that. Then sell exactly that!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20626" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7798" RevisionGUID="2fdcb7eb-a281-467e-a3eb-d443261f3e6b" CreationDate="2018-07-19T10:26:55.253" UserId="18230" Comment="edited body" Text="First, you are not a *specializing* generalist - you are simply a generalist *(with seemingly excellent problem-solving skills!)*. What you describe is the definition of a generalist! And that´s no bad thing!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So where or what to you want to be or get to? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I apply for a programming job, I´ll highlight my development skills. If I´m after that Sys-Admin position I´ll empathize the relevant experience for that. If I want a management position I´ll do neither and concentrate on abstract problem-solution and social skills. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you market everything to everyone you will be a good match for nobody!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think about what you want to do, or what the client is looking for and how you fit in with that. Then sell exactly that!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20627" PostHistoryTypeId="34" PostId="7785" RevisionGUID="fa872a8f-d96e-4935-b24a-67e1014a878f" CreationDate="2018-07-19T14:31:29.843" UserId="20305" Comment="40" />
  <row Id="20631" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7800" RevisionGUID="ae3e1dfa-4bc7-45ac-8e90-7703467956fa" CreationDate="2018-07-19T18:10:02.427" UserId="20334" Text="I think I answered my own question:   The answer is continue to develop generalist skills while marketing myself as a specialist.  &#xD;&#xA;[This article][1] describes what I mean better than I can&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/01/19/specialist-vs-generalist/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20632" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7801" RevisionGUID="07de8e67-1eb6-4720-ad98-22bd622ae191" CreationDate="2018-07-20T14:22:28.267" UserId="20348" Text="Back in March a friend of mine reached out to me for graphic design work for a crowdfunded project him and a small team were working on. Because I had worked with him in the past on some projects I was eager to help out. A few days later he provided me a contract stating the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Full payment for my services would be $1000.&#xD;&#xA; - Payment would be upfront, within 30 days of signing the contract, and after the crowdfund completion.&#xD;&#xA; - Additional payments given based on units sold.&#xD;&#xA; - I would maintain copyright while giving him an exclusive, royalty free, perpetual, irrevocable license to use, modify, distribute, and publish.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the time the project was not ready to move forward with crowdfunding and I proceeded to begin work. I know that this was my initial mistake but we couldn't really move forward without the work that I had to do and gave my friend the benefit of the doubt. Crowdfunding did not begin until a little over 2 months later and lasted for a month. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A week after being funded 3x the goal amount I asked about payment from my friend and was redirected to his coworker. He stated that I still had more work to complete and began listing out everything I had left to do. I was a little taken aback by it at the time and didn't call out the fact that this wasn't per our agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is now nearly 5 weeks after crowdfund completion and I've done a few more hours of work for some essential things. I mentioned to my friend last week that I hadn't been prioritizing this project due to the fact that I had not been paid per our contract. He didn't respond to this bit and instead just gave critique on the content that I had sent him. A few days later he's asked for updates about the work assigned and I'm not sure how to respond. I'm nearly 80 hours into this project over the course of 4-5 months and would like some advice as to how to proceed. My biggest concern has been jeopardizing the unit sold payments since they are, in total, nearly 75x my initial payment but I have no way of tracking these on my own. I worry that they see my slower pace for work as laziness as opposed to not wanting to be ripped off for more of my time and effort.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice and suggestions are appreciated, thank you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20633" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7801" RevisionGUID="07de8e67-1eb6-4720-ad98-22bd622ae191" CreationDate="2018-07-20T14:22:28.267" UserId="20348" Text="How do I tell a client that our contract isn't being upheld?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20634" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7801" RevisionGUID="07de8e67-1eb6-4720-ad98-22bd622ae191" CreationDate="2018-07-20T14:22:28.267" UserId="20348" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20635" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7802" RevisionGUID="8f7cc2b8-80b8-4efb-a79c-b3fb80b51f9f" CreationDate="2018-07-20T18:02:50.020" UserId="75" Text="Explain to your friend (and any other stakeholders) that you are stopping all work and communications relating to this project until your contract is brought back into compliance. If you were supposed to be paid before work, then you need that money to continue, period.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be firm, and expect that you may lose a friend out of this; unfortunately, that's the cost of doing business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20637" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7803" RevisionGUID="9db6e4eb-f37b-48e0-89ac-0ea518604a97" CreationDate="2018-07-21T20:10:26.680" UserId="20352" Text="So I started taking work on Freelancer.com and got my first client 2 days ago. However, he sent me the project with all the default values. &quot;I have a project for you...&quot; $250 budget, etc. When I went to chat with him I accidentally clicked accept before talking to him about the specifics. Noob move.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having accepted it already I knew not completing it would make me look bad because accepting it, whether on purpose or by accident, was my fault. So after talking about the project it is clear to me this project will take at least 2 weeks or more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I installed Laravel on his server, created the home page and am setting up user authentication now, I need to make a full admin panel to change pictures, edit posts, etc. As well as some more work. I'm doing full stack. I don't want to basically work for free and having already been 2 days I'm about to reach that point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I ask for more money? Or should I suck it up and do the job because I messed up? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20638" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7803" RevisionGUID="9db6e4eb-f37b-48e0-89ac-0ea518604a97" CreationDate="2018-07-21T20:10:26.680" UserId="20352" Text="Is it appropriate to ask my client for more money?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20639" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7803" RevisionGUID="9db6e4eb-f37b-48e0-89ac-0ea518604a97" CreationDate="2018-07-21T20:10:26.680" UserId="20352" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|money|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20640" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7804" RevisionGUID="1771d7a9-7a1f-4efb-9c28-10768b9b20d1" CreationDate="2018-07-21T22:41:25.633" UserId="708" Text="You agreed to complete the work for $250. Mistake or not. That's what you agreed to. Failing to adhere to that agreement will have repercussions - how great or small I'm not sure any one can say definitively." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20641" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7805" RevisionGUID="836eb5a5-37cc-4c37-865f-ff373b7b0865" CreationDate="2018-07-22T10:09:16.057" UserId="19139" Text="My client wanted a website that included the purchase of a few (6) professioanl images, which I suggested iStock as a place to get them.&#xD;&#xA;It was hard at first to convince him he needed to pay for his images as he thought it was perfectly fine to save the images from their competitor's website and use them on his own site. It took some convincing but he finally agreed he would pay for his own. &#xD;&#xA;We discussed he wanted 6 images, and on iStock images are bought with credits. Some images can be 1 credit, others 2 or three.&#xD;&#xA;I told him to purchase 6 credits on his account and I will download 6 images (thus, making each image the price of 1 credit each).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While looking for the best image that suits a particular page, I would send him a few screen shots so that he can decide. For example &quot;on the X page, which image would you prefer. Option A, B, C, D&quot; etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've done this with each image that needed purchasing as I wanted him to be happy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However I still have 3 more images to buy and have just noticed on the account is only 1 credit left. I looked through the purchase history and saw one image was 3 credits, not 1. I suppose this is my fault for not checking before downloading, but now there's not enough credits to purchase the other 3 images I need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He chose all the images I have downloaded, but I probably should have checked before clicking the download button. Is it my fault or his? He was the one that selected them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Appologise and say this is my fault for not checking while also&#xD;&#xA;   explaining that for my error he will need to purchase more credits&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;- Say 'Because you chose X image, I will need you to purchase more credit ( putting the fault at him)&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA;- Purchase more credit out of my own expense because it was my blunder&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He was already not happy about purchasing items to begin with, so I don't think he will take option 1 or 2 very well.&#xD;&#xA;Also a thing to note - I checked the refund section to see if I could get one - I cant. So that's not an option. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20642" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7805" RevisionGUID="836eb5a5-37cc-4c37-865f-ff373b7b0865" CreationDate="2018-07-22T10:09:16.057" UserId="19139" Text="How to tell client I accidentally went over their credit budget" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20643" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7805" RevisionGUID="836eb5a5-37cc-4c37-865f-ff373b7b0865" CreationDate="2018-07-22T10:09:16.057" UserId="19139" Text="|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20644" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7806" RevisionGUID="b1b90cfc-302f-436f-9319-613d44073c45" CreationDate="2018-07-22T11:16:44.287" UserId="19139" Text="I always create a document of requirements. The document is created after a discussion of all areas of the website has been made to fully understand the scope. This will also get them to think ahead and will likely bring up those extra bits from the future to the present.&#xD;&#xA;For example they might say I was this information on the page. And then I would break it down and say ok do you want any images? Are there any links? Where do you want them to go? Give them questions so they have to think about what they want. Most clients dont even know what they want until they see it in the flesh and then they start deciding. After all this is done, and every page, element and feature has been discussed, I then write the document that explains EVERYTHING.&#xD;&#xA;Yes, this takes time, and I usually add the charge to quoted price. And yes there is a possibility that they cancel the website request before even starting, and you have wasted your time on the document. But if the project goes through then it's worth the time. Although it is  risk to spend time on the document requirement, the discussion you have before hand will help the client in making their mind, and they are more likely to go ahead with everything once they have discussed and thought everything through. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Get them to read the document before signing or agreeing and any changes they make you can make that change in the document and also change your fees if necessary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the future, if they request more additional features, you can say this goes beyond the contract and you have agreed to do what the requirement says (which is also what the fee is based on), and state if they wish to add/change a feature, it will require X extra because the price you quoted is based on Y time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20645" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7807" RevisionGUID="df88f9a3-6d3a-4003-9e70-8685acd7d3e8" CreationDate="2018-07-22T18:14:55.997" UserId="708" Text="Well, it was your decision to set the budget and to choose which images he could select from.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I'd be inclined to purchased additional credits as needed myself.** It's really not a major expense. So, I wouldn't run the risk of client dissatisfaction due to ~$35.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I actually build cost of images (or other necessary resources) directly into project bids. The client never knows what, or even if, they cost anything. If I built in $60 for images and I actually need to spend $80... well, that $20 comes out of my profit rather than asking the client for more money. My fault for under budgeting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tend to use blanket amounts for stock images though -- If I know stock images will be needed that's an automatic minimum of +$150 to the quote. I may not spend that entire $150 on images, however, any left over also compensates me for the time to search for images, client communication regarding images, editing the images as needed, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For what it's worth iStock (since being bought by Getty Images a couple years ago) is WAYYYYYYYYYYYY overpriced any more. You can quite often find the *same exact images* at other sites for much less. Most of the contributors will contribute to multiple sites, not only iStock. I only use iStock when a client has sent me a *specific* image to use that I can't find at other sources or the client is directly purchasing images themselves based upon my suggestions (some large corps have iStock accounts and I merely send them image #s for the ones I want)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20646" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7808" RevisionGUID="adea15ad-7415-4cd1-ab2f-4f7841cdf60c" CreationDate="2018-07-23T07:21:45.947" UserId="7858" Text="The correct strategy pretty much depends on what sort of client relationship you have or want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm guessing you are a relatively new freelancer, since you are very much focusing on the past and present instead of the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this is clearly a one-time client that you're absolutely certain won't harm your business by bad-mouthing you, then you could try options 1 or 2. Personally, I would never do option 2, because you as the expert then shift all blame to the non-technical client, which pretty much is a mortal sin for a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A better approach is always taking the long view - especially if the amount is a mere USD 35 (as quoted by @Scott). Take that expense on yourself, as the primary objective is ending up with a happy client - even if they have been somewhat grumpy during the process. They will remember the delivery, not all the details of how it came about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And don't worry about the client being unhappy and surprised because they unexpectedly have to pay for something they thought was free. After successful and professional delivery, they will most likely also be grateful for you steering them clear of any potential legal embarrassment. Despite costing them additional money, you have demonstrated that you are actively looking out for them - which ALL clients want to see.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The situation is similar to you having a very nice dinner only to discover that they charged you for the extra bread (which you thought was free). In the end, if everything (including the bread) was really good, would you really care?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20647" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7809" RevisionGUID="8b064400-d674-4256-bb05-764662fad4f8" CreationDate="2018-07-23T07:38:14.037" UserId="7858" Text="No.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You cannot ask for more money - but you can explain that you mistakenly accepted and therefore wish to withdraw from the task without any payment. In fact, you should have done that immediately. We're human, mistakes happen.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will annoy the client - but since it's only been a few days you won't really be hurting them - like you might have had in two months if you quit in sheer frustration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a rosy scenario, the client might want to know what could make you stay on the project - but since they expected a full e-commerce site for only USD 250, it seems they don't fully realize the extent of the task.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you somehow find common ground with this client, I would avoid a fixed price unless your delivery essentially can be cloned from previous projects." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20648" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7011" RevisionGUID="07bbbca2-0f43-4acf-a5de-583338459005" CreationDate="2018-07-23T14:30:53.897" UserId="17728" Comment="added 797 characters in body" Text="I am an engineering student studying in one of the top schools in my country. I have been tutoring students for about 2 years, sharing my expertise with those who are about to take university entrance exams (mostly high school students).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Students usually find me through my blog where I post articles about problem solving strategies, time management, dealing with stress, building resilience and patience etc. I also share stories of my previous students and their successes in exams.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During sessions, I usually: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - solve difficult, challenging problems&#xD;&#xA; - talk to students about common sources of distraction and how to deal with those&#xD;&#xA; - talk to families about their attitude towards the student and how they can provide the student with a more efficient environment (I don't charge money for these talks of course, they are usually like tea talks)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, generally speaking, I work roughly as a personal trainer for these students.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of my students say they are satisfied with the learning experience. I regularly provide the students' families with information about the student's progress, and they also openly express their satisfaction and say they are willing to continue with tutoring sessions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is, after 2-3 months of tutoring 2-4 hours per week, the families suddenly and abruptly change their minds and want to put and end to the sessions, with no display of dissatisfaction or distrust. Am I missing something? Is it possible that I have problems with reading some cues about their attitude towards me? How can I keep my client families wanting to stay with me until the end of the semester?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S.: For the sake of comparison, I charge $15 per hour which amounts to $120-$240 per month where an average white collar earns $1200 per month in my country.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT: There are some tutoring centers, located in a building with super crammed and dimly lighted classrooms, employing teachers so incompetent that they are unable to find a proper job at a school, charging $2000 up front per year and these families choose to send their kids to these tutoring centers. Is there a psychological effect of paying up front, where you feel like you have to get the most of what you have just paid, instead of the option I give them where they can choose to cancel whenever they want?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**1 year later:** I just heard that about this thing called &quot;scope creep&quot; and had kind of a revelation. While it may not be directly applicable to private tutoring space, what I noticed is this: Whenever I agreed to stay for a tea-talk, the parents were always eager to extract the maximum amount of wisdom out of me. That &quot;wisdom&quot; is actually a part of what I'm being paid for, so under the disguise of courtesy (and freshly baked cakes), they were trying to learn as much from me as possible. Once they think they have learned enough, I'm immediately dumped since there is no need for me anymore. Besides, I was basically willingly reducing my hourly rate and giving out free information in exchange of food and small, praising talks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Who cares about free cakes? Oh how childish I was. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20649" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7136" RevisionGUID="c5fe9b23-11a4-49ca-b8b9-9353135793ce" CreationDate="2018-07-24T06:53:12.860" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20650" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7810" RevisionGUID="c7897cc9-5a0e-4b8b-a225-36da13a62bf7" CreationDate="2018-07-24T07:21:34.187" UserId="20367" Text="Let's assume I have created quite a successful online service for entertainment, which does not sell anything and the only potential income would come from advertisement. Let's assume it is big enough that some might be interested in buying it.  &#xD;&#xA;But the thing is, it is just my privately held website, not a company or anything. Is it a problem? Is it possible that an individual could sell his project without being a legal entity?  &#xD;&#xA; Why the bigger players simply do not copy the idea without asking me, in the end, general ideas are not protected as such (I mean, you could create another variation of linkedin, fb, etc., unless you copy some specific features).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20651" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7810" RevisionGUID="c7897cc9-5a0e-4b8b-a225-36da13a62bf7" CreationDate="2018-07-24T07:21:34.187" UserId="20367" Text="Do I need to be a company to run my start-up like web entertainment portal?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20652" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7810" RevisionGUID="c7897cc9-5a0e-4b8b-a225-36da13a62bf7" CreationDate="2018-07-24T07:21:34.187" UserId="20367" Text="|copyright|information-technology|registration|startups|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20653" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7811" RevisionGUID="fa341ea0-511c-40da-8659-7677f7740b53" CreationDate="2018-07-24T08:21:35.963" UserId="7858" Text="Larger companies buy smaller companies for a variety of reasons; quickly gaining their technology is only one of those reasons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case, it seems the user base is what a larger player could wish to acquire. If outright buying your website is cheaper/faster than copying it and advertising to entice your users, then that's what they'll attempt to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether you should own the website personally or form a company is a legal question depending on your location and jurisdiction. In general, I would imagine only a company would be able to deduct any expenses associated with running the website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, selling a company as opposed to merely selling off a privately owned website might have vastly different tax implications. You would need to get localized legal advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20655" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7813" RevisionGUID="ad52e0e9-d3e0-4d49-9e41-4e759081fcad" CreationDate="2018-07-24T18:08:58.890" UserId="19139" Text="I agree with Fredrik.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The same situation has happened to me before. I usually give the client a fixed price for what I think a good programmer would do, but then add a few weeks. I partly do this so that I have more time. For example, charge for 2 weeks work but say it will take 4. This is because I want to give myself contingency in case anything goes wrong, but also because I do freelancing on the side of my full time job as a programmer, so essentially I am working part time on it. I dont expect the client to pay full time for part time work, so they are charged at part time but gives me extra.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you come across something that will take a bit longer because you thought it would be an easy job but turns out it's not, is it your fault? i.e is it because you're weak in that area?&#xD;&#xA;If it is, then deal with the extra time. If, however, what they've asked for is more complex than what you thought and there is no way it wouldnt take someone else longer, then tell them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, you thought they only wanted 1 component but they actually meant 5. In that case, say it will cost more. However if, like I said, its just taking more time because you're learning, then dont make them pay for that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20656" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="10e70d8e-5ca2-4e24-a18e-95c561856198" CreationDate="2018-07-24T23:01:08.617" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20657" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7814" RevisionGUID="f21ec05c-b07e-4967-ac54-74c04194b2a0" CreationDate="2018-07-25T11:17:27.203" UserId="19071" Text="If **Dr. Bob Batman** would decide to launch a website where he blogs and does stuff about his freelancing website (PHP, MySQl programming) that is made up of his name, which of the following do you think should he use (given that they are all available)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - bob-batman.com&#xD;&#xA; - bobbatman.com&#xD;&#xA; - dr-batman.com&#xD;&#xA; - drbatman.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or in other words: Do you think its a good idea to seperate the words with an `-` and would you rather take the name+surname or the academic title + surname?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20658" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7814" RevisionGUID="f21ec05c-b07e-4967-ac54-74c04194b2a0" CreationDate="2018-07-25T11:17:27.203" UserId="19071" Text="Good Domain Name for Freelance Website" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20659" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7814" RevisionGUID="f21ec05c-b07e-4967-ac54-74c04194b2a0" CreationDate="2018-07-25T11:17:27.203" UserId="19071" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20661" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7815" RevisionGUID="c16aded8-c6b8-4f64-a28f-dfaf14d6e020" CreationDate="2018-07-26T11:36:46.067" UserId="7858" Text="If domains are reasonably cheap, why not get all of them? Pick one as the 'primary' and use the rest as aliases." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20662" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7758" RevisionGUID="768f4ed0-7e9d-4b4e-83b2-465d60dcaf13" CreationDate="2018-07-28T22:00:37.910" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20677" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="38" RevisionGUID="e92c6408-93fb-4a6c-96e6-f0a18a4c7a1a" CreationDate="2018-07-31T13:51:27.737" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="20680" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7821" RevisionGUID="57aae600-d412-46f1-8f10-29ee013edbd8" CreationDate="2018-08-01T03:49:46.393" UserId="5704" Text="What about DrBob. Com?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, I think it depends on the tone of his writing and blog and such.  Yes, he is a professional and trying to do professional work through that website. But is his writing more humorous or whimsical (even at a corny level)? Then something like Dr Batman.com or Dr-batman.com.  Those might even be good (assuming batman is real name) he is a bit of a fan it of the comic genre and it comes out.    &#xD;&#xA;The Dr in the title might also be really good if he is going to be serious and look at things very analytical like one might expect a Dr to be.&#xD;&#xA;His name, Bob denotes casual, and the last name denotes fun.  If he wanted more serious then maybe Robert Batman.com or Dr Robert Batman. Com.  So I would only go with bobbatman.com if he was looking for casual. &#xD;&#xA;Is the tone something like Ben Nadel at BenNadel.com or like Pinal Dave at SQL Authority or more like Brent Ozar at BrentOzar.com?  &#xD;&#xA;I also think it's standard that people know certain websites are all one word., especially when it's someone's name.  You hear that often in ads and when people speak about the website.... &quot;just go to Dublin donuts dot com, all one word...&quot; and so on.  So having the hyphen is not necessary and may confuse some people.  Just envision yourself saying it outloud for someone to write it down.... &quot;doctor batman dot com, all one word...&quot; or &quot;doctor dash batman dot com....&quot;. See the difference.    &#xD;&#xA;People also often capitalize the beginning of the words, as in a Camel-case nomenclature, as I have done a few times already and people can read it easily as you intended.   &#xD;&#xA;I agree that domain names are cheap, get them all if you could.   &#xD;&#xA;The primary I would say should be one without a hyphen and Dr Batman.com or DrBob.com or DrBobBatman.com if he is looking for serious or whimsical.  The last is my preference. I like full names in that. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20681" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7822" RevisionGUID="b08bd7db-3252-416a-abb5-9dced695f85e" CreationDate="2018-08-01T07:57:41.937" UserId="20104" Text="I have agreed for a mobile Application project where everything has to be managed by me only as development and programming designing concern. The only Designing part has been given to another freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;we had a minimum of ` 10 calls in 3 months` of period asking or discussion of the project and designing backend making Client understand the imaginary design and flow of the project. after all this discussion they have given me a small amount of payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;now all of the sudden gettings calls from the client to `refund the payment` as things are not moving forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can u any one help me out how can I handle the situation and make them understand refund is` not possible `and I'm also finding it extremely difficult to refund the payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client makes fake promises to come back with new project etc etc.. but If they are planning for a second idea they will not ask for a refund. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in Advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20682" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7822" RevisionGUID="b08bd7db-3252-416a-abb5-9dced695f85e" CreationDate="2018-08-01T07:57:41.937" UserId="20104" Text="Client has Cancelled the project and Asking for refund of Payment" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20683" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7822" RevisionGUID="b08bd7db-3252-416a-abb5-9dced695f85e" CreationDate="2018-08-01T07:57:41.937" UserId="20104" Text="|freelance-websites|group-freelancing|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20684" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7822" RevisionGUID="7d89b966-03a5-484e-aaf3-9c15b635060c" CreationDate="2018-08-01T11:15:24.183" UserId="20104" Comment="edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|payment-terms|group-freelancing|contract-cancellation|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20685" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7821" RevisionGUID="5bf3dd62-5182-4334-8d35-1d878b7a2e09" CreationDate="2018-08-01T14:17:25.503" UserId="5704" Comment="formatting changes to the links and better spacing" Text="What about DrBob.Com?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, I think it depends on the tone of his writing and blog and such.  Yes, he is a professional and trying to do professional work through that website. But is his writing more humorous or whimsical (even at a corny level)? Then something like Dr Batman.com or Dr-Batman.com.  Those might even be good (assuming batman is real name) he is a bit of a fan it of the comic genre and it comes out.    &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The `Dr` in the title might also be really good if he is going to be serious and look at things very analytical like one might expect a Dr to be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;His name, Bob denotes casual, and the last name denotes fun.  If he wanted more serious then maybe RobertBatman.com or DrRobertBatman. Com.  So I would only go with BobBatman.com if he was looking for casual. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is the tone something like Ben Nadel at BenNadel.com or like Pinal Dave at SQL Authority or more like Brent Ozar at BrentOzar.com?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also think it's standard that people know certain websites are all one word., especially when it's someone's name.  You hear that often in ads and when people speak about the website.... &quot;just go to Dunkin Donuts dot com, all one word...&quot; and so on.  So having the hyphen is not necessary and may confuse some people.  Just envision yourself saying it out loud for someone to write it down.... &quot;doctor batman dot com, all one word...&quot; or &quot;doctor dash batman dot com....&quot;. See the difference.    &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People also often capitalize the beginning of the words, as in a Camel-case nomenclature (unless the client is &quot;anti-camel-case&quot; and &quot;pro-snake-case&quot;), as I have done a few times already and people can read it easily as you intended.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agree that domain names are cheap, get them all if you could.   &#xD;&#xA;The primary I would say should be one without a hyphen and DrBatman.com or DrBob.com or DrBobBatman.com if he is looking for serious (like a Doctor) or whimsical (because of the pop-culture reference in his name).  The last is my preference, DrBobBatman.com . I like full names for URL. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20686" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7823" RevisionGUID="e5735158-cbe7-4750-b669-9fba975483a4" CreationDate="2018-08-01T21:07:59.147" UserId="708" Text="Just be aware... international clients who refuse to pay can't really be tracked down for payment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm US based as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is **exceptionally** easy for anyone *not* in the US to &quot;stiff&quot; you and you have either have no recourse or can hire *very* expensive services to try and collect in *some* countries, but not all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me, as a small US-based freelancer/sole-proprietor, the risk of not getting paid means I get paid **up front** or I don't do the work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20687" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7824" RevisionGUID="0c009522-40f1-43c1-b05e-993b9e72d811" CreationDate="2018-08-01T22:20:00.150" UserId="20411" Text="I'm looking for advice on the best way to service my client once their project goes live while avoiding any potential pitfalls. The product is a custom software solution that is cloud hosted. During product development the client has been billed straight time and materials. I'm uncertain what the best course of action is for when the product goes live. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For hosting accounts and costs: Is it advisable that I maintain the cloud hosting account under my company's name and continue to bill the client accordingly?  Or, am I and my client in a better position if the client pays the hosting bill under their name and hands the keys to the account over to me to manage on their behalf?  What problems should I expect with either of these models?  Are there other models that should be considered?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For support: I anticipate support hours potentially being much less than the time that went into development.  However, I anticipate still being called upon by the client from time to time. Is it advisable to do a flat rate support contract plus an hourly rate?  I want to make sure that both I and the client value the relationship once the product is in support." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20688" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7824" RevisionGUID="0c009522-40f1-43c1-b05e-993b9e72d811" CreationDate="2018-08-01T22:20:00.150" UserId="20411" Text="What to do once the project goes live?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20689" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7824" RevisionGUID="0c009522-40f1-43c1-b05e-993b9e72d811" CreationDate="2018-08-01T22:20:00.150" UserId="20411" Text="|contracts|software|client-support|maintenance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20690" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7825" RevisionGUID="d2d8a0cf-a2ca-4830-a2a1-cf5644853f7d" CreationDate="2018-08-02T09:29:34.927" UserId="19906" Text="From my experience freelancing, it sounds like a typical case of both you and the client lacking a full and transparent understanding of the scope of the project. Because if this, you’re probably going to find yourself doing a ton of extra work for no extra pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order to resolve this current issue, I’d recommend speaking to them on the phone and addressing what needs to be done to resolve the issue. Let them know that a refund is not possible, but you’d be happy to deliver whatever it is they think they aren’t getting from you. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20698" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7770" RevisionGUID="373ecaa6-6596-4bde-8d6d-e5dd805e0e1d" CreationDate="2018-08-03T11:00:33.857" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20701" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7822" RevisionGUID="935ff665-faab-4fd8-8034-876ed32ec9e1" CreationDate="2018-08-04T08:38:11.607" UserId="20104" Comment="added 76 characters in body" Text="I have agreed for a mobile Application project where everything has to be managed by me only as development and programming designing concern. The only Designing part has been given to another freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;we had a minimum of ` 10 calls in 3 months` of period asking or discussion of the project and designing backend making Client understand the imaginary design and flow of the project. after all this discussion they have given me a small amount of payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;now all of the sudden gettings calls from the client to `refund the payment` as things are not moving forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can u any one help me out how can I handle the situation and make them understand refund is` not possible `and I'm also finding it extremely difficult to refund the payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client makes fake promises to come back with new project etc etc.. but If they are planning for a second idea they will not ask for a refund. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in Advance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;there were no Agreements signed, We just had word of mouth. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20707" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7828" RevisionGUID="9fe2bdbe-4589-45b0-a4c1-0edb1b23bf77" CreationDate="2018-08-08T13:46:12.617" UserId="20451" Text="I am about to start a consulting project and do not yet have a registered business name. I am thinking of registering as a sole trader. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;can I issue a invoices for my services or they can only be issued after i have completed registration with the HMRC ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20708" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7828" RevisionGUID="9fe2bdbe-4589-45b0-a4c1-0edb1b23bf77" CreationDate="2018-08-08T13:46:12.617" UserId="20451" Text="can I isssue an invoice to a client, on my future business name, before I register as a sole trader with HMRC?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20709" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7828" RevisionGUID="9fe2bdbe-4589-45b0-a4c1-0edb1b23bf77" CreationDate="2018-08-08T13:46:12.617" UserId="20451" Text="|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20710" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7776" RevisionGUID="39b99bc7-33a6-4310-b177-dd96a34a2f68" CreationDate="2018-08-08T16:01:11.863" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20713" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="590" RevisionGUID="339195f4-3072-433d-81dd-50a36d9ef2f7" CreationDate="2018-08-09T17:24:18.223" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="20716" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7740" RevisionGUID="95dc1552-0a4d-4dd2-b130-5e328db7c88c" CreationDate="2018-08-12T10:01:28.890" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20717" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7830" RevisionGUID="524b2410-30f1-4d58-b87d-818c9270e2ac" CreationDate="2018-08-12T13:02:24.617" UserId="7368" Text="I have a personal project that's doing pretty well (over 370k downloads), but with no monetizing solution so far. Before I go in for monetization, I'm trying to browse the different options out there that would allow me to create a brand name/business for this product and a few others so to make them look more authentic. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I eventually came across E-Residency in Estonia, applied for it, got my card then started the process with LeapIn. Everything was going smooth until I learned there's no guarantee Paypal would approve my business, to then learn that I have no right to enter an email address with my business domain name as my contact information in the Estonian Business Registry, it had to be an @leapin.eu address that I had no access to, this sounded too odd and intrusive to me so I canceled the entire process with LeapIn and got a refund.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm rather a technical person (software engineer), I have very shallow knowledge when it comes to taxes, accounting and the legal aspects of starting a business and so I'm seeking advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To summarize my situation, I'm currently working as a software engineer in France, I have a resident card which expires in November 2020 (status is renewable), and I'm looking for the best alternatives to start my business while keeping my salarial activity in parallel. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally the business would be location independent, similarly to what the E-residency program in Estonia offers. The goal being to quit my day job and go live somewhere else should the business do well. The key factors for my choice would be driven by:&#xD;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ease/low fees of company creation (in the form of a one-person Ltd)&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lower taxes&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Unique remote physical address for the company (The program in Estonia uses the same physical address for hundreds/thousands of applicants, which is the major reason I guess for Paypal denying them access to their service)&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;No intrusive policies from the physical address provider/contact person&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lower fees for accounting, tax filing, and company creation.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any hints/recommendations would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20718" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7830" RevisionGUID="524b2410-30f1-4d58-b87d-818c9270e2ac" CreationDate="2018-08-12T13:02:24.617" UserId="7368" Text="Starting a one-person Ltd options" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20719" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7830" RevisionGUID="524b2410-30f1-4d58-b87d-818c9270e2ac" CreationDate="2018-08-12T13:02:24.617" UserId="7368" Text="|startups|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20720" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7803" RevisionGUID="0c189d0a-d026-4867-901b-420e8ec45257" CreationDate="2018-08-13T19:53:14.707" UserId="20352" Comment="added 512 characters in body" Text="So I started taking work on Freelancer.com and got my first client 2 days ago. However, he sent me the project with all the default values. &quot;I have a project for you...&quot; $250 budget, etc. When I went to chat with him I accidentally clicked accept before talking to him about the specifics. Noob move.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having accepted it already I knew not completing it would make me look bad because accepting it, whether on purpose or by accident, was my fault. So after talking about the project it is clear to me this project will take at least 2 weeks or more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I installed Laravel on his server, created the home page and am setting up user authentication now, I need to make a full admin panel to change pictures, edit posts, etc. As well as some more work. I'm doing full stack. I don't want to basically work for free and having already been 2 days I'm about to reach that point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I ask for more money? Or should I suck it up and do the job because I messed up? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**UPDATE:** After proposing to work the first week for $250 then hourly after the client agreed. Then after the first week of setting up user authentication and the home page and some other things the client ghosted on me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should have known better, let it be a lesson to all new freelancers. If the client brown noses quite a bit and seems very nice and flexible it's probably because they're using you and will do whatever to keep from rocking the boat and having you quit. Be smarter than me. Good luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20721" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="7814" RevisionGUID="e7c5073b-c6f5-445c-8126-a8eaa58ccac2" CreationDate="2018-08-14T13:34:40.560" UserId="64" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:64,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;jmort253&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="20722" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7831" RevisionGUID="415cb51b-3598-4572-b21e-ac428f978e71" CreationDate="2018-08-14T15:50:36.953" UserId="20485" Text="I wanted to get some processing work done so I hired a freelancer for the same&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before the contract started, I clearly mentioned 8 key things I want the code to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I deposited the contract amount in an escrow account.&#xD;&#xA;For some reason, the freelancer rejected it. He wanted me to pay him via PayPal (perhaps to reduce service charges)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He managed to do 7 of the 8 points of the contract. The last point which he did not complete was extremely critical. If that point wasn’t fixed, the project was as good as useless.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He refused to work ahead and wanted me to increase the contract amount by a substantial amount outside my budget which was a clear disagreement to the initial terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to deal with such issues. Its been a quite some time we have had a chat. He isn’t demanding a compensation for any work since he never delivered any code to me.I don’t want to continue the project.What should I do ? He isnt expecting any money for any work since there’s no mail regarding any such request from his side for the payment . Is it ethical to forget about this and go ahead in life ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20723" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7831" RevisionGUID="415cb51b-3598-4572-b21e-ac428f978e71" CreationDate="2018-08-14T15:50:36.953" UserId="20485" Text="Is it ethical to close a project where there is no output without any pay" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20724" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7831" RevisionGUID="415cb51b-3598-4572-b21e-ac428f978e71" CreationDate="2018-08-14T15:50:36.953" UserId="20485" Text="|contracts|contract-cancellation|ethics|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20728" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7834" RevisionGUID="f5988c91-d642-4c1d-9029-2be2cba291eb" CreationDate="2018-08-15T11:56:52.093" UserId="20492" Text="You could contact a french &quot;portage&quot; company and offer services as advisor to implement ans use your software. It sticks to your criterion and will permit you to start monetize your app. Could you tell us a bit more about your business model (pay as you go ? suscription ?). You could also start a limited or a partnership (and become a silent partner) in UK." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20742" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7797" RevisionGUID="e4c9a9c8-f108-487b-9a52-889c928b44ff" CreationDate="2018-08-18T19:01:04.377" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20748" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7834" RevisionGUID="ddeb9648-9184-49b2-ae56-58d0a0f1a391" CreationDate="2018-08-21T08:04:07.583" UserId="85" Comment="Spelling, grammar and readbility" Text="You could contact a french &quot;portage&quot; company and offer services as an adviser to implement and use your software. It sticks to your criterion and will permit you to start monetize your app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Could you tell us a bit more about your business model (pay as you go ? subscription ?).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could also start a limited or a partnership (and become a silent partner) in UK." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20750" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7840" RevisionGUID="c89661a6-3f52-4692-813e-1c8c5679530a" CreationDate="2018-08-23T05:27:23.677" UserId="20538" Text="Picking up on @Daniel's response, what you call yourself should depend upon your audience's expectations as much as your actual experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your audience's expectations are arguably more important for marketing than how you would describe your skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Take off of your &quot;IT Hat&quot; and think what your audience uses and expects -&gt; having regard to your product(s), your service areas, the target audience, and the like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For inspiration, you could try looking at:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. the terms used in comparable job ads (offered and wanted) within the area you're targeting;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. what is your competition calling themselves.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Otherwise, from the brief impression of your history, what you are using seems fine - &quot;IT Specialist&quot;, &quot;IT Consultant&quot; (I personally am not a fan of freelancer - that is an employment status rather than a skills descriptor, but that is perhaps just me).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, it might help to add whether this is personal branding for marketing yourself in the freelance market, or if it is for your own business - but in either case it is the same process - What does your audience expect?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20751" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7136" RevisionGUID="5eb62f15-d063-428c-abbb-d5f7de2dbe81" CreationDate="2018-08-23T07:00:33.833" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20752" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="63439168-689b-4cd5-ae6b-9dcc1fb92304" CreationDate="2018-08-24T00:00:41.713" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20756" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7842" RevisionGUID="62cb29f1-972b-44b1-b601-9dd95ff876e5" CreationDate="2018-08-24T04:01:14.910" UserId="20543" Text="Did you and client execute a written contract? If not, it's a &quot;he-said vs he-said.&quot; If they desire and have the financial resources to retain an attorney then written contract or not, their attorney can send you a Notice of Demand via Certified Mail - Return Receipt Requested. These are written to either just frighten you into issuing the refund or serve you notice required prior to actually filing a lawsuit against you. But before a suit is filed, they must consider your assets or lack thereof.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've had this happen and it stopped when I paid my attorney $125 to respond to their CM-RRR threat letter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice and I am NOT an attorney, don't let it worry you, hold your head high and see what happens. And if their phone calls are a hassle, the next time they call tell them you have no intention of refunding any money and you want them to stop calling you because you consider it harassment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The vast majority, but by no means all such people, end up taking no legal action beyond paying an attorney to send the scare letter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, remember that if they do sue you, your attorney will advise you to let him file a countersuit. We've been down that road too. When they realized we were going to file countersuit, we never heard from them again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm sorry you're having to go through this. The stress can be horrible if you let it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;JH" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20757" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7843" RevisionGUID="4a804725-3013-4eca-b168-38caabc02d6a" CreationDate="2018-08-24T13:19:10.220" UserId="20547" Text="I think it's ethical if done with good intentions. Finding a solution that benefits both sides would be ideal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Presumably the guy would complete the work if capable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Could you take the work to another coder to complete, and find a reasonable sum to reimburse the coder for work done? This is perhaps tricky, if for instance the critical function requires rewriting the rest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps deducting from the fee the cost to have it completed by a third party?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20758" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7844" RevisionGUID="1c5a5569-9a9d-42d8-b53e-8d6308f59ff1" CreationDate="2018-08-24T13:21:40.830" UserId="20547" Text="I would think that this would result in a cheque to a company that doesn't have a bank account yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless paid in cash?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I assume if it's invoiced and paid within the same tax year as you become registered it would not be a problem" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20759" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7845" RevisionGUID="3715d53e-7efd-4552-b2ba-082c0204da0d" CreationDate="2018-08-24T13:28:47.177" UserId="20545" Text="Yes, as long as you register as soon as possible. It's easy to register so there's usually no real reason to take a prolonged time to do so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One would argue that you are not self-employed until you receive your first payment. And there can be good reasons for not registering before you start, such as you got a last minute job where there's no internet connection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you didn't register for an unusual amount of time, for no reason, they might issue penalties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**See PMA Business Services [FAQ][1]**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; It’s important to let HMRC know that you’re self-employed as soon as&#xD;&#xA;&gt; possible – even if you already fill in a tax return each year. If you&#xD;&#xA;&gt; don’t tell them as soon as you begin self employment you may also&#xD;&#xA;&gt; incur penalties. You can let HMRC know about your new self-employment&#xD;&#xA;&gt; by registering online for business taxes. You’ll be asked for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; information about yourself and your business. HMRC will set up tax&#xD;&#xA;&gt; records for you using the information you provide, for example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.pmabookkeeping.co.uk/index.php/faq-section/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20760" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7846" RevisionGUID="2ad73540-bc0d-490e-8a8c-9f34a66b1307" CreationDate="2018-08-24T13:32:27.337" UserId="20547" Text="Firstly, retainers are a great thing to have as a freelancer. Guaranteed income, and keeps you in their mind as the one to go to for future work, new projects, referrals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We try to host websites for clients where possible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Advantages for us:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - we make a profit-margin on the hosting&#xD;&#xA; - we control the hosting access, to make any server adjustments in future, which ties in with maintenance&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Advantages for them:&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;- Single point of contact for issues, and fewer third-party invoices coming their way&#xD;&#xA;- fewer one-off invoices for an hour here and an hour there&#xD;&#xA;- fewer discussions about scope and time (not quite sure why but it's true)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course there are disadvantages: like if the client wants some fancy server requests that you're not happy with (perhaps an email server, or secure access rights for other parties). Or are difficult payers creating admin hassles. It's a case-by-case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For retainers, we typically charge a fixed retainer for maintenance and updates, to a level agreed with the client (can change over time). Hours included in this retainer are discounted from our normal hourly rate (motivates client), and unused hours do not rollover. Tasks above and beyond this are charged at normal hourly rate. Note that others may vary some or all of these terms. Again, maybe a case-by-case.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20767" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7758" RevisionGUID="f2fd2c32-3b0c-414c-b1f1-5e94fda01ca9" CreationDate="2018-08-27T22:00:40.337" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20772" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7850" RevisionGUID="abe74763-38ba-4c7a-8a59-58e9aa92e79a" CreationDate="2018-08-29T08:33:27.340" UserId="20575" Text="I own a lot of servers, Virtual Private Servers in specific. Those resources are being wasted. How do I put them to good use to earn a substantial amount of money? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please give me detailed ideas and suggestions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S.: I'm a techie. To be more specific, a Python Developer, and a Linux Systems Admin." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20773" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7850" RevisionGUID="abe74763-38ba-4c7a-8a59-58e9aa92e79a" CreationDate="2018-08-29T08:33:27.340" UserId="20575" Text="What can I do to earn money, with the fleet of Virtual Private Servers I own?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20774" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7850" RevisionGUID="abe74763-38ba-4c7a-8a59-58e9aa92e79a" CreationDate="2018-08-29T08:33:27.340" UserId="20575" Text="|consulting|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20775" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7851" RevisionGUID="47ebd49c-df3a-4fcc-a441-64916402faa7" CreationDate="2018-08-29T17:37:35.377" UserId="20536" Text="My questions are for freelancers that have active twitter, blog or any other social platform that gives them good clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does it worth to have an active twitter account, or constantly writing to your personal blog about technologies? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there any success stories that were possible only because of your twitter/blog account? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Could you share your insights on what works best for you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20776" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7851" RevisionGUID="47ebd49c-df3a-4fcc-a441-64916402faa7" CreationDate="2018-08-29T17:37:35.377" UserId="20536" Text="What is the best way to promote yourself as a specialist in a specific field?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20777" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7851" RevisionGUID="47ebd49c-df3a-4fcc-a441-64916402faa7" CreationDate="2018-08-29T17:37:35.377" UserId="20536" Text="|contracts|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20778" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7852" RevisionGUID="e307bdb8-e03a-4641-8932-50bc31562444" CreationDate="2018-08-29T19:29:56.037" UserId="20582" Text="For example&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- [here](https://www.freelancer.com/projects/php/chat-mobile-application/), someone likes to pay $140 for a chat application (iOS and Android)&#xD;&#xA;- [here](https://www.freelancer.com/projects/mobile-phone/develop-ios-app-17658912/), someone like to have an audio streaming mobile application be built. He is willing to pay $8 - $15 per hour!&#xD;&#xA;- [here](https://www.freelancer.com/projects/software-architecture/create-basic-ios-driver/), someone wants an iOS kernel driver. He likes to pay $10 - $30 for that. Considering that there is no documentation (or support) from Apple whatsoever about how to build a kernel driver for iOS, and such kernel driver can be run on jailbroken devices only anyways, this is crazy. It will take me more than an hour to even get started, and I don't think that any of the bidders will be faster than me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What the heck is going on here? I have calculated that my minimum rate is $35/h. Otherwise it is better for me to get an employment position, even if my work load is optimal, my overhead is minimal and I'm never sick, now matter how many or how few hours I actually work. (Country: Austria, EU)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And are there any platforms for freelance iOS developers with rates that are not ridiculously low?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20779" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7852" RevisionGUID="e307bdb8-e03a-4641-8932-50bc31562444" CreationDate="2018-08-29T19:29:56.037" UserId="20582" Text="Why are freelance rates for mobile developers on freelancer.com so low?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20780" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7852" RevisionGUID="e307bdb8-e03a-4641-8932-50bc31562444" CreationDate="2018-08-29T19:29:56.037" UserId="20582" Text="|freelance-websites|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20781" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7853" RevisionGUID="7ce24984-0a7e-4a53-ad33-929d5391b243" CreationDate="2018-08-30T11:43:24.097" UserId="20585" Text="Hello everyone and congratulations on your wonderful work helping all of us!&#xD;&#xA;I own a company in Romania that provides online phone services and i am a Romanian too paying all my taxes in Romania. I would like to hirr some US-citizens to work as freelancers for my company. So my queetion is around that since I am not familiar with USA tax system:&#xD;&#xA;1.The USA freelancers I will hire will be responsible for their ow taxes which I guess means that they need to fill a 1099 form, correct? Or they do not need to since the money they will get will be from a foreign company?&#xD;&#xA;2. I checked some 1099 forms online and I noticed that in the top left the payer’s and receiver’s TIN should be added.  I have a romanian tax identification number, is this suitable for this form or a USA TIN is needed? If a USA TIN is needed and I do not have one, this means that I cannot work with US citizens or they cannot work for a foreign company?&#xD;&#xA;3. In case one of my freelancers receive payments from my personal bank account instead from the company, are they required&#xD;&#xA;To fill 1099 too? And what is the procedure that is followed when a USA citizen receives monthly payments for services from a personal account without this being a company? &#xD;&#xA;So sorry for the long email and thank you for your answers&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20782" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7853" RevisionGUID="7ce24984-0a7e-4a53-ad33-929d5391b243" CreationDate="2018-08-30T11:43:24.097" UserId="20585" Text="USA citizens as freelancers for foreign company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20783" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7853" RevisionGUID="7ce24984-0a7e-4a53-ad33-929d5391b243" CreationDate="2018-08-30T11:43:24.097" UserId="20585" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20784" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1830" RevisionGUID="f67d4f61-8823-4917-8215-82a115a02a5f" CreationDate="2018-08-30T15:00:34.800" UserId="2819" Comment="removing link to nonexistent blog post" Text="Okay, after reading all the answers and comments here, I would like to add a few additional points to my answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**First off, as freelancers we normally trade our time for money.** So it seems natural to base the price of a monthly service off of how much time it takes us to do it. And that might be fine if you're just getting started, but like Joe (OP) said, *how should you charge for something that took you time to setup, but doesn't take any time to continue running, like a cron job?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the answer (as hinted at in the comments of some of the other answers), is to look at the value you're providing. Or another way of looking at it: what does the client miss out on if they don't buy your service?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Their site could go down for 24 hours? A week? Forever?&#xD;&#xA;- Total data loss/have to start over from scratch&#xD;&#xA;- Missing out on sales and leads&#xD;&#xA;- Taking time out of their busy schedules to futz around with WordPress&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are plenty more, that's just scratching the surface.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's not on the list? &quot;Joe must be at his keyboard at least x hours per month&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They could care less about the mechanism of how the benefits are delivered, all that matters is whether they get the benefits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Okay so what should you charge? That depends on two factors:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Your absolute minimum should be based on how much time you think it will take you per month. &#xD;&#xA;2. Beyond that, think about how much value your clients are getting from their website in the first place, and what kind of price they would tolerate. For example, a local quilting club website probably wouldn't pay much, while a t-shirt printing company that primarily sells product through their website would pay quite a bit to make sure their business remained open and profitable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What I charge and offer in my maintenance service:**&#xD;&#xA;$150/month for the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Smart updates...the whole backup, test, launch (or restore) routine&#xD;&#xA; - Malware monitoring, protection, and cleanup&#xD;&#xA; - Uptime monitoring&#xD;&#xA; - Daily offsite backups&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I chose $150/month because I figured maybe once per year each client would need some extra attention to resolve a plugin conflict, crash, or something similar. So the months where everything went smoothly would help subsidize the one problem per year, and they don't get stuck with a $1000 repair bill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The last 3 components of my service are mostly automated, but help to round it out and make it look more enticing. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20785" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7854" RevisionGUID="34b98d4b-f12c-4868-939e-f1bf221cbc65" CreationDate="2018-08-30T20:26:53.957" UserId="708" Text="Foreign entities don't pay or need to be concerned with the US taxes of US entities they may do business with. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You pay US taxes if you are **US citizen** or a **US-based business**. You may pay *tariffs* on trade if you are a foreign entity. However, hiring people based in the US is not &quot;trade&quot; since no goods are resold in the US. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyone in the US you hire is solely responsible for their own taxes and declaring any income they earn. You do not need to do anything with respect to US taxes of freelancers, and that includes 1099s. 1099s are required for US-Based businesses. Some inexperienced US Freelancers may ask for a 1099, but as a foreign entity you are not required to provide one. 1099s just make tax filing easier for the freelancer because you detail the amount you spent and they don't need to keep accurate records or do any math, that's all. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be aware, I **am not** a tax professional. However, I am US-based and have worked with clients in the EU over the years, never anyone in Romania though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a definitive answer, you really should speak to a tax professional familiar with international business regulations regarding your own country. So, your best bet is to find a Romanian accountant and ask them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20787" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7856" RevisionGUID="5787f488-c962-4af0-844b-81f84b046185" CreationDate="2018-08-31T15:08:28.123" UserId="20592" Text="Depends what are your specialties? You can rent out partitions of the Servers, you could host a series of game servers and get paid for ad revenue and donationware, you could start a web hosting application and have people pay in a month to month basis for you to host their websites. Honestly the possibilities are endless." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20788" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7857" RevisionGUID="7dbb3ac0-e477-439c-97f3-4e1e22ef6b96" CreationDate="2018-09-01T19:13:34.150" UserId="20597" Text="They offered me a freelance job to do data entry. only that to be able to be with the work they demand me the payment of 32usd. who tell me what the contract is for?&#xD;&#xA;Is this so or is it a scam?&#xD;&#xA;I am new to the freelance theme." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20789" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7857" RevisionGUID="7dbb3ac0-e477-439c-97f3-4e1e22ef6b96" CreationDate="2018-09-01T19:13:34.150" UserId="20597" Text="Do I have to pay for a freelance contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20790" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7857" RevisionGUID="7dbb3ac0-e477-439c-97f3-4e1e22ef6b96" CreationDate="2018-09-01T19:13:34.150" UserId="20597" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20791" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7858" RevisionGUID="763377b5-5e54-4813-87d2-54b4e8c2973d" CreationDate="2018-09-01T19:37:25.960" UserId="708" Text="**It's a scam.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No *legitimate* client **EVER** needs money from you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Worst case scenario is they would deduct any startup fees (which is really *exceptionally* rare, if they ever exist at all) from your first invoice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Never** pay any client even one penny to work for them. That's not how business works" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20792" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7859" RevisionGUID="51e22e4a-d5fa-4d29-8f59-4a36c8021120" CreationDate="2018-09-02T02:41:51.300" UserId="20599" Text="I'm new to hiring freelancers for work. I'm having few ideas but I'm not sure what are methods/mechanisms available in freelance world to protect my ideas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is preventing a freelancer to listen to my idea and sell it to someone? Or work with me on my ideas to create code/architecture and share with others? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20793" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7859" RevisionGUID="51e22e4a-d5fa-4d29-8f59-4a36c8021120" CreationDate="2018-09-02T02:41:51.300" UserId="20599" Text="How the ideas are protected on freelance world?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20794" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7859" RevisionGUID="51e22e4a-d5fa-4d29-8f59-4a36c8021120" CreationDate="2018-09-02T02:41:51.300" UserId="20599" Text="|contracts|intellectual-property|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20795" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7860" RevisionGUID="1f02be06-5b9c-480f-a13d-451ab8f8e6b5" CreationDate="2018-09-02T04:31:08.687" UserId="708" Text="Look up **Non-Disclosure agreements**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These are agreements, with penalties, should any information you deem proprietary be shared with anyone." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20796" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7770" RevisionGUID="8e01ff3d-1f03-4a0b-b0ec-58a9f78121d7" CreationDate="2018-09-02T11:00:58.383" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20797" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7861" RevisionGUID="f2d1ef10-6ff7-4a2d-abe8-6a7f430d3555" CreationDate="2018-09-04T06:28:47.160" UserId="20604" Text="21 years ago I was in your predicament. I was 15 years old. My two friends were 14. We were all computer geeks. I suggested we start a company catering to small businesses and individuals providing web development, computer repair and desktop publishing services. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I got us some clients here and there and they all paid us with bank checks. Even back then when banks were a little more lenient it was no mean feat to cash those checks as a minor with no bank account or even a picture ID. My home state doesn't give out ID or junior driver licenses until your 16 years old.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also inquired about merchant accounts at the age of 15. You need one to accept a credit card. Paypal is really just a merchant account. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I went to many banks until I got to HSBC and the banker was nice enough to sit me down and really explain why I wouldn't want the responsibility of one even three years down the line when I turned 18. Long story short, a credit card user can force a charge back and your money can be clawed back 6 months after the transaction. Get too many charge backs and the bank will close your merchant account. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I wish I knew at 15 was the concept of corporations and business agents. I didn't find out about this until I was old enough not to need it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You go to a trusted business lawyer and have them setup a corporation on your behalf. They will also double as your registered agent. So any official legal documents would be sent to them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then get a second adult you trust. This person will be your project manager, sales rep, talk to the adults person. They will also be the one who opens the corporate bank account. They can also sign up for paypal, stripe or square to process credit card payments. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes I lost customers in high school due to our age. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you would be paid as either a self employed freelancer or employee, check with your accountant on what's the best way to save on taxes and how it would impact your parent's taxes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For online websites like freelancer.com, affiliate programs, advertising accounts etc.. If they don't ask for your age and offer paypal as a payment option as far as I remember, you can open up an unverified personal paypal account and purchase $500 a month worth of things with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That or request payment in cryptocurrencies like ethereum. As far as I know there are no age restrictions on opening up a crypto wallet. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But most places online won't let you register because you're too young to sign a legally binding agreement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this helped. I used the three years until I became a legal adult to hone my skills and learn about business management, bookkeeping, cashflow and promotion. The biggest mistake I made as a 15 year old was not making a business lawyer my first stop.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also see if there's a SCORE chapter where you live. They can really help out with this kind of stuff like recommending a lawyer or accountant.." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20801" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7863" RevisionGUID="d394c629-2b1f-4368-8d13-e8f546160b57" CreationDate="2018-09-04T18:38:02.207" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20802" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7863" RevisionGUID="d394c629-2b1f-4368-8d13-e8f546160b57" CreationDate="2018-09-04T18:38:02.207" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20803" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7864" RevisionGUID="211ee542-39d7-47a9-a5bb-ec122fcb8189" CreationDate="2018-09-04T18:38:02.207" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20804" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7864" RevisionGUID="211ee542-39d7-47a9-a5bb-ec122fcb8189" CreationDate="2018-09-04T18:38:02.207" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20805" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7865" RevisionGUID="00d85977-2ed6-48bd-9616-80f23a4b35f7" CreationDate="2018-09-04T18:38:35.633" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20806" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7865" RevisionGUID="00d85977-2ed6-48bd-9616-80f23a4b35f7" CreationDate="2018-09-04T18:38:35.633" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20807" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7866" RevisionGUID="0912a34f-9487-4be8-86bf-95526f07c24f" CreationDate="2018-09-04T18:38:35.633" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20808" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7866" RevisionGUID="0912a34f-9487-4be8-86bf-95526f07c24f" CreationDate="2018-09-04T18:38:35.633" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20810" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7867" RevisionGUID="6bf2ad41-44e6-44f4-9460-55b490f54c42" CreationDate="2018-09-05T04:33:21.740" UserId="1261" Text="Interesting question! I'd like to repeat this oft-repeated quote about ideas in general:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Ideas aren't even worth dime a dozen, execution is all that matters.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Implementation of your idea isn't just about coding, a whole lot of other things matter too. Consider the idea of a Cab Booking App, for instance. Why do you think there are only a handful of successful apps like Uber, Ola, etc. even though there is so much scope and earning potential in this idea?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By your logic any freelancer who contributes to a Cab Booking Project can &quot;steal&quot; that idea and start a Cab business himself, isn't it? But enter the real world of implementation! Implementing that idea isn't that simple, you need to have all kinds of homework done to make that idea successful. In case of Cab booking business, for instance:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Liaising with Cab unions, government agencies, etc. and getting required permissions.&#xD;&#xA;2. Social media marketing to find users who are ready to use your app.&#xD;&#xA;3. Performing necessary SEO to increase visibility of your app and website.&#xD;&#xA;4. Making all registrations and sign-ups on Play Store, Apple Store, Web Hosting, etc. and perform necessary arrangements for deployment.&#xD;&#xA;5. Preparing a team for integration-testing and Q/A (there are bound to be bugs in your freelancer's code!).&#xD;&#xA;6. Preparing a team for legal defense (there are bound to be repercussions from existing cab drivers in the region where you'll implement your app).&#xD;&#xA;7. Preparing a team of Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries, etc. to manage your finances and administration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, if a freelancer was able to do all the above on his own after taking the idea of a &quot;Cab booking app&quot;, he wouldn't have been a freelancer in the first place and graduated to a CEO/CFO already!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20811" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7868" RevisionGUID="fea01464-ad02-4990-8e78-298866fc8b67" CreationDate="2018-09-06T09:51:25.560" UserId="18230" Text="Don´t just let it slide. He can still come around with demands later. Better put a clear end to it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If possible I´d suggest you have a talk and reach an mutually acceptable solution.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, you should try to understand where the problem lies. Don´t blame! It could be bad communication on your side, hidden complexity, inability on his side, personal circumstances etc..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Situation is as it is, but it can help you to at least take a learning out of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then see what/if something can be salvaged, and what the compensation could be. Possibly meet somewhere in the middle? Possible to hand over the project to someone else?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the other party is not open to reach such a solution, you should at least give the an ultimatum, something like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Please provide the contractually agreed functionality until &lt; *reasonable time frame to react* &gt; or I will consider the contract void and any obligations/payments arising out of it void.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That way you, if you don´t hear from him, you at least have made your case. IF he does not object it can kind of be counted as agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20812" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7869" RevisionGUID="5074c6cf-20fb-4963-8ae1-585578666c09" CreationDate="2018-09-06T14:32:38.257" UserId="20621" Text="I've been on a w2 pretty much forever, but am negotiating with a company that wants me to work on a contract-to-hire 1099 basis. Is there a straightforward way to calculate what my 1099 hourly rate should be based on my current w2 salary? I'm not looking to make more money at this point, so I just want to make sure that my net income is the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assume no 401k, insurance etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20813" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7869" RevisionGUID="5074c6cf-20fb-4963-8ae1-585578666c09" CreationDate="2018-09-06T14:32:38.257" UserId="20621" Text="Calculating 1099 hourly rate based on a w2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20814" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7869" RevisionGUID="5074c6cf-20fb-4963-8ae1-585578666c09" CreationDate="2018-09-06T14:32:38.257" UserId="20621" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20815" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7870" RevisionGUID="c6e10bd2-2df6-4475-b920-56f2d5baa1f2" CreationDate="2018-09-06T17:34:10.670" UserId="708" Text="Most often people will use hourly pay rate times three to determine a general freelance rate. But that's merely a ballpark. There's no &quot;one method&quot; which is accurate for everyone." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20820" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7870" RevisionGUID="b5d15dec-e2e0-46a9-b82d-515ea07cb20a" CreationDate="2018-09-07T17:22:50.180" UserId="708" Comment="added 1559 characters in body" Text="Most often people will use hourly pay rate times three to determine a general freelance rate. But that's merely a ballpark. There's no &quot;one method&quot; which is accurate for everyone. Your general overhead as a contractor is higher because employers aren't paying for many things. In some cases basic necessities to work such as electrify and equipment. So typically a freelance rate is 3x what a current hourly rate may be as a general guide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are *not* interested in covering overhead - e.g. electricity, water, equipment, supplies, etc - because you will be working on site. Then you need to factor in your current employer contributions. If the employer is matching 401k, that may stop. You won't have paid vacation, sick, or personal days. If the employer is covering **health insurance**, that will stop.  Health insurance is a **BIG** one because it's going to cost you *way more* as a contractor than it does an an &quot;employee&quot;. I still would lean towards the hourly x 3 though. But if you like the employer you could possibly do hourly x 2 since they will still be paying for general overhead such as equipment and electricity. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be aware, may employers try and put workers into a 1099 arrangement so they can *avoid* things like health insurance and workman's compensation. The IRS started cracking down on this behavior, but that does not mean it has stopped. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If an employer tells you when to work, what to work on, provides tools for work... then they are an *employer* not a 1099 freelancer/contractor client. I realize that may not matter a whole lot to you, but you should be aware that if the employer is attempting to put you in a position better for them, but worse for you, you may just want to find a new job." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20822" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7872" RevisionGUID="256e6d0c-0fb5-4e45-9829-1ecd8175bb10" CreationDate="2018-09-09T13:42:22.320" UserId="20621" Text="The most common solution I've found is to multiply W2 rate/salary by 1.2 to maintain the **same net income** (which is all I was looking to do)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20823" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7873" RevisionGUID="b86bf98a-d054-43a0-9fdf-f088f7fb5494" CreationDate="2018-09-11T03:21:50.633" UserId="20641" Text="Recently, I got an offer to make a web page for a company on Upwork, The client and I agreed on 10 days to finish the job and I accepted the offer and started working on the application. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;7 days after the contract started the client sent me a message telling me that another freelancer did the job and he/she no longer needs me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hello. One of the freelancers that wanted to do this job did the work at risk, and actually did the Dashboard for this Request as I require it &#xD;&#xA;Effectively I no longer need this job done and wish to cancel the contract&#xD;&#xA;My Apologies for this&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I consider this to be so unprofessional. How do I respond to this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20824" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7873" RevisionGUID="b86bf98a-d054-43a0-9fdf-f088f7fb5494" CreationDate="2018-09-11T03:21:50.633" UserId="20641" Text="Client saying Another freelancer did the job while on contract" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20825" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7873" RevisionGUID="b86bf98a-d054-43a0-9fdf-f088f7fb5494" CreationDate="2018-09-11T03:21:50.633" UserId="20641" Text="|freelance-websites|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20826" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7873" RevisionGUID="cd164c60-7575-4b49-a09b-2d2b768639da" CreationDate="2018-09-11T06:47:52.517" UserId="20641" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20827" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7874" RevisionGUID="f5088ab3-7542-4dd0-80f5-aa6c7b968602" CreationDate="2018-09-11T09:55:39.220" UserId="7486" Text="In Upwork, I think there should be a valid contract between client and freelancer, the client should have made a deposit for the job, so you can:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. finish the work and pretend the payment, ignoring what he says&#xD;&#xA;2. ask maybe a 50%-75% of the final cost as indemnification for the work you did already&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In case 1, I think you can contact Upwork support because the client does not respect the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20828" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7740" RevisionGUID="0713d77d-1e56-4fbf-a0f6-fb8ff848fdd8" CreationDate="2018-09-11T11:00:00.153" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20829" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7875" RevisionGUID="90b212d9-b666-48b8-a5db-3ae2ac9d7750" CreationDate="2018-09-12T01:05:42.557" UserId="20647" Text="We had developed a blog/sales website for a client about 6 months ago and while discussing the contract, they were sure that they won't need maintenance. Since last month, they have been asking for small tweeks to the website,really small tweeks like just put a hat on the logo (they gave the edited logo) or change the background color of a particular section. We have been accepting the request because they are as small as a `copy paste and a git push` but it is a bit annoying as they did not pay for this and I feel this will just grow, but at the same time it feels bad to ask for money to change a font's color. How do I handle it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20830" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7875" RevisionGUID="90b212d9-b666-48b8-a5db-3ae2ac9d7750" CreationDate="2018-09-12T01:05:42.557" UserId="20647" Text="Client refused to pay for maintenance but now asks for small tweeks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20831" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7875" RevisionGUID="90b212d9-b666-48b8-a5db-3ae2ac9d7750" CreationDate="2018-09-12T01:05:42.557" UserId="20647" Text="|difficult-client|maintenance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20832" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7876" RevisionGUID="0b11b45d-5198-45d9-bb4b-0feae725c30b" CreationDate="2018-09-12T03:51:27.733" UserId="708" Text="For every 1 thing you do for free, clients will expect 3 more. And you've given them a *perfectly reasonable* expectation of that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to take a hard stance... either pay for maintenance or pay an hourly rate (with a minimum fee) for each change.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**It's business, not friendship.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20833" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7877" RevisionGUID="ddfb4f4f-a41c-4bd6-84fc-7064fb742554" CreationDate="2018-09-12T05:43:53.970" UserId="15143" Text="If it’s a small change you charge less but not nothing. Offer a reasonable hours rate that makes both parties happy.&#xA;&#xA;Even a 20 dollar per change is good enough." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20834" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7878" RevisionGUID="4b551f39-7883-4be4-9804-7897b388047a" CreationDate="2018-09-12T13:03:17.437" UserId="18230" Text="There are a number of common tactics to nudge your clients towards a more effective behavior:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Charge a minimum time, say 15 or 30 minutes always, no matter how small the task. Reason is that task-switching adds overhead. So if I stop my work and do something else instead you´ll loose that amount of time. Also communication and invoicing adds overhead. Obviously let your client know of these minimum times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Only answer such requests at a certain time of the day. If they contact you by phone, tell them you are in the middle of something and to call you again at that time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Delay they work. Even if it is a small thing, just add this to you list of small things, which you will get to at the end of the week. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will lead to either:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. They will pay you good money for the service, so you won´t mind too much.&#xD;&#xA; 2. They will collect their requests to have enough changes in one go to make effective use of your time&#xD;&#xA; 3. They will ask you for the service-contract again.&#xD;&#xA; 4. They will go elsewhere with their little requests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Either way, you have to educate them or it will go as @Scott said - they will expect more and more service for free." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20835" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7878" RevisionGUID="fc64ea5f-f422-43c1-9e9e-b447db1fa230" CreationDate="2018-09-13T07:47:18.053" UserId="18230" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="There are a number of common tactics to nudge your clients towards a more effective behavior:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Charge a minimum time, say 15 or 30 minutes always, no matter how small the task. Reason is that task-switching adds overhead. So if I stop my work and do something else instead I will loose that amount of time. Also, communication and invoicing adds overhead. Obviously let your client know of these minimum times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Only answer such requests at a certain time of the day. If they contact you by phone, tell them you are in the middle of something and to call you again at that time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Delay they work. Even if it is a small thing, just add this to you list of small things, which you will get to at the end of the week. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will lead to either:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. They will pay you good money for the service, so you won´t mind too much.&#xD;&#xA; 2. They will collect their requests to have enough changes in one go to make effective use of your time&#xD;&#xA; 3. They will ask you for the service-contract again.&#xD;&#xA; 4. They will go elsewhere with their little requests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Either way, you have to educate them or it will go as @Scott said - they will expect more and more service for free." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20837" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7879" RevisionGUID="cb60ffdb-c5fb-4011-963f-0008645b54e3" CreationDate="2018-09-14T10:55:05.697" UserId="20662" Text="I've recently registered for VAT and I'm not sure if I've been numbering my invoices correctly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't have many clients and I simply run a sequential count so it would be invoice #01...#02..#03 &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;every new client has their own sequence starting from #01 although I don't have a specific client identifier on the invoice number so it could be that I end up with invoice #01 for client A and also client B.. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;is this correct/acceptable or should I make sure numbers are unique for every client?   " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20838" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7879" RevisionGUID="cb60ffdb-c5fb-4011-963f-0008645b54e3" CreationDate="2018-09-14T10:55:05.697" UserId="20662" Text="UK VAT unique invoice number" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20839" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7879" RevisionGUID="cb60ffdb-c5fb-4011-963f-0008645b54e3" CreationDate="2018-09-14T10:55:05.697" UserId="20662" Text="|vat|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20840" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7880" RevisionGUID="06b87f8b-179f-4296-aab1-2f88818d48d0" CreationDate="2018-09-14T17:58:09.850" UserId="708" Text="I have no knowledge of VAT (because I'm US-based and don't need it).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, customarily **every** invoice has a **unique** number - regardless of client/customer. You should **never** have more than 1 invoice with the same number, ever. This allows you to find the **exact** transaction at a later date. Having multiple invoices with identical numbers will inevitably result in a nightmare.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have multiple invoices, all numbered as #01.... then you'll be scouring every 01 invoice to try and find the correct one. That's not good. It may seem minor with 50 invoices, but after a couple years you may have thousands of invoices to wade through.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, without VAT knowledge here ... you *can* add a unique client identifier to invoice numbers if you'd like. I do, just to make it easier to find those &quot;jobs&quot; in my tracking. How you add that identifier is kind of up to you. The important aspect is that no 2 invoices *ever* have the same number. As far as I'm aware the *only* rule regarding invoice numbers is that the be unique. (If VAT is different and someone knows, please comment to let me know I'm mistaken for VAT).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a client ID:&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;You could use a range of things... &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;from `#001-001` where the first three digits would be the client ID&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Or `#AAA001` where the first 3 alpha characters are the client ID.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, add the year to my invoice numbers as well as a client identifier. As in `18AAAA0001` --18 for the year AAAA for the client, followed by the actual invoice number. This allows me to typically keep invoice numbers to 4 digits since the year changes every 12 months. So I can have unique invoices numbers such as `17AAAA0300` and `18AAAA0300`.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a list, this generally sorts the numbers by year-client-invoice which I find helpful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Merely forward thinking -- I'd suggest all invoices have a *minimum* of 4 digits (if not 5 or 6) with leading zeroes. It'll merely makes things more organized once you start getting a record of many invoices." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20848" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7883" RevisionGUID="67030ff1-0633-4294-b219-81a4a868176a" CreationDate="2018-09-16T09:49:44.883" UserId="20674" Text="When freelancing in android app development, what is the best way to work with the client(employer):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Should one deliver work and take payment in parts. Do clients pay in advance?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Whose credentials(email id, website) should be used when creating package name or using firebase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) What is the best way to share the UX of the app with the client. Is there any way to take the screenshot or display the UX like graphic designers do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) If the client wants to see the app before final payment. How to provide the app yet hold the full code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5) What to deliver to the clients after the full payment (full project file, apk,source code). I use Android Studio 3.1.4&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6) How to provide the final code to the clients. Is it possible to email the client on gmail or on internal inbox of freelance website. How to email the final code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;7) If the client wants to upload on playstore then whose account/ credentials should be used - clients or developer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;8) Is freelancer, upwork good for finding app work. How to find genuine clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;9) Is it necessary to have own website or company name registered for freelance app developers?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20849" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7883" RevisionGUID="67030ff1-0633-4294-b219-81a4a868176a" CreationDate="2018-09-16T09:49:44.883" UserId="20674" Text="How to deliver work and procedure for freelancing in Android app development" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20850" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7883" RevisionGUID="67030ff1-0633-4294-b219-81a4a868176a" CreationDate="2018-09-16T09:49:44.883" UserId="20674" Text="|payments|programmer|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20851" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7884" RevisionGUID="b68fffc2-b8c3-4ab9-a3d2-701148083ff3" CreationDate="2018-09-17T04:53:45.263" UserId="15143" Text="&gt; If the client wants to see the app before final payment. How to provide the app yet hold the full code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would build a beta build and send it to the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; How to provide the final code to the clients. Is it possible to email the client on gmail or on internal inbox of freelance website. How to email the final code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Github or email is ok. Please communicate with the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Is freelancer, upwork good for finding app work. How to find genuine clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Genuine? What do you mean? Upwork guarantees your payment as long as you do the works. If you mean, good and high paying clients, then NO. You need your connections.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Is it necessary to have own website or company name registered for freelance app developers&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Should one deliver work and take payment in parts. Do clients pay in advance?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On Upworks, clients must pay for at least the first milestone. Whether doing in parts or full is not your decision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20853" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7885" RevisionGUID="25fb415f-5f6e-45fe-ba6b-1352ee11f5ff" CreationDate="2018-09-18T11:15:59.060" UserId="20689" Text="The gov.uk website has some useful information on how to invoice customers and what information needs to be included on an invoice. See https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Invoice numbers need to be unique across the business, not per customer:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You must include ... a unique identification number&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are some additional requirements for VAT invoices:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Include the following on your invoice ... __a unique invoice number that follows on from the last invoice__&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A single sequential counter for numbering your invoices as you send them fulfills this, eg: invoice 1 to client A, invoice 2 to client B, invoice 3 to client A, and so on.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20854" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7886" RevisionGUID="9ab4aa08-b331-47ca-a185-e903ca84ef45" CreationDate="2018-09-18T14:25:55.933" UserId="20690" Text="I'm currently working as a freelance software developer during 2 days a week (long term) for a customer close to my home. A few months ago I told them that 2 days is not enough for me and I'll be looking for another client because most companies are looking for fulltime freelancers (and also the context switch between 2 part-time jobs every week may be a bit too demanding on me.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;they counter offered me to work full time for 2 months before changing to another customer. I agreed and modified the contract to automatically return to the 2 days a week just to be sure I don't end up in a situation without any projects. They happily agreed.... And here we are now, 2 months further and I'm back on 2 days....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I have a good offer for a fulltime long term project (Starting part time so that I can finish my current project and then moving to full time)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The new 'job' is a government funded organization and gives me somewhat security and a full time freelancing job pays well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But there are a few downsides:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. longer commute (almost 2 hours a day more) =&gt; thinking about my family time here&#xD;&#xA;2. obviously I don't know this new customer... they may be happy with me but on the other hand they may also not be happy with me or visa versa....My current customer told me that he is happy with me.&#xD;&#xA;3. The new customer is in a special situation requiring me to go through government checks =&gt; costing me 1 month of pay&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I had 3 days a week with my current customer, I might be able to find some smaller projects and even if I couldn't this would not be the end of the world because I could still live of the 3 days freelancing (not 2). To me this is also appealing because of the growth potential even though I'm not sure this is possible or to demanding on me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have no contract as of yet with the new customer... Would It be wise to inform my current customer now that I will be changing and telling them that the situation would have been different if they gave me 3 days a week long term?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have I communicated enough a few months ago, just carry on and inform them after my contract agreement is official?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;OR &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I just say nothing while working for the new customer part time the first month and make up my mind 1 month in? (I convinced the new customer that I may need 2 to 3 months finishing up in my current project).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20855" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7886" RevisionGUID="9ab4aa08-b331-47ca-a185-e903ca84ef45" CreationDate="2018-09-18T14:25:55.933" UserId="20690" Text="Should I give my customer a chance to make a counter offer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20856" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7886" RevisionGUID="9ab4aa08-b331-47ca-a185-e903ca84ef45" CreationDate="2018-09-18T14:25:55.933" UserId="20690" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20857" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7887" RevisionGUID="50969221-de49-46fa-bdd9-21d145ca9511" CreationDate="2018-09-18T17:41:00.927" UserId="708" Text="I think this is really a matter of opinion. To me it's not possible to answer without direct interaction with the various clients and knowing a bit about how they may perceive things, especially the existing client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would caution against possibly bothering, upsetting, or annoying an existing client if you don't already have something else firmly lined up. It sounds as though you are single-client dependent and, for me, that's *never* a good position to be in. And it's almost *always* a bad position to negotiate from unless you are prepared to lose that single client immediately.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While the *&quot;I have a better offer, you better step up or I'm taking it.&quot;* tactic may work at times. You have to be prepared if it fails miserably." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20865" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7889" RevisionGUID="f859267d-f6db-4d3e-97bd-f9a6a2edfca8" CreationDate="2018-09-20T15:41:37.840" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Short answer: no code delivery = no payment. If he is not asking, why worry ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From your description, the faulty is more him, making you waste time by promising a solution then &quot;blackmailing&quot; you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20867" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7890" RevisionGUID="37e31260-55d6-4021-a64c-90e85aa61a9e" CreationDate="2018-09-21T20:45:23.543" UserId="20705" Text="I am a Mechanical Engineer, currently employed full-time for a large multinational. I am considering the option of leaving my full-time job to do similar work freelance, for various reasons: mostly because I am not doing enough of the type of work that I want to do in my current job and I suspect I may be able to earn more by going freelance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I am wondering how I can gauge how much demand there will be for my skills in the market, before I take the plunge and quit my current job. I have a family to support and mortgage to pay, so I need to have a good level of confidence that I can earn at least as much as I am now, before I could make the jump.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In particular, I am wondering if it would be a good idea to take on some small projects 'on the side', which I could work on in my spare time (whilst keeping my full-time job)? I am a a little concerned that, if I end up not finding enough spare time for them, that it might damage my chances of finding repeat jobs later on, if the work is not of sufficient quality. Also, if my current employer finds out I am 'moonlighting', that they might not like it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I estimate potential income for switching to freelance work, particularly when I don't actually have any contracts yet? Is it realistic to expect that I could earn more working freelance than I am currently full-time?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have an academic background in Fluid Dynamics and I would like to develop into a specialist in Fluid Dynamics/CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20868" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7890" RevisionGUID="37e31260-55d6-4021-a64c-90e85aa61a9e" CreationDate="2018-09-21T20:45:23.543" UserId="20705" Text="How can I gauge market demand for my skills before going freelance?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20869" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7890" RevisionGUID="37e31260-55d6-4021-a64c-90e85aa61a9e" CreationDate="2018-09-21T20:45:23.543" UserId="20705" Text="|consulting|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20870" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7891" RevisionGUID="fe5beaee-9251-4101-9e28-edddb56d2c77" CreationDate="2018-09-21T21:02:13.197" UserId="20710" Text="Here is the situation: I have been working full-time for a customer (let's call him A) over the last month and most of this time was actually spent on projects from a single customer of them (Let's call him B).&#xD;&#xA;Now that I'm planning to launch a company that will be in direct competition with A, I'm wondering if I could tell B about it, give business cards and so on. &#xD;&#xA;How would that be perceived ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20871" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7891" RevisionGUID="fe5beaee-9251-4101-9e28-edddb56d2c77" CreationDate="2018-09-21T21:02:13.197" UserId="20710" Text="Is it okay to prospect my customer's customers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20872" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7891" RevisionGUID="fe5beaee-9251-4101-9e28-edddb56d2c77" CreationDate="2018-09-21T21:02:13.197" UserId="20710" Text="|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20874" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7892" RevisionGUID="8d411c16-ccb6-483c-8aad-73995a21f3da" CreationDate="2018-09-22T00:38:49.900" UserId="708" Text="You can, but it is generally **very** frowned upon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Stealing* customers from your employer will merely ensure that employer does everything they can to prevent you from working once they find out. Client &quot;sniping&quot; is really one clear way to gain *horrible* word of mouth advertising." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20875" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7893" RevisionGUID="26730bbf-664a-401c-bab8-1399acac77bb" CreationDate="2018-09-22T00:46:42.033" UserId="708" Text="There's no way to gage anything without trying to get work in the market with your skills. You can *guess* based upon opportunities out there, but just because there are opportunities, that won't reflect the level of *competition* in your field. You may find there are 200 projects available for a freelancer in your field. However, there may be 5,000 freelancers competing for them and 1,500 of those freelancers may have twice the experience you do. There's simply no way to tell if you *can* get work until you try to get work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Frankly, with a mortgage and a family, the **only** way you should start is with &quot;small projects on the side&quot;. And if that creates a rift at your full time job, you might want to even dismiss that util you are in a position where financially you can afford to lose your current job if things came to that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Related: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/2461/708" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20876" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7136" RevisionGUID="354100c9-f621-454b-bd2e-11cdc856d690" CreationDate="2018-09-22T07:01:14.813" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20877" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="30612524-02f8-488d-b1c0-01a61704bfad" CreationDate="2018-09-23T01:01:08.737" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20886" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7896" RevisionGUID="5f5958ad-97b5-424b-b2ea-b60a7b78e83a" CreationDate="2018-09-26T04:06:58.583" UserId="20549" Text="My wife was contacted by a friend who wants to hire her for online work. For payment, he's requesting that she set up an Upwork account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She's not wanting to do other freelance work, this is just to be paid by one person. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The friend has recently started his own business and is saying that he wants to set up his own payroll but doesn't have the infrastructure to do so yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this legit? Neither of us had ever heard of Upwork before. If this goes kaput, is there any downside to this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20887" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7896" RevisionGUID="5f5958ad-97b5-424b-b2ea-b60a7b78e83a" CreationDate="2018-09-26T04:06:58.583" UserId="20549" Text="Wife being asked to register with Upwork; is this legit?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20888" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7896" RevisionGUID="5f5958ad-97b5-424b-b2ea-b60a7b78e83a" CreationDate="2018-09-26T04:06:58.583" UserId="20549" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20889" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7897" RevisionGUID="f4819044-490b-4160-9b95-201e36848f90" CreationDate="2018-09-26T05:34:43.400" UserId="15143" Text="Payment on Upworks is fairly standard as the money is held by a trusted agent. The most obvious downside is the commissions you'll have to pay Upworks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perfectly legal, nothing wrong with that. Upwork is a very successful business, your friend's business is more likely to go bankrupt than Upwork." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20890" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7898" RevisionGUID="43f73c95-81fc-43f0-96d4-05da91a52a76" CreationDate="2018-09-26T05:59:05.813" UserId="708" Text="I would ask **why**. There should be no reason &quot;your friend&quot; can't *completely* and *thoroughly* explain the reasoning for this. I may be a valid request. Or it may be a harbinger to poor business management.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It makes little sense to introduce a middleman if there's no need. There's nothing &quot;wrong&quot; with it, but it seems like poor planning or at the very least poor business management on &quot;the friend&quot;'s part.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If &quot;the friend&quot; is wanting to use upwork so he/she can track expenditures and other accounting details, then your wife would need *additional compensation* to overcome the commissions *she'll* be charge for payments through upwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the only reason is due to the escrow payment structure, that can be done *without* some middleman crowdsourcing web site taking commissions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, wouldn't do it. But that's merely because I've worked for more than 15 years WITHOUT any crowdsourcing site such as upwork. They aren't mandatory by any means." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20891" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7898" RevisionGUID="703ba8e3-2f68-495f-9352-22cd307a3c59" CreationDate="2018-09-26T06:04:18.063" UserId="708" Comment="added 13 characters in body" Text="I would ask **why**. There should be no reason &quot;your friend&quot; can't *completely* and *thoroughly* explain the reasoning for this. I may be a valid request. Or it may be a harbinger of poor business management and practices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It makes little sense to introduce a middleman if there's no need. There's nothing &quot;wrong&quot; with it, but it seems like poor planning or at the very least poor business management on &quot;the friend&quot;'s part.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If &quot;the friend&quot; is wanting to use upwork so he/she can track expenditures and other accounting details, then your wife would need *additional compensation* to overcome the commissions *she'll* be charged for payments through upwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the only reason is due to the escrow payment structure, that can be done *without* some middleman crowdsourcing web site taking commissions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, wouldn't do it. But that's merely because I've worked for more than 15 years WITHOUT any crowdsourcing site such as upwork. They aren't mandatory by any means." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20892" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7898" RevisionGUID="b8408c8d-5b22-49e6-a16a-3cf64be7b410" CreationDate="2018-09-26T11:26:18.040" UserId="708" Comment="added 303 characters in body" Text="I would ask **why**. There should be no reason &quot;your friend&quot; can't *completely* and *thoroughly* explain the reasoning for this. I may be a valid request. Or it may be a harbinger of poor business management and practices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It makes little sense to introduce a middleman if there's no need. There's nothing &quot;wrong&quot; with it, but it seems like poor planning or at the very least poor business management on &quot;the friend&quot;'s part.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If &quot;the friend&quot; is wanting to use upwork so he/she can track expenditures and other accounting details, then your wife would need *additional compensation* to overcome the commissions *she'll* be charged for payments through upwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the only reason is due to the escrow payment structure, that can be done *without* some middleman crowdsourcing web site taking commissions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If &quot;the friend' merely wants to be abel to pay online electronically, there's PayPal, Venmo, and most banks have their own &quot;cash sending&quot; app as well. You don't need a crowdsourcing site to send payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If &quot;the friend&quot; has some ulterior motive, such as building his reputation at upwork, well, that's kind of squirrely if you ask me. Like asking your brother-in-law to give your business a good rating because you know he wouldn't say anything negative. I guess there's no harm in that, even if it is ethically questionable.... except upwork takes commissions from teh worker not the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, wouldn't do it. Not due to anything about upwork and their structure/reliability, but because I've worked for more than 15 years WITHOUT any crowdsourcing site such as upwork. They aren't mandatory by any means. *Why* give some third-party commissions???" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20893" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7899" RevisionGUID="7dfc85cf-f2ba-40ea-bb1c-2b120c022da7" CreationDate="2018-09-26T12:44:48.067" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Practically, deploying such a contract does not make sense. You are asking them to sign a commitment about an undisclosed subject, *whatever it is*. They would be crazy to accept. And this is probably not backed by law." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20894" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7873" RevisionGUID="d429ce02-1e18-4bb2-b7a4-c3d6e2191b5d" CreationDate="2018-09-28T09:01:33.443" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1045599380668129280" />
  <row Id="20895" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7886" RevisionGUID="ad50187e-250c-4534-a7a5-75ba00b232b8" CreationDate="2018-09-28T16:59:18.230" UserId="20690" Comment="added 333 characters in body" Text="I'm currently working as a freelance software developer during 2 days a week (long term) for a customer close to my home. A few months ago I told them that 2 days is not enough for me and I'll be looking for another client because most companies are looking for fulltime freelancers (and also the context switch between 2 part-time jobs every week may be a bit too demanding on me.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;they counter offered me to work full time for 2 months before changing to another customer. I agreed and modified the contract to automatically return to the 2 days a week just to be sure I don't end up in a situation without any projects. They happily agreed.... And here we are now, 2 months further and I'm back on 2 days....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I have a good offer for a fulltime long term project (Starting part time so that I can finish my current project and then moving to full time)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The new 'job' is a government funded organization and gives me somewhat security and a full time freelancing job pays well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But there are a few downsides:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. longer commute (almost 2 hours a day more) =&gt; thinking about my family time here&#xD;&#xA;2. obviously I don't know this new customer... they may be happy with me but on the other hand they may also not be happy with me or visa versa....My current customer told me that he is happy with me.&#xD;&#xA;3. The new customer is in a special situation requiring me to go through government checks =&gt; costing me 1 month of pay&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I had 3 days a week with my current customer, I might be able to find some smaller projects and even if I couldn't this would not be the end of the world because I could still live of the 3 days freelancing (not 2). To me this is also appealing because of the growth potential even though I'm not sure this is possible or to demanding on me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have no contract as of yet with the new customer... Would It be wise to inform my current customer now that I will be changing and telling them that the situation would have been different if they gave me 3 days a week long term?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have I communicated enough a few months ago, just carry on and inform them after my contract agreement is official?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;OR &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I just say nothing while working for the new customer part time the first month and make up my mind 1 month in? (I convinced the new customer that I may need 2 to 3 months finishing up in my current project).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;UPDATE: It has taken over a week to get a response. It was a bit nerve wrecking and eventually decided to say that I just quit and will take the other offer. My current customer made clear they just couldn't respond yet because of other priorities but would like me to stay fulltime. I have accepted their offer.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20900" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7859" RevisionGUID="4a977190-7cf3-4562-9401-5baa4ba71fd0" CreationDate="2018-09-30T12:01:15.597" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1046369380018401281" />
  <row Id="20901" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7900" RevisionGUID="7e76826e-aa97-4284-a1c6-9d389d653488" CreationDate="2018-09-30T20:07:11.190" UserId="20751" Text="He has stated in an email that he will not be paying it.  I had set the payment terms to 28 days. This means that I'll have to wait a month to start the claim process, beginning with a letter before action. Since he has already stated he won't pay, can I start the process now?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20902" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7900" RevisionGUID="7e76826e-aa97-4284-a1c6-9d389d653488" CreationDate="2018-09-30T20:07:11.190" UserId="20751" Text="Can I take my client to court for non payment of invoice before invoice is due?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20903" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7900" RevisionGUID="7e76826e-aa97-4284-a1c6-9d389d653488" CreationDate="2018-09-30T20:07:11.190" UserId="20751" Text="|payment-terms|invoices|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20904" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7901" RevisionGUID="bb651fe3-99d3-499f-9709-46f113716d6e" CreationDate="2018-10-01T03:13:05.790" UserId="708" Text="#I am NOT a lawyer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is my understanding that in the United States, if you have evidence of an **intent to default** on payment or a contract, you can start the legal processes of repercussions due to that default, i.e. small claims.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Certainly someone stating, in writing  &quot;I won't pay&quot; is evidence that there is direct intent to breach any contract for payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20905" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7902" RevisionGUID="bce17de7-4b2a-4e37-81d3-772ea97ce489" CreationDate="2018-10-01T14:21:32.377" UserId="20754" Text="Yesterday i got an offer from a client to give 1500 reviews and 50 post on his social account,The client offered me $250 but he was saying that i will pay you by paypal not through website pay channel.i said to him that i will start my job until you send payment through proper site channel now he goes on increases his offer.I'm now confused whether i accept it or not? There is also a risk involve in this as after job completion possibility that he will not pay so what should i do?&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20906" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7902" RevisionGUID="bce17de7-4b2a-4e37-81d3-772ea97ce489" CreationDate="2018-10-01T14:21:32.377" UserId="20754" Text="Question is how to deal with customer that is not paying through proper website channel and goes on increasing his offer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20907" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7902" RevisionGUID="bce17de7-4b2a-4e37-81d3-772ea97ce489" CreationDate="2018-10-01T14:21:32.377" UserId="20754" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20908" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7902" RevisionGUID="f155793c-5496-4ca3-8bd1-27c8299660a2" CreationDate="2018-10-01T14:29:07.670" UserId="20754" Comment="edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20909" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7903" RevisionGUID="5aac3f1a-6f0b-4f9a-984d-0250a12630ca" CreationDate="2018-10-01T14:32:19.047" UserId="14719" Text="Two things: lack of client knowledge and developers in low income countries.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Non-technical people simply have no idea how much effort is required to develop an app. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - They have no concept of requirements, and when you explain, you will never squeeze them all out of the client before beginning the project.   &#xD;&#xA; - They don’t understand that you need a lot thinking time up front, and should come up with an architecture and write  design domination before writing the first line of code.   &#xD;&#xA; - They have no concept of databases, or of error handling, which can be as much as a third of the total code.  And it’s not just writing error handling code, it’s also thinking about what to do in each possible error scenario.    - They tend to see only he GUI and have no concept of anything “under the hood”. To them, “it’s only a button”, without realizing that when it is clicked you might have to validate some input, talk to a server and handle its response, including errors or no response at all, and then update the GUI. Nope, “it’s just a button”.   &#xD;&#xA; - If they can describe their app in a few sentences, they can’t understand why it might take months to implement.   &#xD;&#xA;- And, finally, they don’t understand testing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All of which leads them to “low ball” the effort required and the amount they are willing pay, which is generally peanuts for an idea they are ***certain*** will make them millions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The people accepting such tasks are generally living in countries with low costs of living such as Eastern Europe and India.  Your normal hourly rate might exceed their daily rate. Also, they may be a few unscrupulous ones who will accept, do half the work and explain that the task is more difficult than expected and will require further payment to complete. Generally, though, it’s just down to cost of living. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Btw, what I have done in the past is to find someone with an idea and good business contacts who can’t afford to pay to develop an app (I googled once and found that even an average Android app “costs” about $60k to develop). I write the code, they do the sales and we split 50:50. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20910" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7904" RevisionGUID="9e97f21b-4dd4-413d-8429-13805cb00dff" CreationDate="2018-10-02T15:40:53.157" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Don't. As long as the payment delay isn't over, no fault is made.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After this period, you can send a claim letter, which should let him a reasonable delay (at least one week)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20911" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7904" RevisionGUID="3e79b49a-c2c0-48a0-a3d1-27675d2fe06d" CreationDate="2018-10-02T15:49:17.673" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="added 31 characters in body" Text="Don't. As long as the payment delay isn't over, no fault is made.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After this period, you can send a claim letter, which should let him a reasonable delay (at least one week).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not a lawyer either.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20912" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7830" RevisionGUID="b40c711e-c89e-48c7-b3dc-ade57d29fc4f" CreationDate="2018-10-02T16:01:24.333" UserId="14719" Comment="Added URL for E-Residency in Estonia" Text="I have a personal project that's doing pretty well (over 370k downloads), but with no monetizing solution so far. Before I go in for monetization, I'm trying to browse the different options out there that would allow me to create a brand name/business for this product and a few others so to make them look more authentic. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I eventually came across [E-Residency in Estonia](https://www.leapin.eu/articles/e-residency), applied for it, got my card then started the process with LeapIn. Everything was going smooth until I learned there's no guarantee Paypal would approve my business, to then learn that I have no right to enter an email address with my business domain name as my contact information in the Estonian Business Registry, it had to be an @leapin.eu address that I had no access to, this sounded too odd and intrusive to me so I canceled the entire process with LeapIn and got a refund.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm rather a technical person (software engineer), I have very shallow knowledge when it comes to taxes, accounting and the legal aspects of starting a business and so I'm seeking advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To summarize my situation, I'm currently working as a software engineer in France, I have a resident card which expires in November 2020 (status is renewable), and I'm looking for the best alternatives to start my business while keeping my salarial activity in parallel. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideally the business would be location independent, similarly to what the E-residency program in Estonia offers. The goal being to quit my day job and go live somewhere else should the business do well. The key factors for my choice would be driven by:&#xD;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ease/low fees of company creation (in the form of a one-person Ltd)&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lower taxes&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Unique remote physical address for the company (The program in Estonia uses the same physical address for hundreds/thousands of applicants, which is the major reason I guess for Paypal denying them access to their service)&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;No intrusive policies from the physical address provider/contact person&#xD;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lower fees for accounting, tax filing, and company creation.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any hints/recommendations would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20913" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7830" RevisionGUID="b40c711e-c89e-48c7-b3dc-ade57d29fc4f" CreationDate="2018-10-02T16:01:24.333" Comment="Proposed by 14719 approved by 7368 edit id of 613" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20914" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7905" RevisionGUID="0247d88f-58e2-4181-ab19-ee09713c688f" CreationDate="2018-10-02T17:55:36.803" UserId="20757" Text="There is nothing stopping you from getting in touch with a lawyer now and getting things set up proactively. They will be able to give you better advice that is tailored to these circumstances. Much of the specifics, such as what constitutes reasonable delays and even intent to default (as brought up by others) may be subject to state statutes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your lawyer may still elect to not pursue this until the 28 days has lapsed, but at least by that point you'll have done the necessary legwork already.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you feel that the invoice is worth more than the cost of hiring your legal representation, then go for it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20915" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7906" RevisionGUID="0562b1f0-e73a-4d49-a4ea-038d23d2a7bf" CreationDate="2018-10-02T18:04:22.783" UserId="20757" Text="Do not budge on this. If you have an acceptable payment channel established already and this client reached out to you through this platform, then there is no reason he should be demanding you to use another service. Furthermore, no sensible client would substantially increase the amount they are willing to pay strictly on the basis of be allowed to use Paypal over your trusted payment method.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This client may be legitimate, but they are acting in a suspicious manner that suggests unknown ulterior motives." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20927" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7828" RevisionGUID="15ddbbc1-0dde-4460-a77d-f3d1b36302e5" CreationDate="2018-10-05T21:00:50.243" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="20932" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7911" RevisionGUID="61529a27-dc68-4108-b4ce-fcb2680f0e26" CreationDate="2018-10-06T11:03:24.780" UserId="20776" Text="Ideas by themselves are worthless. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can not sell *just* an idea. Whoever you are trying to sell it to doesn't know if your idea is any good. They don't know if they maybe already had that idea by themselv and have it on their TODO-list. The only way to convince them that your idea is valuable to them is to tell them about your idea. But then they know the idea and don't need you anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no good way to protect your idea as intellectual property. If it is something completely unique and special, then you *maybe* could patent it. But if your idea is that striaght-forward, then there likely is prior art. An nobody is going to sign a non-disclosure agreement which prevents them from applying your idea without paying you when they haven't even heard about it. After all, it might be an idea which is completely obvious to them they just didn't got around doing. Nobody in their right mind would sign this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideas can only be monetized in the following way:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* You don't just sell this one great idea but a prospect of many more good ideas. That would make you valuable as a consultant. *&quot;Your company needs a plumbus. This advise was a free sample of my abilities. I could think of several other things it could need. If you let me take a closer look at your internals, I could come up with many more useful suggestions. And this service will only cost you...&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;* You don't just sell the great idea but also the means to execute it.  *&quot;Your company needs a plumbus. I happen to be a plumbus maker and can create a custom one which fits your needs much better than any off-the-shelf plumbus. And this service will only cost you...&quot;*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20933" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7911" RevisionGUID="3ccc3812-8807-46f8-a261-01d7f032516a" CreationDate="2018-10-06T11:11:00.353" UserId="20776" Comment="added 75 characters in body" Text="Ideas by themselves are worthless. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can not sell *just* an idea. Whoever you are trying to sell it to doesn't know if your idea is any good. They don't know if they maybe already had that idea by themselv and have it on their TODO-list. The only way to convince them that your idea is valuable to them is to tell them about your idea. But then they know the idea and don't need you anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no good way to protect your idea as intellectual property. If it is something completely unique and special, then you *maybe* could patent it. But if your idea is that striaght-forward, then there likely is prior art. An nobody is going to sign a non-disclosure agreement which prevents them from applying your idea without paying you when they haven't even heard about it. After all, it might be an idea which is completely obvious to them. They just didn't got around doing it. And if they sign your paper, they can no longer do it unless they pay you. Nobody in their right mind would sign this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideas can only be monetized in the following way:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* You don't just sell this one great idea but a prospect of many more good ideas. That would make you valuable as a consultant. *&quot;Your company needs a plumbus. This advise was a free sample of my abilities. I could think of several other things it might need or could get rid of. If you let me take a closer look at your internals, I could come up with many more useful suggestions. And this service will only cost you...&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;* You don't just sell the great idea but also the means to execute it.  *&quot;Your company needs a plumbus. I happen to be a plumbus maker and can create a custom one which fits your needs much better than any off-the-shelf plumbus. And this service will only cost you...&quot;*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20934" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7911" RevisionGUID="50074991-a3e8-4bfe-a494-2c6058ea131d" CreationDate="2018-10-06T11:17:29.530" UserId="20776" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="Ideas by themselves are worthless. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can not sell *just* an idea. Whoever you are trying to sell it to doesn't know if your idea really is of any value to them. The only way to convince them that your idea is valuable to them is to tell them about your idea. But then they know the idea and don't need you anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no good way to protect your idea as intellectual property. If it is something completely unique and special, then you *maybe* could patent it. But if your idea is that striaght-forward, then there likely is prior art. An nobody is going to sign a non-disclosure agreement which prevents them from applying your idea without paying you when they haven't even heard about it. After all, it might be an idea which is completely obvious to them. They just didn't got around doing it. And if they sign your paper, they can no longer do it unless they pay you. Nobody in their right mind would sign this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideas can only be monetized in the following way:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* You don't just sell this one great idea but a prospect of many more good ideas. That would make you valuable as a consultant. *&quot;Your company needs a plumbus. This advise was a free sample of my abilities. I could think of several other things it might need or could get rid of. If you let me take a closer look at your internals, I could come up with many more useful suggestions. And this service will only cost you...&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;* You don't just sell the great idea but also the means to execute it.  *&quot;Your company needs a plumbus. I happen to be a plumbus maker and can create a custom one which fits your needs much better than any off-the-shelf plumbus. And this service will only cost you...&quot;*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20936" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7911" RevisionGUID="8f1b9200-2ed4-4bbf-af12-8daf33c82b86" CreationDate="2018-10-07T09:17:24.967" UserId="20776" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="Ideas by themselves are worthless. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can not sell *just* an idea. Whoever you are trying to sell it to doesn't know if your idea really is of any value to them. The only way to convince them that your idea is valuable to them is to tell them about your idea. But then they know the idea and don't need you anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no good way to protect your idea as intellectual property. If it is something completely unique and special, then you *maybe* could patent it. But if your idea is that straight-forward, then there likely is prior art. And nobody is going to sign a non-disclosure agreement which prevents them from applying your idea without paying you when they haven't even heard about it. After all, it might be an idea which is completely obvious to them. They just didn't got around doing it. And if they sign your paper, they can no longer do it unless they pay you. Nobody in their right mind would sign this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ideas can only be monetized in the following way:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* You don't just sell this one great idea but a prospect of many more good ideas. That would make you valuable as a consultant. *&quot;Your company needs a plumbus. This advise was a free sample of my abilities. I could think of several other things it might need or could get rid of. If you let me take a closer look at your internals, I could come up with many more useful suggestions. And this service will only cost you...&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;* You don't just sell the great idea but also the means to execute it.  *&quot;Your company needs a plumbus. I happen to be a plumbus maker and can create a custom one which fits your needs much better than any off-the-shelf plumbus. And this service will only cost you...&quot;*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20939" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7913" RevisionGUID="68192529-da7e-42f6-b995-44361534f314" CreationDate="2018-10-09T12:11:32.937" UserId="20795" Text="I arrived to Germany recently and do not yet speak German. I would like to do some work in my spare time which consists of creating visual artwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Germany, it is important for tax purposes to decide if one is a [&quot;freelancer&quot;/&quot;Freiberufler&quot; or &quot;tradesman&quot;/&quot;Gewerbe&quot;](https://allaboutberlin.com/guides/freiberufler-or-gewerbe). The distinction seems to be tricky sometimes, and I would like to restrict my activities to those that can be done as a &quot;freelancer&quot; (the simpler and more advantageous tax class).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am looking to do the following types of work:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Create commissioned artwork (painting, drawing, graphic design, etc.). The client tells me what they want and I create it for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Create non-commissioned artwork (painting, drawing), then sell the *unique* framed copy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. Create non-commissioned artwork, then sell *multiple* framed prints.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 4. Create artwork, then print it on mugs, t-shirts, etc. and sell them for a significantly higher price than the cost of the plain mugs/shirt/etc. on sites like [Etsy][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My question is:** *Which of these qualify as &quot;freelancing&quot; for tax purposes in Germany?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am certain that 1. does, and I suspect that 4. does not (though I am unsure). 2. and especially 3. are less clear to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While any response is welcome, I am primarily looking for referenced answers. I find some of the categorizations non-obvious. For example, I learned from google translating [this webpage](http://www.kuenstlerrat.de/freigewerb.htm) that if operating a dance studio, ballet counts as &quot;freelancing&quot; but standard dance does not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Advice on how I might go about researching the answer is also welcome. This is a hobby for me that would generate very little income, so going to a tax advisor is too expensive for the moment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.etsy.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20940" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7913" RevisionGUID="68192529-da7e-42f6-b995-44361534f314" CreationDate="2018-10-09T12:11:32.937" UserId="20795" Text="Freelancing in Germany: am I a Freiberufler or Gewerbe?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20941" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7913" RevisionGUID="68192529-da7e-42f6-b995-44361534f314" CreationDate="2018-10-09T12:11:32.937" UserId="20795" Text="|taxes|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20942" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7913" RevisionGUID="fa2125f8-3966-4268-8f79-ef972f983a3f" CreationDate="2018-10-09T12:25:42.673" UserId="20795" Comment="added 12 characters in body" Text="I arrived to Germany recently and do not yet speak German. I would like to do some work in my spare time which consists of creating visual artwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Germany, it is important for tax purposes to decide if one is a [&quot;freelancer&quot;/&quot;Freiberufler&quot; or &quot;tradesman&quot;/&quot;Gewerbe&quot;](https://allaboutberlin.com/guides/freiberufler-or-gewerbe). The distinction seems to be tricky sometimes, and I would like to restrict my activities to those that can be done as a &quot;freelancer&quot; (the simpler and more advantageous tax class).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am looking to potentially do the following types of work:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Create commissioned artwork (painting, drawing, graphic design, etc.). The client tells me what they want and I create it for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Create artwork of my own choosing (painting, drawing), then sell the *unique* framed copy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. Create artwork of my own choosing, then sell *multiple* framed prints.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 4. Create artwork, then print it on mugs, t-shirts, etc. and sell them for a significantly higher price than the cost of the plain mugs/shirt/etc. on sites like [Etsy][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My question is:** *Which of these qualify as &quot;freelancing&quot; for tax purposes in Germany?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am certain that 1. does, and I suspect that 4. does not (though I am unsure). 2. and especially 3. are less clear to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While any response is welcome, I am primarily looking for referenced answers. I find some of the categorizations non-obvious. For example, I learned from google translating [this webpage](http://www.kuenstlerrat.de/freigewerb.htm) that if operating a dance studio, ballet counts as &quot;freelancing&quot; but standard dance does not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Advice on how I might go about researching the answer is also welcome. This is a hobby for me that would generate very little income, so going to a tax advisor is too expensive for the moment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.etsy.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20943" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7914" RevisionGUID="efd8efe6-efd3-4c5e-b233-a4d985e94c2e" CreationDate="2018-10-09T12:49:44.680" UserId="18230" Text="To my knowledge (IANAL) your occupation is one of the classical &quot;Freiberufler&quot; ones, as I would think it all qualifies as &quot;Artists or Graphic designer&quot; as long as the artworks are your own work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Here is a very good starting point.][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it is really an advantage to be &quot;Freiberufler&quot; then &quot;Gewerbetreibender&quot; is up to a lot of factors, and depends on your individual place of residence (Gewerbesteuer), turnover  and your customers (VAT-Deductible or not?).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would strongly recommend to get individual counseling on that and also any implications it might have on your social security status.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also often get some free consulting at your local Arbeitsamt and IHK. But also invest some € for someone professional - changing things down the road or even be re-classed by the Finanzamt when you are somwaht succesful down the road will hurt much more than the few 100€ now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://liveworkgermany.com/2018/02/working-freelance-in-germany-and-being-self-employed-the-same-thing/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20944" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7915" RevisionGUID="431887df-4590-429c-a0d1-fd6674cdee42" CreationDate="2018-10-09T13:04:25.243" UserId="20796" Text="IANAL, but Freiberufler is actually pretty well defined: Most ventures that you need to be uniquely qualified for can be done freiberuflich - Meaning lawyers, engineers, educators; Artists are deemed to be uniquely qualified across the board, as nobody can really rate art... . Gewerbe is mostly selling not-your-own/plain products, or working in a tradecraft (carpenters,...) . Beware, though: Freiberuflichkeit can be 'infected' by Gewerbe, and then looses all bonuses: So you need to make extra clear that it is only your artworks that get onto those mugs and T-Shirts, no other works, no plain mugs, otherwise your whole enterprise will be judged a Gewerbe as a whole.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best you just hit up the Finanzamt for advice on what to do and not to do. Go there *in person*, and describe what you plan, they'll give you advice on what to avoid - they have no interest in hassling you, and will give you fair advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20948" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7875" RevisionGUID="d9d7a3fd-8ed9-4d4f-bcc5-6d14b8149af4" CreationDate="2018-10-09T21:00:47.857" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1049766649757401088" />
  <row Id="20949" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7917" RevisionGUID="7dc91290-83a3-4926-b1e1-d22e3a2fb092" CreationDate="2018-10-10T05:37:40.833" UserId="20754" Text="If a customer get the work from seller and in the end he cancelled what should seller do?what should be his action? Can he take him to court?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20950" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7917" RevisionGUID="7dc91290-83a3-4926-b1e1-d22e3a2fb092" CreationDate="2018-10-10T05:37:40.833" UserId="20754" Text="Customer cancelled order and didn't paid for it? Can i take him to court" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20951" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7917" RevisionGUID="7dc91290-83a3-4926-b1e1-d22e3a2fb092" CreationDate="2018-10-10T05:37:40.833" UserId="20754" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20952" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7918" RevisionGUID="73d26b4b-a2e1-465c-b4c0-d98e695b31c6" CreationDate="2018-10-10T12:52:05.510" UserId="19139" Text="I was doing a website for a client. They paid in full for the services and I didn't have any issues with the service/payment.&#xD;&#xA;He then later asked for additional work, which was not a part of our original contract. I agreed with an additional fee. He agreed.&#xD;&#xA;I completed the work and gave a run down on what I did. With the work being related to SEO, it's fairly difficult to demonstrate. But I did my best.&#xD;&#xA;He ignored my email, and the next and the next. I had also sent him an invoice at some point which had been ignored. He then one day emailed and said he was currently away but couldn't see any difference in my work. I replied showing where I had done the work and still expect payment. He did not reply. I then sent another email saying I was expecting payment. No reply.&#xD;&#xA;I emailed him and said I would give him until the end of the week or I would take action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The end of the week came and I had not heard anything nor received any payment. Bare in mind it had been about 2 months since not receiving anything. I decided to log into the server and remove the work that I had done that he had not paid for. Not the whole website, just the additional bits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I sent him an email saying I had removed the additional changes due to non payment and if he wanted to pay me for them I would happily add them back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He has replied saying he's not happy and he will be taking legal action&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He doesn't really have a leg to stand on, does he? No payment = no service. I've just taken back what he hasn't paid for. I never removed anything he did pay for, and I never accessed anything I shouldn't have. Does this access class as a breech?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20953" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7918" RevisionGUID="73d26b4b-a2e1-465c-b4c0-d98e695b31c6" CreationDate="2018-10-10T12:52:05.510" UserId="19139" Text="Can a client sue when I removed the work I did after they didn't pay" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20954" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7918" RevisionGUID="73d26b4b-a2e1-465c-b4c0-d98e695b31c6" CreationDate="2018-10-10T12:52:05.510" UserId="19139" Text="|client-support|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20955" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7886" RevisionGUID="2981b55b-e8d2-4a30-9096-96f6e6eafd5e" CreationDate="2018-10-11T09:00:25.067" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1050310136126943232" />
  <row Id="20956" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7919" RevisionGUID="e8b7c4f7-5a20-426c-af7f-ae80f4a2191b" CreationDate="2018-10-11T17:49:47.017" UserId="17529" Text="As I have been into business for a long time now I know that this is one of *a real freelance nightmare* (maybe also for companies, but especially for freelancers). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It can be even worse in case that you made the mistake to agree on getting your money after the project is finished as your client literally has your balls in his hands (luckily I do not make any of those mistakes any more, but when I was starting I sometimes was silly enough to accept a lot of stupid conditions).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So as I was looking how other companies handle it I have seen the following strategies:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**1) The project is done when the project is done**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That means you work until the customer accepts the result of the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Problem:*** Really nice. For your client. But in my personal experience definitely the worst way to go for a freelancer. You might work extremely long for a project which you have calculated to require much less effort.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**2) The project is done when the project is done, but efforts (in time) which exceed the original plan are charged afterwards**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sure this is great as long as you do not need the time for other projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Problem:*** Clients are very unlikely to accept higher expenses in a fixed-time project. They might get angry or even refuse to pay or threat to sue you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**3) Limit the  number of correction loops to two (or three) in your terms of service**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You finish the project and present it, the customer makes a list of required changes, you implement the changes, you present again, there is a last list of changes and after that there is no more right of the client to complain&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Problem:*** The project might be unfinished and the customer will complain heavily&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**4) After your first project presentation you listen for change requests and document and implement them, but the clients' chance for new change requests is gone after that**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the second presentation only change requests for the last change requests are allowed. The number of correction loops is shrinking with any presentation as the list is significantly decreasing every time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Problem:*** Clients usually complain afterwards about things they &quot;forgot&quot; or that the project is not exactly what they wanted now (still I think this is quite a good way to go).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anybody know even better ways to handle client denial or change requests in fixed price projects? If not for which reason would you recommend which of those method?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20957" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7919" RevisionGUID="e8b7c4f7-5a20-426c-af7f-ae80f4a2191b" CreationDate="2018-10-11T17:49:47.017" UserId="17529" Text="What is a good way to handle correction loops and clients which delay or deny project acceptance in fixed-price projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20958" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7919" RevisionGUID="e8b7c4f7-5a20-426c-af7f-ae80f4a2191b" CreationDate="2018-10-11T17:49:47.017" UserId="17529" Text="|contracts|difficult-client|negotiation|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20960" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7920" RevisionGUID="5e274430-18ad-4dec-b8e6-5b8db8fadac4" CreationDate="2018-10-11T23:24:05.850" UserId="708" Text="#1&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Deliverables and scope of work are set forth in a contract** and the goal is to complete said deliverables to the client's satisfaction. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is abusing this stance with continual, repetitive, possibly unwarranted, alterations, have a conversation with them. That's typically all that is required." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20961" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7921" RevisionGUID="d1d61beb-cbfe-44cf-a8a4-969e89fe7df0" CreationDate="2018-10-12T10:39:07.060" UserId="20776" Text="When they say they will take legal actions, then so should you. Get lawyered up!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not a lawyer and can not provide reliable legal advise. But I believe that it might not be a good idea to undo your work when you don't get paid. When the work is there and the payment is not, then only one party is violating the contract. When the work isn't there either, then both parties violated the contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you do SEO work in the future, then it might be useful to document exactly what you did. This allows you to prove to the customer that you actually provided services to them. Make sure your contract says that you will do certain services, but not that you guarantee that these services will have a certain effect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20970" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7913" RevisionGUID="53acc020-15bd-46a3-aae9-3746bec4093f" CreationDate="2018-10-14T06:00:19.410" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1051351977492406273" />
  <row Id="20972" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7920" RevisionGUID="9e2ea90a-3a4a-4de6-a4c0-09c44a323ac2" CreationDate="2018-10-15T03:57:04.723" UserId="708" Comment="added 1095 characters in body" Text="#1&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Deliverables and scope of work are set forth in a contract** and the goal is to complete said deliverables to the client's satisfaction. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client is abusing this stance with continual, repetitive, possibly unwarranted, alterations, have a conversation with them. That's typically all that is required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Quite honestly I have many of my clients often *because* I don't limit their ability to ask for corrections. By implementing something like &quot;three rounds of alterations only&quot; that leave the client feeling like if there's an error, you hold them hostage. never a good impression for a client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tell my clients....&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Although I don't limit the number of revisions or changes you can request, I do ask that you be aware and conscious that every change requires additional time. My goal is to provide a solid product you can be proud to show off and not to invoice for every possible second of work possible. I do not want you feeling restrained or hesitant to voice a change concern merely because there may be some apprehension of additional costs incurred.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;In some cases what may seem like a small change to you, may actually necessitate far deeper, more time-consuming, changes on my end.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If I feel, at some point, change requests are going above and beyond normal expectations, I will open a dialog with you regarding possible additional costs. However, I strive to avoid this. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20977" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7927" RevisionGUID="6c218b2b-a3a4-4f18-a531-26d5adca911e" CreationDate="2018-10-16T14:28:12.717" UserId="9845" Text="So I do a combination of strategies 2 and 3. I outline the scope and everything included, set the number of revisions (usually 3), and then have a separate section that outlines what may incur additional fees on top of the set price for the project. In addition, I note that the revisions must be decreasing in complexity (as in, they can't just change everything on revision #3), and that requests outside of the project scope are billed hourly. This has worked well in my favor, and was only included in my contracts after suffering the dreaded scope creep and endless revision cycle a few times over the years. I bill for an hour of work for each subsequent revision, which encourages my clients to be more efficient with their change requests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having a fixed-price project doesn't mean you should have to work for free because your clients can't make up their minds. Time is money, even for flat-rate projects. As long as it's clearly explained in the contract and discussed upfront, nobody is going to have an issue with this. I've never had a client complain about the &quot;additional fees&quot; section of the contract, and I have something to point to if they start asking for more and more changes." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20978" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7928" RevisionGUID="3ed1e852-17f0-4039-a637-96646cdfdcb1" CreationDate="2018-10-16T15:05:50.567" UserId="18230" Text="Some general Ruels:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Make sure you don´t fail late. Best case you can follow some kind of agile scheme where you have weekly meetings with the shareholder. You should be able to detect most of the obstacles early on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Avoid scope creep: You always listen to change-requests, but you ´ll also have to adjust your offer. Ask the Client if he want to pay extra for that, omit some other feature or save it for a later date. Again, agile methodologies make it easier to react flexible to such requests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Beware of hidden complexity. You should have a very clear understanding of the existing code base, the technology and the requested functionality. Outline clearly what you intend to do/change as annex of the contract. Also have provisions in the contract for the case the workload exceeds the estimated amount by a certain threshold (20% for example). You should be paid by the hour for this prep work, regardless if the take the resulting offer or not - maybe offer a discount if the take the offer in the end.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Add headroom. Fixed-price offers should always be made with your normal hourly rate + some headroom for unforeseen obstacles. Humans tend to estimate optimistically. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(And of course what should have been number **1. Don´t do fixed-price!**)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20979" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7929" RevisionGUID="9a0fe1b2-5831-47f3-8605-9606f467b28c" CreationDate="2018-10-16T16:08:24.003" UserId="20776" Text="Insist on a contract clause which makes sure that the client is not allowed to make use of your work before they paid you in full. How that clause would look depends on the kind of work. If you create something which is going to be sold or displayed in public, then transfer of copyright can be a good blocker.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That way a not-quite-finished product is a problem for both sides. When you don't deliver a satisfactory product, you don't get paid. When they refuse to call the product satisfactory, they keep wasting time without getting anything useful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The worst case in this situation is if the client decides they don't need your work after all. To avoid not getting any compensation at all for your work, insist on a kill-fee in the contract. When the client fires you after you reached certain milestones but before the completion of the project, they need to pay at least a part of the negotiated payment.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20984" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7918" RevisionGUID="ae390e64-d365-4890-b062-a49766e62e6d" CreationDate="2018-10-17T21:04:32.083" UserId="18230" Comment="Added country tag" Text="|uk|client-support|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20985" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7918" RevisionGUID="ae390e64-d365-4890-b062-a49766e62e6d" CreationDate="2018-10-17T21:04:32.083" Comment="Proposed by 18230 approved by 19139 edit id of 615" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20986" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7918" RevisionGUID="660db9b5-5b11-4d40-ad54-dd5601f8e224" CreationDate="2018-10-17T21:09:00.050" UserId="19139" Comment="added 789 characters in body" Text="I was doing a website for a client. They paid in full for the services and I didn't have any issues with the service/payment.&#xD;&#xA;He then later asked for additional work, which was not a part of our original contract. I agreed with an additional fee. He agreed.&#xD;&#xA;I completed the work and gave a run down on what I did. With the work being related to SEO, it's fairly difficult to demonstrate. But I did my best.&#xD;&#xA;He ignored my email, and the next and the next. I had also sent him an invoice at some point which had been ignored. He then one day emailed and said he was currently away but couldn't see any difference in my work. I replied showing where I had done the work and still expect payment. He did not reply. I then sent another email saying I was expecting payment. No reply.&#xD;&#xA;I emailed him and said I would give him until the end of the week or I would take action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The end of the week came and I had not heard anything nor received any payment. Bare in mind it had been about 2 months since not receiving anything. I decided to log into the server and remove the work that I had done that he had not paid for. Not the whole website, just the additional bits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I sent him an email saying I had removed the additional changes due to non payment and if he wanted to pay me for them I would happily add them back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He has replied saying he's not happy and he will be taking legal action&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He doesn't really have a leg to stand on, does he? No payment = no service. I've just taken back what he hasn't paid for. I never removed anything he did pay for, and I never accessed anything I shouldn't have. Does this access class as a breech?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;update:&#xD;&#xA;We had a contract but the SEO was not included in the contract. There is a section of payment which includes a deadline for payment. They did pay that for the website. The contract says that once the website is complete then the service is complete. The intro to the contract also said the services were for the website build and no additional work. I mentioned in e-mail that SEO was not included and he was fine with this. So that was it and the website was complete. He paid for the service. Then he later asked for SEO in addition so we agreed on payment in email and I did the work using his account/pw as I previously did when working on the website.  I feel like, *technically* there's no contract at all because the contract we had was only for the website service. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20990" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="534" RevisionGUID="898cc5d5-4f4d-4c1d-89ca-f4a796605987" CreationDate="2018-10-20T00:35:48.983" UserId="16887" Comment="Improve tags " Text="|legal|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
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  <row Id="20992" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="461" RevisionGUID="fd03038d-4516-44e4-a7b6-46ee0358db81" CreationDate="2018-10-20T17:24:09.247" UserId="16887" Comment="Improve tags " Text="|legal|payments|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20993" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="461" RevisionGUID="fd03038d-4516-44e4-a7b6-46ee0358db81" CreationDate="2018-10-20T17:24:09.247" Comment="Proposed by 16887 approved by 358 edit id of 622" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20997" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="22" RevisionGUID="9c228c3a-34f8-4c38-8898-da715cf168bc" CreationDate="2018-10-22T04:35:09.527" UserId="16887" Comment="Improve tags " Text="|marketing|branding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20998" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="22" RevisionGUID="9c228c3a-34f8-4c38-8898-da715cf168bc" CreationDate="2018-10-22T04:35:09.527" Comment="Proposed by 16887 approved by 34 edit id of 619" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20999" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="19" RevisionGUID="560337a2-856a-44ff-b8ee-79b1be48f315" CreationDate="2018-10-22T04:35:15.653" UserId="16887" Comment="Improve tags " Text="|contracts|legal|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21000" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="19" RevisionGUID="560337a2-856a-44ff-b8ee-79b1be48f315" CreationDate="2018-10-22T04:35:15.653" Comment="Proposed by 16887 approved by 34 edit id of 617" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21001" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7931" RevisionGUID="a7a11500-c573-4e9b-9b72-ee4405500a1f" CreationDate="2018-10-22T06:54:58.700" UserId="20860" Text="I hope you bear with me. This is going to be quite a long post. I want to lay out my situation in detail in hopes of getting advice as to what I should do and how to approach it the best way possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The situation**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I was in college, I was an intern for a digital agency. One time, the client liked one of the works we did for them so much so he wanted to meet the graphic designer. Long story short, after my internship, he contacted me if I was willing to be their &quot;on-call&quot; graphic designer, meaning I would work for them if projects arise. I agreed to it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't work at their office. I work from home. We talk online. We meet if necessary. I go to their office if I have time. And if I do, I work DIRECTLY and BESIDE him as HE GIVES comments right away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There was no contract or whatsoever but we verbally agreed I would be paid for every 2-3 projects—which weren't difficult but they require the right creative direction to nail the what the client wants—at about $400.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm no longer a student and just got recently hired on my first day-job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The problem**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Our relationship went on for 3 years. During those years, I got paid fairly I would say. It was a good relationship I would say too. But there was a period when I didn't get any work from him for about 5-6 months until in March. So from March - July, I worked on a couple of projects including those projects we did long time ago for revisions. I was waiting for him to pay me after our last project in July but it was almost September and I still haven't gotten it. I sent him a message telling him about it and even sent him an invoice detailing the projects we did.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He was surprised that the invoice was more than what he was usually paying me. Reason being is we had 6 projects during that span and I billed him for $600. I told him how much he was paying before and what it meant in terms of the &quot;projects rendered&quot;, which is how I reached that number.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's now October and we're still negotiating (or probably arguing) how much money I should get paid for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We met a few days ago and sort of settled how we would go about this. He said moving backwards, I would give him an amount that I think is reasonable for the work and projects rendered. And now moving forward, we would agree on X money every month if there's a project and X money if there's none. I would send him both figure and see if we could agree on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I told him the figure but again he thinks they're too high. I said $250/month if we have a project, $80 if there's none. And $500 for the works rendered in March - July.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He told me that I should have a basis for this but I don't know how else I'm going to justify the rate. I based it on the number of hours it takes me to work on a single project — including but not limited to brainstorming, researching, designing, setting up the files correctly, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What now is the solution?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I still haven't replied to him because I don't know how to approach the situation. I'm thinking of telling him again how I arrived with that amount (as said above). I would also say to him that I was hired as a GRAPHIC DESIGNER but the responsibility I do is way beyond that. I believe in an agency or design studio, when hired for projects that I'm doing, has a PRINT PRODUCER who manages the files for printer. And I do all of those. I manage the files, set up the files to make sure the printer gets the correct color and size, should know which paper and texture to use, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But is it fair to say so? I also want to say that when doing our projects, he has basically unlimited revisions because it's tough to get what he wants so much so I go to their office just so we can get the revisions done immediately. Not to mention the LATE fees from March - July.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He has told me he thought of hiring an in-house graphic designer but it would be costly to do so, about $300 monthly compared to my usual $200. But it means he would be working at the office, he can finish things faster and efficiently. But he chose not to because we already have a relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know how else to justify my rate but it seems like he doesn't see the value of the work I do for him. He hasn't given a counter-offer of these figure &quot;$200/month if we have a project, $80 if there's none. And $500 for the works rendered in March - July.&quot; he just said he hasn't even agreed to the previous amount of $200 (just divide the $400 from our original agreement before to 2 to make it 1 project per month) and now I'm raising it to $250.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you think? Am I being too greedy here? Am I not fair enough? Any advice is greatly appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Location: Philippines.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S. All numbers are arbitrary. But to be honest with you when the numbers are converted to Philippine Pesos, it's more or less near the &quot;market rate&quot; or what is accepted for the kind of work I'm doing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21002" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7931" RevisionGUID="a7a11500-c573-4e9b-9b72-ee4405500a1f" CreationDate="2018-10-22T06:54:58.700" UserId="20860" Text="Junior Graphic Designer here. Am I being low-balled by a client who I've worked with for the past 3 years? How to remedy the situation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21003" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7931" RevisionGUID="a7a11500-c573-4e9b-9b72-ee4405500a1f" CreationDate="2018-10-22T06:54:58.700" UserId="20860" Text="|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21004" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7932" RevisionGUID="9c5e0a3e-157c-413e-85bc-a1cac5a993a0" CreationDate="2018-10-22T08:23:57.843" UserId="708" Text="I did not read all of it. I did skim it and read what I saw as the pertinent parts regarding pricing/agreement/etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been a graphic designer for decades - both employed full time and freelance full time - and a mix of the two during some periods.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not know &quot;Philippine Rates&quot; at all, but in the rest of the US.... all those numbers are **considerably low** - *especially* for someone freelancing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Factor a lowball minimum wage of $7/hr and that amounts to ~$1,200/month full time and ~$600/month part time if an &quot;in-house designer&quot; was hired. PLUS, if hired, that means other employer expenses related to that employee such as software, equipment, taxes, etc. Don't let him fool you, if he *hired* someone, even part time he's probably looking at close to ~$1,500 a month *minimum* and double that for a full-time employee - plus healthcare, vacation, sick leave (all the things PT employees may not get). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Figuring pricing is actually fairly easy overall. First you need to know your **Overhead**. What it costs *you* for software, equipment, electricity, heat, water, etc -- all the things which make it possible for you to actually work. It's often easier to figure overhead monthly or yearly then divide down to get to an hourly overhead. You **never* want to quote or bid a project per hour for less than your hourly overhead. **EVER**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then there's a &quot;profit factor&quot;. Customarily anything from 20% to 100, 200, 300%, or more, of your overhead. How large a percentage to add is up to you. If you feel your overhead is low and need to have a higher rate to match market trends then add a higher percentage. The profit percentage is largely arbitrary based upon your experience, expertise, skill set, demand, etc. So a decent general starting hourly rate would be `Overhead + 20%`. But for someone more skilled or experienced `Overhead +150%` may also be appropriate. So with whatever profit percentage you feel is correct you get (**`Overhead` * x% = `Hourly Rate`**)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**`Hourly rate` * estimated hours of work required in a week = `Weekly Rate`**&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt; Remember to estimate the hours **high** because most often unanticipated items (meetings, changes, etc) will demand additional time.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then add some for the unspoken factors such as print liaison, file management, unexpected hours required, etc. Maybe an additional 10-20% above the `Weekly Rate`. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So **(`Weekly Rate`* 4) + 20% = `Monthly Rate`** &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;(Honestly, I'd add 50% for on call. As a monthly *retainer*, paid whether or not there is work, then the 10-20% would be more appropriate.)&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's it....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have 3 rates to negotiate from:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. `Hourly Rate` If he wants to pay strictly on a per-project basis.&#xD;&#xA; 2. `Weekly Rate` If he wants to pay weekly as a retainer&#xD;&#xA; 3. `Monthly Rate` If he wants to pay monthly as a retainer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you *really* want to negotiate a retainer, then I would negotiate only a 10-20% difference, **nothing more**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When it comes to **fee negotiation** I learned a long time ago.. 10-20% negation *occasionally* is all I'm willing to do. Anything more than 10% off the above rates is merely poor business practice and repeatedly giving the same discount sends a message that you feel your services may not be worth your rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Stick to your pricing, you'll earn it. If the client doesn't want to pay it, then let them walk. If they *really* see the value of your services, they'll pay it. **Never** cut yourself short for any one client, ever. Regardless of who teh client is or how much history you have or how well you get along. It's **business** so treat it like business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally would *never* negotiate an &quot;if there's a project and if there's not a project&quot; rate. I would negotiate a *single* monthly fee based upon an *average* number of the projects given. You've worked for this client enough to calculate what the average number of projects they send per month or annually may be. So use that number. If you get roughly  projects per month, then perhaps `Weekly Rate` * 3. Or if they send an average of 50 projects per month, then perhaps `Monthly rate` + `Weekly rate`.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Related at another stack: https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/a/25713/3270" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21005" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="7932" RevisionGUID="fbff8b59-bb36-40b1-a396-0967f28d6a0a" CreationDate="2018-10-22T08:24:04.880" UserId="708" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="21006" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7932" RevisionGUID="c8e6f469-54dc-4029-8cb2-c1325046d8d3" CreationDate="2018-10-22T08:30:37.683" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 3901 characters in body" Text="I'll be honest.. I don't understand the monthly pricing but also per-project pricing. That seems illogical to me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Give him a monthly retainer rate... and stick to it. If he doesn't pay it, let him walk. You have a full time job. He needs *you* far more than you need him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's *business*. No one will *ever* pay you want you want if you don't stick to it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21007" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="7932" RevisionGUID="3ff89cb2-8c72-4aee-b964-767cc91b99d3" CreationDate="2018-10-22T08:31:05.697" UserId="708" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="21008" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1030" RevisionGUID="3dc88515-2350-468b-87a5-4431d9662ed9" CreationDate="2018-10-22T08:43:42.473" UserId="16887" Comment="Improve tags" Text="|client-support|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21009" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1030" RevisionGUID="3dc88515-2350-468b-87a5-4431d9662ed9" CreationDate="2018-10-22T08:43:42.473" Comment="Proposed by 16887 approved by 1241 edit id of 625" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21010" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7932" RevisionGUID="036d5cd5-94ad-406c-bbb2-ccc8687a77fc" CreationDate="2018-10-22T09:02:32.207" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 3901 characters in body" Text="In my *opinion* you are being **taken advantage of**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;...we would agree on X money every month if there's a project and X money if there's none. I would send him both figure and see if we could agree on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How I would see this suggestion:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21011" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="7932" RevisionGUID="d487002c-59a4-4ba7-83b0-12993fa96d58" CreationDate="2018-10-22T09:02:35.510" UserId="708" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="21012" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7932" RevisionGUID="25428fa5-0c67-4599-bc61-034a1ab86be2" CreationDate="2018-10-22T09:54:30.840" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 3901 characters in body" Text="In my *opinion* you are being **taken advantage of** at least to some degree. It may not be *malicious* in nature, but what you've described is *absolutely* not favorable to any designer, not even in part.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;...we would agree on X money every month if there's a project and X money if there's none. I would send him both figure and see if we could agree on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How I would see this suggestion:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- The client wants to pay a **retainer**... okay for what? Are changes happening that often? If yes, then okay. This is **separate** from **any** new project. Estimate the number of change requests on average and how long they may take to complete. So, if you find (or estimate) you spend 5 hours a month on average with changes, and your hourly rate is $50hr...  5x50 = $250 is the retainer fee. Thats it, anything less and you are **losing** money. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;If change requests are sporadic and only happen once a quarter or every couple months, it's hardly valuable to the client to be paying a retainer - The client would be better served by merely paying you hourly for your time when they had changes to be made. If they merely want to stabilize that amount.. see the amount above.... $250 - `estimated hrs * hourly rate`.... don't waiver from that.&#xD;&#xA;- **New projects** are to be priced based upon standard rates and **are not** covered under the retainer agreement. Unless *every single new projects* you create for this client is *exactly* the same in the amount of creativity, skill, time, and effort involved in creation, you simply **can not** price them all the same amount. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Sure if every month he wants a few new images for Facebook advertising, then okay.. price those all the same perhaps. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;But if in July he wants a Facebook ad and a flyer. Then in September he wants a brochure, a flyer, a poster. And then in October he wants Facebook ad and a 12 page digest-sized booklet. --- well all those **can't** be blanketed under one single fee. Each of those items needs separate and individual pricing. If you **do not** price such varied items separately, you may as well pay this guy to work for him. Because you **are** losing money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An important thing to realize is that....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#Negotiations do NOT always mean there's a settled agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to be willing to walk away if things are not favorable. Sure give a little, but don't let yourself be taken advantage of merely because you think you need this client. You don't. You have a full time job.... realize that he needs *you* **far more** than you need him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would provide one fee.. the **retainer fee** and that's it. So I'd reply with something like....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;A monthly retainer costs $250 and covers all revisions, changes, and updates to any *existing* project. If you would like to avoid this monthly fee, changes can be made when requested and will subsequently be invoiced hourly at $50 per hour. This may mean some months you pay nothing and some months you pay more than the $250 retainer fee. **New projects** will be invoiced *above and beyond* this retainer fee. An estimate for all new projects will be provided prior to work being started.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *would* allow a 10% negation fluctuation.. so I'd be willing to drop to $225/mo **minimum** for the retainer, but thats it. Anything less and I'm **losing money** and it's not a client worth retaining. And if they *don't* agree to pay you individually for each new project, then yeah.... the client is clearly taking advantage of you in my opinion. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Clients** do not dictate your pricing. You do. If you know your *hourly rate* and you know how much time it takes to complete a client request, than that is the *bare minimum* you should be charging in *every* instance. If a client complains and does not want to pay that amount, you do not *have* to work for less. You may *choose* to work for less, but all that does is ensure you will continually lose money as you gain experience and skills. ***It's up to you to ensure you get paid what you may be worth***.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my experience, the *more* you &quot;negotiate&quot; pricing -- i.e. listen to a client complain about paying -- the less likely you are to either get paid, or to get paid adequately. It's a bad client technique to whittle you down to their desires. Stick to your pricing if you ever plan on getting ahead. **Good clients** will ask what pricing is ahead of time and will **pay** you when invoiced without complaining - even if they feel teh invoice was too much, they'll pay it then ask you about it. Or ask you about it immediately before paying it. They won't ignore it and wait 30/60/90 days for you to contact them regarding the matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me..... this all rings of a **bad client** I would not *want* to work with. Again, perhaps not a *maliciously* bad client. It could merely be an unaware, small picture, client which may make them a bad client. Nonetheless, I'd be looking to replace that revenue stream rather than spending 90 days trying to get paid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21013" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="7932" RevisionGUID="a53c42de-ebb5-461d-a606-7f7654e0c477" CreationDate="2018-10-22T09:56:03.503" UserId="708" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="21018" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7932" RevisionGUID="7328d2a8-adb0-4464-98e3-03d3ca2c0ba4" CreationDate="2018-10-22T18:24:50.263" UserId="708" Comment="added 350 characters in body" Text="In my *opinion* you are being **taken advantage of** at least to some degree. It may not be *malicious* in nature, but what you've described is *absolutely* not favorable to any designer, not even in part.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;...we would agree on X money every month if there's a project and X money if there's none. I would send him both figure and see if we could agree on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How I would see this suggestion:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- The client wants to pay a **retainer**... okay for what? Are changes happening that often? If yes, then okay. This is **separate** from **any** new project. Estimate the number of change requests on average and how long they may take to complete. So, if you find (or estimate) you spend 5 hours a month on average with changes, and your hourly rate is $50hr...  5x50 = $250 is the retainer fee. Thats it, anything less and you are **losing** money. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;If change requests are sporadic and only happen once a quarter or every couple months, it's hardly valuable to the client to be paying a retainer - The client would be better served by merely paying you hourly for your time when they had changes to be made. If they merely want to stabilize that amount.. see the amount above.... $250 - `estimated hrs * hourly rate`.... don't waiver from that.&#xD;&#xA;- **New projects** are to be priced based upon standard rates and **are not** covered under the retainer agreement. Unless *every single new projects* you create for this client is *exactly* the same in the amount of creativity, skill, time, and effort involved in creation, you simply **can not** price them all the same amount. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Sure if every month he wants a few new images for Facebook advertising, then okay.. price those all the same perhaps. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;But if in July he wants a Facebook ad and a flyer. Then in September he wants a brochure, a flyer, a poster. And then in October he wants Facebook ad and a 12 page digest-sized booklet. --- well all those **can't** be blanketed under one single fee. Each of those items needs separate and individual pricing. If you **do not** price such varied items separately, you may as well pay this guy to work for him. Because you **are** losing money.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Its important to realize that when I post &quot;losing money&quot; I mean it is *costing you* more to run your equipment than you would be earning - i.e. heating your home, electricity to run a computer, software costs, etc. I'm *not* referring to &quot;missing out on *possible* payments&quot;. So, effectively you would be *paying the client* to work for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An important thing to realize is that....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#Negotiations do NOT always mean there's a settled agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to be willing to walk away if things are not favorable. Sure give a little, but don't let yourself be taken advantage of merely because you think you need this client. You don't. You have a full time job.... realize that he needs *you* **far more** than you need him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would provide one fee.. the **retainer fee** and that's it. So I'd reply with something like....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;A monthly retainer costs $250 and covers all revisions, changes, and updates to any *existing* project. If you would like to avoid this monthly fee, changes can be made when requested and will subsequently be invoiced hourly at $50 per hour. This may mean some months you pay nothing and some months you pay more than the $250 retainer fee. **New projects** will be invoiced *above and beyond* this retainer fee. An estimate for all new projects will be provided prior to work being started.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *would* allow a 10% negation fluctuation.. so I'd be willing to drop to $225/mo **minimum** for the retainer, but thats it. Anything less and I'm **losing money** and it's not a client worth retaining. And if they *don't* agree to pay you individually for each new project, then yeah.... the client is clearly taking advantage of you in my opinion. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Clients** do not dictate your pricing. You do. If you know your *hourly rate* and you know how much time it takes to complete a client request, than that is the *bare minimum* you should be charging in *every* instance. If a client complains and does not want to pay that amount, you do not *have* to work for less. You may *choose* to work for less, but all that does is ensure you will continually lose money as you gain experience and skills. ***It's up to you to ensure you get paid what you may be worth***.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my experience, the *more* you &quot;negotiate&quot; pricing -- i.e. listen to a client complain about paying -- the less likely you are to either get paid, or to get paid adequately. It's a bad client technique to whittle you down to their desires. Stick to your pricing if you ever plan on getting ahead. **Good clients** will ask what pricing is ahead of time and will **pay** you when invoiced without complaining - even if they feel teh invoice was too much, they'll pay it then ask you about it. Or ask you about it immediately before paying it. They won't ignore it and wait 30/60/90 days for you to contact them regarding the matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me..... this all rings of a **bad client** I would not *want* to work with. Again, perhaps not a *maliciously* bad client. It could merely be an unaware, small picture, client which may make them a bad client. Nonetheless, I'd be looking to replace that revenue stream rather than spending 90 days trying to get paid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21019" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="d78a978b-4a3a-446c-9f02-d4e0318459ef" CreationDate="2018-10-23T02:00:03.080" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21029" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7900" RevisionGUID="e3d3c150-202e-4ccf-a0dd-dc9e173ad24c" CreationDate="2018-10-25T06:00:36.047" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1055338313400401920" />
  <row Id="21030" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7936" RevisionGUID="4decc44d-9808-4184-9640-bc042e3629c2" CreationDate="2018-10-25T12:29:10.840" UserId="830" Text="IMHO (and I am an IT freelancer myself for 20+ years): No.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At least as long as you are looking for the &quot;typical&quot; IT projects, i.e. Linux-/Unix-Admin, JEE development, SCRUM master and the like. No coporate clients or recruiting agencies who recruite freelancers for coporate projects read tweets or wach your YouTube videos. They will only be interested in your CV.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In case you are looking for a differnet career as an independent speaker, author, advisor - you name it - the answer my be different.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had been doing publication work (writing articles for well known IT publications back then) in the 90ies. It was fun, it was some money, but never ever did anyone call and say: I read your article, please could you do a project for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And don't underestimate the time it takes to do some meaningful publication work, no matter on what chanel. I found in my career that many bloggers / authors or conference speakers are employees in large corporations, public service or academics who ... let's say ... are not always under full utilization at work and can do these things on their employer's time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21031" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7937" RevisionGUID="59639592-a84a-4d10-87a0-33701cb50df1" CreationDate="2018-10-25T12:39:35.390" UserId="830" Text="Yes, you can!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will just have to be sure that the cost of running such a construct is less than what you gain from it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Such IP/license/ptent boxes usually involve setting up multiple companies in different countries. Setting up a company means in many jurisdictions these days that you need to rent some kind of office (yes, can be some kind of shared office providers, but just a PO box won't do) in each country, set up the company there and keep it maintained, i.e. do tex returns and the like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may make sense. And it may be very interesting work if this kind of work is fun to you. But it will mean a lot of new tricks you have to learn. There is no one-stop shop for constructs like this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And beware of providers who want to make you believe it is as simple as giving them your credit card details and purchase some &quot;premium EU/offshore company package&quot;. In many cases all they care about it to generate work for any kind of legal advisors and you may end up with a buch of contracts and half-way operational businesses that will cause you more issues than they solve.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, if you are in a high tax country and we are talking some millions of EUR / USD / GBP here, I'd go for it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21032" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7938" RevisionGUID="57e589c9-28b2-4792-9e40-9ce1147a441c" CreationDate="2018-10-25T13:48:44.747" UserId="830" Text="If we are talking about a small yearly turnover (some hundred to some thousand EUR) it will no really be a big difference.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One general question to ask when it comes to taking risks about taxation is always: What is the largest possible collateral? What I mean is: If you make 5.000 EUR a year and you have a tax burden of in between 1.000 and 2.000 EUR from that and someone finds out later you have done it wrong and you need to pay another 500, then those 500 are you risk. You don't want to pay 700 EUR to prevent a loss of 500.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you ask people like the Finanzamt or the IHK or whoever, the problem with that is that whatever they will tell you, they will either tell it in such a complicated way that it will not mean yer or no to you and / or you will not be able to hold them reliable later for what they have said upfront. Also rules change over time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are looking for some practical advice and if you stay below 17.500 EUR, make yourself familiar with the Kleinungternehmerregelung for VAT (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleinunternehmerregelung_(Deutschland)), register a business with the Gewerbeamt and do your tax return once a year. You should be able to do that yourself online or through some cloud service which will charge you some ~30-50 EUR for the yearly tax return.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should you become successful, re-think the whole think then.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The discussion about &quot;gewerblich&quot; or &quot;freiberuflich&quot; is mostly about having to pay Gewerbesteuer (municipial business tax) or not. That makes a difference (usually less than people think, at the end of the day) if you are making some 50.000 EUR of revenues per year or more. There is deduction of 24.500 EUR, so if your profit (not your revenue) is less than that, your Gewerbesteuer will be 0,00 EUR anyway.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21033" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7939" RevisionGUID="cd247cfd-6a63-4563-a805-b9b02fbf78f5" CreationDate="2018-10-26T05:46:36.847" UserId="20894" Text="I am a non-EU citizen studying in Germany. According to my visa I am allowed to work 120 days or 240 half-days per year. How is the permitted hours amount calculated if I plan to take freelancing contract work instead of being employed? My clients will be primarily from EU countries but not Germany.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I bill my clients from my home country, am I also limited by the conditions on my student visa?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21034" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7939" RevisionGUID="cd247cfd-6a63-4563-a805-b9b02fbf78f5" CreationDate="2018-10-26T05:46:36.847" UserId="20894" Text="Non-EU citizen in Germany under student visa - how much work can I take?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21035" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7939" RevisionGUID="cd247cfd-6a63-4563-a805-b9b02fbf78f5" CreationDate="2018-10-26T05:46:36.847" UserId="20894" Text="|legal|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21052" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7944" RevisionGUID="a1316a35-fb3e-4d22-81e2-3a17f8ef64fc" CreationDate="2018-10-27T01:53:50.490" UserId="20647" Text="So, I happen to develop an inventory management system for a local store. The main owner (An old timer non-techie) of the store was reluctant about the idea, but his son was the one who wanted the software developed and paid quite handomsly for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I gave them a monthy subscription based pricing because the son saw a lot of potential in the software and was quite sure that he would need updates and would surely make it more than just a inventory management tool. The fee obviously had a monthly maintainance fee in it as well, which they had, including the father, happily agreed to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a solo dev and the type of software these guys wanted was not readily available in my repo, thus I put in quite some effort into it but it was okay as the pay was good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, two months later the son has left for his MBA to Canada and I am unable to contact him. So, I have to deal with his father, who, `yesterday called me and asked me to come over and fix the shop's internet connection` in the name of maintainance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not only do I have no clue how to do it, it is not what I am supposed to do but this guy says he'll press charges against me as my contract says-&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;`Help with all the processes in the software and repair any software functionality causing any kind of problem`&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, this being a software on the network, internet is a problem and he wants me to repair it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I thought I'd let him press charges and happily go to court when I realized that I don't really have funds to get a lawyer or anything. Plus my area's police is stupid and would happily accept bribes from this guy to harrass me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm in a fix, what can I do, what are my options here, or am I in the wrong and should actually fix his internet?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21053" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7944" RevisionGUID="a1316a35-fb3e-4d22-81e2-3a17f8ef64fc" CreationDate="2018-10-27T01:53:50.490" UserId="20647" Text="Client requesting things out of my domain in the name of maintainance" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21054" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7944" RevisionGUID="a1316a35-fb3e-4d22-81e2-3a17f8ef64fc" CreationDate="2018-10-27T01:53:50.490" UserId="20647" Text="|difficult-client|client-support|maintenance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21055" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7945" RevisionGUID="18b13cdb-4a8b-4029-a1f1-d86d41b76a35" CreationDate="2018-10-27T03:52:31.727" UserId="708" Text="I'd simply state...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; **&quot;No. That's not what our contract covers. Our contract covers *software* maintenance as related to the application I've created for you. Nothing more. Our contract does NOT relate to physical issues with your internet connection. You will need to contact your internet service provider if you are having trouble. They are responsible for maintenance of your internet equipment and connection.&quot;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key words in the contract are **SOFTWARE functionality**. An Internet connection is NOT &quot;software functionality&quot; related to your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know why you use the phrase &quot;press charges&quot; -- perhaps in your location there's some criminal infraction here?? In the US it's merely a *contracts* issue and *civil* in nature. The police will **not** get involved in such matters. There are no &quot;charges&quot; to &quot;press&quot;. Worst case scenario is a civil lawsuit could be filed -- but that's typically a *very* hollow *threat* by most and often never pursued.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I often have to explain to clients that merely because I'm in charge of their hosting renewals and plan I am **not** their IT guy and am not repressible to assist with IT related issues. They need to hire an IT professional if that's what is needed. I won'p help them with a Windows reinstallation or configuring Outlook or whatever." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21056" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7945" RevisionGUID="fa358050-c29d-4e33-aadf-25c3e9393ba9" CreationDate="2018-10-27T03:57:34.517" UserId="708" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="I'd simply state...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; **&quot;No. That's not what our contract covers. Our contract covers *software* maintenance as related to the application I've created for you. Nothing more. Our contract does NOT relate to physical issues with your internet connection. You will need to contact your internet service provider if you are having trouble. They are responsible for maintenance of your internet equipment and connection.&quot;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key words in the contract are **SOFTWARE functionality**. An Internet connection is NOT &quot;software functionality&quot; related to your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know why you use the phrase &quot;press charges&quot; -- perhaps in your location there's some criminal infraction here?? In the US it's merely a *contracts* issue and *civil* in nature. The police will **not** get involved in such matters. There are no &quot;charges&quot; to &quot;press&quot;. Worst case scenario is a civil lawsuit could be filed -- but that's typically a *very* hollow *threat* by most and often never pursued.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I often have to explain to clients that merely because I'm in charge of their hosting renewals and plan I am **not** their IT guy and am not repressible to assist with IT related issues. They need to hire an IT professional if that's what is needed. I **won't** help them with a Windows reinstallation or configuring Outlook or whatever." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21057" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7946" RevisionGUID="affc7832-0ceb-4bd3-8ebd-a97a22941d82" CreationDate="2018-10-27T09:09:01.760" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="About 18 months ago I completed a brochure design for an old client. I added a few spreads of it as mockups to my online portfolio. The booklets contain text written by my client — helpful information for their potential customers — and for them to be given out in their stores.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've recently had an email from my client saying that they found it on my portfolio through a Google search (for their company name) and has asked for it to be taken down. Saying that the text is 'confidential' and they are unhappy that it is being shown online where their competitors could see it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At no point did my client tell me (until now) that the text was confidential or that they didn't want me listing it as a portfolio item. Had they got me to sign an NDA beforehand then I would have happily complied (albiet most likely with billing extra money).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not only that, the body copy in my portfolio piece is barely even legible... you probably could make it all out if you really tried but it would take a lot of effort. The headings and intro paragraphs are legible but this of course accounts for the minority of the text... also the photography is all stock photos.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The way I see it, the design is my IP, but the content is probably that of the client. But surely they should have told me this upfront?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm thinking I'll at least remove the client's company name from my portfolio so their competitors don't find it in search results, and maybe just blur out the body copy some more?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21058" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7946" RevisionGUID="affc7832-0ceb-4bd3-8ebd-a97a22941d82" CreationDate="2018-10-27T09:09:01.760" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="Client wants me to take a portfolio project off my website" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21059" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7946" RevisionGUID="affc7832-0ceb-4bd3-8ebd-a97a22941d82" CreationDate="2018-10-27T09:09:01.760" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="|difficult-client|communication|portfolio|ownership|intellectual-property|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21060" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7947" RevisionGUID="09e3bcc4-0c09-419a-8a90-84a19f9bda36" CreationDate="2018-10-27T17:43:19.670" UserId="708" Text="I would remove the piece entirely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is **not** about who owns the IP.. it's about keeping a client **happy**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes *technically* without some sort of confidentiality agreement in place, you can use the piece - at a minimum under &quot;fair use&quot;. However, is it *really* worth losing a client over one piece in a portfolio?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A single portfolio piece should not cause you any real heartache. So, if the client is requesting you not use it online, then it's really not a big deal. I would not bother with removing company names or trying to obfuscate the company in any way. I would just remove the piece entirely. Any resistance to this, *any at all*, will merely ensure this client does not request more work from you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21061" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7948" RevisionGUID="0655f014-93dd-4e80-a9bc-1804e44c098d" CreationDate="2018-10-28T04:56:42.157" UserId="20908" Text="As a freelancer myself, I always ask upfront if the client lets me show their project on my portfolio. Most of them would say &quot;okay&quot; but some of them would say &quot;no.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they say &quot;no,&quot; I would honor their request and not share the project with anyone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next time you're interested in showcasing a client's work on your portfolio, simply ask for a permission. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this particular case, if you really want to showcase the work, I would: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Remove the company's name and just replace with &quot;Company Name&quot; to make it generic &#xD;&#xA; 2. Blur the text so the content is not readable in any way. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21062" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7852" RevisionGUID="cd10386e-3655-436e-99f7-73047f8f4992" CreationDate="2018-10-28T18:00:27.843" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1056606636347924480" />
  <row Id="21063" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7136" RevisionGUID="bb68f825-f41a-4d89-822a-35739bb77d01" CreationDate="2018-10-29T00:00:00.660" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1056697119891951616" />
  <row Id="21064" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7949" RevisionGUID="8500f074-d17d-4d63-921c-b4565d740552" CreationDate="2018-10-29T07:09:36.460" UserId="20913" Text="In Germany you would need to be at least a self-employee. Go to your local city hall and tell them you want to register a business. The procedure is pretty straight forward - It just takes a couple of minutes to register your business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After you registered your business you will also get a tax-id from the tax authorities. But: It would be better to talk to an accountant, to avoid some serious problems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can't just bill your clients from your home country - Because your tax residence is in Germany. Of course you also need to pay taxes in Germany. If you don't do it, you can get in serious trouble because of tax evasion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a juristic company in your home country, you would need to form a branch in Germany, so your company will be taxed like any other local company." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21065" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="417" RevisionGUID="394ce710-f80b-4b9c-a2ae-6b43a53e6b70" CreationDate="2018-10-29T13:56:59.153" UserId="16887" Comment="Improve tags " Text="|design|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21066" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="417" RevisionGUID="394ce710-f80b-4b9c-a2ae-6b43a53e6b70" CreationDate="2018-10-29T13:56:59.153" Comment="Proposed by 16887 approved by 254 edit id of 635" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21067" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="393" RevisionGUID="5f7754d9-9cef-4056-a6a6-5be6a6c7c905" CreationDate="2018-10-29T14:58:42.273" UserId="16887" Comment="Improve tags " Text="|contracts|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21068" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="393" RevisionGUID="5f7754d9-9cef-4056-a6a6-5be6a6c7c905" CreationDate="2018-10-29T14:58:42.273" Comment="Proposed by 16887 approved by 213 edit id of 636" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21069" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="21" RevisionGUID="534ccb8f-fad3-4164-a915-f1536a7669b2" CreationDate="2018-10-29T19:51:27.693" UserId="16887" Comment="Improve tags " Text="|legal|uk|accounting|expenses|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21070" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="21" RevisionGUID="534ccb8f-fad3-4164-a915-f1536a7669b2" CreationDate="2018-10-29T19:51:27.693" Comment="Proposed by 16887 approved by 37 edit id of 621" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21083" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="534" RevisionGUID="5955db93-b132-4ac6-9efd-b401a56063ce" CreationDate="2018-10-31T18:00:55.833" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1057693918014464000" />
  <row Id="21089" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7787" RevisionGUID="7087f42b-7f18-4662-904f-d70cfe08c741" CreationDate="2018-11-02T12:00:29.777" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1058327987291111424" />
  <row Id="21091" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7954" RevisionGUID="c56d472f-b7ef-47de-aaff-6dde7c608a36" CreationDate="2018-11-03T06:17:44.593" UserId="20937" Text="I learned a valuable lesson today the hard way. I know what to do in the future, but for right now, **I want to know what my options are for collecting payment, and maybe some advice on how not to get suckered by your clients.** **IS THIS LEGAL?** ~~ Client hired me to build an e-commerce website for her business. she signed proposal, I collected a 50% deposit, **but the scope of the project doubled during the build.** I went totally out of my way for this client, going above and beyond the scope of my job. She manipulated me, and made the project drag on and on. She caused me so much unnecessary work that all got tossed, and endless hours of my time. I was unhappy, but played nice, because I wanted my payday. She kept me so busy with constant emails and texts, asking me questions on a range of topics from software to hardware, apps, web-browsers, mobile phones and more. I provided her with extensive information I mostly had to research myself to make sure it was accurate, and arrange it in a way you would provide technical instructions to an indigenous tribe in the Amazon Jungle (she was, or pretended to be &quot;*tech-illiterate*&quot;). **THEN, she wouldn't even try following my instructions at all.** She wouldn't do any of it! I'm not including all of the options for how the site would work etc, I'm not even talking about the ridiculous number of mockups, designs, color palettes, logo designs and business card designs I made for her. I wanted this client to be happy, that's my job. And IMO, the work I produced was **really good!** but trying to get her to make a decision was like pulling teeth! She would say, I don't know, this is a lot to think about, I want to be careful... She had made an old Vista Print website some years ago that was ***absolutely frightening***. The home page image was crooked, cut-off, and sat by itself in a random position on the page, the whole site was just brown, but then weird colors would erroneously pop up in areas, she used 6 different fonts, and it had page loading issues. She kept saying, I liked my Vista Print site. (???) I didn't even know what to say because I didn't want to offend her. I helped her make the best/easiest/cost conscious decisions possible. I created a form for her to input her product information, she never used it. I even went to her home for 3 hours to help her get her content together. But she still would send me a couple photos on my phone, some in an email, some random images of text she wrote on scrap paper on my phone again, then duplicate photos on dropbox. I would edit them all for import, and then find out she sent me 3 pics of the same thing. She sent me about 2 dozen photos of her product, I put them in the website, and then she tells me, &quot;oh no, those were just examples. I haven't sent you any images for the website yet&quot;. (why???) she would send me random photos of other peoples jewelry on etsy (why???)... she was a nightmare. Her photos were of horrible quality, crooked, cut-off, 9,000 px wide. I had to edit every single product image. She took up ALL of my time. I couldn't accept any other work making her my sole client (except for 1 SMM gig). 1 day before delivery, she tells me - she doesn't think it's going to work out, she terminates the project. I thought it was a cruel joke at first. For 2 months she gave me no indication this would happen. It took a month before she gave me any content at all, *(I was building the site, and responding to her emails and texts)* and **she finally chose some stock images (I licensed) for the site just days ago!** This was after I sent her, I lost count, 60 to 70 maybe? She thinks she owes me nothing. She compared the professional services I provide, to her prior work as a real estate agent. *(??? I don't work for commission!)* She said sometimes things just don't work out. **I want to get paid.** **Do I have any legal right to collect money from her?** I'm willing to take her to court if I have to. I get the feeling she's done this to other people before. It was so calculated and manipulative. I'm furious, I'm a wreck, and I'm broke. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21092" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7954" RevisionGUID="c56d472f-b7ef-47de-aaff-6dde7c608a36" CreationDate="2018-11-03T06:17:44.593" UserId="20937" Text="WHAT TO DO WHEN A CLIENT CANCELS PROJECT 1 DAY BEFORE DELIVERY" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21093" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7954" RevisionGUID="c56d472f-b7ef-47de-aaff-6dde7c608a36" CreationDate="2018-11-03T06:17:44.593" UserId="20937" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|difficult-client|payments|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21094" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7954" RevisionGUID="1102812b-6540-43ee-8ea9-04030c43cc15" CreationDate="2018-11-03T07:26:51.587" UserId="708" Comment="Removed all caps added paragraph breaks so it isi more human readable; edited tags" Text="I learned a valuable lesson today the hard way. I know what to do in the future, but for right now, **I want to know what my options are for collecting payment, and maybe some advice on how not to get suckered by your clients.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**IS THIS LEGAL?** ~~ Client hired me to build an e-commerce website for her business. she signed proposal, I collected a 50% deposit, **but the scope of the project doubled during the build.** I went totally out of my way for this client, going above and beyond the scope of my job. She manipulated me, and made the project drag on and on. She caused me so much unnecessary work that all got tossed, and endless hours of my time. I was unhappy, but played nice, because I wanted my payday. She kept me so busy with constant emails and texts, asking me questions on a range of topics from software to hardware, apps, web-browsers, mobile phones and more. I provided her with extensive information I mostly had to research myself to make sure it was accurate, and arrange it in a way you would provide technical instructions to an indigenous tribe in the Amazon Jungle (she was, or pretended to be &quot;*tech-illiterate*&quot;). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**THEN, she wouldn't even try following my instructions at all.** She wouldn't do any of it! I'm not including all of the options for how the site would work etc, I'm not even talking about the ridiculous number of mockups, designs, color palettes, logo designs and business card designs I made for her. I wanted this client to be happy, that's my job. And IMO, the work I produced was **really good!** but trying to get her to make a decision was like pulling teeth! She would say, I don't know, this is a lot to think about, I want to be careful... She had made an old Vista Print website some years ago that was ***absolutely frightening***. The home page image was crooked, cut-off, and sat by itself in a random position on the page, the whole site was just brown, but then weird colors would erroneously pop up in areas, she used 6 different fonts, and it had page loading issues. She kept saying, I liked my Vista Print site. (???) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I didn't even know what to say because I didn't want to offend her. I helped her make the best/easiest/cost conscious decisions possible. I created a form for her to input her product information, she never used it. I even went to her home for 3 hours to help her get her content together. But she still would send me a couple photos on my phone, some in an email, some random images of text she wrote on scrap paper on my phone again, then duplicate photos on dropbox. I would edit them all for import, and then find out she sent me 3 pics of the same thing. She sent me about 2 dozen photos of her product, I put them in the website, and then she tells me, &quot;oh no, those were just examples. I haven't sent you any images for the website yet&quot;. (why???) she would send me random photos of other peoples jewelry on etsy (why???)... she was a nightmare. Her photos were of horrible quality, crooked, cut-off, 9,000 px wide. I had to edit every single product image. She took up ALL of my time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I couldn't accept any other work making her my sole client (except for 1 SMM gig). 1 day before delivery, she tells me - she doesn't think it's going to work out, she terminates the project. I thought it was a cruel joke at first. For 2 months she gave me no indication this would happen. It took a month before she gave me any content at all, *(I was building the site, and responding to her emails and texts)* and **she finally chose some stock images (I licensed) for the site just days ago!** This was after I sent her, I lost count, 60 to 70 maybe? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She thinks she owes me nothing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She compared the professional services I provide, to her prior work as a real estate agent. *(??? I don't work for commission!)* She said sometimes things just don't work out. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I want to get paid.** **Do I have any legal right to collect money from her?** I'm willing to take her to court if I have to. I get the feeling she's done this to other people before. It was so calculated and manipulative. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm furious, I'm a wreck, and I'm broke. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21095" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="7954" RevisionGUID="1102812b-6540-43ee-8ea9-04030c43cc15" CreationDate="2018-11-03T07:26:51.587" UserId="708" Comment="Removed all caps added paragraph breaks so it isi more human readable; edited tags" Text="What to do when a client cancels project 1 day before delivery?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21096" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7954" RevisionGUID="1102812b-6540-43ee-8ea9-04030c43cc15" CreationDate="2018-11-03T07:26:51.587" UserId="708" Comment="Removed all caps added paragraph breaks so it isi more human readable; edited tags" Text="|contracts|difficult-client|payments|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21097" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7955" RevisionGUID="b8224428-7b51-4552-aa45-fcdcfa600de2" CreationDate="2018-11-03T11:34:08.090" UserId="20754" Text="I'm logo designer.Few days ago a customer contact me through a freelancing site he order me to make a logo for his product.I make a logo for him.He said to make it better.I did and deliver it but he cancelled order by saying that it is not upto his standard and i didn't get payment.After a day i seen my logo on his site. How to deal with such customers who didn't pay and get work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21098" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7955" RevisionGUID="b8224428-7b51-4552-aa45-fcdcfa600de2" CreationDate="2018-11-03T11:34:08.090" UserId="20754" Text="How to deal with a customer who get work and didn't gave payment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21099" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7955" RevisionGUID="b8224428-7b51-4552-aa45-fcdcfa600de2" CreationDate="2018-11-03T11:34:08.090" UserId="20754" Text="|freelance-websites|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21100" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7956" RevisionGUID="8bcd2f9a-1ba0-49f3-9470-fde997870676" CreationDate="2018-11-03T16:55:00.043" UserId="708" Text="**You sue them.** There's really not much else to be done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21105" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7828" RevisionGUID="78716404-b02f-4a71-8ac6-157107658eda" CreationDate="2018-11-04T22:00:27.157" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21106" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7958" RevisionGUID="5677cc8b-33c4-4a4d-abf0-121bcb83dc97" CreationDate="2018-11-05T03:02:42.450" UserId="20940" Text="First off, I'm sorry to hear of your endeavor and that you had to deal with a nightmare client like that. I think we've all been there at least twice. Now then, hindsight is 20/20 so let's be proactive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#The Worst Customers#&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The worst client a freelancer can encounter is hard to shove into one box as they come in all kinds. To name a few, there is the waffler, the procrastinator, the bargain shopper, the know-it-all, and a dozen or so others. However, the end result is typically the same. The project goes over budget and over deadline due to the dreaded &quot;Scope-Creep&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No matter how you might try to keep these wishy-washy, impossible-to-please project killers in-line and on-task the decisions get delayed and you end up either waiting for them to deliver their content, or to even answer an email, yet one thing never fails to hit on time...The deadline and their criticism of your missing it **(even though they were the reason why the project is stalled)**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*But, here are the facts:*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **It has happened and you're probably correct in assuming she's done this to others.** If you've got the time and feel the need for vindication you might ask around about her in the local design communities and see if there's precedent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;or &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; 2. You can use your time wisely, *provided you have documentation* **you have the right to take her to court and attempt to collect**. Depending on the cost of your contract and the percentage of work you've actually completed** along with your local laws will determine whether you're heading to small claims court or a civil trial court. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;** - Provided you've got a signed contract that breaks down the percentages of payment owed for the scope of work done and what happens if either end does not meet their respective responsibilities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, the simple fact you're asking us here would lead me to believe that you have a somewhat more vague contract. So, in my experience your only recourse in this situation is to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; ##A. Issue a Final Demand for Payment-in-Full:## There are a number of sites out there with templates for [writing a letter to demand payment in full][1] for services rendered.&#xD;&#xA;     &#xD;&#xA;     ###i. Be sure to choose a template that is valid in your state.###&#xD;&#xA;      &#xD;&#xA;    ###ii. Be certain you have included all the pertinent details and specifics:### &#xD;&#xA;            including the **total amount of contract, total remainder due, the scope of &#xD;&#xA;            work promised, the scope of work delivered, and any reasoning/causes why the &#xD;&#xA;            remainder of the work was not able to be completed.**&#xD;&#xA;     &#xD;&#xA;   ###iii.  In closing:### After you've laid out your case, you can offer a payment &#xD;&#xA;             arrangement or, you can imply legal recourse if payment in full is not &#xD;&#xA;             delivered forthwith. (It would be advisable to consult a lawyer/legal &#xD;&#xA;             counsel unless you are familiar with the legal ramifications and &#xD;&#xA;             responsibilities involved.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    ###iv. Have the letter notarized### by a legal notary and have the final request of &#xD;&#xA;            payment delivered in a way that requires their signature acknowledging &#xD;&#xA;            receipt of the documents. In other words, if you can afford it it would &#xD;&#xA;            behoove you to hire a process server. But, at the very bare-minimum send the &#xD;&#xA;            letter 1st Class registered &amp; certified mail requiring a signature for &#xD;&#xA;            delivery. This eliminates them using the excuse they never received it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**And lastly, stick to your guns.** You are a business just the same as any major corporation and deserve to be paid for your services. Get help if you need it, but be assertive and do NOT back down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Moving forward, it would be best for you to use a stronger proposal &amp; separate contract that states detailed provisions determining what is expected of you and in what timeframe, what is expected of the client in what timeframe, penalties for being over deadline, Provisions that address change of scope/scope creep, how they are handled, and the penalties/additional fees to cover last-minute add-ons &amp; requests. Detail every possible scenario you can think of as being reasonably possible to cover your bases. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also good to include an escape clause with a percentage of compensation depending on the stage of the project for yourself along with detailed legal ramifications as a result.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, you want to have your clients sign an iron-clad contract that documents any possible scenario and recourse for you to recoup your fees. There are a few really [solid proposal/contract platforms][2] out there that allow cash-strapped freelancers to draft their own comprehensive documents. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I find [Proposify][3] to be absolutely indispensable. I use them religiously! Though there are others like [Bidsketch][4] and [PandaDoc][5]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just remember moving forward, that the more you define in plain English and have your clients sign on in agreement, the less this will not occur again. And in my experience, if a client is hesitant to sign fair &amp; equal conditions on your service provisions-You probably do NOT want them for a client anyways.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck to you! Let us know how it turns out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://legaltemplates.net/form/demand-for-payment-letter/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.capterra.com/sem-compare/proposal-management-software?utm_source=bing&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_term=%20template%20%20proposal&amp;gclid=CNHO2PSWvN4CFdGjZQodB_UPJQ&amp;gclsrc=ds&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.proposify.com&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://www.pandadoc.com/alternatives/bidsketch/?utm_source=bing&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=sem-competitors-us&amp;utm_content=bidsketch&amp;utm_term=bidsketch&amp;utm_device=c&amp;msclkid=ec87a4c8f8e518e06153ff175271761b&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: https://www.pandadoc.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21107" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7959" RevisionGUID="88b95a36-39eb-4702-95d0-fe196c2a1435" CreationDate="2018-11-06T12:47:15.067" UserId="20953" Text="I hope you bear with me. This is going to be quite a long post. I want to lay out my situation in detail in hopes of getting advice as to what I should do and how to approach it the best way possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The situation**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I met this client 3 years ago when I was still a student. He hired me as an 'on-call' graphic designer, meaning I would work for them if projects arise. Most of the time I do packaging design—from the label to the box itself. I also handle the final artwork with every material that goes to the printer (which I just learned and am still learning as we go along).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't work at their office. I work from home. We talk online. We meet if necessary. I go to their office if I have time (since I have day job). And if I do, I work DIRECTLY and BESIDE him as HE GIVES comments right away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There was no contract or whatsoever but we verbally agreed I would be paid for every 2-3 projects—which weren't difficult but they require the right creative direction to nail the what he wants—at about $400.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The problem**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, from March to July, I worked on a couple of new projects and old projects for revisions. I was waiting for him to pay me after our last project in July but it was almost September and I still haven't gotten it. I sent him a message telling him about it and even sent him an invoice detailing the projects we did.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He was surprised I was charging him $600 for that time period.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We then met up to settle this time and here's what we agreed on so far. I would give him an amount that I think is reasonable for the work and projects rendered during those months. And now moving forward, we would agree on X money every month if there's a project and X money if there's none. I would send him both figure and see if we could agree on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The proposal**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I told him $500 for the work rendered in March - July. I said $250/month if we have a project, $80 if there's none.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He didn't say anything about the $500. But he thinks $250 is too high. He told me that I should have a basis for this but I don't know how else I'm going to justify the rate. I based it on the number of hours it takes me to work on a single project — including but not limited to brainstorming, researching, designing, setting up the files correctly, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I then replied him with a range instead. I said that the projects we do usually cost $150-300. And whatever amount we agreed on, I would be charging him $10 per hour on top of the monthly. He will not be charged on months when there's no project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He said his issue he cannot verify the number of hours I put it. And he wants me to think of another 'formula'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What now?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think what I proposed is the best since he will not have to cover any additional cost when there's no project. I think the problem now is that he does not trust me with the number of hours I'm going to charge him for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can I do to make sure he trust me with it? Or should I find another 'formula' to charge him for?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice is greatly appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Location: Philippines.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S. Yes the rates are low but they're more or less near the &quot;market rate&quot; for the kind of work I'm doing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21108" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7959" RevisionGUID="88b95a36-39eb-4702-95d0-fe196c2a1435" CreationDate="2018-11-06T12:47:15.067" UserId="20953" Text="Client wants to find a payment scheme that works for us. He doesn't want retainer nor hourly. How to find a common ground?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21109" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7959" RevisionGUID="88b95a36-39eb-4702-95d0-fe196c2a1435" CreationDate="2018-11-06T12:47:15.067" UserId="20953" Text="|payment-terms|difficult-client|pay-rate|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21110" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7932" RevisionGUID="01c180f5-0a0f-400f-8f23-0c23f1e604c9" CreationDate="2018-11-06T17:42:31.243" UserId="708" Comment="added 741 characters in body" Text="In my *opinion* you are being **taken advantage of** at least to some degree. It may not be *malicious* in nature, but what you've described is *absolutely* not favorable to any designer, not even in part.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;...we would agree on X money every month if there's a project and X money if there's none. I would send him both figure and see if we could agree on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How I would see this suggestion:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- The client wants to pay a **retainer**... okay for what? Are changes happening that often? If yes, then okay. This is **separate** from **any** new project. Estimate the number of change requests on average and how long they may take to complete. So, if you find (or estimate) you spend 5 hours a month on average with changes, and your hourly rate is $50hr...  5x50 = $250 is the retainer fee. Thats it, anything less and you are **losing** money. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;If change requests are sporadic and only happen once a quarter or every couple months, it's hardly valuable to the client to be paying a retainer - The client would be better served by merely paying you hourly for your time when they had changes to be made. If they merely want to stabilize that amount.. see the amount above.... $250 - `estimated hrs * hourly rate`.... don't waiver from that.&#xD;&#xA;- **New projects** are to be priced based upon standard rates and **are not** covered under the retainer agreement. Unless *every single new projects* you create for this client is *exactly* the same in the amount of creativity, skill, time, and effort involved in creation, you simply **can not** price them all the same amount. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Sure if every month he wants a few new images for Facebook advertising, then okay.. price those all the same perhaps. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;But if in July he wants a Facebook ad and a flyer. Then in September he wants a brochure, a flyer, a poster. And then in October he wants Facebook ad and a 12 page digest-sized booklet. --- well all those **can't** be blanketed under one single fee. Each of those items needs separate and individual pricing. If you **do not** price such varied items separately, you may as well pay this guy to work for him. Because you **are** losing money.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Its important to realize that when I post &quot;losing money&quot; I mean it is *costing you* more to run your equipment than you would be earning - i.e. heating your home, electricity to run a computer, software costs, etc. I'm *not* referring to &quot;missing out on *possible* payments&quot;. So, effectively you would be *paying the client* to work for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An important thing to realize is that....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#Negotiations do NOT always mean there's a settled agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to be willing to walk away if things are not favorable. Sure give a little, but don't let yourself be taken advantage of merely because you think you need this client. You don't. You have a full time job.... realize that he needs *you* **far more** than you need him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would provide one fee.. the **retainer fee** and that's it. So I'd reply with something like....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;A monthly retainer costs $250 and covers all revisions, changes, and updates to any *existing* project. If you would like to avoid this monthly fee, changes can be made when requested and will subsequently be invoiced hourly at $50 per hour. This may mean some months you pay nothing and some months you pay more than the $250 retainer fee. **New projects** will be invoiced *above and beyond* this retainer fee. An estimate for all new projects will be provided prior to work being started.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *would* allow a 10% negation fluctuation.. so I'd be willing to drop to $225/mo **minimum** for the retainer, but thats it. Anything less and I'm **losing money** and it's not a client worth retaining. And if they *don't* agree to pay you individually for each new project, then yeah.... the client is clearly taking advantage of you in my opinion. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Clients** do not dictate your pricing. You do. If you know your *hourly rate* and you know how much time it takes to complete a client request, than that is the *bare minimum* you should be charging in *every* instance. If a client complains and does not want to pay that amount, you do not *have* to work for less. You may *choose* to work for less, but all that does is ensure you will continually lose money as you gain experience and skills. ***It's up to you to ensure you get paid what you may be worth***.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my experience, the *more* you &quot;negotiate&quot; pricing -- i.e. listen to a client complain about paying -- the less likely you are to either get paid, or to get paid adequately. It's a bad client technique to whittle you down to their desires. Stick to your pricing if you ever plan on getting ahead. **Good clients** will ask what pricing is ahead of time and will **pay** you when invoiced without complaining - even if they feel teh invoice was too much, they'll pay it then ask you about it. Or ask you about it immediately before paying it. They won't ignore it and wait 30/60/90 days for you to contact them regarding the matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me..... this all rings of a **bad client** I would not *want* to work with. Again, perhaps not a *maliciously* bad client. It could merely be an unaware, small picture, client which may make them a bad client. Nonetheless, I'd be looking to replace that revenue stream rather than spending 90 days trying to get paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Tl;Dr**&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;**Freelance *designers* are typically *not* paid as if they were *employees* on a salary.** **ONLY** if both the client and the freelancer can agree upon amount, which covers *all* work, is a single fee remotely possible. For a *designer*, if you work on *different* projects of varying complexity and *not* the same thing over and over, it's is **NEVER** in your favor to agree upon one set fee, regardless of the amount of the fee. You will **always** be better off pricing projects individually or invoicing based upon an *hourly rate*. I would **never**, on my worst day, agree to one fee as compensation for *anything* a client asks me to design. Remember, you are **not** an employee." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21111" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7932" RevisionGUID="a18aa9c0-3973-46cf-b241-66bdaa55cfa5" CreationDate="2018-11-06T17:47:34.153" UserId="708" Comment="added 741 characters in body" Text="In my *opinion* you are being **taken advantage of** at least to some degree. It may not be *malicious* in nature, but what you've described is *absolutely* not favorable to any designer, not even in part.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;...we would agree on X money every month if there's a project and X money if there's none. I would send him both figure and see if we could agree on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How I would see this suggestion:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- The client wants to pay a **retainer**... okay for what? Are changes happening that often? If yes, then okay. This is **separate** from **any** new project. Estimate the number of change requests on average and how long they may take to complete. So, if you find (or estimate) you spend 5 hours a month on average with changes, and your hourly rate is $50hr...  5x50 = $250 is the retainer fee. Thats it, anything less and you are **losing** money. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;If change requests are sporadic and only happen once a quarter or every couple months, it's hardly valuable to the client to be paying a retainer - The client would be better served by merely paying you hourly for your time when they had changes to be made. If they merely want to stabilize that amount.. see the amount above.... $250 - `estimated hrs * hourly rate`.... don't waiver from that.&#xD;&#xA;- **New projects** are to be priced based upon standard rates and **are not** covered under the retainer agreement. Unless *every single new projects* you create for this client is *exactly* the same in the amount of creativity, skill, time, and effort involved in creation, you simply **can not** price them all the same amount. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Sure if every month he wants a few new images for Facebook advertising, then okay.. price those all the same perhaps. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;But if in July he wants a Facebook ad and a flyer. Then in September he wants a brochure, a flyer, a poster. And then in October he wants Facebook ad and a 12 page digest-sized booklet. --- well all those **can't** be blanketed under one single fee. Each of those items needs separate and individual pricing. If you **do not** price such varied items separately, you may as well pay this guy to work for him. Because you **are** losing money.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Its important to realize that when I post &quot;losing money&quot; I mean it is *costing you* more to run your equipment than you would be earning - i.e. heating your home, electricity to run a computer, software costs, etc. I'm *not* referring to &quot;missing out on *possible* payments&quot;. So, effectively you would be *paying the client* to work for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An important thing to realize is that....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#Negotiations do NOT always mean there's a settled agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to be willing to walk away if things are not favorable. Sure give a little, but don't let yourself be taken advantage of merely because you think you need this client. You don't. You have a full time job.... realize that he needs *you* **far more** than you need him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would provide one fee.. the **retainer fee** and that's it. So I'd reply with something like....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;A monthly retainer costs $250 and covers all revisions, changes, and updates to any *existing* project. If you would like to avoid this monthly fee, changes can be made when requested and will subsequently be invoiced hourly at $50 per hour. This may mean some months you pay nothing and some months you pay more than the $250 retainer fee. **New projects** will be invoiced *above and beyond* this retainer fee. An estimate for all new projects will be provided prior to work being started.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *would* allow a 10% negation fluctuation.. so I'd be willing to drop to $225/mo **minimum** for the retainer, but thats it. Anything less and I'm **losing money** and it's not a client worth retaining. And if they *don't* agree to pay you individually for each new project, then yeah.... the client is clearly taking advantage of you in my opinion. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Clients** do not dictate your pricing. You do. If you know your *hourly rate* and you know how much time it takes to complete a client request, than that is the *bare minimum* you should be charging in *every* instance. If a client complains and does not want to pay that amount, you do not *have* to work for less. You may *choose* to work for less, but all that does is ensure you will continually lose money as you gain experience and skills. ***It's up to you to ensure you get paid what you may be worth***.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my experience, the *more* you &quot;negotiate&quot; pricing -- i.e. listen to a client complain about paying -- the less likely you are to either get paid, or to get paid adequately. It's a bad client technique to whittle you down to their desires. Stick to your pricing if you ever plan on getting ahead. **Good clients** will ask what pricing is ahead of time and will **pay** you when invoiced without complaining - even if they feel teh invoice was too much, they'll pay it then ask you about it. Or ask you about it immediately before paying it. They won't ignore it and wait 30/60/90 days for you to contact them regarding the matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me..... this all rings of a **bad client** I would not *want* to work with. Again, perhaps not a *maliciously* bad client. It could merely be an unaware, small picture, client which may make them a bad client. Nonetheless, I'd be looking to replace that revenue stream rather than spending 90 days trying to get paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Tl;Dr**&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;**Freelance *designers* are typically *not* paid as if they were *employees* on a salary.** **ONLY** if both the client and the freelancer can agree upon amount, which covers *all* work, is a single fee remotely possible. For a *designer*, if you work on *different* projects of varying complexity and *not* the same thing over and over, it's is **NEVER** in your favor to agree upon one set fee, regardless of the amount of the fee. You will **always** be better off pricing projects individually or invoicing based upon an *hourly rate*. I would **never**, on my worst day, agree to one fee as compensation for *anything* a client asks me to design. Remember, you are **not** an employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This client is asking you to provide them with a &quot;blank check&quot; of sorts -- where for one (lowball) fee they can get you to work 10 hours, 40 hours, 60 hours, 200 hours or more. Sure at 10 hours you're making $25/hr if he's paying $250 (which is still low). But at 100hrs you'd only make $2.50/hr.... does that sound reasonable to you?? Put your foot down. You don't *have* to allow someone to take advantage of you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21112" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7932" RevisionGUID="a802fb3d-28bc-470f-9b9e-627d4f480eef" CreationDate="2018-11-06T22:34:28.363" UserId="708" Comment="added 71 characters in body" Text="In my *opinion* you are being **taken advantage of** at least to some degree. It may not be *malicious* in nature, but what you've described is *absolutely* not favorable to any designer, not even in part.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;...we would agree on X money every month if there's a project and X money if there's none. I would send him both figure and see if we could agree on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How I would see this suggestion:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- The client wants to pay a **retainer**... okay for what? Are changes happening that often? If yes, then okay. This is **separate** from **any** new project. Estimate the number of change requests on average and how long they may take to complete. So, if you find (or estimate) you spend 5 hours a month on average with changes, and your hourly rate is $50hr...  5x50 = $250 is the retainer fee. Thats it, anything less and you are **losing** money. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;If change requests are sporadic and only happen once a quarter or every couple months, it's hardly valuable to the client to be paying a retainer - The client would be better served by merely paying you hourly for your time when they had changes to be made. If they merely want to stabilize that amount.. see the amount above.... $250 - `estimated hrs * hourly rate`.... don't waiver from that.&#xD;&#xA;- **New projects** are to be priced based upon standard rates and **are not** covered under the retainer agreement. Unless *every single new projects* you create for this client is *exactly* the same in the amount of creativity, skill, time, and effort involved in creation, you simply **can not** price them all the same amount. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Sure if every month he wants a few new images for Facebook advertising, then okay.. price those all the same perhaps. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;But if in July he wants a Facebook ad and a flyer. Then in September he wants a brochure, a flyer, a poster. And then in October he wants Facebook ad and a 12 page digest-sized booklet. --- well all those **can't** be blanketed under one single fee. Each of those items needs separate and individual pricing. If you **do not** price such varied items separately, you may as well pay this guy to work for him. Because you **are** losing money.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Its important to realize that when I post &quot;losing money&quot; I mean it is *costing you* more to run your equipment than you would be earning - i.e. heating your home, electricity to run a computer, software costs, etc. I'm *not* referring to &quot;missing out on *possible* payments&quot;. So, effectively you would be *paying the client* to work for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An important thing to realize is that....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#Negotiations do NOT always mean there's a settled agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to be willing to walk away if things are not favorable. Sure give a little, but don't let yourself be taken advantage of merely because you think you need this client. You don't. You have a full time job.... realize that he needs *you* **far more** than you need him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would provide one fee.. the **retainer fee** and that's it. So I'd reply with something like....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;A monthly retainer costs $250 and covers all revisions, changes, and updates to any *existing* project. If you would like to avoid this monthly fee, changes can be made when requested and will subsequently be invoiced hourly at $50 per hour. This may mean some months you pay nothing and some months you pay more than the $250 retainer fee. **New projects** will be invoiced *above and beyond* this retainer fee. An estimate for all new projects will be provided prior to work being started.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *would* allow a 10% negation fluctuation.. so I'd be willing to drop to $225/mo **minimum** for the retainer, but thats it. Anything less and I'm **losing money** and it's not a client worth retaining. And if they *don't* agree to pay you individually for each new project, then yeah.... the client is clearly taking advantage of you in my opinion. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Clients** do not dictate your pricing. You do. If you know your *hourly rate* and you know how much time it takes to complete a client request, than that is the *bare minimum* you should be charging in *every* instance. If a client complains and does not want to pay that amount, you do not *have* to work for less. You may *choose* to work for less, but all that does is ensure you will continually lose money as you gain experience and skills. ***It's up to you to ensure you get paid what you may be worth***.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my experience, the *more* you &quot;negotiate&quot; pricing -- i.e. listen to a client complain about paying -- the less likely you are to either get paid, or to get paid adequately. It's a bad client technique to whittle you down to their desires. Stick to your pricing if you ever plan on getting ahead. **Good clients** will ask what pricing is ahead of time and will **pay** you when invoiced without complaining - even if they feel teh invoice was too much, they'll pay it then ask you about it. Or ask you about it immediately before paying it. They won't ignore it and wait 30/60/90 days for you to contact them regarding the matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me..... this all rings of a **bad client** I would not *want* to work with. Again, perhaps not a *maliciously* bad client. It could merely be an unaware, small picture, client which may make them a bad client. Nonetheless, I'd be looking to replace that revenue stream rather than spending 90 days trying to get paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Tl;Dr**&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;**Freelance *designers* are typically *not* paid as if they were *employees* on a salary.** **ONLY** if both the client and the freelancer can agree upon amount, which covers *all* work,  and the *number of hours you are to expected to work is **limited***, is a single fee remotely possible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a *designer*, if you work on *different* projects of varying complexity and *not* the same thing over and over, it's is **NEVER** in your favor to agree upon one set fee, regardless of the amount of the fee, **unless** there's a *limit* the the hours you will work. You will **always** be better off pricing projects individually or invoicing based upon an *hourly rate* rather than having an open-ended retainer without time limitations. I would **never**, on my worst day, agree to one fee as compensation for *anything* a client asks me to design regardless of the time it takes to create such projects. Remember, you are **not** an employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This client is asking you to provide them with a &quot;blank check&quot; of sorts -- where for one (lowball) fee they can get you to work 10 hours, 40 hours, 60 hours, 200 hours or more. Sure at 10 hours you're making $25/hr if he's paying $250 (which is still low). But at 100hrs you'd only make $2.50/hr.... does that sound reasonable to you?? Put your foot down. You don't *have* to allow someone to take advantage of you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21113" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7960" RevisionGUID="c99d3883-c2cc-40ce-8ff5-68b2c613b739" CreationDate="2018-11-07T16:04:47.470" UserId="20962" Text="**TL;DR**  &#xD;&#xA;I'm working on a software project. The whole thing took a while because both parties were somehow unexperienced but now some milestones are finished. The customer is statisfied and wants to go ahead but it may fail because of the budget.  The project is somehow important to me (not in a financial way but I don't want it to fail). Now I'm searching for a solution to continue work on it without giving up the money.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The start**  &#xD;&#xA;My client is a friend of a friend. He knew that I'm studying computer science and could do some coding for him. I agreed and we started to work on the project.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**presence**  &#xD;&#xA;The result of this project is thought to be sold on a subscription base. To find customers for this you'll need something to offer. While there is some offer, it's too less and he will need to pay some more hours to be able to think about selling it to the public.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**problem**  &#xD;&#xA;Although we successfully negotiated a price with which I'm pretty happy (fixed price for every &quot;module&quot;) it turned out that there is some requirement of something like ROI. But there won't be one because the program has a good base but not enough to attract customers. This will decrease the motivation to continue and finally could be the project's death.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reasons for me wanting the project to continue are diverse.  &#xD;&#xA;1. It's a greate opportunity to get &quot;real&quot; experience.  &#xD;&#xA;2. The project itself is pretty interesting with a possible benefit for people using the result.  &#xD;&#xA;3. I'm in the somehow disadvantegous situation of developing own ideas which I'd like to realize but can't (at least in the flexible way I'd like to).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't tell me naive. I don't want to give up the money and I'm not going to be exploited.  &#xD;&#xA;I'm searching for a way which would make the whole thing a bit more flexible for everyone.  &#xD;&#xA;One idea was to negotiate an hourly rate but get paid as soon as there is some income.  &#xD;&#xA;This is a bit risky as I can't know if there will be any income in the future.  &#xD;&#xA;I'd need some advice what would be a good middle way in keeping the project alive but don't give up money." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21114" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7960" RevisionGUID="c99d3883-c2cc-40ce-8ff5-68b2c613b739" CreationDate="2018-11-07T16:04:47.470" UserId="20962" Text="Project which has potential and is important to me but going to fail because of budget" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21115" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7960" RevisionGUID="c99d3883-c2cc-40ce-8ff5-68b2c613b739" CreationDate="2018-11-07T16:04:47.470" UserId="20962" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|budget|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21116" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7961" RevisionGUID="f4b1fe65-751e-48e6-8851-d85fb98e1a89" CreationDate="2018-11-08T02:40:49.080" UserId="20896" Text="I am a freelancer in the design field for a while and now I want to go deeper with this profession but in the field of the blockchain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel this is a special and potential job so I want to invest time in projects related to the blockchain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, because I'm new, I still do not know how to attract clients in this area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can you share your experience for me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21117" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7961" RevisionGUID="f4b1fe65-751e-48e6-8851-d85fb98e1a89" CreationDate="2018-11-08T02:40:49.080" UserId="20896" Text="How to attract customers in the special field?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21118" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7961" RevisionGUID="f4b1fe65-751e-48e6-8851-d85fb98e1a89" CreationDate="2018-11-08T02:40:49.080" UserId="20896" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|design|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21119" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7962" RevisionGUID="d40bb021-b443-4fb8-a66c-2e5a64af3bbb" CreationDate="2018-11-08T04:02:02.477" UserId="20966" Text="Prospects in that space are likely to be technically capable, though could just as likely be entrepreneurial hopefuls. Either way, they'll likely consider outright pitches spam. Because of this, I'd try especially hard to differentiate any offers from the typical format used by outsourcing spammers. Don't over-explain an offer. **Keep it really brief.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you need a portfolio, you could contact blockchain entrepreneurs with poor sites or logos and ask if they need help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Otherwise and as well as, you'll want to build a personal brand in the space. Get on mailing lists or engage on social media. If you have an easy to remember business or personal name, avatar, etc then after a while people will become familiar with you. In any footer/profile/etc be sure to clearly outline what you do and what you want them to do. *&quot;I specialise in site design for blockchain entrepreneurs. Need free feedback on your project?&quot;* or similar. That at least gets you into a personal conversation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you have projects under your belt, others in the space will notice footer credits or, if your work is especially good, hear about what you can do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21120" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7963" RevisionGUID="0ed65f78-30af-4665-a9ec-54ad554ac372" CreationDate="2018-11-08T04:25:02.613" UserId="20966" Text="Too many unknowns to definitively answer the title.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, with regard to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;what should seller do?what should be his action?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can partially protect yourself from these situations **by taking part-payment up front**. e.g., you might request:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - 30% to begin &#xD;&#xA; - 30% at an agreed mid-point &#xD;&#xA; - 40% when the project is completed/launched&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That way, if things turn bad, you ideally have at least something to show for it. So, the seller's future action should be to **adjust payment terms before commencing the next project** with any client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21121" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7964" RevisionGUID="ab87a4bb-327e-4203-91f5-f37e029a0ac5" CreationDate="2018-11-08T06:22:39.710" UserId="20966" Text="These types of people are not uncommon and if you work as a web or app developer you will come across them regularly in your career. For many, **their idea is a precious dream** that, as long as it hasn't tried and failed, **presents optimism for their future**. In this way, it retains value forever in this form.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;*&quot;I hate my job, but [dreamy look] imagine if that idea pays off and I get rich!&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless your confidence in the idea matches theirs, you should not consider equity as a majority portion of payment at all. This individual sounds like trouble, so I'd **walk away and not waste any more time**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you wanted to test them out, give them a few preliminary jobs to test their interest. Will they create a solid sitemap (not just a scrawl), write content for 10+ pages and so on? They'll put it off or put in a poor effort, at which point you can assess their resolve.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately though, in this case, **if they believe this is a winning idea, but won't put some money on the line, that's all you need to know in.** They're not a starving student. They have the means and they're willing to sacrifice your time but not anything of their own. And no, **sharing their precious idea is no sacrifice**." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21124" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7967" RevisionGUID="85f9c2e5-2fcf-4a25-a975-d0a277218158" CreationDate="2018-11-08T13:42:21.623" UserId="20970" Text="Most of the local clients has small timeline for a project and there requirement may be complete and straight forward. Every project need some setup time and in freelancing you always are short of time. How to maintain balance between code quality so that any extensions from the client can be integrated and the actual timeline of the ongoing project? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should we prioritize between the two? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21125" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7967" RevisionGUID="85f9c2e5-2fcf-4a25-a975-d0a277218158" CreationDate="2018-11-08T13:42:21.623" UserId="20970" Text="Trade off between project code and timeline.. room for future extensions" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21126" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7967" RevisionGUID="85f9c2e5-2fcf-4a25-a975-d0a277218158" CreationDate="2018-11-08T13:42:21.623" UserId="20970" Text="|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21127" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7968" RevisionGUID="118ca3a4-630c-40c9-b162-18e13d844ec3" CreationDate="2018-11-08T14:24:13.810" UserId="708" Text="I don't really understand. If you don't have time to do quality work, then you don't have time to do the work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any &quot;balance&quot; comes from **not** taking on more projects than you can handle in a quality manner. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are overwhelmed with projects, it's time to raise your pricing to deter some smaller projects (or thrifty clients) while earning the same amount, or more." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21131" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7970" RevisionGUID="c9ca2dc9-ac3f-4b98-9792-752efc115d13" CreationDate="2018-11-11T16:30:45.570" UserId="20981" Text="As a startup that isn't a company yet and still starting out. Do I need contracts to sign up freelancers? This is for digital projects and haven't seen need to start a company yet without revenues. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21132" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7970" RevisionGUID="c9ca2dc9-ac3f-4b98-9792-752efc115d13" CreationDate="2018-11-11T16:30:45.570" UserId="20981" Text="When hiring freelancers, do I give them contracts?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21133" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7970" RevisionGUID="c9ca2dc9-ac3f-4b98-9792-752efc115d13" CreationDate="2018-11-11T16:30:45.570" UserId="20981" Text="|contracts|startups|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21134" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7971" RevisionGUID="84cbf7ec-6899-4878-8f60-9fbf5b5e341e" CreationDate="2018-11-11T21:42:00.800" UserId="20985" Text="I heard from someone that you can claim a part of your rent costs as an expense if you're working from home.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work 100% from home and live in a flatshare with other people. I pay rent for my room £800/month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what I see here: https://www.gov.uk/simpler-income-tax-simplified-expenses/working-from-home it seems to me that those are the costs for utilities only. My utilities are included in the rent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much % can I claim from my rent costs?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21135" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7971" RevisionGUID="84cbf7ec-6899-4878-8f60-9fbf5b5e341e" CreationDate="2018-11-11T21:42:00.800" UserId="20985" Text="Put rent costs as expense when working from home in UK" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21136" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7971" RevisionGUID="84cbf7ec-6899-4878-8f60-9fbf5b5e341e" CreationDate="2018-11-11T21:42:00.800" UserId="20985" Text="|taxes|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21138" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7972" RevisionGUID="aed28ae2-e8af-4a8d-8a7b-330e60358cb7" CreationDate="2018-11-12T03:55:43.327" UserId="708" Text="You certainly *can*.... and the Freelancer may have a contract already. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Contracts are designed to clearly identify what is to be done by each party so there are no misunderstandings. It is *never* a bad idea to write responsibilities down so everyone has the same expectations." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21140" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7931" RevisionGUID="47c57704-6d38-4d21-bc2c-0c6429cd57c1" CreationDate="2018-11-12T18:00:43.160" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1062042519301771264" />
  <row Id="21141" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7974" RevisionGUID="2eb9859f-7282-4fa3-a72e-202938ff3495" CreationDate="2018-11-13T03:49:59.197" UserId="20893" Text="I think a contract is very necessary for any company or freelancer because it guarantees the benefits of both parties. Besides, it also shows the clarity of money when working, minimizing the dispute." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21143" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7976" RevisionGUID="d44a835f-ab2c-4ac5-b707-827a079ebef3" CreationDate="2018-11-14T11:42:17.930" UserId="20942" Text="I work for a writing agency. A few days ago, a client asked us to do some work for his website. The client said it was 'proofreading'. I did the work, the agency approved it. It was sent to the client for final approval.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client wrote back to say that what he *actually* wanted was his text rewritten so the site sold better. I wrote back to the agency to say this pretty much constituted a new job. The agency agreed so I got on with the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I resubmitted and the agency approved it - again! It was sent to the client for final approval. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I waited a few days and the client rejected it. He wrote back to say that the work was low quality and he could have done a better job himself. My agency were very nice about it, I got paid regardless, but it left a blemish on my stats, it's the first time a client has rejected a piece of my work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am considering writing to my agency and asking them to overturn the negative feedback because&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1 - the client was vague about what they wanted - and in the first place, they described what they wanted incorrectly;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2 - it was a new client, so we had no previous examples of what the client liked to work from&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3 - it's clear that the client had something very specific in mind, but they were not able to articulate their needs or show us the kind of thing they had in mind.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I kept to the description as much as I could - short, concise, selling the site, a bit humorous. There was nothing I could do save getting inside the client's head. Because of this one negative piece of feedback I am now nearly halfway down my agency's ladder of writers, whereas before I was at the top.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I write to my agency about this or just swallow it? I could do the latter, but I still feel an injustice is being done somewhere. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21144" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7976" RevisionGUID="d44a835f-ab2c-4ac5-b707-827a079ebef3" CreationDate="2018-11-14T11:42:17.930" UserId="20942" Text="Shall I ask my agency to overturn negative client feedback?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21145" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7976" RevisionGUID="d44a835f-ab2c-4ac5-b707-827a079ebef3" CreationDate="2018-11-14T11:42:17.930" UserId="20942" Text="|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21146" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7977" RevisionGUID="c6e1542e-1902-482f-a3f8-c4b278ecef3e" CreationDate="2018-11-14T20:25:18.157" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="When you hire someone for a task, this establishes a contract. Even just orally. All that matters for both parties is that there is evidence of a mutual agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But it is much better for both parties to have a formal contract, which mostly specifies in advance what to do if things go wrong." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21147" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7978" RevisionGUID="585a05d2-f635-4ace-99a8-46f38ac02483" CreationDate="2018-11-15T13:53:38.070" UserId="18230" Text="first: I cant really tell you *what you should do*. I can give you some pointers for the future:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You say: *the client was vague about what they wanted*. In such cases, don´t just do *something*. You are the professional, you should notice if you have all the info you need for your work or not. If something is unclear, request further communication first.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. I don´t know what kind of Agency this is, but normally someone should take the requirements from the client. Part of that is often, helping them to articulate their real needs. You need to look at how this is done at the moment, and if there is room for improvement. Maybe you should be part of that process too? (talking directly to the client)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. If this is an isolated incident, don´t read too much into this. Tastes differ and some clients will always be complaining. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And here is *what I would do* (in software-development), in case I feel this is more than a &quot;one-off, forget about it&quot; incident.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would contact the agency and tell them you feel bad about how the job has gone and if they would like to analyse if there is a learning in it for the future. Put special emphasis on it that you don´t want to blame anyone, just see if you can do anything to improve and prevent such incidents in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are interested in talking to you, have a meeting (personal or skype - not mail etc.) Concentrate on the Problems you faced, and what you could do / what you would need to mitigate such problems in the future, see points 1. and 2. Do not blame anyone, especially not the client! If you can agree on some points for improvement in the future, fine. If you agree that is just a single unhappy incident, also ok.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Afterwards, write the Agency an e-mail with a nice wrap-up where you thank them for the discussion and list the agreed improvements, if any.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21155" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7977" RevisionGUID="51c08438-5e32-4f41-ac71-4309e5a7c6f3" CreationDate="2018-11-16T16:59:43.997" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="added 27 characters in body" Text="When you hire someone for a task, this establishes a contract. Even just orally. All that matters for both parties is that there is evidence of a mutual agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But it is much better for both parties to have a formal contract, which mostly specifies in advance the scope of the work, and what to do if things go wrong." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21158" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7982" RevisionGUID="119fbc7f-a8bf-4db2-a885-5e44e4def6ca" CreationDate="2018-11-16T17:22:48.347" UserId="21016" Text="I've been doing a side gig proofreading a company's technical documentation for the past couple of months. The workflow is the company sends be a batch of technical articles for me to proofread and change, I do it in my own time and send them back the fixed copies of the files. They review my changes and there is often a bit of back and forth discussion about the changes. The company pays me X cents per word in the original article **after I finish proofreading it**. The issue I'm wondering about is that during the back and forth discussion, the company will sometimes add a couple of sentences to the article and ask me to verify whether the new sentences make sense. Since these sentences were not part of the original article I technically don't get paid for that work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have two questions about this situation:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. How can I ask the company to pay me for those sentences without coming off as a penny pincher? Should I be getting paid per word of the completed article instead? What's a clean way of bringing up such a topic without annoying the employer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. A couple of days ago I read on this site that as a freelancer I should be asking to be paid in advance of doing any work. Given that they _have_ been paying me for my work, is this something that I should bring up?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've looked around the website but haven't been able to find something that matches my situation closely enough, so I decided to ask my own question." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21159" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7982" RevisionGUID="119fbc7f-a8bf-4db2-a885-5e44e4def6ca" CreationDate="2018-11-16T17:22:48.347" UserId="21016" Text="How to properly charge per unit of proof-reading?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21160" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7982" RevisionGUID="119fbc7f-a8bf-4db2-a885-5e44e4def6ca" CreationDate="2018-11-16T17:22:48.347" UserId="21016" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21161" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7983" RevisionGUID="acddc5ec-1e59-48ca-b047-f7389021dc44" CreationDate="2018-11-16T18:39:22.743" UserId="75" Text="The agreement is already in place - you get paid for the words in the **original** article. To change the agreement, you and the employer need to agree to the change.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to set your foot down with these extra sentences, I would look to see if your contract dictates what happens to new lines added to the articles. If there is nothing about it, then I would let them know in your next back-and-forth that you can't proof read the new sentences, as they are not part of the original contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Will this piss them off? Likely. Are they taking advantage? Possibly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You'll need to be firm, but polite. If they push back that the extra sentences are to be included, ask for them to be included in the payment, since you are putting in just as much work for this new content as the original." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21170" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7987" RevisionGUID="335747f6-90b8-4790-bb0f-b902c1518592" CreationDate="2018-11-18T12:40:23.013" UserId="85" Text="There are all sorts of considerations that you need to factor in...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd suggest that, as you are renting a room, you'd have difficulty in meeting the [&quot;wholly and exclusively&quot;][1] test for part of it...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, you'd need to check that your rental agreement doesn't proscribe running a business... many do!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd suggest you can legitimately claim the flat rate allowance...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income-manual/bim37007" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21173" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7988" RevisionGUID="0b4a9f05-8d15-41cd-97e1-a9d1126f1205" CreationDate="2018-11-19T17:48:09.440" UserId="21037" Text="I am a new freelancer looking for my first client. One employer contacted me through email (after I bid and passed their test)saying I have to pay in their skrill account (as you can see I have copied the exact text). I am bit confused now what to do. Is it a normal thing?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Dear,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Happy to say that you have successfully passed the sample work. Now you can work with us. Before start you have to pay a refundable registration fee of 14.9$ to our skrill account which is X.com . We are taking it for to keep a good relationship with you because we are giving you jobs by taking from our customers. If you didn’t complete the work what we can say for them. That’s why we are taking a refundable registration fee. We will refund it to you after you done your first job." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21174" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7988" RevisionGUID="0b4a9f05-8d15-41cd-97e1-a9d1126f1205" CreationDate="2018-11-19T17:48:09.440" UserId="21037" Text="Refudnable payment for new freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21175" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7988" RevisionGUID="0b4a9f05-8d15-41cd-97e1-a9d1126f1205" CreationDate="2018-11-19T17:48:09.440" UserId="21037" Text="|freelance-websites|payment-terms|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21176" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7989" RevisionGUID="78f10ce2-3526-4d43-a492-f4aeacf7e52b" CreationDate="2018-11-19T19:47:44.193" UserId="75" Text="If it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, it's probably a duck... In this case, a scam.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First clue should be them asking YOU to pay THEM for YOU to work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second clue is the horrendous grammar they are using.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third, how'd you find these clients? Have you spoken to them in person, or just over email?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This screams SCAM in the loudest possible way. I'd avoid this like the plague." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21177" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="7988" RevisionGUID="f1db205a-2c76-4033-8f2c-f8196891807e" CreationDate="2018-11-19T21:34:25.103" UserId="75" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[7857],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="21178" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7954" RevisionGUID="9b5edcb4-d56b-4a54-9bf3-45de152eeb75" CreationDate="2018-11-20T15:00:05.387" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1064896165378957313" />
  <row Id="21186" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7994" RevisionGUID="086b0b9a-571b-4b40-ba05-f053b3e2edda" CreationDate="2018-11-21T20:28:03.040" UserId="2626" Text="At my workplace I worked on US-based client projects which were outsourced to my employer and I'm not working under that employer anymore. These are desktop applications and I have several development-time screenshots of them. Is it OK to use such screenshots for my Upwork portfolio?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21187" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7994" RevisionGUID="086b0b9a-571b-4b40-ba05-f053b3e2edda" CreationDate="2018-11-21T20:28:03.040" UserId="2626" Text="Upwork portfolio - is it OK to use screenshots of a software that I worked on at my workplace?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21188" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7994" RevisionGUID="086b0b9a-571b-4b40-ba05-f053b3e2edda" CreationDate="2018-11-21T20:28:03.040" UserId="2626" Text="|legal|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21189" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7994" RevisionGUID="9bb2c58b-010d-4665-9f35-9b7928abf994" CreationDate="2018-11-21T20:44:58.763" UserId="2626" Comment="deleted 11 characters in body" Text="At my workplace I worked on US-based client projects outsourced to my employer and I'm not working under that employer anymore. These are desktop applications and I have several development-time screenshots of them. Is it OK to use such screenshots for my Upwork portfolio?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21190" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7995" RevisionGUID="dc0ac301-7636-4df6-a6bf-7c0d98bdf70e" CreationDate="2018-11-21T20:47:07.607" UserId="21022" Text="The obvious answer is no since if you had asked those people who gave you the work you would not be asking here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will loose reputation is anyone cries foul. &#xD;&#xA;Your US client may be offended whilst looking for workers and sees his products, do you think he will give you the bid in that case.&#xD;&#xA;Your former employer (if you left on good terms ) is also unlikely to be pleased or give you work&#xD;&#xA;Prospective clients will wonder if their work will be bandied about in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is best to always be honest and ask for permission / show attribution even if not required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you still intend to show it consider if there is any way to mask the content.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;see this experience https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/7946/client-wants-me-to-take-a-portfolio-project-off-my-website" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21191" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7995" RevisionGUID="ee45c029-e77a-4ca7-8d95-c52891992181" CreationDate="2018-11-21T21:00:15.137" UserId="21022" Comment="added 227 characters in body" Text="The obvious answer is no since if you had asked those people who gave you the work you would not be asking here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will loose reputation if anyone cries foul.  &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Your US client may be offended whilst looking for workers and sees his products, do you think he will give you the bid in that case.&#xD;&#xA;Your former employer (if you left on good terms ) is also unlikely to be pleased or give you work&#xD;&#xA;Prospective clients will wonder if their work will be bandied about in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is best to always be honest and ask for permission / show attribution even if not required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you still intend to show it consider if there is any way to mask the content.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For screenshots drop the resolution to the point it can not be deciphered  or photoshop any client specific content (but if you think that makes them useless as an example then simply recreate a dummy/fictitious example&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;see this experience https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/7946/client-wants-me-to-take-a-portfolio-project-off-my-website" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21195" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="7961" RevisionGUID="4304d0c1-7891-46a1-9935-1a308fc0dee5" CreationDate="2018-11-22T00:26:44.927" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="21197" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="a225223a-c66d-4aec-818e-a0cefb4a10a6" CreationDate="2018-11-22T02:01:45.300" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21201" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7997" RevisionGUID="63182bf3-4938-4552-be9d-37d8d524f4d5" CreationDate="2018-11-22T11:35:19.703" UserId="12307" Text="I am based in the UK and have been asked to develop a website for a business client based outside the UK (IRL). The website will contain an e-commerce element allowing  **them** to sell services, not me, my work is done once I handover the completed website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm registered as self-employed with HMRC, but not VAT registered as I fall within the current threshold.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been reading about [VAT MOSS][1] online, and i'm slightly confused. According to the docs [here][2], under 'Defining digital services' I can see that 'website supply or web hosting services' is listed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does this mean I have to register for VAT MOSS, and VAT?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems like a lot of effort, especially as my turnover is so small. This may be my only job this year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice is appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/register-and-use-the-vat-mini-one-stop-shop&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-vat-rules-if-you-supply-digital-services-to-private-consumers#define-digital" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21202" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="7997" RevisionGUID="63182bf3-4938-4552-be9d-37d8d524f4d5" CreationDate="2018-11-22T11:35:19.703" UserId="12307" Text="UK Freelancing to EU Client (VAT MOSS)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21203" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="7997" RevisionGUID="63182bf3-4938-4552-be9d-37d8d524f4d5" CreationDate="2018-11-22T11:35:19.703" UserId="12307" Text="|taxes|invoices|uk|vat|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21207" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="7998" RevisionGUID="7a03e159-e962-4ba3-aa9c-2ed32517e2e1" CreationDate="2018-11-23T00:59:07.740" UserId="21022" Text="As you are supplying services from UK to an EU country you may need to check with that country and **register there for VAT even if it is for a pittance** . In this case UK threshold should not be your yardstick (except when the payments impact your turnover)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to ensure that this **IS a one off** cross border service (no supply by you of physical materials or chargeable content such as images).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to ensure you are not hosting or running an ongoing service.&#xD;&#xA;Thus consider single fix fee rather than retainer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should thus keep your exposure online to the minimum necessary for your client to upload any changes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You really should have a good accountant to check with first.&#xD;&#xA;If not** the safest way to proceed otherwise is call HMRC VAT Help&#xD;&#xA;Opening times: Monday to Friday: 8am to 6pm on 0300 200 3700&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Explain clearly what service you are providing and ask them if they consider you need to contact the other country, If so do they have contact details for your type of service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21208" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7998" RevisionGUID="9bca09f6-35cb-4683-aee9-a18787ffc143" CreationDate="2018-11-23T01:12:54.470" UserId="21022" Comment="added caution" Text="As you are supplying services from UK to an EU country you may need to check with that country and **register there for VAT even if it is for a pittance** . In this case UK threshold should not be your yardstick (except when the payments impact your turnover)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to ensure that this **IS a one off** cross border service (no supply by you of physical materials or chargeable content such as images).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be cautious of calling yourself *remote labour* ensure it is something like remote programming service&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to ensure you are not hosting or running an ongoing service.&#xD;&#xA;Thus consider single fix fee rather than retainer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should thus keep your exposure online to the minimum necessary for your client to upload any changes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You really should have a good accountant to check with first.&#xD;&#xA;If not** the safest way to proceed otherwise is call HMRC VAT Help&#xD;&#xA;Opening times: Monday to Friday: 8am to 6pm on 0300 200 3700&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Explain clearly what service you are providing and ask them if they consider you need to contact the other country, If so do they have contact details for your type of service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21210" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="2852" RevisionGUID="0a1e7c58-ec04-4fad-940a-fb72933973ca" CreationDate="2018-11-24T13:01:00.360" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21211" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7913" RevisionGUID="7bc53315-0ec8-4dbf-9821-add3c6abe5c1" CreationDate="2018-11-24T14:00:50.123" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21214" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="2467" RevisionGUID="fa8a2cff-1d64-4778-95eb-7ad44c6243a4" CreationDate="2018-11-24T21:30:54.363" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="21215" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8000" RevisionGUID="73224822-c2b6-4dec-8189-6dbee49d2d4f" CreationDate="2018-11-25T16:32:49.760" UserId="17562" Text="Hello everyone I am new how to freelancer and I would like to be start my own website where I  offer my own server (make website,videogames,server,docker,copywriting,etc)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; do you think is good idea open a website like freelancer (no a company)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21216" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8000" RevisionGUID="73224822-c2b6-4dec-8189-6dbee49d2d4f" CreationDate="2018-11-25T16:32:49.760" UserId="17562" Text="how to open a web site for offer my service like freelancer in internet?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21217" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8000" RevisionGUID="73224822-c2b6-4dec-8189-6dbee49d2d4f" CreationDate="2018-11-25T16:32:49.760" UserId="17562" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21218" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8001" RevisionGUID="07728964-1810-4d29-97ed-922af551b180" CreationDate="2018-11-25T18:14:51.057" UserId="75" Text="Yes, as long as your webpage making skills are up there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Websites can be static, meaning you won't need to keep maintaining them, but also allow potential clients to see the kind of work you can do for them. It turns into your portfolio, and you simply update it when you have new projects you're allowed to share.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hosting is dirt cheap - I pay under $15 CAD per year for a `.ca` domain, and other country-specific domains are usually low. If you have your own server, you can host it yourself - if not, you can pay $5 USD/mo for a Digital Ocean droplet (or the like).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best part is that you can simply refer potential clients to your website if they want to see what kind of work you can offer them, freeing you up to deal with actual work that comes your way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21220" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8003" RevisionGUID="6a0c1e5f-082a-4508-8611-34b93bb2508e" CreationDate="2018-11-26T23:51:58.683" UserId="20911" Text="If you set some minimal level of the quality (and extensibility in the future) of your work, and clearly announce to the client that you never fall below this level, it will not be your disadvantage as a contractor. It will be, on the contrary, your preeminence.  &#xD;&#xA;Even if the client does not speak about it out loud, he will still respect the freelancer who respects himself and his work. And it's true in any part of the world.  &#xD;&#xA;The customer offers. But decisions are made only by you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21223" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8004" RevisionGUID="ff42128c-034a-49ee-b6e5-1ded31e5b236" CreationDate="2018-11-27T14:04:39.523" UserId="21078" Text="I moved to Florida, USA a year ago and bought a new house. I have a couple of palm trees, as do all of the houses in the neighborhood, which are mostly filled with people who also moved to Florida recently.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The palm trees are dying, because the soil is &quot;fill&quot; and has next to no nutrients. A neighbor clued me in that I needed to get some palm tree-specific fertilizer, which I did, and they're doing much better now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;95% of the neighborhood has, apparently, not been clued in, or haven't done anything about it anyways. I tried to get my teenage son to do a business of fertilizing the trees for pay. I figured it was easy money and would be a good experience for him. He's not interested.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I decided to do it myself, partly for the money, but at least as much just to keep the trees from dying. I was thinking I would do some flyers in the neighborhood with my cell phone/email, and do as many trees as people will pay me to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have no interest in making this anything but a neighborhood gig that, ideally, I would do every half year or so. I also intend to pay taxes on the profits (not large- I figure we're probably talking around $1k).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I need to set up an LLC or something? I would rather not, but I also don't want to have legal problems from something that is, at heart, more of a service project than anything." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21224" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8004" RevisionGUID="ff42128c-034a-49ee-b6e5-1ded31e5b236" CreationDate="2018-11-27T14:04:39.523" UserId="21078" Text="Landscaping gig" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21225" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8004" RevisionGUID="ff42128c-034a-49ee-b6e5-1ded31e5b236" CreationDate="2018-11-27T14:04:39.523" UserId="21078" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21226" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="8004" RevisionGUID="09fd6b36-0535-4442-a471-8e817159cbc5" CreationDate="2018-11-27T17:05:43.967" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|legal|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21227" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8005" RevisionGUID="322082d8-0582-48ca-92cc-7300bdd084b6" CreationDate="2018-11-28T04:18:24.173" UserId="708" Text="More opinion than anything....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any time you perform services professionally for another and get paid, regardless of how often or large the service may be, it's wise to protect personal assets from legal troubles the business may present.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An LLC means if you were to damage someones property, they could not sue you into *personal* bankruptcy, take your home, etc. If managed correctly, the only liability would be to the *business and its assets* and your personal assets would not be at risk. In addition, you may be able to use a Schedule C when tax filing to get business deductions regarding the equipment you use for business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether or not an LLC is right for *you* can really only be determined by discussing it with an attorney, which you may also need to file the LLC inception forms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically.... this isn't a question for freelancers, it's a question for an **attorney**. If you are concerns, it's well worth it o pay for an hour of consultation services with an attorney. A couple hundred dollars now may save you many headaches in the future." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21228" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8005" RevisionGUID="edb5344f-5014-4a01-8ac1-d08b516d0068" CreationDate="2018-11-28T04:42:50.377" UserId="708" Comment="added 9 characters in body" Text="More opinion than anything....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any time you perform services professionally for another and get paid, regardless of how often or large the service may be, it's wise to protect personal assets from legal troubles the business may present.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An LLC means if you were to damage someones property, they could not sue you into *personal* bankruptcy, take your home, etc. If managed correctly, the only liability would be to the *business and its assets* and your personal assets would not be at risk. In addition, you may be able to use a Schedule C when tax filing to get business deductions regarding the equipment you use for business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether or not an LLC is right for *you* can really only be determined by discussing it with an attorney, which you may also need to file the LLC inception forms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically.... this isn't a question for freelancers, it's a question for an **attorney**. If you are concerned, it's well worth it to pay for an hour of consultation services with an attorney. A hundred dollars (or whatever) now may save you many headaches in the future." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21230" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8006" RevisionGUID="152fbffc-3547-49ae-a104-99c54ecd24ea" CreationDate="2018-11-29T17:29:15.403" UserId="17858" Text="I have a client that I have worked with for 5 years. We have a great working relationship. However, since I've graduated university and found other clients, I've noticed that I'm severely underpaid by the old one (I'm paid about 66% of what I *should* be). In turn that makes it difficult to rationalize doing development for them, even though I enjoy the work. It's just not logical from a money standpoint.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The issue is that this client is very reluctant to pay more than they currently are, even though I should be paid much higher given market rates and the fact that it's freelance (so no benefits, no 401k, etc.).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How can I either**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. ask the client to give me a raise to match (or come close to matching) the market rate (thus what my other clients are paying me)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    **or**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. let the client know that I have to severely cut my hours due to this pay disparity&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I really do like this client and have a great relationship with them, but I have no idea how to discuss this issue without sounding like I'm trying to extort them. They probably wouldn't *take it* that way, but it isn't uncommon to hear talk of &quot;the budget is tight right now&quot;, &quot;we need to see profits in XYZ before investing more development into it&quot;, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS - if it matters, my last raise was over a year ago, and it was a conversation that I had telling the client that I needed to be paid closer to the market rate, but I hadn't yet determined that I was still underselling myself (apparently by about 33%)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21231" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8006" RevisionGUID="152fbffc-3547-49ae-a104-99c54ecd24ea" CreationDate="2018-11-29T17:29:15.403" UserId="17858" Text="How do I tell a client that I'm working fewer hours because they pay me much worse than my other clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21232" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8006" RevisionGUID="152fbffc-3547-49ae-a104-99c54ecd24ea" CreationDate="2018-11-29T17:29:15.403" UserId="17858" Text="|pay-rate|payments|negotiation|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21236" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8008" RevisionGUID="3cd4769b-5087-4a67-807b-87b7e7755013" CreationDate="2018-11-29T20:51:45.920" UserId="708" Text="Simple, either raise their pricing or drop the client. It's **business**. There's little point in working even a few hours for less money than you could earn with another client. Businesses typically do not provide individual pricing merely because you've been doing business with them for a while.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hi [client],&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; As of [Month day year] pricing for my services will be increasing to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; $x per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I've absolutely enjoyed working with you n your projects, but&#xD;&#xA;&gt; unfortunately cost of living and market demands necessitate a price&#xD;&#xA;&gt; increase. I hope this increase is acceptable and we can continue&#xD;&#xA;&gt; working together.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; As always, I'm available for further discussion if necessary.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Thank you" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21237" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8009" RevisionGUID="1f279b67-b942-4627-bb76-cb2a87d464cc" CreationDate="2018-11-30T05:49:50.187" UserId="20911" Text="In 5 years of working with this client, your skill level has probably increased: you definitely do the same job faster than 5 years (and even a year) ago and most likely you do your job better. This (and not graduation itself) should be the main argument in the negotiations. Your client can now get from you per each hour more than before, and therefore it is logical if this hour will cost more.  &#xD;&#xA;Good luck in your negotiations!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21238" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8010" RevisionGUID="c7725ece-4a78-46b1-8d9f-6464023b395f" CreationDate="2018-11-30T06:46:36.500" UserId="21092" Text="I want to hire a few contractors to help me get leads for my business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am planning on paying the contractors **commission only**. i.e. I get $X in sales from there referral and they get a fixed % of $X.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course I want to get as many new and repeat clients as possible. My issue is: how do I make the agreement fair for my contractors and give them a strong incentive, but at the same time not have to keep paying for repeat business from a client that was previously referred?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are three basic situations:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Individual one time or first time sale - Obviously I will pay for this.&#xD;&#xA;* Repeat business from the same client - This is what I want to avoid having to pay for in perpetuity.&#xD;&#xA;* Bulk Sale - I will pay for this even if it involves previous clients assuming the contractor initiates / prompts the sale and the quantity is above a specified amount.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21239" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8010" RevisionGUID="c7725ece-4a78-46b1-8d9f-6464023b395f" CreationDate="2018-11-30T06:46:36.500" UserId="21092" Text="Hiring Contractors for Lead Generation" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21240" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8010" RevisionGUID="c7725ece-4a78-46b1-8d9f-6464023b395f" CreationDate="2018-11-30T06:46:36.500" UserId="21092" Text="|contracts|marketing|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21242" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7939" RevisionGUID="114127fd-ab3a-4b20-beb1-1f1b1d4e7d10" CreationDate="2018-12-02T13:32:37.723" UserId="16887" Comment="Improve tags " Text="|legal|germany|eu|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21243" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7939" RevisionGUID="114127fd-ab3a-4b20-beb1-1f1b1d4e7d10" CreationDate="2018-12-02T13:32:37.723" Comment="Proposed by 16887 approved by 20894 edit id of 632" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21244" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7955" RevisionGUID="256eabcd-597d-41b6-9f13-3117c1ec3504" CreationDate="2018-12-03T17:02:15.347" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21245" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8008" RevisionGUID="fee99d16-347f-4315-ad62-a221fc67469c" CreationDate="2018-12-03T21:41:42.210" UserId="708" Comment="added 1270 characters in body" Text="Simple, either raise their pricing or drop the client. It's **business**. There's little point in working even a few hours for less money than you could earn with another client. Businesses typically do not provide individual pricing merely because you've been doing business with them for a while.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hi [client],&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; As of [Month day year] pricing for my services will be increasing to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; $x per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I've absolutely enjoyed working with you n your projects, but&#xD;&#xA;&gt; unfortunately cost of living and market demands necessitate a price&#xD;&#xA;&gt; increase. I hope this increase is acceptable and we can continue&#xD;&#xA;&gt; working together.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; As always, I'm available for further discussion if necessary.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Thank you&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the biggest mistake freelancers make - and I am no exception here at times - is to not be *confident* when discussing pricing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The less confident one appears when discussing pricing, the more the client gets a sense they can have it altered. If you subconsciously convey that you &quot;aren't sure&quot; if you can get the pricing, the client picks up on that to some degree and it opens a whole flood gate of discussion which is not warranted. **State your price. Clients pay it or they don't.** It's that simple. If they don't want to pay it, they can find someone else. I, personally, have tried to get in the habit of repeating *&quot;Pricing is non-negotiable&quot;*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do have some prospective clients that refuse the rates and move on... but, since my pricing is set, the clients I do retain make up for any lost prospect which wants me to lower pricing for them. I'd rather work for clients that see my pricing as acceptable. I detest &quot;haggling&quot; when clients have *no reasonable understanding* of my overhead or market standing. It all comes across as a &quot;yard sale&quot; for my time which seems entirely undesirable. This is my price. That's it. If it's too expensive, I understand and that means you'll need to shop elsewhere, not that I'll reduce pricing for you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21246" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7828" RevisionGUID="3c0a576f-4dc7-4401-aead-8f77047c1d06" CreationDate="2018-12-04T22:02:05.407" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21248" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8012" RevisionGUID="1b25ec20-49a1-4d72-aae0-0fa5c90dfe37" CreationDate="2018-12-05T14:34:39.077" UserId="20940" Text="Most freelance sites have an arbitration clause for this type of thing. Screenshot the logo being used and contact the proper support channel on said freelance website. It'll take a while but they usually either succeed in getting you paid or in the client ceasing to use your work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21254" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8014" RevisionGUID="1796eb2b-b3a5-497e-92ed-6aceb0a7de3b" CreationDate="2018-12-06T18:10:12.757" UserId="21137" Text="I'm primarily a freelance writer and I've just got into amateur photography.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In both fields my interests are extremely broad, so I'd like to jump into all areas and see where it takes me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With writing, I plan on writing regular articles on a new set of micro blogs that I have developped, and with photography, I plan on creating a few &quot;photo of the day&quot; / &quot;365 Day&quot; Projects that will allow me to get out there for a bit of experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In both cases, my portfolio is likely to be extremely varied, ranging from Nature &amp; Local Events to Music &amp; Alternative to Horror &amp; Macabre to more NSFW based content.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As someone who is not big on social media I'm wondering what the best way to publicise the content that I create would be. I don't want to own 101 twitter accounts to cover different aspects of my work, yet at the same time, I understand that my work will appeal to a number of different audiences, some of whom may be offended by certain aspects of my work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21255" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8014" RevisionGUID="1796eb2b-b3a5-497e-92ed-6aceb0a7de3b" CreationDate="2018-12-06T18:10:12.757" UserId="21137" Text="How to Showcase Your Work As A Beginner" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21256" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8014" RevisionGUID="1796eb2b-b3a5-497e-92ed-6aceb0a7de3b" CreationDate="2018-12-06T18:10:12.757" UserId="21137" Text="|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21257" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8015" RevisionGUID="05a264c2-9ac8-45d9-b95c-bea0aed96196" CreationDate="2018-12-06T20:30:29.860" UserId="75" Text="First off, the hardest part of starting out is starting out. Get taking your pictures, and write sample content that you have the ability to post.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Build up a portfolio of all your best works, and build a website out of it. The website will act as your resume. Make the URL short and sweet, but still professional. If it's too long, only die-hard users will bother remembering it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use a CMS program, unless you are an HTML and CSS wizard, and build a website that looks good, and does not cost very much to maintain. You are looking to just get your content out there, then you can focus on advertising it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once it's up and running, as a friend or family member to critique it for you. Are there spelling or grammatical errors? Are the pictures blurry or clear? What is their initial impression?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you have this done, you can start advertising the website, and your Freelancing company, and start looking for customers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21258" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="8006" RevisionGUID="7e068b17-0827-4932-8dd8-1d2826ccd2a6" CreationDate="2018-12-07T03:01:02.930" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1070875807160127488" />
  <row Id="21259" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8016" RevisionGUID="527d4eda-bbce-4fcb-ad23-e7685066d931" CreationDate="2018-12-07T10:33:18.207" UserId="20911" Text="It seems to me that having a wide range of proposed areas is not a problem, but an advantage.  &#xD;&#xA;As a rule, if a person turns to the photographer, it means that he can't take professional-grade photos on his own, and it means that the photographer may be needed for him more than once and for more than one genre (now or in the future). If you declare only one direction of your activity, there is a probability that for performing some multicomponent task he will address not only to you, but also to other photographer(s), without knowing that you can do all parts of this task yourself!  &#xD;&#xA;The same goes for writing.  &#xD;&#xA;Do not be afraid to seem versatile developed specialist. I repeat: this is your advantage!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21260" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8017" RevisionGUID="9972a71d-4ca5-4b3a-96bc-9003706480da" CreationDate="2018-12-07T10:55:59.407" UserId="21137" Text="As an individual, as I'm sure most of us are, I have an extremely broad range of interests. Anything from Nature and wildlife, to rock and heavy metal lifestyle interests ( bands, tattoos, beer, alternative models, etc ), to horror ( from mainstream to the macabre ), to various forms of NSFW ( erotic art, fetish, BDSM ).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So as a blogger and amateur photographer who wants to take it more seriously into the new year, I devised a website which will allow me to showcase my written articles, photography, artwork, music, etc, etc, in any number of fields of interest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the website/portfolio side of things isn't an issue based on the way I've built it. What is an issue is actually connecting with people who I'm going to write about, photograph, or become involved with on an ongoing professional basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not big on social networks, but in the past I've split myself into so many different personalities to account for my range of interests that I'm past wanting to do that again. It's time consuming, tiring and makes you question just who you're actually trying to target.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for me, a single use Twitter account, Pinterest account, DeviatArt account seems like the way to go. However, is it right to showcase/talk about all of your interests in one place, considering your followers will range from local mothers and event organisers to fetish models and film producers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do any of you have this issue and how do you run your social media effectively?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21261" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8017" RevisionGUID="9972a71d-4ca5-4b3a-96bc-9003706480da" CreationDate="2018-12-07T10:55:59.407" UserId="21137" Text="Social Networking As A Multi-Niche Freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21262" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8017" RevisionGUID="9972a71d-4ca5-4b3a-96bc-9003706480da" CreationDate="2018-12-07T10:55:59.407" UserId="21137" Text="|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21263" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8018" RevisionGUID="96488f52-d4a1-4ec8-9f18-abebfc6ba760" CreationDate="2018-12-07T11:46:25.080" UserId="20911" Text="I think this is the right division: Twitter / Facebook with a real name for local mothers and DeviantArt with an artistic pseudonym for fetish models." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21264" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8017" RevisionGUID="e8b141c6-08ea-4921-b26f-0959b3872446" CreationDate="2018-12-07T12:25:16.460" UserId="21137" Comment="added 250 characters in body" Text="As an individual, as I'm sure most of us are, I have an extremely broad range of interests. Anything from Nature and wildlife, to rock and heavy metal lifestyle interests ( bands, tattoos, beer, alternative models, etc ), to horror ( from mainstream to the macabre ), to various forms of NSFW ( erotic art, fetish, BDSM ).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So as a blogger and amateur photographer who wants to take it more seriously into the new year, I devised a website which will allow me to showcase my written articles, photography, artwork, music, etc, etc, in any number of fields of interest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the website/portfolio side of things isn't an issue based on the way I've built it. What is an issue is actually connecting with people who I'm going to write about, photograph, or become involved with on an ongoing professional basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not big on social networks, but in the past I've split myself into so many different personalities to account for my range of interests that I'm past wanting to do that again. It's time consuming, tiring and makes you question just who you're actually trying to target.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for me, a single use Twitter account, Pinterest account, DeviatArt account seems like the way to go. However, is it right to showcase/talk about all of your interests in one place, considering your followers will range from local mothers and event organisers to fetish models and film producers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**For Clarification:** This is less about the actual content that you publish on social media, but the ability for ALL followers to gain an insight into ALL of your interests and activities, whether considered to be normal/everyday or kinky/NSFW.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do any of you have this issue and how do you run your social media effectively?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21266" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8019" RevisionGUID="3facd6c6-b24d-4fe0-bbed-9fdf6330ee85" CreationDate="2018-12-07T13:21:42.293" UserId="20940" Text="You might try using a template form for your commission's contracts. Typically with a little due diligence, you can find what you need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I use [RocketLawyer.com][1] for most of my legal documents and haven't had a single issue finding what I've needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.rocketlawyer.com/document/commission-agreement.rl" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21269" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8020" RevisionGUID="05a962e3-9211-456e-8fb7-27abcee589fa" CreationDate="2018-12-07T19:26:57.830" UserId="21141" Text="I've a friend who runs a small startup, and has run into an issue with a freelancer he was trying to hire to refactor &amp; improve their mobile codebase. He had a limited budget and so was trying to figure out how much could be done within that budget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He had a few phone discussions with the developer and gave them access to their repository so they could look over the code. He was upfront about what his budget was (which to be honest is fairly low, but he offered to bolster it with equity only if the freelancer was open to it). He didn't make any sort agreement about payment at that point and was going to talk about that after the freelancer provided the estimate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few days later the freelancer sent a quote with a couple of different options, one being 3 times the original budget and the other being more than 6 times. They stated they didn't want to refactor the code and that they advised a re-write instead, and based the quotes on that. They didn't provide any sort of detailed analysis or code review, other than stating that they didn't like it. My friend responded stating that their quotes were much too high and therefore wouldn't engage their services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The freelancer responded by sending a bill for 16 hours of time to write up the estimate and investigate, at a rate they had discussed for development work but hadn't agreed to. They don't have any formal or informal agreement about payment for the estimate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My friend isn't really sure what to do about this as the bill for the estimate would eat up a significant part of the development budget, and he feels that if the freelancer had wanted to bill them for time to provide an estimate they should have discussed that before the freelancer started on it (as he would have refused at that point).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He doesn't want to pay this but also doesn't want to be dragged into small claims court or have the freelancer give him a bad name in the relatively small local development community. In this situation should he have to pay the freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21270" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8020" RevisionGUID="05a962e3-9211-456e-8fb7-27abcee589fa" CreationDate="2018-12-07T19:26:57.830" UserId="21141" Text="Freelancer sent an undiscussed bill for quote" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21271" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8020" RevisionGUID="05a962e3-9211-456e-8fb7-27abcee589fa" CreationDate="2018-12-07T19:26:57.830" UserId="21141" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21273" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8021" RevisionGUID="eb037873-e972-42b8-b989-eb7c468f8f50" CreationDate="2018-12-09T15:37:27.450" UserId="20911" Text="I don't think a freelancer really expects to get that money. Rather, he simply decided to &quot;throw a test ball&quot;: if the failed client will pay - well, if no - no and okay. The fact that the cost of estimate and investigate services has not been agreed in advance, partially confirms it.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This tactic is usually used in cases where they know that if they announce the price of such work in advance that the client will refuse from the beginning. And if they do not talk about it, they have a chance to get some money, if client decide to do so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In such a situation, it makes sense to politely explain to this freelancer that the company is not ready to pay for what was not agreed in advance and try to break up with him in peace way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's a pity that it happened - but what can you do now..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21274" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8022" RevisionGUID="1463d857-97f9-41b9-a2cc-c43ab2b2a87c" CreationDate="2018-12-12T03:14:35.040" UserId="21167" Text="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/us-companies-can-legally-hire-foreigners-living-other-rich-mba/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Non Residents&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;“As a general rule, wages earned by nonresident aliens for services performed outside of the United States for any employer are foreign source income and therefore are not subject to reporting and withholding of U.S. federal income tax.”" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21275" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7955" RevisionGUID="0f26387c-4d32-4c93-91da-88d8cae581f6" CreationDate="2018-12-12T05:29:26.973" UserId="20733" Comment="grammar and spelling." Text="I'm logo designer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A few days ago a customer contacted me through a freelancing site he order me to make a logo for his product.  I made a logo for him.  He said to make it better.  I did and delivered it but he cancelled order by saying that it is not up to his standard and I didn't get payment.  After a day, I saw my logo on his site. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to deal with such customers who didn't pay and get work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21276" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7955" RevisionGUID="0f26387c-4d32-4c93-91da-88d8cae581f6" CreationDate="2018-12-12T05:29:26.973" Comment="Proposed by 20733 approved by 20754 edit id of 642" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21287" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="7236" RevisionGUID="5c812e3c-cd19-4781-b1ad-7887a1b1e3a5" CreationDate="2018-12-13T19:09:42.573" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="21288" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6012" RevisionGUID="08081893-d568-497f-8a60-04c5d63d430b" CreationDate="2018-12-14T09:56:01.793" UserId="15235" Comment="tags edited" Text="|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21289" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6012" RevisionGUID="08081893-d568-497f-8a60-04c5d63d430b" CreationDate="2018-12-14T09:56:01.793" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 85, 1018 edit id of 606" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21290" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2541" RevisionGUID="60e06c7f-cd6f-4706-b728-b26a789de0ca" CreationDate="2018-12-14T09:58:04.950" UserId="15235" Comment="tags edited" Text="|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21291" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2541" RevisionGUID="60e06c7f-cd6f-4706-b728-b26a789de0ca" CreationDate="2018-12-14T09:58:04.950" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 85, 1018 edit id of 605" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21292" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="489" RevisionGUID="950f2b2b-41f9-4bea-9247-ded235facdd8" CreationDate="2018-12-14T18:00:49.460" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1073638958091907077" />
  <row Id="21293" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8027" RevisionGUID="6e9220e4-0a94-4d8c-af6f-4089e82f1089" CreationDate="2018-12-15T00:04:07.170" UserId="12865" Text="So I'm starting a basic business of consulting for web, mobile, desktop, games development. I have seen some business website around my neighborhood that really need rework or upgrade, so i was thinking 9f contacting them directly thru email and tell them that i provide some services the could help them pay less and a better presentation for their customers. &#xA;&#xA;Is this to pushy or a wrong way to do it? And if not can you provide me an example?&#xA;&#xA;Thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21294" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8027" RevisionGUID="6e9220e4-0a94-4d8c-af6f-4089e82f1089" CreationDate="2018-12-15T00:04:07.170" UserId="12865" Text="Advertise thru email" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21295" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8027" RevisionGUID="6e9220e4-0a94-4d8c-af6f-4089e82f1089" CreationDate="2018-12-15T00:04:07.170" UserId="12865" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|communication|negotiation|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21296" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8028" RevisionGUID="9f7d016e-153c-4538-a944-93e1f41f8f39" CreationDate="2018-12-15T03:53:11.790" UserId="708" Text="Have you **ever**, for *any reason*, answered a marketing/sales email from a sender you did not personally recognize? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I get about 6-10 of the, *&quot;Hi, I'm a web developer that can improve your site&quot;* emails every single day. Some better crafted than others... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you think such a campaign will be fruitful, I'd reconsider. If there were to be *any* chance of hitting someone actually willing to respond, one would need to send hundreds, if not thousands, of emails in hopes of a 0.01% response rate. The more &quot;internet aware&quot; the targets, the lower the response rate will be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps it is merely my opinion, but I find such campaigns **nothing but a waste of time** - both on the part of the seller and for the prospective client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Spam&quot; or unsolicited sales emails really only *work* when there is *product* to be sold which may gain the target's interest, or the target is *already familiar* with the seller - i.e. Amazon sending spam about latest deals. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21297" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8029" RevisionGUID="3c9c8ad0-d2f4-43a5-9a1c-9caf7576ad5e" CreationDate="2018-12-15T07:25:09.927" UserId="20911" Text="If you really can **create something** and then **sell it**, and you need to convince others that you can do it well, it's much better to **really create something** and show the world what you've got. No need to talk about what you can, you need to show what you **have done**.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The website of some company looks bad to you? You can make it better? Great! Make your own version of the site on a free domain. Show them. Offer to give it to them for free or for a symbolic amount. And if your offer is accepted, this site will be the first element of your portfolio.  &#xD;&#xA;**And this portfolio will be worth a lot more than any stories about how good are you.**  &#xD;&#xA;Believe me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21298" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8029" RevisionGUID="8c604a89-873d-498e-82dc-ffaf974e4c81" CreationDate="2018-12-15T07:33:54.507" UserId="20911" Comment="deleted 3 characters in body" Text="If you really can **create something** and then **sell it**, and you need to convince others that you can do it well, it's much better to **really create something** and show the world what you've got. No need to talk about what you can, you need to show what you **have done**.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The website of some company looks bad to you? You can make it better? Great! Make your own version of the site on a free domain. Show them. Offer to give it to them for free or for a symbolic amount. And if your offer is accepted, this site will be the first element of your portfolio.  &#xD;&#xA;**And this portfolio will worth a lot more than any stories about how good are you.**  &#xD;&#xA;Believe me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21299" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8029" RevisionGUID="57bbc815-2916-41dc-8998-7cacf50125f8" CreationDate="2018-12-15T08:19:22.190" UserId="20911" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="If you really can **create something** and then **sell it**, and you need to convince others that you can do it well, it's much better to **really create something** and show the world what you've got. No need to talk about what you can, you need to show what you **have done**.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The website of some company looks bad to you? You can make it better? Great! Make your own version of the site on a free domain. Show them. Offer to give it to them for free or for a symbolic amount. And if your offer is accepted, this site will be the first element of your portfolio.  &#xD;&#xA;**And this portfolio will worth a lot more than any emails about how good you are.**  &#xD;&#xA;Believe me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21300" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7976" RevisionGUID="4e27a6e0-4f76-4823-8fd8-cfb30ea82ba1" CreationDate="2018-12-15T14:02:45.583" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21301" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8030" RevisionGUID="9d2f7dd9-bb35-416f-b2df-86d7c2ada8c8" CreationDate="2018-12-15T23:42:29.220" UserId="1018" Text="Cold calling is hard work. I have had some success emailing potential clients by:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. making it clear I am a web developer in the same geographic area&#xD;&#xA;2. describing a specific (non-trivial) problem with their website that I can fix&#xD;&#xA;3. showing my experience&#xD;&#xA;4. estimating the cost and time frame for delivery&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, there was an interesting hack on Joomla 1.5 websites a couple of years ago that defaced pages by adding a specific text string to the top of the affected pages. This made it very easy to find affected websites using a search engine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I sent the following email to locally affected clients and my success rate was about 1 new client for every 30 emails I sent:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Subject: Sorry to say, your website has been hacked**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Based on the &quot;;} /*B6D1B1EE*/ ?&gt;&quot; text in the top left hand corner of&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the website, it appears that your website at&#xD;&#xA;&gt; http://www.???????????.com.au has been hacked. See&#xD;&#xA;&gt; https://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?t=933020 for details.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I am a local (Tasmanian) Joomla website security expert e.g. see&#xD;&#xA;&gt; http://joomla.stackexchange.com/a/180/120 and can help with cleaning&#xD;&#xA;&gt; and updating the website to make it safe from hackers.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I estimate that it will take up to 2 hours @ $88/hr (inc. GST) to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; re-secure the website.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Assuming you don't already have this in hand, please let me know if&#xD;&#xA;&gt; you'd like my help by replying to this email.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; My turn around on fixing hacked Joomla websites is usually one or two&#xD;&#xA;&gt; business days.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; All the best and I look forward to hearing back from you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21302" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8031" RevisionGUID="cdca608c-038f-483e-90c6-0eebe7ee4f6b" CreationDate="2018-12-16T22:59:39.797" UserId="21193" Text="I am an aerospace engineer, but I'm quite adept at programming I believe. I am very strong with C, C++ and Python. However, I use it for computational simulations and embedded systems in the aerospace field. It has nothing to do with developing apps or websites, etc. Everywhere I have looked I've found these freelance jobs tend to be for this type of work generally. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would it be better I just tutored in C++ or Python instead of trying to become a freelance programmer? I am just looking for some extra money during my graduate school months when I am off from work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally, would it be that hard to pick up some HTML, Javascript, or database knowledge to be able to create websites or apps once one is already adept at the (harder) low level languages like C/C++? I'd imagine it would be a steep learning curve (using the expression correctly). How many days of full dedication do you think it would take to be able to create a pretty decent app or website? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21303" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8031" RevisionGUID="cdca608c-038f-483e-90c6-0eebe7ee4f6b" CreationDate="2018-12-16T22:59:39.797" UserId="21193" Text="How to become a freelance programmer without knowing much about Web Design?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21304" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8031" RevisionGUID="cdca608c-038f-483e-90c6-0eebe7ee4f6b" CreationDate="2018-12-16T22:59:39.797" UserId="21193" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|software|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21306" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8033" RevisionGUID="194e7f7b-3071-4be1-8b1b-ddc044f9ea3f" CreationDate="2018-12-17T08:20:33.290" UserId="21196" Text="I would like to understand how these companies who claim keeping track of the time a freelancer works on a project do their job. So far, I have learned that some just offer a timer in their app next to a project on which the freelancer should click when he starts working on the related project.Are there companies that use a better approach?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21307" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8033" RevisionGUID="194e7f7b-3071-4be1-8b1b-ddc044f9ea3f" CreationDate="2018-12-17T08:20:33.290" UserId="21196" Text="How do time tracking application for software development freelancer work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21308" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8033" RevisionGUID="194e7f7b-3071-4be1-8b1b-ddc044f9ea3f" CreationDate="2018-12-17T08:20:33.290" UserId="21196" Text="|freelance-websites|time-management|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21310" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="8033" RevisionGUID="48bb777c-9247-4f00-a993-372aa9e6d3dc" CreationDate="2018-12-17T16:58:07.097" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="21313" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8033" RevisionGUID="9b6de0e4-220f-44fb-a555-e3c345fb2ec5" CreationDate="2018-12-18T14:51:14.560" UserId="21196" Comment="added 116 characters in body" Text="I would like to understand how these companies who claim keeping track of the time a freelancer works on a project do their job. So far, I have learned that some just offer a timer in their app next to a project on which the freelancer should click when he starts working on the related project.Are there companies that use a better approach?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Edit**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What algorithm, system or tools do those applications base their tracking on if not a simple timer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21318" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8036" RevisionGUID="21a3d70a-3f24-4a32-b07b-73129fc58c42" CreationDate="2018-12-21T13:18:15.030" UserId="21221" Text="To be honest, in my experience Web Development is already a highly saturated market (lots of people doing it plus lots of 'build your own website solutions available to the general public). It's unlikely that you will get a decent ROI from this sort of work assuming that you get any clients at all (especially given that you've already stated you're not a professional in this field). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, is no straightforward answer to 'how long does a good website take to design' because it often mostly depends on the wishes of your client. In addition to the fact, you've said yourself that you specialise in C++ or Python (general used for backend code) therefore there is no guarantee that you could design a decent web front end which at the end of the day is what most clients want, a good looking website! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't say any of the above is discourage you, and if you want to learn new skills then there is always time for that. However, perhaps not in a commerical setting until you have all of the necessary skills well-rehersed. In this instance, I'd play to your strengths and see what you can do with your C++ and Python knowledge" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21319" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="43bdfd72-067d-43b6-8cd7-6cd19bac9e7d" CreationDate="2018-12-22T02:02:20.493" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21324" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7997" RevisionGUID="5d9a32ba-9826-4499-bf26-89cf773110e6" CreationDate="2018-12-23T02:00:31.527" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21325" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8038" RevisionGUID="1036c140-5da2-46dc-9192-40099fc2559c" CreationDate="2018-12-24T07:29:01.123" UserId="21233" Text="I have a client who wants a web app built for their business. I build web apps. We have had a couple meetings and I have put together some mockups. They are operating on the assumption that the software tool they need doesn’t exist. They told me they’ve done research and there isn’t anything available “off the shelf” to fill their need (I asked the first time we chatted).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am just ready to start coding, and I went and did a search of my own to see if similar software exists. I found 2 options that not only do exactly what my client wants, but they do more and are incredibly affordable (compared to me custom building something). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now my question: Do I tell my client? I’ve put in a couple days of work between research and putting together some designs, and I haven’t been paid for it. I don’t believe that just because an app already exists you can’t be successful building a similar one, but I do feel that if my clients knew about these other options they wouldn’t be paying me to build anything. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21326" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8038" RevisionGUID="1036c140-5da2-46dc-9192-40099fc2559c" CreationDate="2018-12-24T07:29:01.123" UserId="21233" Text="Should I tell my client that software already exists to fill their need?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21327" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8038" RevisionGUID="1036c140-5da2-46dc-9192-40099fc2559c" CreationDate="2018-12-24T07:29:01.123" UserId="21233" Text="|ethics|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21328" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="2852" RevisionGUID="deb07baa-369e-4f95-8e9c-d7cc2a6e2903" CreationDate="2018-12-24T13:01:40.377" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21329" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8039" RevisionGUID="97bb3806-9aaf-4d84-a643-492913c1e6ed" CreationDate="2018-12-24T14:33:54.200" UserId="12865" Text="You tell them about the software already built and you won't get paid for anything no even your research. If thats ok with you then go ahead, you will safe a lot of trouble and time.&#xA;&#xA;If not then just build the app and learn, have fun and get paid for being pro developer.&#xA;&#xA;Regards." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21330" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7913" RevisionGUID="8f016ff3-044d-4f56-990e-3f1daef379b0" CreationDate="2018-12-24T15:01:25.280" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21334" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7967" RevisionGUID="c94d105f-39ad-40f1-a752-72fcb85527c2" CreationDate="2018-12-27T00:01:40.473" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21339" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7967" RevisionGUID="54306a61-758f-4c0b-bd78-4512404f1725" CreationDate="2018-12-27T18:00:19.913" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1078349876851863552" />
  <row Id="21340" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="8027" RevisionGUID="05fc6409-4e6f-48e4-bafc-56be7c05eafa" CreationDate="2018-12-28T18:00:37.593" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1078712338449084418" />
  <row Id="21342" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8042" RevisionGUID="fcac67a2-a191-4738-868a-78a4898bbb3e" CreationDate="2018-12-28T20:46:31.483" UserId="21254" Text="Imagine the following situation, you say client that the software they need exists. They start using it and not pay for your time. The reality is the following, you would have troubles with them if and when you build custom software by yourself. It means that customer would be unreliable and honestly, why would you want to work with such client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another scenario, you started building custom software and they will find out the existing solution that will suite their need. They will ask you if you have known about it. What would you do? From my perspective there would be no single reason to lie to your customer in order to maintain healthy work relationships.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To summarize, if you say customer about existing solution you will feel much better. If the money is not your only concern much better to help customer and build trustful relationships with them for future projects. If they will abuse you in any way, it would be a red flag against them and they will hurt their reputation. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21344" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8044" RevisionGUID="d2cb5805-3e7e-4e41-abfd-078194f0c472" CreationDate="2018-12-29T00:45:40.220" UserId="156" Text="Somewhat related to https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3981/if-i-am-working-on-an-hourly-project-with-variable-hours-per-week-and-i-am-block, but if you have a corp-to-corp client that needs work done in bulk on a multi-day basis full-time, but at the same time is always responding on a last-minute notice with additional information that they require, and saying that everything's time-sensitive, yet it turns out that you can't start the work until an undetermined future event (e.g., until they resolve their own blockers), how do you handle the billing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, how do you price availability for uncertainty?  Is it just part of doing business, and you eat the losses if they think they might really need you one week from now for one week full-time, without any guaratees, or do you charge premium for being potentially available for a short-term project that may need full-time staff for a few weeks?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the accepted practice for this in professional software development?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21345" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8044" RevisionGUID="d2cb5805-3e7e-4e41-abfd-078194f0c472" CreationDate="2018-12-29T00:45:40.220" UserId="156" Text="Non-billable hours if you're expected on a bench with unclear timelines" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21346" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8044" RevisionGUID="d2cb5805-3e7e-4e41-abfd-078194f0c472" CreationDate="2018-12-29T00:45:40.220" UserId="156" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|communication|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21347" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8045" RevisionGUID="dd2e71d2-71f1-4954-8dd7-f4aba733dd8a" CreationDate="2018-12-29T01:05:13.700" UserId="75" Text="If I am putting aside time for the client (even if I'm waiting for them), they get billed. The simple fact is that they are paying for my *time* and *expertise* - If they choose not to take advantage of my expertise, and only use my time, they still get billed the same rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, this kind of arrangement needs to have good communication between both parties - in particular, a clause stating when you expect to be able to work, and that billing will start at that time. Explain that you can't work for other clients while you're in your &quot;waiting&quot; mode if they reach the deadline, and haven't produced everything you need." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21348" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8039" RevisionGUID="ff2793bc-5445-4acc-a05b-13457c362b71" CreationDate="2018-12-29T01:05:35.177" UserId="7" Comment="Minor grammar fixes, removed irrelevant footer" Text="You tell them about the software already built and you won't get paid for anything no even your research. If that's ok with you then go ahead, you will save a lot of trouble and time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If not then just build the app and learn, have fun and get paid for being a professional developer.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21349" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="8039" RevisionGUID="ff2793bc-5445-4acc-a05b-13457c362b71" CreationDate="2018-12-29T01:05:35.177" Comment="Proposed by 7 approved by 75 edit id of 643" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21350" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8042" RevisionGUID="0c1ab8a0-bacd-45d6-93bd-ba822c28a13a" CreationDate="2018-12-29T01:06:18.457" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="Imagine the following situation, you say client that the software they need exists. They start using it and not pay for your time. The reality is the following, you would have troubles with them if and when you build custom software by yourself. It means that customer would be unreliable and honestly, why would you want to work with such client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another scenario, you started building custom software and they will find out the existing solution that will suit their need. They will ask you if you have known about it. What would you do? From my perspective there would be no single reason to lie to your customer in order to maintain healthy work relationships.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To summarize, if you say customer about existing solution you will feel much better. If the money is not your only concern much better to help customer and build trustful relationships with them for future projects. If they will abuse you in any way, it would be a red flag against them and they will hurt their reputation. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21355" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8047" RevisionGUID="91d97f9f-970a-47e2-ac01-9de962e8d491" CreationDate="2018-12-29T04:55:34.420" UserId="21257" Text="I would advise the client, and ask if they wish to proceed...if not then I would bill for the time owed. You will show that you have integrity, the client will be pleased and may send you referrals or do business with you in the future. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21368" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8044" RevisionGUID="dada5956-bd44-439f-bfe5-d685068055e2" CreationDate="2018-12-29T23:44:22.417" UserId="156" Comment="added 1301 characters in body" Text="Somewhat related to https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3981/if-i-am-working-on-an-hourly-project-with-variable-hours-per-week-and-i-am-block, but if you have a corp-to-corp client that needs work done in bulk on a multi-day basis full-time, but at the same time is always responding on a last-minute notice with additional information that they require, and saying that everything's time-sensitive, yet it turns out that you can't start the work until an undetermined future event (e.g., until they resolve their own blockers), how do you handle the billing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, how do you price availability for uncertainty?  Is it just part of doing business, and you eat the losses if they think they might really need you one week from now for one week full-time, without any guaratees, or do you charge premium for being potentially available for a short-term project that may need full-time staff for a few weeks?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the accepted practice for this in professional software development?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***EDIT:***  In other words, ***is there any good way to get paid for the bench time as a contractor?***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems that the communication is exactly the problem in this situation: it would seem that the client hopes that they'll be able to resolve the issues by themselves, and delay getting external help until the last minute; at the same time, they're leading me on, on a weekly basis, that this matter is urgent, and we need do one &quot;final&quot; step &quot;today&quot; to establish relationship and immediately start working, only to have something else come up and some other change to happen on their side, delaying my onboarding further on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, I'm mentally reserving my availability for this new client (and I do know it's a serious contract as well, e.g., they do have the money to spend, if required), but, at the same time, they're effective getting me onto their bench without providing the compensation, and I'm getting the impression that they simply need me as an ***insurance***.  Which doesn't seem like a beneficial relationship for me, since we've negotiated based on an hourly rate, which doesn't help if there'd be no billable hours.  And, as pointed out in the other answer, bench time is usually not billed to the clients, so, there's gotta be some other terminology at place?!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21369" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7960" RevisionGUID="b9a172c2-48ac-4518-84b3-bac444547846" CreationDate="2018-12-30T03:00:57.060" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1079210703398096897" />
  <row Id="21371" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7959" RevisionGUID="372f7d99-3553-4aee-a87f-40d67f94b531" CreationDate="2018-12-30T06:00:30.220" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1079255889318694912" />
  <row Id="21373" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8051" RevisionGUID="08b75f22-f425-458a-ac71-12ad182a5c12" CreationDate="2018-12-30T23:19:27.770" UserId="21267" Text="When facing this sort of situation, there's always three possible responses:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. leave it as it is and hope that the problem will resolve itself - you've tried this, and obviously are trying to find something better;&#xD;&#xA;2. abandon consideration of the client until future development - asking this question here makes it likely that you want to avoid this option for now, and it's possible that you could just take it up later anyways, which leaves us with;&#xD;&#xA;3. iterate your pricing structure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bear in mind, I'm assuming with this that you are **not** working for a temp agency (in which case they should be working these things out for you), and **can** negotiate your own contracts. Also, ***SOME OF WHAT I'M THROWING OUT HERE I NEITHER HAVE DONE, NOR RECOMMEND***, but instead I've just thrown in for some variation on completeness. I'll throw in my suggestions at the very end. I'm not certain what your pricing structure is, and honestly I'm not concerned with that. I **am** concerned that you improve your pricing structure in an *informative* way, and that calls for informative grammar. In particular, I suggest *considering* the addition of the following types of charges:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;i) Retainer fees : They're effectively treating you like they would their &quot;family lawyer&quot;, so they should pay you like one! As in, through the cost structure, not necessarily the same rate. Upside: you can get guaranteed income, and spend non-used time for whatever else! Downside: you can be forced to drop whatever you're doing at whatever period that's specified in the contract, and there's likely to be details that your government has specific regulations for. Retainer fees are usually a fraction of the expected charge, and the later cost towards the customer is reduced by the same amount as the retainer fee. If the &quot;final cost&quot; would be smaller than the retainer, then the customer usually gets that amount as a refund, which means that you probably overestimated in the first place, and should fix that mistake for if they ask for an extension/renewal. The contract should specify how long the period covered is, AND what portion of the retainer stays with you under what circumstances (if they never call for you during the covered period, then usually all of it stays with you, *and no longer counts as a retainer afterwards*). Remember to specify ALL of the pricing details too, such as the periods of the day that are charged at double the rate vs normal (hint: make night work expensive), and similar for weekends &amp; holidays. Plumbers, electricians, and other contractors do it (actually, my lot have more levels of granularity, but none-the-less, and we're tied to just a few long-running employers anyways), you should do the same (especially if a customer has already wasted your time, like this one has). ***Remember to specify if different multipliers*** (e.g. late-shift + weekend) ***multiply, add, or simply replace each other*** (they should usually multiply, but remember to clarify whether the multiplier applies to the *TOTAL*, or to that *TIME PERIOD*). Also, the customer either will or should want some flexibility: I'd suggest **not charging lunches at all** (note: standardize the lunches &amp; breaks, with breaks charged for, and tie them to work-hours per individual day, with a catch-clause in case they have you working aver your contract's change-of-day), **only** charging while logged-in (so they'll have a verification mechanism), a time period such as 7am - 5:30pm (a 10hr 30min afternoon shift) to all have a 1x multiplier, a 1x multiplier for the first 8 hours of any day (and remember to specify the definition of the day!), a 1x multiplier for the first 40 hours of the week, a 1.5x multiplier for the next 20 hours, a 1x multiplier for five *specific* days of the week, one 1.5x day, one 2x day, and some mixture of 1.5x and 2x for holidays (do specify the holidays, but for long holidays like Ramadan, Haunuka, and Christmas, find some way to go light on them, like the first 20 hours per day for some of those days the holiday modifier drops down to 1x).&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;ii) Rush fees : if they want to call you in at the last moment, then they can pay &quot;hazard pay&quot;. Specify the time period that you're available, and apply a multiplier to subsets of your charge for that period depending on when they get in touch with you with the required information for that subset. If they want to add a subset, then that requires an addition to the charge, though the contract should probably specify that the timer for that subset starts when the subset is added to the contract. Add some protections in case you aren't able to finish in the time specified, particularly milestones so that you can fall-back to the payment for the &quot;most recent milestone for the subset&quot; instead of just getting nothing, while neither leaving the customer with nothing, nor requiring a full payment from them for incomplete work. Remember to add penalties in the contract both against yourself if you finish late, and to the customer if they get you required info for a subset after the specified period.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;iii) Idling fees: A variation on retainer fees. Charge them at a fraction of your normal rate during periods where you're reserved for them, but you're able to do other stuff for other people in the meanwhile. If you are ***LITERALLY*** waiting for the customer to show-up for a meeting at a previously agreed time for 30 minutes or more, then do this. If *you* are the one who arrives late by 30+ minutes, assess the same fee against *yourself*. No payment changes for early arrival. The relevant time periods may need to be shrunk for short periods. This fee should be higher than the &quot;per hour&quot; of a retainer, but (because of the fact that you will be specifying that you are allowed to do *other work* during these periods) lower than your normal hourly fee. I'd suggest half your normal fee or less.&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;iv) Premiums : They want you for insurance? Then let them buy insurance. But beware (and really, don't go with this model, you'll get over-used for a week and then they'll drop you, *plus* you'll have to finish everything during that week)! Insurance is expected to &quot;fully pay out&quot; whenever &quot;disaster strikes&quot;, and **without any further payments**, which means that you would both have to complete whatever they needed, *and* do it without any payment other than the premium! This sort of service is best performed by a reasonably large company that can spread the cost of &quot;random disasters&quot; across a large customer base, which is why &quot;mom and pop insurers&quot; are usually affiliates of large national insurance companies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**MY SUGGESTIONS**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Go for (i), maybe with (ii) and/or (iii) thrown in, but *keep it simple*. Base the holidays on their company's holidays, + any personal religious variations, + some space for disease (with a doctors note! Do this professionally! And make it up to them by automatically extending your availability to them a matching amount!) and *pre-scheduled* vacations (a week or two is usually enough). Depending on the length of contract that they want, you might want to drop the vacations (if it's a 1 week contract, don't include vacations; if it's 1 month, include one or two &quot;under duress&quot; vacations, but try not to use them). Match the &quot;1x multiplier&quot; days and hours to their own, + as much as an hour before their start, and **up to** 2 hours after they close (the trailing hours are likely to be more valuable to them than the leading hours). Adjusting the hours in a work-week is fine, but I'd suggest no more than 60 hours per week at 1x (I've worked 60 hour weeks while single: the first month is fine, but past that is difficult), and absolutely step it up by .5x every 20 hours past.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; Remember that the biggest upside to the retainer is that it automatically makes your cost *after* they agree less expensive to them than *before*: it's basically a mind-trick that coincidentally gets you pocket change. Also, think about several different possible time-periods for the contract, and carry notes about changes to make if they decide to change the period (at 1 week you don't care about vacations, at 1 month you kinda do, at 1 year you absolutely do). In general though, try to keep the additions to the contract to less than a full page, preferably no more than half, because simplicity really is best for changes like this.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Avoid (iv) like the plague. That's for &quot;programming disaster recovery&quot; companies, and calls for large teams of relatively elite workers, each of which should themselves probably be on a retainer with the &quot;recovery&quot; company. Not that I know of any such operations.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. If they continue to do this, then slowly elaborate on the contract. In particular, make certain that your &quot;downtime&quot; becomes more expensive for them, though you should decide ahead of time on a level at which you will hold it stable. If they keep this going for multiple years and they still mostly don't use you, then maybe you should actually start that &quot;programming disaster recovery&quot; service." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21376" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8052" RevisionGUID="d4f965a1-d1a1-4ccb-9815-59c197985ee5" CreationDate="2019-01-02T06:40:04.327" UserId="21092" Text="I have a small business and I'm about to start a couple of new initiatives that will require 1. paying contractors 2. paying customers for the purchase of certain items.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are the options I have so far:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   **Send a physical check** - This may work for the contractors but my customers my shy away from having to give their address to a virtually unknown company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   **PayPal** This is good for me but it charges the recipient which will not make my customers or  contractors happy&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   **Venmo** I asked support about a business account and they said they did not have business accounts. I guess I might be able to funnel payments  through my personal account but I am concerned about the spending limits and keeping separate accounting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   **ACH Transfer** I don't want to have to collect bank info for every person I do business with and my bank charges $30/month for something I might not use every month. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So does anyone have a suggestion about a service to use?  I don't mind a per transaction fee as long as it is not pervasive. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21377" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8052" RevisionGUID="d4f965a1-d1a1-4ccb-9815-59c197985ee5" CreationDate="2019-01-02T06:40:04.327" UserId="21092" Text="How Do I Pay Contractors and Customers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21378" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8052" RevisionGUID="d4f965a1-d1a1-4ccb-9815-59c197985ee5" CreationDate="2019-01-02T06:40:04.327" UserId="21092" Text="|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21383" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8055" RevisionGUID="2b5b5e99-febd-42e2-bb21-478e9265228d" CreationDate="2019-01-02T19:44:34.467" UserId="708" Text="**Send a check.** People typically have *no issue* providing a mailing address if they are to receive money. And, checks, even if viewed as passé, *are* how business is still done when payments are sporadic or non-standard. Having a written record of payouts, in addition to digital (online bank statements), is beneficial. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Allow Paypal *if selected* making them aware Paypal *may* deduct transaction fees for business accounts. Note that Paypal doesn't deduct any fees received in a personal account regardless of the sender.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have no experience with Venmo, can't comment on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;ACH is a nightmare for most people. I personally refuse to have yet another database somewhere with my banking information. For me it's merely fool-hearty to have yet another portal which can be &quot;hacked&quot; and cause me strife. I refuse all ACH requests when I get them. ACH for very small or personal receipt of funds is just too much to request.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most banks now also have their own &quot;quick pay&quot; option. I know Chase and BankAmerica do... which allow you to merely send with an email address similar to Paypal. I don't know what, if any, fees are associated with each bank though." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21384" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8056" RevisionGUID="51ac7edb-62d8-4099-b4e2-13f295f78a55" CreationDate="2019-01-02T19:46:02.780" UserId="21279" Text="Square offers [cash.me][1]. Super clean and fee-free process, easy signup to *accept* ACH (eCheck). Your subcontractor(s) must be willing to do the signup. They can then give you their &quot;cashtag&quot; (id), and you pay to cash.me/&lt;their-cashtag&gt;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another bank may have options. E.g. Charles Schwab Bank has &quot;Bill Pay&quot;, and you can select from their commonly used payees or put in your own. This avoids you collecting routing and account numbers, but not name and address.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, in the case of a customer, you could get creative. &quot;I owe you XX dollars. Would you like that in the form of a **credit** on your next invoice of billable hours?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://cash.me" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21388" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8055" RevisionGUID="1978cfa3-25bc-4aec-af15-0251743d2203" CreationDate="2019-01-03T02:50:28.553" UserId="708" Comment="added 85 characters in body" Text="**Send a check.** People typically have *no issue* providing a mailing address if they are to receive money. And, checks, even if viewed as passé, *are* how business is still done when payments are sporadic or non-standard. Having a written record of payouts, in addition to digital (online bank statements), is beneficial. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Allow Paypal *if selected* making them aware Paypal *may* deduct transaction fees for business accounts. Note that Paypal doesn't deduct any fees received by a *personal account* regardless of the sender. It is only PayPal business accounts which deduct PayPal transaction fees from the received amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have no experience with Venmo, can't comment on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;ACH is a nightmare for most **people**. ACH is really geared more toward B2B transactions. I personally refuse to have yet another database somewhere with my banking information. For me it's merely fool-hearty to have yet another portal which can be &quot;hacked&quot; and cause me strife. I refuse all ACH requests when I get them. ACH for very small businesses (i.e. freelancers) or personal receipt of funds is just too much to request.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most banks now also have their own &quot;quick pay&quot; option. I know Chase and BankAmerica do... which allow you to merely send with an email address similar to Paypal. I don't know what, if any, fees are associated with each bank though." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21389" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="8038" RevisionGUID="04f72e83-055b-4fa8-87d0-eeb3a54c03e8" CreationDate="2019-01-03T06:00:34.473" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1080705458673995776" />
  <row Id="21390" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8058" RevisionGUID="045e89df-8ae6-46f3-adfd-51d4156112a2" CreationDate="2019-01-03T06:26:20.570" UserId="21286" Text="It depends whether the existing option is open source or not. If it is, then you do have an obligation to tell them. If it is not, then your solution, where the customer gets the source code, is superior, and more secure, so it will be better value." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21395" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8060" RevisionGUID="b86f3ac3-e501-4501-9d65-24f2b27cd4ae" CreationDate="2019-01-03T20:40:07.193" UserId="21282" Text="I suggest Redmine (open source project management solution). It is completely free, endlessly customizable, and uses a wiki-based platform. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21396" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8061" RevisionGUID="5de4a0a9-a9d9-4abc-8c04-4ed230e965a7" CreationDate="2019-01-04T06:36:15.233" UserId="21297" Text="I think you have an obligation to tell them. If they choose to move ahead with your project you'll be able to get valuable information regarding what they like/dislike in the existing options that can help you deliver a better product. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they decide to go with an existing option bill for time spent and ask for a referral that you can use to get more clients. Good client relationships lead to more clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21397" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8062" RevisionGUID="ac6cb808-b8de-4da9-92e7-9606135f1df4" CreationDate="2019-01-04T06:41:54.727" UserId="21297" Text="E-transfers are convenient. I don't know if they're available to you, but they are a simple way to process payments. Usually it's a fixed fee (maybe $1) per transfer. You need the payees email and provide them a security question/answer. If you aren't processing a lot of transactions, and don't need to pre-schedule transations, it could be a good option.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21399" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8063" RevisionGUID="7d947e50-e0eb-44f4-a563-f2f2fa664bad" CreationDate="2019-01-05T17:52:40.673" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="I'm considering dropping off / posting leaflets to local small businesses to advertise my web &amp; graphic design services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this kind of promotion acceptable or might it just result in people getting annoyed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21400" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8063" RevisionGUID="7d947e50-e0eb-44f4-a563-f2f2fa664bad" CreationDate="2019-01-05T17:52:40.673" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="Is leaflet dropping bad practice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21401" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8063" RevisionGUID="7d947e50-e0eb-44f4-a563-f2f2fa664bad" CreationDate="2019-01-05T17:52:40.673" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="|uk|marketing|advertising|ethics|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21402" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8064" RevisionGUID="b1741642-e92c-4332-b6ce-c5eba96372b4" CreationDate="2019-01-05T19:47:36.640" UserId="75" Text="I think it depends heavily on a few things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Your region. Do businesses usually drop off leaflets?&#xD;&#xA;2. Cost. You need to print the leaflets somehow, and that will be a cost to your business. If you're just starting out, it may not be feasible, depending on your circumstances. If you've been in operation for quite some time, then it should be a moot point.&#xD;&#xA;3. Leg work. Do you have the time and patience to walk into all the small businesses in your area just to drop off something that may get thrown into the garbage?&#xD;&#xA;4. Design work. You need the leaflet to look like something the potential customer will not want to immediately throw away. Spend some time on your design choices, and your elevator pitch (30 seconds to convince them)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not saying don't do it, but you need to consider some of the extra work required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What about posting on bulletin boards around town? What about your local Chamber of Commerce (or similar)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21403" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8065" RevisionGUID="1efbc18f-8007-417d-bcbe-570389df91df" CreationDate="2019-01-05T22:10:00.997" UserId="708" Text="Like any advertising venture, leaflets or fliers *can* be beneficial. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you think the local market would produce some clients this way, then by all means I'd try it. Costs are really minimal compared to possible returns. You wouldn't need anything overly fancy, a simple well designed, clear, one-color flier, which is merely copied rather than printed, would suffice. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21405" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="8010" RevisionGUID="da0e0c47-24b4-4a18-ba64-c2013e8a2d3f" CreationDate="2019-01-06T14:00:55.177" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21410" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8068" RevisionGUID="eed33e57-3655-4673-a29f-2cb9d0a44a9c" CreationDate="2019-01-09T10:14:13.310" UserId="21318" Text="I've done been offering incentives to individuals and companies that refer me business for years now and I always use a floating commission in order to keep my referral network motivated and happy. I give them 12.5% **of the net** for the first time they refer me a client and substantially less for future referrals of the same customer. Once upon a time someone referred me to a contract at Microsoft, that's a huge company, obviously. So, the first time, I gave him 12.5%, then a few months later, I was referred to a different department within M$FT, for which I gave him 6%. Being a web/software development company, this was a recurring fee. You'll definitely want to code a management system to keep track of this information &amp; perhaps even initiate the payments to your referrers. I find that as long as you're making a decent profit, the most important thing that you can do is to keep your referral network motivated to sell for you and not the other guy. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21411" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8069" RevisionGUID="92aa1d1f-c18f-4722-a817-d44daad1dcad" CreationDate="2019-01-09T10:27:56.417" UserId="21318" Text="To be candid, I think you'd be better of spending your money on a few pints than chopping down trees and throwing them to the wind. :) I've been traveling around the world doing web and software development for about two decades now. Dropping of pamphlets is as effective as direct mail marketing (it's not). Since you are in the web &amp; design business, you would be *much* better served by attending networking events (meetup.com events, Toast Masters, conferences, InterNations, etc). Studies show that the **response rate** to direct mail marketing is around 4%. Much less still are actually converted into a sale. From my own experience, you're better served chatting it up at building a great portfolio online, chatting it up at networking events, and handing out a card like there is no tomorrow. See if you can get a chance to get up and speak at these events and be sure to plug your company as much as possible. Many of these events won't let you self-advertise, so arrive dressed as a human billboard. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21426" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8038" RevisionGUID="3b2c3cc9-5543-452c-b7ec-bcd136a8be5f" CreationDate="2019-01-13T22:50:35.573" UserId="21233" Comment="added 309 characters in body" Text="I have a client who wants a web app built for their business. I build web apps. We have had a couple meetings and I have put together some mockups. They are operating on the assumption that the software tool they need doesn’t exist. They told me they’ve done research and there isn’t anything available “off the shelf” to fill their need (I asked the first time we chatted).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am just ready to start coding, and I went and did a search of my own to see if similar software exists. I found 2 options that not only do exactly what my client wants, but they do more and are incredibly affordable (compared to me custom building something). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now my question: Do I tell my client? I’ve put in a couple days of work between research and putting together some designs, and I haven’t been paid for it. I don’t believe that just because an app already exists you can’t be successful building a similar one, but I do feel that if my clients knew about these other options they wouldn’t be paying me to build anything. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;UPDATE:&#xD;&#xA;I did chat with the client as recommended here. I came to find about some critical functionality which they wanted and was not available in any of the existing options. We may try and do some kind of integration to leverage existing software, as well. It was a good discussion to have, certainly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21427" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8073" RevisionGUID="b126d040-229e-4a2e-a113-b21e3b3802a5" CreationDate="2019-01-14T09:12:42.353" UserId="21030" Text="I want my own quiz application on android, with just about 50 multiple choice questions.&#xD;&#xA;How much should I pay to the developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21428" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8073" RevisionGUID="b126d040-229e-4a2e-a113-b21e3b3802a5" CreationDate="2019-01-14T09:12:42.353" UserId="21030" Text="How much should I pay for a simple android app" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21429" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8073" RevisionGUID="b126d040-229e-4a2e-a113-b21e3b3802a5" CreationDate="2019-01-14T09:12:42.353" UserId="21030" Text="|price|software|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21430" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8074" RevisionGUID="4addaf48-1b49-435d-9921-672d91d7e927" CreationDate="2019-01-14T09:45:54.290" UserId="21341" Text="From the information you provided:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Your app does just ask 50 multiple choice questions, &#xD;&#xA; - has no user accounts or logins,&#xD;&#xA; - does not validate or &#xD;&#xA; - visualize or&#xD;&#xA; - send this data anywhere,&#xD;&#xA; - the questions never change&#xD;&#xA; - and I naughtily assume you are going to publish it on the play store...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If these really are the parameters of the app(**winkwink!**), congratulations, you got yourself a cheap one. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - One hour for hacking down 50 Strings, &#xD;&#xA; - One hour for coding and clicking together the UI&#xD;&#xA; - Some time to make it look nice&#xD;&#xA; - Some time to write descriptive/meta texts for the Play Store&#xD;&#xA; - Some time to publish it, set things up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is comfortably doable in a day, half that if you don't like your contractor." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21431" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7958" RevisionGUID="6f84e757-28d9-4c49-b3d9-33dd9452f7f8" CreationDate="2019-01-14T17:48:10.227" UserId="20973" Comment="Fixed formatting" Text="First off, I'm sorry to hear of your endeavor and that you had to deal with a nightmare client like that. I think we've all been there at least twice. Now then, hindsight is 20/20, so let's be proactive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# The Worst Customers&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The worst client a freelancer can encounter is hard to shove into one box as they come in all kinds. To name a few, there is the waffler, the procrastinator, the bargain shopper, the know-it-all, and a dozen or so others. However, the end result is typically the same. The project goes over budget and over deadline due to the dreaded &quot;Scope-Creep&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No matter how you might try to keep these wishy-washy, impossible-to-please project killers in-line and on-task the decisions get delayed and you end up either waiting for them to deliver their content, or to even answer an email, yet one thing never fails to hit on time...The deadline and their criticism of your missing it **(even though they were the reason why the project is stalled)**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*But, here are the facts:*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **It has happened and you're probably correct in assuming she's done this to others.** If you've got the time and feel the need for vindication you might ask around about her in the local design communities and see if there's precedent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;or &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; 2. You can use your time wisely, *provided you have documentation* **you have the right to take her to court and attempt to collect**. Depending on the cost of your contract and the percentage of work you've actually completed* along with your local laws will determine whether you're heading to small claims court or a civil trial court. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Provided you've got a signed contract that breaks down the percentages of payment owed for the scope of work done and what happens if either end does not meet their respective responsibilities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, the simple fact you're asking us here would lead me to believe that you have a somewhat more vague contract. So, in my experience your only recourse in this situation is to:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Issue a Final Demand for Payment-in-Full:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a number of sites out there with templates for [writing a letter to demand payment in full][1] for services rendered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Be sure to choose a template that is valid in your state.**  &#xD;&#xA; 2. **Be certain you have included all the pertinent details and specifics**: including the total amount of contract, total remainder due, the scope of work promised, the scope of work delivered, and any reasoning/causes why the remainder of the work was not able to be completed.  &#xD;&#xA; 3. **In closing:** After you've laid out your case, you can offer a payment arrangement or, you can imply legal recourse if payment in full is not delivered forthwith. (It would be advisable to consult a lawyer/legal counsel unless you are familiar with the legal ramifications and responsibilities involved.)  &#xD;&#xA; 4. **Have the letter notarized** by a legal notary and have the final request of payment delivered in a way that requires their signature acknowledging receipt of the documents. In other words, if you can afford it it would behoove you to hire a process server. But, at the very bare-minimum send the letter 1st Class registered &amp; certified mail requiring a signature for delivery. This eliminates them using the excuse they never received it.&#xD;&#xA; 5. **And lastly, stick to your guns.** You are a business just the same as any major corporation and deserve to be paid for your services. Get help if you need it, but be assertive and do NOT back down.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Moving forward, it would be best for you to use a stronger proposal &amp; separate contract that states detailed provisions determining what is expected of you and in what timeframe, what is expected of the client in what timeframe, penalties for being over deadline, Provisions that address change of scope/scope creep, how they are handled, and the penalties/additional fees to cover last-minute add-ons &amp; requests. Detail every possible scenario you can think of as being reasonably possible to cover your bases. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also good to include an escape clause with a percentage of compensation depending on the stage of the project for yourself along with detailed legal ramifications as a result.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, you want to have your clients sign an iron-clad contract that documents any possible scenario and recourse for you to recoup your fees. There are a few really [solid proposal/contract platforms][2] out there that allow cash-strapped freelancers to draft their own comprehensive documents. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I find [Proposify][3] to be absolutely indispensable. I use them religiously! Though there are others like [Bidsketch][4] and [PandaDoc][5]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just remember moving forward, that the more you define in plain English and have your clients sign on in agreement, the less this will not occur again. And in my experience, if a client is hesitant to sign fair &amp; equal conditions on your service provisions-You probably do NOT want them for a client anyways.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck to you! Let us know how it turns out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://legaltemplates.net/form/demand-for-payment-letter/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.capterra.com/sem-compare/proposal-management-software&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.proposify.com&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://www.bidsketch.com&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: https://www.pandadoc.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21432" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7958" RevisionGUID="6f84e757-28d9-4c49-b3d9-33dd9452f7f8" CreationDate="2019-01-14T17:48:10.227" Comment="Proposed by 20973 approved by 20940 edit id of 640" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21433" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="8073" RevisionGUID="21f9a500-6831-4305-9ea2-f58edc91840d" CreationDate="2019-01-14T18:16:35.613" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="21434" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8073" RevisionGUID="eababaaf-bd74-43dc-930c-5d6ce6a999d1" CreationDate="2019-01-15T00:10:52.047" UserId="21030" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="I want my own quiz application on android, with just about 50 multiple choice questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How much should I pay to the developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21435" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8075" RevisionGUID="3c0b038e-0d7b-4374-9772-53bcbe90cc58" CreationDate="2019-01-15T06:00:01.867" UserId="21341" Text="I am planning to develop a part of a software running on a hardware+software product. The idea is to be paid about 10% of every item sold on a free contract basis (no corporation creation).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would be looking for real world advice on:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   1. What would such a contract be called? (I don't even know what to search for...)&#xD;&#xA;   2. How can it be implemented?&#xD;&#xA;   3. Has it been done by one of you?&#xD;&#xA;   4. Experiences with the model.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help or pointers much appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21436" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8075" RevisionGUID="3c0b038e-0d7b-4374-9772-53bcbe90cc58" CreationDate="2019-01-15T06:00:01.867" UserId="21341" Text="How to formulate contract for component to be paid on a &quot;per product sold&quot; basis" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21437" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8075" RevisionGUID="3c0b038e-0d7b-4374-9772-53bcbe90cc58" CreationDate="2019-01-15T06:00:01.867" UserId="21341" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21438" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8076" RevisionGUID="4834c327-7435-4829-abef-9139086f5d31" CreationDate="2019-01-15T10:36:19.270" UserId="708" Text="It would be called a &quot;Royalty&quot; if you receive dividends on each item sold.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's software, you could easily factor in x% of price, or $x, added to a total royalty due each time something is sold. Total royalties due could be seen in an admin area, or sent via email, etc., at specific intervals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-- I've personally not implemented such a thing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21439" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="8020" RevisionGUID="62398757-4100-4a4d-856a-5d8c363a4a9f" CreationDate="2019-01-19T00:01:16.793" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1086413245127249925" />
  <row Id="21441" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7813" RevisionGUID="871a928a-668d-4ab5-b8e6-f3ecb0a9131c" CreationDate="2019-01-21T09:37:57.097" UserDisplayName="user7489" Comment="clarified a sentence, fixed spelling" Text="I agree with Fredrik.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The same situation has happened to me before. I usually give the client a fixed price for what I think a good programmer would do, but then add a few weeks. I partly do this so that I have more time. For example, charge for 2 weeks work but say it will take 4. This is because I want to give myself contingency in case anything goes wrong, but also because I do freelancing on the side of my full time job as a programmer, so essentially I am working part time on it. I don't expect the client to pay full time for part time work, so they are charged at part time but give me extra time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you come across something that will take a bit longer because you thought it would be an easy job but turns out it's not, is it your fault? i.e is it because you're weak in that area?&#xD;&#xA;If it is, then deal with the extra time. If, however, what they've asked for is more complex than what you thought and there is no way it wouldn't take someone else longer, then tell them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, you thought they only wanted 1 component but they actually meant 5. In that case, say it will cost more. However if, like I said, it's just taking more time because you're learning, then don't make them pay for that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21442" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7813" RevisionGUID="871a928a-668d-4ab5-b8e6-f3ecb0a9131c" CreationDate="2019-01-21T09:37:57.097" Comment="Proposed by 7489 approved by 19139 edit id of 647" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21444" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="64" RevisionGUID="feba6ef9-de4b-471a-8e90-ab1601689efc" CreationDate="2019-01-22T13:51:45.360" UserId="61" Comment="fixed the wording" Text="There are several categories of post-changes. They should be treated in different manner, *unless your agreement with the project owner states otherwise*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, you have completed a project and, trying to satisfy your client, you offered...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Little Updates and Things&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  * **Bugs**. As your software product is running and users are using it, they will inevitably find bugs. They should be eliminated at your cost, since you have already been paid for it.&#xD;&#xA;  * Changes due to **external factors** changed. Say, local laws may require a different format of a certain report. Or the users' community has asked the product owner for a change. Or a dependency software has changed its API. Since that was not in original scope, such improvement is clearly billable;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The rest of changes are most difficult to deal with. What I do often when being asked for such change, I analyze the thing and make **two offers**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Free way**: I do *some minor change* that does not take more than, say, several hours.  &#xD;&#xA;I make sure the project owner was aware that I will do it on my personal time so it did not interact with my billed activities, e.g. on weekend.  &#xD;&#xA;I also inform the project owner that any *side activity* should be done by their teams. I'm a Web developer, so I can't do free QA, Art, HTML/CSS mockups, team collaboration, and other things. This is a powerful argument by itself! :-)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Billable way**: A full-power work that ensures best possible scope and quality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Post-mortem&#xD;&#xA;===&#xD;&#xA;Also, as others have mentioned in their answers, a good practice is conduction a post-mortem meeting. At this meeting, you will define how your project will be improved over time.  &#xD;&#xA;As an important note specific to a freelancer, on this meeting you will **almost guarantee yourself some future income**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  * You guarantee to continue your business relations with the project owner;&#xD;&#xA;  * You define status of forthcoming changes, possible scope, and rates;&#xD;&#xA;  * You ensure that the product you have developed will be at top quality. Think again, you will refer that product *as your past work*. Say, you show it to another prospective customer. Do you need excuses why the product looks buggy or outdated? No.&#xD;&#xA;  * You secure for yourself the **future projects** with the same partner;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's an article by Jeff Atwood, [The project Postmortem](http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/11/the-project-postmortem.html) addressing more issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;Finally, a story that illustrates the ideas above:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A freelancer and a client are talking after project completion.  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; _Client_: &quot;But aren't you someone who just makes and forgets? If we need an update, would you do it for free?&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; _Freelancer_: &quot;Sure, but it depends on how much work to do.&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; _Client_: &quot;Don't worry! Of course we wouldn't ask to redo everything from scratch.&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; _Freelancer_: &quot;Agreed. I also have a request. Aren't you someone who just pays me and forgets? If I run out of money, can I come up and ask you to pay me some extra?  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; _Client_: &quot;???&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;&gt; _Freelancer_: &quot;Don't worry! Of course I wouldn't ask you to pay me the whole amount again!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21445" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="36" RevisionGUID="f80a30a9-6765-4537-b432-fa351dfd41aa" CreationDate="2019-01-22T14:02:03.050" UserId="15235" Comment="broken (insecure) link fixed" Text="Answers with this tag must follow the [&quot;Back it up&quot; rule](https://freelancing.meta.stackexchange.com/q/55/64), in which you must show citations or some sort of legal text to back up your answer. Answers without proper citations may be edited or removed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For questions, you must tell us what jurisdiction you are located in; for example, `I am in British Columbia, Canada`. Blanket legal questions without some sort of research or agreement in place to fall back on may be closed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21446" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="36" RevisionGUID="f80a30a9-6765-4537-b432-fa351dfd41aa" CreationDate="2019-01-22T14:02:03.050" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 1018, 61 edit id of 639" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
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  <row Id="21448" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1155" RevisionGUID="31d447b2-7dac-4450-b782-017c9424631e" CreationDate="2019-01-22T14:02:19.977" Comment="Proposed by 16887 approved by 1018, 61 edit id of 628" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21449" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6175" RevisionGUID="27874cbf-448f-4a0b-bd94-ccba40ea1b4d" CreationDate="2019-01-22T14:02:46.420" UserId="15235" Comment="tags edited" Text="|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21450" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6175" RevisionGUID="27874cbf-448f-4a0b-bd94-ccba40ea1b4d" CreationDate="2019-01-22T14:02:46.420" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 1018, 61 edit id of 610" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21451" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1204" RevisionGUID="e0f76224-6301-4f09-b8b2-c2c5a21c5452" CreationDate="2019-01-22T14:03:35.863" UserId="16887" Comment="Improve tags " Text="|marketing|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21452" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1204" RevisionGUID="e0f76224-6301-4f09-b8b2-c2c5a21c5452" CreationDate="2019-01-22T14:03:35.863" Comment="Proposed by 16887 approved by 1018, 61 edit id of 627" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21453" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7622" RevisionGUID="6deccf6b-7872-43b3-90f3-1e1570187e99" CreationDate="2019-01-22T14:03:44.373" UserId="17674" Comment="tags; grammar fixes" Text="I have built a Java library, which I am planning to sell.  It will be used as a project's dependency and most users would use it with their build tools such as Maven, Gradle, etc.  I wanted to know if somebody is already doing something similar and what selling model they followed.  I am thinking:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * Per-user pricing:  Based on the number of users or developers using the library.  The catch is here, since it will be used as a dependency, the team can purchase a single license and several users can utilize the API. &#xD;&#xA; * Project-based pricing:  Based on the number of projects the library will be used in.  This is probably more straight-forward in this scenario and, assuming the sale is made for 1-5 projects at a fixed cost, it is easier for the end-customer to understand how the installations work.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;To me,  project-based pricing seems a little more sensible and easier to understand from the user's perspective.  However, I wanted to see if there are better models out there that the community uses in such scenarios." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21454" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7622" RevisionGUID="6deccf6b-7872-43b3-90f3-1e1570187e99" CreationDate="2019-01-22T14:03:44.373" UserId="17674" Comment="tags; grammar fixes" Text="|price|programmer|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21455" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7622" RevisionGUID="6deccf6b-7872-43b3-90f3-1e1570187e99" CreationDate="2019-01-22T14:03:44.373" Comment="Proposed by 17674 approved by 85, 61 edit id of 600" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21456" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7676" RevisionGUID="1265a6a8-50b5-4523-b0bf-8905462fbc1d" CreationDate="2019-01-22T14:04:05.923" UserId="17674" Comment="tags; grammar fixes" Text="I want to work as a freelancer in data entry. What skills are required? and how can I make my profile attractive?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also want my fees by Paytm. What can I do?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21457" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="7676" RevisionGUID="1265a6a8-50b5-4523-b0bf-8905462fbc1d" CreationDate="2019-01-22T14:04:05.923" UserId="17674" Comment="tags; grammar fixes" Text="I want to work as a freelancer in data entry. What skills are required and how can I make my profile attractive?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21458" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7676" RevisionGUID="1265a6a8-50b5-4523-b0bf-8905462fbc1d" CreationDate="2019-01-22T14:04:05.923" UserId="17674" Comment="tags; grammar fixes" Text="|payment-terms|attracting-clients|working-from-home|training|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21459" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7676" RevisionGUID="1265a6a8-50b5-4523-b0bf-8905462fbc1d" CreationDate="2019-01-22T14:04:05.923" Comment="Proposed by 17674 approved by 85, 61 edit id of 604" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21460" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7715" RevisionGUID="910b3c37-1d8c-461c-8f11-12d3dcbe0951" CreationDate="2019-01-23T04:31:15.020" UserId="17674" Comment="grammar fixes" Text="My answer is purely anecdotal, but I am a software dev who worked for a distributer that sold civil engineering software. (It was an application rather than an API/library.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The model was a bit of a gray area: they would sell licenses per user but for larger businesses they would make per-business agreements that would mean they could get X licenses for Y fee on a per-project basis. The nature of civil engineering is to work per project, so when a client won a big project for a highway, dam, etc. they would hire more civil engineers and then approach us saying, &quot;We are working on project X and need Y licenses. What kind of deal can you do?&quot; For smaller clients, the sales model was simply per user with no wiggle room. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21461" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7715" RevisionGUID="910b3c37-1d8c-461c-8f11-12d3dcbe0951" CreationDate="2019-01-23T04:31:15.020" Comment="Proposed by 17674 approved by 85, 61 edit id of 603" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21464" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="5990" RevisionGUID="5da73fbb-9b64-4c2b-bb75-12d254e8fd49" CreationDate="2019-01-23T17:11:11.897" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="21465" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7392" RevisionGUID="0dd9bcad-d5d3-45c6-a53b-34d88e421608" CreationDate="2019-01-24T01:05:45.840" UserId="18680" Comment="deleted 280 characters in body" Text="So I'm about to land my first client as freelance iOS developer. I did my research but didn't believe how much I could actually price, and ended up charging too low. Reasons are because I had no idea what clients budget was, its my first client, really want it for my portfolio, and pretty much built half the app already during prototype i did for free. Client was shocked at how low, and we agreed that I should spend more time on the app(I`m thinking about a month) and to come back with a fixed price (rather than hourly because risk of additionally hours to pay). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Problem is I can't boost price too high since I already set a low baseline price, but want to get as much as I can without seeming like I'm trying to get over on them now that we both I went way under. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21466" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8077" RevisionGUID="b2cc5b89-2e73-4e7e-8f75-e193794678e2" CreationDate="2019-01-24T04:58:25.503" UserId="21388" Text="I own, for about a year now, a **one-man** Software Firm that works with projects in the Industrial Automation and Data Telemetry market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My initial goal when started this firm was to develop software products and sell them directly to my final customers, which are big enterprises (mining companies and grain storage facilities).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've achieved the &quot;develop products&quot; part, but still it's extremelly difficult to sell to my final customers, I always got replies like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - How are you going to give me support?&#xD;&#xA; - What should I do if I need you and you're on vacation? Or sick?&#xD;&#xA; - How many team members do you have?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand and totally agree with this concerns, but how I'm supposed to build a team without the money that comes from this kind of projects?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Today I managed to sell my products through partnerships with equipment sellers, that sells their products and sell my softwares with their brand, but they get at least 200% over my selling price. This looks fine to me, because I know all the structure involved in this kind of operation and I can get almost 1 sell/month, with my selling price being $7600 for each unit, with gives me some financial comfort, but still won't let me grow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**So, my main question is: how can I convince a possible client from buying something directly from me?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have portfolios, all projects I install can be presented as mine, but it seems not to be enough." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21467" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8077" RevisionGUID="b2cc5b89-2e73-4e7e-8f75-e193794678e2" CreationDate="2019-01-24T04:58:25.503" UserId="21388" Text="How can I sell to Big Clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21468" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8077" RevisionGUID="b2cc5b89-2e73-4e7e-8f75-e193794678e2" CreationDate="2019-01-24T04:58:25.503" UserId="21388" Text="|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21469" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8078" RevisionGUID="8d4f8c60-7a79-4dc1-977f-e8d59a4aac17" CreationDate="2019-01-24T17:15:56.640" UserId="75" Text="You're right about their concerns, and they need those parts solved. Would you be able to hire an MSP-type agency until you grow more? 1 sell per month doesn't sound like a lot, would you be able to sell 2 or more per month?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can get an MSP-type agency that agrees to only bill you when they need to do something, that helps in a few ways:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. If something is repeatedly breaking, you'll see the trend and fix it&#xD;&#xA;2. If you have documentation that you expect them to follow, they most likely will&#xD;&#xA;3. If you focus on the selling, you can get more money to eventually hire someone to work under you&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would focus on chatting with MSPs in the area, and see what kind of deal you can come to. Once you have &quot;support&quot; in place, even if you get [hit by a bus][1], then you can show the big industries that you have that part covered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now that you can focus *less* on the technical side of things, you can focus *more* on the selling, increase your income, and grow from there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21470" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8079" RevisionGUID="016c1fc5-6325-42ab-a8b2-d8e50132a938" CreationDate="2019-01-25T12:56:54.077" UserId="21400" Text="I've used many Freelancers over the years - always as the employer. I've never not paid!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try to see this from your client's view. If he pays you, then on the way out next morning, you have an accident, or you get arrested, or any other event out of your control, then, he is left with nothing. You are asking him to take all the risk, and not you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I always pay after delivery. But yes, I agree with whoever suggested Escrow. It's safer for both parties. It's customary in UK to pay only for orders that involve the labourer/third-party-freelancer investing in materials.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not a trust thing, it's just normal business.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21471" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7978" RevisionGUID="d6b5fec4-2719-4fe4-9530-864e39b54a1a" CreationDate="2019-01-25T16:03:30.257" UserDisplayName="user7489" Comment="typo corrections" Text="First: I can't really tell you *what you should do*. I can give you some pointers for the future:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You say: *the client was vague about what they wanted*. In such cases, don't just do *something*. You are the professional, you should notice if you have all the info you need for your work or not. If something is unclear, request further communication first.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. I don't know what kind of agency this is, but normally someone should take the requirements from the client. Part of that is often, helping them to articulate their real needs. You need to look at how this is done at the moment, and if there is room for improvement. Maybe you should be part of that process too? (talking directly to the client)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. If this is an isolated incident, don't read too much into this. Tastes differ and some clients will always be complaining. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And here is *what I would do* (in software-development), in case I feel this is more than a &quot;one-off, forget about it&quot; incident.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would contact the agency and tell them you feel bad about how the job has gone and if they would like to analyse if there is a learning in it for the future. Put special emphasis on it that you don't want to blame anyone, just see if you can do anything to improve and prevent such incidents in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are interested in talking to you, have a meeting (personal or skype - not mail etc.) Concentrate on the problems you faced, and what you could do / what you would need to mitigate such problems in the future, see points 1. and 2. Do not blame anyone, especially not the client! If you can agree on some points for improvement in the future, fine. If you agree that is just a single unhappy incident, also ok.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Afterwards, write the agency an e-mail with a nice wrap-up where you thank them for the discussion and list the agreed improvements, if any.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21472" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7978" RevisionGUID="d6b5fec4-2719-4fe4-9530-864e39b54a1a" CreationDate="2019-01-25T16:03:30.257" Comment="Proposed by 7489 approved by 61, 18230 edit id of 650" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21473" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8080" RevisionGUID="0f48afc6-f0b5-4745-a2d2-b2e7551eb4d3" CreationDate="2019-01-25T18:18:26.443" UserId="21401" Text="I currently work as a full time freelancer. And I develop various applications within excel. I have created lot of applications for many clients. So I thought to create a Youtube channel showing the past work I did. Then I can upload demonstration videos about applications I have done. Then I get a questions how to name this channel. Can I name it as &quot;Freelance portfolio&quot;? I have seen portfolio websites of graphic designers. But haven't seen Youtube channels? Does freelance portfolio always need to be a website?&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21474" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8080" RevisionGUID="0f48afc6-f0b5-4745-a2d2-b2e7551eb4d3" CreationDate="2019-01-25T18:18:26.443" UserId="21401" Text="freelance portfolio youtube channel" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21475" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8080" RevisionGUID="0f48afc6-f0b5-4745-a2d2-b2e7551eb4d3" CreationDate="2019-01-25T18:18:26.443" UserId="21401" Text="|freelance-websites|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21477" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8081" RevisionGUID="265c13cb-6e12-445f-937a-27b8a45d575d" CreationDate="2019-01-26T02:50:03.470" UserId="708" Text="The purpose of *any* portfolio is to show your previous work. If that is best done via video then that what you should use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for Youtube channel.. well, check the Terms of Service. You may be granting YouTube more rights to *your* work than you should by uploading content there. That would be the number one reason what your suggesting isn't widely used -- copyright protection. Remember, if it's on the internet it *will* be stolen. If you grant a third party (YouTube) unlimited reuse of your work, they may take advantage of that and devalue it all as a whole. And you *may* have contracts stating your clients own all the IP, in which case you can't grant YouTube use of it, regardless of the intention.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're also open to trolls, comments, undesired links, etc. I think you need to examine and think about the YouTube market more. Not necessarily who you would send a link to, but those that would find your channel, and if they were a mind to, create problems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While using a third party site/service to show off occasional work can be great here or there, I'd hesitate to rely solely on such a service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most portfolios are hosted on your own domain allowing some protection of the content, even if minimally. In addition since that only means *your* using the content, you aren't granting another party use of the IP." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21478" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8081" RevisionGUID="d3d38802-434a-4750-a016-2482b5b3c89f" CreationDate="2019-01-26T04:56:43.273" UserId="75" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="The purpose of *any* portfolio is to show your previous work. If that is best done via video then that what you should use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for Youtube channel.. well, check the Terms of Service. You may be granting YouTube more rights to *your* work than you should by uploading content there. That would be the number one reason what your suggesting isn't widely used -- copyright protection. Remember, if it's on the internet it *will* be stolen. If you grant a third party (YouTube) unlimited reuse of your work, they may take advantage of that and devalue it all as a whole. And you *may* have contracts stating your clients own all the IP, in which case you can't grant YouTube use of it, regardless of the intention.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're also open to trolls, comments, undesired links, etc. I think you need to examine and think about the YouTube market more. Not necessarily who you would send a link to, but those that would find your channel, and if they were a mind to, create problems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While using a third party site/service to show off occasional work can be great here or there, I'd hesitate to rely solely on such a service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most portfolios are hosted on your own domain allowing some protection of the content, even if minimally. In addition since that only means *you're* using the content, you aren't granting another party use of the IP." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21479" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8082" RevisionGUID="61fe0e4d-3418-4bb6-87a2-1736c403d4e3" CreationDate="2019-01-26T13:02:28.037" UserId="20911" Text="If you want to place only a portfolio on this channel, it does not matter how you'll name it. Because it will be visited only by those who get direct address from you. Unfortunately, I have to disappoint you: YouTube is the last place where any of your potential customers will search for your portfolio on their own. So just name the channel by your own name: this will be the easiest and most logical option.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But there is good news. You can use your channel to really attract new customers. All you need to do is expand its content.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have rich experience in creating applications for Excel? Great!  &#xD;&#xA;Create a training channel and show how to create simple applications. Those visitors who need really simple applications are still unlikely to become your customers, but they will be interested in the training side of your channel and they will help this channel to become popular. This will help you promote your name as an expert in this field.  &#xD;&#xA;As a result, the channel will be visited by those who will be able to become your customer in the future. Some of them will initially hope to solve the problem on their own, but they will understand that it is better to turn to such an expert as you (of course, you need to mention this possibility in each of your videos!)   &#xD;&#xA;Someone will immediately look for professionals whose videos on this topic are popular, because it means you know what you're talking about.  &#xD;&#xA;In both cases, your channel will really start working for you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21480" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8083" RevisionGUID="697e7615-2658-4cfb-a63b-211c7a20530e" CreationDate="2019-01-26T16:44:43.143" UserId="5172" Text="I have found honesty. e.g. some software already exists that can do it,do you want to proceed?, if not just my time to pay. This is best." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21481" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8084" RevisionGUID="c8bc62fd-da53-43f8-9a34-06df09444dde" CreationDate="2019-01-26T17:06:51.853" UserId="5172" Text="1 the main question is &quot;Do you want to work for a client , who does NOT trust you to bill on a locally  adequate rate?&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;2. If you want more than client is prepared to pay (your estimate of your work selling price), then you need to find different customers.&#xD;&#xA;3. Agree with him, there is no adequate to him formula  available and so you must part ways  gently and firmly. Leave open the door for him to come back without losing face by agreeing say 80% of your next estimate when he asks you to drop your quoted fee on next job. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21482" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8085" RevisionGUID="59b0d325-5abd-467e-be93-f82ca1e9febc" CreationDate="2019-01-26T17:19:00.437" UserId="21409" Text="I'm an independent software consultant and I want to create a framework that lets me solve a wide variety of problems in a niche area. &#xD;&#xA;The purpose of the framework is to have existing building blocks that I can reuse and &quot;configure&quot; in order to implement custom solutions faster. &#xD;&#xA;For a client in the past I created a solution but the contract stated &quot;work for hire&quot; so I can't reuse parts of this code. &#xD;&#xA;I have a new client requesting a project of similar functionality but I want to &quot;do it right&quot; this time so that I can reuse this framework for other clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any ideas on how to express this to the client both verbally and in the contract? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From what I've read in various resources it's either &quot;work for hire&quot; or you need to supply a license. &#xD;&#xA;Ideally I'd want to give the client full freedom to use and edit the code in perpetuity but also allow me to use this framework (and build some stuff on top of it optionally) for other clients. In other words do whatever you want with it but don't restrict me from reusing it with other clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm thinking of outsourcing this to some senior engineers that are better than me at executing this.  The thing that's troubling me I don't want to take the full risk of paying for the development of the framework and then selling it to the client. &#xD;&#xA;Is there a way to develop this in the time that the client is paying (or as a fixed price) instead of developing it upfront?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyone has experience with a similar situation? &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21483" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8085" RevisionGUID="59b0d325-5abd-467e-be93-f82ca1e9febc" CreationDate="2019-01-26T17:19:00.437" UserId="21409" Text="advice on software IP" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21484" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8085" RevisionGUID="59b0d325-5abd-467e-be93-f82ca1e9febc" CreationDate="2019-01-26T17:19:00.437" UserId="21409" Text="|contracts|ownership|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21485" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="8085" RevisionGUID="403fb4dd-05b6-45c8-a7cb-b95cabbff479" CreationDate="2019-01-26T17:41:21.443" UserId="61" Comment="Edited the title for clarity" Text="How to combine the general advantages of &quot;work for hire&quot; and retain my right for reuse the code?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21486" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8086" RevisionGUID="1019486e-92ea-4095-a8bc-8eaa80acc062" CreationDate="2019-01-26T18:02:15.367" UserId="21409" Text="tldr; I was consulting alone and I'm not sure on how to do it with a team.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My consulting business (software, independent) in a niche field is going well.&#xD;&#xA;Up until now I have winged it, since there is code involved and I'm not a good coder. Recently the requests I get have become harder.&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to build a team of freelancers (not fulltime employees) to outsource the coding part so that I can focus on communication with the clients and product management (making sure the solution get delivered).&#xD;&#xA;I'm technical but some of the solutions require experience in an area that I'm not experienced in, so I cannot provide more than generic technical guidance on some projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do either weekly or fixed value pricing depending on the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some of the projects have great value for the client, in the effect that I could bill $50k (or even $100k) for a fixed value project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some problems I'm facing:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I have found some good developers that could build the solution for $10k. Is it a usual thing for the head consultant (me) to rake in the difference ($40k or $90k)?&#xD;&#xA;2. Should I be the only contact point between the developers and the client? Should the developers talk directly with the client's team?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   i. I guess I'm worried that if the client discovers I'm not the technical architect of the solution and that I just do &quot;product management&quot;, they will be mad. Or if they find out that the developers are getting paid just $10k and I'm getting $40k.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   ii. I'm also worried that the client might poach them. If the developers can deliver on their own after some point, what do they need me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Sometimes I feel like an impostor, is that normal?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21487" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8086" RevisionGUID="1019486e-92ea-4095-a8bc-8eaa80acc062" CreationDate="2019-01-26T18:02:15.367" UserId="21409" Text="advice on consulting with a team" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21488" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8086" RevisionGUID="1019486e-92ea-4095-a8bc-8eaa80acc062" CreationDate="2019-01-26T18:02:15.367" UserId="21409" Text="|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21496" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8089" RevisionGUID="4ae7bfe6-33a5-4505-93db-4ac98ee8bbeb" CreationDate="2019-01-28T06:39:20.617" UserId="21416" Text="I have a freelancing business (just me, sole proprietor) that I run in parallel to my full-time day job. I need to make extra money on the side because I'm behind with retirement savings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I set up a self-employed 401k US retirement account. I'm now wondering about the maximum contribution I can make to the 401k. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's assume I'm not doing any 401k contributions from my full-time job and after all expenses, but before taxes, I made $8k with freelancing in 2018. Can I put the entire $8k into the 401k for retirement?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21497" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8089" RevisionGUID="4ae7bfe6-33a5-4505-93db-4ac98ee8bbeb" CreationDate="2019-01-28T06:39:20.617" UserId="21416" Text="Self-employed 401k" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21498" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8089" RevisionGUID="4ae7bfe6-33a5-4505-93db-4ac98ee8bbeb" CreationDate="2019-01-28T06:39:20.617" UserId="21416" Text="|taxes|money|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21499" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8090" RevisionGUID="b4ef15f0-53cf-454e-90c1-73d7f8906c0d" CreationDate="2019-01-28T06:48:46.813" UserId="21416" Text="good questions. I'm facing some of the same. I'm a single freelance IT consultant / software engineer and I'm doing the freelance gig on the side. I've a customer who needed a larger project done, so I hired a developer I knew from a class I had taken.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are my two cents on your questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. If you've indeed found developers who will do good work at a small fraction of the price you can charge for the product, then congratulations! I generally find that I can only work with experienced devs who are native English speakers. They aren't cheap. I generally can mark up by about 40%, but not by large factors like you. Maybe I'm not greedy enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. You should always be the point of contact to the client. I'm open with my clients about having sub-contractors, but it's important and good business that communication with the client is reliable and always done in the same way. You can't guarantee that if you let your subcontractors talk directly to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Yup, get used to it!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21500" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8091" RevisionGUID="ff55cc5c-34b1-46d4-9828-e639511e5b23" CreationDate="2019-01-28T07:26:53.213" UserId="21416" Text="Data entry is very important work. I often deal with digitization/automation projects that involve data entry from non-uniform sources (e.g., invoices from different contractors) that cannot be fully automated. In such a situation, I often need and seldom find reliable data entry specialists.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When looking for a data entry specialist, I want:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Excellent language skills and attention to detail (to minimize errors on data entry).&#xD;&#xA; - Support for multiple data formats: Excel, CSV, plain text, sometimes JSON, SQL&#xD;&#xA; - Ability to follow complex instructions with many special cases.&#xD;&#xA; - Ability to double-check data entry by building check lists from instruction set(s)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21503" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8093" RevisionGUID="5b94aaaa-b4a0-407a-86b8-1a9d9c6b6a43" CreationDate="2019-01-28T16:54:23.517" UserId="21423" Text="Okay so i have a problem. Im freelancer by myself and im looking for team that is willing to work on open source project for FREE. The problem is that im freelancer and i know that there is no freelancer that is willing to spend he's free time to work on open source project. I don't have enough money to pay anyone so i need a good website where i can gather this team. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Project name is AWT. AWT is website builder more like a wordpress but with a lot of cool features. For example one of the features is loging file or a console. It will have themes, plugins, widgets, page creation tool, built in file management etc. Now you may ask why to create something that already exists? It's simple wordpress is slow. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now back to main question is there any website where i can find developers and designers that are willing to work on this project for free? Also if you are willing to work on this project i will appreciate it, and please contact me for further information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21504" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8093" RevisionGUID="5b94aaaa-b4a0-407a-86b8-1a9d9c6b6a43" CreationDate="2019-01-28T16:54:23.517" UserId="21423" Text="Team gathering for open source project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21505" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8093" RevisionGUID="5b94aaaa-b4a0-407a-86b8-1a9d9c6b6a43" CreationDate="2019-01-28T16:54:23.517" UserId="21423" Text="|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21506" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8093" RevisionGUID="208ea24e-82f1-442e-880f-8be3eefa839d" CreationDate="2019-01-28T17:12:42.513" UserId="61" Comment="removed a personal invitation which is a clear off-topic" Text="I'm a freelancer by myself and I'm looking for team that is willing to work on open source project for FREE. The problem is that I'm a freelancer and I know that there is no freelancer that is willing to spend he's free time to work on open source project. I don't have enough money to pay anyone so I need a good website where I can gather this team. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Project name is AWT. AWT is website builder more like a Wordpress but with a lot of cool features. For example one of the features is loging file or a console. It will have themes, plugins, widgets, page creation tool, built in file management etc. Now you may ask why to create something that already exists? It's simple Wordpress is slow. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now back to main question: is there any website where I can find developers and designers that are willing to work on this project for free?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21507" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8094" RevisionGUID="eb8ba0e1-6904-43f4-87b8-8a120ce7b1c6" CreationDate="2019-01-28T21:58:21.887" UserId="21416" Text="I think the way to get people to invest their time in such a project is to build a *user base* that likes the project, finds it useful, and then contributes to it because they need added functionality (perhaps for their paid freelance project). I've been involved in many open source projects (mostly in the academic community) and the way to get people to contribute is to give them something useful they want to extend for their own projects." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21511" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8093" RevisionGUID="cde577c3-2a03-471f-8ae4-a702cd3a79cd" CreationDate="2019-01-29T19:05:01.530" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 14 characters in body" Text="I'm a freelancer by myself and I'm looking for team that is willing to work on open source project for FREE. The problem is that I'm a freelancer and I know that there is no freelancer that is willing to spend their free time to work on open source project. I don't have enough money to pay anyone so I need a good website where I can gather this team. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Project  is website builder more like a Wordpress but with a lot of cool features. For example one of the features is logging file or a console. It will have themes, plugins, widgets, page creation tool, built in file management etc. Now you may ask why to create something that already exists? It's simple Wordpress is slow. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now back to main question: is there any website where I can find developers and designers that are willing to work on this project for free?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21512" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="8093" RevisionGUID="2cea956c-9082-41cb-8568-5d9d1bf5dada" CreationDate="2019-01-29T19:05:15.437" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="21513" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8096" RevisionGUID="202899c0-c57e-4464-9610-a148a2a0b642" CreationDate="2019-01-30T02:28:03.343" UserId="21435" Text="&gt; Do I need contracts to sign up freelancers?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1,000 times yes. You should have contracts with anyone and everyone that you engage with in a business relationship." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21515" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8097" RevisionGUID="3f1226e0-5c24-448b-b673-a28380621031" CreationDate="2019-01-30T09:15:17.237" UserId="21437" Text="I am self-employed and just started a business. Is it a legal requirement to produce an invoice and receipt for my clients? Will HMRC expect to see these next year when I file my SA? Thanks, Mark" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21516" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8097" RevisionGUID="3f1226e0-5c24-448b-b673-a28380621031" CreationDate="2019-01-30T09:15:17.237" UserId="21437" Text="Receipts and invoices" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21517" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8097" RevisionGUID="3f1226e0-5c24-448b-b673-a28380621031" CreationDate="2019-01-30T09:15:17.237" UserId="21437" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21518" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8098" RevisionGUID="a20dada2-a3b5-4ddc-ad32-7a118dee6ae5" CreationDate="2019-01-30T18:13:22.567" UserId="75" Text="An invoice should indicate what is owed, and for what. If you want to prove they owe you money, an invoice is a typical first step, no matter what country you're in. Even if you just use a free Invoice template (for example, through Microsoft Excel), it at least gives you a record of what payments to be expecting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you get to larger companies, they won't pay just based on an email - they'll want an invoice to pass through to their Accounts Payable department.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(IANAL) It is not a legal requirement to create an invoice or receipt, but doing so shows you're a serious entrepreneur who knows how to run a business. When I invoice, it gets sent as a PDF to their email, detailing what work I did and how much I expect, along with terms of payment. Then, when I get paid, I email them the invoice with the payment amount added, so they can see they owe nothing after. Optionally, I could email a receipt, but I feel that with the amount of work I do, attaching the payment amount to existing invoices makes it easiest for any accounting department to see *why* money went to me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21529" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8101" RevisionGUID="6723cb33-959d-4bf9-b801-6cbcad29dbd8" CreationDate="2019-02-04T03:35:43.663" UserId="21459" Text="I have been freelancing for a client for two years now at 15 hours/week. I recently raised my rate from $30/hour to $50/hour to reflect that of a freelancer and not an employee (since I receive no benefits from them and am growing my business), and now my client is being a stick in the mud about a few things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Previously, I charged for &quot;team&quot; monthly lunch meetings (even though again, I am a consultant, not an employee). My client now wants me to attend these team lunch meetings for free, which can last anywhere from 1-2 hours, and the drive time alone is one hour round trip (so 2-3 hours). This lunch meeting is also a big interruption to my day and productivity. However, my client seems to think that since it's a free lunch and that they will give me &quot;proprietary&quot; and &quot;non-proprietary&quot; training during these meetings it makes sense not to pay me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, they are flying in their business coach next month and want me to attend their team's leadership training, but I'm only allowed to charge half my rate. I'm not sure what the agenda is for this training nor am I sure I will learn anything useful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I go about this? Is it normal to attend monthly, onsite meetings for free? Or have them dictate my rate for trainings/demand that I go to them? I'm new to freelancing full-time and am at a loss here. Thank you in advance!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21530" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8101" RevisionGUID="6723cb33-959d-4bf9-b801-6cbcad29dbd8" CreationDate="2019-02-04T03:35:43.663" UserId="21459" Text="Client wants free and half-rate meetings" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21531" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8101" RevisionGUID="6723cb33-959d-4bf9-b801-6cbcad29dbd8" CreationDate="2019-02-04T03:35:43.663" UserId="21459" Text="|payment-terms|difficult-client|pay-rate|negotiation|training|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21532" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8102" RevisionGUID="cb162481-9a9d-4ebf-a990-43caa604d664" CreationDate="2019-02-04T05:38:52.673" UserId="708" Text="I think you know the answer to this, but may be a bit apprehensive about losing the client if you fail to attend these meetings. That's always a possibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's **your** business. Your pricing and what you will or will not do for that pricing, is **your** decision, never a clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No client can make *any meeting* mandatory for you. Now, a client *can* require attendance to something if you wish to continue working with them. That's not out of line. But you charging for your time is not out of line either. In order to keep a good client happy, it's best to consider every request case by case. **However**, if attendance puts undo stress on you (the drive, the loss of work hours, etc) you have every right in the world to enforce payment for that time. And, of course,  there are always two sides...  they can then refuse to pay you and stop working with you if you fail to attend. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Attending their meeting means I can not focus on other work. Therefore they are responsible for compensating me for the time I'm losing by attending their meeting. **It is no different than if I spent 4 hours at my desk working on a project of theirs.** They want my time and expertise, they pay for it, *no matter what* they actually do with my time. I'll go sit in their office and stare at the wall for 4 hours if that's what they want... but they'll be invoiced for 4 hours of my time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are unwilling to pay for my time, they don't get my time. For some clients it means they terminate the business relationship. Which, to me, is fine. If they don't value my time, they certainly don't value me or my skills. I'd rather work with clients that *do* see value in my time and services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In **no** circumstance would I *ever* attend a &quot;business coach&quot; meeting merely because the client *wants* me to. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client may mention:&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;Hey, we've got a meeting about business management scheduled next week. If you'd like to attend, you are more than welcome&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are merely inviting me if I so desire, not requesting I attend as if it's necessary for our relationship. Then, if I *wanted* to attend I would and not charge the client anything for that time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However...&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;Hey, we've got a meeting about business management scheduled next week. We need you to attend that meeting&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That meeting (and travel) time is invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client **ever** states to me &quot;you have to...&quot; my reactionary thought is &quot;Okay, you will have to pay for that.&quot; It's really not much more complicated than that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21533" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="8014" RevisionGUID="42c17e26-aa94-4a09-8e8b-ad5353ae8a89" CreationDate="2019-02-04T12:00:43.503" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1092392505214152704" />
  <row Id="21534" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8103" RevisionGUID="00a1c40b-5fa5-4657-97df-fc07bf8f6eef" CreationDate="2019-02-04T14:08:05.907" UserId="21461" Text="The question is very limited in itself. But to me I charge according to my expertise and the amount of time it requires for me to complete a specified task. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let say if If I'm charging $50 for a 1000 word article and spending 2 hrs to complete it in this case my hourly rate would be $25/hr which is great. However, if someone even offers me 10000 words project at $30 per 1000 word I'd reject because the amount of time I'd invest would be the same and my price would also go down to just $15/hr. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21535" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8104" RevisionGUID="feabc45b-7b6f-47fa-9a2e-5bab21636986" CreationDate="2019-02-04T22:02:27.747" UserId="21465" Text="When someone ask for my bank account, Which information they mean?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Routing Number? Account Number? or both ? and is it safe to provide these numbers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21536" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8104" RevisionGUID="feabc45b-7b6f-47fa-9a2e-5bab21636986" CreationDate="2019-02-04T22:02:27.747" UserId="21465" Text="US bank account - Which information should I provide?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21537" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8104" RevisionGUID="feabc45b-7b6f-47fa-9a2e-5bab21636986" CreationDate="2019-02-04T22:02:27.747" UserId="21465" Text="|payments|usa|money|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21538" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8104" RevisionGUID="39ab205c-7f54-4c8c-8678-0e97abe8667f" CreationDate="2019-02-04T23:36:43.543" UserId="21465" Comment="more clarification" Text="When a US client ask for my bank account in order to pay me (by bank transfer payment) for my work , Which information they mean?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Routing Number? Account Number? or both ? and is it safe to provide these numbers?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; My guess is both, because the Routing Number is unique to the bank and the Account Number is unique to the account holder, correct ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21539" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7955" RevisionGUID="8c8669b5-59a3-417b-85fa-80fdc8269f0e" CreationDate="2019-02-05T00:00:55.353" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1092573748765646848" />
  <row Id="21540" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8105" RevisionGUID="fc0f213d-fc63-4607-ba32-e58eb6e0d880" CreationDate="2019-02-05T02:49:29.857" UserId="21416" Text="Yes, you need both your account number and your bank's routing number. I've a few bigger clients who pay me using ACH transfers. So much nicer than having to cash checks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21541" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8106" RevisionGUID="d2257fe4-b79e-48b4-9c1e-af30f7a7e5d4" CreationDate="2019-02-05T13:56:00.590" UserId="21468" Text="I'm looking for some advice on a quote. I've previously quoted and built a wordpress website for a client, this website is now live, and now they want me to clone that website and create a new site in which they will put new content in. I get the impression that they think this will be cheaper than the last site. I feel I should quote the same amount as the previous site, although it wont take me as long because the work is already done. But effectively i feel like I should quote on the website as a product instead of hours/time it takes to build. If i did the latter (quote on hours/time) for the clone i wouldn't be able to quote as much, and it wouldnt be worth my while.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are peoples opinion on this? Interested to know what other freelancers would do in this situation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21542" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8106" RevisionGUID="d2257fe4-b79e-48b4-9c1e-af30f7a7e5d4" CreationDate="2019-02-05T13:56:00.590" UserId="21468" Text="Wordpress website quote advice" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21543" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8106" RevisionGUID="d2257fe4-b79e-48b4-9c1e-af30f7a7e5d4" CreationDate="2019-02-05T13:56:00.590" UserId="21468" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21544" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="8106" RevisionGUID="f9dcf6c0-b136-417a-aa62-70a1b3038656" CreationDate="2019-02-05T14:15:36.467" UserId="21468" Comment="edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21545" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8107" RevisionGUID="6e7dfbe0-5ee3-41c4-9079-b8bfea65a753" CreationDate="2019-02-05T17:50:59.140" UserId="20911" Text="It all depends on what is more important for you at the moment: to get the maximum possible amount for this order or to get a long-term client. Because if you put for the second website the same amount as for the first, then what is the reason for the customer to ask you next time when he will need such work for the third site? Why not try another freelancer?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Quite often, freelancers make some discount when performing work for the same customer, even when new work is not based on the results of previous one, just to expand a base of loyal customers. And in your case, given the smaller amount of real work, this approach is even more logical.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But in any case, it's up to you. Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21546" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8108" RevisionGUID="3aea3237-9720-4b44-ac6c-26b246bae7a5" CreationDate="2019-02-05T20:26:23.020" UserId="708" Text="Customarily, when my clients return to me to merely *alter* something I've already created, they **do** get a **reduced price**. Exactly *because* I already built what they need and they merely want to alter it. This keeps **clients happy**, which is always the goal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they wanted to make a few edits to the *existing* site, would you charge them a fee based on an *entire new site*? Of course not. You'd charge them for the edits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, for a cloned site, that's *all they are asking for* - edits and **not** creation. So charge them a fee based upon *editing* and not constructing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I **would**, however, add a bit to the editing costs to compensate for the increased ROI they may get from a second site. So I'd do something like [editing costs + 20%] or [hourly rate + 20%].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is merely how I handle similar matters. I'm not stating it's the &quot;correct&quot; way to do so, only that it's worked well for me. I'd *much rather* have a client return to me over and over with more work than make a few extra dollars on one project and never see the client again." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21547" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8108" RevisionGUID="56445301-f7b0-4bf2-88a5-4e84cdfe5a0b" CreationDate="2019-02-05T20:57:31.863" UserId="708" Comment="added 620 characters in body" Text="Customarily, when my clients return to me to merely *alter* something I've already created, they **do** get a **reduced price**. Exactly *because* I already built what they need and they merely want to alter it. This keeps **clients happy**, which is always the goal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they wanted to make a few edits to the *existing* site, would you charge them a fee based on an *entire new site*? Of course not. You'd charge them for the edits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, for a cloned site, that's *all they are asking for* - edits and **not** creation. So charge them a fee based upon *editing* and not constructing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do have **&quot;base prices&quot;** for smaller, particular, projects and this is explained to clients -- i.e. an HTML email design has a base price. So, if they need an email, pricing *starts* at $xxx.xx, then may increase from there based upon the complexity desired. It's essentially a &quot;minimal cost&quot; for the item they are requesting. I know that for every project of *this* nature I will need to do X, Y and Z every time. So, I build the time needed to complete those tasks into a &quot;base fee&quot; or &quot;minimum price&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would **not** be out of line of you to have a base price for a Wordpress site. That base price should be factored considering the ***smallest amount of time*** it would take to throw up a Wordpress site, then you add your editing fees on top of that price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is merely how I handle similar matters. I'm not stating it's the &quot;correct&quot; way to do so, only that it's worked well for me. I'd *much rather* have a client return to me over and over with more work than make a few extra dollars on one project and never see the client again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21548" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8108" RevisionGUID="b85caab5-19c5-452a-a6dc-187bec39b740" CreationDate="2019-02-05T21:04:45.320" UserId="708" Comment="added 620 characters in body" Text="Customarily, when my clients return to me to merely *alter* something I've already created, they **do** get a **reduced price**. Exactly *because* I already built what they need and they merely want to alter it. This keeps **clients happy**, which is always the goal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they wanted to make a few edits to the *existing* site, would you charge them a fee based on an *entire new site*? Of course not. You'd charge them for the edits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, for a cloned site, that's *all they are asking for* - edits and **not** creation. So charge them a fee based upon *editing* and not constructing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do have **&quot;base prices&quot;** for smaller, particular, projects and this is explained to clients -- i.e. an HTML email design has a base price. So, if they need an email, pricing *starts* at $xxx.xx, then may increase from there based upon the complexity desired. It's essentially a &quot;minimal cost&quot; for the item they are requesting. I know that for every project of *this* nature I will need to do X, Y and Z every time. So, I build the time needed to complete those tasks into a &quot;base fee&quot; or &quot;minimum price&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would **not** be out of line of you to have a base price for a Wordpress site. That base price should be factored considering the ***smallest amount of time*** it would take to throw up a Wordpress site. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Throw up&quot;-- not design or configure/personalize or any of that.... merely the amount of time it would to take you to create a &quot;canned&quot; Wordpress site and have it live and active. (or I'll use 2 hrs @ my hourly rate as a minimum, if the time to complete these standard tasks is negligible.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you add your editing fees on top of that &quot;base price&quot; or &quot;minimum fee&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having this base pricing allows you to gain some revenue from the client's ROI on the new item. While at the same time, NOT charging the client standard fees as if it were an entirely new project. The base pricing is customarily quite lower than pricing for a brand new project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is merely how I handle similar matters. I'm not stating it's the &quot;correct&quot; way to do so, only that it's worked well for me. I'd *much rather* have a client return to me over and over with more work than make a few extra dollars on one project and never see the client again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21549" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8108" RevisionGUID="777514cb-e696-4a41-bdf8-02109658184e" CreationDate="2019-02-05T21:13:32.360" UserId="708" Comment="added 620 characters in body" Text="Customarily, when my clients return to me to merely *alter* something I've already created, they **do** get a **reduced price**. Exactly *because* I already built what they need and they merely want to alter it. This keeps **clients happy**, which is always the goal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they wanted to make a few edits to the *existing* site, would you charge them a fee based on an *entire new site*? Of course not. You'd charge them for the edits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, for a cloned site, that's *all they are asking for* - edits and **not** creation. So charge them a fee based upon *editing* and not constructing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do have **&quot;base prices&quot;** for smaller, particular, projects and this is explained to clients -- i.e. an HTML email design has a base price. So, if they need an email, pricing *starts* at [$xxx.xx], then may increase from there based upon the complexity desired. But they will never be charged less than [$xxx.xx] for an HTML email. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's essentially a &quot;minimal cost&quot; for the item they are requesting. I know that for every project of *this* nature I will need to do X, Y, and Z every time. So, I build the time needed to complete those tasks into a &quot;base fee&quot; or &quot;minimum price&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would **not** be out of line of you to have a base price for a Wordpress site. That base price should be factored considering the ***smallest amount of time*** it would take to throw up a Wordpress site. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Throw up&quot;-- not design or configure/personalize or any of that.... merely the amount of time it would to take you to create a &quot;canned&quot; Wordpress site and have it live and active. (or I'll use 2 hours at my hourly rate as a minimum, if the time to complete these standard tasks is negligible.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you add your editing fees on top of that &quot;base price&quot; or &quot;minimum fee&quot;. The result is typically far, far less than a brand new site keeping the client happy. While at the same time providing you a bit more income than just your editing fees. Having this base pricing allows you to gain some revenue from the client's additional ROI for the new item. While at the same time, NOT charging the client standard fees as if it were an entirely new project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also use your base price as negotiating factors at times... Telling a *new client* that [project X] has a *minimum fee* of [$xxx.xx] and pricing will increase from that point, can help to dissuade looky-loos or window-shopping clients. If your *base price* is too much for them, then their project isn't worth your time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is merely how I handle similar matters. I'm not stating it's the &quot;correct&quot; way to do so, only that it's worked well for me. I'd *much rather* have a client return to me over and over with more work than make a few extra dollars on one project and never see the client again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21550" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8108" RevisionGUID="22a6ec04-4c1d-4bcc-9a7c-d19a6f55cb2d" CreationDate="2019-02-05T21:21:11.733" UserId="708" Comment="added 50 characters in body" Text="Customarily, when my clients return to me to merely *alter* something I've already created, they **do** get a **reduced price**. Exactly *because* I already built what they need and they merely want to alter it. This keeps **clients happy**, which is always the goal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they wanted to make a few edits to the *existing* site, would you charge them a fee based on an *entire new site*? Of course not. You'd charge them for the edits.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, for a cloned site, that's *all they are asking for* - edits and **not** creation. So charge them a fee based upon *editing* and not constructing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do have **&quot;base prices&quot;** for smaller, particular, projects and this is explained to clients -- i.e. an HTML email design has a base price. So, if they need an email, pricing *starts* at [$xxx.xx], then may increase from there based upon the complexity desired. But they will never be charged *less* than [$xxx.xx] for an HTML email. I stress ***minimum** fee*, not &quot;standard fee&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's essentially a &quot;minimal cost&quot; for the item they are requesting. I know that for every project of *this* nature I will need to do X, Y, and Z every time. So, I build the time needed to complete those tasks into a &quot;base fee&quot; or &quot;minimum price&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would **not** be out of line of you to have a base price for a Wordpress site. That base price should be factored considering the ***smallest amount of time*** it would take to throw up a Wordpress site. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Throw up&quot;-- not design or configure/personalize or any of that.... merely the amount of time it would to take you to create a &quot;canned&quot; Wordpress site and have it live and active. (or I'll use 2 hours at my hourly rate as a minimum, if the time to complete these standard tasks is negligible.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you add your editing fees on top of that &quot;base price&quot; or &quot;minimum fee&quot;. The result is typically far, far less than a brand new site keeping the client happy. While at the same time providing you a bit more income than just your editing fees. Having this base pricing allows you to gain some revenue from the client's additional ROI for the new item. While at the same time, NOT charging the client standard fees as if it were an entirely new project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also use your base price as negotiating factors at times... Telling a *new client* that [project X] has a *minimum fee* of [$xxx.xx] and pricing will increase from that point, can help to dissuade looky-loos or window-shopping clients. If your *base price* is too much for them, then their project isn't worth your time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is merely how I handle similar matters. I'm not stating it's the &quot;correct&quot; way to do so, only that it's worked well for me. I'd *much rather* have a client return to me over and over with more work than make a few extra dollars on one project and never see the client again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21551" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8107" RevisionGUID="c6846cc0-daa6-4039-9205-8f9052e0344c" CreationDate="2019-02-05T23:29:05.593" UserId="20911" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="It all depends on what is more important for you at the moment: to get the maximum possible money for this project or to get a long-term client. Because if you put for the second website the same amount as for the first, then what is the reason for the customer to ask you next time when he will need such work for the third site? Why won't he try another freelancer?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Quite often, freelancers make some discount when performing work for the same customer, even when new work is not based on the results of previous one, just to expand a base of loyal customers. And in your case, given the smaller amount of real work, this approach is even more logical.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But in any case, it's up to you. Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21552" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8109" RevisionGUID="b7aa37d4-7cc4-4eb3-a028-f3349a3bd595" CreationDate="2019-02-06T07:29:48.400" UserId="7858" Text="You acknowledge that merely cloning the Wordpress website is easilier done than making one from scratch.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would that apply to anyone? In other words, could the client take their business elsewhere and have another freelanmcer clone the site as easily as you could - or have you gained some knowledge that the other provider would not (normally) have?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If anyone could do the job, a reduced and competitive price based on actual time spent is almost certainly required. If not, some sort of discount on the full price would be fair.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Did you see the first website as an investment from your side? If so, is the client aware of that? It seems they are not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, it's always up for negotiation. If the client wants a larger discount, ask if there's more work forthcoming." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21553" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="8010" RevisionGUID="e7bf975f-4d64-4508-bb9f-4da16293d01c" CreationDate="2019-02-08T11:00:55.147" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21566" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="8101" RevisionGUID="fdab6d4d-e73c-46e5-a8ae-a81444779596" CreationDate="2019-02-12T03:01:11.963" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1095155832285790209" />
  <row Id="21569" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8112" RevisionGUID="d96092a7-6025-48fa-9771-b1dd9aff3407" CreationDate="2019-02-13T17:58:09.470" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="$5k-10k weekly is for a high-end senior consultant, probably with a minimum project duration (set by him) and no maximum limit. Sorry, but I doubt you fall in this category (you wouldn't be asking the question).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe suggest a price per sprint, without estimating the number of sprints. Base your pricing on your skill level, compared to what the market can offer (are you unique in the World ?).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An option can be to perform a first spring without commitment, then make a more precise estimate of the total duration. This will be safer for both the customer and you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21571" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8113" RevisionGUID="dbdc85d7-0546-439b-807e-49e3b71e64c0" CreationDate="2019-02-18T23:24:04.760" UserId="2222" Text="## Separate facilities ##&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, that works only if you can separate a part of your home that's wholly and exclusively used for business. E.g. if you have a separate &quot;office room&quot; then you might argue that the rent for that space is a business expense.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you have a room where you both work and sleep in, that's not *solely* for the business, and thus you can't claim it as an expense." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21573" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8115" RevisionGUID="51d9a30c-dc37-4c58-8ae0-18bab3cc72fb" CreationDate="2019-02-19T03:05:41.460" UserId="21535" Text="I am looking for advice on how to price work on a week-long  intensive workshops.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have done 2-3 days sessions before but that was usually basically a set of meetings in some corporate 9-5 office, everything was preset and scheduled, the aim was mainly to go through some data with relevant people and get everyone on the same page (distributed teams...).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is different though, it's in the startup industry and it's going to be a sprint-like week of defining and developing an initial product. I assume I might need to work until late at night and in general the work will be less defined (things like ideation...)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I don't know how to price this. Previously I would go from my hourly rate as the time spent was quite well defined but that doesn't seem to work well in this case. The workshop will happen in a rented house where everyone will both stay and work for the whole week. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My travels and stay are paid for, I just need to come up with a reasonable way to price my work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any ideas are much appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21574" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8115" RevisionGUID="51d9a30c-dc37-4c58-8ae0-18bab3cc72fb" CreationDate="2019-02-19T03:05:41.460" UserId="21535" Text="Quote for a full week of sprint/workshop - How to price this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21575" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8115" RevisionGUID="51d9a30c-dc37-4c58-8ae0-18bab3cc72fb" CreationDate="2019-02-19T03:05:41.460" UserId="21535" Text="|fixed-price|scope-of-work|startups|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21577" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8116" RevisionGUID="a0b89bb9-3969-457e-831d-6b649be759c2" CreationDate="2019-02-19T06:41:22.533" UserId="708" Text="I'd charge my **day rate** as a base.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You can figure day rate, based upon desired annual salary *[here][1]***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If work is expected to go into late hours of the day, and extend well past 8hrs per day, then I'd **double** my day rate.. 16hrs per day. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Granted that only leaves 8hr to sleep then start working again. However, given that you would essentially be &quot;locked in&quot; to this one client and this one project for all your time, it is not unreasonable to charge a bit more due to the lack of attention you'll be able to give your business as a whole. So I wouldn't bother factoring time off for meals or due to an hour or two prior/after work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.whatismydayrate.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21578" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8116" RevisionGUID="cc26bc72-593c-4b5c-a7f5-d5f88deeec65" CreationDate="2019-02-19T06:54:43.267" UserId="708" Comment="added 70 characters in body" Text="I'd charge my **day rate** as a base.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You can figure day rate, based upon desired annual salary *[here][1]***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If work is expected to go into late hours of the day, and extend well past 8hrs per day, then I'd **double** my day rate.. 16hrs per day. Then multiply by total days of work. So for a7 days... `day rate x 14`&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Granted that only leaves 8hr to sleep then start working again. However, given that you would essentially be &quot;locked in&quot; to this one client and this one project for all your time, it is not unreasonable to charge a bit more due to the lack of attention you'll be able to give your business as a whole. So I wouldn't bother factoring time off for meals or due to an hour or two prior/after work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.whatismydayrate.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21579" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8117" RevisionGUID="5b397c50-7259-4a55-a305-9b1fbf1ec642" CreationDate="2019-02-19T07:46:53.257" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Not producing and later declaring the invoices is a fraud, you hide your revenues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But your customers will demand one as they need to justify their expenses." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21580" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8118" RevisionGUID="2c435838-6150-4e9a-8486-f79d03e75c21" CreationDate="2019-02-19T15:20:02.453" UserId="21536" Text="I have about 10 years experience working in web development agencies as a Project Manager/User Researcher. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2 years ago I decided to move into a technical role and did an MSc in Computer Science at a well-respected university. I graduated near the top of the class. I learned HTML, CSS, JavaScript, MySQL, bash, Java and built and android app. I have no professional experience as a programmer, but have a good educational grounding and all of my project management experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've since had to move to a remote part of the country for my husbands work. There are no jobs available locally, and it's not feasible to commute (travel and childcare combined are more than I would earn).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've decided to try and establish myself as a remote freelancer (in app/web development), but I have no portfolio and need to build one. I don't care if I have to work for free to do that, but how do I go about finding projects that are portfolio worthy?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've tried lots of not-for-profit job boards but no one seems to want volunteers to get involved in web/software stuff. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can anyone advise?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21581" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8118" RevisionGUID="2c435838-6150-4e9a-8486-f79d03e75c21" CreationDate="2019-02-19T15:20:02.453" UserId="21536" Text="How to build a portfolio as a freelancer new to the market" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21582" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8118" RevisionGUID="2c435838-6150-4e9a-8486-f79d03e75c21" CreationDate="2019-02-19T15:20:02.453" UserId="21536" Text="|web-development|programmer|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21583" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8119" RevisionGUID="1f3264bd-ed26-417f-9f8b-eef265bc42b3" CreationDate="2019-02-22T20:10:50.270" UserId="21550" Text="you can create 3 own projects in your language that you prefer and use LinkedIn and Instagram to  sell development service, the idea is you can show your abilities to make things like a web page or apps mobile&#xD;&#xA;it's so important in the interviews or if your client wants to buy a service for you&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;by another side, if you want to practice and build projects non profit check: https://www.freecodecamp.org/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21584" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="8085" RevisionGUID="acb995aa-fd46-450a-bbaf-16eaed9c0461" CreationDate="2019-02-23T12:00:31.740" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1099277825243336704" />
  <row Id="21585" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8120" RevisionGUID="0e1b77e6-5310-409e-a008-4aaca559fbc7" CreationDate="2019-02-23T18:45:23.347" UserId="21416" Text="I highly recommend investing time into building a reputation on a freelancer platform like Upwork. That's how I got my portfolio off the ground.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Approach the process as an investment into your freelancer career. Don't expect that you'll be able to make a living with it right away. Bid on interesting jobs and start with low hourly rates/fixed price bids. Do good work, deliver on time, and exceed expectations. Add every completed project to your portfolio (on your own web page or on Upwork) and make sure to get positive reviews from your clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Over time, your portfolio grows and you can start rising your rate. This is how I went from $25/hour to $120/hr on Upwork over the course of about a 1.5 years. I now no-longer take on new clients on Upwork and have a number of clients outside of Upwork who found me by word of mouth from happy Upwork clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21586" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8121" RevisionGUID="a0fd6c82-9937-41bc-b405-9a67d913703c" CreationDate="2019-02-25T16:08:37.347" UserId="15202" Text="I'm JohnHC and I'm putting myself forward for a moderator position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While bigger exchanges might garner more attention (I'm looking at you, Workplace), it's useful to have a nice little corner dedicated to freelancing specifically. And wouldn't it be nice to keep it fresh and clean and free of clutter? So it's time for me to give back and step up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My moderation style is mostly hands off, but I am able to spot when intervention is required. I'm on Stack Exchange most days (answering questions on Overflow about SQL mostly), so I'm always around.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, that's my blurb." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21587" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8122" RevisionGUID="0ba8d73c-7c7c-4d7e-b3c2-ec70d1857db5" CreationDate="2019-02-25T21:39:03.377" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="There is an asymmetry in the process: money can be claimed and refunded. Work delivered electronically cannot be returned. So payment should come first." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21588" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7853" RevisionGUID="196f84cc-929a-4848-b634-75fcc53e9d37" CreationDate="2019-02-26T11:59:49.027" UserId="20591" Comment="corrections to spelling and formatted the view." Text="Hello everyone and congratulations on your wonderful work helping all of us!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I own a company in Romania that provides online phone services and I am a Romanian too paying all my taxes in Romania. I would like to hire some US-citizens to work as freelancers for my company. So my question is around that, since I am not familiar with USA tax system:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. The USA freelancers I will hire will be responsible for their ow taxes which I guess means that they need to fill a 1099 form, correct? Or they do not need to since the money they will get will be from a foreign company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. I checked some 1099 forms online and I noticed that in the top left the payer’s and receiver’s TIN should be added.  I have a Romanian tax identification number, is this suitable for this form or a USA TIN is needed? If a USA TIN is needed and I do not have one, this means that I cannot work with US citizens or they cannot work for a foreign company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. In case one of my freelancers receive payments from my personal bank account instead from the company, are they required&#xD;&#xA;To fill 1099 too? And what is the procedure that is followed when a USA citizen receives monthly payments for services from a personal account without this being a company? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So sorry for the long email and thank you for your answers&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21589" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7853" RevisionGUID="196f84cc-929a-4848-b634-75fcc53e9d37" CreationDate="2019-02-26T11:59:49.027" Comment="Proposed by 20591 approved by 61, 2546 edit id of 608" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21590" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1011" RevisionGUID="01cf3761-730c-4554-b418-0733cae08e3f" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:00:26.863" UserId="16887" Comment="Improve tags" Text="|marketing|branding|entity|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21591" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1011" RevisionGUID="01cf3761-730c-4554-b418-0733cae08e3f" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:00:26.863" Comment="Proposed by 16887 approved by 61, 2546 edit id of 626" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21592" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2672" RevisionGUID="27d335e1-f5f0-406e-9d11-46a418bb7258" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:00:33.243" UserId="15235" Comment="tags edited" Text="|billable-hours|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21593" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2672" RevisionGUID="27d335e1-f5f0-406e-9d11-46a418bb7258" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:00:33.243" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 2546 edit id of 655" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21594" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8010" RevisionGUID="88f1edd1-68bc-483d-b97c-66e4bef7786c" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:01:11.663" UserId="20940" Comment="I corrected the grammatical errors and made the wording more concise and to-the-point while also adding formatting to make it more readable." Text="I want to hire a few contractors to help get leads for my business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am planning on paying the contractors **commission only**. (*i.e. I get $X in sales from there referral and they get a fixed % of $X.*)  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, the goal to get as many new and repeat clients as possible. ***My issue is this:*** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I make the agreement fair for my contractors and give them strong incentives to work hard without having to continue paying for returning business from previously referred clients? &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**There are three basic situations:**&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1.**Individual one-time or first-time sale** - Obviously, I will pay for this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2.**Repeat business from the same client** - I want to avoid having to pay recurring commissions on.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; 3.**Bulk Sale** - I will pay for this even if it involves previous clients assuming the contractor initiates/prompts the sale and the quantity is above a specified amount.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21595" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="8010" RevisionGUID="88f1edd1-68bc-483d-b97c-66e4bef7786c" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:01:11.663" UserId="20940" Comment="I corrected the grammatical errors and made the wording more concise and to-the-point while also adding formatting to make it more readable." Text="|contracts|payment-terms|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21596" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="8010" RevisionGUID="88f1edd1-68bc-483d-b97c-66e4bef7786c" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:01:11.663" Comment="Proposed by 20940 approved by 61, 2546 edit id of 641" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21597" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7481" RevisionGUID="197722dc-1261-4c53-ad0b-e81b9a99906b" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:01:36.860" UserDisplayName="user7489" Comment="annoying typo in the title" Text="I am a freelancer for web-development and I have currently 3 customers  but no own homepage. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to create a blog in English. The main reasons for that are given in this [short talk][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, I would like to create a page where my customer can log in and use a ticket system and where I can advertise myself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, since I am from Germany I am thinking about using a domain like ***my-name.de***  which contains my blog and my business like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![enter image description here][2]][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I only want to offer my blog in English to prevent writing each post twice. Thus if blog and business would share the same domain together, I would do everything in English. Here is what I don't like about the idea:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; -  I would use a ***.de*** domain for English content only.&#xD;&#xA; -  If I want to write something about me in German too, but provide my Blog only in English language, then my site is inconsistent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, I could separate blog (***myBlog.com***) and business (***my-name.de***).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This would have the advantages that &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Blog would be only in English (.com domain)&#xD;&#xA; - My business would be only in German (.de domain)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;but it has the disadvantages that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I would need two buy separate domains and SSL certificates&#xD;&#xA; - I would need somehow two distinct logos for the pages&#xD;&#xA; - I would need to invent some random blog name&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am just not sure which way to go. Also, the blog would be for other developer, so I am not sure if this would make sense because my 3 customers so far have no developing-background at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any recommendations which way is the best to go here? Or should I maybe create a blog &amp; business domain in English like that: ***my-name.com*** ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI-TDIoV_uw&amp;t=315s&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/SK4cn.jpg" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21598" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="7481" RevisionGUID="197722dc-1261-4c53-ad0b-e81b9a99906b" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:01:36.860" UserDisplayName="user7489" Comment="annoying typo in the title" Text="Should I separate websites for blog and business?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21599" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7481" RevisionGUID="197722dc-1261-4c53-ad0b-e81b9a99906b" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:01:36.860" Comment="Proposed by 7489 approved by 61, 2546 edit id of 645" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21600" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="656" RevisionGUID="054c5880-6afd-46b6-85c7-0df48ef1d929" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:01:39.813" UserId="16887" Comment="Improve tags " Text="|business-plan|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21601" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="656" RevisionGUID="054c5880-6afd-46b6-85c7-0df48ef1d929" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:01:39.813" Comment="Proposed by 16887 approved by 61, 2546 edit id of 637" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21602" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7796" RevisionGUID="d3b420c2-0c65-481b-9fed-b0bddd499260" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:01:51.983" UserDisplayName="user7489" Comment="fixed the apostrophes" Text="I'll have to frame-challenge your premise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a company has a crappy app, they either &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. don't care enough to invest, or &#xD;&#xA;2. the don't know better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, even if you work free of charge, improving the app won't be free for the company. They would have to get you some kind of contact, supervise you, give you the sources etc. So a lot of work to do for their paid employees, they'd have to direct resources on that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So for 1, the won't care for your offer. For 2 they'd be willing to pay for improvements, but they can't judge if your claims hold any water. What they can judge is your perceived quality of work, which equals your price =&gt; zero!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I'd suggest instead is to create a little analysis of their app where you identify rooms for improvement. Send them a blueprint of what you are offering them and don't even talk about money. If they show interest, then you can talk money - and it better be more then nil! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21603" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7796" RevisionGUID="d3b420c2-0c65-481b-9fed-b0bddd499260" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:01:51.983" Comment="Proposed by 7489 approved by 61, 2546 edit id of 648" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21604" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7751" RevisionGUID="ffbc1750-2812-45cf-9692-22da62e91283" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:02:37.183" UserId="17674" Comment="grammar; remote tag" Text="I'm interested in doing online tutoring and I've gotten offers from a few companies, but I'm new to this and I have maybe a strange concern.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lot of tutoring sites want to list information about you like your first name, last name/initial, college you went to, major, general location, photo, etc. Most of this information has to be real so that they can verify your qualifications and pay you but, at least in my case, it's pretty easy to use these things to figure out my street address from public records websites, even though I've tried to &quot;opt out&quot; of those websites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question: is this actually a concern or am I being paranoid? An online tutor could work with hundreds of students in a couple of years and that increases the chances of meeting someone shady, but obviously a lot of people tutor and don't seem to have problems." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21605" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7751" RevisionGUID="ffbc1750-2812-45cf-9692-22da62e91283" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:02:37.183" UserId="17674" Comment="grammar; remote tag" Text="|remote|safety|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21606" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7751" RevisionGUID="ffbc1750-2812-45cf-9692-22da62e91283" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:02:37.183" Comment="Proposed by 17674 approved by 85, 2546 edit id of 599" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21607" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6464" RevisionGUID="8d0ce8d7-469c-4d78-bb77-6cc213291c80" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:02:39.660" UserId="15235" Comment="tags edited" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21608" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6464" RevisionGUID="8d0ce8d7-469c-4d78-bb77-6cc213291c80" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:02:39.660" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 2546 edit id of 654" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21609" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6424" RevisionGUID="d15fcc7e-399e-4e27-9da0-d1f047675417" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:02:48.710" UserDisplayName="user7489" Comment="spelling corrections" Text="Your chain of emails is unprofessional, you fail yourself by dropping to your client's argumentative level. As well as this, instead of getting to the point you make jabs and petty points informally, that seem very emotionally attached trying to play the guilt card and shame him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is no way to follow up proceedings of a broken contract. Instead of continuing this chain of emails, which is clearly heading nowhere, create a new email or physical letter for your client. This email should be as formal as possible, with clear intent. The intent being that you expect payment as per the written contract and failure of said payment will lead to further legal action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Attach an Invoice to this email, covering all breakdowns of costs, as well as means of payment. Finally, you should provide a &lt;b&gt;reasonable&lt;/b&gt; deadline of when this payment should be made (or a &lt;b&gt;reasonable&lt;/b&gt; response addressing why he believes the claim is unjust) before you begin legal proceedings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note:** If his response is along the lines of &quot;I see you as a friend . . .&quot;, keep your response professional or send a reminder when the time comes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he still refuses to pay, or sends a lengthy letter about you letting it go, send a reminder. Within this reminder, you should also include anything necessary or recommended when notifying the client of legal action (dependent upon the country in which you're taking the action). For example, within the UK it is recommended you list the documents you have within your possession to back the claim.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, after this has been fully exhausted, take legal action. In the UK, the online fee of taking someone to small claims court for up to £300 is £25 (for a 5k contract it can be £205 - £455 which is minuscule compared to profit). It'd be a lot easier and somewhat cheaper to receive the payment before legal action, but the action is likely worth it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If however the legal action isn't worth it, I'd cut your losses and move on as threatening legal action without going through with your decision may be bad for reputation and mark you as a pushover. (Go for it if you're ok with that, or you know this client will have no influence over future clients' decisions.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also refuse to believe that you don't have time for small claims court but have time to work for free on a contract valued at 5k.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**P.S** - Next time don't provide the content without payment, if a client has the work and you have no way of shutting it off, the client then has no interest in your payment. The interest in your payment should be mutual, as it ensures timely and dependable payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21610" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6424" RevisionGUID="d15fcc7e-399e-4e27-9da0-d1f047675417" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:02:48.710" Comment="Proposed by 7489 approved by 61, 2546 edit id of 653" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21611" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3317" RevisionGUID="477c188b-4ef2-4142-9440-ffe8f6564dc1" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:02:59.627" UserDisplayName="user7489" Comment="fixed list formatting, typos" Text="I might have done following (I do it till date as well):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I maintain a Google Sheet for all Tasks + share it with Client - Update it at slightest change (Remember Google has Document/Sheet versioning) so any change/work gets recorded - and versioning stands as proof of that we did and keeps track of all changes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In that Google Sheet, have the following columns:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Work (Create a separate sheet in same document and have client approve it before you work)&#xD;&#xA;2. Status&#xD;&#xA;3. Hours needed (Create a separate sheet and link it here for every hour worked)&#xD;&#xA;4. Comments&#xD;&#xA;5. Client Notes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But apparently you are past through that stage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For now key is communication and setting expectations right - Tell her truth - It may/ might hurt both parties(You and that female) - But eventually if she considers you worth the bang - she will retain you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Further - If bugs pop up because of your work - you might be responsible for them - If not - Tell her upfront what it may cost to fix things in long run." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21612" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3317" RevisionGUID="477c188b-4ef2-4142-9440-ffe8f6564dc1" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:02:59.627" Comment="Proposed by 7489 approved by 61, 2546 edit id of 646" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21613" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="7891" RevisionGUID="f3abb7e8-940f-49fd-9ab1-9f8d34762ef6" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:03:05.623" UserId="16887" Comment="Improve tags " Text="|communication|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21614" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7891" RevisionGUID="f3abb7e8-940f-49fd-9ab1-9f8d34762ef6" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:03:05.623" Comment="Proposed by 16887 approved by 61, 2546 edit id of 616" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21615" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="319" RevisionGUID="baa22765-0d0a-499e-ab43-f85765cccaed" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:03:08.057" UserId="16887" Comment="Improve tags " Text="|attracting-clients|portfolio|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21616" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="319" RevisionGUID="baa22765-0d0a-499e-ab43-f85765cccaed" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:03:08.057" Comment="Proposed by 16887 approved by 61, 2546 edit id of 620" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21617" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2852" RevisionGUID="e53dfdf8-80ba-47e3-9812-e86a6788d589" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:03:30.113" UserId="7" Comment="Added link text" Text="I'm interested to know if I can use this tax mode as a software consultancy company - essentially doing a custom software development in a form of licensing it (instead of selling development hours) to clients. Most of the sources I read state that this also applies software, but there are no specifics.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm specifically interested in Luxembourg, Netherlands,  Liechtenstein and Malta.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is some info (page 8): &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * [Intellectual Property Box Regimes:&#xD;&#xA;Effective Tax Rates and&#xD;&#xA;Tax Policy Considerations][1] &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp13070.pdf" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21618" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2852" RevisionGUID="e53dfdf8-80ba-47e3-9812-e86a6788d589" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:03:30.113" Comment="Proposed by 7 approved by 61, 2546 edit id of 644" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21619" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="309" RevisionGUID="b13542b4-88b0-4c37-ac8a-9751fb184757" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:03:32.810" UserId="16887" Comment="Improve tags " Text="|contracts|legal|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21620" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="309" RevisionGUID="b13542b4-88b0-4c37-ac8a-9751fb184757" CreationDate="2019-02-26T12:03:32.810" Comment="Proposed by 16887 approved by 61, 2546 edit id of 634" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21621" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8123" RevisionGUID="cc43bfe8-857d-482a-a99b-d9b9f4b9726f" CreationDate="2019-02-26T17:09:14.697" UserId="21567" Text="The big project to be divided in to many small sub-project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To clearly set milestone for payment for every sub-project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Each milestone is achieved and paid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is better for employer and employee both.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nobody is at risk." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21622" PostHistoryTypeId="9" PostId="1011" RevisionGUID="e1b864c6-bb10-45d0-9ab8-3c96e2817b72" CreationDate="2019-02-26T18:40:23.483" UserId="75" Comment="Rollback to [46a8f86c-5513-448c-b705-0e6d7e2f3718]" Text="|marketing|entity|" />
  <row Id="21640" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8127" RevisionGUID="ae74fa3c-4a82-44ce-a8c5-2d5bd64f2d99" CreationDate="2019-03-02T04:45:09.267" UserId="21590" Text="I would say making a decent website isn't that hard. You just need to use a decent framework and basically the framework does most of the job for you. I would say a simple CRUD web application can take up to 10 hours maximum. The issue is mostly the frontend, the frontend (making your application dynamic and make it look good) is probably the harder part, but it really depends on what you want. I would say if you use a frontend library like Bootstrap or Foundation you can come up with a decent basic frontend. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I learned frontend and backend web programming in maybe 6 months after my university degrees, and I spent most of that time playing video games, so it's not as hard as you think, but it's true that the field is really crowded." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21641" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8127" RevisionGUID="41795e9a-f1fa-4104-9489-b9acc0fab36f" CreationDate="2019-03-02T04:50:59.433" UserId="21590" Comment="added 25 characters in body" Text="I would say making a decent website isn't that hard. You just need to use a decent framework and basically the framework does most of the job for you. I would say a simple CRUD web application can take up to 10 hours maximum. The issue is mostly the frontend, the frontend (making your application dynamic and make it look good) is probably the harder part, but it really depends on what you want. I would say if you use a frontend library like Bootstrap or Foundation you can come up with a decent basic frontend. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I learned frontend and backend web programming in maybe 6 months after I got my university degree in computer science, and I spent most of that time playing video games, so it's not as hard as you think, but it's true that the field is really crowded." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21642" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8128" RevisionGUID="03e67d62-340f-4b3c-be05-9eaeebe870af" CreationDate="2019-03-02T17:10:05.323" UserId="21590" Text="Let's say I ask someone to make a 3d model of a monster, can I then publish his work on a modding website? Is there any other thing I need to be aware of? Do I have to put his name to credit him for the model, or not? I am just wondering, because I am thinking of getting the help of some freelancers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21643" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8128" RevisionGUID="03e67d62-340f-4b3c-be05-9eaeebe870af" CreationDate="2019-03-02T17:10:05.323" UserId="21590" Text="Do you own the right to publish someone's work after you pay them?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21644" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8128" RevisionGUID="03e67d62-340f-4b3c-be05-9eaeebe870af" CreationDate="2019-03-02T17:10:05.323" UserId="21590" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21645" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8129" RevisionGUID="f5ee42c2-4bd2-4d48-bb18-398bce88e1e0" CreationDate="2019-03-02T19:54:55.137" UserId="708" Text="Unless your contract **specifically states** that you own **all rights** or the right to resell/redistribute the work... then **NO** you do **not** have the right to resell or redistribute anything under *any* circumstance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do not have rights, then adding a &quot;credit&quot; is meaningless. However, a contract *can* stipulate that reselling or distributing is permissible if a credit/attribution is included. Creative Commons licensing often has this stipulation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short.... **It depends upon what the contract agreement for the work states**. Without a formal contract or by default, the *artist* owns all work he/she creates and you have *no rights* to resell/distribute anything (at least under United States laws - laws may be different in other locations)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21646" PostHistoryTypeId="52" PostId="8128" RevisionGUID="c8543dce-071c-4494-a6bb-661cf8e7ae03" CreationDate="2019-03-02T22:07:39.633" />
  <row Id="21647" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8130" RevisionGUID="e3b7c606-4c29-4841-889f-3d268899018e" CreationDate="2019-03-04T03:49:00.200" UserId="21603" Text="I hope this is the right place to ask this question- and I'll try to be detailed and yet brief.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a recent college graduate with a degree in Web Technologies. I have been approached by a family friend with some website help. She wants to upgrade her shop's site. Most likely, I would use Wordpress- since I am familiar with that system. She runs an instrument repair/school band accessory shop. Ideally, she would like it completed at the end of this month. She wants it to look more like [https://www.straitmusic.com/][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is- what is a good rate quote I would be able to give her? I am very new to the freelance field and don't have much &quot;real-world&quot; experience. Being a family friend as well- I would want to give her some sort of &quot;discount.&quot; I would be interested more so in a flat-rate fee, so I wouldn't have to worry about tracking hours worked and all that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.straitmusic.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21648" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8130" RevisionGUID="e3b7c606-4c29-4841-889f-3d268899018e" CreationDate="2019-03-04T03:49:00.200" UserId="21603" Text="Rate for a novice building a Wordpress site" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21649" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8130" RevisionGUID="e3b7c606-4c29-4841-889f-3d268899018e" CreationDate="2019-03-04T03:49:00.200" UserId="21603" Text="|pay-rate|web-development|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21650" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8131" RevisionGUID="8dd60c45-37ae-4161-a4cb-5daae5133b23" CreationDate="2019-03-04T05:56:53.153" UserId="21416" Text="For this kind of project -- given your experience level and the fact that it's a family friend you know and trust -- I'd suggest starting by offering your services at an hourly rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While hourly may not always be the best way to price your services, here I think it makes sense. You don't yet reasonably know how long this job will take you, since you don't have experience. Doing it with a flat fee you'll most likely end up working for an insanely low rate. So by doing hourly and not asking for a horrendous rate from the family friend, you can get your feet wet and create value for your customer while at the same time learning and earning decent money. If you're US based, I'd say ask for a $30/hr rate and be honest with your customer: You're fresh out of college, you've good training, but you're inexperienced and want to learn, so you're offering your services at a sub-market rate. I'd think the market rate for Wordpress dev is &gt;$40-$50/hr min." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21651" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="8130" RevisionGUID="0bed834a-de49-4c77-b761-4a2d5cb52ebf" CreationDate="2019-03-04T10:35:35.703" UserId="15202" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:15202,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;JohnHC&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="21652" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8132" RevisionGUID="853d4c4d-97df-4022-b99c-d3a14ae16c5c" CreationDate="2019-03-04T14:02:44.057" UserId="21604" Text=" Is there any advice on how to get a client to submit their final payment? All the work is complete but I have been waiting for 2 months and the client is no longer responding to my messages and going to court would be a lot of work and lost time" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21653" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8132" RevisionGUID="853d4c4d-97df-4022-b99c-d3a14ae16c5c" CreationDate="2019-03-04T14:02:44.057" UserId="21604" Text="What to do with this client? I'm not getting paid" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21654" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8132" RevisionGUID="853d4c4d-97df-4022-b99c-d3a14ae16c5c" CreationDate="2019-03-04T14:02:44.057" UserId="21604" Text="|payments|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21655" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2310" RevisionGUID="3b4420e8-9935-480c-981f-2132961bf751" CreationDate="2019-03-04T20:02:18.880" UserDisplayName="user7489" Comment="list formatting, dollar notation, spelling" Text="Since your question is about how to calculate cost not time, I have my own simple method on estimating the cost of a project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First of all you must set a monthly revenue target amount. Let's say that you want to be paid $2000 per month from all your freelance tasks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The cost should be like this: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Estimate the time you need to complete the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Then multiply the $2000 by the time you have calculated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's say that you need two weeks to complete the project, then the cost will be: $2000 × 0.5 = $1000&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If two months, the cost will be: $2000 × 2 = $4000&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The important thing in this method is how are you valuing yourself and of course your time. It depends on a lot of things: Your Skills, Your Expertise,  Your country's economy ... etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21656" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2310" RevisionGUID="3b4420e8-9935-480c-981f-2132961bf751" CreationDate="2019-03-04T20:02:18.880" Comment="Proposed by 7489 approved by 61, 9 edit id of 658" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21657" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7714" RevisionGUID="31e73daa-d85c-496b-8035-e11e55359a6f" CreationDate="2019-03-04T20:02:47.327" UserDisplayName="user7489" Comment="spelling, list formatting, header formatting" Text="Let me start off by saying I made a lot of mistakes on my end taking on a project. Now I am in a position where I have a software development project that is a bit of a nightmare and suffering from mission creep. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can you provide advice on what options I can take and what you think is the best course of action?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Background:**  &#xD;&#xA;I took on a project to develop a WordPress theme that is a web application for a digital agency. I was to work with another person who I thought was an experienced developer but turned out to only have very limited knowledge of html and css. The verbal agreement was that the other dev (who works for the agency) would do all the html, css and animations (gsap javascript). My mistakes include (but are not limited to); agreeing to an accelerated project timeline (I said 12 weeks but they got me down to 4 weeks), fixed project price, thinking the other developer could do their part, agreeing to a project without making them clearly outline all their needs (animations, webgl integrations, etc).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's now been 6 weeks and I have implemented the features outlined in the contract (5 templates, audio feature, custom posts, custom field integration). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## The Problems:   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- The client keeps adding on more todos, he considers them expansions/alterations of the features I agreed to do in the contract but these changes are significant time consuming changes.  &#xD;&#xA;- The dev's changes introduce bugs and errors.  &#xD;&#xA;- The dev is meant to maintain the project after I am finished but doesn't have the skills or experience to compile to project for deployment. I have needed to train him on how to use git, npm, webpack, vue.js, etc. He currently has a problem where he cannot compile the project in production mode, it's obviously something to do with his npm/node version because it works fine for me on 2 different computers and OS's. But the client and him think it's my project setup. Should I or am I obliged to fix this issue for him? If he can't fix it, the client can't maintain/deploy the project. Fixing it involves me sitting down with him and just debugging the problem and trying to find a solution. The client is under the impression the problem is my code or project setup.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What actions do I have available to me? Should I say no to performing tech support for the dev? Should I agree to do some of the changes the client wants? Should I say no to all of them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## What do I want to do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point I want to leave them with the project as is. It's not nice but I believe I have implemented the features outlined in the contract. I realise I will receive a big reputation loss and possibly legal action. I invoiced the client in 2 installments, so 50% after 2 weeks (client paid this) and another 50% 3 weeks after that (not yet paid). I am happy to lose the last installment and maybe that would provide some legal protection?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21658" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7714" RevisionGUID="31e73daa-d85c-496b-8035-e11e55359a6f" CreationDate="2019-03-04T20:02:47.327" Comment="Proposed by 7489 approved by 61, 9 edit id of 657" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21659" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7831" RevisionGUID="2064a85a-0286-499d-a02d-81b0ccce9c8b" CreationDate="2019-03-04T20:11:18.023" UserDisplayName="user7489" Comment="spelling corrections" Text="I wanted to get some processing work done so I hired a freelancer for the same&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before the contract started, I clearly mentioned 8 key things I want the code to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I deposited the contract amount in an escrow account.&#xD;&#xA;For some reason, the freelancer rejected it. He wanted me to pay him via PayPal (perhaps to reduce service charges)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He managed to do 7 of the 8 points of the contract. The last point which he did not complete was extremely critical. If that point wasn’t fixed, the project was as good as useless.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He refused to work ahead and wanted me to increase the contract amount by a substantial amount outside my budget which was a clear disagreement to the initial terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to deal with such issues. It's been a quite some time we have had a chat. He isn't demanding a compensation for any work since he never delivered any code to me. I don't want to continue the project. What should I do? He isn't expecting any money for any work since there's no mail regarding any such request from his side for the payment. Is it ethical to forget about this and go ahead in life?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21660" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7831" RevisionGUID="2064a85a-0286-499d-a02d-81b0ccce9c8b" CreationDate="2019-03-04T20:11:18.023" Comment="Proposed by 7489 approved by 61, 9 edit id of 659" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21661" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="201" RevisionGUID="5c182d4c-4947-439e-9216-9c45c7a174f7" CreationDate="2019-03-04T20:16:40.850" UserDisplayName="user7489" Comment="corrected spelling" Text="Your client should definitely know that you have different working hours - I would just give him timeframe when I will be responding to calls, Skype, etc. And then observe the reaction and explain my working hours if needed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that point if they don't like that you are available for example from 15:00 to 2:00, you can  do something that will gain you trust - **finding out why it matters, why 2 or 3 hours overlap of mutual working hours is not enough**. Because you will show you care about your client and you might find out that the reason is so important that you either need to accommodate them or reject the contract (finding ad-hoc solutions would be mean you will be unhappy and sleepy and they will be unhappy and sleepy).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short - offer them contact hours, if they don't like them explain the reason, if they still don't like them find out underlying cause and decide how to proceed further." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21662" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="201" RevisionGUID="5c182d4c-4947-439e-9216-9c45c7a174f7" CreationDate="2019-03-04T20:16:40.850" Comment="Proposed by 7489 approved by 61, -1 edit id of 662" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21663" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="201" RevisionGUID="e9853ec8-52ac-4183-b401-096fb03c6f40" CreationDate="2019-03-04T20:16:40.850" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar changes" Text="Your client should definitely know that you have different working hours - I would just give him time-frame when I will be responding to calls, Skype, etc. And then observe the reaction and explain my working hours if needed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that point if they don't like that you are available for example from 15:00 to 2:00, you can  do something that will gain you trust - **finding out why it matters, why 2 or 3 hours overlap of mutual working hours is not enough**. Because you will show you care about your client and you might find out that the reason is so important that you either need to accommodate them or reject the contract (finding ad-hoc solutions would mean you will both be unhappy and sleepy).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short - offer them contact hours. If they don't like them, explain the reason; if they still don't like them, find out underlying cause and decide how to proceed further." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21664" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="463" RevisionGUID="5cbedd65-f05a-4983-8445-b705943de11f" CreationDate="2019-03-04T20:17:18.400" UserDisplayName="user7489" Comment="corrected spelling " Text=" This is what I do when I evaluate a market (for my needs or for my prospects):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I search on google for goods or services from that market and watch what shows up&#xD;&#xA; 2. I rotate different keywords to see who is advertising on them on google (no ads suggest that the market might not be profitable, if it is not worth money for ads to anyone)&#xD;&#xA; 3. I search online company directories (I think that there will be at least one in every country)&#xD;&#xA; 4. If possible, I check their probable customers, ask them directly if needed and possible (you would be surprised how often you will get honest answer to question like &quot;Would you mind telling me who is your supplier for this product?&quot; - especially if they are final consumer for that product)&#xD;&#xA; 5. I will make a list of places (virtual or real) where my competition can be present and then I investigate them (could be community web, could be annual fair, etc.)&#xD;&#xA; 6. I look for entities that provide certifications of some kind to providers of goods and services in that market (it can be MSDN certification, it can be ISO certificate, it can be some kind of &quot;Proper privacy policy&quot; certificate, it can be &quot;Retail seller of the year&quot; award or list of &quot;Official distributors&quot; etc.) and check their list of issued certificates, distributor list etc. (or ask them for it if it isn't easy to find).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course the evaluation is always specific depending on the nature of the market and it should get much deeper than this, but this can get you started in case you like it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21665" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="463" RevisionGUID="5cbedd65-f05a-4983-8445-b705943de11f" CreationDate="2019-03-04T20:17:18.400" Comment="Proposed by 7489 approved by 61, 9 edit id of 660" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21666" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="336" RevisionGUID="8dbe86d5-629c-4e61-8a6d-4949cd46cf23" CreationDate="2019-03-04T21:04:10.707" UserDisplayName="user7489" Comment="corrected spelling" Text="Levelnis provided decent answer, but I think that it is applicable only for established freelancers who do not need to approach all clients actively (at least they won't be out of business if they don't). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are a &quot;new guy&quot; and you are looking at big sites that are used by companies to find vendors and freelancers, then time is key. You should call as soon as you discover prospect who is looking for services you provide. Everyone makes decisions based on emotions and justifies them with logic. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If 20 people send emails and only one calls, he/she might be actually the first one to contact the client (those emails might sit in email box for a day or two before someone reads them). And whoever comes first has big advantage. If you don't waste it, you might close the deal and email offers from your competitors will end up rejected or unanswered (like yours are sometimes rejected or unanswered now).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To make sure you won't blow your chance:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1) **Try to dig up some info about the client** (it will give you a big bonus if the client sees you care about his company and his business)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2) **Summarize what is your offer in writing** (it will serve both as guideline for the call and as followup email after the call). Make sure you will use whatever you discovered at point one - you should tailor your offer to clients situation so client sees you care about his business and you are trying to bring benefit to it with your work. (i.e. compare this: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;For restaurant like yours, which focuses on dinners and lunches its&#xD;&#xA;&gt; website is a place where people come around noon when they are hungry&#xD;&#xA;&gt; and when they are choosing a place to dine. So I will create a site&#xD;&#xA;&gt; where you can present them your offers in most efficient way,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; accompanying it with pictures of your tasty meals - so your visitors&#xD;&#xA;&gt; will just run to your place and have a dinner instead of browsing to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; your competition to see their offer. And I will make sure happy&#xD;&#xA;&gt; customers will be able to express their happiness easily on your site,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; so your great offers will be backed by genuine testimonials from your&#xD;&#xA;&gt; customers.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;with this: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;I will create professional website for you that will attract&#xD;&#xA;&gt; customers and I will include integration with social networks.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First one is longer and could probably be shortened a bit, but which one will be more interesting for you if you are starting a restaurant and need to attract regular customers that will be coming for dinner to you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) **Think about what could be possible questions and how will you answer them** (even those you might not like must be answered in a polite way that will show your expertise)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) **Call the prospect and present your offer** (btw the communication with the client doesn't end with one call, but that's not in the scope of the question).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it will be utter waste of time. But active approach will always get you more clients (and happier clients) in the long run. Just do your homework, so you can show your expertise properly. And call first, then follow up with email. And don't let the contact go cold." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21667" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="336" RevisionGUID="8dbe86d5-629c-4e61-8a6d-4949cd46cf23" CreationDate="2019-03-04T21:04:10.707" Comment="Proposed by 7489 approved by 61, 9 edit id of 661" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21668" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8119" RevisionGUID="a668d16b-3cf3-459d-85b9-4a9d43caddc8" CreationDate="2019-03-04T21:05:53.123" UserId="9" Comment="Grammar" Text="You can create three of your own projects in the language that you prefer and use LinkedIn and Instagram to sell development services. The idea is you can show your abilities to make things like a web page or mobile app; it's so important in interviews or if your client wants to buy services from you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As another alternative, if you want to practice and build non-profit projects, you can check: https://www.freecodecamp.org/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21669" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8133" RevisionGUID="924b60e0-6af5-4c50-b08f-da0c186075d1" CreationDate="2019-03-04T21:11:32.290" UserId="21435" Text="Although it goes by different names, my first step is to send a demand for payment letter. There are numerous examples available via a quick Google search.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If that fails to illicit payment, and if the amount of money owed makes it worth it, then your next step would be to contact/hire an attorney who can advise you of your legal rights to remuneration and can assist you in getting payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21671" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="8132" RevisionGUID="28392373-8a73-421e-a5f2-1c93030e516d" CreationDate="2019-03-05T07:56:25.820" UserId="15202" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[1038],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:61,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;bytebuster&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:15202,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;JohnHC&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="21672" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8135" RevisionGUID="915e16b0-83ec-4646-8fa3-4be4371847e4" CreationDate="2019-03-05T12:00:42.037" UserId="21612" Text="I'm looking to lunch my mobile app soon but i need to copyright it and i'm not sure  what would be the best thing to do, how should I start...&#xD;&#xA;Can I lunch an app under self employment or I would need a company for that? Can I copyright the app under self employment?&#xD;&#xA;Has anybody has any experience with lunching their application from this point of view ? The application will generate revenues. &#xD;&#xA;I am a UK resident for the moment. Thank you for your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best regards,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Victor " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21673" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8135" RevisionGUID="915e16b0-83ec-4646-8fa3-4be4371847e4" CreationDate="2019-03-05T12:00:42.037" UserId="21612" Text="Best way to lunch your mobile app" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21674" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8135" RevisionGUID="915e16b0-83ec-4646-8fa3-4be4371847e4" CreationDate="2019-03-05T12:00:42.037" UserId="21612" Text="|uk|project|intellectual-property|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21675" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8135" RevisionGUID="4b7a722e-11b4-49b3-a814-b0db8e0f8f7e" CreationDate="2019-03-05T12:03:39.957" UserId="15202" Comment="added 16 characters in body; edited title" Text="I'm looking to launch my mobile app soon but i need to copyright it and i'm not sure  what would be the best thing to do, how should I start...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I launch an app under self employment or I would need a company for that? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I copyright the app under self employment?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anybody has any experience with lunching their application from this point of view ? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The application will generate revenues. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a UK resident for the moment. Thank you for your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best regards,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Victor " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21676" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="8135" RevisionGUID="4b7a722e-11b4-49b3-a814-b0db8e0f8f7e" CreationDate="2019-03-05T12:03:39.957" UserId="15202" Comment="added 16 characters in body; edited title" Text="Best way to launch your mobile app" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21677" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8135" RevisionGUID="4f5a0396-5002-4c53-9785-d9b4ae311dbd" CreationDate="2019-03-05T13:31:51.400" UserId="61" Comment="removed a signature" Text="I'm looking to launch my mobile app soon but i need to copyright it and i'm not sure  what would be the best thing to do, how should I start...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I launch an app under self employment or I would need a company for that? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I copyright the app under self employment?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anybody has any experience with lunching their application from this point of view ? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The application will generate revenues. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a UK resident for the moment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21678" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="8128" RevisionGUID="ec787498-a4b7-4494-9e8a-47213000239e" CreationDate="2019-03-06T18:00:30.110" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1103354681995210752" />
  <row Id="21679" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8136" RevisionGUID="fc339f3f-d70b-45ee-8645-fdb1a4062d38" CreationDate="2019-03-06T21:42:44.653" UserId="21621" Text="I've been asked if I can manage social media for someone whose business is in another province - which means I cannot easily travel to them to gather images/content/videos/etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can you best manage the content for someone in this type of situation? This person sells products so would they need to constantly send me product photos and videos and all I do is post/write/strategize with them? How do you handle content in this type of situation? They want to essentially &quot;hand-off&quot; the responsibility of social media but I have no idea how else I would create the content. Especially since a big part of their brand is the face of the creator... which I wouldn't want to lose in their feeds." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21680" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8136" RevisionGUID="fc339f3f-d70b-45ee-8645-fdb1a4062d38" CreationDate="2019-03-06T21:42:44.653" UserId="21621" Text="Managing Someone else's Social Media" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21681" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8136" RevisionGUID="fc339f3f-d70b-45ee-8645-fdb1a4062d38" CreationDate="2019-03-06T21:42:44.653" UserId="21621" Text="|working-from-home|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21691" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="8000" RevisionGUID="1f7f87d5-2ec0-4759-8244-6133cee4fcd6" CreationDate="2019-03-07T08:27:02.997" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="21694" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="8118" RevisionGUID="e27466d2-7a58-4d8f-b6ce-9ef7151c2cfc" CreationDate="2019-03-07T18:00:39.143" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1103717107727040515" />
  <row Id="21695" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8140" RevisionGUID="f535f475-3fc2-4153-810d-b168f68fe6aa" CreationDate="2019-03-08T09:26:38.850" UserId="15202" Text="Ok, let's break down the questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Can I launch an app under self employment or I would need a company for that? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can develop as a self-employed person. Ensure that before launch day, you notify HMRC of your self-employment so that you do not find yourself in court for tax evasion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Can I copyright the app under self employment?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes. This would be your Intellectual Property. You would be the rights holder.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Has anybody has any experience with launching their application from this point of view ? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've sold something previously that I had no intention of continuing to develop. I did this as a Ltd company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The purpose of a Ltd company is to protect you. If you make an app that bricks every phone it touches, and you are a sole-trader (self-employed), then you can be sued personally. A Ltd company shields you from this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, if you're going to make more than £50k in a year, a Ltd company will allow you to reduce your tax more creatively (while still legal).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should have a chat with both an accountant and a solicitor (that specialises in IP, as per joeqwerty)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21709" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8144" RevisionGUID="2813782a-84b2-47db-886f-843e2ba204e0" CreationDate="2019-03-09T05:50:32.757" UserId="21645" Text="Contact  photographers that have their photos in that location, you can start with a Instagram or wherever else they post their pictures, and don’t go for that most popular ones, go for smaller photographers that are creating good content and reach out to them offering them a percentage of what you make or per photo. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21713" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8145" RevisionGUID="59826711-1eb8-4a99-9728-936d923ae92c" CreationDate="2019-03-12T00:38:19.197" UserId="11018" Text="I originally asked this over on workplace.stackexchange.com: https://workplace.stackexchange.com/q/131342/40440&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I read an article for contractors/freelancers about how to calculate a day rate, vs hourly rate. The advice was focused on how to make sure the freelancer is charging enough. (I typically do staff augmentation work on multiple projects, for a single client.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The calculation was to charge an extra 40% premium, then multiply by 8. This is your day rate. The article then advised to charge 75% of the day rate if you charge a half-day rate; then to charge 30% of the half-day as the hourly rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Here's an example**: Let's say the salary is $50,000. The day rate is calculated as ($50,000/2040) + 40% premium or $34.3/hour. A full day is $274.40. Half a day is $205.80. The hourly rate is $61.74/hour. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, what would be presented to clients would be something like: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm looking for a day rate of $274.40 for an 8-10 hours day. Otherwise it's&#xD;&#xA;&gt; $61.74/hour. We can discuss other terms, if you'd like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Something like this. How it's calculated is not really their business. **The benefit of this type of calculation is the contractor doesn't lose billable time, if the client doesn't have them working a full day.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my case, I usually end up working a full 40-hour week, but I'm trying to be a bit more structured in my freelance work. Having said that, I don't have experience with day rates and project rates. A lot of advice for freelancers is to charge by the day or project. I also think charging in this way helps companies to remember that you are a contractor, not full-time, as some companies (but not all) seem to go the freelancer route in order to avoid paying US payroll taxes. &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;I'm curious if anyone has any advice for how to approach negotiations or pitch this to a potential client. Basically, when someone asks for the hourly rate, I want to steer the conversation into asking for a day rate. I suppose this means a contract on my part will be required, to detail this out? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21714" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8145" RevisionGUID="59826711-1eb8-4a99-9728-936d923ae92c" CreationDate="2019-03-12T00:38:19.197" UserId="11018" Text="Advice when pitching a day rate for non-project work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21715" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8145" RevisionGUID="59826711-1eb8-4a99-9728-936d923ae92c" CreationDate="2019-03-12T00:38:19.197" UserId="11018" Text="|pay-rate|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21716" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8145" RevisionGUID="2ad8a2a1-37e5-4cd4-928d-628dce9bd8fc" CreationDate="2019-03-12T00:46:55.717" UserId="11018" Comment="wording edits" Text="I originally asked this over on workplace.stackexchange.com: https://workplace.stackexchange.com/q/131342/40440&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I read an article for contractors/freelancers about how to calculate a day rate, vs hourly rate. The advice was focused on how to make sure the freelancer is charging enough. (I typically do staff augmentation work on multiple projects, for a single client.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The calculation was to charge an extra 40% premium, then multiply by 8. This is your day rate. The article then advised to charge 75% of the day rate if you charge a half-day rate; then to charge 30% of the half-day as the hourly rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Here's an example**: Let's say the salary is $50,000. The day rate is calculated as ($50,000/2040) + 40% premium or $34.3/hour. A full day is $274.40. Half a day is $205.80. The hourly rate is $61.74/hour. Probably round up to whole numbers like, $274/day; 205/.5 day; $62/hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, what would be presented to clients would be something like: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm looking for a day rate of $274 for an 8-10 hours day. Otherwise&#xD;&#xA;&gt; it's $62/hour. We can discuss other terms, if you'd like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Something like this. How it's calculated is not really their business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The benefit of this type of calculation is if the client doesn't have you working a full day, you don't lose out on hours that you could have potentially charged to another client.**  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my case, I usually end up working a full 40-hour week, but I'm trying to be a bit more structured in my freelance work. Having said that, I don't have experience with day rates and project rates. A lot of advice for freelancers is to charge by the day or project. I also think charging in this way helps companies to remember that you are a contractor, not full-time, as some companies (but not all) seem to go the freelancer route in order to avoid paying US payroll taxes. &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;I'm curious if anyone has any advice for how to approach negotiations or pitch this to a potential client. Basically, when someone asks for the hourly rate, I want to steer the conversation into asking for a day rate. I suppose this means a contract on my part will be required, to detail this out? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21717" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8145" RevisionGUID="6b1b2e9e-8c23-4ed7-80d1-7e0497e0e9d1" CreationDate="2019-03-12T14:13:56.533" UserId="11018" Comment="updated question to match the other forum" Text="I originally asked this over on workplace.stackexchange.com: https://workplace.stackexchange.com/q/131342/40440&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I read an article for contractors/freelancers about how to calculate a day rate, vs hourly rate. The advice was focused on how to make sure the freelancer is charging enough. (I typically do staff augmentation work on multiple projects, for a single client.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The calculation was to charge an extra 40% premium, then multiply by 8. This is your day rate. The article then advised to charge 75% of the day rate if you charge a half-day rate; then to charge 30% of the half-day as the hourly rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Here's an example**: Let's say the salary is $50,000. The day rate is calculated as ($50,000/2040) + 40% premium or $34.3/hour. A full day is $274.40. Half a day is $205.80. The hourly rate is $61.74/hour. Probably round up to whole numbers like, $274/day; 205/.5 day; $62/hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, what would be presented to clients would be something like: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm looking for a day rate of $274 for an 8-10 hours day. Otherwise it's&#xD;&#xA;&gt; $62/hour. We can discuss other terms, if you'd like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Something like this. How it's calculated is not really their business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The benefit of this type of calculation is if the client doesn't have you working a full day, you don't lose out on hours that you could have potentially charged to another client.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my case, I usually end up working a full 40-hour week, but I'm trying to be a bit more structured in my freelance work. Having said that, I don't have experience with day rates and project rates. A lot of advice for freelancers is to charge by the day or project. I also think charging in this way helps companies to remember that you are a contractor, not full-time, as some companies (but not all) seem to go the freelancer route in order to avoid paying US payroll taxes. &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;There are 2 areas of focus for this questions: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. I'm curious if anyone has any advice for how to approach negotiations or pitch this to a potential client. Basically, when someone asks for the hourly rate, I want to steer the conversation into asking for a day rate. I suppose this means a contract on my part will be required, to detail this out? &#xD;&#xA; 2. In terms of a strategy to maximize billable hours with a client, how well do you think this might work? Do you have other strategies?  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21718" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="8145" RevisionGUID="6b1b2e9e-8c23-4ed7-80d1-7e0497e0e9d1" CreationDate="2019-03-12T14:13:56.533" UserId="11018" Comment="updated question to match the other forum" Text="Advice when pitching a day rate to maximize billable time" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21719" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8146" RevisionGUID="460be56e-1a24-4409-bff5-1c8b30a1b43c" CreationDate="2019-03-12T20:22:03.260" UserId="708" Text="My day rate is **considerably** *more* than merely 8 x hourly rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Day rate means I can't take calls, answer emails, etc. and am exclusive to *that* client for that day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being entirely exclusive to one client means they need to pay more for my time, not merely for 8 hours of my time.  If I am to provide a day rate, it's much closer to 16 x hourly. And my day rate is for times where I'm asked to be on-site or to be on-call throughout the entire day. I don't do day rates if I'm sitting at my desk and the client's project happens to take 8 hours of my time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, charge by the project. To me, **value-based pricing** is really the *only* way to ever stay profitable as one gains experience, proficiency, and possibly notoriety. Hourly rates merely ensure as one works faster, less money is made. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion, hourly rates shouldn't ever be based upon day rates. In fact, just the opposite. Day rates should use a (profit) multiplier based upon 8x of hourly rate. I use `(8 x hourly) x 1.75 = Day rate`. So, if hourly is something like $50, 8hrs is $400, Day rate is $700 (400x1.75). Half day is $350 (700/2).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client wants a day rate, I'll provide it. But I don't start the conversation from the standpoint of *wanting* a day rate. In my experience that simply scares off clients. Clients will easily pay $700 for a project, but they will shy away from paying $700 for a day rate. While it's the same number, the connotation &quot;rate&quot; brings is that it's open-ended and will most likely increase. Clients won't know *how much* you can get done in a &quot;day&quot;. So, they never know if they'll need 1, 2, 5, 8, 15 days, etc.. And you *can't* reassure them of the time you'll take, regardless of what you say, until *after* you've worked with them a while.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I bid per-project using value-based pricing. If there's a possibility that a per-project price may not provide adequate payment due to possible future changes, then I bid per-milestone with an explanation that additional work will entail additional milestones for additional costs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sidebar: If I were a client and saw $274/Day, $205/Half day. $62/hourly.... I'd ask why the half day is *markedly* higher. If a day costs me $274, then half a day should cost $137 (half the day rate).  And I'd **always**, I mean **always** pay your day rate. I get 8hrs for $274 rather than $496 (8x $62).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't think clients are stupid. They aren't. If you provide a day rate and an hourly rate, they'll do the math." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21720" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8146" RevisionGUID="142f9ca1-6503-4b59-b788-3bace99a1ed1" CreationDate="2019-03-12T20:27:46.610" UserId="708" Comment="added 234 characters in body" Text="My day rate is **considerably** *more* than merely 8 x hourly rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Day rate means I can't take calls, answer emails, etc. and am exclusive to *that* client for that day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being entirely exclusive to one client means they need to pay more for my time, not merely for 8 hours of my time.  If I am to provide a day rate, it's much closer to 16 x hourly. And my day rate is for times where I'm asked to be on-site or to be on-call throughout the entire day. I don't do day rates if I'm sitting at my desk and the client's project happens to take 8 hours of my time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, charge by the project. To me, **value-based pricing** is really the *only* way to ever stay profitable as one gains experience, proficiency, and possibly notoriety. Hourly rates merely ensure as one works faster, less money is made. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion, hourly rates shouldn't ever be based upon day rates. In fact, just the opposite. Day rates should use a (profit) multiplier based upon 8x of hourly rate. I use `(8 x hourly) x 1.75 = Day rate`. So, if hourly is something like $50, 8hrs is $400, Day rate is $700 (400x1.75). Half day is $350 (700/2).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client wants a day rate, I'll provide it. But I don't start the conversation from the standpoint of *wanting* a day rate. In my experience that simply scares off clients. Clients will easily pay $700 for a project, but they will shy away from paying $700 for a day rate. While it's the same number, the connotation &quot;rate&quot; brings is that it's open-ended and will most likely increase. Clients won't know *how much* you can get done in a &quot;day&quot;. So, they never know if they'll need 1, 2, 5, 8, 15 days, etc.. And you *can't* reassure them of the time you'll take, regardless of what you say, until *after* you've worked with them a while.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I bid per-project using value-based pricing. If there's a possibility that a per-project price may not provide adequate payment due to possible future changes, then I bid per-milestone with an explanation that additional work will entail additional milestones for additional costs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sidebar: If I were a client and saw $274/Day, $205/Half day. $62/hourly.... I'd ask why the half day is *markedly* higher. If a day costs me $274, then half a day should cost $137 (half the day rate).  And I'd **always**, I mean **always** pay your day rate. I get 8hrs for $274 rather than $496 (8 x $62).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't think clients are stupid. They aren't. If you provide a day rate and an hourly rate, they'll do the math. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is another reason I use value-based pricing. So that the math isn't immediately discernible. If I bid a project at $5k and the client is happy with that. It makes no difference (to the client) if it takes me 1 hour or 30 hours - they'll still paid the price they agreed to." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21721" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8146" RevisionGUID="3e5225ae-dd9f-4865-b67c-51f63b74c982" CreationDate="2019-03-12T20:34:52.677" UserId="708" Comment="added 164 characters in body" Text="My day rate is **considerably** *more* than merely 8 x hourly rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Day rate means I can't take calls, answer emails, etc. and am exclusive to *that* client for that day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being entirely exclusive to one client means they need to pay more for my time, not merely for 8 hours of my time.  If I am to provide a day rate, it's much closer to 16 x hourly. And my day rate is for times where I'm asked to be on-site or to be on-call throughout the entire day. I don't do day rates if I'm sitting at my desk and the client's project happens to take 8 hours of my time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, personally, charge by the project. To me, **value-based pricing** is really the *only* way to ever stay profitable as one gains experience, proficiency, and possibly notoriety. Hourly rates merely ensure as one works faster, less money is made. With hourly rates one has to *constantly* work **more** to make the same amount. The better you are at your job, the more projects it takes to earn the same amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion, hourly rates shouldn't ever be based upon day rates. In fact, just the opposite. Day rates should use a (profit) multiplier based upon 8x of hourly rate. I use `(8 x hourly) x 1.75 = Day rate`. So, if hourly is something like $50, 8hrs is $400, Day rate is $700 (400x1.75). Half day is $350 (700/2).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client wants a day rate, I'll provide it. But I don't start the conversation from the standpoint of *wanting* a day rate. In my experience that simply scares off clients. Clients will easily pay $700 for a project, but they will shy away from paying $700 for a day rate. While it's the same number, the connotation &quot;rate&quot; brings is that it's open-ended and will most likely increase. Clients won't know *how much* you can get done in a &quot;day&quot;. So, they never know if they'll need 1, 2, 5, 8, 15 days, etc.. And you *can't* reassure them of the time you'll take, regardless of what you say, until *after* you've worked with them a while.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I bid per-project using value-based pricing. If there's a possibility that a per-project price may not provide adequate payment due to possible future changes, then I bid per-milestone with an explanation that additional work will entail additional milestones for additional costs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sidebar: If I were a client and saw $274/Day, $205/Half day. $62/hourly.... I'd ask why the half day is *markedly* higher. If a day costs me $274, then half a day should cost $137 (half the day rate).  And I'd **always**, I mean **always** pay your day rate. I get 8hrs for $274 rather than $496 (8 x $62).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't think clients are stupid. They aren't. If you provide a day rate and an hourly rate, they'll do the math. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is another reason I use value-based pricing. So that the math isn't immediately discernible. If I bid a project at $5k and the client is happy with that. It makes no difference (to the client) if it takes me 1 hour or 30 hours - they'll still paid the price they agreed to." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21722" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8147" RevisionGUID="945baf32-5c9b-420d-ae15-93c3b667a734" CreationDate="2019-03-13T01:02:45.417" UserId="21662" Text="To hell with ethics, if you can do a better job than your &quot;customer&quot; and there is no paperwork such as an NDA or non-compete, then you would be doing the client a favor." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21726" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8149" RevisionGUID="2c1b17da-ea50-4ed6-9b8d-5143496d3ffe" CreationDate="2019-03-13T14:04:21.600" UserId="11018" Text="I was proposed the following scenario as a freelancing opportunity:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Work in their office&#xD;&#xA; - 40 hours / week, M-F&#xD;&#xA; - Using their equipment&#xD;&#xA; - Work on multiple projects, not one ongoing project&#xD;&#xA; - Following their direction; they choose how work is completed&#xD;&#xA; - Length of time, 6 months&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is essentially a full-time job, but with no benefits. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are asking for an hourly rate, but I am not sure how to propose a fair number or work agreement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My last gig was very similar to this, but almost worse, and in the end they cut me when the direction I received and implemented wasn't to the liking of their client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21727" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8149" RevisionGUID="2c1b17da-ea50-4ed6-9b8d-5143496d3ffe" CreationDate="2019-03-13T14:04:21.600" UserId="11018" Text="How to avoid working as an unofficial full-time employee?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21728" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8149" RevisionGUID="2c1b17da-ea50-4ed6-9b8d-5143496d3ffe" CreationDate="2019-03-13T14:04:21.600" UserId="11018" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|price|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21729" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8150" RevisionGUID="f5a8cf11-9635-4270-a28b-1a9a377da916" CreationDate="2019-03-13T22:54:16.343" UserId="708" Text="That, as you posted, is a full-time employment position. It doesn't matter what they &quot;call&quot; it. To you, it's a full-time job with no benefits. Do you want a full time job with no benefits? If you want a full time job, don't you think you could get one *with* benefits?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me, I wouldn't even contemplate taking it. I'm a freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would **not** provide an hourly rate. Instead I'd propose a contract......&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone wants to hire me as a *contractor* in-house, then a contract needs to be written up where I have as much to say about our business relationship as the client and the contract can't simply be evacuated on a whim. And my fee for such a contract would be steep. It means due to the time involved, I would be unable to work for any other clients. So, a contract which essentially *forces* me to &quot;put all my eggs in one basket&quot; **must** provide security due to that risk - in the form of known payment for a given time frame. Nothing would be left &quot;open ended&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pay or play.. contract for 6 months/40hrs a week. Total contract of $XXXXX payable in weekly installments of $XXXX/24 (24 equal weekly payments, but you could do 12 bi-monthly payments). Payable in full under any circumstances. Meaning, even if they no longer want me to work.. if it's been less than 6 months, they still must pay me for the 6 month contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21733" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8152" RevisionGUID="8ebd4d2e-8963-4f54-8513-b339d08b1395" CreationDate="2019-03-14T12:36:00.200" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21734" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8152" RevisionGUID="8ebd4d2e-8963-4f54-8513-b339d08b1395" CreationDate="2019-03-14T12:36:00.200" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21735" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8153" RevisionGUID="4ed67c28-ccd1-42ff-aef2-d770f9bef84c" CreationDate="2019-03-14T12:36:00.200" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21736" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8153" RevisionGUID="4ed67c28-ccd1-42ff-aef2-d770f9bef84c" CreationDate="2019-03-14T12:36:00.200" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21737" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8154" RevisionGUID="484ba732-ded5-4161-b548-0d21cdd6f349" CreationDate="2019-03-15T01:47:58.670" UserId="21674" Text="I've been freelance programming on a few niche forums for about two years now, and have a decent portfolio built up. I'd like to start working in other places and learn how to market myself better. What's the best way for me to market myself and get people to overcome their prejudice about my age? Additionally, I understand that there are various labor laws for minors, and I'm interested as to how that can affect me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a 16 y/o living in the US." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21738" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8154" RevisionGUID="484ba732-ded5-4161-b548-0d21cdd6f349" CreationDate="2019-03-15T01:47:58.670" UserId="21674" Text="How can a teenager start freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21739" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8154" RevisionGUID="484ba732-ded5-4161-b548-0d21cdd6f349" CreationDate="2019-03-15T01:47:58.670" UserId="21674" Text="|legal|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21740" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8155" RevisionGUID="25cef39c-9fcb-4fb3-b27e-4a488daf56a6" CreationDate="2019-03-15T12:22:14.520" UserId="21678" Text="My son started by working remotely with dumping price, he was about 14 years old. First times he feared from phone conversations, but very soon he understood that customers are looking for value, and not afraid from his age.&#xD;&#xA;I have no idea regarding US, but in Israel teenagers can legally work only during school vacation, but they are able to open a business :-)&#xD;&#xA;And he opened it when was 15 years old." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21741" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7632" RevisionGUID="b89d314c-cb62-4528-a4f6-162fe6264066" CreationDate="2019-03-15T18:01:55.377" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21749" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8156" RevisionGUID="16adb7c3-ed19-4442-8d49-a3874f10aad5" CreationDate="2019-03-17T01:19:02.520" UserId="21685" Text="This reads like a relatively standard contractor gig, in the UK it would risk falling under something called 'IR35', which would mean you would pay tax as an employee, so depending on where you live, there may be tax implications of taking a contract on which has you function in a similar way to a regular employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do it, you would more usually charge a day rate, and it would work out at somewhere from 2 to 4 times what an employee would cost. *That* is your benefit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to avoid being treated like an employee, your only options are to push back on the things that are most important to you, and you believe they may have some flexibility on, or look for another contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21750" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8157" RevisionGUID="1c2cf31d-2339-4963-8ffa-eb10814f570e" CreationDate="2019-03-17T01:29:51.887" UserId="21685" Text="Two-week sprints are exactly that, sprints that last for two weeks, they are not fixed on the features that are planned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those are targets, but if something isn't finished, it moves into the backlog and can be allocated to the next sprint, so fixed prices for two-week sprints shouldn't be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The rates you're mentioning would equate to $240-480k/year (based on taking 4 weeks off), if you're in Silicon Valley, this may well be reasonable, but in a lot of the rest of the world it would be a bit on the high side.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the UK top-end contracts seem to top out at around £600/day, or £144k/year, about $190k US.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a ballpark idea if the rate is reasonable, consider the salary you would otherwise be getting if you took a regular job, consider what multiple you're looking at (say you could earn $80k with a regular job, and you're asking for $240k, that would be a 3x multiple, which would be reasonable), if you're proposed multiple is over 4x, you may be aiming a little high.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Saying all that, your best bet may be to have a good idea what the minimum you'll accept is, and meet face to face and discuss, get an idea what kind of budget they have, and you never know, you may be able to get the rate you want, or more, if you're very lucky." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21751" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="8158" RevisionGUID="4a8c484f-49ec-43c6-aa45-2301de9718e3" CreationDate="2019-03-17T02:53:45.543" UserId="-1" Comment="from https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/388750/what-expectations-are-there-of-support-when-handing-development-over-to-a-differ" />
  <row Id="21752" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8158" RevisionGUID="9c60ee45-ea2e-4241-9116-95fd69d55a2c" CreationDate="2019-03-16T22:49:38.460" UserDisplayName="RonLugge" Text="This may be a better fit for a different site, but I couldn't really find one that served the intersection of software engineering and business norms.  My primary concern here is about something I thought was a business norm: a couple of hours of post-handoff cooperation when a new developer is brought in to start work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was brought on as a subcontractor on a project.  That project continued for several months in active development, and was (very abruptly) canceled without notice -- literally just 'invoice your remaining hours and goodbye'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The code base was handed over to the super client, as were the working Heroku instances.  Moving on, I've discovered that my client has been getting some support requests -- basically an hour or so's phone meeting with the new developer to run him down on what has been done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I always thought that a reasonable amount of handover support -- an hour or two on the phone to give a quick rundown on the code, how it's laid out, why it's laid out that way, current issues, etc etc -- was a norm.  But my client is refusing to do any such thing.  I am worried about how professional it does (or rather, does not) make him look, and how that may reflect on me as a subcontractor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The situation is further complicated by the fact that, late in the project life cycle, the decision was made to shift me from sub-contractor to contractor.  My client was basically shifted from a contract to develop software to a contract to manage a team of contractors doing further development.  I haven't been contacted directly by super-client, but I now technically have my own relationship with him and want to plan ahead in case he reaches out to me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21753" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8158" RevisionGUID="9c60ee45-ea2e-4241-9116-95fd69d55a2c" CreationDate="2019-03-16T22:49:38.460" UserDisplayName="RonLugge" Text="What expectations are there of support when handing development over to a different contractor after my contract is terminated?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21754" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8158" RevisionGUID="9c60ee45-ea2e-4241-9116-95fd69d55a2c" CreationDate="2019-03-16T22:49:38.460" UserDisplayName="RonLugge" Text="|customer-relations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21755" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8159" RevisionGUID="d4e4f82b-28a8-44dc-a643-1e69c56db830" CreationDate="2019-03-17T13:30:50.567" UserId="21689" Text="In the world of contracting if it's not in the contract it doesn't exist. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, if people come to me with questions about systems I've touched in the past I'm generally willing to provide a few answers. But if that's not in a contract that's not something anyone has any right to expect of me. That's just me being a friendly nerd who likes to talk shop.  Test my patience and, well, we need a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21756" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="8145" RevisionGUID="317ae2cf-2680-4ec7-9a16-9ef96bfecee9" CreationDate="2019-03-17T21:00:32.873" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1107386258509180929" />
  <row Id="21759" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8162" RevisionGUID="3776a3c3-f64a-4699-80a6-c041c8a97580" CreationDate="2019-03-19T01:56:02.533" UserId="18230" Text="1. I don´t think there are any &quot;business norms&quot; on support after cancellation of a contract. As already stated by @candied_orange, *if it's not in the contract it doesn't exist*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. I think it would seem unprofessional to hands-down reject a request for support. If *any service* is requested upon by the client, the least would be to talk to them about the conditions for fulfilling that request or - if it is totally out of question to support them for whatever reason, send them a polite refusal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. If there are no binding agreements with your former contractor which prevent this (anymore), you could also extend your offer of services directly to the super-client. You don´t have to wait until they come to you directly. Approaching a company where you have good reason to think they could benefit from your services is good business practice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. **Any** work done professionally should be paid at professional rates. Especially if it´s a short handover: you are giving away valuable knowledge, small volume - (big overhead cost), with no good perspective of further assignments. So the rate for that can be on the high end." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21760" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8163" RevisionGUID="7f4ace48-d060-4bc8-8f8b-f8f39d910c8c" CreationDate="2019-03-19T03:11:06.233" UserId="18230" Text="This really depends on your market, your business-model and how you want to steer your clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I, for example want to encourage the clients to book larger chunks of my time. It is way less overhead for me and it allows me to plan better. So I give a discount on daily, weekly or long term contracts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how do You arrive at your rate?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You should have a clear idea what you have to have as a minimum monthly income, to be better off than in a permanent position. Don´t forget to factor in perks such as paid time off, health insurance, contributions to retirement. Also add all the costs resulting from your freelance-activity, like liability insurance, training, equipment etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Try to get a good idea of the non-billable hours you have to invest, to run the business like: invoicing, bookkeeping, taxes, client communication and marketing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Subtract (2) from then normal working hours you would have in a permanent position and then divide (1) through the remaining hours. This is your minimum rate. **You should never offer any work below this price!** If you don´t get contracts at this rate, find a permanent position! Usually, you should get a bit more than that, for taking the risk and offering the flexibility. For me, at least 20-40% sound reasonable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, research the market rates. They should be above your minimum so you have some headroom. This is where pricing politics kick in. I have gone towards the top end, because I consider myself at the top of my field, but still a bit cheaper than others who may have unique selling points. I have a small discount on my daily rate, because I like to work and concentrate on one thing for a whole day. Also it requires less effort of keeping a time-sheet. Also, a full day can end up on being more than 8 hours - so that may be something to keep in mind. I also wanted to discourage clients to interrupt my work with too much small requests, so I have a minimum billing interval of 1/2 hour. I also offer further discounts on bigger projects or long therm support contracts - if I want them. At last, I have a small fee for traveling on location, big enough to discourage unnecessary on-site visits, but small enough to don´t prevent them where they bring a real benefit.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21772" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6573" RevisionGUID="f61c4486-2e06-4922-ac97-248e2881b452" CreationDate="2019-03-20T11:33:23.553" UserId="15235" Comment="tags edited" Text="|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21773" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6573" RevisionGUID="f61c4486-2e06-4922-ac97-248e2881b452" CreationDate="2019-03-20T11:33:23.553" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 2546, 7858 edit id of 656" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21776" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1011" RevisionGUID="93b35fe7-9395-4691-8eaa-dd2d66373b13" CreationDate="2019-03-21T00:00:38.050" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1108518742345109504" />
  <row Id="21778" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8167" RevisionGUID="b28fd8ad-873e-45d1-8058-d0a10b1ce6e7" CreationDate="2019-03-21T13:39:57.913" UserId="21708" Text="I do freelance web design and development on the side. I have a client recently who appears to be flaky and indecisive. She isn't very willing to commit herself to make decisions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I've the mockup designs ready for her, she doesn't want to confirm whether she accepts the design or not. I've told her before that by accepting the design in the mockups, we will not be allowed to make drastic changes to it during development. So I'm not sure if this has frightened her, but I do this to other clients and had no problem. And I did assure her that minor changes such as colours and texts are fine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, she has been replying to my emails asking her for confirmation with questions after questions and meetups after meetups, but just not her confirmation. She has said things like she needs to meet her friend A then friend B for their opinions first, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't move on to the development stage if she doesn't confirm the design because every time we meet up or after she has her questions answered, she wants to add or change something to the design. Changing the design after implementation will take me more time than just updating the mockup images.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She has procrastinated on giving me a confirmation for 2 months since I'd given her the initial mockup design. I'm feeling like the project is going to take way longer than I'd thought, and much of it is due to her indecisiveness.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project was quoted on a fixed sum for an amount of work. She has given me a deposit for the project and so I believe she is sincere about getting the project done. But I can't afford to let her delay the project this way because I have other projects in line and other things in my life. Moreover, she has a tight budget and so what she has paid isn't anything worth more than a 2-month work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been trying all sorts of way to get her to move to the next stage politely, but she has kept evading a confirmation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know what else I can do. I have thought of a few options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The first option is, I just let her flake all she wants until she&#xD;&#xA;    finally makes up her mind while I go on with my life and take on other&#xD;&#xA;    projects. Since I've her deposit if she decides to drop the project&#xD;&#xA;    halfway, she loses it. **BUT**, I know she isn't going to drop the&#xD;&#xA;    project and she may just decide &quot;okay let's do it now&quot; at any time&#xD;&#xA;    which may not be a time I'm available to return to her project!&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 2. The second option, tell her I need her decision by a definite date&#xD;&#xA;        and if she can't give a confirmation by that date, I will take it&#xD;&#xA;        that she has confirmed the design and wants to proceed to move on&#xD;&#xA;        to the next stage. She is definitely not going to like this. But my biggest concern is that&#xD;&#xA;        I can expect myself having more trouble collecting my final payment&#xD;&#xA;        given her flakiness. She might just claim that I made the decision for her without her agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Either way isn't going to turn out very well. I need help dealing with such people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's your experience with indecisive clients like the one I've met? How did you deal with them?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21779" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8167" RevisionGUID="b28fd8ad-873e-45d1-8058-d0a10b1ce6e7" CreationDate="2019-03-21T13:39:57.913" UserId="21708" Text="How to deal with indecisive clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21780" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8167" RevisionGUID="b28fd8ad-873e-45d1-8058-d0a10b1ce6e7" CreationDate="2019-03-21T13:39:57.913" UserId="21708" Text="|difficult-client|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21781" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8168" RevisionGUID="6814af3e-2ba1-4844-a4a2-4691fcba8b5f" CreationDate="2019-03-21T15:03:09.777" UserId="708" Text="Always #1. Always.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're looking at things from *your* perspective, which is expected.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, think of it from the client's perspective... They've *paid* you a fee to work and they anticipate paying you more. Do *you* like being given ultimatums or pushed by people you are paying? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The **only** time I feel it's okay to be pushy with respect to approvals/confirmation is regarding deadlines. If a deadline is looming, and a delay in approval may make that deadline untenable, *then* I **will** inform the client of that. A la:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;Hi [Client], In order to meet the April XXX, 2019 deadline I need approval on this prior to March XX, 2019. Any delay after March XX will cause the April XX deadline to be pushed back an equal amount as well.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, as a *hired* worker you *don't* drive the ship in terms of timelines for approvals, the **client** does. It's their right to take all the time they feel they need. If their time to approve causes you to move onto something else, then move on. But, it's also your responsibility that when they *do* get back to you, you get back to their project within a few days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I gather is that in many instances freelancers seem to think *&quot;okay this project has to be done this week. Next week I'll work on the other project.&quot;* I kind of understand that mentality, but realistically, that's never been a workable situation here. I always leave a day or two open during the week for &quot;pop up&quot; issues. I couldn't possibly assume that I can work all day, every day on scheduled projects. That's *way* too reliant on *other* people to be on *my* timetable, which is just unrealistic in my opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I &quot;juggle&quot;, for lack of a better term. I'll have 3 projects all which need to be done in 3 weeks. Each project alone should take me 3-4 days at most. So that leaves an extra 4-5 days of &quot;padding&quot; due to client approval delays or unanticipated issues, etc. So, to this end, I give finalization deadlines *at least* two weeks out, even if I think a project will only take me 4 days/24-36hrs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I *completely* understand if this type of juggling just doesn't or won't work for some people or some projects - I **do** honestly get that. It takes a great deal of organization and multitasking skills. In addition to the ability to switch mental &quot;focus&quot; rapidly at times. I know many who prefer to work on things one at a time. You can tell clients you need to get their project done this week all you want, but if they want to take a couple extra days, face it - you aren't going to drop the project, you'll work around that delay. So, to that end, I've adapted and learned to work in an intertwined manner - where the order in which projects must be completed is scheduled, however the specify *days* I'll work on those projects are not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Related: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/1052/708&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21782" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8167" RevisionGUID="fd09da88-bdbf-4114-8d15-0048370e853d" CreationDate="2019-03-21T15:39:28.003" UserId="21708" Comment="added 218 characters in body" Text="I do freelance web design and development on the side. I have a client recently who appears to be flaky and indecisive. She isn't very willing to commit herself to make decisions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I've the mockup designs ready for her, she doesn't want to confirm whether she accepts the design or not. I've told her before that by accepting the design in the mockups, we will not be allowed to make drastic changes to it during development. So I'm not sure if this has frightened her, but I do this to other clients and had no problem. And I did assure her that minor changes such as colours and texts are fine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, she has been replying to my emails asking her for confirmation with questions after questions and meetups after meetups, but just not her confirmation. She has said things like she needs to meet her friend A then friend B for their opinions first, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't move on to the development stage if she doesn't confirm the design because every time we meet up or after she has her questions answered, she wants to add or change something to the design. Changing the design after implementation will take me more time than just updating the mockup images.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She has procrastinated on giving me a confirmation for 2 months since I'd given her the initial mockup design. I've a feeling the project is going to take way longer than I'd thought, and much of it is due to her indecisiveness.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project was quoted on a fixed sum for an amount of work. So I don't get paid for the time allocated to wait for her approvals. She has given me a deposit for the project and so I believe she is sincere about getting the project done. But I can't afford to let her delay the project this way because I have other projects in line and other things in my life. Moreover, she has a tight budget and so what she has paid isn't anything worth more than a 2-month work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been trying all sorts of way to get her to move to the next stage politely, but she has kept evading a confirmation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know what else I can do. I have thought of a few options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The first option is, I just let her flake all she wants until she&#xD;&#xA;    finally makes up her mind while I go on with my life and take on other&#xD;&#xA;    projects. Since I've her deposit if she decides to drop the project&#xD;&#xA;    halfway, she loses it. **BUT**, I know she isn't going to drop the&#xD;&#xA;    project and she may just decide &quot;okay let's do it now&quot; on any one day&#xD;&#xA;    which may not be a time I'm available to return to her project! And she isn't going to expect me telling her &quot;Hey I've waited *x* months for your approval, now I can't go back to your project until *y* months.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;    Moreover, switching context between projects after a few months is extremely disruptive, at least, to me. I have to spend time re-understanding the code done months ago.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 2. The second option, tell her I need her decision by a definite date&#xD;&#xA;        and if she can't give a confirmation by that date, I will take it&#xD;&#xA;        that she has confirmed the design and wants to proceed to move on&#xD;&#xA;        to the next stage. She is definitely not going to like this. But my biggest concern is that&#xD;&#xA;        I can expect myself having more trouble collecting my final payment&#xD;&#xA;        given her flakiness. She might just claim that I made the decision for her without her agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Either way isn't going to turn out very well. I need help dealing with such people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's your experience with indecisive clients like the one I've met? How did you deal with them?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21783" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8167" RevisionGUID="e40ba00b-91da-4664-bd50-3c92825cd557" CreationDate="2019-03-21T15:49:50.997" UserId="21708" Comment="added 130 characters in body" Text="I do freelance web design and development on the side. I have a client recently who appears to be flaky and indecisive. She isn't very willing to commit herself to make decisions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I've the mockup designs ready for her, she doesn't want to confirm whether she accepts the design or not. I've told her before that by accepting the design in the mockups, we will not be allowed to make drastic changes to it during development. So I'm not sure if this has frightened her, but I do this to other clients and had no problem. And I did assure her that minor changes such as colours and texts are fine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, she has been replying to my emails asking her for confirmation with questions after questions and meetups after meetups, but just not her confirmation. She has said things like she needs to meet her friend A then friend B for their opinions first, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't move on to the development stage if she doesn't confirm the design because every time we meet up (which btw actually eats wastes even more of my time) or after she has her questions answered, she wants to add or change something to the design (which even though its just the mockup images, it takes time for me to do it). But I have to prevent her from changing the design after implementation as that will be disastrous.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She has procrastinated on giving me a confirmation for 2 months since I'd given her the initial mockup design. I've a feeling the project is going to take way longer than I'd thought, and much of it is due to her indecisiveness.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project was quoted on a fixed sum for an amount of work. So I don't get paid for the time allocated to wait for her approvals. She has given me a deposit for the project and so I believe she is sincere about getting the project done. But I can't afford to let her delay the project this way because I have other projects in line and other things in my life. Moreover, she has a tight budget and so what she has paid isn't anything worth more than a 2-month work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been trying all sorts of way to get her to move to the next stage politely, but she has kept evading a confirmation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know what else I can do. I have thought of a few options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The first option is, I just let her flake all she wants until she&#xD;&#xA;    finally makes up her mind while I go on with my life and take on other&#xD;&#xA;    projects. Since I've her deposit if she decides to drop the project&#xD;&#xA;    halfway, she loses it. **BUT**, I know she isn't going to drop the&#xD;&#xA;    project and she may just decide &quot;okay let's do it now&quot; on any one day&#xD;&#xA;    which may not be a time I'm available to return to her project! And she isn't going to expect me telling her &quot;Hey I've waited *x* months for your approval, now I can't go back to your project until *y* months.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;    Moreover, switching context between projects after a few months is extremely disruptive, at least, to me. I have to spend time re-understanding the code done months ago.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 2. The second option, tell her I need her decision by a definite date&#xD;&#xA;        and if she can't give a confirmation by that date, I will take it&#xD;&#xA;        that she has confirmed the design and wants to proceed to move on&#xD;&#xA;        to the next stage. She is definitely not going to like this. But my biggest concern is that&#xD;&#xA;        I can expect myself having more trouble collecting my final payment&#xD;&#xA;        given her flakiness. She might just claim that I made the decision for her without her agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Either way isn't going to turn out very well. I need help dealing with such people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What's your experience with indecisive clients like the one I've met? How did you deal with them?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21784" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="309" RevisionGUID="96fc6a26-3e72-4025-bcc7-cbe7ef5350d1" CreationDate="2019-03-22T06:00:35.263" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1108971715726442496" />
  <row Id="21785" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8169" RevisionGUID="3061c30e-f7ac-4679-b6aa-386b941b29b6" CreationDate="2019-03-22T19:04:42.140" UserId="21712" Text="The main advantage of forming an LLC vs. a sole proprietorship or partnership is the greatly diminished risk to your personal finances. By forming an LLC, you shift responsibility for your business debts and liabilities from yourself to the newly formed corporate entity (thus, &quot;Limited Liability Company&quot;). So, generally speaking, if someone successfully sues your business or your business goes into a substantial amount of debt, creditors can only touch the assets you've put into the business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, for example, you would set up a separate checking account for your LLC, and if your business ends up owing a bunch of money, anything in that account is fair game, but your personal checking account would be off-limits, as would be your home and personal vehicle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The primary disadvantage of forming an LLC is that you'll have to do a fairly substantial amount of paperwork and pay some fees to start and maintain the LLC. In Florida, it's **$125 minimum to file**, plus $138.75 each year with your annual report.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long story short, if you're doing contract or gig work and business is good, there will eventually come a time where it makes sense to form an LLC. Whether that time is now for you depends on whether the hassle, administrative work and fees are worth the reduced risk given the current size, profitability, and future growth potential of your business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(DISCLAIMER: I am neither a lawyer, accountant, nor financial advisor, and this information should not be taken as advice in lieu of consulting with a certified financial planner and tax, legal, or other professionals.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Resources:&#xD;&#xA;[LLC Asset Protection In-depth Overview][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://businessentity.org/learning-center/llc-asset-protection/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21789" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8171" RevisionGUID="8b58e693-a71d-4554-8695-456d3f2b3b05" CreationDate="2019-03-23T19:33:44.120" UserId="21716" Text="&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've started a new project with a college classmate. We wanted to develop a mobile app, which we thought wasn't invented yet. Doing some research, we found out that the idea already existed; and it was exactly the same as what we had created.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After some thought, we decided to do it anyway but add more functionality and cover more countries than the app that already existed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But here is where the conflict started: he thinks we should keep it small and after gaining some profit, then we can start expanding it. In my opinion, we should release the app with all the features working, because, if we release an app that already exists, without any new features, why would users pick our newly created app over a 3-year-old app with a lot more clients and stability than ours?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't find a proper way to justify my opinion. I'd like to have any statistics or some knowledge of how this works, but I don't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I convince him that my opinion is better? Or am I actually wrong?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21790" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8171" RevisionGUID="8b58e693-a71d-4554-8695-456d3f2b3b05" CreationDate="2019-03-23T19:33:44.120" UserId="21716" Text="How can I justify my opinion about app release?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21791" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8171" RevisionGUID="8b58e693-a71d-4554-8695-456d3f2b3b05" CreationDate="2019-03-23T19:33:44.120" UserId="21716" Text="|communication|consulting|negotiation|business-plan|partner|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21792" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="357" RevisionGUID="8ce593f9-97c8-4382-be1f-45ad6c6662bf" CreationDate="2019-03-24T00:00:34.813" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1109605892406853632" />
  <row Id="21795" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8172" RevisionGUID="9c31dc00-b0e2-407c-ab63-c91181a0f872" CreationDate="2019-03-25T05:14:01.823" UserId="21724" Text="I joined a website design project for a client. I asked him to deposit 50% of the project's money. &#xD;&#xA;I sent draft designs; they were almost complete. Suddenly, the client said he met a financial problem and canceled the project. &#xD;&#xA;We didn't sign any contracts. I couldn't get the remaining amount while I think I deserve more than the 50% deposit. How do you handle cancellations? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21796" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8172" RevisionGUID="9c31dc00-b0e2-407c-ab63-c91181a0f872" CreationDate="2019-03-25T05:14:01.823" UserId="21724" Text="Freelancers, do you have any advice when clients cancel the project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21797" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8172" RevisionGUID="9c31dc00-b0e2-407c-ab63-c91181a0f872" CreationDate="2019-03-25T05:14:01.823" UserId="21724" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21798" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8173" RevisionGUID="e74d13c4-3151-47d0-910b-81316809c205" CreationDate="2019-03-25T05:30:19.823" UserId="708" Text="With no contract, keep the 50% and move on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want a &quot;kill fee&quot; you need to have that in a contract. It's difficult, if not impossible, to try and collect a cancellation fee *after* cancellation without something in writing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, it's *your* responsibility if the deposit does not adequately cover the work needed prior to client review." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21799" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8174" RevisionGUID="fceccfee-4ad4-45ef-a8ec-34c13a143ff2" CreationDate="2019-03-25T15:33:15.363" UserId="12865" Text="First there's no way to know if you are wrong or right you need to release it to know.&#xA;&#xA;So the real problem when developing something like that is that most of the time when it take a long time to make it happen, the partnership gets bored or demotivated to continue and so the project fails.&#xA;&#xA;Something that helps with that is what your &#xA;Classmate says, release it with basic features and then grow and update  your app.&#xA;&#xA;When you release simple but complete you get motivation and your mind is &quot;dammmmmmn i got an app on the store biaaaachh&quot; something like that especially when its your first.&#xA;Also usesr see that you update the app and it gets constant support with new features every few months. They will stay just because of that and you will get revenues even more.&#xA;&#xA;Regards." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21800" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8173" RevisionGUID="83ae3003-c6db-4514-98ad-480500569833" CreationDate="2019-03-25T16:30:05.270" UserId="708" Comment="added 90 characters in body" Text="With no contract, keep the 50% and move on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want a &quot;kill fee&quot; you need to have that in a contract. It's difficult, if not impossible, to try and collect a cancellation fee *after* cancellation without something in writing. You can certainly *ask* for such a fee. But the client has no obligation to pay anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, it's *your* responsibility if the deposit does not adequately cover the work needed prior to client review." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21804" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8176" RevisionGUID="b71d2a2b-fe7b-407e-b845-a704c5253ad1" CreationDate="2019-03-26T05:41:21.017" UserId="21726" Text="One possibility is to include a clause that you may use external library code in order to complete the project. Then build your library in between clients, and use it during your projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am based in Japan, and I just negotiate the terms with each project. If they want, I can deliver all the code, but they have to pay &quot;full price&quot;. If I can reuse parts or all code for future clients, and I know I will, I can give discount. We just write it down in the agreement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21806" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="656" RevisionGUID="492b6e54-a62a-419e-b9da-0cba02af20a8" CreationDate="2019-03-27T09:25:35.747" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1110835246843547648" />
  <row Id="21807" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8177" RevisionGUID="f4a6344b-7a3f-4ca7-9782-4d99861fa283" CreationDate="2019-03-27T14:49:40.943" UserId="21736" Text="For this project we had no formal contract, just emails outline scope of work and partial usage rights for the images I was delivering. They decided to cancel the project about 4 months into it (once again, nothing to do with me) after I had completed 4 of the 13 images in the original scope.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Their &quot;solution&quot; was for me to keep the full amount of money, which they had already paid, in exchange for full usage rights (the amount they would be well below industry standard, which I explained to them) Otherwise they would need a refund.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I offered other solutions--higher price for full buyout, or unfinished work balance as a credit for future work. To which they denied both options&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Normally changing scope or canceling a project would just be chalked up as &quot;shit happens&quot; but this was abnormally late into the project and well after I was already paid (&quot;hope you didn't spend that money because we want it back!&quot;) and I'm really hesitant about refunding the money.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To me, in the beginning we mutually agreed &quot;X amount of work for X amount of money&quot;--very black and white.  Then 4 months down the road they're like &quot;never mind, we changed our mind on our agreement&quot;.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On one hand, yes I didn't complete the project.  On the other hand they chose to break their half of our agreement and now I am the one getting screwed out of expected money I was counting on.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thoughts of where I stand in this? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21808" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8177" RevisionGUID="f4a6344b-7a3f-4ca7-9782-4d99861fa283" CreationDate="2019-03-27T14:49:40.943" UserId="21736" Text="Client paid for project in full, canceled the project 4 months into it (nothing to do with me) wants refund for unfinished work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21809" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8177" RevisionGUID="f4a6344b-7a3f-4ca7-9782-4d99861fa283" CreationDate="2019-03-27T14:49:40.943" UserId="21736" Text="|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21813" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8179" RevisionGUID="c1d4b520-4103-4631-8f6a-57a2140fc402" CreationDate="2019-03-28T05:50:53.743" UserId="21740" Text="I am a Consultant to a company whose HR, PD &amp; other people have not notified me that the agreement is expiring in a few days. I want to send an email to the CEO, HR, PD and do the following: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Inform the CEO that my agreement is expiring&#xD;&#xA; 2. I also want to ask them to renew it&#xD;&#xA; 3. I need a heads up (30 day prior notice) when the contract is expiring or they decide to terminate it&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I put this in the email? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21814" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8179" RevisionGUID="c1d4b520-4103-4631-8f6a-57a2140fc402" CreationDate="2019-03-28T05:50:53.743" UserId="21740" Text="How do I notify my Client that my Consultancy Agreement is expiring &amp; also I want them to renew it" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21815" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8179" RevisionGUID="c1d4b520-4103-4631-8f6a-57a2140fc402" CreationDate="2019-03-28T05:50:53.743" UserId="21740" Text="|freelance-websites|consulting|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21816" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8180" RevisionGUID="a73d0d1a-40aa-4eab-9767-43dbe468ba00" CreationDate="2019-03-28T09:29:41.853" UserId="21742" Text="I think the best approach is to create a WhatsApp Business App account if you're going to be speaking a lot of your clients over WhatsApp. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the WhatsApp Business App you can set an automated away message outside your business hours. That will give your clients a hint. There is more info on how to set this up in this [guide to WhatsApp for business][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://rocketbots.io/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-whatsapp-business-app/?utm_source=StackExchange&amp;utm_medium=q%26asite&amp;utm_campaign=qaanswer&amp;utm_content=waguideblog" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21819" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="8010" RevisionGUID="5d93b5cc-b833-4084-a65c-58be61870a68" CreationDate="2019-03-28T14:06:34.827" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21820" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8181" RevisionGUID="e5e76006-bd51-4e12-8499-01f8c42e91a8" CreationDate="2019-03-28T15:44:16.290" UserId="21743" Text="I know it's too late, but one thing to do is to learn to ALWAYS have a contract! I do work for a couple of friends and even among friends we have a contract. Unexpected stuff happens and a contract provides a framework for how to deal with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also - and I know it sounds like I am blaming you for this situation, but I am honestly not - I would recommend strongly against full payment in advance. A retainer with regular invoices as the project progresses? Yes! A big fat invoice at the end? Yes! Full payment at the start? For me it's too risky - what if there's a family issue or you get the offer of the job of your dreams... or what if the client pulls the project and wants a refund...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway onto the question in hand...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without seeing the emails you exchanged where you &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; mutually agreed &quot;X amount of work for X amount of money&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;it's hard to know if they'd constitute a contract; depending on your jurisdiction they might. If the amounts are big enough to warrant it, consult a lawyer and find out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If not, choose the option which is least injurious to your pride - sell the rights cheap, or refund the money - and treat yourself to a lesson in business... that lesson being: contracts and invoices exist for a reason and are beneficial to both vendor and purchaser!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21821" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8182" RevisionGUID="2fef8e2a-5f56-41c4-9261-ba06a8618256" CreationDate="2019-03-28T23:53:40.077" UserId="708" Text="Without a contract, retaining 33% of the fee and refunding the other 66% would seem fair to me. You completed about 1/3 of the images.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Image rights for the 4 images would remain as agreed upon. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any further rights to the 4 completed images would be a matter of further negotiation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's difficult to *prove* you are harmed due the *anticipation* of income. I *expect* to earn $X from Client Y in 2020, that doesn't mean I can invoice Client Y in 2020 for $X even if they didn't give me the work to warrant it. Without a *direct* &quot;kill fee/cancellation&quot; charge in a contract, you can't often get away with charging a kill fee." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21822" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8182" RevisionGUID="285930d7-d160-44b0-87b1-812d62da866e" CreationDate="2019-03-28T23:58:43.607" UserId="708" Comment="added 748 characters in body" Text="Without a contract, retaining 33% of the fee and refunding the other 66% would seem fair to me. You completed about 1/3 of the images.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Image rights for the 4 images would remain as agreed upon. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any further rights to the 4 completed images would be a matter of further negotiation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's difficult to *prove* you are harmed due the *anticipation* of income. I *expect* to earn $X from Client Y in 2020, that doesn't mean I can invoice Client Y in 2020 for $X even if they didn't give me the work to warrant it. Without a *direct* &quot;kill fee/cancellation&quot; charge in a contract, you can't often get away with charging a kill fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being posted -- I've been there, done that -- spent payment prior to work being completed and then had to refund something for one reason or another. I've learned to *not* spend money until the project related to it has been completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, I'd look at it as **quantum meruit** - you deserve to be paid based upon the *work you performed*, not the work you *thought* you would be doing. &#xD;&#xA;&gt;: (kwahn-tuhm mare-ooh-it) n. Latin for &quot;as much as he deserved,&quot; the actual value of services performed. Quantum meruit determines the amount to be paid for services when no contract exists or when there is doubt as to the amount due for the work performed but done under circumstances when payment could be expected. This may include a physician's emergency aid, legal work when there was no contract, or evaluating the amount due when outside forces cause a job to be terminated unexpectedly. If a person sues for payment for services in such circumstances the judge or jury will calculate the amount due based on time and usual rate of pay or the customary charge, based on quantum meruit by implying a contract existed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21831" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8185" RevisionGUID="fa3a80f0-c42e-466c-82c0-d9f816d6d23e" CreationDate="2019-03-30T05:29:50.167" UserId="16491" Text="If it doesn't harm your business, I would accept their solution. You then get paid the amount you expected while having spent 1/3 of the effort you would have, and they are happy to have paid you. It doesn't sound like the agreement would prevent you from also having the use of your creations, because you didn't mention exclusive rights.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Never mind that you got lower than industry standard. There is no harm to you. To prevent the next guy from arguing to meet the deal they got, bind them to a nondisclosure agreement about the price. Next time create a contract. Now you prevent a dispute that will drain your energy and distract you from further productive use of your time. Move on." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21836" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8187" RevisionGUID="e3837781-b628-4f98-b2f4-676730e4abfb" CreationDate="2019-03-30T19:38:21.270" UserId="21411" Text="I have basic knowledge of html5, css3 &amp; bootstrap. Shall I learn the frontend thing completely? Will it be worth the time and energy keeping the fact in mind that there are tons of frontend freelancers and wix/squarespace/WordPress/weebly kind of platforms?&#xA;Or shall I leave it there and go for something else?&#xA;Thank you. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21837" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8187" RevisionGUID="e3837781-b628-4f98-b2f4-676730e4abfb" CreationDate="2019-03-30T19:38:21.270" UserId="21411" Text="Is Frontend worth of learning in 2019?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21838" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8187" RevisionGUID="e3837781-b628-4f98-b2f4-676730e4abfb" CreationDate="2019-03-30T19:38:21.270" UserId="21411" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21839" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8188" RevisionGUID="157a545e-1859-45fb-aed8-10eb84b09db1" CreationDate="2019-03-31T17:14:35.310" UserId="12865" Text="Any end that help you or is part of your job is worth learning, don't be those who think if a language is dead then you don't need to look at it. Be the one that outrun them by  knowing that &quot;dead&quot; language, maybe made you understand the tasks in hand and future solutions.&#xA;&#xA;When you know different parts that make a complete product, you will make your part better, faster and more rewarding." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21841" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8189" RevisionGUID="443d436d-d419-4499-ac42-94b53817789b" CreationDate="2019-04-01T09:26:23.330" UserId="21708" Text="I've recently quoted a client on a project for 16 hours of effort. I've told him that I can deliver the work in 3 weeks time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, he took the 16 hours of effort literally and expected me to deliver the next day since 16 hours of effort is what I've quoted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, clearly, that 16 hours is just a unit for estimating the amount of effort required and hence the fee, but he couldn't seem to understand how I could charge him 16 hours on one hand and yet require 3 weeks of time to deliver the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've used an hourly rate with this client because I believe he might have additional changes and an hourly rate allows me to justify any extra fees required for those changes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I explain to the client that the 16-hour effort estimation doesn't mean precisely I will spend 16 hours to complete the work? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or is the client totally right to think that I only need 16 hours for the work when I provide that estimation? If so, how does an hourly rate even work because the cost will surely blow up into a 5-digit figure if I really count every single hour I spent on it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21842" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8189" RevisionGUID="443d436d-d419-4499-ac42-94b53817789b" CreationDate="2019-04-01T09:26:23.330" UserId="21708" Text="How to help a client understand that 16-hour effort doesn't mean deliver the next day?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21843" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8189" RevisionGUID="443d436d-d419-4499-ac42-94b53817789b" CreationDate="2019-04-01T09:26:23.330" UserId="21708" Text="|client-support|estimation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21844" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8190" RevisionGUID="6a542e5c-6c5e-4d60-bb97-e1be24f1616c" CreationDate="2019-04-01T15:12:26.963" UserId="75" Text="So you told the client it would be 16 hours of effort to complete, and that you need 3 weeks to complete it... What the client hears is &quot;I need 16 hours ... to complete&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This comes down to the client having different expectations than you do. I would counter back with reasons why it's not 16 hours straight:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- You didn't get into Freelancing to work 16-hour days&#xD;&#xA;- There is waiting time that he isn't paying for&#xD;&#xA;- You have other clients with deadlines&#xD;&#xA;- The cost to have you start right away and blow off other clients while you do so is quite high (it better be!)&#xD;&#xA;- You need meal breaks and bathroom breaks in those 16 hours, and he would *most likely* claim to not want to pay for those&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the future, if you end up quoting a price, I would do one of two things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Tell him that work does not start right away when you have other clients, and you don't spend every waking moment freelancing - you have a life too.&#xD;&#xA;2. Give him a per-project price that has some padding in it, but do not quote how many active hours you are spending on it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21845" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8191" RevisionGUID="5d285195-4da1-408b-8440-f1af64f0eea3" CreationDate="2019-04-02T01:52:24.570" UserId="708" Text="I think it's fiarly simple..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Sorry [client],&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;It doesn't work that way. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The 16 hours needed to complete your project must be scheduled and coordinated with other ongoing projects. I will need 3 weeks to schedule and complete your project.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;If you would prefer next day, or two day, delivery I am happy to revisit pricing and revise with that &quot;rush&quot; status in mind. Costs will be greater.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21846" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8191" RevisionGUID="1f989939-09a1-4d9e-870d-89265f0b8986" CreationDate="2019-04-03T06:04:37.580" UserId="708" Comment="edited body" Text="I think it's fairly simple..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Sorry [client],&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;It doesn't work that way. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The 16 hours needed to complete your project must be scheduled and coordinated with other ongoing projects. I will need 3 weeks to schedule and complete your project.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;If you would prefer next day, or two day, delivery I am happy to revisit pricing and revise with that &quot;rush&quot; status in mind. Costs will be greater.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21847" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8192" RevisionGUID="81f89483-173b-46de-b1c7-c1a92ba7295e" CreationDate="2019-04-03T09:55:51.897" UserId="21708" Text="I'm recently working with a very indecisive client who never seems to want to make decisions or give approvals to any confirmations I asked of her. I have had a question on this [here][1] a while ago. But there is a crazy turn of things with this client today and I don't know what are my options.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This indecisive client of mine has been evading my request for her approval on my design for her website before I implement it. Two days ago, after responding to her latest series of questions, I followed up by asking her for approval of the design again. However, she replied and said she will only give me the green light when she is confident about my maintenance terms. I have no idea how approving the design has to with maintenance but I believe she said that to evade my request for her approval again. She has done that numerous times every time right after I ask for her approval.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The worst part of all in her email, she said she expects the site to be launched by next month and I should take the time from now to get things done. I was dumbfounded to read what she has written. **How does she expect me to voluntarily &quot;get things done&quot; when she doesn't approve the design until when she is confident of something irrelevant to the design and come back with changes later?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I replied to her that I will only start implementation after she has approved the design. I also counter proposed her deadline and mentioned to her about how the deadline will be pushed back for any delays in approval, as what one of the [answers][2] in my previous question has suggested and I think it's a good idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To my surprise though, she responded that she has always thought her website should be like blablahblah.com and I should go look at it. That website she now mentions is quite different from what she has said she wanted when we first agreed on the project. It's also more complicated than what I have quoted her in the quotation. The design has to be completely different to afford those features too and so *my existing mockups for her will all be wasted*! It seems when she has finally no other way to evade having to give an approval, she throws me a spanner by suggesting that she has expected the website to be like another site which she didn't mention at all from the start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seriously, she is telling me this after she took 13 months to decide to hire me since we first met up, and then another 4 months having over 50 email exchanges and several offline meetups asking me a ton of questions and wasting my time researching for answers to her questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A lot of lessons learned**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This incident has definitely taught me a lot about dealing with clients in freelance work. On hindsight, I would have done many things differently like writing a more detailed contract to protect myself even though it seems like a small project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What are my options?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now, even though I've learnt my lessons, I think I should also know what are some options I should take. She has given me a 50% deposit which I did state in my quotation that this is not refundable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Accept that she now wants her site to be different**: If I accept her&#xD;&#xA;    new expectation, I will have to quote her again for the new&#xD;&#xA;    requirements and ask her to decide. Since it's decision time, she is&#xD;&#xA;    going to have a hard time deciding again and I can expect her wasting my time answering her questions like &quot;will users come to this page if we do it this way?&quot; or &quot;now with this new design, will users read this important info I wrote in my article?&quot; And then if she ever takes up the new quotation, given her&#xD;&#xA;    character, she may flake again. And I need to spend even more time with her.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 2. **Withdraw from the project**: Honestly, I'm very tempted to go with this&#xD;&#xA;    option. I feel like she is wasting my time and she isn't worth it. But,&#xD;&#xA;    I've collected a 50% non-refundable deposit. I don't think she will cancel the project on her own. If I withdraw from the&#xD;&#xA;    project myself, what should I do with the deposit? If I return her the&#xD;&#xA;    deposit, I feel like I'm not being compensated for the amount of&#xD;&#xA;    time and effort spent on answering her questions, all meetups, my&#xD;&#xA;    time spent coming up with the design and mockup screens. And almost certainly, my withdrawal will&#xD;&#xA;    turn things sour. Given that she evades making decisions, she might&#xD;&#xA;    be somebody who's insecure. She might just accuse me to scamming her or whatever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be the best thing to do after getting myself to deal with such a client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/8167/how-to-deal-with-indecisive-clients&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/8168/21708" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21848" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8192" RevisionGUID="81f89483-173b-46de-b1c7-c1a92ba7295e" CreationDate="2019-04-03T09:55:51.897" UserId="21708" Text="Client who doesn't commit now suggests she expects a different thing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21849" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8192" RevisionGUID="81f89483-173b-46de-b1c7-c1a92ba7295e" CreationDate="2019-04-03T09:55:51.897" UserId="21708" Text="|difficult-client|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21850" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8192" RevisionGUID="3b43d85d-41ff-46b1-a34a-2862a5cf3632" CreationDate="2019-04-03T10:19:46.933" UserId="21708" Comment="edited body" Text="I'm recently working with a very indecisive client who never seems to want to make decisions or give approvals to any confirmations I asked of her. I have had a question on this [here][1] a while ago. But there is a crazy turn of things with this client today and I don't know what are my options.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This indecisive client of mine has been evading my request for her approval on my design for her website before I implement it. Two days ago, after responding to her latest series of questions, I followed up by asking her for approval of the design again. However, she replied and said she will only give me the green light when she is confident about my maintenance terms. I have no idea how approving the design has to with maintenance but I believe she said that to evade my request for her approval again. She has done that numerous times every time right after I ask for her approval.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The worst part of all in her email, she said she expects the site to be launched by next month and I should take the time from now to get things done. I was dumbfounded to read what she has written. **How does she expect me to voluntarily &quot;get things done&quot; when she doesn't approve the design until when she is confident of something irrelevant to the design and come back with changes later?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I replied to her that I will only start implementation after she has approved the design. I also counter proposed her deadline and mentioned to her about how the deadline will be pushed back for any delays in approval, as what one of the [answers][2] in my previous question has suggested and I think it's a good idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To my surprise though, she responded that she has always thought her website should be like blablahblah.com and I should go look at it. That website she now mentions is quite different from what she has said she wanted when we first agreed on the project. It's also more complicated than what I have quoted her in the quotation. The design has to be completely different to afford those features too and so *my existing mockups for her will all be wasted*! It seems when she has finally no other way to evade having to give an approval, she throws me a spanner by suggesting that she has expected the website to be like another site which she didn't mention at all from the start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seriously, she is telling me this after she took 13 months to decide to hire me since we first met up, and then another 4 months having over 50 email exchanges and several offline meetups asking me a ton of questions and wasting my time researching for answers to her questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A lot of lessons learned**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This incident has definitely taught me a lot about dealing with clients in freelance work. On hindsight, I would have done many things differently like writing a more detailed contract to protect myself even though it seems like a small project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What are my options?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now, even though I've learnt my lessons, I think I should also know what are some options I should take. She has given me a 50% deposit which I did state in my quotation that this is not refundable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Accept that she now wants her site to be different**: If I accept her&#xD;&#xA;    new expectation, I will have to quote her again for the new&#xD;&#xA;    requirements and ask her to decide. Since it's decision time, she is&#xD;&#xA;    going to have a hard time deciding again and I can expect her wasting my time answering her questions like &quot;will users come to this page if we do it this way?&quot; or &quot;now with this new design, will users read this important info I wrote in my article?&quot; And then if she ever takes up the new quotation, given her&#xD;&#xA;    character, she may flake again. And I need to spend even more time with her.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 2. **Withdraw from the project**: Honestly, I'm very tempted to go with this&#xD;&#xA;    option. I feel like she is wasting my time and she isn't worth it. But,&#xD;&#xA;    I've collected a 50% non-refundable deposit. I don't think she will cancel the project on her own. If I withdraw from the&#xD;&#xA;    project myself, what should I do with the deposit? If I return her the&#xD;&#xA;    deposit, I feel like I'm not being compensated for the amount of&#xD;&#xA;    time and effort spent on answering her questions, all meetups, my&#xD;&#xA;    time spent coming up with the design and mockup screens. And almost certainly, my withdrawal will&#xD;&#xA;    turn things sour. Given that she evades making decisions, she might&#xD;&#xA;    be somebody who's insecure. She might just accuse me of scamming her or whatever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be the best thing to do after getting myself to deal with such a client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/8167/how-to-deal-with-indecisive-clients&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/8168/21708" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21851" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8192" RevisionGUID="98ce73fd-7f48-4dac-a311-53d866ff61ea" CreationDate="2019-04-03T10:29:32.037" UserId="21708" Comment="added 154 characters in body; added 1 character in body; deleted 2 characters in body; added 32 characters in body; added 10 characters in body" Text="I'm recently working with a very indecisive client who never seems to want to make decisions or give approvals to any confirmations I asked of her. I have had a question on this [here][1] a while ago. But there is a crazy turn of things with this client today and I don't know what are my options - she now says she has always wanted her site to be like another website, but this website she now mentions is more complicated than what we have agreed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This indecisive client of mine has been evading my request for her approval on my design for her website before I implement it. Two days ago, after responding to her latest series of questions, I followed up by asking her for approval of the design again. However, she replied and said she will only give me the green light when she is confident about my maintenance terms. I have no idea how approving the design has to with maintenance but I believe she said that to evade my request for her approval again. She has done that numerous times every time. She always has questions after questions right after I ask for her approval.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The worst part of all in her email, she said she expects the site to be launched by next month and I should take the time from now to get things done. I was dumbfounded to read what she has written. **How does she expect me to voluntarily &quot;get things done&quot; when she doesn't approve the design until when she is confident of something irrelevant to the design and come back with changes later?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I replied to her that I will only start implementation after she has approved the design. I also counter proposed her deadline and mentioned to her about how the deadline will be pushed back for any delays in approval, as what one of the [answers][2] in my previous question has suggested and I think it's a good idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To my surprise though, she responded that she has always thought her website should be like blablahblah.com and I should go look at it. That website she now mentions is quite different from what she has said she wanted when we first agreed on the project. It's also more complicated than what I have quoted her in the quotation. The design has to be completely different to afford those features too and so *my existing mockups for her will all be wasted*! It seems when she has finally no other way to evade having to give an approval, she throws me a spanner by suggesting that she has expected the website to be like another site which she didn't mention at all from the start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seriously, she is telling me this after she took 13 months to decide to hire me since we first met up, and then another 4 months having over 50 email exchanges and several offline meetups asking me a ton of questions and wasting my time researching for answers to her questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A lot of lessons learned**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This incident has definitely taught me a lot about dealing with clients in freelance work. On hindsight, I would have done many things differently like writing a more detailed contract to protect myself even though it seems like a small project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What are my options?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now, even though I've learnt my lessons, I think I should also know what are some options I should take. She has given me a 50% deposit which I did state in my quotation that this is not refundable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Accept that she now wants her site to be different**: If I accept her&#xD;&#xA;    new expectation, I will have to quote her again for the new&#xD;&#xA;    requirements and ask her to decide. Since it's decision time, she is&#xD;&#xA;    going to have a hard time deciding again and I can expect her wasting my time answering her questions like &quot;will users come to this page if we do it this way?&quot; or &quot;now with this new design, will users read this important info I wrote in my article?&quot; And then if she ever takes up the new quotation, given her&#xD;&#xA;    character, she may flake again. And I need to spend even more time with her.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 2. **Withdraw from the project**: Honestly, I'm very tempted to go with this&#xD;&#xA;    option. I feel like she is wasting my time and she isn't worth it. But,&#xD;&#xA;    I've collected a 50% non-refundable deposit. I don't think she will cancel the project on her own. If I withdraw from the&#xD;&#xA;    project myself, what should I do with the deposit? If I return her the&#xD;&#xA;    deposit, I feel like I'm not being compensated for the amount of&#xD;&#xA;    time and effort spent on answering her questions, all meetups, my&#xD;&#xA;    time spent coming up with the design and mockup screens. And almost certainly, my withdrawal will&#xD;&#xA;    turn things sour. Given that she evades making decisions, she might&#xD;&#xA;    be somebody who's insecure. She might just accuse me of scamming her or whatever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be the best thing to do after getting myself to deal with such a client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/8167/how-to-deal-with-indecisive-clients&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/8168/21708" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21852" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="8192" RevisionGUID="c6411fd3-70f4-437b-a3ba-9878a1463570" CreationDate="2019-04-03T11:30:00.613" UserId="21708" Comment="edited title" Text="Client who doesn't want to commit changes expectation" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21853" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8192" RevisionGUID="c6411fd3-70f4-437b-a3ba-9878a1463570" CreationDate="2019-04-03T11:30:00.613" UserId="21708" Comment="edited title" Text="I'm recently working with a very indecisive client who never seems to want to make decisions or give approvals to any confirmations I asked of her. I have had a question on this [here][1] a while ago. But there is a crazy turn of things with this client today and I don't know what are my options - she now says she has always wanted her site to be like another website, but this website she now mentions is more complicated than what we have agreed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This indecisive client of mine has been evading my request for her approval on my design for her website before I implement it. Two days ago, after responding to her latest series of questions, I followed up by asking her for approval of the design again. However, she replied and said she will only give me the green light when she is confident about my maintenance terms. I have no idea how approving the design has to with maintenance but I believe she said that to evade my request for her approval again. She has done that numerous times every time. She always has questions after questions right after I ask for her approval.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The worst part of all in her email, she said she expects the site to be launched by next month and I should take the time from now to get things done. I was dumbfounded to read what she has written. **How does she expect me to voluntarily &quot;get things done&quot; when she doesn't approve the design until when she is confident of something irrelevant to the design and come back with changes later?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I replied to her that I will only start implementation after she has approved the design. I also counter proposed her deadline and mentioned to her about how the deadline will be pushed back for any delays in approval, as what one of the [answers][2] in my previous question has suggested and I think it's a good idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To my surprise though, she responded that she has always thought her website should be like blablahblah.com and I should go look at it. That website she now mentions is quite different from what she has said she wanted when we first agreed on the project. It's also more complicated than what I have quoted her in the quotation. The design has to be completely different to afford those features too and so *my existing mockups for her will all be wasted*! It seems when she has finally no other way to evade having to give an approval, she throws me a spanner by suggesting that she has expected the website to be like another site which she didn't mention at all from the start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seriously, she is telling me this after she took 13 months to decide to hire me since we first met up, and then another 4 months having over 50 email exchanges and several offline meetups asking me a ton of questions and wasting my time researching for answers to her questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A lot of lessons learned**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This incident has definitely taught me a lot about dealing with clients in freelance work. On hindsight, I would have done many things differently like writing a more detailed contract to protect myself even though it seems like a small project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What are my options?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now, even though I've learnt my lessons, I think I should also know what are some options I should take. She has given me a 50% deposit which I did state in my quotation that this is not refundable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Accept that she now wants her site to be different**: If I accept her&#xD;&#xA;    new expectation, I will have to quote her again for the new&#xD;&#xA;    requirements and ask her to decide. Since it's decision time, she is&#xD;&#xA;    going to have a hard time deciding again and I can expect her wasting my time answering her questions like &quot;will users come to this page if we do it this way?&quot; or &quot;now with this new design, will users read this important info I wrote in my article?&quot; I'm not sure she would even take my new pricing nicely. Even if she ever takes up the new pricing, given her&#xD;&#xA;    character, she may flake again. And I need to spend even more time with her.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 2. **Withdraw from the project**: Honestly, I'm very tempted to go with this&#xD;&#xA;    option. I feel like she is wasting my time and she isn't worth it. But,&#xD;&#xA;    I've collected a 50% non-refundable deposit. I don't think she will cancel the project on her own. If I withdraw from the&#xD;&#xA;    project myself, what should I do with the deposit? If I return her the&#xD;&#xA;    deposit, I feel like I'm not being compensated for the amount of&#xD;&#xA;    time and effort spent on answering her questions, all meetups, my&#xD;&#xA;    time spent coming up with the design and mockup screens. And almost certainly, my withdrawal will&#xD;&#xA;    turn things sour. Given that she evades making decisions, she might&#xD;&#xA;    be somebody who's insecure. She might just accuse me of scamming her or whatever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be the best thing to do after getting myself to deal with such a client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/8167/how-to-deal-with-indecisive-clients&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/8168/21708" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21854" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8192" RevisionGUID="e7e3dd60-650d-40ff-b74a-acd45e1fe7ae" CreationDate="2019-04-03T12:25:29.623" UserId="21708" Comment="added 237 characters in body; added 11 characters in body; added 4 characters in body; added 18 characters in body" Text="I'm recently working with a very indecisive client who never seems to want to make decisions or give approvals to any confirmations I asked of her. I have had a question on this [here][1] a while ago. But there is a crazy turn of things with this client today and I don't know what are my options - she now says she has always wanted her site I’m doing for her to be like another website, but this website she now mentions is more complicated than what we have agreed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This indecisive client of mine has been evading my request for her approval on my design for her website before I implement it. Two days ago, after responding to her latest series of questions, I followed up by asking her for approval of the design again. However, she replied and said she will only give me the green light when she is confident about my maintenance terms. I have no idea how approving the design has to with maintenance but I believe she said that to evade my request for her approval again. She has done that numerous times every time. She always has questions after questions right after I ask for her approval.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The worst part of all in her email, she said she expects the site to be launched by next month and I should take the time from now to get things done. I was dumbfounded to read what she has written. **How does she expect me to voluntarily &quot;get things done&quot; when she doesn't approve the design until when she is confident of something irrelevant to the design and come back with changes later?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I replied to her that I will only start implementation after she has approved the design. I also counter proposed her deadline and mentioned to her about how the deadline will be pushed back for any delays in approval, as what one of the [answers][2] in my previous question has suggested and I think it's a good idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To my surprise though, she responded that she has always thought her website should be like blablahblah.com and I should go look at it. That website she now mentions is quite different from what she has said she wanted when we first agreed on the project. It's also more complicated than what I have quoted her in the quotation. The design has to be completely different to afford those features too and so *my existing mockups for her will all be wasted*! It seems when she has finally no other way to evade having to give an approval, she throws me a spanner by suggesting that she has expected the website to be like another site which she didn't mention at all from the start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seriously, she is telling me this after she took 13 months to decide to hire me since we first met up, and then another 4 months having over 50 email exchanges and several offline meetups asking me a ton of questions and wasting my time researching for answers to her questions. We spent all this time talking to build this one website and now she suddenly says she expects her website to be like another site! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A lot of lessons learned**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clearly, I’m quite upset about this incident but it has definitely taught me a lot about dealing with clients in freelance work. I’ve done quite a few freelance assignments but this client is tough to manage.  On hindsight, I would have done many things differently like writing a more detailed contract to protect myself even though it seems like a small project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What are my options?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now, even though I've learnt my lessons, I think I should also know what are some options I should take. She has given me a 50% deposit which I did state in my quotation that this is not refundable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Accept that she now wants her site to be different**: If I accept her&#xD;&#xA;    new expectation, I will have to quote her again for the new&#xD;&#xA;    requirements and ask her to decide. Since it's decision time, she is&#xD;&#xA;    going to have a hard time deciding again and I can expect her wasting my time answering her questions like &quot;will users come to this page if we do it this way?&quot; or &quot;now with this new design, will users read this important info I wrote in my article?&quot; I'm not sure she would even take my new pricing nicely. Even if she ever takes up the new pricing, given her&#xD;&#xA;    character, she may flake again. And I need to spend even more time with her.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 2. **Withdraw from the project**: Honestly, I'm very tempted to go with this&#xD;&#xA;    option. I feel like she is wasting my time and she isn't worth it. But,&#xD;&#xA;    I've collected a 50% non-refundable deposit. I don't think she will cancel the project on her own. If I withdraw from the&#xD;&#xA;    project myself, what should I do with the deposit? If I return her the&#xD;&#xA;    deposit, I feel like I'm not being compensated for the amount of&#xD;&#xA;    time and effort spent on answering her questions, all meetups, my&#xD;&#xA;    time spent coming up with the design and mockup screens. And almost certainly, my withdrawal will&#xD;&#xA;    turn things sour. Given that she evades making decisions, she might&#xD;&#xA;    be somebody who's insecure. She might just accuse me of scamming her or whatever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be the best thing to do after getting myself to deal with such a client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/8167/how-to-deal-with-indecisive-clients&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/8168/21708" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21855" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8192" RevisionGUID="928fd273-1957-41a9-9897-482319b0b5fa" CreationDate="2019-04-03T12:32:51.590" UserId="21708" Comment="added 13 characters in body; deleted 7 characters in body; edited title; added 14 characters in body" Text="I'm recently working with a very indecisive client who never seems to want to make decisions or give approvals to any confirmations I asked of her. I have had a question on this [here][1] a while ago. But there is a crazy turn of things with this client today and I don't know what are my options - she now says she has always wanted her site I’m doing for her to be like another website, but this website she now mentions is more complicated than what we have agreed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This indecisive client of mine has been evading my request for her approval on my design for her website before I implement it. Two days ago, after responding to her latest series of questions, I followed up by asking her for approval of the design again. However, she replied and said she will only give me the green light when she is confident about my maintenance terms. I have no idea how approving the design has to with maintenance but I believe she said that to evade my request for her approval again. She has done that numerous times. She has been coming up with questions after questions every time when I ask for her approval.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The worst part of all in her email, she said she expects the site to be launched by next month and I should take the time from now to next month to get things done. I was dumbfounded to read what she has written. **How does she expect me to voluntarily &quot;get things done&quot; when she doesn't approve the design until when she is confident of something irrelevant to the design and come back with changes later?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I replied to her that I will only start implementation after she has approved the design. I also counter proposed her deadline and mentioned to her about how the deadline will be pushed back for any delays in approval, as what one of the [answers][2] in my previous question has suggested and I think it's a good idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To my surprise though, she responded that she has always thought her website should be like blablahblah.com and I should go look at it. That website she now mentions is quite different from what she has said she wanted when we first agreed on the project. It's also more complicated than what I have quoted her in the quotation. The design has to be completely different to afford those features too and so *my existing mockups for her will all be wasted*! It seems when she has finally no other way to evade having to give an approval, she throws me a spanner by suggesting that she has expected the website to be like another site which she didn't mention at all from the start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seriously, she is telling me this after she took 13 months to decide to hire me since we first met up, and then another 4 months having over 50 email exchanges and several offline meetups asking me a ton of questions and wasting my time researching for answers to her questions. We spent all this time talking to build this one website and now she suddenly says she expects her website to be like another site! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A lot of lessons learned**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clearly, I’m quite upset about this incident but it has definitely taught me a lot about dealing with clients in freelance work. I’ve done quite a few freelance assignments but this client is tough to manage.  On hindsight, I would have done many things differently like writing a more detailed contract to protect myself even though it seems like a small project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What are my options?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now, even though I've learnt my lessons, I think I should also know what are some options I should take. She has given me a 50% deposit which I did state in my quotation that this is not refundable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Accept that she now wants her site to be different**: If I accept her&#xD;&#xA;    new expectation, I will have to quote her again for the new&#xD;&#xA;    requirements and ask her to decide. Since it's decision time, she is&#xD;&#xA;    going to have a hard time deciding again and I can expect her wasting my time answering her questions like &quot;will users come to this page if we do it this way?&quot; or &quot;now with this new design, will users read this important info I wrote in my article?&quot; I'm not sure she would even take my new pricing nicely. Even if she ever takes up the new pricing, given her&#xD;&#xA;    character, she may flake again. And I need to spend even more time with her.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 2. **Withdraw from the project**: Honestly, I'm very tempted to go with this&#xD;&#xA;    option. I feel like she is wasting my time and she isn't worth it. But,&#xD;&#xA;    I've collected a 50% non-refundable deposit. I don't think she will cancel the project on her own. If I withdraw from the&#xD;&#xA;    project myself, what should I do with the deposit? If I return her the&#xD;&#xA;    deposit, I feel like I'm not being compensated for the amount of&#xD;&#xA;    time and effort spent on answering her questions, all meetups, my&#xD;&#xA;    time spent coming up with the design and mockup screens. And almost certainly, my withdrawal will&#xD;&#xA;    turn things sour. Given that she evades making decisions, she might&#xD;&#xA;    be somebody who's insecure. She might just accuse me of scamming her or whatever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be the best thing to do after getting myself to deal with such a client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/8167/how-to-deal-with-indecisive-clients&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/8168/21708" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21856" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="8192" RevisionGUID="928fd273-1957-41a9-9897-482319b0b5fa" CreationDate="2019-04-03T12:32:51.590" UserId="21708" Comment="added 13 characters in body; deleted 7 characters in body; edited title; added 14 characters in body" Text="Client doesn't give approval but changes expectation. What should I do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21857" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8192" RevisionGUID="0a4dc80a-00ef-4a3d-9b51-0ae9ca3c3fe3" CreationDate="2019-04-03T12:39:06.373" UserId="21708" Comment="added 13 characters in body; added 12 characters in body" Text="I'm recently working with a very indecisive client who never seems to want to make decisions or give approvals to any confirmations I asked of her. I have had a question on this [here][1] a while ago. But there is a crazy turn of things with this client today and I don't know what are my options - she now says she has always wanted her site I’m doing for her to be like another website, but this website she now mentions is more complicated than what we have agreed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This indecisive client of mine has been evading my request for her approval on my design for her website before I implement it. Two days ago, after responding to her latest series of questions, I followed up by asking her for approval of the design again. However, she replied and said she will only give me the green light when she is confident about my maintenance terms. I have no idea how approving the design has to with maintenance but I believe she said that to evade my request for her approval again. She has done that numerous times. She has been coming up with questions after questions every time when I ask for her approval.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The worst part of all in her email, she said she expects the site to be launched by next month and I should take the time from now to next month to get things done. I was dumbfounded to read what she has written. **How in her mind does she expect me to voluntarily &quot;get things done&quot; when she doesn't approve the design until when she is confident of something irrelevant to the design and I risk her coming back with changes later?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I replied to her that I will only start implementation after she has approved the design. I also counter proposed her deadline and mentioned to her about how the deadline will be pushed back for any delays in approval, as what one of the [answers][2] in my previous question has suggested and I think it's a good idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To my surprise though, she responded that she has always thought her website should be like blablahblah.com and I should go look at it. That website she now mentions is quite different from what she has said she wanted when we first agreed on the project. It's also more complicated than what I have quoted her in the quotation. The design has to be completely different to afford those features too and so *my existing mockups for her will all be wasted*! It seems when she has finally no other way to evade having to give an approval, she throws me a spanner by suggesting that she has expected the website to be like another site which she didn't mention at all from the start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seriously, she is telling me this after she took 13 months to decide to hire me since we first met up, and then another 4 months having over 50 email exchanges and several offline meetups asking me a ton of questions and wasting my time researching for answers to her questions. We spent all this time talking to build this one website and now she suddenly says she expects her website to be like another site! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A lot of lessons learned**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clearly, I’m quite upset about this incident but it has definitely taught me a lot about dealing with clients in freelance work. I’ve done quite a few freelance assignments but this client is tough to manage.  On hindsight, I would have done many things differently like writing a more detailed contract to protect myself even though it seems like a small project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What are my options?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now, even though I've learnt my lessons, I think I should also know what are some options I should take. She has given me a 50% deposit which I did state in my quotation that this is not refundable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Accept that she now wants her site to be different**: If I accept her&#xD;&#xA;    new expectation, I will have to quote her again for the new&#xD;&#xA;    requirements and ask her to decide. Since it's decision time, she is&#xD;&#xA;    going to have a hard time deciding again and I can expect her wasting my time answering her questions like &quot;will users come to this page if we do it this way?&quot; or &quot;now with this new design, will users read this important info I wrote in my article?&quot; I'm not sure she would even take my new pricing nicely. Even if she ever takes up the new pricing, given her&#xD;&#xA;    character, she may flake again. And I need to spend even more time with her.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 2. **Withdraw from the project**: Honestly, I'm very tempted to go with this&#xD;&#xA;    option. I feel like she is wasting my time and she isn't worth it. But,&#xD;&#xA;    I've collected a 50% non-refundable deposit. I don't think she will cancel the project on her own. If I withdraw from the&#xD;&#xA;    project myself, what should I do with the deposit? If I return her the&#xD;&#xA;    deposit, I feel like I'm not being compensated for the amount of&#xD;&#xA;    time and effort spent on answering her questions, all meetups, my&#xD;&#xA;    time spent coming up with the design and mockup screens. And almost certainly, my withdrawal will&#xD;&#xA;    turn things sour. Given that she evades making decisions, she might&#xD;&#xA;    be somebody who's insecure. She might just accuse me of scamming her or whatever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be the best thing to do after getting myself to deal with such a client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/8167/how-to-deal-with-indecisive-clients&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/8168/21708" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21858" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8192" RevisionGUID="0ff50847-608b-487c-bea8-5698143c838f" CreationDate="2019-04-03T12:44:52.903" UserId="21708" Comment="added 56 characters in body" Text="I'm recently working with a very indecisive client who never seems to want to make decisions or give approvals to any confirmations I asked of her. I have had a question on this [here][1] a while ago. But there is a crazy turn of things with this client today and I don't know what are my options - she now says she has always wanted her site I’m doing for her to be like another website, but this website she now mentions is more complicated than what we have agreed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This indecisive client of mine has been evading my request for her approval on my design for her website before I implement it. Two days ago, after responding to her latest series of questions, I followed up by asking her for approval of the design again. However, she replied and said she will only give me the green light when she is confident about my maintenance terms. I have no idea how approving the design has to with maintenance but I believe she said that to evade my request for her approval again. She has done that numerous times. She has been coming up with questions after questions every time when I ask for her approval.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The worst part of all in her email, she said she expects the site to be launched by next month and I should take the time from now to next month to get things done. I was dumbfounded to read what she has written. **How in her mind does she expect me to voluntarily &quot;get things done&quot; when she doesn't approve the design until when she is confident of something irrelevant to the design and I risk her coming back with changes later?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I replied to her that I will only start implementation after she has approved the design. I also counter proposed her deadline and mentioned to her about how the deadline will be pushed back for any delays in approval, as what one of the [answers][2] in my previous question has suggested and I think it's a good idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To my surprise though, she responded that she has always thought her website should be like blablahblah.com and I should go look at it. That website she now mentions is quite different from what she has said she wanted when we first agreed on the project. It's also more complicated than what I have quoted her in the quotation. The design has to be completely different to afford those features too and so *my existing mockups for her will all be wasted*! It seems when she has finally no other way to evade having to give an approval, she throws me a spanner by suggesting that she has expected the website to be like another site which she didn't mention at all from the start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seriously, she is telling me this after she took 13 months to decide to hire me since we first met up, and then another 4 months having over 50 email exchanges and several offline meetups asking me a ton of questions and wasting my time researching for answers to her questions. We spent all this time talking to build this one website and now she suddenly says she expects her website to be like another site! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A lot of lessons learned**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clearly, I’m quite upset about this incident but it has definitely taught me a lot about dealing with clients in freelance work. I’ve done quite a few freelance assignments but this client is tough to manage.  On hindsight, I would have done many things differently like writing a more detailed contract to protect myself even though it seems like a small project and not worth the time writing a detailed specs for it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What are my options?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now, even though I've learnt my lessons, I think I should also know what are some options I should take. She has given me a 50% deposit which I did state in my quotation that this is not refundable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Accept that she now wants her site to be different**: If I accept her&#xD;&#xA;    new expectation, I will have to quote her again for the new&#xD;&#xA;    requirements and ask her to decide. Since it's decision time, she is&#xD;&#xA;    going to have a hard time deciding again and I can expect her wasting my time answering her questions like &quot;will users come to this page if we do it this way?&quot; or &quot;now with this new design, will users read this important info I wrote in my article?&quot; I'm not sure she would even take my new pricing nicely. Even if she ever takes up the new pricing, given her&#xD;&#xA;    character, she may flake again. And I need to spend even more time with her.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 2. **Withdraw from the project**: Honestly, I'm very tempted to go with this&#xD;&#xA;    option. I feel like she is wasting my time and she isn't worth it. But,&#xD;&#xA;    I've collected a 50% non-refundable deposit. I don't think she will cancel the project on her own. If I withdraw from the&#xD;&#xA;    project myself, what should I do with the deposit? If I return her the&#xD;&#xA;    deposit, I feel like I'm not being compensated for the amount of&#xD;&#xA;    time and effort spent on answering her questions, all meetups, my&#xD;&#xA;    time spent coming up with the design and mockup screens. And almost certainly, my withdrawal will&#xD;&#xA;    turn things sour. Given that she evades making decisions, she might&#xD;&#xA;    be somebody who's insecure. She might just accuse me of scamming her or whatever.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be the best thing to do after getting myself to deal with such a client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/8167/how-to-deal-with-indecisive-clients&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/8168/21708" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21859" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8192" RevisionGUID="ce337e83-0f53-46f1-a63e-c703a4c1ca82" CreationDate="2019-04-03T12:50:23.483" UserId="21708" Comment="added 200 characters in body" Text="I'm recently working with a very indecisive client who never seems to want to make decisions or give approvals to any confirmations I asked of her. I have had a question on this [here][1] a while ago. But there is a crazy turn of things with this client today and I don't know what are my options - she now says she has always wanted her site I’m doing for her to be like another website, but this website she now mentions is more complicated than what we have agreed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This indecisive client of mine has been evading my request for her approval on my design for her website before I implement it. Two days ago, after responding to her latest series of questions, I followed up by asking her for approval of the design again. However, she replied and said she will only give me the green light when she is confident about my maintenance terms. I have no idea how approving the design has to with maintenance but I believe she said that to evade my request for her approval again. She has done that numerous times. She has been coming up with questions after questions every time when I ask for her approval.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The worst part of all in her email, she said she expects the site to be launched by next month and I should take the time from now to next month to get things done. I was dumbfounded to read what she has written. **How in her mind does she expect me to voluntarily &quot;get things done&quot; when she doesn't approve the design until when she is confident of something irrelevant to the design and I risk her coming back with changes later?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I replied to her that I will only start implementation after she has approved the design. I also counter proposed her deadline and mentioned to her about how the deadline will be pushed back for any delays in approval, as what one of the [answers][2] in my previous question has suggested and I think it's a good idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To my surprise though, she responded that she has always thought her website should be like blablahblah.com and I should go look at it. That website she now mentions is quite different from what she has said she wanted when we first agreed on the project. It's also more complicated than what I have quoted her in the quotation. The design has to be completely different to afford those features too and so *my existing mockups for her will all be wasted*! It seems when she has finally no other way to evade having to give an approval, she throws me a spanner by suggesting that she has expected the website to be like another site which she didn't mention at all from the start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seriously, she is telling me this after she took 13 months to decide to hire me since we first met up, and then another 4 months having over 50 email exchanges and several offline meetups asking me a ton of questions and wasting my time researching for answers to her questions. We spent all this time talking to build this one website and now she suddenly says she expects her website to be like another site! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A lot of lessons learned**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clearly, I’m quite upset about this incident but it has definitely taught me a lot about dealing with clients in freelance work. I’ve done quite a few freelance assignments but this client is tough to manage.  On hindsight, I would have done many things differently like writing a more detailed contract to protect myself even though it seems like a small project and not worth the time writing a detailed specs for it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**What are my options?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Right now, even though I've learnt my lessons, I think I should also know what are some options I should take. She has given me a 50% deposit which I did state in my quotation that this is not refundable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Accept that she now wants her site to be different**: If I accept her&#xD;&#xA;    new expectation, I will have to quote her again for the new&#xD;&#xA;    requirements and ask her to decide. Since it's decision time, she is&#xD;&#xA;    going to have a hard time deciding again and I can expect her wasting my time answering her questions like &quot;will users come to this page if we do it this way?&quot; or &quot;now with this new design, will users read this important info I wrote in my article?&quot; I'm not sure she would even take my new pricing nicely. Even if she ever takes up the new pricing, given her&#xD;&#xA;    character, she may flake again. And I need to spend even more time with her.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA; 2. **Withdraw from the project**: Honestly, I'm very tempted to go with this&#xD;&#xA;    option. I feel like she is wasting my time and she isn't worth it. But,&#xD;&#xA;    I've collected a 50% non-refundable deposit. I don't think she will cancel the project on her own. If I withdraw from the&#xD;&#xA;    project myself, what should I do with the deposit? Do I refund her partially or fully, or do I stand by my terms that it’s not refundable? If I return her the full&#xD;&#xA;    deposit, I feel like I'm not being compensated for the amount of&#xD;&#xA;    time and effort spent on answering her questions, all meetups, my&#xD;&#xA;    time spent coming up with the design and mockup screens. And almost certainly, my withdrawal will&#xD;&#xA;    turn things sour. Given that she evades making decisions, she might&#xD;&#xA;    be somebody who's insecure or just outright manipulative. I don’t want her to accuse me of scamming her or whatever for taking her deposit and withdrawing from the project because I’m not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be the best thing to do after getting myself to deal with such a client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/8167/how-to-deal-with-indecisive-clients&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/8168/21708" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21860" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8193" RevisionGUID="80146bf4-a1c9-41e8-a5be-aa1cead43f6e" CreationDate="2019-04-03T15:03:04.730" UserId="21771" Text="I have been hired by a client with a PO but no contract.  Do I need to put a contract together to protect myself as an engineer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21861" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8193" RevisionGUID="80146bf4-a1c9-41e8-a5be-aa1cead43f6e" CreationDate="2019-04-03T15:03:04.730" UserId="21771" Text="Can/Should I provide engineering services with a PO and no contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21862" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8193" RevisionGUID="80146bf4-a1c9-41e8-a5be-aa1cead43f6e" CreationDate="2019-04-03T15:03:04.730" UserId="21771" Text="|contracts|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21863" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8194" RevisionGUID="bff86917-5690-44c9-9876-832d8fbf8592" CreationDate="2019-04-03T18:05:23.010" UserId="21435" Text="A Purchase Order is a legally binding contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21864" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8195" RevisionGUID="4964fb21-8121-4298-9d4f-4edb891b8c08" CreationDate="2019-04-03T18:20:33.583" UserId="708" Text="I apologize, but this isn't so much a question as it is a rant. But I can sympathize.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For what it's worth.. 13 months waiting on approval was a **huge** red flag. If it were me, pricing would be no longer valid after 1 month (my pricing is valid for 30 days, that's all). So, when she returned, over a year later, and gave approval, at *that time* I'd explain that pricing was for January/February 2018, not March/April 2019. Pricing will need to be revisited.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would resupply a quote with *very* extended milestones/deadlines knowing she'll take forever to respond. i'd also add a clause to a contract/quote stating she **must** respond with approval changes within 15 days or the project will be considered on hold and scheduling will be no longer valid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that, if she were not pleased, so what. This is **business* for me, not &quot;make friends&quot;. You don't need to cancel the project in most cases, but you typically *do* need to adjust your pricing and timelines knowing this particular client will not be quick to respond. Most often that makes this type of client a &quot;back burner&quot; client... work on things when I have the time, but don't actually PLAN on moving forward when you are waiting on them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21865" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8195" RevisionGUID="549fbf43-8a37-4374-a5fc-ff87fcf9f82f" CreationDate="2019-04-03T18:47:26.153" UserId="708" Comment="added 393 characters in body" Text="I apologize, but this isn't so much a question as it is a rant. But I can sympathize.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For what it's worth.. 13 months waiting on approval was a **huge** red flag. If it were me, pricing would be no longer valid after 1 month (my pricing is valid for 30 days, that's all). So, when she returned, over a year later, and gave approval, at *that time* I'd explain that pricing was for January/February 2018, not March/April 2019. Pricing will need to be revisited.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would resupply a quote with *very* extended milestones/deadlines knowing she'll take forever to respond. And be certain to state, in writing, pricing is valid for XX days. If the project is ongoing, then I'd add a term stating that pricing is valid based upon defined scheduled dates and timelines. Delays more than XX days may incur additional costs. I'd also add a clause to a contract/quote stating she **must** respond with approval changes within 15 days or the project will be considered &quot;on hold&quot; and scheduling will be be no longer valid. Work will be rescheduled when a response does arrive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that, if she were not pleased, so what. This is **business** for me, not &quot;make friends&quot;. You don't need to cancel the project in most cases, but you typically *do* need to adjust your pricing and timelines knowing this particular client will not be quick to respond. Most often that makes this type of client a &quot;back burner&quot; client... work on things when I have the time, but don't actually PLAN on moving forward when you are waiting on them for approval. IF that means it takes me 2 weeks to schedule the project again when they gets back to me.. then *they* must wait 2 weeks for me to get back to it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21866" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8195" RevisionGUID="620780df-6aef-4e4d-a01f-d30ec9cf2523" CreationDate="2019-04-03T18:53:50.043" UserId="708" Comment="added 12 characters in body" Text="I apologize, but this isn't so much a question as it is a rant. But I can sympathize.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For what it's worth.. 13 months waiting on approval was a **huge** red flag. If it were me, pricing would be no longer valid after 1 month (my pricing is valid for 30 days, that's all). So, when she returned, over a year later, and gave approval, at *that time* I'd explain that pricing was for January/February 2018, not March/April 2019. Pricing will need to be revisited.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would resupply a quote with *very* extended milestones/deadlines knowing she'll take forever to respond. And be certain to state, in writing, pricing is valid for XX days. If the project is ongoing, then I'd add a term stating that pricing is valid based upon defined scheduled dates and timelines. Delays more than XX days may incur additional costs. I'd also add a clause to a contract/quote stating she **must** respond with approval changes within 15 days or the project will be considered &quot;on hold&quot; and scheduling will be be no longer valid. Work will be rescheduled when a response does arrive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that, if she were not pleased, so what. This is **business** for me, not &quot;make friends&quot;. You don't need to cancel the project in most cases, but you typically *do* need to adjust your pricing and timelines knowing this particular client will not be quick to respond. Most often that makes this type of client a &quot;back burner&quot; client... work on things when I have the time, but don't actually PLAN on moving forward when you are waiting on them for approval. If that means it takes me 2 weeks to schedule the project again when they do finally get back to me.... then *they* must wait 2 weeks for me to get back to it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21867" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8196" RevisionGUID="762b3cf5-47fe-4c2b-94ab-a66b47e2220d" CreationDate="2019-04-03T18:59:38.020" UserId="708" Text="If no one ever did something because *&quot;a lot of others are already doing it&quot;* there'd never be any new musicians, writers, artists... etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyone may excel at anything pushing them ahead of the &quot;tons of others&quot; already doing the same things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether or not something is worth your time is for you to decide. However, traditionally, &quot;others are already doing it&quot; is not good reason to *not* do something. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In terms of financial return, well, then it all depends on how adept, comfortable, and proficient you are with something and how quickly you expect to make a return. In a saturated market, even if your kung fu is strong, it may take awhile before you can make headway. However, if your expectations are *realistic*, there's no reason to *not* move ahead with something which interests you. Every day you delay is a delay in returns." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21872" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8198" RevisionGUID="32ef49b6-5c66-4203-ba59-d26cabc2840a" CreationDate="2019-04-03T21:28:14.463" UserId="21773" Text="I write reports that require a lot of data analysis upfront, followed by a small amount of writing. My client canceled after I had already invested most of the effort required to complete the project due to &quot;wanting to rethink it.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've explained that I will have to submit an invoice for 90% because I've already expended 90% of the effort required to complete the project, but that they may of course still request completion of the full project under our original terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client insists they should pay only half of the fee because they have received a draft that they consider one-half complete. Since they appear to be committed to their position, I expect that if I invoice them for 90% of the contract value, they will only pay 50%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm wondering if there's a way to handle this assertively but civilly. My contract doesn't contain a kill clause, so I assume that I don't have legal standing to demand 90% payment. That said, I don't expect to pursue work with them in the future so I don't feel the need to be overly-amicable either." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21873" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8198" RevisionGUID="32ef49b6-5c66-4203-ba59-d26cabc2840a" CreationDate="2019-04-03T21:28:14.463" UserId="21773" Text="Contract canceled after 90% of effort was expended - client pegs delivered value at 50%" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21874" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8198" RevisionGUID="32ef49b6-5c66-4203-ba59-d26cabc2840a" CreationDate="2019-04-03T21:28:14.463" UserId="21773" Text="|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21876" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8199" RevisionGUID="87ca8fbd-8964-4b51-a58e-5b5720c82e04" CreationDate="2019-04-04T07:00:49.483" UserId="15143" Text="It was not you who failed to deliver, it was not you who insisted not to deliver, and you have a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should be invoicing 100% of the amount." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21882" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8201" RevisionGUID="decd9c00-69ed-424e-b637-ef1771a16126" CreationDate="2019-04-05T21:41:00.390" UserId="21783" Text="I also fell into this kind of problems more than once, and this is why I've decided to join just to try and help you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, this is the kind of client that will never be happy and you fueled her insane expectations, so accept that things are going to be difficult and you can't do anything about it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should give a quote for a redesign and treat it as a new project. Charge *A LOT* because it's better to lose this client as soon as possibile. &#xD;&#xA;For this new project, and for any future project, in the new contract you should never offer free revisions and put a time limit to give approval in all the phases, after which the project is considered *dropped*, not *on hold* if approval is not given. All revisions must be paid, even if they're little and silly. It's sad, but if you don't do it you won't be able to survive. I see a lot of freelancers giving compromising advices on how to manage the &quot;freebies&quot;, but sadly there is no space for freebies in many professions and in intellectual professions most of them all. This is because with any other professions, even if you do something for free the client must be with you or you must be on location and be a nuisance (think a dentist or a painter). With a web site, the client tells you what to do and go on with his day, while you stay in your office/home working. This is why you absolutely can't give freebies. If you're not ok with this, it's better to change profession, it's clearly not in line with your values and you will only burn out eventually (and you don't want to burn out, it can affect your health for life, trust me I know). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now that I warned you about the future, let's go back to the present:&#xD;&#xA;If she doesn't accept the quote for the redesign, you will send the last design with all the free revisions you gave her, asking for the *final* approval in X amount of time. You will tell her that if she approves the design you will be able to complete the project, otherwise you will be forced to drop it because you are not given a way to complete it. You will also explain her that you won't be able to make further revisions, and that you made all the revisions up until now for free out of your good will. After all from what I understand there is nothing about revisions in your contract, so you've done more than your share of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If she approves the design finish the project, otherwise the project can be considered dropped since she refuses to give you what you need to complete the project. &#xD;&#xA;Also she may refuse to pay you in the end, but at least you will have put her out of your mind. Sanity before anything. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can get out of it, but you have to use your strength. &#xD;&#xA;Good luck. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21892" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8204" RevisionGUID="4dafc157-298e-401f-88ff-4bbe6529f66e" CreationDate="2019-04-08T16:32:36.773" UserId="21801" Text="I have designed an app specifically for a certain contracting company on the Android Studio platform. I have recently looked over the regulations for uploading an app onto the Google Play store and have concluded that it would not be in my best interest to do so because I am selling to one company only (as of now). Any suggestions as to how I should go along this process and how to dodge giving the company all the rights over the app?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21893" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8204" RevisionGUID="4dafc157-298e-401f-88ff-4bbe6529f66e" CreationDate="2019-04-08T16:32:36.773" UserId="21801" Text="How to sell Android app to a general contractor for my desired price?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21894" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8204" RevisionGUID="4dafc157-298e-401f-88ff-4bbe6529f66e" CreationDate="2019-04-08T16:32:36.773" UserId="21801" Text="|working-from-home|programmer|company-management|local-business|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21896" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8205" RevisionGUID="4a852a0c-7108-476c-8540-0c6def349861" CreationDate="2019-04-08T21:57:52.697" UserId="21803" Text="I have multiple websites, mainly in Wordpress, that I manage and I need to share the details of those sites and everything about the customer's online presence in a centralized location with the person I do freelance web development for. Right now we're using individual spreadsheets for each client in Dropbox, but it's getting a bit cumbersome to keep everything up-to-date so I was wondering if anyone has any other solutions they're using to track these sorts of things." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21897" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8205" RevisionGUID="4a852a0c-7108-476c-8540-0c6def349861" CreationDate="2019-04-08T21:57:52.697" UserId="21803" Text="How do you keep track of the details for the different websites you maintain?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21898" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8205" RevisionGUID="4a852a0c-7108-476c-8540-0c6def349861" CreationDate="2019-04-08T21:57:52.697" UserId="21803" Text="|freelance-websites|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21899" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8206" RevisionGUID="06382bc6-9a2d-4fd1-9053-c5ea88f4714a" CreationDate="2019-04-08T23:35:03.060" UserId="12865" Text="You can upload the app and create the feature for selling its services, so while they pay you a subcription or a one time payment thru the app or outside they will have access to your app and services." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21900" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8207" RevisionGUID="84edc68b-6291-47e5-a182-f4cf0fc1eafb" CreationDate="2019-04-09T11:14:04.967" UserId="21543" Text="Im looking to start freelancing using Wordpress. However I would love some advice on my workflow. It's my first time doing this, so Im sure its lacking. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What my plan is so far:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Send email to potential clients giving them a offer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) If they respond and want my help with their website, then I ask what they want and we agree on what it will cost etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) Then I will send a contract for them to sign. I will have them pay me 30-40% of the total cost up front.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) Once all of that is done I will make wireframes, sketches and prototypes etc. I will send it over to them to make sure they like it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5) After that I will setup a git repository and start developing the site locally.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6) During the process I will occasionally show them what has been done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;7) Once I've made what we agreed on I will transfer the site to either their host or offer them hosting on my reseller account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;8) I'll have them pay the rest and make sure they are aware that I'm willing to keep helping them with the site if they pay for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now my question is - how can I improve this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also a second question: On my portfolio website I currently have two projects. One of them being a website for my mothers business, however her domain is very similar to mine, so its obvious that we are related. Is it weird to use family projects in your portfolio? Does that in any way tell the potential clients that I cant get real clients/my work isn't attractive? Or should I let it stay to show my work?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help on any of the steps or just freelancing/web development tips in general is very much appreciated!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21901" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8207" RevisionGUID="84edc68b-6291-47e5-a182-f4cf0fc1eafb" CreationDate="2019-04-09T11:14:04.967" UserId="21543" Text="Tips For Freelancing &amp; Wordpress Workflow" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21902" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8207" RevisionGUID="84edc68b-6291-47e5-a182-f4cf0fc1eafb" CreationDate="2019-04-09T11:14:04.967" UserId="21543" Text="|attracting-clients|web-development|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21903" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8208" RevisionGUID="a1aeef23-ea27-488d-bdf9-063a2d3ac1af" CreationDate="2019-04-09T16:46:47.513" UserId="708" Text="There are a number of [Ticketing System packages][1] that would allow you to maintain information via tickets. All would be centrally located, you could secure access, and even have alerts when something were changed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.capterra.com/sem-compare/help-desk-software?gclsrc=aw.ds&amp;gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsKXf8rrD4QIVNCCtBh2i9A_hEAAYBCAAEgJs0PD_BwE" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21904" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8209" RevisionGUID="e67d25ff-240d-46d0-807e-5358595c170b" CreationDate="2019-04-10T01:05:27.933" UserId="21811" Text="I think your plan sounds good so far; I would recommend that you expand on your plans for showing them the site, and maybe offer them the opportunity to QA it a bit to make sure it's exactly what they want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's hard to say on your mother's website; it may raise some eyebrows that you don't have much else to show, but if it's all you have, it's better than nothing, and it will still give a good idea of your work!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also recommend that you check out this site; it is specifically and only for freelance developers, and they also offer a great free guide to use in starting out:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://subspace.net/guide-to-freelancing&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21905" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8187" RevisionGUID="6ad5a64e-1acb-48f3-8201-5e28d6ea6ada" CreationDate="2019-04-10T04:49:03.873" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited (e.g. ref. &lt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5&gt;, &lt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascading_Style_Sheets#CSS_3&gt;, &lt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrap_%28front-end_framework%29&gt;, etc.). Removed meta information (this belongs in comments)." Text="I have basic knowledge of [HTML5][1], [CSS&amp;nbsp;3][2], and [Bootstrap][3]. Shall I learn the frontend thing completely?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Will it be worth the time and energy keeping the fact in mind that there are tons of frontend freelancers and [Wix][4]/[Squarespace][5]/[WordPress][6]/[Weebly][7] kind of platforms?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or shall I leave it there and go for something else?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascading_Style_Sheets#CSS_3&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrap_%28front-end_framework%29&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wix.com&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squarespace#Software&#xD;&#xA;  [6]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress&#xD;&#xA;  [7]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weebly#Product&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21906" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="8187" RevisionGUID="6ad5a64e-1acb-48f3-8201-5e28d6ea6ada" CreationDate="2019-04-10T04:49:03.873" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited (e.g. ref. &lt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5&gt;, &lt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascading_Style_Sheets#CSS_3&gt;, &lt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrap_%28front-end_framework%29&gt;, etc.). Removed meta information (this belongs in comments)." Text="Is frontend web development worth learning in 2019?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21907" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="8187" RevisionGUID="6ad5a64e-1acb-48f3-8201-5e28d6ea6ada" CreationDate="2019-04-10T04:49:03.873" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 61, 21411 edit id of 666" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21911" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="8158" RevisionGUID="2a0d92bf-08c2-47c9-a66c-7b3f4a0e6927" CreationDate="2019-04-10T09:00:48.930" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1115902440740663296" />
  <row Id="21917" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6464" RevisionGUID="0e069278-4d1e-41a9-9d66-dd3607ec4e85" CreationDate="2019-04-12T15:00:39.487" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1116717773793759232" />
  <row Id="21918" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8212" RevisionGUID="a18ceda5-81f2-46b7-b248-dcf361c15b6f" CreationDate="2019-04-13T12:30:04.527" UserId="667" Text="Just read this again after several years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I have learned since then, is that the issue is really flipped around the wrong way.  As a contractor, you should figure out your proper price and stick with it, without any regard to the sales person commission.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Their commission is completely their own business and something they negotiate with the first party.  The sales person shouldn't be asking you about a part of the payout.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21919" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="8154" RevisionGUID="e8ec0b8a-eb60-4f85-a192-f5f6919a8825" CreationDate="2019-04-14T13:01:18.343" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21920" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8213" RevisionGUID="4f067446-67e4-4f1a-8cae-15807eaa9f78" CreationDate="2019-04-14T20:22:14.523" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21921" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8213" RevisionGUID="4f067446-67e4-4f1a-8cae-15807eaa9f78" CreationDate="2019-04-14T20:22:14.523" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21922" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8214" RevisionGUID="55d7f8a2-d951-46ad-b2f4-d5931a750b1e" CreationDate="2019-04-14T20:22:14.523" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21923" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8214" RevisionGUID="55d7f8a2-d951-46ad-b2f4-d5931a750b1e" CreationDate="2019-04-14T20:22:14.523" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21925" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8215" RevisionGUID="7d124c2e-e9c1-4704-8720-797c2cebc4f8" CreationDate="2019-04-15T21:09:51.597" UserId="21841" Text="So I've been doing freelance design for this company and I work through email and my website with this one client. I have a Chrome extension that let's me track activity on an email after it has been sent. This client last read one of my emails about 10 days ago, then I send another 2 regarding changes he requested on the design. And today I sent a follow up mail and none of these have even been read. This client is really nice, I've worked with him on two other projects (aside from the current one) and also talked about the next one. Should I be worried that he hasn't replied or even read my emails? On one of the previous projects he vanished for like a week or something, and came back to tell me he was really busy and couldn't make time to answer me (which I completely understand).&#xD;&#xA;I'm just worried since I didn't ask for an advance for the current project and we're half-way through. I probably shouldn't worry at all and should just wait for his answer but I thought that reading some of your stories/advice would make me worry a little less." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21926" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8215" RevisionGUID="7d124c2e-e9c1-4704-8720-797c2cebc4f8" CreationDate="2019-04-15T21:09:51.597" UserId="21841" Text="Client hasn't answered nor read my emails" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21927" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8215" RevisionGUID="7d124c2e-e9c1-4704-8720-797c2cebc4f8" CreationDate="2019-04-15T21:09:51.597" UserId="21841" Text="|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21928" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8216" RevisionGUID="b789d837-e67c-4219-a3c8-696069c5ba8e" CreationDate="2019-04-15T22:46:30.110" UserId="21842" Text="I’m making a website and would like to add their logos to a “happy clients” section. I won't be including any of the work I did for them, just their logos." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21929" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8216" RevisionGUID="b789d837-e67c-4219-a3c8-696069c5ba8e" CreationDate="2019-04-15T22:46:30.110" UserId="21842" Text="If I worked for clients at a marketing agency, am I allowed to say I worked for them now that I'm freelance?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21930" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8216" RevisionGUID="b789d837-e67c-4219-a3c8-696069c5ba8e" CreationDate="2019-04-15T22:46:30.110" UserId="21842" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21931" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8217" RevisionGUID="1730ed17-3e45-48ef-b344-03bbc86f0a55" CreationDate="2019-04-15T23:34:53.380" UserId="708" Text="Yes, but it's all in *how you phrases it*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; When I was with [Marketing Company X], I assisted clients such as Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Puma.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;vs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I've worked with Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Puma.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it's a fine line, and most won't *really* care. There is a different connotation if you were employed by someone and worked with clients compared to directly working with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not like there's a *legal* reason you need to disclose the employer you were with. It's more of a *&quot;don't lose the client's trust&quot;* type of thing. If they think you were directly working with Nike, then a month later they find out you were an employee of a company which worked with Nike, they can feel betrayed. But if that is disclosed upfront, there's no risk of betrayal feelings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, hyperbole can be viable tool for some. So it's really more you're call. I, personally, don't like to pretend I'm something I'm not. It avoids sticky situations later if the truth is uncovered." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21932" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7632" RevisionGUID="85241030-e6fe-4ecd-8b33-61f14c2f4146" CreationDate="2019-04-16T02:03:45.777" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21933" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8218" RevisionGUID="2a7c203a-2d3e-4118-b277-f9325ee58440" CreationDate="2019-04-16T11:36:38.867" UserId="21847" Text="1. Create an online presence (ex: FB Page, Website, Behance Profile, etc. to showcase your work)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Start by serving people you know how have design requirements and ask them to leave testimonials for your service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Use Social Media and other avenues to spread your freelancer profile/portfolio, and land jobs/clients. Don't worry about your age, don't mention it if you don't have to. **Its your skills that matter**. Showcase your work as best you can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;TIP: I suggest starting off with a discounted price but good service quality. Remember to keep communication going on while doing your projects to keep clients engaged to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't have to register a company legally yet. This is how you start. Clients can transfer money your bank account or Paypal, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21939" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8220" RevisionGUID="549e57a1-b643-400b-bcfd-f09a30430877" CreationDate="2019-04-20T01:08:06.970" UserId="21813" Text="Also, as I didn't see it mentioned if you signed an NDA (non-disclosure agreement ) you could be in violation depending on the specifics. Such as type of work and length of time. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21940" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="37232758-da77-45ac-9eac-6cf2580ad1fb" CreationDate="2019-04-21T02:03:15.667" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="21943" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8217" RevisionGUID="b01e5a64-b2d7-4fbb-906e-26eab8a977dd" CreationDate="2019-04-22T04:32:37.427" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="Yes, but it's all in *how you phrase it*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; When I was with [Marketing Company X], I assisted clients such as Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Puma.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;vs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I've worked with Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Puma.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it's a fine line, and most won't *really* care. There is a different connotation if you were employed by someone and worked with clients compared to directly working with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not like there's a *legal* reason you need to disclose the employer you were with. It's more of a *&quot;don't lose the client's trust&quot;* type of thing. If they think you were directly working with Nike, then a month later they find out you were an employee of a company which worked with Nike, they can feel betrayed. But if that is disclosed upfront, there's no risk of betrayal feelings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, hyperbole can be viable tool for some. So it's really more you're call. I, personally, don't like to pretend I'm something I'm not. It avoids sticky situations later if the truth is uncovered." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21944" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8221" RevisionGUID="a5438f54-bb1d-4552-8c38-7da1f29fe406" CreationDate="2019-04-22T11:16:37.760" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="I've been doing a small identity design job for a new client who has been very difficult to work with and he has recently stopped replying to my emails altogether.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The main problem is that trying to get any kind of constructive feedback from him is like pulling teeth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only feedback I could get is for him to say that my ideas are not what he 'envisioned'. However, in my opinion, the ideas I've produced are perfectly in-line with the moodboards I sent over originally (which he said he was happy with).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He also showed me some other brands that he liked the look of... which I'm pretty sure my ideas are in-line with also.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;His total lack of feedback has made it very difficult to revise my ideas to his liking, I have been having to base a lot of them on pure guesswork which unsurprisingly hasn't worked out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was doing this job for a very fair price, I took 50% payment up front but I believe I am entitled for some, if not all, of the remaining payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He claimed to be happy with the logo (although seemed to keep changing his mind on this) but was mainly unhappy with the colour palette, despite my vast array of different colour combinations that I sent over.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I pursue it further or just put it behind me? and also, should I say he doesn't have the right to use the logo that he claimed to be happy with? (excluding the colour palette) " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21945" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="8221" RevisionGUID="a5438f54-bb1d-4552-8c38-7da1f29fe406" CreationDate="2019-04-22T11:16:37.760" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="Very difficult client now seems to have lost interest" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21946" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="8221" RevisionGUID="a5438f54-bb1d-4552-8c38-7da1f29fe406" CreationDate="2019-04-22T11:16:37.760" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="|difficult-client|payments|invoices|design|intellectual-property|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21953" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8224" RevisionGUID="5bcf4dd7-258e-41b0-9196-d4bbbddbb1f7" CreationDate="2019-04-23T22:35:04.440" UserId="21887" Text="Working in design, you have to ensure, ENSURE that the client is active and communicating in a detailed and discriptive manner what they desire. Otherwise it is like a nightmare, of constant redrafts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should be careful to value your time and yourself. Choosing clients that are a good match, is a huge part of the job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client probably senses that the relationship is in his favor, and, that causes a lost of interest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I was doing this job for a very fair price, I took 50% payment up&#xD;&#xA;&gt; front but I believe I am entitled for some, if not all, of the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; remaining payment.&#xD;&#xA;First mistake, offer a good price for you, and if the client sees real value they will sign on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; He claimed to be happy with the logo (although seemed to keep changing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; his mind on this) but was mainly unhappy with the colour palette,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; despite my vast array of different colour combinations that I sent&#xD;&#xA;&gt; over.&#xD;&#xA;Working in design requires drafts, and guidelines that client signs. If you did not have anything in writing, it is a lost job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Trust me i know the hassle. Honestly, work with clients that communicate, contribute, and commit to the paperwork." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21954" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="8225" RevisionGUID="9ba22bd8-489f-4280-82ce-b5418de3f542" CreationDate="2019-04-23T22:56:46.140" UserId="21887" Text="It honestly sounds like he is having issues, in his personal life and is having trouble keeping up. I would recommend setting bi-weekly meeting via video conference. It let's you stay in touch and is non-invasive. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A free zoom account code well do the job. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22955" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8224" RevisionGUID="02617612-c6c4-43c5-92c8-d0223b3638cf" CreationDate="2019-04-24T08:46:11.267" UserId="21887" Comment="added 34 characters in body" Text="Working in design, you have to ensure, ENSURE that the client is active and communicating in a detailed and discriptive manner what they desire. Otherwise it is like a nightmare, of constant redrafts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should be careful to value your time and yourself. Choosing clients that are a good match, is a huge part of the job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client probably senses that the relationship is in his favor, and, that causes a lost of interest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I was doing this job for a very fair price, I took 50% payment up&#xD;&#xA;&gt; front but I believe I am entitled for some, if not all, of the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; remaining payment.&#xD;&#xA;First mistake, offer a good price for you, and if the client sees real value they will sign on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; He claimed to be happy with the logo (although seemed to keep changing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; his mind on this) but was mainly unhappy with the colour palette,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; despite my vast array of different colour combinations that I sent&#xD;&#xA;&gt; over.&#xD;&#xA;Working in design requires drafts, and guidelines that client signs. If you did not have anything in writing, it is a lost job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Trust me i know the hassle. Honestly, work with clients that communicate, contribute, and commit to the paperwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Drop your client and move on. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22956" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="8171" RevisionGUID="84a9313e-8981-4f7b-8d8d-6101b032bd2a" CreationDate="2019-04-24T16:03:15.700" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="22961" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="8085" RevisionGUID="ef8f9a87-fe1a-4222-9fe6-7434737a4407" CreationDate="2019-04-25T06:02:00.410" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="22962" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9226" RevisionGUID="d8239109-aadb-485a-b623-f2019b5be9b2" CreationDate="2019-04-25T07:16:04.310" UserId="21881" Text="Just don’t expect to have enough pix for show people. Shoot what ever you have to show others how you can see it . Photography is there to cache your moment and show people how you see that moment, and only thing that is possible to  stop this moment and use it like time machine for your look. Don’t bother people with captions or something else to explain what you try to do. Let your pictures talk with watches &#xD;&#xA;Best &#xD;&#xA;Koca" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22963" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9226" RevisionGUID="e3593668-8097-4363-b093-b3463e13f44d" CreationDate="2019-04-25T10:18:05.530" UserId="61" Comment="removed a signature" Text="Just don’t expect to have enough pix for show people. Shoot what ever you have to show others how you can see it. Photography is there to cache your moment and show people how you see that moment, and only thing that is possible to  stop this moment and use it like time machine for your look. Don’t bother people with captions or something else to explain what you try to do. Let your pictures talk with watches." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22973" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2696" RevisionGUID="8cdf3509-a475-41e1-9bcd-62c941705730" CreationDate="2019-04-25T20:51:48.430" UserId="15235" Comment="typos corrected" Text="How big a difference is the return? Let's say the tool costs $2,000 and the project is billed at $1,000, then the client should cover cost as it is specific to his project, definitely so if it's a one off task.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If on the other hand you think the tool can be used again with other projects and the such then I would say, cover the costs, so you avoid using a client's tool for another client's project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22974" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2696" RevisionGUID="8cdf3509-a475-41e1-9bcd-62c941705730" CreationDate="2019-04-25T20:51:48.430" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 9 edit id of 665" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22975" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7967" RevisionGUID="f7d10bac-1ddb-49d7-ba5f-35e65cc9971e" CreationDate="2019-04-26T01:01:15.477" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="22986" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9230" RevisionGUID="0e828536-f67d-4fcf-8e66-624cd68f5911" CreationDate="2019-04-26T19:26:19.063" UserId="21902" Text="I am a student of Computer Science. It would be great if i could do some jobs in the internet and make some money. So is there any tips for me to do so ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22987" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9230" RevisionGUID="0e828536-f67d-4fcf-8e66-624cd68f5911" CreationDate="2019-04-26T19:26:19.063" UserId="21902" Text="How can a student be a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22988" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9230" RevisionGUID="0e828536-f67d-4fcf-8e66-624cd68f5911" CreationDate="2019-04-26T19:26:19.063" UserId="21902" Text="|money|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22998" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9236" RevisionGUID="1933e844-627f-4c3f-90e6-3211f55d813d" CreationDate="2019-04-28T13:57:05.720" UserDisplayName="user21909" Text="I am a web developer and SEO for my brother.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He has an insurance company and specialises on a certain type of customers that I address with special websites and SEO for him.&#xD;&#xA;I'm doing this for several years now and payments come sporadically and are still very low compared to what I put in in work days / work weeks.&#xD;&#xA;For me that is ok as we agreed upon that in the hope that one day he will be able to pay me more. Since about 1/2 a year we have kind of a written agreement (not signed) that I will get every 10th customer payment 2 years after first customer contact (because it usually takes so long until he gets payments from the insurance companies for the respective customer).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But 2 years are a long time if you invest a lot of work and (although I see that things improve for him) he is overworked, 100% busy and still struggling a little with business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My Question:**&#xD;&#xA;How could I make sure that I get my money 100% without making him a poor man today? What kind of contract would you come up with? What are your thoughts on this kind of business agreement?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe as a last comment: I really like support him - but some times I feel like I maybe will never get my money.. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22999" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9236" RevisionGUID="1933e844-627f-4c3f-90e6-3211f55d813d" CreationDate="2019-04-28T13:57:05.720" UserDisplayName="user21909" Text="How to make sure I will get paid" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23000" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9236" RevisionGUID="1933e844-627f-4c3f-90e6-3211f55d813d" CreationDate="2019-04-28T13:57:05.720" UserDisplayName="user21909" Text="|freelance-websites|payment-terms|pay-rate|web-development|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23001" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9237" RevisionGUID="a4fa05e8-00d5-4a97-af47-000d6968c152" CreationDate="2019-04-28T18:00:47.070" UserId="708" Text="Just **very bad** business on *your* part. I understand supporting family and everything. However, doing business with family is **always** a bad idea. The closer you are to family the *worse* the idea becomes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You've set things up so you won't EVER be profitable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Either just do it for free or &quot;whatever and whenever&quot; he feels like paying you - realizing you may *never* earn anything --- or charge for services when the services are rendered, like **all** business do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regardless of the client, any client, I would *never* agree to payment two years *after* services have been rendered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My general practice with friends and family is.. I either do the work, whatever it is, free of charge, or I don't do the work at all. This is really the ONLY way I've found to avoid resentment from one part later." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23002" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9238" RevisionGUID="334202fb-2051-46c3-bed1-6cd2a3f6a7bf" CreationDate="2019-04-28T21:37:49.277" UserId="708" Text="I do not understand why this warrants a question here. It seems **very** straightforward to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hello [CEO],&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Our consultancy contract is due to expire on XXXX.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I would be pleased to renew the contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Please let me know by [Date] if you wish to renew.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23003" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9239" RevisionGUID="da8a081d-9808-4609-8938-ba6d49ca96bb" CreationDate="2019-04-28T22:14:36.737" UserId="21841" Text="I established a fixed price with a client for a website design project. I got underpaid because I couldn't show any experience in the area of the project since I didn't had permission from my other clients to show my jobs for them on my portfolio. I accepted this just because the client told me there will be more work up ahead. Now, we're near the end (the site is up and ready) and I've already been paid, and still the client wants to add more features to the home page of the site.&#xD;&#xA;**How can I tell my client that we are already out of scope for the agreed payment amount and that implementing this new things means that I'll have to charge him for it?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23004" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9239" RevisionGUID="da8a081d-9808-4609-8938-ba6d49ca96bb" CreationDate="2019-04-28T22:14:36.737" UserId="21841" Text="Client want more features near project end" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23005" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9239" RevisionGUID="da8a081d-9808-4609-8938-ba6d49ca96bb" CreationDate="2019-04-28T22:14:36.737" UserId="21841" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23006" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9239" RevisionGUID="2c9404d8-085b-4723-9fea-42d44a90f986" CreationDate="2019-04-28T22:20:06.683" UserId="21841" Comment="edited title" Text="Client wants more features near project end" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23008" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9241" RevisionGUID="f0f78cf3-0ba8-46e6-afa1-ef4c7d75826d" CreationDate="2019-04-29T02:11:17.557" UserId="708" Text="You stated it...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;[Client], we are already out of scope for the agreed payment amount. Implementing [these] new things means that I'll have to charge [you] for [them].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no &quot;super-secret&quot; language to use. No way to explain a price increase that a client *won't* see as a price increase. Be forthright, honest, and upfront about it. If you are running a freelance business then *run* a business. You do **not** have to do *anything* a client asks you to unless you are contractually obligated. That *includes* doing *more work* than a contract states. If you have reached a contracts completion and you have been paid. Then a *new* contract may be warranted, especially if the prior contract had no terms regarding updates and maintenance of a web site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*`client told me there will be more work up ahead`*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is **very often** a tactic used by **bad** clients to get you to lower pricing. It's rarely true. And if the client *happens* to have more work, they will want a lower price for that as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**NEVER** lower your pricing simply because a client wants you to. Not ever." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23009" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9242" RevisionGUID="41f747dd-8635-4119-9f4b-525076ff368e" CreationDate="2019-04-29T02:13:31.597" UserDisplayName="user21912" Text="Before you jump into doing freelancing job, first you need to make sure what technology you are best with. Once you are sure, make your own portfolio and give your self much experience by self study of the technology. Make yourself available on Linkedin, create your own website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you are done, you should try dealing/ or working as volunteers as it hard for a people to give it a go on the freelancing website. As the client will need someone with good review, and for the first presence it hard to get projects." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23010" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9243" RevisionGUID="193e4a5f-10bb-4f54-983f-04c0f3f76e91" CreationDate="2019-04-29T02:16:28.317" UserDisplayName="user21912" Text="You can show the contact or the project agreement that the client has shared. If the agreement clearly mention the scope of the project and it has completed then the client has to pay extra for the work which is outside the scope." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23011" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9242" RevisionGUID="46c4350c-b262-4b15-b659-ea8d9a6aa284" CreationDate="2019-04-29T02:19:53.720" UserDisplayName="user21912" Comment="added 278 characters in body" Text="&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1)Create an online presence (ex: FB Page, Website, Behance Profile, etc. to showcase your work)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Start by serving people you know how have design requirements and ask them to leave testimonials for your service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3)Use Social Media and other avenues to spread your freelancer profile/portfolio, and land jobs/clients. Don't worry about your age, don't mention it if you don't have to. Its your skills that matter. Showcase your work as best you can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;TIP: I suggest starting off with a discounted price but good service quality. Remember to keep communication going on while doing your projects to keep clients engaged to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't have to register a company legally yet. This is how you start. Clients can transfer money your bank account or Paypal, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23019" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="9230" RevisionGUID="ce80cfb0-06fe-4703-ab13-29339e6d23bf" CreationDate="2019-05-01T18:16:21.927" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="23020" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9244" RevisionGUID="340db32c-e00a-4deb-b203-74c7da4cd904" CreationDate="2019-05-02T01:34:45.153" UserId="21925" Text="I was hired to update a website for a client, based on a designated list of tasks. The client paid fully upfront, and we set a rough &quot;loose&quot; project completion estimate at 3 months. It was a fixed-fee project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We've far exceeded those 3 months due to multiple delays throughout the project - some significant ones from my end (I was unexpectedly unavailable for a few weeks), as well as delays from the client side (slow to reply to requests, etc). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know this client from a previous life, so neither of us made a big deal about the delays, especially since it wasn't extending the scope of the project (beyond the literal amount of weeks).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, I just hit the point of being totally blocked on work because I need a bunch of things from the client before I can proceed on the remaining tasks. The client has known about these requests for a few weeks already without any progress. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm concerned that this project will just continue dragging out without any real progress. As such, I want to set a hard deadline (giving him 1-2 more weeks to unblock those tasks, and then 2 weeks for me to actually do the work).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**With the background of all these delays, what's a fair way to express to the client that the project expires in 4 weeks?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Alternatively, is there a different way I should handle this?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23021" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9244" RevisionGUID="340db32c-e00a-4deb-b203-74c7da4cd904" CreationDate="2019-05-02T01:34:45.153" UserId="21925" Text="How to set a project completion deadline for a project that already got extended out?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23022" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9244" RevisionGUID="340db32c-e00a-4deb-b203-74c7da4cd904" CreationDate="2019-05-02T01:34:45.153" UserId="21925" Text="|difficult-client|communication|time-management|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23023" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9245" RevisionGUID="6aca390a-8407-4c02-8746-8333da05c608" CreationDate="2019-05-02T07:12:56.560" UserId="708" Text="#Communication&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are friendly with the client, *speak to them*, expressing the concern. I would *not* simply provide an ultimatum. That will *often* be seen as &quot;demanding&quot; and &quot;unfriendly&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead speak to the client as if you would ask *anyone* for an extension on *anything* - i.e. imagine a professor with an assignment you needed an extension on, or a bill you needed more time to pay. This mindset will very often result in an amicable solution for you both.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't get &quot;emotional&quot; about anything and **don't** go into any explanations about your delays or theirs. Simply be upfront and friendly and ask to discuss a deadline. Chances are you can get close to your 4 week desires and make the client feel **good** about it as opposed to feeling like they are &quot;being told&quot; what they must do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hi [client],&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I wanted to reach out to you to discuss the [whatever]. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm a little concerned that due to the delays on both ends the project may start creating scheduling conflicts for me moving forward. I absolutely take responsibility for the delays on my end. In addition, I'm not at all troubled by any delays you may have experienced up to this point. I am merely looking at the project from this point forward and we've passed the original completion timeframe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;What I would like to do is come to a mutually agreed upon completion date at this time. This will allow me avoid any scheduling conflicts moving forward. It's been my experience that projects without a deadline for completion can, and often do, run on for very extended periods which often causes still more delays and a plethora of other scheduling issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;As I see the [project] currently, there is still a need to/for [project details left to address] I anticipate this taking [timerame].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Can we set a hard end date for [date]? Would that work for you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Thanks!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;With that, factor [timeframe] and add in an apprpriate amount of time for the client to review and respond and then come to the [date] requested for the deadline.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, being diplomatic, and expressing that you are merely trying to *avoid* future issues, goes a very long way toward client satisfaction and helps the client feel vested in the issue. Ultimatums have the opposite effect with clients, at least for me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23024" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9245" RevisionGUID="4988eba6-a829-4dc6-a3ca-7806149ba130" CreationDate="2019-05-02T07:19:04.997" UserId="708" Comment="added 72 characters in body" Text="#Communication&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are friendly with the client, *speak to them*, expressing the concern. I would *not* simply provide an ultimatum. That will *often* be seen as &quot;demanding&quot; and &quot;unfriendly&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead speak to the client as if you would ask *anyone* for an extension on *anything* - i.e. imagine a professor with an assignment you needed an extension on, or a bill you needed more time to pay. This mindset will very often result in an amicable solution for you both.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't get &quot;emotional&quot; about anything and **don't** go into any explanations about your delays or theirs. Simply be upfront and friendly and ask to discuss a deadline. Chances are you can get close to your 4 week desires and make the client feel **good** about it as opposed to feeling like they are &quot;being told&quot; what they must do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hi [client],&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I wanted to reach out to you to discuss the [whatever]. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm a little concerned that due to the delays on both ends the project may start creating scheduling conflicts for me moving forward. I absolutely take responsibility for the delays on my end. In addition, I'm not at all troubled by any delays you may have experienced up to this point. I am merely looking at the project from this point forward and we've passed the original completion timeframe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;What I would like to do is come to a mutually agreed upon completion date at this time. This will allow me avoid any scheduling conflicts moving forward. It's been my experience that projects without a deadline for completion can, and often do, run on for very extended periods which often causes still more delays and a plethora of other scheduling issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;As I see the [project] currently, there is still a need to/for [project details left to address] I anticipate this taking [timerame].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Can we set a hard end date for [date]? Would that work for you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Thanks!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;With that, factor [timeframe] and add in an apprpriate amount of time for the client to review and respond and then come to the [date] requested for the deadline. And possibly negotiate the deadline like you would for any new project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, being diplomatic, and expressing that you are merely trying to *avoid* future issues, goes a very long way toward client satisfaction and helps the client feel vested in the issue. Ultimatums have the opposite effect with clients, at least for me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23025" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9245" RevisionGUID="11ffa04c-4d5d-4ffd-950a-98c295069c6e" CreationDate="2019-05-02T07:26:51.263" UserId="708" Comment="added 72 characters in body" Text="#Communication&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So often freelancers fail to see things from the client's perspective. Demanding the client do something is **not** a recipe for happy clients. Clients have lives. Just because you want something done in 4 weeks, that may be completely untenable for the client. And it is the client who is cutting the check. The client should have **more** say in the structure of deadlines, not less. It's only when a deadline makes it impossible to complete work that a freelancer should, and really must, demand more time. But, as I see things, a freelancer should really *never* demand a client take *less* time. *It's their money.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being posted I **completely**, and without hesitation, understand the need to set a deadline. Without a deadline things tend to get *far* too &quot;loose&quot; and &quot;forgiving&quot; and projects can drag on for much longer than they should. So, yes, you have to set reasonable limits and &quot;prod&quot; clients into maintaining those limits. But it's more about *how* you do that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are friendly with the client, *speak to them*, expressing the concern. I would *not* simply provide an ultimatum. That will *often* be seen as &quot;demanding&quot; and &quot;unfriendly&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead speak to the client as if you would ask *anyone* for an extension on *anything* - i.e. imagine a professor with an assignment you needed an extension on, or a bill you needed more time to pay. This mindset will very often result in an amicable solution for you both.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't get &quot;emotional&quot; about anything and **don't** go into any explanations about your delays or theirs. Simply be upfront and friendly and ask to discuss a deadline. Chances are you can get close to your 4 week desires and make the client feel **good** about it as opposed to feeling like they are &quot;being told&quot; what they must do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hi [client],&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I wanted to reach out to you to discuss the [whatever]. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm a little concerned that due to the delays on both ends the project may start creating scheduling conflicts for me moving forward. I absolutely take responsibility for the delays on my end. In addition, I'm not at all troubled by any delays you may have experienced up to this point. I am merely looking at the project from this point forward and we've passed the original completion timeframe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;What I would like to do is come to a mutually agreed upon completion date at this time. This will allow me avoid any scheduling conflicts moving forward. It's been my experience that projects without a deadline for completion can, and often do, run on for very extended periods which often causes still more delays and a plethora of other scheduling issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;As I see the [project] currently, there is still a need to/for [project details left to address] I anticipate this taking [timerame].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Can we set a hard end date for [date]? Would that work for you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Thanks!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;With that, factor [timeframe] and add in an apprpriate amount of time for the client to review and respond and then come to the [date] requested for the deadline. And possibly negotiate the deadline like you would for any new project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, being diplomatic, and expressing that you are merely trying to *avoid* future issues, goes a very long way toward client satisfaction and helps the client feel vested in the issue. Ultimatums have the opposite effect with clients, at least for me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23026" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9245" RevisionGUID="98adad29-7e85-4d86-baba-9ef9cfb23e04" CreationDate="2019-05-02T07:33:03.473" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 989 characters in body" Text="#Communication&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are friendly with the client, *speak to them*, expressing the concern. I would *not* simply provide an ultimatum. That will *often* be seen as &quot;demanding&quot; and &quot;unfriendly&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead speak to the client as if you would ask *anyone* for an extension on *anything* - i.e. imagine a professor with an assignment you needed an extension on, or a bill you needed more time to pay. This mindset will very often result in an amicable solution for you both.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't get &quot;emotional&quot; about anything and **don't** go into any explanations about your delays or theirs. Simply be upfront and friendly and ask to discuss a deadline. Chances are you can get close to your 4 week desires and make the client feel **good** about it as opposed to feeling like they are &quot;being told&quot; what they must do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hi [client],&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I wanted to reach out to you to discuss the [whatever]. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm a little concerned that due to the delays on both ends the project may start creating scheduling conflicts for me moving forward. I absolutely take responsibility for the delays on my end. In addition, I'm not at all troubled by any delays you may have experienced up to this point. I am merely looking at the project from this point forward and we've passed the original completion timeframe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;What I would like to do is come to a mutually agreed upon completion date at this time. This will allow me avoid any scheduling conflicts moving forward. It's been my experience that projects without a deadline for completion can, and often do, run on for very extended periods which often causes still more delays and a plethora of other scheduling issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;As I see the [project] currently, there is still a need to/for [project details left to address] I anticipate this taking [timerame].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Can we set a hard end date for [date]? Would that work for you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Thanks!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;With that, factor [timeframe] and add in an apprpriate amount of time for the client to review and respond and then come to the [date] requested for the deadline. And possibly negotiate the deadline like you would for any new project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, being diplomatic, and expressing that you are merely trying to *avoid* future issues, goes a very long way toward client satisfaction and helps the client feel vested in the issue. Ultimatums have the opposite effect with clients, at least for me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23027" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9246" RevisionGUID="6c5e9a2a-8fe9-4820-8e84-8a1f108fe2e2" CreationDate="2019-05-02T14:46:18.417" UserId="20860" Text="I’m a graphic designer and I’ve been tapped by a previous client to work on multiple projects. The projects are mostly packaging design and product label — my role is to think of the concepts, make the designs, and do the final artwork that goes to production. He said it wouldn’t be heavy workload as there could be 1-2 projects every month, even none on some months.&#xA;&#xA;Previously I’ve worked with him on a per project basis. But this time he told me that he wants me to be like an on-call designer for when he needs designs.&#xA;&#xA;What’s the best way for me to charge him? He’s quite old and wants simple payment terms.&#xA;&#xA;I was thinking of giving a base fee for “design work” at $X for every project. And I would add $Y amount depending on the difficulty of the work.&#xA;&#xA;So that means I will bill him every project with the cost of $X + $Y. I’m not sure if this makes sense.&#xA;&#xA;Hope you guys can help me with this. Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23028" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9246" RevisionGUID="6c5e9a2a-8fe9-4820-8e84-8a1f108fe2e2" CreationDate="2019-05-02T14:46:18.417" UserId="20860" Text="Graphic designer tapped to work on multiple projects. Best way to charge? Retainer? Hourly? Per project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23029" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9246" RevisionGUID="6c5e9a2a-8fe9-4820-8e84-8a1f108fe2e2" CreationDate="2019-05-02T14:46:18.417" UserId="20860" Text="|payment-terms|pay-rate|payments|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23030" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9247" RevisionGUID="5537be5b-2eb6-46b9-b778-fdb853f92809" CreationDate="2019-05-02T15:27:20.397" UserId="21435" Text="Since you have no way of knowing how much time will be required for each task/phase of each project why don't you just bill him a flat hourly rate?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you work on Project A for 6 hours then you bill him for 6 hours of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you work on Project B for 40 hours then you bill him for 40 hours of work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23031" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9248" RevisionGUID="8a1831aa-9bca-41f5-937e-41cc7f08ba36" CreationDate="2019-05-02T16:13:10.507" UserId="8459" Text="I'd charge hourly. Nice and simple, and it covers you if there ends up being a ton of work that the client hadn't anticipated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23032" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9249" RevisionGUID="2721245f-35e5-4ed3-b972-a13a4e12f9d2" CreationDate="2019-05-02T17:19:14.947" UserId="708" Text="&lt;sub&gt;Note: I've been a freelance designer for more than 20 years.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd say minimum monthly fee, then hourly above X hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, He pays a monthly flat fee. This covers X hours of work each month. Any month requiring more than X hours of work will be billed $XX/hourly above the initial X hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, using random numbers....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    $1500 for 25 hours of work. (calculates to $60/hr. So gives initial price break)&#xD;&#xA;    Anything above 25 hours is billed at $85 per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This provides a flat fee and a fallback should there be *more* work than anticipated. It also provides a point where you can let the client know they are reaching the &quot;cap&quot; in a given month and anything more that month will be at the increased hourly rate. Which actually helps the *client* keep an eye on *their* spending.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The **problem** becomes setting that &quot;monthly x hours&quot; initially, because you may not know how much work will be involved and the client can't possibly predict that for you. So it *may be* best to work on a strictly hourly rate for a month or two until you can get a &quot;ballpark&quot; idea of how many hours each month the client may require.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now.... the client may not like this structure. The client may want one fee to cover *everything* you may do each month, no matter how much there may be. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is a **completely** untenable solution for any designer in my opinion. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One project may take 1 hour, another 50 hours, and another 5 hours, and another 30 hours. You can't cover all projects with one flat fee and be a profitable business, unless you calculate enough hours that ANY possible work could not ever come close to reaching those hours in a month, i.e. 1500 hours or something ridiculously high. This becomes *even more* untenable when you factor in conception and ideation... that's the bread and butter for a designer and where costs can't always be tangibly calculated. If you create 1 concept one month then 5 the next, they all can't be priced under a blanket fee. That additional ideation has *extreme* value." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23033" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9249" RevisionGUID="15ff23f8-1ec5-4b40-bd5a-1fefaaa25915" CreationDate="2019-05-02T17:45:03.287" UserId="708" Comment="added 738 characters in body" Text="&lt;sub&gt;Note: I've been a freelance designer for more than 20 years.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd say minimum monthly fee, then hourly above X hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, He pays a monthly flat fee. This covers X hours of work each month. Any month requiring more than X hours of work will be billed $XX/hourly above the initial X hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, using random numbers....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    $1500 monthly for up to 25 hours of work. (calculates to $60/hr. So gives initial price break)&#xD;&#xA;    Anything above 25 hours is billed at $85 per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This provides a flat fee and a fallback should there be *more* work than anticipated. It also provides a point where you can let the client know they are reaching the &quot;cap&quot; in a given month and anything more that month will be at the increased hourly rate. Which actually helps the *client* keep an eye on *their* spending.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The **problem** becomes setting that &quot;monthly x hours&quot; initially, because you may not know how much work will be involved and the client can't possibly predict that for you. So it *may be* best to work on a strictly hourly rate for a month or two until you can get a &quot;ballpark&quot; idea of how many hours each month the client may require.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now.... the client may not like this structure. The client may want one fee to cover *everything* you may do each month, no matter how much there may be. That is a **completely** untenable solution for any designer in my opinion. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One project may take 1 hour, another 50 hours, and another 5 hours, and another 30 hours. You can't cover all projects with one flat fee and be a profitable business, unless you calculate enough hours that ANY possible work could not ever come close to reaching those hours in a month, i.e. 1500 hours or something ridiculously high. This becomes *even more* untenable when you factor in conception and ideation... that's the bread and butter for a designer and where costs can't always be tangibly calculated. If you create 1 concept one month then 5 the next, they all can't be priced under a blanket fee. That additional ideation has *extreme* value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client may also ask *&quot;What happens if you don't have 25 hours of work in a month? Do I get a rebate?&quot;* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The monthly fee should be seen as a &quot;retainer&quot; to ensure you are on call and the client has priority at all times. It's a flat fee to ensure you are always available to the client and his/her projects are scheduled first. There would *never* be a rebate for less than the X hours/month. Anything remaining at the end of the month is to cover your &quot;on call&quot; status. Some months that may be 0, other months it may be a couple hundred dollars due to less work. That's the **benefit** for **you** in providing the lower rate for X hours initially. The benefit to the client is the lower pricing and immediate attention. **Both** parties gain something via the retainer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client doesn't grasp any &quot;remainder is your benefit&quot;, then just opt for straight hourly invoicing. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23037" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9249" RevisionGUID="652e6049-d330-4a4e-b037-4ad6a2e113aa" CreationDate="2019-05-03T07:43:37.153" UserId="708" Comment="added 891 characters in body" Text="&lt;sub&gt;Note: I've been a freelance designer for more than 20 years.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For **design** I *really* don't think I'd do any retainer whatsoever. Creating 5 logos, or 5 sales booklets in a month is worth **way more** than creating 5 brochures, or 5 fliers, or 5 landing pages. Even if they all ultimately equal the same actual &quot;work hours&quot;.  One fee to cover hours would simply be cutting yourself short. Ideation and conceptualization has **EXTREME VALUE** and pricing that the same as general design work isn't doing the designer *any* favors. **Per project pricing** or **value-based pricing** is *always* a better option for design in my opinion. As a designer, I detest working &quot;per hour&quot; most of the time for anything other than updates, edits, or general maintenance - essentially, &quot;grunt labor&quot; is hourly... creation and conceptualization is *never* hourly for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being posted, if it's something you are considering.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd say minimum monthly fee, then hourly above X hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, He pays a monthly flat fee. This covers X hours of work each month. Any month requiring more than X hours of work will be billed $XX/hourly above the initial X hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, using random numbers....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    $1500 monthly for up to 25 hours of work. (calculates to $60/hr. So gives initial price break)&#xD;&#xA;    Anything above 25 hours is billed at $85 per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This provides a flat fee and a fallback should there be *more* work than anticipated. It also provides a point where you can let the client know they are reaching the &quot;cap&quot; in a given month and anything more that month will be at the increased hourly rate. Which actually helps the *client* keep an eye on *their* spending.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The **problem** becomes setting that &quot;monthly x hours&quot; initially, because you may not know how much work will be involved and the client can't possibly predict that for you. So it *may be* best to work on a strictly hourly rate for a month or two until you can get a &quot;ballpark&quot; idea of how many hours each month the client may require.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now.... the client may not like this structure. The client may want one fee to cover *everything* you may do each month, no matter how much there may be. That is a **completely** untenable solution for any designer in my opinion. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One project may take 1 hour, another 50 hours, and another 5 hours, and another 30 hours. You can't cover all projects with one flat fee and be a profitable business, unless you calculate enough hours that ANY possible work could not ever come close to reaching those hours in a month, i.e. 1500 hours or something ridiculously high. This becomes *even more* untenable when you factor in conception and ideation... that's the bread and butter for a designer and where costs can't always be tangibly calculated. If you create 1 concept one month then 5 the next, they all can't be priced under a blanket fee. That additional ideation has *extreme* value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client may also ask *&quot;What happens if you don't have 25 hours of work in a month? Do I get a rebate?&quot;* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The monthly fee should be seen as a &quot;retainer&quot; to ensure you are on call and the client has priority at all times. It's a flat fee to ensure you are always available to the client and his/her projects are scheduled first. There would *never* be a rebate for less than the X hours/month. Anything remaining at the end of the month is to cover your &quot;on call&quot; status. Some months that may be 0, other months it may be a couple hundred dollars due to less work. That's the **benefit** for **you** in providing the lower rate for X hours initially. The benefit to the client is the lower pricing and immediate attention. **Both** parties gain something via the retainer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client doesn't grasp any &quot;remainder is your benefit&quot;, then just opt for straight hourly invoicing. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23041" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="359" RevisionGUID="b75607b8-eaeb-4019-8426-4ec8d1958d01" CreationDate="2019-05-09T13:10:25.470" UserId="16887" Comment="Improve tags " Text="|legal|taxes|invoices|canada|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
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  <row Id="23043" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2692" RevisionGUID="366f624d-1921-4652-bee2-44605189a38c" CreationDate="2019-05-09T13:10:32.137" UserId="15235" Comment="tags edited" Text="|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23044" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2692" RevisionGUID="366f624d-1921-4652-bee2-44605189a38c" CreationDate="2019-05-09T13:10:32.137" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 15202 edit id of 664" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23055" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9252" RevisionGUID="28684215-8495-485c-aa4a-84585c3d4485" CreationDate="2019-05-12T21:36:38.477" UserId="21981" Text="I'm looking to try freelancing to do technical writing so I can pay for college classes over the summer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a Biomedical Engineering student and have experience writing and explaining technical concepts to my classmates and also people unaware of the topics being covered. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've created STEM curriculum for middle school - high school international non-native English students and I've been able to talk about my work on a digital signal processing - linguistics overlapping project to fellow engineers who had no background and industry representatives. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've also written a History Conference paper and taken an English class for English majors- which I got an A in. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I haven't done blogging before, but I realized I have a lot of thoughts I've been repeating and then remembered some people blog about those things, and that you can get paid to do blogging for sites that already exist. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Suggestions on what a reasonable rate is? And how to get started? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any comments will be much appreciated. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23056" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9252" RevisionGUID="28684215-8495-485c-aa4a-84585c3d4485" CreationDate="2019-05-12T21:36:38.477" UserId="21981" Text="UpWork - How much to charge for an hourly rate if I'm new?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23057" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9252" RevisionGUID="28684215-8495-485c-aa4a-84585c3d4485" CreationDate="2019-05-12T21:36:38.477" UserId="21981" Text="|freelance-websites|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23059" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9252" RevisionGUID="3e7bad54-ee32-4c45-bb93-0f72e9c8cd43" CreationDate="2019-05-13T04:02:10.023" UserId="21983" Comment="Fix typo in company name" Text="Upwork - How much to charge for an hourly rate if I'm new?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23060" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9252" RevisionGUID="3e7bad54-ee32-4c45-bb93-0f72e9c8cd43" CreationDate="2019-05-13T04:02:10.023" Comment="Proposed by 21983 approved by 61, 21981 edit id of 677" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23061" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8214" RevisionGUID="7e4fa7f6-bc48-4708-b231-c40b4383975f" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:40:47.597" UserId="15527" Comment="added 62 characters in body" Text="Location-specific questions about freelance business in Canada" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23062" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="8214" RevisionGUID="7e4fa7f6-bc48-4708-b231-c40b4383975f" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:40:47.597" Comment="Proposed by 15527 approved by 61, 15202 edit id of 668" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23063" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7891" RevisionGUID="c9e80b85-b38d-48b3-8801-8bc3c7cdc7fc" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:40:58.570" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited." Text="Here is the situation: I have been working full-time for a customer (let's call him A) over the last month and most of this time was actually spent on projects from a single customer of them (let's call him B).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now that I'm planning to launch a company that will be in direct competition with A, I'm wondering if I could tell B about it, give business cards and so on. &#xD;&#xA;How would that be perceived?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23064" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="7891" RevisionGUID="c9e80b85-b38d-48b3-8801-8bc3c7cdc7fc" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:40:58.570" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited." Text="Is it okay to prospect my customer's customers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23065" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7891" RevisionGUID="c9e80b85-b38d-48b3-8801-8bc3c7cdc7fc" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:40:58.570" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 61, 15202 edit id of 670" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23066" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7822" RevisionGUID="44527ed2-98b1-4f25-9693-86c4f1a7b956" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:41:05.547" UserDisplayName="user7489" Comment="Spelling, bold instead of code markup for emphasis, no need for &quot;edit&quot; and &quot;thanks " Text="I have agreed for a mobile Application project where everything has to be managed by me only as development and programming designing concern. The only Designing part has been given to another freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We had a minimum of **10 calls in 3 months** of period asking or discussion of the project and designing backend making Client understand the imaginary design and flow of the project. after all this discussion they have given me a small amount of payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now all of the sudden getting calls from the client to **refund the payment** as things are not moving forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I handle the situation and make them understand refund is **not possible** and I'm also finding it extremely difficult to refund the payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client makes fake promises to come back with new project etc etc.. but if they are planning for a second idea they will not ask for a refund. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There were no agreements signed, we just had word of mouth. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23067" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="7822" RevisionGUID="44527ed2-98b1-4f25-9693-86c4f1a7b956" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:41:05.547" UserDisplayName="user7489" Comment="Spelling, bold instead of code markup for emphasis, no need for &quot;edit&quot; and &quot;thanks " Text="Client has cancelled the project and asking for refund of payment" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23068" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7822" RevisionGUID="44527ed2-98b1-4f25-9693-86c4f1a7b956" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:41:05.547" Comment="Proposed by 7489 approved by 61, 15202 edit id of 649" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23069" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6327" RevisionGUID="2f4a52b6-703e-4a17-bc9d-8517f7c2b7b9" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:41:38.130" UserId="21520" Comment="Grammar and spelling mistakes." Text="**Your website is only crucial, but a single component of your clients' the overall buying journey.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's what your client's journey should look like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. They hear about you from a previous client of yours and want a website too.&#xD;&#xA;2. They look you up and look at your work, read your blog articles, etc.&#xD;&#xA;3. Everything on your site, social media profiles, Dribbble page, etc shows the quality of your work as well as the fact that you are a creative **professional**.&#xD;&#xA;4. Your prospective client goes from kind of thinking about hiring you, to getting in touch with you to hire you ASAP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are some things your website should include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Your Work (duh.)&#xD;&#xA;- What you offer, and who you offer it to (niche down!)&#xD;&#xA;- A personal bio about you&#xD;&#xA;- A blog that covers all about the process of what you do, and how to do it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23070" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6327" RevisionGUID="2f4a52b6-703e-4a17-bc9d-8517f7c2b7b9" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:41:38.130" Comment="Proposed by 21520 approved by 15202 edit id of 678" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23071" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8103" RevisionGUID="b1f3366f-16b4-4dbb-97e4-1ecd001518f0" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:41:53.147" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited (e.g. ref. &lt;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/let%27s#Contraction&gt;). " Text="The question is very limited in itself. But to me I charge according to my expertise and the amount of time it requires for me to complete a specified task. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's say I'm charging US$50 for a 1,000 word article and am spending two hours to complete it. In this case my hourly rate would be US$25/hour which is great. However, if someone even offers me a 10,000 words project at US$30 per 1000 word I'd reject, because the amount of time I'd invest would be the same and my price would also go down to just US$15/hour. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23072" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="8103" RevisionGUID="b1f3366f-16b4-4dbb-97e4-1ecd001518f0" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:41:53.147" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 61, 15202 edit id of 673" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23073" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7864" RevisionGUID="ae465ef1-7dd7-42db-9e42-207f5d113587" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:42:01.297" UserId="15235" Comment="added 73 characters in body" Text="For freelancing questions which are unique to or typical for programmers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23074" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7864" RevisionGUID="ae465ef1-7dd7-42db-9e42-207f5d113587" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:42:01.297" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 15202 edit id of 611" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23075" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9242" RevisionGUID="e3c86738-948f-4697-9aae-f71233b7684d" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:42:06.633" UserId="15235" Comment="typo corrected, formatting" Text="1. Create an online presence (example: Facebook Page, Website, Behance Profile, etc. to showcase your work)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Start by serving people you know how to design requirements and ask them to leave testimonials for your service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Use Social Media and other avenues to spread your freelancer profile/portfolio, and land jobs/clients. Don't worry about your age, don't mention it if you don't have to. It's your skills that matter. Showcase your work as best you can.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;TIP: I suggest starting off with a discounted price but good service quality. Remember to keep communication going on while doing your projects to keep clients engaged to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't have to register a company legally yet. This is how you start. Clients can transfer money your bank account or Paypal, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23076" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9242" RevisionGUID="e3c86738-948f-4697-9aae-f71233b7684d" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:42:06.633" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 15202 edit id of 676" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23081" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8153" RevisionGUID="f6dd10fa-e47b-49c7-a381-ec147d6a5b0a" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:42:19.483" UserId="15235" Comment="added 67 characters in body" Text="Location-specific questions about freelance business in Switzerland" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23082" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="8153" RevisionGUID="f6dd10fa-e47b-49c7-a381-ec147d6a5b0a" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:42:19.483" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 15202 edit id of 663" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23083" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8135" RevisionGUID="06fcb706-eae8-4996-98c4-4373d2d020c1" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:42:37.293" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited. In English, the subjective form of the singular first-person pronoun, &quot;I&quot;, is capitalized, along with all its contractions such as I'll and I'm." Text="I'm looking to launch my mobile app soon, but I need to copyright it and I'm not sure what would be the best thing to do, how should I start, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I launch an app under self employment or I would need a company for that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I copyright the app under self employment?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anybody has any experience with launching their application from this point of view?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The application will generate revenues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a UK resident for the moment.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23084" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="8135" RevisionGUID="06fcb706-eae8-4996-98c4-4373d2d020c1" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:42:37.293" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 61, 15202 edit id of 667" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23085" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8224" RevisionGUID="4223ab13-db0d-4c38-ab02-5bde7dfe01cf" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:43:03.307" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited (e.g. ref. &lt;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/descriptive#Adjective&gt;)." Text="Working in design, you have to ensure, ***ensure*** that the client is active and communicating in a detailed and descriptive manner what they desire. Otherwise it is like a nightmare, of constant redrafts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should be careful to value your time and yourself. Choosing clients, that are a good match, is a huge part of the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client probably senses that the relationship is in his favor, and, that causes a loss of interest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I was doing this job for a very fair price, I took 50% payment up&#xD;&#xA;&gt; front but I believe I am entitled for some, if not all, of the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; remaining payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First mistake: offer a good price for you, and if the client sees real value they will sign on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; He claimed to be happy with the logo (although seemed to keep changing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; his mind on this) but was mainly unhappy with the colour palette,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; despite my vast array of different colour combinations that I sent&#xD;&#xA;&gt; over.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working in design requires drafts, and guidelines that the client signs. If you did not have anything in writing, it is a lost job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Trust me, I know the hassle. Honestly, work with clients that communicate, contribute, and commit to the paperwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Drop your client and move on.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23086" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="8224" RevisionGUID="4223ab13-db0d-4c38-ab02-5bde7dfe01cf" CreationDate="2019-05-13T12:43:03.307" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 61, 15202 edit id of 672" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23087" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2578" RevisionGUID="397a3e2b-a068-4cc7-b531-5e9badd0a961" CreationDate="2019-05-13T14:26:08.030" UserId="21826" Comment="formatting / typos; added link" Text="I believe that being a 'Westerner' definitely works to your advantage for many reasons.&#xD;&#xA;Let me share part of my experience on the subject, as a freelance developer who started in London, then moved on to other 'western' countries. I had no portfolio, having done only bar work since I left Uni, but I was really motivated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, as you said, the market is flooded by low-rates developers, asking as little as $3/hour. But the quality of the work they provide, and the heart they put in it reflects the rate they offer. Think about it, if they were skilled enough to ask 10 times the rate they offer, they probably would. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of the time, when you put an ad on Elance (now known as Upwork), you receive instantly a dozen of generic replies, often in broken English, and obviously copypasted from a defined set, maybe triggered by a keyword like 'WordPress' or similar. Here's how to take advantage of that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; **1. Choose the proposals carefully, and personalize your reply.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   Take some time to read the proposal, and start thinking about how you'll solve the client's problem, instead of copypasting a list of your 'skills' that he/she doesn't know anything about. Find something you're interested in doing, and be enthusiastic in your reply. At the beginning, I used to choose only challenging proposals, that I knew I could fix, but didn't know exactly how. I was doing a bit of research on Google, then explained my 'plan' to the client. Often, the actual solution I ended up using was different than the original plan, but it didn't matter, I had made a difference by showing some 'care' in my answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; **2. Emphasize the fact that you do speak English perfectly.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  This is a bit controversial, but once the client will have struggled his way through 10 replies full of spelling/grammar mistakes, your proposal will be a breeze of fresh air to him. Remind them of that discreetly in your answer. I usually use almost informal language, to further distance myself from the 'Dear Sir, ...' answers, and I always mention the fact that I do speak good English. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**TL;DR:** Make your answer pleasant to read, and you'll score more points.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; **3. Your rate shows your worth, so don't undervalue yourself.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Once again, you want to set yourself aside from the pack. There always will be clients who will choose Price over Quality, but my advice is that you should avoid them, or your hours and stress levels are going to skyrocket, and you'll be back behind your office in no time. If I'm unsure what the client is looking for, I don't give a rate right away, and ask him to clearly to pick 2 out of these 3 things: **speed**, **quality** or **price** ([Project Management Triangle][1]). Be daring, and it will pay off, you'll make strong relationships with good people, who will reward you fairly and value your work. That's what I appreciate the most about freelancing, you're not stuck with a nasty boss, ever. That being said, you can set your rate a little bit lower at the start, if you want to build a portfolio quickly. Remember however that you will most likely build long-lasting relationships with your clients, so it'll be harder to up your rate later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do all those things, your portfolio and feedback will quickly match your big mouth (which remains your best asset as it shows confidence), and you'll learn which proposals to answer, and which to avoid. By being 'different' in your approach, you'll become the go-to guy for all your previous clients, and there will be no more competition for you. If you have it in you, it is definitely worth it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management_triangle" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23088" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2578" RevisionGUID="397a3e2b-a068-4cc7-b531-5e9badd0a961" CreationDate="2019-05-13T14:26:08.030" Comment="Proposed by 21826 approved by 61, 5274 edit id of 675" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23098" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9255" RevisionGUID="c905f382-3d56-456e-8c3a-ddc8e9593893" CreationDate="2019-05-16T11:48:10.427" UserId="21704" Text="I'm just starting to come round to the idea of using social media, and as I'm not a big fan, I want to use as few profiles as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My prefered platform is Twitter and as I'm a freelance writer and photographer, as well as a business owner within a specific niche, I'd like to use one account for both communication and advertising all of my work, and as a personal socialising method, but is this really a good way of doing things?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I already presume that I'm going to need upwards of 3 accounts to keep things a little more in order:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Main Account : For my business, photography and written work + a daily&#xD;&#xA;&gt; journal of my preferences for things that are related to my lifestyle.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; NSFW Account : An extension to the main account, with things that are&#xD;&#xA;&gt; little too much for under 18's&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Side Account : For days when I kick back and do things that aren't so&#xD;&#xA;&gt; related to my main lifestyle ( Family / Nature )&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it good to have a simple 3 account maximum like this, or should you really have a dedicated secondary account for each primary account just for work purposes? As someone who communicates better as an individual, and doesn't want to spend 24 hours a day managing social accounts, I'd hope so, but what are your thoughts?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23099" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9255" RevisionGUID="c905f382-3d56-456e-8c3a-ddc8e9593893" CreationDate="2019-05-16T11:48:10.427" UserId="21704" Text="Social Media Portfolio : Dedicated Professional or Personal Incorporation" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23100" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9255" RevisionGUID="c905f382-3d56-456e-8c3a-ddc8e9593893" CreationDate="2019-05-16T11:48:10.427" UserId="21704" Text="|communication|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23101" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9256" RevisionGUID="8a28948c-fadc-4b22-906a-795e1a6e7f59" CreationDate="2019-05-16T21:46:56.497" UserId="708" Text="Preface: I'm *not* a big social media user... so keep that in mind as you read. I find social media, in general, a waste of time and think it's only *really* useful as a marketing/advertising tool if you *already* have a following of some sort, such as being a celebrity or an existing, *established*, client base that is significant. But, that's all just my *opinion*. My clients, don't give a hoot what I'm doing on a daily basis, they just want their work as fast as I can turn it around. None of my client would be interested in a daily feed of my activities or thoughts. They simply wouldn't care. But those are my clients. Your audience may differ.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I've found, in general, is that a *focused* business does **much better** than a diversified business when the operating staff is limited. If you have 3 people you cna assign to manage 3 social media accounts, then by all mean that may be good for you. As a single individual spreading yourself across multiple accounts merely means no single account will get the attention it needs. If you aren't already a dedicated social media enthusiast then spending so much time managing accounts, for me, would become drudgery and I'd quickly grow to dislike the effort and then things would languish. That will do far more harm than if the account was never created in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a sole proprietary, single member business, I find it is **often** best to focus attention into a primary area of desired work. This allows for *much* more dedicated advertising and targeting. Most freelancers, after a period of initial client acquisition, start to fall into a &quot;niché&quot; or area of specialty. It's rare that you find a freelancer working on absolutely anything and everything. Sure many *can* explore some broader areas based upon client requests. However, it's best to focus on where you *want* to work, not on what you *can* work on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A common mistake, I feel, that those starting out make is trying to be everything to everyone. This may make for more work, but not necessarily *better* work or *better* clients. You may find you can fill your days with client requests, but they are often one-off, barely profitable, tasks which take so much time you are left struggling to find better paying work. And the smaller clients tend to not really be repeat customers. For me, the bread and butter of freelancing is the *repeat* business. It typically eliminates the need to do any broad advertising and *often* the need for *any* advertising.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice would be do **one thing well**. When that has a &quot;life of its own&quot; and is not something which needs constant attention, *then* start thinking about broadening the scope. If you excel at one thing, word-of-mouth will often be a catalyst for more work in that area and the need to advertise those skills diminishes. This frees you to start looking at advertising another area and attempt to grow *that* into a larger revenue stream.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, this is all merely my *opinion* based upon my experience as a freelancer over a couple of decades." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23102" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9256" RevisionGUID="8bfc2497-00b8-4ca5-96e8-22041cd163c4" CreationDate="2019-05-16T21:52:52.767" UserId="708" Comment="added 543 characters in body" Text="Preface: I'm *not* a big social media user... so keep that in mind as you read. I find social media, in general, a waste of time and think it's only *really* useful as a marketing/advertising tool if you *already* have a following of some sort, such as being a celebrity or an existing, *established*, client base that is significant. But, that's all just my *opinion*. My clients, don't give a hoot what I'm doing on a daily basis, they just want their work as fast as I can turn it around. None of my client would be interested in a daily feed of my activities or thoughts. They simply wouldn't care. But those are my clients. Your audience may differ.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I've found, in general, is that a *focused* business does **much better** than a diversified business when the operating staff is limited. If you have 3 people you cna assign to manage 3 social media accounts, then by all mean that may be good for you. As a single individual spreading yourself across multiple accounts merely means no single account will get the attention it needs. If you aren't already a dedicated social media enthusiast then spending so much time managing accounts, for me, would become drudgery and I'd quickly grow to dislike the effort and then things would languish. That will do far more harm than if the account was never created in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a sole proprietary, single member business, I find it is **often** best to focus attention into a primary area of desired work. This allows for *much* more dedicated advertising and targeting. Most freelancers, after a period of initial client acquisition, start to fall into a &quot;niché&quot; or area of specialty. It's rare that you find a freelancer working on absolutely anything and everything. Sure many *can* explore some broader areas based upon client requests. However, it's best to focus on where you *want* to work, not on what you *can* work on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A common mistake, I feel, that those starting out make is trying to be everything to everyone. This may make for more work, but not necessarily *better* work or *better* clients. You may find you can fill your days with client requests, but they are often one-off, barely profitable, tasks which take so much time you are left struggling to find better paying work. And the smaller clients tend to not really be repeat customers. For me, the bread and butter of freelancing is the *repeat* business. It typically eliminates the need to do any broad advertising and *often* the need for *any* advertising.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice would be do **one thing well**. When that has a &quot;life of its own&quot; and is not something which needs constant attention, *then* start thinking about broadening the scope. If you excel at one thing, word-of-mouth will often be a catalyst for more work in that area and the need to advertise those skills diminishes. This frees you to start looking at advertising another area and attempt to grow *that* into a larger revenue stream. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, *clients* will dictate where you may want to focus. It could easily be that no one you find is interested in the more NSFW content, so why bother advertising it? Or you could discover that *most* of the clients you come across ask about NSW type of content.. so dedicating some advertising there may be beneficial. You shouldn't assume that because you *can* do something there's an adequate market for you in that area. If you are starting out, leave the more risqué stuff for later, unless that's all you really want to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, this is all merely my *opinion* based upon my experience as a freelancer over a couple of decades." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23103" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9256" RevisionGUID="daa42168-b4d1-4987-95fe-377232c211ee" CreationDate="2019-05-16T22:23:52.093" UserId="708" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="Preface: I'm *not* a big social media user... so keep that in mind as you read. I find social media, in general, a waste of time and think it's only *really* useful as a marketing/advertising tool if you *already* have a following of some sort, such as being a celebrity or an existing, *established*, client base that is significant. But, that's all just my *opinion*. My clients, don't give a hoot what I'm doing on a daily basis, they just want their work as fast as I can turn it around. None of my client would be interested in a daily feed of my activities or thoughts. They simply wouldn't care. But those are my clients. Your audience may differ.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I've found, in general, is that a *focused* business does **much better** than a diversified business when the operating staff is limited. If you have 3 people you can assign to manage 3 social media accounts, then by all means that may be good for you. As a single individual spreading yourself across multiple accounts merely means no single account will get the attention it needs. If you aren't already a dedicated social media enthusiast then spending so much time managing accounts, for me, would become drudgery and I'd quickly grow to dislike the effort and then things would languish. That will do far more harm than if the account was never created in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a sole proprietary, single member business, I find it is **often** best to focus attention into a primary area of desired work. This allows for *much* more dedicated advertising and targeting. Most freelancers, after a period of initial client acquisition, start to fall into a &quot;niché&quot; or area of specialty. It's rare that you find a freelancer working on absolutely anything and everything. Sure many *can* explore some broader areas based upon client requests. However, it's best to focus on where you *want* to work, not on what you *can* work on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A common mistake, I feel, that those starting out make is trying to be everything to everyone. This may make for more work, but not necessarily *better* work or *better* clients. You may find you can fill your days with client requests, but they are often one-off, barely profitable, tasks which take so much time you are left struggling to find better paying work. And the smaller clients tend to not really be repeat customers. For me, the bread and butter of freelancing is the *repeat* business. It typically eliminates the need to do any broad advertising and *often* the need for *any* advertising.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice would be do **one thing well**. When that has a &quot;life of its own&quot; and is not something which needs constant attention, *then* start thinking about broadening the scope. If you excel at one thing, word-of-mouth will often be a catalyst for more work in that area and the need to advertise those skills diminishes. This frees you to start looking at advertising another area and attempt to grow *that* into a larger revenue stream. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, *clients* will dictate where you may want to focus. It could easily be that no one you find is interested in the more NSFW content, so why bother advertising it? Or you could discover that *most* of the clients you come across ask about NSW type of content.. so dedicating some advertising there may be beneficial. You shouldn't assume that because you *can* do something there's an adequate market for you in that area. If you are starting out, leave the more risqué stuff for later, unless that's all you really want to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, this is all merely my *opinion* based upon my experience as a freelancer over a couple of decades." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23118" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9260" RevisionGUID="27b20d8f-f4cc-4b24-a6cd-5a25456a5793" CreationDate="2019-05-20T09:06:28.567" UserId="15709" Text="I am a web designer / developer (front end and back end). I do that proficiently since more than 10 years, and I am appreciated and good skilled in designing and programming. I work alone in a home office.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My target business are local clients, small to medium companies, hotels, shops, restaurants, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't do any marketing, clients come to me by word of mouth by other satisfied clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My area of business is very inflated and now there is a lot of offer for web design / development and not that much demand, so the prices are getting lower and lower and I know there are some freelance or studios that for getting new clients redo sites for free (or almost) then apply a yearly price for maintenance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For that reason I am moving in other areas such as product photography for e-commerce and other similar things at fair price to make me and clients happy, and seems that this is going in a very good direction since I have already a small but good photo studio and I have a good experience in Photoshop post production.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now my problem is that when I started as freelance (and later too) I used to get all the possible clients because I needed to make money, so I took also some not good ones including some friends, friends or friends, somewhat relatives, and other common people but known in the town.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to stop working for many of them, because although they were useful for me in the past years, now they are more a loss of time and very little earning, in some cases I do even updates for free since years, or in other cases there are companies who refuse to pay small invoices while they would pay for bigger works, or they don't answer emails for billing, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(I also have very good clients of course, along with these not good ones.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some cases I have contracts and other I don't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to set up an exit strategy that will free me from them but that also will not cause problems to the client's business or upset the client, because I work mainly in the local area, I always worked for good reference of others and if I upset one or more, they have the power to spread bad news about me, also in other cases they are people that I may meet with friends and family so I don't want to create any unpleasant situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I have thought is to talk with some other web agency or freelance, and when I am contacted from the &quot;bad client&quot; I would inform him/her that they will talk to that new freelance for the work. But I am not very covinced because: 1) is not easy to take agreement with competitors; 2) who would have the wish to get all the &quot;bad clients&quot; of another freelance?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another thing that I thought about is to inform these clients that I have changed job and don't work anymore in this field, but this is actually a lie and people would know sooner or later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the best &quot;exit strategy&quot; in this situation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23119" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9260" RevisionGUID="27b20d8f-f4cc-4b24-a6cd-5a25456a5793" CreationDate="2019-05-20T09:06:28.567" UserId="15709" Text="Setting up an &quot;exit strategy&quot; without upsetting or causing troubles to clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23120" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9260" RevisionGUID="27b20d8f-f4cc-4b24-a6cd-5a25456a5793" CreationDate="2019-05-20T09:06:28.567" UserId="15709" Text="|difficult-client|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23126" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9262" RevisionGUID="305a9452-6e61-4555-9a1e-9f118f1fc203" CreationDate="2019-05-20T19:30:18.860" UserId="75" Text="This is where networking with other professionals would help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've &quot;exited&quot; a few clients by recommending them to some other colleagues I've worked with in the past. It has been a reciprocal agreement, and we essentially &quot;trade&quot; clients. I don't mind talking to other people in my field, so I can still help them out if needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for the reason? You can use anyone that doesn't make the client think you're firing them. &quot;I have just been awarded a very large contract, and need more time available to deal with it&quot; is one possibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, the underlying part of your question about clients who don't pay their bills or answer emails... They would be my first to go. I choose to Freelance to do my passion, not to hound clients for payment. The clients who make it easy for me to do my job, I keep those ones, anyday!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23127" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9263" RevisionGUID="12156107-e771-47df-b3c3-b0aa785bc62c" CreationDate="2019-05-21T15:11:29.107" UserId="22031" Text="If you already know sites that might be interested in what you have to offer, the easiest way is to pitch them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That means, identify a number of topics that you think would be a good fit for them, create a title and short description and send them over. Tell them who you are and that you would be more than happy to write those posts up for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have done your homework, many sites welcome the initiative and would be more than happy to pay you to write for them. Plus, if you do a bang-up job, there might be repeat business in it for you. (I have done all of the above and now writing is my full-time career.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for the rate, as a beginner freelance writer, asking for $0.10-$0.15 is appropriate in my opinion. However, make sure you (over)deliver great quality. Hope this helps!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23131" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7892" RevisionGUID="37dde7b5-ded5-408f-9a46-beea3e8a64fd" CreationDate="2019-05-22T08:37:41.203" UserId="708" Comment="added 259 characters in body" Text="You can, but it is generally **very** frowned upon. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without express written disapproval, there's nothing *legally* preventing you doing do. Of course, a non-compete agreement would indicate there may be repercussions were you to do anything to compete with the employer, including stealing the clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Stealing* customers from your employer will also **ensure** that employer does *everything* they can to prevent you from working once they find out. Client &quot;sniping&quot; is really one clear way to gain *horrible* word of mouth advertising." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23133" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7892" RevisionGUID="7b4e8d6a-9d63-4a20-8dbc-3176eb8aaaf2" CreationDate="2019-05-22T10:23:00.383" UserId="708" Comment="edited body" Text="You can, but it is generally **very** frowned upon. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without express written disapproval, there's nothing *legally* preventing you doing so. Of course, a non-compete agreement would indicate there may be repercussions were you to do anything to compete with the employer, including stealing the clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Stealing* customers from your employer will also **ensure** that employer does *everything* they can to prevent you from working once they find out. Client &quot;sniping&quot; is really one clear way to gain *horrible* word of mouth advertising." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23137" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9255" RevisionGUID="a9751fba-2e83-4d82-a7be-11eaa96601cb" CreationDate="2019-05-24T08:15:53.623" UserId="21704" Comment="added 158 characters in body; edited title" Text="I'm just starting to come round to the idea of using social media, and as I'm not a big fan, I want to use as few profiles as possible, on my prefered platform which is **Twitter**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My main area of work is very music orientated - With rock and metal, fashion, events, tattoos, alternative models, autos, etc, etc, but I also want to explore the darker side of the culture, which has more to do with alternative models doing fetish work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the problem here is that I could almost split this into 3 parts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;`1 : Regular Content - Music, Fahion, Motors, Models`&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;`2 : NSFW Content - Adult/Fetish, Which relates directly to Regular Content`&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;`3 : NSFW+ Content - Adult/Fetish, But more sexually explicit`&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I was thinking of having 2 accounts per subject ( `personal/communications` and `portfolio/promotional` )&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So a good way of seeting this out would be to have:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;`@MyName` / `@MyName_NSFW` / `@MyName_XXX`&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;`@MyPortfolio` / `@MyPortfolio_NSFW` / `@MyPortfolio_XXX`&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In theory, allowing people visiting the NSFW and XXX accounts to realise that it's an extension to a regular account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem of course is that as soon as people follow me on `@MyPortfolio`, social networks are quick to tell them that a similar account exists - `@MyPortfolio_NSFW`, which I don't really want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So should I instead have 3 completely different names as a business, to deal with clients from each area of work?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23138" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9255" RevisionGUID="a9751fba-2e83-4d82-a7be-11eaa96601cb" CreationDate="2019-05-24T08:15:53.623" UserId="21704" Comment="added 158 characters in body; edited title" Text="Social Media Portfolios : Add-On Accounts or Seperate Accounts" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23140" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9255" RevisionGUID="d7e21cee-ae9d-4c07-88ff-589d5422cbcb" CreationDate="2019-05-24T09:10:42.760" UserId="21704" Comment="edited title" Text="Social Media Portfolios" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23146" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9267" RevisionGUID="3c3a4d2c-2017-4697-a7bd-c878b2d71efa" CreationDate="2019-05-24T19:34:27.267" UserId="22050" Text="Agreed. Your brother's situation will eat at you over time when you could spend the same hours working on your own book of business. Start branching out to find small businesses with the money to pay for your work then your brother will see that you're worth more than what he's offering." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23147" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="8215" RevisionGUID="c92577bc-b861-4829-a46c-89dff7f857a9" CreationDate="2019-05-25T03:09:13.883" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23148" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9268" RevisionGUID="c22f21f1-a20b-49cd-a328-2cf88289f081" CreationDate="2019-05-25T06:17:34.730" UserId="22054" Text="You must try giving him a courtesy call, speaking on the phone makes a huge difference as compared to sending an email. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No client wants to leave their project in between - possibility of he ignoring you could mean that your project is no longer a priority for your client, or the client has not enough financial resources to fund this project or they have found somebody else.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;The situation can only be understood after speaking with the client. You can surely stop working on the existing project until there is a reply from your client. Nobody is so busy that they cannot reply to discuss or understand the project status for which they have already paid for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best scenario would be that you will receive the balance amount to complete the project. Alternatively, you should be prepared to take it as a learning and move on.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23149" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9269" RevisionGUID="90daa4f2-05d9-4fae-a56c-6f7345d41040" CreationDate="2019-05-25T07:27:46.633" UserId="22054" Text="You should start reducing your dependency for business on your brother or any other family member. The thumb rule is never to sell or provide service on credit to your family members, you will eventually be the last one to be paid and will always be doubted for the product or services you sold. There are several articles written in popular business magazines on why one should not sell or even lend to family members, google it and you will get this information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to create a simple written agreement that you will get the money after two years and then move on to take other work (simple things like written agreements become an issue in family dealings and hence the first point that selling products or services to the family should be avoided). This agreement will ensure that you will get some money after two years if not now, something is better than nothing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am sure there are enough potential clients who will appreciate your work and will be ready to pay the right price. You need to show them the value - read some articles or books on value selling and show your potential client the value you will bring to the table and why you are different.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All the best!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23150" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9270" RevisionGUID="7db11068-6bf5-42ea-8fad-58e1ad77462a" CreationDate="2019-05-26T16:01:10.393" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23151" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9270" RevisionGUID="7db11068-6bf5-42ea-8fad-58e1ad77462a" CreationDate="2019-05-26T16:01:10.393" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23152" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9271" RevisionGUID="c00d0f2f-7bcc-43e0-8cc2-3b5ba37750c9" CreationDate="2019-05-26T16:01:10.393" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23153" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9271" RevisionGUID="c00d0f2f-7bcc-43e0-8cc2-3b5ba37750c9" CreationDate="2019-05-26T16:01:10.393" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23154" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="8179" RevisionGUID="858a23f8-092c-48cc-8472-c75e9c48af92" CreationDate="2019-05-28T22:01:55.190" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23156" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9272" RevisionGUID="a4ab5cc0-a330-4f44-98b8-ae85aa21f0d8" CreationDate="2019-05-30T17:21:45.290" UserId="22066" Text="You can certainly develop your code base while being paid by your client, and retain the Intellectual Property rights to re-use going forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In north america this would typically be dealt with by using a standard 'fee for hours' contract, where you are paid to solve the clients' problem.  The IP clause in the contract would state that you retain all IP rights to `The Code`.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you would create a separate `licensing agreement` for use of the code base for that client.  Something to the effect of '`The Client` received the right to use and modify `The Code` in perpetuity without the further written consent of `The Author`'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This approach allows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - you to develop the code while being paid by your client&#xD;&#xA; - the clients' use of (and modification rights) to the code going forward&#xD;&#xA; - you to retain the IP rights to your code so you can re-use however you like going forward" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23157" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9273" RevisionGUID="b40151bb-9187-4491-b65f-afa58985c356" CreationDate="2019-05-30T18:46:22.360" UserId="22066" Text="Not sure if you're still in this situation, but here goes...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you mentioned, you could do the work and bill with payment sometime in the future (based on the company having revenue).  This leaves you taking on the risk of not getting paid, if you go this route I would increase your fee to account for the added risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is you could setup a revenue sharing agreement, whereby you would receive a portion of the final revenue the product generates.  This makes you a partner in the business, and reflects the investment (in time) and risk (not being paid) you are making in the product.  I would go this route if possible, as the potential upside is larger and it sounds like you believe in the end product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!&#xD;&#xA;L." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23158" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9274" RevisionGUID="c542c660-66e6-4070-9ee1-97d74b1f45a3" CreationDate="2019-05-30T19:19:52.863" UserId="22066" Text="First, check your agency contract, the non-competition clause(s) likely include language around 'new/future business with the client', in which case setting up a competing agency is probably a conflict. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your agency agreement does allow it, you would be managing the (legal and business) relationship with the end client for anyone you propose, so they will certainly know you are involved (nothing more to disclose to them).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will also point out that even if it is allowed, competing with your agency in this way will affect your business relationship with them going forward, so factor that in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23159" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9275" RevisionGUID="ac8387af-8200-460c-bf5b-c40ab4f1cea4" CreationDate="2019-05-30T21:51:50.700" UserId="22066" Text="If you're only unloading your 'less favorable' clients, then I suggest you create a relationship with a web agency that is hungry.  Competitors aren't competitors if you're giving them business, then they become partners!  &#xD;&#xA;Just because they were not favorable clients for you, doesn't mean another agency won't love them...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would hesitate to refer 'less favorable' clients to other freelancers as it just passes the problems to them, however, if an agency can/does provide comparable services, and are a larger company that can absorb some of the overhead of 'less favorable' clients then go that route.&#xD;&#xA;You can also refer 'favorable' clients differently, to other freelancers if you prefer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for informing your clients, wait for them to reach out to you next and tell them something like 'I am currently involved in other ventures and can no longer provide you services, I will happily refer you to XXXX for any future needs you have'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23160" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9273" RevisionGUID="5a629eeb-f002-478a-9b2c-d83fc597559e" CreationDate="2019-05-31T09:41:22.860" UserId="61" Comment="removed a greeting and a signature" Text="As you mentioned, you could do the work and bill with payment sometime in the future (based on the company having revenue).  This leaves you taking on the risk of not getting paid, if you go this route I would increase your fee to account for the added risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is you could setup a revenue sharing agreement, whereby you would receive a portion of the final revenue the product generates.  This makes you a partner in the business, and reflects the investment (in time) and risk (not being paid) you are making in the product.  I would go this route if possible, as the potential upside is larger and it sounds like you believe in the end product." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23162" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9276" RevisionGUID="a4ddc70e-3b02-43bd-a6a9-e3e494abba07" CreationDate="2019-06-01T06:12:28.573" UserId="22072" Text="I can get a minimum of 5000 views/clicks per day. Is there any that I could use this skill?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23163" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9276" RevisionGUID="a4ddc70e-3b02-43bd-a6a9-e3e494abba07" CreationDate="2019-06-01T06:12:28.573" UserId="22072" Text="Any ways to earn by getting clicks and views?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23164" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9276" RevisionGUID="a4ddc70e-3b02-43bd-a6a9-e3e494abba07" CreationDate="2019-06-01T06:12:28.573" UserId="22072" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23167" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9278" RevisionGUID="7f8031c7-614f-4496-8a3a-529007795c77" CreationDate="2019-06-01T07:49:13.910" UserId="22073" Text="I personally don't like sites that are nothing but click traps so just having &quot;5000 clicks per day&quot; alone seems a bit shallow to me.&#xD;&#xA;If your content is good and you get a lot of visitors that way you should maybe start to monetize your content. One way to do this is to participate in an affiliate program. Or - if your content is really unique - you could ask people to pay for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The middle ground would be to join Patreon or some similar sponsorship site to ask people for a bit of financial support." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23168" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9279" RevisionGUID="9076bcaf-6dc3-4722-b5a0-b9532274ca01" CreationDate="2019-06-01T08:14:25.210" UserId="22073" Text="In general you retain the intellectual property for anything you code as a freelancer; this is in stark contrast to an employee who generally does not. Sometime clients insist on some or other kind of exclusive usage rights but most of the time without really having a compelling reason. To prevent any legal issues you would fare best by doing two things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Clearly and openly state in the contract that you will need to use and extend a framework to fulfill your customer's needs and that ownership of the framework will remains yours.&#xD;&#xA;2. Offer your client an unrestricted, non-exclusive license to use and modify the provided code including the framework. Make up your mind whether your client would be allowed to share or even sell the code (including the framework) beforehand!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As @SebastienCagnon suggested you can tell your clients that doing the job would be more expensive without using the framework if they insist on exclusivity. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23169" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9280" RevisionGUID="ad079955-4b2d-4a96-882e-8e5169817dd2" CreationDate="2019-06-01T08:57:29.673" UserId="22073" Text="Your question is quite layered so lets take it apart a bit. You have a few different kinds of old clients only some of which I would really call &quot;bad&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##Friends and Family&#xD;&#xA;Those are hard to negotiate with but not bad as such (or so I hope). Once you start to work for friends for free they expect that it will always be the case. In turn I personally find it very hard to ask friends to pay for my work. This is something you can only fix in a case by case way I'd say. But basically it comes down to the question whether they would be willing and able to pay somebody at all for the job - if so, why not you? You can still give a friends discount if you enjoy working on the project. And I will never charge my family to fix their messed up PC I guess :-D&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##Clients not worth the time&#xD;&#xA;If you have old contracts (whether written or verbally) with a bad revenue/time ratio you need to update those. Of course not everybody can afford to pay full rates for a developer but maybe you can find a balance between those who can pay full and those that need to be subsidized a bit. My company sometimes takes smaller jobs from start-ups at a lower rate but only when we have someone to spare. In general those who pay the full rates get priority and we are open about this with those we offer discounted rates to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##Clients that don't pay&#xD;&#xA;Yeah well - no pay, no play. Let those clients go. Do not directly refer them to anyone because it would ruin your reputation. If you referred someone to me that notoriously doesn't pay and/or has horrible communication habits we would stop working together.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##Don't lie!&#xD;&#xA;Just don't. It will always backfire one way or another. You are to busy to take a job? Be honest about it! Client does not pay? Tell them you will stop working for them if they don't! Client has bad communication habits? Ask them to change those or tell them you will need to charge them for the extra time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##Networking and Cooperation&#xD;&#xA;As @CanadianLuke pointed out try not to see people working in the same field mainly as competition but as professionals with related expertise. Usually there are more people needing coders then there *are* coders. Maybe you can check whether somebody is willing to take on some of your older clients to get the business started same way you did in the beginning.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps a bit! Cheers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23172" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9281" RevisionGUID="4cdfa0f5-734c-4301-b6b9-8fab0c52640f" CreationDate="2019-06-02T13:23:25.597" UserId="22069" Text="I want to establish a so called joint practice/society/network, in which several freelancers and self-employed people, who are working in one field of interest, are presented together and potentially realise projects together (but not need to). This shall, however, not be some legal form of organisation, i.e. every person is responsible for his and her own bills and we do not need to have common room.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**assumed benefits**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those who seek support in this field of interest can turn to one site and overlook the support given by these people - alone or together.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those who seek support can inquire the support they need and the people in this network can coordinate themselves: Who can offer the support needed? Is a partnership more effective and efficient?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People in the society can focus on and train their key competencies and skills rather than being generalists and need to catch up on other (tangent) topics.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cooperating can have more impact than working alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**my idea of establishing the joint practice/society/network**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every person that is interested in joining has the opportunity to do so - as long as some criteria are met (subject/topic/field of interest, competencies, skills, compatibility).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**my question**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a sensitive way to offer the opportunity to every person in general that is active in this field of work, but at the same time to reject the option for one person eventually?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to begin with involving the people I am working with and the people I know go well together.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe you once had a similar situation. I would be interested, how you solved this. Thank you in advance for your support!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23173" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9281" RevisionGUID="4cdfa0f5-734c-4301-b6b9-8fab0c52640f" CreationDate="2019-06-02T13:23:25.597" UserId="22069" Text="How to estabish a network without becoming an &quot;exclusive club&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23174" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9281" RevisionGUID="4cdfa0f5-734c-4301-b6b9-8fab0c52640f" CreationDate="2019-06-02T13:23:25.597" UserId="22069" Text="|group-freelancing|partner|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23175" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9281" RevisionGUID="f24e9a1b-1fd2-44cb-8b30-41928c3c4d18" CreationDate="2019-06-02T13:30:41.217" UserId="22069" Comment="added 56 characters in body" Text="I want to establish a so called joint practice/society/network, in which several freelancers and self-employed people, who are working in one field of interest, are presented together and potentially realise projects together (but not need to). This shall, however, not be some legal form of organisation, i.e. every person is responsible for his and her own bills and we do not need to have common room.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**assumed benefits**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those who seek support in this field of interest can turn to one site and overlook the support given by these people - alone or together.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those who seek support can inquire the support they need and the people in this network can coordinate themselves: Who can offer the support needed? Is a partnership more effective and efficient?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People in the society can focus on and train their key competencies and skills rather than being generalists and need to catch up on other (tangent) topics.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cooperating can have more impact than working alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**my idea of establishing the joint practice/society/network**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every person that is interested in joining has the opportunity to do so - as long as some criteria are met (subject/topic/field of interest, competencies, skills, compatibility).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**my question**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a sensitive way to offer the opportunity to every person in general that is active in this field of work, but at the same time to reject the option for one person eventually? With this in mind, how to be and appear cooperative and inclusive?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to begin with involving the people I am working with and the people I know go well together.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe you once had a similar situation. I would be interested, how you solved this. Thank you in advance for your support!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23176" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9281" RevisionGUID="4c0e9a02-c3a9-4662-b7f4-3cb15024687b" CreationDate="2019-06-02T14:23:55.540" UserId="22069" Comment="edited title" Text="How to establish a network without becoming an &quot;exclusive club&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23177" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9282" RevisionGUID="b424d9ef-f27c-46c1-ad50-08d1cdeeb98c" CreationDate="2019-06-02T17:33:01.290" UserId="75" Text="I haven't got this far, but I do have a &quot;personal&quot; network of professionals I can lean on, and they can lean on me. This was started by me being an employee of a workplace that many of those professionals frequented. After I went on my own, we kept in touch.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my case, we just regularly keep contact, whether it be on Linked In, or popping into their storefronts once in a while. We talk about our problems, we hear solutions, and offer advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to go the more professional route, then you'll need some rules, almost like a charter. If you want the ability to kick people out, they need to know *why* they are being kicked out, other than a personal reason (i.e. &quot;your feet smell&quot;). Having a charter of rules will help with reinforcing what is expected, and what doesn't fly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Put some feelers out there in your professional circles, seeing if they would appreciate something official, or if an informal arrangement like what I have would be more appropriate." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23178" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9283" RevisionGUID="528c5a6a-6b5a-4942-8e61-2633752e4b63" CreationDate="2019-06-03T00:02:24.297" UserId="16436" Text="Say you get hired to build a company some software. The company wants the source code, but is ok with you reusing the source code in your other projects. What kind of term should be included in the contract to cover this? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Client hereby grants Developer a non-exclusive perpetual license to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; use and modify Source Code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is &quot;use and modify&quot; enough, or should the scope be broader, such as translate, copy, interpret, and compile?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Out of curiosity does things like this ever actually happen? I heard about this proposal through a friend of a friend because the company wanted complete ownership but didn't mind source code being reused. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23179" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9283" RevisionGUID="528c5a6a-6b5a-4942-8e61-2633752e4b63" CreationDate="2019-06-03T00:02:24.297" UserId="16436" Text="How would contract look for allowing dev to reuse source code in other projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23180" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9283" RevisionGUID="528c5a6a-6b5a-4942-8e61-2633752e4b63" CreationDate="2019-06-03T00:02:24.297" UserId="16436" Text="|contracts|legal|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23182" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9284" RevisionGUID="9dd8850d-74a4-4845-9e59-9bbef8577e1f" CreationDate="2019-06-03T15:44:39.953" UserId="22073" Text="This very much depends what you mean by &quot;hired&quot;. If you did this as an employee (which I assume you did not) then you should work out a real license which clearly states what you could and could not do with the code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you did the work as a freelancer take a look at https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/8085/how-to-combine-the-general-advantages-of-work-for-hire-and-retain-my-right-for. I guess your situation is somewhat similar and you should actually have the intellectual property rights. Which in turn means that you should give your client a license.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your question is really only about the wording of that one sentence and you are giving up code ownership to the client you should be doing fine with just &quot;use and modify&quot;. You may want to include something about ownership of derivative work in this case since you clearly don't want your client to own all code you derive from the current work, right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also recommend to read some of the popular licenses like e.g. the [Apache 2.0 license](https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23183" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9285" RevisionGUID="e76d435c-c240-4928-8d6d-ef5e6ac9d830" CreationDate="2019-06-06T17:58:41.033" UserId="5696" Text="I have been looking for something like that but I couldn't find anything.&lt;br&gt; Below are details of what I am looking for and what I have tried so far.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This question is not a duplicate of https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/6551/finding-talent-agents-for-software-developers - see below.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Problem&#xD;&#xA;-&#xD;&#xA;This is the situation I'm in right now:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I get a lot of job offers on LinkedIn, Stack Overflow, Twitter and by email.&#xD;&#xA;- I don't have time to read all of them, not to mention responding.&#xD;&#xA;- Most don't quote rates so I immediately disregard them as too time consuming to evaluate.&#xD;&#xA;- I probably miss a lot of good opportunities that way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Wanted solution&#xD;&#xA;-&#xD;&#xA;I would like to have someone who:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Reads all the offers I get.&#xD;&#xA;- Responds to all of them to see if they are a good fit.&#xD;&#xA;- Negotiates good terms.&#xD;&#xA;- Gets a commission for all my future earnings.&#xD;&#xA;- Has a financial incentive to renegotiate and get better jobs for me.&#xD;&#xA;- Represents me in all negotiations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nice to have&#xD;&#xA;-&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Invoicing and other paperwork.&#xD;&#xA;- Tracking of my calendar to start new project after old ones end.&#xD;&#xA;- Terminating old contracts if there are new ones on better terms.&#xD;&#xA;- Legal advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Non-goals&#xD;&#xA;-&#xD;&#xA;I am specifically not interested in:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Looking for clients for me.&#xD;&#xA;- An agency that has clients and hires me to do the job.&#xD;&#xA;- Any solution where it is a secret how much the client is paying.&#xD;&#xA;- Any solution that is just for freelance contracting (I have some offers for full-time jobs in big corpo who offer real employment contracts and those should not be out of scope)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I found so far&#xD;&#xA;-&#xD;&#xA;So far I found services like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Toptal&#xD;&#xA;- CodementorX&#xD;&#xA;- Upwork&#xD;&#xA;- X-Team&#xD;&#xA;- Gun.io&#xD;&#xA;- 10x Management&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All of those services looking at their website advertise as a place to hire good developers. This is not what I want. I am looking for services whose only clients are developers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking at other online resources I found:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- [Is there such a thing as a talent agent/agency for software engineers?](https://www.quora.com/Is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-talent-agent-agency-for-software-engineers) on Quora&#xD;&#xA;- [Why talent agents for engineers don’t exist](http://blog.alinelerner.com/why-talent-agents-for-engineers-dont-exist/) on Aline Lerner's Blog&#xD;&#xA;- [Finding talent agents for software developers](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/6551/finding-talent-agents-for-software-developers) on Stack Exchange&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;with quotes like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- &quot;Great programmers don't need talent agents&quot;&#xD;&#xA;- &quot;Agents make sense when it’s hard to find a job&quot;&#xD;&#xA;- &quot;Ultimately, there's really nothing like leveraging your own network.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I think it's important to stress out that it's not about agents to find a job for someone who doesn't have a job or cannot find a job, but to handle the situation of too many job offers to handle and evaluate, and that indeed I would like to leverage my own network but the problem is that I don't have time to discuss all of the offers that I get from my network.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The 10x Management seemed closest to that so far when I read all the news about them in Network World, Valleywag, VentureBeat, The New Yorker, Bloomberg and an impressive number of other places, but their website starts with:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;HIRE THE BEST ON-DEMAND TECH TALENT&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;We've vetted the greatest freelance&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;tech talent, so you don’t have to.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All of it is directed to clients looking for talent, with only a small &quot;Become A 10xer&quot; button at the end and it seems that their main focus is on finding clients for their developers instead of representing their clients in negotiations with potential employers and going through job offers that the developers already have. I may be wrong about it but this is the impression I got so far.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23184" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9285" RevisionGUID="e76d435c-c240-4928-8d6d-ef5e6ac9d830" CreationDate="2019-06-06T17:58:41.033" UserId="5696" Text="Is there any service to outsource reading job offers I get and negotiating with potential employers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23185" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9285" RevisionGUID="e76d435c-c240-4928-8d6d-ef5e6ac9d830" CreationDate="2019-06-06T17:58:41.033" UserId="5696" Text="|contracts|negotiation|programmer|evaluating-clients|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23186" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9260" RevisionGUID="45be3a81-74cd-4e27-b6e9-e28ad88c1fce" CreationDate="2019-06-08T03:00:45.383" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1137192713160290304" />
  <row Id="23187" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7822" RevisionGUID="9e2c1b4f-b340-497f-9cb3-1f9559cb904d" CreationDate="2019-06-09T18:00:55.357" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1137781635112456193" />
  <row Id="23188" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9286" RevisionGUID="6fcc6bae-d8d9-4fd7-9794-a2ce8e81398d" CreationDate="2019-06-11T22:05:34.753" UserId="22120" Text="Are assets (images, icons, videos,logos, etc) included in the final budget or they are charge later when the developer has to buy them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And also WHO chooses them? are they chosen by the developer taking into account the design needs of the website? he could make a selection of options first and then later the client could choose what he wants.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or are they chosen directly by the client and the developer uses what the client gave to him to create the website?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23189" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9286" RevisionGUID="6fcc6bae-d8d9-4fd7-9794-a2ce8e81398d" CreationDate="2019-06-11T22:05:34.753" UserId="22120" Text="How are assets (images, icons, videos,logos, etc) budgeted and who chooses them, the developer or the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23190" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9286" RevisionGUID="6fcc6bae-d8d9-4fd7-9794-a2ce8e81398d" CreationDate="2019-06-11T22:05:34.753" UserId="22120" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|design|webmasters|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23191" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9286" RevisionGUID="a4ba1870-24bd-4ef7-8746-82e5266db3d0" CreationDate="2019-06-12T00:07:45.840" UserId="22120" Comment="edited title" Text="How are images, icons, videos, logos, etc budgeted and who chooses them, the developer or the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23192" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9286" RevisionGUID="a4ba1870-24bd-4ef7-8746-82e5266db3d0" CreationDate="2019-06-12T00:07:45.840" UserId="22120" Comment="edited title" Text="Are images, icons, videos, logos, etc included in the final budget or they are charge later when the developer has to buy them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And also WHO chooses them? are they chosen by the developer taking into account the design needs of the website? he could make a selection of options first and then later the client could choose what he wants.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or are they chosen directly by the client and the developer uses what the client gave to him to create the website?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23193" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9287" RevisionGUID="47325d91-e462-4e0e-9cf4-89ca621571c9" CreationDate="2019-06-12T07:54:36.303" UserId="15202" Text="This will vary from client to client and will be based on their wishes, but can really be summed up as follows&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Client images**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client will provide their own images for use in the project. They will sometimes want control over various other aspects, including palette and copy. In this case, these images remain property of the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Client-specified stock images**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client will select certain stock images to use. You will need to negotiate and define who pays for these as part of your bid/contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Suggested images**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client will suggest images, and you will need to find appropriate images that meet their requirements. It is likely that you will need to pay for these and factor the cost into your bid/contract. If none are available from stock photo sites, you might need to hire a photographer/designer to produce them for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**No preference**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client gives no direction on what images to use. In this case, you will likely be absorbing the cost yourself and will need to factor this in as part of the bid/contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, there are many more possibilities, but this covers the common scenarios. You might also expect overlap between them, as well as different levels of control within a single project (eg they specify a main image but leave the rest to you).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With each situation, you will need to negotiate the image costs with the client, and factor them into your bid if they expect you to foot the bill." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23194" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9285" RevisionGUID="36bacce2-a8c1-4110-befd-d99576fcbe6f" CreationDate="2019-06-14T03:02:44.740" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1139367540738723842" />
  <row Id="23195" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9286" RevisionGUID="8acdc348-e3f1-4c38-b3c8-7e0a19abebbc" CreationDate="2019-06-14T12:15:53.820" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited." Text="Are images, icons, videos, logos, etc. included in the final budget or are they charged later when the developer has to buy them?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And also, *who* chooses them? Are they chosen by the developer, taking into account the design needs of the website? He/she could make a selection of options first and then later the client could choose what he/she wants.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or are they chosen directly by the client and the developer uses what the client gave to him/her to create the website?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23196" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9286" RevisionGUID="8acdc348-e3f1-4c38-b3c8-7e0a19abebbc" CreationDate="2019-06-14T12:15:53.820" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited." Text="How are images, icons, videos, logos, etc. budgeted, and who chooses them, the developer or the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23197" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9286" RevisionGUID="8acdc348-e3f1-4c38-b3c8-7e0a19abebbc" CreationDate="2019-06-14T12:15:53.820" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 15202 edit id of 683" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23198" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3651" RevisionGUID="a180c3ec-58c1-4060-9d95-6a62f08fee11" CreationDate="2019-06-14T15:00:59.930" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1139548295049748480" />
  <row Id="23199" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9288" RevisionGUID="1840035a-5627-4446-8017-0848dd1053f0" CreationDate="2019-06-15T01:30:31.683" UserId="22129" Text="I am pretty proficient with WordPress, I can make very good looking sites using heavily modified Themes, my camera and Photoshop.&#xA;I never thought my skills in website making could be worth a dime because it always have been a hobby to me, but I found out that people make good money by making WordPress sites. So I decided to try to sell my skills and make a website for someone, but I don't know anything about this world! So these are my questions:&#xA;When I've made the site, how can I &quot;give&quot; it to the person paying me? Have I to give them credentials and hosting account and stuff or I keep those and also must maintain their sites?&#xA;If they want &quot;dynamic&quot; content (think about a restaurant wanting to give informations about menu changes twice a month or something like this) and they are completely ignorant about computers, how can I maintain their site? How much can I charge for a site, considering that I can do visually appealing things whith good SEO and original reflex photographies (I take some think like 30 hours to make a nice site)?&#xA;I'm sorry if my questions are incorrect but I'm new to this site. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23200" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9288" RevisionGUID="1840035a-5627-4446-8017-0848dd1053f0" CreationDate="2019-06-15T01:30:31.683" UserId="22129" Text="Some guidance on how to start as a freelance Web Designer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23201" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9288" RevisionGUID="1840035a-5627-4446-8017-0848dd1053f0" CreationDate="2019-06-15T01:30:31.683" UserId="22129" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23202" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9288" RevisionGUID="fe22286a-365c-4103-811a-85e679b6cb4b" CreationDate="2019-06-15T11:41:16.297" UserId="61" Comment="split into paragraphs according to OP's intent" Text="I am pretty proficient with WordPress, I can make very good looking sites using heavily modified Themes, my camera and Photoshop.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I never thought my skills in website making could be worth a dime because it always have been a hobby to me, but I found out that people make good money by making WordPress sites. So I decided to try to sell my skills and make a website for someone, but I don't know anything about this world! So these are my questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I've made the site, how can I &quot;give&quot; it to the person paying me? Have I to give them credentials and hosting account and stuff or I keep those and also must maintain their sites?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they want &quot;dynamic&quot; content (think about a restaurant wanting to give information about menu changes twice a month or something like this) and they are completely ignorant about computers, how can I maintain their site? How much can I charge for a site, considering that I can do visually appealing things with good SEO and original reflex photographies (I take some think like 30 hours to make a nice site)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm sorry if my questions are incorrect but I'm new to this site. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23204" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9289" RevisionGUID="61f38e48-5d02-4a93-b7da-fa985869dad3" CreationDate="2019-06-17T15:39:30.023" UserDisplayName="user22145" Text="I'm looking into helping people with the basics of computing: basic excel, word , powerpoint, email, searching the web (Move onto more intermediate things as I grow in confidence and gain teaching skills). Self employed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm only talking initally one or two clients a few hours a week.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not being legal savvy I'm unsure of what the right approach is: my worst nightmare is I help someone with excel , they conicidentally get a virus,money disappears from a bank account, the bank refuses to refund - they then look to blame me to recover the money. Of course they could innocently think I've caused it too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope for some good sound advice or pointing in the right direction ." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23205" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9289" RevisionGUID="61f38e48-5d02-4a93-b7da-fa985869dad3" CreationDate="2019-06-17T15:39:30.023" UserDisplayName="user22145" Text="How to guard against being held responsible for loss/damages whilst helping someone with basic computing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23206" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9289" RevisionGUID="61f38e48-5d02-4a93-b7da-fa985869dad3" CreationDate="2019-06-17T15:39:30.023" UserDisplayName="user22145" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23207" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9290" RevisionGUID="03d05f6e-98db-447e-8ec4-1e620e0a7f95" CreationDate="2019-06-17T16:58:08.753" UserId="75" Text="It's going to come down to your cost-benefit analysis. If you're only doing a few clients, it likely won't be worth your time to get general liability insurance (or similar), which should cover you in case you do something wrong causing monetary loss.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The better option if you're worried about &quot;viruses&quot; would be to make sure they are completely disconnected from the Internet while you are in the vicinity, and not plug in anything to the computer - flash drives, keyboards, ANYTHING. Have your &quot;lessons&quot; on paper, and work through that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope you understand the kind of precautions you need to take if you don't have insurance. If you're not willing to get the proper insurance, it may be worthwhile working with another company that has insurance until you feel more confident in your field." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23208" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9291" RevisionGUID="0dfd2e80-2126-4849-ba69-5d878fe5d389" CreationDate="2019-06-18T13:02:28.867" UserId="22146" Text="Hello I have a small business that makes bespoke products for a very niche market. My expertise is broadly in making/coding. I get a lot of inquiries from people who want me to realise a particular idea of theirs. Often it's difficult to quote because it's not an area I'm very familiar with, and I'm going to have to do some research first, so that at least I understand the parameters of what I'm dealing with. This can take me a day or two. When I feel confident I can do the commission then I give a quote. But then the potential client is free to change their mind (they don't want it after all, or they've had another idea) and no business results. Should I just accept that the research time is a cost of doing business, or is there a way of factoring it in so I don't waste money?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23209" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9291" RevisionGUID="0dfd2e80-2126-4849-ba69-5d878fe5d389" CreationDate="2019-06-18T13:02:28.867" UserId="22146" Text="How to price speculative enquiries" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23210" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9291" RevisionGUID="0dfd2e80-2126-4849-ba69-5d878fe5d389" CreationDate="2019-06-18T13:02:28.867" UserId="22146" Text="|contracts|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23214" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9293" RevisionGUID="8c8719ce-ffe5-4937-83dc-ec24de7042d6" CreationDate="2019-06-18T17:34:01.590" UserId="22149" Text="Around half a year ago, I performed a freelancing service for a client worth just a few hundred dollars. I did it as an individual and he paid me as a company, but I planned(and told him about it) on registering UK LTD and billing him as a company(he needs a proper bill/invoice for his accounting).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now after some research, I am not sure if I can just open a new company and give him a proper bill for something he already paid 6months ago(the company wasn't formed yet). Can I? If not, what other options do I have? Can I bill him as an individual, say by giving him backdated invoice from hubstaff?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23215" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9293" RevisionGUID="8c8719ce-ffe5-4937-83dc-ec24de7042d6" CreationDate="2019-06-18T17:34:01.590" UserId="22149" Text="How to give client a bill for service performend half a year ago?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23216" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9293" RevisionGUID="8c8719ce-ffe5-4937-83dc-ec24de7042d6" CreationDate="2019-06-18T17:34:01.590" UserId="22149" Text="|billing|accounting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23217" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9294" RevisionGUID="3023b468-06a5-497d-8a9f-8d3f05cca943" CreationDate="2019-06-19T04:16:27.433" UserId="708" Text="Most often, evaluating something for a bid is a **loss-leader**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, you **can** often quantify things a bit before digging in... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;From what I gather based upon our cursory conversation, projects of that nature range from $xxx to $xxxxx. If that something you are willing to explore I can evaluate the project specifically and determine a quote based upon your needs.&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;Here's a similar project that was in the $xxxx range. While that projects will vary from yours, if the general price range is what you would consider acceptable I can evaluate your project specifically and determine a quote based upon your needs.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I find these simple statements tend to deter the &quot;looky-loos&quot; if they aren't willing to spend the money necessary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And you are *always* free to add $x to any bid/quote to cover research time. Granted, if you don't get the project you won't get that return, but when you *do* get project, you recoup some of that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23218" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9291" RevisionGUID="5a424251-d38d-4a54-91c9-bc29e921915d" CreationDate="2019-06-20T12:00:57.890" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1141677315216281601" />
  <row Id="23223" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9281" RevisionGUID="71b9d57f-6469-4be0-be0e-c89a97083afd" CreationDate="2019-06-21T03:00:39.407" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1141903730138390528" />
  <row Id="23225" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9297" RevisionGUID="d46a1666-1d61-4bf4-8dfe-7cc0b444e33a" CreationDate="2019-06-21T09:20:06.687" UserId="2204" Text="This is something that often happens in my business (App development), too. I offer the detail analyse as a service the customer has to pay for. That means I analyze and describe what he really wants. Based on this description I give my offer and he can use the same description to go to somebody else and ask for a quote. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way has a big advantage for both parts: Both sides know very detailed in advance what they are going to expect from the job. If in the realisation we see something necessary that was not part of the offer the customer has to pay for it (or at least we negociate, depending on the issue). Other companies will have the same problem so it is good to make one precise description. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually if somebody is prepared to pay for the evaluation he is interested to work with you, if not he is probably not so much interested. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a rule of thumb I make everything that takes 1 - 2 hours to make an offer for free, if it is something like a day I quote the day for the analyze. Sometimes I have projects taking two weeks to make a detailed analyze and the customer pays for it. It is still better for him as he knows in advance what is possible and what not and he does not have this capability himself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was contacted by several customers after they realized a project with somebody else who did not do this exact description and they were very upset because they had to pay a lot of extras. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23226" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9298" RevisionGUID="6d3f1445-1a39-4661-9501-63af94872c75" CreationDate="2019-06-21T09:26:21.570" UserId="2204" Text="I am from Germany but I expect the rules are similar in UK. If you want to know it for sure you should ask a tax consultant. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Germany you have to mention the delivery date on the invoice and the customer has to consider this as well. You can not send an invoice as a LTD that did not exist at that time. If you do it differently you might face problems in an investigation because the fake invoice of today would need to have a real payment. If authorities would care, I do not know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This means to my knowledge the only solution is that you send him a private invoice from the date you did the job with no VAT, etc. He can take it into his bookkeeping to balance the costs but not deduct the VAT of course. You have to declare the income as indepently earned income in your tax report. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23227" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9299" RevisionGUID="9f2796bb-e202-4421-aef8-57ff80518194" CreationDate="2019-06-21T09:36:18.453" UserId="2204" Text="There is a risk in being self employed and this is one of the biggest differences I see. If you are employed, you get your money and if something goes wrong your employer pays. If you are self employed and you do something wrong you have to pay for that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This risk should be covered in your pricing and as mentioned by Canadian Luke it is good to have an insurance for that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway you only have to pay for the damage by the virus if you did something wrong, but it can be something wrong in guiding them. The good thing with insurances is that they will sort that out for you. If you have no insurance and somebody is angry and wants to go to court you have to find a lawyer etc. and it is a difficult situation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I started being self employed by putting a sentence in the contract that I do my work without being liable for damage or only until a certain limit, but this sentence turns out to be maybe not valid. You can still write it and hope everything works well, but it is a risk. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23228" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9300" RevisionGUID="57fc319b-d8dd-40b5-a9f8-a3a8f3f29a49" CreationDate="2019-06-21T09:41:08.487" UserId="2204" Text="Nearly everything is possible in contracts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can have your hosting and give them (limited access) credentials or you can put the site on the customers hosting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can ask for a one time fee or make a contract for maintaining and updating the site. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have to find your price which heavily depends on the region and job (so google for that) and then usually the price is calculated on the time you expect to need. You might even make a contract where they pay you per hour. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you just start this, you should read about responsibilities as contractor so that you are not surprised if something happens. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23229" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9301" RevisionGUID="bbc7fdba-b4fa-4662-9bb6-ec3850b3525a" CreationDate="2019-06-21T21:31:12.673" UserId="21435" Text="&gt; Not being legal savvy I'm unsure of what the right approach is&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're self employed, and if this is work performed as part of your self employment, then get yourself Professional Liability Insurance and General Liability Insurance, or whatever the equivalents are in your country." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23230" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9301" RevisionGUID="04380cc1-2f3f-4479-855b-67ed80c8dd4c" CreationDate="2019-06-21T21:36:34.380" UserId="21435" Comment="added 171 characters in body" Text="&gt; Not being legal savvy I'm unsure of what the right approach is&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're self employed, and if this is work performed as part of your self employment, then get yourself Professional Liability Insurance and General Liability Insurance, or whatever the equivalents are in your country.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No ifs, ands, or buts. If you want to work for yourself and you want to make sure you are protected, then you MUST get the proper insurance. Not doing so is foolhardy." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23231" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3239" RevisionGUID="b776de4c-2a81-44b3-9366-1080afb128af" CreationDate="2019-06-22T03:01:39.900" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1142266371771904010" />
  <row Id="23235" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9255" RevisionGUID="c4bb086b-507d-43df-b606-5b9d7c2acff4" CreationDate="2019-06-23T10:02:45.370" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23236" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9281" RevisionGUID="1d73a5ab-5a3f-4272-a7be-d75bbf7ec978" CreationDate="2019-06-23T11:11:54.943" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited (e.g. ref. &lt;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/so-called#Adjective&gt;). Removed meta information (this belongs in comments)." Text="I want to establish a so-called joint practice/society/network, in which several freelancers and self-employed people, who are working in one field of interest, are presented together and potentially realise projects together (but they do not need to). This shall, however, not be some legal form of organisation, i.e. every person is responsible for his and her own bills and we do not need to have a common room.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Assumed benefits**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those who seek support in this field of interest can turn to one site and overlook the support given by these people - alone or together.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those who seek support can inquire the support they need and the people in this network can coordinate themselves: Who can offer the support needed? Is a partnership more effective and efficient?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People in the society can focus on and train their key competencies and skills rather than being generalists and need to catch up on other (tangent) topics.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cooperating can have more impact than working alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My idea of establishing the joint practice/society/network**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every person that is interested in joining has the opportunity to do so - as long as some criteria are met (subject/topic/field of interest, competencies, skills, and compatibility).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My question**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a sensitive way to offer the opportunity to every person in general that is active in this field of work, but at the same time to reject the option for one person eventually? With this in mind, how to be and appear cooperative and inclusive?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to begin with involving the people I am working with and the people I know go well together.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe you once had a similar situation. I would be interested in how you solved this.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23237" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9281" RevisionGUID="1d73a5ab-5a3f-4272-a7be-d75bbf7ec978" CreationDate="2019-06-23T11:11:54.943" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited (e.g. ref. &lt;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/so-called#Adjective&gt;). Removed meta information (this belongs in comments)." Text="How do I establish a network without becoming an &quot;exclusive club&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23238" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9281" RevisionGUID="1d73a5ab-5a3f-4272-a7be-d75bbf7ec978" CreationDate="2019-06-23T11:11:54.943" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 61, 1018 edit id of 685" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23239" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9303" RevisionGUID="d1a7722c-a168-42de-887a-438a28df7160" CreationDate="2019-06-23T13:09:11.033" UserId="22170" Text="I started freelancing for a UK client, myself being based in the Czech Republic, about a year ago. I stopped working for them in April, after not having been paid for five months. This is specialized software consulting and the sum is substantial. My contract says I will not be paid 'if no services are provided'. They have agreed to pay for December, but for January-April they claim no services were provided, but refuse to go into detail. I can prove through communications that I provided services as requested during that time, received positive feedback, and was promised full compensation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The CEO, who I reported to, is a pathological liar, and made up lies about family tragedy to distract me when I used to ask for payment. Now he is asking that I provide an account of each of the 22 days of each month for him to consider payment. I cannot do this honestly, because this is months ago, I have been locked out of systems, and when I was paid before, no such reporting was required. I hired a solicitor locally to help me, but he hasn't made any progress (or to be precise, there has been progress in the clients demands getting more and more impossible to meet), and sees the clients' &quot;show me what you did every day and I might consider payment&quot; as the options we have (he has not replied to me regarding what his strategy is, or what he is willing to do without it incurring extra cost, but it seems to be referring to my contract, but not referencing law or the supporting materials I have). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client cannot show any evidence that I provided unsatisfactory services or none at all (and he has not even specified which it is) from the time before I stopped working there, only stuff that he is now making up to avoid payment. I feel like I might have hired this solicitor out of desperation and without researching things enough by myself, and without many options where I am located. What does this look like to more experienced freelancers, and what would be the resources and options I should be looking into at this stage?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23240" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9303" RevisionGUID="d1a7722c-a168-42de-887a-438a28df7160" CreationDate="2019-06-23T13:09:11.033" UserId="22170" Text="EU freelancer, UK client non-paying and full of it" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23241" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9303" RevisionGUID="d1a7722c-a168-42de-887a-438a28df7160" CreationDate="2019-06-23T13:09:11.033" UserId="22170" Text="|payments|invoices|consulting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23242" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9304" RevisionGUID="d9f0cf10-4063-4f21-8215-f22427e32b3f" CreationDate="2019-06-23T13:50:55.173" UserId="22171" Text="You do need Professional Indemnity Insurance.&#xD;&#xA;For computing, I would NEVER do tuition on THEIR machines. You need an (old, second hand machine?) with the programs to be used installed. You must have a good firewall and anti-virus on it, and all programs kept up to date.&#xD;&#xA;You also need to have a complete back up by&#xD;&#xA;a professional restore system which keeps various copies of your entire computer, so you can go back before the time any virus etc got on your machine.&#xD;&#xA;'arc' files  weekly/ monthly on external hard drive for recovery e.g. Paragon-software GmbH  Hard disk Manager - [ disclosure I have used this for many years and I teach computing as a volunteer [ unpaid tutor]  so have same problems as you.]&#xD;&#xA;You act as follows:&#xD;&#xA;1) Customer/client gets help as demonstration on your machine.&#xD;&#xA; 2) You allow them to practise on your machine during classes.&#xD;&#xA; 3) You do work on basis that you have no liability fro any action by them on their own equipment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4 YOU NEVER demonstrate on their equipment. &#xD;&#xA;5 Their internet safety is their responsibility but you must demonstrate how to do it.&#xD;&#xA;6 You can use and recommend to them anti-virus software, antu-add software, anti background script software.E.g I use anti-virus frommy ISP supplier, i use on all browsers uBlock (anti advert), NoScript (allows you to set what is displayed in browsers).&#xD;&#xA;7 Also important teach them never to click on a QR Code, but always type into browser the URL of sites they want to visit. Likewise avoid 'clicking' on adverts or pop ups.&#xD;&#xA;I trust this helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23243" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9305" RevisionGUID="480ccc74-2bba-499c-ae7d-f155e16ddb5d" CreationDate="2019-06-23T14:01:25.727" UserId="22171" Text="If you have an unpaid invoice under GBP £5000, then you can use the UK courts 'small claims services' It will cost money , but a refusal to pay after such a claim will be recorded at Companies House in UK and reflect on their annual public reports. Note you need advice on this. I threatened many years ago to use this against a company and it brought payment somewhat rapidly thereafter. I then changed to make sure I never issued any invoice for a sum above GBP £5,000.00  Putting in my terms that all amounts must be paid fortnightly. &quot;within 15 days of invoice date&quot;&#xD;&#xA;You need legal advice on this so do get it before using. There may be some on small debts services site : https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money.&#xD;&#xA;I hope this helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23244" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9306" RevisionGUID="8d305e12-8436-4daf-8965-b45cc7aa5c84" CreationDate="2019-06-23T19:15:35.530" UserId="2204" Text="I feel with you as I had this once fortunately with a lower sum. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a European Enforcement Order to fulfil cross-border claims: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_european_enforcement_order-54-en.do?init=true&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I had the case I asked a German lawyer for advice and he told me for the amount ( &lt; 5000k) it was not worth to do it as the costs would be higher than the potential to gain anything, but the lawyer told me a good way to put pressure is instead of going to court for the money I should go to court for fraud. This has the target to make the person you are in contact with directly responsible and he can go personally to jail or pay personally a certain sum. When I told my contact that after legal advice I was going to do this if he would not pay within a week he was suddenly prepaired to discuss. I did not get the full amount but at least a part. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think both ways are possible but as eionmac pointed out companies are more open if thes have a real judicial case on the table. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A good contact is also the chamber of commerce who supports companies who have problems in international trade. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23245" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9307" RevisionGUID="43c3c27b-717a-49d1-be82-8a05c0b4a761" CreationDate="2019-06-24T14:03:40.493" UserId="22176" Text="I am a UK-based self-employed consultant, not registed for VAT&#xD;&#xA;An EU-based client wants EU VAT number otherwise they won't pay&#xD;&#xA;If I register for the number, is it just a paperwork hassle, or do I have any other duties? &#xD;&#xA;Can I de-register later?&#xD;&#xA;It's only for this one contract and I do not intend do use it - no VAT is charged on my services" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23246" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9307" RevisionGUID="43c3c27b-717a-49d1-be82-8a05c0b4a761" CreationDate="2019-06-24T14:03:40.493" UserId="22176" Text="UK self-employed, not VAT payee, EU client wants EU VAT number" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23247" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9307" RevisionGUID="43c3c27b-717a-49d1-be82-8a05c0b4a761" CreationDate="2019-06-24T14:03:40.493" UserId="22176" Text="|eu|hmrc|vat|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23248" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9308" RevisionGUID="f81afe15-e09e-422c-9718-4aa691c8f0a7" CreationDate="2019-06-24T19:30:57.200" UserId="22180" Text="I delivered software which failed to meet the client's specifications. I followed 90% of the specs, but not 100%. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client is asking for a partial refund, for the features which were not delivered. He cites our contract which says &quot;the software must be delivered in accordance with the specifications.&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is the client entitled to a refund? How much of a refund?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What happens if I don't give him a refund?  Our contract says disputes will be resolved through arbitration. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23249" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9308" RevisionGUID="f81afe15-e09e-422c-9718-4aa691c8f0a7" CreationDate="2019-06-24T19:30:57.200" UserId="22180" Text="Can client demand a refund for software that fails specifications?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23250" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9308" RevisionGUID="f81afe15-e09e-422c-9718-4aa691c8f0a7" CreationDate="2019-06-24T19:30:57.200" UserId="22180" Text="|contracts|legal|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23251" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9309" RevisionGUID="73cdb5d9-dfa8-47ce-a590-384e49091c74" CreationDate="2019-06-24T20:49:07.210" UserId="21416" Text="Obviously, the following is not legal advise, but just some general advise from a seasoned freelancer / consultant:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It looks like your client is right in demanding a partial refund, given that you promised to deliver in accordance with the specifications. If you don't give them a refund, they can send you an arbitration demand and they'll basically sue you, just not in court, but in private arbitration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My recommendation in such cases is to talk to the client and try to be as accommodating as possible -- perhaps there is a way you can satisfy the remaining 10% or perhaps you can reach some other agreement with the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd highly recommend avoiding litigation. If you can't make it right for the client, then I'd suggest giving them a refund." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23252" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9283" RevisionGUID="56cf18ec-1b65-4ed6-acb3-0175a36dddad" CreationDate="2019-06-26T00:26:58.923" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited." Text="Say you get hired to build a company some software. The company wants the source code, but it is OK with you reusing the source code in your other projects. What kind of terms should be included in the contract to cover this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Client hereby grants Developer a non-exclusive perpetual license to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; use and modify Source Code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is &quot;use and modify&quot; enough, or should the scope be broader, such as translate, copy, interpret, and compile?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Out of curiosity, does things like this ever actually happen? I heard about this proposal through a friend of a friend, because the company wanted complete ownership, but it didn't mind source code being reused.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23253" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9283" RevisionGUID="56cf18ec-1b65-4ed6-acb3-0175a36dddad" CreationDate="2019-06-26T00:26:58.923" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited." Text="How would a contract look like for allowing developers to reuse source code in other projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23254" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9283" RevisionGUID="56cf18ec-1b65-4ed6-acb3-0175a36dddad" CreationDate="2019-06-26T00:26:58.923" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 1018, 16436 edit id of 684" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23261" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9312" RevisionGUID="f63ec8a9-afe1-4efb-9623-c0fc3565f0c6" CreationDate="2019-06-27T16:25:08.063" UserId="22197" Text="A group of friends are going to create a non-resident LLC in the USA. My question is how can we be paid as company founders?&#xD;&#xA;Would be possible to be registered as self-employed in our respective countries and send invoices to our own company? Will that be fine?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23262" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9312" RevisionGUID="f63ec8a9-afe1-4efb-9623-c0fc3565f0c6" CreationDate="2019-06-27T16:25:08.063" UserId="22197" Text="How can I be paid as founder of a LLC?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23263" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9312" RevisionGUID="f63ec8a9-afe1-4efb-9623-c0fc3565f0c6" CreationDate="2019-06-27T16:25:08.063" UserId="22197" Text="|usa|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23271" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9281" RevisionGUID="6a942751-5793-48fc-ab03-cd99fbe52cb2" CreationDate="2019-06-29T06:21:45.293" UserId="22069" Comment="deleted 1 character in body; edited title" Text="I want to establish a so-called joint practice/society/network, in which several freelancers and self-employed people, who are working in one field of interest, are presented together and potentially realise projects together (but they do not need to). This shall, however, not be some legal form of organisation, i.e. every person is responsible for his and her own bills and we do not need to have a common room.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Assumed benefits**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those who seek support in this field of interest can turn to one site and overlook the support given by these people - alone or together.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those who seek support can inquire the support they need and the people in this network can coordinate themselves: Who can offer the support needed? Is a partnership more effective and efficient?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People in the society can focus on and train their key competencies and skills rather than being generalists and need to catch up on other (tangent) topics.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cooperating can have more impact than working alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My idea of establishing the joint practice/society/network**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every person that is interested in joining has the opportunity to do so - as long as some criteria are met (subject/topic/field of interest, competencies, skills, and compatibility).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My question**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a sensible way to offer the opportunity to every person in general that is active in this field of work, but at the same time to reject the option for one person eventually? With this in mind, how to be and appear cooperative and inclusive?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to begin with involving the people I am working with and the people I know go well together.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe you once had a similar situation. I would be interested in how you solved this.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23272" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9281" RevisionGUID="6a942751-5793-48fc-ab03-cd99fbe52cb2" CreationDate="2019-06-29T06:21:45.293" UserId="22069" Comment="deleted 1 character in body; edited title" Text="How do I establish a network becoming more a community not an &quot;exclusive club&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23273" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9286" RevisionGUID="77a5ff8d-3106-43cf-a0e5-d04412d779e5" CreationDate="2019-06-30T03:00:01.727" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1145165063239741440" />
  <row Id="23279" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6556" RevisionGUID="0f007293-b064-45a4-8515-1156236cac36" CreationDate="2019-06-30T21:00:34.373" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1145436990751608836" />
  <row Id="23280" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="8085" RevisionGUID="4cf4c8af-6dbe-48d9-8e59-bd84e1ab88a6" CreationDate="2019-07-01T09:02:45.317" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23281" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9317" RevisionGUID="6ab1a93e-f43b-439a-9e96-fe39eb6f9207" CreationDate="2019-07-02T20:47:51.183" UserId="22223" Text="As per the E Signature Act 2000, it states that The ESIGN Act is a federal law passed in 2000 that grants legal recognition to electronic signatures and records if all parties to a contract choose to use electronic documents and to sign them electronically. No contract, signature, or record shall be denied legal effect solely because it is in electronic form.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being said, you may send them a fillable PDF document that allows them to type in their name and be accepted as a valid Electronic signature. There are many programs, such as adobe that can create a document to include a digital signature that would suffice and be considered as valid. Feel free to google the act further or electronic signatures and programs used to create documents for them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23282" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9317" RevisionGUID="17efd977-a89c-4bf2-8120-e43acaaad426" CreationDate="2019-07-02T20:55:26.630" UserId="22223" Comment="added 161 characters in body" Text="As per the E Signature Act 2000, it states that The ESIGN Act is a federal law passed in 2000 that grants legal recognition to electronic signatures and records if all parties to a contract choose to use electronic documents and to sign them electronically. No contract, signature, or record shall be denied legal effect solely because it is in electronic form. In addition, there is also the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA, 1999) which I haven't looked into personally but assume it's in relation to Esign act.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being said, you may send them a fillable PDF document that allows them to type in their name and be accepted as a valid Electronic signature. There are many programs, such as adobe that can create a document to include a digital signature that would suffice and be considered as valid. Feel free to google the act further or electronic signatures and programs used to create documents for them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23283" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="9307" RevisionGUID="b0459667-79b8-4fd2-b2ab-d43bc72656a9" CreationDate="2019-07-04T08:00:29.810" UserId="15202" Comment="edited tags" Text="|uk|eu|hmrc|vat|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23288" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="7998" RevisionGUID="4f230667-a7f5-49e5-9e42-b63ecb5b0a29" CreationDate="2019-07-04T13:26:02.977" UserId="21022" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:21022,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;KJO&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="23289" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9318" RevisionGUID="89bf86c5-9db1-4267-a72c-170b4a86ccef" CreationDate="2019-07-04T13:48:21.797" UserId="22230" Text="A brief background on myself: I am a database developer that does freelance work for multiple companies. I generally manage data for these companies for large projects -- primarily surveys in mining regions in Africa and Asia.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently, I was asked if I could develop some surveys for a company. The surveys would primarily be done face-to-face but one survey will need to be either mailed out to area residents (mail list) or done by phone (phone list).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've never been responsible for estimating the costs of a mail survey before (the survey will be done in Canada). The cost to mail each survey will be $0.92 and printing costs are estimated at $0.25. I also said that a $500.00 fund should be set aside for costs such as packaging the mail, delivering them to the post office, and scanning the returned mail.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is, does anyone with experience doing mail-out surveys think I have forgotten anything? I simply multiplied the mail &amp; printing costs by the number of surveys (1,900) and added the $500.00 estimate. The $0.92 includes return postage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I plan to mail out a follow-up letter for each recipient that doesn't respond? This would probably help with our response rates which are important to improve the validity of the survey. I would like to get about 400 surveys returned and I'm not sure if sending out 1,900 immediately would be too much  (or too little), I came up with this number through my research on survey response rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please don't feel like you have to go into a ton of detail on this. I just wanted to make sure that I'm roughly on the right track. I understand the $500 for costs might be low and should probably be doubled - the scanning should only be ~500 surveys max as response rates likely wont be high.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks so much for your input&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Joe" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23290" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9318" RevisionGUID="89bf86c5-9db1-4267-a72c-170b4a86ccef" CreationDate="2019-07-04T13:48:21.797" UserId="22230" Text="How to estimate project costs - Mail (Postal) survey?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23291" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9318" RevisionGUID="89bf86c5-9db1-4267-a72c-170b4a86ccef" CreationDate="2019-07-04T13:48:21.797" UserId="22230" Text="|estimation|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23292" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9319" RevisionGUID="ca8dbdb9-f004-4717-acd1-d148add0a8d8" CreationDate="2019-07-04T14:07:28.573" UserId="15202" Text="This is something I've done myself...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, make sure you've got &quot;letter stuffing&quot; as part of the costs. Some places are happy to print, but won't stuff envelopes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, allow tranches of surveys to be sent. Relieving the pressure on your print/send service will make things cheaper and more accurate, as well as allowing you to cut short if you reach the required response count from a given area. Split your tranches across all areas to keep a good sample.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example: Group recipients into areas. Assign numbers 1-5 at random within the groups. These are your tranches. You might hit the response level required by tranche 3, so you can cancel tranche 5 (4 will likely be in production already). If you think you won't hit the response count, you can bake a reminder into the sequence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third, interpreting scanned responses still takes time. Will you be using data entry people or software? Budget accordingly to allow for exceptions in software. Is the response staying in-country? Do you have people there to do the scanning? Have you allowed for taxes, etc?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23293" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9319" RevisionGUID="89df94f3-32b9-4177-a200-204e9ff00091" CreationDate="2019-07-04T14:18:32.137" UserId="15202" Comment="added 49 characters in body" Text="This is something I've done myself...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, make sure you've got &quot;letter stuffing&quot; as part of the costs. Some places are happy to print, but won't stuff envelopes. I managed around 4/minute at peak stuffing rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, allow tranches of surveys to be sent. Relieving the pressure on your print/send service will make things cheaper and more accurate, as well as allowing you to cut short if you reach the required response count from a given area. Split your tranches across all areas to keep a good sample.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example: Group recipients into areas. Assign numbers 1-5 at random within the groups. These are your tranches. You might hit the response level required by tranche 3, so you can cancel tranche 5 (4 will likely be in production already). If you think you won't hit the response count, you can bake a reminder into the sequence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third, interpreting scanned responses still takes time. Will you be using data entry people or software? Budget accordingly to allow for exceptions in software. Is the response staying in-country? Do you have people there to do the scanning? Have you allowed for taxes, etc?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23298" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9318" RevisionGUID="eeb79066-9b69-4331-b7e7-9e80ab4e52b9" CreationDate="2019-07-05T21:00:25.553" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1147248893132005378" />
  <row Id="23299" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="7998" RevisionGUID="238ac5fa-7d1a-4f9c-a845-a2377b124599" CreationDate="2019-07-05T22:03:53.923" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="23312" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9324" RevisionGUID="e6d22a25-001f-447b-b1fb-71ae212d3721" CreationDate="2019-07-09T04:55:08.243" UserId="22252" Text="I'm a US contractor that typically does software development work for  companies here in the United States. I was recently contacted by a foreign client who wants some software written. Typically I negotiate a contract and payment via email and then use email to exchange signatures on the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Are there any precautions or extra steps I need to take when working with a foreign client?*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23313" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9324" RevisionGUID="e6d22a25-001f-447b-b1fb-71ae212d3721" CreationDate="2019-07-09T04:55:08.243" UserId="22252" Text="Doing contract work for a foreign client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23314" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9324" RevisionGUID="e6d22a25-001f-447b-b1fb-71ae212d3721" CreationDate="2019-07-09T04:55:08.243" UserId="22252" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23315" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9325" RevisionGUID="4edc0a3c-52a9-45ad-b268-df933445925d" CreationDate="2019-07-09T08:19:13.717" UserId="708" Text="Avenues for collection on delinquent accounts across countries are, frankly, either impossible or a nightmare. Foreign clients can easily not pay anything and there's little you can do about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I know? You guessed it. I had a UK based client that I had difficulty collecting final payment from. And the UK has some better laws regarding B2B payment failure. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With some some countries, there is nothing you can do if they refuse to pay other than to hire some B2B international collection agency and cross your fingers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I generally refuse all non-US clients for these reasons." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23316" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9325" RevisionGUID="6fe4c02f-3571-4653-864f-1f908b9a0d78" CreationDate="2019-07-09T10:38:25.940" UserId="708" Comment="added 46 characters in body" Text="Avenues for collection on delinquent accounts across countries are, frankly, either impossible or a nightmare. Foreign clients can easily not pay anything and there's little you can do about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I know? You guessed it. I had a UK based client that I had difficulty collecting final payment from. And the UK has some better laws regarding B2B payment failure. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With some some countries, there is nothing you can do if they refuse to pay other than to hire some B2B international collection agency and cross your fingers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I generally refuse all non-US clients, or demand full payment up front if possible, for these reasons." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23325" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7945" RevisionGUID="e5fab4ae-2092-44e0-8727-211fefe2bbbe" CreationDate="2019-07-10T22:00:12.577" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 4 characters in body" Text="I'd simply state...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;No. That's not what our contract covers. Our contract covers *software* maintenance as related to the application I've created for you. Nothing more. Our contract does NOT relate to physical issues with your internet connection. You will need to contact your internet service provider if you are having trouble. They are responsible for maintenance of your internet equipment and connection.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key words in the contract are **SOFTWARE functionality**. An Internet connection is NOT &quot;software functionality&quot; related to your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know why you use the phrase &quot;press charges&quot; -- perhaps in your location there's some criminal infraction here?? In the US it's merely a *contracts* issue and *civil* in nature. The police will **not** get involved in such matters. There are no &quot;charges&quot; to &quot;press&quot;. Worst case scenario is a civil lawsuit could be filed -- but that's typically a *very* hollow *threat* by most and often never pursued.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I often have to explain to clients that merely because I'm in charge of their hosting renewals and plan I am **not** their IT guy and am not repressible to assist with IT related issues. They need to hire an IT professional if that's what is needed. I **won't** help them with a Windows reinstallation or configuring Outlook or whatever." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23333" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9329" RevisionGUID="fde2e26e-b436-45fd-b8c2-5d99c5cda09f" CreationDate="2019-07-12T08:12:38.317" UserId="10464" Text="It would look like a bad deal. You're basically saying that your friend believes the code has great value but that he's not being paid what it's really worth so even tho he's selling the code outright he needs some of it back to try and milk it for what it's really worth later on. That doesn't make sense. He should either ask for the right price or only license something narrow like &quot;unique business logic&quot; (just for example) to the client. Exactly what he licences would be determined when feeling out the client, educating them on what's industry norms &amp; possible and offering some pricing options. But you have to push back if the client wants the moon and is only paying for sandwiches.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Licensing deals I've made with clients cover some/all of a.) their ability to transfer the software when they sell their company, b.) their ability to re-sell the software to multiple clients, c.) requirements for identifying me as the author, d.) ability to copy/modify code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Out of curiosity, does things like this ever actually happen? I heard about this proposal through a friend of a friend, because the company wanted complete ownership, but it didn't mind source code being reused.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes. Clients can ask for anything and some developers give them whatever they want. Interestingly, in my experience, the more money a client is paying the less paranoid they act (perhaps because larger outfits have their own software management &amp; developers who understand this stuff better).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23335" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9330" RevisionGUID="a24a27b4-b976-4421-af0c-bbb26a2c2b22" CreationDate="2019-07-13T03:05:00.563" UserId="10464" Text="&gt; Is the client entitled to a refund?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes! This should not even be a question. As a professional it is your duty to deliver what you promise. It will look like fraud if you agreed to do something you knew you weren't capable of and refuse to give a refund. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; How much of a refund?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depends. If the client originally prioritized these as being more important than the other items then you would owe more than 10%. Otherwise at or less than 10%. In other words their perception of what they were paying for and why matters. I'd ask them what they think is fair (since you don't know) and go with that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;What happens if I don't give him a refund? Our contract says disputes will be resolved through arbitration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your reputation is worth far more than the money you're hoping to keep. It will cost you more in the long run, to railroad your customer cause they will spread negative reviews about you. You would either go through arbitration or if you can't afford to pay the fees, it might become a public court case which would just make you world famous for not honoring your agreements. https://www.arbitrationnation.com/is-refusal-to-pay-fees-a-way-out-of-arbitration/&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23344" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9333" RevisionGUID="1fca5916-51e4-4249-bcf6-96ef6b852f1b" CreationDate="2019-07-15T10:48:15.063" UserId="21411" Text="I have got this client from **freelancer.com** where he gave an email to contact him. I contacted through the mail, he said he wants a restaurant site built for him, provided an example and said he wants one just like that but maybe a better looking one. I wanted to know some information about the site he wants to build, as like:&#xA;1. if the site would be an exact copy&#xA;2. what would be in the reservation page&#xA;3. how many approx monthly users he expects into his site.&#xA;&#xA;But he never paid a heed to these info and asked me my budget. I told him my asking price.&#xA;He then said he is based in USA and he will send the payment by emailing me the check.&#xA;And said he will have his assistant send me all the contents I need.&#xA;&#xA;Also, in the very first email he included that &quot;You would be updating the site for me&quot;. I asked what he meant by that. He won't talk about any information. &#xA;&#xA;My question is, how can I make him cooperate with me so that I understand what he wants and needs?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23345" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9333" RevisionGUID="1fca5916-51e4-4249-bcf6-96ef6b852f1b" CreationDate="2019-07-15T10:48:15.063" UserId="21411" Text="How to deal with a client who won't tell description about the site he wants?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23346" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9333" RevisionGUID="1fca5916-51e4-4249-bcf6-96ef6b852f1b" CreationDate="2019-07-15T10:48:15.063" UserId="21411" Text="|freelance-websites|difficult-client|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23347" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9334" RevisionGUID="d0014946-1ca8-41e6-8b9e-404859b9635e" CreationDate="2019-07-15T14:51:47.300" UserId="75" Text="It's a scam, walk away. Even if it isn't, he's avoiding talking to you like you're a human (sort of like how a Spam Bot would talk?).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can't get the client to answer basic questions, then I wouldn't waste too much energy on them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23348" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9335" RevisionGUID="8305b7da-0fb9-4cce-9e15-25ee42c8f6c0" CreationDate="2019-07-15T22:19:28.423" UserDisplayName="user22286" Text="It seem to be happening to me often. I have just started freelancing remotely. For now, I am targeting small project (1-7 days long).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Usually I try to keep a small backlog of projects so I am not completely without any work at any time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once I have a new project with 10 days deadline, I will began it after 3-4 days (after finishing older projects).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I already noticed some clients want daily updates from next day. I of course wouldn't want to work with such clients again, but what for now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do I tell them everyday if I have not even started yet." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23349" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9335" RevisionGUID="8305b7da-0fb9-4cce-9e15-25ee42c8f6c0" CreationDate="2019-07-15T22:19:28.423" UserDisplayName="user22286" Text="Clients with 1-2 days long project asking for daily updates since I was offered the project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23350" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9335" RevisionGUID="8305b7da-0fb9-4cce-9e15-25ee42c8f6c0" CreationDate="2019-07-15T22:19:28.423" UserDisplayName="user22286" Text="|difficult-client|communication|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23351" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9336" RevisionGUID="0af2cef6-05f1-4ab3-936d-be8d14c831e4" CreationDate="2019-07-15T22:29:17.993" UserDisplayName="user22286" Text="It's against these website terms to work outside the platform. Usually shady clients have such type of poor communication. So these are two red flags for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I doubt he will ever pay you. Your best way will to ask him to communicate only through the website (if you want to give him another chance), or if you ask me, block all communication with him for your safetey." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23352" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9337" RevisionGUID="5e862018-b073-4446-ab6a-525b6ff873b5" CreationDate="2019-07-16T08:11:33.167" UserId="22291" Text="The way I understand it VAT number in EU serves as EU-wide tax id. There is a [VAT number database][1] where you can check the validity of counter party VAT number. In Czechia you are required by law to acquire VAT number no longer than a month after you issue your first invoice to an EU counter party. I suggest you check your regulations as you might be required to get one anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/?locale=en" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23353" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9338" RevisionGUID="87f0829e-1760-439e-b206-6d8e3c16aefa" CreationDate="2019-07-16T17:02:24.823" UserId="10464" Text="1. You should set client expectations at the start when terms are agreed. You control your time not them. If they don't like your terms then they don't have to hire you. Don't be afraid of saying, &quot;I don't give daily updates&quot; or &quot;Daily updates cost extra.&quot; I've noticed that clients who want to talk your ear off in &quot;important&quot; conference calls have a lot less to say when you charge them for the meeting time. And if they do decide to talk a lot, well it's just more money in your pocket and you can smile. Like the time I had an insane client who would call me in for 1-2 hour meetings twice a week but would just have me sitting there while he argued with his partner. So I was making 3 figures/hour to watch them argue. This went on for months. Anyhow don't be quick to cut a client off just because they expect something and you never set boundaries/told them how you operate. It's your job to tell them what the rules are.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. It will help you a lot if you charge by the project instead of by the hour. Assuming that the project is well defined and you make sure to charge for any additions the client tries to add during development. Right now your client thinks you work exactly X dollars worth of work each hour. That's probably not reality. What happens when you run into a situation where you know you can do the job in 30 minutes but most of your competitors would take 8 hours? Better to get paid for the value of what you deliver than simply for time. Because the true value of what you deliver may sound way too high as an hourly number but sound reasonable as an overall project/item number.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Give yourself more time. If you think it will take you a week to do a client's project try to give yourself 2-3 weeks lead time plus tell them it takes 2 weeks to complete and that you're working on other projects at the same time. Just an example. Now maybe you have some leeway if you break your leg or have a family emergency OR someone who is willing to pay you way more for a rush job shows up.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23354" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9339" RevisionGUID="9f092a08-7671-4d4b-a010-05c657a8c328" CreationDate="2019-07-16T17:07:30.867" UserId="22287" Text="Varun, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is important to keep your clients updated, even when there isn't much to report.  In general, if you don't tell clients what you are doing they assume you are not doing anything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It might also help to review each project when it comes in and make a list of questions.  You can then include these questions in your daily email&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could then have a standard email script that says something like&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Dear *Customer*,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I hope you are well.  At this time, your project is proceeding as&#xD;&#xA;&gt; planned.  It is currently in the requirements phase. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Can you please tell me *ask your question here*?&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Thank you for your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you begin work on the project, change the third sentence to &quot;the implementation phase.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could also say&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Dear *Customer*,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I hope you are well.  At this time, your project is proceeding as&#xD;&#xA;&gt; planned.  It is currently in the requirements phase. I have no&#xD;&#xA;&gt; questions for you today.  I will provide another update tomorrow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This lets the client know that you have not forgotten about her and her project is still in your plans." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23355" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9340" RevisionGUID="d0b89e1a-f90a-42b9-9578-47bdb76fe146" CreationDate="2019-07-16T17:30:50.960" UserId="22287" Text="To be fair, customers come to us because they *don't* have expertise in tech in web design.   I think that you correctly asked questions that are not very technical to get the conversation started.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may want to send a note that says something like&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Dear *Customer*,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Thank you for your interest.  Unfortunately, I am unable to continue&#xD;&#xA;&gt; without the additional information I have requested from you.  If in&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the future, you  have time to pursue this project, please let me know.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I look forward to hearing from you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A scammer will ignore this or send an irrelevant response.  A real customer might reply with the requested information or re-think the situation and decide not to pursue the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23356" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9341" RevisionGUID="9bdc00cd-faab-4880-9700-96f02214bccb" CreationDate="2019-07-16T19:03:45.233" UserId="708" Text="If a client can't be bothered to answer questions surrounding the work they want done... I can't be bothered to do the work. It's that simple. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they won't answer simple questions, they most certainly won't pay invoices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23357" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9342" RevisionGUID="248c5726-b9bb-4f5d-88ba-2f7736c5522c" CreationDate="2019-07-17T04:17:05.157" UserId="10464" Text="Never accept checks unless it's from a trusted return customer and going through a bank you have an account at. And I've ran into clients who seemed great at first but later were scammers. With clients that I do a lot of business or we've worked together for many years, I'm not worried.  If it's not a trusted customer like that, just say 'no' or &quot;I'd be happy to take your check but I'll need to wait 60 days to make sure it clears properly.&quot; Scammers will just move on when they hear that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; My question is, how can I make him cooperate with me so that I understand what he wants and needs?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suggest you just move on. There's only two possibilities here: 1. You tell him again that you need info and he ignores that. You just wasted more time on him that you could have spent finding another client.  2. He sends you details and even some money BUT just like he acted like an idiot at the start he's likely to do more of that and make things difficult. See point #1 about your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And as others said: the guy is breaking the rules of the site you use. 99% chance that he's doing that because he wants to scam.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23358" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9343" RevisionGUID="76975966-e874-45be-bf49-00d0cbdd2e7f" CreationDate="2019-07-17T07:39:27.280" UserId="1303" Text="This is a scam. I completely understood what email you got. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Check the link below for the scam details:&#xD;&#xA;https://alexwright.net/blog/web-design/avoid-web-design-scams/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here is how they extract the money or put you in trouble: https://www.sumydesigns.com/designersdevelopers-dont-fall-for-this-scam/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have also applied for the scam jobs they posted in Freelancer.com and received a similar reply. This was perhaps 6 months ago. They would simply provide their email address in the job details and that they require a restaurant website. If you notice, the Freelancer.com staff deletes these jobs almost immediately, but they have no control over this because the scammer/bot uses fresh emails to create fake profiles and post the job again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Simply avoid it, and DO NOT reply to their email. Mark the emails as spam.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23359" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9344" RevisionGUID="cec614c4-e413-463b-a497-24a226a8ab0a" CreationDate="2019-07-17T08:26:05.183" UserId="1303" Text="I am working freelance for a client, and I have around 30 articles to write for him.&#xD;&#xA;I decided to outsource 10 of those articles to another freelancer (from Freelancer.com). I have informed my client about this and he agreed to me. He just wants me to provide them within the decided timeframe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is, the freelancer whom I have appointed is continuously delaying in his work. I have asked him the reason and he will always come up with different new excuses for his delay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Each article is approx 600-800 words long. I assume one article will take max 2 days to deliver. But he is taking a lot of time- around 4-5 days to deliver every single article, that too after me continuously asking for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He replies to my messages very late, takes over 5-10 hours to reply. Even days sometimes. Before awarding the project, he told me he is online in Freelancer.com all the time and will promptly reply to my chats. But he never does so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I professionally reply to him and make him understand the importance of maintaining the deadline for this project? At this time, I am very frustrated with his turn-around time and excuses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Kindly advise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks a lot!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23360" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9344" RevisionGUID="cec614c4-e413-463b-a497-24a226a8ab0a" CreationDate="2019-07-17T08:26:05.183" UserId="1303" Text="How do I reply back to my freelancer if he is not maintaining deadlines and delaying the project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23361" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9344" RevisionGUID="cec614c4-e413-463b-a497-24a226a8ab0a" CreationDate="2019-07-17T08:26:05.183" UserId="1303" Text="|communication|project-management|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23362" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9345" RevisionGUID="bbbae12e-1e01-4e1f-9b6e-12c693be9add" CreationDate="2019-07-17T14:01:57.480" UserId="10464" Text="&quot;Thank you for your work so far. However as I stated multiple times, I need a minimum of 1 article every 2 business days. Since you are unable to deliver this I am cancelling the project effective immediately.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See https://www.freelancer.com/support/Project/how-to-cancel-a-project&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hire some others to do the work you need. Your reputation is at stake so it's in your interest to complete the work for your client even if it ends up costing you more than you expected. It's going to be less headache for you to build a team of go-to suppliers who you know are dependable and keep using them over and over again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23371" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9348" RevisionGUID="86afd7af-f322-4bad-9183-87501039988f" CreationDate="2019-07-20T04:54:48.993" UserId="22310" Text="In most of my freelance/contract work, I've been hired to work on a team of other contractors or temporarily as part of an in-house team. The company hiring me has always taken care of the project management end of things. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am just starting a bunch of project-based work as a solo contractor for a company with almost no in-house resources... definitely not a project manager or anyone even close to that role. I'm not doing anything even close to what an actual project manager does, but I am creating schedules &amp; project plans and setting up a Jira-like environment to track tasks, bugs, enhancements, etc for the various projects they've got me working on that is accessible to the stakeholders in the company that has hired me, which does take some time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm conflicted regarding whether or not to bill separate hours for these types of tasks... especially since I have nowhere near the skillset (as it pertains to PM) of an actual Project Manager... and aside from demanding feedback and content from the company execs, I'm not managing anyone other than myself. I feel like in past situations I may have seen it added in as a line item on the final invoice as a percentage of the total hours, which kind of makes a bit more sense to me in this scenario. Is there an industry standard here?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23372" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9348" RevisionGUID="86afd7af-f322-4bad-9183-87501039988f" CreationDate="2019-07-20T04:54:48.993" UserId="22310" Text="As a solo, freelance, web developer/designer, should I bill for project management?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23373" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9348" RevisionGUID="86afd7af-f322-4bad-9183-87501039988f" CreationDate="2019-07-20T04:54:48.993" UserId="22310" Text="|project-management|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23374" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8027" RevisionGUID="99ba844d-e5b3-4b6d-9318-9f441a1d8b3a" CreationDate="2019-07-20T13:17:55.170" UserDisplayName="user22260" Comment="spelling edits" Text="So I'm starting a basic business of consulting for web, mobile, desktop, games development. I have seen some business website around my neighborhood that really need rework or upgrade, so i was thinking of contacting them directly through email and tell them that I provide some services that could help them pay less and a better presentation for their customers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this too pushy or a wrong way to do it? And if not, can you provide me an example?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23375" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="8027" RevisionGUID="99ba844d-e5b3-4b6d-9318-9f441a1d8b3a" CreationDate="2019-07-20T13:17:55.170" UserDisplayName="user22260" Comment="spelling edits" Text="Advertise through email" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23376" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="8027" RevisionGUID="99ba844d-e5b3-4b6d-9318-9f441a1d8b3a" CreationDate="2019-07-20T13:17:55.170" Comment="Proposed by 22260 approved by 61, 12865 edit id of 688" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23377" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9349" RevisionGUID="710a7fc0-8ee7-4b8d-a932-cf598007df62" CreationDate="2019-07-20T15:42:42.370" UserDisplayName="user22286" Text="I have a client. There was one specific limitation of the solution we were implementing. I made sure to tell him about it, and he said it's fine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now later when it's implemented that way, he feels, it's not ideal for him. Overcoming this limitation would require redesigning the current work, and do things bit differently, and it's quite lot of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since he feels he has not got what he wants, he wants me to do the necessary changes now for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I feel since his requirements and needs have changed after we agreed upon everything, I should not be liable to do free work for him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am also wondering what's the best way to approach him. I am thinking of sending him the screenshot of conversation where he agrees he is fine with the limitations. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And also write him something like this `Hi X, As you can see I told you about the limitations before, and you said you are fine. Now these new changes will require drastic change in design and will be a lot of work. I feel it's not fair or reasonable to ask someone to do free work for you if your requirements change later. I hope you understand. Thank you.`" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23378" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9349" RevisionGUID="710a7fc0-8ee7-4b8d-a932-cf598007df62" CreationDate="2019-07-20T15:42:42.370" UserDisplayName="user22286" Text="Should I work for free if client's requirement changed" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23379" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9349" RevisionGUID="710a7fc0-8ee7-4b8d-a932-cf598007df62" CreationDate="2019-07-20T15:42:42.370" UserDisplayName="user22286" Text="|difficult-client|project-management|scope-of-work|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23380" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9350" RevisionGUID="ec1df3cd-54ef-4df8-9b36-b77da72887c3" CreationDate="2019-07-20T17:17:13.447" UserId="75" Text="Absolutely not! If you have agreed on terms, and delivered, then you should expect him to deliver on his part of the arrangement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Did you give him status updates with the opportunity for feedback?&#xD;&#xA;2. Did he understand the limitations he put in place for you?&#xD;&#xA;3. Does he seem to want to continue to use you if you keep working for him?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These three questions may convince you otherwise, or confirm your position. Either way, remain polite and professional, explaining that you don't work for free for projects that he agreed upon initially. You can explain that your cost for implementing feature **X** using method **Y** will cost **$ZZZ**. But make sure the lines of communication are open and clear." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23381" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9351" RevisionGUID="ce490489-6e8d-4478-881a-fe981d834fd7" CreationDate="2019-07-20T17:31:06.773" UserId="22230" Text="It looks like they have a 7.5 hour day. I've had projects where my day rate is not 8 times my hourly rate. I always just bill hourly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case, if I were working 8 hour days, I would just bill for 1.07 days for every day I worked. That being said, I've never had a client calculate a day and hourly rate for me -- it is always one or the other in my contracts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have doubts about how you bill to the project, just ask the client for clarification.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23382" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9349" RevisionGUID="8d68abfc-ffef-41d7-985a-e7074ce82d5d" CreationDate="2019-07-20T20:56:58.007" UserId="61" Comment="fixed the use of backticks since screen readers read such text letter-by-letter, like acronyms" Text="I have a client. There was one specific limitation of the solution we were implementing. I made sure to tell him about it, and he said it's fine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now later when it's implemented that way, he feels, it's not ideal for him. Overcoming this limitation would require redesigning the current work, and do things bit differently, and it's quite lot of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since he feels he has not got what he wants, he wants me to do the necessary changes now for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I feel since his requirements and needs have changed after we agreed upon everything, I should not be liable to do free work for him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am also wondering what's the best way to approach him. I am thinking of sending him the screenshot of conversation where he agrees he is fine with the limitations. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And also write him something like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hi X, As you can see I told you about the limitations before, and you said you are fine. Now these new changes will require drastic change in design and will be a lot of work. I feel it's not fair or reasonable to ask someone to do free work for you if your requirements change later. I hope you understand. Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23383" PostHistoryTypeId="52" PostId="9349" RevisionGUID="1146af3b-a41d-4ad4-b1f5-6e243f381a23" CreationDate="2019-07-20T23:47:06.593" />
  <row Id="23385" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9352" RevisionGUID="731b9736-1068-4f06-ac70-83ab7185500a" CreationDate="2019-07-21T03:10:38.670" UserId="21435" Text="Do you have a contract and a scope of work for the original work up to this point?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If so, then this is your &quot;proof&quot; as to what the client originally agreed to and you can ask for payment for services rendered and enter into a new contract and scope of work for what the client wants now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If not, then you can:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do the new work for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Refuse to do the new work and demand payment for your work up to this point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Walk away from the client and absorb the loss.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can sue the client for payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23386" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9353" RevisionGUID="50184a88-97b2-49c9-a0b3-a794ad905afb" CreationDate="2019-07-21T03:14:22.207" UserId="21435" Text="&gt; I'm conflicted regarding whether or not to bill separate hours for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; these types of tasks... especially since I have nowhere near the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; skillset (as it pertains to PM) of an actual Project Manager&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should be billing for all of your time and for all of your work. It doesn't matter whether or not you're a &quot;real&quot; project manager and it doesn't matter if you call this work project management or something else. It's work you are performing for the client and you should bill for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not a network engineer but if I install a network switch, router, or firewall for a client then I bill the client for that work because it is work I performed for the client and I should be paid for it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23387" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9352" RevisionGUID="22a236f8-2e7e-4664-93ab-902142cc43e3" CreationDate="2019-07-21T03:22:55.813" UserId="21435" Comment="deleted 8 characters in body" Text="Do you have a contract and a scope of work for the original work up to this point?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If so, then this is your &quot;proof&quot; as to what the client originally agreed to and you can ask for payment for services rendered and enter into a new contract and scope of work for what the client wants now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If not, then you can:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do the new work for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Refuse to do the new work and demand payment for your work up to this point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Walk away from the client and absorb the loss.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sue the client for payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23388" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9353" RevisionGUID="cc0d5be7-997d-4b28-8325-7bbffeff8d4d" CreationDate="2019-07-21T03:25:14.567" UserId="21435" Comment="added 296 characters in body" Text="&gt; I'm conflicted regarding whether or not to bill separate hours for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; these types of tasks... especially since I have nowhere near the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; skillset (as it pertains to PM) of an actual Project Manager&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should be billing for all of your time and for all of your work. It doesn't matter whether or not you're a &quot;real&quot; project manager and it doesn't matter if you call this work project management or something else. It's work you are performing for the client and you should bill for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not a network engineer but if I install a network switch, router, or firewall for a client then I bill the client for that work because it is work I performed for the client and I should be paid for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Is there an industry standard here?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes. The standard is that you should be paid for all of the work you perform and for all of your time. There isn't a for-profit company in the world that is in the habit of giving their products and/or services away for free, and you shouldn't either." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23389" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9354" RevisionGUID="284d4013-0fce-465d-b52f-f9a80511ee1c" CreationDate="2019-07-21T05:34:25.827" UserId="22316" Text="This depends. Can you deal with the lost money (either make it up doing something else like another project - and minding this means you must do 2 at once and that may affect your hours/kiloseconds per day you can put in to each - or just have enough on hand you don't mind spending to support yourself through the time)? If &quot;no&quot;, then charge for the revisions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If &quot;yes&quot;, then for me I'd first take into account that people really can come to feel differently about something when they see it to at least understand that his criticism is not necessarily meant with ill intent. And also, that they have to mind their own money as much as yours. The nice thing about freelance one-on-one self-work is that you have a lot of room to negotiate and discuss with your client, something that is far less possible as part of a big company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd also take into whether or not that I find enough joy in working on the project that it be _not_ just a &quot;moneymaker&quot;. If it is that way, then it'd probably be better to charge (you could also say you don't feel like working on it, but then that sounds like cutting him off and if there's any contract signed already that you _must_ deliver you can't do that or he can sue you...) because if your motivation falters, the quality of your work, too, will likewise suffer, and what you don't want to do is give someone shitty work, imo. Their payment is not just for work but, ideally, _good_ work. Asking for a charge is asking them thus to pay for good work, and you might even mention that you would do it for free but the product may not be as good or satisfying to him as if he pays you (without mentioning you don't find joy in the project in and of itself so as to not offend his feelings - it's not lying if you don't supply your motivation when not specifically asked therefor, _and_ what you say as to what will likely happen is still truthful).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nonetheless, one should also be open to the possibility of finding such joy, too, because I believe that while money is important, the attitude of _reducing_, _everything_, _to_ money, is also a major problem in this world today." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23390" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9293" RevisionGUID="0e526e41-2eec-49e4-949c-b166073e41ca" CreationDate="2019-07-21T10:02:20.313" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23391" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9291" RevisionGUID="d80afd19-9592-4be3-8989-00cf570b41da" CreationDate="2019-07-21T11:02:10.220" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23392" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9355" RevisionGUID="f1b3e9a2-2611-442a-a8dc-0966a0f648de" CreationDate="2019-07-21T19:52:51.163" UserId="22324" Text="So I was hired for a roughly one day long project on 1st of Jul with 10 days deadline.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He started asking me for daily update from next day which was bit annoying since I have not started yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On 4th, I write him to provide me the things I need. He finally provide me on 12th of July (one day after deadline). He asked for updates meanwhile twice and both time, I reminded him I am stuck waiting for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Co-incidentally that week was exceptionally busy for me, so I tell him on 12th, that I will do it on 19th of July. He blamed me for missing my deadline  at this point. I tell him, how can he blame me when he provided me things one day after the deadline.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is pretty much blaming me for everything at this point, and he was very serious about this new deadline on 19th. On 19th, I started worked on his project as promised, and noticed the credentials he sent me on 12th are wrong (He only had one job, and couldn't do it right). He tell me he will send the correct one later today, but he never did. I followed up again on 20th in evening, and then he finally sent correct ones.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I tell him, I am busy on 21st, and will do it on 22 now. Now he gets very very angry again and start saying I treat his project like a joke, and I am BS'ing and I don't deliver timely, and blah blah blah. He also he threatened to cancel the project if I do it on 22nd.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a record of delivering on time on every projects except this one. He delayed the project twice and he blames me for it. I just don't understand how can I do his work if he don't provide me the needed things timely. And secondarily I am not his full time employee. I have other commitments too. How can he expect me to drop everything like this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since I was already fed up with him long ago, and was tolerating him just to be professional, I decided to fire him right away at this point giving him full refund.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to ask:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A) Who is at fault here?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; B) How I could have handled the situation better to be less stressful for me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23393" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9355" RevisionGUID="f1b3e9a2-2611-442a-a8dc-0966a0f648de" CreationDate="2019-07-21T19:52:51.163" UserId="22324" Text="Client is blaming me when he didn't provided credentials timely" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23394" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9355" RevisionGUID="f1b3e9a2-2611-442a-a8dc-0966a0f648de" CreationDate="2019-07-21T19:52:51.163" UserId="22324" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23395" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9355" RevisionGUID="1afc9415-ee58-4c18-abec-dcf1cf4a19ba" CreationDate="2019-07-21T20:21:34.783" UserId="22324" Comment="edited title; edited title" Text="Client is blaming me for missing deadline when he didn't provided credentials timely" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23396" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9356" RevisionGUID="6e82be60-b916-491f-bd39-f3ba68fd9fad" CreationDate="2019-07-22T00:32:34.410" UserId="22289" Text="After doing some graphic work for custom shirts for a local business, the owner asked me if I would be able to design a website that would allow customers to visit and design their shirts. The web app would start by having the customer choose from different products to design such as jerseys, bags, shirts, socks, etc. Then, they are shown a mock-up of what the design would look like updating itself each time they change the design and the colors they want on design. This design would be an SVG that will be converted to a specific size pdf based on the shirt sizes and such and be sent to the business owner to process from there. I have done my research and am capable of creating a website to accomplish all of the tasks he desires. The issue is this is my first freelance project and I am not sure how much or how to figure out the cost of building this web application for the owner. Should it be by hour or what is the best way to figure out the right price so that I do not get under payed for my work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23397" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9356" RevisionGUID="6e82be60-b916-491f-bd39-f3ba68fd9fad" CreationDate="2019-07-22T00:32:34.410" UserId="22289" Text="What should I charge for a custom shirt builder web application?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23398" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9356" RevisionGUID="6e82be60-b916-491f-bd39-f3ba68fd9fad" CreationDate="2019-07-22T00:32:34.410" UserId="22289" Text="|payment-terms|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23399" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9357" RevisionGUID="590abc39-d222-4aa6-8fb3-fae1de6e469b" CreationDate="2019-07-22T02:22:22.273" UserId="75" Text="Based **solely on your account of what happened**, you are in the right. Drop him quickly, and move on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A simple email of &quot;I am unable to continue working under the current arrangements&quot; should suffice (adjust as necessary).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I take on projects where I need input and information from the client, I give them a sheet of what information I need, by when, and note that late information causes a delay in the project that I am not responsible for. Have the customer sign it that they understand it, and agree to it; then copy it and give them a copy so they know what they signed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a customer does not see the project as important enough to get me the information I require to continue, then they need to take responsibility for it, and I need to find other work in order to keep getting paid. It's business, not a hobby." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23401" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9358" RevisionGUID="3dc3c138-dcf7-4ffe-8b0e-37c7510fcb37" CreationDate="2019-07-22T09:29:08.090" UserId="21254" Text="Many times through my career I bumped into the situation when I had to run several projects simultaneously.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there any techniques available to keep track on them both?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My main concern that when run several simultaneously, you lose track either on one of them or on both, it could be even worse if there is a 3rd project kicking." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23402" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9358" RevisionGUID="3dc3c138-dcf7-4ffe-8b0e-37c7510fcb37" CreationDate="2019-07-22T09:29:08.090" UserId="21254" Text="How to run several projects simultaneously?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23403" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9358" RevisionGUID="3dc3c138-dcf7-4ffe-8b0e-37c7510fcb37" CreationDate="2019-07-22T09:29:08.090" UserId="21254" Text="|project-management|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23404" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9359" RevisionGUID="6ed7581a-3e4e-4ce9-b2b1-d8c4fdac126d" CreationDate="2019-07-22T14:34:45.867" UserId="22327" Text="I have been self-employed semi-successfully for a little under a year now. My partner works in education and now has most of the summer off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I normally work in the living room, but as I feel it would be a major distraction to have her there--and I don't want to banish her--I decided to work at the junk desk in the bedroom for the foreseeable future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The issue is that the change of situation has had a very bad impact on my work style. I generally work in 2-hour or so bursts, both during the day when she is at work and after she has gone to bed. Now, however, I feel a strange compulsion to treat it more like a 9-to-5 and only come out of the bedroom for lunch and for toilet breaks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Strangely, this has compounded itself to the point where I end up doing useless tasks or even just browse online(!) to kill the time, and even though I am technically putting in more hours I am getting a lot less done. I am pretending to work -- to myself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this a known problem, and does anyone know the causes or potential solutions that have worked? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23405" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9359" RevisionGUID="6ed7581a-3e4e-4ce9-b2b1-d8c4fdac126d" CreationDate="2019-07-22T14:34:45.867" UserId="22327" Text="How to avoid 'Pretending' to work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23406" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9359" RevisionGUID="6ed7581a-3e4e-4ce9-b2b1-d8c4fdac126d" CreationDate="2019-07-22T14:34:45.867" UserId="22327" Text="|working-from-home|productivity|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23407" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9360" RevisionGUID="3f5f87cc-b1d1-486e-b26d-10a44fae65f6" CreationDate="2019-07-23T06:15:36.887" UserId="10464" Text="&gt; does anyone know the causes or potential solutions that have worked?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe you feel guilty for making money more easily than your partner. Perhaps you know she would be jealous or disturbed by knowing that you make way more than her in your spare time while she's slaving in the office. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And/or you could be afraid that if you give her your time she will feel entitled to that time every day. But remember that you are in control of it. Just because you give her an extra hour today doesn't mean she's entitled to it tomorrow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People get burned out. If you're stressed by work then it's natural to want to have downtime and relax. Except if you don't structure your day you'll end up doing it in the middle of the day. That's fine if you plan for it and make up the time elsewhere. Otherwise you're just hurting yourself in the long run. Whatever you're making now, you could be making twice that or more if you put 100% effort in. You need to stay hungry and spend your spare time looking for more clients/growing your business. Imagine what will happen if you suddenly lost most/all of your clients. It could happen any random day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try to setup a regular schedule of productive things to do during the day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23408" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9361" RevisionGUID="ee606305-e344-4cf6-8216-ec4e283033ff" CreationDate="2019-07-23T06:49:58.713" UserId="10464" Text="To avoid being underpaid: You want to own as much as possible of what you make. If you are only selling the guy a license to use the thing then it's less important if you get paid a little less than it's really worth cause you can potentially make it up later when that client pays for a license upgrade or when other clients pay for the same type of software. Very few clients will have a problem with you saying, 'You're purchasing a license to use the software. Anything unique to your business is owned by you 100%'.  Some will want the right to sell the software multiple times. This is worth 2x or more (non exclusive) at least. Depends on how valuable you think that is on a case by cases basis. I usually would say that if they buy that second license I will discount them the price they already paid. Then clients come back maybe 6 months or a year later, eager to pay me $$ and all I have to do is write an invoice. Imagine getting paid four or five figures for just 1 minute of copy &amp; paste.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So have some licensing options for the client all with different prices from low to higher. That low price should still be a number you feel is fair to you based on your research. I would avoid talking about hours and focus on grouping the deliverable things and then pricing those groups as a whole. But only do that if the client explicitly ask for that kind of price detail. It's in your interest to keep the price at the overall project level. As long as you can give good estimates of the time required. I would give lead time plus test and development. NOT simply the time it takes to build. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For projects where there are detailed specs/narrow scope this is safe. For situations where things are uncertain/changing then hourly is better. Make sure in your agreement with the client you say that they are responsible for any 'client caused delays or changes'!  Don't give freebies unless you caused a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And also consider how much money you're saving the client. Be clever and ask the client a lot of questions about how their business works and how many employees they have doing this stuff they want you to create a program to do.  And consider how much it would cost the client if they hired a developer to work for them full time on the project too. This will help you price what you're doing.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23409" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9362" RevisionGUID="c8ea2545-db7c-46a6-9f5f-5119d81a6cab" CreationDate="2019-07-23T09:39:25.123" UserId="22330" Text="So I have been working with a US based funded startup (atleast that is what I was told initially they had USD 1 million in funding). I started off the project on T&amp;M approach because the app constantly evolved. I bill them weekly (USD 1000). It’s the fourth week now and the client tells me to cap off the project because they don’t have a budget. When I closed the project, they told me to go for a T&amp;M approach and they told me they had funding and would not negotiate because they wanted the best of the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now when the third week payment is due, they tell me the budget was USD 3500 and I am like WTH. They tell me to cap if off at this amount and haven’t paid the third week’s dues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They liked my work, they have told it to me,I have it written and also a contract in place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client asks me what are the ways we can go forward with this budget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are my options?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was supposed to work on both UX and UI design initially but then given the nature of the app, I quickly told them if they want to meet their Thanksgiving deadline, another designer would be required (the app has almost 150+ screens). They agreed to it initially and before closing the project were also of the same opinion that they would be happy to help bring another person to help me out. I suggested, I work on the UX part and make the process agile. They never understood the wireframes and told me we can't understand how the UI would look. So I told them I would make one screen's UI to help them understand what it would look like. I create a clickable prototype in XD, make a video and send it to them. They really like it and tell me they don't understand wireframes and want me to only work on the prototype.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But the thing is with UX a lot of processes need to go in the background to deliver that level of prototype and now they are bringing up the budget issue. And, accusing me that they are paying me for the UI and only getting UX done. I had already made it clear with them in the beginning that without clear user flows, prototypes, and wireframes you can't move to UI. They wanted me to brainstorm about UI too in the beginning which I gave a lot of creative concepts and they loved it. I made the flows, wireframes with sticky notes so that the job becomes easier for the UI designer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Initially, they told me they understood the difference between UX and UI and agreed we are on the same page and now this shit happens. They still owe me about USD 1200.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit: Based on how the things were evolving and changing with flows being altered every other day, they agreed UX alone would take about 6-7 weeks. Also, this app has a huge gamification part for which they required consultation. We told them this is going to take time as we do a lot of testing also at our end." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23410" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9362" RevisionGUID="c8ea2545-db7c-46a6-9f5f-5119d81a6cab" CreationDate="2019-07-23T09:39:25.123" UserId="22330" Text="Client suggesting to cap off a project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23411" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9362" RevisionGUID="c8ea2545-db7c-46a6-9f5f-5119d81a6cab" CreationDate="2019-07-23T09:39:25.123" UserId="22330" Text="|project|budget|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23412" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9289" RevisionGUID="cba1dad8-5fb7-4ec1-9220-165c1c05064f" CreationDate="2019-07-23T14:02:20.270" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23413" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9363" RevisionGUID="d728d620-0687-4e6e-8f3e-4ba292eb358f" CreationDate="2019-07-23T15:02:34.310" UserId="75" Text="The approach is simple: until you get paid, work stops. Period.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let them know you'll start doing work once their payment clears, as they have used their one free late payment (or something similar).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep it professional, but be ready to walk away and look for other work. If they are flip-flopping this much this late into a project, it seems to me like they are either scammy (check your previous payments!), or not ready to seriously commit to a project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23414" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9364" RevisionGUID="bab61d29-8d65-4b2c-b9f8-386741005231" CreationDate="2019-07-23T18:34:32.897" UserId="10464" Text="&gt; Now when the third week payment is due, they tell me the budget was USD 3500 and I am like WTH. They tell me to cap if off at this amount and haven’t paid the third week’s dues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would 1.) Not deliver anything until they pay.  2.) After they pay, stop all work. Re-negotiate a higher fee and make sure the new agreement has hefty late fee penalty written into it.  If they ask why the price is higher, say you have other clients who pay more &amp; pay on time. The lower price was on the assumption that they would meet their obligations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't feel desperate to work with these guys. The time you spend chasing them for money could be spent finding new clients. If you have that attitude they can't railroad you.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23415" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9303" RevisionGUID="4cd88fa7-fc45-4dbd-b3d1-9d28e7a5d800" CreationDate="2019-07-23T20:01:05.847" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23416" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9365" RevisionGUID="b444ae79-75f8-471a-9664-60b5cf79e6c6" CreationDate="2019-07-23T20:07:15.020" UserId="21435" Text="The work you're doing is irrelevant to the question. You should remove that &quot;wall of text&quot; from your question and stick to the crux of the issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Your client needs to pay you for work performed. Do not perform any additional work until they've paid you for your previous work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Negotiate a new arrangement and fee schedule with the client based on their needs and budget limitations... if you're so inclined to continue performing work for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. If the client doesn't pay for the previous work then send them a demand for payment letter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. If the client still does not pay for the previous work you can hire an attorney to help you sue them for payment if you wish to do that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23418" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9349" RevisionGUID="3f90a611-9a27-4ddc-886a-0cd2ffbb4ad3" CreationDate="2019-07-26T00:00:01.217" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1154541847164813312" />
  <row Id="23420" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="8010" RevisionGUID="33873920-6f38-4f33-b198-f62301fc71ad" CreationDate="2019-07-26T15:01:15.167" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23421" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9367" RevisionGUID="ddc84028-6ebe-4964-8921-356d9728ce55" CreationDate="2019-07-26T15:30:22.293" UserId="22287" Text="Weckar, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think it is wise that you have these self-imposed time and space limits.  I have a similar issue.  Most of the year, I have free run of the house, but, in the summer, there is someone else - who isn't working - to consider.  I do something similar myself.  I work in one room from 8:00 am to 12:00 noon and 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm (or 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is difficult to make the switch, but it is important.  It is all too easy to  start a conversation on which the other person has no limit.  I also find that the person who doesn't work from home have a very hard time telling the difference between me working and me taking a break.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there is a certification for which you have been meaning to study or skill-building that you have been putting off, this could be a good time to work on that if your work-load doesn't take up the full time.  Increasing and improving your skills is an investment in your business and is a perfectly legitimate use of your &quot;work time.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23426" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9368" RevisionGUID="70ac396c-1ddb-4f88-8fa5-fbfa6aa2441b" CreationDate="2019-07-28T12:39:14.763" UserId="514" Text="If you license it, you own it. In the US, if the client decides to walk away from the deal without paying you, your recourse is to take back your software. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you write it as &quot;A Work Made For Hire&quot; - legalese magic words in the US that mean they own it the moment you write it (i.e., you never owned it) - they are obligated to pay you according to whatever payment agreement you had with them, and that is legally enforceable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also if you license it with a pay-per-piece license, you become an &quot;investor&quot; in their enterprise; your compensation depends on how well they do. If they may do poorly or quit the online T-shirt business altogether, and that's out of your control.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're better off with a Work Made For Hire contract because (again, in the US) a court" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23427" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9368" RevisionGUID="772a59e6-a365-4dd0-ad78-783de448686e" CreationDate="2019-07-28T12:49:08.547" UserId="514" Comment="deleted 87 characters in body" Text="If you license it, you own it. In the US, if the client decides to walk away from the deal without paying you, your recourse is to take back your software. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you write it as &quot;A Work Made For Hire&quot; - legalese magic words in the US that mean they own it the moment you write it (i.e., you never owned it) - they are obligated to pay you according to whatever payment agreement you had with them, and that is legally enforceable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also if you license it with a pay-per-piece license, you become an &quot;investor&quot; in their enterprise; your compensation depends on how well they do. If they may do poorly or quit the online T-shirt business altogether, and that's out of your control.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23428" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9369" RevisionGUID="92044717-ae34-4520-9fca-defb39088ac2" CreationDate="2019-07-28T13:09:07.370" UserId="514" Text="I always met with a potential client for an hour or two to talk about what they needed done and whether we were the right 'fit' for each other. Then we'd agree that I'd work for Time &amp; Expenses to write a program spec that would become a description of what I was to do and the eventual acceptance criteria. Only then, if the client wanted a fixed-price contract, would I price it and negotiate that price, and it was understood - in writing - that changes and additions to the requirements would require re-negotiating the price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(In practice, most of my work was in R&amp;D and my clients preferred an hourly contract to allow us to test new ideas or completely change course, without needing to re-negotiate every time.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23429" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9370" RevisionGUID="432a8400-639f-467c-99ca-2ca20a6c0157" CreationDate="2019-07-31T14:18:04.950" UserId="12477" Text="Consider a half day meeting at another site away from home. In order to make the most of the other half day, it would be helpful to have a local place to set up a laptop, with a wifi connection, and work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the UK there are several Co-Working locations that you can pay for on subscription, but for one-offs where you are in a town/city that you don't normally frequent, what options are available?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Coffee shops and the likes are not really an option due to the length of time and noise and privacy issues. Something more formal would be preferable." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23430" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9370" RevisionGUID="432a8400-639f-467c-99ca-2ca20a6c0157" CreationDate="2019-07-31T14:18:04.950" UserId="12477" Text="What options are available in the UK to someone who is looking to work on the road?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23431" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9370" RevisionGUID="432a8400-639f-467c-99ca-2ca20a6c0157" CreationDate="2019-07-31T14:18:04.950" UserId="12477" Text="|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23432" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9371" RevisionGUID="42eda1d6-37fd-4e63-b3b7-21601ccb37d7" CreationDate="2019-08-01T13:57:56.180" UserId="22372" Text="Based on your credentials, I would probably venture to say simply look up companies within your field and approach them directly and pitch your services - you are entirely too overqualified to put yourself in the position of being sucked in to the rat race that is Upwork/Freelancer/Guru - or worse yet::shudder:: Fiver (Don't EVER go there, for the sake of your self-respect and sanity). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't need some penny pinching unreasonable client who is already getting what you would typically expect to charge $100 for $10, yet wants to keep adding additional tasks on top of that with no additional money, and is somehow more needy, demanding and high maintenance than your top tier customers. Yes, there are a million of those clients on those platforms - to be fair there are some great ones (I still use Upwork for a reason after all) but frankly, that would seem beneath your pay grade.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To answer your question directly, when I first started I always bid between $15-18/hr  - it took me a couple of weeks to gain any traction, largely because I wasn't willing to bargain-basement price my labor. But I did get work and built traction, after accumulating thos first few 5-star reviews, and I continue to get steady work over $25/hr&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you DO go the route of a freelance marketplace platform - the best advice I could possibly give you is DO NOT give in to the &quot;race to the lowest price&quot; mentality - you're worth more than $2 or $3 per hour - that is inexcusable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best of luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23433" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9372" RevisionGUID="079ebf1f-8ffd-48e8-a140-ac3eca529dd5" CreationDate="2019-08-01T14:13:07.967" UserId="22372" Text="I'm quite sure the solution has been right in front of you the whole time - what you need, based on your specifications (such as being able to determine whether by YOUR estimation and for YOUR purposes, any given proposal they &quot;Read&quot; would be a good deal in light of your circumstances and business model - and the ability to negotiate terms that would be favorable to you, and solicit new business for you...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you need is a Virtual (or in-house) assistant, but based on the high degree of specificity and the fact that it requires knowledge of you and your preferences more than anything, your best fit would be a long term/permanent one, but you would definitely have to invest the time to train them and let them learn how you expect things to be done - it's an investment that (with the right VA) will pay off tremendously, but if you don't invest that time in getting them acquainted with you and your business, it can't work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a nutshell, it hinges on your willingness to take the time to train someone thoroughly (more than a day or three) and you having the patience to see that process through. If can do that, then a VA that you train to do those things is your best possible solution&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And you cand find those at any of the above sites lol I work on Upwork and Guru. Freelancer is full of very low-quality freelancers - same with Fiverr. No real experience with People Per Hour. I got accepted by their platform, but their user interface (all the pop-ups and sliders) felt really cheap and spammy..IDK&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have no basis for direct comment on Toptal either, honestly I never bothered to pursue them, as they come accross quite &quot;gimmicky&quot; to me... as if what you're really doing is paying 10x as much for the same thing with an elite label while someone kisses your rear end throughout the process - maybe my perception was a bit jaded that day lol." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23434" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9373" RevisionGUID="c044efd9-7ef0-4c33-91d3-ca6a8f3dd18d" CreationDate="2019-08-01T14:30:03.543" UserId="22372" Text="Make some demo's of what you would do.. if you're going to be offering the service of converting PSD's to HTML, it's safe to say that you have or have had access to (and can get) PSD files right? So why not make some Screenshots of: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Slide 1) A PSD File  &#xD;&#xA;Slide 2) Said PSD FIle after it has been converted to HTML (in raw code)&#xD;&#xA;Slide 3) the finished HTML result in either your WYSIWYG editor or browser&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do that for 2-3 files (at 3 slides per file conversion, that would be 6-8 quality shots) - and sign up for an online &quot;portfolio builder&quot; site (go for a freebie in this case) for that &lt;https://www.crevado.com&gt; is great or I also like &lt;https://www.pagexl.com&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That should be more than sufficient for you to create a stunning visual for literally nothing, and it shouldn't take you more than a total of 30 minutes MAX&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope that helps" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23435" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9359" RevisionGUID="d1315d7e-0213-4fc5-89fe-f2d449ca0512" CreationDate="2019-08-02T03:00:49.970" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1157124064739303424" />
  <row Id="23438" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="8010" RevisionGUID="85141ff5-979a-4ff4-abca-e36d33751764" CreationDate="2019-08-08T15:00:34.533" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1159479521323696128" />
  <row Id="23439" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9376" RevisionGUID="9efae734-1f8b-4a1f-9ac4-85cdad6a2f7f" CreationDate="2019-08-08T17:11:27.440" UserId="22407" Text="Think you made a mistake of not signing a contract. It seems there are misunderstandings and mishandling. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;firstly, we should not start an offshore project without any agreement. Secondly, before initiation of project we need to provide a prototype for that you can bill them. Thirdly we have to clearly inform the client about no. of manhours, hourly pay, size of the project and size of team required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without which if we start any project in Indian and abroad such things will occur. They have lost 3,500 without getting the complete project which is of no use. And you have lost one week's pay. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23441" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9377" RevisionGUID="39ec3314-4b55-4882-bff6-cc2fe765ee2b" CreationDate="2019-08-08T19:13:10.253" UserId="10464" Text="A tool like Trello can be used for very high level visualization of projects. Just use it to have a list of the projects you're responsible for and track where they are at a high level. I think it's a plus if this is not integrated with any other system because it will force you to consciously consider what you're doing about things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure you look at the board each day. You can set alarms/timers/reminders on an item too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23443" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9378" RevisionGUID="8ad7a92e-c08a-47de-8d7d-abb0ed284a81" CreationDate="2019-08-09T05:02:51.370" UserId="19071" Text="I am 31 years old and graduated university in math with a PhD in 2016. Since then I started a startup with my parents (my parents do networking, I do the website with Laravel/React for a 5k community, learning stuff on my own).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My goal is to transform into a PHP freelancer who works for a 3-9 months in different companies a year and the remaining months for own projects or the project for my parents. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I created a LinkedIn profile and got many request for full-time jobs which I declined until now because I wanted to keep the project with my parents going. I also got some 3 months freelancing offers, but they often included `experience with writing REST API's`.&#xD;&#xA;Although I have used many REST API's to include them in my projects, I never actually written a REST API so that other developer could integrate my REST API into their project (because there is no demand for this). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be the best way to learn this skill? &#xD;&#xA;Is that something that one learns only when working in a big tech or middleclass company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23444" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9378" RevisionGUID="8ad7a92e-c08a-47de-8d7d-abb0ed284a81" CreationDate="2019-08-09T05:02:51.370" UserId="19071" Text="How to learn writing REST API's?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23445" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9378" RevisionGUID="8ad7a92e-c08a-47de-8d7d-abb0ed284a81" CreationDate="2019-08-09T05:02:51.370" UserId="19071" Text="|writing|training|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23446" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9379" RevisionGUID="d31313a5-e486-4cc8-9299-13c3fbbde157" CreationDate="2019-08-09T14:34:02.037" UserId="10464" Text="No, you don't need to work at a big company. The basics of it will be very easy for you since you understand the client side already. Yes, you can build REST APIs in PHP but the industry is leaning a lot on node.js for such things now. Find a tutorial online that shows an example in the language of your choice. Usually the server side will involve some kind of data store. Plus client authentication. Some web page titles out there: &quot;How to build powerful REST APIs blazingly fast with Node.js&quot; and &quot;How To Create A Simple REST API in PHP - Step By Step Guide!&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23447" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="9378" RevisionGUID="2b291979-6ae7-45aa-8f7a-d1db20821062" CreationDate="2019-08-09T16:37:56.643" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:61,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;bytebuster&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="23451" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9381" RevisionGUID="71431151-599e-46da-bab6-e4ddc5fbbe29" CreationDate="2019-08-09T19:23:30.730" UserId="10464" Text="Yes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; [F]oreign owners may act as consultants to the LLC under a written&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Consultant’s agreement completing all consulting work within their&#xD;&#xA;&gt; home country and billing the LLC in the United States for this&#xD;&#xA;&gt; service. By doing so, it may be possible to eliminate profits thus&#xD;&#xA;&gt; avoiding some taxation, as well as U.S. situs (located) earnings,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; which would be subject to the U.S. tax regime, even for non-residents.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; [EPGD Business Law][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But read the entire article I linked to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.epgdlaw.com/llc-foreign-owners/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23453" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9382" RevisionGUID="7af25074-4384-4c76-ae29-35d3db3372a8" CreationDate="2019-08-10T12:19:10.717" UserId="22395" Text="I was working on a project over the last 6 months - originally i estimated 40 hours however due to client changes it spiralled out to about 100 hours. This was in Australia. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client originally found a new developer who was supposed to work along side me but ended up taking over the project as he convinced them to rebuild the project another framework. I said I wasnt confident taking it on and the client ended up terminating the contract and going with the &quot;supporting web dev&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes I would take 2-3 days to reply to emails and the job still wasnt finished that we agreed upon and I will admit my code wasnt the absolute greatest but it worked. Overall I was unhappy with the project and the client but continued on to try at least finish the job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only part in my contract that specifies anything relevant is that if the client was unhappy they could terminate me - apart from that there was nothing else about needing to finish the job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm just curious here if the client would have any right to sue? They have indicated before when I didnt reply for a few days to threaten legal action but im curious if they are just talking tough? &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23454" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9382" RevisionGUID="7af25074-4384-4c76-ae29-35d3db3372a8" CreationDate="2019-08-10T12:19:10.717" UserId="22395" Text="Does the clients have the rights to sue if I took too long (breach of contract)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23455" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9382" RevisionGUID="7af25074-4384-4c76-ae29-35d3db3372a8" CreationDate="2019-08-10T12:19:10.717" UserId="22395" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23456" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9383" RevisionGUID="d4c3632e-2a9d-49bf-9106-ab65f6236863" CreationDate="2019-08-10T16:02:36.233" UserId="10464" Text="1.) You gave them an estimate. Not a definite promised delivery date. So they can't claim that a longer timeline breaks your contract. They were free to pull the plug at any point. As long as you kept them in the loop.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.) You produced a working demo/complete solution to what you were originally agreed to do. Mission accomplished.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3.) They changed their minds about goals when they talked to the second developer. It's not your fault that they didn't know what they really wanted when they gave you the go ahead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4.) 2-3 day delay in correspondence for this kind of project is not a big deal (absent an agreement otherwise).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think they are just trying to scare you into giving them a refund that they know they aren't actually entitled to. They will look foolish for having paid twice to get their project done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23457" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9383" RevisionGUID="970a67ec-2f33-467e-8008-74211e1f1045" CreationDate="2019-08-11T18:53:29.303" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 4 characters in body" Text="1. You gave them an estimate. Not a definite promised delivery date. So they can't claim that a longer timeline breaks your contract. They were free to pull the plug at any point. As long as you kept them in the loop.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. You produced a working demo/complete solution to what you were originally agreed to do. Mission accomplished.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. They changed their minds about goals when they talked to the second developer. It's not your fault that they didn't know what they really wanted when they gave you the go ahead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. 2-3 day delay in correspondence for this kind of project is not a big deal (absent an agreement otherwise).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think they are just trying to scare you into giving them a refund that they know they aren't actually entitled to. They will look foolish for having paid twice to get their project done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23464" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9386" RevisionGUID="f1cc3e4e-3d53-467e-894d-306edf9eaca3" CreationDate="2019-08-13T14:53:36.977" UserId="10464" Text="It's not your problem if a client wants to change a project or add on new stuff in the middle of a project. They need to pay for the time. If it's much more expensive to do that during a project than by setting specifications at the start that's their problem, not yours. If your client is inexperienced you can explain this to them before taking on the project so there's no misunderstandings later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if someone pays me to create some code and they claim they've told me (or helped me) 100% of the specifications, I'm not obligated to build the code so that it's easy to extend later. Now a good developer wants to make things easy to extend later but your primary job here is to meet specifications. If we know at the outset that the code needs to be easy to extend that would be one of the requirements from the start and also be a factor in pricing. Again, this is something to discuss with less experienced clients before you start so there's no misunderstandings a 8 months later (or whenever)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23465" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9386" RevisionGUID="dda4a074-038e-43bd-b97b-333c354803a8" CreationDate="2019-08-14T00:20:23.980" UserId="10464" Comment="added 6 characters in body" Text="It's not your problem if a client wants to change a project or add on new stuff in the middle of a project. They need to pay for the time. If it's much more expensive to do that during a project than by setting specifications at the start that's their problem, not yours. If your client is inexperienced you can explain this to them before taking on the project so there's no misunderstandings later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if someone pays me to create some code and they claim they've told me (or helped me write) 100% of the specifications, I'm not obligated to build the code so that it's easy to extend later. Now a good developer wants to make things easy to extend later but your primary job here is to meet specifications. If we know at the outset that the code needs to be easy to extend that would be one of the requirements from the start and also be a factor in pricing. Again, this is something to discuss with less experienced clients before you start so there's no misunderstandings 8 months later (or whenever)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23466" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9387" RevisionGUID="fbc95e96-cf70-4b12-aaea-6d8addb81f38" CreationDate="2019-08-14T22:06:16.373" UserId="10464" Text="I'd usually only provide a very rough estimate and **not** do a detailed analysis. Yes, like you I will research but put a limit on how much time I put into that research. Then I make it clear that this is just a rough number subject to change. If they're comfortable with that number and timeline then it makes sense to look deeper. Still, you give them as little of the details as possible before they sign the deal, because they didn't actually pay for that and it's valuable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It sounds like you're in demand so try raising your prices. This will help pay for the times where you don't win a contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23467" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9387" RevisionGUID="edacfe3b-c0b7-46fd-86ab-831b0dbed439" CreationDate="2019-08-14T22:11:48.003" UserId="10464" Comment="added 69 characters in body" Text="When dealing with clients who don't provide detailed specifications, I'd usually only provide a very rough estimate and **not** do a detailed analysis. Yes, like you I will research but put a limit on how much time I put into that research. Then I make it clear that this is just a rough number subject to change. If they're comfortable with that number and timeline then it makes sense to look deeper. Still, you give them as little of the details as possible before they sign the deal, because they didn't actually pay for that and it's valuable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It sounds like you're in demand so try raising your prices. This will help pay for the times where you don't win a contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23468" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9307" RevisionGUID="29ad551b-554a-4fe4-a69e-045ce7fb06b7" CreationDate="2019-08-15T09:01:30.163" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23469" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9388" RevisionGUID="3927067a-ff9c-43e0-94b7-065aca92952e" CreationDate="2019-08-17T07:27:50.487" UserId="22451" Text="I used to have the same problem pretty regularly. The trick for me was to change my habits around it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where possible I would take a train over flying as it allowed more time to work en route. Or if driving or for any reason working on the move wasn't also viable then my best bet was usually to get the travel out of the way. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Rather than straining to be near your half day meeting for the other half of the day simply get back to your own home/office/hotel room and make up the time there. You have to head back at some point so you're not losing any time by doing this, just switch mentality and realise that the solution to wanting to work somewhere private and comfortable, such as your usual place of work is, well, your usual place of work. If its too long a distance or longer trip, then frankly the hotel room is your best, most depressing friend. Sorry." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23470" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9389" RevisionGUID="20b13758-f95b-4686-88f9-06f5dc413da7" CreationDate="2019-08-18T03:23:21.950" UserId="22452" Text="I just started my career as an online freelancer and even though I try to do my best I have this constant stress &amp; anxiety about what will happen if there is a huge unwanted issue/bug in my code?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, what if my software crashes completely because of some bug and causes huge financial/reputation damage to the company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I always say to clients that I will fix any bugs found for free for at least 6 months, but I'm still concerned, will I be held responsible? what if there is a lot of money involved? should I pay for the damages?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For this reason, I recently started putting [Mozilla Public License 2][1]&#xD;&#xA;in all my codes, so basically my customers can even re-sell the code, I rather have that than have stress about the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice/legal-notes/ideas are greatly appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S. I'm a PHP coder so the source is always provided to the customer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://choosealicense.com/licenses/mpl-2.0/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23471" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9389" RevisionGUID="20b13758-f95b-4686-88f9-06f5dc413da7" CreationDate="2019-08-18T03:23:21.950" UserId="22452" Text="What is the freelancer's responsibility regarding software bugs?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23472" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9389" RevisionGUID="20b13758-f95b-4686-88f9-06f5dc413da7" CreationDate="2019-08-18T03:23:21.950" UserId="22452" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|consulting|licensing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23473" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9389" RevisionGUID="ed4da0ed-4343-4cd3-9a19-4a77ed0e285c" CreationDate="2019-08-18T03:43:51.093" UserId="22452" Comment="added 150 characters in body" Text="I just started my career as an online freelancer and even though I try to do my best I have this constant stress &amp; anxiety about what will happen if there is a huge unwanted issue/bug in my code?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, what if my software crashes completely because of some bug and causes huge financial/reputation damage to the company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I always say to clients that I will fix any bugs found for free for at least 6 months, but I'm still concerned, will I be held responsible? what if there is a lot of money involved? should I pay for the damages?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For this reason, I recently started putting [Mozilla Public License 2][1]&#xD;&#xA;in all my codes, so basically my customers can even re-sell the code, I rather have that than have stress about the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice/legal-notes/ideas are greatly appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S. I'm a PHP coder so the source is always provided to the customer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.P.S. I am diagnosed with [Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://choosealicense.com/licenses/mpl-2.0/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/generalized-anxiety-disorder-gad" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23474" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9389" RevisionGUID="947d0f16-36f0-40b5-81e2-d33a24758611" CreationDate="2019-08-18T03:58:43.880" UserId="22452" Comment="added 19 characters in body" Text="I just started my career as an online freelancer and even though I try to do my best I have this constant stress &amp; anxiety about what will happen if there is a huge unwanted issue/bug in my code?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, what if my software crashes completely because of some bug and causes huge financial/reputation damage to the company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I always say to clients that I will fix any bugs found for free for at least 6 months, but I'm still concerned, will I be held responsible? what if there is a lot of money involved? should I pay for the damages?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For this reason, I recently started putting [Mozilla Public License 2][1]&#xD;&#xA;in all my codes, so basically my customers can even re-sell the code, I rather have that than have stress about the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice/legal-notes/ideas are greatly appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**P.S.** I'm a PHP coder so the source is always provided to the customer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**P.P.S.** In case it's relevant, I am diagnosed with [Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://choosealicense.com/licenses/mpl-2.0/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/generalized-anxiety-disorder-gad" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23476" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9390" RevisionGUID="17dd7457-c3ce-4d87-88ab-a9bcaf4592e2" CreationDate="2019-08-19T20:18:25.600" UserId="21435" Text="Regardless of what services you provide to your clients, you should invest in Professional Liability Insurance and General Liability Insurance, or their equivalents.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Will I be held responsible?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might very well be held responsible. It is your code after all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; What if there is a lot of money involved? should I pay for the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; damages?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might very well be responsible for damages or financial losses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is why it's critical that you protect yourself with the appropriate insurance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23477" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9348" RevisionGUID="9a85106c-b14e-4031-a17e-4e351b59b0e9" CreationDate="2019-08-20T04:03:50.367" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23486" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9393" RevisionGUID="5a83b83a-f912-47a3-8caa-afabe970cb1c" CreationDate="2019-08-21T15:55:08.913" UserId="22249" Text="I've been freelancing for a few years and can manage 2-3 clients at any time. I do have a S-Corp and plan on building a business. I have a few people who can help me out when there's overflow of work. They are all hired as contractors and none of them are full time employees. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whenever I have clients come back to me, they are very particular that I spend 100% time on their projects. Ideally I'd like to do a high level design and hand it over to my contractor. IMO this is the only way I can scale and start building a business. Convincing the clients though has been very difficult. Should I just stop telling them that I am working with others? Thoughts?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23487" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9393" RevisionGUID="5a83b83a-f912-47a3-8caa-afabe970cb1c" CreationDate="2019-08-21T15:55:08.913" UserId="22249" Text="How to scale yourself with the client being comfortable?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23488" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9393" RevisionGUID="5a83b83a-f912-47a3-8caa-afabe970cb1c" CreationDate="2019-08-21T15:55:08.913" UserId="22249" Text="|attracting-clients|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23495" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9394" RevisionGUID="c09085ab-1471-4ce7-836a-4165ba97cbb1" CreationDate="2019-08-23T11:06:17.337" UserId="21318" Text="I've been running a small software/web development company for more than 10 years now and I run into this issue quite frequently. Not as often as I used to, but still more than I'd like to. I found some years ago that it is important to follow the 80/20 rule. That is, 80% of your income comes from 20% of your clientele. Your clients aren't afraid to fire you, so don't be afraid to fire them. If they want to demand 100% of your time, then they aren't worth your time. That being said, generally each client regardless of their budget thinks that their project is the most important. &#xD;&#xD;Your job as the leader of a small tech company is to be apprised to what your people are doing. In most cases you don't **have** to tell them who is working on the project. But you need to have a proper project management system in place so that when a client calls, you can also figure out what is going on. Also, if you don't have an architect working at your company, then you **are** the architect. :) You should most definitely define the architecture for your developers, throw that in your project management system, make your devs give detailed updates in the PMS, and consider daily SCRUMS, so when a client calls you don't sound like you don't have a clue what's going on &amp; send him over to one of your devs. Generally speaking, devs aren't the best people to put in front of your client. Remember before you started your business and your were just a normal programmer without a business. When you went to a client... didn't a &quot;handler&quot; always go with you (project manager or some other sort of manager)? When devs that aren't accustomed to dealing with customers start talking tech, the customer's eyes glaze over &amp; they usually get annoyed. So, you really have to be the point man. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23496" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9395" RevisionGUID="146226bd-ff4e-4aa6-8603-783a29e99bd8" CreationDate="2019-08-23T12:06:38.720" UserId="22451" Text="I would agree with joeqwerty in that you should bill for all of your work. I don't believe however it would be necessary to draw it out as separate billable time for &quot;project management&quot;. I personally bill under single categories of consultancy - if clients have questions about my specific working (very rare if they are happy with the output) I always have my own time management workings available to explain where my efforts have been focus.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your time/consultancy is all to be paid for regardless of your speciality and with their lack of PM resources clearly the expectation is that you manage this yourself; there's no need to separate it, how much time you spend on this vs everything else is secondary - so long as they feel the finished product is value for money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's another example however of being very upfront and thorough when agreeing a scope of works. If you're used to having schedules prepared for you then fine but you should clarify this during bids to avoid confusion and potential delays." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23497" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9396" RevisionGUID="6eb44f1d-4859-4b39-a59d-2cc1b7fc07f4" CreationDate="2019-08-23T12:32:28.170" UserId="22451" Text="So I have recently been teaching myself to code in various languages in order to create some responsive and attractive websites. I am growing in my abilities and could happily build some smaller simpler websites. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is whether there is a best way to gain some exposure to freelancing in some smaller projects maybe even as part of a team? I guess the ideal scenario here is just to have that extra layer of first of all credibility whilst you gain first pieces of work, but also a layer of safety with some slightly more experienced heads checking the output of my work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would be great to be able to confidently try my hand at some better work then have it reviewed professionally without risking any reputation - of course I could take this on myself and maybe get a functioning website of some complexity but if the code is a little clunky or not well future-proofed its still a future reputation risk. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any remote/freelance projects/employers of note anyone can recommend? (I know of the likes of upwork/freelancer but feel these sites are massively over-subscribed with a lot of noise and not much really happening, plus lack that layer of cover I am really after)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23498" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9396" RevisionGUID="6eb44f1d-4859-4b39-a59d-2cc1b7fc07f4" CreationDate="2019-08-23T12:32:28.170" UserId="22451" Text="Gaining experience and confidence whilst developing coding abilities" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23499" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9396" RevisionGUID="6eb44f1d-4859-4b39-a59d-2cc1b7fc07f4" CreationDate="2019-08-23T12:32:28.170" UserId="22451" Text="|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23500" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9393" RevisionGUID="88816cc5-2447-4387-89f9-2b2e20e172ab" CreationDate="2019-08-23T15:00:23.927" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1164915294781001729" />
  <row Id="23506" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9356" RevisionGUID="bf26703f-938c-496f-a529-1d0b498ab799" CreationDate="2019-08-27T13:03:05.387" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23507" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9382" RevisionGUID="4b6a62d7-7aa9-45c6-9b07-b72e194fcf9a" CreationDate="2019-08-27T15:00:36.573" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1166364899146162176" />
  <row Id="23508" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9399" RevisionGUID="d88b8e3a-8398-4e87-bd6d-f99eacd61031" CreationDate="2019-08-29T07:33:42.757" UserId="1303" Text="I have the project agreement ready which I will send to all my clients before website development begins.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I am confused about when to ask for an upfront payment?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally, when I send agreements before asking any upfront, a few clients deny working further in the project. So what I decided is, I will charge them upfront and clearly mention it in the invoice itself (which I issue before any agreement). After taking the upfront payment, I will send the agreement to the client where it will be clearly defined that the advanced payment has already been made. And other milestones will be paid as per the agreement... which is defined clearly in the agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this a proper way to handle this? Do you have any advice or recommendations?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many thanks!!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23509" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9399" RevisionGUID="d88b8e3a-8398-4e87-bd6d-f99eacd61031" CreationDate="2019-08-29T07:33:42.757" UserId="1303" Text="When do I ask for an advance/upfront payment" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23510" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9399" RevisionGUID="d88b8e3a-8398-4e87-bd6d-f99eacd61031" CreationDate="2019-08-29T07:33:42.757" UserId="1303" Text="|payment-terms|working-from-home|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23512" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9400" RevisionGUID="9848f325-e7ad-4819-930d-147fee568238" CreationDate="2019-08-29T14:23:30.677" UserId="22501" Text="Although you've agreed to fix bugs or other defects, that doesn't necessarily make you liable for the damage caused by those defects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The [Mozilla Public License][mpl], which you're using for your code, includes terms to help protect the code's contributors and distributors against liability:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[mpl]: https://choosealicense.com/licenses/mpl-2.0/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;```&#xD;&#xA;*  7. Limitation of Liability                                          *&#xD;&#xA;*  --------------------------                                          *&#xD;&#xA;*                                                                      *&#xD;&#xA;*  Under no circumstances and under no legal theory, whether tort      *&#xD;&#xA;*  (including negligence), contract, or otherwise, shall any           *&#xD;&#xA;*  Contributor, or anyone who distributes Covered Software as          *&#xD;&#xA;*  permitted above, be liable to You for any direct, indirect,         *&#xD;&#xA;*  special, incidental, or consequential damages of any character      *&#xD;&#xA;*  including, without limitation, damages for lost profits, loss of    *&#xD;&#xA;*  goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any    *&#xD;&#xA;*  and all other commercial damages or losses, even if such party      *&#xD;&#xA;*  shall have been informed of the possibility of such damages. This   *&#xD;&#xA;*  limitation of liability shall not apply to liability for death or   *&#xD;&#xA;*  personal injury resulting from such party's negligence to the       *&#xD;&#xA;*  extent applicable law prohibits such limitation. Some               *&#xD;&#xA;*  jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of           *&#xD;&#xA;*  incidental or consequential damages, so this exclusion and          *&#xD;&#xA;*  limitation may not apply to You.                                    *&#xD;&#xA;```&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many other popular licenses, such as the [MIT License][mit] and the [GPL][gpl], include similar terms to limit your liability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To be safe, though, if you want to make sure you're not at risk then you should also consult a lawyer who's familiar with software licensing issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[gpl]: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[mit]: https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23513" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9401" RevisionGUID="cd6d96ad-6333-459c-bf80-4bcaf4e940e4" CreationDate="2019-08-29T18:30:16.093" UserId="708" Text="You invoice *before* any formal contact is agreed upon? I'd walk away if that was proposed to me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Asking for payment before disclosing any agreement terms is somewhat underhanded and shady. And if you are not refunding that initial payment should the client  *not* wish to agree to your contract, you're really taking advantage of people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Typically, the initial deposit is paid at the time of *singing* a contract, not before.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23514" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3091" RevisionGUID="f1cbd0db-48e4-4c95-8a17-05a693a37f60" CreationDate="2019-08-30T00:42:50.637" UserId="4546" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="If you don't know well your client, your first goal is to build **relationship of trust**. In my view, the best way is to fix price a **small job** first, that is easy to estimate and deliver on time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will give you great opportunity to understand how the client works and how **enjoyable** and **productive** is the work for both sides.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that information, it will be much easier for you to estimate the time and cost for your next piece of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And if your relationship won't go as expected, you can easily quit after the small work done, with no bad feelings on both sides.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See also [my other answer here][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/2195/4546" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23515" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2195" RevisionGUID="9f707f8f-52ec-4071-ac4a-5870319571fc" CreationDate="2019-08-30T01:01:31.827" UserId="4546" Comment="added 109 characters in body" Text="As Entrepreneur I cannot see the value to pay per hour. &#xD;&#xA;It is exactly the opposite metric - I am interested in the work done with **minimum** hours spent. And freelancer paid by hours is incentivised naturally to **increase** the number of hours. I just feel it is wrong base for collaboration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Shouldn't we be looking instead to **align** our goals? Care about **quality, working atmosphere**? Compliment and reward each other?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As Employer, I look for quality work, competent, fast (within reason). Also I look to be impressed. A greater attention to details, a new angle I haven't thought about - you name it! The more I am impressed, the more I am willing to pay. Even better, I will offer this myself! So that this great impressive freelancer keeps up quality work, and I keep up rewarding her the best I can. Now our incentives are aligned!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now from the question I get the impression that neither client nor freelancer know exactly what work is involved, so fixing both price and time upfront is simply counter-productive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As freelancer, I would have an honest discussion outlining what possible work can be done with what outcomes. That is, **tangible outcomes** that client can **appreciate**. Assuming, they don't have a long relationship as of yet, and have to see how things move, picking a **small job** leading to a **fast valuable outcome** for the client would be the best thing to do. That way the freelancer knows it won't take too long, will possibly see a way to impress the client, and will know that client will appreciate the job and will gladly pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then, once both sides are happy after the first job is done, it is much easier to agree for the next. And so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So in conclusion, the **newer** your relationship is, the **smaller job** you should take at a time. That is the only way I see to keep both sides happy and working towards the same goal, not the opposite ones.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[This answer][1] could be somewhat related.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/3091/4546" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23516" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9402" RevisionGUID="6b761001-e9e2-400e-9b4a-2f2a883b71f2" CreationDate="2019-08-31T11:11:08.927" UserId="1303" Text="I have a new local client who simply won't stop calling me during my office hours.&#xA;&#xA;I do attend to calls of all my clients. But he calls me and discusses everything about the project over phone only, which adds to confusion and I also tend to forget some of them after a few hours because I am working on multiple projects at the moment and not just his project.&#xA;&#xA;He spends 2 to 3 hours only discussing, arguing, ignoring the technical suggestions from my end and only explaining his business model.&#xA;I clearly and politely told him that due to my workload it is not possible to attend such lengthy phonecalls. I also told him that we can use other better ways to communicate and discuss details, such as IMs, WhatsApp, email and anything else which I can refer to and properly work on it or give him suggestions and estimates.&#xA;&#xA;But he is only seeing his side and keeps calling me and spends most of my time and as a result, I can't attend other important phonecalls or give time to my work.&#xA;&#xA;He is also not paying much. I have offered him the price based on his budget but he is simply bargaining and asking to add more and more features to add within the budget.&#xA;&#xA;When I am telling him to consider my points and increase budget because of new requirements, he is threatening me with my calls, which he always records, although I have never said or promised to do anything which is outside the scope or agreement of my project, even through calls. I have all agreements ready for it also.&#xA;&#xA;How do I deal with him? I am thinking of getting a little blunt with him. Will that be a good thing to do at this stage? It's harming my other projects and I am having to give just too much time attending his calls, and also listening to his threats and bargaining, demands.&#xA;&#xA;Please help.&#xA;&#xA;Thanks! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23517" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9402" RevisionGUID="6b761001-e9e2-400e-9b4a-2f2a883b71f2" CreationDate="2019-08-31T11:11:08.927" UserId="1303" Text="My client calls me for hours during my work hours. How do I handle him?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23518" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9402" RevisionGUID="6b761001-e9e2-400e-9b4a-2f2a883b71f2" CreationDate="2019-08-31T11:11:08.927" UserId="1303" Text="|difficult-client|working-from-home|project-management|scope-of-work|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23519" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9403" RevisionGUID="ef8d0c86-3be0-453b-997f-60ea385cbdf8" CreationDate="2019-08-31T17:58:03.917" UserId="708" Text="&gt;*&quot;I'm sorry to cut this short, but I need to attend to other things. We'll speak again later. Thanks.&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you **let** someone run over you, they will continue to do so. Take control of your own business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23520" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9404" RevisionGUID="8535da3b-f54e-4cc6-9324-5b918ece1bc6" CreationDate="2019-08-31T23:02:23.803" UserId="21435" Text="If it were me, considering everything that you've told us, I would tell the client that I can no longer perform work for him and I would terminate the relationship." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23522" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9405" RevisionGUID="12852f0a-2a15-4f40-96f0-f2650c4ee107" CreationDate="2019-09-01T09:48:04.313" UserId="22518" Text="Remember, client is always right and you can't make any argument. Just simply share that &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; it's not possible for you to remember all things what he/she share&#xD;&#xA;&gt; over the phone. If he/she share it with you over email then you can&#xD;&#xA;&gt; check them easily and for any help you will poke him/her.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Hopefully, it will work for you in your future." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23523" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9406" RevisionGUID="b0014aad-bd14-4595-8df3-508032d11a85" CreationDate="2019-09-03T03:13:49.027" UserId="1303" Text="I have made an indeed silly decision to not send the agreement upfront to my new client, before starting his Web development project...&#xA;I actually didnt send it because he is a very close person and kind of my role model. So I did not want to appear too formal with him. I know, I shouldn't mix business with personal relationships...&#xA;&#xA;The project itself is going really smooth, no problems with the client and payment and deadlines are also being met on time.&#xA;&#xA;But just so that I can hand over certain rights and responsibilities once the project finishes, and also be clear about the future liabilities, can I send an agreement for approval midway in the project?&#xA;&#xA;He has already paid me two milestones. Basically we completed the website and it is just pending migration to his server and making the website LIVE.&#xA;&#xA;Your answer will be greatly appreciated.&#xA;&#xA;Thanks! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23524" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9406" RevisionGUID="b0014aad-bd14-4595-8df3-508032d11a85" CreationDate="2019-09-03T03:13:49.027" UserId="1303" Text="How can I send an agreement in midst of a project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23525" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9406" RevisionGUID="b0014aad-bd14-4595-8df3-508032d11a85" CreationDate="2019-09-03T03:13:49.027" UserId="1303" Text="|legal|web-development|project-management|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23526" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9407" RevisionGUID="03c4b900-e78c-44e2-b753-ab68c3eb7bb5" CreationDate="2019-09-03T03:39:20.007" UserId="22524" Text="Bill him for the hours you spend on the phone. Those are consulting hours. No further work will proceed until the account is brought current. All future phone conversations will also be billed. I went from disliking these type of clients to loving them. we could spend 12 hours on the phone for all I care. I have a Bluetooth so I can multitask and they get to tell me about there good old days. It's an expensive form of therapy but hey I'm here for my clients :-)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to take control of this and nip it in the bud. If they refuse to pay and they continue to call after you have laid down the law most smartphones these days come with some sort of blocking feature built-in. It will restore your sanity." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23527" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9408" RevisionGUID="1b08fe38-4a5a-4974-9799-22847a983a32" CreationDate="2019-09-03T03:41:58.233" UserId="22524" Text="you should get this in writing especially if you are going to continue with maintenance in the future. It's always a good idea to set expectations." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23533" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9411" RevisionGUID="01b82739-7ddf-4155-8f36-c85451cfb457" CreationDate="2019-09-03T18:55:25.733" UserId="75" Text="If you are already in the middle of the project, you need to decide if it's worthwhile bringing up a &quot;formal&quot; agreement then, or at the end.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The agreement does not need to necessarily contain all the details you would present in an initial agreement (i.e. milestones). It can be as simple as &quot;I, Nil, hereby grant all rights to work performed by September 30th, 2019, to John Doe&quot;, or it can be complex.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are close with the person, I would talk to them, in person. This way, you can gauge their reaction and feelings, and determine how to move forward that way. Hopefully, you both agree that a formal agreement will keep things professional, and not ruin any personal feelings or interactions in the future." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23534" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9348" RevisionGUID="0b1529ad-e2b5-4f63-abf0-fa0bf34ac7e0" CreationDate="2019-09-04T00:00:16.993" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1169037427513667584" />
  <row Id="23535" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7660" RevisionGUID="9d5bb4f9-a5c5-4947-b0d1-cca10fe6678c" CreationDate="2019-09-04T02:03:20.480" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23539" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9413" RevisionGUID="205eb4ea-f73a-4493-a2e5-e4fc32bd18bf" CreationDate="2019-09-06T22:03:00.457" UserId="22548" Text="Short Answer.. It depends&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Something I discuss with many clients, is the importance of Minimal Viable Product. Ideally your initial release should be at a point where the core features are viably working. That being said, mobile apps can evolve based on user feedback. The upside of releasing early? Getting reactions from testers, information from your engagement analytics, and solving major bugs before attempting to release it internationally.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Which leads me to, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;if we release an app that already exists, without any new features,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; why would users pick our newly created app over a 3-year-old app with&#xD;&#xA;&gt; a lot more clients and stability than ours?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; Why would users pick your app in the first place? Shouldn't your core feature be something that separates you from your competitor anyway? If Facebook was your competition, then you shouldn't try to build a second Facebook nor attempt to build enough features to match Facebook.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have you two written a business plan? Much of this decision could have been decided before hand as your marketing, growth, and sales strategy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally while I can not offer any source of statistics to support your point of view, in my opinion, your app should take no longer than a full year to initially release. Much less if you are full time developing or have multiple developers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23540" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9414" RevisionGUID="74225b4b-aad2-4a0a-9db1-2bb6dd883be7" CreationDate="2019-09-07T12:43:03.440" UserId="22549" Text="This is why many businesses charge hourly rates, because clients fail with understanding how long something takes most of the time. Most people don't understand the technical requirements, and so these things happen. If you wanted to charge more then state a minimum price (like $100) for the whole job, then if you have more addresses state a price per additional address before you begin the work. Get the details in writing and get a signed contract. No contract = no work done. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A contract should have cases where additional must be done that the customer must pay for. Be specific about how this works. Eventually you will find contract wording that is more fair to all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And sometimes there will just be miscommunications or work that doesn't pay as well. Only experience will help you determine which client you want to keep. My uncle has run a business and so have I. My uncle has actually fired clients, but in a nice way. They were just a PITA because they couldn't follow basic directions. These clients were also loss leaders and a liability to the company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Experience will also help you do quotes more accurately. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23541" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9415" RevisionGUID="ada6100b-2153-4b72-ac38-c7b8cf3a8dca" CreationDate="2019-09-07T12:47:04.970" UserId="22549" Text="You can ask them to sign a contract now, and while you are waiting, and perhaps inform them you have to stop all work until the contract is signed. But then you might also lose the whole job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A professional should have thought about this at the very beginning, but live and learn. These things happen and there is a cost to them. Let's be honest, your oversight is not their problem. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23542" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9415" RevisionGUID="a1dbf431-25b0-4c6d-8b50-da48c70403bc" CreationDate="2019-09-07T12:54:55.177" UserId="22549" Comment="added 215 characters in body" Text="You can ask them to sign a contract now, and while you are waiting, and perhaps inform them you have to stop all work until the contract is signed. But then you might also lose the whole job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also ask them to pay at different milestones of the project. Make the milestones, and the amount they owe, crystal clear. Then if they miss a payment, you will know they are not serious about paying you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A professional should have thought about this at the very beginning, but live and learn. These things happen and there is a cost to them. Let's be honest, your oversight is not their problem. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23543" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9358" RevisionGUID="7fd0a918-5546-4544-9f11-e045a5a4d4ee" CreationDate="2019-09-07T20:03:10.450" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23544" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9414" RevisionGUID="d831c96f-3286-436a-b119-6e18092094cd" CreationDate="2019-09-08T12:27:40.050" UserId="22549" Comment="Clarify answer." Text="This is why many businesses charge hourly rates, because clients fail with understanding how long something takes most of the time. Most people don't understand the technical requirements, and so these things happen. If you wanted to charge more, then state a minimum price (like $100) for the whole job, then if you have more addresses state a price per additional address before you begin the work. Get the details in writing and get a signed contract. No contract = no work done. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A contract should have cases where additional must be done that the customer must pay for. Be specific about how this works. Eventually you will find contract wording that is more fair to all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And sometimes there will just be miscommunications or work that doesn't pay as well. Only experience will help you determine which client you want to keep. My uncle has run a business and so have I. My uncle has actually fired clients, but in a nice way. They were just a PITA because they couldn't follow basic directions or were really needy. The business is there to help people... BUT.... there's a point where a business owner must recognize that &quot;I will just never make any money from this client.&quot; These clients were also loss leaders and a liability to the company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Really rude and overly demanding customers is another reason a business will release a client. There's only so much a human can take. This is a major reason for the decline in people in the trades in the US, like plumbing, electrical, etc. These tradesmen would rather work on building a commercial building than helping residential customers because the rudeness rate of residential customers is much higher now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Experience will also help you do quotes more accurately. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23545" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9312" RevisionGUID="54f20a54-abf2-44c0-95f6-021858cebe9a" CreationDate="2019-09-08T20:01:25.197" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23546" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9416" RevisionGUID="110f4c2e-0830-40f4-8728-3fc7403724d1" CreationDate="2019-09-09T06:42:17.770" UserId="22559" Text="Try using a Gantt Chart.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can keep it relatively high level but being able to visualise the timeline makes it easier to identify bottlenecks and tasks that can happen in parallel. It also forces you to be realistic about the effort of each task and your estimation ability will improve over time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;MSproject etc will automatically build one for you but excel works just fine for small-medium sized projects." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23547" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9417" RevisionGUID="0deb5a10-db7e-4b36-9a4d-ec38d2aa8f6e" CreationDate="2019-09-10T05:55:28.427" UserId="22565" Text="I am new to freelancing work, currently have no client and been in touch with two clients who show interests on my service. We met couple times already but both client seems not moving the process to discuss the contract detail, I just afraid if I ping them too often that will cause backfire, how exactly should I handle in such a sticky situation? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23548" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9417" RevisionGUID="0deb5a10-db7e-4b36-9a4d-ec38d2aa8f6e" CreationDate="2019-09-10T05:55:28.427" UserId="22565" Text="How do you know if a client is serious about your service?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23549" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9417" RevisionGUID="0deb5a10-db7e-4b36-9a4d-ec38d2aa8f6e" CreationDate="2019-09-10T05:55:28.427" UserId="22565" Text="|difficult-client|attracting-clients|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23551" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9419" RevisionGUID="96cff907-a323-4395-8e28-a6fabcd641d0" CreationDate="2019-09-10T12:25:00.873" UserId="708" Text="I provide estimates, details, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Wait a week. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I hear nothing, I'll reach out **once**. Asking if they have any further questions I can assist with. Often a client may tell me at that time that they've decided to go a different direction. But if they don't....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I pay them no heed until they contact me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they never do, then they decided against hiring me. My time is far too valuable to be hunting people down. If they are interested, they'll be in touch. In addition, appearing *too* eager can come across as *too* desperate -- leaving you open for poor negotiations or simply not getting work because you seem too &quot;needy&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23552" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9420" RevisionGUID="98d5c0a6-4274-4bc9-aca0-bed3e5a0cde6" CreationDate="2019-09-10T13:46:13.000" UserId="22568" Text="There are 3 levels of 'Yes' in negotiations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes - just to get the discussion.&#xD;&#xA;Yes - agreement with what you are saying.&#xD;&#xA;Yes - commitment level 'yes' backed with action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have sent in your estimates, details, etc., as @Scott mentioned above, and there's no response yet in terms of making payments, move on like you never met them. Go and find more clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Serious clients pay to kickoff their projects. Otherwise, they are just prospects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this helps.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23553" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9421" RevisionGUID="2072a814-f3d8-49e2-bf14-e60f6707ccb0" CreationDate="2019-09-10T13:46:30.663" UserId="22549" Text="They are interested when they sign a contract with all the important details of the project. I might contact them once or twice via email to follow up, since that's easy, but often things change, budgets change, management changes their mind and they go with another vendor or the project just gets dropped. Don't take it personally. This is part of business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23556" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9271" RevisionGUID="302a38a6-cf45-4e99-931c-4b8e425d2a7a" CreationDate="2019-09-11T06:43:01.720" UserId="15527" Comment="added 61 characters in body" Text="Location-specific questions about freelance business in Spain" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23557" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9271" RevisionGUID="302a38a6-cf45-4e99-931c-4b8e425d2a7a" CreationDate="2019-09-11T06:43:01.720" Comment="Proposed by 15527 approved by 61, 1018 edit id of 679" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23558" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9420" RevisionGUID="4c9bdc8f-311f-4852-bd49-4cb52bbb742e" CreationDate="2019-09-11T08:42:01.853" UserId="22568" Comment="added 10 characters in body" Text="There are 3 levels of 'Yes' in negotiations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes - just to get the discussion going.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes - agreement with what you are saying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes - commitment level 'yes' backed with action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have sent in your estimates, details, etc., as @Scott mentioned above, and there's no response yet in terms of making payments, move on like you never met them. Go and find more clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Serious clients pay to kickoff their projects. Otherwise, they are just prospects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this helps.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23559" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9422" RevisionGUID="25b9a084-c874-43dd-bf68-f03f6354294c" CreationDate="2019-09-11T11:01:12.687" UserId="22568" Text="Hi [Dmytro Chasovskyi][1],&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before you can successfully run multiple projects at once, you need to know your own strengths and weaknesses. I am a Web Developer myself but I'm stronger on the backend, have an eye for details and communicate well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With this knowledge, when I have a web project, I break it down to UI/UX, Design, Frontend and Backend. Luckily, I have friends that are better and faster than I am in those areas so I outsource the work to them and pay them well too. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you do this, you find that you can handle more projects than tackling the entire project alone each time. Form a strong team and delegate well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't have friends or colleagues like that, you can hire it out to experienced and skilled people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for tools, you can keep it simple by using [Trello][2] as [HenryM][3] suggested above. It's quite easy to learn and master if you don't already know how to use it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Trello being a simple tool, if any of your team members don't know how to use it already, you can help them learn it quickly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tip: You can use also a color scheme / labels on Trello to track issues. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/users/21254/dmytro-chasovskyi&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://trello.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/users/10464/henrym" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23560" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9423" RevisionGUID="c162ade0-7ca7-4c7a-84da-396867e1422d" CreationDate="2019-09-11T18:44:04.817" UserId="23573" Text="Not sure this is strictly on topic but it may be something that some freelancers have experienced or may know something about.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm used to be a freelance website /graphic designer, but I'm new to freelancing in photography and creative writing, so my portfolio is non existent at the moment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've designed a front end site for advertising my services, but would love to create a back end site which works like a personal journal project, where I cover many areas of my life with written blog posts, art work, photography and stories.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So this isn't a problem, until it comes to promoting such a system. There are too many unrelated categories to create a single social media presence for promotional purposes, and too many to create an individual social account for each ( considering that some will only be active fro a few months ).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An obvious solution would be to group some of the categories together and promote several of them on the same platform, but I was wondering if there was another way of promoting your work to the audience that best suits the topic of the section." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23561" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9423" RevisionGUID="c162ade0-7ca7-4c7a-84da-396867e1422d" CreationDate="2019-09-11T18:44:04.817" UserId="23573" Text="Using A Blog To Create A Portfolio" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23562" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9423" RevisionGUID="c162ade0-7ca7-4c7a-84da-396867e1422d" CreationDate="2019-09-11T18:44:04.817" UserId="23573" Text="|portfolio|startups|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23563" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9424" RevisionGUID="7d21bfeb-c5fd-4471-97d4-b480eac4275c" CreationDate="2019-09-11T21:25:23.490" UserId="22568" Text="I'll advise you to get an intern position with a local tech company. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an intern, you will work under the guidance of senior developers as you gain real world experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Never be afraid to make mistakes in coding and life ( as long as they are not deadly). You will learn and grow faster by making mistakes. They will make you a much more smarter developer as you learn from them. You are not your mistakes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead of looking to be a perfect developer that writes perfect code ( there's no such thing anyway), make up your mind to be an evolving developer. You will keep evolving day after day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope this helps you relax and have fun coding!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23564" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9425" RevisionGUID="b933f539-151a-4c01-a776-a0a04293dda3" CreationDate="2019-09-11T21:43:37.213" UserId="22568" Text="[Eless][1],&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice is to get very clear on your target clients and the problems your photography and creative writing skills will help them solve. My recommendation is to pick one of your skills, say photography and go after clients that need that services around that skill. You can't afford to be vague about the kind of clients you want. That's the beginning of pain and confusion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to go where they are ( online or offline ) and observe them talk or discuss. You need to research and find out what they value ( and will pay for ). This will help you package your services in a way that will suit them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Form your research information, it will become easier to build a website or blog that speaks to them and draws them to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Happy Freelancing! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/users/23573/w-eless" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23566" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9427" RevisionGUID="197607bc-44cc-4283-9ca0-82a0f4353850" CreationDate="2019-09-12T09:31:47.203" UserId="23583" Text="I developed a Wordpress website for a client. I also bought a Wordpress Theme (on Envato) and activitated its license to get the latest theme/plugin updates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What if a client stops with my services? What would be the best thing to do now? Keep the theme activated so the client can keeps updating everything? Or shall I deactivate the license so the client gets the website as it is but is responsible for all future updates?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23567" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9427" RevisionGUID="197607bc-44cc-4283-9ca0-82a0f4353850" CreationDate="2019-09-12T09:31:47.203" UserId="23583" Text="Transfer Wordpress website to client that stops" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23568" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9427" RevisionGUID="197607bc-44cc-4283-9ca0-82a0f4353850" CreationDate="2019-09-12T09:31:47.203" UserId="23583" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|web-development|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23573" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9429" RevisionGUID="087dc09b-c20b-41a6-867b-b1b640599b43" CreationDate="2019-09-12T17:57:40.923" UserId="75" Text="This should be part of your initial contract, an exit clause. What happens if you get hit by a bus? The client would not have access to transfer the site to their own systems or host, right?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Any purchases for physical assets (i.e. hardware, peripherals, physical media) can be purchased by you or the client, and given upon payment.&#xD;&#xA;2. Any online license purchases should be sent to a mailbox the client controls. They should know how to access it, and that you have access to it. It can be as simple as a GMail account created for this particular purpose, or a new alias on their email server. Guide the customer to the purchase screen, even if you need to use screenshots to make sure they order the right thing, but make sure THEIR information is entered.&#xD;&#xA;3. When building apps, you need to make sure they are transferable. Again, what if you get hit by a bus? Luckily, Wordpress itself can be transferred with just a database and web directory, including add-ons. Licenses may or may not be tied to a particular Wordpress account or email address, but a simple email to the theme's author should allow you to transfer ownership to the client (after it's been paid for).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client paid for a theme, they should get what they paid for. If you need to pay a fee every month, make sure the client knows that, and is taking over payments. Do that YESTERDAY." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23576" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9425" RevisionGUID="2c37d8c3-afdf-452a-8d5c-4803dfdfb775" CreationDate="2019-09-12T17:59:33.813" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 106 characters in body" Text="My advice is to get very clear on your target clients and the problems your photography and creative writing skills will help them solve. My recommendation is to pick one of your skills, say photography and go after clients that need that services around that skill. You can't afford to be vague about the kind of clients you want. That's the beginning of pain and confusion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to go where they are ( online or offline ) and observe them talk or discuss. You need to research and find out what they value ( and will pay for ). This will help you package your services in a way that will suit them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Form your research information, it will become easier to build a website or blog that speaks to them and draws them to you.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23578" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9430" RevisionGUID="c4ccb81f-41e1-43a9-962b-049bd63d242d" CreationDate="2019-09-12T22:51:04.637" UserId="2543" Text="The first thing you want to do is establish your network.  As a freelancer, your network is your lifeline.  Surround yourself with developers who you aspire to be, and people you want to work with.  You will end up becoming who you hang around. I have been freelancing for a few years, 100% remotely, and 90% of my work as a mobile developer was landed by word of mouth through my network.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Join as many Slack groups as you can.  You just have to Google &quot;slack groups for developers&quot; and you'll have hundreds of thousands of people around the world at your fingertips in Slack.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From there you should go to as many developer conferences, talks, meetups, etc that you can.  I would also advise you participate in hack-a-thons.  Depending on where you live geographically, you shouldn't have to travel far.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, connect with me and send me a message. My LinkedIn is in my Stack Exchange profile.  I have been freelancing for a couple years as a remote mobile developer and would love to give you extended advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23580" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9425" RevisionGUID="8628d48a-f660-48a3-8536-1ff4a1fc7c1f" CreationDate="2019-09-13T07:48:53.877" UserId="22568" Comment="edited body" Text="My advice is to get very clear on your target clients and the problems your photography and creative writing skills will help them solve. My recommendation is to pick one of your skills, say photography and go after clients that need that services around that skill. You can't afford to be vague about the kind of clients you want. That's the beginning of pain and confusion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to go where they are ( online or offline ) and observe them talk or discuss. You need to research and find out what they value ( and will pay for ). This will help you package your services in a way that will suit them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From your research information, it will become easier to build a website or blog that speaks to them and draws them to you.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23581" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9414" RevisionGUID="76cfd5e9-ce9d-4094-b85a-ac63335d4413" CreationDate="2019-09-13T12:06:18.080" UserId="22568" Comment="I corrected some grammar and improved the formatting of the answer for easier reading." Text="This is why many businesses charge hourly rates, because clients fail with understanding how long something takes most of the time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most people don't understand the technical requirements, and so these things happen. If you wanted to charge more, then state a minimum price (like $100) for the whole job, then if you have more addresses state a price per additional address before you begin the work. Get the details in writing and get a signed contract. No contract = no work done. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A contract should have cases where additional work must be done that the customer must pay for. Be specific about how this works. Eventually you will find contract wording that is more fair to all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And sometimes there will be miscommunications or work that doesn't pay as well. Only experience will help you determine which client you want to keep. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My uncle has run a business and so have I. My uncle has actually fired clients, but in a nice way. They were just a PITA because they couldn't follow basic directions or were really needy. The business is there to help people... BUT.... there's a point where a business owner must recognize that &quot;I will just never make any money from this client.&quot; These clients were also loss leaders and a liability to the company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Really rude and overly demanding customers is another reason a business will release a client. There's only so much a human can take. This is a major reason for the decline in people in the trades in the US, like plumbing, electrical, etc. These tradesmen would rather work on building a commercial building than helping residential customers because the rudeness rate of residential customers is much higher now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Experience will also help you do quotes more accurately. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23582" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9414" RevisionGUID="76cfd5e9-ce9d-4094-b85a-ac63335d4413" CreationDate="2019-09-13T12:06:18.080" Comment="Proposed by 22568 approved by 22549 edit id of 692" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23583" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9431" RevisionGUID="2e302513-da64-45a3-a499-7ef6b48bdbf4" CreationDate="2019-09-15T14:19:07.537" UserId="23595" Text="I finished a recent website project which took too much time for a low price. I delivered the project completed (without excluding potential minor bugs). After delivery, they informed me of something that I never knew before. It makes the main part of the project difficult to use and would need me to change it almost entirely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As we talked about it months before, it would need someone else to continue the project if needed. They asked if the *&quot;additional&quot;* amount would be deducted from my initial price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I refused as I delivered the project completed, the issue is coming from a missing important information; but is this something that a client can do ?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23584" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9431" RevisionGUID="2e302513-da64-45a3-a499-7ef6b48bdbf4" CreationDate="2019-09-15T14:19:07.537" UserId="23595" Text="Can a client deduct additional work from my price?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23585" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9431" RevisionGUID="2e302513-da64-45a3-a499-7ef6b48bdbf4" CreationDate="2019-09-15T14:19:07.537" UserId="23595" Text="|difficult-client|project-management|billing|france|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23586" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9432" RevisionGUID="9ec3009d-47f3-42bb-b347-44383c17286e" CreationDate="2019-09-15T19:27:32.687" UserId="708" Text="Generally, no.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hopefully you have a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assuming...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The work to be completed was clearly defined **in writing**&#xD;&#xA; 2. You completed the work as defined in the *written agreement*&#xD;&#xA; 3. They owe you your quoted price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;NOW... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- There's **New** information which the **client failed** to disclose at #1.&#xD;&#xA;- This *new information* will require additional work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*This* is a **separate project**, above and beyond, the initial project. This work should be quoted, contracted, and treated like all other projects and is entirely independent of the previously (now completed) work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is the **client's responsibility** to disclose limitations/requirements ***BEFORE*** work begins.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine you are a caterer... you are hired to cater a wedding. You go over the menu and any food restrictions with the client and everything is agreed upon. You go out, buy supplies and cook much of the food - Chicken, fish, and Beef for 100 people. As you are storing everything for the upcoming event, you get a call that now all food must be vegan and gluten free... you have to start over.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a **new** invoice for **new** supplies and **new** work which now much be done due to the client's lack of disclosure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients, and people in general, have this nasty habit of perceiving work which is &quot;digital&quot; as not &quot;real&quot; or &quot;tangible&quot; and that it isn't the same as work done offline. This perception is entirely incorrect." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23587" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9431" RevisionGUID="091fa12f-ad10-4858-be2a-ddc9403584e4" CreationDate="2019-09-16T08:37:02.577" UserId="23595" Comment="Added info about contract" Text="I finished a recent website project which took too much time for a low price. I delivered the project completed (without excluding potential minor bugs). After delivery, they informed me of something that I never knew before. It makes the main part of the project difficult to use and would need me to change it almost entirely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As we talked about it months before, it would need someone else to continue the project if needed. They asked if the *&quot;additional&quot;* amount would be deducted from my initial price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I refused as I delivered the project completed, the issue is coming from a missing important information; but is this something that a client can do ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----&#xD;&#xA;**Edit:** Sadly there is no contract or document describing the tasks. I worked at the client for a year when I was a student and we both thought I *&quot;knew the main issues&quot;* of the project. This is a huge mistake on my side, but I still got an information after the delivery." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23588" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9433" RevisionGUID="c93faf92-6396-49c7-8ddf-cc515a8b5d21" CreationDate="2019-09-16T15:40:21.233" UserId="23599" Text="As web site designer, always upload it to a web site that you own and let clients examine it as you develop it and make their suggestions. Keep several major Javascripts hidden loaded by other Java codes so that crook clients copying whole web site into their own ISP web will not work. If original agreement with clients was your expenses as a lump-sum then as soon as they utter a word that bla bla now must be modified to something new then you switch immediately to specify your rates in per hour so that clients can do as much change as they wish. But not until final payments received from client and they confirmed their satisfaction in form of recorded phone call, SMS, email, their web site only exists on your ISP web site for client's examination. When client resides in your own country you must keep all your communications so that in case of law suits you have a proper chronological record of changes and communications and payments and hours of your work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23593" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9435" RevisionGUID="a151d053-695d-42cc-81e5-696a229a2f2a" CreationDate="2019-09-20T10:04:01.457" UserId="23612" Text="A few days ago I had a phone interview with a client over here in Belgium,&#xD;&#xA;arranged through an Irish agency: but before the phone call I had to reply&#xD;&#xA;to a mail confirming that I agreed to the terms of a document this agency&#xD;&#xA;had sent me, stating that I wouldn't seek to get in touch with this same client&#xD;&#xA;for a duration of 6 months afterwards (&quot;consultant agrees not to provide or&#xD;&#xA;attempts to provide services other than through &lt;agency&gt;, to client...&quot;).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I marked my agreement to such conditions, but I never had to do that in the&#xD;&#xA;past already at the stage of the interview.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No penalty foreseen in this document if I breach this agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it something someone has already seen ? Is it usual ? Cause now, if I ever&#xD;&#xA;get contacted, say in 4 months, for another job, at the same client's, by&#xD;&#xA;another agency... it seems I'll have to turn offer down ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23594" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9435" RevisionGUID="a151d053-695d-42cc-81e5-696a229a2f2a" CreationDate="2019-09-20T10:04:01.457" UserId="23612" Text="Agree to stick to agency at interview stage already" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23595" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9435" RevisionGUID="a151d053-695d-42cc-81e5-696a229a2f2a" CreationDate="2019-09-20T10:04:01.457" UserId="23612" Text="|interview|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23600" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9402" RevisionGUID="a2fa94d0-bd92-414b-8e42-46a09808b1dc" CreationDate="2019-09-22T09:00:32.710" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1175696370537304064" />
  <row Id="23601" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9437" RevisionGUID="1737695a-f0ed-42ad-ab12-1c46270b15db" CreationDate="2019-09-23T06:55:33.437" UserId="7858" Text="In Denmark, it's an unusual - but not unheard of - practice, generally called a 'marketing/sales clause' - meaning only they have the right to represent you towards a specific client for a given time period.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I have twice rejected such clauses despite them claiming they are 'common practice' (which they are not).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order for me to accept such a clause, they would need to present a case making it worthwhile for me; e.g. that they have unusual inside access to an attractive client or are offering higher rates.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23602" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9438" RevisionGUID="d3e3a1d5-4825-4724-b674-172e4fd89e32" CreationDate="2019-09-23T07:27:05.533" UserId="7858" Text="Since you're new to freelancing, I'd add that getting clients to commit often takes a surprising amount of time - even when the meeting(s) have seemed nothing but positive.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is very little one can do to speed up the process, as one never knows the reason for the client dragging their feet. It could be complicated internal processes or lack of processes or just downright human laziness.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As stated in the other answers, generally the best option is making the client feel you are a sought-after commodity that would like to work for them, but otherwise has other stuff to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I haven't ever been able to fast-track a client's decision making, but I have seen others attempting to lure a client by 'reserving' some time in the near future which would be dedicated to them, if they commit now. While this may work, my general impression aligns with that of @Scott, that having made your pitch, your work is done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23603" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9439" RevisionGUID="75525417-f679-45c0-81f3-d4c5e02e5138" CreationDate="2019-09-24T11:42:11.807" UserId="23631" Text="I have a client whom I suspect is just attempting to find ways to not pay invoices due, asking me to remove and change details continually on my invoices. Today they have requested that I remove the tax column on my invoice that states on the line no tax charged and also the subtotal line that states subtotal no tax because I am not VAT registered. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The invoice clearly reads that no VAT has been charged and no tax has been applied. I sure that this is correct although I could be wrong? Should I just remove this entirely for any legal/tax reasons or is the client potentially just using this as avoidance to pay? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you in advance &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Amanda " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23604" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9439" RevisionGUID="75525417-f679-45c0-81f3-d4c5e02e5138" CreationDate="2019-09-24T11:42:11.807" UserId="23631" Text="Invoicing layout - UK" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23605" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9439" RevisionGUID="75525417-f679-45c0-81f3-d4c5e02e5138" CreationDate="2019-09-24T11:42:11.807" UserId="23631" Text="|payment-terms|difficult-client|invoices|late-payment|vat|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23609" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9439" RevisionGUID="020eebbd-7e1f-4e83-85e6-d80060026152" CreationDate="2019-09-24T14:44:15.813" UserId="61" Comment="minor proofreading, made the title more succinct, retag" Text="I have a client whom I suspect is just attempting to find ways to not pay invoices due, asking me to remove and change details continually on my invoices. Today they have requested that I remove the tax column on my invoice that states on the line no tax charged and also the subtotal line that states subtotal no tax because I am not VAT registered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The invoice clearly reads that no VAT has been charged and no tax has been applied. I'm sure that this is correct although I could be wrong? Should I just remove this entirely for any legal/tax reasons or is the client potentially just using this as avoidance to pay? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23610" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9439" RevisionGUID="020eebbd-7e1f-4e83-85e6-d80060026152" CreationDate="2019-09-24T14:44:15.813" UserId="61" Comment="minor proofreading, made the title more succinct, retag" Text="Should I remove the VAT column from my invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23611" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="9439" RevisionGUID="020eebbd-7e1f-4e83-85e6-d80060026152" CreationDate="2019-09-24T14:44:15.813" UserId="61" Comment="minor proofreading, made the title more succinct, retag" Text="|payment-terms|difficult-client|invoices|uk|vat|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23614" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9442" RevisionGUID="a3a3f0e9-d6c6-4758-a630-060a6e7f69be" CreationDate="2019-09-27T11:22:36.230" UserId="23641" Text="I am looking for freelance jobs that would allow me to work remotely and part-time. From what I see, apart from coding jobs (most of which seem to be full-time), only jobs as scientific editor come up. Does anybody have any experience of freelancing as a Physicist/Mathematician with academic background? What would be your suggestions in terms of websites, job titles to look out for, etc.?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23615" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9442" RevisionGUID="a3a3f0e9-d6c6-4758-a630-060a6e7f69be" CreationDate="2019-09-27T11:22:36.230" UserId="23641" Text="Freelancing as Physicist / Mathematician" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23616" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9442" RevisionGUID="a3a3f0e9-d6c6-4758-a630-060a6e7f69be" CreationDate="2019-09-27T11:22:36.230" UserId="23641" Text="|freelance-websites|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23623" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9445" RevisionGUID="adf0f074-9082-4c44-bda4-24bb21281623" CreationDate="2019-10-01T13:06:55.597" UserId="830" Text="Common practice in Germany is that you need to consent that you will not appy for the same positon (note how this is different from the same client) through a different agency.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Practically, you need to decide if you would like to have the interview or not. If you want it, you play to their rules.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And I don't know a single case where a candidate got hold resposible for breaching such a clause. But on the other hand, you should understand the agency as well: Their business would become really hard if they search for a candidate, bring her to an interview and then the customer says to the candidate: We will hire you, but through a different agency which can live with a lower margin because they did not have to search at all." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23624" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="376" RevisionGUID="50dd2fa2-1546-4d96-871b-74de41c43842" CreationDate="2019-10-01T20:36:02.060" UserDisplayName="user19" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="I would argue for your easy solution - charge them the same. Your primary concern is that that might &quot;look bad from a social perspective.&quot; However, I believe that providing discounts to friends, relatives, etc. often actually *causes* social issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First of all, where's the cutoff? As soon as you provide a discount to one friend or relative, they may refer a friend of theirs and say, &quot;Keelan will take care of you with a good rate.&quot; If this comes to be expected, you're eventually going to be placed in a position of either resenting that you're doing work at a discount for someone you aren't that close to or possibly upsetting a friend or relative by refusing to provide a discount. Your good friends may also turn out to be bad clients, constantly expanding the scope of the job and placing you in an uncomfortable position again of refusing or resenting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're a professional and if your friends and relatives respect you, they'll understand that and will respect the separation between your work and personal life. Having said that, obviously it feels good to do favors for people you care about. One approach that would avoid the perception of discrimination would be to charge your normal hourly rate, but to do some work on your own time. For example, you might offer to do the domain setup and graphics work as a favor on your personal time, then charge the full rate for the coding &quot;on the clock.&quot; That way you're charging exactly the same for your professional time as you would for any other client, you're just reducing the scope of the job. That also helps your friend/relative to understand the value of your work and to appreciate that you're spending your personal time on them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As freelancers, it's very easy to blur the line between personal and professional time, and I think this approach helps keep it clear both for ourselves and our acquaintances." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23631" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9448" RevisionGUID="91f4fc2c-678d-41b2-9ce7-c426a9515e81" CreationDate="2019-10-04T18:00:00.940" UserId="23671" Text="New developer here and struggling to get around the old Catch 22 of can't get a job without experience and can't get experience without a job.  Does anyone have any recommendations as to how to approach this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've tried to ask similar questions on social media only to end up down a number of blind alleys.  All Facebook developer groups want to do is post stupid memes and it's hard to find any kind of real serious discussions on this subject.  Kind of like those who know don't talk and those who talk don't know, I guess.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyways, I've come here to pose these questions.  Hopefully someone here can provide good guidance for portfolio building and projects.  I hope there's a way to begin real work soon, maybe with a charity or someone else who needs the labor for free.  That being said, it seems like all of the starting points are way over my head and I will freely admit I have a lot to learn." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23632" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9448" RevisionGUID="91f4fc2c-678d-41b2-9ce7-c426a9515e81" CreationDate="2019-10-04T18:00:00.940" UserId="23671" Text="Best ways to start a career in software development?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23633" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9448" RevisionGUID="91f4fc2c-678d-41b2-9ce7-c426a9515e81" CreationDate="2019-10-04T18:00:00.940" UserId="23671" Text="|web-development|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23634" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="739" RevisionGUID="ed859a2c-03b4-4055-a20b-425568c5464e" CreationDate="2019-10-04T23:06:33.557" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited (e.g. ref. &lt;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/set_up#Verb&gt;). " Text="*(A bit on my background: I'm a PHP developer, and I do all my hourly contracting through oDesk - I have been doing that for quite a while now.)*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, getting started can take some time. Not having a reputation / experience *contracting* is similar to not having a reputation / experience being a PHP developer. Don't be discouraged; I mention this, so you won't feel like you're taking a step back when it's hard to secure a project, or if you end up bidding at a lower rate than perhaps what you're used to making in traditional employment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just like you built up experience in your field, you'll need to build up experience in freelancing. But that certainly can be done. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's what I'd suggest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Be quick to respond:** face it, on the freelancing sites a public posting will get a *lot* of responses. Use whatever tools are available to be one of the first responses the client sees. In the past, I'd use an RSS reader to track job feeds on oDesk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Give away the secret:** in your bid, explain to the client how you'll implement / build / program whatever it is they're looking for. If it's a Twitter application, let them know why they want to use the streaming API instead of the REST API. Give them enough information that they feel like they should use your response to evaluate the rest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Find the right jobs:** this is doubly important for oDesk, where you're limited to a fixed number of bids per week. Set up searches that either identify jobs that match your experience well, or jobs that generally have fewer bids and you're able / willing to put in the work so you become experienced enough to respond to those jobs in a knowledgeable way. (*Again, oDesk search + RSS feeds can be great here.*)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Bring your own clients:** do you have clients outside these online marketplaces / platforms? Transition them to billing through the platform you like best. That's an easy way bring a local reputation online. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Avoid the bottom:** it may be tempting (all the while frustrating) to try to be the lowest bid. Don't do that. Yes, if you're starting out with no reputation as a contractor, you may need to bid lower than you'd want - but don't get caught up in trying to compete on price. This isn't a reverse eBay where the lowest bid wins - there are plenty of clients that ignore low bids, because they understand that reflects at least something about quality. Those are the clients you want. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The first three are what I did to establish my reputation. Anymore do I rarely bid on jobs; generally I just respond to requests (called interview invitations on oDesk). Still, when I respond I try to give the potential client a detailed response that illustrates I am the contractor they want to use. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The fourth is what I wish I could have done, but I started out my freelancing career online.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope that's helpful.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23635" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="739" RevisionGUID="ed859a2c-03b4-4055-a20b-425568c5464e" CreationDate="2019-10-04T23:06:33.557" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 61, 1018 edit id of 686" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23636" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="708" RevisionGUID="4da8585e-a31c-4953-a896-cfae2ed314dc" CreationDate="2019-10-04T23:07:09.520" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited (e.g. ref. &lt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP&gt;). " Text="In the first place, PHP is the toughest to get jobs in since there are simply too many people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I have a couple of advices for you:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Tech advice**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't just offer PHP since competition is too high. Specialize yourself in something narrower like [Symphony][1] or other PHP things. You are a new guy, so offering something that a client can get from the experienced guy will not bring you jobs. Since PHP rates are really at the lowest, you cannot be competitive with low prices as well. I did the same thing in Java and C# - learned mobile tech.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Freelance website advice**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is your profile a quality one? It's important to fill it with all details as publish as many samples as you can. Since you are new, samples have to sell you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Bid advice**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you bid? Clients on those websites are sick of &quot;Dear sir...&quot; bids with dozens of links. Be specific and give a client what he/she wants exactly. Try to find a smaller jobs first. For example, a client is looking for a special addon which you can make in one day - take a risk and make that addon, put it on your PHP engine and show the client the concrete sample. If I get approached like this, I would give you the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any beginning is hard. I see you've been trying for two months, so I see you are persistent. Just keep it that way. And always have in mind, that the two most-wanted things are: &quot;a new hot technology from you area of speciality&quot; and &quot;knowledge of technology which is at the same time very wanted and very few people know it&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have any of these, the success is inevitable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symfony&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23637" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="708" RevisionGUID="4da8585e-a31c-4953-a896-cfae2ed314dc" CreationDate="2019-10-04T23:07:09.520" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 61, 1018 edit id of 687" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23638" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7866" RevisionGUID="d212bdc9-3eac-4656-a366-fa06b1374427" CreationDate="2019-10-04T23:08:01.643" UserId="15235" Comment="added 72 characters in body" Text="For freelancing questions which are unique to or typical for webmasters." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23639" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7866" RevisionGUID="d212bdc9-3eac-4656-a366-fa06b1374427" CreationDate="2019-10-04T23:08:01.643" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 1018 edit id of 612" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23640" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6738" RevisionGUID="1d907927-48e8-4eeb-9037-f337a03b49d1" CreationDate="2019-10-04T23:08:30.350" UserId="21826" Comment="fixed grammar" Text="If you have **non-compete clause (NCC)** in the contact, then it's illegal indeed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If not, then it's not morally right. And if I am the client, I would never break relations with my contractor, I am happy with working cheaper with his ex worker. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On your side, it's a bit suspicious why a client would want to work with you. Is it only quality of your services, or he plans to delay with payments, be a general as****e, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, go to a legal counselor and ask him this question. He will know the regulations of your own country. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23641" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6738" RevisionGUID="1d907927-48e8-4eeb-9037-f337a03b49d1" CreationDate="2019-10-04T23:08:30.350" Comment="Proposed by 21826 approved by 61, 1018 edit id of 681" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23642" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1029" RevisionGUID="e3126aaa-94f9-46e4-baf1-54a714b7c78b" CreationDate="2019-10-04T23:08:46.297" UserId="16887" Comment="Improve tags " Text="|contracts|legal|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23643" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1029" RevisionGUID="e3126aaa-94f9-46e4-baf1-54a714b7c78b" CreationDate="2019-10-04T23:08:46.297" Comment="Proposed by 16887 approved by 61, 1018 edit id of 624" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23644" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9402" RevisionGUID="f4e50511-1108-4e64-b5eb-d3411be81fca" CreationDate="2019-10-04T23:09:25.350" UserId="15276" Comment="Edited title mainly." Text="I have a new local client who simply won't stop calling me during my office hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do attend to calls of all my clients. But he calls me and discusses everything about the project over phone only, which adds to confusion and I also tend to forget some of them after a few hours because I am working on multiple projects at the moment and not just his project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He spends 2 to 3 hours only discussing, arguing, ignoring the technical suggestions from my end and only explaining his business model.&#xD;&#xA;I clearly and politely told him that due to my workload it is not possible to attend such lengthy phone calls. I also told him that we can use other better ways to communicate and discuss details, such as IMs, WhatsApp, email and anything else which I can refer to and properly work on it or give him suggestions and estimates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, he is only seeing his side and keeps calling me and spends most of my time and as a result, I can't attend other important phone calls or give time to my work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is also not paying much. I have offered him the price based on his budget but he is simply bargaining and asking to add more and more features to add within the budget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I am telling him to consider my points and increase budget because of new requirements, he is threatening me with my calls, which he always records, although I have never said or promised to do anything which is outside the scope or agreement of my project, even through calls. I have all agreements ready for it also.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I deal with him? I am thinking of getting a little blunt with him. Will that be a good thing to do at this stage? It's harming my other projects and I am having to give just too much time attending his calls, and also listening to his threats and bargaining, demands." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23645" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9402" RevisionGUID="f4e50511-1108-4e64-b5eb-d3411be81fca" CreationDate="2019-10-04T23:09:25.350" UserId="15276" Comment="Edited title mainly." Text="How to effectively handle obsessive personal client calls during regular office hours" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23646" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9402" RevisionGUID="f4e50511-1108-4e64-b5eb-d3411be81fca" CreationDate="2019-10-04T23:09:25.350" Comment="Proposed by 15276 approved by 61, 1018 edit id of 691" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23647" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8225" RevisionGUID="3a46f659-fc7d-49ab-b535-0b5ea46f4f42" CreationDate="2019-10-04T23:09:39.667" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited (e.g. ref. &lt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoom_Video_Communications&gt;)." Text="It honestly sounds like he is having issues, in his personal life and is having trouble keeping up. I would recommend setting up bi-weekly meetings via video conference. It lets you stay in touch and is non-invasive. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A free Zoom account code will do the job. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23648" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="8225" RevisionGUID="3a46f659-fc7d-49ab-b535-0b5ea46f4f42" CreationDate="2019-10-04T23:09:39.667" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 61, 1018 edit id of 682" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23651" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9450" RevisionGUID="02ff844f-96a1-4b79-8bb7-fd94f1a69306" CreationDate="2019-10-08T07:34:28.670" UserId="15709" Text="I am a web designer / developer (front end and back end). I do that proficiently since more than 10 years, and I am appreciated and good skilled in designing and programming. I work alone in a home office. My target business are local clients, small to medium companies, hotels, shops, restaurants, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I started to work in the beginning I was single and younger, I used to work in normal office hours to pay the bills and evenings and weekends I used to study to obtain new skills and research for &quot;new frontiers&quot; about my area of work, stay updated, obtain new knowledge and competence in collateral areas, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now many years passed, I'm older, I can't stand to stay for very long time in front of a computer screen (not like I used to do before like 8-24 for a week with no problem). I am a husband and a father of a beautiful daughter. I have almost zero free time out of working hours and family duties, and when I have some short free time, I go out for a walk or rest. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel myself more and more like running after my own job more than being the captain of it. I don't know if you get what I mean… I learn new technologies and solutions only when I can't make workarounds or same solution with my actual knowledges and I do that always rushing and not really going deep into the matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't get me wrong. I have many happy clients and I am able to fulfill virtually any or their needs (regarding what a single freelance can do), but I feel like the need to take some time off to study and improve myself, maybe look for new things, differentiate a little my job with some new area of ​​competence, but at same time I feel stuck because I can't take days or weeks off when I have many works in progress, deadlines and bills to pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you manage your life/work duties with studying and staying updated?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Now while I am writing maybe I am realizing that I could have had some episode of &quot;work burnout&quot; in the past that made me slow down my usual work rhythm that I had in the beginning, and I have subtle feelings of &quot;repulsion&quot;).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23652" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9450" RevisionGUID="02ff844f-96a1-4b79-8bb7-fd94f1a69306" CreationDate="2019-10-08T07:34:28.670" UserId="15709" Text="Balancing life with productive work with study and research" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23653" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9450" RevisionGUID="02ff844f-96a1-4b79-8bb7-fd94f1a69306" CreationDate="2019-10-08T07:34:28.670" UserId="15709" Text="|working-from-home|time-management|growth|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23660" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9453" RevisionGUID="46fa176a-994c-4e0e-9594-d00cdff0d82e" CreationDate="2019-10-10T18:59:58.113" UserId="23700" Text="I am planning to work with a remote client. The only way to communicate with my client is by a phone call or message.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order to secure my payment term, I am thinking of creating a contract which will be renewed monthly. Is the contract sufficient or do I need to get some other proof before starting my work with the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23661" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9453" RevisionGUID="46fa176a-994c-4e0e-9594-d00cdff0d82e" CreationDate="2019-10-10T18:59:58.113" UserId="23700" Text="How can I secure my payment with remote work client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23662" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9453" RevisionGUID="46fa176a-994c-4e0e-9594-d00cdff0d82e" CreationDate="2019-10-10T18:59:58.113" UserId="23700" Text="|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23666" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9236" RevisionGUID="71ad76e1-8e3b-481f-af08-649866457a1b" CreationDate="2019-10-14T07:52:52.847" UserDisplayName="user15099" Comment="edit title" Text="How to make sure I will get paid by my sibling" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23667" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9236" RevisionGUID="71ad76e1-8e3b-481f-af08-649866457a1b" CreationDate="2019-10-14T07:52:52.847" Comment="Proposed by 15099 approved by 21909 edit id of 695" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23670" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="9453" RevisionGUID="cbacca60-d18e-4ba9-93ea-11d1dc020585" CreationDate="2019-10-15T12:59:20.393" UserDisplayName="user15099" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|payments|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23671" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9453" RevisionGUID="cbacca60-d18e-4ba9-93ea-11d1dc020585" CreationDate="2019-10-15T12:59:20.393" Comment="Proposed by 15099 approved by 61, 23700 edit id of 694" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23672" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9456" RevisionGUID="5270c92f-3697-45bd-9860-af5f838ccff3" CreationDate="2019-10-15T22:22:53.490" UserId="21825" Text="This is the part of freelancing that always makes me question my life choices. lol. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Past experience has taught me to always write up a contract. I don't do any work until the contract is signed and I receive 1/2 the amount I'm charging for the work. They don't receive the finished product (or it doesn't go live) until I've been paid in full.  But my work tends to be a by-the-project basis with an additional hourly charge for additional work done. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're doing hourly work only, I'd outline the payment terms in the contract, and send them monthly invoices. If they fall behind in payments stop working until the pay you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's really no way to guarantee you'll be paid, but writing out a contract and sending out invoices does help. There are a ton of free resources out there to help you with freelance paperwork. One of my favorites is https://www.freelancersunion.org/ &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;hope this helps! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23673" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9457" RevisionGUID="3699acb1-2e51-42ff-8989-784b6d432070" CreationDate="2019-10-16T21:05:50.267" UserId="23722" Text="How much should I charge my client to backup the data from a synology NAS drive to my home windows server which is used as a FTP server for backups? I dont want to seem expensive or charge too little as this is a new sector for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The backups will happen every night at a specific time and be incrimental backups, but I dont think they have a lot of data, possibly looking at around 300GB below. These will also happen automatically.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for your help." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23674" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9457" RevisionGUID="3699acb1-2e51-42ff-8989-784b6d432070" CreationDate="2019-10-16T21:05:50.267" UserId="23722" Text="How much should I charge to backup a NAS drive to my server every night?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23675" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9457" RevisionGUID="3699acb1-2e51-42ff-8989-784b6d432070" CreationDate="2019-10-16T21:05:50.267" UserId="23722" Text="|information-technology|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23676" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9458" RevisionGUID="30d47c39-9586-464b-bd2b-ddb5e41706e0" CreationDate="2019-10-17T00:55:25.497" UserId="75" Text="My advice is as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Ensure you have backups of your server as well&#xD;&#xA;2. Ensure the customer does NOT have access to PUSH the backups to your server&#xD;&#xA;3. Invoice monthly for total storage used&#xD;&#xA;4. Ensure there is a signed contract detailing what you are backing up, and on what schedule, along with instructions for the client to receive their data as requested&#xD;&#xA;5. Ensure you are completely covered!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With doing backups of any type, you should strive to do PULL backups - your backup system should reach out to the servers it needs to backup, and grab the files that way. If you have a PUSH system, then it is as effective as a USB drive plugged into their server. Ransomware could potentially find it, the keys/passwords could be exposed to other staff, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ensure you have versioning setup, even if it uses slightly more space. I have had customers ask for data from a couple weeks ago, and a couple months ago. Having that data saved them a lot of headache.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assuming you have the space and time to set it up, it could be a great money maker for you. Ensure you offer an encrypted connection, since FTP is not encrypted in any form." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23677" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9459" RevisionGUID="ed5358a7-502f-41cd-b335-0ece2f256daf" CreationDate="2019-10-17T11:05:23.690" UserId="23726" Text="The Request for Proposal varies in depth and detail, depending on the innovation of the product / service. The RFP is made through a bidding process, where the aim is to receive the product / service at the highest quality with the lowest price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The RFP consists of** many section and SOW is one in it. The SOW section should describe in detail what the expected outcome is, and a detailed list of responsibilities of the vendor. This is usually intended for the technical expert of the vendor, and is more technical in nature.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![RFP Contents][1]][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can create your own RFP template before to it you just need to understand the process - &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. RFP info gathering: &#xD;&#xA; 2. Identify intended audience&#xD;&#xA; 3. Approve RFP draft (decision)&#xD;&#xA; 4. Align draft to legal standards&#xD;&#xA; 5. Allocate funds&#xD;&#xA; 6. Approve distribution (decision)&#xD;&#xA; 7. Distribute RFP&#xD;&#xA; 8. Conduct initial filtering&#xD;&#xA; 9. Agree on short list&#xD;&#xA; 10. Perform due diligence&#xD;&#xA; 11. Re-distribute for best and final offer&#xD;&#xA; 12. Recommend bid winner&#xD;&#xA; 13. Approve funds (decision)&#xD;&#xA; 14. Approve winning bid (decision)&#xD;&#xA; 15. Sign contract with the vendor&#xD;&#xA; 16. Monitor vendors’ progress&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where as **SOW acts like an** agreement between two parties in which one of them is a customer and the other is a vendor or supplier. A good SOW usually has Purpose, Scope, Timelines, Costs, Payments, Reporting Requirements, Change Requests procedure and a few other things depending on the type of work or project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![enter image description here][2]][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Resources** - As you have asked for resource please check [link where you can free download all these templates][3].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/eI2aF.png&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/SjJXX.jpg&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.techno-pm.com/2018/08/statement-of-work-sample.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23678" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9460" RevisionGUID="7828f262-3b26-4d45-b37b-98b9278f9d11" CreationDate="2019-10-19T21:32:09.267" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="I'm planning on returning to self-employment (graphic design) full time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the past, I used to get most of my work with the following two approaches:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Meeting as many new people as possible — a lot of this was simply me making friends with fellow self-employed types, and sometimes ended up getting work out of it&#xD;&#xA; 2. Putting together a list of design agencies and sending out cold-emails to get them to outsource work to me&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Currently, I need to get some work lined up fast (long story) and #1 above won't quite cut it in the short term right now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, aswell as doing #2 above, I'm now considering sending out mass emails (similar to #2 above) but to normal businesses who may need to hire a graphic designer... e.g. dentists or hair salons etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would it be bad practice / unethical to email them out of the blue like this? Or would it be considered spam and possibly get my email blacklisted?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Part of me thinks it could be effective, another part of me thinks it might just make a lot of businesses hate me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23679" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9460" RevisionGUID="7828f262-3b26-4d45-b37b-98b9278f9d11" CreationDate="2019-10-19T21:32:09.267" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="Mass cold-emails to get work — unethical?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23680" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9460" RevisionGUID="7828f262-3b26-4d45-b37b-98b9278f9d11" CreationDate="2019-10-19T21:32:09.267" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="|attracting-clients|marketing|advertising|small-projects|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23682" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9462" RevisionGUID="937030af-2c22-45fc-8db1-17d1abddd211" CreationDate="2019-10-21T01:28:47.857" UserId="4278" Text="I think that two of the areas that you can definitely look into would be in the area of AI/machine learning for something more specific, or you can brand yourself as a data scientist if you just want to do general data modelling and analysis of 'big data'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most people that I know who are well-trained in the mathematical sciences seem to be picking up work in this area." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23683" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9463" RevisionGUID="27a3fa34-a576-4dcf-bf0f-efec48255e92" CreationDate="2019-10-21T01:32:50.470" UserId="4278" Text="I think the issue regarding ethics relates more to how you actually obtain the details of people to send out the cold emails (i.e. whether it is solicited or not) rather than the actual act of 'cold calling' itself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is nothing wrong with being able to 'broadcast' information regarding your services if you are already part of a group which this is an accepted behaviour. However, if you are looking at social platforms like LinkedIn then often this can be frowned upon (if not downright ineffective).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am curious why you haven't suggested freelancing websites as an option and why you prefer to build your own list clients (which you might have had while working for a company)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23684" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9464" RevisionGUID="b3bf00a0-9ba5-4d60-8bac-42026dbd4b74" CreationDate="2019-10-21T04:33:51.903" UserId="21435" Text="Does your client care about their data and the ability to recover it and making sure that it's secured in transit and at rest? Do you care about doing what's in your clients best interests? If the answer to both questions is yes then find them a solution that doesn't involve transmitting their data to your home server and storing it there." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23685" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9465" RevisionGUID="15af51eb-e413-4759-8d38-b20c03f06b98" CreationDate="2019-10-21T04:40:21.977" UserId="21435" Text="&gt; In order to secure my payment term, I am thinking of creating a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; contract which will be renewed monthly. Is the contract sufficient or&#xD;&#xA;&gt; do I need to get some other proof before starting my work with the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A contract is a legal document. You should never perform any work without having a contract signed by all parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A contract doesn't guarantee that a client will pay you, but it gives you legal recourse if they don't.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Can I take legal actions if my payments is not made?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, you can. Again, there's no guarantee that you'll receive payment or win a legal judgment against a client, but you certainly can take legal action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally, if you don't have it already, make sure that you have Professional Liability Insurance and General Liability Insurance, or their equivalents. These provide you financial protection should a client sue you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23686" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9464" RevisionGUID="e41af7f7-457d-4090-83a1-24fa78801705" CreationDate="2019-10-21T04:41:46.157" UserId="21435" Comment="added 19 characters in body" Text="Does your client care about their data and the ability to recover it and do they care about making sure that it's secured in transit and at rest? Do you care about doing what's in your clients best interests? If the answer to both questions is yes then find them a solution that doesn't involve transmitting their data to your home server and storing it there." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23687" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9255" RevisionGUID="2e12191b-ff3b-4fe6-973e-6464920d4794" CreationDate="2019-10-21T11:02:35.430" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23693" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9467" RevisionGUID="e18cad81-3d07-4b7d-8782-d34617792713" CreationDate="2019-10-25T12:42:11.770" UserId="19139" Text="I think you need to find a balance, which can be easier said than done. No doubt, your earlier routine may have worked at one time, but when you get older you have more commitments, and different interests. Your motivation at the time was paying bills and becoming a really good dev. Im guessing with experience you earn more money and you dont need to pull so many all-nighters. You now probably already know the stuff you used to research, so theres not so much need to do that anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having a work/life balance doesn't mean work full time, do research on the weekend AND maintain a social life, family duties, and everything else. It means working the hours you need to and *then* do things outside.&#xD;&#xA;If you think about it, you never had a good life/work balance from the start. Working full time and then investing your time into research on the weekends is not having a life balance. It sounds like it was almost entirely your work. You can't do that now because you have other interests and commitments. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't expect to be able to do the amount of work you used to, while also doing the additional things you now do, such as family, walking, etc. There's simply not enough time, and expecting yourself to be able to match that now would be unrealistic, and can cause anxiety and stress.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order to feel satisfied in all areas, only do little bits at a time. Make a schedule for yourself to fit things in through the week in between your duties. For example, on monday, during your free time, do house jobs/laundry/paying bills/whathaveyou. On tuesday, use your spare time to go for a family walk/picnic. On wednesdays, read a book (not a programming one), on Thursdays, research something related to work, perhaps a question you didnt know to answer, or something you feel your knowledge is less in. It doesn't have to be huge research. Just something small to help grow your knowledge just that little bit. Maybe use that time to do overtime if you need it. Friday, meet up with work colleagues or friends or family.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm aware that routine wont suit you exactly so you have to do what works for you and your life, but make sure you get a little bit of everything. You work to live not live to work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23694" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9468" RevisionGUID="2e77133c-b8e5-4c5d-9c62-a0419d7abd81" CreationDate="2019-10-25T12:49:56.807" UserId="19139" Text="&quot;The invoice clearly reads&quot; - but is it listed like a tally of things the client is paying for?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't say for sure whether you need to apply VAT or not, but if you are not charging VAT then I think you should explicitly state it in the invoice. (I think this is true even if there is VAT)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, in your invoice, you have something like&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    **SERVICES**         |    **CHARGE**&#xD;&#xA;    ----------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;    Initial review               $40&#xD;&#xA;    Consultation                 $70&#xD;&#xA;    service                      $60&#xD;&#xA;    VAT                          $0&#xD;&#xA;    ----------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;    **TOTAL**                    $170" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23696" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9469" RevisionGUID="d9f73508-bac5-4dd9-9d78-d4ec87268592" CreationDate="2019-10-29T02:54:08.857" UserId="10464" Text="Your brother is taking advantage of you because you let him. There's these things called boundaries. It's your job in life to establish boundaries that help you control your life and keep out the drama, deadbeats, a-holes and whatnot. Control of your life should be your goal not making sure your brother is the only one who benefits from your work which is the likely outcome here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I once worked for my brother for **free** because I strongly believed in supporting family and figured we were on the same team. Two things changed my mind: 1.) He complained more about the great free work I provided than he complained to people he paid who did lower quality work. 2.) I caught him paying someone else a huge amount of money to do what he was happy to let me do for free. In other words, he had the money, he just didn't respect me enough to pay me even a token amount. Mind you, I had paid him cash so he could do his work for another relative in the past. And he didn't say, 'no'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Speaking of point 2... when you give someone time (money) they put it towards what matters to them. Not you. For example, if a client begs you for an extension on payment they will still pay their light bill, maybe even go to the movies or buy a new car. They just aren't paying YOU.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was a lot younger and more naive back then when I learned about my sibling. Now, I've seen it all and at the end of the day, unless you have a joint bank account with your brother, &quot;keep it moving&quot;. Get real clients. If your brother is good at business he can succeed without you. If he's not he will fail and that's on him.  I'd give you a different opinion if he'd given you a more reasonable deal but the one you described is a joke. The same kind any con artist off the street would give you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, OK, you say, 'answer my question'. To make sure you get paid, you need a contract where the payment is not based on his performance but is just based on the work you did. And gives you the right to audit his books so you can see what he's making.  This is all a hassle and you're not going to want to pay a lawyer (worst case) to sort it all out when you're dealing with relatively small sums of money.  A good business principle to follow, is not to lend money unless the borrower is credit worthy. You are giving your time (money) to someone who isn't worthy. You are hoping what he's doing will pay off. He probably has zero record of taking the kinds of things you're giving him and turning a profit so there's super high risk here. Your best move is not to do something so risky.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23701" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9471" RevisionGUID="fb5a7760-c4d5-46c2-a3f1-f5fd75a0c9a4" CreationDate="2019-10-29T19:31:21.233" UserId="12865" Text="We live in a world that in order to receive something you need something else first. As you said without experience stupid companies miss a lot of good developers.&#xA;&#xA;My criteria is the following while searching for jobs, don't look for big companies 15 employees is the maximun. Why you may ask. &#xA;Simple I want my job to be recognized as mine but belong to the company, in other words, I get the credit, the company get more revenue so I get more raises. As simple as that.&#xA;&#xA;I did a lot of personal projects maybe 10-15 between games, android apps, template websites, I wrote them in my resume, and started sending, on interviews I made very clear to my interviewers that I dont care for &quot;fake&quot; benefits nor formalities, I wanna work, do my best, and learn from it. &#xA;&#xA;And never stop learning, but take your free time and enjoy them. I work everyday, even weekends but its a choice of mine, when my friends are working or busy and cant find anything to do, I just sit and start developing or testing something. That had give me the advantage too many times. Ex: the other day I tested, fixed and configured somenthing that a multimillion company employee didnt know how to fix, you know how I felt after that? I just said &quot;yeah thats why my 5 employee company take your projects from you&quot;. Yesterday I took away a 12 AV rooms project of 150k each from that same company, because I made posible what the client wants for any type of scenario and they can't nor won't do research.&#xA;&#xA;And to end my blah blah, follow your passion and work hard on it, what easy comes, easy go.&#xA;&#xA;Regards." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23703" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9472" RevisionGUID="b675d20a-fc49-4b85-8c42-88cb865ea2d6" CreationDate="2019-10-30T21:05:10.900" UserId="12274" Text="I'm based in New Zealand and in previous years I was freelancing in Australia. I've done work for US clients on the west coast in (PST/PDT) and the timezone difference (it's about 4 hours difference from NZT) felt minimal and was in fact beneficial as it gave me focused uninterrupted work periods.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This year I did a lot of work for a client in Colorado (Mountain Time) and although they stated it was perfectly ok to contact them when a previously unidentified issue cropped up e.g. a bad API response, I felt awkward having to ask them early in their evenings and I suspect put some strain on the person who had contracted me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm now talking with a potential client on the east coast and so of course there is less overlap time-wise but they want my skillset. I am naturally an early bird so that works in my favor. But I'm wondering what are good practices to alleviating any issues. My current thinking is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - be up early and resolve questions / communicate first thing&#xD;&#xA; - don't send questions at 6pm their time. Wait till it's much later and they get the question early when they wake up. In other words, have a red-zone when you don't send questions (unless of course there was something super-critical)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23704" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9472" RevisionGUID="b675d20a-fc49-4b85-8c42-88cb865ea2d6" CreationDate="2019-10-30T21:05:10.900" UserId="12274" Text="Good practices for dealing with clients in more distant timezones" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23705" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9472" RevisionGUID="b675d20a-fc49-4b85-8c42-88cb865ea2d6" CreationDate="2019-10-30T21:05:10.900" UserId="12274" Text="|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23706" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9473" RevisionGUID="04ad9d5a-a23b-49ae-8f9c-0fd656eeea09" CreationDate="2019-10-31T11:21:10.863" UserId="23795" Text="In one line I can say Follow your Passion / Interest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask yourself before starting a job in software Industry , What is your motivation behind it ? Are you good at problem solving ? Are you intrested in making games ? Do you want to make a AI robot ? Choose a domain and work on it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I was at school , I loved to play computer games . One day I came across a book which is about making games  with Flash software. I started learning programming to make my own game and I ended up in software industry.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Continious learning and iterating on it is the key. Make some prototypes of whatever interests you. Join Programming Forums / Community . Put your code in github. Try to contribute to other people's code. Highligt these points in your resume. Its a competitive world , Try to stand out from the crowd.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hopefully you will crack the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cheers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23707" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9474" RevisionGUID="c4fc12f8-be0a-426e-942d-ac37ee6efc54" CreationDate="2019-10-31T14:43:54.503" UserId="23796" Text="I currently work for a quite large company that is well known in the business, and has quite a good name. Before that, I only worked for small companies with highly specialized products, and therefore, they were not known to the general public. Now, ever since I work for the well know company, I get contacted by recruiters on an almost weekly basis. So that was new for me. The thing is, lately, the offers they present are more and more about &quot;midlancing&quot; positions. The salary range they quote with these offers are 3 to 4 times what I am making now. Since I think I already am on the right side of the Bell curve with my salary with respect to my age and level of expertise, I think these offers sound too good to be true. And experience teaches us: if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. So my question is: What exactly is midlancing? What is the risk involved that it warrants such high compensation? Are those salaries realistic?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23708" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9474" RevisionGUID="c4fc12f8-be0a-426e-942d-ac37ee6efc54" CreationDate="2019-10-31T14:43:54.503" UserId="23796" Text="What is &quot;midlancing&quot;, and what is the catch?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23709" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9474" RevisionGUID="c4fc12f8-be0a-426e-942d-ac37ee6efc54" CreationDate="2019-10-31T14:43:54.503" UserId="23796" Text="|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23711" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9476" RevisionGUID="a285b330-26b5-44b0-b69b-f5bb500e6add" CreationDate="2019-11-03T15:12:38.757" UserId="23810" Text="Hi I have been freelancing for over 2 years working with many clients around the globe with huge differences in time zones and sometimes that's a pain in the back but there is no need to stress yourself or the client. You should be having specific hours and days you work and let the client know the times and days you are available for working. Whenever an issue occurs they should let you know and as soon as you start working you will address it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless there is a need for constant communication time difference should not be an issue. Many clients are used to it and those who don't will usually try to find freelancers available in their timezone." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23712" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9477" RevisionGUID="41e3f37a-a6d4-44e5-a459-3473819c76c4" CreationDate="2019-11-03T15:52:07.557" UserId="2839" Text="I've seen someone considering this time taken to plan the scope of projects, summing it to the cost of planning projects refused by clients and spreading proportionally to the projects of the following year: the cost of little projects is increased by a little, the cost of big projects is increased by a greater amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe this is feasible when you have a certain set of clients to work with." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23718" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9479" RevisionGUID="cf049269-d2a8-4fca-aa35-42b2fef0f279" CreationDate="2019-11-06T11:28:51.797" UserId="7858" Text="Having Google translated a few Dutch websites, it seems the term covers consultants who are still technically employed by a company from which they are paid a monthly base salary. If more monthly hours are billed than some defined target, the 'midlancer' gets a percentage of the payment from the end client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether a 'midlancer' is self-employed or an employee is a legal question. In Denmark, they would be regarded as employees and definitely not self-employed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A 'midlancer' deal in Denmark typically involves having a monthly billable hours target, above which a bonus is paid out; e.g. the 'midlancer' gets 50% of all billable hours in excess of 100 hours. This also means failing to reach the target results in only the base pay for a given month - regardless of whether it's due to lack of work, sickness, vacation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So - there's no reason to believe it's a scam. As long as you sign a contract that ONLY EVER sends money one way - from them to you - your only concerns should be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Is the base salary sufficient?&#xD;&#xA; 2. Can they find you clients?&#xD;&#xA; 3. Will you bill enough at the clients?&#xD;&#xA; 4. Are they being truthful about the client rate?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your reservations are understandable when the salary mentioned is so much higher than your current salary - but many people sell themselves short without realizing it. In addition, many companies refuse to deal with solitary freelancers, preferring providers of consultants - even though they command a higher rate. So, this is a legitimate way of making ends meet:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;End client wants highly skilled, self-starting individuals - but don't know how to find them&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Individual has the skills, but not the commercial contacts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consultancy has a relationship with the client, but needs someone to actually perform the work. At the end of the day, they are merely a mediator.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In practice, when working at the end client, you may not have anything to do with the consultancy that employs you for months at a time. You are on your own - like a freelancer - seemingly without the risks and legal obligations, but also without making 100% of the money yourself." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23719" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9480" RevisionGUID="4f547f50-a8e0-4dc8-a4cb-1d50a20e29a2" CreationDate="2019-11-07T14:23:07.537" UserId="19508" Text="I signed a contract to produce technical training content and videos at a time when I was available to complete it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have about 10% of the work completed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Due to circumstances that I cannot control, I now do not have time to produce quality work and complete the promised items in a reasonable amount of time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it proper to let the client know and give the client a chance to cancel? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I produce less than quality work to complete the contract? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems to me that it would be unprofessional to just tell the client that I can no longer complete the items due to my new time constraints. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are my options? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23720" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9480" RevisionGUID="4f547f50-a8e0-4dc8-a4cb-1d50a20e29a2" CreationDate="2019-11-07T14:23:07.537" UserId="19508" Text="Signed contract to complete work that I can no longer provide" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23721" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9480" RevisionGUID="4f547f50-a8e0-4dc8-a4cb-1d50a20e29a2" CreationDate="2019-11-07T14:23:07.537" UserId="19508" Text="|contracts|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23722" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9481" RevisionGUID="9fccc600-5939-4a29-90d3-43ce2876599d" CreationDate="2019-11-07T19:50:46.090" UserId="75" Text="This is going to depend on your contract. Is there an exit clause for you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If not, inform the client right away so they can make their decision. You understand, thankfully, that you can't accept the entire payment for only 10% of the work. Come to an agreement, and be open with your communications. That will appear much more professional than just ghosting your client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the customer gets upset, that's not unreasonable. Make sure you have a plan going forward - is there another company or freelancer you trust to complete the work for the original (or lower) price? Maybe you can get a referral fee for passing on the work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23724" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9483" RevisionGUID="d30ca7e0-19e0-4162-8f4c-cd46384fe686" CreationDate="2019-11-07T22:46:21.187" UserId="16365" Text="&quot;Do I produce less than quality work to complete the contract?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would never do this. Not just because it feels shady, but as a freelancer, your reputation is hugely important. It's often how you continue to get work. It seems to me this client would be unlikely to hire you again if you provide them with work you deem to be of poor quality.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, it's always best to communicate with the client as soon as something like this comes up. They will probably not be happy about it, but make it clear you aren't happy about it either. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course it would depend on the nature of the circumstances that are out of your control, but you might also consider sharing those with the client. Maybe they are willing to extend the deadline for you. Maybe they are willing to let the contract go." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23726" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9484" RevisionGUID="799927b1-05d4-402f-a244-987007c3ef14" CreationDate="2019-11-09T09:43:35.220" UserId="23834" Text="I am an experienced software developer, currently on GBP £55/hour and have, for several decades, been able to pick &amp; choose where I work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am considering returning to Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, maybe others, but tax rates have moved on since I was last there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am looking at rates from Eur 85 to 95/hour and expect to work 50 weeks @ 40 hours, so gross of Eur 170k - 190k  . &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My only expense is likely to be rent, although my partner, in the same  circumstances, will fly to the UK every two weeks and pay for long term airport parking while overseas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can anyone give me an idea of retention in those countries (and others)? No shady schemes, just rendering unto Caesar.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would be happy enough with a URL for a web site, if that is on topic here, and would return here and post what I discover." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23727" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9484" RevisionGUID="799927b1-05d4-402f-a244-987007c3ef14" CreationDate="2019-11-09T09:43:35.220" UserId="23834" Text="Comparative retention rate in variosu European countries?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23728" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9484" RevisionGUID="799927b1-05d4-402f-a244-987007c3ef14" CreationDate="2019-11-09T09:43:35.220" UserId="23834" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23729" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9485" RevisionGUID="03748789-3aad-4932-8edf-b60453cdd6ca" CreationDate="2019-11-09T09:48:25.893" UserId="23807" Text="I am using Fiverr for one month but I did not make lots of orders up to now. I think I should improve my gig with some attractive way for the users so what are the key things that can be used to improve my gig to get more jobs. How should I make pricing and what kind of keywords should I use and what kind of images should be in the gallery." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23730" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9485" RevisionGUID="03748789-3aad-4932-8edf-b60453cdd6ca" CreationDate="2019-11-09T09:48:25.893" UserId="23807" Text="How to get Fiverr jobs at the beginning" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23731" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9485" RevisionGUID="03748789-3aad-4932-8edf-b60453cdd6ca" CreationDate="2019-11-09T09:48:25.893" UserId="23807" Text="|contracts|price|portfolio|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23735" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9487" RevisionGUID="074c09c7-be8d-463b-a882-3d9baccad2b9" CreationDate="2019-11-12T04:25:15.960" UserId="21687" Text="A third area, in addition to @MichaelLai's first two, might be financial services. But, alas, that would also be lots (and lots) of programming. However, you'd also be developing models requiring lots of math.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have an ms in physics, but most of my work has been programming models for the financial services industry in New York City. For instance, binomial tree models (e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binomial_options_pricing_model) to solve the Black-Scholes equation (e.g., https://www.hoadley.net/options/bs.htm) Take a look at those pages, and I think you'll agree that your math background will be put to pretty good use (albeit lots different from C*-algebras, etc:).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, my experience is mostly contract programming in New York City, where financial services comprise a large segment of the city's economy. I know nothing about San Diego. And also, although contract programming is typically hourly, I've usually been expected to put in hours that amount to full-time work, or even more hours. However, on various occasions I've had fixed-price contracts, where you agree to deliver a product/project for an agreed-upon fixed price regardless of the hours spent. Then your hours are up to you, although the contract usually has a calendar time-frame for various deliverables leading up to the finished project. And that can be a daunting constraint, depending on how well your experience has prepared you to develop the model." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23736" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9488" RevisionGUID="2f2541aa-93e6-42b9-ae9d-65568264e5e0" CreationDate="2019-11-12T10:43:12.430" UserId="23844" Text="I have a repeat client who recently sent me a brief for a project, reading for the first time it sounded simple and as I am new to this, I rushed and provided an estimate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After writing down a list of everything that needs to be done, I now think that the estimate is a bit low.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am currently waiting for the client to decide and give the go for the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I handle this case? Should I email the client ASAP to inform them of the change before they decide (I am afraid I may look unprofessional) or should I just keep it this way, it is after all an estimate and not a quote?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23737" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9488" RevisionGUID="2f2541aa-93e6-42b9-ae9d-65568264e5e0" CreationDate="2019-11-12T10:43:12.430" UserId="23844" Text="Changing the estimate as a freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23738" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9488" RevisionGUID="2f2541aa-93e6-42b9-ae9d-65568264e5e0" CreationDate="2019-11-12T10:43:12.430" UserId="23844" Text="|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23739" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9489" RevisionGUID="039c07e1-dc48-483d-951e-6920918d048c" CreationDate="2019-11-12T13:09:56.300" UserId="4278" Text="Having dealt with various timezone scenarios as a freelancer and an employee at a company, I have found the solution to be the same - make sure that there is a clear expectation of what your presence/availability is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a number of ways to do this, but the most popular and effective ways I have seen and work for me are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Agree on the 'core business hours' when you can guarantee to be contactable and respond within a relatively short amount of time.&#xD;&#xA; - Agree on the maximum latency allowed for correspondence so as not to affect project delivery.&#xD;&#xA; - Use an intermediary whose timezone lies between the two to enable the communication window to overlap.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you use which particular combinations of strategies depends largely on the nature of the client/project/locations." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23740" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9490" RevisionGUID="9568bff6-9b77-4252-ba09-167584f8976c" CreationDate="2019-11-12T13:16:26.377" UserId="4278" Text="Assuming that there isn't a significant difference between your first and subsequent figure, I think one strategy to deal with this is to frame it as a best/worst scenario where your first figure is if everything goes according to plan (which you know it probably won't) and your second figure is if some things don't go to plan. You may then be asked to consider what the worst case scenario is, in which case you can be as optimistic or pessimistic as you like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Actually, normally I do try to just provide an estimate with the caveat that it is an optimistic figure assuming that all goes well. The key is to be able to explain the reason for the change or difference in the estimate. Someone who is quite experienced will actually try to under-promise so that they can over-deliver, because it is an easier way to exceed expectations and still get the work done diligently." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23745" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9492" RevisionGUID="acb5845a-2b3f-45c5-b763-1265e1cceccd" CreationDate="2019-11-13T12:17:38.683" UserId="23852" Text="While preparing my deck of slides on Contract Management for a training program, I suddenly felt I should refer to Dr. Google to find out if there is any difference at all between these two terms. I felt Tim Lytle's answer is closest to the point. An ENTIRE function is generally outsourced by an Organization   so that it can concentrate on its core competency (e.g. accounting, estate management, even IT functions in manufacturing industries, etc.), i.e.,  ONE FUNCTION - ONE AGENCY. Sub-contracting, on the other hand, is when, for example, the construction work in different zones in a large project is awarded to different contractors." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23746" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9493" RevisionGUID="56f98524-7853-4afa-b629-1a1263e2c19e" CreationDate="2019-11-14T09:44:23.100" UserDisplayName="user21909" Text="I have the impression that my Wordpress-projects seem to function very differently depending on how the client works with me.&#xD;&#xA;Some projects are easy - we select a template, the client accepts that we do not want to change much, delivers text and pictures and there we go.&#xD;&#xA;The site can be online within a few days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At present I have a client that sees himself as an easy project.&#xD;&#xA;The project is for a building in a caritative segment and is still in its build-stage.&#xD;&#xA;So there are no photos from within the building only some from the construction area and I only have some sketches from the rooms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The texts that I received are not complete and poorly written.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So when I started with the project I selected a hotel page - then the client wanted different colors, different font, larger font and so on until the design was broken...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After some in-between trying of different approaches that also did not work I came back with another template which works a little better now but same issue.&#xD;&#xA;I gave the client access to jumpchart.com, but he never entered something.&#xD;&#xA;In the end it was me that had to enter everything in it... useless.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am so frustrated...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Now my question:** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you deal with clients regarding your Wordpress projects.&#xD;&#xA;Do you always collect text, images and logo upfront?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are further rules that help you making the implementation of that wordpress-template an easy thing? Avoiding that the client has a thousand little wishes &quot;to get the design right&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think both of us - the client and me - frustrated right now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I avoid this in the future?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23747" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9493" RevisionGUID="56f98524-7853-4afa-b629-1a1263e2c19e" CreationDate="2019-11-14T09:44:23.100" UserDisplayName="user21909" Text="How to deal with clients in regards to Wordpress-development" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23748" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9493" RevisionGUID="56f98524-7853-4afa-b629-1a1263e2c19e" CreationDate="2019-11-14T09:44:23.100" UserDisplayName="user21909" Text="|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23749" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9494" RevisionGUID="6e8ad115-081f-44ea-b8fe-9ef81ef454f4" CreationDate="2019-11-14T16:59:18.583" UserId="75" Text="As the freelancer, you are expected to be the expert. Let's make sure you convey that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you know you need X, Y and Z to make it work, then make those prerequisites before you do ANY work. In this case, X is the text, Y are the pictures, and Z is the layout/template. The client needs to know you aren't even going to LOOK at building the site until you have these pieces in place, and that it is their responsibility to provide them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Optionally, you can refer them to other services to create that content for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next, once I have the information I need to proceed, **then** I build the site. Spin up a virtual server, install the latest Wordpress, PHP and MariaDB, make sure the DNS records point to the server, and get building.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once it's built, I charge a monthly maintenance fee that covers typical SysAdmin stuff - updates, backups, disk usage, etc. They also get 1 free revision per month, up to one hour. They get access to online training, and they can use their 1 free hour per month for one-on-one training to manage their content.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The big part here is planning, and communicating. If you get those down pat, then these kinds of clients won't bother you after the first or second contact." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23753" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9496" RevisionGUID="b4cb47ae-b630-4535-92b7-6f80ddbe7a04" CreationDate="2019-11-18T01:23:51.940" UserId="23878" Text="I'm developping a web application in my free time and i'm planning to sell it to companies, starting with the company in which i'm working for as Web developer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One of the biggest advantages of this application is that it can suit companies in different activity sectors, as long as users use computers to work with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I estimate the workload to be 3 to 6 months depending on how many functionnality i want to include.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I'm afraid that when the time comes to propose it to my employer, it makes fun of me because it's not worth selling, I'm afraid they find it basic and minimalist to be sold.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The business model i'm planning to go for, is charging a fee monthly by each user using the application, something like :&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* 1 to 100 : 10$ per user monthly&#xD;&#xA;* 101 to 500 : 7$ per user monthly&#xD;&#xA;* 501 to 2000 : 5 $ per user montly&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to know which criteria my web application should contain to be able to sell it like that ?&#xD;&#xA;Would company managers fin the pricing logical compared to the workload of 3 to 6 months ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know i can lie about it and say it took me 2 years to make it .. but that's not how i imagine starting things, i prefer honesty." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23754" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9496" RevisionGUID="b4cb47ae-b630-4535-92b7-6f80ddbe7a04" CreationDate="2019-11-18T01:23:51.940" UserId="23878" Text="What criteria should my web application contain in order to be sold to companies" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23755" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9496" RevisionGUID="b4cb47ae-b630-4535-92b7-6f80ddbe7a04" CreationDate="2019-11-18T01:23:51.940" UserId="23878" Text="|attracting-clients|price|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23756" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9497" RevisionGUID="8e6c41c0-57cc-46e2-bb1c-6db8e7237e9a" CreationDate="2019-11-18T09:45:39.730" UserId="7858" Text="I believe your general approach is wrong. The fact that it's a web application is besides the point; how it actually helps clients is the only important factor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does it help them save money, generate new clients, execute tasks more rapidly or with less errors - or something else? The pricing very much depends on the line of business and the financial effect your product can potentially have.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead of immediately creating the full product, ensuring that the idea is relevant and sellable is important. There are several ways to go about that; one of them being creating a Minimum Viable Product and seeing how that goes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since it sounds like you already have your first client in mind, try to cooperate with them in the creation of the product instead of creating it yourself and only revealing it when it's done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23757" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9293" RevisionGUID="b7327902-f78b-4d59-929a-7b69eedc3e37" CreationDate="2019-11-18T11:01:25.423" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23758" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9453" RevisionGUID="911e1859-979c-4fb3-b910-47b9cbcda8af" CreationDate="2019-11-20T05:01:45.227" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23762" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9499" RevisionGUID="b14332bd-4ec6-41aa-b324-9bbf99fafe26" CreationDate="2019-11-20T10:52:55.790" UserId="15709" Text="&lt;sup&gt;&lt;i&gt;(excuse me for my not good english)&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This happens me once in a while and happened lately: I am in a meeting in the same room with my client and someone (one person or more) from a web agency, or some company's salesman, or some from marketing department.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This third person start to embellish the talk with totally unnecessary technical jargon, abstruse words, acronym, and similar, sometimes even without knowing exactly or deeply what is under these words.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know exactly what is happening, that person wants to mesmerize/impress the other present people like: &quot;I know everything, I am a guru and you are noone in the field so you must shut up and trust me 100%, now sign the contract&quot;. (Then the client will get some scam service or similar.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The fact is that this person could have explained the same things using normal simple words and concepts, thing that most of the times I do after the main meeting, me and the client alone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine the client who can be a 68 years old very expert carpenter or a young chef but with very little or zero computer/internet/e-commerce/etc. knowledge and he wants me to be present for any help or consulence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now happened a few times that this third person says one or more abstruse word or acronym that the client expects me to know, but I don't know because it's not exactly my field even if it's close, or it's something that I knew but in the moment I don't remember, or simply I have never encountered since now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the best answer or behaviour to have in this situation to avoid to give the impression of incompetence, appear confused, or avoid to give clumsy answers to the present people?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23763" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9499" RevisionGUID="b14332bd-4ec6-41aa-b324-9bbf99fafe26" CreationDate="2019-11-20T10:52:55.790" UserId="15709" Text="Best behaviour to have in meetings with people trying to impress / confuse others with unnecessary technical jargon" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23764" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9499" RevisionGUID="b14332bd-4ec6-41aa-b324-9bbf99fafe26" CreationDate="2019-11-20T10:52:55.790" UserId="15709" Text="|difficult-client|customer-relations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23765" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9500" RevisionGUID="62012df4-4d30-4c83-9f01-f7dd09c450e9" CreationDate="2019-11-20T11:13:43.440" UserId="7858" Text="While it is annoying having other people show off, this could work to your advantage, as the contrast b&#xD;&#xA;                                                                                                       &#xD;&#xA;Don't assume clients are always easily 'impressed' by tech-speak. Many smaller clients prefer a technic&#xD;&#xA;                                                                                                       &#xD;&#xA;Example: Client is unsure whether Linux would be a better choice than Windows, because this seems like &#xD;&#xA;                                                                                                       &#xD;&#xA;Instead of naming a dozen distributions and plain-stakingly explaining the differences, turn it into a &#xD;&#xA;                                                                                                       &#xD;&#xA;Many of the people displaying the behavior you describe seem unable to convert technical issues into cl&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23766" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9289" RevisionGUID="a7fb2181-9d92-483f-bf9f-9c585a8ad00c" CreationDate="2019-11-20T15:01:10.157" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23767" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9499" RevisionGUID="0868f320-a749-4ea0-b6a4-2c979fa85df8" CreationDate="2019-11-20T15:28:40.203" UserId="15709" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="&lt;sup&gt;&lt;i&gt;(excuse me for my not good english)&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This happens me once in a while and happened lately: I am in a meeting in the same room with my client and someone (one person or more) from a web agency, or some company's salesman, or someone from marketing department.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This third person start to embellish the talk with totally unnecessary technical jargon, abstruse words, acronym, and similar, sometimes even without knowing exactly or deeply what is under these words.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know exactly what is happening, that person wants to mesmerize/impress the other present people like: &quot;I know everything, I am a guru and you are noone in the field so you must shut up and trust me 100%, now sign the contract&quot;. (Then the client will get some scam service or similar.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The fact is that this person could have explained the same things using normal simple words and concepts, thing that most of the times I do after the main meeting, me and the client alone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine the client who can be a 68 years old very expert carpenter or a young chef but with very little or zero computer/internet/e-commerce/etc. knowledge and he wants me to be present for any help or consulence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now happened a few times that this third person says one or more abstruse word or acronym that the client expects me to know, but I don't know because it's not exactly my field even if it's close, or it's something that I knew but in the moment I don't remember, or simply I have never encountered since now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the best answer or behaviour to have in this situation to avoid to give the impression of incompetence, appear confused, or avoid to give clumsy answers to the present people?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23774" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9503" RevisionGUID="7521b2e5-b646-4054-bae9-3a86d6b9ccfe" CreationDate="2019-11-20T18:14:18.933" UserId="708" Text="Quiet confidence gets me the kind of clients I *want*. Bold, boisterous, technical arrogance often garners clients I *don't* want. It all comes down to a person's selling style really.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I actually **get** more clients because I *don't* use jargon or technical-speak when explaining things. I rely on cues from clients as to the level of techno-speak I'll use. I'll explain something in plain English, they may reply with &quot;Oh, You mean XXXX.&quot; That lets me know they understand that and I can go deeper into technical talk about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It never bothers me when someone goes overboard into jargon or techno-speak. I merely watch the client. If they start to appear confused or lost I may reiterate something in simple terms. Politely, of course, without interrupting or trying to talk over anyone else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I **never** want to treat anyone as if they are stupid, dumb or ignorant. However, I also never want to assume someone understands all aspects of *my career*. They are hiring me specifically *because* I understand things more in depth than they ever will. I don't need to &quot;flex&quot; that knowledge unnecessarily. Chances are they aren't very interested in *learning* the language of my career. They merely want something done well. If other's feel the need to do so, that is their choice. I find that if a client feels there's a &quot;learning curve&quot; to working with you, that's a deterrent, not a selling point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, clients *prefer* understanding things. Overloading them with industry-specific terminology, jargon, or technical terms does not aide in a client's understanding. Faced with two candidates -- one who explains things so they understand and one who bombards them with jargon -- most of the time, they'll pick the candidate they understand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23775" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9500" RevisionGUID="9e51099c-62a9-47c2-ac89-9c9798d8fbc5" CreationDate="2019-11-21T09:19:00.403" UserId="7858" Comment="added 118 characters in body" Text="While it is annoying having other people show off, this could work to your advantage, as the contrast b&#xD;&#xA;                                                                                                       &#xD;&#xA;Don't assume clients are always easily 'impressed' by tech-speak. Many smaller clients prefer a technic&#xD;&#xA;                                                                                                       &#xD;&#xA;Example: Client is unsure whether Linux would be a better choice than Windows, because this seems like &#xD;&#xA;                                                                                                       &#xD;&#xA;Instead of naming a dozen distributions and plain-stakingly explaining the differences, turn it into a &#xD;&#xA;                                                                                                       &#xD;&#xA;Many of the people displaying the behavior you describe seem unable to convert technical issues into client-understandable business problems. If you can, merely stay on point and reduce them to a useless background noise.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23776" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9500" RevisionGUID="63167068-ba6e-48cf-8e85-45d8bc44dda0" CreationDate="2019-11-21T09:25:38.983" UserId="7858" Comment="added 118 characters in body" Text="While it is annoying having other people show off, this could work to your advantage, as the contrast between their redundant word-salad and your client-targeted communication will be quite evident.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't assume clients are always easily 'impressed' by tech-speak. Many smaller clients prefer a technical partner/advisor who will speak their language. A good option is to - as much as possible - not let yourself be affected and continue addressing the client the way you prefer. Whenever they try to complicate this issue you should explain it in an understandable way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Example: Client is unsure whether Linux would be a better choice than Windows, because this seems like a technical problem they feel they cannot even begin to evaluate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead of naming a dozen distributions and plain-stakingly explaining the differences, turn it into a business decision by exploring which business parameters are important to the client: Licensing fees, 24/7 support, resource availability - and arrive at a recommendation based on client feedback.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many of the people displaying the behavior you describe seem unable to convert technical issues into client-understandable business problems. If you can, then merely stay on point and reduce them to a useless background noise." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23791" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9507" RevisionGUID="223ae961-a96b-4433-9011-536cef2e8048" CreationDate="2019-11-22T16:24:29.913" UserId="20549" Text="I think this is the right spot for this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have an engineering background, I've done project management, and I'm currently working on helping my group become compliant with a new standard for us. I'm an excellent proofreader, and I'm very good at coming up with words that other people are struggling to think of/I'm good at helping people put ideas into words.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, what I'm really good at helping other people's ideas get better. This either takes the form of coming up with improvements myself, suggesting things that don't work but spark ideas in others, or pointing out why things don't work (I'm really good at this last one). I have some programming experience, but I function better as a sounding board for ideas for people who are better programmers than I.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a side job, or even a career for this sort of thing? I don't even know what to Google; what would this be called?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23792" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9507" RevisionGUID="223ae961-a96b-4433-9011-536cef2e8048" CreationDate="2019-11-22T16:24:29.913" UserId="20549" Text="Is there such a thing as an &quot;Idea Developer&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23793" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9507" RevisionGUID="223ae961-a96b-4433-9011-536cef2e8048" CreationDate="2019-11-22T16:24:29.913" UserId="20549" Text="|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23798" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9439" RevisionGUID="31234aa9-f8ca-4a6c-a342-bd232826ba05" CreationDate="2019-11-24T13:03:05.413" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23802" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9509" RevisionGUID="8646105f-3dd7-44e9-b91e-03d9a1972492" CreationDate="2019-11-25T11:36:12.957" UserId="23928" Text="As a beginner, try to keep your **prices low**, but not so low that its gives off an image of low quality. Add all the **keywords** that are relevant to your services. Also, along with keeping your **images and description clear yet catchy**, try adding proofs of your capabilities. For this, Fiverr allows you to take **tests** for different domains. You can also add **certifications**, if any.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Like other freelancing websites, Fiverr has now also given the option of bidding, called **buyer requests**. In this way, you can look up for a job that you think is appropriate for you and apply for it, rather than waiting for the buyers to come to you.  &#xD;&#xA;You can find the complete details [here][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://sellers.fiverr.com/en/article/submitting-offers-to-buyer-requests" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23803" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9499" RevisionGUID="dc889147-e5e2-4ee5-8656-ca0b98d42376" CreationDate="2019-11-25T15:00:34.433" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1198979798447665152" />
  <row Id="23807" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5816" RevisionGUID="b9ec1328-ed88-4312-8014-0b50decdb4f7" CreationDate="2019-11-27T12:43:38.070" UserId="22313" Comment="response waas to question in text, not to question in title" Text="Yes to the question title, no to the question in the text. Gumroad simply deals with the *EU VAT* paperwork for you, nothing else. Registering as self-employed, filing taxes with HMRC etc. is all a completely different matter and still needs to be done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You currently don't need to register to for VAT in the UK unless your VAT taxable turnover is more than  £83,000. In the past that was all you needed to do but EU regulation means you must now pay VAT in the country of your consumers, not your country of residence, which can mean a lot of paperwork if your selling across a lot of the EU—this is what Gumroad is saving you from doing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- [GOV.UK - Registering for VAT in other EU countries](https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration/registering-vat-other-eu-countries)&#xD;&#xA;- [GOV.UK - VAT on sales of digital services in the EU](https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/vat-moss-vat-on-sales-of-digital-services-in-the-eu)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23808" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="5816" RevisionGUID="b9ec1328-ed88-4312-8014-0b50decdb4f7" CreationDate="2019-11-27T12:43:38.070" Comment="Proposed by 22313 approved by 61, 7858 edit id of 689" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23809" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2146" RevisionGUID="aa05d9c8-2828-46a1-ac44-84792462a48c" CreationDate="2019-11-27T12:44:22.343" UserId="22343" Comment="Improve the quality of the description" Text="I have an open-source project that gets ~15K views and ~2K downloads per week. I just got an email from a company willing to be a sponsor for the project. The email says &quot;What's your sponsoring price?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I never thought about offering sponsorships but I would love it if I was able to gather enough sponsors to work on my open source full time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My first thought was to treat it as another contract and say &quot;My rate is X/hr, how many hours per month do you want to sponsor?&quot; but then I thought it might not be handled this way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How is this usually done? How do open-source projects come up with their sponsorship prices?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23810" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2146" RevisionGUID="aa05d9c8-2828-46a1-ac44-84792462a48c" CreationDate="2019-11-27T12:44:22.343" Comment="Proposed by 22343 approved by 1018, 7858 edit id of 690" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23811" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9488" RevisionGUID="eaf4c281-3586-4d4c-b61c-8e366c8c06c7" CreationDate="2019-11-29T00:00:03.750" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1200202728821153794" />
  <row Id="23812" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9511" RevisionGUID="fdee82bb-795d-49bf-9610-8af310fa7fdc" CreationDate="2019-11-29T17:16:25.240" UserId="12838" Text="If you don't charge VAT, don't put a column on your invoice for it. If you did need to charge VAT, you'd have to be explicit about it, so it not being there means you're not charging it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That said, your client sounds like they are nitpicking over nothing so they probably are just finding stupid things to try and delay payment. You may need to be more firm with them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23813" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9512" RevisionGUID="f9979c67-0dc5-4bd4-b386-84015c3c5d28" CreationDate="2019-11-29T17:35:47.073" UserId="12838" Text="The person I know who does something similar to this calls himself a &quot;Creative Consultant.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may want to use the word &quot;clarity&quot; for what you do - i.e. you're bringing clarity and helping to firm up their ideas. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23817" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9513" RevisionGUID="6ae36165-aa8f-497e-b58b-34f9284d0778" CreationDate="2019-12-01T10:00:16.513" UserId="23948" Text="This is part of a conversation from a help forum&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Asker: Anyone got any idea how I should approach this challenge?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Responder: This is quite complex but I should be able to solve the problem. I’ll have a look in the next weeks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Asker: That’s great! To motivate you to look into it, I would gladly offer a reward of $50 in BTC for your efforts should you find the fix for this in the next week!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Responder: You know, I’m like Linda Evangelista, I wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day... :smile:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Asker: But well, the way I see it :smiley: 50$ &gt; 0$ :smiley: haha&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best way to respond?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23818" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9513" RevisionGUID="6ae36165-aa8f-497e-b58b-34f9284d0778" CreationDate="2019-12-01T10:00:16.513" UserId="23948" Text="How to Respond To Casual Agreement" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23819" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9513" RevisionGUID="6ae36165-aa8f-497e-b58b-34f9284d0778" CreationDate="2019-12-01T10:00:16.513" UserId="23948" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23820" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6099" RevisionGUID="e015cb28-5f7b-493f-8b71-ba98dfb4a1b6" CreationDate="2019-12-01T12:00:04.907" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1201108703363174401" />
  <row Id="23821" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9514" RevisionGUID="3e4adfb8-b833-4af8-b57d-9dab41a8227b" CreationDate="2019-12-01T16:12:25.997" UserId="23949" Text="First off, sorry for the caps in the title, but I did that for a good reason.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most sites and blog articles out there go something like, &quot;How a beginner can start freelancing with no experience&quot;. With such riveting sections as, &quot;how to create a wordpress site&quot; and &quot;how to learn python&quot; and &quot;what is a computer, anyway?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I **am not** a beginning coder!  I have 20 years experience working for &quot;the man&quot; in embedded systems.  Now, however, I have come to the point in my life where no longer care about the rat race and office politics.  I'd rather hang out in my cabin in the mountains and raise my kids.  Don't want to commute 2 hours each way into the big city anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So how does somebody *like me* get started, with tons of experience but 0% web rep and very little portfolio?  Do I really have to start over at the bottom slapping out HTML for $10/hr with all the other script kiddies? (no offense if this is you)  Or is there some way to leverage my years in cubicle hell to my advantage?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23822" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9514" RevisionGUID="3e4adfb8-b833-4af8-b57d-9dab41a8227b" CreationDate="2019-12-01T16:12:25.997" UserId="23949" Text="How an EXPERIENCED programmer can switch to freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23823" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9514" RevisionGUID="3e4adfb8-b833-4af8-b57d-9dab41a8227b" CreationDate="2019-12-01T16:12:25.997" UserId="23949" Text="|working-from-home|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23824" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9515" RevisionGUID="8a75821e-1fcb-4ab1-a37e-dfbc1057baa6" CreationDate="2019-12-01T17:40:05.237" UserId="75" Text="1. Is this a complex problem that you would normally charge $50 or less for?&#xD;&#xA;2. Are there going to be potential gotchas half-way through?&#xD;&#xA;3. Do you have a formal agreement in place?&#xD;&#xA;4. How do you verify this person is who they say they are, and are willing to *actually* pay you if you solve the problem?&#xD;&#xA;5. Can you solve the problem, but hold off on the solution until you *verify* the funds in your account?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This casual part sounds like either the Asker is kidding, trying to scam you, or doesn't care much about the solution." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23825" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9516" RevisionGUID="1f864e23-a503-49a2-97d0-44503113b000" CreationDate="2019-12-01T17:51:30.350" UserId="75" Text="Welcome to the wonderful world of Freelancing!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, you need to get a portfolio of your *successful* projects and problem-solving skills available. This is why most tutorials start with Wordpress - it's easy for non-programmers to setup and get running. I recommend a web presence, but if you're comfortable with another web tech, use that instead. For example, my new Resume one-page site uses Hugo. Still looks good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, you need to calculate how much you need to live comfortably as a freelancer. Check out other questions on this site relating to [tag:pricing] to help with some of the calculations you'll need. There are still expenses as a freelancer you need to cover, even when you don't have customers during a day or week or month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Third, do you have a good exit plan? You should come up with one before you take the leap. The last thing you want is to burn through all your savings, and then go back to working for &quot;the man&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, get your name and services out there! Pay for a bit of advertising, links on Google Search Results or similar, banner ads on programming sites, etc. Track your expenses, and make sure they all include a link to your portfolio, and a way to contact you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancing does not usually happen miraculously in one day; as a conservative spender and over thinker, I planned for almost a year to get the pieces in place before taking the leap. I don't believe in half-assing what I do, and this is my livelihood that would be in question if I failed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23826" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9517" RevisionGUID="737a6a6c-6c50-491c-bbf2-d2a638c779b4" CreationDate="2019-12-01T19:37:59.443" UserId="708" Text="I, personally, would not feel this is a valid offer in **any form**. The &quot;asker&quot; is being light-hearted and is absolutely not serious.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are serious, you can test buy responding....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I can legitimately solve this for you. My cost will be $100. Are you interested in paying for my services?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that, things are solidified. If they respond with yes, get contact information and send a formal agreement email/letter/contract. Once they respond to the agreement, then start the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Chances are the asker isn't really willing to pay anything." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23830" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9448" RevisionGUID="9d6b4eb3-d3f9-4942-a4a0-51dc0398bc07" CreationDate="2019-12-02T11:01:55.117" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23831" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9517" RevisionGUID="53cf387e-633e-40fa-bad4-a1adb6828d7a" CreationDate="2019-12-02T17:53:07.037" UserId="708" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="I, personally, would not feel this is a valid offer in **any form**. The &quot;asker&quot; is being light-hearted and is absolutely not serious.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are serious, you can test by responding with....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I can legitimately solve this for you. My cost will be $100. Are you interested in paying for my services?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that, things are solidified. If they respond with yes, get contact information and send a formal agreement email/letter/contract. Once they respond to the agreement, then start the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Chances are the asker isn't really willing to pay anything." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23832" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9519" RevisionGUID="6b078a80-3c2e-4b1f-8ac4-2f352c795533" CreationDate="2019-12-03T07:10:41.447" UserId="23932" Text="With 20 years experience you have lot to show on your linkedin, github and any other social media platform to potential employees. Also if possible then start your youtube channel and make videos to teach. This will show people how much you know and your strengths. Make a profile on platforms like freelancer, upwork, guru or people per hour etc. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23834" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9520" RevisionGUID="e05c5001-6454-492f-8792-a3fad06bec55" CreationDate="2019-12-05T10:35:29.160" UserId="23965" Text="Im based in the UK and a couple of years ago I agreed to write a small application for a local company. As it was supposed to be a quick small thing, we didnt have a formal contract in place (big mistake I know now in retrospect). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It quickly grew legs and i've spent the best part of the last two years supporting this free of charge in my free time when I get home from my full time job while juggling family and other commitments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't find anything concrete to let me know where I stand legally, but I can't see an end in sight for this and really just want to get out of this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have any suggestions what I can do to get out of this? If it came to it, I would be happy to give the small amount of money I actually made from this back and call it quits, but I have no idea how to approach this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23835" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9520" RevisionGUID="e05c5001-6454-492f-8792-a3fad06bec55" CreationDate="2019-12-05T10:35:29.160" UserId="23965" Text="Expectations for system support" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23836" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9520" RevisionGUID="e05c5001-6454-492f-8792-a3fad06bec55" CreationDate="2019-12-05T10:35:29.160" UserId="23965" Text="|contracts|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23837" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9521" RevisionGUID="b3a4d05e-a529-4c3b-a191-0ae457297018" CreationDate="2019-12-05T11:45:08.393" UserId="708" Text="If you have no contract, simply stop supporting it. There would be nothing legally obligating you to *any* support, let alone, free unlimited support." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23838" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9522" RevisionGUID="d520afeb-513c-48c9-b15f-64dcaddc9a3a" CreationDate="2019-12-05T12:05:37.407" UserId="7858" Text="The preferred action depends on what you want to achieve in the long term as well as the short term.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since there is no contract, I would assume that you legally can walk away. Whether this is a good idea depends on how seriously this bridge-burning will impact you in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tell the client that you are no longer able to support the application and wish to negotiate a speedy exit that both parties can live with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they 'refuse', returning any money recieved releaves you of any ethical obligations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes one can help them find a replacement. In this case, that should be avoided as the client is probably looking for someone free or cheap. You should not do their low-balling for them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23839" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9521" RevisionGUID="5e2d06cf-3888-4b80-b4b8-af9799d78dc1" CreationDate="2019-12-05T19:31:43.493" UserId="708" Comment="added 174 characters in body" Text="If you have no contract, simply stop supporting it. There would be nothing legally obligating you to *any* support, let alone, free unlimited support.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would notify the client that as of [X Date] (30 days) there will be no more support.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would *never* return any money. You *did* the work, why on earth would you return money?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23840" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9523" RevisionGUID="659fb806-1e38-4000-9cae-5e1425a0f6c2" CreationDate="2019-12-09T09:24:30.523" UserId="23978" Text="I have worked as a technical trainer and had made several technical trainings during that period. I wanted to know the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.	Where can I sell them to learners. Are there any platforms where I can retail them to people for a small fee? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2.	I have the theory slides and practical modules (programming codes) available with me. What further do I need to modify in the trainings to make them more marketable?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking forward to some expert freelancing guidance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks and Regards.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23841" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9523" RevisionGUID="659fb806-1e38-4000-9cae-5e1425a0f6c2" CreationDate="2019-12-09T09:24:30.523" UserId="23978" Text="How to sell a technical training course online" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23842" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9523" RevisionGUID="659fb806-1e38-4000-9cae-5e1425a0f6c2" CreationDate="2019-12-09T09:24:30.523" UserId="23978" Text="|training|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23843" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="5813" RevisionGUID="cc0a451a-912b-480f-8527-4c4c9726b981" CreationDate="2019-12-09T18:00:45.390" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1204098572595159040" />
  <row Id="23844" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9524" RevisionGUID="3876992d-6d66-4304-b034-ab33eb11057d" CreationDate="2019-12-09T18:26:18.023" UserId="1817" Text="I'm SW developer. I met a guy who wants to help him to build an Android application from scratch. He does not know anything about it and he has to do it for some lecture at university.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have no idea how to charge him as I will probably start with very general stuff like setting up tools (Android Studio) and we will probably not touch the actual task for a couple of lessons.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want him to feel like he is not getting any closer to the goal so I don't know how to approach this issue." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23845" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9524" RevisionGUID="3876992d-6d66-4304-b034-ab33eb11057d" CreationDate="2019-12-09T18:26:18.023" UserId="1817" Text="How to charge for 1 on 1 tutoring of mobile app development" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23846" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9524" RevisionGUID="3876992d-6d66-4304-b034-ab33eb11057d" CreationDate="2019-12-09T18:26:18.023" UserId="1817" Text="|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23847" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9525" RevisionGUID="e1f320ab-f8f1-4401-92d2-0c9274b678e6" CreationDate="2019-12-09T18:47:21.937" UserId="16365" Text="I have done stuff like this before, and usually charge the client by the hour. It feels wrong to charge them my usual (&quot;developer&quot;) hourly rate, so I've almost always lowballed myself and charged them much less. YMMV. (Especially if they are an educator, they almost certainly can't afford my rates anyway, but it feels good to &quot;give back&quot;.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would just be clear up-front that they may not see much progress the first few sessions, and that this is a complicated topic that takes years (or at least 100s of hours) to become proficient.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One suggestion: Especially if they want to get more of the actual development, I would set a number of minutes you will devote to setting up their environment per session. Maybe only 10-20 minutes. When you haven't got it set up yet at the end of that time, switch to your machine, so they can see what development will be like once they've got the environment set up completely. Then finish setting their environment up next time. Or another thing I've done (although had less success with) is to send them links to try to get them to set up the environment in advance of our session themselves. Then you spend the first 10-20 min. trying to troubleshoot that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Worth noting that setting up an Android environment (specifically w/ Android Studio) has gotten noticeably easier in the last few years, so you may (possibly) find yourself able to set up their environment in less than an hour, depending on a bunch of other factors." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23848" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9523" RevisionGUID="84864b0b-4c2e-45b8-bffc-efd7952d3b58" CreationDate="2019-12-10T11:51:47.347" UserId="23978" Comment="deleted 13 characters in body" Text="I have worked as a technical trainer and had made several technical trainings during that period. I wanted to know the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I have theory modules (in ppt format) and practical modules (programming codes) of a training available with me. I used it to deliver instructor led training program. How can I modify them into online training program? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. How can I sell them to learners for a small fee ? Once I know how to do so, I can make several other training programs as a Freelance Training Content Developer and retail them online.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking forward to some expert freelancing guidance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks and Regards.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23853" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9527" RevisionGUID="6837f26c-e877-4d04-823a-ce7ae5e380f9" CreationDate="2019-12-13T02:23:17.210" UserId="24001" Text="I don't have 20 years os experience, but I have 5 and started freelancing in 2019. I tried the websites @Ayaz cited on his answer (freelancer, upwork, guru, people per hour) but it is hard to compete in price with people just starting out when you don't have much that you can show.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What worked for me was going to presenting at some events and meeting new people. You can do talks on the technologies you know and starting to be know on the comunity. My first freelancing opportunity came trough a friend that knew I was open to this kind of work, he referred me for a company and was called.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They liked my CV but what counted the most was being referred by someone they trusted. Having a lot of time on the industry makes this kind of thing happen more often.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck on the journey!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23854" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9307" RevisionGUID="a13f943d-5345-4fee-a521-0c6d8c16fee3" CreationDate="2019-12-13T09:01:50.470" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23855" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9528" RevisionGUID="7dcfbe97-93db-4701-a4fe-c7415e10d641" CreationDate="2019-12-14T04:16:17.577" UserId="24006" Text="I am an inexperienced web developer, and I have yet to get my first client. I have prospective clients, however I am concerned about pitching them simply because I am unsure as to how I will access their pre-existing website to make changes. Different websites have different FTP access methods, and there are different server architectures, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Ask the owner of the website, who probably didn't build it, what it is built with and how I should access it&#xD;&#xA; - Ask for the details of the original developer to ask them questions&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or is there some kind of simple fit-all method? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23856" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9528" RevisionGUID="7dcfbe97-93db-4701-a4fe-c7415e10d641" CreationDate="2019-12-14T04:16:17.577" UserId="24006" Text="How can I access a new client's pre-existing website?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23857" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9528" RevisionGUID="7dcfbe97-93db-4701-a4fe-c7415e10d641" CreationDate="2019-12-14T04:16:17.577" UserId="24006" Text="|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23858" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9529" RevisionGUID="18e1a944-c181-4fc9-8ae1-6daff98a2c9e" CreationDate="2019-12-14T07:52:43.023" UserId="24007" Text="I am resident in, and a citizen of India. My primary source of income is freelance work, My major earning are for US based Patreon and Fiver companies. I use payoneer to receive and transfer to local bank. Patreon ask me send tax details as income earned are taxable income. I ask for tax return and filing procress to them, they informed to take adsive of tax professional. I contacted local tax professional but I don't clear information from them. Some advise to tax return to US earning is necessary and some advise not needed. Any body can suggest,  Do I need to pay tax for US based earning?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If yes than which form should I use for filing US tax return for income $10k or less . How can I do it from home country. Can I do it my self or I have to contact tax professional. Can anyone guide me step by step process, this is my first time. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23859" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9529" RevisionGUID="18e1a944-c181-4fc9-8ae1-6daff98a2c9e" CreationDate="2019-12-14T07:52:43.023" UserId="24007" Text="DO Non-USA Resident have to pay tax or tax return for US Based earning residing and woring from own country" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23860" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9529" RevisionGUID="18e1a944-c181-4fc9-8ae1-6daff98a2c9e" CreationDate="2019-12-14T07:52:43.023" UserId="24007" Text="|legal|payment-terms|taxes|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23861" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9530" RevisionGUID="da39753b-46d9-4fa5-9619-b8c3d6f3a9d1" CreationDate="2019-12-14T18:56:42.047" UserId="708" Text="Sounds like you may need to speak to a **better** tax professional in your area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am **not** now and have **never been** a tax professional and I live in the United States.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The purpose of taxes is to support infrastructure in *your location*, not in some other country. Taxes assist in building roads, paying for schools, paying for government in general. Since you *don't* benefit from *any* of that in another country it's not customary to pay taxes in another country unless you are *based* or *live* in that country. You don't pay taxes in the U.S. unless you *live* in the US or have a business location established in the US. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One caveat may be **goods** or **products**. If you are importing/exporting items from/to the US, then there may be *[tariffs][1]* required, but tariffs are not *income tax*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I live in the US, my work is all ephemeral (digital in nature, no goods or products), there has never been a need for me to pay any UK taxes even though I've had UK clients. I'm not earning any income inside the UK. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, think about it.. if you don't live in the US and don't pay US taxes, what possible penalties could the US impose upon you? The answer is none.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You may owe taxes in your location, wherever that may be.** You may be earning income from the US but live in CountryX. Most likely that income is taxable by CountryX since that is your location. Those tax filings in CountryX would be your tax records in lieu of any US tax records. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Further example... even though I don't file UK taxes when I have UK clients, I still **must** claim the income I earned from UK clients on my US tax returns... and pay US taxes on the *income* I earned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for specific web sites.. you'll have to go over their terms of service. They could have specific terms related to non-US users. Certainly informing them that you aren't a US citizen or business may alleviate the tax issue. Of course, there could be other repercussions if they don't permit non-US transactions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would stress again, speaking to a *qualified* tax professional in your location who can provide a *definitive* answer may assist you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, you pay taxes **where YOU live**, not where your clients live.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariff" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23862" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9530" RevisionGUID="5142f9f2-e9f7-462b-a3c0-98c9b87306ac" CreationDate="2019-12-14T22:01:09.087" UserId="708" Comment="added 390 characters in body" Text="Sounds like you may need to speak to a **better** tax professional in your area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am **not** now and have **never been** a tax professional and I live in the United States. I also do not use online crowd sourcing sites to earn an income. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The purpose of taxes is to support infrastructure in *your location*, not in some other country. Taxes assist in building roads, paying for schools, paying for government in general. Since you *don't* benefit from *any* of that in another country it's not customary to pay taxes in another country unless you are *based* or *live* in that country. You don't pay taxes in the U.S. unless you *live* in the US or have a business location established in the US. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One caveat may be **goods** or **products**. If you are importing/exporting items from/to the US, then there may be *[tariffs][1]* required, but tariffs are not *income tax*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I live in the US, my work is all ephemeral (digital in nature, no goods or products), there has never been a need for me to pay any UK taxes even though I've had UK clients. I'm not earning any income inside the UK. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, think about it.. if you don't live in the US and don't pay US taxes, what possible penalties could the US impose upon you? The answer is none.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You may owe taxes in your location, wherever that may be.** You may be earning income from the US but live in CountryX. Most likely that income is taxable by CountryX since that is your location. Those tax filings in CountryX would be your tax records in lieu of any US tax records. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Further example... even though I don't file UK taxes when I have UK clients, I still **must** claim the income I earned from UK clients on my US tax returns... and pay US taxes on the *income* I earned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for specific web sites.. you'll have to go over their terms of service. They could have specific terms related to non-US users. Certainly informing them that you aren't a US citizen or business may alleviate the tax issue. Of course, there could be other repercussions if they don't permit non-US transactions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether or not using a US-based crowd-sourcing web site constitutes a &quot;business location: inside the US.. again, you need to speak to a qualified tax professional.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would stress again, speaking to a *qualified* tax professional in your location who can provide a *definitive* answer may assist you. Get it in **writing** so you can hold them accountable if thy are incorrect. If they *know* the answer, it should be no issue for them to put it in writing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, you pay taxes **where YOU live**, not where your clients live.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariff" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23863" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9531" RevisionGUID="28a33559-ca3e-4a20-83ec-22a41fcd7ba2" CreationDate="2019-12-15T06:06:06.700" UserId="23850" Text="A web browser is generally a good tool to use to access a website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wouldn't recommend using any kind of automated webcrawler or robot though.  You can generally find out fairly easily whether they're using a CMS (Wordpress, Drupal etc) and which JS libraries, frameworks etc they're using.  If they're large enough, they might outline their tech stack on stackshare.io.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're prospecting for work then why not identify usability issues to inform a presales pitchdeck or similar?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23870" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9534" RevisionGUID="08eb5c71-93ec-4c0c-ad96-f31c23c15995" CreationDate="2019-12-16T00:59:06.677" UserId="24018" Text="1. Create a nice Profile, with a professional profile image, focused description.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Create Attractive gig. With a nice gig image, proper gig descriptions. Add previous work samples. Add gig tags related to your service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. At the beginning try to offer small/split services. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Stay online, maximum time that is possible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. You can try Buyer Request. But for the new updates, BR job posts are limited for sellers without any level. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23875" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="340" RevisionGUID="d05b4188-c672-4f45-bc35-57274079bb48" CreationDate="2019-12-16T07:16:37.717" UserId="15235" Comment="excerpts don't support formatting, the link should be in the wiki anyway" Text="For freelancing questions related to the professional network [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23876" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="340" RevisionGUID="d05b4188-c672-4f45-bc35-57274079bb48" CreationDate="2019-12-16T07:16:37.717" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 7858 edit id of 696" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23877" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="341" RevisionGUID="49d7ea59-3605-468f-aa99-40c7b6e698aa" CreationDate="2019-12-16T07:16:52.093" UserId="15235" Comment="excerpts don't support formatting, the link should be in the wiki anyway" Text="For freelancing questions related to the professional network LinkedIn." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23878" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="341" RevisionGUID="49d7ea59-3605-468f-aa99-40c7b6e698aa" CreationDate="2019-12-16T07:16:52.093" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 7858 edit id of 697" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23888" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="3239" RevisionGUID="e888fef5-562f-4efe-a6fe-9d967720da67" CreationDate="2019-12-17T17:31:23.440" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke REINSTATE MONICA&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="23891" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9514" RevisionGUID="6b25ff11-72bc-4e8e-8aea-ca7abf3242ca" CreationDate="2019-12-18T12:00:02.677" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1207269287360188419" />
  <row Id="23893" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9541" RevisionGUID="ba50764e-2d0f-419f-95c3-0b4b1280ccea" CreationDate="2019-12-20T07:30:51.743" UserId="24046" Text="Sometime ago, I did a challenging project for a client as a freelancer, and he uses my work as core of the software he sells. Basically my work is the main feature of that software, and he just ship it as part of his Software and make profit from it. I've been still working with that client on follow up projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now another client approached me and he wants to buys the same work I did for the another client. I guess he is probably a competitor of the first client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding contract with first client, we have none. We never discussed about ownership of code, and all payment/work is done in good faith so far.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it matters, both these client are remote and from a different continent than me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my questions are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A) Do I legally own the work or client? Can I legally sell it to somebody else too?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;B) What about moral reasons? Is it moral to sell it to their competitors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;C) Any advice in general on how I should approach this situation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23894" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9541" RevisionGUID="ba50764e-2d0f-419f-95c3-0b4b1280ccea" CreationDate="2019-12-20T07:30:51.743" UserId="24046" Text="Another client wants to buy a challenging work I did for one client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23895" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9541" RevisionGUID="ba50764e-2d0f-419f-95c3-0b4b1280ccea" CreationDate="2019-12-20T07:30:51.743" UserId="24046" Text="|contracts|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23896" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9542" RevisionGUID="89ad1abe-d69f-404f-8b36-9cd409ca2c51" CreationDate="2019-12-20T08:23:23.120" UserId="7858" Text="I am not a lawyer, but as far as I understand you have the copyright of the code as long as you haven't given it up. It would therefore seem that you legally may sell to anyone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have three options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Tell the original client that others are interested and suggest formalizing the partnership in a contract&#xD;&#xA; 2. Don't tell the original client and deal will any potential fallout if they ever find out&#xD;&#xA; 3. Inform the original client that you will be selling the product to another client as well&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the original client was under the impression that they had exclusive rights, it will be tricky (or impossible) to agree on a contract - as that exclusivity **must** cost extra, which will potentially lead to some resentment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not telling creates an asymmetry where the first client is in the dark and might believe they have a unique product, whereas their competitor knows they have a non-exclusive product. This is not a level playing field - and they will resent not being told. Whether it's worth risking the relationship to the original client, only you know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your bargaining position is good; i.e. the original client needs you more than you need them, being fully transparent and informing them of their non-exclusivity will put you in the clear legally and ethically. In addition, it puts the onus on them to approach you and make an acceptable offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apart from a simple risk assessment of upside compared to downside, your long-term goals should also be considered. Whether you want to be a fully independent software provider or would prefer a closer partnership with the clients makes a huge difference. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23899" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9541" RevisionGUID="1e0cef8e-676e-4696-a599-cedff6455a8d" CreationDate="2019-12-23T03:00:56.327" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1208945556330033152" />
  <row Id="23900" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9543" RevisionGUID="16c6578c-6b86-4802-9041-a0fd1942eaeb" CreationDate="2019-12-23T17:43:47.717" UserId="21036" Text="From your explanation, &quot;We never discussed about ownership of code, and all payment/work is done in good faith so far.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I DO have a legal degree and can tell you that, according to Common &amp; Contract Law:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) If the $ is sufficient to cover legal fees, if it ever reached a courtroom, a 1st-year law student could convince a judge/jury that there was a meeting of the minds and mutual consideration exchanged = &quot;contract&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) Moreover, your lack of ethics (in even considering such a breach of trust) will eventually, deservedly, bite you in the ass. Were it not for this &quot;2d client&quot;, the issue would not have arisen.  You got paid and &quot;Hell yeah, the 1st client made a profit.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For what did you expect that he paid you? If you'd sold him used car and then sold the title to a 3d party, how is that not fraud or theft?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) As a successful freelancer myself, reputation &amp; integrity are far more important &amp; profitable than &quot;jumping over dollars to chase pennies&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) Karma's a bitch. The word will spread. IF you need a piece of paper to treat clients honestly, your jobs will quickly dry up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5) If this &quot;2d client&quot; has any brains, he'll realize that if you screw one victim, you'll screw him without hesitation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6) That you use the term, &quot;client&quot;, in itself acknowledges that you have a relationship with the original sucker.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I sincerely hope that you get everything you deserve.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23901" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9544" RevisionGUID="2ae364d2-de4e-4452-991f-9f58f36b4621" CreationDate="2019-12-23T17:50:32.297" UserId="21036" Text="I have a perfect rating on a number of platforms, as well as among ongoing, long-standing external clientele.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I vet them thoroughly, politely decline well more projects than I accept.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Only once a rapport, thorough understanding and open relationship are established, I then deliver the finished product BEFORE I enter a formal offer, acceptance or contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This prevents any negative reviews and 100% mutual satisfaction. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23902" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9523" RevisionGUID="e64bb60d-f2e4-4d9e-8a4c-149e20725dca" CreationDate="2019-12-25T09:00:35.503" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1209760841630986241" />
  <row Id="23904" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9356" RevisionGUID="534d3f92-60f0-4feb-a4b9-de8bb2bbde50" CreationDate="2019-12-25T14:03:05.470" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23920" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9550" RevisionGUID="76daa0e9-e606-4bf6-8c96-b8af58f329db" CreationDate="2019-12-27T23:10:18.563" UserId="24083" Text="You could tell the client that you are unable to work until the escrow is funded as per Elance rules. You may get lucky and get paid, or you may get completely burned but chances are you’re not going to get paid by just waiting around." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23925" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9507" RevisionGUID="a33b2d5b-835a-45bb-92b2-e23a4c587c5e" CreationDate="2019-12-29T18:00:25.873" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23926" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9439" RevisionGUID="97cf93d7-818b-4a74-8c09-7734f8659096" CreationDate="2019-12-29T19:02:10.260" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23928" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9509" RevisionGUID="05073afe-129f-48e4-894c-30bbfea49094" CreationDate="2019-12-30T04:38:38.047" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited." Text="As a beginner, try to keep your **prices low**, but not so low that it gives off an image of low quality. Add all the **keywords** that are relevant to your services. Also, along with keeping your **images and description clear yet catchy**, try adding proofs of your capabilities. For this, [Fiverr][1] allows you to take **tests** for different domains. You can also add **certifications**, if any.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like other freelancing websites, Fiverr has now also given the option of bidding, called **buyer requests**. In this way, you can look for a job that you think is appropriate for you and apply for it, rather than waiting for the buyers to come to you. You can find the complete details [here][2].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiverr&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://sellers.fiverr.com/en/article/submitting-offers-to-buyer-requests&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23929" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9509" RevisionGUID="05073afe-129f-48e4-894c-30bbfea49094" CreationDate="2019-12-30T04:38:38.047" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 23928 edit id of 701" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23937" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9554" RevisionGUID="be43d4e2-a3df-4a94-b810-d152681e0c1e" CreationDate="2019-12-30T23:11:35.593" UserDisplayName="user24098" Text="It would be a Social Media position. Do I just file a tax report as a freelancer then? Do I need a business license for it? The company has no ties to the US at all. What do you recommend what's the best thing to do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23938" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9554" RevisionGUID="be43d4e2-a3df-4a94-b810-d152681e0c1e" CreationDate="2019-12-30T23:11:35.593" UserDisplayName="user24098" Text="I live in the US as a non citizen and want to work for a German company remotely. Do I need a business license" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23939" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9554" RevisionGUID="be43d4e2-a3df-4a94-b810-d152681e0c1e" CreationDate="2019-12-30T23:11:35.593" UserDisplayName="user24098" Text="|taxes|marketing|finance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23943" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7660" RevisionGUID="d8a40122-5ec2-43d2-b2fe-a55cf272da2a" CreationDate="2020-01-02T03:02:50.520" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23948" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9557" RevisionGUID="103aa728-5dee-4dec-9aa5-13465f980bcb" CreationDate="2020-01-06T10:50:45.277" UserId="24120" Text="looking to understand the legal and ethical standpoint here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We took on a contractor for some work, expecting it to be a month long +/- piece of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We started having issues early on (didn't show up one day - had lost bag and devices), and self imposed deadlines weren't being met or even communicated that they wouldn't be met. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He then quit without notice (he was battling a lot at the time - which we were very supportive of). The result of which is we ended up with literally nothing to show for his time here. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The agency is now billing us for the two days. I'm a new employer and want to understand where the legal, ethical and anyone else been in this situation before experiences. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to do the right thing, but paying for literally nothing feels off." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23949" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9557" RevisionGUID="103aa728-5dee-4dec-9aa5-13465f980bcb" CreationDate="2020-01-06T10:50:45.277" UserId="24120" Text="(Employer) UK Freelancer quit without notice after 2 days. Recruiter is invoicing us for those days. Where do we stand?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23950" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9557" RevisionGUID="103aa728-5dee-4dec-9aa5-13465f980bcb" CreationDate="2020-01-06T10:50:45.277" UserId="24120" Text="|legal|ethics|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23951" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9558" RevisionGUID="4a5890c9-80a1-4e20-90d6-e61cdd56cf73" CreationDate="2020-01-06T13:25:41.377" UserId="7858" Text="The legal ramifications depend on the contract - assuming there is one. However, I would concentrate on the relationship you have or wish to establish with the agency.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you state you are a new employer, I'm assuming there's no long time bond worth keeping - so you basically just want to pay as little as possible, regardless of what the future relationship with the agency will be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the agency wants a long term relationship with you, they should be willing to strike some sort of deal; e.g. you only paying for one day or a few hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the agency is completely short-sighted, you'll probably have to demonstrate a willingness to take this further - claiming their candidate did not have the required qualifications.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Give the agency a few days to respond, as their position might depend on whether the freelancer will accept non-payment - which they might if they feel they perhaps shouldn't have undertaken this role.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any case - I would withhold pay until an agreement has been made; don't pay in full and argue over a refund you will probably never be able to extract from them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23952" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="7449" RevisionGUID="ea8a6c04-3bdb-4261-b635-62398244dc64" CreationDate="2020-01-06T21:00:15.993" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1214290608292089857" />
  <row Id="23955" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9560" RevisionGUID="759fd6b5-6a32-43dd-b9f8-9f3c3bef4434" CreationDate="2020-01-08T18:40:00.763" UserId="514" Text="It will depend on your juristiction - state/county/town(?) - whether you're required to register your business. You probably will be. I (US Citizen, working in the US) had to register my free-lance business in Massachusetts and in New Hampshire (at the times I lived in each one) and pay a few dollars - a tax - to do so. I don't remember the registration price in Massachusetts, but in NH it was $50, good for 5 years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have the additional wrinkle of being a non-citizen. I have no idea how or whether that might change anything, even assuming you have the right to work in the United States." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23956" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9524" RevisionGUID="2fe0d58a-6c6d-4344-82c9-5972cf6ce5bc" CreationDate="2020-01-08T19:01:30.493" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23957" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9561" RevisionGUID="2ed6620d-350f-4a5c-b21a-741f5f81738c" CreationDate="2020-01-08T19:35:25.937" UserId="708" Text="*What* to charge.. I can't say. In fact no one can, really. It's up to you to determine your rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*How* to charge may be a different matter. Realize that **one-on-one training is a premium**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone merely wants to learn something there are always dozens (or hundreds) of online tutorials, college courses (even community college), and online video training packages. These could all be utilized by the cost-conscious consumer. Getting direct, interactive, personal, training from a professional in *any* field is a **premium service**. There should be **no** discount for this service even if it's not your standard service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it were me, I'd charge my standard hourly rate regardless of what may be the topic of training. This is done because my rates are set to cover costs *for my time*, not for that I'm doing during that time period. While it may be true that there is much less overhead in teaching, compared to directly creating something, the overhead charges built into any hourly rate would compensate me for the additional effort in explaining something multiple times in various ways or creating samples which would otherwise be unusable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be certain to set *clear* expectations. If possible create a bullet list of you plan to train.. a syllabus basically. This will give the client something to reflect upon to see that there *is* a method to when any particular aspect may be the training subject. You can also explain each bullet a bit with things like &quot;This part is going to feel like you aren't making a great deal of progress, but it's overall necessary for everything to come in the future.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23961" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9563" RevisionGUID="7add6ff9-8752-4e0d-8734-7f85a376f7d0" CreationDate="2020-01-10T00:08:30.873" UserId="24138" Text="Had no idea where to post this... Hoping  someone can give me some advice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a rather broad set of IT skills. Ranging from helpdesk support, server support, desktop support etc. All the way through to some coding skills (html , CSS and JS ) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At the small business I currently I am employed to do IT support full time, there isn't enough work for this so I am often given web dev jobs. Mainly coding up WordPress sites... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, I'm 29 this year and am contemplating what to do... I seem to have this broad range of skills but I'm not a specialist in any of them... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am trying to work out what to do and how I should choose a speciality ... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have some solidity programming skills too (ethereum) wondering if that is the way to go. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, I guess I'm half venting and half looking for advice, just so lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice would be very much appreciated...&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23962" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9563" RevisionGUID="7add6ff9-8752-4e0d-8734-7f85a376f7d0" CreationDate="2020-01-10T00:08:30.873" UserId="24138" Text="Jack of All trades syndrome" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23963" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9563" RevisionGUID="7add6ff9-8752-4e0d-8734-7f85a376f7d0" CreationDate="2020-01-10T00:08:30.873" UserId="24138" Text="|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23965" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9564" RevisionGUID="8b203d69-1c85-4d15-8fe3-4871a1cda9bf" CreationDate="2020-01-13T02:59:17.850" UserId="21416" Text="Fellow US-German here with freelance clients in Germany. First, your immigration status is important. If you're not allowed to work in the US, it's my (non-lawyer) understanding that you can't engage in work, not even as freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're allowed to work, then, as a freelancer, you'll be subject to local (e.g. city, county) or state rules. In most places you may need to get a business license, which usually is not very expensive (where I live, it's about $150/yr). Some municipalities don't require a business license if you're not actually doing business in the municipality you live.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once all that is sorted out, you can just do work for your German client, invoice them in USD, receive international payment (Paypal, bank wire, crypto), and then report this as business income on your tax return. That's it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23966" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1421" RevisionGUID="25b3e680-d324-450b-9a7c-8f26423800b4" CreationDate="2020-01-13T10:31:38.457" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited (e.g. ref. &lt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upwork&gt;)." Text="I'm sorry to say, but you can't. And I'm sorry again to say, but the people on Elance are right. They always state clearly when getting a new job to *not work* until the escrow account is funded. They even send emails reminding to not work until the account is funded.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I once did something like this. I started working and finished before realizing the account was not funded. Of course, the difference was that I already did two jobs for this client, so I had trust in him. That doesn't mean I didn't wait for two weeks to get paid for a one-day job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bottom line is they can't do anything, because technically that client respected the rules and you didn't. It's a hard blow, I know, but you must get over it and learn from it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And about getting the money, the chances are slim. There are a lot of people who want to take advantage of good people, and that client seems to be one.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23967" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1421" RevisionGUID="25b3e680-d324-450b-9a7c-8f26423800b4" CreationDate="2020-01-13T10:31:38.457" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 61, 888 edit id of 698" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23968" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9529" RevisionGUID="fbf0b5dd-524f-4bd7-a34a-9ebcf2d00c7e" CreationDate="2020-01-13T22:02:20.290" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23969" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9528" RevisionGUID="321c03df-7c4b-44e0-8629-0ea2964f4b8a" CreationDate="2020-01-14T07:02:00.337" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="23970" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9565" RevisionGUID="2f1a16d6-e20d-40bc-b33c-38ff108f0a33" CreationDate="2020-01-15T12:41:48.000" UserId="20786" Text="Generally speaking, the site belongs to the client, not the developer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whenever I have taken over an existing website, the client has simply instructed the previous developer to hand all passwords and documentation to me.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, yes, you ask the client, explaining why you need to know.  The chances are they will have some idea of how the site was built, but they will want to ensure continuity and so will be on the side of the new developer.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23971" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9485" RevisionGUID="37f0ba6a-a803-4bbd-90a7-cdf8ffe8abe7" CreationDate="2020-01-15T14:51:11.220" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited." Text="I have been using Fiverr for one month, but I did not make lots of orders up to now. I think I should improve my gig with some attractive way for the users, so what are the key things that can be used to improve my gig to get more jobs?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How should I make the pricing and what kind of keywords should I use and what kind of images should be in the gallery?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23972" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9485" RevisionGUID="37f0ba6a-a803-4bbd-90a7-cdf8ffe8abe7" CreationDate="2020-01-15T14:51:11.220" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 61, 15202 edit id of 702" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23973" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3239" RevisionGUID="dd4a2e1e-7461-40f5-ae7a-f391204b57b4" CreationDate="2020-01-15T14:51:28.870" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited. (Note: for some reason this was on the main page on 2019-12-29.)" Text="I'm a WordPress developer living in the Middle East, and I have a strong portfolio and experience. I want to expand my clients base to the US. Because I'm living far from USA, I can't have personal meetings with them. I tried freelancing websites, and I got a few jobs, but it's not financially feasible.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23974" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="3239" RevisionGUID="dd4a2e1e-7461-40f5-ae7a-f391204b57b4" CreationDate="2020-01-15T14:51:28.870" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited. (Note: for some reason this was on the main page on 2019-12-29.)" Text="How can I approach US clients with web development work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23975" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3239" RevisionGUID="dd4a2e1e-7461-40f5-ae7a-f391204b57b4" CreationDate="2020-01-15T14:51:28.870" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 15202 edit id of 699" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23976" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3346" RevisionGUID="24cd943f-7eb0-4a88-8e4a-12257e0eca0c" CreationDate="2020-01-15T14:51:35.993" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited (e.g. ref. &lt;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/American#Adjective&gt; and &lt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress&gt;)." Text="**Skype**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It doesn't matter if you can't have personal meetings with them. Clients love to be able to do Skype meetings if you don't mind using it. You simply need to make it very clear that you're opened to chat with them about their projects. If you don't like being on video mode, they're usually all right with a voice chat as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Currency Value**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is another thing that could make you a good candidate for them: the value of the currency of your country. Instead of adjusting your prices all in US dollars, you should really calculate what is good value for you in your own currency and offer it this way to your client, with the US dollar value at the same time. When you adjust your prices already in US dollars, and at the same value as the other American developers, there's absolutely no advantages for them to select you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Targeting the right market**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to attract more American clients, you need to show them what they want to buy. If your portfolio contains too much &quot;regional&quot; designs and not enough &quot;international&quot; designs, they might not be as attracted because clients often think what you show them is all you can do! For this reason, it's good to show them some work with more &quot;Americanized&quot; flavor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Go where clients are**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't wait for them to find you; go where they hang. There are Facebook groups, forums, LinkedIn, and even reach them directly when you see a company is in need of a nice website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Blog + Website**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be active online. Have a decent blog, show that you know what you're talking about, and share useful tricks with THEM, not with the community of coders/developers! You need to target your content for your target market, not only what you know technically. Be open to share the knowledge that could be useful for them as buyers. You know they won't build their own websites, but they might want tricks on how to find a good developer, what hosting to choose, what they should expect as the process for the creation of a website, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you develop WordPress websites, you should have a nice elegant WordPress website yourself (which I guess you have already). Remember that the style you'll use for your own design will also influence which kind of clientele you'll attract. So on this, it's not a question of ego and showing your personality; it's a question of showing you can do nice business and corporate design.... and most of the time, less is better! So keep it simple. You will show your personality in your *about* page, your posts, your interaction with them, and that's enough for them to judge your character.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Freelance website... (arghh...)**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yeah, it is very hard to be respected as a skilled professional and get good work there, but with the tricks above, this might increase your chances on being selected or at least invited for some projects. Don't be too greedy, if you're just starting, or don't have a big portfolio. You might benefit from doing a few jobs that pay less, but that can be used as reference for future work. The truth is that as designers and developers, we're &quot;practicing&quot; our skills all the time with the projects of our clients ;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, if you're not very pro-active and if you don't have much initiative, you will have hard time finding freelance work out of freelance websites. It's often a starting point for a lot of freelancers, but that doesn't mean you'll get your work there for the rest of your life!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Be honest**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always be honest when selling your services. It's hard for oversea buyers to fully trust services coming from countries where they cannot legally have any reach. So you need to always be an honest service provider, and negotiate clearly. Communication is very important; don't make them waste time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can also have a contract to show your terms clearly, it's a good thing. It will show them you have some method and how they can expect the projects to be managed by you. And respect the deadline and timeframe. One client who appreciates working with you will refer you to his friend, accountant, boss, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most of the time, clients will prefer to work with someone who is crystal clear when communicating, who doesn't let them be confused or anxious, doesn't make them wait and then working with a difficult provider with more skills! You need to make their life easier, not harder. They'll really appreciate this!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you're targeting Americans... you need to get used to their &quot;straight to the point&quot; and very direct approach! They might not exchange a lot of emails before asking you what they want and how much they're willing to pay! If you are not responding well to this or try to make the negotiation process too long, that might not work well for you!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23977" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3346" RevisionGUID="24cd943f-7eb0-4a88-8e4a-12257e0eca0c" CreationDate="2020-01-15T14:51:35.993" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 61, 15202 edit id of 700" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23982" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="6769" RevisionGUID="ef8fc0ac-8c5c-4e6b-be46-ddee7121b181" CreationDate="2020-01-15T20:55:16.473" UserId="708" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="23986" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="6769" RevisionGUID="327c776f-5e5c-4034-983d-331b71fe0836" CreationDate="2020-01-16T18:29:27.763" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="23991" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9571" RevisionGUID="6c30fbe0-e906-45b0-980c-0149b6ce05bf" CreationDate="2020-01-18T14:04:29.403" UserId="19755" Text="There is not a single bullet to end your search for *best freelancing website*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, instead of relying on a freelance website, your aim as a freelancer should be to build your own brand as the authority in your skill set / niche. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apart from websites, social networking (both physical and on-line) is very useful for lead generation. Going to meetups, joining relevant LinkedIn and Facebook groups is very beneficial.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may start the journey by applying at popular freelance websites, forums and groups related to your skill set but also keep building your portfolio on the side. Then come a day when you will get majority of your work from prospective clients landing on your website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="23996" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6830" RevisionGUID="b8c61a6f-535e-4220-bd4e-e6c7b4f0aca6" CreationDate="2020-01-18T15:00:39.037" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24000" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="7150" RevisionGUID="80235bee-c3e4-4924-a1aa-da4f6a11ab80" CreationDate="2020-01-19T01:02:34.733" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="24004" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9574" RevisionGUID="e137635e-f05b-435b-965f-a6a3cae4441b" CreationDate="2020-01-19T18:02:00.080" UserId="23807" Text="I am using upwork but, I didn't have any project yet. So what is the strategy of creating proposals to get high acceptance rate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24005" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9574" RevisionGUID="e137635e-f05b-435b-965f-a6a3cae4441b" CreationDate="2020-01-19T18:02:00.080" UserId="23807" Text="How to Start Freelance Career at Upwork" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24006" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9574" RevisionGUID="e137635e-f05b-435b-965f-a6a3cae4441b" CreationDate="2020-01-19T18:02:00.080" UserId="23807" Text="|portfolio|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24008" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6943" RevisionGUID="60aef0be-78da-4bdb-be88-62246991531e" CreationDate="2020-01-20T03:03:10.373" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24009" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9575" RevisionGUID="3f074566-bb0c-4d8a-afc8-00d1b4e6f104" CreationDate="2020-01-20T03:10:50.560" UserId="21416" Text="I'm a top-rated freelancer on Upwork and now only take on very lucrative projects. It took about 3-5 months of hard work for relatively little money to build up my portfolio and grow my client base. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, I find that the approach that worked for me is to start with a number of small, short term projects in my core area of expertise and to bid very competitively. For example, let's say I'm a DevOps expert and someone needs help with their NGINX configuration. I now would charge at least $80/hr for this, but when I started, I did jobs in the range of $20-$30/hr. This helped me get these jobs and build up a track record.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second, I find that Upwork is a great place to expand your skillset while at the same time making some money and building up a good reputation. Here is how this worked for me: I'd bid very competitively on jobs just outside of my area of expertise. So when applying, I still knew what I was talking about, but clearly knew that I'd need to learn new things to do the job I was applying for. In this way, because I was learning on the job, getting paid a low rate, wasn't so bad.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I still go back to doing the second thing. It's fun to learn and get paid some money! With these two approaches combined, and, of course, being reliable, responsive, and doing good work, I got to my currently hourly rate of $80-$120/hr (depending on the job, less for DevOps more for Data Science) within a few months and maybe 20 completed jobs (I wasn't doing it full time). I also have repeat clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24010" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6790" RevisionGUID="2be888f5-b036-4ca8-b2d8-a3e8534c17d9" CreationDate="2020-01-20T04:03:40.653" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24011" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9576" RevisionGUID="b1523f21-1b9c-45b7-a4bf-5665243440e3" CreationDate="2020-01-20T07:08:17.453" UserId="24078" Text="Here are some of the key points that may benefit you on Upwork:&#xD;&#xA;1 - Never ever use same proposals every time (some people just copy and paste their proposals every where). Read the job details completely and just write a dynamic proposal that is completely related to that job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2 - Try to choose fields which have less competition (I would suggest not to go for logo design or poster design if you are a newbie). Because there's already very fine competition in designing on upwork. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3 - Try to stay active most of the time so that you can apply for the job that best suits your skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4 - Communication skills matter alot in Freelancing. Work on that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5 - While in a discussion with a client, think of longer term and try to provide as much better quality of work as possible. I would suggest to offer multiple revisions to the client if you are comfortable with that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6 - Just keep your price low in the start as you are building clients at that time. You can increase the price later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope these points can help you somehow." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24012" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9576" RevisionGUID="33f390f8-6343-4662-a96f-e080edcb76d4" CreationDate="2020-01-20T13:37:07.513" UserId="61" Comment="formatted according to OP's intent" Text="Here are some of the key points that may benefit you on Upwork:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Never ever use same proposals every time (some people just copy and paste their proposals everywhere). Read the job details completely and just write a dynamic proposal that is completely related to that job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Try to choose fields which have less competition (I would suggest not to go for logo design or poster design if you are a newbie). Because there's already very fine competition in designing on Upwork. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Try to stay active most of the time so that you can apply for the job that best suits your skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Communication skills matter alot in Freelancing. Work on that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. While in a discussion with a client, think of longer term and try to provide as much better quality of work as possible. I would suggest to offer multiple revisions to the client if you are comfortable with that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Just keep your price low in the start as you are building clients at that time. You can increase the price later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope these points can help you somehow." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24013" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="9574" RevisionGUID="09fe5b6e-22b0-4fef-af55-c9b9ebe84b7c" CreationDate="2020-01-20T19:57:27.420" UserId="75" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:61,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;bytebuster&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="24016" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9578" RevisionGUID="17b517e4-f7a2-4711-ae19-8016a4283801" CreationDate="2020-01-23T19:07:21.450" UserId="24205" Text="I was in a very similar situation many years ago. I started working for my family right out of college and even though it was a great opportunity to show off my skills, it was hard for me to gain any real experience as there was no one to really learn from. I continued to be a &quot;jack of all trades&quot; for many years, which can bring a lot of value to a small team or startup. Unfortunately, not a lot of companies need that type of person. &#xD;&#xA;If you have to pick a clear career path/focus, I would focus on the areas you most enjoy and gives you the best work/life balance. I would recommend getting certified in that field as that will give you some credibility and advantage in finding new employment and/or try to get an entry-level position behind someone who can mentor you. &#xD;&#xA;If you want to stick with the full-stack developer angle, you would definitely add some value to a startup that needs someone who can wear multiple hats. You can also try your hand at freelancing; set up an account on Upwork and see if you can get a steady stream of work - you might be able to turn it into a fulltime gig. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24017" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9579" RevisionGUID="37f76a2f-dff2-4110-aed0-9228093127b3" CreationDate="2020-01-23T22:10:48.470" UserId="24206" Text="I am changing from freelance software development to working in a small new consulting group. As part of the transition I may be moving my freelance work (for one client) under the umbrella of this group. It is a small group of developers each working at an hourly rate. Compared to my freelance rate of $80/hr I will only earn $35/hr (of course it's apples-oranges considering taxes &amp; benefits). Still, as I continue to work freelance (for the time being) I realize I will not have much incentive for transitioning these projects to be under my new employer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Naturally there are benefits to working with a small team (more business coming in, more support, benefits, taxes simplified) and that's why I've taken the position. But after adjusting for taxes &amp; benefits, the value of an hour worked on my old projects will still be quite a bit less. My freelance rate was pretty cushy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I'm tempted to keep both lines of work separate unless my new employer can offer some sort of compensation acknowledging the business opportunities I'm bringing to them, and the pay cut I'm immediately taking despite the fact I am essential to the project (my client specifically wants to work with me). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What kind of business arrangements would seem fair to propose to my employer? I am really not savvy on the business side of things and I don't want to be greedy, and I think it is new territory for my employer as well, but just seems that some sort of commission, or stake earned, would be in order if they took over the contract(s) with my client. Any ideas?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24018" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9579" RevisionGUID="37f76a2f-dff2-4110-aed0-9228093127b3" CreationDate="2020-01-23T22:10:48.470" UserId="24206" Text="What is fair compensation for handing my freelance contracts to my new employer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24019" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9579" RevisionGUID="37f76a2f-dff2-4110-aed0-9228093127b3" CreationDate="2020-01-23T22:10:48.470" UserId="24206" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|consulting|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24020" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9580" RevisionGUID="14afd184-d6c8-43b8-b02e-6fece78d7ce3" CreationDate="2020-01-24T01:05:23.760" UserId="23807" Text="Can be used a Payoneer account for fiverr account with a disabled fiverr account that has been previously attached?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24021" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9580" RevisionGUID="14afd184-d6c8-43b8-b02e-6fece78d7ce3" CreationDate="2020-01-24T01:05:23.760" UserId="23807" Text="Using Payoneer accounts in Fiverr's disabled account" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24022" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9580" RevisionGUID="14afd184-d6c8-43b8-b02e-6fece78d7ce3" CreationDate="2020-01-24T01:05:23.760" UserId="23807" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24026" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9578" RevisionGUID="90bb2160-fe2d-4df7-995c-28f36eb7bc43" CreationDate="2020-01-24T14:09:40.293" UserId="61" Comment="split into paragraphs according to OP's intent" Text="I was in a very similar situation many years ago. I started working for my family right out of college and even though it was a great opportunity to show off my skills, it was hard for me to gain any real experience as there was no one to really learn from. I continued to be a &quot;jack of all trades&quot; for many years, which can bring a lot of value to a small team or startup. Unfortunately, not a lot of companies need that type of person. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have to pick a clear career path/focus, I would focus on the areas you most enjoy and gives you the best work/life balance. I would recommend getting certified in that field as that will give you some credibility and advantage in finding new employment and/or try to get an entry-level position behind someone who can mentor you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to stick with the full-stack developer angle, you would definitely add some value to a startup that needs someone who can wear multiple hats. You can also try your hand at freelancing; set up an account on Upwork and see if you can get a steady stream of work - you might be able to turn it into a fulltime gig. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24027" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9582" RevisionGUID="a5901582-f07e-400f-8833-6348a397db65" CreationDate="2020-01-24T14:33:58.733" UserId="15209" Text="I can sympathise with your situation, having found myself in a similar one a few years ago. I'll get on to what my advice would be shortly, but to give you a bit of background into why I'm advising this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I studied Computer Science at university, so learnt quite a broad range of programming &amp; scripting languages, along with the theory behind best practices, different methodlogies, etc. I chose to study computer science because I thought I would enjoy a career in programming- I enjoy logic &amp; problem solving, and had always had an interest in how software worked/ curiosity regarding how you would write software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My course involved doing an Industrial Year Placement (sandwich year), which I spent working for a large consultancy firm. During my time on placement, although my job title was Associate Software Engineer, I held a few different roles with a couple of their clients- based at the clients' sites- these roles included functional testing, and business analysis. I didn't actually get any real industrial experience of software development which is what I had been hoping for before I started, but I realised that actually, I had really enoyed the BA experience I'd had, and thought maybe I would enjoy that as a career more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Over the first 5/6 years after graduating, I had a few jobs that were 'Software Developer' jobs (the job titles varied, but this was essentially what I was employed for). Due to the different industries that the companies I worked for were in, I ended up with a very broad range of programming/ scripting skills, including C++, Python, Angular, C#, Java. In most of these roles, I was a member of a team of developers (varying sizes, from 2/3 all the way up to 30+ spread across multiple countries). I also spent six month to a year or so working self employed, with a couple of clients- one of my clients was a company in a 'non-technical' industry, and I was writing some bespoke software for them, to assist their team with their day to day tasks. As the only 'techy' there, I ended up managing their IT as well as writing this software for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As time went on, I realised that I wasn't enjoying the programming side of things as much as I had thought I would before I started working in it. Sure, it was interesting, but what I enjoyed more was working with people to understand what problems they were trying to solve, i.e.e gathering &amp; analysing requirements, and specifying solutions, rather than the actual work of building the solution.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I started applying for Business Analyst roles. To start with, my applications kept getting rejected, and the feedback I was getting was &quot;You don't have the relevant experience&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I sought some advice from a careers service, and they helped me to re-write my CV, so that rather than being tech-heavy, it focussed on the interpersonal skills I had developed (working directly with clients/ end users to gather &amp; analyse requirements, and drawing on my development experience to be able to articulate the requirements effectively to developers). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I started applying for BA jobs at some point while I was between other contracts, and had a few interviews. I was also still interviewing for developer jobs at this point, and found that I was still getting head-hunted for that (I had uploaded my CV to a few jobsites online). Eventually, I ended up taking a couple of developer jobs that didn't work out, and decided that enough was enough. I stopped accepting requests from recruiters to put me forward for developer roles, and decided to focus on applying for BA ones myself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I eventually started getting interviews for BA roles, and was able to draw on the relevant 'BA experience' I'd had in my previous roles as a developer to show that I was qualified for the job. Having now been working in a BA role for about 6 months, I am really enjoying it, and think it was definitely the right move for me. I don't currently see myself ever moving back into development, and I'm looking forward to the challenges of establishing myself as a Business Analyst.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My Advice**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Work out what you enjoy doing. This might take some time/ a few attempts at different things. Just because you aren't enjoying one thing, doesn't mean there isn't anything out there for you. It could be something completely different. It could be something very similar. But there will be something out there that you enjoy doing/ enjoy more than other things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. When you have worked out what you enjoy doing, figure out why you enjoy doing it. What in particular is it that gives you that enjoyment? What made you realise that this was what you want to be doing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. When you know what you enjoy doing, and why you enjoy doing it, you will know what experience you have of doing it. Try to get more experience in this field. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 4. Draw out the strengths you have in this on your CV and when attending interviews. If you have worked with this in the past- make the most of that experience. If there is anything outside of your working life that has a positive effect on the particular thing you want to be working with- make the most of this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may take some time to find the right role/ company/ whatever, but don't lose heart. Look to learn from whatever your current situation is, and work out how you can use that to move you in the direction you want to be going.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One other thing to mention- you don't **have** to choose a speciality. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a jack-of-all-trades. If that's what you enjoy doing, make the most of it. There are plenty of companies out there who can't afford to employ a specialist in all of the different areas/ technologies they work with, so if you can fill several gaps at once for them, by being someone who understands/ can work in all of these areas- market that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24028" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9582" RevisionGUID="85c7d7c7-e4ab-4bd9-bcd8-20740275b1f3" CreationDate="2020-01-24T14:44:48.390" UserId="15209" Comment="Corrected typo" Text="I can sympathise with your situation, having found myself in a similar one a few years ago. I'll get on to what my advice would be shortly, but to give you a bit of background into why I'm advising this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I studied Computer Science at university, so learnt quite a broad range of programming &amp; scripting languages, along with the theory behind best practices, different methodlogies, etc. I chose to study computer science because I thought I would enjoy a career in programming- I enjoy logic &amp; problem solving, and had always had an interest in how software worked/ curiosity regarding how you would write software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My course involved doing an Industrial Year Placement (sandwich year), which I spent working for a large consultancy firm. During my time on placement, although my job title was Associate Software Engineer, I held a few different roles with a couple of their clients- based at the clients' sites- these roles included functional testing, and business analysis. I didn't actually get any real industrial experience of software development which is what I had been hoping for before I started, but I realised that actually, I had really enoyed the BA experience I'd had, and thought maybe I would enjoy that as a career more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Over the first 5/6 years after graduating, I had a few jobs that were 'Software Developer' jobs (the job titles varied, but this was essentially what I was employed for). Due to the different industries that the companies I worked for were in, I ended up with a very broad range of programming/ scripting skills, including C++, Python, Angular, C#, Java. In most of these roles, I was a member of a team of developers (varying sizes, from 2/3 all the way up to 30+ spread across multiple countries). I also spent six months to a year or so working self employed, with a couple of clients- one of my clients was a company in a 'non-technical' industry, and I was writing some bespoke software for them, to assist their team with their day to day tasks. As the only 'techy' there, I ended up managing their IT as well as writing this software for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As time went on, I realised that I wasn't enjoying the programming side of things as much as I had thought I would before I started working in it. Sure, it was interesting, but what I enjoyed more was working with people to understand what problems they were trying to solve, i.e.e gathering &amp; analysing requirements, and specifying solutions, rather than the actual work of building the solution.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I started applying for Business Analyst roles. To start with, my applications kept getting rejected, and the feedback I was getting was &quot;You don't have the relevant experience&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I sought some advice from a careers service, and they helped me to re-write my CV, so that rather than being tech-heavy, it focussed on the interpersonal skills I had developed (working directly with clients/ end users to gather &amp; analyse requirements, and drawing on my development experience to be able to articulate the requirements effectively to developers). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I started applying for BA jobs at some point while I was between other contracts, and had a few interviews. I was also still interviewing for developer jobs at this point, and found that I was still getting head-hunted for that (I had uploaded my CV to a few jobsites online). Eventually, I ended up taking a couple of developer jobs that didn't work out, and decided that enough was enough. I stopped accepting requests from recruiters to put me forward for developer roles, and decided to focus on applying for BA ones myself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I eventually started getting interviews for BA roles, and was able to draw on the relevant 'BA experience' I'd had in my previous roles as a developer to show that I was qualified for the job. Having now been working in a BA role for about 6 months, I am really enjoying it, and think it was definitely the right move for me. I don't currently see myself ever moving back into development, and I'm looking forward to the challenges of establishing myself as a Business Analyst.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My Advice**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Work out what you enjoy doing. This might take some time/ a few attempts at different things. Just because you aren't enjoying one thing, doesn't mean there isn't anything out there for you. It could be something completely different. It could be something very similar. But there will be something out there that you enjoy doing/ enjoy more than other things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. When you have worked out what you enjoy doing, figure out why you enjoy doing it. What in particular is it that gives you that enjoyment? What made you realise that this was what you want to be doing?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. When you know what you enjoy doing, and why you enjoy doing it, you will know what experience you have of doing it. Try to get more experience in this field. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 4. Draw out the strengths you have in this on your CV and when attending interviews. If you have worked with this in the past- make the most of that experience. If there is anything outside of your working life that has a positive effect on the particular thing you want to be working with- make the most of this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may take some time to find the right role/ company/ whatever, but don't lose heart. Look to learn from whatever your current situation is, and work out how you can use that to move you in the direction you want to be going.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One other thing to mention- you don't **have** to choose a speciality. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a jack-of-all-trades. If that's what you enjoy doing, make the most of it. There are plenty of companies out there who can't afford to employ a specialist in all of the different areas/ technologies they work with, so if you can fill several gaps at once for them, by being someone who understands/ can work in all of these areas- market that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24029" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9583" RevisionGUID="5f5004bb-a78a-4489-a368-c369506f7de9" CreationDate="2020-01-24T14:57:39.480" UserId="23807" Text="I wish to do freelancing in Upwork as a part-time, Is it worth it or is it nothing worth like a full-time career?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24030" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9583" RevisionGUID="5f5004bb-a78a-4489-a368-c369506f7de9" CreationDate="2020-01-24T14:57:39.480" UserId="23807" Text="Freelancing as a Part time or Full time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24031" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9583" RevisionGUID="5f5004bb-a78a-4489-a368-c369506f7de9" CreationDate="2020-01-24T14:57:39.480" UserId="23807" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24033" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9584" RevisionGUID="0ced7e35-8b42-4147-8bdf-6ccde49d2c7f" CreationDate="2020-01-25T06:07:00.070" UserId="24078" Text="All of this depends on your skills and dedication, and the amount of time that you can dedicate.&#xD;&#xA;You can work both as a part-time as well as full-time freelancer on Upwork. All you need to do is start by keeping prices low and polish your skills continuously. Once you grab enough clients you can make it as a full-time career.&#xD;&#xA;Many freelancers on Upwork are working as a full-time freelancers, and they are earning more than enough." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24034" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9585" RevisionGUID="021fd291-47e0-4fcd-924c-c4085ae35a45" CreationDate="2020-01-25T06:10:21.173" UserId="24078" Text="You can never use two Payoneer cards with one Fiverr account. Similarly, two Fiverr accounts can never be attached to single Payoneer account." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24039" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9588" RevisionGUID="935d56fb-593c-41cf-aa8b-393655cc55cb" CreationDate="2020-01-26T19:25:00.490" UserId="24218" Text="so I’m new at freelancing. I do it part time while also working full time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I sent some final drafts over to the client over a month ago however whenever I check in with them via email they keep saying they are working on the content still. But I’ve provided the 90 second animation that was agreed so I don’t understand! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I raise this with them? What should I do next?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for any insights!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24040" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9588" RevisionGUID="935d56fb-593c-41cf-aa8b-393655cc55cb" CreationDate="2020-01-26T19:25:00.490" UserId="24218" Text="When should I sent the invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24041" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9588" RevisionGUID="935d56fb-593c-41cf-aa8b-393655cc55cb" CreationDate="2020-01-26T19:25:00.490" UserId="24218" Text="|freelance-websites|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24042" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9589" RevisionGUID="0ee9117c-5f4f-443b-b828-5cbfbf1b6909" CreationDate="2020-01-26T21:27:14.017" UserId="708" Text="This doesn't make a whole lot of sense...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I’ve provided the 90 second animation that was agreed&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;they keep saying they are working on the content still&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What content if you've delivered the agreed upon work? At face value, based upon your post, this sort of sounds like a stalling tactic by the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Send an invoice now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you've done the agreed upon work, invoice. All they can do is question you about the timing of the invoice. In which case merely explain... you agreed to complete an animation. That animation is complete. Payment is due. If they need further work, you are happy to discuss that matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will *often* send an invoice ***with*** a link to final deliverables.  That way clients get both at the same time and can not claim they missed an invoice if they want the final deliverable." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24043" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9590" RevisionGUID="417718aa-4bfd-4cad-9696-3e5815973919" CreationDate="2020-01-27T03:24:53.253" UserId="23850" Text="Your question is structured in an unusual format so I'll provide brief advice based on the heading of the question:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Provide an invoice to a customer at the beginning of the month following the work.  So if the work was performed in December of 2019 then send the invoice (dated on the last day of the month in which the work was performed, i.e. the 31st of December 2019) as early in January as possible.  Payment terms might differ by customer, but generally payment due by the 20th of the month following (e.g. 20th of January 2020) is fairly standard.&#xD;&#xA; - I'd recommend getting into the habit of obtaining a Purchase Order from the customer to signify their commitment to the work packet.&#xD;&#xA; - Lastly, when you invoice also needs to take into consideration whether the work is on a time and materials (T&amp;M) or deliverables (goods received basis).  If the former, the the advice I provided in the first bulletpoint should apply.  If the latter, then ensure that you and the customer agree on the scope of deliverables (e.g. via a mutually signed statement of work aka SoW) before you begin performing any work.  Also an agreed approach/timeline within which your customer can accept the deliverable or raise any concerns to give you the opportunity to revise to their satisfaction).  Keep the timeframe as brief as possible because otherwise it will impact on your ability to invoice them which will hurt your cashflow." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24044" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9591" RevisionGUID="13b99675-a4b8-4ffe-9313-9d8a5f481ca7" CreationDate="2020-01-27T09:13:52.150" UserId="24221" Text="I hope Udemy site can help you. (https://www.udemy.com/teaching/?ref=teach_header). This is one of the reputed online training platform. The link will help you the plan to become tutor and their plans for charging fees." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24045" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9592" RevisionGUID="b8bd5c32-b767-404e-97e8-6ab5df4449bb" CreationDate="2020-01-27T09:51:01.137" UserId="24078" Text="Here are few tips. I hope they can help:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Create video content from existing ppt slides and code. &#xD;&#xA; 2. Try to create complete courses including lectures and development exercises.&#xD;&#xA; 3. You should go for Udemy, as it can help you alot. You can create courses there and sell them at good prices.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Write development code at runtime so that the viewers can see&#xD;&#xA;    development in front of them and it can help them learn more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope these help. Feel free to ask if you have any queries!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24046" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9593" RevisionGUID="e90b6d2d-3d95-4be2-bc7a-e913c0641488" CreationDate="2020-01-28T10:56:21.717" UserId="24232" Text="It's depends upon your preference and needs some people's like Freelancing for earning extra money; On the other hand some do Freelancing full time and it's also depends on your skills" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24047" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9580" RevisionGUID="59707dc2-56db-46fd-95cd-abe04dbbbded" CreationDate="2020-01-28T14:53:22.390" UserId="24078" Comment="Grammatical Errors" Text="Can we use a Payoneer account for a fiverr account when it is already attached to a disabled fiverr account?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24048" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9580" RevisionGUID="59707dc2-56db-46fd-95cd-abe04dbbbded" CreationDate="2020-01-28T14:53:22.390" Comment="Proposed by 24078 approved by 61, 7858 edit id of 706" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24052" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9594" RevisionGUID="2db9289e-e791-4a56-920c-1bc9a79a8925" CreationDate="2020-01-28T20:14:21.250" UserId="24234" Text="I've been doing work for a few years for a German Magazine. They have always paid late. Recently I started following up requesting they pay me what they owe me, wiring all late payments (currently over $8K). They are ghosting me. I emailed the publisher, accounting person and art director. What recourse do I have?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24053" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9594" RevisionGUID="2db9289e-e791-4a56-920c-1bc9a79a8925" CreationDate="2020-01-28T20:14:21.250" UserId="24234" Text="German Magazine Client not paying (US Freelance Illustrator)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24054" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9594" RevisionGUID="2db9289e-e791-4a56-920c-1bc9a79a8925" CreationDate="2020-01-28T20:14:21.250" UserId="24234" Text="|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24055" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9595" RevisionGUID="e42833c4-4e78-44e7-81e3-e5945f9121e0" CreationDate="2020-01-28T21:31:41.937" UserId="708" Text="As a US citizen you have practically **zero** ability to forcibly collect from an international client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can try some international B2B collection agencies (simply Google that). But the odds of actually collecting are very, very, low. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Typical collection recourse offered in one's own country *never* travels/works across borders. Laws vary from country to country and a German business is not obligated to adhere to US laws regarding collection. The *best* you could hope for is some German law which you could possibly use to aide collection. For example, the UK has some decent laws regarding collection if you can prove the debt. I do not know if Germany has similar laws. This is where the international B2B collection agencies come it, being familiar with laws in various countries and what can or can't be used for collection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a *major* reason I **always** demand payment up front from any international client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24056" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9595" RevisionGUID="da610f87-543b-4d97-a7aa-77f7dcd232cc" CreationDate="2020-01-28T21:38:27.090" UserId="708" Comment="added 261 characters in body" Text="As a US citizen or business you have practically **zero** ability to forcibly collect from an international client. You would have to use laws local to the client for any collection. *And*, adhere to any stipulations regarding foreign demands. It's nowhere near as simple as simply filing suit or hiring a collection agency.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can try some international B2B collection agencies (simply Google that). They typically cost much more than local collection agencies, but that's probably your best shot. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Typical collection recourse offered in one's own country *never* travels/works across borders. Laws vary from country to country and a German business is not obligated to adhere to US laws regarding collection. The *best* you could hope for is some German law which you could possibly use to aide collection. For example, the UK has some decent laws regarding collection if you can prove the debt. I do not know if Germany has similar laws. This is where the international B2B collection agencies come it, being familiar with laws in various countries and what can or can't be used for collection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a *major* reason I **always** demand payment up front from any international client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24057" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9596" RevisionGUID="2178db45-40fe-4a6a-a51a-c3a3590a5dc6" CreationDate="2020-01-29T00:46:56.877" UserId="24235" Text="Let's say that I have a small contract carpentry business with 1 partner. I've calculated a base &quot;shop rate&quot; of $45/hr, based on `expenses + profit / hours`, where expenses includes both of our desired salaries, materials, etc., and hours is our *sum total billable hours.* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now let's imagine we take on a job that's going to take both of us 2 days (~12 billable hours each) to complete working together at the same time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I realize this is probably a stupidly simple question, but... Do we charge $45 x 24 for this job? Or rather, we should charge `shoprate * manhours` and not `shoprate * clockhours` right?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24058" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9596" RevisionGUID="2178db45-40fe-4a6a-a51a-c3a3590a5dc6" CreationDate="2020-01-29T00:46:56.877" UserId="24235" Text="When working concurrently, do I multiply my &quot;shoprate&quot; for each teammate's time?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24059" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9596" RevisionGUID="2178db45-40fe-4a6a-a51a-c3a3590a5dc6" CreationDate="2020-01-29T00:46:56.877" UserId="24235" Text="|price|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24060" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9597" RevisionGUID="fd735919-17b5-475e-b544-9d1374cebd93" CreationDate="2020-01-29T01:39:47.720" UserId="708" Text="&gt;expenses includes both of our desired salaries&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your shop rate has calculated **both** of you. So, if you both work during a given hour, your hourly rate is appropriate. You *never* double it **or** the time necessary to complete a project when you work together. You've *already* assumed 2 workers per hour in your shop rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Conversely, if you are each working independently, you **each** make the same amount as if you were working together. Thus your revenue increases if you can work on *different* projects at the same time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, it's capitalism... so... you can charge however you wish to charge. I'd merely stress that you need to be *consistent* across all jobs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24061" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9597" RevisionGUID="949b27c2-1ca6-4710-af02-1921765e21cf" CreationDate="2020-01-29T01:44:55.467" UserId="708" Comment="added 264 characters in body" Text="&gt;expenses includes both of our desired salaries&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your shop rate has calculated **both** of you. So, if you both work during a given hour, your hourly rate is appropriate. You *never* double it **or** the time necessary to complete a project when you work together. You've *already* assumed 2 workers per hour in your shop rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Conversely, if you are each working independently, you **each** make the same amount as if you were working together. Thus your revenue increases if you can work on *different* projects at the same time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you wish to double the man hours when you work together you need to factor the shop rate based on the desired earnings for *one* of you, singularly. *Then* you would use `hours x 2` when you are both working on the same project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If factored singularly and each of your rates are different, then there would be no multiplier. Cost would be the sum of `((your hourly rate + his hourly rate) x hours) + expenses`.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, it's capitalism... so... you can charge however you wish to charge. I'd merely stress that you need to be *consistent* across all jobs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24062" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9597" RevisionGUID="861a498a-a4f5-4f59-b7cb-44af54efdfdb" CreationDate="2020-01-29T03:55:51.133" UserId="708" Comment="added 44 characters in body" Text="&gt;expenses includes both of our desired salaries&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your shop rate has calculated **both** of you. So, if you both work during a given hour, your hourly rate is appropriate. You *never* double it **or** the time necessary to complete a project when you work together. You've *already* assumed 2 workers per hour in your shop rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Conversely, if you are each working independently, you **each** make the same amount as if you were working together. Thus your revenue increases if you can work on *different* projects at the same time. Same rate, same hours, 2 projects invoiced.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you wish to double the man hours when you work together you need to factor the shop rate based on the desired earnings for *one* of you, singularly. *Then* you would use `hours x 2` when you are both working on the same project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If factored singularly and each of your rates are different, then there would be no multiplier. Cost would be the sum of `((your hourly rate + his hourly rate) x hours) + expenses`.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, it's capitalism... so... you can charge however you wish to charge. I'd merely stress that you need to be *consistent* across all jobs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24063" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9597" RevisionGUID="a1f6aa11-2c41-4bb9-bf84-5b215ea7322e" CreationDate="2020-01-29T04:08:36.733" UserId="708" Comment="added 6 characters in body" Text="&gt;expenses includes both of our desired salaries&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your shop rate has calculated **both** of you. So, if you both work during a given hour, your hourly rate is appropriate. You *never* double it **or** the time necessary to complete a project when you work together. You've *already* assumed 2 workers per hour in your shop rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Conversely, if you are each working independently, you **each** make the same amount as if you were working together. Thus your revenue increases if you can work on *different* projects at the same time. Same rate but overlapping hours for each project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you wish to double the man hours when you work together you need to factor the shop rate based on the desired earnings for *one* of you, singularly. *Then* you would use `hours x 2` when you are both working on the same project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If factored singularly and each of your rates are different, then there would be no multiplier. Cost would be the sum of `((your hourly rate + his hourly rate) x hours) + expenses`.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, it's capitalism... so... you can charge however you wish to charge. I'd merely stress that you need to be *consistent* across all jobs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24064" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="9597" RevisionGUID="bd72060c-6d3d-4a5a-8dad-228609f23e64" CreationDate="2020-01-29T04:48:34.180" UserId="708" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="24065" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9597" RevisionGUID="634c503e-1c7f-434e-bfe0-550494a98036" CreationDate="2020-01-29T11:08:54.967" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 424 characters in body" Text="If your shop rate is $45/hr, for every hour a projects is **in your shop**, the customer owes $45.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It doesn't matter if one person is working on the project, or two, or 20.... the rate for every hour is $45. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You increase revenue by having *more* projects in the shop at any given time. A *wise* use of a partnership would be for *each* partner to work on *independent projects* allowing for at least 2 **concurrent** billable cycles. You actually *decrease* your earning if you both work on the same project. Not only because you can't take on any additional projects but because you complete the existing project much faster resulting in less billable hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Honestly, value-based or project-based pricing are better models in many instances.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24066" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="9597" RevisionGUID="2d4a24d5-2b13-471b-bbd3-a3a8559f301c" CreationDate="2020-01-29T11:08:58.417" UserId="708" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="24067" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9598" RevisionGUID="cdc7dbf8-5e2a-47f8-af74-6d90fb5cc942" CreationDate="2020-01-29T18:46:23.987" UserId="10129" Text="To answer your actual question, send it now, and then discuss future billing frequency.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Really you should have asked this of the client *before* you took on the work, usually when you negotiate the rate. I.e. I charge X per hour and usually I invoice on the 1st and 15th of the month for the prior period. I typically ask for a 7-day turnaround. Does that work for you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people charge monthly, but I prefer to break it down into smaller chunks so that you aren't in too deep if they get difficult. To be totally honest, few clients actually make the 7-days but most make 14-days. However, If you bill monthly and then give them 31 days, you could be 30-60+ days out from the original work before there's even a sign that they lost the invoice. With a 7-day turnaround, you can check up on them 7 days after invoicing (14-21 days after the original work was performed)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24068" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9599" RevisionGUID="38534d1f-e437-4b08-b8f4-f686afdb3b00" CreationDate="2020-01-29T18:59:51.770" UserId="10129" Text="Yes, charge hourly and track carefully. Also, negotiate an invoice/payment schedule *at the same time* and hold them to it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just my perspective, but this &quot;as a favor&quot; stuff raises a big red flag, as does this &quot;one day's notice&quot;. Therefore, the smart thing to do would be to keep the invoice and payment turnaround period very short. As in invoice right away after this particular piece is done and payment is due immediately. However, this seems like a project with a risk of default to me, so even if you have everything in writing (statement of work, rate, invoice and payment schedule, agreed and signed), I would expect the hassle to outweigh the value.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24069" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9600" RevisionGUID="2985478b-6744-492c-8922-5e3340bcd5bd" CreationDate="2020-01-29T19:55:20.767" UserId="10129" Text="Are the other group members also handing over their clients? If so, then maybe that's a necessary part of building a viable cooperative and you'll benefit in the longer term.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have you discussed a hand-over with your client? It might be that they are not OK with it anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd personally not jump into handing them over. With the cut in rate, you might appreciate having some side income as part of the transition. That rate comparison sounds like comparing apples to smaller apples, rather than apples to oranges.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24070" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9601" RevisionGUID="71c6e98d-4dc4-4c0f-b812-0c9d578f6185" CreationDate="2020-01-30T20:17:26.210" UserId="75" Text="Is it safe to assume that the other members all bring different experience to the table? Could they help you provide *more* services and value to the client, even if you don't get all the money?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This may help for increasing your bus-factor, which should help land larger, long-term clients. Having 2 or 3 professionals handling an important aspect of their business is better than 1 for the client - more collaboration, more ideas, and the ability to let YOU take vacation and not worry.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is a trade off, and you must ensure you TRUST the people in the partnership. You need to make sure you get a seat at the table, and compensated nicely. If you're charging $80/hr, and getting paid $35 plus benefits, that is a steep decline, for sure. But will the business provide better insurance? Benefits? Vacation/sick time? Pension?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's not too late, negotiate with your potential new partners. Unless you know for sure it won't last." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24071" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9602" RevisionGUID="46f29606-9e9b-4ce8-a06c-4dec47836de7" CreationDate="2020-02-01T21:48:42.793" UserId="24249" Text="I'm a physicist, but I've been working as an employed software developer for several companies in the past seven years, and I've already been a part-time programmer during my university studies. For quite a while now I've considered becomming a freelance software developer, but never dared taking that step.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What holds me back is that whenever I hear people talk about freelancing in the software / IT field, it always includes travelling a lot. I would not mind going to customer sites every now and then, as I do so now as an employee, too, but having something like a four-day consutling week far away from home is something I neither want nor could actually realize (due to familiy constraints etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is, do I have to expect that I'll need to accept on-site jobs from clients far away from my place? I do live in a metropolitan area in Germany, so there might be enough local offerings, but as software development is a very specialized field, the 'right' jobs might not be here after all (in my case, the skillset is mostly C++ and C# in classical desktop client-server applications, some database and web stuff, too).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it possible to estimate the chances for finding local jobs somehow before starting to freelance? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24072" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9602" RevisionGUID="46f29606-9e9b-4ce8-a06c-4dec47836de7" CreationDate="2020-02-01T21:48:42.793" UserId="24249" Text="Freelance as software developer without travelling?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24073" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9602" RevisionGUID="46f29606-9e9b-4ce8-a06c-4dec47836de7" CreationDate="2020-02-01T21:48:42.793" UserId="24249" Text="|software|travel|local-business|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24075" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9604" RevisionGUID="d74a0e5a-98ca-4c9d-adf1-791bfd1749ae" CreationDate="2020-02-03T17:31:28.713" UserId="24269" Text="I am freelancing for a German company and am a British student studying in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have to gain info for an invoice (invoice number, purchase order number, info about my status as a 'freelancer'). Do I ask the German or UK tax office for this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24076" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9604" RevisionGUID="d74a0e5a-98ca-4c9d-adf1-791bfd1749ae" CreationDate="2020-02-03T17:31:28.713" UserId="24269" Text="Invoices - which country do I ask about tax?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24077" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9604" RevisionGUID="d74a0e5a-98ca-4c9d-adf1-791bfd1749ae" CreationDate="2020-02-03T17:31:28.713" UserId="24269" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24079" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9563" RevisionGUID="5ec89787-bc22-4bbe-a3b5-2426aa9255c3" CreationDate="2020-02-04T03:00:39.647" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1224528164497645568" />
  <row Id="24080" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9605" RevisionGUID="71a6c7ec-a897-45f5-bac1-1a9f62189cd6" CreationDate="2020-02-04T04:56:53.227" UserId="20860" Text="I had a really awful experience with this client. We started good but as the years went on, the client became hard to work with -- unreasonable timelines and extremely delayed paychecks. To make the long story short, the relationship didn't end well. The last project studies I did went to production and there were mistakes on my part. At that point, I haven't been paid for 4 months of work. Being naive, I just decided to simply walk away because I felt like I wasn't being treated right. They have the AI files for all the projects I did with them during those months. Some were in stores already, some were in production, some were in testing the material/print stage. And yet not a single cent on my bank (even if I kept telling them I needed to get paid).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just earlier, I got an email from one of their brand managers asking me for the font name. I realized I always outline the fonts so as to avoid any misuse of fonts come production.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know if I want to answer or not, because I feel like it's understood that the last time we (the client I was dealing with not the brand manager) talked, it didn't go well and we both knew it felt it was time to move on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm also not sure if I want to bring up the missed payments from before. We didn't have a contract even when I started doing projects with them - it was all verbal. &#xD;&#xA;At this point, I'm thinking of what should I do. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24081" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9605" RevisionGUID="71a6c7ec-a897-45f5-bac1-1a9f62189cd6" CreationDate="2020-02-04T04:56:53.227" UserId="20860" Text="Client needs to know the font - should I respond?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24082" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9605" RevisionGUID="71a6c7ec-a897-45f5-bac1-1a9f62189cd6" CreationDate="2020-02-04T04:56:53.227" UserId="20860" Text="|difficult-client|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24083" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9606" RevisionGUID="b6cb2779-3a7c-42e8-b978-61ea06cb11c1" CreationDate="2020-02-04T06:32:17.537" UserId="708" Text="I would **absolutely** mention any money owed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi [brand manger],&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;There is still an outstanding balance of $xxxx owed for work completed. No information regarding any projects or their construction will be shared until the outstanding balance has been paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Thank you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know what your agreement was with the client. However, in general sharing all your native files is typically poor practice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24084" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9606" RevisionGUID="f032f6df-316e-4caf-af9b-ffe130167715" CreationDate="2020-02-04T07:06:49.877" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 4 characters in body" Text="I would **absolutely** mention any money owed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi [brand manger],&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;There is still an outstanding balance of $xxxx owed for work completed. No information regarding projects or their construction will be shared until the outstanding balance has been paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Thank you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know what your agreement was with the client. However, in general sharing all your native files is typically poor practice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24085" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9607" RevisionGUID="d6803a13-4cbe-4149-8961-2b8c377a8975" CreationDate="2020-02-04T10:03:33.550" UserId="23884" Text="I have been working as a freelancer for a few months, providing R&amp;D services for small companies. My preferred mode of collaboration is billing per project, which usually lasts a few weeks. It gives me the flexibility to solve the problems as a want and in the order that I prefer. The disadvantage is that I systematically under-estimate the time required for accomplishing a project, and consequently find myself underpaid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have tried for about a month charging per week, but it seems to provoke the dynamics where I am more concerned with showing my client that I do work than focusing on getting good results. Specifically, I avoid the risks of trying new ways that may potentially take a lot of time without certain positive outcome, and I feel pressure from my client to report on the intermediate steps rather then on the final outcome.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am looking for suggestions on improving collaboration, as well as for the pros and cons of different modes of collaboration that I might not have considered.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24086" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9607" RevisionGUID="d6803a13-4cbe-4149-8961-2b8c377a8975" CreationDate="2020-02-04T10:03:33.550" UserId="23884" Text="Getting paid per hour, per week or per project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24087" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9607" RevisionGUID="d6803a13-4cbe-4149-8961-2b8c377a8975" CreationDate="2020-02-04T10:03:33.550" UserId="23884" Text="|negotiation|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24092" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9609" RevisionGUID="6f218c21-5f59-4a71-ae46-e20e2ed64ea8" CreationDate="2020-02-04T16:29:52.493" UserId="17965" Text="I'm an hardware developer and I design PCBs board for my customers, usually on specific orders. I mean, I don't have a &quot;catalog&quot; with available products. When a customer needs a circuit he asks me a quotation and makes an order.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the safest way to do my job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes it's not so easy. I have an old customer that periodically buy few items of his own PCBs. &quot;Own&quot; means circuits that he ordered me to design.&#xD;&#xA; Due to his specific sector, he may buy only 2-3 items per year for each circuit. But I have over 30+ different circuits!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, most of them are mounted by an assembly house. &#xD;&#xA;That means I cannot ask for 1-2 piece at time because:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. the price would be unreasonable higher&#xD;&#xA;2. it depends on the board, but usually there is a M.O.Q. (5..10 pcs)&#xD;&#xA;3. the lead time (4-6 weeks) is not compatible with the request of my customer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I've ended up to make order of 10 pieces hoping I can sell them to my customer in a couple of years.&#xD;&#xA;My customer **does not accept**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* any MOQ&#xD;&#xA;* lead time longer than 1-2 weeks&#xD;&#xA;* any extra-cost due to urgency&#xD;&#xA;* increases in cost not due to a review of the board (that must be authorized by themselves)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Years ago, this situation was acceptable because I only had 5-6 different boards. Over the time, new circuits were added and I really don't know which ones he will buy in the next months. He says he doesn't know too, because it depends on his customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please note: **of course I can say to my customer I cannot afford such a situation anymore**. And this is what I'm going to say.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, before, I need to solve another problem: right now I have in my lab over 30.000$ of his boards. This is simply too much for my small activity.&#xD;&#xA;I'm the weakest side in a discussion because I can sell these boards only to him. It's true he cannot buy the same boards from other places in few weeks (at least he needs 6 months I guess) but *I'm afraid his department is going to be closed whenever there's a reasonable excuse*. And this might be a valid one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I sent him several offers with discounts, but I never received an answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question is: **how to handle such a situation?** Given this scenario the most important point is to recover the value of my warehouse. If this may deteriorate the cooperation, perhaps it would be worth anyway. In this situation the expenses are larger than incomes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because English is not my primary language, I apologize for any mistakes. I just want to explain a little better who is this customer. When I say &quot;he/his/him&quot; I'm talking about the customer itself. This is a department inside a large company. I have only 1-2 people that can make orders and managers &quot;above&quot; them are not interested about my complaints." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24093" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9609" RevisionGUID="6f218c21-5f59-4a71-ae46-e20e2ed64ea8" CreationDate="2020-02-04T16:29:52.493" UserId="17965" Text="How to convince customer to buy its own products" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24094" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9609" RevisionGUID="6f218c21-5f59-4a71-ae46-e20e2ed64ea8" CreationDate="2020-02-04T16:29:52.493" UserId="17965" Text="|communication|customer-relations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24095" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="9609" RevisionGUID="940898e9-8558-44ea-a59a-8992a414c776" CreationDate="2020-02-04T17:57:10.600" UserId="17965" Comment="edited tags" Text="|difficult-client|communication|negotiation|customer-relations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24096" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9610" RevisionGUID="945478a2-17f3-4198-ad20-fb36b41e18d5" CreationDate="2020-02-04T18:36:31.567" UserId="75" Text="It may be time to &quot;pivot&quot; and offer a catlog of the extra PCBs. There is a market for recycled electrical components. Give your client first crack at it (since they were ordered for him originally), then create your catalog and advertise that they are for sale.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In an ideal Freelancer-worker relationship, you should be needed more than the company; this is backwards when starting out. If you are relying on this ONE company, then you are essentially an underpaid employee of the company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you need to keep this customer, you should look at expanding what you can do for other potential customers, and start getting more; if you are so specialized that this company is the only company you could potentially sell to, then try to get a job with them. You wouldn't be freelancing then." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24097" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9609" RevisionGUID="7964531f-d1ab-4d3b-ab76-d94b09d01039" CreationDate="2020-02-04T19:08:22.637" UserId="17965" Comment="added 103 characters in body" Text="I'm an hardware developer and I design PCBs board for my customers, usually on specific orders. I mean, I don't have a &quot;catalog&quot; with available products. When a customer needs a circuit he asks me a quotation and makes an order. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is the safest way to do my job.&#xD;&#xA;By the way, I can sell the PCBs only to the customer that ordered me the development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes it's not so easy. I have, among others, an old customer that periodically buy few items of his own PCBs. &quot;Own&quot; means circuits that he ordered me to design.&#xD;&#xA; Due to his specific sector, he may buy only 2-3 items per year for each circuit. But I have over 30+ different circuits!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, most of them are mounted by an assembly house. &#xD;&#xA;That means I cannot ask for 1-2 piece at time because:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. the price would be unreasonable higher&#xD;&#xA;2. it depends on the board, but usually there is a M.O.Q. (5..10 pcs)&#xD;&#xA;3. the lead time (4-6 weeks) is not compatible with the request of my customer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I've ended up to make order of 10 pieces hoping I can sell them to my customer in a couple of years.&#xD;&#xA;My customer **does not accept**:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* any MOQ&#xD;&#xA;* lead time longer than 1-2 weeks&#xD;&#xA;* any extra-cost due to urgency&#xD;&#xA;* increases in cost not due to a review of the board (that must be authorized by themselves)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Years ago, this situation was acceptable because I only had 5-6 different boards. Over the time, new circuits were added and I really don't know which ones he will buy in the next months. He says he doesn't know too, because it depends on his customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please note: **of course I can say to my customer I cannot afford such a situation anymore**. And this is what I'm going to say.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But, before, I need to solve another problem: right now I have in my lab over 30.000$ of his boards. This is simply too much for my small activity.&#xD;&#xA;I'm the weakest side in a discussion because I can sell these boards only to him. It's true he cannot buy the same boards from other places in few weeks (at least he needs 6 months I guess) but *I'm afraid his department is going to be closed whenever there's a reasonable excuse*. And this might be a valid one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I sent him several offers with discounts, but I never received an answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question is: **how to handle such a situation?** Given this scenario the most important point is to recover the value of my warehouse. If this may deteriorate the cooperation, perhaps it would be worth anyway. In this situation the expenses are larger than incomes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because English is not my primary language, I apologize for any mistakes. I just want to explain a little better who is this customer. When I say &quot;he/his/him&quot; I'm talking about the customer itself. This is a department inside a large company. I have only 1-2 people that can make orders and managers &quot;above&quot; them are not interested about my complaints." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24098" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="9604" RevisionGUID="5182b3e0-c119-4716-8a4b-f776cd876fa2" CreationDate="2020-02-04T20:02:19.280" UserId="24269" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:24269,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;A_Luka&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="24099" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="9604" RevisionGUID="4df70ba8-ab7c-484b-a1b3-46e0d39654d9" CreationDate="2020-02-04T20:02:27.043" UserId="24269" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:24269,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;A_Luka&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="24105" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9613" RevisionGUID="d92732fe-a023-4e6c-9362-c4bff3269ddc" CreationDate="2020-02-05T13:59:57.210" UserId="24078" Text="It depends on the scope of the project. If you think that after completion of project multiple revisions will be required and client can ask for multiple modifications, you need to go for the hourly payment method. &#xA;&#xA;If all the requirements are crystal clear and you are clear in your mind regarding the requirements and can estimate the time duration for the project, go for the project wise payment. &#xA;&#xA;&#xA;As project wise payments are better when it comes to bigger projects. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24106" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9614" RevisionGUID="46b0433f-7376-41f4-832e-848a0c18c4b6" CreationDate="2020-02-05T15:59:28.717" UserId="20786" Text="The items of information you mention will not be given to you by any tax office.  You seem to have misunderstood how this works.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Invoice Number is something that you generate and give to your customer.  &#xD;&#xA;The Purchase Order Number is something that your customer will generate and give to you.  &#xD;&#xA;Your status as a Freelancer is something that you must tell the tax office.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the UK you would tell the HMRC when completing your annual &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gov.uk/topic/personal-tax/self-assessment&quot;&gt;Self-Assessment&lt;/a&gt;.  Just fill in the form." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24110" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9616" RevisionGUID="fabc3cac-56fc-484c-b2e1-a8654c8de5c8" CreationDate="2020-02-06T04:42:59.337" UserId="24279" Text="-------- &#xD;&#xA;Scenario (Skip it if you don't care)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I currently work for a company in India which takes out-sourced work and hires local devs to work on them. Now, the situation for most cases (including mine) is that said company charges the clients an up-word of $3000 per month and forwards about $900 to the developer. I don't blame them as this is just business and they do provide better stability (such as ability to hire more people; if I leave / if more are required).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Outside of this, the company doesn't provide much. I am managed by the client's team, and even my P.C is sponsored by said client. Now getting to it, I wish to cut out the middle-man and maybe get $1500 instead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a Qt/C++ programmer with about 4 years of experience under my belt. Now I wish to work on my own. My problem is my lack of exposure to diverse technologies (zero web development experience / interest). Mostly, I work on front-end or back end logic development. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was reading https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/6959/getting-started-as-a-freelance-programmer, but I noticed the manner for starting is hinted at find a whale. Now there's the problem, I don't know how. Also, I do lack the confidence to project time-lines. Not to mention I don't know how to stand out in a large group of other devs (even if I provide work for free originally).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm also concered if what I'm looking for is contract work instead of freelance work as I prefer to work on one project at a time. Any advice / suggestions would be appreciated. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sorry about the rant, but I wasn't sure how to structure this question." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24111" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9616" RevisionGUID="fabc3cac-56fc-484c-b2e1-a8654c8de5c8" CreationDate="2020-02-06T04:42:59.337" UserId="24279" Text="Getting started as a Qt developer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24112" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9616" RevisionGUID="fabc3cac-56fc-484c-b2e1-a8654c8de5c8" CreationDate="2020-02-06T04:42:59.337" UserId="24279" Text="|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24113" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9616" RevisionGUID="13a6526b-2a91-407d-8b6a-49e9f85275ab" CreationDate="2020-02-06T06:24:20.130" UserId="24279" Comment="added 524 characters in body" Text="-------- &#xD;&#xA;Scenario (Skip it if you don't care)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I currently work for a company in India which takes out-sourced work and hires local devs to work on them. Now, the situation for most cases (including mine) is that said company charges the clients an up-word of $3000 per month and forwards about $900 to the developer. I don't blame them as this is just business and they do provide better stability (such as ability to hire more people; if I leave / if more are required).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Outside of this, the company doesn't provide much. I am managed by the client's team, and even my workstation is sponsored by said client. Now getting to it, I wish to cut out the middle-man and maybe get $1500 instead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a Qt/C++ programmer with about 4 years of experience under my belt. Now I wish to work on my own. My problem is my lack of exposure to diverse technologies (zero web development experience / interest). Mostly, I work on front-end or back end logic development. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was reading https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/6959/getting-started-as-a-freelance-programmer, but I noticed the manner for starting is hinted at find a whale. Now there's the problem, I don't know how. Also, I do lack the confidence to project time-lines. Not to mention I don't know how to stand out in a large group of other devs (even if I provide work for free originally).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm also concerned if what I'm looking for is contract work instead of freelance work as I prefer to work on one project at a time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As Scott (Thanks for pointing it out before it was closed) mentioned, I should add a proper question here;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Considering my lack of experience in web tech, am I acting per-maturely on trying to get into freelancing?&#xD;&#xA;2. Is there scope for long projects in Qt while freelancing?&#xD;&#xA;3. Would working for a single project be considered freelancing or contractual work?&#xD;&#xA;4. How can I enrich my description so as to attract more customers to me?  I mean what are they (employers) looking for and how can I readily make the info of my being able to deliver available to them? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sorry about the rant, but I wasn't sure how to structure this question." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24115" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9618" RevisionGUID="f36d8a92-541f-48d7-8025-26a589faa909" CreationDate="2020-02-06T15:55:11.423" UserId="24285" Text="My friend just asked me if I wanted to build a website for him and his company but I have no idea how much to charge him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a fully self-taught web developer with no professional experience, however, I am also a full-stack developer. I can do frontend, backend, UI, UX, social media integration, database integration, and fully custom forums, comment sections, search engines and search autocomplete and I have experience in building a social media website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not going to charge him per hour because I'm currently studying at university and I have to take care of at least 5 other projects so I was hoping you could help me with estimating a reasonable price per-page. I was thinking I will have 3 different price ranges;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Simple page: A simple static page with some text and images&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Complex page: A lot of moving elements, interactive objects or simple database setup and integration&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Complex systems: Search engines, comment sections, forums, voting systems, complex database integrations, etc...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24116" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9618" RevisionGUID="f36d8a92-541f-48d7-8025-26a589faa909" CreationDate="2020-02-06T15:55:11.423" UserId="24285" Text="How much should I charge for building a website with no profesional experiance?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24117" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9618" RevisionGUID="f36d8a92-541f-48d7-8025-26a589faa909" CreationDate="2020-02-06T15:55:11.423" UserId="24285" Text="|freelance-websites|price|web-development|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24120" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9620" RevisionGUID="01638630-6c99-4da2-a201-7e8e61b3cf6e" CreationDate="2020-02-07T07:28:37.380" UserId="708" Text="I don't use any of those pricing models.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I find [value-based pricing][1] not only more easily managed, but much more profitable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.priceintelligently.com/blog/value-based-pricing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24121" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9621" RevisionGUID="f0487350-e47d-4ac4-ae35-f14213d59ab3" CreationDate="2020-02-07T09:48:02.793" UserId="21318" Text="I started my consultancy twenty years ago and struggled with this problem a lot in the past. I found that everyone is generally happier in the long run with hourly contracts billed weekly or monthly. If you are running into issues where customers want quantifiable proof that you are working on their projects as much as you say that you are, then you should utilize a time tracking solution that monitors your screen, mouse, and keyboard movements like [HubStaff][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also bill on a per project basis, but I only do this when I am absolutely certain of how long it will take and how much it will cost in order to complete the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://ssqt.co/m5fIOsy" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24122" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9622" RevisionGUID="e7ac0df8-41e8-4319-9fc2-f0de37b0986a" CreationDate="2020-02-07T18:33:41.200" UserId="21416" Text="Fellow physicist here, though living in the US. I freelance for clients worldwide and I almost never (say once every other month) have to go see a client in person. I'm convinced anybody with programming + English skills and flexibility to sometimes work odd hours (due to time differences) can get remote freelance jobs, living basically anywhere. So no need to look for 'local' jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My recommendation is to first build a set of (worldwide) clients that give you work while you're still doing your day job. You can find clients using Upwork or another freelancer site. Once you've a base that can support you, you can quit your day job and freelance full time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24124" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9524" RevisionGUID="cd4694f9-e079-4a27-870d-9fa6f73c7f5a" CreationDate="2020-02-07T20:01:10.143" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24125" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6943" RevisionGUID="5e927b24-94b2-4a96-b6c6-06075ce73cdf" CreationDate="2020-02-08T15:00:30.483" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1226158871552708609" />
  <row Id="24127" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="9618" RevisionGUID="34aba85f-7744-4f83-9ac8-0c57542f17fb" CreationDate="2020-02-10T02:34:29.593" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|price|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24130" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9624" RevisionGUID="1d142b0a-29bd-410d-b1d4-45d31a4312a0" CreationDate="2020-02-10T18:55:43.573" UserId="21837" Text="Here are some things to consider.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Are you building from scratch or using something like WordPress,&#xD;&#xA;    Drupal, etc.  &#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; 2. Take a look at this article about pricing over at Freshbooks. &#xD;&#xA;        https://www.freshbooks.com/hub/estimates/how-much-do-web-designers-charge&#xD;&#xA;    enter preformatted text here&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. You don't have professional experience, **so what**. Remember you're not charging what **You** think you're worth. You're charging based on what the **Client** perceives the value of the project is.  That can vary widely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 4. You don't have to tell them anything about not having experience. The key is knowing what your **value is**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 5. Ask them lots of questions.  I use a questionnaire and here are some things  I ask:&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;     - Describe your business in a few sentences.&#xD;&#xA;     - Who is your target audience?&#xD;&#xA;     - What will people do on your website?&#xD;&#xA;     - What makes you/your company special?&#xD;&#xA;     - **What are the must-have features?**&#xD;&#xA;     - **How can we avoid failure?**&#xD;&#xA;Never just take &quot;I want a website&quot; and try to determine costs.  You need to know the details.  If the client hasn't taken the time to give you this information then **run!** They obviously haven't taken time to know **why** they want a website.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 6. Go to this page on Upwork.  [https://www.upwork.com/cat/developers/][1]  There you can find a listing of the &quot;top-rated&quot; developers.  Look at their hourly rates and skillsets. Find somebody with a similar skill set and go from there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just remember to charge a fixed price.  Say you're thinking $30 an hour. You think it'll take 40 hours then charge 30 X 40 = 1200.  Now add 25 percent ($300) because something always goes wrong or takes longer than you expect.  Now you're going to charge them $1500 for the project.  If you take less time that's called **Profit** if you take more that's called **Loss** avoid the latter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 7. Price your project in milestones.  **ALWAYS** get a deposit before you start work.  If the client says no, then you say no to the project.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 8. Just one more thing **Never**, **Never**, did I say **NEVER** work for free. You have to eat, pay your car payment, rent, etc.  Once you do something for somebody for free, they will expect it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.upwork.com/cat/developers/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24131" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9625" RevisionGUID="45057d7d-fd46-407d-9007-f763aaf7eefd" CreationDate="2020-02-10T23:07:49.967" UserId="24305" Text="I would suggest:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. When coding from scratch: stick to what you have taught yourself and&#xD;&#xA;    have done (to production for a client or delivered a successful&#xD;&#xA;    working project)&#xD;&#xA; 2. Content Management System: - If you are going to use a content management system (WordPress, Drupal, etc.) or SaaS (ex:&#xD;&#xA;    Squarespace, Wix) or frameworks (ex: Bootstrap) remember there is a&#xD;&#xA;    learning curve for you and your client and it will change what&#xD;&#xA;    systems are complex for you to develop (ex. search)&#xD;&#xA; 3. Contract your agreement- Write a contract &amp; or at least line item invoice for development.  I use &quot;Contract Killer&quot; as a template, it's great to follow and doesn't require an attorney. [https://github.com/andrew-mccarthy/Contract-Killer-3][1].&#xD;&#xA; 4. Survey Your Client - Some questions before hand: Do you write/edit copy? Do they have copy for all the pages they desire? What identity (person, org, company) information is needed to build the site? Do you make/create images? Will you be hosting and supporting the application afterwards? If yes, For how long? Who owns the code?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would evaluate your work value by what you have to accomplish with the tools available within the required environment, not by what they want the final feature to be. Break your categories down a bit more to allow for billing rates by the type of work you need to do: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Configuration &amp; Setup - Setting up DNS and/or Installation of Libraries/CMS, SSL cert install, deployment, setting up Code Repository, Email Address forwarders, etc.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Administration - General Meetings &amp; other menial or trivial tasks&#xD;&#xA; 3. Training/On-boarding - User introduction, training, final walk through, Show &amp; Tells for Milestones&#xD;&#xA; 4. Front end development/Simple Pages - HTML/CSS/Javascript&#xD;&#xA; 5. Create/Read/update/Delete (CRUD) Pages - any interface with a co-hosted, controlled (owned by the client) data source or API&#xD;&#xA; 6. Integration - any interface with an externally controlled (not owned by the client) system, API or data source&#xD;&#xA; 7. UI/UX R&amp;D - smoothing, transitions, animations, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Those are just some categories I would use. After you have your categories that match your skill set and comfort levels, make an hourly bill rate for each. Then estimate how much you need to do in each category to reach each MILESTONE and then estimate how much you have to charge total (flat rate) using [John's (https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/9624/24305)][2] formulas. It should help you create an accurate estimate to complete the task required based on your client needs and your skill set. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://github.com/andrew-mccarthy/Contract-Killer-3&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/9624/24305" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24132" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9626" RevisionGUID="6d7addf7-a1ac-400d-b277-cf3a0a514c7f" CreationDate="2020-02-11T10:43:22.073" UserId="24309" Text="I operate an IT consultancy business under the structure of UK VAT registered Limited Company.  There is at least one side project of my own I would like to work on between client projects, that will generate income through subscriptions.  The project is based on Sports Performance and Coaching, i.e. has nothing to do with my day to day work as an IT contractor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I better to create a new Limited Company at all for the project? Should I utilise my current Limited Company structure for generating invoices and charging VAT and potentially move the project to another company at a later date?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The concerns/queries I have are around is it best to decouple the IT consultancy business from the project business from day one.  Will this be seen as VAT avoidance in the eyes of HMRC?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24133" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9626" RevisionGUID="6d7addf7-a1ac-400d-b277-cf3a0a514c7f" CreationDate="2020-02-11T10:43:22.073" UserId="24309" Text="Side project as a separate Limited Company or under existing Consultancy Business - UK" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24134" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9626" RevisionGUID="6d7addf7-a1ac-400d-b277-cf3a0a514c7f" CreationDate="2020-02-11T10:43:22.073" UserId="24309" Text="|uk|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24140" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9554" RevisionGUID="0584831e-128f-4318-abe2-f951bf6cea1b" CreationDate="2020-02-12T03:03:50.567" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24141" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="9616" RevisionGUID="39705070-75bc-4533-a209-cd8a0bd341d8" CreationDate="2020-02-12T05:56:42.280" UserId="24279" Comment="42" />
  <row Id="24142" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9628" RevisionGUID="19234eaf-ad71-40b1-965e-8190e0f21b6f" CreationDate="2020-02-12T09:37:38.277" UserId="24078" Text="I'll try my best to cover all the points. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - First of all, focus on your skills and polish them. You can always get work if you have good skills.&#xD;&#xA; - Secondly, everyone starts as a beginner in freelancing. So there's no need to worry if you don't have any industry experience. You can still start working as a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA; - Create profiles that can attract customers and add skills to which you have the best command. &#xD;&#xA; - Keep pricing low at the start. Once you start getting clients you can increase it then.&#xD;&#xA; - Regarding writing a description for your profile, you can take help from the freelancers' profiles that are doing good on freelancing platforms and can write a great description. You can also find some examples of how to write freelancing profiles on the Internet.&#xD;&#xA; - And you can find any caliber of projects over freelancing platforms and can choose the one that suits you the best.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope these points help you. If still any queries, feel free to ask." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24151" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9631" RevisionGUID="d13e6eb1-d8cc-4d8d-ac7a-81a8950964ff" CreationDate="2020-02-12T21:19:49.923" UserId="24311" Text="I was appointed a designer post by a company (that seemed big at the time) and based in london. The man they asked me to get in touch with for the work and updates was a sort of celeb here in India. He claimed the company to be making a new label and thus needing my assistance in it. He asked for some samples to be made and handed his own garments. And asked me to source and buy the materials and just hand over the bills and get them reimbursed.&#xD;&#xA;I was happy and made around 5 samples for which he had earlier claimed a 1000 rs per piece which i kept persisting on increasing as its way too low compare to the work put in.&#xD;&#xA;After close to a month he started calling for updates and seemed to get impatient when asked for advance since sticker and flock prints are expensive. He claimed to be 'teaching' me the ways to creative a masterpiece of a garment. I kept asking for advance and reimbursements. But he kept delaying and changing the topic. He later claimed to be giving a full time job with 30000 rs pay (I was already doing a day time job with the same pay and lesser work) I politely refused upon the offer considering how he did not budge from the 1 pc = 1000 rs. And i had to make 30 jackets in a month. He kept implying how i should not ask for more money since i am a &quot;newbie&quot; and am young and should consider my passion and not the pay. He also claimed &quot;Beggars can't be choosers&quot;. I felt extremely uncomfortable talking to him let alone explaining why i did not want to be underpaid. So i turned down the job offer which further angered him. And he kept calling and demeaning and degrading my work and my social class according to him. Later he calmed down so I figured he is going to think straight. But rather he kept calling me to his place with &quot;come alone&quot; being mentioned over and over again. &#xD;&#xA;I immediately blocked his calls finding this extremely unprofessional and verbal harassment of sorts. He then sent a confidentiality agreement with the terms that he will not pay for the extra expenses and the conveyance. Finding it extremely suspicious i refused to sign it. We had not worked out an agreement or settled at anything. He keeps calling and messaging that he will sue me. I feel extremely unsafe and uncomfortable with this situation. Please help!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24152" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9631" RevisionGUID="d13e6eb1-d8cc-4d8d-ac7a-81a8950964ff" CreationDate="2020-02-12T21:19:49.923" UserId="24311" Text="Client threatening to sue (without a contract)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24153" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9631" RevisionGUID="d13e6eb1-d8cc-4d8d-ac7a-81a8950964ff" CreationDate="2020-02-12T21:19:49.923" UserId="24311" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24154" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9631" RevisionGUID="cd4c69ea-3e50-4bf7-b1d8-301e2e802898" CreationDate="2020-02-13T01:47:26.517" UserId="61" Comment="split into paragraphs according to OP's intent" Text="I was appointed a designer post by a company (that seemed big at the time) and based in London. The man they asked me to get in touch with for the work and updates was a sort of celeb here in India. He claimed the company to be making a new label and thus needing my assistance in it. He asked for some samples to be made and handed his own garments. And asked me to source and buy the materials and just hand over the bills and get them reimbursed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was happy and made around 5 samples for which he had earlier claimed a 1000 rs per piece which i kept persisting on increasing as its way too low compare to the work put in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After close to a month he started calling for updates and seemed to get impatient when asked for advance since sticker and flock prints are expensive. He claimed to be 'teaching' me the ways to creative a masterpiece of a garment. I kept asking for advance and reimbursements. But he kept delaying and changing the topic. He later claimed to be giving a full time job with 30000 rs pay (I was already doing a day time job with the same pay and lesser work) I politely refused upon the offer considering how he did not budge from the 1 pc = 1000 rs. And i had to make 30 jackets in a month. He kept implying how i should not ask for more money since i am a &quot;newbie&quot; and am young and should consider my passion and not the pay. He also claimed &quot;Beggars can't be choosers&quot;. I felt extremely uncomfortable talking to him let alone explaining why i did not want to be underpaid. So i turned down the job offer which further angered him. And he kept calling and demeaning and degrading my work and my social class according to him. Later he calmed down so I figured he is going to think straight. But rather he kept calling me to his place with &quot;come alone&quot; being mentioned over and over again. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I immediately blocked his calls finding this extremely unprofessional and verbal harassment of sorts. He then sent a confidentiality agreement with the terms that he will not pay for the extra expenses and the conveyance. Finding it extremely suspicious i refused to sign it. We had not worked out an agreement or settled at anything. He keeps calling and messaging that he will sue me. I feel extremely unsafe and uncomfortable with this situation. Please help!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24155" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9528" RevisionGUID="34f8ccb4-356b-40f0-bb5d-48a864cb4e59" CreationDate="2020-02-14T13:02:40.303" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24156" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6629" RevisionGUID="2b8f2a28-ec10-46bb-8959-3279f614d8b2" CreationDate="2020-02-14T21:02:05.277" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24160" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="2970" RevisionGUID="902da535-5514-47de-9d49-078078a11a33" CreationDate="2020-02-16T03:02:15.240" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24161" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9633" RevisionGUID="d717a287-38d2-4a1a-9071-d33eee90f22e" CreationDate="2020-02-16T05:20:37.797" UserId="24325" Text="I built an app for a client recently. He has a bunch of new features that he wants to incorporate into the delivered app in subsequent releases. He asked me for a service contract for the app. I am not sure whether he is asking for a service contract for the existing features in the already delivered version of the app or a service contract including the effort for the new features. How does services after a software product is delivered normally handled? Do I do a service contract for the existing set of features and consider the new features for version two as a new app request altogether? I am pretty new to this, wondering how experience freelancers/companies handle subsequent phases of software projects. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24162" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9633" RevisionGUID="d717a287-38d2-4a1a-9071-d33eee90f22e" CreationDate="2020-02-16T05:20:37.797" UserId="24325" Text="Service Contract for a Software Product" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24163" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9633" RevisionGUID="d717a287-38d2-4a1a-9071-d33eee90f22e" CreationDate="2020-02-16T05:20:37.797" UserId="24325" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24164" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9634" RevisionGUID="cc06d17b-92b3-4172-8904-2902bb067442" CreationDate="2020-02-17T17:56:38.877" UserId="75" Text="Welcome to Freelancing!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My suggestion is, especially when there is no known end date involved or end product, is to bill hourly. There are many questions on the site about how to determine what to charge, and you can use those formulas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure you protect yourself - Payment up front (unless you REALLY REALLY trust this company on a personal level), work delivered on time. If they stop paying, you stop working until they bring the billings down to 0 owing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24165" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9635" RevisionGUID="7b65b0e1-2264-4723-af57-344877cb4ef6" CreationDate="2020-02-17T21:51:34.590" UserId="24331" Text="I have to develop a simple presentation website. I own a Pro License of FontAwesome which I used in the application. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I didn't subscribed to the license for the website specifically, but is it fair to include any fee in the invoice as long as I used it in the project ? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm actually wondering if it is ethically fair to do so" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24166" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9635" RevisionGUID="7b65b0e1-2264-4723-af57-344877cb4ef6" CreationDate="2020-02-17T21:51:34.590" UserId="24331" Text="Is it fair to charge client for FontAwesome pro license as development charges?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24167" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9635" RevisionGUID="7b65b0e1-2264-4723-af57-344877cb4ef6" CreationDate="2020-02-17T21:51:34.590" UserId="24331" Text="|freelance-websites|invoices|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24168" PostHistoryTypeId="34" PostId="9616" RevisionGUID="9e871d9b-858b-4e85-bfe3-0f727053d275" CreationDate="2020-02-18T05:58:51.853" UserId="24279" Comment="42" />
  <row Id="24169" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9255" RevisionGUID="aa82cae9-f55e-4429-a2cc-8e85c863983e" CreationDate="2020-02-18T12:02:50.383" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24170" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9636" RevisionGUID="25ccb0bc-3e5a-4be6-9bdf-7e829ded0511" CreationDate="2020-02-18T20:04:25.547" UserId="708" Text="If I have a client which needs to run something requiring a license, they purchase a license (through me) so they can continue to use the licensed product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I purchase a license, it's so I [my company] can legally use the product. So I would be free to show mockups or other things using the product. Then if a client chooses a mockup containing a licensed product, the client pays for a license so *they* can use the product. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not only ethical, it's how it *should* be done. If you fail to purchase a license for your client, then you need to relinquish *your* license to the product. If you have only one license, then only **one** company/individual can use the product." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24171" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9636" RevisionGUID="a163dd28-c59a-44e8-88d8-044ca5b25cd6" CreationDate="2020-02-18T21:35:03.770" UserId="708" Comment="added 14 characters in body" Text="If I have a client which needs to run something requiring a license, they purchase a license (through me) so they can continue to use the licensed product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I purchase a license, it's so I [my company] can legally use the product. So I would be free to show mockups or other things using the product. Then if a client chooses a mockup containing a licensed product, the client pays for a license so *they* can use the product. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not only ethical, it's how it *should* be done. If you fail to purchase a license for your client, then you need to relinquish *your* license to the product. If you have only one license, in most instances, only **one** company/individual can use the product." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24175" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="9618" RevisionGUID="5344773a-8fc7-4af8-b0fa-2ddaead656e8" CreationDate="2020-02-19T12:09:27.220" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="24181" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9639" RevisionGUID="62cdeb02-29fc-4d81-ac2d-a9df929ae06c" CreationDate="2020-02-21T16:46:43.993" UserId="24353" Text="There are a lot of great technology paths and it can be tough to focus.  You are in a promising situation with your current employer, though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Create small software projects to solve company problems.  These become your portfolio and legitimate experience if/when your skills develop to the point you want to focus on software development.  Then ask your employer to change your job title to &quot;web developer&quot; and then your &quot;jack-of-all-trades&quot; job becomes a real stepping-stone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Create documentation for basic tasks you do with the server, web site, and support.  Step-by-step instructions for adding email accounts in your company might seem basic, but in a small business (with probably no documentation at all), this is huge.  Plus, you are the SME and reinforce your own knowledge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Education.  Ask your employer for permission to take 1 hour daily for web developer education.  Then sign up for a course from Udemy and get paid to learn to make a greater contribution to your company.  Or certification courses.  Go through the core CompTia certs (A+, Net+, Sec+).  Same justification, your value will increase at your company because you level-upped your job-related skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Personal projects.  Small investment here.  Buy 3-4 domains.  Host one with a cpanel, another on github.  Take the third, get a virtual machine somewhere, and create your own web server with email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Embrace your opportunity. You can make incredible growth where you're at while you sort out your future focus." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24182" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9640" RevisionGUID="1a20cf29-78c3-463f-b686-605fa1673582" CreationDate="2020-02-22T00:21:56.920" UserId="24355" Text="I ***do*** have:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* A computer.&#xD;&#xA;* Programming skills (scripting general logic, making WWW requests and interacting with a local database).&#xD;&#xA;* The technical ability to send and receive Bitcoin with my Bitcoin Core wallet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I ***do not*** have:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* People skills.&#xD;&#xA;* A photo id.&#xD;&#xA;* Any money to speak of.&#xD;&#xA;* Friends, family or associates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I need to make money for my personal survival.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I cannot do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Illegal things.&#xD;&#xA;* Immoral things.&#xD;&#xA;* Things that in any way involve photo ids, interacting with people, running websites, using &quot;social media&quot;, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What can I possibly do? Surely there must be some way for me to survive, given the few things I do have?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't expect you to reveal your &quot;secret trick&quot; which you've found and which you would never share in detail, but maybe you can at least give me some pointers or ideas for me to explore?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have literally spent the last 20 years (!) trying to come up with something, while learning and learning and trying all kinds of things. Nothing has ever worked out. It's quite critical for me to get something going now, so I hope that this will be taken seriously.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not looking to &quot;get rich quick&quot;. It would rather be &quot;get the ability to survive, extremely slowly&quot;, given that I've been trying for two decades by now. I almost cannot believe it myself, so I understand if you think I'm some kind of &quot;lazy bum&quot;. Still, I ask you to not respond with sarcasm or jokes. To me, this is very serious and scary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there perhaps some kind of emerging decentralized network where I could thrive? Where I could provide some sort of valuable service and get paid in BTC? I've looked for a very long time for something like that, but sadly only found ghost towns and vaporware." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24183" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9640" RevisionGUID="1a20cf29-78c3-463f-b686-605fa1673582" CreationDate="2020-02-22T00:21:56.920" UserId="24355" Text="How do I make money in a legal, moral way from home with my computer, without interacting with humans or uploading photo id?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24184" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9640" RevisionGUID="1a20cf29-78c3-463f-b686-605fa1673582" CreationDate="2020-02-22T00:21:56.920" UserId="24355" Text="|working-from-home|information-technology|money|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24186" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9641" RevisionGUID="8d05ad35-d2c7-4237-ada2-9b3f6110670b" CreationDate="2020-02-22T05:55:57.520" UserId="24078" Text="You can try freelancing as with this you don't need to engage with anyone directly and photo ID is also not essential.&#xD;&#xA;Here are some of the tips that may benefit you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. You can start freelancing with the skills that you have and can easily get some work to do.&#xD;&#xA; 2. You can start working on freelancing platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer, PeoplePerHour, etc and can earn a handsome amount of money. But as you mentioned you can't get paid in BTC on these platforms.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Try to polish your skills as much as possible and you can surely get clients for the services you will offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope these points can help you. If still any queries, feel free to discuss." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24189" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9643" RevisionGUID="d7598e71-a08a-4577-ad4a-f10c0cc71ba4" CreationDate="2020-02-25T12:47:47.827" UserId="24368" Text="There are several websites like `Upwork` and `Fiverr` is that all of the freelance is usually goods that can be done digitally (e.g. Photoshop, Voiceover, Web Design, Graphics Design, and etc). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But there are also some freelance work that I will need some people to come to the venue to do the work. (e.g. Photography, Livestreaming, and etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am already posting several advertisements on local Facebook groups trying to find people that can come to our area to help take product photography shots, as well as livestream for our online store. But it has been a week or so and I am not even close to finding the perfect candidate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have went to a `Youtube crawler` and watching low subscriber count Youtubers and watching their content 1 by 1 and messaging their e-mail if they are interested. But it is very tedious and still have not had any success.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am struggling growing my business because as an entrepreneur and growing business I cannot handle doing everything by myself. But at the same time finding talent is difficult.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the fastest and best way to find skilled freelancers that can come to your venue?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24190" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9643" RevisionGUID="d7598e71-a08a-4577-ad4a-f10c0cc71ba4" CreationDate="2020-02-25T12:47:47.827" UserId="24368" Text="What is a great way to find some freelance talent offline?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24191" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9643" RevisionGUID="d7598e71-a08a-4577-ad4a-f10c0cc71ba4" CreationDate="2020-02-25T12:47:47.827" UserId="24368" Text="|outsourcing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24192" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3003" RevisionGUID="0486aaec-b63e-469c-b777-391f14d644db" CreationDate="2020-02-25T15:00:16.397" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1232319406186934272" />
  <row Id="24193" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9644" RevisionGUID="23e37e86-c291-4ad4-bcb7-6deab1ef879a" CreationDate="2020-02-25T20:52:49.183" UserId="24372" Text="This is impossible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't mind interacting with people under pseudonym or fake name look for developer communities to join and start networking from there.&#xD;&#xA;Being able to find clients and deliver what client need is &quot;secret trick&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24194" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9645" RevisionGUID="d4fb78f3-5a74-4fff-90cd-3caeac266580" CreationDate="2020-02-26T05:11:17.667" UserId="22501" Text="If you develop mobile or desktop apps... you can sell them online via the Google Play Store, iOS App Store, Mac App Store, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, the following [monetization options][0] are available for Android apps on Google Play:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ## Monetization options:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; - [In-app purchases:][1] Use Google Play Billing to sell items and additional features, or to remove ads. Take advantage of automatic&#xD;&#xA;&gt; conversion to local prices, with options to round for local pricing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; patterns or set local prices yourself, pricing templates, promotion&#xD;&#xA;&gt; codes, and the ability to sell both durable and consumable virtual&#xD;&#xA;&gt; goods.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - [Subscriptions:][2] Use Google Play Billing to offer users ongoing access to content or services for a recurring fee. Use features such&#xD;&#xA;&gt; as flexible billing frequencies, free trials, introductory and local&#xD;&#xA;&gt; pricing, payment grace periods, upgrades and downgrades, price&#xD;&#xA;&gt; changes, conversion analytics, and billing reports and dashboards.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - [Advertising:][3] Get paid for showing Google AdMob ads, including features such as native ads that allow you to match ads to your app’s&#xD;&#xA;&gt; look and feel.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - [Rewarded Products:][4] Using Google technology and advertiser demand, provide your users with rewarded videos. You use the same&#xD;&#xA;&gt; integration used for in-app purchases on Google Play and the products&#xD;&#xA;&gt; are managed in the Play Console.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - [Paid apps:][5] Set a price for your app that the user must pay before they can download and install it. Here, you can also take&#xD;&#xA;&gt; advantage of automatic local pricing (or set prices yourself), promo&#xD;&#xA;&gt; codes, and pricing templates.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - [E-commerce:][6] Use Google Pay to sell physical goods and services from your app. Take advantage of user familiarity with their payment&#xD;&#xA;&gt; methods and a simplified checkout while continuing to use your&#xD;&#xA;&gt; clearance provider and processes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[0]: https://developer.android.com/distribute/best-practices/earn/monetization-options&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://developer.android.com/distribute/best-practices/earn/in-app-purchases&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://developer.android.com/distribute/best-practices/earn/subscriptions&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://developer.android.com/distribute/best-practices/earn/show-ads-admob&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/billing_rewarded_products&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6334373&#xD;&#xA;[6]: https://developer.android.com/distribute/best-practices/earn/goods-and-services&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Likewise, Apple suggests various options for iOS apps: [free, freemium, subscription, paid, or paymium][apple].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[apple]: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/business-models/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24195" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9523" RevisionGUID="04736ff2-0005-4c27-a43f-968b9ab701e4" CreationDate="2020-02-26T10:00:33.753" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24203" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9648" RevisionGUID="7687c096-b260-4d0f-8555-c56657be21f4" CreationDate="2020-02-27T08:10:21.460" UserId="24383" Text="This is smiler to when I was in the UK as a US citizen. They had told me that if I am a US citizen doing work remotely on systems in the US then I would only be obligated to US laws and regulations for the work I was preforming. Even though my physical presents was in the UK. Though legal definitions in this area are vague, as long as I am not doing anything that would other wise be illegal in the US or the UK and I am not overstaying my 6 month visitor's visa / attempting to use it to take up residency in the UK, it was alright for me to work remotely.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24205" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9594" RevisionGUID="538f83fd-0910-4669-8913-91cf1a91ffc2" CreationDate="2020-02-27T22:03:40.517" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24206" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9560" RevisionGUID="28a87f34-1608-4b4c-94e6-fc05f93401c2" CreationDate="2020-02-28T10:20:05.407" UserId="15202" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="It will depend on your jurisdiction - state/county/town(?) - whether you're required to register your business. You probably will be. I (US Citizen, working in the US) had to register my freelance business in Massachusetts and in New Hampshire (at the times I lived in each one) and pay a few dollars - a tax - to do so. I don't remember the registration price in Massachusetts, but in NH it was $50, good for 5 years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have the additional wrinkle of being a non-citizen. I have no idea how or whether that might change anything, even assuming you have the right to work in the United States." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24207" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9596" RevisionGUID="2257cace-e83d-41ba-96d9-c2918b900f7d" CreationDate="2020-02-28T12:02:55.360" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24208" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9649" RevisionGUID="18c304ee-534f-4dbf-a676-8bc936173378" CreationDate="2020-02-28T18:35:17.587" UserId="24395" Text="I'm not saying that it's impossible for everyone, because some people clearly do make it. However, it seems impossible for me. I've been at step #1 for 20 years: I have two empty hands and no audience/customer database.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All the countless guides and books and videos and advice out there assumes that you already have such an established audience/customer database to do anything. It's implied that this is such a basic necessity that it must never be mentioned at all. Yet this is the whole problem: to establish such a thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only &quot;advice&quot; I have got on how to do this is to &quot;do something that people love&quot;. Yeah, okay. Thanks. I'll just go ahead and do that, then, because not realizing that making something that people love is what held me back all these years... Ahem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've tried just about every trick in the book by now. I never grow an audience/platform/database of people. It's impossible to &quot;get the word out there&quot; about anything, in my experience. It's just hopelessly difficult.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Buying ads doesn't work. You just end up wasting tons of money for zero traffic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;SEO is a myth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Making some kind of useful webpage with a form for people to sign up to your newsletter doesn't work. (Because then you need to make people visit that page which puts you back at square one again.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think about anything and I've tried it. I swear. There is no place to &quot;announce to the world&quot; that you are doing something; everyone wants to get paid a ton of money which I don't have to even look in your general direction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a billion &quot;great ideas&quot; which I have to throw away because they are useless without the audience/customer base to start it off with. Nobody is going to visit or use any service I create, no matter how good or crappy, because they don't know about it and never get to hear about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Social media&quot; doesn't even let me register an account these days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm all out of ideas by now. What am I supposed to do? Even illegal and immoral things such as spamming just doesn't work for small players like myself." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24209" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9649" RevisionGUID="18c304ee-534f-4dbf-a676-8bc936173378" CreationDate="2020-02-28T18:35:17.587" UserId="24395" Text="How am I supposed to gain an audience/customer database with two empty hands?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24210" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9649" RevisionGUID="18c304ee-534f-4dbf-a676-8bc936173378" CreationDate="2020-02-28T18:35:17.587" UserId="24395" Text="|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24211" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9597" RevisionGUID="20cdbbbe-98bb-4024-8d42-a902a24aef50" CreationDate="2020-02-28T23:47:50.393" UserId="708" Comment="added 349 characters in body" Text="If your shop rate is $45/hr, for every hour a projects is **in your shop**, the customer owes $45.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It doesn't matter if one person is working on the project, or two, or 20.... the rate for every hour is $45. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine if you took your car to a mechanic and he quotes you $45 an hour as the &quot;shop rate&quot; for labor. He fixes the car, tells you it took 2 hours. Great 2 hours at $45 is $90 in labor... then he hands you an invoice for $270 in labor. When you question the amount for 2 hours, he tells you.. &quot;oh, I had 3 guys working on it&quot;. Would you be okay with that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You increase revenue by having *more* projects in the shop at any given time. A *wise* use of a partnership would be for *each* partner to work on *independent projects* allowing for at least 2 **concurrent** billable cycles. You actually *decrease* your earning if you both work on the same project. Not only because you can't take on any additional projects but because you complete the existing project much faster resulting in less billable hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Honestly, value-based or project-based pricing are better models in many instances.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24213" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9597" RevisionGUID="a910c9a3-733a-4793-b541-73b3bd8e87a7" CreationDate="2020-02-29T07:41:55.400" UserId="708" Comment="added 99 characters in body" Text="If your shop rate is $45/hr, for every hour a projects is **in your shop**, the customer owes $45.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It doesn't matter if one person is working on the project, or two, or 20.... the rate for every hour is $45. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine if you took your car to a mechanic and he quotes you $45 an hour as the &quot;shop rate&quot; for labor. He fixes the car, tells you it took 2 hours. Great 2 hours at $45 is $90 in labor... then he hands you an invoice for $270 in labor. When you question the amount for 2 hours, he tells you.. &quot;oh, I had 3 guys working on it&quot;. Would you be okay with that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You calculated your rate based on BOTH salaries. So the rate *already* factors in BOTH of you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You increase revenue by having *more* projects in the shop at any given time. A *wise* use of a partnership would be for *each* partner to work on *independent projects* allowing for at least 2 **concurrent** billable cycles. You actually *decrease* your earning if you both work on the same project. Not only because you can't take on any additional projects but because you complete the existing project much faster resulting in less billable hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Honestly, value-based or project-based pricing are better models in many instances.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24218" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9651" RevisionGUID="0f9877be-eeb6-45b2-a220-ca122f100c79" CreationDate="2020-03-01T01:56:20.403" UserId="24400" Text="You shouldn't have put yourself in this situation in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We order PCB's from a dozen places across our product lines. We sign multiyear staggered shipment contracts when we don't want to outright pay for a really large quantity of boards. This type of deal is only offered by medium/large fab houses. We'd never expect to be able to push this deferred cost on a single freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your contract terms weren't in your favor - you assumed risks that you should never take on, because the factors affecting those risks are outside of your control. If you are the only one with these designs in hand, your only choice is to jack up the price to justify it on your end - ie charge the customer the cost of a single board production run." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24219" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9652" RevisionGUID="097f26ac-a5e2-4533-898b-1dd218df0bb3" CreationDate="2020-03-02T23:41:46.343" UserId="15906" Text="This happens to me consistently. [Launched an app][1] last month and I now have daily emails of studios asking me to hire them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many of them don't have anything close in portfolio [experience][2] to what I have. Some of them want to charge outrageously cheap rates (but only for volume) - but being a lean one person startup, tbh, I can't really afford them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you explain to others (especially studios) that despite the success of said app, you're just a one person studio (also, financial success is not quite there yet)... you can't really afford to hire them, and might sometimes appreciate it if they share jobs. (Actually, generally, I am very picky on what I take these days, so it is also unlikely that I would be interested in their job.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://twitter.com/drawmaticar&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://permute.xyz/timeline" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24220" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9652" RevisionGUID="097f26ac-a5e2-4533-898b-1dd218df0bb3" CreationDate="2020-03-02T23:41:46.343" UserId="15906" Text="Freelancer launched an app, explaining to others I'm just myself (can't afford to hire)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24221" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9652" RevisionGUID="097f26ac-a5e2-4533-898b-1dd218df0bb3" CreationDate="2020-03-02T23:41:46.343" UserId="15906" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24222" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9653" RevisionGUID="b2ae10b7-6219-45c8-a8ea-1d6838834e7b" CreationDate="2020-03-03T09:23:36.640" UserId="7858" Text="Based on your comments, I get the feeling you explain too much. The longer dialog you accept having, the more they get the feeling you could be convinced.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A simple, short and firm **I'm not interested in collaborating with others** should do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24223" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9618" RevisionGUID="5bc47911-29ea-4bf4-880a-673c999bb2da" CreationDate="2020-03-04T07:48:23.373" UserId="24078" Comment="Grammatical issues" Text="My friend just asked me if I can develop a website for him and his company but I have no idea how much to charge him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a fully self-taught web developer with no professional experience. However, I am also a full-stack developer. I can do frontend, backend, UI, UX, social media integration, database integration, and fully custom forums, comment sections, search engines and search autocomplete and I have experience in building a social media website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not going to charge him per hour because I'm currently studying at university and I have to take care of at least 5 other projects so I was hoping you could help me with estimating a reasonable price per-page. I was thinking I will have 3 different price ranges;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Simple page: A simple static page with some text and images&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Complex page: A lot of moving elements, interactive objects or simple database setup and integration&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Complex systems: Search engines, comment sections, forums, voting systems, complex database integrations, etc...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24224" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9618" RevisionGUID="5bc47911-29ea-4bf4-880a-673c999bb2da" CreationDate="2020-03-04T07:48:23.373" UserId="24078" Comment="Grammatical issues" Text="How much should I charge for building a website with no professional experience?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24225" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9618" RevisionGUID="5bc47911-29ea-4bf4-880a-673c999bb2da" CreationDate="2020-03-04T07:48:23.373" Comment="Proposed by 24078 approved by 61, 7858 edit id of 709" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24226" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1477" RevisionGUID="f466f351-5f3c-4aba-8042-fe7e0fbd496b" CreationDate="2020-03-04T07:48:55.790" UserId="24304" Comment="up to date examples" Text="A freelance website is a site which links freelancers to clients and (more specifically) client projects, often through a bidding process. Examples include [Upwork][1], [Freelancer.com][2], etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This tag is not intended to be for questions regarding the development of websites for customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;##Example questions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While this question, https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1244/how-to-get-work-on-freelancer-com-as-an-existing-contractor-but-new-to-freelance, primarly targets non-experts, it's a good example of when to use this tag. The question is more of a marketing question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.upwork.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.freelancer.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24227" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1477" RevisionGUID="f466f351-5f3c-4aba-8042-fe7e0fbd496b" CreationDate="2020-03-04T07:48:55.790" Comment="Proposed by 24304 approved by 61, 7858 edit id of 707" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24228" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1478" RevisionGUID="71f38c80-a6cc-4f50-abe0-ca270b605963" CreationDate="2020-03-04T07:49:04.287" UserId="24304" Comment="up to date examples" Text="This tag should be used for questions about freelancing problems that involve related websites like Upwork, Freelancer.com etc. For support questions, see that vendor's customer support page. Do NOT use this tag for questions relating to developing websites for customers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24229" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1478" RevisionGUID="71f38c80-a6cc-4f50-abe0-ca270b605963" CreationDate="2020-03-04T07:49:04.287" Comment="Proposed by 24304 approved by 61, 7858 edit id of 708" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24230" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9654" RevisionGUID="2e265488-0c7c-4d3a-94fd-1fd10eb76924" CreationDate="2020-03-04T10:45:48.653" UserId="23932" Text="Discuss with client Two options: &#xD;&#xA;1- Charge on per hour basis &#xD;&#xA;2- Fixed fees based on the terms you mentioned in your post.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No matter which method you are using make it sure the price and quality should be reasonable, particularly at this stage. You existing clients will become your leads for the future.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24231" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9655" RevisionGUID="e7727851-4f73-4b7a-86ec-a17031443003" CreationDate="2020-03-04T17:30:45.427" UserId="24415" Text="I've built a few websites that have the same problem, but only occasional spam from a company wanting to &quot;fix errors&quot;, &quot;increase SEO&quot;, or something like that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The way I respond to those contacts is silence. If it's an email or text, I delete it with no response. If it's a robocall, I hang up, or I punch random numbers to confuse their system then hang up. If it's an actual piece of mail, it goes in the &quot;secure destruction&quot; pile.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's a phone call, I simply state I'm not interested. Like morsor said, don't explain anything, and keep it short and simple. A sales person knows that if they keep you talking, you're likely to cave and buy. It's hard for them to sell something if all they hear is a dial tone. Although, don't be rude unless they just can't take &quot;no&quot; for an answer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24232" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9656" RevisionGUID="67a75779-ac6e-4a31-bc1c-1cd22f13c304" CreationDate="2020-03-04T18:24:27.883" UserId="24415" Text="Find a local makerspace and make friends there. They are usually a magnet for creative types. These people usually have a wide background of experience and often don't do their work specialty at the makerspace, so just judging people by their habits there isn't very accurate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Makerspaces (aka: hackerspace, Fablab) are found all over the US in almost all major cities, most large cities, and quite a few smaller towns. These are usually places that have woodworking, metal working, 3D printers, laser cutters, pottery kilns, electronics, programming, and more. Not all of them have the same stuff or even the stuff I just listed, but they all have the same basic idea behind them: creative people doing work. Usually it's either fun work as a hobby or home improvement work they don't have the tools for themselves, but there's also usually at least a handful that are trying to replace or supplement their day job. And any of this whole group of people are likely to be interested in doing a side project for a friend or for some side money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, don't expect to go there to &quot;rent-a-person&quot;. Too often people come in and think they can hire the place to do manufacturing for them, or design a product off specs, or act like a temp agency. No, go there to make friends, learn about the space, learn about people and their abilities, and then approach individuals to see if they are interested in a project. Most times, the makerspace is a member run organization of volunteers. Very few have employees, except for the for-profit commercial versions. They are more of a community or group of makers that share tools, knowledge, and experience rather than a manufacturing company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BTW, makerspaces can also be found all over the world, too. Many industrial countries are similar to the US in how easily they can be found, but can be harder to find, if they even exist, in less developed countries. Less developed countries would probably benefit most from these types of place, but I digress.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's one map that might help you find a location near you. (I'm not affiliated with this site, it's just the first one I could find.)  &#xD;&#xA;&gt;https://www.beautyandthebolt.com/makerspace-map&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FYI, I've been a part of 2 makerspace, and am currently a member of one. I do everything I mentioned above about makerspaces (and more), but I also so software development and have done computer repair in the past for work. I've met mechanical, network, chemical, and electrical engineers, photographers, painters, graphic artists, inventors, business owners, and a whole lot more at makerspaces. I've also gone to functions to promote the makerspace that included business people, investors, community leaders, and other DIY type people. This type of networking can be indispensable when looking for people to help your business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Getting into the business of running the makerspace can be frustrating, and I'd suggest trying to stay out of it, but that's off the target for this Answer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24233" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9554" RevisionGUID="65326e49-98c8-402e-838d-0b349662956c" CreationDate="2020-03-05T00:00:38.520" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1235354497456787456" />
  <row Id="24234" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9657" RevisionGUID="4922a4ed-51c5-45eb-ae5c-c411ee395169" CreationDate="2020-03-05T18:16:00.110" UserId="24415" Text="With all the restrictions the OP puts on the question, I'm going to say it's nearly impossible to make this work. It could work for someone who is already wealthy and trying to get more wealthy, as in an eccentric wealthy recluse, but what is asked compared to the OP's current position isn't going to happen. The world isn't set up for that kind of thing, and the only reason a wealthy person can do it is because they already have layers artificially in place to do most of the work for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without an ID, most people won't trust you to mop their floors, which goes at least double when it's an online meeting place. There's a reason people generally don't date people they meet online without at least a pic. I don't accept FB or LinkedIn connections with a generic or lack of profile pic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most sales platforms still don't pay out in encrypted currency and you can't pay for 99% of anything with it either. You still need some sort of platform (like a bank account) for conversion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Murtaza Ahmad has the closest thing to what you want with their #1 and #2, but it's a 50% solution at best. And montefiore's answer could work, if you had at least 6 months to work on it, so it's maybe a 10% solution.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately for you, Murtaza Ahmad's #3 is the only way to go, and that needs to include having a photo ID, professional human interaction skills, and the willingness to get out of your comfort zone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have time and money, you could set up or write an encrypted currency transaction processor to help with the massive amount of transactions that are backed up in the current system. The fees you and others pay for transactions would go to you. This takes time to write and debug, as well as get people to use. And it takes money to host on a reliable and secure platform. If I had any interest in encrypted currency, I'd be doing this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or, if you still had time and money, you could write a system to take payments from any platform (whether it's Apple, YouTube, Etsy, PayPal, banks, or whatever) and instantly transfer it to encrypted currency like you want. People and businesses pay you in dollars, pounds, rubles, yen, or whatever and all you see is BTC in your wallet. Then, when you pay others (such as your landlord, mortgage lender, car repair, groceries, gas, bus fare, and whatever) and it automatically and instantly translates your BTC back to dollars, pounds, rubles, yen, or whatever. People like you would pay for this kind of system. Even if it exists, it's not mainstream enough for most people to know about it, so you can get on the &quot;ground floor&quot; of this industry, eventually making millions or billions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But you need time, money, and even human interaction to make either of my suggestions work. Even if you do online advertising, you still need money for that, and you need to know when and why it's not working, so you need human interaction. And even if you spend the money for someone else to do it for you, you still need human interaction for them to know what you want out of the ad campaign.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I got into computers so that I could avoid people. I was hoping to get a job fixing computers in some back room somewhere. That didn't happen. I had to be a service rep, talking to people about what's wrong with the computer. This was true  working for small and large businesses as internal IT, as well as when I worked fixing people's personal computers. It still doesn't work as a software dev. I need to work with other devs, managers, Agile product owners, sometimes CxO's, and sometimes outside customers. Since you aren't rich, you can't do all of that through a butler or an associate/representative/secretary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm sorry, but that's the reality of things right now. You haven't found a solution because there isn't one to find at your current level. I'm (finally) making more than decent money right now and it's not possible at my level either. You can make it possible for others to do it, by creating the system from scratch like I outlined above, but that's not going to help you. Simply put, by the time people start accepting your system, you likely won't need it anymore." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24235" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9658" RevisionGUID="bf08a5f5-352f-48d0-98b4-e719257a4f9b" CreationDate="2020-03-05T18:54:35.000" UserId="24415" Text="Canadian Luke has a good answer, but you can also do billing on a &quot;goal&quot; system.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you finish tasks or features, they pay you before you do any more. This can be done either hourly or per task/feature.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you are new to this, do hourly. You don't have enough experience to know how much time and effort it'll take to implement these features, or even bugs when they come up, so any price you give them is going to be either way high or way low. This hurt you and them, since they will likely lose confidence in you due to a perception of overcharging as well as you losing out when something takes way too long to finish, which costs you money and reputation for missing a deadline.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For larger tasks, you can have smaller goals to reach for payments. There's a variety of systems out there, but one I vaguely remember is a 10%, 50%, 90%, and 100% goal, which are more of guidelines than hard and fast rules. What this means is that when you get 10% of the project done, you get paid for 10%, and when you hit 50% of the project completion you get paid for 50%, etc. This is sort of like the &quot;50% up front and 50% on delivery&quot; idea, but with finer grain. You can still use the 50/50 approach, since that's entirely valid in today's marketplace.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This only works if there's a specific feature and a specific goal to hit. If it's an open ended goal, such as &quot;fix all the bugs&quot;, then you definitely need to be on either an hourly plan or a monthly service plan. Even a monthly service plan can have upper limits. You can agree to fix up to X bugs per week/month, but if it goes over X, then you get paid more. This prevents them from giving you all the bugs in a single month and cancelling the contract while expecting you to fix everything in that one month. You can definitely negotiate X, even on a month to month basis. This is totally a subjective decision on your part. Don't get bullied into doing it or X will always become negotiable, but only from their side.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;Well, I see that you need X+1 bugs fixed this month, but since you only had me fix X-5 bugs last month, I'll give you a pass this time on the extra fee. But only because I know your budget, we've worked Y years together, and I know you need this done now.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And definitely stop working if they don't pay you. It's not extortion or blackmail, since you should be getting paid for what you are doing for them. Unless you are holding the whole system for ransom, it's on them, especially if you are reacting to what they've done first. They are breaking the contract by not paying you, so you no longer have to follow the contract yourself. Once they start following the contract again, then you have to, so don't get overconfident and start making demands at that point. You can only demand that they follow the contract, just the same as they can only demand you follow the contract. If either of you want more or less, that's a different contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And the most important thing about any contract is asking what they want in the contract before it's signed. The way I read your Question is that you aren't sure what your customer wants. My advice to that is: ask them, not us. If you don't know exactly what they are asking for, get clarification from them. If you agree to these terms, write it up in a contract. If you don't, negotiate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And use a lawyer to write up the contract. There's a good chance your customer will use a lawyer to look at the contract. Neither of you want to get backed into a corner or in illegal activity, even accidentally. A lawyer can make sure you aren't doing something silly or stupid, and avoid anything that's unenforceable. I've talked to a couple of lawyers and they said the &quot;legalese&quot; most people try to use doesn't mean anything in the courts, and to use simply words to make things completely clear to everyone. If you and your customer can't understand it, a court of law likely won't understand it either, if it gets that far." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24238" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9659" RevisionGUID="a35090bd-7c31-478c-9577-65783e470b62" CreationDate="2020-03-08T07:32:33.047" UserId="19755" Text="In usual freelancing scenarios, you have to interact with people and validate your identification (in case of online marketplaces like Upwork). Considering the constraints you have listed, the best bet to earn online is to do your thing where external contact will remain at minimum.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you have mentioned programming skills, I would suggest building websites and monetize them using services like Adsense, Amazon Affiliate program etc. You can either write or acquire content, get it optimized for search engines, generate traffic and monetize it accordingly. People are making full time salaries doing this stuff." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24239" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9640" RevisionGUID="bdfc48fa-ba6c-4c3f-9127-57e39cafd23f" CreationDate="2020-03-09T03:00:45.633" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1236849377085468672" />
  <row Id="24240" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9660" RevisionGUID="a1d7f53f-a3d7-42b7-a59a-35d9265560a6" CreationDate="2020-03-09T09:20:09.703" UserId="24434" Text="I'm about to launch an app in which the users can transmit the screen of their android phones and then see it in a browser. It is used mainly for demonstrations. It also transmits the audio captured by the microphone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This audio and video are broadcasted through a media server which I have to contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My questions are regarding about legal aspects that I am worried about:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. What happens if any user transmitted content with copyright, like videos from Netflix, Youtube, etc... will I be responsible for that? How can I protect myself against that?&#xD;&#xA; 2. What happens if any user transmitted illegal content, like pornography, aggressions...? I have to take any legal protection against this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help will be highly appreciated,&#xD;&#xA;Thanks. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24241" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9660" RevisionGUID="a1d7f53f-a3d7-42b7-a59a-35d9265560a6" CreationDate="2020-03-09T09:20:09.703" UserId="24434" Text="Legal requirements when launching a video streaming service" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24242" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9660" RevisionGUID="a1d7f53f-a3d7-42b7-a59a-35d9265560a6" CreationDate="2020-03-09T09:20:09.703" UserId="24434" Text="|legal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24243" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9661" RevisionGUID="7c41cbad-c39b-4113-b4b4-8689652b3afc" CreationDate="2020-03-09T14:02:57.303" UserDisplayName="user24435" Text="As a freelance copywriter, I often take on freelance jobs for advertising agencies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I contacted one recently to offer my services (a small local agency) and we had a Skype call to discuss further.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He asked if he could see the kinds of briefs I'd been working to, so that he could see how I'd interpreted them (e.g. briefs that had been sent to me by other advertising agencies).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can see where he's coming from, but I feel it would be a little disrespectful for me to send over briefs from my other clients, seeing as they are basically all in competition with each other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I right in thinking I should avoid doing this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24244" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9661" RevisionGUID="7c41cbad-c39b-4113-b4b4-8689652b3afc" CreationDate="2020-03-09T14:02:57.303" UserDisplayName="user24435" Text="Prospective client asking to see briefs from other clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24245" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9661" RevisionGUID="7c41cbad-c39b-4113-b4b4-8689652b3afc" CreationDate="2020-03-09T14:02:57.303" UserDisplayName="user24435" Text="|contracts|difficult-client|attracting-clients|ethics|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24246" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9662" RevisionGUID="165e088b-d631-4312-a590-a90ccb202313" CreationDate="2020-03-09T14:42:59.543" UserId="24436" Text="I am a Software developer for 3 years on Android development and 6 month on React-Native (Android-iOS) professionally.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can't find any freelance job on Android development. Because people don't want to give enough money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tried upwork.com =&gt; but I banned from there because I made too many offers and didn't get any customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tried freelancer.com =&gt; At freelancer there are many Indian developer and their bids is very low and it lowers the prices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tried android groups on facebook.com =&gt; At that groups, people won't give enough money. They are talking you about their apps, plans and they don't come back when you send an offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what can I do to find good freelance jobs on Android or iOS development?&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24247" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9662" RevisionGUID="165e088b-d631-4312-a590-a90ccb202313" CreationDate="2020-03-09T14:42:59.543" UserId="24436" Text="How can I get customer on mobile app development?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24248" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9662" RevisionGUID="165e088b-d631-4312-a590-a90ccb202313" CreationDate="2020-03-09T14:42:59.543" UserId="24436" Text="|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24249" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9663" RevisionGUID="29a13a9d-e10b-41bc-ba2a-aae6ed5d947f" CreationDate="2020-03-09T17:39:43.433" UserId="24437" Text="&gt; Am I better to create a new Limited Company at all for the project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Probably not at this stage. Doing that will immediately incur the costs of a second company (mainly accountancy and insurance and banking). Better to treat it as a &quot;Brand&quot; and make sure all bank transactions are correctly reconciled. That way all your profits/costs will get correctly accounted for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other than your project suddenly getting wildly profitable, the only reason I can think of for doing this (creating a new entity) is if you have partners or investors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Should I utilise my current Limited Company structure for generating&#xD;&#xA;&gt; invoices and charging VAT...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, but make sure your company name and address are on the invoices somewhere. If your product is known as &quot;Andy's Sports System&quot;, this detail can large and at the top, with the actual company details in a small font at the bottom.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; ...and potentially move the project to another company at a later&#xD;&#xA;&gt; date?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes. Worry about making the business idea work. If it does, your accountant can do this for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; The concerns/queries I have are around is it best to decouple the IT&#xD;&#xA;&gt; consultancy business from the project business from day one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes...But it's a trade off against the costs and inconvenience of doing so (see above). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The main reason to create a separation like this is if you plan to sell it, either by attracting partners or investors or as a going concern. Other, larger companies will do this to prevent losses in one company from taking down everything else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Will this be seen as VAT avoidance in the eyes of HMRC?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Only if the amounts are significant. And if they are, it's because your new side project is doing really well! Congratulations - now pay your accountant to answer this question.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or make your prices inclusive of VAT, which they should be anyway if you're dealing with consumers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;HMRC = UK tax authority&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;VAT = &quot;Value Added Tax&quot;, i.e. a sales tax" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24250" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9664" RevisionGUID="e19400ed-a37c-4fdc-a3c2-ec6c05098ea0" CreationDate="2020-03-09T19:03:14.957" UserId="24438" Text="Lets say that you are putting up a rfp for a software project and you have clearly defined the scope and budget.&#xA;How do you plan the payouts/milestones such that the freelancer does not desert you halfway or deliver a product half complete or full of bugs?&#xA;Legal course isn't an option either.&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24251" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9664" RevisionGUID="e19400ed-a37c-4fdc-a3c2-ec6c05098ea0" CreationDate="2020-03-09T19:03:14.957" UserId="24438" Text="Planning payment milestones" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24252" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9664" RevisionGUID="e19400ed-a37c-4fdc-a3c2-ec6c05098ea0" CreationDate="2020-03-09T19:03:14.957" UserId="24438" Text="|payment-terms|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24253" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9665" RevisionGUID="d4194975-f62f-4338-baeb-04f7411a974d" CreationDate="2020-03-09T22:39:18.670" UserId="708" Text="I don't think you can. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Much like hiring a contractor to remodel your kitchen.. there's no way to know if they will complete the job and do it satisfactorily. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You simply have to check references and work history and ultimately have a little faith. This is often why hiring experienced, and perhaps more expensive, workers may be better." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24255" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9666" RevisionGUID="e89ac06a-836d-4b66-bb96-c3b86708b027" CreationDate="2020-03-10T06:51:51.733" UserId="7858" Text="Try to find a developer who values transparency and having a short feedback loop - so you can follow the progress closely. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will enable you to correct misunderstandings early or terminate the project, if it's obvious that satisfactory delivery will not happen.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, this will also require you being available to answer questions, preferably with short notice or by having short daily/weekly status meetings." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24256" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9667" RevisionGUID="950f9e90-30ad-4d60-90a9-1765fd6c254d" CreationDate="2020-03-10T12:46:21.133" UserId="24078" Text="While starting your career on Upwork, Fiverr or Freelancer, you need to keep pricing a bit low in the start as you are grabbing clients at that time. And no one's willing to give larger projects to freshers.  Once you have enough clients, you can increase your bidding prices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Considering Android and iOS, you can find more than enough work on these sites if you have good reviews and some clients. And you can earn fine with that. Many freelancers are doing full-time freelancing as they are earning enough from it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24257" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9668" RevisionGUID="e2c1eb21-bb6e-470a-8634-e75aa19e2e02" CreationDate="2020-03-10T14:25:46.380" UserId="24444" Text="I'm a new mobile app freelancer and i'm about to win a new client. They are going to pay me hourly based. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But they asked me how much i'd charge them if they need support in the future. How should i want to reply to this. Should i charge them monthly or yearly for offering a particular hour of support? Or should i just charge them when they ask for something? Because if they agree for paying me monthly for support then they'd obviously expect every month that i do something useful right? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't want to scare them off by asking them 'too much' money, but i also want to have some recurring income if you understand what i mean. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you guys have any experience or tips regarding this situation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24258" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9668" RevisionGUID="e2c1eb21-bb6e-470a-8634-e75aa19e2e02" CreationDate="2020-03-10T14:25:46.380" UserId="24444" Text="Recurring payments" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24259" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9668" RevisionGUID="e2c1eb21-bb6e-470a-8634-e75aa19e2e02" CreationDate="2020-03-10T14:25:46.380" UserId="24444" Text="|payment-terms|attracting-clients|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24263" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9670" RevisionGUID="d635da35-a101-4603-a14c-9ef6aa0cea4a" CreationDate="2020-03-11T11:07:28.467" UserId="8781" Text="For last three years I have used Paypal to get paid from clients in USA (I live and work in Europe). I somehow feel that Paypal takes a quite big amount of money from these transactions and currency conversions. I am trying to understand, what would be the alternative way to get paid? I recently found TransferWise, would this be better compared to Paypal fees? Can someone advice me on this? Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24264" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9670" RevisionGUID="d635da35-a101-4603-a14c-9ef6aa0cea4a" CreationDate="2020-03-11T11:07:28.467" UserId="8781" Text="Alternative ways for Paypal to get paid from clients in USA to Europe" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24265" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9670" RevisionGUID="d635da35-a101-4603-a14c-9ef6aa0cea4a" CreationDate="2020-03-11T11:07:28.467" UserId="8781" Text="|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24266" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9671" RevisionGUID="6d387daf-0c3c-4976-8e8b-7fb216451de6" CreationDate="2020-03-12T21:14:45.817" UserId="24415" Text="I've talked with a variety of people about this subject, so I'll tell you what they've told me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#First&#xD;&#xA;Don't give them free support. If you do this, they'll continually want more and more. At some point, you'll have to stop it and they'll likely be mad at you for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#Second&#xD;&#xA;Since you don't know how many hours you'd be supporting them, start at an hourly rate. If they don't need you much, you get paid for only what time you spend. This is about a fair to both sides as possible. You don't know when they'll be calling you, but you also won't feel obligated to give them work if they over-pay you, such as with a set fee service contract. You'll still likely want a contract, but something fairly flexible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#Third&#xD;&#xA;If you are going to be putting in a significant amount of time each month or week, set up a contract so that you both know approximately how much time you both expect for you to be working on this project, but leave some room for extra work as well as lack of work. This all should be based on historical information, known upcoming functionality they want, or something that can otherwise be fairly tangibly decided.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#Fourth&#xD;&#xA;Set up a service contract with how much specific time you are going to spend and how much they pay you for it. This should include a minimum of payment for the contract as well as how much they need to pay when the inevitable &quot;something came up&quot; and they need you for more time than expected. You may also need to provide a clause for them not needing you as much, however this service contract should only really be considered if a pattern is well established for your working hours. Generally speaking, if you don't know +95% of the time how many hours a month you're working on this project for them, you shouldn't be doing a service contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#Fifth&#xD;&#xA;If you are regularly working on their project for 40 hours every week, you may want to consider having them hire you on full time. This would save you the time and effort doing accounting for your costs, income, etc. It would also save you the cost of replacing old equipment and having to decide how your electricity, rent, and other things are handled on your taxes, if that's part of your country's tax code like it is in the USA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Alternately, you may also want to consider hiring someone yourself, so this person can work on the project while you work on some other stuff as well. It may get to the point where they want you to put in 50-60 hours a week or more, which would definitely require another person. At this point, congratulations are in order, since you've now become an employer and have to deal with a whole new set of problems as well as a new set of possibilities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hiring someone means you can branch out some more, or just cover other contracts better. The ideal behind hiring someone is that you do it *before* you absolutely need them. This way you get them trained before you lose productivity and income due to training them. It's hard to do, mentally and financially, but it'll pay off when more work comes your way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#All options&#xD;&#xA;You should have a lawyer work with you on any contract you draw up or at least look over before you sign it. There's a lot of contracts that include illegal or unenforceable claims. Depending on the laws in your jurisdiction, that might invalidate the whole contract or just the claim.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#Payment options&#xD;&#xA;This is entirely up to you and your ability to budget. If you have them pay yearly, you have to make sure you can live with getting paid only once a year. Farmers do it when they harvest their fields, but that doesn't mean it's easy. Plenty of them don't budget correctly or have a problem when something unexpectedly breaks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Getting paid monthly might work, depending on if that payment hits before your bills are due. And what happens if the payment is late? You still need to budget so you can weather the &quot;it's in the mail&quot; or &quot;oh, was that due this week&quot;, and the horrifying &quot;we just don't have the money to pay you this time&quot;, among plenty of other reasons/excuses for late or non-payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you are an independent contractor, getting paid every week or bi-weekly might not make sense. It might work if your contract company cuts your check the same way and at the same time as it's employees, but that's not likely for a larger company. It might be a &quot;perfect fit&quot; or it might cause them problems. Talk to them about how they want to do it and decide if you need to negotiate this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's also the Net 30, 60, 90 day options, where you give them a bill and they have 30, 60, or 90 days to pay it. Make sure you specify this point with them, which you might have to also negotiate. Some industries have Net 90 as a standard payment schedule, which leaves you without payment for 3 months. If this is an ongoing thing, it might suck to get started, but can be better once payments are established, and you'll get paid for 3 months after your last job for them. It has it's downside, sure, but also an up side.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And make sure you have a clear line of communication to them about payments, such as when something gets fouled up. Know that you have someone to talk to to get things straightened out. You don't want to play phone tag with 10 people for 3 months to get your fee. Also, consider any amount of time you're spending to track down people as part of the time you work for them. Make them pay for the time they are costing you, unless your lawyer says you can't. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#Final note&#xD;&#xA;I'm sure there's plenty of other advice I'm missing here, as well as other viewpoints. If anyone does have those missing pieces, feel free to add your answer, since I'm not interested in arguing. This is not intended to be an all encompassing answer, just information I've gathered through years as working as a sub-contract as well as talking with other contractors and freelancers. YMMV and laws in your part of the world may be different, so please, add that info in a non-confrontational way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24270" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9672" RevisionGUID="15a3be2a-4bcf-4ca3-a7cf-a187b7577bae" CreationDate="2020-03-15T17:45:59.100" UserId="24467" Text="I would like to know which IT specializations are most suitable for 100% remote work as a freelancer / self-employed. Both in theory and in practice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to find clients and companies that are okay with freelancers working 100% remotely from day 1?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bonus points if the IT specialization allows you to work (mostly) alone / run a one man show.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24271" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9672" RevisionGUID="15a3be2a-4bcf-4ca3-a7cf-a187b7577bae" CreationDate="2020-03-15T17:45:59.100" UserId="24467" Text="Which IT fields / IT specializations are most suitable for 100% remote work as a freelancer/contractor/self-employed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24272" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9672" RevisionGUID="15a3be2a-4bcf-4ca3-a7cf-a187b7577bae" CreationDate="2020-03-15T17:45:59.100" UserId="24467" Text="|contracts|web-development|working-from-home|project-management|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24273" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9673" RevisionGUID="d0d7c3e5-1baf-4162-af6c-cc39c8d8f2b7" CreationDate="2020-03-16T14:38:04.920" UserId="21318" Text="I've been a remote freelancer for twenty years now and it enabled me to travel the world. Personally, I'm a web/software developer and technical writer. Other opportunities for 100% remote work would be graphic design, web design, blogging, and to a lesser extent server/network administration. Of course, there is also data entry, but you'll have a hard time supporting yourself that way. Best of luck!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24274" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9674" RevisionGUID="d289fcf0-fab3-4576-971e-75d2eff0aa1a" CreationDate="2020-03-16T14:41:38.690" UserId="21318" Text="Transferwise is most likely your best bet because their fees are low and they don't screw you on the exchange rate. Paypal isn't particularly fair on the exchange rate and a lot of people don't notice that. I use Payoneer sometimes and they *really* steal a lot here. Aside from Transferwise, a bitcoin exchange would be an excellent option." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24275" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9675" RevisionGUID="7930b828-9a5d-4ad3-a8d0-58471ef5ac6c" CreationDate="2020-03-16T18:30:18.057" UserId="21318" Text="I would say this is more a battle with your own conscience than anything else. As a programmer, I can easily share some samples of my work, but it’s much different for a copywriter. However legally, if you didn’t sign a non-disclosure with your customer you’re free to share with your client. Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24276" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9676" RevisionGUID="5ce6e09b-3a83-41fb-87b4-9d05957d748d" CreationDate="2020-03-16T21:03:03.653" UserId="708" Text="It sounds to me that the client is merely unfamiliar with *how* to express their desires in a form you can ingest and use. They don't understand *how* to write a brief that you will find useful. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To this end, you may not need to share an *actual* client brief with them. Simply sending an outline of the items you need to be aware of may be sufficient. A bulleted list of information you need to formulate any writing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This can often be accomplished by searching the internet for some template of a client brief you feel is sufficient.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A quick search leads me to a few things that may be helpful to the client:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- https://www.articulatemarketing.com/blog/better-briefs-for-writers&#xD;&#xA;- https://www.workflowmax.com/blog/creatives/how-to-an-effective-creative-brief&#xD;&#xA;- https://www.workamajig.com/blog/creative-brief&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These are just random search results, I'm not a writer and **don't** intend any direct endorsement regarding *any* of the above links.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may be able to use these results to simply formulate a basic template for the client to fill out." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24277" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9677" RevisionGUID="3f0bacb9-f420-488c-9173-e35576e1bb16" CreationDate="2020-03-17T05:05:01.597" UserId="5036" Text="Are there any (international/non-iranian) websites that allows Iranians to freelance?   &#xD;&#xA;I tried a few but they don't let me register due to US sanctions." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24278" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9677" RevisionGUID="3f0bacb9-f420-488c-9173-e35576e1bb16" CreationDate="2020-03-17T05:05:01.597" UserId="5036" Text="Is there any freelancing site that allows workers from Iran?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24279" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9677" RevisionGUID="3f0bacb9-f420-488c-9173-e35576e1bb16" CreationDate="2020-03-17T05:05:01.597" UserId="5036" Text="|software|translations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24280" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9678" RevisionGUID="faecc742-2c57-4e95-a2f9-84cd0463ff88" CreationDate="2020-03-17T05:40:39.873" UserId="24078" Text="There are freelancing sites like **Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer, PeoplePerHour** on which registration is not specified to any particular country. On these sites, you can freelance from anywhere around the globe. All you need is good skills that are needed by the buyers/clients and services that can attract clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24281" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9679" RevisionGUID="dd2d6a4c-99f1-45ad-84f3-0877c800cd66" CreationDate="2020-03-17T22:27:56.810" UserId="2391" Text="I use TransferWise most of the time. Their fees are low. I've worked out that with their fees and loaded exchange rate PayPal cost me about 7%." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24282" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9679" RevisionGUID="4ef0f4be-0841-42a2-a9b5-c7957ccee113" CreationDate="2020-03-17T22:33:53.853" UserId="2391" Comment="Added more info about borderless accounts." Text="I use TransferWise most of the time. Their fees are low. I've worked out that with their fees and loaded exchange rate PayPal cost me about 7%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;TransferWise is also great as you can set up accounts in different countries for the local currency so clients can do local transfers. I've got one for US Dollars based in New York and another in Austrailian dollars based in Collingwood (?), Australia. They call them [Borderless accounts] (https://transferwise.com/us/borderless/)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24283" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9678" RevisionGUID="715f6325-a76f-41c1-8ac1-2fd56392e67a" CreationDate="2020-03-18T08:41:51.673" UserId="24078" Comment="added 169 characters in body" Text="There are freelancing sites like **Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer, PeoplePerHour** on which registration is not specified to any particular country. On these sites, you can freelance from anywhere around the globe. All you need is good skills that are needed by the buyers/clients and services that can attract clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, in your case, as Iran comes under US sanction, you get left with very few sites. One of them is **99designs.com**, and it allows people from **Iran** too." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24284" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9680" RevisionGUID="a89badc1-62a0-4f9f-b791-67baa4bef155" CreationDate="2020-03-18T10:52:19.673" UserId="24477" Text="I have a client who always pays my invoice around at least 1 month after i send it. This is very inconvenient for me as i, a one-man company, heavily depend on this money to be able to pay my bills etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tried communicating with the client about this, and this resulted in the next invoice being paid a bit earlier, 2 weeks after i sent the invoice, but the invoices after that took 1+ month again. The client is a big company in a branche where it seems to be completely normal to pay so late. They even said they normally pay 2 months later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My idea is now to send an invoice at the beginning of the month, for hours that i will work that month for this client, so basically hours i haven't worked yet. This is definitely a good solution for my problem cause the hours i work for this client are very predictable and even if it happens one month that i charge for let's say 40 hours and actually work 36, i can even that out the next month. It's a longterm project and i can decide myself how many hours i work for this client so it is very predictable. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But is this ethically ok? Would love to get some feedback and different insights! :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24285" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9680" RevisionGUID="a89badc1-62a0-4f9f-b791-67baa4bef155" CreationDate="2020-03-18T10:52:19.673" UserId="24477" Text="Is it ok to charge a (always late-paying) client for hours i haven't worked yet?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24286" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9680" RevisionGUID="a89badc1-62a0-4f9f-b791-67baa4bef155" CreationDate="2020-03-18T10:52:19.673" UserId="24477" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24287" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9681" RevisionGUID="cb05bfa6-aee5-4a14-8795-ddac9e3990ae" CreationDate="2020-03-18T11:34:38.407" UserId="21318" Text="I've been freelancing for a little over twenty years now and sadly this is a very common occurrence. At one point, I had some contracts with the US federal government and it was quite standard to pay every three months. Then I had a couple of clients that were just incredibly unethical and often didn't pay their consultants at all. Fortunately, they were scared of me so they paid... but I would go three months in NYC before I got paid for even one month. I do understand where you are coming from, but I have to say that I feel it is unethical to pad your hours and can blow up in your face in the long run. If they ask you to justify those hours, the lie just grows and grows. While that is unethical... I see nothing wrong with charging them a late fee. That could also blow up in your face also if it makes them angry... however, it's better than lying to them about the hours that you have spent. Best of luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24288" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9682" RevisionGUID="7cbdd72b-340f-42a6-9580-a7207e3c7ce4" CreationDate="2020-03-19T00:14:23.543" UserId="708" Text="**Most** corporations or business use **net 30** for payables. That is, they **always** pay 30 days after receiving an invoice. This is pretty much standard and you should honestly expect 30 days between invoicing and payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being posted, if you add something such as &quot;net 15&quot;, &quot;payable upon receipt&quot;, or add a late fee line to indicate after X days late fees will be applied, to your invoices it may speed the payment process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All in all 30 days is how business is done in most instances. If you want less of a delay, you can start asking for deposits up front.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Fabricating* work hours is unethical and should never be done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may want to discuss a **retainer** with the client. They pay you a specified amount each month for a specified number hours. This would allow you to invoice prior to work actually being completed. This is similar to your &quot;idea&quot; but is upfront, honest, and ethical since the client would be fully aware they are paying you for work *to be done* as opposed to work completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Quite honestly it simply sounds like you manage money poorly. You should always be 30 days out from *needing* any payment (if not much, much more). It should really *never* be an issue if a client takes 30/45 days to pay an invoice as long as you *know* they will pay." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24289" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9453" RevisionGUID="5fde392c-7993-4274-86df-5b345e738309" CreationDate="2020-03-19T05:02:15.557" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24290" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9626" RevisionGUID="e9beb1ad-6248-401d-859f-526693e7628b" CreationDate="2020-03-22T21:00:38.427" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1241832180009127937" />
  <row Id="24291" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9662" RevisionGUID="70b38ebc-5417-4b60-aade-38e7479d5073" CreationDate="2020-03-25T06:54:54.147" UserId="24496" Comment="improve english and wording." Text="I have been a Software developer for 3 years doing Android development and have done 6 months of professional React-Native (Android-iOS) development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can not seem to find a freelance Android development job -- because people don't want to pay well enough.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tried upwork.com, but I was banned from there because I made too many offers and didn't get any customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tried freelancer.com, but at freelancer there are many Indian developers, driving the bids down very low, which lowers the prices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tried android groups on Facebook.com, but on those groups, people will not pay enough money. They talk to you about their needs, take my solutions, and then they don't reply or answer when I send them an offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So what can I do to find a good freelance job on Android or iOS development?&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24292" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9662" RevisionGUID="70b38ebc-5417-4b60-aade-38e7479d5073" CreationDate="2020-03-25T06:54:54.147" Comment="Proposed by 24496 approved by 61, 24436 edit id of 710" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24298" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9667" RevisionGUID="68ccfc26-2bea-411b-8b84-36cef0a765c0" CreationDate="2020-03-27T08:10:14.090" UserId="24496" Comment="improve wording, grammar, clarity" Text="While starting your career on Upwork, Fiverr or Freelancer, you need to keep your pricing a bit low at the start as you acquire your first clients. And no one is going to give a large project to someone who is just starting out.  Once you have proven yourself with enough clients, you will be able to successfully increase your bidding prices, and they will pay you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Considering Android and iOS, you should be able to find more than enough work on these platforms if you have good reviews from a few clients. And you should be able to earn a decent paycheck after that, since many other freelancers are earning a good living doing full-time freelancing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24299" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9667" RevisionGUID="68ccfc26-2bea-411b-8b84-36cef0a765c0" CreationDate="2020-03-27T08:10:14.090" Comment="Proposed by 24496 approved by 61, 7858 edit id of 711" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24306" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9686" RevisionGUID="3abca7d2-137c-490d-8237-edd2536af38b" CreationDate="2020-03-30T11:49:21.230" UserId="20689" Text="Is this really a late paying client? You should find out what the statutory payment terms are in your jurisdiction. 30 days doesn't sound uncommon (for example, this is the case in the UK).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These terms define when the invoice is actually due, unless both parties have agreed something else beforehand. Now you have an objective meaning of _late payment_, one that isn't based on anyone's opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Suggestion: **Invoice more frequently**. You reduce the outstanding debt at any one time, and it's easy to implement: you don't need to ask for anything upfront nor negotiate special terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But to answer your question in the title:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Is it ok to charge for hours I haven't worked yet?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, it's fine if you're honest about it. But it changes the arrangement with your client from paying in arrears to paying in advance. You'll need to justify why that benefits your client. The advice on retainers in [Scott's answer][1] is good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/9682/20689" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24310" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9448" RevisionGUID="beca8c15-de87-4098-ac73-7953b739159b" CreationDate="2020-03-31T12:02:50.630" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24311" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9687" RevisionGUID="fed10e07-c5a3-4b0e-b572-ca28cca8838e" CreationDate="2020-04-01T08:32:00.533" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="So I have a couple of new clients who I've recently done work for. I invoiced them a couple weeks ago and they've gone pretty quiet ever since.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I was working for them, they didn't seem particularly concerned about the economic effects of the virus and made out like business would be carrying on as normal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am concerned that they may end up using the virus as an excuse not to pay me. If this does turn out to be the case... do I just treat everything as I normally would? e.g. after a few reminders then I threaten legal action?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've only ever had to do the above a couple times in about 8 years or freelancing, so I'm hoping it won't come to that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But with everything that's going on at the minute, with people getting ill and going out of business etc, it's difficult to know how to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I don't want people using this current situation as an excuse to simply not pay their freelancers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24312" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9687" RevisionGUID="fed10e07-c5a3-4b0e-b572-ca28cca8838e" CreationDate="2020-04-01T08:32:00.533" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="Chasing debts during coronavirus lockdown (UK)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24313" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9687" RevisionGUID="fed10e07-c5a3-4b0e-b572-ca28cca8838e" CreationDate="2020-04-01T08:32:00.533" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="|difficult-client|payments|invoices|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24316" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4244" RevisionGUID="399b6707-02d8-4174-94db-2bdc9c9799b8" CreationDate="2020-04-03T00:00:32.970" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1245863722158968842" />
  <row Id="24317" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9689" RevisionGUID="574f13df-d50a-4d8c-b93f-80febdab2672" CreationDate="2020-04-04T08:56:06.613" UserId="24529" Text="Corona virus has impacted the Global Economy in a huge negative way and all the business have been impacted by this. Cash flows to the business have been impacted because of which business are not able to pay for the liabilities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please do not chase for debit as of now and let the circumstances become normal for everyone after which you can chase and send reminders for payments. It will take some time definitely for things to become normal. Try to understand from business perspective also regarding the circumstances they might be facing due to the impact of Corona virus and resulting impact on business cash flows which might have impacted payments as well as receipts for business. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24320" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="4398" RevisionGUID="635eca70-486b-43d9-9557-6b03a3d7196a" CreationDate="2020-04-05T18:00:28.463" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1246860269768368131" />
  <row Id="24321" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9664" RevisionGUID="29f2b92b-cb18-403f-a268-c35a1d2c6d80" CreationDate="2020-04-09T07:00:38.210" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24322" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9307" RevisionGUID="93097aeb-62f9-4564-9b75-d51bbafb62e7" CreationDate="2020-04-11T09:02:15.340" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24323" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9668" RevisionGUID="0f2fc650-2d5c-4cf0-b088-e5ff9d976ea7" CreationDate="2020-04-11T22:01:05.370" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24324" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9691" RevisionGUID="d7b8c0c5-8c30-4180-8fc7-dd03ae2f9cf2" CreationDate="2020-04-13T06:43:10.707" UserId="24565" Text="From my experience, you have to change the way you think from how do I get a job building apps to... first,  think about which businesses already have enough income to afford to pay you the kind of income you need, and second, what problems can you solve for that business building out an app for them. How will that business make more money from your app?  Studying how they currently run their business and seeing how an app can help make them more money has always been a super easy sell. Any business that is currently making money typically has no problem sharing additional income if you can figure a unique way to generate it for them through technology.  But be careful. Chosing your clients wisely is a very important part of being a sane freelance developer. I turn down gigs all the time if the owner or contact is difficult to deal with or their business doesn't already generate enough income to invest in an application. You should always chose clients that will never have a problem paying you if you are able to provide a good product. Finally, always remember to look for opportunities in a gig that will provide residual income. This has been a key to running my business. Hosting, monthly maintenance, updates, continuous development, percentage on sales, referalls, etc.. &#xA;These key points will almost guarantee you endless gigs and success in any level. Be creative not only in your development but also in how you can help other businesses make even more money. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24325" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9692" RevisionGUID="08035581-6a92-445c-b65c-f17b8f0aa4b0" CreationDate="2020-04-13T10:10:34.573" UserId="24566" Text="I have been doing work on my own and with a team distributed around multiple countries. I get projects and we work on them together. Recently a startup company, which is considered a competitor approached me and the guy asked me to help them get into the market and that later they will provide me with projects. I was ok with the idea. Then the guy asked me if they can take the blog posts I have on my personal blog and be part of their blog post to get their company up and running and that I am &quot;part&quot; of their company and should feel like a part of it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I told them I don't like the idea and there should be a contract between them and me, and we're two separate entities. They said OK it's fine. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now they said they have a project and they want me and my team to work on it, and that they want to have my team in a meeting to introduce everyone to each other. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is that a good idea to let them talk to my team? I have no experience on how business should work or how to handle such situations? Do I tell them to scrap the old contract we have, since now they want to be closely in contact with my team, and rather make me an official partner in their company? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24326" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9692" RevisionGUID="08035581-6a92-445c-b65c-f17b8f0aa4b0" CreationDate="2020-04-13T10:10:34.573" UserId="24566" Text="Dealing with potential partners" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24327" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9692" RevisionGUID="08035581-6a92-445c-b65c-f17b8f0aa4b0" CreationDate="2020-04-13T10:10:34.573" UserId="24566" Text="|contracts|partner|startups|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24329" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9694" RevisionGUID="6599c008-8db9-4a25-b4c3-485b1549266b" CreationDate="2020-04-13T19:27:11.700" UserId="21837" Text="Communication is the key to getting and most importantly keeping clients.  My best tool for communication is to use Trello.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're not familiar with it it's a KanBan board (columns of cards which can be moved between columns).  I have 5 columns task list, urgent tasks, in progress, on hold, and completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I create cards for each task, assign myself and the client as members. That way the client can track where the cards are in each column.  When you move a card from one column to the next the client is notified.  They can also create cards (watch out for scope creep) for you to work on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One other thing I always remember is to give the client 3 options. Say for a color scheme give them 3 pallets of choices and see what they like. Make the first one the absolute minimum, the second the most likely option, and third all the bells and whistles. You never know the client might want all the bells and whistles.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I noticed that you said you took some cheap jobs just to get some stars on your profile.  Be sure you don't undersell yourself.  Position yourself as the expert and you will have better success.  Don't be the lowest price. I lean toward being the highest reasonable option.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would read Soft Skills by John Sonmez (https://amzn.to/2Xxedd3).  It'll give you a good insight into selling yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good Luck!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wish you good luck.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24330" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9691" RevisionGUID="8102ca1c-f5af-48fe-8be5-9222b9ffba7d" CreationDate="2020-04-14T16:43:28.873" UserId="24565" Comment="Spelling" Text="From my experience, you have to change the way you think from how do I get a job building apps to... first,  think about which businesses already have enough income to afford to pay you the kind of income you need, and second, what problems can you solve for that business building out an app for them. How will that business make more money from your app?  Studying how they currently run their business and seeing how an app can help make them more money has always been a super easy sell. Any business that is currently making money typically has no problem sharing additional income if you can figure a unique way to generate it for them through technology.  But be careful. Choosing your clients wisely is a very important part of being a sane freelance developer. I turn down gigs all the time if the owner or contact is difficult to deal with or their business doesn't already generate enough income to invest in an application. You should always choose clients that will never have a problem paying you if you are able to provide a good product. Finally, always remember to look for opportunities in a gig that will provide residual income. This has been a key to running my business. Hosting, monthly maintenance, updates, continuous development, percentage on sales, referrals, etc.. &#xD;&#xA;These key points will almost guarantee you endless gigs and success in any level. Be creative not only in your development but also in how you can help other businesses make even more money. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24333" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9695" RevisionGUID="bbd3bf73-a438-4d3b-b943-a9964166f4e4" CreationDate="2020-04-16T05:51:03.890" UserId="24577" Text="One of my Client wants and API Integration so he is asking me my  Public Ip so he can whitelist my address is it safe to give him?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24334" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9695" RevisionGUID="bbd3bf73-a438-4d3b-b943-a9964166f4e4" CreationDate="2020-04-16T05:51:03.890" UserId="24577" Text="Is it Safe to give someone your Public IP" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24335" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9695" RevisionGUID="bbd3bf73-a438-4d3b-b943-a9964166f4e4" CreationDate="2020-04-16T05:51:03.890" UserId="24577" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24336" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9696" RevisionGUID="52c1a028-6249-4e63-904f-a4118ef6d0b1" CreationDate="2020-04-16T07:33:37.823" UserId="708" Text="**Every** web site you **ever** visit has your public IP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is typically safe to give it to a client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are concern about privacy and security, then you need a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to mask your public IP. And in that case, a client may not accept a VPN IP address to whitelist, because it would give anyone using that same VPN the same white-list privileges (VPNs use common public IP addresses)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24337" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9696" RevisionGUID="ea2173e3-90fc-414c-a1e4-5bc8a7161811" CreationDate="2020-04-16T09:30:26.400" UserId="708" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="**Every** web site you **ever** visit has your public IP.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is typically safe to give it to a client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are concerned about privacy and security, then you need a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to mask your public IP. And in that case, a client may not accept a VPN IP address to whitelist, because it would give anyone using that same VPN the same white-list privileges (VPNs use common public IP addresses). Unless, of course, the client or you have a private VPN as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24338" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9697" RevisionGUID="07408cf5-12cb-4644-a629-8a2e123fdcd4" CreationDate="2020-04-17T04:53:36.340" UserId="24587" Text="I have been trying (and mostly failing) to be a successful freelance software developer.  The biggest stumbling block I've found is that most people would much rather buy something off-the-shelf than get something custom made when it comes to software.  It's hard to show off examples of your work, because people are afraid of running unknown software.  Especially when Windows Defender complains about it.  But even if you manage to get them to see your previous programs, there are probably 3-5 commercially available programs that can do 95% or more of what you're offering.  Webdev is much easier to market.  People are much more willing to check out your example websites, and there are no off-the-shelf websites out there competing against you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24339" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9696" RevisionGUID="0ba04a7c-a01f-4f4c-b863-2081686772bf" CreationDate="2020-04-20T01:08:34.507" UserId="20683" Comment="Just elaborating" Text="**Yes.** **Every** web site you **ever** visit has your public IP. There is **very probably** nothing any client will try to do with your IP address that some random botnet, or other malfeasance, isn't already trying to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is typically safe to give it to a client. In your case, your client sounds vigilant. And, a **whitelist** should be reassuring/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are concerned about privacy and security, then you need an onion-routed and properly encrypted Virtual Private Network (VPN) to mask your public IP. And in that case, a client may not accept a VPN IP address to whitelist. Because, it would give anyone using that a similar exit node the same whitelist privileges. Generally, VPN exit nodes are communal. Unless, of course, the client or you have a private VPN, as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24340" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9696" RevisionGUID="0ba04a7c-a01f-4f4c-b863-2081686772bf" CreationDate="2020-04-20T01:08:34.507" Comment="Proposed by 20683 approved by -1 edit id of 712" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24341" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9696" RevisionGUID="32b88987-932d-499c-8de9-35be75ca528b" CreationDate="2020-04-20T01:08:34.507" UserId="708" Comment="Removing assumptions." Text="**Every** web site you **ever** visit has your public IP. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is typically safe to give it to a client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are concerned about privacy and security, then you need an onion-routed and properly encrypted Virtual Private Network (VPN) to mask your public IP. And in that case, a client may not accept a VPN IP address to whitelist. Because, it would give anyone using that a similar exit node the same whitelist privileges. Generally, VPN exit nodes are communal. Unless, of course, the client or you have a private VPN, as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24342" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9672" RevisionGUID="d8ebfa6c-5647-4d80-a0a9-4f97cdcf9a79" CreationDate="2020-04-20T06:00:06.740" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1252114802643779585" />
  <row Id="24343" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9356" RevisionGUID="4e86a819-c9c5-4008-9aa2-2a634a8dfeda" CreationDate="2020-04-23T14:03:15.420" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24344" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9698" RevisionGUID="209531be-ea68-4744-a8b3-f541768ef416" CreationDate="2020-04-24T16:59:11.230" UserId="24628" Text="I just took a contract with a company that reached out to me for development help. Had 2 people contact me and they seemed really eager to have me on. Can I charge for my time spent refreshing my skills in a framework or language, React or typescript for example? I've worked with the technologies in the past (not learning them from scratch) but it's been some time. Is 2-3 hours acceptable?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24345" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9698" RevisionGUID="209531be-ea68-4744-a8b3-f541768ef416" CreationDate="2020-04-24T16:59:11.230" UserId="24628" Text="Can I charge for refreshing my knowledge in a certain technology?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24346" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9698" RevisionGUID="209531be-ea68-4744-a8b3-f541768ef416" CreationDate="2020-04-24T16:59:11.230" UserId="24628" Text="|web-development|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24348" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9699" RevisionGUID="b39207ee-3283-4a47-882f-86721f5b3ac6" CreationDate="2020-04-25T08:23:01.300" UserId="24437" Text="Depends what you agreed with them. Are they expecting to get billed for this? During the conversations you've had with them, did you say &quot;Sure I can do X; I've loads of experience but haven't looked at that for a while. I'll need to spend 1/2 day upskilling&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suggest not, given that you're asking the question here. For the sake of a smooth business relationship and a happy client, I'd swallow the cost of it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Successful contracting includes managing your clients' expectations and &quot;nickle and diming&quot; your client at the very first opportunity doesn't sound like a great start to a new business relationship." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24349" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9700" RevisionGUID="1c3b8b5c-5dc2-41aa-953e-4822ddf58f21" CreationDate="2020-04-26T02:33:35.807" UserId="24632" Text="As a web developer freelancer sometimes clients ask me to give them a mockup for some new pages or ideas they have in mind and want to build, this takes time to achieve so should I be asking them for extra fees or consider it as a part of the working process??&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24350" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9700" RevisionGUID="1c3b8b5c-5dc2-41aa-953e-4822ddf58f21" CreationDate="2020-04-26T02:33:35.807" UserId="24632" Text="Are mockups free of charge?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24351" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9700" RevisionGUID="1c3b8b5c-5dc2-41aa-953e-4822ddf58f21" CreationDate="2020-04-26T02:33:35.807" UserId="24632" Text="|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24352" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9701" RevisionGUID="7f7c7fb3-b28a-4665-8325-2a059b6b2599" CreationDate="2020-04-26T15:39:59.907" UserId="514" Text="They are asking for your time to create something for them that is of no use to you or anyone other than themselves. You should be paid for your time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24353" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9702" RevisionGUID="362e18de-0d4a-46f3-a946-a859faf7524d" CreationDate="2020-04-27T06:25:43.410" UserId="7858" Text="In general, I would agree with the accepted answer, as you should normally ensure that you get paid for your time - regardless of what you do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, sometimes a mockup can be essential in landing a customer and could therefore be seen as an investment. Off course, the risk is that the customer takes your free work and goes elsewhere.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps one could produce 'partial' mockups which demonstrate your capabilities and proposed way forward, but don't reveal how you would go about the entire solution. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only universal rule in freelancing is always staying focused on turning a lead into a paying customer. If it seems likely that no more work will be forthcoming, all work must be paid for. If more work seems likely, you're in the more difficult grey zone and must evaluate whether the potential client dangling lots of potential future work in front of you is being honest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as a client owes you money - or when you have done agreed upon free work - always ensure that they don't hold all the cards. You must either insist on payment or only make partial deliveries." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24354" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9703" RevisionGUID="8a6a2673-217e-45b4-9fd8-4354678b8f7e" CreationDate="2020-04-27T06:33:56.903" UserId="7858" Text="If the entire project is 20+ hours, stirring up a fuss over 2-3 hours seems unnecessary.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assuming you are billing by the hour and that you have been transparent about how recent your experience is, I would bill those hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only exception would be if the client insists on having every hour billed micro-explained, like coding, coding tests, documentation, dev-ops, deployment and so on. Personally, I might bill such a client extra for the added bureaucracy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the project is fixed-price, you 100% decide how to go about things." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24359" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9507" RevisionGUID="91bafa4d-b016-4a6c-bcf5-ea468a5e46dc" CreationDate="2020-04-27T18:05:15.600" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24360" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9439" RevisionGUID="cf558654-9b57-42ab-84a7-ace80b68d919" CreationDate="2020-04-27T19:02:20.190" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24367" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9706" RevisionGUID="8e3fc87d-a2a4-4b55-9e2c-406b4e2ae377" CreationDate="2020-04-28T22:40:50.600" UserId="24632" Text="I don't think it is a bad thing to introduce your team to them (**not the perfect one too**) but, if you are willing to do so, make sure nothing goes behind your back and to let all the interactions with the team to be from your perspective only.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24368" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9692" RevisionGUID="f4347686-e6a0-42fd-bd20-0466557bb982" CreationDate="2020-04-29T09:00:10.567" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1255421608006688774" />
  <row Id="24369" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9707" RevisionGUID="f69df317-a78e-4615-bed2-45a99eca4c3d" CreationDate="2020-04-29T19:23:24.870" UserId="24652" Text="I was employed by an old college friend for building an App. I was paid an advance of 25 percent of the total amount agreed as an advance to start working. Later, I went to his office for a few days to meet up his boss, talked to him but after some days unexpectedly we got into a huge fight and now he doesn't want me to work on it anymore, I also left on same terms. Now he is demanding the money back or incase I don't want to return the money he is asking me to sign the agreement for his audit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is not making any sense to me and I don't want to pay him back , as I did give my time to the project and I didn't have any intention to leave the project. I haven't started working yet , I agree but he also agreed that it was his failure to hire me. In that case why is he expecting me to sign or refund. I feel like if I sign I'll be in more trouble.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He started harassing my friends also as I'm not responding, sending them messages on social media platforms. I seek advice as to how to handle this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S. : This is my first time here , if this is not the place to post this kind of question, please kindly direct me to which community.TIA." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24370" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9707" RevisionGUID="f69df317-a78e-4615-bed2-45a99eca4c3d" CreationDate="2020-04-29T19:23:24.870" UserId="24652" Text="Work order money refund : Freelancing with an college friend" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24371" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9707" RevisionGUID="f69df317-a78e-4615-bed2-45a99eca4c3d" CreationDate="2020-04-29T19:23:24.870" UserId="24652" Text="|legal|difficult-client|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24372" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9708" RevisionGUID="3b5c36ef-4d15-4db9-93e8-03a772b1eede" CreationDate="2020-04-29T21:13:42.013" UserId="75" Text="Since you specify:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- No contract was signed&#xD;&#xA;- Everything was verbal&#xD;&#xA;- You received an advance&#xD;&#xA;- You haven't completed work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest giving the money back, and attempt to save your college friendship. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to do the project anyways, sign a contract that both you and the client (notice I call the person you're dealing with &quot;client&quot;, not &quot;friend&quot; here) agree to. That contract should stipulate everything relating to payments, mentioning a Scope of Work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Scope of Work should be a separate document listing goals and milestones to be completed. This will get signed as well by both parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From now on, no more favours to friends or old acquaintances. Always have a contract, scope of work, and a deposit or advance BEFORE any work starts" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24373" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9709" RevisionGUID="3c2b2a8f-5f06-43d1-b769-0cb12cb4c9c0" CreationDate="2020-04-30T18:52:37.177" UserId="24656" Text="I recommend staying stiff, if you feel that you have justified for what was paid(25% as you said), then go for a formal meeting and discuss your efforts against money paid. But be honest !! &#xD;&#xA;This is just the beginning of your life into this profession where you would meet much such money-minded individuals/organization.&#xD;&#xA;As you have not signed the contract and also you have not taken the complete payment, so it becomes justifiable to justify your efforts. &#xD;&#xA;If you learn to bend now, remember you will always bend !! But never ever forget your Honesty !!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24374" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7660" RevisionGUID="82eeef42-4382-49ba-bd6d-fdef10cfbc18" CreationDate="2020-05-01T03:04:50.867" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24380" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9712" RevisionGUID="3825dfc6-11ee-488b-9c3b-482a99e3d2f6" CreationDate="2020-05-01T20:29:03.140" UserId="18230" Text="What I´d do in your situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Compile a List of all work done on this project by you. If you have a agreed upon rate, multiply by this. If not, find out whats common for this kind of work in your area and use that rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Offer to your client to settle the contract for that sum if both sides agree to having no further claims against each other. Provide them with the proof of your work and all its results (planning documents etc.) Give them an invoice for the work done and pay back the rest, if any.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can´t see you legally just keeping money from someone for work not done (IANAL, though) unless you have a contract stating otherwise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From now on: If you encounter a client, after initial contract, provide them with your base hourly rate and basic terms of business immediately and state clearly that these terms are applicable for all work you do until agreed otherwise in writing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, start thinking about your own risk management. You are not an employee, and all the employee protection laws do not apply for you. Your hourly rate should factor this in. You need to pay for your own health insurance (with daily allowance for longer sick periods), retirement plan, disability insurance, ... and set aside a fund for quiet times as a from of &quot;unemployment&quot; insurance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I like to do when I am in a planning phase with a client: I invoice them for my time helping them to write the requirements with an hourly rate. Once the requirements are clear I can give them an estimate. If they don´t like it, they can look for someone else to do the project and I keep my planning money. If they book the project with me, I give them a discount on the planning costs.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24381" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9713" RevisionGUID="b7829131-61a3-46e1-a5cd-d83546e0613e" CreationDate="2020-05-01T20:41:43.377" UserId="18230" Text="There are a number of thing an invoice **must** contain to be valid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your government has [some info][1] on this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Your invoice must include:*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- a unique identification number your company name, address and contact&#xD;&#xA;- information the company name and address of the customer you’re&#xD;&#xA;- invoicing a clear description of what you’re charging for the date&#xD;&#xA;- the goods or service were provided (supply date) the date of the&#xD;&#xA;- invoice the amount(s) being charged VAT amount if applicable the&#xD;&#xA;- total amount owed&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*If you’re a sole trader, the invoice must also include:*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- your name and any business name being used&#xD;&#xA;- an address where any legal documents can be delivered to you if you are using a business name&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your invoice is formally wrong, i.e. missing some of the required information, your customer can rightfully demand to get a correct invoice from you before paying anything. After all they would get in trouble with the tax authorities for accepting an incorrect invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your invoice is formally correct, then it is valid and should not be changed. In fact, a valid invoice should never be chanced. The only way to correct an invoice that is formally correct is by issuing a  credit note canceling out the value of the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client does not accept a formally correct invoice after some discussion, I´d send them a payment reminder and if the still don´t pay I´d threaten to give the matter to a lawyer or collections firm.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers/invoices-what-they-must-include" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24382" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9713" RevisionGUID="f22b15f0-84bc-41d8-97d3-a7276121e44c" CreationDate="2020-05-01T20:46:51.213" UserId="18230" Comment="added 20 characters in body" Text="There are a number of things an invoice **must** contain to be valid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your government has [some info][1] on this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*Your invoice must include:*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- a unique identification number &#xD;&#xA;- your company name, address and contact information &#xD;&#xA;- the company name and address of the customer you’re invoicing &#xD;&#xA;- a clear description of what you’re charging for &#xD;&#xA;- the date of the goods or service were provided (supply date) &#xD;&#xA;- the date of the invoice &#xD;&#xA;- the amount(s) being charged &#xD;&#xA;- VAT amount if applicable &#xD;&#xA;- the total amount owed&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*If you’re a sole trader, the invoice must also include:*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- your name and any business name being used&#xD;&#xA;- an address where any legal documents can be delivered to you if you are using a business name&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your invoice is formally wrong, i.e. missing some of the required information, your customer can rightfully demand to get a correct invoice from you before paying anything. After all they would get in trouble with the tax authorities for accepting an incorrect invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your invoice is formally correct, then it is valid and should not be changed. In fact, a valid invoice should never be chanced. The only way to correct an invoice that is formally correct is by issuing a  credit note canceling out the value of the invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client does not accept a formally correct invoice after some discussion, I´d send them a payment reminder and if the still don´t pay I´d threaten to give the matter to a lawyer or collections firm.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers/invoices-what-they-must-include" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24383" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9714" RevisionGUID="c6c3ad5a-d782-426d-8232-3d0e929b7312" CreationDate="2020-05-01T21:03:21.887" UserId="18230" Text="First what you described is generally what a good business consultant does, if it is not a specialty consultant like IT, legal, tax, engineering etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you could just become a consultant. It´s hard to find clients just out of the blue, though. Most successful one-man-show business consultants do either work by recommendation or they did some form of publication like a book or a blog etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apparently you are not too conformable marketing yourself as per your comment (an I can relate to that very well) Sure you have an area of expertise, you just told us in your post. So when somebody asks you, tell them that. Your area of expertise is developing ideas into mature projects.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could also try go more in the educational direction, teaching young entrepreneurs how to develop their ideas. You may need to polish your knowledge about running a startup and finding capital though. You could then either pitch your services to startups seeking to develop their ideas enough to get capital or you could go to VC´s and offer them to help work with their founding candidates. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24385" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9715" RevisionGUID="d68cc2e3-a654-4c5b-ba2d-6231224c3341" CreationDate="2020-05-03T13:20:08.457" UserId="24666" Text="I have a client for which I designed a presentation for a fixed price. I sent an initial invoice and got paid. No problem there.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometime after he requested an editable version of the invoice because he needed to &quot;add some items&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I told him I only worked with PDF versions of my invoices but that I would happily help him out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He is requesting to add an additional item to the invoice for which I haven't charged for nor work on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems a bit shady to me but I wanted to know what the best way to proceed in this situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any pointers would be greatly appreciated " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24386" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9715" RevisionGUID="d68cc2e3-a654-4c5b-ba2d-6231224c3341" CreationDate="2020-05-03T13:20:08.457" UserId="24666" Text="Client is asking me to add an item to an invoice that I haven't charged for or work for, it is right for me to add it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24387" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9715" RevisionGUID="d68cc2e3-a654-4c5b-ba2d-6231224c3341" CreationDate="2020-05-03T13:20:08.457" UserId="24666" Text="|payments|invoices|client-support|ethics|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24388" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9716" RevisionGUID="ad073c5a-3dbd-446e-955e-4472adc3e872" CreationDate="2020-05-03T22:01:17.253" UserId="708" Text="It **is** shady. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Invoices are **your business records**. They reflect your income. You should never add *anything* to *any* invoice which your business is not *directly* responsible for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is asking you to put yourself in an untenable position. Refuse to add random items or provide anything editable. **No one** should **ever** need to edit an invoice you send them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It sounds to me like this client wants to pass on costs to someone else.. and wants to make it *appear* you are charging more than you did in an effort to hide his/her fee. Or, in order to better the client's position financially (taxes) they want to make it *appear* as though they paid you *more* than they actually did. **It's absolutely shady, if not fraud**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the tax man comes calling and wants to see your business records... and there's an invoice for an additional $x amount you added merely because the client asked you to, but never collected any actual money.. well.. the tax man will see that as *income* for you and you had better pay taxes on this &quot;invisible&quot; amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24389" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9716" RevisionGUID="d9950e36-42b3-4c69-89a8-8f7a9232c82d" CreationDate="2020-05-03T22:11:16.670" UserId="708" Comment="added 550 characters in body" Text="It **is** shady. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Invoices are **your business records**. They reflect your income. You should never add *anything* to *any* invoice which your business is not *directly* responsible for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is asking you to put yourself in an untenable position. Refuse to add random items or provide anything editable. **No one** should **ever** need to edit an invoice you send them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It sounds to me like this client wants to pass on costs to someone else.. and wants to make it *appear* you are charging more than you did in an effort to hide his/her fee. Or, in order to better the client's position financially (taxes) they want to make it *appear* as though they paid you *more* than they actually did. **It's absolutely shady, if not fraud**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the tax man comes calling and wants to see your business records... and there's an invoice for an additional $x amount you added merely because the client asked you to, but never collected any actual money.. well.. the tax man will see that as *income* for **you/your business** and you had *better* pay **taxes** on this &quot;invisible&quot; amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would explain to the client:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Invoices are business records. I will not allow my business to be liable for line items you request be added unless my business is directly responsible for those line items. In addition, I will not jeopardize my tax position with invoices that reflect inaccurate income amounts. What you are asking is unethical.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If that angers or upsets the client, for me, I wouldn't care. There's obviously some nefarious business practices taking place and he/she is trying to pull me into that and I want no part of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24390" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9716" RevisionGUID="e85ac731-3e82-4756-9338-6d5debc8a47e" CreationDate="2020-05-04T03:17:05.687" UserId="708" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="It **is** shady. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Invoices are **your business records**. They reflect your income. You should never add *anything* to *any* invoice which your business is not *directly* responsible for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client is asking you to put yourself in an untenable position. Refuse to add random items or provide anything editable. **No one** should **ever** need to edit an invoice you send them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It sounds to me like this client wants to pass on costs to someone else.. and wants to make it *appear* you are charging more than you did in an effort to hide his/her fee. Or, in order to better the client's position financially (taxes) they want to make it *appear* as though they paid you *more* than they actually did. **It's absolutely shady, if not fraud**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the tax man comes calling and wants to see your business records... and there's an invoice for an additional $x amount you added merely because the client asked you to, but never collected any actual money.. well.. the tax man will see that as *income* for **you/your business** and you had *better* pay **taxes** on this &quot;invisible&quot; amount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would explain to the client:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Invoices are business records. I will not allow my business to be liable for line items you request be added unless my business is directly responsible for those line items. In addition, I will not jeopardize my tax position with invoices which reflect inaccurate income amounts. What you are asking is unethical.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If that angers or upsets the client, for me, I wouldn't care. There's obviously some nefarious business practices taking place and he/she is trying to pull me into that and I want no part of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24391" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9717" RevisionGUID="3842e42e-ae82-4ffb-a42d-19c4a3c33c5a" CreationDate="2020-05-04T07:23:25.953" UserId="24667" Text="It is in the best interest of your business and best practice to only send out accurate invoices. It is out of your control what happens to the document after you release it. If you feel like you want to help in this specific instance since you're already discussing it with the client, chances are it wouldn't cause a problem for you, but best bet is to advise the client to google &quot;free pdf editor.&quot; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24392" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9687" RevisionGUID="83d4ffa6-4483-4d0d-b163-7097d0844df1" CreationDate="2020-05-04T09:00:55.083" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24393" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9718" RevisionGUID="8d54daeb-c2bf-47bc-bc10-dfc7745ae3f6" CreationDate="2020-05-04T23:35:21.530" UserId="24670" Text="Worst case scenario if you cannot get paid, google make a court claim for money. They will advise you to communicate with who owes you money and provide the next steps plus any appropriate wording. I have been in similar situation and sometimes you get left with no option. If all else fails, this is the best option. On every occasion that I used this it has worked effectively. Most will settle prior to any legal process initiating as the costs are added on. But you must be in an actionable position to begin with, that is you must have contract with clear terms that can thus show that there has been a breach of contract, and not have everything only on a word of mouth basis. I am not giving legal advice, just suggesting a remedy which I found to work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24394" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9719" RevisionGUID="ce13fc7e-02cc-4769-8f8f-4f275219a107" CreationDate="2020-05-05T13:34:15.113" UserId="24674" Text="Check out Ideation, Design Thinking, Design Strategy.&#xD;&#xA;Also maybe you should pursue more Project Management in another / bigger organization? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24395" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9720" RevisionGUID="40ebdaee-f71c-4c15-8dbe-44e30cdbd210" CreationDate="2020-05-05T13:41:50.930" UserId="24674" Text="This is always a concern for freelancers.  Not just during a pandemic.  There is no simple answer.  We probably spend 30% of our time chasing down money. Nurture your client relationships.  We have some clients that pay on a payment schedule. Some (bigger) projects require retainers upfront, have partial payment milestones, and even sometimes complete payment before final delivery.  The pandemic has added a new challenge.  We are requiring even more upfront deposit for ew clients for exactly the reason you state.  We also use an online invoice system that has automatic payment &quot;reminder&quot; emails.  This has actually worked better than I expected.  It is also a nice middle man to blame.  Instead of me personally harassing clients I can blame the &quot;automated messages in the system&quot;.  Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24396" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9721" RevisionGUID="70b36e89-6cad-4533-b20d-37846a07211a" CreationDate="2020-05-05T13:45:58.840" UserId="24674" Text="Is it a lot of money?  What are we talking about here?  Did you already buy a lambo?  Give the money back.  Stay friends.  Friendship is more important than money. Sounds like there could be more work in the future from this relationship. Lesson learned. Next time will be a better process." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24397" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9722" RevisionGUID="415dba62-5a02-46d3-bceb-c4f5c82a0668" CreationDate="2020-05-05T13:56:14.797" UserId="24674" Text="This should be built into your hourly rate.  Of course, the client also knows if you aren't a super pro at something - it will take you longer to complete the task. So again, it's built into the rate.  If your rate is too low, this is a different issue." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24398" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9723" RevisionGUID="ed06f4ad-19de-4a99-9830-e11f160114bc" CreationDate="2020-05-05T14:01:31.420" UserId="24674" Text="Never work for free.  You could have a different flat fee rate for project discovery or design exploration.  In fact, this is a good &quot;hook&quot; package for marketing to sell people on your services. It's also an interview for you too. Get to know the client, process, payment terms etc.  You may find out that you don't want to work with them... especially if they try to get free design services from freelancers. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24399" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9724" RevisionGUID="5ee38b2c-c6a2-4bb5-8daf-45716c3188ef" CreationDate="2020-05-05T14:11:29.053" UserId="24674" Text="It's normal.  At least 50% of your time will be client communications. This is in part why the billing rate of freelancers is higher than salary workers.  And don't forget - it's not just current clients - you have to be nurturing all your client relationships, making cold calls, writing proposals, and responding to Q&amp;A posts on StackExchange. When starting out it is important to streamline your process. I know this sounds easier than done.  Trust me, you can learn this the hard way over the next 10 years, or spend the time to do it now.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lot of marketing communications can be automated or semi-automated. Consider maybe even hiring a virtual assistant. Some of the client and work processes can be semi-automated using online tools. Clients should appreciate more structure and it will make your life easier.  This is a value add for your service.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And finally, don't be afraid to say &quot;No&quot;. Some projects are more trouble than they are worth.  Your initial communications and onboarding process can help to identify these troubled clients so you can avoid getting tangled up. The lost opportunity cost will cost you more in the long term. Good Luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24404" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9726" RevisionGUID="eeb7e4b4-c12a-429f-a4bc-6a76fecbff27" CreationDate="2020-05-07T15:01:45.313" UserId="24674" Text="Cash flow is the hardest part of small business.  Probably the reason most businesses fail. Net30 is standard. Bigger the company the longer it takes as there are more steps in getting the checks out. You can work with deposits or a monthly retainer on an annual contract. However, if the client always pays - it might not be worth starting trouble. Other things to consider to manage cash flow: build up your cash (obviously), get a credit line (always good to have for emergency), use faster payment methods (credit cards), use online invoicing systems for faster response, and or bill more frequently. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24409" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9729" RevisionGUID="4b8cec49-aaab-4c59-92cd-8edcf6102135" CreationDate="2020-05-08T07:12:18.940" UserId="24691" Text="I received and offer from a company to work as an independent software developer contractor. The agreement contains some clauses that specify that I should indemnify the company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This one agrees to have unlimited liability and forces me to have an insurance. I asked about the what the mentioned &quot;adequate cover&quot; and what are the mentioned &quot;reputable insurers accepted by the company&quot; but I received no answer from them.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You shall have personal liability for and shall indemnify the Client or any of its Affiliates for any loss, liability, costs (including reasonable legal costs), damages or expenses arising from the provision of the Services and shall maintain in force during the period of this agreement adequate insurance cover with reputable insurers acceptable to the Client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The next one looks to me like I'm giving the up my right to raise any claim or sue them. Is this ethical to do? is this a red flag?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You shall be fully responsible for and indemnify the Client against any liability, assessment or claim for:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; (a) taxation whatsoever arising from or made in connection with the performance of the Services, where such recovery is not prohibited by law; and&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; (b) any employment-related claim or any claim based on worker status (including reasonable costs and expenses) brought by you or any substitute against the Client arising out of or in connection with the provision of the Services, except where such claim is as a result of any act or omission of the Client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is if this is a common practice or this's a red flag and I should avoid working for them. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24410" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9729" RevisionGUID="4b8cec49-aaab-4c59-92cd-8edcf6102135" CreationDate="2020-05-08T07:12:18.940" UserId="24691" Text="Is this software developer contractor agreement a red flag?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24411" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9729" RevisionGUID="4b8cec49-aaab-4c59-92cd-8edcf6102135" CreationDate="2020-05-08T07:12:18.940" UserId="24691" Text="|contracts|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24414" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="6267" RevisionGUID="89217f87-95f0-4fd5-904c-deeace297a1b" CreationDate="2020-05-08T22:12:21.477" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="24415" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9730" RevisionGUID="ecb2d86a-ad8b-4d5a-a0b6-fb0ccf7327ec" CreationDate="2020-05-10T10:02:42.453" UserId="24706" Text="I am an expat living in Germany for 2 years now. My question is how to report one-time freelance earnings and how to register as a **part-time** and **one-time** freelancer, considering my situation:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I am a full-time employee&#xD;&#xA;- My visa permits self-employment&#xD;&#xA;- In 2019 I took a side project on upWork (one-time, billed less than 2000 eur. in total)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I haven't registered as a &quot;freelancer&quot; beforehand since I thought there is a way to add **small additional income** in the normal tax return forms. It turns out that in any case one has to be registered as a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a bit worried about my situation since I have to register &quot;retroactively&quot; (if it is even possible) and then get a 2nd Steuernummer and file my tax return. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to be clean and report those earnings, but don't know how to do that..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help is appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S. I also don't know if it makes sense to get a tax advisor/consultant.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24416" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9730" RevisionGUID="ecb2d86a-ad8b-4d5a-a0b6-fb0ccf7327ec" CreationDate="2020-05-10T10:02:42.453" UserId="24706" Text="Freelancing while being Employed in Germany" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24417" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9730" RevisionGUID="ecb2d86a-ad8b-4d5a-a0b6-fb0ccf7327ec" CreationDate="2020-05-10T10:02:42.453" UserId="24706" Text="|taxes|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24421" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9731" RevisionGUID="cda00c54-befd-4079-a993-1b415d62df01" CreationDate="2020-05-11T21:20:37.447" UserId="708" Text="I'm **not** seeking dollar amounts nor *how* to calculate pricing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm curious how freelancers determine if their own pricing is within a good range of current market trends.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I can have a conversation with a client about scope and demands. It can all be clear and a quote/bid can be provided. I then may or may not get the work. The quote is in line with my current pricing and I neither feel I'm under or over pricing the work for myself. There's an old adage that *&quot;if you win every bid, you're pricing too low.&quot;* and I typically keep that in mind.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if current market pricing has a variant of, oh say, 30% or more, I may be doing myself a great disservice by not setting my rates correctly. If everyone in the market is pricing similar work 30% higher than me, I'm greatly undervaluing my services, even if my pricing formula correctly calculates things based on overhead, experience, skill, etc. Or, if my experience and skill is much greater than median market experience, I may be priced too low due to that aspect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's very difficult to get accurate pricing from competitors for similar projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Crowd-sourcing sites aren't &quot;real-world&quot; pricing to me. They are very low-end pricing for almost everything so as to remain competitive in those specific arenas.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, other than &quot;pretending&quot; to be a client and contacting someone to quote the project for you... **How can you gage what competitors are pricing similar work at?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24422" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9731" RevisionGUID="cda00c54-befd-4079-a993-1b415d62df01" CreationDate="2020-05-11T21:20:37.447" UserId="708" Text="How does one know if their pricing is inline with market trends?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24423" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9731" RevisionGUID="cda00c54-befd-4079-a993-1b415d62df01" CreationDate="2020-05-11T21:20:37.447" UserId="708" Text="|pay-rate|price|company-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24424" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9732" RevisionGUID="299f8b9e-4be3-4e10-9744-3646d7ecada8" CreationDate="2020-05-12T07:59:15.693" UserId="7858" Text="This is basically a legal question and could depend on jurisdiction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a Danish context, the situation is quite normal when you have en entity between the contractor and the end customer. This entity naturally wants to avoid getting caught up in a situation which really only involves the contractor and the end customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, the intermediary entity will often try to smooth things out before anyone goes to court, as they wish to retain a working relationship with both parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This clause should be seen as a 'if all else fails, you're on your own'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And you should off course have insurance - which is your way of passing off the risk." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24425" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9529" RevisionGUID="5bfcd13f-a4f9-4238-88d2-85454a8967be" CreationDate="2020-05-12T22:02:30.203" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24431" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="9734" RevisionGUID="18d5c511-2a46-4690-984a-ab25304ef2a1" CreationDate="2020-05-13T16:14:26.940" UserId="-1" Comment="from https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/149027/should-i-be-less-paid-for-an-online-lesson" />
  <row Id="24432" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9734" RevisionGUID="2a1f6c9f-ef98-433b-a0d1-d7dfcbddcd25" CreationDate="2020-05-12T20:01:20.100" UserDisplayName="JKHA" Text="Since nearly one year, I'm giving mathematics lessons to a high-school student. I think I have good mathematics knowledge as I graduated from a French top engineering school and I specialized in operations research, a sub-field of applied mathematics and computer science.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During this year, I became more and more involved and concerned about the success of my student as he reminds me of me on many points when I was younger. I won't go too deep into this point as it is a bit personal. We do not do refresher courses but more homework and often deepening lessons. He will finally understand all exercises until then and he has the best grades in his class.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the recent Covid-19 pandemic, I had to give him less lessons. Only two hours since the beginning of the restrictions, whereas I used to give him two a week. Even if it was only two hours and there might not be much more, I'm very concerned about the prices of our lessons. Indeed, I think myself being quite less efficient explaining to him the concepts while talking to him with a mobile call. And must of all, I find it very hard to write down the maths, taking pictures of those, all of that thinking of my pedagogy, and finally sending him thanks to our phones. It appears we are less efficient. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's why I was thinking of asking his mother to pay me less for those hours. Money isn't the main reason why I give those lessons at all. Enjoying doing some maths, helping him and having this experience are more important reasons. So I don't mind at all being less paid and I'm much more concerned about the fairness of such discount. I don't think this is an important factor, but it appears their family isn't in the need of money. I'm also concerned if it could degrade my lessons' quality opinion, maybe in general. And that's true, they are less efficient while online. I was also thinking of questioning my way of teaching online. Maybe I'm just not good at it, and many teachers can do it well, perhaps with practice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've search online good reasons to teach online instead of head to head and what I could find is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. No travel to the student or teacher's houses or meeting place.&#xD;&#xA;2. Efficiency. This can be an innovative plus a recreational way of learning for the student&#xD;&#xA;3. Accessibility. Such lessons can benefit for disability students.&#xD;&#xA;4. Flexibilty of schedules. Easier to plan the courses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Points 1, 3 and 4 don't apply to my case. Point 2 is the opposite of my sensation. Finally, if it was clear that's fair and the right thing to discount my lessons. How to know what percentage should I ask?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24433" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9734" RevisionGUID="2a1f6c9f-ef98-433b-a0d1-d7dfcbddcd25" CreationDate="2020-05-12T20:01:20.100" UserDisplayName="JKHA" Text="Should I be less paid for an online lesson?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24434" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9734" RevisionGUID="2a1f6c9f-ef98-433b-a0d1-d7dfcbddcd25" CreationDate="2020-05-12T20:01:20.100" UserDisplayName="JKHA" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24435" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="9735" RevisionGUID="d18f8bc4-020c-43ed-bc38-6066d9fbc190" CreationDate="2020-05-13T16:14:26.940" UserId="-1" Comment="from https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/149027/should-i-be-less-paid-for-an-online-lesson/149028#149028" />
  <row Id="24436" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9735" RevisionGUID="7a60a897-cae4-4c05-beaf-6801a939941d" CreationDate="2020-05-12T20:31:00.520" UserDisplayName="Buffy" Text="The only real reason that I could see for charging less is if your expenses have been a large part of your fees and now are not. Otherwise, I'd keep charging the same. In different circumstances you could charge less if you were now giving group lessons instead of individual ones. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I'll guess that your expenses haven't gone down as you are paying for internet access, etc, that is now a part of making your service possible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are reasons beyond money. If someone gets something for free they are likely to value it less than if they have to give up _something_ of value to get it. If they get the idea that your lessons are worth less, they may value them less and put less effort into their own learning. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given that it may be parents who pay the fees, it also help assure that they will keep after the students to do what is necessary to learn. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24437" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9736" RevisionGUID="542f970a-7659-48a7-a6db-6a29fc23df7e" CreationDate="2020-05-15T18:33:14.413" UserId="24667" Text="If the quality of the lesson and the availability/amount of individual attention and supplemental resources does not decrease with the online format then I see no reason for you to be paid less. The difference in cost of your expenses across various formats is not the concern of the client, nor is the amount of time you necessarily spend delivering each lesson to a client. If the lesson is effective and provides the expected instruction, then the medium should not necessarily affect the end user cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, my sister is a yoga instructor and her clients are happily paying the normal rate for remote lessons; she is devoting the same amount of energy/attention to her classes (potentially more because she is responsible for bridging the gap between online/in-person.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24438" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="9734" RevisionGUID="29511da6-0b60-441e-8a61-b76b6571b9ad" CreationDate="2020-05-15T23:42:12.817" UserId="61" Comment="edited tags" Text="|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24440" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9737" RevisionGUID="ae6551f0-0129-4f79-b5dc-b53a9160e2c2" CreationDate="2020-05-17T04:20:50.497" UserId="21435" Text="1. They're asking you to carry appropriate insurance. In the USA this is typically Professional Liability Insurance and General Liability Insurance. There's no red flag there. I'd expect a client to ask for that. As a consultant, I would never provide my services to or enter into a contractual agreement with a client without having PLI and GLI to make sure I'm protected.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. They've added what looks like a one-way indemnity clause. You should hire an attorney to review the clause, assess your potential liability, and advise you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24441" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9738" RevisionGUID="c53d0c63-65a8-48dd-93fe-d27aba0316d8" CreationDate="2020-05-17T11:57:15.800" UserId="24667" Text="Be transparent with the client and any mutually agreeable payment arrangement is fine, ethical, kosher, however you wanna call it. My mom is accountant and a couple of her small business customers have been really slow payers in the past, now they have to always have a certain amount of advance payment on deposit with her before she'll work on their files. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24442" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6830" RevisionGUID="13b178aa-1f94-4d59-a9f1-45b6ed8117dd" CreationDate="2020-05-17T15:00:55.190" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24443" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9719" RevisionGUID="7c641501-5857-463f-834f-c137b0336b3c" CreationDate="2020-05-17T18:21:04.867" UserId="-1" Comment="Added more detail and links" Text="Check out Ideation, Design Thinking, Design Strategy.&#xD;&#xA;Also maybe you should pursue more Project Management in another / bigger organization? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Wow, thanks for the downvotes!  Here are some more links to these topics.&#xD;&#xA;IDEO is one of the oldest authorities on Ideation and [Design thinking][1].  Design thinking can be applied to all industries and orgs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;More on [Ideation][2] from the Interaction Design Foundation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And just to clarify.  I suggest a bigger different organization because more progressive companies are already using these principals in their process.  OP may prefer a more innovative company that respects this type of work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://designthinking.ideo.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/what-is-ideation-and-how-to-prepare-for-ideation-sessions" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24444" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9719" RevisionGUID="7c641501-5857-463f-834f-c137b0336b3c" CreationDate="2020-05-17T18:21:04.867" Comment="Proposed by anonymous approved by 24674 edit id of 715" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24448" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9740" RevisionGUID="1ab6947f-c566-45b3-8c2f-d322d0ff95d8" CreationDate="2020-05-18T01:23:18.103" UserId="24632" Text="I was working on a project and I received a part of the payment from the client as a first payment, and did work on the project.. the client viewed the finished work but for some reasons the project is canceled... and the client is asking his money back, do I return his money or not?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24449" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9740" RevisionGUID="1ab6947f-c566-45b3-8c2f-d322d0ff95d8" CreationDate="2020-05-18T01:23:18.103" UserId="24632" Text="Do I return money for a canceled work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24450" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9740" RevisionGUID="1ab6947f-c566-45b3-8c2f-d322d0ff95d8" CreationDate="2020-05-18T01:23:18.103" UserId="24632" Text="|money|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24451" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9741" RevisionGUID="0018e2cd-1ce6-4bf3-8d8f-2caf0282e105" CreationDate="2020-05-18T06:49:46.650" UserId="7858" Text="This might be bit of a non-answer, as pricing is notoriously difficult.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you already hint, there's not much else to do than give them a high quote and see how it goes. Even if you could get some seemingly relevant data regarding the pricing of your competitors, who's to say the data is accurate and still relevant? Trial and error is almost all that's left. Even among seemingly similar companies the ability and willingness to pay may be vastly different.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, I find the only reliable source to be other freelancers with similar experience - and it's easier to compare prices when you are not in direct competition. Having informal discussions over a few beers can yield useful information. I have usually started by admitting how little I've worked for and then revealing the best deal I ever had. Hopefully the discussion will then trend towards some median." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24452" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9742" RevisionGUID="5a2e3000-9c9e-4a0c-8a98-c5975072e8c0" CreationDate="2020-05-18T07:41:07.847" UserId="7858" Text="Since there was an upfront payment, I'm assuming there was some sort of contract or understanding at the very least. So, follow the instructions in the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there was no contract or the current situation is not addressed by the contract, it becomes less obvious whether you should refund money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many factors need to be considered in addition to any potential legal issues. How much do you need the money? How was your relationship with the client and do you expect more work from them? Can and might they hurt you financially in some way?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I would never give money back until the matter has been settled, as you will never get that money back. Having received money gives you leverage, which should be used fairly to get what you at least deserve considering the time spent." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24453" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6790" RevisionGUID="36b148a2-a80c-43db-bff4-b5deb279715a" CreationDate="2020-05-19T04:05:30.620" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24454" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9743" RevisionGUID="a41cefa2-05a5-4bd3-8885-3fac83d77fd2" CreationDate="2020-05-19T06:58:25.800" UserId="22384" Text="Last week I sent out cold pitching email to a few websites with three article ideas. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the past, I've sent out tens of emails and only received one or two responses. This time, I sent out six emails and three responded. Two of the blogs wanted the same article idea.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd love to write for all three, though I don't have time to work on all three in a reasonable time frame. At the very least, I'd like to keep them as potential future clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, I'm not sure how to go about writing the same idea for two blogs without it being a duplicate or a totally different article than they agreed to.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any suggestions on how to handle this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24455" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9743" RevisionGUID="a41cefa2-05a5-4bd3-8885-3fac83d77fd2" CreationDate="2020-05-19T06:58:25.800" UserId="22384" Text="When Cold Pitching is Too Successful" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24456" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9743" RevisionGUID="a41cefa2-05a5-4bd3-8885-3fac83d77fd2" CreationDate="2020-05-19T06:58:25.800" UserId="22384" Text="|project-management|clients|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24474" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9749" RevisionGUID="082814af-0e6b-45cf-80c7-8d1026b67395" CreationDate="2020-05-24T15:49:08.240" UserId="24776" Text="I've been working as a consultant for the past 4 years in a country in Norther Europe. Most of these years were through an agency and only the past 6 months were directly with my current client. Consultancy agencies from my experience can only make things worse. Their markup might vary from 50€/day to 100€/day including a &quot;we don't tell you&quot; markup. They can also withhold or alter your client's feedback while spending plenty of your time asking for _your_ feedback. I even witnessed the absurdity of asking me for the questions of the coding challenge as if I didn't know they were preparing _another_ candidate for the _same_ position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was reading [this answer][1] about the pros and cons of a consultancy agency and none of the pros applies to what I've experienced. They are merely the key holders of the job. Bottom line is that I prefer to work directly with my client. To my disappointment, most of the traditional communication channels like LinkedIn are taken by recruitment agencies. Are there any possible means of circumventing recruitment agencies and get contracts directly from the clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/91/24776" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24475" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9749" RevisionGUID="082814af-0e6b-45cf-80c7-8d1026b67395" CreationDate="2020-05-24T15:49:08.240" UserId="24776" Text="How can I circumvent consulting agencies and work directly for the company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24476" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9749" RevisionGUID="082814af-0e6b-45cf-80c7-8d1026b67395" CreationDate="2020-05-24T15:49:08.240" UserId="24776" Text="|consulting|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24479" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6894" RevisionGUID="4955abcc-27a1-471f-8016-27ecfb60c234" CreationDate="2020-05-24T19:40:00.867" UserId="75" Comment="Removed referral link" Text="This might not solve directly your billing time needs, but it's really helpful to track your productivity and see where you spent your working time: [RescueTime](https://www.rescuetime.com/).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You install a small application that stays in your tray and it tracks all your windows, generating later a report on your productivity.  &#xD;&#xA;It can automatically categorize a LOT of applications, and for those he understands wrong or doesn't know, you can set what the window means: very productive, productive, neutral, distracting or very distracting. That sums up to a productivity score for your day. You can also ignore some applications that have no actual meaning and you spend very little time on (such as file explorers).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's a paid version that adds features such as offline time tracking (you can manually enter what you did, such as meetings or client calls, as the app asks what you were doing when the computer was idle), integrations, and even deeper statistics and other stuff I don't actually know because I didn't use the paid version after the trial :)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This was the only application that really helped me stay focused - because I was afraid of receiving that dreaded email by Sunday morning saying I wasn't productive D:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![Dashboard][2]][2]&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/ja0t8.png&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/77G4p.jpg" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24484" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9738" RevisionGUID="b3a12e51-ac2d-4724-9de9-bf8b6eba56df" CreationDate="2020-05-25T13:01:44.467" UserId="24667" Comment="grammar" Text="Be transparent with the client and any mutually agreeable payment arrangement is fine, ethical, kosher, however you wanna call it. My mom is an accountant and a couple of her small business customers have been really slow payers in the past, now they have to always have a certain amount of advance payment on deposit with her before she'll work on their files. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24485" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9751" RevisionGUID="96548d44-7c27-4637-8636-47c504daad66" CreationDate="2020-05-26T06:12:38.960" UserId="24784" Text="I have been offered a freelance position in spain from the company which I used to work for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I lived in spain for a year on a student visa, but now I am back living in Australia. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The company were I did my internship has offered my to work freelance from Australia. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do I need to do to be able to send them an invoice? Do I need to register as freelance worker in spain ? My permanent living location would be Australia. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24486" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9751" RevisionGUID="96548d44-7c27-4637-8636-47c504daad66" CreationDate="2020-05-26T06:12:38.960" UserId="24784" Text="How can I work freelance in spain, whilst living in Australia" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24487" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9751" RevisionGUID="96548d44-7c27-4637-8636-47c504daad66" CreationDate="2020-05-26T06:12:38.960" UserId="24784" Text="|working-from-home|spain|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24488" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1374" RevisionGUID="db43ef38-6eee-458f-9b83-79f9d3207b91" CreationDate="2020-05-26T11:01:43.190" UserId="1018" Comment="fix grammar" Text="I don't think it's reasonable to charge clients while on a break so personally would tend to stop the clock running when charging by the hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On longer projects where a day rate or similar has been agreed, it's understandable that short breaks will be needed and this should probably be factored into the rate.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24489" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9752" RevisionGUID="11db58b5-a4ff-47bc-860b-01bdac627b4a" CreationDate="2020-05-26T15:40:59.520" UserId="21435" Text="&gt; To my disappointment, most of the traditional communication channels&#xD;&#xA;&gt; like LinkedIn are taken by recruitment agencies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you mean? What communication channels, exactly? Surely you can find direct contact info for these potential clients, no?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Are there any possible means of circumventing recruitment agencies and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; get contracts directly from the clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Surely you could reach out directly to these potential clients. What's stopping or preventing you from doing that?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24490" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9749" RevisionGUID="8e14ffbd-1bdc-4d52-9116-970faec83bd4" CreationDate="2020-05-26T16:47:07.540" UserId="24776" Comment="Replaced recruitment with consultancy which was misleading in the context" Text="I've been working as a consultant for the past 4 years in a country in Norther Europe. Most of these years were through an agency and only the past 6 months were directly with my current client. Consultancy agencies from my experience can only make things worse. Their markup might vary from 50€/day to 100€/day including a &quot;we don't tell you&quot; markup. They can also withhold or alter your client's feedback while spending plenty of your time asking for _your_ feedback. I even witnessed the absurdity of asking me for the questions of the coding challenge as if I didn't know they were preparing _another_ candidate for the _same_ position.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was reading [this answer][1] about the pros and cons of a consultancy agency and none of the pros applies to what I've experienced. They are merely the key holders of the job. Bottom line is that I prefer to work directly with my client. To my disappointment, most of the traditional communication channels like LinkedIn are taken by consultancy agencies. Are there any possible means of circumventing consultancy agencies and get contracts directly from the clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/91/24776" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24491" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9753" RevisionGUID="55ae82a6-c3b4-4f84-8be9-b18f45c94d79" CreationDate="2020-05-27T08:34:43.110" UserId="24786" Text="&gt; for some reason the client prefers to pay an agency a lot more than go out and look for developers&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason is very simple, and is the same reason because companies prefer head hunters instead of direct hiring. In the reality, reasons are more than one. First of all they save a lot of time. Testing several people to choose the right one is a big time wasting for a company, if someone can do this for you, you'll be glad to pay even a lot of money. Moreover you may not have enough expertise to evaluate candidates. Agencies have this expertise. If you hire directly and the employee decides to leave (may be even suddenly), you're left on your own devices, and need to repeat the hiring process from scratch. If that person was through an agency, it's and agency's problem to find another one for you, and normally they do very quickly. Summarizing, most companies prefer to buy a service, instead of searching a person, even if it costs more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apart all of this, I'm a freelance that work directly with end customers. Yes, it's possible, but it's a world of trust. It's very very hard (not to say impossible) to go to one company and say &quot;Hey, I'm the best freelancer in town, please hire me&quot;. If you want to be hired, company must trust in you. How can you achieve this ? In my opinion, the best way is word of mouth. I began working through an agency, but I used to have a strong relationship with end customers. They was appreciating me and happened, 2 or 3 times, that some of them recommended me to friends owning other companies. Because these other companies were not customers of my agency, it was perfectly ethical to work directly with them (while it's not ethical, if not even illegal, to stole a customer to your agency). If you're enough professional, you may see that word of mouth may take you to several customers in few months.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another way is social activity. I don't mean direct searching of customers through LinkedIn or similar. This is a very hard job, and, as you told, almost totally in the hands of agencies. I mean having your own blog, where you post, with some regularity, interesting facts about your jobs (but never post &quot;I want to be hired&quot;, just post information that may help your typical customer). Then spread your posts through social (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.). If you can, you can even write a book and publish on Amazon. You'll never raise money from a book (if you're not Dan Browne), but you may get popularity and you'll be authorized to say &quot;I even wrote a book on this matter&quot;. Normally this impresses a lot. Most entrepreneurs think that who write a book is a guru of the matter. If, some of these, read you book, they may try to contact you directly. So link, in some way, you book to your blog, and be sure to be contactable through it. Anyway, social activity, for me is just an idea I never leveraged, so I may not be the right person to give you suggestions....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One final word regarding the way of working directly. Normally, the bigger the company is, more likely it'll go through agencies. So, if you plan to go alone, be prepared to address smaller companies. Small companies, normally, don't hire developers as is. They need ways to solve problems, so you'll need to be first a consultant, then an analyst, and finally a developer. You may be forced to change your way of working. Don't expect a small company to give you a detailed analysis document to start from. You need to prepare the analysis document by yourself, and then discuss it whit company's boss, and adjust it to his wills. You may even discover (it was not my case, but maybe) that direct customer pay you less than agency. A big customer may pay 100 to agency, and you may get 70. A small customer may want to pay just 60 for the same job. It's not uncommon. Another caveat of working alone is that you need to manage yourself. Now is an agency job to decide when and where you've to work. If you're alone you've to plan this by yourself. You may have weeks when you turn your thumbs, and other when you don't know how to fulfill all the requests. Be prepared for this. Best way to fill empty hours is to develop for the future. You may do thinks that no one ordered you, but may become very useful in the future. it's a bet, sometimes you win, sometimes you waste time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope you can find your way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24492" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9754" RevisionGUID="ff84f075-94cc-484a-8b03-0cfeedcc5233" CreationDate="2020-05-27T23:34:56.837" UserId="24791" Text="I work for a client for a few hours a week as a freelance web developer. I'm a mid level developer, but sometimes I make easy stupid mistakes, like spending around 35mins wondering why the addon I created is not working and start debugging to find out I didn't activate it in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;should I charge on easy stupid mistakes like that? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24493" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9754" RevisionGUID="ff84f075-94cc-484a-8b03-0cfeedcc5233" CreationDate="2020-05-27T23:34:56.837" UserId="24791" Text="Should I charge the client when I get stuck on stupid mistakes" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24494" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9754" RevisionGUID="ff84f075-94cc-484a-8b03-0cfeedcc5233" CreationDate="2020-05-27T23:34:56.837" UserId="24791" Text="|payments|web-development|software|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24495" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9755" RevisionGUID="e8174f7e-b575-46cd-a7e4-28f0fa0e8ef4" CreationDate="2020-05-28T08:44:14.187" UserId="24793" Text="I am asked to make a proposal to a client who is moving on from working with a digital media agency (wasn't happy with the services) to working with me, after I demonstrated a proof-of-concept of a tool that can provide unique data. This data would have big impact on the client's inflow of new work, and would make their digital strategy less &quot;black box&quot;. They would definitely become more self-sufficient with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am looking for any input on how to price &amp; propose this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I usually work in retainer setups that would come at about 50 USD / hour. I do next to no per-project work and I am terrible at pricing to begin with. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The retainer rate is at this point too little for my experience and the value I'm bringing, so with this new client I would like to charge more. I know that the agency where the client was not happy charges the hourly equivalent of 150 USD / hour, which is a huge difference from what I charge now and it's difficult to think straight about it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm just looking for input on what I've come up with so far: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. This looks like the best way would be to split the work into several &quot;milestones&quot; (audit, setup, data retrieval, analysis, strategy). I would estimate how much time I'm roughly going to need and work it our from an hourly rate, but only ask for the milestone payment (so no hourly work).&#xD;&#xA; 2. I would have to spend some time coding some functionalities which I think would be best to &quot;leave out&quot; so that I don't have to go into any hourly billed work. I'd just do that on the side and have to factor some time estimate into my quote. &#xD;&#xA; 3. For the hourly rate I'd work with, I think ~100 USD/hr would be fair here. In the proposal, can I cite things like that it will make the client more self-sufficient to justify asking for a more premium price? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any feedback is much appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24496" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9755" RevisionGUID="e8174f7e-b575-46cd-a7e4-28f0fa0e8ef4" CreationDate="2020-05-28T08:44:14.187" UserId="24793" Text="Freelancer taking away a client from a full-blown media agency: How to price the work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24497" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9755" RevisionGUID="e8174f7e-b575-46cd-a7e4-28f0fa0e8ef4" CreationDate="2020-05-28T08:44:14.187" UserId="24793" Text="|payment-terms|pay-rate|communication|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24498" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9753" RevisionGUID="6b0d9181-59a0-4537-8e6d-a68c2084db46" CreationDate="2020-05-28T09:18:57.683" UserId="24776" Comment="Corrected small typos" Text="&gt; for some reason the client prefers to pay an agency a lot more than go out and look for developers&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason is very simple, and is the same reason because companies prefer head hunters instead of direct hiring. In the reality, reasons are more than one. First of all they save a lot of time. Testing several people to choose the right one is a big time wasting for a company, if someone can do this for you, you'll be glad to pay even a lot of money. Moreover you may not have enough expertise to evaluate candidates. Agencies have this expertise. If you hire directly and the employee decides to leave (may be even suddenly), you're left on your own devices, and need to repeat the hiring process from scratch. If that person was through an agency, it's and agency's problem to find another one for you, and normally they do very quickly. Summarizing, most companies prefer to buy a service, instead of searching a person, even if it costs more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apart all of this, I'm a freelance that work directly with end customers. Yes, it's possible, but it's a world of trust. It's very very hard (not to say impossible) to go to one company and say &quot;Hey, I'm the best freelancer in town, please hire me&quot;. If you want to be hired, company must trust in you. How can you achieve this ? In my opinion, the best way is word of mouth. I began working through an agency, but I used to have a strong relationship with end customers. They were appreciating me and happened, 2 or 3 times, that some of them recommended me to friends owning other companies. Because these other companies were not customers of my agency, it was perfectly ethical to work directly with them (while it's not ethical, if not even illegal, to stole a customer to your agency). If you're enough professional, you may see that word of mouth may take you to several customers in few months.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another way is social activity. I don't mean direct searching of customers through LinkedIn or similar. This is a very hard job, and, as you told, almost totally in the hands of agencies. I mean having your own blog, where you post, with some regularity, interesting facts about your jobs (but never post &quot;I want to be hired&quot;, just post information that may help your typical customer). Then spread your posts through social (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.). If you can, you can even write a book and publish on Amazon. You'll never raise money from a book (if you're not Dan Browne), but you may get popularity and you'll be authorized to say &quot;I even wrote a book on this matter&quot;. Normally this impresses a lot. Most entrepreneurs thing that who write a book is a guru of the matter. If, some of these, read your book, they may try to contact you directly. So link, in some way, you book to your blog, and be sure to be contactable through it. Anyway, social activity, for me is just an idea I never leveraged, so I may not be the right person to give you suggestions....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One final word regarding the way of working directly. Normally, the bigger the company is, more likely it'll go through agencies. So, if you plan to go alone, be prepared to address smaller companies. Small companies, normally, don't hire developers as is. They need ways to solve problems, so you'll need to be first a consultant, then an analyst, and finally a developer. You may be forced to change your way of working. Don't expect a small company to give you a detailed analysis document to start from. You need to prepare the analysis document by yourself, and then discuss it whit company's boss, and adjust it to his wills. You may even discover (it was not my case, but maybe) that direct customer pay you less than agency. A big customer may pay 100 to agency, and you may get 70. A small customer may want to pay just 60 for the same job. It's not uncommon. Another caveat of working alone is that you need to manage yourself. Now is an agency job to decide when and where you've to work. If you're alone you've to plan this by yourself. You may have weeks when you turn your thumbs, and other when you don't know how to fulfill all the requests. Be prepared for this. Best way to fill empty hours is to develop for the future. You may do thinks that no one ordered you, but may become very useful in the future. it's a bet, sometimes you win, sometimes you waste time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope you can find your way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24499" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9753" RevisionGUID="6b0d9181-59a0-4537-8e6d-a68c2084db46" CreationDate="2020-05-28T09:18:57.683" Comment="Proposed by 24776 approved by 61, -1 edit id of 717" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24500" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9753" RevisionGUID="79c179e4-7a08-4a7f-92c3-ff4b7b6877d1" CreationDate="2020-05-28T09:18:57.683" UserId="24786" Comment="Corrected small typos" Text="&gt; for some reason the client prefers to pay an agency a lot more than go out and look for developers&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason is very simple, and is the same reason because companies prefer head hunters instead of direct hiring. In the reality, reasons are more than one. First of all they save a lot of time. Testing several people to choose the right one is a big time wasting for a company, if someone can do this for you, you'll be glad to pay even a lot of money. Moreover you may not have enough expertise to evaluate candidates. Agencies have this expertise. If you hire directly and the employee decides to leave (may be even suddenly), you're left on your own devices, and need to repeat the hiring process from scratch. If that person was through an agency, it's and agency's problem to find another one for you, and normally they do very quickly. Summarizing, most companies prefer to buy a service, instead of searching a person, even if it costs more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Apart all of this, I'm a freelance that work directly with end customers. Yes, it's possible, but it's a world of trust. It's very very hard (not to say impossible) to go to one company and say &quot;Hey, I'm the best freelancer in town, please hire me&quot;. If you want to be hired, company must trust in you. How can you achieve this ? In my opinion, the best way is word of mouth. I began working through an agency, but I used to have a strong relationship with end customers. They were appreciating me and happened, 2 or 3 times, that some of them recommended me to friends owning other companies. Because these other companies were not customers of my agency, it was perfectly ethical to work directly with them (while it's not ethical, if not even illegal, to stole a customer to your agency). If you're enough professional, you may see that word of mouth may take you to several customers in few months.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another way is social activity. I don't mean direct searching of customers through LinkedIn or similar. This is a very hard job, and, as you told, almost totally in the hands of agencies. I mean having your own blog, where you post, with some regularity, interesting facts about your jobs (but never post &quot;I want to be hired&quot;, just post information that may help your typical customer). Then spread your posts through social (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.). If you can, you can even write a book and publish on Amazon. You'll never raise money from a book (if you're not Dan Browne), but you may get popularity and you'll be authorized to say &quot;I even wrote a book on this matter&quot;. Normally this impresses a lot. Most entrepreneurs think that who write a book is a guru of the matter. If, some of these, read your book, they may try to contact you directly. So link, in some way, your book to your blog, and be sure to be contactable through it. Anyway, social activity, for me is just an idea I never leveraged, so I may not be the right person to give you suggestions....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One final word regarding the way of working directly. Normally, the bigger the company is, more likely it'll go through agencies. So, if you plan to go alone, be prepared to address smaller companies. Small companies, normally, don't hire developers as is. They need ways to solve problems, so you'll need to be first a consultant, then an analyst, and finally a developer. You may be forced to change your way of working. Don't expect a small company to give you a detailed analysis document to start from. You need to prepare the analysis document by yourself, and then discuss it whit company's boss, and adjust it to his wills. You may even discover (it was not my case, but maybe) that direct customer pay you less than agency. A big customer may pay 100 to agency, and you may get 70. A small customer may want to pay just 60 for the same job. It's not uncommon. Another caveat of working alone is that you need to manage yourself. Now is an agency job to decide when and where you've to work. If you're alone you've to plan this by yourself. You may have weeks when you turn your thumbs, and other when you don't know how to fulfill all the requests. Be prepared for this. Best way to fill empty hours is to develop for the future. You may do thinks that no one ordered you, but may become very useful in the future. it's a bet, sometimes you win, sometimes you waste time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope you can find your way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24501" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9756" RevisionGUID="8b5efc65-70a5-4b7b-a49f-db1f715e550d" CreationDate="2020-05-28T17:03:54.993" UserId="21435" Text="IMO, bill them hourly. Make sure that the scope, deliverables, and milestones are well defined and in the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you bill them at $100.00 per hour you'll be making twice as much as you normally do and they'll be getting the equivalent of a 33% discount. That sounds like a win for everyone." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24503" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9758" RevisionGUID="8163ce37-d743-4ec3-b413-95573fcc0625" CreationDate="2020-05-28T19:11:59.443" UserId="708" Text="Delays which are due to your business/working practices are typically *not* the clients responsibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let's look at the situation with a similar scenario.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're working along on a client's project and mistakenly close a file without saving it. Silly error, but I'm sure it's happened to most. This error means you have to redo what you just did for the past hour. That's an additional hour of your time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If something, in the middle of a client's project, incurs time not directly related to the completion of the project, then it should not be invoiced. If I made some silly oversight which adds significant time to working hours in order to correct, I wouldn't feel right invoicing the client for time spent correcting my oversight. I'd *not* invoice for time spent on my error." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24504" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9692" RevisionGUID="c3f04295-a660-44bf-84ea-09379b908d41" CreationDate="2020-05-28T23:05:30.430" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24507" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9439" RevisionGUID="80bb2fda-cf45-444d-9afb-f39d6312edbf" CreationDate="2020-05-31T21:03:40.280" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24508" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9759" RevisionGUID="f23ea6af-aab5-4878-a0d6-ed2ace0ffd99" CreationDate="2020-06-01T17:31:13.900" UserId="12597" Text="You should try to put a limit on your liability because you will only be able to insure to a limit.  Have a search for draft contracts or join you national freelancer organisation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24509" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9760" RevisionGUID="1607ac4f-680b-4f81-aab9-16b4e5f3082e" CreationDate="2020-06-01T17:37:14.533" UserId="12597" Text="I would think you would register as freelance with Australian tax authorities and pay tax there.  You probably need to ask both as there may be a withholding tax or find a Spanish tax expert.&#xD;&#xA;In the meantime just do the work and invoice in your name." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24510" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9761" RevisionGUID="575520fd-7384-40d7-9c93-f5a1b2518536" CreationDate="2020-06-02T09:41:27.343" UserId="24812" Text="So as the title says, how do you (freelancers, or the company you work at) create some urgency feeling so that clients don't take forever to come up with content or to reply to your e-mails? There are some clients that are stretching projects way past their normal development time because they are just so slow when it comes to answering. I present them with a fully developed site with dummy content (if no final content is provided) and clients have CMS access. It seems to be more of an issue at the end of a development cycle when the site is ready for launch, sometimes clients get stuck on minor details or board approvals that take forever and some projects can get stuck for months even when it's a big company...I am not contemplating monetary fines but I'd like to know if you have any techniques to create some urgency feeling. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24511" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9761" RevisionGUID="575520fd-7384-40d7-9c93-f5a1b2518536" CreationDate="2020-06-02T09:41:27.343" UserId="24812" Text="How to create urgency for clients to provide content, answer e-mails, etc" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24512" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9761" RevisionGUID="575520fd-7384-40d7-9c93-f5a1b2518536" CreationDate="2020-06-02T09:41:27.343" UserId="24812" Text="|difficult-client|time-management|clients|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24513" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9762" RevisionGUID="aba2753b-34a5-4f5b-bbc8-6eca3129e382" CreationDate="2020-06-03T20:18:17.020" UserId="9845" Text="Honestly this is an ongoing issue for all of us, and there are no good solutions. I know you said you are not contemplating a fine, but that's what I've now resorted to after several years of dealing with this. Here are a few things I've tried:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Clear language in the initial contract about the importance of deadlines. &#xD;&#xA; 2. Set up project management software to automatically remind the client of deadlines as they approach. &#xD;&#xA; 3. Weekly reminders/check-ins about upcoming and past deadlines.&#xD;&#xA; 4. Higher-up point-of-contact if things get delayed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even with all of these, sometimes money is the only answer to create urgency. I've now added a &quot;project reinstatement fee&quot; for projects that are beyond 1 month delayed due to client inaction. It's up to my discretion to initiate it, and they'll be contacted first to let them know the fee is impending. Basically, it's to put them back in the queue rather than at the bottom. Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24514" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9763" RevisionGUID="075ad19c-71cf-4070-b18b-5660cdc0ba79" CreationDate="2020-06-04T10:40:00.277" UserDisplayName="user24817" Text="Go to the &quot;Finanzamt&quot; of the &quot;Landkreis&quot; where you are registered to live (your &quot;Wohnsitz&quot;). Take ALL your documentation with you. Explain this situation to them (again, backed up with the relevant docs). They will not try to trick you - completely trustworthy. But the answer could be complicated and bureaucratic, so get in writing what they say you should do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24515" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9707" RevisionGUID="5b697e20-3257-47fb-a9d2-80a1682afd5b" CreationDate="2020-06-04T14:06:15.680" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24521" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9765" RevisionGUID="cdde9cce-7d63-4073-8b38-894f1ff5235f" CreationDate="2020-06-06T15:27:15.943" UserId="23884" Text="From my own experience (as a physicist with research experience):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * Data science and Finance seem like obvious choices... however both these fields seem to require a great deal of learning and practice before one becomes competitive and can have an edge due to rigorous training in physics/math.&#xD;&#xA; * Scientific writing or vulgarization (writing about science for laymen) might be good as side jobs, but certainly not as a full-time activity: the time one invests in researching the subject and actually writing is not justified by the earnings.&#xD;&#xA; * Doing homework and final projects for students is an area where contracts are easy to find and carry through, but there is no much money there... and there are obvious moral issues involved.&#xD;&#xA; * Doing actual projects for small companies is good, if you already have some research experience (i.e., for those with postdoc, PhD, or at least Master experience). The clients however are hard to find, although they usually come with long-term contracts.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24522" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9730" RevisionGUID="f2efb383-0f72-4d5b-a93d-385fa656cb93" CreationDate="2020-06-08T06:00:07.160" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1269871809723334657" />
  <row Id="24523" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9760" RevisionGUID="1677c53b-4bca-40a0-ae4d-71c554aab65d" CreationDate="2020-06-08T16:56:58.723" UserId="12597" Comment="added 16 characters in body" Text="I would think you would register as freelance with Australian tax authorities and pay tax there.  You probably need to ask both tax authorities as there may be a withholding tax or find a Spanish tax expert.&#xD;&#xA;In the meantime just do the work and invoice in your name." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24529" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9767" RevisionGUID="3657f716-9f42-44c4-a890-5e5bb578ee64" CreationDate="2020-06-11T14:13:43.403" UserId="24844" Text="I offer high quality fast web app prototyping services. As part of the interview process, the client, a non technical bootstrap founder brought in a backend developer/consultant to ask me questions about deployment pipeline, test coverage, CI and other infra related topics. My previous clients have never asked about those. Is it common to include testing and CI as part of web app delivery?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24530" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9767" RevisionGUID="3657f716-9f42-44c4-a890-5e5bb578ee64" CreationDate="2020-06-11T14:13:43.403" UserId="24844" Text="Are unit tests and continuous integration part of web app delivery?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24531" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9767" RevisionGUID="3657f716-9f42-44c4-a890-5e5bb578ee64" CreationDate="2020-06-11T14:13:43.403" UserId="24844" Text="|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24532" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9768" RevisionGUID="c9f6ae8c-4d3c-4e5d-9690-9395ef626459" CreationDate="2020-06-13T09:29:11.790" UserId="24851" Text="I was working for a client for a while until April. Because of the lockdown and also some family problems on my side, we stopped working together. At that time, there were two payment pending worth $2000 each on him. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I was able to do the project #1 upto the expectations agreed and send him to review back in April (but he never replied).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- The second project was also $2000. It was partially working and I can't say it was not upto the expectations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I started working last week professionally and also started talking to him. I have suggested him to pay the full amount for first project and nothing for the second making me bear the loss for the second project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now he says he wants to work with him again and will pay the $2000 for the first project but at the same time, he keeps reminding me that my work was useless and he is doing the payment in a good faith. I feel that's rude and he has no right to say it. I delivered what we agreed upon, and if his requirement changes, it's not my fault. I also lost the money in second project and I am not crying about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also suggested that if he feel my work was useless, maybe he should re-consider working with me so he don't lose any more money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He has worked with other freelancers in past. His projects are particularly tricky and others were not able to make any progress at all. So far, I am the best he has found. So he wants to keep working with me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I am bit concerned about working with him again. He is very nice person to deal with, except this occasion. He have talked about working hourly, but I feel he might refuse to pay me in future. Since this is a remote job, I can't do much. Also I want to add he is yet to pay the $2000 he agreed to pay. I sent him the invoice yesterday after getting a confirmation from him, but he not paid yet." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24533" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9768" RevisionGUID="c9f6ae8c-4d3c-4e5d-9690-9395ef626459" CreationDate="2020-06-13T09:29:11.790" UserId="24851" Text="Client feels he is doing a favor on me by paying invoice because his requirements changed" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24534" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9768" RevisionGUID="c9f6ae8c-4d3c-4e5d-9690-9395ef626459" CreationDate="2020-06-13T09:29:11.790" UserId="24851" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|difficult-client|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24535" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9769" RevisionGUID="8553824c-04ab-4a94-8e11-272c51a13d66" CreationDate="2020-06-13T09:56:25.477" UserId="708" Text="It's not uncommon for clients to verbally &quot;devalue&quot; your work. It's a **negotiation tactic** to try and get you on the defensive and to subconsciously be more generous with them. And apparently it's working.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It doesn't *really* matter though as long as invoices are paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My clients are free to thrown my work in the garbage... to tell me it's the worst they've ever seen.. who cares.. as long as they pay my invoices. If they *continue* to want to work with me it's **clear** that they aren't exactly being forthcoming and truthful when discussing such matters. No one keeps working with someone who is producing subpar work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Moving forward with a client such as this, it becomes *imperative* you have solid contracts detailing scope, deliverable, deadlines, etc. Essentially *all* expectations for every project. They have shown that even if they accept the work, they may still claim the work is inferior. So you simply need to &quot;cover your bases&quot; with approval of work in writing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24536" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9528" RevisionGUID="6a9d0873-1a59-461d-9a6a-0a97119afcd6" CreationDate="2020-06-13T13:04:00.407" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24537" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9770" RevisionGUID="d6d4da97-c758-4389-ada7-8b4b018c4f71" CreationDate="2020-06-13T15:43:44.947" UserId="24854" Text="Gig websites like ClearVoice, UpWork and Fiverr ask for an email ID and sometimes a phone number. Payments happen via PayPal, so they don't even need to ask for a bank account number, no matter where you are in the world.  &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;However, the registration process of [Appen][1] required me to provide them with a scanned copy of any one of my government approved ID cards like a driving license etc. [Lionbridge][2] required my phone number, my home address, resume with all dates of previous employment mentioned accurately.  &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;This extra information required by Appen and Lionbridge, made me suspicious. Is it ok to provide such info to companies located in another continent? Can't they just ask for the email ID associated with my PayPal account? (because PayPal would already verify who I am).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://appen.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.lionbridge.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24538" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9770" RevisionGUID="d6d4da97-c758-4389-ada7-8b4b018c4f71" CreationDate="2020-06-13T15:43:44.947" UserId="24854" Text="Is it safe to provide a government identification card to sites like Lionbridge or Appen?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24539" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9770" RevisionGUID="d6d4da97-c758-4389-ada7-8b4b018c4f71" CreationDate="2020-06-13T15:43:44.947" UserId="24854" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24540" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9771" RevisionGUID="d4f6241d-af7a-4d41-8311-fcdde5c2adc1" CreationDate="2020-06-15T10:37:06.373" UserId="24861" Text="I couldn't help but had to leave my own insights on this matter as I am seeing two of those previous answers are all implying a client shouldn't be charged for his employee's mistakes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this question is about the rights of getting paid when the delays have been made due to freelancer's inexperience, low-level skills, or working practices - as opposed to his/her hidden features like characteristics, inattentiveness, or negligence - the client still has to pay for it. **Errors and mistakes happen everywhere, every time. There's nothing guilty about it.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason is clear: The client shouldn't have hired his employee in the first place if the freelancer's skills didn't meet up his expectations. **That's what employers do.** And most importantly, he should be responsible for his choice of choosing whom he is working with, and what his employee's mindset looks like. **Any hours spent on the work that is related to the client's project are subject to the regular payment,** especially when you are working on an hourly basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as you have materials that support your claim you didn't idly spend time for those 35 mins, you have full rights to get paid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24541" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9772" RevisionGUID="91da8a09-6c0d-4bb3-be90-b78f48c69ecd" CreationDate="2020-06-15T13:29:34.190" UserDisplayName="user24862" Text="Can any freelancers out there tell us about being legally prosecuted for sending (single) emails to prospective clients (in the EU)? In the EU of course there is the 'opt-in' law on unsolicited emails. (A recipient must opt in first.) And you can't even send an introductory email first to ask if a recipient wants your email (that would amount to the same thing, which is prohibited, so how you can legally get a recipient's permission to send them an email? - can you only call them or send them a letter?) I'm talking about single emails (not mass email advertising, which is indeed reprehensible) to get your name and service out into the market, to persons or firms that really may need what you're offering. I've always wondered whether some firm or person has actually reacted to a single unsolicited email by taking the sender to court for breaking this EU Directive (every EU state has its own version in law). It seems improbable, but with people you never know. Has anybody found a 'work-around' to cover an email sender from this risk? (Maybe write at the bottom that the email is 'not a commercial offer in the sense of the law' ?) (Notice- this participant does not advocate sending unsolicited emails under any circumstances.)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24542" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9772" RevisionGUID="91da8a09-6c0d-4bb3-be90-b78f48c69ecd" CreationDate="2020-06-15T13:29:34.190" UserDisplayName="user24862" Text="Cold mailing prospective clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24543" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9772" RevisionGUID="91da8a09-6c0d-4bb3-be90-b78f48c69ecd" CreationDate="2020-06-15T13:29:34.190" UserDisplayName="user24862" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24544" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9772" RevisionGUID="e8aeb2e3-94c2-4be0-a84d-ff91cfc350cf" CreationDate="2020-06-15T16:59:14.653" UserId="61" Comment="split into paragraphs according to OP's intent and changed title" Text="Can any freelancers out there tell us about being legally prosecuted for sending (single) emails to prospective clients (in the EU)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the EU of course there is the 'opt-in' law on unsolicited emails. (A recipient must opt in first.) And you can't even send an introductory email first to ask if a recipient wants your email (that would amount to the same thing, which is prohibited, so how you can legally get a recipient's permission to send them an email? - can you only call them or send them a letter?) I'm talking about single emails (not mass email advertising, which is indeed reprehensible) to get your name and service out into the market, to persons or firms that really may need what you're offering.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've always wondered whether some firm or person has actually reacted to a single unsolicited email by taking the sender to court for breaking this EU Directive (every EU state has its own version in law). It seems improbable, but with people you never know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anybody found a 'work-around' to cover an email sender from this risk? (Maybe write at the bottom that the email is 'not a commercial offer in the sense of the law' ?) (Notice- this participant does not advocate sending unsolicited emails under any circumstances.)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24545" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9772" RevisionGUID="e8aeb2e3-94c2-4be0-a84d-ff91cfc350cf" CreationDate="2020-06-15T16:59:14.653" UserId="61" Comment="split into paragraphs according to OP's intent and changed title" Text="How to cold mailing prospective clients under the EU opt-in laws?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24546" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9772" RevisionGUID="213dace8-5dba-40ec-91f1-4c0b221d99ef" CreationDate="2020-06-15T17:26:15.723" UserDisplayName="user24862" Comment="edited title" Text="How to cold mail prospective clients under the EU opt-in law" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24547" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9772" RevisionGUID="6022ac57-e896-4461-a5b6-2e07545fcb5a" CreationDate="2020-06-15T17:40:03.873" UserDisplayName="user24862" Comment="edited title" Text="How to legally cold mail prospective clients under the EU opt-in law" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24548" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9772" RevisionGUID="6022ac57-e896-4461-a5b6-2e07545fcb5a" CreationDate="2020-06-15T17:40:03.873" UserDisplayName="user24862" Comment="edited title" Text="Can any freelancers out there tell us about being legally prosecuted for sending (single but unsolicited) emails to prospective clients (in the EU)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the EU of course there is the 'opt-in' law on unsolicited emails. (A recipient must opt in first.) And you can't even send an introductory email first to ask if a recipient wants your email (that would amount to the same thing, which is prohibited, so how you can legally get a recipient's permission to send them an email? - can you only call them or send them a letter?) I'm talking about single emails (not mass email advertising, which is indeed reprehensible) to get your name and service out into the market, to persons or firms that really may need what you're offering.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've always wondered whether some firm or person has actually reacted to a single unsolicited email by taking the sender to court for breaking this EU Directive (every EU state has its own version in law). It seems improbable, but with people you never know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anybody found a 'work-around' to cover an email sender from this risk? (Maybe write at the bottom that the email is 'not a commercial offer in the sense of the law' ?) (Notice- this participant does not advocate sending unsolicited emails under any circumstances.)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24549" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9772" RevisionGUID="050a1f6d-6e40-4460-8ac2-fec640ce0039" CreationDate="2020-06-15T17:47:01.310" UserDisplayName="user24862" Comment="edited title" Text="Can any freelancers out there tell us about being legally prosecuted for sending (single but unsolicited) emails to prospective clients (in the EU)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the EU of course there is the 'opt-in' law on unsolicited emails. (A recipient must opt in first.) And you can't even send an introductory email first to ask if a recipient wants your email (that would amount to the same thing, which is prohibited, so how you can legally get a recipient's permission to send them an email? - can you only call them or send them a letter?) I'm talking about single emails (not mass email advertising, which is indeed reprehensible) to get your name and service out into the market, to persons or firms who may really need what you're offering.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've always wondered whether some firm or person has actually reacted to a single unsolicited email by taking the sender to court for breaking this EU Directive (every EU state has its own version in law). It seems improbable, but with people you never know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anybody found a 'work-around' to cover an email sender from this risk? (Maybe write at the bottom of the email something like: 'not a commercial offer in the sense of the law' ?)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24550" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9255" RevisionGUID="a822cfaa-90ff-444e-9d5a-af42de09c614" CreationDate="2020-06-17T12:03:00.323" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24551" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9773" RevisionGUID="a40ad244-a475-4385-9930-6ed8c16d5dcf" CreationDate="2020-06-17T23:45:04.440" UserId="15906" Text="*Does anyone know if &quot;large white envelope filled with cash&quot; is some sort of trope or an acceptable initial payment term?* (Is it awkward to ask clients to NOT pay in cash? I use online banks anyway.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's a potential client whom I've found questionable on many fronts that has tried to lure me into another in-person meeting with a &quot;large white envelope filled with cash. That's how we do things around here&quot;. Unspecified - I've asked a few times for budget and high-level logistics and this client has strangely ignored the question. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This client has namedropped some large brand affiliations. I've experienced a surge in lower-paying gigs and a drop in the usual high-paying gigs I'm used to. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project they want me to build is something that would have taken me less time than the wasted meeting time so far. (However, I usually charge a premium - it takes less time for me because it's building on sourcebase I've already executed dozens of clients projects for)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Meeting 1 went well, I think though was long - no time limit set per se since it was the last of the day.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Remote Meeting 2 - they tried to loop a team in, and some technical issues with connectivity. I told them I can go right ahead and just build the app regardless of budget (some budget is nice though). They were supposed to provide assets and a project spec. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Remote Meeting 3 - was able to talk to the remote team, and they were supposed to provide project spec and assets. They said they would and... not yet? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They now want **yet another in-person meeting** even though we agreed remote is fine. I'm a bit burnt because they don't seem to have their act together. Also, cash envelopes is the way they do things around there? Are they the mafia?! For a junior dev, I am sure they would be excited, but the project for me is just a client project in a niche category of software that I'm extremely good/efficient at, but have absolutely no passion for - because I've done it so many times. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Aside: I'm starting to feel like I should just have a formal business team do this for me because I've effectively been selling the same thing to multiple clients (okay with customized branding, nuanced differences in UX/UI etc - the software looks different but it's the same thing under the hood to me)  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*But the part of me that has been audited by the IRS wonders how dangerous is this &quot;white envelope filled with cash lure&quot; ?*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24552" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9773" RevisionGUID="a40ad244-a475-4385-9930-6ed8c16d5dcf" CreationDate="2020-06-17T23:45:04.440" UserId="15906" Text="Questionable Client tries lure of &quot;large white envelope filled with cash&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24553" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9773" RevisionGUID="a40ad244-a475-4385-9930-6ed8c16d5dcf" CreationDate="2020-06-17T23:45:04.440" UserId="15906" Text="|payment-terms|difficult-client|payments|negotiation|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24554" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9771" RevisionGUID="bb420b25-e096-4aa0-b97d-d8863d40496d" CreationDate="2020-06-18T00:07:07.970" UserId="24861" Comment="deleted 12 characters in body" Text="I couldn't help but had to leave my own insights on this matter as I am seeing two of those previous answers are all implying a client shouldn't be charged for his employee's mistakes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this question is about the rights of getting paid when the delays have been made due to freelancer's inexperience, low-level skills, or working practices - as opposed to his/her hidden features like characteristics, inattentiveness, or negligence - the client still has to pay for it. Errors and mistakes happen everywhere, every time. There's nothing guilty about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason is clear: The client shouldn't have hired his employee in the first place if the freelancer's skills didn't meet up his expectations. That's what employers do. And most importantly, he should be responsible for his choice of choosing whom he is working with, and what his employee's mindset looks like. Any hours spent on the work that is related to the client's project are subject to the regular payment, especially when you are working on an hourly basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as you have materials that support your claim you didn't idly spend time for those 35 mins, you have full rights to get paid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24557" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3047" RevisionGUID="7b90a467-5f87-4ac2-be16-923b1271eafd" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="TL;DR: I don't think that this would be OK. The best course of action would be to make your own designs (even if they're for example sites) and use those for your &quot;samples&quot;. Your clients would get a great feel for how _you_ design, which is what you want to showcase.&#xA;&#xA;---&#xA;&#xA;Let's examine what Fair Use entails:&#xA;&#xA;&gt;Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 17 U.S.C. § 106 and 17 U.S.C. § 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; * the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;&#xA;&gt; * the nature of the copyrighted work;&#xA;&gt; * the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and&#xA;&gt; * the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.[5]&#xA;&#xA;Below is how I'd analyze these in your case. A common contract clause  states that the design copyright is held by the _designer_ and that the design is perpetually licensed to the company for their use. If this is the case, the copyright holder of the design is not the company, but the designer.&#xA;&#xA;* **Purpose and character of the use**: Since you would be doing this to promote yourself, this would likely fall as &quot;commercial nature&quot; and fall against fair use.&#xA;* **Nature of copyrighted work**: The original work is creative in nature (as opposed to factual). This doesn't favor a fair use argument.&#xA;* **Amount and substantiality of the portion used**: Since you're only using a portion of one of the pages, this will probably weigh as fair use. However, I could see an argument that the design _is_ the main selling point, and showing the design, even though it's only on one page, counts as replicating enough of the design.&#xA;* **The effect on the market or value**: While it would increase the market, it wouldn't do so substantially. Furthermore, it wouldn't devalue the copyright holder's work. This is probably in favor of fair use.&#xA;&#xA;Overall, I think your proposed use case would not fall under fair use. In addition, frankly, if I were to come across a website that claimed my design as their own, I would strongly consider legal action.&#xA;&#xA;Honestly, the best thing to do would be to create your own designs and showcase those. It'll take longer, but it'll be more worth it in the end. Your clients would see _your_ work, what _you're_ capable of." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24558" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="79" RevisionGUID="e60a1a61-db60-4458-9ceb-e22ce3fd8a91" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="Most people have trouble estimating projects, especially when they are new. When estimating, we tend to think of the project on a very high level and fail to take into account the details involved in figuring a good target estimate.&#xA;&#xA;The most logical solution is to prevent this problem by focusing on improving your estimation techniques:&#xA;&#xA;# **Break down the work into small subtasks:**&#xA;&#xA;To create a good estimate, first break down the project into high level sections that you know will be part of the project. If you're working on a website with a front-end and a back-end, for instance, then you know you have a client-side front-end portion and a server-side backend.  &#xA;&#xA;For instance, I would break down the front-end by pages, then break each page down by component, then break the components down into work that needs to be done on the front-end and work that would need to be done to populate that front-end with any data.  I'd then gather an estimate of how much time it would take to complete those components.&#xA;&#xA;Once completed, I'd look at my spreadsheet. Any tasks that take longer than a day, I revisit and break them down even further.  Ideally, I try to break down each task into subtasks where each subtask takes about an hour or two. &#xA;&#xA;By breaking down tasks into subtasks that are measured in just a few hours, I most likely uncover additional details and scope that I would otherwise overlook had I just used my initial gut feeling.&#xA;&#xA;Lastly, add an additional 30% for bugs and other problems that may occur, just in case.&#xA;&#xA;# **What if I still have a problem with underestimating:**&#xA;&#xA;As soon as you think you might go over your budget, tell your client immediately. If it's still early, you may be able to clarify the scope and negotiate a higher rate on the contract. Explain to the client what part of the project scope you overlooked, and offer to bill for the additional time at a lower rate.&#xA;&#xA;If they refuse, then you can decide whether or not the time you've already invested is worth writing off, and if it's worth losing the client. In cases where there would be a huge hardship, you may just want to terminate the project.&#xA;&#xA;However, if you know there's going to be more work, or if you know you won't go over your budget by too much, it may be wise to just simply eat the losses, knowing that you'll have more work later and an opportunity to learn from the mistake.&#xA;&#xA;No matter what, it's still important to explain that you may have underestimated so that the client isn't surprised by higher estimates later on. &#xA;&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24559" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="194" RevisionGUID="84edce64-e5b7-4891-9256-e536674e1177" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="&gt;How can I word contracts so it doesn't look like a single person but isn't being deceptive&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;Is it ok for me to &quot;hide&quot; that I am, ultimately small time even though I pour my heart and soul into this?&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;I would certainly add to and answer the comments that have been added by people where you don't want to look like a single person business. The idea is that you ARE a single person business, and should be proud of this fact&#xA;&#xA;You will want to display/promote your competency with project management, and demonstrate this to potential clients, maybe even providing references to previous projects.&#xA;&#xA;A freelance programmer designer is neither 'big-time' or 'small-time', they are just 'freelance'.&#xA;&#xA;Sometimes a client maybe happier with the fact that you are a one-person business, it can make things a bit more personal for them. Ultimately any business will know that you will want to do a good job on the project as, at the end of the day, it is only your neck/reputation on the line.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24560" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="250" RevisionGUID="121fb3d1-bb25-4d01-b665-fe9a7f6b298e" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="# **Specialists vs Generalists**&#xA;&#xA;To draw more well paying jobs, consider that specialists generally enjoy higher income than generalists do. Anyone with good writing skills can be a generalist, but becoming a specialist requires much deeper knowledge of the subject matter, and interest in the subject, and the aptitude to learn new concepts and ideas quickly. This is why, for instance, some tech writers have computer science or engineering degrees.&#xA;&#xA;Our company hires freelance writers, as contractors, who specialize in marketing and who enjoy writing about new technologies.  If you're a writer who has the latest smartphone and who has written reviews on them, you'd be more likely to fit into the culture of the organization, a culture that thrives on early adoption and technology advancement.&#xA;&#xA;While this isn't always required to land writing gigs, being a specialist in a certain area makes you more attractive to clients who need a writer with your knowledge and aptitude, and it increases the chances that they will reach out to you specifically rather than you needing to apply with them.&#xA;&#xA;# **How should I market myself?**&#xA;&#xA;One way to showcase these skills is to maintain your own blog on a specific topic that not only interests you but that also build an audience. Going back to the example of the tech-writers, their audience likely consists of people who might be interested in hiring them.  &#xA;&#xA;I once landed a contract position based on things I wrote about in my blog.  It wasn't a writing gig, but the person who hired me discovered my skills because she was an avid follower of the topic I was writing about, and she initiated contact with me. That blog is mostly abandoned these days, but if I went back to writing about specialized topics, I know it would attract people looking to hire someone with a track record of success in my specialty." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24561" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="255" RevisionGUID="243d354f-056d-426c-86b0-cb37bf641c4f" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I absolutely understand what you mean. A couple of years ago I faced the same dilemma. No matter how low I bid, I could never get a project. But as of today if I bid on a project, 90% of the chances are that I will get it. Thanks to more than [110 Five Star Ratings][1].&#xA;&#xA;I was almost on the verge of giving it up but then someone gave me some advice which helped me get my first project.&#xA;&#xA;So how did I manage to do it?&#xA;&#xA;**A. Create a proposal where you explain why you should be picked even though you are new.**&#xA;&#xA;It could be some thing like&#xA;&#xA;&gt;Dear XYZ&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;I have been in this industry for XX years and such jobs are my daily practice. This is my first time on this site and hence you can see that I do not have any ratings/testimonials to show you. I can assure you that if you work with me once, you will always work with me for these kind of projects.&#xA;&#xA;Now you mention stuff here on why the employer should choose you.... Attach a sample and tell the employer that it can be delivered the moment he chooses your bid...&#xA;&#xA;**B. Submit samples of your previous work**&#xA;&#xA;Don't just submit any sample. The sample should be relevant to the current project you are bidding on&#xA;&#xA;**C. Submit working sample of the current work.**&#xA;&#xA;If you do not want to do that then attach a video of the working application. I use CAMTASIA to record a video to show how the completed project looks like. **Trust me this almost will seal the project for you**.&#xA;&#xA;Start with these 3 and you will see results very soon.&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.freelancer.com/users/feedback_1193882.html?period=entire_history&amp;category=0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24562" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="266" RevisionGUID="5ce1cbbd-f860-4228-97f4-ddb310282777" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="The easiest way to actually *provide* your services to a charity is volunteering for the charity themselves; it's free, and off-the-books. You don't have to declare anything, and you don't have to pay national insurance, which is a plus.&#xA;&#xA;However, if you want to incorporate as a nonprofit in the UK, you need to incorporate as a Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG), and then file articles of association ([more here][1]).&#xA;&#xA;Nonprofits in the United Kingdom have to declare their NPO status in their articles of association (you will have to write them from scratch or have a lawyer draft these), and have a set of standards which the organisation will adhere to (how their profits will be spent), which are reviewed by Companies House. There is no specific (i.e. it has no specific document) way to register a non-profit in the UK that isn't a charity. (Another alternative is a Community Interest Company, but I don't know if it applies here)&#xA;&#xA;As for tax itself, you will still have to pay tax as a company, but your taxes are relieved on the following:&#xA; &#xA; * Charitable income&#xA; * Rental income&#xA; * Interest&#xA; * Capital/Revenue&#xA;&#xA;Provided these are on the list in your articles of association ([source][2]).&#xA;&#xA;In my opinion, unless you can make a charity, it's likely better than you simply volunteer, or incorporate as a Private Company Limited by Guarantee and list yourself as the sole guarantor, if you really must incorporate.&#xA;&#xA;You will, however, be able to take out loans and wont be liable for any more than what you put into the business at incorporation. You might want to Check out [OnStartups][3] Stack Exchange if you fancy making a company, though.&#xA;&#xA;http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/ is the site for registering a charity in England or Wales.&#xA;&#xA;Also,&#xA; &gt; I currently operate as a sole-trader with books showing zero profit. Is this a problem? (It's not faked!)&#xA;&#xA;As a sole trader, you keep all profits anyway, and you aren't audited, so this isn't a problem.&#xA;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, but I did go to business school in the UK.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xA;&#xA; [1]: https://www.gov.uk/limited-company-formation/articles-of-association&#xA; [2]: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ct/clubs-charities-agents/charities.htm&#xA; [3]: http://answers.onstartups.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24563" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="277" RevisionGUID="6786fa3e-aeaa-48aa-bd7b-670d5397ebba" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="In Canada, the rules seem a little different for billing them... According to the [Canada Revenue Agency](http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/dnrs/rcpts/dntn2-eng.html)'s page about charitable donations:&#xA;&#xA;&gt;Donations of cash, goods, land, or listed securities (like stocks) to a registered charity or other qualified donees are eligible for a charitable tax credit. For a donation to be eligible for the charitable tax credit, the transfer of ownership has to be voluntary.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;Examples of donations that do usually qualify for charitable tax credits include:&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;* money;&#xA;&gt;* securities;&#xA;&gt;* ecologically sensitive land;&#xA;&gt;* certified cultural property;&#xA;&gt;* capital property;&#xA;&gt;* personal-use property (such as prints, etchings, drawings, paintings, sculptures, jewellery, rare folios, rare manuscripts, rare books, stamps, and coins); and&#xA;&gt;* inventory (such as art, antiques, rare books).&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;The following do not usually qualify for charitable tax credits:&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;* contributions of services, such as time, skills, effort;&#xA;&gt;* certain admission fees to events or to programs (e.g., fees for daycare or nursery school facilities);&#xA;&gt;* the purchase price of a lottery ticket or other chance to win a prize, even though the lottery proceeds benefit one or more charities; and&#xA;&gt;* the payment of tuition fees (exceptions exist).&#xA;&#xA;The usual disclaimer: IANAL, so check with the regulations in your country. In Canada, I would do as @CamilStaps mentions, which is to **create a bill with 100% discount (sum=0)**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24564" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="351" RevisionGUID="a7645982-ede6-4ba3-886c-d0437647b73c" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="Since the requirements for an invoice are very country-specific, I'll give a general answer on how to get these data. &#xA;&#xA;You need to get to the site of your government. If your country has an organization for business &amp; self employed with a separate website, go there. For example, for UK residents, there would be [gov.uk](http://gov.uk), clicking further gives [gov.uk/browse/business](https://www.gov.uk/browse/business). Search for 'invoice'. On the UK website, this leads to [this page](https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers/invoices-what-they-must-include), which gives a clear overview of the requirements of an invoice.&#xA;&#xA;&gt; You must clearly display the word ‘invoice’ on the document. You must also include:&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; * a unique identification number&#xA;&gt; * your company name, address and contact information&#xA;&gt; * the company name and address of the customer you are invoicing&#xA;&gt; * a clear description of what you are charging for&#xA;&gt; * the date the goods or service were provided (supply date)&#xA;&gt; * the date of the invoice&#xA;&gt; * the amount(s) being charged&#xA;&gt; * VAT amount if applicable&#xA;&gt; * the total amount owed&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; If your company is a registered limited company, you must also include:&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; * your company registration number&#xA;&gt; * the address of your company’s registered office&#xA;&#xA;This list is very basic. It will be the same for most countries, with just a few minor changes. However, to be sure, find the website of your government and look it up. There might or might not be different rules when trading with companies abroad, and whether or not different rules apply depends on the other country in most cases. Try to find the information on the website of your government. If you cannot find it, contact them. It's important that you are sure about it. &#xA;&#xA;**It is not a good idea to keep this information on this website, because it might change and can have considerable impacts.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24565" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="497" RevisionGUID="5943fc5a-48cf-43c1-9a83-26b9ae91e21e" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I've worked on projects with unknown variables, and they tend to be a big pain in the rear. What has worked for me though...&#xA;&#xA;1. Setup a time to talk with the client, and get information about what he wants done. This is much easier if he does not have a preference to the software or tools, and is willing to have everything happen from scratch. But you need somewhere to start with the project. Include any obscure feature that they want, especially if you are not building the project yourself.&#xA;2. For product recommendations, you will need to do research. This time needs to be billed *somewhat*, as very few customers will pay a full rate for research. If you can discuss this beforehand, you may get away with it, but in my experience, no one would pay more then a couple hours of labour for research.&#xA;&#xA;   When I talk research, I also mean to actually talk to the companies, and their technical team, to ensure that product X from Company Y will work with their Product Z. Get everything in an email format so there is a paper trail, and it includes any weird specifications that you may lose track of in just a phone conversation. You need to be on the ball!&#xA;3. You will also need to check all the system requirements, license requirements, and any external factors needed (i.e. a separate LAN line or phone line). If the customer's machines need upgrading, that will need to be done before you recommend Product X and Z, and you will need to discuss who will cover the bill: part of your quote, or get another company to do that.&#xA;4. Find out if there are trial versions of all the software available. You will need to get copies of the software, and ensure everything works together! As well, installing it on your own test machine will help you find out if there are weird setup instructions, or special requirements not mentioned elsewhere. I say to use trial versions as you will usually need a miracle to return opened software, and you should not have to eat the costs of that at this point. You haven't got the job yet, so you should not be out a few more thousand dollars!&#xA;5. Once you have the final estimate, and every last feature is defined, write it up and **have the client sign it**! This will then go with your Scope of Work, and your contract. Include a list of the companies that will help support features A, B and C, and who will support features D, E and F. If you are covering all the support, ensure your costs are built in there, or the client understands your hourly rate for fixing products.&#xA;&#xA;The biggest part of doing your homework though is to keep poking and prodding. One great thing about working with certain Windows programs is that many developers have public APIs available, so many other products *will* work, right out of the box. Not every program is like that though, so care must be taken to ensure all the requirements are met, and everything **works** as expected." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24566" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="588" RevisionGUID="e8bdd0ab-a151-42b3-945a-db4a2bc52523" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="[Ideas are meaningless. They don't create value.](http://www.brightjourney.com/q/forming-new-software-startup-allocate-ownership-fairly#a-23326) Without actual inputs in the form of work, they'll never manifest into anything that can be bought or sold. The only intellectual property involved in your scenario are the actual designs and themes for the CMS that you will produce.&#xA;&#xA;This isn't just my opinion. [Cornell University Law School's Legal Information Institute, USC Title 17 Section 102](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/102) states the following:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; **(b)** In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any ***idea***, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.  &#xA;&lt;br&gt;*(Bold, italicized emphasis is mine.)*&#xA;&#xA;Since you're in the United States, you're governed by United States Copyright Law, which states the following in [Cornell University Law School's - 17 USC § 201](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/201):&#xA;&#xA;&gt; **(a) Initial Ownership.**— Copyright in a work protected under this title vests initially in the author or authors of the work. The authors of a joint work are coowners of copyright in the work.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; **(b) Works Made for Hire.**— In the case of a work made for hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared is considered the author for purposes of this title, and, unless the parties have expressly agreed otherwise in a written instrument signed by them, owns all of the rights comprised in the copyright.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;According to the law, as stated above, the copyright for a work initially belongs to the author, unless the work is part of a &quot;work made for hire&quot;. In cases where the work is part of a work made for hire, the person commissioning the work owns the copyright, not the author.  &#xA;&#xA;If you have **no contract written** *and* you're **not an employee**, then according to [USC Title 17 Section 101](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/101), as cited below from Cornell University Law School, the work is ***not*** a work for hire and hence the copyright belongs to you and whomever else actively works on the deliverables:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; A “work made for hire” is—&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; **(1)** a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; **(2)** a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, ***if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire.*** For the purpose of the foregoing sentence, a “supplementary work” is a work prepared for publication as a secondary adjunct to a work by another author for the purpose of introducing, concluding, illustrating, explaining, revising, commenting upon, or assisting in the use of the other work, such as forewords, afterwords, pictorial illustrations, maps, charts, tables, editorial notes, musical arrangements, answer material for tests, bibliographies, appendixes, and indexes, and an “instructional text” is a literary, pictorial, or graphic work prepared for publication and with the purpose of use in systematic instructional activities.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;*(Bold, italics emphasis is mine.)*&#xA;&#xA;In summary, unless you explicitly agree in writing with the other party, your friend, that the work is a work made for hire, and your friend isn't doing any of the work to create the designs or themes, according to US Copyright Law, the copyright ownership falls to you. ***Note that &quot;work&quot; does not mean merely coming up with a cool idea while daydreaming, or staring into space, or chasing the [eye floaters in your eyes](http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/benign-eye-floaters).***. If you're not actually physically putting together the work, you're not the author.&#xA;&#xA;Now, it sounds like your role in this is temporary, which means your friend likely doesn't intend to enter into a partnership with you. Therefore, it's in his or her best interests to enter into a written, contractual agreement that clearly outlines who owns what and to what rights and responsibilities each party has in regards to the works. You could certainly outline that the copyright ownership awarded to you transfers in full to your friend when payment is received in full. &#xA;&#xA;However, ***do not rely solely on the information here in this post.***  I've studied business law, but ***I'm not an attorney nor am I an authority on this matter***. If you visit any of the sources I've referenced, you'll see that the law is very verbose and very deep. Consequently, there may be hidden legal loopholes that I in my limited wisdom did not foresee.  The best course of action is to see an attorney who specializes in business law and/or copyright law, and hire that person to draft a professional contractual agreement that doesn't violate local, state, or federal laws. Illegal contracts may not be enforceable, and a licensed attorney will help make sure that you have a solid contract that will help prevent any problems or disagreements down the line.&#xA;&#xA;If you're thinking, &quot;Man, that sounds like a lot of work, and my friend wouldn't do anything unsavory&quot;, keep in mind that the goal of a contract isn't to beat someone over the head with it when things go bad; instead, it's designed to prevent unexpected and/or unforeseen problems and misunderstandings from turning into very heated and expensive legal battles. In many cases, a disagreement is resolved by never actually having a disagreement in the first place, by having everything clearly written out beforehand so that everyone is clear what his or her role is, both at the start of the work and once the work is completed.&#xA;&#xA;For further reading, please see the [United States Copyright Office - Works Made For Hire](http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ09.pdf)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24567" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="602" RevisionGUID="f3c33231-f5be-4b03-9841-957a53c518f9" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="## The pain train&#xA;&#xA;I was in the same boat as you for a while; I had ample experience over a few years where I worked on open source projects and websites for small-scale clients.&#xA;&#xA;The easiest way to actually have freelancing on your CV? Put it there as previous work, and have some of your clients be references. It's as simple as that. As for the question of &quot;will employers see it as valuable?&quot;, well, just put it there. Give them examples they can look at.&#xA;&#xA;## Portfolios&#xA;&#xA;You're a web developer, which makes it really really easy to show off your frontend skills. We're also at the point where pretty much any developer these days has a Bitbucket or Github account, so there's the backend stuff.&#xA;&#xA;Stick the websites you've worked on in a portfolio, and specifically target potential clients or employers with this (you can probably cram the usual HR buzz words in there somewhere, too).&#xA;&#xA;Be sure to link said portfolio gratuitously in your CV and covering letters, too (I put mine at the start and end of my CV, make it short and sweet, and let the client take a look for themselves if they're interested.)&#xA;&#xA;## Frameworks&#xA;&#xA;This one is web development-specific, too.&#xA;&#xA;If you intend to be working with a business on any kind of backend code as a programmer (not a designer), you should learn the methodology and way of thinking behind nearly every framework for web development: [MVC][mvc]. It's also known as separation of concerns, too.&#xA;&#xA;If you understand MVC, you can grasp nearly any framework in about a day or two of playing around with it.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;## tl;dr&#xA;&#xA;Long story short: just put it down as normal experience, and if you enjoy the work you do, do more of it (the only way to get better at programming is to do more programming, for example). Start small if you like, and build up notability and a strong reason to get a client or a job.&#xA;&#xA;  [mvc]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93view%E2%80%93controller" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24568" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="747" RevisionGUID="ea53baae-04b0-422d-a49b-5a3a4995e09f" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="It's acceptable to bill for research. &#xA;&#xA;I have a very simple guiding principle: **be brutally honest with how much of the time spent learning strictly benefited your client**. Although I definitely appreciate a lot of the guidelines offered I firmly believe expanding a programmers skillsets is a billable effort.&#xA;&#xA;You have to differentiate necessary learning from just curious exploration. Client's aren't paying for you to be philosophical, research fringe topics, engage in pedantic conversations on web forums, or open ended exploration. In my own practice I know that as I'm gathering actionable information there will arise a curious question that I can't help but want to know more about. If it's not screwing up my timeline, I'll go answer it but when reviewing the days billable hours I'll make sure to subtract time spent being open ended.&#xA;&#xA;There is no single criteria to differentiate billable and non-billable, I see it more as a range. &#xA;&#xA;&#xA;## Billability of Research &#xA;&#xA;    (low billability)                       (high billability)&#xA;&#xA;    High Level concepts   • • • • • • • •   Low Level Concepts (close to implementation)&#xA;    - comparing frameworks                  - digging deep into a framework you've chosen&#xA;    - general software patterns             - optimizations&#xA;    - opinion blog posts                    - best practices &#xA;    - moderating/answering SO               - hardening&#xA;&#xA;The high level stuff is still necessary, and strengthens your general skillset but should probably be done on your own time. However it's fuzzy sometimes, and it really depends on what your client is bringing to the table. The more complex the project the fuzzier the line between high level general research and actionable info.&#xA;&#xA;**One time** when trying to find a ready made solution to an implementation problem online I ended up adding my own solution to a SO question that already existed — while I did bill for initially researching and then implementing the solution I did not bill for authoring the answer on SO.&#xA;&#xA;**Another time** I was trying to figure out how a certain library worked, and it's documentation mentioned that it used the decorator pattern. At the time I had a vague idea of what a decorator was but I wasn't 100% sure *and* I was struggling with how to properly implement a solution with the library. So I decided to research the decorator concept. While it turned out that my understanding was close enough it was important to verify this knowledge and got back to working on the implementation. I saw that as a 100% billable.&#xA;&#xA;The closer your research reaches to the details of your implementation the more of that time you should allocate as billable since it's helping you do something actionable and specific for your client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24569" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1053" RevisionGUID="da21514a-e009-47d2-b680-00d41574a241" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="**Principle**&#xA;&#xA;Although I do like to have a routine, I tend to operate more on priorities rather than a routine.&#xA;&#xA;Dr. Stephen Covey authored a book called &quot;The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People&quot; wherein he explains the Time Management Matrix (pictured below). Basically, I try to operate within this grid. I have some set priorities in each quadrant and as issues pop-up throughout the day, I have to categorize them within one of these quadrants. That determines where they go on the list. There's a good breakdown of the process [here][1] on MindTools.com&#xA;&#xA;![Time Management Matrix][2]&#xA;&#xA;**Tools**&#xA;&#xA;-*Mozilla Thunderbird with Lighting* Calendar extension keeps me on schedule (with alerts) and projects on track using the 'tasks' feature. I use the 'Chat' feature to monitor my Twitter/Facebook feeds and communicate through GoogleTalk and IRC channels&#xA;&#xA;-*FreshBooks* for time/project/support tracking. And of course, billing.&#xA;&#xA;-*DropBox Pro* for accessing files anywhere across devices.&#xA;&#xA;-*Kindle Fire* with FlipBoard for scanning headlines, and mobile apps (WordPress, DropBox, etc.) for productivity when working remotely.&#xA;&#xA;**Time**&#xA;&#xA;We homeschool our kids so the hours of highest productivity for me are usually 10pm-3am...when everyone else is sleeping.&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_91.htm&#xA;  [2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/l3eoj.gif" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24570" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1329" RevisionGUID="fa00ed03-4a64-4c18-b39c-b2cf48e1e6a1" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="&gt; For students, age 18-22, pursuing Engineering, How the hourly rates, or freelancing rates are determined?&#xA;&#xA;Rates are not something that depend upon age. They depend upon other factors like knowledge, experience, communication skills, quality of work&#xA;&#xA;&gt;For e.g, I am 20, have 2 years of experience in making iOS apps, have about 10-15 apps in my portfolio.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;So how can a rate be decided. Are students paid equally as normal freelancers, or we are paid less.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;And I am able to give adequate time to iOS development.&#xA;&#xA;It cannot be answered that easily. From my experience (I am 19), I have met several clients (very few) who just don't want to hire because of my age. Apart from this, clients have a fear that students freelancers are generally non-serious, time waster and irresponsible. So, you have to act like a professionals and deliver the work with quality. If you made to this point, you can earn even more an adult freelancer.&#xA;&#xA;If you are beginning, I advice to observe the market, keep your hourly rates slightly lower than other, deliver high quality work in a timely manner, and build a reputation. Once you build a reputation, you can earn a lot.&#xA;&#xA;P.S. Don't keep your hourly rates much lower. It shows you are unconfident about your skills. Keeping rates very lower also harms the market." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24571" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1368" RevisionGUID="32abb298-3dd0-428d-aa48-429137d45244" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="&#xA;## Personally, I let them know that &quot;I'm a late riser&quot; and what my typical hours before we settle on pay.  &#xA;&#xA;### If they insist I be available before 11 am, I insist on an increase in my hourly rate. &#xA;&#xA;Being open up front, and negotiating adequate compensation accordingly prevents future disgruntlements." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24572" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1627" RevisionGUID="d612f182-1bbc-47d5-bc85-6d294f88f17a" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="The value of something is inherently determined based on how much someone wants what you offer. Either you offer your time, or you offer a product. &#xA;&#xA;- If you offer your time, it's a matter of how in-demand you are, based on how many other projects you have going on at the same time.&#xA;&#xA;- If you offer a product, it's a matter of how much someone is willing to pay for the final thing. Then competition comes into play.&#xA;&#xA;Since both of the above you have mentioned you don't consider good enough means of measurement:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; I'm not interested in competition. They can go to India if the want they cheapest brain surgeon&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;  I do not bill by the hour.&#xA;&#xA;You need to pick some other means of defining what you offer and how it will be measured. File size? Lines of code? There aren't many other options apart from the two that you have mentioned, which you aren't interested in considering. &#xA;&#xA;I determine price based on hours. I personally would consider how long it would take me, multiply that by my going rate, and bill that. My hourly rate is determined by how many people want my time. Every time someone wants more time from me, my rate goes up a couple of dollars per hour. I don't think I'm being cheated because I solve the problem faster. If I can get it done in so many hours, and my time is considered to be of a certain value, then that is the value of the final product. &#xA;&#xA;People hire me because I solve problems quickly. My rate is higher because I'm fast, so they cancel out. More people hire me, the higher my rate goes. I find this works really well for me, and It's my suggestion to you, because supply and demand determine how much I get paid, and I feel like that's a win-win situation for me and for my client.&#xA;&#xA;Otherwise, why not just thumb suck a number and make an offer? If they say yes, great, of not, negotiate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24573" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1716" RevisionGUID="f90ad048-ad89-4336-88f3-7bd0b6e487c7" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="Is there someone from Great Britain who can help me understand how much pay should I ask for as a freelance web designer in case I start offering my services in the UK?&#xA;&#xA;Is there a minimum amount that will not *unfairly* compete with British IT companies or other freelancers? How much should this minimum be?&#xA;&#xA;By searching the internet I found this:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; ...you could be looking at the following price ranges in the UK from a reputable web agency:&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; - A small static web site with approximately 5-10 pages, design, coding, content and content optimisation, W3C Strict compliance: £2,000 - £5,000&#xA;&gt; - As above with 20-30 pages £4,000 - £8,000&#xA;&gt; - Content managed web site allowing you to add pages, upload content and images and create search engine friendly pages with compliant code output 8,000 - £15,000&#xA;&gt; - Bespoke database or e-commerce web site with specific requirements and content-management facility £10,000+&#xA;&#xA;Source: http://www.the-escape.co.uk/reference/how-much-should-a-website-cost/&#xA;&#xA;Given this scenario, how much a freelancer should ask for in comparison so that I get business without undercutting myself?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24574" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1788" RevisionGUID="763535be-2907-4128-aa37-1812bff91336" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="There are many variables.  &#xA;In short words, you have to know how to licence your work and this should happen when you write the contract with the client.&#xA;&#xA;Of course, there are many aspects of the problem you should consider:&#xA;&#xA;- Does the work contain parts over which your client has full copyright (logo, text, colors, design, source code, trademarks)?&#xA;- What can you reuse in the future? Should this parts of your work be licensed under specific terms?&#xA;- What exactly the client is willing to pay for? Should you give up all the rights for the work or the price the client pays covers only a limited licence which allows you to resell or reuse part of the work (idea, design, source code)?&#xA;&#xA;No matter what the situation is, you should always consider this legal concern. Moreover, make sure your work doesn't defaults as the property of the client just because you were payed and asked to do the job (it happens in most of the cases).  &#xA;Look, i found on internet a very good article which gives you a very good idea about how copyrighting works and the way you shuld handle this matter. Here is how it starts:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; The moment a work is created in a tangible form, it immediately becomes the property of the author who created it. As soon as you draw that illustration, snap that photo, or write that article, it belongs to you. As owner of that work, you can license its use to another (and even restrict how it’s used), or transfer ownership entirely.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; The exception to the above is “work for hire.” That’s when someone else hires you to take the photo or write the article; or when an employee creates a work within the scope of his or her employment. As a freelance designer or programmer, it’s important that your contract makes that distinction; otherwise, the work you perform could be deemed as “work for hire” in a court of law.&#xA;&#xA;You can read more details [here](http://www.sitepoint.com/the-web-designers-copyright-crash-course/)&#xA;&#xA;**My case?**&#xA;&#xA;I do web design as a freelancer.&#xA;&#xA;- The logo, color scheme, images, texts are copyrighted to the client. I don't have and don't exert any rights over what is property of the client.&#xA;- The source code will always be under my copyright (I keep all the rights). The client can use the website (source code) as it is, bring changes or replace it with someones else work (with no limitations). What I never allow my clients do is to resell or reuse as part of some other products the source code over which I have (and exert) property rights (except plugins or other peaces I have the right to sell/re-sell as they are).&#xA;- As mentioned above, I many times use the work of others as part of my product (plugins, images).  I always make sure I have the right to use them as part of the product that I'm selling and I do not exert any property right over this parts (the client can do whatever he/she wants).&#xA;- The copyright over the visual aspect (theme/template) is a complicated matter. Usually I try to be original and to avoid building websites visually similar. But, in the end, all of them have a navbar, header, sections, footer, some sliders and so on.&#xA;&#xA;Controlling what happens with the source code after it was delivered to the client is very hard. For this reason, when I ask for a price I consider all the implications (including what can happen after I no longer have control over my work)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24575" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1810" RevisionGUID="c6a955e4-add2-4361-b922-b34fc0116ee3" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I suppose you're going to have to construe &quot;problem&quot; a bit differently than in the usual sense of a _technical_ problem.  In your example, the hiring company has a problem -- a _staffing_ problem.  They have more work than they have hands to do it, and they expect to get more work in.  They know what technologies that work will involve, but they don't yet know all the details of what it will entail.  Actually, they may not know anything of what it will entail at this point.&#xA;&#xA;So what their problem is, is that they need an employee with skills in a bunch of core areas, who will be versatile and responsive to whatever work they throw his or her way.  They need someone they can rely on to rise to the occasion, and be the productive team member the team needs.&#xA;&#xA;Allow me to stress that &quot;team&quot; part.  Consider how much of that listing was about being part of a team:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; This position is **part of** worldwide development **team**, that works **collaboratively** in an agile environment. You will **play in an important role** in developing new features for our site, as well as enhancing existing code. The **projects are managed** by the Product Architects [==who aren't you] based in the United States, so good English skills are imperative.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; We look for individuals who are able to commit full-time (35+ hours per week). You can work whatever schedule is best for you, we just will need you to be available a few hours in the Pacific Time Zone for **meetings**.&#xA;&#xA;This company is saying loud and clear that they have no use for loose cannons and prima donnas.  They want someone who can take direction from leaders, cooperate with peers, and be okay with it, emotionally, that their work is only one fragment of a larger whole.&#xA;&#xA;This suggests that they have had a problem with that in the past.  And, well, they're oDesk; they have a nigh-infinite supply of potential employees, all of whom were too independent to tolerate being directly employed and that's why they became freelancers. ;)  They've probably had a lot of unhappy experience hiring unmanageable or unintegratable employees from their own pool of talent.&#xA;&#xA;It seems to me, beyond any specific technical skills you bring to a job like this, the problem you need to explain how you'd solve, is the one about their needing a new team member." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24576" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2142" RevisionGUID="2a6240bc-9e45-4cc9-b9e1-981f87d925f8" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="A project bid should basically contain the information needed for the client to determine whether or not to use your services. It can be delivered in different formats, depending on your or your client's preference (such as paper, a PDF, a single-page site, etc.).&#xA;&#xA;[Chris Travers][1] and [Canadian Luke][2] had posted answers on a separate question regarding the information that should be included within a bid. The information includes:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; * A clear description of what is offered, including as appropriate quantity, scope, etc.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; * A clear description of who is responsible for overruns. This can be further clarified by labelling the document a QUOTATION for fixed bids and an ESTIMATE for estimates of hourly work.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; * A clear description of payment terms, late fees, etc.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; * Any other terms of service, either incorporated literally or by reference.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; * An expiration date, informing the customer how long they have before the rates may need to be rechecked or renegotiated.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; * Dates the quote can be completed. You need a date for expiration (described in above answer), as well as for when the work can be done, from the time you get the OK. Will this project take 3 working days? Make sure that's on the quote! There is nothing good about saying it takes 3 working days, and 2 1/2 days later, the client wants it done right as soon as he says OK!&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; * How much notice is needed. For larger projects, you may need to give notice for workers or resources to become available. This can be included with the dates, but should be included nonetheless&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; * Depending on the scope or project, you can add a mini-FAQ of questions you believe the client may have, whether it's about the technology or the project itself&#xA;&#xA;Keep in mind that if your bid differs greatly from the contract after you've won the bid (especially in areas of price/scope/dates), then you may end up losing the bid after all (and getting some negative reputation). If there are changes between the bid and the contract, please make sure that the client understands the differences and that they'd accept the differences.&#xA;&#xA;[1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/354/9&#xA;[2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/807/9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24577" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2156" RevisionGUID="2c77c288-4ef6-4707-b078-a9fcec8d37df" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="We recently came to the end of a 6 month hourly contract (at about 25 hours per week).&#xA;&#xA;The client and my company discussed renewal, but the sticking point became our hourly rate.&#xA;&#xA;The client wanted us to lower our rate in exchange for a 12 month contract, but the initial price that we gave them was already, in my opinion, low.  &#xA;&#xA;Anything lower than our current rate would risk our company not making money, or having to cut our employees salaries.&#xA;&#xA;This resulted in negotiations stalling, and the client has informed us that they will be reallocating our work to someone else, but have asked for *transition* of all work to whoever is taking over.&#xA;&#xA;The project was a somewhat open-ended optics/systems/software engineering project.  The product is currently in the design and implementation phase, so there is no final product from us.  This is *not* a fixed price contract.  There was no support agreement.  &#xA;&#xA;*Our only termination obligation under the contract is to transfer all currently generated materials (including source code, documentation, design documents, etc.) and all of the client owned/purchased hardware to the client.*&#xA;&#xA;This will certainly involve discussions and training on the code that has been currently written (which hasn't been fully documented due to time pressure, part of the task list going forward if renewal occurred was for all code to be properly documented).&#xA;&#xA;Because the relationship (other than the renewal disagreement) was quite amicable and we really enjoyed working with the people and we enjoyed the work technically, we are prepared to offer some level of *free transition service.*&#xA;&#xA;**For this level of contract (6 months, 25 hours per week) what is the appropriate level/amount of free transition/free training to give them?**&#xA;&#xA;We don't want to give too much, especially since they didn't renew...and the final product is about 2 years away...&#xA;&#xA;Our question is similar to [this question][1], but we want to determine upfront how much free time we want to provide, instead of negotiating after the fact.&#xA;&#xA;**Update**&#xA;&#xA;I informed the client that I will provide *1 hour* of questions, etc. for transition and that any other support will require a new contract, and any contract less than 3 months in length will be billed at our full non-discounted rate.&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1869/client-suspended-dev-work-but-still-wants-fixes" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24578" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2226" RevisionGUID="11a25f87-4a11-4447-980c-1774b8b19a3c" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="### Negotiate, and give the client what they need&#xA;&#xA;Unless they are taking other business from you, give them the scripts and offer to walk through the code, assuming you are being compensated for your time and the value you add. Agreeing initially for just the results and not the code allows them to pay a cheaper price in the event that your work was done poorly or didn't actually meet their needs. Since the original agreement was for a lower price without code, consider this as a bonus and as a way of them saying that your work provides value. &#xA;&#xA;### Why do businesses hire consultants?&#xA;Businesses hire consultants because they have a problem that they cannot solve with in-house talent in either a timely manner or an affordable manner, and these folks oftentimes look to consultants for additional training or to solve a recurring problem in their business. Good examples might be a wellness coach, an anti-discrimination coach, or a product safety specialist. You know, the type of person who comes to your workplace to teach you how to eat healthier, or how to work in diverse environments, or how to use a piece of equipment without chopping off your fingers!  In short, they provide value in the form of knowledge that lasts long after they are gone.&#xA;&#xA;Or maybe they hire a consultant to provide statistical analysis, first by giving them a fish then by teaching them how to fish. They're now asking you to teach them to fish, and it sounds like they are willing to pay you for it. &#xA;&#xA;### There may be future work&#xA;&#xA;As the expert in their specific problem, there may come a time when they come back to you with more needs that their in-house talent cannot meet in either a timely or a cost-effective manner. Having had a positive business relationship with them in the past, one that doesn't involve you holding them hostage, they are likely to reach out to you should they have more tough problems to solve.&#xA;&#xA;I've only had a few freelance clients in the past seven to ten years, but those few have given me plenty of repeat business as a result of the services I provide. Make sure you're being compensated, but don't hold your clients' hostage either. There's more money in building a solid reputation and network either in recurring work or in referrals." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24579" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2354" RevisionGUID="35b322e9-5ca4-458d-be06-ea119dfc62e6" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="Tax law is complicated the world over, and as a general rule you should seek the advise of a tax specialist in the jurisdiction where you'll need to pay taxes, they'll also likely be able to incorporate a company for you if that will be the best option.&#xA;&#xA;In 2001 Ireland moved from a system of tax-free allowance, to one based upon tax credits, the principal tax credit being €1,650 (directly offset against your tax bill), which is roughly equivalent to a tax free allowance of €8,250, you can [find out more on Wikipedia entry for Taxation in Ireland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland#Rates_of_income_tax).&#xA;&#xA;It's also worth pointing out that as in most countries, there are tax benefits to being a registered company:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; As a sole trader you pay income tax at the same rates as PAYE employees, but based on your net annual profit (i.e. after the deduction of legitimate expenses). If you’re operating as a limited company, however, you could be paying tax at a mere 12.5 per cent or even at just 10 per cent. This means that there can be a considerable tax advantage in operating a business through a company instead of as an individual.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; [via Just Landed](http://www.justlanded.com/english/Ireland/Ireland-Guide/Money/Taxable-Income)&#xA;&#xA;Ireland is known for it's low corporate tax rates (EU customers of many multinationals will often be billed by the Irish subsidiary of the company for exactly this reason; e.g. Amazon AWS), so you may find that the turnover at which it makes sense to incorporate is significantly lower than it would be in Germany. Again, you should seek professional advise specific to your situation.&#xA;&#xA;To find an accountant in Ireland you might want to try the [Chartered Accountants Ireland website's Member Search](http://www.charteredaccountants.ie/en/Members/Member-Search/), and I'd suggest looking for one in the town or city you'll be living." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24580" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2559" RevisionGUID="5ec8961a-a509-4ba6-bb4e-7452158d0ea1" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="There is no guarantee with or without a contract that you will not have legal action taken by a client.  The contract would/should state the work that would be done and the payment for that work. In the case of a law suit, there would not be a case of he said, she said when there is a contract in place.  This can be either positive for you or negative depending on the circumstances and the evidence of the claims being made.&#xA;&#xA;## Always best to have some contract in place that client and vendor feel comfortable that what is agreed upon will be executed whether that is work being done or payment for that work. ##" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24581" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2607" RevisionGUID="18db0db7-5600-45d8-bf38-7651448c70d5" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="_Disclaimer_: I am not a lawyer or a legal professional, and this not meant as professional legal advice.  &#xA;&#xA;From the [Digital Media Law Project](http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/understanding-difference-between-transfer-and-license):  &#xA;&#xA;&gt; &quot;A license is a grant of permission to exercise your rights under copyright...  &#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; + When you give someone a **non-exclusive license**, you give the licensee permission to exercise the right in question, but you also reserve the right to continue exercising it yourself and to authorize others to do so.  &#xA;&gt; + When you give someone an **exclusive license**, you promise that the licensee and only the licensee may exercise the right. This means that when you grant an exclusive license, _even **you may not** exercise the granted right_, nor may you authorize anyone else to do so.  &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; (emphasis mine)  &#xA;&#xA;So a license means you retain ownership of copyright even though another party is now authorized to act as the owner of the copyright.    &#xA;&#xA;An exclusive licensing agreement differs from a non-exclusive one in that it limits **you** -- the orginal copyright owner of the work -- from licensing the work to anyone else. Presumably you would charge a hefty premium for this legal guarantee to the client that they are the only party with the legal right to use the work -- even you have given up the right to use the work for the duration of the agreement, though you do retain ownership of the copyright throughout.  &#xA;&#xA;Whether exclusive or non-exclusive, licensing your work to the client without restriction means they have permission to use it _as they see fit_, including modifying it, bringing in another developer to build on it, etc.  &#xA;&#xA;You may however [limit rights](http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/which-rights-can-be-transferred-or-licensed) licensed in an agreement. As an example, when I deliver a web site design to a client do so under a limited license. The client is granted the right to use the design work for only _one_ business -- the one I was contracted to design for. They are **not** permitted to copy/paste the design with altered content to market another business.  &#xA;&#xA;Conversely, the client may negotiate a limited exclusive license with my firm -- for instance that I will not sell the same or similar design to a competitor within their market and region. Again, this is something for which I would charge a premium. The client is paying for a competitive advantage.    &#xA;&#xA;Regarding the specifics of your question, as stated in Section 106 of the Copyright Act you _**can**_ limit  &#xA;&gt; &quot;The right to make derivative works based upon the copyrighted work (this basically means the right to make adaptations of the work)&quot;  &#xA;&#xA;in your copyright agreement. However you should be up front and make sure the client knows and understands this before signing documents.  &#xA;&#xA;Also ask yourself why you feel this is necessary for you, and how this serves the best interests of your clients. There are other avenues you can pursue that will lead to repeat business for yourself and a better end result for your clients.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24582" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2728" RevisionGUID="c470b92a-a7dc-407b-bad3-459f14e8bbe9" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="According to the [UK government website][1], a residency test determines if foreign income is taxable in the UK. This test is described [here][2] and summarised as follows:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; You’re resident if:&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; * you spent 183 or more days in the UK in the tax year &#xA;&gt; * your only home was in the UK - you must have owned, rented or lived in it for at least 91 days in total - and you spent at least 30 days there in the  tax year.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; You’re automatically non-resident if:&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; * you spent less than 16 days in the UK (or 46 days if you haven’t been      classed as UK resident for the 3 previous tax years) &#xA;&gt; * you work abroad full-time (averaging at least 35 hours a week) and spent less than 91 days in the UK, of which less than 31 days were spent working&#xA;&#xA;Assuming the UK tax year starts on the 1st of April, being in Thailand for Nov - March (150 days) does not meet the &gt;183 day requirement. Neither does April-May 2015. As such, this is not enough for you to be considered a non-resident. &#xA;&#xA;If you're unsure about residency, the [HMRC tax residence indicator][3] tool can help for more complicated situations.&#xA;&#xA;If you're considered a resident, it is necessary to pay tax on foreign income. The [UK governement website][4] elaborates:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; **Filling in your tax return**&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Use the ‘foreign’ section of the tax return to record your overseas income or gains.&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; Include income that’s already been taxed abroad to get Foreign Tax Credit Relief, [if you’re eligible][5].&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has guidance on how to report your foreign income or gains in your tax return in ‘[Foreign notes (2014)][6]’.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gov.uk&#xA;  [2]: https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income/residence&#xA;  [3]: http://tools.hmrc.gov.uk/rift/screen/SRT+-+Combined/en-GB/summary?user=guest&#xA;  [4]: https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income/paying-tax&#xA;  [5]: https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income/taxed-twice&#xA;  [6]: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/self-assessment-foreign-sa106" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24583" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2763" RevisionGUID="ad873de1-bedc-40ff-ae02-8de7f22cda98" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I'll give my advice, but I cannot say for sure if it's accurate tax wise for the UK.&#xA;&#xA;If I have a project, and all my objectives in a row, I bill the full amount, then send out invoices with just a &quot;memo&quot; field on them. This way, my invoice program does not think I should be bringing in much more money, and I still have a record of what I have taken in and what is still left owing.&#xA;&#xA;1. **Generate the Master Invoice**. This invoice should have the final cost, including any and all parts, expected to be used and billed. This is the master amount you need to keep track of, on *this specific invoice*. In the memo field, include information about when you expect payments (i.e. *25% due January 15th, 2015; 25% due February 15th; remainder due March 15th; late fee of 2% per month for outstanding balances*).&#xA;&#xA;   This will create the single reference, and ensure that the customer understand when/what he's being billed. You send this out, and save a paper copy for yourself.&#xA;&#xA;2. **Send out the next notice**. This will be an invoice, but you will not have any chargeable items (except possibly the late fee). It will contain a memo field that states how much is owing, and how much has been paid already. It would be awesome if your program also allows you to apply previous payments into an invoice; each program is different though. The point is, you do not want to add new billings (unless required) to the original invoice.&#xA;&#xA;3. **Track payments on the Master Invoice**. Remember how I said print it out for yourself as well? Use a pen, and write in any payments made towards that invoice, including the new balance owing. Mark when you send out a new invoice with the new total, then write a single line through each note about payments, so you always have a fresh copy.&#xA;&#xA;4. Once the invoice is paid in full, **you are done**. Ensure the customer's account is at a $0 balance, and send a final thank you invoice/notice, explaining everything has been paid up." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24584" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2859" RevisionGUID="20302d4b-5335-4a1c-8a28-e252d24121ed" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I can't give you an answer, only some advice...&#xA;&#xA;Ring them up !&#xA;&#xA;The HMRC website isn't particularly good plus, it's been/being redesigned so finding exactly what you want will be painful. In addition, they will only give out 'common' examples on the website.&#xA;&#xA;The best time to phone HMRC is usually early evening as they seem quieter then. Even so, be prepared for a wait but, when you do get through to a person, you'll find they are really helpful.&#xA;&#xA;&gt; Phone&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Telephone: 0300 200 3600&#xA;&gt; Textphone: 0300 200 3603&#xA;&gt; Outside UK: +44 161 930 8445&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Opening times:&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday &#xA;&gt; 8am to 4pm Saturday&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Closed Sundays, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24585" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2877" RevisionGUID="1d17cb27-a5e8-49ed-b49c-097aadb11419" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="Paypal offer special rates for partners, but it's worth looking at their [merchant rates][1] first. I think you have to exceed £55k monthly for them to consider you for a partnership... but even then, their merchant rates are pretty fair.&#xA;&#xA;You'll definitely have to get in touch with them sooner or later but it's well worth a shot... the worst they can do is say no. Although if you are successful then it's more ultimately more money for them!&#xA;&#xA;Also, (not directly related to your question but it's nice to know there are other options available) it might be worth considering some Paypal alternatives such as [Stripe][2] or [Braintree][3]. In the long run, their rates are fairly similar but you might end up saving some money somewhere along the line.&#xA;&#xA;  - Stripe charge 2.4% + 20p per transaction and their partner rates start around £20k. &#xA;  - Braintree is a subsidiary of Paypal but, like Stripe, also charge 2.4% + 20p per transaction. However, the first £30k you make is free. &#xA;&#xA;Oh, and I don't work for any of these companies, but have done research into payment gateways in the past for some product ideas.&#xA;&#xA;Hope this helps!&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.paypal.com/uk/merchantrate&#xA;  [2]: https://stripe.com&#xA;  [3]: https://www.braintreepayments.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24586" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7188" RevisionGUID="d07b7bce-a135-4a3c-882a-3ee4b6314178" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="**Be honest and completely communicative.**  This is in no way unprofessional.&#xA;&#xA;One keynote here is that you're *not* some random cold caller.  *You are a user of their website and their service.*  Or at least you are a user of their website and *potentially* of their service.&#xA;&#xA;Be open about it.  Example text:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; Hi, I came across your website looking for local appliance repair—I live in the such and so area.  I want you to know that your website's &quot;schedule a visit&quot; feature is broken, and just gives a blank screen.  This is more than a little bit frustrating.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; I ended up getting my appliance fixed another way, but I wanted to tell you about the broken feature on your website; it might be costing you a lot of business.  (I happen to work in web design and may be able to help you with fixing the website, if you don't already have someone to do that.)&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Hope you get it fixed okay.&#xA;&#xA;Or, if you are actually a customer of theirs and just *impeded* by their website rather than totally stopped, something like:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; Hi, I've been a customer of yours for a while now but I hadn't tried using your website until today.  It's very difficult to navigate.  I'm glad I'd already been to your store and love your products; if this website had been my first impression I don't think I would have discovered the quality you provide.  (I love my xyz product that I got last year.)&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; I wanted to bring it to your attention so you can take it up with your IT person and get the website streamlined.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Thanks for the work you do; please keep it up!&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; (Please let me know if you *don't* have an IT person currently—I'm not looking for work particularly, but I'm experienced in web design and perhaps we could do business together in other roles.  :)  Or if not, just know you have a happy customer who thinks your website poorly represents you.)&#xA;&#xA;The keynote is *honesty* and *reality.*  Don't say something if it isn't true.  This is *not* unprofessional at all; rather the opposite.&#xA;&#xA;---------&#xA;&#xA;If your concept of &quot;professional&quot; is &quot;impersonal; cold; uncaring; unfeeling; robotic phone trees&quot; then I suggest you clear up the word fully.  This is the *opposite* of its true meaning." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24587" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3915" RevisionGUID="f991d5c0-0a23-4a8d-b58e-ef06a026ddbe" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="Your method is an industry standard method (at least on the corporate level).&#xA;&#xA;1. He submits a request for changes&#xA;2. You provide a [Change Order](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_order)&#xA;3. Once they approve the change order the work can proceed&#xA;&#xA;    (Depending on the working relationship the work can proceed before approval of the additional fee, but if they are pressuring for more work without adjusting the payment for it then best to ensure they've agreed to the ammended contract)&#xA;&#xA;It's also best to provide the change orders early and often.  Don't wait to lump multiple changes into one single order, especially if you do the work before submitting it, with the work in hand there's little incentive to increase payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24588" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3908" RevisionGUID="baf0dbed-a2f7-458a-bce7-750b9d3d425b" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="Firstly, are you providing the App as a one-time fee or is there an associated maintenance contract (updates/bugfixing/etc)?  Adding access for extra accounts within the system will/could increase the burden of maintenance.&#xA;&#xA;I would suggest working up two costs for the added work, if they seem reluctant for the first then you can offer the second as an alternative:&#xA;&#xA;1. Change request from original specs.  Figure out how much extra work it would be and charge appropriately.  Chances are they'll go for this choice.&#xA;&#xA;    If charging for maintenance that fee will have to go up as well&#xA;&#xA;2. Offer the option of adding the features in but with your monthly commission agreement to support the cost of the added maintenance.&#xA;&#xA;    You're losing out on potential customers by allowing him to lease out the product rather than creating a copy for each of those business owners.&#xA;&#xA;Ultimately you're adding for the extra cost of work as well as any extra maintenance burden.   How you phrase it depends on how you think they will take the additional cost." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24589" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3874" RevisionGUID="c6b64580-8eb7-4f03-9daa-b1c9511e55dd" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="Under no circumstances should you allow yourself to have unlimited liability.&#xA;&#xA;The phrase used in contracts to prevent this is usually of the form:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; 'You shall indemnify and hold the Developer harmless for all losses or damage resulting directly or indirectly from the Software'&#xA;&#xA;However, my contract is just an extended version of [Contract Killer 3](https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/projects/contract-killer/) (also on [github](https://gist.github.com/malarkey/4031110)), and uses the following paragraph for this:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; ## Legal Stuff&#xA;&gt; We can’t guarantee that our work will be error-free and so we can’t be liable to you or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if you’ve advised us of them. Finally, if any provision of this contract shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this contract and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Phew.&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; &lt;sub&gt;– source: [Contract Killer 3](https://gist.github.com/malarkey/4031110#legal-stuff) by [Stuff and Nonsense](https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/)&lt;/sub&gt;&#xA;&#xA;Really, if a company is insisting that you must have unlimited liability to work with them, then they probably have a legal department who will sue you at the slightest provocation. Ensure that you have indemnity, or steer well clear of this client. You're not big enough to take them on in court.&#xA;&#xA;It's like having a car dealer sell you a car on condition that you remove the seatbelts. Sure, you might be fine until something goes wrong, but when it does, it goes catastrophically wrong." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24590" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3826" RevisionGUID="673cd386-b104-47bb-83c2-c32d9c826b15" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="It may be a bit late, but I've just found a piece of info about this. The info is from the APTIC: &quot;Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters of Catalonia&quot;. &#xA;&#xA;Here is their [FAQ on VAT and translations, from APTIC][1]&#xA;&#xA;It states that there are some translations exempt of VAT and some not. &#xA;Ensure you change your language to English.&#xA;&#xA;One thing to consider: Although Catalonia and Spain have some differences, I believe this text abides to Spanish law, so wherever your client was from, I guess it applies to them.&#xA;&#xA;PS: Excuse my awful English : )&#xA;&#xA;### Added: ###&#xA;Read also [FAQ#15][2], in particular this: &#xA;&#xA;&gt; &quot;A client can require this certificate (Suppliers Certificate) from its suppliers if two&#xA;&gt; conditions occur:&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; · The invoiced item must constitute provision of services (not goods).&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; · The relationship between the client and supplier must be necessary;&#xA;&gt; this means that the professional provides a service related to the&#xA;&gt; client's main economic activity. For example, a translation agency or&#xA;&gt; publishing house can require this certificate from its translators,&#xA;&gt; but a company that manufactures shoes and has requested a one-off&#xA;&gt; translation cannot do so.&quot;&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.aptic.cat/pmf#PMF14&#xA;  [2]: http://www.aptic.cat/pmf#PMF15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24591" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3817" RevisionGUID="e67486c7-9e5c-41a4-9419-dec5a4641401" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="This is **really** just an opinion-based answer. But the question is also really just purely opinion-based as well. &#xA;&#xA;I'd send something similar to....&#xA;&#xA;&gt;Hi [client],&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;[service x] is a *closed* environment. [service x] makes their revenue by locking out certain editing capabilities and serving the same overall structure to every customer. While some visual, or front-end, alterations are permitted to allow a sense of customization, most, if not all, back-end or development editing is either restricted or hobbled a great deal or simply not permitted.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;In order to achieve what you wish to accomplish, I must be allowed to edit both the front-end and back-end portions of the web site. Unfortunately, because [service X] is a closed environment it will no longer meet your needs if you wish to implement x, x, x or x. So, to facilitate your desired changes, a standard web hosting account is needed. Standard web hosting accounts freely offer the ability to edit both front-end and back-end content unrestricted.&#xA;&#xA;Here you can insert a paragraph explaining the size of an account which will be needed, perhaps bandwidth limitations, etc. - but be careful **not** to be too technical, clients don't generally care if the server supports PHP5 or is a *nix server, etc.. Then explain your hosting rates or recommend a service. Related: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2022/how-to-setup-client-ownership-of-domain-name-and-hosting/2026#2026&#xA;&#xA;&gt; Once a hosting account is established, I need to be able to access the services to implement your desired features. It's common practice to provide the web designer/developer with log in information for technical aspects which are needed. &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Please feel free to let me know what areas regarding the above you are uncomfortable with. I'm happy to discuss things in greater detail. It is not ever my goal to request or implement anything which I don't feel is warranted to facilitate your needs.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;Thank you!&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24592" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3797" RevisionGUID="8bb6fab2-5241-4563-a3e1-d12b92afccb6" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="# Welcome to the world of when The Coder becomes a Product Manager&#xA;&#xA;I've found myself in the exact same situations several times and on different sides of the stick. I've learned the hard way.&#xA;&#xA;Having been buried in code and always concerning the business side of things hand in hand.. *I can definitely empathize so I took some time to get a bit detailed.* If you're not/have never been in the &quot;corporate&quot; culture, give http://scrummethodology.com/scrum-product-owner/ a read. You will see how things progress from being developer to managing the business end of things.&#xA;&#xA;*Disclaimer: This is my opinion driven by experience, I build things, not litigate... though I'm sure an Intellectual Property Attorney makes far more!* &#xA;&#xA;Offering compensation plus ownership for services provided (I'm assuming here that he/she is to deliver beforehand) can invite some unforeseen, or unwanted, risks:&#xA;&#xA;## You'll need a contract (or to simplify, an &quot;agreement&quot;) covering at-least the:&#xA;&#xA;1. Cost of things.. net cost (total $ to get up and running) and the worth of the initial (version 1? iteration 1?).&#xA;2. Once costs have been figured out you could *simply* create a share-to-cost ratio. (i.e.: ACME LLC has 1000 shares, each worth $10 making the company worth a mediocre $10,000 -- due to some hardware investment perhaps.)&#xA;3. **Ownership of the materials rendered/produced** -- I can't stress this one enough. Copyright law is (and rightfully so) by default in favor of the content creator. You can, and should if nothing else, declare that you/your entity owns any and all works produced since date of employment/contract inception.&#xA;&#xA;## Providing compensation for works provided &amp; to be created:&#xA;1. You can pay hard cold cash *(in case you formed an entity already, you should be able to bring it on as material debt so you can write it off)*.&#xA;2. You can pay in straight up issuance of shares of your entity (The outcome of #2 in the section above-^).&#xA;3. You can use a strategy called &quot;vesting equity&quot; wherein you create an agreement that he/she is to meet a.b.c. expectations by xyz date and __must__ remain an active participant (employee, board member, or whatever title you want) **until** a date set in the future where the share issuance will be finalized.&#xA;4. Both cash AND equity -- just mix it up with the above points in mind.&#xA;5. Just pay cash and make sure you get sole copyright (can be as simple as him stating it in an email, receipt, etc..)&#xA;&#xA;Personally, going the &quot;let me give you some cash now so you can buy monsters &amp; red bulls and we do a vesting equity agreement ... work some get paid some, and so forth&quot;. The caveat is that it will cost you some money to have an entity formed that has the capacity for stock issuance (S-Corp, C-corp). On the low side I remember paying right around $600~ a few years ago. LegalZoom will save you a lot vs a local lawyer if you keep things simple, check out http://www.legalzoom.com/business/business-types/compare-business-structures.html. This of course gives you some tax advantages (pass-through vs. not) rather than being a simple Sole Proprietorship or LLC.&#xA;&#xA;At the end of the day, I think you can knock this out with a simple contract that identifies the parties, sets the precedence of expectations, covers your copyright ownership part and overall covers your butt in the event you need to collect." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24593" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3784" RevisionGUID="4cc4d0d8-a3d1-4560-a1fc-e717ea40e0a9" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="The concept of morality in business is questionable. And what's ethical is simply to offer the quality services you were paid for and respect your clients. Everything in between is part of a strategy.&#xA;&#xA;I think the main problem is the word FREELANCER. It implies that you work alone at all time while in fact the words BUSINESS or COMPANY are the ones that should be used when you refer to your services. Already by not sticking to freelance, you probably realize that you already know the answer to your question. No one questions the morality or ethic of a business that hires employees; the manager is the one who takes the responsibility for what's going on inside the company and how the work is managed.&#xA;&#xA;**So your real concern shouldn't be about morality but liability.**&#xA;&#xA;I don't know your age and experience, maybe these advice don't apply to you and your friend.&#xA;&#xA;# Should you tell your client?&#xA;&#xA;It's up to you. But I think you should for the simple fact that even though you want to work with your friend and will supervise his/her work, you can't control 100% what that friend will post online, share with other friends, and all the tiny mistakes that could happen. You can't control if that friend will communicate one day directly with the client or some close to the client. You don't know if that friend will always be your friend. &#xA;&#xA;So for these reasons, you should simply mention to your client that you will share the workload with your new team/colleague/partner and will supervise everything. Don't use the word friend, that's very immature and unprofessional (and scary for a client.)&#xA;&#xA;There's ways to say this and be clear that you are still in full control of the quality of the project. Clients are rarely resistant to this, what they want is a guarantee of quality and get the service they paid for on time. They might asked to be reassured but in the end if they trust your judgement and you can deliver the services, you won't have issue with this. It's exactly the same as giving the design work to a designer and you being the one coding the website OR paying an editor to write the content.&#xA;&#xA;# Should you transfer some work to your friend?&#xA;&#xA;That's where I think your real issue could come from.&#xA;&#xA;Be aware that doing business with friends and family can be tricky. As PeterMV mentioned, you'll be the middle man and friendship mixed with money can lead to delicate situations. You need to make sure it's clear between you and your friend that you're doing business and the client will come first, the same way as if you hired a stranger. It's usually easy to say when there's no issues but when problems arise, that's when the friendship will be tested. Some friends or family members will expect you to put your client as #2 for multiple reasons and by using various clichés that don't belong to the business world (eg. family first, bff, etc.) For some people, it's hard to accept that while they work for you, you are the client and the boss. Not to mention that if your friend disappoints you with the quality of his/her work, it might be hard for you to deal with this; even worse if you decide one day that person isn't a good fit to work with you. All this depends a lot on your personality and the personality of your friend (and ego.)&#xA;&#xA;The other problem is that being too friendly with &quot;employees&quot; will lead you to reveal a lot of private information about your clients, share files, access, etc. Friends can also get very &quot;comfortable&quot; too, sometimes they do not respect your clients as much as you do. If things ever go bad between you and your friend, you could get caught in uncomfortable situations. And even if it doesn't go bad, it could happen. Only you know how professional and mature is your friend. For example, imagine your friend stored passwords and login access of your clients in a negligent way, and these information get shared; when you work with other people, you need to make sure they use exactly the same methods as you do and the same discipline. &#xA;&#xA;Even if you work with a friend, you should also have him/her sign a NDA. If there's any question or resistance about this,or anything such as &quot;but I'm your friend, you don't trust me?&quot; then don't work with that person. Make it clear that when you work with that person, there's a time for fun and there's a time for business.&#xA;&#xA;As PeterMV suggests, it's often better to simply hire a stranger and keep your leadership role in all this, without mixing it with too much friendship. If you work with a friend, make sure everything is clear and require the same things you would if you hired a stranger." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24594" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3774" RevisionGUID="4e67f8ee-d7b8-4763-957d-62a119a8c3ae" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I am working as full time freelancer since 2013 as mobile app developer.&#xA;I mostly work on Upwork,Elance and couple of other sites.&#xA;&#xA;Recently Elance closes my account even though i have 5 star ratings on all projects.&#xA;Most of my projects are long term so taking much time to complete.&#xA;&#xA;I talked to the support but they always mentioned my low client satisfaction but how its a low client satisfaction if i have 5 star ratings on all projects.&#xA;&#xA;Also i am not able to withdraw my account balance as well.&#xA;&#xA;This is the email i received earlier.&#xA;&#xA;[![enter image description here][1]][1]&#xA;&#xA;What should i do now ? Thanks&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/92Vz8.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24595" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3674" RevisionGUID="d84e91c0-c2f0-4162-ad77-ab25f0879ad8" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="# No. Never add processing fees to accept payments. Just don't.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;This is really in similar to Peter's answer I realize. However...&#xA;&#xA;An important factor is that *some* merchant accounts **severely** frown upon raising rates to cover *their* processing charges. In fact, some outright **hate** it.&#xA;&#xA;It devalues *their* name in the eyes of *your* clients. Think about that.... You add 4% because a client wants to pay using PayPal, they then are not happy that using PayPal costs them more so they will avoid using PayPal if possible. This *directly* impacts PayPal's business, not yours.&#xA;&#xA;In some cases, a payment processor discovering you are increasing costs for only payments using their service may take unfavorable action towards you, such as refusing to accept payments for you. &#xA;&#xA;For credit cards, there are surcharges, referred to as &quot;convenience fees&quot;, which may be only acceptable under certain circumstances: http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/credit-card-convenience-fees-cost-surcharges-1280.php&#xA;&#xA;All this has also been a long-standing legal battle between merchants and payment processors: https://usbneblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/the-reality-of-surcharging-fees-in-the-us/&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;**You should really *never* ask any client to pay *your* processing fees.** Paying the processing fee is merely the cost of doing business, as Peter answered. If you can't afford that 2-4% then your rates are just *too low* to begin with.&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24596" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3655" RevisionGUID="b257b549-22fa-4394-b680-b205fc92ab37" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="A little background: my employer has a client and this client is pretty big and they are using the system for many users and I'm the only resource person who knows the source code and everything in it. The first few months was fine and I receive my salary on time. They told me that they were having problems with the finance recently but I'm skeptic because they hired another contractual developer to do other work for them.&#xA;&#xA;So I've been working for this employer for more than a year now but they keep on delaying salary and currently 2 months delayed. I already have deployed the project in the development sites for testing purposes and there are items that still need fixing and other features to be added along the way. My question is, should I keep on working with this employer or should I tell them that I need to get paid first before I resume work? I'm not the kind of person who does things demandingly.  &#xA;&#xA;**Key Question**  &#xA;So what should be my tone of voice? Inquiring? Demanding? I don't like to put bad impressions on clients/employers and burn bridges.&#xA;&#xA;Also I'm thinking my employer might lose this client because of me not proceeding but I need to get paid first, I have a family to feed. By the way, the system was worked by a different developer primarily and I just took over and my employer just got hold of the codes with which they don't have idea how to so I'm the one managing it at the moment and currently under my Git account.&#xA;&#xA;# Update&#xA;So my employer paid me already but it took more time than I have expected. It just takes patience and lots of it and had to remind them a couple of times. So lesson learned, make sure you are getting paid (at most) every fortnightly so if in case your employer won't be able to pay you at least the damage will be manageable to a minimum. Nevertheless, just be honest as much as possible with your dealings regardless if your boss is not. In the end it's not your loss but theirs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24597" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3537" RevisionGUID="0eff548b-b54e-40da-bea0-fdcd6a8f9f4c" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I am currently in the process of becoming a digital nomad myself. I have been investigating this for a few months now.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;----------&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;### You must sort out a few things&#xA;&#xA; - **Earn money**: Ideally, you want several income streams to reduce risks.&#xA; - **Legal status**: you want to make sure this is sorted out as without that you probably will have trouble charging anyone for your services.&#xA; - **Legal address**: you will still have mails coming from organizations &amp; you will need a good system to make this work. Either get a friend or relative to help you, or get a professional service (i.e. in Switzerland the post can scan your mails &amp; email them to you).&#xA; - **Banking**: you must have an excellent bank providing cutting edge online services. Forget about old fashion banks &amp; switch to something reliable at anytime from anywhere.&#xA; - **Health insurance**: you **must** have a good international health insurance, you'd easily find yourself in big trouble if you have any health issue. see https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get&#xA; - **Gear**: you must make sure you have the right tool for the job, once you are away it can be difficult to buy it. Some inspiration on http://www.grownupplayground.com/travel-gear-backpackers-long-term-travelers/&#xA; - **Insure your gear**: you want to insure your belongings, it won't save your work but at least it'll reduce the financial impact of getting something stolen.&#xA; - **Protect your gear**: uglify your gear so it's less likely to get stolen &amp; buy appropriate housing (shockproof, waterproof, &amp; so on) to prevent physical damage.&#xA; - **Protect your data: encrypt sensitive files**: use tools such as Truecrypt or BitLocker to only allow yourself to access your sensitive data.&#xA; - **Protect your data: digital backups**: you will probably want to have digital backups of your work. You want a strategy that works smoothly so that if you loose your work (ie. lose your computer in a sailing accident), you can not only access all the lost work but also setup the new gear as the original one in a minimum amount of time.&#xA; - **Work place**: you might want to make your life easy &amp; start by moving to a location that is known for welcoming digital nomads, it'll save you tone of time &amp; you'll be able to learn from others&#xA; - **Store what you can't take**: you want to have a safe place to store valuable things you can't travel with (i.e. paperwork &amp; electronics). For instance, [Shurgard self-storage in Berlin][1] has containers starting from 1m cube (this one costs 30€/month): it's very safe, has 6am to 10pm access, it's temperature+humidity controlled (no damage even storing for 1+ year) and your belonging are even insured. Put all the things you really care about in such space and then store all the rest in a less safe/expensive place (i.e. in a friend's basement). Regarding access: even if you need something from this storage while on the other side of the globe, all the access is through combination locks, so you can send a trusted person to get whatever is needed (no need for signature or else).&#xA; - **Car or Van**: rent, rent, rent! With services such as [Drivy][2] and many apps for car rentals by the minute, there are only very specific cases that can justify owning a car. Owning a car or converted van sounds ideal to travel around a continent (i.e. Europe), however it is a big administrative burden and a rather high cost. This involves: dealing with insurances (regular &amp; breakdown), yearly car check (MOT, TÜV, or whatever the name: it is at a given deadline in a given country), occasional repairs, occasional accidents, occasional police fines, storage when traveling without it &amp; so on. It will cost you a lot of time, money, and might force you to be in a given place at a given time (for admin reasons): so think twice.&#xA; - **Voting**: `&quot;Brexit, Trump, what's next!??&quot;` You will be away from your country and who knows for how long. But you still want your voice to be heard. Setup a way for you to be able to vote (i.e. power of attorney). Some countries are terrible at this (very slow setup), so prepare that well in advance.&#xA;&#xA;----------&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;### Further resources to get started on being a digital nomad&#xA;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/digital-nomad-101-how-to-become-a-digital-nomad/465&#xA; - http://flagtheory.com/digital-nomad/&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io - Biggest Digital Nomad forum&#xA; - http://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job#job-boards - Find remote jobs&#xA; - https://github.com/kaizensoze/remote-freelance-jobs - Find remote jobs&#xA; - http://digitalnomadhub.net&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_nomad&#xA; - http://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler&#xA; - When must you pay income taxes? http://www.liferemotely.com/work-while-traveling/managing-a-business/65-paying-taxes-in-your-home-country-when-you-arent-living-there&#xA; - http://leapin.eu Estonian e-residency made easy&#xA; - https://e-estonia.com Estonian e-residency&#xA; - http://e-estonia.com/e-residents/services-and-benefits - Estonian e-residency: Register a company, open a bank account &amp; more&#xA; - http://passports.io&#xA; - https://freedomsurfer.com/offshore-jurisdictions&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/where-should-i-register-my-company-as-a-digital-nomad-singapore-hong-kong/520/4&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/is-panama-a-good-destination-for-tax-residency-for-digital-nomads/2588/14&#xA; - https://boldanddetermined.com/hong-kong-business-guide/&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com - tech tips&#xA; - https://nomadlist.com/guides - books&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com/hammocks-hard-drives/ - books&#xA; - international health insurance - https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get/46751#46751&#xA; - international health insurance - https://nomadforum.io/t/does-international-health-insurance-for-digital-nomads-exist/378&#xA; - http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/09/top-10-tactics-for-protecting-your-stuff/&#xA; - https://truecrypt.ch&#xA; - https://medium.com/nomad-gate/the-world-s-best-bank-accounts-for-international-travelers-and-nomads-3257e6839cff&#xA; - http://www.grownupplayground.com/banking-solutions-for-travelers-digital-nomads/&#xA;&#xA;Good luck&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.shurgard.de/en/&#xA;  [2]: http://drivy.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24598" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3491" RevisionGUID="b0ce33e0-db81-423f-a10b-df7cb60a4786" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="A way to do it, is to estimate the value of the CPU processing time against your [gross margin][1] on a regular (monthly/yearly) basis, versus a previous period (month/year). &#xA;&#xA;*Example:*&#xA;&#xA;&gt;Last month you've made $10.000. &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;You have  10 CPUs. 5 of them account for 125 hours of CPU processing time/month.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;You've estimated that the CPUs processing time contribute to your monthly profit with  $5.000&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;$10.000 (total profit) - $5.000 (profit from your CPUs) = $5.000&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; $5000 / 125 (hours of CPU processing time) = $40/hour&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; You bill your clients with additional $40  for every hour of CPU processing time&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gross_profit_margin.asp" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24599" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3468" RevisionGUID="a2352082-21ec-4daa-aaa1-a44e871c1e09" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="# DO NOT HIRE THEM&#xA;&#xA;This looks like business and personal got mixed.&#xA;&#xA; 1. The husband lied, **he's out**.&#xA; 2. The wife leaked information to her husband, **she's out**.&#xA;&#xA;They are out because the **core foundation of business is trust.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24600" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3351" RevisionGUID="82d4ba2e-cfac-4037-9ba8-0dbfe9f84bb2" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I've recently signed up for Freelancer.com and when bidding on projects you are asked to break down your proposal into milestones. &#xA;&#xA;Why would I want to do that?&#xA;If I enter just a single milestone and label it as 'upon project completion'?&#xA;&#xA;I've read that milestone payments are made in advance; would this mean, in this case of a single milestone that the client should pay all the sum in advance to Freelancer.com which will release the funds to me upon the project's completion? If that is so, doesn't that advanced payment option have a negative impact on the client's side?&#xA;  &#xA;In general should I opt for multiple milestones or just a single one?&#xA;What are some good examples of breaking your project down into milestones?&#xA;&#xA;For example :&#xA;&#xA;&gt;milestone 1 : start of project $40 &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;milestone 2 :..............&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24601" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3294" RevisionGUID="3da27e08-5f00-4c48-8aa5-d42b31536ef1" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I have made an about me page that contains basic information (basically my best websites and a link to their respective githubs. &#xA;&#xA;I was thinking of including a few badges, like this:&#xA;&#xA;![enter image description here][1]&#xA;&#xA;on the website. Should I include them, and if so what badges should I include?&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/MC6tU.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24602" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3228" RevisionGUID="5fc490f9-93eb-493f-b933-78c502b1b37c" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="At the bottom of all my quotes I have this wording:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; We are here to provide an excellent customer experience. Because of this, we encourage input from the Client during the entire process. However, any major or significant changes requested during development, will carry along with them a renegotiated fee based on the new scope of the changes. We understand and encourage you as the client to voice your opinion and request to make any and all changes that you feel is in the best interest of your project. However, you as the client must also understand that in doing so, this may mean a considerable amount of work for us to make any major changes to the layout and design of your project. &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; To recap, please note that our agreement does not include a provision&#xA;&gt; for “significant project scope modification” after the Client has&#xA;&gt; signed off on his/her chosen design. Some examples of significant&#xA;&gt; project modification at the request of the Client include: developing&#xA;&gt; a new structure to accommodate a substantial redesign at the Client's&#xA;&gt; request, recreating or significantly modifying the company graphic at&#xA;&gt; the Client's request, replacing more than 75% of the text at the&#xA;&gt; Client's request, creating a new navigation structure or changing the&#xA;&gt; link graphics at the Client's request, or significantly reconfiguring&#xA;&gt; the Client's shopping cart with new product, shipping, or discount&#xA;&gt; calculation if an e-commerce enabled site has been selected by the&#xA;&gt; Client.&#xA;&#xA;Then the challenge is to recognize when a major scope change is happening, and stop to renegotiate. If you're like me...you're just focusing on your work and suddenly you realize you just did a bunch of work for free and you're like &quot;Face Palm!&quot;&#xA;&#xA;I use a project manager on large projects to help with this. :) " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24603" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3216" RevisionGUID="e46ead0d-ba85-479e-991d-cbdaea50bf57" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="*This question might belong under law or insurance.*&#xA;&#xA;If you knowingly commit a crime, you have no recourse, you are guilty.  However, if you were unwittingly hired to produce a solution resulting in criminal charges being filed, you would be in a bit of hot water for sure.&#xA;&#xA;The ways to protect yourself are many, and consulting with a good lawyer to draw up a contract might not be a bad idea.   You want your software contract to include a liability and indemnity clause.   This will partially protect you.   Also, disclaimer, waiver, whatever elses your lawyer tells you to do.   Here is a partial example...&#xA;&#xA;&gt;   Indemnity &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;  - As a result of the client’s instructions, the developer led&#xA;&gt;    unwittingly to infringe the intellectual property rights of a third&#xA;&gt;    party. &#xA;&gt;  - The developer provides a system which infringes such rights&#xA;&gt; through carelessness or dishonesty, e.g. using proprietary software as&#xA;&gt; a component of the system delivered.&#xA;&#xA;***For this reason, it is advisable to&#xA;include a clause under which each party indemnifies the other for&#xA;liability arising from its own faults in this respect.***&#xA;&#xA;You might also want to talk to an insurance agent or financial adviser about a liability or umbrella policy for additional coverage.   Trust me, having funds available for legal services when you need them is extremely important in the outcome of your case if you are charged.&#xA;&#xA;I'm pretty sure you can create/view/print one business contract here for free, I would say just to get an example of a good contract and maybe play around with it a bit.    &#xA;&#xA;&gt; [Contract Link][1]&#xA;&#xA;Hope this helps a little bit, and good luck.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.rocketlawyer.com/sem/business-contract.rl" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24604" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3106" RevisionGUID="cae1b58e-cf9e-42f5-935c-b4fd072d7abd" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="From [GOV.UK][1]:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; You must register for VAT with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) if it goes over the current registration threshold in a rolling 12-month period. This isn’t a fixed period like the tax year or the calendar year - it could be any period, eg the start of June to the end of May.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; The current threshold is £82,000. It usually goes up on 1 April each year. There are different thresholds for buying and selling from other EU countries.&#xA;&#xA;I'd recommend using the [GOV.UK][1] website for VAT registration since it's an official resource and pretty much answers all your questions.&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration/calculate-turnover" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24605" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7098" RevisionGUID="49c71299-75a9-4f4b-8d29-1109fe0e7180" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="Absolutely not. I agree with the prior poster:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; Dear Valued Customer, &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; I have undertaken the fixes we already agreed to verbally, and they are ready for delivery at such time as I receive the signed copy of the contract already in your possession. If you have misplaced the contract, I can send you a replacement copy. This is for your legal protection, as well as my own. Thank you in advance. I await your transmission of the signed copy of our already agreed to contract, along with your instructions as to the delivery of the already completed work product.&#xA;&#xA;If they have a problem signing the contract, you'll have an even bigger problem receiving payment. Standard best business practice is of course to withhold all work, until such time as they sign the contract.   " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24606" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3974" RevisionGUID="25274fe5-a681-44e7-b169-9f3aca19c72a" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="So basically my cover goes like this:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; Hello Sir or Madam,&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; I am writing in response to your advertisement for someone who can organize and transfer data's. After carefully reviewing the experience requirements of the job description, I feel that I am a suitable match for the job. &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; I’ve held several data entry positions that entail inputting customer requests, inquire, and tracking codes of products I also perform administrative duties including answering telephones, transferring data, web research and reports to immediate supervisor.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; I feel that I can add professionalism and accuracy to your current team of professionals. With extensive experience supporting all levels of a department and working directly with external vendors, I take direction well and can complete a heavy workload and complete projects under minimal supervision. If you feel there is a mutual interest, I would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to learn more about your company, the requirements of the position,and how my qualifications would be a good fit.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; It would be my pleasure to work with you in the earliest time possible!  &#xA;&gt; Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.  &#xA;&gt; I look forward to Hiring from you soon.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Devoughn M. Querubin  &#xA;&gt; Skype:Devquerubin&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; E-mail:Devoughn34@gmail.com&#xA;&#xA;I don't have job experience, but I'm really willing to work! I'm willing to take any job at this point (although I am currently applying for data entry jobs), and I've completed three tests with an above-average score. I am so frustrated already!  &#xA;&#xA;How can I improve my Upwork account?&#xA;&#xA;Additionally, in my profile, I don't have any job experiences (I only have 40% completeness of profile). Should I fake job experiences into my profile so that my profile will be 100% complete?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24607" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3982" RevisionGUID="488444a0-05b5-47b6-a21e-e67b21634d23" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="In many of the freelancer's sites, they ask you a quotation for a bid that you need to provide just to &quot;enter the pipeline&quot;.&#xA;&#xA;But at the same time, you get little or no details on the task at hand, making it highly risky.&#xA;&#xA;How do you manage that ? How binding is the initial quotation ?&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;----------&#xA;**Update**:&#xA;&#xA;  Typical project description: &quot;we have an OCR application that we need solved urgently&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24608" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4146" RevisionGUID="3c5d80fa-e3cc-4daf-8243-98848e8ac46d" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="You contracted as your LLC, not as yourself individually, correct? As an LLC, they are not required to send a 1099 to you, unless it's for one of the &quot;exceptions&quot; you mentioned. The exceptions are quoted from https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1099msc/ar02.html#d0e92 as follows:&#xA;&#xA;&gt;**Reportable payments to corporations.**&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;The following payments made to corporations generally must be reported on Form 1099-MISC. &#xA;&gt;&#xA;  &gt; - Medical and health care payments reported in box 6.&#xA;  &gt; - Fish purchases for cash reported in box 7.&#xA;  &gt; - Attorneys' fees reported in box 7.&#xA;  &gt; - Gross proceeds paid to an attorney reported in box 14.&#xA;  &gt; - Substitute payments in lieu of dividends or tax-exempt interest reported in box 8.&#xA;  &gt; - Payments by a federal executive agency for services (vendors) reported in box 7.&#xA;&#xA;The above referenced IRS site also contains Instructions for Form 1099-MISC - Main Contents.&#xA;&#xA;As a business organization, you need to keep your own record of income and expenses, improvements and depreciation. Depending on how you organized your business, you may need to file a corporate return, as well as your personal return.&#xA;&#xA;From https://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&amp;-Self-Employed/Single-Member-Limited-Liability-Companies:&#xA;&#xA;&gt;...an LLC with only one member is treated as an entity disregarded as separate from its owner for income tax purposes (but as a separate entity for purposes of employment tax and certain excise taxes), unless it files Form 8832 and affirmatively elects to be treated as a corporation.&#xA;&#xA;Either way, a 1099 is not required to be (but could be) sent to you. We've received 2 in the last 23 years (we're a sub-s corporation).&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24609" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5967" RevisionGUID="25578c0b-beba-4810-8523-e3f3e85e9ba4" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="# I would **never** allow this under *any* circumstance. &#xA;&#xA;The guy can sleep in his car... or the bus/train station for all I care. &#xA;&#xA;Even if I charged and he's willing to pay, invading my home is **way** over the line for any freelance client. It sends a message, whether direct or indirect, that you'll allow the client to overstep the boundaries of a client/freelancer relationship. Business is business... the more you blur the line between business and personal, the more you'll feel &quot;guilty&quot; or &quot;obligated&quot; to help a &quot;friend&quot; rather than saying &quot;no&quot; to a client. Whether or not I have the space is completely irrelevant. It's *my home* not a bunk house.&#xA;&#xA;In short, it's a slippery slope. No way would *any* client *ever* be allowed to stay in my home. -- Okay.... I may charge $5000-$10,000 a night and deal with it if they were willing to pay that.&#xA;&#xA;Regarding insurance..... if this &quot;employee&quot; slips and falls in your home and then wants compensation for medical bills... and he's there for business reasons... what happens to **you** and **your insurance**? If you have homeowners insurance and they cover a business stay in your home. &#xA;&#xA;There are just so many, many reasons to never allow this for any client.&#xA;&#xA;Also be aware, there's a *marked* difference between a &quot;client you are friendly with&quot; and a &quot;friend&quot;. I'm friendly with practically every client I've ever had... but I'd never call any of them my &quot;friend&quot;. Being friendly in business does *not* make a client your &quot;friend&quot;. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24610" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6894" RevisionGUID="120e85a4-f85c-4ec5-a390-6b4c003eb9be" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="This might not solve directly your billing time needs, but it's really helpful to track your productivity and see where you spent your working time: [RescueTime](https://www.rescuetime.com/).&#xA;&#xA;You install a small application that stays in your tray and it tracks all your windows, generating later a report on your productivity.  &#xA;It can automatically categorize a LOT of applications, and for those he understands wrong or doesn't know, you can set what the window means: very productive, productive, neutral, distracting or very distracting. That sums up to a productivity score for your day. You can also ignore some applications that have no actual meaning and you spend very little time on (such as file explorers).&#xA;&#xA;There's a paid version that adds features such as offline time tracking (you can manually enter what you did, such as meetings or client calls, as the app asks what you were doing when the computer was idle), integrations, and even deeper statistics and other stuff I don't actually know because I didn't use the paid version after the trial :)&#xA;&#xA;This was the only application that really helped me stay focused - because I was afraid of receiving that dreaded email by Sunday morning saying I wasn't productive D:&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;[![Dashboard][2]][2]&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/ja0t8.png&#xA;  [2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/77G4p.jpg" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24611" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6889" RevisionGUID="b4cb8b8f-f1b9-4df2-82c1-0ebc10462678" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I have an unpaid signed contract from last year that still bothers me a bit. &#xA;&#xA;&#xA;I recently found out that this person has won a contest to pitch the product on TV. As I understand, financially, the client was previously unable to pay (and probably has horrible credit, so that if I sued in court, he wouldn't mind having his permanent record messed up by legal unable to pay). &#xA;&#xA; - Should I inform the contest that he has an unpaid contract? &#xA; - Or, should I wait until after he actually seems like he can pay? I assume that this TV show will at least get this product some customers so he can pay his bills.  &#xA;&#xA;Just sent him this email:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; Congrats on winning the [big TV pitch contest name]. &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Now that you're a rich gazillionaire, I hope that you can pay for the app I built for you way back then. I am attaching the invoice again for your convenience.  &#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24612" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6819" RevisionGUID="ebc6749c-e536-48c9-9f07-72fedff9aabe" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I live in Greece and as you know in Greece the finacial situation is bad. So it make me reluctant to job offers for a freelance-contract job that I receive via mail and some of them pay well. I am thinking of working as freelancer but I have not registered as one yet and of cource I have not done any freelance job yet because of heavy tax cost.&#xA;&#xA;Therefore I was thinking use an umbrella company that will cast all these worries away. But I want to ask some questions before I take a decision:&#xA;&#xA;1. What are the pos and cons of using an umbrella company?&#xA;2. Does the sites such as upwork, peopleperhour, freelancer.com work as umbrella companies?&#xA;&#xA;Usually the job offers are in European Union countries such as Belgium.&#xA;&#xA;# Edit 1&#xA;As requested Umbrella company I mean this term: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbrella_company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24613" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6573" RevisionGUID="2cdaa3f1-afa1-4414-bb9c-16c222efffec" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I have been doing long-term software development with an out-of-state client. All of their dev work is done by myself and a handful of other freelancers, only one of whom I work with on a semi-regular basis.&#xA;&#xA;This other guy, who I'll refer to as John, strikes me as painfully incompetent. He and I cover different portions of the front-end and back-end, so sometimes I have to ask him to do a task which I can't handle myself. When I ask him to do something, he says 'ok' and then does it in a different (usually incompatible, and always inferior) way than what I asked. Even when he tries to do it the right way, it's usually broken the first time (he never tests anything). He doesn't respond to a lot of my emails and often forgets to tell me when he makes a change that directly affects the work I'm doing. &#xA;&#xA;Imagine having this conversation with someone over a two-week period:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; **You:** I need you to make a function that accepts input in form X and returns output in form Y. [long explanation of why this is the case]&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; **John:** Okay, I made a function that accepts input in form A and returns output in form B&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; **You:** That way doesn't make sense and isn't what we need. The function needs to take in X and output Y&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; **John:** Ok, I changed the function to take in X and output B&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; **You:** No, it needs to take in X and output Y. [summarize earlier explanation]&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; **John:** Okay, I finally read all of the original email you sent me and now I understand what you are looking for. I changed the function to take in C and output Y&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; **You:** *The function needs to **accept input in form X and return output in form Y**. The input and output cannot be in any other format*&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; **John:** Okay, I did it the way you asked&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; **You:** It doesn't work&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; **John:** Oops, I didn't test it. It should be fixed now.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; **You:** It doesn't work&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; **John:** Oops, I configured some things incorrectly. Try it now.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; **You:** It doesn't work&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; **John:** Okay, I'll look into it...&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;When brainstorming a large task, he often proposes extremely low-quality solutions that would be impossible to maintain and aren't acceptable on a professional project; sometimes he even starts implementing these solutions without getting approval first. These aren't minor, &quot;this could probably be refactored&quot; design issues, but massive flaws that would have far-reaching repercussions if implemented in his way.&#xA;&#xA;I've only complained about him directly to the client once, when he kept failing at the same simple task over and over for two weeks and was preventing us from meeting a deadline; I only addressed that single issue and not his overall ability. Since then, he's been better, but better is far short of *competent*. Working with him is infuriating, but I haven't approached the client about this because I don't know how to express my feelings in a professional way. He does many other tasks for the client that I am not involved in and I have no idea how he performs at those tasks; since the client hasn't fired him yet, it is possible that he is more competent on other tasks or that the client is very forgiving.&#xA;&#xA;**How do you explain to a client that one of their other freelancers is not competent at his job, in a professional but compelling manner?**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24614" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6420" RevisionGUID="49244552-c224-4430-bd4e-666552ab3110" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I need help dealing with this situation. &#xA;&#xA;I have a (person who claims to be my) &quot;friend&quot; who did not pay upon completion and delivery of project, despite a signed contract last May. &#xA;&#xA; - The project was delivered in completion to spec, above and beyond. [Despite the client not providing all the required assets (with last minute deadlines), with me working overtime. It also won a few industry awards.] &#xA;&#xA; - It seems this &quot;friend&quot; hasn't figured his business out, unfortunately - nearly a year later. He's coming back to me, asking to waste my time with coffee, &quot;to get to know me better&quot;. &#xA;&#xA;My freelancer's thought goes like: friend or not, **this is a client who didn't pay**. &#xA;&#xA;My response: &#xA;&#xA;&gt; You know - it would be really nice if you'd pay up from last time. &#xA;&gt; Let's talk after... whenever that happens.  &#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; Oh yeah, I threw in for free the graphics conversion and stuff you&#xA;&gt; were supposed to get done - and got pissed you didn't do your work.&#xA;&gt; Scrappy startup issues, but not paying people for doing work is not&#xA;&gt; cool.&#xA;&#xA;His response: &#xA;&#xA;&gt; Ugh, [name]! Why are you so snappy?! I consider you a friend (even if you don't). You believed in me from the very beginning and I will never forget that. We got in a fight, that happens. We've helped each other many times over the years. I just want to work on us getting to know each other as people better, because bottom line - we both have the same passions and are not giving up on them. I think you know this.&#xA;...and your next move might be defensive/smart response, but [Your Name] - I'm not trying to fight with you. I'm trying to be your friend. A better friend. Get some coffee. Talk our shit out like normal adults. I think it's worth a shot, a REAL try. &#xA;&#xA;My reply:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; Let's start with understanding our different perspectives. Can you try&#xA;&gt; to understand where I'm coming from? &#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; We had a client-contractor relationship with a written contract that&#xA;&gt; was broken. I did the work; it was a total hit, but I wasn't paid.&#xA;&gt; Friend or not, to me, you're a client who didn't pay. &#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; But hey! Were you even a friend? I'm a contractor, and you know that&#xA;&gt; contracts pay my bills. Friends don't leave friends out in the cold. &#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; I've done all I can to help you for free. But, take it as honest&#xA;&gt; advice, you really need to figure your business out. People need to be&#xA;&gt; paid. Like I said - figure that out - and then, maybe, let's talk.&#xA;&#xA;His reply: &#xA;&#xA;&gt; Ya, I see what your saying, and there is more to that that I want to&#xA;&gt; talk about. So yes, I'm sorry. But you're talking to me like I'm just&#xA;&gt; some random dude/company. You always have. There have been glimmers of&#xA;&gt; &quot;friendship&quot; from you I've seen, but for some reason you are so&#xA;&gt; defensive ALL THE TIME and switch back to me just being some&#xA;&gt; dude/company... Look, I think there is a reason why we ran into each&#xA;&gt; other. I don't know what it is yet. But I think we owe it to at least&#xA;&gt; work on being friends better, getting to know each other. Why do you&#xA;&gt; think I keep coming back to you?! It's not because your the only AR&#xA;&gt; genius in the Bay. It's because I get you, and I think you get me&#xA;&gt; (like 40%). Dude, put you ego aside, I'll do the same. I don't think&#xA;&gt; this really has anything to do about $.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;----&#xA;&#xA;My spidey-sense from having spent the last 20 years of my life doing contract work summarizes this &quot;friend&quot; as: &#xA;&#xA; - Undermining my skills and achievements as &quot;dime a dozen&quot; in order to&#xA;   get &quot;free work&quot;. &lt;i&gt;Obviously&lt;/i&gt;, he could just find another&#xA;   developer in the bay to scam.&#xA;&#xA;My final response: &#xA;&#xA;&gt; Hmm, this reads like a defensive email. I think I'm the only person&#xA;&gt; nice enough to help you out for free - but there's a limit to that.&#xA;&gt; Please figure out your business. My venmo is [ ]  I'm&#xA;&gt; blocking you until then!&#xA;&#xA;----&#xA;&#xA;&quot;Friendship&quot; Should I have dealt with this differently? As a contractor-friend, I think I'm already doing him a favor by not taking him to small claims or demanding a late fee. &#xA;&#xA;(In regards to small claims court, I don't have the time, though it's a &quot;friend startup service I'll build your entire app for ridiculous discount&quot; $5k contract. :()&#xA;&#xA;----&#xA;&#xA;I recently found out that this person has won a contest to pitch the product on TV. As I understand, financially, the client was previous unable to pay (and probably has horrible credit, so that if I sued in court, he wouldn't mind having his permanent record messed up by legal unable to pay). &#xA;&#xA; - Should I inform the contest that he has an unpaid contract? &#xA; - Or, should I wait until after he actually seems like he can pay? I assume that this TV show will at least get this product some customers so he can pay his bills.  &#xA;&#xA;Just sent him this email:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; Congrats on winning the Home Shopping Network. &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Now that you're a rich gazillionaire, I hope that you can pay for the app I built for you way back then. I am attaching the invoice again for your convenience. &#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24615" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6416" RevisionGUID="69541eb9-5bf7-4fcc-8e97-b0ca355715a4" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="# In this answer: some rather general(izable) advice&#xA;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;Pro/con reading it:  &#xA;(+) applicable to many situations  &#xA;(–) not based on loads of professional experience/ expert knowledge  &#xA;(–) may be obvious  &#xA;  (+) but remembering this may still be useful  &#xA;(+) may be good/ useful advice&lt;/sub&gt;&#xA;&#xA;---&#xA;&#xA;## Go with your gut.&#xA;&#xA;Well, I do have a bit more input than that, which might benefit you by triggering some gut feelings – encouraging or discouraging.&#xA;&#xA;---&#xA;&#xA;(Depending on the (culture and) character of your client and the relationship between the two of you,) I would probably apply this general principle:&#xA;&#xA;## When in doubt, try it out.  Ask. &#xA;&#xA;Extra carefully, politely!&#xA;&#xA;Chances are, you have more to gain than to loose:&#xA;&#xA;- Even if the chance that they say Yes is small, that outcome might be so useful for you that the opportunity as a whole has weight.&#xA;&#xA;- A 'catastrophic' outcome seems unlikely.  They will probably not ditch you just for a silly insolent question (if it even is one (to them)).  Even less, since they already showed their high opinion of your work.&#xA;&#xA;- (Even in the unlikely worst case, you will have gained an experience.)&#xA;&#xA;You could also consider &#xA;&#xA;### going about it 'cleverly':&#xA;&#xA;Instead of bluntly asking if they'll finance you, you could sort of **ask *them* for advice**, telling them that you wonder whether it would be appropriate for a freelancer to ask a client whether they would pay them to learn something like iOS development.  Maybe beforehand, sort of casually, mention how interested you would be in learning that.  &#xA;&#xA;Advantages of this cautious approach:&#xA;&#xA;- You signal, that you're not confident in this question, so it should seem less grave, in case they might be upset by the request in the first place.&#xA;&#xA;- Your request is clear enough for them to agree if that's what they want.&#xA;&#xA;- If they feel that would be a stupid question to ask, they can decline by phrasing their answer in the form of advice, that this question would not be a good idea.  That way they could decline without outright rejecting you and you both 'save face' – it might be less awkward.&#xA;&#xA;It may still come off as unprofessional, but may still be worth it.&#xA;&#xA;Depending on the person's (culture and) character and your relationship, they may prefer a more direct approach.  Or none at all.&#xA;&#xA;So all of these are just suggestions to give you ideas – ultimately I'd expect your intuition/ gut to be your best guide on whether you should implement them or what else is the best way for you in this situation to go about it.&#xA;&#xA;Good luck!&#xA;&#xA;PS: If you decide to ask, please share with us  how they reacted! :)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24616" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6400" RevisionGUID="36d82a88-faaa-44a3-b1c4-799ab26c13c3" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="OK.  Your client doesn't want to sign a licensing agreement.  Here's how to look at this:&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;- If the work has not already been performed, and you do the work, it's technically a work-for-hire, and the client would own the code, and there would be no need for a licensing agreement.&#xA;&#xA;- If the work has already been performed prior to any specific agreement, then you are the owner of the work and a licensing agreement is appropriate.  What is also very appropriate is that you don't turn over original source code, but instead, highly obfuscated Javascript.  You could actually code something in there that &quot;phones in&quot; to a server somewhere to report use of the script by way of an AJAX call or similar, and potentially disables the script past a certain date or if it's not hosted from a FIXED server name.  Protect your intellectual property!   If the client is bucking against any type of licensing agreement, I'd find the situation to be highly suspect (i.e. your client's going to take the code and run with it without paying you its proper worth).  I found something you might use - [Jscrambler][1].&#xA;&#xA;In either case, get your money up front before you demonstrate anything on a browser your client can access!&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: https://jscrambler.com/en/how-it-works" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24617" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6093" RevisionGUID="6c2b5789-463e-44c6-b96c-cfe71a82b13d" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="Client wants me to steal secret plans from the CEO of his competing company. &#xA;&#xA;He sent an email today detailing where I can find the plans, how to break into his offices, and a schedule for when the break in would be best.&#xA;&#xA;Do you think you are blameless if you break in and steal the plans?&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;If the police arrest you for breaking into the office, do you think you'll get off and the client would be charged?&#xA;&#xA;Just because you can steal while remaining seated at your desk, doesn't make the theft *not* theft.&#xA;&#xA;--------------&#xA;&#xA;Seriously.... a client is asking you to break a law which only makes **you liable** if you are caught. If you do not want to perform illegal tasks, refuse the work. &#xA;&#xA;Realize if you are caught for piracy, it is **you** that will pay any fines or serve any jail time, not the client. After all the software is on *your* devices, not the client's.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;# Ultimately, **any** client with this mindset is *not* a good client. If they steal from others, they *will* steal from you.&#xA;&#xA;Drop the client, refuse the work, and don't take on any additional work from this client. It's merely a matter of time before they rip you off as well.&#xA;&#xA;---------------&#xA;&#xA;If the work *requires* the use of the software, and you do not already own a license for the software and/or the client is unable/unwilling to provide you with a license, you can't legally use the software - therefore you can't do the work being requested (unless you want to break the law). &#xA;&#xA;In most cases, a freelancer should already own the software necessary to complete their projects. However, on rare occasions work may require specialty software for a single client. It is *not* unheard of for the client to purchase a license for the software and provide that license to the freelancer. With the understanding that the *client* owns the software and it is to be used on *only* their project. In some cases the software is uninstalled or removed from the freelancer's systems once the projects are complete. Any client that &quot;gets around&quot; legally paying for tools they need will &quot;get around&quot; paying your invoices when they are presented. Required tools are a *tax deduction* and for business there's no viable reason to *not* pay for them.&#xA;&#xA;This also makes your work in these scenarios a work-for-hire type of agreement since the client is providing tools - you may not *want* to complete work under a work-for-hire umbrella.&#xA;&#xA;For me personally, if I do not already own software required to complete a project - I examine the costs of the software for my business and the return I would receive on that investment. If possible I look into alternative software to compete the tasks. However, if it is determined that it is not cost effective for my business to purchase a license for a particular software package, then I don't take on work which requires that software.&#xA;&#xA;But there may be ways to **keep the project** when this problem arises. (but not for clients asking you to steal outright) --  During bidding/quoting and it's determined that specialty software is needed, check the numbers. If profit on a project would make the cost of the software viable - i.e. the project would yield a profit of $5,000 and the software in question is $1,000. So I'd merely cut my profit by purchasing the software. I would seek a (non-refundable) deposit before work began which covered the software cost and initial work to be performed. As stated previously, purchase of software (tools) to complete your work is a tax deduction, so there's no real reason you *shouldn't* be legal if you are in business. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24618" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4203" RevisionGUID="c02bf0a7-4cc0-44e7-b203-ec7302adea98" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="This is a great problem to have!&#xA;&#xA;While many freelancers struggle to keep there pipelines full, you've got your hands full, so firstly congratulate yourself on being so reliable and great at your job that you're literally overflowing with work.&#xA;&#xA;**Now onto your question**, finding a way to successfully outsource your work all while making sure that:&#xA;&#xA;1.  it is both up to your standards (which is what to you to the number of projects you're getting at a time, so keep up the great quality of work!)&#xA;2. and that the person you outsource it to won't go MIA.&#xA;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&#xA;### To better answer your question, I'll break down what you can do to improvement your outsourcing in three categories:&#xA;&#xA;**Note:** The following advice will take some time to implement, but will be well worth it in the long run.&#xA;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&#xA;Get a Well-Documented Process&#xA;---&#xA;If you're planning on replacing yourself, **you need to document everything you do for a client project**, so even if your contractor does go MIA, you can have someone else jump in, read your docs, and continue on the project. Doing this not only is a great way to ease growing pains, but it also helps preemptively prevent contractor-related problems. I cannot stress how important this is for a freelancer to small-business transition. Even if you want to remain just a freelancer (1-man shop), I highly recommend you document your process so you can objectively take a look at it later on and make some improvements.&#xA;&#xA;Some helpful items/tasks to document are:&#xA;&#xA;- Client on-boarding process&#xA;- Design workflow and Management (e.g. File naming, backup systems, software plugins, etc.)&#xA;- Design Process&#xA;- Project management.&#xA;- Deliverable handoff&#xA;- Revision process&#xA;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&#xA;## Finding Great Talent&#xA;Assuming from your username, you most likely live in Canada. You have the option of both finding freelancers in metropolitan areas like Vancouver of Toronto as well as stretching your dollars much further by going to UpWork or freelancer and finding freelancers in the Philippines or India.&#xA;&#xA;As you've probably thought of, there are pros and cons of hiring both local freelancers/consultants, as well as hiring people across the world.&#xA;&#xA;### Hiring Locally:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;**Pros:** you can meet them in person. Understand the western culture a lot more. Better communication. You can trust them to communicate with your clients. Laws apply to them. Much better chance of finding an replacement for yourself. Same time-zone. &#xA;&#xA;**Cons:** Relatively pricy as a &quot;extensions of yourself&quot;&#xA;&#xA;### Hiring Across The World:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;**Pros:** The first things is you can hire pretty competent freelancers at a substantially cheaper than hiring someone at a first-world country. Rates between $5-$20/hour are quite common, and I suggested you hire someone in the $15-$20/hour range for quality control reasons.&#xA;&#xA;**Cons:** Communication. Work Culture. Over promising. not what you want.&#xA;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&#xA;## Contractor Management&#xA;&#xA;While it's great that you've done some introspection, and from reading your answer, I suggest you do the following: &#xA;&#xA;- **Be more hands-on (even if they're not employees)**. Its literally your job to make sure the work your contractors are delivering meets your standards.&#xA;&#xA;- **Make upfront expectations.** Communication is the biggest factor here. (as you've learned from dealing with clients yourself). Make sure you're both on the same page from the start. I cannot stress enough how important strong communication is. you've stated that you don't get in touch with your contractors until the time of the due date. Can you see the margin of error in your current method? Make sure there's constant and open communication between both parties.&#xA;&#xA;- **Take an objective look at what you're paying your contractors to outsource your work.** Is it worth your high standards and the multiple rounds of revisions you ask of them? As I stated before your high standard of work is great, and a big reason of why you have so many incoming projects in the first place. But you to have to pay for the talent and skill that will be essentially replacing you.&#xA;&#xA;- **Make sure your'e not losing more time than doing it yourself.** Instead of individually training every contractor you hire, I suggest investing a lot of time upfront by creating documentation of your process, and even doing screencasts of yourself working on some projects and keeping them in a private folder. You can then share this folder with new contractors and pay them ~$100 to go through the entire thing. This is a tiny investment compared to how much you will benefit in the long-run.&#xA;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&#xA;## Manage Delegation&#xA;&#xA;As others in this thread have suggested, handle your favorite part of the project yourself, and delegate the rest. This way, you'll be able to do what you love without getting burned out. You can even hire a part-time project manager to take care of some of the business stuff so you can take care of the design/development role yourself. But that's only doable if you thoroughly document your process..&#xA;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&#xA;## Conclusion&#xA;&#xA;Even if you're planning on staying as a 1-man operation, start thinking of yourself as a business and adjust your growth accordingly. Make the changes as you would if you would if you were a CEO of a small company." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24619" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7024" RevisionGUID="5d31af4a-538c-419b-bf2b-ea7a75b9bfc4" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="While I was looking for answers to a question that [has already been asked][1] here, I stumbled upon [this answer][2]. The second &quot;golden rule&quot; suggests:&#xA;&#xA;&gt;If it's something that will take more than 1 hour or so, and it's not in the domain &quot;you should know that before you applied to job&quot;, then ask a client if he is ready to finance the research time since the product will be of higher quality.&#xA;&#xA;But how does one ask if the client is willing to invest money in something without losing him as a client? Because I think that the client might consider you (the freelancer) as not competent enough and decide to find another freelancer.&#xA;&#xA;Note: I'm not a freelancer. I have no idea how any of that works. This question just popped in my head.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;PS: I couldn't find a more suitable tag than [tag:time-management]. &#xA;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/713/hourly-billing-is-it-appropriate-to-include-time-to-research-if-you-dont-know&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/718/15456" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24620" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4762" RevisionGUID="0e1c206a-7f8c-4e7d-bc8c-ac87e4e94b31" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="It sounds like your question boils down to:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; &quot;If company X can charge Y, and I'm just as skilled as company X, why&#xA;&gt; can't I charge Y?&quot;&#xA;&#xA;and, in a similar vein:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; &quot;How can I charge more for my services?&quot;&#xA;&#xA;In short, your friend can charge more for his services because his clients perceive a higher value. You can charge more for your services when your clients perceive higher value.&#xA;&#xA;Therefore, to increase prices and profits, maximize your value.&#xA;&#xA;How to maximize your company's value:&#xA;&#xA;## 1) Know who you are maximizing for&#xA;- In order to maximize your value, you need to know who you are maximizing your value for. Since different clients have different needs, it is impossible to optimize for everyone. This is why niches are so important. They provide your company a goal. &#xA;&#xA;- If you haven't already, define your ideal client. Your ideal client is a client that will pay you well for your services and provide your business a strong profit. So, how do you maximize profit? By maximizing the value your company provides to your clients. The more value you provide *to your clients* the more profitable your company will be. Remember though: you are maximizing the value you provide your clients. Your clients value different things than your company does. You need to understand what they value and maximize for them.&#xA;&#xA;## 2) Know the needs of your target client&#xA;&#xA;- In order to maximize your value for your target client, you need to know the needs of your target client. As an example, let's say you are a mobile development shop targeting middle-stage startups in the US. In order to maximize your value to those clients, you need to know the challenges they are facing. Learn the ins and outs of your target client. Figure out what is holding them back.&#xA;&#xA;## 3) Define the needs you will address for your target client&#xA;&#xA;- Once you know the needs of your target client, figure out which needs you are most equipped to address. While your clients might all have legal issues, unless you are an attorney, you're probably unfit to address those needs. You want to find that nice balance where your services perfectly mesh with your client's needs. You could face two problems at this stage. First: your company is incapable of addressing your client's most pressing needs. If this is the case, the easiest solution, and what I recommend in most cases, you should reassess your target client. However, if you're certain you have picked the right target client, your only other option is to develop the skills necessary to address those needs within your company.&#xA;&#xA;## 4) Clearly communicate the needs you will address to your target client&#xA;&#xA;- Craft your message so it resonates with your target client. Make sure to use language your client will understand. If you develop software and your ideal client is non-technical, don't layer your website with jargon. Remember, you're writing your message for your client, not yourself.&#xA;- Find the right platform for your message. If your ideal client is a 50yo CFO for a financial institution, maybe Facebook ads aren't the best form of advertising (although who knows, my mom is on Facebook more than I am). While it's important to get your message right, it's even more important to make sure you're giving your message to the right people.&#xA;&#xA;Lastly, I'll directly answer your questions:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; Should I invest a lot of my money to rent/buy a magnificent office and&#xA;&gt; in architects for furnish it?&#xA;&#xA;Will this provide a high degree of perceived value to your clients? To give you some anecdotal evidence, I currently work out of my home and do not believe it negatively impacts my current business. We have won 6-figure bids over agencies with fancy offices and nice furniture. Our clients don't place high value on fancy offices and furniture though. they want software that works.&#xA;&#xA;&gt; How to communicate your value as a serious reliable freelancer other&#xA;&gt; than impress the clients with special effects for it's own sake?&#xA;&#xA;Value is communicated in many different ways. One way my company communicates our value is through case studies and testimonials. If a company is interested in hiring us, they at least have proof that we provided value to another company. If that company is similar enough -- and it should be if you clearly defined your ideal client -- case studies will go a long way to communicate value.&#xA;&#xA;Other ways to communicate value:&#xA;&#xA;- Professionalism&#xA;- Knowledgeability&#xA;- Data/statistics&#xA;- Pricing&#xA;&#xA;Hopefully these tips help. If OP or anyone else has additional questions please do not hesitate to contact me (contact info in my profile).&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24621" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4686" RevisionGUID="aa9ee44c-863d-41af-9922-d182fb0dee22" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="Sounds like you're using Upwork? If not, let me know and I'll adjust this. &#xA;&#xA;Personally, I've been using Upwork for over a year and pretty much stopped using it because of low-quality clients. &#xA;&#xA;&#xA;----------&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;If there was no issue with your work during the development process and the client was able to see your work and then all of a sudden is not happy, that's a little suspicious. Unless, they're not satisfied with what's happened since the most recent billing period. &#xA;&#xA;This client may be happy but may want to keep the work and make back the payment so, in essence, you worked for free. &#xA;&#xA;**Nevertheless**&#xA;&#xA;You are paid for your **time** especially during hourly contracts. You're paid $x/hour for your expertise and skill. You provided a service, even if it wasn't completely up to the clients expectations - you put in the time and your time is worth something. &#xA;&#xA;I've been threatened a lawsuit or two in my time and have always been able to resolve the situation but I am not promising that your situation won't escalate.&#xA;&#xA;Ask the client for specifics as to why they're not happy, why they didn't bring up issues earlier, etc. This can all be used to call BS or as evidence later on.  &#xA;&#xA; - Inform support. This client may have done this before/ have a history of threatening a lawsuit&#xA; - Offer x amount of hours of free work to fix major issues&#xA; - Offer to work at a discount (I'd say at least 50%) to fix issues&#xA;&#xA;If they don't want you to fix anything then remove your work. I would tell them that I'm sorry they're unhappy with my work and that I'll refund them x% (I did this once and gave back 50%) but that I will be removing my work as they're not happy with it and I don't want to leave them with low-quality work or with work that was done but not technically paid for (because of the refund). &#xA;&#xA;&#xA;----------&#xA;&#xA;Here's the thing about legal action - no one is safe. &#xA;&#xA;I could sue you because you missed a comma in your question or claim you keyed my car. I could bring it to court as well (more than likely would be thrown out). Anyone can sue anyone for anything. If things do escalate then you need to be prepared to build a case. Save all work hours, save all communications through all methods, have proof of work, etc. &#xA;&#xA;**STAY PROFESSIONAL**&#xA;&#xA;Through ALL communication stay professional, helpful, calm, and don't use profanity. &#xA;&#xA;----------&#xA;If none of this works and they decide to proceed with a lawsuit&#xA;&#xA;Let the client know you're prepared to defend yourself.&#xA;&#xA;This had a client back off of a lawsuit from me once:&#xA;&#xA;&gt;I have X which proves you had no problem with the work after seeing it multiple times. &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Y shows communication between us that I offered to fix the problem but you wanted to keep my work and get a full refund. &#xA;&#xA;I'm not a lawyer but you may want to research one." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24622" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4672" RevisionGUID="2347cba9-d976-495a-b604-c2177e216fa8" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="You should come up with a template to send during bids. Without a lot of information as to the details of the project, you can't tailor the bid too much. &#xA;&#xA;I usually, for these bids, &#xA;&#xA;&gt;Introduction&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;Exprieince and education&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;Why I feel as though I'm the right choice/ what I can provide to make the project a success better/faster than others&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;past projects&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;skills&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;more about me and details as to how I generally accomplish projects. &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;Ask for a follow up &quot;Message me back&quot; or &quot;You can Skype me at&quot;&#xA;&#xA;Let's say they need a website. That's all it says &quot;I need a website&quot;. You don't know the scope or details but you can still explain your industry skills, project history, and how you develop/design website (process, time frame, special skills).&#xA;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24623" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4658" RevisionGUID="eb30e9ef-2519-4c55-a0d7-6ac9fa82941a" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="Before doing anything (as mentioned by @Scott)&#xA;&#xA;&gt;ask the client if the byline is part of a contract with the previous designer. If it is, you need to discuss this with the client. Leaving their byline on your work would be completely unacceptable to me.&#xA;&#xA;If you edit the signature (I call the designer link the 'signature' as it's like an artist signing their artwork) and there are contract rules about when it can or cannot be edited/ if the original designer needs to be given advanced notice before the change then the client could be held responsible for your change (they should really be aware of their own existing contracts, though)&#xA;&#xA;&gt;I don't really want others claiming my hard work&#xA;&#xA;I could make a portfolio website right now and link to all of your projects claiming they're mine. Nothing is stopping me from doing that but I won't have the clients backing or the footer link (developer/designer signature) indicating that it was actually my work. It's traditional to place a link on websites you've made and most clients are also aware. &#xA;&#xA;&gt;I could also ask the local business to inform him but I feel it is not really their duty.&#xA;&#xA;It's no way the clients obligation, nor is it yours (unless it's stated in a contract). If anything, you'd do this off of courtesy. &#xA;&#xA;&#xA;----------&#xA;&#xA;If you decide to contact the original designer you could also send along a link from the [WayBack Machine][1] of the design they made. &#xA;&#xA;The message could be as simple as &#xA;&#xA;&gt;Dear X&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;My name is Y and I am now working for one of your previous clients, Z. &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;I will be changing the footer link on the website to represent the most recent version of the website. I noticed that you're linking to Y on your website and wanted to give you an advanced notice so that you can take action. &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;I grabbed this link off of the WayBack Machine from the version of the clients website that you designed so that you can still use this great design as a reference for your future clients.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;Best Regards, &#xA;&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: https://archive.org/web/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24624" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4646" RevisionGUID="15785469-28cb-48e8-bfe4-4a85f57c3b2b" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="First, ask the client if the byline is **part of a contract** with the previous designer. If it is, you need to discuss this with the client. Leaving their byline on your work would be completely unacceptable to me.&#xA;&#xA;Second, realize that many of these type of bylines are done *without* client approval. But they don't really raise client disapproval either. Many designers will add the byline without any discussion... the client sees it and simply does not object to it so they say nothing. &#xA;&#xA;Provided the byline is *not* part of any contract, remove it.&#xA;&#xA;Third, if you're interested in using your *own byline* and the client is okay with it, then do so. If he's/she's linking to the site... and the byline is *not* hers/his it will merely reflect poorly upon him/her. Not your problem.&#xA;&#xA;Fourth, do you *know for a fact* this previous designer is *linking* to the live site? Many web designers know better than to link to live sites because they can easily change and not provide the impression one wishes to convey.&#xA;&#xA;It's a quick lesson to learn when you discover that the beautiful, awe-inspiring, web site you designed has been reworked by the client last week, because they just started learning HTML, and you've linked to it as your work. [Oh, the horror stories that many could tell.]&#xA;&#xA;I *never* link to live sites. I use images/screenshots. There's a valid reason you honestly rarely see live links in any portfolio. &#xA;&#xA;Lastly, if you don't want to implement your own byline, but you want to remove theirs. Then remove it and send a polite email. Something like:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; Hello, &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;The web site for XXXXX has been redesigned and any portfolio links you may be using are no longer valid.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;Thank you&#xA;&#xA;There's no further need to respond to *anything* they may reply with. And his/her relationship with your client is, again, not your problem. You were hired to do a job. Sending the email is merely a courtesy. Of course, this doesn't mean they *won't* use the link still... but there's really next to nothing you can do about that. Any ethical designer will stop using any links." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24625" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4616" RevisionGUID="7d87807f-a027-4184-aa3a-181111a3d90b" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I'm going to assume that you're asking because you're new to either Upwork or freelancing altogether. &#xA;&#xA;There are many reasons as to why you might not be hired often. Personally, I used to get hired on 90% of jobs I applied for. Now I don't use Upwork too often as I personally feel as though the quality of freelancers and clients has dropped significantly. I digress. &#xA;&#xA;You're competing with other freelancers and you need to prove that you're better than the other options and are affordable. &#xA;&#xA; 1. Rates matter&#xA;&#xA;If the average project bid (let's just say it's a fixed-price job) is $500 and you come in with a bid of $1,500 the client likely won't look at your profile you're too expensive (caveat is what the client sets as their budget). If you come in with a bid of $100 then common sense says this may not be a quality freelancer. &#xA;&#xA; 2. How you carry yourself matters&#xA;&#xA;Issue number one is you addressing the client as 'freelancer'. If I saw this, instant reject. This shows you didn't proof read your bid and if you're not willing to put in that much effort, why would you put in more for my project?&#xA;&#xA;You only talk about yourself. You need to tell me how you're going to help ME. Yes, you know HTML &amp; CSS but so does every other freelancer that I'm going to give the time of day to. How are you going to help me and provide a better service to me than the other freelancers'.&#xA;&#xA;Your selling point should come after you list your skill set but before you call an action. &#xA;&#xA;&gt; Please check the tests that I have passed related to Web Design with the high score of (top 30%).&#xA;&#xA;Why should I check your profile? There's a dozen other freelancer's who have told me how they can make my project a success and you want me to go out of my way. Unless I'm already interested in you - I'm not looking at your profile. &#xA;&#xA;There is some poor English here which is understandable if it's not your native tongue but spending a few bucks on a proofreader or running it through [Grammarly][1] can't hurt. &#xA;&#xA;&#xA;----------&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;&gt;I have also listed my most expensive and tough projects on portfolio.&#xA;&#xA;This is poorly framed. Frankly, no client cares what the most expensive project you've done is. You can talk about complex projects due to scale or difficult features you've implemented. &#xA;&#xA;&gt;I believe my skills would be perfect for your project.&#xA;&#xA;What skills? Yes, you listed off that you know HTML, CSS, JS, etc but there's no indication on every project that the client knows what these are. I want to know that my website will look original, that it will be mobile-responsive, etc. I don't know the benefit of you knowing JS, PHP, .NET, SQL, etc. I just know that I need a website. &#xA;&#xA;&gt; I hope you would find Quality in my work&#xA;&#xA;I shouldn't need to find quality in your work. It should be apparent. However, this could be a language barrier thing. A better phrasing is &#xA;&#xA;&quot;You can see some of my quality work below&quot; - proceed to list of projects. &#xA;&#xA;&#xA;----------&#xA;&#xA;&gt;Here are my Few projects&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;(PSD TO Bootstrap): ...&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;(PSD TO WORDPRESS): ...&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;(WORDPRESS): ...&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;...&#xA;&#xA;Not too much insight here, which is fine, but what you put here is very important. &#xA;&#xA;Make sure that you're showcasing sites (link) as well as explaining what you did for this project. What amazing feat did you accomplish? Think outside of development as well. Did a site you built increase onsite conversions by 50%? Include that - if it's true. &#xA;&#xA;Was the website horribly outdated and you updated it? Include a link to the [archive of the site][2] before you worked on it and after. &#xA;&#xA;&#xA;----------&#xA;&#xA;Here's a good general format for bids and I suggest you do some A/B testing on different formats and content. &#xA;&#xA; - Greeting&#xA; &#xA; - Brief introduction &#xA;  &#xA;   - Core skills&#xA;&#xA;   - Experience &#xA;  &#xA;   - Selling point (&quot;I have a masters in x&quot;, &quot;I've worked on similar projects before&quot;)&#xA;&#xA; - Skills you have that are relevant to the project &amp; that may be additionally useful (project calls for a website redesign and you have content writing skills? Mention it.)&#xA;&#xA; - How you're going to help the client. This is the most important part. How will you complete all the requests the client has. How are you going to do a better job than everyone else? What is your game plan?&#xA;&#xA; - Sales pitch. This is where you mention the tests you've passed, ask the client to view your profile, LinkedIn, etc. As well as elaborating on what makes you special. &#xA;&#xA; - Projects. This is where you list, in detail, the projects you've worked on and what feats you overcame to complete these projects. The more relevant they are to the project you're bidding on, the better. &#xA;&#xA;Again, please create your own method and test what works for you. &#xA;&#xA;  [1]: https://app.grammarly.com/&#xA;  [2]: https://archive.org/web/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24626" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4611" RevisionGUID="bfb86f4a-88a7-416b-a9f2-82ddf2fc6454" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I'm not sure what &quot;applying&quot; and &quot;interviews&quot; have to do with freelancing.... but....&#xA;&#xA;Realize that *most* people in charge of the first round of hiring choices (Human relations officers/HR) have *no idea* what the actual skills for a position are. They are merely reading off of a piece of paper or email. The HR department weeds out the completely undesirable candidates, *then* the interviews involve someone that *knows* the skills you'll need. &#xA;&#xA;I'd just reply back...&#xA;&gt;Hi X,&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;I was seeking the position of an iOS developer. I was not applying for a PHP development position. &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;I would love an opportunity to interview. However, I'd hate to waste your time if I've mistakenly applied for the incorrect position. &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;I'm happy to schedule an interview if you are seeking an iOS developer.&#xA;&#xA;Or something along those lines. Don't interview for a position you aren't qualified for, or you don't even want. Clarify the mistake first. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24627" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4589" RevisionGUID="c52337dc-a160-4c25-ad4c-f656e1456721" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="There's no hard and fast rule about this in my experience.&#xA;&#xA;Some freelancers like to play it loose and ambiguous with dollar amounts. My opinion is this is often done for three reasons: A) They want to be able to &quot;feel&quot; the client out in case they can get more money from them or B) they aren't confident enough and are too scared of losing a job due to pricing and C) they feel it may convey an attitude of willingness to compromise or an overall lax attitude. -- Again, just my opinion. And I'm not stating these are all *wrong*, they just aren't the way I do business. I've seen many the freelancer state things like &quot;Just pay me what you think it's worth.&quot; That's all well and good if you aren't really concerned with how much money you are earning or don't feel your time is of value. But to me.... I really *need* to be paid if I'm spending my time and experience to assist a client in making money for themselves.&#xA;&#xA;Working this way **greatly** escalates the chances of you not being paid, or being underpaid. Sure you may be seen as a &quot;nice guy/gal&quot; but which is more important - earning a living or being seen as &quot;nice&quot;? If there's no solid, agreed upon figure, there **will** be arguments and disagreements about what you are worth. If you can afford to just walk away from any job without payment, or file lawsuits to get your payment, then okay. Most don't have the time, patience or resources to actually survive this way.&#xA;&#xA;&gt;This is like working at Taco Bell and not worrying about getting a paycheck. Taco Bell makes money either way -- if they don't have to pay you, they'll be more than happy to take your free or reduce wage services. Why would you ***not*** want to be paid?&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;# I provide hard, solid, numbers when asked what my hourly rate is. &#xA;&#xA;When I'm asked what my hourly rate is, I provide my hourly rate. Period. I don't waffle. I'm not ambiguous about how much I expect the client to pay me. I want **no** misunderstanding. The client needs to be *fully aware* that if they want me to do X, they are expected to pay $X. &#xA;&#xA;On top of that, I do **not** alter my pricing just because a client feels my pricing is unjustified (to them). Clients have **no idea** what my overhead is and what my expenses are. Therefore a *client* is **never** in a position to tell me what I should earn. Ever. I don't care what they've paid in the past. I don't care what they *think* is acceptable. I've set my rates. Pay them or move on. &#xA;&#xA;Related questions:&#xA;&#xA;https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/25712/what-should-i-do-if-a-potential-client-claims-my-pricing-is-too-high/25713#25713&#xA;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1304/whose-responsibility-is-to-give-budget-for-job-freelancer-or-client/1317#1317&#xA;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2541/how-much-should-i-charge-for-graphic-design-and-how/2544#2544&#xA;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2383/as-a-freelancer-how-do-you-quote-charge-for-a-project/2385#2385&#xA;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/917/client-wants-to-pay-a-percentage-of-revenue-generated-by-website/923#923&#xA;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3891/underestimated-project-do-you-charge-the-excess-time/3892#3892&#xA;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3305/how-to-politely-turn-down-a-clients-request-for-a-free-test-job/3307#3307&#xA;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3075/how-to-negotiate-a-price-after-an-item-of-work-is-done/3083#3083&#xA;&#xA;There are a ton of questions here regarding pricing and client relations. It may help to just search and review other questions/answers.&#xA;&#xA;*Below is only added because you used the word &quot;recruiter&quot; rather than &quot;client&quot;*&#xA;&#xA;Regarding the &quot;recruiter&quot; -- be careful. Just my experience, but if this person is looking to use you and be essentially your &quot;agent&quot; -- as in they go out get work, you complete the work then you pay them for finding the work -- you need to **seriously negotiate** compensation and how payments are structured. &#xA;&#xA;I've seen several instances where a &quot;recruiter&quot; would refer a client to me, then expect *me* to write them a check for a percentage of the project - a &quot;[kickback][1]&quot; essentially. This is done *all the time* but it is often ethically questionable because it is so easy to raise rates to clients in order to compensate for the kickback -- and often that is the case. In addition, when you start writing checks for this type of thing it can have a detrimental effect on how you *feel* about freelancing. It's no fun shelling out money for completing your work. It just *feels* backwards (because it is).&#xA;&#xA;On the other hand, there are &quot;recruiters&quot; that go out, find the work, come to you to complete the work, then *they* bill the client and *they* write *you* a check for the services -- you don't get payment directly from the client. You get payment from the &quot;recruiter&quot;. Essentially you become and &quot;invisible&quot; resource for them. This is very common and generally not a problem. In fact, I've worked this way with some clients for years. However, you need to ensure (via a contract) that if the &quot;recruiter's&quot; client doesn't pay the &quot;recruiter&quot; then you still get paid. Don't allow your payment to be dependent upon the recruiter's payment. Get a contract in place that states **every** project the recruiter asks you to complete, the **recruiter** is responsible to pay for.&#xA;&#xA;&gt;Note according to the rate calculator you linked to, I'd be a baz-illionaire by now - those figures seem exceptionally unconventional to me. Without *any* explanation as to *how* the values are being calculated, I would not put *any* stock in what that link states.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;According to that link, Based on my last W2 position (more than 10 years ago) I should be charging more than 4 times what I currently charge... I'd starve because no one would hire me as a freelancer at that rate. If I were to go back to W2 employment, based on my current earnings... well.. I'd *never* find *any* position paying that much.&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kickback" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24628" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4359" RevisionGUID="1f82f449-c7f7-47fb-af63-3511bced1207" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="Not sure if I understood you correctly, but I've heard good things about the the [Estonian e-residency][1] in regards to e-businesses and banks.&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: https://e-estonia.com/e-residents/about/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24629" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4291" RevisionGUID="ec867724-c636-49a5-81fe-79922e402438" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I recently had a major client terminate their Service Level Agreement (SLA) with my company in Canada, and I'm trying to assess what rights as a contractor I have since my fixed term SLA has what appear to be contradictory conditions.&#xA;&#xA;My SLA contract with them, which lasted just for under a year, specifies it's a fixed term contract:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; This contract will be in effect ***until the end of the current financial year, February 29, 2016.*** It is anticipated that this contract will be renewed on an annual basis subject to agreement by both parties. &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Key considerations will be delivery of satisfactory performance by&#xA;&gt; XXX [me] and agreement with regards to compensation terms.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;In preparation for signing a new contract YYY's Executive Director [the client] will meet with xxx's principal [me] to review the previous year’s performance and to discuss future compensation terms.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;However, this fixed term contract also has a provision that says:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; *Contract Commencement, Revision &amp; Termination*&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; The term of this contract commences upon signing by both parties. ***Regardless of the contract end date, at any time either party has the right to give notice to end this contract 90 days from the date of notice.*** During the notice period XXX will be expected to deliver IT services and will continue to be paid as per the terms of this contract.&#xA;&#xA;-----------&#xA;&#xA;I was served notice to stop working on the project on February 8th, just weeks before the contract's expiry.  I was told they would pay me out for all of February (the last month of the contract), and that in addition to this, they would also pay me for an extra month if I agree to sign a two year non-solicitation agreement, a non-disclosure agreement and cooperate with a technical transition.&#xA;&#xA;I did not receive a performance review, though I did receive promises to discuss negotiating a new contract.&#xA;&#xA;However, because the notice period makes mention of the 90 days of notice, I sense that I should be entitled to at least 3 months of notice payout for the contract termination.&#xA;&#xA;Based on the wording of this fixed term contract, do I have a legal right to demand 90 days of notice pay, even though my contract's termination is happening at the end its fixed term?&#xA;&#xA;---------------&#xA;&#xA;UPDATE:  Turns out they want me to sign a non-solicitation agreement, so I think the extra month of compensation pay is being offered because in Canada [non-solicitation agreements are not enforceable unless something of value is provided in exchange for signing one.](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/can-my-employer-force-me-to-sign-a-non-compete-clause/article533688/)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24630" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="4691" RevisionGUID="c029a3a0-e778-472c-9979-d174013e71ba" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="# Don't provide anything.&#xA;&#xA;**Avoid these clients.** Seriously, don't even consider working for clients such as this. If the client can not take the time to at least attempt to describe their issue as thoroughly as possible, especially in a *written* description, then they will **not** take the time to interact with you appropriately. &#xA;&#xA;A lack of any detail shows a *clear* apathy towards both the project and the worker. And that will ultimately translate to you tracking them down to get input, direction, and possibly payment. In addition to **repeated** reworking of things you've already completed because the client failed to describe things correctly to begin with.&#xA;&#xA;If you are at all interested in pleasing, seamless, beneficial client arrangements, simply do **not** quote/bid/estimate on a project with little or no description. The absolutely **most** you should do is ask for &quot;more detailed information&quot; before providing *anything* yourself.&#xA;&#xA;Vested clients *want* to eliminate as much guesswork as possible. It's understandable if they just do not posses the knowledge to describe an issue correctly or accurately. However, **I have yet to run into a client that can't describe the *problem* they are experiencing.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24631" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9729" RevisionGUID="06b344aa-17cf-4205-b6f7-6ab97ca73571" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I received and offer from a company to work as an independent software developer contractor. The agreement contains some clauses that specify that I should indemnify the company.&#xA;&#xA;This one agrees to have unlimited liability and forces me to have an insurance. I asked about the what the mentioned &quot;adequate cover&quot; and what are the mentioned &quot;reputable insurers accepted by the company&quot; but I received no answer from them.&#xA;&gt; You shall have personal liability for and shall indemnify the Client or any of its Affiliates for any loss, liability, costs (including reasonable legal costs), damages or expenses arising from the provision of the Services and shall maintain in force during the period of this agreement adequate insurance cover with reputable insurers acceptable to the Client.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;The next one looks to me like I'm giving the up my right to raise any claim or sue them. Is this ethical to do? is this a red flag?&#xA;&#xA;&gt; You shall be fully responsible for and indemnify the Client against any liability, assessment or claim for:&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; (a) taxation whatsoever arising from or made in connection with the performance of the Services, where such recovery is not prohibited by law; and&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; (b) any employment-related claim or any claim based on worker status (including reasonable costs and expenses) brought by you or any substitute against the Client arising out of or in connection with the provision of the Services, except where such claim is as a result of any act or omission of the Client.&#xA;&#xA;My question is if this is a common practice or this's a red flag and I should avoid working for them. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24632" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9606" RevisionGUID="44f19527-db0d-458a-a0bd-36d224a798cb" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I would **absolutely** mention any money owed.&#xA;&#xA;&gt;Hi [brand manger],&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;There is still an outstanding balance of $xxxx owed for work completed. No information regarding projects or their construction will be shared until the outstanding balance has been paid.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;Thank you.&#xA;&#xA;-----------------&#xA;&#xA;I don't know what your agreement was with the client. However, in general sharing all your native files is typically poor practice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24633" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9355" RevisionGUID="25a8a213-a883-4570-909f-ec978fb9cebb" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="So I was hired for a roughly one day long project on 1st of Jul with 10 days deadline.&#xA;&#xA;He started asking me for daily update from next day which was bit annoying since I have not started yet.&#xA;&#xA;On 4th, I write him to provide me the things I need. He finally provide me on 12th of July (one day after deadline). He asked for updates meanwhile twice and both time, I reminded him I am stuck waiting for him.&#xA;&#xA;Co-incidentally that week was exceptionally busy for me, so I tell him on 12th, that I will do it on 19th of July. He blamed me for missing my deadline  at this point. I tell him, how can he blame me when he provided me things one day after the deadline.&#xA;&#xA;He is pretty much blaming me for everything at this point, and he was very serious about this new deadline on 19th. On 19th, I started worked on his project as promised, and noticed the credentials he sent me on 12th are wrong (He only had one job, and couldn't do it right). He tell me he will send the correct one later today, but he never did. I followed up again on 20th in evening, and then he finally sent correct ones.&#xA;&#xA;Now I tell him, I am busy on 21st, and will do it on 22 now. Now he gets very very angry again and start saying I treat his project like a joke, and I am BS'ing and I don't deliver timely, and blah blah blah. He also he threatened to cancel the project if I do it on 22nd.&#xA;&#xA;I have a record of delivering on time on every projects except this one. He delayed the project twice and he blames me for it. I just don't understand how can I do his work if he don't provide me the needed things timely. And secondarily I am not his full time employee. I have other commitments too. How can he expect me to drop everything like this?&#xA;&#xA;Since I was already fed up with him long ago, and was tolerating him just to be professional, I decided to fire him right away at this point giving him full refund.&#xA;&#xA;I want to ask:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; A) Who is at fault here?&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; B) How I could have handled the situation better to be less stressful for me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24634" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9280" RevisionGUID="657f0854-99c6-465f-8a9c-82c1798d4d94" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="Your question is quite layered so lets take it apart a bit. You have a few different kinds of old clients only some of which I would really call &quot;bad&quot;.&#xA;&#xA;## Friends and Family&#xA;Those are hard to negotiate with but not bad as such (or so I hope). Once you start to work for friends for free they expect that it will always be the case. In turn I personally find it very hard to ask friends to pay for my work. This is something you can only fix in a case by case way I'd say. But basically it comes down to the question whether they would be willing and able to pay somebody at all for the job - if so, why not you? You can still give a friends discount if you enjoy working on the project. And I will never charge my family to fix their messed up PC I guess :-D&#xA;&#xA;## Clients not worth the time&#xA;If you have old contracts (whether written or verbally) with a bad revenue/time ratio you need to update those. Of course not everybody can afford to pay full rates for a developer but maybe you can find a balance between those who can pay full and those that need to be subsidized a bit. My company sometimes takes smaller jobs from start-ups at a lower rate but only when we have someone to spare. In general those who pay the full rates get priority and we are open about this with those we offer discounted rates to.&#xA;&#xA;## Clients that don't pay&#xA;Yeah well - no pay, no play. Let those clients go. Do not directly refer them to anyone because it would ruin your reputation. If you referred someone to me that notoriously doesn't pay and/or has horrible communication habits we would stop working together.&#xA;&#xA;## Don't lie!&#xA;Just don't. It will always backfire one way or another. You are to busy to take a job? Be honest about it! Client does not pay? Tell them you will stop working for them if they don't! Client has bad communication habits? Ask them to change those or tell them you will need to charge them for the extra time.&#xA;&#xA;## Networking and Cooperation&#xA;As @CanadianLuke pointed out try not to see people working in the same field mainly as competition but as professionals with related expertise. Usually there are more people needing coders then there *are* coders. Maybe you can check whether somebody is willing to take on some of your older clients to get the business started same way you did in the beginning.&#xA;&#xA;Hope this helps a bit! Cheers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24635" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9238" RevisionGUID="9b75e67e-99c7-440d-a028-d44935a6e59d" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I do not understand why this warrants a question here. It seems **very** straightforward to me.&#xA;&#xA;&gt;Hello [CEO],&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;Our consultancy contract is due to expire on XXXX.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;I would be pleased to renew the contract. &#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;Please let me know by [Date] if you wish to renew.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24636" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7932" RevisionGUID="3f1e46a6-0eba-4ece-b083-73fdf6ad9395" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="In my *opinion* you are being **taken advantage of** at least to some degree. It may not be *malicious* in nature, but what you've described is *absolutely* not favorable to any designer, not even in part.&#xA;&#xA;&gt;...we would agree on X money every month if there's a project and X money if there's none. I would send him both figure and see if we could agree on it.&#xA;&#xA;How I would see this suggestion:&#xA;&#xA;- The client wants to pay a **retainer**... okay for what? Are changes happening that often? If yes, then okay. This is **separate** from **any** new project. Estimate the number of change requests on average and how long they may take to complete. So, if you find (or estimate) you spend 5 hours a month on average with changes, and your hourly rate is $50hr...  5x50 = $250 is the retainer fee. Thats it, anything less and you are **losing** money. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;If change requests are sporadic and only happen once a quarter or every couple months, it's hardly valuable to the client to be paying a retainer - The client would be better served by merely paying you hourly for your time when they had changes to be made. If they merely want to stabilize that amount.. see the amount above.... $250 - `estimated hrs * hourly rate`.... don't waiver from that.&#xA;- **New projects** are to be priced based upon standard rates and **are not** covered under the retainer agreement. Unless *every single new projects* you create for this client is *exactly* the same in the amount of creativity, skill, time, and effort involved in creation, you simply **can not** price them all the same amount. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Sure if every month he wants a few new images for Facebook advertising, then okay.. price those all the same perhaps. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;But if in July he wants a Facebook ad and a flyer. Then in September he wants a brochure, a flyer, a poster. And then in October he wants Facebook ad and a 12 page digest-sized booklet. --- well all those **can't** be blanketed under one single fee. Each of those items needs separate and individual pricing. If you **do not** price such varied items separately, you may as well pay this guy to work for him. Because you **are** losing money.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Its important to realize that when I post &quot;losing money&quot; I mean it is *costing you* more to run your equipment than you would be earning - i.e. heating your home, electricity to run a computer, software costs, etc. I'm *not* referring to &quot;missing out on *possible* payments&quot;. So, effectively you would be *paying the client* to work for them.&#xA;&#xA;An important thing to realize is that....&#xA;&#xA;# Negotiations do NOT always mean there's a settled agreement.&#xA;&#xA;You have to be willing to walk away if things are not favorable. Sure give a little, but don't let yourself be taken advantage of merely because you think you need this client. You don't. You have a full time job.... realize that he needs *you* **far more** than you need him.&#xA;&#xA;I would provide one fee.. the **retainer fee** and that's it. So I'd reply with something like....&#xA;&#xA;-----------------&#xA;&#xA;&quot;A monthly retainer costs $250 and covers all revisions, changes, and updates to any *existing* project. If you would like to avoid this monthly fee, changes can be made when requested and will subsequently be invoiced hourly at $50 per hour. This may mean some months you pay nothing and some months you pay more than the $250 retainer fee. **New projects** will be invoiced *above and beyond* this retainer fee. An estimate for all new projects will be provided prior to work being started.&quot;&#xA;&#xA;--------------&#xA;&#xA;I *would* allow a 10% negation fluctuation.. so I'd be willing to drop to $225/mo **minimum** for the retainer, but thats it. Anything less and I'm **losing money** and it's not a client worth retaining. And if they *don't* agree to pay you individually for each new project, then yeah.... the client is clearly taking advantage of you in my opinion. &#xA;&#xA;**Clients** do not dictate your pricing. You do. If you know your *hourly rate* and you know how much time it takes to complete a client request, than that is the *bare minimum* you should be charging in *every* instance. If a client complains and does not want to pay that amount, you do not *have* to work for less. You may *choose* to work for less, but all that does is ensure you will continually lose money as you gain experience and skills. ***It's up to you to ensure you get paid what you may be worth***.&#xA;&#xA;From my experience, the *more* you &quot;negotiate&quot; pricing -- i.e. listen to a client complain about paying -- the less likely you are to either get paid, or to get paid adequately. It's a bad client technique to whittle you down to their desires. Stick to your pricing if you ever plan on getting ahead. **Good clients** will ask what pricing is ahead of time and will **pay** you when invoiced without complaining - even if they feel teh invoice was too much, they'll pay it then ask you about it. Or ask you about it immediately before paying it. They won't ignore it and wait 30/60/90 days for you to contact them regarding the matter.&#xA;&#xA;To me..... this all rings of a **bad client** I would not *want* to work with. Again, perhaps not a *maliciously* bad client. It could merely be an unaware, small picture, client which may make them a bad client. Nonetheless, I'd be looking to replace that revenue stream rather than spending 90 days trying to get paid.&#xA;&#xA;----------------------------&#xA;&#xA;**Tl;Dr**&lt;br&gt;&#xA;**Freelance *designers* are typically *not* paid as if they were *employees* on a salary.** **ONLY** if both the client and the freelancer can agree upon amount, which covers *all* work,  and the *number of hours you are to expected to work is **limited***, is a single fee remotely possible. &#xA;&#xA;For a *designer*, if you work on *different* projects of varying complexity and *not* the same thing over and over, it's is **NEVER** in your favor to agree upon one set fee, regardless of the amount of the fee, **unless** there's a *limit* the the hours you will work. You will **always** be better off pricing projects individually or invoicing based upon an *hourly rate* rather than having an open-ended retainer without time limitations. I would **never**, on my worst day, agree to one fee as compensation for *anything* a client asks me to design regardless of the time it takes to create such projects. Remember, you are **not** an employee.&#xA;&#xA;This client is asking you to provide them with a &quot;blank check&quot; of sorts -- where for one (lowball) fee they can get you to work 10 hours, 40 hours, 60 hours, 200 hours or more. Sure at 10 hours you're making $25/hr if he's paying $250 (which is still low). But at 100hrs you'd only make $2.50/hr.... does that sound reasonable to you?? Put your foot down. You don't *have* to allow someone to take advantage of you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24637" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7920" RevisionGUID="135efb5b-419d-43e7-8060-110647e9e71e" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="# 1&#xA;&#xA;**Deliverables and scope of work are set forth in a contract** and the goal is to complete said deliverables to the client's satisfaction. &#xA;&#xA;If the client is abusing this stance with continual, repetitive, possibly unwarranted, alterations, have a conversation with them. That's typically all that is required.&#xA;&#xA;Quite honestly I have many of my clients often *because* I don't limit their ability to ask for corrections. By implementing something like &quot;three rounds of alterations only&quot; that leave the client feeling like if there's an error, you hold them hostage. never a good impression for a client.&#xA;&#xA;I tell my clients....&#xA;&gt;Although I don't limit the number of revisions or changes you can request, I do ask that you be aware and conscious that every change requires additional time. My goal is to provide a solid product you can be proud to show off and not to invoice for every possible second of work possible. I do not want you feeling restrained or hesitant to voice a change concern merely because there may be some apprehension of additional costs incurred.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;In some cases what may seem like a small change to you, may actually necessitate far deeper, more time-consuming, changes on my end.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;If I feel, at some point, change requests are going above and beyond normal expectations, I will open a dialog with you regarding possible additional costs. However, I strive to avoid this. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24638" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7901" RevisionGUID="62e14f65-901f-4fa5-a58e-6f4b94f92d6d" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="# I am NOT a lawyer. &#xA;&#xA;It is my understanding that in the United States, if you have evidence of an **intent to default** on payment or a contract, you can start the legal processes of repercussions due to that default, i.e. small claims.&#xA;&#xA;Certainly someone stating, in writing  &quot;I won't pay&quot; is evidence that there is direct intent to breach any contract for payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24639" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7530" RevisionGUID="3ce599f4-b659-4b9b-8643-2ed40ec04c52" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="# You pay taxes where you live. You *do not* pay taxes where your customers/clients live.&#xA;&#xA;I don't know about Vietnam, but traditionally you pay taxes where **you** live, not where clients live. You would pay Vietnamese taxes based upon your income. You would *not* pay UK taxes since you don't live in the UK.&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24640" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7405" RevisionGUID="edf9201f-1a82-489c-89f0-874e62d0cd59" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="Altering branding is generally handled in one of three ways...&#xA;&#xA;- &quot;Formerly XXXXXXX&quot;&#xA;- Completely unrelated branding to appear as a new company&#xA;- &quot;A subsidiary of XXXXX&quot;&#xA;&#xA;Given the clarifying comment, it's imperative to consider how you want to move forward and what you want your business to look like 1, 3, 5, + years down the road.&#xA;&#xA;---------------------&#xA;&#xA;# If the goal is to inevitably alter the brand name entirely&#xA;&#xA;...then I would suggest leaving the old domain, with a *redirect* to the new domain. This will ensure all your existing visitors get forwarded to the primary web site. You might also consider an &quot;I see you came from our old site. Don't forget to update bookmarks.&quot; type of message. Eventually traffic to the old domain will slow and die. At which point you can let it go. Although leaving a redirect in place is never really a *bad* thing.&#xA;&#xA;Then you spend your time and energy on the new domain. Pretty much ignoring the old domain.&#xA;&#xA;The **brand** should reflect, for a period of time, the previous brand name or identity. Hence the &quot;formerly XXXX&quot; method. This allows existing clientele to be aware that it's the same company just a new name/brand and eliminates much of the mistrust which may otherwise surface.&#xA;&#xA;--------------&#xA;&#xA;# If the goal is to merely operate under *both* brands&#xA;&#xA;...then you want both sites to appear completely different and **never** duplicate content. You're probably aware, but duplicate content on multiple web sites will *lower* SEO across them all. And in this case you don't necessarily need to do *anything* to the old site except perhaps add an advertisement for the new site/brand.&#xA;&#xA;You then build out the new brand/site as a completely separate entity.&#xA;&#xA;------------&#xA;&#xA;# If the goal is to operate the new domain as a subset of the old domain&#xA;&#xA;....then branding for the new site is often the same branding as the old site with a touch of flair - the &quot;A subsidiary of XXXX&quot;.&#xA;&#xA;FedEx does this:&#xA;&#xA;[![enter image description here][1]][1]&#xA;&#xA;Same general brand with some alterations for subsets of the company. Without being a big, internationally known company, you need to stay closer to your primary brand to remain identifiable, but the general idea is a tag line or some other unique aspect added to the existing brand t indicate a subset within the company. &#xA;&#xA;You would brand the new site with this derivative brand and build it with original content related to those special services or the thought behind the subsidiary. Again, you do not want to duplicate content from the main site if SEO is a concern.&#xA;&#xA;-------------&#xA;&#xA;# As for your girlfriend and *her* business....&#xA;&#xA;...be careful. Realize I have *no idea* about your relationship. But mixing business with someone you are in a non-binding relationship with can be **horrific**. If you have a falling out and she is intertwined with *your* business ventures, a vindictive person can sabotage the business of the other. Again, I do *not* know either of you. But until you are married and both *legally* responsible for the aspects of the business. I would **never**, not ever, mix my business with a &quot;girlfriend&quot;.&#xA;&#xA;By mixing the domains and businesses you are both putting yourselves in a position to be responsible for the other's mistakes. If either of you were to happen to be sued for something and the businesses are mixed... there's no telling if a judge would see you as *one* business rather than two separate entities, making you both equally and severally liable. Same holds true for taxes. No clue where you are located, but if one of you fails to pay taxes, the IRS *might* see you as one business and go after the other for payment. All may seem wonderful and dandy now... but relationships can change rapidly often resulting if severe regrets for commingling things, especially things centered around income.&#xA;&#xA;Have her purchase her *own* domain. You can support her by building the site or with the technical aspects or anything else she may need, even pay for her domain if you feel you should. But keep *your business* separate from *her business*. There are legal ramifications if you do not, at least until you are married.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;----------&#xA;&#xA;Personal opinion regarding domain names.... It's pointless to &quot;wait for one to expire&quot; 95% of the time. That is unless you pay some domain-sniping company to snatch it up at the first opportunity. The cost for that can be as much as trying to purchase the domain from the existing owner. And many, many, many domain owners and squatters only renew yearly so you THINK it's going to expire soon. But realize they have that 30 day grace period and first rights to reinstate it. You can only &quot;snipe&quot; a domain from someone who is not paying attention to it and ignoring all the renewal emails, for at least 30 days. (Heck, Network Solutions will even CALL an owner when a domain is ready to expire.)&#xA;&#xA;I generally think it is better to find a Top Level Domain that is available (I know it's impossible at times). This can, and often will, have general branding implications. It's great to come up with a &quot;cool name&quot; for your company, but if that TLD is *never* going to be available because someone else also thought of it, it's still rather pointless.&#xA;&#xA;I, myself, only purchase .com domains for primary web presence. Anything else *looks* like you couldn't get the .com and clients go looking at the .com. I will use .net or other non-TLD domains for things like client access, or general SEO supporting the .com. But I just don't bother with primary web sites unless they *are* a .com.&#xA;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/cOBpv.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24641" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7356" RevisionGUID="59ed3c02-e7ed-491b-bde3-7f103c455789" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="# Rate of exchange&#xA;&#xA;$10 US = a whole lot more in many countries around the world. The US Dollar is one of the higher rated currencies, along with the Pound and Euro. $1 is often much more than that in other countries. You may be paying $7 US / hr but that may equate to 4 or 5 times (or more) that amount in the worker's country." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24642" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7350" RevisionGUID="003d2b45-77ca-411e-b69c-3703ea457999" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="# It's a scam&#xA;&#xA;Anytime an unknown third party is involved regarding payment, it's a *scam*. **Especially**, if it's along the lines of *&quot;I'll pay you, then you pay them&quot;*. &#xA;&#xA;# Just pass on the project. &#xA;&#xA;The Con: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&gt;He sends you money that is &quot;on hold&quot; or a check... then you pay the third party... then the money he sent is revoked, or the check bounces, leaving you paying out with no return. &#xA;&#xA;**No one** in business, and I mean **no one**, &quot;doesn't have the ability to accept Visa&quot; as long as Paypal and email addresses exist." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24643" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9671" RevisionGUID="0e97531a-59d1-4732-80bb-dd162d66a9c6" CreationDate="2020-06-18T08:34:45.030" UserId="-1" Comment="Commonmark migration" Text="I've talked with a variety of people about this subject, so I'll tell you what they've told me.&#xA;&#xA;# First&#xA;Don't give them free support. If you do this, they'll continually want more and more. At some point, you'll have to stop it and they'll likely be mad at you for it.&#xA;&#xA;# Second&#xA;Since you don't know how many hours you'd be supporting them, start at an hourly rate. If they don't need you much, you get paid for only what time you spend. This is about a fair to both sides as possible. You don't know when they'll be calling you, but you also won't feel obligated to give them work if they over-pay you, such as with a set fee service contract. You'll still likely want a contract, but something fairly flexible.&#xA;&#xA;# Third&#xA;If you are going to be putting in a significant amount of time each month or week, set up a contract so that you both know approximately how much time you both expect for you to be working on this project, but leave some room for extra work as well as lack of work. This all should be based on historical information, known upcoming functionality they want, or something that can otherwise be fairly tangibly decided.&#xA;&#xA;# Fourth&#xA;Set up a service contract with how much specific time you are going to spend and how much they pay you for it. This should include a minimum of payment for the contract as well as how much they need to pay when the inevitable &quot;something came up&quot; and they need you for more time than expected. You may also need to provide a clause for them not needing you as much, however this service contract should only really be considered if a pattern is well established for your working hours. Generally speaking, if you don't know +95% of the time how many hours a month you're working on this project for them, you shouldn't be doing a service contract.&#xA;&#xA;# Fifth&#xA;If you are regularly working on their project for 40 hours every week, you may want to consider having them hire you on full time. This would save you the time and effort doing accounting for your costs, income, etc. It would also save you the cost of replacing old equipment and having to decide how your electricity, rent, and other things are handled on your taxes, if that's part of your country's tax code like it is in the USA.&#xA;&#xA;Alternately, you may also want to consider hiring someone yourself, so this person can work on the project while you work on some other stuff as well. It may get to the point where they want you to put in 50-60 hours a week or more, which would definitely require another person. At this point, congratulations are in order, since you've now become an employer and have to deal with a whole new set of problems as well as a new set of possibilities.&#xA;&#xA;Hiring someone means you can branch out some more, or just cover other contracts better. The ideal behind hiring someone is that you do it *before* you absolutely need them. This way you get them trained before you lose productivity and income due to training them. It's hard to do, mentally and financially, but it'll pay off when more work comes your way.&#xA;&#xA;# All options&#xA;You should have a lawyer work with you on any contract you draw up or at least look over before you sign it. There's a lot of contracts that include illegal or unenforceable claims. Depending on the laws in your jurisdiction, that might invalidate the whole contract or just the claim.&#xA;&#xA;# Payment options&#xA;This is entirely up to you and your ability to budget. If you have them pay yearly, you have to make sure you can live with getting paid only once a year. Farmers do it when they harvest their fields, but that doesn't mean it's easy. Plenty of them don't budget correctly or have a problem when something unexpectedly breaks.&#xA;&#xA;Getting paid monthly might work, depending on if that payment hits before your bills are due. And what happens if the payment is late? You still need to budget so you can weather the &quot;it's in the mail&quot; or &quot;oh, was that due this week&quot;, and the horrifying &quot;we just don't have the money to pay you this time&quot;, among plenty of other reasons/excuses for late or non-payments.&#xA;&#xA;As you are an independent contractor, getting paid every week or bi-weekly might not make sense. It might work if your contract company cuts your check the same way and at the same time as it's employees, but that's not likely for a larger company. It might be a &quot;perfect fit&quot; or it might cause them problems. Talk to them about how they want to do it and decide if you need to negotiate this.&#xA;&#xA;There's also the Net 30, 60, 90 day options, where you give them a bill and they have 30, 60, or 90 days to pay it. Make sure you specify this point with them, which you might have to also negotiate. Some industries have Net 90 as a standard payment schedule, which leaves you without payment for 3 months. If this is an ongoing thing, it might suck to get started, but can be better once payments are established, and you'll get paid for 3 months after your last job for them. It has it's downside, sure, but also an up side.&#xA;&#xA;And make sure you have a clear line of communication to them about payments, such as when something gets fouled up. Know that you have someone to talk to to get things straightened out. You don't want to play phone tag with 10 people for 3 months to get your fee. Also, consider any amount of time you're spending to track down people as part of the time you work for them. Make them pay for the time they are costing you, unless your lawyer says you can't. &#xA;&#xA;# Final note&#xA;I'm sure there's plenty of other advice I'm missing here, as well as other viewpoints. If anyone does have those missing pieces, feel free to add your answer, since I'm not interested in arguing. This is not intended to be an all encompassing answer, just information I've gathered through years as working as a sub-contract as well as talking with other contractors and freelancers. YMMV and laws in your part of the world may be different, so please, add that info in a non-confrontational way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24644" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9771" RevisionGUID="72115ae9-2096-403a-be93-8f66c473a855" CreationDate="2020-06-19T02:51:04.790" UserId="24861" Comment="deleted 9 characters in body" Text="I couldn't help but had to leave my own insights on this matter as I am seeing two of those previous answers are all implying a client shouldn't be charged for his employee's mistakes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this question is about the rights of getting paid when the delays have been made due to freelancer's inexperience, low-level skills, or working practices - as opposed to his/her hidden features like characteristics, inattentiveness, or negligence - the client still has to pay for it. Errors and mistakes happen everywhere, every time. There's nothing guilty about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason is clear: The client shouldn't have hired his employee in the first place if his/her skills didn't meet up his expectations. That's what employers do. And most importantly, he should be responsible for his choice of choosing whom he is working with, and what his employee's mindset looks like. Any hours spent on the work that is related to the client's project are subject to the regular payment, especially when you are working on an hourly basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as you have materials that support your claim you didn't idly spend time for those 35 mins, you have full rights to get paid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24646" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9774" RevisionGUID="5fd3e87c-fb2b-4455-a3f5-4e5e40273c21" CreationDate="2020-06-20T10:48:08.520" UserId="24854" Text="If I create an invoice for client1 with invoices numbered 0001, 0002, 0003, then do I start invoicing client2 with invoice numbered as 0004 or 0001? I'm assuming that there would be some logic behind creating invoice numbers.  &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;Also, if I invoiced client1 with invoices numbered 0001 to 0014 during a financial year, do I start with invoice 0001 for the same client during the next financial year?  &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;Let the answer not be specific to any country, but if the tax laws of the country are relevant, I'm from India." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24647" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9774" RevisionGUID="5fd3e87c-fb2b-4455-a3f5-4e5e40273c21" CreationDate="2020-06-20T10:48:08.520" UserId="24854" Text="Is there any guideline for invoice numbering?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24648" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9774" RevisionGUID="5fd3e87c-fb2b-4455-a3f5-4e5e40273c21" CreationDate="2020-06-20T10:48:08.520" UserId="24854" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24649" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9775" RevisionGUID="a7515854-e45a-4001-943d-a26fd4e1850e" CreationDate="2020-06-20T16:38:43.310" UserId="75" Text="With invoices, the important part is that they are unique across your company - in this case, you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Invoice 0001 belongs to Client A;&#xD;&#xA;- Invoice 0002 belongs to Client B;&#xD;&#xA;- Invoice 0003 to Client A (repeat customer);&#xD;&#xA;- Invoice 0004 belongs to Client C&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you receive documented payment (i.e. a cheque or e-Transfer) where there is a memo field, 99% of the time the memo contains the Invoice #, which is unique just for you. This helps with tracking which invoices are paid, and which are not." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24650" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9776" RevisionGUID="bed61a3c-cf10-492c-90f9-80a29332dc82" CreationDate="2020-06-20T16:57:24.560" UserId="708" Text="Best tip... **start** with at least 5 or 6 digits, using leading zeros. A la 00001, 00002, 00003, etc. You''ll be glad you did this when viewing columns of invoice numbers. It'll make legibility easier if they all have the same amount of actual glyphs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All invoices should have a completely **unique** number. **Never** repeat a number for any reason. You should start with a number and go up, never repeating any number. Invoice **numbers** should *not* be &quot;customized&quot; for a client specifically. But you can use some clever values if they will assist you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I like to use the last 2 digits of every invoice as the *year* it was sent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So this year I use...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- #0505520&#xD;&#xA;- #0505620&#xD;&#xA;- #0505720&#xD;&#xA;- ....&#xD;&#xA;- ....&#xD;&#xA;- #0532120&#xD;&#xA;- etc....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know the last two digits are always the year. So I can find invoice 5056 which was sent in 2020 easily. Next year all my invoices will *end* in &quot;21&quot;. Last year they all ended in &quot;19&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This allows me, at a glance, to know what year the invoice was created. This helps to merely know when any project was completed or worked on. It's not used for any other accounting purposes. This way I don't have to actually go find an invoice to know the year it was sent.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24651" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9776" RevisionGUID="8c77126e-620b-4d6a-baca-48f9facc987b" CreationDate="2020-06-20T17:03:11.423" UserId="708" Comment="added 111 characters in body" Text="There aren't really any *rules* exactly. But there are some general guidelines....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All invoices should have a completely **unique** number. **Never** repeat a number for any reason. You should start with a number and go up, never repeating any number. Invoice **numbers** should *not* be &quot;customized&quot; for a client specifically. But you can use some clever values if they will assist you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example.....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I like to use the last 2 digits of every invoice as the *year* it was sent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So this year I use...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- #0505520&#xD;&#xA;- #0505620&#xD;&#xA;- #0505720&#xD;&#xA;- ....&#xD;&#xA;- ....&#xD;&#xA;- #0532120&#xD;&#xA;- etc....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know the last two digits are always the year. So I can find invoice 5056 which was sent in 2020 easily. Next year all my invoices will *end* in &quot;21&quot;. Last year they all ended in &quot;19&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This allows me, at a glance, to know what year the invoice was created. This helps to merely know when any project was completed or worked on. It's not used for any other accounting purposes. This way I don't have to actually go find an invoice to know the year it was sent.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tip&#xD;&#xA;--&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;... **start** with at least 5 or 6 digits, using leading zeros. A la 00001, 00002, 00003, etc. You''ll be glad you did this when viewing columns of invoice numbers. It'll make legibility easier if they all have the same amount of actual glyphs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24652" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9777" RevisionGUID="9fade00e-de61-402b-bd83-880cedae0401" CreationDate="2020-06-21T04:55:28.743" UserId="24877" Text="It is not common but if client ask for it than you can offer him CI and testing for additional charges" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24653" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9771" RevisionGUID="af1cd010-f06f-4439-af77-f070234470b1" CreationDate="2020-06-22T09:55:54.783" UserId="24861" Comment="added 130 characters in body" Text="I couldn't help but had to leave my own insights on this matter as I am seeing two of those previous answers are all implying a client shouldn't be charged for his employee's mistakes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this question is about the rights of getting paid when the delays have been made due to freelancer's inexperience, low-level skills, or working practices - as opposed to his/her hidden features like characteristics, inattentiveness, or negligence - the client still has to pay for it. Errors and mistakes happen everywhere, every time. There's nothing guilty about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason is clear: The client shouldn't have hired his employee in the first place if his/her skills didn't meet up his expectations. That's what employers do. And most importantly, he should be responsible for his choice of choosing whom he is working with, and what his employee's mindset looks like. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Refusing to pay for the mistakes can only happen when the client thinks he has hired a working robot, not a human. Otherwise, any hours spent on the work that is related to the client's project are subject to the regular payment, especially when you are working on an hourly basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as you have materials that support your claim you didn't idly spend time for those 35 mins, you have full rights to get paid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24654" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9523" RevisionGUID="1c81a720-9a83-45cc-a0ea-d2745ccd0946" CreationDate="2020-06-25T10:01:35.143" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24659" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9594" RevisionGUID="ec5bcaea-a5c7-45c4-896e-e1e2221969e9" CreationDate="2020-06-26T22:03:50.373" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24660" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9779" RevisionGUID="36252c02-d436-4006-a4d5-2fe256e951ff" CreationDate="2020-06-30T13:24:15.753" UserId="20542" Text="I worked for this employes for a month, and he only paid me for half-month then suddenly replaced me after I delivered the MVP. And he was okay with the result. then he immediately cut me off without paying me the payment for the other 1/2 month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So he made a paypal buyer claim, because I dont have access to our messages (because he already cut me of in Slack and access to the company mail) on his satisfaction with the MVP, I lost the paypal buyer claim and it was immediately refunded to his account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I reviewed the contract he didn't follow the contract on his terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He made me sign an NDA but it was on his home country not mine. And I'm not thinking twice about breaking it because he himself did not follow the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Actions I'm planning to do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Go Public on this and be vocal about everything to warn other freelancers&#xD;&#xA; 2. Make the product open source. (Since he refunded the payment supposed to be)&#xD;&#xA; 3. Reported him to the platform.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to make sure no one can become a freelancer of this client ever again. Who takes advantage and rips-off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there any actions I could take? I also sent him a warning already. I feel ripped off and frustrated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24661" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9779" RevisionGUID="36252c02-d436-4006-a4d5-2fe256e951ff" CreationDate="2020-06-30T13:24:15.753" UserId="20542" Text="International Employer Initiated PayPal Buyer Claim Without Any Reason" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24662" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9779" RevisionGUID="36252c02-d436-4006-a4d5-2fe256e951ff" CreationDate="2020-06-30T13:24:15.753" UserId="20542" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|difficult-client|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24667" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9782" RevisionGUID="c14eab49-f9fa-44ec-9547-77df7a59f1d7" CreationDate="2020-07-01T15:27:09.353" UserId="24913" Text="In Spain, Tax is everything, you will probably need to get a NIE number which is used in Spain for tax identification purposes for non Spanish. So what will happen as a non- resident you might need to declare tax on the money you make in Spain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So depends on how much you make also, in Spain everything is linked to tax and its very much everywhere. You could contact a gestor and they would do all the running around for you if you need any paper work done. I am sure there may be some sort of gestor in your country so try there first before checking Spain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps[![enter link description here][1]][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/aJFqd.jpg" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24671" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="1918" RevisionGUID="a3d54e3d-076a-4d85-ab00-8cacf36832cd" CreationDate="2020-07-01T17:52:01.303" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="24672" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9782" RevisionGUID="5ba0cec9-6dd1-449b-9cf5-fc62e0a83d76" CreationDate="2020-07-01T17:52:48.047" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 105 characters in body" Text="In Spain, Tax is everything, you will probably need to get a NIE number which is used in Spain for tax identification purposes for non Spanish. So what will happen as a non- resident you might need to declare tax on the money you make in Spain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So depends on how much you make also, in Spain everything is linked to tax and its very much everywhere. You could contact a gestor and they would do all the running around for you if you need any paper work done. I am sure there may be some sort of gestor in your country so try there first before checking Spain." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24689" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9787" RevisionGUID="c854f64d-d985-4040-8a04-df9b5391f0ff" CreationDate="2020-07-15T07:42:22.183" UserId="24975" Text="You probably handled this already. But anyhow:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Simply pick your favorite site and go ahead with them. Try to back out of the others gracefully. If you didn't make any promises (say you just asked if they're interested), this shouldn't be too hard. Tell them demand is higher than expected, and someone else beat them to it. Make a replacement offer, like writing on a different topic or at a later time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24690" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9788" RevisionGUID="95b41b52-4396-4064-b541-001ed807da34" CreationDate="2020-07-15T13:32:32.660" UserId="2839" Text="I ask closed questions and provide what I call &quot;default answer&quot; in case of missing reply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;E.g. &quot;I've use this green color. If you want another shade of green you have 7 days to mail me with your preference&quot; or &quot;I've wrote this text, send me corrections. After 14 days with no replyes from you, the text is considered correct&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After the time frame you set, the client risks to pay a little fee justified by the fact you have to regain focus on the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a wordpress script of mine a client took 1.5 years to check for correctness. Finally it was correct, but I've to wait so much to be paid and to declare the end of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I've learn to use 'default answers'... maybe I wait a little more than claimed and I add a little of flexibility, but even from a legal point of view, I'm more protected (with pec or mail with receipt confirmation or whatsapp messages where you have proof of message read/received). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way the client has a time limit to act and if he waits too much, he has accepted my 'default answers' so I can ask payments, continue with the following step of the project, ecc. In case of late reply I have to take extra steps or undo/change something and it can require a little extra payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24691" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9788" RevisionGUID="447a1574-1492-4339-a0d7-c011232302e1" CreationDate="2020-07-15T13:37:41.670" UserId="2839" Comment="added another example and a note for missing kindness in the example sentences" Text="I ask closed questions and provide what I call &quot;default answer&quot; in case of missing reply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;E.g. &quot;I've use this green color. If you want another shade of green you have 7 days to mail me with your preference&quot; or &quot;I've wrote this text, send me corrections. After 14 days with no replyes from you, the text is considered correct&quot;. When client has to provide content you can ask &quot;I need this picture/text and If you provide me in the following days I will upload them for free. After 14 days with no content provided, you accept to receive an 'how to' explaining how to do it yourself at a cost of $$$&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;(Note: for practical use, it's better to add theese sentences a little more kindness :P they're just examples)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After the time frame you set, the client risks to pay a little fee justified by the fact you have to regain focus on the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a wordpress script of mine a client took 1.5 years to check for correctness. Finally it was correct, but I've to wait so much to be paid and to declare the end of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I've learn to use 'default answers'... maybe I wait a little more than claimed and I add a little of flexibility, but even from a legal point of view, I'm more protected (with pec or mail with receipt confirmation or whatsapp messages where you have proof of message read/received). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way the client has a time limit to act and if he waits too much, he has accepted my 'default answers' so I can ask payments, continue with the following step of the project, ecc. In case of late reply I have to take extra steps or undo/change something and it can require a little extra payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24692" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9789" RevisionGUID="43377f50-bd19-4c87-a10e-d44ad064c3a5" CreationDate="2020-07-15T13:55:06.983" UserId="2839" Text="You can ask payment for mockups, telling the customer you will discount them if they will ask you to continue with the project (e.g. you'll make the pages following the mockups provided).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can decide (tacitly) to discount less then 100% and take a little amount for the mockups if you invest too much time on them for example." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24696" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9453" RevisionGUID="18b3a7cb-4926-4192-9378-2238b0dfb455" CreationDate="2020-07-17T05:04:50.487" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24697" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9791" RevisionGUID="07854442-855f-4994-9543-66ae2d015484" CreationDate="2020-07-17T09:48:35.417" UserId="24078" Text="I'll briefly state the situation. One of my clients just started a contract on a freelancing site regarding the development of a web app. She provided a website link and asked to develop a similar site. So the website got completed and the client was to provide images and text that needed to be replaced with the existing one, and then we would be able to upload it to a hosting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So just when the client was to provide the content, she disappeared. I contacted her on other platforms too but haven't received any response. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I just want to end the contract and get the amount, but can't end it as the work is not complete. The amount is placed in the escrow. Just image/text replacement and uploading to hosting are left. Also, I'm not sure whether everything is fine at her side or not. It's been three months now. &#xD;&#xA;Please suggest me what can be done in this scenario. Even if I can get a partial amount, it's still fine. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any sorts of suggestions will be highly appreciated..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24698" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9791" RevisionGUID="07854442-855f-4994-9543-66ae2d015484" CreationDate="2020-07-17T09:48:35.417" UserId="24078" Text="Client started a web development contract, and then disappeared" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24699" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9791" RevisionGUID="07854442-855f-4994-9543-66ae2d015484" CreationDate="2020-07-17T09:48:35.417" UserId="24078" Text="|freelance-websites|payments|web-development|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24707" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9794" RevisionGUID="014eca3a-eb3a-4fee-b6ff-e0c76ae8976d" CreationDate="2020-07-18T16:02:15.160" UserId="10464" Text="You said any sort of suggestion so: If you're an honest and reliable consultant then a freelance site that does not allow you to **keep** the deposit when the client flakes out is **not** in your best interest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See [How much payment should be required up front?](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/468/how-much-payment-should-be-required-up-front)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And keep in mind that it's normal in the design/development world to get 50% upfront and you don't even have to deliver to get final payment. You just need to prove 100% that you have achieved the goals. What that means depends on the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24711" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9767" RevisionGUID="6038ba68-587e-4d06-8562-cec398817b28" CreationDate="2020-07-21T05:04:00.423" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24712" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9791" RevisionGUID="d465251d-365d-4e2e-a63d-65d60dcd4552" CreationDate="2020-07-21T06:59:38.187" UserId="24078" Comment="added 328 characters in body" Text="I'll briefly state the situation. One of my clients just started a contract on a freelancing site regarding the development of a web app. She provided a website link and asked to develop a similar site. So the website got completed and the client was to provide images and text that needed to be replaced with the existing one, and then we would be able to upload it to a hosting. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So just when the client was to provide the content, she disappeared. I contacted her on other platforms too but haven't received any response. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I just want to end the contract and get the amount, but can't end it as the work is not complete. The amount is placed in the escrow. Just image/text replacement and uploading to hosting are left. Also, I'm not sure whether everything is fine at her side or not. It's been three months now. &#xD;&#xA;Please suggest me what can be done in this scenario. Even if I can get a partial amount, it's still fine. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any sorts of suggestions will be highly appreciated...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Edit**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another think I would like to mention here:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I submit the work, it'll automatically get accepted after 14 days and I'll get all the amount. But this isn't what I want. And there isn't any way to get a partial amount. Either total amount, or cancel the contract and get nothing. That's the two choices I have" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24713" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="9791" RevisionGUID="faae45ad-ab2d-4871-a6f1-73f8b43a9f37" CreationDate="2020-07-21T07:20:06.110" UserId="24078" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|payments|web-development|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24715" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9796" RevisionGUID="920d38ec-72e0-4e99-8586-98a79df890b9" CreationDate="2020-07-21T10:55:26.573" UserId="2839" Text="Note: my suggestions may be biased due to the fact I've worked with bad teams and, as a company, I like to be independent from others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't like the fact that they want you to feel part of their company... so you are smaller/less important then them? They have last word on decisions? If you keep thinks separate there's less risk for you anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Both of you are interested in doing business together not to make new friends (it can be a good side effect, by the way, not your primary goal). So you can be the head/leader of your team and the other company can contact you only and interact with you only. They don't need to know if there's a John or a Jenny in your team and what he/she does specifically in your team... remember that N peolple have N*(N-1)/2 communication channels and consider if you like it and can work productively with that kind of management." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24716" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9797" RevisionGUID="62ed4478-bb66-4678-b935-5dfd919ad528" CreationDate="2020-07-21T11:35:04.900" UserId="2839" Text="Put this way it seems there is no option for nobody.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider that you like something, you are interested in something, you buy something, you think something is better than something else, that you know how to do something, you have some knowledge about something and you are not the only one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do anything there are a group of people that will like what you've done and find it usefull. Do what you like, write article, publish youtube videos, ebooks for something you like. Who have the same likes will find that resourse usefull. You don't need to invent a new revolution or innovation for the human race. If you can improve what already exists you have a big advantage over who has no ideas. (Facebook is better than myspace, netflix preferable over blockbuster, ...).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a problem (like this one) you can solve in a way that can help others in the same situation. At that moment, 65 people have read your question for free. I have not seen an ads about that, I don't know even if you have a website, but I have seen your message.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can start doing something you need. It's impossible you are the only one in the planet that have this need! A book you can't find? write it and sell it and publish on amazon (they will publish in front of million people in exchange of a fee). You know tricks/ideas/websites/details only few people knows? write a blog or publish a youtube video about that. You can do it for free and people interested in them will surely find them (if your title is not something 'xlskdjelwerje' or 'video1234.mpg' ;-) ). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your &quot;billion great ideas&quot; worth zero if you trash them. It's impossible you have no friends, you have no internet (how you wrote your question? :D), you can't ask companies around you that can be potentially interested in your idea if they'd like to try your service for free and give suggestions to best meet their needs... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's something useless you can spend all the money of the plant, have an ads in every website of the web... nobody will buy &quot;second-hand toilet paper&quot; for example. If your service helps me double my annual income, or le me manage twice the client I have, or work half the time with the same income, I will find you and your service even if you write about that service in a signature of a semi-unknown forum in a foreign language I didn't know existed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You didn't mention the kind of work you can provide so I wrote something general that can hopefully open some door in your mind. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24717" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9798" RevisionGUID="afa5ac15-9fa1-458f-9712-7cfb66d23d78" CreationDate="2020-07-21T15:36:33.147" UserId="25008" Text="I will be starting to work as a 1099 independent contractor at the end of the month and I am looking for convenient software / website to **help me manage tax returns** (I am based in Brooklyn, NY), **keep track of deductible business expenses** and **generate invoices** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24718" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9798" RevisionGUID="afa5ac15-9fa1-458f-9712-7cfb66d23d78" CreationDate="2020-07-21T15:36:33.147" UserId="25008" Text="Financial software for new 1099" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24719" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9798" RevisionGUID="afa5ac15-9fa1-458f-9712-7cfb66d23d78" CreationDate="2020-07-21T15:36:33.147" UserId="25008" Text="|taxes|software|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24720" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9794" RevisionGUID="3e1644eb-aeeb-421b-ab10-d985fbf3ca2f" CreationDate="2020-07-22T11:36:46.993" UserId="10464" Comment="added 1050 characters in body" Text="Get the total amount. You are only abiding by the rules of the marketplace that the client agreed to. It is not your fault that they chose to stop communicating. It is not your problem why they did it. Most likely this client has deep pockets and the amount of money involved is so small to them that they don't care. – HenryM yesterday   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;do you think it is ethical? Coz if this isn't unethical or illegal, I'll close the contract and get the total amount&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't think it's unethical in this particular instance. Look at it this way.. originally you agreed to work for what amounted to $X/hour (if you convert your project cost into hours). Now you will be getting 2 x $X because the client broke the terms of the agreement and they are fully aware of the consequences. You didn't defraud them because you were honest and worked in good faith. You might want to check what is considered ethical/unethical by other providers in that marketplace however. But I imagine they would agree with me given your description of the contract options.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You said any sort of suggestion so: If you're an honest and reliable consultant then a freelance site that does not allow you to **keep** the deposit when the client flakes out is **not** in your best interest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See [How much payment should be required up front?](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/468/how-much-payment-should-be-required-up-front)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And keep in mind that it's normal in the design/development world to get 50% upfront and you don't even have to deliver to get final payment. You just need to prove 100% that you have achieved the goals. What that means depends on the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24721" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9794" RevisionGUID="bb1b1c75-fd37-490b-9894-6cb847499132" CreationDate="2020-07-22T11:50:09.273" UserId="10464" Comment="deleted 22 characters in body" Text="Get the total amount. You are only abiding by the rules of the marketplace that the client agreed to. It is not your fault that they chose to stop communicating. It is not your problem why they did it. Most likely this client has deep pockets and the amount of money involved is so small to them that they don't care.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;do you think it is ethical? Coz if this isn't unethical or illegal, I'll close the contract and get the total amount&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't think it's unethical in this particular instance. Look at it this way.. originally you agreed to work for what amounted to $X/hour (if you convert your project cost into hours). Now you will be getting 2 x $X because the client broke the terms of the agreement and they are fully aware of the consequences. You didn't defraud them because you were honest and worked in good faith. You might want to check what is considered ethical/unethical by other providers in that marketplace however. But I imagine they would agree with me given your description of the contract options.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You said any sort of suggestion so: If you're an honest and reliable consultant then a freelance site that does not allow you to **keep** the deposit when the client flakes out is **not** in your best interest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See [How much payment should be required up front?](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/468/how-much-payment-should-be-required-up-front)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And keep in mind that it's normal in the design/development world to get 50% upfront and you don't even have to deliver to get final payment. You just need to prove 100% that you have achieved the goals. What that means depends on the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24729" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9801" RevisionGUID="0344e302-4784-43ee-be54-e3e5ba47d440" CreationDate="2020-07-27T17:34:09.020" UserId="22310" Text="I'm kind of like an long-time, in-house it/marketing shop for a small startup. I bill them monthly but for whatever hours were put in that month... no min or max, contractual-speaking and this has been working fine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We recently contracted a company to do some stuff outside my wheelhouse. It still rerquired hours from me managing and working with them, but the final product was to be delivered by them. There was a very tight turn-arounnd for this project, so the company I work for paid them up front in full (via credit card). Buyer Beware.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long story short, they did sh*@$y work and missed deadline. we still don't even have the final product, deadline aside... they're contract states &quot;money back guarantee&quot; and all that which I have called them out on, but they are giving some fierce pushback and handing me off from this department to the next as I try to get a refund for my client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My issue is this: it's not my money directly lost to this vendor, but it might as well be. If I was a salaried employee, i wouldn't think twice about it. But I'm not going to bill them for a project they paid me to manage (and be a part of) when there is no deliverable. I obviously don't have a legal team to go after them with, not does the the company I'm working for. They have general counsel (contracted), but at $400/hr, they're inclination is just to just let it all go.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you do the math out, i know it still probably makes sense to have my client's pursue some sort of legal action. They don't see it this way... understandably (in the end, their time is worth more than the lawyer's rate + my rate). They don't want to spend any more time hearing from me that they won't give a refund and that I'm doing X, Y and Z about it. They just want to get the project done and done right.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I know it's my choice not to bill them for the work I did on that project, and if they were a 1-time client I'd tell them they were on their own and bill for my time. But this is not the case. I'd have a hard time doing that to anyone, much less a bread-n-butter client like this. like i said, I can't, in good faith, bill them for work on a project done in any unsatisfactorily manner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not sure if my best move is to play chicken and send them some sort of legal notice (under my name or the company's name)... or whatever. In the end, I don't want to eat those hours (and lose a good foothold with this client), which is what I'll have to do if the company won't move forward  with any action... and then nobody wins.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All of this is causing me and my client crazy stress. For me, in addition to having an unsatisfied client (when I told them they'd be more than satisfied), I have a a chunk of hours that I don't feel good about billing. A for them, as discussed with them, they don't feel good about paying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24730" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9801" RevisionGUID="0344e302-4784-43ee-be54-e3e5ba47d440" CreationDate="2020-07-27T17:34:09.020" UserId="22310" Text="what to do when a vendor/sub-contractor breaches contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24731" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9801" RevisionGUID="0344e302-4784-43ee-be54-e3e5ba47d440" CreationDate="2020-07-27T17:34:09.020" UserId="22310" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24732" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9802" RevisionGUID="c9c02c75-8cde-4460-b873-68b637b73c54" CreationDate="2020-07-27T19:17:25.800" UserId="75" Text="I would bill for the time you spent managing them - that is still time where you had to use your expertise, and could not bill other clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would then do what I can to pursue legal action. What's the point of a contract if it doesn't get upheld? Talk to a commercial lawyer, bringing the contract you had the subcontractor sign, along with all your documentation, and let them deal with it. Usually, two things will happen:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Either the subcontractors get scared of real legal action and pay you right away to keep you away; or&#xD;&#xA;- They try dragging it out through court.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if it's only one letter from a lawyer's office, that may be enough to scare them into listening to you - which shouldn't be more than an hour or two from a decent lawyer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, communicate with your main client throughout the process. They may not want to pursue legal action, and that is their option. If you paid for them, and it caused you or your client a loss, then I would attempt to recover that cost for my client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24736" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="601" RevisionGUID="75d9d269-7283-4242-ad83-1a0580bd7dd2" CreationDate="2020-07-28T16:06:33.153" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="24737" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3470" RevisionGUID="0fcc505a-8897-435d-9abf-da1eff06cd7a" CreationDate="2020-07-29T06:00:00.980" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1288353565426298881" />
  <row Id="24738" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9804" RevisionGUID="38e23cfa-d66e-4ae4-bc5c-87ee7b671bdd" CreationDate="2020-07-31T01:32:47.423" UserId="10464" Text="Your reputation is more important than the money. Customer satisfaction is more important than the money (when the mistake is yours).  Since you introduced the contractor and said you would manage them there's a huge responsibility on your part to make things right. You need to take the loss here and look at it as a lesson learned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes we have to say, 'no thanks' when a client names a timeline that is too short for us to be confident that we can deliver or when the project just doesn't make sense. It doesn't even matter how long you have worked with them or how much they pay because you have to protect your reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client has told you what they want (not to pursue the contractor) and they paid them directly so you have to respect that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next time, don't claim that you are going to manage someone unless they get paid by you. Otherwise let the client 'manage' them themselves. Don't introduce anyone you haven't worked with before unless they are vouched for by someone you know only works with the best. Avoid paying your sub contractor 100% upfront unless the amount of money is very small.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyhow, the client understands that accidents happen. I don't think they are as upset about this as you are. In other words their pockets are probably a lot deeper than you think. Nobody is perfect so stop beating up on yourself. I guarantee you that your client could have hired someone else besides you who they know wanted to charge them way more money. They did the math and decided to go with a less experienced person to save money. That's on them. Now you gained some more experience on the business side of things." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24739" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9804" RevisionGUID="8127f57e-278f-42cd-a6d9-e4f5d7a0ca6d" CreationDate="2020-07-31T01:37:56.013" UserId="10464" Comment="added 78 characters in body" Text="Your reputation is more important than the money. Customer satisfaction is more important than the money (when the mistake is yours).  Since you introduced the contractor and said you would manage them there's a huge responsibility on your part to make things right. You need to take the loss here and look at it as a lesson learned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're looking at this like 'how much money can I get out of it' when you should be looking at the fact the client isn't running to review sites to bad mouth you and be grateful. They may even give you positive reviews in the future based on past &amp; future projects. That's worth gold to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes we have to say, 'no thanks' when a client names a timeline that is too short for us to be confident that we can deliver or when the project just doesn't make sense. It doesn't even matter how long you have worked with them or how much they pay because you have to protect your reputation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client has told you what they want (not to pursue the contractor) and they paid them directly so you have to respect that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that who you work with is more important than contracts unless you can afford a really good lawyer and want to waste time in courtrooms. So it pays to really do your homework on who to work with and best case someone you know &amp; trust professionally vouches for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Next time, don't claim that you are going to manage someone unless they get paid by you. Otherwise let the client 'manage' them themselves (which only makes sense if the contractor isn't a direct competitor of yours). Don't introduce anyone you haven't worked with before unless they are vouched for by someone you know only works with the best. Avoid paying your sub contractor 100% upfront unless the amount of money is very small.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyhow, the client understands that accidents happen. I don't think they are as upset about this as you are. In other words their pockets are probably a lot deeper than you think. Nobody is perfect so stop beating up on yourself. I guarantee you that your client could have hired someone else besides you who they know wanted to charge them way more money. They did the math and decided to go with a less experienced person to save money. That's on them. Now you gained some more experience on the business side of things." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24741" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9751" RevisionGUID="82541dfa-9f6b-4f6b-859a-bf213903a821" CreationDate="2020-07-31T18:02:20.103" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24742" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9806" RevisionGUID="e4e2b8e3-f87b-44ef-a6c4-52ab9d039318" CreationDate="2020-08-01T23:07:17.200" UserId="25053" Text="I am a freelancer registered in Germany and I am interested to take a freelance contract in the United States.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I couldn't get my question answered from the web page of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (https://www.uscis.gov/) regarding which visa I would need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it correct that I can use a B-1 (Business visitor) visa for a stay up to 6 month in the USA with the possibility of extension up to 1 year?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess it's way more complex to receive such a suitable visa.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Which visa would I need and is it possible at all to deliver consulting services from Germany to the USA?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you might know, most US-companies don't give sponsorship on visas for Non-US-residents anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you in advance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best regards,&#xD;&#xA;rforberger" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24743" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9806" RevisionGUID="e4e2b8e3-f87b-44ef-a6c4-52ab9d039318" CreationDate="2020-08-01T23:07:17.200" UserId="25053" Text="Which non-immigrant visa is required to work as a freelancer from the EU in the USA?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24744" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9806" RevisionGUID="e4e2b8e3-f87b-44ef-a6c4-52ab9d039318" CreationDate="2020-08-01T23:07:17.200" UserId="25053" Text="|usa|eu|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24745" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9806" RevisionGUID="50caa09f-9b10-435a-ac4e-559911600f36" CreationDate="2020-08-01T23:18:01.300" UserId="25053" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="I am a freelancer registered in Germany and I am interested to take a freelance contract in the United States.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I couldn't get my question answered from the web page of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (https://www.uscis.gov/) regarding which visa I would need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it correct that I can use a B-1 (Business visitor) visa for a stay up to 6 months in the USA with the possibility of extension up to 1 year?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess it's way more complex to receive such a suitable visa.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Which visa would I need and is it possible at all to deliver consulting services from Germany to the USA?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you might know, most US-companies don't give sponsorship on visas for Non-US-residents anymore.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you in advance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best regards,&#xD;&#xA;rforberger" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24746" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="9806" RevisionGUID="4c307fa9-0ea6-4d61-bc64-a2272f500939" CreationDate="2020-08-01T23:23:53.523" UserId="25053" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|consulting|usa|eu|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24747" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="9806" RevisionGUID="955af3e9-bf5c-4381-8119-4545bb8463e4" CreationDate="2020-08-01T23:58:45.110" UserId="25053" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|legal|consulting|usa|eu|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24748" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9807" RevisionGUID="7e132dda-983c-4d37-867e-9e7525f1920d" CreationDate="2020-08-05T17:45:02.367" UserId="25075" Text="I recently started doing some small freelance work (USA). I need to email an invoice. It is just for one job. How should I do that?&#xD;&#xA;I do not have a company or anything like that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24749" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9807" RevisionGUID="7e132dda-983c-4d37-867e-9e7525f1920d" CreationDate="2020-08-05T17:45:02.367" UserId="25075" Text="Emailing an Invoice for small freelancing work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24750" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9807" RevisionGUID="7e132dda-983c-4d37-867e-9e7525f1920d" CreationDate="2020-08-05T17:45:02.367" UserId="25075" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24752" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9664" RevisionGUID="28bf7cd8-82a4-41f8-84d3-f33b9f0a0176" CreationDate="2020-08-07T07:02:40.253" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24753" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9808" RevisionGUID="1d0aa36f-9121-424e-a286-bc5631c282f6" CreationDate="2020-08-07T16:09:13.210" UserId="24789" Text="Just send them an email, with an invoice PDF attached. Some clients need an invoice to be in PDF format for accounting purposes. If you want, repeat the same information within the email body itself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your invoice should contain:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Who you are (your name, your contact details, your company details)&#xD;&#xA;- Who the client is (their name, their contact details, their company)&#xD;&#xA;- A list of services provided, with their cost, in a table. Also list any expenses that you expect the client to pay for.&#xD;&#xA;- The date of the invoice&#xD;&#xA;- The due date, that is, the date by which the client should pay the invoice&#xD;&#xA;- All the details on how to make the payment. Make it easy for your clients to pay you and don't skip any details&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is the basics. You can find plenty of invoice templates that look professional by searching online." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24754" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9808" RevisionGUID="55c9aa39-070b-4267-a8fa-b84b88eafbd0" CreationDate="2020-08-07T16:15:14.620" UserId="24789" Comment="added 79 characters in body" Text="Just send them an email, with an invoice PDF attached. Some clients need an invoice to be in PDF format for accounting purposes. If you want, repeat the same information within the email body itself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your invoice should contain:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Who you are (your name, your contact details, your company details)&#xD;&#xA;- Who the client is (their name, their contact details, their company)&#xD;&#xA;- A list of services provided, with their cost, in a table. Also list any expenses that you expect the client to pay for.&#xD;&#xA;- The date of the invoice&#xD;&#xA;- The due date, that is, the date by which the client should pay the invoice&#xD;&#xA;- All the details on how to make the payment. Make it easy for your clients to pay you and don't skip any details&#xD;&#xA;- You may find it useful for accounting purposes to include an invoice number&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is the basics. You can find plenty of invoice templates that look professional by searching online." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24755" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9809" RevisionGUID="ac8fd683-cd16-461b-bb57-5c61844eda38" CreationDate="2020-08-07T16:30:22.370" UserId="24789" Text="Freelancers, lawyers, and other professionals, can take work based on a retainer. However, the word &quot;retainer&quot; can be confusing, as it has differing definitions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- A retainer can be a upfront fee paid for x number of hours per month. If the number of billable hours logged is less than x, then the retainer is partially refunded, and if it is over x, then an invoice is sent for those additional hours.&#xD;&#xA;- Alternatively, a retainer can be non-refundable, so that if fewer than x hours are used in a month, no money is returned. But additional hours are charged through an invoice.&#xD;&#xA;- Alternatively, a retainer can be a fixed fee that is paid every month no matter how many hours are logged&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm looking for a better word than &quot;retainer&quot;, to make it clear what I mean from the get-go. Any ideas?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24756" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9809" RevisionGUID="ac8fd683-cd16-461b-bb57-5c61844eda38" CreationDate="2020-08-07T16:30:22.370" UserId="24789" Text="What are better ways of saying &quot;retainer&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24757" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9809" RevisionGUID="ac8fd683-cd16-461b-bb57-5c61844eda38" CreationDate="2020-08-07T16:30:22.370" UserId="24789" Text="|retainer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24758" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9307" RevisionGUID="e8d837d6-5720-4346-be46-e8e89535a9af" CreationDate="2020-08-09T09:05:30.573" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24762" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9811" RevisionGUID="6eebdd47-72cf-447b-a23e-32da12112de7" CreationDate="2020-08-11T11:10:22.740" UserId="25098" Text="There's no obligation to be registered for VAT in the UK unless you meet the following conditions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Compulsory registration You must register for VAT if:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; you expect your VAT taxable turnover to be more than £85,000 in the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; next 30-day period your business had a VAT taxable turnover of more&#xD;&#xA;&gt; than £85,000 over the last 12 months You might also need to register&#xD;&#xA;&gt; in some other cases, depending on the kinds of goods or services you&#xD;&#xA;&gt; sell and where you sell them.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; - [gov.uk][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of the ten years I've been freelance, I've been VAT registered for about eight of them. Since doing it, I've had the benefit of being able to claim back any and all VAT charged on any capital expense, software, hardware and expenses related to the business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So really, for the hassle of slightly extra paperwork (Which my accounting software already does) you may as well just do it. If you work for large companies, they're not bothered by the extra 20%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Against it though, they have tightened up the aspect where you could charge 20% and only have to pay 13% to HMRC (The old film &amp; tv levels, now brought into line) so there's no more free money. But for my circumstances, it's still worth it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Come December/January though, who knows. I just hope to be able to still work for EU companies...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration/when-to-register" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24763" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9812" RevisionGUID="abfeba0a-66f7-4753-8c85-7261ff395be8" CreationDate="2020-08-11T11:12:54.400" UserId="25098" Text="Does your role require a physical presence in the US? Would you be working remotely from Germany?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many industries have very specific visas for protectionism. For example, I know that visas that allow you to freelance in some industries only allow you to work for foreign firms, so you aren't freelancing an American out of a job. (That's their view)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24764" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9813" RevisionGUID="4fb58001-21a4-44c6-8309-a929c89d7b64" CreationDate="2020-08-11T15:10:52.330" UserId="25101" Text="I also had to start charging 15 minutes for small things, it's due to interupting the work flow randomly and they usually want it done right away. So even if it takes me 4 minutes, it stops what I'm doing for another client, and that's the price they pay for having me &quot;on call&quot; essentially. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is usually for my small only 5-10 hour a week type clients that have sporadic work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For my bigger clients, which I've had a few over the years, and I always like to keep one big client... I just do it. I need 20 hours minimum retainer a week to bill like this though. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24765" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="271" RevisionGUID="69583ff7-bc0a-44e9-8f86-075af8f55c34" CreationDate="2020-08-12T03:00:28.420" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1293381811817582593" />
  <row Id="24766" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9797" RevisionGUID="0dd356b2-72e5-41a5-bb08-cd4ae717d40c" CreationDate="2020-08-14T15:46:33.510" UserId="2839" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="Put this way it seems there is no option for nobody.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider that you like something, you are interested in something, you buy something, you think something is better than something else, that you know how to do something, you have some knowledge about something and you are not the only one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you do anything there are a group of people that will like what you've done and find it usefull. Do what you like, write article, publish youtube videos, ebooks for something you like. Who have the same likes will find that resourse usefull. You don't need to invent a new revolution or innovation for the human race. If you can improve what already exists you have a big advantage over who has no ideas. (Facebook is better than myspace, netflix preferable over blockbuster, ...).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have a problem (like this one) you can solve in a way that can help others in the same situation. At that moment, 65 people have read your question for free. I have not seen an ads about that, I don't know even if you have a website, but I have seen your message.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can start doing something you need. It's impossible you are the only one in the planet that have this need! A book you can't find? write it and sell it and publish on amazon (they will publish in front of million people in exchange of a fee). You know tricks/ideas/websites/details only few people knows? write a blog or publish a youtube video about that. You can do it for free and people interested in them will surely find them (if your title is not something 'xlskdjelwerje' or 'video1234.mpg' ;-) ). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your &quot;billion great ideas&quot; worth zero if you trash them. It's impossible you have no friends, you have no internet (how you wrote your question? :D), you can't ask companies around you that can be potentially interested in your idea if they'd like to try your service for free and give suggestions to best meet their needs... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's something useless you can spend all the money of the planet, have an ads in every website of the web... nobody will buy &quot;second-hand toilet paper&quot; for example. If your service helps me double my annual income, or le me manage twice the client I have, or work half the time with the same income, I will find you and your service even if you write about that service in a signature of a semi-unknown forum in a foreign language I didn't know existed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You didn't mention the kind of work you can provide so I wrote something general that can hopefully open some door in your mind. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24767" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9814" RevisionGUID="e04ff1fd-3268-4828-81e5-b20b3aea61f6" CreationDate="2020-08-14T18:53:02.397" UserId="25115" Text="Zepplin, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, you sound like you've been trying to grow your business for some time without the results you're looking for and this has resulted in you becoming a bit unmotivated to trying the same things with a different perspective and by using different methods.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The good old days of &quot;build it and they will come&quot; are far gone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You've mentioned that you've been in business for 20 years and have no contact list. There are many forms of businesses, I personally run a business to business operation, and our main objective is to provide value through our services. Unfortunately, there are a lot of businesses that are similar to ours, and we must find ways to continually differentiate ourselves. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With this being said, solutions come from problems, and adding value comes from providing solutions, regardless of what the solution is, monetary, emotional, beneficial, etc... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are having problems identifying these problems and creating solutions, a good starting point would be internal. I would start by realizing it was a mistake for you not to collect your previous client's information, and begin to collect it now and set up the infrastructure needed to continually market yourself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Identify what you've done right and what you've done wrong, identify what changes or other perspectives you can try within those same segments. As you know, you can ride a bike 1 time and fall, but if you continually make adjustments, you'll eventually get the results you're looking for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Our business makes close to 6-7 figures annually from organic traffic from Search Engine Optimization and we are in a very competitive industry.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every company puts money into their ads, and has the same struggles, some companies simply have more money to throw into it. The majority of ads are only there to build contact lists, not to make a sale. This is called your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and from that point forward, it is your responsibility to educate the customer and work the deal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you convert the customer to a paid customer, you'll find out what their Life Time Value (LTV) is, and you'll be able to determine your potential profits in the future by subtracting LTV - CAC. There is more to it than that in the long run, but ultimately, you want to keep your CAC as low as possible while your LTV is high. The closer your CAC is to your LTV, the more risk you'll have.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In our case, our LTV is around $50,000, however, our CAC can be upwards of $5,000, with an average click cost of $12.00. This means that 1000 clicks cost us around $12,000. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No one will know you exist if you're not in their face continually. Visa and Master card both succeeded because they were in your face everywhere you went. This is called Omnipresence and it creates brand recognition. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Amazon's brand recognition was not something that was created overnight, and it took $100,000,000's and the right strategy to get the recognition they have today. Sometimes you have to give up a pawn to get the king. In their case money was the pawn, so make the sacrifices needed, and remember, if you put cheap in, you'll get cheap out. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do more outbound sales, plenty of huge companies still rely on cold calling.&#xD;&#xA;If you're not getting the result you need, change your targeted niche, change your approach, change your strategy, find what works, don't repeat what doesn't work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your ads are burning too much money, optimize them. Create a marketing budget and sacrifice else were to ensure that budget stays. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Execute with the right strategy, have a healthy and positive mindset, be someone that people want to be around, and give it 10 more years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If one ad isn't performing well, stop it, and make a new one. If your SEO isn't bringing you enough traffic, create more pages, and optimize your existing pages.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Business is about research and development. You will waste money until you make money. You have to deal with it, this is why it's called an investment. Investments have no guarantee, but if you believe in them, you'll pour your heart, blood, and sweat into making sure the business succeeds. You'll treat it like your child, and you'll make sacrifices to ensure that it grows. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't give up, keep trying new things, understand the risks, problems, and continually make adjustments. It's a lot harder as a lean startup, but there are plenty of people who've made it with the right strategies. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you feel like it's you, change your attitude, and try smarter, stay consistent, and move forward. We all have an equal chance to succeed, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember, all entrepreneurs have been there, and business is not easy, so congratulations to you for making it the last 20 years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck and prosperity" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24768" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9814" RevisionGUID="75fbaae3-b067-4dd8-8a6b-0cfee5bedca7" CreationDate="2020-08-14T19:00:23.747" UserId="25115" Comment="added 425 characters in body" Text="Zepplin, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First, you sound like you've been trying to grow your business for some time without the results you're looking for and this has resulted in you becoming a bit unmotivated to trying the same things with a different perspective and by using different methods.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The good old days of &quot;build it and they will come&quot; are far gone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You've mentioned that you've been in business for 20 years and have no contact list. There are many forms of businesses, I personally run a business to business operation, and our main objective is to provide value through our services. Unfortunately, there are a lot of businesses that are similar to ours, and we must find ways to continually differentiate ourselves. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With this being said, solutions come from problems, and adding value comes from providing solutions, regardless of what the solution is, monetary, emotional, beneficial, etc... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are having problems identifying these problems and creating solutions, a good starting point would be internal. I would start by realizing it was a mistake for you not to collect your previous client's information, and begin to collect it now and set up the infrastructure needed to continually market yourself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Identify what you've done right and what you've done wrong, identify what changes or other perspectives you can try within those same segments. As you know, you can ride a bike 1 time and fall, but if you continually make adjustments, you'll eventually get the results you're looking for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Our business makes close to 6-7 figures annually from organic traffic from Search Engine Optimization and we are in a very competitive industry.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every company puts money into their ads, and has the same struggles, some companies simply have more money to throw into it. The majority of ads are only there to build contact lists, not to make a sale. This is called your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and from that point forward, it is your responsibility to educate the customer and work the deal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you convert the customer to a paid customer, you'll find out what their Life Time Value (LTV) is, and you'll be able to determine your potential profits in the future by subtracting LTV - CAC. There is more to it than that in the long run, but ultimately, you want to keep your CAC as low as possible while your LTV is high. The closer your CAC is to your LTV, the more risk you'll have.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In our case, our LTV is around $50,000, however, our CAC can be upwards of $5,000, with an average click cost of $12.00. This means that 1000 clicks cost us around $12,000. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No one will know you exist if you're not in their face continually. Visa and Master card both succeeded because they were in your face everywhere you went. This is called Omnipresence and it creates brand recognition. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fortunately for us, we can now use retargeting, to continually stay in the face of specific audiences. On average people do not make a sale until the 7-8th time they have encountered your brand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Think to yourself, how can I structure a conversation to make 8 emails, with a specific strategy that includes, educating, benefits, and solutions, where your sales pitch comes at the end of your sequence, not at the start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Amazon's brand recognition was not something that was created overnight, and it took $100,000,000's and the right strategy to get the recognition they have today. Sometimes you have to give up a pawn to get the king. In their case money was the pawn, so make the sacrifices needed, and remember, if you put cheap in, you'll get cheap out. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do more outbound sales, plenty of huge companies still rely on cold calling.&#xD;&#xA;If you're not getting the result you need, change your targeted niche, change your approach, change your strategy, find what works, don't repeat what doesn't work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your ads are burning too much money, optimize them. Create a marketing budget and sacrifice else were to ensure that budget stays. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Execute with the right strategy, have a healthy and positive mindset, be someone that people want to be around, and give it 10 more years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If one ad isn't performing well, stop it, and make a new one. If your SEO isn't bringing you enough traffic, create more pages, and optimize your existing pages.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Business is about research and development. You will waste money until you make money. You have to deal with it, this is why it's called an investment. Investments have no guarantee, but if you believe in them, you'll pour your heart, blood, and sweat into making sure the business succeeds. You'll treat it like your child, and you'll make sacrifices to ensure that it grows. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't give up, keep trying new things, understand the risks, problems, and continually make adjustments. It's a lot harder as a lean startup, but there are plenty of people who've made it with the right strategies. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you feel like it's you, change your attitude, and try smarter, stay consistent, and move forward. We all have an equal chance to succeed, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember, all entrepreneurs have been there, and business is not easy, so congratulations to you for making it the last 20 years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck and prosperity" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24770" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9677" RevisionGUID="fcfbdc24-faf7-4bef-b4bc-d8c9a7aa7053" CreationDate="2020-08-15T00:06:10.600" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24771" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9815" RevisionGUID="803a967a-3554-4efc-8060-658fa91977c7" CreationDate="2020-08-15T13:07:31.700" UserId="23949" Text="I've been looking into ReactJS and I really like it.  I've done the tutorials and worked through some apps of my own.  In short, I am confident that I now know it well enough that I am ready to tackle a professional gig.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, now that I am at a point where I am ready to get started professionally, how do I &quot;break in&quot; without any prior work experience? (That old catch-22, where if you want to get a job, you need to have had a job.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;React is not like AWS or MSCE where there is any official certification you can get. (At least none that I have seen.  Maybe I am missing something.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, I've heard some freelancers say, &quot;price yourself lower&quot;, while others say, &quot;don't undercharge or you'll only attract the kinds of clients who don't value you and will make your life miserable&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess my question is: how can I proceed from here?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24772" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9815" RevisionGUID="803a967a-3554-4efc-8060-658fa91977c7" CreationDate="2020-08-15T13:07:31.700" UserId="23949" Text="Landing a ReactJS gig with no work experience" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24773" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9815" RevisionGUID="803a967a-3554-4efc-8060-658fa91977c7" CreationDate="2020-08-15T13:07:31.700" UserId="23949" Text="|attracting-clients|price|programmer|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24774" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9816" RevisionGUID="9d8f4316-ba16-4bc9-b0fb-92a7196ff51a" CreationDate="2020-08-15T15:03:12.880" UserId="10464" Text="I also work in tech as a freelancer. &#xD;&#xA;1. Retainer&#xD;&#xA;2. Customer service fee&#xD;&#xA;3. Monthly Customer service fee&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The most important thing is to have a service agreement where how fees are calculated (for anything that can apply to) is clearly spelled out. I would avoid getting into a situation where you're going to need to issue a &#xD;&#xA;refund often. It's extra work with no benefit to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If dealing with big clients or very experienced ones, consider SLA or Service Level Agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;A service-level agreement (SLA) defines the level of service you expect from a vendor, laying out the metrics by which service is measured, as well as remedies or penalties should agreed-on service levels not be achieved. It is a critical component of any technology vendor contract.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.cio.com/article/2438284/outsourcing-sla-definitions-and-solutions.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24775" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9816" RevisionGUID="bb7a70db-00f4-4098-89ca-fd57ec087626" CreationDate="2020-08-15T15:25:16.803" UserId="10464" Comment="added 563 characters in body" Text="1. Deposit / Upfront fee&#xD;&#xA;2. Customer service fee&#xD;&#xA;3. Monthly Customer service fee&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;A retainer fee is an amount of money paid upfront to secure the services of a consultant, freelancer, lawyer, or other professional. A retainer fee is most commonly paid to individual third parties that have been engaged by the payer to perform a specific action on their behalf. These fees, almost always paid upfront, only ensure the commitment of the receiver. In addition, retainer fees usually do not represent the total final cost of the services provided.&quot; https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/retainer-fee.asp&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The most important thing is to have a service agreement where how fees are calculated (for anything that can apply to) is clearly spelled out. I would avoid getting into a situation where you're going to need to issue a &#xD;&#xA;refund often. It's extra work with no benefit to you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If dealing with big clients or very experienced ones, consider saying SLA or Service Level Agreement and have one defined.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;A service-level agreement (SLA) defines the level of service you expect from a vendor, laying out the metrics by which service is measured, as well as remedies or penalties should agreed-on service levels not be achieved. It is a critical component of any technology vendor contract.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.cio.com/article/2438284/outsourcing-sla-definitions-and-solutions.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24776" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9817" RevisionGUID="b51acdd3-3183-4da4-a09f-58173bf82437" CreationDate="2020-08-17T06:31:23.790" UserId="24078" Text="You can still get projects if you don't have any prior experience but you need to be skilled in React. There are two very important points in this regard I would like to mention:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. **Keep Pricing Lower** (as you have mentioned yourself too)&#xD;&#xA; So the most important thing for you while starting is to grab enough clients. That's the most important thing while getting into freelancing. So once you have enough clients and enough reviews on the board, you can increase the pricing accordingly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. **Have a great portfolio**&#xD;&#xA; The second most important thing is to have a great portfolio. If you have developed any projects, do put them on your profile. If you haven't, create some dummy projects and place them so that the clients can have a go through on how much skills/creativity do you have. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging less as a new freelancer isn't bad, that's the time where you are growing and developing. In the freelancing, the thing that matters the most is enough good clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you still have any queries, feel free to ask." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24784" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9692" RevisionGUID="1b51e40c-07dd-4e24-a1f3-fd93ed1e3d57" CreationDate="2020-08-20T11:05:30.523" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24788" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9356" RevisionGUID="0eda434f-2ec3-4ad1-aa40-018e75a3ecef" CreationDate="2020-08-21T15:06:10.780" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24789" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9821" RevisionGUID="5c755dac-cd9e-44fd-83a5-84e0362f8de0" CreationDate="2020-08-23T10:11:40.310" UserId="25156" Text="This could also be a poaching exercise. Familiarize themselves with your team and poach them. Make sure any agreement you make with the &quot;competitor&quot; has a 6 month non-compete clause. Most corporations today do the same.&#xA;&#xA;If my company is hiring a vendor for some development, the vendor contract clearly mentions that my company can't hire any of their employees working on the project unless they have worked in another company after quitting the vendor. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24790" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9806" RevisionGUID="519ca5bf-2d09-4380-86dd-55607ea6b3ca" CreationDate="2020-08-24T16:22:19.547" UserId="21103" Comment="remove &quot;thanks&quot;" Text="I am a freelancer registered in Germany and I am interested to take a freelance contract in the United States.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I couldn't get my question answered from the web page of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (https://www.uscis.gov/) regarding which visa I would need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it correct that I can use a B-1 (Business visitor) visa for a stay up to 6 months in the USA with the possibility of extension up to 1 year?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I guess it's way more complex to receive such a suitable visa.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Which visa would I need and is it possible at all to deliver consulting services from Germany to the USA?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you might know, most US-companies don't give sponsorship on visas for Non-US-residents anymore." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24791" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9806" RevisionGUID="519ca5bf-2d09-4380-86dd-55607ea6b3ca" CreationDate="2020-08-24T16:22:19.547" Comment="Proposed by 21103 approved by 61, 25053 edit id of 720" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24793" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9823" RevisionGUID="92700480-558a-44df-891a-8adf0cb36c18" CreationDate="2020-08-24T22:56:44.513" UserId="21615" Text="Say for example it's a two month iOS development project, would it be sensible to set the fixed cost at what two months of a mobile developers salary in the U.S. would be using [this data](https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#work-salary-by-developer-type)? I'm in the SF Bay Area, and I will be scoping out the project with the person this week. For what it's worth he has a cushy full-time engineering job here at a large company. I want to avoid low-balling myself while also making what I charge more objective and backed by data. This would be the only project and client I work on during this period." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24794" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9823" RevisionGUID="92700480-558a-44df-891a-8adf0cb36c18" CreationDate="2020-08-24T22:56:44.513" UserId="21615" Text="Is it reasonable for a fixed contract cost to a client to be based on the average salary of the role from the Stack Overflow Developer Survey?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24795" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9823" RevisionGUID="92700480-558a-44df-891a-8adf0cb36c18" CreationDate="2020-08-24T22:56:44.513" UserId="21615" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24797" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9823" RevisionGUID="ca979fee-8fd3-447e-bf63-8a4bbc59d168" CreationDate="2020-08-25T10:27:17.703" UserId="21615" Comment="added 30 characters in body" Text="Say for example it's a two month iOS development project, would it be sensible to set the fixed cost at what two months of a mobile developers salary in the U.S. would be using [this data](https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#work-salary-by-developer-type)? I'm in the SF Bay Area, and I will be scoping out the project with the person who's an acquaintance of mine this week. For what it's worth he has a cushy full-time engineering job here at a large company. I want to avoid low-balling myself while also making what I charge more objective and backed by data. This would be the only project and client I work on during this period." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24798" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9823" RevisionGUID="c090aa05-85e4-4263-8495-14fee1bd9f6c" CreationDate="2020-08-25T10:45:48.957" UserId="21615" Comment="Link to United States instead of globally." Text="Say for example it's a two month iOS development project, would it be sensible to set the fixed cost at what two months of a mobile developers salary in the U.S. would be using [this data](https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#work-salary-by-developer-type-united-states)? I'm in the SF Bay Area, and I will be scoping out the project with the person who's an acquaintance of mine this week. For what it's worth he has a cushy full-time engineering job here at a large company. I want to avoid low-balling myself while also making what I charge more objective and backed by data. This would be the only project and client I work on during this period." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24801" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7711" RevisionGUID="45adae6f-ce63-44c4-b5af-6b18182951dc" CreationDate="2020-08-26T10:47:40.747" UserId="18230" Comment="edited body" Text="Yes, it´s probably billable time but ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Morally and depending on jurisdiction and contract, you have the obligation towards your client to make the best use of his paid time - going to the Supermarket/Watch may pose a problem. You normally also have the obligation to advise him to the best of your knowledge, so you should make suggestions how to make more effective use of your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I´d try one of the following approaches.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it is only an occasional incident:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Plan your task so that your PC does the downloading/etc. when you wouldn´t use it anyways, don´t bill that time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Occupy yourself with something at least remotely useful to the client, such as studying documentation, going over your planning or preparing status reports.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. For work where you have to occasionally click/configure something and than wait again, I´d think about rounding up every phase where you have to do something to the next full quarter or so, but not bill the time where you where really doing nothing (watching TV for 2 hours without interruption)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there are recurring tasks:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Get a different machine, that works in the background. The client may be willing to provide one if that saves a lot of billed hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. Offer to automate those tasks, if possible, to have them run when you don´t need the machine. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Offer a different rate for low-intensity work, where you essentially rent out only your machine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This may seem like you are loosing out on possible revenue that way, but being a good adviser as well as making effective use out of the client´s money will ensure you further and probably better paid contracts in the future!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24804" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="9823" RevisionGUID="ca3223b0-e8a5-4d1c-9c2d-b80d0dcf002b" CreationDate="2020-08-26T22:57:32.403" UserId="21615" Comment="43" />
  <row Id="24806" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9825" RevisionGUID="b6449b69-bcda-4114-aaab-4c0251697d0d" CreationDate="2020-08-28T05:52:03.950" UserId="24078" Text="So as the developer Survey states the average salary of an iOS developer, you definitely need to charge little more. Let's suppose a developer earns 100% for a two-month job, so you need to charge 120%-140% of it. A freelancer always charges more than a full-time developer, as you might be giving more time than a full-time developer or you possess more experience than an average developer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, once the task is complete, the client will be asking for revisions too that might take the duration to more than two months. So you need to keep this into consideration too. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope it helps. Feel free to ask if you still have any queries..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24807" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9823" RevisionGUID="81c29b32-1a6a-4e0a-be8e-cb3518a6f4ce" CreationDate="2020-08-28T12:00:06.263" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1299315820233920512" />
  <row Id="24808" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9771" RevisionGUID="0fdc1425-caa2-4ff6-8879-8a045ee563a7" CreationDate="2020-08-29T02:18:34.483" UserId="24861" Comment="added 16 characters in body" Text="I couldn't help but had to leave my own insights on this matter as I am seeing two of those previous answers are all implying a client shouldn't be charged for his employee's mistakes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this question is about the rights of getting paid when the delays have been made due to freelancer's inexperience, low-level skills, or working practices - as opposed to his/her hidden features like characteristics, inattentiveness, or negligence - the client still has to pay for it. Errors and mistakes happen everywhere, every time. There's nothing guilty about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason is clear: The client shouldn't have hired his employee in the first place if his/her skills didn't meet up his expectations. That's what employers do. And most importantly, he should be responsible for his choice of choosing whom he is working with, and what his employee's mindset looks like. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Refusing to pay for the mistakes can only happen when the client thinks he has hired a working robot, not a human. Otherwise, any hours spent on the work that is (even slightly) related to the client's project are subject to the regular payment, especially when you are working on an hourly basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as you have materials that support your claim you didn't idly spend time for those 35 mins, you have full rights to get paid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24809" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7660" RevisionGUID="dc9ce706-6bdb-4dad-bf51-4106b6eb8f82" CreationDate="2020-08-29T04:02:20.390" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24810" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9826" RevisionGUID="3e8c3534-6b4f-4241-bebb-12aa671b8d02" CreationDate="2020-08-29T14:32:22.253" UserDisplayName="user25163" Text="You need nothing rather than securing payment by working only under the coverage of  secure freelancing platform such as upwork or freelancer. com. &#xA;&#xA;You can also request the client to sign both (employee and employer) legal e-signature contract, the well-known and fully legal one is hellosign.com&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24811" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9826" RevisionGUID="69221d8b-18d7-45cd-97fb-83f94283ee5f" CreationDate="2020-08-29T17:45:33.270" UserDisplayName="user25163" Comment="deleted 5 characters in body" Text="You need nothing rather than securing payment by working only under the coverage of  secure freelancing platform such as upwork or freelancer. com. &#xA;&#xA;You can also request the client to sign (employee and employer) legal e-signature contract, the well-known and fully legal one is hellosign.com&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24812" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9801" RevisionGUID="760a55f3-ef25-4d40-89c5-062680491b28" CreationDate="2020-08-30T02:07:50.837" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24813" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9827" RevisionGUID="3eec66c7-3c29-44d6-b182-877b483cd379" CreationDate="2020-08-30T13:27:23.147" UserId="23884" Text="First of all, the ultimate source to consult is the US embassy (or its nearest consulate) in your country - mostly its web page, since embassies rarely engage in lengthy and abstract discussions over a phone and email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Physical presence in the US is the key issue here. If you are working remotely and the presence is required only for occasional meetings or relatively short periods, then coming as a tourist would not break any laws.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For periods longer than what is allowed by a tourist visa, the employer would have to sponsor a working visa - which come in several varieties (J-1 and H-1 are the most familiar to me), and can take rather long time to obtain. Business visa does not really seem relevant, if it is really about one contract with one particular client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24814" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9828" RevisionGUID="23845069-44c1-41c5-8c42-f5980b29c892" CreationDate="2020-08-30T13:36:49.277" UserId="23884" Text="If you are legally present in France, then you would need to register as an entrepreneur, pay necessary taxes, etc. Web Developers are probably considered as *une profession liberale*, and the necessary steps can be undertaken through [the URSSAF site][1]. (Registering as an autoentrepreneur would require holding long-term residence card.) Running such microentreprise is not very complicated, but there are a few pitfalls to avoid, and knowing French is certainly a necessity to deal with the administration. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are running your freelance business from abroad, then nothing prevents you from taking contracts with French clients. Such international collaborations are done all the time via freelancing sites (Again, there are quite a few sites for developers that require knowing French and being registered as an autoentrepreneur in France - they simply demand your SIREN number when registering.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.autoentrepreneur.urssaf.fr/portail/accueil.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24817" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9829" RevisionGUID="ec34626c-1932-40aa-a146-3ebc9671ca95" CreationDate="2020-08-31T03:53:50.740" UserId="25191" Text="can you share some experience on how to deal with frequent changes / additions during a project? Here are some common experiences I've had in my not so long freelancing career. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I always start off with a legal contract with a clearly stated statement of work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. But of course, there are 100 changes during the actual project. Most are very small, e.g., color; some are not so small, some are outright additions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. I'd LOVE to pin these changes into legal contracts every time they come up, but it's simply not realistic. &#xD;&#xA;  3a) There are too many of them and I don't have time to do it&#xD;&#xA;  3b) The client isn't gonna be happy constantly signing contracts for very &quot;small&quot; things, and I do want to make sure the client is happy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Inevitably there are confusions / disputes. I haven't run into outright scams but I think honestly with so many little things flying around, there will be confusion &amp; disagreements. Once again, it's not something that will completely tank the project or anything, but the sheer amount of time (which = money) it takes to resolve these things is getting ridiculous. &quot;Wait you did what? Did we agree on this? I don't remember seeing that text / email...&quot; etc. etc. I mean it's not like I can get the client to put in a JIRA ticket everytime.... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So here are my questions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A. I'm not alone in seeing this right? You guys run into this too? &#xD;&#xA;B. How do you deal with the confusion / disputes? Once again I haven't met outright people trying to scam me just that it's super annoying to deal with but at the same time understandable that it happens? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24818" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9829" RevisionGUID="ec34626c-1932-40aa-a146-3ebc9671ca95" CreationDate="2020-08-31T03:53:50.740" UserId="25191" Text="How do you handle confusion / disagreements with changes during projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24819" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9829" RevisionGUID="ec34626c-1932-40aa-a146-3ebc9671ca95" CreationDate="2020-08-31T03:53:50.740" UserId="25191" Text="|changes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24820" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9830" RevisionGUID="74fbe1ab-777f-49c0-923b-66e28b994070" CreationDate="2020-08-31T08:11:54.483" UserId="7858" Text="Changes are unavoidable; to handle them, I find using an hourly rate works better than a fixed-price project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fixed price has the potential to seriously sour the relationship, as the client naturally will want everything fixed; nothing is too small. Using a fixed hourly rate will lead to the client evaluating whether a change is 'worth it'.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With a hourly rate, the contract can concentrate on how to avoid, minimize and resolve disputes rather than painstakingly stating exactly what is in scope and what isn't." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24825" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9829" RevisionGUID="0a74abed-cbe7-4dfb-a5c5-d9c9c8280dc6" CreationDate="2020-09-01T16:46:54.173" UserId="25191" Comment="added 36 characters in body" Text="Can you share some experience on how to deal with frequent changes / additions during a project? Here are some common experiences I've had in my not so long freelancing career, (edit) primarily building websites. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I always start off with a legal contract with a clearly stated statement of work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. But of course, there are 100 changes during the actual project. Most are very small, e.g., color; some are not so small, some are outright additions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. I'd LOVE to pin these changes into legal contracts every time they come up, but it's simply not realistic. &#xD;&#xA;  3a) There are too many of them and I don't have time to do it&#xD;&#xA;  3b) The client isn't gonna be happy constantly signing contracts for very &quot;small&quot; things, and I do want to make sure the client is happy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Inevitably there are confusions / disputes. I haven't run into outright scams but I think honestly with so many little things flying around, there will be confusion &amp; disagreements. Once again, it's not something that will completely tank the project or anything, but the sheer amount of time (which = money) it takes to resolve these things is getting ridiculous. &quot;Wait you did what? Did we agree on this? I don't remember seeing that text / email...&quot; etc. etc. I mean it's not like I can get the client to put in a JIRA ticket everytime.... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So here are my questions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A. I'm not alone in seeing this right? You guys run into this too? &#xD;&#xA;B. How do you deal with the confusion / disputes? Once again I haven't met outright people trying to scam me just that it's super annoying to deal with but at the same time understandable that it happens? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you! " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24826" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9832" RevisionGUID="182478c9-c368-4946-9261-40f3ba4c8258" CreationDate="2020-09-02T13:55:31.703" UserId="23884" Text="I share your pain, even though I am in a different field - doing scientific R&amp;D, mainly developing systems for analyzing data from measurements made by scientific equipment or in medical studies. I always start with a detailed description of the project, the steps I am planning to do, expected number of hours, etc. But it is just the nature of scientific research/R&amp;D that one cannot predict what will be the outcome, and how the direction may change depending on the intermediate results. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Therefore, contrary to @morsor, I now prefer working on fixed-price contracts, split into many milestones, with each milestone corresponding to a well-defined task. This way, after completion of one milestone, one can always re-discuss and adjust the content of the next one. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working with hourly or weekly rate on a long-term project didn't work for me, precisely because the client and I were losing the track of what was the original assignment, and which parts were added later. I suspect though that this could be overcome using project management tools, like Kanban boards - but that requires some discipline and always looks like a waste of time (at least from the point of view of a client)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24827" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9833" RevisionGUID="712d4b46-5719-4cc3-8dba-62b356954c51" CreationDate="2020-09-02T16:47:29.033" UserId="25199" Text="I would get the contact information of multiple clients and start off by creating an email list. Try to email or call them and let them know that you are a contractor, etc. Then build a good relationship with them, network with other contractors, and offer your services. Even if they are not interested on the spot, when the opportunity arises, they will think about you and contact you when they need a contractor. You can also put up your services on LinkedIn or job sites and get yourself known." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24828" PostHistoryTypeId="34" PostId="9823" RevisionGUID="a4dff492-f038-4f86-a6d5-9808b454eb28" CreationDate="2020-09-04T00:02:20.213" UserId="-1" Comment="43" />
  <row Id="24829" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9834" RevisionGUID="45c349b0-0250-4119-8119-9899318d4f6c" CreationDate="2020-09-05T06:34:27.100" UserId="25205" Text="My first ReactJS project was done with no prior experience in any kind of web stuff. I did multiple native mobile apps before though with Java Swift and Kotlin. Just go for it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24831" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9835" RevisionGUID="d306bdf9-03bc-44b5-a3d6-81d1d1a85d0a" CreationDate="2020-09-09T17:46:47.387" UserId="25228" Text="A little confusing. Do you not have a personal identification card (State ID or License) if in the united states. If you do, then there is no reason they would need to ask you for such card unless you told them you are a government employee (still no reason to ask for it). If you are in the united states I can not recall all government ID's, however, for military ID's that would be considered **illegal** for you to provide it to them. No one is allowed to take your ID or photo copy it. They can look at it as proof of service, but that is it. Again, do not know if that applies for all government IDs but it shouldn't matter in this case because how would they know you are a government employee. Are you hiring people for gigs on behalf of the government? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A veteran a part of a veteran owned company &quot;Overwatch Media&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24832" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9836" RevisionGUID="dde81ea1-e620-454e-9760-3fc44744fdb1" CreationDate="2020-09-09T17:59:28.947" UserId="25228" Text="What we do for our company is give a fixed price and state that in the contact with their specific needs like you do. Then, also have in the contract that any additions are a charge of $$ per hour and clearly explain this when reviewing the contract with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Disclaimer: We help businesses start and maintain their company as business consultants providing business and website services; we are not lawyers, and this is only our advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24833" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9837" RevisionGUID="f8694061-e5fc-413a-b571-99317b703bf4" CreationDate="2020-09-09T19:58:45.773" UserId="25228" Text="for section 1: we use similar language in our contracts. The purpose for us using it (specifically, &quot;including reasonable legal costs), damages or expenses arising from the provision of the Services&quot;) is that there should be no reason for legal costs. If we have to sue you for your failure to provide the services, you pay the cost. If we get sued because you used someone elses work, you should bare the cost for you are the one who stole in this situation. The reason for insurance could be for the same reason (in case you can not cover the cost with your personal finances if something like the stuff mentioned before comes up. You are right to clarify what insurance and you should make sure it is in writing (in the contract or via email) what they consider reputable insurance and what is adequate in their minds.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For part 2, my understanding is that if that state requires you to pay taxes on services (some states do some don't) you are supposed to cover those taxes if they request as long as they are legally allowed to by law. You can always clarify this part with them and ask them for an example.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For part B of that same paragraph, you are being hired as a contractor. That part is there because they are making it clear you are an independent contractor and can not get any employment related benefits they have (because you are not an employee). If you were able to get these benefits you would be considered their employee by law.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Disclaimer: We help businesses start and maintain their company as business consultants providing business and website services; we are not lawyers, and this is only our advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24834" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9838" RevisionGUID="b9262187-96b7-4bbf-bd98-5becf38b0702" CreationDate="2020-09-09T20:05:41.213" UserId="25228" Text="So you did all the work but they did not like it. Was there a contract? If not you should do one moving forward. I would ask why they are just cancelling and what they would like changed. I would be concerned that they get the money back and they still used your finished project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there was a contract, did you meet the details of the contract if they were fleshed out in the contract? If so you should have a right to sue for the full amount. If they tarnish your name (leave bad reviews or something), that would be defamation of character in that case. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;like Morsor said though, is this a client you work with frequently and expect to continue working with? That is something to consider in whether you give the remaining 25%. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Disclaimer: We help businesses start and maintain their company as business consultants providing business and website services; we are not lawyers, and this is only our advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24835" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9839" RevisionGUID="229156d8-1ecf-4d6c-af39-0f37f908398f" CreationDate="2020-09-09T20:11:23.123" UserId="25228" Text="We would not charge our client on stupid mistakes. We commonly subtract the estimated time from the final hours if hourly pay was required for their project. Of course, any developer will probably spend time figuring out things and testing things trying to get it to work properly. In this case we might take a few minutes off that make sense. It's all about reason. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you were hiring someone to do something, and you found out they charged you $100 extra because they did not do what they should've known to do (press the apply button before running the new code)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Disclaimer: We help businesses start and maintain their company as business consultants providing business and website services; we are not lawyers, and this is only our advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24836" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9529" RevisionGUID="49e885bb-493d-4ab5-8b6d-3de67eb39359" CreationDate="2020-09-09T22:04:00.370" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24837" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9835" RevisionGUID="3ebe7658-c766-4991-bf63-6131391cd2e5" CreationDate="2020-09-10T02:02:45.753" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 66 characters in body" Text="A little confusing. Do you not have a personal identification card (State ID or License) if in the united states. If you do, then there is no reason they would need to ask you for such card unless you told them you are a government employee (still no reason to ask for it). If you are in the united states I can not recall all government ID's, however, for military ID's that would be considered **illegal** for you to provide it to them. No one is allowed to take your ID or photo copy it. They can look at it as proof of service, but that is it. Again, do not know if that applies for all government IDs but it shouldn't matter in this case because how would they know you are a government employee. Are you hiring people for gigs on behalf of the government?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24838" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9836" RevisionGUID="a470c5eb-b767-4cea-850e-c3f247aca178" CreationDate="2020-09-10T02:03:24.223" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 181 characters in body" Text="What we do for our company is give a fixed price and state that in the contact with their specific needs like you do. Then, also have in the contract that any additions are a charge of $$ per hour and clearly explain this when reviewing the contract with them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24839" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9837" RevisionGUID="e6363814-890d-45b6-9432-d00e17881a02" CreationDate="2020-09-10T02:04:18.250" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 181 characters in body" Text="For section 1: we use similar language in our contracts. The purpose for us using it (specifically, &quot;including reasonable legal costs), damages or expenses arising from the provision of the Services&quot;) is that there should be no reason for legal costs. If we have to sue you for your failure to provide the services, you pay the cost. If we get sued because you used someone elses work, you should bare the cost for you are the one who stole in this situation. The reason for insurance could be for the same reason (in case you can not cover the cost with your personal finances if something like the stuff mentioned before comes up. You are right to clarify what insurance and you should make sure it is in writing (in the contract or via email) what they consider reputable insurance and what is adequate in their minds.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For part 2, my understanding is that if that state requires you to pay taxes on services (some states do some don't) you are supposed to cover those taxes if they request as long as they are legally allowed to by law. You can always clarify this part with them and ask them for an example.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For part B of that same paragraph, you are being hired as a contractor. That part is there because they are making it clear you are an independent contractor and can not get any employment related benefits they have (because you are not an employee). If you were able to get these benefits you would be considered their employee by law." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24840" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9838" RevisionGUID="9c8802e7-25a3-4c6b-aea3-ab7885ad6323" CreationDate="2020-09-10T02:04:55.077" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 182 characters in body" Text="So you did all the work but they did not like it. Was there a contract? If not you should do one moving forward. I would ask why they are just cancelling and what they would like changed. I would be concerned that they get the money back and they still used your finished project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there was a contract, did you meet the details of the contract if they were fleshed out in the contract? If so you should have a right to sue for the full amount. If they tarnish your name (leave bad reviews or something), that would be defamation of character in that case. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like Morsor said though, is this a client you work with frequently and expect to continue working with? That is something to consider in whether you give the remaining 25%." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24841" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9839" RevisionGUID="ce275d0e-4493-4512-9c03-5ce469418274" CreationDate="2020-09-10T02:05:38.163" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 181 characters in body" Text="We would not charge our client on stupid mistakes. We commonly subtract the estimated time from the final hours if hourly pay was required for their project. Of course, any developer will probably spend time figuring out things and testing things trying to get it to work properly. In this case we might take a few minutes off that make sense. It's all about reason. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you were hiring someone to do something, and you found out they charged you $100 extra because they did not do what they should've known to do (press the apply button before running the new code)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24842" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9307" RevisionGUID="1f9e23d9-6727-4d5a-a2e4-0ae38b582237" CreationDate="2020-09-10T13:00:15.013" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24843" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9840" RevisionGUID="b831b49f-f9dd-4989-9421-9d94d3216af1" CreationDate="2020-09-10T13:24:42.423" UserId="23884" Text="In France a *microentrepreneur* is exempt from VAT below a certain yearly income. However some freelancing sites do charge VAT, unless one provides a VAT number. Requesting a VAT number is not difficult, but then you have to charge VAT consistently on all your contracts, despite being exempt (as far as I understand). There is no certainty on this issue." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24844" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9835" RevisionGUID="ec36fa56-7e16-4eb4-89cb-8f6104dd1e0b" CreationDate="2020-09-10T14:32:30.133" UserId="25228" Comment="Providing a source for where I am getting the information" Text="A little confusing. Do you not have a personal identification card (State ID or License) if in the united states. If you do, then there is no reason they would need to ask you for such card unless you told them you are a government employee (still no reason to ask for it). If you are in the united states I can not recall all government ID's, however, for military ID's that would be considered **illegal** for you to provide it to them. No one is allowed to take your ID or photo copy it. They can look at it as proof of service, but that is it. Again, do not know if that applies for all government IDs but it shouldn't matter in this case because how would they know you are a government employee. Are you hiring people for gigs on behalf of the government?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Source: Military Veterans of our company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24845" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9837" RevisionGUID="f76a8223-2120-4101-90a4-44f60c9a89da" CreationDate="2020-09-10T14:36:15.363" UserId="25228" Comment="Make it so the poster is aware we are not lawyers that are giving advice since that could be misconstrued." Text="For section 1: we use similar language in our contracts. The purpose for us using it (specifically, &quot;including reasonable legal costs), damages or expenses arising from the provision of the Services&quot;) is that there should be no reason for legal costs. If we have to sue you for your failure to provide the services, you pay the cost. If we get sued because you used someone elses work, you should bare the cost for you are the one who stole in this situation. The reason for insurance could be for the same reason (in case you can not cover the cost with your personal finances if something like the stuff mentioned before comes up. You are right to clarify what insurance and you should make sure it is in writing (in the contract or via email) what they consider reputable insurance and what is adequate in their minds.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For part 2, my understanding is that if that state requires you to pay taxes on services (some states do some don't) you are supposed to cover those taxes if they request as long as they are legally allowed to by law. You can always clarify this part with them and ask them for an example.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For part B of that same paragraph, you are being hired as a contractor. That part is there because they are making it clear you are an independent contractor and can not get any employment related benefits they have (because you are not an employee). If you were able to get these benefits you would be considered their employee by law.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind we are only general business consultants for our own clients and not lawyers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24846" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9838" RevisionGUID="604202e2-bc83-4fb7-85fb-e1f81b72385c" CreationDate="2020-09-10T14:42:19.253" UserId="25228" Comment="Making it clear a lawyer is not commenting and recomend they seek further legal advice for a free consultation" Text="So you did all the work but they did not like it. Was there a contract? If not you should do one moving forward. I would ask why they are just cancelling and what they would like changed. I would be concerned that they get the money back and they still used your finished project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If there was a contract, did you meet the details of the contract if they were fleshed out in the contract? If so you should have a right to sue for the full amount. If they tarnish your name (leave bad reviews or something), that would be defamation of character in that case. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like Morsor said though, is this a client you work with frequently and expect to continue working with? That is something to consider in whether you give the remaining 25%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind we are only general business consultants for our own clients and not lawyers;  it may be a good idea to seek expert legal help by asking for a cheap or free consultation from an attorney to clarify our information" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24848" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9842" RevisionGUID="4e4445e8-0b64-4c71-bc8a-08885c42e4bb" CreationDate="2020-09-11T02:23:07.400" UserId="25237" Text="Based on the information the OP has provided, I would say the OP is entitled to full payment, unless the client has a credible reason for being dissatisfied. In general, when a project is cancelled, the contractor is entitled to be paid for billable work already done before the cancellation was announced (the details depend on how the charges are structured)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24851" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9843" RevisionGUID="c7ad59c3-7237-4af4-ad18-0787902cbb66" CreationDate="2020-09-11T18:21:34.967" UserId="25169" Text="I would to know which the *best payment* form to be paid for clients from *foreign countries*?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, is *Paypal* a good option for it? Any useful tips or other options are all welcome." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24852" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9843" RevisionGUID="c7ad59c3-7237-4af4-ad18-0787902cbb66" CreationDate="2020-09-11T18:21:34.967" UserId="25169" Text="What the best payment form to be paid for clients from foreign countries?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24853" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9843" RevisionGUID="c7ad59c3-7237-4af4-ad18-0787902cbb66" CreationDate="2020-09-11T18:21:34.967" UserId="25169" Text="|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24854" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9844" RevisionGUID="73aa62c0-b470-49d7-977d-84f54340da78" CreationDate="2020-09-11T23:37:17.420" UserDisplayName="user25163" Text="From my experience, the best one is **transferwise.com** for its fast service, low fees and great customer support. Else, to secure your contracts you have to set it in trustful platform such as **upwork** or **freelancer.com** or **hellosign.com**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24855" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9845" RevisionGUID="ac9bb0b8-f42a-4355-ac36-41062a24cddd" CreationDate="2020-09-12T09:44:18.510" UserId="21318" Text="Transferwise is a great option simply because of its low costs and wide availability. Paypal or Stripe are generally quite good also, but if you run into a chargeback, you can depend upon neither to do anything to support you. Lastly, bitcoin exchanges are a great method if you want to accept payments from countries where the other two are not available. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24856" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9846" RevisionGUID="bceb7c10-7374-4ba6-9481-bb90b94fca6d" CreationDate="2020-09-12T11:07:00.410" UserId="21318" Text="By US &amp; EU law none of these companies are permitted to *retain* a copy of your identification. They may indeed look at it for verification purposes and then destroy it. This is why on sites (i.e. Freelancer.com) where they follow KYC (Know Your Customer - EU) and CIP (Customer Identification Program - US) laws they will make you verify your identity many times. Unlike the previous answer by Overwatch Media, there is nothing at all illegal about this and in fact, it will become more of a standard as time progresses. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wouldn't worry too much about this practice when working with larger companies. Even less so if they are outsourcing this work to a reputable third-party verification service. I would however refuse to verify my identity with a fly-by-night freelancer service. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24862" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9845" RevisionGUID="79813863-3220-425f-a14b-a34e7175b096" CreationDate="2020-09-12T19:23:18.157" UserId="21318" Comment="added 41 characters in body" Text="Transferwise is a great option simply because of its low costs and wide availability, however, they don't accept credit cards. Paypal or Stripe are generally quite good also, but if you run into a chargeback, you can depend upon neither to do anything to support you. Lastly, bitcoin exchanges are a great method if you want to accept payments from countries where the other two are not available. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24863" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9848" RevisionGUID="99c393f8-4907-41c2-aced-6a5d265bb2b3" CreationDate="2020-09-12T22:06:28.393" UserId="11625" Text="Due to COVID 19 I' am working from home for my regular job as well as freelancing. I want to have a separate number from my work cell phone and since I'll be working at a desk every day for 8-10 hours I need a desk phone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only thing that I need is a different number and line to keep my employment and freelancing separate. However, I've been hearing about VOIP and how it gives you extra features such as extra lines/extensions (which I doubt I even need).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question is....should I get a VOIP phone or just stick to a basic landline phone? I will be using the phone for answering calls from clients, cold/hot calling, lead generation with local businesses, and other basic calls." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24864" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9848" RevisionGUID="99c393f8-4907-41c2-aced-6a5d265bb2b3" CreationDate="2020-09-12T22:06:28.393" UserId="11625" Text="Desk Landline phone or VOIP phone for freelancing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24865" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9848" RevisionGUID="99c393f8-4907-41c2-aced-6a5d265bb2b3" CreationDate="2020-09-12T22:06:28.393" UserId="11625" Text="|working-from-home|scope-of-work|local-business|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24866" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9849" RevisionGUID="30a84b6d-46af-46af-bee1-354bdbe89f01" CreationDate="2020-09-13T07:08:34.957" UserId="708" Text="I'd get a second cell... for business. Cell providers generally offer decent rates for a second line/device. Why even bother with a land line and another company in today's age. A second cell means you can take client calls if you aren't at your desk. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could also use something a google number and forward it to your current cell. That way you know anything from *that* number is coming from the business line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My personal opinion about VOIP is.. it's not fantastic. It works, but there are often things like echoes on the line - making calls difficult. There aren't any VOIP features that are really unique today.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All this being posted.. **I use one cell line for everything**... primarily it's used for business, but caller ID lets me know when a personal call is coming in. I mean, what's the difference other than how I answer? My friends and family know I answer it as a business line if I don't recognize the caller ID. The only downside is that I *must* answer it... so the telemarketers tend to get through still." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24867" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6830" RevisionGUID="4a736190-54a6-455b-9fd4-b9dfe47bf06f" CreationDate="2020-09-14T15:04:40.457" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24868" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9850" RevisionGUID="03e94bb5-e33b-410a-8dae-b6919e54cf81" CreationDate="2020-09-14T18:33:30.807" UserId="708" Text="Pay taxes **where you live** and are **performing services**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't **ever** need to worry about taxes in a foreign country if there is no inventory or &quot;hard goods&quot; being sold or purchased. **Ever**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm based in Oregon as well and have never, not once, been concerned with taxes because a client *might* happen to be in a foreign country. No foreign government can do anything to enforce their own tax structure on non-citizens, especially non-resident non-citizens. They may as well pick Americans at random and claim they owe taxes in their country. You **only** need to be concerned with US taxes. Your *client* has to be concerned about taxes where *they live*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note; **Tariffs** are another matter if inventory is being bought and sold internationally, but for web services or many digital services, there are no &quot;hard goods&quot; being transferred at any time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24869" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9835" RevisionGUID="75d5abf2-8634-4061-85bd-49e64583e8d0" CreationDate="2020-09-15T17:24:35.120" UserId="25228" Comment="Another user gave completely wrong advice that can get the original poster in trouble legally and needed to point out that they were wrong in saying I was wrong and I provided an additional source." Text="IMPORTANT EDIT: **DO NOT PROVIDE A COMMON ACCESS CARD**. coderpro is dead wrong. If these companies are not permitted to retain a copy of your identification, its because it is illegal (hence him saying it is not permitted). **Photocopying government ID is illegal as it says on the government website**. As I have already said that coderpro reiterated, you can let a person see your card in person and look at it, they can not take it in the back and photocopy it. Even if it is a larger company, if it is illegal, it is still illegal if a larger company does it or a smaller company does it. People pay money for government ID and sell them. And in this situation Julia, you have provided no reasonable information as to why they are even asking for it or require it to begin with. They have no need for it and seem to only want it for malicious reasons. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.defense.gov/Explore/Inside-DOD/Blog/Article/2061835/did-you-know-photocopying-a-government-id-is-illegal/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A little confusing. Do you not have a personal identification card (State ID or License) if in the united states. If you do, then there is no reason they would need to ask you for such card unless you told them you are a government employee (still no reason to ask for it). If you are in the united states I can not recall all government ID's, however, for military ID's that would be considered **illegal** for you to provide it to them. No one is allowed to take your ID or photo copy it. They can look at it as proof of service, but that is it. Again, do not know if that applies for all government IDs but it shouldn't matter in this case because how would they know you are a government employee. Are you hiring people for gigs on behalf of the government?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Source: Military Veterans of our company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24870" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9835" RevisionGUID="62572d86-a47c-4aff-a873-5305f2125a9e" CreationDate="2020-09-15T17:30:28.080" UserId="25228" Comment="I misinterpreted users post so needed to supply my edit. User said government ID card which indicates a government employee, not a drivers license from my experience." Text="**EDIT**: You said government ID card in the first sentence and that usually means a Military or Government employee ID card when I hear people saying it. **Copying a drivers license would be another story** and many companies do ask for this. I have never heard of these two companies though so you would so you would need to research it a little. You may check BBB.org and see if they are on there. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.defense.gov/Explore/Inside-DOD/Blog/Article/2061835/did-you-know-photocopying-a-government-id-is-illegal/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A little confusing. Do you not have a personal identification card (State ID or License) if in the united states. If you do, then there is no reason they would need to ask you for such card unless you told them you are a government employee (still no reason to ask for it). If you are in the united states I can not recall all government ID's, however, for military ID's that would be considered **illegal** for you to provide it to them. No one is allowed to take your ID or photo copy it. They can look at it as proof of service, but that is it. Again, do not know if that applies for all government IDs but it shouldn't matter in this case because how would they know you are a government employee. Are you hiring people for gigs on behalf of the government?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Source: Military Veterans of our company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24871" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9835" RevisionGUID="047f242c-57af-4b5e-b740-56cf4e360a9c" CreationDate="2020-09-15T17:38:40.467" UserId="25228" Comment="I misinterpreted users post so needed to supply my edit. User said government ID card which indicates a government employee, not a drivers license from my experience." Text="**EDIT**: You said government ID card in the first sentence and that usually means a Military or Government employee ID card when I hear people saying it. **Copying a drivers license would be another story** and many companies do ask for this. I have never heard of these two companies though so you would so you would need to research it a little. You may check BBB.org and see if they are on there. Lionbridge seems to sound more like you do not get credit for the work like UpWork and Fiverr. It sounds like the company lionbridge is hiring you as a contractor to then outsource you under there company name. That was just from looking at their homepage though. With Upwork, you are having to reach out to clients directly to try and get the client to agree to work with you in contrast. That may be why lionbridge is requesting your resume and accurate information, because they are hiring you to work for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.defense.gov/Explore/Inside-DOD/Blog/Article/2061835/did-you-know-photocopying-a-government-id-is-illegal/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A little confusing. Do you not have a personal identification card (State ID or License) if in the united states. If you do, then there is no reason they would need to ask you for such card unless you told them you are a government employee (still no reason to ask for it). If you are in the united states I can not recall all government ID's, however, for military ID's that would be considered **illegal** for you to provide it to them. No one is allowed to take your ID or photo copy it. They can look at it as proof of service, but that is it. Again, do not know if that applies for all government IDs but it shouldn't matter in this case because how would they know you are a government employee. Are you hiring people for gigs on behalf of the government?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Source: Military Veterans of our company" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24872" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9839" RevisionGUID="12299a60-a67e-4b9f-8c6f-465e98af8ca7" CreationDate="2020-09-15T17:42:15.267" UserId="25228" Comment="Did not actually finish my last sentence" Text="We would not charge our client on stupid mistakes. We commonly subtract the estimated time from the final hours if hourly pay was required for their project. Of course, any developer will probably spend time figuring out things and testing things trying to get it to work properly. In this case we might take a few minutes off that make sense. It's all about reason. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you were hiring someone to do something, and you found out they charged you $100 extra because they did not do what they should've known to do (press the apply button before running the new code) how would you feel? Would you happily pay them or feel this would have been all avoided if they simply pressed the apply button instead of trying to edit, and reedit the code for 30 minutes to an hour over the course of the project?." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24873" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9851" RevisionGUID="6c418721-3139-44a8-91f3-23da127b9303" CreationDate="2020-09-15T17:51:38.927" UserId="25228" Text="We use VOIP because our workers can be out and about doing personal things and still answer the call if they want to. As a single business member, this may be something for you to think about as well. This one way of keeping your personal contacts and business contacts separated if you need to save them. You do not have to do a lot of scrolling to find specific friend, or a specific customer through your contacts (if you have a lot of personal contacts on your phone).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agree with Google Voice. We usually recommend that to our clients because they can give you an extra number for your phone and you do not have to pay a fee*. &#xD;&#xA;*It is pay as you go and you only get charged for when you dial a number; you do not get charged if someone calls you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://voice.google.com/about" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24875" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9853" RevisionGUID="002c2dc0-aff9-40fa-b477-bed8cccfc33a" CreationDate="2020-09-15T18:15:59.493" UserId="25228" Text="In addition to what HenryM said, it sounds like you want to bill the client for the work you helped manage that the contractor did (but did poorly or not at all). If this is the case, and the project did not even meet their specification, you would be the one considered in breach of contract by the client. No one delivered to the client. You hired a contractor to do your work, so you were in charge of delivering the product by default when you look at it from your clients perspective. You paid for the contractor and not them and thus you failed to meet the deadline and any specifications of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It would be unreasonable to charge them whether it is a long term customer or not for a mistake that when boiled down to it, is all on you in a sense (I understand it was the contractors fault though). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are still wanting to work with you though, which is even more of a reason to not charge them for an undelivered project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24876" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9854" RevisionGUID="a2098c7c-6fae-431d-b442-ccfc258324e8" CreationDate="2020-09-15T18:28:09.557" UserId="25228" Text="It depends on your needs. Our company experimented with quicken, and while we liked it, it was too limited. We sell and generally recommend our clients use two other products instead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. If you expect to do recurring invoices while offline and selling physical products or in a state that needs to charge sales tax for services (or otherwise like advanced features) than we recommend and sell our clients QuickBooks Online for us at a discount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1.2 If all the above apply except that you do not need to send invoices automatically while away from the computer or totally offline for certain days, QuickBooks Desktop is a one time fee and not monthly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. We commonly and successfully setup users with Excel for this purpose. You can properly categorize expenses and income with this, and just use something like PayPal for sending the invoices if tight on money and just switch to something a little later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With both options you can then plug in the categories into HRblock or TurboTax yourself, fill out the IRS form yourself, or bring the categories expenses and sales numbers to a local accountant who will file the taxes for you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24877" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6790" RevisionGUID="4b9a156f-25cd-43f0-95bb-6c74d933d525" CreationDate="2020-09-16T05:04:20.517" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24878" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9855" RevisionGUID="d2dbdb69-f0f6-4607-bb66-8f0142046c61" CreationDate="2020-09-16T19:20:06.057" UserId="9845" Text="I use Google Voice and have been for years. You can set so that it rings any phone line you have, set quiet hours, and set customized messages. It also texts you and emails voicemail transcripts if you choose. I have mine set so that it looks like my business is calling me - that way I know to answer it professionally. I was also able to pick my area code and number, thus giving me a local number when my cellphone was from out of the area. Because it's free, I don't know why you'd use anything else. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24884" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9692" RevisionGUID="7ebf33e1-e356-4479-8275-f0880beeae1f" CreationDate="2020-09-22T11:06:25.670" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24888" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9859" RevisionGUID="08f94e68-9a88-42b6-a9d5-587ae9fb579a" CreationDate="2020-09-23T06:45:45.070" UserId="16864" Text="I've been happily using Upwork three years ago as a freelancer. Recently I've logged in again and tried as a client. I had one contract performed successfully and had money in escrow for the second one; however, my account suddenly got blocked and after a week long fruitless correspondence with support team (which were replying exactly once in 48 hours) got removed completely for being linked to  another account. I've managed to contact my freelancer through another platform and he says that the contract was cancelled and he did not get paid. I did not get any refund either (it all happened a week ago) and what's worse I can't even contact Upwork support anymore because I don't have an account there. I heard rumors Upwork can do things like this, now I went through it myself and I can join those who in no way recommend this platform neither as a client nor as a freelancer, but my question to the community is: is there any chance or any way to get my money back and how?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24889" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9859" RevisionGUID="08f94e68-9a88-42b6-a9d5-587ae9fb579a" CreationDate="2020-09-23T06:45:45.070" UserId="16864" Text="I was robbed by Upwork, what do I do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24890" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9859" RevisionGUID="08f94e68-9a88-42b6-a9d5-587ae9fb579a" CreationDate="2020-09-23T06:45:45.070" UserId="16864" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24896" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9453" RevisionGUID="1e60e54b-cbf8-46dc-8870-da2a29be27a1" CreationDate="2020-09-24T23:03:40.350" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24897" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9823" RevisionGUID="5c0c0883-15aa-454d-871c-814a48a66f41" CreationDate="2020-09-27T06:02:50.463" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24898" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9823" RevisionGUID="a82a5590-a10a-4fd1-a26c-084a7dced535" CreationDate="2020-09-28T01:11:23.660" UserId="21615" Comment="deleted 181 characters in body" Text="Say for example it's a two month iOS development project, would it be sensible to set the fixed cost at what two months of a mobile developers salary in the U.S. would be using [this data](https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#work-salary-by-developer-type-united-states)? I'm in the SF Bay Area. I want to avoid low-balling myself while also making what I charge more objective and backed by data. This would be the only project and client I work on during this period." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24899" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9861" RevisionGUID="a8122bbd-75dd-435a-9416-27f2ad121131" CreationDate="2020-09-28T19:30:27.347" UserId="25303" Text="&#xD;&#xA;I am struggling to decide. I have multiple domains. One for my username, one for my real name, one for a project I like to setup where I host different services for the community, and more :D&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I want to build a portfolio or personal brand and a blog. Would you recommend to put it all under my real name or would you recommend to use my username? Or maybe separate the blog and the portfolio. The blog would go to my username and the portfolio to the real name.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24900" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9861" RevisionGUID="a8122bbd-75dd-435a-9416-27f2ad121131" CreationDate="2020-09-28T19:30:27.347" UserId="25303" Text="What would you use for your domain?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24901" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9861" RevisionGUID="a8122bbd-75dd-435a-9416-27f2ad121131" CreationDate="2020-09-28T19:30:27.347" UserId="25303" Text="|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24902" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9843" RevisionGUID="eb2033da-ef76-44cd-9251-751364d154d5" CreationDate="2020-09-28T21:00:04.310" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1310685731497574404" />
  <row Id="24903" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9862" RevisionGUID="1b64e04a-881b-4a3e-b376-6f84693c98b3" CreationDate="2020-09-28T21:35:58.313" UserId="25304" Text="I often work as a W2 employee, but I sometimes get freelance opportunities.  I write code and do systems administration, and I have examined different insurance products.  I want something that is very protective based on the contract work that I get.  In my experience, many insurance companies say they do not have a good product for what I am trying to get coverage for.  I have tried contacting insurance companies that are more geared toward I.T. services, but still the products have serious flaws.  One disadvantage is the list of exclusions.  This is a serious concern because when I have an attorney review a client's contract, the attorney advises me that the indemnification clause is too broad.  Some attorneys have told me to go to trade associations and see what they use.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client sometimes refuses to change the contract language.  It takes time to get an offer for a new opportunity.  Many nerdy I.T. people have low tolerance for risk.  How can I find insurance coverage that will protect me against broad indemnification clauses?  Or how can I find more clients like those rare ones that do not require indemnification agreements in their contract terms or have no contract at all?   " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24904" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9862" RevisionGUID="1b64e04a-881b-4a3e-b376-6f84693c98b3" CreationDate="2020-09-28T21:35:58.313" UserId="25304" Text="How can I avoid exposure to liability from indemnification clauses as an I.T. freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24905" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9862" RevisionGUID="1b64e04a-881b-4a3e-b376-6f84693c98b3" CreationDate="2020-09-28T21:35:58.313" UserId="25304" Text="|contracts|legal|programmer|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24906" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9439" RevisionGUID="191f1b4b-3bc5-4923-88ab-535a16aa5e89" CreationDate="2020-09-28T22:04:15.453" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24907" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9863" RevisionGUID="e375dd12-e752-4bdc-be6e-3d7af4702d62" CreationDate="2020-09-29T02:56:51.240" UserId="21435" Text="TBH, your difficulty in finding insurance is a little baffling to me. Many business insurance providers have policies geared specifically toward IT contractors and freelancers. You need Professional Liability Insurance and General Liability Insurance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I use Hiscox for both. On their home page you can select your State, profession, and get a quote in less than 30 seconds. You can also reach out to them to discuss your specific needs, but I suspect that your situation isn't as unique as you think it is. You're not the first independent IT contractor to ever exist. Hiscox and the like have been doing this for a very long time and have the knowledge and expertise to put you into the appropriate policy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.hiscox.com/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, you can't avoid your exposure to liability. You're exposed to liability with every customer and every project. What you can do is to protect yourself against claims of liability. That's what business insurance is for." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24908" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9863" RevisionGUID="9c5eac08-2715-439b-9b7a-1d35baeec8fd" CreationDate="2020-09-29T03:09:35.757" UserId="21435" Comment="added 375 characters in body" Text="TBH, your difficulty in finding insurance is a little baffling to me. Many business insurance providers have policies geared specifically toward IT contractors and freelancers. Most likely what you need is Professional Liability Insurance and General Liability Insurance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I use Hiscox for both. On their home page you can select your State, profession, and get a quote in less than 30 seconds. You can also reach out to them to discuss your specific needs, but I suspect that your situation isn't as unique as you think it is. You're not the first independent IT contractor to ever exist. Hiscox and the like have been doing this for a very long time and have the knowledge and expertise to put you into the appropriate policy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.hiscox.com/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, you can't avoid your exposure to liability. You're exposed to liability with every customer and every project. What you can do is to protect yourself against claims of liability. That's what business insurance is for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A contract is a **mutual** agreement  between parties. If the client's contract doesn't suit your needs then you need to have them amend it or you need to submit your own contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should never enter a business arrangement or agreement without a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can and should include your own indemnity clause in your contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I can't come to an agreement with a client as to the terms of the contract then I walk away. I'm not beholden to them or obligated to accept their contract. I have as much right as they do to ask for terms that are favorable to me and protect my interests." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24909" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9863" RevisionGUID="e5dc57b3-5008-4db2-979c-0f02752af9a7" CreationDate="2020-09-29T03:14:46.647" UserId="21435" Comment="added 375 characters in body" Text="TBH, your difficulty in finding insurance is a little baffling to me. Many business insurance providers have policies geared specifically toward IT contractors and freelancers. Most likely what you need is Professional Liability Insurance and General Liability Insurance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I use [Hiscox][1] for both. On their home page you can select your State, profession, and get a quote in less than 30 seconds. You can also reach out to them to discuss your specific needs, but I suspect that your situation isn't as unique as you think it is. You're not the first independent IT contractor to ever exist. Hiscox and the like have been doing this for a very long time and have the knowledge and expertise to put you into the appropriate policy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, you can't avoid your exposure to liability. You're exposed to liability with every customer and every project. What you can do is to protect yourself against claims of liability. That's what business insurance is for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A contract is a **mutual** agreement  between parties. If the client's contract doesn't suit your needs then you need to have them amend it or you need to submit your own contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should never enter into any business arrangement or agreement without a contract or without the appropriate insurance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can and should include your own indemnity clause in your contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I can't come to an agreement with a client as to the terms of the contract then I walk away. I'm not beholden to them or obligated to accept their contract. I have as much right as they do to ask for terms that are favorable to me and protect my interests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.hiscox.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24913" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9754" RevisionGUID="eb2d0a7b-4095-4275-a1fb-7af35f35a0c3" CreationDate="2020-09-29T12:00:02.663" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1310912216712044544" />
  <row Id="24914" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7660" RevisionGUID="25042dc8-70f5-4491-b07c-6ffe3bf13e28" CreationDate="2020-09-29T14:01:35.150" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24915" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9865" RevisionGUID="7c052138-8124-44a2-abce-5c6829d340b8" CreationDate="2020-09-29T17:40:40.153" UserId="25311" Text="I am new on the upwork.com . I had a micro-project on it. The project was written out as a 4.5 hours long work. On the proposal description it was clear that it can be done in that time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I applied it, and I got the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then customer had quite a problematic personality:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* He was unable to clearly formulate, what he wants. He communicated in gibberish formulated, unclear short sentences.&#xD;&#xA;* Instead of development, he thought on some type of collective work. I.e. we both work on the task. In this time, he has seen what I am doing, but he never committed anything. Probably he worked parallel, on the same task, and used my code only as reference.&#xD;&#xA;* He regularly had expectations, that I should do things as he is doing. But he gave from his own work only some mutilated code lines, from which it was not clear, what expectations should it fulfill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Mainly these caused that the project went into four days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that, he removed the strong time requirement. He did not say that we are late, but he disappeared.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think, this is the case where both parties say that the other was bad. Except that I don't say this from a paying customer; furthermore he is the paying customer both for me and for the upwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My other upwork projects went (are going) very well, compared to this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Actually, the task was not a big one, and I think I would be more happy if the customer would simply disappear and our project would simply disappear. The loss of the money (and time) would be a nuance, compared to the problem what a terrible feedback would cause.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What could I do to silently leave the project, without seriously affecting my upwork stats? The customer does not look as if he would have a hostile attitude to me, and I would be also very happy if it would remain so. He does not say any serious unsatisfiedness, and I think it would be the best if it would also remain so." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24916" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9865" RevisionGUID="7c052138-8124-44a2-abce-5c6829d340b8" CreationDate="2020-09-29T17:40:40.153" UserId="25311" Text="upwork.com customer disappeared, I would like to do the same to the project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24917" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9865" RevisionGUID="7c052138-8124-44a2-abce-5c6829d340b8" CreationDate="2020-09-29T17:40:40.153" UserId="25311" Text="|freelance-websites|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24919" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9867" RevisionGUID="31c88f59-a21f-4486-bad1-cdb60e913f0f" CreationDate="2020-09-29T23:50:51.167" UserId="25312" Text="I am a U.S. Armed Forces Veteran searching for avenues and sites that offer Freelance workers the opertunity to provide services for equity in order to further my business. The company Loom out of Austin, TX advertised for this in aritcles on the subject no longer exists apparently, or I can't find them rather, only where they once existed amd raised funds for their company. There is no talk of other platforms I have found and the mainstream Freelancer sites specifically disallow for equity contracts or relationships outside of the platform when origionally formed on their platform. Does anyone know where that could be found? The colleges are still shut down as well are business conventions in the city, so finding local cofounders is difficult." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24920" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9867" RevisionGUID="31c88f59-a21f-4486-bad1-cdb60e913f0f" CreationDate="2020-09-29T23:50:51.167" UserId="25312" Text="U.S. Army Veteran Seeking Freelance Service Provider for Equity Shares for Start-Up Corporation" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24921" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9867" RevisionGUID="31c88f59-a21f-4486-bad1-cdb60e913f0f" CreationDate="2020-09-29T23:50:51.167" UserId="25312" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24924" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9865" RevisionGUID="dd424100-d116-48eb-91b6-6856ebb4ad0e" CreationDate="2020-09-30T18:15:24.937" UserId="25311" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="I am new on the upwork.com . I had a micro-project on it. The project was written out as a 4.5 hours long work. On the proposal description it was clear that it can be done in that time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I applied it, and I got the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then customer had quite a problematic personality:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* He was unable to clearly formulate, what he wants. He communicated in gibberish formulated, unclear short sentences.&#xD;&#xA;* Instead of development, he thought on some type of collective work. I.e. we both work on the task. In this time, he has seen what I am doing, but he never committed anything. Probably he worked parallel, on the same task, and used my code only as reference.&#xD;&#xA;* He regularly had expectations, that I should do things as he is doing. But he gave from his own work only some mutilated code lines, from which it was not clear, what expectations should it fulfill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Mainly these caused that the project went into four days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that, he removed the strong time requirement. He did not say that we are late, but he disappeared.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think, this is the case where both parties say that the other was bad. Except that I can't say this about a paying customer; furthermore he is the paying customer both for me and for the upwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My other upwork projects went (are going) very well, compared to this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Actually, the task was not a big one, and I think I would be more happy if the customer would simply disappear and our project would simply disappear. The loss of the money (and time) would be a nuance, compared to the problem what a terrible feedback would cause.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What could I do to silently leave the project, without seriously affecting my upwork stats? The customer does not look as if he would have a hostile attitude to me, and I would be also very happy if it would remain so. He does not say any serious unsatisfiedness, and I think it would be the best if it would also remain so." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24926" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9868" RevisionGUID="c30dfb98-4b79-4079-a6ae-3e4dfc14bdc1" CreationDate="2020-10-01T06:03:05.960" UserId="24757" Text="I want to sell web template.Wondering is piecex a good site to sell my template or not?Can I sell my template through it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24927" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9868" RevisionGUID="c30dfb98-4b79-4079-a6ae-3e4dfc14bdc1" CreationDate="2020-10-01T06:03:05.960" UserId="24757" Text="Is piecex good site to sell my web template?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24928" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9868" RevisionGUID="c30dfb98-4b79-4079-a6ae-3e4dfc14bdc1" CreationDate="2020-10-01T06:03:05.960" UserId="24757" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24929" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9869" RevisionGUID="49b19d85-751e-43d0-a6b8-f366db1d5df1" CreationDate="2020-10-01T06:28:59.327" UserId="24078" Text="Piecex is a platform where you can either Sell your own code/script or purchase one for yourself. So if you think that your design can attract customers and your web template is good enough so that people will purchase it, then go for it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24930" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9870" RevisionGUID="f844768f-c450-4bd2-8cce-060208547afe" CreationDate="2020-10-01T07:05:53.890" UserId="25317" Text="The only way to guarantee payment is to be paid IN ADVANCE. I'm currently awaiting payment from a client for whom I performed work remotely; we had a contract, but I'm getting one excuse after another re. actually getting paid despite how pleased he was about the work I did. I got burned by a different client last year; I had a contract w/ him, too (I ended up opening a collections case against him).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The lesson for me (and you) is get paid in advance. This is standard procedure when doing search engine marketing (SEM) / paid-per-click (PPC) work, and I think we need to apply it for other types of work as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regards,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Marinela" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24931" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9870" RevisionGUID="157c5af5-fbd0-4fdb-b031-4d2d67554265" CreationDate="2020-10-01T07:25:23.847" UserId="61" Comment="removed a signature" Text="The only way to guarantee payment is to be paid IN ADVANCE. I'm currently awaiting payment from a client for whom I performed work remotely; we had a contract, but I'm getting one excuse after another re. actually getting paid despite how pleased he was about the work I did. I got burned by a different client last year; I had a contract w/ him, too (I ended up opening a collections case against him).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The lesson for me (and you) is get paid in advance. This is standard procedure when doing search engine marketing (SEM) / paid-per-click (PPC) work, and I think we need to apply it for other types of work as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24932" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9871" RevisionGUID="14c5ce3f-3bc6-4331-92f9-5aa17b1cb2f9" CreationDate="2020-10-02T16:28:15.040" UserId="25228" Text="It is a choice of personal preference and a small amount of money. If you are doing business not using your real name you may need to file for a DBA to stay legal in the U.S.A. An LLC is an option as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Either way, what we would recommend to our clients in this situation would be to combine it all under one name. Perhaps your real name if trying to become an employee, however, a username/dba/fictitious name if trying to run a business as an independent contractor and the made up name you feel you must have is available. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you get a large amount of traffic to each domain, then you can also forward them to whichever main domain you choose to use. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24933" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6837" RevisionGUID="6b682901-55b0-4c7c-81fb-f47d5772932a" CreationDate="2020-10-02T18:03:25.340" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24934" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9872" RevisionGUID="81d5f2cd-e96b-4557-9546-7ca0802ef304" CreationDate="2020-10-02T19:55:48.230" UserId="25323" Text="I did a website for a client (2 other sites) and they talked me into accepting monthly after they  paid me a little of what was owed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So after 6 months, they had a sob story about money and they stopped payment, while promising me the rest (which is more than half of the agreed upon charge) when they get money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So now it is a year and a half later and now they have money, but they want to do a buyout which is a few thousand less than what is owed.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I take the buyout, can I pull the site down since they did not pay for it in full?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I maintain 2 other sites for them, but I don't make much money (owner was a good friend of my mother lol) so ending our biz relationship would not hurt me at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please advise and thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24935" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9872" RevisionGUID="81d5f2cd-e96b-4557-9546-7ca0802ef304" CreationDate="2020-10-02T19:55:48.230" UserId="25323" Text="Client hasn't paid in full can I take down the site?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24936" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9872" RevisionGUID="81d5f2cd-e96b-4557-9546-7ca0802ef304" CreationDate="2020-10-02T19:55:48.230" UserId="25323" Text="|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24937" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9872" RevisionGUID="2239b5f0-015b-4410-97e1-43705f45d0c8" CreationDate="2020-10-02T23:32:32.677" UserId="25323" Comment="added 460 characters in body" Text="I did a website for a client (2 other sites) and they talked me into accepting monthly after they  paid me a little of what was owed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So after 6 months, they had a sob story about money and they stopped payment, while promising me the rest (which is more than half of the agreed upon charge) when they get money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So now it is a year and a half later and now they have money, but they want to do a buyout which is a few thousand less than what is owed.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I take the buyout, can I pull the site down since they did not pay for it in full?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I maintain 2 other sites for them, but I don't make much money (owner was a good friend of my mother lol) so ending our biz relationship would not hurt me at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not have a contract with the client.  I just submit an invoice and they pay me accordingly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no exit clause.  It usually ends when the client says they don't want my services anymore (which is rare).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The website is hosted on a server I pay for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've built and maintain 3 sites for them, have been doing so for many years.  I do do extra work for them and I do minor updates/changes for free, because they pay for maintenance as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please advise and thanks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24940" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9873" RevisionGUID="c3bec348-5be9-4ef0-bb05-0186ac26f77e" CreationDate="2020-10-05T08:56:23.987" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="Is it standard to reduce your rate if it means you're learning a new skill for the job? E.g. I am soon to be taking on some animation work for a client of mine. They did originally ask if I knew of any animators but I said I'd be happy to give it a go myself and that I'd just need to do a bit more practice beforehand (I'm a graphic designer who has a little motion experience).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was thinking of capping my cost at a certain amount, or working for a reduced rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would that be pretty standard to account for the extra time it will take me to produce it? I feel it wouldn't be right to bill them my usual rate otherwise it would work out a lot more costly for them to go with myself over someone more experienced." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24941" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9873" RevisionGUID="c3bec348-5be9-4ef0-bb05-0186ac26f77e" CreationDate="2020-10-05T08:56:23.987" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="Reduce rate when learning on the job?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24942" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9873" RevisionGUID="c3bec348-5be9-4ef0-bb05-0186ac26f77e" CreationDate="2020-10-05T08:56:23.987" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="|design|clients|money|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24943" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9874" RevisionGUID="eb087078-1378-4c7f-89e5-0ed066a3ae24" CreationDate="2020-10-05T11:38:40.470" UserId="21435" Text="Don't charge the client at all for the time you spend learning how to produce their deliverables.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do charge the client your regular hourly rate for the time you spend working to produce their deliverables.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You offered to learn how to do this. In that case the burden is on you to spend your time, not the clients time, on how to produce the end result.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client asks me to learn something new in order to produce a deliverable then the cost burden is on them and I bill the client for that time. If I offer to learn something new in order to produce a deliverable than the cost burden is my responsibility." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24944" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9875" RevisionGUID="4932b003-3505-48d7-b3d8-39974187eb5a" CreationDate="2020-10-05T19:45:04.580" UserId="25169" Text="You guys get used to ask for your customers for posting finished customer projects on your site as *portifolio*?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you do it directly without asking for some *formal authorization* via e-mail or the like?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24945" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9875" RevisionGUID="4932b003-3505-48d7-b3d8-39974187eb5a" CreationDate="2020-10-05T19:45:04.580" UserId="25169" Text="Authorization for showcasing customer project as portifolio" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24946" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9875" RevisionGUID="4932b003-3505-48d7-b3d8-39974187eb5a" CreationDate="2020-10-05T19:45:04.580" UserId="25169" Text="|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24947" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9876" RevisionGUID="093d6a25-3070-47c8-a680-0fdce23ea386" CreationDate="2020-10-05T20:26:13.613" UserId="10464" Text="The easiest way is to have a term in your contract that says you can use the work in your portfolio. You don't need to explicitly mention it separately from that. But don't try to hide this term either. It should be prominently mentioned. If a client doesn't want that you can remove it from the terms on a per project basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No, I don't ask formally. If you forgot to ask previous clients then you would need to go back to them and formally ask. That could be in email." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24948" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9877" RevisionGUID="6b34238a-bcef-4a2a-9eee-f2b9478ecc32" CreationDate="2020-10-06T00:36:10.737" UserId="19545" Text="I hope this is the right place. I'm a few months away from releasing my first software product that is not SaaS, but downloadable (engineering visualization tool) and am working on ideas about how to do marketing. One option I'd like to offer is a discount for students in universities, otherwise, I think my software would not be affordable for students and not sure they have other options.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not sure how people usually go about verifying a purchase, or that the person is a student and not just someone trying to get a discount. If I sell a license, I can only imagine it is done by registering their email address which should be using a university domain? Is that right? Other thoughts on this?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24949" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9877" RevisionGUID="6b34238a-bcef-4a2a-9eee-f2b9478ecc32" CreationDate="2020-10-06T00:36:10.737" UserId="19545" Text="How to offer software license discounts to students with confirmation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24950" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9877" RevisionGUID="6b34238a-bcef-4a2a-9eee-f2b9478ecc32" CreationDate="2020-10-06T00:36:10.737" UserId="19545" Text="|software|business-plan|licensing|startups|registration|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24951" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9878" RevisionGUID="acf340d9-f2b3-4f2e-b498-0e3abde66545" CreationDate="2020-10-06T19:25:37.377" UserId="75" Text="You can use libraries such as [this Github project](https://github.com/Hipo/university-domains-list) that lists email domains for higher-education institutes. You can also look up some older SWOT repos (there are about 10 or so that are highly used)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24952" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="393" RevisionGUID="a85cf904-6dd0-4e33-be9d-d37754c8986e" CreationDate="2020-10-07T01:27:54.110" UserId="15235" Comment="typos corrected" Text="I got a question about sending a bill, without actually delivering a product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have made a complete new website for a client and it is almost ready, but now the client is very busy with a fusion of 2 companies. So they don't have time for the website. Even when the website is already complete, it only needs a double check from the client and it can be placed on the web. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now my question is, because of the client the website has a delay of getting online, and we have put in a lot of time in it to make the product (website). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it reasonable to send a bill/invoice? For the time we have spend to make the product as it is? Even if it's not online yet? Because they want to resume with this product in August and I started in October last year. (So that's a lot of time.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I really hope somebody can give me some advice. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24953" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="393" RevisionGUID="a85cf904-6dd0-4e33-be9d-d37754c8986e" CreationDate="2020-10-07T01:27:54.110" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 75 edit id of 713" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24958" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9529" RevisionGUID="4e114292-f24a-4949-a194-9ce1c89131b0" CreationDate="2020-10-07T01:30:05.823" UserId="15235" Comment="grammar corrections" Text="I am resident in, and a citizen of India. My primary source of income is freelance work. My major earnings are for US based Patreon and Fiver companies. I use Payoneer to receive and transfer to the local bank. Patreon asks me to send tax details as income earned is taxable income. I ask for tax returns and the filing process to them, they informed to take advise from a tax professional. I contacted a local tax professional but I didn't get clear information from them. Some advise to tax return to US earning is necessary and some advise it is not needed. Can anybody tell if I do need to pay tax for US based earnings?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If yes, then which form should I use for filing US tax returns for an income of $10k or less? How can I do it from home country? Can I do it myself or do I have to contact a tax professional? Can anyone guide me with a step by step process, this is my first time. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24959" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9529" RevisionGUID="4e114292-f24a-4949-a194-9ce1c89131b0" CreationDate="2020-10-07T01:30:05.823" UserId="15235" Comment="grammar corrections" Text="Do non-USA residents have to pay tax or tax return for US based earning residing and working from own country?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24960" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9529" RevisionGUID="4e114292-f24a-4949-a194-9ce1c89131b0" CreationDate="2020-10-07T01:30:05.823" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 75 edit id of 722" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24966" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9881" RevisionGUID="bab66420-d255-4937-a56a-e1c7640ad179" CreationDate="2020-10-07T17:18:02.127" UserId="9845" Text="If you are paying for the hosting server, I would say you have every right to pull the site down for breach of verbal contract, if only for hosting it. But as others have said in the comments, your best bet is to contact a lawyer and find out exactly what rights you have in the locality where you do business, since this varies from country-to-country and state-to-state. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would put into writing what you are requesting, what you did for that money, and what the consequences would be should they choose not to pay you the full agreed-upon amount. Sometimes that's all it takes. If not, you'd have a case for small claims court.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Accepting a buyout seems like you are agreeing to take less money for the website. This, to me, means you cannot take the site down or file any sort of claim against the client. I would only do that if I felt it was in my best interest to continue working with the client. Whatever you do, you need to get it in writing and ensure both parties agree.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a clause in my contract that stipulates I may take down the website if payment isn't received within 60 days of invoicing. Clients are contacted multiple times prior to that deadline and reminded of this fact, and consideration is given if there are provable hardships, but only for so long. I have pulled down websites for late payment just a few times, and only once has a client not turned around and paid immediately.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Treat your business like a business, and you'll find it garners more respect from your clients!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24967" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9882" RevisionGUID="cac6330c-b4ba-4aee-99f2-fdaf080fc151" CreationDate="2020-10-08T13:05:34.617" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="Most of the freelance projects I take on involve working remotely, for a fixed price. I'll then take a deposit before starting work and invoice for the rest on completion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However on occasion I find myself working at clients' offices for a day rate and I find billing a little more tricky.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the event that there's any dispute over how many days work I've actually done, how do I prove it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And would it be acceptable for me to invoice every week? As I feel most places expect an invoice once per month, but I dont like the idea of doing an entire month's work up front without having had any form of payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24968" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9882" RevisionGUID="cac6330c-b4ba-4aee-99f2-fdaf080fc151" CreationDate="2020-10-08T13:05:34.617" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="Best practice for invoicing when working onsite" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24969" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9882" RevisionGUID="cac6330c-b4ba-4aee-99f2-fdaf080fc151" CreationDate="2020-10-08T13:05:34.617" UserDisplayName="user15733" Text="|invoices|billing|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24970" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9883" RevisionGUID="405c107d-c0a0-4924-a3c3-af40c249ca23" CreationDate="2020-10-08T14:10:07.383" UserId="21435" Text="&gt; In the event that there's any dispute over how many days work I've&#xD;&#xA;&gt; actually done, how do I prove it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do these clients use a time tracking tool for their employees? If so, ask them to set you up to use it. Then track your time like an employee would.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also be using your own project and time tracking tool. There are a number of free and inexpensive solutions available. I use this: https://myhours.com&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; And would it be acceptable for me to invoice every week?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's going to prove to be cumbersome for you and for your clients. Most businesses aren't going to accept this type of payment schedule as it falls outside of their normal practice. I bill my clients once a month for the previous month's work. The key is to adjust your personal budget accordingly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As far as trust is concerned, the client has to trust that you're actually performing the work that you're billing for and you have to trust that they'll pay you for this work. This isn't unique. Every business, whether client or vendor, has to have trust in the other party. If you have a situation where a client doesn't want to pay you for your work then you have to resort to legal means to try and get paid.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24971" PostHistoryTypeId="52" PostId="9882" RevisionGUID="77cd2086-cc31-466f-9856-30d9f5e6e2ac" CreationDate="2020-10-08T21:11:59.860" />
  <row Id="24972" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9884" RevisionGUID="aaf6eb21-8f2b-48cd-9161-b0fa2e7cecd5" CreationDate="2020-10-09T05:54:41.607" UserId="7858" Text="It seems you are being way to nice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a business relationship that either needs to be completely fixed or ended. Since there is no contract, but you have keys to the castle so to speak, it seems you do have quite a bit of leverage in the coming negotiations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These negotiations will most likely not be a pleasant experience - but you must dig your heels in and take a stand. This is a hill worth dying on - as you career-wise cannot accept to be pushed around in this manner.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since they now have money, I would give them very short time (48 hours) to pay up in full - or suffer the consequences of you taking everything down. This is essentially blackmail, but it is the only leverage you have and you **must** use it. Do not allow them to talk you into giving them access to the hosting. Do not let go of your leverage before you have what you deem is fair.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a harsh consequence - perhaps even debilitating for their business - but it is them who have shoved you into a corner by attempting to bully you into accepting inadequate payment for services delivered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will most likely be threatened with law suits and the like - but if you can somehow demonstrate that they do owe you money and that you have been paying for hosting, their position seems weak.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These actions will most likely end the business relationship - or when the dust settles, change it into an actual professional relationship with a balanced contract and obligations on both sides." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24974" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9885" RevisionGUID="40b68276-85cc-4839-ba61-30ad18320f5e" CreationDate="2020-10-10T18:41:45.933" UserId="25362" Text="See a lawyer and show him any contract  you have or your alleged verbal agreement if you do not have a signed agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it is probably safe it may cost you a lot more in the long run than to see the lawyer and follow his advice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My feeling is the lawyer will say to back it up and take it down and refuse to deal with them until they pay all back expenses and then pay you a substantial up front deposit with monthly payments that must be paid on time or you will get to use the deposit for expenses and shut everything down permanently.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;NEVER do anything involving money without a written signed agreement that your lawyer has looked over first. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24975" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9528" RevisionGUID="cca698ef-42b9-4281-988d-e74acff1541e" CreationDate="2020-10-11T14:08:00.807" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="24976" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9886" RevisionGUID="7e85957b-142a-45fe-9d56-5d77e7655c4b" CreationDate="2020-10-12T09:13:00.807" UserId="25367" Text="There's this huge misconception in the more creative industries, like art and writing, that creators that do not yet have an established reputation (and even some who do have one) don't deserve to get paid for their work and should instead be content to work &quot;for exposure&quot;, as in &quot;people will see your art and learn who you are, and maybe THEY will contact you and MAYBE they will pay you for an art piece&quot;. As you can probably tell, I'm not really convinced of the value proposition in such a deal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assuming you want to get paid for your work, what's the best way to respond to a request to work &quot;for exposure&quot; with the intent of still getting a paying customer out of it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24977" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9886" RevisionGUID="7e85957b-142a-45fe-9d56-5d77e7655c4b" CreationDate="2020-10-12T09:13:00.807" UserId="25367" Text="How to respond to requests to work &quot;for exposure&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24978" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9886" RevisionGUID="7e85957b-142a-45fe-9d56-5d77e7655c4b" CreationDate="2020-10-12T09:13:00.807" UserId="25367" Text="|payment-terms|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24979" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9887" RevisionGUID="50a4e212-a366-4aa4-b9b3-b31d85cef51b" CreationDate="2020-10-12T09:29:16.753" UserId="708" Text="It's really not that complicated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Sorry, I do not work pro bono or without payment on request.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no need to explain any further.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are persistent....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Any volunteering of my time and skill is done to aide charities rather than profit seeking ventures. It's only fair that if you intend to profit from my work, I profit from my work as well. &quot;Exposure&quot; isn't a commodity in lieu of payment. There are a great many avenues for &quot;exposure&quot; if that is my goal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can pretty much **forget** about &quot;getting a paying client&quot; out of these requests. If such people had *any* intention on *ever* paying for services they wouldn't ask you to work for free. And if they tell you they *will* pay after they see you won't accept &quot;exposure&quot;, they'll low-ball the payment or be very slow to pay, or simply promise to pay and never send a check. This is one of the ***most** prominent* red flags which indicate a *bad* client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The simple truth is, say &quot;no&quot; and move on. Don't waste your time further.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24980" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9887" RevisionGUID="04d63888-67ee-4b10-a304-75bcfb992df4" CreationDate="2020-10-12T09:34:32.627" UserId="708" Comment="added 226 characters in body" Text="It's really not that complicated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Sorry, I do not work pro bono or without payment on request.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no need to explain any further.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are persistent....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Any volunteering of my time and skill is done to aide charities rather than profit seeking ventures. It's only fair that if you intend to profit from my work, I profit from my work as well. &quot;Exposure&quot; isn't a commodity in lieu of payment. There are a great many avenues for &quot;exposure&quot; if that is my goal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can pretty much **forget** about &quot;getting a paying client&quot; out of any such request. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone offering this proposal had *any* intention of *ever* paying for *any* service, they wouldn't ask you to work for free. If you won't work for &quot;exposure&quot;, chances are they will go find some other person who will and take advantage of *that* person rather than pay you anything. If they tell you they *will* pay after they see you won't accept &quot;exposure&quot;, they'll low-ball the payment or be very slow to pay, or simply promise to pay and never send a check — knowing that chances are you won't legally follow up on any non-payment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is one of the ***most** prominent* red flags which indicate a *bad* client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The simple truth is, say &quot;no&quot; and move on. Don't waste your time further. There's no need to negotiate or converse further. **Good** clients *never* offer such structures. Seriously, *never*. Because *good* clients will *value* your time and skill and will understand that your abilities are worthy of compensation - even if their budget is low, a client worth speaking with won't ask for *anything* free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24981" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9887" RevisionGUID="509ed2ea-442a-42d2-9e0c-d430d64db195" CreationDate="2020-10-12T09:43:20.320" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 93 characters in body" Text="It's really not that complicated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Sorry, I do not work pro bono or without payment on request.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no need to explain any further.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are persistent....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Again, I apologize, but unfortunately I do not work for free. Like anyone with a mortgage/rent and the desire to eat regularly.... I expect financial compensation for my work. &quot;Exposure&quot; won't pay my bills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are actually open to a barter deal.... Another ploy is to ask then for an equal amount of product/services to your fees.. i.e if they sell dog food and are asking for a $6,000 project to be done only for &quot;exposure&quot;, assuming you have a dog...  ask them for $6,000 worth of dog food and watch how they waffle and waiver. This only works if they *already* have a product/service.. **never** let them agree to give you something &quot;in the future&quot; or &quot;when the product is in production&quot;, etc. Because they'll back out or conveniently forget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can pretty much **forget** about &quot;getting a paying client&quot; out of any such request. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone offering this proposal had *any* intention of *ever* paying for *any* service, they wouldn't ask you to work for free. If you won't work for &quot;exposure&quot;, chances are they will go find some other person who will and take advantage of *that* person rather than pay you anything. If they tell you they *will* pay after they see you won't accept &quot;exposure&quot;, they'll low-ball the payment or be very slow to pay, or simply promise to pay and never send a check — knowing that chances are you won't legally follow up on any non-payment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is one of the ***most** prominent* red flags which indicate a *bad* client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The simple truth is, say &quot;no&quot; and move on. Don't waste your time further. There's no need to negotiate or converse further. **Good** clients *never* offer such structures. Seriously, *never*. Because *good* clients will *value* your time and skill and will understand that your abilities are worthy of compensation - even if their budget is low, a client worth speaking with won't ask for *anything* free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24982" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9887" RevisionGUID="bc72cba4-ba8c-4717-85da-e1fad572f77e" CreationDate="2020-10-12T09:50:12.043" UserId="708" Comment="added 84 characters in body" Text="--------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;**This is one of the ***most** prominent* red flags which indicate a *bad* client, in my opinion.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's really not that complicated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Sorry, I do not work pro bono or without payment on request.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no need to explain any further.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are persistent....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Again, I apologize, but unfortunately I do not work for free. Like anyone with a mortgage/rent and the desire to eat regularly.... I expect financial compensation for my work. &quot;Exposure&quot; won't pay my bills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are actually open to a barter deal.... Another ploy is to ask then for an equal amount of product/services to your fees.. i.e if they sell dog food and are asking for a $6,000 project to be done only for &quot;exposure&quot;, assuming you have a dog...  ask them for $6,000 worth of dog food and watch how they waffle and waiver. This only works if they *already* have a product/service.. **never** let them agree to give you something &quot;in the future&quot; or &quot;when the product is in production&quot;, etc. Because they'll back out or conveniently forget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can pretty much **forget** about &quot;getting a paying client&quot; out of any such request. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone offering this proposal had *any* intention of *ever* paying for *any* service, they wouldn't ask you to work for free. If you won't work for &quot;exposure&quot;, chances are they will go find some other person who will and take advantage of *that* person rather than pay you anything. If they tell you they *will* pay after they see you won't accept &quot;exposure&quot;, they'll low-ball the payment or be very slow to pay, or simply promise to pay and never send a check — knowing that chances are you won't legally follow up on any non-payment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The simple truth is, say &quot;no&quot; and move on. Don't waste your time further. There's no need to negotiate or converse further. **Good** clients *never* offer such structures. Seriously, *never*. Because *good* clients will *value* your time and skill and will understand that your abilities are worthy of compensation - even if their budget is low, a client worth speaking with won't ask for *anything* free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24983" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9887" RevisionGUID="7627ef8b-2cd2-4259-ad14-ee4f97521ee0" CreationDate="2020-10-12T10:14:34.310" UserId="708" Comment="added 198 characters in body" Text="--------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;**This is one of the ***most** prominent* red flags which indicate a *bad* client, in my opinion.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's really not that complicated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Sorry, I do not work pro bono or without payment on request.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no need to explain any further.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are persistent....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Again, I apologize, but unfortunately I do not work for free. Like anyone with a mortgage/rent and the desire to eat regularly.... I expect financial compensation for my work. &quot;Exposure&quot; won't pay my bills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are actually open to a barter deal.... Another ploy is to ask then for an equal amount of product/services to your fees.. i.e if they sell dog food and are asking for a $6,000 project to be done only for &quot;exposure&quot;, assuming you have a dog...  ask them for $6,000 worth of dog food and watch how they waffle and waiver. This only works if they *already* have a product/service.. **never** let them agree to give you something &quot;in the future&quot; or &quot;when the product is in production&quot;, etc. Because they'll back out or conveniently forget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can pretty much **forget** about &quot;getting a paying client&quot; out of any such request. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone offering this proposal had *any* intention of *ever* paying for *any* service, they wouldn't ask you to work for free. If you won't work for &quot;exposure&quot;, chances are they will go find some other person who will and take advantage of *that* person rather than pay you anything. If they tell you they *will* pay after they see you won't accept &quot;exposure&quot;, they'll low-ball the payment or be very slow to pay, or simply promise to pay and never send a check — knowing that chances are you won't legally follow up on any non-payment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The simple truth is, say &quot;no&quot; and move on. Don't waste your time further. There's no need to negotiate or converse further. **Good** clients *never* offer such structures. Seriously, *never*. Because *good* clients will *value* your time and skill and will understand that your abilities are worthy of compensation - even if their budget is low, a client worth speaking with won't ask for *anything* free. It's one thing for a client to state &quot;that's higher than we can afford&quot; after seeing a quote/estimate. It's an entirely *different* matter for a client to *approach you* and ask for something free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24984" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9887" RevisionGUID="1c62fde2-b9f4-42a4-b407-9759d4014ced" CreationDate="2020-10-12T10:43:44.420" UserId="708" Comment="added 94 characters in body" Text="--------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![enter image description here][1]][1]  &lt;br&gt;**This is one of the ***most** prominent* red flags &lt;br&gt;which indicates a *bad* client, in my opinion.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's really not that complicated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Sorry, I do not work pro bono or without payment on request.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no need to explain any further.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are persistent....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Again, I apologize, but unfortunately I do not work for free. Like anyone with a mortgage/rent and the desire to eat regularly.... I expect financial compensation for my work. &quot;Exposure&quot; won't pay my bills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are actually open to a barter deal.... Another ploy is to ask then for an equal amount of product/services to your fees.. i.e if they sell dog food and are asking for a $6,000 project to be done only for &quot;exposure&quot;, assuming you have a dog...  ask them for $6,000 worth of dog food and watch how they waffle and waiver. This only works if they *already* have a product/service.. **never** let them agree to give you something &quot;in the future&quot; or &quot;when the product is in production&quot;, etc. Because they'll back out or conveniently forget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can pretty much **forget** about &quot;getting a paying client&quot; out of any such request. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone offering this proposal had *any* intention of *ever* paying for *any* service, they wouldn't ask you to work for free. If you won't work for &quot;exposure&quot;, chances are they will go find some other person who will and take advantage of *that* person rather than pay you anything. If they tell you they *will* pay after they see you won't accept &quot;exposure&quot;, they'll low-ball the payment or be very slow to pay, or simply promise to pay and never send a check — knowing that chances are you won't legally follow up on any non-payment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The simple truth is, say &quot;no&quot; and move on. Don't waste your time further. There's no need to negotiate or converse further. **Good** clients *never* offer such structures. Seriously, *never*. Because *good* clients will *value* your time and skill and will understand that your abilities are worthy of compensation - even if their budget is low, a client worth speaking with won't ask for *anything* free. It's one thing for a client to state &quot;that's higher than we can afford&quot; after seeing a quote/estimate. It's an entirely *different* matter for a client to *approach you* and ask for something free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;The *next* red flag would be when they promise you &quot;a lot of work in the future&quot; if you help them out with this project by completing it for &quot;exposure&quot;.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/4y0r8.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24985" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9888" RevisionGUID="003eda3e-751e-4aa3-b2e9-18604eb48e1e" CreationDate="2020-10-12T11:33:58.723" UserId="7858" Text="Working for exposure obviously pays no bills - so one should be up-front immediately that there will be payment. I have tried the approach where one tries to demonstrate how much value one could potentially bring - but a freeloader tends to remain a freeloader.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If one accepts working for exposure, a more insidious effect may be the erosion of your own sense of value. After all, if you don’t believe you’re worth actual payment, why should anyone else?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When starting out clients are always hard to find - but if you have marketable skills, this is when you should stick to your guns and wait for a paying client. If you cannot seem to find any, cast a wider net and challenge your own conventional wisdom. The lack of actual work is a good opportunity to hone one's marketing skills." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24986" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9889" RevisionGUID="995ad8f4-4d73-46e6-b08a-e9f80f9c77fc" CreationDate="2020-10-12T11:53:38.390" UserId="61" Text="It is really little that can be added to [excellent @Scott's answer](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/9887/). I just wanted to add a simple tactic that helped me several times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Due warning: I'm not aware about any academic research on this matter. My answer is just from personal experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; […] as in &quot;people will see your art and learn who you are, and maybe THEY will contact you and MAYBE they will pay you for an art piece&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My answer would be something like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *&quot;**Please estimate my future profit.** How many people of those who belong to my target group (and who reasonably can become my clients in the future) would attend the expo? If I participate in an expo (and pay for my works get shown) I always compare my expenses against my expected profits from the display. As a beginner, I'm, indeed, interested in expanding my client base, but how can I be sure there would be relevant people coming to see my work as part of your product?&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client sincerely believes in what they say, they have probably made some calculations before the offer and so they would be able to support their offer with reasonable numbers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24987" PostHistoryTypeId="52" PostId="9886" RevisionGUID="cc065bc9-d39e-45b8-a8f3-07520a2d4ddb" CreationDate="2020-10-12T17:13:10.533" />
  <row Id="24989" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9887" RevisionGUID="b26e0803-0e2d-4963-9ecf-216dd075792d" CreationDate="2020-10-12T19:42:40.167" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 24 characters in body" Text="--------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![enter image description here][1]][1]  &lt;br&gt;**This is one of the ***most** prominent* red flags &lt;br&gt;which indicates a *bad* client, in my opinion.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's really not that complicated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Sorry, I do not work pro bono or without payment on request.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no need to explain any further.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they are persistent....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Unfortunately I do not work for free. Like anyone with a mortgage/rent and the desire to eat regularly.... I expect financial compensation for my work. &quot;Exposure&quot; won't pay my bills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are actually open to a barter deal.... Another ploy is to ask then for an equal amount of product/services to your fees.. i.e if they sell dog food and are asking for a $6,000 project to be done only for &quot;exposure&quot;, assuming you have a dog...  ask them for $6,000 worth of dog food and watch how they waffle and waiver. This only works if they *already* have a product/service.. **never** let them agree to give you something &quot;in the future&quot; or &quot;when the product is in production&quot;, etc. Because they'll back out or conveniently forget.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can pretty much **forget** about &quot;getting a paying client&quot; out of any such request. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone offering this proposal had *any* intention of *ever* paying for *any* service, they wouldn't ask you to work for free. If you won't work for &quot;exposure&quot;, chances are they will go find some other person who will and take advantage of *that* person rather than pay you anything. If they tell you they *will* pay after they see you won't accept &quot;exposure&quot;, they'll low-ball the payment or be very slow to pay, or simply promise to pay and never send a check — knowing that chances are you won't legally follow up on any non-payment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The simple truth is, say &quot;no&quot; and move on. Don't waste your time further. There's no need to negotiate or converse further. **Good** clients *never* offer such structures. Seriously, *never*. Because *good* clients will *value* your time and skill and will understand that your abilities are worthy of compensation - even if their budget is low, a client worth speaking with won't ask for *anything* free. It's one thing for a client to state &quot;that's higher than we can afford&quot; after seeing a quote/estimate. It's an entirely *different* matter for a client to *approach you* and ask for something free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;The *next* red flag would be when they promise you &quot;a lot of work in the future&quot; if you help them out with this project by completing it for &quot;exposure&quot;.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/4y0r8.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24991" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9890" RevisionGUID="55806775-c508-4d90-ad2d-b09e83deb751" CreationDate="2020-10-13T01:26:21.347" UserId="15985" Text="Depends how big they are... If you're offered by popular radio station to play your music, or national TV to promote your products for free, or popular photo magazine to publish your photography, you might want to consider that. (make a reality check fist: have you ever bought album you heard on radio like that? etc.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But it is realistically very rarely going to be a good deal like that (unless you have a secret admirer working there!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For most other cases, if they promise that you'd get a lots of customers that way, you'd be best make a counteroffer - if they are so sure of value of exposure on their site/product, than they could pay you ABOVE your running rate, and you'll sign a contract with them that states that for each customer you get that refers them, you'll give them a percentage of profit. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if their &quot;exposure&quot; turns out to be (near-)useless, you win as you got your payment above-rate and don't have to pay them (much) profits... And it their exposure actually turns out to be golden, you still win - sure, you'll have to part with part of the profits, but you'll have so much more customers (and thus profits) because of the deal that it will be more than worth it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best thing is, it is professional (hey, many shopping sites do referral discounts), you're secured regardless if the offer works or not, and they can't easily weasel out without admitting that their offer of &quot;exposure&quot; is not such a good deal - otherwise they'd be crazy to turn down free money like that!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24992" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9891" RevisionGUID="43228547-fbe2-421b-ad68-c01c39a6c9f5" CreationDate="2020-10-13T12:42:01.453" UserId="25382" Text="Tell them they have to pay but you will refund the entire payment when the exposure gains you, for example, 50 new customers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24993" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9892" RevisionGUID="996bcc02-e0f4-44a2-91f8-522f1079aef1" CreationDate="2020-10-13T14:56:01.367" UserId="25386" Text="Just don't respond.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's the answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People who are serious about wanting a service are willing to talk about price. Anyone who asks for a free service and talks about exposure was either never serious about wanting the service to begin with or will just try the same thing on someone else after you turn them down. Once they've set their expectations at free, the chance of them becoming a paying customer is basically zero.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you do give them something for free, the fact that they didn't have to pay for it will devalue your work in their eyes so much that they'd be a poor ambassador for your service or products in any case. The more someone has to give up for something, the more valuable it becomes in their eyes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All you'll accomplish by talking with them is make them think they've found a sucker and make them behave worse when they eventually don't get what they want because they've (in their mind) now wasted their time trying to sweet talk you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's really no positive outcome from engaging with people like this. Maybe not responding would be too rude, in which case a short, friendly, professional but firm answer to prevent them thinking you've ignored them is all that's needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Seriously, don't waste any of your valuable time engaging with them any more than minimally necessary. There's far more valuable things you can be spending your time on to grow your business than engaging with cheapskates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is one caveat - influencers - I know I know wash my mouth out! On the plus side, get the right person and they can have a big impact on your business. However, everyone and their dog is calling themselves an influencer these days trying to blag free stuff. The real ones have companies asking them to promote their stuff rather than having to ask companies for free stuff. It's an option but it seems like it's more suited for already established companies looking to advertise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regardless, good luck with your endeavours!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24994" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9886" RevisionGUID="54b97c25-4ad3-42bf-9ad0-dfa5ae68a23d" CreationDate="2020-10-13T15:00:08.093" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1316030968088727552" />
  <row Id="24995" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9893" RevisionGUID="bad513cb-14e1-408b-ad3c-3c03265f5b46" CreationDate="2020-10-13T15:07:09.213" UserId="25386" Text="Whether or not he's a scammer, he would most certainly be a bad person to do business with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How many paying customers have to ask to borrow money?! How many business owners won't give out their business address?!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're looking for paying customers, look elsewhere.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're looking for entertaining stories to tell on a night out, keep in contact with him because he'll be a goldmine!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="24996" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="9886" RevisionGUID="223b67de-8c06-4fb8-bc25-2fcef4ed57bc" CreationDate="2020-10-13T16:20:52.397" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="25003" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="1026" RevisionGUID="d223a6dc-5eeb-4696-96ce-a4385d99c22f" CreationDate="2020-10-13T16:29:29.793" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="25004" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9896" RevisionGUID="c4730143-99b7-47d5-b9b1-70103b517fc4" CreationDate="2020-10-13T18:58:55.320" UserId="25394" Text="## No ##&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your situation as a freelancer typically places additional burdens upon you that aren't reflected in that salary survey, which is primarily geared toward people seeking employment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Very often, billing rates for a professional are the professionals' salary plus some sort of multiplier. The multiplier varies a lot depending on the industry, but it's purpose is to cover the costs of things like overhead.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Overhead, in a general sense, are costs like office space (even if that's a room in your house), utilities, software license fees, hardware, expenses for marketing, health insurance, taxes, etc. Effectively, anything and everything that's necessary to do the work. For a company, it would also include things like profit. Presumably as a freelancer your salary is the profit; however, if you're thinking to expand your freelancing into some sort of business, then you should also include profit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my industry of consulting engineering, we have a lot of overhead costs and I've seen multipliers as high as 3.2. So if my salary is $35 per hour the client's getting billed at least $112 per hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, you can probably curb a lot of the costs and bring that multiplier down a bit (perhaps a lot). If you haven't done a rough cost analysis on your overhead costs, it's going to really hamper your ability to determine an appropriate multiplier since you're just guessing at that point." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25006" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1207" RevisionGUID="f676fb93-5f74-44bf-b8b8-dc73b6c67ace" CreationDate="2020-10-14T12:00:05.760" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1316348047727747073" />
  <row Id="25007" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6830" RevisionGUID="55370a99-1d01-4b08-a1fe-8e1ad3fab89c" CreationDate="2020-10-14T19:03:20.337" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25008" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9890" RevisionGUID="6f7d057c-325c-4897-8bf2-7ae0fbca0047" CreationDate="2020-10-14T21:08:40.083" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited (e.g. ref. &lt;https://www.wikihow.com/Use-Than-and-Then&gt; and &lt;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/first#Adjective&gt;). Used more standard formatting (we have italics and bold on this platform). " Text="It depends on how big they are... If you're offered by a popular radio station to play your music, or national TV to promote your products for free, or a popular photo magazine to publish your photography, you might want to consider that (make a reality check first: have you ever bought an album you heard on radio like that? etc.).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But it is realistically very rarely going to be a good deal like that (unless you have a secret admirer working there!)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For most other cases, if they promise that you'd get a lots of customers that way, you'd be best make a counteroffer - if they are so sure of value of exposure on their site/product, then they could pay you *above* your running rate, and you'll sign a contract with them that states that for each customer you get that refers them, you'll give them a percentage of profit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if their &quot;exposure&quot; turns out to be (near-)useless, you win as you got your payment above-rate and don't have to pay them (much) profits... And if their exposure actually turns out to be golden, you still win - sure, you'll have to part with part of the profits, but you'll have so many more customers (and thus profits) because of the deal that it will be more than worth it!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The best thing is, it is professional (hey, many shopping sites do referral discounts), you're secured regardless if the offer works or not, and they can't easily weasel out without admitting that their offer of &quot;exposure&quot; is not such a good deal - otherwise they'd be crazy to turn down free money like that!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25009" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9890" RevisionGUID="6f7d057c-325c-4897-8bf2-7ae0fbca0047" CreationDate="2020-10-14T21:08:40.083" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 15985 edit id of 724" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25011" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9886" RevisionGUID="084df0f1-a4ca-41cc-a84f-2f26e85114a3" CreationDate="2020-10-15T09:06:13.250" UserId="845" Comment="Used more standard formatting (we have italics and bold on this platform). Fixed the question formation - missing auxiliary (or helping) verb - see e.g. &lt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4yWEt0OSpg&amp;t=1m49s&gt; (see also &lt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS5NfSzXfrI&gt; (QUASM)). " Text="There's this huge misconception in the more creative industries, like art and writing, that creators that do not yet have an established reputation (and even some who do have one) don't deserve to get paid for their work and should instead be content to work &quot;for exposure&quot;, as in &quot;people will see your art and learn who you are, and maybe *they* will contact you and *maybe* they will pay you for an art piece&quot;. As you can probably tell, I'm not really convinced of the value proposition in such a deal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assuming you want to get paid for your work, what's the best way to respond to a request to work &quot;for exposure&quot; with the intent of still getting a paying customer out of it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25012" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9886" RevisionGUID="084df0f1-a4ca-41cc-a84f-2f26e85114a3" CreationDate="2020-10-15T09:06:13.250" UserId="845" Comment="Used more standard formatting (we have italics and bold on this platform). Fixed the question formation - missing auxiliary (or helping) verb - see e.g. &lt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4yWEt0OSpg&amp;t=1m49s&gt; (see also &lt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS5NfSzXfrI&gt; (QUASM)). " Text="How should I respond to requests to work &quot;for exposure&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25013" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9886" RevisionGUID="084df0f1-a4ca-41cc-a84f-2f26e85114a3" CreationDate="2020-10-15T09:06:13.250" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 25367 edit id of 723" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25014" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9255" RevisionGUID="82a8ef0c-7bb9-4de9-9c51-10db26eefeeb" CreationDate="2020-10-15T12:04:55.497" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25015" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9770" RevisionGUID="5154e487-b4b1-47e5-b265-1b8e3d79f447" CreationDate="2020-10-15T18:05:05.517" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25016" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9798" RevisionGUID="0acdfd6e-bf01-4f2d-9009-f093b9d82968" CreationDate="2020-10-15T19:08:00.787" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25018" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9898" RevisionGUID="e2c4881b-cd35-4068-a235-205db2b9b87a" CreationDate="2020-10-15T23:13:47.010" UserId="25424" Text="You will get either (S)FTP or SSH access. Try to get the latter.&#xD;&#xA;Chances are that they have some sort of database admin tool like PhpMyAdmin, or a self-management-interface of the host that you could use.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However: As soon as you have access, you are responsible for not bringing the page offline by some typo or deleted files. &#xD;&#xA;Always, always, **always make a backup** as the very first thing that you do when you get credentials. Don't look around in the code, don't &quot;just quickly change a color&quot;, nothing. Get a backup done! Then use that backup to create a development environment where you test and stage all changes, get customers approval, and THEN you put changes live." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25019" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9899" RevisionGUID="004f90af-55a5-4390-bcc8-64520e9efe8e" CreationDate="2020-10-15T23:16:54.923" UserId="25424" Text="1) Why would we care about you being a veteran? How does that qualify you as a businessman? &#xD;&#xA;2) Get a loan from a bank to pay the work you are asking for. Banks do loans, freelancers do paid work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sorry if that sounds rush, but there is a reason most freelancing sites ban such proposals: We hate those. We get hundreds of those, and never accept one." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25020" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9899" RevisionGUID="e2c86a23-1ade-425f-b1c9-1cebb13c89e1" CreationDate="2020-10-15T23:30:34.873" UserId="25424" Comment="added 364 characters in body" Text="Welcome to the site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, you won't hear many friendly voices about your request, and I am not exempt. First of all, why would we care about you being a veteran? How does that qualify you as a businessman? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then: Get a loan from a bank to pay the work you are asking for. **Banks do loans, freelancers do paid work.** Sorry if that sounds rush, but there is a reason most freelancing sites ban such proposals: We hate those. We get hundreds of those, and never accept one. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If banks are no option: Write a good - a great - business plan, and search for so-called business angels. They will provide the funds to hire a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You simply mixed financing and getting-it-done up. Those are two separate jobs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25021" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9900" RevisionGUID="b5bfc95a-6afa-49a5-b2b5-0388ae200815" CreationDate="2020-10-16T07:53:59.453" UserId="25205" Text="I'm facing a new problem. A client doesn't have any technical knowledge/doesn't want to deal with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They need apps on both GooglePlay and Apple Appstore, but they don't have developer accounts. I have been trough the process for myself some time ago, and it takes quite a lot of time, especially on the Appstore. How can I explain this to them &amp; charge ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For publishing, do you usually charge extra or do include this in some other fees without telling the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's some other issue. How should I handle paying the Appstore/Google Play fees ? Should I pay with my own credit card, and then ask them to transfer the money back ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would apreciate any advice&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25022" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9900" RevisionGUID="b5bfc95a-6afa-49a5-b2b5-0388ae200815" CreationDate="2020-10-16T07:53:59.453" UserId="25205" Text="Charging clients for creating business developer account Appstore and Googleplay" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25023" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9900" RevisionGUID="b5bfc95a-6afa-49a5-b2b5-0388ae200815" CreationDate="2020-10-16T07:53:59.453" UserId="25205" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25024" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9901" RevisionGUID="1ef693ae-b72e-4bda-98a1-f95895f15e0f" CreationDate="2020-10-16T23:27:32.273" UserId="25169" Text="Charge him to creating and manage those accounts in both plataforms. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. By *creating* the ones&#xD;&#xA; 2. By *monthly* or *yearly* manage ones&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I say *to manage*, I mean reply the mails from getting Play Store and Apple Store platforms. In fact, to talk with the app's users, just charge it as further service. That's at least what I'd do in that situation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25025" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9901" RevisionGUID="a3d0978c-3a7a-44f1-92da-416e6eb1fb26" CreationDate="2020-10-17T00:32:40.197" UserId="25169" Comment="Improved my reply" Text="Charge him to creating and manage those accounts in both plataforms. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. By *creating* the ones&#xD;&#xA; 2. By *monthly* or *yearly* manage ones&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I say *to manage*, I mean reply the mails from getting Play Store and Apple Store platforms. In fact, to talk with the app's users, just charge it as further service. That's at least what I'd do in that situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Important**: regarding **&quot;Should I pay with my own credit card&quot;**, never buy with your one, ask to him for buying with the his one. Just guide he with that task of creating the accounts, it'll be only once and after it he'll provide to you the both accounts' information for accessing and management.* " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25027" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9902" RevisionGUID="8b458f5c-00b2-4c59-844c-861d9cbbe139" CreationDate="2020-10-18T02:51:26.570" UserId="21435" Text="&gt; How can I explain this to them &amp; charge?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By explaining it to them? You're performing work on their behalf. If they want you to do this for them then you should be billing them for it. Tell them that this is billable work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Do you usually charge extra or do include this in some other fees&#xD;&#xA;&gt; without telling the client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why would you charge extra, as in over and above your normal fees? Why would you hide it? Explain to them that this is billable time and bill them what you would normally bill for billable time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Should I pay with my own credit card, and then ask them to transfer&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the money back?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Why would you set up these accounts with your payment information? This is for them. Use their payment information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25028" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9484" RevisionGUID="270276c6-4f51-4255-90eb-aad59c7fb96b" CreationDate="2020-10-18T08:32:21.380" UserId="23834" Comment="edited title" Text="Comparative retention rate in various European countries?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25033" PostHistoryTypeId="36" PostId="9904" RevisionGUID="671107fa-5bfd-4ee5-802a-0b7e915e3a2a" CreationDate="2020-10-19T10:36:32.623" UserId="-1" Comment="from https://crafts.stackexchange.com/questions/8620/pricing-of-painting" />
  <row Id="25034" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9904" RevisionGUID="0b2df8e4-1b40-49ad-9fa5-7acbb9bfca9f" CreationDate="2020-10-19T10:05:12.487" UserDisplayName="JMB" Text="I'm looking for feedback on pricing of paintings. I've painted most of my life, but struggle with charging. How do you reason to produce a price for your art?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just completed a relatively large autumn landscape. Oil on canvas, 80*122 cm. It's somewhat rough focusing on colour. What do you feel I should charge for this particular painting?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://ibb.co/zQ4MrhG&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25035" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9904" RevisionGUID="0b2df8e4-1b40-49ad-9fa5-7acbb9bfca9f" CreationDate="2020-10-19T10:05:12.487" UserDisplayName="JMB" Text="Pricing of painting" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25036" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9904" RevisionGUID="0b2df8e4-1b40-49ad-9fa5-7acbb9bfca9f" CreationDate="2020-10-19T10:05:12.487" UserDisplayName="JMB" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25037" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9905" RevisionGUID="eb890ccd-d55c-48b4-9281-5a616afd64a1" CreationDate="2020-10-19T13:59:05.083" UserId="25437" Text="I posted a basic hacking investigation job on Upwork and one of the people who applied seemed to be an excellent candidate. His cover letter informed me that he was USA licensed and certified, had been involved in the arrest of several high-profile hackers and had worked for the US department of defense and other agencies. I hired him and mailed my phone to him for investigation. He turned out to be located in a place called Gurugram Haryana India. Through email he confirmed receiving my phone, conducting his investigation and finding proof and IPs but now he will not ship anything (my phone, the new modded phone he upsold me and the hacking report) and will not respond to my messages via the site or my emails. I've reported him to the website and they're working on it but what else can I do? I'd rather have my phones and proof and etc. than perhaps an Upwork credit. I have his real name, bank details, home/office address and two email addresses plus all communication and receipts when applicable." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25038" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9905" RevisionGUID="eb890ccd-d55c-48b4-9281-5a616afd64a1" CreationDate="2020-10-19T13:59:05.083" UserId="25437" Text="Freelancer theft of client's property and non-shipment (US client, India freelancer)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25039" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9905" RevisionGUID="eb890ccd-d55c-48b4-9281-5a616afd64a1" CreationDate="2020-10-19T13:59:05.083" UserId="25437" Text="|freelance-websites|legal|client-support|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25040" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9904" RevisionGUID="da6332b1-b4e0-4925-9618-6b6b46b94d72" CreationDate="2020-10-19T16:04:06.440" UserId="61" Comment="added 18 characters in body; edited tags" Text="I'm trying to set my pricing of paintings. I've painted most of my life, but struggle with charging. How do you reason to produce a price for your art?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just completed a relatively large autumn landscape. Oil on canvas, 80*122 cm. It's somewhat rough focusing on colour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What factors should I take into account to establish a reasonable price for this particular painting?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://ibb.co/zQ4MrhG" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25041" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="9904" RevisionGUID="da6332b1-b4e0-4925-9618-6b6b46b94d72" CreationDate="2020-10-19T16:04:06.440" UserId="61" Comment="added 18 characters in body; edited tags" Text="|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25042" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9906" RevisionGUID="9128b153-dca6-455a-adec-c81a73d1a32b" CreationDate="2020-10-19T17:12:18.363" UserId="75" Text="Sadly, you have *nothing* - no information of the true scammer, no money, and no phone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, all the information above can be created on a whim, or passed through multiple gullible victims to hide the true source.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your best bet at this point is to cut your losses, and move on. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25043" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9872" RevisionGUID="5e9cde3b-5cfb-4bba-a0e3-1c01abf813a6" CreationDate="2020-10-19T18:00:08.190" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1318250594549833728" />
  <row Id="25044" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9907" RevisionGUID="9440f67a-be27-4808-a1b8-a007e210fdf0" CreationDate="2020-10-19T20:02:53.137" UserId="25228" Text="I would say take into account your expenses, time (can be based on how large the painting is) and the level of detail required. What you have looks good. We worked with someone who charged $500-$1000 for life sized paintings if I remember correctly. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25045" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9908" RevisionGUID="0a56df6d-98a6-4a79-b5f9-80dc13cb23ea" CreationDate="2020-10-19T21:15:09.890" UserId="708" Text="Art has **no intrinsic value**. The only value of any artwork is the *value the artist places upon it* or *what others are wiling to pay for it*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Diamonds, as an example, also have no intrinsic value. They are price at whatever they can get consumers to pay. Buy a diamond for $5,000 and walk out of the store, turn around and walk back into the jewelers.... or go immediately to another jeweler.... it's then worth less than half what you paid for it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Find the right buyer and you may sell a painting from a (presumably) unknown artist for $1,000,000. But being unable to find the right buyer may mean the painting is worth $20 at the local flea market. Same painting - no intrinsic value. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, demand plays a role. How many are seeking landscape paintings from an unknown artist? How many artists out there are painting random landscapes? Will this landscape painting have more value if sold where the landscape is recognized?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no possible way for anyone to place any value on this painting other than the artist themselves or someone shopping for landscape paintings. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The best one could do is shop themselves**... see what similar paintings are being sold for and price for that same venue or sales outlet. Unlike commercial art, with fine art time spent creating is rarely a qualifiable figure which can be used to calculate pricing - those purchasing fine art do not care if it took 10 minutes or 10 years to create the artwork." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25046" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9908" RevisionGUID="f6d1115b-b4d2-4f7e-b2e9-757c614c21b3" CreationDate="2020-10-19T21:20:51.667" UserId="708" Comment="added 329 characters in body" Text="Art has **no intrinsic value**. The only value of any artwork is the *value the artist places upon it* or *what others are wiling to pay for it*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Diamonds, as an example, also have no intrinsic value. They are priced at whatever consumers have been convinced they should pay. Buy a diamond for $5,000 and walk out of the store, turn around and walk back into the jewelers.... or go immediately to another jeweler.... it's then worth less than half what you paid for it. (Now, the diamond market has a consortium that actually sets values. So, members [dealers] are essentially &quot;price fixing&quot; to ensure they all charge relatively the same amounts. &quot;Spend three months salary on a diamond for her&quot; was a *marketing tactic* to convince consumers of a value where none actually exists.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Find the right buyer and you may sell a painting from a (presumably) unknown artist for $1,000,000. But being unable to find the right buyer may mean the painting is worth $20 at the local flea market. Same painting - no intrinsic value. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, demand plays a role. How many are seeking landscape paintings from an unknown artist? How many artists out there are painting random landscapes? Will this landscape painting have more value if sold where the landscape is recognized?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no possible way for anyone to place any value on this painting other than the artist themselves or someone shopping for landscape paintings. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The best one could do is shop themselves**... see what similar paintings are being sold for and price for that same venue or sales outlet. Unlike commercial art, with fine art time spent creating is rarely a qualifiable figure which can be used to calculate pricing - those purchasing fine art do not care if it took 10 minutes or 10 years to create the artwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not convinced that the migration from Arts &amp; Crafts was worthwhile. Freelancing, in my experience, rarely deals with these types of situations. Freelancing is far more related to commercial or commissioned artwork. Not really paintings for the sake of painting and afterwards trying to find buyers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If one were *commissioned* to create such a landscape painting, *then* time creating would be quantifiable and used as a pricing factor.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25047" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9909" RevisionGUID="2acc29a7-d1e8-42ac-a8d1-5b33f1f722e0" CreationDate="2020-10-22T10:49:33.450" UserId="25447" Text="I'm developing an Android application and this is my first project, so I've also included 1 year free maintenance with the whole package so I want to know what should I include in the service, only UI changes and bug fixes or as well as adding a new feature will be included?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25048" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9909" RevisionGUID="2acc29a7-d1e8-42ac-a8d1-5b33f1f722e0" CreationDate="2020-10-22T10:49:33.450" UserId="25447" Text="What is included in android application maintenance service?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25049" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9909" RevisionGUID="2acc29a7-d1e8-42ac-a8d1-5b33f1f722e0" CreationDate="2020-10-22T10:49:33.450" UserId="25447" Text="|maintenance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25053" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9911" RevisionGUID="f6d4c98b-7a42-4f42-bed6-32e1cf3df731" CreationDate="2020-10-24T13:55:42.450" UserId="25454" Text="According to gov.uk my invoice must include &quot;the company name and address of the customer you’re invoicing&quot;. However my customer does not have a company, I'm simply invoicing them as an individual. Do I still need to include their address?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25054" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9911" RevisionGUID="f6d4c98b-7a42-4f42-bed6-32e1cf3df731" CreationDate="2020-10-24T13:55:42.450" UserId="25454" Text="(UK freelancer) Do I still need to put a client's address in the invoice if they are not a business/company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25055" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9911" RevisionGUID="f6d4c98b-7a42-4f42-bed6-32e1cf3df731" CreationDate="2020-10-24T13:55:42.450" UserId="25454" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25057" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9594" RevisionGUID="99fc0b16-eb52-40a4-8d0f-a5f6e81aae1c" CreationDate="2020-10-24T23:03:10.387" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25061" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9914" RevisionGUID="f3dfb1c2-4a21-4c0e-941d-f64ad1318189" CreationDate="2020-10-26T12:04:33.447" UserId="7858" Text="In a Danish context, the client address is required as the inclusion (or not) of sales tax on the invoice depends on location (among other factors).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Domestic clients must pay an additional sales tax, while foreign businesses may be invoiced without added sales tax.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Rules in your jurisdiction may differ. In addition, I could imagine the authorities could extend the thinking behind e.g. banks having to 'know their clients' to your business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For this reason I would always include an address - as it seems the authorities seem to prefer/demand a paper trail of where money originates from and where it ends. Not being able or willing to explain who or where your clients are, could be considered shady and cause needless problems." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25066" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9309" RevisionGUID="95029df7-fd6c-4860-92a5-e4fce0f900eb" CreationDate="2020-10-28T05:16:33.930" UserId="21416" Comment="Fixed typos" Text="Obviously, the following is not legal advice, but just some general advice from a seasoned freelancer / consultant:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It looks like your client is right in demanding a partial refund, given that you promised to deliver in accordance with the specifications. If you don't give them a refund, they can send you an arbitration demand and they'll basically sue you, just not in court, but in private arbitration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My recommendation in such cases is to talk to the client and try to be as accommodating as possible -- perhaps there is a way you can satisfy the remaining 10% or perhaps you can reach some other agreement with the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd highly recommend avoiding litigation. If you can't make it right for the client, then I'd suggest giving them a refund." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25067" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9915" RevisionGUID="de3eb25f-93ab-45db-9583-33bd928fae34" CreationDate="2020-10-29T12:09:58.270" UserId="20786" Text="You say you only followed 90% of the specifications.  Therefore, you are in breach of contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not only is the customer entitled to a refund, he is probably entitled to compensation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Re-read your contract very carefully." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25068" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9916" RevisionGUID="7b395395-ba25-40ce-8c92-1ca9d7dc902b" CreationDate="2020-10-29T17:47:42.263" UserId="25169" Text="Your customer's completly right. And tell you that your reputation worths more than any money you may receive that agree. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suggest you as soon as possible trying to negociate with him, try to offer reasonable off by the specs didn't provide in the finished software and some even much better like negociating a new agreed with new deadline for provinding to the customer the software with full specs, that way will be much better because it'll highly help you to avoid reputation lost with that customer in my opinion fulfing your customer because him will have a finished software as promissed in previous agreed in hand." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25069" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9916" RevisionGUID="78e54855-407a-440a-9342-5d5503082f81" CreationDate="2020-10-29T17:53:41.597" UserId="25169" Comment="Improved my answer" Text="Your customer's completly right. And tell you that your reputation worths more than any money you may receive that agree. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suggest you as soon as possible trying to negociate with him, try to offer reasonable off by the specs didn't provide in the finished software and some even much better like negociating a new agreed with new deadline for provinding to the customer the software with full specs, that way will be much better because it'll highly help you to avoid reputation lost with that customer in my opinion fulfing your customer because him will have a finished software as promissed in previous agreed in hand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding this question:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Is the client entitled to a refund? How much of a refund?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To try refunding only 10% or other value according to the contract specifying some fee in case of you didn't provide some software spec. The more important thing here is to let your customer totally happy with your service for avoinding some reputation lost as I mentioned earlier. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding this question: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; What happens if I don't give him a refund? Our contract says disputes will be resolved through arbitration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How you mentioned in your post your customer's totally right. Avoid any litigation because you'll only manage to lost it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25070" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9308" RevisionGUID="c793fe99-017a-43ff-94dc-89543f3f6503" CreationDate="2020-10-30T09:00:03.727" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1322100946512523265" />
  <row Id="25071" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9917" RevisionGUID="3aaf4e4e-76e1-435a-bf6c-a1658d0ed1d3" CreationDate="2020-10-30T09:37:01.473" UserId="7858" Text="What to include as a service can depend on many factors that basically boil down to a compromise between the client's needs and your skills, time and financial situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, one may consider whether the client is probably just a one-time sale or the possibility of an on-going relationship exists.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally, a service agreement is a way of attempting to stay on the client's radar, thus increasing the chances of more work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25072" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9918" RevisionGUID="3031972e-1425-42ef-bf74-667f1abd0619" CreationDate="2020-10-30T13:12:09.320" UserId="517" Text="In order to report the tax in my country, I need to get details of the USA company, like EIN and IRS tax statements. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many of my clients do not have this paper from IRS (lost it probably), and I often have to wait up to 2 months to get that. What happens is that either I or the client forgets about it and the whole process becomes a pain. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Europe, we have the official EU website where we can enter company VAT number and it will display company details. And we can use this as an official confirmation that a company is a tax payer.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there something like that in the USA?&#xD;&#xA;I am basically looking for 2 things:&#xD;&#xA;1. A website where I can fetch EIN after entering company name&#xD;&#xA;2. An official site where I can enter EIN and it will say something like &quot;this company is a registered Tax payer in the USA&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25073" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9918" RevisionGUID="3031972e-1425-42ef-bf74-667f1abd0619" CreationDate="2020-10-30T13:12:09.320" UserId="517" Text="Where can I get tax details about the company (my client)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25074" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9918" RevisionGUID="3031972e-1425-42ef-bf74-667f1abd0619" CreationDate="2020-10-30T13:12:09.320" UserId="517" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25075" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9919" RevisionGUID="7b296df7-bbe1-4192-baf4-522674edeb05" CreationDate="2020-10-30T17:13:59.987" UserId="25205" Text="I'm in a rather unusual situation.  &#xD;&#xA;Client comes and asks me if I can build an app with this and that technology. After we agree on hourly rate and time schedule, they ask me to do a coding challenge before we sign the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We are both, me and the client, LLCs. They have seen my website and portfolio.  &#xD;&#xA;Has anyone else been asked something like this before ?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25076" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9919" RevisionGUID="7b296df7-bbe1-4192-baf4-522674edeb05" CreationDate="2020-10-30T17:13:59.987" UserId="25205" Text="Client asking me to do a coding challenge" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25077" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9919" RevisionGUID="7b296df7-bbe1-4192-baf4-522674edeb05" CreationDate="2020-10-30T17:13:59.987" UserId="25205" Text="|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25078" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9920" RevisionGUID="b2337e0b-1823-4c45-9bfb-5ba39271ce8c" CreationDate="2020-10-30T17:18:24.847" UserId="25205" Text="You can ask for a fixed rate/month in which you tell your client that you will fix anything that breaks, so they don't have to worry.&#xD;&#xA;You can also do library updates for security issues and similar.   &#xD;&#xA;Be very careful when including UI changes, as those could take a lot of time and effort to deliver and should be payed separately. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25081" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9921" RevisionGUID="8f555ecb-14d5-45f0-a1e9-87cd4cabe73d" CreationDate="2020-10-31T06:05:49.990" UserId="25477" Text="Yes, Maximum time the clients and the company do this. First they give you some task and check you, if you can successfully do the challenge. Actually they look for your enthusiastic approach, problem solving skill, communication skill, clean code skill. They do it for long term relationship with you. If you success then they give you Job with nice figure salary and other benefits." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25082" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9453" RevisionGUID="562aca21-6303-4bca-acd0-36ee82d1f521" CreationDate="2020-10-31T08:00:50.103" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25083" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9922" RevisionGUID="e93eaa30-fb0f-45bb-b5b1-f8411429e50a" CreationDate="2020-10-31T20:53:21.210" UserId="708" Text="I do not believe such information is publicly accessible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Business registries have a registry number, but won't/don't display EIN or tax identification numbers to the general public. States have registries. So, you'd need to at least know the state the business is/was formed in - there's no &quot;national business registry&quot; as far as I know - at least not from the US Government. There are some *privately owned* web sites that merely spider state registries. I have no idea if such private sites are worthwhile.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Much like an individual Social Security Number in the US, there are reasons making business EINs public knowledge may be a bad idea. Anyone could fraudulently use the EIN. To the best of my knowledge, an EIN can only be obtained from the company itself - often on a 1099 or W9 form. --- Of course, I could always be incorrect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-- anecdote --- &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) won't even give me **my own** EIN if I call and ask for it.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;When I got my EIN it was faxed to me and was written, by hand, on the form. I had considerable trouble simply *reading* the number - was that a 6 or an 8, was that a 7 or a 9.... I called the IRS and asked, they would not provide the number to me, but if I guessed it they would confirm it was correct or not. So I spent 5 minutes guessing what I thought the fax read... eventually guessing correct." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25084" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9922" RevisionGUID="758ddecc-a534-448a-bbc4-d50a766e60b2" CreationDate="2020-10-31T20:59:21.403" UserId="708" Comment="added 105 characters in body" Text="I do not believe such information is publicly accessible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Business registries have a registry number, but won't/don't display EIN or tax identification numbers to the general public. States have registries. So, you'd need to at least know the state the business is/was formed in - there's no &quot;national business registry&quot; as far as I know - at least not from the US Government. There are some *privately owned* web sites that merely spider state registries. I have no idea if such private sites are worthwhile. But the actual government-run state registries don't display any EINs or tax identification information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Much like an individual Social Security Number in the US, there are reasons making business EINs public knowledge may be a bad idea. Anyone could fraudulently use the EIN. To the best of my knowledge, an EIN can only be obtained from the company itself - often on a 1099 or W9 form. --- Of course, I could always be incorrect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-- anecdote --- &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) won't even give me **my own** EIN if I call and ask for it.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;When I got my EIN it was faxed to me and was written, by hand, on the form. I had considerable trouble simply *reading* the number - was that a 6 or an 8, was that a 7 or a 9.... I called the IRS and asked, they would not provide the number to me, but if I guessed it they would confirm it was correct or not. So I spent 5 minutes guessing what I thought the fax read... eventually guessing correct." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25085" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9922" RevisionGUID="d9fd78ff-1323-4ccf-8720-ff461960b5e7" CreationDate="2020-10-31T21:05:11.847" UserId="708" Comment="added 105 characters in body" Text="I do not believe such information is publicly accessible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;States have business registries. Business registries have a **registry** number, but won't/don't display EIN or tax identification numbers to the general public. Registry numbers are *different* from EIN or tax identification numbers. It's *unlikely* the registry number would help you in any way. There's no &quot;national business registry&quot; as far as I know - at least not from the US Government. There are some *privately owned* web sites that seem to merely spider state registries. I have no idea if such private sites are worthwhile. But the actual government-run state registries don't display any EINs or tax identification information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Much like an individual Social Security Number in the US, there are reasons making business EINs public knowledge may be a bad idea. Anyone could fraudulently use the EIN. The first thing that comes to mind is money laundering -- anyone could look up an EIN and fraudulently claim they were paid X amount by that company. Then the company may face some undue hardship for failing to report that payment, even though it was not legitimate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To the best of my knowledge, an EIN can only be obtained from the company itself - often on a 1099 or W9 form. --- Of course, I could always be incorrect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-- anecdote --- &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) won't even give me **my own** EIN if I call and ask for it.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;When I got my EIN it was faxed to me and was written, by hand, on the form. I had considerable trouble simply *reading* the number - was that a 6 or an 8, was that a 7 or a 9.... I called the IRS and asked, they would not provide the number to me, but if I guessed it they would confirm it was correct or not. So I spent 5 minutes guessing what I thought the fax read... eventually guessing correct." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25086" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="7776" RevisionGUID="fb5c0874-806d-4a12-8970-85889b4a0d70" CreationDate="2020-11-01T05:51:23.197" UserId="18276" Comment="edited title" Text="How to fastly got a balance for an hardware setup" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25087" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="7776" RevisionGUID="9bda6645-8e6d-4982-9fd5-ac9decf9badb" CreationDate="2020-11-01T06:04:06.723" UserId="18276" Comment="edited title; edited title" Text="How to fastly balance an hardware setup scaling" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25088" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="7776" RevisionGUID="1e441ced-f0a7-48f9-ab13-8121e9897300" CreationDate="2020-11-01T07:02:49.703" UserId="18276" Comment="edited title" Text="How to drop balance costs for an hardware setup scaling" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25089" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="7776" RevisionGUID="58992e0c-55b2-4d78-bfad-95ae4b49d403" CreationDate="2020-11-01T07:14:00.030" UserId="18276" Comment="edited title" Text="How to drop customer balance costs for an hardware instance upscaling" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25090" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7776" RevisionGUID="111d811c-cc87-4a92-88fe-acc2464115e4" CreationDate="2020-11-01T07:21:19.057" UserId="18276" Comment="edited title" Text="I'm an IT freelancer in Italy, with experience in software development, web design and recently system administration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Around three months ago I got a new client to work for and signed contract to realize 3 new websites for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the contract there is specified that the infrastructure wherein the websites will be installed would be on his charge and I would just had to get the sites done and then upload them to its hosting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By the way, a months later, I verified that the client hosting was too slow and so, I suggested him to move on a VPS, that would guarantee better performance and also could make him save some money as the same machine would host more sites and mail accounts. So I set up the VPS environment and started move some sites and email accounts on it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that, I realized that the cost of the VPS it's only virtually lower, as the time I get on it to keep it updated, well configured and working good (mail issues, SSL certs issues and renews, back-up configuration, system healthy checks, etc) it's quite a lot, and I'm not getting payed for that. Moreover, when the contract will be completed on the end of the year the client does not have any IT staff that could continue the maintenance or face up to problems eventually get out from it. I have no interest in continue the contract or getting payed for system administration as it's not my core business and moreover I found the client to be quite difficult and aggressive with me when not the situation to be, but I find myself stuck in this situation as the client accepted my suggestion earlier.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I would like to do now it's to say to the customer that the VPS it's no more a good idea and it would be better to get back on a normal hosting, but this translates for him in losing the saving I previous prospected to him, but of course, when I will end up the contract by completing all the websites, I cannot abandon him with a VPS that requires periodically maintenance, and if he will need to find some other IT staff it, it will be a cost anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically I suggested him the wrong choice before, and moreover got it to work on my expenses by now I want to stop this situation as soon as possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What could be a good exit strategy? I'm avalaible to sustain the cost of migration the sites and mail accounts back to an hosting, and even pay for him for the first year of service, but later than, he will have to pay for it by himself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What to do now? How do I resolve this situation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for the help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25091" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9923" RevisionGUID="48348d2b-700d-4ecf-8ebb-cff2439d8be3" CreationDate="2020-11-02T04:14:47.147" UserId="10464" Text="Sure, it's happened.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's similar to if someone said to you, &quot;I will only pay $5 per hour&quot; for something you know they can't get from any other qualified person for less than $80+. Just laugh and keep on moving. The fact you tell them, 'no' could motivate them to skip the requirement. You have to have confidence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No it doesn't matter if coding challenges are (relatively) common in the full time employment job hunting world. Don't do anything for free for somebody who hasn't even paid you a dollar. To put it all in perspective, there are potential clients who would pay you serious cash just to think about working on their project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25092" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9924" RevisionGUID="6bca9e6e-e759-456d-ac54-f28cd9541b3c" CreationDate="2020-11-02T19:36:18.463" UserId="25501" Text="The question of the value of artwork is difficult, as has already been mentioned. It reminds me of the usual question, &quot;Oh, you're an artist! What do you do for a living?&quot; Still, some artists are successful in selling their creations. Here is an approach that I have seen used with success...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A sculptor I once knew created a massive metallic dragon-like creature that he displayed at art shows at science-fiction conventions. He priced it at something like $25,000 in case anyone wanted to buy it. Everyone wanted it, of course, but they could not afford it. They could not even afford the space in which to keep it nor the time required to keep it dusted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He also created similar dragon sculptures, much smaller, that might fit on a desk or even in your hand. Those sold for less than $100 each. He sold dozens of the little dragons while the mother dragon remained unsold." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25095" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9926" RevisionGUID="dfb1d33c-5932-44af-9e88-c66fab15db0f" CreationDate="2020-11-04T12:38:15.463" UserId="23884" Text="It is reasonable for a client/company to run a practical test before hiring somebody. However, given that such a test takes time and effort, it is also reasonable that you ask to be paid for it - at least a symbolic price. If they ask you to do it for free, assuming that you are desperate for the job or that they can always find another candidate like you, it is a sure red flag about how this company treats its employees. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25096" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9927" RevisionGUID="011fc620-1848-45b3-be99-c2c57174e46e" CreationDate="2020-11-04T12:45:33.997" UserId="25205" Text="Yeah, I've been ask this several times.  &#xD;&#xA;One of them told me they can share a Facebook post if I write 2 native apps. One for iOS and one for Android.  &#xD;&#xA;When I told them my Facebook page has more followers than theirs, they said ok, we'll pay but half the price.  &#xD;&#xA;Of course, there was no deal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25099" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9928" RevisionGUID="a0aa01ea-1194-4e1c-8aed-f70e59eaccd3" CreationDate="2020-11-04T19:52:45.283" UserId="25169" Text="It'd be useful if you could describe on your post the code challenge which he've proposed to you, sometimes those ones are *pitfalls* made by your customer to get work done *without actually getting you paid*. Anyway, be much careful regarding yours agreeds established with your customer in that current way which it's been realized." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25104" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9931" RevisionGUID="c3a759b6-0745-4198-aaee-17ccc0062b13" CreationDate="2020-11-05T17:50:08.840" UserId="25169" Text="As a freelancer web designer should handle with the hosting management of a customer's site?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When we manage it the *hosting plan contract* should be on the *customer's name* or *on our one*?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the hosting plan contract's on my name I can suffer the risk of the customer at some moment not to pay the hosting plan value causing problems with the hosting provider. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How *avoid* it? How you handle with that situation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25105" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9931" RevisionGUID="c3a759b6-0745-4198-aaee-17ccc0062b13" CreationDate="2020-11-05T17:50:08.840" UserId="25169" Text="Hosting management should be on the name of who? Customer's or our?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25106" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9931" RevisionGUID="c3a759b6-0745-4198-aaee-17ccc0062b13" CreationDate="2020-11-05T17:50:08.840" UserId="25169" Text="|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25107" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="9931" RevisionGUID="b48e54b3-b2ea-4145-83fe-45ae06bb207e" CreationDate="2020-11-05T18:54:04.770" UserId="-1" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[2022],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;,&quot;BindingReason&quot;:{&quot;DuplicateApprovedByAsker&quot;:&quot;&quot;}}]}" />
  <row Id="25115" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9529" RevisionGUID="c88c4be3-fd09-4590-b093-a6d6b0d631ef" CreationDate="2020-11-06T02:03:45.320" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25122" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9934" RevisionGUID="cec81fad-6325-4821-a18f-edd67a1d212c" CreationDate="2020-11-09T00:36:27.023" UserId="21435" Text="I would never acquiesce to this. A client either believes and trusts that you can do the work or they don't, in which case they're free to hire someone else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This sounds like a way to get you to perform work for them for free." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25123" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9919" RevisionGUID="625a3c41-1c6f-4a49-a334-269fa73d4313" CreationDate="2020-11-09T18:00:07.667" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1325860737160515589" />
  <row Id="25125" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9935" RevisionGUID="58977ca1-bb89-4d57-b7c2-6edbb88bec44" CreationDate="2020-11-11T02:58:19.880" UserId="25527" Text="About a year ago I tried to start a consulting company. approached potential clients with my services but did not get anywhere. I am now working full time and one of them has come back to me and would like to do business. Now, will it be wise to quit my full time job and focus on my business with this client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25126" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9935" RevisionGUID="58977ca1-bb89-4d57-b7c2-6edbb88bec44" CreationDate="2020-11-11T02:58:19.880" UserId="25527" Text="Leaving my full time job for 1 client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25127" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9935" RevisionGUID="58977ca1-bb89-4d57-b7c2-6edbb88bec44" CreationDate="2020-11-11T02:58:19.880" UserId="25527" Text="|contracts|attracting-clients|web-development|consulting|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25128" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9453" RevisionGUID="7d0a5429-07df-4600-b577-26e4505eafdc" CreationDate="2020-11-11T09:00:05.723" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1326449609300975616" />
  <row Id="25129" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9936" RevisionGUID="ceb7bcf1-a897-4a15-b5f5-ca04c0f6d130" CreationDate="2020-11-11T10:29:55.733" UserId="7858" Text="Basically, this will come down to your personal circumstances.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a few factors one generally needs to consider when going alone:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Your financial situation&#xD;&#xA;2) The reliability of the first client (do they have enough work; will they pay)&#xD;&#xA;3) How likely it is that you will be able to attract other clients&#xD;&#xA;4) How your jurisdiction views self-employed people with only a single client&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agree with @Scott that depending on a single client is risky - but in my experience going alone rarely happens in the ideal way. At some time, push comes to shove - and one needs to take a leap of faith.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your first client turns out to be solid, it could be a great platform for continued success - as finding that first client is often much harder than finding the second and third. However, beware of the potential 'pitfall of success' where you neglect pursuing other clients because things are great with the first one." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25135" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9530" RevisionGUID="60e761bb-4d89-41e4-96d7-a0c246bd13a0" CreationDate="2020-11-12T09:03:43.257" UserId="708" Comment="added 151 characters in body" Text="Sounds like you may need to speak to a **better** tax professional in your area.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am **not** now and have **never been** a tax professional and I live in the United States. I also do not use online crowd sourcing sites to earn an income. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**TL;DR:** You pay taxes where ***you live*** or your business is located, *not* where clients may be located. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The purpose of taxes is to support infrastructure in *your location*, not in some other country. Taxes assist in building roads, paying for schools, paying for government in general. Since you *don't* benefit from *any* of that in another country it's not customary to pay taxes in another country unless you are *based* or *live* in that country. You don't pay taxes in the U.S. unless you *live* in the US or have a business location established in the US. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One caveat may be **goods** or **products**. If you are importing/exporting items from/to the US, then there may be *[tariffs][1]* required, but tariffs are not *income tax*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I live in the US, my work is all ephemeral (digital in nature, no goods or products), there has never been a need for me to pay any UK taxes even though I've had UK clients. I'm not earning any income inside the UK. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, think about it.. if you don't live in the US and don't pay US taxes, what possible penalties could the US impose upon you? The answer is none.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You may owe taxes in your location, wherever that may be.** You may be earning income from the US but live in CountryX. Most likely that income is taxable by CountryX since that is your location. Those tax filings in CountryX would be your tax records in lieu of any US tax records. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Further example... even though I don't file UK taxes when I have UK clients, I still **must** claim the income I earned from UK clients on my US tax returns... and pay US taxes on the *income* I earned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for specific web sites.. you'll have to go over their terms of service. They could have specific terms related to non-US users. Certainly informing them that you aren't a US citizen or business may alleviate the tax issue. Of course, there could be other repercussions if they don't permit non-US transactions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether or not using a US-based crowd-sourcing web site constitutes a &quot;business location: inside the US.. again, you need to speak to a qualified tax professional.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would stress again, speaking to a *qualified* tax professional in your location who can provide a *definitive* answer may assist you. Get it in **writing** so you can hold them accountable if thy are incorrect. If they *know* the answer, it should be no issue for them to put it in writing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, you pay taxes **where YOU live**, not where your clients live.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariff" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25136" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9938" RevisionGUID="aee06bc1-f466-43a9-8137-38ad04d44cbc" CreationDate="2020-11-13T11:40:30.437" UserId="25169" Text="The most of experienced freelancers always advise never abandoning your current job. If you wish to freelance only do it keeping your current one and working part-time as freelancer. Think carefully to respect of that your current one would be, is actually your more secure foundation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To freelance is a *highly risky* form of job due to following very important point in my humble opinion:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Customers**: they aren't constant, your one flow could change for more or&#xD;&#xA;&gt; less going to almost zero (*in the worst scenario*) at any moment.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Freelancers get used to relate that can there are months on that can&#xD;&#xA;&gt; there is no any one (*here is where comes in the point which I related&#xD;&#xA;&gt; some lines above about your current job as your secure foundation*).*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25137" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9938" RevisionGUID="5e668978-2573-44b1-8163-214d6458c8db" CreationDate="2020-11-13T12:34:20.333" UserId="25169" Comment="Improved my answer." Text="The most of experienced freelancers always advise never abandoning your current job. If you wish to freelance only do it keeping your current one and working part-time as freelancer. At least it'd be ideal in the freelancer point of view. Think carefully to respect of that your current one would be, is actually your more secure foundation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To freelance is a *highly risky* form of job due to following very important point in my humble opinion:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Customers**: they aren't constant, your one flow could change for more or&#xD;&#xA;&gt; less going to almost zero (*in the worst scenario*) at any moment.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Freelancers get used to relate that can there are months on that can&#xD;&#xA;&gt; there is no any one (*here is where comes in the point which I related&#xD;&#xA;&gt; some lines above about your current job as your secure foundation*).*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The following article bellow could help you to reflect better about you issue:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; [Ask A Freelancer: Can I Quit My Full-Time Job and Freelance For My&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Employer?][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://contently.net/2015/01/28/voices/ask-freelancer/ask-freelancer-can-quit-full-time-job-freelance-employer/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25138" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9938" RevisionGUID="ae7997ae-e974-4db5-a9b5-717a7948bb3f" CreationDate="2020-11-13T12:58:05.100" UserId="25169" Comment="Improved my answer." Text="The most of experienced freelancers always advise never abandoning your current job. If you wish to freelance only do it keeping your current one and working part-time as freelancer. At least it'd be ideal in the freelancer point of view. Think carefully to respect of that your current one would be, is actually your more secure foundation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To freelance is a *highly risky* form of job due to following very important point in my humble opinion:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Customers**: they aren't constant, your one flow could change for more or&#xD;&#xA;&gt; less going to almost zero (*in the worst scenario*) at any moment.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Freelancers get used to relate that can there are months on that can&#xD;&#xA;&gt; there is no any one (*here is where comes in the point which I related&#xD;&#xA;&gt; some lines above about your current job as your secure foundation*).*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The following article bellow could help you to reflect better about you issue:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; [Ask A Freelancer: Can I Quit My Full-Time Job and Freelance For My&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Employer?][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://contently.net/2015/01/28/voices/ask-freelancer/ask-freelancer-can-quit-full-time-job-freelance-employer/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The article above has an *very important point* to be *carefully* thought of check it out on the following paragraph cited bellow:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; *You risk not having work or not having enough work. You risk underselling your services and earning less money than you should or&#xD;&#xA;&gt; overbidding and losing a project. You have nobody at your company to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; back you up if things go wrong with a client. You need to be willing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to take those risks, learn from your mistakes, and always keep moving&#xD;&#xA;&gt; forward.*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25148" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9905" RevisionGUID="a4e72a5d-e798-45fe-8f7b-8c1c6cf2e83e" CreationDate="2020-11-18T18:05:30.503" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25149" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9942" RevisionGUID="2e498b28-ca37-4528-85ef-1529b7af6542" CreationDate="2020-11-19T21:48:40.440" UserId="25567" Text="I'm an Australian citizen living in the UK and I work full time and pay tax in the UK. I've been approached by an old friend who has established a consultancy business in Australia and I would be doing remote work for them on an ad hoc basis. All work would be conducted by me remotely, from the UK. I have an Australian bank account so I would be paid by the business into my Australian account and I would transfer the money to my UK bank account periodically.  I do not qualify for an ABN (did try and application was rejected as not carrying out work in Australia). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to establish what my tax obligations would be in Australia and the UK? Would I declare the income on my Australian tax return and/or complete a Self Assessment tax return in the UK? This would be a secondary job for me; I'm already paying income tax in the UK related to my primary full time job. I hold an Ancestry visa in the UK and can work freely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm just not really sure where to start on how to make sure I'm doing the right thing in both countries. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25150" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9942" RevisionGUID="2e498b28-ca37-4528-85ef-1529b7af6542" CreationDate="2020-11-19T21:48:40.440" UserId="25567" Text="Australian citizen living in UK doing remote work for Australian business - what are my tax obligations?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25151" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9942" RevisionGUID="2e498b28-ca37-4528-85ef-1529b7af6542" CreationDate="2020-11-19T21:48:40.440" UserId="25567" Text="|taxes|remote|accounting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25152" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9943" RevisionGUID="41f927a5-606c-406e-b170-2ae351d1a332" CreationDate="2020-11-22T16:52:39.167" UserId="5172" Text="Yes.&#xD;&#xA;Even if you invoice a private person (no company involved), then the invoiced person &amp; their address who pays bill must be named on your invoice.&#xD;&#xA;There are two tax and one criminal reason.&#xD;&#xA;a) in your accounts you are showing a true record of source of payment to you.&#xD;&#xA;b) This keep your tax accounts in order.&#xD;&#xA;c) If &quot;No person&quot; &amp; &quot;no company&quot; is shown on your invoice, the source of the funds is unclear and you could be into tax evasion or obtaining funds from criminal sources. This gives you a big problem with both HMRC and police if it comes into an investigation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Cash receipts in a shop are not invoices but tally cash in with goods out to unnamed persons. That is why cash economy is truly &quot;untraceable&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25153" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9944" RevisionGUID="c96e5ab2-a3d2-4016-ab5f-ef8a433d3dc3" CreationDate="2020-11-22T16:59:40.073" UserId="5172" Text="A major cost in foreign client work is insurance. Ensure you have adequate insurance  as a free-lancer to cover litigation in a foreign court over at least , payment problems, cessation of contract, (voluntarily or enforced dismissal) and any 'obligation to your clients customers' if your work is resold.&#xD;&#xA;I used a 25% uplift to get adequate cover for foreign work in 2000-2005. Ask you insurance company's advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25154" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9945" RevisionGUID="cdc30b90-38d9-4930-a65e-456be7a1cbeb" CreationDate="2020-11-22T17:07:31.183" UserId="5172" Text="Do you own the Domain name? Hosting the site. maintaining the site is a service to the domain owner. If you own the domain name , then make this clear to your lawyer. Remember if you only published 'their text/image' they own copyright of text / images. You could always not take the site down, but replace with a 'site under maintenance page' while you negotiate if you own the domain and pay the hosting and compose the text/images. This is short of taking it down as it is still visible , but your client's clients will know there is a problem" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25155" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9946" RevisionGUID="76087027-3f7b-4af0-85c0-b3ba2ec4027a" CreationDate="2020-11-23T06:53:44.143" UserId="25574" Text="I have been contacted by multiple Software Developers on LinkedIn offering to partner up on contracts on Freelance websites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The proposal is straightforward:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a U.S. Citizen, I get contracts for foreign developers, and I keep 70% of the total contract pay, and the rest to the developer(s) working the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has any U.S. software developer run into similar proposals? If so, have you accepted the proposal? Is it a legitimate business? How do you set up method of payments and keep each other accountable to share the work and the pay fairly?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to hear any and all stories, positive or negative, regarding your experience." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25156" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9946" RevisionGUID="76087027-3f7b-4af0-85c0-b3ba2ec4027a" CreationDate="2020-11-23T06:53:44.143" UserId="25574" Text="Is managing U.S. projects for foreign freelancers a legitimate business?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25157" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9946" RevisionGUID="76087027-3f7b-4af0-85c0-b3ba2ec4027a" CreationDate="2020-11-23T06:53:44.143" UserId="25574" Text="|freelance-websites|group-freelancing|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25158" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9946" RevisionGUID="3b0b64a7-9bcd-4ec5-98d5-df39b7c88653" CreationDate="2020-11-23T19:04:00.757" UserId="75" Comment="Removed open-ended question to keep question on topic" Text="I have been contacted by multiple Software Developers on LinkedIn offering to partner up on contracts on Freelance websites.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The proposal is straightforward:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a U.S. Citizen, I get contracts for foreign developers, and I keep 70% of the total contract pay, and the rest to the developer(s) working the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has any U.S. software developer run into similar proposals? If so, have you accepted the proposal? Is it a legitimate business? How do you set up method of payments and keep each other accountable to share the work and the pay fairly?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25159" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9947" RevisionGUID="ec26c731-1059-4d63-8039-dbe0c4d979ba" CreationDate="2020-11-26T17:58:10.453" UserId="25590" Text="The request is common enough however, you should weigh the benefits of working for the company. The timing is as was already mentioned there are plenty of people willing to pay you simply to discuss their project with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand for example, and this is an outlier perhaps, but Google does much more than a single test to prove you're worth employing. I'm sure you are familiar to some degree about their and other companies procedures of interviewing a candidate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is Feelance so the &quot;pros&quot;, the money or potentially the project (experience, personal interest) could make it worth your while." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25160" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9751" RevisionGUID="594a471d-36c2-466c-9e1d-9f480281dc22" CreationDate="2020-11-28T18:05:50.660" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25161" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9948" RevisionGUID="1662bb3b-9359-41a6-822b-6f9f680e7493" CreationDate="2020-11-29T10:33:30.090" UserId="25604" Text="I have trouble to get contracts as a freelancer. In every case it ends up with the company want to hire me and dont rent me as a freelancer. The main argument is something like &quot;this is an extreme important role for our company and we want this knowledge be in house&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the best way to make sure they will rent me as a freelancer? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25162" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9948" RevisionGUID="1662bb3b-9359-41a6-822b-6f9f680e7493" CreationDate="2020-11-29T10:33:30.090" UserId="25604" Text="Get freelance contracts and not only hired contracts" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25163" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9948" RevisionGUID="1662bb3b-9359-41a6-822b-6f9f680e7493" CreationDate="2020-11-29T10:33:30.090" UserId="25604" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25164" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9949" RevisionGUID="7c938f41-2237-4ce8-809d-7e004c48b490" CreationDate="2020-11-30T08:26:51.513" UserId="7858" Text="If your services as a freelancer are valuable, it makes sense for the client to prefer to hire you on a permanent basis - so you cannot really blame them for trying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All you can do is inform them that you are not available for permanent positions. This might get you fired or not hired - and only you can evaluate whether this works out financially for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps you could propose a freelancing role where you mentor an employee to eventually take your place? This seems self-destructive, but if done well - the client might find similar roles for you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25168" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9951" RevisionGUID="e1c7624a-e5c8-4da0-bcb5-725866a0413c" CreationDate="2020-11-30T14:03:49.553" UserId="25607" Text="Is payment gateway i.e, razor pay part of the deal made on freelancer if I being a frontend developer made the deal with the client to just integrate APIs and make the UI in ReactJs?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;OR Should I ask for an increase in the price for integrating the payment gateway? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And isn't it something that the client should have told to me before starting the project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25169" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9951" RevisionGUID="e1c7624a-e5c8-4da0-bcb5-725866a0413c" CreationDate="2020-11-30T14:03:49.553" UserId="25607" Text="Is payment gateway integration considered part of the deal?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25170" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9951" RevisionGUID="e1c7624a-e5c8-4da0-bcb5-725866a0413c" CreationDate="2020-11-30T14:03:49.553" UserId="25607" Text="|difficult-client|price|clients|changes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25171" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9952" RevisionGUID="285c86c6-ae9a-4719-9cf1-263d8fad43e8" CreationDate="2020-11-30T17:16:11.447" UserId="708" Text="This should be defined and negotiated **before** any work begins and detailed in any contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The purpose of a contract is to *clearly* define what is to be completed and what fees are associated with that --- you agree to do X, Y and Z, the client agrees to pay XX. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether or not something is &quot;part of the deal&quot; should be determined prior to work starting. If additional work has been presented after price and scope negotiations have concluded, then yes, it is additional work and additional compensation should be negotiated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25173" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9953" RevisionGUID="a8a6b01b-e35d-4a51-a7c3-a0a78a5bac9a" CreationDate="2020-12-01T07:43:50.607" UserId="7858" Text="There is not an objective answer to whether it's part of the deal, as you and the client obviously disagree.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most would agree that ideally **all** requirements should be spelled out in a contract - and that is best practice and tends to be the best way to avoid this type of situation. However, both parties also often have implicit expectations - many of which we don't need to explicitly spell out in a contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is no nice way to resolve the issue; it will either involve re-negotiation or you biting the bullet. Only you know where you are on that spectrum, as it depends on your financial situation, the amount of other work you have and what the long term prospects with the client are." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25175" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9954" RevisionGUID="b0aca50e-a037-4843-8365-c2e75c1e01be" CreationDate="2020-12-01T13:12:30.417" UserId="7858" Text="The business may not in itself be illegitimate - but the problems involved with international business are easily underestimated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are merely passing money on, you might risk being flagged by an Anti Money Laundering scheme. Ask yourself why the foreign clients are going through you and not directly targeting the end client. That could be a question you will need to answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To avoid that, one could provide additional services, e.g. insuring the two end parties against each other. This would however require a whole different level of legal advice. In general, the middle man tends to avoid this role.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A clearly legitimate role could be 'managing' the foreign developers - bridging any language gap, ensuring progress and so on." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25179" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9664" RevisionGUID="0beac2d5-0a32-4570-889a-a48c84290582" CreationDate="2020-12-05T07:03:10.317" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25181" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9956" RevisionGUID="15a0c8a2-5298-4938-b434-1bb7007f6320" CreationDate="2020-12-08T13:16:22.873" UserId="10464" Text="&gt;He didn't talk about this payment integration before. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then it's not your problem. It's his problem 1000%.  You just politely say that it wasn't specified. And if you feel it's outside of your capabilities say that too. It's then his job to go find someone to do that for him. He still owes you for the portion of his project you agreed to do and complete.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now as a consultant who doesn't use freelancer, I would either suggest to the client some trusted backend developer I know or if I'm capable just give him an price &amp; time estimate for the new work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25182" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9957" RevisionGUID="5a8fefa2-22d4-4f2f-99f3-62a06c9d848e" CreationDate="2020-12-09T00:08:22.803" UserId="25632" Text="Client hired our firm to maintain a collection websites, 12 in total.  Our maintenance services include a couple items particular to security: namely scanning the website for malware and removing malware if found.  One of those websites is actually owned by a third party.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The third party reached out and said they found a number of security issues.  The majority of issues were with subdomains -- which are different websites and we bill separately for them -- which is to say we were not maintaining these additional websites.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Amongst the issues found that were particular to the website we maintained were an SSL certificate (what allows a site to load https:// &quot;secure&quot; -- though this functionality itself was not broken) that was not installed properly prior to our firm inheriting the site.  Additionally, the site is on a CMS that by default has a URL where you can see limited information about users accounts on the site.  We reinstalled the SSL and prevented anyone from being able to visit the URL where user information was available.  We also assisted with a number of the subdomains issues.  We did all of this at no additional cost though it is outside the scope of our flat rate monthly maintenance.  Additionally, we discounted the Client's invoice by about 1/6 (after explaining to Client that we did all the work we are contracted for and more, and after Client refused to pay and threatened to fire us).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We also did a call with the third party and our Client to discuss the security issues.  We noted the work we did to meet their concerns and provided context for our company.  On the phone call the third party said they wanted to host the site themselves but would continue to work with our Client.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Two months later our Client decided that they were no longer going to work with us and decided to not to pay the last monthly invoice.  We informed the Client that we are fine with the separation, offered to complete any pending monthly maintenance work and informed the Client that though they was cancelling on the 30th of the month we would not hold them to the contract of needing to provide x days notice, and rather close their contract immediately but they would still owe their final invoice for the preceding 30 days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client refused to pay.  Threatened to sue for loss of work and damages. Politely informed client  when their invoice was due, when it would become past due, when it would reach a point were under the contract penalties could be charged -- noted we would extend this timeframe and had no interest in charging penalties if they would simply close the invoice.  All steps resulted in additional threats that we would be hearing from their attorneys.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please advice&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25183" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9957" RevisionGUID="5a8fefa2-22d4-4f2f-99f3-62a06c9d848e" CreationDate="2020-12-09T00:08:22.803" UserId="25632" Text="Client Threatening to Sue for Loss of Their Client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25184" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9957" RevisionGUID="5a8fefa2-22d4-4f2f-99f3-62a06c9d848e" CreationDate="2020-12-09T00:08:22.803" UserId="25632" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25185" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9958" RevisionGUID="ea210e26-edc9-474c-9cd4-d6b90afc4b43" CreationDate="2020-12-09T04:34:37.480" UserId="75" Text="The moment a client says you're hear from their lawyers, tell them you will wait for their call. Shut up, and don't talk to that client anymore - they are over you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it is worth fighting for, get yourself a lawyer. Likely, the first contact will result in payment (not many companies want to be the defendant in a court). If not, the lawyer will guide you forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, do not mess with a company who insists on bringing in lawyers - they are a lost cause as that point, as all the trust has been broken, inadvertently or intentionally." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25186" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9959" RevisionGUID="bda6bd25-5c96-49bc-a643-f5081f302b84" CreationDate="2020-12-09T08:48:25.400" UserId="20690" Text="I have a long term client were I'm working fulltime as a freelancer. They are starting to have some financial problems due to declining sales (perhaps related to covid, I don't know). I have to work 2 weeks less this month because of this. The future is uncertain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client realises that If I work less for him, that I have to find another assignment and combine the two. I don't want to do this really because the context switch between 2 simultaneous clients is very demanding. They also prefer me not to do this because they know I'll probably have to switch fulltime.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand I don't just want to drop the client since I'm the only one that understands their software well enough, so just leaving for another assignment will be problematic for them. I don't want to be the nail on the coffin by leaving. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an alternative I was thinking to stop billing by the hour as a freelancer usually does. But try to act more like a software company:&#xD;&#xA;I was thinking to estimate the amount of work for just support, maintenance/small changes and bill a fixed price each month (let's say this would be equal to 2 days a week) and request that I work from where I want. To protect myself I would still say that my maximum amount of hours are equal to that estimate. This way the client will always have someone who understands their software and keeps it up to date... ALSO the responsibility of finding and describing work would be on the client which will hopefully give me more time in the week to (again hopefully) find other client(s) to work with this way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How feasible is it to work like this? If not feasible, is there anything else I can do to keep the client? will I ever be able to work fulltime like this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks," ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25187" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9959" RevisionGUID="bda6bd25-5c96-49bc-a643-f5081f302b84" CreationDate="2020-12-09T08:48:25.400" UserId="20690" Text="How feasible is it to work fixed price and parttime for a client as a freelance software developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25188" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9959" RevisionGUID="bda6bd25-5c96-49bc-a643-f5081f302b84" CreationDate="2020-12-09T08:48:25.400" UserId="20690" Text="|software|time-management|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25189" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9960" RevisionGUID="70927b73-ada7-449b-9f1c-365a955423f7" CreationDate="2020-12-09T11:13:58.183" UserId="25634" Text="I'm freelance and asperger (so I dont have ability to deal with a lot of social problems keeping calm) and I wonder if there is a way to delegate some tasks so other person can do it in my representation. For example:&#xD;&#xA;-I'm renting a flat: talk with tenants. &#xD;&#xA;-Non technichal talks with clients (they want to renegotiate money, they not pay they wants to do something out of contract...)&#xD;&#xA;-Burocratic tasks: I need to pay some taxes, go to the town hall&#xD;&#xA;-Claim a client or public administration...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know some of the tasks I said has sollution (lawyer to claim something for example), but I want it easyer, like i think very rich people has: only one person (or bussiness) to deal with everything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You know something?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25190" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9960" RevisionGUID="70927b73-ada7-449b-9f1c-365a955423f7" CreationDate="2020-12-09T11:13:58.183" UserId="25634" Text="There is a way to delegate burocratic tasks or social interactions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25191" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9960" RevisionGUID="70927b73-ada7-449b-9f1c-365a955423f7" CreationDate="2020-12-09T11:13:58.183" UserId="25634" Text="|negotiation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25192" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9961" RevisionGUID="5fceab9a-2eb3-496d-b104-056667dbe044" CreationDate="2020-12-09T16:50:31.040" UserId="75" Text="Assuming it's only a small slump, I would look for more clients. You need food on your table, and that's your first priority.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's good you want to work *with* your client, as opposed to only for yourself - but part of being a freelancer is that you go where the money is. If money isn't coming in the same, but they get the same amount of work out of you, then they're taking advantage of you - they're getting you for half price!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Look for more clients, which you should be constantly doing anyways. Choose your projects based on what time you have available and your skills. Your current client has to understand that if they want you full time, you need to be paid for full time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25193" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9962" RevisionGUID="1d562a45-5be3-48f6-950d-df769121fc67" CreationDate="2020-12-09T16:56:38.703" UserId="75" Text="Welcome to Freelancing.SE!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, if you need someone to handle these tasks, you'll need to hire someone or an organization to handle it for you. If you are hiring someone for all these responsibilities, you would NEED to hire the best person for the job - it could make or break you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25194" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9951" RevisionGUID="622c42a8-603d-4bb4-b974-82c23aee28e3" CreationDate="2020-12-10T06:54:02.587" UserId="25607" Comment="added 584 characters in body" Text="Is payment gateway i.e, razor pay part of the deal made on freelancer if I being a frontend developer made the deal with the client to just integrate APIs and make the UI in ReactJs?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;OR Should I ask for an increase in the price for integrating the payment gateway? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And isn't it something that the client should have told to me before starting the project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's a fixed price project and it has a strict timeline. He didn't talk about this payment integration before. He just gave me the link to a website and asked me to build it and told me to pay a fixed amount which was of course negotiated by me. And when we did the deal I clearly mentioned the pages and time I will make and he agreed to that. Now, after doing some work, I asked him what more is left and he repeated the list along with Payment integration. Which I reminded him was not there in the deal. To which he said, of course, it's by default there on a shopping website" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25195" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9957" RevisionGUID="d662670a-c4ce-4044-93ee-f969da8f3613" CreationDate="2020-12-11T07:49:43.527" UserId="25638" Comment="Clarifying type of answer being sought." Text="Client hired our firm to maintain a collection websites, 12 in total.  Our maintenance services include a couple items particular to security: namely scanning the website for malware and removing malware if found.  One of those websites is actually owned by a third party.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The third party reached out and said they found a number of security issues.  The majority of issues were with subdomains -- which are different websites and we bill separately for them -- which is to say we were not maintaining these additional websites.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Amongst the issues found that were particular to the website we maintained were an SSL certificate (what allows a site to load https:// &quot;secure&quot; -- though this functionality itself was not broken) that was not installed properly prior to our firm inheriting the site.  Additionally, the site is on a CMS that by default has a URL where you can see limited information about users accounts on the site.  We reinstalled the SSL and prevented anyone from being able to visit the URL where user information was available.  We also assisted with a number of the subdomains issues.  We did all of this at no additional cost though it is outside the scope of our flat rate monthly maintenance.  Additionally, we discounted the Client's invoice by about 1/6 (after explaining to Client that we did all the work we are contracted for and more, and after Client refused to pay and threatened to fire us).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We also did a call with the third party and our Client to discuss the security issues.  We noted the work we did to meet their concerns and provided context for our company.  On the phone call the third party said they wanted to host the site themselves but would continue to work with our Client.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Two months later our Client decided that they were no longer going to work with us and decided to not to pay the last monthly invoice.  We informed the Client that we are fine with the separation, offered to complete any pending monthly maintenance work and informed the Client that though they was cancelling on the 30th of the month we would not hold them to the contract of needing to provide x days notice, and rather close their contract immediately but they would still owe their final invoice for the preceding 30 days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client refused to pay.  Threatened to sue for loss of work and damages. Politely informed client  when their invoice was due, when it would become past due, when it would reach a point were under the contract penalties could be charged -- noted we would extend this timeframe and had no interest in charging penalties if they would simply close the invoice.  All steps resulted in additional threats that we would be hearing from their attorneys.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please advice **if it is worth pursuing the unpaid invoice and any risk of being sued for damages/lost third party client**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25196" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9957" RevisionGUID="d662670a-c4ce-4044-93ee-f969da8f3613" CreationDate="2020-12-11T07:49:43.527" Comment="Proposed by 25638 approved by 61, 7858 edit id of 727" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25197" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9963" RevisionGUID="60aa62b5-9bce-4680-8264-dd0c0232b9f4" CreationDate="2020-12-11T08:12:56.233" UserId="7858" Text="It seems you have been bending over backwards to accommodate the client - and it has not been reciprocated. While accommodating a client is a reasonable thing to do, at the first hint of problems, I would try to maintain some sort of leverage over them - like partial delivery.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Prior to an actual legal threat, the most useful course of action would be determined by your financial situation and the long-term prospects with the problematic client. If there are no long-term prospects, you're free to either lawyer up on them or walk away if that seems the better option.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have actually kept some clients despite needing to go into partial-delivery mode; the awkward power struggle can sometimes create a workable balance. However - anyone threatening with actual legal action, is a lost cause, meaning you go into damage control." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25198" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9964" RevisionGUID="619b7c18-f348-489c-b2d8-8499ef767ef0" CreationDate="2020-12-11T15:32:49.353" UserId="21435" Text="I certainly hope your company has the proper business insurance for this type of scenario.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for what to do, my suggestion would be that you cease all direct communication with this client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you feel you need to pursue final payment then engage an attorney to work on your behalf to get final payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for the client threatening to sue you, I'd suggest doing nothing until and unless you're served notice of the lawsuit. If that happens then engage your attorney to address the matter." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25199" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9529" RevisionGUID="4125729b-a9ca-4333-8583-d5093cef6e5d" CreationDate="2020-12-12T10:06:40.753" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25200" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9677" RevisionGUID="6d109648-adfa-4d78-830f-c7a727f04854" CreationDate="2020-12-13T01:04:30.380" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25214" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="1345" RevisionGUID="bec8a2a1-7573-4bb4-afdb-ee928a4fff48" CreationDate="2020-12-16T06:30:16.860" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="25217" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9969" RevisionGUID="370214bd-1534-4cb3-95c7-c2c1ddb32740" CreationDate="2020-12-16T21:05:00.493" UserId="25670" Text="although late, maybe useful for other readers. In Spain there is the possibility to provide with services as an individual (not even registered as a freelancer, nor having a proper VAT number), under some particular circumstances (annual income threshold and non regular activity). Still, you can invoice applying the required VAT, while being identified just with your ID number (that is the same number than your fiscal identification number in most cases, called NIF). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Probably your client just didn't know other way to do it, and they kept insisting because that is the only way they are used to, instead of making a consultation to the tax authorities to have the full and correct information on how to proceed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25218" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9958" RevisionGUID="eadb52e8-21f0-47d5-8179-1abf72813147" CreationDate="2020-12-16T23:03:58.837" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited." Text="The moment a client says you will hear from their lawyers, tell them you will wait for their call. Shut up, and don't talk to that client anymore - they are over you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it is worth fighting for, get yourself a lawyer. Likely, the first contact will result in payment (not many companies want to be the defendant in a court). If not, the lawyer will guide you forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, do not mess with a company who insists on bringing in lawyers - they are a lost cause at that point, as all the trust has been broken, inadvertently or intentionally.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25219" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9958" RevisionGUID="eadb52e8-21f0-47d5-8179-1abf72813147" CreationDate="2020-12-16T23:03:58.837" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 75 edit id of 730" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25220" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9960" RevisionGUID="b2281bb0-799a-47fd-bc93-e79977b0d3f4" CreationDate="2020-12-16T23:04:48.400" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited (e.g. ref. &lt;en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome&gt;, &lt;en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bureaucratic#Adjective&gt;, &lt;en.wiktionary.org/wiki/easier#Adjective&gt;, and &lt;en.wiktionary.org/wiki/business#Noun&gt;). Formatted according to the original intent in the Markdown source." Text="I'm freelance and have Asperger's (so I don’t have the ability to deal with a lot of social problems, keeping calm) and I wonder if there is a way to delegate some tasks so another person can do it in my representation. For example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I'm renting a flat: talk with tenants.&#xD;&#xA;- Non-technical talks with clients (they want to renegotiate money, they do not pay, they want to do something out of contract, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;- Bureaucratic tasks: I need to pay some taxes, go to the town hall&#xD;&#xA;- Claim a client or public administration...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know some of the tasks I said have a solution (lawyer to claim something for example), but I want it easier, like I think very rich people have: only one person (or business) to deal with everything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you know something?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25221" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9960" RevisionGUID="b2281bb0-799a-47fd-bc93-e79977b0d3f4" CreationDate="2020-12-16T23:04:48.400" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited (e.g. ref. &lt;en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome&gt;, &lt;en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bureaucratic#Adjective&gt;, &lt;en.wiktionary.org/wiki/easier#Adjective&gt;, and &lt;en.wiktionary.org/wiki/business#Noun&gt;). Formatted according to the original intent in the Markdown source." Text="Is there a way to delegate burocratic tasks or social interactions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25222" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9960" RevisionGUID="b2281bb0-799a-47fd-bc93-e79977b0d3f4" CreationDate="2020-12-16T23:04:48.400" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 61, 75 edit id of 728" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25223" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9957" RevisionGUID="1708a665-1dc9-4322-801a-6dbc105f2e35" CreationDate="2020-12-16T23:04:57.090" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited. Changed to sentence casing for the title." Text="A client hired our firm to maintain a collection of websites, 12 in total.  Our maintenance services include a couple of items particular to security: namely scanning the website for malware and removing malware if found.  One of those websites is actually owned by a third party.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The third party reached out and said they found a number of security issues. The majority of issues were with subdomains -- which are different websites and we bill separately for them -- which is to say we were not maintaining these additional websites.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Amongst the issues found that were particular to the website we maintained were an SSL certificate (what allows a site to load https:// &quot;secure&quot; -- though this functionality itself was not broken) that was not installed properly prior to our firm inheriting the site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally, the site is on a CMS that by default has a URL where you can see limited information about users accounts on the site.  We reinstalled the SSL and prevented anyone from being able to visit the URL where user information was available.  We also assisted with a number of the subdomains issues.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We did all of this at no additional cost though it is outside the scope of our flat rate monthly maintenance.  Additionally, we discounted the client's invoice by about 1/6 (after explaining to the client that we did all the work we are contracted for and more, and after the client refused to pay and threatened to fire us).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We also did a call with the third party and our client to discuss the security issues.  We noted the work we did to meet their concerns and provided context for our company.  On the phone call the third party said they wanted to host the site themselves, but would continue to work with our client.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Two months later our client decided that they were no longer going to work with us and decided to not to pay the last monthly invoice.  We informed the client that we are fine with the separation, offered to complete any pending monthly maintenance work and informed the client that though they was cancelling on the 30th of the month we would not hold them to the contract of needing to provide x days notice, and rather close their contract immediately, but they would still owe their final invoice for the preceding 30 days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client refused to pay and threatened to sue for loss of work and damages. We politely informed client when their invoice was due, when it would become past due, when it would reach a point were under the contract penalties could be charged -- noted we would extend this timeframe and had no interest in charging penalties if they would simply close the invoice.  All steps resulted in additional threats that we would be hearing from their attorneys.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please advice **if it is worth pursuing the unpaid invoice and any risk of being sued for damages/lost third party client**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25224" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9957" RevisionGUID="1708a665-1dc9-4322-801a-6dbc105f2e35" CreationDate="2020-12-16T23:04:57.090" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited. Changed to sentence casing for the title." Text="Client is threatening to sue for loss of their client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25225" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9957" RevisionGUID="1708a665-1dc9-4322-801a-6dbc105f2e35" CreationDate="2020-12-16T23:04:57.090" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 75 edit id of 731" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25232" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9971" RevisionGUID="eb38ded6-aaa6-472a-94c4-e9c5e7258f2b" CreationDate="2020-12-17T21:32:08.440" UserId="25681" Text="&#xD;&#xA;I am working on blue card in Germany and have recently started a YouTube channel .Can I earn small amount from channel Monetization through Google addsence.Do I need to take any permission for such small earnings 100 euros per month and register this as business " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25233" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9971" RevisionGUID="eb38ded6-aaa6-472a-94c4-e9c5e7258f2b" CreationDate="2020-12-17T21:32:08.440" UserId="25681" Text="Freelancing on Blue Card through YouTube vlogs" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25234" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9971" RevisionGUID="eb38ded6-aaa6-472a-94c4-e9c5e7258f2b" CreationDate="2020-12-17T21:32:08.440" UserId="25681" Text="|freelance-websites|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25238" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9959" RevisionGUID="2cb12eb5-1181-4839-b855-c0a9515fc1c8" CreationDate="2020-12-19T03:00:21.263" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1340129816448815104" />
  <row Id="25239" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9972" RevisionGUID="cdfe08c2-c39f-457e-9ff2-3ef85b10e123" CreationDate="2020-12-19T07:28:29.360" UserId="25699" Text="I am just finishing getting my LinkedIn put together and am also almost job ready. Toward the end I hired a freelancer to help guide me through some projects. He seemed nice and interested in showing me what he was doing with good commentary. Did not just throw up code to go with mine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He recently offered me the same exact proposal as this individual who contacted me via LinkedIn:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Hi Nonames,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Do you know Toptal or Upwork.com?&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Both toptal and Upwork.com is a remote job site.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I am writing to introduce you to a new position. If you have some&#xD;&#xA;&gt; experience in freelancing, you can easily understand what I want.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; I have been working at freelancing market for many years as a senior&#xD;&#xA;&gt; full-stack developer and had earned many funds($10000) per month. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; By the way, there are special jobs which only US freelancers can&#xD;&#xA;&gt; apply. Only US freelancers can apply and be hired for these jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Usually, these jobs' budget is really large, and the rate(hourly) is&#xD;&#xA;&gt; much higher than other normal jobs which any freelancer can apply.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; However, I am a non-US resident. So, I cannot apply for these great&#xD;&#xA;&gt; jobs. :(&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; This is just a chance we can sync and cooperate. You are in the USA.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Right? Yes&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; The role in this cooperation(Only interview skill with the basic&#xD;&#xA;&gt; knowledge needed. No coding or development):&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; You will register your application to several freelancing websites as&#xD;&#xA;&gt; a freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; We will get remote software projects from several freelancing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; websites, like toptal and Upwork&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; In this case you need to have one free computer for sync short test&#xD;&#xA;&gt; coding and simple pair programming for some clients. ( this is from my&#xD;&#xA;&gt; experience)&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; When we get an interview with the client, you might help me with your&#xD;&#xA;&gt; native English. (Essential part).&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; • Do you know Anydesk or TeamViewer? Anydesk is a remote-control&#xD;&#xA;&gt; software, so We can work together with anydesk tool.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; • You should turn on your computer in your daytime so I can work on&#xD;&#xA;&gt; this.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; • If you have a free computer, that would be great.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Then I will complete the jobs and get paid. This fund is ours.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; The payment for this position:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; You will get paid 25% of the income which I earn using your account.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; You will probably earn monthly extra revenue from me.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you are interested in this, let's discuss in more detail on&#xD;&#xA;&gt; telegram.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; **** is my telegram ID.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Regards,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Luis&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only difference is that my freelancer said he was banned for using the US Upwork site for some reason, he's from a another country, moved to US with his dad three years ago. He sends money to his sister who takes classes in China. We originally went through Freelancer then he said he'd rather use PayPal China site to avoid 10% fee and I aid fine as long as it is secure. Looking at this now it seems ridiculous but the guy gained my trust (although it did seem fishy). Thanks to Luis above I thought okay something is wrong. If someone could explain what is going on here I'd appreciate it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Last, here is my freelancer's further explanation about his Upwork idea from Slack on 12/15. I love how much it looks like a template. He intros with explaining Upwork to me:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Me:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Can you help me and make me a doc that explains what we are doing with&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Upwork and what Upwork is doing for us? I keep meaning to review and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; understand your proposal about the idea but have not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Him:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; What is Upwork?&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Upwork is a platform that offers the opportunity for the clients and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the developers to meet on certain projects.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; The clients post their projects to be done and then the developers bid&#xD;&#xA;&gt; on them.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; The former picks up the best candidate among applicants and sends the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; offer to him/her.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; 2. What we are doing on Upwork and Upwork is doing for us&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; You have an Upwork account as both a freelancer and a client.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; You can bid on the projects as well as post your projects to hire&#xD;&#xA;&gt; someone.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; As you know, we should handle many projects on our hands in order to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; make more bundle.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; The more project we control the more profit we make.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Upwork is one of the great platforms which can provide such an&#xD;&#xA;&gt; environment with us.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; In order to get projects, you should bid on the posted projects. As&#xD;&#xA;&gt; you know, your account is a new one so it may be difficult to get them&#xD;&#xA;&gt; at first.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; That’s why you should bid on some projects every day.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; But I think you are a perfectionist so you are less likely to bid on&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the projects which you are not confident with. It is not way how we&#xD;&#xA;&gt; can make more bundle.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; You can bid on any projects which share the same stacks (i.e., MERN)&#xD;&#xA;&gt; with you and me.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Once you win a project, you don’t have to worry about its development.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I can help you in all ways. Be sure that you can always know how the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; project will be going on.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; We can split into how much we will make in the ratio we agree on.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Or whenever you are busy, I can bid on the project in person via your&#xD;&#xA;&gt; anydesk. What I suggest the idea for is that we should get projects&#xD;&#xA;&gt; there soon.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25240" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9972" RevisionGUID="cdfe08c2-c39f-457e-9ff2-3ef85b10e123" CreationDate="2020-12-19T07:28:29.360" UserId="25699" Text="What Are These People Trying To Accomplish With This Scam?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25241" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9972" RevisionGUID="cdfe08c2-c39f-457e-9ff2-3ef85b10e123" CreationDate="2020-12-19T07:28:29.360" UserId="25699" Text="|partner|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25242" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9973" RevisionGUID="b192719d-be78-4fc3-978f-ac8e2e66812f" CreationDate="2020-12-19T08:40:50.747" UserId="708" Text="It's way to build &quot;fake&quot; reputation by completing your own jobs. That way it looks like one is well seasoned, has been very successful, and has made clients happy on the crowdsource site even though they *really* haven't. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also a way for banned/disallowed individuals to use the site *through* you... making *you* liable for any actions they take on the site. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's a retake on the... &quot;here, I have this check but no bank account. If you cash it for me, you can keep 10%.&quot; You cash it, give the person their 90%... and then the check bounces and you are out *all* the money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**It's just a scam.. ignore it and move on.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***Nothing*** beneficial to YOU will be found in their proposal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25249" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9356" RevisionGUID="25fe83fa-5612-407c-b28c-4a69cb4abb13" CreationDate="2020-12-19T16:06:20.553" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25250" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9948" RevisionGUID="5892c26e-990f-4062-bf1d-cd23bb72aed0" CreationDate="2020-12-19T18:00:00.143" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1340356220499189760" />
  <row Id="25255" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9951" RevisionGUID="01954176-3c83-4532-8556-f8feb2c0f5f7" CreationDate="2020-12-21T05:14:58.350" UserId="845" Comment="Copy edited." Text="Is a payment gateway, i.e, razor pay, part of the deal made on freelancer if I am a frontend developer and I made the deal with the client to just integrate APIs and make the UI in React?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or should I ask for an increase in the price for integrating the payment gateway?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And isn't it something that the client should have told me before starting the project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's a fixed price project and it has a strict timeline. He didn't talk about this payment integration before. He just gave me the link to a website and asked me to build it and told me to pay a fixed amount which was of course negotiated by me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And when we did the deal I clearly mentioned the pages and time I will make and he agreed to that. Now, after doing some work, I asked him what more is left and he repeated the list along with the payment integration. Which I reminded him was not there in the deal. To which he said, of course, it's by default there on a shopping website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25256" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9951" RevisionGUID="01954176-3c83-4532-8556-f8feb2c0f5f7" CreationDate="2020-12-21T05:14:58.350" Comment="Proposed by 845 approved by 61, 25607 edit id of 729" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25258" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9977" RevisionGUID="cd5f7708-c64f-4359-b4cb-7a1d36fd7287" CreationDate="2020-12-21T12:54:34.413" UserId="25716" Text="I had a meeting with a potenial customer last week and I decided to decline any further planning of the project and now I'm not sure if I should'nt have done that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The customer are looking for some company to develop some software for them. They are not a software company and dont have any inhouse knowledge about development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They have hired some external person helping them with the technical details and that person has very strong opinions on what tools to use for developing and how to develop (i guess these are based on what that person know)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I decided to decline the project because for me, it looks more like they are looking for somebody to do only the coding and not actually develiver a finished product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should it be a red flag if the customers want to buy a finished product and at the same time involving in the process how that product should be made?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25259" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9977" RevisionGUID="cd5f7708-c64f-4359-b4cb-7a1d36fd7287" CreationDate="2020-12-21T12:54:34.413" UserId="25716" Text="Declined project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25260" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9977" RevisionGUID="cd5f7708-c64f-4359-b4cb-7a1d36fd7287" CreationDate="2020-12-21T12:54:34.413" UserId="25716" Text="|software|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25261" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9978" RevisionGUID="2ca284cd-a014-4502-ac93-c259374ce460" CreationDate="2020-12-21T17:00:36.577" UserId="708" Text="In my experience, it is not uncommon for a client to want to be involved in how a project is created.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client often wants to make sure things get configured how they need them from the start. As opposed to receiving a final product then coming up with a change list to cover everything they need altered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After all, aren't milestones there for this reason.. to suspend development mid-stream and correct anything that needs changed. Not sure I've *ever* gotten a project, then merely delivered a final product with *zero* client input along the way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25262" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9979" RevisionGUID="c6f84649-2fba-42e7-b1fa-b879b8dcfda7" CreationDate="2020-12-22T10:13:55.590" UserId="7858" Text="You perhaps jumped the gun a bit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The way you describe it, I see no red flags - but a couple of orange ones.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With a non-technical client, the potential for the exact type of disagreement you describe is quite large. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For them, IT might be uncharted or previously badly charted territory - so they now over-compensate by attempting to micro-manage the process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A way forward could be to demonstrate that you actually have their best interests at heart; that you choose your tools to get the job done faster and better - and being completely transparent about progress having a short feedback loop.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, whether one is successful often depends on the personalities of key people; stubbornness or pig-headedness is pretty much impossible to navigate satisfactorily.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Were I in your shoes, I would have proceeded with the client - only stopping if it became obvious that a clash of personalities would prevent you from delivering successfully." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25263" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9980" RevisionGUID="3575c61b-46d6-420d-8dad-ce8c3df8ba47" CreationDate="2020-12-22T14:32:08.243" UserId="25718" Text="About 20 days ago, I got a job. I don't know what country he is.&#xD;&#xA;I worked harder and almost done. He wanted to see the result.&#xD;&#xA;So I sent my work data.&#xD;&#xA;He sent me some issues.&#xD;&#xA;So I corrected the issues.&#xD;&#xA;But he was so unhappy that I didn't worked perfect.&#xD;&#xA;I thought that issues can happen normally. But the client didn't paid.&#xD;&#xA;What can I do in that situation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25264" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9980" RevisionGUID="3575c61b-46d6-420d-8dad-ce8c3df8ba47" CreationDate="2020-12-22T14:32:08.243" UserId="25718" Text="I want to know your experiences" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25265" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9980" RevisionGUID="3575c61b-46d6-420d-8dad-ce8c3df8ba47" CreationDate="2020-12-22T14:32:08.243" UserId="25718" Text="|difficult-client|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25266" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9981" RevisionGUID="4276da78-d0d6-480f-add0-30276fae50dd" CreationDate="2020-12-22T15:33:36.850" UserId="7858" Text="If you have given everything away, there might be very little you can do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All you can do now is hope that the client for some reason returns.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If that happens, you have some leverage you **MUST** use. This is obviously a client where good faith is not enough - so you must negotiate a working process you can live with. This will typically involve partial deliveries and not performing more work until payment is received." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25267" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9911" RevisionGUID="b401af74-6cf7-42db-ad2f-42f2017a9ec1" CreationDate="2020-12-22T17:01:35.173" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25268" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9980" RevisionGUID="91a5f246-21ad-41e5-8361-1961ea2c7602" CreationDate="2020-12-23T04:37:25.777" UserId="75" Comment="edited title" Text="Client ghosted after delivering results, no payment" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25279" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9984" RevisionGUID="c7b358a5-608f-42c8-aec9-f3e1f82a5411" CreationDate="2020-12-31T03:05:26.993" UserId="25753" Text="I am in a similar situation in Australia and for all I know, you need to fill in W8ECI, and still need to file a tax return at the end of the US financial year. this form apparently can be used for freelancer, this will allow the Payer in US to withhold tax in a graduated tax rate like a US tax resident. Otherwise, you will be deducted eith the full 30% withholding amount before you are paid.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25280" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9677" RevisionGUID="faf73f1f-d69b-450e-9cc5-29b798ec5543" CreationDate="2020-12-31T18:00:04.530" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1344704893018386432" />
  <row Id="25281" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9985" RevisionGUID="a08636d1-48f3-48cc-a128-9e014920073d" CreationDate="2021-01-01T11:02:44.947" UserId="25760" Text="In a freelancing business like I did and some new business that needs an order before working on it (custom project), I do usually asking payment upfront.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your situation Mr.Morsor's answer is right, there is little you can do and almost to none because you don't know the person is, you don't know how to contact him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If an unknown client comes to contacting you only online, you never know his real name, his place, etc. please asking the money upfront.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general manners, the money up front could be:&#xD;&#xA; - 100%&#xD;&#xA; - 50% upfront, 50% until the project is done.&#xD;&#xA; - Progress upfront: 25% upfront, sending the data for inspection 25%, revision 25%, and the last 25% if it's done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Never send any data that 100% completed without money in your hands. In speaking in general, you can send the client not completed project, until the money in your hand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25282" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9986" RevisionGUID="0f3ef264-94fa-4420-a2ce-5cb691e022c6" CreationDate="2021-01-01T11:29:28.617" UserId="25760" Text="In general taxation, you should come to post this at LAW sites. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But to be clear the taxation for business and personal is different, you have personal income but not as business as you are working for another company but not legal (there is no data stating you are working on that company).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Germany has a law of tax stated '*The first €9,169 (or €18,338 for married couples with a joint return) you earn each year in Germany is tax-free.&#xD;&#xA;**Any amount earned ABOVE €9,169 is subject to income tax**.*' &lt;this is for personal income tax.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;if you have an income of only €100 a month * 12months = €1200 that was below €9169. You will not get taxed, just add it to your personal income. But if you proceed as a business it will make you more difficult because you need to apply for the business license, and business tax is more difficult to understand without a proper tax code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;source link:[Taxback.com][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.taxback.com/blog/your-bullsht-free-guide-to-taxes-in-germany" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25289" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9989" RevisionGUID="1555fddb-8ecc-4812-9f02-89da108be70b" CreationDate="2021-01-02T12:54:02.143" UserId="1477" Text="I have a client who haggles too much on price and does not want to pay for revisions time to time and I want to end the relationship, however there is an ongoing project at this point and it is almost finished.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to finish the project, get paid, provide support for a couple months (as my contract states) and before ending the relationship:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I want to give a heads up to the client before 3 months until my contract expires so they can find my replacement,&#xD;&#xA;- I will offer a 4 hours of free handholding for the new developer - more than 4 hours will be billed,&#xD;&#xA;- Send the client the whole source code&#xD;&#xA;- End the relationship starting with an e-mail and following up with a conference call.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And then firmly end the relationship at the time of contract expiration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, the client is a small business and I don't know whether they can find a replacement in 3 months.&#xD;&#xA;I think it is more than fair to give a heads up 3 months before though.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I approaching the situation professionally?&#xD;&#xA;I don't usually fire clients often but this particular client is taking much of my time without a good return.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I take a different approach?&#xD;&#xA;What is your take on it?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best regards" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25290" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9989" RevisionGUID="1555fddb-8ecc-4812-9f02-89da108be70b" CreationDate="2021-01-02T12:54:02.143" UserId="1477" Text="How to end client relationship?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25291" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="9989" RevisionGUID="1555fddb-8ecc-4812-9f02-89da108be70b" CreationDate="2021-01-02T12:54:02.143" UserId="1477" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25292" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7104" RevisionGUID="db5ec8cd-0472-4454-ad55-6c242b47893f" CreationDate="2021-01-02T13:00:55.060" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25293" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6980" RevisionGUID="64b9533e-88d3-4091-b5c4-d33689547935" CreationDate="2021-01-02T14:06:00.683" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25295" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9977" RevisionGUID="a131f94a-648f-4655-9f24-1dd4339275f2" CreationDate="2021-01-02T21:00:02.130" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1345474957401272326" />
  <row Id="25299" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9991" RevisionGUID="48b82c62-6c32-4d90-b367-400b21f4372c" CreationDate="2021-01-04T02:17:02.433" UserId="24776" Text="&gt; many people want to be reassured that they are dealing with a big company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They key in such a relationship is to know **why** they want to deal with a big company. And in order to give an accurate answer, one needs to know what do you sell, to whom and where, things that you don't specify. In my answer below, I assume that whatever you are going to say it's true. Not fabricated, half true or assumptions. I write it here, to avoid writing it in every other sentence. Also the answer is based on my experience in software industry.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I know my finances are sound, but how can I reassure the client that I am not going to disappear tomorrow?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As others already said, you can't. Because it's **psychological**. You can't convince someone who doesn't trust cruise control to use it. They trust the accelerator pedal that's been around for over a century. Cruise control? What's that new devilry? Of course it heavily depends on how you define disappear. Like physically? Or win the lottery and go on long vacation to the Caribbean? Or just be bored and say &quot;that's not for me any more&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any case don't spend energy in convincing them to prefer you instead of a big company. One thing you can do is to show them the other side of the coin. Find a couple of real examples of companies (preferably in your industry) that ceased operations and left the customers hanging. Not dragons and fairy tales, just the facts. Suddenly a one-man company is not as bad as it sounds. You can also try to explain that this isn't a side gig, your existence relies on what you do. At the very end you can always ask them. Something like &quot;What does a big company offer you that I don't?&quot;. You have to be prepared for their answer. Even if you have to say &quot;sorry I can't help you with that&quot;, you now know your weak spot and you can think of a way of fixing it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bonus part, if you work in the software industry and you sell the product, not the service, you can always argue that software doesn't rot. They can still use it after you disappear. They won't have upgrades, but they aren't empty handed either. If they pay you upon delivery (and by delivery I mean acceptance) it's a win-win.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; How can I word contracts so they don't appear to come from single person, yet aren't deceptive?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's fairly easy. Form a company and get all your contracts&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt; through the company. Usually contracts have clauses like `&quot;Your next big talent Ltd&quot; from now on the &quot;Provider&quot; and the &quot;Cash Cow Holdings&quot; from now on the &quot;Customer&quot; agree[...]`. There is no number of people mentioned. I know as I've done this. Just to make myself crystal clear, customer **knows** your are on your own, the contract is drafted in a way that doesn't show that. Another thing to have in mind is local legislation. Where I come from, a *one person limited company* is different than a more than one person limited company and that **appears in the company's full name.** In other countries it's not the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also you get one more point in the previous question, as *sometimes* the existence of a company itself shows that the person behind it already has invested time and money to create a brand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Is it ok for me to &quot;hide&quot; that I am, ultimately, small time, even though I pour my heart and soul into this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't do that. Instead show them that while on your own, you've done A, B, C (your portfolio) which are amazing and that is because you pour your heart and soul in what you do to quote you. Focus on making your brand *appear* to have a team behind. When they come to you (or you go to them) and they ask you &quot;so where is your team&quot; you answer &quot;you are looking at it&quot;. Some will say &quot;meh&quot;. Some will say &quot;that's interesting&quot; or even better &quot;You did all these by yourself??? Get outa here!&quot;. You direct your efforts towards the second and third type of customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1] If you have many customers, hire a contracts lawyer to draft you a template. It might be pricey but it will payoff in the future. And you will get *another* point on your first question." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25307" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9980" RevisionGUID="489bb046-aa39-41eb-b013-b4c04a12b776" CreationDate="2021-01-07T18:00:07.737" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1347241621528653829" />
  <row Id="25310" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9972" RevisionGUID="f1464490-c72f-4f66-8db9-65cff59d74f7" CreationDate="2021-01-08T06:00:02.747" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1347422794502561797" />
  <row Id="25312" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9935" RevisionGUID="63356fb2-9a58-4269-85be-1092526164fc" CreationDate="2021-01-08T12:00:01.700" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1347513387459162113" />
  <row Id="25314" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6504" RevisionGUID="dc56281b-697c-446b-af6a-262bc2f5c9c2" CreationDate="2021-01-09T00:00:23.337" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1347694671762489345" />
  <row Id="25315" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9994" RevisionGUID="2b72b6aa-5108-4a0c-bb67-6d8662c7fd4d" CreationDate="2021-01-09T14:51:33.933" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25316" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9994" RevisionGUID="2b72b6aa-5108-4a0c-bb67-6d8662c7fd4d" CreationDate="2021-01-09T14:51:33.933" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25317" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9995" RevisionGUID="7c0d0720-c660-4952-a974-5326cab0d6e7" CreationDate="2021-01-09T14:51:33.933" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25318" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9995" RevisionGUID="7c0d0720-c660-4952-a974-5326cab0d6e7" CreationDate="2021-01-09T14:51:33.933" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25319" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9996" RevisionGUID="7981207b-af67-4509-87a3-a9b54f80aa60" CreationDate="2021-01-09T14:57:04.947" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25320" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9996" RevisionGUID="7981207b-af67-4509-87a3-a9b54f80aa60" CreationDate="2021-01-09T14:57:04.947" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25321" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9997" RevisionGUID="173e99ea-0b49-4b30-b7bf-df99b4d8e9bf" CreationDate="2021-01-09T14:57:04.947" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25322" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="9997" RevisionGUID="173e99ea-0b49-4b30-b7bf-df99b4d8e9bf" CreationDate="2021-01-09T14:57:04.947" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25323" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="9998" RevisionGUID="1cc5417c-b058-4b56-896b-461502fa3ba7" CreationDate="2021-01-11T02:34:45.513" UserId="21435" Text="1. You're being professional and fair.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Why would you give them 4 hours of free consulting? If they need and want your time to bring a new developer up to speed then they should pay for it. There's nothing untoward about billing them for your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. How the client deals with this is their responsibility, not yours. If they can't find a suitable replacement within the timeframe that's their problem. You have no moral or ethical obligation to them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25324" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4533" RevisionGUID="801342c6-41b4-4e81-9825-b5a487356368" CreationDate="2021-01-11T19:01:55.160" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25334" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10001" RevisionGUID="57a0e80d-01b4-46f0-8c91-163a8c7c4dcd" CreationDate="2021-01-13T10:21:04.840" UserId="25804" Text="one of the possible ways of getting freelance work is through agencies, where I can help with the agency's clients, as many times they reach their regular employee capacities and need help. So they outsource me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I'm applying to these agencies, and many times I meet the following obstacles:&#xD;&#xA;- They need someone fulltime &#xD;&#xA;- They need an employee &#xD;&#xA;- They want you to relocate (apparently even during Covid...)&#xD;&#xA;- They don't work with freelancers&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Despite having 6 years of relevant experience, certifications, references, etc.&#xD;&#xA;Many times I won't even get to talk with the technical person to establish value, but a recruiter just shrugs me off.&#xD;&#xA;I wonder how you guys that work with agencies usually circumvent these problems. I appreciate your input. Thanks. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25335" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10001" RevisionGUID="57a0e80d-01b4-46f0-8c91-163a8c7c4dcd" CreationDate="2021-01-13T10:21:04.840" UserId="25804" Text="How to avoid regular obstacles when contacting agencies for work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25336" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10001" RevisionGUID="57a0e80d-01b4-46f0-8c91-163a8c7c4dcd" CreationDate="2021-01-13T10:21:04.840" UserId="25804" Text="|attracting-clients|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25337" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10002" RevisionGUID="f6e0d6c6-0d02-421e-b9d6-2cd70a8f4302" CreationDate="2021-01-13T11:24:21.563" UserId="7858" Text="I work with agencies (in Denmark), but my situation may not be comparable to yours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's been 7 years since I last got a contract without an agency of some sort being involved. The difference compared to you seems to be that the agencies reach out to me and not the other way around.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, these agencies (or recruiters) are gatekeepers as the end customers already have some sort of deal with them - and therefore generally are unwilling (or even unable) to engage with me directly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If possible, you need to find the same sort of agencies that have customers who usually hire freelancers. Speaking to recruiters who generally place full-time employees will most probably be fruitless." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25343" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6926" RevisionGUID="44b62854-c221-4d03-8911-1e38ec8e1f73" CreationDate="2021-01-13T22:00:15.033" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25344" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7324" RevisionGUID="a6fb6941-4572-44ac-8185-c03de15deba2" CreationDate="2021-01-13T23:07:55.677" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25345" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6910" RevisionGUID="44611b00-458a-44af-a437-3a6440019a9b" CreationDate="2021-01-14T00:04:00.493" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25346" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6790" RevisionGUID="fcfbe07e-1a3d-43b4-8130-ac8e33452f8e" CreationDate="2021-01-14T05:05:20.527" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25347" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9989" RevisionGUID="1bf8a2e1-3765-4a7f-b092-188b66e7dc77" CreationDate="2021-01-14T06:00:08.387" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1349597145368846340" />
  <row Id="25348" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10004" RevisionGUID="426c474b-c178-4fd7-be00-722104c42532" CreationDate="2021-01-14T20:43:52.630" UserId="25815" Text="I have a sole-proprietorship registered in Germany and provide services to my customers. I am currently in negotiations with a UK client. Now that the UK left the European Union and that deals have been agreed upon between the two entities, should I charge the German VAT (19%) for my services and use an EU tax ID? Or should I instead charge a UK VAT and use a UK id? Or something else?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25349" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10004" RevisionGUID="426c474b-c178-4fd7-be00-722104c42532" CreationDate="2021-01-14T20:43:52.630" UserId="25815" Text="EU self-employed, UK client, post-Brexit, should I charge VAT?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25350" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10004" RevisionGUID="426c474b-c178-4fd7-be00-722104c42532" CreationDate="2021-01-14T20:43:52.630" UserId="25815" Text="|uk|germany|eu|vat|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25351" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10004" RevisionGUID="8e493218-2ef9-425b-a2fa-63f9988555a2" CreationDate="2021-01-14T20:49:06.147" UserId="25815" Comment="edited body" Text="I have a sole-proprietorship registered in Germany and provide services to my customers. I am currently in negotiations with a UK client. Now that the UK left the European Union and that deals have been agreed upon between the two entities, should I charge the German VAT (19%) for my services and use an EU tax id? Or should I instead charge a UK VAT and use a UK id? Or something else?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25353" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3128" RevisionGUID="e57cb7d1-0617-4aaf-b6fe-cb03a4eb66fe" CreationDate="2021-01-16T00:08:35.807" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25354" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9960" RevisionGUID="a244b40c-c9c9-44cc-be23-09f5540f25ce" CreationDate="2021-01-16T01:04:45.520" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25355" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10005" RevisionGUID="4daa2ce4-74ff-4007-a2e6-48d9dbe42eed" CreationDate="2021-01-19T01:11:57.593" UserId="17372" Text="I just retired with over 30 years of software development experience in the business intelligence and data warehousing area of IT.&#xD;&#xA;I would like to keep my skills up to date and work part-time in the data warehousing area.&#xD;&#xA;Does anyone have any suggestions on how to start freelance career as a data warehouse consultant?&#xD;&#xA;I prefer to work from home but that is not a deal breaker." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25356" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10005" RevisionGUID="4daa2ce4-74ff-4007-a2e6-48d9dbe42eed" CreationDate="2021-01-19T01:11:57.593" UserId="17372" Text="How to start a freelance career (during retirement) in programming with a background in data warehousing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25357" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10005" RevisionGUID="4daa2ce4-74ff-4007-a2e6-48d9dbe42eed" CreationDate="2021-01-19T01:11:57.593" UserId="17372" Text="|freelance-websites|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25360" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10004" RevisionGUID="303d8cab-a4a2-4eea-8743-0df04a24bc01" CreationDate="2021-01-19T09:00:06.157" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1351454373839331329" />
  <row Id="25361" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10007" RevisionGUID="5a646527-af21-43ec-a595-0d3776b9f34e" CreationDate="2021-01-19T10:51:07.340" UserId="25830" Text="Flat: assign a realstate company to rent it for you. They will take a considerable chunk of the rent, but 100% of the problems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Taxes: I'm sure there are sass that will handle invoicing and taxing for you. I just can't give you any good references because I don't know your country.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Acquiring clients, daily talks: you can hire a marketing company or learn how to advertise your work as if it were a full sized company a good SEO and referral payments will drastically reduce your convincing time with clients, then having a freelance project manager will also help you get rid of the interaction with clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To sum it up: the work and inconvenience is never eliminated, it's always moved elsewhere and at a cost. It's very good to get rid of boring work and delegating, it's just accessible to everyone. I was able to delegate most of my mundane tasks to maid, accounting firm, etc. As you pay to have your time freed, you get more productive and engaged in your work and very soon the cost of delegating will become small.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always be looking for sass" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25362" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10008" RevisionGUID="2f1c14e6-3788-4eae-b9a1-53b916252b8b" CreationDate="2021-01-19T15:27:15.627" UserId="25831" Text="Try Razorpay, If your business is registered and has GSTIN Number.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Razorpay takes cut per transaction for processing each payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Case study: Hotstar uses it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25363" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9692" RevisionGUID="a8416fc4-d91a-4bfc-b4cb-7cedd72860c1" CreationDate="2021-01-20T11:07:15.743" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25364" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10009" RevisionGUID="acae9b0f-e6b3-4019-a5f6-a7999ec02c7d" CreationDate="2021-01-20T14:09:12.563" UserId="25830" Text="There's a say: &quot;Verbal agreement is worth as much as the paper it's written on&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They already tried to take over your content, are asking for you to open doors to the market and are now asking to know your team. This is a clear take over.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During the meeting they will exchange contacts with each one of your teammates and will try to do to them the same thing they tried to do with you. Someone will crack, someone will be enslaved and used.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This whole thing seems very weird and shady. Here's how a good business deal is:&#xD;&#xA;- company is responsible to deliver x&#xD;&#xA;- client is responsible to approve/inform/brief company until *date*&#xD;&#xA;- x is delivered (daily, weekly, monthly, or agreed date on writing through email)&#xD;&#xA;- for every x delivered, the company gets paid y&#xD;&#xA;- all intelectual property and image rights belongs to client&#xD;&#xA;- contract can be pulled by any party with z days notice&#xD;&#xA;- delays on delivery incur fines at 1% monthly value/day&#xD;&#xA;- delays in payment incur interest at 1% monthly value/day&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;See? absolutely clear rules and payment for work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Did you get paid for the posts? Are you getting paid for the meetings? Do you have a clear participation on profits?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you answered no to all of them, they are making a sucker out of you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25365" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10010" RevisionGUID="bac30a9f-35b5-4cd8-a741-bf0819bd02c3" CreationDate="2021-01-20T14:20:14.607" UserId="25830" Text="Your friend is a guy called SLA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Service Level Agreement&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You set how heavy the lash is for the amount of money the client is willing to pay. Doesn't matter the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Low pay - SLA of 5 business days&#xD;&#xA;High pay - SLA of 4 hours&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some office guy exploded his desktop? You got a week to fix.&#xD;&#xA;Some very important server went down because the maid pulled the cord mid day? Still a week, unless the hire the premium SLA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's up to you really. Most of the stress comes from dealing with customers and managers, they are usually technologically ignorant and proportionally arrogant. Dealing with computers is the easy part.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will only work after hours if you offer very short SLAs, this might be a dealbreaker for some clients, but you're the boss.&#xD;&#xA;Things that will make your life easier:&#xD;&#xA;- monitoring&#xD;&#xA;- preventive maintenance&#xD;&#xA;- alerts&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I said, even if you detect a huge problem and has to spend the night solving it, that is 10x less stressful than having to fix a simple email server with the client breathing down your neck. So keep tabs on your resources and monitor stuff. Let the computer tell you when it's going through hard times before it reaches a crisis." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25369" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10012" RevisionGUID="069a12cb-d9c7-453a-b01b-f41985c1094f" CreationDate="2021-01-22T16:43:10.240" UserId="25169" Text="You can try site focused on offering freelancer services, which you can find out making a search on Google. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;References:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=data+warehouse+freelancer&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; ***Just a suggestion:** but if you wish to freelancing the best advice I&#xD;&#xA;&gt; can give you at the moment is to try change your skillset to Web&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Development focused on Wordpress and Woocommerce, that way you will&#xD;&#xA;&gt; get more freelancing jobs. Even because with COVID outbreak the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; e-commerce tendency has drastically risen to due that I just&#xD;&#xA;&gt; mentioned. With that way will be more easy to make money quickly as&#xD;&#xA;&gt; freelancer dev.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25370" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10012" RevisionGUID="c8833b11-14b1-455b-8d0e-0f15e33c9d79" CreationDate="2021-01-22T18:28:36.743" UserId="25169" Comment="Improved" Text="You can try site focused on offering freelancer services, which you can find out making a search on Google. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;References:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=data+warehouse+freelancer&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; ***Just a suggestion:** but if you wish to freelancing the best advice I&#xD;&#xA;&gt; can give you at the moment is to try change your skillset to Web&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Development focused on Wordpress and Woocommerce, that way you will&#xD;&#xA;&gt; get more freelancing jobs. Even because with the COVID outbreak the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; e-commerce tendency has drastically risen to due that I just&#xD;&#xA;&gt; mentioned. With that way will be more easy to make money quickly as&#xD;&#xA;&gt; freelancer dev.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25372" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9588" RevisionGUID="c675e17f-756f-43ea-ae2f-d7cb36e6134d" CreationDate="2021-01-23T10:28:34.980" UserDisplayName="user15099" Comment="edited tags; removed &quot;noise&quot; (thanks)" Text="So I’m new at freelancing. I do it part time while also working full time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I sent some final drafts over to the client over a month ago however whenever I check in with them via email they keep saying they are working on the content still. But I’ve provided the 90 second animation that was agreed so I don’t understand! &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I raise this with them? What should I do next?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25373" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="9588" RevisionGUID="c675e17f-756f-43ea-ae2f-d7cb36e6134d" CreationDate="2021-01-23T10:28:34.980" UserDisplayName="user15099" Comment="edited tags; removed &quot;noise&quot; (thanks)" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25374" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9588" RevisionGUID="c675e17f-756f-43ea-ae2f-d7cb36e6134d" CreationDate="2021-01-23T10:28:34.980" Comment="Proposed by 15099 approved by 61, 85 edit id of 734" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25375" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9729" RevisionGUID="2ab36994-cd57-496b-8ad5-b2dedbaa11d7" CreationDate="2021-01-23T10:28:55.660" UserId="24924" Comment="fixed grammar" Text="I received an offer from a company to work as an independent software developer contractor. The agreement contains some clauses that specify that I should indemnify the company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This one agrees to have unlimited liability and forces me to have insurance. I asked about what the mentioned &quot;adequate cover&quot; and what are the mentioned &quot;reputable insurers accepted by the company&quot; but I received no answer from them.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You shall have personal liability for and shall indemnify the Client or any of its Affiliates for any loss, liability, costs (including reasonable legal costs), damages or expenses arising from the provision of the Services and shall maintain in force during the period of this agreement adequate insurance cover with reputable insurers acceptable to the Client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The next one looks to me like I'm giving up my right to raise any claim or sue them. Is this ethical to do? is this a red flag?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You shall be fully responsible for and indemnify the Client against any liability, assessment or claim for:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; (a) taxation whatsoever arising from or made in connection with the performance of the Services, where such recovery is not prohibited by law; and&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; (b) any employment-related claim or any claim based on worker status (including reasonable costs and expenses) brought by you or any substitute against the Client arising out of or in connection with the provision of the Services, except where such claim is as a result of any act or omission of the Client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is if this is a common practice or this's a red flag and I should avoid working for them. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25376" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9729" RevisionGUID="2ab36994-cd57-496b-8ad5-b2dedbaa11d7" CreationDate="2021-01-23T10:28:55.660" Comment="Proposed by 24924 approved by 61, 85 edit id of 721" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25377" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="9652" RevisionGUID="90307b1d-9804-4d34-a3b4-d1d16ef0035f" CreationDate="2021-01-23T10:29:01.567" UserId="15235" Comment="tags edited" Text="|information-technology|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25378" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9652" RevisionGUID="90307b1d-9804-4d34-a3b4-d1d16ef0035f" CreationDate="2021-01-23T10:29:01.567" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 85 edit id of 726" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25379" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="791" RevisionGUID="b4d79aba-b087-4d97-ba2e-a0500e948381" CreationDate="2021-01-23T10:29:11.690" UserId="15235" Comment="broken link fixed" Text="To give a brief overview of source control system, there are 2 basic types of source control system - distributed and centralised. The key difference between these is that centralised systems hold the source code in one central place, whereas with distributed systems developers have their own local repository to push changes to before committing them to one (or many) centrally hosted repositories. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The distributed systems provide benefits around frequency of commits and impact on others using the repository. You are encouraged to commit more regularly as you are not affecting others with your changes until they are pushed to the central repository. This makes it easier for the source code merging tools to reconcile the changes over time. Examples of distributed systems include [Git][1] and [Mercurial][2].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would always recommend using distributed source control over centralised due to the merging experience that both provide. Microsoft have [modelled the merging behaviour of TFS 2012 on Git][3] as they have themselves realised the superiority Git has in this regard. If you wish to go down the distributed route, and given that you have a distributed team then I would definitely recommend it, then there are a couple of VS extensions that you can install to help with this: [Visual Studio tools for Git][4] and [Git Source Control provider][5]. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can then use one of the cloud hosting providers to act as your central repository host. The 2 main players are [GitHub][6] and [Bitbucket][7], the main difference between the 2 being cost for non-open source projects. Bitbucket is free for small teams (up to 5 users I believe and unlimited repositories) and can host private closed source repositories whereas GitHub is only free if your source code is open source. If you wish to host private repositories on GitHub you will need a paid plan. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The basic workflow for a distributed source control repository is (I'm not including any Continuous Integration steps here, this is just for source code management):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Developer pulls code from central repository to local repository on their local machine.&#xD;&#xA; - Developer makes required changes, commits regularly to local repository&#xD;&#xA; - When developer has enough functionality to push centrally, they pull any changes from the central repository and merge with their local&#xD;&#xA; - Developer pushes changes from local repository to central repository&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also go a step further if your project is a Microsoft .Net website (you didn't mention specifics in your question but this is useful for anyone developing .Net websites) and use either [AppHarbor][8] or [Azure Websites][9] to host the website, because both allow for continuous deployment hooks directly into Bitbucket or GitHub, meaning that you can push your changes to Bitbucket and have AppHarbor/Azure automatically deploy the website after a minute or 2.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The workflow then becomes:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Developer pulls code from central repository to local repository on their local machine.&#xD;&#xA; - Developer makes required changes, commits regularly to local repository&#xD;&#xA; - When developer has enough functionality to push centrally, they pull any changes from the central repository and merge with their local&#xD;&#xA; - Developer pushes changes from local repository to central repository&#xD;&#xA; - AppHarbor/Azure detects that changes have happened within the repository and deploys the website&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://git-scm.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://mercurial.selenic.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/bharry/merge-enhancements-in-tfs-11&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/abafc7d6-dcaa-40f4-8a5e-d6724bdb980c&#xD;&#xA;  [5]: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/63a7e40d-4d71-4fbb-a23b-d262124b8f4c&#xD;&#xA;  [6]: https://github.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [7]: https://bitbucket.org/&#xD;&#xA;  [8]: https://appharbor.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [9]: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/services/web-sites/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25380" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="791" RevisionGUID="b4d79aba-b087-4d97-ba2e-a0500e948381" CreationDate="2021-01-23T10:29:11.690" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 85 edit id of 735" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25381" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9995" RevisionGUID="6cc366ed-e161-4d5f-a179-1482d9850c40" CreationDate="2021-01-23T10:29:26.650" UserDisplayName="anon" Comment="added 62 characters in body" Text="Location-specific questions about freelance business in France" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25382" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9995" RevisionGUID="6cc366ed-e161-4d5f-a179-1482d9850c40" CreationDate="2021-01-23T10:29:26.650" Comment="Proposed by 25412 approved by 61, 85 edit id of 736" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25383" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="190" RevisionGUID="88cd0d7e-4bb8-4e87-a238-01323f34a4af" CreationDate="2021-01-23T10:29:45.133" UserId="15016" Comment="PCG became IPSE in 2014. Template link updated" Text="If you're UK based and are a member of IPSE (the association for Independent Professionals and the Self Employed, previously known as PCG), they have [contract templates][1] that you can download from their website, both for working through an intermediary agency and direct with the client. The contract templates have the added incentive of being verified as outside of IR35.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.ipse.co.uk/member-benefits/resources.html?information_type=tools-and-templates" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25384" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="190" RevisionGUID="88cd0d7e-4bb8-4e87-a238-01323f34a4af" CreationDate="2021-01-23T10:29:45.133" Comment="Proposed by 15016 approved by 61, 85 edit id of 714" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25385" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9997" RevisionGUID="4c668659-aac5-47d6-8647-ad8fb15dc8e9" CreationDate="2021-01-23T10:29:49.467" UserDisplayName="anon" Comment="added 74 characters in body" Text="Questions about freelancing that are specific to a small partnership/group" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25386" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9997" RevisionGUID="4c668659-aac5-47d6-8647-ad8fb15dc8e9" CreationDate="2021-01-23T10:29:49.467" Comment="Proposed by 25412 approved by 61, 85 edit id of 737" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25387" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10013" RevisionGUID="1229a32a-855d-44d7-879c-16619f6c30cb" CreationDate="2021-01-25T16:45:29.527" UserId="25851" Text="I am a freelancer, who hired a freelancer to do some webpage work, using upwork. I am new to the upwork platform. This freelancer, over Christmas break,charged three 40 hour weeks in which , as far as I can tell, practically nothing was done. Their claim is that they spent it talking to support in my web host. Web host reports about three hours of such support.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I use my own project management tool (Trello) and my own communications (Slack). Worker billed manual time (his request, I allowed it, I hate time tracking tools).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The initial quote for the project was 60 hours, which is about what I would expect. Current bill stands at 200 hours. Site is about 1/3 done, with many errors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I should have been watching more closely. We had a death in the family over break, and I simply was not. I don't want to be a difficult client. Still, this is a 5000 overrun, without result.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I dispute correctly with upwork?  I have already reached out and been told the mediation team is looking at it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Going forward, suggestions about how I manage projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25388" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10013" RevisionGUID="1229a32a-855d-44d7-879c-16619f6c30cb" CreationDate="2021-01-25T16:45:29.527" UserId="25851" Text="How do I dispute anopther freelancer correctly with upwork, as a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25389" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10013" RevisionGUID="1229a32a-855d-44d7-879c-16619f6c30cb" CreationDate="2021-01-25T16:45:29.527" UserId="25851" Text="|project-management|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25390" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10014" RevisionGUID="8a4b5711-6b42-4ab8-bb44-04e9f3e53d68" CreationDate="2021-01-25T16:56:16.033" UserId="75" Text="First off, our condolances for your loss.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In normal situations, as a Freelancer, I give the client clear details up front - It will cost between $XXX and $YYY. If it is projecting to go over $YYY, then I check in with the client, explain what's going on, and give them an option to stop the contract then, billing only for work completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this situation, the way you're describing it, the freelancer is simply charging for time cause they can. If you are still in touch with your webhost, I would ask them for all the notes relating to their interaction(s) with your freelancer. This written communication should help with Upwork's Mediation Team, if they contact you about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the future, I'd recommend my approach above - tell them if they think it's going to go larger than what you or the freelancer predicted, it's a full stop until you are made aware and can make the decision. I believe the freelancer you talked about is taking advantage based on what you're question states." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25391" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10015" RevisionGUID="f77e84b6-e2c3-4aa8-b8ca-c15cf0ddd86b" CreationDate="2021-01-26T12:44:33.950" UserId="25857" Text="Is it okay for a customer to send me less than the amount I invoiced because of their wire charges?  For example, I invoice $380 and they send me $365.  I understand I may have additional charges from my bank, but the $365 is before those are applied." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25392" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10015" RevisionGUID="f77e84b6-e2c3-4aa8-b8ca-c15cf0ddd86b" CreationDate="2021-01-26T12:44:33.950" UserId="25857" Text="Is it okay for customer to pay less than invoice amount because of their wire charges?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25393" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10015" RevisionGUID="f77e84b6-e2c3-4aa8-b8ca-c15cf0ddd86b" CreationDate="2021-01-26T12:44:33.950" UserId="25857" Text="|payments|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25394" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10016" RevisionGUID="8242abd6-3f47-4f90-a3b9-e53aea5c0dc4" CreationDate="2021-01-26T21:24:48.543" UserId="708" Text="# No.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you invoice for $380, you should receive $380... then if **your** payment processor has fees, they are deducted from the $380. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In no instance is it &quot;okay&quot; for a client to send *less* than the invoiced amount, for whatever reason. If the client must pay fees, then those fees are *their* problem they should be paid above and beyond any invoice amount. If it costs the client $15 to send you $380, then the client needs to pay $395 to ensure you receive the $380 which was invoiced. All invoices indicate the amount you are to **receive**, not merely the amount a client should send.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is **not** acceptable for any client deduct or factor in any processing fees *for the client* from your invoice. As your example stands, the client has made you responsible for **double** processing fees. That would not be acceptable to me. And I'd demand the client send the remaining $15." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25395" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9439" RevisionGUID="aaabed58-b104-4d6b-a514-78b2ae405ca1" CreationDate="2021-01-26T23:08:10.800" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25396" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10017" RevisionGUID="e853015f-d4cd-4e81-a107-ead3f32e26d1" CreationDate="2021-01-27T03:08:00.557" UserId="25860" Text="30% is pretty typical the industry norm for referrals on contracts.  If you're going through a staffing agency, they typically will charge a 30-45% overhead on top of whatever you're getting paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;30% is the fee Google charges for putting you in touch with an App.  30% is the fee Apple charges for putting you in touch with an App.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A recruiter may charge a flat fee for finding a highly qualified individual such as $50k.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Referral fees are appropriate.  10% is at the low end of referral fees.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25397" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9946" RevisionGUID="a910c620-b33b-4f8c-aad0-8b44f209586a" CreationDate="2021-01-27T06:00:02.767" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1354308164070612993" />
  <row Id="25398" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7660" RevisionGUID="d0285f43-72c7-490e-aded-d62ba2be498e" CreationDate="2021-01-27T15:04:10.393" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25401" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10019" RevisionGUID="882ecddc-5562-4ec2-a04f-0a4ee2a7b866" CreationDate="2021-01-29T02:29:45.497" UserId="25872" Text="I'm german but living since 3 years in the Philippines. I work currently for a local company and have a working visa.&#xD;&#xA;Now I got a offer from a german company to work remote as a freelancer for them as a Software Engineer.&#xD;&#xA;They ask me if I can do any freelancer or business registration. I researched this but can't find a answer how to handle this.&#xD;&#xA;As soon as I don't work any more with the Philippine company I would have only a tourist visa so I'm not sure if I could register as freelancer here. Also when I checked the German law it seems to me if I don't have a residency in Germany and I already unregistered myself, then I have to follow the countries law where I am, not the German one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any advice what is right? Do I even need to register myself? What to say to the company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25402" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10019" RevisionGUID="882ecddc-5562-4ec2-a04f-0a4ee2a7b866" CreationDate="2021-01-29T02:29:45.497" UserId="25872" Text="Do I need to register as a freelancer and where?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25403" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10019" RevisionGUID="882ecddc-5562-4ec2-a04f-0a4ee2a7b866" CreationDate="2021-01-29T02:29:45.497" UserId="25872" Text="|contracts|legal|taxes|germany|travel|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25404" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10020" RevisionGUID="c28d356f-36eb-4800-9c8c-6641c65e1558" CreationDate="2021-01-29T04:02:17.363" UserId="25873" Text="Imagine you hire someone on Freelancer.com to code a custom website or app. After they complete the job, you pay them for their work and they hand over the source code to you. Who owns the code / IP? You or the developer? Let's assume the employer resides in the U.S and the freelancer resides in India or another 3rd world country. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've checked [this question][1] and it seems that unless a contract was written explicitly stating that the Freelancer hands over all IP + code to the employer the code may actually &quot;belong&quot; to the Freelancer and the employer is merely able to &quot;use it&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So this means the Freelancer can unveil an exact replica of your site to compete with you if he so wishes?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In either case, it seems that [Odesk][2] has an explicit clause in their TOS stating that the rights are automatically transferred to the employer after payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does Freelancer.com have a similar clause?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**P.S**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not talking about the Freelancer re-using bits and pieces of code for another project. I'm talking about using most or the entire source code to fully compete with you..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/4181/25873&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1619/what-to-do-with-code-after-odesk-job-completion/1623?newreg=bd56833963d846afa46e2c930a1ea6a0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25405" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10020" RevisionGUID="c28d356f-36eb-4800-9c8c-6641c65e1558" CreationDate="2021-01-29T04:02:17.363" UserId="25873" Text="Who Owns the Source Code &amp; IP on Freelancer.com - the Freelancer or Employer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25406" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10020" RevisionGUID="c28d356f-36eb-4800-9c8c-6641c65e1558" CreationDate="2021-01-29T04:02:17.363" UserId="25873" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|legal|usa|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25407" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10020" RevisionGUID="4ec12fd0-206f-43c5-a613-4e8cb5715e04" CreationDate="2021-01-29T06:44:58.087" UserId="25873" Comment="deleted 261 characters in body; edited title" Text="Imagine you hire someone on a freelancing site to code a (highly) custom website or app with very specific functionality. After they complete the job, you pay them for their work and they hand over the source code to you. Who owns the code / IP? You or the developer? Let's assume the employer resides in the U.S and the freelancer resides in India or another 3rd world country. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've checked [this question][1] and it seems that unless a contract was written explicitly stating that the Freelancer hands over all IP + code to the employer the code may actually &quot;belong&quot; to the Freelancer and the employer is merely able to &quot;use it&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does this means the Freelancer can re-use the entire source code and unveil an exact replica of your site to undercut you if he so wishes? Or does it mean the Freelancer gets to re-use bits and pieces of code for another project? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/4181/25873&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1619/what-to-do-with-code-after-odesk-job-completion/1623?newreg=bd56833963d846afa46e2c930a1ea6a0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25408" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10020" RevisionGUID="4ec12fd0-206f-43c5-a613-4e8cb5715e04" CreationDate="2021-01-29T06:44:58.087" UserId="25873" Comment="deleted 261 characters in body; edited title" Text="Who Owns the Source Code &amp; IP - Developer or Employer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25409" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10020" RevisionGUID="258a2fb9-8e6a-4912-9e28-a2631ab5808f" CreationDate="2021-01-29T07:14:22.123" UserId="25873" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="Imagine you hire someone on a freelancing site to code a (highly) custom website or app with very specific functionality. After they complete the job, you pay them for their work and they hand over the source code to you. Who owns the code / IP? You or the developer? Let's assume the employer resides in the U.S and the freelancer resides in India or another 3rd world country. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've checked [this question][1] and it seems that unless a contract was written explicitly stating that the Freelancer hands over all IP + code to the employer the code may actually &quot;belong&quot; to the Freelancer and the employer is merely able to &quot;use it&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does this means the Freelancer can re-use the entire code base and unveil an exact replica of your site to undercut you if he or she chooses? Or does it mean the Freelancer gets to re-use bits and pieces of code for another project? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/4181/25873&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1619/what-to-do-with-code-after-odesk-job-completion/1623?newreg=bd56833963d846afa46e2c930a1ea6a0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25410" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10021" RevisionGUID="b227650f-dde5-4595-ac58-129c80080c1d" CreationDate="2021-01-29T07:22:54.497" UserId="708" Text="In **any** creative venture, be it artwork, fiction writing, markup writing, coding, music, film.... the &quot;work&quot; is copyrighted and *owned* by the creator the *moment* it is created.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are only 9 ways the author &quot;loses&quot; rights to the work. [William Fisher, of Harvard Law, has an excellent lecture on copyrights][1]. Specifically [Lecture 5 part 3][2] explains the 9 instances where authors do *not* retain the rights. There is a 10th... if you are an employee or otherwise under a work-for-hire agreement. And an 11th.. if the author gives them away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, to that end.. **Yes** the freelancer owns their creation and can do with it what they want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Ethical** freelancers aren't going to reuse something in whole. It's not uncommon to pull a part form here or there to flesh out something new, but direct duplication is often something *most* ethical freelancers aren't interesting in doing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you fear replication of something you've paid for, a simple solution is to **have a contract** which transfers partial or all rights of the product from the author to the client/buyer. Most freelancers are more than willing to enter such agreements, however costs may be higher given this factor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/tfisher/Copyright_Lectures_2013.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tNerFkPjQM" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25411" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10021" RevisionGUID="ba89357e-1f2a-42b1-ab1a-eaba90fbbaca" CreationDate="2021-01-29T07:28:45.343" UserId="708" Comment="added 163 characters in body" Text="In **any** creative venture, be it artwork, fiction writing, markup writing, coding, music, film.... the &quot;work&quot; is copyrighted and *owned* by the creator the *moment* it is created.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are only 9 ways the author &quot;loses&quot; rights to the work. [William Fisher, of Harvard Law, has an excellent lecture on copyrights][1]. Specifically [Lecture 5 part 3][2] explains the 9 instances where authors do *not* retain the rights. There is a 10th... if you are an employee or otherwise under a work-for-hire agreement. And an 11th.. if the author gives them away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, to that end.. **Yes** the freelancer owns their creation and can do with it what they want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Ethical** freelancers aren't going to reuse something in whole. It's not uncommon to pull a part form here or there to flesh out something new, but direct duplication is often something *most* ethical freelancers aren't interesting in doing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you fear replication of something you've paid for, a simple solution is to **have a contract** which transfers partial or all rights of the product from the author to the client/buyer. Most freelancers are more than willing to enter such agreements, however costs may be higher given this factor. Barring such an agreement, the author is free to use the work in any manner they see fit, even if it upsets or bothers the client who paid for the work initially.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/tfisher/Copyright_Lectures_2013.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tNerFkPjQM" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25412" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10021" RevisionGUID="3d43ea3d-47ce-4faf-89ed-1a46751efcef" CreationDate="2021-01-29T07:35:33.290" UserId="708" Comment="added 163 characters in body" Text="In **any** creative venture, be it artwork, fiction writing, markup writing, coding, music, film.... the &quot;work&quot; is copyrighted and *owned* by the creator the *moment* it is created.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are only 9 ways the author &quot;loses&quot; rights to the work. [William Fisher, of Harvard Law, has an excellent lecture on copyrights][1]. Specifically [Lecture 5 part 3][2] explains the 9 instances where authors do *not* retain the rights. There is a 10th... if you are an employee or otherwise under a work-for-hire agreement. And an 11th.. if the author gives them away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, to that end.. **Yes** the freelancer owns their creation and can do with it what they want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Ethical** freelancers aren't going to reuse something in whole. It's not uncommon to pull a part form here or there to flesh out something new, but direct duplication is often something *most* ethical freelancers aren't interesting in doing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you fear replication of something you've paid for, a simple solution is to **have a contract** which transfers partial or all rights of the product from the author to the client/buyer. Most freelancers are more than willing to enter such agreements, however costs may be higher given this factor. Barring such an agreement, the author is free to use the work in any manner they see fit, even if it upsets or bothers the client who paid for the work initially.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It should be noted that **freelancers** *do not* have an &quot;employer&quot;. Freelancers have *clients*, not &quot;employers&quot;. Employers tell workers when to work, how to work, what to work on, provide tools for completion of that work, etc. Freelancers define their own hours, how a project is completed, what projects they will work on, and use their *own tools* to complete those projects. Definitions matter. Simply because someone pays me to complete something does *not* make them my &quot;employer&quot; much the same way if I were to hire a plumber to fix my drains, that would not make the plumber my &quot;employee&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The employee &lt;&gt; employer relationship is **always** a work-for-hire arrangement and the employer owns everything created by the employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Independent contracting is *often* a freelance position. However, there can be contracts defining ownership which can equate to a more work-for-hire agreement in which the contractor (client) or owns everything created by the contractee (worker).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/tfisher/Copyright_Lectures_2013.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tNerFkPjQM" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25418" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10023" RevisionGUID="a9be7c81-bec5-44f1-b29b-396722a12f83" CreationDate="2021-01-30T17:30:01.470" UserId="25881" Text="Something that has been unclear for me post-brexit. I am a sole proprietor located in the Netherlands and am providing a remote service (B2B) to a UK company. In 2020 during the brexit transition, I would invoice with a VAT Reverse Charge.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Now, I'm not sure what to invoice with. My local government can't help me more, other than telling me I don't charge Dutch VAT and can't reverse charge anymore --&gt; VAT out of EU scope. They don't know the full implications either. Articles I've read by the Chamber of commerce have information that varies from, VAT of Scope, VAT Reverse Charge and UK VAT applies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I made a call to the HMRC explaining my situation, I got told that I **should** register for a **UK VAT Number and charge UK VAT**. Referring to these articles:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-7001-should-i-be-registered-for-vat/vat-notice-7001-should-i-be-registered-for-vat&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(2.3 taxable supplies)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*&quot;you’re an NETP (see section 9), and you make any taxable supplies in the UK, regardless of their value and including supplies of digital services	--&gt; you must register for VAT&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(8.1 NETP – definition)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*&quot;A non-established taxable person (NETP) is any person who is not normally resident in the UK, does not have a UK establishment and, in the case of a company, is not incorporated in the UK&quot;*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically I've heard a lot of contradicting information and I don't know which is more accurate. Any advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25419" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10023" RevisionGUID="a9be7c81-bec5-44f1-b29b-396722a12f83" CreationDate="2021-01-30T17:30:01.470" UserId="25881" Text="Post-Brexit: Am I supposed to register and charge UK VAT?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25420" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10023" RevisionGUID="a9be7c81-bec5-44f1-b29b-396722a12f83" CreationDate="2021-01-30T17:30:01.470" UserId="25881" Text="|uk|remote|eu|vat|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25421" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6837" RevisionGUID="a26e26c4-8a8a-4a3b-9e96-518095694022" CreationDate="2021-01-30T19:02:35.257" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25422" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10021" RevisionGUID="45bcd95b-4453-48ba-97a8-f745dfd48cdc" CreationDate="2021-01-30T20:11:15.960" UserId="708" Comment="added 10 characters in body" Text="In **any** creative venture, be it artwork, fiction writing, markup writing, coding, music, film.... the &quot;work&quot; is copyrighted and *owned* by the creator the *moment* it is created.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are only 9 ways the author &quot;loses&quot; rights to the work. [William Fisher, of Harvard Law, has an excellent lecture on copyrights][1]. Specifically [Lecture 5 part 3][2] explains the 9 instances where authors do *not* retain the rights. There is a 10th... if you are an employee or otherwise under a work-for-hire agreement. And an 11th.. if the author gives them away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, to that end.. **Yes** the freelancer owns their creation and can do with it what they want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Ethical** freelancers aren't going to reuse something in whole. It's not uncommon to pull a part form here or there to flesh out something new, but direct duplication is often something *most* ethical freelancers aren't interesting in doing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you fear replication of something you've paid for, a simple solution is to **have a contract** which transfers partial or all rights of the product from the author to the client/buyer. Most freelancers are more than willing to enter such agreements, however costs may be higher given this factor. Barring such an agreement, the author is free to use the work in any manner they see fit, even if it upsets or bothers the client who paid for the work initially.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It should be noted that **freelancers** *do not* have an &quot;employer&quot;. Freelancers have *clients*, not &quot;employers&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Employers tell workers **when** to work, **how** to work, **what** to work on, **provide** **tools** for completion of that work, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Freelancers define their **own hours**, **how** a project is completed, **what projects** they will work on, and use their ***own tools*** to complete those projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Definitions matter. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Simply because someone pays me to complete something does *not* make them my &quot;employer&quot;, much the same way if I were to hire a plumber to fix my drains, that would not make the plumber my &quot;employee&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The employee &lt;&gt; employer relationship is **always** a work-for-hire arrangement and the employer owns everything created by the employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Independent contracting is *often* a freelance position. However, there can be contracts defining ownership which can equate to a more work-for-hire agreement in which the contractor (client) owns everything created by the contractee (worker).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/tfisher/Copyright_Lectures_2013.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tNerFkPjQM" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25423" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9971" RevisionGUID="8a6ec409-80c1-4b59-9ac6-f02433465c96" CreationDate="2021-01-31T12:02:15.187" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25427" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10025" RevisionGUID="f7387c03-f1ac-4b9b-8bef-d8f450292d52" CreationDate="2021-02-01T04:42:23.440" UserId="15143" Text="Yes unless a contract is written and payment fulfilled. Anything that freelancer creates belongs to the freelancer not the buyer.&#xA;&#xA;This is one big legal difference to freelancing and employment.&#xA;&#xA;Yes without a contract the freelancers are legally entitled to sell the code (it’s not yours) to anybody else." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25428" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10026" RevisionGUID="025deb2d-611b-4fbb-834f-44b2cfa25e3f" CreationDate="2021-02-01T06:49:33.937" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25429" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10026" RevisionGUID="025deb2d-611b-4fbb-834f-44b2cfa25e3f" CreationDate="2021-02-01T06:49:33.937" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25430" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10027" RevisionGUID="dbc01ce7-0566-4928-adff-426496249095" CreationDate="2021-02-01T06:49:33.937" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25431" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10027" RevisionGUID="dbc01ce7-0566-4928-adff-426496249095" CreationDate="2021-02-01T06:49:33.937" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25433" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10029" RevisionGUID="74d50f8c-c77d-4a3e-b77f-b47c818adb4b" CreationDate="2021-02-01T17:45:25.313" UserId="25892" Text="I have a question about IP in freelancing. What types terms would you put in an IP agreement with a client to ensure that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Any code you use from your own code base (convenience code or frameworks) remains your property and not the client's.&#xD;&#xA;  - Further on this one: How do I even begin to define what's mine and what's newly generated IP for the purpose of the product. To exaggerate my point: why is a for-loop not their IP? How do I make it that a convenience script for displaying multiple images in a grid is also not their IP? Where and how should I draw the line?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Any third party open source code must be used in accordance with its respective licencing agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm interested in answers from a strictly legal perspective, but also just as much, I'd like to know how you handle this in practice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe helpful note: I'm in data science and prototype software dev, so I lot of the code I use to develop a solution doesn't actually go into a final product. And I port over a lot of helper code from other personal projects or client projects. I never know how to define what's mine and what's theirs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25434" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10029" RevisionGUID="74d50f8c-c77d-4a3e-b77f-b47c818adb4b" CreationDate="2021-02-01T17:45:25.313" UserId="25892" Text="About IP for coding projects - How to protect your own boiler plate and helper scripts" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25435" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10029" RevisionGUID="74d50f8c-c77d-4a3e-b77f-b47c818adb4b" CreationDate="2021-02-01T17:45:25.313" UserId="25892" Text="|programmer|intellectual-property|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25438" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10020" RevisionGUID="183dc8fe-c41f-41f9-b6db-26fa6044b5a7" CreationDate="2021-02-01T18:48:10.423" UserId="25873" Comment="added 19 characters in body" Text="Imagine you hire someone on a freelancing site to code a (highly) custom website or app with very specific functionality. After they complete the job, you pay them for their work and they hand over the source code to you. Who owns the code / IP? You or the developer? Let's assume the employer resides in the U.S and the freelancer resides in India or another 3rd world country. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've checked [this question][1] and it seems that unless a contract was written explicitly stating that the Freelancer hands over all IP + code to the employer the code may actually &quot;belong&quot; to the Freelancer and the employer is merely able to &quot;use it&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does this means the Freelancer can re-use the entire code base and unveil an exact replica of your site with the intention to undercut you if he or she chooses? Or does it mean the Freelancer gets to re-use bits and pieces of code for another project? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/4181/25873&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1619/what-to-do-with-code-after-odesk-job-completion/1623?newreg=bd56833963d846afa46e2c930a1ea6a0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25439" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9439" RevisionGUID="236fdd95-fe75-4868-a353-49b7f88cf1d8" CreationDate="2021-02-02T18:00:03.427" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1356663687977832456" />
  <row Id="25440" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10030" RevisionGUID="6be471e5-2d19-4837-abb7-51f1ff5fadf9" CreationDate="2021-02-03T08:40:14.247" UserId="25892" Text="I'm a freelancer in machine learning and I've lately been getting overwhelmed with work. I've considered &quot;subcontracting&quot; but I have some doubts which I'd like to get help with:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Why should I take on more work and subcontract? Isn't society better off if I leave the work to someone else and cut myself out as a middle man? Under what circumstances is it the right thing to do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. What can I offer to someone who I'm subcontracting to and why will they feel fine with the knowledge that I'm taking the difference? I've heard the argument &quot;because I take the risk&quot; or &quot;because I speak to the client&quot;. Although I'm quite certain if someone tried to subcontract me on these bases, I'd probably just be thinking &quot;fine, I can take the risk and talk to the client&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Wouldn't clients feel like they are paying too much if they know I am subcontracting to someone and taking some difference? Maybe I can say &quot;well I'm managing them&quot;. But the client might think &quot;yeah... manage... you're just telling them what I told you&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I get the feeling that these are naive objections and I need to come up with a way to overcome them. I would appreciate high level answers, but also anecdotal answers that help me understand." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25441" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10030" RevisionGUID="6be471e5-2d19-4837-abb7-51f1ff5fadf9" CreationDate="2021-02-03T08:40:14.247" UserId="25892" Text="What can I offer to subcontractors and should I even be subcontracting?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25442" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10030" RevisionGUID="6be471e5-2d19-4837-abb7-51f1ff5fadf9" CreationDate="2021-02-03T08:40:14.247" UserId="25892" Text="|programmer|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25443" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10031" RevisionGUID="f9affe8f-5abe-4645-8620-daa22a20423e" CreationDate="2021-02-03T10:18:06.650" UserId="7858" Text="Instead of focusing on being a parasitic middle-man, focus on having a role that both sides appreciate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you use sub-contractors, you are providing a service your client probably cannot do by themselves. If your client generally is satisfied, they will not mind paying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can much easier evaluate whether a sub-contractor knows what they are doing. You probably have a much larger network than they do and can therefore scale up much quicker than they would be able to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many programmers don't appreciate customer interaction and would be happily accept never meeting them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I believe you are focusing too much on the financial aspect, instead of whether this is a role you even want. The client is yours; it seems your relationship is useful - and that is worth something. The risk is that you could end up managing the client rather than doing ‘actual’ work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25449" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="3611" RevisionGUID="68f6d0d3-76a3-4e12-8830-38bf06e33503" CreationDate="2021-02-07T00:00:20.083" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1358203906241798147" />
  <row Id="25450" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10020" RevisionGUID="5dd2f563-85c2-4ee7-96b8-9229cc06a4ff" CreationDate="2021-02-09T12:00:04.533" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1359109810684375045" />
  <row Id="25451" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10015" RevisionGUID="7dcc6162-785f-4e1e-aeb0-3a77d74bafe6" CreationDate="2021-02-10T03:00:18.420" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1359336361573122058" />
  <row Id="25456" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6830" RevisionGUID="9ed6703e-a588-4d4e-9689-fe91da1ff3f8" CreationDate="2021-02-11T20:04:10.400" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25457" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10001" RevisionGUID="17fb3bf3-5bc1-4acd-b58f-cc63f74affb8" CreationDate="2021-02-12T12:04:25.550" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25458" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9255" RevisionGUID="884921ca-f68f-4610-9322-b1d2466eb3d6" CreationDate="2021-02-12T13:00:24.997" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25459" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9798" RevisionGUID="63644335-8f72-4605-aa5c-72e3d71ab3d3" CreationDate="2021-02-12T20:01:15.167" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25460" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10013" RevisionGUID="973f8741-1bbc-4917-879e-9c93b1ce1f81" CreationDate="2021-02-14T00:00:13.820" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1360740595161989121" />
  <row Id="25462" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10034" RevisionGUID="4f18ae95-731c-4543-b591-3c3304179fa3" CreationDate="2021-02-15T19:38:52.607" UserId="340" Text="I am working for a client for 8 years. I have been hired as a freelancer via the Freelancing platform and after that, I have handled the product single-handed. I am now seeking an opportunity to migrate to a different country and I have to show the employment-related documents to Ambessay. I have not collected many documents from clients because I wasn't aware of this situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For now, I have collected some required documents from a client but I want to know the full list of documents that a remote developer should have who are working on a contract or freelance basis for a long time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anand" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25463" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10034" RevisionGUID="4f18ae95-731c-4543-b591-3c3304179fa3" CreationDate="2021-02-15T19:38:52.607" UserId="340" Text="Documents required for Remote developer to show" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25464" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10034" RevisionGUID="4f18ae95-731c-4543-b591-3c3304179fa3" CreationDate="2021-02-15T19:38:52.607" UserId="340" Text="|difficult-client|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25465" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10034" RevisionGUID="f2d31ce8-c184-4e77-988e-933167894688" CreationDate="2021-02-15T20:08:41.060" UserId="61" Comment="removed a signature and made more relevant tags" Text="I am working for a client for 8 years. I have been hired as a freelancer via the Freelancing platform and after that, I have handled the product single-handed. I am now seeking an opportunity to migrate to a different country and I have to show the employment-related documents to Embassy. I have not collected many documents from clients because I wasn't aware of this situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For now, I have collected some required documents from a client but I want to know the full list of documents that a remote developer should have who are working on a contract or freelance basis for a long time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25466" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="10034" RevisionGUID="f2d31ce8-c184-4e77-988e-933167894688" CreationDate="2021-02-15T20:08:41.060" UserId="61" Comment="removed a signature and made more relevant tags" Text="|legal|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25467" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10034" RevisionGUID="2d6c8c03-0ef3-40fd-ae07-e8ff3590109c" CreationDate="2021-02-16T07:28:36.203" UserId="340" Comment="added 55 characters in body" Text="I am working for a client for 8 years. I have been hired as a freelancer via the Freelancing platform and after that, I have handled the product single-handed. I am now seeking an opportunity to migrate to a different country and I have to show the employment-related documents to Embassy. I have not collected many documents from clients because I wasn't aware of this situation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For now, I have collected an employment reference letter from a client as what my immigration consultant has suggested but I want to know the full list of documents that a remote developer should have who are working on a contract or freelance basis for a long time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25468" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10005" RevisionGUID="61ec2a45-dba3-44ba-9c27-705a3e0894a9" CreationDate="2021-02-17T03:00:10.920" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1361873044948586501" />
  <row Id="25469" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10035" RevisionGUID="41afdad5-7067-4605-b549-4ff40f05f17a" CreationDate="2021-02-17T12:31:58.317" UserId="25954" Text="As I continue to freelance, I've been getting more and more clients. Awesome, but how do I best manage all the different files and web profiles?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My concerns are trying to ensure I don't accidentally mix up client files, or even web credentials. Or even the source code and different AWS/GCP/Azure profiles. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've thought of using seperate logins on my computers, but that also becomes a pain because there are so many tweaks and things to tools and settings that they are hard to keep synced up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this really not a problem at all? Just as long as I sandbox as best I can each client, use chrome/firefox profiles per client. I've done the best I can and call it good? Or are their techniques and ways to help better separate out each client into their own respective sandbox. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25470" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10035" RevisionGUID="41afdad5-7067-4605-b549-4ff40f05f17a" CreationDate="2021-02-17T12:31:58.317" UserId="25954" Text="Should one keep their clients files separated?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25471" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10035" RevisionGUID="41afdad5-7067-4605-b549-4ff40f05f17a" CreationDate="2021-02-17T12:31:58.317" UserId="25954" Text="|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25472" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10035" RevisionGUID="261e774a-83b9-40ef-aca4-79b2491aa7ad" CreationDate="2021-02-17T12:41:46.867" UserId="25954" Comment="Fixing that first paragraph" Text="As you continue to add more and more clients, are there best practices or procedures that are best to follow to keep clients project files, credentials, etc.. separated on your computer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My concerns are trying to ensure I don't accidentally mix up client files, or even web credentials. Or even the source code and different AWS/GCP/Azure profiles. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've thought of using seperate logins on my computers, but that also becomes a pain because there are so many tweaks and things to tools and settings that they are hard to keep synced up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this really not a problem at all? Just as long as I sandbox as best I can each client, use chrome/firefox profiles per client. I've done the best I can and call it good? Or are their techniques and ways to help better separate out each client into their own respective sandbox. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25473" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10036" RevisionGUID="7831847b-f628-42f9-801c-16d91b1f211b" CreationDate="2021-02-17T17:55:55.617" UserId="708" Text="*Any* business, freelance or otherwise, would be wise to retain **everything** related to that business for at least seven years, if not longer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should have files for communications, taxes, accounting, transaction records, contracts, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For **physical records** (receipts, print outs, letters, etc), I have files where I store and sort such records. Well, not really &quot;files&quot;. I simply throw these things in a box I have in my office. Then in January of every year I close the box. Write the preceding year on the exterior, and store the box out of the way. Then start a new box for the new year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For **digital records**, I create a directory titled for the year, then zip the directory and back it up in at least 3 locations, one off-site. Although I do this in January for the preceding year, I do tend to keep these digital items available for at least another year. Most of the records are in the form of emails, so I do an archive of my email accounts and back those up. Knowing they've already been backed up, I delete items when it's clear I no longer need to be able to access anything with regularly - i.e. if a client is gone, I can delete their emails knowing I have them backed up. I can always unarchive the emails and gain access again should I need. When I started out would print emails, but that quickly became untenable due to the lack of any &quot;search&quot; function and the sheer amount of paper/toner it took. Keeping things digital makes it much easier to find something later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm *not* saying this is the absolute proper way to do anything, merely how I've handled it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25474" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3128" RevisionGUID="c33f0972-a1eb-4ff8-9f8c-715953ee0fae" CreationDate="2021-02-18T16:06:40.557" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25479" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10038" RevisionGUID="8b7eeb1d-7b14-499e-8256-0848d1ed46f6" CreationDate="2021-02-18T22:29:43.090" UserId="25960" Text="Most of the licensing questions I see on here are about software-type products. I'm asking about products such as pre-made templates, worksheets, planners, and illustrations. In other words, creative elements or templates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my research, I've seen people offer varying prices based on number of sales, how many products it can be included in, if explicit credit is required, etc. I'm also wondering if there should be a difference between immutable products (e.g., an illustration or worksheet as-is) or mutable products (e.g., the full template from Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know pricing is always a difficult question, but I'm wondering how more experienced freelancers approach this topic. Personally, I already sell direct to customer items, but the next logical step in my business is to create licenses for larger commercial customers. I'm already getting requests and want to respond professionally." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25480" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10038" RevisionGUID="8b7eeb1d-7b14-499e-8256-0848d1ed46f6" CreationDate="2021-02-18T22:29:43.090" UserId="25960" Text="What factors should I consider when pricing commercial use licenses for digital products that aren't software?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25481" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10038" RevisionGUID="8b7eeb1d-7b14-499e-8256-0848d1ed46f6" CreationDate="2021-02-18T22:29:43.090" UserId="25960" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|price|copyright|licensing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25482" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10039" RevisionGUID="225478f3-9659-44bf-a0ae-56556fe2f676" CreationDate="2021-02-19T14:05:57.233" UserId="25814" Text="As someone who has used internal and external resources to deliver ML enabled software to clients, there is a huge difference between those who &quot;talk a good show&quot; and those who really do it.  They have the expertise to rapidly look at the problem, pick the right ML technique and split into cohorts for ensemble techniques when appropriate.   If you are the highly skilled &quot;doer&quot; with a reputation, clients will gladly pay you - even if you have other resources grind out the data validation / cleaning, testing and validation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are just handing off the client and not involved at all in cracking the problems, then indeed, your value add is only &quot;matchmaking&quot; in which case you should expect a smaller %.  If you are directing the work... you should feel confident in charging the client for your valuable services." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25483" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6790" RevisionGUID="6894e3aa-5c0c-4b7e-a406-86ff5211f1de" CreationDate="2021-02-19T15:05:50.583" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25484" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10038" RevisionGUID="453d3707-a8d4-4858-83fe-2f21d09c699e" CreationDate="2021-02-19T21:00:09.113" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1362869603995705348" />
  <row Id="25485" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10040" RevisionGUID="a9a49b3e-54e2-465a-85a1-403c64fa7c9e" CreationDate="2021-02-20T13:42:47.527" UserId="10464" Text="&gt;Why should I take on more work and subcontract? Isn't society better off if I leave the work to someone else and cut myself out as a middle man? Under what circumstances is it the right thing to do?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Middlemen provide a service like finding higher paying clients. Finding the best talented contractors.  The best ones also maintain long term relationships. I don't know where you got the idea that middlemen are bad for society. That's not how it works in tech anyhow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are people who would tell you that society would be better off if you lived in a shelter and didn't own any personal belongings beyond your shoes and 1 pair of clothes. Why don't you listen to them? Because you have your own life GOALS that probably aren't compatible with their idealism.  You need to ask yourself what your goals are and be convinced that your goals matter.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, you feel like you have more work than you can handle right now: great. And for all you know, 2 months from now all of your current clients could suddenly not want to hire/pay. Then you need to spend time finding more clients. That won't always be easy. You have to anticipate those lean times and not get content with what you have. I mean if you want to build a business. Having somebody else doing the work for you frees up your time to find more clients, for one thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;What can I offer to someone who I'm subcontracting to and why will they feel fine with the knowledge that I'm taking the difference? I've heard the argument &quot;because I take the risk&quot; or &quot;because I speak to the client&quot;. Although I'm quite certain if someone tried to subcontract me on these bases, I'd probably just be thinking &quot;fine, I can take the risk and talk to the client&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you work your own business long enough you see that a lot of time goes to just finding new clients. Getting connections to good clients and becoming their trusted provider isn't easy. The more you build your reputation &amp; connections it becomes easier. The point is that not everyone is capable of or wants to take the time &amp; energy to build that good client list. They just want to get paid. You can provide them with cash.  I assure you that there's lots of people with skills who appreciate getting paid and not having to worry about finding clients, maintaining long term client relationships, networking and so on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Wouldn't clients feel like they are paying too much if they know I am subcontracting to someone and taking some difference? Maybe I can say &quot;well I'm managing them&quot;. But the client might think &quot;yeah... manage... you're just telling them what I told you&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have bad ethics and/or poor customer relationship skills then yes. If you have good ethics you value your reputation so highly that 1.) you make sure your subcontractor is very good, 2.) if your side ever drops the ball you eat the costs, 3.) customer satisfaction is a high priority.  And you wouldn't hire an unknown person to work with an important client. You'd hire someone vouched for by someone you know and trust or you would test the new person out on a small project and over time you give them bigger projects to build your confidence in them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So that's the gist." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25498" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9977" RevisionGUID="cb26fbe1-9edc-4097-aebd-6a4c5ee4f656" CreationDate="2021-02-25T09:46:25.113" UserId="15235" Comment="typos corrected" Text="I had a meeting with a potential customer last week and I decided to decline any further planning of the project and now I'm not sure if I shouldn't have done that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The customer is looking for some company to develop some software for them. They are not a software company and don't have any in-house knowledge about development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They have hired some external person helping them with the technical details and that person has very strong opinions on what tools to use for developing and how to develop (I guess these are based on what that person knows).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I decided to decline the project because for me, it looks more like they are looking for somebody to do only the coding and not actually deliver a finished product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should it be a red flag if the customers want to buy a finished product and at the same time be involved in the process how that product should be made?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25499" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9977" RevisionGUID="cb26fbe1-9edc-4097-aebd-6a4c5ee4f656" CreationDate="2021-02-25T09:46:25.113" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 25716 edit id of 740" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25500" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10044" RevisionGUID="15c6a9bc-4384-432c-b7ef-b9ed1c356a97" CreationDate="2021-02-26T04:13:48.810" UserId="25988" Text="If it weren't hard enough being a freelancer, some crazy people like myself choose to be a true 'one man show' and develop entire platforms themselves rather than just a piece of a platform (eg front end, back end, design, etc) and/or relying on others to develop the other parts of the system. Obviously this requires prioritizing various sources of information. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I used to read programming books years back but that simply doesn't cut it anymore - the information is way too linear and in-depth, and if I kept doing that I'd be reading for the next 100 years. So I had to find more non-linear, abstracted sources of information that would allow me to pull together many things quickly and coherently and then sort out the hard-core engineering specifics as they arise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question to the community is this: if you ***had*** to point to ***one*** source of information (other than stack exchange obviously) that you could say &quot;yeah, without that I simply would not be where I am now&quot; with respect to taking on as much as possible, what would it be and ***why***?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some things to think about that I think myself and others would find interesting when answering why are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - What has helped you increase your independence / reduce dependence? Increase the amount you can take on / agency?&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; - What specifically about the source is so helpful? Ie, is it tools? Some kind of architectural pattern/s? A specific stack and/or ecosystem? Concepts? Etc?&#xD;&#xA; - How has it affected your personal network? Positively? Negatively? Trade off? For that matter, has it in any way redefined how you think about the idea of &quot;network&quot; or &quot;networking&quot;?&#xD;&#xA; - Has it helped you in terms of resilience? Why? &#xD;&#xA; - The *opposite* of all of this: what is the one thing you could point to and say that it is the biggest hinderance / barrier / most useless source that may be popularly perceived as helpful? (I'm reminded of [this study][1] which is also highly relevant to those doing all of this)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I ask this because I want to get different perspectives so that maybe I can learn something myself. However, the much more important reason is that I would really like to help out others in the same situation, and I feel like the entire world is so focused on collaboration and anti-individualism that there are hardly any pointers for those who choose to go it alone or just step outside of traditional hierarchies. I figured this is as good a place as any to start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although I'm asking about platforms, this could also just be about taking on the most you personally can in whatever form that is, so if you're a non-technical freelancer I'd love to hear from you too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I also understand that this question could be considered subjective, but I really don't think it necessarily has to be if addressed properly**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I mean by that is I can personally explicitly link an architectural pattern that I use, which came from the kind of source that I'm referring to, to the number of people that are now not needed anymore and compare that to a more popular architectural pattern that absolutely necessitates more people needed. *How many* more or less is subjective (I personally am down to 0), but the reduction with respect to a specific goal (building and maintaining a platform by one's self) is simply a fact, which is also in fact linked to the source. Hence, it is possible to give at least a semi-objective answer, and the answer that makes the clearest linkage wins and/or probably upvoted ;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://%20https://ssrn.com/abstract=3107898" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25501" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10044" RevisionGUID="15c6a9bc-4384-432c-b7ef-b9ed1c356a97" CreationDate="2021-02-26T04:13:48.810" UserId="25988" Text="Building an entire platform yourself - What's the ONE thing you could point to?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25502" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10044" RevisionGUID="15c6a9bc-4384-432c-b7ef-b9ed1c356a97" CreationDate="2021-02-26T04:13:48.810" UserId="25988" Text="|web-development|software|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25503" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10044" RevisionGUID="6126ab91-4218-48f8-ac85-91cc0c6fd21c" CreationDate="2021-02-26T04:29:16.910" UserId="25988" Comment="deleted 10 characters in body" Text="If it weren't hard enough being a freelancer, some crazy people like myself choose to be a true 'one man show' and develop entire platforms themselves rather than just a piece of a platform (eg front end, back end, design, etc) and/or relying on others to develop the other parts of the system. Obviously this requires prioritizing various sources of information. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, I used to read programming books years back but that simply doesn't cut it anymore - the information is way too linear and in-depth, and if I kept doing that I'd be reading for the next 100 years. So I had to find more non-linear, abstracted sources of information that would allow me to pull together many things quickly and coherently and then sort out the hard-core engineering specifics as they arise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question to the community is this: if you ***had*** to point to ***one*** source of information (other than stack exchange obviously) that you could say &quot;yeah, without that I simply would not be where I am now&quot; with respect to taking on as much as possible, what would it be and ***why***?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some things to think about that I think myself and others would find interesting when answering why are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - What has helped you increase your independence / reduce dependence? Increase the amount you can take on / agency?&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA; - What specifically about the source is so helpful? Ie, is it tools? Some kind of architectural pattern/s? A specific stack and/or ecosystem? Concepts? Etc?&#xD;&#xA; - How has it affected your personal network? Positively? Negatively? Trade off? For that matter, has it in any way redefined how you think about the idea of &quot;network&quot; or &quot;networking&quot;?&#xD;&#xA; - Has it helped you in terms of resilience? Why? &#xD;&#xA; - The *opposite* of all of this: what is the one thing you could point to and say that it is the biggest hinderance / barrier / most useless source that may be popularly perceived as helpful? (I'm reminded of [this study][1] which is also highly relevant to those doing all of this)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I ask this because I want to get different perspectives so that maybe I can learn something myself. However, the much more important reason is that I would really like to help out others in the same situation, and I feel like the entire world is so focused on collaboration and anti-individualism that there are hardly any pointers for those who choose to go it alone or just step outside of traditional hierarchies. I figured this is as good a place as any to start.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although I'm asking about platforms, this could also just be about taking on the most you personally can in whatever form that is, so if you're a non-technical freelancer I'd love to hear from you too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I also understand that this question could be considered subjective, but I really don't think it necessarily has to be if addressed properly**. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I mean by that is I can personally explicitly link an architectural pattern that I use, which came from the kind of source that I'm referring to, to the number of people that are now not needed anymore and compare that to a more popular architectural pattern that absolutely necessitates more people needed. *How many* more or less is subjective (I personally am down to 0), but the reduction with respect to a specific goal (building and maintaining a platform by one's self) is simply a fact, which is also in fact linked to the source. Hence, it is possible to give at least a semi-objective answer, and the answer that makes the clearest linkage wins and/or probably upvoted ;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3107898" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25504" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10045" RevisionGUID="a757edad-17b4-4a55-bd8b-246de3783b15" CreationDate="2021-02-26T08:25:47.147" UserId="25990" Text="I'd like to answer the main question first, in respect to the source of information that I have personally found the most helpful, and then explain why. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First of all I have to say that I hate that my pick is an individual and not a general knowledge base or platform. But I have to say my answer to this question is the Fireship YouTube channel. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In terms of freelancing his contentl simply covers every topic I feel like I'll ever need to know that it *exists* in really digestible form. The point is that I'll watch the videos and it gives me an idea of what exists out there so I can further look into it when I suddenly need it. It also helps me think of things I might have not realized would be an issue or features/methods/approaches that are possible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I find funny is that many people will agree Fireship is an Angular focused platform, or at least was with its in-depth courses, but personally I'm an avid React developer and outside of some hobby projects never touch Firebase. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The point is that I can watch his videos to understand concepts and design patterns. I don't really have to care for the specifics of how he implemented it because pretty much any stack will be able to achieve the same results. He's very good at explaining the goal instead of the execution. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What source of information do I find the most useless? Probably those heavily opinionated blog posts. Like I already said before I know it's not about the stack, but the ideas and concepts. So anyone trying to shove their method down my throat instead of explaining the idea behind it isn't very helpful to me. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25505" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="10044" RevisionGUID="f9a42064-2ebd-4603-9107-7c6e1a0f9495" CreationDate="2021-02-26T23:44:26.873" UserId="75" Comment="105" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:61,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;bytebuster&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="25510" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10047" RevisionGUID="76b7f13b-c618-481b-aaaa-7a9a6b92a06b" CreationDate="2021-03-03T16:01:10.857" UserId="25110" Text="As told above, you can use PayPal for international payments, however, in the context of India I do think that Razorpay is best. Don't know but I think Instamojo also does offer these kinds of services." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25511" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10048" RevisionGUID="68803f4d-172b-4cea-9e32-d862672a9063" CreationDate="2021-03-03T16:08:01.437" UserId="25110" Text="I don't know specifically for a country, but as far as I know freelancers don't need to register anywhere (might be different for different countries).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I work with a client or a company not located in my country, I just make a contract with them. Use invoices for quoting my services. I don't think you need to register anywhere. As freelancing is a kind of sole proprietorship, it does not need to be registered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, that company can sign a contract for the work done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25518" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10050" RevisionGUID="327b8e74-01eb-448a-ab50-8efe8f298a7c" CreationDate="2021-03-04T19:10:34.403" UserId="8361" Text="A client I've worked with in the past who has a habit of paying my invoices on the late side just sent me a photo of their credit card and told me to pay myself &quot;so I don't have to chase them down&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although this is obviously not the best way to be paid, is it possible? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**I have no idea how to process a card number to add money to my bank or paypal accounts, how can I do it?** " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25519" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10050" RevisionGUID="327b8e74-01eb-448a-ab50-8efe8f298a7c" CreationDate="2021-03-04T19:10:34.403" UserId="8361" Text="Clients wants me to &quot;pay myself&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25520" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10050" RevisionGUID="327b8e74-01eb-448a-ab50-8efe8f298a7c" CreationDate="2021-03-04T19:10:34.403" UserId="8361" Text="|payments|billing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25521" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10051" RevisionGUID="a93620ba-c064-4ac7-bb83-4932e1cebe90" CreationDate="2021-03-04T20:26:28.607" UserId="708" Text="It's fairly simple with PayPal or merchant services...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You merely load the web site and choose send money.. inputting the credit card numbers and any relevant info, setting yourself as the recipient. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically the procedure is the same as if you were sending money to someone else. Merely use the client's CC info.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You'll need the CC#, the CSV# on the back, the name on the card and the CC's billing address (at least the zip code).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will often use [Square][1] while the client is on the phone with me and merely input the numbers they give me. It would be the same process if I merely already had the info.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://squareup.com/us/en" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25530" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10035" RevisionGUID="bd364613-7435-4928-9ee5-b0a1bd4e362b" CreationDate="2021-03-08T16:29:12.780" UserId="15235" Comment="typos corrected" Text="As you continue to add more and more clients, are there best practices or procedures that are best to follow to keep clients' project files, credentials, etc.. separated on your computer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My concerns are trying to ensure I don't accidentally mix up client files, or even web credentials. Or even the source code and different AWS/GCP/Azure profiles. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've thought of using separate logins on my computers, but that also becomes a pain because there are so many tweaks and things to tools and settings that they are hard to keep synced up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this really not a problem at all? Just as long as I sandbox as best as I can each client, use Chrome/Firefox profiles per client. I've done the best I can and call it good? Or are their techniques and ways to help better separate out each client into their own respective sandbox?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25531" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10035" RevisionGUID="bd364613-7435-4928-9ee5-b0a1bd4e362b" CreationDate="2021-03-08T16:29:12.780" UserId="15235" Comment="typos corrected" Text="Should one keep their clients' files separated?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25532" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10035" RevisionGUID="bd364613-7435-4928-9ee5-b0a1bd4e362b" CreationDate="2021-03-08T16:29:12.780" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 25954 edit id of 739" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25535" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10054" RevisionGUID="a70f3b79-cbfc-4dd8-ad08-b1dbb12d049c" CreationDate="2021-03-09T11:23:10.013" UserId="24412" Text="I give codes to different customers, here mostly tickets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These codes are the prefix to folders, accounts etc.&#xD;&#xA;That helps to separate the work for different customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And so it is possible to give access to accounts to co-workers for this customer only.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every customer has its own .txt file with notes what is linked to him." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25536" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10035" RevisionGUID="6138df81-7b88-45cd-8fc7-88530d94b300" CreationDate="2021-03-10T21:00:05.133" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1369754956782272512" />
  <row Id="25538" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10055" RevisionGUID="cd1b798e-ad93-4f57-aa4e-8069828fd44e" CreationDate="2021-03-11T14:31:29.227" UserId="25718" Text="Thank you for your help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tried to get a job in [freelancer][1].&#xD;&#xA;I have regular mark and more than 20 cases of contract.&#xD;&#xA;I proposed to a work to create website using React.&#xD;&#xA;The client sent a message to me. I thought that he interested in my skills.&#xD;&#xA;He said that my portfolio is good. But then he wanted to see my projects.&#xD;&#xA;I have done 3 projects but all of them were Nondisclosure Agreements.&#xD;&#xA;I explained about it.&#xD;&#xA;But the client didn't believe me and said that my career is **lie**.&#xD;&#xA;But It wasn't lie.&#xD;&#xA;Then he declined my proposal.&#xD;&#xA;I wanted to work with him and I can. But I cannot get the job.&#xD;&#xA;What to do then?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.freelancer.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25539" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10055" RevisionGUID="cd1b798e-ad93-4f57-aa4e-8069828fd44e" CreationDate="2021-03-11T14:31:29.227" UserId="25718" Text="How do I make clients understand that I am the right lancer for my assignment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25540" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10055" RevisionGUID="cd1b798e-ad93-4f57-aa4e-8069828fd44e" CreationDate="2021-03-11T14:31:29.227" UserId="25718" Text="|difficult-client|portfolio|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25541" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10056" RevisionGUID="a82f0590-c358-4b9b-8aa1-6f426df83ee1" CreationDate="2021-03-12T04:28:06.000" UserId="708" Text="Even if you are 100% honest and upfront, this person, for whatever reason, has a mindset about you that you will **not** overcome, especially online.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regardless of whether or not you want to work on the project, he/she doesn't want to work with you. There's *nothing* you can do. Move on, find a different client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the mean time, you might want to start thinking about work you **can** show off. Even if that means creating projects that may not be &quot;real world&quot;. You really need to have *something* a prospective client can see. work history may encourage a potential client to contact you... but only a portfolio of past work will convince a potential client to *hire* you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25542" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10056" RevisionGUID="054b496b-99df-47c4-af0f-085b5365f9c8" CreationDate="2021-03-12T05:00:29.620" UserId="708" Comment="added 210 characters in body" Text="Even if you are 100% honest and upfront, this person, for whatever reason, has a mindset about you that you will **not** overcome, especially online.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regardless of whether or not you want to work on the project, he/she doesn't want to work with you. There's *nothing* you can do. Move on, find a different client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the mean time, you might want to start thinking about work you **can** show off. Even if that means creating projects that may not be &quot;real world&quot;. You really need to have *something* a prospective client can see. work history may encourage a potential client to contact you... but only a portfolio of past work will convince a potential client to *hire* you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that question directly related to working with, or the functionality of crowdsource freelance sites are off topic here. There shouldn't really be a need to link to a crowdsourcing site." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25543" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10057" RevisionGUID="42b7a52b-f673-4e4a-9423-d9214a743511" CreationDate="2021-03-12T18:23:51.650" UserId="26041" Text="I have seen many freelancers work on cheap rate. I understand if any novice or new freelancer can do work on cheap rate. But many of them who are well experienced are doing work on cheap rates. That is reducing reputation of skilled and experienced freelancers, many of them are from Asian countries. Like India, Bangladesh, pakistan." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25544" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10057" RevisionGUID="42b7a52b-f673-4e4a-9423-d9214a743511" CreationDate="2021-03-12T18:23:51.650" UserId="26041" Text="Why some freelancers work on very cheap rate?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25545" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10057" RevisionGUID="42b7a52b-f673-4e4a-9423-d9214a743511" CreationDate="2021-03-12T18:23:51.650" UserId="26041" Text="|freelance-websites|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25546" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10058" RevisionGUID="61291242-c525-42b7-a9df-b3e67c8f152e" CreationDate="2021-03-12T19:05:41.983" UserId="708" Text="Preface: I'm in the Unites States... I dislike and do **not** use any crowdsourcing site to acquire new work or clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To answer why rates seem low on some crowdsourcing sites.... **Exchange rates**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;$10 in the United States is equivalent to ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- 726 Indian Rupees&#xD;&#xA;- 156 Egyptian pounds&#xD;&#xA;- 1,090 Japanese Yen&#xD;&#xA;- 65 Chinese Yuan&#xD;&#xA;- 143,619 Indonesian Rupiah&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Rates may be low *to you* based upon your local currency. However, rates may be much, much higher than average pay rates in another country. Many workers in these countries can afford to drop to an equivalent of $1 US... while most workers living somewhere with a strong currency (US/UK/CA) can't afford to work for $1/hr or £1/hr.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are attempting to *compare* what others completing similar projects are charging, you need to only compare rates for others using your same currency or where an exchange rate is closer to a 1:1 ratio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This, among other things, may be why crowdsourcing sites could **not** be a feasible outlet for acquiring clients if you live in a country where currency is strong and exchange rates work *against* you. It's difficult to compete against others capable of *always* outbidding you due to exchange rates." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25551" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10057" RevisionGUID="d369bdaa-80ea-4f4b-be48-13b5cb2cfef9" CreationDate="2021-03-14T00:09:26.867" UserId="708" Comment="Grammar/structure/tag cleanup" Text="I have seen many freelancers work for cheap rates. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand if a novice or new freelancer works for cheaper rates. But many of them who are well experienced are doing work for a cheap rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is reducing reputation of skilled and experienced freelancers, many of them are from Asian countries. Like India, Bangladesh, pakistan." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25552" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10057" RevisionGUID="d369bdaa-80ea-4f4b-be48-13b5cb2cfef9" CreationDate="2021-03-14T00:09:26.867" UserId="708" Comment="Grammar/structure/tag cleanup" Text="How can some freelancers work for very cheap rates?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25553" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="10057" RevisionGUID="d369bdaa-80ea-4f4b-be48-13b5cb2cfef9" CreationDate="2021-03-14T00:09:26.867" UserId="708" Comment="Grammar/structure/tag cleanup" Text="|freelance-websites|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25554" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10058" RevisionGUID="d146c199-663e-4a71-8e17-cedbefa52a36" CreationDate="2021-03-14T00:11:56.140" UserId="708" Comment="added 410 characters in body" Text="Preface: I'm in the Unites States... I dislike and do **not** use any crowdsourcing site to acquire new work or clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To answer why rates seem low on some crowdsourcing sites.... **Exchange rates**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;$10 in the United States is equivalent to ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- 726 Indian Rupees&#xD;&#xA;- 156 Egyptian pounds&#xD;&#xA;- 1,090 Japanese Yen&#xD;&#xA;- 65 Chinese Yuan&#xD;&#xA;- 143,619 Indonesian Rupiah&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Rates may be low *to you* based upon your local currency. However, rates may be much, much higher than average pay rates in another country. Many workers in these countries can afford to drop to an equivalent of $1 US... while most workers living somewhere with a strong currency (US/UK/CA) can't afford to work for $1/hr or £1/hr.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are attempting to *compare* what others completing similar projects are charging, you need to only compare rates for others using your same currency or where an exchange rate is closer to a 1:1 ratio.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This, among other things, may be why crowdsourcing sites could **not** be a feasible outlet for acquiring clients if you live in a country where currency is strong and exchange rates work *against* you. It's difficult to compete against others capable of *always* outbidding you due to exchange rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And you are right, those capable of working for exceptionally low rates due to currency exchange devalue the work for those in countries where currency is strong. There's not much one can do about it though. With the advent of crowdsourcing allowing members all over the world to register and work, crowdsourcing is a global market/workforce - helping those in some countries while hurting those in others." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25560" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9948" RevisionGUID="a3905e79-ae63-4973-a740-01c5fdf3f38a" CreationDate="2021-03-14T23:47:54.193" UserId="15235" Comment="typos corrected" Text="I have trouble to get contracts as a freelancer. In every case it ends up with the company wanting to hire me and not rent me as a freelancer. The main argument is something like &quot;this is an extreme important role for our company and we want this knowledge to be in house&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the best way to make sure they will rent me as a freelancer? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25561" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9948" RevisionGUID="a3905e79-ae63-4973-a740-01c5fdf3f38a" CreationDate="2021-03-14T23:47:54.193" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 25604 edit id of 741" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25562" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10055" RevisionGUID="d9fa1818-b734-4196-bec1-b4220065ee1d" CreationDate="2021-03-15T01:15:38.220" UserId="15235" Comment="grammar corrections" Text="Thank you for your help.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tried to get a job at [freelancer.com][1].&#xD;&#xA;I have regular mark and more than 20 cases of contracts.&#xD;&#xA;I proposed to a work to create website using React.&#xD;&#xA;The client sent a message to me. I thought that he was interested in my skills.&#xD;&#xA;He said that my portfolio is good, but then he wanted to see my projects.&#xD;&#xA;I have done 3 projects but all of them had Nondisclosure Agreements.&#xD;&#xA;I explained about it.&#xD;&#xA;But the client didn't believe me and said that my career is **lie**.&#xD;&#xA;But it wasn't lie.&#xD;&#xA;Then he declined my proposal.&#xD;&#xA;I wanted to work with him and I can. But I cannot get the job.&#xD;&#xA;What to do then?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.freelancer.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25563" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10055" RevisionGUID="d9fa1818-b734-4196-bec1-b4220065ee1d" CreationDate="2021-03-15T01:15:38.220" UserId="15235" Comment="grammar corrections" Text="How do I make clients understand that I am the right freelancer for my assignment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25564" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10055" RevisionGUID="d9fa1818-b734-4196-bec1-b4220065ee1d" CreationDate="2021-03-15T01:15:38.220" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 25718 edit id of 743" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25565" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10061" RevisionGUID="5e1719b7-4cd7-4b2b-a591-aadc4dffece1" CreationDate="2021-03-15T09:50:29.063" UserId="25718" Text="Let me explain.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not because of the *currency percentage*.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;It is because of their standard of living and **human rights costs**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, human rights costs in India and elsewhere are not very expensive.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;They can live a month by **hundreds of dollars**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also because if they don't do that, there's no other job right now.&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;They can live by hundreds of dollars of money, so they find *other jobs* while doing that." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25566" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10062" RevisionGUID="2d5435f5-f16f-4527-a334-c9579eef0053" CreationDate="2021-03-15T10:13:01.433" UserId="7858" Text="I assume the NDAs you have signed are terribly restrictive - so your prior clients owe you nothing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, perhaps it could be worth a shot asking the clients if there are any details you are allowed to divulge. Depending on your relationship, they might accommodate you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Moving forward, you could attempt to water down any NDA, making it possible for you to use at least some clients as partial references." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25567" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10063" RevisionGUID="734114a1-9f25-4cdc-9ca7-cb7f98043c9f" CreationDate="2021-03-17T22:57:49.670" UserId="26079" Text="If this is something that you will be doing more often then not. I suggest just saving the CC info on your paypal account. That way all you have to do, when ever you need to pay yourself, is transfer funds from that card to your account. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's what I do. I have a friend that it's always borrowing money from me and when it's time to pay me back she does the same thing. She sends me  a pic of her debit card and tells me to do it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or u can also load your paypal.me account on your web browser, make sure your logged out of paypal, and then just  send yourself a payment from the second person's perspective. Enter the amount you in wasn't to pay your self and then enter credit card info when prompted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Either way you in will have your payment in minutes.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25568" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9905" RevisionGUID="419464ee-6484-4aea-bc9d-dba089c2c0b5" CreationDate="2021-03-18T19:01:10.170" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25569" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10064" RevisionGUID="e6301d2d-fe29-42b6-af3b-a5c01ff21764" CreationDate="2021-03-18T23:56:21.397" UserId="26090" Text="It's business. Rarely have we had to charge a late fee to clients, but those that are in real business and not in it as a hobby understand it and expect it. Manage your finances and pay your bills on time and there won't be an issue. It's standard business practice. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25580" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9751" RevisionGUID="f9b1644b-2f7f-483e-832d-8ee5a2e169d0" CreationDate="2021-03-28T19:02:25.267" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25587" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10019" RevisionGUID="03c13230-e193-44c3-85e1-4fb4431c9801" CreationDate="2021-04-02T17:01:55.220" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25590" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9664" RevisionGUID="747bb5c3-76ab-4b72-a8de-cbc038604deb" CreationDate="2021-04-04T08:05:30.453" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25591" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10069" RevisionGUID="7170da31-2d0d-4b74-9026-a85c68d6a7ec" CreationDate="2021-04-05T21:08:25.587" UserId="26181" Text="Several answers here assume US law. The OP asked specifically about international law. (I am not an expert in international law.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A better way of looking at this situation is to ask how enforceable are any rights?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the US, contracts and rights to software realistically have power to the extent that you are willing to go to court to protect them. If you can't afford to sue to protect copyright or violations of the contract, the rights and contract are gone. Years ago, my lawyer told me to walk away from any dispute where I couldn't get back at least $20K (that figure is higher now) because that is how much he would charge me to do such a suit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this situation, the OP asked about someone in another country. How enforceable is any contract or &quot;rights to IP&quot; in another country? It is common knowledge to hardware designers that doing business in or having hardware built in certain countries means that someone in that country will copy the design. This is true even though contracts have been signed to prevent such. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this case, how willing is the OP to go to that country to file a suit? Would the OP win? And if one wins the suit, how much could one realistically get from that person? If the person being sued has a net worth less than $10,000, what would be the value of doing all that effort? It would cost far more than you could get back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, we do best to find ethical people to do business with, trust they will honor your IP, and verify by smaller projects that they actually will. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25592" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9661" RevisionGUID="95dbbe3f-ebb4-4519-bc68-8979c8a2345b" CreationDate="2021-04-07T03:05:35.587" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25596" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10071" RevisionGUID="207d6ce4-b75f-4b37-b327-d85155f24e14" CreationDate="2021-04-08T10:58:37.253" UserId="26196" Text="i have been freelancing as a front-end developer since 4 years but the problem is i get client only through Upwork and Fiverr i want clients outside these platform and only from the usa or europe countries what is the best approach?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25597" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10071" RevisionGUID="207d6ce4-b75f-4b37-b327-d85155f24e14" CreationDate="2021-04-08T10:58:37.253" UserId="26196" Text="i have been freelancing as a front-end developer since 4 years but the problem is i want clients from europe/usa without using freelancing platform" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25598" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10071" RevisionGUID="207d6ce4-b75f-4b37-b327-d85155f24e14" CreationDate="2021-04-08T10:58:37.253" UserId="26196" Text="|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25600" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10035" RevisionGUID="5457c769-fdab-4876-93fd-82f8ed25755b" CreationDate="2021-04-08T12:06:20.650" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25601" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10072" RevisionGUID="0cca379f-a0eb-40e0-bf31-91c3e33d32f8" CreationDate="2021-04-09T15:29:42.443" UserId="26181" Text="To remain a freelancer means that you have to build a business. A business consists of numerous parts including marketing, sales, administration, legal, accounting, etc. When working with platforms such as UpWork, they are acting as your marketing team. To go outside of them, you need to build your own marketing team. If you don't know how to do that, you are better off where you are.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people recommend contacting old clients to see if they have work. If you have not kept contact with them, they might not take this contact properly. I do a monthly newsletter to old clients and old prospects that contacted me. I simply offer information, no selling in that newsletter. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other people talk about using LinkedIn to find people at companies where you want to business and contacting them. Typically, that means paying LinkedIn for the contact information. I get a number of requests &quot;to connect&quot; each month from people who only want to sell me something. In most cases, I turn them down. I would expect a response rate from such prospecting to be similar to any sales call - less than 1 percent will result in a sale." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25602" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9529" RevisionGUID="e7a09333-cf93-4ab9-8000-631aee1bf41d" CreationDate="2021-04-11T11:01:50.223" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25603" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10029" RevisionGUID="5f8b3da1-395f-4fc1-b82e-e71bedd5ff6b" CreationDate="2021-04-11T21:00:05.167" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1381351368611540994" />
  <row Id="25604" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9677" RevisionGUID="add94728-5a67-41c7-9a80-ad98e552a7e6" CreationDate="2021-04-12T02:00:50.047" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25605" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10073" RevisionGUID="7afaae33-37e7-48b2-b2c2-8c3fea59a2af" CreationDate="2021-04-14T04:18:40.730" UserId="26266" Text="I am based on south Asia and I am doing freelancing service through Fiverr. Currently I am expanding my services with professional Team. But I have no idea about entering to Global Market. My requirement is entering to global market directly. I don't need to follow or pay for freelancing web site such as fiverr or upwork. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can someone explain how to enter to global market? How to contact directly global companies for my services?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25606" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10073" RevisionGUID="7afaae33-37e7-48b2-b2c2-8c3fea59a2af" CreationDate="2021-04-14T04:18:40.730" UserId="26266" Text="How do we Enter Global IT Market Global Market like the USA, Europe or Australia" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25607" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10073" RevisionGUID="7afaae33-37e7-48b2-b2c2-8c3fea59a2af" CreationDate="2021-04-14T04:18:40.730" UserId="26266" Text="|marketing|business-plan|information-technology|foreign-markets|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25611" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="6392" RevisionGUID="1045a60a-57ab-468b-95c8-c1f79f811683" CreationDate="2021-04-14T16:01:55.553" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="25612" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9356" RevisionGUID="a4b3349c-d762-48d7-9403-cdf9eb1f7928" CreationDate="2021-04-18T17:54:16.253" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25613" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10075" RevisionGUID="3ccbdb9f-2575-4277-bc76-a9a93c455e31" CreationDate="2021-04-20T12:49:57.450" UserId="26289" Text="I am a small business owner selling handmade products. I usually work on a 'sale or return' basis with local stockists but I have just received my first purchase order from a stockist who is buying my products wholesale. Within the purchase order sent to me, they have included VAT, which I have never mentioned before in our discussions of purchase. I am registered as a business but am not VAT registered. Do I include this VAT in my invoice to them? Or is it unnecessary?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25614" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10075" RevisionGUID="3ccbdb9f-2575-4277-bc76-a9a93c455e31" CreationDate="2021-04-20T12:49:57.450" UserId="26289" Text="VAT included in a purchase order" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25615" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10075" RevisionGUID="3ccbdb9f-2575-4277-bc76-a9a93c455e31" CreationDate="2021-04-20T12:49:57.450" UserId="26289" Text="|invoices|billing|vat|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25616" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10076" RevisionGUID="8d29e765-5504-40e1-b010-47b0761342d5" CreationDate="2021-04-20T17:42:01.787" UserId="20786" Text="If you are not registered for VAT, you must not charge it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I take it from your post that your customer has mentioned VAT on a purchase order but has not yet paid you as you have not yet submitted an invoice.  Your invoice will, in your normal manner, not include VAT.  Your customer would be expected to pay the invoiced amount.  Your invoices, of course, state you aren't VAT registered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your customer has paid you, including VAT, then they have overpaid.  You should contact the customer regarding a refund.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They, as wholesalers, will probably have to charge VAT to their customer when they sell your product on.  That is their problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25617" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10077" RevisionGUID="3503715d-ae26-412d-acb2-7cb9f43f75fe" CreationDate="2021-04-27T00:54:26.653" UserId="26318" Text="It sounds like what you need are [System Virtual Machines][1]. These sit within your Operating System, but act like a walled garden so that your files don't (and indeed can't) interact with each other. You can also set tokens, credentials, cookies and login details without it compromising other websites that you're working on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The added bonus here is that you can keep all of the work that relates to each client separated, take the VM wherever you go and restore them if and when your desktop catches fire or the HDD dies. This also obviates the need for having passworded file folders, code prefixes or whatever jerry-rigged system you're currently using to stop your files from accidentally bleeding over into each other.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a [host of other benefits][2] including the ability to run your VM on an identical software platform as your client's server and that you now have the capacity to share that setup with other developers and the client, should you so desire.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://chriswiegman.com/2013/08/virtual-machines-the-holy-grail-of-local-web-development/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25618" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10078" RevisionGUID="fe539347-1327-4f25-b981-aa3e921be4bb" CreationDate="2021-04-27T01:13:48.687" UserId="26318" Text="This individual was attempting to defraud you, or at best to use intimidation to try to get you to produce skilled products for a much lower price than you would normally charge. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without any specific verbal agreements in place to produce products at a specified price (and given the absences of a written contract and his bizarre conduct since the collapse of the relationship), the odds of him being able to successfully sue you are close to nil, noting that the value of the contract (30 x £9/1000rs) is actually pretty small.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You were right to block his calls and should terminated the relationship as soon as it became clear that he didn't intend to pay your expenses. You were right to be wary about going to &quot;see him alone&quot; as it's likely that he would have tried to use the opportunity to intimidate you further or even use violence to coerce you.** " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25619" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10079" RevisionGUID="b0ad0cf2-c399-4e59-a45b-84d538c0321c" CreationDate="2021-04-27T01:40:08.000" UserId="26318" Text="You've answered your own question. There are so many red flags here that you could host a parade.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **The spec isn't even close to being finalised:** Not a (huge) problem *per se*, but they appear to have no idea what they want and are looking for you to tell&#xD;&#xA;   them what they want. That's not the way a client/developer&#xD;&#xA;   relationship should work.&#xD;&#xA;   &#xD;&#xA; - **Endless meetings:** See above. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **No budget:** It's clear that they have no idea what they want to spend. Because they don't know what they want yet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **No project spec and assets:** See above.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Cash-in-hand payments:** As you've mentioned, these are a big no-no. They might be wanting to pay you in cash, but you better believe they're keeping a record somewhere. And when they get raided by the IRS, your name will be in their books as a cash recipient.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - ***&quot;I've experienced a surge in lower-paying gigs and a drop in the usual high-paying gigs I'm used to&quot;***: This is the biggest red flag, and it's on your side of the fence rather than theirs. Your standards appear to have dropped because you're not seeing as much work come through as normal. Ask yourself if you'd touch these guys with a 10-ft bargepole if you weren't scratching around.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25620" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10078" RevisionGUID="6311b378-fbdf-4ed7-9b82-00a0f272d8f7" CreationDate="2021-04-27T06:32:50.020" UserId="26318" Comment="added 5 characters in body" Text="This individual was attempting to defraud you, or at best to use intimidation to try to get you to produce skilled products for a much lower price than you would normally charge. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Without any specific verbal agreements in place to produce products at a specified price (and given the absences of a written contract and his bizarre conduct since the collapse of the relationship), the odds of him being able to successfully sue you are close to nil, noting that the value of the contract (30 x £9/1000rs) is actually pretty small.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**You were right to block his calls and should have terminated the relationship as soon as it became clear that he didn't intend to pay your expenses. You were right to be wary about going to &quot;see him alone&quot; as it's likely that he would have tried to use the opportunity to intimidate you further or even use violence to coerce you.** " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25621" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10080" RevisionGUID="4d2592b7-00f3-403a-a56a-2feddeaac987" CreationDate="2021-04-27T10:51:11.543" UserId="26318" Text="As someone who is normally resident in the UK, you need to pay UK income tax on any income you earn from overseas (https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income). You will need to complete a self-assessment and declare the income. Failure to do so will likely result in allegations of tax fraud in the UK since you will not be able to explain why you're receiving a semi-regular payment from an overseas account that you control, noting that the UK and Australia are happily cooperative on tax fraud matters and can easily see where the money is coming from at both ends of the transaction. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you are not normally resident in Australia, you do not need to pay income tax on your earnings, although you may need to explain your arrangement to the tax office (https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/In-detail/Income/Foreign-income-of-Australian-residents-working-overseas).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25622" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10081" RevisionGUID="c3c9778c-5d51-4c73-a314-21ae64f303be" CreationDate="2021-04-27T11:12:36.537" UserId="26318" Text="You seem to be acting out of anger rather than considering the most sensible course of action, which is to briefly report your unsatisfactory experience with this client to whichever site he found you on, and then move on with your life. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While you may gain some small measure of satisfaction from damaging their reputation or trashing their software product, the reality is that unless you have a huge megaphone (a twitter account with 100K followers, for example) your complaints will make only the tiniest impact on them and may provoke lawsuits, defamation claims and other forms of retaliation on their part. They may even use the same tactics against you to damage your reputation and future clients may be put off using someone who is happy to trash a client when the relationship doesn't go well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Unless you plan to sue them (in which case your lawyer can bill you $90 an hour to tell you to shut up), the best course of action is to accept this as somewhat expensive lesson in client management.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25623" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10082" RevisionGUID="3993e00c-08d1-4ee4-a865-d8e5fa738975" CreationDate="2021-04-27T11:53:56.037" UserId="26318" Text="For work with multiple clients, the best way to keep invoices distinct is through the use of a prefix code, so if I have three clients I might have three invoice 0001's, but with a different notation at the start e.g. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - CN1-00001 &#xD;&#xA; - CN2-00001&#xD;&#xA; - CN3-00001&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This system allows you to see, at a glance, which invoice you're referencing and, for your own ease of management, which client it refers to. Having a single number system (invoice #001, #002, #003, #004) will eventually bite you on the backside when clients phone you with queries about missing invoices because they've not received them in sequential order." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25624" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10083" RevisionGUID="c655a5a7-0c34-4d2c-ac7b-3ba24f3b37a0" CreationDate="2021-04-27T12:12:33.403" UserId="26318" Text="There are a couple of ways to get around these restriction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#1 - Avoid GDPR entirely.&#xD;&#xA;----------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The GDPR primarily relates to the storage of data relevant to the individual. If the email doesn't contain information that could *reasonably identify an individual*, then the GDPR doesn't apply since there's no personal data being controlled. Spam these as often as you like, just being mindful not to breach your domain's rules on unsolicited contacts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - JohnSmith@company.com = X &#xD;&#xA; - FinanceDirector@company.com = X&#xD;&#xA; - CustomerService@company.com = ✓&#xD;&#xA; - Info@company.com = ✓&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;#2 - Claim immunity&#xD;&#xA;------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This one is slightly harder because you may well end up needing to call a lawyer if you get snarky emails from the ICO. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Q3: Can I send cold emails to people under GDPR?**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Yes, you can send cold emails to people at companies under GDPR. Those need to be B2B emails that meet certain requirements. Firstly, you can’t send them to just anyone. You need to target your prospects very carefully. **You need to have a strong reason to claim that the company the person works for can benefit from what your company offer**s in the email. Moreover, **your business activity should be logically connected with the business activity of your prospect**. That will be a legal basis to send someone an email without their previous consent to process their data.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Secondly, in each of your email messages, **you need to inform your cold email recipients what personal data you are processing,** for what purpose, and how they can remove their data from your mailing list, or change them. That’s how you fulfill the information duty described in GDPR.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Thirdly, **you should not process your cold email addressees’ personal data for longer than it’s necessary.** GDPR does not specify any particular period of time. We advise removing from your lists the data of prospects who have not replied within 30 days from sending them your first message. That’s how you abide by the data storage limitation principle while sending cold emails.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &lt;sub&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[&quot;GDPR for Cold Sales Email Senders – FAQ&quot; - Cathy Dawiskiba – Chief Growth Officer – Woodpecker Marketing.][1]&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://woodpecker.co/blog/gdpr-faq/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25625" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10084" RevisionGUID="d97bef4f-6da6-4f94-964c-9d621cdec793" CreationDate="2021-04-27T13:22:05.907" UserId="26318" Text="**Threatening legal action (&quot;talking tough&quot;) is, as you've rightly stated, merely a basic business tactic to get people to do things they might otherwise not, in this case presumably offering a refund.** Until you receive an actual communication from their solicitor you've got nothing to worry about, and even then the odds of ending up in court justifying your business practices are essentially nil.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this instance the relationship appears to soured. You admit that the project was poorly coded and that the spec spiralled out of control, ultimately leading to them taking on a second developer who's evidently convinced them that you're an incompetent and that he needs to start almost from scratch. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short, you've nothing to worry about legally but you should refuse to return any money that they've already paid for the work that you carried out. By the same token, it's unlikely that they'll pay *you* any outstanding monies and it's unlikely you'd win a court case fighting for it. **Simply break off the relationship and advise them that it's at the advice of your own solicitor.**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25626" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10085" RevisionGUID="a9c4c2ef-257f-487d-b433-2f63f31b1b44" CreationDate="2021-04-27T17:15:53.963" UserId="26318" Text="**TL;DR.** In this case they've simply assumed that you're VAT-rated, so the fault is entirely theirs. Issue them a credit note for the difference (or just refuse the PO until they send a corrected one) and explain that you're not registered for VAT. Keep copies of those emails for at least 5 years in case the VAT man comes a callin'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As to whether to *start* issuing them invoices with VAT (knowing that they're happy to pay it), the answer to that is a very very firm 'no'. You would be breaking the law and exposing yourself to considerable legal jeopardy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **You must not charge VAT if your business is not registered for VAT.** However, VAT registered businesses must charge VAT on their taxable supplies of goods and services and can reclaim the VAT they have paid that relates to the supplies on which they have charged VAT.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; **A penalty is payable by anyone who issues an invoice showing VAT when they are not registered for VAT: paragraph 2, Schedule 41, Finance Act 2008. The penalty can be up to 100% of the VAT shown on the invoice.** There is a minimum penalty of 10% of the VAT even if there is an unprompted disclosure to HMRC of a careless mistake, as distinct from deliberate and concealed conduct.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; **What Happens if I Charge VAT and I’m not VAT Registered? Putting Matters Right**&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; To put matters right, you should do two things. First, you should issue a credit note and also a refund to the customer for the VAT involved and explain to them that they should correct their VAT account if they have claimed an input tax deduction for the VAT you have mistakenly charged them.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Second, and at the same time, you should make an unprompted disclosure to HMRC explaining what has happened and the action you are taking to correct the situation. You should also explain how the situation arose and hope that only the minimum 10% penalty is charged. Do keep in mind that HMRC has the power to recover the VAT wrongly charged as a debt due to the Crown: paragraph 5, Schedule 11, Value Added Tax Act 1994. Also, HMRC can charge interest until the VAT is paid over to HMRC: section 74(4) Value Added Tax Act 1994.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &lt;sub&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[Patrick Cannon - Barrister-at-Law: Charge VAT and Not VAT registered][1]&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.patrickcannon.net/news/charge-vat-and-not-vat-registered/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25627" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10086" RevisionGUID="bf07ce30-f082-4ad0-bee4-b5b488f1413d" CreationDate="2021-04-27T22:55:10.967" UserId="26325" Text="First of all, if my approach to this is a waste of time (mine or the client's) or unethical, let me know because that's more important to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a programmer with management, product management, and agile coaching experience. Sometimes when I'm applying to technical jobs, I see a post from a company that could, in my opinion, greatly benefit from my skills. The problem is, these job postings are for lower level full-time positions, and I want to work as a consultant. I often apply anyway, hoping that I can reach someone that realizes I can provide more value than the position offered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some of the times, it's HR that replies. Usually they function as a candidate filter, reading a checklist of skills and salary for the ideal candidate. If I don't check all those boxes, I don't move on to the next stage. I feel like if I could somehow reach the person with the actual problem, I'd have a chance of explaining my value (and price) beyond HR's checklist.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What techniques can I use to get past HR and reach those with the actual problems I could help with?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25628" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10086" RevisionGUID="bf07ce30-f082-4ad0-bee4-b5b488f1413d" CreationDate="2021-04-27T22:55:10.967" UserId="26325" Text="What are some techniques to get past Human Resources to talk to the person that needs help" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25629" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10086" RevisionGUID="bf07ce30-f082-4ad0-bee4-b5b488f1413d" CreationDate="2021-04-27T22:55:10.967" UserId="26325" Text="|attracting-clients|communication|price|consulting|ethics|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25630" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10087" RevisionGUID="e40b215e-cfa9-4c8f-bc4e-009b9b7834ae" CreationDate="2021-04-28T07:05:10.607" UserId="26318" Text="As you've correctly determined, you're speaking to the wrong people with the wrong priorities.&#xD;&#xA;------------------------------------------------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;HR's problem is that they've been given **a job that needs filling**. Their task (as they see it) is to find suitable candidates **for that job** and to screen out all of the people who're unsuitable for that job. You fall very firmly into the latter category. By comparison, the manager's problem is that he or she has **a set of (programming, etc) tasks that need to be completed** and has determined that **these tasks require a set of skills that aren't currently available to them**. This is the person that you need to contact with your [frame-challenge][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having determine that applying for these roles via the usual channels is a fool's errand, what you need to do is spend a little time researching these companies and then **communicate directly with the manager who's having the original problem**. Suitable channels for investigation include linkedin, 'who's who' guides on the company's website, publicity posts about senior hires, etc. Indeed.com provide a [nice guide][2] to a few of the things you might like to try when you're in information-gathering mode.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Search social media. &#xD;&#xA; - Reach out to the company's employees. &#xD;&#xA; - Network with your professional contacts.&#xD;&#xA; - Find a trade publication.&#xD;&#xA; - Reach out to other senior managers.&#xD;&#xA; - etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once you've got your target, an email (or better yet, a phone call if you're feeling brave) addressed to them personally to them will usually merit a response. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;Dear Mr/Mrs/Miss X, I gather you're looking for an internal web developer to design you a web store. It so happens that I provide web design services at a very reasonable rate which includes development and support. Perhaps you might consider hiring me on a consultancy basis? Here's my rate-card and a portfolio of my work&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6842/whats-a-frame-challenge/6843#6843&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/how-to-find-hiring-manager" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25631" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="531" RevisionGUID="b01be466-c6ee-470b-93cc-6b3f217924c0" CreationDate="2021-04-28T18:14:17.323" UserId="26323" Comment="The last case (&gt; 1 month) was not in chronological order as the first two cases are and so so it was rather confusing. The edited version now has the percentage of the delivery at the end." Text="I use this as a rule of thumb, based on the total project time:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**&lt; 1 week**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;50% upfront, 50% after delivery&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**&lt; 1 month**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;25% upfront, 25% in the middle, 50% after delivery&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**&gt; 1 month**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;25% upfront, 50% is split into milestones and the remaining 25% after delivery " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25632" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="531" RevisionGUID="b01be466-c6ee-470b-93cc-6b3f217924c0" CreationDate="2021-04-28T18:14:17.323" Comment="Proposed by 26323 approved by 61, 121 edit id of 746" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25633" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10088" RevisionGUID="3477c660-97b2-43d8-b530-b02d0ce11a42" CreationDate="2021-04-28T19:12:52.433" UserId="26330" Text="I've set up a company and I'm paying an accountant monthly to help me with taxes, then I have to also pay taxes, recently I had to pay a lawyer to help me with drafting a contract template for future clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm having a ***very hard*** time finding clients / projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One option is going through job platforms but I'm finding there are many downsides:&#xD;&#xA;1. There fees 10% fees involved by the job platforms&#xD;&#xA;2. For some projects I'm not eligible to bid because I'm located Europe and some clients are putting a restriction on the geography (I lose around 15% of projects this way alone)&#xD;&#xA;3. The site only allows me a limited number of bids, and it charges me further for a number of bids&#xD;&#xA;4. I have to reissue/regenerate the invoices the freelance job market generates for me because none of them has my fiscal code on them&#xD;&#xA;5. There's a lot of work involved in winning bids. From previous experience I have to place around 15-20 bids to win 1 or 2 projects, this is a very time-consuming process that I would rather have spent in actual client work&#xD;&#xA;6. The project budgets are really low, much below market value&#xD;&#xA;7. There's a lot of risk involved in dealing with unvetted clients. I've had one client last month simply refusing to pay their invoice even though the deliverables were to spec. This comes after multiple progress meetings with them where I demo'd deliverables&#xD;&#xA;8. There are many communication delays involved so I have to multitask between trying to find clients and doing actual work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm writing to ask: How should find clients outside of these online job markets, preferably with a steady stream of projects, and communicating with them directly? If there are contracts to be written, that's not a problem, but it seems like just finding interested clients. I was told that I should somehow use referals but honestly I don't know how that would work in practice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another way would be for clients to find my services, but that also doesn't seem to be easy or efficient in any way (even when using blog posts as a way to advertise services offered), as most seem to be interested in hiring people, and I'm just trying to do contracting-based or consulting work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A related, more quantitative question would be: After how many blog technical posts that also advertise services, should I be expecting to connect with a potential client for example on Linkedin? I don't know if this question has an answer but I'd be interested to read any thoughts on that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you in advance for any thoughts you'd like to share about these questions" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25634" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10088" RevisionGUID="3477c660-97b2-43d8-b530-b02d0ce11a42" CreationDate="2021-04-28T19:12:52.433" UserId="26330" Text="How to find clients and communicate with them directly" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25635" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10088" RevisionGUID="3477c660-97b2-43d8-b530-b02d0ce11a42" CreationDate="2021-04-28T19:12:52.433" UserId="26330" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|attracting-clients|consulting|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25636" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10088" RevisionGUID="c6e6f488-6ab6-4254-b5cf-d535e43cc040" CreationDate="2021-04-28T19:51:41.237" UserId="26330" Comment="added 11 characters in body" Text="I've set up a company and I'm paying an accountant monthly to help me with taxes, then I have to also pay taxes, recently I had to pay a lawyer to help me with drafting a contract template for future clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm having a ***very hard*** time finding clients / projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One option is going through job platforms but I'm finding there are many downsides:&#xD;&#xA;1. There fees 10% fees involved by the job platforms&#xD;&#xA;2. For some projects I'm not eligible to bid because I'm located in Eastern Europe and some clients are placing a restriction on the geography (I lose around 15% of projects this way alone)&#xD;&#xA;3. The site only allows me a limited number of bids, and it charges me further for a number of bids&#xD;&#xA;4. I have to reissue/regenerate the invoices the freelance job market generates for me because none of them has my fiscal code on them&#xD;&#xA;5. There's a lot of work involved in winning bids. From previous experience I have to place around 15-20 bids to win 1 or 2 projects, this is a very time-consuming process that I would rather have spent in actual client work&#xD;&#xA;6. The project budgets are really low, much below market value&#xD;&#xA;7. There's a lot of risk involved in dealing with unvetted clients. I've had one client last month simply refusing to pay their invoice even though the deliverables were to spec. This comes after multiple progress meetings with them where I demo'd deliverables&#xD;&#xA;8. There are many communication delays involved so I have to multitask between trying to find clients and doing actual work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm writing to ask: How should find clients outside of these online job markets, preferably with a steady stream of projects, and communicating with them directly? If there are contracts to be written, that's not a problem, but it seems like just finding interested clients. I was told that I should somehow use referals but honestly I don't know how that would work in practice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another way would be for clients to find my services, but that also doesn't seem to be easy or efficient in any way (even when using blog posts as a way to advertise services offered), as most seem to be interested in hiring people, and I'm just trying to do contracting-based or consulting work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A related, more quantitative question would be: After how many blog technical posts that also advertise services, should I be expecting to connect with a potential client for example on Linkedin? I don't know if this question has an answer but I'd be interested to read any thoughts on that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you in advance for any thoughts you'd like to share about these questions" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25637" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10088" RevisionGUID="3971e6ac-3921-4ed6-9f7a-d9961655bfc0" CreationDate="2021-04-28T20:32:49.320" UserId="26330" Comment="added 24 characters in body" Text="I've set up a company and I'm paying an accountant monthly to help me with taxes, then I have to also pay taxes, recently I had to pay a lawyer to help me with drafting a contract template for future clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm having a ***very hard*** time finding clients / projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One option is going through job platforms but I'm finding there are many downsides:&#xD;&#xA;1. The job platform is charging a 10% fee (relative to the project's value) &#xD;&#xA;2. For some projects I'm not eligible to bid because I'm located in Eastern Europe and some clients are placing a restriction on the geography (I lose around 15% of projects this way alone)&#xD;&#xA;3. The site only allows me a small number of bids. I get charged further fees to purchase additional bids&#xD;&#xA;4. I have to reissue/regenerate the invoices the freelance job market generates for me because none of them has my fiscal code on them&#xD;&#xA;5. There's a lot of work involved in winning bids. From previous experience I have to place around 15-20 bids to win 1 or 2 projects, this is a very time-consuming process that I would rather have spent in actual client work&#xD;&#xA;6. The project budgets are really low, much below market value&#xD;&#xA;7. There's a lot of risk involved in dealing with unvetted clients. I've had one client last month simply refusing to pay their invoice even though the deliverables were to spec. This comes after multiple progress meetings with them where I demo'd deliverables&#xD;&#xA;8. There are many communication delays involved so I have to multitask between trying to find clients and doing actual work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm writing to ask: How should find clients outside of these online job markets, preferably with a steady stream of projects, and communicating with them directly? If there are contracts to be written, that's not a problem, but it seems like just finding interested clients. I was told that I should somehow use referals but honestly I don't know how that would work in practice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another way would be for clients to find my services, but that also doesn't seem to be easy or efficient in any way (even when using blog posts as a way to advertise services offered), as most seem to be interested in hiring people, and I'm just trying to do contracting-based or consulting work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A related, more quantitative question would be: After how many blog technical posts that also advertise services, should I be expecting to connect with a potential client for example on Linkedin? I don't know if this question has an answer but I'd be interested to read any thoughts on that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you in advance for any thoughts you'd like to share about these questions" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25638" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10088" RevisionGUID="a3eee465-ba9d-4f2a-9639-8e01c74800c9" CreationDate="2021-04-28T20:42:31.807" UserId="26330" Comment="added 39 characters in body" Text="I've set up a company and I'm paying an accountant monthly to help me with taxes, then I have to also pay taxes, recently I had to pay a lawyer to help me with drafting a contract template for future clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm having a ***very hard*** time finding clients / projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One option is going through job platforms but I'm finding there are many downsides:&#xD;&#xA;1. The job platform is charging a 10% fee (relative to the project's value) &#xD;&#xA;2. For some projects I'm not eligible to bid because I'm located in Eastern Europe and some clients are placing a restriction on the geography (I lose around 15% of projects this way alone)&#xD;&#xA;3. The site only allows me a small number of bids. I get charged further fees to purchase additional bids&#xD;&#xA;4. I have to reissue/regenerate the invoices the freelance job market generates for me because none of them has my fiscal code on them&#xD;&#xA;5. There's a lot of work involved in winning bids. From previous experience I have to place around 15-20 bids to win 1 or 2 projects, this is a very time-consuming process that I would rather have spent in actual client work&#xD;&#xA;6. The project budgets are really low value, much below market value&#xD;&#xA;7. There's a lot of risk involved in dealing with unvetted clients (with no previous projects or reviews). I've had one client last month simply refusing to pay their invoice even though the deliverables were to spec. This comes after multiple progress meetings with them where I demo'd deliverables&#xD;&#xA;8. There are many communication delays involved so I have to multitask between trying to find clients and doing actual work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm writing to ask: How should I find clients outside of these online job markets, preferably with a steady stream of projects, and communicating with them directly? If there are contracts to be written, that's not a problem, but it seems like just finding interested clients. I was told that I should somehow use referals but honestly I don't know how that would work in practice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another way would be for clients to find my services, but that also doesn't seem to be easy or efficient in any way (even when using blog posts as a way to advertise services offered), as most seem to be interested in hiring people, and I'm just trying to do contracting-based or consulting work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A related, more quantitative question would be: After how many blog technical posts that also advertise services, should I be expecting to connect with a potential client for example on Linkedin? I don't know if this question has an answer but I'd be interested to read any thoughts on that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you in advance for any thoughts you'd like to share about these questions" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25639" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10089" RevisionGUID="fa5ab90f-d85c-48e3-8ebf-a6535472b299" CreationDate="2021-04-28T22:34:37.033" UserId="26318" Text="Yes, absolutely there is. You simply (ha!) need to get them to agree to add the following clause, or some variation thereof, to whatever written agreement you make with them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; [The company] *agrees to indemnify and hold* [you] *not accountable for any loss or damage that occurs from their work, whether directly, indirectly or otherwise.* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, the tricky part of that is that they may choose not to agree. At that point you'll want to get liability insurance. There are [no end][1] of [potential suppliers][2] and [the cost][3], unless you're developing military or medical software, is likely to be in the tens of dollars for more cover than you could ever theoretically need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.hiscox.com/small-business-insurance/professional-business-insurance/it-insurance&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://generalliabilityinsure.com/small-business/software-developer-insurance.html&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.techinsurance.com/professions/software-development?__cf_chl_captcha_tk__=4df6f091d7e58e93ffdc3bbc5e76cb4d41aefb8e-1619649188-0-AesSeA1Ug0FH6W2RjUtqhJixbwo3NOLJ9zi9zf6CQPikuF0TjwBciKSaFjm5tkjIHjTP1FeEJ-nrGtjbvwLRFSWSVyjzwdQnL2hpOukZSlk4MqEwGAGLyS3GgeP_42tHcz2t7oInSDZufmnaR9VLqK6e3LY9Sm02TQufSZo30lRV9vLmbj4-Uo8x55lzBd8a9Ei92mbN-Vylf-lyvDM1JeDkC6wUx72RvhFgDSMrA8hNrMt2I0lOIWWV-gDHwmEHgPfBVd5TkClTH06uZjac6Ihe7O-uKyvp_oM5agJLFOpXsZ6uo3_LBzU4_AyFB1sCXnwENXUmY4OnS3Dr0xb14nVqweNC-C3u83KbPOgGBKG7c4YDpH0a6Xzgg0GaM9cLyAymLM-_SRdVQgZ9IotzJM7CPCcnGm2o8SNbtTrVyRxE5q32R_rN5Rga1qJ4hRAYxPDVJzZxOOm95cKQsH9nWW78U2wyh3ODwedWRNkF9lwD0ISHYLAJqM2ffalyt2A7Z261k1RdozayN9qIjJv8jKmKLQz8rY0Y1GdyaG6sedl_SZNxItxn5esqSSTEKH640bIeKNNipezkUhMa6yZxGr-bQCvk5t4d0Lz_sfkj6uaXq5N7W9-ZIxnYGAc8rFDLy1zmHUnN1xEjvDV5UwZb6mk" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25640" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10088" RevisionGUID="df5cf3b6-7866-48a0-b2d1-1859e6d51d12" CreationDate="2021-04-28T22:38:53.020" UserId="26330" Comment="deleted 14 characters in body" Text="I've set up a company and I'm paying an accountant monthly to help me with taxes, then I have to also pay taxes, recently I had to pay a lawyer to help me with drafting a contract template for future clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm having a ***very hard*** time finding clients / projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One option is going through job platforms but I'm finding there are many downsides:&#xD;&#xA;1. The job platform is charging a 10% fee (relative to the project's value) &#xD;&#xA;2. For some projects I'm not eligible to bid because I'm located in Eastern Europe and some clients are placing a restriction on the geography (I lose around 15% of projects this way alone)&#xD;&#xA;3. The site only allows me a small number of bids. I get charged further fees to purchase additional bids&#xD;&#xA;4. I have to reissue/regenerate the invoices the freelance job market generates for me because none of them has my fiscal code on them&#xD;&#xA;5. There's a lot of work involved in winning bids. From previous experience I have to place around 15-20 bids to win 1 or 2 projects, this is a very time-consuming process that I would rather have spent in actual client work&#xD;&#xA;6. The project budgets are really low value, much below market value&#xD;&#xA;7. There's a lot of risk involved in dealing with unvetted clients (with no previous projects or reviews). I've had one client last month simply refusing to pay their invoice even though the deliverables were to spec. This comes after multiple progress meetings with them where I demo'd deliverables&#xD;&#xA;8. There are many communication delays involved so I have to multitask between trying to find clients and doing actual work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm writing to ask: How should I find clients outside of these online job markets, preferably with a steady stream of projects, and communicating with them directly? If there are contracts to be written, that's not a problem, but it seems like just finding interested clients. I was told that I should somehow use referals but honestly I don't know how that would work in practice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another way would be for clients to find my services, but that also doesn't seem to be easy or efficient in any way (even when using blog posts as a way to advertise services offered), as most seem to be interested in hiring people, and I'm just trying to do contracting-based or consulting work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A related, more quantitative question would be: After how many blog posts (that advertise services) should I be expecting to connect with a potential client for example on Linkedin? Is this even viable? I don't know if this question has an answer but I'd be interested to read any thoughts on that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you in advance for any thoughts you'd like to share about these questions" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25641" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10088" RevisionGUID="ca7dd955-474c-4e53-b01a-87e3d89f73d4" CreationDate="2021-04-28T23:58:54.003" UserId="26330" Comment="edited title" Text="How can I find clients and communicate with them directly" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25642" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7263" RevisionGUID="97b2d06b-49d7-4d58-9b6c-47830c1585de" CreationDate="2021-04-29T08:04:40.523" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25643" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10090" RevisionGUID="638a317c-cbd1-44a9-aa89-5eb317143fde" CreationDate="2021-04-29T08:34:08.870" UserId="26318" Text="You certainly don't want to be billing *weekly* for an ongoing service provision. Most companies don't pay their bills that often, which means that it's a recipe for missed payments and complication. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think your latter instinct are right. Billing monthly is the standard model and unless there's a significant reason to want to bill in advance (if the client has prior history of non-payment, for example) it's normal for suppliers to assume at least a small portion of the risk in business relationships.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Billing against an up-front retainer is obviously much better for you, since there's less risk, but many clients won't want to do that because it means that the risk is firmly on their side of the fence if *you* go broke.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, you need to work out what level of risk you want to take and how badly you want to push for a specific payment model, at the possible cost of losing the customer. You also need to be mindful that what seems entirely valid for one client (blue-chip, old money, always pay their bills on time) might be completely inappropriate for another (startup, minimal credit history, flaky billing)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25644" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10091" RevisionGUID="c06958b7-4760-47d1-9a2e-c8d16bd5767b" CreationDate="2021-04-29T17:13:35.787" UserId="25495" Text="Having already a job as employee in a German company, can one also do some freelance job without being registered as a freelance or as a company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The intention is not to open a proper company or switch to freelancing, but just to take an additional job to round up the income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. is there any **limit for the freelancing amount of money**, that allows to not have to register as freelancer if not gaining enough out of it?&#xD;&#xA;2. if one must register as freelancer in any case, **will this affect the employee's benefits of having access to unemployment money**, in case of resigning?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*(names or references to regulations/laws would be appreciated too, if you have them)*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25645" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10091" RevisionGUID="c06958b7-4760-47d1-9a2e-c8d16bd5767b" CreationDate="2021-04-29T17:13:35.787" UserId="25495" Text="Can I invoice a client for programming freelance work without having a business registered in Germany?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25646" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10091" RevisionGUID="c06958b7-4760-47d1-9a2e-c8d16bd5767b" CreationDate="2021-04-29T17:13:35.787" UserId="25495" Text="|germany|registration|small-projects|company-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25647" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10092" RevisionGUID="ef3d8d31-84a1-48f6-ad98-3cd7def29309" CreationDate="2021-04-29T18:21:56.873" UserId="26181" Text="You are asking how to be in business. According to Warren Buffet, a business needs two things, marketing and innovation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Marketing is what we do to identify who to sell to, what to sell to them, and at what price point. You are finding out that marketing is a lot of work. Exactly. That is why businesses spend so much money on marketing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, what worked in marketing last year does not work this year. Marketing is not a &quot;linear&quot; process where we do X and get Y result. It is where we do X, Y, and Z and a customer finds us via B. It is a whole process that may or may not work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, marketing has to fit who you are. Trying to do something that someone else does may or may not work for you. Yes, there are a lot of different techniques out there that someone is using to get customers. But, that does not mean that those techniques will work for you. It takes time and experimentation to find what works for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, a good customer is one that A. knows they have a problem, B. has the assets to spend to fix that problem, and C. has the willingness to spend to fix that problem. There are many people with problems who are not willing to spend. One way to test that is to ask for a down payment. People get a whole lot more honest about their willingness to pay the moment I ask for money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You talk about wanting to spend the time on doing the work instead of this marketing stuff. Being in business means doing this marketing stuff. Often, a business will spend 25-30% of their time and assets on marketing and perhaps less than 40% actually doing the work. A service business needs to mark up the cost of providing the service by 2.5 to 3 times in order to stay in business. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25648" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10092" RevisionGUID="22236f16-50d5-467d-9ce1-d6b45d18d95f" CreationDate="2021-04-29T20:25:39.390" UserId="26181" Comment="Attribution fix" Text="You are asking how to be in business. According to Peter Drucker, a business needs two things, marketing and innovation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Marketing is what we do to identify who to sell to, what to sell to them, and at what price point. You are finding out that marketing is a lot of work. Exactly. That is why businesses spend so much money on marketing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, what worked in marketing last year does not work this year. Marketing is not a &quot;linear&quot; process where we do X and get Y result. It is where we do X, Y, and Z and a customer finds us via B. It is a whole process that may or may not work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, marketing has to fit who you are. Trying to do something that someone else does may or may not work for you. Yes, there are a lot of different techniques out there that someone is using to get customers. But, that does not mean that those techniques will work for you. It takes time and experimentation to find what works for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my experience, a good customer is one that A. knows they have a problem, B. has the assets to spend to fix that problem, and C. has the willingness to spend to fix that problem. There are many people with problems who are not willing to spend. One way to test that is to ask for a down payment. People get a whole lot more honest about their willingness to pay the moment I ask for money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You talk about wanting to spend the time on doing the work instead of this marketing stuff. Being in business means doing this marketing stuff. Often, a business will spend 25-30% of their time and assets on marketing and perhaps less than 40% actually doing the work. A service business needs to mark up the cost of providing the service by 2.5 to 3 times in order to stay in business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit: corrected attribution." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25649" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10091" RevisionGUID="dd042f29-e216-4e3e-b72c-f55aff5f3077" CreationDate="2021-04-29T20:52:44.120" UserId="25495" Comment="added 69 characters in body" Text="Having already a job as employee in a German company, can one also do some freelance job without being registered as a freelance or as a company?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The intention is not to open a proper company or switch to freelancing, but just to take an additional job to round up the income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. is there any **limit for the freelancing amount of money**, that allows to not have to register as freelancer if not gaining enough out of it?&#xD;&#xA;2. if one must register as freelancer in any case, **will this affect the employee's benefits of having access to unemployment money**, in case of resigning?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note:** this is not related to visa workers but to EU citizens.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*(names or references to regulations/laws would be appreciated too, if you have them)*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25650" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10093" RevisionGUID="2f22ce6a-c98d-448b-bbce-7cb6a4525f98" CreationDate="2021-04-30T09:35:29.243" UserId="26074" Text="I am a first-time employer, and recently hired a freelancer for a full-time job with the job title &quot;Need assistant for a monthly contract requiring stock trading/finance-related work&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;In the job post, I said the job is assisting me in stock trading all day like tasks like research, tracking my portfolio all day long, sending me constant alerts related to my portfolio and market change, and grunt work related to trading.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also added a small point in the work description &quot;Any other personal assistance work.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;Now I wonder where do I draw the line in personal assistance. I have many personal assistance tasks that I need frequently like &quot;Running my dating profile&quot;, &quot;Look who is a good doctor in my area for X health issue and book an appointment&quot;, &quot;Call everyone and find who has this product available&quot;, &quot;Look for best and cheap flight connection between these 2 countries&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although part-time work, these tasks are completely unrelated to finance. I know a lot of white-collar workers don't like to do such thing and believe they are being treated like a servant.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my questions are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;How do I know if my freelancer employee is okay with such work? I can try asking but I am not sure if he will say yes anyway since after all, I am his boss.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25651" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10093" RevisionGUID="2f22ce6a-c98d-448b-bbce-7cb6a4525f98" CreationDate="2021-04-30T09:35:29.243" UserId="26074" Text="As an employer, can I ask my full-time freelancer to help me with personal work frequently" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25652" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10093" RevisionGUID="2f22ce6a-c98d-448b-bbce-7cb6a4525f98" CreationDate="2021-04-30T09:35:29.243" UserId="26074" Text="|client-support|ethics|scope-of-work|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25656" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10095" RevisionGUID="ff8c95f7-875c-4d26-8cde-d6c4adbb4a01" CreationDate="2021-04-30T12:04:18.753" UserId="26318" Text="If your intention is to treat your financial services freelancer as a [Personal Assistant][1] then there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, **as long as you understand that they'll almost certainly quit if you don't give them warning them in advance and gain their agreement.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Holding someone to the *fine print* of an employment contract is notoriously difficult and with the small sums of money involved, the individual is most likely to just smile, politely do a half-assed job of whatever scutwork you've set them, then quit as soon as they have any opportunity to do so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd broach it in the following way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Schedule a dedicated meeting with them to discuss the terms of their contract.&#xD;&#xA; - Ask them how they think things are going. Hopefully they'll say that they're happy.&#xD;&#xA; - Tell them, *in no uncertain terms*, that you want to change their job description to include some Personal Assistant work. Make sure you outline the sorts of tasks and how much of their time they should expect to be spending on this. &#xD;&#xA; - Consider offering them an incentive to their agreement (e.g. if they're likely to be spending an additional 1-2 hours a week, maybe consider adding this to their monthly salary). &#xD;&#xA; - Don't rely on that clause in their contract. It's far too vague and they probably didn't notice it. They won't appreciate you trying to hold them to it, especially as this is a new thing.&#xD;&#xA; - Be prepared for pushback. As you've correctly identified, they may simply say that they're not interested. Decide whether you're willing to lose them over this by insisting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_assistant" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25659" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10093" RevisionGUID="80080f3a-a739-48d4-9d43-2965b0b10321" CreationDate="2021-04-30T16:43:48.157" UserId="26318" Comment="Tidied the language a little" Text="I am a first-time employer, and recently hired a freelancer for a full-time job with the job title &quot;*Need assistant for a monthly contract requiring stock trading/finance-related work*&quot;.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;In the job post, I said the job would consist of is assisting me in stock-trading,   financial research, tracking my portfolio all day long, sending me constant alerts related to my portfolio and market changes, and grunt work related to trading.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also added a small point in the work description &quot;*Any other personal assistance work*.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I'm wondering where I draw the line in personal assistance. I have many personal assistance tasks that I need frequently like &quot;Running my dating profile&quot;, &quot;Look who is a good doctor in my area for X health issue and book an appointment&quot;, &quot;Call everyone and find who has this product available&quot;, &quot;Look for best and cheap flight connection between these 2 countries&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although part-time work, these tasks are completely unrelated to finance. I know a lot of white-collar workers don't like to do such thing and believe they are being treated like a servant.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How do I know if my freelancer employee is okay with such work? I can try asking but I am not sure if he will say yes anyway since after all, I am his boss.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25660" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10093" RevisionGUID="80080f3a-a739-48d4-9d43-2965b0b10321" CreationDate="2021-04-30T16:43:48.157" UserId="26318" Comment="Tidied the language a little" Text="Can I ask my full-time freelancer to help me with personal work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25661" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10093" RevisionGUID="80080f3a-a739-48d4-9d43-2965b0b10321" CreationDate="2021-04-30T16:43:48.157" Comment="Proposed by 26318 approved by 26074 edit id of 747" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25662" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10096" RevisionGUID="c38e8b8f-4839-4fb5-9c96-d8a96e66c8ca" CreationDate="2021-05-01T11:53:08.497" UserId="26342" Text="I am considering to start up an IT consultancy company in Hong Kong.  I would work as a freelancer with clients anywhere in the world, but I currently have a specific client in Europe in mind (Belgium).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've read that not only do I not have to charge 21% VAT to my client from Belgium, but that **my client does not need to pay it** as well because I will be outside of EU. ([source in Dutch][1])  This means that neither Belgium nor Hong Kong is receiving any VAT.  Can I get some confirmation that this is true?  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems weird to me that my client would have to pay VAT to a company anywhere in the EU, but that this tax would disappear when you purchase a service from outside of EU. Isn't the point of Europe to provide benefits to the countries within it?  This seems like the opposite is happening.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have another question specifically about Hong Kong company tax.  It is [listed to range from 8.25% - 16.5%][2], but foreign sourced income is not taxed.  That means that my earnings from Europe effectively enjoy 0% tax.  But I've read [from an individual][3] that this **exemption from tax only applies if I am not earning it from Hong Kong**.  I have not been able to find this rule anywhere.  Does anyone know whether or not this is true?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://zzp-belasting.tips/factuur-uit-het-buitenland-btw-aangifte/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.gov.hk/en/residents/taxes/taxfiling/taxrates/profitsrates.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://geoexpat.com/forum/145/thread237718.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25663" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10096" RevisionGUID="c38e8b8f-4839-4fb5-9c96-d8a96e66c8ca" CreationDate="2021-05-01T11:53:08.497" UserId="26342" Text="Hong Kong company taxes for European clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25664" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10096" RevisionGUID="c38e8b8f-4839-4fb5-9c96-d8a96e66c8ca" CreationDate="2021-05-01T11:53:08.497" UserId="26342" Text="|taxes|vat|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25671" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10099" RevisionGUID="e6534153-029d-44be-9896-1ecf3d4bcf81" CreationDate="2021-05-02T13:02:33.683" UserId="26330" Text="This question is about fixed priced projects where one or more of the following characteristics are part of the project description:&#xD;&#xA;1. The entire project needs to take place over a form of remote screensharing or remote desktop application (teamviewer, [or other remote desktop applications](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Web_conferencing) )&#xD;&#xA;2. The entire project is to be carried out on the client's server, where code can only be uploaded (maybe even through FTP or SFTP), there is no SSH access&#xD;&#xA;3. The client specifically mentions in his project description: _&quot;Please do not bid on this project if you've never done this before&quot;_ . In addition, documentation online is scarce or just absent (in any form) for the kind of problem the project is asking to solve&#xD;&#xA;4. A step-by-step procedure is required as a deliverable (so documentation)&#xD;&#xA;5. The following expectation is provided as part of the project description: _&quot;This should be very simple for someone who knows what they're doing&quot;_&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Item `[5]` seems to be a common expectation for most projects)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently read one project description where items `[1],[3],[4]` in the above list are present. The project asks for the installation of a component where the official vendor installation process  is known to be either wrong, outdated or incomplete. So the component clearly does not install as advertised, and work needs to be carried out to fix, troubleshoot or debug said component (it might even require recompiling it or making changes to it).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of item `[3]` being present, to me it seems there's an expectation that the freelancer has a private ready-made solution, that's ready to go. But from my reading, it's the kind of project where in order to achieve it, it requires additional work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are a few questions I have about this project:&#xD;&#xA;* How do I figure out if a client is actually interested in this project, or if it's the kind of thing they don't really need or care about, but if it is available, they would be interested in it. In other words, how do I measure if there's high or low interest on their side ?&#xD;&#xA;* Should I bother to explain to them that the project is more involved than they think, or just avoid bidding on it altogether ?&#xD;&#xA;* Because requirement `[4]` is present, it would make `[1]` superfluous/unnecessary, yet both are present and I'm wondering why&#xD;&#xA;* In view of `[1]`, and the fact that this is not just an installation/configuration project (it requires additional troubleshooting/debugging) I'm trying to understand the requirement of using Teamviewer to do all of this. I understand doing Teamviewer meetings for an initial meeting to discuss project requirements, or at the end of a project where deliverables are being presented or tested in a demo meeting, but it seems like this is different, in this particular project description that we're talking about, all work is to be performed in a Teamviewer session. So my question here is if I'm right to assume this looks risky, especially because this is a fixed-priced project and a solution needs to be built during the Teamviewer sessions whereas the description reads as though the solution exists prior to the Teamviewer meetings &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25672" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10099" RevisionGUID="e6534153-029d-44be-9896-1ecf3d4bcf81" CreationDate="2021-05-02T13:02:33.683" UserId="26330" Text="Risk involved in remote assistance project with high expectations" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25673" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10099" RevisionGUID="e6534153-029d-44be-9896-1ecf3d4bcf81" CreationDate="2021-05-02T13:02:33.683" UserId="26330" Text="|freelance-websites|remote|fixed-price|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25674" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10099" RevisionGUID="ca6aa30a-b02d-4c4c-a9c2-92a6175c0f50" CreationDate="2021-05-02T13:07:53.693" UserId="26330" Comment="added 240 characters in body" Text="This question is about fixed priced projects where one or more of the following characteristics are part of the project description:&#xD;&#xA;1. The entire project needs to take place over a form of remote screensharing or remote desktop application (teamviewer, [or other remote desktop applications](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Web_conferencing) )&#xD;&#xA;2. The entire project is to be carried out on the client's server, where code can only be uploaded (maybe even through FTP or SFTP), there is no SSH access&#xD;&#xA;3. The client specifically mentions in his project description: _&quot;Please do not bid on this project if you've never done this before&quot;_ . In addition, documentation online is scarce or just absent (in any form) for the kind of problem the project is asking to solve&#xD;&#xA;4. A step-by-step procedure is required as a deliverable (so documentation)&#xD;&#xA;5. The following expectation is provided as part of the project description: _&quot;This should be very simple for someone who knows what they're doing&quot;_&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Item `[5]` seems to be a common expectation for most projects)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently read one project description where items `[1],[3],[4]` in the above list are present. The project asks for the installation of a component where the official vendor installation process  is known to be either wrong, outdated or incomplete. So the component clearly does not install as advertised, and work needs to be carried out to fix, troubleshoot or debug said component (it might even require recompiling it or making changes to it).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of item `[3]` being present, to me it seems there's an expectation that the freelancer has a private ready-made solution, that's ready to go. But from my reading, it's the kind of project where in order to achieve it, it requires additional work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are a few questions I have about this project:&#xD;&#xA;* How do I figure out if a client is actually interested in this project, or if it's the kind of thing they don't really need or care about, but if it is available, they would be interested in it. In other words, how do I measure if there's high or low interest on their side ?&#xD;&#xA;* Should I bother to explain to them that the project is more involved than they think, or just avoid bidding on it altogether ?&#xD;&#xA;* Because requirement `[4]` is present, it would make `[1]` superfluous/unnecessary, yet both are present and I'm wondering why&#xD;&#xA;* In view of `[1]`, and the fact that this is not just an installation/configuration project (it requires additional troubleshooting/debugging) I'm trying to understand the requirement of using Teamviewer to do all of this. I understand doing Teamviewer meetings for an initial meeting to discuss project requirements, or at the end of a project where deliverables are being presented or tested in a demo meeting, but it seems like this is different, in this particular project description that we're talking about, all work is to be performed in a Teamviewer session. So my question here is if I'm right to assume this looks risky, especially because this is a fixed-priced project and a solution needs to be built during the Teamviewer sessions whereas the description reads as though the solution exists prior to the Teamviewer meetings &#xD;&#xA;* I also find that in this particular case `[5]` is actually not true. If the project was actually very simple, or instructions for it were widely available, then the project wouldn't have been posted in the first place due to simplicity. So I'm also wondering about the meaning of the phrasing there&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25675" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10099" RevisionGUID="ca6aa30a-b02d-4c4c-a9c2-92a6175c0f50" CreationDate="2021-05-02T13:07:53.693" UserId="26330" Comment="added 240 characters in body" Text="Risk assessment of remote assistance project with high expectations" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25676" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10099" RevisionGUID="8d256a3a-bdf3-4492-89d1-f597ec8ce617" CreationDate="2021-05-02T13:13:53.653" UserId="26330" Comment="added 240 characters in body" Text="This question is about fixed priced projects where one or more of the following characteristics are part of the project description:&#xD;&#xA;1. The entire project needs to take place over a form of remote screensharing or remote desktop application (teamviewer, [or other remote desktop applications](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Web_conferencing) )&#xD;&#xA;2. The entire project is to be carried out on the client's server, where code can only be uploaded (maybe even through FTP or SFTP), there is no SSH access&#xD;&#xA;3. The client specifically mentions in his project description: _&quot;Please do not bid on this project if you've never done this before&quot;_ . In addition, documentation online is scarce or just absent (in any form) for the kind of problem the project is asking to solve&#xD;&#xA;4. A step-by-step procedure is required as a deliverable (so documentation)&#xD;&#xA;5. The following expectation is provided as part of the project description: _&quot;This should be very simple for someone who knows what they're doing&quot;_&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Item `[5]` seems to be a common expectation for most projects)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently read one project description where items `[1],[3],[4]` in the above list are present. The project asks for the installation of a component where the official vendor installation process  is known to be either wrong, outdated or incomplete. So the component clearly does not install as advertised, and work needs to be carried out to fix, troubleshoot or debug said component (it might even require recompiling it or making changes to it).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of item `[3]` being present, to me it seems there's an expectation that the freelancer has a private ready-made solution, that's ready to go. But from my reading, it's the kind of project where in order to achieve it, it requires additional work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are a few questions I have about this project:&#xD;&#xA;* How do I figure out if a client is actually interested in this project, or if it's the kind of thing they don't really need or care about, but if it is available, they would be interested in it. In other words, how do I measure if there's high or low interest on their side ?&#xD;&#xA;* Should I bother to explain to them that the project is more involved than they think, or just avoid bidding on it altogether ?&#xD;&#xA;* Because requirement `[4]` is present, it would make `[1]` superfluous/unnecessary, yet both are present and I'm wondering why&#xD;&#xA;* In view of `[1]`, and the fact that this is not just an installation/configuration project (it requires additional troubleshooting/debugging) I'm trying to understand the requirement of using Teamviewer to do all of this. I understand doing Teamviewer meetings for an initial meeting to discuss project requirements, or at the end of a project where deliverables are being presented or tested in a demo meeting, but it seems like this is different, in this particular project description that we're talking about, all work is to be performed in a Teamviewer session. So my question here is if I'm right to assume this looks risky, especially because this is a fixed-priced project and a solution needs to be built during the Teamviewer sessions whereas the description reads as though the solution exists prior to the Teamviewer meetings &#xD;&#xA;* I also find that in this particular case `[5]` is actually not true. If the project was actually very simple, or instructions for it were widely available, then the project wouldn't have been posted in the first place due to simplicity. So I'm actually wondering about the meaning of item `[5]`, or is it simply [just low-balling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-ball#By_buyers) ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25677" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10099" RevisionGUID="81444d00-435f-4662-a69a-d0209adfd87b" CreationDate="2021-05-02T13:29:09.277" UserId="26330" Comment="added 201 characters in body" Text="This question is about fixed priced projects where one or more of the following characteristics are part of the project description:&#xD;&#xA;1. The entire project needs to take place over a form of remote screensharing or remote desktop application (teamviewer, [or other remote desktop applications](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Web_conferencing) )&#xD;&#xA;2. The entire project is to be carried out on the client's server, where code can only be uploaded (maybe even through FTP or SFTP), there is no SSH access&#xD;&#xA;3. The client specifically mentions in his project description: _&quot;Please do not bid on this project if you've never done this before&quot;_ . In addition, documentation online is scarce or just absent (in any form) for the kind of problem the project is asking to solve&#xD;&#xA;4. A step-by-step procedure is required as a deliverable (so documentation)&#xD;&#xA;5. The following expectation is provided as part of the project description: _&quot;This should be very simple for someone who knows what they're doing&quot;_&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Item `[5]` seems to be a common expectation for most projects)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently read one project description where items `[1],[3],[4]` in the above list are present. The project asks for the installation of a component where the official vendor installation process  is known to be either wrong, outdated or incomplete. So the component clearly does not install as advertised, and work needs to be carried out to fix, troubleshoot or debug said component (it might even require recompiling it or making changes to it).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of item `[3]` being present, to me it seems there's an expectation that the freelancer has a private ready-made solution, that's ready to go. But from my reading, it's the kind of project where in order to achieve it, it requires additional work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are a few questions I have about this project:&#xD;&#xA;* How do I figure out if a client is actually interested in this project, or if it's the kind of thing they don't really need or care about, but if it is available, they would be interested in it. In other words, how do I measure if there's high or low interest on their side ?&#xD;&#xA;* Should I bother to explain to them that the project is more involved than they think, or just avoid bidding on it altogether ?&#xD;&#xA;* Because requirement `[4]` is present, it would make `[1]` superfluous/unnecessary, yet both are present and I'm wondering why&#xD;&#xA;* In view of `[1]`, and the fact that this is not just an installation/configuration project (it requires additional troubleshooting/debugging) I'm trying to understand the requirement of using Teamviewer to do all of this. I understand doing Teamviewer meetings for an initial meeting to discuss project requirements, or at the end of a project where deliverables are being presented or tested in a demo meeting, but it seems like this is different, in this particular project description that we're talking about, all work is to be performed in a Teamviewer session. So my question here is if I'm right to assume this looks risky, especially because this is a fixed-priced project and a solution needs to be built during the Teamviewer sessions whereas the description reads as though the solution exists prior to the Teamviewer meetings &#xD;&#xA;* I also find that in this particular case `[5]` is actually not true. If the project was actually very simple, or instructions for it were widely available, then the project wouldn't have been posted in the first place due to simplicity. So I'm actually wondering about the meaning of item `[5]`, or is it simply [just low-balling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-ball#By_buyers) ?&#xD;&#xA;* My overall conclusion is that this entire project is actually meant for an hourly-rate instead of a fixed-price. Is this a fair thing to say, and if so what would be a good way to communicate that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25678" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10099" RevisionGUID="edb60cb5-9b4a-4080-9e06-fa0a369d2a03" CreationDate="2021-05-02T13:38:23.983" UserId="26330" Comment="added 8 characters in body" Text="This question is about fixed priced projects where one or more of the following characteristics are part of the project description:&#xD;&#xA;1. The entire project needs to take place over a form of remote screensharing or remote desktop application (teamviewer, [or other remote desktop applications](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Web_conferencing) )&#xD;&#xA;2. The entire project is to be carried out on the client's server, where code can only be uploaded (maybe even through FTP or SFTP), there is no SSH access&#xD;&#xA;3. The client specifically mentions in his project description: **_&quot;Please do not bid on this project if you've never done this before&quot;_** . In addition, documentation online is scarce or just absent (in any form) for the kind of problem the project is asking to solve&#xD;&#xA;4. A step-by-step procedure is required as a deliverable (so documentation)&#xD;&#xA;5. The following expectation is provided as part of the project description: **_&quot;This should be very simple for someone who knows what they're doing&quot;_**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Item `[5]` seems to be a common expectation for most projects)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently read one project description where items `[1],[3],[4]` in the above list are present. The project asks for the installation of a component where the official vendor installation process  is known to be either wrong, outdated or incomplete. So the component clearly does not install as advertised, and work needs to be carried out to fix, troubleshoot or debug said component (it might even require patching the code, or rebuilding some binaries).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of item `[3]` being present, to me it seems there's an expectation that the freelancer has a private ready-made solution, that's ready to go. But from my reading, it's the kind of project where in order to achieve it, it requires additional work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are a few questions I have about this project:&#xD;&#xA;* How do I figure out if a client is actually interested in this project, or if it's the kind of thing they don't really need or care about, but if it is available, they would be interested in it. In other words, how do I measure if there's high or low interest on their side ?&#xD;&#xA;* Should I bother to explain to them that the project is more involved than they think, or just avoid bidding on it altogether ?&#xD;&#xA;* Because requirement `[4]` is present, it would make `[1]` superfluous/unnecessary, yet both are present and I'm wondering why&#xD;&#xA;* In view of `[1]`, and the fact that this is not just an installation/configuration project (it requires additional troubleshooting/debugging) I'm trying to understand the requirement of using Teamviewer to do all of this. I understand doing Teamviewer meetings for an initial meeting to discuss project requirements, or at the end of a project where deliverables are being presented or tested in a demo meeting, but it seems like this is different, in this particular project description that we're talking about, all work is to be performed in a Teamviewer session. So my question here is if I'm right to assume this looks risky, especially because this is a fixed-priced project and a solution needs to be built during the Teamviewer sessions whereas the description reads as though the solution exists prior to the Teamviewer meetings &#xD;&#xA;* I also find that in this particular case `[5]` is actually not true. If the project was actually very simple, or instructions for it were widely available, then the project wouldn't have been posted in the first place due to simplicity. So I'm actually wondering about the meaning of item `[5]`, or is it simply [just low-balling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-ball#By_buyers) ?&#xD;&#xA;* My overall conclusion is that this entire project is actually meant for an hourly-rate instead of a fixed-price. Is this a fair thing to say, and if so what would be a good way to communicate that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25679" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10099" RevisionGUID="ca3ae917-7ce3-4770-9f5a-9d8ea82c11c1" CreationDate="2021-05-02T13:45:04.430" UserId="26330" Comment="deleted 55 characters in body" Text="This question is about fixed priced projects where one or more of the following characteristics are part of the project description:&#xD;&#xA;1. The entire project needs to take place over a form of remote screensharing or remote desktop application (teamviewer, [or other remote desktop applications](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Web_conferencing) )&#xD;&#xA;2. The entire project is to be carried out on the client's server, where code can only be uploaded (maybe even through FTP or SFTP), there is no SSH access&#xD;&#xA;3. The client specifically mentions in his project description: **_&quot;Please do not bid on this project if you've never done this before&quot;_** . In addition, documentation online is scarce or just absent (in any form) for the kind of problem the project is asking to solve&#xD;&#xA;4. A step-by-step procedure is required as a deliverable (so documentation)&#xD;&#xA;5. The following expectation is provided as part of the project description: **_&quot;This should be very simple for someone who knows what they're doing&quot;_**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Item `[5]` seems to be a common expectation for most projects)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently read one project description where items `[1],[3],[4]` in the above list are present. The project asks for the installation of a component where the official vendor installation process  is known to be either wrong, outdated or incomplete. So the component clearly does not install as advertised, and work needs to be carried out to fix, troubleshoot or debug said component (it might even require patching the code, or rebuilding some binaries).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of item `[3]` being present, to me it seems there's an expectation that the freelancer has a private ready-made solution, that's ready to go. But from my reading, it's the kind of project where in order to achieve it, it requires additional work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are a few questions I have about this project:&#xD;&#xA;* How do I figure out if a client is actually interested in this project, or if it's the kind of thing they don't really need or care about, but if it is available, they would be interested in it. In other words, how do I measure if there's high or low interest on their side ?&#xD;&#xA;* Should I bother to explain to them that the project is more involved than they think, or just avoid bidding on it altogether ?&#xD;&#xA;* Because requirement `[4]` is present, it would make `[1]` superfluous/unnecessary, yet both are present and I'm wondering why&#xD;&#xA;* In view of `[1]`, and the fact that this is not just an installation/configuration project (it requires additional troubleshooting/debugging) I'm trying to understand the requirement of using Teamviewer to do all of this. I understand doing Teamviewer meetings for an initial meeting to discuss project requirements, or at the end of a project where deliverables are being presented or tested in a demo meeting, but it seems like this is different, in this particular project description that we're talking about, all work is to be performed in a Teamviewer session. So my question here is if I'm right to assume this looks risky, especially because this is a fixed-priced project and a solution needs to be built during the Teamviewer sessions whereas the description reads as though the solution exists prior to the Teamviewer meetings &#xD;&#xA;* I also find that in this particular case `[5]` is actually not true. If the project was very simple, then the project wouldn't have been posted in the first place due to simplicity. So I'm actually wondering about the meaning of item `[5]`, or is it simply [just low-balling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-ball#By_buyers) ?&#xD;&#xA;* My overall conclusion is that this entire project is actually meant for an hourly-rate instead of a fixed-price. Is this a fair thing to say, and if so what would be a good way to communicate that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25680" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10100" RevisionGUID="e27dcaae-a7e0-4cbd-abf5-01ee29dc57bb" CreationDate="2021-05-02T14:08:21.967" UserId="26181" Text="In my experience, the only times I have made money on a fixed price contract were when I had built a solution for that problem already and I only needed to tweak it for a new client. I had to price the solution about 7 times what it cost me to tweak in order to make money. I cannot do custom development on fixed price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Clients like fixed price. They want to know what it will cost before hand. Clients have the same problem with estimating costs that junior programmers do with estimating how much time it will take to do it - typically estimating only 10-25% of the actual time and costs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem comes from a client who has had strong opinions about the cost and was burned by someone going way over the initial estimate. What you describe is typical for such a person who is trying to control their costs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We cannot measure the prospect's real interest. All we can do is to state how we will operate if hired and let them make the decision. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, if I saw a post like this on a freelancing job board, I would pass on it as &quot;this client will be too much trouble for me to enjoy working with&quot;. I want a client who is able and willing to spend what ever it takes to solve the problem." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25681" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10091" RevisionGUID="5ebae141-752e-4213-80cc-6e9335297261" CreationDate="2021-05-02T15:16:40.617" UserId="25495" Comment="edited title" Text="In Germany, can I invoice a client for programming freelance work without having a business registered?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25682" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10099" RevisionGUID="53f66b9e-31a1-489a-a735-1956f0a99a39" CreationDate="2021-05-02T17:42:50.783" UserId="26330" Comment="added 357 characters in body" Text="This question is about fixed priced projects where one or more of the following characteristics are part of the project description:&#xD;&#xA;1. The entire project needs to take place over a form of remote screensharing or remote desktop application (teamviewer, [or other remote desktop applications](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Web_conferencing) )&#xD;&#xA;2. The entire project is to be carried out on the client's server, where code can only be uploaded (maybe even through FTP or SFTP), there is no SSH access&#xD;&#xA;3. The client specifically mentions in his project description: **_&quot;Please do not bid on this project if you've never done this before&quot;_** . In addition, documentation online is scarce or just absent (in any form) for the kind of problem the project is asking to solve&#xD;&#xA;4. A step-by-step procedure is required as a deliverable (so documentation)&#xD;&#xA;5. The following expectation is provided as part of the project description: **_&quot;This should be very simple for someone who knows what they're doing&quot;_**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Item `[5]` seems to be a common expectation for most projects)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently read one project description where items `[1],[3],[4]` in the above list are present. The project asks for the installation of a component where the official vendor installation process  is known to be either wrong, outdated or incomplete. So the component clearly does not install as advertised, and work needs to be carried out to fix, troubleshoot or debug said component (it might even require patching the code, or rebuilding some binaries).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of item `[3]` being present, to me it seems there's an expectation that the freelancer has a private ready-made solution, that's ready to go. But from my reading, it's the kind of project where in order to achieve it, it requires additional work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are a few questions I have about this project:&#xD;&#xA;* How do I figure out if a client is actually interested in this project, or if it's the kind of thing they don't really need or care about, but if it is available, they would be interested in it. In other words, how do I measure if there's high or low interest on their side ?&#xD;&#xA;* Should I bother to explain to them that the project is more involved than they think, or just avoid bidding on it altogether ?&#xD;&#xA;* Because requirement `[4]` is present, it would make `[1]` superfluous/unnecessary, yet both are present and I'm wondering why&#xD;&#xA;* In view of `[1]`, and the fact that this is not just an installation/configuration project (it requires additional troubleshooting/debugging) I'm trying to understand the requirement of using Teamviewer to do all of this. I understand doing Teamviewer meetings for an initial meeting to discuss project requirements, or at the end of a project where deliverables are being presented or tested in a demo meeting, but it seems like this is different, in this particular project description that we're talking about, all work is to be performed in a Teamviewer session. So my question here is if I'm right to assume this looks risky, especially because this is a fixed-priced project and a solution needs to be built during the Teamviewer sessions whereas the description reads as though the solution exists prior to the Teamviewer meetings &#xD;&#xA;* I also find that in this particular case `[5]` is actually not true. If the project was very simple, then the project wouldn't have been posted in the first place due to simplicity. So I'm actually wondering about the meaning of item `[5]`, or is it simply [just low-balling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-ball#By_buyers) ?&#xD;&#xA;* My overall conclusion is that this entire project is actually meant for an hourly-rate instead of a fixed-price. Is this a fair thing to say, and if so what would be a good way to communicate that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;UPDATE: Some additional questions:&#xD;&#xA;If the client has high interest in getting the project done, why don't they contact the vendor that made the component from which they could obtain maintenance and support services? Maybe the vendor has high prices? It just seems like the more I read this project description, the more contradictions I see..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25683" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10099" RevisionGUID="44c9c228-447f-46a2-87e1-e330cf485beb" CreationDate="2021-05-02T19:17:28.570" UserId="26330" Comment="added 334 characters in body" Text="This question is about fixed priced projects where one or more of the following characteristics are part of the project description:&#xD;&#xA;1. The entire project needs to take place over a form of remote screensharing or remote desktop application (teamviewer, [or other remote desktop applications](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Web_conferencing) )&#xD;&#xA;2. The entire project is to be carried out on the client's server, where code can only be uploaded (maybe even through FTP or SFTP), there is no SSH access&#xD;&#xA;3. The client specifically mentions in his project description: **_&quot;Please do not bid on this project if you've never done this before&quot;_** . In addition, documentation online is scarce or just absent (in any form) for the kind of problem the project is asking to solve&#xD;&#xA;4. A step-by-step procedure is required as a deliverable (so documentation)&#xD;&#xA;5. The following expectation is provided as part of the project description: **_&quot;This should be very simple for someone who knows what they're doing&quot;_**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Item `[5]` seems to be a common expectation for most projects)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently read one project description where items `[1],[3],[4]` in the above list are present. The project asks for the installation of a component where the official vendor installation process  is known to be either wrong, outdated or incomplete. So the component clearly does not install as advertised, and work needs to be carried out to fix, troubleshoot or debug said component (it might even require patching the code, or rebuilding some binaries).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of item `[3]` being present, to me it seems there's an expectation that the freelancer has a private ready-made solution, that's ready to go. But from my reading, it's the kind of project where in order to achieve it, it requires additional work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are a few questions I have about this project:&#xD;&#xA;* How do I figure out if a client is actually interested in this project, or if it's the kind of thing they don't really need or care about, but if it is available, they would be interested in it. In other words, how do I measure if there's high or low interest on their side ?&#xD;&#xA;* Should I bother to explain to them that the project is more involved than they think, or just avoid bidding on it altogether ?&#xD;&#xA;* Because requirement `[4]` is present, it would make `[1]` superfluous/unnecessary, yet both are present and I'm wondering why&#xD;&#xA;* In view of `[1]`, and the fact that this is not just an installation/configuration project (it requires additional troubleshooting/debugging) I'm trying to understand the requirement of using Teamviewer to do all of this. I understand doing Teamviewer meetings for an initial meeting to discuss project requirements, or at the end of a project where deliverables are being presented or tested in a demo meeting, but it seems like this is different, in this particular project description that we're talking about, all work is to be performed in a Teamviewer session. So my question here is if I'm right to assume this looks risky, especially because this is a fixed-priced project and a solution needs to be built during the Teamviewer sessions whereas the description reads as though the solution exists prior to the Teamviewer meetings &#xD;&#xA;* I also find that in this particular case `[5]` is actually not true. If the project was very simple, then the project wouldn't have been posted in the first place due to simplicity. So I'm actually wondering about the meaning of item `[5]`, or is it simply [just low-balling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-ball#By_buyers) ?&#xD;&#xA;* My overall conclusion is that this entire project is actually meant for an hourly-rate instead of a fixed-price. Is this a fair thing to say, and if so what would be a good way to communicate that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;UPDATE: Some additional questions:&#xD;&#xA;* If the client has high interest in getting the project done, why don't they contact the vendor that made the component from which they could obtain maintenance and support services? Maybe the vendor has high prices? It just seems like the more I read this project description, the more contradictions I see..&#xD;&#xA;* Semantically it seems like `[3]` can also be interpreted to mean the project needs to have been completed already, which makes it equivalent to the well-known tongue-in-cheek _&quot;The project needs to be done by yesterday&quot;_ which would mean we're dealing with an overdue project before it had ever reached the freelancing website..&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25684" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10099" RevisionGUID="d3bf85c9-a55e-410d-ae12-280186104891" CreationDate="2021-05-02T19:27:43.273" UserId="26330" Comment="deleted 53 characters in body" Text="This question is about fixed priced projects where one or more of the following characteristics are part of the project description:&#xD;&#xA;1. The entire project needs to take place over a form of remote screensharing or remote desktop application (teamviewer, [or other remote desktop applications](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Web_conferencing) )&#xD;&#xA;2. The entire project is to be carried out on the client's server, where code can only be uploaded (maybe even through FTP or SFTP), there is no SSH access&#xD;&#xA;3. The client specifically mentions in his project description: **_&quot;Please do not bid on this project if you've never done this before&quot;_** . In addition, documentation online is scarce or just absent (in any form) for the kind of problem the project is asking to solve&#xD;&#xA;4. A step-by-step procedure is required as a deliverable (so documentation)&#xD;&#xA;5. The following expectation is provided as part of the project description: **_&quot;This should be very simple for someone who knows what they're doing&quot;_**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Item `[5]` seems to be a common expectation for most projects)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently read one project description where items `[1],[3],[4]` in the above list are present. The project asks for the installation of a component where the official vendor installation process  is known to be either wrong, outdated or incomplete. So the component clearly does not install as advertised, and work needs to be carried out to fix, troubleshoot or debug said component (it might even require patching the code, or rebuilding some binaries).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of item `[3]` being present, to me it seems there's an expectation that the freelancer has a private ready-made solution, that's ready to go. But from my reading, it's the kind of project where in order to achieve it, it requires additional work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are a few questions I have about this project:&#xD;&#xA;* How do I figure out if a client is actually interested in this project, or if it's the kind of thing they don't really need or care about, but if it is available, they would be interested in it. In other words, how do I measure if there's high or low interest on their side ?&#xD;&#xA;* Should I bother to explain to them that the project is more involved than they think, or just avoid bidding on it altogether ?&#xD;&#xA;* Because requirement `[4]` is present, it would make `[1]` superfluous/unnecessary, yet both are present and I'm wondering why&#xD;&#xA;* In view of `[1]`, and the fact that this is not just an installation/configuration project (it requires additional troubleshooting/debugging) I'm trying to understand the requirement of using Teamviewer to do all of this. I understand doing Teamviewer meetings for an initial meeting to discuss project requirements, or at the end of a project where deliverables are being presented or tested in a demo meeting, but it seems like this is different, in this particular project description that we're talking about, all work is to be performed in a Teamviewer session. So my question here is if I'm right to assume this looks risky, especially because this is a fixed-priced project and a solution needs to be built during the Teamviewer sessions whereas the description reads as though the solution exists prior to the Teamviewer meetings &#xD;&#xA;* I also find that in this particular case `[5]` is actually not true. If the project was very simple, then the project wouldn't have been posted in the first place due to simplicity. So I'm actually wondering about the meaning of item `[5]`, or is it simply [just low-balling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-ball#By_buyers) ?&#xD;&#xA;* My overall conclusion is that this entire project is actually meant for an hourly-rate instead of a fixed-price. Is this a fair thing to say, and if so what would be a good way to communicate that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;UPDATE: Some additional questions:&#xD;&#xA;* If the client has high interest in getting the project done, why don't they contact the vendor that made the component from which they could obtain maintenance and support services? Maybe the vendor has high prices? It just seems like the more I read this project description, the more contradictions I see..&#xD;&#xA;* Semantically it seems like `[3]` can also be interpreted to mean the project needs to have been completed already, which makes it equivalent to the well-known tongue-in-cheek _&quot;The project needs to be done by yesterday&quot;_ which would mean we're dealing with an overdue project&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25685" PostHistoryTypeId="52" PostId="10099" RevisionGUID="06d1e23c-182c-46d2-9a5a-37761a525a3e" CreationDate="2021-05-02T21:02:51.303" />
  <row Id="25686" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10101" RevisionGUID="6e7a36ee-329b-46b3-8049-d3157aacd2eb" CreationDate="2021-05-02T22:57:42.723" UserId="16940" Text="Any Freelance Contract do you use to prevent exploitation from your clients? Any good examples online that I can download?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I found  this template, but it does not have any clauses that can prevent the exploitation:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Freelance Contract Template&#xD;&#xA;    Created by freelancermap.com&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    [Your Name/Business name] &lt;&gt; [Client Company]&#xD;&#xA;    Contractor Agreement&#xD;&#xA;     &#xD;&#xA;    [Freelancer Name] (herein known as “Contractor”) will provide [Client/Brand Name] (herein known as “Client”) with [Insert an overview of work deliverables] as outlined in the specifications listed in the Terms and Conditions below.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Description of the Services&#xD;&#xA;    Freelancer will [insert services provided]&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Pricing/Rates&#xD;&#xA;    [Insert prices discussed – include rates for changes and revision work]&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Payment Terms/Schedule&#xD;&#xA;    30% up front, the rest upon completion of the project. &#xD;&#xA;    Payable by check, bank transfer or PayPal. &#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Contract in effect beginning:  [Insert Start date]&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Terms and Conditions&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    The following rates and terms apply:&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Client will pay the sum of [$X,XXX – mention if it’s per hour, per month or for the entire contract] to Contractor via [Payment method agreed upon] as agreed to by both parties, no later than the [insert final payment date] of the agreed-upon payment schedule, for work delivered and accepted by the Client. &#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Contractor will provide the following as per deliverable dates mutually agreed upon:&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;        • [Insert Deliverable 1 - specifications, and due date] &#xD;&#xA;        • [Insert Deliverable 2 - specifications, and due date] &#xD;&#xA;        • [Insert Deliverable 3 - specifications, and due date] &#xD;&#xA;        • [Insert Deliverable 4 - specifications, and due date] &#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Scope of Project&#xD;&#xA;    Contractor agrees to perform services until the engagement has ended on the agreed-upon. &#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Legal&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Contractor declares that they cannot guarantee completed work will be completely error-free, as such they can’t be liable to the Client or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even with prior advisory. If any provision of this contract shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason is unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this contract and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Copyright&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Client will own the copyright for all material created under this agreement, and contractor can showcase sample works from this project as portfolio pieces only with consent and approval from client.&#xD;&#xA;    &#xD;&#xA;    Termination&#xD;&#xA;    This agreement may be terminated with [XX days] written notice by either party. Initial deposit of 30% is non-refundable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Could you please share if you know any good examples?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25687" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10101" RevisionGUID="6e7a36ee-329b-46b3-8049-d3157aacd2eb" CreationDate="2021-05-02T22:57:42.723" UserId="16940" Text="Freelance Contract to prevent exploitation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25688" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10101" RevisionGUID="6e7a36ee-329b-46b3-8049-d3157aacd2eb" CreationDate="2021-05-02T22:57:42.723" UserId="16940" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|contract-to-hire|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25689" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10099" RevisionGUID="6fee2a76-b0ae-4b24-97dd-7c5fd4877cfb" CreationDate="2021-05-02T23:17:11.840" UserId="26330" Comment="added 468 characters in body" Text="This question is about fixed priced projects where one or more of the following characteristics are part of the project description:&#xD;&#xA;1. The entire project needs to take place over a form of remote screensharing or remote desktop application (teamviewer, [or other remote desktop applications](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Web_conferencing) )&#xD;&#xA;2. The entire project is to be carried out on the client's server, where code can only be uploaded (maybe even through FTP or SFTP), there is no SSH access&#xD;&#xA;3. The client specifically mentions in his project description: **_&quot;Please do not bid on this project if you've never done this before&quot;_** . In addition, documentation online is scarce or just absent (in any form) for the kind of problem the project is asking to solve&#xD;&#xA;4. A step-by-step procedure is required as a deliverable (so documentation)&#xD;&#xA;5. The following expectation is provided as part of the project description: **_&quot;This should be very simple for someone who knows what they're doing&quot;_**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Item `[5]` seems to be a common expectation for most projects)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently read one project description where items `[1],[3],[4]` in the above list are present. The project asks for the installation of a component where the official vendor installation process  is known to be either wrong, outdated or incomplete. So the component clearly does not install as advertised, and work needs to be carried out to fix, troubleshoot or debug said component (it might even require patching the code, or rebuilding some binaries).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of item `[3]` being present, to me it seems there's an expectation that the freelancer has a private ready-made solution, that's ready to go. But from my reading, it's the kind of project where in order to achieve it, it requires additional work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are a few questions I have about this project:&#xD;&#xA;* How do I figure out if a client is actually interested in this project, or if it's the kind of thing they don't really need or care about, but if it is available, they would be interested in it. In other words, how do I measure if there's high or low interest on their side ?&#xD;&#xA;* Should I bother to explain to them that the project is more involved than they think, or just avoid bidding on it altogether ?&#xD;&#xA;* Because requirement `[4]` is present, it would make `[1]` superfluous/unnecessary, yet both are present and I'm wondering why&#xD;&#xA;* In view of `[1]`, and the fact that this is not just an installation/configuration project (it requires additional troubleshooting/debugging) I'm trying to understand the requirement of using Teamviewer to do all of this. I understand doing Teamviewer meetings for an initial meeting to discuss project requirements, or at the end of a project where deliverables are being presented or tested in a demo meeting, but it seems like this is different, in this particular project description that we're talking about, all work is to be performed in a Teamviewer session. So my question here is if I'm right to assume this looks risky, especially because this is a fixed-priced project and a solution needs to be built during the Teamviewer sessions whereas the description reads as though the solution exists prior to the Teamviewer meetings &#xD;&#xA;* I also find that in this particular case `[5]` is actually not true. If the project was very simple, then the project wouldn't have been posted in the first place due to simplicity. So I'm actually wondering about the meaning of item `[5]`, or is it simply [just low-balling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-ball#By_buyers) ?&#xD;&#xA;* My overall conclusion is that this entire project is actually meant for an hourly-rate instead of a fixed-price. Is this a fair thing to say, and if so what would be a good way to communicate that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;UPDATE: Some additional questions:&#xD;&#xA;* If the client has high interest in getting the project done, why don't they contact the vendor that made the component from which they could obtain maintenance and support services? Maybe the vendor has high prices? It just seems like the more I read this project description, the more contradictions I see..&#xD;&#xA;* Semantically it seems like `[3]` can also be interpreted to mean the project needs to have been completed already, which makes it equivalent to the well-known tongue-in-cheek _&quot;The project needs to be done by yesterday&quot;_ which would mean we're dealing with an overdue project&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;UPDATE: The potential client replied back stating the budget for the project is very low ( 1/17 of my quote to them ). This coincides with my feeling about the project. It's also in line with [this remark about risks](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/2204/26330) for fixed-priced projects. This [other answer](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/7046/26330) also outlines the big risks involved. I promptly informed them that we won't be working together.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25690" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10102" RevisionGUID="4b2b820f-b978-4c67-803a-0db5bcd401d0" CreationDate="2021-05-03T14:17:19.103" UserId="26181" Text="Contracts do not prevent exploitation. If a project relationship starts to argue over the words of the contract, that relationship is already soured and the best thing is to get out of it as fast as possible. The only thing contractually is to make sure that the contract has a simple &quot;get out of this mess&quot; process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The way to prevent exploitation is to pick trustworthy clients - ones that value us and are willing to pay for honest work. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25691" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2119" RevisionGUID="958d263d-cdb0-4b8f-97fd-2e43ff616118" CreationDate="2021-05-03T17:23:17.663" UserId="26330" Comment="updated broken link about classi tree-swing comic" Text="Customers always want  a quotation of the amount of time it will take to write a certain feature (printing a new report, adding a new form, importing/exporting data, etc). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Suppose I estimated the correct amount of time needed (**seldom** happens), then I can get an accurate quotation simply using `hours` &amp;times; `hourly rate`. Wonderful!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But things seldom go as planned, and customers actually wanted the feature a little different with respect to what I had implemented. So I would need to change this little thing, maybe the font, 'blue' color in 'dark blue', dash line into dotted line, ... all easy '5 minutes' task, delivered one at a time to let the customer to verify the result... and each little task needs a little test time, a little commit time, more time to compile and upload the upgrade to the customer... so I added extra work (adjustments) for free. Maybe the estimate was 2 days but in the end I actually worked 3 days for the same amount of money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because the price quotation is fixed I cannot ask for more money. The little changes are to fulfill the 'correct desired result', for customer&amp;mdash;programmer misunderstandings or things unsaid (think about the [tree-swing comic][1] [tree-swing article][2] ;-) ).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In other cases, I think the hourly rate is not applicable since my quotation would be too high with respect to market price. There are little tasks that are a bit tricky and require a lot of time to make things work yet no one will spend hundreds of dollars for it (at the moment I cannot find an example). &#xD;&#xA;So I feel I'm forced to write as a quotation something similar to the 'market price' (pretending I will resell this feature to someone, sometime in the future).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In both cases I ended up doing a certain amount of work, for a very low hourly rate. As you may imagine I feel frustrated at times since I don't even get the 'hourly rate', &lt;!-- no idea what's the original: --&gt; the though to 'gain something' seems an impossible dream. &lt;!----&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do you manage these cases? Where am I wrong?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20160403104033/http://blog.thingsdesigner.com/uploads/id/tree_swing_development_requirements.jpg &quot;tree-swing comic&quot;&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://web.archive.org/web/20140701062752/http://blog.thingsdesigner.com/index.php?/archives/354-The-infamous-software-designdevelopment-process-tree-swing-comic.html &quot;tree-swing article&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25692" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2119" RevisionGUID="958d263d-cdb0-4b8f-97fd-2e43ff616118" CreationDate="2021-05-03T17:23:17.663" Comment="Proposed by 26330 approved by 61, 2839 edit id of 748" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25693" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10103" RevisionGUID="2fcf6349-d92a-4d86-b370-3db2b6a63052" CreationDate="2021-05-04T06:37:03.253" UserId="26318" Text="Realistically, the only clauses that are of any importance in the contract are...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Price/spec** (e.g. what are you doing and what are you being paid for it)&#xD;&#xA; - **Payment schedule** (e.g. how and when are you getting paid)&#xD;&#xA; - **Start/finish time and deadlines** (e.g. when does the contract start and when are the deliverables)&#xD;&#xA; - **Kill fee** (e.g. how much they're going to pay you if they cancel the contract)&#xD;&#xA; - **Escape hatch** (e.g. how can you terminate the contract without penalty)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;... and all of those can be written on the back of a napkin. Other than those, you can pick up pretty much any template contract and tailor it to the project you're offering to work on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Exploitation occurs not because you've failed to write an adequate contract, but **because you've allowed yourself to get involved with a company that is willing to exploit you** and **because you failed to pull the ejector-seat handle when you spotted that things were starting to go south**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assuming you've put in place the adequate safeguards, extricating yourself from a crappy project should be as easy as sending a single email and dealing with a couple of grumpy phone calls. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25695" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10099" RevisionGUID="c93b5ffb-183d-4e9d-b56f-8871f10adb65" CreationDate="2021-05-04T12:53:57.907" UserId="26330" Comment="added 228 characters in body" Text="This question is about fixed priced projects where one or more of the following characteristics are part of the project description:&#xD;&#xA;1. The entire project needs to take place over a form of remote screensharing or remote desktop application (teamviewer, [or other remote desktop applications](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Web_conferencing) )&#xD;&#xA;2. The entire project is to be carried out on the client's server, where code can only be uploaded (maybe even through FTP or SFTP), there is no SSH access&#xD;&#xA;3. The client specifically mentions in his project description: **_&quot;Please do not bid on this project if you've never done this before&quot;_** . In addition, documentation online is scarce or just absent (in any form) for the kind of problem the project is asking to solve&#xD;&#xA;4. A step-by-step procedure is required as a deliverable (so documentation)&#xD;&#xA;5. The following expectation is provided as part of the project description: **_&quot;This should be very simple for someone who knows what they're doing&quot;_**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(Item `[5]` seems to be a common expectation for most projects)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recently read one project description where items `[1],[3],[4]` in the above list are present. The project asks for the installation of a component where the official vendor installation process  is known to be either wrong, outdated or incomplete. So the component clearly does not install as advertised, and work needs to be carried out to fix, troubleshoot or debug said component (it might even require patching the code, or rebuilding some binaries).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of item `[3]` being present, to me it seems there's an expectation that the freelancer has a private ready-made solution, that's ready to go. But from my reading, it's the kind of project where in order to achieve it, it requires additional work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are a few questions I have about this project:&#xD;&#xA;* How do I figure out if a client is actually interested in this project, or if it's the kind of thing they don't really need or care about, but if it is available, they would be interested in it. In other words, how do I measure if there's high or low interest on their side ?&#xD;&#xA;* Should I bother to explain to them that the project is more involved than they think, or just avoid bidding on it altogether ?&#xD;&#xA;* Because requirement `[4]` is present, it would make `[1]` superfluous/unnecessary, yet both are present and I'm wondering why&#xD;&#xA;* In view of `[1]`, and the fact that this is not just an installation/configuration project (it requires additional troubleshooting/debugging) I'm trying to understand the requirement of using Teamviewer to do all of this. I understand doing Teamviewer meetings for an initial meeting to discuss project requirements, or at the end of a project where deliverables are being presented or tested in a demo meeting, but it seems like this is different, in this particular project description that we're talking about, all work is to be performed in a Teamviewer session. So my question here is if I'm right to assume this looks risky, especially because this is a fixed-priced project and a solution needs to be built during the Teamviewer sessions whereas the description reads as though the solution exists prior to the Teamviewer meetings &#xD;&#xA;* I also find that in this particular case `[5]` is actually not true. If the project was very simple, then the project wouldn't have been posted in the first place due to simplicity. So I'm actually wondering about the meaning of item `[5]`, or is it simply [just low-balling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-ball#By_buyers) ?&#xD;&#xA;* My overall conclusion is that this entire project is actually meant for an hourly-rate instead of a fixed-price. Is this a fair thing to say, and if so what would be a good way to communicate that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;UPDATE: Some additional questions:&#xD;&#xA;* If the client has high interest in getting the project done, why don't they contact the vendor that made the component from which they could obtain maintenance and support services? Maybe the vendor has high prices? It just seems like the more I read this project description, the more contradictions I see..&#xD;&#xA;* Also item `[3]` puts the project completion date in the past, rather than the future. It makes it equivalent to the well-known tongue-in-cheek _&quot;The project needs to be done by yesterday&quot;_ which means the project is already overdue before starting. This implies that the freelancer who will take this project is somehow already responsible for the project being already overdue (which if that's the case, is a false assumption to begin with) even without having had any ties with said prospective client&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;UPDATE: The potential client replied back stating the budget for the project is very low ( 1/17 of my quote to them ). This coincides with my feeling about the project. It's also in line with [this remark about risks](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/2204/26330) for fixed-priced projects. This [other answer](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/7046/26330) also outlines the big risks involved. I promptly informed them that we won't be working together.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25698" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10105" RevisionGUID="69b06295-8b6f-4812-926a-e67a35cbcfbe" CreationDate="2021-05-05T04:41:24.013" UserId="26325" Text="Hypothetically, if I saw a full-time job I would be a perfect fit for, would it be ethical/effective to apply and later explain that I'm only interested in working as a freelancer? Assuming the answer is yes, when is the best time to reveal this information?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is different from https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/853/can-i-sell-solicit-my-services-by-applying-to-regular-job-positions because my question is asking about the ethics and effectiveness of doing so." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25699" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10105" RevisionGUID="69b06295-8b6f-4812-926a-e67a35cbcfbe" CreationDate="2021-05-05T04:41:24.013" UserId="26325" Text="Is it ethical/effective to apply to full-time positions when looking for a freelance work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25700" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10105" RevisionGUID="69b06295-8b6f-4812-926a-e67a35cbcfbe" CreationDate="2021-05-05T04:41:24.013" UserId="26325" Text="|attracting-clients|sales|ethics|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25704" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="10101" RevisionGUID="bf69e047-4353-43ac-80b9-4db3fd48b7db" CreationDate="2021-05-05T12:09:23.210" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="25705" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10107" RevisionGUID="03c972cd-dc80-4368-9758-4e634e124652" CreationDate="2021-05-05T13:37:37.260" UserId="26181" Text="Ethical? Yes.&#xD;&#xA;Effective? Probably not. When a company has made the decision to hire a full time employee and told a manager to find one, that manager rarely will accept a contractor. The person who can change that decision is above that manager. When you enter the process through the full time employee hiring process, it is hard to break through and talk to the person who can change that decision.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another tactic is to wait a few months and then contact the top person of that company. Many times, a new employee does not work out. If you can catch the decision maker between the time that they realize that things are not working out and the time that they start looking for another FTE, you might have a better chance to sell your services." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25706" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10075" RevisionGUID="3d08ec79-2079-450d-b7bf-3a4679097b7b" CreationDate="2021-05-05T18:00:00.540" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1390003359881510916" />
  <row Id="25707" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10108" RevisionGUID="dc3e7a06-e818-47ec-be66-c519a401cd3c" CreationDate="2021-05-05T20:31:42.070" UserId="26325" Text="I've run into a lot of situations where company's and directors/CEOs/etc. are either on the fence about hiring a contractor/consultant, or against the idea. In these situations, they're thinking about hiring a full-time employee. If I find myself in this situation, I don't feel like I have the context or empathy to explain the benefits of hiring me as a consultant over hiring me as a full-time employee. I see the advantages for myself, but not to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To gain empathy—and selling myself better—I'd like to know the pros and cons of hiring a full-time employee vs hiring a consultant, and I'd like this to be from their perspective, not mine." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25708" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10108" RevisionGUID="dc3e7a06-e818-47ec-be66-c519a401cd3c" CreationDate="2021-05-05T20:31:42.070" UserId="26325" Text="From a company/manager's perspective, what are the advantages of hiring a consultant over a FTE?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25709" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10108" RevisionGUID="dc3e7a06-e818-47ec-be66-c519a401cd3c" CreationDate="2021-05-05T20:31:42.070" UserId="26325" Text="|attracting-clients|marketing|sales|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25710" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10109" RevisionGUID="e947d602-9522-4e20-ab76-6f20f9bccfad" CreationDate="2021-05-05T21:52:32.490" UserId="26325" Text="I'm going to respectfully disagree with @PaulD's answer. Keep in mind, I am a programmer, not a digital marketer. Also keep in mind, most of my consulting work has been through agencies, not through my own sales and marketing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my field and in my opinion, revealing my tricks makes me appear confident and knowledgeable with little downside. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To use an analogy, if you watch me perform a back flip, will you know how to do one now? What if I explain how I did it? After I explain it, will my back flip seem less impressive?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even if you wanted to copy me, you wouldn't get it right the first try. You could even injure yourself without having me there to guide you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Again, I don't know what it's like to be a digital marketer, but I imagine there are skills that can't be copied just by explaining them, right? Instead of thinking about those as secrets, think about them as marketing material." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25711" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10108" RevisionGUID="62018e4c-b9b0-4bfb-8fce-8d65cd1bd05e" CreationDate="2021-05-05T23:14:06.383" UserId="26325" Comment="deleted 3 characters in body" Text="I've run into a lot of situations where company's and directors/CEOs/etc. are either on the fence about hiring a contractor/consultant, or against the idea. In these situations, they're thinking about hiring a full-time employee. If I find myself in this situation, I don't feel like I have the context or empathy to explain the benefits of hiring me as a consultant over hiring me as a full-time employee. I see the advantages for myself, but not them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To gain empathy—and sell myself better—I'd like to know the pros and cons of hiring a full-time employee vs hiring a consultant, and I'd like this to be from their perspective, not mine." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25715" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10111" RevisionGUID="917ee8fe-d926-4193-8ece-91c031ae6a59" CreationDate="2021-05-06T09:19:32.430" UserId="26378" Text="I'm rather new to this. I am making a website for someone. It's going to be done through WordPress (so not very complicated). When invoicing them should I include just the time spent making the website in WordPress or the time spent in meetings (i.e. explaining things to them) as well? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also I can make some lo-fi prototype. I would invoice the client if I did it or we did it together in a meeting. Is that fair? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Things involving DNS and domain registration I intend to invoice for. What about maintenance things like updating plugins through the CMS before the final site is delivered?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25716" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10111" RevisionGUID="917ee8fe-d926-4193-8ece-91c031ae6a59" CreationDate="2021-05-06T09:19:32.430" UserId="26378" Text="When making a website which activities do you normally include in invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25717" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10111" RevisionGUID="917ee8fe-d926-4193-8ece-91c031ae6a59" CreationDate="2021-05-06T09:19:32.430" UserId="26378" Text="|payment-terms|invoices|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25724" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="9677" RevisionGUID="a6299ed3-b8f9-431b-8cc2-3310769eb236" CreationDate="2021-05-06T10:12:06.060" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="25725" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10114" RevisionGUID="16c1978b-94fe-4959-9a28-d272f80c534a" CreationDate="2021-05-06T11:53:46.153" UserId="7858" Text="Generally, clients buy a freelancer's time. Using that logic, **all** time spent on client work is invoiced, regardless of the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client wants different rates for different tasks, that needs to be negotiated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25726" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10115" RevisionGUID="9cccef81-0e6b-4426-999a-5f8daa62ac25" CreationDate="2021-05-07T10:48:21.830" UserId="26342" Text="I have become more clear on the topic over the course of the past week (with advise from experts in the field).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For the first question: **Why do EU countries not pay VAT to non-EU but do pay VAT to EU companies?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A: They actually don't pay it in either case. EU businesses purchasing products or services are exempt from VAT all the time, but the manner of invoicing differs depending on if the company you're purchasing from is located within the EU or not.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the company you're buying from is within the EU, then they charge you VAT and you recover it when filing your taxes.  So in the end it balances out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the company you're buying from is outside of the EU, then they **do not** charge you VAT.  You must indicate it when filing your taxes, but you don't pay it in this case either.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's different if you're buying products/services as an European end user as opposed to a corporate business, but that deserves a topic of its own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Second question: **Do I still pay corporate tax in Hong Kong when earning money from a foreign business?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A: It's unfortunately not that easy anymore to enjoy the Offshore Exemption Tax since 2019.  There was a lot of abuse going on and the rules have become pretty strict about that.  You only enjoy the 0% tax rate if you paid corporate tax in another country. You don't get away with paying no taxes anywhere, which is both logical and ethical." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25731" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10116" RevisionGUID="923955c6-4b18-4ee8-aec6-be873bbaf9ed" CreationDate="2021-05-07T18:58:15.537" UserId="26390" Text="I am an EU resident interested in becoming an independent contractor for a US based client. My client and I have reached an agreement regarding compensation, and are now looking for a legal setup for our collaboration that works for both parties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For some reason that is unclear to me at the moment, they are not able to pay international invoices and are requesting that I have some form of legal entity in the US (a single member LLC was suggested). While setting up an LLC is possible (through Stripe Atlas or other similar services) it seems to me that it would complicate my tax situation unnecessarily. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have previously lived and worked in the US and have a Social Security Number. Would I be able to operate as a sole proprietor using my SSN even as a non-resident? Would I need to pay any taxes in the US by operating this way?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25732" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10116" RevisionGUID="923955c6-4b18-4ee8-aec6-be873bbaf9ed" CreationDate="2021-05-07T18:58:15.537" UserId="26390" Text="EU resident working as a contractor in the US" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25733" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10116" RevisionGUID="923955c6-4b18-4ee8-aec6-be873bbaf9ed" CreationDate="2021-05-07T18:58:15.537" UserId="26390" Text="|taxes|usa|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25734" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10117" RevisionGUID="97630593-0395-4ea7-9702-6e63a0e1e6e2" CreationDate="2021-05-07T23:18:36.153" UserId="708" Text="I'm **not** a tax professional, which is who I think you really need to speak to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do believe **any** form of US business (LLC, S-Corp, Sole Proprietorship, etc.) is going to *require* you pay US taxes. You can't receive income in the US and *not* pay taxes in the US. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A Sole Proprietorship is still a business entity even though it's only a single person. Similar to how an single-member LLC is still a business entity even though it's one person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only way to avoid any US taxes on income is to *not* receive income in the US and receive it in your home country - i.e. client pays international invoice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25735" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10117" RevisionGUID="aa12f7a1-a59d-49d0-9f8f-1d23b3bcf6de" CreationDate="2021-05-07T23:26:09.043" UserId="708" Comment="added 293 characters in body" Text="I'm **not** a tax professional, which is who I think you really need to speak to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do believe **any** form of US business (LLC, S-Corp, Sole Proprietorship, etc.) is going to *require* you pay US taxes. You can't receive income in the US and *not* pay taxes in the US. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A Sole Proprietorship is still a business entity even though it's only a single person. Similar to how an single-member LLC is still a business entity even though it's one person.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only way to avoid any US taxes on income is to *not* receive income in the US and receive it in your home country - i.e. client pays international invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, the fact that you are going to be be required to pay US taxes may have factored into compensation negotiations. If the inability to pay international invoices was presented *after* negotiations then you may be able to revisit negotiations. Otherwise, you may be out of luck." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25737" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10116" RevisionGUID="24cb15ed-af67-4e4d-8069-a2bd64bf5f42" CreationDate="2021-05-11T18:00:04.857" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1392177704791851013" />
  <row Id="25738" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10118" RevisionGUID="3115a877-0dca-4caf-b5c9-81b07beeb9e7" CreationDate="2021-05-12T18:47:18.693" UserId="26137" Text="As a freelancer who provides &quot;Financial Planning&quot; services, that is, stock, precious metal or cryptocurrency trading consultancy and direction to my clients, I definitely won't be happy about it. What you want is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;Need assistant for a monthly contract requiring stock trading/finance-related work&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That means, you have not negotiated with your freelancer to give him &quot;any other personal assistance work.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should talk with your freelancer to know if he is okay with it or if he wants to charge you a little more." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25739" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10119" RevisionGUID="844db43a-5af0-4d55-9b9b-bbb82491c119" CreationDate="2021-05-12T19:11:43.950" UserId="9845" Text="There is more than one way to bill clients for creating websites. Many freelancers view it as a product, and thus charge a flat rate for what they believe the full value of their time + expertise is worth. Hourly billing for creating a new website is probably less common. I work both ways, but prefer to work under a flat rate for new websites so that both parties understand the full scope of work and what's included. I find it's particularly important for difficult clients. For more long-term clients with whom I already have a longstanding relationship, I'm more likely to charge hourly because they won't be surprised by their monthly invoice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also important is a contract specifying your hourly rate in case there are additions beyond the initial scope of work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, my website project contracts include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. What platform I'm building on &amp; what theme/template I'm using&#xD;&#xA; 2. How many pages are included &amp; what they are&#xD;&#xA; 3. What features the site will have (calendar, forms, e-commerce, etc)&#xD;&#xA; 4. How many designs &amp; design revisions they'll get (ie your prototypes or wireframes and live dev sites)&#xD;&#xA; 5. How much meeting time is included&#xD;&#xA; 6. How much post-launch support and training time is included&#xD;&#xA; 7. My hourly rate for anything beyond the scope outlined in the contract, including changes to an approved design, extra content, more meeting time, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On a current project, the client has requested several items not in the contract. I reminded them that those items would be billed at the hourly rate and added to the final invoice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And finally, one big benefit to a flat rate is that you can get 50% as a deposit, so you don't end up working for nothing if they ghost without paying. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25740" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10057" RevisionGUID="c115a2c0-0c51-46c6-8b09-361596886560" CreationDate="2021-05-13T17:03:26.723" UserId="15235" Comment="typos corrected" Text="I have seen many freelancers work for cheap rates. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand if a novice or new freelancer works for cheaper rates. But many of them who are well experienced are doing work for a cheap rate. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is reducing the reputation of skilled and experienced freelancers. Many of them are from Asian countries, like India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25741" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10057" RevisionGUID="c115a2c0-0c51-46c6-8b09-361596886560" CreationDate="2021-05-13T17:03:26.723" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 1706 edit id of 742" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25742" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10120" RevisionGUID="a91b3e77-3797-4430-b6a6-351416974d59" CreationDate="2021-05-13T21:06:53.227" UserId="26181" Text="I recommend talking to a US tax professional who has dealt with EU citizens. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;According to the IRS web site, the US has agreements with several countries to avoid double taxation. Here is one of their pages on the subject. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/aliens-employed-in-the-us-social-security-taxes#:~:text=Wages%20paid%20to%20nonresident%20aliens%20employed%20within%20the,with%20certain%20exceptions%20based%20on%20their%20nonimmigrant%20status.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and another&#xD;&#xA;https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/totalization-agreements&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and a list of the countries with such agreements&#xD;&#xA;https://www.ssa.gov/international/agreements_overview.html&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your country is listed, you can find what the agreement is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What your client is recommending is for you to set up a legal entity in the US and that entity takes the burden of filing the tax forms off of your client. Whether or not that is in your best interest is something that you and your business and tax advisors get to hash out.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25743" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10121" RevisionGUID="7f33f446-1000-4cf5-99d9-6846e3c72264" CreationDate="2021-05-14T10:13:06.700" UserId="26420" Text="a friend of mine founded a start up and asked me to create an android app for him. I did it with java in android studio but since i never got in contact with commercial use before i want to know what i have to be aware of. Like if im selling the app to him (without publishing it on google play) do i need to buy a java license? Do my friend has to buy the license too? And do i need to put my app under a own license of me? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25744" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10121" RevisionGUID="7f33f446-1000-4cf5-99d9-6846e3c72264" CreationDate="2021-05-14T10:13:06.700" UserId="26420" Text="How does licensing work when selling an android app?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25745" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10121" RevisionGUID="7f33f446-1000-4cf5-99d9-6846e3c72264" CreationDate="2021-05-14T10:13:06.700" UserId="26420" Text="|legal|licensing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25749" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10114" RevisionGUID="28a49077-b966-457f-84b2-b9251eebfeee" CreationDate="2021-05-15T12:03:34.443" UserId="7858" Comment="added 739 characters in body" Text="Generally, clients buy a freelancer's time. Using that logic, **all** time spent on client work is invoiced, regardless of the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I never heard of clients wanting different rates for work on prototype versus the actual product - and since both will consume 100% of the freelancers time, it seems reasonable that they cost the same.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A reasonable angle could be having less than 100% compensation for tasks that don't consume all the freelancer's time; e.g. traveling for the client or being on-call. Having said that, the freelancer should then be permitted to do unrelated work during that time. Or - if compensated fully during travel - the freelancer must perform client work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, your risk is allowing the client to place more work under a lower rate - so it needs to be quite clear to both parties which areas are discounted and which are not, as this obviously has the potential to be contentious and destructive for the relationship." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25750" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10123" RevisionGUID="e5b514c7-0614-428c-93fb-953368e09a17" CreationDate="2021-05-16T07:43:32.750" UserId="26433" Text="If you think that freelancer are capable to fulfill your requirement then you can do that. But you have to check that weather they are really capable or not. Some of them are really skillful but some are not. So verified that before you handover your project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25751" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10124" RevisionGUID="d1ae11ce-7237-4fa0-b31e-2aac3c28bb53" CreationDate="2021-05-17T03:59:50.070" UserId="26440" Text="For young developers out there.Is it a good idea to start there own startup or get a job while university education.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For someone young startup is counted as experience?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a single guy is this a good idea?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Capturing big market for small revenue is good strategy?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For someone from Thirdworld country where possible 3 digit revenue is better then local job with pip environment is it a good idea?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is startup good for learning and professional growth?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hardwork and commitment almost guarantees success?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;what i have tried: am working on an idea for about 3-4 months not coming slow. My basics are all done.I have only slept 8hrs in last 5 days. Am committed as it is better than what i was doing for cooperate anyway.As only guy i sometimes feel useless and worthless regardless i keep on hustling.I dont know if its a good idea or not. I did full time job along university and best thing is am not even software engineer.am doing electrical engineer along.About domain i have about 2 years of experience now in software development. Mentor:I highly admire Elon Musk. Plan rn:Am earning passive income from crypto trading which supports me financially,So that i can focus on my work more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In future i would love to work in USA.Someone like me will be valuable or na?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Love to get y'all side." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25752" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10124" RevisionGUID="d1ae11ce-7237-4fa0-b31e-2aac3c28bb53" CreationDate="2021-05-17T03:59:50.070" UserId="26440" Text="Starting a startup?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25753" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10124" RevisionGUID="d1ae11ce-7237-4fa0-b31e-2aac3c28bb53" CreationDate="2021-05-17T03:59:50.070" UserId="26440" Text="|attracting-clients|software|programmer|startups|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25754" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10125" RevisionGUID="20ee22b0-ff42-4b3e-96e2-621d9ef1009c" CreationDate="2021-05-17T17:41:32.533" UserId="26181" Text="Let me start with the easy answer: &quot;Hard work and commitment almost guarantees success?&quot; No. All that does is to give you either bigger muscles or callouses on your hands. I recommend getting some sleep.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In order for hard work to pay off, it has to be directed towards something that someone else will pay for. There are a lot of things people have built that were useful, but nobody wanted to pay for. The first thing that a startup has to ask is: &quot;Who will pay for this?&quot; After you get some sleep, start figuring out how to find someone who has the need you are trying to fill and ask them how much they would pay for getting that need filled. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you find customers for what you want to build and you satisfy them, that would be fantastic experience - but not for a software engineer position. It would be fantastic experience for a management position." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25758" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10023" RevisionGUID="22900388-e5d8-45a8-89b0-5a40d226657b" CreationDate="2021-05-19T09:00:03.007" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1394940904515981312" />
  <row Id="25759" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10071" RevisionGUID="195518ee-16dc-44a3-8145-06dfd340b9c9" CreationDate="2021-05-19T15:37:41.573" UserId="15235" Comment="grammar corrections" Text="I have been freelancing as a front-end developer since 4 years but the problem is I get clients only through Upwork and Fiverr. I want clients outside these platforms and only from the USA or European countries. What is the best approach?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25760" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10071" RevisionGUID="195518ee-16dc-44a3-8145-06dfd340b9c9" CreationDate="2021-05-19T15:37:41.573" UserId="15235" Comment="grammar corrections" Text="How to get clients outside of sites like Upwork and Fiverr?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25761" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10071" RevisionGUID="195518ee-16dc-44a3-8145-06dfd340b9c9" CreationDate="2021-05-19T15:37:41.573" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 20317 edit id of 745" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25762" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10127" RevisionGUID="80d53c60-4de6-4cb8-969d-2c5e51ac78d6" CreationDate="2021-05-20T05:55:25.027" UserId="26325" Text="I can generalize this question to, &quot;I'm knowledgeable in this methodology that is relatively rare in the market, yet respected (to those that have heard of it). Does it make sense to reach out to companies that are looking for experts in a different methodology I consider inferior?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm figuring my angle could be along the lines of, &quot;I see you're looking for someone with expertise in X, have you considered someone with expertise in Y? Here are the benefits: ... Here's my number if you'd like to discuss further: ...&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would this be an effective approach, or is it a waste of time? Keep in mind, 95% of the jobs out there are looking for X, not Y. It'd obviously be more efficient to reach out to that 5%, but they're much harder to find." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25763" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10127" RevisionGUID="80d53c60-4de6-4cb8-969d-2c5e51ac78d6" CreationDate="2021-05-20T05:55:25.027" UserId="26325" Text="I'm an Extreme Programming (XP) Agile Coach. Does it make sense to apply to companies looking for Scrum Masters?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25764" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10127" RevisionGUID="80d53c60-4de6-4cb8-969d-2c5e51ac78d6" CreationDate="2021-05-20T05:55:25.027" UserId="26325" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25765" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10128" RevisionGUID="3b42f935-d015-416f-8474-a3039af4fc61" CreationDate="2021-05-20T07:57:01.433" UserId="26456" Text="I have been hired by a German recruiting company to work with a German company and I am based in the UK. The contract will be outside IR35 and I will be paid by the recruiting company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do not intend to do freelancing long term it is just to fill the gap until my next full-time position. The contract has a duration of 5 months.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't think it is worth setting up an ltd company for a one-shot despite the payment being &gt;£60k. In the past, I used [Giant umbrella][1] but they told me they are not processing Euro payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I guess in my position umbrella is the best option for this contract, do you agree?&#xD;&#xA;   - If so can you recommend one that accepts payment in Euro?&#xD;&#xA; - For those who have done that via umbrella, how was the currency exchange?&#xD;&#xA;   - I am worried that the exchange rate will be awful with this option&#xD;&#xA; - Is there any solution you could recommend I haven't mentioned?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.giantpay.co.uk/umbrella" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25766" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10128" RevisionGUID="3b42f935-d015-416f-8474-a3039af4fc61" CreationDate="2021-05-20T07:57:01.433" UserId="26456" Text="Incorporation advice - Contract with a German company from the UK" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25767" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10128" RevisionGUID="3b42f935-d015-416f-8474-a3039af4fc61" CreationDate="2021-05-20T07:57:01.433" UserId="26456" Text="|contracts|incorporation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25768" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10127" RevisionGUID="6eb7ca9d-4e9c-4aed-8017-bdbca969816f" CreationDate="2021-05-20T08:00:49.713" UserId="26325" Comment="deleted 7 characters in body" Text="I can generalize this question to, &quot;I'm knowledgeable in this methodology that is relatively rare in the market, yet respected (to those that have heard of it). Does it make sense to reach out to companies that are looking for experts in a different methodology I consider inferior?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm figuring my angle could be along the lines of, &quot;I see you're looking for someone with expertise in X, have you considered someone with expertise in Y? Here are the benefits: ... Here's my number if you'd like to discuss further: ...&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Would this be an effective approach, or is it a waste of time? Keep in mind, 95% of the jobs out there are looking for X, not Y. It'd obviously be more efficient to reach out to that 5%, but they're hard to find." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25769" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10129" RevisionGUID="44d10bbd-1971-4013-90f5-793b31416eea" CreationDate="2021-05-20T18:40:49.287" UserId="26463" Text="Ok so I am a resident alien of the USA (allowed to work) and I earn some money freelancing online. For a couple of months I have been writing blog posts for an individual who lives in Banglagesh (apparently. Honestly im not even 100% sure, he could be anywhere). He is not a company, he is literally just a guy with a website, and he pays me to write and proofread content. All communication is over WhatsApp and he pays me over PayPal from his personal PayPal. Ive asked this question on another site and they said that what I earn is income (which is fine) and the payer (Bangladesh guy) needs to fill out a 1099 at the end of the year. But english is not his strong suit and I can say there would be near 0% chance of getting this from him. Honestly I doubt I would even be in contact with him at the end of the year. Does this still count as taxable income? How can I report it if it's not through an employer or a company etc? He's paid me just over $1000 so far total.    &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25770" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10129" RevisionGUID="44d10bbd-1971-4013-90f5-793b31416eea" CreationDate="2021-05-20T18:40:49.287" UserId="26463" Text="Freelancing in USA for international clients - Do i pay tax" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25771" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10129" RevisionGUID="44d10bbd-1971-4013-90f5-793b31416eea" CreationDate="2021-05-20T18:40:49.287" UserId="26463" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25772" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10130" RevisionGUID="3158065c-d70a-4ae4-a202-1591aa3b654f" CreationDate="2021-05-20T20:04:09.143" UserId="708" Text="Preface: I am **not** a tax professional. However, I have been a US-based freelancer for a couple decades now, including having some international clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1099s are *not* your problem when *receiving* income. Yes they can make it *easier* for you when you file, because it details the income you received from *that* party. As the recipient of any moneys, you don't have anything to do with any 1099 issuance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, you **don't** need a 1099 to file any US taxes yourself. What you **do need** is a record of any income. That's all. So keep track of when and how much you were paid. When you file your taxes for the year there are areas for &quot;additional&quot; or &quot;general&quot; income. This is where you would report any income that is *not* related to any W2 or 1099.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Issuing a 1099 is a US tax regulation for companies which *pay* independent contractors / freelancers. US tax regulations have *no bearing* on anyone internationally. If you don't live in or have a business established within the US, you aren't required to abide by US tax regulations. The guy really doesn't *have* to issue you *any* text documents.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25773" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10130" RevisionGUID="3132bb0b-4bc7-40f0-b2c7-9a7c8f45b836" CreationDate="2021-05-20T20:09:44.437" UserId="708" Comment="added 51 characters in body" Text="Preface: I am **not** a tax professional. However, I have been a US-based freelancer for a couple decades now, including having some international clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1099s are *not* your problem when *receiving* income. Yes they can make it *easier* for you when you file, because it details the income you received from *that* party. As the recipient of any moneys, you don't have anything to do with any 1099 issuance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, you **don't** need a 1099 to file any US taxes yourself. What you **do need** is a record of any income. That's all. So keep track of when and how much you were paid. When you file your taxes for the year there are areas for &quot;additional&quot; or &quot;general&quot; income. This is where you would report any income that is *not* related to any W2 or 1099.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Issuing a 1099 is a US tax regulation for companies which *pay* independent contractors / freelancers. US tax regulations have *no bearing* on anyone internationally. If you don't live in or have a business established within the US, you aren't required to abide by US tax regulations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The guy really doesn't *have* to issue you *any* text documents and the reality is, you don't need any from him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25774" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10130" RevisionGUID="ea58a848-c20e-4141-9234-8b12a4d21e23" CreationDate="2021-05-20T21:24:44.267" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="Preface: I am **not** a tax professional. However, I have been a US-based freelancer for a couple decades now, including having some international clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1099s are *not* your problem when *receiving* income. Yes they can make it *easier* for you when you file, because it details the income you received from *that* party. As the recipient of any moneys, you don't have anything to do with any 1099 issuance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, you **don't** need a 1099 to file any US taxes yourself. What you **do need** is a record of any income. That's all. So keep track of when and how much you were paid. When you file your taxes for the year there are areas for &quot;additional&quot; or &quot;general&quot; income. This is where you would report any income that is *not* related to any W2 or 1099.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Issuing a 1099 is a US tax regulation for companies which *pay* independent contractors / freelancers. US tax regulations have *no bearing* on anyone internationally. If you don't live in or have a business established within the US, you aren't required to abide by US tax regulations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The guy really doesn't *have* to issue you *any* tax documents and the reality is, you don't need any from him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25775" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10131" RevisionGUID="2a9318c3-44be-472b-b89b-cdeb481e293f" CreationDate="2021-05-21T09:20:01.647" UserId="26456" Text="For those interested, I figured out a solution by using an international umbrella company, which allows them to receive the funds in euro and to pay me in pounds.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The icing on the cake is they offer 2 solutions of payment, the traditional PAYE and the second one is a reduced PAYE salary paired with an option grant payment and this is really good, with the first option you pay something like 45% tax and the second option you pay only 23%.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I haven't explored the pros and cons for each, apparently, the first one is better if you want to do a mortgage.&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, if you have an LTD, and don't do regular international contracts, this could be a better option for you as you won't have to deal with the hassle of conversion currency and extreme fee exchange from the bank. In my case, the conversion fees are 0.3% vs 2.5% usually.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25777" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10057" RevisionGUID="dc2444db-ca03-49ee-b4c9-5ba737d50e9f" CreationDate="2021-05-21T18:00:07.353" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1395801593921036292" />
  <row Id="25778" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10132" RevisionGUID="31ff6422-d2aa-4fb2-9db5-cec82dadeb08" CreationDate="2021-05-22T17:38:36.213" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25779" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10132" RevisionGUID="31ff6422-d2aa-4fb2-9db5-cec82dadeb08" CreationDate="2021-05-22T17:38:36.213" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25780" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10133" RevisionGUID="c7892d22-2acf-4af5-8109-7468f18e2329" CreationDate="2021-05-22T17:38:36.213" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25781" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10133" RevisionGUID="c7892d22-2acf-4af5-8109-7468f18e2329" CreationDate="2021-05-22T17:38:36.213" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25785" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10135" RevisionGUID="6eec7346-bdc9-490d-ba36-c78b4e79e3d7" CreationDate="2021-05-24T03:35:32.917" UserId="21435" Text="If you're billing your client hourly, then you should bill for all of the time you spend working on their project. That includes phone calls, meetings, other communication, testing, prototyping, etc., etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25789" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10137" RevisionGUID="93a8d9c6-75a9-43ee-9547-d1f26a9a8018" CreationDate="2021-05-26T14:18:29.277" UserId="26330" Text="I have a static page where I describe expertise and services provided and sample work. Whenever I get approached by potential clients or recruiters I'm being asked for my CV/resume. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I tried to delete all my data on Linkedin to stop being approached by Linkedin recruiters looking to hire employees, middlemen and outsourcing companies with 4th-hand projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Even though I've deleted my Linkedin data, and indicate that all details are on the static page mentioned above, recruiters are still trying to view my Linkedin page and they keep asking me for my CV/resume.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I find it hard to communicate that I'm purely interested in providing services as a freelancer/contractor/consultant and not as an employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a few questions here:&#xD;&#xA;1) How can I stop getting these requests for my CV ?&#xD;&#xA;2) How do I communicate that the CV is not required as part of any process of me or my company working with a client ?&#xD;&#xA;3) Is there any point in providing the person with a CV ?&#xD;&#xA;4) Is it acceptable in terms of business to not provide a CV, and instead provide a detailed list of expertise and services provided ?&#xD;&#xA;5) Is a request for CV/resume indicative that the position is for an outsourcing company and not for a product company ?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S. One reason for me not wanting to provide my CV is that it's free advertising for my previous employers, on the other hand if I want to advertise myself I have to pay hundreds of dollars on Google ads, so the asymmetry is visible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25790" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10137" RevisionGUID="93a8d9c6-75a9-43ee-9547-d1f26a9a8018" CreationDate="2021-05-26T14:18:29.277" UserId="26330" Text="How to refuse providing CV/resume?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25791" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10137" RevisionGUID="93a8d9c6-75a9-43ee-9547-d1f26a9a8018" CreationDate="2021-05-26T14:18:29.277" UserId="26330" Text="|contracts|communication|resume|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25792" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10138" RevisionGUID="a14db16b-c590-41df-bacb-8ee8a9274da8" CreationDate="2021-05-26T16:37:44.720" UserId="26181" Text="Turn the problem around and ask: What would my potential clients want to see to be able to evaluate if this person has the experience and is this person easy to work with?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I fully understand your wanting to communicate in a certain way, but potential clients often expect to see certain information in a certain format. When we do not meet prospects in a manner that they expect, that puts up a barrier to being hired for the project. So, are you really wanting to control how they get their information or do you want the project? When you focus on controlling the information flow, you might be telling them that you are a challenge to work with and they might do better by getting someone else. Is that the message that you want them to read into your actions?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask the question: do you even want to deal with recruiters? If not, then put together something that will always tell a recruiter to find someone else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You can't stop the requests for CV/resume. Deal with it in a manner that communicates the message that you want to give.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. To communicate that the CV is not needed, build a consistent message via other means such as direct mailings, web site, blog, your booth at the trade shows, your contributed articles in trade magazines, white papers, brochures, and cold calling on prospects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Point of providing a CV? That all depends on who receives it. The person receiving it determines the point of providing one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Not providing a CV? See #2.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. No, I've had direct prospects ask for a resume - because that is the way that they know how to evaluate me and my company. I've also had clients ask for that so that they could show to outside investors that they have a competent team. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Asymmetry always exists. Instead of worrying about that, focus on your advantages and the benefits of working with you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25793" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10035" RevisionGUID="9a0e1d22-2bf6-4bd5-8b20-77e209ff1f3e" CreationDate="2021-05-27T01:04:15.433" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25794" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9773" RevisionGUID="332de121-d0c3-439b-a67f-a101220788e3" CreationDate="2021-05-27T02:01:35.183" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25795" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9942" RevisionGUID="07b1a218-8a32-41e8-a8b5-4a95dd1c7741" CreationDate="2021-05-27T11:05:15.460" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25796" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9779" RevisionGUID="1da1304c-890b-41f1-8969-e7f381d94ebb" CreationDate="2021-05-27T12:03:40.420" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25797" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9772" RevisionGUID="a8c0facd-b763-4a44-869d-076a2d09d929" CreationDate="2021-05-27T13:03:55.487" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25798" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10139" RevisionGUID="f2cf06d4-9493-4471-9e33-6e61d900e7a5" CreationDate="2021-05-27T22:37:02.497" UserId="22310" Text="I'll preface this by saying that this isn't my exact situation, but it's close and it *could* be some day in the not too far off future. But mostly it's something I think about a lot and am curious how others have handled it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am on retainer for a handful of small biz clients for whom I essentially serve as their in-house creative/marketing/dev department. I have just enough clients of just the right scope so that with meticulous scheduling, I can serve all their needs throughout the month. most of them are long term and some of them even longer term.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now that I've got a bunch more experience (and skillz) under my belt, not to mention the rising cost of living in my area (and maybe a little bit of greed), I'm feeling some self-imposed pressure to make more $$. My rates are more than fair (based on my abilities and the range of rates in my area for similar services) and i think that they'd still be fair with a 15% increase, BUT I don't know if that's the best way to go in the interest of keeping my long term clients who I don't want to drive away, nor put them in a position where they feel like they're being asked to pay this increase &quot;just cuz&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Perhaps the way to go is to expand the business and bring on another resource. I don't want to be an agency by any means. I'm thinking this resource would be doing largely low-level production work while I still do the bulk of it and am still the face each client interacts with. Of course I'd have to find a few new clients and rearrange schedules and whatnot, but for the sake of this question, let's just say I have just the right amount of new clients knocking down my door, ready to get started at my current rate (of which, now a portion would be going to my new &quot;employee&quot;). I'm not opposed to putting in a few more hours in to make sure I'm not giving him/her *too* much of my revenue, but at the same time I don't want to spread myself too thin.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My first reaction is that expanding makes sense. It would be a contract employee so no issues with a full-timer or anything like that and if it turns out not to be the right thing for me, I can always cut him and the new clients loose going back to my original situation... and then decide if a rate increase is the next thing to try.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With that said, I know there are all kinds of headaches associated with managing someone else... especially someone doing work that will bear my name. And probably even more complications than I'm even aware of with taking this route.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyway, if anyone has any wisdom to share in favor of or against either direction, I'm all ears.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks!!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25799" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10139" RevisionGUID="f2cf06d4-9493-4471-9e33-6e61d900e7a5" CreationDate="2021-05-27T22:37:02.497" UserId="22310" Text="To expand or increase rates?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25800" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10139" RevisionGUID="f2cf06d4-9493-4471-9e33-6e61d900e7a5" CreationDate="2021-05-27T22:37:02.497" UserId="22310" Text="|pay-rate|business-plan|subcontracting|long-term|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25801" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10139" RevisionGUID="ad66d780-93df-47c7-bce1-8ade9f8c7d91" CreationDate="2021-05-27T23:06:51.210" UserId="22310" Comment="edited title" Text="To expand business or increase rates?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25802" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10140" RevisionGUID="2eda9b3d-6da6-4569-aa84-d3a3e1bd6e6f" CreationDate="2021-05-28T13:49:46.647" UserDisplayName="anon" Text="**You don't need to buy a Java license.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As per the android docs about JDK ([here][1]), they bundle a copy of OpenJDK. OpenJDK is under the permissive GNU General Public License version 2 (GPL v2, [link][2]), which allows for commercial use at no cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as you meet the license requirements of any other packages/tools in your app (like SDKs that you integrate), you should be OK from the licensing point of view.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other matters (e.g. cost your friend pays for the app, how you license or sell the app to your friend formally etc.) will need to be clarified between you and them - we are not part of those discussions and are unable to give you accurate advice on that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://developer.android.com/studio/intro/studio-config#jdk&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://openjdk.java.net/legal/gplv2+ce.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25803" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10140" RevisionGUID="76b967ce-9b75-4ad5-9abb-116b7f01e4c7" CreationDate="2021-05-28T14:05:44.850" UserDisplayName="anon" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="**You don't need to buy a Java license.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As per the android docs about JDK ([here][1]), they bundle a copy of OpenJDK. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;OpenJDK is under the permissive GNU General Public License version 2 (GPL v2, [link][2]), which allows for commercial use at no cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as you meet the license requirements of any other packages/tools in your app (like SDKs that you integrate), you should be OK from the licensing point of view.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Other matters (e.g. cost your friend pays for the app, how you license or sell the app to your friend formally etc.) will need to be clarified between you and them - we are not part of those discussions and are unable to give you accurate advice on that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://developer.android.com/studio/intro/studio-config#jdk&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://openjdk.java.net/legal/gplv2+ce.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25804" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10141" RevisionGUID="fdd09ff0-2f4f-4132-a6b5-78a8c2e49c61" CreationDate="2021-05-28T16:16:26.820" UserId="26509" Text="I'm a developer and I feel like an imposter whenever I read a job description. I know that I can solve the problems, but I take time to search for the terms in the job description before submitting it, which makes me lose many jobs. should I submit a proposal to a job just to catch the job then look for solutions." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25805" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10141" RevisionGUID="fdd09ff0-2f4f-4132-a6b5-78a8c2e49c61" CreationDate="2021-05-28T16:16:26.820" UserId="26509" Text="should I submit a proposal to a job just to catch the job then look for solutions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25806" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10141" RevisionGUID="fdd09ff0-2f4f-4132-a6b5-78a8c2e49c61" CreationDate="2021-05-28T16:16:26.820" UserId="26509" Text="|freelance-websites|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25807" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="4533" RevisionGUID="0c50d361-c19d-4746-8207-c8de85c4e03a" CreationDate="2021-05-28T23:02:50.267" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25808" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10142" RevisionGUID="8f371698-6631-4c3d-8800-1ab95222d6ee" CreationDate="2021-05-29T10:30:58.893" UserId="26378" Text="I am making a simple website for a friend of a friend. We have agreed on an hourly rate. I'm just wondering, how does a contract normally end? It could have a term like &quot;either party can terminate this contract by providing 7 days notice&quot;. But that doesn't seem to cover the case where the website is completed and their naturally is no more work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What if a long time from now she comes back to give me more work on the website but I am too busy with other projects, how is that prevented in terms of stating the scope in a contract? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25809" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10142" RevisionGUID="8f371698-6631-4c3d-8800-1ab95222d6ee" CreationDate="2021-05-29T10:30:58.893" UserId="26378" Text="Looking for simple contract template for making website. Stuck on termination clause?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25810" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10142" RevisionGUID="8f371698-6631-4c3d-8800-1ab95222d6ee" CreationDate="2021-05-29T10:30:58.893" UserId="26378" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25811" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10143" RevisionGUID="5f1a7fee-962d-42d0-bd75-6ffc6f90bf45" CreationDate="2021-05-29T12:48:23.060" UserId="26181" Text="First off, people who post projects on UpWork get many proposals (between 50-100 on some projects) and they have to quickly figure out which proposals to toss away. Those that appear to be &quot;standard proposals&quot; often get tossed first. Adding your &quot;standard proposal&quot; to the pile of &quot;toss this quickly&quot; is not a good way to get projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The purpose of a proposal on UpWork is to get an interview. What I do is to look for projects where I know I can solve them, but also bring extra experience to bear that would help the business owner. I'll spend a good bit of time writing up why my business is a good match for the project description. On UpWork, my goal is one good proposal a week. I want the proposal to really address the concerns and show that I can solve the problems. (That is because so many projects are simply technical skill descriptions which someone else can do cheaper.) It can take six to nine months to get a project this way. But, I look for high value projects that are worth waiting for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Someone who posts a project will interview four to ten people for that project. It is in the interview where we actually make the sale. Odds are that it can take 5-10 interviews to get a project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is best to not worry about what other people send in as their proposals. Those will get tossed quickly. Instead, my advice is to focus on making the best proposal you can. Try to think of what the person who posted the project really wants and offer a solution to their problem.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25812" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10144" RevisionGUID="64424b5c-bdc0-42ac-89cb-873ddd6ec610" CreationDate="2021-05-29T15:40:43.977" UserId="75" Text="How do you define the website is done in the contract as-is? Does it need to have feature X, Y and Z to be considered done? Or does it need the client to say &quot;OK, you're done&quot;?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What you're looking to get is an exit clause. Put it in all your contracts. It's the definitive way to make sure you and your client know when the current job is completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Items to include in your clause:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Client chooses to end relationship&#xD;&#xA;- You choose to end the relationship&#xD;&#xA;  - How much notice is needed?&#xD;&#xA;  - What happens to currently-worked on assets?&#xD;&#xA;  - How far to the next milestone for payment?&#xD;&#xA;  - Does there need to be a certain reason?&#xD;&#xA;- Project is completed&#xD;&#xA;  - What are the milestones? How are they quantitatively measured?&#xD;&#xA;- Project is not completed&#xD;&#xA;  - Why not, and can the contract be picked up at a later time with the same terms?&#xD;&#xA;  - Includes for non-payment of your milestones" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25813" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6837" RevisionGUID="a2c3b424-96cb-4b01-9ba2-3e5bd66cb28a" CreationDate="2021-05-30T20:01:00.133" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25824" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10147" RevisionGUID="e74837f6-2783-408f-9c4c-318be037cb57" CreationDate="2021-06-02T23:39:08.100" UserId="25228" Text="I would not invoice for time spent updating plugins before being delivered. 1. It shouldnt even take that long to do and 2. the project was not delivered yet." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25826" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10148" RevisionGUID="8d73b3e6-b91e-4462-9853-942b414ec437" CreationDate="2021-06-06T10:34:18.183" UserId="11464" Text="I receive many contacts from recruiters on LinkedIn.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some of them genuinely ask if I know somebody who could be interested in the position(s) offered, and they sometimes mention that I could get a commission if I refer somebody who gets hired.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I find asking several contacts personally pretty much time-consuming. I prefer to advertise the position on my feed and request to send a dm if interested (or get to the recruiter directly ?).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it something wise/ethical/socially accepted also considering my local market (Switzerland)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am employed (not in HR and/or recruitment) and have other projects outside work (publicly displayed on my profile and approved by my employer). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What concerns me in specific is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Whether this may impact my employment/employer (not operating in the recruitment / head hunting branch).&#xD;&#xA;- Whether this could be seen in a wrong way from other recruiters in my contacts." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25827" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10148" RevisionGUID="8d73b3e6-b91e-4462-9853-942b414ec437" CreationDate="2021-06-06T10:34:18.183" UserId="11464" Text="Is it ok to publish job openings on my LinkedIn profile to try to earn hiring commissions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25828" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10148" RevisionGUID="8d73b3e6-b91e-4462-9853-942b414ec437" CreationDate="2021-06-06T10:34:18.183" UserId="11464" Text="|communication|ethics|advertising|linkedin|switzerland|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25829" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10111" RevisionGUID="9ba463c5-1a0a-4916-a58b-e3025183987a" CreationDate="2021-06-07T03:00:24.333" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1401735766447951879" />
  <row Id="25834" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6830" RevisionGUID="31acb6fc-4d0f-4b8a-a6fc-bc01cb50393e" CreationDate="2021-06-11T20:06:55.643" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25835" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10150" RevisionGUID="a71cac1c-963a-45e9-97d6-be0afcd023d1" CreationDate="2021-06-11T22:06:43.040" UserId="26325" Text="I know it's possible to register an LLC anonymously in a few states. This isn't a question about that. For context, *I have not created an LLC yet.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work as a freelancer and I have a side project (that also makes income). I have no problems associating my freelance work with my LLC, but I don't want would-be employers and family members to know I'm working on the hobby project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Here's what a perfect world would look like to me:** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. My name and freelance company are tied to the LLC. &#xD;&#xA;1. My hobby project wouldn't be publicly associated with my name, company, or my LLC.&#xD;&#xA;1. I'd still receive LLC legal and tax benefits on my hobby project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can this be achieved simply by sending my hobby project income to my LLC bank account without mentioning my name, company, or LLC anywhere on the hobby project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If not, is there any other way to achieve the above requirements? Is there any way to get close to anonymity, a situation where an employer/family member would have to do some serious digging to discover I'm working on this hobby project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To avoid this question being closed as off-topic, I want to say the fact that this is a hobby project is incidental; it makes the question easier to write and articulate, but feel free to imagine, instead of a hobby project, I'm talking about some freelance work for company that might tarnish my reputation -- so I wouldn't want to associate it back to me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25836" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10150" RevisionGUID="a71cac1c-963a-45e9-97d6-be0afcd023d1" CreationDate="2021-06-11T22:06:43.040" UserId="26325" Text="Can I anonymously use my public LLC?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25837" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10150" RevisionGUID="a71cac1c-963a-45e9-97d6-be0afcd023d1" CreationDate="2021-06-11T22:06:43.040" UserId="26325" Text="|legal|taxes|usa|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25838" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10150" RevisionGUID="36caca8c-7311-4eee-8e32-6e33e5750b8e" CreationDate="2021-06-11T22:43:56.530" UserId="26325" Comment="deleted 6 characters in body" Text="I know it's possible to register an LLC anonymously in a few states. This isn't a question about that. For context, *I have not created an LLC yet.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work as a freelancer and I have a side project (that also makes income). I have no problems associating my freelance work with my LLC, but I don't want would-be employers and family members to know I'm working on the hobby project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Here's what a perfect world would look like:** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. My name and freelance company are tied to the LLC. &#xD;&#xA;1. My hobby project wouldn't be publicly associated with my name, company, or my LLC.&#xD;&#xA;1. I'd still receive LLC legal and tax benefits on my hobby project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can this be achieved simply by sending my hobby project income to my LLC bank account without mentioning my name, company, or LLC anywhere on the hobby project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If not, is there any other way to achieve the above requirements? Is there any way to get close to anonymity, a situation where an employer/family member would have to do some serious digging to discover I'm working on this hobby project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To avoid this question being closed as off-topic, I want to say the fact that this is a hobby project is incidental; it makes the question easier to write and articulate, but feel free to imagine, instead of a hobby project, I'm talking about some freelance work for company that might tarnish my reputation -- so I wouldn't want to associate it back to me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25839" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10150" RevisionGUID="2602c50f-8186-4206-9e07-af880e1d5e96" CreationDate="2021-06-11T23:17:23.573" UserId="26325" Comment="added 46 characters in body" Text="I know it's possible to register an LLC anonymously in a few states. This isn't a question about that. For context, *I have not created an LLC yet.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work as a freelancer and I have a side project (that also makes income). I have no problems associating my freelance work with my LLC, but I don't want would-be employers and family members to know I'm working on the hobby project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Here's what a perfect world would look like:** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. My name and freelance company are tied to the LLC. &#xD;&#xA;1. My hobby project wouldn't be publicly associated with my name, company, or my LLC.&#xD;&#xA;1. I'd still receive LLC legal and tax benefits on my hobby project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can this be achieved simply by sending my hobby project income to my LLC bank account without mentioning my name, company, or LLC anywhere on the hobby project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If not, is there any other way to achieve the above requirements? Is there any way to get close to anonymity, a situation where an employer/family member would have to do some serious digging to discover I'm working on this hobby project? e.g., If I *have* to create 2 LLCs, so be it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To avoid this question being closed as off-topic, I want to say the fact that this is a hobby project is incidental; it makes the question easier to write and articulate, but feel free to imagine, instead of a hobby project, I'm talking about some freelance work for company that might tarnish my reputation -- so I wouldn't want to associate it back to me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25840" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9255" RevisionGUID="e3ab5f01-e969-405a-8911-c741f73e8dae" CreationDate="2021-06-12T13:00:30.383" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25841" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10001" RevisionGUID="268ab600-0a65-4baa-9cb5-6e569a1ebaac" CreationDate="2021-06-12T14:05:35.517" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25842" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9798" RevisionGUID="36ace2e8-fe83-42c8-a383-c04f05464a72" CreationDate="2021-06-12T20:05:10.577" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25843" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10151" RevisionGUID="0d9460f9-a1da-45af-a1be-ffb5019613e8" CreationDate="2021-06-13T10:50:01.920" UserId="26318" Text="In short, the answer is 'no', it's certainly not *inappropriate* to advertise potential vacancies on your linkedin page, but you need to understand that at that point you're basically moonlighting as a stunted recruiter, passing suitable candidates along to other recruiters who claim  that they'll pay you a small finder's-fee for helping them to place a candidate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given how low the rate-of-return will be (your best candidate will be up against many other candidates), the potential to get screwed over by the recruiter deciding not to pay you (which happens often), the potential for reputational damage when your contacts realise that you're acting as a recruitment consultant on the sly and the **strong probability that your company won't take kindly to you touting yourself as a headhunter for their direct competitors**, I'd suggest that you don't do it. It's simply not worth the hassle." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25844" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10152" RevisionGUID="14c59007-c342-4826-b9e6-654b654e580e" CreationDate="2021-06-14T09:12:07.873" UserId="20690" Text="I'm a freelance software developer and I've been working fulltime for a client for a while now. They are happy with me but can't offer a consistent amount of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The consequence is that I'm just sitting at the firm and doing nothing, waiting for work and searching to do something usefull. I have already informed the owner that things are slow and he can give me work should he have some.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My agreement with them states that they are responsible to come up with work for me, yet this situation just keeps coming up and I really don't feel comfortable with this. For me it's stressfull to constantly look for something to make myself usefull.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My work is important to the firms core business but I'm at a point where I'm about to take a leave and not come back untill they give me a well defined assignment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that a lot of freelancers just have several clients with smaller jobs, but if I just stop working for this client for a while, in reality I'll have to take another fulltime freelance job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to keep the client, but only show up when it's needed. I think this would solve most of our problems, except for the fact that I'm not compensated for hours that I'm not working for them (but do keep myself available for some %).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a solution for this problem? How do others go about this? Is it realistic to ask them to pay me a monthly small fixed price (10% of full time) for the option that they can contact me + hours that I perform. Is this realistic?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25845" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10152" RevisionGUID="14c59007-c342-4826-b9e6-654b654e580e" CreationDate="2021-06-14T09:12:07.873" UserId="20690" Text="How can I keep a client who doesn't have consistent work, while usually working fulltime per client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25846" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10152" RevisionGUID="14c59007-c342-4826-b9e6-654b654e580e" CreationDate="2021-06-14T09:12:07.873" UserId="20690" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25852" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10154" RevisionGUID="9de79c97-e67a-4b5f-975b-52f45b88210c" CreationDate="2021-06-16T17:17:56.157" UserId="26318" Text="As I see it, there are three possible solutions to your problem, noting that the client is (evidently) perfectly happy to keep you on a permanent retainer waiting for the next assignment to drop. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) **Use the time sensibly to improve your skill-base in a way that also improves your ability to service the client.** If they're using you as a Java Developer, work on gaining new skills in [Java development][1]. If you're web developing, spend time learning the [latest W3C standards][2], etc, etc. Tell the client what you plan to do with any downtime (and why). Based on your question, I'd expect them to be pretty happy that you're improving your skillset *to help them* as well as remaining in their vicinity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) **Ask your colleagues/boss to see if you can identify *ongoing* tasks that you could be doing.** This could include creating documentation (always fun), improving a legacy codebase or making working models of potential improvements, etc. This would obviously have to be in conjunction with the client, but again is something that genuinely improves their company and something the client is likely to be pleased about. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) **Ask them to become a daily paid consultant.** Explain that you don't like downtime (even if you're being paid for it) and you'd be more comfortable with an arrangement that means that you're not compensated when you aren't working. They will likely panic a little over this and either offer you *more tasks to do* (which sounds like what you want) or suggest one of the options above.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://javarevisited.blogspot.com/2017/12/10-things-java-programmers-should-learn.html#axzz6xyMl9mZf&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25853" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10152" RevisionGUID="56de4b5e-07bf-4739-81b1-8d84c20f7aae" CreationDate="2021-06-17T06:00:05.573" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1405404864851681280" />
  <row Id="25854" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10155" RevisionGUID="fe0431fe-5da0-475a-a242-dfe2199ca6ca" CreationDate="2021-06-18T08:07:41.293" UserId="26629" Text="I am a 21 year old graduation student who knows some Python and wishes to freelance to help myself financially as much as possible as i don't want to rely on my parents for everything.&#xD;&#xA;So,&#xD;&#xA;How much of **Python** do i need to know to start freelancing using python..?&#xD;&#xA;Also, i need to learn what other things shall i be prepared for before entering this field. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25855" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10155" RevisionGUID="fe0431fe-5da0-475a-a242-dfe2199ca6ca" CreationDate="2021-06-18T08:07:41.293" UserId="26629" Text="Prereqisites for stepping into a freelancing career" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25856" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10155" RevisionGUID="fe0431fe-5da0-475a-a242-dfe2199ca6ca" CreationDate="2021-06-18T08:07:41.293" UserId="26629" Text="|freelance-websites|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25857" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="10155" RevisionGUID="74dcd652-57b6-4b24-a0f7-62c3fac5c537" CreationDate="2021-06-18T17:59:34.447" UserId="75" Comment="104" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="25858" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10155" RevisionGUID="7f871790-6972-4e58-98bc-c96f42ee0ecc" CreationDate="2021-06-19T01:51:51.080" UserId="26629" Comment="deleted 92 characters in body" Text="I am a 21 year old graduation student who knows some Python and wishes to freelance to help myself financially as much as possible as i don't want to rely on my parents for everything.&#xD;&#xA;So,&#xD;&#xA;How much of **Python** do i need to know to start freelancing using python..? I mean, do i have to learn some specific things in python to land a freelancing job..?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25859" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10156" RevisionGUID="72dc0c78-1360-4820-8ae6-80e4030ca923" CreationDate="2021-06-19T02:15:35.947" UserId="26629" Text="I am a graduation student with some knowledge of Python. I know well upto the object oriented programming and have worked with Tkinter. But that was just the basics.Now, i want to land a freelancing job and i want to know that how much of **Python** shall i learn in order to do so? Also, what specific things should i learn?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25860" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10156" RevisionGUID="72dc0c78-1360-4820-8ae6-80e4030ca923" CreationDate="2021-06-19T02:15:35.947" UserId="26629" Text="Need help to land first freelancing job using python" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25861" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10156" RevisionGUID="72dc0c78-1360-4820-8ae6-80e4030ca923" CreationDate="2021-06-19T02:15:35.947" UserId="26629" Text="|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25862" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10157" RevisionGUID="a730e186-22cc-4e81-9102-649e65407668" CreationDate="2021-06-19T05:05:18.143" UserId="708" Text="I'm not sure how anyone here could anticipate what level of proficiency you need to reach. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One's success is in their own hands. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If you strive to be *good at what you do*, then you need to learn as much as you possibly can. Then *continue* learning as things develop.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If you're goal is merely to make some cash by scrambling together some projects for uneducated clients, then you only need as much knowledge as the project requires.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where, between the bullets, you wish to fall is you're decision." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25863" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="10156" RevisionGUID="617f3890-42ab-4f68-a2ca-120f4d2fd041" CreationDate="2021-06-19T15:32:29.460" UserId="75" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[10155],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:708,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Scott&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:61,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;bytebuster&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="25864" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6790" RevisionGUID="24ffcfac-1e70-483d-b7ae-5782b28819ee" CreationDate="2021-06-19T16:02:20.193" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25865" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10128" RevisionGUID="006fb3c6-1491-4fdf-9b35-86bea331a8fa" CreationDate="2021-06-20T10:06:05.620" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25866" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10158" RevisionGUID="c8d197c8-0b4c-43df-bf6b-a1c58564e4ac" CreationDate="2021-06-21T21:04:06.913" UserId="17372" Text="Currently I am using Clockify but I would like to know if there exists any free time tracking and invoicing software geared toward freelance software developers?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All I am finding is &quot;paid&quot; options -- usually the 'invoicing' functionality is turned off in their free tier (like for Clockify)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25867" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10158" RevisionGUID="c8d197c8-0b4c-43df-bf6b-a1c58564e4ac" CreationDate="2021-06-21T21:04:06.913" UserId="17372" Text="Does anyone know of any free time tracking and invoicing software geared toward freelance software developers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25868" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10158" RevisionGUID="c8d197c8-0b4c-43df-bf6b-a1c58564e4ac" CreationDate="2021-06-21T21:04:06.913" UserId="17372" Text="|invoices|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25869" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10159" RevisionGUID="eebc9c31-0ab6-46b9-96de-5a9e8f126062" CreationDate="2021-06-23T22:20:52.777" UserId="26318" Text="If you want to create an air-gap between you and the company that you're consulting for (so that others with potential access to your company and financial records can't see the ultimate source of the income), what you'll need is a second ***anonymous*** LLC. You create a secondary company whose sole purpose is to book revenue from the project and hire a contractor e.g. you, to perform the work on the project that you're developing. You then invoice the shell company for '*services rendered*' and bank the revenue as you would any other project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously your name will be on the second company's paperwork, which is why you need to incorporate it in somewhere like [Wyoming or Delaware][1], where company records can be very scanty indeed. You may also need a tax lawyer to explain why you're paying money to yourself from a company that you own, in order to demonstrate that this isn't a money-laundering scheme or tax avoidance scam. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.l4sb.com/blog/regular-llc-versus-anonymous-llc/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25870" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10150" RevisionGUID="09af3541-efef-4552-bb29-3fa319dff4cc" CreationDate="2021-06-25T12:00:00.513" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1408394543775502343" />
  <row Id="25871" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10010" RevisionGUID="cb02473c-ecd3-4f0c-ab74-5537bac28564" CreationDate="2021-06-25T15:29:51.413" UserId="25830" Comment="added 522 characters in body" Text="Your friend is a guy called SLA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Service Level Agreement&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You set how heavy the lash is for the amount of money the client is willing to pay. Doesn't matter the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Low pay - SLA of 5 business days&#xD;&#xA;- High pay - SLA of 4 hours&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some office guy exploded his desktop? You got a week to fix.&#xD;&#xA;Some very important server went down because the maid pulled the cord midday? It's still a week, unless they hire premium SLA.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At least with SLAs, if you're getting called at 2a.m. if for someone that's worth it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's up to you really. Most of the stress comes from dealing with customers and managers, they are usually technologically ignorant and proportionally arrogant. Dealing with computers is the easy part.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You will only work after hours if you offer very short SLAs, this might be a dealbreaker for some clients, but you're the boss.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Things that will make your life easier:&#xD;&#xA;- preventive maintenance, fix before it breaks&#xD;&#xA;- monitoring, fix before they notice&#xD;&#xA;- alerts, know before they know&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I said, even if you detect a huge problem and have to spend the night solving it, that is 10x less stressful than having to fix a simple email server with the client breathing down your neck. So keep tabs on your resources and monitor stuff. Let the computer tell you when it's going through hard times before it reaches a crisis.&#xD;&#xA;On top of that, it's awesome if the client calls you at 2am and you're already up, fixing whatever it is and just saying 'Mail server down? I'm on it already, don't worry'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While you're working, make sure that you're doing whatever you can to prevent having to work other times. Like automating parts of your work or doing general prevention routines. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25874" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10148" RevisionGUID="9601c8d8-4800-43fe-8d96-a9065e0344a1" CreationDate="2021-06-26T09:00:03.017" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1408711643924766722" />
  <row Id="25875" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10121" RevisionGUID="fd17a078-32a3-4fe9-b517-c6a1bdf0a3e3" CreationDate="2021-06-27T15:01:00.080" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25877" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10160" RevisionGUID="0b02a30e-15b9-422b-b810-c3fb3609569f" CreationDate="2021-06-28T17:39:06.700" UserId="21562" Text="Some of the first considerations would be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- How many times have you done similar work, what were your costs, time, difficulties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - How much will you have to charge just to break even?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Can you offer a better web based design and ordering tool than the established competition: [Printify](https://printify.com/mockup-generator/), [Broken Arrow](https://www.brokenarrowwear.com/designer/designer.aspx?name=Gildan&amp;sku=2000#/layers), or [CustomInk](https://www.customink.com/ndx/#/)'s modern design tool.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - You can't compete with those, with a tool like [Customly](https://www.customily.com/tshirt-design)'s simple designer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Will this effort generate future business with many new customers, or only this one customer; and probably only this once.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - If you can amortize the cost over dozens of future customers you can sell usage of the software for a low monthly rate, or assess a low one time fee with a limited number of years of free updates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    - If it's repeat business you need to be prepared to expand in that direction, if it's a one-shot deal then you need to profit beyond your expenses; that includes allowing for change requests (after the agreement is made) and providing Technical Support to both the company and their Website Designer (who might become a competitor, in the end).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging an hourly rate certainly assures that you are paid for each hour, but there's likely an upper limit in the company's interest and they probably want a finished and working product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging a flat rate to do the work leaves you to do all that would be required (based on your experience with similar projects) sufficiently quickly to realize a profit beyond your expenses. You can only fully know an approximation of your expenses from considerable prior experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging a fraction of the cost on the basis that you'll be able to sell usage of the completed application to future customers would offer the first company the most attractive price; but then you are in the business of promoting and selling this product to potential future customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your product is clearly better, easier to use, and offered at a lower cost, the barrier to acceptance and convincing people to switch from what already works will be lower. With so much competition you have a challenging road ahead: quality of product, service level, and projected confidence are rather intangible; but something you still want to charge for." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25878" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10161" RevisionGUID="4d3b9118-9894-48a3-ad2f-8f03d7f59479" CreationDate="2021-06-28T18:55:58.960" UserId="25082" Text="To get right to it, you want more cash. One of the simplest ways to do that is to just raise your rates, like you mentioned. The biggest problem when doing this is, naturally, the fear that your current clients won't be able to accept the rate increase and would like to cease working with you. If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about this because, as you mention:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; let's just say I have just the right amount of new clients knocking down my door, ready to get started at my current rate&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you do have other options available to you should any current clients turn down your work. Definitely mention to those potential clients that your rates have increased, though!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You say:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; My rates are more than fair&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From your phrasing, it sounds like you might be selling yourself short a bit. This is a pretty clear clue to me that you should be requesting a higher compensation for your work. You've got more experience, you've developed your skills... Now it's time for that to pay off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending upon how decent your relationships with your current clients are, you should be able to negotiate a rate increase without a problem, especially if they've kept you on retainer for awhile already. The way to do this isn't always easy, as you note:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I think that they'd still be fair with a 15% increase, BUT I don't know if that's the best way to go in the interest of keeping my long term clients who I don't want to drive away, nor put them in a position where they feel like they're being asked to pay this increase &quot;just cuz&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you feel confident that your somewhat shorter-term clients would be comfortable with a 10-15% increase, then propose exactly that change... But not immediately. Give your clients ample notice, perhaps a couple of months' time to digest the change before making it. If your clients have already been working with you for some time, they should recognize the value in your work. Giving them time to process the adjustment in your rate as you continue to work with them shows that you're polite, professional, and that you value their time as much as your own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your longer-term clients are going to be a bit trickier. You still want to raise your rates, but it feels punishing to do that to some of your more trusted clients. The way I would handle this is by telling them that you are, indeed, raising your rates... But for them, it's going to be less of an increase than your other clients due to your pre-existing working relationship and how happy you are with that relationship. This shows them that, in the interest of preserving your working relationship with them, you're willing to make that increase more easily digestible for them, while still making a stand for the experience and quality of work you provide. For all future clients, you'll charge the increased rates sans the discount. You can determine just how much less that increase will be for these long-term clients dependent upon your relationship with them - I don't know them like you do!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Dmytro Chasovskyi mentioned [in a comment](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/10139/to-expand-business-or-increase-rates#comment11526_10139) that you should set up a yearly inflation adjustment for your longer-term clients. I couldn't agree more with this, as it also gives you the opportunity to increase your rates, should the need arise, along with the inflation increase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As time has marched on, and your experience has increased, you seem to have let your rates fall behind the increases in cost of living of your area and general inflation. It's important that you value your work enough to cover the increases in these expenses, as well as the increases in your experience. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25879" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10161" RevisionGUID="79c29292-84d9-4881-b759-0c583904e422" CreationDate="2021-06-28T19:06:40.133" UserId="25082" Comment="added 313 characters in body" Text="To get right to it, you want more cash. One of the simplest ways to do that is to just raise your rates, like you mentioned. The biggest problem when doing this is, naturally, the fear that your current clients won't be able to accept the rate increase and would like to cease working with you. If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about this because, as you mention:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; let's just say I have just the right amount of new clients knocking down my door, ready to get started at my current rate&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you do have other options available to you should any current clients turn down your work. I recognize that &quot;If they won't accept it, just replace them&quot; sounds *extremely* harsh, but the point of raising your rates in this case is to ensure you're being paid what your work is worth. The value you provide to your clients should be reflected in the compensation you get, especially when the value of that work (i.e. your experience and skillset) increases/becomes more effective with time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Losing a client that's not going to pay you what you're worth is acceptable because, if you begrudgingly continued to work for them even as your other clients accept the rate increase with grace, you're essentially just *losing money* when working for this stickler client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You say:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; My rates are more than fair&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From your phrasing, it sounds like you might be selling yourself short a bit. This is a pretty clear clue to me that you should be requesting a higher compensation for your work. You've got more experience, you've developed your skills... Now it's time for that to pay off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending upon how decent your relationships with your current clients are, you should be able to negotiate a rate increase without a problem, especially if they've kept you on retainer for awhile already. The way to do this isn't always easy, as you note:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I think that they'd still be fair with a 15% increase, BUT I don't know if that's the best way to go in the interest of keeping my long term clients who I don't want to drive away, nor put them in a position where they feel like they're being asked to pay this increase &quot;just cuz&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you feel confident that your somewhat shorter-term clients would be comfortable with a 10-15% increase, then propose exactly that change... But not immediately. Give your clients ample notice, perhaps a couple of months' time to digest the change before making it. If your clients have already been working with you for some time, they should recognize the value in your work. Giving them time to process the adjustment in your rate as you continue to work with them shows that you're polite, professional, and that you value their time as much as your own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your longer-term clients are going to be a bit trickier. You still want to raise your rates, but it feels punishing to do that to some of your more trusted clients. The way I would handle this is by telling them that you are, indeed, raising your rates... But for them, it's going to be less of an increase than your other clients due to your pre-existing working relationship and how happy you are with that relationship. This shows them that, in the interest of preserving your working relationship with them, you're willing to make that increase more easily digestible for them, while still making a stand for the experience and quality of work you provide. For all future clients, you'll charge the increased rates sans the discount. You can determine just how much less that increase will be for these long-term clients dependent upon your relationship with them - I don't know them like you do!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Dmytro Chasovskyi mentioned [in a comment](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/10139/to-expand-business-or-increase-rates#comment11526_10139) that you should set up a yearly inflation adjustment for your longer-term clients. I couldn't agree more with this, as it also gives you the opportunity to increase your rates, should the need arise, along with the inflation increase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As time has marched on, and your experience has increased, you seem to have let your rates fall behind the increases in cost of living of your area and general inflation. It's important that you value your work enough to cover the increases in these expenses, as well as the increases in your experience. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25880" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10159" RevisionGUID="92309d8d-460d-4bc7-a280-9ed58f0f22e8" CreationDate="2021-06-28T22:49:48.727" UserId="26318" Comment="added 174 characters in body" Text="If you want to create an air-gap between yourself and the company that you're consulting for (so that people who have access to the company records for your freelancing LLC and your own personal financial records can't see the *ultimate* source of the income) what you'll need to do is incorporate a second ***anonymous*** LLC.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You create a secondary company, which we'll refer to as Hobby LLC. Its sole purpose is to book revenue from the client and formally hire a contractor e.g. you, as the sole employee of Freelance LLC, to perform the work on the project that you're developing. Freelance LLC then invoices Hobby LLC for '*services rendered*' and banks the revenue as it would any other project, so the money passes through the Hobby LLC first.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously your name will be on Hobby LLC's paperwork, which is why you need to incorporate it in somewhere like [Wyoming or Delaware][1], where company records can be very scanty indeed. You may also need a tax lawyer to explain why you're paying money to yourself from a company that you own, in order to demonstrate that this isn't a money-laundering scheme or tax avoidance scam. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.l4sb.com/blog/regular-llc-versus-anonymous-llc/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25881" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10162" RevisionGUID="742d19cf-8ec9-485f-b021-062822254aa5" CreationDate="2021-06-29T14:05:48.047" UserId="26678" Text="I have created an S-Corp for which I am the sole owner/employee. I understand, according to [this article][1] that as the owner of the S-Corp I cannot get health insurance tax-free, but if the insurance policy is set up by the S-Corp and paid by the S-Corp, I can still avoid paying FICA (Medicare tax), FUTA (unemployment tax), and Social Security.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I have my S-Corp sign up for health insurance? I tried going to healthcare.gov, but that would've signed me up, not my S-Corp. I tried going directly to Medica, but it says I have to be an authorized broker to sign up. I'm not sure what I have to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.peoplekeep.com/blog/how-s-corporation-owners-can-deduct-health-insurance-expenses" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25882" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10162" RevisionGUID="742d19cf-8ec9-485f-b021-062822254aa5" CreationDate="2021-06-29T14:05:48.047" UserId="26678" Text="How can my S-Corp sign up to pay for health insurance on my behalf?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25883" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10162" RevisionGUID="742d19cf-8ec9-485f-b021-062822254aa5" CreationDate="2021-06-29T14:05:48.047" UserId="26678" Text="|taxes|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25884" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10163" RevisionGUID="f0905515-c327-4306-a51e-7132d18af583" CreationDate="2021-06-29T21:17:03.127" UserId="26647" Text="I've been using an MS Access app i put together to track hours, clients, create invoices from hours entered, payments, etc. Since last year i have it connected to MYSQL backend in cloud. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25885" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10164" RevisionGUID="389a72ca-19cd-4bf9-b6d9-97561f5cfc5e" CreationDate="2021-06-29T21:43:08.430" UserId="26647" Text="I built a very successful app for a client. There was no language as to ownership in the contract, and no &quot;Work-for-hire&quot; language.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project creeped way out of scope, but I had an hourly rate that kicked in when over my estimate, and they paid right away. I didn't any gain in re-doing the contract, so I let it be. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I installed it, and it's been hugely successful for them - (eliminating paper in a trading environment). I told him I could not sign when he then requested me to not provide this to any of their named competitors.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now he's asked for the source code and a perpetual license. I countered with either larger lump sum price for the source code, Or &#xD;&#xA;a yearly licensing of 1/5 the price of lump sum buyout. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One of my questions is: by me installing it on their system...did that 'imply&quot; a perpetual license for them? Or would I still be able to license it yearly? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'll likely be heading for some legal help on this also - jsut wondering if anyone had this type of situation out there!      &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25886" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10164" RevisionGUID="389a72ca-19cd-4bf9-b6d9-97561f5cfc5e" CreationDate="2021-06-29T21:43:08.430" UserId="26647" Text="licensiing after installing for Client (not Work-For-Hire)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25887" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10164" RevisionGUID="389a72ca-19cd-4bf9-b6d9-97561f5cfc5e" CreationDate="2021-06-29T21:43:08.430" UserId="26647" Text="|software|licensing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25888" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10164" RevisionGUID="37e5bd16-1388-4703-abca-4e88ce7dcbe5" CreationDate="2021-06-29T21:48:30.790" UserId="26647" Comment="added 104 characters in body" Text="I built a very successful app for a client. There was no language as to ownership in the contract, and no &quot;Work-for-hire&quot; language.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project creeped way out of scope, but I had an hourly rate that kicked in when over my estimate, and they paid right away. I didn't see much gain in re-doing the contract, so I let it be. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I installed it, and it's been hugely successful for them - mostly automating and detoxing from paper, and digital sign-off/review of $$ transactions).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After few months, he asked for a copy of it for his other firm, as well as asking of me to not provide software to any of their named competitors. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now he's asked for the source code and a perpetual license. I countered with either a large lump sum price for the source code, Or.. &#xD;&#xA;a yearly licensing of 1/5 the price of the lump sum buyout. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One of my questions is: by me installing it on their system...did that 'imply&quot; a perpetual license for them? Or would I still be able to license it yearly? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'll likely be heading for some legal help on this also - jsut wondering if any devs had this type of situation out there!      &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25889" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10164" RevisionGUID="37e5bd16-1388-4703-abca-4e88ce7dcbe5" CreationDate="2021-06-29T21:48:30.790" UserId="26647" Comment="added 104 characters in body" Text="licensing after installing for Client (not Work-For-Hire)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25890" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10162" RevisionGUID="4e60fb30-1e19-4875-b608-3f2c36bb4247" CreationDate="2021-06-30T00:00:12.723" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1410025340148277248" />
  <row Id="25891" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10160" RevisionGUID="00083701-5cd4-4e05-a4a3-b1b303c89147" CreationDate="2021-06-30T06:43:28.157" UserId="21562" Comment="Added clickable example and some details to the examples." Text="Some of the first considerations would be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- How many times have you done similar work, what were your costs, time, difficulties.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - How much will you have to charge just to break even?&#xD;&#xA;  - What profit is necessary to pay yourself and subcontractors, buy new equipment or purchase training to keep yourself current, offset expected cost increases or lean times where you must maintain an office and business phone line / answering service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Can you offer a better web based design and ordering tool than the established competition: [Printify](https://printify.com/mockup-generator/), [Broken Arrow](https://www.brokenarrowwear.com/designer/designer.aspx?name=Gildan&amp;sku=2000#/layers), or [CustomInk](https://www.customink.com/ndx/#/)'s modern design tool.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - You can't compete with great design tools available on the best sites, with a tool like [Customly](https://www.customily.com/tshirt-design)'s simple designer ([screenshot](https://i.stack.imgur.com/2j3hO.png)).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - Not only do you need your application to be easy to use and fully featured but it needs to be easily expandable and maintainable - it can be difficult to get the client to pay for so-called expected and ingrained properties that aren't externally visible and seem self-serving, a future convenience for the coder.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Will this effort generate future business with many new customers, or only this one customer; and probably only this once.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - If you can amortize the cost over dozens of future customers you can sell usage of the software for a low monthly rate, or assess a low one time fee with a limited number of years of free updates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    - If it's repeat business you need to be prepared to expand in that direction, if it's a one-shot deal then you need to profit beyond your expenses; that includes allowing for change requests (after the agreement is made) and providing Technical Support to both the company and their Website Designer (who might become a competitor, in the end).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  - With web developer rates on the Internet ranging from U$10-U$200 what you can charge may seem to be pushed towards the lower end, don't let it be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Know what you must charge and how much you must make. Frequently it's useful to mention a minimum amount, i.e. regardless of what is involved you'll need to be able to bill at least one or two thousand dollars minimum, otherwise you'll miss larger jobs in favor of smaller ones. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    This is a polite way of establishing upfront that if they thought something was going to cost a couple of hundred dollars they'll need to try elsewhere, regardless of how simple what they propose might be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    Be certain to charge full price for *consulting* - if you aren't spending time earning money from one customer you don't want to be wasting it offering free advice to another; you can always offer to subtract 10% of the consulting service costs from the final product price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are various formulae for reimbursement, or offering a more attractive price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging an hourly rate certainly assures that you are paid for each hour, but there's likely an upper limit in the company's interest and they probably want a finished and working product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging a flat rate to do the work leaves you to do all that would be required (based on your experience with similar projects) sufficiently quickly to realize a profit beyond your expenses. You can only fully know an approximation of your expenses from considerable prior experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Charging a fraction of the cost on the basis that you'll be able to sell usage of the completed application to future customers would offer the first company the most attractive price; but then you are in the business of promoting and selling this product to potential future customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your product is clearly better, easier to use, and offered at a lower cost, the barrier to acceptance and convincing people to switch from what already works will be lower. With so much competition you have a challenging road ahead: quality of product, service level, and projected confidence are rather intangible; but something you still want to charge for.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25892" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10165" RevisionGUID="bfa94070-3f4f-41fc-8949-2aa62d9e0a45" CreationDate="2021-06-30T13:51:56.787" UserId="26181" Text="Before you look at licensing, think about asking for a support agreement. If this software has gone significantly out of original scope, then there is a high probability of changes coming. Keeping the software up to date could be a far greater source of income than any licensing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25893" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10161" RevisionGUID="7985522a-5cbe-4710-9e7d-bfc868af7b53" CreationDate="2021-06-30T14:19:01.860" UserId="25082" Comment="mention transition period cost" Text="To get right to it, you want more cash. One of the simplest ways to do that is to just raise your rates, like you mentioned. The biggest problem when doing this is, naturally, the fear that your current clients won't be able to accept the rate increase and would like to cease working with you. If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about this because, as you mention:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; let's just say I have just the right amount of new clients knocking down my door, ready to get started at my current rate&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So you do have other options available to you should any current clients turn down your work. I recognize that &quot;If they won't accept it, just replace them&quot; sounds *extremely* harsh, but the point of raising your rates in this case is to ensure you're being paid what your work is worth. The value you provide to your clients should be reflected in the compensation you get, especially when the value of that work (i.e. your experience and skillset) increases/becomes more effective with time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Losing a client that's not going to pay you what you're worth is acceptable because, if you begrudgingly continued to work for them even as your other clients accept the rate increase with grace, you're essentially just *losing money* when working for this stickler client. There'll be a period of transition between losing this client and beginning to work for another, during which time you'll obviously not be paid, but ensuring that you're using your time to establish relationships with clients that are willing to pay you what you're worth is extremely important. This transition period shouldn't be feared, as it's a necessary part of ensuring you're compensated fairly. It does carry with it a cost, but it's not as heavy a cost as the time, money, effort, and scheduling associated the other option you were considering: Hiring someone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You say:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; My rates are more than fair&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From your phrasing, it sounds like you might be selling yourself short a bit. This is a pretty clear clue to me that you should be requesting a higher compensation for your work. You've got more experience, you've developed your skills... Now it's time for that to pay off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending upon how decent your relationships with your current clients are, you should be able to negotiate a rate increase without a problem, especially if they've kept you on retainer for awhile already. The way to do this isn't always easy, as you note:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I think that they'd still be fair with a 15% increase, BUT I don't know if that's the best way to go in the interest of keeping my long term clients who I don't want to drive away, nor put them in a position where they feel like they're being asked to pay this increase &quot;just cuz&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you feel confident that your somewhat shorter-term clients would be comfortable with a 10-15% increase, then propose exactly that change... But not immediately. Give your clients ample notice, perhaps a couple of months' time to digest the change before making it. If your clients have already been working with you for some time, they should recognize the value in your work. Giving them time to process the adjustment in your rate as you continue to work with them shows that you're polite, professional, and that you value their time as much as your own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your longer-term clients are going to be a bit trickier. You still want to raise your rates, but it feels punishing to do that to some of your more trusted clients. The way I would handle this is by telling them that you are, indeed, raising your rates... But for them, it's going to be less of an increase than your other clients due to your pre-existing working relationship and how happy you are with that relationship. This shows them that, in the interest of preserving your working relationship with them, you're willing to make that increase more easily digestible for them, while still making a stand for the experience and quality of work you provide. For all future clients, you'll charge the increased rates sans the discount. You can determine just how much less that increase will be for these long-term clients dependent upon your relationship with them - I don't know them like you do!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Dmytro Chasovskyi mentioned [in a comment](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/10139/to-expand-business-or-increase-rates#comment11526_10139) that you should set up a yearly inflation adjustment for your longer-term clients. I couldn't agree more with this, as it also gives you the opportunity to increase your rates, should the need arise, along with the inflation increase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As time has marched on, and your experience has increased, you seem to have let your rates fall behind the increases in cost of living of your area and general inflation. It's important that you value your work enough to cover the increases in these expenses, as well as the increases in your experience. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25894" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="10162" RevisionGUID="d1305fc8-7fad-44e9-b762-b967ddef5ca0" CreationDate="2021-06-30T17:33:04.957" UserId="75" Comment="edited tags" Text="|taxes|usa|insurance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25895" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10091" RevisionGUID="2b0b9a65-f2aa-4e80-a7d0-47a332ff2687" CreationDate="2021-07-01T16:59:59.997" UserId="25495" Comment="added 4 characters in body; edited title" Text="Having already a job as employee in a German company, can one also do some **freelance job without being registered as a freelance or as a company?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The intention is not to open a proper company or switch to freelancing, but just to take an additional job to round up the income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. is there any **limit for the freelancing amount of money**, that allows to not have to register as freelancer if not gaining enough out of it?&#xD;&#xA;2. if one must register as freelancer in any case, **will this affect the employee's benefits of having access to unemployment money**, in case of resigning?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Note:** this is not related to visa workers but to EU citizens.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*(names or references to regulations/laws would be appreciated too, if you have them)*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25896" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10091" RevisionGUID="2b0b9a65-f2aa-4e80-a7d0-47a332ff2687" CreationDate="2021-07-01T16:59:59.997" UserId="25495" Comment="added 4 characters in body; edited title" Text="In Germany, can I invoice a client for freelance work without having a business registered?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25897" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10091" RevisionGUID="05cb5954-44ea-429c-94da-297ef27a4dfe" CreationDate="2021-07-02T00:00:00.393" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1410750064553648129" />
  <row Id="25898" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10027" RevisionGUID="a45b40ed-6ea5-4276-982a-dce49c15035c" CreationDate="2021-07-02T18:39:46.690" UserDisplayName="anon" Comment="added 61 characters in body" Text="Questions about freelancer-specific Non Disclosure Agreements" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25899" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10027" RevisionGUID="a45b40ed-6ea5-4276-982a-dce49c15035c" CreationDate="2021-07-02T18:39:46.690" Comment="Proposed by 25412 approved by 61, 75 edit id of 738" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25900" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10166" RevisionGUID="7cc8a08b-ca4b-4208-ac51-a0e4eab7107a" CreationDate="2021-07-02T20:31:47.070" UserId="26690" Text="They prefer to have me bill at the end of the project, and are claiming that it makes it harder to bill their third party clients for their project if I'm sending multiple invoices. Thoughts? I need the money, but also I made it Net 30. The client pays within a week so they've said (it's a new client of mine), but even then it'll be 3 weeks since I started doing new third-party client introductions. It's a single-member company and I'm definitely helping them with these new clients, because I have the expertise. I do kind of need the money but I'm not forcing them to pay right away. idk, I feel silly. I guess we had tentatively agreed to do end of project, but I didn't expect to log the time simply meeting and interviewing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25901" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10166" RevisionGUID="7cc8a08b-ca4b-4208-ac51-a0e4eab7107a" CreationDate="2021-07-02T20:31:47.070" UserId="26690" Text="Client not amenable to invoicing of third party client onboarding" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25902" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10166" RevisionGUID="7cc8a08b-ca4b-4208-ac51-a0e4eab7107a" CreationDate="2021-07-02T20:31:47.070" UserId="26690" Text="|contracts|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25904" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10139" RevisionGUID="265e9333-f71e-41ba-8f92-afeb859c3cf8" CreationDate="2021-07-03T06:00:05.650" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1411203071053549571" />
  <row Id="25905" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10167" RevisionGUID="5ff981f7-2347-452f-84f9-0514080c0d09" CreationDate="2021-07-04T08:40:05.607" UserId="21562" Text="- Offer to sign a [Non Disclosure Agreement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-disclosure_agreement)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Maybe the company is reluctant to ask, risking offending you and souring the relationship. There are many sites ([1](https://legaltemplates.net/form/non-disclosure-agreement/), [2](https://www.lawdepot.com/contracts/non-disclosure-agreement/), [3](https://nondisclosureagreement.com/), [4](https://eforms.com/nda/)) which offer free templates. This will protect privacy and confidentiality concerns.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Offer training to employees and ongoing support&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  That gives you more work and a potential source of future revenue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Explain that as a freelancer you charge ***X*** dollars per hour and have the responsibility for a variety of work, along with existing clients who rely on you (demonstrating reliability and loyalty).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  That way they know that they'd need to make you a much better offer that you couldn't refuse, offer you a larger role in the company than they had initially planned (both involving an even greater expense), and allow you time to work on external projects; possibly limiting overtime or allowing you an hour per day to take calls.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  Many companies would realize that hiring you as a consultant would cost less than thinking that they could hire you full time (for an uncertain duration, as far as you're concerned) for a rate lower than your hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  If they offer to let you work part time at your full rate and continue your business that might be worth considering, over what seems to be an offer to fold up your business and work at one place; probably for less, and likely not in charge of the division.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Look at the offer to hire as an opportunity to pitch your own idea rather than an awkward situation where you reject them outright. Explain why you feel your current situation is advantageous, and ask what they'd offer to improve it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25906" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10019" RevisionGUID="32b77bf0-f0bd-4abf-9a34-94fa282d6b6a" CreationDate="2021-07-05T00:00:08.847" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1411837263512735746" />
  <row Id="25907" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3128" RevisionGUID="29453799-45bf-4a40-8a06-90b9c102cd95" CreationDate="2021-07-05T00:01:05.110" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25908" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10133" RevisionGUID="342ca782-5bde-4311-b27f-2c7c573bd5f9" CreationDate="2021-07-05T07:21:43.220" UserDisplayName="anon" Comment="added 102 characters in body" Text="For questions related to support of any kind supplied to a client as part of a freelancing job/project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25909" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10133" RevisionGUID="342ca782-5bde-4311-b27f-2c7c573bd5f9" CreationDate="2021-07-05T07:21:43.220" Comment="Proposed by 25412 approved by 61, 85 edit id of 751" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25910" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10129" RevisionGUID="8060ba9c-cd0f-48d3-b61c-d3e8387ca433" CreationDate="2021-07-05T07:29:03.470" UserId="-1" Comment="minor copy edits, paragraph breaks" Text="I am a resident alien of the USA (allowed to work) and I earn some money freelancing online. For a couple of months I have been writing blog posts for an individual who lives in Banglagesh (I'm not 100% sure, he could be anywhere). He is not a company, he is literally just a guy with a website, and he pays me to write and proofread content.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All communication is over WhatsApp and he pays me over PayPal from his personal PayPal. I've asked this question on another site and they said that what I earn is income (which is fine) and the payer (Bangladesh guy) needs to fill out a 1099 at the end of the year. But, English is not his strong suit and I can say there would be near 0% chance of getting this from him. I doubt I would even be in contact with him at the end of the year. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does this still count as taxable income? How can I report it if it's not through an employer or a company etc.? He's paid me just over $1000 so far total." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25911" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10129" RevisionGUID="8060ba9c-cd0f-48d3-b61c-d3e8387ca433" CreationDate="2021-07-05T07:29:03.470" UserId="-1" Comment="minor copy edits, paragraph breaks" Text="Freelancing in USA for international clients - Do I pay tax" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25912" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10129" RevisionGUID="8060ba9c-cd0f-48d3-b61c-d3e8387ca433" CreationDate="2021-07-05T07:29:03.470" Comment="Proposed by anonymous approved by 61, 85 edit id of 758" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25913" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10168" RevisionGUID="26d5ce3b-29c9-475b-a5a6-163558ef3659" CreationDate="2021-07-05T10:05:46.100" UserId="23700" Text="I am working on a project where I and the client agreed on a fixed amount project and some extra buffer amount for any extra work. And I suppose to get paid after the completion of the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I completed the project with a 1-day delay. The client was ok with that because it was submitted on weekend. I submitted an Invoice for the complete payment on Monday. I was busy with some other project so didn't bother about the payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On Wednesday (2 days after sending the invoice) the client told me to cancel the previous invoice and send one more Invoice with the extra buffer amount. In the old Invoice, the buffer amount was not added.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I am confused about how to cancel the old Invoice and send a new one? I submitted the Invoice through email." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25914" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10168" RevisionGUID="26d5ce3b-29c9-475b-a5a6-163558ef3659" CreationDate="2021-07-05T10:05:46.100" UserId="23700" Text="Client asking to cancel Invoice &amp; resend" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25915" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10168" RevisionGUID="26d5ce3b-29c9-475b-a5a6-163558ef3659" CreationDate="2021-07-05T10:05:46.100" UserId="23700" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25916" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10169" RevisionGUID="11fc343d-ceb6-4b37-bcc8-0ca5c19c8145" CreationDate="2021-07-05T12:30:30.717" UserId="26318" Text="On the face of it, your problem is a simple one to solve. Depending on your method of invoicing, you either need to just send a corrected invoice with the new amount (if it was an informal or pro-forma invoice) or issue a credit note to the client (to the value of the old invoice) and raise a new invoice with the corrected amount and a new invoice number. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To my mind, the bigger and more immediate question is why the client is wanting to pay you more than you're owed. If it's a relatively small amount, I would probably not question it, send the corrected invoice and go about my merry way. If it's a reasonable sum (say, over £500), I'd probably respond with an email pointing out that the original invoice was, to your satisfaction, accurate and asking them to clarify why they want to give you free money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may be that the client wants to reward you for a job well done, has the money already spent in his budget and can't be bothered to account for it or is under the mistaken impression that you're owed it contractually. Whatever the reason, it's probably better that you know rather than getting an angry phone call down the line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25917" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10169" RevisionGUID="bf6d8813-3cda-45b6-bd1e-5d2cc4bae566" CreationDate="2021-07-05T14:43:57.783" UserId="26318" Comment="deleted 123 characters in body" Text="On the face of it, your problem is a simple one to solve. Depending on your method of invoicing, you either need to just send a corrected invoice with the new amount (if it was an informal or pro-forma invoice) or issue a credit note to the client (to the value of the old invoice) and raise a new invoice with the corrected amount and a new invoice number. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To my mind, the bigger and more immediate question is why the client is wanting to pay you more than you're owed. Given that the difference is nearly $2000, I'd probably respond with an email pointing out that the original invoice was, to your satisfaction, accurate and asking them to clarify why they want to give you free money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may be that the client wants to reward you for a job well done, has the money already spent in his budget and can't be bothered to account for it or is under the mistaken impression that you're owed it contractually. Whatever the reason, it's probably better that you know rather than getting an angry phone call down the line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25918" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10169" RevisionGUID="417fb5bf-bb6a-4412-9b45-a588329dd5f5" CreationDate="2021-07-05T14:50:30.873" UserId="26318" Comment="added 128 characters in body" Text="On the face of it, your problem is a simple one to solve. Depending on your method of invoicing, you either need to just send a corrected invoice with the new amount (if it was an informal or pro-forma invoice) or issue a credit note to the client (to the value of the old invoice) and raise a new invoice with the corrected amount and a new invoice number. If you're not sure, phone or email the client and they'll tell you of you need to raise an entirely new invoice with new number.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To my mind, the bigger and more immediate question is why the client is wanting to pay you more than you're owed. Given that the difference is nearly $2000, I'd probably respond with an email pointing out that the original invoice was, to your satisfaction, accurate and asking them to clarify why they want to give you free money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It may be that the client wants to reward you for a job well done, has the money already spent in his budget and can't be bothered to account for it or is under the mistaken impression that you're owed it contractually. Whatever the reason, it's probably better that you know rather than getting an angry phone call down the line.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25919" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10169" RevisionGUID="09e745a7-e941-45a5-867e-ae94d1356365" CreationDate="2021-07-05T15:04:21.677" UserId="26318" Comment="deleted 215 characters in body" Text="On the face of it, your problem is a simple one to solve. Depending on your method of invoicing, you either need to just send a corrected invoice with the new amount (if it was an informal or pro-forma invoice) or issue a credit note to the client (to the value of the old invoice) and raise a new invoice with the corrected amount and a new invoice number. If you're not sure, phone or email the client and they'll tell you if you need to raise an entirely new invoice with new number.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given that the difference is only a few tens of dollars, I'd accede to whatever request they have and send them a corrected invoice. It may be that the client wants to reward you for a job well done, has the money already spent in his budget and can't be bothered to account for it or is under the mistaken impression that you're owed it contractually. Whatever the reason, it's probably better to just go with the flow since the amounts are so small &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25920" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10169" RevisionGUID="86e94c5b-53e9-4217-a2f0-1b8864352533" CreationDate="2021-07-05T16:40:27.567" UserId="26318" Comment="added 70 characters in body" Text="On the face of it, your problem is a simple one to solve. Depending on your method of invoicing, you either need to just send a *corrected* invoice with the new amount (if it was an informal or pro-forma invoice) or issue a credit note to the client (to the value of the old invoice) and raise a new invoice with the corrected amount and a new invoice number if they've already added your invoice to their billing system. **If you're not sure, phone or email the client and they'll tell you if you need to raise an entirely new invoice with new number.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Given that the difference is only a few tens of dollars, I'd accede to whatever request they have and send them a corrected invoice. It may be that the client wants to reward you for a job well done, has the money already spent in his budget and can't be bothered to account for it or is under the mistaken impression that you're owed it contractually. Whatever the reason, it's probably better to just go with the flow, since the amounts are so small. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25921" PostHistoryTypeId="52" PostId="10168" RevisionGUID="4723266f-e9a6-45e9-b649-909d5912491f" CreationDate="2021-07-05T18:13:29.343" />
  <row Id="25922" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10121" RevisionGUID="1fb2ee01-6ba7-4414-9c15-d80d473c8a54" CreationDate="2021-07-05T21:00:02.077" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1412154324608765952" />
  <row Id="25924" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9868" RevisionGUID="c4d3f559-f35d-4a4c-95ea-93263e210ae2" CreationDate="2021-07-06T05:04:05.380" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25928" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1590" RevisionGUID="06af63bd-f244-4e37-9147-d1559b786ee4" CreationDate="2021-07-07T16:09:35.623" UserId="148" Comment="spelling corrections" Text="I have used both hourly billing and flat fee billing. I used to always favour hourly billing on the basis that I felt it was more ethical, but soon changed my mind about this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The main reason for my change of mind is that time is not always a valid reflector of the value of the work done, e.g.: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - A job might take longer but contain more repetitive unskilled work; should it then cost more?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - A job might take a shorter amount of time but depend on my primary area of expertise for which I have trained for (at cost) and practised for many years; should I then charge less than someone with less experience and less training?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will, however, still sometimes use hourly billing. My choice of billing method usually depends on a number of factors:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - What the client asks for / insists on. Whether or not I agree it is the best fit, do I refuse for ethical or practical reasons even if I want the contract? Often I will just accommodate but explain why I think it is a bad idea e.g. that they may end up paying more. I will explain, if necessary, that my hourly rate is quite high for this one because I am charging for my experience/skill level. If I know the client well, or they are favoured and I want to keep their custom, I will be more accommodating with them than with others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - If it is a short and easily estimable job, particularly if it does not require much skill (e.g. making customer-requested edits to a finished work). In these cases it is sometimes easier to just say &quot;This will take me two hours to do and I will charge £60 an hour.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - If is a long and not-so-easily estimable job, and I know that I will likely either over or under-estimate it, I will use my best estimate of the hours worked (with some slippage time) but quote the fixed fee because I cannot determine if an hourly rate would work out better or worse for the customer. If the fixed fee I give is agreeable to the customer, then there's no worries on either side - we're both happy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you implied in the question, and you can see from the above, that this is a more complex topic than just saying one is more ethical than the other. It depends on several factors such as the particular circumstances of the business arrangement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my view, neither is better or worse that the other ethically because it is impossible to pin the answer down to one that fits every circumstance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately, in my view, if you value your work at a certain level, and the customer agrees with your valuation in the form of a signed contract, and you deliver on the contract on time and to spec, then *there is nothing ever unethical in the method with which you bill*. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What raises issues of good/bad ethics in billing are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Your intention - do you intend to deceive your customer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 2. Your honesty and clarity upfront in the contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 3. Do you stick to your contract/fee, even if your chosen billing method resulted in a loss to you, and chalk it up as a learning experience?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 4. Are you willing to shift your fee position if your mistaken choice of billing method ended up causing loss to your customer? (If it's your mistake, your customer should not have to pay for it.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The above can happen with either hourly or fixed billing, so clearly it's not the billing *method*, but the *biller*, that is the determining factor in matters of ethics.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my TL/DR answer to your question is: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Neither hourly or fixed price is more or less ethical than the other generally. But, in any particular circumstance, one method *may* be more ethical depending on the details of the circumstance.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**EDIT:** Subsequent to posting this answer I found a series of articles that addresses some of the ethical issues of choosing a billing method:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[How to Charge for Websites: Fixed-Price Projects][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[How to Charge for Websites: Pay-Per-Hour Projects][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[How to Charge for Websites: the Agile Way][3]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The third article may resolve some of the quandaries a freelancer might face in determining how to bill in the most ethical and transparent way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.sitepoint.com/charge-websites-fixed-price-projects/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.sitepoint.com/charge-websites-pay-per-hour-projects/&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: http://www.sitepoint.com/charge-websites-agile-way/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25929" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10128" RevisionGUID="2c81db00-3268-4de3-b9d1-b3a367ec183e" CreationDate="2021-07-08T03:00:00.457" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1412969690285199374" />
  <row Id="25931" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10152" RevisionGUID="86a400d9-f879-4c38-9ef8-6535c050b16b" CreationDate="2021-07-08T17:18:45.577" UserId="26546" Comment="Fix words, fix syntax issues" Text="I'm a freelance software developer and I've been working full-time for a client for a while now. They are happy with me but can't offer a consistent amount of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The consequence is that I'm just sitting at the firm and doing nothing, waiting for work and searching to do something useful. I have already informed the owner that things are slow and he can give me work should he have some.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My agreement with the states that they are responsible to come up with work for me, yet this situation just keeps coming up and I really don't feel comfortable with this. For me, it's stressful to constantly look for something to make myself useful.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My work is important to the firm's core business but I'm at a point where I'm about to take a leave and not come back until they give me a well-defined assignment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know that a lot of freelancers just have several clients with smaller jobs, but if I just stop working for this client for a while, in reality, I'll have to take another full-time freelance job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to keep the client, but only show up when it's needed. I think this would solve most of our problems, except for the fact that I'm not compensated for hours that I'm not working for them (but do keep myself available for some %).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a solution to this problem? How do others go about this? Is it realistic to ask them to pay me a monthly small fixed price (10% of full time) for the option that they can contact me + hours that I perform? Is this realistic?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25932" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10152" RevisionGUID="86a400d9-f879-4c38-9ef8-6535c050b16b" CreationDate="2021-07-08T17:18:45.577" Comment="Proposed by 26546 approved by 7432 edit id of 753" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25933" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9255" RevisionGUID="ab3a67e2-035f-44a8-b20b-dcbbc5d45f02" CreationDate="2021-07-08T17:19:10.853" UserId="-1" Comment="formatting" Text="I'm just starting to come round to the idea of using social media, and as I'm not a big fan, I want to use as few profiles as possible, on my prefered platform which is **Twitter**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My main area of work is very music orientated: rock and metal, fashion, events, tattoos, alternative models, autos, etc, but I also want to explore the darker side of the culture, which has more to do with alternative models doing fetish work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the problem here is that I could almost split this into 3 parts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Regular Content - Music, Fahion, Motors, Models&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. NSFW Content - Adult/Fetish, which relates directly to Regular Content&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. NSFW+ Content - Adult/Fetish, But more sexually explicit&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was thinking of having 2 accounts per subject ( &quot;personal/communications&quot; and &quot;portfolio/promotional&quot; )&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A good way of seeting this out would be to have:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- @MyName &#xD;&#xA;- @MyName_NSFW&#xD;&#xA;- @MyName_XXX&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;and&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- @MyPortfolio&#xD;&#xA;- @MyPortfolio_NSFW&#xD;&#xA;- @MyPortfolio_XXX&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In theory, allowing people visiting the NSFW and XXX accounts to realise that it's an extension to a regular account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem of course is that as soon as people follow me on &quot;@MyPortfolio&quot;, social networks are quick to tell them that a similar account exists - &quot;@MyPortfolio_NSFW&quot;, which I don't really want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So should I instead have 3 completely different names as a business, to deal with clients from each area of work?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25934" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9255" RevisionGUID="ab3a67e2-035f-44a8-b20b-dcbbc5d45f02" CreationDate="2021-07-08T17:19:10.853" Comment="Proposed by anonymous approved by 61, 7432 edit id of 755" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25935" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10121" RevisionGUID="ba8ccd7c-7116-43e8-b00f-84bbb12ae01f" CreationDate="2021-07-08T17:19:22.810" UserId="26318" Comment="Tidied up spelling and grammar" Text="A friend of mine founded a startup and asked me to create an Android app for him. I did it with Java in Android Studio, but since I never developed a commercial app before, I have a few (related) questions about licencing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if I'm selling the app to him (without publishing it on Google Play) do I need to buy a Java license? Does my friend have to buy a license too? And do I need to put my app under my own license or his?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25936" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10121" RevisionGUID="ba8ccd7c-7116-43e8-b00f-84bbb12ae01f" CreationDate="2021-07-08T17:19:22.810" UserId="26318" Comment="Tidied up spelling and grammar" Text="How does licensing work when selling an Android app?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25937" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10121" RevisionGUID="ba8ccd7c-7116-43e8-b00f-84bbb12ae01f" CreationDate="2021-07-08T17:19:22.810" Comment="Proposed by 26318 approved by 61, 7432 edit id of 757" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25938" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6790" RevisionGUID="59716731-7a80-41c0-93a5-723eabca92fa" CreationDate="2021-07-08T17:19:32.577" UserId="26546" Comment="Basic grammatical mistakes" Text="I'm considering getting into computer maintenance. There is a firm which I'm working with who have a few sites for which I have set up the computer infrastructure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In computer maintenance; I've heard there is a lot of stress involved i.e. working after hours &amp; other difficulties. I'm curious to know what these are and whether or not control methods can be set in place to ensure these are under control?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The tasks I'm looking to do for my clients include backups, updates, fixing email issues, fixing computer issues, fixing viruses &amp; there will be many more which I can't think of at the top of my head. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Currently, I work at set time frames, and I really hope I can achieve the same in computer maintenance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What areas of computer maintenance can involve stress and how can they be taken control of?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25939" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6790" RevisionGUID="59716731-7a80-41c0-93a5-723eabca92fa" CreationDate="2021-07-08T17:19:32.577" Comment="Proposed by 26546 approved by 7432 edit id of 754" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25940" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="635" RevisionGUID="3c06b7f7-9e59-4a30-a3ee-64ab182002e5" CreationDate="2021-07-08T17:20:44.433" UserId="21562" Comment="Numerous grammar corrections to an otherwise excellent answer." Text="I asked myself the same question 4-5 years ago when I started freelancing. I will tell you what I did and how you can avoid the same mistakes that I made. Since I do not do marketing for any freelancing sites I will not mention any specific names (as such recommendations would be against the rules of this group). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I first used Google to see which freelancing sites are on top, based on my search terms. It turned out that Google does not tell you which sites are the best for a contractor or a client, it simply tells you which website is better ranked in their indexes (and we all know what SEO experts can do). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So after I received the results, I tried the top 5-6 freelancing sites of today. I created accounts, filled in all the requirements, and after that I was able to find out the credibility by following these rules. You will see that usefulness and credibility is largely based on your own experience with the website and the number of ways you can pull money from the website.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. **The general look and ability to navigate the website**.  &#xD;&#xA;In my case it turned out that those websites whose UI are easy to navigate, not confusing and offer a minimum learning curve, turned out to be better than confusing ones. Obviously, those websites paid more money for UI experts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. **Number of ways you can pull money out of the website**.  &#xD;&#xA;When I started, PayPal was not available in my country, and getting ahold of the money I earned was a pain. Those websites which offered more ways to withdraw money turned out to be more reputable. More ways mean that their contractors come from 3rd countries, and the reason US, UK, Canadian, and Australian clients visit these sites is to hire affordable contractors. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. **The quality of contractor's profile pages**.  &#xD;&#xA;This counts if you are a contractor. The more information you are able to learn about the contractor the better the freelancing website is. They make profits from the clients (who bring in money), so if you are confused about how to find the right contractor, or how to see his profile, leave that website immediately. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. **Number of bids on projects**.  &#xD;&#xA;A high number of bids (over 50) on most of the projects usually means that the bidding policy is bad. If you're a client, you will easily be spammed. If you're a contractor, it will be harder for you to get the first job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. **Statistics**.  &#xD;&#xA;A good and reputable website will have a statistical page where you can see what kind of projects they offer, average prices, etc. I see this increasingly over the last year, and I would not trust a website which does not have this. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. **Do they rip-off contractors?**  &#xD;&#xA;Some websites take money from the contractor as soon as the project is accepted. This is a rip-off IMHO and as a contractor I would never work on such sites. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;7. **Number of 3rd party tools they offer.**  &#xD;&#xA;Again, the more 3rd party tools a website offers (SVN connection, multimedia capabilities, connecting popular services which can help your work, etc.) the more reputable they are. All these tools cost money, and it means that they can afford them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;8. **Support service**.  &#xD;&#xA;The more support channels they offer (tickets, live support, forums, email, etc.), and the quicker that they reply, means that the website is reputable. In my experience, this means that money I invest there as a client or earn as a contractor is pretty safe. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;9. **Resolution policy**.  &#xD;&#xA;Very important for both clients and contractors. The more ways they offer to resolve problems, the more reputable they are. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;10. **Internal forums**.  &#xD;&#xA;Reputable websites will have their own forums. Take a few days reading the posts and you will understand the main issues other people have using that website.  In general, don't trust forums too much. Authors of those articles are sometimes paid by competitors. Also, someone else's bad experience usually means that they were careless, not necessarily that the website is bad. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, no matter what I tell you here, gauging your experience with a selection of websites is the most important thing. The rule of thumb is: &quot;Start with small projects until you find out if everything is as shiny as they promised&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25941" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="635" RevisionGUID="3c06b7f7-9e59-4a30-a3ee-64ab182002e5" CreationDate="2021-07-08T17:20:44.433" Comment="Proposed by 21562 approved by 61, 7432 edit id of 761" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25942" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="10158" RevisionGUID="561f1459-8d03-4f13-ac25-92047c43fb33" CreationDate="2021-07-08T17:22:09.760" UserId="21562" Comment="Added &quot;time-management&quot; and &quot;software&quot; tags." Text="|invoices|software|time-management|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25943" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10158" RevisionGUID="561f1459-8d03-4f13-ac25-92047c43fb33" CreationDate="2021-07-08T17:22:09.760" Comment="Proposed by 21562 approved by 61, 7432 edit id of 760" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25944" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6074" RevisionGUID="6f3b76ea-2312-4336-b8b2-22dd3b9b32dd" CreationDate="2021-07-08T17:22:13.947" UserId="15235" Comment="tags edited" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25945" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6074" RevisionGUID="6f3b76ea-2312-4336-b8b2-22dd3b9b32dd" CreationDate="2021-07-08T17:22:13.947" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 7432 edit id of 756" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25946" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10164" RevisionGUID="4dec8c3b-280d-46dd-9428-59a8789eff94" CreationDate="2021-07-08T17:22:22.060" UserId="-1" Comment="minor copy edits" Text="I built a very successful app for a client. There was no language as to ownership in the contract, and no &quot;Work-for-hire&quot; language.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project creeped way out of scope, but I had an hourly rate that kicked in when over my estimate, and they paid right away. I didn't see much gain in re-doing the contract, so I let it be. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I installed it, and it's been hugely successful for them - mostly automating and detoxing from paper, and digital sign-off/review of $$ transactions.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After few months, he asked for a copy of it for his other firm, as well as asking of me to not provide software to any of their named competitors. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now he's asked for the source code and a perpetual license. I countered with either a large lump sum price for the source code, or a yearly licensing of 1/5 the price of the lump sum buyout. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Did me installing it on their system 'imply&quot; a perpetual license for them? Or would I still be able to license it yearly? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'll likely be heading for some legal help on this also - just wondering if any devs had this type of situation out there!      &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25947" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10164" RevisionGUID="4dec8c3b-280d-46dd-9428-59a8789eff94" CreationDate="2021-07-08T17:22:22.060" Comment="Proposed by anonymous approved by 7432 edit id of 759" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25948" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10155" RevisionGUID="b38b174b-6643-4161-9f19-7b18423a1606" CreationDate="2021-07-08T18:37:11.603" UserId="26629" Comment="deleted 86 characters in body" Text="I am a 21 year old graduation student who knows some Python and wishes to freelance to help myself financially as much as possible as i don't want to rely on my parents for everything.&#xD;&#xA;So,&#xD;&#xA;How much of **Python** do i need to know to start freelancing using python..? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25949" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10158" RevisionGUID="c1aadcf0-d8db-48d5-873e-51a0363af1e3" CreationDate="2021-07-09T18:00:06.887" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1413558597989064706" />
  <row Id="25950" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10171" RevisionGUID="b86f2912-b9f3-4ef3-9358-b35364d8f285" CreationDate="2021-07-10T15:08:38.170" UserId="26731" Text="I have a client who wants to work with me on the long term, we have already been working together for over a year and we want to take it further and make it official.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a software developer and I'd be working hourly for him. My client is a bit laid back and he doesn't have any contract or any other MoU document for these types of agreements, so the duty of setting the terms in writing falls on me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please give me good tips as to how I can make a good Memorandum outlining the important things to prevent any conflict in the future? It doesn't have to be legally binding, I looked online and found many templates but they are verbose and are actual contracts." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25951" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10171" RevisionGUID="b86f2912-b9f3-4ef3-9358-b35364d8f285" CreationDate="2021-07-10T15:08:38.170" UserId="26731" Text="How can I make a good &quot;Memorandum of Understanding&quot; (MoU) to work with a long-term client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25952" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10171" RevisionGUID="b86f2912-b9f3-4ef3-9358-b35364d8f285" CreationDate="2021-07-10T15:08:38.170" UserId="26731" Text="|contracts|legal|long-term|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25953" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10172" RevisionGUID="63a54848-db0d-4eb2-931f-58126cf0952e" CreationDate="2021-07-10T16:33:11.557" UserId="26318" Text="If the intent is to simply lay out a set of terms for a *gentleman's agreement* (e.g. that you will make *best effort to be available for the required hours each week* and provide him at least *x amount of notice if that's going to change* and that he will give you *x amount of notice if their need for you is going to change*), then it's going to be very easy to construct that. Probably the safest way, and the one that would lead to the least amount of possibility of misunderstanding would be for you both to sit down at a table and express verbally what you want, then share the minutes of the meeting via email. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since one of the key elements of a contract is that both sides identify and recognise that it's binding, adding something to the notes like &quot;*this agreement is binding in honour only&quot;* should be sufficient to protect both of you from the ability to sue the other for a breach, for example if you break your wrists and can't use your arms for the next six months or if they decide not to continue using you because they've discovered a hole in their finances. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You do, however, absolutely want to make sure that you still have a (legally binding) contract in place to ensure that he pays you for any work that you do.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25954" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10172" RevisionGUID="e523c423-7489-490d-a825-ba2967d5541c" CreationDate="2021-07-10T16:40:44.230" UserId="26318" Comment="added 223 characters in body" Text="If the intent is to simply lay out a set of terms for a *gentleman's agreement* or an [MoU][1] (e.g. that you will make *best effort to be available for the required hours each week* and provide him at least *x amount of notice if that's going to change* and that he will give you *x amount of notice if their need for you is going to change*), then it's going to be very easy to construct that. Probably the safest way, and the one that would lead to the least amount of possibility of misunderstanding would be for you both to sit down at a table and express verbally what you want, then  simply share the minutes of the meeting via email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since one of the key elements of a contract is that both sides identify and recognise that it's binding, adding something to the notes like &quot;*This agreement is binding in honour only&quot;* or &quot;*This memorandum is not intended to, and does not create any contractual rights between these parties*&quot; should be more than sufficient to protect both of you from the ability to sue the other for a breach, for example if you break your wrists and can't use your arms for the next six months or if they decide not to continue using you at short notice because they've discovered a hole in their finances. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You do, however, absolutely want to make sure that you still have a (legally binding) contract in place to ensure that he pays you for any work that you do. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorandum_of_understanding" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25955" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10172" RevisionGUID="b3effe1a-b86b-42a3-9e58-7b93f53bd454" CreationDate="2021-07-10T18:36:19.040" UserId="26318" Comment="added 75 characters in body" Text="If the intent is to simply lay out a set of terms for a *gentleman's agreement* or an [MoU][1] (e.g. that you will make *best effort to be available for the required hours each week* and provide him at least *x amount of notice if that's going to change* and that he will give you *x amount of notice if their need for you is going to change*), then it's going to be very easy to construct that. Probably the safest way, and the one that would lead to the least amount of possibility of misunderstanding would be for you both to;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Sit down at a table.&#xD;&#xA; - Express verbally what you both want.&#xD;&#xA; - Check that you're both happy with what's being proposed&#xD;&#xA; - Share the minutes of the meeting via email afterward. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since one of the key elements of a contract is that both sides identify and recognise that it's binding, adding something to the notes like &quot;*This agreement is binding in honour only&quot;* or &quot;*This memorandum is not intended to, and does not create any contractual rights between these parties*&quot; should be more than sufficient to protect both of you from the ability to sue the other for a breach, for example if you break your wrists and can't use your arms for the next six months or if they decide not to continue using you at short notice because they've discovered a hole in their finances. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You do, however, absolutely want to make sure that you still have a (legally binding) contract in place to ensure that he pays you for any work that you do. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorandum_of_understanding" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25956" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="610" RevisionGUID="f04eecda-197c-4ee3-bcea-74c389c7a518" CreationDate="2021-07-12T17:15:03.927" UserId="75" Comment="Removed dead link" Text="Skillset, experience and location play a pivotal role in how much you can charge and what is appropriate to charge. I'm based in SoCal, Los Angeles county to be specific, and my hourly ranges anywhere from $180-220 based on what I'm given to do. I've worked with a few global brands and work mainly in print. It isn't uncommon for a good web designer (mainly frontend) or web developer to charge hourly rates like the aforementioned. Obviously your average WordPress developer wouldn't be able to charge rates as high as that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work as a contractor through a digital media agency, and I'm effectively &quot;rented&quot; out in hourly blocks at a premium of around $485-500 an hour. I only work around 30-35 hours a month. A project or two a week, up to 36 hours at a time. Working freelance or &quot;freelance&quot; like I do is an incredibly stressful job choice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Choose wisely when it comes to your rates. It will make the difference between hating yourself and experiencing a sense of self-fulfillment, changing the world through people's eyes, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;   [1]: http://freelanceswitch.com/rates/&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25957" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10155" RevisionGUID="ab3958a5-9375-46c7-9d31-8be8bd5d1c1b" CreationDate="2021-07-12T17:42:08.640" UserId="26318" Comment="Tried to make this less [bad-subjective and more good-subjective](https://stackoverflow.blog/2010/09/29/good-subjective-bad-subjective/)" Text="I am a 21 year old recent graduate with *some* Python knowledge. My goal is to become a freelancer, to support and help myself financially, as I don't want to rely on my parents for everything.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a specific amount of skill and experience in **Python** that would be needed before I could expect to make a reasonable living out of freelance contracts?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25958" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10155" RevisionGUID="ab3958a5-9375-46c7-9d31-8be8bd5d1c1b" CreationDate="2021-07-12T17:42:08.640" UserId="26318" Comment="Tried to make this less [bad-subjective and more good-subjective](https://stackoverflow.blog/2010/09/29/good-subjective-bad-subjective/)" Text="How much Python does a Python freelancer actually need?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25959" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10155" RevisionGUID="ab3958a5-9375-46c7-9d31-8be8bd5d1c1b" CreationDate="2021-07-12T17:42:08.640" Comment="Proposed by 26318 approved by 61, 75 edit id of 763" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25960" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="10155" RevisionGUID="a486ee0c-5fb5-4938-8e23-5812c95b4629" CreationDate="2021-07-12T17:43:00.893" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:26318,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Valorum&quot;},{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="25961" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10155" RevisionGUID="997bc05f-9709-4933-9830-21b7392df5be" CreationDate="2021-07-12T18:00:03.490" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1414645746956226561" />
  <row Id="25962" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10173" RevisionGUID="b10d2d19-44a8-4216-9511-228beee4a259" CreationDate="2021-07-13T03:23:20.557" UserId="26325" Text="The company I'm billing sent me an Apple laptop which is necessary to do this job. Unfortunately, I've never owned one, so I had to buy a bunch of accessories to use it comfortably at work: a docking station, a KVM switch, an HDMI cable and more. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I bill for the time it takes to set all of this stuff up? It *feels* like it might be unethical. On the other hand, if their software had an arduous process to get up and running, I would feel justified in billing for that time. I'm torn. Should I bill for setting up my work computer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;FWIW, I'm working remote from home. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25963" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10173" RevisionGUID="b10d2d19-44a8-4216-9511-228beee4a259" CreationDate="2021-07-13T03:23:20.557" UserId="26325" Text="Should I bill for setting up my work computer that they sent me?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25964" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10173" RevisionGUID="b10d2d19-44a8-4216-9511-228beee4a259" CreationDate="2021-07-13T03:23:20.557" UserId="26325" Text="|billing|ethics|billable-hours|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25965" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6586" RevisionGUID="4fc75fb8-7628-4cef-8d99-fea5e2eb47f7" CreationDate="2021-07-13T04:05:30.437" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25966" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="7716" RevisionGUID="dec47a2f-25cf-4852-8763-52b0149eb3a5" CreationDate="2021-07-13T05:04:00.347" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25968" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10174" RevisionGUID="17cecd63-0a0f-4c56-85a5-369564443185" CreationDate="2021-07-13T16:24:28.227" UserId="26318" Text="There are three issues here in terms of billing and expense:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The setup time for the *laptop itself:*** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - If you're billing by the hour and they've sent you equipment that needed to be set up to allow you to work in their environment (installing software, registering phones, creating emails and accounts, etc), you **absolutely should** be billing them for the hour/s you took to set it up. It was a request that they made on your time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The cost of the extra equipment that you ordered:**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Before buying *anything*, it's always worth asking the employer whether they already have any of the stuff you need sitting in store cupboards at their office or whether they're happy to *expense* them back to you. If you ask for basic bits like docking stations and cables the company might be happy to order them, noting that employers, even freelance employers, often have a minimum obligation to provide equipment that is ergonomically appropriate for their workers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The setup time for *things you've bought independently*:** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - This one is on you. If you bought a desk to allow you to work more comfortably with a perfectly good laptop, you wouldn't expect the company to pay you to put it together. The same goes for customising your equipment with non-standard bling like wireless keyboards and KVM switches to allow you to control your laptop remotely. That's not their issue, it's yours. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That all being said, the easiest way to work out a billing issue is, obviously, to ask your employer. If they say that they're happy, bill them. If they say that they aren't, then don't.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25969" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10175" RevisionGUID="e78a4d68-9bb0-440a-955c-d0aa86bb0a37" CreationDate="2021-07-14T08:04:56.997" UserId="24078" Text="Actually, it depends on the skills you currently have and your area of interest. You have to excel in one of the major fields in Python in order to be a good freelancer and to get good projects. If you have covered the basics in Python, and you are interested in Web development, there are some great web development options that you can learn and can get multiple freelance contracts. For instance, you have Django, Flask, Bottle &amp; Pyramid, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are interested in Game Development or AI &amp; Machine Learning, you can also excel in these using Python. We have game development libraries in Python like PySoy &amp; PyGame that you can master in order to get into game development. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Python provides multiple packages for ML &amp; AI as well. We have, SciPy, Pandas, Seaborn, NumPy, etc. It also provides multiple packages for Desktop application development as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Summing it up, you need to master one of the major fields in Python in order to become a good freelancer, and to earn something good for yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps, if still any queries, feel free to ask!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25973" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10175" RevisionGUID="55fff071-82d1-46da-acd5-de5fb983ed59" CreationDate="2021-07-15T10:58:15.417" UserId="24078" Comment="improvements" Text="Actually, it depends on the skills you currently have and your area of interest. You surely need to improve and learn a major skill in order to get into freelancing. You have to excel in one of the major fields in Python in order to be a good freelancer and to get good projects. If you have covered the basics in Python, and you are interested in Web development, there are some great web development options that you can learn and can get multiple freelance contracts. For instance, you have Django, Flask, Bottle &amp; Pyramid, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are interested in Game Development or AI &amp; Machine Learning, you can also excel in these using Python. We have game development libraries in Python like PySoy &amp; PyGame that you can master in order to get into game development. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Python provides multiple packages for ML &amp; AI as well. We have, SciPy, Pandas, Seaborn, NumPy, etc. It also provides multiple packages for Desktop application development as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Summing it up, you need to master one of the major fields in Python in order to become a good freelancer, and to earn something good for yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hope this helps, if still any queries, feel free to ask!&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25975" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9905" RevisionGUID="db8cf798-abc6-4eda-9361-e8a19f4aefc1" CreationDate="2021-07-16T19:06:50.657" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="25976" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10177" RevisionGUID="ffea90ed-0782-49c6-9d4c-bb82313e02cd" CreationDate="2021-07-16T19:42:16.907" UserId="26318" Text="It's likely that you've been scammed by someone who simply created the details in order to fleece you out of a relatively expensive phone and any data on it that has additional value (e.g. network passwords, emails, texts, etc). They may have also hoped to get the phone working again and spoof the people in the address book by asking them for remote access to systems, passwords and to send money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There were a number of potential red flags here that you should have been warned by (but apparently weren't). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - *&quot;His cover letter informed me that he was **USA licensed and certified**&quot;* &lt;br&gt; Although there are many ethical hacking certifications, most if not all are offered by international/global organisations, rather than nationally-based companies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - *&quot;had been involved in the arrest of several high-profile hackers&quot;* &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;Individual white hat freelancers are rarely involved in 'high-profile' hacking investigations. Those tend to be left to the authorities (who have their own investigators) or very expensive companies. This sort of boasting is common from scammers, though. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - *&quot;had worked for the US department of defense and other agencies&quot;* &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;The US Dept of Defence rarely (if ever) hire single IT freelancers to do work for them and they pretty much never hire contractors who aren't US Nationals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - *&quot;He turned out to be located in a place called Gurugram Haryana India.&quot;* &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;In combination with the above, this should have been a huge red flag. He's name-dropped some weighty American organisations to get you sucked in, but then he turns out to live in India.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - *&quot;Through email he confirmed receiving my phone, conducting his investigation and finding proof and IPs&quot;* &lt;br&gt; At this point in the &quot;investigation&quot; he was probably trying to rinse the phone for any useful info to steal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - *&quot;now he will not ship anything (my phone, the new modded phone he upsold me and the hacking report)&quot;* &lt;br&gt; No report exists and apparently he got some extra money out of you (as well as a free phone).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**&quot;What else can I do?&quot;** &lt;br&gt; Recognising that you've probably been scammed, you need to report your problem to your company's IT Officer and ensure that you do appropriate damage control by removing any access that that phone has to servers, accounts and systems as well as re-securing all of those with fresh passwords and checking intrusion logs (he might still be in there right now!).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You also need to change your bank details and report him to the police as well as contacting UpWork and asking them to refund at least your payments through their system." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25980" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10178" RevisionGUID="ad4d4c29-8196-42da-9400-bc2a866282c0" CreationDate="2021-07-17T08:32:05.733" UserId="26756" Text="Just landed my first contracting gig through a recruiter. I will have a contract with the recruitment agency and invoice them. The client asked for a one month notice on both ends (I can ditch them, they can ditch me). The contract will be for 12 months.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is one month notice a usual practice?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Country: Ireland" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25981" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10178" RevisionGUID="ad4d4c29-8196-42da-9400-bc2a866282c0" CreationDate="2021-07-17T08:32:05.733" UserId="26756" Text="One month notice - usual or not?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25982" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10178" RevisionGUID="ad4d4c29-8196-42da-9400-bc2a866282c0" CreationDate="2021-07-17T08:32:05.733" UserId="26756" Text="|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25983" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10179" RevisionGUID="a0e25b78-9081-40f8-8258-fd827a42edca" CreationDate="2021-07-17T16:21:17.450" UserId="26318" Text="I'm not an expert in freelancing *in Ireland*, but elsewhere in the world, anything between two weeks and three months cancellation notice on freelance contracts is extremely common, including in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;20 working days is sufficient time for the agency to do interviews and find a suitable replacement contractor if you decide to terminate the agreement, and gives you sufficient time for you to make arrangements to find a new contract if the company decides to get rid of you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On a long-term contract such as this, this length of notice period would seem reasonable on both sides and **perfectly common practice**. You can obviously *ask* for more or less, particularly if they'd suggested something lopsided (e.g. that they need to give you a week and you need to give them three months), but in this case it's even and equitable. I'd generally consider this to be a reasonable contract term." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25984" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10171" RevisionGUID="155dfc79-78ac-4570-91fc-601b6a48bbd3" CreationDate="2021-07-18T09:00:05.037" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1416684184911892484" />
  <row Id="25990" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10181" RevisionGUID="0e69701f-b600-45d4-bf24-00f22c3b572c" CreationDate="2021-07-21T23:52:45.087" UserId="26772" Text="As a Client, I posted a project I needed done on a freelancing site (Upwork, Freelancer, etc). I have had a few bids that go over the listed budget (30% over). I did mention in the description that certain things are more required for the project than others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I handle overbids? Do I tell them that their bid is too high and negotiate what can be done in the budget? Or do I accept them and only have milestones that cover the budget?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a little bit of a time-crunch so I want to hire them and have the most needed portions of the project completed." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25991" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10181" RevisionGUID="0e69701f-b600-45d4-bf24-00f22c3b572c" CreationDate="2021-07-21T23:52:45.087" UserId="26772" Text="How to handle bids over project budget" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25992" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10181" RevisionGUID="0e69701f-b600-45d4-bf24-00f22c3b572c" CreationDate="2021-07-21T23:52:45.087" UserId="26772" Text="|communication|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25993" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10182" RevisionGUID="e7fe98c3-2774-4e48-9409-652afaf8b761" CreationDate="2021-07-22T02:02:16.560" UserId="75" Text="(DISCLAIMER: I do not use sites for finding Freelance jobs)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you can contact them before accepting, I would start a discussion about what is required, and what's in the budget. If the Freelancer misunderstood what was being asked, you should be able to clear it up for them at this stage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a Freelancer, I do not like to spend more than 15 minutes of meeting time without payment. If I can't determine what needs to be done and how within the 15 minutes, then I consider the problem either too difficult, or too large and requiring a real sit-down with the requirements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Obviously, you would not want to pay every Freelancer who replies for the same job just to find out *if* they can do the job. I would stick to those who have read your project correctly, including budget restraints. Remember to check their references as well (if they have any)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25994" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10183" RevisionGUID="9364fce9-54ed-499d-a97a-9a00ac47ed2d" CreationDate="2021-07-22T16:02:31.070" UserId="26181" Text="This is a common problem in business - when a contractor sees what is really being asked for, they want more money than you budgeted. This happens in home remodeling, building a restaurant, and nearly every other business. This is not a &quot;freelancer site&quot; only issue. I've had that problem on both sides (for example, a subcontractor finding out the details and tripling their price).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only thing to do is to review the business needs, find out what is most important, and see either if the money can be found to do that or reduce the project to the amount of money available. We cannot tell you which to do. That is dependent on your business situation. When the project is large enough, it can pay to bring in a consultant to review both sides and make a recommendation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25996" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10184" RevisionGUID="11757a01-1592-46f5-89ea-4c9141c91d5b" CreationDate="2021-07-24T04:53:17.800" UserId="25830" Text="I used to freelance using a lot of those sites, I'd often overbid, and here are the reasons why:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1 - Bad project description&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I don't see a precise project description and scope, that means I'd have to get that information from you, which is added time that I'm going to charge you for. For example, the client asks to create a simple one-pager site and doesn't mention hosting services, domain, or support. That means I'll have to ask and guide the client through all those steps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2 - Most clients have no clue of what a project actually cost&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, a client asks for a clothing e-commerce. It says it will need a product page, cart page, home page, and checkout page.&#xD;&#xA;But I know there are many extra hidden pages, e.g., admin page to add products, payment control page to issue refunds, force approve payments, include discounts, taxonomy, payment gateway integration, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3 - Clients haggle, and budgets are usually ignored&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A client assumes that if he says he only has 300$ for said job, it will be done for that price. I tend to bid for what I'd do for that project and break down the price if the client asks; sometimes, they aren't aware of the actual costs. Sometimes they forget to fill in the proper budget. And sometimes they can get a few more hundred dollars in if I show that I've got a good service to deliver. As a freelancer, I have no way of differentiating between those people, so I bid what it would cost for me to execute the project, regardless.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4 - The project seemed like the back and forth kind&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any project that involves client input on style is a nightmare for me; some clients are unrealistic with their expectations, some other clients want to fine-tune every corner of the page so that they can say that it was their idea. Hey, no problem, but you gotta pay for it. Hence, overbidding.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5 - The project was boring/uninteresting, but I'd still do it if well paid&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a technologist, I'm not a big fan of doing the same project over and over again as it doesn't really add much to my skills, so if it's a project I've done multiple times, I tend to charge more.&#xD;&#xA;One, because I'd be doing it for the money. Two, I did it before, and I already know the pitfalls, so I'll deliver a better product faster.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6 - It's a clone of x / client clearly didn't think it through&#xD;&#xA;It's not unusual to see clients asking for 'I want a clone of Uber, but for classic cars.'&#xD;&#xA;I then bid a huge amount; one is to discourage clones, and two because people have no clue of the amount of technology and work involved in any of those projects. &#xD;&#xA;I had to explain once for a guy that wanted a uber for taxis that it wasn't just one app; it was two apps (driver, client) and a full fledge dashboard for the crew operating the business.&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes the client didn't think it through enough. As a developer, it's my job to deliver code that will solve your problem, not just code what you asked me for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, here's what you do, ask the overbidders why they overbid. Freelancers are very frisky about getting locked into a bad deal, and if you can show them some common sense, that you're aware of what you're asking for and that they are not going to be enslaved by a poorly written project description, you will see the prices drop." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25997" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10185" RevisionGUID="d4601bf3-98e1-4549-b926-3d2ca0e270d1" CreationDate="2021-07-24T05:06:43.170" UserId="25830" Text="I used to use https://www.toptal.com/tracker/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It has a desktop tray icon for tracking hourse, web tracker, mobile apps, all the things. It allows you to turn on screenshots (or not), to generate invoices, and even grant access to your client to view the current hours tracked/logged.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25998" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10186" RevisionGUID="c905a8a9-115d-4ce4-8bdc-50fea4d6aef8" CreationDate="2021-07-24T05:14:47.177" UserId="25830" Text="Sites like these act as intermediates, try solving amicably with upwork and if they can't solve or deny responsibility, sue them for damages.&#xD;&#xA;It's just like amazon or ebay. They are getting a cut of every payment, so they are to blame.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't settle for a credit, you should have your phones and whatever the proofs you asked for would grant you. I'm assuming you were already trying to find evidence to sue someone, if you can't because of someone that upwork vetted, then they are to blame and they owe you whatever you were getting from the evidence the said hacker uncovered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And mainly, keep an eye out when dealing with India, Brazil, China and Russia. Scammer nests." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="25999" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10185" RevisionGUID="8f1e3496-69f6-41fe-b527-2cc8935fc026" CreationDate="2021-07-24T06:55:43.113" UserId="25830" Comment="added 91 characters in body" Text="I used to use https://www.toptal.com/tracker/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It has a desktop app that hides in the tray for tracking hours, a web tracker and dashboard, mobile apps, all the things. &#xD;&#xA;It allows you to take screenshots on intervals (or not), generate invoices, and even grant access to your client to view the current hours tracked/logged.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Pretty cool, 100% free and maintained by toptal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26000" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10178" RevisionGUID="45c6d6bf-85bb-43f5-a80c-4526cef42954" CreationDate="2021-07-25T06:00:01.920" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1419175588804374534" />
  <row Id="26001" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10187" RevisionGUID="3c019146-6cc8-4d21-b82f-4df162309e42" CreationDate="2021-07-25T20:03:52.610" UserId="26785" Text="I will mostly be doing report development using SSRS and Crystal Reports.  And some SSIS and T-SQL query writing.  Maybe some performance tuning of their systems.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have the free 2019 SQL Server Developer edition installed on my windows 10 desktop.  I don't have crystal reports.  Am I legally allowed to do freelance projects for clients with my developer edition.  &#xD;&#xA;Or when you do projects like this, what is the normal procedure?  I login to their systems remotely, using their SQL systems and licenses?  Or make a clone of their system and develop them on my workstation and then provide them with the source and binary files?  Do I need to purchase a crystal reports license? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks,&#xD;&#xA;DB" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26002" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10187" RevisionGUID="3c019146-6cc8-4d21-b82f-4df162309e42" CreationDate="2021-07-25T20:03:52.610" UserId="26785" Text="I am about to start bidding for SQL Server/database projects on Upwork/Fiverr but not sure if my software is compliant" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26003" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10187" RevisionGUID="3c019146-6cc8-4d21-b82f-4df162309e42" CreationDate="2021-07-25T20:03:52.610" UserId="26785" Text="|legal|software|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26004" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10188" RevisionGUID="33de993a-d70d-4418-a06a-ab5de1229c32" CreationDate="2021-07-26T16:16:32.943" UserId="26181" Text="The best solution is to purchase an MSDN subscription that includes a lot more stuff. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Instead of worrying about purchasing the licenses, I suggest making sure that your bids are high enough to cover all your costs including the licenses, purchasing dedicated systems, etc. SSRS is often an extra expense. You also need to make sure that your bids are high enough to cover all the time needed to get projects. The typical change from hourly employment to being a freelance business is 2.5X employment wages and benefits. That is how much extra is needed to cover being in business instead of being an employee." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26005" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9751" RevisionGUID="bf8a095e-20f3-4cfe-a0f1-20e032dfc627" CreationDate="2021-07-26T19:02:35.240" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="26006" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10189" RevisionGUID="57509a8c-6959-459d-88d4-1120bb5c714e" CreationDate="2021-07-29T16:05:27.833" UserId="25830" Text="Not a licensing expert, but here's my take and what I usually do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The common practice is, if you're selling the software as a service, you are required to have an actual license (professional, enterprise, etc). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This would be the case had a ready to go service and report that would connect to someones database and get the report done, while charging for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you are just developing for someone who's going to be using those services in their own servers, then the developer license is just fine.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26007" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10190" RevisionGUID="a789847f-1b6a-4cf5-b5f0-fa1bc8564cfe" CreationDate="2021-07-29T16:19:42.573" UserId="25830" Text="The answer is: not much&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to know the bare minimum to accomplish the tasks, the more you know, the more you charge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Experience:&#xD;&#xA;I've got an hourly rate based on my experience, I'm a very seasoned person with cloud, security and development experience, so I'll be able to spot errors and avoid some paths that would lead to disaster. Therefore, by base hourly rate is 35$&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Timeline/Urgency/Stability:&#xD;&#xA;If the project is very short in duration, prices go up, a lot. I'll probably charge 70-80$/hour just based on that.&#xD;&#xA;The longer and more relaxed the schedule, less stress I'll get, more sustainable the project is, the cheaper it gets.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Technologies and my experience:&#xD;&#xA;The more I know about a skill, the more I charge. That translates into me being able to solve problems using python in a minute that would probably take you an hour to figure out. Also, I will be able to provide a better solution based on my experience, which will also make my projects better and future proof.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Technologies and my likeness:&#xD;&#xA;I know PHP, but I don't like it anymore. I know python and I like it. I don't know go, but I'd like to know. So, I'll probably charge more for a PHP project then for a Go project. Even though I know more about PHP, I won't be learning and enjoying my work. So, I'd consider the go project cheaper as an investment in training.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people don't need a 12 year grizzly software architect + devops + cloud specialist to get their project and most of them don't even have the budget for my 50$+/hour. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's where you come in, charging a lot less for the hour but getting experience in process. Experience that will help you learn and get and deliver harder and better projects, and that will also allow you to charge more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, you can start now, with whatever knowledge you have. Regardless of your experience, you must learn to be honest and transparent with your client. That's the key to a good project, let them know from the start:&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Hey, I'm a beginner, and I'd like to take on your project for x$ per hour&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26008" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10191" RevisionGUID="2266c87d-24ba-4960-bd1c-25a8097463b9" CreationDate="2021-07-30T05:31:29.367" UserId="26826" Text="Hi I am new to freelancing. I have accounts on freelancing sites (Upwork, Freelancer). My skills are in the field of Machine Learning and Data Analysis. I have complete knowledge of back end and front end development.&#xD;&#xA;My question is while bidding for projects, I get an option to charge for the whole project or charge for milestones. What would be a better option from the perspective of me getting the project?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also if I charge by milestones, I am uncertain as to how to describe the work for each milestone (as far as Machine Learning and Data Analyst is considered).&#xD;&#xA;Any help would be appreciated!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26009" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10191" RevisionGUID="2266c87d-24ba-4960-bd1c-25a8097463b9" CreationDate="2021-07-30T05:31:29.367" UserId="26826" Text="Bids on projects" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26010" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10191" RevisionGUID="2266c87d-24ba-4960-bd1c-25a8097463b9" CreationDate="2021-07-30T05:31:29.367" UserId="26826" Text="|freelance-websites|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26011" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10019" RevisionGUID="03f3792d-1a68-451f-8dbb-6d5c90466d31" CreationDate="2021-07-31T18:01:50.170" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="26012" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10192" RevisionGUID="ac761a01-993e-4b13-983c-f10fbdc48168" CreationDate="2021-08-01T09:29:33.203" UserId="26833" Text="I'm contracting for a client as a software engineer. The contract said that an invoice should be sent every two weeks to the client. I sent one after 17 days, which was viewed but not responded to. No response after a reminder sent the day after. The company has another document that says contractors are typically paid after a month unless stated otherwise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My one month contract is about to wrap up. What should I do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26013" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10192" RevisionGUID="ac761a01-993e-4b13-983c-f10fbdc48168" CreationDate="2021-08-01T09:29:33.203" UserId="26833" Text="Client hasn't responded to invoice, company has potentially conflicting policies on when to pay contractors, unsure what to do" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26014" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10192" RevisionGUID="ac761a01-993e-4b13-983c-f10fbdc48168" CreationDate="2021-08-01T09:29:33.203" UserId="26833" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26015" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10193" RevisionGUID="bfac2dcb-3ffb-419c-b979-c754da7b3d53" CreationDate="2021-08-01T09:30:35.310" UserId="7858" Text="Generally, clients prefer fixed price as it fits into their illusion of financial predictability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To the freelancer however, fixed price can at times be detrimental - not only financially but also to the client relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I agree with the comment that states that the only time and place for fixed price is if the project is a complete clone of a previous project - as customisations tend to accumulate and inevitably lead to massive and often seemingly never-ending scope creep.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having negotiated a fixed price, the client will naturally attempt to extract as much work as possible from the freelancer, as there is nothing stopping them from doing so; nothing is too small as they have already paid. With an hourly rate and a short feedback loop, the dynamics change - as all changes will cost money, meaning the client will evaluate whether a change is worth it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Fixed price has more potential to end badly with arguing and threats of litigation, whereas an hourly rate typically leads to shorter faster projects where the client may not have gotten every single thing they wanted, but end up satisfied with what they got and might return in the future." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26019" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10188" RevisionGUID="9ce7bfe2-976a-4764-9cdd-7dcfb4ec4236" CreationDate="2021-08-02T20:20:00.630" UserId="26181" Comment="Removed information" Text="Instead of worrying about purchasing the licenses, I suggest making sure that your bids are high enough to cover all your costs including the licenses, purchasing dedicated systems, etc.  You also need to make sure that your bids are high enough to cover all the time needed to get projects. The typical change from hourly employment to being a freelance business is 2.5X employment wages and benefits. That is how much extra is needed to cover being in business instead of being an employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit: removed: SSRS is often an extra expense. The best solution is to purchase an MSDN subscription that includes a lot more stuff. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26024" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10196" RevisionGUID="a880f460-9d8b-4f81-94f4-c9ace3063cb5" CreationDate="2021-08-04T13:50:12.553" UserId="26857" Text="I am a web front end developer (5 years exp) / scrum master (1 year exp). I started to consider to move to freelance, but It dependents in some conditions, and I do not know if freelance will answer this conditions : &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - I want to leave &quot;classic&quot; contracts as it's slow, I feel stuck in same things since 3 years in my current job, even salary is not moving..&#xD;&#xA; - Personally I get bored fast (not only for pro life, but in everything)&#xD;&#xA; - I do not like hierarchy, I really love and respect people (more than they respect me most of the time), but I get **red** and angry as soon as I understand that a handful of people decide actually my destiny and my future, decisions they take are never good for &quot;me&quot; but always good for them and business (it's in my opinion one of the biggest human poison, this can even explain pollution, wars, pandemics etc, no jokes)&#xD;&#xA; - I am musician, music needs a life balance, actual contract I have is like zero personal life&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, I need to understand if web dev in freelance is 180° opposite to my classic and normal contract ? &#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26025" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10196" RevisionGUID="a880f460-9d8b-4f81-94f4-c9ace3063cb5" CreationDate="2021-08-04T13:50:12.553" UserId="26857" Text="Is it SO different to be freelance than to have a classic contract when you are a developper?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26026" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10196" RevisionGUID="a880f460-9d8b-4f81-94f4-c9ace3063cb5" CreationDate="2021-08-04T13:50:12.553" UserId="26857" Text="|contracts|web-development|france|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26027" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10197" RevisionGUID="d3826d44-2d02-454b-8200-a113fd978e00" CreationDate="2021-08-04T14:24:24.910" UserId="26181" Text="Technically speaking, freelancing is having your own business. Many &quot;classic contracts&quot; are either &quot;full time employee with a different legal status&quot; or even full time employees of the contracting firm being &quot;leased&quot; to the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancing is a lot like being a full time musician. Most musicians are doing gig work, traveling long distances between gigs, on the road for months, and having to put up with terrible conditions in the back rooms. There are the 1% who fill stadiums and can put strange conditions in their contracts. But the rest don't and can't. A lot of musicians don't have good life balances (which is why so many die from drug and alcohol.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, you have the responsibility of managing your own life. That means learning how to get new clients, how to keep clients happy, what you will do when a client doesn't pay, paying for your own equipment, software, CPA and lawyer time, and managing your own benefits. And in technology, you are responsible for having skills that others want which means that you might need to be learning a new language/framework every couple of years - and that on your own time and money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lot of people do freelance for a little while and then find that they don't make as much as they want, the overhead costs eat them up, or their skills go out of date. Faced with those circumstances, they go back to full time employment. Others learn what they have to in order to keep independent, adjust their prices, and keep going.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you are easily bored, you might enjoy the hunting of new clients and new projects. That is a skill few programmers have but can get you a lot higher income.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26028" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10181" RevisionGUID="b01540ae-27d6-4b9b-aba6-03d9bd14e720" CreationDate="2021-08-05T00:00:16.493" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1423071319114010627" />
  <row Id="26029" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10198" RevisionGUID="3105221b-def7-4c5d-a9ec-f77d1674df13" CreationDate="2021-08-05T02:55:24.637" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26030" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10198" RevisionGUID="3105221b-def7-4c5d-a9ec-f77d1674df13" CreationDate="2021-08-05T02:55:24.637" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26031" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10199" RevisionGUID="36ec2dce-d5fb-4abf-aa79-bf06796e5db5" CreationDate="2021-08-05T02:55:24.637" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26032" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10199" RevisionGUID="36ec2dce-d5fb-4abf-aa79-bf06796e5db5" CreationDate="2021-08-05T02:55:24.637" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26033" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9661" RevisionGUID="466c269e-2e4f-41cf-b1df-6d1645588d87" CreationDate="2021-08-05T04:02:00.167" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="26034" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10200" RevisionGUID="84013718-5800-4789-a727-c89077361cb7" CreationDate="2021-08-05T08:40:17.960" UserId="20786" Text="You are right in thinking this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sharing information from one employer to another is a violation of GDPR.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless you have explicit permission to show the briefs to another company, you would be committing an offence." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26035" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10200" RevisionGUID="d28bbfd0-0dc4-4fef-acc2-157e052ffa57" CreationDate="2021-08-05T08:45:25.217" UserId="20786" Comment="Added paragraph" Text="You are right in thinking this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sharing information from one employer to another is a violation of GDPR.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unless you have explicit permission to show the briefs to another company, you would be committing an offence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, you could try to anonymise or redact the briefs so that the original customer is hidden.  It depends on what information the briefs contain and how it is presented." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26036" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10201" RevisionGUID="2fdb412c-1108-443a-9f73-d9dd551bc82c" CreationDate="2021-08-06T14:51:21.297" UserId="23754" Text="For reference is someone don't know what is an escrow system: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Escrow is a financial instrument whereby an asset or escrow money is&#xD;&#xA;&gt; held by a third party on behalf of two other parties that are in the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; process of completing a transaction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Working as a freelance I have to deal with people dodging my payment. I have experience been using escrow system from websites like localbitcoins or localcryptos, is pretty good and feel secure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A client recommend me with [Upwork escrow system][1] but I know [here][2] in freelancing that upwork comission is too much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there another way? online alternatives. Like a smart a contract of some blockchain project especially create for freelancers (ethereum have a project about smart contract) or website that could help with the minimum fee and the best support?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211068208-Escrow-for-Fixed-Price-Jobs&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4759/upwork-taking-20-of-my-money-alternatives?r=SearchResults&amp;s=1%7C50.1366" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26037" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10201" RevisionGUID="2fdb412c-1108-443a-9f73-d9dd551bc82c" CreationDate="2021-08-06T14:51:21.297" UserId="23754" Text="Escrow System Alternatives or a Smart Contract For Working Secure" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26038" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10201" RevisionGUID="2fdb412c-1108-443a-9f73-d9dd551bc82c" CreationDate="2021-08-06T14:51:21.297" UserId="23754" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26039" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="10201" RevisionGUID="40e95e64-5820-4c60-b7d1-527e385cf856" CreationDate="2021-08-07T04:49:51.710" UserId="23754" Comment="added 1 tag" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|safety|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26040" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10202" RevisionGUID="a0ea7ca0-5f4f-435d-95b8-5dd2eea54ac9" CreationDate="2021-08-08T06:37:42.013" UserId="23754" Text="I find out more than 4 popular escrow system maybe I will need update this list in the future some great projects ([like openbazaar][1]) had to close/pause. But lets start with upwork direct contract escrow system for non upwork user and the fee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Upwork:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Upwork Escrow protects Client’s deposit until the work is approved.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; processing fee of 3.4%&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period of 14 days&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PayPal:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; PayPal doesn't offer escrow service, but they offer 100% buyer protection. If you don't hear from your seller, PayPal will refund your money.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; processing fee of USD 0.30$ plus 5.4% fee &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period of 14 days&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;Ethereum:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Ethereum smart contract, each computer &#xD;&#xA;has the same digital contract program.And &#xD;&#xA;they all have the same data, every one &#xD;&#xA;can check the source codes of the &#xD;&#xA;“ digital contract program “.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; processing fee average 2.822$&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period of 14 days&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Escrow.com:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Escrow.com is a privately held internet escrow company acquired in April 2015 by Freelancer Technology Pty Limited.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; minimum fee 10$ ([calculator][2])&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period of 30 days&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bitcoin:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Using Multi-signature (multisig) refers to requiring multiple keys to authorize a Bitcoin transaction, rather than a single signature from one key. It has a number of applications. Dividing up responsibility for possession of bitcoins among multiple people..&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; average bitcoin transaction fee is $23&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period: until each private key (person) are agree with terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am really sick of scammers working outside popular freelancer platforms (saturated, with hampering my work and dealing with fee so thats why I have to do and I will do more research about this systems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2cy45l/can_someone_please_explain_to_me_how_the/cjk7r5h?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web2x&amp;context=3&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.escrow.com/fee-calculator" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26041" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10202" RevisionGUID="441b6644-224f-46b9-b4d0-6e84c2fe5382" CreationDate="2021-08-08T06:42:50.307" UserId="23754" Comment="added 300 characters in body" Text="I find out more than 4 popular escrow system maybe I will need update this list in the future some great projects ([like openbazaar][1]) had to close/pause. But lets start with [upwork direct contract escrow system for non upwork user][2] and the fee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Upwork:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Upwork Escrow protects Client’s deposit until the work is approved.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; processing fee of 3.4%&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period of 14 days&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PayPal:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; PayPal doesn't offer escrow service, but they offer 100% buyer protection. If you don't hear from your seller, PayPal will refund your money.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; processing fee of USD 0.30$ plus 5.4% fee &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period of 14 days&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;Ethereum:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Ethereum smart contract, each computer &#xD;&#xA;has the same digital contract program.And &#xD;&#xA;they all have the same data, every one &#xD;&#xA;can check the source codes of the &#xD;&#xA;“ digital contract program “.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; processing fee average 2.822$&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period of 14 days&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Escrow.com:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Escrow.com is a privately held internet escrow company acquired in April 2015 by Freelancer Technology Pty Limited.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; minimum fee 10$ ([calculator][3])&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period of 30 days&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bitcoin:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Using Multi-signature (multisig) refers to requiring multiple keys to authorize a Bitcoin transaction, rather than a single signature from one key. It has a number of applications. Dividing up responsibility for possession of bitcoins among multiple people..&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; average bitcoin transaction fee is $23&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period: until each private key (person) are agree with terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;example of third part escrow system:&#xD;&#xA;[![example of third part escrow system][4]][4]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am really sick of scammers working outside popular freelancer platforms (saturated, with hampering my work and dealing with fee so thats why I have to do and I will do more research about this systems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2cy45l/can_someone_please_explain_to_me_how_the/cjk7r5h?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web2x&amp;context=3&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025040794-Direct-Contracts-with-Clients#:~:text=What%27s%20the%20cost%20for%20me,fee%2C%20only%20the%203.4%25.&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.escrow.com/fee-calculator&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/AlhEv.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26042" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10202" RevisionGUID="d6ddb36f-eff5-42c4-85d3-d546d8adf90b" CreationDate="2021-08-08T06:49:59.907" UserId="23754" Comment="added 85 characters in body" Text="I find out more than 4 popular escrow system maybe I will need update this list in the future some great projects ([like openbazaar][1]) had to close/pause. But lets start with [upwork direct contract escrow system for non upwork user][2] and the fee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Upwork:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Upwork Escrow protects Client’s deposit until the work is approved.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; processing fee of 3.4%&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period of 14 days&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PayPal:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; PayPal doesn't offer escrow service, but they offer 100% buyer protection. If you don't hear from your seller, PayPal will refund your money.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; processing fee of USD 0.30$ plus 5.4% fee &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period of 14 days&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;Ethereum:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Ethereum smart contract, each computer &#xD;&#xA;has the same digital contract program.And &#xD;&#xA;they all have the same data, every one &#xD;&#xA;can check the source codes of the &#xD;&#xA;“ digital contract program “.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; processing fee average 2.822$&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period of 14 days&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Escrow.com:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Escrow.com is a privately held internet escrow company acquired in April 2015 by Freelancer Technology Pty Limited.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; minimum fee 10$ ([calculator][3])&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period of 30 days&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bitcoin:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Using Multi-signature (multisig) refers to requiring multiple keys to authorize a Bitcoin transaction, rather than a single signature from one key. It has a number of applications. Dividing up responsibility for possession of bitcoins among multiple people..&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; average bitcoin transaction fee is $23&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period: until each private key (person) are agree with terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;example of third part escrow system:&#xD;&#xA;[![example of third part escrow system][4]][4]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am really sick of scammers working outside popular freelancer platforms (saturated, with hampering my work and dealing with fee so thats why I have to do and I will do more research about this systems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit: This answer is open for more information about escrow system for freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2cy45l/can_someone_please_explain_to_me_how_the/cjk7r5h?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web2x&amp;context=3&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025040794-Direct-Contracts-with-Clients#:~:text=What%27s%20the%20cost%20for%20me,fee%2C%20only%20the%203.4%25.&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.escrow.com/fee-calculator&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/AlhEv.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26043" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10196" RevisionGUID="3f23d08b-6a19-4bc9-a67c-72e47a5b97b1" CreationDate="2021-08-08T12:00:06.640" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1424339635346579456" />
  <row Id="26044" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10202" RevisionGUID="d697ea01-c40c-48e3-bca7-c21f837d969d" CreationDate="2021-08-09T00:17:29.673" UserId="23754" Comment="added 246 characters in body" Text="I find out more than 5 popular escrow system maybe I will need update this list in the future some great projects ([like openbazaar][1]) had to close/pause. But lets start with [upwork direct contract escrow system for non upwork user][2] and the fee. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Upwork:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Upwork Escrow protects Client’s deposit until the work is approved.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; processing fee of 3.4%&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period of 14 days&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PayPal:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; PayPal doesn't offer escrow service, but they offer 100% buyer protection. If you don't hear from your seller, PayPal will refund your money.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; processing fee of USD 0.30$ plus 5.4% fee &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period of 14 days&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;kiwikiwifly:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; kiwikiwifly escrow service, this is for international buyers and seller.very famous in Australia and New Zealand. &#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; service fees around 1%-1.5%&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; The waiting time can range from a couple of hours to days&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ethereum:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Ethereum smart contract, each computer &#xD;&#xA;has the same digital contract program.And &#xD;&#xA;they all have the same data, every one &#xD;&#xA;can check the source codes of the &#xD;&#xA;“ digital contract program “.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; processing fee average 2.822$&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period of 14 days&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Escrow.com:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Escrow.com is a privately held internet escrow company acquired in April 2015 by Freelancer Technology Pty Limited.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; minimum fee 10$ ([calculator][3])&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period of 30 days&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bitcoin:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Using Multi-signature (multisig) refers to requiring multiple keys to authorize a Bitcoin transaction, rather than a single signature from one key. It has a number of applications. Dividing up responsibility for possession of bitcoins among multiple people..&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; average bitcoin transaction fee is $23&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; period: until each private key (person) are agree with terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;example of third part escrow system using bitcoin:&#xD;&#xA;[![example of third part escrow system][4]][4]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am really sick of scammers working outside popular freelancer platforms (saturated, with hampering my work and dealing with fee so thats why I have to do and I will do more research about this systems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit: This answer is open for more information about escrow system for freelancers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2cy45l/can_someone_please_explain_to_me_how_the/cjk7r5h?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web2x&amp;context=3&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025040794-Direct-Contracts-with-Clients#:~:text=What%27s%20the%20cost%20for%20me,fee%2C%20only%20the%203.4%25.&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://www.escrow.com/fee-calculator&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/AlhEv.png" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26045" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9529" RevisionGUID="dacc281e-c9f0-4c85-b96a-3a90c0a9e394" CreationDate="2021-08-09T11:03:45.343" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="26046" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10173" RevisionGUID="4fac1087-ab30-4c86-b5e1-d2138d3298b6" CreationDate="2021-08-12T03:00:04.207" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1425653281519554565" />
  <row Id="26050" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10164" RevisionGUID="430636bf-5a7e-488c-8de9-ff12d173d3bd" CreationDate="2021-08-13T09:00:04.227" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1426106266787721219" />
  <row Id="26057" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10205" RevisionGUID="ea6a176b-7353-4efa-ab8b-cc290473df3b" CreationDate="2021-08-14T01:28:37.287" UserId="20058" Text="I've been struggling with connecting my various system and having only enough tools to make my freelancing work and invoicing flow efficient. I've been using Freshbooks for invoicing and Asana for project management details. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now I'd really like to add something to automate my leads, onboarding, and wrap up tasks and after trying out Dubsado, Bonsai, and 17Hats, I'm settling on HoneyBook for handling onboarding with automated workflows. However, all of these lack in some important timing and invoicing pieces that I need. I have fixed and hourly projects both. So I need to time against my fixed projects per service with budget notifications, AND need to record billable time for the occasional custom requested task at an hourly rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My issue with many of the timers in my final 3 is that they don't register against the estimate and if they are per task, those aren't grouped together in a final invoice but a lot of single items that have to added up. Leading to a lot of manual tinkering per invoice time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I pull in a 4th tool that is just my master timer that can integrate? One that can do fixed projects (hopefully imported or zapped in) and group hours on custom tasks into one line item to be added to either invoicing system? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anyone found a good way to connect all of these?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks for your suggestions." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26058" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10205" RevisionGUID="ea6a176b-7353-4efa-ab8b-cc290473df3b" CreationDate="2021-08-14T01:28:37.287" UserId="20058" Text="Looking for timer by service and task to group and import" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26059" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10205" RevisionGUID="ea6a176b-7353-4efa-ab8b-cc290473df3b" CreationDate="2021-08-14T01:28:37.287" UserId="20058" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26060" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10206" RevisionGUID="144ad287-7211-43c2-b1ed-776f2a4ae524" CreationDate="2021-08-15T06:22:30.187" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26061" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10206" RevisionGUID="144ad287-7211-43c2-b1ed-776f2a4ae524" CreationDate="2021-08-15T06:22:30.187" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26062" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10207" RevisionGUID="683f2b0a-44f6-45e2-af43-479d2b21d68f" CreationDate="2021-08-15T06:22:30.187" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26063" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10207" RevisionGUID="683f2b0a-44f6-45e2-af43-479d2b21d68f" CreationDate="2021-08-15T06:22:30.187" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26070" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9459" RevisionGUID="9503da86-fc5c-48bb-9b4d-b4c380ae1948" CreationDate="2021-08-16T17:33:36.623" UserId="75" Comment="Removed link (no disclosure) and signature" Text="The Request for Proposal varies in depth and detail, depending on the innovation of the product / service. The RFP is made through a bidding process, where the aim is to receive the product / service at the highest quality with the lowest price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**The RFP consists of** many section and SOW is one in it. The SOW section should describe in detail what the expected outcome is, and a detailed list of responsibilities of the vendor. This is usually intended for the technical expert of the vendor, and is more technical in nature.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![RFP Contents][1]][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can create your own RFP template before to it you just need to understand the process - &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. RFP info gathering: &#xD;&#xA; 2. Identify intended audience&#xD;&#xA; 3. Approve RFP draft (decision)&#xD;&#xA; 4. Align draft to legal standards&#xD;&#xA; 5. Allocate funds&#xD;&#xA; 6. Approve distribution (decision)&#xD;&#xA; 7. Distribute RFP&#xD;&#xA; 8. Conduct initial filtering&#xD;&#xA; 9. Agree on short list&#xD;&#xA; 10. Perform due diligence&#xD;&#xA; 11. Re-distribute for best and final offer&#xD;&#xA; 12. Recommend bid winner&#xD;&#xA; 13. Approve funds (decision)&#xD;&#xA; 14. Approve winning bid (decision)&#xD;&#xA; 15. Sign contract with the vendor&#xD;&#xA; 16. Monitor vendors’ progress&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where as **SOW acts like an** agreement between two parties in which one of them is a customer and the other is a vendor or supplier. A good SOW usually has Purpose, Scope, Timelines, Costs, Payments, Reporting Requirements, Change Requests procedure and a few other things depending on the type of work or project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![enter image description here][2]][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/eI2aF.png&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/SjJXX.jpg&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26074" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10211" RevisionGUID="e162bb62-d789-4248-b496-980a24ce3aa5" CreationDate="2021-08-18T04:48:56.037" UserId="23754" Text="**Months ago a client accept my bid for helping in [mathematica software][1].** I check his portfolio as a client good reputaton but just there I started to suspect about his projects a lot of projects as freelancer client that he has projects related to Engineering, Mathematica, Data Science, Chemistry, Psycology and Nursery! I have to take because that time I need the gig.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He was a difficult client since start, cheap projects, want to do more work after the work is done ( small details ), not paying on time, totally unaware of my area ( even unaware of all projects on his portfolio ), and undervalue my work saying: ***&quot;my work is easy and simple. even I can do that. I send to you a video with all solved&quot;***. I dont want to find this kind of client again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***My Question is: &quot;How is name when a freelance client find clients inside his local area (e.g. knowing people from Industry, University, Research Center, etc) first world well paid projects (e.g. 200$ )and then using [outsorcing][2]/[crowdsourcing][3] methods for find a freelancer for do it for 40$. saving him 160$ for that.*** I think that is his work because the really cheap projet that he was offering.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was thinking that the name was outsorcing but there is not a &quot;scam&quot; or cheaper factor related to that and intermediary is so simple. is there any definition about this clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/10058/23754" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26075" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10211" RevisionGUID="e162bb62-d789-4248-b496-980a24ce3aa5" CreationDate="2021-08-18T04:48:56.037" UserId="23754" Text="How is name when a client take advantage of the freelance market for working as a outsorcer intermediary" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26076" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10211" RevisionGUID="e162bb62-d789-4248-b496-980a24ce3aa5" CreationDate="2021-08-18T04:48:56.037" UserId="23754" Text="|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26077" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10212" RevisionGUID="fa3783d3-7b8a-4633-a23b-cbe821bba06b" CreationDate="2021-08-19T16:53:58.573" UserId="708" Text="There's a language barrier here making it difficult to 100% understand what you may be asking. However, *I think* you may be referring to **[subcontracting or outsourcing][1]** - when someone hires other freelancers to do complete work for another, undisclosed, client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Example**...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Bob hires Jim to complete a project. &#xD;&#xA;- Rather than doing the work himself, Jim hires Megan to complete the project. &#xD;&#xA;- Jim is **subcontracting/outsourcing** the work to Megan.&#xD;&#xA;- Bob and Megan are unaware each other exist.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Jim may also be a **Project Manger** - someone who is in charge of finding *several* subcontractors to complete the overall project. In cases of a Project Manager, the client (Bob) is completely aware the Contractor (Jim) is hiring others to work. However, Bob doesn't know *who* Jim is hiring or have any control over who he hires - Bob just wants the work completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/subcontracting.asp" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26078" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10212" RevisionGUID="0c77d3fa-26d5-4ddc-a3d6-bd60444f5f24" CreationDate="2021-08-19T17:00:35.833" UserId="708" Comment="added 200 characters in body" Text="There's a language barrier here making it difficult to 100% understand what you may be asking. However, *I think* you may be referring to **[subcontracting or outsourcing][1]** - when someone hires other freelancers to do complete work for another, undisclosed, client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Example**...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Bob hires Jim to complete a project for $5,000.&#xD;&#xA;- Rather than doing the work himself, Jim hires Megan to complete the project for $3,000.&#xD;&#xA;- Jim is **subcontracting/outsourcing** the work to Megan. &#xD;&#xA;- Bob and Megan are unaware each other exist.&#xD;&#xA;- Jim gets paid $5k by Bob, Jim then pays Megan $3k. Jim profits $2k even though he didn't actually do any of the project labor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Jim may also be a **Project Manger** - someone who is in charge of finding *several* subcontractors to complete the overall project. In cases of a Project Manager, the client (Bob) is completely aware the Contractor (Jim) is hiring others to work. However, Bob doesn't know *who* Jim is hiring or have any control over who he hires - Bob just wants the work completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/subcontracting.asp" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26079" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10212" RevisionGUID="e475cdd0-71eb-402b-8875-0aa5501225c8" CreationDate="2021-08-19T17:09:05.937" UserId="708" Comment="added 200 characters in body" Text="There's a language barrier here making it difficult to 100% understand what you may be asking. However, *I think* you may be referring to **[subcontracting or outsourcing][1]** - when someone hires other freelancers to do complete work for another, undisclosed, client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Example**...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Bob hires Jim to complete a project for $5,000.&#xD;&#xA;- Rather than doing the work himself, Jim hires Megan to complete the project for $3,000.&#xD;&#xA;- Jim is **subcontracting/outsourcing** the work to Megan. &#xD;&#xA;- Bob and Megan are unaware each other exist.&#xD;&#xA;- Jim gets paid $5k by Bob, Jim then pays Megan $3k. Jim profits $2k even though he didn't actually do any of the project labor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Jim may also be a **Project Manger** - someone who is in charge of finding *several* subcontractors to complete the overall project. In cases of a Project Manager, the client (Bob) is completely aware the Contractor (Jim) is hiring others to work. However, Bob doesn't know *who* Jim is hiring or have any control over who he hires - Bob just wants the work completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's *nothing* inherently unethical or untoward about either of these situations. It's a **very common** practice in all businesses. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only time things may be percieved as *possibly* unethical is if Jim explicitly tells Bob that he (Jim) will be completing the work himself, then he doesn't and subcontracts it. Even then it's often *unsavory* to the original client, but it's typically not &quot;illegal&quot; unless there are specific authorization licenses required to complete the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; **Example**: Jim has a contracting license. He's authorized by the state to complete the work. Megan does *not* have a license and is *not* authorized by the state to complete the work. It would be illegal for Jim to hire Megan as a subcontractor to do the work. Megan must *also* have a authorization license if she is to do the actual labor. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/subcontracting.asp" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26080" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10212" RevisionGUID="6dc7bdfd-ab21-4239-a891-f002d06d3f2b" CreationDate="2021-08-19T17:17:42.100" UserId="708" Comment="deleted 3 characters in body" Text="There's a language barrier here making it difficult to 100% understand what you may be asking. However, *I think* you may be referring to **[subcontracting or outsourcing][1]** - when someone hires other freelancers to complete work for another, undisclosed, client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Example**...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Bob hires Jim to complete a project for $5,000.&#xD;&#xA;- Rather than doing the work himself, Jim hires Megan to complete the project for $3,000.&#xD;&#xA;- Jim is **subcontracting/outsourcing** the work to Megan. &#xD;&#xA;- Bob and Megan are unaware each other exist.&#xD;&#xA;- Jim gets paid $5k by Bob, Jim then pays Megan $3k. Jim profits $2k even though he didn't actually do any of the project labor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Jim may also be a **Project Manger** - someone who is in charge of finding *several* subcontractors to complete the overall project. In cases of a Project Manager, the client (Bob) is completely aware the Contractor (Jim) is hiring others to work. However, Bob doesn't know *who* Jim is hiring or have any control over who he hires - Bob just wants the work completed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's *nothing* inherently unethical or untoward about either of these situations. It's a **very common** practice in all businesses. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only time things may be percieved as *possibly* unethical is if Jim explicitly tells Bob that he (Jim) will be completing the work himself, then he doesn't and subcontracts it. Even then it's often *unsavory* to the original client, but it's typically not &quot;illegal&quot; unless there are specific authorization licenses required to complete the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; **Example**: Jim has a contracting license. He's authorized by the state to complete the work. Megan does *not* have a license and is *not* authorized by the state to complete the work. It would be illegal for Jim to hire Megan as a subcontractor to do the work. Megan must *also* have a authorization license if she is to do the actual labor. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/subcontracting.asp" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26081" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10211" RevisionGUID="995837e2-5c97-4249-b71d-12d51ebf04d9" CreationDate="2021-08-20T01:35:02.863" UserId="708" Comment="edited for grammar and just general English." Text="**Months ago a client accepted my bid for helping with [mathematica software][1].** I checked his portfolio. As a client he had a good reputation but I started to feel suspect about his portfolio of projects. He has completed projects related to Engineering, Mathematica, Data Science, Chemistry, Psychology and Nursery! I had to take the gig because at that time I needed it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He was a difficult client from the start. Offering cheap projects, wanted to more work after a project was complete ( small details ), not paying on time, totally unaware of my area of expertise ( even unaware of all the projects in his own portfolio ), and he undervalued my work saying: ***&quot;My work is easy and simple. Even I can do that. I send to you a video with it all solved&quot;***. I don't want to come across this kind of client again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***My Question is: &quot;What is it called when a freelancer merely finds clients with good paying projects and then uses [outsourcing][2]/[crowdsourcing][3] methods to find another freelancer to complete the work for less money?*** I think that is what this client is doing due to the really cheap projects he was offering.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was thinking that the name was outsourcing, but there is no &quot;scam&quot; or cheap factor related to that inherently. Are there any phrases or definitions to define such a clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/10058/23754" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26082" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10211" RevisionGUID="995837e2-5c97-4249-b71d-12d51ebf04d9" CreationDate="2021-08-20T01:35:02.863" UserId="708" Comment="edited for grammar and just general English." Text="What is it called when a client uses the freelance market for outsourcing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26084" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10191" RevisionGUID="aed40477-9b04-4986-a30b-e5db6f3f4eff" CreationDate="2021-08-21T08:16:58.850" UserId="23754" Comment="Improve title" Text="**Hello I am new to freelancing.** I have accounts on freelancing sites ([Upwork][1], [Freelancer][2]). My skills are in the field of Machine Learning and Data Analysis and I have complete knowledge of backend and frontend development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My question is while bidding for projects,** **I get an option to charge for the whole project or charge for milestones. What would be a better option from the perspective of me getting the project?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also if I charge by milestones, I am uncertain as to how to describe the work for each milestone (as far as Machine Learning and Data Analyst is considered).&#xD;&#xA;Any help would be appreciated!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.upwork.com&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.freelancer.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26085" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10191" RevisionGUID="aed40477-9b04-4986-a30b-e5db6f3f4eff" CreationDate="2021-08-21T08:16:58.850" UserId="23754" Comment="Improve title" Text="Better option for bid on projects, Hourly, Milestone or Fixed Price" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26086" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10191" RevisionGUID="aed40477-9b04-4986-a30b-e5db6f3f4eff" CreationDate="2021-08-21T08:16:58.850" Comment="Proposed by 23754 approved by 26826 edit id of 772" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26087" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10213" RevisionGUID="29d5fad2-9afa-463e-a6b8-8404bbe01402" CreationDate="2021-08-21T08:26:55.850" UserId="26927" Text="You can. At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it.&#xD;&#xA;Some of the most popular options as of now:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is &#xD;&#xA;in IQ, which you can the trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][1]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use lightning network, so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now none of the above platforms require from their users to reveal their identity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26088" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10214" RevisionGUID="f5d6de26-809d-440c-b336-a1fca72e6fa7" CreationDate="2021-08-21T08:30:15.177" UserId="26927" Text="At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it.&#xD;&#xA;Some of the most popular options as of now:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is &#xD;&#xA;in IQ, which you can the trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][1]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use lightning network, so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now none of the above platforms require from their users to reveal their identity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26089" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10213" RevisionGUID="efb3b657-ef84-42ab-ba92-c3ae1bb47583" CreationDate="2021-08-21T12:49:08.377" UserId="26927" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="**You can.** At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it.&#xD;&#xA;Some of the most popular options as of now:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is &#xD;&#xA;in IQ, which you can the trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][1]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use lightning network, so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now none of the above platforms require from their users to reveal their identity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26090" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10213" RevisionGUID="5ac0c7cd-2ff2-4b1c-af49-b5369a7459a2" CreationDate="2021-08-21T16:10:08.593" UserId="75" Comment="edited body" Text="**You can.** At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it.&#xD;&#xA;Some of the most popular options as of now:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is &#xD;&#xA;in IQ, which you can the trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use lightning network, so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now none of the above platforms require from their users to reveal their identity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26091" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9356" RevisionGUID="d93d91a5-75bb-429b-b5dc-2504ba66afdc" CreationDate="2021-08-21T18:00:05.300" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1429141268903469059" />
  <row Id="26092" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10215" RevisionGUID="7fb4d19d-e803-425f-98ea-c4ee799c3712" CreationDate="2021-08-22T00:52:21.250" UserId="26917" Text="I'm exploring the possibility of a working relationship with a startup, very early (I believe 3rd person in the door, not counting advisors). There is a potentially good value and industry-specific fit for both of us, but of course the usual uncertainties. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking at going in part time for a ~6 month commitment to test the waters. Based on past experiences, this is long enough to team-build, get a detailed understanding of the problem space, flesh out a technology plan (which seems to be the role I would step into), take the first steps to lining up partnerships needed, and most importantly, gauge chances of success. But short enough to live with the possibility of it not working out, risk-wise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this stage they haven't raised enough funds to pay for what they need. I was wondering if it is plausible to structure compensation on commercial credit, i.e. something like NET-180, which could be rolled over going forward, on the assumption that they raise operating capital by that 6 month point. (plausible in this case, as they've been working the necessary stepping stones in the system for a year or more already, and are well positioned on the market side of the equation). I feel like this is less of a roulette-wheel arrangement, compared to work-for-equity structure that is so often used. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it done often enough to be accepted? Any experiences with this?  TIA" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26093" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10215" RevisionGUID="7fb4d19d-e803-425f-98ea-c4ee799c3712" CreationDate="2021-08-22T00:52:21.250" UserId="26917" Text="Dealing with a startup, how common is commercial credit (vs equity)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26094" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10215" RevisionGUID="7fb4d19d-e803-425f-98ea-c4ee799c3712" CreationDate="2021-08-22T00:52:21.250" UserId="26917" Text="|payment-terms|startups|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26095" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10215" RevisionGUID="03f7e0e7-1482-4063-80dc-8e4114d9fad0" CreationDate="2021-08-22T01:19:00.323" UserId="26917" Comment="deleted 55 characters in body" Text="I'm exploring the possibility of a working relationship with a startup, very early (I believe 3rd person in the door, not counting advisors). There is a potentially good value and industry-specific fit for both of us, but of course the usual uncertainties. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking at going in part time for a ~6 month commitment to test the waters. Based on past experiences, this is long enough to team-build, get a detailed understanding of the problem space, flesh out a technology plan (which seems to be the role I would step into), and most importantly, gauge chances of success. But short enough to live with the possibility of it not working out, risk-wise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this stage they haven't raised enough funds to pay for what they need. I was wondering if it is plausible to structure compensation on commercial credit, i.e. something like NET-180, which could be rolled over going forward, on the assumption that they raise operating capital by that 6 month point. (plausible in this case, as they've been working the necessary stepping stones in the system for a year or more already, and are well positioned on the market side of the equation). I feel like this is less of a roulette-wheel arrangement, compared to work-for-equity structure that is so often used. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it done often enough to be accepted? Any experiences with this?  TIA" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26098" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10215" RevisionGUID="deec0e5a-6431-4510-8368-e5674edb791e" CreationDate="2021-08-23T12:00:05.193" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1429775447231979531" />
  <row Id="26101" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="7449" RevisionGUID="44911b6d-4ad0-4dbb-bbdf-5b8d8d09b160" CreationDate="2021-08-23T14:08:38.757" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="26102" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10217" RevisionGUID="a3c800be-5bc2-49b1-8efc-ec69da89b04a" CreationDate="2021-08-23T17:48:48.403" UserId="26940" Text="I am an eighteen-year-old boy who will be educating in university soon. I wondered if there is anybody who started freelancing besides studying. By freelancing I don't mean a big business, but **using typical skills** like Typing, Using Front-end for web creation, or even translating content... and so on. Just to gain some more money for living, universities over here don't support students as well as many regions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***And actually, I am looking for the answer to this question, is this going to be very hard or cause some problems in my education? Or on the contrary, it will be very cool and it works out.***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will be thankful to benefit from your invaluable experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; And the main question is up there but I will appreciate it so much if you give me some &quot;more&quot; experience. well, like what to-dos, and what not to-dos. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26103" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10217" RevisionGUID="a3c800be-5bc2-49b1-8efc-ec69da89b04a" CreationDate="2021-08-23T17:48:48.403" UserId="26940" Text="I wonder if anybody here knows how it will be If oneself starts freelancing besides Higher education?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26104" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10217" RevisionGUID="a3c800be-5bc2-49b1-8efc-ec69da89b04a" CreationDate="2021-08-23T17:48:48.403" UserId="26940" Text="|pay-rate|web-development|working-from-home|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26105" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10217" RevisionGUID="5190e18a-e06c-4261-96e0-7528759ad912" CreationDate="2021-08-24T10:56:57.250" UserId="26940" Comment="I added more details on my question to be more obvious." Text="I am an eighteen-year-old boy who will be educating in university soon. I wondered if there is anybody who started freelancing besides studying. By freelancing I don't mean a big business, but **using typical skills** like Typing, Using Front-end for web creation, or even translating content... and so on. Just to gain some more money for living, universities over here don't support students as well as many regions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;***And actually, I am looking for the answer to this question, is this going to be very hard or cause some problems in my education? Or on the contrary, it will be very cool and it works out.***&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit 1: (Ok, maybe I didn't ask obviously... I mean if anyone has tried this thing till now, how it was? and how it will be for me. Because I heard like 60% of freelancers start their business as a second job at first. And after that it becomes real. So I guessed this situation may be like mine when I'm studying (It's my first job) and working as a freelancer(my second job))&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I will be thankful to benefit from your invaluable experience. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; And the main question is up there but I will appreciate it so much if you give me some &quot;more&quot; experience. well, like what to-dos, and what not to-dos. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26106" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10218" RevisionGUID="c877480e-a4dd-4104-aee4-1cad1b36e093" CreationDate="2021-08-24T12:32:08.720" UserId="26935" Text="If being a freelancer is your dream, then try doing it as a part-time job while studying.&#xD;&#xA;Start on small projects to build your skills and experience in the area, join a freelancing platform such as Upwork, freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;A lot depends on what you want to start your freelance career in, what skills and qualifications you already have. The best thing is to get some experience in the field you want to freelance. &#xD;&#xA;It does not affect your study but, don't just go into it blindly first main focus is on your study.&#xD;&#xA;My experience as a freelancer is to many computer science majors, freelancing can seem mysterious &amp; hard to get into the field. I initially thought my computer science skills were not good enough to charge people for my service but then I get help from everywhere &amp; grow in freelancing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26107" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6074" RevisionGUID="f9addc2c-0965-470a-a7a9-7da7623c272b" CreationDate="2021-08-25T00:00:03.200" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1430319020692099072" />
  <row Id="26108" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10219" RevisionGUID="a122bbbf-4f8a-42c5-88fd-eef0f732fcfa" CreationDate="2021-08-25T08:25:58.300" UserId="26943" Text="There is some guy x. Who wants to make a game. He hired y. This y can't develop unity game. Just based on years of experience he was hired or something. Now y hired me. The project was split into many milestones.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;1. (Upfront Payment) - USD 500&#xD;&#xA;2. (Backend + Frontend) - USD 300&#xD;&#xA; - User Management(Creation, Deletion, Management, etc.)&#xD;&#xA; - Fund Transfer Between Users&#xD;&#xA;3. (Web socket backend + implement) - USD 500&#xD;&#xA; - Basic Server to Device Communication System Development&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And there were more milestones. But for some personal reason, I had to leave the project. And I delivered all these three milestones and got payment after the source code delivery is complete. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After leaving the project, now he is asking for a complete refund. Can anyone, give me some suggestions, how to handle this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26109" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10219" RevisionGUID="a122bbbf-4f8a-42c5-88fd-eef0f732fcfa" CreationDate="2021-08-25T08:25:58.300" UserId="26943" Text="Refund policy for left project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26110" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10219" RevisionGUID="a122bbbf-4f8a-42c5-88fd-eef0f732fcfa" CreationDate="2021-08-25T08:25:58.300" UserId="26943" Text="|payment-terms|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26111" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10220" RevisionGUID="4f58f96a-921b-48ba-a0fb-ab29490cef49" CreationDate="2021-08-25T11:56:03.410" UserId="26944" Text="My wife invoiced a university for some work she did.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She’s just had the paperwork back and they have taken tax from the total amount that she invoiced for. Is this right? I have never heard of this happening before. Normally people pay invoices in full, and we deal with the tax as part of our accounting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this right that they did this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26112" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10220" RevisionGUID="4f58f96a-921b-48ba-a0fb-ab29490cef49" CreationDate="2021-08-25T11:56:03.410" UserId="26944" Text="U.K. company has deducted tax" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26113" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10220" RevisionGUID="4f58f96a-921b-48ba-a0fb-ab29490cef49" CreationDate="2021-08-25T11:56:03.410" UserId="26944" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26114" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10221" RevisionGUID="a900d900-f648-4e32-a3fc-2fc655de096f" CreationDate="2021-08-25T12:31:17.827" UserId="7858" Text="Assuming the contract dictates payment upon milestone completion regardless of whether the entire project is completed - and the client has paid in full, it seems they have no legal basis for a refund.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They may want the money back because their goals have changed - but that is not your problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending on your jurisdiction, they could make this your problem by taking you to court. Regardless of them having a bad case, this could be expensive for both parties and therefore will almost certainly not happen." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26115" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10220" RevisionGUID="a93f5704-ad3e-4625-a520-89dcdde1bb4e" CreationDate="2021-08-25T13:37:25.123" UserId="26944" Comment="added 99 characters in body" Text="My wife invoiced a university for some work she did.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She’s just had the paperwork back and they have taken tax from the total amount that she invoiced for. Is this right? I have never heard of this happening before. Normally people pay invoices in full, and we deal with the tax as part of our accounting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this right that they did this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT: they seem to have set her up as an employee with no start date then issued a p45. WTAF??!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26116" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10220" RevisionGUID="fc0dd1de-f691-43ee-afb3-08777a5390a2" CreationDate="2021-08-25T15:18:36.280" UserId="26944" Comment="added 26 characters in body" Text="My wife invoiced a university for some work she did.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She’s just had the paperwork back and they have taken tax from the total amount that she invoiced for. Is this right? I have never heard of this happening before. Normally people pay invoices in full, and we deal with the tax as part of our accounting.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this right that they did this?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT: rather than as a supplier they seem to have set her up as an employee with no start date then issued a p45. WTAF??!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26117" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10222" RevisionGUID="de23e0b8-5e68-48f4-bd66-4790ca6461d1" CreationDate="2021-08-25T18:22:05.500" UserId="26318" Text="I'm not sure what other advice would be useful than suggesting that you contact whoever issues their invoices (presumably a Finance Department) and explaining that; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **You're not sure what they've done** (or why)&#xD;&#xA; - **Can they please undo it *immediately*** &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;and &lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA; - **make a payment into your bank account like they should have done in the first place**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may need to refer them to your invoice or whatever contract you (hopefully) have in place with whoever hired you in the first place.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26118" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10223" RevisionGUID="8d32d08e-874f-4d90-b3be-f8ef7c07124b" CreationDate="2021-08-27T16:27:06.033" UserId="21841" Text="Recently I've started sending some proposals to some possible clients. One of these new leads, is not a competitor but a company in the same city as one of my current clients, and in my proposal I was mentioning that I helped this client of mine achieve over X dollars in sales with my work (web design). My girlfriend read this and thinks it is not my place to disclose the amount of money I've help them generate — take into consideration that the site I made was from the beginning, so there were no previous numbers. Now I'm wondering, is it? I mean, I'm not telling an exact number, just something in the likes of &quot;I help them make over $100k in sales with my services&quot;. Is this considered unprofessional? Or rude? Should I go ahead and ask this client if sharing am ambiguous number of sales is okay with them? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm a bit lost, any help or suggestions are appreciated" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26119" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10223" RevisionGUID="8d32d08e-874f-4d90-b3be-f8ef7c07124b" CreationDate="2021-08-27T16:27:06.033" UserId="21841" Text="Could I disclose sales numbers I helped a client get?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26120" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10223" RevisionGUID="8d32d08e-874f-4d90-b3be-f8ef7c07124b" CreationDate="2021-08-27T16:27:06.033" UserId="21841" Text="|attracting-clients|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26121" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10224" RevisionGUID="9eb48746-981c-4677-a56a-b73596cd5bca" CreationDate="2021-08-28T07:46:29.413" UserId="26318" Text="This seems to break down to three main elements; Legal, ethical and fiscal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Legally:**  &#xD;&#xA;You're free to do pretty much anything that you didn't contractually agree with your reference client that you would do. If that included non-disclosure of their sales figures to third parties, then you're not free to expose them. If you agreed to no such thing, then the only strictures would be the usual Data Protection laws in your locality.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Ethically:**   &#xD;&#xA;Since they paid you a fee in good faith and haven't damaged the relationship from their own side, you do have a general moral responsibility to the wellbeing of your client (e.g. goodwill), and not to do things that would cause them harm or embarrassment. A pretty decent guide to whether your ethics are at fault would be that if your reference client *accidentally* found out what information you'd shared about them, that you think that it would make them unhappy. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Fiscally:**   &#xD;&#xA;Depending on the business that you're in, your greatest chance of doing business is either with your existing client (with a very small chance of securing a new client) or vice versa. If there's very little need to protect an ongoing relationship with your old client, other than the need to use your work with them as a sales tool, then **your obvious self-interest is to share as much information as possible**, notwithstanding the legal and moral issues above." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26122" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10225" RevisionGUID="1b621dc8-ca02-4759-88bb-5c06f96ab03a" CreationDate="2021-08-29T20:24:47.850" UserId="26965" Text="Is it really possible to become a freelance translator? At the moment I have no experience and I want eventually to build that up progressively (anyway we have to start from somewhere, don't we?).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since I have no certification but I can translate texts between 3 languages, is it possible to pursue such a route??" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26123" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10225" RevisionGUID="1b621dc8-ca02-4759-88bb-5c06f96ab03a" CreationDate="2021-08-29T20:24:47.850" UserId="26965" Text="Is it really possible to start as a freelance translator?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26124" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10225" RevisionGUID="1b621dc8-ca02-4759-88bb-5c06f96ab03a" CreationDate="2021-08-29T20:24:47.850" UserId="26965" Text="|freelance-websites|translations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26125" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10226" RevisionGUID="2df2b87b-4e06-4fd5-99b6-1fb5394babad" CreationDate="2021-08-30T09:12:27.633" UserId="24078" Text="Yes, you can. There are few things that you need to keep in mind:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. You have to be completely confident about the languages from/to which you are translating.&#xD;&#xA; 2. You need to have completely grammatical knowledge of those languages.&#xD;&#xA; 3. It's good to have some prior experience of translations.&#xD;&#xA; 4. You'll need to manually translate every sentence, as machine translations are mostly not recommended.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are a lot of freelancers working as translators and earning handsome amounts. If still any queries, let me know." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26126" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10227" RevisionGUID="458b5947-0259-453b-8982-8d092c292175" CreationDate="2021-08-30T22:14:44.860" UserId="23754" Text="I research in this SE and I found [this][1] and [this][2], but this is not what I am looking for because I have various computers, so 1 time tracker for 1 desktop doesnt work if I need linux for some task and each computer is old( and the software recomedation looks like high-memory-footprint ) or for example I use one computer for programming, one for data visualization and one for references and communication. for so I think the better software is one that take screenshoots every 10 minutes in each computer a Desktop Software like Greenshot, but in this case take a screenshoots and save automatically meanwhile I am working. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**This is enought for my clients check my progress and the time spend in the task**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am looking for freelance recomendation because I can't trust on internet and the software maybe some time tracker has a malware and took my money. anyone know?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1836/desktop-software-for-time-tracking&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4110/time-reporting-app" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26127" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10227" RevisionGUID="458b5947-0259-453b-8982-8d092c292175" CreationDate="2021-08-30T22:14:44.860" UserId="23754" Text="Desktop Software for Screenshot Time Tracker" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26128" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10227" RevisionGUID="458b5947-0259-453b-8982-8d092c292175" CreationDate="2021-08-30T22:14:44.860" UserId="23754" Text="|software|time-tracking|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26129" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10227" RevisionGUID="33b85dc5-544d-4ac6-a30e-b3eac549cec3" CreationDate="2021-08-30T22:50:07.323" UserId="23754" Comment="improve grammar" Text="I research in this SE and I found [this][1] and [this][2], but this is not what I am looking for because I have various computers, so 1 time tracker for 1 desktop doesnt work if I need linux for some task and each computer is old( and the software recommendations looks like high-memory-footprint ) or for example I use one computer for programming, one for data visualization and one for research and communication. so I think the better software is one that take screenshoots every 10 minutes in each computer a Desktop Software like Greenshot, but in this case take a screenshoots and save automatically meanwhile I am working. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**This is enought for my clients check my progress and the time spend in the task**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am looking for freelance recomendation because I can't trust on internet and the software maybe some time tracker has a malware and took my money. anyone know?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1836/desktop-software-for-time-tracking&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4110/time-reporting-app" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26130" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10227" RevisionGUID="6a07bc8a-584c-49f5-9b28-4309d39aa2d6" CreationDate="2021-08-31T11:03:18.863" UserId="25400" Comment="fixed capitalization, punctuation, grammar, formatting" Text="I researched in this SE and I found [this][1] and [this][2], but this is not what I am looking for. I have various computers so 1 time tracker for 1 desktop doesn't work if I need Linux for some task and each computer is old (and the software recommendations look like a high-memory footprint).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or for example, I use one computer for programming, one for data visualization, and one for research and communication. So I think the better software is one that takes screenshots every 10 minutes on each computer a desktop software like Greenshot, but in this case, take a screenshot and save it automatically while I am working. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is enough for my clients to check my progress and the time spent on the task.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am looking for a freelance recommendation because I can't trust the Internet and the software may be some time tracker that has malware and takes my money. Does anyone know?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/1836/desktop-software-for-time-tracking&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4110/time-reporting-app" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26131" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10227" RevisionGUID="6a07bc8a-584c-49f5-9b28-4309d39aa2d6" CreationDate="2021-08-31T11:03:18.863" UserId="25400" Comment="fixed capitalization, punctuation, grammar, formatting" Text="Desktop software for screenshot time tracker" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26132" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10227" RevisionGUID="6a07bc8a-584c-49f5-9b28-4309d39aa2d6" CreationDate="2021-08-31T11:03:18.863" Comment="Proposed by 25400 approved by 23754 edit id of 774" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26133" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10217" RevisionGUID="0b5d933a-d7eb-4c3a-8d77-7aa6c29039b8" CreationDate="2021-09-02T17:29:53.417" UserId="26956" Comment="clarified phrasing; minor copyediting; edited tags" Text="I am an 18-year-old boy who will be educating in university soon. I wondered if there is anybody who started freelancing besides studying. By freelancing I don't mean a big business, but **using typical skills** like typing, using front-end for web creation, or even translating content... and so on. Just to gain some more money for living - universities over here don't support students as well as many regions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How difficult is it to start freelancing while attending university?** Is this going to be very hard or cause some problems in my education? Or on the contrary, it will be very cool and it works out?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If anyone has tried freelancing while attending secondary education, how did it go? I heard that like 60% of freelancers start their business as a second job at first, and after that it becomes real. So I guessed this situation may be like mine when I'm studying (it's my first job) and working as a freelancer (my second job).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Answers should be supported by experience or other evidence. In addition, I would also appreciate advice on what to do and what not to do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26134" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10217" RevisionGUID="0b5d933a-d7eb-4c3a-8d77-7aa6c29039b8" CreationDate="2021-09-02T17:29:53.417" UserId="26956" Comment="clarified phrasing; minor copyediting; edited tags" Text="How difficult is it to start freelancing while attending university?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26135" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="10217" RevisionGUID="0b5d933a-d7eb-4c3a-8d77-7aa6c29039b8" CreationDate="2021-09-02T17:29:53.417" UserId="26956" Comment="clarified phrasing; minor copyediting; edited tags" Text="|web-development|working-from-home|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26137" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10214" RevisionGUID="d431af87-8264-4b0c-96f4-52fa611230d1" CreationDate="2021-09-03T13:36:58.197" UserId="17960" Comment="fixed incorrect linking" Text="At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it.&#xD;&#xA;Some of the most popular options as of now: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is in IQ, which you can then trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use lightning network, so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26138" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10214" RevisionGUID="d431af87-8264-4b0c-96f4-52fa611230d1" CreationDate="2021-09-03T13:36:58.197" Comment="Proposed by 17960 approved by 26927 edit id of 775" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26139" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10196" RevisionGUID="76c59035-1adb-401d-a0cd-afd9d8bdf0ee" CreationDate="2021-09-03T15:07:25.717" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="26140" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10213" RevisionGUID="a72dc8c9-02ce-4e9f-b874-71ac3d2eba2e" CreationDate="2021-09-03T15:18:00.993" UserId="26927" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="**You can.** At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it.&#xD;&#xA;Some of the most popular options as of now:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is &#xD;&#xA;in IQ, which you can the trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use lightning network, so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26142" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10229" RevisionGUID="8308ec9c-b73a-4339-9667-5ed16e5a339d" CreationDate="2021-09-04T02:34:48.790" UserId="25169" Text="I'd like to know what the best way(s) to make money with mobile development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some devs have already told me that it'd be making building mobile apps to prospect customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a second option I think I can try to build a very useful app as a startup and hard working in marketing that one. For instance, I'm enjoying to study Android development but I have doubt about how make real good money as freelancer in mobile development field.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a third option I think after of getting some real skillset for instance in Android development to try to produce some course on Udemy thinking that as a freelancer activity too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd listen to your advices about my issue. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26143" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10229" RevisionGUID="8308ec9c-b73a-4339-9667-5ed16e5a339d" CreationDate="2021-09-04T02:34:48.790" UserId="25169" Text="What informal ways to make money with mobile development?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26144" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10229" RevisionGUID="8308ec9c-b73a-4339-9667-5ed16e5a339d" CreationDate="2021-09-04T02:34:48.790" UserId="25169" Text="|software|money|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26145" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10229" RevisionGUID="63fe4609-f6c9-4846-b694-5b849e06a744" CreationDate="2021-09-04T02:47:19.147" UserId="25169" Comment="Improve my question" Text="I'd like to know what the best way(s) to make money with mobile development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some devs have already told me that it'd be making building mobile apps to prospect customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a second option I think I can try to build a very useful app as a startup and hard working in marketing that one. For instance, I'm enjoying to study Android development but I have doubt about how make real good money as freelancer in mobile development field.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a third option I think after of getting some real skillset for instance in Android development to try to produce some course on Udemy thinking that as a freelancer activity too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd listen to your advices about my issue. So far I wish to work strictly informal (no contracts). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26146" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10230" RevisionGUID="284bda2f-a504-49a8-9546-4067644b7633" CreationDate="2021-09-04T15:56:16.750" UserId="23754" Text="That deppend of your needs. The popular opinion about freelancing is for earn extra money ( &quot;not a real job, use for extra money&quot; ). However, see this article of forbes magazine could change that bad opinion about freelancing: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; [&quot;Survey: For Many, Freelancing Pays Better Than Traditional Jobs][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - The line between freelancers and traditional workers has blurred.&#xD;&#xA;   Among the freelancers surveyed, 25% have full-time businesses, 50%&#xD;&#xA;   freelance part time, 20% have full time jobs and earn extra money&#xD;&#xA;   from freelancing and the remainder checked the “other” category. “For&#xD;&#xA;   a lot of these folks, it is additional income.&#xD;&#xA; - Freelancers are spending more hours at their businesses. Although many freelancers in the survey are running their businesses part-time, the number of hours they are investing is climbing. Last year they averaged 15 hours a week. Now it’s nearly 19 hours a week. That is a substantial leap. And given that some of the freelancers surveyed are moonlighters, it could indicate that more American workers are deciding that they will be better off directing their discretionary effort to their own business than to their primary job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am working now full-time but I would like my freelance work will be part-time or sporadic contracts like a digital nomad this giving me some time for have an office job or develop my career.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/elainepofeldt/2015/10/04/survey-for-many-freelancing-pays-better-than-traditional-jobs/?sh=57534ede3d1a" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26147" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10230" RevisionGUID="d39c49d8-91d4-40f3-826f-a5d9119cdead" CreationDate="2021-09-04T16:07:14.793" UserId="23754" Comment="added upwork stats" Text="That deppend of your needs. The popular opinion about freelancing is for earn extra money ( &quot;not a real job, use for extra money&quot; ). However, see this article of forbes magazine could change that bad opinion about freelancing: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; [&quot;Survey: For Many, Freelancing Pays Better Than Traditional Jobs][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - The line between freelancers and traditional workers has blurred.&#xD;&#xA;   Among the freelancers surveyed, 25% have full-time businesses, 50%&#xD;&#xA;   freelance part time, 20% have full time jobs and earn extra money&#xD;&#xA;   from freelancing and the remainder checked the “other” category. “For&#xD;&#xA;   a lot of these folks, it is additional income.&#xD;&#xA; - Freelancers are spending more hours at their businesses. Although many freelancers in the survey are running their businesses part-time, the number of hours they are investing is climbing. Last year they averaged 15 hours a week. Now it’s nearly 19 hours a week. That is a substantial leap. And given that some of the freelancers surveyed are moonlighters, it could indicate that more American workers are deciding that they will be better off directing their discretionary effort to their own business than to their primary job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;other good stats:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Upwork Freelancer earning statistics‍:][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Upwork’s past industry research has shown that 60% of freelancers who left a full-time job to become freelancers make more money than they did in their previous jobs.&#xD;&#xA; - According to 2020 freelancer research data, freelancers in the United States earn an average hourly rate of $20.&#xD;&#xA; - Freelancers working in web/mobile development, marketing, legal, accounting, and other skilled services earn an even higher $28/hour average wage. At $28/hour, these freelancers are making more than 70% of all workers in the United States.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am working now full-time but I would like my freelance work will be part-time or sporadic contracts like a digital nomad this giving me some time for have an office job or develop my career.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/elainepofeldt/2015/10/04/survey-for-many-freelancing-pays-better-than-traditional-jobs/?sh=57534ede3d1a&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.upwork.com/resources/how-much-do-freelancers-make" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26148" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10230" RevisionGUID="2e6e0431-0ba2-452b-a341-a4ecab201495" CreationDate="2021-09-05T16:35:57.073" UserId="25400" Comment="fixed capitalization, punctuation, grammar" Text="That depends on your needs. The popular opinion about freelancing is to earn extra money ( &quot;not a real job, use for extra money&quot; ). However, see this article of Forbes magazine could change that bad opinion about freelancing: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; [&quot;Survey: For Many, Freelancing Pays Better Than Traditional Jobs][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - The line between freelancers and traditional workers has blurred.&#xD;&#xA;   Among the freelancers surveyed, 25% have full-time businesses, 50%&#xD;&#xA;   freelance part-time, 20% have full-time jobs and earn extra money from freelancing and the remainder checked the “other” category. “For&#xD;&#xA;   a lot of these folks, it is additional income.&#xD;&#xA; - Freelancers are spending more hours at their businesses. Although many freelancers in the survey are running their businesses part-time, the number of hours they are investing is climbing. Last year they averaged 15 hours a week. Now it’s nearly 19 hours a week. That is a substantial leap. And given that some of the freelancers surveyed are moonlighters, it could indicate that more American workers are deciding that they will be better off directing their discretionary effort to their own business than to their primary job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;other good stats:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Upwork Freelancer earning statistics‍:][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Upwork’s past industry research has shown that 60% of freelancers who left a full-time job to become freelancers make more money than they did in their previous jobs.&#xD;&#xA; - According to 2020 freelancer research data, freelancers in the United States earn an average hourly rate of $20.&#xD;&#xA; - Freelancers working in web/mobile development, marketing, legal, accounting, and other skilled services earn an even higher $28/hour average wage. At $28/hour, these freelancers are making more than 70% of all workers in the United States.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am working now full-time but I would like my freelance work to be part-time or sporadic contracts, like a digital nomad, this would give me some time to have an office job or develop my career.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/elainepofeldt/2015/10/04/survey-for-many-freelancing-pays-better-than-traditional-jobs/?sh=57534ede3d1a&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.upwork.com/resources/how-much-do-freelancers-make" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26149" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10230" RevisionGUID="2e6e0431-0ba2-452b-a341-a4ecab201495" CreationDate="2021-09-05T16:35:57.073" Comment="Proposed by 25400 approved by 23754 edit id of 776" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26150" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10231" RevisionGUID="f5dae486-8448-4ba8-a984-f568db370da4" CreationDate="2021-09-06T19:24:34.027" UserId="23754" Text="I am working right now with a C code for a client. I let her know that when I reach 50% of progress She will pay the first part. However I have now 80% solved because I want continue my work without report, I already took the first part of the payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know. If I continue without informing my progress my clients will think that I am not doing anything, also months ago this situation happen to me I was informing daily my progress to my client and He said **&quot;You don't need to message every progress that you do&quot;** So I stop it doing that and then said **&quot;You are not informing you progress&quot;**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Someone who works with code or tech can write here: **How it should be the best frequency to communicate progress to a client without bother her/him**" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26151" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10231" RevisionGUID="f5dae486-8448-4ba8-a984-f568db370da4" CreationDate="2021-09-06T19:24:34.027" UserId="23754" Text="How often I have to update my progress working freelance?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26152" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10231" RevisionGUID="f5dae486-8448-4ba8-a984-f568db370da4" CreationDate="2021-09-06T19:24:34.027" UserId="23754" Text="|communication|remote|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26156" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10233" RevisionGUID="9e682b88-a425-4ffb-9949-d8dc711f3245" CreationDate="2021-09-07T16:14:19.877" UserId="26181" Text="This is something that the client has to answer, not us. It depends both on the client and the project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, with one client, I was simply reporting each day what I did. That was voluntary but it helped the client know that I was doing something for the money I was charging. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With a different client, I'm working on a project on &quot;spec&quot; that they might need it. If I'm communicating once a month, that might be too much. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is also a difference between 80% of the initial coding done and 80% of the project done. In my mind, to get a project to 80% done state, all the coding has to be done, the unit testing is finished, and the project is deep into integration testing. Too many developers give the impression to a client that once the coding is done, the project will be done. That is far from the truth. But that is why we see a lot of projects come here where the client claims that it is 80% done and can someone come in and finish it? They don't realize that they might be only 40% of the way through the project. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26158" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10234" RevisionGUID="f6ff8f75-8f28-438c-b752-0e5a06870c82" CreationDate="2021-09-08T07:26:36.197" UserId="26998" Text="**It is worth trying!**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The corporate culture with a boss and a deadline is very frustrating when company is paying you in penny&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Freelancing the most difficult job is to find clients when you are a beginner. But once you have build our portfolio with good clients then this freelancing becomes fun todo job. Also then there would be no boss, you can work anytime and anywhere you want this makes you a person with more freedom&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my suggestion is start with part-time. First you will face difficulties but later if you like you can start with full-time by quitting your job" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26159" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10235" RevisionGUID="e76ef0c6-de7d-4d30-9756-f63b5e8f36a0" CreationDate="2021-09-08T07:38:40.557" UserId="26998" Text="**Advantages:**&#xD;&#xA;1. You can add your Work in your Resume (by asking for permission from client)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. You will get exposure to real world problems&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Your soft and hard skills will develop&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Disadvantage:**&#xD;&#xA;1. If you fail in Time management then your grades will affect directly (so dedicate not more than 4 hr a day)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. If you get stuck in big project then there is no return path (so take small project in beginning)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Suggestion:**&#xD;&#xA;Just give it a try but simultaneously focus on academics too   " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26160" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10236" RevisionGUID="76d4b50b-ab05-4c71-aecf-62bdf2553cba" CreationDate="2021-09-08T21:43:34.737" UserId="1754" Text="An employee from a very old employer contacted me to design a dashboard for them as freelance, when asked for payment he said &quot;If I can send them design then we can talk about price&quot;. This is something new to me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not confident if I should send them designs, they might not hire me and can make real web app off my designs. What should I do? How can I ask them for payment upfront? It is a confusing situation for me due to no work, I want to find work but not work for free as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26161" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10236" RevisionGUID="76d4b50b-ab05-4c71-aecf-62bdf2553cba" CreationDate="2021-09-08T21:43:34.737" UserId="1754" Text="Ex employrer want to hire me after I send him design" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26162" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10236" RevisionGUID="76d4b50b-ab05-4c71-aecf-62bdf2553cba" CreationDate="2021-09-08T21:43:34.737" UserId="1754" Text="|freelance-websites|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26163" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10237" RevisionGUID="ffcdcb1d-a8cb-47fa-96e5-d7834543714d" CreationDate="2021-09-08T21:56:25.293" UserId="75" Text="No money, no final design. Full stop.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can meet with them to discuss what they're looking for, or refer them to your portfolio. You **NEVER** release a final product until you get paid or money is in escrow." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26164" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10238" RevisionGUID="fd1222c7-4090-4fd5-bc99-e3da7e992ec1" CreationDate="2021-09-09T01:32:30.453" UserDisplayName="user26999" Text="A new project I am working on needs a blockchain full stack developer and designer.They must understand solidity (Ethereum), sidechains (Bitcoin), etc. Anyone interested?&#xD;&#xA;In addition, I feel that it's quite difficult to find talent in this industry. Do you know how to find a good candidate in the blockchain field?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26165" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10238" RevisionGUID="fd1222c7-4090-4fd5-bc99-e3da7e992ec1" CreationDate="2021-09-09T01:32:30.453" UserDisplayName="user26999" Text="How to find a suitable blockchain talent?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26166" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10238" RevisionGUID="fd1222c7-4090-4fd5-bc99-e3da7e992ec1" CreationDate="2021-09-09T01:32:30.453" UserDisplayName="user26999" Text="|web-development|design|group-freelancing|clients|project|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26167" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10239" RevisionGUID="b63f2dd8-6112-4bb4-a973-67854e78149c" CreationDate="2021-09-09T01:36:32.757" UserId="20896" Text="It depends on what you are looking for. It is not difficult like you said. Blockchain is the hottest skill right now, it opened a huge market. Many people join and develop it to become talents. You can find them in some blockchain or crypto forums, it is a talent pool.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26168" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="10238" RevisionGUID="b970c79e-b61d-4236-a80c-8a29d3bb3f20" CreationDate="2021-09-09T02:10:12.697" UserId="75" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}],&quot;SiteSpecificCloseReasonIds&quot;:[6]}" />
  <row Id="26170" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10241" RevisionGUID="0460c502-1d15-4c3c-8e1c-e4439f39e240" CreationDate="2021-09-10T15:27:25.123" UserId="27006" Text="You can send screenshots/images/mockup of the design instead of sharing design files and code. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26172" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10242" RevisionGUID="c675c393-d0bd-4b5a-8d05-5c809f2f4b90" CreationDate="2021-09-11T21:06:33.457" UserId="27009" Text="So I just started to freelance as a web developer and I have my first client contacting me and they are asking me how much I'll be charging for the website. What I'm struggling with is that I don't want to give a fixed price as I might overprice or underprice my work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am really not sure what approach to take in presenting my price should it be a fixed price($1000) or a detailed list? and if providing a list is better what are the items that need to be listed there?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26173" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10242" RevisionGUID="c675c393-d0bd-4b5a-8d05-5c809f2f4b90" CreationDate="2021-09-11T21:06:33.457" UserId="27009" Text="How should present to my clients how much I'll be charging them as a beginner web developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26174" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10242" RevisionGUID="c675c393-d0bd-4b5a-8d05-5c809f2f4b90" CreationDate="2021-09-11T21:06:33.457" UserId="27009" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|invoices|price|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26175" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10243" RevisionGUID="dcb79f58-2d14-447f-ba69-3d249a14276f" CreationDate="2021-09-11T22:09:14.947" UserId="708" Text="Me personally, I don't pick up a pencil, mouse, turn on a computer, put on my glasses, etc..... **nothing** unless a fee has been determined for the work I'll be doing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some cases, a **deposit** may be required before I start work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Someone asking me to work *before* discussing price would honestly make me chuckle, not to their face, but that's how ludicrous the proposition is to me. And it's so ludicrous that I'd demand a non-refundable deposit before any work began.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So.. to this employer, I'd reply:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;Sorry. That's not how it works. I'm very eager to create a dashboard for you. However, we need to determine the project fees before I start work. In addition, there will be a non-refundable deposit required before work begins. I won't simply start work with some unknown return looming at the end of all my efforts. I need to know if the return on the project is worth my time.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26176" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10244" RevisionGUID="daff1b19-f1ef-4d3c-bb14-47adbd82d517" CreationDate="2021-09-11T22:42:55.753" UserId="708" Text="If you think freelancing means... *&quot;a handful of people [WON'T] decide&quot;* your destiny and future, and that such decisions WON'T  *&quot;always [be] good for them and business&quot;* you are **very** mistaken. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only difference with freelancing is you can often more easily stop dealing with people making poor decisions for *your particular situation*. Unlike employment positions... If you find a client that is not paying well, you can replace that income stream with a better one. If you find a client that is simply insulting, you can quit working of them. Etc. But this all depends on your income stream. At times you *can't* simply drop a client you are unhappy with because you *need* the financial return.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Clients still determine your future** with freelancing, in addition they will also now control your *financial stability* - which isn't a factor with employment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To start freelancing because you're a bit disgruntled with your job is a knee-jerk reaction and may be a mistake. Sure you have no &quot;boss&quot;, but you also gain a whole lot of new responsibilities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- It'll up to YOU to make money, you can't rely on that steady paycheck. And making money freelancing can be *very* difficult at times. You need to have a financial &quot;cushion&quot; to rely on when times are slow.&#xD;&#xA;- (US Based) You will be responsible to pay taxes your employer is currently paying... healthcare, social security, etc.&#xD;&#xA;- You *may* make **less money** when starting out. If you're already unhappy with the amount of money you make as an employee this can be problematic.&#xD;&#xA;- You *might* have more free time, **if** you find clients that can financially sustain you. But you *might* have much, much, much **less** free time if you are struggling to earn an income. You'll need to dedicate MUCH more time to self-promotion and marketing to *find* clients. This can easily double or triple the amount of work you need to do in any given week.&#xD;&#xA;- You *still* need to use contracts to ensure you get paid.&#xD;&#xA;- It'll be up to *you* to track down, pester, possibly sue, clients that are slow to pay or even refuse to pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancing is probably **not** a &quot;solution to all your problems&quot; it's merely a *different* set of problems. With freelancing you primarily get rid of the &quot;office politics&quot; problems and you replace all that with financial stability and well-being problems. Rather than dealing with people you don't like, you have to deal with financial situations that can be a struggle if you aren't prepared for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26177" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="1787" RevisionGUID="a6e6a039-7f59-44a3-8d5c-4eedf6eb8aab" CreationDate="2021-09-12T00:00:21.010" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1436842076986085380" />
  <row Id="26178" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10245" RevisionGUID="3d0adc09-5a68-4152-9c2e-84feccedaeda" CreationDate="2021-09-12T14:21:44.507" UserId="26181" Text="There is always a constant tension between a developer and a client over pricing. You have to charge enough to cover your business expenses. But clients want the least expense and want assurances of price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you have not done such before, you don't know what your costs are. However, in the field of website development, you can look at what other people in your area are charging and charge a similar rate. Websites can be simple or very complex. It helps to go over the client's expectations in as much detail as you can before you give a price. The business aspect is that you need to get your costs down far less than what you can charge. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26179" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10243" RevisionGUID="dae81354-6552-40d4-bafa-c33473b85a89" CreationDate="2021-09-12T20:01:59.883" UserId="708" Comment="added 2347 characters in body" Text="Me personally, I don't pick up a pencil, mouse, turn on a computer, put on my glasses, etc..... **nothing** unless a fee has been determined for the work I'll be doing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some cases, a **deposit** may be required before I start work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A *new client*, even someone I've known but have never worked for as a freelancer, asking me to work *before* discussing price would honestly make me chuckle, not to their face, but that's how ludicrous the proposition is to me. In fact, it's so ludicrous that I'd demand a non-refundable deposit before any work began. Primarily because such a proposition, to me, is seen as a &quot;**red flag**&quot;. Meaning, clients proposing such a thing will typically be slow to pay, and will do their level best to lowball any pricing or get discounts, etc *after negotiations*. The deposit generally ensures I at least make enough to cover the initial stages of my work - clients sending up this flag for me will generally become less interested or involved after initial stages. Or they go the other way and start becoming overly demanding, try to balloon the initial scope, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, they've sent me a warning that they *may* be a &quot;difficult&quot; client in some way. A deposit merely means **if** they do become difficult, at least I'll get some return before the wheels possibly fall off. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the red flag was a legitimate warning, they'll argue about the deposit - if they argue adamantly about it, I generally turn down the work. If they won't pay the deposit, I'll have trouble getting paid after completion of the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, if they are legitimate in their intention to pay or simply have enough money that price is *really* no object (which *can* happen), they won't have an issue paying a deposit. They may need some reassurance that I'm not going to merely take their money and disappear, but it's not the actual financial hit which concerns them. &lt;br&gt;&lt;sub&gt;(Experience and longevity in the profession tends to dissuade the notion that I'll disappear. &lt;br&gt;That was more an issue when I started than it is now.)&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So.. to this employer, I'd reply:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;Sorry. That's not how it works. I'm very eager to create a dashboard for you. However, we need to determine the project fees before I start work. In addition, there will be a non-refundable deposit required before work begins. I won't simply start work with some unknown return looming at the end of all my efforts. I need to know if the return on the project is worth my time.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Just a personal note:** Working for past employers can be tricky. I've done it. The initial relationship was established under specific circumstances. One where they had domain over you and what you did and to that end, felt in control of everything, as they should have at that time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once the relationship changes to more level ground, as in Freelancer &lt;&gt; Client, they may not move on from that established mindset. It can often take quite a while and some direct effort on your part (as in pushing back when they are overstepping) to move past their notion of control. Remember this is *your* business and *you* control it. You are not obligated to put your own needs and desires aside merely because they want you to." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26180" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10227" RevisionGUID="fc292013-57bf-45cc-a728-c823907078d1" CreationDate="2021-09-13T09:00:07.080" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1437340301866196997" />
  <row Id="26181" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10246" RevisionGUID="0c6cbb00-07a3-4b1f-ab2f-836ef310c392" CreationDate="2021-09-13T16:04:18.297" UserId="27011" Text="There are many aspects that you should remember on or while dealing with the customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before dealing out with the client, you should always remember what is the budget and requirement of the client, as these will be the threshold on which you will be stacking your expense.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can consider things like distribute your website work into tasks like - &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;  - UI (Wordpress or any javascript framework like Vanilla, VueJS or ReactJS)&#xD;&#xA;  - Backend (PHP, Python or Java)&#xD;&#xA;  - Server (Apache or HTTPD or any other server)&#xD;&#xA;  - Deployment&#xD;&#xA;      * Normal website hosting&#xD;&#xA;      * Dedicated hosting&#xD;&#xA;      * Cloud hosting&#xD;&#xA;      * VPS hosting, etc.&#xD;&#xA;  - Data entry (client may ask for pre-addition of data in database)&#xD;&#xA;  - Admin panel for data/access control.&#xD;&#xA;  - Inclusion of photographs/images of client's business or products which in turn may increase the cost if dedicated photographer is used.&#xD;&#xA;  - Dedicated email provider (many web hosting provides it with additional cost)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have purposely mentioned about UI/Backend as selecting appropriate language may increase/decrease the cost as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are choosing Wordpress you may need very least handling of deployments. For Python (Django/Flask), some web hosting servers provides in build support for running it. For Java (SpringBoot or any other framework), you may need to have a server to deploy it for which you may additionaly need root access on command line on the hosting webservers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client may also ask for good UI themes which may add another cost." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26182" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10247" RevisionGUID="3cb30217-ac3f-49cd-9c6d-cdee55f2192e" CreationDate="2021-09-14T00:34:37.517" UserId="27000" Text="The blockchain is becoming more and more popular. It has become a double-edged sword to the bank. On the side, its power is the ability to save billions of dollars in cash by reducing transaction costs and paperwork costs. On the other hand, blockchain can remove the third party in the transactions. Banks will never accept that. &#xD;&#xA;There are many people who still believe that making banking transactions is safer than blockchain because of the blockchain anonymous ability.&#xD;&#xA;So which one brings more benefits to community? Blockchain or Traditional bank?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26183" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10247" RevisionGUID="3cb30217-ac3f-49cd-9c6d-cdee55f2192e" CreationDate="2021-09-14T00:34:37.517" UserId="27000" Text="Which one brings more benefits to community? Blockchain or Traditional bank?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26184" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10247" RevisionGUID="3cb30217-ac3f-49cd-9c6d-cdee55f2192e" CreationDate="2021-09-14T00:34:37.517" UserId="27000" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|payments|negotiation|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26185" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10248" RevisionGUID="a107bc7b-5c59-4d93-bfb9-30bea8c78f16" CreationDate="2021-09-14T00:41:24.950" UserId="20896" Text="I still believe that the banking system is safe and I will continue to use it. In general, most bank users rarely lose money.&#xD;&#xA;While blockchain sounds more effective for transactions as it can reduce costs and transaction time, there are still many hackers trying to challenge themselves by attacking the money stored on the blockchain platform. Besides, anonymous functions provide opportunities for scams.&#xD;&#xA;If they can combine both, it will definitely bring about unexpected results. I know that's not an easy thing to do.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26187" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10250" RevisionGUID="49d4f302-ee16-44af-b82c-a57f44feea09" CreationDate="2021-09-14T01:00:26.690" UserId="20897" Text="If we are talking about community benefits, I believe that crypto in blockchain is better than the bank. &#xD;&#xA;I frequently use internet transactions and it cost me a lot of money and I need advanced technology to help save more money and time.&#xD;&#xA;Blockchain won’t kill banks, because it is a technology that anyone can use and integrate into the product for advantage.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26188" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10251" RevisionGUID="a4c962b4-9138-4080-920c-bf9c5fc69d3c" CreationDate="2021-09-14T03:13:14.970" UserId="23754" Text="Maybe my answer can help you especially involving the blockchain technology and working freelance. I wrote a answer about the use of blockchain technology for freelance work and how this could help for avoid internet scams using multi-signature wallet or maybe some crypto a good smart contrack: [Escrow System Alternatives or a Smart Contract For Working Secure](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/10201/escrow-system-alternatives-or-a-smart-contract-for-working-secure). but I think few people understand my question and also my answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am trying to use cryptos as payment method working freelance but nobody have it. Mostly clients use paypal, paypal take my commision, and I lose money exchange paypal to my local currency is the worst payment method. **so 30$ of work become in 25$ in my country.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I never had a International account, Mastercard, Visa, Bank of America or any international bank account because my country and the banks demand too many requirements only with cryptos I can save funds of inflations but I want to this technology arrives fast to the freelance market. I would like that my clients pay me with cyptos and if is using a smart contract or invoices generated by the blockchain is better." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26189" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10251" RevisionGUID="a9fc3b65-469f-4f84-8770-2d543a44995c" CreationDate="2021-09-14T03:24:30.560" UserId="23754" Comment="added more information comparing banks with blockchain" Text="Maybe my answer can help you especially involving the blockchain technology and working freelance. I wrote a answer about the use of blockchain technology for freelance work and how this could help for avoid internet scams using multi-signature wallet or maybe some crypto a good smart contrack: [Escrow System Alternatives or a Smart Contract For Working Secure](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/10201/escrow-system-alternatives-or-a-smart-contract-for-working-secure). but I think few people understand my question and also my answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am trying to use cryptos as payment method working freelance but nobody have it. Mostly clients use paypal, paypal take my commision, and I lose money exchange paypal to my local currency is the worst payment method. **so 30$ of work become in 25$ in my country.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I never had a International account, Mastercard, Visa, Bank of America or any international bank account ( neither my fathers ) because my country and the banks demand too many requirements. **Here only people with &quot;real&quot; jobs can have a Mastercard or international bank accounts** **not informal jobs neither freelance jobs** that's the bank's requirement. I had to paid a Virtual Credit Card for finally can use paypal without paypal block my money I have this problem since years, only with cryptos I can save funds of inflations and move my money through internet. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to this technology arrives fast to the freelance market. I would like that my clients pay me with cryptos, low commissions and if is using a smart contract or invoices generated by the blockchain is better.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26196" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10247" RevisionGUID="68a099f6-e68d-4faa-a39f-f854989e37ef" CreationDate="2021-09-14T23:14:26.120" UserId="20896" Comment="Take the freelance market as an example. Blockchain or Traditional bank?" Text="The blockchain is becoming more and more popular. It has become a double-edged sword to the bank. On the side, its power is the ability to save billions of dollars in cash by reducing transaction costs and paperwork costs. On the other hand, blockchain can remove the third party in the transactions. Banks will never accept that. &#xD;&#xA;There are many people who still believe that making banking transactions is safer than blockchain because of the blockchain anonymous ability. &#xD;&#xA;So which one brings more benefits to the community? Take the freelance market as an example. Blockchain or Traditional bank?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26197" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10247" RevisionGUID="68a099f6-e68d-4faa-a39f-f854989e37ef" CreationDate="2021-09-14T23:14:26.120" Comment="Proposed by 20896 approved by 27000 edit id of 778" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26210" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10258" RevisionGUID="c020fdaf-8c77-4d1d-a4eb-c475ca7e3e19" CreationDate="2021-09-15T15:42:05.773" UserId="26181" Text="This question assumes that the banks are independent actors. In most countries, banks are private institutions that act as agents for the government in helping to manage the money supply and flow. For this reason, the government stands behind the currency and props up the banking system. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, your question is really &quot;which is better, a government backed system or one that allows value to be transferred apart from government control?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The answer really depends on how trustworthy is the government. I have seen rumors that much of the rise in crypto currency prices has been due to people trying to move wealth out of certain countries where people didn't trust their government. Likewise, certain governments are clamping down hard on people using crypto currencies in order to control the money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Crypto currencies have the potential to reduce the transaction costs. There are numerous efforts to bring block chain technologies into the banking system for that very reason. A block chain currency backed by the banking system might bring the best of both worlds.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion, your question is too early as we don't have the stability we need nor full integration of crypto into our financial system. It is coming, but it isn't here yet." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26219" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10260" RevisionGUID="d650dbad-d62d-471d-8107-2124a26be65a" CreationDate="2021-09-15T23:50:43.560" UserId="20897" Text="I have work with a client for nearly a week and I am really stress to cooperate with him. I apply for a blog writer for this job through a freelance platform. I have a feeling of being controlled, he tracks me in every step even bothers me at the midnight and I hate that feeling. Moreover, I feel compelled to complete an assignment to the client’s exact specifications rather than exploring other solutions that might provide superior results. So what should I do, how can I deal with him, please give me an advice!!!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26221" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10260" RevisionGUID="d650dbad-d62d-471d-8107-2124a26be65a" CreationDate="2021-09-15T23:50:43.560" UserId="20897" Text="How to work with a micro-manage client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26222" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10260" RevisionGUID="d650dbad-d62d-471d-8107-2124a26be65a" CreationDate="2021-09-15T23:50:43.560" UserId="20897" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|difficult-client|communication|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26223" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10261" RevisionGUID="0b872bce-50ef-4ca2-b2f9-fe620c4b1a40" CreationDate="2021-09-16T05:24:30.933" UserId="7858" Text="Generally, you cannot change clients; you can merely select the ones you want to work for and those you don't. The only factor where you are in full control is how you handle a client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For some freelancers, good money can make micro-management bearable. Only you know if that applies to you. I'm assuming the client pays you on time, so that is not an additional problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regarding the 'tracking every step': Can you not go offline or be otherwise unresponsive for hours or days at a time? At times micro-management happens because it is allowed or tolerated. This seems to be the case here.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could attempt to re-take control by setting milestones, like 'In four days, I will have the first draft of XYZ' - and then be unresponsive. If the client complains, simply state that you have commitments from other clients that must also be undertaken - even if this is not true.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be the client's service provider, but not their slave." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26225" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10262" RevisionGUID="c7cb2af2-2c9b-41d1-97f6-1283f8c5a3ca" CreationDate="2021-09-16T13:41:49.823" UserId="18185" Text="I am about to begin a contract job with a customer who asked me to provide the contract. I used the Qdos generic consultancy contract template (I let the customer know this is what I was doing) and changed some bits to make it relevant. But today they came back to me with a question about the IP and a particular clause:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Insofar as they do not vest automatically by operation of law or under this Agreement, the Consultancy holds legal title in these rights and inventions on trust for the Client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What does this mean? I'm not looking for legal advice about the contract wording as I'm sure that would be out of scope for this site but I would like to understand why the IP may not automatically be transferred to the client or what sort of situations this clause would protect against.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[The full Qdos template is here][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.qdoscontractor.com/docs/default-source/resources/model-contract---consultancy-to-client-2018.docx?sfvrsn=4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26227" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10262" RevisionGUID="c7cb2af2-2c9b-41d1-97f6-1283f8c5a3ca" CreationDate="2021-09-16T13:41:49.823" UserId="18185" Text="Intellectual property held on trust in contract" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26228" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10262" RevisionGUID="c7cb2af2-2c9b-41d1-97f6-1283f8c5a3ca" CreationDate="2021-09-16T13:41:49.823" UserId="18185" Text="|contracts|intellectual-property|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26229" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10263" RevisionGUID="71900c33-5645-4130-80ea-1268f51dcf42" CreationDate="2021-09-16T22:26:38.230" UserId="26181" Text="There are two parts to Intellectual Property. There is the stuff that the client is worried about: the sum total of an invention. Then, there is the stuff that you would really like to keep control of: all the bits and pieces and libraries that you build during this process and want to be able to use for another client without rewriting them again. As a freelancer, your value goes up as you have more and more code libraries to pull from. If you can't reuse code, you have to do a rewrite&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This clause might be to cover this but it might simply be a way to identify that you don't transfer until you get fully paid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might want to amend the agreement to spell out that you are fully willing to transfer the IP of any invention to them and under what conditions, but would really like to have permission to use bits and pieces elsewhere.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26233" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10264" RevisionGUID="df43b9fb-e187-4978-89f1-95952c7236e5" CreationDate="2021-09-18T13:50:46.197" UserId="25830" Text="Sometimes the money is not worth it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I offer discounted prices for well-behaved clients, and I overcharged the ones that are, well, no good people.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's how you've got to look at it, the client is paying for you, which means that every resource he asks for that you need to use, has to be paid for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is he paying for your blogging skills only? I don't think so. He also has to pay for your patience, for 24/7 support, for being rude, for being demanding. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You don't need to fire the client, you just need to put a price on the job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Support is handled by email.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does he want to instant message you on whatsapp/telegram/ig/sms/whatever? **it costs extra**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does he want you to be available 24/7? **it costs extra!**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's called premium support. Charge for it.&#xD;&#xA;If the client pays, I bet you will be happy to answer him late at night!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now just take that logic and apply to everything that annoys you in a client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Extra reviews? Extra money&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Extra meetings? Extra money&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are not an employee, if something it's not on paper, on a contract or written email agreement, then you don't have to do it. Learn to say no and learn to negotiate those terms." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26235" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10213" RevisionGUID="7f6ef829-dc8f-4eb6-a985-3c57ce1e3b51" CreationDate="2021-09-18T15:54:35.087" UserId="26927" Comment="added 816 characters in body" Text="**You can.** At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it. Some of the most popular options as of now:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is &#xD;&#xA;in IQ, which you can the trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use [lightning network][10], so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities. Whether these options give you pseudonymity or [anonymity][9] is another matter. The first option, i.e. wiriting Everipedia, seems to me more pseudonymous than anonymous. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If needed you would than use non-[KYC][8] ways, such as [Bisq][7] or [localmonero][6], to convert crypto to FIAT. When spending crypto for goods directly, without the FIAT step in between, you should be using Bitcoin's lightning or [Monero][12] in order to preserve your privacy. The former is accepted through [Bitrefill][11].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;[6]: https://localmonero.co/&#xD;&#xA;[7]: https://bisq.network/&#xD;&#xA;[8]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer&#xD;&#xA;[9]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymity&#xD;&#xA;[10]: https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/the-bitcoin-lightning-network&#xD;&#xA;[11]: https://www.bitrefill.com/&#xD;&#xA;[12]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monero" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26236" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10265" RevisionGUID="fbe9ae68-dc75-473a-8c8d-10036a80455a" CreationDate="2021-09-18T17:40:17.540" UserId="27034" Text="I have recently started doing freelance work and recieved my first commission, I have completed my artwork and send a payment link using Stripe, but stripe seems to not accept international payments for individuals. It looks like I have to register as a company to accept payments. Are there any other websites that will help me accept payment online other than stripe as an individual I tried RazorPay but it also does not allow me to create international payment links? How do you guys get paid for your artwork? I cannot use paypal because it does not authenticate my bank and the customer service does not help me.&#xD;&#xA;https://stripe.com/docs/india-accept-international-payments&#xD;&#xA;Please help me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26238" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10265" RevisionGUID="fbe9ae68-dc75-473a-8c8d-10036a80455a" CreationDate="2021-09-18T17:40:17.540" UserId="27034" Text="How do I accept international payments using Stripe as an Individual?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26239" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10265" RevisionGUID="fbe9ae68-dc75-473a-8c8d-10036a80455a" CreationDate="2021-09-18T17:40:17.540" UserId="27034" Text="|freelance-websites|payments|billing|money|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26240" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10223" RevisionGUID="f1e860a5-8173-4e76-9367-900d79f95e54" CreationDate="2021-09-19T03:00:11.020" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1439424048887476226" />
  <row Id="26241" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10217" RevisionGUID="10fe1e50-ba04-4755-848d-1232db11a1aa" CreationDate="2021-09-19T09:00:01.483" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1439514605542379521" />
  <row Id="26242" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10266" RevisionGUID="1a9676fc-a6d1-4ef4-98f1-0a8130c9195d" CreationDate="2021-09-19T11:07:41.230" UserId="23754" Text="I was dealing with this problem since 13 years. I think Paypal have restriction for Non-US or Non-European citizen for have an account even more restriction if your country is a third world country online payments websites have more restrictions for you because the money can be illicit, so they put you this kind of restriction for avoid money laundering. this problem of Region or Requirements Restrictions also happen to me with Stripe, Venmo, CashApp And Google Wallet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My better recommendation is use paypal, I use and a lot of freelancers friends use. also this is the payment method favourite for upwork on upwork.com and freelancer.com.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I recommend you research about a Virtual Credit Card. I used this for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; verify my paypal account&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;At the moment I am using Paypal good-and-services to be paid for my services and all is normal I receive money without restriction just bad for the commissions and withdrawal for local currency." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26248" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10220" RevisionGUID="62c52466-3e8d-45e0-b574-6c32dddc186b" CreationDate="2021-09-19T18:00:04.623" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1439650514204086278" />
  <row Id="26249" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10268" RevisionGUID="62d6cd3d-205d-44d6-b933-8bfab62da71c" CreationDate="2021-09-19T19:41:59.170" UserId="20058" Text="I keep bumping my head against this freelancer/contractor workflow issue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to be able to create a project from an approved estimate with a click or workflow or zap, along with the amount estimated for each task (or service). All of the invoicing software I've been using for estimates doesn't do this. I have to copy and paste into a new project once an estimate is approved to then start working on the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And I want to make sure that I'm staying within the estimated effort for each task on the estimate. So I'd love it if the project has a budget for time and I get an alert when I'm within 90% of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My projects sometimes have set services and a number of added on unique tasks. So some software I've used adds a new service every time I create a task, and I don't need that. Or only have tasks at the service level, so I have a bunch of line items to group and add up manually for invoices which is time consuming and can introduce errors. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not sure what I'm not getting here, but I can't seem to find a system or set of systems working together to do this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any suggestions are much appreciated. Anyone know of an app or software that does this or ones that work together to get there?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26251" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10268" RevisionGUID="62d6cd3d-205d-44d6-b933-8bfab62da71c" CreationDate="2021-09-19T19:41:59.170" UserId="20058" Text="Create project from approved estimate with task budgets?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26252" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10268" RevisionGUID="62d6cd3d-205d-44d6-b933-8bfab62da71c" CreationDate="2021-09-19T19:41:59.170" UserId="20058" Text="|invoices|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26263" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7496" RevisionGUID="afcf9425-ec06-467f-b7ab-f3629fbdeb24" CreationDate="2021-09-24T11:29:15.707" UserId="708" Comment="added 302 characters in body" Text="**You can't.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Well, at least you can't get **paid** for anything anonymously. After all, *any* payment processor is going to want your information... &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The *only* possible way to work anonymously would be to deal exclusively in cash face to face or cryptocurrency. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, few actual legitimate, businesses operate in cryptocurrency as far as I'm aware. I could be wrong though. Due to the difficulty in tracking and validating funds, cryptocurrency at this time, isn't really a viable *accounting* option for *legitimate* businesses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I'm writing you a check, I need to know who to make it out to. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I absolutely need to claim the money I pay you as an expense for **my** business. So, I need to give your name, company name, taxID, etc to the IRS when I file *my* taxes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you file a business name, the government will have a *public* record of the filing which can be searched.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26267" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10272" RevisionGUID="d4ff3630-dd7f-4a56-84ea-e94c2c6bf36f" CreationDate="2021-09-27T18:42:24.450" UserId="21837" Text="IMO you should bug the client for payment.  Keep a log of the dates you talk/email to him requesting payment.  If he hasn't paid by the end of the year just write it off as a bad debt on your taxes (if you're in the USA).  I've learned this the hard way too.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I only accept projects where a client is willing to pay at least 1/3 of the cost of the site upfront.  They need to be invested enough in the site that they're willing to pay something for you to actually start work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Set up a way for them to pay via PayPal. Yes, you will have to pay a fee if they do pay you but you got paid.  Never start work without a deposit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Set milestones for the project small enough that it keeps your client but large enough so that you can keep your cash flow going.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, DO NOT try to damage or anything else to the client's site.  You could get in a lot of trouble with the authorities for doing so.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Chalk it up to a lesson learned the hard way.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good Luck" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26269" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6837" RevisionGUID="7dc7623f-4cc9-4224-bd2c-e01a83e0b28d" CreationDate="2021-09-27T20:02:40.290" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="26276" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="10023" RevisionGUID="424e8df1-8a3f-4cfc-a41d-9c9af8064125" CreationDate="2021-09-28T12:28:47.433" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="26279" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10265" RevisionGUID="040d8b24-cb7d-45a7-868f-b71fbed7a060" CreationDate="2021-09-28T18:00:13.203" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1442912041140768769" />
  <row Id="26282" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10275" RevisionGUID="7a4cb15c-7682-47f6-b474-a76d858224ef" CreationDate="2021-09-29T09:04:54.867" UserId="27088" Text="If a freelancer bids on a project as soon as it is opened on freelancer, does it increases the rank of that bid?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have noticed this but I am not hundred percent sure. While viewing my bid insights I noticed a pattern that the bids which I made late on the project were ranked low, and the bids which were placed early were having higher ranks." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26284" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10275" RevisionGUID="7a4cb15c-7682-47f6-b474-a76d858224ef" CreationDate="2021-09-29T09:04:54.867" UserId="27088" Text="Does bidding early on a project increases the rank of the bid on freelancer.in?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26285" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10275" RevisionGUID="7a4cb15c-7682-47f6-b474-a76d858224ef" CreationDate="2021-09-29T09:04:54.867" UserId="27088" Text="|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26286" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10276" RevisionGUID="a749326d-3553-403a-9542-77d9cc00679c" CreationDate="2021-09-30T00:09:14.123" UserId="15906" Text="What to do if you received a bad check as a freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My client on Thursday sent me a check from a Wells Fargo business bank account with insufficient funds (at least that is what my bank explained to me). The check cleared within 24 hours by Friday, but was returned on Tuesday. Called my bank and they told me I had to wait until today for the &quot;processing&quot; tag to disappear. Was charged a return item chargeback fee, and the entire check was reversed. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I made a purchase order on behalf of the client after the check cleared. This was covered by the check. The amount has left my bank account negative, unfortunately.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client has not been responsive." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26288" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10276" RevisionGUID="a749326d-3553-403a-9542-77d9cc00679c" CreationDate="2021-09-30T00:09:14.123" UserId="15906" Text="What to do if you received a bad check as a freelancer, and purchased on behalf of the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26289" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10276" RevisionGUID="a749326d-3553-403a-9542-77d9cc00679c" CreationDate="2021-09-30T00:09:14.123" UserId="15906" Text="|difficult-client|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26290" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10277" RevisionGUID="6fab418d-527b-4e84-800d-34978972f990" CreationDate="2021-09-30T04:16:37.460" UserId="75" Text="Stop communicating with your client, because they will either ghost you (net positive), or make up excuses and keep abusing your trust (net negative).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you think they knew ahead of time they wouldn't have the money, you can file a police report for writing a bad cheque. It is doubtful you'll get any update, and doesn't get you the money anyways.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point, I would stop communicating with them. If they try to reinitiate contact, I would let them know I'm not interested in helping them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26292" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10278" RevisionGUID="8642026e-98b6-4e60-911d-0dcf02ef39dc" CreationDate="2021-09-30T09:52:59.627" UserId="7858" Text="It seems the problem is not merely the bad check, but rather the unresponsive client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally, unresponsive clients need to be forced into again being responsive; merely appealing to their non-existent sense of decency (almost) never works.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether this matter is worth pursuing depends on a number of factors:&#xD;&#xA;1) The amount in question; is it trivial or essential?&#xD;&#xA;2) Client relationship; are they worth keeping?&#xD;&#xA;3) Sense of 'societal' fairness; there are probably other victims&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm guessing the amount is worth some effort, but the client relationship is over. Fairness would not factor into my evaluation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should you choose to go for it, your advantage is that an actual crime might have been committed. The next communication with the client should not be a request for payment, but a guarantee that you will involve the authorties." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26294" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10279" RevisionGUID="7fae5a96-654e-4988-95bf-31ba36f72653" CreationDate="2021-09-30T14:17:22.927" UserId="26181" Text="You have two problems:&#xD;&#xA;1. An unresponsive client&#xD;&#xA;2. Your bank balance &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Only the bank balance is easy to change.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One suggestion is to call the place where you put in the purchase order and attempt to do a return / reversal of the purchase order. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another suggestion is to see about getting a loan to put your bank balance positive (such as doing a cash advance on a credit card).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When a client goes unresponsive, there really isn't much that can be done. There is a reason why &quot;skip tracing&quot;, delivering subpoenas, and making arrests on outstanding warrants are all hard work. Someone has to physically track down a person who does not want to be found. You get to decide if this client is worth doing that kind of work. I held one unpaid invoice for several years and when the client resurfaced asking for more work, I insisted they pay the balance before I would talk to them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26297" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10260" RevisionGUID="95df43f9-2548-4d1d-ab66-1e1997882aa9" CreationDate="2021-10-01T21:00:05.473" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1444044470606090254" />
  <row Id="26305" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10205" RevisionGUID="44d56431-8939-4903-a0bd-2b86675e7991" CreationDate="2021-10-04T09:00:07.340" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1444950448092368897" />
  <row Id="26306" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10192" RevisionGUID="b63fce68-43aa-419f-9d58-dd871aed9263" CreationDate="2021-10-04T12:00:10.680" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1444995760567762946" />
  <row Id="26308" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10282" RevisionGUID="08a8a116-80ec-418f-944c-9747ebd4af53" CreationDate="2021-10-05T13:42:06.613" UserId="27105" Text="Clockify, Timecamp, and MS Access are all tools that support time tracking for developers. However, since many developers use Slack nowadays for communication, the Slack API and “slack-based work sessions” can be considered free tools for time tracking. Essentially you track in slack, “[30m work session] working on XYZ feature &lt;link to commit&gt;”, and you can use the Slack API to detect those work sessions and store them in your database. If you do this in real-time, engineering managers don’t really have to ask developers, “What are you working on?”, and the sessions can even be subject to approval. The technique, introduced originally by LD Talent, is based on the Pomodoro Technique which emphasizes having a clear goal for every 25 minutes of work, not going down rabbit holes, and reflecting for 5 minutes every interval. This technique seems geared toward developers, because it turns their slack messages (something they already spend time on) into time tracking, killing two birds with one stone. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26310" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10282" RevisionGUID="a6bcd5af-338a-476c-ad3c-591a3753b1a8" CreationDate="2021-10-05T18:25:36.270" UserId="27105" Comment="added 146 characters in body" Text="Clockify, Timecamp, and MS Access are all tools that support time tracking for developers. However, since many developers use Slack nowadays for communication, the Slack API and “[slack-based work sessions][1]” can be considered free tools for time tracking. Essentially you track in slack, “[30m work session] working on XYZ feature &lt;link to commit&gt;”, and you can use the Slack API to detect those work sessions and store them in your database. If you do this in real-time, engineering managers don’t really have to ask developers, “What are you working on?”, and the sessions can even be subject to approval. The technique, introduced originally by LD Talent, is based on the Pomodoro Technique which emphasizes having a clear goal for every 25 minutes of work, not going down rabbit holes, and reflecting for 5 minutes every interval. This technique seems geared toward developers, because it turns their slack messages (something they already spend time on) into time tracking, killing two birds with one stone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://blog.learningdollars.com/2020/03/31/developer-time-tracking-using-slack-beyond-fixed-price-vs-hourly/#slack-worksessions" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26311" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10282" RevisionGUID="183bec6a-013a-454f-901f-d6c81ccb87d4" CreationDate="2021-10-05T18:32:28.000" UserId="27105" Comment="deleted 19 characters in body" Text="Clockify, Timecamp, and MS Access are all tools that support time tracking for developers. However, since many developers use Slack nowadays for communication, the Slack API and “[slack-based work sessions][1]” can be considered free tools for time tracking. Essentially you track in slack, “[30m work session] working on XYZ feature &lt;link to commit&gt;”, and you can use the Slack API to detect those work sessions and store them in your database. If you do this in real-time, engineering managers don’t really have to ask developers, “What are you working on?”, and the sessions can even be subject to approval. The technique, introduced originally by LD Talent, is based on the Pomodoro Technique which emphasizes having a clear goal for every 25 minutes of work, not going down rabbit holes, and reflecting for 5 minutes every interval. This technique seems geared toward developers, because it turns their slack messages (something they already spend time on) into time tracking, killing two birds with one stone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://blog.learningdollars.com/2020/03/31/developer-time-tracking-using-slack-beyond-fixed-price-vs-hourly/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26312" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10127" RevisionGUID="180d3684-9f53-4ce5-9e8b-9d97e29ac0a5" CreationDate="2021-10-07T18:00:13.577" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1446173533328060418" />
  <row Id="26313" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10236" RevisionGUID="175aa086-df83-4b39-a4b1-35a60318f06f" CreationDate="2021-10-08T06:00:00.120" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1446354671166234629" />
  <row Id="26316" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10262" RevisionGUID="8e8f2b47-0cf9-4ae5-bfa8-040806d820fd" CreationDate="2021-10-08T12:00:00.413" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1446445269235687428" />
  <row Id="26321" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="544" RevisionGUID="640d47ab-0457-42f3-87ab-0cc717fe7dde" CreationDate="2021-10-09T17:16:48.510" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="26322" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10243" RevisionGUID="72224c1b-6ada-4dee-9cb2-fdcb980bcefd" CreationDate="2021-10-09T21:59:38.050" UserId="708" Comment="added 315 characters in body" Text="Me personally, I don't pick up a pencil, mouse, turn on a computer, put on my glasses, etc..... **nothing** unless a fee has been determined for the work I'll be doing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some cases, a **deposit** may be required before I start work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine... you put in 10+ hours of work and **then** the client says something like, &quot;Well, we thought $15/hr was a good price.&quot; Or even less. That's **minimum wage** in most areas of the US now. So they want to use you for your technical expertise, but pay you as if you were any random person off the street??&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A *new client*, even someone I've known but have never worked for as a freelancer, asking me to work *before* discussing price would honestly make me chuckle, not to their face, but that's how ludicrous the proposition is to me. In fact, it's so ludicrous that I'd demand a non-refundable deposit before any work began. Primarily because such a proposition, to me, is seen as a &quot;**red flag**&quot;. Meaning, clients proposing such a thing will typically be slow to pay, and will do their level best to lowball any pricing or get discounts, etc *after negotiations*. The deposit generally ensures I at least make enough to cover the initial stages of my work - clients sending up this flag for me will generally become less interested or involved after initial stages. Or they go the other way and start becoming overly demanding, try to balloon the initial scope, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, they've sent me a warning that they *may* be a &quot;difficult&quot; client in some way. A deposit merely means **if** they do become difficult, at least I'll get some return before the wheels possibly fall off. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the red flag was a legitimate warning, they'll argue about the deposit - if they argue adamantly about it, I generally turn down the work. If they won't pay the deposit, I'll have trouble getting paid after completion of the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, if they are legitimate in their intention to pay or simply have enough money that price is *really* no object (which *can* happen), they won't have an issue paying a deposit. They may need some reassurance that I'm not going to merely take their money and disappear, but it's not the actual financial hit which concerns them. &lt;br&gt;&lt;sub&gt;(Experience and longevity in the profession tends to dissuade the notion that I'll disappear. &lt;br&gt;That was more an issue when I started than it is now.)&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So.. to this employer, I'd reply:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;Sorry. That's not how it works. I'm very eager to create a dashboard for you. However, we need to determine the project fees before I start work. In addition, there will be a non-refundable deposit required before work begins. I won't simply start work with some unknown return looming at the end of all my efforts. I need to know if the return on the project is worth my time.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Just a personal note:** Working for past employers can be tricky. I've done it. The initial relationship was established under specific circumstances. One where they had domain over you and what you did and to that end, felt in control of everything, as they should have at that time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once the relationship changes to more level ground, as in Freelancer &lt;&gt; Client, they may not move on from that established mindset. It can often take quite a while and some direct effort on your part (as in pushing back when they are overstepping) to move past their notion of control. Remember this is *your* business and *you* control it. You are not obligated to put your own needs and desires aside merely because they want you to." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26323" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10247" RevisionGUID="843a42bb-a4ac-48d3-974f-1d0f03754e36" CreationDate="2021-10-10T12:00:07.950" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1447170076361306113" />
  <row Id="26324" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10285" RevisionGUID="fba0e215-35c5-48a4-83f4-c88c7424b328" CreationDate="2021-10-10T22:22:46.013" UserId="21562" Text="You can set your rates however you want, but I think your rate is too low and incorrectly calculated. Your &quot;standing there doing nothing&quot; **cost** is `(expenses + profit) * hours` - you must pay the rent 24/7, and for heat and electricity during your daily hours of operation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you were to hire an additional person you wouldn't be paying rent for an empty building if you each work eight hours per day consecutively. With two people, having one of you come in four hours early and the other stay four hours late lets you stay open sixteen hours each day and have two of you available half of the time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Chatting on the phone for free doesn't boost your profits as much as doing complicated work that pays a premium; expenses are partially fixed with variable additions for consumables and wear on expensive machinery, profit can be increased by doing difficult work that other shops can't do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Back to your &quot;shop rate&quot;, the difficulty (skill level, and any specialty equipment) of the work should be factored into the rate. If you could stand on the side of the road with a tape measure and earn $45 / hour why invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to earn the same amount?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You ***could*** hire a helper and offer 'basic work' done by them for $45 / hour (or less), if they are going to want $20-25 an hour the remainder is what you earn to have them use your equipment (and take up space). That tends to show that you might want to charge more for your time and extra for expensive machinery that makes doing the work in a reasonable amount of time possible.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your second paragraph is the crux of your problem:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;Now let's imagine we take on a job that's going to take both of us 2 days (~12 billable hours each) to complete working together at the same time.&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The number of days is the days you must pay rent:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- if you worked on the job for one hour per day and took a week off you would need to be able to pay for a month's time with $45 * 24 = $1080.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- if one of you came in for 12 hours and then the other came in for 12 hours the job would be done in one day; that's $25,920 per month, calculated the same way as before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So don't miscalculate your expenses and rates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If one of you can do the work in 24 hours or two of you could do it in half the time (which is actually seldom the case) then either way you charge `rate * people * hours`.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The rate could vary by the skill level of the person (and thus their hourly wage) and the cost of the machinery amortized over it's lifetime.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It makes a huge difference if one person is working on a job or it takes twenty people, you are not going to be able to pay for twenty people by charging $45 / hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also twenty people aren't automatically twenty times faster. If you send one or two people to the hardware store to pickup a couple of hundred dollars worth of lumber is it going to be ten or twenty times faster, cost you ten or twenty times less, to send ten or twenty people instead of two.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There an optimally efficient number of people for each task, some tasks only need two people some of the time; there's a joke about needing a few people to screw in a lightbulb.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it's particularly high up it might take two to carry the ladder and one to hold it - if it's a one person job then you can't charge for two, if it takes two people you must charge more (and long ladders are more expensive than short ones).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You *could* offer a small discount for additional people working simultaneously on the same project, that's not unheard of, but additional people for free simply leads to fewer billable hours. It's only if you bid a fixed price and had a due date to meet where you'd want to assign additional persons to the project, but that's a different pricing model than what your question asks.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26330" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="9423" RevisionGUID="0440fc0c-b3db-4d33-bd5f-dd773100eb0d" CreationDate="2021-10-11T07:02:10.197" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="26332" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10268" RevisionGUID="8784eca3-ced2-46e5-80d8-235232fa4d56" CreationDate="2021-10-11T21:00:08.757" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1447668363065532423" />
  <row Id="26333" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10287" RevisionGUID="ce036842-cdbf-4e19-ac91-b251b066a15a" CreationDate="2021-10-11T21:16:47.280" UserId="25082" Text="Your contract should ideally not just cover how often invoices should be made, but also how and when payment by your client should be made and late fees. The late fee part is there to protect you from this exact scenario. Your contract says you should be paid every two weeks. If your client violates this agreement **beyond a reasonable timeframe**, that's on them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You've noted that the company has a document that explains that contractors are typically paid after a month, but that's a detail that should have been worked out when they signed a contract with you. **Follow your contract** in this instance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So your client's decided not to respond to you. This happens, but it's important to realize that it's possible your client looked at your e-mail and simply forgot. Assuming good intent to begin with is a good idea to maintain a friendly business relationship. So, that said, **send them another reminder**, potentially highlighting that you have a late fee agreement they signed that will need to be paid after a given time has passed since your invoice notice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client decides to continue to ignore you after a few reminders across a couple of days, it's a sign that things might start to turn legal. Ensure you're documenting all of the work you've done up to this point, and all communication between you and the client. This is to strengthen your case should you need to take them to small claims court. Contact the client across other platforms, whether that's in the form of a phone call, texting, various social media... You need to get them to respond somehow. Don't be afraid to be annoying at this point. ​As a freelancer, having to resort to legal matters is not ideal as it can seriously cut into the time you have available to spend on other projects and can carry a decent cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a sizable amount of time has passed since the client has ignored your first invoice and your frequent other attempts to contact them, it's unfortunately time to talk to a lawyer. This isn't ideal, as suing your client should be the last resort, but it's unfortunately necessary at the stage where you're being ignored this heavily.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Talk to your lawyer (you should ideally have one you can get legal advice from) and provide them with all of the documentation you've collected. Ask them to contact your client for you. Speaking from experience, it's a bit comical how quickly you can get results once the one contacting your client is a lawyer on your behalf. If that attempt at contact doesn't work, hopefully your lawyer will now how best to move forward with a lawsuit. How well your case fares from here is up to your legal counsel." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26335" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10243" RevisionGUID="b091976a-6c5e-45c9-9663-8c3767c1b518" CreationDate="2021-10-11T22:07:17.717" UserId="708" Comment="added 572 characters in body" Text="Me personally, I don't pick up a pencil, mouse, turn on a computer, put on my glasses, etc..... **nothing** unless a fee has been determined for the work I'll be doing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In some cases, a **deposit** may be required before I start work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine... you put in 10+ hours of work and **then** the client says something like, *&quot;Well, we thought $15/hr was a good price.&quot;* Or even less. That's **minimum wage** in most areas of the US now. So they want to use you for your technical expertise, but pay you as if you were any random person off the street?? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Overcoming such lowballing is **very** difficult *after* you've done the work. I mean, if they simply won't pay more, you can refuse to provide anything and you've done all that work for nothing. Or, you succumb to their lowballing and the client has (happily) conned you into working for mush less than your regular rates. In many cases, the client is *fully aware* that *after* you've done the work you are more likely to accept lower-than-normal payment just to get *any* return on your efforts. It's a &quot;con&quot; a &quot;scam&quot;. **Discuss pricing *before* starting work.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A *new client*, even someone I've known but have never worked for as a freelancer, asking me to work *before* discussing price would honestly make me chuckle, not to their face, but that's how ludicrous the proposition is to me. In fact, it's so ludicrous that I'd demand a non-refundable deposit before any work began. Primarily because such a proposition, to me, is seen as a &quot;**red flag**&quot;. Meaning, clients proposing such a thing will typically be slow to pay, and will do their level best to lowball any pricing or get discounts, etc *after negotiations*. The deposit generally ensures I at least make enough to cover the initial stages of my work - clients sending up this flag for me will generally become less interested or involved after initial stages. Or they go the other way and start becoming overly demanding, try to balloon the initial scope, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Essentially, they've sent me a warning that they *may* be a &quot;difficult&quot; client in some way. A deposit merely means **if** they do become difficult, at least I'll get some return before the wheels possibly fall off. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the red flag was a legitimate warning, they'll argue about the deposit - if they argue adamantly about it, I generally turn down the work. If they won't pay the deposit, I'll have trouble getting paid after completion of the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, if they are legitimate in their intention to pay or simply have enough money that price is *really* no object (which *can* happen), they won't have an issue paying a deposit. They may need some reassurance that I'm not going to merely take their money and disappear, but it's not the actual financial hit which concerns them. &lt;br&gt;&lt;sub&gt;(Experience and longevity in the profession tends to dissuade the notion that I'll disappear. &lt;br&gt;That was more an issue when I started than it is now.)&lt;/sub&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So.. to this employer, I'd reply:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;Sorry. That's not how it works. I'm very eager to create a dashboard for you. However, we need to determine the project fees before I start work. In addition, there will be a non-refundable deposit required before work begins. I won't simply start work with some unknown return looming at the end of all my efforts. I need to know if the return on the project is worth my time.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Just a personal note:** Working for past employers can be tricky. I've done it. The initial relationship was established under specific circumstances. One where they had domain over you and what you did and to that end, felt in control of everything, as they should have at that time. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Once the relationship changes to more level ground, as in Freelancer &lt;&gt; Client, they may not move on from that established mindset. It can often take quite a while and some direct effort on your part (as in pushing back when they are overstepping) to move past their notion of control. Remember this is *your* business and *you* control it. You are not obligated to put your own needs and desires aside merely because they want you to." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26336" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="8205" RevisionGUID="cb30f062-2a46-406e-adc9-dc9c893361d9" CreationDate="2021-10-12T01:00:32.107" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="26339" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10288" RevisionGUID="4bcc50f8-0de7-4365-a437-707509b3ebda" CreationDate="2021-10-12T05:37:55.640" UserId="7858" Text="It sounds like your contract isn't as explicit as it should be regarding payment. If this is the case, you need to use that to your advantage by using any leverage you hopefully have. If you can withhold delivery, that is your leverage. Do NOT give it away for nothing - especially not promises.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If at all possible contract-wise, state that no more work will be performed until the first invoice is paid. In addition, the second (and presumably final?) invoice must be paid in full before final delivery. This may sour the client relationship - but if they really complain, they were probably never going to pay you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Going forward, explicitly specify how payment happens; ideally in a way both parties will find reasonable." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26341" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10231" RevisionGUID="dd52e734-3ff2-4170-854f-4baba24f8b1a" CreationDate="2021-10-12T18:00:10.063" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1447985457925664774" />
  <row Id="26344" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7505" RevisionGUID="fe49b553-7e95-49ab-bc3e-91ebd2885f91" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:39:50.917" UserId="25669" Comment="grammar/spelling and removed some fluff" Text="I was going through the same thing. I think the ultimate answer is you can't.&#xD;&#xA;You could find people who want a website, who don't have a limited company and arent filing their expenses, etc. And if it was a cash transaction you could get away with all the legal stuff. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xD;&#xA;However most clients that come to me are official limited companies, and they require proof of identification for their records, and they require invoices for my services so that they can file it as an expense. &#xD;&#xA;These things require your name, address etc. Not for all things, but most. Also, if you want to create a contract it would be hard to do without your name and signature.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, there are things you can do to not be so public immediately. For example your email address could be contact@yourdomain.com. You don't necessarily have to put your name on a websites footer. Your own website can only show your first name. These things you can do that hides your full identity, but when it comes to having the client, you will need to provide your full identity, but hopefully by this point you have already agreed to be his contractor/freelancer, and have established a relationship that is more personal (i.e they talk to you about this business, their business goals, maybe even their finances in some cases!). This is like a two way understanding that your meetings are confidential and professional.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you create a contract you can also put a clause that both parties need to keep the identities private unless otherwise agreed, must not harass, etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26345" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7505" RevisionGUID="fe49b553-7e95-49ab-bc3e-91ebd2885f91" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:39:50.917" Comment="Proposed by 25669 approved by 7432 edit id of 773" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26346" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10265" RevisionGUID="dc1aecbb-d174-4579-b2ee-bcb177fcb47a" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:40:07.450" UserId="27035" Comment="Fixed hyperlink, corrected grammar" Text="I have recently started doing freelance work and received my first commission, I have completed my artwork and send a payment link using Stripe, but stripe seems to not accept international payments for individuals. It looks like I have to register as a company to accept payments. Are there any other websites that will help me accept payment online other than stripe as an individual I tried RazorPay but it also does not allow me to create international payment links? How do you guys get paid for your artwork? I cannot use PayPal because it does not authenticate my bank and the customer service does not help me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Accept International Payments from India | striprDocs](https://stripe.com/docs/india-accept-international-payments)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please help me." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26347" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10265" RevisionGUID="dc1aecbb-d174-4579-b2ee-bcb177fcb47a" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:40:07.450" Comment="Proposed by 27035 approved by 7858, 7432 edit id of 779" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26348" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="3053" RevisionGUID="a21950d0-32cf-47a2-858b-521c103f8dc7" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:40:15.930" UserId="23754" Comment="delete outsorcing tag for add communication tag" Text="|communication|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26349" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="3053" RevisionGUID="a21950d0-32cf-47a2-858b-521c103f8dc7" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:40:15.930" Comment="Proposed by 23754 approved by 7432 edit id of 768" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26350" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6334" RevisionGUID="7fd59d7e-41b8-407d-ae94-0e498e1c65d1" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:40:23.820" UserId="15235" Comment="tags edited" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26351" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6334" RevisionGUID="7fd59d7e-41b8-407d-ae94-0e498e1c65d1" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:40:23.820" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 7432 edit id of 764" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26352" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10187" RevisionGUID="706be8bf-4da9-4fd6-afca-2cc15f72e62f" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:40:32.317" UserId="26318" Comment="Removed unneeded signature" Text="I will mostly be doing report development using SSRS and Crystal Reports.  And some SSIS and T-SQL query writing.  Maybe some performance tuning of their systems.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have the free 2019 SQL Server Developer edition installed on my windows 10 desktop.  I don't have crystal reports.  Am I legally allowed to do freelance projects for clients with my developer edition.  &#xD;&#xA;Or when you do projects like this, what is the normal procedure?  I login to their systems remotely, using their SQL systems and licenses?  Or make a clone of their system and develop them on my workstation and then provide them with the source and binary files?  Do I need to purchase a crystal reports license? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26353" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10187" RevisionGUID="706be8bf-4da9-4fd6-afca-2cc15f72e62f" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:40:32.317" Comment="Proposed by 26318 approved by 61, 7432 edit id of 765" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26354" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10236" RevisionGUID="8d980737-338a-41da-9141-6cad82f95c38" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:40:46.640" UserId="25400" Comment="fixed grammar, spelling" Text="An employee from a very old employer contacted me to design a dashboard for them as a freelance when asked for payment he said: &quot;If I can send them the design then we can talk about price&quot;. This is something new to me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am not confident if I should send them the designs, they might not hire me and can make real web app off my designs. What should I do? How can I ask them for payment upfront? It is a confusing situation for me due to no work. I want to find work but not work for free as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26355" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10236" RevisionGUID="8d980737-338a-41da-9141-6cad82f95c38" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:40:46.640" UserId="25400" Comment="fixed grammar, spelling" Text="Ex-employer wants to hire me after I send him a design" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26356" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10236" RevisionGUID="8d980737-338a-41da-9141-6cad82f95c38" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:40:46.640" Comment="Proposed by 25400 approved by 7432 edit id of 777" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26357" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10199" RevisionGUID="da08892e-2d14-4faf-beb4-6bccc64c7dac" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:40:53.640" UserId="23754" Comment="added 90 characters in body" Text="Questions relating to invoices and monetary charge in return for completed freelance work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26358" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10199" RevisionGUID="da08892e-2d14-4faf-beb4-6bccc64c7dac" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:40:53.640" Comment="Proposed by 23754 approved by 61, 7432 edit id of 766" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26359" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10207" RevisionGUID="60fe6589-9dad-4c1e-90ee-49183d402aed" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:40:58.660" UserId="23754" Comment="added 77 characters in body" Text="Question about using software for improve the freelance work and performance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26360" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10207" RevisionGUID="60fe6589-9dad-4c1e-90ee-49183d402aed" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:40:58.660" Comment="Proposed by 23754 approved by 61, 7432 edit id of 769" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26361" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="2699" RevisionGUID="eb8af44e-24af-4ae5-8df7-bbc592e2fcbf" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:41:03.080" UserId="20786" Comment="Question was untagged - added a tag" Text="|agency|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26362" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2699" RevisionGUID="eb8af44e-24af-4ae5-8df7-bbc592e2fcbf" CreationDate="2021-10-13T09:41:03.080" Comment="Proposed by 20786 approved by 7432 edit id of 771" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26365" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10290" RevisionGUID="f29cab53-f9d4-4960-aa97-6727c504f1d0" CreationDate="2021-10-13T22:34:10.473" UserId="27141" Text="I am doing a business plan for a new start up business and I wrote an Executive Summary but client wants to take it out. I want to have a more detailed explanation on the importance of the Executive Summary for future discussions. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My questions is how to elaborate the imporatance of the Executive Summary in the Business Plan. If you have previous experience or ideas and how to break it down into sections to ask the right questions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have always considered Executive Summary as the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. *Describe briefly why your business needs to exist:*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. *Briefly summarize what your company does.&#xD;&#xA;What solutions do you provide to your customers?&#xD;&#xA;What are the current major initiatives of your business?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. *Describe your target customer or market segments.&#xD;&#xA;How does your company fit within the current market?&#xD;&#xA;How long have you been around, and what’s changed since you first started?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. *Your Financing Needs:*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. *Write a brief overview of you and your team. Why are you the right people to build this business?*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. *Risk assessment &amp; contigency plan.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26367" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10290" RevisionGUID="f29cab53-f9d4-4960-aa97-6727c504f1d0" CreationDate="2021-10-13T22:34:10.473" UserId="27141" Text="How to explain or break down the Executive Summary of Business Plan" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26368" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10290" RevisionGUID="f29cab53-f9d4-4960-aa97-6727c504f1d0" CreationDate="2021-10-13T22:34:10.473" UserId="27141" Text="|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26369" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10291" RevisionGUID="a4231679-68fb-42db-9e4c-ba547d728388" CreationDate="2021-10-14T18:20:58.057" UserId="85" Text="To answer the question, you have to consider beyond the headline cost...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With an employee, as well as the salary, you have to factor in (depending on the jurisdiction):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Additional payroll taxes&#xD;&#xA; - Other health care and/or social security charges&#xD;&#xA; - Sick pay and holiday pay&#xD;&#xA; - Pension contributions&#xD;&#xA; - Training and development&#xD;&#xA; - Provision of equipment&#xD;&#xA; - etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With a freelancer, there is the agreed rate...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then there is mutuality of obligation... an employee is obliged to turn up for work, and the employer is obliged to provide it (or at least pay them anyway) - but if there is no work to do, the freelancer likely has other tasks to do.  Likewise, with an employee, terms of employment will dictate minimum notice periods.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Equally, hiring managers maybe constrained by headcount limits... or maybe they just want someone for a short period of time, to do a specific job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In summary, there are myriad reasons....." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26371" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10266" RevisionGUID="68fc00ef-fa1a-4382-9da0-f51d537f1cbf" CreationDate="2021-10-14T18:26:51.207" UserId="27035" Comment="Fixed grammar, improved readability" Text="I was dealing with this problem since 13 years. I think Paypal has restrictions for non-US or non-European citizens to have an account and even more restrictions if your country is a third-world country. Online payments websites have more restrictions for you because the money can be illicit, so they put this kind of restriction to avoid money laundering. this problem of Region or Requirements Restrictions also happens to me with Stripe, Venmo, CashApp, and Google Wallet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My better recommendation is to use PayPal, which I and a lot of freelancers friends use. Also, this is the payment method favourite on upwork.com and freelancer.com.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*I recommend you research about a Virtual Credit Card. I used this to verify my PayPal account.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;At the moment, I am using PayPal goods-and-services to be paid for my services and all is normal. I receive money without restriction. It's just bad for the commissions and withdrawal for local currency." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26372" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10266" RevisionGUID="68fc00ef-fa1a-4382-9da0-f51d537f1cbf" CreationDate="2021-10-14T18:26:51.207" Comment="Proposed by 27035 approved by -1 edit id of 780" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26373" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10266" RevisionGUID="5112e56d-99f1-4410-a05d-e5e6e69e6719" CreationDate="2021-10-14T18:26:51.207" UserId="85" Comment="Fixed grammar, improved readability" Text="I was dealing with this problem for 13 years. I think PayPal has restrictions for non-US or non-European citizens to have an account and even more restrictions if your country is a third-world country. Online payments websites have more restrictions for you because the money can be illicit, so they put this kind of restriction to avoid money laundering. this problem of Region or Requirements Restrictions also happens to me with Stripe, Venmo, CashApp, and Google Wallet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My better recommendation is to use PayPal, which I and a lot of freelancers friends use. Also, this is the payment method favourite on upwork.com and freelancer.com.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*I recommend you research about a Virtual Credit Card. I used this to verify my PayPal account.*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;At the moment, I am using PayPal goods-and-services to be paid for my services and all is normal. I receive money without restriction. It's just bad for the commissions and withdrawal for local currency." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26374" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3537" RevisionGUID="53a70e3b-df1f-4188-83cc-f282ec5acb94" CreationDate="2021-10-14T21:06:07.703" UserId="78" Comment="added link to astonishing Georgian digital nomad program - worth asking a separate question" Text="I am currently in the process of becoming a digital nomad myself. I have been investigating this for a few months now.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;### You must sort out a few things&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **Earn money**: Ideally, you want several income streams to reduce risks.&#xD;&#xA; - **Legal status**: you want to make sure this is sorted out as without that you probably will have trouble charging anyone for your services.&#xD;&#xA; - **Legal address**: you will still have mails coming from organizations &amp; you will need a good system to make this work. Either get a friend or relative to help you, or get a professional service (i.e. in Switzerland the post can scan your mails &amp; email them to you).&#xD;&#xA; - **Banking**: you must have an excellent bank providing cutting edge online services. Forget about old fashion banks &amp; switch to something reliable at anytime from anywhere.&#xD;&#xA; - **Health insurance**: you **must** have a good international health insurance, you'd easily find yourself in big trouble if you have any health issue. see https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get&#xD;&#xA; - **Gear**: you must make sure you have the right tool for the job, once you are away it can be difficult to buy it. Some inspiration on http://www.grownupplayground.com/travel-gear-backpackers-long-term-travelers/&#xD;&#xA; - **Insure your gear**: you want to insure your belongings, it won't save your work but at least it'll reduce the financial impact of getting something stolen.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your gear**: uglify your gear so it's less likely to get stolen &amp; buy appropriate housing (shockproof, waterproof, &amp; so on) to prevent physical damage.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your data: encrypt sensitive files**: use tools such as Truecrypt or BitLocker to only allow yourself to access your sensitive data.&#xD;&#xA; - **Protect your data: digital backups**: you will probably want to have digital backups of your work. You want a strategy that works smoothly so that if you loose your work (ie. lose your computer in a sailing accident), you can not only access all the lost work but also setup the new gear as the original one in a minimum amount of time.&#xD;&#xA; - **Work place**: you might want to make your life easy &amp; start by moving to a location that is known for welcoming digital nomads, it'll save you tone of time &amp; you'll be able to learn from others&#xD;&#xA; - **Store what you can't take**: you want to have a safe place to store valuable things you can't travel with (i.e. paperwork &amp; electronics). For instance, [Shurgard self-storage in Berlin][1] has containers starting from 1m cube (this one costs 30€/month): it's very safe, has 6am to 10pm access, it's temperature+humidity controlled (no damage even storing for 1+ year) and your belonging are even insured. Put all the things you really care about in such space and then store all the rest in a less safe/expensive place (i.e. in a friend's basement). Regarding access: even if you need something from this storage while on the other side of the globe, all the access is through combination locks, so you can send a trusted person to get whatever is needed (no need for signature or else).&#xD;&#xA; - **Car or Van**: rent, rent, rent! With services such as [Drivy][2] and many apps for car rentals by the minute, there are only very specific cases that can justify owning a car. Owning a car or converted van sounds ideal to travel around a continent (i.e. Europe), however it is a big administrative burden and a rather high cost. This involves: dealing with insurances (regular &amp; breakdown), yearly car check (MOT, TÜV, or whatever the name: it is at a given deadline in a given country), occasional repairs, occasional accidents, occasional police fines, storage when traveling without it &amp; so on. It will cost you a lot of time, money, and might force you to be in a given place at a given time (for admin reasons): so think twice.&#xD;&#xA; - **Voting**: `&quot;Brexit, Trump, what's next!??&quot;` You will be away from your country and who knows for how long. But you still want your voice to be heard. Setup a way for you to be able to vote (i.e. power of attorney). Some countries are terrible at this (very slow setup), so prepare that well in advance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;### Further resources to get started on being a digital nomad&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/digital-nomad-101-how-to-become-a-digital-nomad/465&#xD;&#xA; - http://flagtheory.com/digital-nomad/&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io - Biggest Digital Nomad forum&#xD;&#xA; - http://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job#job-boards - Find remote jobs&#xD;&#xA; - https://github.com/kaizensoze/remote-freelance-jobs - Find remote jobs&#xD;&#xA; - http://digitalnomadhub.net&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.nomadicnotes.com/digital-nomad&#xD;&#xA; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler&#xD;&#xA; - When must you pay income taxes? http://www.liferemotely.com/work-while-traveling/managing-a-business/65-paying-taxes-in-your-home-country-when-you-arent-living-there&#xD;&#xA; - http://leapin.eu Estonian e-residency made easy&#xD;&#xA; - https://e-estonia.com Estonian e-residency&#xD;&#xA; - http://e-estonia.com/e-residents/services-and-benefits - Estonian e-residency: Register a company, open a bank account &amp; more&#xD;&#xA; - http://passports.io&#xD;&#xA; - https://freedomsurfer.com/offshore-jurisdictions&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/where-should-i-register-my-company-as-a-digital-nomad-singapore-hong-kong/520/4&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadforum.io/t/is-panama-a-good-destination-for-tax-residency-for-digital-nomads/2588/14&#xD;&#xA; - https://boldanddetermined.com/hong-kong-business-guide/&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com - tech tips&#xD;&#xA; - https://nomadlist.com/guides - books&#xD;&#xA; - http://toomanyadapters.com/hammocks-hard-drives/ - books&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/776/long-term-travel-what-insurances-can-should-i-get/46751#46751&#xD;&#xA; - international health insurance - https://nomadforum.io/t/does-international-health-insurance-for-digital-nomads-exist/378&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/09/top-10-tactics-for-protecting-your-stuff/&#xD;&#xA; - https://truecrypt.ch&#xD;&#xA; - https://medium.com/nomad-gate/the-world-s-best-bank-accounts-for-international-travelers-and-nomads-3257e6839cff&#xD;&#xA; - http://www.grownupplayground.com/banking-solutions-for-travelers-digital-nomads/&#xD;&#xA; - https://safetywingcom.medium.com/remotely-from-georgia-program-everything-you-need-to-know-34c678fc5635&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://www.shurgard.de/en/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://drivy.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26377" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10292" RevisionGUID="7b9d7ec0-8851-4191-ac43-6f5417c6692a" CreationDate="2021-10-15T10:52:22.667" UserId="23754" Text="I am having problems of how to reject this kind of projects for my clients. As an example days ago a client that weeks ago I did a C Project for him. Arrives again days ago needing help in a project related to parallel computing and multithreading. I had to refuse because this topic is out my skills. Another Example can be If I have a client that comes to me needing help with NLP (Natural Language Processing) and I know more of Computer Vision, Python, scikit-learn, etc. If the project is easy, I could help, but if not I don't know how to answer without being &quot;rude&quot;,  ghost him/her or look unprofessional. **clients judge a lot** ( Mostly clients who I had to reject his/her did not return offering more work, On the other hand, those who I have been worked with have stay with me and have even offered me projects out of the skills of the first project ).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If we are sincere from the perspective of a client if you cannot solve&#xD;&#xA;&gt; his project it is because you have a lack of experience in the area (&#xD;&#xA;&gt; when I said area I am meaning all the skills not only the specific&#xD;&#xA;&gt; skill that we can't do it) and He will look for a better freelancer&#xD;&#xA;&gt; than if he knows his technologies and will keep him with him for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; future projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **What I have to do in case a client or pottentialy client offer me a work out of my skills and how to retain them for future offers?**&#xD;&#xA; - **What is the best answer in this case for retain your client for future projects?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think a good idea is listing my skills for give to the client an idea of my skills." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26379" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10292" RevisionGUID="7b9d7ec0-8851-4191-ac43-6f5417c6692a" CreationDate="2021-10-15T10:52:22.667" UserId="23754" Text="How to reject a project that not fit with my skills or goes beyond my skills for keep your client for future projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26380" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10292" RevisionGUID="7b9d7ec0-8851-4191-ac43-6f5417c6692a" CreationDate="2021-10-15T10:52:22.667" UserId="23754" Text="|attracting-clients|communication|programmer|client-support|project-bidding|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26381" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10293" RevisionGUID="085a468b-71d9-4eb2-8df4-848c6b0b3ced" CreationDate="2021-10-15T14:01:58.957" UserId="26181" Text="The best way to keep that client is to find a subcontractor who can do the job. In that way, you move from being &quot;a programmer&quot; to &quot;someone who solves computer problems.&quot; When you have a client who is willing to spend money on you, take the money and find someone who can do the work they need." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26383" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10292" RevisionGUID="4d4def4d-8cc7-40f9-97af-066b3d3d8ba2" CreationDate="2021-10-15T17:38:54.933" UserId="25400" Comment="fixed capitalization, punctuation, grammar, formatting" Text="I am having problems with how to reject this kind of project for my clients. As an example, a recent client that weeks ago I did a C Project for him arrives again days ago needing help in a project related to parallel computing and multi-threading. I had to refuse because this topic is outside my skills. Another example can be if I have a client that comes to me needing help with NLP (Natural Language Processing) and I know more of Computer Vision, Python, scikit-learn, etc.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the project is easy, I could help, but if do not I don't know how to answer without being &quot;rude&quot;, ghost him/her or look unprofessional. **clients judge a lot** (Mostly clients who I had to reject him/her do not return offering more work. On the other hand, those who I have worked with have stayed with me and have even offered me projects out of the skills of the first project).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If we are sincere from the perspective of a client if you cannot solve&#xD;&#xA;&gt; his project it is because you have a lack of experience in the area (&#xD;&#xA;&gt; when I said area I am meaning all the skills not only the specific&#xD;&#xA;&gt; skill that we can't do it) and He will look for a better freelancer&#xD;&#xA;&gt; than if he knows his technologies and will keep him with him for&#xD;&#xA;&gt; future projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **What do I have to do in case a client or potential client offers me a job outside of my skills and how to retain them for future offers?**&#xD;&#xA; - **What is the best answer in this case for retaining your client for future projects?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think a good idea is to list my skills in order to give the client an idea of my skills." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26384" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10292" RevisionGUID="4d4def4d-8cc7-40f9-97af-066b3d3d8ba2" CreationDate="2021-10-15T17:38:54.933" UserId="25400" Comment="fixed capitalization, punctuation, grammar, formatting" Text="How to reject a project that does not fit with my skills or goes beyond my skills in order to keep your client for future projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26385" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10292" RevisionGUID="4d4def4d-8cc7-40f9-97af-066b3d3d8ba2" CreationDate="2021-10-15T17:38:54.933" Comment="Proposed by 25400 approved by 23754 edit id of 781" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26386" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10293" RevisionGUID="403e2eeb-ec45-4701-813d-e0554fdabf61" CreationDate="2021-10-15T17:54:08.373" UserId="26181" Comment="Added pricing information" Text="The best way to keep that client is to find a subcontractor who can do the job. In that way, you move from being &quot;a programmer&quot; to &quot;someone who solves computer problems.&quot; When you have a client who is willing to spend money on you, take the money and find someone who can do the work they need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit:&#xD;&#xA;Make sure that you price the subcontractor work high enough. You will be doing a lot of management work that needs to be compensated. Typical markup can be 2-3 times the subcontractor price. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26388" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10225" RevisionGUID="834803b6-b77f-4f51-b8ea-6c0fe0265cf4" CreationDate="2021-10-17T03:01:57.580" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1449571355809271809" />
  <row Id="26389" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10294" RevisionGUID="a32cc540-8220-4b2b-83fd-7ab53acf659d" CreationDate="2021-10-17T18:01:28.347" UserId="25634" Text="I've been thinking about this subject since I wrote this question and, for now, the way I handle this things is creating automated tools by myself (from scratch or using customizable tools).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The tool's stack I'm using right now are: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    -Google calendar: daily events&#xD;&#xA;    -Google keep: daily notes&#xD;&#xA;    -ESPOCRM: freelance client/customer management&#xD;&#xA;    -Private wiki using wikimedia: personal and freelance data&#xD;&#xA;    -Redmine: project management&#xD;&#xA;    -Dolibarr (with custom php modules): accountant tasks&#xD;&#xA;    -private NAS / Google drive: files storage" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26391" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10007" RevisionGUID="2fc8a1cc-09c8-49ed-9b7c-7e321f8d27c0" CreationDate="2021-10-19T20:01:10.117" UserId="25830" Comment="added 118 characters in body" Text="Flat: assign a realstate company to rent it for you. They will take a considerable chunk of the rent, but 100% of the problems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Taxes: I'm sure there are sass that will handle invoicing and taxing for you. I just can't give you any good references because I don't know your country.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Acquiring clients, daily talks: you can hire a marketing company/freelancer to set up ads for you, you should also learn how to advertise your work as if it were a company. A good SEO setup and referral payments (finder's fee) will drastically reduce your convincing time with clients, then having a freelance project manager will also help you get rid of the interaction with clients. Just add all of those costs to the final project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To sum it up: the work and inconvenience are never eliminated, it's always moved elsewhere and at a cost. It's very good to get rid of boring work and delegating, it just isn't accessible to everyone. I was able to delegate most of my mundane tasks to my maid, accounting firm, etc. As you pay to have your time freed, you get more productive and engaged in your work, and very soon the cost of delegating will become small.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Always be looking for sass!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26393" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10295" RevisionGUID="7b7aa8fd-29b4-49e4-b7cf-f8e7f0eb8dec" CreationDate="2021-10-20T11:47:14.623" UserId="27180" Text="I am a private person and don't like to add private info online.&#xD;&#xA;You can call me old school but I don't have any social media account or any other online account under my real ID.&#xD;&#xA;Is it possible to start freelancing full time with this situation?&#xD;&#xA;Of course I would reveal my real ID after start working with a client ( not an agency)?&#xD;&#xA;I would appreciate any help.&#xD;&#xA;Alex" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26395" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10295" RevisionGUID="7b7aa8fd-29b4-49e4-b7cf-f8e7f0eb8dec" CreationDate="2021-10-20T11:47:14.623" UserId="27180" Text="Is it possible to market myself if I dont want to reveal my real ID online?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26396" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10295" RevisionGUID="7b7aa8fd-29b4-49e4-b7cf-f8e7f0eb8dec" CreationDate="2021-10-20T11:47:14.623" UserId="27180" Text="|working-from-home|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26397" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10296" RevisionGUID="fffda923-1db2-41e6-90bf-53954403f816" CreationDate="2021-10-21T06:13:05.720" UserId="7858" Text="Yes - it is possible to market oneself anonymously.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether it is a good idea, is another matter that could depend on geographical location, culture and line of business. If you provide a product that I'll only need once and geography is not a concern, I'm more likely to ignore that you're anonymous than if the service you provide requires more long-term trust.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I could care less whether my potential business partners have social media accounts - but I generally avoid doing business with anyone who chooses to keep their location secret. At the very least, I want to see a company name and address." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26399" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10297" RevisionGUID="9535ee65-774c-4079-adf9-fda2bc2beb79" CreationDate="2021-10-21T14:33:08.460" UserId="26181" Text="Anything is possible. Whether or not it is a good idea is totally dependent on your market. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Our clients determine what our freelancing business will be. Trying to force them to accept what they do not want to accept means not much business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to be private, the recommended solutions are to either get a &quot;Doing Business As&quot; name or to get an LLC. When I last did a DBA, it only meant going down to the county courthouse and paying a small filing fee. Once you have that, you can present that name to everyone, take payment under that name, set up bank accounts in that name, and fully function as a business with that name. You can also get a PO Box for that name and use that mailing address." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26401" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9960" RevisionGUID="15ee55b3-c48b-4fd5-8cb0-6f5a9e29b7e0" CreationDate="2021-10-21T14:42:27.873" UserId="26318" Comment="Fix unusual spelling of word. " Text="Is there a way to delegate bureaucratic tasks or social interactions?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26402" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9960" RevisionGUID="15ee55b3-c48b-4fd5-8cb0-6f5a9e29b7e0" CreationDate="2021-10-21T14:42:27.873" Comment="Proposed by 26318 approved by 25634 edit id of 782" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26403" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10219" RevisionGUID="62fef2c3-b7d0-4268-b04e-343bbc742a4c" CreationDate="2021-10-21T15:00:05.547" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1451201631429660689" />
  <row Id="26404" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10298" RevisionGUID="3598e36f-c5be-490b-b3e7-6593ee0533ad" CreationDate="2021-10-21T17:38:56.607" UserId="25400" Text="I am looking at establishing myself as a freelancer in graphic design from home.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are the advantages and disadvantages of a DBA vs LLC in the United States?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26406" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10298" RevisionGUID="3598e36f-c5be-490b-b3e7-6593ee0533ad" CreationDate="2021-10-21T17:38:56.607" UserId="25400" Text="Advantages/disadvantages of DBA vs LLC?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26407" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10298" RevisionGUID="3598e36f-c5be-490b-b3e7-6593ee0533ad" CreationDate="2021-10-21T17:38:56.607" UserId="25400" Text="|working-from-home|startups|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26408" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10299" RevisionGUID="dbdfdb7d-8694-4424-bae8-b269853edbb5" CreationDate="2021-10-22T05:36:23.890" UserId="7858" Text="In short, it seems a DBA is easier and cheaper to set up and maintain - but offers no liability protection. If a DBA makes a costly business mistake, their private assets are not protected.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - https://www.upcounsel.com/difference-between-dba-and-llc&#xD;&#xA; - https://andersonadvisors.com/what-is-a-dba/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It could all come down to your line of business. If you are a service provider with little to no inventory and no liability towards customers, a DBA seems sufficient.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if the business is successful, a LLC is probably needed if employees are to be hired. In addition, a LLC may eventually be sold.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Specifically for graphic design, a DBA could seem sufficient. Depending on your location and jurisdiction, there may be tax benefits to creating a LLC and perhaps some larger clients prefer dealing with LLCs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26414" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10301" RevisionGUID="e979248e-f8c9-4f38-8a7e-9c0f9cdb7aa7" CreationDate="2021-10-22T16:19:13.750" UserId="24776" Text="I will answer with a question: are you willing to grow your company by **yourself**? If that's a yes then read on. If that's a no, then I'm afraid that you already know the solution, the partial buy-out that you already mentioned.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem I see with us developers is that we fail to see things using cold logic. When they tell us &quot;Yes but what about X Y Z?&quot; We tend to think &quot;Oh my God, I didn't do these, I'm inadequate!&quot;. Instead we should go like &quot;sure, how much are you willing to pay for each of X Y Z?&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All four points that you have listed boil down to the same thing that makes the world go round: cash flow. So if you managed to get to _talk_ to big companies (which in my opinion is the hard part) that by itself means that you have something that grabbed their attention. Then you can _discuss_ all sorts of things with them. Don't forget that this isn't black and white, it's a negotiation. During that negotiation you will hear many &quot;yes but&quot; and it's up to you to understand if that is a) a valid concern b) a way to negotiate better price from you or c) an excuse to pass on and move forward.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure they understand that your `x` product has the `y` (low I guess) price because you are **one** person working from your **home office** (that's a guess again, feel free to ignore it if that's not the case for you). If they want to work with a company that has _dedicated_ tech support (#2) and developers to ensure frequent delivery cycles (#1 #3 and possibly #4) they will have to pay more for all these. How much more it's up to you to decide as there is the caveat that one customer alone cannot sustain your business. &lt;sup&gt;(1)&lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where I currently am, one software developer can cost from 45.000 € per annum up to 70.000€ p.a. let alone the sunken cost of onboarding that employee as, contrary to the common belief, employees are still humans and not machine parts that you plug them in the socket, press the switch and they instantly work at 100%. If you also have to move from a home office to an office-office then you can imagine that this is a huge investment for someone who was up until yesterday self employed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All these boil down to how much leverage you can apply with the product already at hand. If you can negotiate a higher price with the &quot;promise&quot; &lt;sup&gt;(2)&lt;/sup&gt; that you will at least partly fulfill some of their requirements in a reasonable time frame, then you can move to the next customer and growth milestone, not forgetting to calculate the risks involved after every step.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One important aspect specific to software is that it doesn't rot. Once installed and accepted, it can work for as long as the underlying OS and hardware can run it. It doesn't have tear and wear like a car or heavy machinery for example. That gives you extra leverage of negotiation that they can use the software (and thus have revenue or start saving) while in the meantime you address the rest of their concerns -that of course have agreed to pay you &quot;a fair amount&quot; for them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All these might sound like fairy tale (it's not, reality can be way harder and often unpredictable) but you've mentioned something that is catalyst to me and I quote:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I have opportunities to address bigger companies&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You used plural twice. As I see it, you've already done the difficult part, you managed to get in touch with more than one company. I will repeat myself here and I will say that once you get talking to them you can hear their concerns and try to address them -with the minimal possible cost to you. For a more thorough post you can read my answer [here](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/a/9991/24776) which is _related_ but not an exact duplicate of what you asked.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;(1)&lt;/sup&gt; That of course depends on many aspects like how unique your software/product is, how niche your market is and how's the competition in that market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;(2)&lt;/sup&gt; Promises are moot in the business world. You have to find a formula that will keep everyone happy and draft that in the contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26416" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10302" RevisionGUID="c58fb32c-8e28-47bd-bdea-1df9f87575ec" CreationDate="2021-10-24T17:47:01.620" UserId="85" Text="The big consultancies do not publicly name their consultants... they advertise their capabilities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As freelancers we really **must** get away from using CVs or *personal profiles*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26418" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10295" RevisionGUID="23a71d96-f000-4636-bd10-e39f80841746" CreationDate="2021-10-25T15:00:05.657" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1452651183219347466" />
  <row Id="26419" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10303" RevisionGUID="ba3bce33-a359-40f4-a33d-9c2c1bb8f85f" CreationDate="2021-10-27T12:38:27.503" UserId="13035" Text="I recently started my first local design and marketing business, and currently I'm on the search for clients/work. I had a job interview yesterday with a reputable local construction company that is open to the possibility of working with me on a freelance basis, rather than as a full- or part-time employee, which has several benefits in my case. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is regarding how I should approach a proposal with this potential client, and future clients. I'm not good with pricing my work (I'll be honest) and do NOT want to lowball myself. I'm trying my best to avoid hourly work, and billing for hours in general. I've just heard great arguments against it, and have seen these arguments borne out in my own 5 year freelancing career. Hourly is just not great, unless possibly if you're able to command a high hourly rate to be profitable, which I am not able to at the moment because that would scare potential clients away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So my question is – should I propose a monthly retainer? I'm honestly not sure what options an experienced freelancer who does not want to be stuck in hourly billing and run a profitable business normally proposes to potential clients." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26421" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10303" RevisionGUID="ba3bce33-a359-40f4-a33d-9c2c1bb8f85f" CreationDate="2021-10-27T12:38:27.503" UserId="13035" Text="Best Way to Approach Billing with New Clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26422" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10303" RevisionGUID="ba3bce33-a359-40f4-a33d-9c2c1bb8f85f" CreationDate="2021-10-27T12:38:27.503" UserId="13035" Text="|attracting-clients|clients|proposal|retainer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26423" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10303" RevisionGUID="de79136c-7681-49c1-bb4c-fb32b185722e" CreationDate="2021-10-28T06:00:00.250" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1453602428948000771" />
  <row Id="26424" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="9356" RevisionGUID="5f63f2fb-5aa5-4ae9-b53b-a0240a610150" CreationDate="2021-10-28T07:36:03.870" UserId="25669" Comment="44" />
  <row Id="26425" PostHistoryTypeId="33" PostId="169" RevisionGUID="022412b5-ab7b-44b8-a6d6-bfab3e717096" CreationDate="2021-10-28T11:06:20.840" UserId="21562" Comment="45" />
  <row Id="26426" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10304" RevisionGUID="bb2d163d-e0cc-4b1b-b7b2-afceff4771ca" CreationDate="2021-10-28T14:28:25.547" UserDisplayName="user27210" Text="By all means offer them the choice of a monthly contract and bill accordingly and mention that's how you'd prefer to work.  You already know the downsides for the hourly billing so you should be able to communicate the advantages of monthly retainers to them in a way that looks advantageous to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, be prepared to be flexible to start with - the chances are that the construction company works with freelancers in a particular way that fits in with their finance workflow. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26428" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10305" RevisionGUID="0349b1ae-e058-4373-8c05-42389d1aaae8" CreationDate="2021-10-28T14:54:44.237" UserDisplayName="user27210" Text="It looks as though the HMRC guidance is fairly clear in that you're a non-established person selling taxable supplies in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I'd do as they suggest unless you have a good reason not to do so. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26431" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10306" RevisionGUID="4fc9eb26-d4d0-45f7-b91b-d02b1fb3b0f4" CreationDate="2021-10-29T05:29:51.340" UserId="23754" Text="**I am relatively new** at [upwork.com][1] and since my first invitation to interview and work done, I have to received more invitations to interviews, So **I have to ignore some** but I think that if I ignore the invitations will impact my score so I had to research about **What happen if I ignore an invitation?** and I found this [post] at upwork.(https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Declining-interviews/td-p/141772):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; But if you just click a button indicating the reason for your decline,&#xD;&#xA;&gt; then nothing bad can happen.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; You will actually gain credit toward your Responsiveness score if you&#xD;&#xA;&gt; make sure you always reply to invitation requests promptly... within&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 24 hours. Your score benefits whether you decline or accept.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a curious about the **&quot;Refer to a Freelance&quot;** Option. How can I refer if this work don't let me know other freelance. anyone use this option? anyone know how to know another freelance colleagues? for share experience and opinion of how to deal with difficult clients especially with projects related to specific areas like Engineering or Data Science?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Refer to a freelance could improve my Score?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://upwork.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26433" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10306" RevisionGUID="4fc9eb26-d4d0-45f7-b91b-d02b1fb3b0f4" CreationDate="2021-10-29T05:29:51.340" UserId="23754" Text="Refer to a Freelance option in upwork could improve my score?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26434" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10306" RevisionGUID="4fc9eb26-d4d0-45f7-b91b-d02b1fb3b0f4" CreationDate="2021-10-29T05:29:51.340" UserId="23754" Text="|freelance-websites|client-support|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26435" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10307" RevisionGUID="a1e63f3c-03f2-4a7e-bfbf-465269d2f393" CreationDate="2021-10-29T10:08:14.923" UserId="27220" Text="My client informed me in advance that his budget is 10k while I can comfortably sell him the product for 5k. Should I sell based on their budget or something in between my pricing and their budget? Is there an ethical stance on this matter?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26437" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10307" RevisionGUID="a1e63f3c-03f2-4a7e-bfbf-465269d2f393" CreationDate="2021-10-29T10:08:14.923" UserId="27220" Text="Client's budget is higher than expected" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26438" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10307" RevisionGUID="a1e63f3c-03f2-4a7e-bfbf-465269d2f393" CreationDate="2021-10-29T10:08:14.923" UserId="27220" Text="|price|budget|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26439" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10308" RevisionGUID="ab03263f-91d9-4ed0-97ea-dc8990ad7eb7" CreationDate="2021-10-29T10:53:25.853" UserDisplayName="user27210" Text="Inform your client that you can save them 4-5K if they go with your recommendations and hand them a breakdown of how you view your side of the budget against their needs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bear in mind that the client might have a different idea about how they view the product (and any costs involved), so be clear with them about what you're supplying and what service they require.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's no real ethics at play here - just be realistic about your pricing in terms of giving value to the customer and also giving yourself a reasonable profit." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26445" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10310" RevisionGUID="5a5464a1-3f7b-402b-9267-84d3c9ad75d2" CreationDate="2021-10-29T14:32:51.193" UserId="26181" Text="There are those who believe that it is ethical to sell at what ever the client is willing to pay. Others see no such need and will look to give the client a good deal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can give a good deal to the client only if you really know all the aspects of delivering what the client wants. If there is *anything* that you don't know, that will drive your costs up. I only bid fixed price on projects where I have done it several times already, have the proper libraries built, know more about it than the client does, and do a better job of managing the project than the client can. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One aspect may be that the client sees difficulties that you are not aware of and that will double your costs. Or the client knows how much more is in the project description and you don't. It is very rare that a client has a higher budget than you think you can do it for. In most cases, the client thinks it can be done for half or a quarter of what it really costs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had a tree service bid one price and I told him that my budget was double that. I wanted a lot more work done on the tree than he expected. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26447" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10242" RevisionGUID="4ff70a89-8277-41fb-b5fc-1d18bceb7fad" CreationDate="2021-10-29T18:00:03.430" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1454146023962685446" />
  <row Id="26448" PostHistoryTypeId="52" PostId="10307" RevisionGUID="fbd29234-8e27-448c-b5b6-2fd2ba67378e" CreationDate="2021-10-29T18:10:12.883" />
  <row Id="26449" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10311" RevisionGUID="a0e43f7c-849a-484b-9174-cb58103552e4" CreationDate="2021-10-30T10:36:32.917" UserId="27230" Text="Blockchain is better for everyone when it works, except banks. When it doesn't work it's a nightmare.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In terms of international payments blockchain has serious drawbacks depending where you are located. Most of these are caused by banks and governments." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26451" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10312" RevisionGUID="3a167464-7089-4439-b02f-e776a5e8e17d" CreationDate="2021-10-30T11:12:01.930" UserId="27230" Text="Translating is a very competitive field. As a beginner your best options are to leverage your network (if you have one) or do some free localization so you have something to show.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have a better chance if one of the languages is both in demand and not well known. Governments of small countries for instance often have nicely budgeted localization projects. But they tend to be snapped up by the local academics.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Translation is much more than knowing a language, you normally would indicate certain fields to translate in as they may have quite different needs. Translating medical or legal documents for instance require specialised language knowledge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Basically, if you're starting off as a translator with no network then don't quit your day job." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26453" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10276" RevisionGUID="aff64f2b-3a24-4874-8e94-6f3b984b799c" CreationDate="2021-10-30T15:28:42.653" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="26454" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10313" RevisionGUID="2da9161e-5918-4b36-8363-5bb61ff86e86" CreationDate="2021-10-30T17:45:37.157" UserDisplayName="user27210" Text="Every time the client contacts you out of working hours, bill them for the time at an increased rate (work out different rates for “slightly out of working hours” and “unreasonable hours” - don’t use those terms, just specify the hours). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There might be times when the client doesn’t want to agree to a tiered support plan and will contact you anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should really let the client know that each call is chargeable before helping them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course, this all depends on the wording of your contract. If you’ve opened yourself up to 24/7 unlimited support, there’s nothing you can do except extract yourself from the contract (and client). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26456" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10314" RevisionGUID="2d714c93-22d1-4fce-b7f9-bfaf7211cc01" CreationDate="2021-10-30T17:54:25.197" UserDisplayName="user27210" Text="Yes, you should, according to HMRC&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-7001-should-i-be-registered-for-vat/vat-notice-7001-should-i-be-registered-for-vat&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 9.1 NETP – definition&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A non-established taxable person (NETP) is any person who is not normally resident in the UK, does not have a UK establishment and, in the case of a company, is not incorporated in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 9.2 UK establishment: definition&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A UK establishment exists if either the:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; place where essential management decisions are made and the business’s central administration is carried out is in the UK&#xD;&#xA;&gt; business has a permanent physical presence with the human and technical resources to make or receive taxable supplies in the UK&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We would normally consider a company which is incorporated in the UK to have an establishment in the UK as long as it’s able to receive business supplies at its registered office.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 9.3 When an NETP must register for VAT in the UK&#xD;&#xA;If you make any taxable supplies (see paragraph 2.3) in the UK, you must:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * register for VAT in the UK&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * account for UK VAT to HMRC" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26458" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10315" RevisionGUID="4faa1082-936c-4c2f-87c8-d3f0784a1838" CreationDate="2021-10-30T18:02:04.640" UserDisplayName="user27210" Text="You should ideally engage the services of a business ombudsman if one exists in your locality. Failing that, a business focussed legal organisation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If upwork hasn’t given you a fair experience, you should be entitled to compensation. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26460" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10314" RevisionGUID="93232837-82df-4361-8e62-45a552644d05" CreationDate="2021-10-31T08:04:28.903" UserId="26318" Comment="Tidied up quote links" Text="Yes, you should, according to HMRC (&quot;[Should I be registered for VAT?][1]&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 9.1 NETP – definition&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A non-established taxable person (NETP) is any person who is not normally resident in the UK, does not have a UK establishment and, in the case of a company, is not incorporated in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 9.2 UK establishment: definition&#xD;&#xA;&gt; A UK establishment exists if either the:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; place where essential management decisions are made and the business’s central administration is carried out is in the UK&#xD;&#xA;&gt; business has a permanent physical presence with the human and technical resources to make or receive taxable supplies in the UK&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We would normally consider a company which is incorporated in the UK to have an establishment in the UK as long as it’s able to receive business supplies at its registered office.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; 9.3 When an NETP must register for VAT in the UK&#xD;&#xA;If you make any taxable supplies (see paragraph 2.3) in the UK, you must:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; * register for VAT in the UK&#xD;&#xA;&gt; * account for UK VAT to HMRC&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-7001-should-i-be-registered-for-vat/vat-notice-7001-should-i-be-registered-for-vat" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26461" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10314" RevisionGUID="93232837-82df-4361-8e62-45a552644d05" CreationDate="2021-10-31T08:04:28.903" Comment="Proposed by 26318 approved by 27210 edit id of 783" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26462" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10316" RevisionGUID="21a17510-7699-4f07-963b-933b86bab35b" CreationDate="2021-10-31T12:04:43.710" UserId="27235" Text="It is important that you can justify any prices you give; if the client gets the impression that you are making up numbers on-the-fly (e.g. simply increasing your price to be nearer their budget) then trust will be eroded, and they will be suspicious that you might overcharge for any future work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26464" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10317" RevisionGUID="de38a969-83bc-480b-be6f-77fb6607e870" CreationDate="2021-10-31T15:08:33.113" UserId="27235" Text="Are you absolutely sure that your contract with agency B allows this? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Agencies are generally wise to this tactic, and probably included a clause in their contract that prevents you from working for their customers within a specific time-period.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With regard to the rate it'd be nice if company A was prepared to pay you the agency rate, but probably their motivation behind the change is to reduce costs; I'd go for something around £15, but if you feel that is on the low side, you could formally tell them it is an 'introductory rate', which could give you the option to increase it when you have settled in to the new arrangement." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26466" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10307" RevisionGUID="eeb73f9a-c667-4ea3-b059-3bc62b14af0b" CreationDate="2021-11-01T06:00:02.963" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1455051991533723651" />
  <row Id="26467" PostHistoryTypeId="34" PostId="9356" RevisionGUID="72ccc902-84df-4819-920d-22f90a9d9818" CreationDate="2021-11-01T08:09:51.937" UserId="25669" Comment="44" />
  <row Id="26468" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10318" RevisionGUID="5b7dc07e-d732-4623-b76a-35824ff1a9ee" CreationDate="2021-11-01T20:24:48.513" UserDisplayName="user27210" Text="# Snow&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I an hereby nominating myself in this election.  Primarily this is to help out Luke, who has been holing down the fort by himself for some considerable time.  I'm also concerned that without more help, the site will close down for good.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancing.SE, even though of low volume, is (in my opinion) valuable to those people who have asked questions here.  I would like very much to help this community to succeed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am active on Meta.SE and The Workplace.  I have been a moderator for The Workplace in the past before I took a year away from Stack Exchange at the end of 2019.  Although I have a low rep score, I am more than familiar with the work that's required of moderation and familiar with the tools.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am here to help support Freelancing, those who seek answers and those who provide them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26470" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="3128" RevisionGUID="a7b5fa3f-6ec0-46f7-97af-0397d15b6a13" CreationDate="2021-11-02T00:06:25.677" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="26471" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10319" RevisionGUID="e59a0a77-5153-4559-a5c6-2c4cedaa0481" CreationDate="2021-11-02T06:15:37.397" UserId="7858" Text="As the other answers indicate, there are several aspects to setting a price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it is a one-time-sale, one should probably attempt to maximize the payment. This could either be done by setting a price just below their budget - or quoting your preferred price of 5k and adding a retainer of some amount, as there will virtually always be some level of bug-fixing, support, enhancements and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If more work could potentially be forthcoming, being more defensive in pricing could be considered. A drawback of quoting a (for them) surprisingly low price, is that you effectively cast yourself as cheap - which is difficult to break out of.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The retainer model described above could also be used in an attempt to retain a client - and is the closest to a one-size-fits-all approach." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26473" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10320" RevisionGUID="32574e39-e28b-4d33-96c7-4750c6f34580" CreationDate="2021-11-02T21:23:43.617" UserId="25082" Text="It kind of depends.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the company you're looking to sell yourself/your methodology to is in the market for Scrum masters not because they *specifically want Scrum*, but because they want to adopt a higher-quality software development methodology, then I would absolutely approach them with a similar approach you specified. If your involvement would be switching their current development environment from Scrum to Agile, I could understand some friction in the transition.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your potentially-interested company is an ideal target to market yourself, I would focus less on the &quot;I consider this methodology inferior to mine&quot; and more on the &quot;I can offer expertise in a methodology that will be exceedingly useful to your development environment,&quot; if that makes sense. In other words, market yourself not to tear down Scrum, but to build up Agile (and the Extreme Programming specifics) and offer it as an acceptable alternative, which you may view in your opinion to be superior.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your success rate is going to depend primarily upon how set-in-stone the company is in Scrum, but selling Agile (XP) and your expertise in it in a way that's noncombative should increase your chances of them biting." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26475" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10229" RevisionGUID="473834a4-2b07-4fe6-96a8-3a223a3e0261" CreationDate="2021-11-02T21:35:38.670" UserId="25082" Comment="Removed fluff (thanks and etc), clarified title, improved grammar" Text="I'd like to know what the best way(s) to make money with mobile development.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some developers have already told me that it'd be making building mobile apps to prospective customers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a second option, I think I can try to build a very useful app as a startup and market it as effectively as I can. For instance, I'm enjoying studying Android development but I have doubts about how make real good money as freelancer in the mobile development field.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a third option, I think after getting some real skillsets in Android development, I could try to produce some courses on Udemy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm interested in what advice you have for my predicament. So far I wish to work strictly informal (no contracts)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26476" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10229" RevisionGUID="473834a4-2b07-4fe6-96a8-3a223a3e0261" CreationDate="2021-11-02T21:35:38.670" UserId="25082" Comment="Removed fluff (thanks and etc), clarified title, improved grammar" Text="What are some informal ways to make money with mobile development?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26477" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10229" RevisionGUID="473834a4-2b07-4fe6-96a8-3a223a3e0261" CreationDate="2021-11-02T21:35:38.670" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 25169 edit id of 785" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26478" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10321" RevisionGUID="503fb245-a91f-464f-b37c-d7f6a23108b8" CreationDate="2021-11-02T21:37:46.037" UserId="25082" Text="I'd seriously consider being formal when money is involved. This will not only protect you and what you'd be being paid, but also the person who would be utilizing your services, as they would, as [Danger mentions](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/10229/what-informal-ways-to-make-money-with-mobile-development#comment12650_10229), have an increased sense of trust in your work. The formality will show them that you fully plan on completing whatever your set task was.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Barring that, if you're exploring mobile development as a hobby, consider writing up an app that you feel has a targeted use for more than just yourself and close friends, and making it public. Whether it's a tool or a game, ensure it's got value to the broader public, then do as your initial thought was, and market it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This should really get your foot in the metaphorical door of mobile development and allow you to solicit feedback about your work, and it might earn you some money along the way if you choose to monetize said app. You should be able to determine from this point if you'd like to start making more formal strides as a mobile dev freelancer, and if you do, definitely start approaching it formally. When money is involved, and it's not a deal between friends, you should be certain to be as professional as you can." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26480" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10321" RevisionGUID="47ff1553-8533-4181-ba84-d0114319cf2a" CreationDate="2021-11-02T21:43:53.847" UserId="25082" Comment="added 21 characters in body" Text="I'd seriously consider being formal when money is involved. This will not only protect you and what you'd be being paid, but also the person who would be utilizing your services, as they would, as [Danger mentions](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/10229/what-informal-ways-to-make-money-with-mobile-development#comment12650_10229), have an increased sense of trust in your work. The formality will show them that you fully plan on completing whatever your set task was.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Barring that, if you're exploring mobile development as a hobby, consider writing up an app that you feel has a targeted use for more than just yourself and close friends, and making it public. Whether it's a tool or a game, ensure it's got value to the broader public, then do as your initial thought was, and market it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This should really get your foot in the metaphorical door of mobile development and allow you to solicit feedback about your work, and it might earn you some money along the way if you choose to monetize said app. You should be able to determine from this point if you'd like to start making more formal strides as a mobile dev freelancer, and if you do, definitely start approaching it as professionally as possible. When money is involved, and it's not a deal between friends, you should be certain to be as professional as you can." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26481" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10321" RevisionGUID="326c08f5-a9c0-45f3-9a48-b9233af8891b" CreationDate="2021-11-02T22:00:39.190" UserId="25082" Comment="added 194 characters in body" Text="I'd seriously consider being formal when money is involved. This will not only protect you and what you'd be being paid, but also the person who would be utilizing your services, as they would, as [Danger mentions](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/10229/what-informal-ways-to-make-money-with-mobile-development#comment12650_10229), have an increased sense of trust in your work. The formality will show them that you fully plan on completing whatever your set task was.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Barring that, if you're exploring mobile development as a hobby, consider writing up an app that you feel has a targeted use for more than just yourself and close friends, and making it public. Whether it's a tool or a game, ensure it's got value to the broader public, then do as your initial thought was, and market it. You could also take on personal projects for friends, provided they're willing to pay you and you're *good* friends with them, and ensure you meet the goals for the project in a timely fashion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This should really get your foot in the metaphorical door of mobile development and allow you to solicit feedback about your work, and it might earn you some money along the way if you choose to monetize said app. You should be able to determine from this point if you'd like to start making more formal strides as a mobile dev freelancer, and if you do, definitely start approaching it as professionally as possible. When money is involved, and it's not a deal between friends, you should be certain to be as professional as you can." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26482" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10287" RevisionGUID="02b45a56-f157-4095-a543-129f062017d8" CreationDate="2021-11-02T22:37:44.283" UserId="25082" Comment="typo" Text="Your contract should ideally not just cover how often invoices should be made, but also how and when payment by your client should be made and late fees. The late fee part is there to protect you from this exact scenario. Your contract says you should be paid every two weeks. If your client violates this agreement **beyond a reasonable timeframe**, that's on them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You've noted that the company has a document that explains that contractors are typically paid after a month, but that's a detail that should have been worked out when they signed a contract with you. **Follow your contract** in this instance.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So your client's decided not to respond to you. This happens, but it's important to realize that it's possible your client looked at your e-mail and simply forgot. Assuming good intent to begin with is a good idea to maintain a friendly business relationship. So, that said, **send them another reminder**, potentially highlighting that you have a late fee agreement they signed that will need to be paid after a given time has passed since your invoice notice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client decides to continue to ignore you after a few reminders across a couple of days, it's a sign that things might start to turn legal. Ensure you're documenting all of the work you've done up to this point, and all communication between you and the client. This is to strengthen your case should you need to take them to small claims court. Contact the client across other platforms, whether that's in the form of a phone call, texting, various social media... You need to get them to respond somehow. Don't be afraid to be annoying at this point. ​As a freelancer, having to resort to legal matters is not ideal as it can seriously cut into the time you have available to spend on other projects and can carry a decent cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a sizable amount of time has passed since the client has ignored your first invoice and your frequent other attempts to contact them, it's unfortunately time to talk to a lawyer. This isn't ideal, as suing your client should be the last resort, but it's unfortunately necessary at the stage where you're being ignored this heavily.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Talk to your lawyer (you should ideally have one you can get legal advice from) and provide them with all of the documentation you've collected. Ask them to contact your client for you. Speaking from experience, it's a bit comical how quickly you can get results once the one contacting your client is a lawyer on your behalf. If that attempt at contact doesn't work, hopefully your lawyer will know how best to move forward with a lawsuit. How well your case fares from here is up to your legal counsel." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26483" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10322" RevisionGUID="a8b6a6c2-a541-40e9-840d-1eb5399f198f" CreationDate="2021-11-02T23:00:22.830" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26485" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10322" RevisionGUID="a8b6a6c2-a541-40e9-840d-1eb5399f198f" CreationDate="2021-11-02T23:00:22.830" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26486" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10323" RevisionGUID="4833d64a-fc61-4188-9427-dfd27617db1a" CreationDate="2021-11-02T23:00:22.830" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26488" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10323" RevisionGUID="4833d64a-fc61-4188-9427-dfd27617db1a" CreationDate="2021-11-02T23:00:22.830" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26489" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10324" RevisionGUID="46fc5c05-4b03-45fe-a154-3a4f307171b8" CreationDate="2021-11-02T23:06:37.980" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26491" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10324" RevisionGUID="46fc5c05-4b03-45fe-a154-3a4f307171b8" CreationDate="2021-11-02T23:06:37.980" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26492" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10325" RevisionGUID="d8c6eb3d-84fb-4ca4-a142-e8d5aa6d3db3" CreationDate="2021-11-02T23:06:37.980" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26494" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10325" RevisionGUID="d8c6eb3d-84fb-4ca4-a142-e8d5aa6d3db3" CreationDate="2021-11-02T23:06:37.980" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26495" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10326" RevisionGUID="1242177c-01ec-4114-99d3-ae7178abfb66" CreationDate="2021-11-02T23:08:31.910" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26497" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10326" RevisionGUID="1242177c-01ec-4114-99d3-ae7178abfb66" CreationDate="2021-11-02T23:08:31.910" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26498" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10327" RevisionGUID="818dd5a4-6f54-44a4-b52c-2c7dd42e4011" CreationDate="2021-11-02T23:08:31.910" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26500" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10327" RevisionGUID="818dd5a4-6f54-44a4-b52c-2c7dd42e4011" CreationDate="2021-11-02T23:08:31.910" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26502" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10292" RevisionGUID="493f352c-6907-431c-b144-2833ac0af1a8" CreationDate="2021-11-03T03:00:27.830" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1455731573085679621" />
  <row Id="26503" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10328" RevisionGUID="8fb3bb5b-2ce5-426d-892c-8478f1813020" CreationDate="2021-11-03T11:17:40.183" UserId="7858" Text="# morsor&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having come here for years, I would like to nominate myself as moderator - despite having no formal experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ther SE site I'm most active on is The Workplace - but Freelancing just is fundamentally different and therefore deserves its own sandbox.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've never cast a vote-to-close without explaining why and find doing so unconstructive. In addition, I believe I'm patient with new/inexperienced users as long as they seem to take friendly advice. Should I become a moderator, I would try to strike a balance between not scaring new users away, while still attempting to improve the quality of the questions." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26505" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10329" RevisionGUID="f0b6a83e-c361-4642-9a93-cb739cb6a51d" CreationDate="2021-11-03T18:12:03.713" UserId="27256" Text="The German employer will be paying into my UK account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm confused as to whether I should be paying UK or Germany income tax / national contributions, or both.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any guidance would be much appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26507" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10329" RevisionGUID="f0b6a83e-c361-4642-9a93-cb739cb6a51d" CreationDate="2021-11-03T18:12:03.713" UserId="27256" Text="If am living in the UK (and a UK citizen) and working for a Germany company, what taxes do I need to pay?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26508" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10329" RevisionGUID="f0b6a83e-c361-4642-9a93-cb739cb6a51d" CreationDate="2021-11-03T18:12:03.713" UserId="27256" Text="|taxes|uk|germany|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26513" PostHistoryTypeId="34" PostId="169" RevisionGUID="343e63c5-27dd-4d90-9cb8-b7f3bfe79925" CreationDate="2021-11-04T07:08:31.573" UserId="21562" Comment="45" />
  <row Id="26514" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10331" RevisionGUID="2c69fe19-b131-4475-b69b-3a0a41770784" CreationDate="2021-11-04T16:46:03.250" UserId="27261" Text="I understand where and to whom you pay taxes depend on how and where you're registered as a taxpayer. In my case, I'm a tax-payer resident in the the UK (Mexican nationality). My clients are from the UK and abroad, mostly in Denmark, but I only pay taxes here in the UK, not Denmark or Mexico, because I'm registered as a sole-trader in the UK and here's where I live for more than 6 months per year. If you're a UK citizen, most likely you have to pay taxes only in the UK, unless you have dual citizenship/residency.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe the info in this [page][1] might help you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/work/taxes/income-taxes-abroad/index_en.htm" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26517" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10332" RevisionGUID="28f2cc00-8863-40b1-9a70-854ca0af383f" CreationDate="2021-11-08T20:26:54.443" UserId="27275" Text="I use Trello to manage my team and it works well as everything can be controlled and its easy to learn." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26519" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10229" RevisionGUID="78653d11-a765-46d1-b034-4fc744d3db42" CreationDate="2021-11-08T21:00:06.277" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1457815212908744709" />
  <row Id="26520" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10333" RevisionGUID="b027eaa7-b6a9-4699-af1c-c9bda5a19f2d" CreationDate="2021-11-09T14:38:14.413" UserId="25082" Text="Freelancer.com seems to avoid deliberately stating how their bid ranking algorithms work, but they do provide a [bid ranking guide](https://www.freelancer.com/community/articles/the-freelancer-com-bid-ranking-guide), written by [Emma D](https://www.freelancer.com/u/deHaaas), that gives you a set of tips to increase your chances of interacting with the employer. The *very first* tip they present is, with my emphasis on the important part:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Bid Early: Can’t get to the top? Bid before the others do. Early bidders consistently win more projects since **it increases their chances of interacting with the employer**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Couple this with the anecdotal experience you have with your late bids being ranked lower, and I think that we can safely say that early bidders *do* in fact get a boost to their bid's rank. Even if they don't, the increase in visibility granted to those who bid early is very certainly worth it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26522" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9865" RevisionGUID="f26e2c08-dcdd-45fa-8fbf-ec4f2dd1d340" CreationDate="2021-11-09T18:00:05.290" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1458132298101100552" />
  <row Id="26523" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10334" RevisionGUID="66f57a94-4d43-4009-a43d-df1e4b8ae8d2" CreationDate="2021-11-09T21:58:46.737" UserId="27281" Text="Sourcing clients/projects, bidding, and sending proposals takes a lot of time. Working for an employer can be a nice last-resort play if you're hurting for money, but I think it's quickly becoming a legacy option.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion, a mix of options from the following list should keep most developers of any level well-paid and relatively stress-free:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- [Sub-Contract for an agency][1]&#xD;&#xA;- [Technical Writing][2]&#xD;&#xA;- Software Development [Bounties][3] &amp; [Grants][4]&#xD;&#xA;- [Teach on Skillshare][5]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://wilmoore.medium.com/generating-income-sub-contracting-as-a-software-developer-8e4c687f43e2&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://whopaystechnicalwriters.com/?&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://gitcoin.co/bounties/funder&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://gitcoin.co/grants/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://www.skillshare.com/teach" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26525" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9865" RevisionGUID="978c69b8-0db3-407d-8a6f-bb694020dda7" CreationDate="2021-11-09T22:14:10.380" UserId="25082" Comment="grammar fixes" Text="I am new on upwork.com. I had a micro-project on it. The project was written out as a 4.5 hour-long project. In the proposal description it was clear that it can be done in that time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I applied for it, and I got the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The customer had quite a problematic personality:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* He was unable to clearly formulate what he wants. He communicated in gibberish and unclear, short sentences.&#xD;&#xA;* Instead of development, he thought on some type of collective work. I.e. we both work on the task. In this time, he has seen what I am doing, but he never committed anything. It's probable that he worked in parallel with me, on the same task, and used my code only as a reference.&#xD;&#xA;* He regularly had expectations that I should do things as he is doing them. But he contributed only some mutilated code lines, from which it was not clear what expectations it should fulfill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These problems caused the project to go on for four days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After that, he removed the strong time requirement. He did not say that we are late, but he disappeared.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think this is the case where both parties say that the other was bad, except that I can't say this about a paying customer; furthermore he is the paying customer both for me and for Upwork.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My other Upwork projects went (are going) very well compared to this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Actually, the task was not a big one, and I think I would be more happy if the customer would simply disappear and our project would simply disappear. The loss of the money (and time) would be a nuance, compared to the problem what a terrible feedback would cause.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What could I do to silently leave the project, without seriously affecting my Upwork stats? The customer does not look as if he would have a hostile attitude to me, and I would be also very happy if it would remain so. He did not mention being unsatisfied whatsoever, and I think it would be the best if that didn't change." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26526" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9865" RevisionGUID="978c69b8-0db3-407d-8a6f-bb694020dda7" CreationDate="2021-11-09T22:14:10.380" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 25311 edit id of 790" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26527" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10276" RevisionGUID="6e1fef33-2c82-4682-bac0-6f11a62bde24" CreationDate="2021-11-10T00:00:06.543" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1458222900348129281" />
  <row Id="26529" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10335" RevisionGUID="5c09b171-f2d7-4aba-be7b-3b5ae0e84bb4" CreationDate="2021-11-10T07:15:32.763" UserId="27282" Text="Is Refund Consulting Legal in the US and Europe. Nowadays I am researching about Refund Consulting Business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26531" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10335" RevisionGUID="5c09b171-f2d7-4aba-be7b-3b5ae0e84bb4" CreationDate="2021-11-10T07:15:32.763" UserId="27282" Text="Is Refund Consulting Legal" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26532" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10335" RevisionGUID="5c09b171-f2d7-4aba-be7b-3b5ae0e84bb4" CreationDate="2021-11-10T07:15:32.763" UserId="27282" Text="|legal|usa|clients|eu|safety|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26533" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10336" RevisionGUID="5494e171-75d6-4ec8-859a-e6125e949607" CreationDate="2021-11-10T15:42:54.090" UserId="26318" Text="Refund consulting (e.g. telling people that you can help them to locate lost or unclaimed money or property, in return for a fee or a percentage of the money claimed) is, as far as I'm aware, perfectly legal in both the US and Europe. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - There are multiple organisations doing it in the US;&#xD;&#xA; https://unclaimed.org/ &#xD;&#xA; - And in the UK; https://unclaimedassets.co.uk/, https://www.uar.co.uk/, etc&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being said, you'd need to be extremely careful about what you're saying to potential clients. In the UK, telling a customer that they're '*guaranteed*' (or even '*likely*') to receive a return as a result of their search would be highly deceptive and would fall into the general description of financial fraud." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26535" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10275" RevisionGUID="e18b0e7f-f6fc-40d3-b722-6d50c63e5f50" CreationDate="2021-11-11T12:00:03.613" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1458766469878136832" />
  <row Id="26536" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10337" RevisionGUID="54fca73a-819f-48dc-a796-8dd78cab0da3" CreationDate="2021-11-11T13:04:44.623" UserId="25082" Text="# Spevacus&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a long time visitor but recent contributor, I feel as though I can meaningfully give back to this community. The Q&amp;A on this site were profoundly helpful during my time as a freelance programmer. I have a sizable amount of experience in user-level moderation on various sites across the network, as well as experience as a volunteer customer-facing moderator off-site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Why me?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I help fight spam and rude/abusive content all across the network with [Charcoal](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/11540/), having reviewed almost 20k posts.&#xD;&#xA;- I've raised 5,530 flags across the network (99.77% of those are helpful)&#xD;&#xA;- I'm an active contributor to [Meta Stack Exchange](https://meta.stackexchange.com/), the &quot;global meta&quot; for the network, and strongly believe in discussing moderation issues both there and on per-site metas.&#xD;&#xA;- I feel that supporting a safe and welcoming space for both new and old users is the best way to help the site flourish.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Why not me?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I've only recently (within the past 4-5 months) begun contributing here. As a result, you could say that I've not yet immersed myself in this community." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26538" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10337" RevisionGUID="7ce004d7-de90-49d6-a490-f42afb0468d8" CreationDate="2021-11-11T13:29:24.073" UserId="25082" Comment="deleted 7 characters in body" Text="# Spevacus&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a long time visitor but recent contributor, I feel as though I can meaningfully give back to this community, as the knowledge here was very helpful to me when I was a freelance programmer. I have a sizable amount of experience in user-level moderation on various sites across the network, as well as experience as a volunteer customer-facing moderator off-site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Why me?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I help fight spam and rude/abusive content all across the network with [Charcoal](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/11540/), having reviewed almost 20k posts.&#xD;&#xA;- I've raised 5,530 flags across the network (99.77% of those are helpful)&#xD;&#xA;- I'm an active contributor to [Meta Stack Exchange](https://meta.stackexchange.com/), the &quot;global meta&quot; for the network, and strongly believe in discussing moderation issues both there and on per-site metas.&#xD;&#xA;- I feel that supporting a safe and welcoming space for both new and old users is the best way to help the site flourish.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Why not me?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I've only recently (within the past 4-5 months) begun contributing here. As a result, you could say that I've not yet immersed myself in this community." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26539" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10108" RevisionGUID="facf6dac-1f8a-48cd-ba49-ef3048909efd" CreationDate="2021-11-11T15:00:03.120" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1458811766247415813" />
  <row Id="26541" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10338" RevisionGUID="21f46131-4e24-4814-847f-c160f09b14b2" CreationDate="2021-11-13T20:14:05.917" UserId="25830" Text="# Magusd&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd love to give back to the community that gave me so much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've been a developer, freelancer, and member of StackExchange for a decade." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26543" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10339" RevisionGUID="12789ca1-6a29-46f2-85f4-cbe40595520f" CreationDate="2021-11-13T20:39:54.113" UserId="25830" Text="Yes and No.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've used slack and ms teams in small and huge companies. My experience is that slack is better and companies only use MS Teams because Microsoft gives it for free as part of a marketing campaign. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can't say for other software, I've used those two for extended periods of time as a simple user, admin, integrator, and power user.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Slack is vastly superior to MS Teams, even in the free version. But slack is just the communication part of your management process, you need to incorporate other tools to help you manage your team and that's a beast by itself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's what I've seen work very very well as part of the management stack:&#xD;&#xA;- email is for communication outside of the company&#xD;&#xA;- slack is for communication inside&#xD;&#xA;- google drive and dropbox are much more than file storages, but drive is included in the email price, so unless you really need dropbox or any of its features, move to the google workspace bundle&#xD;&#xA;- email, office suite, calendar, meetings - google workspace&#xD;&#xA;- task management&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;no software will really help you with that, decide how each team/member works best and keep a delivery list either on trello, or calendar, or anything that will help you track global progress.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You and the PM are the only ones that are really interested in this, writers want to write, coders want to code. &#xD;&#xA;Don't burden the other members of the team with meta work, agile bullshit or rituals that accomplish nothing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep a list of tasks to be delivered with actual dates, if those dates exist.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No points, no grooming, no recurring calls.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the best companies I've worked for, the technical team owned the project. In the worst companies I've worked for, the technical team was always struggling to get around the manager that, in order to justify his pay, would always insist on silly rituals, meaningless projections, and worthless metrics.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Let your workers work, give them simple tools and remove bureaucracy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Summary:&#xD;&#xA;Here's my stack of choice:&#xD;&#xA;- Slack&#xD;&#xA;- Google workspace (email, files, office suite, calendar, meetings)&#xD;&#xA;- Github (code, ci)&#xD;&#xA;- AWS &#xD;&#xA;- Medium (docs)&#xD;&#xA;- Trello (tasks)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26545" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10340" RevisionGUID="cc1b301b-4d56-4bc2-b528-af0049ccdfc4" CreationDate="2021-11-14T03:16:11.363" UserId="25830" Text="- Yes you should, Scrum is trending, people hiring barely know what that means because not even the agile community was able to agree on what scrum is or isn't. They need someone to be between business and developers. Everyone needs developers, nobody likes developers. If you can speak tech and business, do it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Yes again, If you cherry-pick scrum tools and ceremonies, you get XP. Unless they are hiring someone to write a book about scrum, you should apply.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Don't antagonize the hiring team, HR can barely say &quot;Scrum Master&quot; without screaming that master is an oppressive word and saying we should use &quot;Scrum Mister/Main/Person&quot;. HR will match the tags on your resume to the tags in the job description and attempt to filter crazy and unprofessional people. Jump this hoop and proceed to the phase where you will get actual insight on what you'll be doing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Can you manage a team of individuals, lead them into a productive and healthy delivery cycle of work? Then whatever what you call yourself. Unless the institution is requesting a scrum master certification (which you can get in a weekend of half effort study) not only you can but you should apply. Just don't try to tell them they want something different until you've either met with the team or with your leader. &#xD;&#xA;By then you can ask a simple question &quot;so, will I have autonomy to manage the team?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;If the answer is no, you should probably jump the boat even if you were a scrum mister.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I've been a developer for a decade, and I think of scrum, xp, rup, etc as programming languages. Programming languages have different paradigms, libraries, and frameworks, but it all boils down to logic, math, CPU, memory, disk, network. &#xD;&#xA;Can a C++ dev apply to a PHP position? &#xD;&#xA;Can a python dev apply to a node job?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The same thing applies to project management skills, if you think of yourself as a xp coach and not team lead, then you shouldn't be applying to any leadership positions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Methodologies are tools.&#xD;&#xA;Programming languages are tools.&#xD;&#xA;A hammer is a tool, if you had a hammer wielding certification, would you call yourself a hammer man? Or would you be a woodworker that is very good at using a hammer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26550" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10342" RevisionGUID="27805059-75c5-4c6a-abc8-53cf86f08998" CreationDate="2021-11-14T19:37:46.533" UserId="25830" Text="Here's a thought experiment: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1 - go to a restaurant, order, eat and drink and then try to negotiate prices. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2 - go to the movies and tell them you will talk about money once you've watched it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some clients are trying to get free work and some are just uneducated on how freelancing works, so it could just be insecurity about the quality of your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you feel that the client is trying to get you to do free work, just walk away, it's not worth the effort to even argue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Layout all the rules:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - about the payment, as Dave Chappelle very eloquently says, &quot;I'm like Evel Knevel, I get paid for the attempt&quot;&#xD;&#xA; - prices have to be discussed before, payment can be done later&#xD;&#xA; - all electronic communications are binding, but a formal contract is always better, easier to be enforced and makes the client think twice before trying non standard moves. get a template online, stamp your logo on and send it&#xD;&#xA; - payment can be due once: you start working, your work is accepted, your work is delivered&#xD;&#xA; - payment on start, has to be on the contract, can be in full or a percentage&#xD;&#xA; - payment on acceptance, acceptance criteria has to be agreed by both parties and it can be an email saying anything like &quot;designs are good, thanks&quot;&#xD;&#xA; - payment on delivery, you delivered the designs but the client asked for changes, you get to receive money for delivering the project and charge extra for the changes&#xD;&#xA; - if the changes that the client is asking are small adjustments to your work, it's fair to consider this as paid for, but you are the deciding part&#xD;&#xA; - cancelling, sometimes you can't deliver the project or the relationship is just not working, the client doesn't respond to emails, conditions not accepted, etc etc etc. write down a few criteria for cancelling the project like: &quot;the worker can cancel the project at any time and received the worked hours if: A - client is rude, B - client fails to x,y,z; the client can cancel the project at any time if: A - freelancer is rude, B - freelancer fails to respond in x business days, etc&quot;&#xD;&#xA;You are selling a service, not a product.&#xD;&#xA;- define the value of your hour&#xD;&#xA;- estimate how long it's going to take to make the designs&#xD;&#xA;- write a small contract with: full price, payment conditions, price for modifications, deadlines, acceptance criteria and, cancelling criteria&#xD;&#xA;- ask for a formal digital acceptance&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All of this might seem like 'too much' for you, because you are probably very early in your freelancing career and you might feel intimidated by clients or asking for stuff in fear of losing the opportunity to work. This is all very fair and if anyone doesn't accept those terms, they might have ill intent, so losing the work might actually be better.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, put in all in writing and ask, and don't start working until you know how everything is going to pan out.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are not an employee that has to show up and just work until the work is done. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancing is about clear communication.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This will require a lot of discipline and organization, but that also means you don't get cheated out of your money or get stuck in a bad contract.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26552" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10343" RevisionGUID="3b84a915-57c5-4ad8-8f06-f87ae6d6b575" CreationDate="2021-11-14T19:59:42.827" UserId="25830" Text="&#xD;&#xA;Since you clearly don't want an hourly contract, you shouldn't offer that as an option.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your pricing should be clear to your client, something like:&#xD;&#xA;&quot;I'll set up, monitor and optimize your google ads, facebook ads and amazon ads accounts for x$/month&quot;&#xD;&#xA;Flat rate, no surprises. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Business people understand that you will probably &quot;lose&quot; some money on the initial work but will have it easier later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A good business relationship is based on a win/win situation, your client should feel like either they are saving money on an in-house full-time marketing person, or that they have delegated this responsibility to a company and you have to get money and not become a slave.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You are selling peace of mind as part of your product, managing hours, managing tasks, managing results, is probably something your client doesn't want to do with you anyways. Enumerate your initial and recurring tasks, let the client know what he will be paying for, and submit a proposal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client really insists on hourly, and you don't want to drop it, you can agree upon the same amount of work and responsibilities and require the client to always pay for a minimum of x hours of work every month, regardless of how many hours actually work. Some clients just need those number for bureaucratic reasons." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26554" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10334" RevisionGUID="1ea7106f-8250-4440-82b4-5bd2f736fde0" CreationDate="2021-11-15T17:29:24.540" UserId="27281" Comment="EDIT (2021-11-15)" Text="Sourcing clients/projects, bidding, and sending proposals takes a lot of time. Working for an employer can be a nice last-resort play if you're hurting for money, but I think it's quickly becoming a legacy option.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my opinion, a mix of options from the following list should keep most developers of any level well-paid and relatively stress-free:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- [Sub-Contract for an agency][1]&#xD;&#xA;- [Technical Writing][2]&#xD;&#xA;- Software Development [Bounties][3] &amp; [Grants][4]&#xD;&#xA;- [Teach on Skillshare][5]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT (2021-11-15): FYI; this advice works for every type of development. In terms of writing, there are a lot of technical writing opportunities and tons of Web3 companies are providing grants for content marketing projects, documentation, demos, and software that incorporates their blockchain network or wallet SDKs. Teaching on skillshare can also provide some longer-term passive income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://wilmoore.medium.com/generating-income-sub-contracting-as-a-software-developer-8e4c687f43e2&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://whopaystechnicalwriters.com/?&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://gitcoin.co/bounties/funder&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://gitcoin.co/grants/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://www.skillshare.com/teach" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26555" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10329" RevisionGUID="6e79d9f4-2f90-488c-9589-1576d05890c0" CreationDate="2021-11-15T19:58:25.967" UserId="25082" Comment="trimmed &quot;thanks&quot; fluff, ordered wording in title to better match the situation (company in Germany, rather than Germany company)" Text="The German employer will be paying into my UK account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm confused as to whether I should be paying UK or Germany income tax / national contributions, or both.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any guidance would be much appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26556" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10329" RevisionGUID="6e79d9f4-2f90-488c-9589-1576d05890c0" CreationDate="2021-11-15T19:58:25.967" UserId="25082" Comment="trimmed &quot;thanks&quot; fluff, ordered wording in title to better match the situation (company in Germany, rather than Germany company)" Text="If am living in the UK (and a UK citizen) and working for a company in Germany, what taxes do I need to pay?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26557" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10329" RevisionGUID="6e79d9f4-2f90-488c-9589-1576d05890c0" CreationDate="2021-11-15T19:58:25.967" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 7858, 7432 edit id of 791" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26558" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4707" RevisionGUID="c0cd9f7c-408f-46b7-83be-5d46c32c5819" CreationDate="2021-11-15T19:58:37.250" UserId="15235" Comment="tags edited" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26559" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4707" RevisionGUID="c0cd9f7c-408f-46b7-83be-5d46c32c5819" CreationDate="2021-11-15T19:58:37.250" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 7432 edit id of 784" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26560" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10335" RevisionGUID="bae1c2f2-c862-4cc1-8791-0388c43a87f2" CreationDate="2021-11-15T19:58:48.803" UserId="26318" Comment="Tidied the question and tags" Text="Is 'Refund Consulting' legal in the US and Europe? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have been doing some research about Refund Consulting, but I've not been able to answer this question to my satisfaction." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26561" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10335" RevisionGUID="bae1c2f2-c862-4cc1-8791-0388c43a87f2" CreationDate="2021-11-15T19:58:48.803" UserId="26318" Comment="Tidied the question and tags" Text="Is Refund Consulting legal?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26562" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="10335" RevisionGUID="bae1c2f2-c862-4cc1-8791-0388c43a87f2" CreationDate="2021-11-15T19:58:48.803" UserId="26318" Comment="Tidied the question and tags" Text="|legal|usa|eu|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26563" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10335" RevisionGUID="bae1c2f2-c862-4cc1-8791-0388c43a87f2" CreationDate="2021-11-15T19:58:48.803" Comment="Proposed by 26318 approved by 7858, 7432 edit id of 792" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26564" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10327" RevisionGUID="15842965-bd17-4aa0-96d5-8deb6a563126" CreationDate="2021-11-15T19:58:55.043" UserId="25082" Comment="added 63 characters in body" Text="For questions about professional communication as a freelancer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26565" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10327" RevisionGUID="15842965-bd17-4aa0-96d5-8deb6a563126" CreationDate="2021-11-15T19:58:55.043" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 7858, 7432 edit id of 789" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26566" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6796" RevisionGUID="d322ab20-4764-458c-b355-1d80cec2c480" CreationDate="2021-11-15T19:59:02.973" UserId="25082" Comment="added 148 characters in body" Text="For questions about web development as it relates to freelancing/contract work. General questions about web development are off-topic for this site." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26567" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6796" RevisionGUID="d322ab20-4764-458c-b355-1d80cec2c480" CreationDate="2021-11-15T19:59:02.973" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 7858, 7432 edit id of 787" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26568" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10323" RevisionGUID="4041bf2d-4b78-4d03-8e4c-c7542a996f35" CreationDate="2021-11-15T19:59:15.933" UserId="25082" Comment="added 90 characters in body" Text="For questions about paying freelancers, or how you should organize having clients pay you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26569" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10323" RevisionGUID="4041bf2d-4b78-4d03-8e4c-c7542a996f35" CreationDate="2021-11-15T19:59:15.933" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 7858, 7432 edit id of 786" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26570" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10325" RevisionGUID="e23f6cf3-b335-4e10-b435-50416bb3fa89" CreationDate="2021-11-15T19:59:22.630" UserId="25082" Comment="added 89 characters in body" Text="For questions about how to interact with customers or potential customers professionally." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26571" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10325" RevisionGUID="e23f6cf3-b335-4e10-b435-50416bb3fa89" CreationDate="2021-11-15T19:59:22.630" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 7858, 7432 edit id of 788" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26573" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9859" RevisionGUID="f0a68340-991b-40dc-bd4c-457dc383b6f7" CreationDate="2021-11-17T03:00:18.727" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1460804964998070276" />
  <row Id="26593" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10348" RevisionGUID="80ef813e-1bc4-45b4-a6c4-793e49210312" CreationDate="2021-11-19T09:06:46.073" UserId="85" Text="As a UK Resident, you will be liable for UK tax on all your income, whether it’s from the UK or abroad. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income/residence&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, if you are working as an employee for a German company, you will be subject to payroll deductions in Germany. The same applies if you are working through an agency, due to the German equivalent of IR35, which treats [most] labour-only agency workers as employees for tax purposes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This brings you into scope of the double-taxation treaties, whereby the tax you pay in Germany will offset your UK liability on that income. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are B2B subcontracting to a German company, then the tax situation gets a bit more complicated...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a word of warning: overseas income by UK residents is one of HMRC's hot topics at the moment... my recommendation would be to take professional advice, to ensure you (a) maximise any allowances but (b) pay all tax due while (c) not paying too much." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26595" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10349" RevisionGUID="95cbed04-2446-47f4-8543-ca4a0ae96298" CreationDate="2021-11-19T18:18:24.780" UserId="23754" Text="I have 1 year of experience working freelance and the average jobs that I find is usually very fast in the communication and bidding process is like: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    &gt;&quot;Can you do this for XXX$?&quot; &#xD;&#xA;    &gt;&quot;Yes I can do that&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;    &gt;&quot;Ok.Do It&quot;&#xD;&#xA;    &gt;&quot;Done. Pay me&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;    &gt;Freelance work Finished # This usually takes three days as a maximum.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now with more experience and reputation, I am receiving offers from companies interested in my services but I am having problem with the bidding process because the companies want to do a interview for talk about my skills and show proof of knowledge or test. **besides that the company and interviewer talk few about the hourly rate or or how will I be paid so I lose my interest** ( this also happen with LinkedIn the process is really long apply for a job for the companies in LinkedIn job listing ) and think I can't do that because this take me time for bid in other fast projects and also take me time for study and improve my skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know if you experience in the interview process is different than mine and you all take interviews without problems but again I have few time for long interviews because I need to work and study.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel like if I reject this kind of interview process I could lose the opportunity of a interesting and long term job in a company and in this way forget of those smaller gig of three days. Maybe I am losing more than earn, having preferences in this fast jobs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26597" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10349" RevisionGUID="95cbed04-2446-47f4-8543-ca4a0ae96298" CreationDate="2021-11-19T18:18:24.780" UserId="23754" Text="How to say &quot;How long will take the Interview process&quot; without being rude?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26598" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10349" RevisionGUID="95cbed04-2446-47f4-8543-ca4a0ae96298" CreationDate="2021-11-19T18:18:24.780" UserId="23754" Text="|communication|time-management|project-bidding|evaluating-clients|interview|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26599" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10350" RevisionGUID="5b977485-f52e-4f1d-b1f8-e3289c07cc2f" CreationDate="2021-11-19T18:24:24.377" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26601" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10350" RevisionGUID="5b977485-f52e-4f1d-b1f8-e3289c07cc2f" CreationDate="2021-11-19T18:24:24.377" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26602" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10351" RevisionGUID="28024d66-5295-4f5e-aa21-79d53e9f48af" CreationDate="2021-11-19T18:24:24.377" UserId="-1" Text="" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26604" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10351" RevisionGUID="28024d66-5295-4f5e-aa21-79d53e9f48af" CreationDate="2021-11-19T18:24:24.377" UserId="-1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26605" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10352" RevisionGUID="81479409-b0ec-48d1-bc7a-5d7f3c6797de" CreationDate="2021-11-19T19:37:52.770" UserId="25082" Text="Longer-term clients are typically going to have a longer-form interview/onboard process, even for freelancers, as they're investing more time and money into you and the project you're going to be working on than if the job was able to be done in a couple of days. Think about it from their point of view: If the freelancer you hire for your 2 day project doesn't work out, the amount of time lost is far less than if they had hired said freelancer for a multi-month project and that freelancer doesn't work out. Companies/clients spending that extra time vetting those freelancers is worth it when the expected project workload is large.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The way to respond to this is... Let them do what they feel is necessary to ensure you're the right choice (within reason, of course). The investment of time on both sides (yours and theirs) should lend credence to the relationship you will have moving forward. Larger companies are typically going to have more extensive processes for hiring/contracting people out, so I'd expect this when you're getting involved with a bigger client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You say:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I feel like if I reject this kind of interview process I could lose the opportunity of an interesting and long-term job in a company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And, honestly, this is true. Recruiters don't work on your time, they work on *theirs*, and they're not really likely to adjust *their* timeframe for you unless you're an extraordinarily suitable candidate for what they're looking for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice? **Do your best to make the time for the most promising projects**. If your goal is to get involved with interesting, long-term contracts, then making the time for them really is worth it. Furthermore, those companies will appreciate that you've committed the time necessary for them to feel comfortable enough to work with you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As to your title's question, the best way to communicate that you'd like for the interview process to be shortened is to **try and leave any level of annoyance out** when you contact them. For your situation, I'd reach out to the recruiter/client and say something like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;I've got a lot of other offers that I'm currently negotiating, and while I'm very interested in your project, I do have to make a decision about taking on that workload or not within (*x* timeframe). Please let me know as soon as you can if you'd like me to work on this project.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This *sounds* professional, but again... Don't expect this to work very often, especially if you're communicating with a recruiter instead of directly to a client. It's more likely that a recruiter will choose the freelancer who was able to make time for their process than one that wants them to rush.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're more comfortable working on a bunch of smaller projects, and aren't running out of opportunities for them, it's perfectly acceptable to stay within your comfort zone. If it works for you, and you feel like you're becoming more proficient at what you do, don't feel pressured to deviate from your comfort zone until you're ready." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26607" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10352" RevisionGUID="f3ee04c9-8a76-422d-9a43-459d99fc1fd7" CreationDate="2021-11-19T19:44:17.850" UserId="25082" Comment="deleted 23 characters in body" Text="Longer-term clients are typically going to have a longer-form interview/onboard process, even for freelancers, as they're investing more time and money into you and the project you're going to be working on than if the job was able to be done in a couple of days. Think about it from their point of view: If the freelancer you hire for your 2 day project doesn't work out, the amount of time lost is far less than if they had hired said freelancer for a multi-month project and that freelancer doesn't work out. Companies/clients spending that extra time vetting those freelancers is worth it when the expected project workload is large.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The way to respond to this is... Let them do what they feel is necessary to ensure you're the right choice (within reason, of course). The investment of time on both sides (yours and theirs) should lend credence to the relationship you will have moving forward. Larger companies are typically going to have more extensive processes for hiring/contracting people out, so I'd expect this when you're getting involved with a bigger client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You say:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I feel like if I reject this kind of interview process I could lose the opportunity of an interesting and long-term job in a company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And, honestly, this is true. Recruiters don't work on your time, they work on *theirs*, and they're not really likely to adjust *their* timeframe for you unless you're an extraordinarily suitable candidate for what they're looking for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My advice? **Do your best to make the time for the most promising projects**. If your goal is to get involved with interesting, long-term contracts, then making the time for them really is worth it. Furthermore, those companies will appreciate that you've committed the time necessary for them to feel comfortable enough to work with you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As to your title's question, the best way to communicate that you'd like for the interview process to be shortened is to **try and leave any level of annoyance out** when you contact them. For your situation, I'd reach out to the recruiter/client and say something like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &quot;I've got a lot of other offers that I'm currently negotiating, and while I'm very interested in your project, I do have to make a decision about taking on that workload or not within (*x* timeframe). Please let me know as soon as you can if you'd like me to work on this project.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This *sounds* professional, but again... Don't expect this to work very often, especially if you're communicating with a recruiter instead of directly to a client. It's more likely that a recruiter will choose the freelancer who was able to make time for their process than one that wants them to rush.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're more comfortable working on a bunch of smaller projects, and aren't running out of opportunities for them, it's perfectly acceptable to stay within your comfort zone. If it works for you, and you feel like you're becoming more proficient at what you do, don't feel pressured to deviate until you're ready." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26608" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10349" RevisionGUID="c7a9343a-6534-4f26-a42e-f9fa12fa5f14" CreationDate="2021-11-19T19:46:25.433" UserId="25082" Comment="Massive grammar cleanup in title and body" Text="I have 1 year of experience working as a freelancer and on average, the jobs that I find are usually very fast in the communication and bidding process. An average communication goes like this: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    &gt;&quot;Can you do this for XXX$?&quot; &#xD;&#xA;    &gt;&quot;Yes I can do that&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;    &gt;&quot;Ok.Do It&quot;&#xD;&#xA;    &gt;&quot;Done. Pay me&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;    &gt;Freelance work Finished # This usually takes three days as a maximum.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now with more experience and reputation, I am receiving offers from companies interested in my services but I am having problem with the bidding process because the companies want to do an interview to talk about my skills and show proof of my knowledge or test me. **Besides that, the company and interviewer talk about the hourly rate or how will I be paid so I lose my interest.** This also happens with LinkedIn, the process is really long to apply for a job for the companies in the LinkedIn job listings, and think I can't do that because this takes me time that I could be spending biding on other, faster projects and also take time away from studying and improving my skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know if your experience in the interview process is different than mine or if you all take interviews without problems but again I have a small amount of time, and these longer interviews deeply cut into that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel like if I reject this kind of interview process I could lose the opportunity of an interesting and long-term job in a company and in this way forget those smaller gigs that only last three days. Maybe I am losing more than I earn, having preferences for these fast jobs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26609" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10349" RevisionGUID="c7a9343a-6534-4f26-a42e-f9fa12fa5f14" CreationDate="2021-11-19T19:46:25.433" UserId="25082" Comment="Massive grammar cleanup in title and body" Text="How to say &quot;How long will the interview process take?&quot; without being rude?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26610" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10349" RevisionGUID="c7a9343a-6534-4f26-a42e-f9fa12fa5f14" CreationDate="2021-11-19T19:46:25.433" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 23754 edit id of 794" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26611" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10349" RevisionGUID="e98c9cb9-c57e-4e3c-aa47-73ce8506c3d9" CreationDate="2021-11-19T20:08:09.460" UserId="23754" Comment="Besides that, the company and interviewer DOESNT talk about the hourly rate" Text="I have 1 year of experience working as a freelancer and on average, the jobs that I find are usually very fast in the communication and bidding process. An average communication goes like this: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    &gt;&quot;Can you do this for XXX$?&quot; &#xD;&#xA;    &gt;&quot;Yes I can do that&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;    &gt;&quot;Ok.Do It&quot;&#xD;&#xA;    &gt;&quot;Done. Pay me&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;    &gt;Freelance work Finished # This usually takes three days as a maximum.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now with more experience and reputation, I am receiving offers from companies interested in my services but I am having problem with the bidding process because the companies want to do an interview to talk about my skills and show proof of my knowledge or test me. **Besides that, the company and interviewer doesn't talk about the hourly rate or how will I be paid so I lose my interest.** This also happens with LinkedIn, the process is really long to apply for a job for the companies in the LinkedIn job listings, and think I can't do that because this takes me time that I could be spending biding on other, faster projects and also take time away from studying and improving my skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know if your experience in the interview process is different than mine or if you all take interviews without problems but again I have a small amount of time, and these longer interviews deeply cut into that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel like if I reject this kind of interview process I could lose the opportunity of an interesting and long-term job in a company and in this way forget those smaller gigs that only last three days. Maybe I am losing more than I earn, having preferences for these fast jobs." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26613" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10353" RevisionGUID="45c31ea8-9013-4f8f-ae68-9958ea36b14f" CreationDate="2021-11-21T18:03:59.547" UserId="27230" Text="Just ask them, there is nothing rude about clarifying timeframes or anything else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you lose an opportunity you lose it, it's not a big deal, you just move forwards and look for another.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer you lose money chasing jobs as you're not getting paid for the time spent chasing so it's perfectly normal to be interested in any timeframes that affect your revenue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; companies want to do an interview to talk about my skills and show proof of my knowledge or test me&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The projects that need this usually would not go to someone with just a years experience freelancing. Be careful with recruiters using up your time. They're not working for your benefit, they have their own agenda and stable to build.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Maybe I am losing more than I earn, having preferences for these fast jobs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not all about money, you maximise their usefulness by networking and adding to your reputation for professional work. Your rep is eventually worth more than your qualifications." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26616" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6334" RevisionGUID="2d1f35b8-bddf-44ae-bcd0-72a4bc2faf81" CreationDate="2021-11-22T00:00:00.097" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1462571528055402496" />
  <row Id="26617" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10351" RevisionGUID="a89baf05-9ca5-4df0-846e-2142022e4e6c" CreationDate="2021-11-22T08:40:48.923" UserId="23754" Comment="added 313 characters in body" Text="The bidding process is used to select a freelancer for subcontracting a project, or for purchasing products and services that are required for a project. The client sends the bid to a group of freelancers for response. The freelancers analyze the bid and calculate the cost at which they can complete the project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26618" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10351" RevisionGUID="a89baf05-9ca5-4df0-846e-2142022e4e6c" CreationDate="2021-11-22T08:40:48.923" Comment="Proposed by 23754 approved by 7858 edit id of 793" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26619" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9734" RevisionGUID="1a32988b-9fdf-43f9-9109-c24f5bba264d" CreationDate="2021-11-22T14:46:58.860" UserId="25082" Comment="Overarching grammar adjustments across the board, added important detail to the title" Text="For nearly one year, I've been giving mathematics lessons to a high-school student. I think I have good knowledge of mathematics as I graduated from a French top engineering school and I specialized in operations research, a sub-field of applied mathematics and computer science.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;During this year, I became more and more involved and concerned about the success of my student as he reminds me of me on many points when I was younger. I won't go too deep into this point as it is a bit personal. We do not do refresher courses but more homework and often deepening lessons. He will finally understand all exercises until then and he has the best grades in his class.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the recent COVID-19 pandemic, I had to give him less lessons. Only two hours since the beginning of the restrictions, whereas I used to give him two a week. Even if it was only two hours and there might not be much more, I'm very concerned about the prices of our lessons. Indeed, I think that I'm much less efficient explaining to him the concepts while talking to him on the phone. Most of all, I find it very hard to write down the math, taking pictures of it, all the while thinking of my pedagogy, and finally sending it to him thanks to our phones. It appears we are less efficient. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's why I was thinking of asking his mother to pay me less for those hours. Money isn't the main reason why I give those lessons at all. Enjoying doing some math, helping him, and having this experience are all more important reasons. So I don't mind at all being less paid and I'm much more concerned about the fairness of such discount. I don't think this is an important factor, but it appears their family isn't in need of money. I'm also concerned if it could degrade my lessons' quality opinion, maybe in general. And that's true, they are less efficient while online. I was also thinking of questioning my way of teaching online. Maybe I'm just not good at it, and many teachers can do it well, perhaps with practice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've searched online for good reasons to teach online instead of in-person and what I could find is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. No travel to the student or teacher's houses or meeting place.&#xD;&#xA;2. Efficiency. This can be an innovative plus a recreational way of learning for the student&#xD;&#xA;3. Accessibility. Such lessons can benefit for disability students.&#xD;&#xA;4. Flexibility of schedules. Easier to plan the courses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Points 1, 3 and 4 don't apply to my case. Point 2 is the opposite of my situation. Finally, if it was clear that it is fair and the right thing to discount my lessons, how do I know what percentage I should ask for?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26620" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="9734" RevisionGUID="1a32988b-9fdf-43f9-9109-c24f5bba264d" CreationDate="2021-11-22T14:46:58.860" UserId="25082" Comment="Overarching grammar adjustments across the board, added important detail to the title" Text="Should I charge less for online lessons if I feel that I'm less efficient at them?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26621" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9734" RevisionGUID="1a32988b-9fdf-43f9-9109-c24f5bba264d" CreationDate="2021-11-22T14:46:58.860" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 24722 edit id of 799" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26622" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="926" RevisionGUID="d210147f-c192-41ce-8aa9-1e584a9b1dfe" CreationDate="2021-11-22T16:53:47.040" UserId="25082" Comment="Improved grammar in the first sentence, removed the freelance-websites tag as this question does not concern actual Freelancing websites, added the web-development tag as this question does concern a problem unique to freelance web dev" Text="If a client needs a small change made to their website (e.g. a phone number needs changing, a user profile needs to be updated in a way the site doesn't allow, etc.) I usually will not charge my clients. I see it as a small courtesy to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if the client is sending about 10 of these every month, I need to charge for them, and the question is: How much? If they were all given in one go, it'd be easy: I'd just charge an hourly rate. But when they're given one at a time, randomly, across the month, it's more difficult. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While a job (like updating a phone number) may take 5 minutes, it also disrupts your workflow from other clients, as you have to open the project, dig out the right file, make the change, connect over FTP and upload the file, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you try and calculate something based on your hourly rate (which seems like a good place to start), what's the smallest unit you charge for? An hour? Half an hour? 15 minutes? 5 minutes?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26623" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="926" RevisionGUID="d210147f-c192-41ce-8aa9-1e584a9b1dfe" CreationDate="2021-11-22T16:53:47.040" UserId="25082" Comment="Improved grammar in the first sentence, removed the freelance-websites tag as this question does not concern actual Freelancing websites, added the web-development tag as this question does concern a problem unique to freelance web dev" Text="|price|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26624" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="926" RevisionGUID="d210147f-c192-41ce-8aa9-1e584a9b1dfe" CreationDate="2021-11-22T16:53:47.040" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 7858 edit id of 797" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26625" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9771" RevisionGUID="af24f87c-52ca-48d2-8637-2ec05f1720bd" CreationDate="2021-11-22T16:54:42.663" UserId="25082" Comment="Adjusted grammar in the first paragraph, trimmed a couple of unnecessary words in the rest of this otherwise excellent answer" Text="I couldn't help but leave my own insights on this matter as two existing answers are all implying a client shouldn't be charged for his employee's mistakes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this question is about the rights of getting paid when delays have been made due to freelancer's inexperience, low-level skills, or working practices - as opposed to his/her hidden features like characteristics, inattentiveness, or negligence - the client still has to pay for it. Errors and mistakes happen everywhere, every time. There's nothing guilty about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason is clear: The client shouldn't have hired his employee in the first place if his/her skills didn't meet up his expectations. That's what employers do. Most importantly, he should be responsible for his choice of choosing whom he is working with, and what his employee's mindset looks like. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Refusing to pay for the mistakes can only happen when the client thinks he has hired a working robot, not a human. Otherwise, any hours spent on the work that is (even slightly) related to the client's project are subject to the regular payment, especially when you are working on an hourly basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as you have materials that support your claim you didn't idly spend time for those 35 mins, you have full rights to get paid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26626" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9771" RevisionGUID="af24f87c-52ca-48d2-8637-2ec05f1720bd" CreationDate="2021-11-22T16:54:42.663" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 7858 edit id of 796" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26627" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9700" RevisionGUID="9d033e15-93ba-4141-9199-c20f50906b23" CreationDate="2021-11-22T16:55:15.070" UserId="25082" Comment="Removed &quot;thanks&quot; at the end (per https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/2950 ) - Adjusted wording at the start and adjusted punctuation throughout" Text="As a web developer freelancer, clients sometimes ask me to give them a mockup for some new pages or ideas they have in mind and want to build. This takes time to achieve, so should I be asking them for extra fees or consider it as a part of the working process?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26628" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9700" RevisionGUID="9d033e15-93ba-4141-9199-c20f50906b23" CreationDate="2021-11-22T16:55:15.070" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 7858 edit id of 798" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26629" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9825" RevisionGUID="77ad1a44-464a-4500-b2f9-20a59c370ca6" CreationDate="2021-11-22T16:55:56.290" UserId="25082" Comment="Trimmed fluff at the end, normalized a sentence from &quot;take the duration to&quot; to &quot;extend the duration&quot; " Text="So as the developer survey states the average salary of an iOS developer, you definitely need to charge little more. Let's suppose a developer earns 100% for a two-month job, so you need to charge 120%-140% of it. A freelancer always charges more than a full-time developer, as you might be giving more time than a full-time developer or you possess more experience than an average developer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, once the task is complete, the client will be asking for revisions too that might extend the duration to more than two months. So you need to take this into consideration too. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26630" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9825" RevisionGUID="77ad1a44-464a-4500-b2f9-20a59c370ca6" CreationDate="2021-11-22T16:55:56.290" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 7858 edit id of 795" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26633" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10354" RevisionGUID="89563093-c9bd-4b98-9fcf-a2ce35672fce" CreationDate="2021-11-23T11:55:22.073" UserId="27339" Text="Please redirect me if there's a more appropriate site to post this question on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Taking this hypothetical scenario:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I'm a citizen of the UK&#xD;&#xA;- I live abroad (not in the EU or the US)&#xD;&#xA;- I freelance remotely in the US&#xD;&#xA;- My salary goes into a UK bank account&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Which country do I need to pay tax?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've checked gov.uk which is usually very clear but I can't find this particular scenario." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26635" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10354" RevisionGUID="89563093-c9bd-4b98-9fcf-a2ce35672fce" CreationDate="2021-11-23T11:55:22.073" UserId="27339" Text="Paying tax while working abroad remotely" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26636" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10354" RevisionGUID="89563093-c9bd-4b98-9fcf-a2ce35672fce" CreationDate="2021-11-23T11:55:22.073" UserId="27339" Text="|taxes|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26637" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10355" RevisionGUID="7d652ba0-450c-415e-bbca-c234168b5337" CreationDate="2021-11-23T22:17:52.940" UserId="25311" Text="Most importantly: upwork.com knows that some customers are... &quot;heavy&quot; and they consider it in your (disclosed) rate calculation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Furthermore, such bad luck happens with roughly equal probability among the freelancers. Thus, the chance of that you will have bad luck multiple times, is very low. In my personal case, this customer, although wasted a week for me, but ultimately paid, offered new projects and probably gave a good feedback. But I was not so lucky with another one. The result is that I still have a quite good, although not exceptional rating here. Today I do not use them (my current job forbids it) but I could get projects any time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The most important thing: do not over-estimate the importance of single case bad lucks, *the top prio is your average result*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Probably there is no way to delete a contract on the upwork.com, but probably it can be closed in good standing (and with good feedback), but very likely it requires the cooperation of the customer, too. So there is no way to silently leave out, but some bud luck is tolerated by the company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The UI what the customers see... well it is not better than the developers see. Many seemingly non-cooperativity of the customers roots that they have no idea, what and where to click on their UI.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Beside these, I also accepted and did some not economical projects with the goal to improve my rating. As the details of the rating calculation are not known, I have no way to know, how much did it help." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26639" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10356" RevisionGUID="ff700fbf-1155-4c43-ab75-a7b8c0b24854" CreationDate="2021-11-23T23:23:00.567" UserId="27345" Text="I've been googling this for days without a straightforward answer. My spouse is joining the foreign service, and we're both moving to Thailand next July on the US gov's dime. According to the foreign service materials on the state department website, I will probably have to pay Thai taxes for any income since I'll be living there for three years. I'm not too concerned about that. I'm a copyeditor for a few clients. I'm a 1099 contractor with them and get regular work with them. I've read a lot about foreign service spouses losing their W-2 jobs due to moving overseas because the company doesn't want to incur the tax risks. Will I encounter a similar thing when I tell my current companies about my move? Or does having a contracting relationship mean that nothing will change when I move? The best info I could find was that as long as you have a US address and bank account, you should be fine. But I just wanted to see if anyone else had a more thorough answer. Thanks!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26641" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10356" RevisionGUID="ff700fbf-1155-4c43-ab75-a7b8c0b24854" CreationDate="2021-11-23T23:23:00.567" UserId="27345" Text="Working with American Companies while Overseas" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26642" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10356" RevisionGUID="ff700fbf-1155-4c43-ab75-a7b8c0b24854" CreationDate="2021-11-23T23:23:00.567" UserId="27345" Text="|taxes|usa|remote|clients|travel|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26643" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="9734" RevisionGUID="093bc1f5-93fa-4f65-9f3b-b415f7caa6db" CreationDate="2021-11-24T15:00:04.063" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1463522812455497746" />
  <row Id="26645" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10357" RevisionGUID="26a0e83c-006b-4630-b868-6474236d9717" CreationDate="2021-11-26T01:45:15.610" UserId="27355" Text="I hired a WordPress developer to help with some customizations. We agreed on a fixed contract amount with fixed hours. When the developer delivered the product, there were several major problems with it (all within the scope). She spent several more hours fixing the bugs. Now she is charging for the extra hours spent on this. Our contract didn't specify how this would be handled. Is this normal practice? Shouldn't the product function as we greed, before I pay extra?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26647" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10357" RevisionGUID="26a0e83c-006b-4630-b868-6474236d9717" CreationDate="2021-11-26T01:45:15.610" UserId="27355" Text="Freelancer charging for debugging" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26648" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10357" RevisionGUID="26a0e83c-006b-4630-b868-6474236d9717" CreationDate="2021-11-26T01:45:15.610" UserId="27355" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26649" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10358" RevisionGUID="cb2fe48a-5204-4daa-b30c-141c717431bc" CreationDate="2021-11-26T15:51:16.913" UserId="26181" Text="If the contract didn't specify what the deliverables were, then you are forced to negotiate that later. In this case, you have conflicting deliverables - so many hours of work, vs. fully debugged effort. So, you need to negotiate which deliverable is satisfying the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In most cases with software development, it is not possible to guarantee all three of &quot;fixed price&quot;, &quot;hours of work&quot;, and &quot;fully debugged product&quot;. In most cases, to get fully debugged product, the price and hours of work are open ended as bugs can be found in almost every product out there and can be found years later. Most software is delivered when someone decides that the remaining bugs are acceptable for today." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26655" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10359" RevisionGUID="3c3c8c70-a1a8-4c1c-a763-d1cfe8a2eb88" CreationDate="2021-11-27T12:30:16.157" UserId="4644" Text="From my experience in Germany as a part-time freelance software developer with a full-time job (also as software developer), there are a few things to observe:&#xD;&#xA;- First of all check if your employer if they agree about you taking additional work on the side. They're liable if you work over 10h a day and that could happen with a side job they don't know about. Your employment contract is a good place to start.&#xD;&#xA;- Your income from freelance should be less than what you make from employment or you'll be in for additional health insurance costs. Ask your health insurance company and they may tell you a number. Freelancing should not represent your main source of income.&#xD;&#xA;- Accounting for freelancers (Freiberuflich) is not as tough as for companies (GmbH, AG), but still involves monthly work (Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung) and yearly declaration of profit (Einkommenssteuererklärung). The intervals may be extended once your first year is past (quarterly or yearly declaration).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;About your specific questions:&#xD;&#xA;1. Clients expect a bill to satisfy all legal requirements. The exact wording of a bill depend on your legal status (e.g. freelance differs from small company).&#xD;&#xA;2. If you resign from your company, don't expect any unemployment benefits at all. I did that when going full-time freelance, wrote a business plan and was right out rejected at the unemployment center. You won't get any help from them unless you mean to start a company with employees or you lost employment without just cause.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd recommend to look for a seminar on starting a company (Existenzgründerseminar). You can find them in many places (like Volkshochschule) and it's a great place to start to understand how a company is run (at least in theory)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26657" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10360" RevisionGUID="29f762b8-a45f-4f49-a43e-f43961aad2c0" CreationDate="2021-11-30T10:25:33.667" UserId="27366" Text="I agree with DavidR response completely.  To help going forward, I'd suggest a very clear delivery spec.  It doesn't have to be exhaustive, but certainly clarity on what is considered 'delivered.'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example:&#xD;&#xA;1) discrete list of requirements (functionality, UI, data, operational, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;2) discrepancies/errors/bugs related to (1) are known as DEFECTS and will be considered 'on the table' to fix before delivery within current contract.&#xD;&#xA;3) with (1) and (2) accepted, the product is 'delivered'; current contract concludes with pymt.&#xD;&#xA;4) anything beyond (1) and (2) is negotiable for delivery or beyond -- but you have to accept being charged for it &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;'good enough' is a concept for determining how (3) is realized.  As DaveR mentions, there are always more things to discover over time.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I fix DEFECTS on my time as I should have caught them in my own QA; even if they are exposed after delivery (i.e. both the client and myself missed them during QA).  Then again, I'm fairly rigid about requirements up front just to keep it clear for all parties; this minimizes my exposure to DEFECTS." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26659" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10360" RevisionGUID="2e101ae1-0cc4-4c23-8282-c6819a0519c0" CreationDate="2021-11-30T17:35:17.820" UserId="25082" Comment="Replaced apostrophes with quotation marks, changed wording a bit in the beginning to be more clear" Text="I agree with DavidR's response completely. To help going forward, I'd suggest a very clear delivery spec. It doesn't have to be exhaustive, but there should certainly be clarity on what is considered &quot;delivered.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example:&#xD;&#xA;1) discrete list of requirements (functionality, UI, data, operational, etc.)&#xD;&#xA;2) discrepancies/errors/bugs related to (1) are known as DEFECTS and will be considered 'on the table' to fix before delivery within current contract.&#xD;&#xA;3) with (1) and (2) accepted, the product is &quot;delivered&quot;; current contract concludes with payment.&#xD;&#xA;4) anything beyond (1) and (2) is negotiable for delivery or beyond -- but you have to accept being charged for it &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;Good enough&quot; is a concept for determining how (3) is realized.  As DavidR mentions, there are always more things to discover over time.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I fix DEFECTS on my time as I should have caught them in my own QA; even if they are exposed after delivery (i.e. both the client and myself missed them during QA).  Then again, I'm fairly rigid about requirements up front just to keep it clear for all parties; this minimizes my exposure to DEFECTS." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26660" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10360" RevisionGUID="2e101ae1-0cc4-4c23-8282-c6819a0519c0" CreationDate="2021-11-30T17:35:17.820" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 75 edit id of 800" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26662" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10361" RevisionGUID="00c7857f-406d-4601-a446-baa9ddd38458" CreationDate="2021-12-03T13:46:36.293" UserId="116" Text="I use [TrackingTime][1]. It has a [Chrome extension][2] or can be used in browser or as a Chrome app as well. I use the paid version (started with the free version) and can create multiple projects, each with their own list of tasks, and I can decide which tasks are billable and for how much. Also, I can print out timesheets as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S. There's a dark mode. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://trackingtime.co/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.trackingtime&amp;hl=en_US&amp;gl=US" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26664" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10362" RevisionGUID="f37be55e-f5fa-4831-a2cd-e2dddf1123a8" CreationDate="2021-12-04T15:06:49.850" UserId="21687" Text="As an independent computer contractor/consultant for many years, I worked as a Schedule_C/1099 dba until 1986, when Section 1706 of the tax code came into effect, e.g., http://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/awweb/awarchive?type=file&amp;item=667927 After that, many potential customers who wanted contractors for one-time-only projects could only hire me as an employee, whereby my client base shrank drastically overnight.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So I pretty quickly incorporated as an S-Corp (LLC's didn't exist at that time) to recover my business. So I was the sole officer, sole shareholder, and sole employee. And one major advantage over Schedule_C is that some of the company's revenue can be given as a Schedule_K (on your corporate Form_1120S) distribution, rather than as W2 wages. Why would you want to bother? No social security fica withholding whatsoever on those Schedule_K distributions. And that can add up to quite a lot of money since both halves (employee and employer) of fica are coming directly out of your own pocket.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The IRS pretty much won't bat an eyelash if you keep Schedule_K distributions to some 40% of revenue, though I've known lots of fellow contractors who've done 60% and more without problems.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also provide health insurance (make absolutely sure to report it on W2 line 12), matching retirement benefits, etc, which your company claims as deductible expenses. And although Schedule_C/dba's can deduct lots of expenses like rent, etc, S-Corps (and I assume LLC's) have an even more liberal scope of deductions available.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The paperwork is significantly greater than Schedule_C, but you begin to get accustomed to it after several years. All-in-all, I'd say it's been well worth the extra effort, but it's certainly a personal choice you'll have to decide for yourself." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26671" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10364" RevisionGUID="8cfbdb82-b98c-4259-9fc1-651ddf1e1f00" CreationDate="2021-12-09T17:16:04.223" UserId="1303" Text="I am in the process of making the project agreement for a project that I will start working on. I will be taking 50% advance payment and the rest of the payment will be made after the project is completed and before I hand over the credentials of the website to my client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now suppose the client is not satisfied with my work and asks for a refund.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wish to know whether it is a good idea to make the advance payment non-refundable?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or shall I opt for a partial refund (on the advance payment amount) based on how much work I did and whether I purchased any commercial licenses of digital products for my client in the process of developing his website?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please let me know which choice will be better and more convenient to use for my present client or any future clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you so much." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26673" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10364" RevisionGUID="8cfbdb82-b98c-4259-9fc1-651ddf1e1f00" CreationDate="2021-12-09T17:16:04.223" UserId="1303" Text="Is it a good idea to make the advance payment of a project non-refundable?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26674" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10364" RevisionGUID="8cfbdb82-b98c-4259-9fc1-651ddf1e1f00" CreationDate="2021-12-09T17:16:04.223" UserId="1303" Text="|payment-terms|payments|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26675" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10365" RevisionGUID="d323d52c-241b-419a-9975-2adac5387876" CreationDate="2021-12-09T20:14:16.683" UserId="75" Text="Part of what makes it an advance is that you're delivering a product/service. Part of making a deposit is that you may have to give it back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether it's 50%, 10%, or 100%, it doesn't matter - the fee should be paid towards your work as you're doing it, or before. Make sure you do not call it a deposit, as that implies the customer could ask for it back.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest to also make a Scope of Work document that includes milestone payments (i.e. 3 month project, pay 25% up front, another 25% at month 1 end, another 25% and month 2 end, and the final 25% on delivery). You still need to eat and pay bills, and get paid for your work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26677" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10366" RevisionGUID="9344d48c-b327-433c-835e-d29963944da0" CreationDate="2021-12-10T15:20:51.127" UserId="26181" Text="If this is before you have written the contract, then you get to decide if it is non-refundable. If the client agrees and signs the contract, that is all that counts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If, however, you don't have this spelled out in the contract, the client paid the 50%, you did the work, and now the client is unhappy, this is a situation of intense negotiation and our opinions don't matter. All that matters is what you negotiate with the client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I recommend that these points get put into the initial proposal made to the client so that it is spelled out as far in advance as possible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The size of the project makes a difference as to how the early payments are structured. (A small project can be 50/50 while a large project might have 10 payments.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is also very important to spell out when a project transitions from being fixed price to hourly. Spell out when the client's requests for changes become the trigger to stop the fixed price, how much per hour, and what the new billing cycle will be. I had one project where the initial price assumed no changes but the price should handle some changes. When I reviewed it, I was about to start losing money because of all the changes. That became an intense negotiation to change the contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26679" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10367" RevisionGUID="3f2ff2fe-9707-4638-9b0e-338b33892d4f" CreationDate="2021-12-11T06:40:23.073" UserId="27408" Text="I'm a freelancing web developer and want to offer clients a complete setup of all services, including account creation and service subscription so I can give them the end product without them having the headache of setting up the services. For that I will need their `credit card info`.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the safest way of inquiring this info? Communication is done via email, so I was thinking that sending a `zipped image` with the info might work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you think?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26681" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10367" RevisionGUID="3f2ff2fe-9707-4638-9b0e-338b33892d4f" CreationDate="2021-12-11T06:40:23.073" UserId="27408" Text="Safest way to send Credit Card information" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26682" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10367" RevisionGUID="3f2ff2fe-9707-4638-9b0e-338b33892d4f" CreationDate="2021-12-11T06:40:23.073" UserId="27408" Text="|freelance-websites|payments|communication|web-development|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26683" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9378" RevisionGUID="65a2c2ba-59fa-4de3-be71-c2017ee2e0bf" CreationDate="2021-12-11T09:52:35.833" UserId="19071" Comment="deleted 115 characters in body" Text="I am 31 years old and graduated university in math with a PhD in 2016. Since then I started a startup on my own.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My goal is to transform into a PHP freelancer who works for a 3-9 months in different companies a year and the remaining months for own projects or the project for my parents. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I created a LinkedIn profile and got many request for full-time jobs which I declined until now because I wanted to keep the project with my parents going. I also got some 3 months freelancing offers, but they often included `experience with writing REST API's`.&#xD;&#xA;Although I have used many REST API's to include them in my projects, I never actually written a REST API so that other developer could integrate my REST API into their project (because there is no demand for this). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What would be the best way to learn this skill? &#xD;&#xA;Is that something that one learns only when working in a big tech or middleclass company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26684" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10368" RevisionGUID="edd8241f-98a0-4231-b7e6-bfbdfde07fce" CreationDate="2021-12-11T18:54:28.173" UserId="75" Text="A zipped archive is only helpful if it is encrypted with a password, and the password is not sent via email. As well, the customer would need to ensure they're following the instructions *exactly* to get it working. Does their OS support the latest encryption algorithms that an external program (i.e Winzip or 7zip) support? If not, you'd also need to walk them through installing the extra programs.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In reality, I see two ways to go about this if you're adament about obtaining their credit card information: through a payment processor, and not-at-all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Payment Processor (i.e. Moneris, Global Payments, Paypal, etc) take on the security burden, and deal with the encryption required. They will take a small percent off the top, but you will have money, and the customer has security. Win-win!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are purchasing services on behalf of a client, I would suggest getting payment up front (and obviously with a bit of markup - what happens if they don't pay you or forget for a month?), and *then* purchasing the services. If you're doing web hosting, there are many top-tier solutions to manage this part for you (i.e. cPanel).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After the services are running and the client has paid, I would send them instructions on how to add their CC information to the payment portals, removing you from the accounting side of their account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**A BIG WARNING HERE**: You mention you only deal with the customers over email? How do you know they're really who they say they are? You are taking a big risk by offering to handle everything for this client without meeting them in person. I would suggest taking a few precautions, such as only getting services for as long as you can afford (for if/when they don't pay), or even using a temporary credit card number (Visa offers this service, not sure about others) that has a preset limit on how much can be spent, even though it goes to your main credit card.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You also do not want to become involved in any sort of scam with stolen credit cards. The less you deal with their credit card on your end, the better. If you can avoid taking the credit card number during the transactions, the better you'll be!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26686" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10369" RevisionGUID="a85e0c64-5705-4b1b-92a4-31aacd8e5232" CreationDate="2021-12-16T10:41:48.407" UserId="24970" Text="I want to create an agency that subcontracts specialists to companies. Just wanted to clarify the terms. What is consultancy and agency difference?&#xD;&#xA;What is then different from a project company or product company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26688" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10369" RevisionGUID="a85e0c64-5705-4b1b-92a4-31aacd8e5232" CreationDate="2021-12-16T10:41:48.407" UserId="24970" Text="Difference between consultancy and agency" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26689" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10369" RevisionGUID="a85e0c64-5705-4b1b-92a4-31aacd8e5232" CreationDate="2021-12-16T10:41:48.407" UserId="24970" Text="|consulting|subcontracting|agency|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26690" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10370" RevisionGUID="d55f8fd7-231d-4e35-bf9e-9be10340ae4e" CreationDate="2021-12-16T11:14:23.770" UserId="7858" Text="I am not aware of any official or legal definitions of the words - but in my humble opinion I would regard 'agency' and 'consultancy' as synonymous.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A 'project company' is different from a 'product company', as the latter has ownership over a commercial product whereas the former may be hired by a 'product company' to create/maintain their product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The 'project company' might in itself be a consultancy or use consultancies for staffing projects." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26692" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10371" RevisionGUID="ac081cfc-dc72-4a34-b520-615c6644cc11" CreationDate="2021-12-16T14:10:51.953" UserId="27419" Text="1Password recently released a feature to share a login credential with anyone, you could recommend they setup an account there and then share the card information with you there for X amount of days.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://support.1password.com/share-items/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26694" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10370" RevisionGUID="4892ca3d-3f9c-4480-8c71-6c45f7a9aa81" CreationDate="2021-12-17T06:23:53.320" UserId="7858" Comment="Refined answer from comment" Text="I am not aware of any official or legal definitions of the words - but in my humble opinion I would regard 'agency' and 'consultancy' as synonymous.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A 'project company' is different from a 'product company', as the latter has ownership over a commercial product whereas the former may be hired by a 'product company' to create/maintain their product.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The 'project company' might in itself be a consultancy or use consultancies for staffing projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Addendum edit from comment (David R):**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The only difference I would add between 'agency' and 'consultancy' is that the 'consultancy' is often just one person or one person and some employees whereas the 'agency' is often 'placing' consultants that are not current employees" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26695" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10367" RevisionGUID="4efa4c70-b53b-4968-91cf-e5b59b66f1ee" CreationDate="2021-12-18T05:36:53.307" UserId="-1" Comment="code formatting should only be used for code, as it hurts accessibility; added clarification to title" Text="I'm a freelancing web developer and want to offer clients a complete setup of all services, including account creation and service subscription so I can give them the end product without them having the headache of setting up the services. For that I will need their **credit card info**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is the safest way to acquire this info? Communication is done via email, so I was thinking that sending a **zipped image** with the info might work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you think?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26696" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10367" RevisionGUID="4efa4c70-b53b-4968-91cf-e5b59b66f1ee" CreationDate="2021-12-18T05:36:53.307" UserId="-1" Comment="code formatting should only be used for code, as it hurts accessibility; added clarification to title" Text="Safest way to send Credit Card information when communication is through email" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26697" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10367" RevisionGUID="4efa4c70-b53b-4968-91cf-e5b59b66f1ee" CreationDate="2021-12-18T05:36:53.307" Comment="Proposed by anonymous approved by 27408 edit id of 801" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26703" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10373" RevisionGUID="fc3e3301-9bfb-4034-a409-6bfd3a9ae2ee" CreationDate="2021-12-24T14:00:15.520" UserId="21254" Text="The question is rather. How to choose open-source in favor of a paid job, overtime work, or any other paid alternatives.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do open-source and have no doubts it is useful for other people as well as myself. I have an ongoing internal conflict when I want to do open-source but in the meantime, I have other paid alternatives. My variants: do commercial projects, automate routine tasks, learn new tech, write a blog. There are many possible alternatives to advertise and market myself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I see many people propose it as a way to build a network, a way to market oneself, get into the profession. These suggestions aren't very helpful in the current state of my career.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are other reasons to do open-source? I don't expect it to get me rich or famous etc. Rather what other arguments should I consider to have a healthy balance between paid and open-source projects?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26705" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10373" RevisionGUID="fc3e3301-9bfb-4034-a409-6bfd3a9ae2ee" CreationDate="2021-12-24T14:00:15.520" UserId="21254" Text="Why to contribute to open-source versus working in close-source code as a freelancer, full-time employed?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26706" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10373" RevisionGUID="fc3e3301-9bfb-4034-a409-6bfd3a9ae2ee" CreationDate="2021-12-24T14:00:15.520" UserId="21254" Text="|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26707" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10374" RevisionGUID="c4cffccc-4040-46b8-99eb-9d637f4efc40" CreationDate="2021-12-26T14:08:17.010" UserId="27476" Text="Generally, for any kind of payment you receive as freelancer, you have to give an invoice. And in order to be able to do that, you need some sort of legal form, either single-person company or a full company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client will always need an official document (invoice) to justify their payment (money going out of their company). If a client tells you he/she doesn't need an invoice, that most likely means they plan to pay you &quot;under the hand&quot;/off the books." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26709" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10359" RevisionGUID="d8bcefb7-cf70-4062-9a1b-564f10af35d2" CreationDate="2021-12-27T05:39:19.320" UserId="25495" Comment="emphasise the most relevant parts that answers the question" Text="From my experience in Germany as a part-time freelance software developer with a full-time job (also as software developer), there are a few things to observe:&#xD;&#xA;- First of all **check if your employer agrees** about you taking additional work on the side. They're liable if you work over 10 hours a day and that could happen with a side job they don't know about. Your employment contract is a good place to start.&#xD;&#xA;- **Your income from freelance should be less than what you make from employment or you'll be in for additional health insurance costs**. Ask your health insurance company and they may tell you a number. Freelancing should not represent your main source of income.&#xD;&#xA;- Accounting for freelancers (Freiberuflich) is not as tough as for companies (GmbH, AG), but still involves monthly work (Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung) and yearly declaration of profit (Einkommenssteuererklärung). The intervals may be extended once your first year is past (quarterly or yearly declaration).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;About your specific questions:&#xD;&#xA;1. Clients expect a bill to satisfy all legal requirements. The exact wording of a bill depend on your legal status (e.g. freelance differs from small company).&#xD;&#xA;2. If you resign from your company, **don't expect any unemployment benefits at all**. I did that when going full-time freelance, wrote a business plan and was right out rejected at the unemployment center. You won't get any help from them unless you mean to start a company with employees or you lost employment without just cause.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd recommend to look for a seminar on starting a company (Existenzgründerseminar). You can find them in many places (like Volkshochschule) and it's a great place to start to understand how a company is run (at least in theory)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26710" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10359" RevisionGUID="d8bcefb7-cf70-4062-9a1b-564f10af35d2" CreationDate="2021-12-27T05:39:19.320" Comment="Proposed by 25495 approved by 7858 edit id of 802" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26711" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10375" RevisionGUID="8a927b9c-51a0-4f83-8b59-b11da65bfc22" CreationDate="2021-12-29T11:34:38.380" UserId="27489" Text="This is my youtube channel it basically about coding -&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[YT Channel Link][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCteo8bQnfFFFZoQADQx-fRw?sub_confirmation=1&amp;fbclid=IwAR357n9A9Plm6yilCxdQVlk3yh0bAKPYcCHWuBHcv0XWGwhFgw5EZK8p7kw&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Few people request work or quires regarding how can I use this opportunity to generate revenue as my YT channel does not generate revenue still via ads.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26713" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10375" RevisionGUID="8a927b9c-51a0-4f83-8b59-b11da65bfc22" CreationDate="2021-12-29T11:34:38.380" UserId="27489" Text="I have youtube channel, how do I convert requests in comments to income?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26714" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10375" RevisionGUID="8a927b9c-51a0-4f83-8b59-b11da65bfc22" CreationDate="2021-12-29T11:34:38.380" UserId="27489" Text="|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26715" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10375" RevisionGUID="0fe1af77-3b3f-4a70-9107-13b8b4c81e4c" CreationDate="2021-12-29T20:02:09.387" UserId="-1" Comment="change the youtube link from request to subscribe to channel" Text="This is my youtube channel it basically about coding -&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[YT Channel Link][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCteo8bQnfFFFZoQADQx-fRw&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Few people request work or quires regarding how can I use this opportunity to generate revenue as my YT channel does not generate revenue still via ads.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26716" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10375" RevisionGUID="0fe1af77-3b3f-4a70-9107-13b8b4c81e4c" CreationDate="2021-12-29T20:02:09.387" Comment="Proposed by anonymous approved by 75 edit id of 803" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26722" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10377" RevisionGUID="23799175-fe72-4eb5-87f7-51fcd60961b0" CreationDate="2021-12-31T05:39:45.063" UserId="25830" Text="There's a whole market on top of monetizing youtube channels. Mostly:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## advertisement&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You make money by running ads, either from youtube or any company that wants you to talk about their brand. vpns, mental health apps, online learning sites, etc etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Youtube's ads are great because you don't need to chase and negotiate with companies, but they don't bring that much money&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## merchandising&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People like your work, so you setup a shop to sell generic stuff to your audience. Usually t-shirts with memes related to your content, with your logo or any kind of product that people by to show support.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## patreons&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;People that like your content will give you money in exchange for relevance or special benefits, there are dozens of sites you can setup to ask people for a monthly fee to help support you making videos.&#xD;&#xA;Some people just want to help, some people like getting something in return, like an exclusive community, or private zoom chats where people can ask questions and get more attention from you. That kind of stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## courses&#xD;&#xA;The way online tutorials work is:&#xD;&#xA;- introductory videos make tons of views&#xD;&#xA;- advanced videos don't&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if you create a 'learn python in 10 minutes' or 'build a simple android app', there are many people that will watch that because not much knowledge is required and people are generally curious&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, videos like 'troubleshooting memory leak in enterprise applications' won't get that many views because most people don't have that knowledge or don't need to know that. It's valuable knowledge, just not something that will appeal to the general public.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So the strategy here is:&#xD;&#xA;- make a lot of introductory free content, so people learn the technology from you and get used to your way of teaching&#xD;&#xA;- then make a paid course and tell everyone: 'hey, if you like my introductory content, I made this advanced course for the ones that want more!'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The idea being:&#xD;&#xA;- people will learn the basic stuff for free &#xD;&#xA;- then they'll get a job or a freelance and make some money&#xD;&#xA;- then they can afford to pay you to learn advanced stuff&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## freelancing&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;you can advertise yourself as a worker, but I don't recommend that, that creates a very weird relationship. will people be your fans/viewers or your clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## apps&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;you can also build utility apps based on the requests and publish them online or in the app stores with ads, or just sell the code in places like https://codecanyon.net/?auto_signin=true &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26724" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10378" RevisionGUID="8f3b4caa-c4a8-49bf-87f1-0ceb415bb603" CreationDate="2021-12-31T06:17:16.933" UserId="25830" Text="open-source doesn't mean work for free, it means contributing to a bigger picture, if you're good and relevant people will give you money so you keep doing it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;we have people that are silent major contributors to major projects that don't make a dime and people that build silly libraries that just provide neat wrappers and documentation around other apps and make a fortune in donations, patreon money and etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;this is the solo scenario, I won't go much further into building a company around open source because we this is its own rabbit hole.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;here's what you should keep in mind:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- generate value&#xD;&#xA;- purpose&#xD;&#xA;- monetizing&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# generate value&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;generating value can be done privately or with open source, in private you will be generating money for your clients, in open source, you are contributing to the human race codebase. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# purpose&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;what is your main goal? to be rich? famous? recognized? build something everyone loves?&#xD;&#xA;reflect on that for a few minutes, then read the next section&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# goal&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;after you decide what is your priority in life, you can decide on how you want to tackle this software thing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## rich&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you want to be rich, you can either make a flashy framework that helps people be super productive with very little knowledge, invest a lot of time in docs, video tutorials, examples and automation and set up a patreon so people can give you money and sponsor your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or you can build a sas project and try to make it as an entrepreneur, sell your apps in any app store, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## famous/recognized&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;if you want to be a famous developer, you can either build a very hard open source project, be one of them presenters that travel around the world talking about the importance of *insert project/methodology/technique/company here* either for an open source project or as a professional evangelist&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are many many ways to go about open source&#xD;&#xA;- people use it as a way to drive human society forwards&#xD;&#xA;- shield common knowledge from the corporate greasy greedy fingers&#xD;&#xA;- a way for businesses to let people try their software for free and make it impossible to set up at scale so they can sell you managed services or support&#xD;&#xA;- a way for companies to promote brand awareness by creating or donating to open source projects&#xD;&#xA;- a way for companies to get free work&#xD;&#xA;- a way for big companies to collaborate and build common tools&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;there are so many ways to go about it, some will make you money, some won't, just like regular businesses, and just like regular businesses you need to know what your priorities are and why you are getting into it.&#xD;&#xA;everyone needs to make a living, so money naturally comes to question and people are more then willing to give you lunch money if you build something useful, but you need to be smart about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# effort does not equal results&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- on one side we have geniuses that made incredible breakthroughs and died poor, miserable, and anonymous until history reviewed their case&#xD;&#xA;- on the other side we have people making millions from the dumbest projects, ink cartridges, goji berries, salt crystals, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By your profile and pic, I'm assuming you're a young engineer at the beginning of your career. So I'll share some personal advice.&#xD;&#xA;I'm a bachelor in computer science, 7 years as a programmer, 2 as a devops, 3 as a software architect, and just recently promoted to team leader, and having worked on a couple of unicorns and silicon valley companies there are some patterns that emerge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I see a lot of bright young engineers like yourself trying to find out what they want from their careers and you might still be getting distracted by the thing that lures all young engineers, which is trying to be smartest person that knows a lot about everything, can code in several programming languages, make mobile apps, do frontend, know AI, do cloud stuff and solve any problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Probably.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know I was like that, and although setting out to be the best will push you very very far, it is best to manage your expectations. Decide on what is really important for you, then set out to achieve that. Open source, privately, set out to achieve something that will make you happy, not the center of attention, then plan accordingly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'll leave you with a quote from House M.D.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;It doesn't mean anything.&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26727" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10379" RevisionGUID="5ee6c464-41b9-46eb-bd8b-c39cfde504d5" CreationDate="2022-01-02T15:31:54.360" UserId="27500" Text="I am individual freelancer. Throughout my career, I have been working via freelance platforms and their payment protections have been extremely convenient. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently I was able to find a client completely outside of the platform (without any of their influence as well). For the first time ever, I thought of working outside the platform and check how it goes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To get started, I requested the client to settle half the payment upfront via payoneer. The client agreed whole heartedly in our discussion. In my specific situation, I don't have paypal in my country. So I chose to use payoneer. It has been a quite few days since I have sent him the payment link and the client is saying that the payment will be settled soon but the same story is repeated once again.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to know handling the following issues when working outside of any freelancing platform&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Processing the payment processes in a manner that is easier for both parties&#xD;&#xA; 2. Handling late payments&#xD;&#xA; 3. Handling the situations when a client has stopped responding or refusing to pay even when the work has been delivered as requested &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26729" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10379" RevisionGUID="5ee6c464-41b9-46eb-bd8b-c39cfde504d5" CreationDate="2022-01-02T15:31:54.360" UserId="27500" Text="How to handle payments when working outside of a freelance platform safely?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26730" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10379" RevisionGUID="5ee6c464-41b9-46eb-bd8b-c39cfde504d5" CreationDate="2022-01-02T15:31:54.360" UserId="27500" Text="|freelance-websites|payments|web-development|late-payment|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26731" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10380" RevisionGUID="b358c9f3-85e9-4cf5-b3a6-21ea4616d4c5" CreationDate="2022-01-02T21:12:18.897" UserId="25830" Text="Some clients simply negotiate in bad faith.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I see you're a web developer, so I've got some experience to share with you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Write down a simple contract, a couple of pages from a template should be enough and you get:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. a way to show you are a professional &#xD;&#xA;1. clear rules for both parties, and make sure to include&#xD;&#xA;   1. scope of work&#xD;&#xA;   1. dates (for payment, start of work, end of work, last payment)&#xD;&#xA;   1. payment&#xD;&#xA;   1. delivery&#xD;&#xA;   1. late delivery fees&#xD;&#xA;   1. late payment fees&#xD;&#xA;3. less scammers will try to get you to work for free&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Processing the payment processes in a manner that is easier for both &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Payoneer is amazing, I've been using it for the past years. However, they are not the best for user experience, and sometimes clients are just dumb and don't know how to use new things.&#xD;&#xA;Instead of sending him the payment link, try sending the account details for the receiving account and ask him to make a regular bank transfer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![enter image description here][1]][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After you've received a payment, make sure to send the client an invoice with your client's details, your company's (or individual's) details, paid amounts and dates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.freshbooks.com/invoice-templates&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Handling late payments and Handling the situations when a client has stopped responding or refusing to pay even when the work has been delivered as requested&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract dictates everything, so you should let your client know in advance how it is all going to work:&#xD;&#xA;- deliver only once the project is done&#xD;&#xA;- keep the project in your own hosting servers until delivery&#xD;&#xA;- preferably, setup a huge banner that says &quot;this is a test site, all data is automatically cleared by the end of the month&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;as a remote worker, there's nothing you can really do if the client decides to ignore you or not pay, you could pursue legal action but that will be very expensive and probably not worthy for you, so cover your vulnerabilities by conditioning your work to the money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;the same goes for your client, the client is afraid of paying you money and you disappearing, so you also need to give the client some safety measures like, asking for a small part of the money (like, 20%) and then start working, send the client regular updates so that the client feels safe that the work is being done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;you have a few good options here:&#xD;&#xA;1 - 50% before you start working, 50% before delivery&#xD;&#xA;2 - payment by milestones, this works for bigger projects&#xD;&#xA;3 - monthly payments, for bigger projects you can condition the payment amount for a fixed rate and work hours, that way you can get some rest and mental health and have a stable work environment&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Late fees should be agreed upon on the contract&#xD;&#xA;- give your client room to wiggle out of paying late fees, for example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;the amount should be fully paid by March, 25th, after that each late day incurres late fees in the amount of 1% of the total project value. If THE CLIENT knows beforehand that it will not be able to make the payments in time, a payment deadline can be extended by x days, conditioned to a formal notice by email from THE CLIENT to the email asd@gmail.com &quot;. or something like that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Even with that, the client didn't pay&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client stops paying, you stop working.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Ask a third party to guarantee payment [eskrow][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is one of the most important services that a freelancing site offers. They collect the money from the client, then signal you can start working, once you are done, you signal to the client that you have completed the work and unless the client starts a mediation request, you will receive the money even if the client disappears, because the money is already in the hands of someone else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An eskrow service will also charge you a fee for being an intermediary to this transaction, so you can't really run from the fees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good practice, in this case, is to get a stable client relationship in a freelancing site, or use a freelancing site as a trusted person until you know better who you're working with. It's better to lose 10-20% of the money in fees than to lose 100% of it by being made a fool out of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/Yw6X2.png&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Eskrow" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26733" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10381" RevisionGUID="294133d7-4e27-45bd-84dc-b8c3191d9522" CreationDate="2022-01-02T21:20:31.947" UserId="25830" Text="Since we probably can't dissuade you from doing this, the two safest places for a files today are goole and aws.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can use something like google forms to safely collect that data, just make sure that you keep the answers private and only share the form with the clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That way you get:&#xD;&#xA;- safe way of collecting the creditcard information&#xD;&#xA;- the data is stored in google drive, super safe&#xD;&#xA;- you can access it safely and maybe move that to something even more secure, like 1password, last pass or google passwords, and then delete it from the form answers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;zip is not encryption, removing the extension is not encryption, that's not safe and someone with IT knowledge (not even a hacker) can crack that open half blind.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;--- &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;now with all of that said, know that you are carrying a HUGE responsibility, if any one of those clients happens to be a victim of fraud and gets their credit cards cloned or find any unusual transactions, they will naturally be suspicious of you.&#xD;&#xA;- on top of that, banks nowadays have very robust safety measures against stolen credit card information, so you will probably not even be able to get those cards to work, even with the client consent&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26735" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10380" RevisionGUID="9e538865-c188-4ad7-bbac-dea7a38e5897" CreationDate="2022-01-03T12:30:01.650" UserId="25830" Comment="added hourly tracking complement " Text="Some clients simply negotiate in bad faith.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I see you're a web developer, so I've got some experience to share with you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Write down a simple contract, a couple of pages from a template should be enough and you get:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. a way to show you are a professional &#xD;&#xA;1. clear rules for both parties, and make sure to include&#xD;&#xA;   1. scope of work&#xD;&#xA;   1. dates (for payment, start of work, end of work, last payment)&#xD;&#xA;   1. payment&#xD;&#xA;   1. delivery&#xD;&#xA;   1. late delivery fees&#xD;&#xA;   1. late payment fees&#xD;&#xA;3. less scammers will try to get you to work for free&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Processing the payment processes in a manner that is easier for both &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Payoneer is amazing, I've been using it for the past years. However, they are not the best for user experience, and sometimes clients are just dumb and don't know how to use new things.&#xD;&#xA;Instead of sending him the payment link, try sending the account details for the receiving account and ask him to make a regular bank transfer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[![enter image description here][1]][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After you've received a payment, make sure to send the client an invoice with your client's details, your company's (or individual's) details, paid amounts and dates.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://www.freshbooks.com/invoice-templates&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Handling late payments and Handling the situations when a client has stopped responding or refusing to pay even when the work has been delivered as requested&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract dictates everything, so you should let your client know in advance how it is all going to work:&#xD;&#xA;- deliver only once the project is done&#xD;&#xA;- keep the project in your own hosting servers until delivery&#xD;&#xA;- preferably, setup a huge banner that says &quot;this is a test site, all data is automatically cleared by the end of the month&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;as a remote worker, there's nothing you can really do if the client decides to ignore you or not pay, you could pursue legal action but that will be very expensive and probably not worthy for you, so cover your vulnerabilities by conditioning your work to the money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;the same goes for your client, the client is afraid of paying you money and you disappearing, so you also need to give the client some safety measures like, asking for a small part of the money (like, 20%) and then start working, send the client regular updates so that the client feels safe that the work is being done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;you have a few good options here:&#xD;&#xA;1 - 50% before you start working, 50% before delivery&#xD;&#xA;2 - payment by milestones, this works for bigger projects&#xD;&#xA;3 - monthly payments, for bigger projects you can condition the payment amount for a fixed rate and work hours, that way you can get some rest and mental health and have a stable work environment&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Late fees should be agreed upon on the contract&#xD;&#xA;- give your client room to wiggle out of paying late fees, for example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&quot;the amount should be fully paid by March, 25th, after that each late day incurres late fees in the amount of 1% of the total project value. If THE CLIENT knows beforehand that it will not be able to make the payments in time, a payment deadline can be extended by x days, conditioned to a formal notice by email from THE CLIENT to the email asd@gmail.com &quot;. or something like that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Even with that, the client didn't pay&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client stops paying, you stop working.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;# Ask a third party to guarantee payment [eskrow][2]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is one of the most important services that a freelancing site offers. They collect the money from the client, then signal you can start working, once you are done, you signal to the client that you have completed the work and unless the client starts a mediation request, you will receive the money even if the client disappears, because the money is already in the hands of someone else.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An eskrow service will also charge you a fee for being an intermediary to this transaction, so you can't really run from the fees.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good practice, in this case, is to get a stable client relationship in a freelancing site, or use a freelancing site as a trusted person until you know better who you're working with. It's better to lose 10-20% of the money in fees than to lose 100% of it by being made a fool out of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Charging hourly&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can charge by project, contract, pay as you go. How so?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;### Project&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You make a quote based on the amount of work and you estimate(guess) the amount of hours, multiply by your hourly rate and then you get the project value. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this case, the hour tracking is just so the client can see a 'progress bar' and keep up with what's happening on the project. You can also track your hours by tasks so you can generate data and actually know which parts take more time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;### Contract&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On a contract you would set on a weekly/monthly set of hours, with or without buffers, I'll give you a concrete example:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've got a contract that I bill for 10/hours every month, regardless if they ask me to do anything or not. Sometimes they ask me to join calls, sometimes they ask me to perform tasks, but every now and then I get the 10 hours of payment with virtually no work at all. It's almost like a retainer contract, they pay for the availability.&#xD;&#xA;This one has no buffer, because once the month is over, if they didn't ask for any work, the hour are gone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A contract with buffer is a bit more complicated because it requires some math, and clients are notoriously bad at math, so you would probably have to demo out this idea using a spreadsheet or power point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here's how it work, the contract says: 20 hours of work a month, with 3 months of buffer time. &#xD;&#xA;What does that mean?&#xD;&#xA;At the beginning of every month you add 20 new hours to the hour buffer, and you expire any unused hours that were added up to three months ago.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a client needs more than 20 hours of work that month, you can work knowing that you are agreed on a buffer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So at any given point in time the buffer can be positive up to 60 hours or negative up to -60 hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, this is a very good contract for&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. clients that want some kind of support&#xD;&#xA;1. clients that don't want to manage you constantly &#xD;&#xA;1. people who don't want to negotiate work all the time&#xD;&#xA;1. you not be assigned bullshit work just to get the hours of work done&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;### Pay as You Go&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You set on an hourly rate with a client, they give you work and you start working, then you send them the bill later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Accounting work hours&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regardless of how you'd like to set up your work, you would always be tracking hours using some sort of software.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. If you're working by project, hours are tracked to the project&#xD;&#xA;1. If you're working by contract, hours are tracked to the period of time (week, month)&#xD;&#xA;1. If you're working in a pay as you go format, hours are tracked by task&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any case you will need a way to track the hours, this has so many answers that I'll leave up to you to decide what works best for you, but here are some suggestions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1 - paper, log the start and end time of your work on a paper or notebook, then later you can add those to a spreadsheet software. This seems archaic, but paper helps you remember to start/stop tracking which can be easily missed and ruin your tracking.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2 - spreadsheet, use a google spreadsheet to track your hours, use four columns: 1 client, 2 task/period/project, 3 start timestamp 4 end timestamp. Later you can create formulas and graphs to get some more insight into your date. Google spreadsheets also let you do some programming on them, so you can even have a local script that posts to google's API and adds a row to your spreadsheet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3 - pomodoro, this will both help you with start/stop tracking and try to get you more productivity at the same time. Pomodoro apps usually have some sort of report that let you export the amount of pomodoros you've worked in a given task, then you can get that info and use it in a spreadsheet somewhere&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4 - you can use an actual timetracking software. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are some options I like:&#xD;&#xA;1. [Trello][3], they've got some options that allow you to track your work times using cards and power-ups. Web, mobile, desktop, integrations&#xD;&#xA;1. [Toptracker][4], provide for free by toptal, it's a full timetracking software. It has some a weird setup because it's thoguth to be used mainly by clients inviting developers, but it's easy to learn and it has a timetracking app you can download to start/stop your clock. It also gives you lots of reports, let's you add screen shots and has built in invoicing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And loads more options on other questions here in freelancing:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/time-tracking&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3/tracking-hours-you-are-working-for-clients&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/10158/does-anyone-know-of-any-free-time-tracking-and-invoicing-software-geared-toward&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/Yw6X2.png&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Eskrow&#xD;&#xA;  [3]: https://help.trello.com/article/941-time-tracking&#xD;&#xA;  [4]: https://www.toptal.com/tracker" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26736" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10382" RevisionGUID="f7081c0d-cc10-4d1e-9e5c-dd664699b7f7" CreationDate="2022-01-05T03:35:18.730" UserId="24667" Text="1/3 due upon signing contract&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1/3 due at some point after the work starts, halfway point at the latest&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1/3 due upon completion&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't start work before they start paying. Don't continue work if they miss a deadline and ignore multiple reminders. Don't even think about handing over a finished product if you're not more than 50% (ideally like 70%) paid. Unless you plan on charging interest, you're not a lender or a bank. Availability of funds is the buyers problem not the service provider. (These &quot;rules&quot; can obviously be bent/broken for trusted clients) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bitcoin is the quickest and most secure way to make and receive payments. That being said, if legacy financial rails are strongly preferred, bank wire might be the best option all around. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26738" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10383" RevisionGUID="09bd512c-1835-45a1-8feb-79013cdd75b1" CreationDate="2022-01-07T05:18:51.190" UserId="27516" Text="I did this for many years and was usually a headache. Put forth far more time and energy than what I was compensated. The best advice I can give you as you begin your entrepreneurial endeavors is not to work with individuals. Though you may find some nice clients that value your services, you'll get more bang for your buck freelancing with established small businesses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Look for people doing the same thing you're doing—offering a valuable service. You'll find mutual respect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Avoid those with nothing to lose, or just beginning. People in need of a website, logo, etc. It'll drive you bonkers." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26740" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10384" RevisionGUID="d5925ff2-678c-430f-8ef5-095d6d0697cd" CreationDate="2022-01-09T06:34:10.907" UserId="27516" Text="To generate income from comments, you need to be creative. There's lots of very successful developer teachers on YouTube. See what they're doing on YouTube. Look for CTAs (calls to action) See what they offer on their websites. Many people create YouTube videos to generate traffic to other websites. In turn, creating a steady stream of visitors to eCommerce sites with relative products such as monthly memberships, or Udemy/personal courses.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not common to generate income directly from comments. The goal is to guide users to another source that will generate revenue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Before you can begin making AUTOMATED money on YouTube however, you need to meet the subscriber and hours watched minimums of 1,000 and 4,000 respectively. At that point you can monetize your videos. Monetizing your videos allow relevant ads to display which generate $$ contingent upon audience interaction. Read more up on this here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/72851?hl=en" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26742" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10385" RevisionGUID="ad58ae00-4bc2-404c-852d-58aa0db701f3" CreationDate="2022-01-09T06:45:08.670" UserId="27516" Text="In my opinion, doing open source projects improve development skills because code is examined on a very granular level. You're submitting code to a project that's closely monitored by others that are highly critical, understand/recognize pitfalls or insecure code. The benefit may not be financial. But it's certainly unlike training/experience you'll receive anywhere else on or offline. Contributing to open source undoubtedly distinguishes one from those who've not done so." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26744" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10386" RevisionGUID="63bdd3f6-cea9-4644-aaf2-687e1e48895c" CreationDate="2022-01-09T06:51:33.187" UserId="27516" Text="Agencies supply consultants. They're like collections of contractors, industry agnostic.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A project company is an agency, or firm that supplies specialized services for projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A product company produces items. Apple produces products. The Encyclopedia Britannica Company produces Merriam-Webster's Dictionary—a product." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26746" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10387" RevisionGUID="37eb7c72-fd8b-4f93-bc32-e82881c2e257" CreationDate="2022-01-09T17:15:42.507" UserId="27527" Text="I'm a 23 year old employed Software Developer with a CS Degree. &#xD;&#xA;In my free time I wrote an SPA breaking down and visualizing the calculation of a nutritional label for practice and fun. The app is serverless/static, so security risks and hosting efforts are minimal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to offer this software to a local non-profit organization which provides similar education materials. &#xD;&#xA;I don't want financial compensation, it's just for my portfolio and networking.&#xD;&#xA;How can I approach them professionally? I'm afraid my message may be interpreted as spam.&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, I get very nervous in social situations like phone calls or meetings, so I would prefer text-based communication to test the waters.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My question is pretty similar to https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/245/how-to-approach-local-shops-to-offer-them-my-service , but I already have a working prototype hosted on github pages and I want to offer it to a specific organisation for free." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26748" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10387" RevisionGUID="37eb7c72-fd8b-4f93-bc32-e82881c2e257" CreationDate="2022-01-09T17:15:42.507" UserId="27527" Text="My side project could be useful to a Non-Profit-Organization. How to approach them?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26749" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10387" RevisionGUID="37eb7c72-fd8b-4f93-bc32-e82881c2e257" CreationDate="2022-01-09T17:15:42.507" UserId="27527" Text="|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26750" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10388" RevisionGUID="bbc2c496-e395-4790-9bef-04c402dc5a55" CreationDate="2022-01-10T15:12:01.320" UserId="26181" Text="If you want to offer it to a specific organization, then the best way is to find people who work/ volunteer in that organization and talk to them and ask them how to proceed. You might need to volunteer in that organization for a while before offering it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Be aware that the probabilities are low that they will accept it. No matter how free it is, it will still cost them time, effort, and perhaps money to accept what you offer, learn how to use it, and train people on its use. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26752" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10369" RevisionGUID="256ae5d5-baf4-4aa2-8372-ba9623a0854c" CreationDate="2022-01-11T12:00:05.857" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1480872139297370116" />
  <row Id="26753" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10389" RevisionGUID="daab4f4e-3e98-4c20-8906-2207ca417913" CreationDate="2022-01-12T11:56:03.167" UserId="25830" Text="As a developer, I feel your pain. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. **Bootstrap:** You could social engineer your way into a few shops, try to find people on LinkedIn or social network that work in a specific place and explain your case. Do it on a personal level, not as a commercial individual and get them onboard. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. **Expand:**&#xD;&#xA;   1. After you sign up one or two shops, you could partner with a salesperson, you will probably have to charge a monthly/yearly fee and give a good percentage to the salesperson. Post a job offering in the lines of 'Looking for a sales representative for online product, 100% commission based' then proceed to describe your venture and tell them you already have a couple clients and is looking to expand.&#xD;&#xA;   1. If you don't want to get sales people involved, repeat the strategy from step 1, but now you can showcase your other clients/signups.&#xD;&#xA;3. **Scale:** Once you have signed up a bunch of shops, you could start marketing. There are hundreds of ways of doing this, I have neither the experience nor the data to help you here. :(&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;bonus: I know how tempting it is to be warm and cozy behind a screen with minimal social engagement. As personal advice to you, you should probably seek some professional help to deal with your social unease. I've found it paramount to workout, and or take fighting classes to boost your confidence, you won't be less awkward, but you will feel much better when dealing with people." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26755" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10390" RevisionGUID="d5933ef4-9dd8-40ea-8f31-c44b7f818e4a" CreationDate="2022-01-12T16:57:36.457" UserId="27540" Text="I'm a web developer living in uk. Last September I found one client in uk that was looking for web developers for his websites. Since September he is paying me monthly on the basis of tasks that i've done. I'm registered as a self employed and I have an UTR number. Should I issue invoices for his payments? Should I charge him vat or something else in the invoice? Or i just send him a simple invoice with the date, description and pay?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Waleed" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26757" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10390" RevisionGUID="d5933ef4-9dd8-40ea-8f31-c44b7f818e4a" CreationDate="2022-01-12T16:57:36.457" UserId="27540" Text="Do i have to issue an invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26758" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10390" RevisionGUID="d5933ef4-9dd8-40ea-8f31-c44b7f818e4a" CreationDate="2022-01-12T16:57:36.457" UserId="27540" Text="|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26759" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10357" RevisionGUID="ff98e66b-7ac1-4795-a1b3-294267fee593" CreationDate="2022-01-12T18:00:08.750" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1481325136032710662" />
  <row Id="26760" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10391" RevisionGUID="779ab209-9a81-4e13-88ec-074c5aa126f9" CreationDate="2022-01-12T21:59:25.450" UserId="27541" Text="I think using freelancering platform is the best way to secure the payment. Like Upwork and Toptal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26762" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10392" RevisionGUID="7d176620-2c77-4f07-a4fc-4771d566cfb4" CreationDate="2022-01-13T10:23:00.203" UserId="20786" Text="Firstly, you only charge VAT if you are registered for VAT.  In which case you must submit an invoice with your VAT number on it as HMRC may audit either your or the client's VAT returns at any time and will want to see it.  (Your UTR number is not a VAT number, it applies to your personal income tax)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Otherwise, it is not mandatory to submit an invoice.  It depends upon whether your client wants one, mostly for their own accounting practices.  &#xD;&#xA;For example, one of my clients doesn't want invoices.  We have a contract that states the payment terms and he just sticks to it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are asked for an invoice, add the usual: date, payment requested and work done." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26764" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10390" RevisionGUID="4b34dc93-36dd-41c9-8d31-335f0bff3c85" CreationDate="2022-01-14T08:22:54.713" UserId="20786" Comment="General tidy up" Text="I'm a web developer living in the UK. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Last September I found one client in the UK that was looking for web developers for his websites. Since September he has been paying me monthly on the basis of tasks that I've done.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm registered as a self employed and I have an UTR number. Should I issue invoices for his payments? Should I charge him VAT or something else in the invoice? Or do I just send him a simple invoice with the date, description and pay?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26765" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10390" RevisionGUID="4b34dc93-36dd-41c9-8d31-335f0bff3c85" CreationDate="2022-01-14T08:22:54.713" UserId="20786" Comment="General tidy up" Text="Do I have to issue an invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26766" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10390" RevisionGUID="4b34dc93-36dd-41c9-8d31-335f0bff3c85" CreationDate="2022-01-14T08:22:54.713" Comment="Proposed by 20786 approved by 7858 edit id of 804" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26767" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10393" RevisionGUID="f435536e-1639-44ea-9d67-d139ed51b723" CreationDate="2022-01-18T07:53:53.900" UserId="1303" Text="I have a new client for whom I am designing a vector logo. I provide 3 concepts and he is supposed to choose one of them based on which I will be making unlimited revisions.&#xD;&#xA;Unfortunately, even though I have provided him with 13 unique logo concepts for the logo already, he is still asking me for a logo design that looks &quot;more modern&quot;. I do not understand what he means by &quot;more modern&quot; and so, I asked him to give me some examples. However, he is not giving me references- like some logo designs that he likes, despite me asking him to provide me with some references because I am not sure what he wants exactly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I collected feedback from other users for the logo concepts that I have already made. Most of them like the logos and find them creative and unique. However, the client may have something else in mind but he is not sharing some examples or references. Due to this, I am unable to figure out what kind of logo is he exactly looking for. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have already collected the payment for the logo design. But I am having to work too much in creating fresh concepts. And the client is not supporting me with some logo design examples or references/inspirations that he likes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I deal with my client in this situation? Also, if the client is not satisfied with the designs, then will it be a good idea to refund him the amount, or shall I make it non-refundable considering the enormous amount of time and efforts I have already invested in creating so many concepts?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks a lot." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26769" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10393" RevisionGUID="f435536e-1639-44ea-9d67-d139ed51b723" CreationDate="2022-01-18T07:53:53.900" UserId="1303" Text="Client continuously asking for new logo concepts and he is not sure of what he wants. How do I deal with him?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26770" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10393" RevisionGUID="f435536e-1639-44ea-9d67-d139ed51b723" CreationDate="2022-01-18T07:53:53.900" UserId="1303" Text="|payment-terms|difficult-client|project-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26771" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10349" RevisionGUID="39aa5e31-1893-4aec-862e-4d3c83427562" CreationDate="2022-01-18T18:00:11.050" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1483499472860725252" />
  <row Id="26772" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10394" RevisionGUID="f6783290-3006-4fdc-a4b2-85cc78d2a1ce" CreationDate="2022-01-18T20:09:52.840" UserId="708" Text="You've done the work, a refund is not warranted in my opinion. It would be one thing if you failed to provide services. However, from what you've written, you have provided services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Imagine you go to a restaurant and order a meal and pay for it up front. The chef cooks the meal and a server delivers it... you tell the server &quot;Well, I need it to be more modern.&quot; So the chef cooks a *second meal*, server delivers it, you don't like it, chef cooks a third meal.. how long do you think this would be allowed to continue without additional charges?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to get a handle on things (this is a bit general and broad without seeing artwork)...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Limit Choices** and **ask pointed questions**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Do you like the X in this version or in this version?&lt;br&gt;&lt;Sup&gt;(NOT which one do you like?)&lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Do you prefer the red or the blue?&lt;br&gt;&lt;Sup&gt;(NOT which colors do you prefer?)&lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Do you like the square or the circle?&lt;br&gt;&lt;Sup&gt;(NOT which version would you prefer?)&lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;- Do you like 'this' font or 'this' font?&lt;br&gt;&lt;Sup&gt;(NOT which typeface do you like?)&lt;/sup&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally if you can limit choices to A and B, you will get better responses and have a more solid sense of direction. You can even find brands you *think* the client may like and ask about those.. do you think logoX is more modern than logoY?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ultimately though, some clients just have difficulty expressing anything conceptual. They are the *&quot;I'll know it when I see it&quot;* type of clients which can be frustrating. At times this means you need to have a conversation with them to *remind* them of your contractual obligations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Merely a **suggestion**....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Hi Client,&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I'm a bit concerned about how this development process is unfolding. We agreed I would create 3 unique concepts, which you'd select from, and then I would finalize. To date, I've created X concepts. This is well above what we agreed upon.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;I sincerely want to provide you with a workable logo you are proud of and happy to display. My concern is that we seemingly haven't even reached the first stage of approval - i.e. approval of concept. We need to nail this down as soon as possible. I can't continue creating new concepts ad nausium based upon the agreed upon fees. In addition, I have other commitments and need to move on from this project.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Please review the concepts created to date :[add link]: and let me know which you feel is closest to completion. I'm happy to make edits to any of these existing concepts in order to finalize it, but continually creating new concepts is not possible without further budget considerations.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Thanks for your understanding&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26774" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10395" RevisionGUID="d8b0e608-609c-4c93-8481-2bbf997e91d7" CreationDate="2022-01-18T20:27:18.857" UserId="708" Text="In the past, when I've done this (rarely)....&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All the CC info, i.e. name, expiration, address is sent via email **except** the last 4 digits of the CC and the CVC security number.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then a text message is sent with the last 4 digits and CVC number.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If all the information is *not* in one place, it's more difficult to hijack. If someone were to hijack the email or the text message, they'd be missing critical parts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do this for logins as well.. send me a link and username via email.. but *text* me the password." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26781" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10397" RevisionGUID="1cb40372-5ee7-4830-bb1c-d4d48b70c22c" CreationDate="2022-01-21T20:49:10.733" UserId="25604" Text="It kind of depend what you where suppose to do. I have been in &quot;your customer's shoes&quot; when it comes to buy graphical materials. If i know what i wanted, i could just have it made by my self or if i knew something i like, i would have a &quot;template&quot; to follow and do it by my self.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me it was many things that was important and that was ofc that they where able to deliver the graphical, but the most important for me was they knew what whould be attractive to my audience. I gave them a profile of them (age, sex, education, typical work and location/country)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They had no idea how to target that audience and even they have done nice design for for example a restaurant in Asia, its far away from the same design that looks appealing to my audience and the context it was needed for. In the end, i had to cancel, even they did good graphical work, they did not deliver what i needed.&#xD;&#xA;So make sure you understand what you are suppose to deliver to your customer and not only some &quot;creative work&quot; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26783" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10398" RevisionGUID="ac41b94d-2dfe-4339-9b10-0b73930a1174" CreationDate="2022-01-23T19:16:39.663" UserId="27592" Text="I’m new to this freelance thing but wanted to get some advice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am thinking of freelancing from a non EU country for Uk clients. &#xD;&#xA;I’ll be using my tax Id from that foreign country to invoice uk clients. &#xD;&#xA;Is there a way I can use my uk home address in the invoice - will the client need to know if I’m based in uk  or abroad?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26785" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10398" RevisionGUID="ac41b94d-2dfe-4339-9b10-0b73930a1174" CreationDate="2022-01-23T19:16:39.663" UserId="27592" Text="Working for uk client from abroad" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26786" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10398" RevisionGUID="ac41b94d-2dfe-4339-9b10-0b73930a1174" CreationDate="2022-01-23T19:16:39.663" UserId="27592" Text="|taxes|uk|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26790" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6837" RevisionGUID="6cfe2132-24b7-47ad-aff3-54a88b6c4253" CreationDate="2022-01-25T20:04:40.550" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="26791" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10397" RevisionGUID="373b03bf-737b-4328-b1af-1db0121378db" CreationDate="2022-01-27T08:08:29.667" UserId="25082" Comment="general grammar improvements" Text="It kind of depends what you were suppose to do. I have been in &quot;your customer's shoes&quot; when it comes to buy graphical materials. If I know what I wanted, I could just have it made by myself or if I knew something I like, I would have a &quot;template&quot; to follow and do it by myself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me there were many things that were important and that was of course that they were able to deliver the graphical, but the most important for me was they knew what would be attractive to my audience. I gave them a profile of them (age, sex, education, typical work and location/country)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They had no idea how to target that audience and even they have done nice design. For example, a restaurant in Asia, it's far away from the same design that looks appealing to my audience and the context it was needed for. In the end, I had to cancel, even though they did good graphical work, they did not deliver what i needed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So make sure you understand what you are suppose to deliver to your customer and not only some &quot;creative work&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26792" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10397" RevisionGUID="373b03bf-737b-4328-b1af-1db0121378db" CreationDate="2022-01-27T08:08:29.667" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 25604 edit id of 805" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26794" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10398" RevisionGUID="73eea74e-8392-4cf3-b5c3-f4effe5aff58" CreationDate="2022-01-27T18:58:44.800" UserId="75" Comment="added 439 characters in body" Text="I am thinking of freelancing from a non-EU country for UK clients. &#xD;&#xA;I'll be using my tax ID from that foreign country to invoice UK clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd like to move to a EU country and freelance from there for UK clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This means I will be sending invoices to the client from EU. Because I'm new to the freelancing thing I wanted to know if it makes any different to the client whether I am based in the UK or not  - i.e., do they need to file any taxes or do anything for someone who is invoicing them from EU for a remote freelance gig? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does it cause any sort of burden for the client to hire an EU freelancer VS a UK based freelancer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a way I can use my UK home address in the invoice? Will the client need to know if I'm based in UK or abroad?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26799" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="8205" RevisionGUID="f7686175-c216-4cae-93f7-762e4f3e1c0d" CreationDate="2022-02-09T01:07:10.677" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="26814" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10390" RevisionGUID="f91afdba-428d-4d01-82ef-d4fbc67bade7" CreationDate="2022-02-13T09:03:35.350" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="26818" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10405" RevisionGUID="ea4a838b-f8ac-45af-ab87-778e233d504a" CreationDate="2022-02-16T08:06:02.143" UserId="21841" Text="In 2019 I created an online store for a friend of the family that knew I was in the business. From the get-go, I knew how this project would turn out as the very first thing I was asked was a discount. Nonetheless, I gave it, created the site, and offered a care plan to make some profit. It's been two years of working with this client and now she hired a couple of girls to handle the business' social media, ads, and all that stuff.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since then the owner of the company has fired some people in accounting, and the company's manager quit — I relied on him for all communications related to the website and its management.&#xD;&#xA;My job is not too complicated but time consuming, I configure discounts, set up homepage banners for promotions, send marketing emails for new campaigns, handle some of the basic SEO, manage everything related to the server, and some other stuff. I've been asked to provide a full report containing:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Full report from the beginning of the site, with statistics and evidence of the website and my work managing it and how much it's grown since it started&#xD;&#xA; - An invoice with all of the expenses, including the amount I charge as an administrator&#xD;&#xA; - User journeys and behavior&#xD;&#xA; - How many sales, and the increment in those sales&#xD;&#xA; - How much has SEO helped the growth of the site&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, since these girls started working in the company I've felt they are questioning and encouraging her to question my work and what I do. I do charge a yearly fee that goes around +- $500/month, and the website makes, in a bad month, between $3K and $6K, the best month they've had was around $25K. I also update the site on a staging site to prevent anything breaking, implement new features, create landing pages, and I'm basically on-call 16+ hours a day as they don't plan ahead and want me to do stuff last minute.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm happy to provide these things they ask, but I still fill the owner has lost some trust in me even though I'm providing results. There's also one other dude than handles the orders and shipping, and he probably charges around $300/month. They been saying the site is &quot;in red numbers&quot; and that their brick-and-mortar stores are doing way better — which might be true as they operate on 3rd world country where buying online is still scary. But I know the site is not doing bad, and aside from what I charge, it has very little upkeep. I believe they just want to cut cost wherever they can, including me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My long-term solution is to stop working with them, I have clients that pay better and ask for less, trust me, and respect my opinions and what I do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How should I handle this situation?** I would even consider quitting working with them now if they hadn't paid me yet — funny thing, they still owe me 2/3 of the final payment." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26820" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10405" RevisionGUID="ea4a838b-f8ac-45af-ab87-778e233d504a" CreationDate="2022-02-16T08:06:02.143" UserId="21841" Text="Client continuously wanting me to justify my work" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26821" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10405" RevisionGUID="ea4a838b-f8ac-45af-ab87-778e233d504a" CreationDate="2022-02-16T08:06:02.143" UserId="21841" Text="|freelance-websites|communication|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26840" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10410" RevisionGUID="00ba6b99-d9fe-4f5d-834c-2aa296e4e50f" CreationDate="2022-02-16T14:56:29.230" UserId="26181" Text="A good working relationship includes mutual trust and respect. In this post, I hear that you have lost some respect for them and suspect that they are not comfortable with your services. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If we turn their questions around, there might be some good outcomes. Instead of directly reporting on all the details, focus on the important parts: sales and profit increases. For a business owner, the most important information is whether or not a venture is profitable. So, if you could pull together a chart showing how the site sales volume has grown from the start till now and how your costs are covered by the increase in sales, that would help. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, you need to ask if this client is worth the hassle. If you don't have good communications with the client and they are demanding on call behavior, this might be a good time to suggest that they find another supplier." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26842" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10411" RevisionGUID="134a18eb-ccd2-4ae8-ac1a-adab7b8abdf3" CreationDate="2022-02-16T16:42:57.417" UserId="18733" Text=" 1. In remote virtual works its quite common&#xD;&#xA; 2. Depute a separate client manager for those peoples&#xD;&#xA; 3. Send regular updates in email &amp; mobile before he wakeup ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26844" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10412" RevisionGUID="3213d36a-abc6-4a6f-86db-15c70d0a5bb1" CreationDate="2022-02-16T16:49:04.627" UserId="18733" Text=" 1. Before works start your collect data from all requirement forms filled&#xD;&#xA; 2. clearly understood clients requirements and make more interactions with them&#xD;&#xA; 3. give more mokeups" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26856" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10415" RevisionGUID="3700ea90-6972-4ebb-9963-6482ff21dd13" CreationDate="2022-02-22T21:10:53.030" UserId="27736" Text="Besides the other answers involving Post Office and Private Mail Boxes (both good choices I've relied on over the years), you could consider invoicing entirely electronically and leaving your mailing address off of it. It's not necessary as long as you're usually paid electronically as well." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26874" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10419" RevisionGUID="c6286e62-0c4e-4e2d-95a3-5fb348277074" CreationDate="2022-03-03T20:17:22.700" UserId="27775" Text="I'm an EU citizen (living and working from Austria) and have a customer in Johnson City, TN, USA. When issuing invoices for software development services I rendered, is there any reverse charge applicable, or should I issue my invoices with a 0% tax?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, which local tax law resources are there available in Tennessee, and where to start looking?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26876" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10419" RevisionGUID="c6286e62-0c4e-4e2d-95a3-5fb348277074" CreationDate="2022-03-03T20:17:22.700" UserId="27775" Text="Tax handling between Johnson City, TN and the EU" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26877" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10419" RevisionGUID="c6286e62-0c4e-4e2d-95a3-5fb348277074" CreationDate="2022-03-03T20:17:22.700" UserId="27775" Text="|taxes|invoices|usa|eu|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26878" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10420" RevisionGUID="aafdc549-aec0-4169-b72c-177298664f64" CreationDate="2022-03-04T15:10:20.103" UserId="26181" Text="In most US states, the only tax that might be assessed would be a &quot;sales tax&quot;. For me to collect the tax on an invoice when I sell something, I have to first register with the state and receive a &quot;sales tax ID&quot;. In many states, software services are not taxed. And if they were, your client has the responsibility to pay it if you don't have the state tax number to collect it yourself. In most cases, the onus is on your client, not you. Now, if you were a large multi-national company and generating millions of dollars in sales in that state, the state might ask you to get a tax id and pay the tax.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tennessee has their sales tax information online. See https://revenue.support.tn.gov/hc/en-us/articles/360058232252-SUT-58-Computer-Software-Sales-and-Use-Tax-Application-Overview and https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/revenue/documents/notices/sales/sales15-14.pdf&#xD;&#xA;In those, it states that the purchaser has the responsibility to pay the tax if you do not collect it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26880" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10420" RevisionGUID="ebeca5c1-e9e9-45dc-bc3d-87b50fe845ac" CreationDate="2022-03-04T15:31:01.887" UserId="26181" Comment="added disclaimer" Text="In most US states, the only tax that might be assessed would be a &quot;sales tax&quot;. (I am not in Tennessee. I am not a tax attorney or tax accountant.) For me to collect the tax on an invoice when I sell something, I have to first register with the state and receive a &quot;sales tax ID&quot;. In many states, software services are not taxed. And if they were, your client has the responsibility to pay it if you don't have the state tax number to collect it yourself. In most cases, the onus is on your client, not you. Now, if you were a large multi-national company and generating millions of dollars in sales in that state, the state might ask you to get a tax id and pay the tax.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tennessee has their sales tax information online. See https://revenue.support.tn.gov/hc/en-us/articles/360058232252-SUT-58-Computer-Software-Sales-and-Use-Tax-Application-Overview and https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/revenue/documents/notices/sales/sales15-14.pdf&#xD;&#xA;In those, it states that the purchaser has the responsibility to pay the tax if you do not collect it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26889" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10423" RevisionGUID="95d60528-5df3-452c-8a20-ed65373cde11" CreationDate="2022-03-07T18:08:12.733" UserId="744" Text="The first responses will be the Freelancer.com, fiver, and upwork.com.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; This site are paying very low and for a job, which is impossible or&#xD;&#xA;&gt; illegal, for an example: We are looking for apple apps developer to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; update our app with the new apple guide lines, apple remove it from&#xD;&#xA;&gt; apps store when we fail to update it time.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you can not download the original copy from apple developer&#xD;&#xA;&gt; dashboard, you may have to convert android copy to IOS app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, go and do the bid battle to decompile the Android and make an iOS app, well ... :) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was asked to sign an NDA and only than it will be delivered the details. I tought I have found a  serious client. The detail it was: download an Android app, decompile it, change the logo and  recompile it, well,  I didn't and I don't want to do it such things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second anwers it will be: toptal.com and they alternatives.&#xD;&#xA;The toptal has the marketing text &quot;we have the top 3%&quot; , yeas agree, on some cases...&#xD;&#xA;And I can build a test system, which will adjust the dificulty and the time to bypass only the 3%. Simple.  That is completly different thing when and how much time it is used those algorithms, when I need to write code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The third are the job sites and Linked in.&#xD;&#xA;They are full with HR, who are lookig for people, who want to be employed: &quot;full time&quot; or &quot;permanent&quot; as how it says in UK. And is USA: &quot;anywhere in USA&quot;, but I live in EU and I have my own company, I do accounting and  I don't want employment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; The fourth type is the outsourcing. They are loking for teams the huge companies, corporates, the re is no &quot;build me a software with specifications like this:&quot; -at least I don't know where should I find it, but other companies make a living and many times just 1 developer is assigned for the project.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26891" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10423" RevisionGUID="95d60528-5df3-452c-8a20-ed65373cde11" CreationDate="2022-03-07T18:08:12.733" UserId="744" Text="where to search for work as freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26892" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10423" RevisionGUID="95d60528-5df3-452c-8a20-ed65373cde11" CreationDate="2022-03-07T18:08:12.733" UserId="744" Text="|marketing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26893" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10423" RevisionGUID="3f6ea835-ef2c-43bf-b6ac-259e433a4504" CreationDate="2022-03-10T17:54:23.920" UserId="744" Comment="added 934 characters in body" Text="The first responses will be the Freelancer.com, fiver, and upwork.com.&#xD;&#xA;This sites are paying very low and for a job, which is impossible to do it or illegal, for an example: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We are looking for apple apps developer to&#xD;&#xA;&gt; update our app with the new apple guide lines, apple remove it from&#xD;&#xA;&gt; apps store when we fail to update it time.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you can not download the original copy from apple developer&#xD;&#xA;&gt; dashboard, you may have to convert android copy to IOS app.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, go and do the bid battle to decompile the Android and make an iOS app, well ... :) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was asked to sign an NDA and only than it will be delivered the details. I tought I have found a  serious client. The detail it was: download an Android app, decompile it, change the logo and  recompile it, well,  I didn't and I don't want to do it such things.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The second anwers it will be: toptal.com and they alternatives.&#xD;&#xA;The toptal has the marketing text &quot;we have the top 3%&quot; , yeas agree, on some cases...&#xD;&#xA;And I can build a test system, which will adjust the dificulty and the time to bypass only the 3%. Simple.  That is completly different thing when and how much time it is used those algorithms, when I need to write code.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The third are the job sites and Linked in.&#xD;&#xA;They are full with HR, who are lookig for people, who want to be employed: &quot;full time&quot; or &quot;permanent&quot; as how it says in UK. And is USA: &quot;anywhere in USA&quot;, but I live in EU and I have my own company, I do accounting and  I don't want employment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The fourth type is the outsourcing. They are loking for teams the huge companies, corporates, there is no &quot;build me a software with specifications like this:&quot; -at least I don't know where should I find it, but other companies make a living and many times just 1 developer is assigned for the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The word of mounth: I have asked my friends and my fiends &quot;friends&quot; if we name it. One problem could be, if you live in a country, where 1 windows license (of 100 euro ) it is enough for the whole street, they proably are't interested in my &quot;custom software developement&quot; for thousands of euro!&#xD;&#xA;While compared to a local job the costs of producing the same amount of work it would be then thousands.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At UK jobs is very opular to work with recruiters and the &quot;employer&quot; gets thousands of candidates ( but is paying daily 500-700 euro) &#xD;&#xA;At USA almost the same, but is writen &quot;Anywhere in USA&quot; and they don't care if I am telling  I don't need emplyment, nhence neither VISA, and  Ican work with they timezone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So simply I can't find a single company, were the software is needed and they have 10k-50k euro budget and nobody want to be my boss with any price.&#xD;&#xA;I run out from ideas, that's why I am asking help as ideas." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26895" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10424" RevisionGUID="96fec87b-f763-499f-8a6e-cf2863652f3a" CreationDate="2022-03-18T12:50:51.910" UserId="25228" Text="What we would do is ask for a down payment type of thing in this situation. We do website designs and ask for at least a $100 down-payment before anything is started. If they don't like the design, well they saw our work already and know what we can do, so we keep all or most of the payment they sent and then don't charge them for the final design." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26897" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10425" RevisionGUID="f1bfe494-39cd-4d9d-9de9-2cc6f78c37cc" CreationDate="2022-03-20T01:29:26.077" UserId="15906" Text="So, built and shipped to Testflight and Android beta software for a friends/family round &quot;funded&quot; startup client. It's a client-server-AI app that I felt was more than reasonable for $10k.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;We had an informal agreement, because I considered the scope minor and the payment was supposed to be in full. The founder agreed to the software features and asked to pay a 50% down instead of the full amount. I have informally agreed to help with the YC video as founding CTO, but it has become clear that our standards for making a competitive pitch are at a mismatch (I am perhaps more draconian).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Founder decides to ask for the 50% back:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Any lawyer looking at this situation would clearly see that our email exchange explicitly outlines that we both agreed that the YC video was included in the scope of work. As such I need to ask that you please return the $5000 that I sent you upfront.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because the client has mentioned that ridiculous-in-this-context keyword &quot;lawyer&quot;, I feel like it is no longer appropriate for me to reply at all. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have, in fury, written this draft email (unsent):&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; If you would like, I can generate an additional invoice for the additional thus un-billed work I have put in for the YC founder video. The fact remains that, I have built and delivered the working software we discussed, priced at the agreed-upon rate, and that invoice needs to be paid. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Good lawyers and good business folks value work that has been done for a project. It is in my nature to offer goodwill advice, so I highly advise that we end our relationship professionally, with you completing the payment. I will not be responding to further communication that I feel are outside of a professional context.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The founder has also asked for the YC video to be included in scope, but if we are to be detail-oriented, was not clear if this was just me advising on talking points for the video or actually making the founder video.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;TBH, this insight on character comes at the right time - it's appalling how early a founder can choose to breech trust, so I am glad I will not be wasting further work time with this person. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26899" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10425" RevisionGUID="f1bfe494-39cd-4d9d-9de9-2cc6f78c37cc" CreationDate="2022-03-20T01:29:26.077" UserId="15906" Text="Best strategies when a bad client refuses to complete payment and demands existing payment returned after work has been delivered" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26900" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10425" RevisionGUID="f1bfe494-39cd-4d9d-9de9-2cc6f78c37cc" CreationDate="2022-03-20T01:29:26.077" UserId="15906" Text="|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26901" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10426" RevisionGUID="2309119e-135c-456b-8826-ded81c20fdfa" CreationDate="2022-03-20T14:26:41.090" UserId="26181" Text="First off, in the US, involving a lawyer will cost far more than $5,000 for any substantial legal effort. (30 years ago, a lawyer told me that I needed to be talking about $20,000 just to break even on a lawsuit. Double that amount today.) So, mentioning a lawyer is simply intimidation. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have the $5,000. From my experience with kind of client, you are not likely to see the remaining payment. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It might be best to cut your losses and stop communicating with this client. A letter from a lawyer is meaningless. That just means that the client paid the lawyer to write a letter. Having a lawyer write a letter is a common intimidation step. It does not mean that there will be any legal action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A (very) few clients will actually file a lawsuit which must be addressed. Such a step is vindictive, not a step that makes business sense. At that point, they are just trying to harm. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To get more advice in your situation, you will need to talk to your lawyer.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26903" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10427" RevisionGUID="251d0708-a035-4c6a-ba67-b479bb26da11" CreationDate="2022-03-22T03:26:09.517" UserId="27834" Text="I am hesitating in accepting the contract due to this clause:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The Consultant shall have personal liability for and shall indemnify the Client against any and all direct and/or indirect loss, liability and costs (including reasonable legal costs) incurred by the Client in connection with the performance or non performance of the Services by the Consultant. The Consultant shall maintain in force during the term of this agreement a full and comprehensive insurance policy or policies in respect of the provision of the Services and all liability of the Consultant in respect of the Services with the Client's interest noted on the policies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I already negotiated and the employer cannot change the clause...&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26905" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10427" RevisionGUID="251d0708-a035-4c6a-ba67-b479bb26da11" CreationDate="2022-03-22T03:26:09.517" UserId="27834" Text="Is this a bad contract clause as a freelance software developer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26906" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10427" RevisionGUID="251d0708-a035-4c6a-ba67-b479bb26da11" CreationDate="2022-03-22T03:26:09.517" UserId="27834" Text="|contracts|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26907" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10428" RevisionGUID="69362bce-3932-4ee8-8bca-13c049c4bc5b" CreationDate="2022-03-22T09:36:56.480" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="This is a perfectly imbalanced clause and I would tend to refuse it as you are a too weak a party to support that.&#xD;&#xA;I can see two reasons for the customer to demand that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- he applies the same rules as if you were a large company; you are not,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- paranoia: run away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are really willing to get the job in these conditions, make sure to analyze what the risks are (real or fantasy). Also investigate if any insurance company is willing to cover them (which IMO is unlikely), including legal defense. In any case, charge the customer with that cost in addition to what you already negotiated. Absolutely refuse the clause &quot;for free&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26909" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10428" RevisionGUID="e124c422-a79e-4a06-991a-eedf7998156c" CreationDate="2022-03-22T09:42:22.917" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body" Text="This is a perfectly imbalanced clause and I would tend to refuse it as you are too weak a party to support that.&#xD;&#xA;I can see two reasons for the customer to demand that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- he applies the same rules as if you were a large company; you are not,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- paranoia: run away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are strongly willing to get the job in these conditions, make sure to analyze what the risks are (real or fantasy). Also investigate if any insurance company is willing to cover them (which IMO is unlikely), including legal defense. In any case, charge the customer with that cost in addition to what you already negotiated. Absolutely refuse the clause &quot;for free&quot;. Don't fear to set an inordinate price, that might discourage them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26911" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10429" RevisionGUID="4a031217-c789-4c36-8285-b637d6b02dd3" CreationDate="2022-03-22T13:57:41.577" UserId="27835" Text="I am an EU citizen.&#xD;&#xA;I am looking into an opportunity to do remote work for a company based in Israel.&#xD;&#xA;I am currently residing in an African country (tourist visa).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where should I pay tax?&#xD;&#xA;I realize that this is a hard question that may require an international tax lawyer, so if so, how do I find an appropriately-qualified international tax lawyer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26913" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10429" RevisionGUID="4a031217-c789-4c36-8285-b637d6b02dd3" CreationDate="2022-03-22T13:57:41.577" UserId="27835" Text="EU citizen, residing in Africa, working for Israeli company. Where to pay tax?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26914" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10429" RevisionGUID="4a031217-c789-4c36-8285-b637d6b02dd3" CreationDate="2022-03-22T13:57:41.577" UserId="27835" Text="|taxes|remote|eu|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26928" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10432" RevisionGUID="51e0f200-e55c-40fc-9050-cd649ebb374b" CreationDate="2022-03-23T18:54:09.267" UserId="8344" Text="Let's go through *the list* together:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Full report from the beginning of the site, with statistics and evidence of the website and my work managing it and how much it's   &#xD;&#xA;&gt; grown since it started&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. **Supermetrics for Google Sheets** can provide all that:&#xD;&#xA;https://supermetrics.com/pricing/supermetrics-for-google-sheets&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; An invoice with all of the expenses, including the amount I charge as    an administrator&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. What a great request! Now you can do your own math and estimate the ROI on behalf of your client. Create a **simple P&amp;L report** and add it in another spreadsheet.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; User journeys and behavior&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Check out the user journey by looking at the **Behavior Flow Report in Google Analytics (UA)**, it is free. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; How many sales, and the increment in those sales&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Another useful request by your client. Should be in the **P&amp;L report**. Ideally, your marketing budget should be a percentage of your client ROI.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; How much has SEO helped the growth of the site&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. Try **Ubersuggest**: https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It won't answer the question straight away, but it will certainly provide some initial data." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26954" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="10229" RevisionGUID="cb590f0c-8b15-435d-9c04-3a102b25052b" CreationDate="2022-03-28T03:30:27.797" UserDisplayName="user15099" Comment="edited tags" Text="|programmer|money|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26955" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10229" RevisionGUID="cb590f0c-8b15-435d-9c04-3a102b25052b" CreationDate="2022-03-28T03:30:27.797" Comment="Proposed by 15099 approved by 25169 edit id of 811" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26956" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="10427" RevisionGUID="e0823282-13ca-4db2-90e4-61bd9bb5e553" CreationDate="2022-03-29T01:51:30.560" UserDisplayName="user15099" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26957" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10427" RevisionGUID="e0823282-13ca-4db2-90e4-61bd9bb5e553" CreationDate="2022-03-29T01:51:30.560" Comment="Proposed by 15099 approved by 27834 edit id of 810" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26958" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="9977" RevisionGUID="10c35943-680a-4528-ba9b-4b1ce18f6453" CreationDate="2022-03-30T10:23:45.037" UserDisplayName="user15099" Comment="edited tags" Text="|programmer|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26959" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9977" RevisionGUID="10c35943-680a-4528-ba9b-4b1ce18f6453" CreationDate="2022-03-30T10:23:45.037" Comment="Proposed by 15099 approved by 7858 edit id of 812" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26963" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10438" RevisionGUID="3ac93542-6280-41f5-80ac-05c42319bfa6" CreationDate="2022-04-03T05:43:57.337" UserId="744" Text="&gt; Hi [my name] &#xD;&#xA;&gt; You don't need to relocate to [client's contry] for the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; position. Howerevr we can't pay your company but would do the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; employment through a EOR service. If still interested please make your&#xD;&#xA;&gt; application on our website Regards&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, why would anyone want employment / international employment instread of Freelancer contrsct 5x8  hour week ? ( full time) &#xD;&#xA;- The client is in EU, myself to, but not on the same country.&#xD;&#xA;- The job it is advertised as remote job.&#xD;&#xA;- I have my own compay (LLC) , I can emit international invoice, for my work, not need employment, judst a company to compay contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26965" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10438" RevisionGUID="3ac93542-6280-41f5-80ac-05c42319bfa6" CreationDate="2022-04-03T05:43:57.337" UserId="744" Text="Remote job. Why don't want to work with freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26966" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10438" RevisionGUID="3ac93542-6280-41f5-80ac-05c42319bfa6" CreationDate="2022-04-03T05:43:57.337" UserId="744" Text="|remote|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26967" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10439" RevisionGUID="d6e8f38a-ed6b-48c3-904f-ae370ada2625" CreationDate="2022-04-03T13:53:41.730" UserId="26181" Text="There are many people who want employment with the flexibility of remote work. These people do not want the overhead of invoicing, getting payments, government forms, insurance, and other aspects of being a freelancer. They would rather that someone else do that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But you asked the question why would anyone want to be an employee. The real question needs to be why a company would force everyone to be an employee of an EOR. Many companies do not want the extra headaches of dealing with contractors and freelancers who own their own companies. If they can push those issues off to an EOR, then they can operate as if these contractors are their own employees but not deal with the HR issues. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There can be specific tax and governance issues in that country. For example, in the past in the US, a number of companies had hired contractors and operated like those contractors were employees. The government came back and redefined those contractors as employees and fined the companies for not having paid the proper taxes on those employees. That convinced the companies that when dealing with contractors, those contractors had to be employees of a contracting company and not freelancers. That way, the employment taxes would be properly paid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26969" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10419" RevisionGUID="86c61f8b-47d1-4b24-881b-c9f8aa1dc05b" CreationDate="2022-04-03T16:00:35.033" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="26970" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10440" RevisionGUID="7a5b46ad-bf27-4e66-978a-b22a3843905c" CreationDate="2022-04-03T21:59:13.723" UserId="25830" Text="bureaucracy and taxes&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;when the company uses an EOR service, they just need to register the employee there with the correct salary and approve the bills every month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;when contracting, that varies wildly, you are viewed as a service and not as an employee, which means they need a process to pay you every month&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;usually, companies either benefit from hiring people as employees because they can't wiggle out of worker laws and taxes, in countries where labor law is strong or employment taxes are high, hiring people as companies is frowned upon, or even plain illegal, because it's viewed as a way of defrauding the government of taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;so, that's why they don't want to work with you as a contractor, they either don't want to infringe any labor laws or they just don't want to create a whole new process for paying you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know how that works for EU, but I'm in south America, working for a US company. I'm in their EOR, I get paid in an international account and in my country I emit an international invoice and pay my taxes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You could probably do the same, just check with an accountant." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26972" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10441" RevisionGUID="aefc8f34-eb05-4641-ac28-f07e70a644dc" CreationDate="2022-04-03T22:13:41.500" UserId="25830" Text="You pay taxes where you are declaring the money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'll use random values here to exemplify things. &#xD;&#xA;Let's say you are from Ireland and you are in South Africa. Are you getting money as an individual or as a company? If you are getting the money as an individual, do you have a way to declare and pay taxes in south Africa? If you have, pay in South Africa.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And let's say that the income tax in South Africa is 20% and the income tax in Ireland is 27% and you are receiving 10.000 $&#xD;&#xA;First, you pay the income tax in South Africa and spend the money there. So, you would be paying 2.000$ to the South African government and getting the remaining 8000$ for yourself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And now let's say that after paying all you bills and going out, you are left with 1.000$ that you want to send to your investments account in Ireland, should you pay 27% taxes?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The answer is NO&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you have already paid income taxes on that source of the money, you are not going to be double taxed, however, as Ireland's income taxes are higher, you should pay the difference, so you pay 7% of the 1000$ entering Ireland as income tax, and in whatever for you use to declare the taxes, you state that you already paid 20% for the South African government.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That's the principle, but what if things are reversed? What if you are receiving your money in Ireland and spending on South Africa. In that case you pay 27% on the 10.000, leaving you with 7300 on you bank account, if you ever transfer any money to a South African bank, you still need to declare that money but you don't need to pay taxes because you already paid income tax in Ireland, and since the 27% is greater then 20%, they can't demand any more from you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, this is not an advice, but If I were in your position, I'd either choose the strategy that lets me keep more money in the bank, or the one that lets me sleep better at night. Any argument would be valid in your case, if you state that you rather operate your money in the EU and just send South Africa enough money for your living costs, that's an acceptable choice. If you want to send your money to South Africa because you are living there and just sending the remaining money to Ireland, that's also acceptable.&#xD;&#xA;What is not acceptable is not paying taxes hahaha&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit: the only way you'd pay taxes to Israel is if you are receiving money in a company you've opened there of if they have legislation taxing service providers, which it's very unlikely. That kind of tax is usually only applied to goods, not services, and is commonly referred as import tax, which is just a way to break imports a bit and protect the local market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit2: you don'r need an international lawyer, you need an accountant local to the country where you would be receiving the money." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26974" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10442" RevisionGUID="de7892b2-49cf-45cd-9fa1-458f11f8f814" CreationDate="2022-04-11T13:35:09.607" UserId="27884" Text="generally speaking, if you work for a israeli company you pay tax there but, very important. If u are also registered in EU country and have bank account there and anything which belongs to you. You will be obliged to pay tax over there as well. Also dont forget the 183 days rule which makes you in almost any country tax resident." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26976" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10443" RevisionGUID="0949cef1-f050-4065-bb87-fdf33e49e1b0" CreationDate="2022-04-13T11:44:38.843" UserId="27890" Text="I am new to [upwork.com][1]. So far, I have submitted 20 proposals. But I did not see any reaction. I have about 11 years of programming experience, and it's not good that I can't communicate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to write a good proposal What should I follow?&#xD;&#xA;Can someone guide me?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.upwork.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26978" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10443" RevisionGUID="0949cef1-f050-4065-bb87-fdf33e49e1b0" CreationDate="2022-04-13T11:44:38.843" UserId="27890" Text="A good proposal in The Upwork.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26979" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10443" RevisionGUID="0949cef1-f050-4065-bb87-fdf33e49e1b0" CreationDate="2022-04-13T11:44:38.843" UserId="27890" Text="|web-development|programmer|proposal|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26980" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10443" RevisionGUID="e3afe5d3-f1bf-4dbd-8084-f1f90021b396" CreationDate="2022-04-13T11:53:13.717" UserId="27890" Comment="edited title" Text="How to write a good proposal in The Upwork.com?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26981" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10444" RevisionGUID="1a496165-bf61-4778-ba19-53460765b551" CreationDate="2022-04-13T15:06:45.620" UserId="26181" Text="On a platform such as UpWork, a client who posts a project will get anywhere from 50 to 100 proposals and invite 5 people to interview. Turning the numbers around yields that it takes 20 proposals to get one invitation. So, your experience is normal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might want to change which posts you respond to and how you respond.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To improve your chances, it helps to identify what you have as a &quot;unique value proposition&quot; - what makes you different from any other programmer with 11 years of experience. Unless you have a massive cost advantage, typically cost is not the value proposition. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some questions to help you identify your value proposition are: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you have experience with a specific industry and understand how business in that industry is different from other industries?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Have you provided notable solutions to an industry?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How have your efforts helped your clients solve problems, save money, increase sales, reduced costs, or increase profits. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you have any Intellectual Property (such as libraries you developed on your own time) that gives you an edge in solving business problems or problems for a specific industry?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Notice that none of these questions are about your technical qualifications. These are all business questions. You might want to limit which posts you respond to certain industries that you have experience with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The goal is to talk business to business owners, not submit resumes to &quot;hiring managers&quot;. Business owners control the budget. Hiring managers are out to reduce costs. Posts on Upwork that are basically job advertisements are out for the cheapest person. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26983" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10445" RevisionGUID="f0eb4c9e-b269-495b-9d9b-bcd0b6fd7470" CreationDate="2022-04-13T16:20:47.097" UserId="27892" Text="I currently have a contractor working for me via an agency. The contract is rolling on a weekly basis and I can end it whenever I like.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have suggested to the agency owner that I could prepay for development services for 3 or 6 months if a discount was offered. The owner seems to appreciate this idea as it will allow him to scale his startup agency. Neither of us has mentioned the discount percentage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is a reasonable starting discount to request for each of these periods?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've read [this](https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/4485/what-discount-to-give-for-a-retainer-contract) but I'm not sure it applies here as it's 2 days a week and therefore considerably less money." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26985" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10445" RevisionGUID="f0eb4c9e-b269-495b-9d9b-bcd0b6fd7470" CreationDate="2022-04-13T16:20:47.097" UserId="27892" Text="What's a reasonable discount to ask for when prepaying for development services?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26986" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10445" RevisionGUID="f0eb4c9e-b269-495b-9d9b-bcd0b6fd7470" CreationDate="2022-04-13T16:20:47.097" UserId="27892" Text="|subcontracting|startups|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26987" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10446" RevisionGUID="cf259064-c97a-45f6-a7f1-59b71625de93" CreationDate="2022-04-13T20:31:05.360" UserId="708" Text="Generally, there's no set amount for any discount. It's purely a matter of negotiation between the parties. In addition, the *agency* may be good with the idea of a discount, but in rare cases the developer may not... So, they *may* need to do some internal negotiation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ask for what you want.. then negotiate. The worst they can say is &quot;no&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26989" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10443" RevisionGUID="5629f304-dafa-4b11-b353-19749e626cb9" CreationDate="2022-04-14T03:22:05.770" UserId="25082" Comment="Clarified title and refined the final question in the body, removed ambiguous &quot;Freelance&quot; tag in place of the freelance-websites one as this seems unique to upwork.com" Text="I am new to [upwork.com][1]. So far, I have submitted 20 proposals, but I did not see any reaction to them. I have about 11 years of programming experience, and it's not good that I can't communicate how effective I can be.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I write a good proposal that best relays my qualifications?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.upwork.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26990" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10443" RevisionGUID="5629f304-dafa-4b11-b353-19749e626cb9" CreationDate="2022-04-14T03:22:05.770" UserId="25082" Comment="Clarified title and refined the final question in the body, removed ambiguous &quot;Freelance&quot; tag in place of the freelance-websites one as this seems unique to upwork.com" Text="How can I write a good proposal on Upwork.com?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26991" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="10443" RevisionGUID="5629f304-dafa-4b11-b353-19749e626cb9" CreationDate="2022-04-14T03:22:05.770" UserId="25082" Comment="Clarified title and refined the final question in the body, removed ambiguous &quot;Freelance&quot; tag in place of the freelance-websites one as this seems unique to upwork.com" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|programmer|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26992" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10443" RevisionGUID="5629f304-dafa-4b11-b353-19749e626cb9" CreationDate="2022-04-14T03:22:05.770" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 75 edit id of 815" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26993" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10447" RevisionGUID="fc9f2e42-77b8-4f2b-84fa-73e58ef36599" CreationDate="2022-04-15T05:28:14.087" UserId="27897" Text="Is there a re-negotiation option? if the statistics and reports were not agreed on as part of the project originally, I think you want to &quot;return to the table&quot;. If this is possible, I think you want to *use your leverage* in the way of the comment suggestion and bring your estimate. You have to emphasize how much higher your rate is for your other clients that did **NOT** get the &quot;friends and family&quot; discount.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The historical data report sounds the most difficult, if it means digging through archives and old logs. But which ever work that you determine to require the greatest effort, I would compare to the 2/3 payment that are owed. I mean it seems unfair that more than half the payment is still not paid when the store is online, in production, and collecting revenue for the owner. I think this does hinge on whether these stats and reporting were agreed on in the beginning. If the reporting requirements are new, you are totally justified in asking for the balance of the payment before continuing new work.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26995" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10438" RevisionGUID="4784c3ce-ea40-4590-bc46-84a091f54c63" CreationDate="2022-04-15T06:28:39.997" UserId="25400" Comment="fixed punctuation, grammar" Text="&gt; Hi [my name] &#xD;&#xA;&gt; You don't need to relocate to [client's contry] for the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; position. However we can't pay your company but would do the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; employment through an EOR service. If still interested please make your&#xD;&#xA;&gt; application on our website Regards&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, why would anyone want employment / international employment instead of a Freelancer contract 5x8 hour week? ( full time) &#xD;&#xA;- The client is in EU, myself too, but not in the same country.&#xD;&#xA;- The job is advertised as a remote job.&#xD;&#xA;- I have my own company (LLC), I can emit international invoices for my work, not need employment, just a company to company contract." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26996" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10438" RevisionGUID="4784c3ce-ea40-4590-bc46-84a091f54c63" CreationDate="2022-04-15T06:28:39.997" Comment="Proposed by 25400 approved by 744 edit id of 813" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26997" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10448" RevisionGUID="3cd6321a-eb50-4fb8-b050-308d603263b1" CreationDate="2022-04-15T09:47:56.600" UserId="27898" Text="So after alot of learning, i've been making moves to get into making brochure websites for cliënts. But i'm doubtful as to what is the best way to handle setting up the host financially for your cliënt.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Should i direct my cliënt to a host, have the person setup an account and buy a plan i advise?&#xD;&#xA;2. Should i ask the cliënt for their info, setup an account for them?&#xD;&#xA;3. Insert your custom advise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance, looking forward to the replies and expertise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="26999" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10448" RevisionGUID="3cd6321a-eb50-4fb8-b050-308d603263b1" CreationDate="2022-04-15T09:47:56.600" UserId="27898" Text="What are your advices when handling setting up a host for your client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27000" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10448" RevisionGUID="3cd6321a-eb50-4fb8-b050-308d603263b1" CreationDate="2022-04-15T09:47:56.600" UserId="27898" Text="|web-development|consulting|client-support|finance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27001" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10448" RevisionGUID="50eb219a-e536-4e0f-a626-fe0c97da447f" CreationDate="2022-04-16T05:30:48.610" UserId="25082" Comment="Cleaned up accented &quot;e&quot; characters in &quot;client&quot; - Fixed a couple of grammatical errors, removed &quot;Thanks&quot; at the end (we tend to leave those out on Stack Exchange: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/help/behavior )" Text="So after a lot of learning, I've been making moves to get into making brochure websites for clients, but I'm doubtful as to what the best way to handle setting up the host financially for my client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Should I direct my client to a host, have the person setup an account, and buy a plan I advise?&#xD;&#xA;2. Should I ask the client for their info, and setup an account for them?&#xD;&#xA;3. Is there anything else I should be taking care of in this situation?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27002" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10448" RevisionGUID="50eb219a-e536-4e0f-a626-fe0c97da447f" CreationDate="2022-04-16T05:30:48.610" UserId="25082" Comment="Cleaned up accented &quot;e&quot; characters in &quot;client&quot; - Fixed a couple of grammatical errors, removed &quot;Thanks&quot; at the end (we tend to leave those out on Stack Exchange: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/help/behavior )" Text="What should I do when handling setting up a host for my client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27003" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10448" RevisionGUID="50eb219a-e536-4e0f-a626-fe0c97da447f" CreationDate="2022-04-16T05:30:48.610" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 75 edit id of 816" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27004" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="10448" RevisionGUID="93b77f48-e778-42b0-8812-9da66b970c34" CreationDate="2022-04-16T05:31:52.307" UserId="75" Comment="101" Text="{&quot;OriginalQuestionIds&quot;:[2022],&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="27005" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9771" RevisionGUID="27f9ee52-4132-410f-b6ea-76779eb842d7" CreationDate="2022-04-19T06:10:18.280" UserId="24861" Comment="deleted 5 characters in body" Text="I couldn't help but leave my own insights on this matter as two existing answers are all implying a client shouldn't be charged for his employee's mistakes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this question is about the right of getting paid when delays have been made due to a freelancer's inexperience, low-level skills, or working practices - as opposed to his/her hidden features like characteristics, inattentiveness, or negligence - the client still has to pay for it. Errors and mistakes happen everywhere, every time. There's nothing guilty about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason is clear: The client shouldn't have hired his employee in the first place if his/her skills didn't meet up his expectations. That's what employers do. Most importantly, he should be responsible for his choice of choosing whom he is working with, and what his employee's mindset looks like. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Refusing to pay for the mistakes can only happen when the client thinks he has hired a working robot, not a human. Otherwise, any hours spent on the work that is (even slightly) related to the client's project are subject to the regular payment, even when you are working on an hourly basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as you have materials that support your claim you didn't idly spend time for those 35 mins, you have full rights to get paid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27006" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9771" RevisionGUID="9526d0d2-2d25-4078-8e97-3cdfa02518b9" CreationDate="2022-04-19T06:15:35.253" UserId="24861" Comment="deleted 5 characters in body" Text="I couldn't help but leave my own insights on this matter as two existing answers are all implying a client shouldn't be charged for his employee's mistakes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this question is about the right of getting paid when delays have been made due to a freelancer's inexperience, low-level skills, or working practices - as opposed to his/her hidden features like characteristics, inattentiveness, or negligence - the client still has to pay for it. Errors and mistakes happen everywhere, every time. There's nothing guilty about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason is clear: The client shouldn't have hired his employee in the first place if his/her skills didn't meet up his expectations. That's what employers do. Most importantly, he should be responsible for his choice of choosing whom he is working with, and what his employee's mindset looks like. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Refusing to pay for the mistakes can only happen when the client thinks he has hired a working robot, not a human. Otherwise, any hours spent on the work that is (even slightly, let alone directly) related to the client's project are subject to the regular payment, even when you are working on an hourly basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it was like 8 or 10 hours, you might want to talk to your employer, but heck, it's like 35 minutes, not even one hour. Nobody would claim confidently that he/she always makes every 35 minutes in his workplace productive, can you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as you have materials that support your claim you didn't idly spend time for those 35 mins, you have full rights to get paid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27007" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9771" RevisionGUID="fb98a90c-7676-43c3-b03c-5834ddf8299a" CreationDate="2022-04-19T06:22:12.030" UserId="24861" Comment="deleted 1 character in body" Text="I couldn't help but leave my own insights on this matter as two existing answers are all implying a client shouldn't be charged for his employee's mistakes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this question is about the right of getting paid when delays have been made due to a freelancer's inexperience, low-level skills, or working practices - as opposed to his/her hidden features like characteristics, inattentiveness, or negligence - the client still has to pay for it. Errors and mistakes happen everywhere, every time. There's nothing guilty about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The reason is clear: The client shouldn't have hired his employee in the first place if his/her skills didn't meet up his expectations. That's what employers do. Most importantly, he should be responsible for his choice of choosing whom he is working with, and what his employee's mindset looks like. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Refusing to pay for the mistakes can only happen when the client thinks he has hired a working robot, not a human. Otherwise, any hours spent on the work that is (even slightly, let alone directly) related to the client's project are subject to the regular payment, even when you are working on an hourly basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If it was like 5 or 8 hours, you might want to discuss, but heck, it's like 35 minutes, not even one hour. Nobody would claim confidently that he/she always makes every 35 minutes in his workplace super-productive, would you?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As long as you have materials that support your claim you didn't idly spend time for those 35 mins, you have full rights to get paid." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27009" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10449" RevisionGUID="3c8446f0-f895-48ec-9a68-6a9bea5aeb50" CreationDate="2022-04-23T20:48:44.780" UserId="27931" Text="I'm a sole proprietor in the US contracting for a few months to make changes to a mobile app for a medium sized company. They want me to sign this clause under Delaware jurisdiction:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Consultant shall indemnify, fully defend, and hold Company harmless from and against liability, loss, cost, expenses and damages, from any negligent act, omission, or errors of the Consultant that arise from the Consultant's the performance under this Agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The contract is worth about $25K. The worst I can probably do in terms of mistakes is incorporate code or graphics into their product that I don't have a license for, or accidentally delete or leak personal information. It's a news reader app so mistakes are going to be less costly than mistakes for something like a large ecommerce site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. I feel &quot;defend&quot; is unreasonable because it would mean I would have to pay to defend against third party claims with no way to limit the cost of the legal defence or who can try to claim.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. I feel there should be a limit to the liability costs that can be claimed. I've signed contracts that say the &quot;limited to the cost paid to the contractor under this agreement&quot; before and feel that is fair.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is the above clause unusual in this contracting context and overly risky to sign? Are my objections reasonable and asking to remove 1 and include 2  a reasonable solution? Is there some fairer boilerplate clause I can refer to that's closer to this?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27011" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10449" RevisionGUID="3c8446f0-f895-48ec-9a68-6a9bea5aeb50" CreationDate="2022-04-23T20:48:44.780" UserId="27931" Text="Is &quot;contractor will indemnify and fully defend&quot; with no cost limit reasonable for a software developer contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27012" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10449" RevisionGUID="3c8446f0-f895-48ec-9a68-6a9bea5aeb50" CreationDate="2022-04-23T20:48:44.780" UserId="27931" Text="|contracts|legal|software|programmer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27013" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10450" RevisionGUID="849297e1-1a68-4641-babb-f9f9af2d9928" CreationDate="2022-04-24T14:08:11.060" UserId="26181" Text="Actually, what this is asking you to do is to buy Errors and Omissions insurance. This is a common request from companies of a certain size. Your choices are to ask them to waive that requirement in your case or to add the cost of that insurance into your pricing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27015" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10451" RevisionGUID="2a264a43-f84b-4b83-bb46-6660f9d7ceab" CreationDate="2022-04-27T14:54:04.667" UserId="27941" Text="I am looking for experienced contractors / freelancers (3+ years of practical experience with the given technology) for a new long-term project for a foreign client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - What would you recommend to offer in addition to the salary? &#xD;&#xA;- What conditions are valuable for freelancers? &#xD;&#xA;- How do you decide which offer to take?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What information should be provided to make the offer meaningful?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27017" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10451" RevisionGUID="2a264a43-f84b-4b83-bb46-6660f9d7ceab" CreationDate="2022-04-27T14:54:04.667" UserId="27941" Text="How to reach, hire and retain quality freelancers?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27018" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10451" RevisionGUID="2a264a43-f84b-4b83-bb46-6660f9d7ceab" CreationDate="2022-04-27T14:54:04.667" UserId="27941" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27025" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10453" RevisionGUID="50c4fd5e-b54f-4e1f-8ec2-dce095a29e3e" CreationDate="2022-04-28T14:50:35.267" UserId="26181" Text="Different freelancers have different criteria about projects. A freelancer can come in for a short time FTE replacement, or can be a strategic or management consultant, or can be an &quot;outsourcing partner&quot;.  Here are some of the issues that can be part of the decision-making process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Can this project be done remotely or does this project need onsite visits or does this project have to be done totally onsite?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Are there specific hours when the freelancer has to be actively working on this project or can the freelancer manage their own work schedule?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. How much interaction is needed with the rest of the team? How big is the team? How is that interaction to be accomplished, through email, through Zoom meetings scheduled or unplanned, through Slack, through daily standups, or what?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Are there any legal restrictions on who can work on this project? For example, some projects require that all workers be citizens of a country. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. Is the pay based on a 40-hour work week or on the &quot;professional hour&quot; where only work on that project is billed? The rate for a &quot;professional hour&quot; can be 2-3 times that of a 40-hour work week rate but wind up with the same cost per actual work done.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Who is doing the project design and how is that design being done and managed? Is the freelancer being asked to come in, analyze the situation, propose and design the solution, and build it? Or is the freelancer handed a design and being asked to build that?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;7. Is this project well defined or is the business owner needing help with defining what needs to be done?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27027" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10442" RevisionGUID="75d8863a-2759-454f-85b4-346bdd43441b" CreationDate="2022-05-02T12:24:07.747" UserId="25082" Comment="improved grammar" Text="Generally speaking, if you work for an Israeli company you pay tax there but, and this is very important: if you are also registered in an EU country and have a bank account there or anything which belongs to you, you will be obliged to pay tax over there as well. Also, don't forget the 183 days rule which makes you, in almost any country, a tax resident." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27028" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10442" RevisionGUID="75d8863a-2759-454f-85b4-346bdd43441b" CreationDate="2022-05-02T12:24:07.747" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 7858 edit id of 814" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27029" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6074" RevisionGUID="8cdf8377-4cb8-4e72-adb3-b1ba6d635872" CreationDate="2022-05-02T12:24:21.493" UserId="15235" Comment="tags edited" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27030" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6074" RevisionGUID="8cdf8377-4cb8-4e72-adb3-b1ba6d635872" CreationDate="2022-05-02T12:24:21.493" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 7858 edit id of 817" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27031" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="9959" RevisionGUID="460a2c62-eabc-4cdf-bf31-7112cc5cb1ec" CreationDate="2022-05-02T12:24:35.080" UserDisplayName="user15099" Comment="edited tags" Text="|programmer|time-management|fixed-price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27032" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9959" RevisionGUID="460a2c62-eabc-4cdf-bf31-7112cc5cb1ec" CreationDate="2022-05-02T12:24:35.080" Comment="Proposed by 15099 approved by 7858 edit id of 809" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27033" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="4228" RevisionGUID="3b80fa29-db30-41f4-acc3-acb10a96c462" CreationDate="2022-05-02T12:24:52.777" UserDisplayName="user15099" Comment="edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27034" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="4228" RevisionGUID="3b80fa29-db30-41f4-acc3-acb10a96c462" CreationDate="2022-05-02T12:24:52.777" Comment="Proposed by 15099 approved by 7858 edit id of 807" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27035" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10454" RevisionGUID="d54f982f-0458-4efd-b8e2-9ce10d4d2e19" CreationDate="2022-05-03T21:14:01.943" UserId="25857" Text="I had a customer send me a docusign for purchase terms before sending an expected PO.  One of the terms was that I would agree to purchase $1 million of general liability insurance and name them as additional beneficiary.  Is this reasonable for a $1500 deal?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27037" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10454" RevisionGUID="d54f982f-0458-4efd-b8e2-9ce10d4d2e19" CreationDate="2022-05-03T21:14:01.943" UserId="25857" Text="Is it reasonable for customer to require $1 million liability insurance for $1500 contract?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27038" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10454" RevisionGUID="d54f982f-0458-4efd-b8e2-9ce10d4d2e19" CreationDate="2022-05-03T21:14:01.943" UserId="25857" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27044" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10456" RevisionGUID="7cf370fc-af82-4633-b712-883e84b83b89" CreationDate="2022-05-05T04:40:54.823" UserId="27972" Text="At present the prevailing mode of online tutoring seems to involve websites that connect tutors directly with prospective students. A slightly different approach might instead allow tutors to connect with students by way of the (appropriately anonymized) schools attended by the students or that the tutors are remotely affiliated with.  The second approach seems like it would be moderately safer, exposing prospective students and tutors to fewer risks vis a vis academic integrity, and would allow tutors to engage more profitably with teachers as external consultants or content creation contractors as well as helping students stay up to speed with their classmates or peers elsewhere.  It seems like it must have been tried at least once before, however, and I'm worried that I haven't come across anything like it over the last two or so years while I have been exploring the somewhat turbid waters of online tutoring. Are there obvious or not so obvious shortcomings or obstacles to this idea that I'm missing, or could it be worth exploring? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27046" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10456" RevisionGUID="7cf370fc-af82-4633-b712-883e84b83b89" CreationDate="2022-05-05T04:40:54.823" UserId="27972" Text="Approaches to online tutoring" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27047" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10456" RevisionGUID="7cf370fc-af82-4633-b712-883e84b83b89" CreationDate="2022-05-05T04:40:54.823" UserId="27972" Text="|startups|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27048" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10456" RevisionGUID="050cb328-c670-45c6-8be1-e38ed8e4168e" CreationDate="2022-05-05T08:20:38.843" UserId="7858" Comment="Split into paragraphs" Text="At present the prevailing mode of online tutoring seems to involve websites that connect tutors directly with prospective students.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A slightly different approach might instead allow tutors to connect with students by way of the (appropriately anonymized) schools attended by the students or that the tutors are remotely affiliated with. This approach seems like it would be moderately safer, exposing prospective students and tutors to fewer risks vis a vis academic integrity, and would allow tutors to engage more profitably with teachers as external consultants or content creation contractors as well as helping students stay up to speed with their classmates or peers elsewhere.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It seems like it must have been tried at least once before, however, and I'm worried that I haven't come across anything like it over the last two or so years while I have been exploring the somewhat turbid waters of online tutoring.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there obvious or not so obvious shortcomings or obstacles to this idea that I'm missing, or could it be worth exploring?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27049" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10457" RevisionGUID="60a4e33a-3502-4134-b157-7d2e709db4d2" CreationDate="2022-05-07T19:25:17.443" UserId="708" Text="The primary detractor, as I see it, is that it opens schools up to direct liability.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should someone nefarious pass themselves off as a tutor, and a school directly connects students with that &quot;tutor&quot;, the school *may* be held liable for negligence.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To this end, undue stress in terms of work hours and costs would be placed upon schools to ensure they vet all prospective tutors accordingly. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That, to me, is too much burden to place on an already stressed educational system (in the US)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27058" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10460" RevisionGUID="183fadf9-2926-4a69-9804-c36dbd135a6f" CreationDate="2022-05-12T00:32:07.893" UserId="27990" Text="I've done exactly what you're proposing and it can work out just fine. Just make sure that 1) the agreement is in writing, and 2) your agreement limits the hours you'll provide and the fixed price you charge pays for those hours. Do that and you either get paid for the hours you work the same as you do now, or you get paid for hours you didn't work, which is a bonus.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But as you've alluded to, you need to account for the context switching. Let's say you agree to provide a maximum of 80 hours per month for $X per month. How quickly will you be required to respond? You need to account for that in your agreement. If you have to respond quickly, how will that impact your other clients? If that client tends to have immediate response time requirements, I would price the fixed rate higher than your current hourly rate because that means you're potentially going to have to delay work for other clients. Or you could just set a response time limit in your agreement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The rule I would follow is always try to do what you can to retain a good client. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27067" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10462" RevisionGUID="3d2a034a-5d37-408a-b4b9-18eaae8a2011" CreationDate="2022-05-23T19:32:55.570" UserId="28045" Text="If you are referring to general liability insurance, sometimes called &quot;trip and fall&quot;, it may be simply to protect the client from suit in the event you have a personal accident on their site. My assumption is similiar to that described on this link:https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/liability_insurance.asp, which is that this kind of insurance does not refer to your work product. A work product would likely be covered by an &quot;errors and omissions&quot; policy. I suggest that you carefully reread the policy to see what it does and does not cover. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27069" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10463" RevisionGUID="0cb7fe10-d50b-4333-a6a4-529f0e23e995" CreationDate="2022-05-23T19:44:54.387" UserId="28045" Text="This is a very general question. Some considerations are:&#xD;&#xA;1)research rates before hiring. If the person is charging a lot more or less than the median, ask why and get a thorough answer. You may turn up a response that means the person is not suitable for your project or misunderstands the role.&#xD;&#xA;That being said, clarify the rate structure (such as simply by the hour, day, project vs. time and materials), make sure you are not treating the person like a salaried employee (tax issues), do a simple contract with clear points, and address how to deal with scope creep, unintended time extensions, and time off.&#xD;&#xA;2)treat the person fairly and pay quickly. I stayed with a really irritating client because even with his difficulties he always paid immediately and never questioned my hours. That being said, I always submit timesheets with my invoices." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27071" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10464" RevisionGUID="9d5fe78c-dd3f-453b-a480-ac6d437958fd" CreationDate="2022-05-23T19:54:39.847" UserId="28045" Text="Up to a point the issues that surround freelance (contractor)work are part of the work effort, especially with software that is new or is an  unknown quantity. The contractor is not an employee and should not expect the same leeway or treatment. The point becomes shorter when the software is a known quantity or the issue is a personal mistake such as forgetting to hit a button at the appropriate time. The bottom line is that a contractor needs to be more disciplined and self-disciplined than an employee." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27073" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10465" RevisionGUID="f6530442-e193-485f-8f83-3c6c0a007f93" CreationDate="2022-05-23T20:28:36.627" UserId="28045" Text="Make professional contacts. See if there are ways that you can display your work. Build off your existing clients who are satisfied. The successful small business entrepreneurs I know have all built business off good contacts. Other ways include volunteering for tech events and projects. The aim is to get word of mouth referrals. Some of my best clients have come through professional--and personal--contacts. This is a kind of warm intro, as contrasted to a cold intro, which is what happens when you deal with total strangers. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27075" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10466" RevisionGUID="cbefc252-1352-47ff-93c1-297d7b5c8ad7" CreationDate="2022-05-24T10:12:38.350" UserId="28048" Text="Also known as **Professional Indemnity Insurance**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;$1M of coverage is a typical figure tossed out; $2M, $5M might be considered necessary for some circumstances.  It is to cover a major stuff-up, like deleting their entire database; although might also cover an accident whilst working on their premises.  I've never heard of anyone every making a claim; maybe for a fall which seems more practical, but not for the service.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It will depend on your country but, here in Australia, it is a common requirement, costing ~$600-$1200/year (2022).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The bit you say about 'name them as an additional beneficiary' is not something I have encountered however; the insurance comes with some paperwork, maybe a certificate, to show I have it paid up and current.  If anyone really wants to sight it, I show it, but typically my signature on the form is all they actually follow up on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An example pitch:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Professional Indemnity Insurance can protect you from some unique risks your business faces when giving advice or providing a service.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; If it’s found you made a mistake that caused injury, damage or financial loss to your client, you could face legal fees and damages. Professional Indemnity Insurance is designed to cover these costs and stop them putting pressure on your business’s cash flow.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; This protection is designed for businesses that give advice or provide a service. There are two types of cover, one for professionals and consultants (like accountants, graphic designers or fitness instructors) and one for IT and communications (like IT business analysts, IT hardware engineers or IT project managers).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27085" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6837" RevisionGUID="affc6028-b304-4eea-9c65-5f46b28516b3" CreationDate="2022-05-25T21:06:05.517" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27092" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10470" RevisionGUID="96255ee9-ce4a-4070-aeec-bb5ebfb8ce36" CreationDate="2022-05-28T14:40:56.850" UserId="28062" Text="I would like to be a web freelancer but I'm in doubt because I'm not sure if services I'm going to offer are even relevant in 2022. I know a lot about building websites using HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Django.&#xD;&#xA;I would like to start building landing pages using HTML and CSS but it seems to me that nobody really needs this because there are platforms like Wordpress, Wix, Tilda etc. Websites built using these platforms are easy to handle and edit by users with little to no technical knowledge because of CMS they offer, which of course i'm not able to provide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, my question is, does somebody really need a page built with basic technologies like HTML, CSS and JS, or I should abandon this idea, learn something like Wordpress and offer to build a websites using this platform?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27094" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10470" RevisionGUID="96255ee9-ce4a-4070-aeec-bb5ebfb8ce36" CreationDate="2022-05-28T14:40:56.850" UserId="28062" Text="What technologies should I use as a web freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27095" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10470" RevisionGUID="96255ee9-ce4a-4070-aeec-bb5ebfb8ce36" CreationDate="2022-05-28T14:40:56.850" UserId="28062" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27096" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10470" RevisionGUID="27be6bba-4d86-4bda-9a38-cc12ee506c26" CreationDate="2022-05-29T22:53:27.127" UserId="25082" Comment="various small grammar/formatting improvements" Text="I would like to be a web freelancer but I'm in doubt because I'm not sure if the services I'm going to offer are even relevant in 2022. I know a lot about building websites using HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Django.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would like to start building landing pages using HTML and CSS but it seems to me that nobody really needs this because there are platforms like Wordpress, Wix, Tilda etc. Websites built using these platforms are easy to handle and edit by users with little to no technical knowledge because of CMS they offer, which of course I'm not able to provide.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, my question is, does somebody really need a page built with basic technologies like HTML, CSS and JS, or I should abandon this idea, learn something like Wordpress, and offer to build websites using this platform?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27097" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10470" RevisionGUID="27be6bba-4d86-4bda-9a38-cc12ee506c26" CreationDate="2022-05-29T22:53:27.127" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 28062 edit id of 820" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27098" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10471" RevisionGUID="726c943c-afee-44ed-90ca-33799c39f045" CreationDate="2022-05-30T14:11:06.557" UserId="26181" Text="We are not the people to answer this question. The only people who can answer this are your potential customers. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to get an answer to this question? The best way is to put together some marketing materials (pamphlet, hand out, etc.) that describes the type of business problem you are offering to solve which is building a static web site. Then, go out and talk to potential customers and see how they react. Do they say I like what you offer, but don't want to pay your price. Or do they say that they need something else solved. If they do, then learn how to solve that something else. Repeat. Do this enough till you find a customer who will pay you to solve that problem." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27100" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10213" RevisionGUID="bfc69747-cd2f-40fe-b677-e978b57a7814" CreationDate="2022-06-02T07:30:41.740" UserId="26927" Comment="added 170 characters in body" Text="**You can.** At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it. Some of the most popular options as of now:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is &#xD;&#xA;in IQ, which you can the trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Monero Social][13]. If you know how to code, write technical documentation, or create videos. Payment is in Monero.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use [lightning network][10], so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities. Whether these options give you pseudonymity or [anonymity][9] is another matter. The first option, i.e. wiriting Everipedia, seems to me more pseudonymous than anonymous. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If needed you would than use non-[KYC][8] ways, such as [Bisq][7] or [localmonero][6], to convert crypto to FIAT. When spending crypto for goods directly, without the FIAT step in between, you should be using Bitcoin's lightning or [Monero][12] in order to preserve your privacy. The former is accepted through [Bitrefill][11].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;[6]: https://localmonero.co/&#xD;&#xA;[7]: https://bisq.network/&#xD;&#xA;[8]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer&#xD;&#xA;[9]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymity&#xD;&#xA;[10]: https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/the-bitcoin-lightning-network&#xD;&#xA;[11]: https://www.bitrefill.com/&#xD;&#xA;[12]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monero&#xD;&#xA;[13]: https://bounties.monero.social" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27101" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10214" RevisionGUID="848d0a1e-c0b3-4d75-82ff-0c3b254fc97b" CreationDate="2022-06-02T07:31:23.240" UserId="26927" Comment="added 169 characters in body" Text="At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it.&#xD;&#xA;Some of the most popular options as of now: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is in IQ, which you can then trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Monero Social][6]. If you know how to code, write technical documentation, or create videos. Payment is in Monero.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use lightning network, so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;[6]: https://bounties.monero.social/&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27102" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10472" RevisionGUID="ba05e82d-6d0d-465f-ab44-0e6a40241a70" CreationDate="2022-06-05T10:24:09.977" UserId="17153" Text="I have worked on a freelance platform (won't name it) to do some tech writing. They are transparent on charging a 25% fee per assignment. Even if you newly join, you can write a tech post and get paid the amount the client paid, minus 25% of the platform's fee.  &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;However, there are other platforms which pay you lesser than what the client pays, and they promise to assess you periodically to see if you can move to a higher payment band, based on how good your work is and/or how many projects you've done on the platform. I've seen this not just for writing services, but also for interview-as-a-service (freelance software engineers interview other engineers) platforms.  &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;On one such interview-as-a-service platform, their website says they charge clients **$25** per interview. That's **Rs.1940** as of today. However, they offered me only Rs.700 per interview. So they were taking **64%** of a cut from the amount. Compared to this, there are two other interview-as-a-service companies that offer freelancers $100 per interview (which sounds too-good-to-be-true). Another platform also offered only Rs.700, and another one offered only Rs.400 to Rs.500. I don't know how much they charged clients, and when I asked, they refused to answer it too. Since I saw these as red-flags, I didn't proceed with any of them.  &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;Similarly, a company that offered freelancers opportunities to do trainings in various companies, told me they'd take **30%** of the payments as their cut. A friend later told me that's less, because the company that offered her training opportunities, took **40%** of a cut.  &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;Answers [here][1] indicate that it's ok for contractors to charge higher for short stints. Shouldn't online platforms only charge a &quot;[finders fee][2]&quot; of around 10% or 20%...or a max of 30%? Do the companies really have so much of overhead costs that they need to charge higher than 30%, or are they being greedy and exploitative?  &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;What is a fair percentage for a cut, and in what situations/job-types would various percentages apply? What has your experience been with various clients/platforms? What did they charge and why?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/272/should-a-contractor-charge-a-higher-hourly-rate-for-a-shorter-term-contract-rul&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/3978/finders-fee-or-percentage-for-a-6-months-contract" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27104" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10472" RevisionGUID="ba05e82d-6d0d-465f-ab44-0e6a40241a70" CreationDate="2022-06-05T10:24:09.977" UserId="17153" Text="What percentage of a cut is it fair for a freelance platform to take, for gigs that are short, independent stints?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27105" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10472" RevisionGUID="ba05e82d-6d0d-465f-ab44-0e6a40241a70" CreationDate="2022-06-05T10:24:09.977" UserId="17153" Text="|payments|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27106" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="10214" RevisionGUID="524c7765-afb3-4e42-aed8-f30eed5b9dec" CreationDate="2022-06-05T17:31:29.300" UserId="75" Comment="Rollback to [d431af87-8264-4b0c-96f4-52fa611230d1]" Text="At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it.&#xD;&#xA;Some of the most popular options as of now: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is in IQ, which you can then trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use lightning network, so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27107" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="10214" RevisionGUID="518da6fb-9e5b-46fe-acd7-32cce8cfaf5c" CreationDate="2022-06-05T18:44:56.513" UserId="26927" Comment="Rollback to [848d0a1e-c0b3-4d75-82ff-0c3b254fc97b]" Text="At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it.&#xD;&#xA;Some of the most popular options as of now: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is in IQ, which you can then trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Monero Social][6]. If you know how to code, write technical documentation, or create videos. Payment is in Monero.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use lightning network, so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;[6]: https://bounties.monero.social/&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27108" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10456" RevisionGUID="49958b3a-a8eb-4192-b76b-9745cde13c81" CreationDate="2022-06-06T20:02:40.313" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27109" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9641" RevisionGUID="5f1b7739-19b8-41bd-b762-10b8eb057017" CreationDate="2022-06-07T05:44:11.577" UserId="-1" Comment="grammar and formatting." Text="You can try freelancing as you don't need to engage with anyone directly with this type of work, and a photo ID is also not essential.&#xD;&#xA;Here are some of the tips that may benefit you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. You can start freelancing with your skills and can quickly get some work to do.&#xD;&#xA; 2. You can start working on freelancing platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer, PeoplePerHour, etc. You can earn a sizeable amount of money. But as you mentioned, you can't get paid in BTC on these platforms.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Try to polish your skills as much as feasible, and you can surely get clients for the services you will offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope these points can help you. If you still have any questions, feel free to discuss them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27110" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9641" RevisionGUID="5f1b7739-19b8-41bd-b762-10b8eb057017" CreationDate="2022-06-07T05:44:11.577" Comment="Proposed by anonymous approved by 7858 edit id of 822" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27111" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10473" RevisionGUID="a936a63d-34d4-45fb-bafd-fada41377f82" CreationDate="2022-06-08T21:25:12.030" UserId="28090" Text="I started doing some freelancing for a young (22yo) startup founder around four weeks ago&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They contracted me as a senior architect/system design person - I said I could cut code, but that wasn't likely where they were going to get value from me. (I'm currently the only person they've hired - they are hoping to add one frontend person).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Their product is a marketplace app, but they're looking to integrate a bunch of AI/ML features (mostly computer vision or NLP related), and make heavy use of video content (both ingest/capture and realtime streaming), and a bunch of social graph features.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since then I've been meeting up roughly 2-3 hours per week (in person), and 3-4 hours per week (video calls).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Most of that was project scoping calls with the founder - to try to get an idea of their vision, and what they're trying to accomplish - bounce ideas, and give them a sense for what's achievable, what's not, and what the prior art might be. Each week we'd get some large A3 sheets of paper out, post-its some marker pens, and start helping them brainstorm and capture all their ideas.&#xD;&#xA;* I've also jumped on various calls each week with ML/AI software vendors, and walked the founder through pros/cons of each vendor, versus also trying to implement ourselves (i.e. build vs buy). I've helped review product specs for each solution, read through their API documentation, and taken apart their various demos and spec sheets, so that I could give the founder an honest assessment of each vendor. As well as a crash-course in ML.&#xD;&#xA;* I've helped walk them through the gotcha of their video streaming problem space, and what tricks they might use to optimise the user experience - and started planning out how the backend (RTMP ingest, WebRTC for streaming would work).&#xD;&#xA;* I've also helped interview various frontend people for them, or done background research on their portfolios/prior work etc.&#xD;&#xA;* I've given them guidance on things they need to consider - e.g. spam/fraud detection, GDPR compliance, CSAI detection etc.&#xD;&#xA;* I've also started teasing out a schema design from them, based on our weekly meetings, and their various &quot;I want app do to this&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem now is - I've just submitted my first invoice for the last 4 weeks (I averaged it out to 20 hours a week), and they're balking at paying me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel completely sick inside  - it's both incredibly frustrating that I've spent all this spare time helping them - and also that they don't seem to see the value of any of my time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They've said &quot;I can pay you for the time we spend meeting up face to face, or when we were on video calls&quot; - but that completely discounts all the time I spent afterwards collating my handwritten notes or our project boards, reviewing academic papers or finding the current state-of-art in various topics for them, reviewing documentation for them, or coming up with various ideas to help their project along.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also - I did a small task for them - and I just put 15 hours on the invoice as a bucket, to include all the time for debugging, scaling it, and dealing with some idiosyncrasies of the endpoints and not tripping up any WAF (web application firewalls) - and they've said, my &quot;tech consultant&quot; (I'm assuming their other 22 year old programmer friend, who I've met once online) said he could do it in 2 hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They asked for some artefacts to justify the invoice - and I've send them the current schema (which I assume they'll look at and be like, pftt, anybody could type that text out in 2 hours), as well as my feature planning summary notes (around 15 pages, handwritten shorthand, which I'm going to convert into the ticket system I set up for them...assuming I get paid).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Does anybody have any ideas on how to salvage this situation?&#xD;&#xA;Or try to explain the value I'm hoping I can bring to the project?&#xD;&#xA;What would you do in this situation?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27113" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10473" RevisionGUID="a936a63d-34d4-45fb-bafd-fada41377f82" CreationDate="2022-06-08T21:25:12.030" UserId="28090" Text="Young founder doesn't want to pay after 4 weeks - doesn't see value of system design/architecture work - any way to rescue/salvage?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27114" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10473" RevisionGUID="a936a63d-34d4-45fb-bafd-fada41377f82" CreationDate="2022-06-08T21:25:12.030" UserId="28090" Text="|payments|late-payment|billable-hours|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27115" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10474" RevisionGUID="753bb1f4-cdfb-4bb6-8905-77406ca849b7" CreationDate="2022-06-09T02:01:30.300" UserId="75" Text="Walk away, and move on. This &quot;founder&quot; is going to take advantage of you at every turn.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they have a friend that can do it in two hours, I'd let them do it and let them know that future work is billed ahead of time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sorry you're finding out like this." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27117" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="8205" RevisionGUID="ac09bd09-7bdc-4eaa-8edd-b25d7e3bd8a3" CreationDate="2022-06-09T02:06:55.637" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27118" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10390" RevisionGUID="9306500b-e0ce-48c0-9cc0-d62b25d67807" CreationDate="2022-06-13T10:03:45.313" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27119" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10475" RevisionGUID="eaa07699-1f7b-4f3d-8b90-33a0efcccd22" CreationDate="2022-06-13T17:59:41.130" UserId="28102" Text="I'm not sure what your rate is, or what their funding situation is, but it sounds like there's a mismatch in expectations. For the sake of discussion, let's say you're billing $100/hr. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The founder might've been ok with that at the beginning (they likely assumed that the 6-8 hours/wk you were &quot;together&quot; was the bulk of your time spent on the project). If they'd been (mentally) anticipating a ~$2800 invoice ($600-800/week * 4), and your invoice was ~$8000, I could see them balking at that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While it's on the founder to pay for services they requested, it's on both of you to correctly set expectations upfront. Next time, you'd probably be better off with a weekly &quot;hour review&quot; email (just sending a quick email to the founder- a bullet point list of activities and time spent each week), and potentially with a weekly or biweekly invoicing schedule (its hard to remember/value things from a month ago- I see monthly invoicing as more of a privilege for clients/customers with onerous procurement processes [which is also usually an indicator that the inv will be paid]) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In terms of actions, a few things:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Chat with the founder 1:1 to understand why their balking at the invoice- was it the number of &quot;behind the scenes&quot; hours? Were they not looking for you to do the &quot;pre-development design&quot; work? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Consider crediting back some of your hours (as a courtesy invoice credit) spent on &quot;academic paper review&quot;, &quot;state-of-the-art topic research&quot;. While those are valid hours-spent, from a client's perspective- it could be assumed you would've already &quot;brought that knowledge to the table&quot;. In that same vein, I don't typically charge the full hourly rate for converting handwritten notes to an electronic form (that's more of my preference, and could've been skipped if I'd taken electronic notes).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Bottom line, see if they're willing to work with you on the hours- better to credit back maybe 8 of your 80, and allow them to pay you over a month or two; than to not be paid at all.   &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;    " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27121" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="328" RevisionGUID="876f7d48-8647-42c7-bc80-c73f24713695" CreationDate="2022-06-17T05:34:58.150" UserId="17153" Comment="This is a good question, and can be of immense help to others" Text="Normally, freelance platforms like UpWork, Guru, Fiverr etc. allow freelancers to offer solo services. Are there platforms that allow freelancers to join a group of software developers to deliver projects?  &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;How do I join such projects, and how do I know if they are reliable/reputed? Any pros and cons I should be aware of?  &#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;**The benefits to the client:**  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - It can improve turnaround time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - A global community of freelancers contributes their experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27122" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="328" RevisionGUID="876f7d48-8647-42c7-bc80-c73f24713695" CreationDate="2022-06-17T05:34:58.150" UserId="17153" Comment="This is a good question, and can be of immense help to others" Text="To work with a team of reliable software development freelancers, which platforms can I use and how do I get started?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27124" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="328" RevisionGUID="876f7d48-8647-42c7-bc80-c73f24713695" CreationDate="2022-06-17T05:34:58.150" Comment="Proposed by 17153 approved by 7858 edit id of 821" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27125" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="556" RevisionGUID="765648bc-6188-4201-8102-123c6fcd9b17" CreationDate="2022-06-17T05:35:23.837" UserId="15235" Comment="formatting, source added" Text="&gt; Profit sharing refers to various incentive plans introduced by&#xD;&#xA;&gt; businesses that provide direct or indirect payments to employees that&#xD;&#xA;&gt; depend on company's profitability in addition to employees' regular&#xD;&#xA;&gt; salary and bonuses. In publicly traded companies these plans typically&#xD;&#xA;&gt; amount to allocation of shares to employees.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; The profit sharing plans are based on predetermined economic sharing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; rules that define the split of gains between the company as a&#xD;&#xA;&gt; principal and the employee as an agent. For example, suppose the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; profits are x, which might be a random variable. Before knowing the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; profits, the principal and agent might agree on a sharing rule s(x).&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Here, the agent will receive s(x) and the principal will receive the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; residual gain x-s(x).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;(source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profit_sharing))" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27126" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="556" RevisionGUID="765648bc-6188-4201-8102-123c6fcd9b17" CreationDate="2022-06-17T05:35:23.837" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 7858 edit id of 818" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27128" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="328" RevisionGUID="cc46d838-6388-4748-b3f1-449d6756b9e2" CreationDate="2022-06-18T17:56:13.837" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="27131" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10477" RevisionGUID="2a96eded-2fd8-4a8e-85c4-6dc5589e353a" CreationDate="2022-06-18T20:13:29.973" UserId="28123" Text="I've been doing this for about a year, but it's usually been UK based companies and never US ones. I don't know the protocol here and don't want to get on the wrong side of the IRS, so is there anyone who has been in a similar situation who could please give me some advice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27133" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10477" RevisionGUID="2a96eded-2fd8-4a8e-85c4-6dc5589e353a" CreationDate="2022-06-18T20:13:29.973" UserId="28123" Text="UK based, with US Contract. What is my tax situation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27134" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10477" RevisionGUID="2a96eded-2fd8-4a8e-85c4-6dc5589e353a" CreationDate="2022-06-18T20:13:29.973" UserId="28123" Text="|contracts|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27135" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10477" RevisionGUID="578cc9cb-55ae-4ff5-91ef-fc3640b15fec" CreationDate="2022-06-18T20:16:05.370" UserId="28123" Comment="added 68 characters in body" Text="I've been doing this for about a year, but it's usually been UK based companies and never US ones. I don't know the protocol here and don't want to get on the wrong side of the IRS, so is there anyone who has been in a similar situation who could please give me some advice?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Edit: Never set foot in the US, always been a resident of the UK" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27143" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10213" RevisionGUID="8eaf836c-d168-4c76-8e7c-07c59b4d1667" CreationDate="2022-06-26T15:13:33.157" UserId="26927" Comment="added 101 characters in body" Text="**You can.** At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it. Some of the most popular options as of now:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is &#xD;&#xA;in IQ, which you can the trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Monero Social][13]. If you know how to code, write technical documentation, or create videos. Payment is in Monero.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [bitcoinbounties.org][14]. Payment is in Bitcoin.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use [lightning network][10], so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities. Whether these options give you pseudonymity or [anonymity][9] is another matter. The first option, i.e. wiriting Everipedia, seems to me more pseudonymous than anonymous. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If needed you would than use non-[KYC][8] ways, such as [Bisq][7] or [localmonero][6], to convert crypto to FIAT. When spending crypto for goods directly, without the FIAT step in between, you should be using Bitcoin's lightning or [Monero][12] in order to preserve your privacy. The former is accepted through [Bitrefill][11].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;[6]: https://localmonero.co/&#xD;&#xA;[7]: https://bisq.network/&#xD;&#xA;[8]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer&#xD;&#xA;[9]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymity&#xD;&#xA;[10]: https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/the-bitcoin-lightning-network&#xD;&#xA;[11]: https://www.bitrefill.com/&#xD;&#xA;[12]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monero&#xD;&#xA;[13]: https://bounties.monero.social&#xD;&#xA;[14]: https://bitcoinbounties.org/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27144" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10214" RevisionGUID="05d25def-f468-42f9-baf5-a8e83a6a2ba9" CreationDate="2022-06-26T15:15:59.227" UserId="26927" Comment="added 97 characters in body" Text="At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it.&#xD;&#xA;Some of the most popular options as of now: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is in IQ, which you can then trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Monero Social][6]. If you know how to code, write technical documentation, or create videos. Payment is in Monero.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [bitcoinbounties.org][7]. Payment is in Bitcoin.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use lightning network, so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;[6]: https://bounties.monero.social/&#xD;&#xA;[7]: https://bitcoinbounties.org/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27145" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10213" RevisionGUID="63a0b186-399f-4cae-a372-9d96e1d8076c" CreationDate="2022-06-26T15:20:53.133" UserId="26927" Comment="added 101 characters in body" Text="**You can.** At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it. Some of the most popular options as of now:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is &#xD;&#xA;in IQ, which you can the trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Monero Social][13]. If you know how to code, write technical documentation, or create videos. Payment is in Monero.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [bitcoinbounties.org][14]. Payment is in Bitcoin.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use [lightning network][10], so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities. Whether these options give you pseudonymity or [anonymity][9] is another matter. The first option, i.e. wiriting Everipedia, seems to me more pseudonymous than anonymous. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If needed you would than use non-[KYC][8] ways, such as [Bisq][7], [robosats][15], or [localmonero][6] to convert crypto to FIAT. When spending crypto for goods directly, without the FIAT step in between, you should be using Bitcoin's lightning or [Monero][12] in order to preserve your privacy. The former is accepted through [Bitrefill][11].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;[6]: https://localmonero.co/&#xD;&#xA;[7]: https://bisq.network/&#xD;&#xA;[8]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer&#xD;&#xA;[9]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymity&#xD;&#xA;[10]: https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/the-bitcoin-lightning-network&#xD;&#xA;[11]: https://www.bitrefill.com/&#xD;&#xA;[12]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monero&#xD;&#xA;[13]: https://bounties.monero.social&#xD;&#xA;[14]: https://bitcoinbounties.org/&#xD;&#xA;[15]: https://github.com/Reckless-Satoshi/robosats" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27148" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="4279" RevisionGUID="58256e66-95dd-4c20-8056-d6173413d40e" CreationDate="2022-06-26T23:36:20.040" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="27151" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="328" RevisionGUID="8b07bac6-476a-4677-9e3e-b730c45820c4" CreationDate="2022-07-02T15:00:03.940" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1543248142447026179" />
  <row Id="27158" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10482" RevisionGUID="f36c0a02-e5a3-4327-906b-a40dd7de9806" CreationDate="2022-07-04T01:43:27.057" UserId="20168" Text="If I was to bring a freelancer to my team there is the concern for technological theft. There are plenty of platforms that allow for hiring freelancers but with our companies profit margins being razor thin a freelancer stealing proprietary information would be devastating. This is an international company and we have been having issues with our technology being stolen by China and sold back to people in the US. What would be the correct course of action to bring in a freelancer but also protect the companies interests? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27160" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10482" RevisionGUID="f36c0a02-e5a3-4327-906b-a40dd7de9806" CreationDate="2022-07-04T01:43:27.057" UserId="20168" Text="How can a company protect itself from technological theft when bringing on a freelancer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27161" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10482" RevisionGUID="f36c0a02-e5a3-4327-906b-a40dd7de9806" CreationDate="2022-07-04T01:43:27.057" UserId="20168" Text="|client-support|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27162" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10483" RevisionGUID="ce1f1fef-c984-46a5-a3e3-962ccaee2783" CreationDate="2022-07-04T14:38:19.663" UserId="26181" Text="This is not just a freelancer problem. You have the same problem with employees. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are two parts to solving this problem - people and process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the people side, it is important to hire reputable people, people who will sign an agreement and honor it. Background and reference checks can help here. Once hired, it is important to continue to educate about how loss of technology would hurt everyone and how to prevent such losses. Generally speaking, most technology &quot;leakage&quot; happens when an individual makes a security mistake. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the process side, it is important to manage critical information and critical technology. That can mean limiting the knowledge to certain people, monitoring how they use that information, and checking for any leakage. The technology protection process requires constant upgrading as new risks appear. You also need to consider how to recover from disasters and ransomware attacks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For an example of managing critical information, the encryption keys at a bank are kept broken into pieces and several people have to work together to put the keys together to load them into PIN pads or decryption boxes. No one person has all the knowledge. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, if your company's profit margin is that small, I would recommend bringing in people who can help your company develop products or services that can command higher profit margins. Leave the low margin areas for the Chinese and have a better life. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27164" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10484" RevisionGUID="81bd364c-c630-454e-b86d-55f6b1ed9aa5" CreationDate="2022-07-04T16:12:56.107" UserId="28184" Text="Absolutely! I would sell the &quot; Personalized web application design experience &quot; by informing the client of the other apps already in production by competitors and also advising said client that by keeping to a new application they also get to have a Hand's on Company Website building exercise. Point is this, YES tell said Client because my motto is this, &quot; Honesty in all things spoken, life get's REAL EASY as an honest person. Besides, how do you know said client doesn't already know of the applications and is testing your Ethical Standard prior to hire?  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27168" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10485" RevisionGUID="e7f82718-0df1-4c92-bbba-c943cc0fd334" CreationDate="2022-07-06T07:39:27.837" UserId="7858" Text="Typically, one seeks to address these concerns from a judicial standpoint with non-disclosure agreements. However, in many/most jurisdictions if need be, this must be followed up by actual will and ability to enforce any transgressions. Having said that, making external contributors sign lawyer-speak documents seems worthwhile, although it probably will not deter people where the primary objective always was theft.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From a technical standpoint - if possible, one could ensure that no (external) contributor ever has the full picture, but only works on isolated modules that don’t have significant stand-alone value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is easier said than done, as most software tends to be an entangled mess where knowledge of other modules is essential to even run what should be isolated tests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;De-coupling one’s application into separate modules is not always simple and to non-technical staff (project managers, some business owners) it can seem a largely academic waste of resources. But perhaps framing the reasoning behind improving the architecture as a **business concern** addressing IP-theft will gain more traction." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27170" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10486" RevisionGUID="fb7db956-61a4-4496-a0ad-7162c2117bb6" CreationDate="2022-07-07T08:02:40.030" UserId="15906" Text="What do you do when you encounter a contract that feels like it was written in the 1800s and has weird clauses?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;An old startup client who wishes to switch to a long term bi-monthly payment model is now demanding that I sign a contract that has a bunch of fishy terminology. They claim that it is the consultant contract from their big law firm. I asked them to please use a standard contract and provided one for them, but they are sticking to their strange contract on the basis that it is from their big law firm.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have encountered big law firms having junior associates and interns handle their (underperforming) startup clients, so I wonder if this is also due to the incompetency of the attny they have access to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm considering dropping them, but they have been persistent. On the one hand, they could be clueless. On the other hand, this could be malicious. Neither seem like good cases." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27172" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10486" RevisionGUID="fb7db956-61a4-4496-a0ad-7162c2117bb6" CreationDate="2022-07-07T08:02:40.030" UserId="15906" Text="Client demands to use a contract that sounds fishy claiming it is from a big law firm, won't use my standard contract" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27173" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10486" RevisionGUID="fb7db956-61a4-4496-a0ad-7162c2117bb6" CreationDate="2022-07-07T08:02:40.030" UserId="15906" Text="|contracts|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27174" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10487" RevisionGUID="54ade40a-d83a-4377-930b-696b78adbf29" CreationDate="2022-07-09T07:28:01.040" UserId="28201" Text="There are many Freelancing websites available in internet. I would not  tell where to start with, but how to start with it, I can help.&#xD;&#xA;1. Portfolio is very important. Usually client dont go with a fresher who freelance. To gain their trust we need to showcase our accomplishments. For example, you can post your photos or videos of your website designed, or a user simplified e-commerce website in low effort and budget etc. &#xD;&#xA;2. If you get your first client, then gain his actual requirement and satisfy him with your quality deliverables. His feedback is very important to grasp other client. &#xD;&#xA;3. Always be in touch with your old clients. Because in software industry, all the website or software are still keeps on updating with new features. so for sure he will have plenty of ideas to impliment for future. So grab all those opportunities. &#xD;&#xA;4. Client will approach new freelancers only for cost-cutting. so you can't charge them more in beginning stages. Once your gain confidence, then you can demand for it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest to kick start with freelancer.com and upwork.com." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27176" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10487" RevisionGUID="7daaaa11-cd82-4717-9bd0-b3b083712d7d" CreationDate="2022-07-09T19:17:21.367" UserId="15235" Comment="grammar corrections" Text="There are many Freelancing websites available in internet. I would not  tell where to start with, but how to start with it, I can help.&#xD;&#xA;1. Portfolio is very important. Usually clients don't go with a fresher who freelances. To gain their trust we need to showcase our accomplishments. For example, you can post your photos or videos of your website designed, or a user simplified e-commerce website in low effort and budget etc. &#xD;&#xA;2. If you get your first client, then gather his actual requirements and satisfy him with your quality deliverables. His feedback is very important to grasp other clients. &#xD;&#xA;3. Always be in touch with your old clients. Because in software industry, all websites and software keep on updating with new features. So for sure he will have plenty of ideas to implement for the future. So grab all those opportunities. &#xD;&#xA;4. Client will approach new freelancers only for cost-cutting. So you can't charge them much in early stages. Once your gain confidence, then you can demand more for it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest to kick start with freelancer.com and upwork.com." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27177" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10487" RevisionGUID="7daaaa11-cd82-4717-9bd0-b3b083712d7d" CreationDate="2022-07-09T19:17:21.367" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 75 edit id of 823" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27178" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10488" RevisionGUID="c733e447-c2e3-48f3-befc-1b62f5d38dd1" CreationDate="2022-07-11T03:15:05.647" UserId="27575" Text="It's easier and cheaper for them to use their own standard contract since they don't have to pay a lawyer to review a contract from you and every other contractor they work with. Most of my own clients do this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your options seem to be:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Have a lawyer to review their contract, discuss anything that might be a concern, and work with the client to discuss any potential changes to the terms&#xD;&#xA; - Walk&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27180" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10489" RevisionGUID="adca8a9e-d650-43d9-9bab-c245a4b4be54" CreationDate="2022-07-11T18:06:04.800" UserId="28214" Text="I've been working for a customer for about 3 months now and I just get more and more frustrated on the quality of the work im doing for them. They are paying around 40% higher than the current marked value for the work im doing for them. At the momenent i feel they pay way to much compared to the work im delivering to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I realy want to talk with them about it, but not sure how to bring it up. I dont want to continue to do the same bad work and just charge a lower price. They have a lot of work need to be done due to big changes in the laws regulating their industry. I have no idea if we are on track or not. It need to be done by the end of 2022. They are just assigning me tasks and i solve them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;how can i talk with them about the bad work im doing without &quot;telling them about if they dont feel the same&quot; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27182" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10489" RevisionGUID="adca8a9e-d650-43d9-9bab-c245a4b4be54" CreationDate="2022-07-11T18:06:04.800" UserId="28214" Text="Delivering bad quality" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27183" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10489" RevisionGUID="adca8a9e-d650-43d9-9bab-c245a4b4be54" CreationDate="2022-07-11T18:06:04.800" UserId="28214" Text="|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27184" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10489" RevisionGUID="27d16911-222a-40e4-8a5a-41a162cb5c69" CreationDate="2022-07-11T18:35:45.020" UserId="25082" Comment="Refined title to specific question, general grammar improvements in body" Text="I've been working for a customer for about 3 months now and I just get more and more frustrated on the quality of the work I'm doing for them. They are paying around 40% higher than the current marked value for the work I'm doing for them. At the moment I feel they pay way to much compared to the work I'm delivering to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I really want to talk with them about it, but I'm not sure how to bring it up. I don't want to continue to do the same bad work and just charge a lower price. They have a lot of work need to be done due to big changes in the laws regulating their industry. I have no idea if we are on track or not. It needs to be done by the end of 2022. They are just assigning me tasks and I solve them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I talk with them about the bad work I'm doing without &quot;telling them about if they don't feel the same&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27185" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10489" RevisionGUID="27d16911-222a-40e4-8a5a-41a162cb5c69" CreationDate="2022-07-11T18:35:45.020" UserId="25082" Comment="Refined title to specific question, general grammar improvements in body" Text="How do I communicate with a customer about the bad quality of work I'm delivering?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27186" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="10489" RevisionGUID="27d16911-222a-40e4-8a5a-41a162cb5c69" CreationDate="2022-07-11T18:35:45.020" UserId="25082" Comment="Refined title to specific question, general grammar improvements in body" Text="|price|customer-relations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27187" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10489" RevisionGUID="27d16911-222a-40e4-8a5a-41a162cb5c69" CreationDate="2022-07-11T18:35:45.020" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 28214 edit id of 825" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27189" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10490" RevisionGUID="6cb36859-0fbb-427b-a814-0f83023988dd" CreationDate="2022-07-14T13:59:34.687" UserId="26181" Text="This all depends on what constitutes &quot;bad quality&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are making bugs, then the answer is to change how you are working. For example, use a more structured work process, add testing to your process, and make sure that what you code fits with the total system design. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If, on the other hand, you are doing simple programming tasks and are being paid more than you think those tasks are worth, then the real issue is not seeing the value from their perspective. In my first job, I did some real difficult coding tasks that were not valued while some other real simple tasks were valued highly. The value of what I did was not in how much effort I put into them but how much I helped other people do their job. Often a very simple programming task can greatly help someone else. The value to a business of what you do is in how it helps the whole business, not how much effort you put into them. Excel macros can be a big help to the business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27191" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10491" RevisionGUID="31b16219-5299-438c-931c-3d1db8fdac46" CreationDate="2022-07-16T12:28:55.400" UserId="27953" Text="Whatever you do about your work and for your customer, you should never frustrate. &#xD;&#xA;You should be result-oriented as a freelancer, if the outcome is good, you don't have to change your current work style. But I don't mean that you don't have to improve your work quality.&#xD;&#xA;If you feel sorry about your work which you suppose bad, then try to improve it as much as possible and also try to be dedicated to their team and the project.&#xD;&#xA;And also, to be honest is a great way to get yourself stable in current position but sometimes, you should manage it all yourself - work, communication, relieving your customer and yourself.&#xD;&#xA;When they found an issue with your current work, just tell them sorry and what can be a solution to fix it as soon as possible and as better as much.&#xD;&#xA;Lowering your salary rate is never a good idea for your client as well as yourself. It can be possible but they will be more sensitive about your work and it will not get you anywhere desired. All are not important that much but result and solution for it matters all the time!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27193" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10491" RevisionGUID="dba120b7-6d37-40f1-88fd-11f1265d2d47" CreationDate="2022-07-16T12:29:34.150" UserId="27953" Comment="added 5 characters in body" Text="Whatever you do about your work and for your customer, you should never frustrate them. &#xD;&#xA;You should be result-oriented as a freelancer, if the outcome is good, you don't have to change your current work style. But I don't mean that you don't have to improve your work quality.&#xD;&#xA;If you feel sorry about your work which you suppose bad, then try to improve it as much as possible and also try to be dedicated to their team and the project.&#xD;&#xA;And also, to be honest is a great way to get yourself stable in current position but sometimes, you should manage it all yourself - work, communication, relieving your customer and yourself.&#xD;&#xA;When they found an issue with your current work, just tell them sorry and what can be a solution to fix it as soon as possible and as better as much.&#xD;&#xA;Lowering your salary rate is never a good idea for your client as well as yourself. It can be possible but they will be more sensitive about your work and it will not get you anywhere desired. All are not important that much but result and solution for it matters all the time!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27200" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10470" RevisionGUID="cf1e6246-00dd-4a75-a5b0-8f93850d876a" CreationDate="2022-07-18T12:00:03.533" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1549001048358100992" />
  <row Id="27201" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10493" RevisionGUID="21aae240-f128-483a-b9fc-db60671c5534" CreationDate="2022-07-18T12:44:58.313" UserId="28286" Text="&quot;Justifying your work&quot; is work. Decide on what your hourly rate for this additional work is, let the client decide whether they want you to go forward with this. When you're done, you send them the invoice. Or maybe if instead of just inconveniencing you it costs them money, the matter becomes suddenly very unimportant. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27209" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="6703" RevisionGUID="f478e461-1016-4af6-9cd6-6462d86153f2" CreationDate="2022-07-23T12:00:01.407" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1550812978496299009" />
  <row Id="27217" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10419" RevisionGUID="d341459f-35f9-4623-bc6c-efeab65816ab" CreationDate="2022-08-01T16:08:00.673" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27220" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10496" RevisionGUID="5d8c0654-9f33-4620-bd3f-f7ae75ab1297" CreationDate="2022-08-03T21:15:20.023" UserId="18609" Text="Have a look at [the Contract Killer contract][1], it has a provision on Intellectual Property which would be useful to you.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Intellectual property rights**&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You guarantee the written content you provide is original, or that you have the rights to use it. You also guarantee you have licences to use images which are owned by photographers or have been purchased from stock libraries. You agree to protect us from any claim by owners of copyrighted material. When our work requires licensed fonts or images from stock libraries, we’ll ask you to purchase them so you’ll be licensed to use them.We guarantee our work is original. When you’ve paid us in full—and if this contract hasn’t been terminated—we’ll assign intellectual property rights to you as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You’ll own the graphic files we produce during your project. We’ll give you permission to use these files for any purpose.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We’ll own the unique combination of elements which constitute the complete design. We’ll license it to you, exclusively and in perpetuity, for this project only.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This should technically protect you and your code from reuse for purposes other than the intended project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[A previous version of this contract][2] had text that worked better in my opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Intellectual property rights&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Just to be clear, “Intellectual property rights” means all patents, rights to inventions, copyright (including rights in software) and related rights, trademarks, service marks, get up and trade names, internet domain names, rights to goodwill or to sue for passing off, rights in designs, database rights, rights in confidential information (including know-how) and any other intellectual property rights, in each case whether registered or unregistered and including all applications (or rights to apply) for, and renewals or extensions of, such rights and all similar or equivalent rights or forms of protection which subsist or shall subsist now or in the future in any part of the world.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; First, you guarantee that all elements of text, images or other artwork you provide are either owned by your good selves, or that you’ve permission to use them. When you provide text, images or other artwork to us, you agree to protect us from any claim by a third party that we’re using their intellectual property.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; We guarantee that all elements of the work we deliver to you are either owned by us or we’ve obtained permission to provide them to you. When we provide text, images or other artwork to you, we agree to protect you from any claim by a third party that you’re using their intellectual property. Provided you’ve paid for the work and that this contract hasn’t been terminated, we’ll assign all intellectual property rights to you as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; You’ll own the website we design for you plus the visual elements that we create for it. We’ll give you source files and finished files and you should keep them somewhere safe as we’re not required to keep a copy. You own all intellectual property rights of text, images, site specification and data you provided, unless someone else owns them.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; We’ll own any intellectual property rights we’ve developed prior to, or developed separately from this project and not paid for by you. We’ll own the unique combination of these elements that constitutes a complete design and we’ll license its use to you, exclusively and in perpetuity for this project only, unless we agree otherwise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the case of the above, your boiler code is developed prior to the development of the project, as such you only license the use of such code, and the code cannot be reused by the client without your written permission. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regardless, I would always recommend you consult a lawyer who would be able to give you better advice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/projects/contract-killer&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://github.com/riservato-xyz/contract-killer/blob/master/locale/en-US/preview.md#intellectual-property-rights" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27222" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10496" RevisionGUID="039b1864-545c-46ed-9eec-71a7a5b893de" CreationDate="2022-08-03T21:20:21.837" UserId="18609" Comment="added more information based on the question asked." Text="Have a look at [the Contract Killer contract][1], it has a provision on Intellectual Property which would be useful to you.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; **Intellectual property rights**&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You guarantee the written content you provide is original, or that you have the rights to use it. You also guarantee you have licences to use images which are owned by photographers or have been purchased from stock libraries. You agree to protect us from any claim by owners of copyrighted material. When our work requires licensed fonts or images from stock libraries, we’ll ask you to purchase them so you’ll be licensed to use them.We guarantee our work is original. When you’ve paid us in full—and if this contract hasn’t been terminated—we’ll assign intellectual property rights to you as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You’ll own the graphic files we produce during your project. We’ll give you permission to use these files for any purpose.&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; We’ll own the unique combination of elements which constitute the complete design. We’ll license it to you, exclusively and in perpetuity, for this project only.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This should technically protect you and your code from reuse for purposes other than the intended project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[A previous version of this contract][2] had text that worked better in my opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Intellectual property rights&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Just to be clear, “Intellectual property rights” means all patents, rights to inventions, copyright (including rights in software) and related rights, trademarks, service marks, get up and trade names, internet domain names, rights to goodwill or to sue for passing off, rights in designs, database rights, rights in confidential information (including know-how) and any other intellectual property rights, in each case whether registered or unregistered and including all applications (or rights to apply) for, and renewals or extensions of, such rights and all similar or equivalent rights or forms of protection which subsist or shall subsist now or in the future in any part of the world.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; First, you guarantee that all elements of text, images or other artwork you provide are either owned by your good selves, or that you’ve permission to use them. When you provide text, images or other artwork to us, you agree to protect us from any claim by a third party that we’re using their intellectual property.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; We guarantee that all elements of the work we deliver to you are either owned by us or we’ve obtained permission to provide them to you. When we provide text, images or other artwork to you, we agree to protect you from any claim by a third party that you’re using their intellectual property. Provided you’ve paid for the work and that this contract hasn’t been terminated, we’ll assign all intellectual property rights to you as follows:&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; You’ll own the website we design for you plus the visual elements that we create for it. We’ll give you source files and finished files and you should keep them somewhere safe as we’re not required to keep a copy. You own all intellectual property rights of text, images, site specification and data you provided, unless someone else owns them.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; We’ll own any intellectual property rights we’ve developed prior to, or developed separately from this project and not paid for by you. We’ll own the unique combination of these elements that constitutes a complete design and we’ll license its use to you, exclusively and in perpetuity for this project only, unless we agree otherwise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the case of the above, your boiler code is developed prior to the development of the project, as such you only license the use of such code, and the code cannot be reused by the client without your written permission. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Regardless, I would always recommend you consult a lawyer who would be able to give you better advice. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Defining scope of what's yours or what's theirs**&#xD;&#xA;In your particular case, I would convert your code and functions into a library, after which you could license the use of that library instead of embedding your code into the product. My knowledge about programming doesn't go beyond Web Development so if it were me, and I had some JavaScript functions that were unique to my work, I would bundle it up in a file or folder and license it exclusively to that project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/projects/contract-killer&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://github.com/riservato-xyz/contract-killer/blob/master/locale/en-US/preview.md#intellectual-property-rights" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27223" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10497" RevisionGUID="9f260745-a89b-4b72-ad49-e9bcfbd36438" CreationDate="2022-08-05T02:54:42.360" UserId="21435" Text="Is it reasonable?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes. It doesn't matter how long the contract is for or how much it's worth. They have every right to protect their interests. A $1 million GLI/PLI is pretty common. My combined GLI/PLI policy costs me roughly $70.00 USD per month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, it's doubtful they asked to be named as a beneficiary (because that's not how GLI policies work), they probably asked to be added as an additional insured to your policy, which is a pretty standard thing to do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Additionally, along with your GLI policy you ought to have a PLI policy as well, if you don't already. GLI and PLI policies provide different types of protections. A GLI or a PLI alone isn't enough. You need both.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All in all, I don't see anything alarming about their request. This is a standard business practice, employed by countless businesses around the globe." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27225" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10498" RevisionGUID="1fbaf7da-4e7a-4bc2-ade2-1c05b0caad2d" CreationDate="2022-08-05T04:19:18.730" UserId="28341" Text="My first freelance job ended last week with no advance notice. I had been working for the client for more than 2½ years. I had scheduled my workweek (both regular hours and extra hours) just two days earlier, and had even worked that day. Then, a few hours later, I got an email informing me that my contract was being ended immediately. “Evolving work needs” was the vague explanation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is this normal in freelancing? It was my first gig (fortunately, I have another), so I have nothing to compare it with." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27227" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10498" RevisionGUID="1fbaf7da-4e7a-4bc2-ade2-1c05b0caad2d" CreationDate="2022-08-05T04:19:18.730" UserId="28341" Text="Contract canceled with no advance notice" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27228" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10498" RevisionGUID="1fbaf7da-4e7a-4bc2-ade2-1c05b0caad2d" CreationDate="2022-08-05T04:19:18.730" UserId="28341" Text="|contracts|contract-cancellation|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27229" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10499" RevisionGUID="1ed289e7-5b81-4a8a-b7de-1d3045038dcd" CreationDate="2022-08-05T13:49:52.313" UserId="26181" Text="Unfortunately, the nature of a contract is that unless there is specific language to the contrary in the contract, it can be ended at any moment without a reason given. This is one reason why companies like to use contract employees - so that they don't have to go through the hoops of justifying a firing. (There are other tax and benefits reasons, but those are not important at this moment.)&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27231" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10500" RevisionGUID="e1a055a5-aaef-4034-90f2-1708fb6cc406" CreationDate="2022-08-07T20:35:22.890" UserId="10340" Text="In my experience, no this is not normal or typical.  When you have been freelancing for a company for multiple years, a good company will typically give you notice if anything significant will change in the foreseeable future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the company treated you with disrespect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Although they may not give you an honest answer, you are certainly entitled to ask them why they took this action.  If it was a performance or communication issue, you can learn from it.  If they are just a crappy company, you can learn from that too.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'll never forget when the CEO of a company with which I was once employed told me their standard practice was to ***&quot;use them and lose them&quot;*** for all business relationships.  It wasn't a surprise when the company started treating their employees the same way and eventually went out of business.  Fortunately, I was long gone by then.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From this experience, I learned to closely watch how companies treat all people.  It's a valuable lesson for every contractor (and employee) to learn." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27234" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10487" RevisionGUID="610c7092-bea5-4906-a4bc-42d7c9a890a3" CreationDate="2022-08-11T08:27:59.573" UserId="25082" Comment="reword second sentence for readability" Text="There are many Freelancing websites available in internet. I would not suggest where to start, but I can help with *how* to start it.&#xD;&#xA;1. Portfolio is very important. Usually clients don't go with a fresher who freelances. To gain their trust we need to showcase our accomplishments. For example, you can post your photos or videos of your website designed, or a user simplified e-commerce website in low effort and budget etc. &#xD;&#xA;2. If you get your first client, then gather his actual requirements and satisfy him with your quality deliverables. His feedback is very important to grasp other clients. &#xD;&#xA;3. Always be in touch with your old clients. Because in software industry, all websites and software keep on updating with new features. So for sure he will have plenty of ideas to implement for the future. So grab all those opportunities. &#xD;&#xA;4. Client will approach new freelancers only for cost-cutting. So you can't charge them much in early stages. Once your gain confidence, then you can demand more for it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest to kick start with freelancer.com and upwork.com." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27235" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10487" RevisionGUID="610c7092-bea5-4906-a4bc-42d7c9a890a3" CreationDate="2022-08-11T08:27:59.573" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by -1 edit id of 824" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27236" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10487" RevisionGUID="63b51f81-6345-4f5a-a3df-f7f4b011bb19" CreationDate="2022-08-11T08:27:59.573" UserId="7858" Comment="reword second sentence for readability" Text="There are many Freelancing websites available on the Internet. I would not suggest where to start, but I can help with *how* to start it.&#xD;&#xA;1. Portfolio is very important. Usually clients don't go with a fresher who freelances. To gain their trust we need to showcase our accomplishments. For example, you can post your photos or videos of your website designed, or a user simplified e-commerce website in low effort and budget etc. &#xD;&#xA;2. If you get your first client, then gather his actual requirements and satisfy him with your quality deliverables. His feedback is very important to grasp other clients. &#xD;&#xA;3. Always be in touch with your old clients. Because in software industry, all websites and software keep on updating with new features. So for sure he will have plenty of ideas to implement for the future. So grab all those opportunities. &#xD;&#xA;4. Client will approach new freelancers only for cost-cutting. So you can't charge them much in early stages. Once your gain confidence, then you can demand more for it. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would suggest to kick start with freelancer.com and upwork.com." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27243" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10502" RevisionGUID="c28e92db-b1c0-4772-b733-506021cb738b" CreationDate="2022-08-15T10:39:07.850" UserId="28368" Text="Taking on projects from time to time, I often wonder whether the scope of these projects would be better suited for two freelancers or even a team. Would you team up with other freelancer to increase income, get access to more interesting projects, and share knowledge to develop your careers? Do you have experience with working in freelancer teams instead of going solo? What other reasons are there to team up? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Super curious to hear your stories, especially since I am looking into this space more closely and even thinking about building some kind of community myself to connect great teams with exciting projects." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27245" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10502" RevisionGUID="c28e92db-b1c0-4772-b733-506021cb738b" CreationDate="2022-08-15T10:39:07.850" UserId="28368" Text="Working in a Team of Freelancers" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27246" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10502" RevisionGUID="c28e92db-b1c0-4772-b733-506021cb738b" CreationDate="2022-08-15T10:39:07.850" UserId="28368" Text="|communication|group-freelancing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27247" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10482" RevisionGUID="09010f8d-62de-4a86-8499-4069d1071610" CreationDate="2022-08-16T21:00:04.610" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1559646196154638336" />
  <row Id="27248" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10503" RevisionGUID="a24ea9e8-48ca-4171-bdd3-8a89490e5486" CreationDate="2022-08-16T21:36:18.053" UserId="22171" Text="This is a difficult thing, but after you have' reputation' with a client, and he knows you are expert in some things, the client may be open to you taking senior responsibility for a job and you involve another   freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;The big problems that you 'The principal Freelance' must take and hold and offer the Public Liability Insurance and the Professional Liability Insurance for BOTH freelancers to client.  You need to get an indemnity that the Junior freelancer names you on his insurance, so you can get recompense where it is his fault, but the client will draw on yours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This works, but only with clients who already know you and trust you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27250" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10504" RevisionGUID="6cf4e01e-c34e-4fe5-ac1a-ddd955ced3a8" CreationDate="2022-08-16T21:48:14.033" UserId="22171" Text="The amount is quite common. I would normally have cover 5 million PLI in UK for jobs, I did. &#xD;&#xA;(Contract risk analysis, if I screwed up , my client could be bankrupt and have major losses)&#xD;&#xA;However, I would always strenuously avoid ever adding the client as a named additional beneficiary.&#xD;&#xA; In one case I refused the job due to insistence on named additional beneficiary. That isomer risky than the amount. The amount of cover was bought yearly and the fee depended on type of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It was extremely important thatI only 'gave advice' and suggested alterations, albeit for one client I had a Veto  on owners behalf, to order is project managers to avoid some jobs. Effectively they signed the contract but only after I gave written permission  for the terms they agreed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In many cases it was understanding the culture and litigation mind of their client (usually in 'awkward' law places). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27252" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10504" RevisionGUID="1d92a034-a667-4ea0-b1de-bd1479112451" CreationDate="2022-08-16T21:50:05.900" UserId="22171" Comment="added 12 characters in body" Text="The amount is quite common. I would normally have cover 5 million PLI in UK for jobs, I did. &#xD;&#xA;(Contract risk analysis, if I screwed up , my client could be bankrupt and have major losses)&#xD;&#xA;However, I would always strenuously avoid ever adding the client as a named additional beneficiary.&#xD;&#xA; In one case I refused the job due to insistence on named additional beneficiary. That is somewhat more risky than the amount. The amount of cover was bought yearly and the fee depended on type of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It was extremely important that I only 'gave advice' and suggested alterations, albeit for one client I had a Veto  on owners behalf, to order his project managers to avoid some jobs. Effectively they signed the contract but only after I gave written permission  for the terms they agreed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In many cases it was understanding the culture and litigation mind of their client (usually in 'awkward' law places). " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27253" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10505" RevisionGUID="13de5dfd-ac4f-47b3-9c6c-d5a55d7c43b3" CreationDate="2022-08-16T21:56:46.190" UserId="22171" Text="As stated the options are for your lawyer to review at cost ,or refuse job. &#xD;&#xA;I would in that case ask for a 'review fee' payable in advance to cover legal expenses of a review of their terms, and not refundable [The Important Part], if no satisfactory terms can be mutually agreed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some legal firms and professional associations, would help with review at lower cost, as part of what you get when you join an association of professionals." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27259" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10507" RevisionGUID="448bf562-3332-4936-9d4c-21c8852652c5" CreationDate="2022-08-17T12:48:28.660" UserId="7911" Text="This is especially directed at people who work in germany but I appreciate any insight. &#xD;&#xA;I have a full time position as a software engineer at a company which I want to keep but now I have the opportunity to do paid work on the side for a handful of potential customers. This is something I am legally allowed to do and my company is on board with it, however, I am wondering about the following:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Seeing as I want the option to start or stop my side hustle when I want, I was thinking to register as a freelancer since I want to test the side hustle first. Does it make sense to do this as a freelancer? Or does the Gewerbe option  offer other advantages if any?&#xD;&#xA; 2. Some customers need some smaller bug fixes and maintenance done on their website and I am not sure how to bill them for these tasks. Especially, since invidually they're small. Is an hourly rate or billing them a fixed price the fair way to go?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you very much in advance!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27261" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10507" RevisionGUID="448bf562-3332-4936-9d4c-21c8852652c5" CreationDate="2022-08-17T12:48:28.660" UserId="7911" Text="Germany: Part-Time Freelance or Gewerbe? How to bill as a web dev?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27262" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10507" RevisionGUID="448bf562-3332-4936-9d4c-21c8852652c5" CreationDate="2022-08-17T12:48:28.660" UserId="7911" Text="|legal|web-development|billing|germany|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27268" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10454" RevisionGUID="b0ac8fbb-fc96-46aa-aac4-5a69b1a2b2dd" CreationDate="2022-08-31T06:00:04.820" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1564855522548916225" />
  <row Id="27269" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10509" RevisionGUID="cf4080b5-e384-4438-9cb3-c5c71913bf7c" CreationDate="2022-08-31T18:53:02.303" UserId="27230" Text="As a freelancer you take a lot of risks for hopefully more money. It's best not to rely on others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work with other freelancers occasionally, but I either employ them for my project, or they employ me for theirs. Either way someone is running the show and responsible for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone employs another freelancer and myself for a single project, I always make sure my role and responsibilities are clearly defined, so I'm not responsible for the other person. Freelancing is not about sharing knowledge and furthering each others careers, it's about making money as efficiently as possible." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27271" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10509" RevisionGUID="90735ae2-6964-47d9-85e0-940d1d522b01" CreationDate="2022-08-31T19:00:41.610" UserId="27230" Comment="added 101 characters in body" Text="As a freelancer you take a lot of risks for hopefully more money. It's best not to rely on others.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I work with other freelancers occasionally, but I either employ them for my project, or they employ me for theirs. Either way someone is running the show and responsible for it. Many consultancies work like this, they take on bigger projects and hire all the freelancers for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If someone employs another freelancer and myself for a single project, I always make sure my role and responsibilities are clearly defined, so I'm not responsible for the other person. Freelancing is not about sharing knowledge and furthering each others careers, it's about making money as efficiently as possible." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27272" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10029" RevisionGUID="0f585bd2-12c9-45f8-bc93-06fe98cbd15a" CreationDate="2022-09-02T22:01:15.140" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27274" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10021" RevisionGUID="212c2fad-d6b6-4195-af04-b2891d694351" CreationDate="2022-09-08T17:04:43.933" UserId="28445" Comment="Updated William Fisher Lecture 5.3 video link" Text="In **any** creative venture, be it artwork, fiction writing, markup writing, coding, music, film.... the &quot;work&quot; is copyrighted and *owned* by the creator the *moment* it is created.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are only 9 ways the author &quot;loses&quot; rights to the work. [William Fisher, of Harvard Law, has an excellent lecture on copyrights][1]. Specifically [Lecture 5 part 3][2] explains the 9 instances where authors do *not* retain the rights. There is a 10th... if you are an employee or otherwise under a work-for-hire agreement. And an 11th.. if the author gives them away.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, to that end.. **Yes** the freelancer owns their creation and can do with it what they want.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Ethical** freelancers aren't going to reuse something in whole. It's not uncommon to pull a part form here or there to flesh out something new, but direct duplication is often something *most* ethical freelancers aren't interesting in doing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you fear replication of something you've paid for, a simple solution is to **have a contract** which transfers partial or all rights of the product from the author to the client/buyer. Most freelancers are more than willing to enter such agreements, however costs may be higher given this factor. Barring such an agreement, the author is free to use the work in any manner they see fit, even if it upsets or bothers the client who paid for the work initially.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It should be noted that **freelancers** *do not* have an &quot;employer&quot;. Freelancers have *clients*, not &quot;employers&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Employers tell workers **when** to work, **how** to work, **what** to work on, **provide** **tools** for completion of that work, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Freelancers define their **own hours**, **how** a project is completed, **what projects** they will work on, and use their ***own tools*** to complete those projects. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Definitions matter. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Simply because someone pays me to complete something does *not* make them my &quot;employer&quot;, much the same way if I were to hire a plumber to fix my drains, that would not make the plumber my &quot;employee&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The employee &lt;&gt; employer relationship is **always** a work-for-hire arrangement and the employer owns everything created by the employee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Independent contracting is *often* a freelance position. However, there can be contracts defining ownership which can equate to a more work-for-hire agreement in which the contractor (client) owns everything created by the contractee (worker).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/tfisher/Copyright_Lectures_2013.htm&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-2qLmmDBnE" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27275" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10021" RevisionGUID="212c2fad-d6b6-4195-af04-b2891d694351" CreationDate="2022-09-08T17:04:43.933" Comment="Proposed by 28445 approved by 708 edit id of 826" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27276" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10510" RevisionGUID="1f6c6ba5-9be7-45a6-9643-cd29bb3f63c2" CreationDate="2022-09-12T12:56:49.183" UserId="28455" Text="Is this software or other?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If software, for the most part there's no way to prevent theft unless you have something rather unique, or under patent.  General application software is reused all over the world without the original source really knowing it. In international settings, all but the big players have no IP rights leverage due to the cost/level-of-effort taking legal action.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Software contractors almost always keep copies of the applications they're working on, whether they have IP rights or not.  You can have them sign they'll delete any copies of it upon termination, but good luck with that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A better way is to factory your application into components and assemble it with trusted hands only.  Contractors would get small parts only, never the entire application or enough of it to matter much should they reuse it elsewhere." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27278" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10511" RevisionGUID="d64308c6-3258-4307-8b73-12e4d7e1512d" CreationDate="2022-09-14T11:29:41.587" UserId="28458" Text="Hello I'm a sourcer looking for adventurous freelancers, who like travelling to differnet European cities and would like to obtain security clearance and join short-term and long-term EU projects. Can I post a job offer here? Is there any group that would be best for this? Thank you in advance!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27280" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10511" RevisionGUID="d64308c6-3258-4307-8b73-12e4d7e1512d" CreationDate="2022-09-14T11:29:41.587" UserId="28458" Text="Where to find IT freelancers, willing to relocate to join security cleared projects at EU agencies?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27281" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10511" RevisionGUID="d64308c6-3258-4307-8b73-12e4d7e1512d" CreationDate="2022-09-14T11:29:41.587" UserId="28458" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|project|information-technology|eu|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27282" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10512" RevisionGUID="ef8377b5-3f27-44fd-a73d-15f9456def29" CreationDate="2022-09-14T13:29:49.103" UserId="20786" Text="No, the Freelancing site isn't any form of employment agency.  Any posts of job offers will almost certainly be taken down as spam. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You used to be able to post job offers through careers.stackoverflow.com.  However it is my understanding that this is no longer possible, see [Sunsetting Jobs &amp; Developer Story][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://meta.stackoverflow.com/q/415293/2870922" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27284" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="10511" RevisionGUID="80d32ec9-109c-4142-a6fa-ce1dbc94f397" CreationDate="2022-09-14T15:10:46.143" UserId="75" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}],&quot;SiteSpecificCloseReasonIds&quot;:[6]}" />
  <row Id="27285" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10513" RevisionGUID="6569722a-173f-4461-8e56-83fcd9844e45" CreationDate="2022-09-15T12:21:07.890" UserId="28468" Text="full time webdeveloper here with a side hustle as &quot;FREELANCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPER&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Seeing as I want the option to start or stop my side hustle when I want, I was thinking to register as a freelancer since I want to test the side hustle first. Does it make sense to do this as a freelancer? Or does the Gewerbe option offer other advantages if any?&#xD;&#xA;In germany being a &quot;freelancer&quot; is not like you can sign up as being a freelancer. Your tax office determines whether you are allowed to be a freelancer or if you have to sign up as a &quot;commerce&quot;(gewerbe).  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not easy to answer that question, as it differs from state to state. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wasn't allowed to work as a &quot;freelancer&quot; per se and had to sign up a commerce (gewerbe). But you can create your gewerbe as a &quot;small business&quot; where you don't have to tax your invoices. &quot;Gemäß §19 UStG ist in dem ausgewiesenen Betrag auf dieser Rechnung keine Umsatzsteuer enthalten&quot;. Sorry i wont translate that one :D&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;2. Some customers need some smaller bug fixes and maintenance done on their website and I am not sure how to bill them for these tasks. Especially, since invidually they're small. Is an hourly rate or billing them a fixed price the fair way to go?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That depends only on you. We can't tell you how you should charge your customers. &#xD;&#xA;But let me tell you this, even an fixed price is an hourly rate. BUT you already did the calculation on how long it will take you to finish the &quot;bug&quot;, &quot;feature&quot; or &quot;project&quot;. Normally the time it took you to do the calculation should already be in the &quot;fixed price&quot; you tell them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have any other questions or you might need assistance in you're first steps, HMU " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27287" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10513" RevisionGUID="3b782722-4af6-407c-9109-3dc8714c4cc5" CreationDate="2022-09-15T12:22:09.523" UserId="28468" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="full time webdeveloper here with a side hustle as &quot;FREELANCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPER&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Seeing as I want the option to start or stop my side hustle when I want, I was thinking to register as a freelancer since I want to test the side hustle first. Does it make sense to do this as a freelancer? Or does the Gewerbe option offer other advantages if any?&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's not easy to answer that question, as it differs from state to state.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In germany being a &quot;freelancer&quot; is not like you can sign up as being a freelancer. Your tax office determines whether you are allowed to be a freelancer or if you have to sign up as a &quot;commerce&quot;(gewerbe). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wasn't allowed to work as a &quot;freelancer&quot; per se and had to sign up a commerce (gewerbe). But you can create your gewerbe as a &quot;small business&quot; where you don't have to tax your invoices. &quot;Gemäß §19 UStG ist in dem ausgewiesenen Betrag auf dieser Rechnung keine Umsatzsteuer enthalten&quot;. Sorry i wont translate that one :D&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;2. Some customers need some smaller bug fixes and maintenance done on their website and I am not sure how to bill them for these tasks. Especially, since invidually they're small. Is an hourly rate or billing them a fixed price the fair way to go?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That depends only on you. We can't tell you how you should charge your customers. &#xD;&#xA;But let me tell you this, even an fixed price is an hourly rate. BUT you already did the calculation on how long it will take you to finish the &quot;bug&quot;, &quot;feature&quot; or &quot;project&quot;. Normally the time it took you to do the calculation should already be in the &quot;fixed price&quot; you tell them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you have any other questions or you might need assistance in you're first steps, HMU " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27288" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10513" RevisionGUID="0856e709-5ec7-4a9c-9b29-f6b8eb5de3e9" CreationDate="2022-09-15T16:28:56.223" UserId="25082" Comment="Some grammar adjustments and wording updates. Removed &quot;hit me up&quot; tagline as we tend to leave those out on Stack Exchange sites. " Text="I'm a full-time web developer with a side hustle as freelance software developer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Seeing as I want the option to start or stop my side hustle when I want, I was thinking to register as a freelancer since I want to test the side hustle first. Does it make sense to do this as a freelancer? Or does the Gewerbe option offer other advantages if any?&#xD;&#xA;  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There's not easy to answer that question, as it differs from state to state.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In Germany, being a &quot;freelancer&quot; is not like you can sign up as being a freelancer. Your tax office determines whether you are allowed to be a freelancer or if you have to sign up as a &quot;commerce&quot;(gewerbe). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I wasn't allowed to work as a &quot;freelancer&quot; per se and had to sign up a commerce (gewerbe). But you can create your gewerbe as a &quot;small business&quot; where you don't have to tax your invoices. &quot;Gemäß §19 UStG ist in dem ausgewiesenen Betrag auf dieser Rechnung keine Umsatzsteuer enthalten&quot;. Sorry I won't translate that one :D&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Some customers need some smaller bug fixes and maintenance done on their website and I am not sure how to bill them for these tasks. Especially, since invidually they're small. Is an hourly rate or billing them a fixed price the fair way to go?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That depends only on you. We can't tell you how you should charge your customers. &#xD;&#xA;But let me tell you this, even a fixed price is an hourly rate. However, you already did the calculation on how long it will take you to finish the &quot;bug&quot;, &quot;feature&quot; or &quot;project&quot;. Normally the time it took you to do the calculation should already be in the &quot;fixed price&quot; you tell them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27289" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10513" RevisionGUID="0856e709-5ec7-4a9c-9b29-f6b8eb5de3e9" CreationDate="2022-09-15T16:28:56.223" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 75 edit id of 827" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27290" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6837" RevisionGUID="4f868196-5da4-4d91-a4ab-eb48aa46787c" CreationDate="2022-09-22T21:07:30.733" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27291" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10514" RevisionGUID="b1f942e7-1c27-465f-8ac4-a7e0eea7adef" CreationDate="2022-09-29T08:51:29.830" UserId="28509" Text="Below, I posted a mock conversation that helps me deal with potential clients who insist on meeting me in person. When it's obviously a big client like Fortune 500, and the contact's title and authority are verifiable, hell yeah I'll meet in person and maybe even put on a tie! More often than not, however, there is nefarious intent or a cultural difference in expectations for in-person first meetings...which would be forgivable except that after 16 years of consulting, those meetings consistently leave me feeling used (especially when they buy me lunch)...which means cultural differences or not, it isn't innocent... it's a practiced behavior that has likely been very successful for them and they're good at getting stuff for free. If my attempts to get them to meet remotely fail, I know my answer and change my tone to &quot;firm&quot;. If the potential client is real, they are more likely to respect you for having a spine than they are to dismiss you for not playing by their rules. If the latter, it's likely that they're just pissed that they can't get you to sit down with them and give them free consulting for the price of lunch. If the former, I can tell you that I've gotten more signatures on proposals by being firm and adhering to my own personal standard than by pandering or allowing myself to be used. Demand respect and you'll get it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Client:** Let’s meet for lunch so I can tell you about my concept and meet you in person&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Me:** I’d love to learn more about your project! As a national company, it isn’t practical for me to schedule in-person meetings, so all of our first discussions are remote. Are you available on Tuesday at 1pm? I can send a Zoom link or call you on the phone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Client:** No but I really need to put my eyes on you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Me:** Unfortunately, I don’t take in-person exploratory meetings. It is vital that I learn more about your project and for you to learn more about our fees and how we work, however, we can accomplish this in a 15-to-30-minute video or phone call. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Client:** But, you see, I don’t do business with anyone I don’t meet face to face. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Me:** Frankly, this is a red flag for me. When a potential client wants to meet in person for lunch or to put eyes on me, it invariably morphs into a working session where they share details of their project in hopes of gleaning valuable information on the feasibility or direction of their project. I learned long ago not to do free working sessions. Working sessions with me, the principal of the company, are $1,500 paid upfront for up to 4 hours. I’d be happy to meet you for a working session. To get you a proposal for this we should have at least a brief call. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*If this doesn't work, it's time to walk away...Horse Whisperer style. If they come back, you got em.* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Me:** I appreciate your tenacity and would love to help you. Please let me know when you're ready to schedule a video or phone call. I look forward to hearing from you. (read: &quot;no, you pushy arse... I ain't driving across town so you can waste my time squeezing me for free information...call me when you're serious&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27293" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10515" RevisionGUID="970330b5-516a-449b-aa9f-e46491521964" CreationDate="2022-10-04T05:50:08.637" UserId="28527" Text="Apart from job marketplaces, Is there any software or website that secures your payment when working with remote clients and manages the payment between you and your client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27295" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10515" RevisionGUID="970330b5-516a-449b-aa9f-e46491521964" CreationDate="2022-10-04T05:50:08.637" UserId="28527" Text="Is there any website/software that secures your payment when working with remote clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27296" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10515" RevisionGUID="970330b5-516a-449b-aa9f-e46491521964" CreationDate="2022-10-04T05:50:08.637" UserId="28527" Text="|contracts|freelance-websites|payment-terms|payments|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27304" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10517" RevisionGUID="eb8ffd34-4bfe-419c-a4d7-8e8065428c2d" CreationDate="2022-10-06T18:43:17.040" UserId="708" Text="Teams are great *if* they are **constructed properly**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example... 5 &quot;full stack&quot; developers team up.. this *can be* rather pointless. Sure you all can take on *more* work and perhaps get an extra pair of hands when you are struggling with something. However, it's all the *same* work each individual would be doing without a team. The *only* benefit here is perhaps volume and some work support. But everyone still needs to hunt down clients, deal with them, etc. There's no back and forth between team members beyond occasional project support because each freelancer will be working on their own client's projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A team constructed of developers, each with a unique expertise, can be a bit better - but still not quite &quot;fabulous&quot;. If you have a &quot;php guy&quot;, a &quot;javascript guy&quot;, a &quot;Ruby guy&quot; etc that can help a bit. But in my experiences developers don't *really* focus heavily on one particular language. They all try to know everything as much as they can. You're kind of hard pressed to find a &quot;php guy&quot; that doesn't also understand javascript, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A *good* freelance &quot;team&quot; involves construction the team with freelancers that have ***different* skill sets**. If you expand the areas of expertise, you expand the possible client poole and in turn the possibilities for more robust and better clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an example... a great team...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- A Marketing specialist&#xD;&#xA;- A Project Manager&#xD;&#xA;- A Graphic Designer&#xD;&#xA;- A Writer&#xD;&#xA;- A Web Developer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This is a stunning team to build that can keep you fed for years and years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The point is when the Marketing Specialist has a client in need of design services, they contact the designer... when the Project Manager needs webdev they contact the designer and developer. When the developer needs a new page layout, they contact the designer, when the design has a client wanting to do a mailing they contact the Marketing Specialist, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are all symbiotic relationships. Each doing their part to support the others and in this way a &quot;team&quot; can be very, very, beneficial.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The goal is to think of a project from inception to completion and try and formulate a team of freelancers who each handle a unique aspect of that project workflow. There's a gold.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Related: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/2848/how-can-experienced-contractor-survive-outside-elance-odesk-freelancer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27306" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10514" RevisionGUID="5dddf956-b98c-4cad-9b03-4e17562d0bc8" CreationDate="2022-10-06T23:43:21.590" UserId="15296" Comment="English + formatting" Text="Below, I posted a mock conversation that helps me deal with potential clients who insist on meeting me in person. When it's obviously a big client like Fortune 500, and the contact's title and authority are verifiable, hell yeah, I'll meet in person, and maybe even put on a tie! More often than not, however, there is nefarious intent or a cultural difference in expectations for in-person first meetings...which would be forgivable except that after 16 years of consulting, those meetings consistently leave me feeling used (especially when they buy me lunch)... which means cultural differences or not, it isn't innocent... it's a practiced behavior that has likely been very successful for them and they're good at getting stuff for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If my attempts to get them to meet remotely fail, I know my answer and change my tone to &quot;firm&quot;. If the potential client is real, they are more likely to respect you for having a spine than they are to dismiss you for not playing by their rules. If the latter, it's likely that they're just pissed that they can't get you to sit down with them and give them free consulting for the price of lunch. If the former, I can tell you that I've gotten more signatures on proposals by being firm and adhering to my own personal standard than by pandering or allowing myself to be used. Demand respect and you'll get it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Client:** Let’s meet for lunch so I can tell you about my concept and meet you in person&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Me:** I’d love to learn more about your project! As a national company, it isn’t practical for me to schedule in-person meetings, so all of our first discussions are remote. Are you available on Tuesday at 1pm? I can send a Zoom link or call you on the phone. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Client:** No but I really need to put my eyes on you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Me:** Unfortunately, I don’t take in-person exploratory meetings. It is vital that I learn more about your project and for you to learn more about our fees and how we work, however, we can accomplish this in a 15-to-30-minute video or phone call. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Client:** But, you see, I don’t do business with anyone I don’t meet face to face. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Me:** Frankly, this is a red flag for me. When a potential client wants to meet in person for lunch or to put eyes on me, it invariably morphs into a working session where they share details of their project in hopes of gleaning valuable information on the feasibility or direction of their project. I learned long ago not to do free working sessions. Working sessions with me, the principal of the company, are $1,500 paid upfront for up to 4 hours. I’d be happy to meet you for a working session. To get you a proposal for this we should have at least a brief call. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*If this doesn't work, it's time to walk away... Horse Whisperer style. If they come back, you got em.* &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Me:** I appreciate your tenacity and would love to help you. Please let me know when you're ready to schedule a video or phone call. I look forward to hearing from you. (read: &quot;no, you pushy arse... I ain't driving across town so you can waste my time squeezing me for free information. Call me when you're serious&quot;)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27307" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10514" RevisionGUID="5dddf956-b98c-4cad-9b03-4e17562d0bc8" CreationDate="2022-10-06T23:43:21.590" Comment="Proposed by 15296 approved by 28509 edit id of 830" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27308" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="8205" RevisionGUID="c3b606e6-41e3-4fe6-8dac-5dff8fbbdcbe" CreationDate="2022-10-07T02:07:25.817" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27309" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10518" RevisionGUID="ca06db2a-4a52-47a5-bdd8-a0ae2d68c822" CreationDate="2022-10-11T20:48:10.043" UserId="744" Text="After 9 years I found this article&#xD;&#xA;[here][1]:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; “Camera surveillance for nine hours a day is disproportionate and not&#xD;&#xA;&gt; allowed in the Netherlands,” the Dutch court ruled.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long story in short. Somebody from NL worked remotely for a company in USA (Chetu). According to another article they already monitored his activity and his screen, but they wanted to see it on webcam also. Because he didn't turn on the webcam the company fired it. This act is legal in USA and it seems it is not legal in NL / EU. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The other fact: monitoring + micromanaging maybe can be justified maybe not.&#xD;&#xA;When it can be justified: better to kick that person, in my opinion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For me: this level of micromanaging and monitoring it is a clear sign of trust. Why should I work for those people? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, there is another side of the coin: the company.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some freelancer sites post jobs, where they clearly require to do all your coding with remote desktop. So can be this case: a USA company employs a people in whatever country, remote. For the shake of example let's say  in NL.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That person in NL post a job to a freelancer site: full time job with X salary ( a lot less than half what he gets) and need to do all coding via remote desktop / Teamviewer and other tools. &#xD;&#xA;In this case the person in NP has 8 or 9 hour free time + half salary. Somebody in 3rd world it is working on his PC, laptop.&#xD;&#xA;This can go against the NDA!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this days from campering or living in a campervan or something like that videos I heave heard from somebody: &quot;I am not going there, where I am not welcomed&quot;. -So maybe it is a great idea to not want to work for those companies in USA, which they don't trust me, they thread me as second or third category people and so on. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/webcam-on-during-work-illegal-dutch-court-human-rights-chetu" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27311" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10519" RevisionGUID="2e4d32e2-6206-4bf5-a220-b474b758614c" CreationDate="2022-10-12T08:48:28.573" UserId="1303" Text="I work for a client based in Great Britain, and I will be sending him an invoice for graphic design work that has already been completed. The payment will be made via PayPal, and he is willing to cover the payment gateway charges of PayPal. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So when I make the invoice, how shall I write the entry of the payment gateway charges in the invoice? What is the best procedure to follow when defining the additional charge on an invoice so that all transactions remain transparent to the client?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27313" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10519" RevisionGUID="2e4d32e2-6206-4bf5-a220-b474b758614c" CreationDate="2022-10-12T08:48:28.573" UserId="1303" Text="How to mention payment gateway charges in an invoice?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27314" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10519" RevisionGUID="2e4d32e2-6206-4bf5-a220-b474b758614c" CreationDate="2022-10-12T08:48:28.573" UserId="1303" Text="|payment-terms|payments|invoices|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27315" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10520" RevisionGUID="76d3d538-5ad2-456d-b1e4-36df4fb92845" CreationDate="2022-10-12T23:37:20.400" UserId="28045" Text="1)Enter this charge as a line item on the invoice describing exactly what it is per your post and enter the charge.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2)In the future, format your invoices to include a line for &quot;additional charges&quot; and then enter those charge that are specific to a specific client on that  line as indicated above in #1.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3)This is probably the simplest way unless/until you have a large number of clients and a fair percentage use specialized payment forms that have extra charges. In this case you can consider a separate line for &quot;payment charges&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4)The simplest format using #1, #2 or #3 above is to put the reason for the charge/line item on the left and the amount on the right. This righthand column will consist of pluses and possibly minuses so that the customer can see the addup to the final charge clearly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27317" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="662" RevisionGUID="6c07d291-96f3-401c-b160-f47aba1fbc49" CreationDate="2022-10-13T09:00:05.177" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1580483501111275520" />
  <row Id="27318" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10521" RevisionGUID="9cbf61c2-f543-4158-9970-48acea940042" CreationDate="2022-10-14T14:57:47.327" UserId="28473" Text="I am a Front-end Developer with over 7 years commercial experience and would like to develop my skills in my own business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was thinking about do my own outsourcing company in my country and finding programmers and QA testers to work. That's not easy because I do not know how to start. Can you tell me how is look process step by step? Of course, I am not asking about taxes etc. but how to find clients and workers. It is difficult because nobody knows my company, so I can not find clients. If I do not have clients, I can not to find workers.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tell me please what should I do first - find client or programmer to work and propose him to client?&#xD;&#xA;How can I be competitive as a small company? How to talk to large companies when I am unknown on the market?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27320" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10521" RevisionGUID="9cbf61c2-f543-4158-9970-48acea940042" CreationDate="2022-10-14T14:57:47.327" UserId="28473" Text="How do I start with my own IT outsourcing company?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27321" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10521" RevisionGUID="9cbf61c2-f543-4158-9970-48acea940042" CreationDate="2022-10-14T14:57:47.327" UserId="28473" Text="|business-plan|clients|outsourcing|company-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27322" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10522" RevisionGUID="99304e05-a0ae-4ac1-bf23-afc7d0ec82b2" CreationDate="2022-10-15T15:20:02.940" UserId="26181" Text="Find the clients first. When starting out and coming from a developer background, the hardest part is the finding of clients. Part of the problem is that most developers don't understand the vague nature of marketing: we act, and the results are not guaranteed and the results that happen, do not happen directly based on our actions. There is a reason why salespeople make so much money - it is a difficult job, and a good salesperson can bring in enough business to keep 5, 10, or even 20-50 developers busy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How to be competitive? The best way is to specialize in a certain industry and build up the knowledge and a code base to serve that industry. Trying to be competitive just on price is a sure way to go broke." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27324" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10523" RevisionGUID="2c388475-c926-4a39-9950-bebc176d770d" CreationDate="2022-10-20T13:28:18.517" UserId="27836" Text="I have 10 years of experience in the IT, mainly in SharePoint &amp; .NET development/customization. i had the 10 years working on a full time job, since 1 year i started working as a freelancer, all the projects i worked on during my freelancing, i set the following process:-&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) I apply to the project inside Up-work or Freelancer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) the customer contact me&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) for hourly rated and fixed price, i am always been asked about an estimation for the cost.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) so i set up a session with the client for 1-1.5 hours (before gaining the contract) to understand the requirements&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;5) then i give them an estimation with +/- 15%-20% variation&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6) i completed around 10 projects in this way. and i am a top rated freelancer&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;but now i am working on a project for building ISO approval process, and the system have a lot of templates and workflow and approvals going on. so i had 2 meetings with the clients (1.5 hours in total), but i still can not define the scope. as to be able to understand this project i need to have requirement gathering sessions for not less than 10-12 hours, and i am not sure if i am suppose to do those for free. so i am thinking about this process:-&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Ask the customer to create 2 projects inside Upwork, one which is hourly based and the other is fixed priced.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) for the hourly based we can setup 10-12 hours on requirement gathering over 3-4 days. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) based on the requirement gathering i can write a design document.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) review the design document with the customer and get their approval.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5) once the design document is approved, i can provide a fixed priced project for the implementation. i need 2 projects as in Upwork we can not change a project from been hourly based to be fixed priced.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;does my appraoch for this large project, sound valid? or i can improve it? for me and for the potential customer as well? at the end to understand the project i need 12 hours &gt;&gt; and to understand what i need to implement i need a design document...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27326" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10523" RevisionGUID="2c388475-c926-4a39-9950-bebc176d770d" CreationDate="2022-10-20T13:28:18.517" UserId="27836" Text="Is it normal to charge the customer on the requirement gathering sessions for a large project, which i need time to understand its scope" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27327" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10523" RevisionGUID="2c388475-c926-4a39-9950-bebc176d770d" CreationDate="2022-10-20T13:28:18.517" UserId="27836" Text="|web-development|price|price-per-hour|fixed-price|budget|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27328" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10524" RevisionGUID="0d1fd98d-ad2b-4647-9776-a4b0565196c9" CreationDate="2022-10-21T07:36:34.557" UserId="7858" Text="There is probably no general one-size-fits-all approach to this problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In a perfect world, the client pays for all your time. However, sometimes landing a large project may be worth an investment - especially if getting that project will lessen the future need for often winning small projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether it is possible to have client the client pay for requirements gathering could depend on which side needs the other side the most; the more unique your skills are, the better chances are you can dictate terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the end, it depends on what is most important to you: Getting the client or always being fully paid for your time. Most often the answer lies somewhere in between; only you know where you are on this spectrum.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would advise against your suggested approach. In a Danish context, creating a separate project of a few hours for requirements gathering seems overly bureaucratic. If the client suggested it, I would not argue against - but I would never propose it myself.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If this client is strategically or financially important to you, a defensive approach is probably wise - especially if the 10-12 hours in the end will represent a small percentage of time consumed. Your choices are:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) If the client is super important: Absorb the cost not even mentioning it to the client&#xD;&#xA;2) Or, if possible - somehow spread the cost across the length of the project&#xD;&#xA;3) Or - in the contract, explicitly state that the initial requirements gathering is considered part of the project&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27339" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10527" RevisionGUID="bfd5a690-4671-49a9-9bcf-f328b588f5b8" CreationDate="2022-10-28T20:45:32.350" UserId="28609" Text="I am a freelance programmer and use time-tracker software to bill my hours. Sometimes when I am running some time-taking operation such as building a Docker image, running a CI pipeline and waiting for it to finish. Should I keep the time tracker running while I am waiting and using apps like YouTube, Discord in the meantime?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27341" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10527" RevisionGUID="bfd5a690-4671-49a9-9bcf-f328b588f5b8" CreationDate="2022-10-28T20:45:32.350" UserId="28609" Text="Should I track time for an hourly project during time taking operations?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27342" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10527" RevisionGUID="bfd5a690-4671-49a9-9bcf-f328b588f5b8" CreationDate="2022-10-28T20:45:32.350" UserId="28609" Text="|time-tracking|hourly|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27348" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="5858" RevisionGUID="e9eddf5a-e052-4a11-b03b-43aec246305f" CreationDate="2022-11-01T07:02:01.037" UserId="15296" Comment="Typo fixes" Text="&gt;Does the client need to print the contract, physically sign then scan and return a digital copy?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the UK, no, they do not need to. However, it is regarded as good practice to do so. Especially if the project is anything greater than a simple or small task for a small amount of money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt;Is a simple email reply to the sending of the contract saying &quot;I agree, please proceed&quot; enough for the contract to be assumed agreed on? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT *** No, not quite. **** REMOVED&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Normally, yes. You need four elements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. An intention to enter into legal agreement (&quot;we intend for you to do this work&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. An offer (&quot;we will do this for you by this date or from this date&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. A consideration to enter into legal agreement (&quot;we will pay this much&quot;)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. An acceptance of the offer (the &quot;Yes go ahead&quot;, not a continued discussion)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What I do is to create a document 'Outline/Schedule of work' (versioned) describing what we are going to do. A separate document 'Quotation' stating for work as described in the Schedule of Work, including a schedule of payments: ie 30% deposit, 30% on this date, 40% on completion.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I then, in those documents, refer to a third document as 'Subject to our standard Terms and Conditions of service' which is a one page, simple plain English document, available publicly on our website, saying we will do whatever we can to achieve the goals. The client will provide required materials in a timely basis. Payments are non refundable. All work product belongs to client upon completion of the project. Everything is private and sharing of information with third parties can only be done with the consent of us and the client. Additional work not included on the work schedule will be charged separately. Quotations are valid for 3 months.  &#xD;&#xA;The key here is payments are non refundable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I then say that if they want to go ahead, as soon as we get the deposit, we will begin work as laid out in the scheme of work and subject to our standard terms and conditions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That is it, they do not need to email me to say 'Yes please, go ahead', scan or sign anything or whatever. The payment is a clear indication that they accept our terms of service and the schedule of work, without any fuss, and have entered into an agreement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had one customer say 'we want a refund' when an addition to their schedule of work was deemed too expensive. I pointed out the terms and conditions (which incidentally should be versioned and dated) and they quietly backed off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The emails sending the quotation and schedule of work I keep safely stored away for reference as well as in all honesty all communications. If they want to make a change to the schedule, the quotation and schedules are both updated and sent again. &quot;Please find the amended schedule of work and quotation V1.02 dated 12th May 2016 replacing any previous documents.&quot; There can be no confusion then over what schedule or payments are required.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The key is to be clear, upfront, with everything clearly documented preferably in an attachment, with a reference number and date on every document sent." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27349" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="5858" RevisionGUID="e9eddf5a-e052-4a11-b03b-43aec246305f" CreationDate="2022-11-01T07:02:01.037" Comment="Proposed by 15296 approved by 61, 7858 edit id of 832" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27350" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="1003" RevisionGUID="95bac987-13ee-4b7c-a0dd-3b94a9924dee" CreationDate="2022-11-01T09:34:39.047" UserId="15296" Comment="Typo fixes" Text="I have a decent client base now, after many years of hard work; however, increasingly, clients are saying they want to come to meet me. This is a change from what I am used to, where I would always go and visit clients. The problem is I work from home and for various reasons I do not want to start using my home as a client meeting area (there is nowhere suitable for starters). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - How should I get around this, is it unprofessional to say can we meet&#xD;&#xA;   at a nice quirky coffee shop? &#xD;&#xA; - If they insist (which I have had) should I cave in and say ok?&#xD;&#xA; - Is it right to say to clients quite simply: I do not wish to meet at my home for personal reasons?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just for clarification, all of my clients know I work from home - I'm not hiding that, and clients are asking to meet me for a variety of reasons." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27351" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="1003" RevisionGUID="95bac987-13ee-4b7c-a0dd-3b94a9924dee" CreationDate="2022-11-01T09:34:39.047" UserId="15296" Comment="Typo fixes" Text="How should I deal with clients wanting to meet me, although I work at home?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27352" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1003" RevisionGUID="95bac987-13ee-4b7c-a0dd-3b94a9924dee" CreationDate="2022-11-01T09:34:39.047" Comment="Proposed by 15296 approved by 61, 7858 edit id of 829" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27353" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6334" RevisionGUID="4dcc5a60-72c6-49bc-98c4-86d53890bc3f" CreationDate="2022-11-01T09:34:57.410" UserId="15235" Comment="tags edited (perhaps there is a better one, though)" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27354" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6334" RevisionGUID="4dcc5a60-72c6-49bc-98c4-86d53890bc3f" CreationDate="2022-11-01T09:34:57.410" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 61, 7858 edit id of 831" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27355" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2472" RevisionGUID="23b62223-872d-4e4e-aafc-2b8b9965e06c" CreationDate="2022-11-01T09:35:10.283" UserId="15296" Comment="Typo fixes" Text="Not pertaining to iOS specifically, but freelancing in general, also as a citizen/resident of the USA, I would charge roughly 4 times the hourly rate you get from an employer. I've seen other freelancers charge around this much.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So if an iOS dev is making 25EUR/hour, then as freelance, said dev would charge 100EUR/hour.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This may seem high, but there are few reasons to charge this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. You have to bring in the same salary, so you will charge 25EUR/hour minimum.&#xD;&#xA;2. You have taxes, insurance, infrastructure investment, and other liabilities, this can come near your take home pay.&#xD;&#xA;3. You will not likely bill for full-time hours, so you have to account for all the unpaid work you will do. Freelancers do a lot, up to 50%, of unbillable work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of course there is latitude in how much you charge, but hiring a freelance shouldn't be assumed to be cheaper for the customer, or more/less lucrative for the developer. The benefit of freelancing is freedom in working how you would like work, or working with someone who can work with or around you more easily." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27356" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2472" RevisionGUID="23b62223-872d-4e4e-aafc-2b8b9965e06c" CreationDate="2022-11-01T09:35:10.283" Comment="Proposed by 15296 approved by 61, 7858 edit id of 828" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27357" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="6537" RevisionGUID="9af0cd9b-ab01-45ea-a6a8-0c4355e07338" CreationDate="2022-11-01T09:36:09.030" UserId="15296" Comment="English + formatting" Text="It's overkill.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do you know what Caller ID is? Well when you visit a website, your IP address which is akin to a phone number is logged on every server you visit. It's the way the internet works, you cannot avoid it. The VPN brings a layer of security in play whereby your &quot;call&quot; (web browser visit) goes via a middle man and their IP address is reported on the target server. Your IP address is recorded and kept on the server with the VPN. In either case, the law would need a search warrant to examine the server (and the VPN could prove complicated if it's in another country).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Unlike your phone number, your IP address is likely to change often as most ISPs charge it if you get a fixed IP. In addition, an IP address will not identify your home address but instead possibly identify your neighbourhood.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;VPNs also encrypt the data over the wire - but if you are doing normal surfing then this is an extra layer that won't add any value.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Use a good web browser (I use Firefox but Chrome, Safari, Opera or even IE are also fine). Make sure you are not signed in as an Administrator or &quot;root&quot; user - you should only use those accounts when adding/removing software. A virus, if you get hit, gets the same access that you have, so if you are using a master user, then the master user has access to your entire machine (and recovery is more painful). If you are using an ordinary user (or Limited user in Windows) then the virus will be contained to that user only, and it's a lot easier to clean up.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Never open any document without first scanning it (thus do a right mouse button and &quot;Scan...&quot; (assuming you have an anti-virus program installed).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Make sure you have a firewall or router between you and the outside world (true in most cases).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If any website says you need to install something - don't. If your website can view a well known branded website like CNN, NYTimes, BBC and you can view video there, then anything that supposedly does not work on another site is likely something you don't want to install." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27358" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6537" RevisionGUID="9af0cd9b-ab01-45ea-a6a8-0c4355e07338" CreationDate="2022-11-01T09:36:09.030" Comment="Proposed by 15296 approved by 61, 7858 edit id of 833" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27359" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="2471" RevisionGUID="9d26219c-771d-4751-a36d-6856c01e6bd4" CreationDate="2022-11-04T18:01:32.457" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1588592295351357440" />
  <row Id="27361" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10529" RevisionGUID="04526770-7998-4d30-a662-3804b3fb1831" CreationDate="2022-11-08T14:48:29.233" UserId="28641" Text="Is there a limit of freelance jobs I can have at the same time? Can a client limit the amount of jobs I can have? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am based in the United States, working remotely, and currently freelancing for clients all over the world. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27363" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10529" RevisionGUID="04526770-7998-4d30-a662-3804b3fb1831" CreationDate="2022-11-08T14:48:29.233" UserId="28641" Text="How many freelance jobs can I have?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27364" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10529" RevisionGUID="04526770-7998-4d30-a662-3804b3fb1831" CreationDate="2022-11-08T14:48:29.233" UserId="28641" Text="|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27365" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10530" RevisionGUID="cfb05e5d-8ad1-4153-a5ee-774831b8db93" CreationDate="2022-11-08T15:50:38.423" UserId="26181" Text="This depends on your agreements with your clients and your own abilities. We cannot answer this for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, a client may want to limit your ability so that they can have first claim on your time. That is something that would be negotiated with that client and the proper compensation for that limit would need to be spelled out in the agreement. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some people are better at selling services to clients. Over time, some of these people start subcontracting work out or even hiring employees to do the work. This is how Ross Perot started as one person selling and built EDS into a powerhouse. He got one contract, built the organization to service that contract, and then went out to get many more clients. Other people simply like selling to one client at a time. It all depends on your abilities and desires." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27367" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10521" RevisionGUID="8dfcdbac-341d-4ac3-b3b4-c42bfe073762" CreationDate="2022-11-14T16:03:15.567" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27368" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10531" RevisionGUID="1def5df4-38ab-44ce-9b8c-df373b397e11" CreationDate="2022-11-16T14:37:46.467" UserId="19228" Text="Well, here I can suggest two approaches:-&#xD;&#xA;1. Use another machine during such hours to watch youtube, etc.&#xD;&#xA;2. These types of tasks require monitoring in between, so in a way, you should still clock hours. However, these should be cleared beforehand in your contract with the employer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27372" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10533" RevisionGUID="4d40012e-893d-4fca-a84f-2b70c29b92ff" CreationDate="2022-11-16T14:59:43.830" UserId="19228" Text="I have used it, and you can search the freelancer with particular skills and read their profile. You can also refer your friend who is also a freelancer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27374" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="10306" RevisionGUID="6980c2e6-7192-46b5-a25d-726f17eda7ad" CreationDate="2022-11-17T00:20:49.367" UserId="75" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}],&quot;SiteSpecificCloseReasonIds&quot;:[5]}" />
  <row Id="27375" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10534" RevisionGUID="eb981b5a-2796-460f-832c-321310a939b7" CreationDate="2022-11-17T20:31:44.887" UserId="28667" Text="I've set myself 6 daily billable hours, with an X value per hour. However, on most days, I only work 2-3 hours and spend the rest of my time (5-6 hours) waiting for client responses. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should I reduce my billable hours to 3-4? That would significantly increase my hourly value, but I'm not sure what to do with that increase.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a relevant answer to my question [here][1], but the accepted answer basically says that you can do other tasks while waiting; I, on the other hand, cannot. When I have to multitask on multiple projects at the same time I make a lot of mistakes, and I mean it. My service quality significantly deteriorates when doing so. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if you have any suggestions or insights that could help me bill my work hours more accurately while also focusing on no more than one project, it would be greatly appreciated. If what I'm looking for is the holy grail, I'm open to other ideas as well. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/7729/do-you-bill-for-time-waiting-for-client-to-respond-within-a-single-shift-day&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27377" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10534" RevisionGUID="eb981b5a-2796-460f-832c-321310a939b7" CreationDate="2022-11-17T20:31:44.887" UserId="28667" Text="About billable hours/day and time waiting for clients reply" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27378" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10534" RevisionGUID="eb981b5a-2796-460f-832c-321310a939b7" CreationDate="2022-11-17T20:31:44.887" UserId="28667" Text="|time-management|billable-hours|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27379" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10535" RevisionGUID="3925d9d2-2580-4c6d-827c-8d5eb5a6e90f" CreationDate="2022-11-18T07:13:21.190" UserId="28669" Text="I feel that that is up to you. Working as a freelancer is quite a challenge to most individuals who may have been employed for some time in their life. I know it was for myself. I tend to get over-excited and bite off more than I can chew. As a freelancer with deadlines, that's not good. So what I did, is mastered 'self' and decided to master certain niches as well. This helped me maintain a focal point until I pushed through.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All this being said, I believe you can have as many freelancer jobs as you can handle simultaneously. Not everyone is built the same. You may be able to handle 5 Freelancer jobs, while I may only be able to handle 2-3. This is just tips from life's experiences! Hope it helps! Thanks for reading." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27381" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10536" RevisionGUID="6bba4e53-2e4b-4067-8c86-2d1f4cb6b5c6" CreationDate="2022-11-18T15:30:59.860" UserId="26181" Text="The real question is: are you working as an &quot;Employee Equivalent&quot; or are you running a business?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you state that you &quot;set myself 6 daily billable hours&quot;, that sounds like you consider yourself equivalent to an employee. An employee works 6 hours and uses 2 hours for email and other overhead for that business.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is that an &quot;employee equivalent&quot; needs a sales organization to get work for that person. That sales organization will take a huge chunk out of the billable rate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many years ago, I saw the following financial model for a business. The percentages fit also how a single person business might need to allocate their time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Of every dollar that comes in:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - 20% goes to taxes and profit&#xD;&#xA; - 25% goes to sales and marketing&#xD;&#xA; - 15% goes to administration and overhead&#xD;&#xA; - 40% goes to actually building the product or doing the work&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This has major implications for pricing. This is why a business charges so much over what it costs to actually do the work. I spend a lot of time on marketing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27383" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="5830" RevisionGUID="8905d44f-1c0f-4b90-8932-550c102bb456" CreationDate="2022-11-20T03:01:21.440" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1594163962567954432" />
  <row Id="27389" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10538" RevisionGUID="3f8d6748-ef80-4713-9caf-0a03cac9a138" CreationDate="2022-11-23T16:44:10.450" UserId="28684" Text="You can get payment through https://www.deal.com&#xD;&#xA;This is the most safe way to make payment because it pends 15 days for verification, passport or id card verification." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27395" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10540" RevisionGUID="ff665547-dbac-49d0-9f44-34e82d65fbac" CreationDate="2022-11-24T08:02:30.623" UserId="28214" Text="In some countries this can be considered as something you have pay taxes on. If you are a proffesional and helping out for free with something your business is delivering, it can be considered as something you need to pay taxes on as it was a regular customer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If that is relevant for your country, be carefull with doing &quot;free help&quot; as it might end up you have to pay taxes on money you never charged any customer for. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27397" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10541" RevisionGUID="c1a141f2-7042-469c-a9fa-1fcd0d91d569" CreationDate="2022-11-26T16:23:49.353" UserId="28694" Text="As far As I know and mostly use Upwork Direct Contract, Although It deducts some amount it's a fast and secure method.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27399" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10542" RevisionGUID="1b6dda34-d88c-42ec-9695-5ed83cef90cd" CreationDate="2022-12-01T15:29:00.420" UserId="9845" Text="Do you have a policy for how long you retain client data after they no longer work with you? I have old files, emails, contracts, etc., for clients that I haven't spoken with in several years. I also have records from client companies that no longer exist (I work primarily B2B). Is there an ideal amount of time after which you just delete old records? If the company shuts down, do you delete everything sooner? I would keep items that can be used for my portfolio, but I don't know the value or liability in keeping anything else. I have had clients leave and then return a year or so later, so I do want to keep records for at least a year." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27401" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10542" RevisionGUID="1b6dda34-d88c-42ec-9695-5ed83cef90cd" CreationDate="2022-12-01T15:29:00.420" UserId="9845" Text="What's the best retention policy for past client information?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27402" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10542" RevisionGUID="1b6dda34-d88c-42ec-9695-5ed83cef90cd" CreationDate="2022-12-01T15:29:00.420" UserId="9845" Text="|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27403" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10543" RevisionGUID="3ce13f53-cbdb-4f6d-83e5-4be091a14922" CreationDate="2022-12-02T08:32:35.407" UserId="28714" Text="Sometimes you have a good idea for making something someone might want to buy but it’s very particular and you can envision it being done maybe 1-5 times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is a good strategy as a freelancer for sort of pitching or advertising a kind of “suggested project”? It’s supposed to be something somebody wants, so they want to pay for it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27405" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10543" RevisionGUID="3ce13f53-cbdb-4f6d-83e5-4be091a14922" CreationDate="2022-12-02T08:32:35.407" UserId="28714" Text="What is a good strategy for selling a single idea instead of a recurrent service?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27406" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10543" RevisionGUID="3ce13f53-cbdb-4f6d-83e5-4be091a14922" CreationDate="2022-12-02T08:32:35.407" UserId="28714" Text="|attracting-clients|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27407" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10544" RevisionGUID="b4062953-c118-40b7-9a2e-f50895ea0ef3" CreationDate="2022-12-02T15:14:51.790" UserId="26181" Text="Selling such is a huge challenge. In essence, you are trying to both sell someone that they need to make some change and then sell them on spending money for your efforts. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Generally speaking, something that would be a &quot;one off&quot; project is best done when the prospect comes up with the idea themselves and you sell them on you doing the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My best profit came from developing a base project that many people would want but with customizations. The customization meant that each client got a custom project, but the base meant that I could provide that solution at a tenth or twentieth the cost that other people could. (Unfortunately, the market changed, and that base became worthless. It was a great run while it lasted.)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27411" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10546" RevisionGUID="5b4beb1e-8854-411e-bfa2-0308f9866098" CreationDate="2022-12-03T08:41:12.327" UserId="676" Text="You shouldn't grant any discounts. The reason for this is, that the client does safe money on sending and onboarding other freelancers after a certain time period and is able to plan ahead for a foreseeable amount of time. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27422" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10529" RevisionGUID="eb566216-9acf-4e47-bf12-dc5d3574dedd" CreationDate="2022-12-18T08:08:16.033" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27423" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10548" RevisionGUID="90729541-71b7-41f1-91b5-4d9f2b1900e9" CreationDate="2022-12-20T16:17:48.280" UserId="27153" Text="I spoke with a client via chat, he sent me the project details and what he's looking for. Then I built my proposal, detailing every task and step of what I'll do, delivery time and budget needed, then sent it to the client. I've gotten only silence as an answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I didn't charge for any of that..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27425" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10548" RevisionGUID="90729541-71b7-41f1-91b5-4d9f2b1900e9" CreationDate="2022-12-20T16:17:48.280" UserId="27153" Text="Should you send a detailed process of how you'll handle a project to the client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27426" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10548" RevisionGUID="90729541-71b7-41f1-91b5-4d9f2b1900e9" CreationDate="2022-12-20T16:17:48.280" UserId="27153" Text="|project-management|billing|evaluating-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27427" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10548" RevisionGUID="70f1835a-2dd5-4a58-bea2-345bfaadb3cb" CreationDate="2022-12-20T16:42:51.090" UserId="27153" Comment="Expanded on my question" Text="I spoke with a client via chat, he sent me the project details and what he's looking for. Then I built my proposal, detailing every task and step of what I'll do, delivery time and budget needed, then sent it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've gotten only silence as an answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I didn't charge for any of that...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, do you send your &quot;project plan&quot; (I don't know the word for it in this context) to your client? How do you get them to pay you to do this kind of things before even starting the project?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27436" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10551" RevisionGUID="63b7ee61-8d23-4819-9afc-f74501f96050" CreationDate="2022-12-22T10:49:11.157" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Many customers are asking offers &quot;just to see&quot;, or to compare to other offers, or to know the relevance of externalizing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I always keep the details of time and budget for myself. If they want them, ask for a compensation. Also if necessary take care to state that these are estimates and should not be taken literally, as contractual.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your goal is to tease them by showing your mastership of the problem to solve, just explain your resolution strategy/work breakdown, without figures.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my business, most of the offers require some experimentation beforehand. Usually I don't charge, unless the task is more complex. Then I negotiate a preliminary POC.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27448" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10554" RevisionGUID="956a483c-2937-47a5-802f-7d213cbe6bed" CreationDate="2022-12-23T08:43:59.913" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Simply inform him that you *respond* to messages only during office hours.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If he insists, then &quot;Golden&quot; service is charged.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27452" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10555" RevisionGUID="68c7d3cd-2009-4fd5-bdc6-7680d67ad36f" CreationDate="2022-12-23T15:59:56.107" UserId="26181" Text="This really depends on the client and the expected sales process. For example, when Perot Systems wanted the Blue Cross contract in Texas, they submitted a three page proposal while EDS (who had the existing contract) submitted several thousand pages detailing how they would change and improve the current process. (EDS won the contract.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One way to find out what the client wants is to start with a simple proposal and ask the client if they would want more detail in the next revision of the proposal." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27463" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10535" RevisionGUID="1f0235ba-1261-4af6-b3aa-7b50f11947e0" CreationDate="2022-12-27T13:27:39.007" UserId="25082" Comment="Removed taglines at the end, which we tend to leave out on Stack Exchange" Text="I feel that that is up to you. Working as a freelancer is quite a challenge to most individuals who may have been employed for some time in their life. I know it was for myself. I tend to get over-excited and bite off more than I can chew. As a freelancer with deadlines, that's not good. So what I did, is mastered 'self' and decided to master certain niches as well. This helped me maintain a focal point until I pushed through.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All this being said, I believe you can have as many freelancer jobs as you can handle simultaneously. Not everyone is built the same. You may be able to handle 5 Freelancer jobs, while I may only be able to handle 2-3. These are just some tips from my life's experiences!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27464" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10535" RevisionGUID="1f0235ba-1261-4af6-b3aa-7b50f11947e0" CreationDate="2022-12-27T13:27:39.007" Comment="Proposed by 25082 approved by 61, 7858 edit id of 834" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27465" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="8180" RevisionGUID="ea64ac71-1fd3-4b48-91cc-bcc9d6bfd4eb" CreationDate="2022-12-27T13:27:56.843" UserId="15235" Comment="referral information removed (I'm not 100% sure it's spam, but spammers often use that tactic)" Text="I think the best approach is to create a WhatsApp Business App account if you're going to be speaking a lot of your clients over WhatsApp. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the WhatsApp Business App you can set an automated away message outside your business hours. That will give your clients a hint. There is more info on how to set this up in this [guide to WhatsApp for business][1].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://rocketbots.io/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-whatsapp-business-app/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27466" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="8180" RevisionGUID="ea64ac71-1fd3-4b48-91cc-bcc9d6bfd4eb" CreationDate="2022-12-27T13:27:56.843" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 7858 edit id of 835" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27467" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2100" RevisionGUID="062147ac-5615-4c4c-baaf-ca012b620eed" CreationDate="2022-12-29T11:25:33.193" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="edited title" Text="How to respond no to &quot;Are your rates negotiable?&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27468" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10559" RevisionGUID="5509ecbf-c911-49f3-981f-3aa6b5140ef9" CreationDate="2022-12-29T14:29:26.003" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="As regards myself, I kept all data/messages/documentation/source code (software is my business) since I have been freelancing, say 20 years ago.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Every now and then, the client may return after years, and this is useful. In some cases, an NDA was concluded with the client; but regardless, in all cases I keep that material strictly confidential.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For safety, or if you are bound to the rules of the General Data Protection Regulation, you can mention this in your general sales terms, your offers/contracts or your GDPR declaration.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note that &quot;the company shuts down&quot; is usually an event that you are not informed about." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27471" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10560" RevisionGUID="007b80f8-b293-48db-8347-64e4b7612343" CreationDate="2022-12-31T08:48:11.830" UserId="28783" Text="A client is paying monthly - I signed an agreement earlier in the year under my name and I am receiving the money to my personal bank account under my name. If I get an LLC (taxed as an S Corp), will I need a new agreement or anything like that? Or is it enough to change the direct deposit to my LLC's bank account? Or is it not even necessary to have a bank account for the LLC?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27473" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10560" RevisionGUID="007b80f8-b293-48db-8347-64e4b7612343" CreationDate="2022-12-31T08:48:11.830" UserId="28783" Text="USA LLC - Is there anything I need to do regarding existing contracts?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27474" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10560" RevisionGUID="007b80f8-b293-48db-8347-64e4b7612343" CreationDate="2022-12-31T08:48:11.830" UserId="28783" Text="|contracts|legal|taxes|llc|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27475" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10029" RevisionGUID="41542da8-c3d1-4bd0-af5f-84d53fe4e0ef" CreationDate="2022-12-31T22:04:45.543" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27477" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10543" RevisionGUID="73bb2fe4-33af-4361-8276-ff13c135f6d7" CreationDate="2023-01-01T16:08:36.060" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27478" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10561" RevisionGUID="ca3752ab-28e6-4ac8-a30c-26fcc766d961" CreationDate="2023-01-01T17:39:15.470" UserId="26181" Text="(I am not a lawyer.) In the US, an LLC is a separate legal entity from you. You signed the agreement, not the LLC. An LLC would do well to have its own bank account so that funds are not co-mingled. Co-mingling funds is one of the ways that the corporate veil is pierced, and you lose the protection of an LLC.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might do well to chat with a business lawyer and determine your need for an LLC. If you really need it, then set it up with legal and accounting advice. In certain circumstances, spending the money on good lawyers and good accountants can save you a lot of money." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27480" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10562" RevisionGUID="89f498a5-8683-4851-8cd3-531c57e5389b" CreationDate="2023-01-03T06:49:34.877" UserId="28818" Text="There are several options for securely handling payments when working with remote clients. Here are a few options:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Escrow services:** These are third-party platforms that hold onto funds until the work is completed to the satisfaction of both parties. Examples include Escrow.com and SafePay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Payment processors:** Services like PayPal, Stripe, and Square allow you to securely process payments online.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Online invoicing platforms:** Platforms like FreshBooks and QuickBooks allow you to create and send invoices to clients, and also offer secure payment processing options.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Project management software:** Some project management tools, such as Asana and Trello, offer integrations with payment processors and allow you to track payments as part of your project workflow.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's always a good idea to carefully research and compare the features and fees of different platforms before choosing one to use." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27496" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10489" RevisionGUID="9550841a-9f1f-48e9-a69d-d9efaf767902" CreationDate="2023-01-03T22:35:49.730" UserId="15296" Comment="English + formatting" Text="I've been working for a customer for about 3 months now and I just get more and more frustrated on the quality of the work I'm doing for them. They are paying around 40% higher than the current marked value for the work I'm doing for them. At the moment I feel they pay way too much compared to the work I'm delivering to them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I really want to talk with them about it, but I'm not sure how to bring it up. I don't want to continue to do the same bad work and just charge a lower price. They have a lot of work which needs to be done due to big changes in the laws regulating their industry. I have no idea if we are on track or not. It needs to be done by the end of 2022. They are just assigning me tasks and I solve them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How can I talk with them about the bad work I'm doing without &quot;telling them about if they don't feel the same&quot;?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27497" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10489" RevisionGUID="9550841a-9f1f-48e9-a69d-d9efaf767902" CreationDate="2023-01-03T22:35:49.730" Comment="Proposed by 15296 approved by 7858 edit id of 836" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27498" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="7672" RevisionGUID="31239fa1-0db1-4a00-89d8-d8b32a3ca785" CreationDate="2023-01-04T09:03:09.377" UserId="15296" Comment="English + formatting" Text="I am currently negotiating a license agreement with a former client that I have stopped developing for. Up till now, it was just work based on a verbal agreement. Now as we are going separate ways, we are making sure we are both protected.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As it stands, I own the IP, and the copyright on the site has my name on it. I will be licensing to them to use and to modify themselves as they need. Once the license is set up, what should that copyright on the site say, and how will it change as they develop the site further?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27499" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="7672" RevisionGUID="31239fa1-0db1-4a00-89d8-d8b32a3ca785" CreationDate="2023-01-04T09:03:09.377" Comment="Proposed by 15296 approved by 7858 edit id of 838" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27512" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10568" RevisionGUID="fc2f31f4-dc73-4065-8ee5-0011de8d0cff" CreationDate="2023-01-09T03:55:17.170" UserId="1261" Text="Interesting question. As another answer suggests, dealing with trust issues is a basic problem faced in all kinds of vocations, not just with freelance programmers or technologists.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Employees naturally have an edge when it comes to betraying your trade secrets compared to freelancers, just because they happen to be fully in on them in the first place. With freelancers, you already start with a position of cautioned trust since they're a third party. Besides, same thing applies to all professions. Imagine what kind of havoc your accountant or CA can bring with the kind of information he has! Or even your surgeon or doctor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, below are a few pointers which you may want to follow before hiring freelancers in order to satisfy your tinfoil hats:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Invest some time in doing a thorough check of the freelancer. Visit their Linkedin, Website, Github, etc. See what kinds of projects they've built and are they pertaining to the skills they're claiming to possess? Do they have sufficient skill endorsements or recommendations on Linkedin? What kinds of things they say on Twitter? You can make a good judgment from all of this.&#xD;&#xA;2. Make sure there isn't any conflict of interest by checking what kind of projects they've taken in your industry. Did they work for any of your competitors? Usually, this is never a problem as freelancers seldom have enough organizational or business management skills sufficient enough to start a competing endeavor like yours. Common sense should suggest that they wouldn't be doing freelance programming if that were the case. But there is a chance that they might approach your competitor to sell the same software as they developed for you - infamous Google vs Uber lawsuit comes to mind in which an employee did this who switched from Google to Uber. But remember, he was an employee, not freelancer! Such concerns can only be mitigated legally (like signing an NDA for the project).&#xD;&#xA;3. Don't give them actual production data. Even when you provide them samples for testing, alter it slightly as you see fit. Ask yourself whether that data or information is needed for building the software, only then do it. This will not only protect your privacy but compartmentalization will make it harder for the freelancer to reuse your business information in any meaningful manner by themselves." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27514" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10568" RevisionGUID="377db1bd-d202-4403-9a32-0e4bf2300c8a" CreationDate="2023-01-09T04:05:08.907" UserId="1261" Comment="added 1 character in body; edited body; added 41 characters in body" Text="Interesting question. As another answer suggests, dealing with trust issues is a basic problem faced in all kinds of vocations, not just with freelance programmers or technologists.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Employees naturally have an edge when it comes to betraying your trade secrets compared to freelancers, just because they happen to be fully in on them in the first place. With freelancers, you already start with a position of cautioned trust since they're a third party. Besides, same thing applies to all professions. Imagine what kind of havoc your accountant or CA can bring with the kind of information he has! Or even your surgeon or doctor.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having said that, below are a few pointers which you may want to follow before hiring freelancers in order to satisfy your tinfoil hats:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Invest some time in doing a thorough check of the freelancer. Visit their Linkedin, Website, Github, etc. See what kinds of projects they've built and are they pertaining to the skills they're claiming to possess? Do they have sufficient skill endorsements or recommendations on Linkedin? What kinds of things they say on Twitter? You can make a good judgment from all of this.&#xD;&#xA;2. Make sure there isn't any conflict of interest by checking what kinds of projects they've taken in your industry. Did they work for any of your competitors? Usually, this is never a problem as freelancers seldom have enough organizational or business management skills sufficient enough to start a competing business like yours. Common sense should suggest that they wouldn't be doing freelance programming if that were the case. But there is a chance that they might approach your competitor to sell the same software as they developed for you - infamous Google vs Uber lawsuit comes to mind in which an employee infringed on IP relating to self-driving cars when he switched from Google to Uber. But remember, he was an employee, not freelancer! Such concerns can only be mitigated legally (like signing an NDA for the project).&#xD;&#xA;3. Don't give them actual production data. Even when you provide them samples for testing, alter it slightly as you see fit. Ask yourself whether that data or information is needed for building the software, only then do it. This will not only protect your privacy but compartmentalization will make it harder for the freelancer to reuse your business information in any meaningful manner by themselves." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27538" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10574" RevisionGUID="827362ae-fafa-42e5-8b43-976196b63360" CreationDate="2023-01-15T23:13:44.853" UserId="27575" Text="I think the underlying assumption in that question is that you have free time and you'd otherwise be twiddling your thumbs if not working for this potential client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would say something along the lines of: &quot;Unfortunately, agreeing to a discount on this work/project/job would be prevent me from earning what I've determined to be a reasonable market rate for my services on other potential projects.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I.e., if you're not willing to pay my full rate, I can find someone else who is.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27540" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10575" RevisionGUID="393b1fa9-b394-49cf-931b-9fc5f2b9510c" CreationDate="2023-01-15T23:27:29.800" UserId="27575" Text=" 1. Find clients who would benefit from that service&#xD;&#xA; 2. Ask to meet with them to discuss your idea and how it will deliver value&#xD;&#xA; 3. Price your service competitively and make it &quot;worth it&quot; for the client&#xD;&#xA; 4. Demonstrate your ability to deliver based on your demonstrated skills, similar completed work, and happy former clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Selling a product is selling something that's already been completed. Selling a service--even a one time service--is selling something that you will do." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27542" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10560" RevisionGUID="70c2c9ef-dbfa-4014-bae4-282dd120341f" CreationDate="2023-01-18T18:00:06.540" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1615771024909295617" />
  <row Id="27543" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10576" RevisionGUID="3a311855-ae36-4caa-9cfd-8179b6bde52a" CreationDate="2023-01-19T09:28:50.617" UserId="28877" Text="I can write and understand English perfectly, but unfortunately I'm weak at speaking it due to a lack of practice.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a couple of years of experience in both full-stack web and desktop dev. I'm also not afraid to learn new things as long as it pays.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So is it possible for me to work as a developer on freelance platforms regardless of my limitation? If yes, then can you give advice on how?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27545" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10576" RevisionGUID="3a311855-ae36-4caa-9cfd-8179b6bde52a" CreationDate="2023-01-19T09:28:50.617" UserId="28877" Text="Can I work as an online freelance developer, even if I don't speak English, but I can read, write, and understand it perfectly?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27546" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10576" RevisionGUID="3a311855-ae36-4caa-9cfd-8179b6bde52a" CreationDate="2023-01-19T09:28:50.617" UserId="28877" Text="|freelance-websites|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27551" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6837" RevisionGUID="65481d73-4ae8-4338-8fbf-8673b18cc6ad" CreationDate="2023-01-20T22:00:25.123" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27560" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10580" RevisionGUID="6472c556-3e47-4248-abc7-4fe4a9c099df" CreationDate="2023-01-23T19:04:24.117" UserId="28879" Text="Just got off call with prospective client. He's one that a friend has worked for before and can vouch for. We talked for about a half-hour and it led to him saying he'd send me a contract with details tomorrow (so basically an offer).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's mostly for making small updates to his iOS apps. He said he's flexible to when I work and for how many hours I put in.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's all hourly and not fixed-cost. He did not ask for an hourly rate though. I imagine this is his way of letting freelancers not be able to negotiate. From what my friend said before, it's generally low-pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What do you think? I feel like even if I'm content with the rate that I should always try to negotiate. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27562" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10580" RevisionGUID="6472c556-3e47-4248-abc7-4fe4a9c099df" CreationDate="2023-01-23T19:04:24.117" UserId="28879" Text="How to counter a written offer when there was no question about pricing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27563" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10580" RevisionGUID="6472c556-3e47-4248-abc7-4fe4a9c099df" CreationDate="2023-01-23T19:04:24.117" UserId="28879" Text="|pay-rate|negotiation|price-per-hour|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27565" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10521" RevisionGUID="64587bf5-b595-434c-bcfd-dd57dca310ca" CreationDate="2023-01-24T15:06:05.793" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27566" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10529" RevisionGUID="77c8fbbe-27ee-4942-909b-fdb5d3cbfda7" CreationDate="2023-01-26T14:07:00.957" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27567" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10581" RevisionGUID="015cff7f-1def-4399-9979-5e9f0f17616e" CreationDate="2023-01-26T16:17:47.227" UserId="28879" Text="So I lucked out in that I was going to same town where client lived in. He said he'd be down to meet for coffee just to say hi.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Having the face-to-face interaction really helped break the awkwardness of asking what the rate was and I didn't need to elongate the anxiety of waiting to see the contract the day later and then negotiate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So he told me rate and I was able to negotiate there on the spot. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Meeting clients in-person may not always be practical. So I'd say to set up a video-chat to discuss things. Worst-case scenario is a voice-call, but I learned anything textual just complicates things." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27569" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10548" RevisionGUID="377d9731-8fa7-4a12-8129-4d7ca7b71bc2" CreationDate="2023-01-27T03:01:04.110" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1618806264682762242" />
  <row Id="27572" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9522" RevisionGUID="a909da48-ef04-4ab2-848a-dae36f2d70c3" CreationDate="2023-01-27T09:05:25.893" UserId="15296" Comment="Typo fixes" Text="The preferred action depends on what you want to achieve in the long term as well as the short term.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since there is no contract, I would assume that you legally can walk away. Whether this is a good idea depends on how seriously this bridge-burning will impact you in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Tell the client that you are no longer able to support the application and wish to negotiate a speedy exit that both parties can live with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they refuse, returning any money received relieves you of any ethical obligations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sometimes one can help them find a replacement. In this case, that should be avoided as the client is probably looking for someone free or cheap. You should not do their low-balling for them." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27573" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9522" RevisionGUID="a909da48-ef04-4ab2-848a-dae36f2d70c3" CreationDate="2023-01-27T09:05:25.893" Comment="Proposed by 15296 approved by 7858 edit id of 840" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27574" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="2468" RevisionGUID="1bf06723-1d1b-40ac-be2b-ac6f6da6d528" CreationDate="2023-01-27T21:49:38.570" UserId="15296" Comment="Typo fixes" Text="My wife is a music teacher with lots of experience, but she recently moved to NYC. She was introduced to a music school earlier, who finally got around to contacting her to teach. They were impressed with her performance and resume, and asked her a week ago to start this Monday. They waited until Friday to give her a contract with lots of terms they didn't mention before (probably because they didn't want to scare her off). These previously unmentioned terms include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; * &quot;responsible for submitting copy of Professional Liability Insurance&quot;&#xD;&#xA; * &quot;agrees to provide and/or authorize a completed criminal record check&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They also gave her a yes/no availability form that lists from 11:00 to 8:00 every weekday, 9 to 5 on Saturdays, 12 to 5 on Sundays, whereas they had implied to her that most students were in school and would start around 3:00 pm, and explicitly told her she wouldn't work on Sundays.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm mostly concerned with the fact that they didn't even mention these things up front, and she finds out about them the weekend prior to starting. I think she should refuse to pay for these things on principle. I also think if she chooses not to get insurance, she should ignore that clause of the contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are their actions acceptable? Should she buy insurance for a very part-time gig paying $20 an hour where they seem to want to schedule her at any time of the week? Regarding scheduling, should she give them an availability schedule that has all the times she was expecting based on their verbal conversations?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;_____ &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Conclusion**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She went in Monday, they quickly folded to her pushback verbally. However, she did sign it as it was, without striking through the disagreeable parts. They said they would not hold her to those parts, but they still might attempt to if they want to get rid of her. However, while we're principled, we don't have any desire to be litigious. If they want to get rid of her, she won't want to work with them regardless. Thanks for the answers, it certainly helped to get outside perspective." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27575" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2468" RevisionGUID="1bf06723-1d1b-40ac-be2b-ac6f6da6d528" CreationDate="2023-01-27T21:49:38.570" UserId="15296" Comment="Typo fixes" Text="Hired as a contractor to start Monday, received unsigned contract Friday before with unmentioned terms" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27576" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2468" RevisionGUID="1bf06723-1d1b-40ac-be2b-ac6f6da6d528" CreationDate="2023-01-27T21:49:38.570" Comment="Proposed by 15296 approved by 2740 edit id of 841" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27577" PostHistoryTypeId="25" PostId="10443" RevisionGUID="c66b908b-d572-410f-94e3-a4ee3de5eda9" CreationDate="2023-01-28T06:00:04.823" Comment="https://twitter.com/StackFreelance/status/1619213702418382848" />
  <row Id="27578" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10542" RevisionGUID="972f7334-f63f-4673-a366-4bba07c24ad9" CreationDate="2023-01-28T15:07:35.907" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27580" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9576" RevisionGUID="b22f28ed-2ce4-4f81-8c5c-a182dec48128" CreationDate="2023-01-29T05:42:03.630" UserId="15296" Comment="Typo fixes" Text="Here are some of the key points that may benefit you on Upwork:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. Don't ever use the same proposals every time (some people just copy and paste their proposals everywhere). Read the job details completely and just write a dynamic proposal that is completely related to that job.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. Try to choose fields which have less competition (I would suggest not to go for logo design or poster design if you are a newbie). Because there's already very fine competition in designing on Upwork. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3. Try to stay active most of the time so that you can apply for the job that best suits your skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4. Communication skills matter a lot in Freelancing. Work on that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5. While in a discussion with a client, think longer term and try to provide as much better quality of work as possible. I would suggest to offer multiple revisions to the client if you are comfortable with that. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6. Just keep your price low in the start as you are building clients at that time. You can increase the price later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope these points can help you somehow." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27581" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9576" RevisionGUID="b22f28ed-2ce4-4f81-8c5c-a182dec48128" CreationDate="2023-01-29T05:42:03.630" Comment="Proposed by 15296 approved by 24078 edit id of 839" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27586" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10584" RevisionGUID="d7cda943-bfb9-4fe2-86a7-3f79f73c5d46" CreationDate="2023-01-29T18:33:21.240" UserId="19755" Text="English speaking skill is normally not a requirement in freelance marketplaces. Although, it can provide an absolute edge as many clients would ask for an interview / on-boarding call.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can definitely start your journey without conversing in English. However, consider English as another tool in your basket of must-have tools of the trade. There are so many apps available that can help you improve your English speaking skills." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27588" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10585" RevisionGUID="c98fa7e3-270a-45cd-bfd1-56a1cf93803a" CreationDate="2023-02-01T16:05:44.747" UserId="28931" Text="I hope you are doing well. &#xD;&#xA;I live in Venezuela, and work as a freelancer for international clients. One of such clients is based in the EU, specifically Germany. How do I deal with invoicing them? More specifically, I need to know how to deal with the VAT. I've read online that I need to specify in the invoice that the VAT shall be reverse-charged. Is that correct? &#xD;&#xA;Thank you very much for your time." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27590" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10585" RevisionGUID="c98fa7e3-270a-45cd-bfd1-56a1cf93803a" CreationDate="2023-02-01T16:05:44.747" UserId="28931" Text="Dealing with European invoices and VAT as a freelancer from Venezuela" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27591" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10585" RevisionGUID="c98fa7e3-270a-45cd-bfd1-56a1cf93803a" CreationDate="2023-02-01T16:05:44.747" UserId="28931" Text="|taxes|invoices|germany|vat|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27593" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10586" RevisionGUID="ce066dbb-b7d6-4f97-be6b-4d40b82ce3a4" CreationDate="2023-02-04T01:15:18.710" UserId="28945" Text="I write articles on my website and collect donations from anonymous people on the Internet via PayPal. I end up with a fair bit of income that way each year, but it's never a large amount, so I'd always file my &quot;business income&quot; based on what I cashed out of my PayPal account, and it's never been an issue after all these years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, last year was particularly successful, and I cashed out quite a lot of money. A significant enough amount that it may potentially throw a red flag.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the issue is, although I can continue to file as I always have, I don't actually have any business invoices to provide to back this income, due to the nature of the money being donations. The only documentation that I could provide would be my bank account transactions, and the PayPal withdrawals shown on them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the PayPal side, they aren't marked as Goods &amp; Services; they're just direct credits marked as &quot;Donation&quot; in the notes. Hence, I don't have any details about the senders of the donations either. The best I could provide would be a summary of all the credits I received and debits I performed in my PayPal account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this particular scenario, what should I do to cover myself during any potential auditing? I'm fully prepared to file the taxes on all of the money I cashed out, that's not an issue. I'm not trying to evade taxes or anything. The issue is that I don't have any meaningful documentation to provide in case the government asks, &quot;Where did this money come from?&quot; I don't have any paper trail to provide; only my word for them to believe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27595" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10586" RevisionGUID="ce066dbb-b7d6-4f97-be6b-4d40b82ce3a4" CreationDate="2023-02-04T01:15:18.710" UserId="28945" Text="How do I file self-employment taxes if I do not have any invoices due to the nature of my work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27596" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10586" RevisionGUID="ce066dbb-b7d6-4f97-be6b-4d40b82ce3a4" CreationDate="2023-02-04T01:15:18.710" UserId="28945" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27597" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10586" RevisionGUID="1df24fea-07b0-42e1-98f4-daf30ade530e" CreationDate="2023-02-04T01:16:08.767" UserId="28945" Comment="added 67 characters in body" Text="I write articles on my website and collect donations from anonymous people on the Internet via PayPal. I end up with a fair bit of income that way each year, but it's never a large amount, so I'd always file my &quot;business income&quot; based on what I cashed out of my PayPal account, and it's never been an issue after all these years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, last year was particularly successful, and I cashed out quite a lot of money. A significant enough amount that it may potentially throw a red flag, since it's vastly greater than the ballpark amount I usually file.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the issue is, although I can continue to file as I always have, I don't actually have any business invoices to provide to back this income, due to the nature of the money being donations. The only documentation that I could provide would be my bank account transactions, and the PayPal withdrawals shown on them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the PayPal side, they aren't marked as Goods &amp; Services; they're just direct credits marked as &quot;Donation&quot; in the notes. Hence, I don't have any details about the senders of the donations either. The best I could provide would be a summary of all the credits I received and debits I performed in my PayPal account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this particular scenario, what should I do to cover myself during any potential auditing? I'm fully prepared to file the taxes on all of the money I cashed out, that's not an issue. I'm not trying to evade taxes or anything. The issue is that I don't have any meaningful documentation to provide in case the government asks, &quot;Where did this money come from?&quot; I don't have any paper trail to provide; only my word for them to believe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27598" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10586" RevisionGUID="b0df6bee-e58a-4abf-8911-8446e6640d56" CreationDate="2023-02-04T01:21:19.390" UserId="28945" Comment="added 263 characters in body" Text="I write articles on my website and collect donations from anonymous people on the Internet via PayPal. I end up with a fair bit of income that way each year, but it's never a large amount, so I'd always file my &quot;business income&quot; based on what I cashed out of my PayPal account, and it's never been an issue after all these years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, last year was particularly successful, and I cashed out quite a lot of money. A significant enough amount that it may potentially throw a red flag, since it's vastly greater than the ballpark amount I usually file.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now the issue is, although I can continue to file as I always have, I don't actually have any business invoices to provide to back this income, due to the nature of the money being donations. The only documentation that I could provide would be my bank account transactions, and the PayPal withdrawals shown on them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the PayPal side, they aren't marked as Goods &amp; Services; they're just direct credits marked as &quot;Donation&quot; in the notes. Hence, I don't have any details about the senders of the donations either. The best I could provide would be a summary of all the credits I received and debits I performed in my PayPal account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In this particular scenario, what should I do to cover myself during any potential auditing? I'm fully prepared to file the taxes on all of the money I cashed out, that's not an issue. I'm not trying to evade taxes or anything. The issue is that I don't have any meaningful documentation to provide in case the government asks, &quot;Where did this money come from?&quot; I don't have any paper trail to provide; only my word for them to believe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, even if I do get by last year's return scot-free, subsequent years will be hazardous as well, as I may not make nearly as much as I did last year. So it will suddenly be a nose dive in income, which would again be a red flag.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you for taking the time to help." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27599" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="8205" RevisionGUID="4c61c82d-02ba-4c18-aa5a-428e56f436e0" CreationDate="2023-02-04T03:06:30.793" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27600" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10587" RevisionGUID="d20797ce-a546-4e0a-a74a-6c8562f0b85f" CreationDate="2023-02-05T10:10:18.940" UserId="28948" Text="For Germany/Venezuela I have no specific information, but for Sweden/Singapore  I've got some experience.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If a Singaporean entity is invoicing a Swedish entity, the Singaporean entity can write &quot;reversed tax charge&quot; on the invoice as well as 0% VAT tax.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is then up to the receiving entity to pay VAT taxes to their tax authorities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My best guess is that the rules are the same as it is basically &quot;importing a service from outside the EEC&quot;." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27602" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10588" RevisionGUID="af1ae136-71ae-434c-a7dc-29861e369994" CreationDate="2023-02-05T17:45:08.880" UserId="26181" Text="I am not an accountant. My understanding of the US tax system is that as long as you are paying the taxes when due, the chance of an audit is low. Business income goes up and down a lot. I don't believe that one year with high income is by itself a red flag nor the following year being much lower. Just look at the last few years of ExxonMobil where they went from losing money to record profit. You also can print out the PayPal list of &quot;donations&quot; so that you have a record of where the money came from. Unless you have a criminal history or the donations are from people in criminal activities in order to &quot;launder the money&quot;, that should be enough." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27611" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="6074" RevisionGUID="c1923a44-fac9-46a2-aa32-d5e802b18f9e" CreationDate="2023-02-08T06:56:30.993" UserId="15235" Comment="tags edited" Text="|untagged|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27612" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="6074" RevisionGUID="c1923a44-fac9-46a2-aa32-d5e802b18f9e" CreationDate="2023-02-08T06:56:30.993" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 7858 edit id of 842" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27613" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10218" RevisionGUID="17bc5a5a-5676-45a7-901e-ff742441b96f" CreationDate="2023-02-08T06:56:50.147" UserId="15296" Comment="English + formatting" Text="If being a freelancer is your dream, then try doing it as a part-time job while studying.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Start on small projects to build your skills and experience in the area, join a freelancing platform such as Upwork, Freelancer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A lot depends on what you want to start your freelance career in, what skills and qualifications you already have. The best thing is to get some experience in the field where you want to freelance. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It does not affect your study, but don't just go into it blindly first - main focus is on your study.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My experience as a freelancer is that to many computer science majors, freelancing can seem mysterious and hard to get into. I initially thought my computer science skills were not good enough to charge people for my service, but then I got help from everywhere and managed to grow in freelancing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27614" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10218" RevisionGUID="17bc5a5a-5676-45a7-901e-ff742441b96f" CreationDate="2023-02-08T06:56:50.147" Comment="Proposed by 15296 approved by 61, 7858 edit id of 837" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27615" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10124" RevisionGUID="57c79d73-4d65-414d-992f-b877ae3bf415" CreationDate="2023-02-13T11:27:56.407" UserId="15296" Comment="English + formatting" Text="For young developers out there, is it a good idea to start their own startup or get a job while pursuing a university education?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For someone young, is a startup counted as experience?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a single guy is this a good idea?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is capturing a big market for small revenue a good strategy?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For someone from a third-world country where a possible 3-digit revenue is better than a local job with pip environment is it a good idea?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is startup good for learning and professional growth?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Does hard work and commitment guarantee success?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;what I have tried: I have been working on an idea for about 3-4 months. My basics are all done. I have only slept 8hrs in the last 5 days. I am committed as it is better than what I was doing for cooperate anyway .As only guy I sometimes feel useless and worthless; regardless I keep on hustling. I don't know if it's a good idea or not. I did full time job along university and best thing is I am not even a software engineer. I am doing electrical engineer along.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;About domain I have about 2 years of experience now in software development. Mentor: I highly admire Elon Musk. Plan right now: I am earning passive income from crypto trading which supports me financially, so that I can focus on my work more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In the future I would love to work in the USA. Someone like me will be valuable or no?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27616" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10124" RevisionGUID="57c79d73-4d65-414d-992f-b877ae3bf415" CreationDate="2023-02-13T11:27:56.407" Comment="Proposed by 15296 approved by 7858 edit id of 843" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27617" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9457" RevisionGUID="6da5356f-1923-4c97-84a2-8ce442667b52" CreationDate="2023-02-13T11:28:19.377" UserId="15296" Comment="English + formatting" Text="How much should I charge my client to backup the data from a Synology NAS drive to my home Windows server which is used as a FTP server for backups? I don't want to seem expensive or charge too little as this is a new sector for me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The backups will happen every night at a specific time and be incremental backups, but I don't think they have a lot of data, possibly looking at around 300GB below. These will also happen automatically.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27618" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9457" RevisionGUID="6da5356f-1923-4c97-84a2-8ce442667b52" CreationDate="2023-02-13T11:28:19.377" Comment="Proposed by 15296 approved by 7858 edit id of 845" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27619" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="9779" RevisionGUID="ac534d4a-92a9-4ff1-a0b4-09b78eb4445d" CreationDate="2023-02-13T11:28:43.443" UserId="15296" Comment="English + formatting" Text="I worked for this employer for a month, and he only paid me for half-month then suddenly replaced me after I delivered the MVP. And he was okay with the result. Then he immediately cut me off without paying me the payment for the other 1/2 month.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So he made a Paypal buyer claim, because I don't have access to our messages (because he already cut me off in Slack and access to the company mail) on his satisfaction with the MVP, I lost the Paypal buyer claim and it was immediately refunded to his account.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I reviewed the contract - he didn't follow the contract on his terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He made me sign an NDA but it was in his home country, not mine. And I'm not thinking twice about breaking it because he himself did not follow the contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Actions I'm planning to do:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Go public on this and be vocal about everything to warn other freelancers&#xD;&#xA; 2. Make the product open source. (Since he refunded the payment supposed to be)&#xD;&#xA; 3. Reported him to the platform.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to make sure no one can become a freelancer of this client ever again. Who takes advantage and rips-off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Are there any actions I could take? I also sent him a warning already. I feel ripped off and frustrated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27620" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="9779" RevisionGUID="ac534d4a-92a9-4ff1-a0b4-09b78eb4445d" CreationDate="2023-02-13T11:28:43.443" Comment="Proposed by 15296 approved by 7858 edit id of 844" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27621" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10543" RevisionGUID="c4657943-4cbd-472c-be11-e4170ba9b9f0" CreationDate="2023-02-15T00:00:55.123" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27635" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10592" RevisionGUID="7dc6cccc-78dc-4f69-afae-720edac9d726" CreationDate="2023-02-22T21:15:40.940" UserId="29028" Text="My math skills and my interest in programming led me to search for a field combining the two, and I found data science/analysis, machine learning, but I was surprised that there was almost no demand for those fields in the job market in my country.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am very new so i need some perspective." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27637" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10592" RevisionGUID="7dc6cccc-78dc-4f69-afae-720edac9d726" CreationDate="2023-02-22T21:15:40.940" UserId="29028" Text="What other skills combine mathematics and programming besides data science/analysis, machine learning?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27638" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10592" RevisionGUID="7dc6cccc-78dc-4f69-afae-720edac9d726" CreationDate="2023-02-22T21:15:40.940" UserId="29028" Text="|software|programmer|information-technology|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27639" PostHistoryTypeId="14" PostId="10592" RevisionGUID="41f6b3e7-3ca9-4028-8491-4fd76ae5a7d2" CreationDate="2023-02-23T08:59:43.237" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="27640" PostHistoryTypeId="35" PostId="10592" RevisionGUID="cf545889-7333-479a-b5e6-f72845557e77" CreationDate="2023-02-23T08:59:43.237" UserId="7858" Comment="to https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/444107/what-other-skills-combine-mathematics-and-programming-besides-data-science-analy" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:7858,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;morsor&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="27641" PostHistoryTypeId="10" PostId="10592" RevisionGUID="ecfeb279-28ad-4fa0-833b-75bd865517f8" CreationDate="2023-02-23T08:59:43.237" UserId="7858" Comment="102" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:7858,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;morsor&quot;}],&quot;SiteSpecificCloseReasonIds&quot;:[]}" />
  <row Id="27643" PostHistoryTypeId="15" PostId="10592" RevisionGUID="2ef6b997-fecb-4dc3-9350-5bb8b08e20d1" CreationDate="2023-02-23T10:34:37.837" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="27644" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10592" RevisionGUID="bc3a69c0-8fce-4808-916b-9f63079c2bce" CreationDate="2023-02-23T11:24:40.523" UserId="7858" Comment="Added freelancing angle to make question on-topic" Text="My math skills and my interest in programming led me to search for a field combining the two, and I found data science/analysis, machine learning, but I was surprised that there was almost no demand for those fields in the job market in my country.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As an alternative, I have considered freelancing, but was wondering how to go about evaluating whether that is a viable option?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am very new so I need some perspective." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27646" PostHistoryTypeId="11" PostId="10592" RevisionGUID="e5e50a95-b04e-49da-af5c-5746553a3816" CreationDate="2023-02-23T11:24:52.193" UserId="7858" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:7858,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;morsor&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="27647" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10593" RevisionGUID="98398557-9d13-4cb0-8688-7d52cfac568f" CreationDate="2023-02-24T15:35:19.287" UserId="26181" Text="Generally speaking, there is very little demand for freelancers who are simply math skills and programming. On the other hand, there is a large demand for people who know business and have math skills and programming. Take a look at what a technology MBA is and the demand for people with that. The consultants who can use their ability with math and computers to advise managers have a market.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;General advice for anyone with technology skills who want to be consultants / freelancers would be to learn as much as possible about business. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27649" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10594" RevisionGUID="668c72c2-396c-4544-96e7-e96a27217121" CreationDate="2023-02-24T19:48:49.037" UserId="28879" Text="So I worked for only a few days for a client. Did around 13 hours. This was enough for me to end the relationship as I felt it wouldn't be a match going forward. It was an extremely strange task and I felt like lots of information was withheld and I was put in a bad spot (I acknowledge this is probably normal with freelancing)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This could've just been my misinterpretation of the communication...but I simply had never seen anyone text like this. The client came across as very manipulative to me. I felt like they were gaslighting and acting crazy, it felt scammy. So - just not a match. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I just received a text asking for a 5-minute call and that my check would be cut out. My initial reaction was *5 minutes is no big deal, but I should ensure I get the check first*. I made this decision because of my experience with him. It was more of a &quot;I'm not gonna do a free favor until I get paid&quot; as opposed to &quot;what if he doesn't pay?&quot;. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I let him know I was firm on wanting to receive the check first. Again, I was met with what I thought were crazy,gaslighting, manipulative texts. Again, only I can really be the barometer of this as I know the full context.&#xD;&#xA;I even let client know I can meet in-person to receive check earlier or can get it transferred electronically.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not opposed to quick 5 minute favors for older clients. I get this is common in contracting world and is way of keeping contact and not burning bridges. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my head, I felt like he was using this call as a means of blackmail. Like..if I don't take the call then I won't get the check. So I saw that as manipulation. Writing this out makes me show I'm being paranoid. But perhaps that explains how uncomfortable my relationship with the client was. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If client had not fought back my request to wait for check and instead had said &quot;no worries, I promise you'll receive check, this will just be very brief, I'd really appreciate it&quot;..I'd probably have accepted the call.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Anyways, what's done is done. I'm not changing my mind to accept the call because that will have given into his manipulation. Learning exercise to stand up for self and be firm. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand every situation is unique but at some point you also have to give into employer's needs. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm just asking this in regards to how to approach a similar situation in the future.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, if client really does cancel the check because I didn't accept this 5-minute call..I will threaten to take him to small claims court. I can't imagine it'd come to this and it was in our contract that he had to pay for all work done already (which this free 5-minute call would not have been part of)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Upon cashing out check I will reach out to him if he still needs help. (But he let me know he didn't need me already..upon being firm)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27651" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10594" RevisionGUID="668c72c2-396c-4544-96e7-e96a27217121" CreationDate="2023-02-24T19:48:49.037" UserId="28879" Text="Declining &quot;5 minute&quot; call with client until payment received" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27652" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10594" RevisionGUID="668c72c2-396c-4544-96e7-e96a27217121" CreationDate="2023-02-24T19:48:49.037" UserId="28879" Text="|payment-terms|difficult-client|trust|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27655" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10595" RevisionGUID="361c17b7-8689-4cbb-8e9d-9dde01ea2e92" CreationDate="2023-02-28T07:37:52.803" UserId="7858" Text="Years back, I was excessively worried about doing anything that could annoy a client. Given time, that approach will backfire, as opportunists will attempt to take advantage.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A better approach is drawing clear but fair boundaries; most clients will accept that and the ones that won't, you probably shouldn't have as clients anyway.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When a client turns opportunist, not giving away your leverage is critical. I have also 'downed my tools' until they paid what was long overdue. No amount of sweet-talking could get me back to work; only the payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your approach is sound because it's probably your only path to success, when done in a firm and fair manner." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27657" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10596" RevisionGUID="76bb653e-7a19-41cd-9932-f2bbbc0c2e91" CreationDate="2023-02-28T09:15:21.067" UserId="29079" Text="I'm starting as a freelance software developer. However, as I researched more about getting clients, I started having doubts about it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Most companies have in-house developers. And not every company needs software. Doesn't this make it harder to get software clients?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also looked a bit into getting clients as a designer (which I'm not) and I see that most companies don't need a full-time designer to design their logo, brand, etc. And most companies need a designer for their tasks. So, most companies go to outsourcing the tasks which I think makes it easier to find clients than the software dev one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm confused about these now. I have a few questions going on my mind:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1. What are some of the best ways to get software clients outside of freelancing platforms?&#xD;&#xA;2. Will cold email outreach work? If so, how may I do it?&#xD;&#xA;3. How to find companies to pitch/offer my software development services to?&#xD;&#xA;4. If finding dev clients is really harder, should I move myself to design (especially branding) and start over again as a designer?&#xD;&#xA;5. Any advice you can give me in this situation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any help would be much appreciated!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27659" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10596" RevisionGUID="76bb653e-7a19-41cd-9932-f2bbbc0c2e91" CreationDate="2023-02-28T09:15:21.067" UserId="29079" Text="Is getting software development clients really harder?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27660" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10596" RevisionGUID="76bb653e-7a19-41cd-9932-f2bbbc0c2e91" CreationDate="2023-02-28T09:15:21.067" UserId="29079" Text="|attracting-clients|web-development|marketing|design|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27661" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10597" RevisionGUID="1e5e5529-fdc6-41f6-ae0f-8eb30f871b49" CreationDate="2023-02-28T15:45:14.640" UserId="26181" Text="First off, every freelancer is different and will wind up with different strategies for getting new clients. (That is why questions like this might be closed as unanswerable.) The most important thing is to keep marketing and experimenting. Nearly every client I have came through a different method. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, companies do not want software. They want problems solved. You can offer custom software solutions to their problems. When simply trying to write software, I had a disconnect between what the customers wanted and what I wanted to talk about. When I talk about solving problems, I connect with potential customers and they understand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thirdly, you are correct in that a lot of companies have software developers in house already. And the new AI platforms are able to provide nearly equal quality as many software developers which will cut demand. However, there is a huge disconnect between how a salesperson views their problem and what is needed to have a coder write something that fixes part of their problem. Knowing how to take an idea from a salesperson and make it real is a very valuable skill. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, the people you need to talk to at potential clients have insulated themselves from the general public. It takes a lot of work to contact them, gain their trust, find out what problems they have, and be able to propose a solution that they would accept. There is no one way to do that. Cold calls, cold emails, Linkin connections, networking groups, etc. are all starting points and many other people are using them. Marketing is a non-linear process meaning that efforts don't seem to get results until they do, and the results come in unexpected ways. Find a way that you are comfortable with and just keep at it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27663" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10576" RevisionGUID="a9440f66-1f4b-433e-9755-64d381c6c92e" CreationDate="2023-02-28T19:00:55.147" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27664" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10598" RevisionGUID="56143b93-a2e8-4aa6-afa8-8e2f682d6c22" CreationDate="2023-03-01T07:29:36.593" UserId="7858" Text="To add to the great answer @David-R: OP mentions several valid approaches to gaining new clients; cold-calling, emailing, using a third party.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These approaches are not mutually exclusive - so there is no reason to philosophize excessively over which approach might work best. When starting out, you need to do **all** to see what works for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I learned a lot cold-snail-mailing potential clients with a phone-follow-up - but eventually chose to delegate to a third party, as that made more sense financially and especially timewise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Software developers are typically product-focused and see sales as an unavoidable annoyance - which it is in the beginning. But it's important to keep a very open mind towards gaining customers; the focus should be as broad as you can handle." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27666" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10598" RevisionGUID="010ade8c-4a38-49c0-94a9-c6cec5e95f26" CreationDate="2023-03-01T08:29:12.533" UserId="7858" Comment="Added third party elaboration" Text="To add to the great answer @David-R: OP mentions several valid approaches to gaining new clients; cold-calling, emailing, using a third party.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;These approaches are not mutually exclusive - so there is no reason to philosophize excessively over which approach might work best. When starting out, you need to do **all** to see what works for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I learned a lot cold-snail-mailing potential clients with a phone-follow-up - but eventually chose to delegate to a third party, as that made more sense financially and especially timewise.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Software developers are typically product-focused and see sales as an unavoidable annoyance - which it is in the beginning. But it's important to keep a very open mind towards gaining customers; the focus should be as broad as you can handle.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My personal experience was that selling a product one has an emotional attachment to (be it software or your own services) cold-calling was taxing, as every rejection may be taken personally. Ideally, a third party has less of an sentimental attachment and easilier ignores rejections and moves on. Whether this third party is a agency or a friend, matters less. Your task is finding out what works - without it necessarily being you doing the work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27667" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10599" RevisionGUID="59433191-36cd-4851-9a45-64bfacc824e8" CreationDate="2023-03-02T13:06:24.320" UserId="23884" Text="I am trying to look beyond the stereotype, which is as follows: I think of freelancing as a job for a young person, not burdened with family obligations and long-term financial commitments (like a mortgage), who is still far from retirement. It is also a good option to get by when temporarily without work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have tried freelancing for a couple of years before my current job found me, and I think of potentially going back to freelancing, since it seems to offer potential for higher earnings. I am however wondering whether it is a good option in a long-term. The reasons are following:  &#xD;&#xA; * Having to freelance while having a family probably makes me less competitive (can't work long hours, can't be available at any time, notably on weekends and during school vacation periods.)&#xD;&#xA; * Financial stability - slack in the market, change in the habits of clients (I mostly found them via online platforms), difficulty of working intensively in older age (and potentially retiring.)&#xD;&#xA; * Speaking of age - how would it feel to do freelancing when you are 50 or 60 years old? Do clients even take you seriously?&#xD;&#xA; * Career development - even if freelancing offers higher earnings, there is probably a limit, due to the time and physical limitations, which is probably reached within a few years. What is next then? - building my own company (i.e., having others work for me)? Positioning myself for a different market segment? Eventually finding a consulting job, affiliated with a big company (i.e., ending freelancing)?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Advice and stories from experienced freelancers would be greatly appreciated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Similar question: [Next level of freelancing and growth][1]&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/q/3112/23884" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27669" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10599" RevisionGUID="59433191-36cd-4851-9a45-64bfacc824e8" CreationDate="2023-03-02T13:06:24.320" UserId="23884" Text="Long-term career as freelancing" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27670" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10599" RevisionGUID="59433191-36cd-4851-9a45-64bfacc824e8" CreationDate="2023-03-02T13:06:24.320" UserId="23884" Text="|attracting-clients|time-management|growth|company-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27671" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10600" RevisionGUID="63afb257-ee74-484b-9838-dcaa8e161760" CreationDate="2023-03-02T13:26:07.823" UserId="23884" Text="In my experience there is a lot of demand for data scientists (e.g., if you look at freelance small job sites like Upwork), but there are also lost of data scientists, who actually did their degree in data science. It is usually difficult to compete with them, if your background is in another field.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, I found that there is demand for good math skills with moderate requirements for programming when it comes to developing algorithms for analyzing domain-specific data: modeling for biological systems, counting molecules/proteins, climate science, modeling of various kinds of sales, breaks, flows, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A particular kind of projects I having to implement an algorithm from a scientific paper in python or R and then passing it to professional developers for writing an industrial scale code. Another type of project is evaluating feasibility of certain type of algorithm.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, besides math and moderate coding skills, this requires some domain knowledge and reasonable background in statistics. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27673" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10601" RevisionGUID="4caf8345-4a87-4479-8256-522b6db430fc" CreationDate="2023-03-03T15:32:40.653" UserId="26181" Text="This all depends on how you view what you are doing. If you consider freelancing to be simply being a contract employee (full time employee equivalent), then you are facing the same pitfalls that any technology employee has - age discrimination, need to keep current with technology, etc. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you consider freelancing to be a business that you are running, then the opportunities and downfalls are different. As you gain experience in business, then the services you offer to your clients can change. You can also sell products and services provided by others. Quite a number of people have built substantial businesses that way - starting as freelancers and building into a larger business. The challenges become things like financing, managing people and projects, finding suppliers, etc. The ebb and flow of business is normal and needs to be planned for.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When viewing what you do as a business, then the sales are different. Sell to the CEO, not to a &quot;hiring manager&quot;. At that level, age is an asset. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you build a business, then one option for retirement is to sell the business. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27675" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10602" RevisionGUID="06de9362-3acb-487a-bd2d-792fc2753959" CreationDate="2023-03-06T12:12:32.580" UserId="29097" Text="I want to hire a freelancer to develop a machine learning algorithm. In order for the algorithm to provide any value I need it to work correct in over 95% of cases, which is a very difficult requirement to be met.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From my side, I cannot pay for something that works worse than that as it will have no value for me. And I fear people will not accept these hard requirements because any time and effort invested on their end might not produce the required results.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a way I can mitigate this such as offering a very low rate for trying but not achieving the results? How should I handle this? Is there any best practice/strategy on requesting difficult RnD(research and development) requirements while minimizing my risk?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27677" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10602" RevisionGUID="06de9362-3acb-487a-bd2d-792fc2753959" CreationDate="2023-03-06T12:12:32.580" UserId="29097" Text="How to handle difficult to met requirements on freelancing projects" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27678" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10602" RevisionGUID="06de9362-3acb-487a-bd2d-792fc2753959" CreationDate="2023-03-06T12:12:32.580" UserId="29097" Text="|contracts|payment-terms|project-management|small-projects|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27679" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10603" RevisionGUID="7e82ddef-ec6b-42d7-9fc3-90385439551a" CreationDate="2023-03-07T11:25:32.120" UserId="2964" Text="I think the concept of having to work long hours in order to be competitive is not a valid point. Sure, young single people can work long hours, but it's more about the quality of work and your craftmanship/company branding. Your services and level of quality are the USP. Not the extended time you are willing to work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, one of the perks (and sometimes pitfall) is that you can set your own hours and time. It's a perk because you know your ability to deliver to your client (quality, deadlines, etc.). When I say it can be a pitfall, I mean that sometimes freelancers work too much and either burn themselves out or the hours worked don't have a positive return on investment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Personally, I think it's great that you are considering getting back into freelancing. Like you have mentioned, freelancing has it's risks regarding stability. I have always used cold-calling (or emailing) and word-of-mouth, aside from my website (which doesn't normally get me leads/prospects - perhaps I should fix that...), which is a lot of work. In my own experience, I think some of the failure has been around, pricing models and lead/prospect cultivation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have friends that use recruiting agencies, and the agencies allow you to either work as a pseudo-employee contracted out by them (they handle your tax paper work and payment) or you work incorporated as a contractor and they are the intermediary that connects you with the client. I would recommend the latter, it gives you more control and they find clients for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this time, I work full-time and work projects on the side (with work/life balance in check), but my goal is ultimately to become a contractor and also produce my own software products. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27681" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10586" RevisionGUID="e0756c08-bad1-40d0-a328-e38cd7805519" CreationDate="2023-03-07T18:05:05.573" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27682" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10604" RevisionGUID="ee041195-7b99-4bd6-80d6-d1f216d9034e" CreationDate="2023-03-07T20:06:27.010" UserId="29103" Text="&gt; From my side, I cannot pay for something that works worse than that as it will have no value for me&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Understandable. Viewed from the other end besides a student or an enthusiast you most likely won‘t find anybody …&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A step back, ML is a filter, which depends on the history of its data offered. More generalized there‘s a lot of noise, so your are in the business of designing robust products. This can be done systematically, including identifying and improving limited concepts.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Is there a way I can mitigate this such as offering a very low rate for trying but not achieving the results? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider your employer offers you just that … and you know the answer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Is there any best practice/strategy on requesting difficult RnD(research and development) requirements while minimizing my risk?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As I lined out above, evaluating and improving robustness of your system offers this. It won‘t be a one step process. Here are some things that will and have to happen on this path:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - You have a goal in mind and a couple of ideas or concept to achieve it&#xD;&#xA; - That‘s a good starting point&#xD;&#xA; - These concepts will demonstrate shortcomings (either by expensive market introduction with redesigns, or quick with robust …)&#xD;&#xA; - Which means: your beloved idea will/has to die to make room for the more capable one&#xD;&#xA; - Which will require at least one to-the-point invention&#xD;&#xA; - Repeat&#xD;&#xA; - While your system will perform so good, you can‘t believe it … if you dare taking this route.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To indicate roughly 2 out of 3 products have a hidden performance, which you simply can use afterwards. Roughly 1 out of 3 products „fail“ optimization attempts … and those are your gold mine. Why? Because their concept imposes limitations. How to overcome it on-the-fly? By said invention(s). Literally in hours. So you want to torture your ML to fail quickly, to invent, improve and learn fast … beyond books, conferences, working groups.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To sum it up, if you don‘t invest into a guide on this route, you won‘t get returns. If you do, you are on a turbo-learning-link, with a small team. Consider investing in this kind of know-how and capability, not into exchangeable capacity. Then review your risk concerns.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27686" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10606" RevisionGUID="cc87989a-b4eb-489d-a1b3-bdf7b8f0c75d" CreationDate="2023-03-08T07:54:58.690" UserId="29103" Text="I suggest doing the following, which works for employees and freelancers, at any age i.e. level of experience. You may repeat this iteration, with ever increasing focus.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Compile problems and known solutions people DO have in the field of your knowledge and interest&#xD;&#xA; - Try distilling very urgent needs with no or no good solution &#xD;&#xA; - See what your part can be in making a solution work for them&#xD;&#xA; - Team up with others who provide skills you miss in providing  said solution.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This way you „build-in“ demand for what you‘ll offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If in doubt, don‘t „decide“ but contact and discuss with those having the urgent problem. I.e. do resonance-navigation. It‘s the process of learning, understanding, and getting acquainted with each other (visibility).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Yes, and stay away from job-adds … they won‘t help you much, if you think about their history and process (highlander principle: there can only be one … if any hired).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Compile like wild, review, restructure, select problems. The purpose is to narrow down, to a very specific set of people, in a field you enjoy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27688" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10607" RevisionGUID="f8934ec5-934d-4078-a666-a40abdf81e0e" CreationDate="2023-03-08T10:32:43.477" UserId="29104" Text="&#xD;&#xA;There have been many changes throughout the world since the COVID pandemic and not that this is a central theme for my response. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In my region and the regions where my families are dispersed. The lack of an available skilled and qualified workforce are certainly now problematic for many throughout different sectors.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Where previously old age was often seen as detriment to employment.  Employers who I speak too and who are dependent upon seasonal and transient workforces, now complain that many younger folk won’t put in the hard yards and even refuse over time or to even complete some tasks. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Options to freelance are now within my region and the many regions both near and far. Freelancing offers a definite advantage to those, who are starting their careers and even older people and retirees who want to return to the workforce. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It’s been interesting watching the socialisation of young and old. It’s been interesting watching younger workers teaching new skills to retirees and retirees teaching a younger workforce valuable &amp; transferable skills, that are still needed in workplaces today. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The passion of respect that I idolise as one of the most important values, are also now complimented with loyalty and honour. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Family businesses looking for loyal employees. Businesses able to negotiate employee relationships from full time, to part time and casual options. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I believe that it’s a workers marketplace at the moment and particularly for freelances and others. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Being able to meet the requirements of a role while bargaining flexibility to create valuable spaces between work family and play. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It’s a good time now to take a chance and challenge obstacles from the past that help people and workers back &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27690" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10608" RevisionGUID="f52c9afa-028d-4f48-8ef0-fd34eb8e4fb1" CreationDate="2023-03-08T10:51:34.987" UserId="23884" Text="I have worked as a freelancer in France, where freelancing requires obtaining obligatory *microentreprise* status, paying taxes, and passing all the revenues via a dedicated bank account, so the question of issuing invoices (*facture* in French) to clients found online readily poses itself. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The usual practice here is to write up a standard invoice (one copy for the client and the other copy for one's records) and simply send the one destined for the client to a generic address, or throw it away or whatever. The point is that **all the income coming to the professional account should be traceable via one's records** (i.e., the kept copy of the invoices.) These have to be made according to standard rules - making all the necessary obligatory mentioning, specifying the nature of job, the time-frame, specifying the taxes paid, VAT, etc. Importantly, there should be a consistent system of enumerating the invoices - to assure that there are no gaps.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question actually doesn't pose itself with clients found through the French freelancing sites, since those usually do all the necessary paperwork (from issuing the initial *devis*=price quote to the final *facture*=invoice.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another catch is that freelancing status may involve other taxes, besides the income tax - as, e.g., *taxe foncière*=property tax, for the office used for work, which applies even if one works from home. There are some nuances in terms of having dedicated working space or not declaring too many square meters, if working from a shared space, like one's living room, but this is very country-specific." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27692" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="0240b6c1-10fe-4217-b8b7-a39241f00bf5" CreationDate="2023-03-08T13:15:34.130" UserDisplayName="user29106" Text="I need your useful advice. I'm a web developer from Eastern Europe with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering such a possibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called freemium) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called premium).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to offer to a client for example the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks like TailwindCSS and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or next jobs, he may continue our cooperation on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants more, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance marketplaces. So, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts. Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27694" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="0240b6c1-10fe-4217-b8b7-a39241f00bf5" CreationDate="2023-03-08T13:15:34.130" UserDisplayName="user29106" Text="Strategy of offering first portion in advance or for free" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27695" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="0240b6c1-10fe-4217-b8b7-a39241f00bf5" CreationDate="2023-03-08T13:15:34.130" UserDisplayName="user29106" Text="|payment-terms|attracting-clients|web-development|marketing|small-projects|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27696" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="1887521a-f542-4486-984b-e8ebac4e827d" CreationDate="2023-03-08T13:16:21.093" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="I need your useful advice. I'm a web developer from Eastern Europe with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering such a possibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to offer to a client for example the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks like TailwindCSS and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or next jobs, he may continue our cooperation on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants more, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance marketplaces. So, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts. Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27697" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="604c4dd9-63fe-4df9-ab7e-71b79191ad0c" CreationDate="2023-03-08T13:18:32.570" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="added 19 characters in body" Text="I need your useful advice. I'm a web developer from Eastern Europe with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering such a possibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to offer to a client for example the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks like TailwindCSS and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or next jobs, he may continue our cooperation on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants more, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance marketplaces. So, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts. Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments? Or another issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27698" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="d2499b15-9a01-4042-bdac-65ba14ea2af4" CreationDate="2023-03-08T13:21:22.353" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="added 10 characters in body" Text="I need your useful advice. I'm a web developer from Eastern Europe with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering such a possibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to offer to a potenical client for example the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks like TailwindCSS and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or next jobs, he may continue our cooperation on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants more, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance marketplaces. So, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts. Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments? Or another issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27699" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="6a756879-5a0f-457e-83c2-27081700335e" CreationDate="2023-03-08T13:21:41.293" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="edited body" Text="I need your useful advice. I'm a web developer from Eastern Europe with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering such a possibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to offer to a potencial client for example the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks like TailwindCSS and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or next jobs, he may continue our cooperation on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants more, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance marketplaces. So, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts. Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments? Or another issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27700" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="78c7b2f4-cb15-48d8-86e5-feb2a810118c" CreationDate="2023-03-08T13:22:17.740" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="deleted 10 characters in body" Text="I need your useful advice. I'm a web developer from Eastern Europe with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering such a possibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to offer to a prospective client the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks like TailwindCSS and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or next jobs, he may continue our cooperation on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants more, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance marketplaces. So, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts. Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments? Or another issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27701" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="e41eb7c5-77b6-4c4d-8c32-891f47999a10" CreationDate="2023-03-08T13:25:56.893" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="added 5 characters in body" Text="I need your useful advice. I'm a web developer from Eastern Europe with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering such a possibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to offer to a prospective client the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks like TailwindCSS and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or next jobs, he may continue our cooperation, but on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants more, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance marketplaces. So, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts. Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments? Or another issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27702" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="0e118e2c-2acc-4cfd-a53c-46e66922ae9b" CreationDate="2023-03-08T13:26:28.560" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="added 9 characters in body" Text="I need your useful advice. I'm a web developer from Eastern Europe with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering such a possibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to offer to a prospective client the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks like TailwindCSS and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or next jobs, he may continue our cooperation, but on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants to go further, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance marketplaces. So, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts. Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments? Or another issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27703" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="a25393ac-178c-4e11-bacb-bdcba2a0fa42" CreationDate="2023-03-08T13:28:18.143" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="edited body" Text="I need your useful advice. I'm a web developer from Eastern Europe with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering such a possibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to offer to a prospective client the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks like TailwindCSS and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or next jobs, he may continue our cooperation, but on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants to go further, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance marketplaces. So, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts? Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments? Or another issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27704" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="8f03bd4b-aa64-4594-b397-77867574e707" CreationDate="2023-03-08T13:29:38.910" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="deleted 11 characters in body" Text="I need your useful advice. I'm a web developer from Ukraine with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. Now I'm considering such a possibility.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to offer to a prospective client the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks like TailwindCSS and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or next jobs, he may continue our cooperation, but on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants to go further, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance marketplaces. So, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts? Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments? Or another issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27705" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="781ba962-6758-42ba-8d97-08b767b4e331" CreationDate="2023-03-08T13:30:16.727" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="deleted 10 characters in body" Text="I need your useful advice. I'm a web developer from Ukraine with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to offer to a prospective client the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks like TailwindCSS and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or next jobs, he may continue our cooperation, but on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants to go further, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance marketplaces. So, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts? Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments? Or another issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27706" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="b0d9e2aa-d4d8-460a-b15b-7a572aec55d5" CreationDate="2023-03-08T13:33:16.717" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="edited title" Text="Strategy of offering the first portion of work in advance or for free" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27707" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="4d827ab1-7c85-4db2-a6c9-4211710c70ce" CreationDate="2023-03-08T13:42:43.963" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="added 84 characters in body" Text="I need your useful advice. I'm a web developer from Ukraine with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to offer to a prospective client the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks like TailwindCSS and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or next jobs, he may continue our cooperation, but on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants to go further, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him. If he however doesn't want to continue, the first work becomes my gift and it's ok.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance marketplaces. So, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts? Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments? Or another issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27708" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="acf9aa68-a516-4757-bee3-3bb330f2f5ea" CreationDate="2023-03-08T13:43:13.377" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="I need your useful advice. I'm a web developer from Ukraine with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to offer to a prospective client the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks like TailwindCSS and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or next jobs, he may continue our cooperation, but on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants to go further, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him. If he however doesn't want to continue, the first portion becomes my gift and it's ok.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance marketplaces. So, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts? Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments? Or another issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27709" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="648c2a9f-09e6-4676-8c43-93f1924534ae" CreationDate="2023-03-08T13:43:51.833" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="I need your useful advice. I'm a web developer from Ukraine with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to offer to a prospective client the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks like TailwindCSS and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or next jobs, he may continue our cooperation, but on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants to go further, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him. If he however doesn't want to continue, the first portion becomes my gift and it's ok.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance marketplaces. Hence, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts? Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments? Or another issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27710" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10610" RevisionGUID="c1e72452-c002-4f92-b7c2-92d6d83f5253" CreationDate="2023-03-08T17:40:16.510" UserId="29103" Text="Your strategy can work, if you find clients with the right personality for such an approach. E.g. it‘s easy to pretend interest, just to get something from you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Small payments:&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The (administrative) effort for a payment is quite independent from the amount. However, due to charges of currency transfer it simply may not be economic with small amounts. E.g. your bank may eat up much as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may send the wrong signal by or of being „cheap“. E.g. if you scan freelancer platforms, you compete with programmers from India, where the requested prices are just ridiculous, at least within Europe, including Ukraine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Taxes and fraud ##&#xD;&#xA;This may be more valuable to research. E.g. tax duties may be complicated for you at the moment, if regulated at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;High volume transfer of small payments may raise the suspicion of money laundering, fraud or similar. Just to make you aware of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Western style of job offers ##&#xD;&#xA;Interestingly companies don‘t make a difference between hiring an employee or a freelancer (which is a different business). It works like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Somebody, e.g. a project leader spots a demand for his/her project&#xD;&#xA; - S/He formulates tasks, expectations, requirements&#xD;&#xA; - Usually publication, search and prescanning candidats is delegated to Human Resources, either internally or externally&#xD;&#xA; - If a handful of prospects are found, there will be interviews, to learn about each other&#xD;&#xA; - This includes details e.g. about contracting, payment, quality assurance, keeping biz secrets and the like&#xD;&#xA; - In best case one (1) person will get the job&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To apply you typically need to submit your CV, a short letter, relevant documents (diploma etc.). That‘s what HR understands and can trade with …&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In return this means that contacting individuals like said project leader can work. But most of the time you‘ll take them by surprise: they didn‘t wait for you, just published several job offers and your qualities were not amongst them at the time s/he thought all out. This means: be prepared to build longterm relationships before the first chance for a contract arises with him/her.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Greetings from Germany, and wishing you success" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27712" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10611" RevisionGUID="d2155fa3-3006-475e-82bd-e7a6fb323ff1" CreationDate="2023-03-08T19:54:20.843" UserId="9845" Text="I'm an older freelancer who's been at it for 13 years now as my primary source of income. I have 3 kids and a mortgage. I have no plans to return to traditional employment, though I could ostensibly make more. I agree with that others have said about positioning yourself as a business as opposed to a freelancer. I'm self-employed but see no need to tell my clients that, and I treat my work as a business so they do as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Here are my thoughts:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. The inherent flexibility of freelancing is more of a draw than deterrent for me, as a mother of 3. While I don't have to work late or weekends, I can if I need to. It's about managing client expectations and setting boundaries and schedules for both work and your personal life.&#xD;&#xA; 2. There are ways to secure regular income aside from hourly work, such as offering various services on retainer or other passive income opportunities. For example, I offer website hosting to my clients which requires little additional work on my end. Depending on your industry, you could create an e-learning course and sell that. Freelancers should have 3-6 months of expenses tucked away in savings for those rainy days and downturns. (I'm still working on this).&#xD;&#xA; 3. As an older freelancer who's met and worked with fellow older freelancers, clients take you as seriously as you take yourself. Use the term &quot;solopreneur&quot; instead of freelancer, for example. &#xD;&#xA; 4. How much does career development matter if your career is you? I've grown my &quot;team,&quot; meaning hired other contractors, to help meet my clients' needs. That can increase my income as well. And of course, keep raising your rates until you're comfortable. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27714" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="d03978f7-e768-44dc-9620-9d69e74ce215" CreationDate="2023-03-08T20:52:18.133" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="added 31 characters in body" Text="I need your useful advice. I'm a web developer from Ukraine with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to advertise on my own website an offer to a prospective client the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks like TailwindCSS and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or next jobs, he may continue our cooperation, but on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants to go further, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him. If he however doesn't want to continue, the first portion becomes my gift and it's ok.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance marketplaces. Hence, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts? Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments? Or another issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27715" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="1651cb01-ac4a-4f36-af66-cdc97101d6e8" CreationDate="2023-03-08T20:52:53.107" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="added 3 characters in body" Text="I need your useful advice. I'm a web developer from Ukraine with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to advertise on my own website an offer to a prospective client of the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks like TailwindCSS and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or next jobs, he may continue our cooperation, but on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants to go further, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him. If he however doesn't want to continue, the first portion becomes my gift and it's ok.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance marketplaces. Hence, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts? Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments? Or another issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27716" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="e96f8157-a53e-4386-bd1a-7b801a4916f3" CreationDate="2023-03-08T20:54:39.567" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="deleted 26 characters in body" Text="I need your useful advice. I'm a web developer from Ukraine with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to advertise on my own website an offer to a prospective client of the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or jobs, he may continue cooperation, but on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants to go further, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him. If he however doesn't want to continue, the first portion becomes my gift and it's ok.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance marketplaces. Hence, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts? Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments? Or another issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27717" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="f7c3fe3c-9495-428a-9fb9-f961ae9c0b8f" CreationDate="2023-03-08T22:03:59.900" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="deleted 5 characters in body" Text="I need useful advice. I'm a web developer from Ukraine with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to advertise on my own website an offer to a prospective client of the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or jobs, he may continue cooperation, but on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants to go further, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him. If he however doesn't want to continue, the first portion becomes my gift and it's ok.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance marketplaces. Hence, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts? Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments? Or another issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27718" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="d1897509-bfd3-48e7-afba-59ee2d0fb40c" CreationDate="2023-03-08T22:31:49.143" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="deleted 3 characters in body" Text="I need useful advice. I'm a web developer from Ukraine with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to advertise on my own website an offer to a prospective client of the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or jobs, he may continue cooperation, but on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants to go further, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him. If he however doesn't want to continue, the first portion becomes my gift and it's ok.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance platforms. Hence, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To reduce the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts? Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments? Or another issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27720" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="10604" RevisionGUID="c525971f-471c-4433-81cf-ae71bc55bd37" CreationDate="2023-03-09T04:02:30.417" UserId="75" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}],&quot;DeleteType&quot;:1}" />
  <row Id="27721" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="10604" RevisionGUID="57aa24b6-344f-4664-988c-147a4e3d91fb" CreationDate="2023-03-09T04:03:02.910" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="27722" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10612" RevisionGUID="28ebca68-4cff-48f8-be85-ea407954ed32" CreationDate="2023-03-09T09:17:52.810" UserId="708" Text="This question is *really* opinion-based and without seeing the text.. well. it's *your side* of the story. The client *may* think you are the one &quot;gaslighting and being manipulative.&quot; No one here will ever *really* know. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any event, **yes, I think you were overreacting**. After all it's a *phone call*.. what could possibly be the issue with that? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If during the call s/he asks for more work, you say *&quot;not until I get the paid*&quot;. If the call starts going longer than 5 minutes, you make an excuse and end it. Where's the harm?? I'm not seeing it. S/He clearly has your phone number if you've been texting. And if you have a contract, that surely contains your name and location. So there's no additional information to be shared.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I believe it is **never** a good idea to reject **communication** from any client. You can reject work... or any other request for effort on your part, but one should **never** be &quot;out of touch&quot; or &quot;refuse&quot; to communicate with any client for any reason (barring clients that have proven themselves to be verbally abusive). Outright refusing to communicate is a &quot;snub&quot; and it only instigates animosity - nothing else. And no one likes working with someone who *won't even listen*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If nothing else, the call is a direct method of repeating &quot;I need to be paid&quot; multiple times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the bigger, underlying issue is *why* are you afraid of a mere *phone call*. Is it that it's 5 minutes of your time? **No ones**'s time is so valuable they can't spend 5 minutes on the phone with someone who owes them money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider the possibility that the 5 minute call was to tell you s/he really appreciated your work and wanted to thank you and tell you they were sending a larger check than you were anticipating. It could happen -- has to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also be aware small claims &quot;threats&quot; don't *really* work. They are like a &quot;money-back guarantee&quot; -- out of the hundred, thousands, millions, that are eligible, less than 0.1% of dissatisfied customers will ever actually take advantage of a guarantee. Business savvy people **know** your small claims threat is just that, a threat. 99.9% of the time someone threatening small claims won't follow up on it. And if you do.. worst case is they pay you what they owe with a tad more covering court costs. It's worth the risk for some." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27724" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10612" RevisionGUID="ad4be0a8-130c-4ef3-b76a-e98d0f4a0ef7" CreationDate="2023-03-09T09:23:04.267" UserId="708" Comment="added 41 characters in body" Text="This question is *really* opinion-based and without seeing the text.. well. it's *your side* of the story. The client *may* think you are the one &quot;gaslighting and being manipulative.&quot; No one here will ever *really* know. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any event, **yes, I think you were overreacting**. After all it's a *phone call*.. what could possibly be the issue with that? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If during the call s/he asks for more work, you say *&quot;not until I get the paid*&quot;. If the call starts going longer than 5 minutes, you make an excuse and end it. Where's the harm?? I'm not seeing it. S/He clearly has your phone number if you've been texting. And if you have a contract, that surely contains your name and location. So there's no additional information to be shared.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I believe it is **never** a good idea to reject **communication** from any client. You can reject work... or any other request for effort on your part, but one should **never** be &quot;out of touch&quot; or &quot;refuse&quot; to communicate with any client for any reason (barring clients that have proven themselves to be verbally abusive). Outright refusing to communicate is a &quot;snub&quot; and it only instigates animosity - nothing else. And no one likes working with someone who *won't even listen*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If nothing else, the call is a direct method of repeating &quot;I need to be paid&quot; multiple times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the bigger, underlying issue is *why* are you afraid of a mere *phone call*. Is it that it's 5 minutes of your time? **No ones**'s time is so valuable they can't spend 5 minutes on the phone with someone who owes them money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Consider the possibility**.... that the 5 minute call was to tell you s/he really appreciated your work and wanted to thank you and tell you they were sending a larger check than you were anticipating. It could happen -- has to me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or what if the call was to ask about your ability to handle something else with the possibility of more work. *&quot;You were great with X... just wondering if you also do Y? I've got a Y project and I'm wondering if I should just include a deposit for that in this check to save time.&quot;* Guess you'll never know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also be aware small claims &quot;threats&quot; don't *really* work. They are like a &quot;money-back guarantee&quot; -- out of the hundred, thousands, millions, that are eligible, less than 0.1% of dissatisfied customers will ever actually take advantage of a guarantee. Business savvy people **know** your small claims threat is just that, a threat. 99.9% of the time someone threatening small claims won't follow up on it. And if you do.. worst case is they pay you what they owe with a tad more covering court costs. It's worth the risk for some." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27725" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10612" RevisionGUID="f9aea751-3deb-417a-be62-28e20667e330" CreationDate="2023-03-09T09:30:12.960" UserId="708" Comment="added 41 characters in body" Text="This question is *really* opinion-based and without seeing the text.. well. it's *your side* of the story. The client *may* think you are the one &quot;gaslighting and being manipulative.&quot; No one here will ever *really* know. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any event, **yes, I think you were overreacting**. After all it's a *phone call*.. what could possibly be the issue with that? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If during the call s/he asks for more work, you say *&quot;not until I get the paid*&quot;. If the call starts going longer than 5 minutes, you make an excuse and end it. Where's the harm?? I'm not seeing it. S/He clearly has your phone number if you've been texting. And if you have a contract, that surely contains your name and location. So there's no additional information to be shared.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I believe it is **never** a good idea to reject **communication** from any client. You can reject work... or any other request for effort on your part, but one should **never** be &quot;out of touch&quot; or &quot;refuse&quot; to communicate with any client for any reason (barring clients that have proven themselves to be verbally abusive). Outright refusing to communicate is a &quot;snub&quot; and it only instigates animosity - nothing else. And no one likes working with someone who *won't even listen*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If nothing else, the call is a direct method of repeating &quot;I need to be paid&quot; multiple times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the bigger, underlying issue is *why* are you afraid of a mere *phone call*. Is it that it's 5 minutes of your time? **No ones**'s time is so valuable they can't spend 5 minutes on the phone with someone who owes them money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Consider the possibility**.... that the 5 minute call was to tell you s/he really appreciated your work and wanted to thank you and tell you they were sending a larger check than you were anticipating. It could happen -- has to me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or what if the call was to ask about your ability to handle something else with the possibility of more work. *&quot;You were great with X... just wondering if you also do Y? I've got a Y project and I'm wondering if I should just include a deposit for that in this check to save time.&quot;* Guess you'll never know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short.. **Nothing bad ever comes from a *mere phone call* with a client.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also be aware small claims &quot;threats&quot; don't *really* work. They are like a &quot;money-back guarantee&quot; -- out of the hundred, thousands, millions, that are eligible, less than 0.1% of dissatisfied customers will ever actually take advantage of a guarantee. Business savvy people **know** your small claims threat is just that, a threat. 99.9% of the time someone threatening small claims won't follow up on it. And if you do.. worst case is they pay you what they owe with a tad more covering court costs. It's worth the risk for some." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27726" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10613" RevisionGUID="3a30809e-f0ca-4b5d-a690-c489d0bb44ae" CreationDate="2023-03-10T13:12:45.070" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="IMO, the simplest is to state the things as they are: you are looking for someone willing to accept the risk. He will tell you his/her rate for accepting the risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also suggest a smaller compensation in case of a failure. This is just a matter of finding someone foolish enough to accept. But if things are said upfront, nothing goes wrong.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that the risk is there and there is no reason that someone else should carry it for you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27732" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10612" RevisionGUID="855ede4e-e81a-4494-a720-212f449d105c" CreationDate="2023-03-10T23:08:38.220" UserId="708" Comment="Reworded a bit" Text="This question is *really* opinion-based and without seeing the text.. well. it's *your side* of the story. The client *may* think you are the one &quot;gaslighting and being manipulative.&quot; No one here will ever *really* know. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In any event, **yes, I think you were overreacting**. After all it's a *phone call*.. what could possibly be the issue with that? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If during the call s/he asks for, or starts discussing, additional work, you say *&quot;I can't discuss that until I've been paid for previous work*&quot;. If the call starts going longer than 5 minutes, you make an excuse and end it. Where's the harm?? I'm not seeing it. S/He clearly has your phone number if you've been texting. And if you have a contract, that surely contains your name and location. So there's no additional information which may be shared.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I believe it is **never** a good idea to reject **communication** from any client. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can reject work... or *any other request* for effort on your part, but one should **never** be &quot;out of touch&quot; or &quot;refuse&quot; to communicate with any client for any reason. (Barring clients that have proven themselves to be verbally abusive.) Outright refusal to communicate is a &quot;snub&quot; and it only fosters animosity - nothing else. No one likes working with someone who *won't even listen*. All it does it make them angry.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If nothing else, the call is a direct opportunity to repeat &quot;I need to be paid&quot; multiple times.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I think the bigger, underlying issue is *why* are you afraid of a mere *phone call*. Is it that it's 5 minutes of your time? **No ones**'s time is so valuable they can't spend 5 minutes on the phone with someone who owes them money. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-----------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Consider the possibility**.... that the 5 minute call was to tell you s/he really appreciated your work and wanted to thank you and tell you they were sending a larger check than you were anticipating. It could happen -- has to me. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Or what if the call was to ask about your ability to handle something else with the possibility of more work. *&quot;You were great with X... just wondering if you also do Y? I've got a Y project and I'm wondering if I should just include a deposit for that in this check to save time.&quot;* - To which you reply, *&quot;I do indeed do Y. But I can't really discuss the Y project until I've been paid for the X project.&quot;* - Guess you'll never know.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;-------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In short.. **Nothing bad ever comes from a *mere phone call* with a client.** &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should also be aware small claims &quot;threats&quot; don't *really* work. They are like a &quot;money-back guarantee&quot; -- out of the hundred, thousands, millions, that are eligible, less than 0.1% of dissatisfied customers will ever actually take advantage of a guarantee. Business savvy people **know** your small claims threat is just that, a threat. 99.9% of the time someone threatening small claims won't follow up on it. And if you do.. worst case is they pay you what they owe with a tad more covering court costs. It's worth the risk for some." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27736" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10610" RevisionGUID="13f2a160-28cb-4eaf-8559-17a7187b9354" CreationDate="2023-03-11T19:07:25.913" UserId="29103" Comment="Added answers arising from questions in the comment(s)" Text="Your strategy can work, if you find clients with the right personality for such an approach. E.g. it‘s easy to pretend interest, just to get something from you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Small payments:&#xD;&#xA;---------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The (administrative) effort for a payment is quite independent from the amount. However, due to charges of currency transfer it simply may not be economic with small amounts. E.g. your bank may eat up much as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You may send the wrong signal by or of being „cheap“. E.g. if you scan freelancer platforms, you compete with programmers from India, where the requested prices are just ridiculous, at least within Europe, including Ukraine.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Taxes and fraud ##&#xD;&#xA;This may be more valuable to research. E.g. tax duties may be complicated for you at the moment, if regulated at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;High volume transfer of small payments may raise the suspicion of money laundering, fraud or similar. Just to make you aware of it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Western style of job offers ##&#xD;&#xA;Interestingly companies don‘t make a difference between hiring an employee or a freelancer (which is a different business). It works like this:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Somebody, e.g. a project leader spots a demand for his/her project&#xD;&#xA; - S/He formulates tasks, expectations, requirements&#xD;&#xA; - Usually publication, search and prescanning candidats is delegated to Human Resources, either internally or externally&#xD;&#xA; - If a handful of prospects are found, there will be interviews, to learn about each other&#xD;&#xA; - This includes details e.g. about contracting, payment, quality assurance, keeping biz secrets and the like&#xD;&#xA; - In best case one (1) person will get the job&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To apply you typically need to submit your CV, a short letter, relevant documents (diploma etc.). That‘s what HR understands and can trade with …&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In return this means that contacting individuals like said project leader can work. But most of the time you‘ll take them by surprise: they didn‘t wait for you, just published several job offers and your qualities were not amongst them at the time s/he thought all out. This means: be prepared to build longterm relationships before the first chance for a contract arises with him/her.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Greetings from Germany, and wishing you success&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;Further questions from the comments:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; And please could you add a little more point(s) about the main dilemma: to offer upfront work vs to require upfront payment? I read some pages in the internet advising to always get paid before starting a project. But what if a new client would hesitate to send money to me as to an unknown person? Is the cooperation by small milestones of upfont jobs as I described the middle ground? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;WHEN to pay WHICH amount ... is a matter of negotiation between both parties. So there are no rules, strictly speaking, though there may be conventions, i.e. how to handle it in your clients branch or industry. Examples:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - **after the fact**: contract, start working, send bill as negotiated, e.g. at beginning of next month, allow 1 month for compensation; so you'll have it approx. 2 months after start of each fiscal period (here: months)&#xD;&#xA;- **at milestones**: similar. Start, work, send bill at/after passing milestone, allow negotiated compensation periode (can also be 2 weeks, as an example)&#xD;&#xA;- **before the fact**: make your start dependent on prepaying a certain amount, bill regularly (which includes one time only at the end) as lined out. (Can it be, that you have to pay bills, too?)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It depends on your risk accessment and risk appetite. If it's a trustworthy client, there is hardly any problem by definition. If you can't be sure, worst case is approx. spending time for nothing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your client hesitates, try finding out, what's his reason. Is it convincing? Does s/he try to trick you? Is it uncertainty, e.g. of situation or you as a contracted specialist etc. Whatever you'll find out, it should determine your approach to payment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you feel better, try negotiating a stop condition, too, i.e. &quot;if payment X doesn't arrive within Y days, I'll put my work (or better: reserve the right to put my work) for you on hold, until Z ...&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And frankly, if s/he doesn't want to send money, BECAUSE you are a stranger ... why would you want to work with or for this individual? I assume, your (life-) time is more valuable than that ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; And what if I can't yet sign legal contracts? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't really understand your point. In my country a contract exists legally, once we agree, even verbally. However, if trouble comes, and it most likely will, it will be hard to give evidence about what was or wasn't negotiated, expected, promissed etc. We are all humans, so it starts with &quot;simple&quot; misunderstandings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So putting it down on paper won't hurt. Involving your attorney will be a good idea: probably your client can throw any amount of attorneys on you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, many times things go well, even without written contracts. Again, your tool is accessment of your client, to mitigate risks.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;~ ~ ~&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, it's good to research, how other people see it. However, don't stick too much to it, as some may simply be wrong in some way. You may know it from books, which advertise &quot;approach X&quot; ... which may have worked for the author, may be only once, ... and is less effective for my situation ...&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try and see what works for you. Try being the partner, your client wants you to be, OR the type of personality you are for your client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You see, as a client I could exchange one webdesigner by a dozen others. Unless ... it's different with you, as you provide something which is hard to find for me (and which I badly need)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27737" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10615" RevisionGUID="d678f15f-b3b6-4d18-a6f4-31ea702c3693" CreationDate="2023-03-12T00:26:18.260" UserDisplayName="user29106" Text="As I can understand, a refund in freelancing is not required by EU and US laws (correct me if I'm wrong), but still may be a benefit of freelancer's policy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A quotation from [a page about freelancing](https://millo.co/upfront-payment)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Something else you could consider is a refund policy. A written&#xD;&#xA;&gt; money-back guarantee makes selling new clients on your upfront payment&#xD;&#xA;&gt; policy easier. It gives them peace of mind knowing they have nothing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to lose should you fail to deliver the work.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Think of it as the first few stages of a customer journey map, where&#xD;&#xA;&gt; you need to build awareness and trust with the company before inking&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the deal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm personally considering to charge clients in arrears after each work milestone. Hence, there is no need in a refund as client can simply not to pay for the milestone done if he doesn't like it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question is, how to properly describe in my policy such a client right without creating a false assumption that I'm not a professional expert?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I mean if I would write something like&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You can simply not pay for the milestone done if you don't like it&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;may be implied by clients as&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I know I'm just a learner (which I'm not), I just fill my portfolio and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; therefore anticipate your disliking" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27739" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10615" RevisionGUID="d678f15f-b3b6-4d18-a6f4-31ea702c3693" CreationDate="2023-03-12T00:26:18.260" UserDisplayName="user29106" Text="How to properly descibe the client right not to pay instead of refund" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27740" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10615" RevisionGUID="d678f15f-b3b6-4d18-a6f4-31ea702c3693" CreationDate="2023-03-12T00:26:18.260" UserDisplayName="user29106" Text="|payment-terms|attracting-clients|web-development|marketing|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27741" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10615" RevisionGUID="dd708fe0-bb8d-4c4a-94e4-97bc2af702b4" CreationDate="2023-03-12T00:32:36.320" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="edited title" Text="How to properly describe the client right not to pay instead of refund" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27742" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10615" RevisionGUID="6a88bf22-7392-4a57-ab47-f522fb32b65c" CreationDate="2023-03-12T00:38:24.000" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="As I can understand, a refund in freelancing is not mandatory by EU and US laws (correct me if I'm wrong), but still may be a benefit of freelancer's policy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A quotation from [a page about freelancing](https://millo.co/upfront-payment)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Something else you could consider is a refund policy. A written&#xD;&#xA;&gt; money-back guarantee makes selling new clients on your upfront payment&#xD;&#xA;&gt; policy easier. It gives them peace of mind knowing they have nothing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to lose should you fail to deliver the work.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Think of it as the first few stages of a customer journey map, where&#xD;&#xA;&gt; you need to build awareness and trust with the company before inking&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the deal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm personally considering to charge clients in arrears after each work milestone. Hence, there is no need in a refund as client can simply not to pay for the milestone done if he doesn't like it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question is, how to properly describe in my policy such a client right without creating a false assumption that I'm just a learner and not a professional expert?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I mean if I would write something like&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You can simply not pay for the milestone done if you won't like it&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;can be implied by clients as&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I know I'm just a learner, I just fill my portfolio and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; therefore anticipate your disliking" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27743" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10615" RevisionGUID="0ada0b47-6d40-49ce-8898-12f366d22508" CreationDate="2023-03-12T00:43:55.147" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="deleted 14 characters in body" Text="As I can understand, a refund in freelancing is not mandatory by EU and US laws (correct me if I'm wrong), but still may be a benefit of freelancer's policy.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A quotation from [a page about freelancing](https://millo.co/upfront-payment)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Something else you could consider is a refund policy. A written&#xD;&#xA;&gt; money-back guarantee makes selling new clients on your upfront payment&#xD;&#xA;&gt; policy easier. It gives them peace of mind knowing they have nothing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to lose should you fail to deliver the work.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Think of it as the first few stages of a customer journey map, where&#xD;&#xA;&gt; you need to build awareness and trust with the company before inking&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the deal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm personally considering to charge clients in arrears after each work milestone. Hence, there is no need in a refund as client can simply not to pay for the milestone done if he doesn't like it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question is, how to properly describe in my policy such a client right without creating a false assumption that I'm just a learner and not a professional expert?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I mean if I would write something like&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You can simply not pay for the milestone done if you won't like it&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;can be implied by clients as&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm just a learner who fill his portfolio and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; therefore I anticipate your disliking" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27744" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10615" RevisionGUID="d2e393f3-ccde-4234-9782-b7956bdaf3a9" CreationDate="2023-03-12T00:49:42.593" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="edited body" Text="As I can understand, a refund in freelancing is not mandatory by EU and US laws (correct me if I'm wrong), but still may be a benefit of freelancer's policy for clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A quotation from [a page about freelancing](https://millo.co/upfront-payment)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Something else you could consider is a refund policy. A written&#xD;&#xA;&gt; money-back guarantee makes selling new clients on your upfront payment&#xD;&#xA;&gt; policy easier. It gives them peace of mind knowing they have nothing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to lose should you fail to deliver the work.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Think of it as the first few stages of a customer journey map, where&#xD;&#xA;&gt; you need to build awareness and trust with the company before inking&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the deal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since I'm personally considering to charge clients in arrears after each work milestone, there is no need in a money-back. My client can simply not to pay for the milestone done if he doesn't like it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question is, how to properly describe in my policy such a client right without creating a false assumption that I'm just a learner and not a professional expert?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I mean if I would write something like&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You can simply not pay for the milestone done if you won't like it&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;can be implied by clients as&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm just a learner who fill his portfolio and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; therefore I anticipate your disliking" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27745" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10615" RevisionGUID="49e56534-e031-425d-b917-055f846102ac" CreationDate="2023-03-12T01:09:52.357" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="As I can understand, a refund in freelancing is not mandatory by EU and US laws (correct me if I'm wrong), but still may be a benefit of freelancer's policy for clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A quotation from [a page about freelancing](https://millo.co/upfront-payment)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Something else you could consider is a refund policy. A written&#xD;&#xA;&gt; money-back guarantee makes selling new clients on your upfront payment&#xD;&#xA;&gt; policy easier. It gives them peace of mind knowing they have nothing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to lose should you fail to deliver the work.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Think of it as the first few stages of a customer journey map, where&#xD;&#xA;&gt; you need to build awareness and trust with the company before inking&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the deal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since I'm personally considering to charge clients in arrears after each work milestone, there is no need in a money-back. My client can simply not to pay for the milestone done if he doesn't like it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question is, how to properly describe in my policy such a client right without creating a false assumption that I'm just a learner and not a professional expert?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I mean if I would write something like&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You can simply not pay for the milestone done if you won't like it&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;can be implied by clients as&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm just a learner who fills his portfolio and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; therefore I anticipate your disliking" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27746" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10616" RevisionGUID="8d00bd81-c14a-4f62-921e-419b30cb743d" CreationDate="2023-03-12T09:50:25.597" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Every hour spent must be paid. Don't allow unpaid milestones and even less cash-back. The risk must be on the customer's side, not on yours. The freelancer is the weak party.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Leaving an option to avoid payment can be interpreted in two ways by the customer:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- the freelancer is unsure about what he is doing and gives no guarantee to deliver,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- the freelancer does not care for money, and also not about the project. No commitment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, it is wrong to think that the customer loses nothing by not paying. On the opposite, he wasted time with you. Even worse if a few milestones have already been achieved: that's a total loss.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27748" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10615" RevisionGUID="689e0093-4f7b-4188-8ca4-b9553a51c08e" CreationDate="2023-03-12T18:32:04.870" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="added 72 characters in body" Text="As I can understand, a refund in freelancing is not mandatory by EU and US laws (correct me if I'm wrong), but still may be a benefit of freelancer's policy for clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A quotation from [a page about freelancing](https://millo.co/upfront-payment)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; Something else you could consider is a refund policy. A written&#xD;&#xA;&gt; money-back guarantee makes selling new clients on your upfront payment&#xD;&#xA;&gt; policy easier. It gives them peace of mind knowing they have nothing&#xD;&#xA;&gt; to lose should you fail to deliver the work.&#xD;&#xA;&gt; &#xD;&#xA;&gt; Think of it as the first few stages of a customer journey map, where&#xD;&#xA;&gt; you need to build awareness and trust with the company before inking&#xD;&#xA;&gt; the deal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since I'm personally considering to charge clients in arrears after each work milestone, there is no need in a money-back. My client can simply not to pay for the milestone done if he doesn't like it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The question is, how to properly describe in my policy such a client right without creating a false assumption that I'm just a learner and not a professional expert?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I mean if I would write something like&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; You can simply not pay for the milestone done if you won't like it&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;can be implied by clients as&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; I'm just a learner who fills his portfolio and&#xD;&#xA;&gt; therefore I anticipate your disliking&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;P.S. It would be great to hear opinions of the very clients from their standpoint on the subject here" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27749" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10609" RevisionGUID="afcb2e5a-5156-4416-89d2-a814440786b1" CreationDate="2023-03-12T21:43:54.770" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="added 2 characters in body" Text="I need useful advice. I'm a web developer from Ukraine with many years of experience, yet have never worked with clients from Western Europe and America. But now I'm considering that.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I know it's very popular marketing strategy in the world to offer something basic or initial for free (so-called *freemium*) in order to attract a client and if he wants more, he has to pay for the more (so-called *premium*).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In view of that, I'm considering an idea to advertise on my own website an offer to a prospective client of the first screens of his website's homepage for free. Using frameworks and pre-made components it doesn't take much time to create the screens or sections and present them to the client. And if he wants the next screens or jobs, he may continue cooperation, but on a paid basis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to give the first portion of my work simply in advance and if the client wants to go further, then he first pays for the first portion he has already got and only after that I do the next job for him. If he however doesn't want to continue, the first portion becomes my gift and it's ok.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At that I don't want to require any advance payments from the clients and want to deal with them directly out of freelance platforms. Hence, the second paid job for the client I would like to accomplish in advance from my side as well. But if he won't pay for it in arrears (i.e. will steal it), that would mean two jobs for free. And the more will be the second stage, the more I will lost. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To mitigate the risk, I'm considering to make the second stage small. But the question is, how it's convenient for the Western clients to pay small amounts? Moreover, are there some legal or financial restrictions in EU or America for small payments? Or another issues?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any your idea and advice would be appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27750" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10602" RevisionGUID="07739ea4-bab5-46c2-a6c7-b634a9666069" CreationDate="2023-03-13T09:55:20.287" UserDisplayName="user29106" Comment="to meet instead of to met" Text="How to handle difficult to meet requirements on freelancing projects" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27751" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10602" RevisionGUID="07739ea4-bab5-46c2-a6c7-b634a9666069" CreationDate="2023-03-13T09:55:20.287" Comment="Proposed by 29106 approved by 29097 edit id of 846" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27752" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10617" RevisionGUID="3f440e1b-d017-4021-a872-dd6e41bb2df8" CreationDate="2023-03-13T17:09:22.270" UserId="29121" Text="Briefly speaking, I'm looking for a freelancing opportunity to write academic papers (topics related to Artificial intelligence, digital transformation, political philosophy, sociology, and literature. I have two MA theses (one in English literature, the other in political ideas in the digital age). Are there any platforms where I can publish or find a freelancing opportunity? I need to be more visible to publish my articles or works. Any ideas? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27754" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10617" RevisionGUID="3f440e1b-d017-4021-a872-dd6e41bb2df8" CreationDate="2023-03-13T17:09:22.270" UserId="29121" Text="Publication opportunity" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27755" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10617" RevisionGUID="3f440e1b-d017-4021-a872-dd6e41bb2df8" CreationDate="2023-03-13T17:09:22.270" UserId="29121" Text="|freelance-websites|working-from-home|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27762" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10617" RevisionGUID="38dd3cdb-f52a-4f16-a3b7-753b8d478a32" CreationDate="2023-03-14T08:58:27.557" UserId="7858" Comment="Made title more specific" Text="Briefly speaking, I'm looking for a freelancing opportunity to write academic papers (topics related to Artificial intelligence, digital transformation, political philosophy, sociology, and literature.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have two MA theses (one in English literature, the other in political ideas in the digital age). Are there any platforms where I can publish or find a freelancing opportunity? I need to be more visible to publish my articles or works. Any ideas? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27763" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10617" RevisionGUID="38dd3cdb-f52a-4f16-a3b7-753b8d478a32" CreationDate="2023-03-14T08:58:27.557" UserId="7858" Comment="Made title more specific" Text="Seeking freelance (academic) publication platforms" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27764" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10600" RevisionGUID="732001e3-b968-4633-ac6c-5c9583a12ac0" CreationDate="2023-03-14T12:23:44.707" UserId="-1" Comment="Just a few grammatical changes in speech that I deemed necessary for better understanding." Text="In my experience there is a lot of demand for data scientists (e.g., if you look at freelance small job sites like Upwork), but there are also lots of data scientists, who actually did their degree in data science. It is usually difficult to compete with them, if your background is in another field.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, I found that there is demand for good math skills with moderate requirements for programming when it comes to developing algorithms for analyzing domain-specific data: modeling for biological systems, counting molecules/proteins, climate science, modeling of various kinds of sales, breaks, flows, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I worked on a similar kind of project where I had to implement an algorithm from a scientific paper in python or R, and then pass it to professional developers for writing an industrial scale code. Another type of project involves evaluating feasibility of certain type of algorithm.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, besides math and moderate coding skills, this requires some domain knowledge and reasonable background in statistics. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27765" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10600" RevisionGUID="732001e3-b968-4633-ac6c-5c9583a12ac0" CreationDate="2023-03-14T12:23:44.707" Comment="Proposed by anonymous approved by 23884 edit id of 847" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27767" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10619" RevisionGUID="dad42a83-ddd8-4cca-9a06-2616e8f96369" CreationDate="2023-03-15T19:03:59.053" UserId="708" Text="I've been freelancing for 20+ years. *Probably* not in the same direct field however. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I *never* want to hire employees.&#xD;&#xA;- I *detest* having to subcontract work and prefer to do it myself.&#xD;&#xA;- I *never* want to build a &quot;company/studio&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;- I *never* want to work more than 30-40 hrs per week. However, if there's a plethora of work, I have been known to in order to keep clients happy. Most often, I put in 20-30hrs a week tops.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everything you want is *possible* via freelancing. I'm *not* implying it is always easy, but it is possible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Everything** is dependent upon building a stable, reliable, and **repetitive** client base. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finding good clients who *constantly* need more work can take some time (and luck). However, once you reach that plateau, things rarely tend to drop again. I avoid contract work.. I am free to work for anyone at any time and no single client has any contractually committed portion of my time. I also avoid the &quot;one-and-done&quot; clients. I *want* clients with continuing needs who are as vested in remaining current and updating projects as they are in the inception of projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being posted, 2022 was a struggle... after the pandemic many clients were in &quot;recovery mode&quot;. While I had no issues *during* the pandemic, the year afterwards was probably my toughest year to date. But now, in 2023, things are ramping back up to normal, steady streams of income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One just has to prepare for lean times rather than &quot;spending the paycheck&quot; as soon as you get it. I have a mortgage and commitments.. I haven't been considered &quot;young&quot; for some time. `:)`&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd wager that much of the struggle today, would be the pandemic recovery many business find themselves facing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27769" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10619" RevisionGUID="800b88e3-2efd-408f-b181-bbdd25b0f7fb" CreationDate="2023-03-15T20:56:27.420" UserId="708" Comment="added 227 characters in body" Text="I've been freelancing for 20+ years. *Probably* not in the same direct field however. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- I *never* want to hire employees.&#xD;&#xA;- I *detest* having to subcontract work and prefer to do it myself.&#xD;&#xA;- I *never* want to build a &quot;company/studio&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;- I *never* want to work more than 30-40 hrs per week. However, if there's a plethora of work, I have been known to in order to keep clients happy. Most often, I put in 20-30hrs a week tops.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Everything you want is *possible* via freelancing. I'm *not* implying it is always easy, but it is possible. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Everything** is dependent upon building a stable, reliable, and **repetitive** client base. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finding good clients who *constantly* need more work can take some time (and luck). However, once you reach that plateau, things rarely tend to drop again. I avoid contract work.. I am free to work for anyone at any time and no single client has any contractually committed portion of my time. I also avoid the &quot;one-and-done&quot; clients. I *want* clients with continuing needs who are as vested in remaining current and updating projects as they are in the inception of projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That being posted, 2022 was a struggle... after the pandemic many clients were in &quot;recovery mode&quot;. While I had no issues *during* the pandemic, the year afterwards was probably my toughest year to date. But now, in 2023, things are ramping back up to normal, steady streams of income.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;One just has to prepare for lean times rather than &quot;spending the paycheck&quot; as soon as you get it. I have a mortgage and commitments.. I haven't been considered &quot;young&quot; for some time. `:)`&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd wager that much of the struggle today would be the pandemic recovery many business find themselves facing. The pandemic actually *taught* many smaller companies that they *could* hire in-house staff - which merely works remotely. So.. client acquisition is a bit tougher today than it was 3 years ago. But the clients *are* out there." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27770" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10620" RevisionGUID="92d0eaae-4a9c-425a-a041-b30fd021365f" CreationDate="2023-03-20T11:35:25.930" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="I have no idea how it works in Venezuela, but when you are charging *services* to a non-EU country from a EU-country, there is no VAT due at all (not even a reverse charge).&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27773" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10621" RevisionGUID="2d2adff1-f552-4819-85ee-46ac36cfdc36" CreationDate="2023-03-21T22:13:53.940" UserId="29156" Text="There are several academic publication platforms and freelancing opportunities that you can explore to publish your academic papers. Here are some suggestions:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Academia.edu - A platform where academics and researchers can share their research papers and get feedback from others in their field. It is free to use but offers premium features for a fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;ResearchGate - Another platform that allows researchers to connect with others in their field and share their research papers. It is also free to use but offers premium features for a fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Freelance websites - Platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, and Fiverr can connect you with clients who are looking for academic writers. You can bid on projects that match your skills and interests.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Online academic journals - Many academic journals publish articles online, and some of them accept submissions from freelance writers. You can find these journals by searching for your field of interest and adding &quot;academic journal&quot; to your search terms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;LinkedIn - You can use LinkedIn to connect with professionals in your field and showcase your expertise. You can also search for freelance opportunities on the platform.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember that getting published can take time and effort. Be persistent and keep refining your writing skills. Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27775" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10622" RevisionGUID="9fb4f6e2-b830-4c06-b4b4-2cfbcc0e5bc8" CreationDate="2023-03-23T10:01:06.013" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Lowering the rate cannot be done without a reason (otherwise you admit having overcharged for the task).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have two options:&#xD;&#xA;1. suggesting a way to diminish the service level;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2. by far better: asking the customer what he wants to modify in the service to enable a reduction.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Option 1 can be done in a way that you are sure the customer will refuse. Option 2 will probably calm down the customer.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27777" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10623" RevisionGUID="7914153c-d325-40b6-a277-185825758129" CreationDate="2023-03-23T16:06:22.883" UserId="29103" Text="„Sure, and this is what will not be included in my service and/or results.“&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The purpose is to find out together, what your client really needs, and what the value (not money) is to him/her. You may end up in a win-win situation. It works the better, the better you know your client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And there are occasions, where „no contract“ is the better option. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27782" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10625" RevisionGUID="2f559c83-7763-4766-a556-9f90590f7db4" CreationDate="2023-03-28T12:14:04.433" UserId="20083" Text="How difficult is to freelance not use a website like Upwork or Fiverr and  do it on your own would you have to setup your own website?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I hope I put this in the right spot?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27784" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10625" RevisionGUID="2f559c83-7763-4766-a556-9f90590f7db4" CreationDate="2023-03-28T12:14:04.433" UserId="20083" Text="Freelance as your own Business" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27785" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10625" RevisionGUID="2f559c83-7763-4766-a556-9f90590f7db4" CreationDate="2023-03-28T12:14:04.433" UserId="20083" Text="|freelance-websites|payments|local-business|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27786" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10625" RevisionGUID="a7e0e9b4-efba-4559-a280-bb0de9620b8f" CreationDate="2023-03-28T13:01:46.440" UserId="20083" Comment="added 16 characters in body" Text="How difficult is to freelance not use a website like Upwork or Fiverr and  do it on your own would you have to setup your own website? I plan to be IOS software Developer  with no clients.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27787" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10626" RevisionGUID="adc5e0f9-c56a-428d-b025-13b0e995204d" CreationDate="2023-03-28T14:19:59.273" UserId="26181" Text="First off, it is extremely difficult to be an &quot;IOS software Developer with no clients&quot;. Clients are the life blood of freelancing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;While some will suggest looking at your strengths, the real question is &quot;what are your weaknesses?&quot;&#xD;&#xA;Freelancing is a business. As such, it needs sales and marketing, accounting and legal help, as well as delivery of goods or services. It is said (by Peter Drucker) that the essentials of a business are innovation and marketing. If you can't sell, you don't have a business. Just putting up a website is likely to wind up as if you only were shouting in a dust storm - getting a dry, dusty mouth.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are many companies out there that offer X number of potential client contacts per month. These work for some, but for many of us, they just use money and produce contacts that don't generate clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Getting paying clients is so difficult for most developers that they wind up working for a sales company such as an existing &quot;contracting company&quot;. Another choice is to hire a salesperson or partner with one. A good salesperson can generate enough sales to keep 5-10 developers busy (and are compensated accordingly). In other words, you are now building a business." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27789" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10627" RevisionGUID="81af08a9-a246-45f1-b6d2-e6525e38e747" CreationDate="2023-03-31T05:04:30.823" UserId="1303" Text="I have a client who is frequently asking me to conduct Zoom meetings for a very low-budget project which is under progress. Before starting the project, I wasn't aware that he will be asking for multiple meetings like this, and hence I didn't mention &quot;meetings&quot; anywhere in my project agreement with him.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But now, I feel like he is asking too much, and spending too much of my time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The project has already been delayed by the client. It was supposed to complete within a week, but now it is about to become a month, just because the client is not providing me information and making me wait. Then, he falsely promised that he will give me more work, and that is why I reduced the project price, but he hasn't given more work. And now, he is demanding me for multiple meetings.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have already spent 1 hour in two Zoom meetings with him. He is asking to meet again and again. Whenever I am asking him for updates, he is asking me to meet on Zoom.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How do I deal with him? Please help." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27791" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10627" RevisionGUID="81af08a9-a246-45f1-b6d2-e6525e38e747" CreationDate="2023-03-31T05:04:30.823" UserId="1303" Text="My client frequently asks me for Zoom meetings over a project. How do I deal with him?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27792" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10627" RevisionGUID="81af08a9-a246-45f1-b6d2-e6525e38e747" CreationDate="2023-03-31T05:04:30.823" UserId="1303" Text="|difficult-client|project-management|time-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27793" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10628" RevisionGUID="b62dbd30-a30c-4877-8f9a-56216146186e" CreationDate="2023-03-31T12:49:01.933" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Ask him immediate payment of what has already been done and announce him the fee for an hour of meeting." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27795" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10629" RevisionGUID="0c89acc9-7739-471e-ab26-d57cfe935e49" CreationDate="2023-04-02T10:49:51.110" UserId="29103" Text="Not knowing or being able to know what the client wants is a costly endeavor. This client should learn the lesson. I.e. reflect it in your billings." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27813" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="9529" RevisionGUID="12894d11-ba37-4f4d-900f-c676a3363618" CreationDate="2023-04-06T12:04:22.260" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="27821" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10635" RevisionGUID="e5e7d4b7-38b3-43dd-8fd3-c35b5a83a5df" CreationDate="2023-04-07T03:27:31.603" UserId="29201" Text="I just want to know Does a non-US citizen/ non resident working remotely for a US-based company from their home country have to fill W9/W4/I9 and state tax forms? " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27823" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10635" RevisionGUID="e5e7d4b7-38b3-43dd-8fd3-c35b5a83a5df" CreationDate="2023-04-07T03:27:31.603" UserId="29201" Text="Do I have to fill W9/w4/I9 and state tax form?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27824" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10635" RevisionGUID="e5e7d4b7-38b3-43dd-8fd3-c35b5a83a5df" CreationDate="2023-04-07T03:27:31.603" UserId="29201" Text="|taxes|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27825" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10586" RevisionGUID="904fc566-a941-4cab-8e17-4118f9b028bd" CreationDate="2023-04-07T11:07:40.970" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27830" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10637" RevisionGUID="d44ea6c7-54ba-41ef-9c5d-0d8e88715879" CreationDate="2023-04-09T15:27:50.507" UserId="29209" Text="In Brazil, we have multiples sources of information coming from all sorts of companies, enterprise, shopping, public services, medical , etc and this allows the government create a trace of every citizen that is integrated in a moden society. In brazil we almost never uses paper money, mainly in the biggest cities, cause we have a way of transfering funds in a universal way called PIX. A pix is a phone number or randim uuid that is the key we use for transfering money to other people, to gorceries, market places, stores, and this is all traceable. Each amount entering in your bank account have a source, that has another source, etc and its fully traceable All provents (received payments)  and all our expenses are  fully traceable. So, independent of your declaration/ formal statement, in Brazil you could received a visit of the agents that serves to the RECEITA FEDERAL. If I was you, I would be honest and tell the autorhites the truth, because if not, the bank will dismiss you &#xD;&#xA;First, is an act of good will, proving you have good intentions, and has nothing to hide." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27836" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10638" RevisionGUID="ff837a3b-c1f0-442c-b673-3fb36351ef21" CreationDate="2023-04-11T22:12:58.443" UserId="29192" Text="I've created my website to sell services. Now what? There's no way I compete for keywords on platforms like Google Ads, as that's way too expensive. I believe the website has been indexed on both Google and Bing. I've also posted that website on social media such as LinkedIn, although I don't think I'm fully taking advantage of those platforms. Instead of waiting for a client to magically contact me through the site, what should I do?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27838" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10638" RevisionGUID="ff837a3b-c1f0-442c-b673-3fb36351ef21" CreationDate="2023-04-11T22:12:58.443" UserId="29192" Text="How to passively generate leads (writing)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27839" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10638" RevisionGUID="ff837a3b-c1f0-442c-b673-3fb36351ef21" CreationDate="2023-04-11T22:12:58.443" UserId="29192" Text="|writing|advertising|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27840" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10639" RevisionGUID="3229a902-7746-4312-bb7c-86c0725b9bbb" CreationDate="2023-04-12T02:19:05.903" UserId="29049" Text="I personally give an estimated price and once the ok is given for that, I then will figure out a nonnegative total, but my estimated price is in fact a little higher just in case of extra needing done and I explain this during the estimate discussion so that the client knows the price can change but it will not be any higher than talked about unless we add an extra situation and then we talk a new estimate. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27853" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10643" RevisionGUID="042d67be-7e1b-4dab-b7ea-b044114e7740" CreationDate="2023-04-17T12:27:22.967" UserId="29195" Text="I am a freelancer by profession. I have worked for a long time in the field. Recently I have shifted to Upwork. As the platform is very good for freelancers, more and more people are joining here. I also want to be a part of this platform. But while creating my profile, I am stuck in some sections. Also, I want to clear my mind about a few things. Can anyone help me out with this? Thanks in advance.&#xD;&#xA;Is freelancing on Upwork worth my time?&#xD;&#xA;How do I write a killer proposal on Upwork as a newbie?&#xD;&#xA;What should be done to get a project as a freelancer on Upwork?&#xD;&#xA;Which is the best online earning website, Freelancer, Fiverr, or Upwork?&#xD;&#xA;How do freelancers get paid on Upwork?&#xD;&#xA;What is your best experience with freelancers on Upwork?&#xD;&#xA;Where can I find coupons for Upwork? I have found some coupon sites on Google. I have mentioned them below. Share your thoughts about them?&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27855" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10643" RevisionGUID="042d67be-7e1b-4dab-b7ea-b044114e7740" CreationDate="2023-04-17T12:27:22.967" UserId="29195" Text="How do I write a killer proposal on Upwork as a newbie?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27856" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10643" RevisionGUID="042d67be-7e1b-4dab-b7ea-b044114e7740" CreationDate="2023-04-17T12:27:22.967" UserId="29195" Text="|freelance-websites|difficult-client|project-management|fixed-price|budget|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27857" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10644" RevisionGUID="4af8d699-456f-441e-a271-17e504ffc1b4" CreationDate="2023-04-17T14:31:13.363" UserId="26181" Text="Proposals on Upwork or for prospects that you have found on your own are very similar. They need to address the real issues that the prospect sees. Note: I state the issues that the prospect sees. You may see issues that they don't, but they won't hire to fix those issues. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Proposals can be short or long. That all depends on the size of the prospect and the size of the project. Proposals can include timelines, proposed project management strategies, payment stages, examples of how you have solved problems in the past, portfolio samples, etc. These all depend on what the project is supposed to solve. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Whether or not a proposal is a &quot;killer&quot; all depends on the prospect. They are the ones to decide, not us. Try to make a proposal to fit what you believe the prospect wants to see.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You have no control over what other proposals the prospect receives. As a &quot;newbie&quot;, you are at a disadvantage. Many people try to &quot;buy into a market&quot; by coming in with low cost. That works when there isn't a lot of competition. Under high competition, that only depresses the pay level for everyone." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27867" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10646" RevisionGUID="7ac91919-6de3-4e68-84d7-ee3fef7dbb79" CreationDate="2023-04-19T16:08:21.830" UserId="29192" Text="I know it's easy to say just relax or go exercise, but what I'm noticing is that there's so many things to keep track of as a freelancer and sometimes one just pops up in my head and distracts me and creates anxiety/stress. I'm even having stomach cramps from time to time possibly due to this.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Things like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Remember to follow up&#xD;&#xA; - Organize tax documents/forms&#xD;&#xA; - Reply to a client&#xD;&#xA; - Send invoice&#xD;&#xA; - Keeping track of feedback and requirements&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The thing with freelancing is that clients contact at scattered times throughout the day. I may wake up in the morning and see an email to address, and I may be enjoying my night when I check my email and see a new message. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's just difficult to get my mind off of freelancing and all the clients' demands and all the emails that need replying, etc." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27869" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10646" RevisionGUID="7ac91919-6de3-4e68-84d7-ee3fef7dbb79" CreationDate="2023-04-19T16:08:21.830" UserId="29192" Text="Just thinking about clients and things to do create anxiety" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27870" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10646" RevisionGUID="7ac91919-6de3-4e68-84d7-ee3fef7dbb79" CreationDate="2023-04-19T16:08:21.830" UserId="29192" Text="|working-from-home|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27871" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10647" RevisionGUID="a76c8dcb-c5d2-47fe-bfef-f38ac486fbdc" CreationDate="2023-04-19T16:59:53.673" UserId="29103" Text="I think improving your time management will help. The overarching theme is organizing and structure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try getting a (used) book on time management. It will probably cover topics like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Eisenhauer principle&#xD;&#xA; - ABC analysis&#xD;&#xA; - ToDo vs. calendar entries&#xD;&#xA; - Reserving time slots&#xD;&#xA; - etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After a little practice you‘ll stop being triggered by each and every Email or call. Don‘t forget: clients contact you, because you have something to offer." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27873" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10647" RevisionGUID="c9d57cb7-2a9a-403d-a470-bdbc6bef9323" CreationDate="2023-04-19T20:00:58.953" UserId="29103" Comment="Added P.S." Text="I think improving your time management will help. The overarching theme is organizing and structure.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Try getting a (used) book on time management. It will probably cover topics like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Eisenhauer principle&#xD;&#xA; - ABC analysis&#xD;&#xA; - ToDo vs. calendar entries&#xD;&#xA; - Reserving time slots&#xD;&#xA; - etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;After a little practice you‘ll stop being triggered by each and every Email or call. Don‘t forget: clients contact you, because you have something to offer.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**P.S.**: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&gt; It's just difficult to get my mind off of freelancing ... and all the&#xD;&#xA;&gt; emails that need replying, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;May be raising your charges/price a little bit helps clearing the field as needed?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - those sensitive to price only steel your time anyway&#xD;&#xA;- at the correct balance the increase in revenue at least compensates fewer clients&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Just some extra thoughts." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27874" PostHistoryTypeId="52" PostId="10646" RevisionGUID="45287067-d61e-475c-a75f-86584a93736a" CreationDate="2023-04-20T00:08:58.193" />
  <row Id="27875" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10648" RevisionGUID="82a8792d-8abf-416d-9e2e-ba276d964669" CreationDate="2023-04-30T06:06:07.533" UserId="29259" Text="I have this freelancing project but the budget given doesn't meets the requirements to get the job done on time,, how do I handle such situations " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27877" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10648" RevisionGUID="82a8792d-8abf-416d-9e2e-ba276d964669" CreationDate="2023-04-30T06:06:07.533" UserId="29259" Text="How do i handle a freelancing project thats budgets low to my standard" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27878" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10648" RevisionGUID="82a8792d-8abf-416d-9e2e-ba276d964669" CreationDate="2023-04-30T06:06:07.533" UserId="29259" Text="|freelance-websites|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27879" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10029" RevisionGUID="84324d8b-2bdc-4d32-9411-616f58b2545f" CreationDate="2023-04-30T23:05:40.683" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27880" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10649" RevisionGUID="ce16a267-7255-46cd-b86f-913fca56e69a" CreationDate="2023-05-01T07:11:17.817" UserId="29103" Text="You‘ve got several options, like:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Discuss this with your client and negotiate better conditions. Take your taxes etc. into account.&#xD;&#xA; 2. Refuse it.&#xD;&#xA; 3. Do it for charity. Make that clear to your prospect.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don‘t be afraid, there will be more people you can serve. Which you can‘t, when you bound your resources for nothing." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27885" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10651" RevisionGUID="b702c4c7-23ec-4bc2-bf4c-687804e64d23" CreationDate="2023-05-06T03:06:24.800" UserId="29192" Text="If my legal name is A, but I go online as B, then when should I let my clients know that my name is not B, but A, if that's needed at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I clarify right away &quot;hey, just letting you know that my legal name is...&quot;; do I wait until I need to submit a W-9; some clients don't request contracts of any forms, so do I need to clarify at all?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I do have a DBA, and I'm not impersonating anyone or using anything copyrighted or trying to cause any damage, so I think the legal part is okay." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27887" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10651" RevisionGUID="b702c4c7-23ec-4bc2-bf4c-687804e64d23" CreationDate="2023-05-06T03:06:24.800" UserId="29192" Text="Using a &quot;pseudonym&quot; online and on clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27888" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10651" RevisionGUID="b702c4c7-23ec-4bc2-bf4c-687804e64d23" CreationDate="2023-05-06T03:06:24.800" UserId="29192" Text="|communication|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27892" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10586" RevisionGUID="2a1cda9b-ac12-4c39-8925-80d867c7feb9" CreationDate="2023-05-09T16:03:30.413" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27893" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="1178" RevisionGUID="17ad3ce5-8722-4035-b0c1-b63e09af01e8" CreationDate="2023-05-10T10:29:54.170" UserId="15235" Comment="tags edited (perhaps there is a better one, though)" Text="|uk|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27894" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="1178" RevisionGUID="17ad3ce5-8722-4035-b0c1-b63e09af01e8" CreationDate="2023-05-10T10:29:54.170" Comment="Proposed by 15235 approved by 7858 edit id of 849" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27896" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10576" RevisionGUID="a98dcae3-e730-4ccb-b216-02c3ad34bcac" CreationDate="2023-05-14T23:11:11.527" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27898" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6837" RevisionGUID="cd78d25d-22d7-478e-b17e-ab7da75f68e7" CreationDate="2023-05-20T22:03:15.360" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27899" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10653" RevisionGUID="948c66b7-9842-49dd-ac86-b17f0f170a31" CreationDate="2023-05-23T08:41:53.553" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="I see but two possibilites:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- they did it intentionally to trick you;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- they did it unintentionally, by miscommunication or lazyness.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In both cases, strike out the clauses that you don't want and had not been agreed on orally. If they accept, your are done. Otherwise, leave." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27901" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10521" RevisionGUID="9459261b-c476-4560-bb6d-ccb05cb1318c" CreationDate="2023-05-24T16:00:40.097" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27902" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10529" RevisionGUID="8dc4f86a-cb88-47e7-8e9a-38b310c797a6" CreationDate="2023-05-26T15:02:20.317" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27903" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10654" RevisionGUID="7036f644-44ab-47d2-9056-71608bae55fd" CreationDate="2023-05-27T20:49:48.643" UserId="708" Text="&gt;budget given doesn't meets the requirements to get the job done on time&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then you **refuse** the project. Or ask for what you *do* need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No one states you *must* accept *any* offer. Thinking you &quot;have to&quot; is folly." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27905" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10542" RevisionGUID="b6aed173-2dce-4b6a-bfb8-717a9e349212" CreationDate="2023-05-28T16:06:26.123" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27909" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10656" RevisionGUID="cf5698d8-9fc6-4727-9125-251ddc09f409" CreationDate="2023-06-02T17:34:45.443" UserId="29192" Text="Whether it be freelance writers, designers, video editors, or programmers, it's usual for them to have a website to attract leads, send to clients, and showcase their best work. However, a website comes with a lot of other work such as SEO and google ranking. I've heard that guest posting is a great way to expand online presence. Since I do have a website selling my services, I'm wondering if guest posting on relevant blogs will help with my website's SEO. I'm curious on your experiences on promoting your site!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27911" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10656" RevisionGUID="cf5698d8-9fc6-4727-9125-251ddc09f409" CreationDate="2023-06-02T17:34:45.443" UserId="29192" Text="Many freelancers have a personal website to showcase their skills and background. If you have one, did you guest post to promote your site?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27912" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10656" RevisionGUID="cf5698d8-9fc6-4727-9125-251ddc09f409" CreationDate="2023-06-02T17:34:45.443" UserId="29192" Text="|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27913" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10657" RevisionGUID="e41424e8-d61c-403a-9208-d9bb3d2310e7" CreationDate="2023-06-03T12:24:53.993" UserId="29357" Text="Not sure this is the right forum, but I figure some people here might be in this situation! &#xD;&#xA;I know you can run multiple businesses from the same LLC. But when I see this, the examples are always related businesses (ex. a mechanic who also sells antique car parts).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a freelance software business that I've been operating for a couple years. Recently, I've also found a few regular gigs as a musician - not nearly enough to warrant its own company, but enough that the expenses are growing and it would be nice to write them off.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can I log both these businesses under my software LLC?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27915" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10657" RevisionGUID="e41424e8-d61c-403a-9208-d9bb3d2310e7" CreationDate="2023-06-03T12:24:53.993" UserId="29357" Text="Do businesses under the same LLC have to be related?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27916" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10657" RevisionGUID="e41424e8-d61c-403a-9208-d9bb3d2310e7" CreationDate="2023-06-03T12:24:53.993" UserId="29357" Text="|taxes|expenses|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27917" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="8205" RevisionGUID="7253b654-05c4-4146-bd43-5adc17932d76" CreationDate="2023-06-04T04:03:45.527" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27918" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10658" RevisionGUID="c642b212-60db-4ac9-82a5-12bb2547adf8" CreationDate="2023-06-07T06:46:43.933" UserId="29103" Text="Why not using git to track versions, branches, changes? Works fine for any ASCII-file, like code including HTML, CSS etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You can also enter binaries, BUT can‘t easily compare and find differences/changes with git alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Git and tracking systems often come together. Github is an example for that synthesis." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27924" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10543" RevisionGUID="36e3f5e6-7f27-48ce-8260-af583bfd0937" CreationDate="2023-06-15T00:01:00.160" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27927" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10661" RevisionGUID="fa5efeab-a98c-45cc-9368-0db3df2363c6" CreationDate="2023-06-21T14:44:09.830" UserId="23884" Text="**Negotiating is contract rather than just accepting/rejecting it**  &#xD;&#xA;Being hired by a client is a two-way negotiation: it is okay to clarify that you expect to be paid more for the urgency or that working on the project would take longer that the client proposes. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Knowing yourself**  &#xD;&#xA;An important part is knowing what concessions you can make and how far you can go in this. If the conditions are plain unacceptable, you just say *No*. However, there might be other motivations, besides money and timing, for taking the project - e.g., to maintain relationship with a long-term client, getting the door open to a profitable sector, not staying completely without work, etc. These have to be taken into account - e.g., admitting that you are not worth (at the moment) as much as you think you are worth is a hard pill; but this may be temporary, and you may start getting paid more as you gain reputation, permanent clients, experience, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Reading the client**  &#xD;&#xA;From the other side, it is always a matter of guessing, how much client is willing to pay and how fast they really expect the work done. There are different types of clients: some have really low budget, others do not really know what they want or how fast they need it, some may be simply shopping for an &quot;intelligent guy&quot; for whom they could later give more work." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27929" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10662" RevisionGUID="9befa820-019f-4184-890f-f7c4d1248c97" CreationDate="2023-06-21T15:02:43.387" UserId="23884" Text="I would like to learn more about the certifications in the domain of statistics. I am mostly interested in those existing in France and European Union, but experience from elsewhere could be also interesting - it could give me useful keywords or ideas. If it needs to be narrowed down, medical and biostatistics are probably of the more immediate interest.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Background:**  &#xD;&#xA;I have strongly quantitative background (due to my studies and later work experience.) Most of the projects that I have worked on in the last few years - either as a freelancer or as an employee - dealt with mathematical modeling and implementation of these models in python. I stress that they had to do not so much with my specific domain knowledge (physics and computational biology), as with the ability to write and solve equations, decent knowledge of probability theory, and python coding skills.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;With all this, I still have difficulty positioning myself on the freelance/job market - I can claim to be neither a statistician, nor a developer, nor a machine learning person - since anyone with an undergraduate degree in these fields easily beats me on some routine task that they were trained to do. Neither do I aspire to compete for the basic level projects in either field. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Nevertheless, I think that I could benefit from confirming my credentials. Notably in everything concerning statistics. Perhaps this could even open access to projects/jobs where formal certifications are required (e.g., in big companies or government run sectors.) " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27931" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10662" RevisionGUID="9befa820-019f-4184-890f-f7c4d1248c97" CreationDate="2023-06-21T15:02:43.387" UserId="23884" Text="Certifications for statisticians" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27932" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10662" RevisionGUID="9befa820-019f-4184-890f-f7c4d1248c97" CreationDate="2023-06-21T15:02:43.387" UserId="23884" Text="|marketing|portfolio|foreign-markets|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27933" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10663" RevisionGUID="396ef9c2-d900-46c6-97c1-7a07956439d2" CreationDate="2023-06-22T03:39:32.220" UserId="27945" Text="I am needing a few quotes on a time estimate of manually tagging (stickers) and recording attributes of all fixed assets in an open, busy grocery store.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client is refusing to pay because it wasn't completed within 5 hours. Tech was given an excel spreadsheet and told to manually tag every asset in the store and record the following attributes:&lt;BR&gt;&#xD;&#xA;*Tag #&lt;BR&gt;Tagged Date&lt;BR&gt;Tagged By&lt;BR&gt;Device Name&lt;BR&gt;Location&lt;BR&gt;Device Type (Dropdown)&lt;BR&gt;Area (Dropdown)&lt;BR&gt;Role (Dropdown)&lt;BR&gt;Status (Dropdown)&lt;BR&gt;Manufacturer&lt;BR&gt;Model&lt;BR&gt;Serial Num&lt;BR&gt;Peripherals&lt;BR&gt;Notes*&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Can anyone help me out? This is approx 250 assets - almost all of which are in use at the time of inventory. A mid-size store in a city of 60k ppl.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Client came up with 5 hours - # of assets was unknown prior to project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks so much for your brain power!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27935" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10663" RevisionGUID="396ef9c2-d900-46c6-97c1-7a07956439d2" CreationDate="2023-06-22T03:39:32.220" UserId="27945" Text="asset management - inventory and tagging" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27936" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10663" RevisionGUID="396ef9c2-d900-46c6-97c1-7a07956439d2" CreationDate="2023-06-22T03:39:32.220" UserId="27945" Text="|difficult-client|estimation|scope-of-work|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27937" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10664" RevisionGUID="a83d602a-1d51-4c47-9608-b4070d963cf3" CreationDate="2023-06-22T06:01:47.837" UserId="29103" Text="I mean, 300 minutes, for 250 items, is a little more than 1 minute to&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - fetch, access, handle the next one&#xD;&#xA; - writing the information by hand or printer&#xD;&#xA; - handle unexpected things&#xD;&#xA; - etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Wishful thinking is no replacement for preparing sound specifications. Variability is an indication of low-quality, not of smartness, not of being a trustworthy client." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27939" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10665" RevisionGUID="f0ebbc1b-92cd-4ced-8e79-115737060876" CreationDate="2023-06-24T11:44:23.923" UserId="29421" Text="**But guest blogging SEO is a contentious topic.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Guest posts are not inherently bad for SEO.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Guest posting (or guest blogging) is a marketing tactic that involves writing articles for other websites in order to promote your brand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Guest posting can be good for SEO (and your wider marketing strategy) because it helps you build your brand profile. And, by extension, brand awareness.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you showcase your expertise and partner with respected sites, you can establish credibility with readers, influencers, and Google.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That can lead to more social followers. New partnership opportunities. Higher rankings. And much more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Plus, any links to your site can generate referral traffic. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sharing your expertise with relevant audiences can help you:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Build your personal profile&#xD;&#xA; - Raise brand awareness&#xD;&#xA; - Drive traffic to your site&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many marketers use guest posts to build links for SEO. (Links are like “votes of confidence” and can benefit Google rankings.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, An article on the [Google Search Central Blog][1] states: “Google does not discourage [guest posts] in the cases when they inform users, educate another site's audience, or bring awareness to your cause or company.”&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But guest articles can be bad for SEO. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because Google may issue a “[Google penalty][2]” (or “manual action”) against a site that engages in manipulative linking practices. This can lead to the site ranking lower in search results. Or being omitted from search results altogether.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2017/05/a-reminder-about-links-in-large-scale&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.semrush.com/kb/624-what-is-a-google-penalty" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27941" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10665" RevisionGUID="99fe4fac-6180-49d4-891c-c1ebb8c768e4" CreationDate="2023-06-24T11:44:44.110" UserId="29421" Comment="deleted 4 characters in body" Text="**Guest blogging SEO is a contentious topic.**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Guest posts are not inherently bad for SEO.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Guest posting (or guest blogging) is a marketing tactic that involves writing articles for other websites in order to promote your brand.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Guest posting can be good for SEO (and your wider marketing strategy) because it helps you build your brand profile. And, by extension, brand awareness.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you showcase your expertise and partner with respected sites, you can establish credibility with readers, influencers, and Google.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;That can lead to more social followers. New partnership opportunities. Higher rankings. And much more.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Plus, any links to your site can generate referral traffic. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Sharing your expertise with relevant audiences can help you:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; - Build your personal profile&#xD;&#xA; - Raise brand awareness&#xD;&#xA; - Drive traffic to your site&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Many marketers use guest posts to build links for SEO. (Links are like “votes of confidence” and can benefit Google rankings.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, An article on the [Google Search Central Blog][1] states: “Google does not discourage [guest posts] in the cases when they inform users, educate another site's audience, or bring awareness to your cause or company.”&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But guest articles can be bad for SEO. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Because Google may issue a “[Google penalty][2]” (or “manual action”) against a site that engages in manipulative linking practices. This can lead to the site ranking lower in search results. Or being omitted from search results altogether.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2017/05/a-reminder-about-links-in-large-scale&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://www.semrush.com/kb/624-what-is-a-google-penalty" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27942" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="363" RevisionGUID="b80dd825-79db-4063-9ec1-a015c2c7afae" CreationDate="2023-06-24T13:35:00.343" UserId="78" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Danubian Sailor&quot;}],&quot;DeleteType&quot;:1}" />
  <row Id="27943" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="324" RevisionGUID="b22ec4f4-1569-4a50-9aa6-c36142d573c7" CreationDate="2023-06-24T13:35:12.520" UserId="78" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Danubian Sailor&quot;}],&quot;DeleteType&quot;:1}" />
  <row Id="27944" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="404" RevisionGUID="2e1ae0e1-928a-477c-8f25-57eb9c84b66a" CreationDate="2023-06-24T13:35:28.743" UserId="78" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Danubian Sailor&quot;}],&quot;DeleteType&quot;:1}" />
  <row Id="27945" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="228" RevisionGUID="83ca0357-1a38-4278-8f3c-fc3ba333e8be" CreationDate="2023-06-27T08:31:01.563" UserId="78" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Danubian Sailor&quot;}],&quot;DeleteType&quot;:1}" />
  <row Id="27946" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="227" RevisionGUID="8b6f8a72-4ba3-44a3-8a98-ed309b48601c" CreationDate="2023-06-27T08:31:06.970" UserId="78" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Danubian Sailor&quot;}],&quot;DeleteType&quot;:1}" />
  <row Id="27947" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="226" RevisionGUID="0e46d2a7-f8d8-4816-ae84-e26ec288fb47" CreationDate="2023-06-27T08:31:13.887" UserId="78" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Danubian Sailor&quot;}],&quot;DeleteType&quot;:1}" />
  <row Id="27948" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="225" RevisionGUID="dddf50b7-29b7-47b1-855b-e789c92ff126" CreationDate="2023-06-27T08:31:18.473" UserId="78" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Danubian Sailor&quot;}],&quot;DeleteType&quot;:1}" />
  <row Id="27949" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="215" RevisionGUID="ac698b87-ef4d-4218-a9a3-a88e6eca6071" CreationDate="2023-06-27T08:31:23.263" UserId="78" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Danubian Sailor&quot;}],&quot;DeleteType&quot;:1}" />
  <row Id="27950" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10666" RevisionGUID="386a73b3-2e23-4e09-bb93-b56dcf0dd6a4" CreationDate="2023-06-28T14:28:44.890" UserId="29431" Text="I have been working as a freelancer for 12 years. Let me tell you that if you think this project will give you learning opportunity then don't think about the budget at all. Just do it and gain experience and add it to your profile. Almost every freelancer start working on projects with a low rate just to win the competition and when they have enough experience and feedback they start getting a lot of job offers then they can adjust the rate of the projects and negotiate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But if you think it is not the case for you then you can explain your client the complication of the project (why the budget should be higher) or you can tell them the quality of your work (the features of you that make you better than the rest of the freelancers who offers a cheap rate). There are clients who would understand and allow renegotiation.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Good luck!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27952" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10667" RevisionGUID="ac6a66b1-b5b7-4690-aa67-da42a9e367ae" CreationDate="2023-06-28T14:44:41.967" UserId="29431" Text="It is totally up to you. Neither your client nor the freelancing sites will limit it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you think you are capable of multi-tasking you can handle many projects at the same time and those who want to keep things organized and can't start something new without ending another it will be very limited to them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some freelancers even don't work at all when they get a lot of projects offer. They just re-assign the works to other freelancers or a team members and become the project manager." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27954" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10668" RevisionGUID="3e45bdc2-7619-4414-b913-e6fa458cd15a" CreationDate="2023-06-29T17:44:14.800" UserId="29441" Text="I was interviewed today for an ongoing support contract, I'm fairly new to freelancing and not come across this kind of work before.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I generally just quote per hour for the developement work I do but would like to take this opportunity to establish a regular income, some sort of retainer that I can rely on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;How does this kind of thing normally work, do I just quote x hours at my standard rate, use it or lose it, would a freelancer normally offer discounts on hours not worked, bit really sure how to broach the subject.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thanks in advance" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27956" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10668" RevisionGUID="3e45bdc2-7619-4414-b913-e6fa458cd15a" CreationDate="2023-06-29T17:44:14.800" UserId="29441" Text="How do I approach requesting a retainer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27957" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10668" RevisionGUID="3e45bdc2-7619-4414-b913-e6fa458cd15a" CreationDate="2023-06-29T17:44:14.800" UserId="29441" Text="|payments|pay-rate|retainer|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27958" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10616" RevisionGUID="3fa76750-d49d-4e4e-ba2c-4a0323efea55" CreationDate="2023-06-30T07:51:36.917" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="Every hour spent must be paid. Don't allow unpaid milestones and even less cash-back. The risk must be on the customer's side, not on yours. The freelancer is the weak party.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Leaving an option to avoid payment can be interpreted in two bad ways by the customer:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- the freelancer is unsure about what he is doing and gives no guarantee to deliver,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- the freelancer does not care for money, and also not about the project. No commitment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, it is wrong to think that the customer loses nothing by not paying. On the opposite, he wasted time with you. Even worse if a few milestones have already been achieved: that's a total loss.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27959" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="229" RevisionGUID="eef9d98d-7aad-48c1-9ed8-26d6c0aa0910" CreationDate="2023-06-30T08:36:13.710" UserId="78" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Danubian Sailor&quot;}],&quot;DeleteType&quot;:1}" />
  <row Id="27960" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="307" RevisionGUID="20fea4eb-dbff-4ced-85c1-bc2732aadd1d" CreationDate="2023-06-30T08:36:20.860" UserId="78" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Danubian Sailor&quot;}],&quot;DeleteType&quot;:1}" />
  <row Id="27961" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="306" RevisionGUID="0e40092a-11e5-428a-a7af-17a1861efe99" CreationDate="2023-06-30T08:36:32.473" UserId="78" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Danubian Sailor&quot;}],&quot;DeleteType&quot;:1}" />
  <row Id="27962" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="388" RevisionGUID="185c27e3-eefa-48b2-bf92-e901e5a00e9b" CreationDate="2023-06-30T08:36:42.117" UserId="78" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Danubian Sailor&quot;}],&quot;DeleteType&quot;:1}" />
  <row Id="27965" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10663" RevisionGUID="15dc427b-d6a5-4519-87ad-467d7f3d92fd" CreationDate="2023-07-22T06:06:55.903" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27966" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10670" RevisionGUID="60361095-0b91-4194-8694-b56a4c0fac1c" CreationDate="2023-07-22T12:45:31.203" UserId="29530" Text="I wonder if achieving this level of income requires working as part of a team or if a single freelancer like myself can accomplish it alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What skills do I need besides full stack developer to achieve such milestone?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27968" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10670" RevisionGUID="60361095-0b91-4194-8694-b56a4c0fac1c" CreationDate="2023-07-22T12:45:31.203" UserId="29530" Text="Are there any individual full stack freelancers on Upwork who have earned 500k+?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27969" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10670" RevisionGUID="60361095-0b91-4194-8694-b56a4c0fac1c" CreationDate="2023-07-22T12:45:31.203" UserId="29530" Text="|web-development|marketing|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27970" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="10670" RevisionGUID="813dcc9c-ba96-4212-aba9-c686de03f0cc" CreationDate="2023-07-22T13:30:05.840" UserId="29530" Comment="edited tags" Text="|freelance-websites|web-development|marketing|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27971" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10670" RevisionGUID="a3481177-b0d6-4d52-8e69-9d4fd761572f" CreationDate="2023-07-23T03:30:03.707" UserId="29530" Comment="edited title" Text="Are there any individual full stack freelancers on Upwork who have earned $500k+ till now?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27972" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10670" RevisionGUID="15e9cff6-9cce-4aeb-aa0a-cedf4c6b8919" CreationDate="2023-07-23T03:33:54.043" UserId="29530" Comment="added 65 characters in body" Text="As well as they earned more than $20K in a single project. I wonder if achieving this level of income requires working as part of a team or if a single freelancer like myself can accomplish it alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What skills do I need besides full-stack development to achieve such a milestone?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27973" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10670" RevisionGUID="7eb049f3-a724-4c04-bc39-149c9a35923e" CreationDate="2023-07-23T03:39:58.153" UserId="29530" Comment="added 28 characters in body" Text="As well as they earned more than $20K in a single project. I wonder if achieving this level of income requires working as part of a team or if a single freelancer like myself can accomplish it alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What skills do I need besides full-stack development to achieve such a milestone?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Earning are before tax]" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27974" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10670" RevisionGUID="5b4d1c24-a743-4387-8b4d-9522827603d4" CreationDate="2023-07-23T03:40:05.223" UserId="29530" Comment="added 1 character in body" Text="As well as they earned more than $20K in a single project. I wonder if achieving this level of income requires working as part of a team or if a single freelancer like myself can accomplish it alone.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What skills do I need besides full-stack development to achieve such a milestone?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[Earnings are before tax]" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27975" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10671" RevisionGUID="67a0bc4e-c776-4477-aff7-24022b0c1da0" CreationDate="2023-07-23T14:05:49.630" UserId="26181" Text="There are many people who are independent freelancers with such incomes. However, many of them consider UpWork to be one of many venues for getting work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The skills needed to be successful can include sales and marketing skills, negotiation skills, as well as financial and accounting skills. One of the key points in my work is to recognize how much time and effort is needed to be put into sales and marketing, to plan for that time and effort, and to manage my schedule so that I put in the effort to do marketing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember that clients do not want a &quot;full stack developer&quot;. They want their business problems solved. That their problem needs full stack custom software is just part of how to solve the business problem. Speak to their problem and show how you will solve it." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27977" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10656" RevisionGUID="7dc6d94b-f0a2-44ef-9b05-0ce11bca7b4d" CreationDate="2023-07-24T12:04:15.470" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27978" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10672" RevisionGUID="ae315b8f-2dc1-4534-8b0f-1068dfedb009" CreationDate="2023-07-24T21:26:30.737" UserId="29536" Text="Yes, you can operate multiple different types of businesses under the same Limited Liability Company (LLC). Businesses operating under the same LLC do not have to be related. However, there are several factors you should consider:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Liability: The main purpose of an LLC is to protect the owner's personal assets from potential business debts or liabilities. If you have two completely different types of businesses under the same LLC, liabilities from one business could potentially affect the other. For example, if someone sued your software business, your income and assets from the musician gig could be at risk.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Taxes and Accounting: Having different types of businesses under the same LLC could make accounting and taxes more complicated, as you'd have to keep track of expenses and revenues separately for each one.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Brand Perception: Operating unrelated businesses under the same LLC could confuse customers and dilute your brand identity. People might not understand how or why a software business and a musician gig are related.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your situation, if you want to keep your software and musician business under the same LLC, you may want to consider using a DBA (Doing Business As) for one or both businesses. A DBA allows you to operate a business under a different name without creating a separate LLC.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, before you make a decision, it's best to consult with a business advisor or attorney who is familiar with the specific laws and regulations in your state. They can help you understand the pros and cons and make the best choice for your specific situation." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="27980" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="313" RevisionGUID="24a39759-ef53-48fd-94e8-e088e5ffc4bd" CreationDate="2023-07-25T09:45:57.690" UserId="78" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Danubian Sailor&quot;}],&quot;DeleteType&quot;:1}" />
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  <row Id="27982" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="268" RevisionGUID="bead87df-7eb8-4738-9270-ec3ac4f2c0dc" CreationDate="2023-07-25T09:46:37.867" UserId="78" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Danubian Sailor&quot;}],&quot;DeleteType&quot;:1}" />
  <row Id="27983" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="284" RevisionGUID="51a19adb-98c5-4607-90f4-7d40c8d04772" CreationDate="2023-07-25T09:46:45.403" UserId="78" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Danubian Sailor&quot;}],&quot;DeleteType&quot;:1}" />
  <row Id="27984" PostHistoryTypeId="12" PostId="364" RevisionGUID="a7977ee5-aabf-4af5-bb5d-778358226aca" CreationDate="2023-07-26T11:13:57.057" UserId="78" Comment="via Vote" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:78,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Danubian Sailor&quot;}],&quot;DeleteType&quot;:1}" />
  <row Id="27985" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10673" RevisionGUID="dd2f38a5-5871-40db-85c0-a36aef10bd6a" CreationDate="2023-07-28T13:21:41.770" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="My sales terms and offers ask for SHA transfer costs (every party assumes the cost on its side). Because IMO this creates an atmosphere of fairness and reciprocity.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This said, nothing prevents you from integrating this cost in your fee. After all, the customers cover all your expenses.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
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  <row Id="27988" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="284" RevisionGUID="dabd3e85-9d21-416d-9932-9325be347505" CreationDate="2023-07-28T14:59:25.317" UserId="27967" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:27967,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Dalmarus&quot;}]}" />
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  <row Id="27990" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="654" RevisionGUID="3c328caa-4b19-4032-a58e-01b97e65c63f" CreationDate="2023-07-28T15:00:12.930" UserId="27967" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:27967,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Dalmarus&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="27991" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="313" RevisionGUID="adf229aa-8314-4eb4-8a41-500575dd68d7" CreationDate="2023-07-28T15:00:26.160" UserId="27967" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:27967,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Dalmarus&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="27992" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10529" RevisionGUID="390f9966-4dbf-4437-b87b-49b1351747d0" CreationDate="2023-07-28T15:07:10.823" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="27993" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10674" RevisionGUID="41db667a-a6db-4002-a827-38c151fafaa3" CreationDate="2023-07-29T19:57:20.983" UserId="29548" Text="Poland and Bulgaria has very low taxes on freelance software developers. Poland taxes on software developers are 12% flat up to 2 millions euros + about 600 euros in social security contributions." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28009" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="229" RevisionGUID="cc43f74b-1339-4719-af5f-995ea5c35051" CreationDate="2023-08-10T21:10:36.907" UserId="75" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:75,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Canadian Luke&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="28013" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="1710" RevisionGUID="f33dd8e0-19d5-4ee1-8bf6-7f7a30128310" CreationDate="2023-08-10T21:12:46.600" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
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  <row Id="28016" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="306" RevisionGUID="56539e93-6a4b-41d9-a012-bc61f2447db5" CreationDate="2023-08-14T16:49:27.737" UserId="27967" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:27967,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Dalmarus&quot;}]}" />
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  <row Id="28018" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="215" RevisionGUID="8da0adea-107b-4ab3-ab65-c6a371209d84" CreationDate="2023-08-14T16:49:38.777" UserId="27967" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:27967,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Dalmarus&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="28019" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="225" RevisionGUID="fddaa076-f002-4588-b4b8-086eb41857fc" CreationDate="2023-08-14T16:49:44.113" UserId="27967" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:27967,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Dalmarus&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="28020" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="226" RevisionGUID="47b1eb54-0e13-4a34-a1c8-ac1f0d9315d2" CreationDate="2023-08-14T16:49:49.573" UserId="27967" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:27967,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Dalmarus&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="28021" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="227" RevisionGUID="7a88d10a-ef1f-437e-a40a-ed17b8d1092a" CreationDate="2023-08-14T16:50:01.063" UserId="27967" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:27967,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Dalmarus&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="28022" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="228" RevisionGUID="d373edc3-38c7-4ab3-b382-dc2dd3a0a118" CreationDate="2023-08-14T16:50:06.793" UserId="27967" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:27967,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Dalmarus&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="28023" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="404" RevisionGUID="9fef58c4-d048-463d-b862-d08c7249df7e" CreationDate="2023-08-14T16:50:12.767" UserId="27967" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:27967,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Dalmarus&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="28024" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="324" RevisionGUID="619330a6-7a00-4196-8ace-67d5794560aa" CreationDate="2023-08-14T16:50:21.957" UserId="27967" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:27967,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Dalmarus&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="28025" PostHistoryTypeId="13" PostId="363" RevisionGUID="ab15efb4-20af-45f8-b7ae-03d3d64a6ab7" CreationDate="2023-08-14T16:50:28.267" UserId="27967" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:27967,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Dalmarus&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="28029" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10680" RevisionGUID="e324994d-10e5-4cdc-a760-ad5766d0c3bf" CreationDate="2023-08-22T07:38:40.790" UserId="29633" Text="I have been working as a freelancer for the past 3 years. One important thing to remember when you're just starting out is that you might need to accept lower pay for your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you build your reputation in the freelancing field, you'll have the choice to take on lower-paying projects. You can find people who are willing to do the work for less money, give them the project, and oversee its progress.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have done many projects in this way and will do them by myself only strong offers projects maybe my answer is helpful or not but it's just my own way of working.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;thank you" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28031" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10680" RevisionGUID="8afe0b67-033b-4d41-9e06-7355c7f83bc4" CreationDate="2023-08-22T07:40:15.617" UserId="29633" Comment="added 143 characters in body" Text="I have been working as a freelancer for the past 3 years. One important thing to remember when you're just starting out is that you might need to accept lower pay for your work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you build your reputation in the freelancing field, you'll have the choice to take on lower-paying projects. You can find people who are willing to do the work for less money, give them the project, and oversee its progress.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have done many projects in this way and will do them by myself only strong offers projects maybe my answer is helpful or not but it's just my own way of working.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2nd is you can accept offer in less but through your communication skills and work quality with new suggestions request to increase offer .&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;thank you" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28036" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10682" RevisionGUID="0797eb87-05ea-46a3-91e7-962c5de907f8" CreationDate="2023-08-23T11:57:36.790" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="I see two cases:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- the project is big and risky: only propose a charged preliminary study, which will allow you to validate your technical choices and get better insight on the costs;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- the project is small or not risky: only *you* know how long *you* will take for the requested tasks, using the requested technology. You will rely on previous projects and on intuition. If the kind of project is recurring, you can establish estimates based on the volume of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As regards myself, I always start an offer by a *Work Breakdown Structure* and assign manpower to every item. During the course of the project, I confront those figures to reality. In general many of the estimates are wrong, but fortunately, the errors can compensate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_breakdown_structure" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28038" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10682" RevisionGUID="7b45a62b-5b98-4e7e-8b44-528084d269ee" CreationDate="2023-08-23T12:24:58.943" UserDisplayName="user4521" Comment="added 22 characters in body" Text="I see two cases:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- the project is big and risky: only propose a charged preliminary study, which will allow you to validate your technical choices and get better insight on the costs, or phase the project;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- the project is small or not risky: only *you* know how long *you* will take for the requested tasks, using the requested technology. You will rely on previous projects and on intuition. If the kind of project is recurring, you can establish estimates based on the volume of work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As regards myself, I always start an offer by a *Work Breakdown Structure* and assign man-hours to every item. During the course of the project, I confront those figures to reality. In general many of the estimates are wrong, but fortunately, the errors can compensate.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_breakdown_structure" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28039" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10657" RevisionGUID="185b2c67-848c-4681-817d-0bbdef43165b" CreationDate="2023-08-23T22:03:05.353" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28047" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10029" RevisionGUID="f3a12b1b-5257-45fe-83ea-e8d317139f67" CreationDate="2023-08-28T23:06:05.720" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28048" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10685" RevisionGUID="3e6408ff-5036-4211-a8a0-c5c41bbb770a" CreationDate="2023-08-29T09:00:19.727" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text=" - &quot;Any code you use from your own code base&quot;: you can license the code instead of selling it. State it in the contract and/or sales terms*.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- &quot;what's mine and what's newly generated IP&quot;: you should know it while coding. If you just license the software (see above), there is no need to distinguish. If you plan to sell the new code, try to keep the files separate, or comment in the files.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- &quot;in accordance with its respective licensing agreement&quot;: this is a must. Make sure that you respect the terms of these respective licensing agreements. You may refer to them explicitly in your contract or just state that you respect them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the utilities, prototypes and other tools aren't required to use the software, and only served for your own work, you don't need to deliver them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;----------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;*When I deliver source code, I explicitly forbid the client to resell to third parties it but let him free to use it for his own purposes." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28050" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10686" RevisionGUID="6a578fa0-3f38-4014-8539-a4e47d66533b" CreationDate="2023-08-29T15:00:23.280" UserId="29676" Text="I recently had a company reach out asking if I'd be interested in editing and writing programming articles for them (basically dev advocate related). I have 10 years experience as a software engineer. In the past I've written a bunch of technical articles, but it's always been as part of my job or for my personal site.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is considered &quot;average pay&quot; when writing vs. editing 500-3000 word technical articles? How do you charge for this kind of work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28052" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10686" RevisionGUID="6a578fa0-3f38-4014-8539-a4e47d66533b" CreationDate="2023-08-29T15:00:23.280" UserId="29676" Text="How do people navigate contract software article editor/writer work?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28053" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10686" RevisionGUID="6a578fa0-3f38-4014-8539-a4e47d66533b" CreationDate="2023-08-29T15:00:23.280" UserId="29676" Text="|payments|pay-rate|software|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28063" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10688" RevisionGUID="63ad2407-2c5b-475d-9496-15f011581344" CreationDate="2023-09-01T15:13:24.333" UserId="1706" Text="You CAN, but if you ever get into a situation where you need any kind of insurance for your business activity, it will be a problem because you're in two different lines of business.  The insurance companies won't know how to evaluate you as a risk." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28067" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10690" RevisionGUID="2d770188-6951-4d3d-bac2-7def42d544b7" CreationDate="2023-09-04T13:19:42.027" UserId="29702" Text="You can ask them to send your earning certificate till the date, you want it. Moreover, you also ask your bank to give your certificate for the earnings you got from these online platforms." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28069" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10691" RevisionGUID="29c544d3-d352-4091-96dc-94ea003fdc8c" CreationDate="2023-09-04T15:50:51.490" UserId="29703" Text="A recruiting company offered me to work as a freelance paid for a success fee.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When the company hires the candidate, the position is closed positively and my partner invoices between 10 and 20% of the annual salary. &#xD;&#xA;Everyone who helped find the customer, identify the candidate, or participated in the screening and interview process gets a share.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**How much is the screening and interview service worth** and what are the *risks or benefits*, compared to other activities? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;PS *I just arrived here on &quot;StackExchange&quot; and I hope to be &quot;in topic&quot;. Thank you for any suggestion*" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28071" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10691" RevisionGUID="29c544d3-d352-4091-96dc-94ea003fdc8c" CreationDate="2023-09-04T15:50:51.490" UserId="29703" Text="How much do recruiting companies pay for the freelance selection process" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28072" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10691" RevisionGUID="29c544d3-d352-4091-96dc-94ea003fdc8c" CreationDate="2023-09-04T15:50:51.490" UserId="29703" Text="|contracts|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28073" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="10691" RevisionGUID="c69660f6-6691-4950-a01b-876ab9e81332" CreationDate="2023-09-04T15:52:38.223" UserId="29703" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|pay-rate|price|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28074" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10692" RevisionGUID="e3509c0c-8034-4baf-846f-d9eb781b71ce" CreationDate="2023-09-05T12:11:32.847" UserId="29707" Text="Dealing with a freelancing project when the budget doesn't seem sufficient can be challenging, but it's essential to navigate these situations professionally and effectively. Here's a step-by-step approach to handle such situations:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Evaluate the Scope:** First, make sure you have a clear understanding of the project's scope and requirements. Double-check if your assessment aligns with the budget provided. Sometimes, the scope might be more extensive than you initially thought.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Communicate with the Client:** Reach out to your client promptly and professionally. Express your concerns about the budget and the potential impact on the project's quality or timeline. Use polite and constructive language. Explain what the budget limitations mean in terms of the project's deliverables and timeframe.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Offer Solutions:** Instead of just highlighting the problem, propose potential solutions. These could include:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Adjusting the scope:** Suggest reducing the project's scope to fit within the budget while maintaining its core objectives.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Phasing the project:** Propose breaking the project into smaller phases that can be completed within the given budget, with additional phases to be considered later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Negotiating an increase in the budget:** Politely inquire if the client is open to revisiting the budget to better match the project's requirements.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Provide Alternatives:** If the client is unwilling or unable to increase the budget, offer alternative approaches that might be more cost-effective. For example, using existing templates, tools, or resources that can save time and money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Consider Your Limits:** Be clear about your own limitations. Determine the minimum budget you would need to complete the project satisfactorily. If the client cannot meet this minimum, you may need to decline the project to avoid taking on something that may not be financially viable.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Document Everything:** Keep records of all communication with the client regarding the budget discussions. This can be essential for resolving disputes or clarifying expectations later on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Make a Decision:** Based on the client's response and your own assessment, make a decision about whether you can proceed with the project within the given constraints. If you can't reach a reasonable agreement and you believe the project won't be successful within the budget, it might be best to decline the project politely.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember that clear communication and professionalism are key in handling these situations. It's important to maintain a positive relationship with the client, even if you cannot reach an agreement on the budget. This can help preserve your reputation and potentially lead to future opportunities when circumstances allow for a better budget match." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28076" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10586" RevisionGUID="00fecae6-0138-47f1-8d2d-33f4edac61c3" CreationDate="2023-09-06T16:05:05.597" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28089" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10695" RevisionGUID="2955a1bd-2804-4dfd-8156-c2000a438eeb" CreationDate="2023-09-15T09:54:25.277" UserId="29748" Text="I have a question about dealing with a client. They're not accepting the final design, and we've spent a lot of time making small changes to one part of the page, well beyond our estimated timeframe. The client keeps changing their mind in every meeting and can't provide clear preferences. All they say is 'I don't like it' and ask for more options, even after multiple revisions. This is my first design contract, and I'm not sure what's standard practice in the industry. What should I do?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28091" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10695" RevisionGUID="2955a1bd-2804-4dfd-8156-c2000a438eeb" CreationDate="2023-09-15T09:54:25.277" UserId="29748" Text="Question about the design contract work. / undecisive client" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28092" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10695" RevisionGUID="2955a1bd-2804-4dfd-8156-c2000a438eeb" CreationDate="2023-09-15T09:54:25.277" UserId="29748" Text="|web-development|design|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28093" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10696" RevisionGUID="f9da2775-155a-4e2e-be19-4f8147ee1f2e" CreationDate="2023-09-15T11:53:58.113" UserDisplayName="user4521" Text="Stop the work immediately and demand payment. Justify this by listing the initial offer and the history of the changes.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a risk that the client will refuse to pay, but another risk that you do more work for free.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Keep in mind that an hour performed is an hour due." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28095" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10697" RevisionGUID="f9a5c514-326b-467f-be66-0867fc1429e6" CreationDate="2023-09-15T18:22:34.120" UserId="708" Text="In my experience, *no* piece, even the most intricate complicated piece, has *ever* gone above 5-10 revisions. If a piece is surpassing that amount, or the requested revisions are &quot;sweeping&quot; in nature, something needs to be **discussed**.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If changes are *repeatedly* sweeping in nature, I'll stop working and have a **conversation** in order to determine *why* work thus far has been unsatisfactory. If the client isn't liking *anything* I'm creating, then they simply don't like my work and would be better served finding another designer they *do* like. I request payment for my time and move on. &quot;I just don't like it&quot; is **not** a response I'll accept. I push so I know *why* it's not liked. If a client is unnecessarily concerned with my &quot;emotional well-being&quot; over their reaction, then I'm not getting valuable, usable, responses from them. I often need to let the client know that my &quot;ego&quot; is not part of the equation... they can outright *hate* the work, and that's fine. But I need to know an honest response if they wish me to improve what they are seeing. If they aren't willing to provide more concise design direction, then it is indeed a &quot;lost project&quot; and I need to move on. The client is either unprepared for design or too indecisive for me to waste my time with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- If changes are more of the minor, typographical nature then the client is merely disorganized and I need to have a conversation about my time and how repeated minor changes are more costly. Essentially, I alert the client that I'm reaching a threshold of tolerable changes. I don't refuse to make any further changes. I merely make it known that my time is valuable and they need to be more decisive and targeted with any change requests. Thus far, this has always sufficed.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;---------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;All the above being posted. If you have a contract, what does that state about revisions, if anything? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you don't have a contract, then, well, it's a matter of *negotiation*, or just abandoning the project, hope you get paid and let the client find a designer they like. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not every designer is suited for every project and every client. It can be considerably more beneficial in terms of my time to just let some clients or projects go to some other designer. I need to spend my time where it's most valuable to **me**, not the client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28104" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10698" RevisionGUID="9277d8fb-5fa5-4df6-a775-535417e5ec92" CreationDate="2023-09-16T20:44:40.543" UserId="1706" Text="I'm noticing from the one of the comments here that you haven't received your initial deposit yet.  Oh my gosh!  You are being played.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As you have not received a penny of &quot;consideration&quot; for the current contract that required a deposit, many jurisdictions would consider your obligations under the contract as void due to breach.  (I am not an attorney)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't turn over any completed work product whatsoever.  The client is trying to get you to submit work on a speculative basis, and then when you submit something that approximates their needs, all of a sudden all of your calls to them will start going to voice mail and your emails will go unanswered.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This isn't about the client being indecisive.  This is more so about you being unwilling to set boundaries, and the client gradually testing and testing to see if you're going to draw the line -- and it looks as if you haven't.  When you have an undecisive client, you CANNOT accept fix priced work.  If the client controls the requirements and can change them at-will, you must charge hourly instead.  If the requirements are fixed, THEN and ONLY then you can charge a fixed price.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You're going to have to reel it in, or clients like this will eat you alive.  See the [no-spec][1] website.  Make sure you have specific payment terms in the contract (I wouldn't go past [net 10][2]).  In fact, for THIS slimy client it'd actually be better for you to take a retainer up front, and bill your hours out of the retainer until it's gone; at this point, the client must refill your retainer for work to continue.  This would be the safest situation for you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'd bet any kind of money that when you set some boundaries, this client will disappear.  But hey, you've gained some experience and no money -- call it &quot;tuition&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.nospec.com/&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: https://gocardless.com/en-us/guides/posts/payment-terms/#:~:text=Common%20forms%20are%20net%2010,delivery%20of%20goods%20or%20services." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28106" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6837" RevisionGUID="f3436b53-6c0a-43b6-80dd-30032965d3e6" CreationDate="2023-09-17T23:01:10.170" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28119" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10521" RevisionGUID="169fa33e-8d35-4593-94d6-4c6289cf1763" CreationDate="2023-09-21T16:07:05.857" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28120" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10701" RevisionGUID="0a58f346-6b92-45fe-9988-4e75647d34c1" CreationDate="2023-09-21T23:00:49.747" UserId="29781" Text="It's good that you're thinking about this question, but it's a complex one, and it will be difficult for other people to give a definitive answer. Most people will write about what is popular now (e-commerce, digital marketing, agencies, etc.), but I will say from my experience that after trying all these areas, I realised that I am not interested in any of them. I'm an introverted person and I'm more comfortable working online, so now I earn extra money by selling my images and illustrations that I create myself using web design. Yes, it's not a career or a profession, but it's a hobby that brings in money and I enjoy doing it. Looking back at myself a year ago, I see progress and I'm not afraid of the future. Just know that you are not alone and your basic skills are very good enough to move on) Programming skills are extremely valuable, so it's worth trying your hand at freelancing, there are plenty of offers of varying complexity and pay on the Fiverr and Upwork platforms." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28124" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10542" RevisionGUID="cd8bf5b9-4816-4b67-bc2b-5e79caa89511" CreationDate="2023-09-25T17:01:10.203" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28125" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10702" RevisionGUID="6f48c890-e41c-403d-9938-e562b937954b" CreationDate="2023-09-25T22:27:40.627" UserId="29797" Text="I am looking for a PCB schematic/layout design work as part of freelancing. Any leads on where to find them?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28127" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10702" RevisionGUID="6f48c890-e41c-403d-9938-e562b937954b" CreationDate="2023-09-25T22:27:40.627" UserId="29797" Text="Places to find PCB design freelance jobs" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28128" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10702" RevisionGUID="6f48c890-e41c-403d-9938-e562b937954b" CreationDate="2023-09-25T22:27:40.627" UserId="29797" Text="|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28130" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10703" RevisionGUID="3e6dbcfc-cc28-4d54-9b4c-328b4fc3c8c2" CreationDate="2023-09-26T11:54:41.373" UserId="29798" Text="Is it okay to seek freelance work outside of full-time employment?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am mainly looking for something more challenging and satisfying in regards to work so I can use my head a bit more.  I don't want to leave my current full-time position since I've only been there a year and aside from losing matching 401k contributions, equity, etc.  I feel it'd be distraction on my resume." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28132" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10703" RevisionGUID="3e6dbcfc-cc28-4d54-9b4c-328b4fc3c8c2" CreationDate="2023-09-26T11:54:41.373" UserId="29798" Text="Is it okay to seek freelance work outside of full-time employment?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28133" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10703" RevisionGUID="3e6dbcfc-cc28-4d54-9b4c-328b4fc3c8c2" CreationDate="2023-09-26T11:54:41.373" UserId="29798" Text="|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28134" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10703" RevisionGUID="9380a16b-be4f-46e3-9f37-a6202f53f4a4" CreationDate="2023-09-26T17:59:31.963" UserId="29798" Comment="added 500 characters in body" Text="Is it okay to seek freelance work outside of full-time employment?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am mainly looking for something more challenging and satisfying in regards to work so I can use my head a bit more.  I don't want to leave my current full-time position since I've only been there a year and aside from losing matching 401k contributions, equity, etc.  I feel it'd be distraction on my resume.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT #1:&#xD;&#xA;The contact says that I may not work for a competitor, supplier, or vendor of the company.  There is an additional statement which says that it must not interfere with my performance, that is a given to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if I interpret that in black and white, if I work for a financial company, then I cannot work for a competing financial company, but if I work for a farm, that is perfectly fine unless the farm is a vendor the company uses for meal preparation or something of that nature." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28135" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10703" RevisionGUID="bd33683a-61fa-4375-86a7-38faaa06123f" CreationDate="2023-09-26T18:00:40.360" UserId="29798" Comment="added 107 characters in body" Text="Is it okay to seek freelance work outside of full-time employment?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am mainly looking for something more challenging and satisfying in regards to work so I can use my head a bit more.  I don't want to leave my current full-time position since I've only been there a year and aside from losing matching 401k contributions, equity, etc.  I feel it'd be distraction on my resume.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;EDIT #1:&#xD;&#xA;The contact says that I may not work for a competitor, supplier, or vendor of the company.  There is an additional statement which says that it must not interfere with my performance, that is a given to me.  If I take on additional work outside my normal work and my performance suffers as a result, that is a no brainer that I shouldn't be taking on additional work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So, if I interpret that in black and white, if I work for a financial company, then I cannot work for a competing financial company, but if I work for a farm, that is perfectly fine unless the farm is a vendor the company." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28136" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10701" RevisionGUID="15ad441f-e557-43e9-ab5f-aa985cf2fcf6" CreationDate="2023-09-27T02:25:25.377" UserId="29781" Comment="added 199 characters in body" Text="It's good that you're thinking about this question, but it's a complex one, and it will be difficult for other people to give a definitive answer. Most people will write about what is popular now (e-commerce, digital marketing, agencies, etc.), but I will say from my experience that after trying all these areas, I realised that I am not interested in any of them. I'm an introverted person and I'm more comfortable working online, so now I earn extra money by selling my images and illustrations that I create myself using web design. Yes, it's not a career or a profession, but it's a hobby that brings in money and I enjoy doing it. If you are interested, you can see how I recently made an illustration on the [diamond alphabet][1] on the depositphotos platform. Looking back at myself a year ago, I see progress and I'm not afraid of the future. Just know that you are not alone and your basic skills are very good enough to move on) Programming skills are extremely valuable, so it's worth trying your hand at freelancing, there are plenty of offers of varying complexity and pay on the Fiverr and Upwork platforms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://depositphotos.com/vectors/diamond-alphabet.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28144" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="10701" RevisionGUID="b3ce2453-a6c2-4343-a427-6afc72982857" CreationDate="2023-09-28T16:14:19.667" UserId="75" Comment="Rollback to [0a58f346-6b92-45fe-9988-4e75647d34c1]" Text="It's good that you're thinking about this question, but it's a complex one, and it will be difficult for other people to give a definitive answer. Most people will write about what is popular now (e-commerce, digital marketing, agencies, etc.), but I will say from my experience that after trying all these areas, I realised that I am not interested in any of them. I'm an introverted person and I'm more comfortable working online, so now I earn extra money by selling my images and illustrations that I create myself using web design. Yes, it's not a career or a profession, but it's a hobby that brings in money and I enjoy doing it. Looking back at myself a year ago, I see progress and I'm not afraid of the future. Just know that you are not alone and your basic skills are very good enough to move on) Programming skills are extremely valuable, so it's worth trying your hand at freelancing, there are plenty of offers of varying complexity and pay on the Fiverr and Upwork platforms." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28147" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10701" RevisionGUID="84c3bdef-2544-4f12-a0af-ac61e89e3f93" CreationDate="2023-10-01T08:28:18.920" UserId="29781" Comment="additional info " Text="It's good that you're thinking about this question, but it's a complex one, and it will be difficult for other people to give a definitive answer. Most people will write about what is popular now (e-commerce, digital marketing, agencies, crypto, IT, etc.), but I will say from my experience that after trying all these areas, I realised that I am not interested in any of them. I'm an introverted person and I'm more comfortable working online, so now I earn extra money by selling my images and illustrations that I create myself using web design. Yes, it's not a career or a profession, but it's a hobby that brings in money and I enjoy doing it. If you are interested, you can see how I recently made an illustration on the [diamond alphabet](https://depositphotos.com/vectors/diamond-alphabet.html) on the depositphotos platform. I'm sure it will take time for me to realise exactly where I can do my best. Looking back at myself a year ago, I see progress and I'm not afraid of the future. Just know that you are not alone and your basic skills are very good enough to move on) Programming skills are extremely valuable, so it's worth trying your hand at freelancing, there are plenty of offers of varying complexity and pay on the Fiverr and Upwork platforms." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28148" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10657" RevisionGUID="4af6249c-c0ba-4f44-a2ee-3942fcd2ec42" CreationDate="2023-10-01T16:05:35.607" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28149" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="10701" RevisionGUID="1243b6c4-616b-4716-922c-074c84eace34" CreationDate="2023-10-02T18:39:39.763" UserId="75" Comment="Rollback to [b3ce2453-a6c2-4343-a427-6afc72982857]" Text="It's good that you're thinking about this question, but it's a complex one, and it will be difficult for other people to give a definitive answer. Most people will write about what is popular now (e-commerce, digital marketing, agencies, etc.), but I will say from my experience that after trying all these areas, I realised that I am not interested in any of them. I'm an introverted person and I'm more comfortable working online, so now I earn extra money by selling my images and illustrations that I create myself using web design. Yes, it's not a career or a profession, but it's a hobby that brings in money and I enjoy doing it. Looking back at myself a year ago, I see progress and I'm not afraid of the future. Just know that you are not alone and your basic skills are very good enough to move on) Programming skills are extremely valuable, so it's worth trying your hand at freelancing, there are plenty of offers of varying complexity and pay on the Fiverr and Upwork platforms." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28150" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10706" RevisionGUID="918c018e-fabd-4636-930f-5c6547d81204" CreationDate="2023-10-07T04:05:57.113" UserId="29838" Text="How do I monetize a viral picture?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Hey all!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I like to dable in nature photography as a hobby and have been doing it for a while now. Recently, I started posting them on Google maps (about 9 months now). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is one in particular that is getting a lot of views. Last time I checked, it had a little over 300,000 views. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would definitely like to capitalize on this and turn it into profit/income. The problem is that I don’t how. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I’ve thought about setting up a website where people can buy prints, but I have the obstacle of limited web design skills and I don’t have thousands of dollars to hire a web designer. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I had also been posting on Instagram, but the trolls are really good so I took that down. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I also currently have a store front setup on society6. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Long term, I would like to do this at a semi-pro level. By that I mean having have the pictures published in books and/or used in ads; and be able to hire a couple apprentices.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Looking forward to hearing what the community recommends for someone who does this solo as a hobby and dreams of growing it into a small business. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[tags: marketing]&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28152" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10706" RevisionGUID="918c018e-fabd-4636-930f-5c6547d81204" CreationDate="2023-10-07T04:05:57.113" UserId="29838" Text="How to capitalize on a picture that has gone viral" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28153" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10706" RevisionGUID="918c018e-fabd-4636-930f-5c6547d81204" CreationDate="2023-10-07T04:05:57.113" UserId="29838" Text="|marketing|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28156" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10707" RevisionGUID="24619c53-ab9d-4c1e-a40a-4a675f9cbb78" CreationDate="2023-10-09T17:56:13.587" UserId="29859" Text="Do they have to be related?  No.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should they be related?  In your case, I would strongly recommend it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The IRS (along with most tax authorities) generally disallow people from deducting losses on hobbies.  Otherwise, for example, people that enjoy photography would be able to deduct thousands of dollars of equipment from their taxes by claiming they were running a business that happened to make minimal profit.  Musicians are a prime target for this-- it's pretty easy to find musicians that spend thousands of dollars on instruments, lessons, transportation, etc. to play hundreds of dollars worth of gigs.  In that case, you're allowed to deduct expenses up to the amount of money you earned from your hobby but you're not allowed to show a loss.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your tax authority sees that you have a LLC that does software and music, their immediate suspicion will be that you've set it up this way so that you can illegally deduct expenses from your music hobby in excess of your income from that hobby.  You could rebut that by keeping meticulous books that allocate every bit of income and every expense to one of the two lines of business and ensuring that the music business shows a profit.  But that's likely to be more time consuming than simply treating the music endeavor as a separate business either as a separate LLC or as a simple sole proprietorship.  And you'd only be able to show that evidence once the taxing authority had decided to audit you which is something people are generally eager to avoid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28158" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10707" RevisionGUID="1457b5ab-ce56-4ce0-b0d3-329db31e465c" CreationDate="2023-10-09T18:02:58.937" UserId="29859" Comment="added 613 characters in body" Text="Do they have to be related?  No.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Should they be related?  In your case, I would strongly recommend it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The IRS (along with most tax authorities) generally disallow people from deducting losses on hobbies.  Otherwise, for example, people that enjoy photography would be able to deduct thousands of dollars of equipment from their taxes by claiming they were running a business that happened to make minimal profit.  Musicians are a prime target for this-- it's pretty easy to find musicians that spend thousands of dollars on instruments, lessons, transportation, etc. to play hundreds of dollars worth of gigs.  In that case, you're allowed to deduct expenses up to the amount of money you earned from your hobby but you're not allowed to show a loss.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your tax authority sees that you have a LLC that does software and music, their immediate suspicion will be that you've set it up this way so that you can illegally deduct expenses from your music hobby in excess of your income from that hobby.  You could rebut that by keeping meticulous books that allocate every bit of income and every expense to one of the two lines of business and ensuring that the music business shows a profit.  But that's likely to be more time consuming than simply treating the music endeavor as a separate business either as a separate LLC or as a simple sole proprietorship.  And you'd only be able to show that evidence once the taxing authority had decided to audit you which is something people are generally eager to avoid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are issues around liability as well but those are probably secondary.  It is unlikely that either business involves accumulating a lot of business assets so being able to access your music assets if the software company is sued is probably not a big deal.  If you carry insurance for the software business, that insurer may not be happy that you're running another business out of the same LLC.  But by the same token, it's pretty unlikely that you're going to do something as a musician that does a small number of paying gigs a year that would involve a suit against your LLC rather than you personally.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28159" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10708" RevisionGUID="cedd35bd-fe2a-4d50-b77f-6e91285943da" CreationDate="2023-10-10T13:44:31.687" UserId="29869" Text="Probably the best way to address this is to send an Email to your manager or HR asking if you can do after-hours freelance and explain what you will do (to show it won't compete or interfere with your current job).  Spin it by saying this will help you pick up more skills and experience that will help you do your current job better.  If they respond saying they approve, make sure you keep/save that email for CYA purposes. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28161" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10709" RevisionGUID="0c0e7022-35c8-4d66-8e3f-ea4561776a59" CreationDate="2023-10-10T13:51:02.413" UserId="29869" Text="By far the most important first step is find your first customer/client, which every book or blog on starting a business states that this is the most difficult part.  Once you have that first customer, you can use that for referrals to other customers and show &quot;evidence&quot; of your expertise.  What we have found that works is to ask family &amp; friends who work at other companies if they can introduce you to someone in the IT department to see if they have any short-term needs for what you do, or if they know of anyone who would. Another option is to use your 1st level connections in LinkedIn to do an intro to their IT team for this.  Hope this helps..." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28163" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10710" RevisionGUID="cb6f5749-a42b-42b2-8dfa-232984d9ded1" CreationDate="2023-10-10T13:54:23.200" UserId="29869" Text="One way to spin the 1099 vs FTE is to mention that you aren't interested in being an FTE but if they are having a difficult time filling that role with an FTE that you can fill that need temporarily to meet the business need until they do find an FTE.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28165" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10711" RevisionGUID="21c7e640-6d22-4375-9ab9-1a2c984717f7" CreationDate="2023-10-10T13:57:55.073" UserId="29869" Text="Unfortunately, these placement firms don't do anything close to justifying their residual fee and add no value in the process besides connecting you to a gig opportunity.  Unfortunately, unless you have a process to find work, you are stuck using this process. If you know of multiple placement firms and you have a skill set that is high in demand, you may want to try to negotiate up front to either lower the % or ask for a set duration that they take this fee (vs until the contract ends)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28167" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10712" RevisionGUID="54376a7a-bfd0-4d9a-a5cc-fd3edc820127" CreationDate="2023-10-10T14:52:37.473" UserId="29869" Text="As stated on a previous post, propose using you as a 1099 if they are having a difficult time finding a FTE, where you can complete what is needed until they hire a FTE" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28169" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10713" RevisionGUID="7e762fba-1f97-41ab-937b-4b3cf4431414" CreationDate="2023-10-10T14:58:34.313" UserId="29869" Text="Contrarian position here.. Most fintech payment platforms out today do have the option to add the processing fee for either ACH or credit card (esp credit card since this is typically around 3%). The platform we use shows the processing fee at the invoice payment step, but the platform does give you the option to not pass on the ACH fee (typically less than $10) or the credit card/PayPal fee (again typically around 3%-4%).  What we have found is typically service providers do eat the ACH fee (since so small), but pass on the CC/PP fee since this could be a substantial cost since their invoices are rather large.  " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28171" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10714" RevisionGUID="6603a816-724c-4c0f-81ce-e908a91de3ab" CreationDate="2023-10-10T15:06:08.080" UserId="29869" Text="If you use a platform that tracks all your invoices by customer, you can provide a paper/electronic copy of the report that this platform provides as this can also be used for your tax purposes (ie, income earned for income tax reporting purposes).  Since this is used for tax purposes, the bank can also use that for credit purposes (or the resulting tax return from the previous year)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28173" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10715" RevisionGUID="d8564b0b-2380-4b90-8891-ec8c43f8602d" CreationDate="2023-10-10T15:11:01.220" UserId="29869" Text="What we have found that works is to estimate what you think will be the # of hours per week on average that you would be doing this work, multiply that by your desired rate and quote that as the monthly (x4 week) retainer.  Then put in wording in the contract that you and the client agree to do a review after 3 months to ensure that you are both getting value, which gives you the option to raise (or lower if you think it is warranted) the retainer amount, and this gives the client the option to opt-out if they so choose." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28175" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10716" RevisionGUID="311980b9-b524-49ca-baa9-19fb7f730326" CreationDate="2023-10-10T22:31:56.570" UserDisplayName="user29875" Text="I'm developing a Wordpress plugin for a client, given the fact that Wordpress itself is GPLv2 in the following scenarios should I put a license for the plugin or not?&#xD;&#xA;1. Based on our agreement the client is the copyright holder of the plugin&#xD;&#xA;2. I'm the copyright holder of the plugin&#xD;&#xA;3. The matter of copyright ownership is not discussed&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28177" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10716" RevisionGUID="311980b9-b524-49ca-baa9-19fb7f730326" CreationDate="2023-10-10T22:31:56.570" UserDisplayName="user29875" Text="Should I put a license file in a wordpress plugin that I'm developing for a client?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28178" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10716" RevisionGUID="311980b9-b524-49ca-baa9-19fb7f730326" CreationDate="2023-10-10T22:31:56.570" UserDisplayName="user29875" Text="|copyright|licensing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28181" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10718" RevisionGUID="431ea099-d1f2-4335-b877-cedac7dc468b" CreationDate="2023-10-12T17:22:30.057" UserId="10464" Text="Based on my experiences doing freelance software work for 10+ years:&#xD;&#xA;You should always have an agreement between yourself and the client. Whatever license file you put in the plugin is not just for the client but in case some non-client person gets the plugin later.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When you create a plugin you are creating additional code that runs within WordPress. You are not adding to WordPress itself. An analogy is if you created a phone App. Creating the app doesn't mean you modified/extended the phone OS that the app runs within.  You could put whatever restriction on your plugin that you wish.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would never leave these questions to guessing. When you make an agreement with a client you should have an opinion about what you require/want. They will also have ideas about what they want. Then based on how badly you both want something there is negotiation/compromise. Generally I would never give 100% copyright of any code I created because it could limit my ability/ease of doing future work. I would happily tell the client that they own 100% any of their business ideas/processes. But any unique code was mine. Almost everyone was okay with that. The more money they had the more okay they were with it too. It was the people who could barely afford fast food who were the most difficult to work with. Although if you get into guaranteed monthly pay situations (practically salaried) but independent contracting the client expects way more control regardless of their money situation.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28183" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10543" RevisionGUID="9fc22a41-f5d9-4051-bfcd-1f2882a7b22e" CreationDate="2023-10-13T00:05:10.570" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28184" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10719" RevisionGUID="dfb0f195-258b-4bae-b8fd-a4f4ad7e9609" CreationDate="2023-10-13T15:01:12.840" UserId="26181" Text="There are many different ways to make money from images. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, a painter I know has an agent who gets those images on mugs, placemats, etc. She focuses on creating images and the agent works to find people who want to use them on products or in books / ads, etc.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There are several websites that can sell your images and have all the protections in place so that people don't use them without paying. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another way is to create puzzles and sell them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, there are many &quot;art shows&quot; where you can bring a bunch of prints and sell them to the general public. Major metropolitan areas tend to have many such shows and you can spend every weekend doing a show. Typically, there is at least one other photographer there selling prints." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28186" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10720" RevisionGUID="f9189bad-fc74-46b6-a189-6d61209d82dd" CreationDate="2023-10-15T19:45:47.350" UserId="29895" Text="I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to express my current struggles on Upwork and to seek guidance or assistance from experienced freelancers within this community.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For over two months, I have been striving to secure clients and projects on Upwork. I have dedicated considerable time and effort, optimizing my profile, crafting compelling proposals, and investing in connects. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I have been facing challenges in securing projects, which has left me feeling quite disheartened and frustrated.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I understand that many freelancers have successfully navigated the intricacies of Upwork and built thriving careers. I am reaching out in the hope that someone might be willing to offer guidance, mentorship, or even the opportunity to collaborate on a project. I am eager to learn and grow as a freelancer and believe that the wisdom and experience of seasoned professionals can be invaluable in achieving this goal.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are a freelancer on Upwork who is open to assisting someone who is eager to succeed and willing to put in the work, I would greatly appreciate your guidance. Whether it's sharing tips on improving my profile, perfecting proposals, understanding client expectations, or even partnering on a project, any form of support would mean the world to me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Please feel free to reach out to me directly through Upwork messages, and we can discuss how we can collaborate or connect. I genuinely believe that your guidance could make a significant difference in my freelancing journey.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you for taking the time to read my message. I am looking forward to connecting with experienced freelancers who are willing to help a fellow Upwork member overcome these challenges and pave the way for a successful freelancing career.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Best regards,&#xD;&#xA;Sami," ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28188" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10720" RevisionGUID="f9189bad-fc74-46b6-a189-6d61209d82dd" CreationDate="2023-10-15T19:45:47.350" UserId="29895" Text="Seeking Guidance and Assistance to Secure Clients on Upwork" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28189" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10720" RevisionGUID="f9189bad-fc74-46b6-a189-6d61209d82dd" CreationDate="2023-10-15T19:45:47.350" UserId="29895" Text="|freelance-websites|difficult-client|client-support|group-freelancing|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28191" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10721" RevisionGUID="aaa82d3c-bf06-4970-b734-d691427704c9" CreationDate="2023-10-18T15:19:21.020" UserId="24078" Text="The competition on Upwork has increased in the past few years. I am Top Rated on Upwork, and it is challenging even for us to land good projects. Due to the new policy of bidding, it has become even more difficult for beginners to land a project. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have some suggestions for you:&#xD;&#xA; - Make sure you have a great portfolio. Make side projects in your free time and grow your portfolio. &#xD;&#xA; - Try other platforms too. I would suggest exploring Fiverr as well, as it is really good for beginners. LinkedIn can also be a good platform for landing freelance roles.&#xD;&#xA; - Keep growing your skills, so that when you get an opportunity, you do it with perfection.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Don't lose hope and keep trying. You'll get it!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28194" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10722" RevisionGUID="936c07fa-ecb5-4fc3-bc3b-f1ecaf88b141" CreationDate="2023-10-19T12:05:59.633" UserId="5462" Text="You can sign up with an image licensing site such as Getty Images and let them handle selling the photo.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for merchandising, you can use a print-on-demand site to put your graphics on different items including shirts, mugs, and you can also do a canvas print" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28198" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10724" RevisionGUID="4422fc13-aa01-4ace-883e-50fab381691a" CreationDate="2023-10-19T15:29:07.507" UserId="29900" Text="I am an IT freelancer, living in the NL, and I have EU citizenship. One of my clients is from the US. Do i have any tax/VAT obligations in the states?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28200" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10724" RevisionGUID="4422fc13-aa01-4ace-883e-50fab381691a" CreationDate="2023-10-19T15:29:07.507" UserId="29900" Text="Paying VAT as a Freelancer - I live in EU, my client is from USA" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28201" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10724" RevisionGUID="4422fc13-aa01-4ace-883e-50fab381691a" CreationDate="2023-10-19T15:29:07.507" UserId="29900" Text="|taxes|usa|eu|freelance|vat|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28202" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10029" RevisionGUID="1593b6a8-d5e5-4e94-806a-185f3662acf8" CreationDate="2023-10-21T06:01:25.143" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28203" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10725" RevisionGUID="1f34cb65-7632-4c17-b3b7-931d69e84626" CreationDate="2023-10-22T17:22:28.330" UserId="1303" Text="I currently work for a low-paying, arrogant local client who does give me a decent amount of work, but all are under-paid.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The client has a habit of bargaining and complaining. If I ask him for more price (a FAIR price for myself), he will start to bargain so much that it gets uncomfortable, but I end up landing at a price that doesn't fit my needs. He asks me to do a set of work, and when I am done finishing, he will come up with some &quot;mistakes&quot; and then ask me to re-do it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For instance. I design social sharing graphics (like WhatsApp story or Facebook post graphics) for him, and he pays me only 2 USD for each graphics. And he will send me wrong information, or incomplete information, which he will ask me to correct again and again. And I end up doing more than 3–4 revisions for his lack of information or correctness in that information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;BUT, if I end being a part of a minor mistake, such as a minor communication gap (because of faults from both ends) that shouldn't be a big issue, he starts to criticize and complain about it so badly that I feel disrespected and insulted. He makes it appear as if it is all my fault, and more than that. He gets very aggressive and starts venting at me.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am pretty tired of dealing with him. Firstly, because I am not looking for &quot;more work&quot;, but I am looking for a well-paying client who pays me both the money and the respect for the work that I do for him. I am looking for a client with whom I can build a healthy, long-lasting professional relationship that can satisfy me as well, as a professional.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I kind of think that this particular client won't be able to fulfil that. He is also not very courteous. Sometimes he will only pay me the money, but won't give me any feedback, not even a word or two, even if I chase continuously for feedback so that I may know if I am moving in the right direction, and how he likes the work.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;And everytime, he will make himself appear like a &quot;super busy&quot; VIP person. He doesn't communicate thoroughly enough so that I understand his requirements clearly. Only one or two statements about the work, and most communication is through WhatsApp. He hates emails, and orders me to WhatsApp him because he is &quot;too busy to check emails&quot;.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He writes only one or two sentences regarding any new work. Most of the time, I have to make &quot;assumptions&quot; as to what work he &quot;might require&quot;. The clarity in communication is that bad from his side.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;He does give me decent amount of work, but I end up earning terribly bad, and I also get criticized awfully for a mistake that happens like once in every hundred situations.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I want to either raise my standards and ask him for higher price for each work, or I want to end the relationship with him. How do I deal with him, and let him know of the changes in our relationship in a professional way, so that it does not affect my career being an independent professional?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you so much for your valuable time and advice." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28205" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10725" RevisionGUID="1f34cb65-7632-4c17-b3b7-931d69e84626" CreationDate="2023-10-22T17:22:28.330" UserId="1303" Text="How to deal with an arrogant client who gets intensely upset with even the smallest of communication gaps between us?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28206" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10725" RevisionGUID="1f34cb65-7632-4c17-b3b7-931d69e84626" CreationDate="2023-10-22T17:22:28.330" UserId="1303" Text="|difficult-client|working-from-home|evaluating-clients|customer-relations|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28207" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10726" RevisionGUID="d7b86919-22c1-4394-a69c-74e08a4a6f40" CreationDate="2023-10-23T13:59:59.987" UserId="26181" Text="It is important to always be looking for new clients. We can never know when a client will disappear, go out of business, or be bought by someone who has someone else to do your work. We do best when we have multiple clients and are not dependent on one client.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When I first start a new line of work, offer a new product or service, I expect that the first clients that come do not want to pay a reasonable price for what I do. The reason is that the people who are always looking have destroyed their relationships with previous providers. They act like you describe. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;By constantly looking, I find other clients and can be &quot;too busy&quot; to do work for clients I don't like working with. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A good client is one that:&#xD;&#xA; 1. knows they have a problem and wants your solution.&#xD;&#xA; 2. has the money to spend to fix their problem.&#xD;&#xA; 3. has the willingness to spend that money with you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Often, the last criteria is the most important." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28209" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10727" RevisionGUID="59e19aa6-c344-4b5b-8465-1601b18ce4b9" CreationDate="2023-10-23T22:36:51.567" UserId="29192" Text="Suppose that:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I have a $10000 project. I subcontract the entire project to a subcontractor and pays that person $9999. This means my net gain (or profit) is $1.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If I submit that info to the IRS when doing taxes, will that trigger an audit?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a money threshold on how much my budget is when subcontracting and/or how much I can deduct subcontracting/outsourcing costs from the gross income (which would be $10000 in this case)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28211" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10727" RevisionGUID="59e19aa6-c344-4b5b-8465-1601b18ce4b9" CreationDate="2023-10-23T22:36:51.567" UserId="29192" Text="Outsourcing projects: is there a threshold on how much I can deduct from taxes (IRS)?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28212" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10727" RevisionGUID="59e19aa6-c344-4b5b-8465-1601b18ce4b9" CreationDate="2023-10-23T22:36:51.567" UserId="29192" Text="|usa|outsourcing|subcontracting|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28214" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10728" RevisionGUID="cf967ecb-bf1c-4668-8ad8-0298f6bb2329" CreationDate="2023-10-26T11:54:01.250" UserId="7858" Text="Fixing an unsatisfactory client relationship is generally the freelancer's responsibility. Upon failure, the only real option is to end the relationship.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A plan to move forward could be scheduling a meeting with the client where the working process is discussed. Make it crystal clear that significant changes MUST be made for the working relationship to continue.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When specifying the changes, remember to point out how the client will also benefit; e.g. better requirements will lead to faster delivery, less iterations and so on.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In addition, it seems you have a fixed price arrangement. If so, this should be changed to an hourly rate, as that changes the entire dynamic. Fixed price invariably leads to arguments over when something is actually done as the client will attempt to extract as much work as possible, whereas an hourly rate will make the client evaluate whether a desired change is worth the extra money.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If the client refuses to even have the meeting or generally rejects changes, end the relationship as professionally as possible and walk away. If they come back later, take more charge of the working process so both parties know what's expected of each other." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28217" PostHistoryTypeId="19" PostId="10656" RevisionGUID="5d7d89f8-411b-414f-8fe9-6f08453603fe" CreationDate="2023-10-26T13:30:58.767" UserId="-1" Text="{&quot;Voters&quot;:[{&quot;Id&quot;:-1,&quot;DisplayName&quot;:&quot;Community&quot;}]}" />
  <row Id="28219" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10729" RevisionGUID="75ed9734-ebed-4058-b7ad-0e599d828fd5" CreationDate="2023-10-28T12:19:27.400" UserId="29935" Text="I am a freelance musician who just moved to Germany. I have been giving concerts and preparing invoices for the venues or organization companies.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Recently we made a door deal with a venue, and they asked me to handle the door operation, so I used eventbrite for selling the tickets to my audience. However then I read somewhere that I may need a trade licence for organizing my own concerts/sell goods.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am a little bit confused since I did not sell any goods, I provided service (performance) for the ones who paid. I did not organize the concert per se. I got my fee, that I normally get from the venue, from the ticket sales. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But from another point of view I sold tickets -are they considered as goods?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I could not find any specific statement on this subject, the information I found was varied and confusing. How should I proceed on this matter? If using Eventbrite is a mistake, do you think there is another way to make people pay for the concert -should it be a donation?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Thank you in advance." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28221" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10729" RevisionGUID="75ed9734-ebed-4058-b7ad-0e599d828fd5" CreationDate="2023-10-28T12:19:27.400" UserId="29935" Text="Freelancing in Germany: Selling concert tickets" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28222" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10729" RevisionGUID="75ed9734-ebed-4058-b7ad-0e599d828fd5" CreationDate="2023-10-28T12:19:27.400" UserId="29935" Text="|germany|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28223" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10730" RevisionGUID="fbf01a35-30e0-446a-a0c8-5249bcbf5e13" CreationDate="2023-10-28T14:34:24.980" UserId="29103" Text="Sure, anything which is not mentioned as exception in the `Einkommensteuergesetz` is a commercial activity (gewerbliche Tätigkeit).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Though `Freiberufler` can do commercial activities, there is just a very narrow range in DE (`Bagatellgrenze`). Exceeding it is a one way ticket: you‘ll do commercial activities forever from a tax point of view, with all duties (Handelsgesetzbuch, Pflicht zur Bilanz und doppelten Buchführung etc.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I advise to contact a capable lawyer to avoid unwanted consequences.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suggest to deny such activities." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28225" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10731" RevisionGUID="b3f18fe1-170c-4804-9819-567fd0008f74" CreationDate="2023-10-29T02:20:44.057" UserId="29938" Text="I've been researching a lot about freelancing, an to my surprise, I'm a little interested in becoming an independent freelancer! In accordance I am inquiring on how to become a successful freelancer that actually makes a profit, an is actually worthwhile?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28227" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10731" RevisionGUID="b3f18fe1-170c-4804-9819-567fd0008f74" CreationDate="2023-10-29T02:20:44.057" UserId="29938" Text="How do I effectivly an profitably, make a career out of independent freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28228" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10731" RevisionGUID="b3f18fe1-170c-4804-9819-567fd0008f74" CreationDate="2023-10-29T02:20:44.057" UserId="29938" Text="|freelance-websites|payment-terms|communication|working-from-home|clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28229" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10656" RevisionGUID="c6d0970c-6baf-4235-9e8e-a23d88a18abd" CreationDate="2023-10-29T23:08:15.930" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28230" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10732" RevisionGUID="d7792af7-3554-4b8f-8798-54a53484b7ba" CreationDate="2023-10-30T12:35:13.410" UserId="7858" Text="This very much depends on your personal circumstances and the business domain in which you want to offer your services.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Do you have sufficient experience for someone to hire you?&#xD;&#xA;* Can you find and keep clients?&#xD;&#xA;* Are clients in that business segment used to outsourcing work?&#xD;&#xA;* Do you have a sufficient financial buffer?&#xD;&#xA;* Local laws, regulations and taxation may also need to be considered" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28232" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10733" RevisionGUID="2d83e90f-b5bd-424f-be83-0423c223484c" CreationDate="2023-11-03T02:58:22.617" UserId="29192" Text="Outsourcing can be quite legit. Sometimes a client want to give the entire project to someone else to handle the hiring and quality assurance. But the usual assumption is that the client knows the freelancer is outsourcing.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's also perhaps common for freelancers/independent contractors to outsource projects (or a nasty part of the project) they don't want to do or they are too busy to do them. There are stories like that, but they don't specify if they have informed their clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, some clients never expect their hires to outsource to others. They want the work to be done by the person they hired. Some might refuse to pay the freelancer when they find out that the work is being subcontracted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is there a line between outsourcing being legit versus shady? Are freelancers/independent contractors legally required to inform their clients that they are outsourcing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28234" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10733" RevisionGUID="2d83e90f-b5bd-424f-be83-0423c223484c" CreationDate="2023-11-03T02:58:22.617" UserId="29192" Text="What's the line of legit vs shady in outsourcing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28235" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10733" RevisionGUID="2d83e90f-b5bd-424f-be83-0423c223484c" CreationDate="2023-11-03T02:58:22.617" UserId="29192" Text="|outsourcing|subcontracting|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28236" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10734" RevisionGUID="823fee46-4c53-4e63-8b21-acd95d0b8a4c" CreationDate="2023-11-03T14:52:19.903" UserId="26181" Text="This depends totally on the type of contract with the client. If you are in a &quot;full time employee replacement&quot; contract, you are expected to be the person doing the work. In that situation, you are supposed to be available 40 hours per week for that client's demands. Thus, when someone in that type of contract sends work out on subcontract, the client may terminate the contract. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also, certain contracts require that the person doing the work be a US citizen and that the work is physically done within US territories. Subcontracting can break that requirement.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;On the other hand, if you are doing a project, then any subcontracting is between you and the subcontractor. When I send work out on subcontract, I stand behind the work of the subcontractor, inspect what is done, and will replace the subcontractor if the work is not up to my standards. From the client's perspective, the issue is whether or not the work is done to standard, but it can help the relationship to tell the client about the team working on the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When subcontracting work out, the question is the type of relationship with the client. You may need to reassure the client that you have signed NDA's with your subcontractors. You may need to reassure the client about your quality controls. You may need to reassure that the work is being done on US territory. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Finally, your cost control over the subcontractors is important. I had to stop one project because the client had been asking the subcontractor for all sorts of changes and the project was about to run way over budget. That was a difficult discussion with the client as they thought that I was making gobs of money when I was about to lose money. I don't want the subcontracting to cost more than 50% of the budget as admin and sales and marketing will chew up most of the rest." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28242" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10657" RevisionGUID="8122cd28-e602-4e41-ad31-893857d36366" CreationDate="2023-11-08T18:04:30.553" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28244" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="6837" RevisionGUID="4af122ee-8dc2-41aa-88ac-96a8345bb3e6" CreationDate="2023-11-09T14:02:00.393" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28245" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10691" RevisionGUID="9e125169-2a70-45a9-876a-2333d41401a6" CreationDate="2023-11-09T15:06:25.797" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28246" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10703" RevisionGUID="969125e2-f856-4ad3-8793-2b4140bde975" CreationDate="2023-11-09T16:01:05.143" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28247" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10668" RevisionGUID="add89de4-dfd1-481e-9931-611c202fe7e6" CreationDate="2023-11-09T17:08:21.097" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28248" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10521" RevisionGUID="3b7ec5ca-d9a8-4580-8b3e-6e017eb2ecb8" CreationDate="2023-11-09T18:03:30.590" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28249" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10716" RevisionGUID="152bb5ca-82ea-400b-90dc-c949c1ccc4f9" CreationDate="2023-11-11T18:07:30.903" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28251" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10736" RevisionGUID="e94bdee4-5758-44f0-98c0-f9c10072d465" CreationDate="2023-11-12T17:05:03.983" UserId="30001" Text="I am a C++ developer, and I'm seeking advice on building a client base on Upwork. Could you share your experiences and provide tips on effectively attracting clients? I'm interested in strategies for promoting my profile, creating compelling proposals, and any insights you might have. Your personal experiences and advice would be greatly appreciated!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28253" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10736" RevisionGUID="e94bdee4-5758-44f0-98c0-f9c10072d465" CreationDate="2023-11-12T17:05:03.983" UserId="30001" Text="Strategies for Building a Strong Client Base on Upwork: Insights Needed!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28254" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10736" RevisionGUID="e94bdee4-5758-44f0-98c0-f9c10072d465" CreationDate="2023-11-12T17:05:03.983" UserId="30001" Text="|freelance-websites|difficult-client|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28255" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10737" RevisionGUID="a2d02574-9030-4561-acd3-29c72091a583" CreationDate="2023-11-12T18:06:41.170" UserId="30002" Text="Freelancing as?  I was in a similar circumstance.  It depends on what industry you are offering services in, but you might find it helpful to consider yourself as a &quot;consultant.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;(Such as) If you are freelancing as a writer/copywriter- create a website or freelance website profile page as an actual business/agency instead of titling yourself &quot;Freelancer.&quot;  &#xD;&#xA;I am in a mix of Healthcare and Legal and I.t. world- so, it was better to market myself as a Legal/Medical Consultant and then list the services I offer as such...  Just an idea.  Look into making a CV or PowerPoint Pres (link) that's publicly available, helps boost legitimate points when businesses are evaluating your professional presence." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28257" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10738" RevisionGUID="44eb7a4e-59d3-46e1-90ab-99c6572f7e39" CreationDate="2023-11-12T18:55:33.763" UserId="30002" Text="A few ideas:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; -  - PATENT UR IDEA FIRST. Make co. sign NDA's prior to pitching idea, otherwise, you'll accidentally GIVE it away&#xD;&#xA; - Market yourself as a consultant. Create pitch without giving away the idea. If Idea was a new toilet seat- pitch toilet company- &quot;product innovation&quot;. Maybe promise to analyze their recent declined sales area and promise to deliver a product design within 3 months. Request percentage of those sales.&#xD;&#xA; - Sell ur idea straight up- Online. Websites like 3m, Sharper Image or BOSCH.&#xD;&#xA; - Research Angel Investors, Capital Ventures, etc. LOTS online, always looking for new money makers.&#xD;&#xA; - Ask ai chat bot if its a software or app.. They help me big time.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28259" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10739" RevisionGUID="68a5c8d7-6555-4f7d-95a8-cd5db816ac0e" CreationDate="2023-11-14T10:34:22.920" UserId="30009" Text="Becoming a successful ghostwriter requires a unique blend of writing skill, professionalism, and adaptability. Firstly, hone your writing abilities across different genres and styles to cater to diverse client needs. Develop a strong portfolio showcasing your versatility and ability to capture various voices.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Establishing a solid network is crucial; connect with publishers, literary agents, and other writers to increase your visibility. Building a reputation as a reliable professional is essential for long-term success. Confidentiality is paramount in ghostwriting, so emphasize your discretion and ability to handle sensitive information.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Understanding your clients' needs is key. Be a good listener, ask insightful questions, and immerse yourself in their vision. Your adaptability is your greatest asset; be ready to work on projects ranging from memoirs and self-help books to business manuals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Develop excellent communication skills to translate clients' ideas into compelling narratives. Meeting deadlines is non-negotiable, so manage your time efficiently and deliver high-quality work consistently.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Continuous learning is vital in a dynamic writing landscape. Stay updated on industry trends, hone your research skills, and be open to feedback. Embrace technology to streamline your writing process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, market yourself effectively. Create a professional website, leverage social media, and seek testimonials from satisfied clients. A successful ghostwriter is not just a goldsmith but also a savvy entrepreneur, building a brand that reflects reliability, creativity, and adaptability" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28265" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10720" RevisionGUID="bc4a887e-d6df-45a5-8437-26d101108806" CreationDate="2023-11-17T16:04:25.510" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28266" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10706" RevisionGUID="025cdeff-17a4-4baf-a02f-9b0309fdbe40" CreationDate="2023-11-18T13:01:00.113" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28267" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10663" RevisionGUID="a87a6caf-1a8b-4fa1-a126-dac3c6424e6e" CreationDate="2023-11-19T06:07:40.927" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28271" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10742" RevisionGUID="539e5916-e781-42b7-8e8b-d51f36375bba" CreationDate="2023-11-23T04:55:06.713" UserId="708" Text=" 1. Have a skill or ability others would *want* to utilize&#xD;&#xA; 2. Advertise/market your ability/skill to get others hopefully contacting you&#xD;&#xA; 3. Seek out customers and &quot;sell&quot; them on your skill/ability&#xD;&#xA; 4. Fulfill projects successfully leaving happy customers who hopefully&#xD;&#xA;    pass on your name to others seeking the same skils/abilities&#xD;&#xA; 5. Repeat&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28273" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10743" RevisionGUID="e3a83da0-6001-4dba-bdb6-6759ec227778" CreationDate="2023-11-23T13:36:12.817" UserId="29838" Text="A friend of mine has been working on a project to build a data base of plants native to where she lives.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The problem is that it has become difficult for her to continue the project on her own. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I was helping her blog the pictures; and that has yielded some good results. So far, there are over one hundred thousand views. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;She understands that she can self-publish. The problem with that is it pulls her even further away from what she’s good at doing. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another idea she and I have talked about is partnering with a botanist and writer, but that costs money she doesn’t have. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Which got us thinking &#xD;&#xA; - What kind of agencies represent nature photographers? And&#xD;&#xA; - What’s important to them with a photographer?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28275" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10743" RevisionGUID="e3a83da0-6001-4dba-bdb6-6759ec227778" CreationDate="2023-11-23T13:36:12.817" UserId="29838" Text="How do nature photographers find agents?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28276" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10743" RevisionGUID="e3a83da0-6001-4dba-bdb6-6759ec227778" CreationDate="2023-11-23T13:36:12.817" UserId="29838" Text="|marketing|business-plan|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28278" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10744" RevisionGUID="2125e449-83a8-4d4a-ab79-399ec592f4c4" CreationDate="2023-11-24T12:06:33.057" UserId="30045" Text="I'm interested to do freelancing in Hardware designing to upskill myself and also financial growth. As I'm a beginner, how to seeking and approach a first client and what's the initial step to do freelancing?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28280" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10744" RevisionGUID="2125e449-83a8-4d4a-ab79-399ec592f4c4" CreationDate="2023-11-24T12:06:33.057" UserId="30045" Text="Outsourcing a freelancing project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28281" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10744" RevisionGUID="2125e449-83a8-4d4a-ab79-399ec592f4c4" CreationDate="2023-11-24T12:06:33.057" UserId="30045" Text="|contracts|attracting-clients|working-from-home|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28283" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="10744" RevisionGUID="1df5ccfd-5fcb-41af-8471-b587cbb4e383" CreationDate="2023-11-25T07:27:30.037" UserId="30045" Comment="edited tags" Text="|contracts|attracting-clients|working-from-home|business-plan|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28284" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10725" RevisionGUID="ae3f9548-3d7e-445e-b730-63b0507fa917" CreationDate="2023-11-25T12:04:35.657" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28285" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10529" RevisionGUID="d53557f3-7393-40cc-9e86-3d989ed07ea1" CreationDate="2023-11-25T16:08:25.957" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28286" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10745" RevisionGUID="67d4316b-026d-4178-9e7d-87f7977eb1f3" CreationDate="2023-11-25T18:10:25.500" UserId="30050" Text="The number of freelance jobs you can have largely depends on your capacity to manage multiple projects effectively. Here are some factors to consider:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Time Commitment:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Assess the time each freelance job requires. Consider the deadlines, the complexity of the tasks, and the amount of time you can realistically dedicate to each project.&#xD;&#xA;Workload Balance:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Ensure that you maintain a balance between your freelance jobs. Taking on too much work can lead to burnout and compromise the quality of your output.&#xD;&#xA;Skill Set:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Evaluate whether your skill set aligns with the requirements of each job. Taking on projects that match your expertise can help you deliver better results efficiently.&#xD;&#xA;Client Expectations:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Communicate openly with clients about your availability and set clear expectations regarding timelines and deliverables. Transparency is crucial to maintaining a positive freelance relationship.&#xD;&#xA;Contractual Agreements:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Review contractual agreements with clients. Some contracts may include exclusivity clauses or restrictions on taking on additional freelance work while working on their project.&#xD;&#xA;Personal Commitments:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Consider any personal commitments or obligations you have outside of freelancing. Ensure that you have enough time to balance work and personal life.&#xD;&#xA;Quality over Quantity:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Focus on delivering high-quality work rather than trying to take on too many projects. Satisfied clients are more likely to provide positive reviews and lead to future opportunities.&#xD;&#xA;Freelance Platforms Guidelines:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you're using freelance platforms, be aware of their guidelines regarding the number of simultaneous projects you can undertake.&#xD;&#xA;It's important to find a balance that works for you, considering your capabilities, time management skills, and overall well-being. Taking on a manageable number of freelance jobs allows you to provide better service to your clients and maintain a sustainable freelancing career.&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28288" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10729" RevisionGUID="723a371f-f40a-4a0a-baa8-87adf5ed9f41" CreationDate="2023-11-27T15:01:55.217" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28289" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10746" RevisionGUID="23a00de7-cf91-4177-9c01-a05262a719de" CreationDate="2023-11-29T08:00:36.277" UserId="30061" Text="I'm a programmer and I have a year of experience in building small projects for clients. I've always tried to give my 100% on client projects and many times hit the GitHub codespaces monthly free usage limit.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I find it hard to commit to my own side projects. I start with tons of motivation but eventually it dies out and starts to feel like a grind due to the lack of payment and I never end up finishing it. I've got a pretty empty portfolio because of this and I currently have to depend on word of mouth for getting clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm thinking of starting a blog where I can just talk about anything tech related on my mind. Or I could post about specific problems and&#xD;&#xA;how I found their solutions.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I feel like clients would be interested in seeing how my thought process for programming functions and will be impressed by my posts. I learn a lot from other people's own blogs so this would also be a way for me to give back to the community.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;But I don't know if this would be sufficient to convince clients that I can actually finish what they pay me to code." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28291" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10746" RevisionGUID="23a00de7-cf91-4177-9c01-a05262a719de" CreationDate="2023-11-29T08:00:36.277" UserId="30061" Text="Is it better to blog or make side projects?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28292" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10746" RevisionGUID="23a00de7-cf91-4177-9c01-a05262a719de" CreationDate="2023-11-29T08:00:36.277" UserId="30061" Text="|attracting-clients|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28293" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10747" RevisionGUID="9d5b2c47-9bf3-49b0-be7a-63b5706d42bb" CreationDate="2023-11-29T15:22:55.063" UserId="26181" Text="This all depends on your purpose for doing either of them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your purpose is to convince clients that you can solve their problems, then you need to get something in front of those potential clients. Few clients look to GitHub first when looking for software help. Some look there after you have contacted them in some other way (if you point them to your portfolio). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;A blog is useful only if people read it. Thus, you would need to promote the blog till you get quite a number of readers. The reason most blogs are not read is because the authors don't promote them. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You might benefit from turning the problem around. Ask who are your potential clients and where do they get information about software help. The next step is to put information into that channel. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if your potential clients are in the local area and they get information from their existing contacts, then joining the local Chamber of Commerce and participating in all the events, speaking up at networking breakfasts, etc. will put information into the local contacts. Over a couple of years, a lot of people will have heard about you. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another option is to send out an email newsletter where you ask each person if they would like to receive it. (Don't buy a mailing list as the places that send out email newsletters are quite touchy about that. Mailing lists that you can buy are full of outdated email addresses and many of the rest of the people on those lists resent getting new newsletters.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If, on the other hand, your purpose in building code on GitHub is for your own gratification or to give back to the programming community, then build what you like and put it up there. My GitHub has projects that I wrote for my own use. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28295" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10748" RevisionGUID="849e1dc9-3b8d-465a-84ed-ae605bcf92b8" CreationDate="2023-11-29T21:03:38.430" UserId="30063" Text="I work a full time job in the UK as a software developer. I've been asked by a friend who has a publishing house in Greece to do a translation for her. It'll be a one off and cost around £1000 (money I will earn without a vat consideration). &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do I need to charge for vat on top of that and then declare it to HMRC? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I read on the gov.uk website that there is a threshold of £1000 for which I don't need to fill out a self assessment tax return. Also, another threshold for £12,500 under which I don't have to register for VAT. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm not sure I'm understanding correctly the exemptions for my case as an individual in the UK providing a translation service for a business in EU. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Translation services websites seem to suggest that the vat charge should happen in the country where the consumer is based. Is it a case then where I simply mention the service is liable to a reverse vat or do I simply create an invoice that doesn't include any mention to VAT?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28297" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10748" RevisionGUID="849e1dc9-3b8d-465a-84ed-ae605bcf92b8" CreationDate="2023-11-29T21:03:38.430" UserId="30063" Text="How to charge and declare vat to a company in EU" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28298" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10748" RevisionGUID="849e1dc9-3b8d-465a-84ed-ae605bcf92b8" CreationDate="2023-11-29T21:03:38.430" UserId="30063" Text="|uk|eu|vat|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28299" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10733" RevisionGUID="7c220cac-5ab9-492f-b6b9-22c8a78f9d03" CreationDate="2023-12-03T15:06:40.863" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28300" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10749" RevisionGUID="4e247242-205c-4a00-bff4-a74ba7426093" CreationDate="2023-12-06T02:52:43.517" UserId="20168" Text="I am developing software for a company and I own the rights to the software. They plan on using the software on a physical device that has the potential to directly harm humans. I have never seen what they are doing they simply ask for things to be done and I charge a rate to do them on top of a maintenance fee. From a legal stand point I think that I should sell them the software and not be making changes without seeing the real world product first hand. What do you think? Should I sell the software and charge a fee if they need my help? I want there to be a cash transaction if I sell the software to indicate they have ownership. I think that this would be a much better way to go about business. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28302" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10749" RevisionGUID="4e247242-205c-4a00-bff4-a74ba7426093" CreationDate="2023-12-06T02:52:43.517" UserId="20168" Text="Protecting yourself from a lawsuit" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28303" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10749" RevisionGUID="4e247242-205c-4a00-bff4-a74ba7426093" CreationDate="2023-12-06T02:52:43.517" UserId="20168" Text="|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28304" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10750" RevisionGUID="4aa7ce98-bca0-4ece-974e-c54f27782ddd" CreationDate="2023-12-06T13:20:34.053" UserId="30087" Text="## Background&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I am an AI consultant and I work developing custom algorithms to solve problems for clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I would to put, on my website, the list of clients I had and a summary page for the past projects, to promote my work. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;## Question&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;- Is it considered bad practice or less credible to include projects without mentioning for whom I did them?&#xD;&#xA;- To mention a client (with logo) on my website (e.g. saying I did some project for them), is it necessary to have their written consent?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28306" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10750" RevisionGUID="4aa7ce98-bca0-4ece-974e-c54f27782ddd" CreationDate="2023-12-06T13:20:34.053" UserId="30087" Text="Including completed projects in my website (portfolio)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28307" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10750" RevisionGUID="4aa7ce98-bca0-4ece-974e-c54f27782ddd" CreationDate="2023-12-06T13:20:34.053" UserId="30087" Text="|freelance-websites|consulting|portfolio|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28311" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10752" RevisionGUID="ef9e60b9-4026-40c7-835f-0f698807b76d" CreationDate="2023-12-09T16:37:29.160" UserId="75" Text="For my portfolio site, I would usually include screenshots directly showing the work I did. This was also built into my contract with my clients (I am allowed to create a screenshot and share it to show off my completed work).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Depending on what you're after, this may suffice. I tend to NOT include the company names directly, unless they're asking for it (so far, hasn't). This would help with @DavidR's comment above if dealing with a larger company who doesn't know everyone who touched a project." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28313" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10753" RevisionGUID="eafcb8eb-038e-4956-ba1a-1c247b24f4c3" CreationDate="2023-12-11T15:05:34.767" UserId="7557" Text="I have a long term relationship with a client who has been good to me (and for whom I have become a trusted resource).  However, I am billing them at a rate that was set at the beginning of 2021.  I am about to enter into discussions about increasing my rate for the start of 2024.  At the very least I want to compensate for inflation since the beginning of 2021, but after googling a bunch of inflation calculators I am very confused (or maybe I just don't trust them - one of them suggested a 63% increase).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So based on (for example) a $100/hr rate after January 1st, 2021, what would be an inflation adjusted rate for the beginning of 2024?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I'm specifically interested in inflation in the US, but I'd be happy with a general solution which allows me to plug in general inflation values." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28315" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10753" RevisionGUID="eafcb8eb-038e-4956-ba1a-1c247b24f4c3" CreationDate="2023-12-11T15:05:34.767" UserId="7557" Text="How to calculate a rate increase based on inflation?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28316" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10753" RevisionGUID="eafcb8eb-038e-4956-ba1a-1c247b24f4c3" CreationDate="2023-12-11T15:05:34.767" UserId="7557" Text="|pay-rate|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28317" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10543" RevisionGUID="ab267683-7fc8-4832-b83d-cad30c9d5878" CreationDate="2023-12-12T19:01:20.147" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28318" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10754" RevisionGUID="46804367-9cb6-4bbb-ba2a-95c88e4db03b" CreationDate="2023-12-13T23:46:59.107" UserId="7557" Text="I finally figured this out myself.  I went to the US Social Security [Cost-Of-Living Adjustments][1] web page, and looked up the Cola values for 2021 through 2023.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;|Year|Amount|&#xD;&#xA;|----|------|&#xD;&#xA;|2021|5.9%|&#xD;&#xA;|2022|8.7%|&#xD;&#xA;|2023|3.2%|&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I applied each value sequentially to calculate the rate at the end of that year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So starting with $100 at the beginning of 2021:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;|Year|Start Rate|Cola|End Rate|&#xD;&#xA;|------|--------|----|----|&#xD;&#xA;|2021|$100.00|5.9%|$105.90|&#xD;&#xA;|2022|$105.90|8.7%|$115.11|&#xD;&#xA;|2023|$115.11|3.2%|$115.00|&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The rate at the end of 2023 should be at least $115&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/colaseries.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28328" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10731" RevisionGUID="608bd811-d87f-4ce6-b97e-17efad262b11" CreationDate="2023-12-23T05:07:00.887" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28329" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10754" RevisionGUID="4af88f3d-970d-4896-ac0c-efa60c65e9b7" CreationDate="2023-12-24T23:54:15.983" UserId="24353" Comment="Fixed a math error for 2023 End Rate" Text="I finally figured this out myself.  I went to the US Social Security [Cost-Of-Living Adjustments][1] web page, and looked up the Cola values for 2021 through 2023.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;|Year|Amount|&#xD;&#xA;|----|------|&#xD;&#xA;|2021|5.9%|&#xD;&#xA;|2022|8.7%|&#xD;&#xA;|2023|3.2%|&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I applied each value sequentially to calculate the rate at the end of that year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So starting with $100 at the beginning of 2021:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;|Year|Start Rate|Cola|End Rate|&#xD;&#xA;|------|--------|----|----|&#xD;&#xA;|2021|$100.00|5.9%|$105.90|&#xD;&#xA;|2022|$105.90|8.7%|$115.11|&#xD;&#xA;|2023|$115.11|3.2%|$118.79|&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The rate at the end of 2023 should be at least $115&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/colaseries.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28330" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10754" RevisionGUID="4af88f3d-970d-4896-ac0c-efa60c65e9b7" CreationDate="2023-12-24T23:54:15.983" Comment="Proposed by 24353 approved by 7557 edit id of 853" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28331" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10754" RevisionGUID="e902ba35-bcd7-4684-99ae-00115453ac18" CreationDate="2023-12-24T23:55:04.077" UserId="7557" Comment="edited body" Text="I finally figured this out myself.  I went to the US Social Security [Cost-Of-Living Adjustments][1] web page, and looked up the Cola values for 2021 through 2023.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;|Year|Amount|&#xD;&#xA;|----|------|&#xD;&#xA;|2021|5.9%|&#xD;&#xA;|2022|8.7%|&#xD;&#xA;|2023|3.2%|&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Then I applied each value sequentially to calculate the rate at the end of that year.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So starting with $100 at the beginning of 2021:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;|Year|Start Rate|Cola|End Rate|&#xD;&#xA;|------|--------|----|----|&#xD;&#xA;|2021|$100.00|5.9%|$105.90|&#xD;&#xA;|2022|$105.90|8.7%|$115.11|&#xD;&#xA;|2023|$115.11|3.2%|$118.79|&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The rate at the end of 2023 should be at least $118&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/colaseries.html" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28332" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10757" RevisionGUID="f613bb62-0e85-4dc4-a275-8363ae72e9b2" CreationDate="2023-12-24T23:55:26.060" UserId="24353" Text="I've often regretted giving out my personal cell number, but sometimes it's simply necessary.  So I'm looking into alternatives.  There are companies that offer phone numbers that ring on apps on your cell phone and something else called '[sip trunking](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/sip-trunking).'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anyone used services like this or can make any recommendations? I've seen some data, but it doesn't seem user friendly for the little guy and I just don't know where to start with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Mainly, I want a second number that anyone can call, will ring on my cell phone and/or maybe on the laptop and no a second sim card.  Maybe - not required - even ring on 2-3 phones/locations so a team member can answer. Any thoughts?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28334" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10757" RevisionGUID="f613bb62-0e85-4dc4-a275-8363ae72e9b2" CreationDate="2023-12-24T23:55:26.060" UserId="24353" Text="Is it helpful to use a virtual second phone number as a primary contact for clients?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28335" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10757" RevisionGUID="f613bb62-0e85-4dc4-a275-8363ae72e9b2" CreationDate="2023-12-24T23:55:26.060" UserId="24353" Text="|communication|software|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28336" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10757" RevisionGUID="648aed4c-6e60-412e-a734-411da4a6a5ac" CreationDate="2023-12-25T01:33:16.557" UserId="24353" Comment="Fixed a typo in last paragraph" Text="I've often regretted giving out my personal cell number, but sometimes it's simply necessary.  So I'm looking into alternatives.  There are companies that offer phone numbers that ring on apps on your cell phone and something else called '[sip trunking](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/sip-trunking).'&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Has anyone used services like this or can make any recommendations? I've seen some data, but it doesn't seem user friendly for the little guy and I just don't know where to start with it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Mainly, I want a second number that anyone can call, will ring on my cell phone and/or maybe on the laptop and no second sim card.  Maybe - not required - even ring on 2-3 phones/locations so a team member can answer. Any thoughts?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28337" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10758" RevisionGUID="f38dfb86-5b37-4072-b7de-f54b7bf49b6e" CreationDate="2023-12-27T11:55:59.183" UserId="85" Text="Ten years ago, I answered a similar [UK-based question][1] - but the answer for Greece-based clients is just the same, assuming *your* place of business is in the UK.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA; 1. Register as self-employed with HMRC (or create a limited company, but for occasional work that seems unnecessary)&#xD;&#xA; 2. Register for the NI small profits exemption (although this will, in future, be unnecessary...)&#xD;&#xA; 3. Invoice client, without VAT&#xD;&#xA; 4. Incur some small expenses to keep you below the self-assessment threshold&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For a total rate of £1,000 gross, registering for VAT is an unnecessary complication (IMHO) especially in a B2B relationship where the customer would reclaim it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://freelancing.stackexchange.com/questions/590/how-do-i-invoice-my-client-correctly-in-the-uk/592#592" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28339" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="3517" RevisionGUID="56f8db1c-f4ed-4d16-9b27-bfe54c34d314" CreationDate="2023-12-29T22:29:27.873" UserId="8399" Comment="This answer is outdated as VAT regulations have changed significantly for online services since then." Text="&lt;s&gt;From EU perspective it works like this:&#xD;&#xA;&gt;If you buy goods for the purposes of your business from a supplier based outside the EU, you must generally pay VAT at the point of import (and may deduct this in your next VAT return if you make taxed sales).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;http://europa.eu/youreurope/business/vat-customs/cross-border/index_en.htm&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I don't know anything about the US though.&lt;/s&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;This answer is outdated as VAT regulations have changed significantly for online services since then." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28340" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10759" RevisionGUID="cbf7636c-fad8-41bc-9308-be489a276e0b" CreationDate="2024-01-01T23:59:56.837" UserId="30155" Text="I am a designer/illustrator/artist and I am soon moving to Germany (from another EU member state). I was hoping to sell my artworks and digital goods on Gumroad/Lemon Squeezy/Figma community etc. as a hobbyist. But first I wanted to test and see what sells and for that I was hoping to put some small digital goods on Gumroad for €0,00+ (pay what you want). Once I understand the market, I may sell for predefined price (although I am not sure how much sells I can make given I have almost no social followers or marketing skills). My question is:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**Do I have to register as a self-employed person before testing the water?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If my product costs €0,00 and people still pays (On Gumroad or BuyMeACoffee), will it not be considered donation? Are those subjected to taxes as well?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28342" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10759" RevisionGUID="cbf7636c-fad8-41bc-9308-be489a276e0b" CreationDate="2024-01-01T23:59:56.837" UserId="30155" Text="Do I need to register as self-employed or Freiberufler in Germany if I want to sell on Gumroad and such?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28343" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10759" RevisionGUID="cbf7636c-fad8-41bc-9308-be489a276e0b" CreationDate="2024-01-01T23:59:56.837" UserId="30155" Text="|germany|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28344" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10586" RevisionGUID="22fc1a5c-c5d6-43f6-9617-6bf4d4526f32" CreationDate="2024-01-04T17:00:55.103" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28345" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10760" RevisionGUID="93907b26-6ae5-449b-b981-c0752f863261" CreationDate="2024-01-05T02:03:24.697" UserId="30170" Text="The fees that recruiting companies charge for freelance selection processes can vary widely based on several factors, including the level of expertise required, the complexity of the role, the industry, and the region. Typically, recruiting firms charge a percentage of the freelancer's or contractor's first-year annual income, but they may also use other fee structures.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In general, recruitment agencies often charge fees ranging from 15% to 25% of the freelancer's annual income for their services. However, these percentages can be higher or lower depending on the factors mentioned above. Some agencies may also charge additional fees for services such as advertising the job, conducting interviews, or providing candidate assessments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's essential to discuss and negotiate the fees with the recruiting company before engaging their services to ensure clarity on costs and to align expectations. Keep in mind that the freelance job market is dynamic, and fee structures may vary based on the specific requirements of the hiring organization and the freelancer being sought." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28347" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10761" RevisionGUID="eed27fd6-c9c6-411b-9552-94fa92c6ffa8" CreationDate="2024-01-10T15:52:20.830" UserId="30188" Text="I'm a freelance programmer, I have started freelancing 2 months ago just after quitting my previous company. I had a good start in the first month, but now I'm struggling to find new clients. I would appreciate any advice or referrals from anyone who needs my skills. I can work with React (Next.js) and Java (JEE) at an intermediate level. You can check out my portfolio here: https://aportfolio.vercel.app&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28349" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10761" RevisionGUID="eed27fd6-c9c6-411b-9552-94fa92c6ffa8" CreationDate="2024-01-10T15:52:20.830" UserId="30188" Text="Struggling finding clients" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28350" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10761" RevisionGUID="eed27fd6-c9c6-411b-9552-94fa92c6ffa8" CreationDate="2024-01-10T15:52:20.830" UserId="30188" Text="|web-development|working-from-home|remote|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28351" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10762" RevisionGUID="f7620e44-976a-4cde-a5ac-8c2014304674" CreationDate="2024-01-10T16:02:35.933" UserId="30189" Text="First of all, you should try freelancing sites. Research these sites where you can advertise or look for clients. An example is UpWork. You can network with other programmers or other freelancers you know. They might be able to give you leads. I can also recommend joining Facebook groups that cater to the niche that you have. Also, how about going to local businesses in your city or town. You can make a portfolio and show the owners or managers of these businesses. Since you are a programmer, you have had projects. To connect with potential clients, go to businesses that might need to have a computer program. Upskill, too, so that in case you don't find programming work, you can offer other services. It could be making landing pages. Hope this helps." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28353" PostHistoryTypeId="52" PostId="10761" RevisionGUID="d3cf1c1b-8220-41c1-b3c3-346a21af963d" CreationDate="2024-01-10T23:52:47.110" />
  <row Id="28354" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10761" RevisionGUID="ced76fe4-c894-42e9-8080-0fbd85f6e561" CreationDate="2024-01-11T17:15:39.140" UserId="75" Comment="deleted 79 characters in body" Text="I'm a freelance programmer, I have started freelancing 2 months ago just after quitting my previous company. I had a good start in the first month, but now I'm struggling to find new clients. I would appreciate any advice from anyone who needs my skills. I can work with React (Next.js) and Java (JEE) at an intermediate level. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28355" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="10761" RevisionGUID="99f8dcbb-a6ad-4950-9026-9b0bf9ea603d" CreationDate="2024-01-12T04:39:02.500" UserId="30188" Comment="Rollback to [eed27fd6-c9c6-411b-9552-94fa92c6ffa8] - Re-type  necessary words removed by Canadian Luke" Text="I'm a freelance programmer, I have started freelancing 2 months ago just after quitting my previous company. I had a good start in the first month, but now I'm struggling to find new clients. I would appreciate any advice or referrals from anyone who needs my skills. I can work with React (Next.js) and Java (JEE) at an intermediate level. You can check out my portfolio here: https://aportfolio.vercel.app&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28360" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10764" RevisionGUID="e583c159-e261-4e1e-a829-96f684079672" CreationDate="2024-01-12T17:40:17.983" UserId="30201" Text="&gt; What do you think?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You should definitely get professional liability insurance if you do not already have it. It is not cheap, but neither is compensating the family members of a person who has been &quot;sucked into the vacuum system.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your initial and ongoing liabilities are going to be influenced by whatever written terms you and your client establish for the initial work and ongoing maintenance. Speak with a lawyer for guidance on what your options are and how to draft the contracts accordingly. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28364" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10765" RevisionGUID="f3131a6c-8acb-4653-9869-70d424870962" CreationDate="2024-01-13T06:04:13.767" UserId="24353" Text="In my small town in America we have a city government that has few resources. I met a few people who maintain the city park and discovered they needed a way for an employee at the park to make a reservation and sync it real-time with the employees in the office. I approached them, suggested several ways I could quickly fix it for them, and they agreed to one of them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Maybe in Madagascar this approach could help you. If opportunities have dried up anyway, there's nothing to lose. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Something like this to a small business or an under-funded non-profit?&#xD;&#xA;&gt;&quot;Hey, I've been coming here for a while and noticed [this problem happening]. I like to help people, I'm a software developer, and right now I have some free time. If I helped you with this problem, would you be a reference for me?&quot;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28372" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10767" RevisionGUID="38d54a4c-6349-4137-b948-0920b6584787" CreationDate="2024-01-18T12:36:54.930" UserId="30187" Text="I have planned to start my IT development Company based on Salesforce development not now. But, After 3 years! I need some roadmap of suggestions, exposure, and plans to seed myself to prepare me for the Startup. Kindly, I would like to receive any suggestions!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28374" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10767" RevisionGUID="38d54a4c-6349-4137-b948-0920b6584787" CreationDate="2024-01-18T12:36:54.930" UserId="30187" Text="How to start my own IT Company - What Kind of Plans and Exposure do I need to seek?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28375" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10767" RevisionGUID="38d54a4c-6349-4137-b948-0920b6584787" CreationDate="2024-01-18T12:36:54.930" UserId="30187" Text="|freelance|startups|company-management|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28376" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10768" RevisionGUID="d8dfcd17-f868-4603-8869-a288c14f084c" CreationDate="2024-01-18T15:18:37.370" UserId="26181" Text="The most important aspect of starting a business is getting clients. How to do that depends on where you are (your location), what type of clients you want, and your own capabilities. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For example, if you are in a major city, then potential clients are all around you. Create a brochure and start walking the business district handing it to the receptionist. I know one person who built a business that way." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28378" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10769" RevisionGUID="842353c6-8d1d-41b3-b003-7d784164210b" CreationDate="2024-01-18T18:12:47.733" UserId="30218" Text="I have built a bespoke CRM for a client. It was his idea and he has paid for it in full. In the proposal I wrote that I retain the rights to the codebase.&#xD;&#xA;He now wishes to negotiate buying the rights so that if he ever wants to take it to another developer he can do.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Firstly, how could I go about pricing it in a way that is both fair and reasonable? (There are still updates/changes being made which are being charged per hour.)&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, was this the right thing to do in the first place? He mentioned that not giving the client control is very dated, and that it is all about flexibility and allowing the client to leave whenever they want. Is this correct? In future should I always give the client the rights from the start?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28380" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10769" RevisionGUID="842353c6-8d1d-41b3-b003-7d784164210b" CreationDate="2024-01-18T18:12:47.733" UserId="30218" Text="How to evaluate codebase" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28381" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10769" RevisionGUID="842353c6-8d1d-41b3-b003-7d784164210b" CreationDate="2024-01-18T18:12:47.733" UserId="30218" Text="|price|copyright|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28382" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10770" RevisionGUID="3170b044-ed33-4048-98c7-febae641b587" CreationDate="2024-01-19T15:57:29.687" UserId="26181" Text="I have built several systems for clients. In my experience, it is very rare to be able to sell such a system to multiple clients. (I haven't done it once in 30 years.) &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;However, there are parts of the code base that can be reused between clients. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;My approach is to say that &quot;the specific application and design belong to the client. I retain the rights to code modules and the client has a non-exclusive, non-restrictive license to those code modules and may use them in any future derivative applications.&quot; In that way, the client can take the code to another developer should I get &quot;hit by a bus&quot; and I can use parts for other clients.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;To be able to sell a system to multiple clients, I needed to design something that would be easily modified for each client. I was able to do that only after having multiple prospects ask about a type of system. Building a base that can be easily modified is a lot of work, but if you have multiple prospects for such a system, it can pay off. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28384" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10771" RevisionGUID="34873991-10d5-49d9-a17b-b0bd3de2c33c" CreationDate="2024-01-19T22:38:48.387" UserId="22171" Text="If you specify to your client that 'this code is limited to your usage for XYZ operations, and when so used, and only when so used do you own the rights to the code&quot;. &quot;We retain the rights to the code for all other applications.&quot;&#xD;&#xA;Example: a brand name or trademark may be same words, but when used for very different applications so there is no misunderstanding of brand &amp; its use.&#xD;&#xA;Note; there is a big difference between a 'trademark' &amp; a &quot;Registered Trademark&quot;. The &quot;**Registered Trademark**&quot; is a mark listed on a specific countries list or registered marks with application to a specific field of commerce or article. A 'trademark' is just a brand identification but must not clash with a Registered Trademark&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28386" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10772" RevisionGUID="f2f8b17c-d093-4ad5-b2f5-451c3a03ab57" CreationDate="2024-01-19T23:07:13.553" UserId="22171" Text="I found that 'word of mouth' reputation from my first job introduced me to a second customer. This word of mouth reputation seems to get work easier than advertising. You also need to mix with your client base at social functions if possible in your town or area" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28388" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10542" RevisionGUID="e921ef04-014f-42a1-80e7-12a4b4587f39" CreationDate="2024-01-23T17:01:45.263" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28426" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10780" RevisionGUID="e6409667-7bd8-4a72-aa78-312ae8f27bd2" CreationDate="2024-01-31T16:36:47.060" UserId="1706" Text="Don't sell it outright.  License it.  Non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-redistributable.  You did good to set things up as you did.  See more [here][1] in software engineering stack exchange.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/186294/is-there-a-license-for-selling-a-software-with-the-sources-so-buyer-can-make-mod" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28428" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10781" RevisionGUID="00b0bdea-97e3-4279-8747-443b7f5088d1" CreationDate="2024-02-02T07:52:48.277" UserId="29530" Text="I am working as a data scraping Freelance developer with Python. I have been working for the last 5 years in building automation and scraping scripts with Python. For the last 3 years, I have been learning Django and created several projects in Django and hosted some of these apps. Some of these apps are used by my clients. I am now 32 years old. I never worked in any IT company till now. Because I was a teacher. I am from India.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Now, I want to join an IT company as a Python Django Backend/Full-Stack developer. In my resume, how many years of experience should I write? Do you think I am still fresher for companies?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28430" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10781" RevisionGUID="00b0bdea-97e3-4279-8747-443b7f5088d1" CreationDate="2024-02-02T07:52:48.277" UserId="29530" Text="Does freelance work count as &quot;real&quot; experience?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28431" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10781" RevisionGUID="00b0bdea-97e3-4279-8747-443b7f5088d1" CreationDate="2024-02-02T07:52:48.277" UserId="29530" Text="|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28432" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10782" RevisionGUID="e6ad993b-ad23-4e11-9552-9fc5b1a8e24f" CreationDate="2024-02-02T15:48:01.793" UserId="26181" Text="Yes. There are two types of experience we gain from working for a company, technical experience and company work environment experience. A freelancer may have technical experience but not the work environment experience. There may be tools and practices in the company that you are totally new to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;There is a second type of experience one gets as a freelancer, entrepreneurial thinking. This will actually help when working for a small company where you can work directly with the sales team. It hurts when working for a large company where you are expected to be a &quot;cog in the machine&quot; and not trying to solve customer problems in new ways.    " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28440" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10784" RevisionGUID="b8644a3a-d99e-4c59-be87-205fd83ea377" CreationDate="2024-02-04T15:35:38.157" UserId="30188" Text="After long research I found that:One of the best ways to succeed in freelancing is to create something that is really helpful and necessary for daily life for a large number of people. This will not only solve a problem or fulfill a need, but also attract customers who are willing to pay for your solution. A helpful and necessary product or service can also generate positive word-of-mouth and referrals, which can boost your reputation and credibility. Creating something really helpful and necessary for daily life is not easy, but it is worth the effort and investment.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28442" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10785" RevisionGUID="65a3a983-027b-46c0-80f2-8d64afbdb604" CreationDate="2024-02-06T13:11:44.940" UserId="30234" Text="&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Short answer, tl;dr- Google Voice.&#xD;&#xA;----------------------------------&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I use a virtual phone number, specifically google voice is free. I can text and call from my laptop or my wife's laptop. It automatically transcribes voicemails. I'm home most of the time so can answer on my computer. However, I'm *not* able to make or receive calls on my phone.  I haven't tried but I think public wifi like Starbucks would not be enough to make or receive quality phone calls.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've found it very reliable. Phone calls work well on my computers.  Texting works excellently on any devices. I love it because I can touch type and text from my computer, which makes if far faster for me. The only other issues- making sure the computer is on, so I can receive a phone call. And being able to find the window in time before it goes to voicemail. (I run three monitors, with typically 10 windows open, probably too many things I tell myself I'll get back to all the time) After initial setup and getting used to it, it's pretty smooth.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Like every program it has a few idiosyncrasies and drawbacks-&#xD;&#xA;The primary or only serious drawback- I can **not** answer calls on my phone.  I can only answer phone calls on my computer.  I find a quality headset essential for this.  I suspect the phone companies want calls going through their network.  Or maybe they blocked google voice calls on phones to hinder spammers.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;When texting a new number, I have to be sure to choose the number by clicking on it, not just type it in and tab or click to the message area.  Also, group texting in particular.  Sometimes I can't find a group I want to text.  Then I have to pretend to recreate the group, by adding each group member again to an entirely new message.  Eventually the message history appears." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28446" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10786" RevisionGUID="1dfe7199-274f-40fa-91f7-a85ac36499f3" CreationDate="2024-02-07T18:30:54.550" UserId="30286" Text="  I have an invention that i am interested in selling (a hydraulic/direct drive continuously variable transmission, which can be used as a quasi-clutch/torque converter), and wonder what ways are possible to get the invention graded by prospective buyers without having filed a provisional?&#xD;&#xA;  I have considered putting an NDA on ebay, and sharing the idea with anyone who buys the NDA (and completes it).  &#xD;&#xA;  I can't be sure of the invention's viability or desirability.  I am not a hydraulics expert, or even a trained engineer. &#xD;&#xA; Nobody has been willing to bid on what else I have for sale (cryptography-related), though there are people who keep track of the auctions.  That's kind of understandable, since most online commerce would be insecure for some period of time if I'm correct.  Also, most of my customers would likely be intelligence agencies, and probably don't want to bid for it on ebay.&#xD;&#xA;  It occurred to me that maybe I could leverage ebay to sell some of the other things lying around in my head. &#xD;&#xA;  The reason for not filing provisional first is to avoid abandoning it, and thereby giving it away for nothing.  Made that mistake before." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28448" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10786" RevisionGUID="1dfe7199-274f-40fa-91f7-a85ac36499f3" CreationDate="2024-02-07T18:30:54.550" UserId="30286" Text="Ways to sell and share invention design, before filing provisional patent app?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28449" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10786" RevisionGUID="1dfe7199-274f-40fa-91f7-a85ac36499f3" CreationDate="2024-02-07T18:30:54.550" UserId="30286" Text="|project-bidding|sales|proposal|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28450" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10787" RevisionGUID="6321c1e7-7855-4d52-b95b-649f8f071307" CreationDate="2024-02-08T01:45:25.847" UserId="26917" Text="Saw the earlier discussion at the engineering stack, where we referred you here. Didn't want to get into the topic on that forum, but honestly, ebay or any online forum at all is totally unlikely to succeed here, since you're starting from 0. You need to have at least a bare minimum of trust, like at least belonging to some common activity or organization.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your potential counterparty has a financial interest in the technical field, they may very well have more to lose than you signing an NDA, and they would from experience anticipate an investment in time fine-tuning the terms of an NDA. Would they even bother if it's a rando on ebay? no. But they might if they connect with you in a forum that has at least some minimal filtering function.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So typically the inventor needs to contrive a way to have something socially in common with the buyer. Perhaps belonging to some enterpreneurship networking situation (most universities run such orgs and are open to both random inventors and random investors). Perhaps a mutual acquaintance to act as an introduction - in your case a professional in the field. I'd follow those two lines to start with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, when it's a prospective investor vs a small-time inventor, the power balance is such that they're pretty much doing you a favor if they sign anything at all. For that reason it's better to have some demonstration, however sketchy, of whatever advantage your tech is proposing to deliver. Once again, partnering with someone in the field might be a good idea." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28452" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10787" RevisionGUID="4dc3ac04-b07c-48b8-95ec-26b0286104d8" CreationDate="2024-02-08T01:52:24.090" UserId="26917" Comment="added 869 characters in body" Text="Saw the earlier discussion at the engineering stack, where we referred you here. Didn't want to get into the topic on that forum, but honestly, ebay or any online forum at all is totally unlikely to succeed here, since you're starting from 0. You need to have at least a bare minimum of trust, like at least belonging to some common activity or organization.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your potential counterparty has a financial interest in the technical field, they may very well have more to lose than you signing an NDA, and they would from experience anticipate an investment in time fine-tuning the terms of an NDA. Would they even bother if it's a rando on ebay? no. But they might if they connect with you in a forum that has at least some minimal filtering function.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So typically the inventor needs to contrive a way to have something socially in common with the buyer. Perhaps belonging to some enterpreneurship networking situation (most universities run such orgs and are open to both random inventors and random investors). Perhaps a mutual acquaintance to act as an introduction - in your case a professional in the field. I'd follow those two lines to start with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, when it's a prospective investor vs a small-time inventor, the power balance is such that they're pretty much doing you a favor if they sign anything at all. For that reason it's better to have some demonstration, however sketchy, of whatever advantage your tech is proposing to deliver. (i.e. without revealing the patentable secrets, or if that isn't possible, unfortunately you'd have to start the clock on the provisional patent,) Once again, partnering with someone in the field might be a good idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As to investing the work in a patent, or a provisional patent - while it's a risk, it would also signal that you are serious about the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, it's a longshot and the odds are stacked against you, and even if you patent your invention, you and/or your buyer or licensee can still get screwed by the competition in a variety of ways (e.g. lets say you forgot to make your device resistant to soprano opera singers, which your market universally loves to listen to, and the experienced IP department at Volkswagen files a patent of {your thing + immunity vs opera} ... so now they blocked you) - and any buyer would be looking for such traps, so the whole thing might take a long time to work out, if at all." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28453" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10788" RevisionGUID="e43a68a3-9d78-4a8c-91c9-25de5a33a821" CreationDate="2024-02-08T02:18:38.880" UserId="26917" Text="re: &quot;In future should I always give the client the rights from the start?&quot; -&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The case of not giving them rights happens all the time. If you buy commercial software, you don't get the code. Places I've worked have sold things with embedded software, and they never gave their clients rights to it. That being said, the risk of a solitary developer going bye bye has to be acknowledged. The moment the developer and client part ways is a common source of conflict and should be thought through.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As it is, the choice is up to the market, right? Your own client agreed to it and they paid you, and now you're in a situation where they are offering to pay you a little more. Sounds like a win.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suspect the unspoken reality, is that you retaining exclusive rights gave them a chance to get something a little cheaper than they might've gotten otherwise. Something for something. Personally I'm in favor of the arrangement in David R's answer above. But some larger businesses can have issues with it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28455" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10787" RevisionGUID="6f8fc1a9-49c9-4032-a707-edfd6d522a19" CreationDate="2024-02-08T02:24:25.743" UserId="26917" Comment="added 304 characters in body" Text="Saw the earlier discussion at the engineering stack, where we referred you here. Didn't want to get into the topic on that forum, but honestly, ebay or any online forum at all is totally unlikely to succeed here, since you're starting from 0. You need to have at least a bare minimum of trust, like at least belonging to some common activity or organization.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your potential counterparty has a financial interest in the technical field, they may very well have more to lose than you signing an NDA, and they would from experience anticipate an investment in time fine-tuning the terms of an NDA. Would they even bother if it's a rando on ebay? no. But they might if they connect with you in a forum that has at least some minimal filtering function.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;So typically the inventor needs to contrive a way to have something socially in common with the buyer. Perhaps belonging to some enterpreneurship networking situation (most universities run such orgs and are open to both random inventors and random investors). Perhaps a mutual acquaintance to act as an introduction - in your case a professional in the field. I'd follow those two lines to start with.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Secondly, when it's a prospective investor vs a small-time inventor, the power balance is such that they're pretty much doing you a favor if they sign anything at all. For that reason it's better to have some demonstration, however sketchy, of whatever advantage your tech is proposing to deliver. (i.e. without revealing the patentable secrets, or if that isn't possible, unfortunately you'd have to start the clock on the provisional patent,) Once again, partnering with someone in the field might be a good idea.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As to investing the work in a patent, or a provisional patent - while it's a risk, it has several huge benefits. Firstly, it's relatively straightforward to sell a patent. It's hard to sell an idea on a napkin. A provisional patent is probably closer to the napkin, they'd effectively have to contract you to complete the patent application process, they'd have no way to know whether they get it, or how much they spend by the time it's done, and it could take a couple years.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;More immediately, having at least a provisional signals that you are serious about the project.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Lastly, it's a longshot and the odds are stacked against you, and even if you patent your invention, you and/or your buyer or licensee can still get screwed by the competition in a variety of ways (e.g. lets say you forgot to make your device resistant to soprano opera singers, which your market universally loves to listen to, and the experienced IP department at Volkswagen files a patent of {your thing + immunity vs opera} ... so now they blocked you) - and any buyer would be looking for such traps, so the whole thing might take a long time to work out, if at all." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28456" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10788" RevisionGUID="e053cb18-741c-47ef-a812-36ff4dd45cbc" CreationDate="2024-02-08T02:28:22.470" UserId="26917" Comment="added 22 characters in body" Text="re: &quot;In future should I always give the client the rights from the start?&quot; -&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The case of not giving them rights happens all the time. If you buy commercial software, you don't get the code. Places I've worked have sold things with embedded software custom for the client, and they never gave their clients rights to it. That being said, the risk of a solitary developer going bye bye has to be acknowledged. The moment the developer and client part ways is a common source of conflict and should be thought through.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As it is, the choice is up to the market, right? Your own client agreed to it and they paid you, and now you're in a situation where they are offering to pay you a little more. Sounds like a win.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I suspect the unspoken reality, is that you retaining exclusive rights gave them a chance to get something a little cheaper than they might've gotten otherwise. Something for something. Personally I'm in favor of the arrangement in David R's answer above. But some larger businesses can have issues with it. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28457" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10789" RevisionGUID="1ccd5842-da26-4355-bd21-1d8d01b5bda1" CreationDate="2024-02-08T12:26:08.123" UserId="30288" Text="You should have a specific webpage for your each service you’re offering.&#xD;&#xA;If you have a service of web development create a separate specific webpage that caters to only the web development service and same goes with other services.&#xD;&#xA;The more specific you are the better, do not confuse Google&#xD;&#xA;Your homepage only shows the glimpse of what you offer" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28459" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10790" RevisionGUID="7c10b2ff-404a-4e62-ad4c-4833adb70cfa" CreationDate="2024-02-08T19:49:47.243" UserId="28533" Text="I have a deal with one of my clients like this.  Basically, I own the code, but they have the right to use the code as they wish provided they do not transfer or sell the software without my express authority.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I retain all rights to the codebase and may sell the software to others as I see fit.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Another clause in all my contracts is that if I should ever go out of business, each customer will receive a copy of the code and the database for maintenance purposes.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;In your case I would consider a couple of different things.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;1) Are you interested in selling to others?  If so make sure you retain those rights, and give them rights to the code for maintenance purposes only. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;2) If they are only interested in what happens if you go out of business, then you can make an addendum to the original contract that states that they will receive the code when you are no longer providing services.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;3) Make sure when you sell the code you also get a maintenance contract for a decent term, like 5 yrs and then renews automatically each year that they do not decide to terminate the contract after that.  Make sure also to add in an x% increase in maintenance fees, or some other way to increase the fees.  I also put a cap on the number of hours for adding new features with a $/hr for anything that goes over that.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;4) If you sell, make sure you get a good price for it.  Something in the neighborhood of what you charged to create it would be a good starting point.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;5) Get a lawyer involved, you can mock up the initial draft with something like rocketlaw.com, but have a lawyer go over it before presenting it to the client.  I guarantee they will have their lawyer go over it.  It's expensive so keep it in mind when you are negotiating the price. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;6) You might want to put in some kind of clause that allows you to use portions of the code that are not business specific in other projects.  I.E. if you created a really good drop down box you want to be able to use it in other projects, or maybe the security system etc.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;7) Make sure any open source code you have hasn't already legally made the code public.  Some of those licenses look like it's ok to use but there are clauses that make any code you add have to follow the same license (gpl, lgpl, creative commons etc) and release the code if asked.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Remember right now you have a lot of leverage, if he doesn't like the clauses, you can continue as is.  You aren't trying to sell the code, he's trying to buy it.  Each clause he takes out, increases the price you have to charge.  For example if you can't use the security system, then the price increases by at least as much as it would take you to build another one from scratch.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It's going to cost a lot to buy and retrain their staff on a new system.  And depending on how the original contract is written they may not even have rights to their data, or the format it's in.  My contracts usually state that the data is the property of the client, but it does not state the format of that data, so if I want to produce it as a giant denormalized csv file, I can.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Some ideas anyway.  &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28461" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10749" RevisionGUID="0eeea991-b121-4d5e-9618-03c71555ac1b" CreationDate="2024-02-11T18:01:15.177" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28462" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10791" RevisionGUID="84df40be-cb38-49b2-841c-f9498022dc87" CreationDate="2024-02-16T20:40:38.667" UserId="30315" Text="From a strict liability standpoint, and assuming you have a contract in place that specifies your responsibility is *only* on developing the software, and you aren't responsible for *how that software is implemented*, you aren't liable for misuse of the software. However, depending on the terms in the contract, and the fact that (based on your statement) *you* own the software, not the client who is implementing it, you could potentially face some amount of liability for injuries. This is a situation where you should have an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction review the agreement you have with the client and make sure that your contract protects you.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;From a real-world standpoint, just because you aren't liable doesn't mean you can't still be accused by an injured party or even sued. Liability insurance is critical here, and in any situation where you could face legal ramifications, even if you aren't strictly liable. As for the cost of liability insurance, the other response isn't necessarily true. I have liability insurance that costs less than $20/month, but my work only involves finances, not life-or-death situations. I don't know how much it would be in your situation, but it may not be as expensive as you think." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28464" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10792" RevisionGUID="e8ce3012-4268-43e0-81c5-a9371aa3a10d" CreationDate="2024-02-16T20:50:15.103" UserId="30315" Text="First thing you need to do is determine whether what you are doing is [considered a hobby or a business][1] according to the IRS, and if similar rules apply in your state. For a hobby, you don't need to pay SE taxes (including quarterly payments), because it gets reported straight to Sch. 1, not Sch. C.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If your income is treated as business income, then you need to do two things:&#xD;&#xA;1. File a Sch. C with your tax return, and calculate your gross profit (income - expenses allocated to the business) and then determine your SE tax liability.&#xD;&#xA;2. For future years, forecast your gross profit and what your anticipated SE liability is, then make quarterly payments.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You need to repeat this process with the state income as well.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As for determining what you actually owe, you need to calculate any expenses *attributable to the business* and subtract those from the income the business earns to determine the business' profit. Since you aren't incorporated, all business income *passes through* to you, so you have to pay SE tax on the entire profit, in addition to any income tax you pay for your regular job(s).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tips-for-taxpayers-who-make-money-from-a-hobby" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28466" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10029" RevisionGUID="a365b6fa-d2c4-474a-9599-0d14670f4613" CreationDate="2024-02-18T06:05:05.697" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28467" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10793" RevisionGUID="326d2134-cd36-4e00-8f0e-81b1cc81a1ad" CreationDate="2024-02-19T09:51:56.460" UserId="30327" Text="as a freelancer,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it legal if I cancel a project and give refund if I found a better offer.&#xD;&#xA;or can I cancel any project whenever I want?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;in counter part, It is known that clients have the right to cancel any offer whenever they want with or without a reason." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28469" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10793" RevisionGUID="326d2134-cd36-4e00-8f0e-81b1cc81a1ad" CreationDate="2024-02-19T09:51:56.460" UserId="30327" Text="as a freelancer, is legal to cancel a project and give refund instead. in case I get a better offer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28470" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10793" RevisionGUID="326d2134-cd36-4e00-8f0e-81b1cc81a1ad" CreationDate="2024-02-19T09:51:56.460" UserId="30327" Text="|freelance-websites|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28471" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10793" RevisionGUID="66d4ad08-47b6-4a38-a620-84882fe9cab1" CreationDate="2024-02-19T09:52:23.623" UserId="30327" Comment="deleted 2 characters in body" Text="as a freelancer,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it legal to cancel a project and give refund if I found a better offer.&#xD;&#xA;or can I cancel any project whenever I want?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;in counter part, It is known that clients have the right to cancel any offer whenever they want with or without a reason." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28472" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10793" RevisionGUID="f5d22fdb-41a9-4c75-a0c4-c243c526f36e" CreationDate="2024-02-19T09:52:52.030" UserId="30327" Comment="added 27 characters in body" Text="as a freelancer,&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Is it legal to cancel a project and give a refund if I found a better offer.&#xD;&#xA;or can I cancel any project whenever I want, in case I give a refund?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;in counter part, It is known that clients have the right to cancel any offer whenever they want with or without a reason." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28473" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10793" RevisionGUID="09bb1bd5-e160-4e41-bc66-7ece32b1b66b" CreationDate="2024-02-19T10:00:41.747" UserId="30327" Comment="edited title" Text="as a freelancer, is it legal to cancel a project and give refund instead. in case I get a better offer?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28474" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10794" RevisionGUID="3d742d9e-26c3-4448-83cf-cb032ad98ec2" CreationDate="2024-02-19T15:19:14.833" UserId="26181" Text="The legality depends on the contract that you signed or agreed to.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The ethics of canceling a project because of a better offer are dubious. You have no guarantee that the second project will last very long. But your reputation in the market will be hurt by not following through on your agreements. Reputation is important for future projects.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If you are worried that a client will cancel, write into the contract a cancellation clause where they have to pay X amount if cancelling prior to accepting the results. Or do the project on an hourly basis where they pay for the work done. " ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28476" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10795" RevisionGUID="bbed333b-dd7c-4976-b7e0-397ce81864bc" CreationDate="2024-02-20T01:57:45.120" UserId="30331" Text="I left a well paying part-time ecommerce job to take up a contract coaching job with ambiguous pay structure, at a time when I wasn't thinking straight as I was interested in the field and it felt like a good recognition within the community.  &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I've since decided, after a year there, that I'm not interested in this job, it's too draining emotionally and I'm spending a lot more time than they're paying me for. It borders on unfair work practices &amp; doesn't guarantee me any work despite asking me to set aside 20 hrs for them - I get paid per job and it's ambiguous when I might get a job. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Question - Is it douchy to leave a contract after just a year? &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Question - What reason can I give them to exit the contract as professionally as possible, given that I might be part of the wider community and cross paths in the future. I'm searching for a full time job and want to leave this as soon as that happens.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Question - if they ask for feedback, how do I realistically answer without sharing my issues? I don't want to discuss it with them. &#xD;&#xA;" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28478" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10795" RevisionGUID="bbed333b-dd7c-4976-b7e0-397ce81864bc" CreationDate="2024-02-20T01:57:45.120" UserId="30331" Text="How to end a contract after just a year, on good terms?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28479" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10795" RevisionGUID="bbed333b-dd7c-4976-b7e0-397ce81864bc" CreationDate="2024-02-20T01:57:45.120" UserId="30331" Text="|contracts|difficult-client|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28480" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10793" RevisionGUID="0121307d-7a81-4da6-af42-4b482163b48c" CreationDate="2024-02-20T02:08:58.610" UserId="75" Comment="Removed Legal question (We are not lawyers); general grammar cleanup" Text="Can I cancel a project and give a refund if I found a better offer,&#xD;&#xA;or can I cancel any project whenever I want, in case I give a refund?&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;It is known that clients have the right to cancel any offer whenever they want with or without a reason." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28481" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10793" RevisionGUID="0121307d-7a81-4da6-af42-4b482163b48c" CreationDate="2024-02-20T02:08:58.610" UserId="75" Comment="Removed Legal question (We are not lawyers); general grammar cleanup" Text="Can I cancel a project and give refund instead?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28482" PostHistoryTypeId="6" PostId="10793" RevisionGUID="0121307d-7a81-4da6-af42-4b482163b48c" CreationDate="2024-02-20T02:08:58.610" UserId="75" Comment="Removed Legal question (We are not lawyers); general grammar cleanup" Text="|project|contract-cancellation|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28492" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10798" RevisionGUID="3310519b-d364-40c9-ac14-6863a5ec39aa" CreationDate="2024-02-21T11:06:08.207" UserId="7858" Text="Many - if not most - contracts are for less than a year, so the time-aspect should not bother you at all.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;You financially requiring full-time work, which they won't guarantee, seems a perfectly, non-adversarial reason to part ways. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If they ask for feedback, just state the above; you are moving on to a work situation which better fits your medium- and long-term goals.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Since you are concerned about reputational damage, do not engage in any negative feedback - even if they strangely ask for it.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Any feedback should be positive/constructive and only given if they specifically ask for it; e.g. 'what would you do differently' when it comes to a certain work process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Do NOT give any unsolicited advice, as that can seem unnecessarily arrogant." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28494" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="2959" RevisionGUID="b4812bbe-ac3a-416b-89d7-a6b19fa34fb9" CreationDate="2024-02-22T10:03:18.150" UserId="24353" Comment="Just fixed a minor typo in the title" Text="Advise me - getting started with programming" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28495" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="2959" RevisionGUID="b4812bbe-ac3a-416b-89d7-a6b19fa34fb9" CreationDate="2024-02-22T10:03:18.150" Comment="Proposed by 24353 approved by 85, 7858 edit id of 852" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28496" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10191" RevisionGUID="a8972f56-69f6-434a-b977-2901256a260b" CreationDate="2024-02-22T10:03:51.407" UserId="23754" Comment="Fixed grammar " Text="**Hello I am new to freelancing.** I have accounts on freelancing sites ([Upwork][1], [Freelancer][2]). My skills are in the field of Machine Learning and Data Analysis.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;**My question is while bidding for projects,** **I get an option to charge for the whole project or charge for milestones. What would be a better option from the perspective of me getting the project?**&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Also if I charge by milestones, I am uncertain as to how to describe the work for each milestone (as far as Machine Learning and Data Analyst is considered).&#xD;&#xA;Any help would be appreciated!&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;  [1]: https://www.upwork.com&#xD;&#xA;  [2]: http://www.freelancer.com" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28497" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10191" RevisionGUID="a8972f56-69f6-434a-b977-2901256a260b" CreationDate="2024-02-22T10:03:51.407" Comment="Proposed by 23754 approved by 7858 edit id of 854" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28498" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10648" RevisionGUID="6bd3d5a6-541b-4bc4-b33f-c0e8c997c7ca" CreationDate="2024-02-22T10:04:06.700" UserId="23884" Comment="minor corrections" Text="I have this freelancing project but the budget given doesn't meets the requirements to get the job done on time, how do I handle such situations?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28499" PostHistoryTypeId="4" PostId="10648" RevisionGUID="6bd3d5a6-541b-4bc4-b33f-c0e8c997c7ca" CreationDate="2024-02-22T10:04:06.700" UserId="23884" Comment="minor corrections" Text="How do I handle a freelancing project thats budgets low to my standard" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28500" PostHistoryTypeId="24" PostId="10648" RevisionGUID="6bd3d5a6-541b-4bc4-b33f-c0e8c997c7ca" CreationDate="2024-02-22T10:04:06.700" Comment="Proposed by 23884 approved by 85, 7858 edit id of 850" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28502" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10656" RevisionGUID="61934e0e-01ea-46f2-93c6-bf58bcf06776" CreationDate="2024-02-27T00:03:45.430" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28503" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10214" RevisionGUID="8a6058db-96c3-44a4-94a0-a76041d7deac" CreationDate="2024-02-28T07:55:34.083" UserId="26927" Comment="added 272 characters in body" Text="At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it.&#xD;&#xA;Some of the most popular options as of now: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing at [stacker.news][16] where you can sign up anonymously with a lightning network wallet that supports [LNURL-auth][17] or with a nostr pubkey. The payout is in lightning network.&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is in IQ, which you can then trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Monero Social][6]. If you know how to code, write technical documentation, or create videos. Payment is in Monero.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [bitcoinbounties.org][7]. Payment is in Bitcoin.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use lightning network, so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;[6]: https://bounties.monero.social/&#xD;&#xA;[7]: https://bitcoinbounties.org/&#xD;&#xA;[16]: https://stacker.news/items/440472&#xD;&#xA;[17]: https://stacker.news/items/440521" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28504" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10213" RevisionGUID="8ec70a9e-53d6-4e90-a13a-12d8bc054353" CreationDate="2024-02-28T07:55:45.260" UserId="26927" Comment="added 270 characters in body" Text="**You can.** At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it. Some of the most popular options as of now:&#xD;&#xA;* Writing at [stacker.news][16] where you can sign up anonymously with a lightning network wallet that supports [LNURL-auth][17] or with a nostr pubkey. The payout is in lightning network.&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is &#xD;&#xA;in IQ, which you can the trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Monero Social][13]. If you know how to code, write technical documentation, or create videos. Payment is in Monero.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [bitcoinbounties.org][14]. Payment is in Bitcoin.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use [lightning network][10], so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities. Whether these options give you pseudonymity or [anonymity][9] is another matter. The first option, i.e. wiriting Everipedia, seems to me more pseudonymous than anonymous. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If needed you would than use non-[KYC][8] ways, such as [Bisq][7], [robosats][15], or [localmonero][6] to convert crypto to FIAT. When spending crypto for goods directly, without the FIAT step in between, you should be using Bitcoin's lightning or [Monero][12] in order to preserve your privacy. The former is accepted through [Bitrefill][11].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;[6]: https://localmonero.co/&#xD;&#xA;[7]: https://bisq.network/&#xD;&#xA;[8]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer&#xD;&#xA;[9]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymity&#xD;&#xA;[10]: https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/the-bitcoin-lightning-network&#xD;&#xA;[11]: https://www.bitrefill.com/&#xD;&#xA;[12]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monero&#xD;&#xA;[13]: https://bounties.monero.social&#xD;&#xA;[14]: https://bitcoinbounties.org/&#xD;&#xA;[15]: https://github.com/Reckless-Satoshi/robosats&#xD;&#xA;[16]: https://stacker.news/items/440472&#xD;&#xA;[17]: https://stacker.news/items/440521" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28505" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10213" RevisionGUID="8add21f4-9dd3-40df-8bb1-6b8acb715057" CreationDate="2024-02-28T08:21:45.100" UserId="26927" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="**You can.** At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it. Some of the most popular options as of now:&#xD;&#xA;* Writing at [stacker.news][16] where you can sign up anonymously with a lightning network wallet that supports [LNURL-auth][17] or with a nostr pubkey. The payout is in lightning network.&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is &#xD;&#xA;in IQ, which you can the trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Monero Social][13]. If you know how to code, write technical documentation, or create videos. Payment is in Monero.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [bitcoinbounties.org][14]. Payment is in Bitcoin.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use [lightning network][10], so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities. Whether these options give you pseudonymity or [anonymity][9] is another matter. The first option, i.e. wiriting Everipedia, seems to me more pseudonymous than anonymous. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If needed you would than use non-[KYC][8] ways, such as [Bisq][7], [robosats][15], or [localmonero][6] to convert crypto to FIAT. When spending crypto for goods directly, without the FIAT step in between, you should be using Bitcoin's lightning or [Monero][12] in order to preserve your privacy. The former is accepted through [Bitrefill][11].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;[6]: https://localmonero.co/&#xD;&#xA;[7]: https://bisq.network/&#xD;&#xA;[8]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer&#xD;&#xA;[9]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymity&#xD;&#xA;[10]: https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/the-bitcoin-lightning-network&#xD;&#xA;[11]: https://www.bitrefill.com/&#xD;&#xA;[12]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monero&#xD;&#xA;[13]: https://bounties.monero.social&#xD;&#xA;[14]: https://bitcoinbounties.org/&#xD;&#xA;[15]: https://github.com/Reckless-Satoshi/robosats&#xD;&#xA;[16]: https://stacker.news/r/denationalized&#xD;&#xA;[17]: https://stacker.news/items/440521" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28506" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10214" RevisionGUID="19cae9a5-172c-4448-8cc3-91ac4d7bee45" CreationDate="2024-02-28T08:22:10.500" UserId="26927" Comment="added 4 characters in body" Text="At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it.&#xD;&#xA;Some of the most popular options as of now: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing at [stacker.news][16] where you can sign up anonymously with a lightning network wallet that supports [LNURL-auth][17] or with a nostr pubkey. The payout is in lightning network.&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is in IQ, which you can then trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Monero Social][6]. If you know how to code, write technical documentation, or create videos. Payment is in Monero.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [bitcoinbounties.org][7]. Payment is in Bitcoin.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use lightning network, so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;[6]: https://bounties.monero.social/&#xD;&#xA;[7]: https://bitcoinbounties.org/&#xD;&#xA;[16]: https://stacker.news/r/denationalized&#xD;&#xA;[17]: https://stacker.news/items/440521" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28507" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="10214" RevisionGUID="504936b2-b1c4-4819-adfd-3c68e3ef86eb" CreationDate="2024-02-28T23:39:30.820" UserId="75" Comment="Rollback to [05d25def-f468-42f9-baf5-a8e83a6a2ba9]" Text="At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it.&#xD;&#xA;Some of the most popular options as of now: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is in IQ, which you can then trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Monero Social][6]. If you know how to code, write technical documentation, or create videos. Payment is in Monero.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [bitcoinbounties.org][7]. Payment is in Bitcoin.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use lightning network, so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;[6]: https://bounties.monero.social/&#xD;&#xA;[7]: https://bitcoinbounties.org/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28508" PostHistoryTypeId="8" PostId="10213" RevisionGUID="288e0ddd-8e1b-46f1-a2fc-62d1c2ed393e" CreationDate="2024-02-28T23:40:39.030" UserId="75" Comment="Rollback to [63a0b186-399f-4cae-a372-9d96e1d8076c]" Text="**You can.** At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it. Some of the most popular options as of now:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is &#xD;&#xA;in IQ, which you can the trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Monero Social][13]. If you know how to code, write technical documentation, or create videos. Payment is in Monero.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [bitcoinbounties.org][14]. Payment is in Bitcoin.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use [lightning network][10], so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities. Whether these options give you pseudonymity or [anonymity][9] is another matter. The first option, i.e. wiriting Everipedia, seems to me more pseudonymous than anonymous. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If needed you would than use non-[KYC][8] ways, such as [Bisq][7], [robosats][15], or [localmonero][6] to convert crypto to FIAT. When spending crypto for goods directly, without the FIAT step in between, you should be using Bitcoin's lightning or [Monero][12] in order to preserve your privacy. The former is accepted through [Bitrefill][11].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;[6]: https://localmonero.co/&#xD;&#xA;[7]: https://bisq.network/&#xD;&#xA;[8]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer&#xD;&#xA;[9]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymity&#xD;&#xA;[10]: https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/the-bitcoin-lightning-network&#xD;&#xA;[11]: https://www.bitrefill.com/&#xD;&#xA;[12]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monero&#xD;&#xA;[13]: https://bounties.monero.social&#xD;&#xA;[14]: https://bitcoinbounties.org/&#xD;&#xA;[15]: https://github.com/Reckless-Satoshi/robosats" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28511" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10799" RevisionGUID="aa1385dd-5da8-434f-801b-16ed49505ce1" CreationDate="2024-03-08T04:50:17.110" UserId="30392" Text="I’m a contractor and I’m feeling like I’m going to be fired for doing a job that they asked me to do that isn’t part of my bid or job. They are threatening not to pay me. I’m sought out by clients that have heard about my work and loyalty all over Washington state. I’ve lost their trust. What do people recommend I do moving forward? Unfortunately it’s a cash job from a referral from a subcontractor." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28513" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10799" RevisionGUID="aa1385dd-5da8-434f-801b-16ed49505ce1" CreationDate="2024-03-08T04:50:17.110" UserId="30392" Text="Know it all client and a wife that stirs the pot. Gun shy of not getting paid and history of clients being A CHRONIC SUE COUPLE" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28514" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10799" RevisionGUID="aa1385dd-5da8-434f-801b-16ed49505ce1" CreationDate="2024-03-08T04:50:17.110" UserId="30392" Text="|contracts|difficult-client|payments|late-payment|trust|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28515" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10800" RevisionGUID="58575c6b-8595-4c60-b4c3-ba1b24728403" CreationDate="2024-03-08T15:54:48.020" UserId="26181" Text="It sounds like you never had their trust to begin with. It sounds like they were looking for a reason to not pay.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;First off, it is important to realize that no matter how good you are, there are some people who can never be satisfied. Some clients are not worth keeping. This is why you need a &quot;contract termination&quot; clause in the contract saying that you can cancel the contract and return their money for any reason that you need.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;No matter how much cash is involved, it can be cheaper to give the cash back and tell them to find someone else. Instead of you being fired, you fire them.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Your peace of mind may be more valuable than any amount of cash from any client. When you can walk away from tens or hundreds of thousands in order to keep your peace of mind, it is possible to make much more with better clients. With peace of mind, you can find much better clients (and you can be much better able to get any short term loan needed to cover the hiccup in the cash flow)." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28517" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10703" RevisionGUID="60a0235d-d472-4b74-89d9-5225fc2e45af" CreationDate="2024-03-08T16:06:40.763" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28518" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10786" RevisionGUID="c6f5d78e-398d-4060-b7e9-4c605b94d603" CreationDate="2024-03-09T03:07:35.873" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28519" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10801" RevisionGUID="28aff17c-7403-4965-a88c-7af448808610" CreationDate="2024-03-09T07:23:44.567" UserId="30396" Text="&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As a freelancer, I've been navigating projects both within and outside of online marketplaces. While marketplaces offer a structured environment for client management, I find it challenging to maintain efficiency and professionalism when dealing with clients outside of these platforms.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What are some recommended strategies or tools for effectively managing clients beyond online marketplaces? I'm particularly interested in insights on communication methods, project organization, invoicing, and payment processing, as well as fostering long-term professional relationships. Any experienced advice or practical tips would be invaluable. Thank you!" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28521" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10801" RevisionGUID="28aff17c-7403-4965-a88c-7af448808610" CreationDate="2024-03-09T07:23:44.567" UserId="30396" Text="Best Practices for Client Management Beyond Online Marketplaces" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28522" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10801" RevisionGUID="28aff17c-7403-4965-a88c-7af448808610" CreationDate="2024-03-09T07:23:44.567" UserId="30396" Text="|clients|freelance|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28523" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10716" RevisionGUID="daf434f1-7c83-4823-8f44-f072df9e1e91" CreationDate="2024-03-10T19:03:10.410" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28524" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10213" RevisionGUID="67b0d318-caf6-4e31-8673-0a0dcadf437e" CreationDate="2024-03-10T21:28:01.467" UserId="26927" Comment="added 276 characters in body" Text="**You can.** At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it. Some of the most popular options as of now:&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing at [stacker.news][16] where you can sign up anonymously with a lightning network wallet that supports LNURL-auth or with a nostr pubkey. The payout is in lightning network.&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is &#xD;&#xA;in IQ, which you can the trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Monero Social][13]. If you know how to code, write technical documentation, or create videos. Payment is in Monero.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [bitcoinbounties.org][14]. Payment is in Bitcoin.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4] or [Bitsoapbox][17]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use [lightning network][10], so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities. Whether these options give you pseudonymity or [anonymity][9] is another matter. The first option, i.e. wiriting Everipedia, seems to me more pseudonymous than anonymous. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;If needed you would than use non-[KYC][8] ways, such as [Bisq][7], [robosats][15], or [localmonero][6] to convert crypto to FIAT. When spending crypto for goods directly, without the FIAT step in between, you should be using Bitcoin's lightning or [Monero][12] in order to preserve your privacy. The former is accepted through [Bitrefill][11].&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;[6]: https://localmonero.co/&#xD;&#xA;[7]: https://bisq.network/&#xD;&#xA;[8]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer&#xD;&#xA;[9]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymity&#xD;&#xA;[10]: https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/the-bitcoin-lightning-network&#xD;&#xA;[11]: https://www.bitrefill.com/&#xD;&#xA;[12]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monero&#xD;&#xA;[13]: https://bounties.monero.social&#xD;&#xA;[14]: https://bitcoinbounties.org/&#xD;&#xA;[15]: https://github.com/Reckless-Satoshi/robosats&#xD;&#xA;[16]: https://stacker.news/recent/freebies&#xD;&#xA;[17]: https://bitsoapbox.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28525" PostHistoryTypeId="5" PostId="10214" RevisionGUID="8c471c12-65c7-403c-954e-eb378062161a" CreationDate="2024-03-10T21:30:50.667" UserId="26927" Comment="added 285 characters in body" Text="At least when you are a writer or a programmer you can do it.&#xD;&#xA;Some of the most popular options as of now: &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;* Writing at [stacker.news][16] where you can sign up anonymously with a lightning network wallet that supports LNURL-auth or with a nostr pubkey. The payout is in lightning network.&#xD;&#xA;* Writing articles for [Everipedia][1]. Unlikely to earn more than&#xD;&#xA;10€ a day unless you write for bounties, which is doable. The payout is in IQ, which you can then trade for the cryptocurrency of the FIAT money of your choice.&#xD;&#xA;* Content creation and blogging on [dtube][5], LBRY, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hive and the like.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Monero Social][6]. If you know how to code, write technical documentation, or create videos. Payment is in Monero.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [bitcoinbounties.org][7]. Payment is in Bitcoin.&#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on [Gitcoin][2]. If you know how to code or write technical documentation. Payment is in ETH or ERC-20 tokens, frequently stablecoins. &#xD;&#xA;* Bounties on Github such as for [Haveno][3]. In case of Haveno the bounties are paid in Monero (good for your privacy). Contributions require creating a &#xD;&#xA;Github account. Other than doing bounties you can just publish your own software on Github and seek donations via Monero or other cryptocurrencies by publishing you receiving address on the README page of the project. Alternatively, you can seek donations officially, such donations would be in FIAT money, via Github but for this you do need to KYC.&#xD;&#xA;* Freelancing on [Microlancer][4] or [Bitsoapbox][17]. Not so many software projects as on Gitcoin, mostly spam related earning. One of the website's advantages is that they use [lightning network][10], so the onchain fees are not going to be a problem.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As of now, none of the above platforms requires their users to reveal their identities.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;[1]: https://everipedia.org/&#xD;&#xA;[2]: https://gitcoin.co/&#xD;&#xA;[3]: https://github.com/haveno-dex/haveno/blob/master/docs/bounties.md&#xD;&#xA;[4]: https://microlancer.io/&#xD;&#xA;[5]: https://d.tube/&#xD;&#xA;[6]: https://bounties.monero.social/&#xD;&#xA;[7]: https://bitcoinbounties.org/&#xD;&#xA;[16]: https://stacker.news/recent/freebies&#xD;&#xA;[17]: https://bitsoapbox.com/" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28526" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10802" RevisionGUID="01758f69-3ca4-4ee9-a106-c21c82123004" CreationDate="2024-03-15T11:24:10.843" UserId="30415" Text="Initially, the client hired me for a project without mentioning any profit-sharing or assistance with commercialization. However, after investing approximately 30 hours into the project, I've produced a solution that far exceeds their expectations. Now, they're proposing a partnership where they would take 50% of the sales revenue and contribute to the selling process.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I currently possess the license for this solution. Throughout our collaboration, which has included three video calls (every call is free), the client insists that the time spent explaining their vision should be considered as sharing ideas with me. However, I have concerns that their involvement may be more of an opportunistic move, given that I've been working on a similar project for the past seven years. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I should add that the client is not fully open about what he wants in this regard. I am worried that he wants to clarify these new terms before he pays for the solution. He hinted that he probably wants a written contract.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Am I obliged to share the license and share profit under these new terms? Additionally, what potential issues could arise if I agree to share it?" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28528" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10802" RevisionGUID="01758f69-3ca4-4ee9-a106-c21c82123004" CreationDate="2024-03-15T11:24:10.843" UserId="30415" Text="Client wants to share profit and license for a project" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28529" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10802" RevisionGUID="01758f69-3ca4-4ee9-a106-c21c82123004" CreationDate="2024-03-15T11:24:10.843" UserId="30415" Text="|contracts|clients|licensing|customer-relations|intellectual-property|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28530" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10803" RevisionGUID="6d368cb5-eeef-4063-aae8-4fe877d46a9b" CreationDate="2024-03-15T14:38:12.333" UserId="26181" Text="When considering a &quot;partnership&quot; of any kind, one needs to evaluate the proven skills of the other partners. In a situation like this, they are asking you to take on risk based on their ability to sell the solution. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;What is their track record of selling? Do they have a solid sales and marketing plan? What is their record on being able to sell investors and bankers on providing financing for their venture? If they are not able to get the financing, that says a lot about their ability to generate the sales.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Note: In any market, only 2-3 people out of 10 who want our products are able to pay for them. We will have people ask us to &quot;build it, let them sell it, and share the profits.&quot; Most are not able to generate the sales. I've tried a couple, got no sales.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;At this point in the project, it sounds like you neither have a written contract, nor any up-front down payment or payment for the hours spent. That means that you have zero, repeat, zero obligation to them for anything. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The &quot;knowledge&quot; that they have shared with you is most likely &quot;generally known or available&quot; by &quot;third parties&quot; and thus, is not &quot;protected company secrets.&quot; &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Successful salespeople are able to sell investors and bankers on providing the funding needed to pay you in full the amounts you need to develop their product. They are then able to fully own what they bought from you and sell it keeping all the profits for themselves. In other words, successful salespeople don't need to share profits with you." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28532" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10749" RevisionGUID="0446e0d2-2251-466e-8a75-07b53dd1bb26" CreationDate="2024-03-17T21:03:05.347" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28533" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10663" RevisionGUID="2067d160-e576-4a51-b95a-9a7d6a95d1d1" CreationDate="2024-03-18T07:06:45.730" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28534" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10793" RevisionGUID="263eb1b6-ff47-46ea-b690-151c7db071ab" CreationDate="2024-03-21T03:04:40.557" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28535" PostHistoryTypeId="2" PostId="10804" RevisionGUID="f85ddd2f-0bf6-4f14-9881-cadfdbc681e2" CreationDate="2024-03-23T07:58:47.507" UserId="30442" Text="According to Germany's (and other countries varying) Telemedia Act(s), commercial websites must include an Impressum. I am freelancing in the writing industry, so I am a freelancer and not a tradesperson (any profession not counted as freelancing under German law).&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;For this reason, my website does not offer any direct commercial activity, such as giving up orders or entering any sort of financial details. My page, theoretically, only lists prices and methods to contact me directly. Does this page, therefore, count as commercial in the sense of the Telemedia Act and therefore require an Impressum, including my VAT ID number and my registered business address? I'd prefer to leave that out and remain anonymous.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;As it is, I haven't been to the tax office to get those documents, as making my freelancing official would burden me with expenses. You see, I am doing this pretty small-scope, so I wouldn't have to pay taxes according to our laws (Kleingewerbe Regelung), but I would have to pay insurance, which far outstrips my very irregular and very low earnings (&lt;100€/Month). The reason why I would have to pay insurance is because of my particular circumstances. More specifically, I am registered as unemployed (Arbeitslos), so my writing would technically be my primary income source as far as I can tell and, therefore, require me to pay those insurances monthly.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;I plan to get together with a tax consultant in the future before committing hard to anything, but I was just wondering about the commercial/non-commercial website governing. Any help is greatly appreciated." ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28537" PostHistoryTypeId="1" PostId="10804" RevisionGUID="f85ddd2f-0bf6-4f14-9881-cadfdbc681e2" CreationDate="2024-03-23T07:58:47.507" UserId="30442" Text="Does a writing website promoting commissions count as commercial/do I need an impressum? (Freelancer according to Germany's laws)" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28538" PostHistoryTypeId="3" PostId="10804" RevisionGUID="f85ddd2f-0bf6-4f14-9881-cadfdbc681e2" CreationDate="2024-03-23T07:58:47.507" UserId="30442" Text="|freelance-websites|freelance|writing|" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="28539" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10725" RevisionGUID="864d1b21-136f-4393-840c-be08994afae7" CreationDate="2024-03-24T13:07:20.953" UserId="-1" />
  <row Id="28540" PostHistoryTypeId="50" PostId="10729" RevisionGUID="0eed4e73-6b53-40d4-a4e7-5110db0223c6" CreationDate="2024-03-26T15:04:05.497" UserId="-1" />
</posthistory>